21st Session

Vito's player couldn't make this session. All I expected to do was to wrap the Malta chapter and have folks deal with such loose ends as interested them before the next locale, which, as I fully expected, we did not get to.

Joyce: You know we're burned.

Lillian: No, Gloria Vanderbilt [and the other fake identities] are burned.

Joyce: There's just one little problem. Marty used -his- real name.

Still, Lillian decided to deal with the loose ends in the hospital.

Lillian: I'm just trying to figure out how to hide the body. Oh -- there's a crematorium in the hospital, right?

Joyce: You could just hide them in the morgue.

Martin: Or a hospital bed.

Lillian disguised herself as a nurse, rolling a 1, spending 2, and getting a bonus point for appropriate clothing. I figured that would work on everyone except Alex Kramer, whom she didn't yet know was in the hospital. (Iirc, he had an Alertnesd modifier, if I'm remembering correctly which one that is.)

Lillian looked for Joyce's contact, Dr. Pierre Baldwin, who'd previously gotten her into the hospital. I figured he'd started asking some questions after she left, and that irked Dr. Solazzio.

So, Lillian found him making out with a nurse in a not very well secluded spot. She managed to hustle the two into a more private area, promising to leave them alone once she'd ascertained what was going on.

Nurse: You don't have to leave us alone.

Lillian realized that this was no normal hospital affair. She confirmed that the nurse had had "orange juice", aka Nectar. Dr. Baldwin had no memory of having any, but Lillian learned that the nurse had slipped some into his latest meal. She'd been told to do so by Dr. Solazzio.

Lillian realized that Dr. Baldwin was married. She separated the two, locking the nurse in a closet, either unconscious or bound and gagged, and handcuffed Dr. Baldwin until the Nectar wore off enough for him to understand that he'd been drugged.

She told him to get the two adult patients in the Donovan wing to safety. Then, she went to Alexi's room, where Dr. Solazzio was chanting over the drugged orphan. She rendered him unconscious quickly, I think with the garotte. Then, she tied him to a bed, I think after confirming that Alexi was unconscious.

As Dr. Solazzio didn't see his assailant, Lillian pretended to be a new nurse cultist. She pumped the doctor for information, saying she couldn't untie him just yet for some reason that some spend or other made plausible to him.

He told her what he knew. He was experimenting on patients to see how little Nectar could be used to drug someone and what effects it had on varous illnesses. And, as he noted, it was an actual aphrodisiac, something a lot of folks would pay well for.

He was trying to cure Monte, Jr., and he had no idea that the boy's father had intended to sacrifice the boy, nor did he realize that Montgomery Donovan was dead until Lillian told him, I think. He also didn't realize that the spell he used was no healing spell. Essentially, it invoked the Liar, who could then, if it chose, make its target ill.

Lillian: Thank you, doctor. That's everything I need to know.

She then told him what a rotten piece of sh*t he was. She killed him, making it look as if he'd committed suicide, hanging himself with his tie, the idea being to cover up the garotte wounds.

Meanwhile, Joyce checked out Donovan's yacht, finding nothing of interest. She and Martin went to the hangar where Joyce's plane, the Wayfaring Stranger, was. Donovan's bodyguards had figured out that's where the plane that brought the people who caused so much trouble was, but apparently, the only thing passing as an airport in Malta in 1937 was an RAF base, at least if I understand Joyce's player correctly.

As I didn't have any particular planned antagonist reaction, I was fine with "Colonel Hivers" bringing Martin into the airbase while the bodyguards, lacking legitimate reason to be there or evidence of wrongdoing by Joyce / Josh / Jacques or Martin / Gabriel, were kept outside.

Having dealt with Dr. Solazzio and gotten Dr. Bowers to help the adult patients, and, at least for the moment, ascertained Alexi's safety, Lillian made her way to Monte, Jr.'s room. THe door was closed, and when she opened it, she saw Alex Kramer, aka Beetle Tattoo Guy, pointing a pistol at her.

I think what happened was that, given he had the gun in hand, he used Firearms (not his strong suit -- that's Scuffling), and missed her, which I ruled meant that he couldn't get off a clear shot without endangering Monte, Jr. I think Lillian landed a couple of blows on him, doing either minimal damage or doing a lot of damage that didn't seem to phase him in the least. I'd originally capped Health at 15, I think, but when I saw how high Kramer's Health was, I raised that cap, as he isn't superhuman. (I don't think everyone wants as high a Health for the PC as he has, but one or two might, and in those cases, it does make sense.) And Lillian's player remembers that Kramer eventually did use Scuffling, landing a blow.

At this point, Lillian noticed two things. The first was that she wasn't sure that she could win this fight. The second was that Kramer was not willing to endanger Monte, Jr. She decided to parlay, saying that she'd take the kid and Kramer would get to walk away with his life. Kramer was not particularly afraid for his life; he was in the hospital to protect Monte, Jr. from people like, oh, Lillian. Given that Lillian made it clear she didn't want to hurt the kid, just get him away from everyone, and that she already knew about Dr. Solazzio's Special Orange Juice treatments, he was just as happy letting her look after the kid.

I figured that Kramer was probably the one Anti-Investigator not addicted to Nectar, since he would have been a much sloppier fighter if he had been. But, even given that the rest of his group was addicted, it wasn't as if hanging on to Monte, Jr. would help them in any way. Montgomery Donovan, Sr. was dead, and the Mouth of Malta had been destroyed.

He did not, however, agree to disarm. Reluctantly, Lillian accepted that, but told him he'd better hope they never met again. While it's not exactly on his to do list, he was not especially impressed. Joyce's player quoted a line from some movie as what she figured Lillian ought to have said, but as I've not seen the movie, I've no idea what the line is. (I think it was something about a sheriff escorting someone out of town and telling him that if he came back, the sheriff would have to shoot him while he was trying to escape, or something like that.)

Lillian took Alexi and Monte, Jr. to Sir Godfrey.

Lillian rejoined the others, probably somewhat bruised by her

Lillian (indicating unconscious Alexi): Here's your next knight.

She figured that Sir Godfrey could train Alexi, who'd doubtless be fine once he recovered from the unnecessary treatments from the hospital. I figure that Sir Godfrey soon learned which orphanage Alexi came from and likely formally adopted the boy.

Lillian also hoped that Sir Godfrey could monitor Monte, Jr.'s condition, doing whatever he felt necessary. Sir Godfrey is, after all, mythos aware, and someone needs to keep an eye on Monte. As of when she last heard, Alexi's doing better, but Monte, Jr. is much the same.

Lillian now rejoined her companions, probably somewhat bruised by her encounter with Alex Kramer.

Martin: I'm glad I got beaten up by the -Italians-!

Joyce: You don't hear -that- every day!

It's a particularly odd thing to hear from Martin, since, as I recall, Martin did not, in fact, get beaten up by the Italians. Heck, I'm not sure he got beaten up at all, by anyone.

Lillian explained about Dr. Solazzio's accident and what she hoped for from Sir Godfrey.

Joyce: Wait -- are you giving him -- a young ward?

I see from Wikipedia that, in our world, Batman's first appearance was not until 1939. But, given other minor changes in the world of Eternal Lies, perhaps it started earlier. Certainly, that would explain this:

Joyce (to Batman tune): muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh Maltaaaaaaaa!

Martin had tried to call Johns Hopkins to speak to Jeremiah or to Cecil, but kept either mistiming things, getting the wrong person in, or saying the wrong thing. For example, asking for "Jeremiah Rhodes" was a non-starter given that none of the staff, apart from Dr. Cecil Walker, knew the real Jeremiah Rhodes. Dr. Keaton and, perhaps, a couple of staff members did know a Mr. Rhodes, as that was the name that Martin had used when he visited Joy Grove, shortly before learning that Jeremiah was a brain in a jar.

Understandably, Martin wanted to get back to Johns Hopkins immediately, so that he could find Jeremiah, whom, the Stranger / Geoffrey Whitcombe had assured him, had already been re-embodied. But, Joyce's first destination was Dakar, Senegal.

Martin: Why are we flying to Senegal?

Joyce: So I can cross the Atlantic.

Martin: Oh.

Joyce: We can take the longer route -- Marseilles to --

Martin: I don't want to take the longer route!

Lillian's player had an overly optimistic idea that they'd be back in the states in a day or two. No? Well, three days, right?

GM: Try a week.

Joyce: It's 14 hours to Senegal. Then a day off -- which we'll need. Then the Port of Natal in Brazil, about a day. Then a day off. Then Trinidad. Then a day off. Then Havannah, Cuba

And, Joyce made it clear, she was going to take at least a full day off to enjoy Havanah.

Martin tried to call Johns Hopkins as Mr. Rhodes, to speak to Dr. Walker. Dr. Walker, apparently, wasn't being allowed t speak privately on the phone at the moment, but Dr. Keaton was very glad that Mr. Rhodes had called. From the two doctors, Martin was able to get some idea of what had happened.

Martin met with the Stranger in Carcosa / Mdina (also known as the Silent City) in the wee hours of Monday, 6 September, and by Monday afternoon, Malta time, the Mouth of Malta had been destroyed, and the warehouse and most of the staff / cultists along with it. But, when Martin called Johns Hopkins on Monday afternoon in Malta, it was Monday morning in Maryland.

And, there was something of a commotion as Dr. Keaton decided once and for all to try to get into the room that Dr. Walker kept to himself, allowing only Edgar Job to see. (Well, later on, he may have let Douglas Henselow in, but Henselow was both confused enough and cautious enough not to draw undue attention from Dr. Keaton.) Dr. Keaton had, of course, written to Mr. Rhodes, but as Mr. Rhodes hadn't contacted him (the letter reached Martin in Ethiopia, and then Martin was rather busy), Dr. Keaton took matters into his own hands and those of the orderlies.

Edgar Job understood that Jeremiah Rhodes was a brain in a jar, and that Dr. Keaton's "Mr. Rhodes" was Martin Locksley. He understood that he now worked for Martin Locksley, and that Martin and Jeremiah were lovers. And, he understood that this was not something that one wanted to explain to someone like Dr. Keaton, ever. So, he blocked the orderlies' way until the door opened from the inside, surprising everyone, especially Edgar Job and Dr. Walker, who arrived about then.

It seemed, explained Dr. Keaton, that Dr. Walker had taken in a homeless vagabond, a Mr. Tom Jones. (I was thinking of the Fielding novel. Joyce's player thought of a different reference, one that went right over my head, I fear.) Mr. Jones had been part of a traveling circus, but had gotten separated from it, and, ah, wound up in a ditch where Dr. Walker found him. A philanthropic gesture, to be sure, but not exactly professional of Dr. Walker, who, no doubt, really needed a long vacation after his unfortunate experience of having been kidnapped. And, for whatever reason, Dr. Walker took Edgar Job into his confidence, and Mr. Job got confused and apparently thought he was protecting either the vagabond, or Dr. Walker, or both, and of course, this did nothing good for Mr. Job's equilibrium. The orderlies had to drag him away from the door, as he was quite agitated.

Martin (after hanging up): Can we just fire Dr. Keaton? Why are we not firing him?

Lillian: Cause.

Joyce: There's plenty. We just have to show it.

Martin noted he could prove the embezzling and demonstrate cause. Of course, there'd been an implied promise not to.

Joyce: You know what happens if you show he was cooking the books? They send Edgar and Douglas back to prison.

GM: Well, Edgar -- I don't think they have anything on Douglas.

Joyce: Oh, well, in that case, I don't care.

(It's an interesting question, actually. Both men did commit murder on that fateful night in August, 1924. But, while Douglas witnessed Edgar stabbing the man who shot Ramon Echevarria, and while Edgar was wanted on two counts of armed robbery in addition to that, I'm not sure Edgar saw Douglas kill anyone. Then again, when Dr. Keaton used confrontational therapy, Edgar attacked Douglas saying that Douglas had tried to kill him, but he was still alive. So, anyone's guess, really. That said, Edgar's got an obvious self-defense plea, as he had good reason to fear for his life, which Douglas had trespassed and started firebombing and shooting people. Of course, Dr. Keaton doesn't believe most of their story, considering it a folie-de-deux, even though he knows that the two men had some kind of shared experience, and the State of California would just as soon not have to deal with any of this, various different levels of law enforcement having batted the 1924 murder case back and forth, no office wanting to have to deal with it. So... anyone's guess how things would shake down.)

Regardless, Lillian took matters into her own hands and, after calling Cecil at home to talk to him, she arranged for a woman who was a Quaker and a social worker to look into "Mr. Jones"'s case, and make sure that he was well treated and didn't wind up institutionalized himself. While folks were in Brazil, Martin was finally able to reach Jeremiah via phone. This calmed him down a lot.

Meanwhile, Lillian had received a letter from Samson Trammel's lawyer, Domenick Bowers, Esq. He wanted to talk to her about his client and someone known to Lillian who could perhaps help said client. Lillian called the lawyer, possibly using an assumed name, but if so, I think she quickly dropped the pretense. Both found the conversation a bit challenging, as they agreed that it would be unwise to speak too freely on the phone, but Lillian wasn't in California, and might not be for quite some time.

Eventually, Lillian understood that Mr. Bowers was thinking that the best thing he might be able to do for his client might be to get him committed to an institution. He and Lillian both, I think, agreed that the clinic she started for Nectar addicts probably was not the right place for Samson Trammel. He thought that perhaps Johns Hopkins, under the care of Dr. Walker, might be. After all, Dr. Walker had studied Nectar, and was currently working with another man, Edgar Job, who had fallen victim to its lure.

Lillian was delighted at the idea of committing Samson Trammel, but didn't like the idea of Cecil dealing with him -- or, more importantly, with Nyarlathotep. She tried to convince Mr. Bowers to ask Dr. Keaton instead, but, as she realized, she pushed hard enough to pique Mr. Bowers's suspicions.

If I recall correctly, Joyce's take on the idea of getting Samson Trammel committed to Johns Hopkins was, "It's good, but risky. But good. But risky."

I forget the context of this:

Martin: I think dying of hook would be ultimately more painful.

Possibly he was thinking about being shot by Joyce vs killed by Vito's new hook, which Vito got after having half his arm amputated.

Lillian (reviewing Malta): We annihilated everyone we needed to -- not everyone we wanted to. Solid B-.

Joyce's Player (I forget whether she was speaking as Joyce or as a temporary NPC who considered him- or herself broadminded): Equal rights for people of color -- and women, too.

Eventually, they arrived in Havanah.

Joyce: Order me up something to drink for breakfast.

Martin decided he needed to talk to Joyce.

Martin: How do you do it?

Joyce: Do what?

Martin: All of this.

Specifically, he wanted to know how she could do the terrible things that people who fight the mythos do. Joyce was a bit evasive, or perhaps merely a bit drunk.

Martin: Stop dodging the question.

Joyce tried to explain a few things to Martin.

Joyce: If you're going to go around killing people, you need to get a concept of why you're doing this.

Martin: Er, murder?

Joyce had been doing a bit of soul searching lately.

Joyce: I do this thing because my other choice is me blowing my brains out.

She explained to Martin that she had looked down the barrel of her gun at a friend more than one -- and had fired that gun.

Joyce: You think I wouldn't do that to you or Lillian?

Martin: Frankly, I wondered why you hadn't done it to me yet.

Joyce: Well, you didn't put us in any danger until Malta.

Martin: I was going to say.

Joyce: So, now that you've got everything you wanted, why aren't you walking away?

Martin: That's literally the deal I made.

That is, the price for Jeremiah's re-embodiment was that Martin would see the business with the Liar through to the end, until the Liar was destroyed or banished.

Joyce: You expected him to make a square deal?

Martin: There are no square deals that get a dead man back.

Joyce: No one's gonna honor your sacrifice. Look at Lillian. She doesn't think I sacrificed anything.

Martin: I just want to survive this.

The conversation turned back to killing, and specifically, to Martin killing Montgomery Donovan, Sr.

Joyce: Well, how do you feel now, Marty?

Martin: I have no idea why I killed him.

Joyce: -No-body has any idea why you killed him. Why'd you kill him? Why'd you do it? Why'd you want to be a killer?

Martin: I -don't- want to be a killer.

Joyce: I could -teach- you to be a killer. The only way you'll survive is to make a bargain -- I made a bargain. You made a bargain. Lillian made a bargain.

Lillian's Player: Lillian had it made for her.

I think Joyce's bargain was something of a promise to herself, but I'm not sure what that promise was..

Joyce: You know why there's so many [I have no idea how that sentence ended, as I cannot read my handwritten notes on the point].

Martin: No, I never thought about it.

Joyce: Martin, you're a good kid. Okay, no, you're not; you're a terrible human being, but you're -my- human being.

Martin: I just need to survive till it's done.

Joyce: Maybe I should teach you to shoot so you don't shoot each other. Cheer up! We're gonna go visit your boyfriend -- or whatever alien being's in his body -- not that I am saying that an alien being's in his body --

Martin: If you help me get through this -- I'll owe you a lot.

Joyce (handing him a gun, probably a pistol?): Take this apart and put it back together, and maybe I'll teach you to shoot it.

I forget whether the next bit was just between Joyce and Martin or whether it was after Lillian had joined them.

Martin: Dallol is in all ways better than Joy Grove.

Joyce: You know what scares me about Doug? That might be the end point.

I think this was when she told Martin that the first time they'd met, on a train, she'd just escaped from an asylum (I think).

Joyce: That's why my hair was so long.

When Joyce, Lillian, and Martin were together, Joyce decided to make a phone call. She'd learned that Samson Trammel's blackmail material that had important people in Los Angeles so worried --

-- had been in his mansion, which Joyce and Lillian had blown up. Er, I mean, had been in his mansion, which exploded due to a nasty gas leak. So, he couldn't really deliver on threatened blackmail. As for his money, Joyce had terrorized Ramon Echevarria's old accountant, Abraham Buchwald, into working for her, and he had located most, if not all, of Samson Trammel's funds.

Meyer Lansky had told Joyce that if she wanted Samson Trammel dead, she'd have to deal with both his money and his blackmail material. Now that this was done, she called him and told him that she wanted a hit (that he should open an account? Close an account?) on Samson Trammel either six months after the report of Joyce's death or on January 1, 1939.

Lillian explained to Martin and Joyce that this was the proper way to do things. That is, Joyce was totally relaxed, not being ruled by her emotions, calmly making the arrangements for a man's death. That was how it should be done, whether one shoots a man, stabs him, or arranges a hit.

Vito's Player (on reading the summary): You know, Joycee, you don't need to pay for a hit, I'll whack that Trammel f*ck for free!

They went to Johns Hopkins, where Dr. Keaton was relived to see "Mr. Rhodes" come to take everything in hand. Martin reassured him and got away to see the real Mr. Rhodes as soon as he could. He and Lillian also did what they could to make sure that Edgar Job wouldn't be treated too badly for resisting the orderlies.

While Martin and Jeremiah were reunited, Lillian and Cecil had their own reunion. Lillian didn't mention her relationship with Jerome.

Meanwhile, Joyce signed out Douglas Henslowe. He thought she might bring him home, where they could have a meal with his mother. Joyce got Douglas settled in the car and drove in the opposite direction from his mother's house. She took him to the beach and to a nightclub where she told some of the women that he was a famous Hollywood producer (I think), and generally made sure he had a grand old wild time. Er, I mean, a nice, calm, sedate weekend, yes. He was looking and feeling a lot better when they returned to Johns Hopkins.

Folks now turned to the matters at hand. First, after they updated Janet Winston-Rogers, which was done offstage, they would be traveling to the Yucatan. Martin explained to them what the Stranger had told him.

According to the Stranger, according to the King in Yellow, the only beings who knew the true identity of the Liar and were allowed to reveal it were those beings whose identity the Liar had hidden behind. Nylarthotep was one of these entities, but had declined to reveal the Liar's identity. But, Golxumal, who might well be Gol-Goroth, who was probably not the Liar, would, according to the King in Yellow, according to the Stranger, reveal the identity of the Liar.

Joyce was not happy to hear this, realizing that this meant that to learn who the Liar was, someone would have to confront Gol-Goroth face to whatever it was the Outer God had that passed for a face. Lillian argued that she should be the one talking to Gol-Goroth, and as folks argued over who got to jump on that grenade, I intervened.

GM: Okay, guys? Out of character? Should folks survive that far, -everyone- gets to talk to Golxumal. In character -- carry on!

There are things I really, really don't want people getting sidetracked by, as that takes the game into pointless dead ends. This is definitely my bias showing. I know that I get very annoyed if I realize that a GM has let me spend lots of time planning for something only to discover that what I was planning for was completely irrelevant. Sure, in character, I'm fine with my PC trying to figure out how to jump on the grenade, but if that's not actually doable, please tell me so that only the PC is non-plussed.

In any case, once folks had the name of the Liar, they figured they'd find this Devouring Mountain in the Yucatan.

At this point, I realized why none of the players had tried googling the other name they knew the Devouring Mountain by. It wasn't that they were trying to separate character and player knowledge. It was because they'd become convinced that this mountain had to be in the Yucatan. As near as I can tell, the chain of reasoning went like this:

Jonathan Brooks sent his men on an expedition to the Yucatan to Chichen Xoxul. He's the source of the original mention of the Devouring Mountain, and of the name it's known by by those who aren't worshippers of the Liar / The Fisher from Outside / the Thing with a Thousand Mouths, Mount Kailash. Therefore, Mount Kailash is clearly somewhere near Chichen Xoxul, or at least in the same landmass that includes Mexico and South and Central America.

I had pointed out at least once to at least one player that she was making an assumption about the Mount Kailash that wasn't necessarily valid. I now pointed out that folks were still making an assumption, that they hadn't checked their facts, and, most important, that they had a name other than "the Devouring Mountain". Martin was willing to go to a library, but Joyce decided that it would be easier to call up Vito's old comrade in arms, Remy Piper.

Remy agreed to research the location of Mount Kailash. A day or two later, he called Joyce back to tell her what he had learned.

Joyce: Son of a-- It isn't in the Yucatan at -all-. Well, Vito will be happy.

For, Mount Kailash was in Thibet, where Vito kept claiming he'd been to in the late 1920s. Actually, he was confusing his geography (or his player was), for he'd been to Nepal. But, Nepal borders on Thibet, iirc.

Joyce: Does this not add our chartreuse prince back to the list of suspect?

GM: Chartreuse is green.

Joyce's Player: Yellow-green.

Joyce: The good news is I can get it there. The bad news is I can't get it -up- there.

(On further research, there actually are 1937 planes capable of going higher than the 14*k ceiling the book gives for commercial planes, but the player noted that this still didn't allow for landing on the mountain. What can go that high? Possibly something she can borrow from Howard Hughes. Also, the Submarine Spitfire Service has a ceiling of up to 36k feet. In 1937, it is Britain's best in-development aircraft, not something any of the PCs in this run can simply borrow or buy. But, they exist.)

Lillian and Martin talked privately, Lillian suggesting Kali guided Martin's hand in killing Donovan.

Martin: It was a mistake, totally the wrong move. I don't think my hand was being guided by anyone.

Lillian asked Joyce about using the group's contacts.

Lillian: Can we get Luc and Alex on Interpol and the FBI's most wanted list?

Joyce: I was going to use that to get our names -off- it.

(The player figured that Inspector Barrington from Masks of Nyarlathotep might conceivably now be in Interpol.)

Lillian: We can't do a swap?

Er, no. But, Martin did send sketches of the men to Remy Piper.

Lillian's player also mused about forcing Martin's ex-(abusive) lover, Samuel Jenner, to become one of her minions.

Martin's player: For heaven's sake, why?

GM: I was going to say.

Lillian's Player: Because she's insane.

Folks wondered if they themselves were now a cult.

Someone: The cult that smashes other cults.

Me: Ala Dexter?

Meanwhile, Martin sent his brother a letter, Joyce sent a very candid and harrowing letter about her past to Douglas Henslowe, and Lillian's aunt received a troubled and troubling letter from Lillian.

• Martin's 1st Letter to Henry Locksley
• Lillian's First Letter to Anne
• Joyce's 3rd Letter to Douglas Henslowe

Anna met Lillian in Miami and revealed some things to her. She confirmed that, yes, she had known Sir Godfrey Welles, and when he fell deeply in love with her, she faked her death.

Beyond that, Lillian's player wanted more angst and a background explaining Lillian's oddness in a way that justified suboptimal decisions. I don't think that was -necessary- as the player's seemed perfectly capable of having Lillian come up with terrible plans and taking suboptimal actions, but there wasn't any reason something odd couldn't have been going on.

I had a few possibilities in mind. Lillian might have been a Nectar addict pre-game, one who knew only the Tongue of Lies, who had amnesia of a time period before the asylum. But, that didn't fit well with what had been established and didn't seem to match what the player wanted.

I considered the idea of Lillian actually being the illegitimate daughter of Ramon Echevarria. There were things I could do with that, despite some timing inconveniences. But, it seemed a little prosaic.

Still, I might have gone with that idea had I not read Caleb Stokes's No Security horror scenarios. "Wives of March" had a creepy, creepoy premise, and I decided that might be right up the player's alley. Judging from the reaction I got, I was correct. I think I blended the premise with some elements of Seanan McGuire's InCryptid series.

Regardless, Lillian no longer considers herself human and is trying to write down new safety procedures for when -- er, if she needs to be put down.