EFFICIENT AND TRUSTWORTHY CITIZENS SOUGHT TO RETRIEVE LOST ARTEFACT.

Elena Di Graza seeks adventurers to retrieve a lost item from Connection. Moderate risk anticipated. Successful completion of the task would elicit her particular gratitude.

—

There's more guards than usual on the streets of Rom - and they're more alert, more tense. The atmosphere is overwhelming, attention pulled taut on a knife edge. The whole district seems to be searching for somebody. You feel, as you make your way through, that you are under scrutiny. The feeling will not go away.

• Carmen Montiel - Emma
• Doublethink Stingelhelm - Andrew
• Gidie Berger - Philip
• Hatevil Stingelhelm - JC
• Sofia Darling - Aleaha

The party are ushered into a relatively opulent house in Rom to meet their employer: Elena Di Graza. Go-getting secretary of Magister Isabella, she wants an opportunity to prove her worth. Isabella recently lost a valuable artefact during an experiment gone wrong; it got grabbed by a powerful Connection entity and spirited away into the plane. The party have been hired to retrieve it. The entity in question is called Hierarchy, appearing as a tall, skeletal figure wrapped in chains. The party are warned of its power and told to use all they have against it. There are Connection weavers on hand to extract them once the task is completed.

Upon entering Connection, the party find themselves under attack by a group of hostile entities. In the struggle, Gidie perishes. Tensions begin to rise, and continue rising after Gidie returns to life.

Soon afterwards, the party come across Hierarchy, the lost artefact lodged in its chest. After a difficult fight - in which Sofia dies - they manage to dispatch it and retrieve the artefact. Mission complete. The artefact turns out to heighten the emotional responses of anybody holding it. It is agreed that Gidie will hold onto it for the moment. The party continue to fight amongst themselves as tempers rise. This culminates in Hatevil refusing to follow Carmen's leadership any longer and attempting to storm off into Connection.

He doesn't get very far. Walls of thick, impenetrable shadow materialise around the party, hemming them in. It pings Shroud. As the party attempt to figure out what is happening, a panicked figure flees into their midst, shrieking for help. They are followed by Connection entities - Fears of Pursuit - that appear as figures in dark, hooded uniforms. The walls slowly close in around the party, and continue to do so after all the Fears of Pursuit have been dispatched. Just as they are about to be crushed, something new appears. It pings Connection.

(UNFINISHED)

• 2 Favour

• -1 life

• -1 life