By the way, starting next week I am changing experience rewards to be based more on a Narrativist reward cycle than a Gamist one. I want to know what your characters really want to do, what they think about their superiors, what they are going to do to find out about them, what kind of people they are, and what they feel. I don't want comedy. Expect a tragedy to come soon.
Your characters will have three weeks of downtime. Entomodon, Ant, and Casper will be studying under Major Donner and helping him with his duties. In addition, they will be doing ride-alongs with the DCPD looking for the now-cold trail of the "werewolf" I mentioned in the introduction to the chronicle. The Miser, Charnel, Skuld, and Shortcut will be messing around in the temple you found in Hubbard. Skuld will tutor Shortcut with his Mind magic. Others, including Laplace, are manning the MIB base in Colorado where the Prisoner is now being held. Bill Friendly has his own mission for now, and the others will be meeting up with him at an appropriate time.
With Donner: Ant, Entomodon, and Casper will be sleeping in some cots in an extension of Donner's sanctum, which is a refurbished MK-Ultra base located in some tunnels leading away from the basement of the Pentagon. The living areas have comfortable furniture, good cooking facilities, carpetting, and panelled walls. The base is also reinforced as a bomb shelter. There is a Aetherian Demense located in the center of the base, covering a room shaped like a six-point star. Five of the six points correspond to the Paths, while the sixth contains an altar with a large mirror made from what appears to be brass. The walls seem to be constructed of black marble with dark blue veins of some kind of crystaline dust. The room is kept impecably clean and well-lit (welcome back to cleaning duty). In the center is a fountain about 6' across. In the center stands a 7' tall polished granite statue of a man strangling a giant snake. Water flows down from the man's hands and down the snake's body. Typically, the statue is adorned with silk robes and a simple iron facemask, which Donner says are relics from his days in the Silver Ladder. This fountain is a 4 dot Hallow with a resonance of power and fluidity, and the opaque, black water running through it is typically tassified.
Donner is a demanding master. He requires each of you to drill every morning in the cold October air, then perform menial tasks such as cleaning his sanctum, going on ride-alongs with the DCPD posing as ATF agents, standing guard in the White House, and taking notes as he negotiates with his spirit allies. Usually, these tasks involve lessons about Supernal values or practical uses of magic. Sometimes it seems like he just wants to work you like a dog. Every day concludes with an hour-long sermon on the dangers of hubris and excessive vulgar magic, and the rightness of seeking Ascension. He often dons his robe for this, and the stark whiteness of the robe clashes with his dark black hair, making him look like a true priest. This ceremony concludes with an essence offering to a spirit known as the Commander-in-Chief, who is the leader of the DC spirit court. When this spirit manifests in the Demense, it appears as an amalgam of famous US Presidents (think George Washington with wire glasses, a stovepipe hat, holding up a "V for victory" hand sign). Donner refers to this offering as his "income tax."
Casper is often made to participate in the service, and a robe has been ordered for him as well. Donner claims that the best way to interact with spirits is to try to blend in to spirit culture instead of ordering spirits around. This policy, his generosity with essence, and his Spirit Court rote have given him a decent place of power within the DC spirit court.
During the 1-2 hours of free time Donner allows you all, you have access to his library. He has a few Forces, Prime, Spirit, and Space rotes there in grimoires in addition to the ones he knows. If you want to look for a specific rote, let me know. The library also contains information on the Timori, Mordern Atlantean Orders, and the DC Spirit Court. The library is in a small reading room adjacent to the one door to the Demense.
All three characters will be able to raise their arcana dots as planned after this experience.
In the temple: The Hallow redirection spell was removed by Casper in a matter of hours after the Prisoner was delivered to the YM Airport by helicopter, whereupon he and Entomodon left for DC. The Miser is attempting to decipher the runes in the temple and to learn how the temple was constructed. The stone-like substance that makes up the walls and floors appears to be some kind of metamorphic rock, but the crystalline structure is unlike any he has ever seen. He and Charnell are scrutinizing this material for any leads as to its construction. The collapsed portion of the temple has proven quite difficult to clear through magical or mechanical means, so it falls to Skuld and Shortcut to clear it by hand. Fortunately, Skuld seems to have developed some increased proficiency with Time magic which allows the labor to go by much faster. The gashes in the floor seem to deepen as more of the floor is uncovered. It will take more than a month to clear this material by hand, but as a side benefit The Miser will have his pick of material samples when he returns to his lab in the Colorado base. At the same time, Skuld has offered an olive branch to the Passé Oublié cabal from Youngstown, and their leader Felicity (the 14 year old girl) has agreed to release her magical claim to the Griffe qui Ouvre for now. It has also come to light that the dead boy in the temple was actually the son of one of the cabal members, who is deeply saddened by the news that his son has died. Danny Wang is still a little annoyed that his Shadow Name fell so easily, but he punishes himself with hundreds of breakfalls on a stone floor rather than by taking his frustrations out on anyone else.
If you have any in-character questions for the members of this cabal, you should post them here. They potentially have a lot to teach, and you are kind of supposed to infiltrate the Atlantean orders.
Rev. Bill Friendly: to Chicago you go! The Chicago public library system is rumored to have a hidden supply of occult texts that a few of the libraries of Europe offloaded on as part of a charitable agreement to replenish the library. With your new visiting lecturer position speaking on your own brand of Gnostic Southern Baptism, you have a perfectly valid reason to search through such collections. Mr. Whitaker has asked you to find any texts which may be relavant to the Prisoner, but you can also try to increase your own personal library at the same time. And didn't your mentor Ian move here a few years ago? I wonder what ever happened to him. Also, you better watch out for those townie mages: you never know when one might be offended by your intrusion. Now might be the perfect time to infiltrate an Atlantean order.
