%% date:: [[2024-07-21]] %% # [[011_20240721]] ![[011_20240721.svg]] ## Session Summary > [!tldr] [[011_20240721]] > ^summary %% ## Video [Video]() %% --- ## Recap ![[010_20240714#^summary]] --- ## Log There is a long line of the dead from the village behind us as Tarrin throws in the spear. The sea is behind us. They start to growl. "Behold, the dark. The Great Dark. Colder than ice. Faster than the oceans. It hears the call. It comes!" THen all the figures start to dissolve into liquid and races down the beach past out feet. I tell off [[Lightkeeper Fahra Slate]] We go back to Candela Obscura headquarters. New assignment: - [[Azizi Museum]] has an exhibit. It's in [[The Varnish]]. - Most popular: "Wonders of Oldfaire". - But Oldfaire artifacts can be insanely dangerous. So an exhibit of them could be a horrible thing to do. But the museum usually just takes non-dangerous items. Candela Obscura checks them out beforehand. - Last night, someone broke in and stole the star centrepiece of the exhibit. A giant bas-relief stone called "The Three Witches". The theft was dubbed "The Hexenheist". - We're kind of being treated like a newbie team, given an assignment everyone has been hot-potatoing around. > [!tip] The next assignment > The Azizi Historical Museum in the Varnish was broken into last night, its highly popular museum exhibit — The Wonders of Oldfaire — vandalized. The exhibit’s centerpiece, the heavy bas-relief carving known as the three Witches, was stolen. Museum official have scoffed at the rumors that the exhibit contains actual magick, which has prompted some to dub the break-in the Hexenheist. > [!warning] Cold open > We open in an empty, dark warehouse. > > In one small corner, the amenities of a home have been set up. There are several cots, and some rugs, a desk, a table and chairs, a bookshelf. > > Five people are gathered around the table, three women, and two men. > > A gaunt redheaded woman, in long silk gloves, speaks up first. Her face is pale, and she’s nervous. She gestures to the small gem in the center of the table. “We shouldn’t keep it out in the open. Three feet of rock was all that was protecting those patrons. But I wanted you to see it.” > > “It doesn’t look like anything special,” says a man in a top hat and a luxurious mustache. > > “Doesn’t have to look special to be deadly,” says a man in an Indiana Jones–style brown fedora and leather jacket. > > “Is it a weapon?” says another woman, dressed like an academic. “What is it?” > > They all stare at it for a beat. > > The last woman, dressed in an overcoat and a black beret, says with finality, “It’s a start. > > “We’ve been on a whole bunch of wild goose chases over the past six months. Whatever’s going on, it’s well hidden.” > > She glances a the redhead. “You’re sure this is the key?” > > The redhead nods. “I am. I’ve seen it. But the details are fuzzy. I don’t know what happens next.” > > The fedora man laughs. “When do we ever?” > > “We’ve made the best preparations we can,” the woman in the beret says. “You all know your roles. Let’s get to it.” Lisa Shue is our contact at the museum. She's a clerk, a bureaucrat at the museum. We talk to her. - We typically bring them in from the back. They're taken to the place where they're exhibited on rails. - She hopes it's not an inside job, but they didn't see any evidence that it was taken out some other way-- it wouldn't have fit through the front door. It was taken out the way it was brought in. - They stole a giant block of stone-- it would have been easier to sell something else if they just wanted money. - She's Miss Professional. She's been studying it since university - it was her thesis. She's been working here for ten years. She never mentioned Candela Obscura though, which is weird. - The exhibit's been here for a couple weeks. It's been doing very well. The bas-relief was stolen last night. - The guards didn't report anything. - Story of the piece itself - Someone donated it. It had been sitting in a warehouse for a long time, like decades, though. They planned the exhibit around it. - Virtually all writing was destroyed during the Cataclysm. There's very little knowledge about the beliefs of the Oldfaire society. It's mostly conjecture. - My read: she's a bit of a fraud - Says she likes Oldfaire artifacts but doesn't mention magick or bleed or Candela Obscura - She couldn't really satisfactorily talk about the history of the piece or offer any theories - She hadn't thought of doing an inventory, even after ten years of doing what she does. - She didn't really have any leads for who might have been involved even though she said she was investigating the possibility that it might be an inside job. - There was a private viewing that the Birtwhistles were invited to, but Eric didn't go. Calliope tries to find out if there were people who came multiple times to the exhibit, but nobody was there. Tarrin doesn't find anything with her bleed detector. Ash does his Remote Viewing. - Four people (two men and two women) are rolling the cart. Another person, a guard, comes up to them like they know the others. - They talk about a place to meet at. Ash catches the name of the place in [[The Steel]]. - Well put-together heist. No drama, no magick as far as he can tell. Calliope and Eric go to the police station ([[The Periphery]]). - We think they're just leaning on people until they break. - Bertrand the tour guide: Agrees that Lisa is annoying. She keeps going on and on about how knowledgeable she is but there's no passion. - She doesn't even have all her facts right but he doesn't think she's actually all that knowledgable. - Some of these artifacts people get really sick from. Lisa didn't acknowledge it was a problem-- he's been making sure the tests have been done. They were. - There was one person, a red-haired pale woman, who looked through the bas-relief through a telescope. - The museum does have detailed notes of everything in the exhibit. - They don't know anything about it. He kind of has to spin stuff. Maybe witches were an important part of Oldfaire culture. Generally Oldfaire artwork is more abstract. This one was pretty lifelike. Other art has a lot of monsters. This was a realistic depiction of people. ![[cosm-hexenheist.png]] When Bertrand tells the police about the redheaded woman, the police are excited because the only identified person in The Phoenix Gang is a redhead. Ash and Tarrin go to a warehouse in The Steel, the same address that Ash heard the Phoenix Gang say. - Tarrin feels like there's a trap there. She finds a way in. - There is no furniture there-- this is not the place that was from the cold open. - Tarrin creeps up on the roof and into an office area at the front. A mustache guy is there waiting, and Tarring sneaks up on him and points a gun at him. But someone else got the drop on her and is pointing a gun at her! It's a guy in a fedora. - %% # Text Elements # Drawing ```json {"type":"excalidraw","version":2,"source":"https://github.com/zsviczian/obsidian-excalidraw-plugin/releases/tag/2.0.25","elements":[],"appState":{"theme":"dark","gridSize":null,"viewBackgroundColor":"#ffffff"}} ``` %%