Magnus' Story S1E5

 

 

"The Bleed"

 

With the Modulation Sphere powered down, and Arcadia phoned, Magnus turns his attention to the kidnap victims who all seem to be in states of drowsiness triggered by whatever the strange stasis room had done to them.

Elara seems to come-to first, gathering some of her wits about her, but Magos Lyra also seems to be shaking off her stupor, staring at the Modulation Sphere, assessing the gravity of the orb's presence.

Soon, Authority officers make their way into the abandoned arcane station and assure Magnus that Detective Brinstone is on her way with more officers, and an arcane forensic team.

Both the sphere and the Stasis Room are analyzed, with the room having some sort of persistent Sleep spell emanating from it and the Modulation Sphere having something to do with casting a city wide Mass Suggestion. 

 Arcadia seems very concerned with this revelation.

 She decides to send off the kidnapped citizens to their homes with officer escorts. Elara, at first, stays back to understand, for her scoop, more of what has happened, but eventual leaves with her escort.

Magnus leaves too, on orders from Arcadia, to get some rest.  But not before the burner phone the Starken doppelganger had been using receives a text asking for status on the Modulation Sphere.

The back and forth goes so well with the other end that Magnus resorts to destroying the phone. 

Eventually he's driven back to the A.C.I. office but stops by The Double Back to drop-off Alo's headlamp as promised.

...

Back at Æther City Investigations, Magnus takes a long rest only to wake in the morning to a knock on the office door. Elara Vane and a middle-aged gnome woman are standing there, both looking uneasy.

The woman's name is Dara Voss, and Elara believes that her missing brother, Pell, a signal maintenance engineer at the Æther Broadcasting Consortium, has something to do with the threat to the city.

Believing the words of the two, and taking this new lead seriously, Magnus takes a key to Pell's apartment in Blackrise Hill from his sister, and head there with his Authority bodyguard, stopping first at The Glimmering Brew.

...

Magnus has his escort park away from Pell's apartment building, fearing tipping-off anyone who might be interested in the case.

Pell's apartment is on the third floor. Magnus climbs to the fourth, meeting a kobold while up there.

A few questions are asked, nothing but pleasantries are exchanged. So down to the third floor and to Pell's apartment, checking to see if the door to it is locked and trapped. Just in-case (after the kobold descends the stairs, off to his obvious job).

Magnus searches the apartment, even though its clearly been searched by another party. Nothing is really out-of-sorts, just out-of-place. 

 Magnus finds two things missed by whomever searched the apartment. A Notebook talking about something Pell called "a sub-carrier at 7.7 thaumic Hz", and a damaged data crystal.

Our hero reaches out to Nix, even though Magnus knows he owes him more than "one", but get a reply indicating that the hacker is too busy addressing Veil Society needs to help right now.

Time to bring Arcadia in on this...

...

Magnus' Authority escort parks in the parking sub-structure of The Fang, and the two take an elevator up to Arcadia's office.

Other than that the 7.7 thaumic Hz is a magical frequency of some sort, no other information is gleamed except the data on the cracked crystal indicates that it is also some kind of bleed frequency.

But what are the ties to the doppelganger conspiracy?

... 

So needing to get to the sealed off Underduct, and relay station, beneath the Æther Broadcasting Consortium building on Broadcast Mile, Magnus has his new "partner" drive him over to City Center. And seeming like a tourist who is part of a tour of ABC, our hero finds an opportunity to slip away and enter a restricted access area, with the help of his Gaseous Form gadget, and travels down to the sub-basement looking for an entrance to the Underduct.

Eventually, still in Gaseous Form, he finds what he is looking for.

A door with a sign on it that reads, "Off-Limits. Auranthos Magetech Security".

 

 To be continued!