Dramatis Personae

• Jamie J. Billings (NPC): Nonverbal. Mathematics savant. Communicates via a PDA. Shy. Tagline: “I Can Show You The Math.”
• Lynne C. Duane (NPC): Holder of Bachler’s degree in neurobiology Daughter of a famed neurosurgeon. Athletically gifted. Arrogant and overconfident. Tagline: “Of course I’m right. I’m smarter than you.”
• Tabitha E. “Tabbs” de Orellana (NPC): Latina from the Bronx. Aptitudes for mechanical engineering, chemistry, and materials science. Speaks her mind. Bossy and cocky, but not arrogant. Tagline: “No me respondas.”
• Warren P. Clark (NPC): Computer and electronics nerd. Very tall for his age (almost 6′) and big. Tagline: “Oh. What does this button do?”

Previously . . .

The next morning, Steve comes around to hang out for a bit to be greeted by Fiona who nipped out and grabbed some wild flowers to give him. He talks about having some bad dreams during his sleep and that he can’t remember much beyond entering the bunker. After sitting down with their breakfasts, he gets interrogated by Fiona. He’s a social worker that’s into psychology and enjoys outdoor activities and fresh fruit, discussing the mythological connotations of pomegranates. It seems that they’re going to be kept on a stricter leash than the past couple days for the more social things, they’ve got another two hours before he’s going to come back for them.

Evening announcements say that the science lab will be closed down for a few days to solve accidents that were happening much to someone’s consternation. Having a free period, Fiona starts asking Benjamin about how the fault lines are around the bunker and how old things are of which he isn’t too sure about everything but is able to say what the ground around the bunker is made from, Fiona is wondering if it might be from Atlantis. She’s also wondering what sort of costumes they should wear as superheroes, suggesting things for Benjamin and Harvey to wear while suggesting that spandex definitely wouldn’t suit Lynn. While talking, they also get told from the counselor of Cabin D that their counselor, Steve, has woken up.

Fiona asks for Harvey to join her at the pond to measure her swimming speed and tell her if she starts to swim funny to keep a good idea of what’s going on. Trying to figure out how to keep control of her speed and it almost feels like she’s crawling as she takes her time to get it under world record levels. She attempts to dry herself with her powers afterwards, but the water doesn’t seem to want to respond to her. After clocking her speed and changing back into normal clothing, Harvey settles down with one of his many large books.

In Cabin Cerberus

Benjamin, Fiona, Harlowe, and Harvey
Camp Mareki Cabin C
Thursday June 22nd, 2000, 0830 hours
1898 Montauk Hwy, Montauk, NY 11954

Benjamin has been more interested about the bunkers that the hole was around thinks about attempts to investigate the history of the area via what’s available to the public on their computers. They’ve got topographical maps and surveys and a few maps of when it was a military base, he looks over them and speaks with Harlowe about the actual military history of the base. Harlowe hasn’t really left the cabin, mostly just staring at the catbird that won’t leave him alone. Harlowe explains that Montauk has always had an odd reputation that did a lot of crazy experiments and were partly responsible for the Philadelphia Experiment, it’s been going on since even before the place closed down. Harlowe does mention that they flooded the underground passages before blocking them up with concrete and then boarding over the entrances, so being able to get into the bunker in the first place is something special. Fiona starts commenting about how would the military have gotten into the cave without a stone when Harlowe retorts asking how they would have gotten in without a stone either.

While Harvey is investigating one of the many samples of animal blood in the mini-lab that he was given as a prize, his vision is suddenly clouded as he gets visual impressions of what he can see and things unfold in his mind, giving him quite a bit of insight into the genetic structure of who the sample came from. Thinking that it’s a hallucination at first, it continues to happen with more and more samples.

As time passes, they get to go and work on their next buddy program. Steve brought the group some chocolate and made sure that they had gone to the program and everything was fine. The announcement circle is uneventful and they head to bed. Steve wishes them a good night and promises to see them in the morning.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Benjamin, Fiona, Harlowe, and Harvey
Camp Mareki Cabin C
Friday June 23rd, 2000, 0300 hours
1898 Montauk Hwy, Montauk, NY 11954

During the night, Harlowe is having an alright dream until he finds himself in a hotel that’s completely empty. There’s something creepy about the liminal space that he has found himself in like he’s in a place that’s been waiting for him to show up and it won’t let him leave. The only thing that he can do is wander the hallways realizing that he’s dreaming but it feels very, very real. The hallways seem endless with a ghoulish yellow wallpaper when he sees a weird cat cross his path that looks like it ate another cat with an orange tail and a black and calico body wearing a collar that reads Management asking how Harlowe even got there before evicting him.

Harlowe wakes up with a jolt and falls out of bed with the catbird wrapped around his throat. It’s already 3 in the morning so Harlowe just goes to do his morning workout routine while the catbird comments that it was a weird dream. Harlowe tells it that he’s not doing the Wizard of Oz thing and comments that neither of them have an idea what the heck the catbird even is before he goes to eat cold congealed oatmeal while everyone else wakes up hungry and with a weird sense of dread and Harvey is getting weird readings from his scanner with the cabin like a strange miasma. Lynn is also looking severely freaked out.

Fiona leaves the cabin to head over to the cabin of someone she knows only for her to immediately enter the cabin again from the same entryway. Fiona attempts to squirt water out the windows for it to go out normally. There’s nothing strange or freaky that they can see outside the windows. Benjamin isn’t too sure what’s going on, but he doesn’t want to go back to sleep without finding out more about the situation. There’s something going on with Lynn that they can’t quite describe it, but the more they’re sitting around the worse it’s getting, saying that she’s not hearing anything before having a panic attack and then lets out a sound like a low animal sound before running through the doorway but isn’t bounced back inside.

Fiona follows her through the door and they find themselves in a police station. There’s nothing specific about the police station, just looking like a very general place. Lynn is sitting there having a panic attack and the door back to the cabin is gone. They look outside the windows and see a regular modern street that isn’t necessarily in New York. Fiona goes to the desk sergeant and knocks on the desk, being told to take a number. Fiona tells him that one of their friends is having a panic attack causing him to call an EMT while Harvey notices someone watching him that has been handcuffed to a desk. The man is wearing clown makeup, is covered in blood, and is staring right at Harvey causing Benjamin to be rather unnerved. He’s staring at Harvey like he’s a bit of fresh meat.

Fiona asks what is going on with the scary clown, and is told that he killed like eight people and they’re waiting to process him. Asking what day it is returns a lot of gibberish and when Harvey suggests putting a towel over his head, the clown makes a guttural noise which makes Harvey realize that he’s calling Harvey’s name and saying that he’s got candy. Fiona, for some reason, dehydrates and dries the blood on the clown’s face while Harvey sits closer to a police officer only to hear gibberish coming from the officer, same as Fiona when she starts to climb file cabinets. Benjamin asks how the readings are from Harvey’s device, noticing that the dial now says no clown, some clown, and maximum clown with it stuck on maximum clown.

The clown breaks free from the desk and rushes towards Harvey which causes Benjamin to try to lift the ground into the form of a wall only for it to be balloons. Fiona attempts to grab at the clown, barely inconveniencing the clown and gets batted away. Lynn starts to scream no and they start to fall into blackness. They’re in a place that is nothing but big and empty, a void if you would. Harvey finds that the device is now stuck on maximum void as he sticks it back in his pocket.

They see something rapidly approaching. It appears to be the ground causing several to become rather panicked though they hit the ground only to drop into it softly and then bounce back up dressed in 19^th century clothing in a ballroom. Fiona spots her parents and runs up to them asking where her and her friends can stay only to be disregarded as one of their many children, suggesting that they can stay in the servants quarters.

Harlowe, noticing that Lynn is still freaking out walks over and slaps her causing her to break from the panic and complain that she feels pain even when Harlowe attempts to pinch Lynn causing things to shake around them and Harvey’s device to show moderate clown as one shows up and stabs Warren. Ben’s attempt to help hits Warren in the head with a stone while his throat gets torn out. Lynn is desperately trying to will the clown away much to their dismay as the clown guts Jamie next who gives out a moan and then moves to Tabitha who isn’t having any of that. Fiona and Harvey run from the clown into the middle of the dancers.

At least until Harvey remembers Steve’s advice and turns to face the clown and stands up to it. It turns into confetti and balloons and disappears. Warren and Jamie seem to be quite dead while Tabitha has cuts on her. Benjamin suggests that they can ignore the fact that they’re dead just the same way that Lynn tried to will away the clown. As Harvey attempts to take a pulse, Harlowe tells him to just bandage them up, they’ve got a lot of clothing there. As Harvey attempts to bandage them up, Lynn gets a hold of herself and they all wake up.

Harlowe and Jamie are the worst affected by their experiences while Tabbs, Harvey, and Fiona are the least affected. Jamie is sitting there crying and Fiona goes to comfort Jamie and Lynn who both cry into her arms. Warren feels sick and rushes to the toilet to throw up, then he comes back saying that he’s hungry but doesn’t feel like eating, reminded of food Harlowe looks for the bowl of oatmeal he was eating only to find that was also part of the dream. Sighing, he goes back to get some food, a bowl of cold congealed oatmeal much to everyone else’s horror.

Aftermath

At eight in the morning, Counselor Steve shows up where he is scanned by Harvey, showing that he’s radiating the same energy as the kids. Steve is rather upbeat and excited that it’s Friday and the end of the week. They eat breakfast together, though Steve still seems to be eating normal amounts. He’s given them his daily assignments, today is a lab day where they need to gather mushrooms and examine them in the labs. He’s given them a chart of how to identify mushrooms and what’s safe. Harlowe leads the group to gather the mushrooms while Harvey, Fiona, and Benjamin analyze it in the lab. Harlowe investigate the wall and finds that they’ve patched the hole in the wall of the lab under the posters. Harvey gets the same strange interface in front of his eyes again as he uses his ability on the mushrooms. They do a fantastic report which wins them the contest, winning a nice prize for the cabin.

After some free time, they’re led to participate in some sports, in this case dodge ball. Benjamin uses his soccer skills to lead the team while Tabitha and Harlowe acquit themselves well, though Harlowe inadvertently activates his abilities, surrounding the ball and to knock another kid on his butt when it hits. Some more free time and dinner becomes a beef and mushroom stroganoff.

After Action Report (GM)

This session was pretty good as we switched genre’s a bit and slid over into the horror that is often just under the surface of most games I run. I like horror and I consider myself a horror GM first in most cases. But this one was good. The PCs acted *very* appropriately and in character and I occasionally invoked their foibles for them because of just how they were acting. What they think happened: Lynn lost control of her nascent telepathic powers. What actually happened: Lynn was psychically attacked in her sleep and pulled a Nancy from Nightmare on Elm Street and dragged everyone into her dream. Now, dream games can be great, but it’s all about the dose: either it’s mostly about the sleeping world or it’s mostly about the waking world. This was just someone flexing their metahuman powers and I am rather pleased with how it turned out to be honest.

This was the penultimate session, next game the PCs will be confronting whoever plagued them this session and then I’ll enact a time skip. I do need to decide if next time skip takes place as Camp Nightwatch or if it takes place in the city at the Meraki Foundation Building. Might let the players decide and just roll with it.

Other Notes

I had to “pause” the game a few times more than I wanted because Life(TM).

Soundtrack

“Last Night I Had a Dream” by Paul Newman
“Ghost” by Badflower
“I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers