403: I Will Steal You Back

Synopsis

The episode picks up where 402: Criminal Energy left off. Tallahassee has been grabbed by a second boater outside the diner and blacked out, but the group has already piled into Billy's car, so Billy McConnell, Dr. Simeon, Major Bakersfield and Dom Druncard drive back to the Pawn and Prawns without him. The glass in the front door is smashed, and the shop's owner, Hiram Hopkins, is wandering around picking things up. Billy goes in alone, introduces himself as a detective and shows Hiram the receipt. Hiram says that the dead man, "John Johnson," came in three times, once with a younger, well-dressed man with sleek black hair, and left with the shop's last radios in exchange for a watch he called mediocre. Billy's Psychology roll shows that Hiram is leaving something out, and the ledger says the watch was worth about ten thousand dollars in today's money. Hiram goes looking for the watch and says it must be missing, which the group's own break-in explains. Billy hints that the patrolman on his way to take Hiram's statement might get lost, but his Persuade roll fails, so he calls the others in.

Dom offers the group's contacts in the less respectable parts of Arkham, and the Major pulls out his 1911 and gets in Hiram's face, rolling Intimidate with a bonus die. Hiram cracks and hands out a bucket of prawns. He admits that he lied about the watch: it was not Johnson's, because the well-dressed man, about thirty years old, five foot ten, with black hair and blue eyes, was wearing it when he came in with him. It was a custom piece, and Hiram says the only local watchmaker he knows who could have made it is Cortex Studios. As the group leaves, a different patrolman arrives and says that someone from robbery is on the way. In the car, the Major wonders whether Mayor Sidel is connected to the "RG" on the watch and suggests finding out who works closely with the mayor, but the others prefer to track down the original buyer through the watchmaker.

As they head back toward the diner, an in-world radio report from Orchard Run, near Dunwich, has reporter Charles-Ode interviewing Sheriff Russell Trombly about two men, Dr. Webb and Clem Taylor, who were found cut in half lengthwise and burnt as if in an oven, and asking for information about Mary Laker and Billy Esterhouse. Back at the diner, Ezra Denny tells them that something is wrong with Tallahassee again: he is lying like a log, breathing, with a steady heartbeat, and scaring the customers. Ezra says that he was wrestling with a hobo outside until Ezra chased the man off. Simeon casts Command on him twice with no effect, and the Keeper does not say why. The group splits: Dom and the Major take the watch to Cortex Studios, and Billy and Simeon carry Tallahassee to the medical examiner at Miskatonic.

The medical examiner, Dr. Jared Sylvester, has John Johnson's body on the table. Tallahassee is laid on top of the body, and Sylvester says he is just asleep, much like the "boaters" who have been turning up around the city: people who are alive but cannot be woken, and who only talk about the ferryman taking a ride. Billy learns that Johnson died of exposure and severe dehydration, with an empty stomach and little blood. Johnson also has four stab wounds that were not the cause of death, and Sylvester says they look very much like the wounds on the Major's wife about five weeks earlier. Billy mentions the empty caffeine bottle found at the apartment, and Sylvester doubts that caffeine killed him. Sylvester recalls that a doctor from the hospital died of exposure a few weeks ago, found at his home, and says he will dig out the file. He hands over a fingerprint card, and smelling salts do nothing for Tallahassee. As they carry Tallahassee out, Simeon sees a dark figure at the edge of his vision that is gone when he turns, and Billy feels a cold chill and shrugs it off. Billy then tries Command himself, adds a d10 to his POW roll to put extra force behind the word "wake," and wins the opposed roll when Tallahassee's fails. In his unconscious state, Tallahassee is wandering a barren landscape under an alien sky filled with strange structures of lightning, when a familiar voice, soft and yet loud, echoes from far away and speaks a word. The episode ends there.

Funny Moments

Billy hints to Hiram that the patrolman might "get lost on the way over here" unless he is completely truthful. The table cheers on the idea of getting rid of "the insurance man," and one player says, "Insurance men go missing every day."
Hiram offers prawns at every turn. When Billy says he has just come from Pizza Dragons, Hiram praises the place, and the table agrees that the Grand Slams "are a Grand Slam" and that the cook will "go places."
The Major draws his 1911 as a badge, and a player says that does not sound like Major Bakersfield. He then rolls Intimidate with a bonus die and announces, "53 out of 67... otherwise it would have been 93."
After being threatened at gunpoint, Hiram answers by offering a bucket of prawns, which the table eats raw, praising how delicious they are. He says he scoops them out of the river with buckets, and the table agrees that they smell like prawns.
The patrolman says that "some real sick freaks did this," and the group warmly agrees, suggesting the Fratellis, whom the patrolman says he knows, and a "big brick to break the window."
When Simeon's Command fails to wake Tallahassee, a player asks whether he can use his second successful roll instead, and the Keeper replies with a flat "Nope."
At the morgue Billy says, "Yeah, that's my stiff. I got another stiff right here," and then adds that the second one is not dead. The examiner asks if it is a food coma, and a player says, "He's on those Grand Slams."
Sylvester says that Johnson looks as if he had been crawling across the Sahara. When Simeon asks about prawns in the stomach, a player declares "100%, game over," and "Dr. Simeon does it again."
Dom Druncard says he is not letting the watch out of his sight: "You have any idea how much booze this can buy?"
Billy's Command takes the Keeper through a string of references to focusing his will "like a bar of steel," and the table argues about whether the phrase comes from Rammstein or from Atlas Shrugged. The Keeper says, "I'm covering a lot of references here."

Notable Quotes

"Would you like some prawns?" —Hiram Hopkins
"Look man, I don't want things to get messy here any more than you do." —Major Bakersfield
"You know how I got this one eye?" —Major Bakersfield
"I'm not letting this watch out of my sight." —Dom Druncard
"Yeah, that's my stiff. I got another stiff right here." —Billy McConnell
"It looks like he's been crawling across the Sahara." —Dr. Jared Sylvester
"All they ever do is talk about the boatman, the ferryman taking a ride." —Dr. Jared Sylvester
"These wounds look... eerily similar..." —Dr. Jared Sylvester
"Oh, hey there, buddy." —Dr. Simeon
"Wakey, wakey." —Billy McConnell
"Now I'm good, thanks." —Tallahassee Turner