407: Coffee & Cigarettes

Synopsis

The episode picks up where 406: Pain left off. Dom Druncard, Major Bakersfield and Tallahassee pile into the other vehicle and drive to O'Malley's, which the Keeper describes as a small cafe in a nearby district. It looks like a bar from before Prohibition that has been repurposed to sell fancy coffees and teas to the fancier types in town, rather than to the old rough and tumble crowd. Most of the group are from Arkham or have lived there a while, and the Keeper reminds them that the O'Malleys are well known around town and that it is an open secret that they are engaged in less than legal activities. Tallahassee settles his fedora, tightens the bullwhip on his belt and steps in, and the bell on the door dings. It is late afternoon in November and getting dusky. Only a couple of customers are inside, one at a table by the window and one at the far end of the bar who seems to want to be left alone, and one barista is working behind the counter. When the group asks for Sheamus O'Malley, the Keeper has the barista slip the name tag off his shirt and into his pocket. Tallahassee says they only want to ask him a few questions, because they heard he was a friend of Harman Vance, and the barista admits that he is Sheamus. Dom and the Major say they have bad news, Dom says that Harman did not demise himself, and Sheamus says that he is sorry because Harman was a friend who worked at the cafe as a barista, doing nothing illegal. When he asks who they are, Dom says that Harman was killed the same way his dear beloved wife was, and the Major introduces himself as Aloysius Bakersfield, a retired major, and says that he is trying to track down his wife's killer and that if Sheamus was Harman's friend they are after the same person. Sheamus offers a drink for their fallen loved ones and pulls out a bottle that is clearly not non-alcoholic water. The Keeper says that Charm is the right skill because Dom is appealing to his emotions, and Dom, with Charm 80, is offered the roll, but the table has Tallahassee deliver the pitch and roll Charm with a bonus die. Sheamus is convinced that they are not cops and pours shots, and the group drinks with a local station playing popular music in the background.

Sheamus then speaks more openly. He asks whether they have heard of the O'Malleys and says that Harman worked for the family: legitimate odds and ends at the cafe, and favors for the family. He had not seen Harman for a couple of weeks, and Harman had not been working for the family lately. When Dom describes Harman's apartment full of radios, locked up with no sign of a break-in, Sheamus does not know of anything that would explain it, and says that Harman had not mentioned boating. He says that Harman has a place downtown, on the ground floor, and gives them the address, and Dom points out that the place where they found the body was not a ground-floor apartment. The Major asks whether Harman left the family by his choice, and the Keeper has the group roll Psychology. Tallahassee and the Major succeed and see that Sheamus is nervous because he is telling the truth. Sheamus leans in and says that he wants out of the life himself and tried to talk Harman into leaving, but Harman was a lifer who wanted to climb the ladder. He says that Harman had been on loan from time to time. Some very clean-cut and secretive people come around asking for low-level muscle, and Harman was the one sent over to help them, but Sheamus does not know who they are. A player asks whether he has heard the name Goodman Gray, and he says no and that they never give names. When the dog tag symbol is shown, he first jokes about a nice horse, and when a drawing of it is pulled out he grabs the player's hand and pushes it down, telling him not to go flashing it around. He says he has seen it a time or two, thinks it is related and that these people are bad news. He describes a younger man in his twenties with slicked-back black hair, fine clothes and a nice watch, and says that the men who go off with them do not always come back, and some who do are different, will not talk to him and are not normal. A player asks whether he ever loaned anyone to Mayor Sidel of Arkham, and he says only that there are always rumors about the important people in town, but that he has never given any of them credence. Asked about the Goddards, he says that they think they are better than everyone but the money is just as dirty. Their patriarch, Erastus Goddard, is a selectman on the city council, and as far as he knows they are not tied up with the O'Malleys, and he is pretty sure the man described is Raymond Goddard. Asked about Devin Black, he says the name sounds familiar and he could have worked for the family, but he does not remember. Before the group leaves, the Major gives Sheamus his card, and Sheamus goes to the back to check whether Harman left anything. He returns to find the group guzzling the booze. Harman left a jacket, and in its pockets the group finds a folded note that reads "take out the trash," gives an address and is signed RG. The address is on the north side of the river, heading east out of town, in a run-down area, and it is not the address Sheamus gave for Harman's apartment or Raymond Goddard's house in the upscale south side of town. The Keeper says the whole exchange took about 30 minutes with drive time. After debating whether to wait at Dr. Simeon's for the others or follow one of the two addresses, the group decides to go to East Water Street, and the Keeper has them cross a bridge to the run-down district on the north side of town.

The Keeper then cuts back to Billy and Dr. Simeon, who are searching Dr. Doyle's office at Arkham Hospital after their successful rolls. Nurse Witherspoon hovers around them, then leaves the room after saying they cannot look in the filing cabinets and that they should run anything they find by her. The office is in disarray, with papers strewn about and some drawers on the filing cabinets open, whereas Billy remembers a tidy office set up precisely with a ruler when he and Dom interviewed Dr. Doyle months earlier during the Mister Corbitt case. It is evening, and rain and sleet are starting up again outside. On the desk is a pile of papers and a book on hauntings, which catches their eye because Dr. Doyle seemed a practical man of science. One of the drawers holds a fully loaded .38 Special, which a player takes. On top of a stack of what look like employee forms is a paper with a large red stamp, and the Keeper reads the name Randolph Tomaszewski from it. Billy tells Simeon that the office is much more disorganized than he remembers and that a haunting book is completely out of character for the doctor, and he guesses that Dr. Doyle was in some kind of distress. A radio then starts playing, and the Keeper tells Billy it is coming from his pocket. He pulls it out, and static pours from it. Simeon rolls Spot Hidden and gets a 01, and the Keeper grumbles about the rule he made and says that he is changing it. When Billy sets the radio on the desk, Simeon glimpses a shadowy figure at the corner of his eye, which vanishes when he looks straight at it and comes back when he looks at the radio. A voice in the static says Billy's name twice, and Billy backs against the wall, terrified. Simeon sees the figure move toward Billy and fade, and the Keeper has Billy make a POW check. He rolls 26 against his POW of 91. The radio roars with static, Billy feels a cold sensation on his neck, and the voice asks "Do you remember me, Billy?" Billy asks who is there, the voice fades into the static, and Billy feels cold ice picks pushing into his skull and his vision flickering. His eyes roll back as Simeon calls his name, but Billy's fight response kicks in and he forces the feeling out of his head, saying "Get out of my head." The radio roars again, its lights go out and the room is silent.

Billy asks Simeon whether he heard the voice saying his name, and Simeon says he did and saw one of the shadowy figures twice in his peripheral vision, moving toward Billy. Billy says that something tried to get in his head, and Simeon asks whether he is bleeding, and the Keeper says no, there is no physical sign of it. This is Simeon's second success, so his second sighting, and Billy remembers that Tallahassee confessed to seeing the figure at Pizza Dragons too, which the Keeper confirms. Simeon wonders if whatever it is can travel unseen or through some other dimension, and Billy says that it has something to do with the radios because it seems to be around whenever they switch on out of the blue. A player suggests that the radios may be tuned to where it is, which is why the dead man was surrounded by them. Simeon looks at the addresses on the stamped paper to get them in his head just before the door opens with a knock and Nurse Witherspoon asks if there is anything she can help with. Billy tells her that it is the termination paperwork, and she says that it is not confidential or a medical record and that they can take it with them, since it is for a terminated employee anyway. Billy asks how the office got in such disarray, and she says that this is Dr. Doyle's mess, that the police looked around while she watched them so that they saw no confidential information, and that he had been getting more and more distressed and anxious in his last couple of weeks. Billy asks whether he had a radio in the office or talked about one at home, and she says that she thought she heard him mention something being broken a couple of times. When the group shows her the haunting book, she laughs and says that he picked it up a little while ago and brought it in one day. She does not know where, because there are lots of bookshops in town. She says that he was a very serious, scientific man, never mentioned ghosts or apparitions when he was distressed, and was probably reading it for fun or as a new hobby. As the group leaves, one of them apologizes for the earlier joke, and she says "What a joke" and sends them off. The Keeper tells Billy to look at the address at the bottom of the paper, and the players read out the name Anna Fairbanks. Nurse Witherspoon guides the two down the stairs and out, and Billy says they should head back and meet up with the fellas at Dr. Simeon's house.

Funny Moments

• Tallahassee says "I throw a brick through the door," and another player asks "Is it a signature, Kantstandyerbitz brick?" The Keeper narrates that it shatters and everyone runs screaming, and Tallahassee says "Alright, losers, follow me," then the door bell dings as if nothing happened.
• Asked why they want Sheamus, a few players answer that they want to kill him, and Tallahassee steps in with "We just want to ask him a few questions."
• Another player says they will blow their guns and shoot him, and the Keeper narrates a hundred gunshots and bottles exploding behind him, then says "Okay, he revealed his identity and you guys murdered him" and "Alright, jump back."
• The table says "Vance refrigeration" again, and Tallahassee says it too while describing Harman to Sheamus.
• Dom says "We were pretty positive he didn't demise himself," and Sheamus asks whether they are Irish.
• Dom says "I lost my accent" while trying to explain himself to Sheamus.
• Sheamus calls Harman a friend "even if he was a tripe gobbler," and says that you do not even want to know what it is.
• After a joke about dirty glasses, the Keeper says "He grabs a glass out of the toilet and gives it to you."
• A player hands Sheamus a stick of dynamite as a thank-you gift, and the Keeper says "He likes it."
• Sheamus comes back from the storeroom and the Keeper says "He sees you guys all just guzzling all the booze."
• Simeon rolls a 01 on Spot Hidden and asks if he can roll a d10. The Keeper says "That's a freaking success," then "I'm changing my rule."
• After the visit to Nurse Witherspoon, a player says "I hate to see what Mrs. Witherspoon looks like without her spoon," and the table repeats "With or without a spoon" until the Keeper moves on.

Notable Quotes

• "I'm pretty famous myself." —Tallahassee
• "Look, Sheamus, I'll be straight with you." —Dom Druncard
• "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" —Major Bakersfield
• "He's a barista like me, made coffees and teas and whatnot." —Sheamus O'Malley
• "Thinking they're better than everybody, but the money's just as dirty." —Sheamus O'Malley
• "They're bad news, whoever they are." —Sheamus O'Malley
• "This is his mess here." —Nurse Witherspoon
• "Do you remember me, Billy?" —a voice on the radio
• "I wasn't in your head, man." —Dr. Simeon
• "Get out of my head." —Billy