Scene 13(CF:9) – Back to the Office – 23:30pm
Location Crafter > Progress 4 > 3,2,2 > 7,6,6 > Dr. Dallans Office , Gary Topchick , Random(Smelly, Extravagant)

Mike tumbles, still shocked from the death of his friend, aimlessly through the corridors and ends up in front of the office of Dr. Dallan, where Mr. Ed collected them for group therapy.

Gary also seems to found his way here.

Mike:”What was that thing? What did it do to Thomas?”
Does Gary has an answer for Mike? > 50/50 > Yes
Gary:”The Clown is after the patzu. The stuff Dr. Friend got out of your eye!”
Mike:”How do you know?”
Gary:”The Bruise under your eye. You are not the only cow he is milking!”
Mike:”How do we get out of here?”
Does Gary has an idea how to escape? 50/50 > Yes > (1-2 Own interest, 3-4 Mr. Wilde , 5-6 King Bael) > 1 >
Gary:”Actually I might be able to help you, but I hope you can understand I would need something in return.”
Mike:”And what could that be?”
Gary:”You see the office of Dr. Dallan there. Hidden inside is a library. In this library you find a rare issue of “Mental Illness in the Work Place and Beyond”. If you get me this book. I can tell you how to leave this place.
Mike:”Ok, that sounds straight forward.”

Mike tries the door of Dr. Dallans office.
The Door is not locked.

Dallan’s office is strange now at night compared to how it appeared the first time he saw. Suddenly there is a red steel pressurized door in the wall next to the window that was not there during the day.

By night, the shelves are filled with books with strange patterns.from Carcosa. Their spines form a strange pattern of colors.

Does Mike make make out the pattern? > likely >

Dark Die vs Insight because of the Yellow sign > 4 vs 3 > Insight rises to 4
Corruption Check > 1 vs 3 > Corruption remains equal

A moment or two of consideration resolves the pattern as the Yellow Sign, the symbol Dr. Friend talked about. The sign radiates a dark fascination, but Mike can resist the urge to share it further.

Mike starts to search for the Library Gary mentioned.
Possible Failure: Mike Fails to find the library and finds something unnatural instead > Human Die + Occupation vs Failure > 3, 2 ,6 > Failure > What does Mike find (1 Passage, 2 Books, 3 Window, 4 Rocks, 5 Room expansion) > Window >

Mike realizes that Dr. Dallans office has plenty of Windows. May be he does not need Gary after all.
The view out the window seems to show the normal night.

What does Mike see > Human Die > 3 >

The windows are not normal windows, and instead are made of thick aquarium glass. No way to smash them without further tooling.

Mike starts to search for the Library Gary mentioned.
Possible Failure: Mike Fails to find the library and finds something unnatural instead > Human Die + Occupation vs Failure > 1,1,3 > Failure > Books > A History of the Russo-Germanic Hegemony, 1911–1921 >

Mike looks through the books. There he finds a book named “A History of the Russo-Germanic Hegemony, 1911–1921”

Does Mike takes the time to read > 50/50 > yes > +1 hour +1 Corruption>

A slim, hardcover history book filled with blackand-white photographs. The book is overly wordy but does not list an author. It discusses a Russian-German alliance fighting the Black Wind, an enemy force which appears to have invaded Europe through Turkey in 1910 (perhaps coming from North Africa before that). The book focuses mostly on the forces arrayed under the “Russo-Germanic” pact and not the Black Wind. One of the chapters concerns “the Siege of the Yhtill,” (sometimes spelled Yihitel) and shows black-and-white photographs of the Palace in Carcosa. The book was published in 1924 by Ebon Publishers of Alar, Carcosa.

As Mikes lays down the book he realizes that he lost all sense of time. How long was he reading through this weird book?

He continues searching.
Possible Failure: Mike Fails to find the library and finds something unnatural instead > Human Die + Occupation vs Failure > 4,4 vs 5 > Failure > Rocks

Suddenly the rock collection of Dr. Dallan catches Mike’s eye. The rock collection appears identical to the rock collection during the day. One corner of the room contains a large, custom-made glass and velvet display case for Dallan’s rock collection. Each rock is labeled with a small, hand-printed card that notes a date and location. Custom lights drop a tiny spotlight on each rock.

May be there is a hidden mechanism hidden under those rocks. Mike lifts the glass and tries to pick up any of the rocks. He finds that not only are the rocks attached to the surface of the case, but they are warm and pulsing as if alive. So is the “wooden” case.

Dark Die against Insight for the unnatural > 3 vs 4 > no increase >

Mike snaps his hand back. And looks at the breathing case. “What the hell? Breathing displays?Damn, but I saw crazier tonight!”

Mike continues his search.
Failure: Mike Fails to find the library and finds something unnatural instead > Human Die + Occupation vs Failure >6,6,1 > The Agent succeeds brilliantly and gets
something extra. Maybe more than they
bargained for. The Handler may confront them
with a difficult truth.

Mike goes back to the bookshelf. Instead on singular books Mike now concentrates to find a secret mechanism or similiar.
As he starts removing a book from the shelf that reveals another book behind it. Removing that book reveals another. “Digging” in this manner leads Mike into a strange, unstable tunnel composed of thousands of books well beyond the inner edge of the bookshelf.

Dark Die against Insight for the unnatural > 1 > no increase

Mike tries not to think to much about the feasibility of such a structure. But he kind of thinks he found something that you could label a library. A unnatural messy one, but definitely one with a huge selection.

The Library morphs into an endless, sprawling complex of mahogany bookshelves, hallways, and raised walkways. There are no windows, only door upon door leading to inner chambers.

Reading rooms open on impossible vistas of galleries, stairs, and walkways that seem to continue forever.

Some areas of the Library are in disrepair, wrecked by water damage, where plaster ceilings collapsed and books are bloated with water like overfed leeches. Strange metal slot tracks are found everywhere in the ceiling of the Library.

Sometimes, bounding figures whose feet don’t appear to fully touch the ground are seen in the distance. Otherwise the Library seems to be vacant of people.

Some areas of the Library seem to have been lived in for long periods. Mike finds debris like old food tins, empty bottles of alcohol, and the remains of books burned for warmth. Ratlike bones can sometimes be found near these campsites. The lighting in the Library appears to grow and shrink in intensity over long periods of time, almost as if mimicking night and day. There are no obvious light sources. The light seems to bleed from the walls themselves. As it grows darker, sounds echo through the halls.

Mike tries to make any sense out of the library’s system to find the book Gary told him to find.

Corruption check > 1d10 vs 4 > 1 > Success >

Somehow the Libraries secrets seem to revel itself to Mike. Without a lot of hassle he guides himself to a promising shelf where he finds a copy of “Mental Illness in the Work Place and Beyond” by Devon Greenbrier. Mike gets disturbed by the strange noises out of the distance, he will not study the book for now, but tries to find his way back as quick as possible.

Corruption Check > 1d10 vs 4 > 3 > Success

As easy as he found the book he finds his way back on the track out of this strange place.

Does anything puts itself into Mike’s way? 50/50 > Yes

Eventhough Mike had no big issue navigating this strange place. It took its fair share of time.

At first there were the sounds of skittering, something far off and small rushing across a dusty floor. As the darkness increases, the sounds grow until it’s the sound of something the size of a lion padding through the stacks.

As Mike is seemingly on the last bit of his journey back he suddenly hears something behind him.

He turns around and what he sees appears to be a quadrupedal creature composed of dripping wet paper, like an ever-shifting papier-mâché beast that never fully dries. Its “face” is a maw of broken glass, rusty nails, and razor blades sunk in the ruined husks of old, leather-bound books.

Dark Die against Insight and Stress because of the danger from the unnatural > 6 > Stress and Insight rise to 5

Activation of one homescene by marking “Best Friend” > Self care: reduce Insight or Stress by d6 > Insight – 2 > Down to 3 >

While Mike is running for his live he has to think about the therapy session he was forced into by his boss, after Thomas pulled his donut box occult symbol stunt. Even though Mike never was a fan of shrinks, the session lifted some burdens from his shoulder.

Thinking about that, Mike hoped, may be made him light enough to escape the weird abomination that was following him.

Does Mike outrun the beast >
Possible Failure: The beast gets to Mike and potentially harms him (injured leg) > Human Die + Occupation vs Failure > 1,2 vs 5 > Failure

Does the creature harms Mike > On a 1 to 3 the Harm might come to pass > 2 > Mikes leg gets cut open by deep cutsfrom a maul byte. (Tier 1 Injury)

Mike feels a sharp pain in his right leg. He stumbles and finally roles to the floor. He glances his right leg badly bleeding, but is more concentrated on the weird paper beast triying to eat him alive.

He tries to see anything that might help him in the proximity> 50/50 > Yes
Random event: NPC action (Agent Exeter / Dr. Barbas): Increase Joy

Agent Exeter:”There it is!”
Agents Exeters shout of joy is hauling through the paperfilled corridors and draws the attention of the beast which turns to appear its head.

Mike in the mean time spotted an old metal lighter lying on the floor.
May be he can use the time of distraction to get to it.

Is the paper beast continues to persue Mike? > likely > Yes

Mike tries to get his hands on the lighter.
Potential Failure > The Paper beast gets another byte at Mike and inflicts potential harm (Tier 2) > Human Die + Occupation vs Failure > 1,3,5 > Failure
Reroll for Dark Die > Human Die, Occupation vs Failure and Dark Die > 3,1,1,5 > Success and Insight +1>

Mike looks deep into what to be appearing as eyes made from glass shards. As he falls into those mirrors of the untamed knowledge hidden in the books in the vast space of pages and letters, he seems to connect to the unnatural rythym of the creature. As he feels that the creature is about to jump at him, Mike rolls to the lighter, preying that some fuel is left in it.

Is there still fuel in the lighter? 50/50 > Yes >
As Mike picks up the lighter, he recognizes ecstaticly the weight of shifting fluid insight of the lighter.

Mike really really hopes that this is enough to scare a creature made of paper away.
He tries to light the lighter.
Does it work > very likely > Yes

A small but recognizable flame is spawning from the bowls of the metal lighter and creates a warm contrast of light against the backdrop of paper books.

As the creature sees the flame it shrieks in disgust.
It turns on the spot and runs un the opposite direction.

“That was way to close” Mike sighs in relief. Without thinking to much how Agent Exeter came into this strange place, Mike continues his journey back into Dr. Dallans office. Finally Mike limps back into Dr. Dallans strange office.