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The Summer Service, Episode 05

The missing selectman turns up in his own bathtub, the team fights a worm-riddled Doberman that will not stay dead, and at four in the morning the church and the police come for the agents at their hotel.
Arc The Summer Service
Episode 05
Setting Marblehead, Massachusetts
In-fiction date Summer 1992; from the evening of the selectmen's meeting to before dawn the next day
Players present Andre (GM), Rita, Dante, Zack, Ezra; Kira and Ben (guests) at the table without characters
Previous Summer Service 04
Next Summer Service 05.5 (unrecorded)

Synopsis

Leaving the hostile selectmen's meeting, the agents are approached by Madeline Weathers, whose uncle Arnold has been missing for days. At his padlocked house on the island they fight his dog Puddles, now a bloated, hairless host for the worms, and then Arnold himself, who bursts apart in the bathroom. The team learns what kills the worms, takes away two sets of town ledgers and a shoebox of marbles, and limps back to the hotel. Before dawn, armed church members and police surround the building. The agents escape through a bathroom window with the nuclear warhead and flee in Donald McManley's RV, and the assistant sent for ivermectin finally returns, covered in gore. (Summer Service 05)

Plot

The niece

The meeting at the town hall winds down in silence, and the team decides not to start a fight. A man at the back of the room with what Andre calls "big Edgar suit energy" unnerves everyone. McManley radios that his RV has no hot water, that he is taking a room at the team's hotel, and that the assistant they borrowed is not answering. (Summer Service 05)

In the parking lot a young woman in a raincoat asks Andrew Howard whether he is a cop and then for his "position on Jesus Christ". Andrew tells her Jesus was an all-powerful alien. Madeline Weathers says she just wants "somebody normal". Her uncle missed an appointment four days ago, his gate is padlocked, the police did nothing, and she blames "that fucking church". Ma Gramoire told her the agents were in town. (Summer Service 05)

Andrew's Read a Bad Situation (10) shows the suited man standing motionless in the rain and headlights following at a distance. Madeline's Beetle runs a red light. Huell Kendrick, driving because Kurt is sick and drunk, rolls Act Under Pressure three times: a 5 loses both her and the tail, a 7 finds her again, and a 14 carries the car across a one-way street, hydroplaning past an elderly couple in a station wagon. They cross a flooded bridge to the island. (Summer Service 05)

Puddles

Arnold Weathers' house stands behind an eight-foot wall. The gate and the oak front door are both padlocked from outside; Kurt picks them. The mail goes back about a week, longer than Madeline's four days, and there is an empty dog bowl. Andrew stays outside with Madeline while Huell, the Biz and Kurt go in to a stench of blood, feces and vomit and clumps of black hair. (Summer Service 05)

Huell's flashlight finds a bloated, hairless white Doberman streaming fluid. His Kick Some Ass (11) puts a bullet through its forehead to no effect, and it bites his neck and shoulder and drags him. Kurt shoots its leg (8) and it turns on his forearm. The Biz's panicked burst totals 4 and hits only vases and windows. Andrew runs in, shouts "Hold it away from you!" and uses his holy weapon, which he thinks of as pepper spray. He rolls a 6 and then a 2 to avoid Kurt's arm. The spray of nothingness beheads the dog and passes through Kurt's hand. Kurt takes 3 harm and drops to his knees. (Summer Service 05)

Huell (Read a Bad Situation, 14) sees worms riddling the dog's neck and its eyes still moving under closed lids. His first aid (13) brings Kurt back from the edge. When the door is reopened the body is gone and only the head remains. Andrew bags it; Kurt stays on the porch with a claymore aimed at the door. (Summer Service 05)

In the kitchen Andrew opens the pantry and finds the headless dog standing upright with worms poking from its neck. He fires Kurt's flashlight weapon on a mixed 9: the dog ignites and vomits a stream of worms, but the reflection off the cans blinds Andrew and the Biz for a minute. Huell takes the light with his eyes shut and finishes it, and the burning carcass falls on him. All four roll to process what they have seen; nobody gets a full success, and each takes 5 dread. During the cleanup a voice breaks in on the radio: "We're the goddamn Marines. Get off the line." (Summer Service 05)

Arnold

A trail of dark fluid leads upstairs to the bathroom. When Andrew turns on the light, Arnold lunges out of a tub of black liquid: bloated, hairless and soft, with broken handcuffs cut into his wrists. He is trying to flee, not attack. Andrew body-blocks him (10) and Arnold ruptures into worms on top of him. Huell kicks off his jaw, stomps his knee, and the head comes off on the sink as the body collapses. They shut the door on the moaning. (Summer Service 05)

Kurt calls the FBI from the house phone. Big Bill cannot be reached. The National Guard is stuck about forty miles out, and a shipment of illegal M16s bound for a Marblehead citizen has been intercepted. Kurt reports that the church is infecting people deliberately. In the bedroom Huell finds two nearly identical sets of the town's financial books and a shoebox of clear marbles. Kurt's kitchen experiments show that vodka, heat and heavy salt kill the worms and that communion wine does not. (Summer Service 05)

Andrew shows Madeline the head; she recognizes Puddles and screams. She vows to burn the church. Kurt, on a mixed Manipulate Someone, shows her his grenades and asks her to wait, because the kidnapped scientists may be inside, and she makes him promise that "all of those motherfuckers are going to pay". The team leaves her at home with pager numbers, a joint, Molotov instructions, Huell's favorite knife Muriel, and a bug the Biz plants in her house. Andrew lays on hands (8): Huell, two harm from death, heals 2, and Andrew takes 2 and a nosebleed. (Summer Service 05)

The siege

At the hotel, Jester is gone from the desk; McManley says he took a call and practically ran out. Andrew hands the living head to an assistant at the RV. McManley, in floral pajamas and a nightcap, examines it ("it's really bad") and goes to bed with a shotgun. Kurt tells the Biz his theory that the glowing thing and the nerve agent belong to a separate faction that tried to contain the worms. Huell, who no longer sleeps and healed fully within an hour, cuts his own arm open under a tourniquet: the worms in his flesh burrow away from the air, and his blood is darker than it should be. The radio names the storm "Andrew 2". (Summer Service 05)

About 4 a.m. a voice whispers "Wake up and get your gun" in Andrew's ear; he credits the ghost of his alien dad. The Biz (Read a Bad Situation, 11) sees a police car pull up and silent, armed church members gathering in the rain with their lights off. Huell, out at McDonald's, radios a warning and calls the FBI from a payphone: "I think the local police are trying to form a posse to murder us." No helicopter can fly in the storm. (Summer Service 05)

Andrew kicks in a guest's door (12) to scout the back, then drops a toilet tank lid on the watcher under the bathroom window and falls on him (10). The team passes the sixty-pound warhead down through the window (Kurt 10, the Biz 13) as police climb the stairs. Huell fires at the sidewalk as a diversion and slips away on a 15. Kurt leads the rest unseen to the RV (Act Under Pressure, 11), and McManley drives out on two wheels in the gusts. (Summer Service 05)

They ditch the RV behind the abandoned gas station and take the modified Buick, which has several inches of rainwater on the floor. A radio call from the Salem direction turns out to be the missing assistant: "I just killed a guy, I think. Or something." They find him on a blood-soaked Vespa with a gore-covered umbrella. He hands over the ivermectin and climbs in. (Summer Service 05)

Cold open and framing

There is no cold open. The episode picks up mid-scene at the end of the selectmen's meeting and ends as the assistant climbs into the car. (Summer Service 05)

Player characters

NPCs

Monsters and entities

Locations

Items

Revelations

  • Advanced hosts are bloated, hairless and soft. They keep moving after decapitation and burst into worms when struck.
  • Fire, heavy salt and strong alcohol kill the worms. Communion wine does not.
  • Arnold was locked in from outside and had been handcuffed: someone tried to contain him. His mail predates his reported disappearance.
  • Arnold kept two sets of the town's books and a shoebox of the spheres.
  • The cult is armed, a shipment of M16s was on its way, and the police are working with it.
  • Huell's infection gives him strength, sleeplessness and fast healing, and his blood has darkened.
  • An unknown group calling itself the Marines is on the radio nearby.

(Summer Service 05)

Open threads

  • Whether and when to take the ivermectin. Kira warns that a mass die-off of parasites could itself harm the host, Huell most of all.
  • What the ledgers show; nobody has read them.
  • Who the "Marines" are, and who the suited man is.
  • What the assistant killed on the road from Salem.
  • Whether Madeline will burn the church, and whether the scientists are inside it.
  • Kurt's theory that the nerve agent was another faction's attempt at containment.
  • What Jester's phone call was.

(Summer Service 05)

Memorable quotes

Quote

"Okay, tell me your position on Jesus Christ." Andre (as Madeline), to Andrew in the rain.

Quote

"He's an all-powerful alien that came to Earth to help us, guide us to a better future." Rita (as Andrew), in reply.

Quote

"Oh shit. Shit, I forgot this wasn't pepper spray." Rita (out of character), after the spray passes through Kurt's hand.

Quote

"That was the worst thing I saw today. Dog was the second worst." Dante (as Kurt), about Arnold.

Quote

"A strong third was those pajamas." Zack (as Huell).

Quote

"I hate it here. It sucks so bad." Andre (as the assistant), climbing into the car.

(Summer Service 05)

Table notes

  • Rita's 2 on Act Under Pressure sends the void spray through Kurt's hand. Zack rolls an 11, a 14 and a 15 across the night; Ezra's panic burst totals 4.
  • Dread comes up again: the players ask where to write it down, and Andre awards the assistant who receives the dog's head "twenty-five dread".
  • Kurt forgets he owns a flamethrower flashlight until after he has been bitten.
  • McDonald's as the only safe food in town. Dante: "We just really want you to associate the taste of McDonald's with worm parasites."
  • Ezra: "First moth, now worm. What next, guys?" Kira: "Snail."
  • Ezra's "three days out of a cave" joke about Jesus as a missing person gets no laugh.
  • The players plan room entries like a real FBI team while Dante keeps trying to throw grenades.
  • Ben joins late; Andre tells him he "missed a bunch of really horrifying shit".
  • The group stops because of "too many little decisions" and defers the ivermectin to next time.

(Summer Service 05)

Continuity

  • The house in the cold open of Summer Service 03, where Jester fed "Arnold" through the mail slot, is this one. The empty chair at the board in Summer Service 04 was Arnold's.
  • The assistant who returns from Salem is Henry, lent by McManley in Summer Service 04. His name is not used in this episode.
  • Andrew's holy weapon is the canister of mace he first used in Radford Horror 08, where "nothing comes out" and the nothing passed through a man's head. He still thinks of it as pepper spray.
  • The Biz's "First moth, now worm" looks back to The Radford Horror.
  • An unrecorded session, Summer Service 05.5, was played between this episode and the finale, which opens with the team already facing the angel thing on the flooded freeway.