Characters
- Name: Benon Economou (he, him) (Matt)
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.
Motivations
Before we started the game, we decided to discuss with Benon and Edgar decided to join Delta Green in the first place.
Edgar’s Player: I got the impression March Technologies is using protomatter, with soldiers. It’s related to lots of military action in the world in general. Benon is some rebel fighter, something like that. They might have ties to people that dealt with Protomatter. My daughter had studied a place that develops Protomatter (or was studying it at least). But it doesn’t take much to not like how that’s going.
GM: So maybe it’s just a dislike of how things going. Plus, DG pays well, so it makes sense to join them.
Benon’s Player: My character also had a peculiar set of skills that doesn’t suit the civilian life. He participated in a lot of jungle fighting – that would probably be the first place where CthulhuTech would be employed. Where it wouldn’t be seen. My character I bumped up against it, and because of that, maybe I had an interest to it.
Edgar’s Player: Criminals would also be interested in it too. That may be where I encountered it. My character did start in law enforcement, after all.
Plans
Edgar, Benon, and Cylde Baughman are at the Bookstore, in September 10th 1995. Benon just finished his cup of coffee.
Edgar: “If we remember correctly, we’re on our way to a Hotel to go to find a bottle (I don’t know what the bottle has). There is a party, where we have to defeat the King in Yellow. Part of that is that we have to survive him taking off his mask and showing his face. Do you know what’s in the bottles, Cylde?”
Cylde: “It’s…it’s sorta like a…revelation. It like a divine experience if you get your bottle. Because it tells you what your purpose in life. People always ask, “What’s the meaning of life?” Well there is a meaning. But it’s in a bottle. Your bottle. Everyone has a bottle. Not everyone has a chance to open their bottle. But if you do happen to open your bottle, you find your purpose in life. The bottle whispers to you, telling you secrets.”
Edgar: “Are we looking for our bottles?”
Cylde: “No, only the bottle of the Author.”
Edgar: “Whose bottle is this?”
Cylde sighs. “I used to work for M-Cell. Maybe I still do. My name is Agent Manuel, and I used to work with Agent Marcus. And then there’s a third Agent – Agent Michael. Agent Michael is fated to write the King in Yellow, but he can only do so when he gets his bottle and learn his purpose in life. That’s why you need to get his bottle. Now, we can go ahead and try to get our bottles too, but…eh. We don’t have to do that.”
Edgar: “I’m not sure if I want to know my purpose in life.”
Benon: “I know that I don’t want to know my purpose in life.”
Edgar: “Do we want the King in Yellow to be written? Hasn’t it already been written?”
Cylde: “It has been written…in another timeline. But it has to be…rewritten for a new timeline.”
Edgar: “Couldn’t you write it?”
Cylde: “I mean, I guess, if you want to be a plagiarist.”
Benon: “But you would be the first person to write it.”
Edgar: “And could you change things in our favor? And…”
Benon: “But then it wouldn’t be The King in Yellow.”
Edgar: “What do you mean?”
Benon: “Lots of texts go through rewrites and revisions. When did Moby Dick become Moby Dick?”
Edgar: “The King in Yellow does not exist, but it does exist in another timeline…”
Benon: “And when Moby Dick was originally published as The Whale in England, it didn’t have the afterword that filled in the context. It did not exist until it was published with Moby Dick.”
Edgar: “Point is, anything we write can be judged by the writing based on the preexisting writing, which means whatever was written first is the thing.”
Benon: “But for Cylde Baughman to write the play, he has to write it as exactly as he knows it has to be written.”
Edgar: “What is the point of creating a document if it already exist? It already exists…we just talked about making a copy of it. Why is it so significant that this document? What is the importance of Agent Michael writing the bottle? What does it trigger?”
Cylde: “I…”
Edgar: “Why do we have to cause that?”
Cylde: “Well, you have to cause this so that you can gain access to the Masked Ball, so that you can attack the King in Yellow.”
Edgar: “But it already exist, so why does he need this guy to write it so we can gain access to the Masked Ball?”
Cylde: “Are you familiar with the prehistoric myths about the prime mover named Azathoth?”
Edgar: “Am not.”
Benon: “Am not. I am surprised if it was prehistoric.”
Edgar: “He has knowledge of everything so he would know of these myths.”
Benon: “But if they were facts, he wouldn’t call them myths.”
Edgar: “He knows what we’re going to do. He’s just trying to convince us.”
Benon: “Which leads to a question – can we trust him?”
Edgar: “At this point, we have to trust him. It would be easier if we knew why. If we do not have this bottle, The King in Yellow doesn’t happen.”
Cylde: “Yes.”
Edgar: “Does it happen somewhere else? Out of our control?”
Cylde: “Yes.”
Edgar: “Our opportunity then is to be at the scene when it is written, which will give us access to the party.”
Cylde: “Not exactly. See, getting the bottle will open the door to the party. You will find the Agent, you will hand him the Bottle, and then, inspired by the Bottle, will write the play.”
Edgar: “So we’re going to have him write a play…about a masked ball…that he’s in.”
Benon wants to leave; he’s afraid of gaining Insight and want to retire from whatever plan Cylde wants to try out.
Cylde: “Now, the prehistoric myths of Azathoth mentions that when he awakens, the world ends. That the world is nothing more than just the mere dreams of Aztathoh, his entertainment.”
Benon: “I thought we’re the dreams of Cthulhu.”
Cylde: “Cthulhu is one of Azathoth’s priests. It is possible though that a dreamer like Azathoth could make a second dreamer like Cthulhu, who then dreams as well.”
Benon: “One cone, just different slices to make different shapes.”
Cylde: “Exactly. So essentially what we’re doing, is for Azathoth. And I don’t know if Aztathoh is real, I suspect he’s just another name for the King in Yellow. I could be wrong. But that’s how I view things.”
Benon: “I thought you were omniscient. Is this something you don’t know.”
Cylde: “Once you get to the party, all bets are off. I only know what is in this timeline. Other timelines, I’m ignorant.”
Benon: “Haven’t we moved around timelines already? Do you only have knowledge of the timeline you’re in?”
Cylde: “Yes.”
Benon: “Can’t we just find a better timeline?”
Edgar: “Let’s try to make this the best timeline. So, the Hotel. How do we get there? Do we need resources? Do we need to go to the bottle? Do we need reservations? Suitcases? Something to make us stay for a while? Do we just show up and there already is a reservation because we make it some time in the future?
Cylde: “You need to get a reservation. They are expecting you, but you’re not in the right mood. I have a ritual that can take you to the Hotel. I perform it, and then you make it to the Hotel, safe and sound. Well, you’ll have to be escorted to the Hotel, but you can deal with that escort. It’s not that hard.”
Benon: “Escorted by whom? Or what?”
Cylde: “By Delta Green. Or rather, the corrupted elements of Delta Green, those that secretly serve the King in Yellow.”
Edgar: “Is our cover blown with Delta Green? Or can we go back and pretend to be good little supernatural spies?”
Benon: “I don’t think we even joined Delta Green yet. It’s 1995. But, maybe, if we can get an ‘in’ with the Cylde Baughman in this timeline, we can get in. Cylde Baughman knows all of his PIN codes.”
Cylde: “Cool.”
Edgar: “We can take even less steps. Our Cylde Baughman could just steal the identity of anyone he wanted. He could have Bill Gates’ credit card numbers, or knowledge of any other rich person’s private information. We can have access to their accounts. He also knows of Delta Green caches where we can guns and supplies. Or even a safehouse that is probably empty at the moment that we can resupply from.
But we need to work with Delta Green to get to the labyrinth.”
Cylde: “Not exactly. They will escort you to the labrynith. I just need to do the ritual. They’ll escort you. I know it doesn’t look like help. But…it is help.”
Edgar: “He’s being cagey about how they’ll help us.”
Benon: “He’s being forthcoming, until right now. Now he’s being suspicious.”
Cylde: “Also, before I do the ritual, do you want to do anything about the Her Grey Song purge right now that is going on outside?”
Edgar: “Oh yeah, that purge.”
Cylde: “Many people lost their lives – civilians were killed by Delta Green agents, Delta Green agents killed by police officer defending the civilians. The Masquerade is broken as a result of these attacks. My wife (Marlene Baughman) and her best friend (Christine McKendricks) are participating in it, and are just mopping up the last people. It’s up to you.”
Edgar: “I believe saving the world is more important. If we can save innocent people lives, that would be nice. But it looks like Delta Green killed insane people, right?”
Cylde: “Yeah, they were exposed to the King in Yellow.”
Edgar: “Then we don’t want them to enact the King in Yellow. And honestly, the Masquerade is bad, so I’m okay with it being broken.
How does this ritual work? Delta Green finishes killing insane people, and then when the ritual is complete, they escort us to the Hotel…which sounds like a euphemism for an afterlife. It sounds like Cylde Baughman is setting us up to be killed, and Delta Green is ‘escorting’ us by shooting a bullet through our heads.”
Cylde locks the doors. He then retrieves a film projector from the stacks, and sets it up.
Benon: “This is unexpected.”
The Ritual
Cylde then begins his presentation – The Audient Void – where he talks about the true name of humanity (Nyarlathotep, Nyarlat is at Peace), Nyarlat (The One Who Comes Back From the Dead), and how Nyarlat will come back. It is implied that Nyarlat is another name for the King in Yellow (an oversized figure with a plain white face, clad in gold and silver scalloped cloth).
Cylde: “Now that the presentation is finished, the Delta Green Escort Squad will be coming to your position. When that happens, run.”
Edgar: “Run?”
Cylde: “Run.”
A Delta Green agent wearing a gas mask bursts through the front door of the bookstore.
Edgar, Benon, and Cylde runs through the back door. There, they enter into a strange procession of people wearing overalls, work boots, and gloves, moving in the opposite direction. These people carry ropes, pulleys, and gear. They slide rolling carts and set-pieces with apparent disregard for the Delta Green agent.
Edgar looks around at the area. It looks like the backstage of a theater, where people are preparing a play to take place. And they’re all busy trying to create the best play there is.
Edgar also notices the canvas set pieces are painted pillars of white with gold filigree. Several people appear to be dressed in stage clothing and makeup from a Shakespearean play.
Edgar: “Is this the place that got massacred?”
Cylde nodded.
Edgar: “So we ended up here anyway.”
Cylde: “Not exactly. Because this is more like…an initiation of the place that got massacred. Sorta like a…recreation?”
Benon: “Like a play?”
Cylde nodded.
Meanwhile, three other Delta Green Agents (all wearing gas masks) arrive at the backstage area, meaning there’s now 4 people with gas masks. They try to fire shotgun blasts at Edgar, Benon, and Cylde, but miss and hit the civilians.
Edgar, Benon and Cylde start running, as they have no other clue what to do. After going through a surrealistic nightmarish scenario, they finally make it to a place of safety – a street surrounded by people, cars, and a sound of a big city. (The people here all appear to have have connections to the mundane lives of Edgar and Benon – Edgar’s clients, Benon’s guerrillas, etc.) In the middle of the street is a big Hotel.
The Delta Green agents do not approach the street though, keeping their distance. They’re afraid to follow the party.
Checking Into The Hotel
Edgar, Benon and Cylde walks into the Hotel (which appears to be designed using an Victorian-era architecture), where they enter into a lobby that is two floors tall and filled with battered easy-chairs, couches, and fireplaces. To the left of the front doors is a mahogany front desk. The desk is manned by the front-desk clerk….Agent Marcus.
Edgar: “What is Agent Marcus’ real name?”
Cylde: “Dr. Marvin Bloom.”
Edgar: “Hi, Marvin, we’re here to check into the Hotel.”
Marcus: “You already have a reservation for quite some time. Here’s your room numbers, and some keys. Sorry for them being old-fashioned, but that’s just how it is. Here’s some tokens to the automat in the dining room – two free meals per day. Also, I can give you a map to the Whisper Labyrinth as well, since that’s where you want to go.
Ugh, I hate my job so much.”
Benon: “If you hate your job, why don’t you leave?”
Marcus: “I can’t. The King in Yellow forced me into this position. I am being compelled to work here. It’s slavery. Well, not like it meets the technical definition of slavery, but I consider it slavery.”
Benon: “Is he making money off you?”
Marcus: “No.”
Benon: “Then it’s technically not slavery.”
Edgar: “What happens if you walk away from this job?”
Marcus: “He just teleports me back here.”
Benon: “So, like, just opening up a door and sending me back here?”
Marcus nods.
Benon: “Yeah, hat can be annoying.”
Edgar: “Are you our Agent Marcus? This is a multiverse so…there’s an infinite number of Agent Marcuses out there, so it’s kinda odd that you’re the one picked for this.”
Benon: “There must be a policy against the same ‘people’ from different universes working together. Imagine what would happen if they worked together in a Bridge tournament, or something.”
Marcus: “I just did well on the interviews. Also, yeah, uh…you’re the ones who killed our universe. In self-defense, that is true.”
Edgar: “So why did you try to kill us?”
Marcus: “You were corrupted. If you were left alive, you would spread the infection elsewhere. So I had no choice.”
Edgar: “Just so you know, we tip when we leave.”
Benon: “You Americans and your tipping. Just pay people their proper wages.”
Edgar: “Hang on, if we killed a universe, does that mean we kill all the people that hasn’t been born yet in that universe as well?”
Marcus: “Yeah.”
Edgar: “How do they appear in this universe?”
Marcus: “At the age of 20.”
Edgar: “That sounds arbitrary, but then again, everything here is just the arbitrary decision of the King. If the King wanted to bring you back as a little child, he could.”
Marcus: “Before I show you the entrance to the Whisper Labyrinth, let me ask you something. If you haven’t time traveled back in time and killed our universe, would humanity survive the plot by Majestic-12 to destroy humanity?”
Edgar: “We never intended that. We only found out that it was a side effect of the device within the last couple hours. So…sorry. Would we have survived? I don’t know. I don’t think it matters – it seems like whatever the Mi-Go was going to do, we would have all been destroyed by the King in Yellow anyway. And we have been destroyed, over and over and over. I personally think we were fighting a losing battle, one that I think Delta Green was not destined to win. If we got a shot, it’s at the party tonight. Right now? Whenever we get there. You know Baughman?”
Marcus nods.
Edgar: “He thinks we got a shot.”
Marcus: “Alright.”
Marcus draws a map of the two lobby floors, and give directions to a crumbling archway in the basements of the Hotel, via the laundry (they needs costumes for the Masked Ball).
Marcus: “I never been down there. I heard horror stories of people going down there. So you need to be careful.”
Edgar: “The laundry? Or the maze?”
Marcus: “The maze.”
Edgar: “Is this the way people normally get to the party?”
Marcus: “No. Normally, the King snaps his fingers and teleports people to the party. For you guys, the King wants it to be a heroic journey. If you don’t struggle, it’s a kinda boring thing. In his opinion, of course. For everyone else, there’s no real ‘story’ behind them going to the Masked Ball. He just snaps his fingers and off they go.”
Benon: “We need to go through the gauntlet, essentially.”
Marcus: “Maybe you should stay first at the Hotel for a bit. Get your bearings, because it’s dangerous and the labyrinth will throw whatever it can at you.”
Edgar: “That makes sense. We’ll check out our rooms, dress, and maybe get in contact with our Bonds.”
Benon: “How many wine cellars does this Hotel here?”
Marcus: “5 quadrillion.”
Benon: “So, yeah, an infinite number of people are here. I would like the keys to a wine cellar, please.”
Edgar: “By the way, are only humans here?”
Marcus: “All sapients are here.”
Resting At the Hotel
Both Edgar and Benon goes to their hotel room and rests for a while. Benon decided not to do any Downtime scene, as he has no need to do it. He instead, raided the minibar and took all the washcloths and bottles of alcohol.
Edgar calls his daughter, Cameilla, instead, hoping to reconnect back to the mundane world and reduce his Insight.
Edgar: “Hi, what do you do here?”
Cameilla: “I just serve as security. Which I guess is a fancy way of saying I’m a janitor here. Just keep everything smelling nice and prevent any conflicts between the sapients from spiraling out of hand. Cleaning up messes…”
Edgar: “So you end up working with Mi-Go and other aliens.”
Cameilla: “I mean, I have to, but like, everyone here, I’m working for the King in Yellow. But I have to interact with aliens too…because, this is a hotel. It carters to every demographic. Are you doing okay here?”
Edgar: “I don’t know. Maybe ask me again in a couple days.”
Edgar and Cameilla then talk about more mundane matters, specifically how she and her mother are doing. They try to have a normal conversation for a few minutes. Cameilla appreciates the return to mundanity, since she has dealt with the supernatural for quite a while.
Edgar eats the chocolate mint, and then takes a towel and a bar of soap. He then leaves his hotel room, and meet with Benon and Cylde down in the basements.
The Whisper Labyrinth
The entrance to the Whisper Labyrinth is a crumbling archway in the basements of Hotel Broadalbin. A chill draft issues from it. Entering the archway, one sees a smallish, circu- lar, stone room with three damp and narrow hallways leading off into darkness. There’s an infinite number of people with flashlights entering into the area, illuminating it. But these people seem concerned about what would happen if their flashlights run out of batteries.
Edgar sees all these people as stupid and looks for a light switch. By some sort of supernatural means, he finds it, turning on the lights in the Labyrinth. Everyone (other than Edgar, Cylde, and Benon) is blinded by the light.
Edgar: “Maybe we’re the prime Reality, and every other Reality are all imitations.”
Benon: “That sounds reasonable as anything else. “
Edgar: “Baughman, why don’t you find Agent Michael’s bottle for us? There’s lots of bottles here, one for every person in the multiverse. So he can help us find the correct one.”
Cylde Baughman silently nods and motions for you to follow him. And you start walking as the infinite number of people scream, panic, and do pretty much nothing while they try to get used to the idea that this place actually has light.
Benon fought weird stuff in the jungles of Colombia, but this…this is something different.
In every wall of the Whisper Labyrnith are small alcoves and shelves. Each holds an opaque bottle, with a name and a UUID (universally unique identifier), composed of ASCII characters, Arabic characters, Egyptian hieroglyphics, alien languages, different colors that are outside of human perceptions, etc.
Edgar: “Hang on, is Edgar-A’s purpose in life different from Edgar-B’s purpose in life? Or there might be an infinite number of identical bottles for each Edgar?”
Benon: “What if that’s why the multiverse exist? One bottle for Edgar, so there is always going to be one Edgar out there who will find Agent Michael’s bottle…meaning all the other Edgars won’t find it.”
Edgar: “I was thinking that any Edgar bottle would work for me.”
Benon: “I like mine better. Futility and smallness of each person.”
Edgar: “Hang on, I think we need to investigate.”
Edgar, Benon and Cylde make it over to a section in the Labyrinth dedicated to Abigail Wright, with multiple alcoves and shelves, each holding a bottle. All the bottles comes in different shapes and sizes, and are made out of different material…but they all have a cork.
Edgar grabs a random Abigail bottle and tries to open up the cork. It does not work. The cork is stuck. So Edgar then throws the bottle at the wall, smashing it.
The Bottle’s Message: “Your goal is to infect Edgar and Benon, showing them the Yellow Sign and guiding them to their own purpose in life. You will do so by convincing March Technologies to enter into a bunker, where they too will get infected, and thus attract the attention of Delta Green.”
Edgar: “So it’s not a horoscope or some vapid fortune cookie (‘You are daring and conservative!’). But hang on, this message is merely what the King in Yellow wants us to do. These bottles are statements of missions, from the King in Yellow, of what you should do before you die. After you die, I guess he wants you to run the hotel. I’m baffled why anyone wants to know this.”
Benon: “If anyone who dies run the hotel, who’s the guests at the hotel?”
Edgar: “Us.”
Benon: “Huh?”
Edgar: “People like us, who get here before they die.”
Benon: “How many?”
Cylde: “Infinite.”
Edgar: “Also there could be guests here, people who don’t care about the world ending and are just here for the Masked Ball.”
Benon looks for one of Abigial’s bottles that looks like a liquor bottle. He takes his own liquor bottle, and strips out all the markings from the liquor bottle so it can pass as a Whisper Labyrinth bottle.
He then steals Abigial’s bottle and substitutes it for a liquor bottle (pretending to be a Whisper Labyrinth bottle).
Benon then tries to open the cork, but it fails. He then tries to use his knife to get that cork out, but that also fails – it looks like the cork is magically sealed. So Benon just smashed the bottle. Benon gets the same message that Edgar got.
Edgar: “Hey, Baughman.”
Cylde: “Yes?”
Edgar: “Does the King in Yellow have a bottle? Does he have a name?”
Benon: “Look around us. Wait, Cylde can guide us to it, he knows everything.”
Edgar: “If it is a mission from the King in Yellow…”
Benon: “And maybe it’s not…”
Edgar: “That’s what I’m thinking.”
Edgar thinks that perhaps the King in Yellow could either be a creator-deity who made everything, or perhaps some sapient being that took over an existing universe. He doesn’t know, so knowing if the King has a bottle might help us understand if the bottles really have revelations or if it’s just the King telling people what to do.
Cylde: “People have made many guesses and hypotheses, but no one (not even me) knows the King’s true nature.”
Benon and Edgar knows that Cylde is lying – he knows the truth behind the King, but refuses to speak it. Edgar thinks that maybe this means Cylde could be the “King in Yellow”, or…perhaps…always was the “King in Yellow” through time-travel shenanigans. (Edgar also remembered that the term “Nyarlat” refers to someone who came back from the dead, and arguably, Cylde did come back from the dead…when the players traveled back in time and saved his life.)
Benon, Edgar, and Cylde then leaves the Abigail Wright section and move over to Agent Michael’s section. Each of Agent Michael’s bottles are in strangely lit alcove: a single bottle of ever-dark- ening layers of crystal. It is stopped with cork and sealed with melted yellow wax in which is pressed the Yellow Sign.
Cylde: “The Yellow Sign is a cognitohazard – something that affects your thinking.” He motions for either Benon or Edgar to take one of Agent Michael’s bottles.
Edgar takes the bottle. The bottle appears to be mounted on a mechanism. Pulling it forward reveals a bronze, clockwork wheel connected to its base, which spins and clicks as it is pulled forward. When it is at full extension, there is a loud cracking noise, and the bottle comes off the connection.
The alcove opens inward, revealing a full-sized passage. Steps lead up into mist and darkness. People who enter this staircase have found their way, finally, to Carcosa…
…and to the Masked Ball where all things end.