The T-Shirted Historian, host of The Week in Geek and Dungeons and Discussions is today’s Red Room guest. We talked about how certain modern trends are damaging commercial role-playing games, the comic book industry and movie franchises like Star Wars.
“Logic is the last refuge of a coward.”
– Clive Barker
The next morning, Aziz and Reed show up at Takeda’s office. Aziz decides to bring two agents as his personal security detail, Borges and O’Malley are the lucky ones. They are greeted by Takeda’s secretary, Amanda Grey. “The atmosphere is extremely tense here, Hisashi almost died yesterday. Follow me.” She escorts them to Takeda’s office; by the door there are two security guards, obviously Yakuza soldiers. The door opens, Takeda is sitting at his desk, absent-mindedly staring at his computer. His body guard, Satochi, stands behind him. Dr Bentley is also there, and approaches the door to greet the ZoneSec representatives. Wasting no time, he starts debriefing: “There was an attack last night and Mr Takeda’s personal guard took out three…” Bentley hesitates: “I’m not sure what to call them… They weren’t exactly people… Beings.” Faced with the disbelieving looks of Aziz and Reed he adds: “I’ll show you the corpses. Come!”.
Takeda signals Crowe, Reed and Bentley to sit with him, and says with a grave air: “I assume you have already been briefed on the situation.” Then orders his personal assistant to bring in the bodies. For a few minutes silence and suspense linger in the office. Six Asian men enter, each carrying a body bag, and deposit them on the floor. What comes immediately to everyone’s attention is the size of the bags, they are huge. “Open the bags,” Takeda orders. All three bags are opened at exactly the same time in a show of perfect Asian coordination.
The cadavers are certainly over 2 meters tall, muscular humanoids, but they have no facial features. There are bullet wounds and cuts, but no traces of blood can be seen. They are naked, but have no sex organs, nipples or belly button. The skin is dark and hairless. Aziz immediately recognises the figure from his vision and says: “I have seen this! Who are they?” Dr. Bentley replies: “You have never heard of this before? We call them Sicarii. Because of this…” Bentley reaches into one of the bags and pulls out a dagger which he throws on the table “This is a Sicario.”
“Genetically modified killers?” Aziz asks. “Assassins, yes, but not genetically modified.” “Cybernetics?” Aziz insists. Bentley, again, answers no. “One hundred percent organics. They may be created using biotechnology, but nothing we know. Nothing we are even capable of doing. Also, no one is as advanced in the field as we are.” Aziz tries to rationalise the situation by asking more questions. “Well, if it has a name, it’s because there have been other encounters with these creatures…” Yes, replies the eccentric Doctor, “there have been several attacks, but this is the first time we managed to kill them. The other times we stopped them, but they just ran away”. “I have one more question.” Adds Aziz: ” Where do they come from, then?” Dr Bentley smiles “Well, we don’t know. If someone was able to do this, I’d like to know whom, and hire them to come work with us!”
Suddenly Takeda stands up and signals them to approach him. “I let you go on talking because you were supposed to discuss this, but now let’s have a more serious conversation. Tell the minions to leave, please”. The Yakuza and the two Zone Sec agents leave the room, and Takeda continues with his usual grave demeanour. “This isn’t human work. These creatures aren’t human, they’re supernatural.”
Aziz shares his vision in detail and they conclude that it was related to the attacks. Takeda turns to the ZoneSec director and says: “Aziz, your boss is responsible for this. It was Kobayashi who sent these creatures.” Aziz is surprised. Takeda continues: “Some of our investigations have not been fully reported to the parent corporation. Notably, the work being done at Future Genetix. Kobayashi found out, or already knew about it, and they decided to annihilate Takeda Corporation. That’s why I called you here. I know your primary loyalty is to Kobayashi, but we’ve worked well together over the years. I want to know if I can count on ZoneSec’s support.” Aziz reassures him that his main concern as ZoneSec director is to avoid violence and bloodshed. Takeda assures him that the violence has only just started and then makes a dramatic statement: “I have suspected it for a long time, but now I am sure that Hideo Kobayashi is not a normal human. He is an ancient being, a demon. I know it sounds ridiculous, that is why I have kept it a secret. But these are the conclusions we’ve come to.”
Aziz is pragmatic “Let’s assume that’s all true. What is being done about security?” Takeda replies that at this point he trusts no one, but the Matsuda clan. Apart from the supernatural creatures, there’s also a Yakuza clan that wants him dead. Suddenly Takeda remembers something else: “Oh yes, and there’s this too!” A holographic image of what appears to be a cybernetic cockroach hovers in front of them.
“These are the creatures responsible for providing us with the future technology we’ve been reverse engineering. We have never had direct contact with them. Kobayashi has. But we call them Machinatores. Whatever they are, they have the ability to travel through time and are also Koboyashi’s allies”. Stunned, Aziz wants to know what exactly Takeda expects from him and the Japanese man explains that he wants ZoneSec’s support to ensure the protection of Takeda corporation’s facilities and top scientists and also investigate the matter.
Dr Bentley has organised a team of the brightest minds from Takeda Corporation to examine the creatures and, once the meeting is over, Bentley and Aziz follow along with the corpses. Young O’Malley immediately offers his expertise as a chemist. Aziz’s immediate response is to decline, but then he has a feeling that it’s a good idea to take him, Dr. Bentley incredulously adds that he might be good for carrying equipment. In Future Genetix’ laboratory, the VIPs watch as the technicians perform the autopsy. The macroscopic examination is enough to realize that, although humanoid, the creatures have very little of human. The organs are completely different and unknown. The buzz among scientists is: “What the hell is this?!”. Another curiosity of the autopsy is that the creatures do have sexual organs, they are male and have huge penises, somehow hidden or retracted. Further analysis proves the creatures are a completely new and different life form. They have no recognizable DNA, the cells seem to be similar to Prokaryotic cells and silicone instead of carbon based. The conclusion of the scientists is that this is an alien life form, and was not created in a lab.
Dr Nakatomi is excited about this amazing discovery of an alien life form. At the same time, she’s constantly reminded of the conversation with Sir Nigel, and the borrowed occult book she spent the night reading. The book describes some-demon like creatures. She approaches Aziz and Bentley to show them the book and the descriptions, Dr Bentley smiles, and looks interested. O’Malley is also around and starts discussing theories with the attractive scientist. Both of them end up browsing the web. She’s looking for more references to the demons in the book, and him trying to find the Sicarii. Isabella finds a reference to a convent in Portugal, in the 1970s, where demoniac possessions supposedly took place. There is another reference related to a murder case in NY State in the 1980s. In both cases, the creatures were apparently summoned by artefacts. In the dark web, O’Malley finds similar pictures, but nobody knows what those creatures are.
Meanwhile, Aziz gets a notification from Natasha. Sir Nigel’s dead body was just found: he has been brutality tortured and killed, last night, at his house. He shares the news with Nakatomi. She asks Aziz to give her ZoneSec’s permission to investigate the decease’s library. She drags O’Malley with her. In Sir Nigel’s personal notes, they find a reference to someone he talked to not that long ago, a former nun called Sybil Kordova. She wanted to consult the book and help hunt the demons. O’Malley discovers not only her address, but that she was a famous exploitation movie star in the late 1960s. She was also involved in case of demonic possessions at the Portuguese Convent. Isabella and O’Malley decide to visit the old lady.
At his office, Aziz decides to meditate and look for a possible encounter with the Sicarii in the future. He sees himself in a desert, in some type of Carnival, there are people shooting at cowboys, that look like actors from the 20th century. Suddenly one of the creatures appears. Aziz is shot and wakes from his trance. After shacking the eerie feeling aside, he sees a message from Nakatomi informing him about her plans. He decides to send agent Gibson to make sure O’Malley doesn’t do anything too stupid.
Jana meets O’Malley and Dr Nakatomi in the Crepuscule District. She hears about the attempt against Takeda for the first time and the “alien demons” theory. Jana is disbelieving, but she’s there on orders. Together they knock on Sybil Kordova’s door and, to their surprise, an attractive young women answers the door. Sybil has been an avid consumer of Gill people’s fluids since the early 2000s. Once she knows the reason for their visit, she welcomes them with enthusiasm, and tells her side of the story. Unfortunately, they quickly conclude that maybe Sybil is a little sick in the head: she believes God speaks to her, normally when she takes PsyloC and Salvax. But she does have wards all over her house and Nakatomi thinks those may be useful to keep the Sicarii away, and decides to try to reproduce them. Before they leave, Sybil Kordova informs them that a female close to Takeda is one of the demons, but God didn’t give her any more details.
Nakatomi goes back to her hotel room and continues her readings about the occult, but this time after taking Salvyax and PsyloC. She ends up falling asleep and having a strange dream: she sees herself naked in the company of Sybil Kordova and other two women. She knows the three of them just had sex, they are inside a strange symbol, and outside the demons are looking at them. She awakes disturbed and annoyed about not remembering more details.
Meanwhile Doyle is entering the Blue Parrot to find his bouncer, Nils Thorndike, aiming a gun at him. Nils puts his weapon down when he sees Doyle, and gestures him to follow. In the guest room there is a Gill Woman, Doyle knows the man has a close relationship with one of the mutants, but he had never seen her. Thorndike does the introductions: “This is Amber.” They shake hands, but Amber is very reticent and scared. Nils explains to Doyle what is going on. The couple is part of a cell of the Mutant Liberation Front and are being chased by ZoneSec. They had plans to attack Leary Pharma to free the mutants being kept there as guinea pigs, but now have to lay low. Doyle is weary, but lets Amber stay hidden at the Parrot.
Borges is entering her apartment after finishing her shift at ZoneSec. She hears a startling noise and quickly turns around with her weapon ready. Standing there, is a woman that reminds her of her mother. The women raiser her arms and says: “Eva, I’m Indira, your mother. I need your help! They are after me again” Eva laughs a bitter laugh. “And what do I have to do with it?!” But she quickly composes herself and orders Indira to enter her the apartment. Indira explains that the Guerreros de Gaia are still after her. She came to Avalidad to ask for Eva’s help but, once she arrived, she suspected being followed. To make matters worse Indira tells Eva she was able to contact her brother, Tarrick, and that he will be soon arriving to the City. Borges isn’t ready for a family reunion…
Aziz is in his office, at home, when the doorbell rings. Ka’athryn calls out to him “Aziz there are some ZoneSec people here to see you”. Aziz finds five ZoneSec guards, and one of his lieutanants, Pete Jensen, at the door. Jensen announces: “Director Crowe you have been suspended for treason, please come with us.”The five officers point their guns at him.
Brian Shutter, today’s guest at the Red Room, is the author of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland, an 80s and 90s nostalgia fuelled OSR role-playing game built upon BX rules, where famous Wrestlers are worshipped as gods. Lord Randy be Praised!
The Red Room is ending the week in a Grim mood: James Grim Desborough is our guest. We chatted about his upcoming ‘citycrawl’ dark fantasy adventure Wightchester: Prison City of the Damned, the indie tabletop role-playing scene, his writing career, cancel culture, wokescolds, Gamersgate, safety tools in gaming, and other topics.
Griffith Morgan, today’s Red Room guest, is the author of Secrets of Blackmoor, a feature documentary about the fictional world created by David Arneson and the origins of the role-playing game industry, and The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg book, which contains the second oldest mega-dungeon created in the Twin Cities during the early development of RPGs.
Today on Red Room Reviews, James Grim Desborough’s Actual Fucking Monsters. Not a truly impartial review, since I’ve been writing for Postmortem Studios, but I tried to be as detached as possible (spoilers: I dissed the cover!)
Welcome to the Red Room, Bruno Galan: in this interview Bruno talks about Chronicles of the Crimson Hound, his OSR Actual-Play pulp horror serial on YouTube, the upcoming science-fantasy RPG Undead Malefactors, “problematic” issues in tabletop role-playing and Twitter controversies.
“As the man said, for every complex problem there’s a simple solution, and it’s wrong.”
― Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
“As the World Changes”
The kidnapping of actress Lucinda Fullbrigth, star of the popular RealSim soap opera As the World Changes hits the news. Clayton Reed decides the subject is too sensitive and decides to go and talk to Aziz Crowe about it. Neither of them are familiar with the actress or the soap but, as they chat, Aziz receives a panicked message from Nakatomi “Oh My god! they kidnapped Lucy. You have to do something about this!”. Crowe gets the feeling he should deal with the case, even if, officially, ZoneSec isn’t involved. He calls Nakatomi who, after calming down, explains that Lucinda is essential for the show right now: the soap is focused on the heated romance between Donatella Richmond and Mark Pendlenton, played by dashing Wagner Santoro. While they were chatting, an official request from the producers, Maddox Entertainment, finally arrives. Aziz asks Nakatomi to accompany him as a consultant, since he neither understands nor has patience for the biz. She agrees, but only if Doyle joins the party. Meanwhile, at the Blue Parrot, Doyle is greeted by the sensual Malena. She feels they have unfinished business: the concert that never took place, and maybe something else. They agree to book the concert for when her schedule is free. And, maybe, something else. The promise of romance lingers in the air!
Aziz calls Isabella early in the morning. The influencer is still ending her night and sipping a cocktail, but she is fully energised. Aziz tells her he is very intrigued about the British expat, but doesn’t want to risk a visit to the Hellfire club. He suggests Isabella to invite him for one of her parties. The influencer has a brilliant idea on the spot: the party will be at the Blue Parrot and the excuse will be the launch of Louise Sevignon’s (late Babaroux’s assistant) solo career. That will provide an excuse to invite Sir Nigel along with all the designer’s former customers. A duet by Malena and Ka’ athryn will be the main attraction. She asks for two days to put it together. Meanwhile there is Lucinda’s kidnapping to investigate. Isabella pledges to meet Aziz in ZoneSec later that morning, taking the opportunity to finally make her business proposal to the young agent who came up with the energy drink. Before leaving, she calls Doyle to put him up to speed on the party plans, and ensure the Blue Parrot’s and Malena’s availability.
At ZoneSec, the proactive O’Malley decides to combine Dark Dancer with Nutkicker to create a new version: Nutckicker Suave. The experience works like a charm, O’Malley has never felt so relaxed. And that’s how Jana finds him. O’Malley’s lethargy seems funny to her, and she decides to risk a sip, but not enough to feel anything special. That’s how Dr Nakatomi finds them: Isabella greets them and tells them the reason for her visit, O’Malley quickly presents her the new version of the drink and urges her to try it. In the name of science she does so. She leaves them with the drink in hand and goes to see Aziz but, suddenly, she feels so relaxed… She ends up falling asleep in the director’s couch, with the promise he will wake her up for their appointment with Marina Yasin, As the World Changes’s producer. While Isabella snores, Aziz calls Doyle to invite him to join them for the interview at Maddox’s offices.
The trio is expected (at least Crowe is) at Maddox Entertainment. Yasin receives them with a friendly and open smile; they are eager for news about the star whereabouts. After some questions, Marina admits that the actress’ behaviour changed lately. She wanted a raise and the corporate suits didn’t agree to that. Aside from that, she was a star and, fitting the part, she got along badly with everyone. Except for her co-protagonist Santoro; rumours say the two are lovers. It is also made clear the actress has been gone for almost a week, but since she didn’t have any shooting booked no one noticed it until the ransom demand arrived. They decide the next step is to talk to Wagner Santoro, who should be at the studio. As he leaves, Crowe shakes Yasin’s hand to try and get a feeling of her interactions with the actress. He sees flashes of a heated argument about money. Back in the car, Isabella says she has the feeling Lucinda kidnapped herself to get the extra money from Maddox “She isn’t very bright after all…”, the influencer adds.
At the studio, the handsome Wagner Santoro is waiting for them by the bar. He gives Nakatomi a sexy greasy smile, kisses her hand, and firmly shakes the hands of the gentlemen. While shaking hands with the actor, Aziz gets a flashback of a very sleazy hotel room, where he sees Lucinda, naked, lying in bed and Wagner kissing her goodbye. He knows the memory is fresh, it happened that morning. They start talking about the missing actress, Santoro gives them a lot of bullshit about how concerned he is, how important she is for the production, etc. The story of Lucinda’s disappearance is full of holes: she was driving alone, followed by her security guard and just vanished from the road. After some pressure from Doyle and Crowe his story starts to get even more confusing. Finally the actor cracks and ask them to continue the conversation at another place. Away from the studios, Wagner explains to them how Maddox is making tons of money and both him and Lucinda are being explored by the corp. Both the actors agree that Lucinda deserves a better treatment, and the suits at Maddox should realise how much they need her. So, following soap opera logic, they faked the kidnapping. Aziz says ZoneSec doesn’t care about salary disputes, their only concern is the star’s safety. After retrieving the address of the sleazy hotel, Aziz orders Jana to go there babysit Lucinda for a couple of days and, after that, perform an “heroic rescue” and a press conference.
The Party
Nakatomi and Doyle’s planning worked perfectly: the party is running smoothly and Malena and Ka’athryn’s duet its a success. But their intention was to attract Sir Nigel Smithe, and they aren’t relaxed until he arrives. Finally, Sir Nigel makes his entrance, dressed with a typical djellaba and accompanied by two young slutty, tacky and almost naked girls, one on each arm. He greets Isabella and asks why the hell he was invited. She gives him the official answer. Meanwhile, Isabella asks Doyle and Crowe about the plan. Apparently there isn’t one, they didn’t think that far ahead. The influencer decides to improvise and, once the expat looks drunk enough (he quickly gorges down four whiskies), she decides to approach him in seductive mode. It doesn’t take much seduction to attract the old drunken pervert (she actually has more trouble keeping his hands away) and, after some cajoling, Sir Nigel invites her to go to a hotel. Isabella convinces him that it will be much more practical and interesting to use the Blue Parrot: the guest room has recently been used by Malena and the sheets have certainly not been changed yet. Sir Nigel agrees and allows himself to be persuaded to walk ahead to the room.
While Sir Nigel drunkenly climbs up the stair, Nakatomi quickly brings Doyle and Aziz up to speed on the plan: take advantage of the man’s trousers being down to interrogate him. Aziz, using his powers and professional experience, should take point. Doyle isn’t too happy about the fact that they’re using Malena’s room, and Aziz says it’s not exactly what he had in mind, but “que sera, sera”. The ZoneSec director goes up alone, apparently nobody wants to give him a hand with Sir Nigel. Aziz knocks on the door and hears barking, followed by: “Come in darling, I’m waiting for you!” The scene that awaits him is peculiar: Sir Nigel lying on the bed, completely naked except for his white socks and a dog collar around his neck. “What are you doing where? You naughty man!” he asks Aziz. “Sir Nigel I’m not sure how, but it seems that we both met at the same time, here in this room…” suddenly he realises the state of the expat and stops his speech to ask politely, but more aggressively than usual: “Gentleman, please compose yourself!…At least put on some underwear”. Sir Nigel grumbles, but agrees. The chemical-induced erection is clearly visible even with boxers on. Crowe takes a deep breath and continues: “Well, since we’re here, something has been bothering me since Barbaroux’s death. Why would he kill those two models? I think you are connected to this somehow. What was your relationship with the designer?” Sir Nigel replies matter-of-factly and a little surprised: “I bought some suits from him… He was a good designer, even though he was a fag.” He pauses to remember. “I lent him money once, but he paid me back… So I guess the gal is not joining me after all?” Aziz replies: “Sorry, but no, this was just an excuse to gets us together in the same room… But are you sure you don’t have anything else to tell me, those symbols on the floor of the crime scene?” Sir Nigel replies, indignantly: “And that’s why you distrust me?! What I saw seemed to be a ridiculous hoax. The occult is a serious thing, he probably thought it would be easy to frame me.” Aziz finally begins to believe him. In the end Sir Nigel invites him to the select Hellfire club. The rest of the night at the Parrot is without incident; the curse over Malena’s performances seems to have been lifted, and she stays over to celebrate.
At the Hellfire
Isabella is very excited to know about the invite to the Hellfire club, she also sends Sir Nigel a gift basket apologising for the deceiving. Meanwhile a couple of days go by, and Lucinda is “rescued” by ZoneSec. The fans rejoice, the soap opera gets back on track with filming schedule and both Fullbrigth and Santoro get a raise.
That night they finally decide to call on Sir Nigel at the Hellfire club. It is a small old, discreet building on the Crepuscule District. The impeccably dressed doorman is reluctant to let them in but, after being shown Sir Nigel’s invitation, they are ushered into an elegant, richly furnished, room. It smells strongly of leather and cigar smoke. In a corner there’s is a bar stocked with drinks that make Doyle go green with envy. One wall is occupied with a huge bookcase full of tomes on the occult. The few men present, distinguished looking elderly gentlemen, are either reading, or playing chess, and they ignore the visitors.
After asking to be announced, they are directed to Sir Nigel’s office. The bait, Isabella, leads the way. This time they find Sir Nigel dressed, but accompanied by three naked young women, lying voluptuously on chaise longs. Sir Nigel signals to one of the women who, obediently, slides under the table, positions herself between Sir Nigel’s legs and goes to work. Isabella asks permission to go to the toilet and, meanwhile, snoops around. Aziz and Doyle stare at each other and wonder what they are doing there… They must have done it out loud, because Sir Nigel replies: “Mr Crowe, you work for ZoneSec right? Maybe I have something interesting to tell you.” The eccentric Briton goes on telling them a tale of supernatural beings working secretly behind the corporations façade. He claims there are demons at work in Avalidad, Kobayashi probably being one of them, and that the most astonishing technological breakthroughs are due to them. Meanwhile, Dr Nakatomi returns and finds the conversation very entertaining, although for her it doesn’t matter how they got the technology, all that matter is that they have it. Doyle is feeling a bit vindicated about his distrust of all things technological and Aziz is still unbelieving. The conversation ends with them all agreeing in one thing: Barbaroux was an idiot and the only responsible for the murders. They leave the office with a weird feeling, Nakatomi carrying a borrowed book, Codex Voluptate et Dolorum, and dives into it that night.
Outside, Nastasja warns Crowe he has an encrypted call from ZoneSec. A worried Reed informs him there was an attempt on Takeda’s life. Clayton doesn’t have any details about it: the old man was protected by is one personal security, probably Yakuza types, but he has a bad feeling about the secrecy around the matter, and tells Aziz they are to meet Takeda and Bentley the next morning.
While they are approaching Doyle´s car, he hears a strange noise near it. It sounds like something is crawling around the vehicle. Pointing a flashlight at the spot he sees something crawling inside a gutter, followed by a flash of blue light. Then silence. Doyle moves to inspect the car and discovers the door was forced, the glove compartment is open and some things are missing: A 20th century poetry book, some bullets and an old fashion camera. Doyle exclaims “They broke into my car!” waking Aziz from a trance. He just had a disturbing vision: Crowe saw a strange figure, larger than a human being, heavily muscled and naked, but without sexual organs. The figure walked toward him, and Aziz feels a shiver of pure fear. He feels a something terrible related to that creature is about to happen.
The night ends in a sorrowful note.
