War Beneath Heaven, S02E03 Aftermath part I

News Report May 30

A massive fire has rocked the Warf area, in one Fortalez Labs, a subsidiary company of the Quijolo Group of Companies. Many lab workers were able to escape, because the violence from the Sangre Sacramento and other Gangs Slowly escalated but a number of Quijolo and Order of God's Work executives and a pilot were caught in the fire when the private helicopter that malfunction preventing them from escaping. This tragic....

Chronicler Special: May 29 2013 Fire in

• The labs and warehouse, had powerful necromantic auras and residue. The chronicler was able to get samples with verification from a Magus Warden that there is no broken chain of custody. The samples place the lab as the highest possible source of the Ecstasy/Necrosis drug that hit The Heights weeks ago.
• The following report is the research into each of the men who died in the fire. This is the background checks. Xavier Obono is the VP assigned to this task, a high ranking member of OGW and one of the COO directors of Quijolo's subsidiaries.
• There was a necromancer's circle residue that can be detected in the warehouse.
• Below are other speculations and various other leads, which can be confirmed but may or may not be related....

The Tower's High Temple lost all its color in the dark and starless winter night. The great hall and its symbols of power, and pillars of magic breathed life in a meeting of shadows. A man in a leather mask, stood before a circle of mages and forgotten deities. He breathed life into his testimony with Illusion and pieced together a remarkable Reconstruction of what happened in the warehouse fire.

“Inquisitors!” Says a young man behind his mask and form hiding robes. “The chain of custody is unbroken, and I have tested the samples myself!”

Older and calmed voices hushed him, one voice bearing the practice of command spoke next.

“They have begun their move, but it does not mean we should move ourselves. There is still a choice for a peaceful resolution, we can invoke the Geas of the Vatican and ask them to clear up this mess.

“Or...” Dylan Baker did not care for masks or hiding his presence. He repeated himself and rang clearer “Or some of us can see the opportunity to take out the OGW and expand our territories now that the Gangs have been weakened. I'm sure i'm not the only one thinking it, I just want to make sure everyone knows their options.” ending with a look at the one who spoke just before him.

A woman voice rang, “The better question is how do we divide the Heights, now that Balthazar is gone. A fight for territories will just diminish the advantage we have just gained in the weakness of the Inquisitors.

“The answer my lady, and my fellows is rooted in a tradition I would happily illustrate: the Method of Talmud, with the catch that those who offer the most to our cause will gain the most. I will remove myself from the claim of territories, and will happily serve as arbiter.” many voiced contested the offer, but those more senior hushed their apprentices and eyed each other. In their experience, as it is with many important deals a Geas is used to ensure fairness, even powerful mages can be bound to a geas even the Mage of the Tower.

“You seem to have this for certain” one of the more senior Magi. “But such an offer has to have its consideration. Get to the point Mr. Baker, what do you want in return?”

++++++++++++

While the Team was successful in destroying enemy command center and a huge asset setback for them, the work was mostly about managing the repercussions and cleaning up after themselves still needed to be done. Thomas was busy with managing the details while Speedy went to work in trying to find out more from the Laptop the team acquired. Moving quickly, they implanted a simple worm to lie in wait anticipating the system purges and password resets.

HSS core competence is network and data security, so its their specialty to break into such systems. The worm is of a simple design, all it will do is allow the HSS locate and flag targets for social engineering. The team then filters through these targets towards the most vulnerable, and from there uses that crack to open a font of information. This crack only gives them OGW and its dealings with Quijolos.

Vash was on it in about 6 days, because of all the preparations they had to do for this kind of work. The passwords are reset and many systems have been purged, a version of the worm is meant to hide in the many functions of the main data systems after its other replicants flag some careless exec to have his phone and sim copied and eventually allow the team to add more worms and malware to capture emails, texts, phone numbers, personnel and HR information, and calls.

After the fire OGW and Quijolo were not in good terms, despite the front they put up. The team was able to capture the bids and the business plans of the Quijolos and OGW, particularly information OGW hid from the Quijolos. Osman, Thomas, Jeni and Emily were on the job trying to intercept their suppliers, clients, and their put pressure on their "Paid" gov't workers. It was easy because it was practically cheating, they had their final bids, contracts, and their chain of command at HSS disposal. They were four steps ahead and basically took over the same projects. The only challenging thing was making money out of these projects so that these activities paid for itself, that was Thomas' job.

HSS vs OGW, HSS was able to buy out the opportunities of OGW. HSS has gained more revenue generating assets in The Heights and is slowly growing back to full strength.

Game Summary

• party attempted to rally and organize all the gangs to attack Quijolo Labs.
• thwarted an ambush, and was able to assemble the gangs using Paolo Confessor
• prepared magic and equipment for the siege, and enlisted the help of three mages.
• they attacked, despite a screwed up implementation of the gangs. 
• they faced undead, and a mage machine gunner and one more in assault.
• The machine gunner was taken out with a suicide drone attack of flashbangs. 
• they flanker was able to take out Fish, almost killing him. 
• as the flanker got closer, fish used a grenade with a critical success landing on the feet of the Flanker, the flanker still gets to evade and dodge. the flanker uses Mystic Mist to escape.
• Clearing out the undead, they hit the Command center of the mages. They find Jakub, balthazar, and two other people who were tortured by the enemy mage.
• The looted and ran before the fire spread to them. Tasha is able to quickly extract them. The team took a lot of damage, recovered comrades and was able to deal damage to the infra of the enemy company.

Loot

• Scrolls: Delay x2, Reflex x3
• Laptop, OGW resources.
• 2 other tortured personnel

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