Session 5 "Answer one question, get two more for free"

Darwin awoke to a empty house. Archive was in Chicago ay the Athenaeum, Beks was lost in the timestream, and Sidony had left as note that she was called back to Chicago in her dreams by first light. Darwin enjoyed his time alone but did notice the house spirit stalking him from room to room but running away when Darwin turned to look at him. Checking in at work he found a coded message to check in with the Free Council. Speaking to Thoth he was told that a emergency vote was put forth and he needed to attend. 

Traveling to the traditional meeting place of the Free Council,  Counsel Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology, to his assembled order. Pan had heard of a Seer plan to work under the guise of a pharmaceutical company out of Detroit to distribute a drug in the schools of near by Willowbrook to inhibit sleepers a chance to Awaken so they would be no resistance to the Exarch's plan to control and rule. She secured a handful of the drug over the course of her extended investigation.Darwin used both his scientific training to understand what he scrutinized to confirm the worst fears that it was not only possible but had already happened.

It became apparent to Darwin that the Free Council of Chicago had angered Poseidon enough that he had officially chastised them and laid down the law to quit antagonizing the Seers to the Throne. He is hierophant and his word abided by the Silver Ladders philosophy that while misguided Seers were still mages and therefore not the enemy. There was still hope for them and they could be converted to the Pentacle so the active antagonism by the Free Council would stop or suffer consequences. As the members disagreed on what course of action to take a vote was needed. Thoth and Pan voted to hold action but was outvoted by Darwin, Red Fox, Beast, and Outrider to take action in stopping the Seers plan damn the cost. Darwin headed into the lab and over the next couple of days burned through the stash of serum to find out more information.

• They were the result a combination spell of life and matter spell. No nimbus was found because of the small amount.
• Optimal use would age 10 years old to start and within 5 years enough would be built up to last 75 years
• The spell drug works with life to inhibit the chemical that allow deep REM sleep to prohibit dreams. Dreams are the number one way breadcrumbs are laid out to lead sleeper to Awaken so no dreams equal more sleepers for  less resistance thus easier to control. Matter is used to provide the chemicals needed to prevent the mind from breakinging from the lack of REM producing chemicals.
• Target audience is elementary students around fifth grade
• Each pill is a splinter of the larger spell so detection by peripheral mage sight is impossible unless in large quantiles.
• The serum has to be kept under UV light to remain effective. The upkeep and creation costs are exorbitant so whoever is paying for this is large or has extremely deep pockets.

Nick Was excited and nervous to receive a invitation to the prestigious Chicago Country Club where Leonidas held court for Silver Ladder business. New to the city he was eager to join a cabal or establish his own territory or whatever else it took to rise in the political ranks of The Silver Ladder. Accepted in to the city but he really only had associated with his mentor Bobcat Prowling. What had started as a strictly business relationship had turned to a genuine friendship. When he received the lunch invitation it was easy to break away from the small law practice he was trying to get up and running. Even his best suit couldn't camouflage him from being the odd fish out of water around real wealth as he was brought out to a private eating patio on the veranda. 

Lunch was pleasant enough with small talk until the nimbus of Leonidas was hot wet and powerful on the back of Nicks neck as a forces spell to control sound made the meeting private. Leonidas asked for a favor from Nick, to join a forming cabal in nearby Willowbrook. Another Ladder had been assigned but had some family business come up that needed to be attended to for sometime. The Ladder had to save face at this juncture. Poseidon had had been politically pressured to relinquish his status in leading the Silver Ladder or step down as Hierophant. For the appearance made some feel he wouldn't be neutral to the city. The Ladder had just launched a new cabal to extend the borders of Consilium and it would look bad if the Ladder didn't have a representative. nick was please to be of service since he didn't have anything holding him to Chicago. A waiter brought over the Timex Watch his mentee Sidoney had with her, Leonidas thought it best if it returned to Willowbrook.

Nick traveled to the townhouse and met with Darwin. Darwin realized if Sidoney was gone where was the Timex Watch and BALD FACE lied to Nick about checking on the kitchen as he ran to and tossed Sidoneys room not finding the Timex. Nick took over the room and when alone scrutinized the Watch and revealed it Mysteries. Beks reappread into the timeline watched Nick from the hallway but said nothing.

The trio decided to head to Deep House to explore more of the inside. They had rushed through it so quickly that most was still unknown. This time they did a sweep to look around the house instead of just going in. The house seemed to have been moved all at once to the bottom of the Great Lake. The schools of spirit fish patrolled but no other obvious defenses were seen. However it was found that the house sets on top of what look to be a cave system. Life sight saw life but at the distance couldn't tell what. only having a hour of gills the trio left that for another day.

Entering Deep House the trio was surprised to see a crumpled Mcdonalds bag on the side table of the couch in the shag room.Darwin grew claws and Beks put her hand on her Siderite blade. A web of Life at advance scale to cover the house was cast and came back that no other humans were present but some areas were unavailable due to potency issues. Nick preformed Postcognition for the past two weeks and besides the cabal one other had interacted with the room. The bag was brought in by a unknown man who came in ate left the room for some time then grabbed his drink and "portalled" out bypassing the front door. The trio couldn't find any obvious trail to follow do they broke up. Nick decided to take a wing he probably thought would be living quarter while Beks and Darwin decided to replace the watch in the ritual room. Nick discovered 8 bedrooms pantry and kitchen. Four rooms were decorated in individual styles and four were generic design. The fridge in the kitchen was fully stocked and would replenish itself full by opening the door.

Darwin and Beks discovered the chaos of the ritual room was still in effect. Darwin remained outside while Beks eventually danced her way through the spinning rings of various objects. Took longer than expected even though there was moments of greatness (2 Exceptional successes) there was moments of abject failure (1 botch, 4 other fails). Once the watch was placed back into position the ritual room went dormant again. This left Beks completely out of mana and close to empty of willpower.

The trio reunited battered but no real lasting damage. The group concluded that this wasn't a single mages sanctum but a cabal's, who else knew? Had they been set up? If so by who and for what? If they knew one mage was dead did they know the rest of the cabal still used the house?

1 XP 2 beat, 3 Arcane beats