The Cereal Box:Log/Session 21

Session 21

The party arrived in Elsewhere, OK, around midnight, and was able to get a room at the Hilton, where they discovered that a UFC prizefight between Alana "Puma" Dias and Jane Jespero would be taking place at the Markwell Arena. Evie and Nikolai decided to harvest glamour at the local bar while Ernie got his things together and did some research on things. Nikolai hustled pool and Evie hit on a creeper (who turned out to be Albert Joad, Ernie's father). Alana's fetch was there and dragged her boss out.

April 4th

In Battle Creek, Mary came to and had breakfast with them. She explained that she needed to see her husband - there was a certain Pledge she had made "until death do we part" that she wanted out of. The party conceded that they did not blame her for this, but explained that Kingman had been banished and no one would know where to find him.

Hestia had to take possession of the building she was purchasing. Upon arriving there, she met with the realtor, who gave her the keys and told her "good luck." She quickly discovered that there was some sort of loud growling noise - like that of a DigEm frog - coming from within, which concerned her. She called Billy Goat, the King of Autumn and Jack Strong hoping to get some assistance, and requested that the remainder of her motley come out to help.

Looking inside revealed that the restaurant was fine except for the gaping hedge gate apparently spilling out of the kitchen. The party cautiously investigated and found a fetid swamp pool full of cat-sized DigEm nematodes.

Roper arrived at the restaurant on his moped, and he surveyed the situation. He concluded that he did not know why the Hedge gate didn't close normally - Hedge gates shouldn't stay open more than about half a minute at the very outside without someone actively holding them open - unless there was some key causing it to remain open. Further investigation revealed no key, but the party was briefly attacked by what was presumably mama DigEm. They killed the creature and continued searching for answers.

In Elsewhere, the party investigated the Joad house, discovering that Albert Joad lived alone and had removed any trace of his former family from the building. They disabled the security systems on the house and searched it. While searching, Albert Joad returned home with Alana's fetch. Panicked, they tried to make themselves scarce. Evie was able to basically disappear, and Ernie hid in the attic and Nikolai tried to sneak out the back. Alana's fetch, however, heard Nikolai and confronted him. Nikolai used his contracts to concoct a fake search warrant and presented it to Alana. Unbeknownst to either, exposing the fetch to an object created with Arcadian magic was triggering an awakening in the creature.

Whilst in the attic, Ernie found a hidden notebook marked "The Tragedy of Regina Joad". This he took and read, prompting him to remember that he and Regina ran away from home to escape their abusive father, meeting an old man at a train yard. Ernie disinctly remembered his sister taking his hand and telling him that it "can't possibly be worse..."

Ernie returned to the trainyard and had a moment, wherein he chose not to recover Clarity - if he must have a past, it is best that it remain nebulous, where anything can happen. He closed the door to the boxcar that he and he sister entered to travel to Arcadia, closing that chapter of his past.