14 Harmon Court

Stage 3: 14 Harmon Court

AX.GHW.14.04.06

The Twist | Revelation: environment + discovery | The party finds the evidence and encounters Connie's purpose directly

Scene Setting

The party reaches 14 Harmon Court, the vacant property, the place of Connie's death, scheduled for demolition in one week. Chain-link fence, padlocked gate, boards on the ground-floor windows. The building is accessible with minimal effort. No one is supposed to be here.

From the moment they enter: the quality of the building presses against characters with Psychic Sensitivity. Not threat, not danger, but weight. The air inside is cold in a way that is not entirely atmospheric. A Haunt character perceives it as a location that holds the shape of what happened here. A Faeborn character with True Seeing registers something layered in the foundation, old, below the surface reading, not from the recent death but from something much older underneath it. A character with Mediumship (passive, no roll required) feels the space as saturated: this is a place where something anchored.

This is residual Shadow trace from the Sovereign Circle's prior use of the site. It does not activate. It does not threaten the party. It simply is, a texture to the building that makes everything that happened here feel louder than it would at a clean location.

What the Party Finds

1. The Location of Connie's Death

The main staircase landing is on the second floor. The floor here is concrete under old industrial carpeting. A character who examines the landing carefully, Wit + Notice (Threshold 2), or just looking in the right place, finds:

• A stain on the carpet near the top step, partially cleaned with something that did not fully work. Old blood. Three years old.
• Scuff marks on the landing wall, at shoulder height, on the wrong side for someone falling forward down a staircase. These marks are consistent with someone being pushed from behind and reaching for the wall.
• A partial palm print in the wall plaster, preserved under decades of surface grime that was not disturbed by the cleaning attempt. The angle of the print is consistent with someone catching themselves, not landing.

This is not evidence in a legal sense, three years old, not collected, chain of custody nonexistent. But it confirms what happened. This is where Connie Reyes was murdered.

2. The SD Card

The second floor has a room that was used as an office during the building's commercial period, desk impressions in the carpet, conduit stubs where workstations were wired. Under a loose floorboard in the southeast corner, Wit + Notice (Threshold 2) to find the floorboard without a specific search; Threshold 1 if the party is actively looking for something hidden, a waterproof case sealed with tape. Inside: an SD card in a protective sleeve, labeled in small handwriting: EC - HCC.

Environmental Compliance, Harmon Court Copy.

The card contains: - The original soil contamination survey results from Connie's environmental assessment, unedited, with her professional digital signature and timestamps - A folder containing KRD's edited "clean" versions of the same reports, with tracked changes that show who made the edits and when - A voice recording: Kapoor's voice, unmistakably, telling Connie: "This project has already been approved and there is nothing you are going to do about it. These documents exist only in my possession now. Not yours." He is wrong about the second part.

This card is the evidence. It establishes the fraud in full legal detail. Combined with the original death record, the physical evidence at this location, and a witness who can speak to what happened, Duchenne, it is enough to support a criminal investigation into both the environmental fraud and Connie's death.

3. The Mediumship Reading

A practitioner who enters the landing where Connie died and attempts to receive the residue of events can, with a Wit + Mediumship roll (Clear, Threshold 2), perceive the event trace: the fall, the hands pushing, the face of the person pushing. It is not a clear image, event residue never is, but it is specific. Kapoor's face. The argument before it. Connie reaching the landing and turning to face him.

At Threshold 4 (Strained, or a second attempt): the reading extends further, the argument itself. Connie has said something that produced genuine fear in Kapoor before he pushed her. The phrase that surfaces: "The Sovereign Circle already owns you, Dev. I've seen the contract." This is a fragment, not context. Whether Connie was right, was wrong, or was partly right about something she didn't fully understand, that question is for future play. The Sovereign Circle does not appear in this adventure. The detail plants itself here and waits.

The Revenant Appears

At some point during Stage 3, at the GM's discretion, most effectively after the party has found the SD card but before they've left, Connie arrives. She does not enter dramatically. She is simply in the building, in the way of Revenants: present because this is where she is anchored.

She does not approach the party. She does not move to attack. She stands on the landing where she died and she is looking at them.

If a party member is holding the SD card: she looks at that character. Just that. No language in her posture for most characters to read; it requires empathy and context to understand what it means. A character with Mediumship who attempts communication (Clear, Wit + Mediumship, Threshold 2): two words, transmitted with the weight of three years: "Finish it."

This is the moment of the adventure that the players should feel. They are holding what she died for. She knows they have it. She is asking them to do what she couldn't.

The Kapoor Security Team

Carl Duchenne has been watching 14 Harmon Court since the Chen attack. Kapoor ordered it; he is beginning to understand that Connie's ghost, metaphorical or literal, is moving through his organization's vulnerabilities, and 14 Harmon Court is where her death happened. Whatever is happening, Kapoor suspects it connects to this place.

Duchenne is here with two private security guards when the party arrives. They were there first, which means the party either bypasses them to enter (Wit + Stealth, Threshold 2) or encounters them at the entry point. Duchenne recognizes the building for what it is; he was the responding officer here, he knows this address, he has been here before. He knows exactly what the party might find inside.

The Confrontation with Duchenne

Whether this happens outside before the party enters, inside during the search, or at the exit after the SD card is found, it is the same conversation. Duchenne needs to be turned from Kapoor's employee to a usable witness.

He is already at the edge. The recent deaths, the wound patterns Kapoor has described to him, the weight of what he's been carrying; he is a man who is scared enough to do the right thing if someone gives him a path to do it. The path is: protection. Formal cooperation with Baskin, which requires someone to facilitate the introduction. Duchenne cannot call Baskin himself; he's been working for Kapoor and the conflict of interest is too exposed. He needs the party to serve as the conduit.

Wit + Persuade (Threshold 2), approach grounded in understanding: Duchenne gives everything, the original report, the details he omitted, the name of the person who paid him, the amount. He asks once if Kapoor will find out. The answer is eventually yes, which he accepts.

Wit + Intimidate (Threshold 2), approach using the SD card as leverage: Same outcome, faster. Less goodwill. Baskin will later ask the party how they got to Duchenne, and she will have thoughts.

Failure (not getting to Threshold): Duchenne stalls and returns to Kapoor. He is not present at the groundbreaking as an ally. The Kapoor security team at the ceremony is hostile to the party rather than ambivalent.

What the Party Leaves With

After Stage 3, the party holds: the SD card with the original evidence, direct knowledge of the murder site, a Mediumship reading that confirms Kapoor pushed Connie, and Duchenne as either a turned witness or a closed door. They have the tools to resolve this. The question now is whether they use them before the groundbreaking begins.