Session 19 - 2026-08-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

Player Characters

Recap

Purrcival decides the best option at this point is to leave a note and some money for Goldie Price, the city’s head of waste management and someone who might be able to smooth things over for Purrcival. He then shoves the unconscious Townsend out the small bathroom window.

Meanwhile the scream got Ridral’s attention and she snuck from the back of Townsend’s Jeep without being detected and planned to hop in the through the window, but instead Townsend came crashing to her feet. She decided it best to try to drag him to the trash where she had been hidden a moment earlier.

The earlier scream had set the waiting soldiers on higher alert, and the thudding noise had them debating if it would be worth investigating. Pete and Gus decided the best path here would be to create a distraction. After some quick discussion Gus chose to change into a larger spider and leap from between the cars near the sound and run off in a direction. Meanwhile when the soldiers opened fire Pete called them to order and told them that wasn’t their problem, but instead they should check on their CO given all the chaos, sending a couple to check in with the Club.

At about the same time, Paul had started to run intercept, keeping an eye out for security coming from around the front of the building. While Velvet, hidden in an alley way, kept an eye out, and Rhys descended from his perch.

Paul was able to intercept security and warn them off given the chaos and gunfire. Eventually, exiting from the situation quietly while the security and the soldiers interacted about all the chaos.

Meanwhile Purrcival squeezed through the window himself fairly quietly and ran into Ridral on the other side. After a bit of back and forth the two decided they needed to exit quickly and went in the opposite direction of the chaos, with plans to circle back towards the truck through alleys and side streets in the busy Entertainment district. Purrcival also sent Baroness to both stir up some chaos and signal to the crew where they were headed.

Once Pete, in the guise of Clint Weststone, “found out” Townsend was missing, he ordered the soldiers to split into search teams, and coyly left out the area the truck was in.

Everyone slowly removed themselves from the chaos, but on the way Purrcival and Ridral realized that a kind of blurry energy was spreading on Townsend from where Purrcival had injected the sedative. Not able to do anything about it themselves, they hurried towards the truck and after meeting up with everyone else there, asked if Rhys and Pete could figure out what was going on.

The two took a look and realized it was some kind of illusory magic, but wasn’t from Dust or a Pact, but instead, far more similar to Velvet’s magic. Velvet took a look herself, and determined that it was likely from something related to Project Syzygy’s attempts to replicate Project Eclipse, however, an oddity that stood out was that the type of power he was exhibiting was more psychic in nature and very similar to what Dr. Moran predicted the next candidate in line for Project Eclipse before it shut down, Grover Ward, would have likely developed. She kept this latter fact to herself for now.

Rhys was able to counter the build up after this investigation and things began to calm a bit as the crew headed for a military facility in the Business District. There they met with some MPs who were planning to take the prisoners off their hands, but Pete didn’t fully trust it and the MP didn’t fully trust the crew, especially Ridral, who had not been in the mission parameters. He offered to let them wait for Naomi.

Paul and Gus headed for the cafeteria. The rest planned to keep an eye on Townsend, especially since Velvet had to explain to the base officer that keeping him in a traditional anti-magic restraint wasn’t an option, as it could kill him. But Purrcival, despite a desire to help, was chastised by Velvet since he’d gone off script with the plan, and instead joined the group waiting in the cafe.

Eventually, Naomi arrived, and spoke with them, with plans to move Townsend to a more secure facility. Unfortunately, he could only be administered a few more doses of sedatives before the risk of him falling into a coma would build, so things moved faster from here.

The crew was asked to help with interrogation and transfer since they knew the most about Townsend and a full debrief would be needed eventually and so the crew, Naomi, and Townsend all moved by guarded truck to a base out in the Shimmer Crags.

On the way some light conversation was had about the circumstances and about who Ridral was. Naomi took the effort to thank them for mostly sticking to mission parameters and pointed out that while the chaos was unwarranted and unwanted, the mission was technically a success.

At the facility the Crew was given some quarters to rest in and after about 30 minutes of getting things settled Naomi met with them for a full debrief.

They explained the mission from beginning to end without concealing anything and when all that was settled she started to ask Ridral some more pointed questions, trying to figure out her stake and angle in all this. Ridral answered truthfully, explaining that Townsend was the next in a chain of those responsible for her parents being killed as Lunatics, and her siblings likely being captured. Once Naomi felt she understood Ridral enough, she explained the situation in brief concerning BH, Sable, and Townsend and how the Celestial Sips loosely factored in. She then explained the mercenary situation, and extended the same offer to Ridral, letting her know that if she joined she would have more direct access to the answers she was looking for, but if she refused she’d be free to go, but no answers could be promised, though Naomi would do her best to follow up with what she could.

After weighing the options briefly and reading over the contract Ridral agreed and signed. The paperwork handled, Naomi moved on to next steps.

Long term, once they interrogated Townsend for any new information or at least confirmation on details they had they would move forward with arrests and charges against the Sable Inc. leadership. She would anticipate that’s when the contracts could be closed. The final step between here and there was getting what they could out of Townsend. And this group was able to counter his magics with Rhys, had the most experience with this situation, and wouldn’t take precious time they didn’t have to read in.

She offered two paths. She could run the interrogation with them as support, or they could handle it themselves. She’d already gotten clearance for both paths, but saw a possible advantage if they ran it, as that would minimize the odds of Townsend realizing he was in a military facility and under military control. He might be more keen to share with people who weren’t confirmed military.

The Crew opted to use that advantage, splitting up into 3 groups. Gus, Rhys, Pete, and Ridral would enter the interrogation room. Paul would be in the observation room, while Purrcival followed suit mostly because Townsend had seen him. Velvet helped the MPs watch the door, since she couldn’t go inside without Townsend knowing who she was and possibly tipping the non-military advantage. The Crew were given strict rules, no violence, and no torture. Questions, answers, and bargains were their only weapons.

The interrogation started with Rhys and Gus staying behind Townsend to stay unseen, while Pete and Ridral ran the questions. When he came too he didn’t immediately react poorly, but as the questioning began he attempted to use his magic to assault Pete’s mind, but Rhys was able to counter it quickly enough that Pete only felt a fleeting fear of his times on the streets before finding Mercury and Huck.

His powers countered, Townsend started to dissect his situation, and as the conversation and questions moved on he slowly came around towards trusting them a bit more. He did explain one caveat though. He might not be able to answer everything clearly or directly. If he did he risked dying. They understood and the first questions began. He answered vaguely, but when it came to him joining up with them he started to elaborate in a semi-emotional manner, rambling about how they trap you with promises of making a better world and offer the power to do it… while talking about that his nose started to bleed and Ridral stopped him from continuing. He left it at that joining brings power, but that power has chains.

During the interrogation Purrcival and Paul kept an eye on the brass in the observation room alongside them and Naomi. Towards the end of things one in particular had started to pay more attention than the others and remained behind when the break was called.

Pete and Ridral decided they needed to take a short break to try to come up with a solid method of questioning and getting answers that wouldn’t get Townsend killed before he could give them now that he was starting to trust them and open up more.

How will the rest of the interrogation go? Will Townsend trust them fully, or will he try something else to escape from the situation? Will they be able to get the answers they need without Townsend dying? And if not, will they have enough to finally bring an end to Sable?