Bad Dreams

Part 2: The Great Timmoney Street Hand-Chopping Massacre of 1934

Friday, March 17, 1934
Due to the ungodly stench (care of Dr. Schreber, Charlie, and the Scottish Manservant) in the park, nobody appears to be playing in it today. Some police arrive and look around. Roderick talks to the phone company about having an extension installed in his bedroom, and warns them that there's a crazy man in the house who will try to convince the technician to go away again. Gerti wonders if there's somewhere sensible that she can send Junior for the nonce.

"I think if we're going to the house, we need to bring everyone and bring guns and be prepared to spoon people's eyes out." -Roderick
"I'm not sure we're prepared to do that yet. -Gerti
The Valiants are hired by Mrs. O'Grady to investigate the terrible smell in the park. She thinks perhaps it's haunted. They go and check out the park, and discover a strange chemical painted on some trees and bushes, and then, noting that the Walker flat is nearby, go to interview Gerti. Case closed, though the smell makes Eddie sick. Well, perhaps they can interview some of the other parents, to see if they know anything interesting. Gerti tries to fill the Valiants in on the deal with Hengirth, but she's a little fuzzy on all the details herself, since Team Occult has been keeping some of them sort of secret to not upset her.

Eddie calls the Bellesby house (but is unable to make it by Marcus and the Scottish Manservant), and then Dr. Schreber, who fills him in on some more of the details ("Gerti isn't in the room, is she?") Roderick manages to learn that Eddie called, but fails to find him at the Walkers'. Roderick packs a bag with a meat cleaver and a set of spoons, and hides it in the library.

Roderick and Marcus head to Arkham; Marcus is shooed off to wander the grounds while Roderick and Dr. Schreber interview Morris Feldman, who's come off of sedation. Morris isn't very coherent, but says that he can feel it trying to get back in through his hands. To second sight, Roderick sees Morris's hand-stumps as cauterized seals, but they're bowing in under some sort of pressure. Amidst various screaming fits and hysterical giggling, Morris mentions the Big Man as who/what gave him Hengirth (though he doesn't call it that), and mentions Paulie as someone else who got gotten. Also, Morris appears to admit to having burnt down the house with Paulie in it.

When the pair emerges from Arkham, Marcus is having an argument with one of the inmates. He won't say about what, but the inmate whispers to Roderick "He doesn't like girls...". Roderick ponders this on the way to the Walkers'. Roderick confirms the squid-bite on Junior, but that it's not sufficiently deep to get into his inside.

The two Valiants, plus Roderick (as the benevolent philanthropist) and Dr. Schreber (as the kindly doctor) go around the Timmoney Street neighborhood talking to various parents and kids. Mary O'Grady wants to know if the stuff in the park is ectoplasm. Dr. Schreber wants to know where she learned that word. The Valiants assure her that it was probably some stinkbomb set by hooligans. While Julie O'Grady seems mostly okay, other neighborhood children are noted by Roderick to be sort of hollowed out, though not yet infested. ("Imagine the jelly donut, waiting to be filled with jelly."). The Flanagans don't answer the door, though Roderick thinks something from inside is looking at them, and flees, muttering about burning the house down.

Gerti and Junior head to the library to do some research - Gerti finds some articles about the fire in Dunwich (where Morris is from), which killed four people - George and Liza Smith, and their kids Rose and Paul. A later article mentions Morris Feldman having bitten his hands off, and while the article doesn't specifically say that he also burnt the house down, it's implied.

Saturday, March 18
Charlie checks around to see if he knows anyone willing to firebomb a house. He does, though they're not likely to do it for free; it'll take Esme/Roderick level spending money. Gerti organizes an afternoon party for the local moms, not including the Flanagans. The Valiants and Charlie stake out the Flanagan house - Carey goes to visit another kid for about three hours in the afternoon (Roderick is later appalled to hear that the surveillers permitted this), but nobody else enters or leaves. Gerti's party turns up the factoid that Victor Flanagan works for State Farm Insurance, but it's a Saturday and it'll be hard to check whether he's been at work in the past several weeks. Dr. Schreber talks to Dr. Barnes, who mentions that there hasn't been a followup visit since Carey recovered, but he doesn't mention any unusually large interns or other weird things.

Saturday night, a war council is held.

"I wish there were another way of dealing with this." -Eddie
"Yes, and I'm sure Myra's parents wish she hadn't been staked." -Gerti
The discussion turns to stalling versus attacking. Roderick is dead set against any stalling, as the longer the group puts it off, the more little kids they'll have to kill. Dr. Schreber points out that he can probably stash kidnap victims in Arkham, but Gerti isn't clear that that will be safe, either in terms of being killed on the way there or turning all of the asylum inmates into Many of Hengirth. The party finally decides to storm the house. Gerti, Charlie, Eddie, Tommy, and Roderick are all going in; Dr. Schreber is waiting outside in the alley in the getaway car.

"I've heard that crimes are hard to solve when there's no motive." -Roderick
Wait, what about sneakier weapons? How about chloroform? Can they put it down the chimney? Dr. Schreber explains that the proper application of chloroform involves a handkerchief over the face. How about nerve gas? Tommy doesn't approve of gassing residential neighborhoods. Eddie suggests filling the entire house with nitrogen. This is deemed infeasible. But quiet weapons aren't a bad idea - Crossbows! Poison!
"I would note, Edward, that screaming is still very loud." -Dr. Schreber
Maybe Dr. Schreber can ask the people in Innsmouth about Hengirth? They might have some advice. Dr. Schreber thinks not. Charlie acquires a couple of silenced guns, however. The assault on the house begins.

"If we get caught, I think the best thing for us to do is have Dr. Schreber sign for us and put us all in Arkham under his care..." -Tommy
Eddie picks the lock on the back door. Gerti accidentally trips all over the stairs, making quite a bit of noise.
"Make stealth rolls." -Laura
"I fail" -Tommy
"I fail" -Charlie
"I fail" -Roderick
"I fumble" -Gerti
"I make mine..." -Eddie
Roderick is sure something noticed them. As he points out the room with the thing in it, the door opens and Carey comes out. People start shooting at Carey - she points her open-eye-hands at Eddie and he is flung against the far wall. Charlie attempts to hit her with the baseball bat, but she catches it; some of Tommy's shots also hang in midair. However, between Gerti's purse and more bullets, she's eventually knocked over, with Gerti jumping on top of her into the bedroom.

Lying on the bed in the bedroom is a huge, blobby, somewhat female-humanoid shape, with eyes up and down its arms and in its hands. The door is rent from its hinges and flattens Roderick. Several more bullets halt themselves in midair, and both Gerti and Eddie find themselves no longer able to breathe. However, Eddie shoots the creature in its eye-mouth, and Tommy shoots it between the upper eyes; between that and another whack with the baseball bat, it eventually dies, though not before Tommy has gotten in his traditional shooting of Charlie. Charlie starts hacking hands and heads off - Roderick refrains from mentioning that Carey could probably survive with only her hands cut off.

Dr. Schreber, who has eventually come into the house after hearing various crashing combat sounds, tries to resuscitate Gerti and Eddie, who are passing out from not being able to breathe. When the rest of the party attempts to flee, Gerti stays behind, as there's still one of the family left that hasn't been accounted for. However, Charlie soon notes that there's pieces of a skeleton in/under the Patricia-monster; Dr. Schreber identifies it as belonging to a man. The party flees, tossing the guns in the river.

Over the next few days, the police investigate the massacre; various epidemiologists are brought in as well, but nobody is arrested. Roderick confirms that no other kids appear to be Hengirth-infested, and that Junior is okay and healing. Morris recovers from his screaming fits, though then Dr. Schreber hypnotizes him to go over the entirety of his infestation, and he's kinda traumatized again after that. At the end of the session, though, when he's still in trance, he looks at Dr. Schreber, says "Hmm, that's interesting," and giggles.


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