Reno/Carson Observation Report - Wed, May 31, 2017

Initial Microphone and Setup:

• Chris discusses muting his microphone and jokes about staying silent.
• The group teases Chris about how they can still hear him faintly.
• They briefly talk about dragging out the microphone issues before everyone settles into the session.

Session Start and Mention of “God’s Teeth”:

• Chris repeats “God’s Teeth,” confirming the campaign name.
• They note this is a Delta Green campaign session, and Luke is about to begin his recap of the previous session.

Recap by Luke (the Handler):

• The team previously interviewed Kim Boyer at Persistent Vigil, where she showed them a “glitch video” that her colleague Norah Brigid had been analyzing.
• The latest glitch video captured Norah’s own disappearance: the footage showed her from a drone’s perspective, then a single frame of an “unearthly desert.”
  • In that single frame, Norah arranged stones to spell “Save Rancho Manor.”
  • Norah then appeared to die in that desert scene, shown in a pool of blood.
• The team realized Kim was upset after seeing her friend’s final moments but decided to let her watch the video to motivate her cooperation.
• Luke reminds everyone that at Persistent Vigil, two senior figures—Clyde Mock and Rusty Lodell—became suspicious of the agents’ real purpose. They tried pressuring the group in Mock’s office, doubting the agents’ “compliance inspection” cover.
• Leaving Persistent Vigil, the agents investigated Galt Way, where Norah’s car had been found abandoned.
  • They found Norah’s phone, which was locked, but little else.
• Cole Parker discovered a Rancho Manor Drive in Sparks, Nevada. The group checked it out and found an ordinary suburban street, with nothing overtly amiss.
• The group decided to bring Kim into their operation because she could parse the data on Norah’s laptop. Kim wanted to learn what happened to Norah, so she agreed to help.
• Kim arrived at the team’s meeting place but was tailed by two men in another vehicle. Realizing Persistent Vigil’s advanced surveillance capabilities might be used against them, the agents changed disguise multiple times and traveled to Carson City to avoid overhead drone coverage.
• In Carson City, Kim began analyzing Norah’s laptop. Meanwhile, Assistant U.S. Attorney Antonia Pizzarelli fetched a computer specialist to unlock Norah’s phone. It was around 10 p.m. on May 30 when everyone settled in to wait for results.

Chris’s Brief Absence and Joking:

• Chris, who had been eating, returns and jokes about missing his chance to interrupt Luke’s recap.
• The group lightly teases each other about interruptions and microphone issues.

Current Situation (Early Hours, May 31):

• The session transitions to in-character discussions about waiting for Kim’s analysis and for the computer specialist to unlock Norah’s phone.
• They note it is late at night—about 10 p.m. on May 30, continuing past midnight into the 31st.

Arranging the Phone Unlock with Pizzarelli:

• Frank Booth (Brian’s character) gets a text from Pizzarelli, indicating the phone is ready to be picked up (“phone’s unlocked”).
• Booth meets her discreetly in a hotel bar or lobby area to collect the phone. Pizzarelli has cloned its data and gives Booth the original phone back with a written passcode.

Examination of Norah’s Phone (Frank Booth):

• Booth stays awake to sift through Norah’s phone data. He checks voice memos, emails, and other files.
• Voice memos reveal Norah’s personal method of processing her thoughts by recording them. She theorized that:
  • The killers know about the drone surveillance used by Persistent Vigil.
  • Persistent Vigil higher-ups might be hiding evidence from the police to cover up the drone program’s involvement.
  • Norah tried to decode a pattern involving times, locations, and drone data. She believed more killings would occur.
• Her last voice memo states she predicted a killing at 1281 Galt Way (on May 29 or 30) and another at 48 Rancho Manor Drive (between June 1 and June 3). She mentioned going to Galt Way in person for better insight.

Discussion of Cartel Links (Graham Drummond’s Criminology and Past Work):

• The team discusses the violent M.O. of these murders: machetes, axes, and gruesome brutality.
  • Graham Drummond (Chris’s character) recalls similar methods used by a Mexican cartel—the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO).
• The group notes the three previously confirmed murder victims (Pena, Calderon, and Sandoval) all had Latin names; Geraldo Calderon was a journalist who fled Mexico after exposing a notorious BLO hitman known as “Santa.”
• The group speculates about whether a BLO “remnant” could be enacting these ritualistic-style killings.

Revisiting Galt Way and Rancho Manor Predictions:

• They realize that Norah’s calculations suggested a murder on May 29 or 30 at Galt Way and then another murder in early June at Rancho Manor.
  • The group confirms the actual date is now May 31, past the predicted time for the Galt Way killing.

Confirmation of Another Killing at Galt Way:

• Checking the latest news, the team finds a story about a home invasion at Galt Way the previous night, leading to the death of Ludmilla Baraclaw—confirming that a murder did take place after Norah vanished.
• The group sees this aligns with the phone’s voice memo prediction.

Analysis and Data from Norah’s Phone (Additional):

• Booth finds emails from Norah to a mysterious Proton.me address (“[email protected]”).
  • Her message references original code authorship and requests clarification about error codes in the drone software.
  • The reply contained photos of pages covered in spirals and dots, plus an Arabic (later clarified as a specific verse from the Quran) or Farsi-like inscription.
• Booth recognizes the script is Arabic, and with help from McCarter or Google Translate, they identify it references part of the Quran: “And they will never compass anything of His knowledge except that which He wills.”

Team’s Next Steps and Kim’s Role:

• Kim Boyer wakes up, resumes dissecting data from Norah’s laptop. She grows increasingly confident, telling the group she sees a complex pattern involving times, GPS, and drone altitudes.
  • She cross-references what Norah had built and clarifies that yes, the glitch correlates to murders.
  • Kim calculates there were two more predicted killings left according to Norah’s data: one matching the Galt Way murder that already happened on the night of May 30, and another set to happen on June 2 around 6:35 p.m. at 48 Rancho Manor Drive.

Need for Drone Footage Access and Potential System Breach:

• The group discusses that Kim might have to help them gain direct access to Persistent Vigil’s systems (or plant malware/virus) to monitor or stop future anomalies.
  • Kim is anxious because she knows it might be illegal or risk her job, but the group reassures her they will protect her.
  • She agrees, but she is nervous about her bosses’ reaction and her personal safety.
• The plan involves Assistant U.S. Attorney Pizzarelli and an external computer specialist to write code to infiltrate or wipe certain data from Persistent Vigil. Kim’s insider knowledge will be key to installing it.

Additional Criminology Rolls and Investigative Leads:

• The group discusses potential leads from the glitch videos (e.g., license plates, routes, parking garages). They note these details might help track the suspects, but they have not fully followed up yet.

Session Wind-Down and Next Steps:

• They briefly mention scheduling and whether they can play the next session soon.
• Luke suggests reading the compiled glitch-video summaries (in shared notes) before the next session to see if there are specific new leads to pursue.
• The session concludes with the group finalizing the plan to have Kim and the specialist create or install software at Persistent Vigil and to investigate the next predicted murder at Rancho Manor on June 2.