EVENT D2EM - Getting the Geist of it

[GM Nicha]

Getting the Geist of it

‘The Geist’ has been a creature of legend in Kandra’s Run ever since the town’s foundation. Almost completely invisible this supposed creature of winter has been blamed for generations of deaths from the cold. But Ciph Protragdon isn’t sure why it would need the contents of his site safe.

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Last night one of his workers was found dead in his logging camp office, the room practically covered in ice. The safe was also open and the credits within were gone. Is this really the work of some local creature? Or just someone using the geist as cover? Either way, blood has been spilled and Ciph is determined to get to the bottom of it. He just needs a few volunteers.

This event is open to four PCs. It will consist of three scenes:

The Investigation where you examine the crime scene and search for clues.
The Hunt where you follow the trail of the perpetrator.
The Confrontation where you confront the fiend!

In the investigation and hunt scenes every PC will have one roll of their choice against average difficulty with one setback ◆◆■ . Advantage and Disadvantage are turned into boost and setback for the next character’s next roll at a rate of 2 to 1. A Despair removes one clue that would be earned and a Triumph adds an additional clue.

A successful roll means you have discovered a clue! The discoverer of the clue then states what it is narratively (footprints, a torn ID, a blood pattern, witness reports, ect.). If every PC in the scene uses a different attribute for their skill the GM will add one additional clue.
PCs are encouraged to play off one another, but to keep the clues relatively grounded (Palpatine, sadly, cannot be behind it all).

Rules for the Confrontation scene will be posted once the investigation and hunt scenes have been concluded.

[Sirina Kichi]

From the very moment The Geist starts being mentioned around town, Sirina can be seen skulking around no far from where the name is mentioned. It isn't long after Sirina learns of the slain lumber worker and The Geist in the same breath that she makes her way to Ciph's office, pack stuffed full of hunting supplies.

"Ciph, you and I both know you don't get to the bottom of this without my help, so let's just cut the chase and get to the part where you accept, hmm?" Sirina says by was of introduction as she barges in to "volunteer". "though when I do kill it, I'm going to need you pool some camp funds together and commission something to immortalize the moment. I'm thinking a painting in classic fashion or a statue hewn into a cliff-face nearby." she cracks a sly smile that's rueful enough to make it unclear if she's being serious or not, and continues on the topic until further volunteers arrive.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Sirina's been seeking The Geist since the day she made a habit of wandering out of town rather than helping out-- and this opportunity seems to be her best shot at making sure Kandra's Run never forgets her for as long as the town stay's standing which... given current events, might not be that long. But to Sirina the notoriety, even for a moment, is worth all the risk.

[Tomin]

Tomin's been here often enough to hear of the Geist, and in the forest more often to...never see any sign of one. But she wasn't sure the possible supernatural death machine was likely to branch out into safecracking just because.

Regardless, after her rather unsuccessful attempt at building defenses, she'd been (politely) dissuaded from continuing to 'help' and this sounded like something she might be able to assist with while most of the town authorities were understandably distracted with the possibility of a lot *more* deaths in the future.

Also...a room covered in ice? That isn't natural. Using the fact that folks seem to just expect Jedi to barge in wherever, she walks like she's supposed to be there and heads into the logging camp and follows her ears to the office. "Heard there's some kind of murdering ghostie that's kind of changed up their usual kind of murdering? Thought maybe that could use a different kind of sight to find anything, and the Masters are kind of busy..." she trailed off without adding 'important Jedi stuff.' A dead person was actually pretty important, after all.

[Vala Roke]

Vala already had a case to tend to but this was enough to catch her interest to lend a hand. There were admittedly enough things to do around town. She had a feeling that this might just be a stalky Mandalorian but given the mystical background of the archives, she wasn't entirely sure if that was the case. Things were often more mundane than they seemed, at least on Corellia. "An urban legend is a nightly convenient cover-up for something so mundane as a murder. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to get to the bottom of this if we keep our heads screwed on right."

[Othym]

Othym had heard whispers of the Geist amonst the locals almost as long as he'd been on planet, from nervous farmers, wide eyed researchers at the Archive, and more than a few nerdowells. Still, he'd never actually seen much evidence of the thing - nor felt an echo of it in the force.
Though he wasn't sure if you were supposed to be able to feel a spirit in the force.
Still, when word got around that Ciph had a dead worker and an empty safe, he felt compelled to help investigate. He'd at least be better at that than the wall building.

He arrived to find a number of others already on scene, clearly possible supernatural murders still generated interest even in the middle of an invasion.

"Morning all" he waved "so what's the current theory - geist suddenly gotten bored with icing people and decided it needs some credits on top?" he paused, scratching the stump of his montral. "I'm Orthym for those I haven't met"

[GM Nicha]

Four heroes were gathered at the crime scene. The who, what, how and why lay before them. Was there a murder weapon nearby? Maybe a method of entrance cunningly concealed? What had been in the safe? Was the dead man somehow connected to all of this, and who had jurisdiction if the killer was actually an ephemeral Geist?

And where would this case lead them?

((4 PCs are locked in! Feel free to coordinate either on the forum here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=192 or on the discord. But for now I turn the crime scene over to you guys to start rolling, generating clues and explaining what happened here! Remember the beauty of 'yes and'. After four rolls I will summarise what you have discovered as we move to the hunt!))

[Tomin]

There's a grin under the blank mask for the olderJedi. "Morning. Sounds a bit odd, right? How many spirits need credits?

She moves carefully, trusting the Force to keep her from stomping on evidence that's more obvious to eyes trained on visible light information. "All the ice does seem kind of odd for your average burglary...not that I've seen many of those, honestly. Also, big fancy safe and no surveillance is kinda..." She spots the odd looking bump under the ice up in a corner and pauses. "ahh... I see."

Ciph nods. "Yep, all we've got there is some flickering brightness from...whatever light they used." He makes a sour face, "or a ghost, I guess. Least it gives us a time. Just a bit before dawn. Not sure what poor Jeph here was even doing in the office. Might be he saw the light and came to check."

Tomin stops and 'peers' over a desk at the very dim shape of a deceased human. "Oh...Sorry for your loss."

**************
Getting the Geist of it: Investigation. Vigilance! plus Farsight power check

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: 1

1 clue
1 more for Triumph, will hold that to feed into rp as we go
one light pip for another Advantage to

pass a boost to the next person to roll

[Othym]

Othym tried to mirror the grin back - though it may have come out closer to a scowl given the number of lines on his face.
"Aye it certainly makes it sound a bit more mundane. Not ruling anything out though, I've seen stranger things than spirits with perchants for credits" he frowned "actually, does anyone know anything of the previous geist murders? I'm not exactly from round here here, but was anything stolen from them? I'm just wondering if this is someone copying the geist to throw us off the trail, or if the geist was always just a thief"

He stepped into the ice covered office, careful not to disturb the scene as he leant over the surveillance Tomin had found. "Ah, so he might have just disturbed someone raiding the safe, interesting".
He turned his attention to the body itself sprawled out behind the desk, a dark stain of frozen blood underneath. Carefully he reached out with the force to gently tilt the man, using it to avoid touching the man and contaminating him. Pulling the bloodstained cloth back underneath the armpit, a glint of metal caught his eye.
"Our geist I think has left the tip of a blade burried in our poor friend, hilt must have snapped in the cold when he went to retrieve it. Once we pull it loose we can probably get a good idea of if its the sort of blade a worker carries, or someone a little more professional"
he looked back up ad shook his head "geists after credits, and using daggers now?"

Prompted my Tomin he looked at Ciph "Mm, they're at peace now" he said softly. Locals out here were far from soft, but murders were often something else.


Geist of it: Investigation. Perception (Cunning)

Net Successes: 3; Net Advantages: 1 (rolled the setback separately, -1 advantage)

3 successes: 1 clue
1 advantage to sound genuine when he tells Ciph his man is at peace

[Vala Roke]

If this was a supposed apparition, Vala thought that it might have been a good idea to retrace the killer's supposed steps and get an idea of how one might sneak up on the victim. While the others were looking inside fo the office, Vala was snooping outside. It didn't seem like the killer was let in willingly but the surrounding gates of the complex were closed for the evening, namely to keep out troublesome youths who thought that using such a place would be great for an after-hour hideout or for spooky campfire stories (or whatever they did around here that was considered fun).

The area was also lined up with various cameras that were looking both in and out. So the victim was well-protected and would have been alerted ahead of him. That said, maybe the victim wasn't paying attention and if the murderer was truly an incorporeal ghost, all of this would have been completely moot as evidence. She found herself walking along the perimeter of the fencing until she came across was looked like a forced opening, made possible by either some strong power clippers or a laser torch. Turning around, she also noticed there were no cameras facing this corner. "Ah, so, there's your blind spot."

Day 2, Getting the Geist of it, rolling with Stealth (Agility)

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: 2

One Clue with 1 Boost to the next roller.

[Sirina Kichi]

As the others seek out clues throughout the settlement and its immediate surroundings, Sirina stays behind-- leaving her alone with Ciph. She sidles up to the man's desk, sitting down on the corner (without asking permission of course) and stares him down from point-blank range.

"Ciph, bud, listen. You've gotta know more than you are letting on. I can be reasonable--" Sirina wordlessly cuts Ciph's protests off with a raised hand, palm held out, "And I want to help you. But, and here's the thing, I won't leave until you fill me in on every detail. Then neither of us will be getting anything done to settle this Geist problem once and for all. So just let me in on all the little secrets you are keeping-- they are safe with me, I promise."

Sirina eventually pries the information from Ciph, discovering that the foreman had been monitoring his workers against the terms of their contract-- some of the monitoring equipment capturing abnormalities in the vicinity of the Geist incident that might yield some leads worth following up on.

"Thanks, Ciph," Sirina says after negotiations had concluded, "You know this was all going to get out eventually, right? Better to just own up and get ahead of it. I'll be spreading this info one way or another, once this Geist business is done. Better from your own mouth." With that, she stalks off to further develop her leads.

---

D2 E: Getting the Geist of it Investigation. Negotiation vs Average w/ Boost from Vala.

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: 0

1 clue!

[Tomin]

Camera happy foreman, but a perfect blind spot for entry? Not that Tomin's got all those pieces just yet.

"Way I've heard it, the spirit's more of a forest haunt. Don't stay out so late the Geist gets you...or, you know, hypothermia." She's examining the safe...without touching it...just settling into her Force sight, letting the details sharpen. "Not much about theft in those stories. But honestly, there's enough hardship out here that it would be hard to tell if missing goods went to the killer or whoever discovered those bodies. Y'know?"

What she notices is...there's no ice behind the safe. Like it sprayed out some way such that the safe blocked it.

"Come to think of it, why use a knife when you're busy flash-freezing someone?...oh.." There's a thermal oscillation tool in the pool of blood, just visible caught under a hip where the fellow'd fallen on it. But most of a knife blade was still embedded in the canister full of enough compressed nitrogen to explain the shape of the room. "Mighta used that to get into the safe..freeze, fire, repeat. Didn't work as a shield though, I think."

*********
Triumph clue used.

[GM Nicha]

Investigation Results

It takes some digging, a handful of clues, a little brainstorming and a touch of consulting before you're certain of what occurred here during the night. And as suspect, this was no Geist!

Just before dawn Jeph, one of the lumber yard foreman saw strange lights in the office and as the yard security went off to investigate. Sadly this dutiful act would lead to his murder!

An hour earlier Martin Corrino, a disgruntled new hire at the yard had snuck his way inside. He'd carefully cut through the perimeter fencer where he knew there wasn't any camera coverage and then he'd made his way to the office safe looking for either credits or for documents. Martin had been involved in siphoning off some high grade lumber and Ciph had become suspicious, but did he have enough to go to the law? Martin had to know.

He brought a small cylinder of compressed nitrogen with him sure that it would let him quietly break into the safe and any evidence left behind would be attributed to the harsh climate or the geist. It had all gone perfectly...until Jeph walked in.

Not only was there no way to explain this, but Jeph knew his face. Martin reacted on instinct, drawing his woodsman's dagger and burying it in the unfortunate foreman. Although the two struggled, rupturing the nitrogen tank and flash freezing much of the room, the fight was already decided. In a panic Martin ransacked the contents of the safe and ran, the hilt of his knife snapping from the cold as he tried to jerk it free.

Now this vile fiend was on the run, but for how long?

The Hunt Begins

We now move onto our second phase as the party tracks down Martin Corrino to bring him to justice. Same rules as before but feel free to expand on where he's fleeing to, how he's doing it, attempts to disguise his trail and anything else that comes to mind. Once everyone has rolled again we will see how the hunt went down and then move to the confrontation!

[Vala Roke]

While she was a skeptic from the start, Vala was perhaps a tad disappointed that this didn't turn out to be the work of a geist. Or rather, the culprit didn't put enough work to maintain the mystique that this could have been a geist a little longer. She'd rather the culprit be a mundane person but a geist would have made this investigation a little more mysterious. Now, it seemed like they needed to follow their investigation with some old-fashioned tracking.

Vala quickly got to putting footwork to following the trail of the killer, going from the opening of the fence and seeing where it could lead into. She didn't have a good idea of her surroundings and the sloping hills proved too much for her to navigate, causing her to have a mishap and roll down a snow hill as a comical consequence. "Ooof!" Thankfully, she didn't lose the trail in the process but just didn't make any progress worth showing.

"Uhm..." she said as she picked herself up, letting out a sound of annoyance. "I feel the trail is still pretty warm in this direction..."

Day 2, Getting the Geist of it, using Coordination (Agility)

Net Successes: -2; Net Advantages: 3

Boost to the next player!

[Tomin]

With the timing set, they have some idea what kind of lead Martin had. He'd have had to get back out through the fence on foot, and there'd be tracks there, after that though?

Tomin glances at Vala in the snow, and the footprints clear from the fence. "Have to expect he had a getaway vehicle of some kind, the snowspeeders there could even things up a bit chasing him."

It was certainly nice that this galaxy far far away hadn't really bothered with things like ignition keys, so anyone could just jump on a scooter, or climb into a ship and go. Which is precisely what Tomin does, zipping to the regular gate and then around the fence with little concern for cutting corners close and ducking tree limbs. She pauses long enough to lean and offer a hand if Vala wants to boost up behind on her speeder before chasing the trail.

Her mind's racing too, trying to think of where he thought he could run. Back to town to try hiding someplace? Seems like there'd be a lot of folks able to recognize him. Hope to make to one of the bigger towns before a search could catch up? Out to hole up someplace in the wilds?

The footsteps are clear...right up until they hit the spot something'd been parked. The snow's all disturbed, but doesn't offer much in the way of a direction so she keeps on by instinct, having learned to trust it. Out into the wilds then. Did that mean he had a bolt hole...or help? "Looks like he doesn't mind the cold...not heading straight to town at least."

If it weren't for the dark scrape along the side of the white marble boulder that reared up off the lee of the hill she was topping, she'd probably have left a similar one. Instead, she spots it just in time, steering clear with a wild swing and a dozen meters of the speeder oscillating to get itself settled again as they go.

**************************
Geisting: The Hunt-Vigilance plus Farsight

Net Successes: 2; Net Advantages: 1

[Othym]

Othym wasn't exactly suprised that this was turning out to be just about the money, in one way or another most things came back to the credits. Well, either that or universe domination at the point of a sword apparently.

He pulled a speeder up himself, pausing to offer a seat to Sirina, before setting off in pursuit. His pace wasn't as blistering as the young Jedi - old man habits having long since set in. He had something on the edge of his memory though, an old case that'd brought him through the area years ago. As they neared the ridge it clicked into place and he reached for the comm link
"Tomin slow up, I just remembered something. There was an old abandoned mine at the base of the mountain uphil from here, I tracked someone running data out of Obroas that was using it to hide out between surveillance passes - its damn near about the only thing out here that he'd be running to. Unless he's aiming to die in the snow and become the Geist's next 'victim' "

+++
Geist: Hunt phase - Underworld knowledge [INT] (street smarts to remove setback)

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: -1

1 clue

[Sirina Kichi]

((Ghosted with permission))
Sirina Geist roll, cool, expert tracker to remove setback

Net Successes: 2; Net Advantages: 1

((1 clue))

Snow whips past as the group hurtles on their speeders towards the old mine, and Sirina uses that brief window of time to pull back and focus for a moment. The murder hadn't been planned and if he was running for the mine then there was no escape.

He'd be trapping himself. And he probably wouldn't have scouted out the mine himself beforehand!

[GM Nicha]

Hunt Concluded

Martin was fleeing in a battered black speeder of his, but panicked driving left plenty of scrapes and blown snow in his wake. Even with the snow coming down hard it wasn't hard for our heroes to follow behind.

A little underworld knowledge went a long way as you realised he must be heading for the old doonium mine in the valley. It had closed years ago and was now often used as a haunt for ner'do'wells. But, there was not alternative exit, he'd be trapped.

You also all feel that the storm is getting worse, visibility is reduced to no more than 20 meters in any direction and the freezing wind cuts through insulation as though alive.

[GM Nicha]

When you finally reach the mine it seems to jump out of the darkness, twisted and corroded metal supports holding up a series of deep tunnels cutting into the stone. A twisted and partially ruined foreman's office is the only actual building, even if it looks dangerously unstable.

Your quick thinking means Martin is only moments ahead of you, a dark figure trying desperately to lug a pair of heavy dark bags towards the office. As your speeder engines cycle he whirls around eyes wide. In a moment he's drawn a holdout pistol which is shakily pointed at you all, jerkily jumping target to target as he drops the bags.

"I-I didn't mean to kill him, it, he wasn't supposed to be there!"
His handle trembles more violently.
"You have to believe me, it's all Ciph's fault anyway, treating us all like idiots, always demanding more and more, like he puts in the work himself.

Behind Martin in the tunnel, the darkness moves. Coils of shadow spooling out propelling...something. A humanoid figure with far, far too many arms. The snow around it turns to ice, flash frozen by its mere presences as it floats slowly towards the still screaming Martin. Your speeder engines die in an instant, their internals frozen solid.

"We can make a deal, right? I mean what I've got is really valuable. You can just take it and never see me again, I got family off-world we can-"

The figure gently lays a hand on the murderer's should as he whirls around, struck dumb for a moment.
And then he screamed.

A few seconds later his body thunks into the ice at its feet as the hand holds a new glowing mask bearing the still screaming face of Martin.

It seems there was a Geist after all. And now it was looking at you.

[GM Nicha]

The Confrontation

Every PC must pass a hard discipline or resilience check ◆◆◆ or upgrade the difficulty of all their checks in the scene twice. This counts as a fear check for relevant talents and equipment.

Players can then try to either confront the Geist, which requires 4 successful average difficulty with two setback combat rolls, or 4 successful average difficulty with two setback social skill rolls ◆◆ ■■. Players may choose a mix of these, the geist could be intimidated while being shot, or politely told to seek other prey while being punched.

Every failed roll will cause the PC to take 3 strain. If every PC in a round fails everyone also takes 3 wounds.

If the Geist is driven off or talked down, you win! If all PCs are incapacitated the Geist wins!

[Tomin]

"Tomin slow up, I just remembered something. There was an old abandoned mine at the base of the mountain uphil from here, I tracked someone running data out of Obroas that was using it to hide out between surveillance passes - its damn near about the only thing out here that he'd be running to. Unless he's aiming to die in the snow and become the Geist's next 'victim' "

The young knight nods, and shouts back to her passenger, "Hang on!" as she steers toward a hillock that'll give her enough of a leap that the repulsors are only pushing on air, then standing to use her weight to yank the front around in a much sharper turn than the speeder would ever allow while hugging the ground. They come down with a *paff!* of snow, careen around a tree that's rather suddenly in front of them, and streak off after the older Jedi.

"Great! How old's the mine? Need to worry about collapse in a blaster fight...?" The words trail off as the dilapidated structure looms before them.

She's carefully letting the speeder slip to the side with the wind, making it harder for Martin to target everyone, when the morning chill deepens to abyssal cold. The repulsors die and she braces as it thunks heavily to the snow, leaning sharply off whatever's buried there.

The creature is an empty darkness to Tomin's 'sight' holding it's ink-black masks that glow with screaming pain, and she fights the urge to look anywhere else as she slowly slips her rifle around. There is no certainty that a blaster will actually affect this thing but it's probably not going to be talked into simply going into a different line of work...Sorry Master Mobok.

What would a murderous spirit do for a job anyway? Pest control?

Focus, Tomin! The thought shakes her as her hands line up and send the shot hurtling toward the creature's head as she's been taught. It...probably doesn't really have a brain there though, right?

********************************
Geist! - Discipline check. Destiny flip to upgrade

Net Successes: 1; Net Advantages: -3

Pass the setback to the attack roll, which will involve shooting it.

Ignore the setback here:
Geist! - Shoot it with Fire: Ranged: Heavy +2S from previous roll, +1B Accurate

Net Successes: 0; Net Advantages: 1

Use these instead:
Geist. Setback reroll...only +1S from previous roll

Net Successes: -2; Net Advantages: 0

For a net of 1 success and 2 Advantage

Passing a boost to next roller
successful rolls vs Geist: 1/4