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The Radford Horror, Episode 07

The agents dig up a teenager's heroin money, bribe a pilot with it, find a ruined church from the air, and walk into the campaign's first real fight: a car-sized blue butterfly that leaves all four of them bleeding outside a burning building.
Arc The Radford Horror
Episode 07
Setting Stately Acres, Radford, Roanoke and the forest
In-fiction date Late May 1992; the day after Radford Horror 06, from midday to nightfall
Players present Andre (Keeper), Dante, Ezra, Zack, Rita; Ben sat in without a character
Previous Radford Horror 06
Next Radford Horror 08

Synopsis

Looking for Dean Lawson, the team talks its way past a lonely gate guard, Douglas Douglas, and finds about $40,000 buried behind the Lawson cabin and a briefcase of heroin under a child's bed. Kurt Larson uses the heroin to win over a charter pilot called Freak, and from the air spots a ruined church with a flash of blue in its broken roof. Inside they find Phoebe Augustine crucified but alive, Wilbur Whateley rocking on the floor, and in the rafters the creature. The fight leaves all four agents close to death. The church burns with the creature locked inside, and as the agents lie stabilized in the clearing, soldiers without insignia and men with flamethrowers come out of the trees. (Radford Horror 07)

Plot

Stately Acres

At midday the sedan reaches the gate of Stately Acres, a seasonal mountain community near the ski lodge and two miles from the clearing where the armed group met. The guard, named on the spot as Douglas Douglas, lives in a portable shack with a bed and some thirty years of vintage pinball machines. Kurt poses as a private investigator hired by Amanda's family; Douglas tells Andrew Howard, "you look the most like a Fed of anyone I've ever seen." He cannot leave his post without being fired, must buy his food from the company, and gets a supply drop every three months. He begs for toilet paper, draws a sign advertising a pinball hall for the agents to hang in town, and volunteers that Dean has been up several times lately carrying a shovel. Dean also kicked one of his cats. (Radford Horror 07)

The Lawson cabin

The Lawson cabin is stone and timber with piled-up mail and recent tire tracks. In the back yard the earth at the tree line has been disturbed. Kurt rolls to see whether he packed a shovel and gets snake eyes, so the Biz steals one from the community tool shed (Act Under Pressure, 11) while Andrew keeps Douglas talking about aliens and pinball (Help Out, 7) and Kurt digs with his hands. Digging turns up Ziploc bags of hundred-dollar bills, about $40,000, and a small tin key. "That's why they call it the business," says the Biz. (Radford Horror 07)

Kurt bump-keys the back door. Footprints in the dust lead to a bedroom preserved as it was when Dean was seven or eight, and an Investigate a Mystery of 12 finds a loose floorboard and a locked Samsonite briefcase that the key fits. It holds four parcels of lightly cut heroin, with room for one or two more. The agents keep the drugs, the cash and the key, and refill the hole. (Radford Horror 07)

In town, the doctor who examined Amanda takes a test tube of the heroin, which Kurt values at about five thousand dollars a parcel, to compare with her blood. Deputy Molly Underhill says by radio that Radford has had a few overdoses, that D.A.R.E. came to the high school after a student ended up in the ER a couple of months ago, and that the sheriff is now dismantling the Whateley house for forensics. Kurt expects them to find the cellar. (Radford Horror 07)

Annabelle

At Roanoke Airport the team is sent to Freak, a sunburned, scarred Vietnam helicopter pilot asleep beside a Cessna painted baby blue with house paint. "I don't fly Feds," he says. Kurt offers heroin; his Manipulate Someone is a 7, so Freak wants proof, and Kurt snorts a bump with him (Tough, 9). The fare is $1,000 from Dean's cash. The plane, "Annabelle," has a disco ball, misfires, and barely clears a pine on takeoff. Andrew prays twice. (Radford Horror 07)

Over Radford, near where the lines on the tourist map intersect, Kurt (Investigate a Mystery, 9) sees a clearing with an overgrown building whose caved-in roof shows a flash of dazzling blue. Circling low, they make it out as an old church. Andrew fails to help with a 4 and is violently airsick. The engine cuts out on the approach to Roanoke and restarts when Kurt kicks a panel. Andre rolled for Freak's upkeep of the plane to see whether it would. On the ground Freak tries more of the heroin, calls it Mexican, and says it is exactly what he bought at a party from a young man who fits Dean's description and who said he got it "from a bunch of Mexicans" (see The cartel). (Radford Horror 07)

The church

After an hour's hike the agents reach the clearing at evening. The church is more than a century old, its windows boarded, with a new padlock on the door, a pile of dog collars outside (see Radford's missing dogs), and an intact stained-glass window of Christ and the spear of Longinus. Andrew is overwhelmed by dread and the sense of a predator's stare, like that of "a cat on a mouse that it's got pinned between its paws." He prays and draws his pistol. (Radford Horror 07)

Inside, a woman hangs crucified above the pulpit, a naked figure rocks and mutters on the floor, and Kurt sees something move in the shadows of the roof. Huell Kendrick orders the figure to stand. It turns: it is Wilbur, known by the scar on the side of his head. "No, it's okay. It's okay. You don't have to do this." Approaching, Huell reads the room (Read a Bad Situation, 12): a gust of air comes down on him with the smell he remembers from being carried off, the woman is breathing, there are two more crucifixion stations, one cleaned and one slick with gore, and there are syringes, gauze, scalpels and bleach (see Crucifixion MO). Huell tackles Wilbur (Kick Some Ass, 10), who is holding a moth pinned to a board, and Andrew handcuffs him. Wilbur says he has been with it so long, that it is more sentient than they are, that "it has to breed," and that "they're born pregnant" (see Moth life cycle). He tells Andrew, "You, of all people, you have to understand," and "You have to know you're not on the right side." (Radford Horror 07)

The fight

Kurt's flashlight finds it: a car-sized insect with blue butterfly wings, a long curved razor mouth, sharp mantis-like legs, a stinger and chitinous armor. It drops from the ceiling, and the rolling of its wings washes the room in blue light that reaches into the mind. Kurt resists and shoots (Kick Some Ass, 9), shouting "The accident wasn't your fault," and Wilbur screams as if he had been hit. The creature wounds Kurt badly in the leg and slashes the Biz across the chest, for 3 harm each. As Andrew drags Wilbur clear, a voice in his head calls him "Changeling" and says, "You can help me. You have the understanding." Huell lands a heavy shot (12), then fails to resist with a 3 and, under its control, shoots Andrew. The bullet slows just short of his skin and lodges in his breastbone for 1 harm. (Radford Horror 07)

Andrew rolls Huell's Everclear across the floor to Kurt, who throws it as a Molotov (Kick Some Ass, 10). Fire does double harm to it; the wing curls, burning alcohol rains on Kurt as well, and the roof catches. From there the agents take it apart by hand. Kurt's Investigate (9) picks out thin wings, thin legs and unarmored eyes. The Biz rips a wing with his bare fingers (10). Huell takes off a leg with Kurt's bolt cutters and is pinned under its weight. The Biz, thrown forward and pinned beneath its face, drives his fingers into its eyes (8), and a psychic blow leaves him seizing on the floor. Andrew lays hands on the Biz and then on Kurt, taking 2 harm from each onto himself until he vomits blood; his hammer swing is a 3 and he is thrown into a pew. Kurt pulls the nails and gets Phoebe down. (Radford Horror 07)

The building is now burning. Huell throws Wilbur out of the door, and Kurt bites his amphetamine tooth and carries Phoebe out. Huell goes back to free the Biz from under the creature, and its proboscis drains his stomach, filling all seven of his harm boxes. Kurt drags Huell out, Andrew staggers out and collapses on the steps, the Biz burns a point of Luck to wake, a falling roof beam pins the creature, and the Biz collapses just short of the door. Kurt goes back once more (Protect Someone, 9) and is struck by a burning beam for 2 harm bringing him out. He re-padlocks the door. Something slams against it from inside, and Andrew hears, "Save me, child! You know the ones who made me—" before the voice dissolves into screaming. (Radford Horror 07)

Kurt radios Underhill for a medevac: "Multiple officers down. We got the Phoebe Augustine girl and the Whateley boy." First-aid rolls stabilize everyone. Wilbur, both shoulders dislocated from thrashing and his fingernails gone, is catatonic. Then a twig snaps. Kurt (Read a Bad Situation, 11) sees soldiers without insignia, flanked by figures in metal volcanologist suits carrying flamethrowers (see The cleanup crew). They have not seen him. (Radford Horror 07)

Cold open and framing

In the cold open a man in a suit finds the burned ground and ash where the agents' assailant on the mountain road exploded. He riffles through the ashes, lights a cigarette, and waves soldiers and men in reflective volcanologist gear deeper into the woods. Cut to credits. The episode closes on a cliffhanger: "in the fiction of the TV show," Andre says, the credits roll as Kurt sees the soldiers and says "Aw heck." Dante's first offer for the line had been "I still love you." See The show. (Radford Horror 07)

Player characters

NPCs

Monsters and entities

Organizations

Locations

Items

Revelations

  • The thing in the sky is a living creature: a huge blue butterfly or moth that hypnotizes with its wings, speaks into minds, and feeds through a proboscis.
  • Fire does it double harm; its wings, legs and eyes are fragile.
  • Wilbur is bound to it and feels its injuries as his own. He says it must breed and that its kind are "born pregnant."
  • The victims were held at the church, crucified and sedated. Heroin and medical supplies are on site, and the dog collars are outside.
  • The creature calls Andrew "Changeling" and says he knows the ones who made it.
  • Bullets and impacts slow before they reach Andrew.
  • Dean Lawson was dealing heroin that Freak identifies as Mexican.
  • Someone with soldiers and flamethrowers has been following the trail from the place Murphy died.

(Radford Horror 07)

Open threads

  • Whether the creature died in the fire.
  • Who the man in the suit and his soldiers are, and what they will do with four wounded agents and two witnesses.
  • What "Changeling" means for Andrew, and who made the creature. Andrew connects it to the Masters.
  • Where Dean Lawson is. Kurt worries that taking his stash may get him killed.
  • Who was at the other two crucifixion stations.
  • Irene Whateley is still unaccounted for.
  • The sheriff's dismantling of the Whateley house.

(Radford Horror 07)

Memorable quotes

Quote

"I have to speak the truth, you look the most like a Fed of anyone I've ever seen."

Andre (as Douglas Douglas), to Andrew

Quote

"That's why they call it the business."

Ezra (as the Biz), on finding the cash

Quote

"I don't fly Feds."

Andre (as Freak)

Quote

"I've been with it for so long, and it's more sentient than we are. It's not wrong if it kills us. Like, it's not wrong when you eat a chicken. And it has to breed."

Andre (as Wilbur Whateley)

Quote

"Moth to a flame, bitch!"

Dante (as Kurt), throwing the Molotov

Quote

"No, no, no, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. I got prayers, I got the Masters. We got things for this."

Rita (as Andrew), after vomiting blood

(Radford Horror 07)

Table notes

  • Douglas Douglas was named on the spot after Ezra asked for a name, "'cause he's about to become the most important character."
  • Kurt rolls snake eyes on having a shovel. Ezra: "This guy brings stilts but not a shovel."
  • Andre says he "wanted this to be a tense combat encounter" and sums it up afterward: "I do like that you guys just came into this building to arrest someone and then just got blended." By the end every agent has been unstable or unconscious at least once. Dante: "Monster of the Week combat sucks, man. I don't know what you want. It's so hard to do anything without being hurt."
  • For the first time Andre rolled for an NPC, to see how well Freak had maintained his plane. The engine cut out.
  • Offered the chance to spend Luck on his failed roll against the mind control, Zack declined: "I was kinda hoping I'd get hit by it, 'cause it's more interesting."
  • The Biz burned a point of Luck to wake up; Ezra had forgotten that Luck was a mechanic. Rita levelled Andrew up at the end of the session.
  • Andre lets Dante retroactively bring tinfoil, and Kurt lines his welding mask with it.
  • Heroin becomes the party's universal tool: bribe, sedative and conversation piece.

See game mechanics and running gags. (Radford Horror 07)

Continuity

  • The cold open returns to the place Murphy died in Radford Horror 03 and 04.
  • The cash buried in the cold open of Radford Horror 06 is dug up in the yard of the Lawson cabin, and Douglas's account of Dean and his shovel identifies the digger. The heroin is separate, under a bedroom floorboard; the recap in Radford Horror 08 swaps the two.
  • The pile of collars from the cold open of Radford Horror 03 is found.
  • The smell Huell remembers from being carried off returns just before the creature drops.
  • Wilbur's "It's okay. You don't have to do this" echoes "You don't have to fight this. It's okay," said to Huell in the woods in Radford Horror 06.
  • Huell fights with the broken arm from his fall; Andre notes that he forgot the -1 on Huell's tackle and lets it stand.
  • The cliffhanger is resolved in Radford Horror 08.

(Radford Horror 07)