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The Radford Horror, Episode 08

The arc finale: the wounded agents slip past a flamethrower team, Andrew's church-issued "mace" turns out to spray nothingness, the police pin everything on Wilbur Whateley, and the session ends with the first scenes of the next case in Marblehead.
Arc The Radford Horror (finale); the last third opens The Summer Service
Episode 08
Setting The woods and hospital at Radford, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Marblehead, Massachusetts
In-fiction date May 29th, 1992 (late afternoon) to about a week later; then from June 15th, 1992
Players present Andre (Keeper), Dante, Ezra, Zack, Rita; Kira sat in without a character
Previous Radford Horror 07
Next Summer Service 01

Synopsis

Outside the burning church, Kurt Larson gets his team and the two rescued teenagers into the trees before the soldiers arrive. One searcher finds them, and is ambushed and robbed of a heat-ray flashlight and a poncho made of shadow. After a week in hospital the agents hear the official story: Wilbur Whateley is a serial killer linked to a cartel, and Dr. Lori and Derek Augustine have confessed to abusing Amanda Lucky. Wilbur's journal tells a different story, of a larva that hatched and spoke in his head. The church has been scrubbed and the creature's body is gone. Back in Washington, a new file arrives: eight government surveyors have vanished in a Massachusetts seaside town. (Radford Horror 08)

Plot

Out of the clearing

It is about half past five on May 29th, 1992. Kurt, the only one fully on his feet, waves the others into the woods with military hand signals. Tough checks decide who can walk: Andrew Howard is upright on adrenaline with his nose bleeding, Huell Kendrick is wobbling, and the Biz has blacked out again and has to be dragged. From cover they watch the soldiers gesture at the church while the men in heat suits circle it and break the glass at the back. One notices that the door was chained from outside and orders a search of the surroundings. The Biz comes round enough to limp. Kurt hears flamethrowers: "It takes me back." (Radford Horror 08)

Fifty or sixty feet in, Kurt binds wounds with duct tape and balaclavas (Act Under Pressure, 9, with a hard choice). The team chooses to stop for several minutes and end the blood trail completely, at the risk of being found. Andre rolls for the searchers and one closes on their copse. He carries one of the strange flashlights and wears "the shadow of a poncho," the shape of the garment with no fabric, only darkness. (Radford Horror 08)

The ambush

Kurt hides as bait under bloody leaves with a lasso and a duck call in his mouth ("I spent a lot of time in Vietnam pretending to be dirt"), rolling an 11. He coaches the others to break the man's concentration with a "verbal psionic flashbang," and Andrew shouts, "Did you know Jesus is one of the Masters?" Of the four Kick Some Ass rolls only Kurt's 10 succeeds. His Help Out is a 12: he kicks the man in the groin so that his head bends into range. Andrew fires the mace that his church issued him years ago and that he has never used. (Radford Horror 08)

Nothing comes out, and the nothing passes through the man's head, erasing pieces as it goes, so that the agents see sinus, brain and cross-sections of skull. As it leaves the back of his skull his face returns around it, and he drops in a violent seizure. They tie him up, take the flashlight, and strip off the poncho, which gives the searchers another roll; they look in the wrong places. Andrew vomits and asks whether he is hallucinating from blood loss. (Radford Horror 08)

After fifteen minutes of limping toward town with the two barely breathing teenagers, the party collapses by a tree. Deputy Molly Underhill finds them. Kurt, barely coherent, hands her the poncho wrapped in tinfoil, and the flashlight, as secret federal evidence. A stretcher comes down from a helicopter. (Radford Horror 08)

The hospital and the official story

They wake in a side room of the Radford ER. Diane has driven down because she was told they would probably die. Andrew needed about three people's worth of blood. When Diane asks for the keys to move the illegally parked car, Andrew admits that it is full of drugs and money, and she is relieved that it is only heroin. The ER doctor, who has now seen them "four times in three days," tells them to make better choices, agrees that the Pay n' Stay was a bad one, and prescribes the Biz "some goddamn vegetables." Everyone recovers 3 harm. The agents agree a cover story: an aerial survey, a crucified girl, an erratic boy, and a fire set by persons unknown. Andrew's inspirational speech about the Masters and Mothman is a Manipulate Someone of 5, and is met by a long silence. (Radford Horror 08)

The sheriff and Underhill bring the police theory. The hidden basement of the Whateley house held a spaceman costume with a journal inside it, and a body that, pending dental and DNA tests, is "probably Abelforth," who never ran away at all. On this theory Wilbur is a serial killer who walked out of the house in the costume to stage his brother's departure. The church stands in the old town, abandoned after a colonial-era flood. Heroin found in it, the dozens of spent rounds and the agents' injuries persuade the sheriff that Wilbur was working with a cartel whose gunmen fought the agents. Mrs. Whateley's body was found crucified at the back of the church, burned and disemboweled. Lori and Augustine have each confessed to a sexual relationship with Amanda and are going to prison; Augustine is also thought to be the one who broke into Lori's office. The kidnapping case is closed. Underhill returns the flashlight and the foil. (Radford Horror 08)

The legible pages of Wilbur's journal, which the players read aloud in turn, record a larva resembling Morpho menelaus found by the old-town church on June 3rd, a voice in his head ("She's talking all the time now"), a hatching on August 15th ("She hatched hungry. The dog is dead"), and entries for April 16th to 18th that line up with Abelforth's disappearance (see Moth life cycle). The agents conclude that the moth worked on Wilbur as it worked on Huell, who now says plainly that he did not shoot Andrew by choice. Andrew remembers the bullet slowing. (Radford Horror 08)

Loose ends

Discharged after about a week, the team hikes back to the church. The stained glass has been smashed out and the moth's body is gone; Huell, rolling a 5, finds no trace of it. A humanoid fat stain behind the pews marks where Mrs. Whateley lay. The Biz (Investigate a Mystery, 9) sees that the gore below the crucifixion sites has been cleaned away, and the dog collars have been taken too. By the river Kurt tests the flashlight from behind a welding mask: a blinding ultraviolet beam that burns water. The poncho is nearly weightless, dark and transparent, and passes heat and impact, but it cannot be torn and holds his weight from a tree limb (Sharp, 9); his best guess is that it is armor. (Radford Horror 08)

The agents decide to let the police account stand, though two disembowelments remain unexplained and nobody knows whether Wilbur is feigning his catatonia. They tip the sheriff to Dean Lawson, whose parents have just called to say that they cannot reach him, and whose car has not been seen. They keep the cash and the heroin. A couple of weeks later Kurt's contacts report on the NSA badge: it appears genuine, but nobody of that name exists in the records. "I didn't kill an NSA agent, officially." (Radford Horror 08)

June 15th: a new file

At the barbershop the air conditioning is broken and it is a hundred degrees inside. Several leads since Radford have fizzled. Andrew's mother has been staying with him for a month, Kurt has had his teeth fixed, and the Biz is about $2,500 behind on his car and facing repossession. A crate arrives for Huell from his old narcotics colleagues: a 25-pound stuffed alien with the note "Ha ha, fuck you, Huell." It becomes the team mascot, OJ, with a tie and a badge. Diane takes some of the drug money, which she calls "the budget," to buy window air conditioners. (Radford Horror 08)

Then the courier brings an envelope for Andrew. In Marblehead, Massachusetts, about a month ago, an unexplained explosion blew out windows and sickened the town. An EPA and USGS field team sent to check for a seabed gas leak has been missing for about four days, eight people in all, and the local police have been suspiciously unhelpful. The town is known for sightings of a tentacled sea monster. The team packs the flashlight, a claymore and a flamethrower, takes two cars, overnights near Hoboken, and checks into the Ram and Arms Inn, where the ancient innkeeper mentions "fellas from the government" who came by about a week ago, offers a choice of Bibles, including the local Sons of Adam Bible, and sends up the missing team's luggage. Kurt's Investigate roll finds their field journal: the blast came from the ocean, there was no gas, and the symptoms resembled mild nerve-agent poisoning. The last entry plans a meeting with the town's leaders about evacuation. (Radford Horror 08)

Cold open and framing

The session starts in mid-action with no cold open for the Radford material. Andre formally says "we will wrap up the Radford Horror," then announces a new title screen and gives the next case a proper cold open: four camouflaged men in an unlit steel boat at night aim a tripod-mounted gun with a thermal scope at something that has "got a human with it." The commander says, "Mr. Miller, you may fire when ready"; the gunner answers, "All right, smile, you son of a bitch"; everything explodes at once, and the show cuts to credits. Dante had just proposed a cold open of his own, in which Amanda Lucky's corpse explodes into a thousand moths. See The show. (Radford Horror 08)

Player characters

NPCs

Monsters and entities

Organizations

Locations

Items

Revelations

  • Wilbur found a larva, raised it in the basement, and heard it speak. The creature killed the family dog when it hatched, and the entry for April 17th ("I did something") lines up with Abelforth's disappearance.
  • The police have closed the case on Wilbur and "the cartel." The agents know better and let it stand.
  • Dr. Lori and Derek Augustine each confessed to abusing Amanda Lucky.
  • Irene Whateley is dead; her body was found crucified in the back of the church, burned and disemboweled.
  • The soldiers carry the same kind of flashlight as Agent Murphy and wear cloaks of an unknown material. The creature's body, the gore of the crucifixions and the dog collars were removed from the church before the agents returned.
  • Murphy's NSA badge is well made and matches no one on record.
  • Andrew's church gave him a canister that sprays something that briefly erases matter.

(Radford Horror 08)

Open threads

  • Who the cleanup crew work for, and how they knew about the moth.
  • What disemboweled Amanda Lucky and Irene Whateley.
  • Whether Wilbur is feigning.
  • Where Dean Lawson went. Kurt wonders whether he was a man seen beaten near the church.
  • Whether the moth left eggs.
  • What Andrew's church knows, and what the creature meant by "the ones who made me."
  • In Marblehead: the explosion, the illness, the eight missing surveyors, the "fellas from the government" who came a week earlier, and the Sons of Adam.

(Radford Horror 08)

Memorable quotes

Quote

"I spent a lot of time in Vietnam pretending to be dirt."

Dante (as Kurt)

Quote

"Did you know Jesus is one of the Masters?"

Rita (as Andrew), as a distraction

Quote

"Don't tell nobody. Don't give it to nobody. Don't eat it."

Dante (as Kurt), handing Molly the poncho

Quote

"Hey Howard, you've been shot, buddy. Welcome to the team."

Zack (as Huell)

Quote

"But hey, you know what that means. I didn't kill an NSA agent, officially."

Dante (as Kurt)

Quote

"Look, aliens exist. My coworkers are great. For the most part. The Biz needs a better diet. I am out of my depth."

Rita (as Andrew), at the arc wrap-up

(Radford Horror 08)

Table notes

  • In the ambush the three Kick Some Ass rolls other than Dante's come up 4, 5 and 6. Ezra, already due a level-up, says he has been "marking X's over top of the X's."
  • Kira, on the mace: "Where do I buy that mace?"
  • Drug money becomes "the budget," which pays for the air conditioners and the Biz's baseball bets. Dante: "There's no feeling in the world like gambling with drug money."
  • The ER doctor personally brings the Biz a kale salad with chopped boiled egg.
  • The mascot is nearly named Willie Pete or Kevin before the table settles on OJ.
  • Dante's summary of the arc: "No loose ends, all nicely tied up in a bow where we understand the whole bow."
  • Asked whether the Marblehead sea monster is real folklore, Andre confirms that it is "an Andre original."
  • Kira, at the wrap-up: "There is no possibility of there being eggs anywhere. Or consequences."

See running gags. (Radford Horror 08)

Continuity

  • Resolves the cliffhanger of Radford Horror 07.
  • When the players recap where the drugs came from, they put the heroin in the hole in Dean's yard and the money under the floorboards. Radford Horror 07 has it the other way round: the cash and key were buried in the yard, and the heroin was under the bedroom floorboard.
  • The ER doctor speaks of a patient with severe burns who is "missing three or four pounds of tissue out of his thigh." In Radford Horror 07 Kurt took the burns and the leg wound, and it was Huell's stomach that the creature drained.
  • Andre says that both of Kurt's kids have chicken pox; later in the same episode Dante says "we got three kids."
  • The sheriff first describes Mrs. Whateley's body as burned and disemboweled; back at the church Andre adds that she was found crucified, and says he forgot to mention it.
  • Radford Horror 07 left the moth pinned under a beam in the burning church. Here Kurt tells his wife that his opponent is dead, and the body has been removed by the time the agents return.
  • The cleanup crew's flashlight is the same weapon that Agent Murphy used on the mountain road in Radford Horror 03.
  • The innkeeper of the Ram and Arms Inn, with his "Crypt Keeper haircut" and 6 a.m. fish breakfast, matches the description of Jester, the desk clerk of Summer Service 01. Summer Service 01 strongly implies that they are the same man, but the episodes never state it outright.
  • The flashlight, the poncho, the mace, the drug money and OJ all travel on into The Summer Service, which continues in Summer Service 01.
  • The task force returns to the town in The Radford Horrors.

(Radford Horror 08)