November 14th 2021 – Last Things Last (Part 2)
– Mike Nebadon has “retired” from active duty, while Harry Kowalski does his criminal work at his “home office” in the M-Cell safehouse.
– Alba Ballest, meanwhile, briefs two new Friendlies (Benon Economou and Mark Sanchez) in the M-Cell safehouse.
– Mark Sanchez (he, him) is a field medic.
– Benon Economou (he, him): Well-tanned, haunted eyes. Tall, thin, and athletic that comes from action, and not exercise. Participated in half-dozen conflict zones, security work and architecture work for Delta Green. He did a little bit of everything. He’s a problem solver. From Cyprus.
Character Sheets:
- Name: Alba Ballest (she, her)
Occupation: Investment trader
Anchor: Sue Blackman (programmer friend)
- Name: Mark Sanchez (he, him)
Occupation: Doctor
Anchor: Taro Samaniego (former student and assistant) - Name: Benon Economou (he, him)
Occupation: Ex-Revolutionary/Treasure Hunter
Anchor: Olimpia Caporale (International Print Journalist, thinks of her as a daughter)
– Alba is the “face of the party”, and is extremely concerned about the Migo taking over people. Alba’s thoughts:
– Clyde joined up with an alien test…with the Migo…
– March Technologies tries to find test subjects (maybe that’s why the school exists?).
– Protomatter is considered an implant.
– March Technologies know the Migo don’t have best interest of humanity…yet they still cooperate with them. Curious.
– Alba decides that she wants to investigate The King in Yellow further, since it is something that the Migo feared. The play circulates illegally in underground circles, so it should be possible to acquire a copy. Benon Economou uses his treasure hunting skills to find a bookstore (located in Harlem) that sells such a book.
– Alba also decided that after going to the bookstore, they’ll head over to Clyde’s log cabin and investigate that place.
The Harlem Bookstore
– They make it to the bookstore, owned by Mr. Robert (who says to call him as Bob). Mark Sanchez agreed to be the one to get The King In Yellow (the original version, in French). He enters into a dark room, where a hand reaches out to give Mr. Roberts the book – and then Mr. Roberts give the book over to Mark.
– The party inquired about payment, and Mr. Roberts state that payment was not necessary – he likes giving out books to people. This raises the eyebrows of the party, since this is called a bookstore, not a book depository. Mr. Roberts shrugged; he merely called it a bookstore because he was told to open one.
– The party convinced Mr. Roberts to give his life story: Mr. Roberts worked for Qaddafi in Libya, and found out about The King in Yellow. Once Mr. Roberts read this play, he left Qaddafi’s service, avoiding capture in the process. Roberts went to he US, and built this bookstore on orders from the Play.
– Mark Sanchez also acquired a P.G. Woodworth book. This book was mundane.
– Alba Ballest acquired a book about the Migo, which discusses their relationship with Majestic-12. Interestingly, the book updates itself in real-time, and even contains a confidential conversation between two Majestic-12 members – a major security leak. Mr. Roberts state that China has a copy of this book as well. Majestic-12 does not know about the existence of this book.
– The Migo was an alien species that lived on Pluto. They forgot their origins because it was not necessary for their survival. They were a logical species, but liked intuition because it was more energy-efficient. They faked the Roswell crash to see if the US government would be good at covering it up – since they did a good job, the Migo reached out.
– Benon Economou thought about getting a book about the stock market. However, it soon became clear that this bookstore is supernatural, and thus not to be trusted. The party all agree to leave the bookstore immediately and not press their luck. Before they leave outright, Benon gave some money to Mr. Roberts.
– The party drives to Clyde’s log cabin using Mark’s car. Mark reads The King in Yellow, looking at trees periodically to avoid gaining Insight from the play.
– Carcosa, led by the True King, is waging a war against the False King, and is losing. Nevertheless, they are holding a masquerade, as per tradition. The play is pretty terrible, as people state pseudo-philosophical stuff. At 12:00 AM, the True King arrives. Everyone takes their mask off other than the True King, which wears no mask. This drives everyone Insightful.
Clyde’s Log Cabin
– When they get there, they find the bodies of three soldiers (two Americans, one Soviet), which were blown up by mundane IEDs (which was laid by Clyde). They appear to have died just a few hours after M-Cell cleaned out Clyde’s apartment. The party navigated through the IED minefield intact.
– The log cabin itself was not visited in the last two months. There is an outhouse, a shed with four five-gallon cans of gasoline, and a septic tank. The pipes does not connect to the septic tank at all. The party looks through the log cabin and finds a footlocker, along with a note from Clyde requesting that people pour the cans of gasoline into the septic tank.
– The party discussed whether they should carry out Clyde’s wishes (since a monster could be inside the septic tank), but Alba state that she would rather investigate first, rather than blindly trust Clyde’s statements. She opens the hatch of the septic tank and find the talking corpse of Marlene Baughman, the wife of Clyde Baughman.
– The party helps Marlene Baughman out from the septic tank. Mark Sanchez examines Marlene Baughman and determined she is medically dead (not breathing, no heart beat, etc.) and is being puppeteered by supernatural forces. Marlene state that Clyde did a ritual to try to bring her to life. The ritual failed, but Marlene told Clyde that it’s okay, it’s still fine. Clyde didn’t agree, and locked her up.
– The party helped Marlene get some food to eat. Marlene doesn’t need food, and in fact, could survive without it, but she wanted it anyway because it helps her recover strength. Benon Economou watched Marlene carefully while Marlene eats.
– Alba interviewed Marlene while looking through Clyde’s footlocker for clues as to what happened.
– Marlene told the party that she and Clyde were both Delta Green members. Clyde fought against The Monitor, a cult that worships the Great Race of the Yith. Marlene focused on minor supernatural beings. In 2001, Marlene was killed by The Monitor in her sleep. In 2012, Clyde then assassinated members of The Monitor, using the Protomatter given to him by March Technologies. In the process, he acquired the Scheel Formula, and may have used it to resurrect Marlene in 2012.
– Mark Sanchez knows that it is possible to reduce a person to “essential salts” and use a ritual to turn those salts back into a person. This may very well be what Clyde did. However, it is unclear what inhabits the living body…and if the person in question is alive.
– Clyde participated in auditions for a project hosted by Stephen Alzis, the leader of The Network (though he was rejected, and received the rejection letter one day before his death via drug overdose). Marlene stated that Clyde participated in the auditions because he wanted access to The Hotel – a supernatural area where all people go where they die. Based on how Clyde described it, the Hotel may be another plane of existence. Clyde wanted to go to The Hotel since that’s where Marlene’s soul must have gone after she died…but the Cabin Marlene (the one that Alba is interviewing) disliked the Hotel Marlene; the Cabin Marlene believes herself to be the “real” Marlene because she has her body and memories. The Hotel Marlene is a mere “puppet”.
– Marlene does not know what the auditions are for. Alba asked if it could be for a play, and Marlene doesn’t know for sure, though Clyde did talk about plays fairly recently. It does seem obvious that Clyde’s assassinations of The Monitor were submitted as part of the auditions.
– Alba examined the highly magnetized glass sphere, and with help from Marlene, determined that it was a Migo device. It’s a teleportation device – we break it and we’ll find ourselves somewhere else that have been setup. An emergency exit pod, essentially. The teleportation device also reform itself after being broken, so it can be used again and agin. Marlene state that she used it regularly while she worked for Delta Green.
– Since it is unclear where the glass sphere teleports you to, Clyde also stockpiled three tear-gas grenades as well.
– While the food was “pretty good” and served as a stopgap measure, she wanted something more – living things, especially fresh blood. Marlene quickly clarified that she doesn’t need humans – animals would be fine as well. Still, this raised the suspicions of the party.
– The party thought about Delta Green’s policy on using supernatural assets. As official policy, Delta Green only use the supernatural when “absolutely necessary”, although individual cells may differ on the details. Marlene admits that if Delta Green finds out about her present state, they would order her execution.
– Alba therefore suggest that she stays in the cabin and never leave…only for Marlene to ask if she can at least interact with the bodies outside. Alba asked why. Marlene states that she has the ability to possess bodies and gain their memories.
– This was enough to turn Alba against Marlene, leading to Marlene (or more accurately, the “spiritual predator” who was possessing Marlene’s body) to make a break for it.
– The “spiritual predator” ran over to the corpse of one of the American soldiers, leaving Marlene’s body and possessing the American solider. However, it turns out the soldier’s gun is empty, and the soldier’s memory is not that great. By the time the “spiritual predator” considered switching back to Marlene, Alba (using Mark’s car) and Mark (using his own personal handgun) surrounded him.
– The predator state that he can’t be killed, since there’s always corpses for him to get. Alba uses Mark’s car to drive over the corpses, stopping the predator from possessing any of them. The predator, in response, panicked, and tried possessing a live person – Alba. It worked, and the spiritual predator drives Mark’s car away from the log cabin.
– On one hand, the predator is possibly “contained” since now the predator is fighting against Alba’s mundane soul. On the other hand it is also NOT contained because you now have a supernatural being on the loose.
– Mark Sanchez expensed Delta Green, asking them to pay for a new car since his old car was hijacked by a supernatural being. Mark Sanchez and Benon Economou also called for an Uber-like “driver service” to pick them up from the Clyde’s log cabin and take them back to the M-Cell Safehouse.
– This “driver service” is aligned to Delta Green, so there is no fear of accidental exposure.
– Mark and Benon hid Clyde’s stuff in a bag, hid the mangled bodies, and guided the driver through the landmines.
– After a few days, news reports trickled in about Alba (still possessed by the spiritual predator) conducting crimes throughout the United States and spreading certain numbers (by spraypainting these numbers in strategic locations). These numbers help prepare humans for possession by the Yith.