Event - Appalachia: Confabulation (NETWORK)

[apocalypsehowmods]

Who: Rae Hargrave
What: An IC discussion for sharing information and making plans
Username: ambulatory
Warnings: Please add appropriate warnings in subject headings!

On June 5, everyone with an ADI-issued device will be added to a group channel by Pam Ruan, who immediately transfers control of the channel to an account with the username ambulatory and an ID picture of a world-weary caucasian woman. Within minutes of the notification that they’ve been added, characters will receive the following message:

un: ambulatory
This is Rae Hargrave with a mission status update for all ADI personnel currently stationed in Wolf Pen.

First, I apparently need to remind you that it is of the utmost importance that you do not inform the locals of the true purpose behind our visit. Not only does exposing ordinary bystanders to the supernatural place their lives in danger, but you also run the risk of handing information about yourself and about our operation to an avatar, either directly or via an unwitting informant. If you are questioned directly about your reasons for being in town or asking the questions you’re asking, deflect, deflect, deflect. It’s better to look like an idiot than to feed our enemies. If I catch wind of any more of these incidents, I will literally sit on you. If you think a local has already been exposed to one of the Entities and that it would do more good than harm to bring them into the fold, bring that to the higher levels before you act.


Second, and to the main purpose, this channel has been established for the purpose of sharing intel gathered since our arrival. Learned something? Tell the group. We’ve got a deadline looming in less than two weeks, and that’s assuming our assessments are correct and the Rumble Down Under is the intended ritual. You don’t need to have things all figured out to be of help here. We’re all putting this puzzle together, together and the piece you bring to the table could click with another person’s intel that you never would have thought was connected.

I'd like to see reports on the following, along with anything else you've picked up in your time here:

• Layout and any suspicious activity in and around the Bluestone Mine: what's the situation with the concert space and where are our entrances and exits? What have you been able to get out of the museum staff?
• Ditto for the Keppler Mine: who have you talked to and what have you seen? We may be running short on opportunities for additional recon here as reports indicate that the OSHA cover story is wearing thin. If you return to the Keppler, have a contingency plan for getting back out.
• Locations and movements of Avatars in the area, confirmed or suspected. Katie Dunn and Deepthi Anand are almost certainly in the area, and we have reason to believe the Desolation Avatar known as Pyre may also be involved. There may be additional Avatars we have not yet identified. While previous experience has taught us that Avatars of different Entities don't usually play well together, there's a first time for everything.
• Supernatural sightings in and around Wolf Pen: we have not yet ruled out the possibility that reported phenomena in the woods and the dump could be related to the ritual attempt.
• Public attitudes and interactions with town leaders: who seems to be allied with whom, and what are their connections to FYRE and the mines? Additionally, have you met anyone you believe may pose a security risk to the mission?

Third, action plans. Our aim is disruption, prevention, and ultimately complete nullification of the ritual attempt and its principal actors. We can expect that regardless of the specifics of the ritual, they will plan to inflict mass casualties, and I hope I don't need to clarify that we don't want that. While disrupting the ritual once it is already in progress is a tried and true method of forcing the dissipation of gathered Entity power and thereby preventing a rebound attempt, incapacitating the Avatars before they can enact the ritual also works as long as they stay incapacitated.

Brainstorm, spitball, whatever you want to call it. Try to be constructive, but be smart and speak up if you spot a potentially fatal flaw in someone else's plan. No idea is too weird or stupid to bring to the table, but some may be too weird or stupid to stay there. Whether we concentrate our forces in one place or plan a multi-pronged attack, we will identify the best plans brought forward and implement them to make sure the ritual doesn't get off the ground.


Fourth and last, Sheriff Ron Porter is currently under evaluation for recruitment to ADI and can be considered a resource with no need to withhold darker truths about the supernatural. However, as we are still performing a background check, we ask that you not share specific information about ADI's home base and regular operations with him as of yet. Again, no other locals are to be informed of supernatural threats without going through the proper channels within ADI.

To those of you who have spoken to Cindy Parsons, the newscaster, we'll be talking later. They are not an appropriate resource and should be treated as an innocent civilian. We do not want to pull them into any further danger than they already have been. Do not speak to them or to Wolf News.

Comments

un: killerqueen

[demonicmiracle]

First of all, for anyone not up on their folklore, a Tommyknocker ought not to be malevolent. They're meant to guide miners to rich veins or warn 'em of impending collapse. People'd get it mixed up sometimes, the way they'll often do with omens (is it a warning or a harbinger; I'm sure you're all clever enough to understand). If there's something down there, it's not a Tommyknocker. Or a coblynau or anything of the sort.

Not that it really matters all that much, but there's your fun lesson in folklore

A bit more importantly, Watts, the CEO of FYRE is almost certainly an avatar of some sort. His estranged kid is probably one, too, we tracked him down and he's going by Pyre now, apparently some of you might remember him from Fenix Down's circus. Down confirmed that Watts has been planning something.

@ kruos knows more of the details, I just picked up bits and pieces, so I'll leave the rest to him.

un: valentine

[outofthepast]

I'd say it matters. Could be the difference between killing a werewolf with a silver bullet or a bushel of garlic.

How many damn avatars does West Virginia have by square mile, now?

[demonicmiracle]

Well, I was more thinking they're not Tommyknockers at all. People are just calling them that 'cause it's the closest they've got

Too many, at this rate. My money says we're looking at the Buried and the Desolation. Maybe the Dark's got business being involved, too

[outofthepast]

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. [Obliquely. What, is he supposed to not veil things in three layers of metaphor?] Folklore got that way for a reason. Whatever the locals might call them, what's important is how they act, what they're really doing.

Do the entities tend to share like that? What happens if they all run up on the same ritual this way? Some sort of turf war?

[demonicmiracle]

Fair enough. We've seen Avatars with... henchment, before, haven't we? That might be what they are

I'd have thought they wouldn't play well with one another, but it seems they're working together here. Could be something to use, though, if we can turn them against one another

[outofthepast]

Good idea. Let's tell the Desolation the Buried's sleeping with its wife.

[demonicmiracle]

Bad news. If Watts is Desolation, the wife is already an ex

[outofthepast]

Damn. Are they related, then? Brothers, or the entity equivalent? Nothing like a good family drama to kick up a feud.

If not, I guess we'll just have to think on an eldritch scale.

un: jelica

[musicdied]

Buried, maybe. The metaphorical angle. That would fit someone who pleasures himself by crushing his workers.

[demonicmiracle]

Metaphorical for now, at least

Whatever he is, it was strong enough to follow his ex-wife back to her family. Most of them are dead, and while no pattern to it that I could find, they were awful ways to die. I doubt it's a coincidence

[musicdied]

That could just be money. He wouldn't be the first rich man to pay to have people killed horribly because he didn't get what he wanted.

How did they die? And when?

cw: death/injury/etc

[demonicmiracle]

Could have done, but in my experience if they're getting rid of a lot of people, they're gonna eventually get lazy

[Which is to say that they stop going for the horrible deaths and just get it over with. That doesn't seem to be the case here.]

The timeline is all over the place. One young lad ran his car off the road, spent two days pinned in place by a branch until he eventually died of internal bleeding. There was a balcony collapse at an NYE party that killed an aunt. Someone got their head stuck in elevator doors, another went down between the train and the platform, there was an expired EPI pen that ended with someone dead...

I could keep going, but I'm sure you get the idea

[musicdied]

Trapped, crushed, suffocated. Yes, I get the picture.

He likes control. He'll exert it less overtly if he can, but lashes out like a vindictive child when things slip out of his grasp.

[demonicmiracle]

You've just described most people with power

But it's always an angle to play if we need it

[musicdied]

Half, maybe.

The ones who don't have impulse control problems are quieter, but more dangerous.

[aelwyn_aberration]

Pyre is working for his papa again. That's what Down said.

[demonicmiracle]

That likely settles that, then. Unless there was any reason for Down to lie?

[aelwyn_aberration]

The only likely alternative I can think of is that Down was mistaken and that there's something else behind the scenes.

Regardless, Pyre's going to hold a grudge. If he's in town, be careful. He's a pathetic little twig of a man but he does have spooky powers he doesn't know how to use properly.

[demonicmiracle]

Oh, that describes about half my coworkers back home, I doubt he'll be an issue

text; un: username

[canofmanji]

why the hell do they have a name that sounds like they bash in heads if they're not bad?

[demonicmiracle]

'Cause they knock, you know, on the walls of the mineshaft. Not their fault your first assumption is violence

[canofmanji]

wouldnt knocking on the walls cause a cave in? [Asks the man who just doesn't want to admit to being correctly called out.]

[demonicmiracle]

Remind me to never invite you over if you think knocking ought to cause a cave in. My front door would never recover

[canofmanji]

A hand knocking on a door is probably different then whatever they do.

[demonicmiracle]

Nah, it's about the same sort of tapping.

Mines make an awful lot of noise, especially before a collapse, so you'd hear the creaking start up before the cave in

People started making up mythology about it, as they do.