Talking to Delta Green
Even though Bazel Pedant gave up the VTOL to Delta Green, he still wanted a vehicle that can be used for surveillance reasons. After filing the proper paperwork, Delta Green handed him a surveillance van with a medical kit. However, it is also rather conspicuous – a purple van with a picture of a wizard riding a unicorn, with a bubble window in its back. This makes it very easy to spot – but it does allow the occupants to overhear what’s going on and be able to spy on individuals.
Bazel Pedant also transmits a report about the party’s visit to Forest Town, telling them almost everything about the mission – including the illegal casino, the dolmen, and the blood sacrifice cult. However, Bazel Pedant did not include the photograph of the party’s corpses, and does not mention the possibility that they’re all Protomatter robots.
After transmitting the report, Delta Green responds back promptly, stating that Dr. Alice Derleth has a new mission briefing. Bazel promises to meet up with Dr. Alice Derleth at the Dorchester House.
Continued Research Into The Protomatter Blob
While Marcus Legant recovers in the hospital, Bazel Pedant and Randal King looks at the photographs taken from Forest Town, in particular the photograph of their corpses. Randal King tries to determine the date when that photograph was taken. Was it taken in the past? The Present? The Future?
Relying on minor scenery details within the photograph, Randal King eventually concludes that the photographs were taken a few days after the reported disappearance of Dr. Grant Emerson (Agent Jade). Bazel Pedant also notices that Dr. Alice Derleth shows up in one of the photographs, evaluating some of the corpses as well. At this point, both Randal King and Bazel Pedant express a distrust of Delta Green.
Randal King suggest that what happened was that the party (the “Original Us”, as Bazel Pedant called this party) was all originally sent out to find Dr. Grant Emerson. The “Original Us” was then killed and then replaced by robots (“Robot Us”).
Randal King check his memories, and see that there was a three-day gap where the memories differ from what “really happened”. Randal King suggest that these were false memories, implanted by someone to make sure that
Bazel Pedant quietly check his notes about Delta Green to figure out when he got the mission – did he get one mission briefing? Or did he get two missions – the first time as the “Original Us”, and then the second time as robots? Bazel is concerned because if he only received one mission from Delta Green, then there’s lost time that needs to be accounted for. Plus, whatever explanation Bazel Pedant and Randal King comes up with may not match any preliminary reports the “Original Us” filed.
Bazel Pedant’s records suggest that the following event chain happened:
– The “Original Us” got sent on a mission, killed and replaced by robots.
– This mission was a fake mission – it only really exist to get the party killed and replaced.
– Then “Robot Us” received the real mission – investigate Forest Town.
Bazel Pedant wonders if the fake mission was a setup by Delta Green – or possibly a setup by someone impersonating Delta Green. Randal King state that this means it’s possible that Delta Green doesn’t know the party are robots – only a few people in the organization might know.
Bazel Pedant continued looking at the records, and see that he never filed a report for the original, fake mission. Yet he did report in and received the second mission regarding Forest Town. No eyebrows were raised, and there was no sign of suspicion on the part of Delta Green.
“That’s pretty damning,” Bazel Pedant notes.
Randal King also comments on the issue, finding it suspicious. “If I send you to go do a job, and next week, here’s your next job…I want to know what happened at your first job. Turn in your timesheet or something. It’d be weird if I didn’t hear from you for a week, and then give you another job.”
Bazel Pedant conclude that Delta Green, or at least Bazel’s handlers are in on this conspiracy. Bazel’s handlers would be his other Agents in his cell – Agent Jade (Dr. Grant Emerson) and Agent Jessica (Dr. Alice Derleth).
Bazel Pedant informs Randal King about the briefing he’ll have with Dr. Alice Derleth, at the Dorchester House. Randal King proposes that he secretly follows Bazel Pedant to the briefing at the Dorchester House. Bazel Pedant can distract Delta Green’s people, while Randal King can sneak into Dr. Alice Derleth’s office within the building and look through her records.
Randal King ponders about whether to kidnap Dr. Alice outright, but decides that would be too excessive. There’s no need to escalate to that level.
Time Shifts
Randal King, due to his nature as a conspiracy theorist, conduct research and relies on his Internet followers. He hopes to figure out why where the “Originals” even were replaced by robots in the first place.
Meanwhile, Bazel Pedan preps for his meeting with Dr. Alice.
As both Randal and Bazel plans their next moves, they notice strange…”shifts” in time. While Randal walks on the streets with blue skies, he would see a nuclear wasteland for a few minutes, caused by a nuclear war that was launched on September 26th 1983. Then, time “shifts” back to normal.
While Bazel drives his car, the radio station talks about US democratic elections to decide the President of the US, before it talks about the decrees made by the hereditary Emperor of America, ruling over the Kingdom of America…before time “shifts” back to the radio talking about American elections.
This suggest to Randal and Bazel that the robots in question can see time itself change regularly. Randal conclude that this “feature” may have something to do with Vingroup and Angka.
Randal decides to do some research into Angka. The fragmentary data he can recover on this entity reveals that it can try to use “time shifts” to gain power. This suggest that Delta Green (or rather, a rogue agent within Delta Green) replaced the “Originals” with robots to be able to easily identify “time shifts” and thus be able to more effectively fight against Angka.
Finally, Randal look for clues indicating the “next critical event”. He browse discussion boards, discovering rumors about an attempt to “resummon” Angka, at Forest Town.
Randal King therefore holds a second meeting with Bazel Pedant, where he presents his conclusions: “It sounds like the people in Forest Town are trying to summon Angka, though Chrissy Wade thinks they’re fighting Angka. Vingroup says they’re going to stop a calamity in the future, by building and using the machine that will cause this calamity. Delta Green got rid of us and then replaced us with robots so we’d be better equipped to fight Angka.”
Bazel Pedant find the process inefficient, asking why Delta Green has to kill them to create these robots, just to identify time shifts. Randal King offers a hypothesis: “Maybe they have to feed our corpses to the Protomatter to give the Protomatter shape. Perhaps it need genetic material.” Bazel Pedant is not convinced – “There has to be a better way.”
Randal King still has some questions: “Are Delta Green morally opposed to Protomatter? Or are they hypocritical? Maybe it’s one doctor going rogue?”
Bazel Pedant agrees and names a suspect. “Yeah, I think it’s Dr. Alice.”
Both Randal King and Bazel Pedant believe that Dr. Alice is worthy of investigation, and that it’s important to break into her office and find out what’s going on.
Layout of the Dorchester House
Dorchester House is a 17,000 square foot, three-story building. On the outside, it appears to be a simple apartment complex. In reality, the House contains Delta Green “assets” who are too dangerous to be allowed access to the outside world. As a result, it has several security features to prevent people from getting in (or out) without permission.
Dorchester House is surrounded by an attractive wrought iron fence with inverted hooks to prevent climbing, cameras, and motion sensors on outer grounds. There are two entrances – a driveway winds up to a gatehouse and the main house. A utility entrance enters from the rear of the facility to a loading dock.
There is a gatehouse manned from 10 AM to 6 PM by two security guards who keep careful watch of those coming and in and out. At night, a buzzer calls in from the gate to the main desk, and arrivals can be buzzed in from there.
Dorchester House is shaped like the letter E. It contains administrator facilities, a cafeteria, group room, offices, and the apartments themselves. The entire facility has a staff of 29 people.
Despite massive renovations, The interior of the building looks like a grade school, with tile floors and tiled ceilings, mild-colored walls and halls, and old lockers along hallways. The cafeteria was once obviously a gymnasium.
Nearly all doors in the facility are reinforced steel with card-key locks. Windows are reinforce and locked. Walls, floors, and ceilings are constructed from non-flammable materials. Fire detectors, smoke detectors, and sprinklers are located in every room and hallway.
Bazel’s Briefing, Part 1
Bazel Pedant drives his purple van (given to him by Delta Green) past the security gatehouse and parks it next to the Dorchester House. Secretly inside the purple van is Randal King. Bazel Pedant uses the main entrance of the Dorchester House. He covertly uses bubblegum to open the door slightly, so Randal King can get in.
Bazel Pedant then goes up to the third floor of the building, where Dr. Alice Derleth and Sunshine waits for him. Dr. Alice starts giving a briefing to Bazel Pedant.
“A person named Chrissy Wade assassinated the CEO of Technocom during a speech in Boston. Technocom is the present-day version of 2020s Vingroup – the CEO denounced Forest Town and declared that the 2020s Vingroup people are ‘imposters’. Chrissy Wade is currently arrested by the FBI.”
Sunshine showed a picture that he drew of the incident – showing Chrissy Wade murdering the CEO. However, on the wall is a poem:
“8
KILL KILL KILL KILL
KILL KILL KILL KILL
IS THE FIRST FOLD OF INFINITY”
Dr. Alice Derleth notes that this poem was not present in actual eyewitness accounts of the assassination by Chrissy Wade.
Randal King’s Heist
Meanwhile, Randal King sneak past the guards on duty and use the main entrance. Randal King gets into the House, but after he does so, the guards notices the bubblegum and raises the alarm. The entire House is placed under lockdown, and the briefing has to be suspended. A security patrol walks through the entire House, looking for any intruders.
During lockdown, all people must shelter-in-place, meaning Dr. Alice Derleth and Sunshine cannot leave the room they’re in. Bazel Pedant volunteers to be part of the security patrol, thereby avoiding the shelter-in-place order and being able to move around the area.
Bazel Pedant walks through the corridors, opening doors as he patrols. He enters into the area where Randal is in, and then reports that the area is “cleared” of intruders. While Randal King grabs a labcoat from a closet, Bazel “slips” his own keycard onto the desk.
With the lab coat and keycard in hand, Randal King then gets up to the third floor, avoiding the security patrol. He uses Bazel’s keycard to gain access into Dr. Alice’s office – which appears to be a laboratory. Randal King finds a filing cabinet within the laboratory and searches through it, finding certain confidential notes that she has there.
The notes include pictures of a ‘sculpture’ she built – a large bed-sized makeup compact (that opens and closes like a huge clam shell). It details Dr. Alice’s attempts to prevent Delta Green from investigating the ‘sculpture’, as well as a visit by local law enforcement who thought that a “marijuana farm” was present there. The police were tipped off by the energy consumption of the ‘sculpture’ in question, and they thought a growing operation might be occurring there.
The notes also provide an address to an apartment complex where the ‘sculpture’ is located at.
Randal King wonders if this sculpture is a UFO – a flying saucer that may be opened up. He does note though that it does not look like it’s vehicle-sized though. In fact, the compact does not look portable at all, and might be better off treated as a type of furniture.
Randal King also notes the presence of life crystals embedded within the ‘sculpture’ – each crystal is hand-sized. Marcus Legant dealt with these crystals and thus know a lot about them. As he’s current unavailable though, Randal King can’t ask him for help at this time.
Randal King continues to look through the notes and find information at the bottom of the filing cabinet about Dr. Alice’s life in a Yithian library from long ago (in a different time period? timeline? dimension?) and her wars against the Llogior. The records imply that’s she’s a soldier who was assigned to fight in these wars. “Recently”, Dr. Alice received a mission in this library to travel to this time period to stop an “anti-fascist” organization named the Ginseng Knife. This makes some sense as the Yith are themselves a sociofascist democracy.
Randal King also finds a security camera within the filing cabinet, suggesting that the whole office may be bugged. Randal King would need to spend some time clearing out these bugs to prevent getting exposed.
Randal King decides he doesn’t have time – either to clear out the bugs or to explore the records more deeply. So he grabs as many records as he could and run out of Dr. Alice’s office. Randal King runs out of the main entrance, using Bazel Pedant’s keycard. Randal then uses mental domination on the guard already present, allowing him to bypass the guard and leave the area. Thus, Randal King is able to escape, but has left behind a lot of evidence.
Bazel’s Briefing, Part 2
For now though, the lockdown itself was terminated and it was officially ruled a “false alarm”. Bazel Pedant returns back to Dr. Alice and Sunshine, and the briefing resumes.
Dr. Alice is intrigued by the poem that Sunshine painted and want to figure out where it comes from. Based on Bazel Pedant’s report, Dr. Alice thinks that this may be connected to the dolmen and the strange ritual circle within said dolmen. Therefore, the mission is to go to this circle and dig up that area to see what is buried there. Maybe it might give Delta Green more information.
Bazel Pedant: “You want us to dig up an ancient ritual site?”
Dr. Alice: “It’s not ancient – they built it when they made Forest Town.”
Bazel Pedant: “So it’s made out of plastic – got it.”
Bazel Pedant suggest that assembling an excavation team. Dr. Alice thought a shovel might be good enough, but agreed that an excavation team might be a better idea. It would take her 6 hours to get that team though, and Dr. Alice is concerned that it might not be enough time. Plus, since Bazel Pedant has to drive over to Forest Town, there’s a real possibility that someone may dig up the dolmen before Delta Green does.
Bazel Pedant states that this is no problem, because that means that someone already dug up the dolmen.
Bazel’s plan is simple – Dr. Alice requisitions an excavation team, while Bazel Pedant’s party will secure the area to allow the excavation team to do its job. If anyone is digging up the dolmen, Bazel will let Dr. Alice know, and then will wait in hiding until the dolmen is fully dug up. Then, Bazel’s party will steal whatever it is that is underneath the area. Bazel’s party will also consider calling in backup (actual backup, not the excavation team).
Dr. Alice agrees to this plan.
Bazel Pedant then goes over to the armory of Dorchester House and asks for a grenade launcher. “I’ve been asked to secure a dolmen, and we’re only two people, so we need a force multiplier since we may get vehicles coming at us.” Delta Green gives Bazel Pedant a grenade launcher that is inscribed with the Elder Sign – a radioactive symbol that harms unnatural beings. Unfortunately, since Bazel Pedant is a Protomatter robot, the grenade launcher slowly burns in his hands.
Aftermath of Briefing/Heist
Bazel Pedant then drives his purple van away from Dorchester House and meets up with Randal King at the designated meetup point. There, Bazel Pedant briefs Randal King on what he learnt.
Randal King comments on the poem: “There are eight Kills in that poem. And 8, turned on its side, is the symbol for infinity.”
Randal King did not like the rocket launcher, and suggest two options – trying to remove the inscription, or giving the rocket launcher to a mundane delinquent who would be immune to the Elder Sign’s effect. Both Randal King and Bazel Pedant conclude that getting rid of the inscription might be a better plan.
Randal King wonders if the Chrissy Wade that is currently under FBI custody is the same Chrissy Wade that led the blood cult, or if it is another Protomatter robot copy. It’s probably a sign that they need to use the test kit on her.
Randal King finds it weird that Dr. Alice showed Bazel Pedant a picture of Chrissy Wade assassinating someone, but then gives Bazel Pedant a mission to dig up a dolmen.
Randal King notes that Dr. Alice is an agent of the Yith, fighting against the Llogior, and that she’s hiding a sculpture in an apartment complex. Randal states that Dr. Alice is hostile towards the party – she wanted agents with the power to see ‘time shifts’.
Randal King: “Dr. Alice could have sacrificed herself, assuming that she’s anything like a human. But, nope, she choose to sacrifice us to the cause. Given that we burnt down the building where the radio transmitter was housed (the one that was being used to control a bunch of Protomatter robots), it’s a fair indication that she was working with those people. So she’s with Vingroup or Technocom. And maybe she wants us to kill Chrissy.”
Bazel Pedant: “Chrissy says she’s fighting the demon, Angka. Maybe Vingroup is trying to summon that demon. Chrissy and her crazy blood cult are trying to stop it. Regardless, we have to visit Alice’s apartment complex and mess up her statute.”
Randal King: “I don’t care about anything in the dolmen, and maybe we want to also get Chrissy out of custody. Let’s go figure out what this giant clam shell is in Alice’s apartment complex.”
Dr. Alice’s Apartment Complex
Bazel Pedant and Randal King drives over to the apartment complex where the sculpture is located and then break in. Bazel Pedant and Randal King notices that, aside from the sculpture, there is a cellphone as well.
Randal King examines the sculpture. It is not connected to any power source, but it can heat up and cool down the apartment a lot, depending on whether it is on or off. Bazel Pedant notes that this has to affect the AC – growing labs do need to keep stuff fairly warm, which is why they have a lot of energy consumption.
Randal King concludes that the sculpture is a device that stores human souls in these crystals. When it is activated, anyone who dies within a 457.1 kilometer radius will be ‘backed up’ into these life crystals. Randal King concludes that this is how Dr. Alice probably “transferred” us – after the physical body is terminated, the machine then recovers the person’s memories and life.
Randal King then have a realization – this is what life crystals are all about. People harvest the memories of dead people, and then snort them, reliving the memories of those that died before. Life crystals are essentially a narcotic, and the sculpture is essentially a growth factory for sicko death cultists. Thus, the police was right to suspect that drugs were being produced here in this apartment complex – they just didn’t suspect the right drugs.
Both Randal King and Bazel Pedant got really annoyed at Dr. Alice Derleth’s selfish actions, believing her to be a horrible person. They, therefore, conducted petty sabotage against her apartment. Randal went into the restroom and dipped the toothbrush into the toilet before returning it to its place. Bazel places a fork down the garbage disposal and made sure it couldn’t be seen. Randal King and Bazel Pedant also moves the sculpture into the van itself – out of pure vindictive nature.
Randal King and Bazel Pedant also tries to examine Dr. Alice’s cellphone, trying to see if there’s a contact list. When Randal checks the cellphone though, he finds that it’s actually a gun that shoots lighting. Randal takes the “cellphone” with him.
Randal King also looks to see if there are any jars of mysterious fluids (like Protomatter). None exist. Randal King thinks it would be a cruel way to escape from prison – get executed switch on the machine, and then build a Protomatter robot.
Due to a lack of time, Randal King and Bazel Pedant leaves the apartment complex, without doing any more sabotage.
Randal King: “We can be cruel and vindictive later.”
Freeing Chrissy Wade
Randal King wants to free Chrissy Wade, considering her a potential source of information. Therefore, Bazel Pedant uses a counterfeit ID card created by Delta Green to pretend to be an FBI agent, while claiming Randal King is a civilian informant. The ID claims that Bazel Pedant is an agent from Cincinnati.
Bazel Pedant talks to the FBI agents who already have Chrissy Wade in custody. Bazel tells them that Chrissy Wade is a serial killer who is tied to multiple murders, and that Randal King is helping out this investigation.
The FBI agents believe Bazel Pedant and Randal King, and allow them access to an interrogation room where Chrissy Wade is located. Once there, Bazel Pedant uses his Jinx ability to temporarily disable the security camera there, thereby stopping any recording from taking place.
Randal: “Hello again, Ms. Wade. It looks like you gotten yourself into some trouble. Can I ask why? I thought you and Technocom/Vingroup are allies. Is that not true?”
Chrissy: “So I have two missions. Once, I only had one mission – to save the world from Angka by helping my father, Satchel Wade.”
Randal (thinking): “Uh, huh, your dead father. Well, I’m a robot, so maybe it’s not that strange.”
Chrissy: “But then I had a second mission – to stop people from believing in a delusion. This mission started yesterday, when I realized that a bunch of people were running around believing in very strange things. And so I felt the need to do something about it. I rushed over and killed the CEO…”
Randal: “If a bunch of people believe in something, why is it that you think that they’re delusional? Maybe you’re delusional.”
Chrissy: “This delusion only appeared yesterday though – everyone believed in the same thing before that time.”
Bazel: “That seems strange. People believe in a lot of strange things – what are these strange things that people believe in?”
Randal (thinking): “She heard that there was a delusion…and the best course of action was to murder someone. Then again, she follows orders from her dreams.”
Chrissy: “These people apparently believe in weird things – they believe that humans are not dying or suffering from any ill-effects from background radiation…”
Bazel: “Are you talking about background radiation?”
Chrissy: “No, I’m talking about background radiation from nuclear weapons.”
Bazel: “The nuclear weapons from Hiroshima?”
Chrissy: “No, the nuclear weapons that was donated afterwards, during the nuclear war that started on September 26th 1983.”
Randal (thinking): “Well, one of the time shifts we saw indeed had a nuclear war that started on September 26th 1983. So she is a Protomatter robot and we don’t need to test her. She probably experienced some other time and then it got reset.”
Bazel: “Uh, there was no nuclear war. How can you explain all of…well, this?”
Chrissy: “Well we all developed mundane magical abilities that allow us to survive in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Like, look at that one-eyed cyclops.”
Bazel: “You mean the security camera? But that’s just a security camera made in Taiwan.”
Chrissy: “Sure, it looks like a security camera made in Taiwan, but it’s actually a monster made in Taiwan. Because how else could you have a supply chain that works in a post-‘nuclear war’ ecosystem without magic being involved?”
Randal: “I’m starting to think talking to her was a mistake.”
Bazel: “Why don’t you tell me everything you know about Technocom and Vingroup? And what Vingroup is doing in Forest Town? And maybe we can help you out?”
Chrissy: “In Forest Town, we worked with Vingroup from the future, as we try to stop Angka from being summoned…when one day, Vingroup tells me that this person, this CEO of Technocom, was denouncing them as being wrong and evil. That’s probably a sign that he is working for Ginseng Kinfe. And that sounded reasonable to me.”
Randal: “The CEO is badmouthing the company, so they think he works from a different group. Who is the Ginseng Knife?”
Chrissy: “They’re an organization based in Vietnam dedicated to traveling through time. They want to summon Angka to protect them when they’re time traveling.”
Randal: “Vingroup in the future says there’s a disaster happening in 2020s. The engineers we met in that radio transmitter area, they say they belong to the Ginseng Knife. They said a device is malfunctioning so they need to travel back in time to stop this device from malfunctioning and destroying the world. In the process, they have to microwave people…doing this summoning. Or, in other words, Ginseng Knife’s goal is to summon Angka so they could time travel safely so that the device will not malfunction in 2020s.”
Randal: “Is Technocom working with Ginseng Knife? Sounds like they are. They are trying to use their device, but it’s faulty so it’s summoning a demon so they can survive the trip. I imagine the microwaving people is a roundabout way of sacrificing them at the dolmen.”
Chrissy: “So I was scammed. Ginseng Knife, via Vingroup, was essentially tricking me into doing blood sacrifices on their behalf. I’ll help you out, but I need you to help me get out of this place right now.”
Bazel Pedant tells the FBI agents present that Chrissy Wade will confess to several other crimes. To do this confession though, Bazel and Randal will walk Chrissy to other crime scenes, and get her to confess. Randal also uses mental domination to make sure the FBI agents agree to let her go.
While Bazel Pedant and Randal King escorts Chrissy Wade out, Randal King continues pumping Chrissy Wade for more information. Chrissy tells the following to Randal King:
– There is a conspiracy to create robots. This conspiracy is necessary to gather sacrifices for the blood cult – it provides plausible deniability as well false memories.
– Robots are able to see the truth – all the time shifts – making them a useful asset for time-traveling conspiracies like the Yith, the Llogior and the Ginseng Knife.
– Protomatter (the main ingredient that is used to construct these robots) appeared to have originated at the beginning of time itself. Protomatter is arguably the primordial goo by which life comes from.
– The construction of these robots requires corpses to “imitate”.
– Memories are obviously implanted based on the corpses, or maybe through the life crystals extracted from the corpses.
Chrissy Wade knows about Dr. Alice Derleth, as she’s in on the conspiracy. But she thinks Dr. Alice is part of SCDAR – the Special Committee responsible for Air Force testing. Bazel and Randal conclude that SCDAR does not actually exist – it’s just another front for human sacrifices.
Randal (thinking): “Chrissy is a robot, Bazza Karpos was a robot – it seems this is how Ginseng Knife is able to manipulate people – kill them, and turn them into robots. The Yith can see this as a useful tool, since the robots are able to see time shifts more effectively. So that’s why they killed you so you could be turned into a robot. It’s possible that these dreams that Chrissy Wade receive are actually orders from a radio transmitter somewhere, and thus Ginseng Knife controls her that way.”
Randal: “So we got you out of custody, Chrissy. Do you know anything that Ginseng Knife might be enacting to summon this demon? How does it work? How can we stop it?”
Chrissy: “That’s the thing…I think he’s already summoned. I think now that he’s summoned, he’s trying to just convert as many people as he can into puppets to do more human sacrifices. Angka doesn’t want his proxies anymore, he’s going to do the sacrificing to fuel him.”
Randal: “Is there any way to stop him?”
Chrissy: “You can de-summon Angka by blowing him up, explosives would be good enough – you can deliver them from the air. The problem is…what would be the point? Someone will just resummon him agin. That’s why I want Angka to die permanently. That’s why I have this so-called ‘cult’ – because it will help me fulfill my father’s legacy and get rid of this demon permeantnly. Make sure that it can never come into our dimension.”
Bazel: “Why can it never come in? The Ginseng Knife thinks it will protect them. Why is it wrong for it to come in our reality if it seems useful?”
Chrissy: “Because it’s evil. That’s it. Most of these monsters are all evil.”
Bazel: “Plenty of things that are evil…that we allow to exist. The question is why is this thing so evil that it must be destroyed. This other group is summoning it – right, because, it is useful. How is it dangerous?”
Chrissy: “Because it fuels itself via human sacrifices. It’s a parasite in some ways, it tries to kill as many people as possible so it can get the ‘hyper-geometry’ necessary to be able to do what the Ginseng Knife wants it to do. And if it is allowed to be summoned, it will change history – and the Ginseng Knife will be allowed to change history. And I don’t want that. Look, my father sacrificed HIS life to try to stop Angka. To let Angka come back again after a few short decades, would be an insult to his legacy. You may look down on my blood cult, but it was necessary to stop a monster. Of course, this leads to a question on whether the blood cult was actually fueling Angka rather than stopping it.”
Bazel: “That’s certainly seem the most important thing. Maybe you got played by this thing.”
Chrissy: “Maybe I did.”
Bazel: “And if that’s the case, maybe you’re still are.”
She goes silent. “If that is true, what can I do?”
Bazel: “It’s seem to me that I think we need to talk to the Ginseng Knife. I think they’re the only ones we haven’t had a conversation with. Right…you say they’re evil and want to bring this evil thing – but what you’re describing doesn’t sound like true. It sounds like the Ginseng Knife want to save the future by using the demon’s power. Am I wrong about that?”
Chrissy: “I think you’re wrong.”
Bazel: “What are they trying to do?”
Chrissy: “What you say they’re doing. They want to save the future by using the demon’s power. The problem is that the demon is evil, and if it is evil, it must be destroyed. You cannot let humanity be controlled by gods. And that is exactly what the Ginseng Knife want to do.”
Bazel: “I thought the Ginseng Knife are anti-fascist. Isn’t that right?”
Chrissy: “That’s right, because of course, they would be anti-fascist. They work for the Vietnamese government. So what?”
Bazel: “They wouldn’t want us to subject to gods.”
Randal King thinks quietly to himself:
“Vingroup seems pretty bad, but we haven’t talked with Ginseng Knife. they appear to be working with Vingroup. Is Vingroup and Ginseng Knife working together for the same goal. The CEO of Technocom denounced Vingroup, strangely, but maybe it’s just a way to distance himself from their actions. Chrissy thought she was doing blood sacrifices on behalf of her father. We thought that the American government testing a VTOL…but it’s actually a sacrificial ritual, The purpose is not to test if microwaves kill people…but just to kill people at this dolmen.
Dr. Alice, the Yith lady, made us to fight the Llogior, which might be related to this demon…or this demon is some kind of similar entity. She wants us to dig up the ritual circle. Apparently us being robots had nothing to do with the robots here in Forest Town. There are two time traveling groups that both use robots.
We got Chrissy to distrust what she’s been told. Do we go with Alice’s plan to stop this demon and stop Technocom? Knowing that she’s a fascist Yith, but still, she’s trying to stop this demon. The demon might already be summoned, just killing people for fun or profit or just getting rid of its local agents so they can’t stop it somehow.
Maybe we need to call in a bomb strike. We got an anti-supernatural rocket launcher after all.
Chrissy wants to destroy it forever, maybe we need to find that. Maybe she needs to take a nap and talk to her dead father. Or maybe she’s not aware of the right solution (she’s a robot, and her dreams were telling her to do blood sacrifices.) If we received instructions, it would likely be the form of dreams.
Chrissy Wade has confirmed a lot of stuff for us, but is not very useful. No matter what happens, she should not be allowed freedom. She has to be locked up in an insane asylum, not allowed to walk off into the sunset.”
Randal King gives his proposal to Bazel Pedant: “Alice wants to destroy this circle, so maybe let’s do that. At least we won’t get any more blood sacrifices. Maybe we need to get her to tell us what’s going on and if there’s any way to stop this thing.”
Bazel Pedant agrees but still want to to get more information from Chrissy Wade.
Bazel: “Where will be able to find more information about Angka?”
Chrissy: “Other than, say, magical bookstores or the Miskatonic University, the best place to get knowledge on Angka is by talking to the Ginseng Knife themselves. Or talking to the demon itself. The demon can talk about itself regularly.”
Randal: “Strikes me as possibly not the best solution.”
Bazel: “Yeah, I don’t think if we can trust the Ginseng Knife or demons.”
Randal: “Do you know of anyone from the Ginseng Knife?”
Chrissy: “I mean, no, I don’t know, because they always try to hide themselves and avoid capture.”
Bazel: “What about Technocom? If they are working with Ginseng Knife, shouldn’t they have some of the same documents?”
Chrissy: “I think so.”
Bazel: “Or maybe if they’re agents, maybe we can identify those agents within Technocom.”
Randal: “If we do want to talk to the demon, we can use Big Magic but I don’t think that’s a smart idea.”
Chrissy: “You know what, as much as this might be a bad idea, and I feel it to be a bad idea, if you want the truth, and you don’t care about saving lives…”
Randal: “But we do want to save lives.”
Bazel: “Yeah that why we brought the grenade launcher.”
Randal (thinking): “I don’t know if he’s beings sarcastic or not. Whether the truth is about the future, Ginseng Knife is murdering people for blood now, in the present. They’re not summoning this demon because it will cure all diseases.”
Chrissy: “The reason I say that is that sometimes the truth requires sacrifices. That’s something my father talks about. What I suggest is that we go to Vietnam, go to Hanoi, and find Ginseng Knife’s headquarters.”
Bazel: “It’s a 21-27 hour flight from Boston to Vietnam. We can pop over, pop back, only a couple of days.”
Randal: “We’ll be avoiding Forest Town though.”
Bazel: “That’s my point. If we go to Hanoi, we will ignore Forest Town and sacrifice the people there. But we’ll find the truth.”
Bazel: “I’ll take a third option. I’ll use my contacts to requisition a team already in Vietnam. While we deal with Forest Town, the team in Vietnam will go to Hanoi.”
Randal: “That’s probably the best course of action.”
Bazel Pedant, Randal King, and Chrissy Wade all enter into the purple van and drive off to Forest Town.
Forest Town
The purple van makes it to a security checkpoint at Forest Town, only to find it abandoned. It seems only the backroom in the checkpoint is occupied, but the lights everywhere is turned off.
Randal: “What’s going on? Is this work of Angka?”
Chrissy: “Yes. Probably. I think now he’s convinced people to do what is necessary. For him at least. To kill, revel, and scream. For him. This is bad. Because if those people get out from this city…we’re in trouble.”
Randal: “Is there an abandoned backhoe (tractor with a mechanical arm with a shovel on the end) here? Or did it make it through here before the situation?”
Randal enter into the abandoned checkpoint and check the records. They indicate that a backhoe did get past the security checkpoint, but doesn’t mention if it made it to the dolmen or not. Randal joke that the backhoe team claimed to be tourists to enter the area.
Randal: “I think we should proceed. We can stop this ritual…”
Chrissy: “It will reduce whatever access he has to this plane of existence.”
Randal King, Bazel Pedant, and Chrissy Wade vows to head over to the dolmen, find the backhoe, and hijack it. The purple van races through the streets of Forest Town, aiming to make it to the dolmen.
Forest Town itself is in the grips of madness. People are taking potshots at the van, while shooting and killing each other. In their madness, the people of Forest Town chant the following poem:
8
KILL KILL KILL KILL
KILL KILL KILL KILL
IS
THE FIRST
FOLD
OF
INFINITY