Biting Memories (Worlds Beyond)

GM
--

## Recurring NPCs

Riley

*Biting Memories* is the third episode of the first season of Worlds Beyond.

Jade wakes up. She should retire or take a desk job. But she won't, and whatever ill has been gnawing at her will kill her–or something from The Strange.

Inan swings by, brings Jade some water. Jade tells her that she wasn't knocked out from lack of experience, but because of a bad reaction to The Strange. Inan admires her as a teacher and as someone who adapted after losing her right arm.

The two leave together. Jade is not allowed to do that just yet, but when she tells Inan otherwise, *it's not lies, it's just poor life choices*.

Pine looks for Dale, who knows things from this universe. Dale tricks Pine into trying to enter a building that's off-limits, but they end up renouncing. Pine enjoys Dale, even though they don't always understand each other, as evidenced by this short exchange:

Pine: *I protect my nest*.

Dale: *You lay eggs?*

Pine: *It's not a common question*.

Oz, who chose to live in a modest studio outside Estate property, wants a desk job: he's had enough of The Strange already, what with his previous unintended translations, not to mention the latest, which brought him face to face with a world-devouring maw. But Riley makes it clear: when it comes to the whereabouts of Lexenberg, *the real truth is out there*. To know more, Oz has to keep working with The Estate. Besides, they are all summoned to a briefing for their next mission.

### A rare opportunity

The group is offered a rare opportunity in the form of a large, black key, a recursion key to an entirely new, unexplored dimension. Jade speaks from experience: exploration, lots of paperwork, better to go prepare and pack a lunch, smaller groups–such as hers–are better. Inan sees the possibility to find wonderful people, Oz that *we can die*.

The group all sit and make themselves for the 10-minute translation ritual that Dale turns out to be the most skilled to initiate. Thanks to the others' help, he is successful and they all find themselves in an unfamiliar setting.

### Back to the future

The stars are a little bit off in the sky, which is a hallmark of the void of The Strange. There is a Victorian mansion in front of them, and warm light coming from inside. A cobblestone path leads up to it. Their vision is limited by the fog surrounding the setting.

Everything about them has a 1950's vibe, food included.

Oz looks like a snake-oil seller, with permed hair, a mustache and a supply of actual snake oil.

Jade's right arm is bandaged, with its hand gloved.

Pine looks like a soldier, with buzzed hair and a military hat.

Dale looks like he's out of a moonshine lab and has actual moonshine, strong stuff, that, Inan finds, *burns on the way down*. Inan is a typical 1950's wife in appearance, jewels, perfect makeup--think Lucy Ball.

### Welcome to dinner

They knock at the front door; a butler opens:

> *We have been waiting for you; dinner is served*.
>
>

Inside, there are a few rooms and stairs leading up. The furniture, that includes a sofa, a piano, *chaises longues* and a bar with brandy, is a mix of Victorian and 1950's style. A table is set for six. Jade reckons this may be a short story on repeat. The inquisitive Dale finds that the butler is named Todd, and that the sconces on the walls hide no secret mechanisms. The Lady enters the room the instant Inan and Pine try to go upstairs. She has perfect 1950's curls, voluminous skirts, iridescent blue eyes, perfect nails... *Hello*, she says, *it would be rude for you to leave. You can call me Aranea*. Inan introduces herself; Pine, in a translation error, wants to kiss her hand; Oz is a Victor Romero, and Dale is simply Anthony.

A maid enters and serves food. It tastes lovely and familiar. Aranea Vidua, who has been lonely, is always prepared for guests. How come, Oz wonders, *you should be married three times over*. Aranea's wrinkles suggest she may be older than she looks and *tragedies happen ... they come and they go*. Oz offers talking around a drink; Aranea doesn't pay attention when Dale dumps food in his beard; Pine finds out that the three people who live here have always been here. It is a delight for them to have guests, as, Inan is told, Aranea's days are usually spent eating, sleeping, playing the piano and reading. Oz also loves the food; Aranea will only say that it is *magic*, that *a good cook can't share their secrets*. With a little persuasion in the form of compliments, he coaxes her into revealing that she serves people what they think they are eating.

Jade, in the meantime, makes her way to the nearest bathroom. Her 1950's-inappropriate measuring instruments reveal nothing; her meticulous inspection reveals that the room is empty, except for soap and toilet paper. Before returning to the dining table, she has a quick look at the floor upstairs: a hallway with several doorways.

The drawing room. Lady Aranea is playing classical music on the piano. Inan, while listening, gives a close look at the bookcase: Shakespeare, titles she'd expect to see. She sees nothing weird but, after all, she is not familiar with Earth books: these *have words in them*. Just like in the dining room, the paintings on the walls are generic landscapes.

### Stormy night

Aranea stops playing: it is getting late. They must stay for the night because of the storm outside, thunder and rain. The maid, Maria, will show them their rooms. As Jade gets the distinct feeling of being coursed into a scenario, Oz prepares to go out and check their bags with Pine. Outside, clouds now hide the sky above. Oz and Pine walk toward the end of the path, drawing a path in the ground with the umbrella. Once they reach the fog, the wind abates and soon they can't even see their feet anymore. They keep walking straight forward until the fog stops at the edge of the void. Oz is reminded of a translation to the edge of Ardeyn: this is a barrier, the Strange is beyond. They return to the house, making sure they never touch the barrier.

Back at the house, disappears into the darkness of the third floor after denying that they are a cult. They are all led to separate rooms, except Jade and Inan, who elect to sleep together ... *but not together*, Inan adds.

### Reunions

Dale is the first to step into his room. Except that this no room at all. Dale is in a familiar place with a concrete ceiling and hollowed-out school buses. Mike Parsons is sitting there, around a stove, welcoming Dale, directing him to a stool. Mike is slightly overweight, bearded, has his salt and pepper hair tied up in a ponytail, camo-gear clad. He is here because he's bugged out. Isn't Dale as well? Did *they* get to him? Neither has seen *them*, but it's safe here. Dale asks, *Justin Bieber is really from Canada, right?* Mike gives the exact response Dale expects. After passing an intellect test, Dale realizes Mike replied in the same way he, Dale, would have replied; not in Mike's way. Dale remembers he entered a room, must be there. He excuses himself.

Inan is next. She enters a familiar room in Nocturne. Her tutor, Larc, scolds her for being late. Inan *feels* she's late. She doesn't remember why she entered the room. The scene feels like déjà vu, but it feels safe too. Inan passes her intellect test: she realizes that the pages of the books she holds are blank and that Larc is supposed to be dead. The lesson continues.

Jade finds herself in a desert scene, under a blue Arizona sky. Charlie Ash is there, talking to her. Jade is impressed he's not drinking from a bottle. He mentions her arm, her continued engagement with the Estate, she's interested in how he spends his retirement. Jade fails her intellect test: it's relaxing; it's good. Jade catches up with Charlie.

Oz goes in, still wet from his excursion and impatient to change clothes. He finds himself in a warm scene lit by fluorescent light. His fiancée, Laura, is on a bed, with a baby, his baby: *Come look at him [...] He's got your eyes*. She keep talking about the miracle of life, them being a family. Oz finds this odd, but fails his roll: it's his son making these baby noises; it's their house in Lexenberg's best neighborhood: they got it.

Pine enters his room and finds himself in Sanzut. There is a man, a scholar with a salt and pepper mustache; the sleeves of his robe cover his fingertips. The robe also has a 4/5 foot long train. In the room there are also attendants ready to carry him. Pine recognizes the Sage, runs, slides on his knees and starts kissing his fingertips. The Sage starts soothing Pine's guilt: everything is going to be fine; you were, and still are, worthy; all is well here, you can rest. Pine, despite himself, recognizes that these words sound hollow that this is not what the actual Sage would say: his roll was successful.

### Welcome, dinner

Back to Dale, who is in the bathroom, looking for the doorway. After a few circles, he sees weird repetitions, then the door, and there is a flash of light through his closed eyes. He pushes against what he thinks are bedsheets, actually pulls away at fibers. He sees a body on the ceiling, and a head, and eight legs ....

Pine doesn't take the Sage's words at face value: *I don't think I can relax*. The Sage insists: *You have to, your quest is over*. This time, Pine fails his roll: the face of the Sage contorts, looks right again.

Inan wants to step outside and discuss why Larc is still alive. After a new success, Larc's skin ages, she turns into a corpse, then ash: only darkness remains. Something stops Inan from moving. There is a flash of light; she puts real effort into tearing through her restraints: threads come off her hands. She is on a bed, she sees two one-meter long bodies and sixteen legs. There is also a Jade-sized cocoon sewn up next to her. Making sense of the situation, Inan says:

> *I'm not the best meat in the world*.
>
>

Dale tumbles off of his bed, goes for the door. He ends up in a different bedroom, sees a cocooned figure and a spider.

Back to Inan, who swings up and levitates a spider. It pulls away. *You truly messed with the wrong person*, Inan says. The spiders attack: one throws a web from its location; the other climbs down before hitting. Inan dodges both threats.

Jade is unsettled by Charlie's behavior: he's happy with her, and way too agreeable. This time, Jade makes her roll, with a natural 20: Charlie is just gone; she just sits up and rips herself out of the cocoon, and sees Inan fighting the spiders in the room. Inan is pleased: *Oh good, you're awake*. Awake and ready for action: she opens her purse, draws out a can of hairspray, lights it up and uses it as a flamethrower, all one-handed. She hits the levitating spider, which screeches from the burn.

Oz is still with Laura; there are flamingoes in the yard. It does feel wrong, because the place, Lexenberg, no longer exists. Oz also rolls a natural 20, realizes it's all an illusion, but chooses to stay longer.

Pine has started to fight his older sister Quake. Quake is loud, while Pine is quiet. Pine finds it odd that Quake is not meaner, that Quake is actually speaking like he would. This time, Pine sees through the illusion, as his glaive goes through Quake, into the void that replaces his sibling. Pine also frees himself from his cocoon. He soon sees Dale facing two spiders, and shouting to him: *Kill it!* Pine hits, the spider goes a little bit limp as the attack dazes it. Dale shoots at the same monster with his pistol, and also hits. Pine gets another shot at killing the spider, even has time to notice the skull on its abdomen. Pine smacks it, it pops.

Back to the other fight. The roasting spider is still alive—and flailing—due to the continuing levitation. Jade finishes it with her wicked knife, and parries the other's attack so effectively, that she also kills it. As Jade is standing over this second spider's body, Inan realizes she has just seen a glimpse of whom Jade used to be, and claps. Jade wipes her knife off and leads Inan out of the room in her no-nonsensical way.

Oz is still with Laura and the baby, both asleep now. He can leave when he wants, chooses to hold on a little bit longer, long enough to tell Laura he wants her to know how much he loves her, and that he'll find them later. He has a vision of mouthless babies, gets up and backs away through the door. He finds himself in darkness, caught in a cocoon that is now tight and suffocating. He feels pressure on his face, and a voice says:

> *You are not going anywhere, you're my next meal*.
>
>

Meanwhile, Dale, Pine, Jade and Inan are all in the same—now cramped—room, with two dead spiders, wondering where Oz may be. Pine smashes a window and suggests that they go through it. He sticks his head out, finds himself alone in the drawing room. It is dark, and its aspect has changed: the wallpaper is peeling off, repeating patterns are clearly visible, there are cobwebs everywhere and stuffing is falling out. This room is old, it's dilapidated and it's dark. Pine calls: *Captain Jade!* and starts looking around for a weapon.

After seeing Pine disappear, Jade has started to get a grip on this inter-dimensional thing. She suggests they all leave together. The closest to this they can do is to at least link arms before shuffling through the door, one at a time. They all emerge in the dining room, where the food, which has clearly been here for a long time, is rotting. This room, too, is dilapidated, and lit only by moonlight, until Dale takes out his period-appropriate flashlight.

Pine, still separated from the group, notices a glass vial filled with a red liquid. He pockets this cypher then charges through a door that leads him to the same room as the others. The house starts creaking, a voice asks:

> *Didn't your enjoy your stay?*
>
>

Jade retorts that

> *You're a terrible hostess*.
>
>

Oz is still struggling to escape his cocoon. The spider wants him to stop struggling, even though the struggle makes its victims tastier. Oz uses this as an advantage to get the spider to hold off, when his muffled voice convinces it that: *If I keep struggling, I'll taste better*, or, as the spider puts it: *It tenderizes the meat*. He also manages to get it to rummage for sauce in his bag, which he hopes to be able to locate by sound.

Back in the dining room, the four in the group have linked arms again. They have a close look at the room. Dale finds and pockets a golden coin with a spider and webbing on its faces: another cypher. Jade suggests they all focus on memories of Oz, such as the one when he set a curtain on fire, to improve their chances of being transported to his room next time they go through a door. And indeed, Oz hears them as they fall on the concrete floor of the dark underground room where hi is still stuck. He mistakes their collective eight feet for the spider, back with boots on. Dale, carrying their light, is the first to see the cobwebs and humanoid-shaped cocoons, one which lies on the ground, not yet deflated. When he asks *Oz, are you here*, and Oz asks back *Dale?*, Dale's can't help but retort his usual *Who's asking?*

The remaining spider is not happy: *You're the worst guests!* This triggers another of Dale's reflex moves: *Exception!*

The lady they saw earlier now has a gaunt face. She wears a tattered and blood-stained dress, and there is a spider's abdomen under the dress, and there are no arms but eight legs. The spider steps in; the Exception goes off and hurts it. It is not stunned though, and can still lift Oz with its front legs. *I'm hungry*, it says, before biting into him and starting to drain him. As Oz, stunned and tired, wants to return to Laura, the spider, blood streaking down its face, actually regains health. It grins when Inan fails to get it to levitate.

Jade and Pine coordinate their moves—the former to chop off the spider's face, the latter to take Oz away—so that Pine's task is easier. Jade successfully hits the spider's waist line, while Pine pulls Oz away. Oz, who hurts, asks about his bag.

Jade has to dodge pointy legs and a bite, but is grabbed and ripped into: Jade is food, too, and there is this bloody, hungry grin again. The spider's anesthetic causes Jade to see Charlie again, and ask him to shut up.

Dales draws attention to himself, as he shouts *Over here!* and shoots with his pistol, but misses.

Inan tries a new strategy, and puts effort into it: she shatters webbing so as to create a blast of needles that hits the spider at such an angle that the spider shields the others. As a bonus, the spider drops Jade.

Jade still feels the effect of the soothing poison, but is ready to bob, weave and stab, and has another go at bee-heading the spider. She misses.

Pine uses the knife he keeps on his ankle to slice Oz's cocoon. He also applies pressure in such a way that the wound on Oz's neck heals and his blood moves back in.

Dale is the next to get hit: he feels pain, but also has a relaxing moment that feels good.

Dale shoots back, and the spider reels back. Inan tries to shatter another cocoon, but this time she fails.

Oz wants to get out right now; Pine disagrees:

> *There is no out, there is only killing!*
>
>

Pine immediately jumps onto the spider's back, and stabs it with his tiny knife. It lets out another scream.

Oz fashions a molotov cocktail with the material at hand, then urges the others to go out through the door behind him so he can start a fire. Jade fails to land a punch on the spider's face. The spider takes another bite from her, because *You were tasty the last time!* Jade now feels light-headed. Pine intervenes, and with her consent, helps her put the contents of the vial he picked earlier into her mouth: it restores a significant amount of her Might pool.

Dale's second *Exception* fails, but he still taunts the spider who looms over him now: *Your web stinks and your booty is too big.*

Inan seeks to help Pine land a more effective attack; she yells: *Try to sever the fifth vertebra behind the head!* Whether Inan's knowledge of spider physiology was accurate or not, Pine has put enough effort into his attack not just to make a hit certain, but to make it fatal: there is a blood-curdling screech; the house starts to rattle; the walls start shrinking; and the dying spider splays onto the ground. In Jade's words:

> *Field trip is over, kids*.
>
>

They book it out, and Oz hears a final screech after tossing his molotov cocktail.
The house collapses on itself; it's gone. There are only barren fields left, a fractal environment; the storm has passed. This is the end, they can all translate back safely. Jade still takes the time to remind them to

> *Never touch The Strange, OK?*
>
>

## Notes

1. ↑ Later in the episode, this arm is described as not just lacking muscle, but *almost skeletal*.
2. ↑ The actual description was: just like Banzai's costume.
3. ↑ *NftE*: I had to loop up this word. Why is it that I find French words so hard to recognize when used in English?
4. ↑ *NftE*: spelling confirmed by Lauren. *Aranea Vidua* means *Spider Widow* in Latin.
5. ↑ Which is part of Banzai's aforementioned costume.
6. ↑ Lauren: *camo George R. R. Martin*.
7. ↑ *NftE*: In retrospect, this way of describing Mike's reply is actually more telling than the actual answer would have been, had Lauren known it.
8. ↑ *NftE*: spelling confirmed by Sarah.
9. ↑ *NftE*: spelling confirmed by Jeannine.
10. ↑ *NftE*: Just making a note here that Lauren, in this instance and again when any character leaves a room, rolls a d10 and a d4 to determine where this character (or linked group) ends up. Jeannine's comment, the first time this happens: *The Red God smiles*.
11. ↑ Lauren's comment: *I will take your gift, and I will devour you*.
12. ↑ With a roll of 19.
13. ↑ But only after Lauren gently hints that they do.
14. ↑ It's such a reflex move that Lauren has to delay it a bit: *Let me go through my description!*
15. ↑ Which means it is native to this recursion.
16. ↑ Even though it's not a bee ;-)
17. ↑ Lauren: *It's really pleasant*.
18. ↑ *NftE*: And, out of nowhere, Lauren confirms to @Iffrithiel, in chat, that *There is a face on the spider's butt*.