$Insert_Title, Episode 29: Family, Part 3

Aired on: 2019.01.12
Cast: Mr. Fahrenheit, Hueco, December, Vince

Summary

The show picks up in the aftermath of the previous episode's ending. The group hustles back to their vehicle. Fahrenheit tells the group to park at a specific parkade and then shunts himself into astral space, leaving his body behind. He swings back towards the apartment building that Noe is hiding out it, and takes some time to examine the area. He spots a mana barrier, and examines it. He realizes that it is an incredibly powerful barrier (Force 6), and likely a mage's circle of power. Due to it's location in the building, hidden near the rear of the building behind the elevator and stairs, the apartment the circle of power is in is likely to be the safe room.

Fahrenheit travels through astral space to the parkade, and ends up waiting around for a while because Hueco's van does not travel at the speed of thought like Fahrenheit does. He returns to his body as the van pulls in, telling the group what he found.

The group talks through some of the information they have, particularly Fahrenheit's magical knowledge.

• Makoto was bringing a lot of force to bear down on Noe, so what Noe has must be dangerous
• Other Japanese magicians have apparently been quiet about Noe's transgressions, so it's dangerous to a collective group in some fashion
• Noe is an aspected magician, capable of casting spells
• Noe's place of power is very strong, which would make it capable of strong rituals
• Fahrenheit knows enough about initiation to know about the concept of a Magician's Thesis; he suspects that Noe might have Makoto's thesis.

A magician's thesis is a document that presents all the collected knowledge, theories, and observations of a magician. This document so accurately represents the knowledge and experience of a magician that it carries the magician's astral signature and becomes a permanent sympathetic link (meaning it can be used to target someone with a ritual). The thesis is presented to the magician's group, who keep it safe as the increase to a magician's power that comes with initiation is now tied to their thesis. The magician can make copies of the master copy, which all of which also carry the same astral signature, but if the master copy is destroyed then the magician's increased powers are lost.

Fahrenheit suspects that Noe might have Makoto's master thesis, which would explain the level of direct militant force that Makoto was willing to use. Tangentially, Fahrenheit also realizes that if he were to present a thesis to a magical group, as it represents him entirely, the magical group can verify that he is not a toxic magician.

Back in the van, December calls the number provided by the Mr. Johnson and leaves a message at the restaurant. She lets the Mr. Johnson know that they have located her granddaughter, and that they are working on an extraction plan. Immediately after, December phones back and orders delivery to a street corner a block away from the parkade for the group.

The next day, December strolls past the front of the apartment building. She stops to talk to a homeless man about the events of the night prior. She learns that there was a large commotion, with lots of police and a couple ambulances. The man also notes that early in the morning a cleaning company came by, and that it didn't look like city workers. There are no signs of the conflict the night prior.

December pays the man a hundred to keep an eye out, and gives him a meta link to take pictures of anyone coming or leaving the apartment building. In the deal, he gets to keep the meta link, and earn another hundred when he gets a picture of the people they are looking for (they don't tell him who they're looking for).

Fahrenheit does a check-in in astral space, seeing the astral barrier that surrounds Noe's circle of power. This time however he is spotted, immediately, by a small pseudo-spirit, a watcher. Fahrenheit gets a sepia-tone flashback to when they were scoping out the mall for the escort job, noting that it is the exact same watcher. Watcher spirits are not real spirits, but instead they are astral constructs made using ritual spellcasting. Right after he spots it, the spirit drops into the astral barrier. He's been made. He knows the watcher cannot ID him, and leaves before Noe peers into astral space and IDs him herself.

Fahrenheit goes to his talismonger's, Winky's, shop and Vince tags along. Fahrenheit explains that he recognizes that there are rumors that he is a toxic mage, and that he plans to dispell those rumors. Fahrenheit explains that since he is pursuing artificing, he wants to initiate into the talismonger's union and asks Winky to be a character reference for him. Winky refuses, but points Fahrenheit to the online application form.

Vince asks to buy a scary mask that is magical, and Winky asks him for his identification and magician's license. Fahrenheit and Vince leave. Vince asks some questions about magical terminology that have not been fully explained on screen for the sake of the audience, and Fahrenheit provides some handy exposition.

Following is an overly dramatic hacking scene in a dark room, complete with light reflecting off of Fahrenheit's face, and heavy electronic music beats. We cut to the screen of the commlink he is working on and we see that he is filling out several expansive online forms. He is provided a date for an in-person interview in about a week.

There is a quick scene where the group wonders why Bitrat hasn't responded yet to their message that Noe was in trouble. The message did not bounce back, so they are confident that Bitrat had received the message.

Post-Session Notes

This session had a lot of out-of-character discussions that didn't make it into the summary. Much of it was talking about the various paths they could use, and a lot of pondering how to get Noe out of the safe house, knowing that it will be a significant challenge.

Vince's player proposed calling Manifest, which was notable and fairly amusing. Since Makoto and the rest of Marcus's mercenary group work with Manifest, she will be made aware of Marcus's death and will seek out the runners in the next couple of days, unless they contact her first.

I really look forwards to this impending conversation with Manifest, as there is a significant difference in knowledge between the runners and her. Madoka is working for her, and the group has had next to no contact with Madoka since they returned from the jungle. The runners have killed someone that she works with often and respects a lot, though the crew has not confirmed that death yet. And this is post-jungle. Manifest has some things to say to Hueco and Fahrenheit, and I can't wait.

There are still a couple in-game days until Hueco's box of grenades show up, and then in about an in-game week until Hueco's new gun shows up and Fahrenheit has an appointment.