The citizens are briefed by Commissioner Dmitri Romov who informs them something's gone wrong with experimental ichorwerk. They are asked to investigate and dispose of the threat.
Peleus is asked to perform a Connection Spell - Knowledge of Trust Broken - to swear the party to secrecy of any Imperial Commission secrets they discover while they are inside, except when reporting to Imperial Commissioners. Commissioner Romov takes the tokens from this.
They enter the Commission, fighting off some mutants, and discover the horror of what's gone on inside: Commissioners gone manic, attacking anyone they see, screaming about being “watched” by “traitors” and wanting to pull out their eyes. They're met by a surviving Commissioner, Heléne Romova, who brings them to a safe room of other surviving Commissioners, where they explain that work with Imperial Commissioner Alexis Telemova went south - that they were trying to improve Nightingale's Song into what they call Vulture's Cacophany, but it's not gone well.
They note three stages of infection: disorientation, deafness, and then losing control of your body.
They also note two people going deaf.
The weavers in the party concoct a plan to Perfect or Conflict away the infection, and they pick up Connection Weaver Florento Delamode who offers to assist with higher power Connection Rituals.
When they try to coerce one of the infected to be cured, they instead infect Malcador, and so Gaenevra performs a Perfection ritual to purge the infection. Florento adds a Connection ritual to put them inside Malcador's head, and they fight off the infection. Gaenevra also perfects Malcador's body and gives him a strong bronze chest.
They head on to go and find Commissioner Telemova and it's a difficult fight through the infected areas. Gaenevra and Kaeris shockingly fall during an encounter with many infected Savants, while the party is trying to protect Florento, and the party grieve.
Luckily, the gift of the Blessed is on their side and they encounter Gaenevra and Kaeris a short while later, shaken from their experience, but unharmed. They press on and take on some more cogent Savants but a number of them get dropped into vats of Vulture's Cacophany and infected by the corrupt ichor. Kaeris performs a Conflict ritual to fight the infection out of her own head, but only just fails. They work with Florento to do another Connection ritual to purge the infection successfully from Peleus and Gaenevra (but don't have enough strength to purge Malcador and Kaeris.
They make it through regardless to face Commissioner Alexis Telemova who has been truly corrupted by the corrupt ichor, and fight her to the ground where, all of them now infected, they perform one more desperate Connection ritual. They purge the corruption from her mind, destroying its hold on the other infected, and all is well. Florento dies in the process.
They burn the corrupted Ichor, but not before Alos takes a sample. Alexis is happy for the help but insists everything was sanctioned. This upsets Malcador who gets in an argument with her, storming out shouting that they'll return to burn the Commission to the ground.
As they leave, a friend of Alexis expresses her gratitude for them not killing Alexis, and Alexis sets about, spiderlike, repairing the damage and recouping from the losses.
They return to debrief to Commissioner Romov.