Chill: Old Photos

Yesterday we jumped back into the frigid wastelands of Seward, Alaska. Here's last time, but much has changed.

The envoys have been in touch with some folks in the greater SAVE organization, including Alison Ware and the staff of the Den, and have been folded into the larger organization, going from a lost cell to traditionalist. They've sent out an envoy to act as coordinator for the HQ, one Kirby Bellman, an ER doc originally from San Diego. 

In addition, several new envoys have joined up in the last few months:

• Capt. Khalil Barnes (USAF, Ret): Khalil was a JAG officer and legal investigator who, during the course of one investigation, uncovered something unspeakable. The eldritch truths he learned nearly drove him mad, and he retired and joined SAVE in order to make sense of the world.
• Arlo Miller: Arlo was a private security operative who protected mostly rich corporate types, and stopped a possessed stalker from killing one of his charges. He came up to Seward on rich guy's hunting trip and wound up staying with SAVE (and demonstrating an almost savant-like aptitude for the Protective Art). His Drive is to be the shield. 
• Kayla Vanderhoven: Kayla is a yoga instructor and self-taught astral projector who witnessed Mercy Williams get attacked by an incorporeal being while she was out-of-body. She seeks to better understand the universe. 
• Tulugaak Hanta: A Native kid and all-state track-and-fielder (100-meter dash) and recent high school grad, Tul also had the distinction of being struck by lightning and marked by some creature of the Unknown. His Drive is to find a larger family. 

On this particular Monday in December, snow blanketing the ground and more on the way, five envoys get a text message from Dr. Bellman. Amelia Rostov is working on signups for a Winter Pet Parade. Arlo is looking for work (bouncer, maybe?). Tul is out running, and Kayla is finishing up a yoga class. Khalil is at a doctor's appointment at Providence General, which is handy, as it turns out. 

The message tells them to meet him in the hospital cafeteria in an hour (he also mentions it's Salisbury steak day, but no one is much enthused by that prospect). When everyone gathers, Dr. Bellman tells them to maybe eat first, before he shows them what's up (whereupon Khalil decides to save his salad for later).

Dr. Bellman explains that a dead woman was brought in today, apparently killed by chemical poisoning. The police haven't determined whether it was accidental or deliberate, but that's less concerning than the effects of the poison. He shows them a picture (everyone but Khalil, who abstains - he's got kind of a weak stomach). The woman, Janice McNulty, is in her early 50s, but it's kind of hard to tell from the picture. Her eyes are swollen shut, her lips and throat and distended, and she's got awful, yellow blisters on her face and chest. Dr. Bellman gives them a little background: Janice was found dead in her home by her adult son, Alex. Alex had been away at school at the University of Washington, came home yesterday, and left the house last night at some point, but returned in the wee hours. He found her body when he came downstairs in the morning. 

The house has been cleared - no residual toxins. Bellman is still waiting on tissue sample tests and swabs for some more exotic toxins, but the obvious stuff has all tested negative. The body is downstairs and Dr. Bellman tells the envoys that he can get them in to see it, alone, for a few minutes. Amelia asks if this is an Unknown thing, and Bellman says he thinks so, but he wants some more eyes on it. 

The envoys head downstairs and Bellman gets whoever's in the morgue to take a walk. He lets them in and pulls the body out. Amelia senses the Unknown, and hears the ringing in her ears that indicates a supernatural presence, but it's residual - whatever killed the woman was indeed a creature of the Unknown. Khalil puts on a pair of gloves and pokes at the body a bit. Bellman informs them that Janice's throat closed, which is what killed her, but she has no history of allergies (or really any significant medical history at all). They determine that the toxin affect her trachea more than esophagus, so it was probably something she inhaled rather than something she ate. Her soft tissues are all swollen up, and that plus the weird coloration of the blisters make Khalil think of mustard gas.

Of course he's never seen mustard gas; it hasn't been used in a long time, but he's seen pictures. Kayla asks if it's possible for someone to make it, and Khalil says it is, but if someone mixed up a batch of mustard gas they'd probably have seen more cases of poisoning just from the off-gassing. Amelia can't think offhand of any significant WWI history around Seward, but that's definitely an area to look into.

The envoys split up - Amelia and Kayla hit the library, while Arlo, Khalil, and Tul head to the house to talk to Alex (and hopefully get to snoop around a bit). Bellman wishes them well, he's got clinic duty. 

The three envoys pull up at the house. It's a nice little split-level on the west end of town. They knock, and a young man (about 21) answers the door. He's clearly tired, but talks with them. Khalil gets them in the door (and assures him they're not cops), which seems to put him a little at east - he's dealt with enough cops today. He invites them in and takes them to the kitchen to sit down.

Conversation with Alex reveals that his relationship with his mother was, to the say the least, strained. He hadn't talked with her since the start of the semester, and when got home yesterday, he discovered that she was selling the house and had already packed up most of his stuff. He says they got into a fight and he stormed out around 8:30 and drove to a bar, and didn't come back until after 2AM. He went straight upstairs and didn't see her until the morning, when he came downstairs and found her dead in the kitchen.

Khalil also asks Alex about his studies; he's a history major. He's more interested in economic history than war, though, and he doesn't have any friends or professors with a special interest in World War I. Tul offers Alex a place to stay for a couple of days, to get him out of the house and away from this situation, and Khalil offers legal assistance with the probate and so forth. Alex agrees and goes up to pack a bag, and the envoys check the downstairs a bit. 

Tul touches a wall and uses Schematic, and learns that there are four rooms upstairs. Based on the layout, he's guessing master bedroom, Alex's bedroom, a bathroom, and then a small side room off Alex's room. He doesn't feel anything Unknown in the bones of the house, so whatever is going on here, it doesn't seem related to the place. 

The kitchen has clearly been cleaned recently; there's no real evidence of the death. No damage to the cabinetry and it doesn't look like Janice thrashed or flailed when she died - whatever did this, it was fast. The envoys also note that there are no pictures displayed and Khalil doesn't find any albums down here. Alex reappears with a bag and Khalil, but Alex says that his mom wasn't really sentimental like that. His dad left when he was about 8, his maternal grandparents are dead, and he's never met his paternal grandparents. Khalil asks if Janice was seeing anyone and he says he doesn't think so, but does note that she'd mentioned on Facebook that she'd been hearing weird noises in the house of late.

Tul rides with Alex to head to his mom's house, and Arlo follows. Khalil stays behind to look around, and of course heads upstairs. He finds that Janice's room is about half packed up, but Alex's room is entirely packed up. He also notes that the small room off Alex's room looks like an architectural mistake more than anything; slightly bigger than a walk-in closet, accessible by a panel on the wall that comes away.

In that room, Khalil finds a stack of boxes, and inside, a lot of antique photographs. They're of various people and families, and no one obviously resembles Alex or his mother. Khalil photographs all of them, and pops them from the frames and checks the back. Some of them are labeled, some aren't, but the handwriting doesn't match up. These photos look like they're all from different collections, even different families. Khalil sends all these photos to the group chat, and then heads to check out Janice's room.

When he steps out of Alex's room, though, fog rises up from the ground. It doesn't smell like sulfur, so no mustard gas, but that's still a little too weird for Khalil and he gets the hell out and texts the others.

Meanwhile, Amelia and Kayla do a little research. They learn that Seward doesn't have any particular history regarding the Great War. Sure, there were people from the area who enlisted, but no war heroes from the region, no memorials (and for what it's worth, Alaska wasn't a state at the time). When the info about Janice's Facebook comes through, Kayla has a look, and there are a couple of mentions of her hearing footsteps in the house at night (her friends recommend sage). The envoys wonder if this is what induced her to sell the place.

Tul, meanwhile, rides with Alex out to his mom's house, and realizes on the way that they went to the same high school - Tul was a freshman when Alex was a senior. They didn't run in the same circles, though. Tul was an athlete, and his recollection is that Alex ran with the party kids. When the photos start hitting the chat, Tul asks if his mom was interested in photograph (Alex says she was not) and then asks about the photos. Alex says they're just something he's interested in, and it's amazing what people sell at yard sales and whatnot.

They arrive at Tul's family home outside of town. His mom has something good on the stove, and is happy to put Alex up for a couple of days. About now, Khalil mentions the fog, so everyone reconvenes at the McNulty house. 

Khalil explains what he saw, and they decide to let Kayla go in first astrally. She unrolls her yoga mat, sits down and meditates, and walks out of her body and through the front door. She looks around the first floor and sees a layer of yellow goo in the kitchen - not present physically, but still present spiritually. 

She starts to head upstairs and sees fog spilling down. She hears someone calling "hello?" and then blowing a whistle. She calls out ("hello?") and a man's voice asks who she is. She tries to engage him in conversation (at one point, he asks if she's American, but generally he seems scared and confused), and then she hears a soft metallic ting and something bounces off the wall near her. 

Kayla sinks into the floor and away from the object, but it explodes. Shrapnel rips through her head and she panics, before she realizes that her head isn't physically present. She returns to her body and stands back up, now with a bad headache, and explains that he threw a grenade at her (Khalil: "I didn't hear-" Kayla: "A ghost grenade."). 

They consider what to do - there's talk of going in and having Amelia ward the room - but Khalil hears glass break. He glances up and sees a rifle barrel sticking out of a corner of an upstairs window. He grabs Amelia and Kayla ("GUN!") and pushes them behind the car for cover. Tul sprints to the front door, neatly getting under the line of fire, and Arlo reflexively raises a Sphere of Protection - just as the rifle fires.

CRACK. The shot bounces off the shield. Kayla and Amelia both run for the door, but Amelia stumbles (she's still recovering from a nasty werewolf bite). Khalil and Arlo exchange a look, and Khalil nods. Arlo drops the Sphere, runs out next to Amelia, and raises it again. Khalil yells at the gunman to stand down, trying to address him as a superior officer, but apparently he doesn't buy it.

CRACK. The shot goes through the top of the car and hits Khalil in the hip. Khalil yells at him again and ups the ante, trying his best to sound like a drill sergeant. The gunman retracts the rifle and asks where the squad is; Khalil says that he just put a round in a superior's hip, he's not entitled to ask any questions. He demands the gunman identify himself, and he does: "Private Benedict Martin." And then the rifle vanishes. 

Khalil collapses, Arlo calls EMS, and Kayla keeps pressure on the wound. The envoys check the house, but apart from the broken window, they don't find much. But when Kayla gets upstairs (Arlo goes in the ambulance with Khalil; Amelia texts Dr. Bellman to give him a heads up), she uses Eyes of the Dead, and sees ghostly spent cartridges and bootprints. 

Khalil and Arlo meet with Dr. Bellman. Bellman tells Khalil that, fortunately, the bullet didn't hit any major arteries and his hip isn't broken. No fragments or evidence of the bullet, though, which indicates that it probably vanished with the rest of the ghost. From the wound, it's a high-caliber rifle. Khalil's guess is an M1 carbine, the kind used by soldiers in WWI. 

The envoys need a bit of a breather. Khalil starts working on paperwork for Alex, helping out with the probate. The others prepare to spend tomorrow trying to figure out who Benedict Martin is, and why he's set up camp in the McNulty house.