Argent Agenda

The Argent Agenda refers to the fallout from the events surrounding The Hallows Killer and The Free Council Trials which led to Iseult's fall from grace and the awakening of Postmortem.

Background
After the identity of the Hallows Killer was unearthed, the Free Council mounted an expedition to retrieve Ford from Preston. This expedition ended with Protean murdering Ford and the rest of the Council agreeing to cover it up to avoid war. This went undiscovered for some time, both by Lancastrians and Prestonians. The first that the Bay knew of the discovery of the murder was the appearance of Argent at a Consilium meeting, claiming to be investigating the murder of a Mage of Preston. He carefully made no direct accusations, and was given a cold welcome.

On a semingly unrelated note, Pauli and Rayth were tasked to investigate a young man named Alex, who seemed to be on the verge of a potential Awakening.

The Chase
Argent was immediately placed under constant watch by the Sentinels of the Consilium By The Bay. He stayed on the move, not exactly attempting to evade his followers, but making their lives exceptionally difficult. He lost his pursuers on a number of occasions, only to reappear unexpectedly later on.

While this headache was going on, the Rose were investigating the Pocket Dimension. While inspecting the Time site, various members of the cabal had visions of possible futures. In one of them, they saw Argent buying a gun. In another, they saw a young man who would later be identified as Alex being stuffed into the boot of a car. In a third vision, Rynel got shot on a street corner in Lancaster city centre. That put a downer on everyone's day. Shortly afterwards, Rayth interacted with the Fate Site, causing a defensive curse to be activated. She was presented with visions of Pallas, Rynel and Alex, and told to choose between them; with some divination, she discovered that whoever she chose would be shot on a street corner in Lancaster city centre. After some agonising, Rayth selected Rynel.

After it was determined that Alex was in fact the young Proximus who was being investigated by Rayth and Pauli, the information was passed to Iseult. Iseult indicated that she would take care of it, but that she was currently investigating a phantom break-in at her office where nothing appeared to have been stolen. Some short while later, Constantine approached the Rose and informed them that his Time divinations had implicated Argent in the break-in. He had entered the office, opened a small portal into the secret safe where Iseult kept the details of the Proximi, removed and photocopied said details, then replaced the paperwork and left. Assorted further divinations were performed, which revealed that now, either Iseult or Ebraucus was going to be shot on the same street corner identified earlier. This information was passed to Iseult and Ebraucus, which changed the divinations somewhat: now Iseult was definitely going to be shot, and Ebraucus was not. Iseult continued to assure anyone who asked that she could handle the matter perfectly well herself.

A stakeout of the site of the shooting followed, which came to a head when Argent showed up. A somewhat tense conversation resulted in Rynel deciding that as Argent was going to shoot him, he'd best pre-emptively defend himself. Rynel punched Argent in the face. Argent was not hugely displeased about this turn of affairs, largely as it meant that when Hoodsman appeared to pick up the scent again, he could engage the Sentinel in discussion over how illegal Rynel's attack had been. Though Argent declined to press charges, the waters were further muddied, and he promptly disappeared again. Constantine and Download picked him up on CCTV, but lost him in a blind spot. It was later discovered that Argent had torched his car in order to avoid having it used to trace his passage through the city.

Some short while afterwards, Argent approached Rynel at the Plough. Argent indicated that he wished to negatiate a detente between the two of them, an approach which Rynel rebuffed. Argent disappeared again shortly afterwards.

Flashpoint
After a brief period of rest, several things happened all at once. Argent abducted Alex, the stress of the experience causing the young man to begin his Awakening. The Rose called Iseult with further warnings, which were brushed off as all the previous ones had been. Time divinations revealed that the shootings were due to occur that very evening. The Rose determined that as Iseult was not going to ask for the help that she clearly needed, they would involve themselves and everyone else as much as they deemed necessary. The stage was set.

That evening, watching members of the cabal observed Argent hustling Alex down the street while carrying a concealed gun. The Rose was on the point of stepping in when Iseult came up behind Argent and flung a fireball at his head, in full view of a large number of nearby Sleepers. The confrontation that followed was vicious - Iseult was shot (but not killed), Rynel suffered significant injuries, Rayth received some minor wounds, and Alex was accidentally subjected to a number of botched psychic attacks that combined with the stress of his in-progress Awakening to drive him into a coma. Argent fled the scene at high speed, and a clean-up was effected before the police could arrive.

Fallout
Argent was apprehended less than 48 hours later by the joint efforts of seemingly most of the Consilium By The Bay, largely involving Protean and the Adamantine Arrow. Iseult was hospitalised, and stripped of her responsibilities regarding the Proximi while still in her hospital bed. Fakaikos was created during Achaikos' spellcasting. The Free Council Trials followed shortly afterwards. Relations between Preston and Lancaster deteriorated to the point that a Convocation was called in an effort to resolve the feud without further violence.