Harry Kowalski (Parrish) had to leave the party to handle mundane criminal activities, while Dr. Mark Sanchez (Jim) mysteriously disappeared and was nowhere to be found. This meant Edgar Reese (Daniel Fowler) and Benon Economou (Matt Hanley) were the only M-Cell Friendlies present in Grover County.
Characters
- 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.
Convergence, Part 2 – January 23rd 2022
— Edgar and Benon had not left Grover County, still quietly monitoring activity in the area. They received a phone call from Agent Marcus, who gave them new orders. He found out that Majestic-12 is going to be transporting a Protomatter blob from Glen Academy over to an unknown location in Oklahoma, via black helicopter. He wants the Friendlies to stop that, ideally by destroying the blob.
— Edgar reported to Marcus that there is a second Protomatter blob that is in charge of the academy. Marcus thanks Edgar for that information, and amend the orders to destroy that blob too.
— Benon and Edgar discuss strategies. Benon knows how to pilot a helicopter for short distances, although he’s not good at taking off or landing. Edgar already has an “in” to the university – as the father of Cameila, he can schedule a parent-teacher conference with the Dean of College. As Edgar already pulled out Cameila though, he would have make a big “stink”.
— Benon asked if Edgar could even talk to the Dean of Glen Academy, considering he may not have enough resources to make it worth his time. Edgar respond that he could talk to a smaller “dean”…and then realize they’re both the same person, controlled by the blob. This leads to a question of how the blob could run the school. They did some research.
— It turns out that, contrary to Camelia’s insistence that there is only “one person with different faces” running the school, the Protomatter blob can indeed “bud” out multiple people at a time. This is sometimes necessary because you would have to have a massive staff in order to run a research university. Damaging one individual can damage the blob (because it is a “part” of the blob), but doesn’t directly hurt the other people budding off.
The reason that the Protomatter blob tends to only want to bud out one individual at a time though is because that allows it to more effective at mind-controlling the Protomatter-infected soldiers that guard the area. However, the presence of a secretive second Protomatter blob (which could be used to handle military affairs) make that a less pressing concern.
(OOC Note: As the GM, I made an error during the last session. The above was a retcon intended to “fix” that error and create a more plausible university.)
— Benon and Edgar realize they don’t really need an appointment to get in. They just need to monitor the activity of the university staff and see where they recombine at night. Edgar does a stakeout operation, and at 9:00 PM, the university staff all congregate into a single building: RIDGEWAY LAB.
— Also, at 9:00 PM, the loudspeakers of Glen Academy makes an announcement. “Stay alert! An enemy is approaching! Be careful! Do not look at the numbers, lest the enemy spread its influence further!” Edgar realizes that the loudspeakers are referring to Alba Ballest (who is spray-painting numbers to help the Great Race of the Yith body-jack people), and that Glen Academy realizes she’s coming. He makes a mental note not to read anything that is spray-painted.
— Benon uses his cellphone to look up information on Ridgeway Lab, but only finds their public website. “Ridgeway Labs was created by Dinah Ridgeway, to study Migo technologies and promote cooperation and coexistence between the Migo and humanity. It is a good lab that has not been accused of human right abuses”. Dinah Ridgeway is alive and lives in that lab, presumably because he wants to focus on his studies.
— Edgar goes to Home Depot and buys some spraypaint, a can of gasoline, and some padlocks. He plans on using the spraypaint to corral people, or to cover up any spraypainted gibberish he can see. He can then use the can of gasoline on the university (or just the blob), and then padlock the doors to keep them shut. It shouldn’t take more than an hour for Edgar to find this stuff.
— Edgar and Benon tried to determine how much resistance they would have to face. It appears like twenty guards, who are infected with Protomatter. Benon took pictures of their faces and found out they are indeed real humans (online presences, SSNs, etc.) They differ from the university staff, who appear to look generically like people, skimping on hair and facial features.
— Edgar and Benon wanted to establish a distraction to keep the guards away from Ridgeway Lab, so they rigged up an explosion on a faraway generator to blow up the statue of March Technologies’ founder. Benon then spray-painted a bunch of weird numbers using his knowledge of numerology, hopefully dragging the guards away from their position.
— The statue explodes, distracting Alba Ballest as she was doing her graffiti, spraypainting numbers on a mural that showed March Technologies and Migo working together. Alba’s momentary hesitation allowed the guards to investigate the graffti of the mural. Alba panicked, running away from the guards…and to the positions of Edgar and Benon.
— Alba Ballest is armed with a police shotgun. She is aware of Edgar and Benon but doesn’t want to shoot them yet. Benon gets out of Alba’s way, while Edgar takes cover and see what she does.
— Alba mentally counts how much bullets she fired, and how many numbers she spray-painted, after making sure she is “safe”. After a few minutes, she decided, “Yes, I have enough shots left.” Then she start aiming the shotgun at Edgar and Benon.
— Edgar and Benon (both armed with pistols) fired back. Alba had a habit of waiting 2.333 seconds before firing, so they get the initiative. The bullets hit Alba’s chest, causing her to scream in pain. She panics and start firing – she obviously didn’t anticipated Edgar and Benon’s involvement in this situation.
— Though Alba is wounded, she could still pose a threat. Edgar therefore continued fighting against Alba. She fired with her shotgun, severely wounding Edgar. Edgar then fired back, killing Alba. She screams in pain though, dropping the shotgun and alerting the guards. Her last words were “We know the answer”.
— Edgar and Benon both rush into Ridgeway Lab and padlock the doors. Their plan is to light the building on fire, and then teleport out using their Migo device (the magnetized glass sphere). They already have the gasoline – a nice and simple way of catching the building on fire.
— Edgar, being wounded from his confrontation with Alba, will padlock the enterance and lay down suppressing fire. Benon will take the lead in setting the place ablaze.
— In Ridgeway Lab, Edgar and Benon sees that the walls are covered in a strange, spray epoxy (secreted resisn), on the outside. The internal walls have been removed. Grey-ish beings cultivating some Protomatter inside of vats that have stationed inside the lab itself. They also see some mushroom fungi on the northern side of the lab in question. No humans are present.
— The greyish beings ignore Edgar and Benon, are are thus focused on testing the Protomatter blobs and getting them ready for transportation to a black helicopter to Oklahoma. From their urgency, it might be 30 minutes before the helicopter arrives.
— Edgar and Benon searches for a closet with a water heater, or a gas stove, or something. But it’s all empty and bare. Then they decide that they might as well set the entire place ablaze. They already got the gasoline.
— When Benon started setting the building aflame, the grey-ish beings “turn off” and collapse to the floor. The mushroom fungi come off from the northern side of the lab and try to attack, but are caught by the flames. As the fungi curses Benon in a Migo dialect, Edgar and Benon uses the Migo device to teleport themselves back to the Bookstore.
Bookstore, November 1st 2021
— The bookstore’s current location is in Harlem, New York. When they make it to the Bookstore, they notice two things. First, the bookstore owner is talking to Emily Vassago. Second, the owner’s calendar claims that the current date is November 1st 2021. (The M-Cell Friendlies first mission was on November 7th 2021). The calendar works through an old system of marking out all days until the present day.
— Edgar and Benon asked for some painkillers and medical attention, to alleviate the immediate problems. The bookstore owner happily gives them what he has, but it’s only a temporary measure at best. They need to get more permanent medical attention soon.
— Benon asked the bookstore owner if that calendar is actually accurate. The bookstore owner said, “Yeah. It’s right. I mean, I checked it, what, I don’t know, fifty years ago? Time doesn’t really make much sense to me.”
— Benon is immediately upset. “Wait, you checked it fifty years ago, and you haven’t checked it since. You know what, never mind.” Edgar suspects that they’re actually fifty years in the future, and that they might step out into a futuristic landscape. Eventually Benon and Edgar looked out of the windows and found evidence suggesting that they’re actually in November 1st 2021.
— Edgar askes Emily what she is doing here. Emily responds, “Okay, um, I’ll tell you, but don’t tell my master that I told you. They might be upset. I’ve been told to assassinate a person who might be a threat to our organization. You might know of him. His name is Cylde Baughman. And that’s why I’m in this bookstore. I’m looking for curses. You guys are friendly people, do you know of any curses?”
— The bookstore owner puts the Friendlies on the spot by stating, “I know of some curses, but…it’s impolite for me to interrupt a fellow patron of the arts.” Emily nods, and looks at the players.
— Edgar says he want to consult with his fellow compatriot about this issue. Meanwhile, Benon checks his cellphone, and confirms that the current date is November 1st, 2021.
— Edgar privately talks to Benon. “Is she going to try to kill Baughman? I wasn’t there originally – you were investigating his apartment after his death. Is that something we want to prevent? He gone rogue it seems. He was assassinating people for another organization.” (OOC Note: Benon was actually not present at the apartment “on-screen” for Delta Green, as the M-Cell Friendlies visited the apartment in Session 1, and Benon joined in Session 2. However, he may have visited the apartment “off-screen”, possibly with the Baughman family.)
— Benon replies, “Maybe we can get ahead, and figure out why he was doing this?”
— Edgar wants to know who is Emily’s master anyway. Edgar also knows that Cylde isn’t dead yet. Maybe Edgar and Benon can talk to Cylde Baughman’s. The main issue is how much of the future does Edgar and Benon want to change – they may decide to get ahead of Emily, interrogate Baughman, but not necessarily stop Emily.
— Edgar finally talks to Emily. “There is all sorts of ways to kill or harm a person. What is right for you depends on your reasons and your affiliations? Could you tell why you want him dead? Or whom want him dead? Who is your master and why he want him dead? That would probably inform the manner…”
— Emily responds, “My master is the master of all, the King in Yellow, who presides in Carcosa and build beautiful works of art. Cylde Baughman is a very important person. He helped us a lot. But he is not a good actor. He is too competent. What you might call a Mary Sue in other literature. He had to die, for the plot…to right itself. Besides, his death kicks off a more interesting subplot than his life. That’s why he has the die. It’s for the play.
So, any curses that can deal with that motive?”
— Benon is nonplussed at the turn of events. “He had to be killed for the play?” Edgar’s player think that it’s a very meta play, and that the GM might actually be the King in Yellow.
— Edgar continues the conversation with Emily, “Well, if this is for a play, I’m not familiar with this particular one. What is the lesson? What is the theme? How do it normally ends?”
Emily: “It ends with the King unmasking, and it ends with everyone gaining Insight. It ends with the light of blinding revelation. And then everything resets, and we start again.”
— Edgar turns to the bookstore owner. “Sometimes…if the end of the play is for the truth to be revealed…Sometimes truths are not what we want them to be. Perhaps there is a curse of knowledge. To learn all the secrets…”
(Edgar’s Player: I feel like I’m being part of this play. I don’t know why my investigator is talking like this, but maybe he’s part of this.)
Emily: “…that would work. That WOULD work. I could maybe curse him with knowledge, let me know everything, and that should be enough to have him die. Thanks!”
And then Emily leaves.
— Edgar looks to see where the “Know-Everything curse” book is, and it turns out Emily has that book.
— The good news is that Edgar and Benon finally figured out the mystery behind Cylde Baughman’s drug overdose. He committed suicide, after being exposed to the “Know-Everything curse” by Emily Vassago. He learned something he did not appreciate, and thus ended his life.
— The bookstore owner clapped. He applauded Edgar and Benon for their performance. If they want, they can go ahead and meet up with Cylde. Otherwise, he can simply advance the bookstore back to the “present day”.
Edgar: “No, we want to meet up with Cylde.” Edgar and Benon leaves the bookstore and enters into New York City.
Last Things Last (Part 0)
— Since Edgar and Benon are still badly wounded, they called upon their Anchors to get the medical attention they needed.
— Benon calls in a favor from Olimpia to front some cash and some other resources that they might need. Like an anonymous apartment in the city for people to use.
— Edgar had a friendly conversation with his daughter, asking her about what she’s doing at school. Edgar would quiz her on other career choices she might choose if this doesn’t work out. (“Maybe you should look into other things, just be prepared.” “I know I have to be prepared, but I really love this career. All I do is follow orders.” “Really?” “Uh, never mind.”)
— Benon and Edgar makes it to Olimpia’s anonymous apartment, in a building far away from Cylde. It is dusty and looks little used. It has basic furnishings, with a refrigeration that is stocked with basics (bottled water, packaged yogurt, etc.) that will last a long time. Housekeeping services come by to keep it regularly stocked. All doors and windows are locked, but Olimpia gave Benon the key.
— A seal is etched into the wooden floor of the room, which looks like an occult symbol. There is also a stack of cards for Patricia Malphas, a realtor. That’s the probably the person that Olimpa used to get Benon this apartment.
The apartment is quiet. Better than renting a room in a hotel.
— Edgar and Benon realize they only have a brief window of time to talk to Cylde Baughman. They could also warn themselves in the past, about Cylde’s cabin and the the lady in the septic tank. That would affect what the Friendlies would do in the “future”.
— Neither Edgar nor Benon knows the repercussions of changing the timeline. Time travel is incredibly unusual in this world; the Great Race of the Yith knows how to do it, but their version of time travel is not what we humans view as time travel. So it seems that humans will need to do experimentation to figure out how time travel works, and see how badly they screw things up.
— Edgar: “I don’t see why we don’t better our situation, within reasonable means. Yes, it’s going to change things, but we have to make it change things in a positive things. Maybe we come to the school with more prep and body armor. And Alba doesn’t get possessed because we burn that guy’s wife in the septic tank.”
Benon: “Sounds like a plan.”
— The main question left to decide is “What to do with Baughman?” This all started because he died. But…they described him as a Mary Sue, and that’s why they’re trying to kill Cylde Baughman. If he’s on our side, then he’s useful. But we saw evidence that he was working for other people (The Network) and opposed The Monitor (the cult that worships the Yith).
— Edgar and Benon remember the letter from Cylde’s Footlocker from Stephen Alzis. It sounded like Cylde was in an interview but he didn’t get the role, due to not appealing to certain demographics. Now, Edgar is thinking that the play in question is similar to The King in Yellow.
— Flashback: When Edgar joined as a M-Cell Friendly, the Friendlies had already grabbed the stuff from the footlocker and placed it inside the M-Cell safehouse. Edgar saw the name “Stephen Alzis” and did research on him, looking up his LinkedIn profile and even talking to Agent Marcus. Marcus gave Edgar a letter talking about everything Delta Green knew about Stephen Alzis.
— Edgar consulted Marcus’ letter and concluded the following – Stephen Alzis, who is running The Network, is an agent of the King in Yellow, and they want Cylde Baughman for the star of their show, but he was too good…too competent. And no one (above a certain age) likes a Mary Sue. So they want to get rid of him for a better actor, or actors.
— Edgar wanted to see if The Network is pro-Migo or anti-Migo. His research reveals that there is a rivalry between The Network and Majestic-12, similar to that between the Army and the Navy, or the Navy and the Air Forces. The Network and Majestic-12 are two military organizations that both share the same goals, but still argue against each other anyway.
This is because The Network is against extreme technological growth, and it wants to regulate it. Majestic-12, on the other hands, like technological research.
The Migo is hostile to The King in Yellow, so if The Network is controlled by The King in Yellow, then The Network must be opposed to the Migo.
— Edgar continues thinking: The Network/King in Yellow wants to get rid Baughman and split his role up to several investigators…which COULD be us. At least if we apply for the part. It could already be us. Or could be a bunch of other guys we never met. But if we apply for the part, maybe it could be us.
— Benon’s head hurts. He’s wondering if someone is watching Baughman? Is there an audience?
There were secret cameras in Baughman’s room, but Edgar is concerned about an audience in a more “meta” sense.
For the King in Yellow, there has to be an audience, at least in the way that plays normally work. The reality of the King in Yellow implies a play. This is not necessarily a wholesome thought – the idea that Edgar and Benon are merely roles/NPCs/PCs.
Benon: “All the world’s a stage, and the men and women are merely players.”
GM: “Is there a way to stop this? To free us from the King in Yellow?”
Edgar: “Is this a choice between the King in Yellow and the Migo? Is one better than the other? Do we want to join either side? We’ve been going against the Migo, and in the past, we thought about using the King in Yellow as a tool to defeat them or scare them away. But the King in Yellow not necessarily any better.”
Benon: “What do we know about the King in Yellow, other than the play?”
Edgar: “We know the King in Yellow reigns in Carcosa, some city somewhere, in another dimension. And they might be related to the Great Race of Yith? Emily referred to herself as a demon. Is she one of these Yith travelers?”
— Edgar consult his own records, including his prior conversations with Agent Marcus. He concludes that Emily is not one of these Yith travelers. The Yith tends to want to subvert the highest echelons of society; they won’t bother subverting someone as low-level as Emily Vassago, who herself was made an outcast in academia for her role in denouncing the Migo.
— Edgar: “There’s three players. Four if you consider humanity a player. There’s the Migo and March Technologies. There’s the Great Race of Yith. Which are trying to take over by subverting politicians/leaders/academia. And there’s the King in Yellow, that is trying to perform some sort of play. But the play…the ending of the play is revealing death and presumably everyone dies at the end of the play. So I don’t know if that’s a great idea either.”
Benon: “Assuming that it doesn’t sound like we want to side with the King in Yellow, and we don’t want to side with the Migo, is there some way to play them off each other, and thwart both of them?”
— Edgar: “Yeah, and throw in the Great Race of Yith as well. We also need to know what they want.” Edgar then consulted a memo from Agent Marcus (that Edgar had acquired during his prior research into the Yith and The Monitor). The memo talked about the Yith’s unique political system, and how The Monitor was destroyed by a mysterious assassin.
Benon can understand the Yith’s unique blend of socialism, fascism, and democracy – perhaps the Yith are a social democracy with fascist undertones, or a democratic socialist regime with fascist undertones. This is bad though; since the Yith are fascist, humans are The Other. The Yith thinks themselves as superior, while the humans are lowly beings.
Edgar doesn’t like the Yith either because all they want to do is save human culture, and don’t care about the humans themselves. Stuff like basketballs may be well-protected, but not humanity itself.
Benon: “I’m not happy with the Yith. Maybe we have them all kill each other. And maybe humanity too. I don’t know.”
Edgar: “Maybe Cylde was the mysterious assassin who killed The Monitor? Maybe. We had recordings of him killing people.”
Benon: “Maybe, but we don’t know for sure.”
Edgar: “None of these people – Migo, King in Yellow, and Yith – are good options. None of them should be good options. Let’s play them against each other. Also, really, in a Lovecraftian way, does our actions affect the balance one way or another?”
— Benon: “Out of anything we can do stick in our thumb’s eyes in any of these organizations, the one thing we can do is save Baughman.”
Edgar’s Player: “I really resent the idea of creating an NPC main character. That is poison to roleplaying games. But in this meta-plot, that might be the poison we need. Are we going to be secondary characters to GM’s player character? We have to save the Mary Sue, so the Mary Sue can win for us!”
Benon’s player agrees with this strategy a lot. Edgar’s player thinks it’s a horribly grim strategy, in the sense of “Oh god, is this the only way?” The player characters started off as main characters, and they choose to become secondary characters to get a good chance against the forces that are aligned against them.
— Edgar also thinks about how to take advantage of the “Know-Everything curse”. Cylde is incredibly competent, so he might be able to survive the curse with the help of the M-Cell Friendlies. He may be momentarily distressed by the curse, but he’ll get over it. Edgar and Benon needs to set up the situation so Cylde has the ability to get through it. If this works, Cylde gets the benefits of both Protomatter and knowledge. Cylde can then turn the entire knowledge of the universe against their enemies!
— As Edgar and Benon drive to Cylde’s Apartment, they discuss the impact of saving Baughman.
Edgar thinks that saving Baughman would lead to the M-Cell Friendlies taking on a passive role (as Baughman will be the one saving everyone). Edgar imagines an epilogue scene where the M-Cell Friendlies dying and Baughman cradling them in his arms.
Benon, on the other hand, raised the idea that Baughman gets to an area where his “Mary-Sueish” traits fail him and he goes down in a blaze of glory. The plucky sidekicks (the M-Cell Friendlies) have to take over for him then.
The Confrontation
— When Edgar and Benon makes it to Cylde’s Apartment, they hear the barking of Emily Vassago’s dog. They bursts into the apartment, and see Emily talking to Cylde. Benon knocks out Emily, while Emily shouts a (non-magical) curse. Edgar then gags Emily, to make sure she doesn’t cast any spells.
— Cylde is confused, but Edgar talks to him in a placating manner.
Edgar: “This is going to be strange. But we’re here to help you. We’re here from the future. We know about your wife. About the Protomatter. We know a lot. This creature was here to kill you.”
(Edgar pulls out the book from Emily’s purse)
Edgar: “She was going to use this. It would give you perfect knowledge, and probably drive you insane.”
Cylde: “That’s disturbing to me. I was trying to audition for a role with The Network, and now they’re betraying me. What did I do wrong? Why do they want to kill me?”
Benon: “You did nothing wrong. That’s the problem. You were too good and perfect. There’s no tension in your plot. No conflict. Because you always succeed.”
Edgar’s player wonders if he should explain the metaplot to Cylde, but Benon’s player says that he thinks Cylde may already be aware of this, due to his connections to The Network. He does appear to be aware of the King in Yellow, after all.
Cylde sighs. “I thought that if I worked with the King in Yellow, he might give me access to the Hotel. But I now see that he will not give that to me easily.”
Edgar: “But we have an idea. And it’s going to sound weird. Sound foolish even. But we want you to accept this curse. We want you to prepare for it. Know it’s coming. Through the force of will, if you want to take this curse, turn it against it. We think this is humanity’s shot.”
Cylde is losing hope because he doesn’t have access to the Hotel if the King is trying to kill him. Edgar is still confused as to what the Hotel is, but he pushes forward.
Edgar: “Only shot of getting your wife from the hotel. Only shot of getting your granddaughter away from alien gods.”
— Cylde does read the book and gained knowledge of everything, but was unable to resist the curse. He got really upset and start rushing for the refrigerator (where the medication is stored).
Edgar yells to Benon to pin Cylde down. As Cylde reaches for the medication, Benon grabs Cylde and pins him down to the ground. Cylde appeared to have fainted, but at least he is not dead. The M-Cell Friendlies saved Cylde’s life.
Emily is trying to break out from her restraints, but it’s useless. She may be a demon with knowledge, but applying that knowledge is difficult for her.
Edgar then uses the Migo device to transport him, Benon, and Cylde out to bookstore, hopefully back to the future.
M-Cell Safehouse, January 23rd 2022
— After looking outside the bookstore, Edgar, Benon, and Clyde sees the M-Cell Safehouse. They look at the bookstore’s calendar, and it’s January 23rd 2022.
Benon: “Do you feel like this is overtly convenient?”
Edgar points at the Mary Sue guy. “We should expect some plot conveniences. We might be on the right track.”
— It’s clear Clyde is going to need some medical treatment and time to recover. Edgar and Benon lay Clyde on the bed and consider possible treatments: raiding the liquor cabinet, providing other drugs, consulting an expert in parapsychology.
— While laying Clyde on the bed, they find a scrapbook entitled “THE PHANTOM SAYETH“. It’s a message from Dr. Mark Sanchez explaining his disappearance – he has left “base reality” to enter into Carcosa. He described his involvement in a terrorist attack on the Boston Prudential, a favor that he received from Carcosa (that he has donated to M-Cell to use), and a hallucination about demons that ended with a special message to a person named “Chris”.
The hallucination’s special message told “Chris” to get the author’s bottle from a labyrinth that lies underneath the “Hotel”.
Edgar knew that Christie McKendricks is a member of Delta Green, so this might be the “Chris” that the hallucination was talking about. Edgar suggest that M-Cell should focus on getting medical treatment to Clyde and then tracking down Christie.
— The M-Cell Friendlies also listen to the numberings of Clyde to gain more information. With the information from the hallucination, and the murmurings of Clyde, Edgar and Benon learnt the following:
– There is a Hotel, called the Hotel Broadalbin, where dead people go. Sorta like an afterlife.
– If you go to the bookstore, you can win a trip to the Hotel itself.
– You need the bottle for the author underneath the Hotel. But you need help for that.
— Meanwhile the news point out that many seances have been failing recently, including a recent seance that Cassie was doing to try to get in contact with Clyde. When the graves were dug up, it turns out the bodies have disappeared. Perhaps the dead bodies were expert fakes to begin with? But then why would they dissolve now? Or did Edgar’s and Benon’s timeline manipulations cause the bodies to disappear?
— Edgar and Benon decide that when Clyde wakes up and recovers from his aliment, he might be able to tell them more information about the situation.