2nd Batch of Write Ups

Crown of Creation

The PCs are:

• Millicent Lowell: Child of Vanessa Carlyle and her Dark Lord Nyarlathotep. She doesn't break time and space any more. Now, she's a PI in Los Angeles. Drive: Duty
• Kane Kulinsky: Unscrupulous Businessman who may be trying to grow a conscience. Or not. Drive: Folly
• Tommy Keegan: Veteran with a General Discharge. This is code for "we'd make it Dishonorable but can't quite get the evidence for that". They think he stole naval base secrets. He didn't. Drive: Revenge
• Charlie (Charlene) Fitzgibbons-Cuevas: Freelance Photographer convinced she will follow in the path of her mother and her step-sister (both of whom were the player's PCs in previous campaigns). Drive: Destiny
• Rudy (Rudolpho) Fitzgibbons-Cuevas: Charlie's twin, lawyer working for the DA. His parents' stories are no longer enough (and the same player had the father as a PC in a previous campaign). Drive: Adventure.

Tommy decided to let Millicent know who Cap’n Tripps, drug dealer and user, and apparently now a traveler in time as well, had told him was going to die after the Greys’ annual holiday party, held every year on January 14: Ruby and Geronimo Fitzgibbons-Cuevas, the parents of Rudy and Charlie. Millicent was definitely on board with wanting to save them.

No one else knew IC, and I don't think they knew OOC, but I could be wrong. Rudy and Charlie were still somewhat estranged, but both showed up at their parents' for a holiday dinner, and I think both went to the party. Millicent took Cap'n Tripps as her Plus One. This was Present Day Cap'n Tripps, who had not yet traveled in time.

Tommy and Millicent tried to keep Ruby and Geronimo from getting on Ruby's plane, unsure of exactly how they died beyond "violence", but correctly guessing that the plane had something to do with it. Rudy and Charlie joined in, even though they had no idea of what was going on. Eventually, Ruby and Geronimo allowed themselves to be persuaded to spend the night in a hotel.

And Nyarlathotep had a busy night. First, the Crawling Chaos paid a visit to Tommy. Humans are occasionally impressive, doing something ever so slightly difficult or unusual, and yes, Nyarlathotep was Duly Impressed. However, the interference had caused N some problems, and it needed to be undone one way or another, or something similar needed to happen to someone else. At least, that's my understanding of what the Crawling Chaos wanted.

Tommy had no intention of cooperating with Nyarlathotep, and did not. Nyarlathotep was no longer amused, but did not take action against Tommy. In fact, the Crawling Chaos sent Tommy a gift, an exoneration of suspicion of wrongdoing, and I'm guessing a reclassification of his discharge.

Millicent spent the rest of the night after the party by Ruby's plane, keeping an eye out for saboteurs. None arrived, but she wasn't surprised to find herself talking to her parent, who was _very disappointed in her.

Nyarlathotep: You had _one job.

Millicent was confused. It wasn't that she was surpised her parent was disappointed in her; she assumed Mirabelle was the Special One. She was surprised Nyarlathotep wasn't talking to Mirabelle, but I don't think she said so. The conversation was confusing and disturbing enough that she asked what she was supposed to do and how she could help Nyarlathotep.

The problem was, as Nyarlathotep explained, if not in so many words, was that if N told her, she'd be bound by the same constraints as her parent. And no, there was no problem with that little jaunt in time back to old Egypt; that was just a family outing. The Crawling Chaos mentioned the Crown of Creation, something N had also mentioned to Tommy.

"Crown of Creation" is a Jefferson Airplane song, but it hasn't quite been written (or at least, not performed in public or recorded) as of January 1968.

GM: Unless Millicent peeked.

Me: No, I didn't! I don't do that anymore. Mostly.

Some of the lyrics in it come from John Wyndham's novel _The Chrysalids. The novel was written in 1955, but I don't think Millicent has read it.

Meanwhile, time passed. Charlie and her girlfriend, Suze, went to Vietnam as journalists. They got captured, I think by the North Vietnam soldiers. The GM played utterly fairly here; this was a matter of the roll of a die. Charlie flashed her press credentials, and the man holding a gun to her head now pointed it at Suze. Charlie told him that Suze was also with the press.

And Nyarlathotep appeared to Ruby and Geronimo, now back at home, and explained Charlie's situation. Charlie's life wasn't at stake, but Suze's was. If they wanted, the two of them could save her life at the cost of their own. Or they could let their daughter's lover die. It was their choice.

The couple discussed it and decided to die and save Suze. Back in Vietnam, the man holding a gun to Suze's head hesitated a long moment, then lifted it. He told Charlie and Suze that they were very lucky.

The next session included Ruby and Geronimo's funeral, which Charlie did not make. Millicent cried a lot and probably said something to the effect that Geronimo was a very good man who could be trusted to do the right thing.

Charlie missed the funeral because she and Suze were being held either by Vietnamese forces or by USA forces (because of their politics). Eventually, they were released and boarded a plane home. It was April 4, 1968, and during the flight, there was suddenly an announcement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s death.

Rudy, working in the DA's office, was told to more or less round up the usual suspects, but barked back at his boss that he had to pick up his sister. His boss backed down, with ill grace.

Rudy brought Charlie and Suze back to his place. Yes, the same place where Charlie killed the vampires who were his guests. Charlie knew about Ruby and Geronimo. She and Suze tried to wrap their heads around their current situation while Rudy went back to work. I think wrapping their heads around their situation involved alcohol, marijuana, and sex.

Rudy was given the task of going to the headquarters of two of the more radical political groups to look for weapons and other reasons to arrest people to keep them from rioting, and his protests that this would cause the very riots he was supposed to protest fell on stony ears. He took the assignements, but first called both groups to warn them.

I think he didn't reach anyone in one of the groups, and that group's headquarters was empty when he arrived. The other group was outside, protested and blocking access to their offices. Rudy made a deal: The leaders would keep things quiet and let themselves be arrested. Rudy would make sure this all happened slowly enough that anything incirminating still in the offices could be cleared, and would also make sure that a journalist he knew, i.e., Charlie, would be there to interview the arrestees when they were released a few days later.

As promised, Charlie and Suze showed up. The group's leader had hoped for more and more prestigious press, but took what he had. Suze lost her job (as a photographer). I think Charlie may have as well? The two moved back into Charlie's apartment, and I think Charlie decided that it was time to use some of her inheritance to buy a bigger place.

This did cause some tension between Charlie and Suze, as Suze doesn't want to be a pity case for a trust fund child. Additionally, Rudy's boss was not exactly pleased with how Rudy handled things, but couldn't prove Rudy had done anything wrong either.

I received a GM Love Letter for Millicent. (Presumably, the other players received one for their PCs, but I don't know what those said.) It said:

Dear Millicent,

So beyond your usual home life issues (mom increasingly unstable, Mirabelle's health declining, dark dreams wherein dear old Dad figures prominently), Cap'n Tripps has been bothering you a lot lately.

Seems that ever since he finished reading _Dune, he's been obsessed with making a drug to gain prescience. And he wants your help.

Choose One:

• You spend a point of Cthulhu Mythos to help him out. He won't get there right away, but with your assistance he will likely succeed in the near future. Hopefully, you'll be around to pick up the pieces.

• You don't spend anything. His research goes frustratingly slowly, but at least he won't be seeing the future any time soon. The risk that he turns to other sources is very real, however.

Love,

Your Keeper

Millicent pointed out to Cap'n Tripps that the more one sees, the less one can change, like the stuff he'd know in the future. Well, the present. Cap'n Tripps asks if she were time locking him by telling him that.

Me: This goes on for some time, but the upshot is that Millicent helps him.

She checked on her mother, Vanessa. They had a brief conversation about 1937, and her mother said something about how Millicent shouldn't ask her -- it was Millicent who was globetrotting back then.

Millicent: I'm not sure _I remember 1937 very well.

Vanessa: There seems to be a lot of that going around.

Millicent: ...yes.

Millicent checked on her sister, Mirabeller, who asked if Millicent had seen her (Mirabelle's) child. Millicent hadn't, as all she knew was Mirabelle was pregnant, they went to ancient Egypt, they got a magic plant for Mirabelle, they came back to their own time and place, and Mirabelle was no longer pregnant. Millicent agreed to look.

The hippies hanging out at Vanessa's place (aka Millicent's mom's place) were going to have a candlelight vigil for Dr. King. Millicent joined them.

Mike/Anata was there, and as Millicent figured he was probably the father of Mirabelle's child, she told him she was looking for the child. Anata said that she shouldn't worry, and maybe she was asking the wrong question. Really, what she should do was go out into the desert and open herself up. There was going to be a be-in there. This made sense to Millicent, who was either on drugs or about to take drugs. (Because hallucinogens and Cthulhu Mythos are great separate, and even better together -- oh wait, maybe not...)

Kane, meanwhile, was getting to meet a lot of powerful people, including Henry Kissenger. And he was invited to some kind of initiation. Oddly, he was somewhat nervous about it; his Drive, formerly Folly, is now Fear of Inadequacy. He decided to ask Millicent for advice and learned she'd gone to the candlelight vigil.

He found Millicent high and riding the carousel, and asked her for advice on joining a cult.

Millicent: Define cult.

Like, was this something like a college hazing sort of thing or something like, oh, forbidden lore? Whatever Kane said indicated the latter.

I think her advice boiled down to:

1. Don't.

2. Seriously, why?

3. Make sure you have a clear exit.

Kane: Oh, good idea! I'll get someone to sew explosives in the lining of my robe.

Millicent: Uh... sure...?

She asked why he wanted to join a cult rather than start one, and could practically see the dollar signs in his eyes as he thought about this. (Yes, she was high, but I think even folks who weren't could see the dollar signs. Kane's pretty straightforward about who he is and what he wants.) Kane left to go to his initiation.

Millicent: I have to get this awful taste out of my mouth. Someone kiss me!

There were plenty of hippies happy to oblige her.

Kane's initiation ceremony was attened by several powerful people, including Kissenger. Minerva presided over it. I think it involved Kane explicitly agreeing to submit. It may also have involved sex. It seemed to involve visions or hallucinations. After all, that stuff couldn't have been real, could it?

I believe that the group was taking the position of No Fate, and possibly No Gods as well. And Minerva promised a reward for Kane, and asked him to think about what he wanted. I think he decided that he wanted to be loved.

Some time after the ceremony, he met a strange person in a diner, a man going by the initials C.C. This stood for Crawling Chaos. The Crawling Chaos wanted Kane to report on what Minerva was doing. C.C. assured Kane that C.C. didn't want to stop it. Apparently, Minerva had worked for C.C. before, but was somehow breaking with or betraying C.C. now. And C.C. couldn't act directly against Minerva, but needed a human to serve as a proxy. Kane agreed.

The next day, Millicent finally talked to Beth Queen, having learned she was Betty Auckland, and, in a previous timeline, Jimmy Wright's assistant. And, in an alternate world, a journalist and Millicent's lover. Beth said she still remembered Charlie dying. Millicent was confused, as Beth didn't mean Charlie Fitzgibbons-Cuevas, but rather, the Charlie that Charlie was named for. And Millicent knew that, but had forgotten (because I had), and now felt ashamed.

Millicent explained that she was worried because, well, she'd almost destroyed the world once, and there'd been three people she trusted to keep her from doing that. Jimmy had died years ago (at least, Millicent thinks he's dead, and is probably right), and Geronimo was now dead. Dr. Orange was still alive, but Millicent didn't trust him any more. And she figured she needed to talk to Temperance about making sure someone could keep her from destroying the world, just in case.

Beth let her know that Beth was not at all pointing a loaded shotgun at Millicent behind her desk. Nope, not at all.

Beth: Everyone knows Beth Queen can't hit anything with a gun.

This is, after all, the woman who told Tommy that Millicent was, well, trying to hold everything in, basically force herself into a human-sized container, which, Beth conceeded, was probably for the best.

Millicent found Beth's preparations comforting, but really didn't want to put Beth in that position. The two women started talking about the timeline and what they remembered, and Beth asked about Edgar Job, someone anyone who's played through all of _Eternal Lies (or run it, or both) has reason to remember. Did Millicent know what he was up to in this timeline?

Millicent: ...no. Do you?

Beth: ...No!

Millicent: Oh f*ck.

Beth: Oh f*ck.

So, Millicent decided to research that. She learned that Edgar Job was teaching Math at UCLA. Kane offered her a lift, and the two of them paid Professor Job a visit. He was very surprised, and Millicent made up a story about reviewing his grant request, confusing Kane and definitely making Job uncomfortable as a) Millicent was looking at him very weirdly and b) his time in an asylum was brought up, something he really (understandably) didn't like thinking about. He also referred to his wife, which startled Millicent, as he hadn't been married when she first met him.

Kane took everything in stride, and indicated that the cult thing had gone well. And yes, maybe he should start one, and Millicent could assist -- she shouldn't sell herself short. And sure, if she wanted to go into the desert to do whatever it was she wanted, hey, he could come with her!

Millicent started gathering food and water for a desert trip. And she wondered what she'd done -- sure, she'd almost destroyed the world once, but somehow, accidentally encouraging Kane to start a cult seemed somehow possibly worse.

Tommy's player missed that session, and Kane's player missed the next. By this point in the campaign, Millicent's cousin, Van, made a moving speech, I think about Dr. King? And he's running for office.

Rudy went to work to discover that a woman had been murdered, and the cops had arrested a trucker who had been found unconscious with the murder weapon nearby. The trucker had no memory of killing anyone, nor any motive. He had, however, little memory at all of the night.

Rudy didn't believe the man had done it. The cops started at Rudy in disbelief. The woman was dead. The man was there, method obvious. What was the problem?

And, to be fair to the cops, they hadn't framed the man. They'd genuinely found him as they described. But they and he were being used by party or parties unknown.

For the dead woman was one of the people who had been possessed after taking the drug known as Void. Folks (sans Millicent, as I had missed that session) rescued the possessed people from a hospital, or at least as many as they could, and Beth Queen had found places for them to hide.

But it seemed someone had found them. The dead woman was the third victim who had been one of the possessed people. The police hadn't spotted a pattern, which was unsurprising as a different obvious culprit had been found at each scene.

(After the session:

Kane's Player: So, what did I miss on Saturday?

Charlie's Player: Remember those possessed people? Well some of them won't have that problem ever again.

Kane's Player: We found a cure? That’s great news!

Charlie's Player: If by cure you mean they were murdered under mysterious circumstances, then yes!

Kane's Player: How mysterious?

Charlie's Player: Bodies found with "culprit" next to them. It's always some homeless person who had "blacked out" due to drugs and alcohol.)

Rudy did the best he could to slow down the legal process. But the trucker was still arrested and imprisoned, and the clock was ticking.

Meanwhile, Tommy had been spending his nights in gay bars, drinking alone and, I think, doing work from his job. Nevertheless, he was approached by a drag queen who sat down at his table. This was CeeCee, and if you think that might be another way of saying "Crawling Chaos" which is another way of saying "Nyarlathotep", you'd be correct. N figured maybe Tommy would find a conversation easier that way. The Crawling Chaos is just thoughtful that way.

Nyarlthotep didn't quite threaten Tommy. Maybe. CeeCee did ask about the "gift" Tommy had received, and Tommy made it clear that he didn't want it, not as a gift from Nyarlathotep. Tommy didn't want anything from Nyarlathotep.

Nyarlathotep wanted something from Tommy, however. The Crawling Chaos wanted Tommy to help out Cap'n Tripps. Tommy was willing to do this, but not for Nyarlathotep. Cap'n Tripps was a friend, and Tommy helps his friends.

Cap'n Tripps had already asked Millicent for help, as he needed access to some material at, I think, the Delphi Institute, material that was generally off limits to the public. Millicent agreed to help him look at it, though she did make it clear that he couldn't take it out of the Institute. Cap'n Tripps agreed, took notes, and figured out his next step.

This next step was simply, really. Cap'n Tripps just needed a sample of something. Something that Dr. Orange had, but that had been left behind and misfiled when his offices were cleared out because he'd been assigned to some secret project or other. The FBI probably had that something in one of their facilities.

Tommy and Millicent worked with Tommy to figure out where it might be, then contacted Rudy to help them gain access to it. Sure, Rudy wasn't FBI, but as someone working for the DA, he was able to get permission for them to look through the boxes in the appropriate FBI facility.

It turned out that the reason the box had been misfiled was that someone had misread or mis-written the year on it. Cap'n Tripps got his sample, a somewhat disgusting dried yellow substance stuck to an envelope or file, just a little bit, really, of something called Nectar. This worried Millicent. It also made her feel guilty, as she and Tommy had gotten Rudy to help Cap'n Tripps get it, and this substance was something with which Rudy's mother had been all too familiar with. Millicent decided not to tell Rudy exactly what Cap'n Tripps was looking for or how it fit in to Rudy's family history.

Millicent and Tommy had the conversation they'd postponed some sessions earlier. Tommy told her about Nyarlathotep approaching him. Millicent told him, more or less, about Nyarlathotep's relationship to her.

Millicent also said that Nyarlathotep was kind of like math or gravity, which is why it worried her that the Crawling Chaos was acting like a worried human. As far as Tommy was concerned, Nyarlathotep was no different from any lying authority figure, and I get the impression that he considers "lying authority figure" to be redundant. Millicent said that she didn't think Nyarlathotep lied so much as presented the truth carefully. Tommy said that this was the same as lying.

He reiterated that he'd help Cap'n Tripps in any case. Millicent wondered what Cap'n Tripps would do, and whether he'd break the world, and whether she should have let a certain priestess sacrifice her back in 1937. The priestess genuinely believed it would save the world, and who wouldn't gladly give their life to do that? It was just that Millicent didn't know if the priestess was correct.

Tommy didn't know about everyone wanting to die if it meant saving the world, but said it was all water under the bridge. The world hadn't been destroyed, and it was good that Millicent was still alive. Millicent figured she owed Tommy several drinks for listening to her (basically, anyone who's listened to me go off on several tangents at once for about twenty minutes has some idea of what Tommy was dealing with), but he maintained that she didn't owe him anything. That's what friends do. Or at any rate, that's what Tommy does.

(Me (adding to what happened this session for Kane's player's benefit): Also, Tommy's name is now on Millicent's kill-for-or-die-for list. (Of course, ideally, she'd prefer to get him together with Louis.)

Kane's Player: So like the opposite of Nixon’s Enemies list.

Me: Kinda yeah.

Tommy's Player: Nixon's list didn't use prepositions.

Charlie's Player: ?

Kane's Player: *sends link to definition of "preposition"*

Charlie's Player: I know what a preposition is. I don't understand the context of the comment.

Kane's Player: Nixon had a list called “Enemies List” but Millicent has a “Kill for or die for” list.

Tommy's Player: Nixon's was just a "kill or die".

Charlie's Player: Gotcha. How did I ever pass History class? I never remember any of this stuff...

(Digression about Nixon and Hunter S. Thompson.)

Me: Well, Millicent did go to an expensive boarding school. She learned things! Like prepositions.)

Tommy and Millicent got together with Rudy and Charlie to talk about the possessed people and how to keep them alive and how to keep innocent people from getting framed for their deaths. Charlie also invited some of the "B-Team" over, as she'd been in contact with Mina, wanting to join Mina's organization. Mina's first assignment was for her to befriend and turn Giselle. I'm a little confused about whether Giselle is already sort of working for Mina and Mina wants her more committed or whether Giselle's not working for Mina directly at all.

Regardless, Giselle came, as did Louis, and Charlie and Millicent maneuvered to make sure that Louis wound up getting either a lift or an escort to the bus stop from Tommy.

Meanwhile, back at Rudy's place, Charlie and Millicent speculated over whether the two men had kissed yet, and concluded, correctly, that they hadn't.

Rudy talked with Charlie about his job and how tired he was of it. He wanted to make a difference, but he was just part of the system. Perhaps he should run for office. Not for something as big as governor or mayor, but maybe city council. And not as a Republican -- and certainly not as a Democrat! No, as an Independent.

GM: Now, this may seem absurd, but even running for a position on the city council, you _will be asked what your position on the war in Vietnam is.

Charlie and Suze pointed that out in character, and Rudy decided to think about that.

Everyone was present for the next session. Millicent sent a letter to Temperance (half-sister of Rudy and Charlie, works for Mina), and I gave that to Charlie's player, who played Temperance in a previous campaign. I don't have the original, but my draft reads:

Dear Temperance,

I know we aren't friends. You don't like me, and I'm not sure I like you, and that's also fine. We both want the world to survive. That's the important thing, and maybe it makes us allies, at least some of the time.

I know you're devout, and I won't pretend I am. I don't believe in your god, and on top of that, I tend to take His name in vain. And I don't have faith in my -- let's just say my parent who isn't Vanessa.

I found out that I'm doing something this parent wants, and I think I'm trusting that this won't destroy the world. That means I do have faith, I suppose. I'm not sure that's a good thing. A man told me I don't have to be a gun, that I can be a flower. I want to believe that, Temperance, I really do. But I was made to be a gun. I think I was. I don't know.

What I put my faith in was that there were some good people who would do what needed to be done if my actions threatened the world. It sounds so melodramatic, doesn't it? But you know that's a possibility.

Anyway, the people I put my faith in, most are gone. So I'm trying to make sure there are enough people I can trust. I meant what I said about Vanessa; I will end anyone who hurts her. When I start wondering why I care about the world, she's in it. And then I stop wondering.

I don't trust my god. I don't have faith in yours. But I have faith in you.

--Millicent Lowell

I think the finished letter was shorter and better, but the jist was the same, and the player liked it.

Meanwhile, Tommy talked to Rudy, and to my amusement, had a similar "can you put me down?" conversation with Rudy. Between the Crawling Chaos's threats and the warning from Beth and Millicent, Tommy was coming to the conclusion that he was going to be doing business with Nyarlathotep, whether he liked it or not. And he had no idea where that would lead.

What makes this even more amusing is that it's all in the family -- Temperance and Rudy are half-siblings -- and that neither Tommy nor Millicent thought to ask Charlie to help.

Charlie's Player: I don't know if I'm grateful or feel left out...

Folks brought Kane up to date about the murders. Millicent spoke privately to Charlie.

Millicent: We've got a bigger problem. Tommy and Louis aren't.

And Charlie agreed that this was absolutely a problem and maneuvered to get Giselle and Louis into the Delphi Institute's offices to, er, help with paperwork and research and, um, stuff, and made sure that this wound up working out so that Tommy and Louis were alone together.

I think this is the point where the two men actually talked and each discovered the other had missed him, but assumed he didn't want to be contacted. And I think they arranged to resume their morning jogs.

Alarmingly, Kane was the one with good ideas about preventing more murders. He asked Beth about how to find the targets, and she pointed out that she'd deliberately set things up so that _she couldn't find them. Kane himself had found one some weeks earlier, to the poor woman's chagrin and annoyance. How had he done it?

We agreed that looking at things like receipts for car services and renting out building and similar things might well leave a paper trail -- _if one knew what to look for. Kane found the woman because he did know exactly what to look for.

But, he suggested that folks work under the assumption that anything written down was compromised. All right. Why not use that? Set a trap for the assassins! Write something down that someone who knew what they were looking for would interpret to mean that a woman who'd been possessed was being moved to, say, one of Kane's properties, say a pawnshop in Los Angeles, something on Skid Row.

He also had some advice for Rudy, who wanted to pick his brains about running for office. Rudy definitely needed a campaign manager. And he'd decided his position on the war. He was against it on isolationist grounds.

And, oddly, Rudy was approached after work, or possibly after he came in to his office at night to make some photocopies. This was Henry Pollata, who'd heard that Rudy was looking for a campaign manager. He knew the position didn't pay much. Rudy agreed, but emphasized that it did pay, in money. And Rudy now has a campaign manager.

As for Kane, he met Minerva at a ball game, and she gave him the power to make people love him. Or at least any given person. It did cost, and she warned him that she'd already set up something similar on him in case he tried to do it to her.

(Mechanically, if I understand the GM, this works not dissimilarly from mythos magic in _Trail of Cthulhu or vampiric hypnotism in _Night's Black Agents. It's a contest involving Stability, which means that most NPCs will lose. I think it gives someone the Drive to do what Kane wants? We'll find out when he tries to use it!)

Meanwhile, the trap was laid for the assassins. Millicent sat in the front room, reading. I think I decided she'd finished _Dune and was maybe reading _Childhood's End. Charlie and Tommy were in the back room, which the assassins should believe only held one person, a woman who'd been possessed. Louis was on the roof with a sniper rifle, and I think Rudy was with him. Or perhaps Rudy was on the street. Kane was far, far away from the action, enjoying a meal and an alibi.

Most of the people on the street were moving strangely, with I think one exception. The exception, a homeless man, I think told Rudy what he did to escape the effect? Or maybe just bummed a cigarette? I don't recall.

Three people suddenly materialized, I think. They were wearing silver jumpsuits. No one saw them at first, but Millicent felt something change and had a Scientific Device she'd borrowed from Dr. Schattengrau of the B Team, something that maybe detected tachyons. And with some difficulty (and, I think, a Cthulhu Mythos spend or a Magic roll), she was able to see the strangers, see everyone else was somehow frozen, and hear their thoughts as they communicated telepathically with each other. They set up some kind of device on a tripod outside the store, and one of them kept counting down the seconds from 500.

Whatever Rudy learned from the homeless man, I think he was able to see the tripod and the device on it, and perhaps knock it to the ground. And suddenly, everyone could move as normal. Charlie either shot or tackled the person shooting at Millicent. Certainly, one of the three got shot. The other two managed to vanish, presumably returning to the future, or at least, their future.

The wounded woman thought at Millicent, who was stabilizing her so she wouldn't die.

Woman: You have no idea what you've just unleashed.

Millicent: Who's coming?

The woman asked who Millicent thought came when weird time shenannigans happened. (Okay, not in those words.) Millicent told Tommy and Charlie to run, and the two left out the back, while Millicent helped the wounded woman out the front.

Millicent pretended to be frozen, and then to be an ordinary human somehow immune to the effect who didn't know what was going on. This startled the interlopers, and they attempted to talk to her in words. But eventually they lost their patience. They were, after all, on a very tight time table. So, one of them fired a futuristic looking weapon at Millicent, who managed to avoid being hit.

Rudy picked up the fallen device that had been on the tripod. Millicent may have yelled at him to drop it, but if so, she was too late. A Hound of Tindalos had already materialized and attacked Rudy. It then turned to the woman and Millicent, and said or thought that while the woman was technically its prey, Millicent was richer meat.

Millicent tried to punch the Hound, banishing it to where or whence it came. At least, that was the idea. She wounded it, but it was still there, and not happy. (And I finally used the Hold Millicent got from the session where she exchanged brain fluid with Mirabelle.)

I think Charlie came to her brother's rescue and managed to keep the Hound from him. Eventually, the Hound left, but it will probably be back. Tommy ran to check on Louis, who was not in good shape. NPCs have way less stability than PCs. But Tommy was able to do some emergency psychological triage on him. (I.e., Tommy had the skill Shrink, aka the equivalent of mental first aid.)

Folks brought the woman to the Delphi Institute, and called Beth. Beth was not pleased to have to deal with the mess, but she operated on the woman and contacted Kane as the Responsible Adult of the group. I have to admit he was acting like it this session, which is kind of spooky because it's the same session where he got the magical ability from Miranda. And he _says he hadn't used it.

As for the woman, she wasn't impressed by Millicent's claim to be a sorceress whose main achievement was not destroying the world. She blanched at the term "Banshee", but mostly just gave her name and/or rank and/or serial number.

By the following session, she'd learned English from watching television. Or at least, she'd learned to use English phrases from advertisements. Previously, she'd been communicating telepathically, in Aklo. Also, it had been about 48 hours since she'd been shot and patched up, and the woman hadn't slept nor seemed to need sleep.

Folks were able to figure out that

• Even when she used a phrase more or less reasonably, she didn't necessarily know all of the implications. Fr'ex, she used the jingle from McDonald's, but was very surprised at what constituted McDonald's food. She also had no idea what to do with a ketchup pack and needed to be shown that she was supposed to open it and put it on the french fries rather than attempt to eat the sealed pack.

• Her timeline was at war with the timeline Banshee came from. Only one of these two timelines could prevail.

• Her people would be willing to exchange her, but there was a small window of time for this. ("For a limited time only! Terms and conditions may apply.")

• She could contact them via phone.

Eventually, folks agreed to let her make a call, and Millicent took her to a pay phone some distance from the Delphi Institute. The woman dialed and I think just gave her designation, then hung up. It was clear that some time might pass before her people responded.

Rudy and Kane talked about Rudy's campaign. Millicent wanted to go to the desert, to the Be-In, to take drugs and try to figure things out. Tommy decided to go with her, as he wanted to talk to her parent, and thought it might help if Millicent were there at the time. And perhaps they should bring the woman along too, as they really didn't her people showing up at the Delphi Institute.

GM: Tommy and Millicent and -- The Woman of THE FUTURE!

One of the things Tommy wanted to bargain for was Nyarlathotep leaving Louis alone, which he explained to Louis. Louis didn't want to meet the Crawling Chaos, nor did Tommy want Louis to meet CC, but both thought Louis coming to the desert with Tommy was a fine idea. And Cap'n Tripps wanted to come along as well.

Millicent: Will my car hold everyone?

GM: You could always borrow Vanessa's.

Millicent (counting people and gauging how much food and water folks will need): I'll.. borrow Vanessa's car.

So, Millicent, Tommy, Louis, Cap'n Tripps, and The Woman of The Future drove to the desert where the hippies were having their Be-In.

Meanwhile, Rudy, Charlie, and Kane had left the Delphi Institute for some reason, and Kane called Beth or vice versa. Beth wanted to know why the landscaping van had shown up. Wasn't it a bit early in the month for that? Kane said that he hadn't sent it. Then, the line went dead.

The trio approached the Institute carefully, and Kane spotted the van. It was definitely not a van from the landscaping service Kane used. And someone had clearly cut the phone wires.

They went inside and quickly got into a tense standoff. The people from the van had Beth. They wanted the Woman from the Future. Well, from her future, anyway. Well, wanted her dead, anyway. They were fine if the others killed her.

The trio lied and said that yes, they had the woman, and yes, they'd trade her for Beth, but they had to make arrangements, and that might take a bit of time. Well, I suppose, technically, no single piece of that was an outright falsehood. Charlie called Suze and pretended to make the arrangments.

Charlie: Bring the girl!

Suze: I thought we were exclusive. Has that changed?

I'm not entirely sure what Charlie answered.

In the desert, Cap'n Tripps wandered off, as did the Woman of the Future and Louis. Millicent and Tommy found Anata. He offered Millicent drugs. Millicent took them at once, not even asking what they were. After all, she could tell that there was absolutely no malice in Anata.

From Tommy's point of view, Millicent was obviously tripping. Anata wandered off.

And then, Anata came back, and clearly wasn't precisely himself. Tommy recognized that he was now Nyarlathotep. This was annoying because Tommy had explicitly wanted Millicent helping him with this conversation. (See, this is why you shouldn't get in the habit of taking hallucinogens just because someone offers them to you. Sure, there are other reaons as well, but if you know you're supposed to help someone with a thing, and you take a hallucinogen, well, don't be surprised if you're no longer able to help them.)

Nyarlathotep referred to Millicent as "the failure over there", though did condescend to add that it wasn't her fault. After all, other people had taken it upon themselves to remove her brain and put it in another body.

Tommy noted that his own father was no great shakes as a father. But the man had been supportive when Tommy had gotten arrested and Tommy thought his father might even have been proud of him for that. But Nyarlathotep was a far worse father.

Nyarlathotep was fine with Tommy hating him. In fact, the Crawling Chaos said, relationships with people who hated Nyarlathotep tended to be the best. Tommy agreed that he hated Nyarlathotep, but also agreed that he probably couldn't avoid working to do things Nyarlathotep wanted.

And he'd do things on a case by case basis. And he'd say what he wanted that way as well. For right now? Louis was off the table. Nyarlathotep was not to mess with him or threaten him. The Crawling Chaos agreed. I think there may have been a couple of other things, but I forget what they were. And I think Nyarlathotep wanted Tommy to do something, but again, I forget precisely what. And then, Anata/Nyarlathotep wandered off.

As for Millicent, she was trying to get a look at the big picture.

GM: You see God.

Well, specifically, she saw one of the deities of the mythos.

"God": I rend all veils. You must come to us. You will LEARN.

Millicent: Uncle Daoloth?

And she woke to learn that Nyarlathotep had been and gone. She was not pleased.

Millicent: That's _petty! Dad, you're _math! Math's not supposed to be petty!

Meanwhile, back at the Delphi Institute, the sun was setting. And two giant beetles materialized and dispatched the human invaders. I think Charlie shot at one, then realized it was sort of an old family friend, specifically, Kakatakak of the Great Race of Yith. Yes, the Great Race spends many centuries in the giant cone bodies, but at some point, they will inhabit the bodies of the giant beetles that will replace humanity.

And Charlie, along with the surviving humans (Rudy, Beth, and Kane) found themselves inside a huge dome with more of the giant beetles crawling on the outside. And we agreed that this was an excellent place to end the session.

3rd Batch of Write Ups