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Examing the various items found, the agents follow the lead on the napkin and head to Happy’s Place. They arrive mid-day in Berry, Florida at a mostly empty biker bar, with only a few patrons inside.

Questioning the bartender, they learn that a man matching Hearst’s description – whom he refers to a “the bald guy” was part of a bike gang that started showing up and hanging around the bar about 2 months previous. During the conversation, the agents see some pictures of a young woman behind the bar who has a parrot tattoo on her should – a parrort identical to the one drawn on the napkin found on Hearst. The bartender tells them that she was the best waitress he ever had, by the name of Lorene Foster. She was the object of the bald guy’sflirtations, and packed her bags and went with the gang when they left town a few weeks prior. He too had heard the rumors that she had been murdered by the gang, and sadly believes them to be true.

The agent’s questions draw the attention of a trio of biker’s that were playing pool in the bar, who attempt to disuade them – with their fists. The first blow sends Maverick to the ground and rather than reciprocating with his fists, Lester pulls out a pair of pistols and ends the fight – by way of acute lead poisioning.

In the violent aftermath of the conflict, the agents fled back to Miami; fortunately for them, the deaths did not attract too much law enforcement attention – the two suviviing bikers refused to cooperate with investigators, and the dead biker had quite a rap sheet accumulated.

At the Miami office, they begin the process of trying to locate Lorene Foster in hopes of getting a lead on what had happened to Agent Hearst. But it appeared that a week after her departure from Berry, there was no further trace of her. Credit card and cell phone use tied to her all stopped, having traveled no further north than Hollywood, Florida; neither were there any recent law enforcement records. A call to Field Director Jones at the NY headquarters prompts them to follow on the rumors of her death, and a search of Jane Doe’s leads to a body of a young woman with a parrot tattoo on the shoulder. Maverick was able to convince the eager coroner’s assistant to provide the autopsy report.

Of particular interest, the barrel she was placed in was still in at the morgue and had a partial label which he helpfully read to the them: “Under the serial number it says ‘Eagle Storage,’ something, ‘—ade City, FL.’ And there’s a partial number: —5-0414.” A quick search internet search returned an address for a Eagle Chemical Waste Storage located in Dade City, Florida – ~40 miles north of Berry.

[This ended the first session of the new campaign. Each character received 2 XP.]

The day is coming to a close when the phone in the office rings. On the other end is a harried voice – “I’m Hearst! Benjamin D. ! Look, just punch it into your computer! Red Baron eight one eight! Come on, hurry! I’m in Picnic!… Oh, please don’t tell me I got the wrong num—”

Not hearing the responses from Markov, the phone is cut off. Calling their supervisor Field Director Calvin Jones in New York when their computer files noted extra-secure security, they learn that the Hearst is an Hoffman agent who has been considered deceased after 16 years of no contact; he had been investigating a death cult thought to be behind a series of murders in the Florida area that the local law enforcement had attributed to drug gangs. Hearst had gone deep undercover to infiltrate a group he tracked down, but then all communications stopped. He tasks the group with rendezvousing with Hearst while he contacts the re-surfaced agents’ supervisor.

The agents trace the call to a pay phone at a gas station in Picnic, Florida and the 4 hour drive from Miami gives them plenty of time to mull the many questions that remain open. Where has Hearst been? How was there no sign of him anywhere in such a connected world?

Upon arriving at the address, they are greeted by the flashing lights of an ambulance and Sheriff’s patrol car. The attention is focused on a middle-aged man sitting on the paramedic gurney; although now shaved bald, heavier-set and aged, he still bears resemblance to the man in their file. As they approach, the Sheriff half-heartedly waves them off before Markov informs him that the confused man is his acquaintance – one Ben Richards.

The sheriff informs the agents that they were called about an hour prior from the neighbors reporting a near-naked man wandering about the houses in the area. They had arrived to find him in the similar state in a backyard treehouse of a house whose property abutted the gas station. Although uncommunicative, they were able to talk him down and for the most part, he appeared to be healthy.

They successfully convince Sheriff Miller (who was coming to the end of his shift and just wanting to head home) to release him into their care. Yet, Hearst is not of much help – he wears only torn jeans and is now rocking back and forth, arms hugging his chest. He is unresponsive to questions, but Isaac is able to lead him back to the van while the others went to gather more information.

In the treehouse, they found a necklace with a silver inverted cross. As the agents left, Sheriff Miller also stopped them and handed over a clear plastic baggie with a few coins wrapped inside a cocktail napkin, the latter with a doodle of a parrot from a “Happy’s Place” in Berry, Florida.

On the way back to the Hoffman office in Miami, Hearst remains in his uncommunicative state. The agents reach back out to Field Director Jones, who by that time, has gotten Hearst’s supervisor Intelligence Department Chief John Randall on the phone. He tells them that “Ben got us pretty far inside the Temple of Ashes, but he suspected there was another cult calling the shots. He was going to look for the connection when we lost him. If he found it, we need to know what he knows.”

For support, Randall sends over the limited electronic files he has and tells them that the Institute will gather as much information from the archives as they can get together.

I started by the players all making characters for the setting. Rather than start from a complete surprise about the paranormal, I opted to dive right in. This was essentially the introduction I gave them all.

You are all members of the Hoffman Institute – publically, a not-for-profit privately funded think tank with a focus on public policy (foreign and domestic), technology, and history. (Something like the Rand Corporation, McKinsey, or Deloitte). Privately however, it spends much of its energy and resources on research of the supernatural, paranormal, extraterrestrial. You are all members of the Hoffman Institute because of your past experience with, or belief in it; governments and corporations have their own interests at hand, and can’t be trusted – and have shown signs of actively acting against the interests of the people they are supposed to serve.

Dark matter and dark energy are the hypothetic stuff that make up more than 95% of the total mass-energy in the universe. It is responsible for the acceleration of the expansion of the known universe, and has been around since the Big Bang. Unable to be directly observed or measured, it is not even know what physical properties it has – even as it permeates the known universe. But as the levels of dark matter crest and fall, it interacts with the very fabric of the laws of reality.

Much of the investigations and research that Hoffman pursues is nothing more paranormal than the coincidental intersections of low-quality video, skilled street performers, manipulative sadistic sociopaths, the willingly delusional, or many of the above. Occasionally however…

Character generation is easy in this system. The main thing to do first is to think of a character concept. For inspiration, think of a gritty cross between X-Files, Grimm, Marvel Agents of Shield (Season 1 especially), Bourne, Mission Impossible, James Bond, Homeland. Main restrictions are 1) Only human race, and 2) No Arcane Background (ie. supernatural abilities). So far, the PCs are:

1) Markov (Ari): Former FSB field agent. On a mission, witnessed the apparent wreckage of an alien UFO. He was subsequently sideways transferred multiple times until he was pushed out and then recruited by the Hoffman Institute.

2) Isaac "Maverick" Lee (David): Graduate student in history that became convinced of the existence of centuries-old non-governmental entities that manipulated world events and stayed in the shadows. Turns out some of those conspiracy theories aren’t just wacko ideas. The Institute brought him onboard to put his investigative and analytical skills to work.

3) Lester (AJ): Brought in by Hoffman to create a new identity. He is wanted for felony murder after killing a cashier at a Dunkin Donuts… then saw him alive and well the next day – a man that Hoffman was also investigating.

4) Angus "Pug" McGillicuty (Thor): Crossed paths with the Hoffman Institute when he began searching for his mother. She was a Wiccan priest, and he grew up with her going to various Ren Faires and such; upon returning from an Army deployment, all trace of her was gone when her bed and breakfast was burned to the ground; the Institute was looking for her help when it found rumors of the return of witch-burnings.

5) William “Bill” Thulson (Lawrence): Orphaned at a young age when his house exploded while his parents were inside. A Hoffman agent looking into the mysterious circumstances after the police closed the case as a gas line eruption took pity on the boy and brought him into the care of the Institute. He has since trained to be an agent.