*** Session 13 - Scene 11 (of 12) ***

After escaping Dolly's, Hawk takes the car over to Robert "Mouse" Anthony's auto shop, who handles all of Hawk's chop shop business. Mouse is surprised to see Hawk again so soon.

Mouse offers Hawk a hundred for the car. Hawk agrees, but also wants a taxi ride back to the office. The mechanic asks about Foxy, noticing her blank appearance.

Hawk tells Mouse that Foxy is on the Wild Duck again, saying she is seeing things like werewolves. Mouse muses that reminds him of the stories his grandmother told him about blood-sucking vampires on the plantations. Hawk assumes this was a folktale metaphor for the plantation owners.

Mouse then asks who the White boy is. Hawk says it is another guy who works for Le Doux. Mouse says he is surprised Hawk still works for the man since he is notorious for only offering Hawk a dollar for three days' worth of work. He suggests Hawk get even with Le Doux by robbing his safe, noting all those detective types have one in the office.

Hawk says he may look into that. Mouse asks where Le Doux is and Hawk explains his absence as having jumped off a building. Mouse just shakes his head, mumbling something about White people problems.

*** Session 13 - Scene 12 (of 12) ***

Hawk has the cab drop Foxy back off at home with his mother and he and Nibbons head over to Le Doux's office. Shortly after, Eberhardt calls the office and asks Madge to call him a cab (as his car was destroyed in the accident) but Hawk offers to go pick him up.

On the drive back, Eberhardt explains Le Doux had to have emergency surgery, but should recover although with some minor brain damage. Hawk isn't so sure there will be able to tell the difference.

Hawk catches Eberhardt up on what happened. He's not sure what happened to Jerboa, and knows they still need to deal with Donny, but no one wants to head out in the middle of the night to the Old Spanish Fort. Eberhardt in particular thinks they should just drop the case.

Just then, Hawk remembers Eberhardt himself might be turning into a werewolf. He pulls the car over and runs off.

Eberhardt takes control of the car and drives back to the office himself. Nibbons looks him over, but can't tell if he is changing or not. Just to be safe, Eberhardt chains himself back up again as Hawk makes it back to the office.

Since Le Doux will be out of action for a couple of days, the three men try to decide what to do next. Nibbons explains about his search for the book and trouble at the warehouse. Eberhardt suggests he go find the book, but Nibbons believes he'll need help next time.

Nibbons suggests they will need the spare gun in Le Doux's safe, which Hawk believes may also contain an anti-werewolf formula of some kind, so Hawk spends some time breaking it completely open. Once it is open, Nibbons takes the gun while Hawk divides up the money inside between the two of them in order to "keep it safe". As he does so, Madge points out she's owed a hundred in back wages so he pays her.

Inside the safe, Hawk also finds Le Doux's gold cufflinks (which Nibbons puts on Eberhardt's suit) and his deceased mother's gold locket (which Hawk, being a respectable criminal, refuses to steal).

With more time to contemplate, Hawk starts to come up with a new plan to keep Le Doux from getting too angry. He heads over to T.J.'s to see if he can get a replacement safe.

When he shows up at the pawn shop, he calls out but no one answers. Hawk heads into the back room, finding T.J. on the floor with his head bashed in from a heavy blunt object such as a baseball bat.

Hawk quickly searches for any of T.J.'s money, finding his stash. He also grabs a safe to take with him, though it isn't quite the same model as Le Doux had.

When he gets back to the office, Hawk sets the combination of the safe to match Le Doux's old one. He then puts the money he took from Le Doux back inside, now that he has T.J.'s money. Nibbons also agrees to put his money back in, but keeps the gun.

Hawk and Nibbons then wait to see if Eberhardt will change or not...

*** Interlude #4 and Session 13 - Session Notes ***

This was an interesting session in that the PCs started to get more of the pieces of the puzzle of things going on around them, but then found none of the pieces fit exactly how they expected.

Here's the strange thing - I originally planned to make this campaign more "monster of the week" style and avoid my usual penchant for overly byzantine plots. But clearly I failed since we are back to the same "several large conspiracies going on that the players (much less the PCs) can't make sense of" problem. It's an unfortunate side effect from my tendency to fill even straight-forward plots with color, foreshadowing, and subplots, and the fact the players all have terrible memories. But everyone is having fun, despite the fact they rarely understand what they are doing (and given we are representing both noire and horror tropes in the campaign, it probably fits anyway).

Various notes from the session:
* I sent a joke version of interlude #4 to my players on April Fool's Day. I won't go into the specifics because of the current political climate, but the gist of it was a scene where a president from the future (one of the candidates  hated IRL by one of the players) had a time machine to go back in time to 1925 and save the world. To add insult to injury, I had that player themselves as part of the story in the future, looking on with nothing but joy and admiration for that person (which again, in real life they hate). The last laugh was still mine, since the player didn't even get that it was a joke.

* The real interlude was sent out to my players on the following Monday. Since Pentex has only kind-of, sort-of shown up in game so far, it could still be a little bit before that ends up coming into play. But clearly there is a large plot afoot to create super soldiers of some kind.

* Characters in the interlude come from all over - Jackson, Baxter, Malus, Haywerth, and Goldman are all from the Marvel comics. Herd is more of a reference to the character John from the original 80's V. And Chairman Keel is from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.

* The biggest point of the interlude was to give a way to bring back Biggins, since his fate was never fully given in the original campaign (and they've been bugging me about bringing him back ever since).

* Eberhardt's dream recalling his interactions with the Great Race was something that I originally planned for either Fox or Nibbons, but they always made their SAN rolls (and thus, could not remember their dream).

* I used the typical joke about the alien's name being unpronounceable by humans because I didn't want to make up a name. And also because it keeps things more mysterious and alien.

* A lot of the conversation in the dream is pure exposition to give a reason why so many different Mythos things are going on at once.

* The whole "nexus being" thing comes from an old Avengers West Coast plotline about the Scarlet Witch. I'm using it here for Le Doux as a bit of a joke - it's a metaphor for how the rest of the group always relies on that player to take the lead.

* The alternate realities all show things that really did happen around that time (I believe they are all from 1926 - so in Le Doux's near future).

* The "that which endures" line comes from a slightly different Avengers West Coast plot. The whole bit about mankind's destiny to destroy itself is an overused cliché found in about every other science fiction work ever made; here I was using the film The Abyss in my head as inspiration overall, though the scene showing the atomic test blast is taken straight from the TV show, Carnivale.

* Eberhardt writing out the words on the paper included a handout to the PCs. It was supposed to look like the kind of thing a medium does when transcribing stuff from spirits. In fact, my original idea was that the spirits told Madame Rue and she brought the paper to them but then I decided it was better to go with the possessed Eberhardt route since that would allow me to have him wake up as well. I knew the PCs needed some clue as to where Nibbons was.

* It never occurred to me the PCs would confuse the clue about the theatre since it is clearly in reference to The Committee. That said, I also never understood why they never wanted to investigate there (instead of thinking about the garment company). This is one of those things that makes the game more complicated - the PCs interpret clues in ways I often find bizarre and missing the obvious. In the end, I had Le Doux make an idea roll to give him a hint about it.

* Hawk's story about his cousin is clearly a reference to Rodney King.

* Having the Thornton Brothers crew show back up served several purposes - I needed a way to redirect the PCs, I needed a way to bring back the Klan info that Nibbons missed last session, and I wanted to remind Hawk about his open plot lines (as well as foreshadow a couple of new ones). All of the gangsters are named after rappers again, as I did previously.

* I didn't originally plan for Le Doux to find anything at all at Gramarye Books, but since he went to the effort to search around, I gave another foreshadowed clue about the third Allatou cult cell (something I've been saving for a while). More on The Society later.

* Similarly, I allowed Le Doux to find a basement. I imagined the cult had a demon trapped in the basement, since that is very much in-genre for horror (with the later scenes down there very much inspired by Evil Dead II).

* I think I mentioned before, but the "klukies" thing is a joke from Fletch Lives.

* Hawk had to make a few rolls to see how much torture he had to inflict to get the men to talk. I was curious to see how far he'd take it.

* Ham Johnson is also from Fletch Lives. He's not the head of the Klan but could lead the PCs to him (assuming they remember to follow up on this later).

* I didn't actually give the author's name of the occult book before, though it was always in my notes. I wanted to remind the PCs that plot is still outstanding (and make clear it is now connected to the Klan plot).

* The thing about Hawk's fence wanting to see him was more foreshadowing. I thought that was obvious when Hawk found him dead later, but I'm not sure the player connected the comments about someone asking questions about him with the killing.

* Originally, the room Nibbons was in was going to be much larger. But when he asked for actual dimensions, I threw out something too small without thinking, so I retconned it to be a utility closet when he regained consciousness again later.

* Le Doux actually gained a point of sanity from his demon encounter since he never actually saw the creature and killed it (or at least, believed he did).

* The Le Doux player remained very confused about why the Klan guys were wearing their outfits. The other players caught on right away that it was a hazing thing.

* The Le Doux player made the Hawk player roll to see if he believed his story about letting the men go or not.

* Everyone but the Eberhardt player kept thinking it would be a good idea if he went back to work. The Eberhardt player was the only one who caught on that not only would he definitely get fired, but there was a good chance he'd get committed if he did that.

* The alluded scene with Eberhardt and Madge is a joke on the scene from one of the early episodes of Six Feet Under.

* Eberhardt's joke about forming a skinhead gang was in response to several half-IC/half-OOC jokes about his shaved body.

* Le Doux wanted to use his Cthulhu Mythos to try and piece things together. I judged that to be a great way to drive yourself further insane (he didn't lose any SAN, but did have a temporary breakdown).

* The Byakhee plot that Donny alludes to is far, far from over and is tied in to much of what is going on.

* I had some cool background info ready on the Old Spanish Fort that implied some deeper connections to things, but because of a failed roll, it never came up.

* The rescue attempt on Nibbons was classic - the group gets half a plan put together, rushes off, then realizes too late they didn't really plan things out after the first step.

* We let Foxy show back up so she could make a few rolls between instagrams or whatever it is kids do these days on their phones for hours.

* If you think I'm going to let Le Doux use Jerboa as a tank to get out of problems with no future consequences, you haven't been paying attention to how I run games.

* Mouse's tale about the vampires on the plantation is more foreshadowing. The joke about his "White people problems" comment was more me mocking the way Hawk has his character talk.

* Everyone robbing Le Doux's safe was the highlight of the session from a humor aspect since it annoyed the player so much that his companions would rob him every time he ends up in the hospital.

So did the campaign die out? Miss reading about it. Good stuff!

Quote from: Ronin;900823So did the campaign die out? Miss reading about it. Good stuff!

The campaign is still active. I have a couple of problems going on here.

First thing - I somehow neglected to post the updates for session 14 here (which we had on 4/22). I'll get that posted up right away.

The second part is the 5/6 session got canceled somewhat last minute after a couple of people couldn't make it, and then I was out of town at a business conference for our 5/20 session. So, our next session is this Friday which everyone should be able to make it to. Because it's been so long, I had to type up a quick summary of open plotlines for the players.

*** Session 14 - Cast of Characters ***

 Boudreaux "Boo" Le Doux: A Cajun and former swamp guide turned private eye who styles himself after hardboiled pulp detective novels.

 Bruno Eberhardt: A 1st generation German immigrant and seasoned police officer. He does some work on the side for Le Doux and others to supplement his income.

 Chester Lee Nibbons: A younger, bookish White guy who works as Le Doux's "partner" in order to pay off a gambling debt to him.

 Benjamin "Hawk" Brooks: A Black street kid turned enforcer. He works as muscle and provides information for Le Doux, for a price.

*** Session 14 - Scene 1 (of 10) ***

Boudreaux Le Doux finds himself in the large stone room, feeling very tall. Looking at his body, he can tell he is some sort of giant cone-shaped creature with tentacle appendages. It is very disturbing.

A similar-looking creature enters the room. Le Doux considers attacking the creature in some way, but a voice in his head tells him not to fear. The creature goes on to tell Le Doux everything will be fine, as he is there in their city of Pnakotus.

Le Doux is confused, asking why he has tentacles. The creature explains his mind is temporarily inhabiting this form. When Le Doux asks where the body’s normal mind is, it tells him that mind is temporarily in Le Doux’s body.

Confused, Le Doux asks what they are doing with his body. The creature tells him they are not doing anything, as Le Doux’s body is dying. It tells him his brain will not recover from the injury he suffered in the fall.

Le Doux wonders if he is in some sort of afterlife. He asks if this is heaven. The creature responds that it is not, it is Pnakotus.

The creature tells Le Doux they are millions of years in his past. Le Doux asks about the dinosaurs, which the creature dismisses as being out there but not a concern. It is concerned about some type of creatures called the “flying polyps”, which it says will rise and overtake them soon in this timeline, forcing them to move their minds out of this race and into the future.

Le Doux asks what the cone-shaped creatures are. The voice explains they are the dominant race of this time in Earth’s history. When the creature confirms they took over the bodies of this race, Le Doux asks what happened to the original minds in the bodies.

When the creature explains those minds are “gone”, Le Doux becomes concerned. The creature tells him morality is not a factor; his people are the Great Race of Yith, who lived until the end of time itself.

Le Doux believes these creatures are dangerous and begins looking around for something to use as a weapon. Still reading his thoughts, the creature asks him what he thinks he is going to do. Le Doux backs down.

The creature tells Le Doux not to worry, as it is actually there to help him. Le Doux is skeptical, wondering if it is the same help given to the cone-shaped race. The creature tells him they still have a need for him.

Not liking the sound of that, Le Doux asks what they want him for. It says he is part of a broader plan, but doesn’t go into details.

The creature does identify Le Doux as an agent of Nyarlathotep and says his position puts him against Hastur’s minions. Le Doux recalls the name was one Jerboa mentioned Donny was talking about but doesn’t really follow, asking who Hastur is. The creature tells him it does not matter.

Continuing on, the creature says something will happen soon in his timeline that they wish to alter. It says the incident involves the followers of Yig. Le Doux recognizes the name as the serpent god of the Quinipissa tribe mentioned in the de Tonti letter.

The creature explains that normally altering the timeline is problematic because of the possibility it would causes something it calls a “cascading paradox timequake”. Le Doux doesn’t follow at all, but it sounds bad to him.

It tells Le Doux that they have a way around that because of him being a nexus being. Le Doux asks if it is referring to humanity in general or him personally. The creature clarifies it is talking about him personally, calling him “designation Le Doux”.

Le Doux recalls Eberhardt saying something about this before and asks for clarification on what a “nexus being” is. The creature gives him the same explanation it previously gave Eberhardt – that Le Doux is native to all known realities. Le Doux doesn’t really follow but the creature says humans have not yet discovered the science behind multi-dimensional realities.

The creature tells him the important thing to understand is that alternates of him exist out in different realities. Le Doux asks what they are doing, so it takes him to the window of all realities and shows him some of the same visions it showed Eberhardt.

Le Doux asks what is happening with the rocket. The creature explains that Le Doux is part of the first liquid fuel rocket launch.

The creature says the important one to focus on is the one at the naval ammunition depot, as that Le Doux is about to die. The creature then explains its plan – they can transfer Le Doux’s mind into the alternate Le Doux’s body and move the other Le Doux’s mind into his body. Then, switching the bodies, the Le Doux who was going to die anyway will be killed while Le Doux will live on in the new body.

Le Doux has a hard time following all of this but gets the point. He asks it what it wants in return, asking what he needs to do against Yig. The creature explains merely keeping Le Doux alive longer should alter the timeline in their favor. Le Doux notes he is a bit of a pawn in the game, but the creature says he should simply think of it as an arrangement that is mutually beneficial, with Le Doux’s benefit being able to stay alive.

Mulling it over, Le Doux asks what could happen if a timequake did occur. The creature describes the possibility being “a disruption that could imperil the entire fabric of reality”, and instructs him not to deviate from the plan. Le Doux considers if that would eliminate the Yith as a threat, but it reminds him the entire universe could be destroyed.

Le Doux wants to make sure the creatures are not planning to take over humans the same way they did the cone-shaped creatures. The creature says it is unnecessary, calling his race merely “watchers out of time”. Le Doux notes that taking bodies when they need them is hardly simply watching, but the creature insists they only “borrow” the bodies.

The creature tells Le Doux to walk through a door in the room. He decides to shamble over to it, keeping an eye on the other creature.

As soon as Le Doux opens the door, everything goes black for a moment and he finds himself no longer in the cone body but in a vast sea of whiteness. Looking at himself, he appears to be in a translucent form of his own body now.

Suddenly, a train appears out of nowhere. The side of it reads, “Cross-Time Central Railroad”. Inside the train engine is the cone-shaped creature, wearing an engineer’s hat on its eye-stalk tentacle. It tells him “all aboard”.

Le Doux notes he does not have a ticket. The creature tells him it is not necessarily, saying none of this is actually real and simply how his detached astral mind is interpreting what is happening to him. It goes on to say they sent the image of the train to his mind to give him a familiar reference point.

Climbing aboard, Le Doux finds the train quickly takes him through space and time to the munitions warehouse. The creature tells him they are at his destination.

Le Doux gets out of the train and finds everything frozen, as if time has stopped. In the sky, he can see the bolt of lightning getting ready to hit the building. And standing nearby is his doppelganger, guarding the building. Le Doux notices the body has some differences from his own – a shorter haircut, a slightly different build, a scar on the face, a mustache, and a tattoo of a heart on his shoulder that reads, “Mom”.

The creature tells Le Doux to enter the body. He finds his astral form easily merges into it. Following the plan, he moves his physical form back to the train, heads to the hospital, changes clothes with the body there, then loads the body back on the train. The creature tells him it will take care of the rest.

*** Session 14 - Scene 2 (of 10) ***

As soon as the train disappears, time starts up again. The whole thing is very disorienting to Le Doux and it takes him a moment to recover.

Just as he is getting his bearings, a nurse walks in. Temporarily insane, Le Doux believes he is "Bob Le Doux", the Lakefront City-based brother of Boo. He tells the nurse he is there looking for his brother. Seeing the patient is missing, the nurse rushes out to find a doctor.

Le Doux slowly wanders out of the hospital and takes a streetcar back over to his brother's office.

Back at the office, Hawk stops himself from nodding off as he watches Eberhardt. The man has not changed into a werewolf so he feels reasonably safe.

Nearby, Nibbons snores loudly from the couch where he passed out during the night after raiding Le Doux's hidden stash of whiskey bottles.

Seeing it is light out now, Eberhardt tells Hawk to unchain him. Hawk asks where the key is. Eberhardt directs him to Madge's desk where she left the key last night, though calls it "the cone" as subconsciously he is obsessed with the cone-shaped creature from his "dream". Hawk doesn't really notice his slip in language and goes to get it.

Hawk grabs some matches and cigarettes from the desk as well and lights one up. He asks Eberhardt if he is a werewolf but the German notes he hasn't changed into anything yet.

To be safe, Hawk burns him with the cigarette. Eberhardt yells out in pain, asking why he burned him with the cone. Still not really noticing the strange word substitution, Hawk tells him it was a test to see if he'd change.

Just then, the door opens and Le Doux steps in. He sees Hawk burning Eberhardt with the cigarette and grabs a paperweight near the door and throws it at the man.

Hawk turns around to see Le Doux but is confused by his appearance. Eberhardt asks him what is up with the cone over his lips.

Le Doux tells them he is not who they think he is, saying he is Boo's brother, Bob Le Doux, and explains his non-Cajun accent as being from Lakefront City.

Hawk asks what happened to Boo. Le Doux says he went to the hospital to visit his brother, but apparently he wasn't there. Hawk doesn't see any good in that, noting they are Boo's partners.

Eberhardt finds "Bob Le Doux" to be very familiar. He recognizes him as the Le Doux from the window of realities. Le Doux tries saying he is the identical twin brother of Boo, so he must be confused.

Le Doux asks if Eberhardt is OK or if he's been drinking. He also wants to know why the man was chained up, but Hawk simply mumbles something about him and the secretary.

When Le Doux starts asking questions, Hawk shuts him down quickly by pointing out if he's just Le Doux's brother then he doesn't have any right to start interrogating them.

Le Doux says he just came to the office to see if his brother was there. Hawk says Le Doux was at the hospital, while Eberhardt notes he's pretty sure he saw "Bob" explode.

Hawk decides since Boo is dead or missing, he may as well grab the money back out of the safe. He goes into Le Doux's office and pockets the cash, still leaving the locket.

Le Doux follows Hawk into the room and asks what he's up to. Hawk explains he's Le Doux's partner and this is his money. Le Doux notes he isn't so sure his brother had a Black partner.

Hawk once again tells Bob he has no business saying anything about anything since he's not involved. He then begins heckling the man about whether or not Le Doux is dead and suggests Bob head back to the hospital.

Eberhardt, meanwhile, tries to rouse the drunken Nibbons but has no luck. He tells the others Nibbons may be out for a while. Bob, who seems to recognize Nibbons as "Chet" also tries to wake him.

Hawk and Eberhardt clearly don't trust Bob, but he finds them strange as well. Bob insists his cousin Madge called him to come and help. The three continue to argue for a while about where Le Doux may or may not be and who should be the one looking for him. Hawk tells Bob he doesn't know about all the zombis and werewolves so he should go back to Kansas or whatever.

After some time is spent with Hawk arguing Le Doux went to the hospital because of a werewolf and Bob reacting incredulously, it becomes clear to Hawk the discussion isn't going anywhere so he tells Eberhardt they need to talk outside.

*** Session 14 - Scene 3 (of 10) ***

On the sidewalk, Hawk suggests to Eberhardt they head off to the hospital as Bob’s story doesn’t make any sense. Eberhardt isn’t so sure about leaving the crazy man with Nibbons, but Hawk feels Bob is likely Le Doux’s brother since they look alike.

Eberhardt starts rambling about the many Le Douxs he saw in his dreams. Hawk wonders if Nibbons gave him any of the whiskey. He insists they go to the hospital, since without Le Doux they have no one to keep the investigation going.

Just as they are about to head off to the hospital, a police car pulls up. The driver of the car, Officer Fred Lee, spots Eberhardt and calls out to him.

Eberhardt tries to avoid facial contact and ignores the call. The two uniformed men get out and approach, with Hawk whispering to Eberhardt to play sick as he pretends to be escorting him inside.

Lee asks if everything is OK. Eberhardt says he has been in the hospital, saying it caused all his hair to fall out.

The officer explains they are there to escort him back to the Major. He says he cannot go back to the cone because he is sick.

Lee notices the strange substitution of words and asks what he is talking about. For his part, Eberhardt seems incapable of noticing it and argues that he never said any such thing.

Hawk tries to run interference, saying Eberhardt is running a fever and how he needs to get in from the sun (according to what his Granny always said). The officer makes it clear Hawk’s presence is not appreciated, saying “Boy, if I was talkin’ to you, you’d know it!”

Not wanting another confrontation with the police, Hawk backs off. Eberhardt also decides he has no choice and agrees to let them take him back to the station.

When Eberhardt arrives at the precinct, he is spotted by his supervisor, Lt. Giaradello. He asks Eberhardt what happened to him.

Eberhardt tries saying it was shaved off because of his fever illness. Giaradello asks if that is why he wasn’t at the stakeout last night. Eberhardt says he was, but Giaradello isn’t convinced by the sick act and tells Bruno he suspects he’s been goldbricking.

The lieutenant takes him in to see Maj. Sandifer. After sitting in the waiting area for a minute, the major calls him in.

Sandifer is in no mood to be trifled with, demanding an explanation and noting the Chief of Detectives, Inspector Villiers, noticed his absence.

Eberhardt tries to explain, but uses the cone word again. The two begin to argue, and Sandifer starts to get suspicious.

The major bemoans his lot in life, already busy dealing with crank calls of reports of a wolf attacking people out near Bayou St. John. Eberhardt is a little too quick and forceful asserting that he is not a wolf.

Sandifer tells Eberhardt his behavior is very suspect – his case closures are down, he’s mysteriously absent too often, and he spends far too much time with that private investigator, Boudreaux Le Doux. Eberhardt asks if Sandifer knows where Le Doux is as the man is missing.

The major attempts to ask about Le Doux, but Eberhardt uses “cone” again and the conversation gets thrown off track.

Otha tells Bruno he was going to ask for his gun and badge, but instead he’ll do that and send him over to the hospital to have a nice chat with some people. Eberhardt notes that will be helpful since he needs to check the hospital for information on the missing Le Doux anyway.

Eberhardt hands over his gun and badge and waits around. Sandifer takes them and leaves him in the office to make some calls.

Sometime later, a couple of men in white coats show up and tell him they are taking him on a nice drive over to the hospital so he can find Le Doux and the cones. They assure him Dr. Essex will take good care of him.

Eberhardt starts to understand he’s headed to the asylum. He asks if Le Doux is there. Playing along, the orderly agrees Le Doux is waiting there with something important to talk to him about.

When Eberhardt asks if they are taking him to see Dr. Essex, the orderly says of course they are not. He describes it as taking Eberhardt on a nice, relaxing vacation but Eberhardt is starting to get nervous.

As they escort him outside, he sees the men are leading him to the asylum wagon. Eberhardt insists he isn’t going in there. When the orderly offers a choice between the easy way and the hard way, Eberhardt takes the hard way and tries to fight them.

The men attempt to get a straight-jacket on Eberhardt but he manages to fight them off. He makes a run for it, but they catch up to him and tackle him to the ground.

Eberhardt elbows one of the men in the face, giving him a chance to get up and start running again. But in his haste, he runs right into a baby stroller. The men quickly catch and restrain him.

*** Session 14 - Scene 4 (of 10) ***

With Eberhardt out of the picture for the moment, Hawk heads off for the hospital. Le Doux notices them both leave.

Still half in his fugue state, he wanders in to his bathroom and shaves off his mustache and uses some scissors to alter his hair. He also covers up the tattoo.

Le Doux then goes into his office and opens the safe, which he recognizes as being new. He sees everything but his mother's locket is gone. Le Doux thinks about the missing items from the safe. In a brief mental flash, he recalls seeing Eberhardt wearing them.

He then heads over to Nibbons. Needing cash, Le Doux rifles through the man's wallet. This is enough to rouse the investigator, but Le Doux quickly pistol whips him with the gun he finds on him and knocks Nibbons unconscious again.

Taking off Nibbons' pants, Le Doux places the pants in the safe. He also makes sure to set the combination to something new.

Just as he closes the safe, Le Doux hears someone enter the outside door. Peering from behind his office door, he sees Madge come in and start making coffee.

Le Doux sneaks around to the residence and exits out the back door. Once outside, stands still for a minute trying to think of what to do next. Recalling something about Donny being at the Old Spanish Fort, he grab's Nibbons' car and drives off.

*** Session 14 - Scene 5 (of 10) ***

When Hawk reaches the hospital, he inquires after Le Doux. A doctor mistakes him for a servant of the family and tells him his “master” has gone missing.

Hawk plays it up, attempting to sound much dumber than usual. The doctor responds by getting increasingly condescending and simple in his explanations. Hawk gets out of him that Le Doux survived surgery and was expected to recover but now they don’t know where he is.

The doctor asks if there is a member of the family he could talk to. Hawk mentions the brother who just showed up. The doctor tells Hawk to let the brother know to come and talk to him. Thanking Hawk, the doctor calls him “boy” and flips him a penny. Hawk thanks him graciously.

Hawk is fairly sure Le Doux must have died, possibly risen again as a zombi and wandered off. He also believes it is possible Bob is simply the zombi version of Le Doux.

Wanting to continue the investigation, Hawk decides his next step will be to check in with Donny Martin’s parents. Since he doesn’t have their contact information, he heads back to the office.

When he arrives, he finds Madge on the couch next to Nibbons. She quickly throws a blanket over the top of him, saying he looked cold. Hawk suspects the lonely cat lady was up to her tricks again.

Hawk asks if she saw Le Doux’s brother. Madge gets confused, noting her cousin was an only child and did not have a brother. This further convinces Hawk that Bob must be a zombi; he describes Bob’s appearance to Madge but she doesn’t know anyone who looks like that.

Madge wonders if it was her cousin playing a joke or perhaps part of some undercover disguise, calling him the “undercover brother”. Hawk doesn’t know, but the whole thing concerns him greatly.

Hawk has Madge give him the contact info on Donny Martin’s parents. As she gives it to him, she tells him there is something in the paper he’ll find interesting.

Taking out the paper, Madge tells Hawk she had a surprise when she was glancing through the obituaries. One clearly shows a picture of Jerboa, which Madge recognized. But the accompanying section in the paper talks about a funeral for someone named “Ella Tau”.

Hawk makes a note that the funeral is scheduled for that afternoon at the Krupp Funeral Home. He agrees with Madge the picture certainly looks like Jerboa, wondering if she uses an alias.

*** Session 14 - Scene 6 (of 10) ***

At the Crescent City Asylum, Eberhardt is brought down to the basement rooms where Dr. Nathaniel Essex performs his treatments. The doctor greets him by name, with Eberhardt finding the man's pale appearance and calm voice disturbing.

Eberhardt complains about the restraints, but Essex says they are there for his own protection. He tells Eberhardt he's heard he's been acting strange lately.

Dr. Essex begins asking Eberhardt some questions about how he is doing. Eberhardt says "cone" in his response, leading to Essex digging in to the subconscious obsession with cones and wondering if there is anything to do with his father.

The doctor then dims the lights in the room and takes out a pocket watch, telling him to focus his eyes on it as he moves it back and forth. Eberhardt is confused at first, but as soon as Essex can finally get him to stop talking he gets sleepy. When the doctor snaps his fingers, Eberhardt enters a hyper suggestive state.

Dr. Essex proceeds with asking Eberhardt about the cones. Eberhardt explains as best he can about the cone creatures he saw in the interdimensional portal. The doctor does not seem alarmed by the revelation, and instead tries to get more information about of Eberhardt about it.

Eberhardt talks about everything he can remember about the cone creatures. Essex takes meticulous notes as he does so.

Essex then asks Eberhardt if he knows anything about Hastur, but Eberhardt doesn't recognize that name. He does recognize the word, "Byakhee", as saying he found out about them from the werewolves.

The doctor is very interested in the werewolves. He gets Eberhardt to reveal their approximate location and other information about them. Essex is also interested when Eberhardt reveals he saw the yellow sign, a symbol of Hastur, on the altar there.

Essex asks what other creatures Bruno may have encountered. When Eberhardt mentions the zombis, the doctor digs into more details about that.

Once he has all the details, Essex asks Bruno about Le Doux. Eberhardt rambles on about missing Le Doux and the duplicate Le Doux from the portal.

Essex then asks about the case with Dr. Broncati, noting he is one of his other patients. He wants to know if Eberhardt saw the creature that Broncati fed the remains of the aborted fetuses and dead mothers. Eberhardt has no idea what the man is talking about, to which the doctor simply responds "curiouser and curiouser..."

The doctor asks what else Eberhardt can tell him about creatures he's seen. Eberhardt mentions the Floating Horror. Essex asks if he is referring to Nyarlathotep. Eberhardt says he didn't talk to the creature. He does, however, give more details about the Botanical Gardens and how Le Doux has since mentioned being able to summon the creature.

Dr. Essex continues to take his notes and says that it is all very interesting indeed. The topic of discussion is the demon Allatou. Eberhardt gives him information on the cult, including the active cell of The Committee.

Once they are done, Dr. Essex tells Eberhardt he will snap his fingers and he will awaken with no memory of their discussion. After he does so, he tells Bruno there has been a mistake and he is perfectly sane. He signs a release for the man and lets him go. When he calls in the orderlies, they give the doctor a look (particularly when Eberhardt mentions cones again), but Essex waves them off.

After he leaves, the doctor ruminates on the most enlightening and productive discussion he had.

*** Session 14 - Scene 7 (of 10) ***

Eberhardt decides to take a streetcar back to Le Doux’s office. He’s getting off just as Hawk is pulling away to go see the Martins.

Hawk spots him and heads over to pick him up. Eberhard tells him he took care of everything, stressing there were no problems.

For his part, Hawk tells Eberhardt about Madge saying Le Doux has no brother. He also tells him about his trip to the hospital. Eberhardt agrees Le Doux may have died and turned into a zombi.

Hawk insists if Bob is zombi Le Doux, they must burn him. Eberhardt agrees he is making some sense.

As they drive, Hawk also tells Eberhardt about the paper with the funeral information for Jerboa. When Hawk tells Bruno about the name being used, he notices “Ella Tau” sounds awfully close to “Allatou”. Hawk agrees it could be.

Hawk wonders if they should go to the funeral to see who’s there. Eberhardt wonders if she was killed by the Cult of Allatou after they left her back at Dolly’s.

The two get sidetracked for a minute talking about cones when Eberhardt uses the word again. Hawk eventually gets the conversation back to his current plan, to visit the Martins and see if they can get more money out of them to continue the investigation with. Eberhardt isn’t so sure shaking down the parents is the best plan.

Eberhardt would rather track down the “zombi Le Doux” as well as find who is attending the Ella Tau funeral, as he suspects members of the cult may be there. Hawk says they should head there first but wants to grab Foxy first. Eberhardt also suggests they see if Nibbons is awake yet.

Meanwhile, Le Doux takes the .25 pistol and the money he took from Nibbons and heads to a gun store. He haggles with the shop owner to trade the gun and the money for a .45 pistol. The gun seller is reluctant, believing the small hold-out pistol to be stolen; but eventually Le Doux convinces him to make the trade in exchange for all of his cash. He also agrees to keep the sale quiet in exchange for Le Doux’s offer to send him more business.

As Le Doux heads out to the Old Spanish Fort, he stops at a stoplight only to find Hawk pulling up beside him.

Le Doux tries to act like he doesn’t see them but Hawk isn’t buying it. He points him out to Eberhardt.

As Le Doux pulls away, Hawk follows the car out to the Old Spanish Fort. It doesn’t take long before they reach the Lakeshore area. Hawk notes it would be a good location to burn him.

Nibbons wakes up just as they pass by the sign. He is disoriented for a moment, sitting in the back seat of the car with Foxy. He also notices he is wearing a pair of Le Doux’s golf pants for some reason (as he was still unconscious when the others dressed him and loaded him into the car). He also feels slightly sick from his hangover and notices a lump on his head.

He asks the others what they are doing, and they give him a brief rundown. Nibbons notes the Old Spanish Fort, or Fort St. Jean, was erected by the French in 1701 at the entrance of the Bayou St. John. He explains to the others the site was built on top of a large shell midden created by the Pre-Columbian Marksville culture (which died out in 400 AD).

But the really interesting thing, Nibbons tells them, was how the Marksville Indians were connected to the Hopwells. According to folklore, Nibbons continues, the Marksville Indians worshiped an amorphous entity that lived in the bayou and required human sacrifices. Nibbons believes this trip does not bode well…

*** Session 14 - Scene 8 (of 10) ***

When Le Doux reaches his destination, he immediately gets out of the car. Hawk pulls up shortly after, with jokes being made about Nibbons and Foxy being the back seat together.

Le Doux stops around to listen to what they are doing, and he and Nibbons exchange some banter. Hawk tries saying this is "Bob Le Doux", but Le Doux corrects him, saying he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Eberhardt tells Nibbons they believe he is a zombi. Le Doux gives him the stink eye, asking what he is talking about.

Bruno starts to explain about the brother and Madge saying he didn't have a brother. Eberhardt's explanation starts to get jumbled when he begins mentioning cones, so Hawk steps in to say they aren't fooled by him shaving and the scar still identifies him as the man calling himself Bob Le Doux.

Le Doux believes all of them are insane, saying he just got out of the hospital and doesn't know what they are talking about. Hawk mocks him, saying he clearly didn't have the brain surgery the doctor told him about. Le Doux tells him he didn't need any surgery, and the scar on his face is from Eberhardt crashing the car.

Hawk asks about the werewolves. Le Doux says that is why he is there, to take care of Donny Martin.

Eberhardt suggests some kind of test to see if Le Doux is really a zombi or not, such as cutting off a finger to see if he feels any pain.

Le Doux ignores him and talks about how perhaps Jerboa will be out here too. Eberhardt notes she is already dead.

Hawk agrees, saying Le Doux is dead and Le Doux doesn't even know her real name. He explains how she was in the paper, dead, under her name Ella Tau.

Le Doux points out that is clearly a reference to Allatou and asks what they managed to do while he was in the hospital. Eberhardt voices his belief that The Committee must have killed Jerboa.

The arguments continue on back and forth, with Le Doux insisting Hawk is talking nonsense and that Nibbons must be drunk. He also doesn't understand why Nibbons is wearing his golf pants or why Eberhardt is wearing his cufflinks.

Dismissing them all as crazy, Le Doux takes out the silver dagger and heads into the ruins of the fort.

The others hang back – Hawk believes this area could be very dangerous based on what Nibbons said about it. He readies his pistol and gives his backup pistol to Foxy while Nibbons grabs the tire iron. Hawk and Foxy grab a couple of the silver butter knives as well, but Eberhardt begs off, still afraid he may be a werewolf.

Hawk then cracks open the trunk and starts preparing some Molotov cocktails with Eberhardt. He still thinks Bob is a zombi and is prepared to deal with him. Nibbons decides to go catch up with Le Doux.

Meanwhile, Le Doux continues into the foliage surrounding the old fort walls. He spots a wolf-like creature crossing the path up ahead, heading further into the bayou. Le Doux draws his gun and has both the gun and the dagger at the ready as he heads in behind it.

Le Doux creeps forward into the swampy bayou. Behind him, Nibbons catches up.

Nibbons asks his boss what's up. He tells him he spotted Donny Martin up ahead in his werewolf form. He asks Nibbons if he has any silver, but he says he does not.

Le Doux asks Nibbons what the others are talking about. Nibbons says he doesn't know, he's not even sure how he got in the back of the car.

While they are chatting loudly, the werewolf manages to circle around and pounce on Le Doux. Le Doux steps out of the way in time to avoid its claws.

Le Doux fends off its bite, able to hold it at bay with his silver dagger. He tries communicating with the beast, but it is clear Donny is too far gone.

When the creature moves in again, Le Doux stabs it. Although the wound is not deep, the creature howls in pain from the burning of the silver.

Nibbons moves in and cracks the creature in the head with the tire iron. It responds by biting him in the arm. It bleeds badly and Nibbons tries to bandage it with his coat.

Le Doux stabs the creature again with the knife, right in the chest, while pleading for him to stop. The wound appears to be very bad. The werewolf makes a run for it, heading off into the bayou.

As it does so, Le Doux uses his gun to hit the creature in the head. The heavy bullet takes out a chunk of the creature's skull.

Le Doux heads over and repeatedly plunges the dagger into the creature's heart until he is sure it is dead.

*** Session 14 - Scene 9 (of 10) ***

When the werewolf dies, the body transforms back into the human form of Donny Martin. Le Doux finds it all very unsettling and is stunned for a moment.

Nibbons watches it all from many yards back. As he does so, the others approach behind him. He points to the body, saying the wolf just turned human. Eberhardt wonders if “zombi Le Doux” killed a man.

They all head over to investigate. As they do so, they see something out in the bayou, creeping towards Le Doux and the body. It is the most horrifying thing any of them have ever seen – an amorphous blob of a creature. In it, they can see pieces of humans it has devoured: pulsating brains, beating hearts, tiny eyes and arms from the aborted partially-formed fetuses Dr. Broncati fed it, the pieces of the chopped up mothers who died during the procedures, as well as the pieces of the more recently-missing Black street children.

All three of them are shocked into a near-catatonic state. Eberhardt and Nibbons both foul their pants.

Hawk recovers the quickest. He throws one Molotov cocktail at the spawn creature and tosses another down at Donny’s body.

The creature lets out an unworldly scream and retreats back into the swamp. Just after it is gone from sight, Le Doux starts to come around.

Le Doux jumps back quickly from the flames. He looks around at them and asks what they are doing with all of the Molotov cocktails.

Eberhardt tries to explain about the creature they saw, but ends up just mumbling about cones. Hawk gets very excited as he tries to tell the story, but doesn’t make a lot more sense as he rambles on as well.

Le Doux says he doesn’t know what they are talking about as he saw no creature. He believes they are all insane.

Hawk throws the remaining cocktails into the bayou, grabs Foxy, and runs back to the car. From the bayou, Le Doux can hear the car pull away.

Le Doux grabs the remaining cocktails out of Eberhardt’s hands to burn the body beyond recognition.

When Nibbons becomes responsive, Le Doux asks him what happened. He’s able to relate something half-sensible about the creature. Le Doux wonders how he could have missed it, but Nibbons explains he wasn’t conscious at the time.

Le Doux tells Nibbons his plan – once Donny flames out, they’ll shove the remains into the swamp so they won’t be found. While they wait around, Le Doux continues to berate Nibbons for losing his gun, getting drunk, stealing his pants, etc.

Around the time the fire goes out on the body, the spawn creature re-appears. Le Doux sees it for the first time, shocking him back into a catatonic state. A tentacle comes out from the blob, burning him like acid as it touches him.

Eberhardt makes a run for it, heading back towards the fort. Nibbons grabs Le Doux and does the same.

They all manage to make it back to the car. But Le Doux won’t let them inside without losing their pants and cleaning themselves first.

The two men start to do so, and just then a family of tourists spot them. The parents tell their children to cover their eyes.

Le Doux wonders how to best resolve the situation, but since it is a large Mormon family visiting from Utah he decides to talk his way out of it. He tells them the two are his “idiot brothers” who had accidents.

After the Mormons head off in a different direction, Eberhardt and Nibbons get themselves clean and get in the car. As they drive out, they pass a patrol car coming in.