Keeper: Sean Nittner
Hunters: Eric Fattig, Karen Twelves, Adrienne Mueller
System: Monster of the Week
Supplement: Tome of Mysteries
Campaign Overview
Overview of the entire campaign here: Agents of Cisra
Adventure Log
At the office
Briefing time. Lots of animal mutilations (sacrifices?) found in the forests around Chicago. Malik goes into too much detail about how long this has been going on, but the numbers have increased recently, with reports that people have been sighted on the preserves, most recently in Oak Glen Park. Local law enforcement hasn’t pieced things together enough to launch an active investigation, but CISRA thinks it’s worth looking into.
(Malik has been put on extended desk duty, due to his constant suspicions and sending the team on missions to explore his own hunches.)
McCleud warns that this could be nothing and we shouldn’t be crying wolf. Jessica asks if there’s anything else we should know that’s in the records, McCleud says Jessica should come to her office after the briefing. In her office, she tells Jessica that Chicago is “a weird place” and she does suspect that something’s going. Jessica reminds her that some of the team’s past missions have resulted in unexpected difficulties.
On their way out, Malik passes Stasia a note with an address: 1120 South Michigan Ave. It shows on Google Maps as being close to one of the preserves that has also had reports.
Stasia’s premonition on the plane: A man, late 60s, wearing a Cook County park ranger uniform going into dark woods with a flashlight. He sees a ripple in the water next to him, and something leaps at him. The flashlight hits something so dark that the light can’t illuminate it, and claws come out of the darkness.
In Chicago
Oak Glen Park smacks right into the suburbs. Lots of people enjoying the park—birdwatchers, students, folks enjoying the end of summer. We have a few leads:
- Kathy Witecki: called in the most recent report (& has made several similar reports)
- Debra Priest, Esq.: real estate attorney and animal rights lawyer who has been complaining about people ignoring the Illinois Care for Animals Act
- Dr. Craig O’Sullivan: Northwestern theology professor, an expert on ritual sacrifice
Cover: Federal animal welfare specialists from the Department of Agriculture
Alias: Jessica Hunk, Mordecai Hickory, and Stasia Zeke
Stasia decides to split off and talk to Priest, Jessica and Mordecai go to Witecki. But Stasia actually goes to the address Malik gave her.
The address is a restaurant called Yolk, apparently the best “unknown” breakfast spot in Chicago. Stasia is disappointed by the 90-minute wait time and drives on. She sends a photo of the line to Malik to tease him for finding such an “unknown” spot.
At the home of Kathy Witecki
Kathy’s home is right on the edge of Oak Glen Park. She says that she discovered goat entrails in a park, the other day a bag with a chicken head without eyes. She also saw five people in the woods, dressed in white. She’s familiar with the area and also local law enforcement, because she’s made several reports. She leads them into the forest as they talk to point out where the spotted things.
Mordecai and Jessica look around the park with Kathy. They find a stream through a path that had been blocked. Mordecai spies a piece of torn red cloth on a branch, a site where something was burned, the faint smell of dried herbs mixed with the smell of algae in the water. Kathy sees the cloth and observes that the chicken head had a red ribbon tied around its neck.
At the office of Debra Priest, Esq.
Debra tells Stasia about the practitioners of Preĝo, who have been performing rituals in the park and are responsible for the animal manipulations. There’s a woman on the south side who runs a place called the Britanica, Gabriella Cruz. Debra has asked her many times about the mutilations and if it was necessary for their religion, or if they could at least clean up after themselves. But Gabriella has dodged Debra’s questions. Debra takes Stasia’s card (with Malik’s number) and says that Stasia can call her assistant Brian (we also have a Brian!) who will put her through to Debra right away. Stasia texts Malik to ask him to send her what he can find on Preĝo. He sends back more research to cross-reference.
Preĝo practitioners are mostly Latinx, practice ancestral worship, the religion is less than 100 years old. Animal sacrifice is part of the religion but they’re particular about it. Preĝo is Esperanto for the word “prayer.” Part of their belief is that ceremonies take place in the wilderness.
At the park
It’s getting darker, so Jessica and Malik thank Kathy for showing them around. Jessica assures Kathy that she’ll look into the issue. Mordecai wants to GTFO from the creepy ritual site, after finding even more objects: candle stubs, carved images, wilted flowers, dried herbs, feeling the whole time like there are eyes on him. Jessica catches up with Mordecai. She checks her phone to see if Stasia has called and sees 1 missed call, but the reception is too bad to call back. She’s able to get through to Stasia as they leave the park, and they compare notes.
At the van
Mordecai starts looking at the various things he found, also sends a list of the items to Malik to help narrow down his research. A variety of magics were performed at the site, based on the components found: divinations, blessings, atonements, curses, but it’s hard to know which one happened most recently. We’d need to find other ritual sites to compare what else we can find in order to narrow it down. It takes a long time to put the pieces together, but he learned that the last ritual performed was rushed, whoever did it tried to finish quickly (which is why they left a lot of things behind). There might be someone in the religious group that is up to no good.
Jessica’s feeling off her game, like she doesn’t have the reigns on this mission. She opens her laptop and starts doing some research into what the agency might be hiding. She calls up Brian to help her but as they dig deeper, she can tell Brian is feeling reluctant to keep going.
She finds out that there used to be a CISRA office in Chicago but it closed 15 years ago. Brian tries to send her the details but the emails never arrive. He gives her the address over the phone and then says that his machine just locked up and he’ll call back in a minute. He doesn’t call back. Malik texts Jessica that he’s watching security escort Brian out of the building.
At the Britanica de San Geronimo
It’s an herb/religious supplies shop. Stasia sees some of the same ingredients and hard-carved figurines that Mordecai had mentioned, and sends Mordecai a few photos. Gabriella comes out with a box of pop culture saint candles to restock in the window. Stasia says she’s interested in finding a new spiritual path, and Gabriella starts telling her about Preĝo and invites her to their next séance. She gives Stasia a white robe with a red cloth belt and an address to meet at tomorrow night. Stasia picks up a TuPac saint candle for Malik. As she leaves, she lets the team know that she’s joined a cult!
At the Ramada Inn
Over deep dish pizzas from competing restaurants, everyone compares notes. Stasia is upset about Brian and blames Jessica for getting him fired, Jessica insists that they can fix things when they’re back at the office.
As the night goes on, a shadowy figure watches the team.
At Northwestern University
Jessica and Stasia have a tense conversation in the parking lot. Jessica wants the team to trust her but Stasia is mad about Brian and cynical that it’s possible to have trust within the team when nobody trusts CISRA.
Mordecai goes to meet Dr. Craig O’Sullivan. Craig could talk for ages about the history of the Preĝo religion (and tries to) but Mordecai tries to hurry him along. Craig says that the practitioners leave remains because those are the parts that they don’t eat, they’re very particular about their religions regarding the ceremonial knives they use and how sharp. The only information he doesn’t have is why they perform the sacrifices to begin with. Mordecai goes back to the car and the team heads to the address of the old CISRA office.
At the old CISRA office
They arrive at an office park and try to look for the suite. Just as they think they’ve found it (it looks pretty abandoned), Mordecai gets a text from Malik to call him back. Malik says that Kathy is in Cook County Hospital being treated for injuries from an assault last night. She’s stable but unconscious.
Inside the office, it’s been cleaned out, but not everything is dusty—there’s been some recent activity.
Jessica looks outside and sees a man in a white coat and white tie watching from a distance. As soon as he realizes he’s been spotted, he bolts. There’s something about his outfit that feels familiar to Jessica.
Stasia sees a ceiling tile that looks to have been moved recently. She finds some old CISRA files in a manila folder, clearly stolen from archives (or never submitted)—a personnel file for Dr. Hanson and his studies of “spectral permanence after corporeal destruction.”
As Mordecai looks around, he notices a secret panel that opens a hidden door, and walks through. The door magically seals behind him.
