Participants

Summary

The three Cliaths drive (drive is a generous word) to a modest house in South Park Houston at 1 AM to check on Omar's mother, following an address they found in a Pentex pawn's stolen car. They're operating on conflicting theories about Omar's corruption: Ajax believes it's from cursed D&D gaming, while Delia suspects corporate manipulation.

Ajax confidently volunteers to do the talking despite having no plan. When they arrive at the house, he improvises a cover story claiming to be from "Drilco Inspection" investigating Omar's "employment irregularities" related to playing "Dastards and Dandies". Thank Gaia for his supernatural persuasion, because holy shit.

Omar's mother Danielle becomes completely convinced this is a serious corporate matter and unlocks multiple door locks to speak with them, despite the late hour. Her husband Charles remains skeptical but willing to listen. The group learns that Omar has a cousin Ricky who works at Drilco and got Omar the job, that he's been "doing nothing but work lately, and that street racing might be something he picked up to impress a girl (who his mother is eager to blame). Apparently Ricky tried to get Omar into "board game night" but failed.

Meanwhile, Tori successfully sneaks around to reconnoiter the neighborhood for signs of broader Wyrm corruption while the others handle the terrors of speaking to others, and ultimately, Omar is revealed to be a working-class guy gradually corrupted through his job rather than through occult gaming.

Lead Up

There are the logs Sideshow Freakshow Part 1 and Sideshow Freakshow Part 2.

Then the investigation results:

Delia's (Successful) Findings

Delia, as you rummage in the car, you find a 'contractor briefing package' in a folder, the pages stapled together on one corner, on letterhead branded 'DRILCO'. The company logo features two interesting details: it says, "a division of Smith International" beneath the company name, and the logo features a peculiar illustration that looks like some kind of weird industrial equipment thta looks almost like an old-timey ice cream churn got knocked over. You read it:

DRILCO A Division Of Smith International

SUBJECT: Omar Vasquez
Employee ID: SI-4471
Division: Drilco Inspection Services
Department: Parts Delivery & Equipment Inspection
Hire Date: March 15, 1993
Badge Level: Yellow (Restricted Chemical Areas)
CURRENT ADDRESS: 2847 Navigation Blvd, Apt 7B, Houston, TX 77003
Emergency Contact: Danielle Washington (mother) - 5603 Flamingo Drive, (713) 738 7659
VEHICLE INFORMATION: 1992 Honda CR-V. License: BFG-442. Vehicle modifications inconsistent with salary level

BEHAVIORAL CONCERNS - ESCALATING PRIORITY

ATTENDANCE ISSUES: Frequent Monday absences citing "car trouble", 14 unexcused absences in past 60 days, tardiness increasing, especially after weekends

WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR: Increasingly aggressive toward coworkers. Hygiene deteriorating, offensive odor complaints. Route deviations noted by Terminal supervisors. Delayed deliveries to Chemical Storage Areas A-C

SUSPECTED ACTIVITIES: Coworkers report subject discussing "weekend racing" activities. Possible illegal gambling involvement. Suspected substance use affecting job performance.

SECURITY RISK: Potential company reputation damage.

DELIVERY ROUTE ASSIGNMENT: Shift: 11:00 PM - 7:00 AM. Primary Route: Terminals 1-4, Chemical Storage Areas A-C. Secondary: Emergency supply runs to Overflow Storage. Access to restricted chemical areas requires immediate review due to behavioral changes.

EXTRACTION ORDERS: PRIORITY: Immediate intervention required.

AUTHORIZATION: Employee Assistance Program Director

CONTRACTOR FEE: $1,500 (Split 3 ways)

INSTRUCTIONS: Locate subject at known racing activities near Pearland. Approach as concerned representatives. If subject becomes violent or uncooperative, contain immediately. Transport to designated EAP facility for evaluation. Transport to Gulf Coast Wellness & Rehabilitation Center, 8847 Sheldon Road, Building C, report to Dr. Deshpande upon arrival. Facility Security: (713) 962-2038.

Expected processing time: 24-48 hours. Contractor payment upon confirmation of delivery.

DO NOT discuss work details with unauthorized personnel.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

EAP Emergency Line: (713) 555-0847
Supervisor Chen: (713) 555-0923
Cleanup Coordination: (713) 555-0756

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This document contains proprietary employee information. Contractors are bound by non-disclosure agreements. Unauthorized distribution prohibited.

Ajax's (Botched) Findings

Ajax, you find a peculiar collection in the car - tucked in the back seat pocket is a black folder with handwritten papers, and there's a little black drawstring bag of six-sided dice and a golf pencil in the center console. The handwriting is messy and rushed:

NIGHT STALKERS - Session 7 Notes Rick's GMing at Danielles house this week

You find character sheets, like one for Rico "Crossbow" Martinez - Monster Hunter, and his equipment: silver-tipped bolts, holy water, kevlar vest. The two other character sheets for 'Murderbitch' and 'Cockstrangla' don't stand out much, except for, you know, the names.

XP: 847 (needs 153 more to level)

This Week's Mission: City breeds monsters that feed on industrial waste - calling them 'toxin feeders.' Look human but leak nasty chemicals when pissed off. Dave's character tried shooting one last session, didn't work.

Monster Weaknesses: Dormant during day shift (2 PM shift change easy infiltration opportunity)

Warning signs: black goo, chemical burns on NPCs

Witnesses report classic monster movie stuff, big strength, the sort of shit the guys at the plant tweak about

Plot: Something's making workers sick at the chemical plant. Corporate conspiracy angle - players love that X-Files shit. Omar NPC is getting aggressive, still partly human. Hit the facility before backup arrives (gave them 5 minutes response time to keep tension up).

Gear Notes: Get silver ammo from Father Miguel NPC. Check that abandoned factory by the rail yard for clues.

Next Week: Darrel gets promoted in the subplot.

Tori's (Failed) Findings

You find the car title in the glove box. 1992 Nissan Maxima, vin number, the whole bit. The owner is Richard Martinez, you see there's a car loan on there for First National Bank of Houston for like $80 a month. You also find a hand-drawn map on the back of a Whataburger receipt showing directions to "Danielle's place" at 5603 Flamingo Drive, with street names scribbled in: "Take 45 South to Flamingo, house is the blue one with the big oak tree. Park in back, front door sticks so use side entrance. Game starts 2 PM sharp"

Log

(Ajax - 05:45 PM) The pall over Ajax's face as he reviews the documents and dicebag that he found betray that the cogs are turning upstairs in his brain. He looks rather unsettled as his eyes dart across the page once, twice, three times. Even as Delia is slinging them around in some of the worst driving seen in a day of some very bad car trouble indeed, he can hardly tear his eyes off it. Finally, he does, even as his head is whipping around and threatening to give him whiplash.

"I have terrible news," he repeats gravely, his jaw jutting out a little as he looks down. His brows are furrowed, his gaze distant. "I believe," he begins, even as they hit a huge patch of brush that just seemed very missable for driver's license holders. "I believe, that a terrible game is afoot. Near as I can tell, he was involved in something called tabletop wargaming...also sometimes known as Doubloons and Dragoons, I believe it has been coloquially known. And I fear that, somehow...what is happening to him in the game..."

Ajax looks back at Delia and Tori in a sweeping gaze. "Whatever happens in the game, happens to him in real life."

(Delia - 05:48 PM) There's plenty of papers to rummage through in the Maxima, but somehow... somehow they manage to come up with two entirely separate notes that might even be connecting. "Danielle's place? On Flamingo drive... Holy shit... that's his mom's place. And where they were going to be looking for them. They're probably going to go looking for her!" Delia leaps to that conclusion as fast as she would be driving the maxima if she didn't forget how roads work and decide to jump a curb running into all sorts of underbrush along the way. "So he was turning into a Duobloon? Isn't that pirate money?"

(Tori - 05:53 PM) Somehow, Tori has ended up int he back seat again, amongst the mostly destroyed upholstery and now she's aspiring not to get any of it on Delia's shirt. "What.." She leans forward, nearly pitching into the front seat as Delia finds a new shrub to run over. Seatbelts are clearly for losers. "That's .. that's dont they worship satan?"

Because someone got her news from Fox, even in the 90s.

"We should go check on his Mom. If he was gettign all weird, she might be weird too, or he might have hurt her." Tori seems certain of that at least.

(Ajax - 06:00 PM) "No...all of the evidence is right here. I will grant that I haven't reviewed the evidence that you've reviewed, but I've reviewed this evidence. And the portents are dire. Everything that happened to him - the friends that he made, the affliciton he suffered...he believed he was a monster, not UNLIKE a Satan, and as a Dungeon Monster, he predicted the chemical toxins he was oozing with earlier." Ajax taps the pages he's clutching over and over with the back of his knuckles. "Perhaps his mom had an inkling of the terrible curse that he was laying upon himself...and others. A Rico Martinez he intended to kill him....and others, who go by horrendous epithets like "Cockstrangula," who I can only assume to be a vampire who may lie at the heart of this evil becoming. We must visit his mother and learn the truth." He points ahead, at the road or what approximates it, like Delia couldn't see the winding road ahead. "To Flamingo Street!"

(Delia - 06:06 PM) "But why would his notes be in this car? He was pretty attached to //his// car and this one belongs to Martinez? So like, Martinez and the other guys working for this doctor guy must be behind Omar's transformation... and trying to track him down at his mother's house so all the more reason for us to go there," Delia's following a different track of logic but it's still getting the same place so she's going to do her best attempt to get them there... hitting absolutely every single pot hole on the way and houston has a ton of them.

(Ajax - 06:08 PM) "I'm not following," Ajax admits in confusion before he hits his head on the interior roof at one of those potholes.

(Tori - 06:09 PM) "But ... I'm so confused." Tori admits. "So.. Omar is worshiping Satan and playing games and his Mom's in trouble and he spit on Treshawn and she's probably hurt and we're in Richard's car and I've already gotten how HE's involved, but Omar was kinda Fomori'd and his Mom might be too.."

(Ajax - 06:12 PM) "See, now this I get," Ajax says, turning around in his seat to point across his body at Tori for Delia's benefit.

(Delia - 06:15 PM) "//Martinez// was hired to keep an eye on Omar and bring him in if needed. Martinez owns this car. So if there are a dungeon master's notes in this car... that should be the car owner, right? Maybe Martinez was the one orchestrating this, or his bosses were..." Delia kind of cuts off that though as she turns off the highway.

(Medina - 06:19 PM) When they get to the house, the air still hangs thick as wet wool, makes your shirt stick to your back the moment you step outside, and the Texas heat keeps the air hot even this late. South Park Houston is, ... well. It's stripmall church territory, it's 'there is no signage on the businesses, it's all painted on so it doesn't get destroyed' territory. Working class, single-story homes with wood siding and asphalt tile roofs huddle squat and low in grassy lots.

As Ajax informs his peers of the gravity of this situation, a shadow darts out down the sidewalk - that of a pit bull, which emerges from between two houses, ears cropped down to bloody nubs that never healed right. Someone around here not only fights pits but doesn't keep 'em contained, and it watches the Maxima pass. When a car backfires three blocks over, the dog bolts into the darkness.

The yards tell their own stories of hustle and desperation. One fence-less lot has become a graveyard of appliances, washing machines split open with their guts spilling springs and wiring onto the patchy St. Augustine grass. Lawn mowers in various states of dismemberment sit beside shopping carts piled high with copper piping, car batteries, and the kind of scrap metal that gets weighed by the pound at the recycling center on Telephone Road. A blue tarp covers something large and angular that could be a motorcycle or a refrigerator or something else entirely, you never know with them crack heads.

From an open window somewhere comes the distant sound of a baby crying, then a woman's voice shouting in Spanish, then sudden silence that's somehow worse than the noise. The night air carries the sweet, acrid smell of something burning that definitely isn't cigarettes, more like a metal shop. In the distance, a train horn calls out from Mykawa road.

The little shotgun house at the address they seek sits back from the street behind a wrought-iron fence that's seen better decades. It's weathered from seeing its fair share of hurricanes, but it still stands straight and the (padlocked) gate latch works. Someone has woven artificial flowers through the bars, bright plastic roses and carnations that won't wilt in the heat, their colors still vivid under the streetlight.

The concrete driveway is cracked but swept clean. A late-80s Buick sits there, the maroon paint faded but the chrome still polished, one hubcap missing but the others gleaming. The small front porch sags slightly but the steps are solid and a cheerful yellow and the porch light burns steady. A metal glider chair sits beside the front door, watched over by a ceramic Virgin of Guadalupe statue from beside the front steps.

Through gauzy sky-blue curtains, the flicker of television light dances against the walls. The sound is turned down low, but the familiar cadence of Sabado Gigante leaks out of the wood siding, the dialog muffled by the hum of the window air conditioning unit.

(Delia - 06:30 PM) Delia pulls up (or tries to anyways) as close to Danielle's address as she can manage but sort of overshoots and parks in front of the neighbor's house. There's not even an attempt at trying to parallel park. she's definitely blocking more than half the street but that car is now stationary. "So uhh... I'm not very good at talking with people..." Here she is looking to the Galliard as if Ajax should go first. He did simple talk a man into handing over his keys earlier after all.

(Tori - 06:36 PM) There's rapid fire shaking of Tori's head at the idea of TALKING to a stranger. "Ajax can talk to her. I just wanted to like.. sneak in and make sure she wasn't a pile of acidic goo or something, or like her head spinning 360 and banes everywhere. I'm not TALKING to her. Nuh uh. Nope."

(Ajax - 06:40 PM) Emerging from the car with an overabundance of confidence and with the ground fully ceded to him, Ajax raises his chin not unlike a chintzy propaganda poster man weighed down by the grim reality of the barrio they were in. "You can count on me," he says bravely, with an affirmative thumbs up given with his whole arm flexed at the bicep. One for each - for Delia, and then for Tori. He closes the door behind him and starts to walk up to the humble house. Up the cracked driveway he goes, his boots creaking on the front porch under his bovine weight. Finally, he rings the doorbell. When it doesn't work, he raps on the door a couple of times with his knuckles.

It might be at this point that the rest of the group realizes that they had not reviewed what he should say or ask questions about. In fact, he'd gone up there with absolutely no gameplan at all.

(Medina - 06:43 PM) It takes a moment. There's silence. There -was- silence, if you don't count the TV, but there's the energy of deliberate stillness that comes from knowing someone's at the door. The perceptive eye can see the tiny little shift of light from the peephole.

Strange(ly attractive) white man at the old gray mare's front door would have been nice weren't it past midnight.

And so instead of the door opening outright, a woman's voice calls out. "Are you lost?"

(Delia - 06:46 PM) Delia follows behind Ajax. Literally behind. It might even be possible to overlook she was there until she gives a cough and mutters out "Drilco Inspection." and a not so subtle tap to Ajax as if that should be a hint for this plan she didn't actually vocalize.

(Tori - 06:48 PM) There's no need (or really room) for all three of them on the doorstep. Tori's in the laneway, trying to be VERY quiet and mostly not noticed. not just for sneaky purposes, but noticed = talked to and that is Bad.

(Ajax rolls Charisma + Subterfuge for 2 successes)

(Ajax - 06:52 PM) Startled for a moment, Ajax turns his head to look at the peephole. "Yes, Drilco Inspection, ma'am. Sorry to bother you so late. It's about your son, Omar Vasquez. There's been some employment irregularities and we've been hearing from his coworkers that it might be related to...strange off-site nonwork activities." He smiles very wide for that peephole. (Ajax rolls Charisma + Subterfuge for 4 successes)

(Medina - 07:00 PM) You can hear the gift take hold in real time. At first, a bewildered, half-offended, "It's ONE in the MORNING!" of protest as Ajax says he's with 'Drilco Inspection'. The implied 'what the fuck?' in her tone is something she's too much of a lady to actually ask out loud! But then as the yarn spins further, the silence is pensive. And then,

"Charles! Charles, get over here."

A muffled clutter and the muttered 'god damn it' that is relatable on a spiritual level to anybody who has gotten their name called as they Just. Fucking. Sat. Down.

As this 'Charles' presumably moves through the house, Ajax hears one, two, three door locks unlock then the door comes open, but the clatch hasp chain-lock keeps the opening too narrow for anybody to come in just yet. "Off-site nonwork activities? What are you talking about?"

(Delia - 07:04 PM) "Sir, your son has been getting in fights, among other things. We think he's a danger to himself and others," Delia answers with all earnestness.

(Ajax - 07:07 PM) "Yes, we've heard reports theat there -might- be some sort of illegal activities that he's involved in, and even worse -- that he might be hanging around with the wrong crowd and playing Dastards and Dandies," Ajax says gravely. "Leading to possible workplace injuries, it's...impacting his attendance record...we care about our employees quite a bit, at Drilco. So we would prefer things not escalate to...uh," and at this point it was clear that Ajax's knowledge of the working world is starting to run its course and he's looking at Delia for a little help, before he just decides to try to land the plane himself. "Disciplinary stuff. Like pink-slips stuff. We're a family company, so we care."

"We just want to ask some questions," Ajax assures.

(Medina - 07:14 PM) Omar's mother is in her sixties. She's got an oval face, age has given her a sag that sort of look like jowls, and her hair is pulled back in a salt and pepper, braided bun. She's wearing a red and white horizontal striped nightgown that she's hidden partially under a housecoat she must've thrown on to answer the door. Charles's full features make him look more youthful than he really is, square face and broad build, and he's also in his pajamas: white t shirt, flannel pants, house shoes....His hands aren't where Ajax can see 'em, hidden away in his navy blue robe. Danielle starts unlocking the door.

"Woman, what are you doing?" Charles says in alarm - sure, he heard Ajax, but who the hell is -he- to this man?

But Ajax seems to have recruited himself a loyal one, because when Danielle lays into Charles in Spanish, it doesn't take subtitles to understand that she's telling the man how Ajax is /right/ and this is /important/ and she /knew/ that her son was getting into trouble. Her righteous impatience and maternal worry ring all too true in her tone.

And so Charles, bewildered, looks at Ajax. The company man. The man of the family company who cares. He looks Ajax up and down, and Delia, too, squinting at them in fence-sat skepticism.

"What is Dastards and Dandies?" Charles says, but he's somehow open to listening to this Persuasive argument.

(Tori rolls Dexterity + Stealth for 1 successes) (Tori rolls Perception + Alertness and fails.)

(Tori, you sneak about the back of the house. There's an orange tree leaned over the fence with the opposite neighbor's side way more bare of oranges than Omar's momma's houses's side, and a sandal stuck in it that nobody's getting back without a broom. There's nothing ... Specifically screaming 'pentex' to you, I'm not so sure what exactly you're looking for, but like, you're not finding chemical storage or anything like that. To your antisocial dismay, you resolve that you'd probably need to get a look in the house itself, since the Wyrm corrupts through food and medicine and mental health services just as much as industrial chemicals and so on.

Youre not finding weird ... Burn marks on things like what Omar made, you're not finding the smells out-of-place, etc. You aren't sure if it's because in homid form your sense of smell is weak dogshit compared to what you can pick up in Lupus.)

(Ajax rolls Charisma + Subterfuge for 4 successes)

Tori checks to see if the back door is locked. She assumes as much, but, might as well check.

(In a neighborhood like this, absolutely it is, once you check. But if you're looking for if it's an isolated incident, maybe you can have better luck at adjacent houses?)

(Delia - 07:29 PM) Delia doesn't say much more, seeing as Danielle seems to be all to willing to believe what's coming out of Ajax's mouth. Though as for Charles' skeptical squinting, she gives a solemn nod. This is a serious matter that would bring them around at 1 am, clearly.

(Medina - 07:31 PM) "Where is he?" Charles asks, as he borders on taking this whole situation seriously.

(Tori rolls Dexterity + Stealth for 5 successes)

<OOC> Delia says, "Tori's homer simpsoning it into a hedge"

<OOC> Medina says, "HAHA"

<OOC> Tori laughs! I mean.. you're not /wrong/. Tori has basically just kinda vanished.

(Ajax - 07:36 PM) "The devil's dice, as far as we understand it," Ajax says grimly. "But we also have reports he was doing illegal street-races. We have equal concerns about both. Can you tell us more about who he's been hanging around with, and where?"

(Medina - 07:38 PM) "The devil's dice?" Danielle and Charles both ask, but Danielle is at the edge of her metaphorical seat. And Charles wonders absently, his nose wrinkling, "What's that smell?" He got a waft of Omar one way or another - that trip in the car was to marinate in that rank stench, eugh. It clings to clothes like cigarette smoke.

But, thanks to the Ancestor Spirit that taught Ajax how to lie -- I mean, move hearts -- it's not as pressing of a question as the condition of our darling boy, Omar.

Meanwhile, Tori is a shadow. She disappears around back, and then ,... Well, I'd tell you where, but, clearly, nobody knows where she is with five successes. That lady is *gone*.

Notably, the lack of reaction to 'illegal street races' suggests they know about that one. Danielle huffs in frustration - it must be a conversation or argument had many times now.

"He used to go do things with his cousin Ricky, who got him a job there," she volunteers, and then, despite that she lives in South Park and is married to a Black man, the old Mexican lady born in the 40s commits a 90's era Chicana classic: anti-Blackness. "It must be that damn Keshia," she baselessly accuses, "He was trying to impress her, she goes to these races and got him into it!" Heaven forbid her darling baby boy actually make his own decisions.

Charles squints at her but his silence is one that has learned not to say anything or she'll double down. He looks to Ajax and Delia and says, "Keshia goes to those races but he's always been a grease monkey like his grandad, I think he just fell into it and brought his friends with him. He been doing nothing but work lately, Ricky tried to get him into their board game night but he's never interested."

(Tori, Most houses show typical signs of economic hardship but not supernatural corruption - overdue bills visible through windows, cars that need work, people working late shifts or dealing with normal family drama. Two houses down, you spot a house with lights still on and you hear multiple voices, but it seems like it's just a late-night conversation. You do see some red flags but it's more indicative of the assymetrical, bleak state of how the Wyrm has such a stranglehold in this war. One neighbor's garden is completely dead despite others having struggling-but-living plants, so he's probably treating it with some nasty-ass chemicals. There are strange rust stains on several cars, and rust on cars isn't a surprise, but they suggest some more chemical exposure than normal. But you smell the chemicals on the air, and hear the train. The neighborhood sits downwind from several chemical plants. On a night like this, residents probably get exposure to airborne contaminants regularly. This is exactly the kind of community Pentex targets, in that it's a poor neighborhood with working families and limited resources to fight back against whatever victimizes them, or even move out to improve their lives. But you don't see anything that hints 'imminent danger', more like, a sorry community that needs TLC and is vulnerable.)

(Ajax - 08:18 PM) "Well, thanks for your time. I know it's late, folks, so thank you for answering our questions, this will help with our investigation immensely. If you'd do us a favor - don't answer any strange housecalls for some time. There are people who sometimes impersonate official Drilco personnel, and we've received reports about scammers that have encouraged us to ask emergency contacts and family to be guarded when it comes to being approached at their domiciles. Goodnight, and good luck," Ajax says, as they vacate the porch and shadows.

(Medina - 08:22 PM) "Of course!" Danielle says. "When I get my hands on that boy, I'll make sure he knows he's even got Drilco worried about him!" Charles bears witness to this, glancing around. He's not sure he's dreaming. It's -one AM-. He looks Ajax up and down again, and then says, "Yeah. No problem," in a sort of faraway tone as he tries to make sense of it all. "Guarded." His crossed arms keep his hands hidden in that robe. "Good night, sir. Thank you for dropping in about our son." Danielle sees them outside and closes the door behind them. And locks it. And locks it. And locks it. ...And locks it.