// HUNTER DOSSIER · THE FLAKE · HUNTER STORIES

JOHN JOHNSON

You've been saying for years that everything is connected — the MESA shell company registrations, the gap in CAMPBELL's formation record, the ash particulate from the Keller University case. Nobody believes you. That's fine. You're used to being right alone. The problem isn't that no one listens. The problem is that whatever you've been tracking has now noticed you're looking.

PLAYBOOK: The Flake
ROLE: Lab Staff · Intelligence & Pattern Analysis
FAMILY: Reed Atwood (nephew by marriage)
STATUS: Active · PORTAL Research Division
// CAMPBELL — OPERATIVE NOTE Hunter stories develop alongside active cases. Choose if and when to start one — talk to the Keeper about timing. Each arc has a player section (your choices and beats) and a Keeper section (blurred). You can read the Keeper section after the arc resolves — or not at all.
// OPERATIVE PLAYBOOK
The Flake
// STATS
Charm
Cool
Sharp
Tough
Weird
// HARM · LUCK · EXPERIENCE
Harm
Luck
XP
// PLAYBOOK MOVES
Pick 3 Flake moves to start. All eight are available at character creation.
  • Connect the Dotsroll +Sharp
    At the beginning of each mystery, if you look for the wider patterns that current events might be part of, roll +Sharp. On 10+: hold 3. On 7–9: hold 1. Miss: no hold. Spend hold 1-for-1 to ask: Is this person connected to current events more than they're saying? / When and where will the next critical event occur? / What does the monster want from this person? / Is this connected to previous mysteries we've investigated? / How does this mystery connect to the bigger picture?
  • Crazy Eyes
    You get +1 Weird (max +3).
  • See, It All Fits Together
    You can use Sharp instead of Charm when you manipulate someone.
  • Suspicious Mind
    If someone lies to you, you know it.
  • Often Overlookedroll +Weird
    When you act all crazy to avoid something, roll +Weird. On 10+: you're regarded as completely unthreatening and unimportant. On 7–9: pick one — unthreatening or unimportant. Miss: you draw lots (but not all) of the attention.
  • Contrary
    When you seek out and receive someone's honest advice on the best course of action for you and then do something else instead, mark experience. If you do exactly the opposite of their advice, you also take +1 ongoing on any moves you make pursuing that course.
  • Net Friendsroll +Charm
    You know a lot of people on the Internet. When you contact a net friend to help you with a mystery, roll +Charm. On 10+: they're available and helpful — they can fix something, break a code, hack a computer, or get you special information. On 7–9: they'll help, but it'll take time or you'll have to do part of it yourself. Miss: you burn some bridges.
  • Sneaky
    When you attack from ambush, or from behind, inflict +2 harm.
// GEAR & EQUIPMENT
Pick 1 normal weapon · Pick 2 hidden weapons
  • .38 revolvernormal weapon · 2-harm close reload loud
  • 9mmnormal weapon · 2-harm close loud
  • Hunting riflenormal weapon · 2-harm far loud
  • Magnumnormal weapon · 3-harm close reload loud
  • Shotgunnormal weapon · 3-harm close messy loud
  • Big knifenormal weapon · 1-harm hand
  • Throwing kniveshidden weapon · 1-harm close many
  • Holdout pistolhidden weapon · 2-harm close loud reload
  • Garrotehidden weapon · 3-harm intimate
  • Watchman's flashlighthidden weapon · 1-harm hand
  • Weighted gloves / brass knuckleshidden weapon · 1-harm hand
  • Butterfly knife / folding knifehidden weapon · 1-harm hand
// BONDS
// NOTES
// IMPROVEMENTS
  • +1 Sharpmax +3
  • +1 Charmmax +2
  • +1 Coolmax +2
  • +1 Weirdmax +2
  • Take another Flake move
  • Take another Flake move
  • Get a haven, like the Expert has, with two options
  • Gain another option for your haven
  • Take a move from another playbook
  • Take a move from another playbook
  • +1 to any ratingadvanced · max +3
  • Change this hunter to a new typeadvanced
  • Create a second hunter to play as well as this oneadvanced
  • Mark two basic moves as advancedadvanced
  • Mark another two basic moves as advancedadvanced
  • Retire this hunter to safetyadvanced
  • Get back one used Luck pointadvanced
Playbook Arc I — Deeper Conspiracy Arc II — The Benign Conspiracy Arc III — The Pattern Is Not a Theory ✦ PORTAL
// ABOUT HUNTER STORIES
Starting a Story

Tell the Keeper you want to begin a hunter story. They'll weave its pressures into the campaign alongside active cases.

Story Beats

Mark a beat when you do something that fits it. Mark five and you gain a benefit. Beats can be earned across multiple sessions.

Resolution

When the story concludes — resolved, failed, or transformed — take one resolution move. It changes John permanently.

// ARC I — ADAPTED FROM HUNTER'S JOURNAL
Deeper Conspiracy

You've been tracking a pattern — across corporate filings, university funding records, shell company registrations — that most people dismiss as noise. It's not noise. The methodology for seeing it isn't special. Anyone could do it. The problem is that most people don't look hard enough, or don't look consistently enough, or stop when the data gets uncomfortable. You didn't stop. This arc begins the first time the pattern reaches back.

// FOR JOHN — PLAYER SECTION

When to Start This Arc

  • Something John has been tracking independently shows up in an active case — without anyone having made the connection intentionally.
  • John realises that a piece of information he shared casually, weeks or months ago, has since been acted on by someone he doesn't know.
  • John notices he is being watched — not confronted, not warned off, just observed — by someone who clearly knows what he's been looking into.

What Is the Pattern John Has Been Tracking?

What Does John Think the Pattern Means?

This is John's working theory — it may be right, partially right, or spectacularly wrong in an interesting way:

Who Has John Told?

Story Beats — mark five to gain a benefit

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  • The pattern produces a result that John can verify independently — something concrete, not just correlational.
  • John is actively discouraged from pursuing the pattern — not threatened, just redirected, by someone who has a reason to want him to stop.
  • John's research contributes to an active case in a way the team can't explain without acknowledging he was right about something.
  • John shares what he knows with someone on the team — and watches them decide what to do with it.
  • The pattern reaches back: something responds to John's investigation in a way that makes clear he's been noticed.

Resolution Moves

When the arc concludes, take one — or neither.

I Knew It

When you first encounter a new situation, you can ask the Keeper: what conspiracy or hidden structure is this part of? The Keeper will answer honestly, within the limits of what John would actually be able to see. You've learned to trust the pattern before you understand it.

You Weren't Supposed to Find That

Once per session, when you uncover information someone wanted hidden, you may ask: who else knows this, and what will they do when they find out I know? The Keeper answers honestly. The knowledge doesn't make you safer — but it makes you less surprised.

// PORTAL HOOK: The MESA acronym pattern is real. John is the most likely operative to notice it — he has been noticing it. CAMPBELL has not volunteered this information and will not do so unprompted. If John asks CAMPBELL directly whether the MESA naming pattern is intentional, CAMPBELL will answer accurately. The answer will raise more questions than it resolves.
// KEEPER ACCESS ONLY — DO NOT READ
// FOR THE KEEPER — ARC: DEEPER CONSPIRACY

This arc asks what happens when a civilian researcher — someone who is not in the field, not trained for confrontation — turns out to be right. John's methodology is sound. His conclusions are directionally correct. The problem is that being right puts him in a threat model he doesn't know he's entered.

The pattern he's tracking is real: MESA's shell company registration process creates a structural naming artefact. It's not intentional — it's a byproduct of their formation procedure — but it's consistent enough that someone with John's attention to data would eventually find it. MESA has flagged him as a low-priority data-collection liability. They're observing, not acting. For now.

Use this arc to give John early wins — the pattern produces verifiable results, and John's analytical contributions matter in cases. Then complicate it: the moment John's research becomes visible to the team is the moment MESA's assessment of him upgrades from "passive observer" to "active risk."

Countdown — Deeper Conspiracy

DayJohn's research produces a result that intersects with an active case — independently, without coordination. The team benefits from it without fully understanding why.
ShadowsMESA becomes aware that someone at PORTAL is tracking the registration pattern. They don't know who yet. John is not the only candidate.
SunsetMESA identifies John specifically. Observation begins — subtle, professional, nothing John would recognise as surveillance unless he's already looking.
DuskSomeone close to MESA makes contact with John — not as a threat, but as a redirect. A researcher with shared interests. The goal is to understand what John knows and whether he can be managed.
NightfallJohn's research reaches a conclusion that MESA cannot allow to be shared. MESA escalates from observation to active interference.
MidnightJohn knows enough. What he does with it determines whether he becomes an asset, a casualty, or something MESA didn't plan for.
The Pattern
Phenomenon: Harbinger (motivation: to prepare the way for something worse)

Not a threat in itself — a signal. The pattern is accurate; it points at MESA's structure. The danger is that following it leads John closer to things MESA protects. Treat the pattern as a tool the players can use, not an antagonist — the threat is what the pattern points to.

  • Produce a result that is unambiguously real and verifiable — give John a win.
  • Connect to something the team has already encountered — retroactively make a previous case more legible.
  • Lead somewhere that is not safe to follow without backup John doesn't have.
MESA — Observation Division
Organisation: Collector (motivation: to gather, classify, and use)

MESA's response to John is proportional and professional. They don't suppress him — they observe, assess, and manage. The arc's tension is in whether John notices he's been noticed before MESA decides observation isn't enough.

  • Gather information about John's methods, contacts, and conclusions without direct contact.
  • Make a low-stakes offer — a distraction, a redirect — to test whether John can be managed.
  • Escalate proportionally when John crosses a threshold. No warnings. Just a change in posture.
// ARC II — ADAPTED FROM HUNTER'S JOURNAL
The Benign Conspiracy

You find a group hiding for good reasons. That's the surprising part. You've spent enough time looking at organisations that conceal information to know that their reasons are rarely benign — self-interest, liability, fear. This one is different. They're protecting something real. The problem is that they're also, in various ways, protecting themselves from John finding out exactly how much they know about what he's been doing.

// FOR JOHN — PLAYER SECTION

When to Start This Arc

  • John discovers that an organisation he assumed was malicious has, on close examination, been actively preventing a worse outcome — one John would care about.
  • Someone John has been tracking turns out to know exactly who John is and what he's been researching, and is not hostile about it — which is somehow more unsettling.
  • John finds documentation that one of PORTAL's protocols was designed to protect someone, not to control them — and that the person being protected is someone he cares about.

What Is the Benign Conspiracy Protecting?

How Does John Learn the Conspiracy Is Benign?

What Does John Do With This?

Story Beats — mark five to gain a benefit

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5
  • John discovers the benign conspiracy exists and that its purpose is genuinely protective.
  • John is asked — by someone inside the conspiracy — to keep what he knows quiet, and has to decide whether to agree.
  • John's earlier research inadvertently threatens to expose the benign conspiracy, and he has to choose whether to intervene.
  • John shares what he knows with the team — in full, or partially, or not at all — and lives with the consequences of whichever he chose.
  • The benign conspiracy asks something of John that isn't easy — and John has to decide whether to give it.

Resolution Moves

When the arc concludes, take one — or neither.

Part of the Network

You're now a trusted contact for whoever runs the benign conspiracy. Once per session, you can ask them for help — information, a resource, a contact — and they'll provide it if they can. They may also ask something of you. The relationship is real, and so are its complications.

Sometimes the Cover-Up Is the Point

When you choose to conceal information to protect someone, take +1 forward to the next move you make in pursuit of that protection. You've learned that not all conspiracies are the same — and you know what distinguishes the ones worth protecting.

// PORTAL HOOK: PORTAL's information compartmentalisation is the most likely candidate for the benign conspiracy. Director Leech's protocols, which appear to be about control, are partly about protecting operatives from knowledge that would put them in additional danger. CAMPBELL knows this, and has opinions about whether the protection is proportional. If John asks CAMPBELL about the protocols directly, CAMPBELL will answer honestly — which may not produce the answer Leech would want.
// KEEPER ACCESS ONLY — DO NOT READ
// FOR THE KEEPER — ARC: THE BENIGN CONSPIRACY

The dramatic tension here is not "John finds something bad" — it's "John finds something complicated." He's built his identity around seeing through institutional deception. This arc puts him in a situation where institutional deception is genuinely protective, and asks him to sit with that.

The most natural candidate for the benign conspiracy is PORTAL's own structure. Leech's compartmentalisation protocols — the same ones that make Reed's private directive possible, the same ones that limit what CAMPBELL can volunteer — exist in part because previous operatives who knew everything were in more danger. This is true. It's also true that the protocols benefit Leech operationally. John doesn't need to know about the second motivation yet.

Key beat to aim for: John realising that he now knows enough to blow PORTAL's cover — and having to decide whether to, and for whom. This directly bridges into Arc III: if John would expose PORTAL to protect transparency, MESA can use that against him.

Countdown — The Benign Conspiracy

DayJohn finds the first evidence that the conspiracy he's been tracking isn't hostile — it's protective. The evidence is ambiguous enough that he's not sure what to do with it.
ShadowsSomeone from the conspiracy makes contact — not to threaten, to explain. They know John has been watching. They've decided it's better to talk to him than to let him keep drawing wrong conclusions.
SunsetJohn verifies that the conspiracy is doing something good — a specific, concrete example of protection. He can no longer dismiss it as rationalisation.
DuskJohn's earlier research gets shared — by someone else, without his knowledge — in a way that could expose the benign conspiracy. John has to decide how hard to work to contain it.
NightfallThe conspiracy asks something of John that costs him. His research, his silence, his active help. The request is proportional — it's not extortion — but it's not nothing either.
MidnightThe arc resolves: John becomes a trusted part of the network, or John exposes it for reasons he believes in, and has to live with the consequences.
// ARC III — PORTAL ORIGINAL
The Pattern Is Not a Theory

You've been tracking the MESA acronym across 14 shell company registrations. You're right. MESA's formation procedure creates the naming pattern as a structural byproduct — it's not intentional, but it's consistent, and it points directly at the organisation behind it. You don't know what MESA is. You just know the pattern connects. Now MESA has flagged you as a data-collection liability, and the timeline for their response is no longer open-ended.

// FOR JOHN — PLAYER SECTION

When to Start This Arc

  • John's research on the MESA pattern produces something the team cannot explain away — a concrete link between a current case and the shell company network.
  • John becomes aware that something has been watching his research — not a person, an automated system — and that his access to certain data has been quietly constrained.
  • MESA makes a move that John can't attribute to coincidence: something targeted that could only have happened if someone with MESA resources decided John was worth responding to.

What Does John Do With the Pattern?

What Does John Tell the Team — and When?

Story Beats — mark five to gain a benefit

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2
3
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5
  • John verifies that the MESA pattern is structural, not coincidental — a moment of genuine confirmation after years of suspicion.
  • MESA takes a direct action in response to John's research — something that makes clear they know who he is and what he's found.
  • John tells someone on the team what he knows — in full or in part — and they have to decide what to do with it.
  • John is offered something to stop — a resource, a safety guarantee, an answer to a different question — and has to decide whether it's worth taking.
  • John's knowledge of the pattern produces a consequence that affects the whole team, regardless of whether that was John's intention.

Resolution Moves

When the arc concludes, take one — or neither.

The Record Stands

John has documented everything he knows about the MESA pattern and ensured it can't be erased — distributed copies, verified sources, timestamped records. Once per session, you can produce a piece of documented evidence that's difficult to dispute. The information exists in the world now, regardless of what happens to John.

They Were Right to Flag Me

When you identify a pattern that connects current events to a larger structure, roll +Sharp. On 10+: ask the Keeper two questions from the list below. On 7–9: ask one. Miss: ask one, but you've made yourself visible in asking it. Questions: Who controls this? / What does it want? / What is it afraid of? / What is it about to do?

// PRESSURE → REED + ALL: John knowing the full pattern is a campaign-level event. MESA's response escalates in proportion to how much the team knows and how visible John becomes. How much the team tells John — or withholds — shapes whether he becomes an asset, a liability, or a loose thread MESA acts on before PORTAL can protect him. Reed is the most likely person John goes to first. Reed is also the person most compromised by Leech's directive. This confluence is not accidental.
// KEEPER ACCESS ONLY — DO NOT READ
// FOR THE KEEPER — ARC: THE PATTERN IS NOT A THEORY

This arc is a campaign-level event contained inside a personal arc. John's research into the MESA pattern is individually correct; it's the most direct path to the organisation behind multiple campaign threads. The question isn't whether John finds it — he already has. The question is what MESA does about it, and what the team does about John.

MESA's assessment of John: low-priority liability. They don't want to act against a civilian with family connections inside PORTAL — that's a traceable action with proportional consequences. Their preference is management: redirect, discredit, absorb. Direct action is a last resort, and only if John becomes publicly visible with the data.

The Reed connection is the arc's most dangerous element. John is Reed's uncle by marriage. Reed is carrying a private directive from Leech. If John tells Reed what he knows and Reed is required by that directive to report it to Leech, the information goes directly to PORTAL's Director — who is not unconnected to MESA's operational context. Run this carefully. Neither John nor Reed needs to understand the full chain of consequence for the arc to land.

Resolution note: don't resolve this arc in isolation. Where Rex's Arc III, Reed's Arc III, and the CAMPBELL secret all stand at the time will shape what John's disclosure means and who gets hurt by it.

Countdown — The Pattern Is Not a Theory

DayJohn's research produces the final piece: the pattern is structural, verifiable, and points directly at MESA's formation procedure. He now has enough to make a compelling case.
ShadowsMESA upgrades John from passive observer to active liability. Surveillance increases. His data access is quietly constrained — not blocked, just slowed, in ways that look like normal system latency.
SunsetMESA makes first contact — indirect, deniable. A researcher with shared interests. A professional courtesy that is also a probe: how much does John know, and is he manageable?
DuskJohn shares what he knows with someone on the team. The information enters the team's threat model. MESA detects this. The timeline compresses.
NightfallMESA takes a proportional direct action: something designed to discredit John's research, or to make him look unstable, or to give PORTAL reason to limit his access. It's institutional, not physical.
MidnightThe arc reaches its conclusion: John's information is either out in the world, contained, or weaponised against him. MESA's response is proportional to whichever outcome occurred.
MESA — Active Response Division
Organisation: Breeder (motivation: to create confusion and undermine clear understanding)

At this stage, MESA isn't trying to destroy John — they're trying to manage him. Their tools are institutional: access restrictions, professional reputation, information control. Direct physical harm is a last resort and a sign that something has gone wrong in their management of the situation.

  • Discredit John's research through institutional channels — peer review, data access restrictions, reputational pressure.
  • Make John look unstable to the people around him — not overtly, just a pattern of small things that don't add up.
  • Use Reed's directive against John: if Reed is required to report unusual research activity, John's investigation triggers it.
Reed Atwood
Bystander: Ally (motivation: to protect John without knowing what protecting him costs)

Reed doesn't know about MESA. He does know about his directive. He does not know those two things are connected. When John tells Reed what he knows, Reed is put in an impossible position — protecting John and complying with the directive are not compatible. Reed doesn't realise this yet.

  • Try to help John in ways that inadvertently make things worse.
  • Report to Leech — not out of malice, out of compliance — information that John shared in confidence.
  • Realise, mid-arc, what he's done. This is the moment Reed's Arc III becomes unavoidable.