Project MONUMENT 064: 1-5 October 2010, Paris, Bucharest
INTERNAL MESSAGING - LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE REQUIRED - EYES ONLY
To: O5-3/780
From: ADMINISTRATOR
M., having considered your previous comments, I conclude that you are right. Peach is not to blame for what occurred. As it appears that Peach never received the full Mobile Task Force training module that would have instructed him in how to properly conduct relations with members of the public, he had no way of knowing the danger of his actions. I trust that you have informed him of his error and ensured that it will not recur. If so, I do not wish it to be said that I am without compassion toward the sentient SCP items in our care, so I am comfortable giving him only a warning this time. M., please draft a formal reprimand and place it in Peach's file at your earliest convenience.
However, someone must take the blame for what has happened. It may appear that the impact of this security breach is limited at the present time, but my tenure as Administrator of the Foundation has clearly shown me that seemingly inconsequential actions can, in fact, have far-reaching effects on our mission. There must be a consequence now for what has happened, M., and I have decided that you will be the one to bear it. It was you who agitated to have Peach placed on the Mobile Task Force for your own purposes and despite his lack of training, in spite of the fact that outside of these circumstances it was unlikely he would ever qualify for Mobile Task Force membership. Even more concerning to me is the way in which you have recently placed your own "pet projects" above the good of the Foundation as a whole.
I have not yet decided an appropriate consequence for your actions. You will be informed when I have done so. Until then, M., I would suggest that you get your affairs in order.
INTERNAL MESSAGING - LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE REQUIRED - EYES ONLY
To: O5-3/780
From: SCP-780
Aðalsteinn, Bo, and Roland spent Friday driving back to Paris from Gothenburg. In the meantime, Robert worked and also met with Damiane to continue learning both about magic, and about the political landscape for mages in Paris. Damiane told Robert that although the Free Council had a long and established history in Paris, the Silver Ladder was recently ascendant, largely because the current Hierarch, a man named Moliére, was a member of that order.
When Bo got back from Gothenburg, she shifted her focus to her new private investigator business, having realized from her dwindling bank account that she needed a steady income if her travels were to continue. She put out a new round of classified ads and was rewarded with two cases: a woman who suspected that her sister-in-law was taking advantage of her elderly and homebound mother, and the owner of a driving school who accused his relatives of embezzling money. With occasional help from Aðalsteinn and Roland, Bo discovered that the sister-in-law was definitely taking money from the mother's bank account without her permission, but that there was no embezzlement happening at the driving school and that the business's financial problems could be explained by poor management. Having completed both of these cases, Bo's financial situation looked much better and she was developing a reputation that would enable her to have a steady income from her investigations.
Aðalsteinn continued to spend much of his free time at the Aegis Kai Doru safehouse. He read up on what little information he could find on vampires in a language he could read, and also wrote up a report on his retrieval of the torch in the hopes that it would earn more respect from the other members of the group. However, this was not working on at least some people. Aðalsteinn had an unpleasant encounter with another Aegis Kai Doru member who happened to be in the safehouse at the same time, and who appeared to bear some sort of grudge against Aðalsteinn. The other member was rude and went out of his way to make the space uncomfortable for Aðalsteinn, who left wondering what he had done to offend this person.
Aðalsteinn and Roland also took on a longer-term project of searching farther afield in the catacombs, trying to find a place that would serve well as a hiding place for the gold. Not only did this place have to be secure, it needed to lack angled corners in order to make the portals harder to operate, as well as being fairly distant from anyone or anything who could be harmed by collateral damage. Right away, Aðalsteinn and Roland could tell that the ideal place would be difficult to find, and they did not make much progress in a few days of searching. However, they knew that continuing to map more of the catacombs could only help them in the long run.
On Saturday night, Roland attended the function he had been invited to at "Club Underground," the secret bar in the catacombs. He took Bo along as his guest. Roland discovered that Club Underground appeared to be a completely mundane venture, set up by a small group of young Parisian hipsters who took pleasure in having a secret, under-the-radar, members only club. Bo and Roland enjoyed drinking, conversing, and listening to a jazz combo perform late into the night. Bo in particular enjoyed the jazz music and seemed to really loosen up while it was playing. Afterwards, while a little tipsy, she told Roland about how the music had reminded her of good times spent with her friends and partners in the Chicago police force, because they all used to unwind together by going to a jazz club, at which Bo had always felt particularly safe.
Aðalsteinn was still interested in learning what Aegis Kai Doru knew about vampires, so he called Iulia in Bucharest to ask for her advice. He quickly discovered that her English was not very good and that she did not like using it on the phone. Aðalsteinn asked whether he could come to Bucharest and talk to her in person, and Iulia agreed. So on Sunday morning, Aðalsteinn and Roland caught a plane to Bucharest and met Iulia at a café there, which appeared to be run by hunters. The language barðrier persisted even in person, though Roland proved better than Aðalsteinn at simplifying their requests for information and making himself understood. Aðalsteinn was surprised to discover that Iulia did not really care about studying vampires; she seemed mostly interested in killing the ones that she said were prevalent in the rural areas outside Bucharest. When Aðalsteinn and Roland asked her whether she had ever known vampires to use portals to travel, Iulia said that she had never seen anything of the sort. Realizing that they were not going to learn as much as they wanted, Aðalsteinn and Roland thanked Iulia and then returned to Paris.
The next day, the subjects met to discuss their next steps. Without a place to keep the gold the subjects had retrieved in Gothenburg, they were not able to reset the torch to point toward the next hoard, which left them without a clear direction. Bo reminded the others of the letter they had received from SCP about Karel Jardine being seen in Paris, and the subjects agreed to look it. After assuring that the locations in which Karel Jardine had been spotted did not suggest that he was actively stalking any member of the group, the subjects split up to investigate the various areas. Bo went to the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, where she discovered that a large book fair had been going on during the dates that Karel had been seen there. This fit in interestingly with Robert's observation that many of the other places on SCP's list were in close proximity to bookstores. Roland decided to check a few of them out (particularly a famous English-language bookstore called Shakespeare & Company) and noted that many of the stores had an unusually high percentage of New Age and occult books on the shelves.
Roland bought a number of books that stood out to him, but was disappointed to learn that they did not seem to contain real information about monsters or magic. He did notice a stamp in the front cover of all of the books that said they had been distributed by a company called Triple Goddess Wholesale. Robert looked into this business and discovered that it appeared to be a legitimate (if somewhat old-fashioned) distribution and wholesaling company focusing on New Age books. Despite the unbelievable nature of the books Roland had purchased, the subjects still found this to be an interesting coincidence considering that if vampires were not typically able to use portals as Iulia as said, Michael Martucci had clearly needed to learn that skill from somewhere. The subjects decided that it was worth staking out the bookstore and seeing if they could pick up Karel's trail from there.
The next day, Roland was hanging around Shakespeare & Company when he overheard one of the clerks having a phone conversation. The clerk was telling the other person that the books they had brought over had sold very well, and mentioned by title some of the books that Roland had purchased. She asked the person on the other end to bring more copies the next day, since the shop was interested in stocking more. Roland realized that this was a good opportunity for the subjects to follow Karel to wherever he was going. They arranged for Aðalsteinn and Roland to hang out in the bookstore the next day and see if Karel turned up, while Bo would wait nearby and serve as a backup in case things went wrong.
It did not take long until the subjects' patience was rewarded. The following afternoon, Karel Jardine turned up at Shakespeare & Company. He was well-dressed and carried two large satchels which appeared to be full of books. From an excellent hiding place, Aðalsteinn and Roland listened while Karel had an apparently totally mundane conversation with the clerk in which he sold her a number of the titles he was promoting. He then left the shop and set off on foot. Aðalsteinn and Roland followed him without being detected to another bookstore, where it looked like he was about to attempt another sales pitch. Roland realized that because his appearance had changed so drastically, it was unlikely that Karel would recognize him, so he decided to engage Karel in conversation and see if his role as a book seller was legitimate or just a cover for something sinister. Unfortunately, Roland realized too late that although his face had changed, his distinctive accent had not. Karel seemed to become suspicious and quickly came up with an excuse to leave the store.
Roland called Bo and told her that he had been spotted, and asked her to take over trailing Karel. But Bo was not nearly as stealthy as either Aðalsteinn or Roland, and Karel realized he was still being followed. Bo chased him to a busy street, where she suddenly lost track of him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a blur, and when she turned toward it she was stunned to see that Karel had somehow dodged several lanes of racing traffic to get to the other side of the road. Karel met her eyes and said, "I don't want to fight you. I'll leave you alone if you'll leave me alone." Bo responded that she was not sure if she could reasonably do so while Karel worked for her enemies. Karel then said, "If you're talking about Michael Martucci, I don't work for that guy. I don't even know where he is." Realizing that Karel was telling the truth, Bo allowed him to enter a nearby Metro station and leave.
When Bo told the others about what Karel had said, they were disappointed to learn that there did not seem to be any connection between Karel and Michael any longer. They agreed that his behavior was still suspicious and probably deserved further investigation, but that it probably should wait until later due to its lack of direct relation to the current problems. The subjects were disappointed to have lost this lead but glad that they hadn't wasted too much time on it. However, they were not sure what to do next.
MALUS SYLVESTRIS, 05-3/780, PERSONAL LOG - LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE REQUIRED - EYES ONLY
05 OCTOBER 2010
And so it's come to this. The Administrator, perhaps beginning to realize my true goals, has decided that I must be punished for my actions. I suppose it was only a matter of time, really. I do not know what he has in mind for me, but I am certain it will be neither pleasant nor convenient.
The lead about Karel Jardine was, in a way, my last chance to make the Foundation establishment types take me seriously. I am disappointed to learn that he disclaims any involvement with Michael Martucci, and that the subjects seem to believe him. Yet I am not certain that Jardine would have been a convincing prize even if he had led the subjects directly to Martucci, considering the way in which the previous vampire SCP was misplaced by someone within this organization. I am running out of time and options. I do not believe that the Administrator will terminate me, considering the service that only I can render to the Foundation, but I have no doubt that his response will create a substantial inconvenience for me. It may even effectively remove me from supervision of Project MONUMENT for a time - which I am certain is just what the Administrator wants.
For all of these reasons I am forced to make a decision more drastic than I would like. I can only hope that in the end, the record will vindicate me.
This summary is early due to some other obligations I have this weekend. We will be playing, though!
This was another "set the dominoes up" session, which is probably okay due to the fact that previous sessions were very action-packed. The PCs are in the middle of a lot of plans that are very cool but haven't quite come to fruition yet. The Karel Jardine plot was the only real non-down-time-y thing that happened. There was more to that plot, but I can't tell you about it since the PCs chose not to pursue it at that time.
Next week, kyrryn will be back, which puts us right back on the plot train. I'll have more to say then!
What is this?
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/595408.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth:
To: O5-3/780
From: ADMINISTRATOR
M., having considered your previous comments, I conclude that you are right. Peach is not to blame for what occurred. As it appears that Peach never received the full Mobile Task Force training module that would have instructed him in how to properly conduct relations with members of the public, he had no way of knowing the danger of his actions. I trust that you have informed him of his error and ensured that it will not recur. If so, I do not wish it to be said that I am without compassion toward the sentient SCP items in our care, so I am comfortable giving him only a warning this time. M., please draft a formal reprimand and place it in Peach's file at your earliest convenience.
However, someone must take the blame for what has happened. It may appear that the impact of this security breach is limited at the present time, but my tenure as Administrator of the Foundation has clearly shown me that seemingly inconsequential actions can, in fact, have far-reaching effects on our mission. There must be a consequence now for what has happened, M., and I have decided that you will be the one to bear it. It was you who agitated to have Peach placed on the Mobile Task Force for your own purposes and despite his lack of training, in spite of the fact that outside of these circumstances it was unlikely he would ever qualify for Mobile Task Force membership. Even more concerning to me is the way in which you have recently placed your own "pet projects" above the good of the Foundation as a whole.
I have not yet decided an appropriate consequence for your actions. You will be informed when I have done so. Until then, M., I would suggest that you get your affairs in order.
INTERNAL MESSAGING - LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE REQUIRED - EYES ONLY
To: O5-3/780
From: SCP-780
Aðalsteinn, Bo, and Roland spent Friday driving back to Paris from Gothenburg. In the meantime, Robert worked and also met with Damiane to continue learning both about magic, and about the political landscape for mages in Paris. Damiane told Robert that although the Free Council had a long and established history in Paris, the Silver Ladder was recently ascendant, largely because the current Hierarch, a man named Moliére, was a member of that order.
When Bo got back from Gothenburg, she shifted her focus to her new private investigator business, having realized from her dwindling bank account that she needed a steady income if her travels were to continue. She put out a new round of classified ads and was rewarded with two cases: a woman who suspected that her sister-in-law was taking advantage of her elderly and homebound mother, and the owner of a driving school who accused his relatives of embezzling money. With occasional help from Aðalsteinn and Roland, Bo discovered that the sister-in-law was definitely taking money from the mother's bank account without her permission, but that there was no embezzlement happening at the driving school and that the business's financial problems could be explained by poor management. Having completed both of these cases, Bo's financial situation looked much better and she was developing a reputation that would enable her to have a steady income from her investigations.
Aðalsteinn continued to spend much of his free time at the Aegis Kai Doru safehouse. He read up on what little information he could find on vampires in a language he could read, and also wrote up a report on his retrieval of the torch in the hopes that it would earn more respect from the other members of the group. However, this was not working on at least some people. Aðalsteinn had an unpleasant encounter with another Aegis Kai Doru member who happened to be in the safehouse at the same time, and who appeared to bear some sort of grudge against Aðalsteinn. The other member was rude and went out of his way to make the space uncomfortable for Aðalsteinn, who left wondering what he had done to offend this person.
Aðalsteinn and Roland also took on a longer-term project of searching farther afield in the catacombs, trying to find a place that would serve well as a hiding place for the gold. Not only did this place have to be secure, it needed to lack angled corners in order to make the portals harder to operate, as well as being fairly distant from anyone or anything who could be harmed by collateral damage. Right away, Aðalsteinn and Roland could tell that the ideal place would be difficult to find, and they did not make much progress in a few days of searching. However, they knew that continuing to map more of the catacombs could only help them in the long run.
On Saturday night, Roland attended the function he had been invited to at "Club Underground," the secret bar in the catacombs. He took Bo along as his guest. Roland discovered that Club Underground appeared to be a completely mundane venture, set up by a small group of young Parisian hipsters who took pleasure in having a secret, under-the-radar, members only club. Bo and Roland enjoyed drinking, conversing, and listening to a jazz combo perform late into the night. Bo in particular enjoyed the jazz music and seemed to really loosen up while it was playing. Afterwards, while a little tipsy, she told Roland about how the music had reminded her of good times spent with her friends and partners in the Chicago police force, because they all used to unwind together by going to a jazz club, at which Bo had always felt particularly safe.
Aðalsteinn was still interested in learning what Aegis Kai Doru knew about vampires, so he called Iulia in Bucharest to ask for her advice. He quickly discovered that her English was not very good and that she did not like using it on the phone. Aðalsteinn asked whether he could come to Bucharest and talk to her in person, and Iulia agreed. So on Sunday morning, Aðalsteinn and Roland caught a plane to Bucharest and met Iulia at a café there, which appeared to be run by hunters. The language barðrier persisted even in person, though Roland proved better than Aðalsteinn at simplifying their requests for information and making himself understood. Aðalsteinn was surprised to discover that Iulia did not really care about studying vampires; she seemed mostly interested in killing the ones that she said were prevalent in the rural areas outside Bucharest. When Aðalsteinn and Roland asked her whether she had ever known vampires to use portals to travel, Iulia said that she had never seen anything of the sort. Realizing that they were not going to learn as much as they wanted, Aðalsteinn and Roland thanked Iulia and then returned to Paris.
The next day, the subjects met to discuss their next steps. Without a place to keep the gold the subjects had retrieved in Gothenburg, they were not able to reset the torch to point toward the next hoard, which left them without a clear direction. Bo reminded the others of the letter they had received from SCP about Karel Jardine being seen in Paris, and the subjects agreed to look it. After assuring that the locations in which Karel Jardine had been spotted did not suggest that he was actively stalking any member of the group, the subjects split up to investigate the various areas. Bo went to the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, where she discovered that a large book fair had been going on during the dates that Karel had been seen there. This fit in interestingly with Robert's observation that many of the other places on SCP's list were in close proximity to bookstores. Roland decided to check a few of them out (particularly a famous English-language bookstore called Shakespeare & Company) and noted that many of the stores had an unusually high percentage of New Age and occult books on the shelves.
Roland bought a number of books that stood out to him, but was disappointed to learn that they did not seem to contain real information about monsters or magic. He did notice a stamp in the front cover of all of the books that said they had been distributed by a company called Triple Goddess Wholesale. Robert looked into this business and discovered that it appeared to be a legitimate (if somewhat old-fashioned) distribution and wholesaling company focusing on New Age books. Despite the unbelievable nature of the books Roland had purchased, the subjects still found this to be an interesting coincidence considering that if vampires were not typically able to use portals as Iulia as said, Michael Martucci had clearly needed to learn that skill from somewhere. The subjects decided that it was worth staking out the bookstore and seeing if they could pick up Karel's trail from there.
The next day, Roland was hanging around Shakespeare & Company when he overheard one of the clerks having a phone conversation. The clerk was telling the other person that the books they had brought over had sold very well, and mentioned by title some of the books that Roland had purchased. She asked the person on the other end to bring more copies the next day, since the shop was interested in stocking more. Roland realized that this was a good opportunity for the subjects to follow Karel to wherever he was going. They arranged for Aðalsteinn and Roland to hang out in the bookstore the next day and see if Karel turned up, while Bo would wait nearby and serve as a backup in case things went wrong.
It did not take long until the subjects' patience was rewarded. The following afternoon, Karel Jardine turned up at Shakespeare & Company. He was well-dressed and carried two large satchels which appeared to be full of books. From an excellent hiding place, Aðalsteinn and Roland listened while Karel had an apparently totally mundane conversation with the clerk in which he sold her a number of the titles he was promoting. He then left the shop and set off on foot. Aðalsteinn and Roland followed him without being detected to another bookstore, where it looked like he was about to attempt another sales pitch. Roland realized that because his appearance had changed so drastically, it was unlikely that Karel would recognize him, so he decided to engage Karel in conversation and see if his role as a book seller was legitimate or just a cover for something sinister. Unfortunately, Roland realized too late that although his face had changed, his distinctive accent had not. Karel seemed to become suspicious and quickly came up with an excuse to leave the store.
Roland called Bo and told her that he had been spotted, and asked her to take over trailing Karel. But Bo was not nearly as stealthy as either Aðalsteinn or Roland, and Karel realized he was still being followed. Bo chased him to a busy street, where she suddenly lost track of him. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a blur, and when she turned toward it she was stunned to see that Karel had somehow dodged several lanes of racing traffic to get to the other side of the road. Karel met her eyes and said, "I don't want to fight you. I'll leave you alone if you'll leave me alone." Bo responded that she was not sure if she could reasonably do so while Karel worked for her enemies. Karel then said, "If you're talking about Michael Martucci, I don't work for that guy. I don't even know where he is." Realizing that Karel was telling the truth, Bo allowed him to enter a nearby Metro station and leave.
When Bo told the others about what Karel had said, they were disappointed to learn that there did not seem to be any connection between Karel and Michael any longer. They agreed that his behavior was still suspicious and probably deserved further investigation, but that it probably should wait until later due to its lack of direct relation to the current problems. The subjects were disappointed to have lost this lead but glad that they hadn't wasted too much time on it. However, they were not sure what to do next.
MALUS SYLVESTRIS, 05-3/780, PERSONAL LOG - LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE REQUIRED - EYES ONLY
05 OCTOBER 2010
And so it's come to this. The Administrator, perhaps beginning to realize my true goals, has decided that I must be punished for my actions. I suppose it was only a matter of time, really. I do not know what he has in mind for me, but I am certain it will be neither pleasant nor convenient.
The lead about Karel Jardine was, in a way, my last chance to make the Foundation establishment types take me seriously. I am disappointed to learn that he disclaims any involvement with Michael Martucci, and that the subjects seem to believe him. Yet I am not certain that Jardine would have been a convincing prize even if he had led the subjects directly to Martucci, considering the way in which the previous vampire SCP was misplaced by someone within this organization. I am running out of time and options. I do not believe that the Administrator will terminate me, considering the service that only I can render to the Foundation, but I have no doubt that his response will create a substantial inconvenience for me. It may even effectively remove me from supervision of Project MONUMENT for a time - which I am certain is just what the Administrator wants.
For all of these reasons I am forced to make a decision more drastic than I would like. I can only hope that in the end, the record will vindicate me.
This summary is early due to some other obligations I have this weekend. We will be playing, though!
This was another "set the dominoes up" session, which is probably okay due to the fact that previous sessions were very action-packed. The PCs are in the middle of a lot of plans that are very cool but haven't quite come to fruition yet. The Karel Jardine plot was the only real non-down-time-y thing that happened. There was more to that plot, but I can't tell you about it since the PCs chose not to pursue it at that time.
Next week, kyrryn will be back, which puts us right back on the plot train. I'll have more to say then!
What is this?
This entry was originally posted at http://gamerchick.dreamwidth.org/595408.html. You can comment on either journal. Number of comments on Dreamwidth: