August 24th, 2025 – Cleveland

The party wakes up and tries to figure out what to do next. There’s some friction between those wanting to leave immediately and those wanting breakfast. Emily gets busy working on locating the standing stones in Virginia, so breakfast wins out. Teddy finds himself unable to remember where the stones are, “I can’t know, which is curious”. He’s uncertain why he would’ve prevented his post-mortem virtual self from remembering that detail.

Eventually, Emily discovers an area of the Shenandoah National Park where the satellite images have been doctored and, finding the originals, discovers a large building with a perimeter fence and guardposts. They also correlate a certain number of annual hiker disappearances to the location.

As they’re packing up, it goes complete dark outside, and the party is attacked by a group of soldiers, shadow creatures like from the insurance company, and two figures in suits that Teddy identifies as “true Technocracy”. A pitched battle ensues where nearly everyone in the party is injured to varying degrees. A friendly gunman begins to render aid from down the block. Emma’s dragon eventually arrives and turns the tide of the battle.

As soon as everyone is recovered enough to move, the party packs up to flee the area.