Dark*Matter #7–Millennium Knights

1. Game Date: 2016 March 05
2. PCs: Markov, Lester, Maverick, Bill
3. 2012 Oct 24, Wednesday
   1. Given a week off for leisure time in Europe after slipping out of Belgium, the group was enjoying a quiet vacation when Field Director Jones reaches out to them. In the continued forensics of the computers from the Noble Village Day Care Center for Challenged Children, the Institute recovered a cryptic file in a hidden folder entitled "Temple of Ashes".
      1. "Look into Michael Scot. The necromancer might have had what we need."
         1. Forensics revealed that the note was authored by an Mason Albright in England.
   2. Director Jones directs them to London where they are to meet with a daughter organization of the Hoffman Institute in Europe known as the Millennium Knights.
      1. They are met at a safehouse by Millennium Knight Supervisor Roberta Gordon-Yancy who provides them background on Albright. He is one of the noble families that maintained rank and some measure of wealth through the 18th and 19th centuries. As befits his heritage, he is a member of the House of Lords.
      2. She informs the agents that Lord Albright hosts regular parties, and that she has secured invitations for the group.
4. Party-time
   1. Socializing
      1. The agents decide to go in as individuals and dress up for the black-tie affair. In the course of the party, the agents discreetly investigate Albright while mostly avoiding the security stationed throughout the estate.
         1. Lester deflects suspicion by entertaining several of the elites with his new-found knowledge of cigars and potential business dealings of their imports and exports.
         2. Maverick's charms with a young woman allowed him to slip into several of the private hallways… only to leave her heartbroken when he snuck away into Albright's private chambers.
         3. Markov's lack of charm caused the only main commotion - but successfully used it as a distraction for Bill to scrumptiously joining Maverick in the office.
   2. Private Chambers:
      1. The pair make quick work breaking into a hidden safe which contained a handwritten journal and a vellum case.
         1. In the case, an old parchment written by a John Dee to Queen Elizabeth describing an old French quatrain he calls "ye Etoile d’Hesperia Quatrain”. He writes of it: “Ye Starre of the Occidente must needs be watched for as a heralde of the beginning of thinges either grande or terryble"
            1. Dee was a masterful scholar, but reportedly straddled the line between science and the supernatural.
         2. A Journal
            1. The vellum case was purportedly given to Queen Elizabeth I by Doctor John Dee just after the turn of the 17th century, and just prior to her death.
            2. Notes that Michael Scot wrote the quatrain and was a renowned thirteenth-century scholar and mathematician. Rumors held him to be a wizard of some power… and that he was buried at Melrose Abbey.
   3. Obtaining evidence of the preternatural, the agents depart without suspicion.
5. Melrose Abbey
   1. The agents board a train to Melrose, Scotland during which their investigations turn up that the Abbey was founded in 1136; many of the original buildings are now in ruins, but a structure dating to 1590 is still intact and now used as a public museum; the main attraction is the burial site of the cremated heart of Robert the Bruce.
      1. Setting up surveillance, the agents note that late in the night after the closure of the museum, a trio of figures made their way to, and apparently, under one of the outlying ruined walls.
   2. Investigation
      1. While Bill and Maverick provid overwatch, Markov and Lester investigate undetected, and find that one of the flagstones has been moved aside, revealing steps into the group. Moving inside, they note that the trio are armed with pistols and are systematically searching the bodies in the crypts; after a time, one of them calls the other two over to a body where he apparently has found an object of interest. Deciding to not take any chances, Markov and Lester quickly dispatch the three men.
         1. They did not carry any identifying papers, but one bears a letter with a map of the Abbey.
            1. "Mr. Mitchell, I have need of your services again. Look into the crypts under Melrose Abbey and see if Scot had in his possession anything that might confirm Dee’s claims. I will pay your usual fee. -M. Albright"
         2. The object they found was a piece of folded parchment. The agents bring it back to Supervisor Gordon-Yancy in London, where they were able to examine it carefully. Although smudged and scribed in old French, it was still readable:
            1. Une étoile monte du maison d’Hesperia mille fois et encore de la croix la lumière de roulement et signe avant-coureur des ténèbres un nouvel âge est inauguré sur son aile
         3. Translated into English, it reads: A star ascends from the house of the west one thousand times and again from the cross bearing light and harbinger of darkness a new age is ushered in on her wings
6. Epilogue
   1. The significance of this Quatrain to the Temple of Ashes and the connection to Albright are unknown.
   2. XP 3