Part 3 (Conclusion) - Nameless Horrors/Bleak Prospect: Criticals, Fumbles, and pure Luck

Link to the Beginning: https://rigglew4.blogspot.com/2017/06/part-1-esther-where-are-you.html

Confronting the BIG man, Sedgwick himself. They’ve got the numbers, with firepower courtesy of Dr. Cavendish. What they lack…is a plan that can survive first contact. But they have plenty of bad luck.

Casper parks the caddi at the curb in front of the High-Tower apartments. Everyone is surprised when Karl uses his blackjack to club Casper unconscious laying him across the front bench seats. “OK, now what?”

No plan, indecision. Front door? “Let’s try the back.” Barred lower windows, a backdoor, and a fire-escape ladder 9 feet up. Karl drags a crate over to reach the ladder. Standing atop the crate he’s able to reach the last rung with his walking cane. “Screech!” As Karl climbs, Nat and Hiram hear a noise at the backdoor [the desk-clerk heard (03) the noise and is coming to investigate].

Mert: Desk Clerk

Marcus: Bellhop

As Hiram watches the door handle jiggling, he grabs the handle and pushes in while holding his revolver in his other hand. He’s now face-2-face with an older wide-eyed man he’s now trying to club with the butt of his gun. Miss. Nat steps in and also misses swinging his shotgun. “Help! Help!” So much for stealth. Poor Mert the desk-clerk is finally bound and gagged. Another face peers around the far corner. While Karl and Nat drag the clerk to his 1^st floor room, Thomas/Hiram/Agatha give chase to find the bellhop already in the elevator going up. They climb the stairs to see him exiting 3^rd floor going into room 318. They return to the 1^st floor to gather the forces.

The door to room 318 is open. Theodore sits at his desk (white kerchief covering his face below his eyes) with an armed bodyguard (Cale) nearby; the bellhop (Marcus) off to the side. “What’s with the interruption? Go back to begging on the streets; I’ve no time for your kind.” The group is without a plan, making casual conversation expecting truthful answers. Meaningless babble until Theo’s kerchief falls revealing a horrendous sight.

He scrambles to cover the open wounds claiming, “War injuries.” Agatha has lost her temper, “What did you do to the kids? Why did you kill Harold?” His answer is a signal to his bodyguard Cale to clear out the rift-raft. “BLAM” as the bullet impacts inches from Hiram’s feet. Agatha’s answer is a thrown knife (critical 03) that impales Cale’s thigh. And the gunfight begins.

“Blam, Blam” Cale shoots at Nat who drops his shotgun while diving for cover as Sedgwick is already up and moving to the window’s fire-escape.

Hiram shoots Theo (major wound; passes his CON check) who keeps moving, now halfway thru the window. Thomas charges Theo knocking him out the window; both sliding over the escape floor barely grabbing railing to avoid falling 3 floors to the street below! Hiram advances toward the window to grab Thomas’ arm to keep him from falling.

Agatha charges Cale but comes up short. Karl’s charge knocks Cale prone allowing Nat to wrestle for the gun. “Blam” as the gun discharges just missing oh so many targets. “Aaugh” as Agatha pulls the knife from Cale’s thigh. Cale connects with his brass-knuckles to Nat’s jaw.

Meanwhile Marcus the bellhop has seen enough and is running out the door. Agatha attempts to throw her bloody knife (00), but it slips out of her hands on her backswing and impales Nat who falls unconscious. Now it’s Karl who picks up Cale’s dropped gun and gives pursuit, “Stop else I’ll shoot.” Which allows the once outnumbered (and bleeding) Cale to scramble across the room toward the discarded shotgun. Karl turns toward the new threat and shoots (2 misses) at Cale, who successfully grabs the shotgun and blasts (but misses) Karl. Karl aims to shoot again, “Click” (all 6 rounds used) and switches to his blackjack, just missing. Cale isn’t better as he swings the shotgun (95). It’s Karl’s kick to his gut (03) that topples Cale unconscious.

Back at the fire-escape: Hiram pulls in Thomas as Sedgwick swings his legs to the ladder and begins to descend. Thomas descends the ladder in pursuit blocking any shot Hiram has with his pistol. Knowing he’s getting away, Thomas makes a daring move: stepping off the ladder (but guiding with his hands on the side-rails) trying to impact Sedgwick below. Except he’s misjudged (rolled 99). Panicking (pushing roll), he throws his right arm toward the rungs. He succeeds in stopping his fall at the expense of a dislocated shoulder. Sedgwick is off the ladder and stares up, as Hiram shoots, “Blam, Blam.” Sedgwick limps away as Hiram takes a final shot (rolls 24 for a normal hit) dealing 12 points of damage. Theo slumps dead.

The group is able to revive Dr. Coombes as others search the room finding Sedgwick’s diary/notes. But sirens convince them to save its reading for later. Most exit the fire-escape; Hiram uses the stairs in his attempt to get his car out front. Flashing lights bath the street as Hiram slides into the empty seat realizing there are no keys (Karl still has them). He quickly retreats through the apartment to join the others out back as they then make their way to Dr. Cavendish’s house.

Flashback:

When Casper was confronted at the bakery, he called Sedgwick to warn him of the groups’ knowledge. Sedgwick was too confident to consider calling the police for protection. He’s been experimenting with a Species17 within himself, leaving it longer hoping the thing secretes more life-essence the longer it was in him. The result was the alien creature blending with his own body such that Sedgwick took on alien properties (gaining 1 point-of-armor while healing 1 point every-other-round).

At the High-Tower apartments, Casper was unconscious for over 8 minutes. When he awoke in the car, he hastily ran away (keys taken by Karl). He had no desire to call the police; didn’t want his name as any witness. When he reached his Greenley estate, he packed everything he could in his other car and quickly left town hoping to find new beginnings elsewhere.

When the bellhop Marcus told Sedgwick of the vagrants in the lobby, Theo phoned Roscoe Molloy (the other Midas member) and Alex Rossetti (hired strong-arm) but had to leave messages.

Alex was at Luigi’s restaurant for 6pm dinner. Didn’t get the message till after 7:30pm when he returned. When he got to the High-Tower apartments, the police were still there investigating. Around midnight, he entered knowing where Theo’s safe was, and emptied it. Oh course when the police arrived again the next day, more evidence (fingerprints on an open safe) gave them a suspect to pursue.

Roscoe had his own plans to withdraw from the Midas group. He’d already been planning to setup his own operation elsewhere. Thus while the town events were unfolding, Roscoe was at Prospect inside the workshop. He gathered design notes for the device and both cylinders holding live Species 17 specimens. He then turned on the generators (to create havoc and cover his tracks) and departed. What he didn’t realize:

Aston Hawkes was transforming more and more into the house. But left hungry as the empty house, surrounded by 30 empty acres, Aston reached for the only source of life-energy...the dimensional-gate in the workshop. Imagine the house being sucked into the portal. Massive overload. Implosion. When the police arrived the next day to the reports of a smoke cloud rising over the old estate, they found nothing but the stone foundation of the house, a pile of stone where the workshop was, and 2 generator buildings humming along powering nothing.

Epilogue:

The police only find a large pool of blood in the alley behind the apartments. [Sedgwick was dead; the alien within consumed what was left of his body and slithered away looking for the closest host.] Their evidence (safe cracked) points to Midas members struggling in some kind of takeover.

At the Hooverville camp, the egg-sacks within Harold’s decomposed body hatch. Two dozen new slugs slithered force infecting more residents.

Cavendish with help of Coombes are able to remove all of the parasites from the infected group. There is no hope of restoring life-essence for the victims.

At first they attempt to contain the alien creatures for research and analysis. But the threat of escape has them decide to destroy them. "I wonder. Is there any way to extract the life essence they devoured?" Within a month, the doctors are marketing a new "health drink" touted to enhance one's vigor and IQ. And recognizing the source of the life-essence, the proceeds shared with the once-infected Hooverville residents. There were enough parasites, ground to a pulp, and diluted, to supply the growing market for a few years. Enough royalties for Hooverville to be closed as the residents return to their life within Crawley.

Narrator Comments:

With Sedgwick’s team outnumbered and out gunned, I expected an easier assault by the group. But indecision and poor rolls (70-90s all night, even with advantage) spelled a completely different outcome.

With Sedgwick dead, and the kids rescued, there was no incentive for the group to return to Prospect estate. Therefore we ended the gaming early as I summarized Sedgwick’s diary and scientific notes. I explained what happened to Hawkes 6 years ago, Sedgwick’s takeover of the dimensional device, and the formation of the Midas Group that preyed on the residents of Crawley. How even the group were targeted hosts of the Species17.