One week later, Gremlin arrives at Mosaic City Hall beneath the Iron Spire’s reinforced arches. News vans crowd the plaza, while residents and reporters pass through layered security.
Palmer waits inside the protected hearing chamber, a heavyset middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair and a trimmed gray mustache. Angela watches the entrances in her dark security jacket, hands near her signature pistols.
Alexei
The testimony is secure, but three witnesses received injunction threats. One legal team is challenging chain of custody, and another is pressuring affected residents to withdraw.
Alexei, a muscular adult woman sealed in a charcoal-gray hard-suit, stands beside a service corridor display. Her stern expression tightens as encrypted filings scroll across it.
Angela
Entrances are covered. Anyone carrying a weapon, forged credential, or sudden legal authority gets stopped before reaching the chamber.
Palmer
Today is not merely about proving Duncan’s crimes. It is about showing Mosaic’s people what was taken from them, and who helped take it.
Beyond the sealed doors, microphones rise before a packed audience. Palmer’s presentation is ready, but the room waits to see whether evidence can become public trust.
✓ Quest Accepted
Strengthen public confidence in the testimony
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep the threatened witnesses willing to testify
“I brief Alexei on the injunction threats and protect each witness's evidence.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Gremlin
Three witnesses are being pressured through injunction threats. I have separated their statements, filings, and payment trails, then sealed each record with independent custody proofs.
Gremlin transfers three encrypted evidence capsules to Alexei’s hardened console. Their contents remain compartmentalized, addresses masked, and every original paired with a court-verifiable duplicate.
Alexei
That gives me three protected chains instead of one vulnerable archive. I can place the witnesses under emergency judicial protection before the hearing opens.
The capsules synchronize with police and court safeguards. A cross-index exposes each injunction’s originating legal team without revealing where the threatened residents live.
Alexei
The witnesses are covered, and the pressure campaign is now interference evidence. But your transfer just consumed a secure relay.
A disposable relay module overheats and drops offline, costing Gremlin one spare while preserving a clean attacker fingerprint. Alexei locks the trace into the case file.
Alexei
Good. We brief the judge with protected originals, and those legal teams can explain in court why their threats became evidence.
“I ask Alexei to expose the pressure campaign publicly”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Gremlin
Expose the pressure campaign publicly, Alexei. Let every threatened witness know the city sees what Duncan's allies are doing.
Alexei
Agreed. We release the verified filings, payment trails, and interference timeline, with every resident's identity protected.
Alexei routes the compartmentalized evidence through the court's public information office. Redactions preserve addresses and testimony details, while signatures and custody proofs remain visible.
Palmer
Then Mosaic hears the truth today. Legal intimidation is not governance, and protecting witnesses is a public duty.
The hearing chamber screens illuminate with the pressure campaign's records: injunction dates, originating firms, payment links, and the interference charges now attached to each filing.
Alexei
The release is live. Reporters have the evidence packet, prosecutors have the originals, and the witnesses are shielded from exposure.
Outside the Iron Spire, news alerts spread across waiting phones. Questions turn from whether the witnesses can speak to who tried to silence them, and why.
Quest Complete
Strengthen public confidence in the testimony
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Good→Great
