Maple Shade Timeline S1

Chapter One: The Haunting of Maple Shade

Downtime Interlude 1

July 14th - 21st, 1976

Dean, Harry's best friend

• Investigating the Stairwell: Matthew investigates the stairwell where Myrtle said some graffiti was done, where Merideth Prichett claimed he was responsible for.
  • He finds that it's been painted over in a single coat of paint, but he can barely see it under that coat.
  • He needs better light to investigate it, using his light powers to strengthen the buzzing chemical light above. It brightens considerably, but as newly intense light touches the painted-over space, the sigil underneath it seems to drink the light in, illuminating and tracing the sigil underneath it so that it stands out in stark, glowing lines against the wall.
  • Startled, Matthew studies the sigil for a few moments before it fades again, and rushes back to his apartment, recalling it enough to sketch it accurately.
• The Ward: The first performance of the Warding against ghosts in Carol's apartment is a rousing success. They truly work together as a cell, creating a warding that will easily last for weeks.
• Research: Matthew, Lucas, and Rose get together for a Research Night during which much pizza and coffee are consumed, and much about ghostly Anchors is revealed.
• Questions About Natalie: Carol, haunted by her now-empty apartment, continues to push everyone she knows about the question of Natalie's ultimate fate. The police declare the investigation "ongoing," her father says he can do nothing, and she even hunts down information about Natalie's estranged family.
• Questions About Matthew: Carol also has some questions about Matthew, who has demonstrated strange occult powers. She gets a police contact to do some hunting, and discovers a great deal of his past, including the tragedy of his disappeared twin, the dissolution of his family, and the tragedy that he seems to leave in his wake.
• Words With A Friend: While watching the game with his buddy Dean - who also served in 'Nam - Harry brings up the bad dreams and the experiences that led to them. Unfortunately, the situation simply becomes very awkward for both men. Dean excuses himself to get another beer and to the bathroom, and when he returns, both men seem to have agreed to forget the topic.

Chapter Two: ???

Session Six: 07/06/2018

Thursday, July 22nd, 1976

Sgt. Haywood Mane

Officer Oscar McMillan

• More Bad Dreams: Lucas dreams of the Dark Room. Something rises within it, barely visible in the dark, and suddenly turns to reach for him! He startles awake, slamming into the wall of his small meditation room on the other side of his bedroom wall.
  • At almost that exact moment, Matthew bolts upright in bed, startled awake by something he doesn't have a name for. He is sweating and terrified, but can't quite place his finger on what it was actually awoke him.
• A Morning Run: After getting up early, doing some work down in the shop, Lucas goes on a run once it finally gets light enough. As he and Krypto are making their way back home, Krypto begins growling as they near a corner.
  • Reaching the corner, they see two bikers. One is standing in the street laughing, a bottle of Jack Daniels in his fist. The other has a homeless man in his grip, and is punching him over and over.
  • Recognizing the man as Sgt. Haywood Mane, Lucas tells Krypto to "Stay" and intervenes, charging the biker with the bottle. He hits the man, knocking his whiskey from his grasp, and the biker leaps to the attack.
  • Lucas warns the other biker away, and he begins retreating, calling to his buddy (by the name of "Saw") to come on. Saw sweeps Lucas' legs out from under him, and the two bikers make their get-away.
  • Lucas checks the man over, making sure he's not critically injured, before getting him up and to his apartment, studiously ignoring all the blood the entire way. Once he gets there and sets the man on his couch, he rings Rose's house. In short time, she is over there. Lucas hands her his first aid kit, and spends the next few minutes in the bathroom, ostensibly cleaning himself up after the fight (but also simply very squeamish at the sight of the blood).
  • They rouse him, and he reassures them that he is staying with his buddy Tommy Stevens, from 'Nam. Tommy is just out of town, and his "old lady" wasn't comfortable with Manes sticking around with him gone. So he cleared out for a while, stayed at a shelter for a bit, but folks who are worse-off than him needed the beds, so he made room for them.
  • When Rose notices that he has a pretty bad limp, she wonders if he has an injury she didn't tend to. He assures her he's fine - that's the injury that got him discharged from service.
    • He tells a story about how he and his patrol were out in the jungles, and were attacked by something. It disembowelled one man, and then clamped down with big nasty teeth on his leg and shook him like a chew-toy.
    • He shows her the ugly tooth scars; she suggests it looked like a crocodile had bitten him. He tells her that her dad saved them, though he passed out and doesn't remember all the details.
  • Lucas emerges, having been listening, and invites Sgt. Manes to stay at his place and rest up while he goes to work, and call his friend Stevens to see if he's home yet from there. Manes accepts gratefully.
• A Visit: A little after noon, Officer Oscar McMillan comes into Apollo's Athenaeum, asking some questions.
  • He's there because the manager, Myrtle, called him about another bout of graffiti, this time in the opposite stair-well. He shows Matthew a Polaroid of it. It is the same sigil as in the other stairwell, except in mirror reverse.
  • Officer McMillan asks him some questions about it, wondering if he knows what it is, and intending on distracting him with woo-woo nonsense, Matthew accidentally stumbles onto a connection: It heavily resembles the sigils in a book called the Legemeton, an old grimoire filled with a bestiary of "goetic demons," said to have been summoned and bound by Solomon the Wise and used to build the Temple.
  • Officer McMillan interprets all of that to mean it was probably stupid heavy metal-heads spraypainting their favorite band's shit on a wall, and Matthew is happy to let him leave thinking exactly that.
  • On his way out, Officer McMillan also passes by the comic book shop, notices Lucas at work there, and pops back in just in time to help Lucas pick up a stack of comics he has just knocked over for some reason.
    • He sticks around and chats for a while, not really noticing that Lucas keeps banishing Toby onto breaks or to do inventory. They chat for an hour or so, Officer McMillan remaining warm and genial the whole way through. He leaves with a stack of comics about military heroes and war.
  • At the end of the day, Lucas returns to his apartment, finding Manes still there, and discovering that the man has cooked up some dinner. Krypto also seems to have quite taken to him.
• A Chat With Mom: At the end of the day, Rose asks her mom about Sgt. Manes. She remembers him, saying that her father used to invite some of the soldiers around on BBQs.
  • When Rose asks if her dad ever told her about the thing that happened to Sgt. Manes, her mother explains that he spared her that. After all, the VC often forcibly recruited people, and her own brothers – Rose's uncles – were among them. The fact was that it was very difficult to think of her husband out there killing her brothers, and so it was never something they discussed.

---

Session Seven: 07/13/2018

Friday, July 23rd, 1976

Mrs. Schneider

Sergio Cavazos

Horrifying Demon Things

• A Work Trip: Harry leaves town with his boss, who is going down to California to pick up some cars being brought up from Mexico. He'll be gone for a couple of days.
• Taking Care of Tumplin: As Rose is on her way to school, she is stopped by Mrs. Schneider on the first floor, who asks her if she will look at "her Tumplin." Tumplin turns out to be an incredibly fat orange cat with digestive problems.
  • Humoring her, Rose takes a look at Tumplin and applies some of the veterinary skills she's been learning to diagnose him. She gives Mrs. Schneider some advice on tending to him.
• Opening Shop: Matthew is opening up his shop. When he opens the door, his shop-cats Bast and Grizabella streak out of the opened door, and Archimedes backs away hissing.
  • He cautiously enters the dark shop, and distinctly hears something within.
  • Seeing something quick and about the size of a small animal, but also with no fur, he quickly clicks on his flashlight, using his strange abilities to seize up that light and cast it all about the room.
  • The light is suddenly "absorbed" by multiple bodies around the room, the light feeding them into visibility. They are monstrous little things the size of small dogs. When they suddenly realize that they are visible and he can see them, they all quickly dash away, leaping through walls to escape.
  • Matthew opens up his shop nervously and immediately begins doing some research, discovering that they may very well be demonic entities of a sort referred to as "goetia."
• A Familiar Face: As Carol is getting ready for work, a knock at her door reveals the very stressed person of Sergio Cavazos, the man Natalie invited home on the night of her disappearance!
  • The police had let him go, after officially declaring the case to be a disappearance rather than foul play.
  • Carol spends some time grilling him, trying to get the full story out of him. As it turns out, she's better at that than the police were, as they both realize that there are some parts of his memory that are missing, likely due to trauma. Carol resolves to see if they can recover them.
• Down to the Shop: After a while, Carol and Sergio head down to Matthew's shop, "Apollo's Athenaeum."
  • He is there, poring over books, but acts a bit nervous when they show (not that the two of them notice, as they have their own reasons for being unsettled).
  • She explains what has happened, and Matthew agrees to try and help.
  • He then uses another strange ability, psychically reaching into Sergio's mind and seeking details of memory from that night which he might be suppressing.
  • Matthew discovers a memory, wherein Sergio is relaxed, having been drinking, shirtless on the sofa.
    • He watches as Natalie pours some more drinks for them at the counter bar on the other side of the room, and starts to walk back toward him.
    • Suddenly the lights flicker and go out, and Sergio sees (by the light of the flickering chemical emergency lights from outside) a strange, horrifyingly sinuous form rise up behind her. It is some eight feet in height, twisted and compressed within the room, with too many limbs that have too many joints.
    • She spins around when she feels it behind her, and there is an inhumanly fast movement, and Sergio feels his face and chest spattered with hot blood right before he loses consciousness from shock.
  • Returning to his senses, Matthew is shaking some from the memory, but Sergio's sudden recollection is deeply traumatic. He falls to his knees screaming.
  • Next door, Lucas hears the sudden screams, and comes running over to Matthew's shop.
• Horror Made Manifest: As this is happening, Matthew senses something strange and reacts with his light ability.
  • The multiple demon-creatures have returned.
  • They all turn their attention toward the screaming man, however, and he flees, running out of the shop.
  • Just as Rose gets off the bus coming home from school, she sees a flash of light from Matthew's shop and then a man run screaming out of it.
    • She darts into the shop, and sees the horrors. She immediately pulls her KBAR and snatches up an antique wrought iron side table to use as a make-shift shield.
  • Behind her, Sergio stops running in the middle of the street to turn and continue shrieking at the shop, screaming something about something in his mind. He is suddenly hit by a station wagon that attempts to screech its brakes, but does not, sending him flying.
  • Carol hurls a blade she snatches off the wall at one of the things, injuring it somewhat, and the things begin to attack physically and ravenously. Their face-tentacles spread and cling where they can, revealing skulls full of chewing, horrible teeth.
  • After a few moments, the light the things seemed to use from Matthew fades from within them, and they fade from solidity once more, but not before they have injured some present, including some grievous injuries to Matthew and Lucas.
• Aftermath: Heedless of the gathering crowd and sound of sirens outside from the accident, Rose quickly applies first aid assistance to Matthew and Lucas.
  • She then glances outside to see if Sergio is alive, but he is very clearly not.