- The three books that the players got in the last session (“The King in Yellow”, the Migo history textbook, and the mundane P.G. Woodworth book) were determined to be in the car that Alba Ballest carjacked. This means players no longer have access to those books.
- Edgar Reese (Daniel Fowler), a detective, shows up at the safehouse, alongside Harry Kowalski (Parrish), Benon Economou (Matt Hanley), and Mark Sanchez (Jim). Everyone is looking at tablets and doing research, while Edgar fiddles around with the conspiracy board Alba Ballest made at the safehouse in November.
Characters
- Name: Harry Kowalski (he, him)
Occupation: Criminal (a “undercriminal” that specializes in online crime – low-level internet scams)
Anchor: George Walsh (connection to the underworld, vouches for me and keeps me connected)
- 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)
- Name: Edgar Reese (he, him) (Daniel Fowler)
Occupation: Private Detective
Anchor: Camelia Reese, honor student going to the same school as Clyde’s granddaughter.
Prep Work
— Mark Sanchez finished reading his tablet and went down to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee? “Anyone wants some?” Edgar wanted some, so Mark made coffee and then brought it up to him.
— Harry Kowlaski, at the home office, got a message from Agent Marcus, who opened up a video call with him and the rest of the Friendlies at the safehouse. Agent Marcus wanted a debriefing as to what happened.
— The team stated that they went straight to Clyde Baughman’s cabin where they found a lady (Marlene Baughman) who was possessed by a spiritual predator, or maybe a demon. The team thought they could deal with the lady, but it turns out the lady needed to feed on blood and possess bodies. The team tried to get rid of her, but she possessed the body of the deceased body, and Alba Ballest ran her down with a car, but ended up getting possessed by her and driving off.
— The team also stated that they found Clyde’s footlocker, which included a teleportation device (the highly magnetized glass sphere). They’re not sure if the teleportion device had a receiver set up. Agent Marcus was upset that Clyde was stockpiling material away from Delta Green. Agent Marcus tells the players to keep the materials at the M-Cell Safehouse, so that Delta Green can use the material as necessary.
— The Friendlies decide that the next step would be to investigate the school that Clyde Baughman’s granddaughter (Cassie) went to – Glen Academy, a private university located in Grover County, Kentucky, owned by March Technologies. It is a STEM school, focused on xenobiology. Students wear khaki uniforms and students are not allowed to leave the campus so they can focus on their studies.
— Benon Economou begin examining the glass sphere, trying to figure out where it might teleport to. He determines that the coordinates that it teleports to changes…the coordinates move to different locations – Grover County, Harlem, Boston, Chicago, etc. The coordinates is going to no particular order…but it does go to static locations.
— The Friendlies also investigate how the glass sphere would work – when broken, it will teleport you to the coordinates, but will also go alongside you as well.
— Agent Marcus lets players know that he will give access to a person named Sunshine, and also gave a handout about STATIC Protocol – the proper procedures for dealing with cognitohazards. Edgar is not impressed by the protocol – “All this is saying is ‘Be very careful and tell us when it happens.’ Thanks Marcus. How much are we being paid by the way?”
— Agent Marcus advise the Friendlies not to use the glass sphere, because he is suspicious about anything supernatural. But he will not intervene if they do decide to use it. Edgar Reese decides to use it, because it may take a long time to get to Kentucky, and he wants to meet up with his daughter (Camelia Reese) quickly.
— Edgar, however, realize that he needs a plan to get into the school proper. He sets up a team – Edgar is the parent of Cameliea Reese, who would be upset at the school, want to withdraw her, and plans on suing the school. Mark would be the family physician who is advising Edgar about Cameilea’s health. Benon and Mark would either be Edgar’s bodyguards, or witnesses.
— Agent Marcus also sends out counterfeit state police credentials, in case the team needs them.
— Mark wants a device to test if someone has been infected with the Mythos – a “detect magic” spell. Agent Marcus reluctantly reveals a cache of Melonia pods, located 5 miles away from the safehouse. Mark goes there and retrieve the plant pods.
— When the Friendlies are ready, they break the glass sphere to teleport…back to the Bookstore. They look outside and see Grover County, Kentucky. The bookstore owner, Mr. Robert, smiles and waves at the Friendlies.
— Mark strikes up a conversation with Mr. Roberts, “I really enjoyed that book – The King in Yellow. Do you have any more books like that?” Mr. Roberts reply, “Sure! I may have hundreds, thousands of books.”
— Since the Bookstore appears to teleport to different locations (likely to avoid getting attacked and destroyed by anti-occult forces), the party decides it is best to leave the Bookstore immediately. Mark broke off the conversation by saying, “We’re going to be late for the appointment. Sorry, gotta go.”
– Edgar muses about the bookstore. “Is the bookstore that sells us this book also Migo-technology? Maybe the Migo taps into whatever allows the bookstore to move from place to place.”
Grover County
— The team makes it to Glen Academy. Edgar calls up his daughter (Cameliea Reese) and asks her to come to lunch at a nearby restaurant – they were dropping by. At the restaurant, Edgar states that he saw a news article about March Technologies conducting medical experiments and people are dying from it. He was worried about it, as well as the family physician, Mark. Edgar wants to know if Cameliea saw anything odd at the university, something that might indicate they’re doing experiments on the students…
— Cameliea state that nothing odd is going on, and she knows because she’s on the research team doing these experiments. They’re doing it on the soldiers who were infected with Protomatter, replacing human organs with more efficient artificial organs.
— Meanwhile, Mark goes to the restroom and privately consumes one of the Melonia pods. He then detects no supernatural presence in Cameliea Reese.
— Edgar asks if it is possible to get rid of Protomatter. Cameliea nods – you can conduct a medical operation to grab all traces of Protomatter from a body, but since Protomatter is a living organism, it will try to fight back. You can also use fire to burn Protomatter out.
— Cameliea notes that traditionally, Protomatter can be surgically implanted into people. However, it is possible to introduce Protomatter via food and water. However, March Technologies can’t control the spread, which is why they haven’t done it yet.
— Edgar ask if it is possible for the Migo to do it instead. Cameliea is horrified.
— Edgar ask Cameliea if he knows anything about Clyde Baughman’s medication. Cameliea said that the medication should work, and something else must be going on. She admits that she doesn’t really understand what’s going on, dismissing everything she was taught as “magic nonsense”. (Edgar doesn’t like the sound of this – is Cameliea actually learning anything, or is she just working for March Technologies?)
— Cameliea really likes the school – it’s a good school, and is very efficient…due to it being run by one person having multiple faces. This attracted the attention of the party, which was confused by what she meant. Is she referring to multiple people? A shape changer? A person possessed by alien spirits?
— Cameliea admit being confused too, but then she went into the university’s office and saw a Protomatter blob. The blob buds out a single person who walks around. When that person needs to change skillsets, that person returns back to the Protomatter blob and merges back into it. Then the blob buds out the same person, but with a different face.
— Edgar now wonders if Cameliea is herself part of the Protomatter blob. He covertly sprinkles salt onto her, in the hopes that if she is a pseudopod, that she would shrink, like a mundane pseudopod. Nothing happens.
— Edgar pulls Cameliea out of the school and sends her off to Edgar’s ex-wife for a few weeks while he sorts everything else out. (Edgar had an ex-wife – they separated due to work. Edgar doesn’t talk to his ex-wife anymore.)
— Cameliea is upset because she was learning a lot about xenobiology. Edgar thinks she’s more confused than anything…probably only learning how to shove things into soldiers without asking any questions. “We’ll see, honey.”
— But…before Cameliea leaves, Edgar suggest that Cameliea calls up Clyde Baughman’s granddaughter, Cassie, and set up a meeting. Cameliea is reluctant to do such a thing, but Edgar strong-arms her, pointing out that Edgar is Cameliea’s father.
— Edgar doesn’t trust this school – it’s run by either incompetent or crazy people, dealing with stuff that they have no idea how it works. And that this stuff is taking over and hurting people.
— Cameliea calls up Cassie Baughman, and Cassie appears to be in a conversation with Emily Vassago…a person that the team knew all too well. Emily Vassago is trying to get Cassie out of the school over to another location. Cassie doesn’t seem to trust the team, as Emily told her that her grandfather died right before the team searched the apartment. Edgar told Cassie that he never knew Clyde – he merely worked with people that I worked with.
— “Did you know if he worked for March Technologies?” Edgar asked. Cassie is silent for a bit. “Um…let me ask Emily. HEY EMILY, CAN YOU GIVE ME THAT BOOK AGAIN?”
— Edgar makes a request to Cassie: “Why don’t you bring Emily here? You want to get off campus, we want to get you off campus. We would like to meet Emily as well. We were investigating your grandfather’s death….”
— The problem is that Emily doesn’t want to go, since she doesn’t like the team. Emily gets in an argument with Cassie, but Cassie said that she summoned Emily, so Emily must follow Cassie until the summoning ritual ends. Emily must obey until the summoning ritual ends – once that happens, she can do what she wants to Daniel/etc. Emily agrees, but is resentful and states that Cassie may regret this…
— The team relocates to a different restaurant to avoid suspicion. They go to an ice cream parlor, and what for Emily and Cassie to show up.
— Edgar doesn’t know what to do about the “Slime Dean” and the protomatter blob. Should we just take out Emily and Cassie?
— Harry suggest that we just take out Emily and Cassie (since they’re people of interest) and then run. “We do not know who we’re up against…or even what they intend.”
— Edgar: “If they have good intentions, they’re not capable. They should not be in charge of young people and alien technologies. They don’t know what they’re doing. March Technologies is operating a school run by a massive sentient matter that like…can control people…it’s alarmingly at best. Maybe I’m prejudiced against sapient matter, but it’s alarmingly.”
— Harry agrees, thinks that, for now, they should just save those two people and then get out of Grover County. The team can think of something else later. “If we stay here, what will we do? Demand things? We could be in the middle of a disaster – everyone here could take off sunglasses and reveal themselves to be aliens.”
— Edgar agrees with Harry, but it doesn’t fill him with confidence.
— Mark agrees. “We’re massively outnumbered.”
— Emily and Cassie arrives, and Emily glares at Mark and Harry, the only two surviving members of the team who entered into Cylde’s apartment.
— Edgar quizzed Cassie about the school. Cassie thinks it’s a good school, but after her father’s death, she…got in contact with Emily. Emily told her it’s a bad school, and is not reliable.
— Edgar asked, “How do you know Emily?” He then turns to Emily. “I understand you’re an author…but who do you represent? What is your agenda?”
— Emily introduced herself as simply a concerned citizen. Edgar tells Emily everything that they know, to try to gain the trust of Emily and Cassie.
— Emily told her story – in the past, she was a cultural anthropologist enrolled in a doctorate program, while the Masquerade was in effect. After writing her dissertation about the Sky Devils (what people know today as the Migo), she was kicked out from he program and was relegated to the fringes of academia. As a result, she turned to The Network (the US-Soviet military alliance) and work for them in order to undermine the Migo and their allies (Majestic/March Technologies).
— Emily also admits that she is a demon that was summoned by Cassie. This led to confusion within the party, since there is an Emily Vassago that is not a demon (a person who wrote a book and got related to the finger of academia), and an Emily Vassago that is a demon (and who was summoned by Cassie). Emily admit that it is confusing, but that she just follows her script, and it’s not her fault the script is written in this confusing fashion.
— To help alleviate the confusion, Edgar suggest calling the two Emily individuals as “Earth Emily” and “Demon Emily”.
— Edgar ask Demon Emily about demons – who they serve and where they are from. Demon Emily state that she is from Carcosa and she serves the King in Yellow.
— Demon Emily states that she and Earth Emily both hates the Migo. Edgar asks Demon Emily how to get the Migo to leave and stop interfering with humanity. Demon Emily shrugs – she doesn’t know, she just works here.
— Demon Emily gives Edgar the “Intercepted Conversation” page that was previously in the “History of the Migo” book that the players had last session, detailing a conversation between two Majestic leaders about something leaking from the human mind. Demon Emily states that those who get infected by the King in Yellow perceive reality differently from others, and may even turn into demons. The Migo themselves could get infected.
— Demon Emily’s hold is weakening, so she hands Edgar a link to https://www.demonweb101.com so that the team could summon her if necessary.
— Demon Emily then loses control entirely, and Earth Emily takes Cassie over to The Network. The team then presumably leaves Grover County entirely, and will regroup for next time.
Downtime Scenes
— Harry Kowalski talks to his underworld boss about any type of valuable art and places that are difficult to get in. He could use the teleportation device to avoid capture…by fleeing into the bookstore. He also wonder about burglarizing the bookstore itself – there’s lost art or important valuable books there.
— Benon Econonmou asked a journalist, Olimpia Caporale, if there were any teleportation devices similar to that of the Migo device that he used. Olimpia knew that there are certain locations that are connected to the netherworld, which are active only at night. Unfortunately those places are places that has been infected by the King in Yellow. It’s very dangerous to walk into this netherworld.
Benon: “If we know where those places are, can we go there to access the netherworld?”
Olimpia: “Yes.”
Benon knows that Delta Green would not be happy with said buildings, since they would spread the KiY congitohazard. Delta Green would prefer to destroy these buildings.
— Dr. Mark Sanchez talks to his assistant, Taro Samaniego, who is visiting him. Taro shows Mark his work. Mark opens up a beer/soda/whatever.
After Taro finishes showing off his work, Mark asks Taro, “You know those aliens they talk about?”
Taro: “Yeah?”
Mark: “What do you think about ‘safety’?”
Taro: “It’s all about risk management. Nothing is 100% risk-free, and you have to judge the potential dangers with the benefits involved – such as putting brains in canisters. There’s dangers in losing a lot of sensory inputs, but you get the benefits of traveling the universe and seeing stuff that others only dream of. It’s all about risk tolerance. The problem is that some people may have too high of a risk tolerance.”
Mark: “How would you make this planet hard to get to? Hard to take?”
Taro knows that the main answer is to protect humanity is to turn into supernatural monsters, but that’s not the solution he personally prefer. Instead, he says that the answer is to just hit the monsters back harder with mundane weaponry. After all, Cthulhu was killed…he came back, but he still was killed. Just shoot them long enough to buy time for a better plan.
Mark: “Maybe that will work.”
He laughs and nods as though they asked me. Then Mark saw the crystal pendant that Taro was wearing – the Realizer.
— Taro states that the Realizer helped him manipulate reality in his favor – what people in the past would call a “good luck charm”. He got it from the Enolsis Foundation.
— After Taro left, Mark looks up Realizers to try to find more info about them. He sees that the Enolsis Foundation has set up offices throughout the world, and those who use Realizers go to those offices every week. People who wear Realizers have their supernatural potential drained, and in return, the Realizer helps the wearer control reality.