Originally shared by Peter G. Ghazarian
#Actualplay of #tremulus with #pcdeath
Hazel Falls episode #2:
A week has passed since the debacle at the McDaniel Homestead. Noah McDaniel, brother to Kendrick, came to town looking for his family reported missing. After seeing the damage to the house, he pressed charges against Preacher White, but settled out of court when the Preacher agreed to give him all of his wealth and promised to aid Noah in finding his brother and his family.
Meanwhile, Amy Hearst located the book with the details of the ritual to open a gateway. It involves burning black candles made from rendered pork lard while 7 people hold hands and dance naked in a circle, chanting. She immediately began considering who she could recruit to carry out the ritual.Over the course of the week, the Captain was contacted by Mary-Ann McAllister about getting some help at the general store. However, upon seeing that she wanted his help with guarding some goods she was shifting in and out of town with the aid of some Pinkertons, the Captain loudly declared that he wanted no part in such work, offending both Mary-Ann and the head Pinkerton Matthias Spade.
Upon arriving at Louie’s Diner on the Green to share some brunch, the group was a little surprised to see a police car driving off and a small crowd outside. Upon entering the Diner, Louie, in tears, insisted on keeping the place open as he worked through his grief. He had found his daughter, 13 year old Lucy, dead in the bathroom that morning, in an apparent suicide. As Louie explained the commotion with the police, most of the diners realized the shift in the mood, and left, leaving behind only Preacher White, Amy, the Captain, and the celebrity on retrrat, Sebastian Wood.
The Preacher White tried to comfort Louie and calm him down, telling him maybe it wouldn’t be the best idea to keep the place open on a day like this. Louie told the Preacher he’d feel a lot better if the Preacher took a look at the bathroom where Louie’d found his daughter — that Sheriff McCreedy was a little too brisk looking around and that maybe the Preacher would notice something with a religious man’s eye. Preacher White agreed and they headed to the back of the Diner, which connects directly to Louie’s house.
There, Preacher White was shocked to find a bathroom pooled with blood on filthy white tiles, with splatters and streaks of red blood all over the porcelain and the mirror on the medicine cabinet shattered on the floor. Noticing what looked like some writing on the bath tub, the Preacher leaned in close to have a better look, careful not to slip and fall in the blood. As he drew closer, he felt a hand on his body, and looking down was horrified to see a mottled grey-white hand and small arm reaching up out of a shard of glass. It snatched the bible out of the Preacher’s pocket and pulled the book back through the shard of class. With a scream, the Preacher hurried out of the bathroom and back into the diner, praying to himself out loud.
In light of this commotion, Louie decided that perhaps it would be best if he were to close up the Diner for the day. Preacher White asked if anyone had a car and if they could take him to his chapel to pick up the equipment he needed to sanctify the Diner and drive out evil spirits from Louie’s home. Sebastian Wood volunteered her car, and together with Louie and they headed off with her bodyguard Sheffield driving, leaving the diner in the care of Amy and the Captain.
Amy Hearst and the Captain decided to have a closer look at the bathroom. Carefully studying the filthy, bloody room, something about the scene struck them as odd — as if it were staged or somehow unreal. An examination of the blood on the bathtub clearly spelled out the letters “D-I-A-R-Y”. Amy wanted to think about what she’d seen and what it could mean, and went back out into the Diner to think it through. Just then, a man passed in the window and she and the Captain both realized he had the same face as a man in the paper on the counter top before them. Picking up the paper, they saw the title “HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?” with a photo and details about Carlo Moretti, a man wanted for multiple homicide, boot legging, and other crimes in New York City. Amy tried to convince the Captain to stay behind while she investigated, but instead the Captain left her there to hold down the diner while he went after Carlo.
Sebastian’s car arrived at the First Baptist Chapel of Hazel Falls to find an angry blonde man out front leaning on his pickup with a shotgun in his hands. Undeterred, the Preacher hurried out of the car to get his things, but an argument broke out with Mitch and he broke into the church and told the Preacher he’d shoot anybody who tried to come in. Sebastian, seeing things were getting out of hand, stepped out of her car and knocked on the window of the chapel. She told the starstruck Mitch that she’d try to meet him that night when Mitch was meeting up with some friends if Mitch would calm down and leave. A little ashamed by his rash behavior in front of a celebrity, Mitch agreed and left after getting Sebastian to agree to come and see him that evening at dusk at the docks. The Preacher gathered up his supplies for the rite and they all headed back to the diner.
The Captain followed the suspicious man through the shanties of Hazel Falls, through winding dirt paths and alleys. He knocked his mark out with a single punch, catching the man unawares and reducing him to a heap on the path, and told Toothless Jim, a poor boy playing on the streets, to go fetch the Sheriff. Just as the boy left, a shot rang out and the Captain felt pain blossom in his side. Scanning the far side of the street while clutching his wound, it wasn’t clear which house the shot had come from when his back had been turned. The Captain took cover around the side of the house, leaving the knocked out man on the side of the road. Hearing a car starting up, the Captain hobbled between the buildings back to a main street. There, he ran into Tracy Alcott, who took him into her car and back to her house where her family vet would have a look at his wounds.
Back at the Diner, the Preacher, Sebastian, and Louie arrived back and Amy explained that the circumstances around the Captain’s departure and that she’d heard a gunshot since. Just then, Deputy Bud Linkley came around knocking to ask if they’d seen the Captain around. Amy tried to talk Bud into leaving, but he said he wouldn’t go unless Amy accompanied him in his search for the Captain. She reluctantly agreed. As they stopped people to ask about what had happened, Bud got Amy talking more than she usually does. She let him know that she’d think highly of him if he were helpful and reliable in the matters they faced and asked about rendering black pork lard candles and rituals. Amy said she’d really appreciate it if Bud didn’t repeat any of that to any of the other cops and he just nodded.
Back at the Diner, the Preacher attempted to carry out the ritual. Sebastian helped, using her finesse and sense of mood from performing as a stage magician to help build up the right setting for the rite to sanctify the Diner. As the incensed burned and Preacher White sprinkled the holy water over the bathroom tiles, he felt a strange, cold presence brush against his mind, pushing back. Undaunted, the Preacher pressed on chanting bible verse after bible verse to purify the place — and the cold weight pressed heavier and heavier on his mind until finally, he felt it take root. Just as the rite successfully finished, the Preacher broke down gibbering and foaming a bit from the mouth on the the broken glass and blood on the floor. He picked up shards of glass in his bare hand, smashing them down on one particular shard with fury while screaming as Sebastian looked on in horror. Finally, the Preacher started shaking and collapsed on the to floor, gibbering some more to himself. Unsure what to do, Sebastian went out to her car and called in Sheffield, who helped her carry the Preacher safely back to her car. In shock, she took him out to his Chapel and left him whispering feverishly on a pew before driving back into town.
At the Alcott House, Tracy told the Captain about his old sweet heart Louisa May’s unhappy life in Charleston and her desire to visit back home in Hazel Falls and maybe see the Captain. The Vet pulled out the slug from the Captain and stabilized him so he stopped losing blood. They fed him some broth to keep his constitution up. A servant came to inform them that Deputy Bud Linkley was there to ask some questions to the Captain about the firefight in town. Bud seemed to want to pin the problems on the Captain, but seeing the man had been shot, he eased up a bit. Amy convinced him to look into Moretti and in exchange she agreed to stayinside at Madison House for a day or too with the Captain just to keep the two of them out of trouble and hopefully to prevent further guns being discharged in town. They agreed.
Still torn about having left the preacher unattended at his chapel in such a state, Sebastian went to the Madison House to speak with the Preacher’s friends the Captain and Amy. As she knocked on the door, she was startled to see the traveling encyclopedia salesman Travelling Jason Freeley, a man she knew from her time touring for shows. In a patch of confusion, Old Jim brought them both into the parlor and called down Amy and the Captain to entertain the guests.
After some conversation, Old Jim and Travelling Jason Freeley went to go fetch the Preacher from his chapel. When they arrived, the place was smoking and something strange was painted no the fall behind the alter. Unsure what to do, Jason told Old Jim to drive them back into town so they could alert the authorities of the fire. The chapel birned.
Amy slipped out of the Madison place to go over to the Diner. She asked Louie if she could go into his house once more to have a look and see if Lucy had a diary. Louie was reluctant, not wanting to upset things now that he could feel the peace of the Preacher’s blessing settling on his home. Then a dark light glinted in his eye. He said he would let Amy look for Lucy’s diary if Amy promised to look into finding a way to… bring Lucy back. From the other side. Amy nodded, and quickly found the diary, taking it back to the Madison place.
Finally, dusk came and Sebastian decided to go meet Mitch on the docks. There, she was shocked to find a burning cross and many men standing around wearing pointed white hoods. Up on a raised platform, she heard Mitch’s unmistakable voice from behind a hood calling out that order had to be restored to the town after the suicide and firefight in town. He claimed the fire at the chapel was a sign from God, clearly calling for a punishment and a return to natural order. Riled up, the Klan members seemed like they were gearing up to go harass the sharecroppers. Sebastian rushed up through the crowd of men to try to get to Mitch and talk him down from his lunacy. But halfway through the crowd, she caught in elbow to the temple and passed out. Sheffield revived her as the men were leaving and she knew it was too late.
