<div align="center"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;">The Great Unmasking</span></span><br/>(https://i.imgur.com/fc2O7fb.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Hero Points:</strong>1 (Romana);<strong>Conditions:</strong>None<br/><br/>Emerald City, Washington. 2 AM Pacific Standard Time.<br/><br/>Population, 1 million.<br/><br/>The air was still tonight, with not even the oceanic breeze coming in from the harbor.  The animals were restless, the birds and insects long since retreated into the Arcadian Forests and Atlas Mountains. Most chalked it up to odd weather and nothing more, thankful that the roaches and vermin finally moved out to greener pastures. But a few whispered circles saw this as cause for alarm.<br/><br/>Romana was no stranger to such phenomena. During her years hosting the “True History of the World” she learned that many things in life were rarely coincidental. Although there were doubtless nay-sayers and skeptics, the rather turbulent events of her recent life proved that she was getting close to something others wanted concealed.<br/><br/>She wouldn’t get a full night’s rest for tomorrow, although her teaching duties at William O. Douglass High School had a good enough track record that she could afford the rare slip-up. Even if not, the symptoms of erratic ley lines and frightened animals were clear signs of a momentous event. The “building up of other-dimensional trauma,” as her research notes put it.<br/><br/>Romana’s stake-out was in a darkened shade of trees next to a fence overlooking the nearby highway. The grass beneath her feet was dry and shriveled black, crumbling to ash at the merest bit of weight. An anomaly for the area given the otherwise heavy rainfall in the Pacific Northwest.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Magic Sense</div><div class="spoiler_body">The ambient magic in Emerald City is flowing through ley lines. Normally the process is a smooth transition, but recent ‘knots’ in the lines began growing in size at an alarming rate. The dead flora is but one symptom, although thanks to her senses Romana is aware that the knots rest deep below the earth, and even out into the ocean.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Expertise Supernatural Lore, Automatic</div><div class="spoiler_body"> Knots in a ley line can occur both naturally and artificially. Their most common causes are extensive use of magic in an area, rituals designed to stem or divert the flow of magic, and otherworldly portals. Magical spells cast in a knot can change and even be nullified as a result, although this can only occur in extreme circumstances.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">DC 25</div><div class="spoiler_body"> The knots are arranged as such that they are most certainly deliberate, or would otherwise have to be one hell of a coincidence. This placement of knots would cause magic to come undone or grow out of control in several densely-populated areas of the city.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">DC 30</div><div class="spoiler_body">The ley line knots will force ambient magic through a series of pressurized outlets, causing a nigh-uncontrollable mass buildup of magic in a specific area. If the cause was just one knot it would be detected and corrected, but the auxiliary knots were made to throw off detection and cause any magical mishaps to be small-scale and thus brushed off as accidents. There will be a huge outpouring of magic, the epicenter at Yellow Brick Row.</div></div></div></div></div></div><br/>Romana was alone, but that soon changed. A car drove off the road into a side trail, headlights turned off. Whoever the driver is, they had no trouble seeing in the dark. The sounds of an engine turning off accompanied the opening and closing of doors, and then the shuffling of footsteps. Was her stakeout compromised? Maybe they were other people who noticed the anomaly and are doing their own independent investigation? Or perhaps some unrelated clandestine activity? Regardless, they congregated down the incline, the tiny embers of a lighter being the only source of their presence.<br/><br/><em>Romana can try to sneak down and get a closer look/hear the unknown arrivals. Or she can survey the area for any advantages in the event of an ambush. Alternatively she can continue sensing the ley lines. Different tactics call for different skills, abilities, and power uses. Feel free to give me an appropriate roll, and I’ll narrate the results.</em><br/>