Session 17 - 2026-07-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

Player Characters

Recap

The crew regroups back at the Celestial Sips and rests the night. The next morning they speak with Naomi and Jimmie about what they’d learned over the last few days over breakfast. While a few new details are presented, the largest thing is the notebook from Hal L. Apeeno, naming the trio at the top of Sable Inc. as the ones calling the shots about these Lunatic captures and studies. Naomi sees this and all the other evidence they’ve gathered as enough to move forward with arrests and investigations above board. Unfortunately, there is still the matter of their infiltration of the Usonian military. That needs to be handled first. She lets them know it’s time for some well earned R&R and that she’d be in touch in a few days with the finalized plans on that operation.

The crew gets back to something resembling normal business, running the Sips and relaxing a little without clandestine missions and threats of death. Unfortunately for most, the cloud of this business and what happens once it’s resolved hang over them.

Rhy uses some of the time to work on his ritual to extract Moon Dust from targets while leaving them intact and alive. While taking some notes in the evening in his room at the Sips he feels something watching him and the shadows grow long. The Hat Man appears and the two converse. The Hat Man makes it clear that things are changing and he needs more Dust, otherwise she may not be ready for what is coming, a waning. Rhys asks about the other Dust and shows it to The Hat Man. This leads to two things, The Hat Man confirms that this is a factor of the situation and the two discuss the potential of using it in the extraction ritual with this other Dust. The Hat Man doesn’t immediately dismiss the idea, implying a little experimentation could be in order, attempting to use a significant volume of it could display an effect or not and learn if it could be a way to expedite her healing.

Throughout the conversation Rhys could hear muffled banging and shouts and felt his temperature rising. When he assessed this more closely he jolted awake seeing his bed caught fire behind him from the candle he had been taking his notes by having been knocked down when he passed out. He rushed to attempt to put it out, beating it with a blanket, but he was unable to. Luckily the door finally gave way under the efforts of Lola and Elaith who appeared. Elaith stood dumbstruck and pale, but Lola jumped into action trying to help Rhys put the fire out. Together they were able to and despite Rhys not having a usable bed anymore, the situation returns to somewhat normal.

Elaith reveals why he was here. To speak to Rhys about something else he found. Those who had held the Pact before and perished early. Several of them had either increased the volume of Dust they were hunting for, or had mentioned being asked to collect more just months before they died. Rhys revealed that is exactly what was asked of him before they broke in. Elaith and Lola expressed concern, but Rhys indicated he’d pursue a solution and planned to start looking into more information and options on his own. Elaith and Lola departed with Rhys planning to rest on the roof for now, but Elaith promised to return in a few days once his other business in the city was completed and check in.

Meanwhile, Pete realizes that Sebastian is a few days late with his usual shipment and decides to call the Rhode's Delivery Service. Getting no answer he decides to go there and take a look. He finds the place ransacked and clearly broken into. He decides to step inside and poke around. No obvious reason for it being tossed presents itself, nor any sign of Sebastian or his few staff. But Pete does find an open crate in the warehouse area with about the amount of Dust he was expecting. Figuring he’d already paid for it, this being his Dust or not, he’d take it. On his way out though he spots a trio of goon looking individuals approaching the building. He decides it’s better to stay undetected and sneaks out the back door with solid timing. Making his way back to the truck he realizes at least one goon is still outside and speaking to the other two inside. He overhears that they're looking for Sebastian and thought they’d seen someone come in here. Not wanting to find out what would happen if they found him, he sneaks up the street to the waiting truck and drives off as quickly as possible.

When he gets back to the Sip a few hours later Barnabas approaches him and let’s him know some “gentlemen” from The Finley Family are here asking about why the truck from the Sips was at the Rhodes office. Pete agrees to talk to them and after meeting with Theodore and “Quiet” explains he was there trying to see if Sebastian was around, just like them. They let him know that the Finley’s are looking for him, as he has some stuff that belongs to them, and that if he sees him or he tries to sell him anything that they’d love to hear about it. Otherwise the interaction ends and Pete goes back to business as usual.

Back at The Exchange on the way to his room Pete is approached by another priest of Mercury and told that an agitated man is waiting near his room. Pete realizes the description matches Sebastian and tells the priest things should be fine and goes off to talk with him. Turns out Sebastian ran from the goons as they came to trash the place. He’s trying to get out of the city without being spotted or someone ratting him out and Pete was the only person he thought he could trust. He offers Pete the rest of his money, just a few handfuls, but Pete decides it’s better if Sebastian exit stage left than get caught and takes the offer, guiding him through a sewer route the Sips has used on occasion. Their parting was businesslike and professional, but Pete painfully realized he’d need a new supplier for the Sips Dust before returning home for a shower and a rest.

Gus, finds himself in a lucid dream. It starts out as the same dream of the stars disappearing and eventually the terrible serpent creature appearing and rearing up to eat the moon and earth, but this time shades of people appeared and rallied against it, shooting guns, hurling objects, and doing what they could to deter it. And it seemed to work a bit. These shades were organized into 3 groups, one clearly military, one clearly common people, and one animals. At the head of each was a figure more defined than the other shades, though still ethereal. Naomi at the head of the military, The Fun Guy at the head of the common people, and The Rat Bastard at the head of the animals.

Distressed and not fully seeing the meaning, but getting an idea upon seeing The Fun Guy, Gus reached out to him through the mycelium network, and was able to reach him and invite him into the dreamscape. They spoke of what the dream could mean, and what Gus’ Childe might be asking of him. The Fun Guy’s best interpretation was to rally these people. Gus wasn’t fond of rallying The Rat Bastard, but when talking through it with The Fun Guy realized it might be worth a shot, if challenging. With the conversation drifting to a conclusion, Gus showed The Fun Guy what he had learned with lucid dreaming, transitioning the dream into one about a delicious hamburger. The Fun Guy, impressed and happy with his friend’s ability, departed with a goodbye and a promise to come to the city soon. As Gus enjoyed his burger, the ever shifting female entity from before came to him and pleaded with him to rally people as she “Cannot die before she is born.” Gus mumbled the words as he woke, still tasting the delicious cheeseburger.

Purrcival gets a visitor while sitting in his office, Luther Minks, who asks him if he’d like a bite to eat on him. Purrcival picks a dinner up the road and the two head out. There they enjoy a meal, make small talk and discuss the nature of the world and the underworld. Talking about how people who end up there rarely have a choice. Minks sometimes regrets not walking away, but he was young and hungry and couldn’t see what he can now.

As the meal and pleasant conversation drift towards current happenings, Luther reveals exactly why he grabbed Purrcival. Turns out that things played out well with the efforts to reveal Hal L. Apeeno and the horrors under his office, but while the cops had started investigate, Apeeno himself was nowhere to be found. Minks thought he might be hiding in a safe house and laying low until Lilia could figure something out, but he’s not certain. He pitches Purrcival, find Apeeno and bring it to his attention to finish tipping the scales against Lilia. That would let the Duran’s clean up and install a new leader, when they did it would be easier to work toward getting Duran out of prison. They talk a bit about pay, but ultimately Purrcival sees it in his best interest to help wrap this all up too and agrees taking the leads Luther had gathered.

Paul, while relaxing at home with Cindy doing her homework, got a knock on the door from the land lady, Justine Greenwald. Paul had a call from someone named Yan or June or something. Paul went downstairs and answered. It turned out to be his sister Jan, who was locked up in a prison in the Residential district and she needed help. He tried to figure out what was going on, but was unable to get answers out of her over the phone.

So he headed down along with some cash and asked to visit her. The officer at the desk explained she was arrested after fleeing a crime scene, which she was suspected of property damage, disrupting the public, and resisting arrest. He met with her and she explained there had been an attempt to form a union at the factory she worked at. That led to a protest, which led to the police cracking down. She fled and ran for the only place she could by bus. But someone must of seen her leaving and phoned the police in the residential district because she was picked just after getting off the bus.

Paul asks a few questions, but ultimately plans to post her bail and get her sent on her way, but as part of that he runs into Joe Reed. Joe harasses him a bit, but Paul doesn't take the bait. Joe, unhappy at the lack of reaction brushes Paul off and goes back about his business. Once the bail is posted Paul takes Jan out for a bite and then gets her on a bus back home. She promises to repay him and he reminds her to show up for her court date.

A few days of normal life later Naomi meets the group as they’re preparing to open the speakeasy for the night and rounds them all up for a chat. She explains that in 5 days the operation to arrest all the compromised elements of the military will be executed in a few hour window that evening so as to avoid letting anyone slip through the cracks. Luckily Major Wesley Townsend was the highest ranking individual which had been compromised, and the number of confirmed compromised people was fairly small all things considered.

She then went on to explain that she wanted them to handle taking in Major Townsend because they were outside the direct military chain of command and he couldn’t convince them or confuse them in terms of following their orders. She also made it clear that with the evidence they’d gathered and the compromised military factors out of the way would allow her and other assets to proceed with arresting the heads of Sable Inc. completing an above board investigation, and pressing charges and bringing them to trial. Meaning that they could all return to their normal life from there.

That all said, she wasn’t certain where that would leave the Sips. She couldn’t promise anything, despite Gus and others expressing their concern. She would speak up for them, spin them as a useful asset, do everything she could to avoid jail time or financial penalties for them, but ultimately the decision would be up to those higher up the chain and the JAG. She’d definitely give them a heads up and they’d have a few months anyway while the army sorted all this out besides. Purrcival also still wanted some military support for dealing with the lunatic out in the wilds that was responsible for destroying his old village. Naomi told him since she saw it as a threat to civilians it shouldn’t be too hard to muster a squad or two for the work.

Their hesitations aside, most seemed happy to move on from this chapter and finish this last job, so she laid out the details and provided them with a dossier. Townsend would be attending a dinner party for political reasons that evening at the King of the Jungle club under presumably minimum security, but it was a private event. He’d then be moving from there to an arms factory to inspect and pick up samples for some weapons and ammo. Probably a good amount of security for that one, and Barnabas had recently entered into a private business deal as co-owner of the factory, but at least it was still private-ish. They could also hit him enroute, public, but they could divert other vehicles with him. Finally, if they were crazy they could attack a military base. She advised against it, as it would be the riskiest and messiest.

Their objective was to arrest Townsend and anyone who helped defend him. However they did that was fine as long as they didn’t kill anyone, soldiers or civilians. And they should aim to minimize collateral damage in general. Their initial plan started to form, they could swap out the driver of Townsend’s vehicle with Pete. But before putting anything in stone they’d want to scout the King of the Jungle Club and gather some intel.

Naomi mentioned she could provide a couple of squads for support if their plan needed it, but that did increase operational exposure risk and they wouldn’t be answering to the Crew, but to her. Pete asks if a stipend for equipment was possible and Naomi said she’d see what she could do. Gus asked about tasty snacks, and with a bit of a sigh Naomi said she’d see what she could do.