Scene 14(CF:9) – The Reward – 3:30am
Scene is altered > self-pityingly wallow

Mike closes the door of Dr. Dallans office behind him. Hours must have passed that he spent inside of it. But there Gary still stands as if he never left is waiting spot.

Gary:”Oh you made it! I’m impressed! But it seems you took a little souvenir with you.” Gary inspects Mike’s bleeding leg.
Mike:”Yeah you have one of a kind librarien working here.”
Gary:”And do you found rhe book?”
Mike:”Maybe.”
Gary:”Maybe?”
Mike:”I guess you know youre way around. Take me to the nursery. There we fix my leg, then we can talk buisness.”
Does Gary agrees? > likely > Yes
Gary:”Sure, no problem!”

Gary leads the way.
Does Gary successfully leads both to the nursery? > likely > Yes

Sure enough both end up at the nursery.
Do they meet anyone else there? > 50/50 > Exceptional yes > d4 people > 2 > King Bael & Asa Darabondi

As they enter the nursery they see two men talking.

One is a thickly muscled Caucasian man with crew-cut short blond hair fading to grey at the temples. He wears a thick, woolen robe. He is clutching his battered, wire-bound, red notebook.

The other little man is unkempt and looks ill, bundled in expensive silk pajamas and slippers. His eyes have a frantic, lost look. He clutches the arm of the bigger man and confesses that he’s not at all certain, but he thinks perhaps he has killed someone. He says that the King told him to drown “a boy, a girl, a girl, a boy….” Then he laughs it off, saying, “But it was only a dream, I’m sure.” His hands are raw, waterlogged, and peeling, as if he had been doing heavy work in the water.

Gary:”Greetings King Bael. Is Darabondi confessing his sins again?”
King Bael laughs:”He sure is.”
Gary:”Will he receive forgiveness?”
King Bael:”Here waits no forgiveness. The only thing waiting for you is the King.”
The little man looking with fearful eyes to King Bael. Then he runs away.

Mike tries to find medical supplies and to patch up his leg > Human Die + Occupation > 3 >
Mike manages to patch up the bleeding and protect the leg from infection. But it still hurts a ton.

Mike:”So Gary, back to business. How do I get out of that shithole?”
Gary:”Do you have the goods?”

Mike pulls a book from under his light sweater.
Gary gets big eyes reading the title.

Gary:”There it is! Mr. Wilde will be very happy!”
Mike:”I do not care. How do I get out of here?”
Gary:”I have no clue. But if someone knows than he does!”

Gary points with his finger to King Bael.

Mike:”That is the big hint, for which I risked my life to be eaten by a abomination made out of paper and leather?”
Gary:”Hey King? Do you know the way out of here or not.”
King Bael:”Indeed! It dawned me not long ago how to escape this place of endless madness. But the journey is not without danger!”
Gary:”See! He is the right guy! Now hand me the book!”
Mike:”And you will show me how to leave?”
King Bael:”You survived the library. I understand now why he might have an interest in you. I will help you if you want.”
Mike:”Ok here is your damn book!” Mike hands Gary the book. Gary is taking the book greedingly and runs of.
King Bael:”Let’s walk to my room. I have to make some arrangements first.”
Mike:”Sure.”
King Bael:”Why are you here?”
Mike:”I was tasked to find six missing people. But they are nowhere to be found.”
Kimg Bael starts laughing:”No wonder, they are gone because they don’t exist yet, currently, but they’ll be back soon.”
Mike:”What does that mean?”
King Bael:”Mike, everything you know is false, and only now have you gained a glimpse of the world as it truly is.

The play sits at the center of things. All events, people, and places issue from it, and not the other way around. It is an ouroboros that vomits out and devours the world. Once shown this, one comes under the attention and sway of the King in Yellow.

Then there is only one way out: through it. To Carcosa. Carcosa is not a place that can be reached from the hospital. The hospital is like a fly trap to gather lost souls.

You must get free of the Night World and find other ways to get to Carcosa from the “real” world of Earth. When the time is right, reality will arrange itself to make such a transit possible. But first you must escape the hospital.”
Mike:”How do you know my name?”
King Bael:”It does not matter.”

Mike and King Bael arrive together at his room.

King Bael:”Excuse me I have some phonecalls to make.”

Bael is squatting on a stack of waterlogged books in a room with a single old telephone, poring through his notebook and making many phone calls. He does so with the air of someone undertaking a mundane, but important, task.

What Mike can overhear does not makes many sense to him:
“The child should apprentice with the clockmaker. Tell him.”
“Twenty children. Leave them all in the water.” “We‘ll all see each other again when the curtain closes.”

Bael finalizes some notes in his notebook and hangs up the phone.

King Bael:”Thanks for waiting. I know a place in the hospital where you can transit to the real world. I’ll take you there if you wish.”

Mike:”Sure! Let’s do it!”
King Bael:”Great! Then let us not lose any more time!”

Scene 15(CF:8) – The Stage, the Dragon, and the Clown – 4:30am

Mike is led on a journey through a nightmare maze of rooms beneath the Dorchester House. Eventually, the disposition of the halls and décor fall more in line with a theater than a hospital. There are rich burgundy rugs, recessed lighting behind scalloped glass, gold-painted trim, and plaster Greek masks above doorways.

Any manifestations on the way? > 50/50 > Yes > The Suicide

Suddenly a young Caucasian man in dated clothing (perhaps from the 1940s or 1950s) rounds a corner, smiling and laughing as if involved in a conversation with some invisible party. Mike cannot quite make out what he is saying. He walks past Mike and Bael.

As he passes, he transforms. His skin goes sallow and pale, except for his face, which becomes purple and swollen. His eyes turn up and bulge white, and then burst red. A ghost-rope pulls at his neck in a noose, and he appears to lift off the ground and dangle.

Dark Die from the unnatural vs Insight > 4 vs 4 > Insight remains the same

As he is clear of Mike and Bael, he reverts back in the same way, becoming the youth again. As he passes, they clearly hear him say, “The ballroom? What do you want to show me?”

Mike:”What does this mean?”
King:”Shadows, echoing through time and space. They are not important for us!”

Mike notices strange, shooting lights emanating from Bael, as well as an aura of power around him. As he moves through these halls, his head is beset by a spectral crown.

From a room nearby, a gong sounds and an audience applauds. Bael ushers Mike into an intimate, darkened theater. The empty, wooden stage is starkly lit.

Bael moves Mike to seats in the front row, shushing any questions. In the dark behind them perhaps 50 faces watch the stage. These audience members are blurs.

Does Mike looks closer to identify people in the audience? > 50/50 > No

Mike follows Baels orders and stays focused.

A child-size clown emerges from the side-curtain to the right. An unseen orchestra starts a strange, looping dirge interspersed with a relentless drum. The small clown wears a strange, multi-colored outfit covered in triangles. A clown mask covers the child’s entire head. Its face is a smile exposing geometric teeth. Its eyes are black slits.

Dark Die vs Stress > 1 > Stress remains

Mike keeps his cool besides seeing the murderer of his old friend. Eventhough the clown seems way smaller than then.

The clown dances on stage in movements timed precisely to the music. It lifts a paper dragon from off stage.

Human Die > 4 > The Agent succeeds competently.

As the clown dances, a thin, aerosol-like, reddish mist creeps up from the audience towards the stage like a faint cloud. This paper dragon trails behind the clown, drawing patterns in the air, cutting through the red mist, causing it to vanish as if absorbing it.

Bael whispers that Mike needs to watch the dance and wait for the end. He says he’ll tell him when they need to move again. The exit is nearby. He mentions that the clown has something they need. But they must wait for the dance to stop.

Does Mike ask Bael about the play presented > very likely > Yes > +1 Corruption

Mike:”What do we see here?”
Bael:”Look, the clown is the King and the dragon is the Yellow Sign. The dance is about the creation of the play.
See, there: these steps are about the author of the play. And there, something about a bottle. It’s difficult to explain.”
Mike:”Ah, right.” Mike fakes understanding as if he understood anything Bael told him.

After a felt eternity the music rises to a crescendo and suddenly stops. The lights go out. The already-dark theater is now all but black. The clown has disappeared from the stage.

Is Mike looking around? > 50/50 > Exceptional Yes

Mike turns around to get a reaction from rhe “crowd” but everyone is gone. Bael and he are completely alone.

Dark Die against Insight for the unnatural > 1 > Insight remains the same

Mike is spooked, but shakes it off, as Bael whispers for Mike to follow him as he creeps up onto the stage.

To the right on the stage, behind the curtain, the clown is sprawled on the ground. It is smaller than before, the size of an infant.

The paper dragon next to it is huge in comparison. The whiteness of these two things all but glows in the dark.

Bael drags the paper dragon out on stage, keeping his eye on the inert clown, and rips the dragon open, revealing a thermos-size glass container filled with deep-red oil. It is identical to the oil Mike got extracted and Thomas exploded to.
The red oil seems to breath insight of the container. Appearing and dissapearing in a breath like rythym.

Bael twists off the top. He looks at the Agents and says, “The patzu is the way out.”

He takes a quick drink of the liquid and tries to hand the container to Mike.

Is Bael able to successfully handover the Patzu > 50/50 > Yes

Mike securely closes his fingers around the container. It feels warm like fresh blood and pulsates.

In the same moment Bael vanishes like wittnessing a photographic trick. He is completely gone.

Dark Die against Insight for wittnessing the unnatural > 2 vs 4 > Insight remains stable

But Mike cannot marvel at this for long.
As he looks back to the clown, the clown is standing, cocking its head in the dark, and considers Mike on the stage holding the container.

Then the clown shuffles towards him in a strange dance that is difficult to follow. The skin of Mike holding the bottle crawls with instinctive, deathly terror. Something about the perspective is not right. The infant-size clown appears to be the size of a tall man when it emerges from behind the curtain.

Mike immediatly tries to gulp down a sip of the patzu. But it is appearing and dissapearing constantly inside of the container, making it difficult to time the right moment to drink.

Is Mike able to get a good sip of Patzu > 50/50 > Exceptional yes >

Mike puts the container to his lips as if he want to empty the whole container in one go.
As such the whole liquid is puring into his mouth and over his clothes, drenching him in patzu.

Now also his shirt is “breathing” in this strange rythm. Being wet and dry in succession.

Dark Die against insight from tasting the unnatural patzu > 2 vs 4 > Insight remains stable

Does the patzu takes effect? > Corruption check > 3 vs 5 > Success

Mike stands there watching the clown to dance nearer. With every step of the clown, Mike’s heart bests faster. Every heartbeat seems to pump up the clown to even bigger heights.
The Clown comes to a halt in front of Mike seemingly doubling Mike’s own hight. As the white hand of the clown drops down on Mike, he screams in terror.

The curtain closes
—The End of Part 2 a Volume of Secret Faces—