Dom Druncard

Also known as Prospero.

Dominic John "Dom" Druncard is one of the neighbors who gathers at Tallahassee Turner's house in Mister Corbitt and gets pulled into the investigation of Bernard Corbitt. He is the investigator who suffers the most at Corbitt's hands: he is chanted into helplessness, kidnapped, forced into an attic, and later attacked by the thing that lived there, before finally getting a measure of revenge. By the end of the story he has, for the first time in a long while, found people he can trust.

Season 1: Mister Corbitt

101: It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Dom is one of the neighbors enjoying "non-alcoholic water" and jazz at Tallahassee's house when Corbitt arrives with his wrapped packages. His attempt at baking cookies for the visit produces charred sludge that the group insists on calling "crumpets". Inside Corbitt's house he snoops "under cover of bathroom breaks" and finds only a closet containing an extremely excellent hat, which fits so perfectly that he throws it out the guest room window for later retrieval. When Major Bakersfield repeats the idea with another hat and a pea coat, the pile of outerwear on Corbitt's lawn is what nosy neighbor Tom Barber reports to Corbitt.

102: Neighborhood Watch

During the nighttime surveillance of Corbitt's yard Dom fumbles his climb and falls off the fence, injuring himself; the group then remembers it owns a ladder. When Corbitt's light comes on, Dom hides against the house, then finds the back door unlocked and slips inside. He overhears Corbitt on the telephone reporting prowlers, slips past him, and goes upstairs. In Corbitt's bedroom he finds the book Plants and Fungi of the Amazon Basin by Dr. P. D. Florence in the nightstand. He then pulls down the squeaky attic ladder and sees a woman's face staring down at him with long dark hair, lifeless eyes and a hanging mouth, which costs him Sanity. Corbitt appears behind him, chanting strange syllables, and Dom fails his POW roll (a running gag has him trying to substitute "handsome" for it). A scream from upstairs ends the episode.

103: Usual Suspects

Dom is missing for most of the episode while the others are questioned by Detective Frank Kovach and Detective Burke. He wakes with a pounding head in the trunk of a moving car, hands tied and pockets emptied, and uses a heavy metal bar to lever the trunk open. When the car stops he attacks the driver, a tall, wiry, mean-looking man with a switchblade, in what the table calls the wimpiest fight imaginable. He bull-rushes the man into the car, knocking the switchblade away, and runs. After a chase through the industrial streets he reaches a shop, gets a perfect look at the pursuing car's license plate with a Spot Hidden roll, writes it down, and calls the police.

104: Attic Window

Kovach brings Dom to Dr. Simeon's house the next morning, and Dom recounts the escape and the license plate. He and Billy McConnell try to watch Corbitt's house from a window, and Dom crashes into the window while trying to stay stealthy. The plate leads them to Randolph Tomaszewski, an orderly at Central Hospital who had been questioned over pet mutilations. When Tallahassee's developed photograph shows a woman's face in Corbitt's attic window, Dom's memories return: he had been in the house, seen the face, and been forced into the attic by Corbitt's chanting. He sat there for hours while his friends and then the police searched below without opening the attic door, and he remembers something else moving in the attic with him.

105: Radical Medicine

Dom explains that after seeing the face he heard Corbitt chanting and lost control of his body. He and Billy visit Central Hospital, where they speak to nurse Miss Witherspoon and the superintendent, Dr. Doyle, and learn that Tomaszewski was fired after being linked to the pet mutilation case and that he used to dispose of amputated limbs in the hospital incinerator. Doyle supplies Tomaszewski's address, 143 Crenshaw, Apartment 4B.

106: The Miskatonic Mangler

Dom, Billy and Major Bakersfield track Randolph Tomaszewski to Crenshaw. Dom recognizes him the moment he opens the door as the man who abducted him, and when the Major nets him in the alley Dom delivers a "deeply personal revenge kick" to the ribs. Tomaszewski confesses that Corbitt ordered Dom's abduction and murder and that he is the Miskatonic Mangler. In his apartment Dom recognizes the book True Magic by C. Adolphus Renwen as a real and serious work on occult rituals rather than the usual fraud. He and the Major bring the book and the purple vial to Simeon's house.

107: Fates and Retribution

Dom is one of the three investigators (with Tallahassee and Major Bakersfield) watching over Simeon after he drinks the purple vial, and he witnesses the invisible wounds that tear open Simeon's body. He is present the next morning as the group debates how to get at Corbitt, and the plan settles on breaking into the house once Corbitt leaves.

108: Head of the Beast

During a thunderstorm Dom picks the lock and the group breaks into Corbitt's house. He returns to the attic despite his earlier trauma, pushes a Listen roll by closing his eyes to "listen real hard", and the woman's severed head drops onto his scalp. It has been turned into a spider-like creature with bony arm-legs. Dom tears it off his head, Tallahassee rips it off his chest, and Dom destroys it with a point-blank .38 shot, adding his catchphrase "Dutch, no way to get ahead in life." Because he has killed the source of his terror, the Keeper lets him recover 3 Sanity. Dom then spends half an hour searching the attic and finds only puncture marks on the walls and ceiling, bags the head-beast, reads Corbitt's first 1911 journal aloud to the group, and is part of the party when Bakersfield finds the hidden basement panel. Dom solves the lock with his lockpicking skill, narrowly beating Tallahassee's plan to shoot it open, and the basement door clicks open.

109: For Whom the Dice Rolls

Dom and the others take Corbitt into the basement, where they find the hidden laboratory and the monstrous child. When the creature seizes Major Bakersfield, Dom, with Simeon out of action and Billy unconscious, rushes forward and fires his revolver point-blank into its mouth. As he fires he hears the names "Fiona" and "Sam" ring in his head and cries out Sam's name with the final shot, which finally kills it. Afterward he goes back to Bakersfield's house to wash up and drink from the Major's nice glasses. In the epilogue he realizes that after years of wandering alone he has found people he may finally be able to be honest with, and who may help him in his search for the truth.

Notable quotes

"It was like, you know, I had a fair amount of spirits."
"All pockets from all dead people in the room are being searched by me."
"Dutch, no way to get ahead in life."

In 203: A Night With No Moon he loses Sanity on seeing the dead light in the hallway, is trapped in the basement when it pours down the stairs, and is pulled out of a window by Billy McConnell. The light burns his ankle for four points of damage before he dodges a second tendril. He then runs for the truck, looking for a flamethrower the group does not have.

In 204: Night of the Living Dead Light he dodges the dead light, fails, and runs around the far side of the truck, and later gets a hit point back from the Major's first aid. At the cafe he points out that the sack-headed man's wallet held a picture of Mary, and theorizes that the two were connected.

In 205: Lights Out he shows Mary the photograph from the wallet and tries to talk her down with a charm roll. He tackles her to the floor with an extreme success, runs out into the storm for the silver coffer, and brings it in open. He fails his POW roll and is drawn toward the dead light until the Major knocks him down, and once the light is back inside he slams the lid and seals it with wax.

In 301: No Rest for the Wicked he appears dead in a Spanish uniform in Tallahassee's nightmare. Awake, he laments that the truck holds no flamethrower, and he reminds Tallahassee how many people the dead light might have killed if they had not stopped it.

In 302: The Huggening he goes with Billy to Denny's Tavern, asks Ezra Denny for "possessed waters," and keeps the drinks flowing to old constable Robert Morgan, who repeatedly calls him "baby boy." He worries that no one has seen Mordecai Shep for weeks and suggests checking his shack.

In 303: The Grand Slam the Keeper notes that Dom is the sanest of the investigators, which Dom credits to "all the drinking I do." He pushes for a visit to Mordecai Shep's shack, listens at its door, and pockets the roughly $400 and the .38 revolver from the hidden box.

In 304: Pet, Cemetery he buys round after round of scotch in Denny's Tavern and slams the campsite photograph down in front of Percival Warthrop to watch his reaction. While Percival keeps watch that night, Dom tells him about his wife Fiona and son Sam, who vanished from their London home 13 years earlier and left a strange symbol burned into the sitting room floor. Percival recognizes the symbol as belonging to the Order of Scorpius and the Devereaux family of witches, who have ties to Salem, and asks whether Fiona's maiden name was Devereaux. Dom refuses Percival's advice to let it go, saying that he is too far down the rabbit hole, and Percival promises to ask his contacts.

In 305: The Shining... Skin he helps try to force open J.G. Faust's tomb and asks Percival Warthrop whether he recognizes the gouges in the stairwell. In the laboratory below, he works out that the "phantom fire" probably smothered itself after the tomb door swung shut, which is why no one could find it.

In 306: Cellar Door he admits that he is terrible at research and joins Tallahassee Turner and Major Bakersfield in searching the Russell farm. In the barn's storm cellar, he is frozen briefly in shock by the headless creature, then rushes in and buries his machete in its back as it bites Tallahassee. The blow snaps Tallahassee out of his delusion.

In 307: Smooth Criminal he presses Percival Warthrop with questions about the creature's missing anatomy. He fumbles his search and gets lost on the way to the barn. He suggests that Percival's autopsy reveal where the creature's vital organs are so the group will know where to shoot.

In 308: Infestation he successfully charms Goodman Gray by arguing that neither group benefits from the creatures rampaging across the countryside. His argument leads Gray to propose working together to cull them. He then joins the rush into the sanatorium and the escape that follows.

In 309: Boom Goes the Dynamite he prepares more Molotov cocktails from his smuggled booze. He follows Percival Warthrop around the Adams and Kedridge farms and agrees that the attacks are getting more recent closer to town.

In 310: Salem's Lot he finally gets his hands on a flamethrower, handed over by Goodman Gray's men during the fortification of Denny's.

In 311: Beefing the Defenses one of Goodman Gray's men teaches him the basics of the flamethrower. He then stages a brawl with Percival Warthrop to pin down Gray's driver.

In 312: Edge of Sharkness he takes the front door of Denny's with the flamethrower and shares a few swigs of whiskey and some gloomy advice with Robert Morgan.

In 313: The Arrival he scouts the creatures' advance with the flamethrower, then brings down a ten-foot adult creature with three shots from his M1911, taking out both of its eyes before the third shot spills its insides.

In 314: The Siege his flamethrower malfunctions when a creature smashes the barrel, setting Denny's Tavern on fire. He abandons it and wounds a creature with blind shots through the back door as the group retreats upstairs.

In 315: Legends Never Die he blows up his abandoned flamethrower tank beneath the alpha, then takes control of the creature through its carved runes after recognizing among them the symbol he found when his family disappeared.

In 316: The Last Stand his control over the alpha is broken by an explosion behind Denny's Tavern. He lights the dynamite for the group's last stand and helps finish off the surviving creatures.

In 401: Static Prevails he checks the dead man's pockets at the Riverview Apartments and finds a fully loaded, unfired snub-nosed .38 revolver but no ID. He asks whether the wounds could have come from a Freddy Krueger glove and joins the plan to check out the pawn shop.

In 402: Criminal Energy he breaks open the locked drawers behind the Pawn and Prawns' counter with a brick, fumbling the first try and smashing his own hand, until he finds a fine wristwatch with a black leather band engraved "RG." He wipes down the drawers, takes the brick with him, and takes only that one item so that the shop will look as if it was robbed for a single piece.

In 403: I Will Steal You Back he offers Hiram Hopkins, the owner of the Pawn and Prawns, his knowledge of the less respectable people in Arkham in exchange for the full truth about John Johnson. He keeps hold of the stolen watch, saying he is not letting it out of his sight and asking whether anyone has any idea how much booze it could buy. He then goes with the Major to take the watch to Cortex Studios.

In 404: Episode IV he and the Major drive to Cortex Studios, where he suggests that they say they are with the police, which he says is technically true. He charms the owner, Jelty, with a hard success, shows him the watch, and says it was involved in a crime earlier that morning. After Jelty's records name the watch's owner, Dom asks about the Goddard family, John Johnson and the boatmen. On the street, he suggests checking under the car for bombs.

In 405: Be Sensible he and the Major drive to Raymond Goddard's house, where he tells the Major he is worried about him and suggests opening with the pawn shop break-in and the missing watch. When the man at the door claims to be Raymond Goddard, he says they are consultants with the police, and a Psychology check shows that the man looks genuinely confused when asked about the watch. After the Major's license check turns up the name Devin Black, Dom presses him to come clean, quietly draws his gun, begs him to tell the truth and asks whether he works for the mayor. He says he suspects he knows who John Johnson is and that Devin could identify him, and the Keeper tells him the octopus dog tag matches the bodies in the tomb.

In 406: Pain he answers the knock at the door of Raymond Goddard's house while the Major carries Devin Black out of sight. He talks to the neighbor, Bryce Gantt, saying that Mr. Goddard has returned from his holiday and wants his new furnishings and that furniture fell on a tender part of the body. A Charm roll gets an extreme success, and he shuts the door on Bryce. He then slaps the Major in the face for torturing Devin and argues with him about it, saying that he will keep both eyes on him and hopes that the Major will stop him if he ever does the same. At Pizza Dragons he says that they will not tell the others about the torture or the tying up, only that they leaned on Devin and that he went pale at the name Goodman Gray. He goes with the Major and Tallahassee to O'Malley's.

In 407: Coffee & Cigarettes he goes with the Major and Tallahassee to O'Malley's cafe, where he tells the barista Sheamus O'Malley that Harman Vance did not demise himself. He says that Harman was killed the same way his dear beloved wife was and that they want to find out more, and the Keeper offers him the Charm roll. He describes Harman's apartment full of radios, locked up with no sign of a break-in, and notes that the place where they found him was not a ground-floor apartment. He asks Sheamus for Harman's address, and the group finds a note signed RG in Harman's jacket and heads for East Water Street.

In 408: In the Same Room he goes with the Major and Tallahassee to the house on East Water Street and knocks on the front door with Tallahassee. Inside, he picks up a piece of mail addressed to John Johnson (the fake name Harman Vance used), helps the group find an electric bill for Anna Fairbanks, and searches the living room with the Major. He asks whether the house has been empty for a while and learns that it is dusty, then finds a business card for Ricky Dubois of the Arkham Gazette in the desk. When the runner carpet will not move, he pulls it up with the Major's help and finds that it is glued down over smears of blood. He tells Tallahassee about the blood and glue, then calls Ricky Dubois from the phone on the desk to ask whether he knows Anna Fairbanks, and the phone is ringing when the scene moves on.

In 409: Pass the Baby he phones Ricky Dubois at the Gazette from the house and, after the receptionist shouts for Ricky, tells him that Anna Fairbanks is in serious trouble. He asks when Ricky last saw her and what she told him, and when Ricky says that her maiden name is Tomaszewski, he answers that her brother is the Miskatonic Mangler. He asks whether the coffee shop where she meant to meet Ricky was O'Malley's, warns him that he may also be in danger and urges him to seek protection, and they agree to meet at O'Malley's at 8 a.m. the next day. He then phones the police to report gunfire and violence at the address, which the Keeper says sends them straight to the house. When the men outside advance, he draws his 1911, warns them that the only river they will be crossing is the river Styx and shoots first, killing the nearest gunman with a roll of 1 for 16 damage. He is shot in the hip for 7 damage, takes a major wound, spends Luck to stay conscious and fires back from the doorway, hitting twice for nine damage. He cannot move well, so the Major carries him to the boat, where the boatman swaddles him in a blanket while he insists that he is fighting like a man.

In 410: Just Watch the Fireworks he is badly wounded, and the Keeper says he is no longer bleeding out after the Major's first aid. He asks to be carried into Simeon's study "like a baby" and is tucked in on the couch. After the others compare notes, he lays out his theory of the case: he names the victims as Elizabeth Bakersfield, John Johnson (the fake name Harman Vance used), Dr. Doyle and Raymond Goddard, says "Anna Fairbanks is the key that unlocks this entire case," and says the only person with a motive is Randolph Tomaszewski. He warns that Ricky Dubois may be the leak, since Anna told only him. Dom later asks Runch to carry him up the stairs "like a baby," and says "I'm just going to rest my eyes for just a moment" while Runch rocks him. Near the end of the episode Runch drags Dom out of the room by the feet, and Dom's condition is left unclear.