Third night. Part 1.
Alexander Kane wakes up inside the Ghost Box. He starts the night by review Mateo's investigation - and the questions it carries are far more than the answers he can find.
Rest move. 7 vs 2d10. 6, 2. Strong Hit. Normally, he'd get health and focus - but health is full and focus is at +9. I'll allow myself to recover Spirit, since his morale has once again improved.
On this third night, I'll try to use Mythic GM chaos and Scene Testing system, just to see if things improve in any way. So we start with Chaos 5, and the first scene will be Alexander waking up from his day rest. He'll investigate a bit the Ghost Box before anything else. Let's test the scene. Rolled a 5. "Odd within Chaos Factor", means an altered scene - but what happens? Rolled a descriptor, "Bravely Masculine". I find a picture of Mateo and a female vampire of his lineage together. They seem romantic. Happy even. I find her name written on the back of the photograph: Jazmin. If I find her, I'll surely have more info on Mateo and his research.
Observation move. 7 vs 2d10. 3, 3. Strong hit with a match. I'll gain +1 focus, and I think I'll understand something cool about the Epitaph Order's activies in the docks.
I'll roll two times at the meaning tables, but before I do that, let's ask chat GPT to create a nice ambient and atmosphere description for the beginning of my night at the Ghost Box, as Alexander Kane wakes up and starts his work.
Monday. 7h30pm. Ghost Box. Waterfront District.
The air at the docks carries a tangible weight, thick with the salty tang of the sea and the faint undercurrent of diesel and rust. It's an unseasonably cool night, and the sky is heavy with low-hanging clouds that blot out the stars, leaving only the wan glow of distant harbor lights to pierce the gloom. The rhythmic lapping of water against the barnacled hulls of ships creates a somber cadence, a heartbeat for the sprawling industrial maze.
The Ghost Box looms like a monolith in the night, its edges softened by the gathering fog that rolls in from the bay. The container’s surface is cold and damp to the touch, slick with a mix of condensation and the grime that comes with years of weathering the elements. A faint trail of seaweed clings to the dock planks nearby, their briny scent mingling with the musty odor of decayed fish.
A breeze whispers through the alleys formed by stacked shipping containers, each gust carrying a faint metallic screech of unsecured chains swaying in the night. Shadows stretch unnaturally long under the sparse, flickering floodlights that struggle to keep the encroaching darkness at bay. The lights cast an eerie, uneven glow that moves as though alive, mimicking a predator’s watchful gaze.
Somewhere in the distance, the faint cry of a seagull breaks the silence, a lonely note swallowed quickly by the vast stillness. The docks feel abandoned, yet not empty—an almost palpable sense of being watched lingers, as though unseen eyes are peering out from the darkness between the shipping crates.
Tonight, the Ghost Box is silent, but it hums with unspoken anticipation. Alexander Kane stands in it, the faintest tremor of the container’s past secrets bleeding into the night air. The world feels suspended, as if the dock itself is holding its breath, waiting for the first move to be made.
All right. Let's go, Kane. What did Mateo discover about the Order's activies in the docks?
95, 37. 72, 56. Triumph Group; Pursue Mundane.
I think even though the Order was dealing with arcane contraband - the fabric we're shortly going to recover being an example of that, the main problem that Mateo discovered was, actually, that a few High Ranking members of the Order were meeting with vampire hunters. Whatever it was that they were discussing, Mateo did not know - but it was sure enough to get him taken.
The revelation hits like a sharp gust off the bay, cutting through the layered mysteries of the docks. Mateo had uncovered something that even the most steadfast members of the Epitaph Order would prefer remained hidden: clandestine meetings between certain High Ranking members of the Order and vampire hunters. It was a betrayal so profound that its mere suggestion could shatter the fragile balance of power within Santa Maria.
The docks now seem an even colder, more treacherous place, each shadow thick with implications of treachery. The Ghost Box, where Kane stands, takes on new significance—its contents are more than contraband; they are pieces of a puzzle that might expose dangerous truths.
"I need to see Evelyn." - Kane mutters. Whatever it was that the Order were doing meeting with the government vampire hunters, Alexander wasn't so sure that it was nefarious: humans, even hunters, can be very useful. But the implications of the discovery of their relationship was dangerous, which led to another question: what end could possibly justify that kind of alliance, if that is what it was? Perhaps the Order was using the hunters to silence dissidents? But why?
Too many questions. Almost no answers.
I'll advance the investigation Elegy.
Question: is Evelyn March at her haven? Extreme yes, for some reason.
Alexander calls his progenitor: "Mother, I've found something big. I'll be there in twenty minutes".
And then he gets what he can: notes, pictures, maps. He stuffs what he manages to grab inside a bag and, leaving the Ghost Box behind, sets forth into the night.