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
At the hospital
Malik and Mordecai are recovering from injuries sustained in the last mission. Malik is suspicious that Jessica knows more than she’s sharing, shares with the others that she did in fact offer the spider doctor lady a job in CISRA. After a comment about how it’s not right to give “monsters the keys to the city,” Stasia takes it personally and storms out.
At the debrief
Malik tries to play it cool, Mordecai reported just about everything, Stasia was matter-of-fact.
Back at the office
Malik is deeply suspicious of everyone. Jessica’s had a chance to catch up on filing! Stasia spaces out watching YouTube videos of corgis and has a vision of a man with a bushy moustache buttering himself up and climbing into an oven. Creepy!
Malik pokes around online and finds instances of two missing kids—Todd Daniels and William Cross—and crop circles in Wisconsin. One of his online buddies, Pat Reynolds (handle Padington), has a YouTube video called “Pulling Back the Curtain” about revealing government conspiracies. He’s on his way to film an episode for his show; his theory is aliens. Malik wants to go check it out, Jessica is resistant. Stasia backs Malik up, saying she has a bad feeling about Reynolds (moustache guy from her vision) being in danger. Mordecai hands back due to some lingering injuries from the last mission.
Wautauka, Wisconsin
Aliases: FBI agents Dalton, Pierce, and Connery.
Rental car: Prius
The team arrives at where the local police found an abandoned car of the disappeared teens. The car’s gone. There seem to be tire tracks leading off the road into the corn field. The team heads into the corn and hear a shotgun blast behind them, as a warning shot. There’s a truck pulled over with an older man, Nikos Matis; it’s his field. And it’s got a big crop circle. Nikos says the sheriff already took a look and got his statement. Malik offers Nikos help collecting insurance on his damaged crops if he cooperates, he says go get a warrant.
Jessica shares frustration with always having to earn people’s trust in small towns. Stasia points out that small-town diners are the one benefit of leaving the city, so they go get breakfast.
At the diner
This town’s specialty is cornbread pancakes with apple compote!
The team gripes a bit more about how infrequently law enforcement are helpful with them. Just then, Sheriff Gibson shows up and introduces herself. She’s annoyed that the team didn’t check in with the sheriff’s office when they first arrived. She doesn’t seem concerned about the missing kids; every year the seniors do a back-to-school prank. She even things that Nikos and his son Pavlos are in on it somehow.
Stasia asks if anyone else has been asking around, Gibson says that she pulled over a guy speeding earlier today, has a big moustache. Stasia tries to convince Gibson she should arrest him on the grounds that he likely has multiple unpaid speeding tickets, but Gibson doesn’t fall for it.
Malik works on getting a warrant, and also suggests that Jessica change into jeans and a t-shirt so she blends in a bit more than in her lavender suit. Jessica plays along but feels uncomfortable.
Matis farms
The team returns to the farm and meets Pavlos; they start going further into the crop circles when it occurs to Malik that they should have split up with one person staying in town to keep an eye out for Reynolds. Malik heads back to town, Jessica and Stasia investigate the crop circle. Directly in the center of the circle they find a fragment of human bone with teeth marks in it. Survey says: the teens were eaten. And whatever it was, tracks suggest it walked out of the circle and into the farmhouse. Jessica gets a bad feeling about Pavlos, who up until now had been friendly and helpful.
Stasia calls Mordecai and asks if there’s anything in the database about crop circles cross-referenced with humanoid creatures that could potentially crunch a person down to their bones. He says he’ll look into it before he goes in for surgery.
Jessica asks Pavlos for a ride back to town, with the plan to ask him to come into questioning once they’re there.
Meanwhile…
Malik figures that if he were filming for a YouTube channel, he’d start with a shot of the town from the top of the hill…which is exactly where Reynolds is, with his assistance Derek. Reynolds is happy to see Malik and starts interviewing him on camera. Malik tries to play down the mystery in the hopes that Reynolds will stop pursuing the story, or at the very least, lead him on a wild goose chase away from the crop circle. He convinces Reynolds to go interview the sheriff.
Back in town
Jessica, Stasia, and Pavlos arrive outside the sheriff’s office. Malik and Reynolds are already there, Reynolds is causing some ruckus and the sheriff has come out to get rid of him.
Jessica asks Pavlos if he’ll come in for questioning; finding human remains makes this a more serious investigation. The situation is charged—Jessica is still in the car, Stasia has moved around to Pavlos’s side of the car in case he bolts. Pavlos doesn’t want to come in, Stasia pushes that she’ll have to bring Nikos in as well if he doesn’t cooperate and go back to the farm with more backup. Pavlos agrees to talk with her in the diner; he doesn’t want to be seen going into the sheriff’s office.
Stasia hears back from Mordecai, 14 years ago there was a similar event with a missing person and a crop circle with some bone fragments but there was no evidence of an attack. The coroner report says the bones had cow teeth marks on it. There’s a report of multiple people missing 21 years ago in Utah, and the earliest report was 84 years ago.
Greek — labyrinth — killer cow — it’s a minotaur!
Stasia tries to help Malik extricate himself from Reynolds and Sheriff Gibson as things come to a head. Fortunately, something in Derek’s camera breaks, interrupting Reynolds’s filming. Malik slips away flawlessly, Stasia and Malik finally have an argument—Stasia accuses Malik of thinking she’s a monster but she’s one of the “good ones” so it’s okay for her to work at CISRA and not be held captive by them. Malik says she’s not at all the same as the others they’ve brought in, and if Stasia is being made to work for CISRA against her will, he’ll do something about it.
Jessica is stalling for time with Pavlos but he’s getting annoyed. At one point he bends a spoon with his hand, and Jessica realizes she’s in a potentially dangerous situation (and everyone else in the diner). She says she’s done and Pavlos can leave but she still has questions for Nikos. Pavlos says that they can stop by at the farm after dinner.
Pavlos leaves just as Stasia and Malik arrive. They make a plan to approach the Matis family in good faith and offer help. If there’s already been a death in the 7-year timeline, maybe it’s a recurring curse and we’ve got time to help find a cure? It’s possible they’re not intentionally murdering people…right? The backup plan is to tranquilize them both.
At the motel
There’s still some time until the evening, so the team digs in to find some answers. Malik uncovers that this is definitely a ritual, and it’s incomplete—it’s seven deaths every seven years. Also, if it happens every seven years, why aren’t there more records of every instance? Is there some type of coverup? In photos of two separate incidents, seven years apart, there’s the same van in the background—Trident Plumbing. He suspects they’re involved in cleaning up the crime scenes.
The plan: Jessica and Stasia will go to dinner, Malik will creep into the labyrinth and burn it down. Malik decides to bring in Reynolds and Derek to help him. Jessica says it’s a bad idea and goes against protocol to reveal to civilians we’re with CISRA—but when has that stopped any of us before? Malik thinks that Reynolds might actually be a good recruit—he’s smart, he always seems to find mysteries.
Matis farms
Jessica and Stasia knock on the door…Nikos answers, resigned. He spills everything immediately—Pavlos completes this ritual every 7 years to stay young, and he’s in the center of the labyrinth now. Jessica asks Nikos to come with them to talk to Pavlos (and possibly use him as leverage if she needs to). Stasis asks if Nikos knows who Trident Plumbing is, he’s never heard of it.
The labyrinth
Malik convinces Reynolds to help destroy the crop circle—to find “the real secret” underneath. Derek is less enthusiastic. They’re in the middle of pouring gasoline when Jessica calls to say they’re on their way and Pavlos is in the center.
Nikos leads Jessica and Stasia to the center of the labyrinth, and talks as they go. Pavlos is his dad, and Nikos has more or less not had any choice but help him complete these rituals. As they reach the center…it occurs to Stasia that this is definitely a trap; Nikos has brought two sacrifices for his father. Jessica urges Stasia to run. Good thing they’d been spooling thread behind them so they can retrace their steps! This labyrinth, of course, has gotten very supernaturaly—the stars look different, the corn seems taller and thicker, you can’t just run through it.
Jessica tells Malik to light it up, and she and Stasia get out safely. When the fire dies down, there is a badly burned Pavlos in the center; CISRA takes him in for hospitalization (and interrogation). They don’t find Nikos…Pavlos took him as sacrifice. Without the labyrinth, his powers are diminished.
Epilogue
Reynolds ends up getting enough footage for an episode but puts his own spin on it (aliens). Malik realizes he’s clueless, not a good recruit at all. But how did he always know where to be? As he’s watching Derek and Reynolds pack up, he spots that Derek has a small trident tattoo…
The team greets Mordecai after his surgery, bearing a cold plate of cornbread pancakes that they swear tastes good heated up.
At that same hospital, McCleud is visiting someone…Pavlos? Pancake Special? Someone else?
Mysteries
What is Trident? Are they the shadow government? Are they a cabal of monsters keeping each other safe? Who does CISRA really report to?
