The deposed High Prince was forced into exile after a series of crisis moments in late 2064, beginning with Crash 2.0 and ending with a unanimous decision by the Council of Princes not only to
remove him from power, but also to force him into exile. He left, and managed not to be seen for quite some time. He suddenly emerged in Atlanta in March 2067, and then again disappeared.
The Bratach Gheal, the High Prince’s personal bodyguards, remained in Portland and now serve Zincan. There was a great deal of speculation that they swore magical binding oaths to Surehand, but it seems it was sworn to the office of High Prince and not the man. Most of the Ghosts with Talent, however, were not bound in that way, and they followed Surehand into exile. They have not been seen again, and this deficiency is still being felt within their magical corps.
>. They’re.finding.ways.to.make.up.for.it,.though ..The.Peace.Force.
has.shown.a.great.deal.more.tolerance.of.non-elven.magicians.in.
recent.years .
>. Hard.Exit
>. The.Ghosts.are.a.significant.exception.to.that,.even.after.their.
internal.bloodletting .
>. Bull
In that time, Surehand has popped up in Tír na nÓg, the UCAS, and in various cities across the globe. He’s been ingratiating himself with the European nobles, feeding their egos and pet projects with plundered lucre and making himself an infrequent guest on the Grand Tour. He has frequently visited Dublin, meeting with the Senate and Council of Stewards as well as being granted an audience with the Seelie Court.
Surehand has no love for Charisma Associates or the rest of Horizon because of their deep relations with Hestaby and Larry Zincan. That has made him a client of corporations that generally try to tear each other’s throats out: NeoNET, MCT, and Renraku.
Seeking media rehabilitation and vengeance in the press, he has come to rely heavily on Mitsuhama Media’s subsidiaries, DeMeKo and CBC. Of course, that also comes with access to SIS and their cadre of media “enforcers.” He’s also become a client of Renraku’s Adams-Westlake Mediaworks, and he has them courting possible allies in Asia. It’s not quite clear what his relationship is with NeoNET, but some of their trid talent on Erika’s news/current affairs network is especially vicious in criticizing the Tír.
>. Lugh.Surehand.seems.like.a.scorched-earth.kind.of.sore.loser,.
and.with.his.wealth.and.the.connections.it.buys.he.can.wreak.
some.havoc ..I’d.guess.that.if.he.can’t.rule.the.Land.of.Promise,.
then.it.has.to.go ..So.of.course.NeoNET’s.contribution.is.Sam.
Roth,.the.trid.star.who.waged.a.private.war.to.destroy.the.Tír.
government.before.Crash.2 .0 .
>. Bull
While in Europe, Surehand has crossed paths with his fellow ex-Prince, Aithne Oakforest, who has taken a particular interest in Pomorya and Saeder-Krupp’s covert assault on the existing regime. If he wants the sextant, I’m sure it has everything to do with settling old scores. Zincan and Hestaby may be high on the list, but I would suspect Lofwyr remains number one with a bullet.
A TALE OF TwO PRINCES ... along with possible infiltration and escape routes leading into the
surrounding city.
PLoT PoINT TWo
The runners are smuggled into Cara’Sir, where the arcology sits across the 405 from downtown in Willamette Heights. The runners must infiltrate the arcology and find the sealed and warded vault in the deepest sub-basements. Security is considerable, even with the intelligence Jessa provided, because the complex is not only the headquarters for Saeder-Krupp’s presence in Tír Tairngire, it is also their headquarters for all of North America. Being in Tír Tairngire, and being a Saeder-Krupp facility, the arcology is also thoroughly saturated in magical security. As it happens, the intelligence Jessa has provided does not take into account the fact that the building is as malleable as S-K’s organizational charts, and changes are made sometimes daily thanks to the modular building sections. The sub-basement is where it is supposed to be, but access tunnels, hallways, and HVAC systems (and associated security patrols) are not.
As the runners reach the sub-basement, they should become even more aware that something is not right. If they have been around the sextant before, they should notice that the strange effects normally present around the sextant are not felt or noticed. Eventually, the security level within the building goes off the charts, no matter how successful the runners have been in sneaking through the arcology. The system has been rigged to go off by another team that has already made off with the sextant. The runners have to deal with this fact that they are effectively trapped within the arcology, as S-K high-threat response forces pursue them within, and the Peace Force awaits beyond the walls. The endpoints of the escape routes Jessa provided remain intact, but the design differences make the middle points different, confusing the journey.
Once out of the arcology, the runners will be able to make it out of the country and back to Seattle provided that they have not come into too much of a conflict with the Peace Force. Jessa and her contacts don’t care for Saeder-Krupp, and if their people die then so be it. They are not, however, as sanguine about casualties inflicted on their Peace Force colleagues, let alone Secretariat or Border Guard personnel.
PLoT PoINT THREE
Jessa informs the runners that her sources indicate that the thieves were working for the Tír na nÓg government. The sextant was delivered to the Ministry of Arts and Culture, which oversees all magical affairs within the country, including functions on behalf of the government and the Seelie Court. Specialists who study astral navigation and entities have taken the artifact for extensive research. This type of research is done under heavy warding and other protections in the instance that something unwelcome is brought back or makes its way into their laboratories.
Jessa makes arrangements to sneak the runners into Dublin, but she is unable to provide quite as much support as she did for the Tír Tairngire crossing. This means that she is not going to be able to help them bring any heavy weapons or other large
ovERvIEW
Lugh Surehand was removed from power—deposed and forced into exile. His most loyal servants followed, only to be hunted and, for the most part, slaughtered. He was hunted, kept off-balance and unable to react. Time has passed, and he and one of his remaining Ghosts have been able to formulate a plan.
Knowing that Ehran is in search of the artifacts, Surehand sought to recover them for his personal use, or to trade for a favor with the only kind of entities in the Sixth World with whom Surehand cares to deal. Given the nature of the artifacts and their ability to serve as an astral navigation system, they have become important to the Seelie Court of Tír na nÓg, with whom Surehand has formed a temporary alliance.
At the same time, Jonathon Reed has been taking his own counsel among various organizations with which he is deeply familiar thanks to his time as Operations Director of the Information Secretariat—organizations like the Black Lodge and the Illuminates of the New Dawn. With his intelligence background, Reed has been following the movements of Surehand and other former princes, including Ehran and Oakforest, along with the recent pursuit of the artifacts by the Draco and Atlantean Foundations. Reed has a special interest in the Draco Foundation, and his sources led him to the sextant and his Faustian pact with the Illuminates of the New Dawn, who have never been on good terms with the likes of Lugh Surehand when he ruled Tír Tairngire.
PLoT PoINT oNE
The runners are contacted through their fixer for a high-value run on very short notice. When they meet with the client, Ms.
Johnson turns out to be Jessa, a former Information Secretariat spy. She meets with them at The Spirit Focus in Puyallup after it closes; she has made arrangements with the management to have the place to herself. Within the deserted jazz club she informs the runners that an object of great value, the Sextant of Worlds, has somehow been taken by Saeder-Krupp and is sitting in their Cara’Sir (Portland) arcology. She has also heard that the runners are already familiar with the object, and she is staking her claim to their services first. In fact, they were the last runners to have seen the sextant, so for all they know they are now robbing their previous client—a client who happens to have a snout and breathes fire.
The object is going to be transported from Tír Tairngire to Saeder-Krupp headquarters in Essen, and Ms. Johnson wants the runners to intercept that transfer and bring it to her in Washington, FDC. Jessa has contacts in the Border Guard and the Information Secretariat who can help the runners infiltrate Tír Tairngire with their gear. She can provide them a certain amount of protection to help them get into and out of the country with their gear and the sextant, but if the runners get into trouble with the two agencies (e.g., getting into physical combat), then they are on their own.
She also has very little, if any, pull with the Peace Force. So while there is the opportunity for them to operate within the Tír armed with all of their important gear, if they get caught they are on their own. Jessa is able to provide detailed information on the arcology, including schematics, security systems, and threat assessment,
A TALE OF TwO PRINCES ...
growing in intensity and frequency. This wouldn’t be an issue except that the sextant is trying to break free of its warding. The meet is at the Illuminates of the New Dawn Grand Lodge in Foggy Bottom—located within a kilometer of the Rift—where the sextant breaks its warding and becomes almost an astral beacon calling out to the other pieces. As part of the chase between the runners and the two Hunters of Men, the effects of the Rift and the artifacts create physical disturbances such as small seismic events, micro-storms, temporary increases or decreases in background count, and other effects.
Several major powers in the sprawl want control of the artifacts, and whoever knows about their existence is now certain to know where they are. If the runners have managed to hold off Tintagel and McGuinness, they also have the Draco Foundation, the Black Lodge, the Roman Catholic Church, the UCAS government (FBI and Magical Security Task Force, DIMR, Atlantean Foundation, Army Thaumaturgical Corps), and the various corporations studying magic in DeeCee (including NeoNET T99, MCT, Manadyne, and Lone Star) under the auspices of the Corporate Court Crisis Coordination Committee (C5), since they are well aware of the artifacts after the events of Too Many Secrets (p. 111); this, along with the Rift’s instability, is why they are focused on the sextant. There is a chance here to play off any and every possible player one can imagine. If C5 or NeoNET makes their presence known, perhaps the runners can seek help from Samantha Roth (p. 118) if they made a deal with her at the end of Too Many Secrets. Roth may even be able to help deal with the Draco Foundation. If they sided with Corinna (see p. 116) instead, she can assist them with the UCAS government or Lone Star. The IOND has some pull with the Church (its founder, Rozilyn Hernandez, and other initiates are faculty in the Georgetown University Department of Occult Studies). It should be mentioned that as much as they might like to, neither Tintagel nor McGuinness would kill or seriously harm any UCAS personnel (FBI agents, army mages, etc.). Anyone else is fair game.
PLoT PoINT FIvE
By this point, the runners should have managed to hold off or negotiate their way to a stalemate. If they want, they can try to fight their way to Foggy Bottom. Assuming that Tintagel and McGuinness haven’t captured them, the runners should be able to make it there. If they were especially stealthy or otherwise successful in evading their pursuers, the runners will be able to contact Jessa and pull up to the rear parking lot of the Grand Lodge. Something should already seem amiss though, since the Lodge’s contracted security is through Desert Storm, a Shiawase subsidiary that has already been warned. Likewise, George Washington University’s security contractor, Lone Star, patrols all of Foggy Bottom along with a higher-than-normal FedPol presence. None of the agencies seem to give the runners much regard as they arrive. If the runners have managed to negotiate an escort to the Grand Lodge, then it should be noted that no one seems to be coming after them.
Everything has stopped. The weather and the background of the sprawl are going wild, increasing in intensity as most residents of the city have fled in order to avoid the disturbances that seem to or heavily restricted pieces of gear into the country. Once
in-country, they will be met by allies with the Unseelie Court, an anti-establishment group that is opposed to the magocratic ruling system of the Seelie Court and the neo-feudal system created by Danaan families, especially the Danaan Mor families who make up the Council of Stewards.
The Unseelie Court has greatly exploited the difficulties faced by the Senate and the Council as they liberalized parts of the government and economy only to have their rule challenged by the various insurgent groups such as the Unseelies, the IRA, and INLA, which all have freer access now. The fact that most of the small Tír armed forces is made of humans in an elven-controlled nation allows for a source of weapons and other technology to be funneled to the runners in aid of their mission. The fixer, Maire Gillen, is also able to provide them with intelligence on the ministry and its facility. They know about the sextant, and the Unseelie also want it—or at least they do not want the Tír government and the Seelie Court to possess it. The Unseelie want it for themselves to help them find the location of the Seelie Court, but that is beyond the scope of the runners’ work.
This is another high-magic situation. The building is a classical design, but filled with magical defenses and a ubiquitous magical presence due to the ministry overseeing all magical affairs within Tír na nÓg. The runners should, however, be able to crack the security due to the fact that the country’s magical defenses are being stretched thin by an insurgency and new threats that the government is still trying to control. This job is important enough to the Unseelies to provide a significant distraction to draw Tír Republican Corps personnel away from the ministry building and this sector of the government zone in order for the runners to infiltrate. They will also find support from Rory McGuinness, a TRC field operative who has secretly aligned himself with the Unseelie Court’s cause. In fact, his grandfather is the director-general of the TRC and his father was a hero of the Corps and Order of Cu Chulainn, and he is able to help the runners evacuate to the extraction area out of the Tír.
PLoT PoINT FoUR
Once in possession of the sextant, the runners fly into Thomas Jefferson International Airport outside of Washington and make their way to the meeting with Jessa. This is when the people behind the original Saeder-Krupp theft make their move, as the runners from Cara’Sir are joined by Alec Tintagel and Felicia McGuinness, two incredibly powerful and dangerous operatives—
one a former Ghost, the other active in Reach Fuileach (while also happening to be Rory’s aunt). As soon as the runners have left the airport security zone, they will be pursued all the way up I-95 into the Federal District of Columbia at the Alexandria Sub-Sprawl, and across the river to the Illuminates of the New Dawn Grand Lodge in Foggy Bottom near the Watergate Rift Bunker.
This adventure should be run toward the end of any artifact campaign, and should come after All-Seeing Eye (p. 119). The presence of the artifacts in DeeCee is being felt, as three of the four are now within close proximity and the other two are no longer warded. Meanwhile, the Watergate Rift is growing increasingly unstable, and the effects seen in All-Seeing Eye are
A TALE OF TwO PRINCES ... be getting worse as the runners approach the Grand Lodge. That’s
when they see the Watergate Rift Bunker, which has been deserted.
The building is visibly being stressed and has already suffered structural damage, and as they arrive one might even glimpse a familiar painted elf from an earlier incident lurking in the vicinity.
Either way, the runners enter the Grand Lodge and are immediately confronted by Lugh Surehand and Jonathon Reed, together. Jessa stands behind Reed as he politely asks the runners to walk down the street to the bunker right now. If the runners refuse, Surehand alone has the will and enough power to kill the group in an instant, and this should be strongly impressed upon the players. As soon as they hand the sextant over to Jessa, the mission is over. Even if they do, they are still encouraged to go with them. This leads to the fictional interlude, Praxis (see p. 136).
PLoT PoINT SIx
Following the events in Praxis, the runners are faced with a unique opportunity. As the Rift Bunker collapses around them and the collected power players are fighting for their lives and the lives of the people in the DeeCee Sprawl, the runners are generally unaffected by the amount of magic being wielded. They have the option of running, helping, or observing.
When the Rift collapses and the world goes white, the runners are the first ones to regain consciousness and composure because they weren’t involved in what ended up being something like a massive amount of drain (that proves deadly to some) spread across the area. With the world descending upon them in the form of a massive military and security presence arriving on-scene, the runners can do whatever they want. In this chaos, they can see Tintagel carrying a limp Surehand away from the scene, and Jessa
When the Rift collapses and the world goes white, the runners are the first ones to regain consciousness and composure because they weren’t involved in what ended up being something like a massive amount of drain (that proves deadly to some) spread across the area. With the world descending upon them in the form of a massive military and security presence arriving on-scene, the runners can do whatever they want. In this chaos, they can see Tintagel carrying a limp Surehand away from the scene, and Jessa