Chapter 1.10: Rushed Hour

Planning meetings are often frustrating affairs. Every problem seems intractable until it is solved. The Dawn Commission field agents are still a new team; trust and efficiency take time to build properly, and division of responsibilities and expectations haven't yet been formally discussed. Working on an object level problem can be hit and miss as the bonds between teammates are still as delicate and tentative as new spring growth, the social dance of boundaries and expectations is still in its opening moves, and the team has yet to sum an identity from its parts. (It doesn't even have a real name yet.)

All of this is perfectly natural and expected for a team still yet to gel. There is no shame in being inefficient in your preparation because your team is new.

Yet reality makes no accommodations for skill level or preparation. It just inevitably ticks onward

The field agents get pinged on their Teams chat again.

Astraeus Knox:

I’m finding reports of a multi-car car wreck in Arkham with some drivers claiming disassociations and hallucinations (link 1) (link 2) Location is 4th street and Garridon Street Might be related.

"This is clearly the work of the weird," Inara declares, my body moving without my input as she turns to address the rest of the team. "The timing lines up perfectly, and the reports match the strange phenomena we've witnessed." My posture straightens, shoulders squaring as Inara readies for confrontation. "We need to move, now. Every minute we delay puts more lives at risk." Her gaze darts to Lucian. "Give me the artifact."

"Sounds good. I'm done with running for this month, so I'll stick around here and notify you guys if I find any new and relevant information about the Weird."

And with that he puts the marker down, sits down on the floor and goes back to digging into the tome.

Frustration bleeds across the barrier, sharp as a knife's edge. Lazy wretch. Did he think being a monster hunter would involve sitting around all day?

I tamp down on a flare of annoyance. Getting angry won't help and it's easy enough to control my emotions when I'm trapped in the darkness of the mindscape where everything ranges from half-numb to fully numb. Go easy on him. He's just trying to help.

"Fine," Inara says aloud, lip curling in a sneer as she regards Alric. Then she turns to Lucian, hand outstretched imperiously. "I still need the artifact. Hand it over."

Lucian wants to give Inara a long look, but is feeling a since of urgency now that they have a likely location for the Weird. He will settle for a quick look that hopefully comes across as fine but I don't like your tone. "Catch" he tosses it to her. Lucian is going to now pull up his phone and see how far away 4th and Garridon is.

It’s not too far away: close to where Hope lost the weird in her pursuit earlier. 10 minute jog.

"Ok, let's go. Hopefully it will still be in the area."

Alric, Tsem, and Cassidy stay behind in the book store.

Inara, Lucian, and Hope take off to follow the weird's trail. Scratch and Eustace join with. Scratch leads the group through an alleyway shortcut that contains no shoggoths.

Inara, as you leave the bookstore, you notice its name and logo. Make a Streetwise roll to see what you know of the place.

When the field agents and accompanying meddling kids arrive at the scene of the crash, the weird is no longer lingering. Emergency response has also just arrived and the dozen-car pileup is just beginning to get untangled.

Hope, make a spirit roll.

Lucian, make a notice roll.

Learn about bright books: [1, 1] Result: Critical Failure! 💀

Notice roll: [2, 2]+2 Result: Success! 🎯

The blue and gold eye logo on the Bright Books window looks vaguely familiar to Inara, but she can't quite place where or why. It's connected to something important. Some case file, or something to watch out for. It may nag her, the feeling of missing something. It may warrant investigation. Later.

An older woman has pressed herself up against a wall, hand to her heart and eyes wide. The thing that brings her to Lucian's attention, however, is the high-pitched canine keening she's making. A noise of distress that is outside the usual range of human hearing or vocalization.

Rolled: [4 💥 4 💥 2 = 10, 2] Result: Success with 1 raise! 🎯🎯

The intersection is a mess. Dazed and frightened pedestrians seem to be just as shook as the victims pulled from cars. But there's order in this chaos, as there so often is once a tracker knows how to look.

Hope has been hunting monsters for pretty much her entire adult life -- and not just as a hobby either. There are instincts she has, honed from tracking a wide variety of predators. It doesn't take too long to pick up on the newest monster's pattern.

Intuition tells her that the weird emerged from that apartment building down the street over there. That building was just visible the last time she hunted the weird. It must have laid low there. After it emerged, it jumped from that person, to that person, to that person; tracing its way down the street until it hit the cluster of people by the crosswalk. Then it jumped to the first driver. Multiple cars skidded uncontrollably, multiple drivers were affected one after another, always pointing at the next car... it's transmitted by line-of-sight.

It hit a dead end. It's still around here; waiting until its next victim sees it.

"Vesper, I think it may need to be looked at in order to jump. The order of the crash implies it. I should look around and try to bait it out, if you can keep the artifact ready."

"Looked at, or looking at?" Scratch asks. The redhead boy doesn't wait for an answer, instead loping off to study a nearby building with some decorative masonry and balconies.

Scratch: "Parkour!": [5, 6 💥 1 = 7] Result: Success! 🎯

... Which he then scales in short order.

A tension enters the air. An intension. Something is about to happen...

Inara: 9 ♠︎
Hope: 8 ♦︎
Lucian: 7 ♠︎
Eustace: 6 ♣︎
Scratch: 2 ♠︎```

Inara, what do you do?

Inara holds. Hope, what do you do?

"Why do I have a feeling of impending doom?" Hope holds

Lucian, what do you do?

Lucian will make his way to the older woman he noticed keening, concerned. “Hey, what’s wrong.” Lucian’s eyes are searching around everywhere for danger.

She gestures at the scene “El diablo, ah, a… thing flew by. Caused the… car crash and knocked the people on asses.”

She sniffs and regards Lucian, softening and flipping his concern back at him. “Are you okay, hijo? You didn’t see it?”

Lucian shakes his head, “Just got here, so no. Thank you.” If the lady is fine he will focus his attention looking for likely spots it might be hiding.

Eustace peers up at Scratch where he sits on a second story balcony. “… Scratch, what are doing?”

“Well,” Scratch explains, “it travels by line of sight and is attracted to qualia, so I’m going to try to catch it!”

He spreads his arms and grin wide.

Aura Channel: [8 💥 4 = 12, 4]+2 Result: Success with 2 raises! 🎯🎯🎯

Suddenly everyone notices the scarecrow on the balcony. A silent oppressive anticipation hits the crowd.

Everyone, roll Spirit

Rolled: [1, 2] Result: Failure ❌

Spirit: [5, 4] Result: Success! 🎯

spirit: [3, 4] Result: Success! 🎯

Hope, you feel like you are about to lose… everyone. The situation is on a knife’s edge and the doom is getting closer. Everyone is going to die if you don’t do something, and it’s going to be your fault when they do. Your eyes are drawn to the boy on the balcony.

Inara, Lucian, you can’t help but glance at the dumb kid on the balcony who has done something to grab the attention of everyone on the street.

Inara, would you like to use your hold?

not yet

Hope, would you like to use your hold?

Hope moves to catch Scratch if he blacks out and falls.

Scratch: King ♥︎
Eustace: 10 ♠︎
Emergency Services: 6 ♥︎
Inara: 5 ♠︎
Hope: 4 ♦︎
Lucian: 3 ♠︎```

The Scarecrow Reaches Farther: [4, 4]+2 Result: Success! 🎯

The oppressive anticipation doesn't let up. In fact, it seems to spread wider, people on the periphery of the crowd screaming and pointing as the Scarecrow extends his reach farther.

Eustace attempts to scale the building: [1, 4] Result: Success! 🎯

"Strachomir!" Eustace yells. "Stop! You're being too public, you idiot!" He climbs up the building after Scratch, jaw set in determination.

The crowd is not reacting well to the sudden impending atmosphere. Some people shut down, others scream. The paramedics responding to the crash are instantly swamped with new problems as the wave of fear picks up and stresses out the already stressed out crowd.

One policeman pulls his gun on what he perceives to be the source of the problem. "Get down on the ground!" He shouts at the threat on the balcony. "I said get down!"

Inara, it's your turn

Inara takes out the disk of our pocket as the policeman yells again, brandishing his gun. The grooved metal glints in the sunlight, cold against our fingers as she turns it over in her hands. Then she straightens, holding the artifact out in front of her.

Wait, I say, are you s —

She activates it before I can finish.

The Solidifying Geometry unfolds as the artifact spins on the palm of Inara's hand, however, something isn't right. It's not doing anything. There's no laps in consciousness and hardly any lessening of the anticipatory aura.

Hope, what do you do?

Hope will attempt to convince the panicking police officer that shooting the scarecrow is not going to improve the situation. While also blocking his shot, because she doesn't expect talking to work.

roll persuasion

Persuasion: [2, 5] Result: Success! 🎯

The officer lowers his gun. He seems to be terrified, but Hope is somewhat experienced at dealing with terrified people.

Lucian, your turn

Yup, if that doesn't catch the attention of the Weird, then we are missing something big Lucian does not appreciate the mixed feelings of being entirely lost on his best course of action and the simultaneous urgency he feels to do something. Inara looks to have activated the device but nothing seems to be happening. Lucian is going to make his way back to her. If the key to stopping the Weird is that disk, best to play to your outs. Whatever solution they may come up with, its probably better to be closer to the disk than farther.

You may try one thing to diagnose or troubleshoot the disk this turn. You still have the instruction pamphlet.

Lucian pulls out the instruction pamphlet as he approaches Inara. He has no faith in his abilities to figure this out on his own but maybe together they can.

Meanwhile: Alric takes another sip from his hot chocolate, kindly provided by Sawyer. This is cozy. This is nice. Martha could learn a thing or two.

He turns a page and continues on reading.

Things are moving fast, there’s not much time to dive into the pamphlet and troubleshoot the disk.

Initiative Order:
Hope: Ace ♦︎
Inara: King ♣︎
?: Queen ♠︎
Eustace: 9 ♣︎
Lucian: 5 ♣︎
Scratch: 4 ♥︎
Emergency_Services: 4 ♦︎

Hope, you’ve convinced the officer to lower his weapon. He looks uncertain about what to do next and hasn’t yet rallied himself to the next course of action. He’s young, and probably green. What do you do?

"The paramedics could use another pair of hands. Go ask them how you can help."

"Ma'am, that man is disturbing the peace in an already traumatic situation. Do you know who he is?"

"He's some weirdo standing on a balcony. I think we have bigger problems!"

Officer contested persuasion: [2, 0] Result: Failure ❌

Roll contested persuasion. Target is 2.

Rolled: [4, 0] Result: Success! 🎯

The officer is convinced that the weirdo on the balcony is someone else's problem, and that the more tractable problem is helping the paramedics.

Inara, what do you do?

Inara stares numbly at the disk in our hand. "What? Why didn't it work?" She looks up at Scratch. A second passes, then she steels herself and slips the disk into our pocket. Her voice is a bare whisper. "I'm sorry, Scratch."

She raises one hand, fingers twisting in an arcane gesture. Glowing runes flare into existence one by one around my wrist, forming a loosely linked circle as the spell powers —

It hits me all at once. Wait!

Inara hesitates, just for an instant, but it's enough to kill the nascent spell. Damn it, Vesper. Now is not the time for sentiment. He knew what he was doing, going up there.

I know why the disk failed. It needs to be activated within an enclosed area. This — I try to gesture, but, predictably, my hands don't move — is an open space. The spell doesn't know what its bounds are.

Inara's arm drops to her side. "It needs to be trapped in a circle," she says, as if it were her own idea. "Get Scratch down here. I'll prepare the enclosure."

She turns away, not waiting for a response, and starts sketching out Selvig Three on the asphalt with a stick of white chalk. It's probably overkill — the manual said the boundary only had to be "symbolic" — but I hold my tongue. Better to have it and not need it.

Scratch is not paying attention to what the wizard woman is doing. He's paying attention to extending his aura wide, casting his net wide.

He's being too obvious, he's pulling forward the fears of too many people, making himself salient in too many minds, but that's part of the plan. Bait doesn't work if it's hidden.

He'll pay the price for this later.

His imprompto plan, however, has a flaw. He hadn't planned through what would happen if and when he succeeded.

At the edge of his reach, something bites. As fast as thought, it climbs its way up the netting to him.

Everyone else sees a disturbance pin-ball its way rapidly through the crowd. In a blink, Scratch has toppled over. His foot snags on the railing before he can fall to the pavement below.

Everyone watching Scratch, make a Spirit check.

Rolled: [3, 5] Result: Success! 🎯

Rolled: [7, 2] Result: Success! 🎯

Spirit check: [1, 6 💥 6 💥 1 = 13] Result: Success with 2 raises! 🎯🎯🎯

Hope, Inara, and Lucian, as you watch, you get flickers of vertigo as you catch scattered fragments of moments of intense sensations of hanging from the balcony by your foot, sweet autumn breeze cushioning your arms as they flail to catch hold of the railing. Colors, especially reds, are bright and salient in the fragments of foreign perspective. The burning plastics from the car wrecks are an acridly artificial spice. Sounds are more distinct, to the point of hearing heartbeats. In those moments, you feel your mantle retract and huddle in close as a thing tears and scatters grains of you like an over-eager puppy scattering more kibble than it eats. It's exhilarating! Laughter bubbles in your throat! You caught the weird!

Lucian, your ears hear more, your nose smells more. There's something familiar in the umwelt you get from Scratch more so than is present in the rare glimpses the weird carries from humans. Like a bit of his soul runs parallel with your own, a distant cousin to what you are.

(Hope, Inara, and Lucian can parse their sensations, and are not hit with vertigo enough to disrupt normal actions.)

Eustace Athletics: [4 💥 2 = 6, 3] Result: Success! 🎯

Eustace climbs over the balcony and hauls the flailing Scratch up onto it. As soon as Scratch is out of line of sight for those below, the flashes of perspective stop.

"Caught it!" Scratch sings out, haltingly. Was there a step 2 in his plans? Step 1: Catch the weird Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit

He's sure the others will figure out something. He can feel them getting glimpses of his perceptions, just as he catches glimpses of theirs.

The officer that pulled a gun on Scratch before is now busy with the new batch of people who experienced vertigo and hallucinations. His glance at the hooligan caused vertigo and hallucinations in himself, but he's free of symptoms as long as he doesn't look. He's free of the symptoms as long as he doesn't look. Everyone else is turning away. Everyone else always turns away. They tell him to turn away too. This mad town will never get safer if everyone always looks away.

He dispenses his last shock blanket and marches back over to the mad hooligan kid's balcony and the woman with the tone of an undercover cop. He keeps his gaze firmly at the ground. He stops when he sees the cultist chalk scrawlings on the ground, moving instead to eavesdrop on the group.

Initiative Order:
Weird: Ace ♦︎
Emergency_Services: Queen ♠︎
Inara: Queen ♥︎
Lucian: 9 ♠︎
Hope: 7 ♦︎
Scratch: 6 ♦︎
Eustace: 2 ♠︎

The Weird is content with its current arrangement. It continues its hopping around the wonderfully large collection of qualia.

The cop unholsers his gun, but remains hidden. His nebulous fear from before now made more concrete. For now he holds his action.

What do you do?

Inara continues drawing Selvig Three on the asphalt, the overlapping asymmetrical hexagons inside an outer circle taking shape beneath the glide of chalk across stone. My vision tunnels as she works, the warding runes seeming to blaze in the hot sunlight. This has to work.

Okay, Scratch got the Weird, but Inara is making an enclosure for the disc down here..... oh boy Deep breathe, Lucian shouts, hands cupped up towards the balconey, "Eustace! Throw Scratch towards us, I'll catch him!" Lucian holds to prepare to catch.

“Ok.” Eustace calls through gritted teeth. He musters through the vertigo caused by the weird. He will attempt on his turn.

Your turn.

Hope holds

Eustace Spirit check: [7, 2] Result: Success! 🎯

Eustace Strength check: [5, 1] Result: Success! 🎯

Scratch Spirit check: [4, 4] Result: Success! 🎯

Scratch screws his eyes shut and hums to himself, pinning the weird close. He doesn’t so much as climb over the balcony as he does help Eustace swing them both over the side, and dangle Scratch so he’s almost halfway to the pavement.

The weird’s effects on everyone else are lesser now as Scratch keeps it focused on him.

“Throwing me to the wolves, boyfriend?” He laughs as he drops.

make a strength roll for catching and a spirit roll for weird resistance.

attempt to catch Scratch: [3, 3] Result: Failure ❌

spends a benny

attempt to catch Scratch: [4, 5] Result: Success! 🎯

attempt to resist the weird: [5, 6 💥 3 = 9] Result: Success with 1 raise! 🎯🎯

Lucian catches Scratch without injury.

The weird immediately oscillates between Scratch and Lucian, seeming to mostly stick to the two of them as nearly all snatches of perspective Lucian gets are from Scratch, who is now doing breath exercises, and keeping his umwelt small.

The smells and sounds from Scratch’s perspective are not discordant enough to cause Lucian vertigo.

Initiative Order:
Emergency_Services: Ace ♥︎
Inara: 9 ♦︎
Hope: 9 ♣︎
Eustace: 7 ♥︎
Scratch: 4 ♣︎
Lucian: 2 ♥︎
Weird: 2 ♦︎

Officer Green holds What do you do?

Inara finishes etching the final rune of the binding circle into the asphalt, the white chalk stark against the dark stone. She tucks it back into the folds of her robe and draws out the grooved metal disk, its surface glinting in the afternoon sunlight.

"Bring him into the circle," she calls out to Lucian, gesturing impatiently. Hold, waiting to activate the disk as soon as Scratch is inside the circle

Initiative order doesn’t make sense this round. I’m implementing the rule that all allied characters may use any allied slots. So the full party can go in the order that narratively makes sense before the weird takes its turn. , you’re up

Lucian moves towards the circle with Scratch in a bridal carry. He is close and remembers where it is. His eyes are screwed shut and is focusing on moving carefully.

They arrive at the circle without incident

Lucian lays Scratch down and sits himself, focused on keeping the Weird with the two of them.

Inara steps into the circle, careful not to touch either of the hosts, and activates the disk.

Inara activates the disk. All who are within the circle with the disk experience nothing for the moment. In that moment, those on the outside of the circle see a saucer-sized piece of glass drop to the pavement between Scratch and Lucian. Colors outside the circle appear brighter. There’s an aura of denouement.

Vesper and Lucian come to as the disk slows to a stop, as though they had zoned out and just now realized where they were.

Scratch lays still, eyes closed, but breathing.

The weird appears to be gone.

Eustace disembarks the second story balcony: [1, 4] Result: Success! 🎯

Eustace rushes over to Scratch in the chalk circle. “Hey, dumbass, did you survive heroically saving the day?” He asks gently.

Scratch moans in response. "Fuckin' iron teeth. Ow."

After a long moment, nothing more appears to be happening.

The Dawn Commission agents and their Miskatonic student tag-alongs are just some of many of the people milling about the scene of the car crash. There's a bit of a dreaminess, a release of tension, and a settling to the scene.

The finale of a very long day.