Flashlights played across his features you recognized as Anthony Hayden, who begged your forgiveness as the rope-like tendrils sprouting from the back of his skull, neck, and
spine began to crawl across the ceiling, walls, and floors, which are carpeted in a mat of the things, and began to inch his hanging body closer to you.
begging and crying.
And so that's where we are, and I think we're gonna start, if you don't mind, in Dex order, just right off the fucking bat.
If you don't wanna fight, you don't have to, you can try and talk.
But we're gonna start with Magpie at a seventeen decks.
Right.
I don't have words for what I'm looking at.
I got one thing, and that's the business end of this cannon.
And I'm unloading.
I rip it from my jacket.
Um I shink shink safeties off and I am going to try and pace a fine line uh across the tether what's holding Anthony to the ceiling.
Yeah, for sure.
Two little bits, two questions.
First is, are you dropping your flashlight to do this?
I imagine it has a a tactical clip on the side of my gun.
Is that a reasonable thing?
Yeah, sure.
I like that a lot.
Uh second, I will let you roll unnatural for some information, if you'd like, before taking this action.
A little something a little something something.
get me with a little something No that's a thirty above a twelve.
no.
Okay.
That's unfortunate.
Are you gonna make a called shot?
Yeah.
I believe that is a minus twenty to your attack.
Does your SMG take heavy weapons or firearms?
I Okay.
Roll them bones.
Yeah right.
well it were a seventy seven and now it's a fifty seven.
but all of that's plenty good when you roll a nineteen.
Alright.
Yeah, gimme damage.
Yes, sir.
Yali Tali then comin' at ya, Mm-hmm.
That's zero zero six.
Thank you.
on Leap Ballody.
Yeah, that's tremendous.
So you unload just an extremely tight burst.
You you unload probably four of these bursts straight into that hanging tether, that column, that rope of tendrils that is suspending Anthony.
You watch
your bullets impact the tendrils and you can see where they've struck and you can see that they have begun to writhe angrily and seemingly in pain, but what you don't see are any
wounds.
There are no bullet holes, there aren't any bruises, there's nothing to indicate once the firing has stopped, that you actually shot these.
And if you give me a stri can you give me a straight int?
Yes, I can, that's a thirty seven, good enough.
Yeah, th this was the the exact same as back on San Juan Island when Morrison complained that his I believe knife wasn't doing anything.
And I do recall the um the bathroom footage as well.
And it seems as though they are rather unperturbed in the same way.
Damage aside sorry, go ahead.
You know what I did forget to do was give a sand check to everyone.
Did figure that was coming.
Yeah.
Maybe that's just like a initiative order sixteen.
Three.
There you go.
You you you acted before you thought.
That is true to form.
A nineteen on sanity over here.
Yeah, I I failed with uh seventy six over sixty three.
Yeah, I failed.
Thirty seven over an eighteen.
Is triple zero really bad?
It is really, really bad.
Yeah.
Hey guys, it's one hundred.
Why is
Alright.
Magpie, you're gonna take a D six of sand loss yourself up.
Yeah.
Everyone else, it's a D twenty.
Yeah, let's go.
I don't even have one of those out right now.
now.
Miles, it doesn't matter, you don't need it because Eucryp failed.
Eucryp failed.
That is twenty cent loss off the top of the session.
So that was not
Yeah, you should have fucking lied.
Well, I went one below another breaking point.
anyone who's wondering if this is scripted, just go ahead and play this one again.
Yeah.
Right.
I only lost two on a one D twenty.
Lucky you.
let's find out if you're having an acute episode.
Past my breaking point.
My god.
What?
God is real, and he's alive on the inside.
And he's
And he's you?
Me What is what does Mull say in this moment?
Give us one of your quotes.
what did I wanna I want him to actually shout out, uh, usurper, usurper, I'm the real son, and then uh do whatever he's gonna do.
So
Morrison, wh how'd you how'd you take that?
eleven.
So not great.
not great.
Not great.
How's your breaking point looking?
Uh I that puts me uh eight past it.
Alright, okay.
So for those of you who have shot screaming past your breaking points, um, yeah, what are you thinking for columns of flesh whispering secrets in your head?
how do we feel about what what is what is the worst about this for you personally?
Hmm.
Yeah, I think for Morrison, maybe this is kind of a rebound for like not losing as much sanity for my wife dying as I should have.
And so he that's still kind of in the back of his mind and he's like, fuck man, I I just went through this, like not this shit again.
Fuck this asshole.
What the fuck is even these words?
Like what is this whispering?
Like, shut the fuck up.
I've got my own problems to deal with.
Fuck you.
And probably he he's gonna be mostly fight, and then I guess flight.
And then freeze last.
I meant your new starts with a D.
Thank you.
This can be depression.
Is there are there any like rage associated disorders?
I feel like Morrison is historically
uh disorder.
Yeah.
Historically he's been a pretty like level headed, like the outer trainee.
I like that a lot.
Yeah, you can just like snap.
For sure.
uh
probably scary too, right, to us.
Uh who've scarcely ever heard him have beat in a
Yeah.
Usually like level.
And now he's just like, nope, I'm done.
And scary and also like in some ways I think it it makes me feel like like when you're a kid and you like knew your dad was mad about something, but he was like trying to keep it
under wraps and then the last little straw breaks and then he like yells at you or whatever.
Cause we were all like, he's our safety, our rock.
But he is not.
We have different fathers.
Yeah, I don't know why I said that, Joe Wyndham has never once yelled at me ever in my life.
So my dad was like, he raised a baby, so Yeah
Miles, what's tripping you up about this situation?
Well I hit a breaking point as well and I would say he would start getting paranoia that memory is just an illusion and maybe he's not even here and maybe what has he forgotten?
Does he does he even have a wife and a son?
Is that paranoia or is that disassociative identity disorder?
Sure, yeah, that's good.
Yeah, who am I?
Like
Without your memories, are you still you or are you someone else?
Thank you.
would be some paranoia that would go along with it, I think, but um yeah, I think that's a good one.
But yeah, he he walks up or gets out of this elevator presumably and is holding this gas can.
cool.
We we're gonna we're gonna keep staying in dexterity order because no one has gotten out of this elevator.
The door is open, there's gunfire, and a realization of what you're actually looking at.
The two of you that have taken more than five San right off the bat, can you rank fight, flight, or freeze for me in order of likeliness?
I heard fight most for Morrison.
what's next for ya?
Flight and then freeze.
He's in action mode at this point.
Sure.
Yeah.
Give me a D six.
Actually, no, we're gonna say you fight without stopping.
There's no
Yeah.
I mean I rolled the five, which I think it's six through four, right?
So he would fight anyway.
No no no no it's uh one, two and three were fight, four and five were fight and six was free.
Yeah, Jimmy, I think we fucked that up.
Okay.
Not rules, in fact.
No, you're supposed to just pick.
Yep.
Which is why uh Nick has been picking every single time.
Because he's playing by the rules.
I think with twenty sand loss we can let the dice take it though.
Okay.
So I mean I would say twenty sand loss freeze number one, fight number two, and then flight number three.
Okay.
Roll a D six for me.
One, two, and three is freeze.
Four and five are flight.
And six.
Great.
Was that flight or fight?
Flight.
Okay, you've got a fight.
Okay, you you it is fight time.
You must kill this before it kills you.
All right.
Magpie, we did not finish narrating the end of your turn.
I also think uh did did Mole have anything else to Okay.
Yeah, yeah yeah.
All right.
He could have an acute episode, but I don't think it's gonna change how he acts, frankly.
Well's the most in control.
yeah, okay.
I was just curious, uh on account of like when the screwdrivers were going in temples and all that, it felt like there was maybe a a temporary disruption that happened and then it
all kind of snapped back.
Curious if maybe there was a window where like this happened so quickly that he's been displaced or the the tether is is thinner and longer now or something of that sort.
Would
you roll luck for me?
Straight up and down, fifty-fifty shot.
I Hey, yeah, you know, while you were firing, you actually you you you were able to realize that your shots weren't making much of an impact on the tendrils, and you began to
track your shots down towards Anthony.
Uh would you have put some bullets into Anthony Hayden in this situation?
I mean I suppose if the first couple of if the first couple of bursts seemed ineffectual and as though they weren't doing anything that I meant to, I think that one uninformed,
unnatural role before told me that splitting his head open was probably a good idea, and so that seems on my mind.
Yeah.
Then yeah, you you you do manage to put a shot through Anthony Hayden's eye.
And the bullet seems to pass through his skull, catching more of these tendrils, like vines, and the the the bulk of them are spilling out behind him, behind his head, as more
of these tendrils are pulled through by the bullets.
And yeah, you can see any you take a shot
Somewhere that goes through his brain, Anthony Hayden seizes and begins to he what is it?
The fencer?
What do you call that?
Fencing response.
yeah, like he's doing his posturing.
Yeah.
And every time a bullet passes through his brain, uh his body tenses and shakes.
There we take those.
What is the lethality on your gun?
Ten.
Ten?
Okay.
Thank you.
Yes, sir.
It's gonna be Morris Fin.
Would
We notice anything happening to the tendrils whenever Anthony does this.
I think you're blind with rage.
Yeah, sure, that's fair.
I probably am.
Um who who's w Yeah, the royal wee.
We are curious.
Yeah, so I guess thinking on the brief flash of whatever I caught before I became blind with rage, I remember you saying that like these mouths are um sort of like singing or
making some kind of vocalization or whispering.
But they seem to be inhaling as they do it.
Yeah.
You can tell me if I don't have the wherewithal to do all of this, but I probably want to slap my gas mask on, grab one of those canisters, and just try to like shove the nozzle in
the mouth of the closest tendril, and then just crank it open.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm gonna say you can roll me a Dex to get your gas mask on in uh gimme dex or military science to get your gas mask on in under six seconds.
Uh Magpie and Morrison are allowed to make this check because they were in the military.
Mull, Miles, you're gonna take a whole last turn doing this if you ever want to.
That's a sixteen on a seventy five for deck.
Sounds pretty good.
So yeah, Morrison, with a practiced move, you you hook your thumbs under the rubber, put your chin in first, slap it over your head, you basically shove one of the canisters onto
its side so it falls, pinning one of these tendrils.
And how do you open are you gonna take the time to erk open the valve or are you gonna stomp it?
I mean is there a valve I can shove in a mouth?
Like I want it to be like sucking on it like a scuba tank if I can.
Yeah, no.
No.
It's a bottle.
There's no regulator on it.
It has a valve at the top that you can open.
It's it's the spot where you would attach anything.
It has that.
Okay, I gotcha, yeah.
Okay.
uh
may stomp off if you would like an expedient release of gas, or you can erk erk open it up.
Y you know, the smart part in me says to do the irks, but I think in a blind rage, he's just gonna stomp it.
And I'm sorry.
Okay, that works.
Agent Morrison whips out a gas mass, slaps it over his face, tips over a phosgene gas bottle onto the closest tendril and stomps on the valve.
It snaps and a pale yellow green gas immediately obscures the vision of everyone nearby.
Your skin, lungs and eyes begin to burn.
Anything else you want to do on your turn?
oh I mean unless there's some way I can direct the gas better, but that's
it.
No, sounds good.
Hey Mo, it's your turn.
Yeah.
Um so A, Mole lost two, which is tri which triggers his megalomania.
So
It triggers a follow up saying check.
Well that's the most Which you're going to fail and then triggers your megalomania four.
Yep, there it is.
uh you have another acute episode.
I'm not sure you have stopped having an acute episode since like season the th the the first scenario.
Yeah.
This has just been kind of l lulls, you know, ebbs and flows of uh one giant acute episode.
oh super quick, sorry, uh roll a D ten for
Yes, I know what a D ten is.
One of your D one hundred bits.
Or a D twenty divided by two.
Shut up everybody.
Four Okay.
You take four points of damage as the phosgen gas begins to I think bind to the fat cells in your skin and lungs?
It's screaming.
Fatty cells.
Not my fat.
I what I'm really trying to figure out here is if Mole in the throes of Megalomania is going to like try to put on the gas mask or not.
My initial thought was that he may not, but I think getting pain is probably gonna override you know what I mean?
And so it becomes like a thing where he's just like, uh the demons around me.
And then he like grabs the mask and throws it on and spins the turn.
But I think prior to the pain happening, I don't think he would he would
Yeah, I like that.
What's your health at?
I guess I asked everyone's stand and willpower, but not anybody's health.
How's real?
I I I'm a nine, so how much did uh four?
uh
Down to five.
At fifteen.
Fifteen.
How's everybody at fifteen in at nine?
Nunny all did we do like did you take any HP loss for carvin' each other's backs?
Just one?
You had sixteen and now you're down to fifteen.
I see, okay, fine, whatever.
I started with nine, so I just have no sanity nor health.
You've been playing on hard mode, my guy.
Yeah, look at me now.
About to win the whole thing.
One shot mentality, you know?
It didn't work out so well.
It is the things Well, it's not Anthony's turn.
It's the turn of whatever is inside Anthony.
And it's going to one.
Uh, it's gonna react to the gas.
Okay.
You can see where the gas is physically contact where the gas is concentrated near these sort of breathing uh tendrils.
It is
Um making an impact, the uh sort of slimy flesh seems to be bubbling near those areas, not blistering so much as becoming tumorous, uh at a rapid pace.
Hydra is oops, the thing inside
Cut that, cut that.
Delete, delete.
God, I so mad.
wait until I tell you what this thing is actually called.
I did not.
Hydra is going to attempt to grab all of you at the same time.
So I'm going to roll four melee.
We are still in the elevator, but Morrison did Morrison exit the elevator to do this?
That's up to you, bud.
I don't think so.
Yeah, I mean I guess it depends on how far away the tentacle is.
I had assumed I had to step in at least a little bit into the room.
Okay, that seems reasonable to me.
The t there are not yet tentacles in the elevator.
There are about to be tentacles in the elevator.
Magpie, the attack on you is a sixty-nine, which does not pass.
Morrison, the attack on you, is a an 18, which is a hit.
So would you like to dodge?
Yeah, I think in his blind rage Morrison would dodge like he's just combat mode.
That's gonna take your next turn away from you.
Okay.
And I what am I trying to roll decks?
no, I'm rolling God.
Okay, I gotcha.
Uh I just have the Uh nineteen on a thirty.
Okay, you successfully dodge the grasping tendrils.
Mull, it is a 90, which is a miss.
And then Miles.
It's an 86, which is a miss.
Jesus.
Alright.
Very good.
Okay.
yeah.
Hydra is going to do one last thing, which is it is going to make a strength check.
To it succeeds with a 48.
Pick up the canister that is damaging it and smash it sideways through the door of the elevator, bending the frame.
Yeah, back into the elevator.
Hydra is going to take another D ten for this maneuver.
Uh it is Anthony Hayden's turn.
Uh Anthony Hayden hangs there weeping and saying he's sorry.
Miles, it's your turn.
Miles needs to do a follow up sand roll.
Okay.
Fair enough.
He also needs to take a D ten of phosgene.
And he failed that with a 79 and then D10 phosgene.
One, thank God.
Okay.
so he's holding his mouth shut with his hand.
And yeah, the sand roll I failed, which means I take or I go into my hypergeometry addiction.
Can I use that in this state to fight?
Sure, why not?
So he would since he's in the fight mode, he would burn all of his willpower, even his power if he can, like he would just go through everything.
Like he is probably choking, falling down to his knees.
And he hears these tentacles doing the same chant that he remembers from the island now.
And he is going to tell he's going to do the hand symbols and tell Anthony Hayden to forget the chant.
Okay.
So you are picking Anthony Hayden and you are commanding him to forget the chant.
Forget Hydra.
no, I wouldn't know Hydra, but forget sandwich.
Hydra.
I d I do believe that um Roger Douglas called it Hydra.
Okay.
Did he not?
Yeah.
I think he did.
But again, you are targeting Hayden and not Hydra.
This is correct?
Ha ha ha ha!
Love that.
I mean it's using him, so yes, I'm targeting him.
okay.
Yeah.
So what is what are you commanding?
Say it out loud.
I command you to forget Hydra.
Okay, I want you to you're gonna lose you you wanna spend all your p power on this?
My power and willpower I'll I'll
Okay.
Jiggly just blast.
that is fine.
Uh roll your ritual activation roll, which is ninety-nine minus your No, it is roll some dice and tell me what you get.
eh
twenty eight.
Okay, you wanted to fail a sand check here, so you must spend a permanent power to force the connection.
Can I use my luck to swap that to an eighty two then?
You can!
Woo!
You can, you can.
Yeah, you you succeed.
Uh I'm just
myself to this chant, right?
Like I am like I'm in prostration, I'm in mole mode.
Like I Hell yeah.
It's almost like a worshiping activity, but worshiping memory and this chant.
Yeah.
So there's a few things that are gonna happen here.
The first is that you hit zero willpower and you have an emotional breakdown.
While under the influence of Mother Hydra, much like all of Hydra's other killer, you have a new prerogative.
Once you are done here, roll a D6 for me, will you?
Five.
Mull is a blinding spot in your vision.
Even seeing the edges of him sends a spike of pain lancing through your skull.
When you're done with this, you know what you have to do.
Second, you make a connection with Anthony Hayden.
please lose one sand.
You begin to dredge through Hayden's memories of Hydra.
You remember age nine on the porch of your childhood home in two thousand five, watching as your dad gets into the taxi that'll take him away forever.
Mother Hydra gently wraps a tendril around your neck and shoulder, whispering that if you let her in, she will always be with you.
You remember at sixteen, held in a local jail cell for the night, picked up for your drug charge in twenty twelve and
Thin grey tendrils rise tenderly from the drain, and you know that if you if you let Mother Hydra in, it's all you're gonna need to fend off the shakes?
Can I do anything in these dreams?
Or am I just experiencing this?
You are experiencing them and you, Miles, know that you've the ability to obliterate them.
That is what you're doing.
You are calling them to the surface to destroy.
So he would take the tact of
You have not successfully uh cast this ritual, have you?
This is No.
No, okay.
I tried to
Bye.
So I would the memory of the father running away, I would destroy it by having him rip off the tentacles and chase after his father till the memory ends, if I can do that.
Think I think you don't get to change it.
I think you Yeah.
It's gone forever.
That's what this does.
Is it it is erasing the truth.
I mean you are sorry.
Yeah, I would erase every little window into Mother Hydra.
You know Mother Hydra is deep within Anthony Hayden.
It's this isn't all of it.
You need to hold this connection tight.
You need to grip and reach further into Anthony Hayden's psyche and memories to obliterate every last trace of Hydra that you can.
This can't have been all of it.
It's like a a fungus growing deep.
I would obviously be sitting there prostrate.
Maybe a ring of that gas has s started to circle around me as I've done this and I'm holding my concentration on these dreams.
Yeah.
You think you think it might take uh at least twelve more seconds to finish the job.
Magpie, you're up.
Fajine first?
Or was I was I snapping on a mask?
Was that a thing?
You're gonna take it and then you get to make a dex check to not spend your whole turn.
Okay.
yeah, the deck tech check was a fifty-two, but you said it was a d ten.
damage.
A fifty-two is a success, by the way.
D-10.
Terrific.
K eight of that.
Um take a fat fucking breath of that, lads.
All right.
Yeah, I I mean I imagine um coming hacking up before I slap that um mask on my face is some sort of lining that I didn't know was inside of me and it's probably a different
color now than it was meant to be.
Uh who knows what it was attached to before, but it's long gone.
And it just sits there bubbling as I uh slap this thing on.
And the the only open canister was that detonated, effectively smashed inside of the the elevator here.
That is correct.
There are two more.
If you'd like to increase the concentration of gas in this elevator.
I I do intend on doing something with the gas, but it's mostly moving it forward.
I am going to for better or worse drop my gun on the ground.
I'm going to put both hands uh on the cart's handle and I am going to push like a linebacker uh straight over the carpet of tentacles to get these canisters right under
Anthony Hayden's foot and body.
Sounds good.
Did you say cart?
You guys definitely don't have a cart.
Uh okay.
Yeah.
Could sorry, then that
spent like twenty minutes discussing how to manhandle these cylinders into the building.
Okay.
well then I guess it's just one.
Uh I guess it's w just one and a shoulder.
and we're gonna try and muscle it through.
Pretty fucking good.
Sixteen.
Okay.
Yeah, roll strength or athletics if you want uh to move this two hundred pound cylinder by yourself.
no, seventy nine is just what I needed under an eighty.
Hell yeah, yeah, yeah, Magpie, you shoulder a cylinder and you basically plant it underneath Hayden.
Yeah, I imagine there's an unpleasant fleshy squelch as it ts through the the floor of uh of tentacles.
Um and I will stand back uh from the the nozzle um in case anybody else has a grand plan.
Oakadok.
Morrison, I'd say it's your turn, except you spent it dodging.
M Mull, it's you.
So what Mole, I think, would do is dependent on what he sees.
I think that if Mole can see, Mole's first instinct is that, you know, again, this is a deceiver worm.
He's the real worm.
He knows that there needs to be some way to destroy it.
He wants to kick some shit down, right?
And so have Magpie knocking shit over, I think he wants to kick that open.
But what I will say is that if he gets any hint that Miles falling prostrate looks
ritualistic like looks from the outside like something is going on.
I think that he would honestly be like and and seeing Miles coughing and shit, rush to put a mask on him to let him do whatever it is that he's doing.
So it I guess it's dependent on what he sees.
I think you can decide what you'd like to do here.
Okay.
I think he rushes over and puts a mask on and is just like he whispers to himself, I guess you can't really hear it so it's like Even Satan disguises himself as a worm and then puts
the mask on.
Miles, the object of your burning starlit pain floods your vision for a moment.
Which is, I suspect, distracting.
Distracting.
I'd also imagine Miles went went into the dream state, like he closed his eyes um as well to concentrate.
So yeah, but he can feel, he can smell the mole.
yeah, especially now.
The mole smell is poo just emanating.
Yeah.
Alright, it is Hydra's turn.
Again, Hydra is going to go for a grab yet again on each of you.
That's gonna be Magpie first.
A 24 is enough to hit.
Would you like to dodge?
Hey your next turn.
I don't think I can.
Morrison A forty-five is enough to hit.
Would you like to dodge again?
You lost your turn last time.
Hmm.
I would have to beat a 45 to successfully dodge, right?
And I would have to pass.
You'd have to do both those things, yes.
Yeah, seeing as how thirty is my max, that's yeah.
fair enough.
Uh Mo.
A 76 is not gonna do it.
Miles.
An ought nine will.
Would you like to dodge?
No, he's gonna stay focused on this.
Hell yeah.
My guys, not a dodge among you.
Let me pull up what the fuck Hydra is about.
Yes.
not.
Maybe it just kinda like hugs you a little bit.
Morison, one of the wider tendrils, one of the ones that is sort of it looks like a like a like a stinkhorn fungus, all holes and lattice changing openings and sizes.
It wraps around your head, eyes, mouth, ears, face.
It fully covers your entire face and
It begins to press on your eyes.
And you know those flashes of purple green light you get from ocular pressure?
You get that and it begins resolving itself into geometric shapes, shifting and changing.
You recognize them from the pad.
They go with the chant, and in your ears the tendril is chanting.
Does the fact that I am wearing a gas mask have any effect on its ability to press on my eyes in that way?
Let me
And these are these are soundproof gasmen.
Soundproof, soundproof, no communicating.
let me roll something really quick and see if it um hmm.
Yeah.
Uh no.
It does not have an impact on this because it was in fact one of the smaller it's several of the thinner tendrils that worm up under your mask.
Yeah.
Up under your mask and press on your eyes and whisper in your ears.
I did give you a fifty fifty shot on that.
I promise.
Sure, yeah, that's fine.
Okay.
Well, do I can I act at this point?
Where are we?
No, but I do need you to make an opposed power check with me.
It's the opposite of acting.
It's reacting.
Equal and opposite reactions.
I got a forty.
I don't know what I need to beat or not beat.
I imagine
I got a twenty.
So you win.
Uh assuming a forty passes, which I know it does.
Alright.
You resist the urge to chant along for now.
Magpie and Miles.
Uh something a little different happens to you two.
A some of those thinner tendrils, those horsehair worm looking ones, they reach out to you in a flurry.
And they don't rip or tear the way they did back in the San Juans.
Instead they just sort of press on your skin before just sort of slipping through, sliding under your skin.
And it's a familiar sensation.
It's very familiar, and as this bitter taste floods your mouth, it brings back memories of
Yeah, of of of like back in fourth grade when on the playground.
Mother Hydra, yeah.
You remember just like you did back then the sensation of feelers sliding under your skin and they whisper just like they're whispering now.
could you both give me power checks?
Not opposed, just power checks.
Sure.
Magpie you can go first.
I
Well out to sixty-seven and
Sixty eight over under seventy.
Nice.
Magpie, you're gonna lose one D eight willpower.
Oh, Miles, you are at a minus twenty to all rolls for your emotional breakdown.
Yeah, but also you're out of willpower, so it really doesn't matter.
Yeah.
I'm I'm all in still.
Huh.
Yeah right, um yeah she crushed five of my remaining seven so I'm sitting at a sturdy two.
Doesn't something happen to you at two?
Pass a con to not pass out, I think, right?
Isn't that constitution?
That is health.
He said willpower.
I thought something will power.
Maybe not.
I don't know what it is.
An agent whose willpower hits one or two has an emotional breakdown, the agent's up yeah, w kinda what we were doing already.
Okay.
Well, welcome to minus twenty across the board.
It is Anthony Hayden's turn.
He covers his face with his hands.
Miles, you're up.
Miles is continuing to go through these memories and now that the Hydra is giving me memories, it's getting all jumbled and mixed up in my head.
And I still feel this like fighting urge to destroy it as it comes up.
So I'm destroying like the memories as she's trying to implant them in me, but I'm also in Anthony Hayden trying to wreck house.
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, make that ritual check again.
Roll a sand and fail it.
Thirty seven over thirty two.
Alright, yeah.
You maintain your connection.
Lose one more point of sand.
I'm gonna you're not spending willpower yet, I believe you know what?
Actually, y I don't think you blow through all your willpower in one go.
I think let's see, you started with six.
Can you roll a D eight for me?
Okay.
That last little bit.
contact with Mother Hydra would bring you to zero.
In order to continue performing this ritual, you must now spend permanent willpower at a rate of one to ten.
So you're you'll be okay each turn if you spend a full willpower.
Okay, I will spend that full willpower now then.
And am I still in this mine palace with Anthony?
You are.
You stand at age 19 at your mother's funeral in 2015, standing over her open casket.
Uh Mother Hydra crawls out from her mouth, and you want to cry.
Uh, relieved that only one mother is dead.
You, age 24, are at your apartment in 2020.
You're deciding to sign up for Pujari Arav's spiritual enlightenment course this summer.
Uh Mother Hydra is lurking behind his online picture, whispering that only she can bring you peace.
You reach out to these memories and you crush them like a dust between your fingers.
You are all powerful.
Yeah.
Miles would do just that and he would imagine it like using his father's old dock knife just slashing through and just wriggling around like you would just cut something out of
like a the center of something.
Hm.
Okay.
Magpie, you're up.
Yeah.
Okay.
Um Hayden and the Hydra directly above me, yeah?
Or directly above the canister.
Mm-hmm.
Um I will take my rather large sidearm from my holster.
I will level it two inches uh from the top of that canister and I will fight.
Okie doke, I'm gonna say you don't have to roll for that.
you are going to take a d10 of damage for blowing up a canister at close range.
Yeah, what's up?
Phosgene is neither flammable nor classified as an explosive.
Correct.
It is pressurized.
Sleep but yeah.
Yeah.
Damn it.
Yeah.
No no I know I n I understand that.
I I we became victims to the slow release before.
Um and I'm trying something different.
Yep.
Yeah, absolutely.
Hydra is going to take an additional two D ten of damage for this.
I'll roll that here.
Okay.
How are you doing?
Only Alright, you're still up?
Yeah.
I mean I think there is a you know uh a squaring uh of of face away from the target.
Um there is a a blasting where shrapnel kind of relieves my trigger hand of most of its glove and outside flesh.
Um and that begins to summarily melt.
my ability to hold that gun is desperately compromised, but it doesn't much matter right now.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think you you find that it is the shrapnel and the deep below freezing cold of a liquid gas shredding your flesh that is highly impairing your ability to move.
Morrison, what are you doing?
So I imagine I'm still standing there, gas mask on, little wispy tendril boys scootin' up under the edges.
Mm-hmm.
There's still a can canister of phosgene gas nearby.
What are the odds that I can like feel where that's at and get a hand on it?
Me alertness with a minus?
I don't know.
What do you think?
20?
40?
It's a big minus.
Let's find out if it matters.
How about this?
This is really complicated and you can say no, but I have fifty
We can do complicated.
I roll a navigate for spatial awareness.
Okay.
And if I pass, it's a minus twenty.
And if I fail, it's a minus forty on alertness.
Is that too complicated?
Okay.
Alright.
that fuck.
That's an eleven on navigate.
Can I just echo locate this thing?
Sure.
Why not?
I'll I'll roll the alertness if you want.
No, you're good.
We can say that was your alertness at minus forty.
Okay.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Good point.
I was really excited about the navigate
got so excited about the navigator.
So what I want to do is essentially these things are like crawling up on my face and into my mask.
I want to reach down, turn the nozzle on the thing.
Mm-hmm.
This is a really bad idea, but it it's cool, so I'm gonna do it.
Pull the mask a little bit away, take a big deep breath, shove the nozzle under the mask to just like pump the mask full of gas to kill these things, and then like
Man, I'm what I'm thinking is of like how scuba divers like purge their masks, so basically kill off all the tendrils on my face.
I don't know what this is gonna do.
You tell me what the consequences are, or I can just do it and you can still tell me what the consequences are.
Okay, I just do it, because again, I'm like pissed and angry and I'm in a bout of madness.
So if I come away looking like the main scientist guy from Event Horizon, whatever, that's fine.
It's really good.
you be so kind as to take a straight D10 of damage as the phosgene gas first dries out the flesh of your face and then begins to bind with your skin cells?
Four.
Which four concentrated on your face.
Gonna come away looking like hamburger, but I don't have a wife to look pretty f They really hurt.
Where we're going we don't need eyes, I guess.
So
Alright.
But I'll tell you what, you are loose of the tendrils.
Which I gotta tell ya is pretty great.
Mo, you're up.
Okay.
So we've got Miles prostrate on the ground.
We've got Morrison.
I just am watching him shove the gas up into his mask and gas himself.
And Magpie has just exploded two of three underneath the thing, right?
That is correct.
How?
Far, and I need this in inches.
Uh you know how far is the uh where the gas canister that Morrison is spraying up into his face currently from um Hayden?
Generally, you know what I mean?
That's like ten feet.
Thank you.
now I need to convert that to yards so I can think about how far a putt would be
It's about one and a quarter yards, so a pretty easy putt.
Okay, it's an easy putt.
All my distances are in golf.
It's just a quirky little thing I golf?
yeah, I used to play a lot of golf.
It would be much better if I said no to that question.
Actually, let's rewind that.
No.
Used to.
I'm still confused as to whether this is your actual answer or Mole's answer.
I frankly I don't want to know.
Ugh, I it poor Kaws.
Yeah.
Uh a yard and a bit.
That's an easy putt.
I can do this.
Easy putt, ha.
Easy, easy putt.
I think as he's looking at the distances.
Then I think he wants to sorry Morrison.
I think he saw the canister explode and he was like, I gotta fucking do that too.
So if he's close enough, I'd like to just like fire my pistol at the canister.
Yes, absolutely.
Is this the one right by Morrison's face?
So hold up, to be clear, Sam, were you asking how close is the canister by Morrison or how close is the canister by Magpie?
But I wanna know how close it is to Hayden because I wanna know
How close the canister that Morrison just used is to Hayden.
So here, hang on one second.
There is one canister smashed and bent and nearly empty that was dropped on a tendril and thrown back into the elevator.
There is one canister that is under Hayden, detonated, with Magpie clutching his hand a few feet away.
There is one canister standing up still, I believe, with Morrison's face right by the nozzle.
Is that the one you want?
It is the one that Mole wants, 'cause Mole wants to release this shit out.
But if it's not gonna be underneath or close enough to Hayden that he thinks it's gonna do, or to Anthony that's gonna do, you know, the same kind of damage he saw from Magpie,
then I think he'd be more wanting to try to maneuver it away from Morrison to get it close.
But if it's close enough to do damage, he would just wanna fucking shoot it, quite honestly.
What's your demolitions?
How's your estimating?
Demolitions is a zero.
Which is pretty good.
No, you actually did just watch someone blow up one of these.
I think you actually do have a pretty good idea of what the what the what the radius I think you could probably do a little more damage if you scooted it closer first.
Yep, I think if he got the sense that it it would do more damage to this thing, to this deceiver worm, then he's going to try to do that.
Fuck how is Yeah, very, very poorly.
Um if I see you trying to negotiate your way uh around this other canister, you can count on me to be your muscle next time if you wanted to be the trigger man if it gets a b
Okay, that sounds good.
Cause I think that that's what Mole is kinda yes.
So Mole I think is going to try and if he can't, he's gonna rely on magpie catching on, so
How about this?
Would you like to take the aim action at the position that you are hoping that Magpie will put this?
Yeah.
And I've got a little laser target site too.
So I think uh on my pistol, um that I wrote.
So I think that you hear him be like, Magpie, uh over here and he like points at the like points the laser at a point kind of like trying to guide a cat.
Do you try to manhandle the cylinder first and then say, Magpie?
Yeah, how about I try?
Because I'm gonna fucking fail, because I'm weak as shit.
And then then yeah.
Holy shit, a thirty on a forty of my str a 30 on a forty for strength and a thirty on a thirty for athletics.
Yeah, I I think you actually can just put it there.
Fuck yeah.
yeah, think we see Mole, wiry guy, but he's like five ten, five eleven.
Actually I think so more it's stuck under Morrison's mask, is that right?
I think he's just like, Morrison, you know not what you do.
And then he grabs it and tries to pull it away and can't really get it and like kicks it up for a second and then finally just like shoulders down and butts into it as hard as he
can to try to get it to push towards
Yeah.
You you wind up rolling it most of the way there, but you do have it uh a little less dignified, uh, under Hayden's dangling body.
I think in that case then, he then shouts out, Magpie, if you got the shot, take it He doesn't give a shit.
Alright.
Isles, it's your turn.
I'm I I'm the sun.
Okay, maintaining focus on trying to complete this.
Rolling sand.
Fail the sand check, spend a power.
It is.
down to 12 power and anything else you need for
No, yeah.
You're you watch as your consciousness projects itself further away from your own body, deeper and deeper into Hydra's native dimension at the 2020 retreat.
You see the heart of Mother Hydra, a writhing Gordian knot of
Limbs and mouths desperate to feed and spread.
One maw limb reaches down and attempts to enter your mind.
make a sand check.
Okay, it's a d6 sin from unnatural.
As you okay.
As you grasp this final memory and crush it.
Yeah, again he just is projecting that dock knife, sliding into this mass of like a ball of snakes basically and just starts like slashing it up and down every which way he can,
screaming in rage and just like he imagines like refuse and if this thing bleeds like the blood just like flying in the air and covering him and even just trying to dig into it
himself and just tear it apart with his nails after a while.
Yeah, the limbs of Hydra furthest from Haydn begin to burn like film, a bright phosphorus fire.
Does that consume the phosphine in the air so it's safe now?
Or Um, is that that's my whole turn?
That is your whole turn.
You have dealt a lethal blow, you think.
Next is Mull.
Yep.
But first you have to survive any sort of death throws as Hydra makes her exit.
Magpie, it is gonna be your turn.
Do I have the same perception as Miles that this is now a a done deed?
Or do I pr still
I think it's much less obvious to you, although the edges of the space you're in suddenly light up with brilliant fire.
So that's a thing that happens.
You are not psychically connected to the thing that you are killing.
Alright, well here's what I'm gonna say.
I am going to make an alertness roll, and if I fail it, then the flash has distracted me and I'm inclined to get out of here.
Uh 76 means my attention is still on the canister.
And with an 82, um, I'm looking elsewhere.
I I think I my instinct is to uh simply move my hand over and fire at the the station that that Mole has just set up.
But my trigger finger simply does not work.
It is slumped, it is lax, it is barely even a digit anymore.
Um, and that's all the reminder that I need that I am still mortal and I am going to grab Mole by the shoulder and try to haul him back to the elevator.
Okay, sure.
Yeah.
Uh is Mul gonna fight back?
Uh
I think Mole may not fight back so much as just try to fire a shot off.
Not at not at Magpie, at at everything going on there.
Honestly.
So I don't think he's gonna fight back.
Yeah, I think he's gonna fire at I think his attention is completely on this thing right now.
let's see.
You think a seventy-eight passes?
No, it does not on a forty.
Okay.
Morrison, what's up?
What are you doing?
So like I say, had the thing under my mask, mole pulls it away, and like I say, I took a big deep breath with the intent that like after I felt the tendrils recede, I would like
exhale and purge it like a scuba diver.
Can I see anything?
Do I still have eyes?
you're in rough shape, my guy.
Yeah.
But I think you can still see.
Okay.
Maybe I can see like shapes, like rough outlines of like humanoid something.
At the very least it'd be like getting tear gassed, right?
Like everything is just running down the face.
You get a glimpse of this and that.
Including my face running down my face.
Yeah, we don't think about what's running.
Yeah yeah.
Your face feels wet, what you can feel.
Slippery.
It's just slippery.
The canister that I used to do this, was it in the elevator, next to the elevator?
This one was in the elevator, but I believe Mull just hucked it out under.
Okay.
Well I I was using that as a reference point for where I am.
So I mean I guess if I can follow Magpie's lead and do like an alertness to get a sense of like what's happening or not.
Sure.
Take a minus forty.
Yeah, 'cause I can't see uh fuck that's another
Navigate.
Okay.
What do you yeah, you you do see what's up.
What do you wanna do?
So I guess I get the sense that this thing is dying.
I see Magpie drawing to drag Mull back.
And I guess just with my history as like search and rescue, like you know, once people are secure, you want to exit the dangerous situation as quickly as possible.
I probably am like hitting a button on the elevator door, like to go up, but also like then like holding the door back with my hand and I'm like, Yeah, let's go, let's go, let's
go, let's go.
And that's
probably what I do.
So that it's like I don't know, an a like aimed elevator shot, if that can be a thing.
You don't have to.
Okay This is ready to go.
It is Hydra's last turn, and she is going to go for a grab on each of you.
You do not want this to happen, I don't think.
So Morrison does a yes, a fifty-four will hit.
Would you like to dodge?
I mean I I can't successfully 'cause I have to if I crit
Eleven or a twenty two will succeed.
One in there too.
so no.
Yeah.
Magpie.
A fifty-five is a crit success on you.
Okay, well my dodge is a fifty.
Um does my crit success negate its crit success?
You will never be able to eat this.
What about on a one?
Would you give me that?
Yeah.
No, I got a ninety-nine, which you might believe is not good enough.
Yeah, it's typical.
This is how I get shit done.
Magpie shoots his own kneecap off, so Mole laughs.
A forty seven is good enough for the grab.
Okay, I have a dodge of third no, f can I
Can succeed on an eleven, a one or a twenty two.
Miles, a thirty six, succeed.
Would you like to dodge?
Yep.
Forty seven under fifty.
What's you just what did you roll?
Thirty seven.
You succeed one of one person.
Magpie, I'm afraid you are going to fail this next little bit.
Uh Morrison and Moe, you are allowed to make a straight, unopposed Dex check.
Yes.
Whoo!
That's seventy four on a seventy five.
Shit.
Uh seventy on a six.
Mull and Magpie, would you both please roll a fifteen percent lethality?
That's, I believe, enough to kill both of you, is that correct?
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Unfortunately, this doesn't actually kill you.
As the tendrils recede, whipping back into Hayden's skull and body, with them, they drag Magpie and Moe both through Anthony Hayden's head, skull and flesh, distending horribly.
Magpie and Moe, you are somewhere hot and wet.
Like mud heated up to bathwater temperatures.
You're dragged through the viscous substance, and you breach the surface somewhere with an enormous red star dominating the horizon, somewhere airless, somewhere with a negative
pressure.
The last thing you see before your eyes burst is the enormous bulk.
of the heart of Mother Hydra spreading across the surface of this lake of mud.
Can I get last thoughts from them as they see this?
Yeah, I think Mole's very last thought as he sees that is he's like, oh fuck, I wasn't the worm.
And then eyes explode and he dies.
Magpie has the exact opposite reaction.
He sits there on his knees, um, crying what's very soon to be his eye juices, but he says, he was right.
That's great.
Fuck yeah.
Uh Morrison and Miles, you've survived.
That is gonna be a sand check for that.
But you survived.
Sure.
Sixteen under twenty eight.
Fifty one on a new fifty two.
Damn.
So you both take one for that, even though the two of you have yeah, destroyed Mother Hydra using the obscure memory ritual.
Please get back a D twelve of sanity.
Nice.
For what it's worth.
Eight.
Nice.
Seven.
Very nice.
And you both still have gas masks, right?
Yep.
Thank you, Maul.
Ha ha ha.
Does Morrison just sort of let the door shut and you both ride the elevator up in silence?
Man, I don't know what else I can do at this I guess I'm not in my bout of like aggression anymore.
That is true.
I think Miles would still be in this break, right, twenty sand loss earlier.
And I think he would just grab Morrison's legs and just squeeze them as tight as he can and start sobbing into his body.
Like just like sitting there he and just like pulling on him like to get down closer to him as he's just like
Broken by this.
How heaviest Miles?
Pretty huge.
He's a big guy.
Well, he's not tall, but he's muscular, so
Okay.
All right.
As the doors shut, you do watch the body of Anthony Hayden drop to the floor and sort of push up onto hands and knees, retching, and the doors to the elevator close.
This is all you, Morrison, I'm gonna just be here crying.
I think Miles is for all intents and purposes unconscious at zero willpower.
And then like you're looking to be consoled, right?
And you look up to the face of the man what you're clinging on to, and it's just dripping down on you, right?
Reds and yellows and things that ought not be on faces.
Yeah.
So I will say I think like I say, I purge my gas mask.
I think you see like the gas mask face, but like blood and viscera and like melted fat, like that kind of yellowy cirrus fluid like dripping out of the bottom.
There's a little spurt of it through the vent out front.
Yeah.
And then I guess I probably that gunk is like clogging up the the actual functions of the thing.
So after the door closes, I'm torn between do we need to make sure Anthony's actually done for?
And I think ultimately as I'm looking at Miles crying, I'm like, I'm done, man.
I I'm I'm done.
I'm like my rage is spent, and I pull off the gas mask, and then you kind of see the melty face, and maybe I see you like as much as you can be kind of
like aghast in your tearful state.
I I recognize that and I just drop to my knees next to you and like just kind of take my right hand, like around your head and like put it to my shoulder.
And then I just hug you and we're both kneeling on the floor and you're crying.
And I don't think I don't know if I'm even capable, like physiologically of crying at this point.
But my face is I'm crying with my entire face as it just like sloughs off onto your shirt.
I think the elevator gets up to the first floor, gets back up to the ground floor, and the doors open back up.
And it's early in the morning, it's like six AM, and it's bright out, and it's crisp and it's cold.
And the camera just pulls back, and that's the shot of these two men weeping and bleeding at the center of this freight elevator, unable to leave back into the air, can't even
stand up.
Can't gather themselves together, but they have completed their mission.
I was gonna say I think Morrison is uh practical enough that he like if there's a piece of debris that he can take and like shove into the gap in the elevator, 'cause he's like, I
don't wanna move, but I also don't want the doors to close Shoves a piece of shrapnel from the tank that got busted into the door and then we just sit there and cry.
Maybe he grabs Miles' dock knife off his belt.
Yeah.
yeah.
That's what it is.
Yep.
Using that dock knife to anchor ourselves in space and time so we can hold on to this moment for a bit longer.
Or so let it flow through us.
I think with that, that is the end of the third scenario of Demnatio Memoriae.
That scenario is called Home Sweet Home.
For sure.
I can see it.
Yeah.
Makes
I think without the influence of Mother Hydra in the world anymore, there aren't that many changes that happen.
People the things that were forgotten stay forgotten.
They just don't keep getting forgotten.
If somebody digs up an article about Yarlai dying, they don't forget it again.
If somebody looks into the beheadings on San Juan Island, they're gonna go, why did this get dropped?
Anthony Hayden's apartment.
It's the landlord finally realizes that he's not being paid and goes to investigate.
That sort of thing.
You the the two of you didn't really commit any serious crimes other than this gas attack downtown.
And I think that with Agent Madison's assistance, perhaps there were only two, three deaths, people who weren't able to get out in time.
Overall, I think.
This was a pretty successful mission, except for two of your friends being dragged kicking through the maw of some kid.
Yeah.
Any any do you uh wanna tell me how your life changes after this?
Or is that too grim for Morrison?
I don't think so.
ah I mean again, like he I think I said this earlier, he's a guy who trying to like control things and being like I don't know, he's a guy where like I think some people get
a sense of like this is my life and I'm gonna contain it and I'm in control of it and when that breaks I lose myself.
I don't think he's one of those people.
I think he's a guy who's like
I was in the military.
I didn't really have a home for like a whole lot of years.
I doing this biathlon stuff.
I had to move where the training went.
I had to travel all the time.
People came in to out of my life as trainees.
And it's a big loss for him to lose his life or not his life, his wife.
But at the same time
IED now too.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm sure I'm like not mentally stable.
Yeah.
Uh yeah, I don't think he can coach anymore.
Um, because at the smallest mistake, he's like, What are you doing?
That's not how you reload your rifle.
This is not how you what's that?
And he's armed whenever he's mad.
He has access to guns, yes, firearms in general.
Um, yeah, I yeah, I guess I mean he's probably just a giant asshole to everyone in his life now, but I think because him and Miles went through this and like survived it and
kind of had that moment at the end, l essentially he I don't know how Miles can respond to this however he wants.
Uh Morrison definitely is not able to coach anymore.
He probably still does a whole lot of like
He just kind of goes back to like doing his training regimen all the time, taking care of his guns.
But anytime he wants social connection, he tries to like contact Miles and his family.
I he I don't think he does any DG stuff anymore.
Probably he has enough like disfiguration to his face and dysfunction because of that that like if you try to like walk up to somebody and interrogate them, they're gonna be like,
what the fuck is wrong with this guy's face?
Yeah.
I I think Morrison uh is quietly retired from Delta Green and is not, I think, um, too broken up about not doing that again.
No, yeah, he he's not at all.
He's he's done at this point.
He wants to like go on his trails, do his skiing, do his shooting.
He definitely misses, you know, the the teaching aspect and the coaching aspect.
Um, but it's you know, he he he can't access that anymore.
So he yells at the people, the the cashiers in the grocery line a lot.
I know, he turns into a
About miles.
Miles can't shake the anger he felt at Mole at the end, and he has a hard time reconciling Mole being pulled through that and how much hatred he felt for him.
He doesn't connect the dots that it was the Hydra's influence, but he struggles with it and has nightmares about it.
And when he thinks of Mole, he also gets those that disassociative amnesia comes up where
He'll be walking around the house, remember Mole, and then realize he's standing in his driveway with his car keys, and then have to go in.
Like he feels like he's getting early onset dementia at times.
Huge disconnect comes between him and his wife.
Over time, he grows closer to Morrison and they hang out more and more and more, and then goes through a divorce, kids gone, they move back to China.
It's Miles and Morrison here.
And he
at the end tries to make himself forget the entire thing with the ritual.
Yeah.
Forgot.
I forgot his name yesterday.
I was sitting there, I saw his face, but couldn't remember his name.
Mm m my own kid, Chase.
It's been what, five years, right?
Something like that.
We give we give too much.
I know.
Miles, I know.
I did the math.
I keep doing it.
If we just left Anthony and it alone, it'd be thirty to fifty people a year.
My wife would still be here.
Your family would be at home.
Right now.
It was too much.
And for what?
A drop in the fucking bucket.
How many people die in car crashes every day?
How many from guns every month?
I wish we could make them pay somehow for taking it all your face, my family, debt no one has paid us back for.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's the job.
Or we thought it was the job.
Mm-hmm.
In the winter of twenty two or shit, I can't remember now.
Sometime.
I was training my team for nationals.
In every race there's a moment when your lungs are completely on fire.
Your vision starts to tunnel and every muscle in your body is screaming.
Just drop your ski poles, bury yourself in the soft, cool snow.
It's right there.
Right there.
It'd be the easiest choice in the world to just let it all go.
Your body wants you to let it all go.
If you quit, you just stop and fall over into that soft fluffy coolness.
The pain's just gone.
Just washes away.
Let me guess, you keep going.
Not because you think you're gonna win, and not because you love the suffering.
keep pushing because you trust the discipline of the track more than you trust the exhaustion in your head.
The screaming from your muscles.
All of it.
Miles, you're all I have left.
If you want, I'll help you.
Heh
Damn it.
I'll trace the lines and you'll forget it all.
Sometimes sometimes it's that or something else.
Something more final.
How about tonight we just sit for a while?
Enjoy the fire.
We can think about it in the morning.