Episode 31

# 03.31: Some Confusing Reports

Cynthia reconsidered her friends, Frank ran an interrogation, Milo lost use of his car, and Tom channeled 114.

## Characters

The PCs:

* Cynthia
* Frank Smith
* Milo McCrery
* Tom di Pasqua

NPCs:

* Gore man 2.0, still with groceries
* Auden Cooke
* Cyrus Evins
* Enoch Price
* Marshal Evins
* Robin Kohler
* Jo Brennan
* Christmas Shreely
* Hector Schoen
* Death 114
* Bat Warren
* Willa Holt

## Summary/Notes

##### **01/20/2015: Tuesday**

* When we last saw Tom and Cynthia, they had just been dropped unceremoniously at the mouth of Keaton's Gore right before the eyes of a passerby
	+ Tom makes an attempt to cover for the two of them, choosing to avoid acknowledging their unique transportation method.
	+ Fortunately for the duo, the man seems interested in keeping to himself, and heads off up the road; he trails Tom and Cynthia until they reach his snowmobile, at which point he peels off into the woods.
	+ Tom and Cynthia carry on their mission to find Jo Brennan, on a route which has never not involved crossing Sutton Brook.
	+ The water attempts to swallow Cynthia, rupturing the ice and forcing Tom to call on his bond with 114 to get the two of them to safety.
	+ Despite Tom's unnerving performance and the hazardous effects of being wet in mid-January, Cynthia remains determined to assure herself of Jo Brennan's well-being.
* Back in Granton, Milo's car has been struck by lightning. He, Auden, and Cyrus are left stranded in a roadside ditch meters away from an impassioned Enoch Price.
	+ Price seizes the opportunity to monologue to a captive audience and stir up a formidable storm.
		- He's ecstatic to be able to chat with Cyrus without the "traitorous rat" around, and expresses a saccharine concern about the danger Cyrus poses to the people around him without Enoch's guidance.
		- After all, it would terrible were they to meet the same fate that befell a young Miss Granton. . .
		- Price propositions Cyrus, offering absolute power and absolute control in exchange for his company and assistance. His goading strikes a nerve with Cyrus.
	+ Before Enoch can double down on his proposal, Marshall Evins rams the spirit with his 1972 Ford E200 Club Wagon. Leaving the van where it lands in the opposite ditch, Marshall scrambles out of the car and calls the other three to action.
	+ Milo and Cyrus make for the woods across the road; Auden, in the throes of a panic attack, has to be dragged along.
	+ At Milo's suggestion, they plan to make for the Granton Spook House on foot, but Marshall's distraction fails to create enough of a window for them to make a break for it.
	+ Price, enraged, calls down lightning, but his attack is thwarted by the spirit of Robin Kohler, who redirects the strike and fully draws Price's attention, allowing the group to escape. The two spirits clash in a frenzied storm behind them as Milo leads the charge to the spook house.
* Cynthia and Tom finally stumble into Jo Brennan's clearing.
	+ Tom, disinterested in getting involved in whatever conflict Cynthia and Brennan are embroiled in, keeps to himself.
	+ Cynthia is thus left to deal with an irate Brennan on her own, as dark groundwater seeps up into the snow at her feet.
	+ Cynthia offers Jo Brennan a deal: her memories of Ella-Rose Carpenter in exchange for the missing half of her photograph.
		- She mentions having found their missing person, but doesn't want to press further without knowing who they were.
		- Intrigued, Brennan accepts. He pulls the other half of the picture, folded and aged, from his wallet.
		- On the other hand, he's also still pissed, so he gets a few final admonishments in at the end. He urges Cynthia to get her life in gear because Granton is in shambles, and warps her home.
	+ Tom, satisfied Cynthia will stay out of his hair for a bit, sees himself out.
* The Granton Spook House makes a triumphant return to the narrative for all of five seconds
	+ After a brief debate about optimal entry points, Marshall and Milo clamber through a window to find far fewer floorboards than Milo was expecting. Auden and Cyrus elect to stay outside of the barely-standing death trap.
	+ Milo and Marshall split up, focusing their search on the basement since the stairs to the second floor are inaccessible.
	+ After a few minutes of poking around, Milo discovers that the stairwell from the first floor to the basement is both fairly intact, and also hollow. Christmas Shreely, haggard and unconscious but alive, is curled around their journal inside.
	+ Marshall steps in to reassure Shreely that they're not in danger, and Christmas takes a second to thank the house for looking after them. When they've said their good-byes, the stairs and floor to the front door are far less treacherous.
	+ Outside, and with their missing person found, the gang realize that they're stranded out in the cold without a safe way to get back to the courthouse. Milo rolls up his sleeves, cracks his knuckles, and calls Frank to come pick him up for the fifty billionth time this campaign.
* Tom gets home to find 114 up and about.
	+ He checks in with them, to little response, but does note that their appearance has bettered significantly since they first turned up at his doorstep.
	+ Interested to follow up with Auden, Tom prepares to head to the courthouse. He needs to warm up a bit first though.
* Frank, Milo, Auden, Cyrus, Marshall, and Christmas return to the courthouse.
	+ Bat's been hanging out there waiting for them. That's five NPCs in this scene, in case anyone was wondering.
	+ Auden finally gets a word in edgewise to wonder out loud and very concernedly what threat Cyrus potentially poses to his well-being. Cyrus isn't particularly enthused to fill him in.
	+ Frank, despite nursing a killer hex-ache, sees the opportunity to wrangle some tea out of the mysterious witch guys. He starts firing on all cylinders.
	+ A Complicated Series of Events From Several Contradicting Perspectives:
		- Unambiguously, Cyrus, Bat, and Enoch were tried for and convicted of murder in 1784. Despite this, Bat and Cyrus originally told Auden they were hanged for witchcraft.
		- Also unambiguously, a woman by the name of Ester Granton died in her home after suddenly falling ill. Cyrus and Bat were spotted leaving the home not long before she was found dead, and (taking their less-than-stellar track record into account) were immediately suspect.
		- Cyrus alleges that, upon learning of Ester's illness, Enoch brought him to her house. They were hoping to cure her, but the casting went awry. He fully takes responsibility for her death. Bat thinks Cyrus is being melodramatic, and harbors his own suspicion of Enoch.
		- Bat also evidently had nothing to do with the original crime. He was roped in purely by association, a third member of the coven to round out a good ol' fashioned witch trial.
		- Price supposedly thinks Bat was the one who tipped off the authorities to their presence at the home and then turned against them while on trial, explaining Enoch's ire for Warren.
		- Rather than meet a grisly end, Bat (largely-accidentally) pulled the trio into what he refers to as 'the spirit world.' Christmas strongly disagrees with both his terminology and methodology. However, the men were clearly in some sort of stasis there, sustained by the trees they were bound to, for around a hundred and thirty years. Time passes strangely over there.
		- Cyrus and Bat can't come to a conclusion on what to do about Enoch. Cyrus is convinced they'd be able to negotiate with him. Bat suspects his spirit is far too warped to really be considered sane or stable. So they aren't much further along in solving the incessant lightning issue.
		- In conclusion, Bat can't un-hex Frank because he's tired (and has apparently been dousing off on his own without telling Cyrus, which Cyrus isn't pleased to learn after Frank brings it up), and Cyrus can't do magic anymore (except Bat insists he can).
	+ At this point, Christmas is thoroughly intrigued by the witches, and thus is left vulnerable to Frank's ongoing interrogation regarding Literally Everything That Has Ever Happened.
		- Shreely was picking up their research again, until Lorna interrupted with her pursuit of their journal at the mire's behest.
		- They were seeking something roughly to the north of their house, albeit "over there" as opposed to "here."
		- Christmas has access to "over there" from their basement, but they've stopped adventuring there. Evidently it's not a particularly safe environment.
		- They've been tracking someone shining lights around over there, presumably in an attempt to be noticed.
	+ While Christmas rambles about bubble baths, Tom turns up at the courthouse doorstep.
		- Auden pretty firmly attempts to keep Tom uninvolved and thus out of danger. He doesn't let him inside, and insists that Frank, whose vehicle is parked in the driveway, is resting.
		- Tom is mildly irked by the obstruction, and figures he'll follow up with Frank later.
	+ Auden returns to remind everyone that Frank is literally just some guy who's giving so much of a fuck that it's going to get him or the people he's dragging in with him hurt. That kinda kills the vibes, so the squad try to wrap things up as best they can.
	+ The general consensus is that Christmas will be safest at the courthouse, so they stay there with Bat, Cyrus, and Auden. Frank drops Milo and Marshall off at their respective spots.
* Frank calls Cynthia back, having missed her call during the discussion at the courthouse. He catches her up on how things have been going. He also gets back to Tom, and the two plan to meet up and review the situation.

##### **01/21/2015: Wednesday**

* Cynthia calls Lorna.
	+ She makes it crystal clear that she doesn't want Lorna getting involved with the mire.
	+ Lorna points out the hypocrisy of using its power while forbidding her to do so.
	+ Cynthia insists she won't work with Lorna if she continues to work with the dark water.
* She then checks in with Frank to ask about Kohler.
	+ Cynthia wants to be involved in any future plans regarding Lorna.
	+ She also mentions her intent to find the mysterious light she saw while in the stream.
	+ The sordid tale of Ester Granton also has her convinced that the woman who died in 1784 was her. She wants Frank to follow up with the guys at the GHC about this, and accordingly sends him a picture of the photograph.
* Frank stops by the courthouse with the photo.
	+ Bat un-hexes him unceremoniously.
	+ No one present is willing to give him a straight answer about the photo (which surely has nothing to do with the fact that Frank tells them explicitly that it's of someone they know of, know they're older than, and actively dislike).
	+ He also gets told off a little for bringing up Ester to Cyrus, who clearly isn't over her death.
* Milo brings Willa up to speed on all things spirit realm and water related.
	+ None of what he mentions means much to her, but it does remind her of a place she found once while wandering the Gore.
	+ Evidently there's a patch of woods that loops back on itself out there, she doesn't clearly recollect how she got there or how she eventually got out.
	+ On the other hand, she also learns about Christmas "possibly an authority on weird stuff" Shreely, who doesn't believe in ghosts. She wants to go see them. There's nothing else for her to follow up on at the moment and she's losing her mind just a little bit.
* Tom drops by Frank's house. Frank updates him on the recent developments, and assures Tom that he has no idea what Jo Brennan's deal is.
* Price turns up on Cynthia's doorstep. He's ready for phase two of their alliance.

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