Brunch for all! Brunch! Brunch! Well, except for Chuck, who decided that he'd rather sleep in. We try out Gumbo's new Sunday brunch. Bruce (Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs) thought the Eggs St. Charles were really quite good, with the texture of the poached eggs nicely offsetting the spicy taste of the crab cakes. Paul (Kumar Singh) seems more measured in his response, unsure of the blackened catfish. Chris (Michael Sangaree) liked his food, and didn't make horrified noises about the setting. He concludes that the place is not too pretentious. It might not even be a cold day in hell before he would go there again. In dramatic contrast, Tim (Serpentine) thought that his dish had a very fancy name, but turned out to be nothing more than French bread with syrup. He feels rather malnourished, and makes noises about going to get a burger later on.
On the other hand, Tim recommends very highly that everyone should check out the White Wolf website. They have several of their supplements (typically some of the more marginal stuff and older things) available for sale as PDF files.
The characters set down on an open field outside of Irwindale, VT. Michael Sangaree shouts out, "We break out the motorcycles and head into town!" The characters notice that the object of their search is definitely nearby, as Professor Arkham's Carnival of Wonder flyers are pasted all over the town. They decide to go talk to the local Constable first. Serpentine cries out, "Let me do the talking! I'm Serpentine, and I fight crime!" Michael Sangaree suggests that he should remove his bondage mask first. Serpentine replies, "I'm not wearing a bondage mask."
It doesn't take long to get Serpentine into the same room as the sheriff. He explains that the characters are investigators and that they suspect that someone in the circus is abducting and murdering young girls. The sheriff doesn't know anything about that (though he does recommend Lucky Strikes to take care of Serpentine's nasty cough), but he is enough of a veteran that he doesn't trust those carny folk anyway. He thanks Serpentine for the warning, but assures him that he was planning on keeping an eye on the circus folk no matter what.
On the way from the sheriff's office to the circus grounds, Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs has a discussion with Kumar Singh over the fact that one of the dead girl's bodies is currently sitting in a bathtub of ice back in Maine. Kumar Singh seems to think that her body should be somehow returned to her home town. Pulfrey-Downs tells him, "Gobey, if you've never learned anything from me, you should have learned that there's nothing wrong with keeping bodies on ice in hidden warehouses." Kumar Singh insists, "But we should give the body back to her home town so she can be properly buried." At this point, Michael Sangaree joins in the conversation, pointing out that, "All our plans involved just dumping the carcass on somebody's doorstep, and they all made me feel like I'm guilty of something." Kumar Singh sighs, remarking, "I don't understand you white people."
The circus looks like the sort of low-end traveling show that is such a common sight in the smaller towns of the States. There is a substantial midway set up with various games of skill and a long line of tents featuring various sideshow freaks including Bruno the Strong Man, Annie Maple and her trick shooting, and best of all Professor Thaddeus Arkham and his Mesmeric Arts. There is a sign in front of Dojango the Monkey-Boy's tent indicating that it is closed because the Monkey-Boy ran off. The whole area is crowded with curious townsfolk, seeded with loud-voiced barkers calling out announcements for upcoming shows.
Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs notices a sign outside one tent claiming to contain a Genuine Preserved Mole-Man Head. He pesters Kumar Singh about it like a ten-year-old child asking his mother for a sweet. Kumar Singh groans and tells hiss boss, "Okay professor, we'll go see the Mole-Man head. I know you won't be able to do anything else until we've seen it." Pulfrey-Downs is ecstatic, shouting "Oh yes! Oh yes!" in what Kumar Singh presumes is a terribly excited upper-class British accent. The two of them wait in line for the Mole-Man Head. The show costs a nickel each. Pulfrey-Downs tries to pay the baffled barker with a crown. Kumar Singh fixes the situation by palming the coin and offering up a dime in it's place.
After all this exciting lead-up, Pulfrey-Downs is almost crushed to find that the supposed "Mole-Man Head" is really just a badly-mummified monkey's head. He considers running amok through the show in disappointment, but calms down when he remembers that the characters are all going to see Professor Arkham soon anyway.
While Pulfrey-Downs and Kumar Singh are messing around with fake Mole-Man heads, Michael Sangaree heads over to the Tent of Mesmerism to talk to the Professor. The barker at the door tells him that the Professor isn't available right now, but there's a show coming up soon. Michael Sangaree presses the barker, claiming that he has a terrible headache and desperately hopes that Professor Arkham can cure it. The barker claims that Sangaree might be able to see the Professor after the next show, but only if the barker remembers to mention it to the Professor. Sangaree ends up bribing the fellow with $1 to make sure he remembers.
Sangaree pays a nickel for the show and heads into the Tent of Mesmerism to wait. By the time the show starts, he has been joined by Pulfrey-Downs and Kumar Singh. Serpentine follows his own path and vanishes, lurking about the grounds in his role as masked avenger.
Professor Thaddeus Arkham turns out to be a middle-aged fellow in a sharp suit. He very expertly runs through all the normal features of a hypnotist's show, including making various audience members act like dogs, pigs, horses and chickens. Then, he chooses Kumar Singh as the next volunteer. The other characters watch as the Professor persuades him to act like a frog and to stand with his arms outstretched. Then they see him place Kumar Singh into a trance and plant some suggestions. The professor needs three successes to work his will upon the little Sikh. He gets a disturbingly large number, much larger than three. He gets seven. All the characters can tell is that he whispered something to Kumar Singh. With that, the curtain drops and the show ends.
After the show, Kumar Singh heads back to the plane, while Michael Sangaree sneaks after Professor Arkham to try and deduce which tent he is staying in. Serpentine already knows the answer to this question, and is waiting for the Texan to catch up. And Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs wanders off, finally deciding to spend a nickel to go see the Cobra Woman. He has an uncomfortable premonition that she might actually be the hypnotic Cobra Woman. Her skin appears scaly, but it looks like paint. He quickly concludes that she is the most marvelous woman he has ever met, and that he must meet her after the show. All through her performance he sits in the front row, completely mesmerized by her undulating Eastern dancing. She demonstrates very clearly that she is both a contortionist and a stripper, and quite able to prey upon Pulfrey-Downs' many weaknesses.
Serpentine sneaks into the Professor's tent silently and effortlessly. Michael Sangaree sneaks into the tent rather less silently, alerting Professor Arkham and the six clowns inside. Sangaree starts shooting clowns. He fires three shots. Using explosive bullets. Aiming for heads. Three clowns drop. The remaining three rush at him, but he evades the worst of their blows. Three more shots ring out. One clown drops. A second clown drops. The third stays up. A fourth shot, and the last clown drops.
Serpentine joins in swinging, lashing out with the Claw of Apepi at Professor Arkham. He powers up his Cloak of Dread to clear out the rest of the goons. Professor Arkham is not pleased by Serpentine's behavior. He turns and fixes his Evil Eye upon the crimefighter, making it very clear that the professor does not fight crime, he causes it. Unfortunately, the effect of the Evil Eye is not exactly what the Professor might have hoped: it only gives Serpentine +1 difficulty on all social actions for the rest of the scene.
Serpentine goes medieval on Professor Arkham, taking him to pieces old school. Just for good measure, he also Marks him with his Marked Man knack. The Professor out of the way, he turns and dissects the surviving clowns. Sangaree shouts out, "Good job! That was definitely an evil clown!"
Serpentine steps out of the tent, Cloak of Dread swirling invisibly about him, and shouts out, "Go away!" A stampede ensues. Sangaree pauses to reload and shoot the Professor in the knee with a regular bullet, then heads outside to help Serpentine spread chaos. Folks are running about amok.
Annie Maple makes an appearance with a bang by shooting Michael Sangaree's gun clean out of his hand. She follows up by shooting Serpentine, leading to a new development: Serpentine's blood on the floor. Serpentine is hardly amused.
Serpentine responds by sprinting towards her, ducking behind a tent along the way to take himself out of her immediate field of fire. Sangaree runs for his gun. Sangaree recovers his Mauser from the ground and tries to shoot Annie Maple in the arm. Unfortunately, the gun was damaged by her previous shot and explodes in his hand. He takes a level of bashing damage.
Annie Maple continues to fire at the characters until she runs out of ammo. At that point, she decides to run for safety. Michael Sangaree draws out his Colt and shoots like mad at her retreating form, managing to hit her by the barest of margins. He joins the proud ranks of men who have shot fleeing women in the back.
Across the midway, Pulfrey-Downs hears gunfire and screaming. He thinks, "I must be involved!" and runs towards the excitement. He is taken unawares when the Cobra Woman steps out behind him and cracks him on the head. Pulfrey-Downs reels about, yelling, "She kicked me! In the head!"
At this point, Kumar Singh comes onto the scene. He notices the Cobra Woman kicking his boss (in the head), and takes affront. He does it with style and a super-fractal blade. Pulfrey-Downs tries to contribute by kicking the Cobra Woman. She deftly dodges out of the way, then strikes back, which Pulfrey-Downs handily avoids.
Kumar Singh attacks the hapless Cobra Woman from behind. He gets lots of extra dice for attacking from behind, so he attacks three times. And thanks to Pulfrey-Downs' attack, she didn't save anything for a dodge. Kumar dices the Cobra Woman, then again whips out his Instamatic to get a second shot of Pulfrey-Downs with a dead woman draped over him. From across the midway, Sangaree moans that this can't possibly look good in a newspaper, as thus far the characters have been killing women, clowns and a professor.
By this time, the clowns are starting to come out of the woodwork. One of them attacks Pulfrey-Downs. In response, he pulls out his briefcase SMG and riddles the fellow with bullets. Kumar Singh does his best to help out his boss, but is overtaken by an additional supply of clowns boiling out of the tents. He turns with a grim smile upon his face and readies his blade for their charge.
Serpentine finds himself surrounded by hostile clowns. He directs his gaze of death upon one and is pleased to see the clown flee in panic. Emboldened by success, he tries on another. The clown barely even notices. Serpentine thinks, "Hey, maybe some of these guys are dead." Almost in response to his thoughts, the clown moans, "Huuuh... Brains..." Serpentine changes his tactics accordingly. He fillets the thing.
Sangaree and Serpentine shoot and claw their way through the clown zombies. None left. All gone.
With a moment of peace available, Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs examines two of the dead clowns. Both of them look like they have been dead for weeks, perhaps months. One of them has a set of sewn-up autopsy scars, offering some clue as to where Professor Arkham has been doing his recruiting.
Michael Sangaree suddenly yells out, "The Professor's tent is on fire!" The characters run to see what's up. They see three figures running away, one of them carrying Professor Arkham over his shoulders. Michael Sangaree says, "Hey! Nobody saw the strong man! The strong man's the one carrying him! Get them!"
A furious pursuit ensues. Serpentine, Kumar Singh and Pulfrey-Downs manage to keep pace with the escaping villains quite effectively, but Michael Sangaree falls behind because he felt it necessary to take a quick medicinal drink. Serpentine ends the chase by swinging out the Claws of Apepi to trip Bruno the Strong Man. Everyone turns to face the characters: three zombie clowns plus the badly-wounded Professor, Strong-Man Bruno and one unknown figure.
Serpentine is first on the scene. To reward his athletic prowess, the three zombie clowns make a pig pile on top of him. Kumar Singh is second to arrive, carrying the two tablets outstretched for the Professor (thanks to his earlier mesmeric suggestion). Pulfrey-Downs is third on the scene. He arrives shouting, "No! No Kumar! Don't give him the tablets! Gad, who to shoot?" He decides to interrupt the handoff by spraying cover fire across the Professor, the Strong Man, Kumar, the surviving zombie clown and the unknown foe. He empties his magazine into them, hoping to get them to dive to the ground. He quickly discovers that the unknown man is actually Inferno the Fire-Breather, and that Inferno is none too impressed by automatic weapons. Pulfrey-Downs is engulfed in a cloud of flame. Fortunately, it turns out that the flame does little more than make his eyes sting (and inflict one level of bashing damage).
Strong-Man Bruno punches Kumar, doing a staggering one level of bashing damage.
Three zombie clowns hit Serpentine. He takes it like a man (another single level of bashing damage).
Michael Sangaree runs up to this scene at last, finding Pulfrey-Downs busy reloading and dodging. He opens up on the available zombie clown supply, as usual taking shots to the eyes. The first clown takes one bullet in each eye and drops. Bruno takes the third shot. Kumar Singh notices this performance and comments, "I think you're perverting the intent of Trick Shot. It was meant to be a thing of beauty." Sangaree: "I think you're right. Seven successes to hit!" Bruno falls.
After that, there isn't much fight left in the villains. Serpentine offs the last, damaged zombie clown. Everyone else just does cleanup.
Kumar Singh rushes up to deal with Professor Arkham. The Professor sees him approaching and fixes him with his Evil Eye. This time, he is more successful: Kumar Singh is shaken, suffering +2 difficulty for the scene and 1 lost Willpower. Kumar tries attacking anyway, but the professor rolls out of the way.
Serpentine approaches, intent upon staring down the Professor in a climactic battle of wills. Kumar Singh warns him, "Don't do that! He can cast spells with his eyes!" Serpentine responds confidently, "I've got 20 dice to roll, so I don't think I've got much to worry about." Serpentine and the Professor lock gazes, Intimidation against Hypnotic Mesmerism to oppose him. The other characters can see heat-distortion like waves passing between the two. Serpentine finally breaks the man, shattering him utterly. The professor starts howling out, "You should do what I tell you! Do what I tell you! Do what I tell you!" He is clearly deranged, reduced to a slathering madman.
Serpentine spends some time trying to interpret the Professor's deranged ranting. He finally manages to determine that there were a total of six stones. Five of them had to be placed in specific relation to each other. When they were in place, the Professor had intended to place the sixth and final stone as part of a ritual to summon up some kind of tremendous demonic entity. He was drawing the necessary knowledge from some pages out of a book he stole from the Paragon Club library some time ago. The book had been recovered, but the Paragon Club's librarian never checked to make sure all the pages made it back as well. The characters had already managed to move two of the stones, which was doing damage to the Professor's schedule.
As an incidental, the characters figure out that "Professor Thaddeus Arkham" is actually Professor Alistair Craven, a well-known doer of evil deeds. Serpentine and Pulfrey-Downs agree that the only civilized thing to do is to have him committed to the Lucius Schreck Institute for the Criminally Deranged.
Kumar Singh, still feeling the effects of the Professor's Evil Eye, suggests, "I think we should blind him." Pulfrey-Downs immediately objects, "That's just not civilized! We can't possibly do that." Kumar Singh grumbles that Pulfrey-Downs is a fine fellow to be making judgments upon what is and what is not civilized. Kumar Singh continues to grumble that while the characters have no problem with wiping out Craven's armies of henchmen, we refuse to simply kill him. Then again, he reflects that it is sort of mean to kill an insane old coot with broken will.
Michael Sangaree suddenly wakes up. "What the hell are we doing? Sending him to prison? No fucking way! I'm shooting him! Or humanely blinding him! We put him in a prison and he'll be running the place in a week! And even if we warn them about his freaky powers, you just know they're going to have someone who says, 'I don't believe in mesmerism... Yess master...' I'm shooting him!" Pulfrey-Downs does his best to persuade Sangaree not to kill the fellow. Sangaree agrees to not shoot him if Pulfrey-Downs designs a super-science helmet for the Professor to wear. Something that will block his Mesmeric powers. Something like an iron mask.
In accord with Michael Sangaree's wishes, Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs designs an Anti-Mesmerism Helmet. It won't last forever, but it will work for a at least three months without a problem (Of course, Pulfrey-Downs doesn't know that). It works against all Mesmeric powers the wearer possesses, reducing all die pools by 3 dice.
Each characters gains three experience points. This is the end of a story, so everyone gets their Willpower and Inspiration pools back.