bryson springs

8/10/2019 Bryson Springs

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A No Security 1930s Horror Scenario

Caleb StokesWritten by

Ean Moody

Art by

A Hebanon Games P

isten to a Playtest at

e Playing Public Radio

Banshee (order #5560161)
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BRYSON SPRINGS

INTRODUCTION

Bryson Springs is a cosmic horror/mystery adventureset in the desert wastes o the post-Dust Bowl America.Four to six players take on the role o charactersunwittingly conronted with an ancient horrorpreying on a downtrodden populace. Tematically,the adventure juxtaposes the petty cruelty o mankindwith an uncaring, enigmatic terror existing outsidehuman perception.

Tis adventure starts with an overall description othe setting and plot or the GMs use. Inormationor the players can be ound in the gameplay section,the details o which should only be revealed to thecharacters though roleplaying.

June 1935: Bryson Spring, CA

Te town o Bryson Springs is located near theeasternmost border o Southern Caliornia. Bythe time the players enter into the story, the townhas dwindled along with the railroad that saw itounded. Te only reason any population remains isthe locations proximity to major roadways and theBryson Springs Ranch, a once successul orange grovethat provided a living to the ew remaining residents.However, even the stability o the ranch has beenthrown into question now that the blight affectingthe rest o the country has sent its tendrils probing

westward. Te fields are dead, an entire years croplost, and the people are lef with nothing but theirunanswered prayers or rain.

Te hard times have lef the Okies reugees othe Midwestern Dust Bowl stranded without themigrant work they bet their survival on. Unableto move on without unds, the transients haveconstructed a semi-permanent shantytown out oound materials

INTRODUCTION



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and their own cars. Te first stirrings o the WPAhave built a concrete washhouse in the middle o theencampment, but otherwise there is no relie to be hadrom their crushing poverty.

Otis Grangerord runs a gas station that supplies these

transients with what little goods they can afford untilthey move on. Further away, the State police maintaina small substation, i only to stage periodic evictionraids on the Hoover-town. Off the beaten path, anabandoned ghost town persists in a valley cut intothe hills. It is no more than a strip o long derelictbuildings, abandoned afer rail traffic atrophied andlef the town to its slow dwindling.

GM INFORMATION

Te Kellys

Operating on a tiny plot o New Mexico land, theKellys had never imagined hardship quite so bad as thedustbowl. Afer suffering the death o amily membersand the loss o their arm, Paul Pa Kelly packed uphis amily and what ew belongings they still possessedand headed to Caliornia. Paul had originally made hisstake there working on the railroad, and he hoped old

contacts could provide him and his sons some work.Luck was not on the Kellys side. All doors remainedclosed, and the Kellys ound themselves scrapping byon daily work at the Bryson Ranch. Desperate, Paulbegan selling off the last o the amilys possessions.He wrote an old acquaintance rom his railroad days,

Liang Wang, to come appraise an ancient scroll hedacquired years ago while sifing through the belongingso a member o his work crew, killed in an accident andwithout an heir. It pained the old man to part with it;though unable to read a word o its writing, Paul hadbeen known to gaze at the thing or hours in the night,admiring the way moonlight gleamed off theornately-carved jade handles.

Te Fishers Scroll

Liang Wang, promised payment or a ew hoursappraisal work by a oreman he worked or during hisfirst years in the country, traveled rom San Franciscowith his daughter, Ye. Upon arriving at Bryson Springsit quickly became apparent that Kelly would have nomeans o paying or any services, but Liang lingered,partly out o joy o seeing his old tormentor brought solow, and partly out o ascination or the strange scrollhe presented.

A sense o morbid curiosity turned into an extendedstay. Liang orced his daughter to sleep in the cab ohis truck as he spent hours pouring over the archaiclanguage o the scroll. Its stories were bizarre, itswriting sometimes nonsensical, its claims o heritageimpossibly old. But as Liang prepared a roughtranslation with Paul Kelly watching over his shoulder,the two men soon realized that there perceptions hadbeen orever altered by the words in the scroll.

Tey now saw the world as a sick puppet show, a

poorly set stage production in which ree will was amyth. Reality was no more than a childs diorama, ashallow, dimensionless approximation o the terribletruth. Mankind was but a game preserve, the sky but aporous veil through which the Fisher o Men pulled hisunwitting prey.

Important Dates for the Setting Prohibition 1920-1933 Dust Bowl 1930-36 FBI gets its name in 35, shifs to anti-commu-

nist agenda in 36 Herbert Hoover loses election in 33, FDR takes

power in 34

Emergency Relie Act (WPA) passed on April8th 1935

Bryson Springs - No Security



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As the days passed, Liang saw nothing but horrorin the scroll, dark truths that a human mind couldnever square itsel with. Kelly, having been exposedsubconsciously to the contagion within the scroll ordecades, saw a direct line to the man in charge and away out o his sorrows. He saw salvationin the nightmare.

Te error Begins

Anabelle Fabler had never given ear to the RyanSpellings advances, especially not afer Bryson let herather go but kept that pervert on the payroll. Tatswhy she was so stunned when he showed up out o thedarkness as she returned rom relieving hersel in thebarren groves, claiming he was there to give her whatshed always wanted. As he pinned her to the groundand worked her skirt up, she wondered what she couldhave possible done to lead him on.

She managed to get out a scream beore his handclamped down over her mouth. She saw two men inthe camp that might have heard her: one walked downa makeshif street, carrying a gas lamp. Te other wasno more than a shadow, leaning against one o thetrucks disinterestedly.

She rejoiced when she saw the lamp man start and

begin running towards her cries. Ten the shadowman moved, every part o it suddenly alive in wild,flailing motion towards the mans light, its eetskittering across the dust and making the sound ochicken bones clicking together. Te Samaritan wasstruck, and then the two figures were alling, tumblingend over end into the air, the gas lamp receding intothe night sky like an added star in the constellationthat she suddenly noticed was subtly wrong.

Spelling didnt notice as he rutted atop his victim,

not even when Anabelle went stone still. He merelythought shed finally realized his prowess and acceptedthe gif hed given her.

Te Wrong Lawman at the Wrong ime

Over the course o the next ew days, seven people intotal went missing rom the shantytown outside

the Bryson Ranch property. Te local lawenorcement, Sheriff Buord Kraf, took reports

rom grie-stricken amily members with more thana healthy share o skepticism; hobos disappeared inthe middle o the night all the time, and he was all toohappy to have a ew less to deal with.

Even Kraf learned something was up when he oundhimsel cleaning up two brutally mutilated corpses in a

single morning, both single men without amilies, bothpulverized into unrecognizable heaps o broken bone.One was ound in the middle o desert, the other inthe shattered remains o his shack, which appeared tohave been bombed rom on high. Something nearioushad definitely seeped into the Hooverville. As Buorddumped the corpses into a paupers grave outside hisstation, he hoped the culprit would hurry up, move ondown the line, and become someone elses problem.

Te Dead Chinaman

On the night everything boiled over, Buord Kraf wascalled out to the shantytown by Annabelle Fabler, oneo the transient girls. Her old man had gotten himselbeaten hal-to-death by Ryan Spelling, one o the ewranch hands still actually working or Bryson. Shewas crying rape and claiming the drunken old sot wasdeending her honor.

As Buord dealt with Spelling at the ranch, apologizing

or all the trouble and alse accusations, a god-awulwail could be heard across the fields rom the shanty-town. By the time he got there, some Chinese womanwas screaming to high heaven, waving a bloodybriecase and keeping a horde o curious Okies romentering the washhouse. She seemed grateul orBuord to arrive and allowed him to enter, though hecouldnt make out what she was so worked up about.

He soon ound out.

When Buord had finished puking up his dinner, theChinese was yelling at him, demanding he arrest Kellyand his monsters. He had to threaten the woman withhis nightstick beore she shut up, driving her away evenas she vowed to bring real help in her broken English.When she was gone, Buord recovered himsel, closedoff the crime scene, and moved what ew remains hecould gather into the shed at the station. Ten he calledit in. Tere was no hope o keeping this nonsense quietanymore. Bryson Springs was back on the map.

GM INFORMATION



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Te Chosen Family

Te amily had been skeptical at first, but when he hadmade them stop eeling hunger, they had begun tolisten. Ten hed gotten rid o the man that stole theirgasoline, then the others, each more satiating then thelast. He showed them the strings that pulled the world,and they had finally understood. Now the hereticchinaman was gone, and all there was lef to do wasshow their new god that his game had grown sick and

needed a cull.

List of NPCsEmil BrysonRanch OwnerLydia BrysonEmils 7-year-old daughterBuord KrafLocal state policeLiang WangSan Franciscan laundry ownermurdered in WPA washhouseYe Wangdaughter o Liang WangOtis Grangerorddrunkard and owner oGrangerords gasRyan SpellingSadistic ranch-hand or the Brysons

Annabelle FablerAbused Okie who witnessed astrange eventPaul Pa Kellymad patriarch and servant o theFisher o MenKelly amily (Ma, om, Jessup, Buela Mae, andEdmund)CultistsMarionettes orKuileixi Shitools o anotherworldly horror


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The MonsterMarionettes, or Kuileixi Shi

Te viewers eye seems to balk at the sight o them. Atclose range, the air around these creatures seems towave unnaturally, as i reality decided on their shape

at the last second. Afer a ew eye-straining seconds,their appearance seems to settle on that o a man-sized artists perspective doll, limbs expertly carvedrom wood and scored with crude, asymmetricalslashes depicting eatures. Tis image is merely adesperate approximation on the part o a humanmind unequipped to understand such horrors. Temarionettes appear as such because reality has no codecapable o representing them, so they maniest as ametaphor to their purpose: uncanny doppelgangerspantomiming human behavior, under the control o aninfinitely more complex being. Tey are no more thanthe lures o the Fisher o Men, a dark, predatory godexisting outside space and time.

At a distance in low light, marionettes resemble peopledoing regular activities: sleeping, bending over acar engine, leaning against a wall, etc. However, thelocations or these poses are wildly improbable andselected by an alien mind: sleeping in the middle othe street, bending over and inspecting a encepost,

leaning on nothing, etc. Tose unlucky enough toinvestigate this curiosity see the automaton spring intolie, skittering orward on eet that barely touch theground, limbs gyrating wildly as they attack.

Tere is no way to be certain a marionette is dangerousrom aar unless one has cast the spell See the Stringsrom the Fisher Scroll. At that point, the location o thecreatures can be traced by the strings o fire danglingdown rom inky-black vortexes in the sky.

Other signs o danger include craters where trees havebeen uprooted rom the ground, but no drag marksor ootprints can be ound in the dust and the trunksare missing. Tese occur rom ailed bites, wherethe marionette has run into a tree and ripped it intothe sky, thinking it a victim. I out at night, charactersmight also notice that the constellations above thegrove resemble nothing ever beore seen in

the night sky.

I attacked, there is little hope or survival save

escape. Even then, marionettes are deceptively ast,not so much running as hovering towards targetslike bad puppetry. Should a character choose to fight,death is almost certain. Firearms are as effective asthey would be against a solid tree trunk. Choppinginstruments air better, but ew could get in morethan one swing with an axe beore the thing was uponthem. Fire would work best, as the marionette still hasthe properties o dry wood despite being an only ametaphor or wood. Still, even i aflame, the creatureneed only grab its prey once beore being reeled in,

flying up into the sky, carrying its screaming victim tothe Fisher o Men.

The Monster



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GAMEPLAY INFORMATION

Character Selection

What type o character each player chooses is, ocourse, up to the players and the GM. However, certaintypes o characters lend themselves to the scenariobetter than others. Tere are three types o hooksthat can lead characters into the scenario: investigative,personal, and happenstance. Here are some suggestedcharacter concepts that work well with theplot and setting:

State police investigating the murder o LiangWang in the bathhouse

FBI agent(s) transporting a prisoner in a sensitiveinvestigation and retasked with investigating anattack at one o the WPAs new buildings

Bank robber(s) being transported to Leavenworthor holding until trial

Academic stranded en route to a conerence due toa car breakdown

Relative o the Wangs seeking answers or hisdaughter

Socialist labor organizer trying to rally thetransient population

Ranch-hand(s) seeking work at the Bryson Groves

Muckraking journalist investigating the missing

persons, or perhaps just doing an interest piece onpoverty and Hoovervilles

Wie o Emil Bryson, the ranch owner, concernedabout rumors shes heard among the house staff

Plot Hooks

Getting the players together and acing the same threatis ofen the hardest part o any horror roleplayinggame. Te GM should make certain that players at

least know about Liang Wangs death at the outset andhave some plausible reason or going toBryson Springs.

Investigative:Direct inquiries into the nature o LiangWangs death are the easiest way to get PCs involved.State law enorcement could get involved as soon asBuord phones in a report; obviously, something moresinister than the typical Okie menace is going on. Sincethe WPA washhouse was the site o the murder, ederalauthorities could also be dispatched to take care othe situation beore the project is besmirched. On theother side o the coin, the controversial nature o theWPA legislation and the social justice issues involvedwith the Okies and Asian Americans would likelyattract journalists.

Personal:Tough the victims at Bryson Springsare soon orgotten by the society, their amily andriends might not be so accepting. Maybe Ye

Killing your PlayersCharacters should be given a chance to run, disable,burn, or otherwise resist marionette attacks. Teyare, afer all, servants o an enigmatic god and notthe god itsel. However, i a Marionette grabs some-one, the character should only be able to ocus on

breaking the things grip. I the character succeeds,give them 10 eet worth o all damage or every turnthey spent in the Marionettes hooks. Afer a certainamount o time, escape is effectively utile.

I the GM wants to make things really creepy, givedoomed characters a final choice. Once the pairreaches the upper atmosphere and the inky portal toother realms, have the Marionette gesture to indicatethe character can go through or be let go. So whatis it? Plummet to certain death, or be sucked into the

sky to visit some nightmare god beyond imagining?

Characters choosing the latter should either justcease to be in the game or receive an appropriatelyterriying description o their demise. Perhaps theFisher o Men is a mass o cancerous flesh the sizeo a star, pulling in unwitting victims rom thou-sands o dimensions at once to plummet into itsravenous maws like meteors to Earth. Maybe humansenses arent even capable o perceiving their owndoom. Te characters eyes could go blind at thesmell o a millennias worth o terrified death. Teskin could flash reeze as it hears the icysymphony o deep space.




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contracts the help o a particularly skilled relativeto find her athers killer. Maybe another transientlooking or work arrives at camp to find the cousinhe was expecting inexplicably missing. Perhaps Mrs.Bryson, always more concerned with social issues thanher husband, notices unrest among the unortunatescamped outside their property.

Happenstance: Tough difficult to pull into a groupo cohesive players, cosmic horror is ofen at its bestwhen it yanks unassuming people rom their everydaylives. Perhaps an East coast proessor finds himselstranded and conronted with a terror un-hinted at inhis years o study. A criminal in the midst o transercould suddenly find himsel in a place ar worse thanprison, or a Socialist might be conronted with an evileven greater than that o Capitalism.

LOCATIONS AND NPCs

1. BRYSON RANCH

Te Bryson Ranch was once a thriving place. Modeledin a hacienda style, the estate sprawls over severalacres. Ivy crawls up adobe walls peaked with claytiled roos. Te two large courtyards were once usedto sort the massive orange harvest and now-empty

bunkhouses could hold nearly a hundred workers atthe peak o the season. Nowadays, it appears as i theblight that affected the land attacked the house as well.Te gardens are browning or sickly, the paint has comechipping off the walls, and the staff has been reducedto a skeleton crew.

1a.Te Main HouseTe ormer prosperity o the region can be seen inthe ornate nature o the main house. Well-maintainedrooms are filled with fine urniture and artiacts othe Bryson amilys rontier past. axidermy, painting,and photographs hang rom every wall. However, thewhole estate has taken on a ghostly quality with thecoming o the drought. With only a ew maids, littleLydia, and Emil Bryson himsel living on the premise,the household is cloaked in an eerie silence.

Emil Bryson can be ound in the main house. Hes anolder man but fit, sporting a greying handlebar

mustache. He dresses in jeans, boots, and a leathervest. His fine white Stetson and string tie are the onlyclues to his status as the owner. Tough ultimatelya struggling businessman with a company to worryabout, Emil has nothing but sympathy or the Okiescamped nearby and wishes there was more hecould do to help.

Emil knows very little o the terror that has recentlygripped the Hooverville outside his property. Hesaware that Buord Kraf was negotiating some kind otrouble with Ryan Spelling the other night when he gotcalled away by a big commotion. Emil is curious as towhat the commotion was; he doesnt particularly likethat Spelling ellow, despite having kept him on or hisskills as a jerkline skinner. He finds the young mansmoralsquestionable.

But he has bigger things to worry about: his ranchis ailing and his daughter is retreating urther andurther into her own world. He is happy to helpinvestigators any way he can.

1b.CourtyardLydia Bryson can be ound playing with her puppetsin the courtyard, even in the dead o night. Shes beenobsessed with putting on her little show in the pastew weeks. Her avorite doll is no more than a crudely

whittled totem carved rom a dead orange tree. Sheclaims she got it rom Mr. Kelly and the squinty-eyedman as they walked to the north o the ranch someweeks earlier. When asked the dolls name, she is onlybe able to respond that its the man that livesin the groves.

I lef to her own devices, Lydia will sing the ollowingsong as she plays: My hand goes right and you go lef My hand goes lef and you go right I raise my hand and up you jump I lower my hand and youre a lump

I pull your strings and you must do Whatever I say that you must do I you dont like it, I dont care I sure hope I aint got strings up there. I sure hope I aint got strings up there.

LOCATIONS AND NPCs



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1c. BarnRyan Spelling and the other remaining ranch handsofen play penny poker in the barn afer hours atopan overturned industrial spool. Hes a handsomeyoung man in a hal-buttoned shirt and chaps,with a perpetual wry grin plastered across his ace.Spelling is considered a bit insufferable by even his

ellow workers, but hes good with the horses andindispensable to the ranchs operation, even at thereduced capacity. Te old hands grin and bear it asSpelling brags about his romantic conquests.

Spelling has two avorite stories at the moment. Tefirst concerns a graphic description o his romanticconquest o Annabelle Fabler, who was just beggingor it as he says. Te second is an exaggerated, heroicaccount o how he repelled a yellow-bellied ambush

by Anabelles ather the previous night. Te olderhands wont support this last story, keen to knock theyoung man down a peg by pointing out he merely beatan old drunk up more or un than protection. Teold men try to change the subject rom his boasting tothe strange, missing trees uprooted rom the orchardrecently and their theories as to whats been happening.

Tough certainly stupid, Spelling is not sel-destructive. As soon as he recognizes someone inauthority other than Buord Kraf might know the

truth about his romantic relationship with Anabelle,he tries try to flee the area. I chased, he attempts tomount a horse and lose any pursuers in the groves.

2. HE GROVES

Te Grove has been blighted by depleted soil anddrought, though it remains a mystery how the DustBowl conditions reached so ar West. Row afer rowo dead trees cover acres o dusty ground that crunch

with dead leaves at each step. Despite the desiccation,a aint citrus smell still clings to the air.

A Marionette can be ound here, imitating a scarecrow.Particularly perceptive characters might notice thatthere is no need or a scarecrow in an orange grove.Te shadowy shape seems to track anyone passing by,shifing almost imperceptibly to ace to the passerby.Anyone that comes within twenty eet othe thing is attacked.

3. GRANGERFORDS GAS

A dusty old building by highway 17, GrangerordsGas is the only place within 50 miles to get supplies.Te owner seems to know this and takes no care tomaintain the property. Te Hooverville is withinwalking distance o the station, making it a requent

victim o thef rom the stranded transient population.

Otis Grangerord is likely to be the first character manyplayers meet. He wears overalls and a straw hat, has thebarnacle nose o an alcoholic and an unkempt beard.He eyes nearly everyone suspiciously and brandishesa shotgun until certain they arent Okies out to scamhim.

Otis is well aware o the problems in the shantytown;

hes heard the rumors and the screams in the night. Heworries most about Anabelle Fabler, a young Okie thatreminds him o his estranged daughter. Otis wouldgive candy to her younger siblings and chat with theyoung girl on a daily basis until about a week agowhen she stopped visiting. Otis is dissatisfied withBuord Krafs police work and quick to gossip aboutthe officers penchant or beating the Okies withoutactually doing anything to move them off the property.

4. SAE SAION #39

A one-room jailhouse, this run-down, wooden shackis little more than a storehouse or the state polices olddocuments and surplus equipment. Tere is a single,unoccupied cell and a desk. Otherwise, the room is adisorganized mass o poorly kept files. Outside, a shedhouses lawn tools and whatever wont fit intothe main building.

Buord Kraf can be ound here during his inrequent

trips to the area. He is at, pimpled, sweaty, andbursting out o his uniorm. He carries a non-standardissue Judge revolver low-slung on his hip, trying toulfill his antasy o being an old West lawman. Toughconsidered a joke by the rest o the state police andsent on errands to backwater holes like Bryson SpringsBuord is keen to think himsel as a king and the stripo highway his kingdom.




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Buord is happy to talk about the case, thoughhe reuses to see anything unusual about thedisappearances. He cant help but admit Liangs deathwas unusual, but he cant see getting too worked upover a chink and suspects the killer has alreadymoved on. He wont mention the pulverized bodiesin the paupers grave out back unless pressed, dimly

aware that he should have reported those long ago.

4.a: Te OfficePrimarily filled with file cabinets, the building also hasa cramped desk and a small jail cell. Buord is likelyto imprison any characters that question his authoritywithout law enorcement credentials. Tis indefinitedetainment can be broken by other characters, orperhaps by the marionettes. Te Kellys are no an othe law and would likely want to see Buord ed to

their new god.

4.a.i: Office Clue: Missing Persons ReportsBuord Krafs desk holds a number o hal-finishedreports or missing persons out o the Shantytown. Itappears the pig only filled out enough o each reportget whichever distraught amily member was in hisace out o the way. Te disappearances occur atrandom dates over the last ew weeks, seven in all. Allpeople describe similar incidents; the victim leaves totalk to someone late at night. Te person being talked

to moves out o sight. Victim ollowsand is neverseen again.

4.b: Te ShedLiang Wangs body had been kept in the equipmentshed or two days, rotting and waiting or expertsrom the city. Buord lets any higher ranking officialsin, but the rusty padlock could be orced or picked.

Any character with a background in medicine can

see that Liang died o a slow strangulation. Everyonecan notice the horrific gouges covering every inch ohis flesh, tearing his clothes to tatters. His wounds areconsistent with being dragged behind a horse or car,but he obviously died inside the washhouse.

4.b.i: Shed Clue: Piece of Liangs NotesA slip o paper can be ound in one o his hands,

available now the rigor has let up. Te torn slip hasa series o Chinese characters on it and a crude

drawing o the Chinese Kuileixi Shi, a death totemused in ancient Chinese burials. Te single, legiblesentence translates into We are all puppets!

4.c: Paupers GravePerceptive investigators notice a large patch odisturbed earth behind the station. Tose with

the clout to press Buord or answers can get anexplanation and exhume, or they could uncoverthe shallow grave themselves given enough time.Underneath, they find the rotting corpses o two Okiemen.

4.c.i: Grave Clue: Pulverized Bodies

Te dead men either escaped rom the marionettes toolate or chose to all rather than meet the Fisher o Men.

As such, their bodies are totally crushed, shatteredand ruptured rom a all o hundreds o eet. In hisboundless idiocy, Buord just assumed theyd beenbeaten to death, but it is obvious these men met anextraordinary end.

5. HOOVERVILLE

A ramshackle conglomeration o sheet metal, oundwood, and lived-in pick-up trucks, the Hoovervillesprawls outwards rom the Washhouse in random,disjointed streets. Residents are extremely hostiletowards strangers in their business, but otherwise keepto their miseries.

5.a. Te FablersAnnabelle Fabler spends her days tending to herbadly beaten ather and the younger children in theirtent on the orchard side o the camp. Her brothersare perpetually out, hitching rides and looking orwork. Shes a slightly pudgy girl with brown hair and

a homespun dress. She reuses to leave the side oher ather and wrings her hands in constant anxiety.Any attempts by men to get close to her are met withhysterical outbursts o ear

5.a.i: Annabelles Clue: Te Account of the RapeAnyone showing convincing empathy towards eitherAnnabelle or her athers condition is told about RyanSpellings sexual assault the previous week. Annabelleblames hersel or the act that Buord did nothing

LOCATIONS AND NPCs



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because she lost control and told him about seeingthings during the attack. She also regrets telling herather about the attack, which caused him to seekrevenge on Spelling and get badly beaten.

I pressed, Annabelle reveals the nonsense that shetold Kraf, revealing the first witnessed attack o the

marionettes.

5.b. Ye WangAfer driving to the nearest phone to call or morehelp, Ye Wang returned to the Hooverville to wait ormore news on the investigation o her athers death.She shouts down any curious onlookers trying toenter the cordoned off male side o the washhouse andharasses Buord Kraf or answers on a daily basis.

Ye is happy to reveal everything she knows to anyparty interested in helping. However, Liang was veryprotective and didnt want his daughter mixing withthe bums, so she didnt leave the makeshif camp othe amily truck or the many days he was at the tent-city. She does know that he was working or a mannamed Kelly and that his work was likely academic innature; he had been a scholar in the old country.

5.b.i: Yes Clue: Liangs BriefcaseAfer discovering her athers corpse, Ye pried her

athers briecase rom his hand least it be stolen by theOkies. She has yet to make any sense o the contents,as she can speak but not read English. She is hesitantto hand over the briecase, but she allows characters tolook i she eels they are there to help her. Te contentsare as ollows.

Photograph:Te crinkled, worn photograph showsan unurled scroll with Chinese symbols on it leaningagainst a weathered, wood wall. Te back reads:

Old riend, require your expertise. Found this amongstthe trappings o our rail days and curiosity has bestedme. You need not travel ar as the Hardship orces usWest. Will seek work in Bryson Springs, a days driverom your home. Please visit soon to revisit better times.Payment provided or services rendered, o course. K.

Partial ranslation: Written in Liangs uncertain hand,this is a partial translation o the scroll.

Entitled in phonetic spelling, the document is calledKuileixi Shinext to the largest characters rom thescrolls picture. Full translation missing, but it shouldread something like Deaths Dolls.A note in the margin reads,Claim Shang Dynasty?Obvious ake. Still remarkable crafsmanship o Jade

scrollAnother margin note:No mention o burial dolls yet. Gibberish.A swath o Chinese characters, ollowed by Englishtranslation: Consider the fish. He lives in darkness.Te ceiling to his house is sof, yet impenetrable. Heknows nothing o the sun, trees, grass, or air. He knowsood, and ood only, until one day he sees the lure. Hedoes not know the ways o weaving line, the plants usedor colorul dyes, the strange art o lure making. Hecannot suspect the patient deceptions o men or theirpredatory motives. He cannot see a net. He knows oodonly, and knows it well. And so, though the lure seemsalien, offensive to his eyes, the fish sees ood, or it isall he can see. He bites, and he dies a death beyond hisimagining.

Another swath o characters, only partially translated:And such are we to it, the Fisher o Men (underlined

with question marks), and we all prey to our mindsown metaphors (again underlined with question marks)

A final swath o characters. ranslation is in Americanphonetic alphabet. Marginalia aferwards reads MoreGibberish

Scrawled over phonetic translation,DO NO READ!Followed by a ew more characters, un-translated.

A paperclip and torn scraps o paper indicate some o

the pages are missing.

5.b.ii: Yes Clue: See the StringsReading the final section o phonetic gibberish alonedoes nothing. However, speaking the syllables aloudcasts a powerul spell meant to reveal the true nature oreality.




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Te only place on the premise not soaked in bloodis a square on the ground where Liangs briecaselanded. A crafy investigator might wonder wherethe obstruction has disappeared. Anyone with arudimentary understanding o physics can tell thereis no way anything could have thrown Liang againstthe walls and ceiling hard enough to kill him without

leaving a massive splatter. However, the blood is evenlydistributed throughout the room, with some spattersmarks on the floor or drips seeming to come romon high. In act, a keen eye can see a ew o Liangsfingernails embedded in the concrete at impossibleheights. Te gore in the room must have taken hoursto spread, and the culprit is someone able to dey thelaw o gravity.

7. Old Ghost own

A dilapidated old western town abandoned afer therailway changed tracks little is lef o this settlementsave decrepit wooden rames along an abandonedmain street. Te town is surrounded on all sides byempty plains and desert. Cobwebs wave in the breezeacross every window and entryway. Tere is a ormhuddled in a etal position in the middle o thestreet Kellys guardian Marionette.

7.a: Te Abandoned BrothelPa Kelly has been summoning the Marionettes romthe basement o the old town brothel. Tose lookingor him might recognize the building as his basebecause o the attacking monstrosity. More subtleadventurers see the disturbed dust on the brothel dooror the arcane Chinese symbols newly carvedon the walls.

In the dirt cellar, Kelly has set up a dark lair to hisFisher o Men.

7.b: Paul KellyHe has become disheveled and bloodshot. Hes shirtlesswith suspenders on homespun trousers. Hes armedwith a double-barreled shotgun, hunting knie, and theFishers Scroll.

Pas plan is to show the Fisher o Men the poor

condition o his stock by continually culling them. Heeels that the Fisher will have to see this soon enoughand send back the rain and green days to his huntinggrounds. Kellys gone completely mad and uses hisamily as acolytes in the mad rituals learnedrom the scroll.

ENDGAME

Tere is no spell in Kellys evil scroll to dismiss the

Fisher o Men. Destroying the scroll does nothingeither. I characters obtain the scrolls translationand can make sense o it, someone can summon aMarionette to attack Kelly himsel. I successul, theplague ends once the madman is devoured by his darkgod. Te caster o this spell must risk having his or hermind torn asunder by orbidden knowledge, despiteany noble intentions.

Outside o obtaining the scroll, the only way to save

Bryson Springs is to overcome the Kelly amilysdeenses and kill Pa. Pas body must be completelydestroyed, both rendered dead and torn apart when itbecomes another Marionette. However, with his avatarno longer putting chum in the waters, the Fisher oMen recedes rom time and space again.

Until these solutions are discovered, the darksilhouettes continue their hunt, ranging ever wider toeed the Fishers insatiable hunger.


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