Papa Legba Laughs
Rob
So, let's do it, let's do a classic Agatha Christie "I suppose you're wondering why I've gathered you all here" summation, where we put our cards on the table PLUS bluff, in hopes of flushing out the mole.
I think we should do it here, up at the castle, both for dramatic effect and because the computers and a lot of the evidence are here. So, let's let Jo & Sophie & the whole GRAIL team come up, thinking we're about to do the simulation, but when they arrive we say no, we have to talk, and lay it on them.
I don't want to play before we play, but just so we're all on the same page, the plan Archie quickly lays out to Roger and Charley is: we bluff that Granite Peak has been suspicious of GRAIL TABLE all along, that they sent us to figure out if David or the project has been compromised, and finding that it has, we're shutting it down. If it's at all plausible, we tell them that the SAS assassins are on their way. We can also use the ticking of the clock to build the pressure — talk about the simulation and how something big is going to happen at the Republican Convention, trying to time it so that Archie's long-winded Hercule Poirot style summation takes us right up to whenever August 2020 would be in the simulation so David (and anyone else who was hoping to see something big happen within the simulation) is squirming watching the clock. We reveal the evidence we have but also bluff we have more than we have (playing on Charley's preternatural machine empathy etc) and that we know exactly who introduced the glyph, who is compromised by the enemy, etc., and as we do all that of course we watch everyone like a hawk, especially David and Elias, in hopes they'll crack or run or give themselves away some how.
Also, when Charley tells us about the latin phrase, and somebody slipping the glyph into the simulation but somehow covering their tracks so even Charley can't track them, Archie asks "This might sound awfully funny, Charley, but could somebody do that with, ah, magic? I mean, half of what these computers do is hocus pocus to me, but that's what gives GRAIL TABLE its special sauce, isn't it? Wolf has been mixing medieval mysticism, chants and spells and such, right in with the bits and bytes." (Archie's working on a theory.)
Michael
So I guess Charley should get a roll here ... probably Hidden Lore (History B), but I'll give Charley a +2 to her skill to reflect her general technical acumen to theorize on how the Irruptors might be able to be a "ghost in the machine.”
>>> SUCCESS by 1
Given that there's no remote access to the GRAIL TABLE simulation computer, either by radio or telephone, Charley had been assuming that the only way that code like the Revulsion glyph could be added would be by logging into a local terminal and reprogramming it. Could an Irruptor merely change the 0s and 1s on the magnetic tape remotely? Well, theoretically, of course such a thing is possible. Irruptors demonstrate the same kinds of psi powers that they implanted in our ancestors' brains (to wit, the fact that Mitch's pyrokinesis and a kusarikku's pyrokinesis are effectively one and the same power). Could a given Irruptor possess a power that allows them, much like Charley herself, to meld with a machine and alter the electromagnetic data in a given computer database? Theoretically, sure. And given the fact that magnetic data technology is only a few decades old in 1973, it makes sense that SANDMAN has not witnessed these powers in the field reports of History B/Irruptor activity yet. I would assume that Charley's renshed Occultism skill would also allow her to know about EVP, "electronic voice phenomena," used by ghost-hunters to find evidence of spectral presences using audio tape recorders (which also use magnetic tape storage media).
So Charley wouldn't even need to be tapped into the system using I/O Tap to detect this kind of data overwriting. She could easily rig up, using the equipment in the GRAIL TABLE lab, a simple radio receiver/detector to detect any big pulses of directed EM energy targeting the GRAIL TABLE computers.
Rob
When they arrive, I think we meet them in the chapel. We make no effort to hide the fact that we got here early and looked around — in fact, the door from the chapel to the office is open, the lights in there are on, maybe we're holding some files — it's meant to be clear we've been investigating.
Mel
Charley looks at Archie, nonplussed, and says, "Magic?!"
Rob
Archie's embarrassed: he doesn't formally believe in "magic" but he knows there are lots of odd powers and abilities and unexplained phenomena in our work. "Well, maybe not 'magic' [he does finger quotes] but whatever you want to call it. It's not just computer 'hacking' [finger quotes again] that's going on. What we saw at Long Meg, what Jocasta saw on her hike. Are there, ah, paranormal ways somebody might meddle with the computer's program?" He might look to Roger for support here. (Strong "Venus, surely you know some sort of voodoo thing [for getting paint off a frog]" energy, for those that get that reference.)
Mel
Charley will share her thoughts. But first, as Archie does his best to clarify, Charley starts to piece together a device that will detect EM energy while teasingly saying, "magic" under her breath.
Michael
An Engineer (Electronics) roll for Charley at a +2 to her skill for the equipment here in the chapel. Time is of the essence so no bonuses for taking extra time.
>> SUCCESS by 5
Nice. Yeah, it's not pretty, but Charley manages to cobble together a very primitive EM detector near the GRAIL TABLE computer banks. After tuning it to ignore the frequencies of the local EM fields (electric lights, vacuum tubes and circuits, etc.), it's completely silent. Any directed outside energy that is powerful and/or precise enough to reorder the data on the magnetic tapes will be detected.
I will also say that Charley didn't note any weird glitches or gaps or corrupted data in her time reviewing the simulation database; so if this was Irruptor/psychic woo that added the glyph to the sim? It is remarkably, nigh-perfectly precise. Usually shooting a bunch of high-intensity EM radiation at magnetic tape would basically just glitch or wipe the drives. If this was done remotely, it has the kind the precise control that you would expect from a psi ability. But again, all this is just supposition and theory at the moment.
Bill
Roger’s loving all of this. He personally would use a different technique to find if spirits have intruded into the world here: he’d just ask. I think given any kind of time, and prompted by Archie, he’ll set up and go into a trance.
His plan is to call down the Opener of the Way and petition him for contact. Now, GURPS-wise and computer-hacking wise, there’s really no skill or direct connection here to make, so I’m totally prepared as a player for this to result in nothing. But it’s what Roger’s beliefs would lead him to try.
Michael
So Bill, go ahead and roll Roger's Religious Ritual this time; it feels like this is very different from the Autohypnosis variant, you're actually petitioning Papa Legba. So a few observations from both San Petro and Kalfu's abilities: San Petro has Oracle, which could be very useful in this situation. And I should remind you about Kalfu's Devil's Tongue, which gives you Omnilingual, and which might be useful in deciphering the Latin, if we can make it into some sort of archetypcal action that El Diablo would enjoy being part of.
Bill
Let’s go with Religious Ritual, then AutoHypnosis to call down the Opener of the Way, and then Oracle to see what he knows.
>> FAILURE by 2
>> SUCCESS by 4
Roger finds his cries/prayers coming up empty, and shifts into the autohypnotic trance that SANDMAN taught him: more efficient at bringing up the Papa Legba subroutine. As Charley and Archie witness his transformation — the leg going crooked, the eye peeping at the two of them and the computer lab, he fairly scoffs and spits, and makes his limping way to the other secured door, the one leading out to the ruins of the main body of the castle. (Whether Archie and/or Charley follow Roger/Legba is up to them.)
Roger entered his trance seeking answers, and Legba registers this, muttering to himself, "Can't feel a damn thing in that plastic church, mon ami. Let's take this out under the skies and see what presents itself, eh?" Legba expertly bypasses the electronic lock and makes his slow way to the ruined castle courtyard.
When San Petro peers into the sudden sunlight, he squints, but then laughs: the booming laugh of a loyal loa who has Opened The Way and found something terribly amusing, a treasure beyond what he'd ever imagined. In the courtyard, perched on the buttresses and in the empty arched windows of Brougham Castle, is a patient flock of birds. Crows. Hundreds and hundreds of white and black birds, their heads covered in jet-black plumage that looks like an executioners' hood. Legba's laughter does not worry them or frighten them, and in that moment, Roger/Legba knows what's happening, he knows the score. A battle is coming, and the carrion crows await their meal. Legba knows this is the territory of his brother (cousin?) the Baron. Who knows what loa rules the carrion feast in this white man's land, but Roger knows … blood will be spilled here. It's not a question of if. It's a question of when.
Mel
Charley would look up at Archie, to catch his reaction but I think unless he stopped her, she would absolutely follow Roger/Legba.
Rob
"I really only wanted to know if anyone could have tampered with the computer data banks!"
Michael
Now, given what you all learned from Jocasta re: her encounter on the moors a couple of hours ago, obviously strange animal behavior, specifically having to do with crows, is on your minds. But it does trigger something in Charley (who I know was pondering getting into Physics with her next xp): she can give us an Electrician roll at a -2.
But if Charley and Archie are silently observing the flock of crows in the courtyard, as long as they're quiet, they won't disturb this eerie scene.
>> SUCCESS by 2
So given Jocasta's description of witnessing an Anunnaki glyph in a flock of crows in the sky, and this congregation here, Charley starts linking this up with Archie's supposition about some sort of Irruptor changing the zeroes and ones on the magnetic tape. Birds navigate thanks to the ability to sense magnetic fields. If there is some kind of Irruptor entity with EM-related powers wreaking all this havoc, controlling masses of birds would be well within its remit.
Mel
Charley will use ASL to share this revelation. With Archie.
Bill
Roger will exit, exalting with his loa for a second and thanking him. Then he’ll turn to Archie and say “this is in the air and land, not just some enemy agent. There is blood and death here, ready to erupt, and if you heard an ‘eye-are-are’ there, I meant that too. The spirit’s voice is clear: this ground is fertile with the doom of men, and the music played here is like the golden record Mansa would have played. And while I haven’t seen their deaths, GRAIL TABLE is standing right where Mansa was, whether they are dupes or active agents.”
“Pardon my language: shut this crap DOWN, man!”
Michael
With that, a good portion of the murder of crows take off from their perches on the walls and ruins and take off, forming an airborne flock that seems headed to the north-by-northeast.
Bill
Roger’s looking to Archie, just hoping he’ll give the command to take a fire axe to the tape reels. (Sorry, Charley). But he dutifully restrains himself to however his Great Detective wants to play it. Totally ready to play Scary Cop.
Rob
Archie's kind of lost the thread here, or maybe that's just me. "Eye … are … are? I'm sorry, Roger, I don't follow you." But sure, this is a weird, fraught moment, perfect time for the GRAIL TABLE team to arrive! This is suddenly looking less like the end of an Agatha Christie cozy, and more like — well, I don't know what exactly, but I think Archie's play is still to have a Serious Talk with David & Co when they arrive, hoping to flush out any secret saboteurs.