Sunday, January 14, 2018

Creeping Fruticose 5

Terra Knafferly, biologist and academic
Insight 5

Babar Alvi, failed chemist postdoc, urban explorer
Insight 4

Clues

  • Bob’s notes detail an Alaska expedition which uncovered a voracious and unknown lichen, which seemed clumped around a curiously eroded stump of wood. (1)
  • One of the people on the trip, in the 80s, has the same face as Terra Knafferly, Bob’s niece. (1)
  • Bob’s suicide note spoke of a gate and various incoherent things. (2)
  • Adina Haun mentioned Bob’s expedition, which otherwise seems scrubbed away. She’s in the Anthropology department. (3)
  • materials storage moved to biology department (4)
  • Dr. Troy Gingery led this movement and a subsequent dangerous chemical cleanup that wasn’t really announced (4)
  • Dr. Troy Gingery was a rival of Bob’s. (4)
  • Dr Lance Gleason and Dr Ben Samuels have duplicates on campus who chased Terra and Bar (4)


(Their plan: Teaching Hospital for supplies, then biology department)
(I’m rolling for Terra getting gear, as always, it's Human and Profession d6s in that order)
T: 1, 1

“So you’re saying you can’t requisition anything for me?” Terra said.

“We have some N95 respirators…”

Terra glared at her hospital contact, Shelly Millard, hands clenching. Her face begins to twitch hideously, in anger or fear, Millard can't tell.

Reroll with insight: 1, 6
Insight: 5
Extra insight check! : 2 (Since I re-rolled with insight and got a 6 for Terra’s profession, I check insight) (I think I mistakenly bumped up her Insight from 4 to 5 here because the Insight die in the re-roll was a 5. EH)

Shelly crumbled under Terra’s glare. The biologist never blinked, even as her face spasmed.

“I’ll... see what I can do, Terra.”

Terra remembered something as Shelly turned around. “I also need a pump-sprayer and concentrated hydrogen peroxide for it.”

"Great!” Shelly called out as she left.

She left. Terra turned to Bar, told him to wait at the counter, and hurried off to a bathroom. Inside, she pulled the photo from her uncle's notes. The writhing pattern written in wood, and the woman.

“Not my face, not my face”

She murmured, over and over, as she ripped the photograph up and flushed it away.

Insight Reduce Roll: 1! Terra loses Insight.

The fragments swirl and are gone, and Terra feels that the other woman must be as well. Somehow.

She comes back as Shelly carried out a heavy black duffel bag and plopped it on the pharmacy counter.

“Will that be all?” she asked drolly.

“Thank you Shelly. Really. Thank you.” Terra said, leaning in. Shelly looked almost as scared of the genuineness in Terra’s voice as she had at her twitching intensity.

Outside, Bar glanced over at Terra.

“So now what?”

“I think this is what was used, more or less, to clean out… Something. Something that happened to the lichen stored under the bio department, if that’s what’s down there.”

“It couldn’t have worked that well, if we’re where we’re at now.”

Terra shrugged.

“You want to walk, go ahead. But I think we both owe it to Bob - Bob’s memory - to go down there and try.”

(roll to avoid searching lichen duplicates? not yet!)

It’s getting into late afternoon. The two head to the hospital cafeteria and eat. Bar searches through his pockets.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just my lucky coin.”

“Your name is Bar and you're in AA?”

Bar shrugged. “It’s short for Babar. I just got tired of that kid’s book getting brought up. Anyway, it’s how I met Bob."

“I didn’t know he was in there.”

“Yeah, he was a great guy. Really friendly.”

“Bob never, well. I think he must’ve saved that side for the meetings, then.”

Bar looked at her quizzically.

“He was just… very driven. Very driven. Very intense. I guess it was just how he dealt with knowing all this, knowing it and never saying anything, knowing and hoping no one else ever would.”

“What do you think we’ll find in the biology department?”

“I’ve worked there for 20 years. It’s not a sinister place. But…”

“What?”

“I guess I don’t really know it. If Ben and Lance are going to come and chase after us, all…”

They both thought of those empty, expressionless faces. It hadn’t looked like the two were breathing hard as they came on. They looked untroubled, almost serene. Terra had never seen either of them look so relaxed.

Terra finished her soup, chews on her grilled cheese. Puts it down slowly.

There’s fruticose edging out under the cheese. Scraped by her teeth. She’s already swallowed, the bite traveling into a deep, growing emptiness inside her, a hole full of bile and fear. Bar takes a bite of apple, pauses. Slams his hand on the table as he leans to the side, vomits.

A trail of lichen stretches from the core of his apple.

INSIGHT:
T: 6, ++. Good thing she destroyed some evidence before this!
B: 2

Terra feels vertigo. She sits wondering if she can detect the lichen inside of her. If a bite of it will survive her stomach acid.

“No reason to think I’ll be alright from this,” she murmurs.

Bar retches again. She reaches out and grips his hand. He pants and looks up to her.

“We need to get to a lab,” she says.

"Did you swallow any? I think I got all that back up..." Bar says, coughing.

"I'm fine. I think I stopped just short of it. Listen, we need to get to a lab... This is the first sample of this rat bastard, we need to find out what it is."

(Does Bar believe this? Bar: 2, Terra: 1, so, nope.)

“Wait.”

The kitchen staff is gone. The off-hours cafeteria is empty save for the two of them.

“I want to check back there.”

Bar hops the counter and checks the back area, kitchen and dishwashing nook. No one is around. A large steel vat of water boils.

“Bar?” Terra calls out.

“They’re gone,” he says to himself.

Terra Knafferly, biologist and academic
Insight 5

Babar Alvi, failed chemist postdoc, urban explorer
Insight 4

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