Marvel: Enter Mount Wundagore!

Back to superheroes for the third and final Act! Here's last time.

Our heroes swoop in towards Mount Wundagore, and the weather immediately turns against them. Snow and blinding hail kicks up, and it's all Maria and Bucky can do to keep the quinjet level. But they break through the weather and see the cave entrance that Spidey saw in his vision - and three figures waiting for them.

Two of them are the huge rock monsters that Spidey saw before, but the third is a more normal-sized human with a long cloak. They can't quite make out other features, but they see the figure move their arms and then a beam of magical energies streaks towards them! Maria takes evasive action, and then has to do it again as the rock-monsters hurl boulders at the jet. But Maria is a hell of a pilot, and the quinjet turns around and lands. The back opens, and the heroes exit the plane into battle!

The figure, horribly, turns out to be Doctor Stephen strange, whom we last saw back here. But his flesh is pale and sallow, his eyes and milky, and he looks, well, dead. "Necromancy," mutters Magnus. "Don't see that every day."

Bucky takes up a position by the plane and gets the attention of the rock-monsters, who tromp over towards him, fists raised. Maria runs and slides past Strange, and sees into the cave. She sees carvings on the walls that make her eyes itch, and a huge stone slab that's clearly meant for sacrifice. Wanda Maximoff hovers above it in the lotus position, and behind her, the bas-relief of the Scarlet Witch. She doesn't acknowledge Maria or the situation out front.

Spidey tries out his brand-new taser-webs at Strange, but the amulet around Strange's neck opens and Spidey sees into eternity. A good grounding in science and a generally strong mind keep him from going mad, but it's a near thing. Magnus, now able to teleport more freely as the Null-Dimension Cloak keeps him unobserved, appears behind Strange and attempts to magic him away, but Strange counters the spell. Maria lashes out her whips at Strange, but doesn't realize Magnus is in the way (since he's invisible) and he gets a brief jolt - but more to the point, is made visible for a moment. 

Strange turns and the amulet on his chest opens again, and Magnus is silhouetted in blue for a second...but he blows sand in the amulet's eye and forces it to close before his Cloak and be compromised. The rock monsters close on Bucky and one of them throws a punch; Bucky blocks it with his metal arm, but the other one punches him in the back! Bucky grits his teeth (and moves his stress die to the doom pool), and punches the other one, cracking its chest, and trusting the team to have his back. And they do - Spidey, realizing that Strange is more a Magnus problem, fires a bunch of webs and yanks the other rock-monster back. 

Strange casts a spell and the shadows on the ground reach up and grab the heroes, worming into the cracks in their souls - all except Magnus. His cloak just sucks up the shadow and devours it. Maria unleashes her electro-whips and lashes Strange's arms, and Magnus follows up with a splash of holy water that melts his flesh. Spidey yeets the rock-monster off the cliff, and Bucky punches the other one again, cracking it further, but it raises up its arms and pounds him into the ground - he blocks with his metal arm but this thing is far too strong. Bucky picks himself up, wipes the blood from his nose, and throws one more punch, crumbling the rock-monster into chunks. 

Meanwhile, Maria tries to up the voltage on Strange and put him down, Magnus fires an energy weapon from somewhere in his Hat, and Spidey just swings over and punches him, but physical attacks don't bother the zombie. Bucky even pulls his head off, but it floats back up and reattaches itself. His cloak detaches and tries to wrap around Maria's face, but she dodges. 

And then something changes. Purple, flaking patches appear under Strange's dead eyes, and he speaks in a voice that echoes in all four heroes' heads. They feel the owner of that voice seeing them, and then Strange's head falls off, his body collapses, and from the depths of the cave, the heroes hear the clack of Wanda's shoes on the stone. 

They have the Scarlet Witch's attention. 

Misspent Youth: Alas, Poor Perry

Last night we played Misspent Youth...but we're down to four players (Perry's player, turns out, is allergic to my dogs and it was getting bad. My dogs, for their part, figured if they just licked her more it would help, but like, that just makes it worse). 

Anywho! Our Authority Figures:

• Sporelings: Little innocuous-looking mushroom creatures that sprang up in the wake of last session's "fruiting season"
• Gil: A Tendril who now has half his face melted off, as depicted here
• Aunt Lydia: A very prim, proper woman capable of administering the Torpor Timeout
• The Monitors: A group of Tendrils tasked with getting all the kids back in school

And our Friendship Questions:

• Quinn asks Sandy: "Why are you acting so weird lately?" Answer: "There's lots going on. Why aren't you?"
• Sandy asks Sparky: "What are you going to do now that you can't go back to your team?" Answer: "There's always sandlot."
• Sparky asks Tate: "What do we need to do to set up our space for your parents?" Answer: "Probably another clean room, made more habitable."
• Tate asks Quinn: "When did you last hear from your dad?" Answer: "About a month ago; he's away on business but is supposed to be back soon."

Scene One: What's Up

I set this up and chose the Monitors. 

The clique is at what was once a skate park. It's become overgrown and the concrete cracked, but it's a good place to hang out and plot. They realize that they haven't seen Perry in a while - he was staying with Tate's family, but Tate hasn't seen him, either. They also start talking about what they'd need to do to set up another clean room. 

But just then, a crunch of gravel under tires! They see a van pull up and three men get out, confer briefly (and the YOs can see the thin, downy mycelium on their faces), and then start to look around. The YOs run, and one of the Monitors drops into a weird, loping sprint and catches up with Quinn, and she spritzes it in the face with the Tonic. Its face starts to unravel but the rest of it keeps moving forward. 

Sparky stands up, and, thinking Fast, grabs a chunk of concrete and hurls it at the Monitor. This knocks it back and it lets out a puff of spores, but it keeps coming. Quinn stands up and gets Tough, shoving it down. Another one grabs Sparky from behind and its arms start growing together. Meanwhile, Sandy stands up and lets her Cloying scent distract the one chasing Quinn, and Tate stands up and hurls a knife at the Monitor like the Bad Seed he is. The knife strikes home and some brown gunk oozes out.

Quinn stands up again and channels her Outrage. She shoves the Monitor down and starts pounding on it, and Tate stands up and wins on Quinn's Outrage and joins in. They pound the Monitoring into pace, and then pull the one off of Sparky. They learn that once these things get a dose of tonic, they actually come apart pretty easily...

Our Kickoff: The YOs escape the skate park. 

Scene Two: Fighting Back

Sandy's player set this up and chose the Sporelings. 

The YOs run away from the skate park and wind up at the baseball field by the school. It's been converted into a kind of nursery, a huge field covered in brown plant debris that the fungus is devouring. The YOs catch their breath and they decide that they should just burn this whole thing, and Sparky suggests they break into the maintenance shed again, grab some supplies, and go to town. He and Quinn get to work on the door, Tate keeps watch, and Sandy hears a weird trill from the field...

She looks over, and sees what looks like a small white cat moving towards her. As she gets closer, she realizes it's actually a large lion's mane mushroom with two big brown "eyes" on the front of it. The thing trills at her again and Sandy is horrified. She runs back to the clique ("Cat mushroom! CAT MUSHROOM!") to find a weed whacker. Tate sees this thing and is somewhat less horrified (it's kind of cute...), but is still wary. 

Sandy stands up and comes back out with the weed whacker, using her knowledge as a Forager to know how to hit these things without spewing spores everywhere. But a bunch more charge at her, trying to pile up on top of her! Tate stands up and helps fight back (no way his Pride is going to let his friends get eaten by cat-mushrooms), and Sparky rides a lawnmower into the field with a can of gasoline. Quinn spots a bunch of the Sporelings running for the road and stands up, winning on Sandy's Forager. She grabs a hoe and drags a section of garlic grass across Sporelings' path, driving them back and into the flames! The whole field goes up in fire, and the YOs stand back and watch their handiwork.

Our first Beat is a Reversal: The YOs burn the Sporeling fields. The Question is: How will the Tangle respond?

Scene Three: Heating Up

Sparky's player set this up, and chose Aunt Lydia. 

Following immediately from the last scene, the school doors open and Aunt Lydia steps out. She looks at the fire and then at the YOs, points at them, and opens her mouth. A stream of teenagers pours out of the school and sprints straight for them! The YOs run, trying to stay insight of each other.

Sandy stands up and manages to keep ahead of the Silver Spores; as a Sun-Lover, she's comfortable in the outdoors (yeah, it's a little thin). Tate stands up and loses...but sells out Pride to Arrogant. He barks orders at the rest of the YOs, telling them what to do to get away, and they listen, though they're not thrilled at the tone. The YOs escape into the town and head for Quinn's house.

Scene Four: We Won

Quinn's player sets this up and picks the Friendship Question from Tate to Quinn: "When did you last hear from your dad?" Answer: "About a month ago; he's away on business but is supposed to be back soon."

The YOs get to Quinn's house and lie low a bit. They still don't know where Perry's got to and they're a little horrified to see how many of their fellow teens have been infected. And then a van pulls into the driveway! 

Sparky grabs a bat and spritzes some Tonic on it. Tate hides behind a couch. Sandy ducks into the kitchen. Quinn tells them all to relax, it's just her dad, but of course they don't know if he's one of them. He walks in to the house and calls out "Quinnie? Why are all the lights-" when Tate gives him a spritz of Tonic. 

He spits a bit. "Bleach, what the hell? Tastes like vinegar and...sunflower seeds." Quinn, relieved that he's not melting, tries to tell him what's going on, but he's been out of town for a while and doesn't know. 

(A side note: I wish, in hindsight, we'd have defined a little better what the state of the world is, because it's kind of gone from "post apocalyptic" to "mid-apocalyptic" to "apparently it's just right around here that's fully Tangle'd", but part of the nature of Misspent Youth is a certain amount of making it up as you go.)

Quinn's dad (Roger) is having trouble buying all this. Tate calls his dad to have another adult talk to Roger. They talk for a moment, and Roger says he's going to go meet Guy and talk with him in person. He tells the YOs to stay up; he still doesn't fully buy this but can tell something's up. He gets in the van and heads out.

The YOs hang out and rest, but in a while Tate gets a call from his dad. Guy says that he's seen Roger's van go past the turn-off towards the clean room a couple of times, but he's apparently lost. Quinn calls her dad's cell...and hears it ring, as he's left it on the table ("ugh, he's always doing this"). The YOs grab a couple of bikes out of the garage and head off to go find him.

As they're heading through town, they notice people turning to look at them. Sparky hits a bump and slips the bike chain, and a fellow leaning on a wall kind of peels off and walks toward them. Sandy stands up and in her most Unctuous voice tells the guy that they're just passing through. They start biking off, and the man releases a mouthful of floating spores...everyone else in the area turns to watch them, too. Tate stands up and relies on his Influential nature to look like he belongs there, and Quinn stands up and pedals with a Relentless fury. But then they get out of town...and a cop car starts following.

Sparky stands up and, perhaps with a bit of Hubris, drops a couple of nails, thinking that it works in the movies. And the cop car does pop a tire, but keeps following! Tate stands up and wins on Sparky's Hubris, and randomly points to a turn-off to take. It works out, though; it's too sharp of a turn for the car and the YOs get away, and find Roger's van parked by the side of the road. 

They show him where the clean room is, and while he's still pretty confused, they manage to convince him to join them. 

Scene Five: We're Fucked

Tate's player set this up, and chose Sparky's question to Tate: "What do we need to do to set up our space for your parents?" Answer: "Probably another clean room, made more habitable."

We open at the clean room, as the YOs, Guy, and Roger talk about their next moves (Tate's mom is there, too, but she's still not doing great). Sparky finds a paper map of the area, and they all talk about what to do next. They figure that if they can find an abandoned structure to convert into a bigger "clean room," they can make more space for folks to live and, hopefully, fight against the Tangle. 

Guy notes that keep mold and fungus out is a matter of keeping things cool and dry; mold likes warm and moist environments. Roger says that with the right tools and supplies he can rig air purifiers and temperature control. The YOs ask about structures outside of town, and Roger says there's a box store that was going in on the north end of town, but construction has stopped (he's not sure why). The clique figures that'd work. 

They head out there that night to scout the place out, and break in. When they open the doors into the main building, they hear movement! Sparky shines a light around and sees a lot of people, including an elementary school teacher that they know. Sandy runs up to her ("Mrs. Plemons!") and asks what's going on; basically she's managed to help a bunch of people get out here and avoid the mushrooms.

The problem is that there are enough people here that when the YOs open the door, some of the folks panic! Faced the prospect of these folks running out into the night and potentially getting caught, Tate stands up and Arrogantly soapboxes about why they need to stay quiet and listen to the YOs. Quinn stands up and blocks the front doors (Tough), but they hear a back door slam open. Sparky stands up and loses, but sells out Optimism to Cynical. He recounts exactly what's going to happen if they Tangle finds them, and cows everyone into staying put.

This scene gives us our second Beat: Discovery (the refugees). The answer to the earlier Question (How will the Tangle respond?) is simply that they're actively searching for the YOs.

Scene Six: Who Wins?

I set this one up and chose Gil as the Authority Figure.

A little while later, Roger has gotten some supplies (rather, the YOs stole them) and started working on the HVAC. Mrs. Plemons comes to Sandy and asks if she's seen one of her students, a little boy named Perry? Sandy, with a sinking feeling, says that they know Perry, but last they knew he was staying with Tate's family. Mrs. Plemons says that he was here when the YOs showed up, but hasn't seen him since. Sandy wonders why he didn't make himself known, but maybe he panicked? She brings this to the others, and they remember hearing a back door slam open...

They go looking for him and find his slingshot near the back door. Quinn finds some tracks and they follow them to the road, and across the street is a copse of trees. As they get close, though, they find thin, white mycelium strung between the trees - this place is pretty heavily infected.

They press on and see a fallen tree covered with orange fungus, with what looks like a pair of legs sticking out of it. Sparky runs up and brushes the fungus off, but realizes too late that these legs are too big to belong to Perry. Gil sits up out of the pile of fungus, half of his face still gills and mushroom-flesh, the other half still horribly human.

He tries to say something, but all that comes out is a gurgle. Quinn stands up and lives up to her reputation as The One To Set It On Fire, and does the old "lighter and hairspray" trick. Gil turns and lets his human-face take the brunt, and as the flesh blisters, grabs a handful of fungus and smears it over the burnt skin. Tate stands up and, going on Family Ties (hoping to still find Perry), pushes Gil back, and Sparky stands up (Fast) to help. 

Tate winds up standing up and winning on Sparky's Fast conviction and the whole place goes up in flames. The YOs escape from the area as the fungus-infected forest, and Gil, burn...but still no sign of Perry. They have, however, won the episode. 

Scene Seven: Dust Settles

Sandy set this up, and chose Quinn's question to Sandy: "Why are you acting so weird lately?" Answer: "There's lots going on. Why aren't you?"

Sandy talks to the others and suggests leaving. Everything here is horrible, she's tired of mushrooms and she doesn't want to be one. There are adults taking over now, surely the teens shouldn't be doing the heavy lifting? Tate kind of agrees; why is this their problem? Sparky points out, though, that they've made so much progress and have been responsible for getting this started. Can they really walk away?

The YOs decide to continue looking for Perry, anyway, and go back to the site of the fire that burned up Gil. They find one single shoe with "PERRY" written in marker on the side, and continue searching the area. They find a shack on the edge of a field, and as they approach, they see fungus along the doors. 

Tate stands up (Family Ties) and goes looking inside (I think it was Tate; I didn't write it down but it doesn't much matter), but Quinn stands up, loses, and pushes past. Inside, they find Perry's clothes, empty but for fungus. The fungus goes halfway up the wall and stops - maybe it didn't grown farther because Perry had been exposed to the Tonic? The YOs don't know, and they leave the shack quietly, mourning their little friend. 

Aftermath

The YOs have managed to bring refugees and some capable adults together, forming a Resistance (as an Exploit). But do they still have the passion to be part of it?

Marvel: End of Act Two

Last night we finally played Marvel again! Here's last time, from way the fuck back in May. Quick session, since all we really needed to do was a bit of prep and wrap-up for Act II.

Our heroes have arrived in Siberia, in an old HYDRA base that was once used to to train a group of Winter Soldiers. They were then put into cryo-sleep against the day HYDRA needed them, but then HYDRA fell, and since Tony Stark vanished in 2012, Zemo never hatched his plan to lure Iron Man and Captain America here, and they died in stasis. The base itself still works, however.

After eating some MREs of questionable heritage ("freeze-dried...borscht?"), they discuss what to do and how to do it. Maria points out that electric shock seems to work pretty well, in controlled doses, for snapping people out of Wanda's control, and figures maybe she can do something with her taser rods to make them more powerful (but not so powerful that they run the risk of, like, killing someone). She also thinks about a Faraday cage, but one that could disrupt Wanda's influence, and both of these seem like worthwhile endeavors.

Peter chugs a bunch of soda from the facility ("this is really caffeinated!" "I'm pretty sure it's just pure amphetamines.") and gets to work designing the cage and how it will install into the quinjet. Bucky builds it the specifications (with Maria's help), and Magnus infuses it with the magic it'll need. All four of them then get to work in a montage set to some lovely orchestral music (it's not a needle-drop since this isn't a James Gunn movie) installing it into the quinjet.

That done, they take a moment to relax, and Magnus pokes Peter. "Hey, that sense you've got. Some kind of...precog? Danger sense?"

"Yeah. Happens right before something bad, gives me chills, makes the hair on my arms stand up."

"OK, cool. Suppose we could amplify that? Like, so it's sensitive enough to find someone dangerous anywhere in the world?"

Spidey is game. He sits down as Magnus weaves some magic around him, and then casts his Peter-tingle 'pon the winds.

He follows the feeling of danger up and out, his consciousness flying southwest. He's not used to trying to go straight towards the sensed danger, but he fights through it, and eventually winds up at the base of a huge, black mountain. He finds a cave in the side, near the top, flies past two immense stone creatures, and there he finds Wanda, sitting in a meditative position, hovering, eyes shut, fingers stained black...

...but behind her is a bas-relief that makes his blood run cold. It's her, hair streaming out behind her, arcane symbols all around. The Scarlet Witch Ascendant. 

And that's where they're going - next time! 

Chill: Two Bits

Back in Alaska! Also action! Back in Alasktion! Here's last time, though of course this is a new case.

It's been a couple of months since the events in Homer, and it's now late March in Seward. The powers that be in SAVE (since the Seward HQ is now hooked in to the larger organization) figured that since the road trip mission worked out, this HQ might wind up becoming the kind of hub for SAVE in the area. But that's a future discussion.

Tonight, Dr. Kirby Bellman has asked five envoys to meet up at the Crab Pot, but he's running a little late. The envoys - Arlo Miller, Amelia Rostov, Tuulugaak Hanta, Mercy Williams, and Khalil Barnes - are sitting around hoping this meeting isn't about what's on all their minds.

See, earlier in the week, a man named John Petty shot and killed his best friend, Houston Spears, and then shot the rest of Houston's family, and then was shot dead by the Seward police. Petty and Spears were both Army vets, both young - they enlisted right out of high school and did their four years - and both recently returned from Afghanistan. Tul wonders if Petty just snapped, and Barnes (whom you'll recall is retired JAG) says that of course it's possible, but it'd be weird for him to shoot his best friend and his whole family. If Petty and Spears had a problem they'd be more likely to just fight and then get drunk.

Bellman shows up, goes to the bar and orders something very strong, and then sits down. "Ever have a really shit day and then suddenly it gets worse?" he says. "I'm about to make your day worse, sorry."

He sends them a link to an Instagram story posted by a tourist in Seward. The story puts the photo of John Petty that the media has been using side-by-side with a photo she took of a man standing outside a strip mall in Seward. She says that this guy is Petty, and she took this photo at 1:40 PM on the 20th...which is a few minutes after the 911 call that got the cops to the Spears house. She rants a bit about government conspiracies and cover-ups, but Dr. Bellman has a different explanation ("always amazes me how competent people think the government is," mutters Khalil). 

Bellman freely admits this could be nothing, could be a coincidence, could be a lie from the poster, but y'know, worth a look. For his part, Arlo is actually somewhat...maybe not relieved, but heartened? by the idea that this was a creature of the Unknown rather than a man committing a quadruple murder out of nowhere. He also mentions the words "doppelganger," and Bellman nods; that had occurred to them, too. 

The envoys plan out their approach. Mercy knows some of the cops in the city (can't be an EMT and not get to know them), so she offers to take Khalil to meet them so maybe he can get involved. Amelia figures that tomorrow she'll go to visit John Petty's mother - Dr. Bellman had mentioned that she wasn't doing well and was having health problems before all this happened. Bellman also informs the envoys that John Petty is actually dead, and was killed by the cops; he saw the body when it came in. He also was the ER doc on duty when all this happened, and Houston Spears' mother, Bonnie, was actually alive when they brought her, but he couldn't save her.

Arlo and Tul decide to go over to the Spears house and poke around, and since it's nighttime and it's took late to be calling on Ms. Petty, Amelia tags along. The house is dark, police tape still up, but when does that stop SAVE envoys? Tul picks the lock on the front door and they slip inside.

Tul takes a moment and sense the Unknown, and feels something pushing him toward a door. He opens it and reveals stairs to a basement. The three envoys start heading down, but Amelia's cane misses a step and she goes crashing down to the bottom ("ow"). Tul helps her up and Arlo uses a quick use of Heal to fix her wrist up, and they start looking around.

The basement is finished - carpet, couch, TV, Playstation. But there's a big ol' bloodstained in the corner. Arlo checks the scene and figures that the blood spatter is indicative of a gunshot, probably from someone standing more or less at the bottom of the stairs. There are a couple of glasses on the coffee table; maybe Petty and Spears were down here when the shooting started. Arlo tries to sense the Unknown, too, does it maybe a bit too well...

He sees red smoke rising up from the bloodstain, and sees a humanoid, maybe masculine figure in the smoke. He hears it whispering to him, and can't exactly understand the words, but feels the weight of a pistol in his hand and feels a strong urge to shoot at the thing in the corner. He shakes it off and reports this to the others.

They head back upstairs and find more blood in the kitchen, and at the top of the stairs to the second floor. Arlo's reconstruction of the crime is that the shooter came up the basement stairs after shooting someone down there, shot someone in the kitchen, and then shot another person in the kitchen who then moved around and bled everywhere. And then finally he walked a few steps and fired up at someone coming down the stairs. 

The envoys head out, a little more certain of what happened but not why...and wondering what the thing in the smoke was.

Meanwhile, Mercy and Khalil head to the Seward PD. Mercy spots Darren, an officer she gossips with (he showed up once before, during the affair with Charlotte Deneer). Mercy asks what he knows about what happened with Petty, and introduces him to Khalil, and Darren offers to introduce Khalil to the detective in charge of the case. Said detective comes over to introduce himself - Lance Winslow. Mercy and Winslow have met (here), and while he seems generally suspicious and busy, he listens to Khalil. Khalil's knowledge of military law and the fact that the case is really already closed prompts Winslow to talk with him a little; he confirms that the gun was Petty's and he brought it with him. They don't have any real idea what set it off, and since the principals are dead it's going to be hard to know. He agrees to send Khalil some of the case information.

Everyone heads home. Khalil stays up and does a deep dive into Spears and Petty, learning that they were both born in Seward within a month of each other, went to the same schools, enlisted right out of high school, and were stationed in the same base (though Petty was boots on the ground, and Spears was communications and worked with computers). Mercy, likewise, focuses on the Insta post. Zooming in on the picture that purports to be Petty, she admits that it really does look like him. The conspiracy theorists in the comments have already latched on and have identified that he's standing outside Two Bits Barbershop ("that's where I get my haircut," says Khalil), but he's wearing a hat, which the internet takes as proof that he didn't get a haircut. 

(Mercy also notes that the comments bring up Corey West and Roger Brewster. Seward has a recent history of people just flipping out and killing people.)

The next morning, Khalil goes to Two Bits to get his haircut, and to check in on Monte Noble, the old fella who owns the place. He's thinking he'll see if there are security cameras there or in the area, but when he gets there, no one's in. This worries him - Monte doesn't open late. He waits around until Timmy, the other barber working there, opens up, and asks him about Monte. Timmy doesn't know, and in fact calls out to Monte. 

But then Monte walks in from the back door, and right away Khalil can see something's up. Monte is 72 years old, and he still looks it, but his posture is straighter, his eyes just a little clearer, his diction just a little too crisp. Khalil questions him ("you going to go out this summer and get some bass?") and "Monte" falls for it ("I certainly am"). Khalil calls him on it ("Monte is allergic to fish") and "Monte" shrugs and sits down. "It's so hard to keep track." 

Khalil quickly texts "GET HERE NOW 911" to the group chat, and "Monte" asks him for his phone. Khalil, feeling that this request is very reasonable, hands it over, and he looks at the screen, nods, and hands it back. Monte tries to get a little information about of him, and asks where he's from, and man(?) answers with a phrase in Arabic. Khalil understands a little, and recites it in his head while he waits. 

Arlo pulls up outside, and the man stands up. Khalil draws his pistol, and suddenly the room goes completely black. To Arlo, this just looks like the lights go out, and he opens the door into the blackness. Realizing that something is very wrong, he activates a Sphere of Protection and moves forward. Khalil heads for the back door and Arlo follows, trying to keep the Sphere up. The darkness goes away about the time they get to the door, and Tul and Mercy arrive (they were both at the gym). Tul grabs the wall and uses Schematic, getting a mental map of the whole building, as well as the sudden sensation of something watching him from above - something much more dangerous than anything he's yet seen.

Khalil carefully makes his way into the hallway, calling out for Timmy (based on the creature's comments, he figures Monte is probably dead). He sees Timmy staggering down the hall, and as he becomes visible Khalil realizes he's got a pair of scissors jammed into his throat. 

Khalil runs forward to help him, but Timmy grabs him by the throat and starts to squeeze. Tul, seeing this, rushes past Arlo and tackles him. The scissors fall out and Tul expects a jet of arterial spray, but gets barely a trickle. Timmy is already dead, but that's not stopping him from fighting back. Khalil kicks the scissors further down the hall. 

Arlo messages Amelia and Bellman, and Tul grabs a fire extinguisher off the wall and tries to hit Timmy with it...but misses. Timmy reaches up and punches Tul, knocking his head against the wall with a "you now have a concession" thump, and Mercy runs over and pins Timmy's arm. 

Khalil looks down the hall, and sees Monte coming toward them, holding the scissors. But Monte has a horrible wound across his throat - not a slash, more "ligature strangulation." The smell proceeds him and as he squeezes the scissors, Khalil can see fluid dripping. Monte slices down with the scissors, trying to stab Khalil, but he moves back and just gets a small cut. Arlo runs forward and knocks Monte over, and he tries to stab Mercy in the leg and gets a similarly shallow slice. Khalil leaps forward and smacks his head against the wall. There's a squish kind of sound, but Monte keeps coming.

At this moment, Amelia arrives in the hallway. She sees Mercy restraining one zombie and Khalil battling another, and, thinking quickly, draws a sigil on the wall. The hallway is warded, and both corpses become inert. Everyone sits and catches their breath...and a barista from the coffee shop next door comes into the hall. "What the fuck."

He retreats, and Amelia follows him to try and reassure him there's no danger (but the police are 100% on the way). Khalil moves quickly - he reminds everyone not to talk to the police and to ask for a lawyer, and then types the Arabic phrase into his phone. It comes back as: 

Now, we truly know that we cannot frustrate Allah on earth, nor can we escape from Him into heaven. - Suryah Al-Jinn.

Khalil quickly calls his brother, Hamza, an imam in Anchorage. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Khalil."

"Yeah, I have caller ID. What's up?"

"I need help. Can you get down to Seward?"

"Sure. What's going on, 'lil?"

Khalil takes a deep breath. "I think there's a djinni, and I think it's killing people."

A pause. "I don't know what I thought you were going to say, but it wasn't that. I'm on my way."

Khalil hangs up, wipes down the scissors, and waits. And shortly thereafter, all five of them are arrested.

Pugmire: The Evil Dog Triumvirate

Today we played some Pugmire! Here's last time, on we go.

Our heroes have a plan! They meet back up at the temple, where they find Peppa Papillon ("what happened here?!") and explain what they've learned. Hobbes von Shadow goes to visit his friend in the cut church in Riverwall, taking Peppa with him.

They meet up with Hobbes' friend, a minister named Pudding Cup von Mau. Hobbes explains the situation and asks if she knows a very powerful and experience minister. She does - Starlight von Korat.

Starlight comes to meet with them, and Peppa and Hobbes explain their enmity with the Nagayaga and their plan to cleanse some dreams. Starlight agrees to help, and the dogs regroup. 

They send messages to their old friend Boomer Pitbull, and prepare to get moving. Ruby Labrador, the Inquisitor that has a snake in her dreams, says that she can bring some of her Inquisitors with her, and of course Princess Yosha Pug can bring royal guards along. 

A week or so later, they meet up at a keep halfway between Pugmire and Houndton. Boomer and some of his biggest relatives meet them there, and Pioneers reunite. Boomer is more dressed than usual (Petunia Pibble says it suits him; Boomer's not a fan), and they explain that they need Boomer to help with repelling etherkesh and any other minions the Nagayaga might have.

The nine of them - Hobbes, Peppa, Petunia, Gelert Sausagedog, Dire Newfoundland, Ruby, Yosha, Marshmallow von Mau, and Bivi Affenpinscher - enter the keep, and discover that Not Even the mouse is already there. He asked whose dreams they going into first, and they decide on Ruby, figuring that Ruby is combat-capable and that Boomer and the guards might need help. Starlight casts the spell, and the dogs can hear each other's thoughts. Peppa is thinking of mud. Petunia wondering if she wants more crackers, or if she's had enough. Dire's thoughts are fleeting mingled with white noise. 

Not Even tells them to get comfortable, and that their sleeping draught should kick in momentarily ("Wait, wha-" snore). 

The dogs awaken in what looks like a church of Man...but defiled. The holy texts are ripped apart and scattered on the floor, the statues and reliquaries smashed. Ruby is chained to the ceiling and looks dazed or drugged, and three dogs sit in judgement in front of the Pioneers.

The first is a yellow-furred dog with kindly eyes and an easy demeanor. A nameplate in front of him says "Yeller Blackmouth."

The second is a huge dog with drool dripping from his mouth and slashes on his face. Blood trickles out, but then becomes red smoke and vanishes, screaming. His nameplate reads "Cujo Bernard."

The last is a short, squat dog with a flat face and white fur, but even he coughs or sneezes, he expels a cloud of flies. His nameplate says, "Beefy Bulldog." 

"The next question is for you, Peppa Papillon," sneers Beefy. "All the mud - what's up with that?"

"The mud helps to bring us closer to Man, healing us in body and soul-"

"No, sorry wrong!" The dogs all stagger as their brains sizzle. The Pioneers look at each other - what's happening here? Cujo snarls, but doesn't speak. Beefy aims his next question at Petunia.

"Petunia Pibble, some time you and your Pioneers faced a creature while you were in the Monarchies of Mau. What spells did you cast to defeat it?"

"We could help you," she says, as he spits out a bunch of flies. 

"Nope, wrong!" BUZZ. 

"Easy, Beefy," says Yeller. "Dazolm Newfoundland, this one's for you. Some years back you stole a piece of plastic from a blind dog who was panhandling. Why didn't you steal his cup, too?"

"It didn't occur to me at the time," mutters Dire. 

Yeller looks at his compatriots. "What do we think? No? Sorry, that's wrong." BUZZ. 

The Pioneers have had enough of this, and they realize, too, that if it keeps up they'll eventually succumb to this assault. Petunia kicks things off. She arcane lassos Sausagedog up to the ceiling. He grabs the chains binding Ruby and sees that they're locked with three padlocks. He gets to work picking locks. 

Cujo leaps over the table and snaps at Dire, and Yeller likewise approaches the group, whispering to Peppa. She feels her ears start to bleed at the madness in Yeller's incomprehensible words, but shakes it off and casts a healing spell for her allies. Hobbes strikes at Cujo, and lands a solid punch to the dog's head, but feels the same punch catch him in the back of the head!

Beefy flops over the table and a long, barbed tongue flicks out and strikes Hobbes, sucking the moisture from his body. Dire calls up a shield of faith and pulls a mace, swinging on Cujo. Petunia does one better, lowering her head and beginning a rebarbative growl. Cujo snaps and snarls in fear!

But Yeller isn't so easily cowed. He leaps to the ceiling and whispers to Sausagedog, worming dark magic into his brain. Peppa calls up her spirit guardians and they snap at the demons, but also at her! Hobbes strikes again at Beefy, but misses, and Beefy flicks his tongue at Petunia. Dire bonks Cujo with his mace, and Cujo snaps again, but misses. 

Sausagedog manages to open the last lock, and Ruby plummets to the floor and lands on Dire. He picks her off his head and lays her down in front of Peppa ("You got this?"), and goes back to the fight. The spirit-Yorkies continue to bite and snap, and one more punch from Hobbes drops Cujo! Petunia launches a flight of seeking stingers at Beefy, and Peppa glances up and throws a guiding bolt at Yeller. She blows a hole in his chest, and he drops to the ground, wheezing "ol' Yeller...come back Yeller...best doggone dog in..." before dying. 

The fight over, Peppa casts a healing spell to get everyone back on their feet, and they look around. There are three doors out of this room. Two are wooden, but one of those has an ivory handle in the shape of a dog's muzzle, open and with a tongue lolling out. One word - "SUBMIT" - is carved above it. The other wooden door has a bulldog's face worked into the grain, but no words. The middle door is made of iron, but a mass of long, iron strips.

Sausagedog thinks about what he's read about these demons, and remembers reading that they were named for three evil dogs that betrayed humanity. Ruby says that she actually helped kill the real Beefy Bulldog, and she never met the other two but has talked with the Inquisitors that did. Meanwhile, Peppa tries to get a read on the doors, and can't quite get her brain to align right, but figures that it's possible to suss out the dream-logic that governs here. 

Petunia investigates the doors, starting with the one with the face, and prods at it. The face animates and laughs, loudly, and Dire walks over and whacks it with her mace ("SHUT UP"). It works - the face stops laughing and pouts, and the door opens. Inside is an immense egg. Petunia focuses and realizes that this thing is the manifestation of the Nagayaga in this dream. Dire draws a greatsword and chops it in half, and the scene fades away...

The dogs wake up, and Not Even congratulates them. Ruby stands and stretches, feeling much better and without the paranoia she was feeling. She dons her armor and goes out to help the others, while the Pioneers prepare to enter the dream of Princess Yosha Pug!

D&D: Squelching Towards Victory

After a long, vacation-induced hiatus, last night we played D&D! Here's last time.

Rewind a bit, and we find Keenan, Zook, and Brébhin watching the others go out into the woods to track the brackish hounds. They go into the kitchen of Woodsedge Manor and find Eimile, the maid/housekeeper, washing dishes. They chat for a bit - Zook asks her if the master of the house, Íosac, is really as violent as he appears. Eimile says he's not really violent towards anyone here, though certainly he's gruff and has a bit of a temper. 

Keenan peeks out the kitchen door and muses that he thought he heard something, and Zook investigates, finding the front door ajar. There are dog footprints outside, and a trickle of blood. Just then, they hear footsteps on the stairs and see Aingeal, the little girl, coming downstairs. She says there's something wrong with her mother - "she won't wake up." Brébhin goes back up with her to investigate, while Zook and Keenan follow the tracks. 

The tracks loop around the house, and as they round a corner, they see two of the horrible brackish hounds slip into the kitchen! They hear Eimile and Mic (the groundskeeper, who'd joined her) scream, and they leap into action!

Keenan - after noting that a fireball probably isn't going to be a good idea - runs in a swings at a dog, calling up a shocking grasp, and misses (in what would be a pattern). Zook throws some magic missiles, but is unable to prevent the dogs from attacking and biting Mic. Once the missiles land, though, the dogs turn on Zook and Keenan, biting them and causing that horrible wound that bleeds continuously. 

The fight rages briefly, but then Zook sees Aingeal enter the kitchen. She grins a leering, horrible grin and snaps her fingers...and Zook blacks out. 

He comes to a moment later as his beard begins to burn. The kitchen is on fire and Keenan is dragging him outside. Keenan manages to cast a sleet storm into the kitchen to put out the fire, and then passes out from blood loss about the time the others come back.

Dara quickly casts a lesser restoration spell on Keenan to stop the bleeding, while the others check the ashes of the kitchen. They find Eimile, alive but burned and bleeding. Mic, however, did not survive. Aisling and Clara rush upstairs and find Brébhin guarding Bairbre, Aingeal's mother. She's bleeding from a hound bite and clearly dying, and Aingeal is nowhere to be seen. 

Dara and Brébhin manage to stabilize her until Dara can recover enough to cure her bite, and everyone compares notes. Brébhin says that a dog ran in and bit Bairbre, and then Aingeal started throwing magic missiles around and ran out. She then cast the sleep spell that felled Zook (but did not affect Keenan, of course, as he's half elf), and left with the dogs. 

The heroes figure that the hag - maybe Granny Snowmelt? - was impersonating Aingeal, but maybe someone in the household made a deal with her? Maybe Aingeal herself? Fearg points out that, based on what Hilde the swamp woman told them, hags reproduce by eating children, so that might be why she wanted Aingeal. 

They don't have all the details, but they know time is of the essence and they have a pretty good idea of where she's gone - back to the blood tree. The seven of them troop through the woods to the tree and, after a moment of discussion (mostly amounting to "ew, do we have to?") they dive in.

They resurface in a dank, slimy, underground chamber, complete with benches, a table, and a bed. As their eyes adjust to the dim light, they spot two truly horrible things. First, a massive lump of fur and flesh turns out to be a huge brackish hound, continually spawning more. And second, all the way at the other end of the room, they see a night hag with a pair of legs emerging from her mouth, kicking, as she swallows the child.

The adventurers spring into action, but are unable to prevent her from swallowing Aingeal! They can see her stomach moving, however, and figuring that Aingeal is still alive. Clara runs over and attacks, punching at the hag's head (trying to avoid the child in her belly), and the hag taunts her, saying the best they can do is retrieve the girl's corpse (Clara, not the best with comebacks, just yells "OK!"). Dara calls down a moonbeam on the birthing dog as two brackish hounds run over to them, biting at her and Aisling, and Keenan hurls a fireball at the monstrosity. It burns (not like it could dodge), but continues producing brackish hounds - three more wriggle out.

Fearg rages and charges at the hag, and Zook moves in on her and hits her with some magic missiles (but is wary that they can't kill the hag, not if they want any chance of saving Aingeal). Keenan follow him and reminds him that somewhere in the hag's robes is a hearthstone that allows her to shift into the Ethereal Plane, and they need to find that! And then he casts a haste on Zook.

Aisling throws a cloud of daggers into the birthing dog, and that plus a witch bolt from Brébhin and Dara's moonbeam kill it - it bursts into a pile of fur and goo. But four of the hounds still live!

The dogs continue to savage Dara, dropping her and chewing on her. Aisling takes a couple of bites, too, but stands her ground, and Brébhin throws spells at the beasts. Meanwhile, the fight against the hag continues. Zook zips over to her and rummages around in her robe, managing to find the hearthstone! Fearg draws back his hammer and Zook yells "No, big guy! Flat of the blade!" Fearg manages to snap out of the rage and strikes the hag, but pulls his punch.

"I'm unfazed here, too", she sneers, and starts to vanish. Zook remembers that Hilde said she could also shift into the Ethereal with a spell and tries to counter it...but fails. Granny fades away, but leaves behind Aingeal, cover in fluids best not dwelt upon. Clara throws a blanket over her and tries to reassure her.

"Hey, not done yet," yells Brébhin. The heroes run back over and take on the remaining hounds, Fearg hurling javelins and Zook and Keenan hurling spells. But then Aisling spots movement across the room in the bed. "There! In the bed!" she yells, and Brébhin throws all the magic missiles she can muster. 

The dead hag's hand flops out of the bed, and, taking no chances, Keenan blows it up with a fireball. Aisling throws some healing at Dara so that she doesn't die, and the heroes wade through the blood, holding the terrified Aingeal. 

They make it back to Woodsedge and Bairbre runs out to meet them. Aingeal breaks down crying again, and Bairbre holds and comforts her. "It's over, love," she says. "Done. Like rain that you slept through."

Íosac speaks to the heroes, and apologizes for his previous brusqueness. "I am, perhaps, too rough for the life I have," he says, "but don't think that I don't love it. Love them." Zook advises that this experience might soften him and push him to show that love, and he agrees. He also obviously gives them shelter ("and a bath?" asks Aisling). 

Once they have rested, they discuss their next moves. Aisling still wants to go south and retrieve her harp-lute, and they decide to make that their next journey. Zook muses, though, that their continual running afoul of demons might require them to break the boundaries of Abhaile, and see what lies beyond the borders. (Maybe not through the Enclave of Thorns, though; those guys are nuts.)

Shadowrun: The Banshee, Redux

(guest post by Michelle)

So following up casing Cooperman’s place, with the prevailing opinion being that Cooperman was channeling Nero or some shit given the special order for the palanquin, the team trundled back over to the Banshee to meet with Roxanne. Hocus starts thinking about whether or not it might be a good idea to have some elementals on call for the party on Tuesday and/or the attack on the compound/war council, and enters into discussions with the group about putting together the funding for materials. Kombucha pulls up outside and leaves the van parked, with Bad Harry primed just in case but otherwise staying in the van.

The whole team comes inside, handing over everything but their pistols at the check-in window  before they’re buzzed through the gate. Once inside, the Banshee looks much as it always does. A bit on the threadbare, stained, keep-the-lights-low-so-you-don’t-have-to-look-at-the-carpet side but well-staffed and serviceable. The piped-in oldies top-40 music feed keeps the background noise level and randomized, the noise generators on the tables add an extra layer of static protection, and the drinks are mid-range on pretty much all fronts – cost, quality, and taste. Enough to ease conversation and give people something to settle nerves and hands, but not enough to either grab attention or encourage you to stay past your initial appointment.

Roxanne is sitting at a table in the front room this time, with bouncers at all the exists, a bartender and waitress keeping the hospitality flowing. The team orders some drinks, including a troll-size beer, and is just about to sit down with Roxanne when the music cuts out. The bartender curses, mentions something about wiring, and people with questionable lineage,  promises he’ll have it back on in 5. Roxanne dithers about waiting for the sound system, but in the end opts for expedience. She suggests that Cappy start the update.

With that in mind, Cappy starts in letting her know that TeeHee was safe, something that Roxanne wasn’t personally invested in, but knew that Urlan would appreciate it, the big ‘ol softie. She is informed that he doesn’t have the goods and was something of an idiot, as he hadn’t been paid yet either. They verified that he doesn’t have the goods – that they were handed over and that it was an inside job. When Junior’s name is mentioned as the inside person, Roxanne is clearly momentarily startled. Cappy mentions that there are supposed to be backups of the research on Junior’s computer, Roxanne excuses herself to make a phone call. The tunes start flowing again, and there’s some motion at the security door. The team turns to see what’s going on and Diablo and Cappy figure out that things are about to go down. Diablo spots Junior’s walking cape through the security door and realizes everything Is nearly about to fo sideways – of all the people in the city, Junior is definitely not someone who should be here  – also, apparently neither Roxanne nor anyone who works for her can spot a tail.

Cappy informs Hocus and Diablo tells Kombucha, and the next moment Coil realizes what’s going on as well. Before anyone can act, though, Junior shoots his shot. He slams the cage door open, breaking it in the process, and shoots a sawed-off shotgun at the bouncer in the corner, on the other side of the door. He misses, instead putting a hole in the storage closet wall next to him. The grumpy dwarf who collects the weapons comes out of the door that leads into the weapons safe and starts shooting at a couple of the other bodyguards, but doesn’t do a ton of damage.

Among the team, Hocus acts far and away ahead of the others. Figuring out that Junior probably has his thugs in the entry with him, he sets off a magic stink cloud by the door that neatly catches all the bad guys without any real Drain for him in the end. Junior and two of his thugs start retching, but neither is incapacitated, while one of them resists entirely. Diablo goes after Gus at the same time, going hand-to-hand given his titanium bone lacing – he packs a heck of a wallop, and while Gus is sturdy, he’s not a troll. He manages to ring Gus’s bell a bit, but he’s still up and fighting. Kombucha calls Bad Harry into action and sends him to the front door, effectively boxing in the bodyguards. He has his drone announce that they should stand down, guns at the ready but not firing. Coil turns over a table to get behind for cover, and Cappy joins him, trying to talk Junior down, but the ork is in no mood to listen. The waitress and the bartender get down behind the bar, and the bouncers scramble a bit, caught on the backfoot and try to get into position. Roxanne ducks down behind a table and pulls out her pistol.

Junior yells for Roxanne and barrels through the wrecked cage door. He shoots at Diablo but doesn’t manage to do much other than some impact damage thanks to the armored jacket and dermal plating the troll has. Hocus isn’t done yet, though. He readies and lets loose a Stunball on the orks and Gus, since the floor plan means they’re nicely bunched up. Given that none of these people have what we would call a strong will, Junior, Gus, and two of the bodyguards (the two nauseous ones) drop where they stand, passed out. The head bodyguard, who’s still by the door looking askance at Bad Harry, decides to surrender as he knows when a job isn’t worth his life.

From there, it’s cleanup. The bartender/manager, Dylan, and his bouncers are none too gentle with Gus, who’d been on the outs for a while as it turns out his grump level had gone off the scale – when Junior had approached him, he’d just decided to rob the place and get some payback for being made to, you know, work and not steal shit. The team ties up Junior and the two other bodyguards and begins some interrogation – namely, Cappy starts asking questions and Kombucha starts sending his spiderbot, Edith Piaf, up Junior’s left nostril. Junior tries to bluster and get free, but having Edith wiggle a bit makes him compliant. Turns out, perhaps predictably, that Junior is a complete wuss.

His goal, as admitted somewhat under duress, was to capture/kill Roxanne along with killing the team. He’s working with HSE (Hollywood Simsense Entertainment) to kick out Urlan at the GTI Board of Directors meeting on Friday by claiming financial malfeasance since the whole project that was taking up all the money and plans of GTI will have gone missing. Junior plans to claim that it didn’t exist at all. He will then be put in charge (according to his plans) and agree to a merger by HSE that leaves him in charge of the division under the HSE umbrella – all the perks, none of the work. He is unhinged about Urlan, clearly a nightmare boss/relationship for anyone unlucky enough to get drawn into his orbit, and has a tremendous number of anger/emotional issues. The team searches him and comes up with his sawed-off shotgun, two grenades, his PDA, and a set of invites for the HSE party tomorrow night. He has dictation notes on the PDA mentioning a) plans to kill TeeHee if he finds him instead of paying him, b) notes for his speed on Friday, c) recorded notes about how the chips are messing up the runners he gave them to, with Cooperman as Khan, Val’s running Cleo, and Griffith’s all messed up with the Ripper.

Roxanne arranges for GTI people to come secure Junior et al. Hocus gets the card of the head bodyguard in case they need muscle later. The group has a moment of consensus and decides to communally chip in for a couple of elementals that Hocus can summon over the next day, one force 4 air elemental, and one force 2 fire elemental (with the exception of Coil, who does not want this to happen at all because Magic Sucks). And we’ll see where we are when we get back!

Chill: Under the Bleachers

Yesterday we wrapped up a case in Chill! Here's last time.

So, our heroes have a few hours before the basketball game at Fireweed Academy, where Tristan St. Cyr is convinced something awful is going to happen. They decide to check out the site where Donna Fitzroy crashed her car and died. 

They find the site easily enough, it's on a curve in a residential area. Apparently she spun out and hit a tree, but as they look at it, the envoys are confused. Kat Jameson tries to mentally recreate the accident and can't quite brain it - how fast was she going? What angle did she hit this tree? And more to the point, how was this accident fatal? Tuulugaak Hanta texts Dr. Bellman back in Seward and asks for more info, and he calls back a few moments later.

He tells them that, according to what he was able to find, Mrs. Fitzroy died from blunt force trauma to the head, apparently from her head whipping back and forth after hitting the tree. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt (weird) and the airbags didn't deploy (weirder), and either of those things probably would have saved her. Tul looks at the road and does a little mental math, and figures she had to be doing at least 40mph and accelerating for the accident to be as bad as it was, and that doesn't make any sense, either. 

Kayla Vanderhoven looks at what's in the area - mostly houses. She does a little digging into who lives in those houses, and comes up with a couple of very interesting results. First, Tanya Valmier, the teacher who died from an "accidental" gunshot, lived less than a quarter mile away. Second, and perhaps more significant, Tom Gregorov, brother of the late Baines Gregorov, the mechanic who was crushed by a car in his shop, lives very close by, as well.

The envoys decide to go and check on the Gregorovs. Tul sneaks up to the house and senses the Unknown, but doesn't feel anything. He gives an all-clear to the others, and Tristan knocks on the door. After a tense exchange with Mr. Gregorov, he opens the door and faces down Tristan (remember that this guy got two spam calls from "QCOMM" yesterday and now so goth kid is showing up at his door, it all seems very weird). But Tristan makes good use of the Telepathic Empathy discipline and manages to steer the conversation toward Baines and Samuel (Tom's son, Baines' nephew), and Tom even mentions that he's heard Sam talking to Baines in his room. Probably that's normal?

Tristan asks to speak with Samuel for a moment, and Tom lets him in. Sam is pretty taken with Tristan's pet raven (especially since it meows, sometimes), and Tristan uses his discipline on the kiddo as well. He feels that Sam feels tremendous guilt over the deaths of his teachers - like, not in a generalized way, he feels directly responsible. Tristan tries to sense the Unknown and just winds up with a headache for his trouble. Tom goes to get him an aspirin, and Tristan takes the opportunity to press Sam a little more.

Sam tells him that when he and his dad went to his uncle's shop, he found a little mechanical man that looked like Baines (he calls it "Robo-Baines"). He says that Robo-Baines talks to him, and that when he got in trouble with Mr. Torney for cussing out Nat Levin last week, he told Robo-Baines that he was mad at Mr. Torney and the next day he died! 

Tristan asks to see Robo-Baines, but Sam says he's not here, he hasn't seen him since yesterday. Last time he saw him, Robo-Baines' arm wasn't moving and he was dragging his leg, like he was hurt.

Sam's dad comes back with pills, and Tristan takes them and thanks them. He offers counseling via QCOMM and then excuses himself, and hooks up with the others. Now with a better understanding of what they're dealing with ("so it's like, a car golem?"), they start thinking of how to find it. Kat figures that, if it was injured, it probably hitched a ride with either Tom or Sam yesterday, and where did they end up?

Well, Sam ended up at school, where Nat, the kid he was mad at, was carried out in a stretcher. That seems like the best place to look. 

The envoys head to the school, and Tul makes contact with Miguel, his buddy who works there in athletics, and offers to help set up for the game. Miguel is happy to have the help, and when the envoys get there he gives them all jobs, which they mostly ignore. Kayla notes that the bleachers are motorized; hit a switch and they retract or expand. She watches the switch, while Tristan peers underneath. He doesn't see anything, but he hears a sound like a child wheezing. 

Tristan immediately heads underneath to help, and gets about to the middle of the bleachers when suddenly he can't move. Rather, he can, but he feels clumsy and unsure of himself, like he has to move everything deliberately. And then, of course, the bleachers start closing. But fortunately, the envoys figured this might happen. 

Tul uses Power Surge to short the bleachers, and Arlo Miller activates Sphere of Protection over where Tristan is, giving him time to get out (when the Sphere goes up, the weird clumsy-brain effect goes away, too). Now figuring that Robo-Baines is underneath the bleachers somewhere, the envoys flank the openings, looking for it, but then all of their phones die.

None of them really want to go into the dark to look for this thing, but fortunately they have another option. Kayla whips out her yoga mat and sits down to meditate, and Leaves her Body (Tristan stares with newfound respect and fascination). She walks through the bleachers and looks around, and finds the thing. It's just as Sam described, a little gnome-like creature made of lugnuts and car parts, but it's missing its left arm. 

It looks something like this

She draws back to kick it, using Astral Attack (what the heck, worth a shot), but misses and falls right through the wall into the snow. At this point, Tristan standing near her body, sees a little metal object scuttling out of the bleachers and heading right for her! 

Tristan tries to get in its way, but it's much too small and quick. It leaps up in the air and aims for Kayla's eyes, but Tristan yells "YALDY! GET THE SHINY!" and his raven snatches it out of midair and drops it in Tristan's hand. Tristan smashes it against the bleachers until it comes apart, and Kat, also standing near Kayla, hucks a basketball at it. The ball knocks it to pieces, and Tul goes under the bleachers from the other side and stomps the rest of the gnome into oblivion. Arlo raises a Sphere just to check, but the parts don't move. Kayla returns to her body and Tristan helps her up, and they both use Eyes of the Dead to see if they spot anything. All they see is a faint wisp of...something...dissipating as the gnome dies. 

At this point their phones turn back on, and they get a bunch of messages from Dr. Bellman (who's been trying to contact them to give them more info on Tanya Valmier, which of course they don't need now). The envoys hang around to watch the basketball game, and then head back to Seward, victorious.

Misspent Youth: Goop!

Context: There's an art piece in the Misspent Youth book advertising "Goop":

All things blorphy kind of became relevant in yesterday's session, too. Here's last time.

As last time, we were down a player. This time Quinn wasn't with the YOs, as her player was getting a truly sick tattoo. But lo! Here are our Authority Figures!

• Aunt Lydia: A very prim, proper, buttoned-up woman who is capable of administering the Torpor Timeout
• Figgis: A higher-up Tendril, sent in to clean things up
• Smedley Winter: A worker for the Tangle, a longtime Tendril
• Fruiting season: An event based on time of year or spore distribution where things...bloom

And our Friendship Questions:

• Sandy asks Perry: "Why did I find you alone in the woods the other night?" Perry: "I was looking for supplies for my slingshot, like you showed me."
• Perry asks Sparky: "Why did you pick up those poison plants?" Answer: "I'm used to manicured grass!"
• Sparky asks Tate: "How did you resolve being grounded by your mom?" Answer: "Now that Dad and I are more open, he's willing to run interference for me with mom. I'm technically still grounded."
• Tate asks Sandy: "How are you feeling after the conversation about your parents' food restrictions and your frustrations about them?" Answer: "Sometimes I'm cheating if I know it's safe."

Scene One: What's Up

Tate's player set this up, and chose Perry's question to Sparky: "Why did you pick up those poison plants?" Answer: "I'm used to manicured grass!"

We open after a baseball practice, on the aforementioned manicured grass. Sparky and Tate talk about sports practice and about what kind of stamina it takes to throw a ball repeatedly; Tate opines that he really doesn't understand sports, especially when the term "floating objects in one's elbow" gets used. The YOs talk about their next moves and fill Perry in on some of what he missed, and they decide to go to the woods and gather some more ingredients. 

But when they get there, this section of woods just...isn't there. It's all short, uniform, manicured grass. Sparky is baffled how this happened this quickly, with no crews or anything, but Sandy is fully freaking out. The check the edges of the area, and realize that it's spreading, slowly but perceptibly, towards the section of woods where Sandy's parents live. 

They run to the area and Sandy sees her face's face pressed up against the glass. He mouths as her to "RUN!" and Sandy, trained for years to be ready to bug out, tries, but Perry and Sparky pull her back and say that the clique can save them! They try; Sandy stands up and uses her knowledge as a Forager to tell the others where to step and which spaces seem to be immune, but Perry stands up and loses and winds up running around and stepping in those spaces and badly infected spaces and soon the whole area is covered in the stuff. The geodesic dome that Sandy's parents were building cracks and collapses, covered in "grass", and while their trailer can still move (and does!), the whole area is covered. 

And here we have our Kickoff: The Tangle is spreading. 

Scene Two: Fighting Back

I set up this scene, and I chose Tate's question to Sandy: "How are you feeling after the conversation about your parents' food restrictions and your frustrations about them?" Answer: "Sometimes I'm cheating if I know it's safe."

This scene begins right after the last one. Sandy's parents open the door to the trailer and tell everyone that they're taking off, and that Sandy needs to get in. It's time to go. Sandy is about ready to agree, but realizes that the "grass" is spreading wherever the YOs step - clearly something on their shoes is doing it, and it's spreading through the woods and heading towards the area where the YOs Clean Room is! 

Perry stands up and embraces the Thrills; he takes the Tendril Tonic and goes spritzing the "grass" in the woods, trying to push it back. Sparky stands up and tries to talk Sandy's parents into sticking around (he is, after all, Trusted). But then Sandy stands up and loses!

Rather than allow the "grass" to infect her parents' trailer (and probably her parents), though, Sandy sells out Smart to Pedantic, taking the Tonic and treating the area in the right way and making sure everyone knows it. The clique gets Sandy's parents out safely, and the YOs head for the Clean Room.

Our first Beat is a Complication: The "grass" spreads via foot traffic. Our Question for the episode: "What does this 'grass' precede?"

Scene Three: Heating Up

Sandy's player set this scene up, and chose Sparky's question to Tate: "How did you resolve being grounded by your mom?" Answer: "Now that Dad and I are more open, he's willing to run interference for me with mom. I'm technically still grounded."

We open at the Clean Room. Sandy is feverishly working on a way to combat this "grass", and isn't much interested in stopping or resting. As night starts to fall, she asks Tate to get more supplies from his dad, and Tate gently (kinda) reminds Sandy that they have lives that they'll be missed from if they stay here forever. Sandy isn't interested, and she needs more dry supplies (coffee filters and the like) from Guy McGibb's restaurant. 

The other three YOs finally agree to go get some stuff, and head to the restaurant. When they arrive, though, they see Tate's mom's (Charlotte) car in the lot, which means she's probably already aware that Tate isn't home. Sparky gives Tate his bike and tells him to head for home; he and Perry will get the stuff they need. 

Tate tries to ride off, but has never actually ridden a bike before and promptly falls. As he does, he realizes that the "grass" is in the gravel of the driveway and growing up through it. He stands up (literally and figuratively) and draws on his Family Ties to spur him on to get home. Inside, Sparky and Perry go in and Sparky asks Guy for more filters and so on; Guy points him toward the dry stock. Sparky gets some coffee filters, but also notices a transparent, gelatinous sheen sloughing off his shoes. He asks Guy what he uses to clean the floor, and because he's Trusted, Guy tells him (briefly) about the mixture he uses before getting called back into the madness of dinner rush.

But about then, Charlotte notices Sparky and grills him about where Tate is. Perry stands up...and loses. But he sells out Orphan to Helpless, and collapses before Charlotte and does a full-on Oliver Twist routine, and Charlotte falls all over herself to take care of him. She takes him home and finds Tate already there (if a little bruised), and insists that Perry stay. 

Scene Four: We Won

Sparky's player set this up, and chose Fruiting Season. 

The clique is back at school the next day. Perry is chipper because he actually got to sleep in a bed last night. Sandy is pretty stressed, but the discovery that the floor cleaner at Guy's restaurant can be used to clean the "grass" off everyone's shoes is very useful. They meet up by the bleachers after school, and decide that they need to go big, and if they're going to do that it better be on their terms. They also realize that this grass isn't grass. Each blade is an individual fungal body, and the tops of them seem to be plumper than they were. Sort of engorged. 

Sparky points out the groundskeeper's shack, where the sprinkler controls are. If they put this floor cleaner into the sprinkler...

They move over to the shack and Sandy goes in with a bottle of the stuff, but the groundskeeper, Roger, spots her and calls her out. Sparky stands up and, once again, leans on his Trusted Conviction, but while Roger doesn't think Sparky is involved, he tries to pull Sandy out. Tate stands up and yells at Roger, calling him an ass-bucket (because he's a Bad Seed, you see), and Roger yells for help from other staff, but still isn't letting Sandy get away with this. Perry stands up and darts in to help, seeing as how he's Always Underestimated, and Roger's attention wavers for a moment, but the YOs notice that the "grass" is developing little marshmallow-like bulbs on the tops of the blades. 

Sandy stands up and loses, but decides this is too important and sells out Pleasing to Cloying. She pushes past Roger and dumps this stuff into the water, and turns on the sprinkler. The sprinklers distribute the chemical all over the school grounds and it melts the "grass" into a viscous brown goop, but the chemicals also splash Sandy and change her. She always had a natural odor that the Tangle found, well, pleasing and inoffensive, but it's changed now to something artificial and overly sweet. 

Scene Five: We're Fucked

Perry's player set this up, and chose Figgis. 

The YOs fall back to the Clean Room and talk about their victory. The discovery of the floor cleaner and what it does to the fruiting grass is a good step. As they're talking, Sparky's phone starts blowing up. His team group chat is up in arms because baseball season has been cancelled. He asks why, and no one really knows, but the name "Figgis" gets mentioned. No one's heard of him, though.

Tate's phone buzzes - it's his mother, but he ignores it. And then Sandy's phone rings (wind chimes). She answers, and her mother asks her to come to the restaurant. She talks with her for a moment, and then hangs up. Her mother has been compromised, she says. She hasn't used a sentence without the word "like" in it, ever.

The YOs gear up (there was an A-Team montage moment) and head for the restaurant, and when they get there they see that Sandy's parents' trailer is parked nearby. A thick blanket of fruiting grass covers the area, each with those awful little white bulbs on the end, and a tall, thin man with an inoffensive, almost surprised look on his face walks through the parking lot. That must be Figgis, and he's looking for them. 

Perry stands up and embraces the Thrills of squirting Tonic and floor cleaner, cutting big brown swaths of goop, but Figgis reaches down and swipes at the grass, and the bulbs begin to burst, releasing spores into the air. Sandy stands up and, as a Sun-Lover, tries to expose more of the area and kill off the Tangle, but then Tate stands up and wins on Perry's Thrills Conviction. Throwing caution to the wind, he rushes in and throws the floor cleaner on Figgis...and Figgis throws his head back and screams. His head cracks in half at the jaw and the top part falls off, a long, pink fruiting body erupts from his esophagus before melting away. In a moment, there's nothing left but clothes and brown sludge. 

So we have our second Beat, a Reversal: Figgis melts. And answer to the Question: What does the fruiting grass precede? Figgis (or rather, a more aggressive advance by the Tangle).

Scene Six: Who Wins?

Tate set this scene up, and chose Smedley Winter.

The YOs pile into the trailer and get moving. They've treated Sandy's parents and Tate's mom with the Tonic, just like they did Tate's dad, and the three of them are out cold as the spores work themselves out of their bodies. Sparky calls his mom and leaves a message, but his parents are pretty checked out generally (and probably more heavily spored, meaning they're not sure what effect the Tonic would have). They tell Guy to head for the Clean Room, but as he does, they hear sirens. There's a Jeep behind them, like a forest ranger's.

Guy pulls over and a man they recognize as Smedley Winter walks up, puts his hand on the door and asks for Guy's license and registration. The YOs realize that his fingertips are leaking spores into the van!

Sandy stands up and Pedantically exclaims that they need to go, now, and activates the window. It closes and severs the tops of Smedley's fingers (ew), which tumble into the van and start fruiting (EW). Tate stands up...and wins on Sandy's Pedantic! He lectures the others briefly on how gross this is and why they need to keep the spores out, and sprays them with Tonic to melt them. Guy floors it, and they pull away, go off road, and make it back to the Clean Room.

The YOs have won the episode. They make the restaurant their new Exploit, giving them a wider base of operations and some more adults that are willing to help. 

Scene Seven: Dust Settles

I set this up and chose the last remaining Friendship Question, Sandy's to Perry: "Why did I find you alone in the woods the other night?" Perry: "I was looking for supplies for my slingshot, like you showed me."

Later that night, everyone is asleep except Perry, who is far too keyed up. He's outside practicing with his slingshot, and realizes that there are still bits of the fruiting grass popping up in the woods. He runs inside and grabs some of the cleaner (waking the others in the process), and runs back out and starts spraying. He figures he can fix all this, even if he's Always Underestimated. 

What he doesn't realize is that the cleaner is making the other plant life in the area brittle! A squirrel jumps on a branch and it cracks, and Sandy, a Forager, realizes the impact it'll have if animals get infected, too. She catches the poor rodent and tosses it to a safer tree. Sparky, now awake, wakes up and starts treating the areas that have fruiting grass Fast, and Tate stands up and wins on his Fast Conviction (following suit). 

The YOs have managed to avert a major escalation from the Tangle...but things are clearly getting worse and the Tangle is bringing in bigger guns. What next?

D&D: The Keeper of the Hounds

So last time, our heroes fought a couple of smelly swamp creatures and then moved on towards the home of an old lady who, they are told, can give them some info about hags. They finish crossing the lake and arrive at a hovel. An old woman sits in a chair outside, de-scaling a fish. They approach, and the bard introduces herself as Aisling Madabhon. The old woman says that her name is Hilde, and does a quick count. "If you want food, you'll need to catch more fish," she mutters.

That's not a big problem; the adventurers catch some dinner, Hilde cleans and cooks them (the fish, not the adventurers), and they settle in to talk about hags. Hilde actually is pretty knowledgeable on the subject. She tells them she knows of three types of hags - sea hags (but as she's never seen the sea, she doesn't know much about them), green hags (who prefer swamps and forests), and night hags (who are so evil they descended through the Feywild and wound up in the Hells). Night hags in particular love turning good to evil, and that kind of desecration might attract one, though of course that's hard to fake. The party tells her that Granny Snowmelt, their target, is a night hag, and Hilde commiserates. Night hags are hard to catch, because they can fade from the Material to the Ethereal at will. She does tell them, however, that they do so using a magical item called a heartstone, and if they can obtain that, then...well, then the hag can still go to the Ethereal, but needs to cast a spell to do it and they should be able to counter that?

They talk about how to get the stone away from the hag. They consider maybe a smaller being could help bring some lighter fingers (as the group doesn't have a rogue). Clara suggests asking a rat or some other animal? But how are they going to find the hag? Zook says that if they have some information he can use his augury spell to narrow it down, but they need a place to start. Hilde doesn't have a good way to do that, sadly, "but your idea about having Dara call up something to steal the stone maybe could work." Hilde also reveals that hags generally know one another, and if the heroes have already killed off four different hags (one night hag in the Glann Plateau, a green hag in Cian, and two more greens just recently) then maybe Granny Snowmelt is trying to find more friends...or make one. Hags reproduce by stealing and devouring human children, and then birthing new hags. 

Dara goes off into the swamp and calls a swamp rat, and asks if it would be willing to help. The rat says it would, potentially, though stealing things off of human (and human-sized) things tends to involve getting swatted and it doesn't like that. Also does this person have dogs? The rat's cousin was eaten by a dog. And there are dogs nearby, dead ones. But not dead.

Dara presses for a little more information, but all the rat knows is that these dogs are north and west, a journey of many miles, possibly years (but that's to a rat). As to the larger question, it's willing to consider the idea of stealing a thing off a hag, but it'll need a lot of food for that. It scampers off to consult its rat friends, and Dara goes back to the others.

She relates what the rat told her, and of course Zook is immediately concerned about these "dead-not-dead dogs." Clara agrees, but wonders whether pursuing this is going to get them in trouble with pixies (and Brébhin echoes this concern). In the end, though, they can't just let it go. They ask Hilde who lives in that direction, and she tells them that Woodsedge Estate is that way. It's a big house inhabited by a man named Íosac, his wife, and their child, but that's about all she knows.

In the morning, they set off, and though it takes most of the day, as evening falls they arrive at a large manor house. There's a gate out front (not a fence, just a gate), with the word "WOODSEDGE" on it. They see a woman picking berries off a bush and approach her, and she introduces herself as Eimile, the housekeeper. She's not as immediately welcoming as a lot of people they've met, however, and says that Master Íosac might not love having visitors (she also seems a bit frightened of him). 

They ask about the dogs, and she confirms that they come out at night, horrible things that bleed continuously. Mic, the butler, has started calling them "brackish hounds," and they don't seem to die. Also, one of them bit Aingeal, the master's daughter, and she is sick and bedridden, and the wound will not stop bleeding. 

She leads the adventurers to the manor house and sneaks them in the kitchen door. She tells Mic to make them some tea and she goes to see if the master will let them in. They heard yelling from another room, and Mic mentions that the master has something of a temper. He also tells them that he's hit the hounds with his sling and the master stabbed one with a pitchfork, but they are resilient and vicious, and little Aingeal seems to be fading. The heroes offer Dara's help, and Eimile returns, looking frightened and chastened. She apologizes for the master not receiving them, but says that she'll bring Dara up to Aingeal's room.

She leads Dara up a back staircase to a bedroom, where a child of about seven lies on a bad. The smell knocks Dara back - it smells like a wound gone septic. Aingeall looks pale and sick, and a wound on her arm has already soaked through the bandage. Eimile goes to change it, and Dara looks at it - it's bleeding freely, bright red blood like a fresh wound, but the edges of the bite marks are going black. 

Dara casts a spell to detect disease or poison, but senses nothing. Maybe a magical effect that acts like a disease, but isn't? She casts a dispel magic on the girl, and she shrieks in pain, but no change to the wound. Dara tries again, focusing her magic, but Aingeal only cries about again. Defeated, Dara heads downstairs to talk to the others. On the way out, she meets Bairbre, Aingeal's mother, who is much more pleasant than her husband, it seems. She thanks Dara for her help and begs her to cure her daughter.

Meanwhile, the others are in the kitchen with Mic. They ask about the dogs and when they usually show up, and he says it's typically after dark. And just a moment later, they hear baying from outside. "That's them." 

"All right, then," says Clara, and the six of them head outside. Aisling activates her driftglobe and sends sunlight over the area, and they hear yips and paws running away. "Doesn't look like they'll show themselves with that on them," says Keenan, and Aisling turns it off, but keeps it close, figuring it'll be a good way to weaken them if need be. Fearg charges out into the clearing and bellows a challenge, and the dogs respond!

WOOF WOOF MOTHERFUCKERS

They charge from the trees, horrible things with mangy fur sloughing off of their bodies and diseased, frothy mouths, and all of them bleed continuously. Aisling throws a cloud of daggers at one and Dara, emerging from the kitchen just as things get started, calls down a moonbeam on it. Zook takes a more aggressive approach, and hurls a fireball into the trees. The flames light up the area and they see the dog that Aisling and Dara hit explode into a ball of blood and ash. A bunch run out and surround Fearg, biting and tearing flesh. Brébhin hurls a tiny ball of lightning at one of them, but a couple run up on her, and a couple more charge at Keenan and Zook (but their teeth miss the mark).

Fearg lashes out and whacks one with his hammer (but I could not make a roll for him to save my life, or his). Aisling unleashes magic missiles, Brébhin strikes with her sword, and Clara runs out into the midst of the dogs and starts punching them to death. Keenan fries one with a firebolt, and within a moment all ten of them are just fur, bone, and blood. 

Brébhin and Fearg have both sustained bites, and their bites are bleeding continuously. Dara casts a lesser restoration on both of them and the wounds clot and start to close, so apparently whatever illness these monsters carry can be cured. Dara rests and meditates, recovering her magic, and then heads upstairs to Aingeal. 

After promising that this spell won't hurt, she casts a lesser restoration, and Aingeal's wound starts to improve. But she wails that she saw her father talking to the dogs - "He is the keeper of the hounds!" And then she passes out.

Dara heads back downstairs and tells the others. Zook is perfectly happy to take the fucker's head now (figuring that even if he's not "the keeper of the hounds," he's an abusive piece of shit), but cooler heads prevail, at least for the moment. Aisling and Clara ask Mic to see Íosac, and with some hesitation, he leads them to the master's study. It's full of stuffed animals (like, trophies, not stuffies), and Íosac himself, a large, broad man, sits in front of a fire sipping something from a goblet. Mic announces them, and Íosac receives them, if stiffly.

Íosac isn't exactly rude, but he's by no means polite, either. He does, however, ask if they're the ones that helped his daughter, and then says that apparently some thanks are in order. Clara feels that there's a real note of concern in his voice, too. Aisling asks about what Aingeal said, and Íosac says that he has no idea why she would say that - he's never spoken to the hounds and certainly isn't their keeper. Aisling asks if he'd be willing to help hunt them, then, and he says that he's tried, but their constant bleeding makes them hard to track. Aisling presses the issue, and he agrees and excuses himself to prepare.

Aisling asks Mic what "preparations" he might be making, and Mic assumes he's putting his armor on. She asks why he has armor, and Mic isn't sure. Actually, Mic isn't exactly sure where Íosac is from. From his accent, maybe south, around Fiadh, but it'd have to be one of the outlying villages. He knows that Bairbre is from Cian, anyway. 

Íosac emerges wearing leather armor, and orders Mic to fetch his bow. The adventurers make ready to go; Keenan, Zook, and Brébhin stay behind, in case more dogs show up (and Zook doesn't much trust himself around Íosac anyway). They head out into the forests and track the hounds using their pawprints and blood trails, and some hours later, find themselves deeper in the forest at the root of a huge, dead tree. 

At the base of the tree is a hollow with a shallow pool of blood, and there are paw prints near the entrance. This seems to be where the brackish hounds came from. They talk about burning it, though Íosac is concerned about more forest fires (he wasn't thrilled about the goddamned fireball in his backyard). They talk a bit more, and then Aisling notices something floating in the blood at the back of the pool. She goes to fish it out with her sword, but Íosac stops her ("don't sully that blade") and uses an arrow. Aisling magically cleans it, and discovers it's a length of blue ribbon. Íosac looks shocked. "I gave that to my daughter," he says. "It was tying her hair back." The others ask how it got out here, and Íosac shakes his head. "You don't understand. It was tying her hair back today. I saw it."

He turns and starts heading back to the house, and the others follow, figuring they can burn this evil tree later. As they approach the house, though, they hear someone calling out in pain. It sounds like Keenan!

(Next time, we rewind and find out what happened at the house. It was ugly.)