Rutherford¶

Rutherford is the Pay n' Stay motel clerk in Radford, Virginia, a UFO believer who listens to Art Bell, never seems to leave his desk, preaches the Anunnaki, and sells the Biz DMT; his name is given only in Radford Horror 04.


Type	NPC
Aliases	Pay n' Stay clerk; Sailor; night clerk; Mr. Hotel; the weirdo at the Pay n' Stay
Occupation	Motel clerk at the Pay n' Stay
Status	Alive at his post (as of Radford Horror 04)
First appearance	Radford Horror 01 (unnamed)
Played by	Andre

Description¶

Rutherford is a sketchy, dirty-looking man with big, unkempt hair, sitting behind the open front-office window of the Econo-Thrift Pay n' Stay with UFO posters on the walls, a conspiracy radio program on (Art Bell) and a book about abductions in front of him. He rents rooms at $26 a night, cash only, keeps the keys "hostage" while he talks, and sells coffee at 50 cents a cup. He never seems to leave his desk. Kurt calls him "Sailor" (Radford Horror 01). In Radford Horror 04 he greets the Biz as "Mr. G.I. Tract," a callback to the team's stomach trouble, and the Biz calls him "Mr. Hotel" (Radford Horror 04).

History¶

Radford Horror 01¶

When the team checks in, the clerk warns them to be careful around Radford: there are "people walking around this place [who] haven't even been born," people go missing, and there are lights in the sky. He says his father believed Radford was cursed because the local armory made the guncotton for the atom bomb (see Radford Arsenal). He believes in good and bad aliens but thinks the bad ones dominate, remarking that "when they're sending UFOs, they aren't sending their best" (Radford Horror 01).

Radford Horror 02¶

He does not appear. The twins' father, Yobiah Whateley, says Abelforth talked to "that weirdo down at the Pay n' Stay" a couple of times and calls him a pervert, adding that the boy tried to convince him to get something called Usenet. Dick Baxter finds the missing boy's radio tuned to the same station the clerk listens to (Radford Horror 02). See Abe's radio.

Radford Horror 04¶

The Biz chats up the clerk, who gives his name as Rutherford. He theorizes that the visitors are punishing humanity for its sin (citing Richard Feynman on physics having known sin), that Radford is cursed, and that they are the Anunnaki, spirits who created the universe to harvest energy from it and who can be seen by taking certain substances known to ancient peoples. After a Manipulate Someone roll of 10, he sells the Biz $40 of DMT ("Dimitri") in a Jack Daniel's bottle with a hole melted in the top as a pipe. He says "it's all legal... you can't make spirituality illegal" and is not religious. Asked whether anyone has been around, he says cleaning comes only every second Thursday, that he "mists" the rooms with Jack Daniel's between guests, and that a guest in a fishing hat checked in under the name Red Dutchford. Andrew later keeps him talking until about two in the morning while Kurt bump-keys that guest's room (Radford Horror 04).

Andre (as Rutherford)

It's like a roller coaster, except you talk to God.

Andre (as Rutherford)

You watch out for those aliens. Don't let 'em put you in a pain dimension.

Trivia¶

Andre produced the name Rutherford at the table with a random name generator, as Ezra points out in Radford Horror 04.