Ooof. Okay, so this is pretty far behind, even for me. We didn't get to play this week anyways due to Thanksgiving's impact on players' work lives, but even still I should have done this sooner. But a combination of being kind of 'blah,' a fucked-up sleep schedule, and some freelancing duties (with an assist from video game distractions), has just left me unable to sit down and focus on it.
So, um, yeah. But first: If you follow me on social media you'd have seen me post this on the day in question, but if you're reading this I'm thankful for you. This year has really wrung me out, but know that I'm thankful that you're all out there, and I hope you're all being safe, and I hope that we come out the other side of this in one piece and I get to see you all around whether online or off.
And now, we get to it.
So we pick up with Kenneth heading down to the police station to look into the investigation into Richard. He approaches Detective Joseph Popham directly to ask about the case, as Richard is directly relevant to his investigation into Rossi. The detective, finding this a pretty reasonable request[0], goes over the facts of the case with him. (If you need a refresher, check the last couple of session write-ups, Popham doesn't have any details not previously mentioned.) Kenneth goes out of his way to point out that there would have to be traces of Richard's presence if he had shot Max in the back of the head, which the detective acknowledges.
But then we get into Richard's alibi, and the two different meals. Of course, that could just be a misunderstanding, as Kenneth points out. Also, as Richard is a growing boy[1], the agent jokes that he could have eaten both meals. Which, if I recall, does get a chuckle out of him.
From there the conversation turns to possible connections to the Johnny Wallis case, and Kenneth emphasizes just how thin any of these connections are, and pretty much no jury would be moved beyond reasonable doubt by what he's got. There's some pleasant back and forth that I didn't really write down in detail, but Kenneth takes his leave. It's pretty clear that the detective can't do anything more than maybe place Richard at the scene, and that there's not enough of a case to work with. The bigger concern is whether this detective is going to go down a route that's a little more 'Vigil' than '13th Precinct.'[2]
Kenneth heads to the hotel and whomever's working the front desk (it's kind of a rotating cast of faceless NPCs) sends him back to Eddy's office. The agent arrives to find that Eddy is drinking, and Kenneth lets him pour him a drink. Kenneth asks Eddy where Richard is, but Eddy doesn't know and suggests that he might be apartment-hunting. Kenneth fills him in that the detective has no real case for murder. Eddy keeps pouring him drinks, and Kenneth only drinks them because he knows if he leaves them laying around then Eddy will forget what they're for and drain them himself later. Eddy asks the front desk to track down Richard (who's in his room), and Richard shows up with some coffee at said desk's suggestion.
Kenneth updates Richard as to what he's learned about the case and the shakiness thereof, but warns him about being closely tied to any more weirdness. He can see in the detective's eyes that if the legal system can't keep someone like Richard in check, that he'd be doing the world a favor by taking things into his own hands.
But with that out of the way, they talk more about the slot machines. The Bureau is sending an independent investigator tomorrow so there's not a whole lot to do until then. They could poke around at the Flamingo but Kenneth doesn't think it'd be a great idea to be too visible around there.
At about this time, Carmen shows up. She's had people watching the El Cortez, and a slot machine they suspect to be one of the rigged ones has suddenly turned up in the spot where the confiscated one was. She thinks it's from the Flamingo, and offers that it's because they really needed to maintain some sort of arcane pattern. So that's definitely something.
The group talks about their options, which are admittedly few. Eddy drunkenly suggests just bringing down the whole casino, but Carmen points out that doing so might be dangerous. After some more talking about it, Kenneth suggests that whatever they do, that they do something to disable that machine since they know it's in a vital spot. After that they all call it a day and reconvene the next day. Kenneth goes back to his office to find a message that a 'Mr. Morgan' will be in touch in the morning.
So we jump ahead to the next morning, where Kenneth is woken up by a phone call from Max Morgan. Kenneth gives him the address of the warehouse and tells them to meet him at noon. So cue the swirling Geist symbol and jump ahead to when everyone turns up shortly before, including Carmen, and Max turns up at noon on the dot with a case of equipment. He looks like a pretty obvious G-man, not really bothering to hide it. He gives Kenneth a letter he was asked to pass along by the Bureau, saying that Johnny Wallis is being taken into protective custody under an alias and if Kenneth needs to reach him there's a means of contacting him. Kenneth memorizes the info and destroys the letter. Then Kenneth shows Max in and goes over what they have on the case.
Max then assembles a professional-looking camera from his bag and takes pictures of the assorted parts, and he takes some time to go over it in detail himself. His plan is to study the mechanisms, write down his conclusions untainted by deeper knowledge of what's going on, and then have Richard go over it with him and see what matches up. He has a pair of notebooks, a blue one and a red one, and he's copying different notes down in each. In particular, he seems to be drawing diagrams of the slot machine mechanisms and components in the blue notebook, and copying down the runes etched in the casing of the rigged one in the red notebook. They notice that he doesn't seem to have any particular understanding of the runes, but he doesn't seem particularly fazed or surprised by them either. At some point over the course of all this, he remarks that he worked in Naval Intelligence during the war, working on decryption machines.
Once he's studied the machines enough, he puts away the red notebook and asks Richard to help him reassemble one and show him how it works. Eddy lifts the red notebook from his case and flips through it to discover that Max has been recording magical runes of various styles and occult diagrams for a long time. None that seem particularly familiar to Eddy himself, though there are some kind of reminiscent of some of the stuff they saw around Mel. He doesn't seem to be any sort of threat, but more of a knowledgeable dabbler.[3] Eddy puts the notebook back with Max none the wiser.
Max, having completed his analysis, goes over what they need from him in his reports and he goes over Richard's documentation. They also make sure he witnesses it as they mark the machines in a subtle, clearly-not-accidental way in case they need to prove that these are the machines they inspected. He takes pictures, makes notes of everything, and in general is very thorough and professional.
Kenneth asks him if he has any personal protection (he does) and offers to drive him to the airport for his own safety given the sorts of folks they're dealing with. Kenneth thinks he might be some sort of bad luck charm for Rossi's magic that makes other people safer while he's around, so he wants to leverage that if he can. As he drops Max off at the airport, the investigator gives him his newspaper to get rid of since he wouldn't be reading it on the plane. Kenneth accepts it, spotting an article on the corner of the front page revealing that Rossi has acquired the wreckage of Bacchus and the land it's sitting on.
Everyone reconvenes at the hotel, where Eddy finds an envelope waiting for him containing a street map. When Kenneth arrives he shows them the newspaper article talking about Rossi acquiring Bacchus, which also mentions Mel Stash's real name (Melchior Staszicz) while it says that Mel is officially retiring and getting out while he can and selling to his old associate Richard Rossi.[4] Then they go on to Eddy talking about what he found in Max Morgan's red notebook, and Kenneth points out that that notebook is the sort of thing someone starts compiling when they go down the path that Detective Popham might be considering.
Eddy then shows them the map he got and explains its meaning -- in a couple of days, on the 15th, a street on the map is going to light up. That means there's going to be a special supernatural market on that street where goods and be bought and sold, particularly those involving ghosts and the dead. He remarks to Kenneth that sometimes memories are traded at the market and some of the stuff that Kenneth keeps in bottles might be worthwhile. Also, they might find an item they could potentially use against Rossi. Eddy says he still has that bottled memory of John Staff's death that they might be able to trade, and Kenneth thinks he can scrounge up another memory or two to use as currency.
He then goes to the police station and asks Detective Popham if he might have a look at Max Polk's crime scene as a professional courtesy. The detective agrees. Kenneth goes there and has a look at the place for good measure, and conjures up and bottles the memory of Max's death. He leaves and offers his professional opinion that Richard couldn't have done it himself, if for no other than reason that he couldn't possibly have the strength to move the dresser in front of the door and then escape without leaving any traces whatsoever. The detective takes it under advisement and says it'd be nice if they could at least place Richard at the scene so he could give them something to explain who is responsible. (There's a slight pause after he says 'who,' as if he was about to say 'or what' and then thought better of it.)
After that, Kenneth drives off into the desert to find the spot where he originally died to collect the memory of his own death, and we leave off there.
Be careful out there, folks.
[0]-- It helps a bit that Kenneth's player has purchased the Allies Merit to give him an 'in' with the Vegas cops, trying to eschew the stereotypical confrontational relationship federal agents usually have with local law enforcement.
[1]-- One of many jokes in reference to Richard's height, as he took a Merit that makes him short.
[2]-- Don't look at me like that. That's funny and you know it.
[3]-- For the record, there's no deeper meaning or plot setup here. I just thought it would be interesting if, while dealing with a cop who might wind up being a hunter, to have a pretty normal and non-threatening encounter with an early Task Force: VALKYRIE agent.
[4]-- Sort of like those three guys from The Running Man who are enjoying the fruits of their victory and definitely not rotting, charred corpses in the bowels of the arena.
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