Assignment: The Light Eater of Bridleborne
General Summary
Following a tragic death by electrocution in the Bridleborne Mountains, members of the Circle of Chaos & Ash set out to investigate. They found a massive creature that fed on electricity that was using bodies of the townspeople to form conduits, and were forced to confront the monster in order to save the town. Arthur Hurley was absent from this assignment, due to illness.
This assignment took place on Late Autumn 1, 1907 and was the first official assignment for the Circle of Chaos & Ash.
Hook
The Bridleborne Mountains were the one place a person could go to get away from the hum of the city—but no more. Overmount’s recently illuminated streets now buzz with the light of infinite potential. What was once a small logging encampment is now a bustling company town with electric lights. The first in the region, in fact. Hackley & Wilde Timber, the logging company that birthed and sustains this town, has been none too quiet about how proud they are about this distinction. For the citizens, however, it’s a dubious honor they may be all too eager to relinquish. Despite the ever-present hum of electric currents, this sleepy little hamlet, where very little occurs, is quiet. Peaceful. Complacent.
A thunderous boom shatters the night’s silence. A grizzled, pale-skinned man stands at the front door of a ramshackle company home, one of several lines of houses radiating out from the town center like the spokes of a wheel. The man reloads his shotgun, sweeping the darkness for whatever made noise, and retreats to the protective glow of the small cottage light.
Sweat beads on his forehead, dripping into his eyes. His vision blurs, and as he wipes his face, he hears the sound that scared him… now coming from inside the house. In a flash, the lightbulb beside him bursts. The man raises his gun up to meet something blacker than the night itself. The stench of ozone precedes an electric crackling and a massive pop, after which the house is left in only silence and darkness.
Arrival
The Circle of Chaos & Ash met inside their chapter house, where their Lightkeeper, Sylvia Reed, briefed them on the report of a thinning in the Bridleborne Mountains that may have been related to the death of a man in his home by electrocution. They were tasked with investigating the death to determine if it was accidental or came as the result of a phenomenon. Pierce Hunter asked a few questions on whether there was any information about what had caused it, but Sylvia was unable to provide much without any direct information outside what the report gave. As they left, Charlie swiped a book from the Chapter House that detailed some phenomena that had been reported in South Soffit, including the taxidermy that claimed to have a real krakidon body.
Upon arriving in Overmount, the circle immediately went into The Bridle Bar, where Pierce spoke with the owner and barkeep, Nigel Munro. Pierce presented himself as a journalist looking to write a story about the hardworking people who supply lumber for the city, which put him in Nigel's good graces, as so few city folk give the blue collar workers the recognition they deserve. Nigel informed Pierce and the rest of the circle about the row of houses that lost power last night, in the same row where the first victim, Floyd Albury, had died. He told them that the foreman, Tang Yuna, would be able to get them access to the houses if asked, but also warned Pierce not to let Tang know he was a journalist if he wanted to talk to them. Pierce bought a round of drinks "for Floyd" for the patrons of the bar.
Once outside, the circle walked down the row of company houses that lost power until they were able to find Floyd's, marked with a sign on the door that said "Official Business Only." Charlie, Cy and Eddy went inside to investigate while Piece stood watch out front. Inside the house, they found a threadbare home, made with cheap construction and wiring that was likely unsafe. Every light bulb in the house was shattered, and all of the electrical outlets were singed. In the middle of what would be the living room floor, they found the body of Floyd Albury, his body covered in red, fractal-patterned marks, his hair singed, and his face frozen in horror: he had been electrocuted to death.
Cy used his Bleed Detector, a flashlight with a magnifying glass that, when it hovers over a source of bleed, will illuminate the area in a faint orange. He found that all of the sockets, as well as the marks on Floyd's body, were emanating faint amounts of bleed. At the same time, Eddy attempted to attune with the phenomenon to get a feel for what happened, and if the electrocution were an accident. He was able to sense the bleed in the room, and was able to tell that Floyd did not die of natural or accidental causes. Whatever had killed him had sucked all of the electricity in the house and used it as the means of murder.
Outside, Pierce was approached by Tang Yuna, who had been informed of Pierce hanging around Floyd's home. At first, Tang seemed anxious and attempted to be authoritative. Pierce told them he was with the Lumber Commission, here to investigate on behalf of the company and get the situation handled to take care of the people living and working in Overmount. Tang believed this, and informed Pierce that the whole row that lost power had been lost; every person inside was dead, except for Mrs. Shelley at the end of the row. They also let Pierce know that Mrs. Shelley was the only person on the row who did not have electricity to her house, and gave Pierce a master key to the row for him to investigate, under the promise that he return it before leaving town.
The circle investigated the other houses in the row and found more of the same: inadequate housing, cheap construction and wiring, shattered bulbs, and the bodies of the residents within, all bearing the same marks of electrocution as Floyd had.
Exploration
When the circle knocked on the door of Mrs. Alice Shelley, she was initially apprehensive about speaking to the "Faire Faced" investigators and giving a statement. Pierce was able to convince her that they came to provide help for the people, rather than a cover up for the company, and she allowed them inside for some tea.
While she made the tea, Mrs. Shelley told them about her late husband, Earnest, who was a veteran in The Last Great War. She told them of how she and her husband had grown up in Seasway, and how he had taken a job with Hackley & Wilde Timber after the war, which was what had brought them out to the mountains. She would not speak of the incident that took her husband, only stating, "It was the company's fault. I have a roof over my head for the rest of my life, and we'll leave it at that." It was not hard to get the impression that she may have signed some sort of Non Disclosure Agreement that she would not divulge the details of her husband's death.
Mrs. Shelley told the circle that ever since the wires were put in, she's been hearing digging outside her house at night, but whenever she goes outside with her lantern, there is nothing there. Just the other night, something dug up her garden in the back yard, but didn't eat the vegetables that she has been growing. Pierce stayed inside to continue interviewing her about her husband while Charlie, Eddy and Cy all went out to the garden to investigate the damage that had been done.
While in the garden, Cy began digging and uncovered the remains of a man's arm. More digging revealed that it was attached to the corpse of another body, connected by melted flesh that fused them together in a line. As Charlie held the Bleed Detector light for Cy to see, it revealed a faint orange glow from the fused bodies. The line led out into the woods, seemingly to a nearby power line. Eddy retrieved Pierce, as well as borrowing a couple of lanterns from Mrs. Shelley, and the circle followed the line of warped bodies.
Escalation
As the circle followed the melted corpses into the woods, they came upon a mass of bodies that wrapped around the power line, swallowing the transformer. The sight of it was so terrible that everyone received a Brain mark, save for Pierce because he used Smelling Salts to fortify himself. A brief investigation revealed electricity flowing through the bodies around the transformer, making the hair on Cy's hand stand up as though affected by static. The circle was careful not to touch any of the bodies once they noticed this. The string of corpses continued deeper into the woods, and as night fell and a new moon rose, the circle followed it by lantern light.
The darkness surrounding them became oppressive they walked deeper into the forest, with dark figures flittering just at the edge of their lamplight, as though something was just waiting for one of them to stray beyond the light to attack. Eventually, the line ended as they came upon a nest, constructed from a mass of corpses all warped and melted together in a horrific pile. There, they saw a dozen black, humanoid-shaped figured hunched over, sucking on the electricity that flowed through the line of bodies. As the flames of the lanterns flickered and dimmed with low fuel, the creatures known as Night Terrors leapt to attack.
Cy and Charlie were each able to fend off the Night Terrors that attacked them, Cy with a solid punch with his brass knuckles and Charlie with a well-placed strike with her pocket knife. Neither seemed to do much damage to the creatures, but it did push them back for a moment. Pierce attempted to frighten the creatures back with the light from his camera flash, and took a picture of them. The creature seemed unaffected, and swiped at Pierce's arm, inflicting a Bleed mark as electricity traveled down to his fingertips and caused him to drop his camera for a moment before he could pick it up again. Eddy tried to communicate with the creatures, telling them to stop. While he got the impression that the Night Terror could understand his words, it still raked its claws into his chest, inflicting a Bleed mark. Through Eddy's Let Them In ability, he was able to glean that the Night Terrors were the offspring of a much larger creature, and that they were feral beasts that could not be reasoned with.
As the rest of the Night Terrors moved in to surround them, the circle made the hasty decision to retreat, sprinting through the forest to try and escape. They crossed through a small creek nearby, and noticed when they glanced back that many of the larger Night Terrors stopped chasing them. The smaller, likely younger, ones attempted to cross the creek, but immediately short circuited and died in a puff of ozone and burning hair.
These creatures could be killed with water.
Climax
Just as the circle came to this realization, electricity crackled through the conduit of mangled bodies, and they could see lights in the town below blinking out. They had a feeling that Mama was attacking the town.
They rushed back down to Overmount, where the found another line of melted and warped bodies had been formed, laying in the street. Atop one of the houses was a massive, black creature with white, pupil-less eyes, sucking on the power line like a straw. As it absorbed the electricity from the line, it grew in size and was soon twice the size of the house it was perched on. Pierce made the quick decision to whistle loudly to get the monstrosity's attention alongside Eddy, while Cy and Charlie made a beeline for the firehouse just past the beast. Cy and Charlie were able to get past the monster as it bounded towards Pierce and Eddy, and Charlie found the keys to the fire truck. In short order, she had the truck running while Cy climbed up top with the hose ready.
Pierce and Eddy split up and ran to try and keep the beast busy, and it screeched into the air, pulling up the conduit of bodies and crackling it to life with electricity. Pierce and Eddy were able to avoid getting hit, but the stress induced a Brain mark for each of them.
Charlie kept the fire truck steady as she sped after the monster, and Cy aimed the water from the fire hose. As quickly as the fight had started, it was suddenly over as water doused the monster and it popped with a burst of energy.
The creature was dead, and Overmount had been saved.
Resolution
In the morning, there was much grief to be had over the new loss of life. This incident was explained by Pierce as a tragic accident that came about from poor practices from Hackley & Wilde Timber cutting corners with their implementation of electricity in the town. Pierce spent much of the day interviewing people in town to get their perspectives so he can write an article exposing the bad practices that are exploiting the hard working people who provide such vital resources for the city. He is likely to get some pushback from his editor for a piece that so blatantly smears a major company, and he may need to rework the angle of the article to be more about celebrating the hard work being done. Pierce also turned over the photo he took of the Night Terrors to Sylvia, and Cy gave her the notes he took throughout the investigation on the nature of the creatures, to be added to the research saved on such phenomena.
No circle resources were used at the end of the assignment. Thought the experience had been harrowing, the members of the Circle of Chaos & Ash felt confident in their fortitude.
Character(s) interacted with
- Nigel Munro
- Tang Yuna
- Alice Shelley
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.
