Written by Peter Weilnböck
Published on: 2025-10-09
A bit of downtime. And a relaxed start into the next run.
After successful averting the displeasure of the Seattle Mafia the team had a bit of time to enjoy some well earned rest. Rest being relative in this case. Jace immediately went out even before his wounds were starting to heal, while Discord quickly looked into acquiring some drugs.
After just enough rest to let the wounds from the previous run heal, Discord and Jace decided to visit the VASRL site were Discord had his awakening and had found an old school book of Jace’s (Yes, a physical book. Jace’s mother was a bit weird in this regard).
The site still looked the same. Like an old abandoned residential building, decrepit and uninviting. Stepping through the broken doorway they saw a few rats scurrying away. Down the broad stairway into the cellar, which was also the path for them to take. Getting down they saw more rats rustling about in the wide hallways. But to them, those rats seemed… slightly more organized? They continued on, the rats now, although keeping their distance, surrounding them. And Discord noticed that there was a flow to their squeaks. It seemed like, when one of rats closest to them squeaked, the squeak got repeated further away, and then again even further away. An shortly after a different series of squeaks flowed back.
By now they had reached the heart of the former black site. The “echo chamber”, how Discord liked to call it. Standing in the centre of the large dome structure, the rats in loose circles around them, just 2 to 4 metres away.
The rat situation started to freak them out a bit, and so they decided to better head out again. However, the rats seemed a bit reluctant to make room for them on the way back. Being in the echo chamber, Discord thought that banging the Silencer on the floor (only lightly as to not injure Jace) was a good idea. And the rats jumped back and scuttled away at first. But then a series of more angry squeaks came, and the rats flowed back. Now the rats started to circle them, and more rats flowed out of the holes in the darkness, joining the stream of fur, teeth and angry squeaks around them. And from the depths Discord heard even more rats coming. Some of them quite a bit larger and heavier then the rest.
The stream of rats by now too thick to just walk through without stepping on them, they jump over them and start to run. And the rats gave chase. Only when Jace and Discord stepped out into the rare afternoon sun of the usually rainy Seattle, the rats stopped in the shadows. Their beady eyes closely watching them. And 4 large, hairless rat creatures joined the swarm, their eyes seemingly glowing red out of the shadows.
Even though they did not actually touch any of the creatures, both had the desire to take a long and thorough shower. On the way home, Jace did a quick matrix search and found out, that rat poison should help also against the devil rats (what they assumed, those larger rat-like animals were). He even found a poison spray can, that was completely harmless for meta-humans, but according to his research should do wonders to get rid of the devil rat infestation, for when they return to the VASRL black site.[1]
To distract themselves a bit, the contacted Romeo and decided to hit one of his regular clubs: Club 42.
At first Discord unsuccessfully tried to get the attention from a group of women in there, so Romeo moved in. With his nonchalant, bored attitude, he quickly gathered the interest of a group of four friends: Two rather attractive young women, and there rather less attractive friends. As one of the attractive ones was an Orc, Discord was even more motivated and finally managed to entice her to leave the party with him. Jace sought distraction with the other attractive woman, a human. Since Romeo was quite content in chatting with the two friends before heading back home alone (to the disappointment of the 2 young ladies), this worked out to the satisfaction of everyone. With the notable exception of the two hopeful young ladies who were bewildered that Romeo did not get into the taxi with them, after he so gallantly ordered it for them, but rather sent them off home alone, while he got into a different one.
But it was probably a good thing, that the night ended reasonably early for him, since in the morning he got a call by his family lawyer. However, for once, it was not that Romeo was in trouble, but rather that Chris van Sar had a use for Romeo’s less legal talents. Or rather he had a different client who could make use of Romeo or his contacts.
This was not explained via the phone though, since van Sar did not want to leave a possible digital trace of being involved in anything that is not acceptable by the bar. But when meeting for a coffee, he elaborated also that the client was a gentleman from over seas going by the name of Andrea DeSantis.
Quickly Romeo agreed to meet this gentleman at the earliest convenience, which in this case would be at that evening. He shared the news with Discord and Jace, who were happy to have another job lined up.
The meeting took place in a nice cafe in Downtown. Discord and were for a moment confused by the the graying gentleman with a bit of a gathering bulk around the midriff who greeted Romeo as family. But once they were showed in and were introduced to Andrea deSantis, things became a bit clearer. Chris van Sar quickly left the group alone with deSantis, if only to keep the option of plausible deniability.
Andrea deSantis turned out to be a fit human man, with the mediterranean flair that only the Italians seem to be able to truly master. The top buttons of his shirt were open, and below the could glimpse the golden chain of some sort of necklace. His temples were starting to gray, and the first wrinkles that were starting to form in his face told of a man who liked to smile. Even though the clothing was of a certain style and flair, it was deceptively simple.
He told them in a thick Italian accent that he came to Seattle because he wanted to acquire a rare, old book, but the seller was in a rather unsavory part of town so that he did not want to go there alone. After them agreeing to the job, he laid out the details: He found an online advertisement of someone selling a particularly old copy of the sixth book of Moses, from somewhere between 1500 and 1600. However, when he had tried to contact the person selling it, he had not been able to reach anyone. So now he planned to visit the address in the hope to acquire the book.
The offer of a total of 8000 Nuyen was not too much, but Romeo managed to haggle him up to pay 4000 up front, and to double the price in case there are troubles. “Hazard Pay”. Andrea deSantis also was willing to pay them the sales price of the book, in case the seller was not willing to sell, for an… alternative acquiring process.
Since it was already getting rather late that day and the address was in a part of the Redmond Barrens that Knight Errant usually does not visit, they suggested to go the next day, to be there at a more civilized, afternoon hour.
Discord also contacted his old Gang leader and asked about the area. It was not gang controlled though, since it was under the protection of a group of Rastafarians.
Because of the location, the team had to bring Hunt0rKill0r69 once again. Or rather they asked him to bring them, since they still had no car among them. And for an equal share of the payment he gladly agreed.
And so they met again on September 8th, late morning, as to arrive at the sellers place during the early afternoon. The drive was rather uneventfull, even though the Barrens were rather desolate. It clearly was not an area where one should leave their car parked unprotected, and where life was hard an often unnaturally short. The address turned out to be a bar called “Marley’s Hut”, and the area around it, while desolate, was a bit nicer than a lot of what they had driven through to get there.
Stepping out of the vehicle (Hunt0rKill0r69 stayed in the car, Andrea deSantis however joined them), they immediately noticed a distinct, sweet smell hanging in the air. Stepping through the doors of the bar, the smell intensified significantly and they were bathed into rhythmic reggae music. Inside, four pool tables were standing around in a haphazard way. Around the edges of the room a few tables with benches were placed, although a few sported stools instead.
Only the table next to the bar had three patrons, all of them chatting away with each other and the barkeeper.
Quite unusual for this kind of area, nobody seemed to take particular notice of the reasonably well armed group coming in. Only when Discord ordered a joint for himself, the barkeeper seemed to take notice, and very willingly supplied one. After letting Romeo have a hit as well, Discord joined the group at the table and started to chat with them. Either he was rather good in blending in, or the deepweed already took effect. Even though he did not have dreadlocks, and was of a lighter complexion, he quite neatly slotted in. Romeo, not the quickest at the best of times, was standing around and was completely focused on the experiences provided by this new drug.
Finally Jace had enough. When the Face of the group got high instead of doing his job, then it was up to the street sam to talk as well. So he straight up asked the barkeeper - who introduced himself as Jahkai - about the book. At first he did not remember any books, but when Jace showed him the advertisement, his memory came back. “Sold it weeks ago. No longer have it. But Fam, it was an evil book. Evil. Not a true sixth book of Moses, no. Not a holy book. Evil. By the devil. You don’t want to have that book, Fam, no. I am glad, that I no longer have that evil book under my roof.” However, as fascinating the stoned ramblings about the evil book were, he had no idea who the buyers were. And while he was happy to let them look at the security footage in theory, in practice he had forgotten the password to the system.
So, Romeo, stoned as he was, tried to hack the system and reset the password for the nice, dreadlocked gentleman, while Discord had started to loose a round of pool against Ini, the human female of the patrons. The hack was relatively easy, and in the footage two weeks back, a black sedan with “TFS” and some logo on the side did visit the premises. Out got 3 humans in well fitting black suits, and shortly later got back into the car with the book. A short matrix search revealed, that the logo belonged to Taurus Future Solutions, a consulting firm. Since this probably was part of his expertise as lawyer, Romeo asked van Sar about that company. Apparently they are consulting company focused on consulting about astral security. And they are also known to buy up some artifacts, when they can. They are however not known for selling or otherwise getting rid of those artifacts again.
Jahkai was quite thankful to have access to his security system again, even though choosing a new login for him proofed another small challenge. Not wanting to be in the barrens when the sun went down, the Team soon left again for downtown, where the offices of TFS were located as well and started to discuss plans on how to acquire the Book now. Maybe some shopping was in order.
This run was quite relaxed. Even though it was the first part of the Halloween run. Not too creepy yet. I did like how the group took to roleplay this time again, and how they interacted with the world. Unfortunately I did not find time to do the write up in time, so I really was not able to do the evening justice. Especially the time in Marley’s Hut was quite fun. How Discord and Romeo “blended in”, and how Jace started to get frustrated with them was quite nice to watch. Also the inter character play felt like it started to get a bit deeper than in the first session. I also liked that when they noticed that the plot was not (yet) coming to them, Jace and Discord quickly decided to do their own investigations. And apparently it’s worrisome when rats are slightly more organized than usual? Once again, my wife made a brilliant write up from the point of view of Jace, which can be found here.