You pull off the main road, your tires crunch over loose gravel or maybe broken glass.
Who knows?
This isn't the greatest motel in the world.
There's a sad rusty sign that has half a grin of neon still lit.
The other half is a sickly pink that...
used to probably be a different color.
The parking lot is a battlefield of old defeats.
There's cracked asphalt everywhere.
There are weeds that sprout from those cracks and there are a few cars scattered throughout.
You pull up and park, going straight to your rooms.
What's the plan?
Yeah, I mean, we got the lion's share of a day left and I think we ought to figure out how to orient on that.
Maybe everybody take five, get cleaned up, and then we meet in Ryan's room.
How's that?
Yeah, yeah, sounds good.
I'll meet you there in five.
I just need a second.
I don't need too long.
You each get to your rooms.
It's not a key card, it's an actual key.
You open the door and the air inside of your room is, it's air conditioned at least, but it is also very musty.
Like it's a hotel room that has seen a lot of action in the past.
There's a stale sense of cigarette.
smoke on everything now that it's sunlight and you're able to see the entire room.
The smell is there too, but you would almost prefer the cigarette smell to the cheap air freshener that they're running through these rooms and you get cleaned up.
Agent Barone, your leg is quite wounded.
You have some duct tape and gauze over it right now.
How are you cleaning that up?
Yeah, I think first things first off comes the boots off comes the pants.
I'm just gonna take a quick body shower To be able to look all the way around the room wound and see if it you know is spreading or looks pretty crazy without any material
around it whatsoever and then once I Do that I'll start getting back dressed up again.
Do we I know I had a first-aid kit in the back of our truck, correct?
Yeah, yep.
I have a first aid kit.
Now that we're back at the car, I'm going to back somewhere where I could do it after said shower.
I think first thing is to do my best at first aid on it before I try and cover it back up.
I don't want to be conspicuous with just a wound, you know, bleeding through my pants.
So obviously a clean pair of pants.
you get into the shower and you start washing the filth off of your body or covered in mud.
The bathroom is lit like a morgue.
The light flickers on and off.
There's a pale green to the bathroom with how the tile is colored.
The dripping sound of the sink continuously enters your ear when you stick your head out of the shower, but blood comes off of you, mud, and it's a mix of nasty
Materials going down the drain you get out it's cleaned up where the you found the finger stuck in your leg Still has some blood coming out of it But using your first aid skills,
which I believe is 10 % right?
Okay, 34 With a 34 and some time about a half an hour You're able to actually patch yourself up pretty good.
Go ahead and roll yourself a d4 and get that back in hit points
Okay.
let me roll that.
Okay.
Rolling a D4.
A four.
Okay.
Yes.
There you go.
So you're starting to feel a little better as you're laying down or not laying down, but sitting on your bed maybe or one of the cheap chairs there, you start to feel a little
like queasy and lightheaded.
Can you give me a pow times five roll?
or pow time is 5, so I'm looking for 55.
and I got a 003, so a three.
Yeah, you feel like maybe you're getting a fever or some I don't know, it's hard to say, like your throat's a little sore, but you're able to kind of work through that and push
through that feeling of an onset of some sort of like cold or something.
And you get dressed in some clean clothes.
and are ready to go.
Let's jump over to Agent Ryan.
Agent Ryan, in your room, what are you doing?
Putting all my stuff down and I'm just like kind of sitting on the edge of my bed.
You know when somebody kind of like nervously is like shaking their leg, that's what I'm just doing, sitting there waiting for them to come to my room.
Cool.
So you're just sitting there waiting for them.
You're still filthy.
You're gonna get cleaned up at all.
It doesn't even cross my mind.
Okay.
All right, Dell.
I think it's mostly...
things to be prepared enough if we need to turn on our heels and go back out again.
So it's like cleaning the muck out of a rifle barrel.
is ensuring magazines are topped up.
It is, you know, a cursory, like, clean of the face, with filth still on the fingers so that, like, you have muck streaks that just then re-dry, you know, kind of like uh some
sort of urban cheetah.
Yeah, and then I will go on out to assess the rest of the crew.
Urban Cheetah, I love it.
You get out.
Barone is taking some time in there.
You're in there with Ryan first.
Anything you wanna talk to with Agent Ryan before Barone gets in there?
Yeah, well, I think we probably have enough on our hands that there better be an answer out there somewhere, right?
Like we send these off to a lab, get them expedited, see what resources Butterfield can pull together in the area, but surely one of these has to mean something to somebody.
Yeah, I agree.
think somebody else should probably call him back though.
I don't think he wants to hear from me again.
yeah, don't worry, I wasn't asking.
OK, sounds good.
Yeah, I just I really hope Aron gets here soon.
I just really want to see that finger.
Yeah, hey, um...
Sitting across from you, like it's strange for you to be more disheveled than I am after we've just taken a moment to clean up.
And like your priorities seem a little out of whack.
And I think I am just kind of like watching you fiddle as yourself and trying to get an idea of like how much of yourself you seem a little preoccupied.
I just, I'm having some regrets about leaving the swamp.
just, I don't know, I just, I'm kind of feeling torn in a couple different ways and I don't know how to like shake this feeling that I have about really just wanting to get
closer to these things and document more of it.
I can sure understand the good itch of a mystery, but for the life of me, I can't understand what it is you would do if you got out there, right?
Like those things go back into whatever it was they come out of.
I don't think you're chasing them, do you?
I don't like your odds.
I mean, I don't know.
I mean, think that's the thing is like, it's the unknown.
I want to know where they came out of and what they're doing out there.
Yeah.
Ryan, and I understand that, and I do too, believe me.
I, you know, there's only so many things that could drive a man into this line of work.
And that sure as hell makes my list, but...
think in order for us to make any sort of progress, meaningful progress at all, it might be necessary for us to take some steps laterally in order to make progress forward first.
If you know what I mean.
Like maybe if you take a couple deep breaths, center yourself and reassure yourself that like nobody's running from this swamp.
Like we all see our destiny leading back there.
It's just.
Maybe gonna take a time to get there first.
Think you can work with that?
Yeah, I think so.
I'm trying really hard.
I, I just felt really uneasy, so.
What you got planned to feel uneasy about?
know, I just wanna, I think it's important we check in.
Before you can connect any further, Agent Barone finally makes her way over and you have some materials that I assume you wanted to look through.
Yep, definitely.
So, Barone sluggishly moves through the door, limping a little bit.
hey gents, sorry about that.
It took a little bit longer to clean up than I thought.
There was a gaping hole in my leg from a finger and she pulls out the finger and tosses it onto the bed, wrapped up in one of those rags that she wrapped it up in.
Just like, oh, that's right.
I have a bunch of other things.
And she dumps out her bag onto the bed to create this, you know, spread.
of artifacts that they found, including the brain that's wrapped in a bunch of things.
And toss the tour onto the bed next to the picture.
She's like, well, I think we have a couple things to talk about here.
Yeah, as you toss the finger, I think Del is going to reach for it, probably with enough dexterity to catch it, but rather than with any intent to catch it, is going to try to
intentionally miss but watch Ryan's reaction.
I mean, I'm also trying to go for these things immediately as well, especially the finger, because I haven't had a good look at it.
So when you catch it, I just look at you.
m
No, I'm not catching it.
I want to see how frantically you try to catch it instead of me.
Yeah, that's not a good sign.
I'll let you look at it, but like, I assume the only reason you don't feel me boring into the back of your head is because your attention is all consumed by what's in your
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm also pulling out my camera and like snapping pictures of all the stuff that we found.
Yeah, definitely.
Barone's gonna, gonna side eye Dell and kind of give the look of like, Hey man, like I, I saw that too.
Like what the hell?
Ryan, are you all right?
You're right there.
You, we, we have these things.
These, these are ours now.
They're not going anywhere.
Um, are, are you okay?
You haven't cleaned up literally at all.
I've been gone for a good 30 minutes and she looks at Dell and Dell's
cleaned up and back to normal and she's cleaned up herself and she looks back at Ryan.
Oh yeah, I haven't had a chance yet, but I plan to do that later.
I just haven't seen the finger yet, closely.
So I just really wanted to see the finger.
Yeah, definitely.
I feel free to take a second.
We're all here.
When you're done looking at that, you could at least go wash your face.
uh Del and I can hang out in here and give you a minute.
In a minute, I will.
Yeah, yeah, sure.
What are you looking for on the finger?
I'm just looking at it and I'm taking pictures of it.
Okay, you have all of this stuff laid out on the bed.
The finger's close to you, Ryan, and your snapping pictures.
You've opened the window, so there's sunlight coming in since it's almost afternoon.
It's quite bright, so you're able to a, you're able to get good lighting on all of these items.
and any deeper investigation we'll have to roll for.
Okay, I'm not really deeply investigating it.
I have taken the pictures that I wanted, had a look at it, and I put it back down on the bed.
feel like we had relatively thoroughly examined the brain jar previously, right?
To relatively minimal results.
I guess I'm feeling like my conclusion is that...
We need some other expert to get another layer deeper on this stuff.
Agreed.
Can I have a memory recall on how big is the brain?
Like is it human ish size?
It's a human brain, undoubtedly human, but it is dried up.
So it looks like it's mummified almost, and the brain stem looks like it's stuck to something at the bottom of this cylinder.
Can we investigate the cylinder to see what it might be attached to and if it has any significance?
Yeah, of course.
Do you want to use a forensics kit on it?
Yeah, I think so, yes.
Go ahead and roll your forensics.
Got it at 59 out of 64.
You pull out your kit and are...
First looking at it in a general way and you hit it with a black light.
You can only see the filth on the outside with it.
From the inside nothing comes out.
You even dust it for prints.
looks like there are fresh prints which are probably your prints.
and there are some older partial prints on the steel part of it, but the glass seems completely clean and you stick your finger on it to make a print and then dust it and it's
not there.
This doesn't feel like normal glass or it doesn't react like normal glass when you're using it.
There are three what look to be holes, but when you look in them, they are solid.
and it feels like some sort of steel in there.
It's a little different color than the other ones, but it is very solid.
uh
and it doesn't look like it opens.
There's no sort of like electrical element to it at all.
Yeah, there's no power whatsoever,
uh...
snapping more photos of this as well, JFYI.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it looks like you got that covered.
Um, to me, it looks like that's sealed up.
Like you would seal up, um, some type of a biohazard or something that's, infectious.
Would you, would you say that's, that's right, Del, Ryan?
I mean, the way that there's a plug in the bottom and it seems like it's all sealed up, like maybe even a vacuum inside, strange as it may be, it makes me think of a light bulb.
Interesting.
Okay.
All right.
Well, a thought is something this unique in a town, you know, maybe there's some historical knowledge or a note of a contraption like this around.
I don't know who would, you know, keep track of something like that or have any more info, but there might be a log of the building of this case, if anything, you know, here in town
somewhere.
gotta be honest, I think if we go ask in ordinary citizens if they have any knowledge about like a well-known brain in a jar, those people probably will not see sunrise.
I think we need to be rather careful about how far knowledge of this artifact gets out of our control.
that's fair.
My plan was to walk to the old lady in the diner who gave us that that sweet sweet pie and be like, hey, I got stabbed in the leg.
Here's a finger from a water thing and we have a brain in a capsule.
Have you seen that?
No, Dell.
Of course.
Yes.
No, for sure.
I was going to keep it, keep it low and not, you know, show all of our cards.
No, but maybe it's a unique enough item that, you know, it doesn't, you know, say
Made in Boggy Depot on the bottom or anything, but I don't know.
Maybe there could have been a lock, but at the same time, yeah, keeping it low I think is the name of the game.
Does the bottom of it look like it could attach to something else?
Yes, the ports, for lack of a better term, the three holes look like they should connect to something else.
OK, I think it may make sense to try to figure out what this probably connects to.
I think, like Dell was saying, it sort of reminds him like a light bulb.
Maybe it turns on if you plug it in.
Cool.
I think like I would, I would have thought of turning the thing over, even though I just said, look at the bottom and say made in blog, bloggy Depot.
I think knowing that it connects to something, we at least have something that we're looking out for now in a valve type contraption.
rolling that through my head, Barone says, well, I think we at least have enough to, to make a report for now.
We're not going to get any more answers.
Sitting here in this room, but maybe we could ask somebody I think I should go make that phone call really quick
Yeah, you know, maybe take a little more time than Ryan did last time.
Be thorough.
Right, no for sure.
I should definitely act like a competent human being and she sides eyes Ryan just a little bit and she's like, I'm gonna I'm gonna use a payphone not inside this room.
I guess that's a good question.
I'm clearly like, whatever.
And I like get up and like go into the bathroom and close the door.
Okay, do we have access to, well I guess we have quarters in our pockets and there's there's assumedly a payphone right around here somewhere, correct?
Yeah, there's a payphone.
It's a hotel.
There's one by the office.
Okay, I'm gonna look over at Dell, give a little shrug and say, alright, I'll be back in a minute.
You watch Ryan, that's, I don't know, I don't know what's up with that.
It feels like my only job today.
Hey man, don't take that job lightly, alright?
We kind of only have each other right now.
No, no, I'm concerned about him.
I don't really know what's going on, but something's got into him.
Alright, well you keep an eye on him, I'll keep an eye on you and then he'll have to keep an eye on me and we have a trifecta going and I'll slap him on the shoulder and walk out
the front door to make the phone call.
You get down, you walk down a set of stairs right by the office past a humming soda machine and you get to the pay phone.
There's obscene graffiti all over it.
The phone book is ripped out and the receiver has things carved into it.
But you put your coins in, dial his pager, hang up, wait for a call back and that call comes pretty quickly.
About a minute.
Hello?
uh Butterfield, sir.
I'm calling to make a report,
Agent, is this Barone?
this is Barone.
Okay, I spoke with Ryan earlier.
It was a bit of a non-conversation.
Do you have more to report or is this gonna be another turkey shoot?
uh No, sir, I Definitely have have more to report and maybe a more cohesive story as well So we've come we've come across some some stuff and uh in the need of some maybe some more
resources so Just to let you know last night we came across Some transients if you will
we found some people in a ghost town that were unassuming and didn't really cause any problems.
We chose to hang out there and put ourselves up, up in a, in a corner to stay safe and watch over the swamp.
Cause on our way in, sir, we saw some crazy
you know, microbiology stuff that, you know, didn't quite sit right.
And we took our time in the swamp, in the swamp sir, overnight.
Um, it appeared to be a, UFO, passed over the top of us and headed back towards the swamp area.
in the morning we collected our things.
Agent Barone, slow down.
Okay, you saw a UFO and some other things.
What evidence or analysis do you need or support do you need?
a number of things sir we were also assaulted by for the lack of better terms swamp creatures sir in our possession we have a Torah we have a picture that of townspeople that
we need information on we collected under the floorboards in the church we collected a brain in a sealed capsule
and I have one of the fingers from one of the beans.
We know there is one swamp bean at large and they are very dangerous sir.
And if I could uh make a package for a runner or a pickup and get this stuff looked at, I think that would be extremely helpful sir.
Okay.
Is the brain in liquid?
It does not appear to be in liquid, sir.
It appears to be a vacuum, and it is self suspended in the vacuum.
Well, it's suspended on something, but it's not bouncing around or moving, and there does not appear to be liquid.
Okay.
I will call somebody and where are you?
ah Yeah, no sure what's the name of this motel that rat?
Let's see.
we decide a name on it?
This is the Stardust Motel.
We are located at the Stardust Motel at 123 Main Street here in Boggy Depot, sir.
Okay, I will send somebody down and see, but this brain thing.
has it tried to communicate with you in any way?
Ooh, that's a good question.
don't...
communications in terms of words, no.
But when we entered the church and were digging up the floorboards, there was, want to say, infectious powder or substance in the air that put me off kilter a little bit, sir.
But it has not spoke telepathically otherwise or made communication, sir.
Okay, so what I'm gonna need you to do is keep that brain with you.
Do not leave it somewhere where anybody but an agent or somebody read in can find it.
That thing should be considered extremely unnatural and dangerous until we know more about it.
And you said you have a Torah.
Now I'm one for Sunday school.
uh
ah But I believe that is a Hebrew Bible.
Why is that of concern?
ah Because it was in the same hole where we found this brain sir.
I believe they're connected.
Unfortunately, nobody here can read it.
So there's some explanation or some information here and you know knowledge is power sir.
You said you had a piece of this monster that attacked you.
If you have any of the aforementioned fungus, put this all aside for me and we will send somebody over there to pick it up.
But the brain itself, unless you are handing it off to another agent that needs to be with you, do you understand me?
Yes sir, sounds good.
We'll turn over a roll of film catalog and everything as well for development if you can.
Okay, and anything else before I get on the phone and try to get somebody down there.
Uh, no sir, I'm the only one who's uh, banged up a little bit and I'm, I'm doing alright.
I think we're set.
Okay, and that call that Agent Ryan made earlier today was ridiculous, but my reaction was a little over the top.
And I would like you to pass on my apologies.
As Del and Ryan already know, sometimes I can lose my patience and I'm trying to do that much less, even with...
my coworkers.
So tell Ryan that I apologize for any thing I said that might have hurt his feelings.
But if he calls me like that again, I cannot promise I will not get angry.
I heard loud and clear, On that note, now that you mention it, agent Ryan is, is acting a little strange.
nothing that I don't think Dell and I can handle.
We are a team, sir.
And we should be able to lean on each other.
But if I have anything further to report on agent Ryan specifically, that was out of line as far as our stance on him as well, sir.
Okay, and to be clear, Agent Ryan is to be protected at all costs.
yes, yes, yes sir, yeah.
thank you.
Just wanna make sure that's clear.
Agent Dell knows that as well.
His skills are very hard to come by in what we do.
If anything were ever to happen to him, I would be very disappointed in the team.
But if you were to deem...
that something, if he needs to be retired, that needs to be handled by me and me alone.
yes sir.
Great, I'm glad we can understand each other.
I will send somebody over there as fast as possible.
If you leave, remember, take the brain and then he just hangs up.
Okay, great.
Verone pulls the phone away from her ear, looks at it a little strangely and hangs it back on the receiver and heads back to the room.
Agent Ryan, what have you been doing?
taking a shower.
you get out of the shower, Dell is there, Barone just walks in.
Where to now, ladies and gentlemen?
Yeah, so I think I've been marking up the map that we had, just trying to roughly put down some coordinates or waypoints or paths that we think we trod.
So that when team rejoins, it feels like we have a tactical map of the situation for the next half.
All right, Barone walks in.
Del, anything happen with Agent Ryan?
Nah, I I assume he's taking your advice.
Smart thing you've done all day.
Smelled like a fish.
Well apparently he's a much smarter than a fish and quite an asset Butterfield made it clear to apologize to agent Ryan on his behalf and
You know, I'm sure Gary means well, but if it's all right with you, like maybe today just isn't the day for that.
I'm not sure he's really ready to hear what you have to say.
You understand what I mean?
Yeah, I do.
I'll keep it to myself just a little bit.
it was imperative to Butterfield that we uh protect Ryan at all costs.
And she shrugs a little bit like, hey, that was weird.
Yeah, well, I mean, I guess consider this little bit of, you know, confidentiality in that effort.
For whatever reason, I think that might go to his head on a day like today.
Butterfield telling him he might have been right.
I just, I don't know if that's something we can afford is all I'm saying.
Yeah, alright, fair.
Let's let Ryan clean up a little bit and let him wallow.
Maybe tomorrow morning or something I'll let him know.
Yeah, herd, herd.
What's?
they're having this conversation, I walk out of the bathroom and I'm kind of tallying my hair off and I'm like, what are you guys talking about?
you
Agent Ryan, you look spry.
uh Welcome back.
We, we are just about to try and figure out what's next.
And I'll turn around towards Dell and see what he's been working on, on the bed there.
Yeah, usually, some of my best thoughts come to me in the shower.
Do you have any sparks of brilliance, Ryan?
Well, I'm kind of curious about this brain connecting into something.
I'm very curious about that.
I don't know exactly where we would go to find something like this.
But that's definitely been on my mind at this point.
Did Betterfield have any advice on that?
Not really, uh, oh, sorry.
Yeah, of course.
Uh, so I made my report to Butterfield and I may have bungled it just a little bit, but at least I got the information across.
Um, we're going to be sending everything with a, with a runner, um, including, uh, Ryan, if we could, um, pop that film out there as well to send it to get developed, it doesn't
do any good just sitting in that camera.
Um, but we're going to turn all the, all those things over, um, to a runner who's, uh, who's coming by here.
pretty soon em as far as the brain goes you don't have to worry we're keeping that on us at all points in time from here forward and I turn and look over at the brain.
Oh, wait, they're gonna take my film out of my camera?
Well, I mean, they're not going to take it.
We're going to give it to them.
The film doesn't do anything being just film.
needs to be turned into pictures and cataloged for information, right?
I mean they have the assets, what do they need the film for?
Well, they're not taking the brain, so they'll definitely need the brain.
Well, a picture of the brain rather, not the brain itself, because we'll have the brain is what I meant.
I see you.
you got extra rolls, right?
And all this stuff is just sitting here.
I bet you could snap a spare picture and have an extra copy in your pocket if you were so concerned about it.
Okay, that's a good idea.
Thank you.
Yeah, okay.
Well, while Ryan is kind of trying to settle himself, busying himself with that task, you know, I'll consult Barone on kind of like what you think the most pressing strategic
maneuvers we could make are.
I mean, it's hard for me to sit idly by every moment that passes feels like an opportunity and...
That swamp is vast, but boy it sure feels bad not having eyes out on that ritual site.
I am curious to see if we've put a uh dent or a ding in their operation or if it's even right to be calling it an operation.
I have so many goddamn questions and I don't see any way of answering them lest we stray back into that swamp there.
You know, I actually have no qualms with that.
I think we should 100 % go back.
What time did that ritual happen?
Who was awake during that time?
It was me.
It was late at night, early morning.
I think it was 4 a.m., if I'm remembering correctly.
4 a.m.
when you saw the craft and Dell first heard it around 1 30 a.m.
It started around 1 30.
Yep
Yeah.
All right.
I mean, so it sounds like, she looks at her watch.
What time is it right now?
1230.
Well, it looks like we definitely have some time.
I don't know about you guys, but sleeping on that floor last night didn't do me a whole heck of a lot of good.
think we know a runner's coming.
I agree we should probably go back.
I do have these still and she holds up the keys to the ATVs.
Maybe we wait for the cover of darkness, borrow these ATVs and make our way back in to see if
You know, if the chanting's still happening, if that one that got away is really the only one, or if there's more, I'm...
After a little bit of rest, I think we could probably head right back into it, if you're all right with that.
Yeah, I think the timing of that sounds just right.
Yeah, how about you both go ahead and get a head start on your rest.
I'll take our cachet, wait up for the runner, and I won't be far behind you.
We all get together for dinner around dusk and put things into motion.
And I'm rummaging through my bag and I hand you the roller foam.
I've never been more skeptical of something so innocuous.
Yeah.
Okay.
When I take the bag of everything, I am curious to have a little look at that algae if I could.
Yeah, what are you looking for?
Yeah, I think, you know how they have like those, a couple of cups, like little whiskey cups with the little paper doily kind of things over the top at the hotels.
I'm gonna take the doily off and kind of use it like a Petri dish.
I'm gonna put the algae down in the bottom and then break the sides off the other one and kind of almost seal it on the top.
And I'm gonna take a couple little pieces of different things.
A little bit of food.
a bit of hair, skin, a leaf, little things and kind of like put them around the perimeter with the organism in the middle and see if there happens to be any sort of interaction
with the environment as though it's drawn to one of these stimuli.
Great, is any metal in there?
yeah, surely there's a little bit of everything.
you put out maybe a shell casing that you had collected and it is drawn under the Petri dish, your makeshift Petri dish.
It leaks kind of over towards that metal.
very curious.
When it gets to the metal does it seem to have any sort of interaction with it or just almost like a magnetic attraction?
If you let it touch the metal, will fully get onto the metal and then it just kind of sits there and shimmers.
no sort of seeming interaction at the barrier between being and bullet.
Yeah, nothing other than a magnetism.
You just see it go on the metal and it's a slow go.
It's crawling almost imperceptibly at first, but over time you see it fully get on there.
almost imagining like the look of one of those ferrofluids like a slowly undulating you know almost like sea cucumber looking blob I assume it's much much much smaller than that
okay I mean I
it might look like that under it, but you just kind of see the particles slowly move over and then go on to the casing.
I suppose I will scribe down a note for whoever I'm sending this off with.
I mean, I guess I'll share findings with group two.
Like, hey, y'all noticed this thing doing anything funny?
Any strange interactions you had being in that water coming out?
This stuff seems to...
I know, still be alive and kicking.
no, Dell, think I was far more worried about the alien in the water directly in front of me trying to kill me than watching the algae that was in the top of my binoculars.
So, no, I just collected it, my guy.
Well, I guess that seems prudent, but what you fail to understand is that we haven't yet ruled this out as an alien that was also in front of you and potentially posing mortal
threat.
That's all that I'm currently chasing.
Brown's face has just gotten she's like well fuck me, Del, we all have something to learn here.
I am sorry about that.
That is a very good point.
I think I just need a little rest and I'll slap him on the shoulder again and be like um thanks for watching that.
I'm gonna you know hit the hay for a little bit and hopefully be right back at it with some coffee of course.
Hey, yeah, sorry.
Sorry to disturb.
Just seemed weird.
No, yeah, thanks.
And I'll head off to my room and go for a nap.
And I'm down to keep talking about the algae.
I have been wondering about that myself, especially with the fungus in the church that was kind of spiraling and leading into the hole.
There's definitely some connection.
I've been thinking between the algae, the fungus, and whatever it is that we've seen.
Yeah, I'm with you and that's not entirely comforting given the span of Earth between those two points, right?
If there is connection, if there is a being capable of spanning that space, that concerns me.
Yeah, I agree, obviously.
I'm curious of what sort of reaction this algae or fungus would have to.
destruction.
If we did try to light it on fire, for example, what would be the consequence of that?
Yeah, I think maybe that's the exact kind of thing that the laboratory would be able to provide us with test results for.
Since we have such a small sample, maybe they would be able to judiciously partition it out and issue tests of that kind of nature.
Hopefully it'll go that far.
Remains to be seen, I suppose.
Agreed, yeah.
Ryan, or Agent Ryan, are you going to be sleeping or taking a nap?
I think I should.
I'm definitely going to try.
Yes.
Okay, Agent Barone and Agent Ryan, since you're taking a nap, go ahead and roll a con test.
So it's con times five, constitution.
sure yep I'll go first con times 5 I'm looking for 75 % is my con score we get a 29 so success
roll a d6 to give that back in willpower.
Agent Ryan can do the same.
Yeah, I failed at 79 out of 60.
Okay, you won't gain any willpower, but you are rested.
So your mental disorder of obsession starts to let up a little bit.
With the rest, you feel much more relaxed and less anxious about it.
Okay.
So my sanity is still the same.
Sorry.
It's still the same.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Agent Barone, as you're laying down, you get to sleep no problem.
You are exhausted.
Give me another pow times five.
short sounds good.
Pow times five we are looking for 55 we got a 92 we got a failure
You wake up extremely warm.
You are covered in sweat.
Your chest has droplets of the sweat all over it.
Your scalp is sweaty.
You feel feverish.
And your stomach is churning from hunger.
Okay, great.
Yeah, I will get up and look at the clock.
What time is it about right now?
It's about four.
oh
Okay, so do I still have a couple hours before we know we're gonna be meeting up or do I?
Yeah.
Shit, mean, I need something and I'll...
Is there a mini bar?
What's in the room?
Is there any snacks that I could just grab and house down?
Yeah, there's a vending machine that has chips and candy bars in it.
all of it.
Yep, I go with chips, candy bars, slim gyms.
get three slim gyms and sheepishly take it back to my room and go to town.
You're eating and eating and eating.
It's a lot of junk food.
You don't feel satiated by it though, but you feel full.
But there's just like this hunger that's hard for you to put your finger on.
All right.
Man, maybe some coffee.
I'll heat up some coffee and have myself a cup of joe.
Yeah, it's great.
Feels nice going down warm.
Wakes you up a little bit, but still very hungry.
Alright, I'll note the time that it kind of started and uh shuffle that away.
I know that it'll be a bit.
Maybe I'll just try to lay back down knowing that we're going to get zero sleep this evening.
I'm just going to try to ignore it.
it's nothing's calling to me and I've tried what I could think of, I'm going to just try to ignore it.
Cool, yeah, you lay back down to go to sleep.
Agent Ryan, over to you.
You sleep well and you are asleep the entire time.
There is this dream that comes to you of that chanting.
Can you roll me intelligence times five?
Yes, I got zero zero eight.
All right, that chanting echoes and echoes and echoes in your dream.
It's like one of those vivid dreams where you're roller skating or something as a kid.
And when you fall down in your dream, your legs jerk in your sleep.
But it's that chanting in your head.
You swear you hear it next to you and you start.
to make a connection directly to Arthur Finch and his notebook.
Some things you took a picture in there, some of the words seemingly match up to the phonetics of the chant.
Not exactly, but there is some sort of connection there that you haven't seen before.
and I realize this as I'm waking up.
Yeah, you would put it together as you're waking up.
I imagine there is some conflicting thoughts with how much you've been looking into this case, but also really wanting rest.
Like, what are you thinking right now?
I am so tired and I close my eyes and I just take a deep breath and I'm like, oh, this feels so good to lay down.
My body hurts so bad and I haven't slept for so long.
as you're laying there, yeah, there's just something about Finch's work that keeps nagging at you.
You feel like you've put together this chant and the sound of it feels cohesive in your head, right?
It feels like it is all coming together for you, but there's just like this missing piece.
OK.
Yeah, as I'm really trying to get some sleep here, my head just keeps spinning in like a million different directions.
And I just need some sleep.
I just have to get some sleep.
Please just go to sleep.
Oh, I'm so tired.
It feels so good to lay down.
I want to be my best self when I meet back up with Del and Barone and.
I don't want to disappoint them and I want to help them and I want them to help me and I'm so tired, I'm so tired.
my God, I can't stop thinking.
I just need to look at the laptop.
I just need to know more about what is in that.
diary.
What was he documenting?
I cannot stop thinking about what he might be documenting.
I remember there was some symbols when I was skimming through it before.
I remember some information about the chance.
god, the chance.
There's just something so familiar about those chance.
What?
There's gotta be something more, more information.
I need more information.
No, no, no, no.
I need to sleep.
That's what I need.
Go to sleep, Brian.
You can look at the files anytime, just get some sleep, go eat some dinner with Del and Barone, be a normal person.
Everything will be just fine.
No, I gotta get more information.
need to look.
What were those drawings?
That chant, I just can't get it out of my head.
Why is it so familiar?
Have I heard it before?
Where did it come from?
Did Arthur know about it?
I have to get up.
I must look at my laptop.
I have to get, okay, I'm getting up.
I'm getting up.
I'm looking at my laptop.
Okay.
I usually keep everything in a secret folder on my laptop as well so that I can access it whenever I want, which is a lot.
Great, yeah.
Go ahead, open up your laptop, which is with you, and you look at it.
And yeah, this does have the candor of some of Finch's ramblings when he would sketch pictures that would devolve into strange text.
that text would phonetically spell out some of the words that you are here, you were hearing in the swamp.
And what are these words?
Yeah, go ahead and give me another int times five.
3D zero out of 80.
Alright.
One smart motherfucker.
What you can make out is Yakni Shito Napase Hakta Ili.
And in the documents that we recovered from Arthur Finch's, I think it was like a mobile home or something, was there any sort of dictionary or any sort of writings that would
help me translate this?
Go ahead and roll in a natural plus 30%.
Okay looking for 46 and I got 33.
with your critical success of 33, you're able to put together whatever this ritual was that Arthur was creating.
You start seeing a pattern in the symbols.
The somatic element of the chant was inspiring feelings that you had never felt before.
From the church to hearing the chant, there has been something going on inside you in your subconscious and your subconscious starts pointing you to the symbols that are relevant to
this chant and you start to make a catalog.
Are you writing this down anywhere?
Are you committing it to memory?
Like how are you digesting these cryptic symbols that Finch had been scrolling?
Yeah, I have a notebook and I just rip a page out of the notebook and I just start scrolling, scrolling, scrolling everything.
Yeah.
you end up with a page just as insane as Arthur Finch's writings.
You look at it, it is in your handwriting and how you would draw, but it is disturbingly similar to what Finch was making.
Go ahead and roll sanity for me.
All right.
Sanity, Sanity, where are you?
OK, looking well, my current sanity is 62, I got a 27.
You still lose one just from being associated, your psychological profile, mirroring Finches, and you're not a dumb person, Ryan, but maybe you are the next Arthur Finch.
Maybe you're going insane.
Maybe someday you'll find yourself at home surrounded by insane ramblings and.
m
dead alien next to you.
Probably not, but the thought does occur to you.
You're able to catalog these symbols and hum this chant in your head.
You know exactly what you would need to do to complete whatever work this is.
Yep, and I take that piece of paper and I wad it up and I toss it into my pocket.
Yep, you have it with you next to your heart.
Dell, you collect all this evidence.
Where are you waiting for this runner?
Probably after these two go to bed, I go down to the office and I get a fourth room that is across the way and has a window that points over towards our little cluster of rooms.
And I wait for somebody who pulls into the parking lot looking towards the room numbers that Agent Barone would have given them.
Yeah.
This is a dead hotel right now.
It's the middle of the week.
Not many people passing through.
a brown, old crown Victoria pulls in, parks, and the driver sits there looking around at all the rooms, gets out, is wearing a...
coat that's a little too heavy for the heat here is sweating and he pulls out a cigarette nervously lights it and starts to walk up the stairs to where Barone had said the rooms
were.
Do you stop him?
Yeah, I'll uh, well assuming there's nobody else around, I guess I will unceremoniously walk out to meet him and I'll say something stupid and cryptic that sounds like it's
supposed to be a uh passcode for a secret society like the mantis stalks at midnight and just wait for him to like realize that I'm bullshitting and then pass it over.
Yeah, he looks at you and kind of like shakes his head.
He's like, what the fuck are you talking about?
The mint.
mean, this is like clearly the guy, right?
Yeah, I'm the fucking guy.
Okay, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, he comes over and he says, yeah, a Butterfield sent me, sent me to this crack of the ass place to pick up something from you and take it over to the university.
Yeah, yeah, I'm not really like trying to waste his time as when we meet like, you know, I'm ready to exchange it.
Yeah, I'm just fucking with him because I think it's funny that we're like secret agents.
That's still like a crazy thing to me.
Like that's only happens in the movies, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
He, when his coat comes open, you see a badge and it's oddly an NYPD badge.
He says, sure, let me see that.
He said that you had a piece of paper or a Torah and some mud or something and a fucking finger.
Yeah, I mean there might be a couple other goodies in here.
If you need them in your manifest, I'm sure you can just check it out.
Yeah, there's all kinds of good stuff we found.
Manifest real funny buddy.
We don't fucking do manifest.
Okay, I'll get this over there and was I was told to stick around until the lab had results and bring them back to you Should I bring them here?
Well tentatively, yes.
Is there somewhere I could contact to give you an updated waypoint if there's a more appropriate drop-off locale?
I don't mean to be wasting your time.
sure, sure, here, here's my pager.
The name's Agent Smith.
Agent Smith, how simple and unominous.
Well, thanks for making the drive.
Johnson, right?
So, yeah.
Great.
Okay, I'm gonna take this shit and I'll get ahold of you if I need to and you got my pager.
All those things you said are true.
Pleasure doing business with you.
Yeah, it's been a real pleasure.
Okay.
And he walks out, opens the trunk, puts all the stuff in the trunk.
You see him put it down very gingerly.
it's anachronistic to his personality, like how like careful he does this.
He almost looks scared doing it.
Gets in the car, turns it on, backs out, gets on the highway and takes off.
And we're about...
That's the plan, right?
So yeah, I have to run a quick errand first, but after that, I mean, I'm planning on being there right on time.
Okay, well, mean, I figure I'd come with you.
I gotta go pick up some takeout or something.
Take out what we're gonna eat together.
Well, I mean, yeah, if we're all going in to sit down somewhere, if we wanted to just, you know, reside in the comfort of our own place, I thought maybe I could bring something back
this
sure.
I just have something to drop off at the mailbox.
But yeah, that's fine.
You can come with me.
Yeah.
All right.
No trouble.
I, you know, Butterfield just extra concerned about you said something to Barone about not letting you out of our site.
He seems extra protective after, you know, the shouting match you had this afternoon.
I think he feels bad about it.
really?
no, I mean I...
Yeah, he was pretty mean to me.
But, you know, I wasn't thinking clearly.
So I understand his frustration.
Okay, alright, well yeah, don't take it personal or nothing, but you know, we can't have you wandering with dangerous folks about.
Okay, well let's just walk down the street here.
There should be a drop box right down the street.
Yes,
Yeah, you guys roll You're able to drop off a package or a letter Whatever you're dropping off into the mailbox unless Dell tries to stop you
but I am curious about the contents.
it's just something I'm sending to my grandma.
I'm just sending her a letter saying hi.
Yeah, okay.
I mean, I'm simply going to be looking for visual cues that would betray that fact, but I am not inclined to, you know, police your mail.
He loves rolling his human intelligence.
All right, let's see if he can get it
new session, new role,
I'm up to 18 dude, I'm so fucking good at this.
Oh, 004, big when it counts.
Yeah.
Yo, let's go!
I'm gonna go.
Yeah, so Agent Ryan, what about your body language betrays that a little bit?
I'm holding it close to my chest.
I don't want Dell to get his hands on what I am sending or have a close look at it.
My plan is to cruise up to this drop box and dump it in pretty quickly.
Okay, so I will stop maybe 40 feet away from the drop box and as you quickly pace on towards it, I'm just gonna say, you know what the minimum penalty is carried for
disseminating private information like that.
Private information like what?
Man, I don't know what you got.
I don't need to know.
It's not important what it is.
It's that you got it and what you're inclined to do with it.
Can you help me understand what it is you're trying to do here?
I am sending a letter to my grandmother.
I haven't seen her in a very long time and I just wanted to let her know that I am okay and I just really miss her, okay?
Ryan, you got me fucked up.
You want to try that again?
I don't understand what the interrogation is about.
I am sending a letter to my grandma.
The end.
And I just keep walking towards the drop box.
I'm sorry, I believe you've made this a bureau affair and I'm going to pull out my pistol and cock it.
shit, okay.
What do you do?
What do you do, Agent Ryan?
And I kind of hear it, right?
But my back is to him.
So I turn around and I'm like, what are you doing?
I don't understand why you don't believe me.
Yeah, I mean the pistol is pointed clearly not at Ryan, but at the post box, right?
Like that is the line and Ryan should know that clearly by body language alone.
And I'm not interested in the conversation.
Ryan is now in charge of his own decision.
Man, you really don't want me to say hi to my grandma.
OK.
I guess we'll play it your way.
And then I stuff the letter into my pocket and start walking back towards the hotel.
Yeah, you vaguely hear me mumbling something about a leash as we're on our way back.
pistol is quickly holstered and you get the impression by the frustrated look on Dell's face that he did not enjoy resorting to setting a boundary with you like that.
That was not his intended course.
Yeah, I regret letting you know that I had an errand to run.
So that won't happen in the future.
Ryan, you get back up to the hotel room.
Barone, what have you been doing in the meantime?
Man, I think trying to trying to go back to sleep and get some rest after downing a whole cup of hot gel probably didn't Bowed well for her.
I think she steps out of out of her room the complete antithesis of the last time they saw her, you know Peppy and stepping out of a room, you know pumped and ready to go for the
day.
I think she's dragon She looks pretty haggard her her
braid is is frayed even though she you know obviously tried to take care of it just a little bit but she's not looking too great and she's gonna have her have her backpack on
and step out of the room and head towards uh whose room did we decide we would get together in was Adele's
We were in Ryan's before, presumably, because he was showering.
yeah, so I'll be uh walking towards Ryan's room and I'll see everybody and you know toss like a Low energy like hey, how's it going?
Hey, how's it going fellas?
Uh, del thanks for uh, thanks for let me get some rest man.
I appreciate it though I'm not sure it did any good and my face is pallid and Not not looking super hot
Yeah, um, I s- if this is right after that altercation, I assume Ryan has kind of just like stomped by a shade, grumpier than usual.
And yeah, I'll remark that, you know, I...
Silly as it sounds, I'm afraid that might be the last bit of rest we can afford for a while.
This old boy is getting leaky, if you know what I mean.
I don't think we can afford to let him out of our sight.
If it wouldn't be unbecoming, I'd put him on a chain, but it's metaphorical for now.
Right, interesting, okay.
well while you're watching him, you might as well uh, watch me a little bit closer as well.
I I didn't get much sleep and for some reason have ravenous hunger for obviously not slim gyms and snickers and definitely not coffee, but I'm not, I'm not doing too hot either.
Uh, so maybe keep your eyes split if you can, but yeah, I'll help you watch Ryan as well.
Yeah, I mean, that's no great concern, but the fact that you're, you know, in state of mind to talk about it plainly with me gives me a bit of comfort.
Hey, gotta be a team player, I don't want to be the weak link here by any means.
maybe I'll play nice with him see if I can get any more information.
honestly, we're both, well, we're all kind of under a little bit of stress here.
So maybe he's not, and I don't know.
I guess we'll find out.
Yeah, I mean, I am for sure the bad cop.
You might as well see if you got room to be a good
Tell you what, Del, I definitely do.
have enough room to be the good cop, hopefully most of the time.
And I'll give him a little nod and tuck myself into uh Ryan's room to check off the meetup spot and start heading out to dinner.
Agent Ryan, you've stormed back into your hotel room and gone straight to the bathroom.
You still have your bubble wrap letter.
What do do?
So I make another copy of the symbols.
I just quickly doodle them down on a piece of paper, fold up the piece of paper.
I also.
Previously gave Dell a roll of film.
However, that was a brand new roll of film.
I have not taken any pictures on it.
So the pictures that I have taken and have cataloged, I quickly take that roll of film, put it into an envelope, and then I write my grandmother a message as well.
A, happy birthday.
I love you.
I'm sorry I didn't get to call you.
But also, if anything happens and you don't hear from me, I'm hoping that this package will find it to you.
You know what to do with it.
Love you, Ryan.
Beautiful.
And you are able to get that on your bubble wrapped manila envelope and you're able to hide it.
Yep, under the toilet lid it goes.
and there it stays until somebody discovers it.