408: In the Same Room

Synopsis

The episode picks up where 407: Coffee & Cigarettes left off. Major Bakersfield, Dom Druncard and Tallahassee drive north across the bridge and then east to the outskirts of town, to an area of old Arkham that the Keeper describes as full of large Georgian mansions with spacious yards and beautiful architecture, most of them fallen into disrepair. The house they are after is on the river side of the street. It was once a nice, or at least modest, cottage and is now run down and not much more than a shack. It is dusk at the end of November, and a freezing sleet is coming down that looks like it is turning into ice and snow. The car is left a little way past the house, the nearby homes look abandoned with dark windows, and the few people on the sidewalks pay the group no attention. Tallahassee suggests splitting up, with himself and Dom going in the front and the Major sneaking around the back, and the Major agrees, reminding them how he caught the Miskatonic Mangler. Dom and Tallahassee knock on the front door and get no answer, with Tallahassee holding his gun down behind his leg. In the back, the Major hops a small fence into a yard that runs all the way to the river and a little pier. Remarking that the note said to take out the trash, he wheels the trash can around to the front, then looks through the back window into a dark, clean kitchen and finds the back door unlocked. He goes in, hears the knocking from up front, crosses a small living room with second-hand furniture and a desk, and opens the front door to let the others in.

Just inside the door is a pile of mail that the door pushes aside, and the group gathers it up and looks through it. One piece is addressed to John Johnson, and the Keeper doesn't say who that is. Most of the rest is junk mail, but an electric bill that is past due shows that the resident of the house is Anna Fairbanks. A player suggests that the note from Harman Vance's jacket telling someone to take out the trash was a euphemism for taking out Anna Fairbanks. Tallahassee keeps watch at the front window while Dom and the Major search the single-floor house. Dom succeeds on Spot Hidden and the Major fails, and Tallahassee gets a hard success on his own roll as lookout. The house is tidy, has a layer of dust that suggests nobody has been there for a while, and holds almost nothing personally identifying, with faded patches on the wallpaper where photographs used to hang. In the desk Dom finds a stained but intact business card for Ricky Dubois, a reporter for the Arkham Gazette covering arts and music, with the newspaper's address and a handwritten phone number.

On a second Spot Hidden roll Dom succeeds and the Major fails again, but a Luck roll from the Major is a hard success. As he wanders into the kitchen he trips and stumbles on the runner carpet between the living room and the back door, and Dom notices that the runner does not move at all. With the Major helping and a bonus die, Dom succeeds on a Strength roll, and the two pull the runner up with a ripping noise to find that it is glued to the hardwood floor. Beneath it are smears of blood. The Keeper says that some effort was made to clean it up and that the runner appears to have been put down to hide it. Dom tells Tallahassee, who is still watching two figures on the street: a disheveled man walking along the near side who stops at the edge of the yard to fumble with his pockets, and another person heading toward the house from across the street. Tallahassee can't tell whether either is suspicious but keeps an eye on them. Players speculate about what happened to Anna Fairbanks. Dom goes to the phone on the desk to call Ricky Dubois and ask whether he knows Anna Fairbanks, and the line is ringing as the scene moves on. The Major follows the streaks of blood toward the back door and goes outside, fails a Spot Hidden roll, and loses the trail in the small fenced backyard that leads to the river and the pier.

The Keeper then cuts to Billy and Dr. Simeon, who are walking through the hospital's main reception area. After a Spot Hidden roll for Billy and a Listen roll for Simeon, Billy spots Detective Crane from the police station standing at the reception desk next to a very finely dressed older gentleman with styled white hair. Simeon overhears Crane, who wears a trench coat and fedora, call the older man Mr. Goddard and say that he is back here. Mr. Goddard asks him to tell him exactly what happened, and Crane says that last night they picked the man up downtown, fighting with a bunch of hobos, and that he is in pretty bad shape. They brought him to the hospital instead of the police station so that nothing would go on record and there would be no problems for Mr. Goddard. Mr. Goddard says "okay, take me to him," and a nurse leads the two men back through the doors. Billy and Simeon talk it over, and Billy suggests that Simeon act like a doctor and follow them. With the nurse gone from the station, the two go to the counter, and Billy rolls Library Use with Simeon helping, searching through the admittance papers until he finds Raymond Goddard's name and room number, which he writes on his hand. The Keeper says that this is a different nurse from the one who brought them downstairs, who was covering reception while Nurse Witherspoon was upstairs. Simeon rolls a disguise and finds nothing to wear, then decides to walk in holding a clipboard, since the Keeper confirms that this is a psych ward, while Billy ducks behind the stairs to watch the door.

Simeon follows the group to Raymond's room, where the door has been left open, and knocks and steps in. The nurse asks who he is and says that she has not heard about a psychologist, and Simeon says that he is the psychologist on staff, called in for a quick evaluation, and that it happens all the time. She says she will check with the doctor, and a successful roll of 51 gets her to let it go for the moment. Mr. Goddard, whom Raymond calls dad, asks Simeon to find out what his son is suffering from. In the bed is a young man in his mid-twenties who was handsome but now looks disheveled, with messy black hair, sunken cheeks and bags under his eyes, as if he hasn't slept or eaten. Told to tell the doctor everything, Raymond rants about the shadow thing and the radios, says that he needs a radio, and says that Harman knew all about it, was onto it and asked for a radio. He says that the man, the shadow, the thing has been after him for days, that he can't sleep, that he has been going from place to place and can't go home, and that it finds him everywhere. He says that he is not crazy either and doesn't need a shrink, and that a radio is how he knows when it is coming.

At that point Billy takes the radio out of his pocket, and it bursts into life again with static and a voice that sounds like it says Raymond. Billy rolls Listen to hear where it is moving, and hears static pick up in another room, so he runs back toward Raymond's room. As he runs, he hears the static fade into a regular station and another radio farther down the hall flare into static. Meanwhile Raymond goes silent, rolls his eyes back and makes a choking sound before going limp in the bed. Mr. Goddard asks the doctor what is happening and pleads for help for his son, and Simeon says that this is beyond his skill set. Billy arrives and Crane asks what he is doing there, and Billy says that the radio started squawking out of the blue and that he followed it down the hallway because it was saying a name. Crane and Mr. Goddard hear the voice say Raymond. Out of the corner of his eye, Simeon sees the figure of a shadow next to Raymond's head, and he asks whether his Smiting Blast of the Foul One would work on a spirit. A Psychology roll shows Billy that Simeon is looking at something without looking at it, and Simeon tells him that it is right above Raymond's head. When Billy walks over and swats at the air, he feels nothing.

Raymond then jerks in the bed, and blood appears on his shirt as invisible wounds stab into his chest, one after another. Billy grabs him by the shoulders and casts Command and says "return." His POW roll of 89 succeeds, but Raymond's eyelids only flutter and the wounds keep coming as the static on the radio rises to a piercing whine and then cuts off. Crane and Mr. Goddard shout for nurses and doctors, who rush in, push everyone aside and try first aid, though those in the room suspect that it is already too late. Raymond Goddard is stabbed to death by unseen wounds in front of everyone. Billy nods to Simeon, and the two slip out in the commotion. After a player points out that nobody has rolled for sanity, both of them fail. After intelligence rolls that both succeed, the events of the long day, with Billy up all night, push both of them into a bout of madness. They wander back to the reception area and sit in the chairs next to each other in shock, and the Keeper says that Billy can't hear or see.

Funny Moments

When the Major offers to go around the back, the Keeper says "though now you do understand why in the army they called him Mr. Sneaky Feet."
The Major wheels the trash can around to the front and says "Done and done."
The Major asks about a doggie door, then a cat door. The Keeper says "Absolutely, there's a cat door," and that "somehow you fit through the cat door."
When the Major opens the front door to Dom, the Keeper says "the gun goes off in your face as soon as the door opens." The Major answers "Yeah, you finally caught me," and "This whole thing was a ploy to get us to take out a trash."
The group wants to keep the mail and says it will find a mail tub and write a note that it is on hold. The Keeper says that you do find one, as they are "the most useful totes that have ever been invented in the history of the world."
Dom finds a second business card on the desk, and the Keeper describes "it even has a watermark" before revealing it as Paul Allen's business card, a nod to American Psycho.
The Keeper says "You guys hear the Nickelback song on the wind floating in," and Simeon sings along.
Dom says "We found blood and glue." Tallahassee asks "Blue blood?" and Dom answers "No, we found blood."
Simeon tells Billy "Billy, I'm gonna throw a brick through this window," and "Your boss is here."
Simeon asks "Is this a psych ward?" and says "Of course, I work here," after rolling a disguise and saying "I write my name on my forehead."
Raymond says "I don't need a shrink," and Simeon answers "Well, as a psychologist, I'd say you do."
A player asks "Did they just see a man get stabbed by invisible knives and not roll a sanity check?" and the Keeper says "Oh, that's a good point," then "Terrible, I always forget sanity rolls."

Notable Quotes

"I'm good at that." —Major Bakersfield
"my gun was already drawn before we came to the house" —Tallahassee
"Somebody glued this runner down." —Dom Druncard
"I would like to know if he knows Anna Fairbanks." —Dom Druncard
"we didn't wanna cause any problems for you there." —Detective Crane
"tell me exactly what happened" —the elder Mr. Goddard
"that's how I know when he's coming" —Raymond Goddard
"He finds me everywhere." —Raymond Goddard
"this is beyond my skill set" —Dr. Simeon
"He's right above Raymond's head." —Dr. Simeon
"this radio just started squawking out of the blue" —Billy
"I cast it and I say return." —Billy