Briefing thus issued, I opened up character selection. I had four players (my only full house during Gencon Online) and they selected the following characters:
- Agent STUART, USPIS, forger, accountant and computer scientist
- Agent SHALIMAR, FBI, master of disguise
- Agent EASTER, National Parks Service, archaeologist and occultist
- Agent EISENHOWER, Green Berets, killing machine with a talent for languages
Norbert took an ultraconservative approach to casework. Wiping out anyone who knew even a single spell, ordering just-in-case killings of witnesses, turning agents over to the Security Director or Research wing if they behaved strangely or cracked under pressure.
Norbert’s main working group was RAIN WHISPER - comprised of agents RENE, RICARDO and ROBERTA.
Norbert’s main working group was RAIN WHISPER - comprised of agents RENE, RICARDO and ROBERTA.
- RICARDO: Deputy Lon Fujimoto, US Marshal.
- ROBERTA: Elaine Eck, nurse practitioner
- RENE: Lieutenant Tam “Grit” Robinson, MARSOC. Recently dead of heroin overdose (presumed unrelated to current case)
The house in Portsmouth, Maine where Hammerstroem's body was found had been cordoned off by local police, who handed the scene over to the Agents. The players stepped through the door and entered the crime scene.
The four Agents were able to discover the following from their investigation of the murder scene:
Norbert's records said the anonymous tip was from one of RAIN WHISPER's informants, but there was no other information. Stuart and Eisenhower were both well versed in signals intelligence, and set the arduous process of tracing the original call in motion.
The team decided to visit Mike Pelerin's house. He lived in a two story house on the beach, and wasn't expected back from his fishing voyage for another few hours, so the squad took the opportunity to slip into his basement and toss the place. They found three interesting items in his basement, which was outfitted as a lounge with many couches and futons:
The journal had a list of names, including Pelerin. It also had an account of a series of dreams shared by the group, commanding them to kill a person in Portland, and instructing them how to get away with it. The dates corresponded roughly with the missing persons case in the anonymous tip. Easter called up her faithful graduate student, and asked him to investigate historical instances of cults worshiping a "Lord of Sleep" that lived in the ocean.
The Agents decided to investigate RAIN WHISPER next, starting with Elaine Eck, AKA ROBERTA. Eck was on paid leave after punching a violent patient in the throat to protect her ER staff, so they met her at apartment in Kittery. She was surprised to hear about the Case Officer's death, but eager to implicate the Brotherhood of Sleep, which she knew he had been investigating. The Agents felt that her story was a bit too well rehearsed for their liking, but didn't push her on it. They also noticed she had the same shoe size as the footprints outside the dead man's window.
Easter's grad student got back to her. He found an interesting story about a conspiracy theory in the 1950s, where archaeologists kept finding weird octopus statues and drawings in cultures all around the world, pointing to some kind of secret global religion. Turns out, it was all a hoax - the whole thing had been seeded by a very skilled art forger for unknown reasons. Easter suspected that the ending of the story was actually a government coverup, and the sleep cult was very real.
Stuart and Easter also got news on the anonymous phone call: it was made from a burner cell phone in Dover, New Hampshire. Anything more than that would require some good old fashioned legwork on-site.
The other living RAIN WHISPER agent, RICARDO, was based out of the US Marshal's Office in Concord, NH. Two Agents would hit up Concord, then see what they could turn up in Dover on the way back. Two of the Agents would stay in the Portsmouth/Kittery area and continue investigating the Brotherhood of Sleep.
After an hour's drive, the two Agents up to Concord met RICARDO/Deputy Marshal Lon Fujimoto in a smoothie shop across from the Federal Courthouse. The Marshal told the same story as the Nurse, but put a different spin on what probably happened. Lon thought Norbert probably died because of his inability to ever let anything go, his absolute insistence on scorching the earth. He probably poked something until it bit his head off.
The Agents asked Lon about their last operation with RENE. RAIN WHISPER had been sent to secure a mysterious book, the Illuminating Wisdom of the Outer Worlds, and eliminate anyone who had read or handled it. He intimated that Agent RENE had probably handled the book during the operation.
Business with Lon concluded, they drove forty minutes to Dover, to investigate the source of the mysterious phone call. They managed to piss off the local police while canvassing the local homeless population for clues. The harness bull directed them to a social worker who knew the street people better than anyone in town. The Agents were able to convince her that they needed her help, and weren't going to hurt her clients if she gave it to them. She said she'd work on finding out who made the call, and why.
While this was going on, the Portsmouth team knocked on Mike Pelerin's door. They pretended to be an FBI counterterrorism team, sent to investigate harmless new religious movements by a boss who hated them. The old salt explained that the Brothers of Sleep were a social club, and they slept in his house so that they didn't drive home drunk. He showed the Agents his weird starfish, which he claimed was just a fucked up sea creature. They didn't get any secrets out of him, but they didn't see any sign that he had noticed the gun was missing, or that they had broken into his basement previously.
The team regrouped in Portsmouth. They decided to look over the crime scene again, to see if the Case Officer was sitting on any forbidden books. They didn't find any ancient lore, but they did find a note with a phone number stuffed in an innocuous text. The SIGINT gang tried to put a trace on it, but it didn't look like they were going to get anywhere on it until morning.
That night, at the hotel, everyone had the same dream. They were swimming in the ocean, looking up at enormous human figures passing over them. The figures rolled over to look at them.
Next morning, the Agents woke up to a wealth of information. The phone number found in the spine of the book was from a cabin in the North Maine Woods. And the social worker from Dover called back: the anonymous tip was submitted by a homeless guy, who a "nice ER nurse" paid a thousand dollars to place the call.
The Agents weighed their options. The Maine Woods were a long way away, but Portland was on the way there. They could investigate the guy allegedly killed by the Brotherhood of Sleep, and then head up into the forest.
In Portland, the Agents didn't actually have a name for the dead man, but they had an address based on the imagery in the dreams. The neighbors were happy to talk about the disappearance, but didn't know much of interest to the Agents. They learned nothing other than his name, which was largely unhelpful to their cause.
The North Maine Woods were isolated and heavily forested. The interstate turned to a county road, then a forest service road made of gravel and dirt. The Agents ignored several do-not-enter signs on the way in, until they finally reached a gate at the bottom of a hill. Agent Eisenhower got out to open the gate, and found a claymore directional antipersonnel mine in the bushes, pointed right at their parked car. He disarmed it, and was promptly shot by someone in the cabin on the hill. The 7.62*39 missed anything vital, but drove Eisenhower to ground. The rest of the Agents piled out of the car, fearing more explosive surprises, and grabbed cover in the brush.
The team had the great idea to call the phone number they had for this guy. He picked up the phone and asked what the fuck they were doing disarming his traps unannounced. They apologized and explained the situation. It turned out they were speaking to Agent JONAGOLD, a militia bomber who Norbert maintained in secret for deniable assassinations. He affirmed that he killed RENE at Norbert's behest. The Agents thanked him for the information, then turned around and left before he could shoot or blow them up.
The team went back to Kittery, planning their next move on the long drive. They knew:
But when they drove the hour to Concord and kicked down Lon's door, he wasn't there either. He'd packed up and left with Elaine while the Agents were driving around in the backwoods.
With all four hours of game time exhausted, and the Agents' targets leaving the play area as fast as possible, with a considerable head start, I called the session there. Another group of Agents could pick up the tail and deal with the situation.
That's it for Gencon Online. There were some flaws on the procedural side, but the sessions went great. If we don't get the real life Gencon back, I'll do it again next year. Or the year after that. Who knows.
The four Agents were able to discover the following from their investigation of the murder scene:
Norbert was killed in his home office. His body is laid out like a five pointed star. His chest cavity is peeled open with five incisions in a star pattern. Painted on the walls: FOR THE LORD OF SLEEP FOR THE LORD OF SLEEP FOR THE LORD OF SLEEP, repeating.According to the notes in his office, Norbert recently got an anonymous tip that a missing persons case several months ago was actualy a ritual murder - the Brothers of Sleep were implicated, a local cult led by sailor Mike Pelerin. He was looking for a third agent to reinforce RAIN WHISPER before ordering them to investigate.
Norbert had been drinking enough to impair him.
Cause of death was strangulation by a cable or rope applied from behind, crushing the airway and breaking the hyoid bone.
Time of death was probably 11:00 PM
The mutilation was postmortem. The cuts were made by someone who knew how to dissect a corpse.
The paint is coal tar epoxy, the kind a mariner would use.
The sim card and hard drive are missing from his DG smartphone. These can’t be traced remotely.
His gun - a beautiful Rock Island M15 - is missing.
There are no fingerprints, the assailant wore gloves.
The lock on the kitchen door was forced in a manner that wouldn’t have made any noise.
The venitian blinds on the office window are broken, like someone yanked on them.
Outside the window, the bushes have broken branches, like someone was rummaging through them.
Norbert's records said the anonymous tip was from one of RAIN WHISPER's informants, but there was no other information. Stuart and Eisenhower were both well versed in signals intelligence, and set the arduous process of tracing the original call in motion.
The team decided to visit Mike Pelerin's house. He lived in a two story house on the beach, and wasn't expected back from his fishing voyage for another few hours, so the squad took the opportunity to slip into his basement and toss the place. They found three interesting items in his basement, which was outfitted as a lounge with many couches and futons:
- A dream journal, describing dreams a group of people regularly shared
- The murdered Case Officer's personal firearm, stuffed under a couch cushion
- A fishtank with a gigantic and very creepy basket star inside
The journal had a list of names, including Pelerin. It also had an account of a series of dreams shared by the group, commanding them to kill a person in Portland, and instructing them how to get away with it. The dates corresponded roughly with the missing persons case in the anonymous tip. Easter called up her faithful graduate student, and asked him to investigate historical instances of cults worshiping a "Lord of Sleep" that lived in the ocean.
The Agents decided to investigate RAIN WHISPER next, starting with Elaine Eck, AKA ROBERTA. Eck was on paid leave after punching a violent patient in the throat to protect her ER staff, so they met her at apartment in Kittery. She was surprised to hear about the Case Officer's death, but eager to implicate the Brotherhood of Sleep, which she knew he had been investigating. The Agents felt that her story was a bit too well rehearsed for their liking, but didn't push her on it. They also noticed she had the same shoe size as the footprints outside the dead man's window.
Easter's grad student got back to her. He found an interesting story about a conspiracy theory in the 1950s, where archaeologists kept finding weird octopus statues and drawings in cultures all around the world, pointing to some kind of secret global religion. Turns out, it was all a hoax - the whole thing had been seeded by a very skilled art forger for unknown reasons. Easter suspected that the ending of the story was actually a government coverup, and the sleep cult was very real.
Stuart and Easter also got news on the anonymous phone call: it was made from a burner cell phone in Dover, New Hampshire. Anything more than that would require some good old fashioned legwork on-site.
The other living RAIN WHISPER agent, RICARDO, was based out of the US Marshal's Office in Concord, NH. Two Agents would hit up Concord, then see what they could turn up in Dover on the way back. Two of the Agents would stay in the Portsmouth/Kittery area and continue investigating the Brotherhood of Sleep.
After an hour's drive, the two Agents up to Concord met RICARDO/Deputy Marshal Lon Fujimoto in a smoothie shop across from the Federal Courthouse. The Marshal told the same story as the Nurse, but put a different spin on what probably happened. Lon thought Norbert probably died because of his inability to ever let anything go, his absolute insistence on scorching the earth. He probably poked something until it bit his head off.
The Agents asked Lon about their last operation with RENE. RAIN WHISPER had been sent to secure a mysterious book, the Illuminating Wisdom of the Outer Worlds, and eliminate anyone who had read or handled it. He intimated that Agent RENE had probably handled the book during the operation.
Business with Lon concluded, they drove forty minutes to Dover, to investigate the source of the mysterious phone call. They managed to piss off the local police while canvassing the local homeless population for clues. The harness bull directed them to a social worker who knew the street people better than anyone in town. The Agents were able to convince her that they needed her help, and weren't going to hurt her clients if she gave it to them. She said she'd work on finding out who made the call, and why.
While this was going on, the Portsmouth team knocked on Mike Pelerin's door. They pretended to be an FBI counterterrorism team, sent to investigate harmless new religious movements by a boss who hated them. The old salt explained that the Brothers of Sleep were a social club, and they slept in his house so that they didn't drive home drunk. He showed the Agents his weird starfish, which he claimed was just a fucked up sea creature. They didn't get any secrets out of him, but they didn't see any sign that he had noticed the gun was missing, or that they had broken into his basement previously.
The team regrouped in Portsmouth. They decided to look over the crime scene again, to see if the Case Officer was sitting on any forbidden books. They didn't find any ancient lore, but they did find a note with a phone number stuffed in an innocuous text. The SIGINT gang tried to put a trace on it, but it didn't look like they were going to get anywhere on it until morning.
That night, at the hotel, everyone had the same dream. They were swimming in the ocean, looking up at enormous human figures passing over them. The figures rolled over to look at them.
Next morning, the Agents woke up to a wealth of information. The phone number found in the spine of the book was from a cabin in the North Maine Woods. And the social worker from Dover called back: the anonymous tip was submitted by a homeless guy, who a "nice ER nurse" paid a thousand dollars to place the call.
The Agents weighed their options. The Maine Woods were a long way away, but Portland was on the way there. They could investigate the guy allegedly killed by the Brotherhood of Sleep, and then head up into the forest.
In Portland, the Agents didn't actually have a name for the dead man, but they had an address based on the imagery in the dreams. The neighbors were happy to talk about the disappearance, but didn't know much of interest to the Agents. They learned nothing other than his name, which was largely unhelpful to their cause.
The North Maine Woods were isolated and heavily forested. The interstate turned to a county road, then a forest service road made of gravel and dirt. The Agents ignored several do-not-enter signs on the way in, until they finally reached a gate at the bottom of a hill. Agent Eisenhower got out to open the gate, and found a claymore directional antipersonnel mine in the bushes, pointed right at their parked car. He disarmed it, and was promptly shot by someone in the cabin on the hill. The 7.62*39 missed anything vital, but drove Eisenhower to ground. The rest of the Agents piled out of the car, fearing more explosive surprises, and grabbed cover in the brush.
The team had the great idea to call the phone number they had for this guy. He picked up the phone and asked what the fuck they were doing disarming his traps unannounced. They apologized and explained the situation. It turned out they were speaking to Agent JONAGOLD, a militia bomber who Norbert maintained in secret for deniable assassinations. He affirmed that he killed RENE at Norbert's behest. The Agents thanked him for the information, then turned around and left before he could shoot or blow them up.
The team went back to Kittery, planning their next move on the long drive. They knew:
- Norbert Hammerstroem killed RENE.
- RICARDO and ROBERTA knew Hammerstroem killed RENE
- RICARDO and ROBERTA probably killed Hammerstroem as payback
But when they drove the hour to Concord and kicked down Lon's door, he wasn't there either. He'd packed up and left with Elaine while the Agents were driving around in the backwoods.
With all four hours of game time exhausted, and the Agents' targets leaving the play area as fast as possible, with a considerable head start, I called the session there. Another group of Agents could pick up the tail and deal with the situation.
That's it for Gencon Online. There were some flaws on the procedural side, but the sessions went great. If we don't get the real life Gencon back, I'll do it again next year. Or the year after that. Who knows.
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