Assignment: Dressed to Kill
General Summary
In the early days of Arthur and Cy's tenure in Candela Obscura, before the official creation of the Circle of Chaos & Ash, they investigated the horrific death of a model at the Newfaire Exhibition of Advancement. Through the course of their investigation, they discovered the source of a phenomena known as Undark, and contained the source of bleed that was producing it.
This assignment took place on Mid Autumn 13, 1907.
Hook
A riot of sound radiates from the Newfaire World Exhibition. Where once these city streets were filled with the screaming of civilians, there is now the laughter of children. The echoing of gunfire has been replaced with the "pop," "pop," "pop" of roasting caramel corn. The explosions of enemy bombs are now the crackling of electrified inventions. Even three years after the war, it feels almost incongruous to hear the wild noise of happiness. You carry with you, as all Halen citizens do, the weight of the Last Great War on this memorial day. In celebration of the military implementation of electricity -- the incredible power that forced Otherwhere to withdraw from the region -- Newfaire hosts an "Exhibition of Advancement" every year. Today, the District of Briar Green is a new world. Transformed by colorful flags, each street is lined with the stalls of a pop-up market, and children scurry among the crowds dressed in their finest. On display, there's row after row of inventions, the likes of which you've neer seen. "Come see the Electromagnet Elevator!" "Use Radar technology to find your missing sheep, madam!" "Tired of buttoning your shirt for work every day, sir? Try the Amazing Zipper and get your morning back!" Best of all, the entire district smells of cotton candy and caramel corn. When we finally make it through the cocophany into Briarbank College and its exhibition hall, the world seems to forget the rules by which it operates. Here the bright sun is dimmed by a dust-filled darkness, and the outside noise is compacted into a weighty hush. The hall is filled with the whispering of industrial giants exchanging vast sums of money. The inventions in these rooms are titanic -- the very air smolders with a static buzz. Electric screams silence the speakers with a regular staccato, sending the bravest of eyes looking up to the lightning that dances across the ceiling. We wander in silence through the gallery, listening to the daring inventors, perched on bespoke stages, evangelizing their work. "If you'll stand over here, sir... There now, don't be afraid! The X-Ray Machine will only show us your bones, nothing more! But you'll have to hand me the items in your pockets sir... Thank you. I've always wanted a gold watch!" There are flyers throughout the hall of a bright, almost iridescent green. In the dim light, the pages seem to glow, and in the electric flashes they nearly sparkle. We follow them, like a trail of breadcrumbs, to a massive crowd. High on the stage before us stands a beautiful woman, Vera Montgomery, swirling in a glowing green dress. She is a beam of light incarnate as she parades before a massive sign, a word painted in the same eerie, green hue: Undark. Over the gasps from the crowd, we cannot hear the voice of the man who stands with her, but it's clear that he's highlighting the features of the pigment. He gestures around the room as if to say: "You need no light but the one we provide. In our Undark, you are the light." The crowd erupts in cheers, pulling the attention of the entire hall. In this cacophany, it takes a moment to hear the model's screams. But her cries grow louder and more piercing over the enthusiasm of onlookers and the crash of electricity. All at once, a hush blankets the hall. Gaping red sores open across the woman's skin, crawling from beneath the Undark dress in deep fissures of pain. The model stops screaming, holding her hand up before the crowd. Within her hand, her bones glow green -- the terrible mirroring of the x-rays on display only a few feet away. As we watch, the bones within each finger fall, disconnected, towards her wrist until her flesh hangs like a glove. The cascade of disconnecting bone runs down her arm, then her spine, then her legs, until what once was a beautiful woman is a pooling mass of writhing flesh. In the end, there is nothing but a pile of red viscera and the most beautiful green dress the world has ever seen. Looming above the body like a promise, a glowing sign reads: Undark.Arrival
Cy Barret and Arthur Hurley arrive at Briarbank College to investigate the death of Vera Montgomery. They were informed by their Lightkeeper, Sylvia Reed, that Ms. Montgomery's remains and the dress she showcased radiated substantial amounts of bleed. Arthur began the investigation a bit sidetracked, asking after the X-Ray machine while Cy looked over the remains for signs of what could have caused Ms. Montgomery's death in such a gruesome manner. Though Arthur was not able to learn much about the X-Ray machine and its inner workings, due to its creator being extremely distressed by witnessing the horrible death, he did learn that Ms. Montgomery's dress arrived just that morning, and its crate was likely still in the green room (a repurposed classroom). While he continued to comfort the X-Ray inventor, Cy made his way to the green room to search for the shipping crate.Exploration
Within the green room, Cy easily found a sizable shipping crate, the inner walls of which were spattered with the same glowing green dye as the dress Ms. Montgomery had been wearing. Affixed to the side of the crate was a shipping label with the logo of the Radiance Corporation, with a return address to Mordant Springs in the Bridleborne Mountains.
Arthur, having spotted officers of the OUP as they arrived on the scene to "contain" the situation, bid farewell to the X-Ray inventor after giving her his business card and an invitation to his office hours for tea the next morning, and quickly made his way back to the green room to reconvene with Cy. Upon entering the room, Arthur took out his Bleed Detector, which operates with a hand crank, and found that the crate that had contained the green dress was saturated with bleed. Arthur and Cy took a sample of the dye that was stained into the wood, but not without feeling the ill-effects of bleed, burning their hands even through their gloves.
They arrived later that day in Mordant Springs, via the train. It is a small, company town owned by the Radiance Corporation. People here are paid in company currency, which they can only spend in town. Arthur and Cy noticed immediately that most of the people they saw in town looked sickly and pale. Arthur first went into the general store, where he spoke with the owner, Kiko Nakamura, under the guise of purchasing lemon ginger hard candies. Though she was friendly and gave Arthur some information about the Radiance Corporation having moved in with their factory five years ago, during the war, she became more closed off when he attempted to press about what could really be going on in town. Arthur did note that Kiko seemed sad, likely with regards to her wife.
Cy and Arthur attempted to enter the factory, but were stopped at the gate by two security guards for the Radiance Corporation, and were unable to convince them to gain access to the factory.
They went to the local bar for lunch, where they met a 15-year-old boy named David Bauer. David told them about the Green Fever that has been afflicting the people in town, particularly the miners and "people close to them." He described Green Fever, telling Arthur and Cy that "people get sick, and then their eyes turn green. They get mean. Then they start glowing and they get real mean. Then they ain't people anymore." He told them about his father, Tommy, whom he hasn't seen in over a week since he went to work in the mines one morning and hasn't returned. Arthur and Cy promised to look for his father, Tommy, when they went up to the mines that night. Arthur did try to talk to David about the importance of education and suggested he try to further his education at the Briarbank College, but David seemed hesitant, believing that he "knows how to count and read. What else do I need?"
Arthur and Cy spent the afternoon at the local hot springs, where they met the town herbalist. She further explained the symptoms of Green Fever to Arthur, and sold him two pouches of herbs that would help stave off the effects of bleed from the Undark being mined in the mountain.
Escalation
After nightfall, Cy and Arthur snuck up a less visible path to the opening of the mine, where a security guard was patrolling in a full-body containment suit with a rifle. Cy rushed at the guard and knocked him unconscious with his brass knuckles before the guard was able to call for help. They stripped the guard of his suit and rifle, which Cy donned as both a means of protection and a way to buy time with a ruse if necessary. Within the cave, there was an oppressive darkness that reminded Cy of his last expedition into the ruins of Oldfaire, causing him a fair amount of distress. As they traversed the mine, they could hear disturbing, otherworldly screams and cries of distress unlike anything they have ever heard before. They followed the sounds to a large room, where they found the source of the Undark.Climax
An Undark Beast was chained to the floor of the mine, with all manner of equipment attached to it to monitor its vitals and extract the venom it produced. Three workers were in this room with the creature. Arthur and Cy, having not been spotted just yet, quickly made a plan using Arthur's knowledge of electricity and a stick of dynamite that they found tucked away in a small cache nearby. Arthur shorted out the wires leading to the monitoring device in the room, plunging the whole mine in darkness, save for the eerie, glowing green venom dripping from the maw of the Undark Beast. He yelled out a warning that the mine was "about to blow" as Cy threw the lit stick of dynamite into the room and they both started running back the way they came. The workers ran after them, and the explosion echoed throughout the entire mine, causing a collapse where the beast was contained.Epilogue
Arthur returned to the city in the morning, where they met with Sylvia to report their findings and turn over the Undark sample they had collected from the shipping crate. They each tended to their injuries, and Arthur spent some time outside the cemetery, "talking" to Betty, while Cy bandaged himself up and settled himself with a glass of whiskey.Rewards Granted
Character(s) interacted with
- X-Ray Inventor
- Kiko Nakamura
- David Bauer
- Herbalist
Copyright: This product was created using the Darrington Press Community Gaming License. The Illuminated Worlds Standard Resource Document is owned and copyrighted by Darrington Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
Attribution: This product is based on the following Public Game Content created and owned by Darrington Press: Illuminated Worlds Standard Resource Document, Darrington Press, LLC, 2023, available at https://darringtonpress.com.
License: The Public Game Content identified above is licensed via the Darrington Press Community Gaming License available at https://darringtonpress.com.
Modification: The Public Game Content has not been modified by the author.
And every day you're in this place, you're two days nearer death.
But you go...