PARALLAX, Session 8: Hastur's shadow

Scene setup

Expectations:
The team checks on the NOPD for Kaminski's accomplice, expecting him to have bee apprehended.
If so, they will try to get permission to interrogate him.

Expected scene test : Scene was altered! => Make 2 Adjustments

My interpretation: Kaminski's accomplice was NOT apprehended, but he was identified by the police.

NPC rolls
Morgan Robertson
Character Background: Independent + Pursued
Character Identity: Killer + Explorer
Character Personality: Helpful + Crude
Character Appearance: Powerful + Remarkable
Character Motivation: Justice + Goal

My interpretation: Morgan Robertson, 39. Veteran army Ranger. Bad Conduct Discharge in 1990: during a mission, he disregarded direct orders to pursue a personal goal. Details missing on the report.

Huge body, powerful muscles. Maybe he's immune to the tattoo infection?

Not the most diplomatic character, but always willing to help friends.

Motivation: he may have witnessed some unnatural event (something related with the tattoo?) and is now seeking justice.

The wait in the car feels like an eternity, though the clock says it’s been less than an hour. Finally, Pariah and Phalanx emerge from the precinct. Pariah is clutching a manila folder, her expression unreadable. They slide into the SUV.

Pariah: "Bad luck on the arrest. They didn't catch him, but they’ve got a name: Morgan Robertson, 39. Ex-Army Ranger. He’s got a Bad Conduct Discharge on his record from 1990. Apparently, he went AWOL during a mission, ignoring direct orders to pursue some 'personal objective.' The details in the report are redacted."

Phalanx: "A Ranger? That explains why he hasn't been picked up yet. He knows how to disappear. Anything on his records before the discharge?"

Pariah: "Exemplary. He was a poster boy for the Corps until he snapped."

Lawrence: "Did the police have any leads on where he went?"

Pariah: "Nothing. He’s a ghost. We’re better off pivoting back to Kaminski—that’s where the infection started."

NPC rolls for Colleen Kaminski
Character Background: Activity + Bold
Character Identity: Hunter + Gambler => ancient relic hunter?
Character Personality: Greed + Larcenous => she stole something that got her the tattoo
Character Appearance: Eyewear + Lithe
My interpretation: Kaminski is a ruthless relic hunter, selling ancient stuff to pay for her gambling habit. She stole something that got her the tattoo. She's slender and wears eyegalsses.

She opens a second file, sliding a photo across the console. It shows a slender woman with sharp features and wire-rimmed glasses. She looks more like a librarian than a criminal.

Pariah: "Colleen Kaminski, 29. PhD in Archaeology from LSU. She had a promising academic career until a gambling habit ate her alive. To cover her debts, she turned to the black market, stealing and selling high-value antiquities."

Phalanx: "Ancient relics. Sounds like the perfect way to stumble onto a cursed ink job. What was she digging for lately?"

FQ: any details on Kaminski's recent activity?
A: yes
Character Motivation: Art + Recover
My interpretation: she was trying to recover a copy of the King in Yellow

Pariah: "Notes from her motel room suggest she was on a commission for a private collector. The objective: recover an original copy of a play titled The King in Yellow. She spent five months in Paris on their dime. She found something there, but her notes descend into gibberish toward the end. She returned to the States a month ago and immediately began showing signs of psychological collapse—screaming about 'tattered kings' and 'Carcosa.'"

Lawrence: "So the book was the vector. She found it, or it found her, and she brought the infection back with her."

Phalanx: "Who was the client? Who paid for the trip?"

Pariah: "A business card was tucked into her journal. Hastur & Associates, New York."

Pariah computer science roll: [D100]: [85] > 40 => failure

Pariah flips open her laptop, her fingers flying across the keys as she attempts to dig into the company’s digital footprint. After a minute, she hisses in frustration.

Pariah: "Digital dead end. Their website is a shell—no mission statement, no staff list, nothing but a contact form and a physical address in Manhattan. It’s a front."

Phalanx: "Sounds like we’re taking a field trip to New York."

Pariah: "Pack your bags. If this 'H&A' group is the source, we need to shut them down before the 'mutation' we saw at the motel goes global."

Scene Bookkeeping

Chaos factor: 6 (unchanged)