Date: [2-6-2026] -- Mid Oct, 2026
Location: Dante's apartment

Player Characters Present: Dante
Open Spots: 0-1 (if Dante invites or goes somewhere)

NPCs Present: Ashbriar - Seraphine

Current Scenario: Dante is watching the TV, realizing the source of this disease is still alive, somehow

Suggested Dice Pools: Occult, social with Seraphine, Perception, investigation stuff

End Trigger: Dante decides next move

Opener:

[ON AIR — KSTL Channel 7 News, St. Louis, 6:03 PM]

ANCHOR (Emily Carter):
“Good evening, St. Louis. We begin tonight with breaking news — a shocking act of violence against a prominent figure in our city’s judicial and political scene.

Circuit Court Judge Elias Rourke was shot late this afternoon outside his office in the Central West End. Witnesses report seeing a masked man fleeing the scene in a dark sedan. Law enforcement responded within minutes, and Rourke was transported to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition tonight.

Police sources now confirm the suspect has been identified as Marcus Dillard, a recently paroled ex-convict who served time following sentencing by Judge Rourke nearly eight years ago. Dillard was apprehended earlier this evening after a brief standoff in a North Side apartment complex.

What’s complicating this case — and stirring tensions across the city — are emerging reports suggesting Dillard may have been paid to carry out the shooting. Sources close to the investigation allege that money traced to one of Judge Rourke’s political adversaries, Councilman David Hale, a Democratic candidate currently running for mayor, may have made its way to Dillard through intermediaries. These claims remain unverified at this time.

Judge Rourke, 53, has long been considered a pillar of St. Louis’s upper–west community and a vocal supporter of conservative and business-aligned initiatives. In recent months, he has appeared in several political ads opposing Hale’s campaign, labeling him, quote, ‘a threat to the city’s moral foundation.’

The situation has already sparked fierce debate across social media, with some accusing Rourke’s allies of using the attack to inflame racial and political divisions. Councilman Hale — who is Black and widely regarded as an upstanding reformist — issued a statement this evening calling the allegations ‘baseless and dangerous,’ urging the public to let the investigation proceed.

Meanwhile, police are maintaining a heavy presence outside Barnes-Jewish Hospital tonight, citing concerns about possible further threats against Judge Rourke.

We’ll continue to monitor this story as it unfolds. For now, Judge Rourke’s family has asked for privacy, and the city waits for answers in what’s already shaping up to be one of St. Louis’s most politically charged cases in recent memory.”

The camera lingers a moment on the anchor’s steady face before cutting to footage of flashing police lights reflected in the windows outside Rourke’s stately home, reporters calling questions into the cold night.