US Law Enforcement Response, Time, Scale and Coordination (Galveston, TX)

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Icelander

A savvy and occult-aware fed might conclude that the PCs knew about a supernatural threat and were avoiding exposing mundane cops to a vortex of dark spirits that had a high chance of causing blue-on-blue incidents.

If only they could be so lucky.

Originally Posted by Icelander

A somewhat awkward issue may be the mistreated victim who was executed with a shot to the back of the head. True, not with any weapon carried by the PCs, but not with a weapon found aboard either. And her status as victim or perpetrator is complex, given that her face is smeared with the blood of another victim and pieces of intenstines will be found in her mouth and gullet.

I'm going to assume the gunshot was either the work of Alice Talbot (who I believe you stated escaped the scene prior to the authorities knowing she was ever on boards) or Nonc Morel (who tends to do similar vanishing acts), to eliminate a sacrifice who had clearly been possessed by Something.

Originally Posted by Icelander

Other than Mr. Sandoval, who refused to talk to federal investigators, but strangely was very cooperative with the PCs. Mr. Sandoval is now claiming to be an innocent bystander who had no idea what the men in whose company he briefly found himself were planning to do, but is willing to give all the information that might be desired about his place of employment, in case anyone there was responsible for this heinous attack. It may be significant that the PCs, whose testimony would be crucial to convince Mr. Sandoval of any serious crimes, are now saying that it's possible that he was involuntarily in the company of the shooters and picked up a weapon during the shooting to defend himself and/or help the police in an active shooter situation. Yes, the PCs absolutely made a deal with the leader of the OpFor that they'd do their best to let him escape the consequences of his actions if he'd help them catch his bosses.

I recently read back through the rest of this thread, and couldn't help but wonder if Raul might have considered going to the PC's for help, given his Secret Masters had basically ordered him to do the near-impossible or face horrifying consequences. This is why ruling through fear falls apart when faced with highly-competent foes - it's rather in your minions' interest to betray you as soon as someone who can defeat you and is likely to treat them better shows up. "Fail and I'll kill you" backfires if a potential failure mode involves getting captured, as it leaves them with betraying you as the best option for survival. A shame Raul didn't opt for the betrayal before having his men murder a number of LEO's and a paramedic.

...

Apologies I can't really add anything to the discussion of jurisdictions and political jockeying, but I do rather enjoy reading about the events of your campaign.