FACT SHEET | OPERATION PUZZLEBOX

Introduction

Operation PUZZLE BOX

Released by: Lost and Found Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs
Clearance: YELLOW-Lost-and-Found-Venture
Threat designation: YELLOW, recommended change: YELLOW
Approval by Lost and Found Bureau / Pending

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Present:

• Commandant Jehanne Jeannot DuBlanc, Head of Control
• Aspirant, Viv Rosza Parthon de Von, code name CHARIOT, Head of D-Team
• D-Team: Alessi Saadauri, Guillame Gavroche, Lucca Puglessi, Osir Yei

JJ opens: "It is now 20 February of 2024, since the Treaty of Marseilles (named after Josephine Marseilles, a warlord who established areas of polis influences) has been signed. We’re beginning a pre-op session with Team D for operation PUZZLE BOX, supervised by officer CHARIOT, who has been delegated from team Charlie on permanent basis. I authorize this action on the condition of extraordinary urgency. Officer CHARIOT, please continue."

The madame sits, while a young, somewhat stiff, woman in dragoon uniform, rises. "I am Aspirant, Viv Rosza Parthon de Von, codename CHARIOT. The codename is to feature in your reports, and it is meant to be used in all official communication. Understood, soldiers?"

"Very well, this is the background of our case. Questions, afterwards."

"The location is Amantia, a satellite and autonomous polis under Illium's protection. Amantia is considered to be both a significant agriculture resource, and a trading gateway. The center of power lies with a council of several powerful families with the head of the most prominent family assuming the position of Warlord, of which each claims a part of Amantia Territory. Amantia despite its large water reservoir, has been suffering from drought for the last two years."

"On February 12, 2024, we have received a report that Nubin Ahmin-Geb of Amantia, is to feature prominently in Founder’s Festival, a regional holiday for celebration of Amantia’s founding. This person claims they built a rain-bringing machine, and they are planning a demonstration on the first day of the festival."

"Previous demonstration, which took place on the 11th of December, 2024, ended with light rain, and a crowd mismanagement, which laid to several casualties. Regardless of the unfortunate accidents, the elites of Amantia declared support for a bigger demonstration."

"As you probably know, such machine is a logical, rational and scientific impossibility. However, misguided nationalistic characters seem to think otherwise. At the same time at least two other power groups have become involved in the area, local branch of Tiefland Hansa (Lowland Convoy Federation), known for their pro-Zodiac interests, and Society for Enlightenment, which is a loose organization of superstitious wealthy folks who believe in things that defy science. Together, these three present a significant risk to political balance."

"This means that the demonstration event needs to progress in favor of unity and without undue surprises. As such, this so-called invention was assigned UNKNOWN status, and needs to be investigated. Your job is to obtain plans of the device and assess its feasibility. Secondary objective is to discover the reasons for the demonstration. The findings need to be reported to garrison officer, Lieutenant Sane Puglessi in Amantia, who will take necessary steps. Also, do remember that Amantia is not under formal jurisdiction of Illium. You will need to negotiate your accesses…"

"Your authorizations specifically does not include engaging any unsavory characters, though, in case it is unavoidable, consider Illium reputation and political unity are your priorities."

"Your assets for the mission: Bumblebee Mk2 Truck with secondary set of batteries (allows to move for 16 hours instead of 8 hours, recharge is 1 hour at recharge point or a single day per 8 hours), water and rations for 40ty man days, protective gloves and masks [5 sets], Acanister of disinfectant (needs to e diluted in water). Aspade. A set of general tools. Tire repair set. A set ofthree tents. A coil of rope (30 meters). Five torchlights (rechargeable). We need a proficient driver, a scout, a sniper, also people with a basic knowledge of medicine or science. You will maintain contact using radio set, Hummingbird Mk1 (old but reliable), and you will use it to provide sitreps twice per day, at the end of the day and whenever you deem it important, and whenever something untoward happens." (yes, CHARIOT is not to going to be participating personally – she’s managing the mission remotely).

Locations of note (day of discovery)

1. Illium Garrison at the entrance to Amantia (day 0). Opal-Mullins area of influence.
2. The Fox and Cat Inn (day 0). Sousberg-Brodeur. Prominent merchants and their caravans stay there.
3. Church of Water (day 1), located halfway through Amantia. Sousberg-Brodeur.
4. Bronze Thorn Inn (day 1), near Church of Water on the same side of the lake. An inn for upper classes. Independent by mutual agreement of clans.
5. Regional Court (day 1). Government buildings. On the other side of the lake from Church of Water.
   1. The demo of Rainmaker I was conducted on water there.
6. White Flask Inn (day 1). An inn for working class. Landau-Pike area of influence.
7. Akademos, a settlement for science and heavy factory work, near the other end of Amantia lake. Access only by invitation. Soursberg-Merciers.

Day 0 [Sunday, Feb 20th, 2024]

1. The rainmaker reveal is to take place on the first day of Founder’s Festival, 7 days from now.
   1. The rainmaker’s inventor is Nubin Ahmin-Geb of Amantia (with education period in Illium, source of design for the machine is unknown).
2. There are external instigators of unrest: Tiefland Hansa, Society of Enlightenment.
3. There is a powerful astrologer working against your plans. Whoever they are, they should be recognizable by Alessi if engaged in conversation.
4. Found an Ally: Jasmeen Ressam Siham (a caravan merchant from Illium, who trades in high quality goods that are not legal in Illium).
   1. [Day 1] Jasmeen is in trouble with Wafiyy Kateb Grazza, a Tiefland Hansa rep, a gangster, who reneged on a deal, took over significant portion of her goods, and is making unwelcome advances on her.
   2. [Day 1] Wafiyy Kateb Grazza is protected by thugs. He operates from White Flask Inn.
5. Guilliame, Lucca and Jasmeen stay at Fox and Cat Inn (well-to-do merchants) – only two days due to expensive prices, while Alessi and Osir house at the Illium Garrison.
   1. Fox and Cat Inn offers a Meetup Evening on Tuesday.

Day 1 [Monday, Feb 21st, 2024]

6. Established that Illium garrison notables are unhelpful.
   1. Lieutenant Sane Puglessi does not want to get involved, but he is open about this. He shares information.
   2. Sofiane Aym Minou, the commandante, does not want to even meet the team from Illium.
7. Found a Contact: Hamden Benida & Selima Sidi Amgouds, a pair who run local press manufacture at Opal-Mullins. They have provided letter of passage to Sousberg-Mercier schools.
8. Found a Contact: Arlo DeVance, Opal-Mullins wealthy information broker, who is seriously concerned that there is something unwholesome going on with this rainmaker gimmick.
   1. The presentation of the prototype was successful despite calamity (onlookers caused the boats to sink, many people died, the inventor survived).
   2. Nubin Ahmin-Geb of Amantia is the inventor. He has a strong backing of Sousberg-Merciers (family of Mages, who also manage water supplies). They helped him make the actual rainmaker.
   3. He wrote a letter of recommendation for Sousberg-Merciers requesting access to Illium team.
   4. He shared that the youngest generation of prominent families are spending time in Water Church.
9. There are dangerous goings on after dark, the people are highly vexed after second year of drought. A smog in the evening is the norm.

Day 2 [Tuesday, Feb 22nd, 2024]

10. The priest in the Church of Water, is one Kernane Zoghbi. Originally from Honeycomb, he arrived to Amantia to take over after previous cleric was accidentally killed in an unrest (a group of people demanded water from church cisterns, and he fell into the waters). The heroes are allowed to stay here in exchange for cleaning rubble. The priest is assisted by an assistant, a quiet female servant.
    1. The Water Church is ruined apart from two pylons flanking the entrance (the priest lives in the right pylon, guest quarters are in the leftmost one, bottoms of both pylons are used by church water tanks, the attics of both pylons are used as water condensers).
    2. Guest quarters house a library with trivial literature. The library however smells of various incenses and strong medicine that may take away one’s senses.
    3. Guest quarters are used by youngest generation of founding families to socialize.
    4. The waters are contaminated with dangerous micro life forms that quickly dissolve organic material.
    5. At night there was a chance encounter with a hulking slimy humanoid on the stairs of the temple. The humanoid was unreasonable, demanding to see its brothers and sisters. It had to be dealt with, and once dead it practically fell apart.
       1. Investigation allowed to determine that it was likely an effect of Water Priest Memory Storage rituals (a magic practiced by learned priests of the church) that allowed the dead priest to somehow survive its death in murky waters of the lake. Note that the humanoid appeared some six months after its apparent demise.
    6. The church interior is covered with rubble from collapsed roof. It is only partially removed. As per agreement with Kernane, the heroes can stay here until the end of Founder’s Festival and get meals if you clear the rubble.
    7. Kernane left for the Regional Court. He implied he needed to report the nightly happenings in the court.
    8. House servant of Kernane attempted to poison the you during Kernane’s absence.
       1. It was plant-based poison used in assassinations by Hungry Brotherhood. Chief ingredient of the poison is Sweet Yellow-Orange Water Mushroom.
       2. When engaged in combat, the servant degraded into slimy humanoid with additional pair of arms, and with thorny bone outgrowths on its stomach. She was agile, strong and fragile.
       3. There were several traps in the rubble the characters were supposed to clean up.
       4. On the other side of the rubble there was a room (accessed over narrow ledge), from which secret door led to underground basement filled with brass tanks and electric machinery. One of the tanks contained a slimy humanoid who tried to attack on sight. The basement was demolished using military-grade explosives.
    9. The characters recovered incomplete handwritten research documentation on using liquid from Amantia’s lake to replicate and program sentient lifeforms. The research was not entirely successful – the copied lifeforms were not stable, prone to limitations (mute, various nervous system deficiencies, cogitation issues, regressed physically and psychologically when faced with overwhelming stress). The author hoped to eventually create perfect controllable copy.
11. Kernane Zoghbi, the priest of Church of Water, while interrogated on the subject of findings beyond the rubble and other notes found after the death of the assistant, says he is an infiltrator working on behalf of Illium. He had a personal arrangement with the servant, who expected him to continue experimentations of previous priest, one Ferran Yelles.
    1. According to Kernane, the whole polis is on the verge of collapse due to lack of water after a two-year drought. Water reserves in the mountains, under the control of Sousberg-Merciers, are almost completely exhausted, and the last hope is that there is rain at the end of Founder’s Festival.
    2. The social order is on the brink of collapse, that’s why the families are arming their soldiers. The poor need to rely on boiling water from the lake (and they still get sick). The families impose harsh penalties on those who steal water from aqueduct.
    3. Tiefland Hansa people offer vague help in exchange for increased influence.
    4. The Rainmaker’s initial presentation – yes, there was rain, but at the same time many people drowned in the lake during social unrest, so while people remain hopeful, they are also quite scared.
12. You have three ways to access Akademos – there is a recommendation letter from [#7] Hamden Benida & Selima Sidi Amgouds (publishing scholars), there is another letter [#8] from Arlo DeVance (information broker working for Opal-Gagne), and finally Kernane Zoghbi offers to use his contacts among the third generation of the founding families.