When last we left, the gang had just stumbled into a veritable barrel of monkeys. And chimpanzees. And gorillas. And a mech-armored baddie in the form of Professor Lawrence Beech. Being a super-villain, he was contractually obligated to monologue his evil plan to the group before the kick-off of any planned kinetic activities. The door closed behind them, trapping Erika and Roxy in the hall. Max rushed a surgical table in an attempt to wrest the robotic arm from its mount to use as a weapon. It didn’t go well and he ended up trapped on the overturned table, which was now attempting to carve him into a techno monkey. As Hanziezel rushed to heal and help, Beech continued with his monologue.
Tired of being told ‘no’ regarding his brilliant but cuckoo research ideas, Larry decided it was time the university was run as a techno-fascist geniocracy. It seems he was able to combine robotics and magic by using spirits as catalysts. Right in the middle of his pledge to rule as a benevolent dictator (once he killed all his enemies), Chas took him on prefrontal-cortex-a-prefrontal-cortex. By engaging him in intellectual debate while simultaneously boosting his already-inflated ego, Chas was able to distract him enough for Ebb to jinx the sprinkler main above Beech, shorting out his control panel. This gave Dolores the opportunity to knock him off his literal and metaphorical pedestal. Chas was then able to relieve Beech of his control gauntlet. Turning it off made the primates much less murderous, and Beech was taken into custody. In the aftermath, it turns out that Beech mistakenly called down a malevolent spirit to do his bidding, which resulted in him being driven even more insane than he already was. The primates were all rehoused in wildlife preserves with the help of Robin the Animal Freedom…Liberation…thingy.
After some much-needed rest, Chas finally got around to analyzing the vial of goo that Erika found (the same substance Chas noticed in Dr. Beech’s control gauntlet). He determined it had a chemical and a magical component and seemed to act as a kind of catalyst in the gauntlet. Perusing one of Max’s conspiracy network posts turned them onto a few missing persons cases in Athens, GA. Having nothing better to do they were east-bound and down.
On Monday, local waitress Danni Jordan disappeared after finishing her shift at Little King’s restaurant. Two nights later, grad student Malcolm Stewart was reported missing from the same area, and undergrad Kim Rayner was reported missing the next day. Having nowhere specific to start, the group split up to cover more ground. Hanziezel, searching in a nearby alley, finds Danni’s ID card on the ground near a storm sewer grate.
Erika headed to Little King’s for some lunchtime recon. Chatting with her waitress and then with the restaurant manager, she discovers that Danni is engaged to Davey Mortonson, a dishwasher who falls into the “she could do better” category.
The next stop in the investigation was the gothic-cathedral-turned-bar, Chapel. Chapel has a wall full of polaroid photos taken over the past week. One of the photos on the wall show Danni and Davey on the night of her disappearance. Talking to the bartender, Chas learned that Danni and Davey were frequent customers and seemed to be genuinely in love with each other. Also, Erika got carded (lol).
Last stop for the evening was the 80’s-themed 8-Bit. A quick conversation with the bartender, Claire, revealed that she saw Davey leave with Kim and Malcolm before they disappeared. So, Davey seems to be connected to everyone who has disappeared. Hmm…
Time for a stakeout! Not the fun kind, where you sit in a car and eat snacks all night long. The not-fun kind where you’re outside wandering around in the dark, waiting to get jumped by gods-know-what. While the others took up overwatch positions on rooftops, Ebb walked the streets looking to see what, if anything, was up. Rather than seeing, he heard a metallic scraping sound coming from one of the nearby alleys. He used his ability to tune into the mental energies around him and could sense an argument happening between two people underneath the street. Further investigation revealed the sound was from the sewer grate being moved and replaced, assumedly by the two people now arguing down in the sewers.
Their attempts to follow the two unknown individuals were semi-successful but ended in a platform with Davey, his handgun, a hypnotized man, and a bunch of cocoon-things. Said cocoon-things were a combination of ready-to-hatch monsterlings, and the missing victims, wrapped up to-go style as a first meal.
Enter the monster. She dropped from the ceiling, a 20-foot-long, 7-foot-high centipede thing with a grotesquely human-looking face. Shooting and other stuff ensued, a great deal of it by Erika, who ended up dropping mama-centipede. Unfortunately, the seven cocoons hatched and seven bouncing baby whatever-the-hell-these-things-are emerged hungry and a little angry. Did I mention there were seven of them?
More shooting, with a healthy dose of protecting the victims and ultimately the family line of weird centipede things came to an early end.
Davey and Danni had been taken by The Angler (mama centipede) as meals one and two for her kids. Davey convinced her that he would get her the seven people she needed if she agreed to release Danni. She agreed (spoiler: she was lying) and Davey started finding victims. As it stands, the seven victims were saved, and Danni still loves Davey (at least until she finds out what he did).
Back at Chas’ newly-minted laboratory/hangout, the group received a visitor. A middle-aged woman with a prosthetic arm and a face that says, “I’ve seen some shit.” By way of introduction to the group, she said, “You can call me Jane Doe, and we’ve been watching you.”
