IC Thread: Ch. 1 - The Quiet Place

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Oct 16, 2025 3:24 pm
The senior representatives seem satisfied, as you all strike up a conversation.

The archmage motions to a server and a formal tea service commences, as the meeting in general opens up to informal business and conversations.
OOC:
I don't have a whole lot more for this encounter specifically, feel free to continue your conversation.

And/or we can move forward with any preparations, legwork, and the actual "assignment" itself when you're all ready.
Oct 16, 2025 9:43 pm
"So, this matter was initially left to mundane authorities. I’m guessing they didn’t do very much, but whatever they have could save us some time and trouble; a list of missing persons, any reports of unusual phenomena, especially anything providing a lead to locations worth checking out. It’s well known that the Technocracy substantially own the mundane authorities, so if there are channels through which we can obtain that information it’d be a start."
Dominic looks at John. "My Scientific sensing is limited to pattern Spheres, and Correspondence. It’s a generalisation, but my tools can achieve either quick or quiet, but not both."
Oct 17, 2025 8:14 am
That is a good idea. I was just thinking we drive around the area, see if we can spot or sense something, but going in prepared does sound safer. So.. how should we do it? Find out what the cops know, I mean. I guess we can ask the Technocrats directly, but I get the feeling that want us to deal with situation ourselves. John thinks for a moment.

We could check social media, see if there are any posts about weird occurrences or missing people in the area. Oh..! Maybe one of our fellow Traditionalists can help, take a peek at the police files? One of the Virtual Adepts? I don't know any though..
Oct 17, 2025 10:45 pm
"My turn to say ‘good idea’ now; searching the net and social media is something that I can do mundanely. Outright hacking not so much; and hacking law enforcement is for experts. I was hoping we could gain some information from authorised channels, or at least theoretically legitimate access to authorised channels."
OOC:
Dominic has some knowledge of how social (and other) media work to inform this search attempt, and a fair amount of computer skill to carry it out and refine it. I’m assuming that narrowing the search by location tags, place names, and maybe a rough timeframe if necessary to weed out irrelevant hits might do it.
Last edited October 17, 2025 10:46 pm
Oct 18, 2025 5:00 pm
OOC:
So you've already been told some things about the police investigation, please review my in character posts for that information.

Beyond that, let me know what kind of information you think you could get, and put together a pool (with Backgrounds?) to try to get it.

I'm not inventing a dozen detailed case files though, because the details is the case files are not important.
Oct 19, 2025 9:26 pm
Well, I don't really know anyone in law enforcement.. I've got a sense that the bosses has already provided us with what they think we should know. We can stop by the police station, see if we can learn anything there, but asking around might invite unwanted interest in us.. How about we drive around the neighborhood in question, see if we can spot anything? One of us can drive, the other can check the social media platforms to narrow down the search and the third can observe the surrounding?
Oct 20, 2025 2:19 pm
OOC:
Here's the things you know about the disappearances:
Quote:
Police records indicate a series of "low priority" - their words, not mine - disappearances occurring in the area, strung out over a course of... years, I believe.

Vagrants, homeless, street-punks. Stuff like that. Conveniently-seeming the type of people who won't be noticed or cared about too much if they disappear.

And... dissappear they have. The problem is, it's not clear if they just... disappeared from the city writ-large? Or if they disappeared... there.

Point is, that area is the last place they were seen. Some have confirmed identities and names and lives and things. Those are of little interest to us, none of them have been linked other than by, uh... their choice of lifestyle. And others do not. J. Doe's.
Oct 20, 2025 11:45 pm
The police will have tried to link the disappeared people, where they could; evidently they failed. I can think of a few avenues, if we can get access to their records. A few of the disappeared had lives that were somewhat documented; any association they had with particular locations might help. However I am also thinking of extending that search to the people who reported them missing, because in most cases, someone must have done so; but who? Cops take such things down, but unless the reporter is somehow suspicious themselves - unlikely; why would anyone with something to hide bring the matter to the attention of the police? - the police may tend to ignore them unless a case gains priority. Those reporters may have had connections to particular places; a few of them might even be found for interview.
Driving around and searching for Resonance or other weirdness is worth a try, especially if we have the appropriate spheres. I suspect that Mind, Prime or Dimensional Science might be of particular utility value in this approach and sadly those are fields I’ve yet to study.
I can certainly try and set up an automated search for relevant social media posts indicative of either disappearances or weird happenings in this area.
There have been no bodies found; if they had been, the case would be homicide, if cold, and not merely missing persons. Those bodies went somewhere. It would not surprise me if they all went to the same place, and that place - or the access to it - is the focus of the Resonance."
OOC:
Brain dump part one. Sorry it’s taken a while, having a run of minor illnesses in the family which is messing up my ability to write a long, considered post. I’ll try to suggest dice pools and/or approaches to these; already thinking of Int + Computer for the social media searches.
Oct 21, 2025 4:28 am
I mean, we know the general area of the disturbance - that is where that Resonance have been detected by out Technocratic.. colleagues. I think our time would be better spent investigating the location that we were tasked with investigating, instead of doing a deep dive on the victims of whatever is going on there. Start with the big thing, work our way down to the details, if they become relevant. - Looking at their Technocrat companion for conformation, John continues.

I can cover the majority of the.. Spheres, as far detection, location and sensory input is concerned including the.. uhh.. "Dimensional Science". The only one potentially relevant to this assignment that I've yet to learn is the study of Time. Other than that we're good.

An automated soc. media search does sound great. I'm sure the local Facebook groups and the like should have some info. I think we also should not jump to conclusions about the nature of the Resonance. While "disappeared somewhere" definitely sounds better than, say, "disappeared into something", like a stomach or basement of.. someone or something, we probably shouldn't assume anything at this point.
Oct 22, 2025 12:26 am
"Maybe you’re right; if the resonance is strong enough, then we can find the location that way, and more quickly too. I can start setting up the search; now, should we also consider what to do when we find the location? We were invited to plan as best we could, and we don’t exactly have the marines for backup."
Oct 22, 2025 5:04 pm
Oh, I'm not planning on engaging anything dangerous today, and neither should you. They asked us to locate the source of the disturbance and discern its nature, not deal with it. This is a recon mission, as I understood it. I don't know about you but I'm not equipped or willing to engage with anything hostile, especially not.. Otherworlders. - John shudders. - Dealing with spirits is extremely dangerous, too dangerous. After taking a deep breath, the hermetic will continue in a slightly more composed manner.

I think we might be overthinking this. Chances are, we are just here for appearances. Someone screwed up - maybe it was one of ours, maybe a Technocrat, maybe a tourist. Someone screwed up and lost control of their magic, of whatever it is they were doing, and they left a mess for us to clean up. That's the Resonance they detected. To avoid a political incident, they send us - a mixed team - to take a look and make a report that will be filed away in the bottom drawer to keep up the appearances and preserve the status quo. It's your typical "internal investigation". Despite their talk of our "readiness" for field work, these people know our capabilities and limitations intimately, because they were the ones who taught us. I highly doubt they would send us on a mission if they didn't think we could handle it.

We know the location - Harmony Hills neighborhood, near the airport. They have said that the disappearances are incidental, not deliberate, which means that they likely crossed out the dangerous scenarios from the board. I think we should just drive up and see it for ourselves. My guess? We're either dealing with an Orphan, recently Awakened in the worst case scenario, or a leftover Paradox stain. Considering the Technocrats labeled the place an "Irrational Zone", I wouldn't be surprised if it is used by some as a convenient place for their.. practices and tests. I imagine quite a few of these vanishings can be explained by conventional means, if only the cops bothered to look. John looks at his companions, anxiously, hoping that his speech convinced them not to do anything too dangerous and to simply get on with it. If the Technocrats were wrong and there was someone or something in the Hills, well.. No, best not think about that. Just a drive and a quick look around, that's all. No one is dying today. It will all be okay.
Oct 23, 2025 7:22 pm
Quote:
We know the location - Harmony Hills neighborhood, near the airport.
OOC:
They can go a step beyond that really and give you an address/GPS location too.
Oct 25, 2025 10:34 am
emsquared says:
Quote:
We know the location - Harmony Hills neighborhood, near the airport.
OOC:
They can go a step beyond that really and give you an address/GPS location too.
OOC:
An (approximate) address is all I was expecting we might get from whatever links the victims/missing person reporters had to the district; consider that point settled.
As for the social media search, is there any reason not to assume that Int+Computer is appropriate to craft appropriate search parameters and get the search running?
Clarification: This is searching for any reports of odd happenings in the area, especially if correlated with missing persons reports.
Dominic contemplates using his keytar which can function as a laptop, but opts to work on his smartphone instead, and sets to work. "Ok, let’s see what the net can tell us…" Dominic’s voice trails off as he becomes more engrossed in his work.
OOC:
Edited: Added roll. For a standard difficulty of 6, I believe that’s three successes?
Last edited October 27, 2025 7:16 am

Rolls

Int+Computer - (7d10)

(4886361) = 36

Oct 26, 2025 4:44 am
ThetaSigma says:
Int+Computer is appropriate to craft appropriate search parameters and get the search running?
Clarification: This is searching for any reports of odd happenings in the area, especially if correlated with missing persons reports.
OOC:
Sounds good me. Roll it up!
Oct 26, 2025 1:49 pm
ThetaSigma says:
For a standard difficulty of 7, I believe that’s five successes?
OOC:
The standard difficulty is 6, usually. You've scored 4 successes - two 8s and two 6s, but you also rolled a 1, which cancels out 1 of those successes. Which brings your total to 3 successes. Right? @emsquared
Oct 27, 2025 7:06 am
OOC:
Oh, that’s embarrassing… so long since I played Storyteller that I’d forgotten it was high dice that succeeded. And 1’s cancel successes… Thanks for the correction. Edited in shame. Sorry!
Last edited October 27, 2025 7:16 am
Oct 27, 2025 6:17 pm
OOC:
Nothing to be ashamed about! I'm thinking John will probably just wait and see what Dominic will come up with.
Oct 28, 2025 4:07 am
Quote:
In cases where it's a test with no predetermined Difficulty, we'll assume 7 as a default. Though that may be adjudicated up or down retro-actively - I will try to use that "authority" sparingly, as that basic assumption will/should no doubt inform when you may want to invoke the mechanics yourself.
OOC:
Assumed Difficulty for a self-invoked test is 7, as per guidance (copied above) from this discussion: https://gamersplane.com/forums/thread/38544/?p=1945910#p1945910

In this case, maybe consider it as; you already have the standard (Difficulty 6) information. You're looking deeper than that.

But regardless you succeed.
OmniVox's search of social media for strange occurrences in the Harmony Hills area primarily yields results of people talking about the airport "Economy Black" parking lot which, people seemingly refer to as the "Murder Lot".

There's no indication that there's ever been a murder there, but from what he can gather, people call it that because it's so distant from the Terminal yet is billed as a walkable lot, however due to it's location (in a pocket where Hwy 281 hems it in against the airport runways) and the boundaries of the airport it actually takes an hour to walk to the terminal from there because you have to cross west under 281, proceed south and then cross back east under 281 again, going over a mile out of the way.

There are some accounts from walkers from the Economy Black lot about a sizeable homeless person encampment that runs underneath 281, which a large part of the discomfort with the lot seems to be derived from.

There's also several accounts of coyotes spotted in the open-space to the north.

This all seems to feed into the urban mythos of the Economy Black parking lot.

There are some older links that, based on the text snippet, seem like they could have been relevant but yield a 404 error.
Oct 28, 2025 6:29 pm
OOC:
If the older links have a URL then either a mundane web archive might yield the original content, or is there anything magick could achieve? I’m thinking that Correspondence alone might access the data wherever it is (but I appreciate that might be more Technocratic Data rather than Mystick Correspondence); or that Forces 1 might run to sensing the missing data which was once at the end of the URL?
Last edited October 28, 2025 6:38 pm
Oct 29, 2025 3:14 pm
OOC:
Maybe a mundane archive might hold the data, but you didn't do well enough on your check to get it.

As for magic, you would need to follow the "Steps" as described on the book for is to decide if it's possible:

Step One – Effect:
What Do You Want to Do, and How?
• What Effect are you trying to accomplish?
• Which Spheres are you using?

I think you've done this. You want to view the data, wherever it is, using Correspondence. Effectively, a digital scry. Correspondence is generally more about space and physical things, however, ultimately the pixels on whatever screen you're using are bytes somewhere on a hard drive. So, while Data would certainly be the better fit? With the proper paradigm and tools etc I think it's... close. Close enough for it to work certainly for a VA or Techno. But you're Etherite... and so battling your own Paradigm a bit for it, not to mention Consensus.

So you would still need to do this step:

Step Two – Ability: Can You Do It?
• How does your character focus belief and practice into making it happen?
• Which tools and/ or rituals are you using?
• How long does it take?
• Is what you’re doing vulgar or coincidental?
• Are any allies assisting you?
• Do you have any mundane skills that might help?

And in that regard... while you have Tech and "Computer Gear" etc in your Paradigm and Instruments.

Etherites view of reality is generally more "Weird Science".

Thoughts?
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