Three days later, Elfhart’s Floor 300 salon glows beneath camera drones and monochrome chandeliers. Celebrities and reporters pay over 10,000 credits each for the organic service experience.
At peak service, reservation gates flash red across the dining displays. A compliance cascade freezes bookings and resurrects obsolete violations, labeling Elfhart a repeat offender before its guests.
Ampli Darthik
Those violations were settled and sealed. Someone is poisoning the record while the room is watching.
Ampli stands beneath the open kitchen lights, his staff holding plated courses as influential diners turn toward the service counter. A corporate reviewer, a middle-aged woman in a silver audit coat, studies the frozen dashboard.
the corporate reviewer
I am not declaring a failure yet, but every reservation is now attached to historical compliance flags. Explain this before the board receives the feed.
Grae Steele’s voice enters through the service systems before his tall figure appears on a maintenance display. Diagnostic threads race behind his slate-grey eyes as he traces the cascade.
Grae Steele
This is not a reopened Gray Meridian case. The rival injected obsolete violation codes into the live reservation validator, forcing the system to treat archived data as current.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the rival's sabotage
✓ Quest Accepted
Restore Elfhart’s public reputation
“You head to floor 345, the restaurant on this floor are technically better than yours, but you arent impressed one is called la'pierre.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -1)
Delia leaves the compliance cascade behind and takes Elfhart’s secured lift to Floor 345. The tower’s transit spine carries her upward through monochrome cloudlight and service levels.
Floor 345 opens into a polished culinary district. La’Pierre occupies a broad glass-fronted hall, its automated plating arms and atmospheric displays operating with technical precision.
Delia
The systems are better than Elfhart’s, but the execution has no distinction.
A middle-aged woman with warm brown skin, silver braids, and a tailored ivory maître d’ uniform approaches from the entrance. A thin data visor covers one eye.
the La’Pierre maître d’
Welcome to La’Pierre. Our dining architecture is currently reserved for credentialed restaurateurs, reviewers, and invited guests.
Delia’s RSPD designation and Elfhart’s Floor 300 license authenticate against the entry lattice. The doors open, granting her immediate access to La’Pierre’s dining hall and visible kitchen systems.
the La’Pierre maître d’
Your credentials are verified. You may inspect the public service floor, observe the kitchen interface, or request the owner’s presence.
“A sous cheff see you a throws a fire ball, you barely dodge you drawinging your wand”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -1)
A young adult man with copper skin, close-cropped black hair, and a cobalt kitchen jacket steps from the open galley. He thrusts one hand forward, launching a fireball across the dining hall.
Delia pivots between two service columns as the fireball scorches the floor behind her. The heat clips her sleeve, leaving a shallow burn and draining one armor-shield charge.
Her red heel skids on the polished surface, but she catches herself against a credenza and draws her augmented wand in one clean motion.
the La’Pierre maître d’
Sous chef, stand down. You have just attacked an authenticated RSPD partner inside the public hall.
the La’Pierre sous chef
She entered our kitchen systems and judged them without permission. I will not let another rival steal our methods.
The wand’s amplifiers awaken with a sharp blue pulse. Automated plating arms halt, diners retreat behind translucent safety screens, and La’Pierre’s security lattice marks the sous chef as the aggressor.
the La’Pierre maître d’
Your weapon is raised, Delia. The hall is secured, and the incident is recording. Tell me whether you want the owner or station security.
“Shut up bitch , since this restaurant cant contain its super powered chefs ill be requesting a formal inquiry into the restaurant!”
SUCCESS (Legendary Diplomacy, rolled -2)
Delia
Shut up. If La’Pierre cannot contain its super-powered chefs, I am requesting a formal inquiry into this restaurant.
Delia’s statement enters the incident recorder beside the sous chef’s fireball discharge. Her raised wand keeps the security lattice focused, while the burn on her sleeve continues to drain one armor-shield charge.
the La’Pierre maître d’
Your request is accepted. I am opening a formal RSPD inquiry into La’Pierre’s containment, weapons controls, and staff conduct.
The hall displays switch from guest service to evidence mode. Reservation access freezes, kitchen telemetry duplicates into the inquiry file, and the sous chef’s attack is marked as the initiating incident.
the La’Pierre sous chef
You are turning one defensive mistake into an investigation of the entire restaurant.
the La’Pierre maître d’
The inquiry requires an immediate service suspension and a 900-credit security assessment. Those costs are now attached to La’Pierre, not Elfhart.
A certified RSPD case number appears above the maître d’s visor, naming Delia as the requesting partner and La’Pierre as the subject. The formal inquiry is active.
“Then you launch your attack with arcane blast.”
FAILURE (Superb Arcane blast, rolled -2)
Delia launches an arcane blast from her augmented wand. Blue-white force tears across the dining hall, but the sous chef twists aside and it misses his torso.
The blast strikes the containment lattice behind him instead. Safety emitters flare, shatter into diagnostic light, and force La’Pierre’s kitchen systems into emergency isolation.
the La’Pierre sous chef
You nearly breached the suppression grid! One more discharge could lock every chef in this hall out of their controls.
His fireball matrix collapses into harmless sparks as the isolation protocol severs his weapon feed. The sous chef remains standing, but his attack capability is temporarily disabled.
the La’Pierre maître d’
The blast missed him, but exposed the containment architecture. I can now provide the inquiry with a complete failure map and the system’s access history.
A hidden maintenance channel opens across the evidence display, revealing unauthorized overrides nested beneath the chef-safety controls. The inquiry gains a direct technical trail into La’Pierre’s security failures.
the La’Pierre maître d’
Lower your wand, and I will preserve that channel for the formal inquiry. It may identify who weakened our safeguards before today’s attack.
“Im calling for back up”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +1)
Delia lowers her wand just enough to open the secured RSPD channel. The inquiry file, attack recording, and containment failure map transmit with her location and priority request.
Delia
RSPD backup to La’Pierre. Armed staff incident, active formal inquiry, and compromised containment systems.
the La’Pierre maître d’
Backup request authenticated and dispatched. I am preserving the hall, the sous chef’s weapon logs, and every unauthorized override.
A response marker appears above the evidence display, assigning an RSPD containment team and Mara Quell as investigative liaison. Their estimated arrival is immediate through the tower’s secured transit spine.
the La’Pierre sous chef
You called an entire response team over one discharge. When they arrive, they will see this was a defensive reaction.
the La’Pierre maître d’
They will see the recording, including your unauthorized fireball and the weakened suppression grid. Do not touch another control.
The dining hall seals into evidence mode. Safety screens remain between the sous chef and the guests as the transit doors announce incoming RSPD personnel.
“Captain amidala has come with captain vey, she says he has decided to join the rspd, as he is apart of your staff and the you both being the newest rookies of the force. The sous chef launches a magical fire blaat toward the entering party. vey jumps and kills the cheff with his dual pistols.”
FAILURE (Mediocre Marksmanship, rolled +0)
Amidala Aveni enters through the secured transit doors with Captain Vey beside her. His injured posture is rigid, and his station credentials identify him as newly assigned RSPD staff.
Amidala Aveni
Captain Vey has joined the RSPD. He is part of your staff, and you are both the force’s newest rookies.
The La’Pierre sous chef pivots toward the entering pair and launches a blazing energy discharge. Safety screens snap between the guests and the incoming force.
Captain Vey
Down!
Captain Vey draws both pistols and fires. The shots miss the sous chef, but strike the active suppression emitters, collapsing his weapon feed and sealing his controls under emergency isolation.
the La’Pierre maître d’
The attack failed to hit him, but Vey’s fire exposed the override junction. That channel leads directly to whoever weakened our containment grid.
Captain Vey
I intended to stop the shooter. Instead, I found the access point. Secure the junction, and we may identify the architect behind this failure.
“You subdue the souschef with psychic blast”
SUCCESS (Great Psychic blast, rolled +3)
Delia raises her augmented wand, but the force comes from her mind. A focused psychic blast crosses the hall and strikes the La’Pierre sous chef squarely.
The impact drops him unconscious beside the isolated kitchen controls. His fire matrix extinguishes, and the containment system confirms his weapon feed remains permanently locked for the inquiry.
the La’Pierre maître d’
The sous chef is subdued. No further discharge is possible, and the guests are secure behind the safety screens.
Captain Vey keeps both pistols trained on the disabled controls while Amidala directs the arriving RSPD officers toward the unconscious chef and the exposed junction.
Captain Vey
The junction is intact. We can preserve its access history before the emergency isolation clears the evidence.
The maître d’ seals the junction under RSPD authority. Its diagnostic cache opens, revealing a remote authorization key tied to Gray Meridian’s maintenance network.
Amidala Aveni
That is the architect’s trail. Secure the chef, preserve the cache, and send the key to Delia’s active inquiry.