Keeper: Eric Fattig
Hunters: Karen Twelves, Adrienne Mueller, Sean Nittner
System: Monster of the Week
Supplement: Tome of Mysteries
Campaign Overview
Overview of the entire campaign here: Agents of Cisra
Adventure Log
The team returns to DC, Malik picks them up at the airport. They discuss Hansen’s reappearance. Malik was taken off the case shortly after Brian was fired; Malik looks a bit rough and hasn’t been in the office for a few days.
At the office
Jessica respectfully storms into McCleud’s office and says she wants to talk about re-hiring Brian. McCleud seems pretty annoyed and says she’ll “review his case.”
Stasia gives Malik the TuPac candle she’d bought him. They whisper a bit about the mission and Brian, when one of Malik’s burner phones rings—it’s Brian! He says that his separation paperwork has been put on “administrative hold” and he’s not getting his last paycheck—what’s going on? He asks to talk to Jessica, and asks her why nobody talked to him about if he even wanted his job back. He was going to take this time to figure himself out! “Why can’t you people just like, let me live?” He asks. Jessica numbly hangs up, passes the phone back to Malik and walks back to her desk.
Stasia coaxes Jessica to walk with her to the croissant place at the mall. On the way there, Stasia says she’s concerned that if others on the team are let go, she might be “disappeared”—she read her hiring paperwork, there were specific forms for the hiring and firing of agents who were also “assets.” Jessica says that Stasia is too important to let go.
Malik calls Brian back, who says that after everything the team has done to screw him over, the least they can do is help him move. Brian’s going to move his stuff to his parents’ in Maryland and take a trip to Machu Picchu.
Stasia and Jessica get back, Malik says that Brian needs them for a special mission. And he needs the van.
At Brian’s place
Brian lives in a three-story walk-up. Turns out he’s an Oriels fan and collects geodes! Malik tries very hard to include Jessica in small talk.
In Varna, Maryland
As they enter the small town where Brian’s parents live, they pass a small church with gleaming stained glass windows. Stasia has a vision—an otherworldly light spreading out from the church, extending out across the ground so that the church and surrounding trees look as if they’re floating in space. The vision is cut short with a violent slashing motion as they run over a pothole.
There are some protesters outside the church with signs. There’s also a police car outside with its lights on.
Stasia asks about the church, Brian says that the priest at St. George’s there is too intense and things have gone downhill. His parents used to go there but don’t go anymore.
Stasia and Jessica share some pointed looks, Jessica sighs and sends Malik a message that he needs to look into the priest and the church.
At Brian’s parents’ house
As they’re unloading, Stasia starts chatting with Brian’s parents, first to ask about any good breakfast places, then to ask about the church. They said that since some of the church leadership left, the main guy has gone a bit off the rails in his fire and brimstone. Lots of townsfolk have left the church, he seems to have attracted new followers.
Malik, Jessica, and Stasia decide to go to the church and hang around after the 6pm sermon. Jessica gets a call from McCleud—she says it’s good that they’re already “checking out the situation in Varna” and there’s a new recruit on her way there who’s going to shadow us.
Questions ensue—how did CISRA know where we were? Why are we being assigned someone? How long did they know that there was an event in Varna? Is this new recruit there to keep an eye on us? Jessica snaps that she doesn’t know.
Outside the church
Outside the church, the team meets Olive Coleman, who definitely looks like a government agent.
Aliases: Jessica Guinness, Malik Hamill, Stasia Fisher, which leaves Olive with Ford!
The team fills Olive in on the info they have so far. Stasia tries to see if she can unnerve Olive by telling war stories of past missions…Olive seems nonplussed. Malik passes out comms, tells everyone we’re going to go in, keep our mouths shut despite whatever hateful sermons we hear, and stick around until after 6pm when the doors close. Jessica stays pretty quiet.
Inside the church
The stained glass is very nice! But the rest of the interior seems a bit worn down.
The sermon focuses a lot on how the common sore is teaching blasphemy in schools. Towards the end, Father Amherst asks everyone to say a special prayer for the dearly departed Maurice Wellman, “cut down in his prime.”
As everyone else goes to leave, a police officer makes his way towards Amherst. Jessica tries to get a read on things.
Stasia takes this opportunity to poke around, perhaps find a hidden door. When pressing on a wall, she picks up some unnatural exposure—the separation between worlds is super, super thin here. There’s something about this place that’s connected specifically to a realm of the dead—it would be an easy way for ghosts to pass through—specifically poltergeists.
Malik tries to overhear the conversation between Officer Hayden and Amherst. The officer is trying to ask questions about how Maurice died, and Amherst is stonewalling her. The only info Malik gets is that Maurice was stabbed, and found dead in the church. Malik tries to get more information but only ends up angering him more. Amherst declares the church closed and goes to slam the doors—the rattling of it feels as if it shakes the whole building, like a gravity that had always been there shatters. Stasia gets the distinct feeling that they’re no longer on the same plane of existence.
Olive is trailing Jessica, watching her fail at asking questions.
The color of one of the stained glass windows peels away—the image of St. George steps down. It slashes at one of the parishioners who hadn’t left yet.
Jessica tries to order Amherst to undo whatever it is he just did, but he continues to rant. Jessica sighs, takes out her gun, and shoots at the stained glass.
Malik grabs a giant candlestick and uses it to hold the ghost back, taking some damage in the process.
It strikes Malik that Olive is handling herself well—too well. There’s no way she’s a recruit. He also sees a tattoo on her arm, which he later traces back to a sorority that hasn’t existed since the 1960s.
Stasia asks Jessica what to do. Jessica says to protect Malik while she’ll try to get the civilians out. Jessica throws open the door—outside is a howling void, with a closing window to our world. Jessica helps the civilians get out before the portal closes.
Malik shoves St. George off and everyone flees to the back office. Malik accuses Olive of not being who she says she is, but Olive doesn’t give any information, says this isn’t the time.
After a moment to collect, Jessica decides the best course of action is to shoot out all the glass. The spirit that had possessed St. George has moved into a window with a dragon.
Malik and Olive work together to destroy some windows with a filing cabinet. As Stasia tries to get her bearings, a rafter comes down and crashes into a window, shattering more glass.
After lots more broken glass and structural damage, the windows are all destroyed. Everyone feels intense nausea as the building shifts back to their world. Malik is badly bleeding. Stasia asks Jessica what they should do about Amherst, Jessica tries to defer to Olive, assuming that she’s more in charge. Olive says that she could explain what’s going on but it’s above her pay grade.
Epilogue
Olive enters McCleud’s office, says that she has a good team. They weren’t interested in recruiting anyone at this time, except for Jessica, though she assumed that McCleud wouldn’t want to lose her. Olive says she hopes their two agencies can continue to work together.
