Long time no see my friend. It’s good to have you back. There’s another story waiting for you.
Performing as MC: Pavel
But please beware. Stories can be dangerous. Just take Freeda for instance.
Freeda played by: Terka
Just the other day she was swimming in the reservoir beyond the City. She couldn't get much closer to nature if she tried but even here she can feel the river struggling, scraping against concrete banks of her artificial holding cell. Freeda watched from the water as a drunk teenager carelessly threw an empty beer can into the reservoir, laughed at his friends and went for a swim.
And as if invisible fish hooks caught on her skin and lead her to action, she suddenly felt irresistible urge to drown that asshole.
She didn't, in the end. But perhaps that was the reason why she was so quiet when she met the rest of the Crew that night for dinner at Shinobi Sushi in Cryfield.
Eddie played by: Kapik
Rupert played by: Tom
Nathan played by: Pida
But as if the universe itself knew they needed a conversation starter, suddenly a fancy sports car is hurling down the street, sliding from the right lane to the opposite one at first – and then onto the sidewalk. It’s heading right for the Shinobi Sushi, ready to run over any bystanders in its way.
Stopping speeding cars isn't exactly this Crew's expertize, but they do what they can. Eddie gets everybody out the sushi bar, Nathan gets an inattentive jogger out of the way and Freeda rushes to take care of the car.
[Pavel: If you want to bring it safely to a stop, that’s a spectrum of 5. But crashing it takes just a 2.]
[Terka: But what about the driver?]
[Pavel: Exactly.]
[Terka: Shit. But... I don't have the tags for 5...]
It's a split second decision. Freeda slings the car to a lamppost with frozen water from the sewers. It folds like a paper accordion, pieces of glass and metal flying in every direction. Nobody got hurt though - that is except for the driver. When the Crew finally finds the courage to approach the car, they find him with his legs turned into mush – and a huge shard of windshield glass buried in his left eye.
[Tom: Cool visual, but windshields are actually designed not to break like this.]
[Pavel: I know. And your characters know this too. Yet that’s the case.]
[Tom: Oh…]
Freeda stares in horror at what she's done. Finally she collapses right there in the middle of the street, just about ready to break down, but then a strange woman sporting a jean jacket and a mane of blow-dried bleached hair approaches her.
“Hey there, girl…" she adresses her carefully. "You alright? Did it hit you?”
Freeda shakes her head no to both. The woman watches her worriedly, then glances at the wet marks on the street where Freeda had conjured the icy slide.
“Well c’mon up,” she says then. “You’ll get your ass wet like this. Would be a shame to ruin such cute shorts, wouldn't it?”
She introduces herself as Goldie, picks Freeda up and offers her a glass of sake from the bar. The fact that staff is outside watching the accident doesn’t stop her, quite the opposite. She happily serves herself and Freeda without permission. All her conversation attempts fall on deaf ears but she still tries to spark at least a hint of a smile on Freeda’s face.
[Pida: I bet she has an angle. No one’s ever this nice to anybody just for the sake of it, especially not at a crime scene.]
[Kapik: Also no one ever has a name in an RPG without being important...]
[Terka: No doubt. But what’s the best way to find out what it is?]
“Well I better run,” Goldie says – and it might not be an accident that she does so exactly when the cops arrive.
“Hey Goldie?” Freeda stops her. “Where can I find you?”
“Oh. You’d like to find me?” she raises her eyebrows in a satisfied expression
“Perhaps.”
Goldie takes out a lipstick and leaves a phone number on her napkin. “Well maybe you will then.”
[Terka: Old school. I like her.]
The cops arriving at the scene are none other than Archer, Porter & Atherton, so there goes players’ hopes for a proper police procedure. However, one thing Crew managed to learn before their arrival is the ID of the driver: one David Nguyen, apparently a filthy rich businessman from Downtown.
[Kapik: What’s a guy with a car like this doing in Cryfield anyway? If he tried to park it here, there’d be nothing but four bricks and glove compartment left of it before he could say “insurance”.]
[Pida: More importantly, why did he crash it?]
[Tom: He didn’t crash it, Freeda did.]
[Pida: No way. It was already sliding to the side. There’s something more behind this.]
Well, that’s for the Crew to figure out. But you my friend, you deserve to be told a few extra hints right of the gate. After all, this case will be a little convoluted at times.
See, David Nguyen fell prey to a trap sprung by a villain who at this very moment has his eyes on our Crew as well. Almost quite literally that is. As the Crew steps away from the freshly designated crime scene, they notice a shadowy figure taking their pictures from across the street. They don’t know this yet, but this someone is P.I. Holliday, a private detective who’s been hired by our villain to gather info about the Crew – just as he had done with David Nguyen before. He will stalk them through the entire Case, filling their every waking moment with paranoia and…
[Tom: I send my rats to steal his camera.]
[Pavel: Huh?]
[Tom: *rolls 10 on Go Toe to Toe* That’s enough, right?]
Okay, this is not going as MC planned.
Now I don’t want to imagine a scene in which a grown-ass private eye loses his camera to a swarm of rats, but I guess there's no point arguing with the dice. And since Holliday's camera is now in Crew's possession, well... that is going the change the dynamic of their relationship quite a bit.
“Why have you been taking our pictures?” Freeda hisses at Holliday who looks similarly disgruntled.
“It’s my job for god’s sake!” he replies angrily. “I’ve been hired to gather intel about you people…”
“Us four you mean?”
“No… I mean… you people in general.”
It takes just a glance to see that the camera has been modified with truly superior craftsmanship. Holliday might not be a Rift, but this camera apparently enables him to take pictures of them.
“Hired by whom?”
“Don’t know, didn’t ask. I’m a professional. I get double wage for your type, that's all I need to care about.”
[Kapik: Hm. Did we manage to develop the film?]
[Pavel: Yes. You can find your own pictures from the crime scene on it, but also a few more, older ones. And you recognize the rift in them: a brown-haired girl wearing a huge, red, tattered coat.]
[Pida: Scarlett!]
[Tom: Bob!]
You remember Scarlett, right? From Puppet Show and V is For Going Viral? Well, as for the players, it seems everybody’s glad she’s in the game for this one. Though nobody realizes they should probably warn her about the P.I. hired to stalk her.
I mean, seriously, guys, nobody? Not even a text?
Wow.
Well, you're gonna regret that later on.
[Tom: How about we made a deal with Holliday? We give him tips for some other Rifts and in exchange he keeps the info he sends to his mysterious employer about us to a minimum.]
[Kapik: Not bad. But who would we give him? L’Estrange? He’s already angry with us as it is…]
[Terka: I’d happily give him Nightmare if we knew who she was…]
[Pida: Well, how about Victoria Chang?]
Does that name ring a bell my friend? How about Vector? That Nathan’s schoolmate who has been experimented on in Helix Labs and turned half of her university into her loyal zombies in V is For Going Viral? Yeah, well, the Crew has just thrown her to Holliday as a sacrificial lamb.
I mean, from a certain perspective, she was kind of a villain in that story, but still guys. Really not cool.
But this is where the story turns, my friend. I originally thought it will be about our Crew falling in our villain's trap. But since they got to Holliday early on, it seems we're changing gears. It's going to be about them getting somebody else out of it.
Although I doubt they even remotely realize that.
Anyway. Now that the Crew has gotten Holliday of their backs, they can fully focus on David Nguyen’s death. The next morning they head for his apartment to get more clues about him but they run into two surprises: a tough security system and, my oh my, is that Goldie disguised as a janitor roaming the halls?
“Well this is awkward,” Goldie grins at Freeda. “You haven’t called.”
“I have a three days rule,” Freeda responds. “But I might reconsider it when it comes to hustlers. It wasn’t an accident you were at the car crash scene, was it? Just as it’s not an accident you’re here right now. You’re trying to get inside Nguyen’s condo?”
“Just like you are. But unlike you, I actually stand a chance.”
“You don't say. Powers? Let see them then.”
“Might be improper,” Goldie winks.
“I’ll manage."
“Okay.” Goldie leans in closer to her, close enough for her to smell the aroma of her hairspray. “I think your shoe’s are a bit too tight," she whispers as if she was conveying a secret. And before she knows it, Freeda needs to get her rapidly shrinking shoes off. “Could have done that with another clothing item of yours,” Goldie whispers. “Or, you know… The doorknob."
Nobody in the Crew trusts Goldie as far as they could throw her, but they must admit: without her, they don’t have a chance getting inside Nguyen’s condo. So for the time being, they take her on board. It becomes Freeda's responsibility to keep an eye on her.
Searching Nguyen’s place yields three important clues. One, he was one filthy rich bastard. Actually scratch that – he was one filthy rich Rift. And based on the focus of his artifacts collection – especially the shield with Star of David carved into it and an antique-looking slingshot – the Rift of King David. And lastly, based on some pictures found in his desk, he suffered from a very unhealthy obsession with one Ellie Woodworth, a resident of Cryfield and wife to Pauline Woodworth, boss of Woodworth Builders.
Oh right, and then there’s the gigantic spider familiar he kept as a pet.
[Pida: Well this is out of nowhere.]
Yeah. And it won’t be for the last time this case. Apparently, a spider is a part of King David’s legend. Not that any of the players or characters would know that. Just as they don’t know his biggest sin was craving another man’s wife, which would probably help a few things in a great scheme of things, but hey.
They have more pressing issues at hand.
After a vicious fight, Nathan and Freeda combine their powers to boil Nguyen’s pet in steam, but Nathan gets poisoned in the process. It’s a nasty venom but fortunately for him (and unfortunately for others), quality healthcare is only a question of money in the City. He gets treated in the best facility City has to offer: the Pandolorian Clinic in Old Quarter.
Oh, right, Pandolorian Clinics. Don’t worry. We'll get back to those in a pinch.
While Nathan’s being nursed back to shape, Freeda and Goldie take a look at Nguyen’s computer for clues on where to find Ellie and Pauline Woodworth. It's a perfect time for Freeda to ask Goldie all those question she still wants answered.
“What were you really doing at that Shinobi yesterday, Goldie?”
“Are you suspecting me of anything?” she whips her eyelashes. “Oh, wait, you don’t think I had anything to do with Nguyen’s death, do you?”
“It doesn’t help you went to rob his condo day after he died with you on the scene.”
“Hey, I didn’t steal anything in the end! Didn’t find what I was looking for.”
“Well, what were you looking for?”
“I… don’t know. But it wasn’t there.” She shrugs her shoulders apologetically. “It’s not something I know. It’s something I feel. Don’t you know that feeling? Like... That something inside you just takes hold of you, as if...”
"...as if your mind was being dragged around by fishing hooks?” she asks.
“Exactly,” Goldie nods. “I’m an instinct person. I don’t think too hard about things. I just follow the hooks.”
By the way.
That’s a lot of eye contact for a casual conversation.
“Oh hey, that reminds me… You wouldn’t have a place for me to crash at, would you? I kinda had to spend my rent on… well, buying my own life.”
“Wait, what?”
“Eh, I accidently picked-pocketed one of Belenko’s cousins some time ago. His family wasn't so thrilled about it.”
“So much for following hooks on instinct, huh?”
“I guess I have a knack for getting involved with the wrong people,” Goldie winks.
Yeah. Definitely way too much eye contact.
Freeda takes her to Hól: her home if she could claim she has one. It’s a glorified squat at best, but if nothing else, Freeda’s friends can keep an eye on Goldie here. She expects Goldie to scoff at the dirty old matrass that looks like it sheltered a wild animal, but she just clicks her lips joyfully.
“Lovely,” she says. “But don’t you think it might a bit too big for me?” She turns to Freeda while the matrass behind her doubles its size. “On the other hand… Now we can both fit in.”
Freeda can’t help but to smile a bit. Out of instinct she rubs her earlobe. She's wearing her shoes for earings.
“Good try, Goldie,” she whispers. “But just because you’re cute doesn’t mean I trust a single word you say.” She says goodbye with a kiss on her cheek. “Enjoy your king sized bed.”
Next day, thanks to the info found in Nguyen’s laptop the Crew manages to contact Ellie Woodsworth. A short conversation reveals that David Nguyen has been stalking her and making very inappropriate advances at her for last two weeks, to the point where Pauline, Ellie’s wife, threatened his life if he does it again. And now, Nguyen’s dead and Pauline is gone and Ellie’s on the verge of mental breakdown.
However, there’s a clue in it for the Crew: Pauline has been working on reconstruction of the old Lemnos Fairground in the hills beyond the City. It’s one of the last places she might have gone to before her disappearance, so naturally the Crew sets of there.
But on their way they notice a black SUV following suit.
They stop at a gas station standing idly next to the road. The SUV stops there too.
“You think it’s Holliday?” Nathan murmurs, watching the tanned windows of the car, lying in wait in front of the gas station building, ready to go once the Crew does too.
“No,” Eddie shakes his head. “These guys are here for me.”
Oh. Right. Okay, we need to pause for a sec, two things are happening here.
One: MC needs to stop the characters from getting to the funfair just yet because he still hasn’t figured out how to compose the final showdown when today’s villain has virtually no idea about Crew’s existence; not to mention MC still needs to figure out how to factor Scarlett and Vector into all of this.
And two? Well, that’s got to do with those Pandolorian Clinics.
Yeah, we'll need to back up a little bit.
So a few days ago Eddie was approached by one Dr. Matthew Killroy about possible construction of a Pandolorian Clinic – second one in the entire City – in Cryfield. As Killroy put it, his proposal would be to have the corporation cover most of the expenses (according to him, they can afford it) simply because he believes Cryfield is where they can do most good. Eddie was naturally skeptical of such altruistic offer, but Killroy’s honest demeanor convinced him. Plus, Old Quarter's Pandolorian Clinics was a medical marvel. Having one like this in Cryfield would do wonders with public health here, one of the things Eddie promised to improve in his election program.
However, as Killroy explained, due to some heavy pushing from some individuals involved with City politics – the name Edmund Chow came up – allocation of the Clinic will be decided in a selection procedure, for which each applying District needs to prove they can gather full amount of finances needed for its construction. This is supposed to ensure fair competition between the Districts, but when it comes to looking for sponsors, it is a totally different thing for mayor of Downtown (who has Chow’s full financial support) and mayor of Cryfield (who spent most of his budget on fixing the drain in local soccer club’s locker room).
That night Eddie came home with a heavy head.
“Susan,” he asked his wife, a nurse in Cryfield’s General. “What do you think about those… Pandolorian clinics?”
“What do you mean what I think about them?”
“I mean… Do you think Cryfield would benefit from one?”
“Of course it would. But you’re not asking about that, you’re asking me whether I’d forgive you if that fancy clinic cost me my job at our old dingy hospital.”
“And?”
“And please don’t ask me that.”
That night Eddie made a decision. And since then he's been spending all of his Downtime calling old friends and gathering sponsors for the Clinic, keeping in mind Killroy’s promise that if he gets that money, doctor will make sure Cryfield wins the selection procedure.
However, Mr. Chow didn’t like that.
First there was a late night visit. A sleezy guy accompanied by thugs who offered Eddie a significant sum for house renovation as a gift from Edmund Chow himself if he drops that Clinic thing altogether. And even though it was an offer you can’t refuse, Eddie did.
So what did Chow do next?
Well, that brings us back to the gas station. To when MC decided to hit the Crew with a B-plotline so he could gain more preptime for his main villain – and when Rupert decided to ram the SUV into the gas station building.
That fight scene started as a gruesome, action-thriller styled urban shout-out between a group of paramilitary mercenaries and our desperately disadvantaged Crew.
That is until Tom argued that Rupert’s harmonica should work on deer as well as rats, after which he burnt the tag and leveled the playing field (and, quite literally, the mercenaries) with a stampede so brutal it made Mufasa’s death scene look like herding docile sheep in New Zealand.
Half a minute later, Chow’s mercenaries were wither trampled under deer’s hooves or impaled on their horns. And the only one last standing is the Sleezeball who came to Eddie with Chow’s inappropriate offer.
“Put him in the trunk,” Eddie said, wiping someone’s fresh blood of his chin.
“What are we gonna do with him?” Freeda asked worriedly.
“No idea. But we’re not gonna do it here.”
They drove him off into the forests, far away from the roads, close to the river. They tried to interrogate him but ultimately, he didn’t know much. He was only a messenger. God knows what Chow wants that Clinic in Downtown for but this guy doesn’t. What he does know is that the Crew is responsible for a crime scene that everybody in the City will be talking about tomorrow. If he talks, he could make things very, very complicated for them.
And Eddie knew that however scared that Sleezeball was of them, he feared Chow much, much more.
“Get in the car,” he told the rest of the Crew. He then took Sleezeball’s gun, grabbed him by the collar and pushed him in the direction of the river.
“Eddie?!” Rupert shouted. “Eddie, what are you going to do?!”
“GET IN THE CAR!” Eddie shouted again. Faint trails of smoke swirled in his eyes. Nobody had the guts to protest. They all got inside, fists clenched, eyes wide open. Rupert quietly turned the volume knob on the radio all the way to the right.
None of them heard the gunshot.
Only Freeda felt the River cry out in anguish when Sleezeball’s body broke the water surface.
Well shit.
Ater this, Freeda and Nathan head back to the City. The gas station fight left them drained, not mentioning them soliciting to a cold blooded murder. But Rupert and Eddie continue their way to the abandoned Lemnos Fairground. They’ve gone all this way already, they can’t stop now. However, they drive in complete silence. Just the two of them and a gigantic, bloodied elephant in the room on the backseat of their car.
Well, at least MC figured out this story’s ending in the meantime.
Lemnos Fairground welcomed them with mud deep enough to burry one’s ankles in it and clouds of thick mist, bronze with flickering light of those few lamps left here by Woodworth Constructions.
But before they could get through the locked gate, somebody walked from the dakr inside to meet them. A familiar face, however missing her familiar tattered coat. Instead there’s a gaping bloodied wound on her side.
[Tom: Scarlett?!]
[Pavel: And she doesn’t look good. She gives you one absent glance, then collapses into the mud behind the gate.]
...because you idiots didn't warn her about Holliday.
Any and all animosity between Eddie and Rupert is gone in a flash. They get Scarlett in the car and then to the hospital as fast as they can. Turns out she has a huge chunk of meat bitten out of her stomach and has suffered a major blood loss. When they finally get her in the hospital, she’s already in coma.
[Pida: Bullshit, you wouldn’t kill your own playable character!]
[Pavel: I really rather wouldn’t. So don’t make me.]
Well… What’s happened, happened. The Crew is still in the dark as to what has happened to Nguyen, Pauline Woodworth – and now even Scarlett. It’s time to sort this mess out.
The plan is short and simple: Nathan and Freeda will stay in the City and try to salvage whatever information they can about what could be possibly happening at Lemnos Fairground. Eddie on the other hand drops out: if he wants to meet the deadline for Cryfield’s new Pandolorian Clinic, he has to get the sponsors now.
[Kapik: Sorry guys. But Eddie’s just killed a man over this. He can’t let that be for nothing. He needs to see this through.]
And Rupert? He heads straight back to Lemnos Funfair.
[Tom: For Bob.]
[Pavel: So I don’t even have to work for you guys to split up? Neat!]
Let’s start with Nathan and Freeda. First they try to get in touch with Goldie, but she doesn't pick up her phone and nobody in Hól knows where she'd gone.
[Terka: Why am I not surprised…]
Their plan B is simple and wonderfully bold: they pay a visit to their old acquaintance, Declan L’Estrange. And if you remember how their last encounter went, you know they didn’t leave on best of terms. However they to pay for his patience with antiques from Nguyen’s condo and manage to persuade him to do them a favor: let them peak inside Scarlett’s dreams.
“This is not going to be pretty,” he warns them after he touches her cold forehead.
And indeed it isn’t. And if you don’t mind, dear friend, I’d rather spare you of what exactly was going on in Scarlett’s head while she was fighting for survival on that hospital bed. But I can tell you what Nathan and Freeda left her comatose dreams with:
She went to the Fairground to find retribution to what has been done to her.
She was dragged there by the fishing hooks of her Mythos to track the Wolf who’s hurt her so terribly in the past. And that Wolf is exactly what Rupert finds in the Funfair. Just not the kind of wolf he’d expect.
Instead of his tracks in the mud he discovers Scarlett’s coat in one of the abandoned attractions, caught in a webbing that looks real at first glance, but on closer inspection it’s just wire coated in sticky chemicals. And instead of a beast prowling the area, he finds an automatic contraption reminding him of bear traps, still dripping with her blood.
Remember when I talked about traps prepared by our grand villain of this story? This was one of them. And just a few minutes later, Rupert gets caught in his.
He knew it was a bad idea. He was already on his way out of that place. But when a swarm of rats ran past him, showing such blatantly unusual neglect of his existence, he couldn’t help but follow them to see what’s going on.
The fishhooks were buried deep.
His only luck? The trap wasn’t quite finished yet.
[Pavel: You follow the rats through the ruins of a haunted manor until you reach the final chamber. It’s there were all the rats gather in a swirling dance. It’s also where you manage to grab one of them and finally spot what you’ve been missing about those animals: they’re not real. They’re mechanical. Just like the lens of Holliday’s camera, just like the trap laid out for Scarlett, so too are their insides made of fine metal and put together with superior craftsmanship akin to a master blacksmith. But the moment you realize this is also the moment when a hidden valve sprays some sort of aerosol in your face – and all the rats swarm you viciously. It’s going to be a roll for Face Danger.]
[Tom: What’s the status?]
[Pavel: Gnawed-to-the-bone-5]
[Tom: Well, that’s the time for Stop. Holding. Back. if there ever was one.]
By a sheer miracle (and Tom’s roll), Rupert gets out of there alive and - relatively - unscathed. But when he crashes through the wall of the haunted manor and lands in the mud before the entrance, he finds he’s already surrounded. A group of carnies watch him with smirks in their faces, led by a tall woman with an iron jaw and a man dressed in a white unitard, wearing heavy metal shoes and a helmet as if he was about to be shot from a cannon.
[Tom: What the hell…]
[Pavel: I know. Get used to it though, you'll be saying that a lot throughout this finale...]
It’s about then when Freeda and Nathan finally make their way to Lemnos Fairground as well. But as if that place was actually sentient, it works hard to keep them away from Rupert who’s in desperate need of their help. In the maze of flashing attractions that are coming to life just as they’re passing them, Freeda and Nathan first happen onto a harrowing sight: dead body of Pauline Woodworth, peaking from ground where rain washed the mud away. The harrowing part? It’s gigantic. Or actually she is gigantic, actually gigantic, good thirty feet tall.
Giants? King David? Got it yet?
The players don’t. Not all of it anyway. They barely comprehend what the mechanic mannequin resembling Ellie Woodworth is doing at the scene of Pauline’s final rest. They miss her poisoned lipstick - chance for Freeda to realize it actually wasn't her who killed David Nguyen - completely.
But to be fair, David Nguyen is dead anyway and finding out how exactly won’t change that. Rupert’s the one who’s still alive. And he might not be for long if they don’t hurry.
They finally make it to haunted manor where Rupert is about to make a desperate last stand against the Carnies, but just before they can level the odds, Freeda sees a silhouette dashing through the mist to her right, heading for one of the attractions.
It’s Goldie.
[Pida: You go get your chick. I’ll take care of Rupert.]
Freeda catches up to her in an old shed, perhaps a former utility room. Somebody has rebuilt it though: now it’s an empty room safe for three beds – one big, one small and one in between – and a table with three bowls full of porridge. One big, one small and one…
[Terka: Holy shit! It’s Mášenka, from the story with the bears! Wait, isn’t that Goldilocks in English? Damn, that’s so much more obvious!]
Goldie looks at her with glittering eyes. “This is it,” she says and grabs the middle bowl and her face relaxes, as if for the first time since Freeda first laid eyes on her. As if the fishhooks finally let go of her. “This is what I’ve been looking for. I feel it in my bones…”
“Are you sure? Or is it like that time you robbed Belenko junior?” Goldie frowns, but Freeda saw what this place has done to Scarlett. “Don’t eat that!” she shouts, but Goldie is already munching on the porridge. “Goldie, whatever this place is doing to you, you have to resist it!”
“Why should I? And why would you want me to?!” Goldie screams back. “What is your deal, are you jealous?!”
“Je-jealous?!”
“Why don’t you go and find your own answers somewhere around?” Goldie smashes the empty bowl on the ground. “I’m sure there’s plenty of those in this place!”
“I’m not leaving you until you do,” Freeda shakes her head, determined to stay her ground.
“Well too bad, cause that’s not your choice!” Goldie’s eyes are glowing with something foreign now, something spiteful. Something hurt. “Face it girl, I played you! Feel free to crawl back to whatever circus you came from for all I care!"
And that hurt spills out.
“Remember when I told you I don’t trust a single word you say?” Freeda whispers. “It’s still true. This included.”
“Get out of here,” Goldie grunts, “or I’ll make you”.
“Yeah? What you’re gonna do, shrink down my skirt?”
That was the last straw. Goldie’s face freezes in a bitter grimace. “Nah. But your necklace is too tight,” she spits then.
And it truly is. Enough to literally take Freeda's breath away.
For a tense fifteen minutes the players watch silently as Terka is trying to overpower Goldie before the necklace manages to squeeze Freeda's life out of her. But she doesn’t do so with violence. Just words, those few she still has for Goldie before there’s no air left in in Freeda’s lungs.
And with the last of those words – and last roll of the dice – Goldie finally bursts into tears, grabs Freeda’s necklace and tears it in two.
“Wanna know something?” Goldie asks quietly in between sobs, head resignedly laid on Freeda’s chest. “I really can’t handle people who remind of what an asshole I can be.”
Freeda smiles. And rubs her bruised throat.
“Wanna know something else?” Goldie yawns. “I’m actually quite sleepy now…”
And she collapses, there and then, overcome by sedatives from the porridge.
Thank god it wasn’t on one of the beds. It was ready to electrocute her.
Freeda then drags her out of the shed and makes her way back to the haunted manor, just in time to see the fight that’s taking place there. Rupert is being chased around the manor by a literal human cannonball, flying around on his rocket boots and demolishing the building’s walls with his helmet while Rupert is desperately trying to get out of his way. Meantime Nathan is doing his best to keep the iron-jawed woman away from him with his sword: and just as Freeda arrives at the scene, he manages to bury his blade straight into her metal maw.
“YULANDA!” the Human Cannonball shouts, leaves Rupert be and with red in his eyes he goes for Nathan in an all out attack like an artillery shot. He knocks him to the ground – ribs cracking – and steps over him, eyes wide with horror and rage. “You… YOU MONSTER!” he screams at him senselessly. “HOW COULD YOU?! MY OWN SISTER!” And with that he puts his rocket boot right over Nathan’s face…
For Freeda, the worst part is, she knows these guys. Not personally of course. She can actually hardly believe they’re really here. They are the Lemnos Carnies! They’re fables of the Hól performers community, legendary stuntmen and women unmatched by anyone in the last century. Yulanda the Iron Jaw, Mariush the Human Cannonball – they must be near century old, but here they are! Her heroes!
And one of them is about to melt her friend’s face off with his rocket boot.
It’s just like David Nguyen’s car all over again. A split second decision.
And just before Mariush has a chance to finish Nathan off, Freeda’s rope dart bursts from his chest.
“I’d never think,” he coughs out his last words with a portion of blood when he sees Freeda above him, “that it would be one of ours.”
And thank god, that’s when a voice sounds from loudspeakers placed all around the Funfair:
“ENOUGH! STOP THIS AT ONCE! OR I’LL KILL THE GIRL… CARNIES! BRING THOSE… ANOMALIES TO ME. NOW.”
And let me tell you my friend, I understand if you’re confused.
The Crew's confused just as much. None of this makes more than just a pinch of sense, but it’s about to. That voice you've just heard? It belongs to our long awaited villain. And the girl he’s talking about, that’s Victoria Chang. The one they served him on a silver platter without them even realizing what they might have doomed her to, as if she wasn't through enough already. And unlike Scarlett, Victoria didn’t make it out on her own. She stayed imprisoned in her trap.
Because this is what the Crew still doesn’t know as they are led by the rest of the Carnies inside the Carnival’s control room, but they are just about to find out. That the mad genius awaiting them there in his wheelchair, the one who built this entire place, is actually a gone-insane ex-Helix-Lab employee who found his life’s purpose in ridding the world of its defects which he believes Rifts to be. They know nothing about his grandiose plan to make this place into a Rift-killing factory just yet, but fortunately for them, he’s the type of villain who will gladly expose all of it in an evil monolo-
[Tom: I throw acid in his face.]
[Pavel: Huh?]
[Tereza: Yeah, do that.]
[Tom: I mean, he’s clearly insane. And I have literally one tag left, so if nobody objects, I say pass on the doubtfully worthwhile conversation which will inevitably end with us dead and I’ll just burn my Chemicals tag, which in turn should burn his face off.]
[Pavel: Wait, what now?]
[Pida: Sounds good to me.]
[Pavel: Oh my god…]
To be fair… Everybody’s pretty beaten up by now. Another fight to the death might just be too much for them. And isn't it a fitting end to such a confused Case anyway?
One burnt tag later, the mechanist’s face is scorched by Rupert’s last vial of acid; Victoria is saved from her death chair; and the rest of Carnies reluctantly step back. Not that they wouldn't want to avenge the Mechanist who seemed to be… something of a deity for them perhaps? But one of them, an elderly gypsy woman pleads them not to. She’s already lost two children today. She couldn’t handle any more.
I admit, my friend. It hardly feels like the ending we were hoping for, huh?
But don't worry. The story's not over just yet.
Take Rupert for instance, who sneaked into the hospital to bring Scarlett her cloak back. That same night her hand finally moved, grasping its fabric. And the next day, she fully awoke.
Nathan had a lot of explaining to do to his father about the last few days, but as it turned out, Nathna's father might have some explaining to do as well. His next big client? Edmund Chow. He's preparing a project for him and he wants Nathan on board.
And speaking of Chow, well, let's not forget about Eddie. To his own surprise, his plans for Cryfield’s Pandolorian Clinic actually worked out in the end, largely thanks to a mysterious last minute benefactor. It took another few weeks before he met her in person on a fundraising event, right after he passed Edmund Chow himself in the hallway. He exchanged a glance with the man who tried to have him killed, and smirked. To be honest, Eddie was pretty happy with himself back then - right up until the moment when he was introduced to the woman who made sure that Cryfield will get its Pandolorian Clinic.
“Ruslana Belenko,” the tall, boney woman with blonde hair made up in a tight knot said with a smile as she offered him her hand to kiss. “Pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.”
And what about Goldie you ask? How will she use the second chance she was given?
That same question was going through Freeda’s head when she returned to Lemnos Fairground a few days later. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was looking for there – maybe those answers Goldie rushed her to pursue – but whatever it was, she didn’t find it. The Carnies were gone, safe for two graves dug up behind abandoned trailers at the edge of the Fairground. Mechanists contraptions were decaying already, covered in rust and mud. His body was still in the control tower, untouched as if resting in his own personal tomb.
[Terka: I’ll burn it. The whole room and everything in it. He doesn’t deserve to make this place his monument.]
But just before she was ready to flick the match, she noticed one item lying in the flood of blueprints and tools that didn’t fit in the landscape: a plastic pill bottle like the ones that psychotherapists issue to their patients.
She opened it and put one of the pills on her palm. Was it just the light or… was there something wrong about them? Something glittering on their surface?
Is that… glass dust?
And on its label, there was a doctor's name that immediately rang a bell in Freeda's head, but where did she read it, where was it? Mairead Conroy, Mairead Conroy...
Oh. That's right.
On a card in Martha Ellis' dressing room.
[This episode is based on a scenario from an official CIty of Mist book Nights of Payne Town written by Amit Moshe.]
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