The employer remains beside the walnut table as the wall display changes from contract text to a secure map of Stellalucens City. Gold lines trace shell-company payments through layered accounts.
The newest transfer terminates beneath the financial district, where a coded holding company paid for components matching the black module. Surveillance footage follows a courier, a young adult man with a slim build, close-cropped dark hair, and a gray hooded jacket over black work clothes underground, then abruptly ends.
the employer
The broker operates below the old financial archives. We have no confirmed identity, no reliable floor plan, and no reason to assume the surveillance failure was accidental.
A second display reveals access routes, utility schematics, and a narrow list of company informants. None are marked for deployment. The employer stays behind, offering no escort.
the employer
You may pursue this independently. Use my intelligence, equipment, and contacts as you see fit, but the operation remains yours. I want the broker identified before the trail goes cold.
Blackout
The payment trail is newer than the module recovered in the tunnel.
The map highlights a concealed service entrance beneath a closed brokerage office. Beyond it, the financial district continues its midnight routine, unaware of the machinery moving underneath.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the broker
“Are there any limits to how I find this brokers identity. And if I do find their identity are there any limits on what I can do to them?”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled -1)
Blackout
Are there any limits to how I find this broker’s identity? And if I do find them, are there limits on what I can do to them?
The employer studies the darkness around Blackout instead of the map. He expands the contract’s accountability clause, adding a red restriction beside the operational discretion language.
the employer
Find the identity by any lawful or unlawful means that preserve deniability. No indiscriminate intrusion, no exposed informants, and no public trail leading back to my company.
the employer
As for the broker, you may threaten, restrain, interrogate, or remove them if necessary. You may not harm uninvolved civilians, destroy evidence we need, or create attention that compromises the operation.
The new terms lock into the contract with a sharp electronic chime. The employer’s private security network flags Blackout’s question for permanent review, quietly increasing surveillance around his assignments.
the employer
If the broker dies, I require proof of identity and a recoverable explanation. If they survive, I require the same. Autonomy is not immunity from accounting.
The map restores the concealed entrance beneath the closed brokerage office. The broker’s identity remains unknown, but Blackout now has explicit boundaries, and the company will be watching for violations.
“Seems like a good deal. ill contact you when I have the identity. Blackout leaves and goes to the financial district entrance. There he finds a man with a white suit. He looks like a broker. Blackout stays out of sight. Covered in shadows, and watches until it's confirmed that this is his target.”
SUCCESS (Good Investigation, rolled +0)
Blackout
Seems like a good deal. I’ll contact you when I have the identity.
Blackout leaves the mansion through its service darkness and reaches the financial district. Beneath the closed brokerage office, the concealed entrance sits behind a locked, dust-filmed delivery gate.
A man waits beside the gate, a middle-aged adult with a lean build, pale skin, neatly combed dark hair, and a crisp white suit beneath a black overcoat. A silver tie clip catches the streetlight.
Blackout remains covered in shadow across the street, watching through walls and darkness. The man checks a burner phone, then unlocks the service entrance with a coded sequence.
the broker
The module performed exactly as promised. The company will blame a systems failure before they suspect the payment chain.
The broker sends an encrypted confirmation naming the shell company that purchased the tunnel device and signs it with a recurring account identifier. The identity is confirmed.
Quest Complete
Identify the broker
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Great→Superb
Director's note
Just in case things go ary, My motorcycle is hidden nearby. In case I need a quick escape.
“I shadow the broker to his contact. When they meet, I hide in the shadows.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Stealth, rolled +0)
The broker moves through the service entrance and descends beneath the financial district. Blackout follows within connected shadows, leaving the street and his hidden motorcycle undisturbed nearby.
The passage opens into an abandoned archive floor lined with metal cabinets and dead terminals. At its center, a young adult woman with a compact build, brown skin, braided black hair, and a dark green coat waits beside a folding table.
the broker
The tunnel incident drew no public attention. Payment cleared, and the company still believes the failure was internal.
Blackout folds into the deepest shadow beneath the archive shelves. From there, he watches the broker and his contact without disturbing dust, light, or the faint hum of dormant equipment.
the contact
They believe what we gave them because they need the breach to be ordinary. But their new contractor is investigating the payment chain.
the broker
Blackout. Yes, I know the name. Does he know ours?
the contact
Not yet. That is why you brought the confirmation here. Tell me exactly what the employer has authorized.
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent the broker from escaping
“I secretly record their entire exchange. These people are obviously the one's who planted the device. I'll record so I'll have proof of their identity for the job. I do it quietly.”
SUCCESS (Great Technology, rolled -1)
Blackout extends a thread of shadow into the darkness beneath the archive shelves. It settles around the nearest terminal, capturing every word and transmitting nothing outward.
Blackout
The recording contains their voices, faces, and confirmation of the device.
the broker
The employer authorized an independent investigation, with broad discretion and strict deniability. The contractor can threaten or remove the broker if necessary.
the contact
And the contractor is Blackout. That makes the situation less convenient, not impossible. Does he know who financed the module?
the broker
Not yet. He knows the payment trail ends with Veyra Holdings. He will find the name if he follows the records.
The contact opens a hard case beneath the folding table. Inside, a black module matching the tunnel device rests beside transfer ledgers and a printed photograph of the employer’s headquarters.
the contact
Then we change the trail tonight. The contractor gets a false identity, and the company gets a second breach to keep him occupied.
Director's note
I know there are no people nearby and that no cameras captured me at all. There's no evidence anyone was here.
“After I have my proof, I silently enter. When I enter, I hit the broker in the back of the head with my revolver. Knocking him out, then I subdue the contact and collect all the evidence”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +2)
Blackout leaves the terminal’s captured recording intact and enters through connected shadow. The archive remains silent, with no nearby witnesses or cameras to mark his passage.
He emerges behind the broker and strikes the back of his head with the revolver. The broker collapses beside the folding table, unconscious before he can cry out.
the contact
What the hell?
The contact turns toward the disturbance, but Blackout crosses the space first. Shadow binds her wrists and ankles, forcing her securely against the table without injuring her.
the contact
You are Blackout. You were listening the entire time.
The broker lies unconscious nearby. Blackout gathers the hard case, black module, transfer ledgers, printed headquarters photograph, and the contact’s communication device.
Every piece of evidence is secured, including the false-identity materials prepared for him and the records tied to Veyra Holdings. His hidden motorcycle waits nearby for departure.
Quest Complete
Prevent the broker from escaping
Skill Upgrade: Technology Great→Superb
+ New Item Acquired
Hard case
+ New Item Acquired
Communication device
Director's note
who is restrained and can't fight back. Blackout also gagged her so she wouldn't make noise
Director's note
because of his super strength moving them was no problem
“I collect all the evidence. Then I take the broker (who's unconscious) and the contact and take them silently to an "interrogation" room, he has. Looks like he found who planted the device.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Stealth, rolled +2)
Blackout secures the transfer ledgers, matching black module, headquarters photograph, communication device, and false identity materials inside the hard case. Nothing remains on the archive floor.
Shadow coils around the unconscious broker and lifts him effortlessly. The restrained, gagged contact is carried alongside him as he moves through connected darkness toward the concealed exit.
No camera records the departure, and no witness sees the three figures pass beneath the financial district. Blackout’s hidden motorcycle remains untouched near the closed brokerage office.
The shadows carry them to Blackout’s private interrogation room, a windowless space of concrete, steel fixtures, and a single overhead lamp. He places the broker in one chair and secures the contact in another.
Blackout
The evidence identifies the device’s trail, but the people who planted it may know more than the records do.
The contact strains against her bindings and stares through the gag, alert and furious. The broker remains unconscious, head bowed, while the hard case rests open on a steel table.
Blackout’s room falls silent around them. The captured materials wait beneath the lamp, and the contact’s muffled breathing is the only sound before the interrogation begins.
Get the captured conspirators to reveal what they know