Session 12 - 2026-05-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

Player Characters

Recap

The battle with security at the warehouse continued and the crew was able to keep a strong momentum, continuing to push forward toward the lab area, subduing and eliminating their adversaries in roughly equal measure, though some were lunatics with few options left.

The leader of the security team attempted to unleash some of the experiments within the lab, but was stopped by Paul. The two scuffled, with the leader ultimately unleashing at least one of the experiments, who attacked Paul. Eventually the battle concluded and Paul and the leader spoke a bit before an Infernis scientist who had been hiding revealed himself and threatened the crew, seeming distraught over their attack and assuming they were here to steal his research.

The crew took the time and effort to try to talk the man down and convince him they just wanted info, but just when things were turning in their direction the security leader attacked and told the scientist to run. Both failed to escape, the scientist being trapped by vines and the leader being cut off by Paul. With desperation the leader took one final shot, missing his target, the scientist, before being knocked unconscious.

After this the scientist cooperated, though wanted some coffee and offered some to the crew. Through the conversation they would learn his name was Sidney Wall. He had been a junior researcher on a military project called Project Eclipse. The goal of the project was to make people who could use magic without relying on Dust or Pacts. He believed this to ultimately be an altruistic goal, freeing people from the chains of the Celestials and addiction, but acknowledged the risks and costs.

He’d been trying to recreate the project here with funding, security, the lab, and voluntary test subjects being provided by Sable Aid Group. His successes had been limited though. Some subjects had died and some had mutated into strange semi-mindless beings. He now felt an obligation to complete his work so he could fix those he’d twisted with the experiments. So far he believed he was only giving Sable reports on the progress of things, and not the actual notes and methods.

With all this info the Crew and the circumstances being what they were the Crew decided it best to leave Sidney behind to try to continue his work, though some doubted he would live. His eyes a bit more open to who he was in bed with, he acknowledged he’d be cautious, provided them with copies of his research, and requested they beat him up a little to make it look like they were after something else and that he and his research had not betrayed Sable.

The crew left with the notes and the security leader with plans to interrogate him in case any additional information could be gained. First dropping Paul off at the Sips. Purrcival called in a favor with Tommy Two-Toes, visiting the thug’s warehouse in late hours of the night to see if he could borrow the gangsters freezer. Luckily someone was keeping watch and after a quick conversation with Tommy over the phone, the interrogation began under Tommy's watchful eyes so he could know what he was getting himself into.

The security leader was surprisingly compliant answering the Crew’s questions, though jabbing at their morality during the process. He confirmed some of what Sidney revealed, but was also able to add a few things. His security crew wasn’t the only one and they had been rotated to a few different places, the warehouse in question, Purrcival’s abandoned village southeast of the Industrial District, and making deliveries of bodies to a church in an Abandoned Village in Prosperity Valley. They were paid well and mostly tasked with guarding things.

As the interrogation wound down the man indicated that Purrcival would have to kill him. If cut loose he would go and tell his superiors. After some hesitation Purrcival accepted this and told the others to leave the room, fetching an ice pick. As he lined up his blow to the temple, the man said “May the Black Hand crush you.” and impaled himself on the ice pick, seemingly triggering some kind of magical event which condensed him into a meat ball similar to the Family Business thieves. This made clean up a little easier, but left some concerns and questions for the group regarding what mechanism triggered this, as they had been certain the runes the Family Business had were what triggered it for them, and they were certain this man had not had a brand.

The Crew returned to The Sips and decided it best to get some sleep before discussing things given how late it was. The next morning everyone gathered in the speakeasy to discuss what they had learned. The discussion ultimately led to a critical juncture where Velvet believed they needed to report things to Naomi and the military, as continuing the research described from a civilian perspective was treason. Jimmie reluctantly agreed, but he and Barnabas checked with the others first. All mostly agreed it was the right call.

Velvet called Naomi, who answered immediately and heard her out in a measured manner. Naomi needed the research notes and would need to talk through things with people, but couldn’t come down to the Sips until the next evening. She sent a runner to pick up the notes, but not before Purrcival took pains to copy them as thoroughly and quickly as possible.

The crew took the next couple of days to rest, and surprisingly no chaos came to the door of the Sips while they did so. They even had a little time to get things ready for opening up the speak easy again to keep business running.

Naomi arrived and sat down with everyone from the Crew and the Sips leadership and had them lay out everything they had learned. While reviewing it Paul pointed out something that Naomi agreed with… BH. Black Hand. Was this finally the name of their adversary? It seemed likely, but was it a group, a person, or something else? They would have to find out.

She also filled them in on Project Eclipse, noting it was classified information, however they had already stumbled upon some of it, so she might as well fill in the gaps, since they would eventually anyway. It was a project from the military that started shortly before the Dust War and closed up shop when Prohibition passed. It aimed to create magic users who didn’t need to rely on Pacts or Dust. Instead using a subject's own life force. It had mostly been successful, but it required refinement and hadn’t fully reached that before the project was shelved due to Prohibition and the end of the war.

Finally, she wanted to make them an offer and produced requisition contracts for each of them as mercenaries reporting to her with the objective of resolving this Black Hand business. If they chose not to sign on she would still try to help them, but she couldn’t protect them or officially condone any actions they took while defending themselves and investigating their foe. If they signed on, they would be reporting to her and have to take orders, but she would be able to protect them from a legal and military perspective. She couldn’t stop them from getting arrested or even going to trail, but her sway and statements that they were “on mission” for such actions would offer them enough protection they likely wouldn’t see jail time, or if they did it would be heavily minimized for service to the country.

Some in the Crew felt uneasy with the offer, with Barnabas and Gus being the most vocally hesitant, meanwhile Paul was eager to sign on given the protection offered. Naomi went to the front to have some coffee and give the crew a chance to talk about it and while concerns were expressed and the contract was reviewed everything pointed to it being the best bet the crew had of both solving their issues, keeping the Celestial Sips open and running, and protecting themselves from the law in the process.

They seem likely to sign, but will they? And how does Pete specifically feel about all this? With the military in charge, how would their efforts change? And with real leads slowly forming how would they try to deal with Sable and this Black Hand?