Thresh Street Runners - Session 3 - Scarlet Traces Part 1

Session Report For Monday 17th March 2014

We had our third session, though yet again the entire group wasn't present and so we had;

Joshua H. Headlam (Nick)
Lucian Gilmore (Adam)
Agnew Uptil (Tori)

A couple of days had passed since the events of Omens, the Runners were finally introduced to Durwin Bitterleaf who'd come to collect the late Evelyn Grimes to the city morgue before her burial. After a brief chat with Durwin, the Runners were instructed by Magistrate Cathmore to patrol along the Old Mosley Canal and the Rudshore waterfront whilst keeping an eye for petty crime.

Reaching the waterfront they saw that the mudlarks were already out as the tide receded, they also noticed an old man amongst the mudlarks who was trying to pull something free from the mud before he cried out in alarm and scrambled back. Turned out the old man (who introduced himself as Ned Penny) had uncovered bodies of some young girls, though with some oddities; appeared to be no older than their early twenties yet also prematurely aged, wore simple cloth dresses, had strange markings all over them, were shrivelled as if they had suffered from starvation and had been untouched by the Hagfishes that infested the Wrenhaven River.

Ned Penny pointed out that the bodies probably drifted on a current that he knew began outside the city and pointed out the rough location of the current on a map (which the players noticed were close to some old ruins). The Runners' surgeon pointed out that the cause of death was a single stab in the heart with a knife and that the state of the bodies was 'unusual', Magistrate Cathmore also dug up a Watch report about some missing girls that was a couple of months old. The report stated that the girls had gotten jobs as housemaids at the home of a Professor Errol Greymane only to suddenly vanish after they had started working there, the Watch report also stated that the house was found to be unoccupied.

Looking up a book on the old Witchcraft Acts the Runners found that the markings were known to be linked to the Outsider, something that was suppose to be reported to the Abbey of the Everyman. They went to the Office of the High Overseer and paid Ronan Hurlough a visit, he confirmed that the markings were indeed linked to the Outsider and that Professor Greymane had requested access to the Abbey's archives about a year but had been denied. Apparently Greymane's request was made through the Academy of Natural Philosophy and was supposedly for 'research' purposes. Though Hurlough had mention that the markings looked like ones typically used in rituals that attempted to summon the Outsider.

With the above information in had the Runners paid a visit to the Academy, Uptil's contact in the form of Professor Plankton-Burnes (or PB for short) allowed them entry. PB explained that Greymane had been studying an old stone tablet that bore strange markings and gradually he become obsessed with, increasingly delving into the occult and acquiring whalebone charms and runes. Eventually he was cast out from the Academy, his remaining possessions were interned in the Academy's vaults and to gain access the Runners would need to speak with Anton Sokolov who is the head of the Academy.

The session ended with the Runners preparing to head to Sokolov's apartment on Kaldwin Bridge.