Diving into the Matrix, you sail for hours through public records and databases, cross-referencing missing persons reports with databases of the registered
mudang in Korea. Precious few mentions of Kim Eun Ah are available. You thank the powers of the Matrix that the name is very old fashioned and relatively rare. Digging through an encrypted feed, you manage to find a hole in the communications; a relay through an antique wired node that somehow evaded notice along the connections from what you suspect could be a host connected to the Cathedral. You recover a list of names, untitled, but containing the list of the missing
mudang you are searching for.
The list is lengthly, and none of the other names really stand out as immediately important to you... until you link them to a similar list published by the Korean Ministry of Sorcery and Shamanism. It seems these are all names of
mudang registered to lead the Chuseok ceremonies across the nation, during which they are to summon the dead back to their families for fellowship over the three day holiday. Over half the list has turned up missing, the latest having been reported just hours ago.
Police reports all note that no signs of struggle seem to be at the scenes of most of the disappearances, with only one being the exception. It seems the head
mudang of Busan, an elven women in her late 50's, the first to go missing, left her chambers a hellscape of scorched walls, a shattered floor, and shattered windows. Witnesses responding entered the room to find a large hole blasted through the wall leading out of the Temple. The woman's affectations, fetishes, foci, etc., were scatter about the room, still radiating magic, probably from recent use.
Social media feeds are tougher to search, as they are blowing up with the news of the
mudang meant to lead the
Chalyae, or Tea Rites, suddenly disappearing. There is a growing social panic nation-wide as
Chuseok draws nearer. Police and even major corporations are pledging increased security around the homes and temples of these
mudang, but so far to no avail.
Digging around files on the Sisters of His Persistent Hand nets you an unexpected source of useful information. Buzzing around the Vatican Host is an icon in the shape of a pair of floating black sunglasses on an invisible head. Seeing your interest in the sisterhood, it begins to pester you, annoying at first, with it's wild conspiracy theories and extreme anti-religion rhetoric, but it does mention a payload of data it was able to lift from secured Vatican servers. With very little prodding, it is happy to share what it has found with you, and gives you an ID to contact it in the future if you need further help.
Many hours later, you manage to squeeze yourself into a particularly tight Host that shows strong signs of belonging to the very Cathedral you are casing. Patrol IC maintain a very tight vigil, and all files in the host are locked, but you manage to lift some interesting information from a small cache of very well-hidden files that, due to their need for quick transport, could not be locked down quite as tightly.
Most files contain simple delivery orders. One contains an order for four large, very heavy shipment from a top artisan corporation based in the Vatican; No Idle Hands Inc. The file is vague and obviously designed to hide its source from a casual investigator. An addendum attached reveals a complaint that while three of the packages had arrived, the fourth has been detained in customs until a duty fee is paid. It is marked as Extremely Urgent.
A more interesting file contains a large number of very high-nuyen donations from a mix of corporations and individuals. None of them link to anything but pseudonyms and shell corporations. Further digging allows you to trace nearly all of them back to a single name; Renraku. Specifically, a Renraku subsidiary based in Pyeongyang called simply Revivification Industries. Their social feeds seem to suggest that they are largely focused on industrializing the North through a program of intensive mass production and export.
A number of media feeds from more public sources heavily blast the corporation for their heavy pollution and ongoing deforestation of the former DMZ. A great number of M1919 in particular are very focused on bringing this corporation down permanently, even having gone so far as committing acts of eco-terrorism against them. Most teams involved in such actions have never been seen or heard from again. News reports of Matrix attacks against them nearly all report the death of the hacker(s) involved.
You load up the car and begin to get underway. Traffic isn't too terrible just yet, with two days to go before festivities begin, but you shudder to imagine what it might be like tomorrow night. As you weave your way expertly through traffic, you notice a couple of helmeted riders on motorcycles keeping a fairly constant distance behind you. Their faces are masked by a black tinted visor. Any time you attempt to slow to see if they will catch up, they both split up and speed on ahead through traffic, only to return again a few minutes later behind you.
Unsurprisingly, you are able to find a few runners who openly identify as Catholic. Most are non-responsive to your probes, but one messages you back within minutes. Her name is simply Catherine, a retired Vatican enforcer who has taken a personal interest in the excommunicated group of nuns. She is brief on the Matrix, asking you to meet her in person if you wish to know more.
You have no problem finding the physical location of the Persistent Hand. The Host, in the form of a pair of massive pearly gates attached to a medieval style fortress, openly advertises itself on AR and broadcasts a curt but clear warning.
"Trespassers, Matrix, magic, or otherwise, WILL meet their maker."Searching for gangs in the area, you find a few disgruntled members of various street scum attached peripherally to the Yakuza (mostly as rabble-rousers) who have been forced out of the area by hostile spirits taking bizarre forms. Most are too terrified to ever return. Anyone who had a presence here has long since abandoned it to the Sisters.
Later that evening, as James and Inanna depart together in a rented car. Both have an uncanny feeling of being watched...
