Scopophobia

A City of Mist Campaign

Dedicated to and Authored by Nolan Kerr

Assembled and Authored by James McCandless
Contributions and memories from Hayden Howrie
A heartfelt thank you to Son of Oak Game Studio and the City of Mist team
for their support of this project, and for creating such a wonderful game;
please show your support and check out the system for yourself at:

www.Cityofmist.co

This product was created under license. City of Mist and its logo are trademarks of
Son of Oak Game Studio LLC. All City of Mist setting material, art, and trade dress
are the property of Son of Oak Game Studio LLC.

This work contains material that is copyright Son of Oak Game Studio LLC and/or
other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content
Agreement for City of Mist Garage.

All other original material in this work is copyright 2022 by McCandless Arts and
published under the Community Content Agreement for City of Mist Garage.
 Table of Contents
Introduction
Preface – pg. 6

A Brief Summary of Events

The First Awakening of Cthulhu – pg. 7

Twenty Minutes of Hell – pg. 8

The Second Awakening of Cthulhu – pg. 8

The Conflict at Santa Cabeza – pg. 9

The Fossa’s Hunt – pg. 10

The Devil’s Due – pg. 10

The Death of the Fossa – pg. 12

The Resurrection of Kelly Hugh-Kiristev – pg. 12

The Final Awakening of Cthulhu – pg. 12

The Ruin Revenge Had Wrought – pg. 14

Checkmate – pg. 14

In Circles (The Safehouse Raids) – pg. 15

The Least I Could Do (The Debate) – pg. 17

3
The Cast
Michael Mercer – pg. 20

Francis Broduer – pg. 24

Jake “The Fossa” Pliskin – pg. 27

Phil – pg. 30

David Nguyen – pg. 33

Jimmy Tinkertop – pg. 36

Paige Folliero – pg. 39

Benjamin “Dis” Jarvis – pg. 42

Morgan Awbrey – pg. 45

Sam Woodrow – pg. 48

Evette Zillier – pg. 51

Jake “El Lisiado” Cortez – pg. 54

Sterling Gates – pg. 58

Griff Zhu – pg. 61

Phoebe – pg. 64

Leif Grierson – pg. 66

Anna Rooker – pg. 69

Secondary Cast – pg. 72

Tertiary Cast – pg. 78

Set pieces
S.N.N. & S.I.N.N. – pg. 89

Crew Themes – pg. 94

Soundtrack – pg. 97

Character Sheets – pg. 100

The Script
The notes of Francis Broduer – pg. 109

The notes of Michael Mercer – pg. 119

The Mythos Manifesto – pg. 129

MC notes and Episode Summaries

Custom Moves – pg. 135

Dangers – pg. 136

Episode Summaries - 154

Art Book
Art book – pg. 188

Artist Contributors – pg. 199

Thank You – pg. 200

5
 Preface
The following scrapbook is a loose collection of notes, artwork, written
works, and musings from a campaign named Scopophobia. This piece is
meant as a retrospective narrative to better remember the campaign and its
inhabitants, and as such is not a complete narrative, but will serve as a
foundation for fond memories and hopefully inspire others.
Scopophobia was a City of Mist campaign that began in July 2018 and
ended in September 2021. City of Mist centers on individuals who also hold
the myth of something grand within them and typically involves the struggle
between mundane life and life as seen through the eyes of a mythological
being. The main portion of the setting was placed in the west coast American
city of Seattle from the spring of 2001 to the autumn of 2003 with many
events transpiring before the events of the campaign. The most notable of
these is the fall of an accounting firm ten years prior, its relationship to the
summoning of Cthulhu, and the sacrifices made by those that chose to stop
it. These events directly led to the creation of the series antagonist—Anna
Rooker, the avatar of Big Brother. Scopophobia originally started with three
protagonists: Francis Broduer, an accountant in prison for white-collar
crimes; Jake Pliskin, a gang book-keeper turned point man; and Michael
Mercer, an FBI agent haunted by past mistakes. A large portion of the cast
came to call a bar called Another One Opens home; one of the only places
that Rifts could gather without the influence of the Gatekeepers — a special
force dedicated to masking and defeating those burdened with a Mythos. The
narrative eventually grew to include a dozen characters, each with their own
personality, motives, and relationships. Each character had an incredibly vivid
and clear influence on the direction Scopophobia took, and it is their
direction that came to define the series and what it stood for: Community.
 A Brief Summary of Events

The First Awakening of Cthulhu

Ten years prior to the events of Scopophobia Clancy Jarvis, the Rift of
Daedalus attempted to satisfy his curiosity by investigating strange activity
throughout Seattle. In the midst of investigating an infamous haunted house,
he inadvertently awakens Alec Abbabio, the Rift of Cthulhu. Seeking to
remedy his mistake he gathers a team composed of himself, Anna, Leif, Abir,
and Simon. The group investigated Alec's actions since he had awakened and
eventually found that all his plans hinged on the performance of a strange
ritual at a local business called C&T Accounting. At the same time, the group
noticed the digging of a rather slimy man named Francis Broduer; they
arranged to have him framed for financial fraud in order to keep him out of
the group’s affairs with the intention to clear his name once it was safe to do
so. In order to stop Alec’s ritual, Clancy, using his powers as Daedalus,
painstakingly crafted a recreation of R’lyeh beneath the building that he
would seal once Cthulhu had entered. While the group did ultimately succeed
in their task Clancy was dead, Abir was trapped within the city of R’lyeh,
Anna had become an avatar and Simon had fled in terror. Despite the group
forming with the best of intentions, all that remained was Leif, Anna, and a
shared sense that what they’d just seen should never happen again.
Meanwhile, the man they’d put away, Francis Broduer, rotted in prison; their
intention to save him simply gone as their priorities grew further and further.
All the while Francis was left to stew in hatred for whoever may have framed
him; eventually this hatred would lead him to a power of his own.

7
 Twenty Minutes of Hell
A year prior to the events of Scopophobia Hell had, quite literally, erupted
onto the streets of Seattle — the Rift of Lucifer, Michael Mercer, briefly lost
control of his powers. Even in that brevity, the Gatekeepers were spurred
into action, a handful of lives were lost, and Hell was miraculously shrouded.
This incident became the driving ethos for Michael to seek out the
Gatekeepers; either to see his dominion over Hell returned to him by any
means necessary or plead for forgiveness and find a way to give some
recompense for the mistake he had made — he wasn’t entirely sure which at
first.

The Second Awakening of Cthulhu

Dis, the son of Clancy’s, had hoped to awaken Cthulhu so that he might
rescue Abir from her prison within R’lyeh. Dis was enamoured by the power
the Great Old One could grant him — a power that led him to entirely
overestimate his abilities. Thanks to aid from J.P. he had the star-machine, a
relic capable of rearranging the stars, set up at C&T Accounting and had even
managed to keep Anna’s cabal from interrupting the summoning. Following
the completed summoning the building collapsed, killing J.P.’s right-hand
man and spurring Francis and Michael into action. Working with Nguyen on
sniper support, The Swede on blocking Cthulhu, and a surprise visit from
Simon the group managed to put Cthulhu back to sleep again. Shortly
afterwards Anna appeared in an S.N.N. van, announcing a simple cover-up
and using her powers of reality warping to clear the premises. The three
protagonists briefly interacted and eventually went their separate ways,
agreeing to a momentary truce; concluding one of the two times all the
protagonists ever worked together.
 The Conflict at Santa Cabeza
The second time the protagonists all allied wasn’t especially long after the
first. Following Cthulhu’s rise at C&T, J.P. was investigating S.N.N. and, by
extension, into the avatar running it, Anna Rooker. His search led him to a
remote community a few hours out of Seattle named Santa Cabeza. At the
time of his investigation he was already somewhat hurt and in need of a rest;
regardless he walked right in the front doors to see all that he could. He
managed to make it to a strange gathering at a local community centre before
it became obvious to all in attendance that he didn’t belong there and, despite
his best efforts, he was swiftly captured. In the brief moments before the
force of the entire town descended on him J.P. sent out a simple text:
“Cabeza help.” Michael and Francis took a fair while before they wound up
getting involved, though they did come in with a more measured approach.
Through careful and safe surveillance they noticed that the community
carried the mythos of Innsmouth and many of its members were steadily
being transformed into fish-men. They also deduced that J.P. was being held
beneath the large Manor that resided in the community.
They stayed undercover for as long as possible, but despite their
combined efforts, their cover was eventually blown and they were quickly
overwhelmed. Help arrived in the form of many members from what would
soon be the P.L.U. that managed to stem the tide of villagers and fish-men.
While Michael did his best to hold off the tide of fish-men surrounding and
attacking the building Francis went into the basement in order to awaken a
heavily sedated and soon very groggy J.P., while he was in the basement he
also met with a man known only as The Sculptor who had been crafting
animate, deformed copies of J.P. out of clay. As J.P. and Francis dealt with
the situation in the basement Michael was doing his utmost to keep the locals
from entering the house. Luckily Francis’ once comatose, newly awakened
ally Sam had gathered up everyone’s allies and sent them to aid the group in
Cabeza. Together, working with one another and each other’s allies, the
group managed to defeat all the strange deformed Innsmouth residents, the
fully formed fish-men, and even Dagon himself. While this was, at the time,
the greatest moment within Scopophobia in terms of spectacle; it also serves
as the only time all three protagonists were able to work together with no
caveats between them.

9
 The Fossa’s Hunt
After the newly formed Rift community had returned from Cabeza with new
information regarding their antagonist, Anna Rooker, Michael worked with
J.P. to upset the balance of power in the city in an attempt to weaken Big
Brother’s grasp. As of this time, J.P. and his gang, The Exemplaries, had a
similar reputation to Seattle’s largest gang, the Middle Men, as down-on-their-
luck middle-class folk who had lost their wellbeing. The initial plan was
intricate: During an upcoming gala for Seattle’s elite and powerful, Michael,
using his FBI credentials, would find a way to hijack the emergency alert
system of the city and, with the help of a contracted Rift named Yoko, hijack
all T.V. and radio broadcasts within the greater Seattle area, Jimmy the imp
would teleport into the premises to aid the two by broadcasting the event
with the equipment he had stolen from a news station and J.P., a wanted
criminal not yet labelled a terrorist, was meant to play the role of
revolutionary, storming into the gala, making a fool of the police, and
accusing the upper echelons of Seattle society of harming the working class
on purpose while simultaneously proving to the Rift community that he was
capable of more than bloodlust. Michael would use his powers to influence
the crowd into disarray, have them turn on each other, and create a show to
leave those at home watching with a lingering sense of distaste for those that
held power over them. Michael was only half-able to grasp the crowd once
Leif had made an appearance; distracted, he resorted to shoving Leif through
Hell as a means to buy time. J.P. saw the faltering plan as an opportunity to
slaughter nearly everyone in the room. Michael rushed to save as many as he
could, totalling five people, while The Fossa, live on every T.V. and radio
station in Seattle, tore through the lives of roughly two-hundred people
indiscriminately and without mercy.

The Devil’s Due

It began when Michael sought about getting a new place of his own after he
had burnt down his old one; luckily he knew just the place. Earlier in his
adventures, he investigated into the apartment of Will Powers and found the
domicile absolutely heavenly, as befitted the Apple of Eden. While the place
had gone through a bit of turmoil it was nonetheless a wonderful little
apartment, while he was there he sought to perform a séance with Clancy’s
deceased spirit. The ghost told him that the person he was looking for was
Anna Rooker, whom Michael had met twice before, both times were of so
little consequence that he hadn’t even thought twice about the fact that she
lived in the same building as him. Inspired by the thrill of his discovery and
his ever-growing curiosity Michael walked into her apartment, finding it
barren except for a single crude door drawn in chalk that led into a dimly lit
room that seemed to exist beyond the confines of the building. Anna was
waiting for him and the two talked, Michael learned who she was and what
she was after. When he expressed any amount of displeasure in her plans and
tried to leave apparitions of Michael’s fear formed and attempted to restrain
him. Cornered and over-powered he forced as much of himself as he could
out of the room and into Hell, where he’d drift half-awake for a couple of
weeks. At the same time, J.P. was ambushed and captured after demanding a
meeting with One (Anna) by screaming into his phone. Francis, with the
other two protagonists out of commission, sought to go in and save J.P. with
only the former assassin West as his companion. With minimal searching, he
managed to find that J.P was being held in a nearby youth center that Anna
and her compatriots had purchased recently.
Despite carefully snooping through the building, and killing his
traitorous companion West, he was cornered in the basement of the building
only feet away from J.P. His attempts at escape proved unsuccessful, and he
was captured during his exfiltration. Soon, Michael emerged from Hell having
seemingly slept during his time away from the city. He awoke buried in a
shallow grave with the sounds of combat filling his ears. Unknown to him,
Sam had looked into the future and had seen Michael emerging from the
ground in the midst of a park and immediately being seized by Anna, so he
gathered everyone at the park. Though Sam’s future sight was powerful,
certain details occasionally eluded him, such as where exactly Michael was
going to emerge. So they dug holes everywhere he could emerge so that he’d
surface earlier and have a degree of protection when he did. Once he
gathered his senses he found that he had lost his left arm and a bit of his
mentality, both of which presumably being left behind with Anna in room
101. He gathered his companions and pushed back as best he could, though
the group wasn’t yet able to compete with Anna in direct conflict. Sam and
Saarid didn’t make it out. The group eventually managed to escape into
Another One Opens, where they mourned their lost comrades and made
plans to free their captured ones.

11
 The Death of the Fossa
Shortly after Michael rescued Francis from imprisonment by talking Leif
down with a discussion on platitudes, they resolved to exfiltrate J.P. for fears
that he may be used to further Anna’s plans. Sure enough, these fears were
accurate and J.P., who had a bullet in his brain but was being kept alive by
Malcolm’s powers, had become a henchman of Big Brother, somewhat
willingly. J.P. was sent to crash a large boat into a pharmaceutical factory
owned by Zhi-Yang, one of the avatar council. A lengthy conflict ensued,
involving snipers, a Shoggoth, the Lion (Michael’s Car) possessing a boat,
bombs, and a very large battery. The fight ended when J.P. was cornered, and
sand borrowed from Simon was used to put him to sleep while he was taken
to Another One Opens. His trial was the first conducted by the P.L.U., and
largely revolved around the discussion of J.P.’s motives and whether or not to
execute him. Ultimately, his fate came down to a single vote; the vote that J.P.
was allowed to cast. In the end, it was decided that J.P. would be given to the
Gatekeepers, have his memory wiped, he would be given a new identity and
set to make atonement for all the wrong he had done.

The Resurrection of Kelly Hugh-Kiristev

The P.L.U. had eventually decided that their greatest strength against Anna
was their numbers, and as such resolved to attack Big Brother on as many
fronts as possible. One of these was the political stage, and it just so
happened that a beloved politician, not under the influence of Big Brother,
had been slain during the Fossa’s Hunt. The P.L.U. staged an elaborate fake
kidnapping, doctored records, and eventually released Francis Broduer onto
the political stage under the guise of Kelly Hugh-Kiristev. His campaign,
which initially started as a distraction attempt, became the main force of
attack for the P.L.U. and their driving force behind the direct influence they
had on the city.

The Final Awakening of Cthulhu

After settling some of the loose ends of its members, the P.L.U. was fully
formed, stronger than ever, and sought to finally undo some of the mistakes
of the past: They would awake Cthulhu, save Abir, and deal with Alec once
and for all. Thorough research was put into who Alec was before his descent
into avatarhood, Clancy’s methods of creation, the star-machine, and every
minute advantage the group could think of. They would dig a tunnel straight
down to R’lyeh and pry its doors open, would awaken Cthulhu and pull him
onto the street above, and they would infiltrate R’lyeh to save Abir. They
would make treaties with all their allies and enemies, the Gatekeepers, Anna,
anyone with a modicum of power, and force everyone, for however brief a
moment, force them to abide by the greater good. The members of the
P.L.U. would attempt to control the star-spawn and contain the fight to the
city block around C&T accounting and hold the doors to R’lyeh open, the
Gatekeepers would provide support for every team and shroud as necessary,
Michael and Leif would stand toe to toe with Cthulhu, and Francis would
infiltrate the city with the Yarn of Ariadne to find Abir. The fight quickly
became a race, with Michael trying to keep Cthulhu from tearing the world
apart long enough for Francis to radio in that he had acquired Abir.
Francis pushed farther with his shapeshifting than ever before,
emulating something entirely unnatural and foreign in complete blackness.
After the very brief assassination of a Shoggoth with the help of Vic, Francis
realized that Abir was not in the city of R’lyeh but in a place between it and
reality. Francis ever so briefly traversed this place to rescue her, coming face
to inverted-flesh-pyramid with Yog-Sothoth, and in his moment of triumph,
briefly tasted his power without boundary – Avatarhood.
Michael was exhausted from keeping reality from unravelling through
sheer hell-bent willpower and realized that they were quickly running out of
time. He had used the recorded voices from Alec’s past to weaken the avatar,
but it was not enough to stop him, and without confirmation that Francis was
out of the city Michael was unwilling to put Cthulhu back in. In a final
attempt to end the fight and keep those he cared about safe, he sacrificed the
power of Buer, his familiar, to move the Garden of Eden from Will Power’s
old apartment, and, from a spectacular fall from the clouds above Seattle,
impale Cthulhu on the tree of knowledge — trapping him within the
knowledge of good and evil, and ending his avatar hood.
The intricate plan, the camaraderie felt by the members of the P.L.U.,
and the overwhelming success of what they had just accomplished resulted in
the P.L.U. awakening to a shared Mythos: The spirit of anarchist Catalonia.

13
 The Ruin Revenge Had Wrought
Somewhat orchestrated before the events of the final Cthulhu confrontation,
Francis had convinced everyone in the P.L.U. into a course of action that
none felt particularly fond of: causing an incredible economic collapse in the
city. The specifics of this were left to Francis who assured the other members
that if the bubble were allowed to grow, its effects would be far more
catastrophic than if it were forced to pop now. The P.L.U. scrambled to set
up charities, shelters, benefits, and whatever they could to ease the incoming
collapse on the citizens of Seattle but the reality of it had, unfortunately, hit
harder than first expected. It was undoubtedly an incredible blow to the plans
of Anna Rooker, and a massive boon to the P.L.U. and the political stage of
Kelly Hugh-Kiristev. The lower class of Seattle was growing, and people were
becoming agitated with the state of their city.

Checkmate
Following the final confrontation with Cthulhu and the exfiltration of Abir,
Leif had left the active combat in favour of sticking in the lobby of the
Gatekeepers looking after her; just in case the situation changed anytime
soon. Michael had tried to use the opportunity to talk Leif down from the
continuation of conflict, but he made it clear that he wasn’t interested. While
it was generally understood that the hospital Abir was stationed at and its
surrounding area would serve as neutral ground in the conflict, Francis
couldn’t help but notice the opportunity. One of their most persistent
opponents was without backup and had made his location very well known.
Francis told the group he wanted to move against Leif, and the group voted
on whether or not they wanted to do so. It was decided to move against him
by one vote. In order to give Anna as little time to respond as possible, they
decided to move against Leif as well as Anna’s other lieutenant Malcolm.
Once they divided the teams Michael and Francis were the ones to move
against Leif while the others went to deal with Malcolm. Michael went in to
find Leif in the waiting room and lure him outside where Francis ambushed
him and injected him with as much tranquillizer as he could without
immediately killing him outright; though before it took effect Leif did manage
to get in one good hit on Francis that left him with some broken ribs.
Unfortunately, Anna had managed to deduce their plans after listening in on
the conversation through Leif’s phone and took control of the man’s body.
While she did so Francis managed to throw everyone present into the Bifrost
with his whistle before she could do any damage. While being trapped in the
Bifrost she steadily came to realize that she had no obvious way out, short of
simply leaving Leif’s body to die. Francis snuck off to catch his breath and
Michael took the opportunity to talk to Anna. He derided her for being so
selfish in staying in Leif’s body despite the terrible harm the Bifrost was
causing him. She in turn derided Michael for his underhanded tactics, which
he calmly accepted and admitted to. As he kept her talking he insisted, as best
he was able, that if she didn’t leave Leif’s body now he was going to be killed
by the conditions along the Bifrost and that giving up was the best ending for
him. She proved reluctant, not due to underestimating the Bifrost but rather
due to believing that she’d be able to figure some way out of the situation.
Until Francis snuck up behind her and placed another sedative to her neck.
She simply chuckled at the situation and at being threatened by the ball of
self-destruction that was Francis Broduer before her visage disappeared and
left Leif the motionless sedated body he had been prior. Michael stood up
and hugged Francis, the manifestation of terrible revenge had finally shown
mercy. It seemed impossible. Francis wordlessly sent Michael back before
wandering the Bifrost all on his own for some time, just enjoying the empty
space.

In Circles (The Safehouse Raids)

Following the loss of her best friend and only true confidant Anna began to
fall from avatarhood. She fled to the height of her power in room 101 where
her ability to warp reality and consciousness was at its strongest, looked in the
mirror, and declared she was Big Brother. She then existed as a strange
paradoxical thing, ever falling from avatarhood but with her reality warping
powers combatting and elongating the fall as much as possible. With her
newfound status, she took a moment to collect her thoughts; if they
continued with a drawn-out fight, then she would lose. She had already lost
her best combatant. It was best to get as much support as possible now and
end things as decisively as possible, so she met with the Zhi-Yang of the
avatar council. Zhi-Yang liked Anna’s plans, she thought it made her role of
balancing life and death much easier, but she very much doubted Anna’s
abilities. So they made a bet: if Anna could win the position of mayor of
Seattle she would gain Zhi-Yang’s full support; if she lost however she would
forfeit all her assets to Zhi-Yang. Seeking to tip the odds for the election in

15
her favour as much as possible she decided to deal with her greatest
opponents as swiftly as she could, though she gave them twenty four hours
to leave the city. During those twenty four hours she sought about training a
great number of the sleepers under her into a proper fighting force and
gathering a number of useful Rifts by waking people up in room 101 and
quickly indoctrinating them into her service. At the end of twenty four hours,
she had her troops attack every one of the locations that the P.L.U. were
housing civilians in. They moved on the five safehouses that the group's
family members were being held at, the warehouse that they had converted
into a shelter, Kelly Hugh-Kiristev’s home, the hotel that housed Kelly’s
campaign staff following the loss of their homes, and the groups base of
operations, Another One Opens. Michael immediately called in what favours
he could in order to get Gatekeepers moving to one safehouse and Lloyd
Alberns driving off to another. Michael wasted no time in deploying with
some other P.L.U. members in an attempt to protect one safehouse whilst
Francis rendezvoused with a smaller group in order to rescue Rose, Kelly’s
wife, from her home. Michael was able to get into the building rather early
but without the time he needed to recover from the events of Checkmate he
found himself severely lacking in firepower and had to withdraw before he
was able to get any of the civilians out. Francis meanwhile was forced to take
his time in slowly infiltrating through Kelly’s house due to multiples of Klaus
hiding throughout the building; eventually, he did manage to exfiltrate Rose
and the two reunited in Another One Opens to find it under siege.
The battle was a somewhat protracted affair, with Michael moving
throughout in order to handle Anna’s various Rift muscle and an enormous
Vic filled with adrenaline tearing through Anna’s rank and file. At the end of
the battle, Michael and Francis were left with little more than a pile of two
hundred corpses and a sense of anger. They had proven that they were far
superior in a direct physical confrontation but had managed to lose almost
every civilian under their care. There were a few noteworthy exceptions, while
Anna’s forces believed the P.L.U. to be pinned down at their bar, a sudden
intervention from Lloyd Alberns managed to save about 5 people, and a
group of Gatekeepers also managed to save an entire safehouse worth of
people. From this point on the group operated out of a yacht Francis had
rented prior, they eventually remodelled the yacht into a new version of
Another One Opens.
 The Least I Could Do (The Debate)
Following the safehouse raids, the group was forced to put all their effort
into strengthening themselves for the debate, especially since efforts to
oppose Anna were met with the death of hostages. While it was standard in
municipal elections to have a debate between the leading candidates the
increasing amount of crises in Seattle (see above for examples) caused the
debates to continually be cancelled and the election to continually be pushed
back. As the attention placed on Seattle, and especially its mayoral candidates,
continued to grow it became apparent that when the debate happened, it
would almost certainly decide who won the election. Firstly the P.L.U. found
Leif. Michael had tried to recruit him through a simple talk but when that
ended in failure he came back the next day and called in the favour Leif owed
the other members of the P.L.U. for saving Abir. The group also needed a
way to ensure the safety of the friends and family that were held hostage; they
considered bargaining for them before realizing they lacked much of anything
to bargain with, save themselves. Ultimately, the P.L.U. decided to risk
everything on their next move: should they lose the debate, they would all
willingly become indoctrinated and join Anna’s cabal.
Their next issue was Anna, since the safehouse raids Anna had
fundamentally changed. She was now perpetually coming down from
avatarhood, meaning that the mist constantly pooled around her and
dampened all those nearby. Their solution was to have Michael, Evette, and a
couple of other Gatekeepers constantly moving the mist around Francis in
order to keep it from affecting him. The P.L.U. scattered its members to
counter anything Anna might try; some members to act as security in case
Francis’s life was threatened, and some members acting as advisors for
Francis to bounce ideas off of during breaks in the debate. Michael chose to
stay in reserve so that he’d be able to step in wherever he was most needed.
At the debate’s outset, Kelly Hugh-Kiristev and Virian Durain, Anna’s
political persona, found they were saying remarkably similar things, the only
real difference being Kelly’s firm focus on municipal government vs. Durain’s
focus on the country as a whole. Partway through the debate, Kelly managed
to carefully plant bait for the media that would accentuate the real practical
work he’d been doing in Seattle. He spoke about the people he’d had the
pleasure of meeting during his time running for mayor, including the local
union leader Bowman, a woman named Vera Tinkertop he’d met in his
shelters, and Ansh the campaign manager. He was careful not to mention

17
how some of these people were connected to him so that when there were
inevitably interviewed they’d themselves uncover Kelly’s good deeds and
ensure his longevity in the media. Much of what Francis had said came down
to pride and belief in what he’d built, along with a sense of hope for Seattle
based on those he’d come to know. While the debate did mostly feature the
political ideals of Virian Durain and Kelly Hugh-Kiristev the debate was also
a hidden dialogue between Francis Broduer and Anna Rooker. As Kelly
continued waxing about the people he’d seen in Seattle Anna turned and
asked Francis if that’s something he truly believed. After the last two years
spent around the most adamant idealist in Seattle, Francis quoted the Mythos
Manifesto and did not even hesitate in answering that yes, he really did
believe in those he knew. Anna began to break down. She took a moment to
admit defeat before telling everyone present to vote for Kelly and absconding
from Virian’s body. Immediately people scrambled to try and find where
she’d run off to; Francis deciding to take a different approach. Francis left,
and in the recesses of his mind found himself in the original Another One
Opens. He went to the back of the bar and found himself sat across from a
figure, one all too familiar to him, Edmond Dantes. Francis, with satisfied
resignation, gave up control to the Count, who exited the bar in his stead.
Using a newfound ability to summon his co-conspirators the count sent a
phantom of Francis to see Anna’s trial.
Michael was ultimately the one to find Anna a couple of hours after the
trial. He found her on the roof of her childhood home, in her pyjamas with a
tub of rocky road ice cream and a bong. She had assumed she’d be found
sooner or later, though she clearly wasn’t quite ready to go. She offered
Michael some ice cream, tried to busy him with some idle talk but ultimately
he didn’t care to speak any more than he had to. Anna came with him
willingly, he took her back to the yacht and her trial began. Every member of
the P.L.U. had a fair amount to say on the matter, a few wanted her dead, a
third wanted her to simply have her sent away from Seattle with her mind
wiped and a third wanted her to be sent as a recruit to the Gatekeepers so
that she’d be able to make up for some of the damage she’d done. It’s worth
noting that with very little to say on the matter “Francis” voted to simply
wipe her mind and send her away. In the end, as had happened every time
before, Michael was the tiebreaker. He decided there was absolutely no point
in killing her, and she was too risky to keep awake in any way, so he voted to
take away her Mythos and send her away, ever under the watchful eye of the
Gatekeepers. Michael personally mended Anna, and conveniently had a new
identity set up for her for a very long time. Michael and Evette handled
everything that came afterward, ensuring she remembered nothing but
understood the feelings associated with it all. The only thing she was left with
was a small pin of a flaming daffodil. A brief celebration was held before
everyone went off to their families and to rebuild their lives. Michael found
Francis alone in the bridge of the yacht; they talked briefly about what they
planned to do now. Michael stated he still had a lot to do in Seattle, Francis
simply ask that Michael never look for him, unless it was his last option. In
their last moments together Michael simply said “Be sure not to die, Francis
Brodure” before the apparition of his best friend and greatest rival
disappeared, never to be seen again.

19
 Michael Mercer
Lucifer
Accompanied by: Buer (Formerly) and The Mist

The one-armed Devil tries to run from who he is—

Into a perdition of his own making.
Michael had been awake as long as he could remember. Born to two Rift
parents, Michael always had a firm grasp on the world around him and the
personality to exert his influence on it. His first action in the world was taking
the life of his mother, whom he was named after—a series of missteps and ill
omens followed him for the next 26 years, and at the end of them Michael
ended up alone, without much to care about and even less left to care about
him. An FBI agent absorbed in his work with no driving identity, he
eventually lost himself to the call of his Mythos. A year before the events of
Scopophobia he lost control of his powers and, for a horrific 20 minutes, the
gates of Hell were open in the middle of a Seattle street. Michael, now forever
wracked with guilt, went about finding a way to ensure no one ended up in
the same situation he had been a year prior while simultaneously avoiding all
forms of punishment, however much he may have wanted them. Eventually,
this birthed the People Like Us (P.L.U.), a group of Rifts grounded by a
shared camaraderie and purpose.
Michael could do just about anything. Adapting to any situation through
the use of magic—chief among his abilities was his willpower, an unwavering
impetus that would see him through nearly every situation he would
encounter even if he was doomed to fail. The wind whispered secrets to him
over the faint taste of cigarettes, and his words carried enough sway to cause
people to act, whether they wanted to or not. Michael, through a combined
tactic of being overbearing and having a list of accomplishments no one
could dispute, eventually made his way into joining the Gatekeepers — an
unheard-of circumstance for a Rift. Michael skipped basic training and
learned the art of mending; an art that proved to be devastating to any Rift
that didn’t see it coming — and none of them did.

21
 Epilogue
Michael’s life after the debate had a new air about it. For the first time in his
life, he had a family, friends, and something to protect and cherish. For a
brief eight months, he experimented with what “normal life” looked like:
grocery shopping, laundry, binge-watching T.V. and trying to fix his car
(which he failed miserably at, and had to call Sterling and El Lisiado to help
with). He realized it wasn't for him. Whenever he felt restless, a window
would open, the wind would fly in, and it would whisper about one of exactly
forty loose ends scattered about. After disappearing for a day, Michael always
came back a little more willing to deal with the monotony of separating the
colours in his laundry. Michael eventually went back to what he did best and
spent his time split between more things than a normal person should be able
to handle. Even for a Rift, it was a lot, but it was what he did. Michael
remained heavily involved in the P.L.U., though he did pass off most of the
day-to-day operations to Phil, Morgan, Paige, and anyone else who wanted to
lend a hand. He adamantly worked to weaken the grasp of the avatar council
in Seattle, striking deals with some and pushing others out completely. Much
to the Gatekeepers’ satisfaction Michael remained in the fold and worked
closely with the contacts he had made, finding a new partner in Evette.
Though typically working with Adrian and the SEALS, he was happy to be
called upon whenever Emelia needed anything that required a less-than-
delicate touch. Michael had finally learned how to temper his overwhelming
personality around those he cared about. He learned how to separate
professional life from a personal one, and how to keep his friends separate
from the messes he had created for himself. Michael stayed in close contact
with all his old friends at the P.L.U., though he had a bad habit of showing
up unannounced and without invitation. This was especially annoying to
those who tried to remain somewhat hidden; when questioned about this
Michael would simply smirk and say “You can't hide from the hide and seek
champion”. There was one man Michael had promised to never find unless he
absolutely needed to. But fortunately for him, Phil had made no such
promise. Michael gave him a small envelope, containing a pin depicting a
flaming daffodil, with the instruction to deliver it with the message “The
individual doesn’t choose the group, the group chooses the individual”
should Phil ever find who he was looking for. Despite all of his projects,
hobbies, and responsibilities, Michael always found a way to make time for
Paige. Sometimes showing up to supper a minute late with scorch marks,
ripped clothing, or covered in frost. Nothing made him happier after a long
day of “work” than making a bowl of popcorn, mixing it with gummy bears,
sitting down on a couch next to someone he cared about, and wasting just a
little bit of time. Michael never forgave himself for the things he had done
before he met the P.L.U., nor did he try to any longer. The past may never be
remedied but we can at least set right the future.

23
 Francis Broduer
The Count of Monte Cristo
Accompanied by: Vic (Fenrir) and the Bifrost

Beneath a thin facsimile of eloquence, a sea of blood begins to pool.

Just how deep is the ocean of revenge?
Francis Broduer was a man defined by a singular sort of dedication;
unfortunately for most, fatal for a few, that dedication would eventually be
set upon his own spiteful notion of ‘vengeance’. Born in a town whose name
he had long since forgotten somewhere in the American Midwest, Francis
quickly came to the conclusion that he wanted more from life than what his
surroundings could give. Setting his sights on higher education he poured
himself into the study of finance. His grades were far from noteworthy but
through a sustained campaign of professorial ass-kissing and the sabotage of
several gifted peers Francis found himself being offered an internship with
the Seattle-based C&T Accounting. And it was there he would spend over a
decade honing his craft and climbing the corporate ladder all while
embezzling a king's ransom from the firm's clientele. Parties awash in drugs
and alcohol, caustic rivalries with coworkers, and the intoxicating proximity
to power defined Francis’ early life (and left him a high functioning substance
abuser). This period would not last forever, coming to a swift close after a
chance encounter with what would later be revealed as Anna Rooker that
saddled him with a fifteen year stay in federal prison without the chance for
parole. It was in prison that he became the man most would come to
recognize during the events of 2001 and onwards. Within the walls of the
SeaTac detention center, he dedicated himself to exacting revenge upon those
responsible for his downfall and suffered a brutal physical assault that led to
his mythical awakening. During his final years, Francis would wield a
menagerie of powers, many of which he only half understood before the
convolutions of the mist and his own broken soul spirited them away;
inexplicable disguises, causality alteration, blackmail gathering, and yet more
besides were levelled against any who drew his ire. Growing more
despondent as the days drew on, he eventually came to contract with his
apocalyptic companion Vic and the teleportation adjacent Bifrost. Woe unto
any who ran afoul of him in those final days.

25
 Epilogue

The late Mr. Broduer died a short time after the conclusion of Seattle's 2003
mayoral debate. His final words were a quote from the man who would see
him to his grave, “Fool that I am, that I did not tear my heart out the day I
resolved to revenge myself”. And it was somewhere on the Mediterranean
coast, a few months after the conclusion of events in Seattle, that things
would begin again in earnest. Thinly veiled talk of extortion from a
complaining shopkeep, murmurings of some great shakeup in the local
criminal underground, the sudden disappearance of a prostitute at a brothel
he fancied, it proved too much. The Count tried to honour Francis’ wishes,
tried to hold true to his own fantastical narrative, but this new life seemed
bound to a cycle of cruel desire well out of his control. So, he did something
his erstwhile headmate would never do. He applied lessons learned from the
P.L.U. His own vengeance complete, the Count set his sights on a more
communal sort of get-back. First, it was the prostitute, Eva, saved from a
torturous death and taught the finer arts of dissecting men with buckshot.
The second was a homeless boy they found half-starved in a Parisian back
alley. Unrelated, some weeks later a prominent local bureaucrat walked into
the Paris Police Prefecture to confess a litany of crimes before biting through
their tongue and bleeding out in the lobby. So it goes, their cadre ever
swelling in a world that cannot help but create broken, vengeful people.
And who is to stop them? Since his departure from Seattle the Count
has never appeared as the same person twice, a luxury he extends to his new
team. They appear without notice and vanish without a trace, their crimes are
written off as suicide, happenstance, or just poor luck. There is only one
thing that could prove bothersome to his band of moral auditors, but as best
his intel can gather that thing seems perfectly content managing its own little
corner of the Pacific Northwest.
 J.P. “The Fossa”
Vlad the Impaler
Accompanied by: Kane

A moniker dripping with the pursuit of power—

The Fossa demands blood.

27
Born and raised in the slums of Seattle, J.P. had been surrounded by gangs
and violence for as long as he could remember—so it only seemed natural
that he should involve himself with one as well. The Exemplaries were
among the least morally dubious lot in Seattle, primarily making their money
off of protection rackets and drug peddling. J.P. wasn’t the type to be on the
front lines of these things, however. He was a quieter, more subdued sort
who used a talent with numbers to assist his boss and good friend in the day-
to-day operations of their illicit businesses. Yet while many took notice of his
cushy position he couldn’t help envying the people who took point for the
gang. To be glorified by the gang was to be proven tough, to be proven tough
was to see combat and J.P. yearned for the sort of worthiness he saw in his
peers. So he started taking point on some of the gangs’ activities. That’s
where it found him:
His need seemed to call to it, it’s unknown who left it lying in that alley,
or if anyone did, but what happened next is known to almost every awake
denizen of Seattle. It was the Bloodletter, and it had chosen him. He woke up
to his Mythos of Vlad the Impaler at that moment as well but, more
importantly, he finally had the means to be exactly who he’d always wanted to
be. The more he fought, the better he seemed to get at it and the more the
sword seemed to thirst for more. He was ever eager to answer its call, and so
The Fossa was born.
So little else mattered before long in the pursuit of pure destructive
power, allies came and went as people demonized him and asked to procure
his services continually and yet one thing remained consistent: His love of the
fight. He became addicted to the rush, the increasing bombast, the feeling of
power he lorded over others, and of course the ever-increasing legend of the
world’s most infamous terrorist, The Fossa. A name he carried with pride
until the day his sins caught up with him.
 Epilogue

When that day came, J.P. was stripped of his powers. To the members of the
P.L.U., killing him seemed unjust—not due to the nature of execution, but to
the debt he inherently owed the world after causing it so much pain. After a
brief vote, his life was spared. His sword taken, his memory wiped, and all
traces of The Fossa stripped from him—J.P. was sent to serve the
Gatekeepers. The trial of J.P. proved to be the first of many for the P.L.U.,
but the outcome set the precedent for what the group stood for, right up
until the end.
After Evette oversaw his training, J.P. was posted in Glasgow, Scotland.
He was told that he’d asked to have his memory wiped to better see to his
duties. While he did thoroughly doubt that, he found that he was ideally
suited to Gatekeeper life. Danger was everywhere, the path to further power
was obvious as his career progressed, and he operated under a veil of secrecy
that largely freed him of the consequences of his actions. He was known as a
bit of a maverick in the field, working best when on his own with a team for
backup if need be. He never did quite make it to the SEALS because of this,
but he did become a much sought-after bodyguard for investigative teams
looking into dangerous situations.

29
 Phil
Janus

When one door closes, when you need a drink, when you need some company,
When you need a purpose:
Another One Opens

The god of transitions had been convinced his adventuring life was over.
Perhaps he’d simply been waiting for the want to come calling to him yet again.
Phil is the somewhat mysterious and heavily enigmatic proprietor of Another
One Opens, though he also spent a great deal of time overseeing movement
in the guerilla war against Anna. Phil was in most respects the perfect
bartender, friendly and caring to a fault even when his customers had proven
especially unworthy of his support and care. How exactly Phil came to own
his bar is a great mystery to all but a select few, though it is widely known that
he is bound to remain outside of Seattle after stirring up some great variety of
shit-storm lost to legend. Somewhere within this legend, Phil came to upset
the wrong people and was forced to sign a magic contract stating that he
could never step foot in Seattle again. Phil’s primary power was the ability to
have any door open up to any other door across the world, allowing
immediate transportation across the whole globe, or at least the parts that
have doors. When he wasn’t transporting people between doorways he was
working as the heart and soul of the P.L.U. Phil managed to befriend almost
everyone present and cement his place as the dad of the group — or at least
the cool uncle that gets you alcohol.

31
 Epilogue

Phil’s life after the debate looked remarkably similar to his life before
everything began. Although this time he was on a boat. Phil was the first stop
for everyone else inducted into the P.L.U., the guardian, guiding light, and
barkeep for every confused Rift discovering what they are. The work rang a
tad hollow for Phil, he had far surpassed the role of just a bartender yet he
found himself at a point where everyone could easily operate without him,
but he had nowhere else worth going. He started taking more personal time
as the months dragged on. He would generally disappear for weeks at a time,
backpacking through the world on foot, to better experience the globe in all its
splendour.
Phil’s life turned upside down the moment Michael presented the old
contract to him; after about a month of gallivanting through the menagerie of
Seattle’s dive bars, night clubs, and seedy places, Phil came back to work with
more conviction than ever before. Phil is generally considered the most
vigilant member of the P.L.U., working tirelessly with S.I.N.N. to sniff out
any untoward activity in Seattle: he primarily takes action against the
influence of avatars, both on the council and otherwise, though he’s been
known to oppose Gatekeepers, Rifts, and sleepers the moment they begin to
prey on the people of Seattle. It is a pet project of Phil’s to search for his
strangest acquaintance, though his reason for doing so remains unclear even
to him. He seldom makes headway, the best he’s ever found being the sudden
transfer of large sums of money to those wrongfully hurt throughout the
globe. While one would expect him to grow incredibly frustrated in his search
being so endlessly fruitless, Phil seems to take great joy in being so
continually confounded and can oftentimes be heard giving off a loud and
hearty laugh whenever a lead vanishes into thin air, sometimes literally.
 David Nguyen
Sha Wujing (Formerly)
Accompanied by: Zeus (Formerly)

Brand new eyes bring new understanding. The world turns back—confusing and infinite.
Beyond all possibilities. Shrouded in Mist. No longer.

It All Makes Sense Now!

Once per session pick a danger that Nguyen is capable of perceiving (both its
presence and capabilities). Once a danger is chosen, you learn all of its
interrupt moves and ONE status spectrum instantly.

Finally filled with power all his own,

Nguyen finds himself becoming more than a keen eye.

33
A family man with a wife and teenage daughter, a stable career in the Seattle
police department, Nguyen was in a comfortable place prior to the events of
Scopophobia. But that’s exactly where he did not want to be; he always
wanted to be more than just a cop, just a husband, just a dad. One day it
changed, and he found Zeus. The handgun woke him up, shot lightning,
summoned storms, and showed Nguyen a whole new world. It wasn’t long
before his ambition resulted in him getting intertwined with Michael and
eventually the P.L.U., and being so new to the life of a Rift he often looked
to Michael for advice. Eventually, Nguyen awakened to his own Mythos. The
ability to shapeshift and expertly read situations gave the word freedom a new
meaning. But that freedom came at the cost of the things he held closest: a
wife that could not understand and a daughter that was put in mortal danger.
His life as a Rift was always punctuated by the mundane things he enjoyed,
like barbecuing and baseball, and these interests were often shared with the
other members of the P.L.U., especially Francis. Nguyen stood as a constant
reminder of what was really important, beyond all the magic and politics.
 Epilogue

Nguyen asked to be put to sleep about a week after the debate. He had made
it clear he wanted no farewell party or other sorts of grand gesture, everyone
was already far too tired for that. The affair was handled by Michael, with
Evette supervising and assisting by filling some blanks the mist might leave
open.
Soon after Nguyen’s wife and child went on to enjoy his full and
undivided attention and enjoyed a number of vacations. Though it didn’t
prove to be the panacea he was hoping for and their relationship never did
fully recover, while his efforts were genuine and well-received they also
permeated with Nguyen’s own lingering sense of a failure he didn’t quite
understand. He was eventually offered his position back within Seattle PD-
though he declined in favour of focusing on his other responsibilities. He was
quoted as saying that he “had more than enough on his plate”. While he’d
learned to temper his ambition he never did get over that ache in his chest
from his old baseball days, that constant ache that reminded him he needed
to be more than he was. Though occasionally he’d sit with his old comrade
Michael and, in seeing the unending degrees of weariness on him, that ache
would inexplicably turn to relief. He continued being the editor for S.I.N.N.
What he lacked in journalistic knowledge was always made up for thrice over
by the ease in which his peers were able to bounce ideas off of him;
something he steadily learned was by far his greatest talent. His attendance to
social events steadily faded; in part due to the mental gymnastics needed to
explain to him why he was on a boat and in part due to a steadfast
commitment of Nguyen’s to stop spending all of his time in a bar. Despite
his lack of attendance, he was always felt in presence: be it due to a carefree
attitude many inherited from him, the knowledge that he was a friend for life,
or the weight of a certain gift felt in Phil’s holster.

35
 Jimmy Tinkertop
An Unassuming Imp
Accompanied by: West’s old sniper rifle (Sometimes)

The man who wants for nothing has no masters. With nothing to bind us, what is there to forbid total
dissolution?

Anarchist Wallflower
Once per session, Jimmy is able to cancel a move made by the MC, if Jimmy
could reasonably accomplish this feat.

In a city brimming with power both great and terrible,

you could be forgiven for paying Jimmy no mind.
You wouldn’t be the first to make that mistake.
Jimmy had been Michael’s friend for a very, very long time. No one knows
how they met or why they remained friends, including the two of them.
Jimmy never wanted for much and took to following Michael around. It was
only natural that when Michael got involved in the events of Scopophobia,
Jimmy was right there with him. Jimmy always had more going on than it
seemed; be it pranks, plans, or powers, Jimmy always had a knack for
catching people off guard and doing the unexpected. Despite his impish
nature, when things got bad Jimmy was always there to help in whatever way
he could. He could be kind and compassionate, but he would never let
anybody know that. Jimmy could also throw a bit of fire, and that was cool!
He could also teleport moderate distances at will, and if he was trying really
hard could take someone with him. So, how do you stop someone who will
teleport behind you, tie your shoelaces together, and teleport away while
snickering to himself before you even get a look at his unassuming face? The
short answer is you don’t. And you definitely don’t play hide and seek with
him.

37
 Epilogue

Jimmy had never had many aspirations prior to joining the P.L.U. and after
gaining a fortune and defeating Big Brother he had even less. The first thing
he did was take some time off, but he wasn’t the type to simply lounge in the
Caribbean. He purchased a Volkswagen bus and sought to experience the
vast American landscape. This lasted about three weeks before he realized
that it was mostly deserts, and that he hated driving. He couldn’t be a nomad
since he apparently hated that, he couldn’t just fall in line with daily life like
the others since he was too damn restless, and he wasn’t the type to
undertake another grand adventure since the last one kind of sucked. So what
to do? For Jimmy the answer was twofold.
The folks in Seattle were eager to get away from the events of the war
against Anna, and while he understood that it seemed a bit antithetical to the
goals of the P.L.U. It started simple, about 4 months following Anna’s trial
he started planning a birthday party to get everyone back onto the boat, then
he lied about some good gift ideas Phil probably wanted then he laughed and
watched as his silly little pawns collaborated and reconnected in the name of
a birthday that he’d simply made up. The party itself proved remarkably
successful though, and Jimmy had been careful enough about seeding word
through the grapevine that nobody knew it all started with him. Then he got
everyone to help him spray paint some buildings but that was remarkably
straightforward. Managing folks helped quench his strange form of
restlessness but it wasn’t ever going to be completely sated, that’s where
Michael came in. Michael had been using Jimmy’s power set to his advantage
for as long as Jimmy had been awake. Jimmy didn’t mind it, quite the
opposite in fact, he adored the direction. As time wore on with their work
Jimmy began to enjoy the impact it was having on the city, he seemed to love
watching as some random hoodlum anarchist shook the power structures of
Seattle to their core, or at least as much as he could without making Michaels
life harder. For all those entering Seattle, they rarely have to go far before
they hear some tale of a legendary prank pulled on the powers that be in the
city or, for those more mystically inclined, a tale of some powerful Rift
finding themselves unable to go toe to toe with the most unassuming of
figures in the city, some shifty-looking punk in a hoodie. Jimmy for one
seems to enjoy the strange role he fills, unknown and unseen, heard of but
never heard. It was empowering to be such a quiet force of destruction—
Seattle’s own anarchist wallflower.
 Paige Folliero
Baphomet

Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom.

Both are idealist; a passing fantasy.
Yet we will pursue them nonetheless.

By Pen and by Sword

When taking a downtime one member of the crew may take an additional
option from the downtime list, while the other may take a free P.L.U. help
point. This represents the P.L.U.’s actions during the downtime (as
guided/advised upon by Paige).

To find oneself bereft of boundary and law is to find oneself on the precipice of chaos. But, where there are
bounds there must also be leniencies. For every punishment levied there should also be a mercy considered.
Balance is key to staving off entropy. Change must come.

39
Paige was a regular at Another One Opens, and a common name thrown
around for those in need of a contract — the kind you’re not able to break.
Due to her reputation, she was fairly well known around the city before the
events of Scopophobia. Paige's main assets to the cause were her contracts;
binding agreements that could not be broken without severe repercussion,
her diplomatic ability, and when diplomacy failed a large floating claymore
and the ability to shroud herself in shadow, though with her as a mediator it
was not often that diplomacy failed. She had always been a bit of a task-
master, the type for grand machinations and idealism, so it was only a matter
of time before she fell in step with Phil and Michael. In fact, Paige was
instrumental in both the conception and the execution of the day-to-day
operations of the P.L.U., and the group was in no small part held together
because of her. Paige always had her head in the clouds but her feet firmly
planted on the ground, forever issuing sound advice and a measured
approach to everything that came her way. She became remarkably close to
Morgan and Jimmy, the go-to for anyone needing a partner, and ended up
romantically involved with Michael. Even amongst the P.L.U.'s more eclectic
members she quickly became an example of what the P.L.U. could be.
 Epilogue

Paige had considered her goals larger than Anna for a long time, but once the
trial was over putting them into motion proved complicated. They had just
fought a long, painful war. The P.L.U. was tired, not least of all her.
She feared taking a couple of months for herself, she lost years to simply
living with ease and comfort before now. This was different though, she
finally had momentum and motivation to do what was actually important to
her. Yet she wasn’t a machine, and a stress-free night of indulging in comfort
called to her like nicotine to an addict. One night turned to another, and
another after that until a month passed in the blink of an eye. She’d never
been able to have a good work-life balance, but perhaps she could become
used to it functioning more like a pendulum. She started getting a bit more of
her drive back thanks to Michael’s occasional visits to bounce ideas off of her
for whatever that week’s crisis was, but drive only did so much.
After the P.L.U. was reconnected, Paige’s pendulum swung back the
other way. Immediately it was a matter of managing the state of Seattle.
Evette and Michael were quick to mobilize against any avatars that might be
interested in filling the power vacuum Anna left behind but a great many
street-level Rifts also noticed the shift. The Middlemen were quickly without
a power structure and most groups were very quick to notice. Paige got
involved immediately. She was careful to manage the situation without
needing to resort to violence, placing careful support behind other groups
and levying the P.L.U.’s reputation and allies to carve up the territory into
mostly fair chunks. She couldn’t ever get rid of gang violence completely. She
did very much enjoy having the sway to arbitrate a gang war out of possibility
though. It was a small victory, of course, the lower class of Seattle was far
from her ultimate goal, but it was a victory nonetheless. She really believed it
was possible now; her dream of a reliable sense of justice for People Like
Her, so long as reliable groups like the P.L.U. could exist. She still had a hard
time defining what exactly justice for People Like Her looked like but as time
went on she recognized more and more what it didn’t look like. She knew her
goal was absurd in scope and amorphous exactly in its form but it was
happening right in Seattle, a little bit at a time people seemed to feel steadily
safer. She knew that to create a group might only take a couple of hours, a
house might take a few months, but to create a lasting feeling? That would
probably be longer than she’d ever be able to live for. Yet she loved every
second of it.

41
 Benjamin “Dis” Jarvis
Icarus
Accompanied by: Knowledge of the Eldritch

Amongst the melancholic and the apathetic, but one retina his amour propre;
Perhaps his greatest strength, perhaps his folly.
An example to follow regardless.

Of Cold Sweetness and Wicked Strings

Once per session (assuming he can accurately perceive the situation) you may
use Dis’ skills with riddles, puzzles, traps, construction, etc. to gain a clue that
can be used to ask about an enemy’s preparation or plans. Once this has been
used it cannot be used again until the scenario has changed.

The prodigal son has returned home to sort through what legacy remains to him.
Perhaps his newfound kindred will facilitate an ascent to heights unknown.
Benjamin’s story began shortly after his father’s ended. Following his father’s
disappearance, Ben began pouring through old notes and retracing steps to
figure out exactly what his dad was doing before he disappeared. The search
led to him spending a night sleeping in the abandoned shell of C&T
Accounting where he awoke with newfound knowledge of who he was and
what he had to do. It seemed only right at that time to abandon his old name
in favour of something new, he went with Dis.
For the first third of Scopophobia Dis was mainly seen in leading
Cthulhu’s cult and rivalling J.P., though the two soon became allies and
worked together to revive Cthulhu. He was largely a strange untrustworthy
ally until shortly after Cabeza when Michael eventually managed to sit down
with Dis and learn his motivations for all his actions. He learned how Dis
sought to get Abir out and lock Cthulhu back beneath the earth in an
admitted overestimation of himself and his abilities. Nonetheless,
circumstance landed him as an ally of the main cast, and thus he remained.
He eventually went on to aid the P.L.U. as one of its main members, ever
eager to aid with his cold disposition and analytical skills, all the while trying
to cope with the strange legacy left to him by his father.

43
 Epilogue

Ben had been on a strange journey after he formed his cult every other turn
in his life seemed to happen largely by happenstance. For the past decade or
so he had followed each new opportunity life had given him and now he was
in a place with no new villain, no pressing cause, and no need for him to
really take action. If he wanted he could absolutely coast for the rest of his
life on the fortune left to him by Francis. Yet he knew that sort of comfort
wouldn’t appeal to him for long. So he relied on one of his great motivators,
curiosity. What exactly was the Mist? His first order of business was in changing
his name; he had shed the life of a narcissistic cult leader long ago. Next was
reconciliation and rebuilding. Seattle was a lot to manage, and while Paige was
extremely competent in working with P.L.U. members to coordinate for the
good of all she also couldn’t do it entirely alone and Ben proved a perfectly
competent second in command. He also had a sort of pet project during this
time. His father’s company was in shambles, both financially and ethically. He
used his cash and what sway he had in the company to demand a complete
restructuring. Weeding out all the corrupt and unethical members of their
staff proved remarkably simple with the help of Alyssa and the P.L.U. Once
he had rebuilt what was important to him he started tracking down leads on
what he was really looking for. Evette pointed him to her C.O. who pointed
him to hers who in turn pointed him to Hush. Getting the man to speak with
him was possibly the most difficult task he had ever taken, but he did learn
that the only person who’d have answers even remotely insightful would be
nobody less than Richard Hughes. So Ben set out for Hughes’ primary base
of operations in New York City. He couldn’t trust that he’d find answers but
it felt good to search for knowledge solely for its own sake.
 Morgan Awbrey
Morgan le Fay
Accompanied by: The Wayward Sisters

Faith is a fickle thing—Possessed by only the hopeful and the foolish.

And yet the faithless despair, with no hope to sharpen their swords.

Refuse to be Ignored
Once per session Morgan can allow a person to ignore a status being applied
to a roll. This can be applied to any status regardless of the target. It can also
be used on face danger rolls or when burning a tag. In the case of a tier 6
status, it will only function for the duration of the session in which it
occurred, allowing for actions to be taken before the tier 6 reasserts itself.

A queen is not meant to sit idle in the background while small folk run amok.
With a willful mind and a spiteful sneer does Morgan thrust herself to the fore.

45
Morgan shared a Mythos with her sisters and, being relatively young, was
somewhat removed from the world of Rifts; though it did not stop her from
being entrepreneurial. Setting up a small shop where she sold charm bags
with various blessings and curses, she had lived somewhat comfortably; until
J.P. entered her life. Being friends with the world's most well-known criminal
brought her into contact with the other members of the net-yet-formed
P.L.U. for various reasons, mostly revolving around business. Morgan was
the go-to for any sort of spiritual protection or edge one could have needed.
Small curses that could make one paranoid enough to burn down their house,
an extra hand in healing, or a little bit of divination; if you needed it there was
some blend of wiccanry she and her sisters could employ. Throughout the
events of Scopophobia, Morgan had often found that the faith she placed in
others was somewhat misguided: be it in Sam, who died before seeing his
mark on the world, J.P., who cared only for power, or Francis, who cared
deeply for her but could not change. Eventually, this led to her waking up to
a Mythos all her own. Her already versatile nature expanded to include
shapeshifting and other fay-magic, and for the first time, her faith was put
firmly in herself rather than someone else.
 Epilogue

Since she had woken to a Mythos of her own Morgan had wanted for
nothing more than to wipe her slate clean, to restart her life as her own
person unbound by her previous failures without relying on her companions
in the ways that she had done before; but now her sister was dead, the slate
was forever stained.
Megan’s funeral was a quiet affair; her death wasn’t news to many of the
people there after all. Her body was lowered into a lovely plot outside their
hometown in Oregon, and Morgan tried to explain to her parents how their
daughter had died despite them lacking the ability to comprehend it. There’s a
certain rage that comes with that variety of powerlessness and Morgan had
decided she wasn’t the type to wallow in her failings. She thought maybe
she’d follow the original plan, track down Anna and kill her. Yet Anna was
dead in any way that mattered, not enough to sate her need for absolution but
also dead enough that further action would be meaningless. So instead she
picked the far harder option, she decided to move on.
Morgan spent the next while in a sort of flux state. On one hand, she
wanted nothing more than to be left alone, to spend her time growing her
new home of Avalon into something even more marvellous than it had
appeared even before she found it. Yet there were two reasons why she
wasn’t able to simply lock herself away: First is that she is likely the greatest
socialite of the group, and once Jimmy reconnected everyone after the trial,
she had difficulty bringing herself to separate from the others. She eventually
became the first to suggest activities: when people are spending the night at a
club it’s likely because of Morgan—when they are having a potluck it’s likely
her, and when they spray paint a dong across a whole building it’s usually
Jimmy (though she often helps supply the paint).
The second is that she’s among the most versatile of the group. Her
abilities of healing, enchantment, disenchantment, shapeshifting, etc. mean
that she’s oftentimes the first person called upon when there’s work that
needs to be done, and given the economic and political situation in Seattle
there's always work to be done. She rejoices in this role, where once she had
relied on Sam, J.P., and Francis for guidance in her own uncertainty she now
guides others. It seemed sort of beautiful to her; after all, a queen is not
meant to sit idle in the background while small folk run amok.

47
 Sam Woodrow
Prometheus

The martyr rarely bears witness to the legacy they leave behind.
With a glint in the eye and hope in the heart, he saw—and he made his peace.
We should all be so lucky; to see the wake we leave.

One moment in the course of time is as a drop of rain to an ocean.

Nobody knows how much of the ocean Sam saw, they only know it was enough for him in the end.
The life of one who can see the future will never want for a bitter end. In the
earliest days Sam Woodrow worked tirelessly laying the foundation from
which the P.L.U. would grow, making connections and fostering bonds in
service of Seattle's future. He was a guide, both literally and metaphorically, to
any who needed it, and a man who could throw fireballs when the guiding
wasn’t enough. And so it went for Sam, a life spent believing in the best of
people to try and foster a better community. Few could ever truly know if he
saw his demise coming, though one has to imagine with his powers that he did.
Sam would never get to experience the fruits of his many labours; never get to
see his friends and their city free from violence. But to any that knew him well
this was no cause for grief. He died fighting, with friends at his side, believing
in the possibility of something better.

49
 Epilogue
Sam’s funeral occurred about 6 months after Anna’s trial. Phil contacted
Sam’s family and sought to make preparations. Sam was originally from L.A.
and getting a plot of land to conduct a burial out there was absurdly
expensive. Luckily cash proved to not be an issue.
Most plots near L.A. were private, owned by wealthy families for their
exclusive use, but paying for a plot in the state was considered good enough.
Sam’s family was told that his death was the cause of gang violence; it was
close enough to the truth. Everybody in the P.L.U. was in attendance. A
small number of friends from his high school days joined as well but most
surprising was those Sam had helped. Phoebe had spread some word through
Seattle that he had died, which led to a great many people looking into how
they could attend. Most didn’t understand why they were in attendance until
it came time for people to say a few words.
It was clear that most of the people there had a story to tell, and about
an hour was dedicated to many of the people he’d helped do just that. They
told of losing loved ones and falling into grief, or of joining a gang after their
lives went under, or of being stopped right before they started a fight over
something petty. Even those who didn’t know a lot about him knew him for
his core, they knew of his kind soul. It helped alleviate the fatigue felt by
some members of the P.L.U. due to this only being one of the three funerals
they had to arrange.
He was buried with a pin laid beside him in his casket, and with flowers
adorning the plot. One bouquet stood out, sent in with no calling card or
listed name but clearly meant for the proceedings. Phil, in particular, found
this strange, though he began to put it together when it came time to pay the
bills for the funeral and found it taken care of, with a healthy tip to boot.
 Evette Zillier
Gatekeeper Liaison

Even the deepest of fogs wane; perhaps our restraints are more comfortable
When we are the ones to bind them.

Drastic Times
During a session, you may draw from a pool of 3 juice that can be used to
generate a thin mist or thick mist status that lasts a scene. For every move a PC
makes in the scene the status decreases by 1 (note this affects dangers as
well).

Immersed in a world of petty politics and choking bureaucracy, Evette comes to understand the joy of those
unbound. Perhaps she too has begun to chafe at what binds her.

51
Evette entered the series as a Gatekeeper liaison to the P.L.U. after they had
made enough of a scene in the city to warrant the attention of the
Gatekeepers. She was meant to be someone to keep the members of the
P.L.U. in check, an informant of the Gatekeepers, and a point of contact for
the P.L.U. into Gatekeeper activities. Slowly, she evolved an understanding
with the members of the P.L.U. and finally into a sense of belonging. Evette
always was and will yet remain a Gatekeeper, but she also became a voice of
reason for the P.L.U., an advocate for their goals against Big Brother, and a
close friend to many of the P.L.U. members. Due to her origins, her role
typically consisted of manipulating the Mist, acting as a liaison between the
Rifts of the P.L.U. and the Gatekeepers, and on a few occasions wielding the
Mythos of Revolutionary Catalonia. During the events of the series she
became especially close with Francis, a reliable advocate for Michael when he
decided to pursue a future in the Gatekeepers, and one of the most
emotionally intelligent members of the P.L.U.
 Epilogue
The P.L.U.’s resident Gatekeeper was torn between a variety of states
following Anna’s trial. For one thing, the mission was successful. Anna was
dealt with, nobody had died, and Michael’s goal of minimizing the avatar
influence in Seattle helped settle many of the Gatekeeper's concerns
surrounding the forming power vacuum. Yet under her eye, the P.L.U. had
also failed in its single most important goal—they had created a whole new
avatar. It was unknown how big a problem this new threat would be but the
difficulty of tracing his actions meant it was likely that nobody would ever
truly know. Both Evette and command held her responsible for Francis’ turn
and it was only because of a hard-earned reputation that the P.L.U. was able
to keep operating within the Gatekeeper’s good graces at all.
Evette soon became a rock star in the Gatekeeper community, she
would travel from city to city holding conferences for those interested in how
best to serve as a handler for Rifts, though she cautioned that dealing with
more than one was an exercise in insanity. Despite her new prestige she still
serves as the P.L.U.’s liaison, allowing for communication and aid to be
requested between them and the Gatekeepers, though now the group finds
itself with far more sway than prior. Largely though, she works as Michael’s
partner, using tact and broader mist talents to make up for his lack in both.
While she does still have trouble in well and truly bonding with the
P.L.U. she has found that her social life got much more active both when
Michael became a Gatekeeper and when Phil became able to enter Seattle,
bonding with the former through their shared brand of awkwardness and the
latter with shared tiredness and interest in avatar politics. The two have even
been invited to Evette’s favourite place in town, a nice cigar club on the edge
of town. When she goes to that club she often struggles with what to order
and when questioned on it responds with “The usual kind of lost its charm.
Though she still does enjoy her old favourite it’s now for rare occasions.
Reserved for quiet nights when her guitar doesn’t call to her, when her work
isn’t quite as pressing, or just when the tiredness in the back of her eyes can’t
be sated by a simple cigarette. On those sorts of nights she pours herself a
glass of whiskey from a bottle kept alone on her mantle, she lights a cigar and
she wonders about what she could’ve done a bit differently.

53
 Jake “El Lisiado” Cortez
Grendel

When life gives you lemons—lemonade.

When life takes your right, you give it your left.
And you give it as hard as you can.

A known stoic need not say much.

The body can often do the talking, and for El Lisiado it often speaks to say
‘If having my arm torn from me couldn’t put me down, what makes you think you can?’
Words need not be wasted.
Jake was raised and adopted by a kindly older woman whose Mythos secretly
drew her into gathering people like Jake together. He and his siblings were all
Rifts, trolls to be specific, and stuck in a tough neighbourhood that was
already prone to gang violence, so they seized the opportunity. It wasn’t a
choice born out of greed per se, rather all the Cortez children simply stuck
together in school out of protection, and when they graduated took to doing
the same thing in the streets. They pushed other gangs out with ease, their
powers ensuring they could carve a piece of the city out for themselves, all
with Jake at the head. Such things rarely last forever though, the Middlemen
were seizing territory rapidly throughout Seattle, and next they had their
sights on the Cortez gang. The group was grossly outmatched so Jake decided
it was probably best to end things as quickly as possible. He challenged The
Swede to single combat and he accepted, and the winner took permanent
control of Cortez territory.
The fight was one-sided in the extreme, Jake thought himself clever
for bringing brass knuckles but upon seeing the clearly magical sword taken
up in response he realized he wasn’t just dealing with another sleeper. Jake
lost his arm, his pride, and his place in the world that day. So he looked to the
only place he thought could actually help, Phil. Luckily Phil was in need of
reliable staff and especially a reliable head of security. Anyone else would’ve
learned to despise the event, they’d deny the trauma of losing an arm to retain
what pride was left but Jake was different. If he was going to be crippled like
that he was going to own it. So it was that Another One Opens didn’t just get
a bouncer, they got El Lisiado.

55
 Epilogue
El Lisiado's life had revolved around protecting his siblings for about as long
as he could remember, but now the future was finally looking up for him and
his. Many moved back to Seattle, spreading out and setting up throughout the
city. Before long El Lisiado was among the most connected people in the
city, his siblings involving themselves anywhere and everywhere they could.
Naturally, almost all of them were quick to leave Phil's service, all except for
himself.
He belonged here, whether he wanted to or not. Sometimes he’d see
himself in the mirror or feel a twinge of phantom pain and become painfully
aware of his lost arm, and then he’d think of the events that led to him losing
it. Living with guilt and rage was never easy, he’d known a man who ruined
himself doing that, but sometimes when he’d have time to think he’d wind up
following a similar path. What if we’d simply killed Leif? Well, his siblings
would be avenged, yes but what then? El Lisiado didn’t understand the details
but he did know that Leif’s appearance was a great asset during the debate
and if they’d lost that the election might’ve become a much bloodier, more
drawn-out affair, and that’s saying nothing of Abir. He thought of her a lot,
about how he never knew about what she’d done for Seattle.
Yet there was little he could do for her, instead, he did the only thing it
made sense to do. He enjoyed the city Abir, himself, and everyone he knew
had worked so hard far.
He knew he likely seemed awkward to those newer to the P.L.U.,
observing scenes with a blank expression from afar. He wasn’t the type to say
it, he wasn’t even the type to know how to express it, but he treasured the
atmosphere of those events and he felt like he added something through his
presence; though he had no clue what exactly that was. He thought it was a
strange tendency of his to fade away, go unnoticed and unappreciated but felt
in some way or another. His quiet unassuming demeanour wasn’t exactly a
secret to him, so when he showed up one day with a wedding ring he seemed
as surprised as everyone else.
He didn’t bring his partner to group events, not that he was averse to
people meeting them, he just preferred they have a separate social life, though
when questioned he proved surprisingly vocal about his partner. According
to El Lisiado, he had finally met someone who didn’t mind his abnormalities,
despised the complications of the world, and laughed at all his jokes. The last
point raised a few eyebrows among those listening.
 It was obvious for everyone what the next best move for him was.
Gwen Cortez was born on June 7th, 2004. El Lisiado had been called a great
many things in life and he made it a point of pride that he welcomed all of
them; his friends did know him as the cripple, after all. Yet being called dad
seemed to genuinely take the wind out of his sails.

57
 Sterling Gates
Aeolus’s Bag of Wind

The wind will carry you anywhere: Over Mountains, across vast oceans, and through great odysseys. But
it will never help you find your way.

To be with others at the bottom is to belong to the bottom.

Only now does Sterling find himself drifting far above the dilapidation he called home.
Only now does he see the person his experiences left him.
Only now does Stirling truly take control of his destiny.
Sterling’s had it rough for about as long as he can remember. Growing up in
the worst neighbourhood in Seattle meant that survival and gang membership
were close to synonymous: Sterling chose the Exemplaries. It seemed a good
idea at the time, the group was tightly knit, they weren’t the worst company
he could keep, and they only required him to do some driving for them.
Driving had been his passion for a long time, his powers granting him
unnatural skill with any vehicle. Sterling had always wanted to try his hand at
a more worthwhile life, despite not really knowing what that meant, but for
now, his current one was good enough. At least until the war started.
The Middlemen were spurred to action when J.P. murdered one of their
higher-ups to get the star-machine. It all went downhill after the war started,
for reasons they couldn’t understand, the Exemplaries were hopelessly
outmatched. Unfortunately Sterling was rarely one to recognize a sinking
ship. He followed along with his fellow Exemplaries to the bitter end. After
he wound up with the P.L.U., generally lacking a direct purpose due to his
skill set, he did manage to prove surprisingly useful during the showdown
with his old comrade J.P. when he piloted the Nemean Lion onto a sea mine.

59
 Epilogue

The former getaway driver of the Exemplaries, pilot of a mobile bar/guerilla

base, and now in part a victor over Big Brother. Yet somehow he wasn’t
really part of it all. By the end of Anna’s trial, Sterling was 19, almost everyone
he’d grown up with was in jail or dead (except his family), and he had now a
lot of money and no need to do much of anything. So what to do with the
most freedom he’s ever had? He built up the courage to finally ask out Griff.
She accepted but they agreed it was best to call it quits after about 3 months,
though it ended remarkably amicably.
Next, he went through a bit of a drug phase. He was smart enough to
stay away from anything that could ruin his life but he didn’t quite have the
drive to do anything but get high. He hated himself for it the whole way
through—not that he ever told anyone, but he knew that people had given up
so much for him, that he’d been through so much, and that at the end of it
he’d become nothing but ashamed. As he started to spiral, a team was formed
by Griff, Evette, and Phil to help him find purpose in life, albeit through trial
and error. He was open to trying anything. Maybe he felt like he had to be
something, like he owed it to the Exemplaries. Evette tried to get him into
music, Phil tried to get him into mixology and travel, but Griff was the first
to hit gold. She was simply talking about one of her classes when Sterling
noticed he was far more interested than expected. Turns out that Sterling had
a love of history, Mesopotamian and pre-colonial American history in
particular, and the more he heard about it the more he wanted to know. He
went about finishing high school, and he applied to study in the same
institution as his best friend, Griff.
He was the bag of wind, a gift given to Odysseus. He thought that
maybe to gift was in his nature, and what could be a more worthy gift than
knowledge. The plan was to be a teacher; he knew what it was like to grow up
in a shit neighbourhood where the teachers can’t be bothered to tell you how
to function as a human being. It hurt him to think about the number of times
some teacher may have simply pulled him aside and put him down a better
path. Maybe they could’ve done that for all the guys at one point or another.
Sterling had followed the wind where it led for a long time, first into the
middle of a gang war, then into following his friend and mentor J.P., then
into a guerilla war against fascism itself, but now he found himself both in
control and at the wheel. He is now the captain of his own ship.
 Griff Zhu

Maximilien Robespierre
Every Time we make sense of the word, every time we find answers, something changes.
There’s always something we’re missing.
Is it worth finding?

Griff discovered a truth within the self. Each and every new ambition prompting yet more questions, stoking
discovery contained both inwards and out.
A gospel first recoiled from, now accepted.

61
Becoming an adult is hard. Navigating that leap from rigid structure into total
freedom is no easy feat. But Griff Zhu managed it with grace; pursuing her
passion for journalism at the U of S, financing her post-high school life
working as a chauffeur, and living well with her family in a cozy Seattle suburb.
Unfortunately for Griff, this was Seattle in the early 2000s, and a mean old
drunk with a grudge happened to need someone in possession of a valid driver's
license and their sobriety. So began the rather harrowing practicum of Griff’s
university years where she, among other things: chauffeured a man to and from
magical crime, (unknowingly) ferried all manner of contraband around the
city, was woken up by force, was put to sleep without consent, worked as a
freelance journalist for S.I.N.N., was woken up again, and fought to bring
down the avatar of Big Brother. Griff never fully got the chance to explore her
powers throughout the series, but they first manifested as the ability to
summon guillotine blades at will. One can imagine, however, that her mythos
chose her because of her talent and eloquence in her profession, and chose her
to further hone those skills into something extraordinary.
 Epilogue

Griff was awake, she had been for a while but now more than that she was
painfully aware. Everyone else had seen the steady escalation in their war, but
Griff only saw the end and, in a way, it wisened her in a way it hadn’t for
others. She decided that attempting to shepherd any moderate amount of
People like Her was dangerous, scary, and not truly worth the risk but who is
more able to truly create change than the awake? Especially since most
sleepers won’t be able to observe what’s really wrong in the world. It was
frustrating, but she had seen the world as it was and was unwilling to look
away, however much it may weigh on her. It was clear that Seattle alone was
covered in Rift-related problems, and every solution, especially those meant
to help more than a few people, caused major upsets and more problems
overall. So she went with her gut, she decided to write about it.
Griff did one more year at the University of Seattle before she was
accepted by Princeton University. She didn’t know exactly how many of the
world’s problems were related to People Like Her but she did believe it was
too many, and that the sleepers deserved a chance to know who their villains
were. If she didn’t tell them then who would? It was possible no change
would come from her efforts but there was always a chance. Maybe people
would be able to wrest it back. Of course, her status as a Rift made this much
more troublesome to her, how much of her drive belonged to her, and how
much of it was her other half? It was in this struggle that she was able to
identify with the P.L.U. more as people and not as a collection of People Like
Her. She found a particularly kindred soul in Paige, the two sharing their
concerns over the broader scale philosophical implications of People Like
Them existing. She also grew weirdly close to Jimmy, his carefree attitude
proving a strange sort of vicarious escapism for her. Though her most
stalwart friend among the group remained her primary confidant and ex-
boyfriend Sterling; the two had rather different skills, outlooks, and
upbringings. Yet they were one and the same in spirit, youth brought too far
into a strange scary world of myth and mist before they even knew who they
were. She never did move past that talk the two had the day after Megan’s
death, where she expressed forlornness about her place in things. She wasn’t
able to feel like a part of the group, she may be a friend but she wasn’t a
comrade in arms like everyone else. She was certain that she’d never truly been
one of them, though part of her never stopped wanting to be and, somehow,
she thought that was ideal.

63
 Phoebe
Phebe

Loose lips sink ships—

But aren’t you the least bit curious where they’re sailing?

Where there’s intrigue there’s gossip, and where there’s gossip, there’s Phoebe with a bent ear to hear it all.
No need to worry. She’d never tell a soul, promise!
Phoebe was omnipresent during Scopophobia. As the avatar of Phebe, you
could find her, or at least a version of her, nearly everywhere something was
being talked about—including Another One Opens; although she did
sometimes prefer a quiet, quaint cafe in Italy. Phoebe was typically called
upon for favours, mostly to try and spread information in the form of the
spoken word, or as an information broker. Being able to hear nearly every
word spoken has its perks and Phoebe, never one to give something without
getting in return, leveraged her power to learn some admittedly mundane
things in exchange for some extravagant help.

Epilogue

The future held a great deal of promise for Phoebe, power was shifting,
pieces were moving, and there was no end of things to be discussed. She
became as much of a mainstay on the boat as she was in the prior bar though
she claimed to prefer the open ocean air to the windowless stank dive bar
smell. Phoebe was accosted quite frequently in the first couple of months
following the trial due to being the best hope on earth of actually finding
Francis. She claimed to be unable to track him through disguises though the
truth of this statement is dubious at best.
It’s said she spent the two years following the trial working on
uncovering her most widely sought-after secret yet. She spared no expense,
traded favours, and used extensive blackmail until finally; she approached
Phil with a large grin strewn across her face before calmly stating she finally
knew his country of origin and surname. Phil laughed and denied it, though
she seemed confident enough that she’d found the truth.
Occasionally someone will ask Phoebe what exactly she’d found when
she looked into Phil, on such occasions she simply chuckles to herself. If the
asker pushes the question she’s known to make eye contact, smile to herself,
get up, and leave the building.

65
 Leif Grierson
Beowulf

The vagrant had strength enough to move mountains by his lonesome.

His solitude became a sea of regrets.

Grim Resolve
Once a session roll + burnt power tags instead of + power

"When you see things go from bad to worse, again and again, you wait. You wait to be numb to it all, and for
the lucky ones, that’s true. For us though, we don’t get to throw our resolve away and let ourselves go numb. We
get back up and we rush in like we’re about to save the damn world; like every shitty thing is finally about to be
worth it. We cling to every little hope we can find and when it starts to get away from us we dig our hands,
bloody broken mangled things, back into that hope and drag it back to us.”
There is a lasting legend among the unscrupulous, the curious, and the
mystical of Seattle centring on a man only really known as The Swede. They
say he won a fight with the Fossa, threw himself off of a building and simply
got up and got back to it. A decently large amount of people in Seattle know
of The Swede but maybe a dozen know anything of Leif Grierson. It all
started when Leif endured the worst day of his life, the day he saved the
world. Leif had always been a vagabond, doing what he could to keep his
head down, his stomach full, and his feet moving to the next place.
Sometimes something would crop up, but between his godlike durability,
incredible strength, and ability to read his opponent it was rare that he found
himself something he couldn’t handle. Of course that all changed eventually.
He was recruited by Clancy Jarvis to help him defeat Cthulhu and he came to
finally find somewhere he didn’t want to leave behind — though he wasn’t
given much of a choice. At the end of their struggle, Clancy was dead, Simon
had run, Anna might as well have been dead, and Abir was enduring a fate far
worse than all of the above combined. So he did what he thought would set it
right, what he thought would remedy his past mistakes and keep others from
making them in future. Leif spent most of Scopophobia appearing
intermittently to aid Anna in her schemes, or to make sure the Middlemen he
led were operating well enough. That took a sudden change the first time that
Leif and Michael sat across from each other and simply talked. Michael got
Leif to speak of what he’d been through, why he believed in Anna’s cause
and maybe for the first time managed to see Leif for what he was: Loyal,
simple, and downtrodden after a decade of trying to fix his mistakes. Leif was
something of a continual thorn in the P.L.U.’s side during most of
Scopophobia though on the rare occasion that he worked with them they
found great use in levying the man’s Grim Resolve against their opponents.

67
 Epilogue

Leif spent a fair while scouring the city for Anna, all to no avail of course.
After he couldn’t find her following he was beckoned, yet again, by the
persistent Michael Mercer and brought up to speed. After the synopsis, he
simply bit his lip, looked away, nodded, and asked to be brought back to
Winnipeg. Of course, it had happened again, he’d been so into getting one of
them back, finally live as he did 13 years ago — at least a bit. But that was
always bullshit. He knew, deep down, that it wouldn’t ever be that easy.
The next two years proved a very different kind of tiring than the ten
years prior. To Gatekeeper command Leif was a tank, a warrior, and
expendable. He didn’t hate it as much as he thought he would though. The
people he worked with didn’t ostracize him for his past life; all of them knew
and empathized with why he was there. They probably would’ve done the
same to help one of their friends. Still. He wasn't one of them, there was
never a true camaraderie between Leif and his companions but at least there
was a great deal of appreciation. For two years he fought against horrors on
the front line, as an expendable soldier who nobody would truly miss. Yet he
persisted. He fought through beings from every pantheon known to earth,
went toe to toe with armies of indescribable things and after two years of this
service Richard Hughes kept his word and set about fixing Abir. The process
took him about 40 minutes.
Abir’s first moments of consciousness were strange, to say the least. In
his attempts to fix her mind Richard Hughes had decided the best fix was
simply to erase all of her memories following her entrapment within R’lyeh.
Leif recollected the events of the past 13 years or so to her as best as he
could.
Reportedly after hearing of her torture under the earth, of her former
comrades turn from humanity, and of the people who fought a god to get her
out she laughed. She let loose a deep, long-lasting, hearty laugh.
What else is one to do? One minute the world is dark and you have no
hope, the next it’s been 13 years. While she did apologize for the insensitive
outburst Leif didn’t mind, he didn’t miss her for her tact. He’d help her get
on her feet, whatever the fuck that was supposed to look like, and then he’d
head off. Hop a train to who-knows-where exactly. As soon as he hopped the
train he couldn’t help but have a sneaking suspicion that wherever he went
he’d wind up asleep before long.
He didn’t mind. He’d been tired since before he could remember.
 Anna Rooker
Big Brother

The Truth watches from afar.

The first death is in the heart.

In a world of myth and mysticism every layman holds a potential tyrant within. Anna has the solution, but
detractors rarely keep change from ever coming easy. Never let them dissuade you.
It takes a radical to change the world.

69
To those in the know, any reference to Anna Rooker comes with a few
caveats. Usually, they refer to her as One, largely because they never really
knew Anna as a person. As the living embodiment of Big Brother Anna
sought out what she believed the only solution to the danger posed by the
awakened folks of the world. Never letting them wake up in the first place.
She primarily did this through her abilities of surveillance through television
and cell phone screens, her ability to indoctrinate those made to listen to her
for too long, and her ability to change reality itself by speaking. While her
Mythos provided her with her goals and methods, there were still some
aspects of her that seemed human. She was naturally impish by nature,
generally performing most of her actions with a confident smirk. She was also
far more negotiable than her Mythos might imply, generally willing to sit and
speak if she was given enough reason to do so. The greatest divergence from
her Mythos however was undoubtedly her relationship with her best friend
Leif. He was generally the only thing on earth she well and truly cared about,
although she oftentimes treated him more like a prized possession than a
person.
Despite her incredible powers and the breadth of the organization
she controlled she was quite rarely able to meet the P.L.U. in open conflict
during the events of Scopophobia. She was generally forced to focus on her
ability to manipulate media and the general populace, or she would threaten
the group’s loved ones. She was never going to be able to match them in
sheer destructive force, but she did manage to put the group in a vice again
and again.
 Epilogue
The woman formerly known as Anna Rooker was in a rather unique place,
she was suddenly a woman without a past or a future. She had a scholarship,
a solid amount of funds, and the irrefutable knowledge that she had nowhere
to go back to. So she did what most first-year college students do. She wasted
a year of her life on ‘figuring some stuff out.
At first, she thought to follow her most obvious passion, she was a
literature nerd deep down and sought to add something to the medium she
enjoyed most, namely poetry. However, unlike most students, she didn’t
change her major due to looking at the job market or losing interest in the
subject. Instead, it was that she decided she had to get a degree in law and run
for government. The more she came to understand and view the world the
more she saw inadequacy and injustice in it. She saw a first world led astray
by a small group of individuals carefully using a tool she felt an intuitive
understanding of, propaganda. It felt right, to oppose those who’d take from
society ever from the shadows, very right indeed. Yet every time she felt this
hatred begin to consume her she’d find her other passions suddenly flare up
and distract her, keeping her grounded. She doesn’t know if she’ll get elected.
One does however hope that should she be elected, she extend to others the
same mercy and consideration she had been shown.
Anna never came close to ever remembering what she used to be, at
worst she only ever felt a twang of nausea she eventually recognized as guilt
and fear whenever she’d see a bystander garbed in beige. Though that was
never as strong as when she’d feel a sense of duty in hearing of the economic
crash she barely remembers.

71
 Secondary Cast

A sacrifice Made
A sacrifice Mourned
A sacrifice Undone

The secondary cast of Scopophobia includes individuals who were present

for a large portion of the campaign but were not considered to be members
of the P.L.U. or main antagonists, but still had a lasting impact on the series
and its characters.

“We are all responsible for the future of this city; and you will never truly feel like Seattle if all you do is stand
back and watch it rot.”
 Simon and Abir
The Sandman and The Phoenix
Simon and Abir were a part of the team that had trapped Cthulhu ten years
prior to the start of Scopophobia. During the event, Abir was trapped in the
city of R'lyeh along with Cthulhu. For most this would be death, for her it
meant eternal torture. After learning of her torment, the P.L.U. came up with
a plan to free her, and ultimately succeeded in their goal. Abir required a lot
of time and specialized mist-weaving to recover from her ordeal. Simon
survived the Cthulhu encounter and went on to live his life in relative secrecy.
After ten years, when Cthulhu was about to reawaken at the hands of Dis and
J.P., he made an appearance to stop it. He was briefly captured by Anna and
used for her plans before being freed by the P.L.U.

Epilogue

After Abir was restored and spent a couple of weeks getting acclimated with
Leif her situation started slowly dawning on her. Her leader had been dead
for a decade, her old rival had become an avatar and just had her mind wiped
for innumerable crimes, and her partner was quite clearly not going to stick
around long, though he never said so in quite as many words. That left her
old mentee, Simon. The first thing the two of them did was get therapy. For
both of them, the last decade had ruined them in a great multitude of ways.
The two opted to get far away from everything and start again
somewhere else. They settled on Britain. The two reunited in person about 72
hours before their flight, hugged, and didn’t speak to each other until they
landed in Britain. They were never the most talkative but they didn’t have to
be. Sometimes silence can be much more comforting than anything else.
Sometimes a comfortable sadness can be one hell of a relief. Simon would
never get over his betrayal and paranoia but he would eventually get a degree
of safety back. Abir in turn never felt at home in the modern age, it was hard
to recognize the world through the new lingo, fashion, and general vibe. But
she recognized Simon. She recognized him through all the trauma and years
he’d been through. It was good for both of them, a strangely uncomplicated
view of each other after so long. Of course, it wasn’t enough to help them
move on from the past decade or so, but it was more than they’d had in a
long time.

73
 Alyssa Soto
Reporter Extraordinaire

Originally a reporter for S.N.N., Soto held the role of covering the J.P. case
while watching in horror. During an FBI interview, she managed to catch
Michael off guard with a clever line of questioning. Through a series of
interviews, candid discussions, and clever banter, the two eventually
developed trust for one another. This led to her directly being headhunted by
Mercer after the conception of S.I.N.N. She was a crucial part of Kelly’s
political campaign and was the main point of contact between the P.L.U. and
the other sleepers of the city.
Epilogue

Alyssa enjoyed a great deal of success after Anna’s trial. S.N.N. would need
time to adapt now that they lacked their building and their shadowy leader.
Unsurprisingly Alyssa and the rest of the team at S.I.N.N. were quick to fill
the gap. They didn’t grow too much; it was important for them to stay a small
group free of politics or obligations. Alyssa also enjoyed a brief moment of
fame for a time. She had been the only person in Seattle to interview Mr.
Fantasy in the lead-up to the debate and, though she lacked a great deal of
insight, she did contribute to the intrigue around those strange events.
Despite her incredible wave of success her greatest achievement, at least in
her eyes, was the scholarship she set up bearing her brother’s name, Angel
Soto.
 Rose Hugh-Kiristev
Former wife of Kelly Hugh-Kiristev
Rose was the wife of Kelly Hugh-Kiristev. The two had long ago entered a
loveless marriage, simply working together to further their own separate
ambitions; although they were still quite close friends. It was a somewhat
strange relationship, one made all the stranger by the death and apparent
revival of her husband. For her entire appearance within Scopophobia Rose
was forced to contend with the strange changes her husband was going
through, the sudden strife her lifestyle was having to endure, and the strange
world she was only just now starting to peer into.

Epilogue

Rose had always been a simple woman, in fact, she prided herself on it. She
knew what she wanted in life and she had found the most uncomplicated way
to do it. Or at least that’s what she had thought. Now she had witnessed
something utterly and completely beyond her. She didn’t know what had
happened to her husband during his capture that had changed him so much;
she wasn’t even entirely sure what he’d changed into.
She wasn’t ready for it when the moment came to learn everything. It
was only human to her that when something so impossible stares you in the
face you run to what you know. Though running from such opportunities is
largely impossible, when you glimpse something truly beyond what you know
of the world then what you do know seems hollow in comparison. She didn’t
know if she regretted running away that day, but she did know that whatever
answers awaited her would never again be in her grasp.
She managed to achieve what she set out to, she had the money and the
skill to attain the position she wanted within Washington State University
where she enjoyed prestige, wealth, and indulgence in a world of academia
she did genuinely enjoy. Though she was never able to fully escape into her
career, her surname now carried a certain legend with it that everyone who
interacted with her understood. Mrs. Fantasy proved a particularly haunting
nickname. It seemed no matter where she went and what she did that she
would never be able to escape, both in her idle thoughts and in her life, that
strange period in her life when her spouse and confidant suddenly warped
into Mr. Fantasy.

75
 Ansh “Anne” Rubio
Kelly’s Campaign Manager
Ansh was Kelly’s campaign manager both before and after Kelly’s murder
and subsequent replacement at the Gala. She played a relatively major role on
the political stage organizing events for Kelly and is responsible for a portion
of the mundane aspects of the political race.

Epilogue

Anne’s memory during and after her capture is fuzzy at best. Afterwards,
Gatekeepers posing as more sleeper-friendly groups informed her she was
taken by Fossa sympathizers trying to get back at Kelly. She eventually got
back to work as the campaign manager of the now missing mayor of Seattle.
Ansh quickly became famous after the success of Kelly’s campaign and was
quickly inundated with potential job offers from all across America. Before
she could even think of accepting those she still had to manage all the
projects Kelly had undertaken before his disappearance. The college was
mostly done but she still appeared for the ribbon cutting to celebrate the
opening on Kelly’s behalf. The lawsuit didn’t quite pan out but it did help
Americans direct their rage towards the powers that be rather than the
immigrants and poor people these events are oftentimes pushed on. The
events of the trial did severely hurt her on a personal level though. The
kidnapping indicated a criminal interest in her that worried the officials
overseeing her custody battle. Luckily, however, the city was in the midst of a
financial crash, she was financially secure, and her ex was not. She went on to
write a book on her experiences titled “Finding Mr. Fantasy” that enjoyed
moderate success.
 Rex Yu
Ghost Beater

Rex was the creator and star of a television show called “Ghost Beaters”, in
which he and his crew tried to track down and beat up ghosts. Unfortunately
for him, he was not awake. Despite being constantly surrounded by myth,
and sometimes actual ghosts, they could never actually commit anything to
film.

Epilogue

The Ghostbeaters’ job was never truly finished in their eyes. While they had
yet to prove the existence of/punch ghosts they did manage to be near so
many strange events they were eventually used as a sort of unofficial scout of
Gatekeeper command. The consequences of this choice were swift and
obvious. By Rex’s logic when you see someone in a beige suit continually
around you, that you can’t focus on, and that exists as a hazy memory at best
then they must be a ghost.
Rex decided his best avenue of attack was to walk past a Gatekeeper
while feigning ignorance before immediately punching them in the face. It
was a deeply effective plan. Some poor rookie’s nose got royally fucked up,
Rex’s memories were shrouded, and the Ghostbeaters continued being a C-
tier ghost hunting show.
Still though, if it looks like a ghost, fucks with your head like a ghost,
and hides like a ghost, is it at least fair to say Rex got close enough to his
ultimate goal?

77
 Tertiary Cast
And honourable mentions

The P.L.U. (People Like Us)

Revolutionary Catalonia
The P.L.U. was a group created to foster a sense of community among
Rifts that included the entirety of the main cast excluding J.P., Anna and Leif.
The rules of the group were transitory and light at best, its lack of a
centralized power structure often resulted in it being labelled as an anarchist
collective. During the events of Scopophobia, due to the camaraderie shared
between its members and the foe they were facing, it eventually grew to
inhabit the Mythos of Revolutionary Catalonia. This let its members use
each-others powers in times of need and provided a sense of belonging for a
large majority of the members of the P.L.U.

Bowman the Boatman

A guy who just really likes boats
To everyone's surprise, Bowman would not go away. He was there when
J.P. had broken into the. He was there when Michael tracked down Will. He
was promoted to foreman, and was there to see Francis, in the guise of Kelly
Hugh-Kiristev, take on all of Seattle—and was even mentioned by name in
Kelly’s final speech to a toppling Virian Durain. No one knows how, no one
knows why, but Bowman is a driving force in Seattle and a representation of
its stalwart and unyielding people. Or so Kelly would say.

Will Powers
The Apple of Eden
Will was an information broker working out of Another One Opens. He
had a decent amount of connections with other members of Seattle’s Rift
community but generally avoided getting too entangled in their business.
Though one day his knowledge proved a terrible boon upon him; Will’s
Mythos was to have knowledge of reality, Anna’s power was to change reality
and this contradiction grew to steadily drive Will into madness. He started
cataloguing every falsehood Anna let loose into the world until he was
noticed by those that would prefer to remain hidden, and kidnapped him. He
was rescued before too long but it was clear to his rescuers that there was no
hope for Will’s mind. So they took what seemed to be the most merciful
action.
Kelly Hugh-Kiristev
A dead man, a resurrected idea
A politician who died during the Gala (aka “The Fossa’s Hunt), his
identity was adopted by Francis for the P.L.U. to better adapt to Anna’s plans
on the political stage. The only unfortunate hitch in this plan was that Kelly
had a wife, Rose. A delicate balance was struck, and the resurrected Kelly
Hugh-Kiristev grew to become a folk hero in Seattle after his sudden
disappearance after the debate with Durain. He drifted into a legend known
as “Mr. Fantasy ''—the real Kelly who came before is now surely dead in
both body and spirit.

Virian Durain
Indoctrinated Politician
Virian was nothing more than Anna's political persona, a politician she
had indoctrinated and attempted to use in her gambit for control of the
political stage of Seattle.

Clancy Jarvis
Daedalus
Clancy, the father of Dis, was the original driving force behind the
events 10 years before Scopophobia took place. Creator of the Seattle News
Network (S.N.N.), Clancy was always on the lookout for an interesting story.
Once he woke up, he thought what better places to find ghost stories than
houses that were rumoured to be haunted. During one of these expeditions,
he happened across Alec, sleeping in a basement. Clancy realized the terror
he had accidentally freed and quickly set out to fix his misstep. To do that he
assembled a team composed of Leif, Simon, Abir, and Anna to help take
down Cthulhu, a threat he believed he created. With their help, he created the
city of R'lyeh and trapped Cthulhu in it, hopefully, to never be seen again.

Alec Abbabio
Cthulhu
Being of African descent during segregation, Alec had a hard life. Made
none the easier by the chaotic Mythos swirling inside of him. The paths he
took when dealing with those against him, including the KKK and law
enforcement of the time, eventually led him to withdraw into himself and
become an avatar. He slept for years in the basement of an abandoned
building before eventually being awoken by an unsuspecting Clancy. His rise

79
to power was thwarted by Clancy, Leif, Simon, Abir, and Anna. During this,
he had been imprisoned in the city of R’lyeh, fashioned by Clancy,
underneath the C&T accounting building. His second attempted awakening
was at the hands of Dis and J.P. in a bid for power in Seattle, which was
promptly stopped by Michael, Francis, and Nguyen. His third and final
awakening occurred when the P.L.U. resolved to free Abir from the city of
R’lyeh. During this encounter, Michael brought him down from avatarhood
using the recorded regrets of those that used to follow him. A Grand apple
tree now grows in the place he found peace, growing in a slightly twisted way.

The Star Machine

A piece of Azathoth
An omnipresent threat, the star-machine was the key factor behind
freeing Cthulhu from R'lyeh during the second and third attempts at
awakening. It was used to move the stars into a more favourable position for
eldritch beings; the full extent of what it can do is still widely unknown. After
the final encounter with Cthulhu, the star-machine was handed over to
Gatekeeper command— where one can imagine it is as closely guarded as
possible.

The Lion
The Nemean Lion/ Buer
Originally the Nemean lion, this solid gold muscle car was slain by
Michael, who then claimed it as his and drove it around. Shortly after
the Gala, at Michael’s urging, the corpse of the lion became possessed
by Buer. The demon could possess metal, control plant life, and move
at a supernatural speed. On some occasions, it would warp its body
into that of a gigantic, flaming metal lion. During the encounter with
Alec, Buer used most of its power to recreate a portion of the Garden
of Eden, and trap Cthulhu within the knowledge of all good and evil.
This ended all influence on the car, though a small fraction of Buer
remains in Michael’s prosthetic left arm.
Vic (Conviction)
Fenrir
Discovered in the depths of the Bifrost by Francis after trading J.P.’s
cursed blade for the sandwich of Ariadne and a magic gym whistle, Vic
proved a peculiar sort of creature. Manifesting as a mangy Elkhound that
always stank of pennies and ozone, his true potential would remain nascent
until the events that lead to Another One Opens’ second destruction were he
would rack up a body count in the low triple digits. Not predisposed to any
sort of normative companionship, the lupine herald of apocalypse fit well
with his mentally unstable handler who provided him with copious fleshy
targets and a steady supply of doping chemicals. That partnership would
remain after Francis’ death, as some still speak in hushed tones about a titanic
beast emerging from thin air to swallow up all before it.

Saarid Zaher
Pandora’s Box
A Confidant and close friend to Michael. Originally working for the
Middlemen, Michael forced her to switch sides after a brief fight through a
contract written by Paige. Despite the circumstances, the two become quite
close. Saarid was killed by West while saving Michael from his grave after he
confronted Anna in room 101. Despite this, Michael adamantly considers her
a member of the P.L.U. and often performs séances to keep the dead
company. Whether it is the soul of Saarid that he tells his stories to or just a
manifestation of Michael’s powers, none are sure. Neither of them seems to
think it matters. What does matter is that she will not be forgotten.

Omar Kassem
Iram of the Pillars
Omar was a businessman, one very good at his job. Oman had a knack
for making sure things couldn’t be found, by any means. Constantly
contracted by the P.L.U. to keep their guerilla methods hidden, his greatest
client shone in Francis. Among the things warded by Omar were a car, a trap
house, a yacht, a radio booth, and likely many other things that only he and
Francis know about. Omar undoubtedly retired a very rich man.

81
Emelia Girrollo
Head of Seattle Gatekeepers
A former member of Adrian’s SEALS, Emelia became the head
Gatekeeper of Seattle and has commanded respect ever since. Going by the
moniker Null, Emelia was directly responsible for the shrouding of Hell a
year before the events of Scopophobia, when Michael had lost control of his
powers and let loose a small portion of Hell on the world. Despite this,
Emelia allowed the P.L.U. and Michael to operate within the Gatekeepers,
and eventually bestowed a degree of trust upon them.

Adrian Thespus
Head of Gatekeeper SEAL division
Adrian did not have much to say about himself—save for a smile filled
with sharpened teeth, a long resume of successes and an even longer list of
people who trust him completely and would rely on him for anything. This
list includes Evette, the liaison for the P.L.U., Emelia, the head of Seattle
Gatekeepers, and Michael, who eventually “retired” to his unit and worked
directly under him. Adrian is one of the best at what he does, and his
reputation proves it. He helped the P.L.U. hold back Anna’s Mist during the
final debate.

Astarpreet Pammah
Head of Seattle Gatekeeper Recruiting Division
Astarpreet was Michael’s Commanding Officer once he joined the
Gatekeepers. Although his involvement in the organization was highly
controversial and incredibly secretive, Astarpreet proved to be a trustworthy
commandant within the Gatekeepers for the P.L.U. and helped on numerous
occasions. Surprisingly kind to Rifts and with a soft spot for coffee, she was
called upon whenever Michael needed someone trustworthy to requisition,
shroud, or teach him something that he probably should have learned much
earlier. She helped the P.L.U. hold back Anna’s Mist during the final debate.
Klaus Johannes
The Forty Thieves
Klaus worked for Anna from the get-go. He had a knack for hiding
everywhere and anywhere, and there was always more of him than anyone
wanted there to be; never a threat, always a nuisance. Though he survived the
events in Seattle, all forty of him disappeared on the following New Year’s
Eve. When asked about this, Michael only responds with a smug smile.

The Sculptor
Dolos
A man of little consequence; while working for Anna, his main use came
through in creating unfinished clay statues of J.P. to run amok. Captured after
the events of Cabeza, he was put into an assisted living facility under the
premise of lunacy. He was quickly freed but was of such little consequence
that the P.L.U. never bothered to track him down again. He surely knows
better than to poke his head up ever again.

Malcolm Krausier
Papa Guede
Malcolm was a strange man— and only partly because he was already
dead. Existing somewhere between life and death he, and his family, lived
somewhat peacefully as Loa watching over the graveyard owned by the
Krausier family. Immortality has its drawbacks however, and Malcolm
became somewhat bored with his lot in un-life. This led him to seek out
interesting stories and new things, which he found plenty of in Anna Rooker.
He helped her with various zombies, but his greatest boon was the ability to
grant a single person immortality at a time. His antics were peacefully put to
an end once team “Ride The Lightning” raided his families’ cemetery,
discussed his misdeeds with the family, and made amends with the promise
of no further aggression from either side.

83
West
Apollo
A trained assassin, musician, and socialite, West was well known to the
crowd of Another One Opens. When push came to shove, she fell out of
graces and betrayed Francis and J.P. at a pivotal moment. For her betrayal,
she got shot in the face by Francis and killed. Malcolm then brought her back
from the dead as a zombie. She came to defend the prison where Francis was
held after his capture, but met her final end at the hands of an overlooked
Imp who tied her boots together, melted them to the ground, stole her sniper
rifle, and then, once again, shot her in the face with it.

Boss Tony
Ebenezer Scrooge
Boss Tony was the leader of the Exemplaries. He was generally an
absentee leader, standing back and doing what he could to more efficiently
earn money. His lack of presence meant he was forced to rely on his
underlings for help and they were strangely happy to oblige, right up until the
end. Soon after the end of his gang Boss Tony became little more than an
asset to the true powers in Seattle, Anna using him for his strange Mythos
and the P.L.U. using him for his expendability.

Lloyd Alberns
FBI Agent
The only nemesis of Michael Mercer, Lloyd was quite resourceful for a
sleeper. He had picked up on all the loose threads Michael had left behind
from his past life, mercilessly hunted after the truth, and was damn good at
being a detective. Upon urging from Michael, Lloyd met his end during the
siege of the Gatekeeper safehouses, where he laid down his life to protect a
handful of the P.L.U.’s friends and family from falling into Anna's hands.

Yoko
The Oracle of Delphi
Yoko, under the employ of Zhi-Yang, became somewhat of a tech-
support role for the P.L.U. (namely Michael). She had a hand in the Gala, the
speaker set up outside C&T accounting during the Cthulhu encounter, and
various other roles across the series. Upon learning the limitations of her
power Michael profusely apologized for how often he bugged her.
Yuri Sergeyev
Shuten-dōji
Yuri’s incredible strength, durability, and ability to turn nearby
evildoers into demons made him Wile’s favoured bodyguard and
general right-hand man for when something particularly needed doing.
Luckily, Yuri generally enjoyed the work. Not that he agreed with
Wile’s goals or even took particular glee in the man himself, rather it
was that his work granted him protection, material wealth, and most
importantly the chance to meet and fight interesting people. Yuri was a
simple man like that, nothing much mattered to him other than a good
drink and an interesting person to talk to; then subsequently fight. His
greatest moment in Scopophobia was undoubtedly his meeting with
J.P. when the two battled briefly before J.P. started turning into a
demon and lured Yuri into the explosive-laden Space Needle. Yuri
survived and eventually regenerated, but looked like a weird spaghetti-
man for a while.

85
 The Avatar Council

Zhi-Yang
Izanami
The most influential and respected of the council, Zhi-Yang was
responsible for a disproportionate amount of the world’s pharmaceutical
sector. A deal was struck between Zhi-Yang and Anna: If Anna could win the
political election in Seattle, Zhi-Yang would back her operation. If she lost,
Anna would hand over all of her assets. Michael had, mistakenly,
misunderstood the nature of her Mythos and subsequently held her
tangentially responsible for the death of millions every day; upon learning her
true nature, he apologized and attempted to restructure their relationship.
Though due to this misunderstanding, Zhi-Yang’s influence was not allowed
to spread very far in Seattle, and she had learned that the P.L.U. was a force
to be reckoned with.

The Golden Man

The Pharaoh
The newest member of the avatar council, The Golden Man mostly
concerned himself with the collection of relics and priceless items. Likely so
he could bury himself with them. His dealings with the P.L.U. were slim,
namely only once when he traded the Yarn of Ariadne, later used to find Abir
within the city of R'lyeh, for J.P.’s old sword.

Wiles
Coyote
The most famous pop star in the world, a poster of Wiles is in the
bedroom of every teenage girl. His dealings with the P.L.U. were few and far
between and mostly through his muscle, Yuri. On the few occasions that he
did appear, namely the Fossa’s Hunt and the banquet hosted by Kelly to fund
the community college, where he was a commanding presence for the crowd
and an infuriating one for Michael.
Big Ears
Big Ears
A cat that eats souls from graveyards, Big Ears was a talking cat that is,
for some reason, part of the council. After a grand ritual of cat-burning and
the world's weirdest scavenger hunt, Big Ears spoke of a prophecy to bring
Anna down from avatarhood and revealed Morgan’s Mythos to her. Due to
this cat, a great debate was sparked about whether souls were real, and the cat
was actually eating them, or the cat just kind of bummed around manifesting
souls to eat. A similar debate once started over whether he became an avatar
because of his ears or he grew his ears to match his avatarhood, but Dis
promptly labelled this one of the dumbest things he had ever heard and the
debate ceased.

Richard Hughes
Head Gatekeeper of North America
The P.L.U. never dealt directly with Richard Hughes, but his influence
was felt. He was responsible for healing Abir. Richard was on-screen once,
when he came into Another One Opens and gave Michael a dirty look —
then looked somewhat offended when Michael gave one back. He was
ultimately responsible for the restoration of Abir.

87
 Set pieces
The following is a collection of various works written, discussed, or otherwise brought into being by the
Scopophobia campaign.

When the woman loses her brotherly ego

She will realize these three facts she hoped to never know:
The Phoenix was taken from its nightmare with ashes along
The lost of the city have somewhere they belong
Her guiding hands scorned and pulled away
And she’ll find herself thinking like before her decay
 S.N.N. & S.I.N.N.
An incomplete collection of news stories and articles published during the events of Scopophobia. Unfortunately,
parts of this collection have been lost. The following are formatted based on date.

May 21st, 2019

Yet another centre used by the charity group Little Bit of Love was raided by
wanted criminal Jake Pliskin, who’s assumed to be armed and dangerous.
Today alone he's responsible for the injury of 11 people and the death of 6, 5
others are in critical condition.

May 22nd
Stevie Wonder was spotted roaming the streets of Seattle, he was quoted as
saying "I can't see shit" and "nothing happens in Seattle"

May 28
Local mass Murderer Jake "The Fossa" Pliskin has been supposedly spotted
near the headquarters of Little Bit of Love, he is assumed armed and
dangerous.
The Fossa seems to have planted a small bomb centred in the headquarters;
more bombs are possible but unconfirmed

June 14th
Recently featured ghost hunting show "Ghost Beaters" is believed to have the
strangest pilot ever, having filmed it directly in front of C&T accounting just
2 days before it was decimated in the earthquake. Several shots also seem to
feature Jake the Fossa Pliskin idling in the background as well

July 23rd
Massive Layoffs at the Seattle docks cause the economic crisis to worsen,
furthermore many workers claim to not be receiving owed severance pay.
The shipping company responsible has claimed to be a victim of malicious
industrial sabotage.

Aug 7th
The Fossa’s latest attack was at an underground drinking establishment,
showing he doesn't discern between poor and rich and making his motives
ever murkier. It's possible the Fossa’s true goal isn't simply to attack a given
group of people as assumed before as much as to attack our way of life.

89
 August 24th
Many Hollywood alumni were murdered at a party this weekend, among the
dead was Stevie Wonder. While he was likely not directly responsible, some
of the Fossa’s Exemplaries is believed to have been responsible

November 3rd
Today shocked residents saw the remaining Exemplaries abandon the small
amount of turf they had left, apparently, all the gang's remaining lieutenants
vanished overnight.
Amazingly, the police have yet to issue a statement about these
disappearances or the possible involvement of the middlemen. Leaving
citizens amazed at the local PD' absolute inability to keep the gangs’ activity
known, let alone in check

Nov 7th
Local Daniel Dinero was recently murdered by a group of economically
displaced malcontents, the community at large fears for the growing
radicalism. Daniel was also killed in an alarmingly calm manner, a single swipe
across the throat.

November 9th
Antonia Oito was found dead at approximately 5 am this morning, her home
was left a burning wreck and local firefighters needed almost 3 hours to halt
the blaze
Her husband, local FBI head Bill Cunningham, has yet to make a statement.
Authorities have yet to make a statement however we know that foul play is
still a possibility, meaning the Fossa’s involvement hasn't been ruled out.

December 18th
The Fossa’s Hunt
The broadcast was interrupted for slightly under a minute, but the minute
was shocking for all unlucky enough to see. The Fossa murdered his way
through an entire ballroom of approximately 250 people.
The Fossa and his Exemplaries released a large series of accusations to
go along with his actions, this is still under investigation.
 Jan 23rd, 2020
A recent Fossa sighting: tearing through a collection of shops downtown
while chased by a very large and very wealthy citizen. The same one was
spotted as opposing the cameraman during the Fossa’s Hunt. Witnesses
reported that the Fossa was limping during the vast majority of the chase, the
relationship between the two, and the identity of this man, remain
uncommented on by authorities

April 26th
Explosives have gone off at the base of the Space Needle

May 1st
A bizarre piece of writing has surfaced in hard-to-reach nooks and crannies
of the internet known as the Mythos Manifesto. The manifesto carries an
image of a fossa on its cover and contains a doctrine for a largely unknown
group. The group seems to be some sort of anti-capitalist activist demanding
a sense of togetherness from its members however given its sensationalist
cover and the fact that nobody has come forward as its author many are
speculating it’s a message and rallying cry for terrorist cells. The author refers
to Jake Pliskin (AKA The Fossa) with a certain degree of familiarity and
contempt, leading to our main theory that this was written as a piece of
dissent by disenfranchised Exemplaries seeking a new target. While much
about the Manifesto highlighted in this article is admittedly just educated and
tempered speculation the current fact is that the story was circulated to the
public through obtuse means but with a very clear intended audience. While
this is likely a cry from some other untoward force, individuals of this state
should feel a tad of faith in our justice system for our enemies have begun to
dissent, the first step in their ruin.

May 17th
Back from the Dead?
(Record incomplete, but Kelly Hugh-Kiristev returns from the dead)

July 26
All those with a vinegar allergy are urged to stay out of the downtown area.
(Jimmy pickle incident). The Fossa’s body had been believed to be fished out of
the Seattle bay earlier However DNA analysis revealed this to be a body
double. Despite this people are urged not to downplay possible sightings.

91
 August 20
Coming soon to Ghost Beaters: the infinite burning room

November 29th
King Louis XIV's skeletal foot has disappeared overnight from the French
museum taking care of it. The foot had been seen intact the night before but
fungi found on the remaining bones suggest absurdly poor caretaking by
staff.
In a terrible series of events, one of George Washington's spare
powdered wigs has blown out of an open window. Its whereabouts are
unknown.

Feb 20th, 2021

THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE THIS:
Tomorrow the Ghostbeaters tackle their most haunted locale yet, a building
so haunted that the FBI themselves tried to stop us from making this
episode! Is incarceration waiting for the dead? All rise tonight in
Ghostbeaters season 1 episode 42: Jumpschair! Check our blog for updates
on the incoming cease and desist.

June, 27th
Seattle in Flames
Last night at approximately 10:00 pm approximately 21 local Seattleites had
gathered at 3202 Levin Street before the home abruptly caught aflame and,
shortly afterwards, collapsed. At present the number of people that were
within the house is unknown, however, the evidence currently suggests that
11 people were either killed or suffered grievous injuries requiring immediate
hospitalization with 4 more suffering more minor injuries. Of great note is
various oddities surrounding the fire as reported by neighbours, first and
foremost is that the fire spread within seconds and burned so hot that the
house was reduced to rubble within only a couple minutes of the fire starting.
Secondly is that while some of the victims were clearly killed by the rapid
collapse of the house many others suffered stranger, far more concerning
fates. Many of the victims within the building were found in multiple smaller
pieces, likely having been viciously ripped apart to such a degree that many of
the victims are currently considered impossible to identify. The brutality’s
cause is not yet fully known, though currently, experts are hypothesizing it
was likely to have been some sort of pressurized explosion despite the
inconsistent cauterization of the wounds making that seem less than likely. It
should be noted that at this time police have not ruled out foul play,
especially due to the strong possibility that some among the dead were
members of the Middlemen. Currently, those in the hospital are reported to
be in critical condition and a great deal of investigating into the case has to be
done, please expect further updates during our 6:00 pm update.

July 18th
A body was recently found in the storm drain within the damaged old
commercial district; she is believed to have been killed from a particularly
large piece of hail, though the blunt force trauma to her head is certainly the
cause of death. The corpse has yet to be identified; the reason for her
presence in a closed district during curfew is currently unknown
Police have now identified the victim as Megan Awbrey, age 17

August 28th
After Mr. Hugh-Kiristev’s lovely speech onstage about the people of Seattle,
we at Fox News were curious to speak to union leader Mr. Henry Bowman
about the place of him and people like him in the future of Seattle. He was
quoted as saying: “I don’t know. I just like boats.”

93
 The Crew Themes

Ode To Catalonia
The revolutionary spirit of anarchist Catalonia
As the walls close in and the sky begins to fall, the only sanctuary to be found is the camaraderie we hold so
dear — All along, this is where we belonged.

Mystery/Identity: Does the individual choose their group or the

group its individuals?

ATTENTION: 0/3 FADE: 0/3 HELP: 0

Power Tags:
A) All for One and One for All

G) Sense of Impending Doom

C) Sympathetic Aura

J) Catalonian Caches

Weakness Tags:

C) Vindication of the Status Quo

Improvements:

Pull it Together - Once per session you may un-burn a crew tag

Quality matters - Catalonian Caches makes any core move made using
this tag Dynamite! (The convenient art of finding exactly what you need
wherever you need it)

Tight Like That - Once per session, using juice to help or hinder a
crew member grants one extra juice to accomplish that action
 Honeyed words and Silver tongues
The birth of the P.L.U.
Throw down your past, let die your future, these things are self-made fetters. Find your joys in good friends,
grand purpose, and the freedoms of now.

Mystery/Identity: Stability in Divergence

ATTENTION: 1/3 FADE: 1/3 HELP: 0

Power Tags:
A) Subversive Influence

C) Playing Off Each Other

D) The Will of the Many

F) Gunboat Diplomacy

G) Collective Think Tank

H) Rogues Gallery

I) The Carrot and Stick

J) The P.L.U. (People Like Us)

Weakness Tags:

D) Obstinate Opposition (groups or individuals diametrically opposed

to compromise)

95
Improvements:

Quality matters - The P.L.U. makes any core move made using this tag
Dynamite! (A small daffodil pin worn by the P.L.U.)

Pull it Together - Once per session you may unburn a crew tag

Tight Like That - Once per session, using juice to help or hinder a
crew member grants one extra juice to accomplish that.

This Is What We Are - When answering the question “Which character

had the most meaningful interaction with your character this session?”
During Geek out During Credits, you may answer that the interaction was
with the P.L.U. as a whole or with a specific NPC member of the crew, mark
a help/hurt point with the crew. Alternatively, a help or hurt point may be
gained upon filling up the build-up track of the theme. The points may be
spent as normal; however, three of any variety may be spent to renew a single
companion boon
Sacrifice - When two or more of you Face Danger against the same
status and you get a hit, you may choose to extend the hit to one other crew
member, at the cost of exposing yourself. On a 10+, they take no status and
you take the status with -1 tier. On a 7-9, they take the status with -1 tier and
you take the full status. If the move is Dynamite!, on a 12+, you can choose
to fully protect both of you (instead of choosing one of the other 12+
options).
 Soundtrack

YouTube Spotify
An eclectic mix of the songs used in Scopophobia

1. Ólafur Arnalds - So close

Intro theme
2. Traffic - Dear Mr. Fantasy
Standard credits theme
3. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Switchblade 327
J.P. main theme
4. Love - Everybody’s Gotta Live
Used for the J.P. finale
5. Journey - Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Used when there was a need for speed
6. The Sound - I Can’t Escape myself
Francis Broduer’s main theme
7. Hozier - Arsonist’s Lullabye
Michael Mercer’s main theme
8. Johnny Cash - God’s Gonna Cut You Down
Alternate Michael Song
9. Johnny Cash - Ain’t No Grave
Used when Michael crawled from the grave, and for Lloyd Albern’s sacrifice
10. Rose Cousins – Chains
Alternate Michael main theme

97
11. Chopin - Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2
Alternate Francis theme used to indicate the Count’s influence.
12. Chopin Nocturnes, Op.37 No. 1 in G minor
Alternate Francis theme used to indicate the Count’s influence.
13. Claude Debussy - Clair De Lune
Used in a variety of situations, namely Evette’s enclave based, Red Death
companion quest
14. The Cure - Disintegration
Used during a party in Another One Opens
15. The Crane Wives - Hollow Moon
Used during the investigation/prep of Alec (Cthulhu)
16. The Crane Wives - Sleeping Giants
Used During the final encounter with Cthulhu (Alec)
17. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
Used as an end credit’s theme when Seattle's economy was reduced to ash
following a Stop. Holding. Back.
18. Blue Öyster Cult - (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Alternate end theme, when Anna revealed new Rifts
19. Radiohead - Man of War
Leif Grierson main theme, only used in Checkmate
20. The Crane Wives - Metaphor
Anna Rooker main theme
21. Tammy Lima/Niahm Sygrove - Wayfaring Stranger
Sung by Evette after Anna’s raid of the P.L.U.’s safehouses
22. Halina Heron - Oceans
Alternate end theme, when Francis had confided in David Nguyen
23. Darren Korb, Ashley Barrett - In Circles
Anna alternate theme
24. The Crane Wives - Volta
Alternate end theme. Francis had killed a handful of innocents and destroyed a
building.
25. Barns Courtney - Sinners
Alternate end theme. Emelia Girollo’s shrouding of Hell.
26. The Crane Wives - The Hand That Feeds
Alternate end theme. Used for the death of Morgan's sister, Megan Awbrey
27. The Accidentals - Memorial Day
Used during the hearse-driven road trip of Michael and Francis
28. Ella Fitzgerald – Solitude
Alternate end theme. Michael and Francis grow an understanding of one
another.
29. The Crane Wives - The Garden
Michael peers through the mist to see that Anna is now a walking
contradiction
30. Shawn James - The Guardian
Michael sings to the members of the P.L.U. before the final bout.
31. Ólafur Arnalds - So far
The final song played in the series.

99
 Character Sheets

Imgur
The following are representations of the character sheets used during the finale. Both characters have gone
through a drastic change throughout the campaign, but the following provides a decent example as to the
characters’ abilities and mysteries after the final confrontation.

Michael’s character sheets follow a customized, physical template whereas

Francis’ take the form of multi-coloured organized spreadsheet. Both are
summarised in the following pages, starting first with Michael and followed
by Francis.
101
103
105
107
 The Script
The following is a collection of campaign notes, scribbling, quest logs, and various things
held by the characters throughout the campaign, placed here to showcase the mystery and the
steps the protagonists took in their journeys.

The Notes of Francis Broduer:

Francis’ notes are largely composed of various spreadsheets and well-formatted documents. Due to his organized
nature, a large number of his thoughts were deleted. The following is an incomplete series of fragments that
document the logs of Francis Broduer near the end of his story. Hilariously, Francis’ character sheet and notes
took the form of a well-planned document typically referred to as “The Spreadsheet”. He kept a copy of most of
the communal records for his personal use as well. Below are these copies.

109
111
From a document titled City_of_Mist_Notez:
A brief page of notes from the early campaign.

Names
Michael Mathers
Has a nearly limitless amount of aliases
Mythos is a catholic/Christian angel (guess which one)
Has divination powers, can send people visions of hell, limited small
scale teleportation, and fireballs
Keeper of the sweet Nemean lion car
Tactical head of the local FBI
Boyfriend of Paige
Some sort of connection to the Men in Beige
Likes to dress fly
Hates J.P.
Jake Pliskin
Goes by J.P., his criminal pseudonym is the ‘Fossa’
Some sort of Hemokinesis (blood magic)
Carries a short sword (his relic?)
Higher up/leader of a gang (Exemplaries?)
Enemy to the Swede
Friends with (the now deceased) Buddha
Friend to Morgan (Hex and charm woman), lives in her apartment
Aided in the summoning of Cthulhu
In a blood contract to, among other things, cause no harm to Francis or
Michael
Murderer (for hire and possibly for pleasure?)
Owes Francis a favour for pinning something on one of his pseudonyms
Hates Michael, is somewhere between aloof and cool with Francis
Beholden to Malcolm the Necromancer who keeps J.P.’s fatal gunshot
wounds from killing him
Sam
Mythos is Prometheus
Conjure fire
See into the future, limited to short bursts and mostly uncontrolled; can
be brought on by being in specific locations, but he has no awareness of
what locations will trigger
Close friend of Francis, or about as close a friend as Francis can have.
 Dead
Bill Cunningham (Michael’s boss but Francis doesn’t know)
Seems like a prick
Slashed his tires, but Mike fixed ‘em a little
Worked on my original case
Trying to track me down
Husband to (murdered) Antonia
Sterling Gates (the driver)
Acquaintance of J.P.
Seems to have a complicated (negative) relationship
Power relates to the piloting of vehicles, with vehicles having a rather
broad definition
Dis (Icarus w/Necronomicon relic)
Something to J.P.
Has the SC Lovecraftian ball and says he’s gonna make some demon
defeating devices
Saarid
Some sort of wind/tornado power
One-armed troll
Zaddy?
Strong
Wiles
Property developer? Bought Cabeza
The Swede
Cthulhu tackle
Middlemen head
Branch capturer
Bad and nasty boy
Works for One
Antonia Oito
Small, Portuguese, afraid
Possessed by news ghost (from Cthulhu affair)
I.E. One
I killed her?
Omar
Safe Room creator

113
West (Sunny if you’re nasty)
Artifact dealer
Former assassin
Paid J.P.’s debt to her
Chariot summoner/tracker
Traitor worked with One
Blew her fucking brains across the secret basement walls
Simon
The sand boy from Cthulhu
Almost got him out, but not quite
Possibly allowed his sand particles to escape, but not certain
Malcolm
Necromancer type
Under the control of One or possibly willingly working for her
Keeping J.P. alive
One
The big bad, or so it would seem
Total awareness of affected space and tech
Special strengthened awareness in her rec center lair
Owns the Middle Men through the swede
Needs to die
Is Big Brother
Places
Cabeza
Home of the fish-men (Innsmouth)
Kiln of the clay men, strange scientist who made them and could
previously control the Valkyrie corpse, and said alive Valkyrie corpse
Lots of traffic in Cabeza
Leads
Lisiado, ask them about dis
Shipments to Cabeza
Suspicious buyer, opal pharma, was used a handful of times and then
mysteriously dropped
Interrogate the captured science man (Nguyen might help); look into the
hard drive and his boss
Kiln and mechanical stuff is taken from Cabeza, as well as drafting
materials
News manipulation, understating middleman violence and escalating
violence of other groups
Women were aged 7-24 were brought to and educated in the Rec center
owned by One and the Middle Men.
Computer in the Innsmouth manner basement loads up and displays the
message “I know what you’re trying and it won’t work Francis”
T.V. static future, also Bills wife (before the murder) was producing a
voice reminiscing of what the news van back in the Cthulhu fight did
Also had static surrounding the corners of my vision when we spoke

115
From a document affectionately titled “SPOILERS!!! IF YOU
DON’T NEED/WANT TO KNOW FRANCIS’ EXIT
STRATEGY. LOOK NO FURTHER. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!”
A brief glimpse into some of Francis’ end-game plants and political ideas; many of these did not come to
fruition, and many more took an unexpected turn.

The setup
A. Talk to Phoebe. She is the only true wild card and might collapse the
whole endeavour for unknowable reasons. Trade her anything she
wants for silence should anyone ask about Francis’ goings-on. The
anti-divination device from Omar might come in handy to prevent
her from learning about the double-cross, ask her more about if the
house blocks her powers. In addition, talk to the sand boy and
inquire about his abilities, learn if his powers could prove a
hindrance.
B. Find out if Omar can make a personal anti-divination device,
something that can be worn or held by a single person to prevent
scrying on them. Not critical, but could come in clutch if anyone
suspects foul play
C. Gotta get some kind of crazy fucking sedative that can be consumed
orally. Should ideally be an illegal drug, something like ketamine or
some horse tranquilisers (could be done in flashback sequence with
the gun).
D. Acquire a new gun. Something short and two barreled, both an
increase to my existing arsenal and the suicide weapon
E. Find a body double. The face doesn’t have to be perfect but the
build, height, weight, and general features have to be dead ringers.
Can’t be a drug user, ideally isn’t someone of any notoriety and
doesn’t have any immediate family (possibly a homeless person). Pay
them and get them to a safe, tech-free location waiting for my call
(on the drive out to suicide, make them wear gloves).
F. Settle the finances. Write up a short will about where the money goes
when I’m dead (cremation expenses, a lot for Nguyen and Griff,
some for Michael and Phil, the rest to be used as a communal fund
for Seattle Rifts managed by Phil and his people) and get the money
managers to charter a private plane to Monaco that can depart within
an incredibly short time frame when notified. Make sure the finance
 people only communicate with me and on my behalf using fax. Get
maybe $10,000 stashed in a Monaco account for start-up purposes.
G. Convince Nguyen to act as executor, convince him of the suicide and
swear him to silence. Make sure that he gets the body cremated
ASAP (talk about not wanting any Rifts to fuck with my soul or
whatever) and gets my money to the right places.
H. Maybe make the suicide vehicle largely fire retardant to prevent
emergency responders from getting to it before Nguyen. Make up
some story about Francis’ alcohol and Michael’s fire making a bad
combo.
I. Keep fleshing it out as stuff comes up and changes. The current flow
looks like a lot of intrapersonal stuff and then a quick pop before
riding off to the great beyond

POLITICS!!!
 Speech idea: The division I see in this city is between the people that
like seeing Seattle divided and the rest of us. I see it everywhere I go.
I see it in our ailing public schools where they teach our kids to fall
in line and keep expectations low because THEY are threatened by
people who can articulate their worth. I see it in our streets, where
they’re selling guns to our people so we’re too busy killing each other
to reckon with the real foe. I see it in our industries, where they’re
laying off Seattleites in the thousands just to preserve executive-level
salaries! This city's problem isn’t its decimated working-class doing
everything it can to scrape by on starvation wages, and it isn’t the
folks so stricken with poverty and homelessness that they see no
future beyond criminality. Seattle's problem is the people feeding on
its decay, terrorizing its people into inaction. But I've got a message
for them, from the people of Seattle, from the people who refused to
buckle, from the people keeping this city alive to the people trying to
kill it. You are outnumbered.

Activities:
 Get a flash bang or two, keep it on your person at all times
 See if Morgan can make a tracking hex bag (where one bag will
always know where the other is or whatever). Also ask her about the
bag conditions (can they get wet, can they be jostled, etc.)
 Get into a pharmacy while disguised, make off with some glucagon

117
 Retrieve a plastic tube about a meter long from a hardware store—
wide enough for the hex bag to be jammed through it without
breaking
 Get some sort of rod tipped with a soft flat thing to push the hex
bag down the tube
 Once you get to the dark city and find the Phoenix woman,
approach her alone and in stealth in order to knock her out. Once
she’s unconscious, quickly use the aforementioned tools to deposit
the tracking bag into her stomach.
 Find a way to completely destroy a body. If Anna does go down, it’ll
probably be with the main trio all nearby; Michael will be a problem,
he is a fighter and particularly knowledgeable about Francis’ inner
machinations.
 When the inevitable comes and Michael flips Anna out of
avatarhood, there will be a limited window to act and finish her off
for good. If there are any remains left he may be able to revive her.
 Probably nothing conventional, so look for mythical related means
of instantly disposing of a body.
 Collapse the local economy by setting up a fake Scandinavian
financier identity and creating a dummy investment portfolio to
worm your way into Seattle’s financial elite
 Hold a gathering for the upper crust, do some schmoozing, convince
the fund managers of the absolute need for them to stock up on
bunk housing debt and getting the banks to pay out quickly
 Rent a super yacht for approximately €650,000 a season i.e. 6 months
(used for hedge fund schmoozing and P.L.U. party pre-Anna
takedown.
 The Notes of Michael Mercer:
A series of handwritten notes, diagrams, and other works produced by a former FBI agent turned revolutionary.
Due to their physical nature, Michael’s notes remain largely intact—albeit barely coherent.

Scribblings from a charred notebook

Most of Michael’s notes, including his early character sheet, were contained in a leather-
bound journal. While thorough, they often lack context or coherence and typically consist of
a spattering of names and theories.

119
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127
An Eccentric Flowchart
Once Michael realized there was a puppet master pulling the strings in Seattle, the next step was obviously to
make a flow chart. He promptly did so, and showed it to everyone who could possibly have information on it.
 The Mythos Manifesto
Originally written by Michael Mercer as propaganda against Big Brother, the Mythos Manifesto was a
call to arms to the Rift community, and eventually became a driving force behind the expansion of the P.L.U.

Pt. I
Aphantasia

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”

When these words were written, there existed a clear vision of oppressor and
oppressed. People like us have no such luxury; the vast majority of the world exists
within a blissful ignorance of the powers that work behind the scenes to influence
them. Morality can be misconstrued as black and white when we become too focused
on one extreme. There have been no extremist principles that have benefited the self
over a long period; No violent revolution has ended bloodshed, no war has ended
wars, no genocide truly cleansed a nation. It is the lack of centrism, a lack of
understanding of a complex morality that drives people to these thoughts. There has
always been and always will be an oppressor and an oppressed. There is always an
imbalance of power, a rhythmic pounding of a temporal engine that ticks back and
forth between a symbolic “proletariat uprising” and a puppet master. This cycle has
endlessly drudged on and will continue to do so until there is a fundamental shift in
the world. But that machine must not be fueled by blood and rage, that shift can not
be a sudden jolt to awaken an entire world. Ambition and circumstance do not allow
it; they lead to patterns in ourselves that we often miss; too concerned by the turning
of the ever-worn cogs to see that they do not herald progress, only stagnation. Good
and evil do not exist in our world — but their avatars do. They infest our thoughts
and sway us into an aphantasia that obscures all the strings connecting us back to the
notion of the self. It is a fantasy to think we can break this machine entirely, but it is
due time that people like us find a way to end its pollution, to cut the strings of as
many as possible and above all hold those that cling to their power accountable to
the strings they pull. Some would say they drive this vehicle to your benefit, that they
use it to protect you and improve the world to save you from hardship. They seek to
hide the evils of the world from you so they can commit them in earnest. They speak
one thing, but their words mean the other. It is this doublethink that allows their
control over you, their ability to restrain the evils of the world but free of the intent
to restrain you in any aspect. To keep you focused on your tiny cog instead of the
machine itself.
Despite the powers that lord over us, despite the power of people like Us, some
would do harm to the masses and twist chaos into a tool to keep your attention away
from the grinding belts and whirring gears for the benefit of themselves, not for us.
The world itself seems to form infinite distractions for us to conveniently ignore its
workings. To create disingenuous meaning to fill in the void that truly exists there:

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All who hold power are convinced they are the engine, that they belong to a closed
system free from outside influence and extremist thought; that they can bring
meaning to that void. It is easy for people like Us to get carried away in our dogmas
and stories, but there is no such thing as a closed system. There is always outside
influence: be it in the form of moralism, revenge, nihilism, dogmatism, love, and
perhaps most effective of all - fury! All of these things are capable of changing people
like Us, and all of these things are tools to be used against you consciously and
unconsciously, to turn your attention away from the violent banging of a dying
engine.

Pt. II
The Foss and his Hunt

People like Us are responsible for the actions of the Fossa. You are responsible
for the actions of the Fossa. No one helped him end the lives of hundreds, but we all
enabled his actions. None of Us held him accountable for what he had done, and
instead, he was twisted to suit our own individual needs, and will forever stand as a
monument to the sincere vapidity of our ambitions. The Fossa has no clearly defined
agenda of his own and every action he has undertaken has been used to further the
agenda of someone else. Violence and war, be it in the guise of an individual or a
country, are the perfect platform to keep one's gaze focused outward. What is better
as an idol of hatred and resentment than an individual one can put a face too? What
better way to inspire fear than to show everyone they are human. That innocents can
die and evil can win its small victories — that love can be torn away from us and
replaced with nothing but profound emptiness. Our true enemies are nameless,
faceless, and incorporeal — incapable of a cult of personality, morally inscrutable and
an impossible feat of conceptualization. The recognizable face and carnage of The
Fossa stays with you, one that follows you long after you turn off the television and
lay your head to rest. It haunts your dreams and makes you worry for the safety of
your friends and family, makes you put faith in the systems around you to catch him
and make sure you are not his next victim. It makes you want revenge. It is an idea that
was implanted within you — that there is an enemy in your backyard and there is
nothing you can do about it. That the powers that be will protect you and keep you
safe, that the nightmare will pass and you will wake to a day free of evils. This day
will not come. This evil, all evils before, and all evils afterwards, will be created by us
and allowed existence by Us. Those you have chosen to believe in have failed you —
their machinations were not designed to keep you safe, only distracted. Your faith has
been misplaced by those that do not want to stop the Fossa, and every single person
among us like him, but instead use him as a tool; a tool to drown out thought, to
keep your attention away and to keep you afraid. When one talks of sacrifice for the
greater good — the necessary blood to keep the machine painfully limping forward
— they are not talking about your neighbour. They do not mean the man you pass
on the street or an incorporeal face a half-world away. They mean your friends and
family. They mean you. Your blood will be the blood to keep us afraid, to keep the
machine running.
The Fossa’s hunt was not a tragedy; it was an inevitability and an inexcusable
loss of life. It is the inescapable result of what happens when you hand over your
trust, your safety, your livelihood, to men who claim to be our guardians but are, in
reality, nothing more than men. It is the undeniable outcome of what happens when
the only perceived solution to a problem is violence. It is the perfect excuse to peddle
dogma and avoid centrism at all costs, to foster extremism and obscure worldview —
to take away one's ability to articulate and discern, to remove the ability to doubt.
Organized news is the first to trumpet the tragedy of these scenes. The first and only
voice of a distant, blood-soaked world; A voice financially owned and packed with
bias and sensationalism, only there to push doctrine and ensure ratings.
If we cannot trust those that rule over us, and we cannot trust the information
we are fed, then what can we trust in? There is no good answer to this question other
than you. Do not believe without proof, and scrutinize that proof at all angles and all
costs. Doubt in all things. Do not allow your reasoning to be chained by fear or by
the greater good! The greater good does not exist. People like Us are no better. People like
Us used The Hunt as a platform for outrage to express our discontent in a system
that cannot seem to hold anyone accountable and are incapable of staying the sword-
hand of The Fossa and instead enable it through sensationalism and fear. We used it
to try and show the world doubt, to inspire thought — and it was wrong. We are not
infallible, nor are anyone else. No single thing is perfect, but no place should be
dystopian enough for people so shallowly infernal to walk without consequence.
When an external threat is present, mankind will rarely look inward to the flaws
within oneself or one's system of thought, and it is easy to invent enemies. It is an
inexcusable complacency that breeds nothing more than a complete apathy towards
true progress. But the problem is here, in our city, and the problem is more than one
man! The problem is what allowed him to escape for so long. The problem is what
gave him his power over our minds in the first place. The problem is People like Us.
The problem is how easily war and violence can be manipulated into a patriotic tool
to remove all doubt from one's mind, to indoctrinate. The Fossa is a very real, very
dangerous threat — he could not have become one if people like Us had
accountability if a system of control were not hidden from view and scrutiny but
instead prescribed by us for Us. A sword can only kill when it has an arm behind it.
For all his struggling and violence, Jake was never the arm.

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 Part III
Anna

It is often our fault that we lose those we love. The world is never stagnant, and
for as much as patterns may repeat or follow the status quo, people can grow into
more or lose themselves entirely. We’ve all seen it happen, especially to people like
Us. We tend to focus on the extremes, our stories and our responsibilities. There is a
middle ground between becoming so engrossed in who you are you lose sight of
yourself and pushing it so far away you fall back to sleep, unaware of the world
around you. It is a balancing act that we often can't handle, and drifting too far in
either direction is dangerous. It is death, in no uncertain terms. Many of us cannot
find this balance, and many of us do not even try to. It is easier to see the world as
abiding by rules of law, morality, right, wrong. It is easier to find meaning than to
accept there is none. It is easier not to ask questions and live in service to someone
else, something else than it is to face the inadequacies of being flesh and blood, fallible
and uncertain.
This road free of doubt leads to a pale void filled with nothing but emptiness. It
strips away who we are and replaces it with tiny mementos of what we once were;
shreds that only show the places where all that once was used to rest. Extremism is a
very harsh phrase, but this is exactly what it is. A devotion of oneself entirely to a
principle, code, or creed — no matter what they may be — is dangerous purely
because it is fundamentally indoctrinating. It destroys the ability to doubt the world
around you and most importantly destroys doubt in the self. Doubt is the greatest
weapon the world has to offer. It exposes lies, topples agendas, and brings people
together. It is all destructive and all-powerful. Self-doubt allows us to grow as people:
to question our principles, understand our thoughts, our purpose, and our place
amongst the chaos of the world. It allows us to understand who we once were and
change what we may become. Doubt allows people like Us to stay human! Blind faith
is a road leading into an infinite abyss. It is devoid of free thought, devoid of colour,
devoid of humanity, devoid of doubt. It is the communication of this doubt that
brings empires to ruins, that defines morality, which exposes injustice, and rights
wrongs. It is the language we use to express all of our joys, loves, hopes and dreams;
consequently our trauma, our hatred, our rhetoric and our sadness. Language is the
great filter between us and every other heap of life that cursed itself into existence.
Language is the vehicle that can be used to either oppress or liberate. Language is the
only weapon powerful enough to infiltrate the mind and poison its function.
Language is the fuel that fires in the cylinders of the engine and allows an incessant,
blind march forward into whatever “progress” lay ahead. These two pieces in
conjunction, doubt and language — have enough power behind them to topple the
world. They are responsible for the Arab Spring, they are responsible for the rise and
fall of the U.S.S.R., they are responsible for every ounce of progress man has ever
made. If we never stop to doubt our actions, if we never stop to doubt ourselves, it
becomes easy to miss the many paths we could have taken. If we lose the ability to
reason, if we lose the ability to doubt, we have lost everything. It is only through doubt
that we can slow the ever closer marching of a meaningless oblivion.
There comes a time where inaction is an action in and of itself. Many people
like us have come together under the banner of The Middlemen, but they do little to
remedy you. You have been ripped from your lives for a purpose you do not know,
forced to watch a man you do not know kill people you do not know who control
what they privilege you to know. There is no time like the present for transparency
and conclusion. Do everything in your power to question the things around you.
Question our wars, question our motives, question the reason you fight and get
nothing for it. Above all, question those who hold a modicum of power over you.

“Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a
revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is
persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.” - Orwell, 1984

It is those that have learned to foster doubt, learned to think and question their
worldview that have been the harbingers of change. Everything must be doubted!
Doubt as every great man and woman who has come before you has. Lose your faith
in the system! Fail your indoctrination and begin to doubt the creation of those
systems themselves. This is the only road to true progress. This is what separates us
from animals. This is what takes us from living to being alive. This is what makes Us
human!

Pt. IV
People like Us

It is absurd to think that people like Us have the cure for an ailing world. There
have been and will be no solutions, only remedies for symptoms. There are no laws
that hold us to a system — only fear of divergence from society. But that divergence
happens constantly, behind closed doors and as easily as breathing for some of Us.
The nature of ourselves can, and often does, warp our moralities and perceptions of
reality. There is no fail-safe in this system, or any system, for those that think to do
wrong, or those that have the intent to do wrong. But this type of thought policing
cannot exist in practice— the concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, are
invented by man for man. People like Us are the product of these dogmas taken to
the extreme, pulled away from centrism and driven to an absolute end when there
can be no absolute ends. Every action we undertake has a cause and an effect. Every
story has a beginning and an end. How we chose to end these stories should be our
choice, but it often is not. There are those that pull the strings that even people like
Us, save a select few, know about. This was never about right and wrong, the “good
guys” versus the “bad guys”, this was about understanding and answers. All any man
seeks to do is find his place in the world before the great void swallows him, to find a
semblance of purpose. It was always about, and always will be about belonging. Not a

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single one of us decided to come alive, but here we stand dealing with the
consequences of what hand fate had dealt us, whoever she may be. Surely the only
thing that defines our humanity is the bonds or the lack thereof, we share with
others. The prose in which we dictate our lives is how others define us and how we
define ourselves. It is the reason our laws are written, the reason we follow the rules.
It is our sense of belonging. It is what brings us happiness, joy, and unimaginable
horror.
The prose is the reason we are awake. It is the reason those we love die. It is the
reason we can lose sight of our morality.
It is the reason we can become dogmatic and refuse all other schools of thought. It is
prose that defines Us, whether we like it or not. It defines us as good or bad, a sinner
or a saint. It is what drives us to whatever God there may be or forces us to confront
the Devil.
Any restriction on these bonds is a restriction on our humanity itself. Without
this expression through any medium, written, spoken, physical, we lose what makes
us human. Without a doubt in ourselves or anything around us, we lose what it
means to be ourselves. We become more partisan and stop seeing the colour in the
world, only shades of white and black. Without language, without thought or a
community, people like Us are doomed to fall into our stories and become
unrecognizable husks that exist only to see a story to its inevitable conclusion, be it a
happy or tragic event. We are all doomed to our fates; it is important to remember
not to be defined by them but by whom we want ourselves to become, not just as
who we are. People like Us must come together and form a coalition for the benefit of
Us! To make sure the patterns do not repeat and that cycles are broken! It is not
pragmatic to seek a tribunal for “justice”, whatever that may be — but at the very
least we are all responsible to help each other remain human!
 MC Notes and Episode Summaries
The following is a lengthy series of custom rules, dangers, episode synopsis, and material used for the
Scopophobia campaign.

Custom moves
A few custom moves were created to better cope with the power-scaling in later events. They are as follows:

Incinerate
● You may incinerate a tag to gain an automatic hit of 10+ with
a power of 3 ignoring all negative and positive statuses. As soon as
you incinerate a tag, erase it from your character sheet. You may re-
answer the same question to take the same tag with a regular
attention improvement.

Custom PC avatar rules:

● Get a 4th Mythos theme book when your last logos theme
flips. This theme book acts as normal.
● When your avatarhood ends, you may pick from the base
options, or choose to return to the city as the same character; but flip
three of your Mythos theme books into nascent logos themes to
represent the violent departure of your Mythos for rejecting it; you
may keep a single Mythos theme — your last grasp on what you
once were. You do NOT get buildup points or improvements for
your books flipping this way.

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 Dangers
A small list of the more pertinent custom Dangers of the series

The Grand Sculptor ★

INJURE 2/ CONVINCE 5/ THREATEN 3

The Grand Sculptor lives just outside of Innsmouth however he frequently

spends nights or weekends out of town to avoid turning into one of the
towns fish people, however when not asleep he is usually found within his lab
beneath Innsmouth’s community centre, the lab of course is filled with his
many J.P. lookalikes, some successful and some grotesque failures it should
be noted that his real name is Johann Jundr and his Mythos is Dolos,
Prometheus’ assistant.

Bodyguards: assuming he has bodyguards he may transfer any physical

statuses onto them

Scaredy-Cat: When scared by the players he may give himself

Threatened - 1 as an Intrusion

Switchblade 327: when the Threaten spectrum is maxed out the many
containment cells for his lookalikes open (give them a collective of 1, one less
damage tag for being part clay, and inducing punch one on attacks)

Give an opponent Punch - 1 as a hard move

Attempt to flee or try and weasel his way out of his current situation
Santa Cabeza ★★
BURN 3/ SUBJUGATE OR ARREST 3

Just out of town, tucked away from the world is about 8 unassuming blocks
within a gated community and within the lake, in the centre of that
community fish people come out at night and stalk the area searching for
mates and food

Landmarks: Lake in the centre of town, large community centre, a local

bed and breakfast, the Marshman’s manor

Close Minded: when looking to gather information on Santa Cabeza

from its community members always give incomplete or part true part false
information, among other mishaps, the strangers poking around gives the
area Riled – 1

Don’t Take Kindly to Strangers: If the town takes Riled - 2 it may

summon a mob of citizens to defend it

For Dagon: at night time the town may choose to summon a group of
fish people to stalk the area in search of prey

Rustic Atmosphere: upon spending any semi significant amount of

time within Cabeza all devices and electronics made past 1930 cease
functioning (this includes weaponry)

For every week spent in Santa Cabeza they take Strange Dreams – 1

Upon taking Strange Dreams - 6 they take Cabezan - 6

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Dagon ★★★★
HURT OR SUBDUE 5/ CONVINCE -/ TRICK 2

Dagon is approximately the size of the large Manor the players are currently
situated in

Really Really Big: once his armour is removed all damage tags against
him are reduced by one

A lot to Handle: each of Dagon’s limbs take statuses separately, each

limb has a hurt spectrum of four to be rendered inoperable (except his head
and torso which are 5) each limb destroyed limits him

Blocking: assuming he has operable arms Dagon may redirect any

attack on his torso or head towards his arms instead

Hard Scales: Give Dagon’s entire body Armored - 4, track each limb
separately

Unnatural speed: Assuming both of his legs still work has Fast – 5
Bring his hand/foot down on a single opponent Crushed – 6 Sweep all
opponents in a given area Thrown around - 3
Malcolm Krausier ★★★
HURT - / BANISH 5

Give Malcolm a collective status of one to represent the spirits/Chevals that

constantly surround him
When Malcolm enters a scene, give him Ancestral Guidance - 3 he may
lower this status by one to perform a hard or soft move as an interrupt or
extend it to an ally/call it back as a soft move.

Can’t kill what’s already dead: Malcolm spends most of his time in
the world of the dead. Simply waiting with graves dug for his enemies. He
may exist simultaneously in the world of the living by mounting peoples
through use of a voodoo ritual. He may possess a small handful of people at
any one time.

One step from god: reduce all magical statuses Malcolm receives by
three.

Bewitched: When someone reaches Open Minded - 3 or higher

changes the status to a temporary Bewitched - 5 as an interruption, they
cannot face danger. They may either burn tags equal to their prior open
minded status or make one hard move against an ally.

One Foot in the Grave: if a target has a rot status they constantly take
Rot - 1 after every move they make, they may not face danger

Give someone Open Minded - 1 as a soft move.

Give someone Rot – 2

Can make one person in the world at a time incapable of dying.

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Klaus Johannes ★ (★★)
HURT 5/ SCARE 3/ DOUSE WITH BURNING OIL 1

When Klaus enters a scene give him Tricky - 2 and Hidden -3

The Gang’s All Here?: Up to 40 clones of Klaus may exist at any one
time, meaning he may have a collective status anywhere from 1 to 4.

Marked House: assuming their unique mark is put on a structure they

are able to know the location of every individual within said structure. While
operating within said structure Klaus takes Perfectly Executed - 4

Wait until nightfall: if an individual enters a room while completely

unaware of the presence of Klaus he is able to make a hard move as an
interruption.

Secret Tunnel: The thieves are able to mark any given doorway as
inoperable, save by the use of a given password, Open Sesame.

Looking for this?: Once per scene reveal Klaus has taken a players
item, temporarily burn it and give it to Klaus as a permanent story tag.

Give themselves Scattering - 1 as a soft move.

Escape the scene as an interruption by reducing their collective size by

one, as Klaus clones throw themselves at the enemy in order to ensure the
escape of the rest.

Stab at the enemy giving them Stabbed - 1, unless they have the
structure marked in which case it becomes pierced vital points – 3
Yuri Sergeyev ★★★
HURT 5/ GET DRUNK 2/ TRICK 3

Yuri Sergeyev is the Rift of Shuten-dōji and the lead bouncer for Wiles,
concerned mostly with finding something fun to smack and finding anything
else that can feed into his hedonism.

Too horrible to die: when Yuri takes a status related to physical harm
reduce it by one unless he is drunk.

Additionally, poison affects him as much as anyone else.

Ankle Biter: if one of Yuri’s limbs is severed it is able to act

independently. If Yuri loses an arm he is able to give his opponent
Constrained - 3 as the arm wraps around them. If his head is severed and the
opponent isn’t expecting it give them Death grip - 4 as his teeth sink into
them.

A Need to Live: if Yuri takes a hurt status of four he’ll collapse and
fake being dead.

King of the Oni: Yuri automatically bestows a Demonic - 2 on the truly

unsalvageable and wicked around him as a soft move.

Hit them with his large club, bestowing a status of battered - 4 as a hard
move.

Anyone who survives an encounter with Yuri takes Severely ill – 4

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Red Masques ★★
HURT - / CURE 4/ DESTROY MASK 4/ ENCROACH 4/
UNMASK 2

When the Red Masques enter a scene they have a target in mind, they know
the general direction of their target and will be able to recognize them on
sight.

A Puppet With no Strings: when the Red Masques take a hurt status
give a status of tier minus three to their mask (assuming the damage could
conceivably affect a wide enough area).

Unsheathe the knife: If a PC misses a move in close range max out the
encroach spectrum.

The Final Room: Upon filling up a target's ENCROACH spectrum

create a new danger, The Red Death.

Skulk towards a target; give themselves Encroaching - 1 as a soft move.

Rapidly close Distance to the target giving itself Encroaching – 3.

The Red Death ★★★★

CURE 6/ SUPPRESS 3

Give the PC sick - 2 as a soft move

Terrible Symptoms: Create any of the following story tags randomly as

an interruption, do this every time the sickness status reaches a new tier past
the third: Blood in my eyes, slick with blood, too dizzy to stand, bloody mess, sudden
pains

Evil Contagion: When the sick statuses reach four the contagion
spreads to a nearby victim.

Give the PC the temporary status Sharp Pains - 5 as an interruption

Shoggoth ★★★
HURT 5/ BANISH 2
Disturbing Visage: When the Shoggoth enters a scene give it Avert
Your Eyes! - 4 to represent the fact that it’s a disgusting fucking Shoggoth,
note that this doesn’t apply to indirect forms of attack (ex. planting a
landmine or something)

Reforming: once per scene the Shoggoth may get rid of all physical
damage tags on itself as a soft move

It’s got me!: once per scene the Shoggoth may use one of its many
tentacles to grab at an opponent as an interruption, giving the target
entangled - 3 they may Face Danger to reduce the status, assuming it has the
target and they’re at least at entangled - 2 the Shoggoth may: Throw them
around as a soft move battered - 3 or bring them into one of its many gaping
maws as a hard move, giving them consumed - 6 which they can face danger
on.

Enormous Creature: When the Shoggoth takes a physical damage tag

reduce it by three.

Grab an opponent, giving them entangled - 3 as a hard move, it may

then follow the same rules as above.

Extend its mass to give it more means to attack, more area to move
around, and to toy with its prey, giving them surrounded - 3 as a soft move.

Attack its prey with one of its many mucus-covered tentacles, giving
them acid burns - 4 as a hard move.

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Lloyd Alberns ★★★
THREATEN 4/ HURT 2/ DECEIVE 4/ CRACKED THE
CASE 4

Oftentimes those who meet Lloyd are taken aback by his childish personality,
but this is a persona Lloyd wears to harbour his more cunning side. Childish
and friendly to his allies but ruthless and cunning to his enemies

Loose Cannon: when Lloyd enters a scene give him reckless - 2 he can
renew this as a hard move

The clues we leave behind: for every clue spent on anything related to
Lloyd Alberns the GM may ask one in return

An Unfortunate Truth: once cracked the case spectrum is maxed out

force Michael to both burn all his tags related to his job or flip the book and
give him Wanted – 2

Every time the crew takes a downtime roll 2d6 P.L.U.s his On the Trail
or his Suspicious status, on a soft hit give him On the Trail - 1, on a hard hit,
do the previous status and one of the PC’s allies come under scrutiny

Whenever Lloyd enters a scene give him Suspicious at the same level as
his current On the Trail

Give Lloyd Suspicious - 1 as a hard move or give Suspicious- 2 as an

interruption if he witnesses the players doing or saying something obviously
suspicious

Take a shot with his sidearm Gunshot wound - 2

Alec Abbabio ★★★ (★★★★★★★)
PUT TO SLEEP 2/ HURT 3/ GET A GRASP 3/ HUMANIZE
4/ REFORM 2/ BRING DOWN 4

1st generation African Immigrant sought to help people in America reclaim

their heritage (this was in the 70s. During this time he attempted to spread
the word of his old gods from Africa and lead people back to him, it can be
assumed that in his quest to act as his people’s shepherd he awoke to his
Mythos. He grew obsessive and didn’t move from his various sites for days at
a time, until finally he fell asleep, and lay sleeping until one day when the stars
were right he was awoken by Clancy, searching in all the places he knew he
shouldn’t
While he was a Rift he basically single-handedly kicked the KKK out of
Seattle, he also left a trail of destruction in his wake and seemed wracked with
guilt over not knowing whether or not he was convincing people to his cause,
or simply making them go mad until they followed him.
His writings and the cults left in his wake are what led Clancy to track
him down

When his humanize status is maxed out, Alec’s Down to Earth. If the
players fill out his down to earth spectrum his avatarhood comes to an end.
Alec will have a brief moment before the Mist takes him

When Alec enters a scene everyone present gets the status Terrified – 4

A Real Toughie: Reduce incoming physical statuses by 2 and mental

statuses by 3

Mist Averse: perform a hard move as an interrupt every time Down to

Earth increases

Shepherd from the Stars: Cthulhu takes an extra soft move every time
he makes a soft or hard move. He may not use both soft moves on the same
ability

But the Sun Never Came: all the abilities written in italics must be
unlocked; Cthulhu can do this once per player move as a soft move.

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 Unknowable: Until the Comprehend spectrum is maxed out all clues
used on Cthulhu or his underlings comes back in gibberish or, at best, riddles

Of Foam and Fury: When Cthulhu’s HURT spectrum is maxed out he

bursts into goop, during this time he is reduced to a single soft move which
may only be spent to give himself Reformed - 1, Cthulhu should never need
to spend more than 4 soft moves reforming

Shake it Off: Once per session Cthulhu may reform as an interruption

Switch It Up: Once per session when reforming Cthulhu may change
how his Hurt spectrum works, to kill him requires multiple separate
spectrums of damage (so one for physical, one for fire, one for damning, etc.)
of an amount equal to 2 P.L.U.s his never dead spectrum, this lasts until he is
killed again.

Never Dead: Once this is unlocked Cthulhu increases all his spectrums
by one as an interruption, he may do this until his HURT spectrum is equal
to 6 (at which point it becomes infinite) but doing so takes an additional
cumulative soft move, so first this takes a total of one soft action, then two,
then three. Additionally every time Cthulhu unlocks this option increases the
tier of his hard moves by 1. Additionally, give Alec an increasing
Overwhelming - 1 status

All Consuming Secrets: as an interruption Alec may choose to have a

target take a Unknowable things status with a tier equal to their current
grasped status, this represents Cthulhu leveraging his own influence (your
knowledge of him) over your mind.

The Stars go Black: Increase the collective status of the Star spawn by
one as a soft move. Once Cthulhu unlocks this ability the stars are hidden by
a portal opening to somewhere between reality, star spawn begin to pour out

Places Between: Cthulhu pops back and forth between this reality and
another, as an interruption, trying to hurt him while he’s like this is nearly
impossible, requiring either a full GET A GRASP spectrum or to anchor him
while he’s here
 An Expert in Sealing: as a soft move make a player that had targeted
Cthulhu roll a d6, on a 1 burn all the tags they used in their last offensive
move against Cthulhu, additionally if a 1 is rolled that player is immune to
this ability until the end of the scene

From Bow to Stern: using a soft move, reduce all Cthulhu’s statuses by
one as he pulls himself back together

Buried for a Reason: give the city ravaged - 1 + the current collective
status of the star spawn as a hard move

Holder of Terrible Things: When Cthulhu’s hurt spectrum is maxed

out, his goop becomes corrosive, as its milky touch feeds Cthulhu’s growth.
Upon maxing out his HURT spectrum give everyone around him and the
area itself Corroded - 2

Alive, and Dreaming no longer: Take a hard move as a soft move.

This move cannot be unlocked until all his other moves have been unlocked

Give someone either Aged - 4, Removed Organs - 4, Immolated - 4,

Screaming - 4

Give everyone and everything around him Unreal - 1

147
Abir ★
CURE - / HURT 2

From the Ashes: when Abir’s HURT spectrum is maxed out decrease
her physical spectrum by one as a soft move and give everything around her
Scorched - 3 as an interruption

Leif Grierson ★★★★

HURT 6

Protective: Leif may choose to take a status in place of anyone else in

the scene

Heroic Aura: When Leif enters a scene give all his allies Inspired - 3

Years of Experience: When Leif enters a scene give him Experienced -

2

Invincible: all physical damage tags are reduced by three (HP)

Hardened: Reduce all mental statuses by one (HP)

Too Determined to Die: As long as Leif can see what’s about to kill
him he can spend up to three insights to negate an incoming attack. He may
also spend two more insight to cause the opponent to take half of the status
with no face danger

Outside Help: when Leif enters the scene give him Outside Help - 4 to
represent the tactical coordination granted by the voice in his earpiece, if the
earpiece is removed (which only takes one tier of status to do) then he loses
Outside Help. This reflects the tactical advantages he’s receiving and may be
lowered if his handler doesn’t know the situation

“What do we know about this guy?”: once per session Leif can ask
One what data is available on a given opponent, for as long as she’s speaking
give him Insight - 6 as a soft move
 Fair Fight: if Leif’s opponent uses a weapon Leif gets Magic Sword - 5

Impossible Strength: Leif can inflict Broken - 5 as a hard move, this

cannot be reduced to less than a tier 2 status, if he’s armed he can inflict
Cleaved in Half - 6 which cannot be reduced less than a tier 3 status

Grim Resolve: Once per scene as an interruption make someone roll

minus the highest status currently on Leif (this applies even if he’s taken a tier
six status) on a 10+ nothing happens. On a 7-9 they take half of Leif’s status
and burn one tag. On a miss they take the entire status and burn two tags.
Leif can do this even if one of his spectrums is maxed out

Experienced Warrior: Leif can give himself Insight -1 as a soft move;

he can then spend 1 insight in order to burn an opponent's tag as an
interruption

Double his current rate of insight gain as a hard move

Battle of the Lake: Leif cannot take any statuses related to asphyxiation
or lack of oxygen, he can die from lack of oxygen, but he can hold his breath
for hours

Ask his opponents if they want to call it quits yet

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One (Anna Rooker) ★★★★★★
HURT 3/ DEBATE 6

Reality exists within the human mind: if Anna manages to speak at

length to a character give them Questioning - 2 they cannot face danger

Room 101: if Anna faces someone within room 101 give her Your
Worst fear- 6 all damage inflicted within the room is psychological, with the
goal of mentally breaking down her opponents so they may be reprogrammed

Anna has control over the media and broadcast devices

Anna is able to see through a large number of media devices at any time

Always watching: If Anna is ever killed she simply takes the body of
one of the higher-ups within her cult or political party, the new body’s form
adapts to suit her (as does everyone’s memories), because of this many
separate characters are bodies Anna will hop to and from, including but not
limited to:

Ann Jennson, Collin’s college girlfriend and good friend of Will Powers
(this one is her preferred persona and because of this the characters will
remember this girl as being Anna)

Antônia Oito, Bill Cunningham’s wife

Leif Grierson, the Swede himself, however, she only rarely does this as
the Swede’s knowledge of her & natural intelligence allows him to know
when she does this.

Behind the Painting: Anna is able to listen and view through any
screen in North America, while she cannot view all at once she can view
many at any given time

2+2=5: as long as her statements are semi-realistic, or said within room

101 anything Anna says becomes the truth to those who hear it, history and
record bend to her will and human memory also fails (unless the individual
was personally invested or paying attention to the event)
Anna’s goals are thus:
Establish an eternal enemy to keep the populace scared
Place pawns in a government position, eventually taking over the
government as a whole.
Push the working class further from the upper classes.
Limit the cities imports so as to create a constant need from the
populace
Every rotation (every player participating in a session) roll + Control, on
a 1-6 nothing happens, on 7-10 pick one, on 10+ pick 1 and grow closer
to one of the crew’s allies

The government's failure to provide for the people has become a

growing irritant (+ 1 control)
The people’s need to be part of something has benefitted little bit of
love (+ 1 control)
The middlemen have grown, partly due to the economy and part due to
their heroic reputation (+ 1 control)
The news has grown dissent towards the government and has fear
mongered its way into the citizens’ trust (+ 1 control)

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Anna Rooker (Big Brother) ★★★★★★★★★★
HURT 3/ CONVINCE - / BRING DOWN 0/ SHROUD -/
DOUBT 4/SUCCUMB 6

Once she lost the thing that had kept her going, the proof of what she
needed to do, Anna felt the one thing that was poison to People Like Her:
Doubt. As she started to come down within the confines of Room 101 she
spoke the truth: that she would remain an avatar.

She blankets an area in Mist

Her ability to constantly create story tags is far improved
She instantly burns all tags used against her

Always in the Right: When Anna enters a scene burn two tags from
each book

Omnipresent: Anna exists separately in two bodies at once though all

her bodies share the same succumb spectrum. She can enter a third body
though then her succumb status increases by 1 after every move the players
make

Big Brother is Always Watching: when Anna enters a scene give her
Observant - 6

Marked as Thought Crime: when Anna enters a scene choose a book

for each player present; burn one tag on that book every time a tag from said
book is invoked on a move

A Falling Star rises above the Others: When Anna enters the scene
give her surroundings Thick Mist - 4

The Will of the Party: whenever a move is made against Anna or her
story tags burn all the Mythos or logos tags used in said move as the abilities
are phased from reality.

A world in Beige: When Anna dies give anything and everything

around her an ongoing status of Suppressed - 5. Any Mythos powers are no
longer able to exist therein,
Burn all of the tags on a target book. Or mark crack on that book

As a soft move, Anna creates 2 story tags.

If she is killed, she will take over another body.

153
 Episode Summaries
A brief summary of the episodes of Scopophobia is contained here, usually consisting of pre-episode plans and
post-episode synopsis.

Episode One: Francis Brodure

Francis infiltrates the Little Bit of Love Headquarters, finds Branch, partners with
Prometheus.

Episode Two: J.P.

J.P. Meets with Dis’ cult to exchange the Belt of Orion, they wind up fighting, Dis
narrowly escapes, J.P. finds Another one Opens and meets Morgan, winds up trapped in
a mall of crazies.

Episode Three: Michael Mercer

Michael meets with Pandora's Box, fights the Nemean Lion and discovers the location
of Will Powers.

Episode Four: Eden’s not for everyone

Francis investigates the disappearance of Will Powers, finds him and kills him, also
discovers the business card of Michael.

Episode Five: Mob Mentality

J.P. narrowly fights his way out of the Mall and agrees to partner with Dis, then escapes
the cops and has a minor scuffle with Nguyen.

Episode Six: Pandora’s Close

Michael fakes Saarid’s death and further investigates some of Francis’ actions.

Episode Seven: When Worlds Collide

Michael and Francis meet and consolidate their information, then perform a séance for
Sam.

Episode Eight: Slumber’s End

J.P. gets ready for the stars to move, he meets the Ghostbeaters and sets explosives
around the building.

Episode Nine: Even the Best laid plans

Michael and Francis plan out an elaborate plan to infiltrate the charity HQ, they then
abandon that plan in favour of heading to C&T accounting.

Episode Ten: Dead and Dreaming

J.P. fights Leif and gets his ass kicked, then Francis and Michael show up and fire on the
building, which collapses it, killing Malcolm, the three then meet and attack Cthulhu
together.
Episode Eleven: The Fossa Declawed
 J.P. struggles to not kill anyone while he makes his way through the local news building,
where he discovers the files for Abir and Simon (written by Daedalus).

Episode Twelve: Little bit of Loss

Michael and Francis return to the Little Bit of Love HQ to discover the place
conveniently cleared out, however, they do find a great amount of Hypno in the safe of
the charity’s CEO.

Episode Thirteen: Denizen of the Black City.

Michael and Francis discover the fate of Abir and return to C&T accounting.

Episode Fourteen: Ethereal Moon Juice

Start with the standard opening monologue, done by Francis recapping the events of the
last episode in which Francis and Michael attacked Zachary Brannigan, president of
Little Bit of Love.
Media has been all over that whole drug scandal, charity is in a state of confusion
Phil/Phoebe’s experiments, turns out people directly involved in the nights events
remember the truth quite easily, those with nominal involvement have difficulty recalling
and/or get fuzzy details, and those unrelated to the events of the battle remember
nothing.
Michael and Francis revisit the Black City of R'lyeh, Cthulhu states it was built for him
Francis & Michael troll through the ghetto (illin’)
Francis & Michael attempt to meet the Swede
Michael has a brief text conversation with him
The two gather up Morgan, Griffin, & Paige to go to Denny’s
Back to the Black City to meet Abir
Rolling through the Black City
Dinner to see if Nguyen is on the up and up

Episode Fifteen: Slashing Prices

J.P. attempts and fails to sneak into a Docking warehouse with the “help” of Jimmy the
Imp. He then steals a uniform
He breaks in and meets up with the foreman, who he helps file the severance pay for the
workers there
J.P. sabotages the papers to rob several of the workers of their severance pay
He then steals the foreman’s computer and takes it home
J.P. meets up with Paige’s brother who breaks into the computer for him

Episode Sixteen: Cabeza Help

The episode opened with Dis speaking about the nature of media and how nobody
questions what they see on T.V.
J.P. opens by raiding a middlemen club (the Hopeful Liar) and fighting a lookalike of
himself, he then tears through the entirety of the middlemen there and destroys a news
van with the help of Leroux (Phantom of the Opera)
Unknown to the Exemplaries the van they destroyed contained Anna Rooker
J.P. plays D&D with a local group
J.P. found a note on the body that led him to a place called Santa Cabeza (Innsmouth)

155
 He tries to infiltrate the gated Neighborhood and gets found out, seeing he’s injured and
outgun he takes a moment to text his ‘allies’ and lets himself get swarmed

Episode Seventeen: Wasn’t he Lovely

The opening narration of Phil talking about his distaste with the concept of God and his
love of Mythos’ imbuing their wielders with powers
Phil met up with Francis, Francis got trashed and wasn’t especially helpful when Phil
asked for information on the Star Machine
Cut to Michael in the midst of a monthly report to his boss (Bill Cunningham) about his
departments work, his findings on the Swede
Michael then arrives at Another One Opens and answers Phil’s questions, that the star-
machine’s whereabouts are unknown
Phil shares his concerns that the Star Machine may be capable of far more than anyone
has considered
Michael, Phil, and Francis concoct a plan to infiltrate the Seattle News Network by
doing an interview about the Fossa and his operations
Partway through the infiltration, Nguyen calls Francis saying he has a lead for the
mysterious Santa Cabeza text

Episode Eighteen: Nothing But Ones

Michael opened the episode talking about the events of last time
Francis infiltrated the Newsroom finding: An old family photo album of Clancy's, a
lockbox containing all the letters of stories to be published/erased (truth to be written),
a logbook of One's news vans movements, and a couple of paintings
Nguyen did some research and found out about Santa Cabeza
Michael met up with Arisha, a reporter claiming to want his help uncovering the events
of 2 years ago
Francis proceeded to assault the CEO and trash his office
Bill Cunningham was painted as an incompetent idiot during his interview with Lex
Duncan, something which further angered the populace
Michael briefly interacted with Alyssa Soto, head of the Fossa division at S.N.N.
The two met Nguyen at their favourite Shawarma restaurant where they discussed
Cabeza and what might be in wait there

Episode Nineteen: Bug Sprays got me Feeling Like

PRE-GAME NOTES
Narration is done by The Grand Sculptor. Talking about how
With the group’s permission open on them while preparing for their latest excursion,
whilst gathering materials Michael gets a call from Cunningham stating that he needs to
speak with him as soon as possible and he’ll be on his way to him, this is so he can drop
off an invitation to the ball to be held 4 days from the start of the episode. Upon seeing
him he will immediately rub Francis the wrong way
Assuming the players set out for Cabeza they will be able to get a couple of hex bags
from Morgan, namely bestowing mental fortitude -1, uncanny intuition - 1, magical
resistance - 1, divination proof - 1, or luck - 2
 POSTGAME NOTES
Open with narration from the Grand Sculptor about how humanity naturally wants to
carve out a piece of the world for themselves, maybe by creating one or maybe by taking
someone else's
Open with Michael and Jimmy talking about the good old days and what comes next,
Michael then talks about his desire to go beyond simply being Satan situated in a mortal
body, the two then rob and burn down a local liquor store
The group meets Sterling Gates, the driver for this operation and get acquainted before
beginning the road trip, featuring Francis, Michael, Nguyen and Sterling
The gang spent the day driving and the evening at a lake, Nguyen made burgers, Paige
enjoyed some sun and Francis and Michael sailed into the lake in a shitty backyard pool
filled with alcohol

Episode Twenty: The Bends

PREGAME
Open with narration from Francis
Cut to the group leaving their campgrounds in the early morning
Soon after the group’s arrival the electronic gates will go on the fritz leaving the group
trapped within Santa Cabeza
J.P. is held within the Grand Sculptors lab beneath Old man Marsh's home
Assuming that the players make their presence known mobs will soon search the town
looking for them, then later in the day they stay the worse off they'll be
There are several important landmarks, The Community Centre which serves as the
group's religious centre and is where they summoned the Shoggoth. Old man Marshes
home which is heavily guarded by residents and the Valkyries Zombie, the lake which
houses the many fishmen of the neighbourhood, the security office which shows how
the gates been sabotaged
POSTGAME
Open with narration from Francis
The group wakes up hung-over from their misadventures the previous evening
They wind up leaving the campground pretty late in the day
Sterling shares how J.P. used to be a much more relaxed guy before he awakened
Upon arriving at Santa Cabeza they see a guard posted at the front gate and brainstorm
about how to get around him, they settle on Francis posing as an elderly grandpa and
brother in law of Susan, one of the residents and are attending to assist with the funeral
proceedings
The guard calls Susan and she seems to have no knowledge of whatever Francis is
talking about, Michael asks to speak with her then subtly hangs up before acting as
though nothing strange had happened, the guard asks to make sure and Michael whacks
him with the phone
Francis then takes his guise and begins to work his shift while the others search the
community
They find that Santa Cabeza appears to be some kind of ghost town
Eventually, they discover that technology is wonky
The group picks up Francis and heads to the nearby barracks of the security team
A strange man is looking over some papers but turns his head once Francis says
something strange and freaks out Francis

157
 They leave and see strange shapes moving in the darkness, heading towards the homes
immediately circling the lake, one belongs to Susan
Francis moves to the front to knock on the door whilst in his previous security guard
persona, Susan answers and a large fish-man sneaks up on Francis who begins to distract
the pair
Michael searches the house and finds that these people used to be perfectly normal
The two reunite in the Nemean Lion and have a minor freak out session before
everyone in town goes to the weekly meeting while the crew hides in the vehicle
They raid Old Man Marshes house and inadvertently declare their location to the
fishmen before being surrounded, Michael holds back the fishmen while Nguyen
summons a lightning storm and Francis searches the house
Nguyen uses said lightning storm to hold back the townspeople at the manors gates
Michael uses his sword to contend with full fishmen breaking down the back entrance
Francis finds a strange man locked inside a vault door in the basement that begins
pouring gasoline everywhere and speaking vaguely about how they need to leave right
now, Francis doesn’t agree
The man sighs and opens his kiln of J.P. clones who all stagger out while a distorted
switchblade 327 plays in the background, meanwhile behind Francis the corpse of the
Valkyrie stands up
Francis lunges for the Sculptors work area where he wakes up J.P.

Episode Twenty One: Sea of Incurables

Pre-game:
Open with narration by Michael
Continue with the dramatic siege
Start reinforcements with Incoming - 4, every time the players make a move roll 2d6 on
a soft hit decrease the status by one, on a hard hit decrease it by 2, Nolan must be the
one who makes the roll, fuck you James
Reinforcements include: Paige, Leroux, Dis, Saarid a man named Lisiado (the Mythos of
Grendel and Phil’s personal head of security) and several of his trolls
Upon filling out the incoming track Dagon will also rise from the lake
After enough searching within Innsmouth, they’re likely to find: a projector showing the
Marsh man meeting with Antônia Oito the wife of Bill Cunningham, a log of where the
J.P. clones have been shipped to, a few scripts detailing the various sermons he’s given.
Most notably he stated that nobody should be within earshot when the woman known
as One comes to visit.
Post-Game
We resume with J.P. having flashbacks as to his drug-induced stupor, seeing the sacrifice
of some people to summon a Shoggoth before he is violently woken up by Francis in
the middle of the basement and the theme song begins to play
Cut to Michael finishing off the same group of fish-men as last time while setting the
scene from last time
Michael and Nguyen are pushed further and further back as they’re overrun by
Innsmouth’s villagers
J.P. struggles to fight the zombified Valkyrie while dealing with the sedatives coursing
through his veins and Francis uses a surprising amount of cunning to keep the clay
monsters at bay
As Michael and Nguyen fight headlights become visible in the distance
 Francis incapacitates the sculptor and goes to the computer, before they even touch it a
message appears taunting Francis and trying to hold his attention
Nguyen gets stabbed in the foot
Francis and J.P. finish with the hostiles and, on the way out J.P. looks frustrated towards
the few lookalikes left that are cowering in the kiln and, in his last surrender towards
redemption, guns them all down in cold blood.
Francis and J.P. emerge from the basement ready to ditch when they see that Michael
and Nguyen aren’t dead yet
Reinforcements steadily arrive and rendezvous with Michael and Nguyen
Those reinforcements first being Dis then El Lisiado and Paige, then Saarid and Leroux
They proceed to style on the bad men
Michael lights everyone's weapons on fire
J.P. and Michael in particular work together to tear through the enemy
Francis is sent to assassinate the enemy leader since he’s trying to activate some kind of
artifact, which he does with an alarming amount of precision
The group manages to get the enemy back, although most of their members are injured
in the process

Episode Twenty Two: An Example to Follow

Pre-session
J.P.
Exemplaries aren't doing too hot and are super confused about copycat groups that are
apparently popping up in San Francisco,
The Boss was taken from his penthouse and brought to a Middlemen location where he
was to be interrogated and held for ransom
The boss awoke at that very moment and became the Rift of Ebenezer Scrooge, locked
in an eternal nightmare where he must be confronted by all his past mistakes, J.P. takes
the form of his ghost of Christmas future, Malcolm his former partner, Sterling is his
ghost of Christmas past, The Swede is his ghost of Christmas present.
Within the nightmare, the boss’ life is set before J.P. and we can see that back in the day
the boss was a proper Rift who used his powers to advance his boss’ career and that he
was absolutely ruthless, mirroring J.P.
The boss tried to be better but fell back into his old habits and to this day never really
gave up his violent tendencies
Once recovering the injured boss J.P. goes to exit the location and finds it surrounded
by Middlemen and the Swede himself who insists on letting J.P. go, much to the dismay
of his men
The boss is held in an evacuated Chinese restaurant, the mist has filled the location with
gas and it might go off at any time, if a gun is fired give everyone present Blown to
Smithereens - 6

Post Session
J.P. gets back to his life, reuniting with Morgan
He embarks on a brief mission to recover the boss from the middlemen
He discovers the boss is the Rift of Ebenezer Scrooge and they reminisce a little bit
J.P. keeps on attempting to leave the gang but he finds he can’t leave Sterling and Zigg
to their fates

159
 Eventually, he tries to track down the swede; he manages to get him to show himself by
cordially threatening a bunch of middlemen
J.P. sat down with the swede and learned his name is Leif; he turned out to be a pretty
cool guy
They eventually agreed that J.P. would set the Exemplaries up to get jumped by the
Middlemen
The episode ends with Tamara tracking down J.P.

Episode Twenty Three: Vet Your Sources

Pre-session
Michael
Open with narration from Arisha Nona talking about the nature of curiosity.
As Michael makes contact with Arisha she has grown impatient waiting for him
Arisha’s main leads are a series of witnesses, some of whom Michael has already
surveyed
While many of the witnesses stories are unchanged several now reflect the fact that they
were near the blast zone when the gates opened, although the mist has made it so they
don’t remember the gates themselves and many of them now have conflicting stories on
the matter
Arisha, using her abilities will get one of the witnesses to say he saw Sterling Gates at the
scene all those years prior
Assuming Michael’s detective skills are even remotely respectable he’ll find out that the
death of one Timothy Krakowski is involved
Timothy was the agent who performed the shrouding on their minds and eventually
checked on all of them to make sure that it went well and there was no further trace of
possession or demonic interference

Post session
Michael meets up with Arisha Nona, she has prepared religiously for this
Arisha leads him to meet a series of witnesses Michael has already met with; many of
their individuals have had their stories change.
Arisha leads the witnesses on somewhat however it seems as though she leading them
on until Michael tells her otherwise
Michael found Sterling tied up and terrified before taking a gun to his chest and pulling
the trigger

Episode Twenty Four: Mean Old Trick

Pre Session
Francis
Sam is super smug about having saved the group
As Francis looks throughout the town he may come across an old film reel, it’ll require a
degree of restoration to get back in working order. in addition, he can find logs of where
the J.P. clones were shipped off to and scripts of various sermons the Marshman has
given, many mentioning how they will be given a corner of their own in the new world
and most notably mentioning to never be within earshot when the woman known as
One is in town, and that even when it seems as though she’s present it may not actually
be her but nonetheless they should stay away just in case
 Francis will have a note tucked under his door stating “This is Antonia Oito, the wife of
Bill Cunningham, I understand you’ve been investigating many of the goings-on
throughout the town and I have information that will help, come in “Disguise” to my
apartment, this has to be done tonight, tell no one; Especially not Michael.”
If Francis goes she’ll initially act the part of the polite housewife, but as he gets
comfortable she’ll start to tell Francis that the situation is much more dire than he could
imagine and to save everyone they may need to remove people that the enemy has under
their control, she asks Francis what he’d be willing to do in order to snuff out the
enemy. At the end of it all, she begins to ask Francis more personal questions, what does
he hope to accomplish in all of this, why does he hold on to the mystical when it clearly
stresses him etc. and at the end of it all she asks what it is he thinks he thinks this will
change, why bother, and what he’s willing to sacrifice before announcing that Francis
came here to murder her
Post Session
Found notes on the sacrifices, impossible geometries in statues and an older film spool
that must be restored
Francis visits with some people around the neighbourhood gets introduced to Phoebe
and learns of her true nature
Discusses the money owed with Phil
Calls Sam to discuss avatars and what the future holds (Sam mentions the T.V. static
here)
Works out a deal with Omar over having his new residence made divination proof
Francis comes home to see a letter under his door from a woman named Antonia Oito
He calls Sam to vent his concerns about this
He goes anyways in disguise, tests if she’s a Rift, and is told of how he broke in and
murdered her before T.V. static floods in and he finds himself in front of a folder
detailing Bill Cunningham’s role in his arrest, Bill let Francis take the fall for fear of one
of his inside sources being revealed, he still chases the shadow group whenever he can.
He had concluded that the middlemen were in some ways involved with the News
Network
The persona Francis takes on his escape from is named Dean

Episode Twenty Five: The Devil and The Fossa

Pre-session
Open with narration by Bill Cunningham about despair and the need to feel happiness
being a drug
If the two follow up on Arisha Nona they’ll find that she’s gone underground
At the Clemenceau grand ball, they’ll find: wealthy businessmen talking about how
successful the situation has gotten
Anna Rooker will be present as a guest of Zachary Brannigan, the charity’s CEO
Wiles will be present as well
3 separate politicians will be present,
Dennis Champlain, a man who boasts about the status quo but says it needs
improvement, claims the fossa still acting within the country is an absolute terror and
should be caught at all costs, blames the crisis on the proletariat
Kelly Hugh-Kiristev, the only man who isn’t in the pocket of Anna, he’s incredibly
handsome and she’ll likely spend the night flirting with him and trying to lure him into

161
 Room 101; mostly seeking to strengthen exports. Second generation Russian immigrant
but tries to hide that fact
Virian Durain (survivor): mostly seeks to cut spending in all areas. “We Americans have
this funny thing we like to do called denial we spend money we don’t have on an
individual and government level, but the fact of the matter is if we just suck it up and say
the next few years will suck we can pay off so much national debt that it’s demoted to a
minor concern the rest of our lives. So we cut funding to damn near everything but
education, we hunker down and let life be shitty for a bit and we lift our heads back up I
promise you the world will never look brighter” he claims he paid for his entire
campaign out of his own pocket
A clone J.P. is sitting outside with a group of middlemen dressed as Exemplaries, some
of them are wielding sand throwers containing weaponized sand courtesy of Simon
Post-session
J.P. and Michael met with Sterling to see how he felt about leaving the city and going
into hiding
J.P. and Michael then contact an oracle (though they don’t know that) to see if he could
use some supernatural abilities to assist in the digital way of performing their task, they
also enlist Paige’s brother Percy for the task
They then raided the Gala while J.P. was disguised as Bill Cunningham; they schmoozed
with the many guests
Jimmy the imp was attempting to perform minor pranks while he was there
Eventually, Michael attempted to have demons possess everyone present; it worked on
many of them however the demon’s primary goal was to escape
J.P. took the opportunity to murder everyone present; Michael hijacked the local news in
order to broadcast the event
They also leaked their documents with the story of what happened
Michael punched the Swede into hell briefly, he emerged later relatively unscathed and
royally pissed

Episode Twenty Six: The Man Who Squared 9/11

Pre Session
J.P. & Francis
Open with narration from J.P. as we see the broadcast of the Fossa’s Hunt
The world’s knee jerk reaction is terror and concern
Some check out some of the shady dealings but that discourse is drowned out before too
long, perhaps with time more critical minds will prevail
Individuals have begun gathering around T.V.’s every morning around 10 am to listen to
the daily Fossa report and vent at it
The Oracle’s request going forward is that J.P. kills nobody, for approximately a month
Post Session
Francis finally opened the lockbox obtained from the news station; it contained edits
requested to the news stations headlines
J.P. agreed to the Oracle’s terms
J.P. was simultaneously hunted by the Collectors, by the Middlemen, and by the police
while he squatted with Jimmy
Francis called up Sam and was told that whatever they did they were on the right track
Francis sought out the elusive J.P. who had just broken his phone (again).
 Francis paid off some of J.P.’s debts in exchange for a great many favours, J.P. even
signed a deal to this effect
The pair met Dis and gave him the orb
Leif Response:
You talk a lot of shit about us being on the same side when you don’t know the first
thing about me, stop pretending to be king shit and think about how exactly this
situation has been catered directly to you, and don’t play buddy-buddy with someone
AFTER launching them through hell
For as much as you pretend to be on top of things you sure don’t seem to give a fuck
who you declare war on
You ever find it a bit too convenient that we know when you’re going to raid a
middleman operation and can clear out right away but we haven’t just firebombed your
apartment? That was on purpose and all those little favours we’ve been doing for you are
about to up and disappear, you’ve officially stepped directly on my fucking toes.
If you’ve got anyone you consider to be worth protecting I suggest you tell them to give
you as wide a berth as possible, I’m giving you 6 hours to make whatever arrangements
you need with them and remember I’m doing this for their sakes, not yours
Also, if you know Abir’s situation and give so much as a single shit about her you’ll leave
Seattle.

Episode Twenty Seven: The Devil's Due

Michael met with Dis in order to discuss his flow chart
Michael went to the local university and FINALLY learned Leif’s Mythos
He then performed a séance with Clancy and learned One’s true name, Anna
Michael, like a big dumb stupid head, walked directly into what is, presumably her base
of operations, with very little in the way of backup, planning, or backup planning
“That's contradictory,” he said, ignoring the concept of doublethink
Michael barely escaped, losing weeks in hell and a piece of himself in the process

Episode Twenty Eight: Ghostriding the Whip

Pre-session
Open the episode with an opening narration from Phoebe about how there's so much to
be interested in and how her memory keeps on going as a bit of sand flies into her eyes
and some more coalesces near her in a bottle for later use with Francis and J.P..
Simon, if found, will remember that the big bad can see through screens as well as a
general overview of her desire to create a society of peace fuelled by war and love
propagated by hatred, etc. Simon will also be able to fill in any details about the
occurrences at C&T accounting, including how they found records that the accountant
in charge of the star-machine’s shipping had requested bribes but Cthulhu’s people
arranged a case of fraud to slap the accountant’s name on, this drew his attention to the
firm and assuming they may have known too much set his base of operations there
(killing two birds with one stone basically)
Once the sand flies into their eyes it’ll show Simon, now bald and steadily going insane,
as he is locked in a stronghold situated within the basement of a bank, a bank affiliated
with the dock company that came up earlier in the series as well as seemingly having ties
to the middlemen (judging by the amount in the banks’ basement), the charity, (as the
entire staff appears to be members), and the news station as there are similar numbers

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 Post-session
Open on J.P. getting a visit from the antiquarian, J.P. denies his offer but agrees to keep
him notified on when he dies so the antiquarian can seek out a relic with J.P.’s Mythos
incarnated within
Francis and J.P. set out to interrogate the Sculptor; they discover that One has been
keeping up with her subordinates through various electronic devices, as well stating he
believes she wanted the J.P. clones for the sake of causing terror and keeping the public
occupied
J.P. casually mentions Nguyen's debilitating eye disorder, Nguyen is hurt and spends the
rest of the episode panicking and calling up optometrists, J.P. proceeds to yell into his
phone demanding to meet with One. She responds in quick order giving him a location
Francis goes to develop his photos and gets visited by Phoebe blasting sand into his
eyes, the sand details the whereabouts of Simon
J.P. arrives at the garage to be met with several harpies, middlemen, and the Swede
He escapes by ghost riding his van off of a parkade into a nearby parkade and falling,
breaking his ankle in the process and proceeds into a footrace with the swede, he
eventually calls Francis for help and accidentally gives away his location
Francis arrives on the scene to see a large pool of blood and finds J.P. missing; however
with a little bit of effort he’s able to track J.P. down to the same address as Simon

Episode Twenty Nine: I’m a Cockroach, I Can Never Die

Pre-session
Open with narration from Leif about how the nature of Mythos requires tragedy
J.P. has been taken to a former community youth centre, this one is being prepared into
the Extracurricular Good Samaritan’s Hub, a location that (despite the name) is primarily
meant for women aged 7 - 24, and seems to mostly state things to the effect of “sex is
inherently wrong always” while also preaching that it’s inherently noble to provide future
citizens into the world, these messages are purposefully contradictory and get less subtle
as the target demographic gets younger
The area has prepared a series of sashes for the women
The area is mostly stuffed with workers from the charity, with a few zombified
middlemen scattered here and there
In addition, the area is going to be stocked with a few separate lecture halls and games,
the games themselves largely feature pieces with counteractive roles, the piece with the
most offensive role is unable to be moved offensively, the piece with the farthest
movement is best played stationary, the game itself is called duology
Simon is currently held in an airtight room in the basement
The Sub Basement is the current location of Room 101
Anna is currently present but she’s using the body of Arisha Nona, she has been
spending the day with Leif to talk about their funds and their treatment of their enemies
The top floor contains offices for various officials, including the couple members of the
Thought Police, some for teachers.
Post-session
Francis infiltrates the building and quickly finds a conversation occurring between One
and The Swede about how the funds from back in C&T accounting are steadily running
out, along with how they’re going to counter play Francis, such as securing an individual
named Malcolm, but avoiding any visible guards so as to alert him of noteworthy spots
 Francis manages to get into the office of one of the thought policemen, wherein he finds
a lead on where the basement is
While Francis makes his way in J.P. awakens in the midst of room 101, riddled with
bullets but somehow still alive, he yes man's most of what One says
When Francis finally makes it into room 101 he discovers Simon & J.P., but he’s
intercepted by West, who proceeds to karate him and tear their contract before getting
her head blown off, he also manages to shoot One before he stops holding back to
make his escape, unfortunately, he’s found out and captured as well
To-Do Monologues
Jimmy talking about his growing irritation with the rising stakes
Nguyen talking about his need to be more than just a dad or just a cop
Paige talking about how the simple things in life keep one anchored, especially in Seattle

Episode Thirty: What The Fuck Were You Thinking

Michael awakens rising from the earth into a shallow pit within a park,
There's a battle going on between a significant amount of One’s forces and Michael’s
allies, during the fighting Sam and Saarid die
Taking Michael back to Another One Opens the situation is explained to him, Michael is
generally upset with everyone's involvement in the escapade
The group goes to pick up Sterling
Everybody is a bit tired
Everybody divides into two teams, one hits the young women's center and the other hits
J.P.’s apartment to rescue
The YWC group has little issue and manages to rescue Simon, who immediately offers
his services
The apartment group grabs boss tony from his dream world
J.P. slaps Michael, so then Michael fucking leaves
Some other thing happened but I wouldn’t worry about it

Episode Thirty-One: A Bit of a Reunion

Pre Session
Leif chucks a cell phone taped to a megaphone at the group, One states that they
entered the prison separately, Michael will come in alone next to the Swede, and the
Swede wants to do it as a simple arena battle with some help from one, although he’s a
bit shaky on needing her assistance

Francis is held deep within the bowels of the prison, One will offer him as a trade if Leif
is near death. Unpersons litter the halls around the area
If the megaphone is unsuccessful then the entrance will be only filled with unpersons,
with an unperson SWAT team at the ready if need be, one is on the speaker system and
will constantly try and set up the arena fight

Open with narration from One

“history and personal belief will out and tell you about great Men performing great deeds
for great reasons; it's a noble idea truly it is but it's an idea it's not reality the reality is
your neighbour and the one after that and the one after that and the vast majority of the
people you will ever meet would much rather take a hundred percent certainty of a
mediocre nothing existence then they would step up go against the flow fight against

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 that raging current really well and truly rage against the machine no matter how wrong it
is people are docile, it's not a biting critique it sounded terrible god-forsaken flaw it's a
matter of who they are it's that right to me it is society's job to accommodate that
docility'
Dangers at the Prison
Dolos
Leif
One has control over all the speakers in the area
The Leader of Ali Baba’s 40 thieves
Post-session
Michael’s group moves in on the prison
Anna changes the groups’ plan, they are separated
Michael meets with the Swede, the two wind up sitting and talking, Michael speaks the
will out of him, grabs Francis and leaves
Francis is going through severe alcohol withdrawal and ego death
When brought back he’s shocked that anyone would try to help him at all
Francis puts Phil’s gun in his mouth, everyone tackles him
Paige tries to convince him to get his shit together
Eventually, Francis goes back to his safehouse with Omar, he says that once everything
is over to please end Francis’ life
With that Francis is back
The group raids a local library and finally discovers the truth; Anna Rooker is the avatar
of Big Brother

Episode Thirty-Two: I’m The Fossa

Pre-session
Open with narration from Sterling about how it’s hard to know how much you actually
know the people around you
Cut to J.P. after we had recently seen him, J.P. is on the ground surrounded by dozens
of SWAT when One’s voice comes through a bullhorn announcing that many of the
middlemen had disguised themselves and that an escape car was waiting to act under the
guise of arrest
J.P. returns to the train yard where it all happened, in order to assassinate many of the
workers therein
During the fight specify that he’s also fighting the mist, smells and sudden instances will
suddenly come to distract him, in particular smells of things he recalls from prior
J.P. comes up against a man named Yuri operating under the command working
alongside the men in Beige
Post-session
J.P. is rescued from the events at his old apartment building by One changing up the
situation so as to have an escape car ready
J.P. is taken back to the Haberdashers where he is treated as an absolute social pariah by
the people within
One presents him with simple dossiers on the council of bad men
His assignment from One takes him back to the train yard where he slaughters some
Gatekeepers in typical Fossa fashion
Eventually, a man named Yuri emerges; Yuri is the bodyguard to Wiles
 The two share a drink although, getting to know each other before the murder
commences
J.P. has the edge in the actual fight but Yuri’s passively turning him into an oni, much to
J.P.’s dismay, J.P. calls this cheating to which Yuri responds “we’re not samurai or sworn
warriors in an honourable duel to the death! We’re bastards seeing who can cheat the
best!”
His new strategy is a work of absolute genius, get in a car and drive the fuck away
As he sprints through the train yard he is bombarded with a couple of memories of the
old times, of Sterling and the Exemplaries
His bloodlust throws those memories utterly and completely aside
Eventually, he leads Yuri to the Space Needle and loads it with an absurd amount of
explosives
Yuri climbs to the top expecting a final confrontation but instead, J.P. waits at the top
screaming “I may not be a warrior, but I’m the Fossa!” before jumping off the space
needle as it explodes
Yuri quickly manages to throw his head through the glass of the Space needle and escape
J.P. is blown blocks away by the force of the explosion
He’s picked up by One and taken back to his motel room where he is left to recover,
satisfied with his mission
Jimmy informs Morgan that J.P. seems to be in the prime of his life

Episode Thirty-Three: Welcome to the Resistance

Pre Session
Open with some of the group making graves for the individuals lost when Michael was
rescued
Dis & Jimmy have some things to say about Sam Woodrow, Dis has a lot of respect for
someone able to see the big picture but stays grounded in reality. Jimmy respects an
idealist who was all about action
Nguyen eventually comes in stating that he was tipped off about a warrant out for
Michael’s arrest, along with one for Dis being in the works
Lloyd Alberns is heading the search for Michael, current points are, testimonials from
individuals who are suspicious of his involvement with Will’s apartment. Security
cameras showing him outside the headquarters of C&T accounting before the bomb was
called in before driving away and an anonymously brought in a video of a man filming
everything with the Fossa, the individual is wearing a mask Michael was seen with
Bill Cunningham is currently under watch from the Police for suspicion of having aided
in some way due to him having been there when everything happened
He’s currently confessing to everything but nobody’s listening to him
ALSO, the news choppers showed up to the explosion of the space needle before it
happened, signalling a need for investigation to have evidence to her end
Post Session
Open with Narration from Francis outside of the graves dug for Sam and Saarid
Dis pays his respect
Michael distributes the manifesto to the denizens of the bar and calls up the super-
hacker in order to see about getting work done
Phil loves the manifesto
Jimmy thinks it won't do much
Michael requests money from Francis in order to pay the hacker

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 Francis says that Michael would need to provide a golden fiddle
Michael decides to play the guitar so hard that it'll turn into gold
He then remembers he has just one arm and breaks Phil's guitar
Francis suggests a drinking competition instead
Francis proceeds to destroy El Lisiado in a drinking contest
He proclaims himself the new elephant king
Dis takes care of the money problem himself, the hackers’ instructions are to feed them
information, gather FBI evidence against Michael, and distribute the manifesto through
stable means
Michael visits Francis early in the morning and asks what he wants
Francis says nothing, he doesn't know himself well enough or get any real break from his
self-loathing long enough to get enjoyment worth pursuing
Francis eventually relents and says he'll focus on the mission for the time being if that's
what it takes
Francis manages to steal Bill Cunningham away from his apartment and bring him back
to the bar
Michael tries to convince Bill they're on the same side and Bill eventually tentatively
agrees. Essentially Bill trusts that Michaels doing the right thing but he needs evidence if
it ever comes time
Francis also manages to steal some files relating to his life from Bill Cunningham’s office

Reactions to the Mythos Manifesto

Phil absolutely loves it; this is something they’ve always needed. He notes how he spent
his entire career essentially trying to make a safe place for People like them and the most
he ever got was his bar so it’ll be difficult, but this was always his end game
Jimmy thinks it won’t change anything ambition denotes the necessity of power which
denotes that some be less fortunate than others and for people like them ambition is
inevitable, Jimmy also comments on how he has gone soft and, considering where being
hard got them maybe it's for the best
Paige thinks this is overreaching, that the powers that be would never let him get away
with this and their underhanded tactics would probably outdo Michael through sheer
force of propaganda
Morgan thinks that the system needs to change one way or another, and they’ve always
existed outside of the normal law
Simon thinks that it’s noble but no tribunal could have any perceived genuine authority
without ruling over others and being abusable, thus destroying the whole point of the
system
El Lisiado thinks it's silly to have too much control over people otherwise undetectable
Dis, wants this to happen, but wonders about the specifics
Nguyen states that justice is a cool idea but all in all with people like them vigilantism is
the standard, and it’s the most stable thing possible.

Episode Thirty-Four: Have a Daiquiri; We’re Gonna Take This City Back
The group has been put in contact with the local branch of the Gatekeepers, or at least a
liaison, Evette Zillier.
Evette is sympathetic to the desire to put together a group of less crazy, more stable
Rifts but thinks they’ll wind up turning away a lot more people than they’ll wind up
 accepting. She recommends keeping the association as loose as possible. Less a group,
society or country, more of a community so that they can stay on call if need be.
When Michael inevitably mentions that they should all stay in contact she mentions that
the more Rifts know how they work the worse their odds are, after all a Rift might not
be a Rift forever, hell they shouldn’t trust themselves long term.
Evette’s seen a few too many things to ever see Rifts as more than desperate human
time bombs
If people prod her too much for the information on the Gatekeepers she’ll revert to
pure business
She will however explain that originally they assumed Anna was some sort of
Gatekeeper overstepping their boundaries.
As for the political campaign
People are going to be asking lots of questions about how he survived
Immediate and undeniable press conference
Individuals are clamouring for his next move
Bill refuses to be used as a tool to take down Lloyd
Post-session
The group met Evette and she answered many of their questions about the Gatekeepers
active within the city, the group had largely mixed feelings about her, Simon in particular
had a lot of questions but was too scared to present them
Eventually, the group met up to discuss plans to solve the J.P. crisis, the greatest
solution they got to was that Francis should use the contract
The best plan was to get in a van and blast information from the top of it with a
bullhorn
Francis, with some help from the others, assumed the role of Kelly Hugh-Kiristev,
thought dead from the Fossa’s Hunt, he approaches his home and holds a press
conference in which he declares war on the fossa and manages to convince the city that
he stands strong on the big issues despite his injuries, being a true defender of the city.
Unfortunately, Anna showed up to the scene personally to attempt to hijack the press
conference. Francis takes control of the conference with style and grace by coming back
around and

Episode Thirty-Five: Pentagon Shmentagon

Pre-session
One’s first order of business is to deafen J.P., as well as order him to stay away from the
news for the meantime.
The second part is to hijack a cruise liner and collide it into a pharmaceutical research
center for Miss Yang, with the supposed goal of leaking everything and freeing them
from the arbitrary restrictions of big Pharma. Anna wants J.P. to put out a press release
during the hijack that states something to the effect of The Party member, like the
proletarian, tolerates present-day conditions because he has no standards of comparison.
He must be cut off from the past, just as he must be cut off from foreign countries
because it is necessary for him to believe that he is better off than his ancestors and that
the average level of material comfort is constantly rising.
Anna will also want to have a brief strategy meeting over the likeliness of the group
taking action against him, her biggest suggestion to him is to be aware of the groups’
range, and to suggest countermeasures, also she’ll ask for information on anything else
she should be aware of, assuming that J.P. remembers the favours owed by Francis she’ll

169
 temporarily deafen J.P. and establish a simple series of hand signals to convey messages
between J.P. and his force.
The ship itself is a cruise ship, featuring: the Rift of Davy Jones, his Gatekeeper handler
Trent, the Rift of a Banshee and eventually a single member of the Gatekeeper SEALS,
AKA the sandmen and a weaver, stretching the area around them. J.P. will be doing this
with the help of a small detachment of middlemen along with Ali Baba, additionally,
Sirens will be on standby
Post-session
One kept J.P. away from news media; afterwards, they discussed the contract J.P. is
bound by, as well as J.P.’s allies
J.P. took the Swede and Klaus onto the open ocean in order to hijack an ocean liner and
collide it into Izanami’s research center she had been using to exert influence. J.P. was
also deafened in order to prevent Francis’ approach from working
J.P. took the boat with relative ease, only to be terrorized by a Weaver and his partner
Danny Girroh, both of which he easily dispatched, he then had to deal with a single
Gatekeeper Seal, which managed a few good hits in before going down to J.P. stabbing it
with a literal switchblade
His preparations include
- Poison on the railings
- The boy squad
- A siren held in the bridge
- Burner phones taped to the entire floor of the boat
One is prepared to assimilate J.P., she will do it if she thinks it’ll make J.P. win but
her main goal is to get him into Another One Opens and to dictate its location in
the middle of Vietnam to raid it

Episode Thirty-Six: When One Door Closes Pt. 1

Team Suicide Squad:
Michael
Sterling
Abir? (Disguised Francis)
Dis
Nguyen
Lisiado
Team Landfall:
Paige
Jimmy
Francis
The group caught up to J.P.'s barge and did everything in their power to stop the boat

Episode Thirty-Seven: When One Door Closes Pt. 2

Pre session
More antics ensued including
J.P. attempting to fry the gang with a giant car battery
The gang ripping the inside with a Shoggoth
J.P. destroying the boats engine
The group turning the lion into a boat and slamming themselves into a mine for a speed
boost
Eventually the ship was boarded and a combination of everyone managed to throw The
Fossa from the barge at which point he was surrounded by sand and blasted downwards
J.P. awoke in the safehouse surrounded by the whole cast of Another One Opens
They explained they were there to pass judgement on him
It started awkward, with everyone being given a chance to speak and coming up short,
generally just slamming J.P. for his actions
Eventually J.P. fires back saying the rest of the room isn't nearly as holy as they'd like to
think they are
Nguyen was adamant about killing J.P. stating that he's scared for whoever might get
targeted next, his family in particular
Dis tried to be holier than thou and spoke with a lot of self-assigned authority on the
subject
Sterling just tried hard to focus on how J.P. was a different person than before he awoke
Paige thought it could be useful
Francis found a new solution to the situation, mind-wipe him and turn him into a
Gatekeeper, and Evette most definitely took advantage of the situation.
J.P. remained in the same position throughout the trial, that he wants power, even
stating "People keep offering me money or people, what I really want is power, raw
power"
Eventually J.P. is voted on, it’s decided that he should be turned into a Gatekeeper, his
mind is wiped and we see an office representing his mind, it loses assets and class as
cigars turn to cigarettes and ornate desks turn to plastic fold outs.
Post session
Anna’s gonna give J.P. some more boons, namely that his sword is holy, she’s planning
on shift him around the area
The Gatekeeper SWAT team is composed of 7 volunteers; the leader is intent on J.P.
coming into the teams’ personal care
The SWAT team is led by captain Blake Levins, hard headed, polite and stubborn
Assuming the trial goes ahead J.P. will get the final choice of whether to accept whatever
is passed on him or to allow Anna to become him
If J.P. says yes Anna will claim that the location the trial had been happening in was
registered to Kelly Hugh-Kiristev
NPC trial stuff
Paige: notes that J.P. could be kept bound by a series of constraining concepts but
refuses to sign him without his express permission and also doesn’t know whether or
not Anna would be able to affect it
Dis: Would like to see J.P. redeemed but doesn’t see it happening, at the end of it all
simply wants to look at J.P. and ask if there’s anything he regrets in the end
Nguyen: mentions that when J.P. was in front of him at first he just saw a lost kid, now
he regrets not killing him immediately
Morgan: “What did it? What was it that made everything else around you matter so
little?”
Phil: on top of the moon, this is everything he’s ever wanted, a Rift commonwealth
dealing with problems, and a hell of a foundation to build it on
Sterling: blames himself a little bit

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Episode Thirty-Eight: You Don’t Want What I’m Drinking
Francis took the opportunity to call his long-time associate Griff; she had more than a
few questions for him and Francis
Francis tried his best to explain the situation to her before setting up a meeting at the
donair shop, he then realized that Griff had answered this call on her cellphone and
Michael helped him race to the shop
The two used their greatest maneuver, sudden and powerful violence followed by a hasty
retreat
Griff was debriefed by the group as best they were able, she clearly didn’t understand the
situation
Their solution was to briefly awaken her
Her Mythos was Maximilien Robespierre, she began summoning guillotines and
damaging the park.
The group was quite scared; they attempted to get an idea of her ideals and personality
with this change
They eventually managed to explain the situation before deceiving her and putting her
back to sleep

Episode Thirty-Nine: I Sold You and You Sold Me

Pregame
Anna is the sort to build on anxiety, she’ll have an idea and accept it as truth, she’ll be
given a goal and assume it has to be done, she cannot adapt or give up, she needs to
perform a task until it’s complete
Anna's home reflects:
Her family are failing former capitalists
She was born into a ritzy home and learned to put on a smile regardless of circumstances
Anna ran away and ran into Leif, this is the moment when she awakened, when she
lacked everything and felt okay with it, maybe for the first time in her entire life
The place has been transformed into a makeshift homeless shelter
Her home is guarded by the zombies that service the area
The group can raise the alarm at a moment's notice. Additionally, there is a T.V. in the
common room as well as in Anna’s hidden bedroom.
Postgame
Leroux came in bleeding
She informed them of everything she’d learned
He found pictures of some of Anna’s friends she made when she had run away

Episode Forty: A Man of Misfortune

Pre-session
The photos they found provide the faces of various people who were once close to
Anna, looking into it means that they will likely need to search around, there's the police
station, the news hall, various homeless shelters nearby, high school yearbooks
As they ask around they’ll eventually hear about a cafe called the Sweet Castanea
There is a run-down bar frequented by the spooky of society, weird folks. Branch
included, sometimes it’s the destitute of society, sometimes it's a couple of the cops
involved in the old C&T arrest, sometimes its other members of the old accounting firm
Atlas from the C&T incident. All are at peace or so it seems, it’s a relaxed atmosphere
Episode Forty-One: Tap Shoes and Cyanide Pills:
Ansh “Anne” Rubio - Campaign manager
Francis and Michael finally performed the fake assassination for Kelly
They managed to skillfully circumvent the potential disaster from having to deal with
Boss Tony’s acting
Francis settled further into the persona of Kelly by meeting his campaign manager, a
woman named Ansh Rubio, though she also answers to Anne
The group held an event for themselves to celebrate everything that had just occurred
The group received their assignments like so: Dis and Simon: dig up information on
everything that happened 10 years ago, specifically concerning R'lyeh
How it was built and if Clancy had any allies that Anna hasn't gotten/is opposed to.
El Lisiado and friends: provide security for Kelly's political campaign.
Nguyen and Morgan: provide tactical support to the other teams and jump in when
needed.
Sterling and Griff: community outreach. Find a way to publish the manifesto and get the
P.L.U. out there a little bit more. Ask for Phoebe's help if needed
Paige and Jimmy: Raise hell; sew dissent as much as you can. Start a punk band, graffiti;
undermine institutions, whatever you can to just capture that punk spirit.
Evette: Garner enough support within the Gatekeepers to allow us the clout to deal with
Cthulhu properly. Find the optimal solution, be it retrapping him like normal,
strengthening his prison, or finding a way to kill him for good.

Episode Forty-Two: Weird Shenanigans punctuated by Burgers

Post-session
Nguyen took the opportunity to enlist the groups’ help in searching for a mysterious
serial killer that had plagued him in his sleeper days
The group went after a murderer that had taken thirteen victims prior and one victim
recently
They was able to see into the past of the murder location using his powers and view that
the murder victim was killed by a shotgun blast of glass
The group found the victim's body while disguised as Lloyd and was able to give the
staff of the morgue dislikes Lloyd - 6
The group found their way to the victims’ boyfriend, they accidentally irritated the man.
Then they got burger king wontons
They managed to locate the murderer working at a jewellery store; she had the Mythos
of Bloody Mary and immediately jumped from the group into a nearby mirror before
bombarding them with glass
The key was in saying her name 13 times and summoning her

Episode Forty-Three: Bath Salts and Insanity

The group met and decided they were going to infiltrate the lab where J.P.’s blood was
being tested at the same time as Michael is going to
They generally settled on causing chaos within the ranks of the military allowing them
easy access to the inside of the building, while Michael attempts to clear his name
The group took a downtime encompassing about two days while they patched up their
wounds, except Michael who did something else
They commissioned Morgan to give them a paranoia causing hex bag while they went
out to meet Adrian, head of FOGBANK.

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 They saw a danger room featuring a familiar of a Native American thunderbird.
Downtime results
Lloyd: 10+, Lloyd’s managed to track down some folks that can place Michael at the
intersection where a bunch of people disappeared 2 years ago, as well he’s managed to
track down notes from a deceased reporter by the name of Arisha Nona, whose body
has only recently been discovered
IRS: 7-9, burn a single Francis money tag; as well have somebody contact Francis’
bankers

Anna: 10+: uses her contacts to ensure the city go into a relative curfew, certain districts
will be made wholly inaccessible during certain times of day, and the police are searching
building by building to flush out any and all troublemakers
Create a new danger, Ministries undivided

Episode Forty-Four: Boss Room

Group planned and then executed an infiltration on the facility in which J.P.’s blood was
being tested
The planning went through a few iterations
Eventually, they resolved to turn an army squads hotel door into the bar door and then
bonked them
Dressed as soldiers and also a member of the psychic scientist
They managed to walk into the DNA facility under their cover, they had planned to
swap some of the fake fossa blood with their real fossa blood as well as place a USB into
the computer allowing Yoko full access
In doing so they discover that three separate iterations of Klaus were sat in the facility
Francis quickly blasts the shit out of the Klaus’ that were present in the room
Michael did an interview with Alyssa Soto, Angel Soto’s sister; the two had a heart to
heart about loss while Michael presented the narrative of a man being framed for various
acts of terror and a concern for a god awful justice system
In the end, he made a heartfelt speech about how everybody’s lost someone to this
system and how people like us need to stick together
At the end of the interview, Alyssa’s editors wanted to publish a heavily edited version of
the interview, but she declined any offer and is currently searching for an alternative to
getting the word out.

Episode Forty-Five: I’m Half a Man

Post Session
Michael asked Alyssa Soto to look into Virian Durain
The group showed up to deal with the issue at the Amish community
Francis found hidden liquor
Michael found evidence that everyone had gotten scared and hid away in the tent in the
middle of town, as well as evidence that the man who caused this was awoken by a
Gatekeeper
They figured out relatively quickly that this was the mask of the red death
The group eventually made their way into the dreaded red room, Michael was
confronted with the idea that he’s still led everyone down the wrong path, and Francis
with the idea that everyone sees him in the same way he does.
The creature's presence seemed to draw out the prince of the masquerade.
 The prince was shoved into the creature, giving him the plague.
Michael managed to stall the progression of the disease, saving the prince’s life
Meanwhile, Nguyen and Francis un-barricaded the exit
The group was asked by Evette if they wanted to join the Gatekeepers, the group asked
her to let them think about it

Episode Forty-Six: Can You Laminate This

Francis did the opening monologue
Michael settled on allowing the Gatekeepers to parley and work with the P.L.U. on a
person to person basis, she isn’t having much success
A dry erase laminate sign-up sheet was put up for the Gatekeepers outreach program
Morgan and El Lisiado were the only ones to sign up.
The group then set up a fundraiser to fund a community college to be built atop the old
ruins of R’lyeh
The fundraiser didn’t gain as many eyes as the group had hoped, so they reached out to
Wiles to get more attention to the event.
Francis gave a persuasive and emotionally loaded speech about how the homeless and
downtrodden of the city are suffering.
Wiles showed up half an hour late, when he did he began to mingle about the place.
He offered discounted use of his construction facilities and his presence lead to great
press exposure and an increased income
Episode Forty-Seven: Arsonist's Lullabye
Discussed the losses they’ve both incurred, Anna mentioned she’d rather just put
everyone in the cafe.
Told Anna the gist of the Abir plan
Insisted it was better to try to pull her out
Stopped. Holding. Back. to tell Anna he was going to prove her wrong. She took a
permanent tier 1 status.
Inflicted power outages on the entire city
Did almost the entirety of Morgan’s list
Episode Forty-Eight: You Love to See It
Francis inquired about a tracking hex bag from Morgan’s sisters
Stole some medical equipment, built a minifridge in his townhouses bathroom
Won a pool game against the husband of the woman who runs the Haberdasher’s,
saying that he would need to make a brief appearance at a later date
Francis sat with Evette, she questioned where she was going wrong and Francis tried his
best to explain that she wasn’t getting how the people of the P.L.U. operate, she was
approaching wrong.
Francis then confided his suicide plans in Evette. She was methodical and business-like
in how she approached the statement, trying to understand why he came to this
conclusion. Francis seemed almost at ease being able to confide in someone so
emotionally divorced from it all I think?

Episode Forty-Nine: Contracts and Hex Bags:

Michael and Francis met up with each other
They entered Another One Opens to find it largely empty for the first time in a long
time; they found it kind of bittersweet

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 The two convened in Francis’ townhouse and discussed that they would perform a
handoff for the sword in exchange for the yarn of Ariadne and the key to the Bifrost
They performed the exchange with no real hitches in the plan
They urged Leif and Anna to have Leif leave the city once Abir’s been grabbed
They made the two agree to keep Abir out of the city once she’s been rescued
They completed Morgan’s quest by giving her the cat’s she needed
Morgan had a little chat with the summoned Cat-Sith
The cat told her bits of who she was and told her to go to the park where she woke up
to the Mythos of Morgan le Fay
Morgan expressed frustration at the powerlessness she felt and the failures of the people
she had put faith in. Francis was genuinely able to identify with her anger.

Episode Fifty: I’m Gonna Convert Your Girlfriend

Francis and Michael helped Paige learn about her past and a murder she had committed
by tracking down a weird-ass statue someone made of her spooky form.
She was left with lingering questions about fairness as a person like her, Francis said kill
shit, and Michael said fairness is just a social construct.

Episode Fifty-One:
The group held their little soiree for the rich elite of the city. They then managed to get
the handful with the most influence into a secluded part of the yacht they had rented for
the occasion
Francis spoke sweet nothings to them in order to get them all to help him in his quest to
trigger the housing crisis a couple of years early. As he began to do so Francis seemed to
take a backseat in his body once again as this other force took over his body and
enthralled everybody present with his charisma. During the party, the P.L.U. played the
roles of the various staff required of a ritzy event
Michael was caught up in Francis’ sudden interest in how things were playing out and
still salty over the way the last two companion quests had gone so he went to sulk on the
side of the boat alone.
Jimmy spent some time with Michael; Jimmy understood a bit of why Michael was upset
but didn’t really know how to engage.
Francis came out of the room with the rich folks after about 7 hours of plotting and
planning with them. He revealed to the people present that he had taken steps to pay off
all their mortgages or purchase their apartment buildings.
Michael and Francis then met and talked on the back of the yacht. Michael derided
Francis for managing to continually take the most morally deplorable actions possible
whenever given the chance. Francis fired back by dunking on Michael for thinking of
ideology in the middle of a war
Francis had a talk with Phil about what the P.L.U. is and what it means to its members
Michael had a talk with Saarid about what she went through and what went wrong.

Episode Fifty-Two: Telenovela

Phil and Michael spent some time in Omar’s whacky dimension, Phil told him that he
should really decide if the P.L.U. is a collective of people that spend time together or if
it’s a loose organization
 Michael and Francis helped Dis track down a missing puzzle box; it was in the
ownership of Linda Birdsong, a woman searching for information about her father’s
disappearance.
Dis had managed to find his fathers’ puzzle box and ultimately fed into his mythical role
as Daedalus’ successor.

Episode Fifty-Three: Sleeping Giants Pt. 1

Pre Session
Paige has thought it over, she and Morgan settled on the idea that revenge isn’t justice,
but she does deserve something, she wants to track down the man responsible and talk
with him.
Morgan is annoyed with Michael’s constant ‘not mad just disappointed’ routine, he
doesn’t have a right to be disappointed when he can’t make his expectations clear.
Morgan thinks the P.L.U. is better off as a loose anarchist collective, a sort of UN bound
by nothing but civility to one another and dependability to be called on in times of great
need, anything else is reaching. When everything’s done Morgan plans on disappearing
for a while, give some thought to what she wants from everything.
El Lisiado doesn’t want to go in-depth but he’s someone who’s grown accustomed to
taking his licks when life kicks the shit out of him, he may also be willing to confide his
true name, Jake Cortez.
Evette is concerned with Francis’ recent drive. Where’d it all come from? “Hey, I know I
don’t shut up about this, especially lately; but if you change your mind about everything,
if you get anything from directing that drive. I think we could actually help you.” She’s
also willing to confide that she had tried to go behind some backs in order to requisition
simple field ops but the higher-ups are making some inquiries about the op
Post Session
Francis spent most of his time in Another One Opens; he was a bit taken aback at how
empty the place had gotten due to the encroaching danger
He told Phil that the P.L.U. and the pin had come to mean something to him, that he
cared very little for the collective organization’s virtues but was coming to hold the
people close to his heart
Francis caught up with Evette; she mentioned her growing concern over talking in
Francis’ townhouse and told him about the request from Gatekeeper command

Episode Fifty-Four: Sleeping Giants Pt. 2

Pre-session:
See Alec Abbabio’s page for details
Post-session: Michael talked with Phil; he outlined his plans for after Anna had been
dealt with. He wants to escape the city and run to New Mexico. He then had a very
amicable break up with Paige after outlining the plan to her

Michael hit up Leif and discovered Alec’s background, his life’s goals,

THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE THIS: tomorrow the

Ghostbeaters tackle their most haunted locale yet, a building so haunted that the FBI
themselves tried to stop us from making the episode! Is incarceration waiting for the
dead? All rise tonight in Ghostbeaters season 1 episode 42: Jumpschair! Check our blog
for updates on the incoming cease and desist

177
Episode Fifty-Five & Fifty-Six: Sleeping Giants Pt. 3 & 4
PRE-SESSION
The group is going to meet up with Emelia Girrollo, head of the Seattle Branch of
Gatekeepers and former point woman of FOGBANK. Emelia has intelligence working
on the Star Machine, she has reason to believe that the machine is actually Azathoth,
she’s pretty sure that there’s no risk of him waking up as long as they don’t try and
destroy it or do anything they haven’t been doing already.
She mostly just wants the fucking star-machine in Gatekeeper custody
At go time most everyone will be dealing with Cthulhu. And his Cthulhi
Francis will be descending into the city of R’lyeh, there will be signs of tears in reality
opening everywhere following Cthulhu’s ascent, Shoggoth will be seen throughout the
place, maybe give Francis the choice of dealing with it right away or letting it reach
Michael
POST-SESSION
The group had a very awkward meeting with Emelia in which Michael wasn’t willing to
say anything that might upset her and Francis was just kind of awkward and old
The group set everything up to go into R’lyeh
Francis entered the city from deep underground. At the same time, Alec appeared above
ground.
At the end of everything the two of them met up and discussed how Michael wanted to
prove that there’s hope for them if they should ever go too far. The two shared a
moment where they finally seemed to get over their previous squabble
MICHAEL POV
Alec started the fight largely docile, only occasionally summoning Star Spawn to harass
the other P.L.U. members as Michael stood there and tried to talk to the man under the
Mythos. As he did so Alec was largely unphased but occasionally he’d begin to get
through. The speakers playing Alec’s followers proclaiming how he helped them when
they needed it. This actually did begin to phase Alec; unfortunately, it also allowed him
to make a bunch of damaging interrupts.
Following this Cthulhu seemed to actually try and maul everyone around him. Michael
had to constantly make use of incinerating tags and every companion boon available to
him to scrape by. Eventually, Cthulhu reached enough strength that he felt confident
enough to start fighting back
He started ageing people, removing the space around and in people, and eventually
teleported away to try and stop the star-machine from moving around by killing Phil but
Michael managed to step in in time
Cthulhu was dragged back to the battlefield where Michael managed to keep him, even
though he continually unmade the people around him.
Eventually, Michael pulled some bullshit and grew a tree, filling Cthulhu with all worldly
knowledge and bringing Alec down from avatarhood.
FRANCIS POV
Francis started moving through the city in pitch blackness while trying to get used to the
strange geometry, at one point he accidentally shoved a foot into a tear in reality
After getting to the lighter parts of the city he was able to perceive the tears in reality and
the star spawn around him as they all steadily disappeared around them.
The city was also filled with invisible creatures but they stayed away from Francis due to
his skill with stealth
 When they got closer to the centre of the city the invisible creatures stayed away, but in
the very centre of the city was a Shoggoth, presumably haven eaten Abir
Francis’ dog one-shot the fucking thing.
Francis realized that Abir was on the other side; he dove in after her and found the other
side of the tears had no mist. He was one with the count, if only for a while.
Francis trekked through the strangely comforting another side before coming across
Abir being watched by an inverted pyramid of flesh
Francis switched Abir out with a fake personage of his own creation.
He left with her through the Bifrost. While he was in the Bifrost he found her new
twisted form, accidentally injected her with too much anesthesia, she died, then he
performed surgery to implant a hex bag into her stomach
He then had a brief conflict with some invisible creatures and then left the city.

Episode Fifty-Seven: Like a Real Seattle

The gang started Seattle Independent News Network
Francis covered his steps with the financial crash that nobody will likely ever find it
The group took steps to convert a bunch of abandoned warehouses on the docks of
Seattle into shelters

Episode Fifty-Eight: Trees for the Forest

Michael and Nguyen had a BBQ on a rooftop, just having a little boys’ checkup time.

Episode Fifty-Nine: Boat in the Harbour

Francis talked with Phil about the avatar council, got himself caught up, also agreed to
dinner with Phil
He was visited by Morgan, who inquired as to why they hadn't moved on Leif; turns out
Francis hadn’t been told that Leif was sat waiting for Abir.
His new plan is to take the vote to the group, make them decide what the best way
forward is.
He then had a nice dinner with Phil, ate some gourmet food and was joined by Nguyen
and Dis.
Nguyen and Dis soon joined up for the dinner
The group talked at length about baseball before Phil and Francis began a brief debate
about Anna.
The ending theme was Oceans

Episode Sixty: Nightmare Garbage Dumpster

PRESESSION
Phil: against hurting someone in a state like Leif, beliefs at the end of the day humanity is
their greatest asset. Especially since the P.L.U.’s existence means so much to the
Gatekeepers. But the slow way of whittling her down leaves a lot to be desired. Not
worth it though. Just not worth it.
Nguyen: They’re not gonna get a chance as good as this again. Kill him
Paige: This is disgusting. This is the work of monsters no matter who it’s done to, and I
know we’ve done a lot and really hardened ourselves to the moral boundaries we cross
but I’m sick of it. We’ve hurt so. So. Many people for our greater good and nobody here
even really seem to care. Now we’re going to kill a man who's spent the last couple of

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 weeks in the waiting room of a hospital to reunite with his comrade after a decade. He’ll
get what’s coming to him, whatever that looks like but not now.

Morgan: kill him

Dis: in two minds. On one hand, it’d be pretty easy to kill him now but also wasn’t the
point of this organization: humanity? This is pretty inhumane.
Jimmy: kill him, as long as it doesn’t grossly endanger everyone else
Evette: the Gatekeepers won’t like this. This would demand repercussions and the
people caught between the fighting would suffer.
El Lisiado: kill him
POST SESSION
PEOPLE ARGUED FOR A WHILE BUT DECIDED TO CAPTURE AND
SHROUD THE SHIT OUT OF LEIF, THEN SPLIT UP TO GO KILL MALCOLM
TEAM CHAOTIC NEUTRAL:
Michael
Francis
TEAM RIDE THE LIGHTNING:
Evette
Nguyen
Dis
Paige
El Lisiado
Morgan
Jimmy

Episode Sixty-One: A Matter of Life and Death

TEAM RIDE THE LIGHTING
Malcolm is held up at the Krausier Mortuary and Cemetery, the place is surrounded by
undead facsimiles of people as well as a couple of grave digging worshippers, with a few
others who simply owed a favour en route.
Defences include: a great many zombies, most carrying shovels, some waiting slightly
underground, some carrying shovels, a small group of horses bound to each of the
guides in the area. The group rolled up to the Krausier family graveyard and started
doing recon. They did a hell of a lot of recon. There were three groups. Zombies were
surrounding the area, generic un-possessed weak zombies, ravenous offensive Loa, and
defensive careful Loa. Seeing them scattered the group decided to take advantage and
make a single directed assault; namely by driving a van directly into the bad man’s
stronghold. Upon arrival, they placed El Lisiado in a chokepoint and sought to find
Malcolm. He was phasing through walls, using the powers granted by the spirits floating
around him to inflict rot on people while they tried to corner him. After dealing with
some of the defensive chevals they managed to corner Malcolm in the basement and
discover he’s long dead and his mind/soul/spirit is residing in a spirit realm of sorts.
The group went in there and managed to talk him down while discovering that he was
only involved with Anna out of curiosity and boredom, also that he’s vaguely interested
in dying for real.
Episode Sixty-Two: Checkmate
Michael went to see Leif in the hospital waiting room. The two of them talked a bit. Leif
was sick of hearing about Anna and the need to stop at this point and got disinterested
in hearing Michael talk but eventually agreed to call Anna for him. Walking outside Leif
was ambushed by Francis who sent a dearth of chemicals into his system. He passed out
and the two sought out a way to carry his body into somewhere more secure when he
transformed into Anna who tried to go for Leif’s blade. Francis trapped everyone
present in the Bifrost and ran off.
Michael talked Anna down and started speaking. She lambasted him for resorting to
such underhanded tactics. He admitted it, admitted being a hypocrite, and generally
pleaded for her to leave Leif’s body. Michael mentioned that he had prepared passports
for the four of them, she wasn’t especially happy about it. She wasn’t happy about a lot
of it; about the ticket out being with Francis. The fact that she let herself be civil with
her enemies, the fact that she thought they were above this, and the fact that Francis is
the one with the key out. In the end, Michael impressed as best as possible that she was
being selfish, and that she was actively keeping him at the cost of his life. She wasn’t
quite ready to give in to it quite yet but Francis, having just infiltrated the scene, knew
that if she knew he was inches from death, she’d have no choice but to agree. He also
realized he’d never have a chance as good as this to well and truly hurt Anna.
Francis crept up on the two sat on the bridge and, in a choice he partially instantly
regretted, he pressed a needle against her neck to let her know it was over and gave her
the status Checkmate - 6. Anna laughed a little that it had to be Francis. Before she
gripped her fingers into her palm sobbed for a moment alone and then left the body of
Leif. Michael went forward and hugged Francis. He sobbed a moment before Francis
sent him back from the Bifrost. Francis spent a moment next to the limp body of Leif.
Viewed the body of someone he once felt so spooked by, sent him away from the
Bifrost, and left.
Episode Sixty-Three: Endgame
Michael
Michael went to the yacht and took a little break, he asked Evette to find Francis. He
then went out with Sterling.
Francis
Francis burned most of his private materials from the townhouse; he kept the important
documents, and then had Paige drive him to the hospital, on the way he mentioned that
he doesn’t really care about the fallout of his actions.
He was patched up, drove around and heard Anna speech, and then he went to the
Hugh-Kiristev home

Episode Sixty-Four: But They Didn’t Listen

Michael having heard Anna’s threat went to see her in her cafe, she had cleared the cafe
out utterly and completely. Having shoved them into room 101, Michael’s readings from
Room 101 were also steadily getting pretty whack.
He and Anna spoke to each other; she mentioned that he prompted a powerful response
and that ultimately he should’ve expected this. He didn’t completely disagree, though he
did express doubt at what she did. Eventually, Michael expressed absolute disgust,
before walking out.
Michael did some digging within the avatar council and discovered that Anna had made
a deal, she made a wager with Zhi-Yang that she would give up all of her assets if she

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 lost the election, he informed the group of what was occurring between Anna and Zhi-
Yang
He also met the Golden Man, they had a polite discourse

Episode Sixty-Five: Shoot Me

Francis joined a search party for a missing girl in a local residential district.
He found a house to squat in.
He talked to Anna and shared their hatred between each other

Episode Sixty-Six: In Circles

POST-SESSION
Anna sent massive amounts of her indoctrinated troops into Seattle intending to kill the
P.L.U. and take their friends and family captive.
Michael first called Lloyd Alberns in the hopes of getting some police involved in the
situation. Lloyd sounded skeptical and said he’d check it out first.

Francis found Klaus and some general henchmen throughout Kelly’s home, he
approached cautiously, scoped out the competition, and finally managed a quick snatch
and grab using the Bifrost whistle, all the while Dis was using his abilities to fill a nearby
Klaus’ lungs with wax and saltwater.
Michael meanwhile rushed into the first safehouse with El Lisiado and Nguyen,
proceeded to be cornered by security, barely injure most of them, and escaped without
having done much to save a hostage.
Michael and Francis then faced the brunt of Anna’s forces at Another One Opens,
including all her newfound Rift muscle.
The Rifts of Pele and Miyamoto Musashi were killed, along with Anna’s entire attacking
force; all in all about 200 people were killed.
Everybody’s family were captured except for Griff’s family
Francis and Michael sat, realizing the bar was compromised and that Anna had crossed
the line. That she has to die, and that Francis is in charge now. Francis just nonchalantly
confirmed everything he thought he needed to know. Michael also insisted that her
death really hurt

Episode Sixty-Seven: We Look After Our Own

Pre Session:
The mayoral election is in 2 months.
Open on the group finishing the setups for Another One Opens, everything’s being
moved as best as folks are able, Evette has donated a guitar from her own personal
collection. Phil at some point is gonna tease her and she’ll play Tammy Lina’a cover of
Wayfaring Strangers.
Emelia Girrollo is waiting to give Michael his performance review once he’s up to it.
Upon meeting up with him she mentions that the Gatekeepers will be able to consider
the scenario a priority.
ICEBERG:
Investigating the name of the sergeant gained will lead to a random asshole working in
Sleeper Ops. He’ll panic and offer to give up his superior. This leads to the knowledge
that whoever was setting up this scenario had created an entirely separate unit in the
Gatekeepers that they were funnelling recruits into. This specific unit (The Sleeper
Relations Division, in charge of maintaining a positive, subtle image in the public eye) is
considered a part of sleeper ops. They seem to especially prefer gathering recruits with
an affinity for anchoring. Talking to some of them will allow the group to parse that they
were informed especially of how to maintain the barriers by a benefactor named Red
Cluepeya (note if the group puts out obvious feelers for Red Clupea Tibble will skip
town).
Looking into the SRD will reveal The time in which the Doctor was absent from regular
duties, that the wall was of especially complex design, that this is likely done by someone
with a greater amount of control in the Gatekeepers.
Additionally, during the downtime, Anna had used her Word of Mouth network to
spread the word that Kelly Hugh Kiristev had been aware of the crash, thanks to his and
his wife’s knowledge of finance, Anna also saw about mentioning how the corporate
elite are using their radio to try and spread false information
Post Session:
Open on everyone pulling what they could from the rubble of Another One Opens
They manage to salvage very little in the way of furniture or items that gave the place its
distinctive personality, additionally almost nobody came out of it unharmed.
General people saved were: Nguyen’s wife, most of El Lisiado’s family, and Griff's
immediate family.
Once they had gathered their remaining assets and people onto Francis’ yacht Evette
came by to donate a guitar from her personal collection, she even played a little bit of
music for the folks around the boat.
Afterwards Michael was asked by Emelia Girrollo to investigate the Gatekeeper mole(s)
Meanwhile Francis went to assess the damages done to the warehouse/flophouse. He
found it in general disarray, turned out a mob had raided the night prior and took
everything worth taking along with doing severe damage to the infrastructure of the
building, rendering it uninhabitable. He met with Vera who unofficially became the
voice of the community
He put everyone up at a hotel nearby
Michael eventually enlisted Francis in the search and discovered:
The apparent head of this snake went by Red, he was prideful, he was a department head
within RND or at least a higher up he had created a small autonomous unit for his illicit
dealings, and he was very skilled when it came to anchoring.
During the investigation they also managed to touch base with Adrian, their contact
within Gatekeeper SEALS.
They also had Evette go through recruitment again as well, hoping to draw out Red.
While they awaited Evette they decided to make themselves dinner, Michael fancied a
donair and purchased some meat, along with the rotisserie donair machines and made
himself and Francis some food. It was awkward as the abode they were using lacked
furniture and the men had very little to say to each other. It turned out to be somewhat
sweet in that the two of them, despite everything going on, were able to enjoy one
another’s presence.

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Episode Sixty-Eight: Extracurricular Activities
Pre-session:
Where everyone’s at:
Nguyen: broken, feeling like a failure like they did everything right
Dis: feeling utterly useless
Phil: trying to take care of everyone else, it’s all he knows
Evette: managing to talk to people
Morgan: alternately indignant and defeated
Paige: at a loss
Jimmy: *shrug* “what the fuck is someone even supposed to do at a time like this”
Sterling: “I mean. Anna taking people I care about isn’t new. I think maybe you guys got
a little too sure of yourselves?”
Griff: terrified
El Lisiado: a cool rage

Post-session:
Francis and Michael interview all the R&D heads they could find. Manny Ten was
quickly reduced to a crying mess. Madam Ogan was largely just amused by the
proceedings, although they did manage to get her on the back foot as they talked to her.
Soon the discussion came down to Dr. Tibble and Javier. Javier expressed a genuine
regret as to the previous safehouse attacks but the two soon managed to determine that
Dr. Tibble was the spy, so Francis inflicted some good old ultra-violence.
The two split up. Michael sat at the replacement bar to enjoy some time with Dis and
Phil. Meanwhile, Francis went off, he found the first trap house where he had met Sam;
he used his whistle and dog to kill everyone inside except a single middleman.

Episode Sixty-Nine: I Handed the Devil the Keys

Nguyen had tried to get closer to Francis, or at least be a better friend. Francis
appreciated it
Michael had a nightmare foreshadowing Anna’s change
They met up and decided they needed to take down Anna’s radio tower
Francis and Michael talked to each other, confirming that they weren’t friends but that
they could have a somewhat effective business relationship.
Michael had needed to get Phoebe’s aid, and Phoebe agreed to help in exchange for
gossip on Emelia Girrollo.
When he asked her for her help she seemed terribly offended, which Michael found
annoying
At one point Michael talked with Nguyen and informed him that everybody had in fact
been a bad friend. Nguyen did not feel any better.
Michael got Emelia to admit that the real reason she didn’t want to give up info was that
she was the head of the team that had shrouded hell

Episode Seventy: Hurricane Seattle

The group's attack on the radio tower went especially well. They were able to collapse
the tower without any major hitches. During this event they caused a storm to ravage the
old commercial district within Seattle, they caused a fair amount of property damage and
flooded the street.
 The radio tower went through the building’s roof and caused a fair amount of water
damage
They then interviewed Kelly Hugh-Kiristev; he stressed his irritation with the power
structures in Seattle.
Michael took the radio to speak about Seattle’s need for identity and agency
Michael then had a heart to heart with Phil.
Megan was reported dead
The Hand That Feeds played over the credits

Episode Seventy-One: Bad Men and Worse Decisions

Francis gathered everyone after hearing that Morgan’s sister had died. He managed to
get in contact with her and get her onto the boat.
After she arrived he pulled her aside, he apologized to her for all his actions and told her
that her sister had died.
Morgan didn’t know how to respond, though Francis had stated that he was willing to
do whatever she wanted him to in order to make her feel better.
He offered to collect Megan’s body, she agreed
He made mention of some kind of funeral, she denied and said they’d have a proper
funeral when they defeat Anna.
Francis obliged and set up a location at a mausoleum about 18 hours away. He then stole
Megan’s body and went on a road trip alongside Michael.
They drove for a few hours before Michael confided that he was sorry for the
persecution of Francis that he was really just blaming himself and desiring some karmic
justice for all that he’d done
Francis wasn’t disinterested per se; it all reminded him of how they could have gotten
along if things had gone a bit differently

Episode Seventy-Two: Alternate Dimensions aren’t Cheating!

Michael played hide and seek like a goober.
Had a final supper with everyone

Episode Seventy-Three: Whisky and Cigars

Francis sought about leaving final mementos for his most close friends and allies; in
particular, he left a nice bottle of whiskey and a box of cigars.
He also left a strange letter for Rose, likely containing the truth of his powers.
He talked with Griff, he was in a strange state and when she pressed him on it he just
got sweaty and tearful. Seeing Francis break down she quietly backs off and leaves him
be,

Episode Seventy-Four: Oh Look, There you Go. There it is. It’s Done.
Michael went to Winnipeg and told Leif that he’d never be truly free while his ghosts are
still haunting him.
Got Anna to agree not to act out during the election by signing contracts guaranteeing
that they would all give up and surrender all assets, and willingly become indoctrinated if
they lost the election.
Michael awkwardly danced with Morgan before asking Phil to transition to ballroom
music. Francis and Griff managed to enjoy each other's company for a final time; despite
Francis making it weird.

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Episode Seventy-Five: The Least I Could Do
Pre-session
The mayoral election is in 5 weeks
Anna’s profile is a very fuck off amount of mist ability, though it begins to fall off as she
starts using her other powers. Throw her off her balance; say something to piss her off,
as she goes to retaliate in untoward ways. Throw her off her balance, she’ll try and use
her powers against Francis, causing her to be more of a target for the mist
Talking points: The Fossa, his hunt, security of the people. Apparent recreational
terrorism
Finance, the fall of it all how to improve it
The sickness present in the minds of Seattle's people, the need for community.
Empowerment of the 1%
Anna: Didn’t really have control over her actions? Saw it unfold but it felt like it was far
away and wasn’t real. Occasionally felt more lucid during moments of conversation and
the like but never really felt it was all real. Did start to feel down to earth after Leif was
taken, but she did believe in what she was doing.
Leif: Willing to throw down to escape with her if people are about to mend or kill her.
Nguyen: I ask myself “could I pull the trigger” and the answer is no. She’s almost the
same age as my fucking kid, and… and maybe she deserves to die but fuck maybe she
doesn’t. I guess I’d rather not shoot someone who deserves it than shoot someone who
does.
Morgan: Maybe you weren’t responsible for the form of it all but you were the will. You
were the fucking will behind it and you ruined everything. I’d kill you now if I could.
Paige: You are and aren’t responsible for everything, maybe I should find that somewhat
entertaining but I don’t. I say we toss her to the Gatekeepers, ask them to put them on
some sort of assignment like they did with Leif and then contract them to put her to
sleep after a while. I know community service doesn’t cover everything, but murder just
makes us monsters for the part of her that’s innocent, wholesale release just isn’t an
option, and putting her to sleep now seems like she’s getting off too easy.
Phil: We’re the first community like this that’s ever existed, we could be fucking
anything, and with our skillset and clout we could be fucking anything; just not a fucking
lynch mob. Mend her, maybe she’ll get some redemption in the next life.

Jimmy: Paige’s plan sounds good. Maybe she owes the world something. Maybe it’s her
whole fucking life. But weirdly enough I think that’s something she needs to decide for
herself and Paige’s plan lets her do that without being a menace
Sterling: She caused everything. If she wasn’t around we’d all be so much happier. Why is
this a debate? End her
El Lisiado: The only way to end this with no risk of anything happening again is to kill
her. Besides, how you people can look at her and not just see the death she’s caused is
crazy.
Evette: Paige’s plan is kind of brilliant I think. She’s somewhere we don’t have to worry
about and if she tries anything she’s done for. P.L.U.s she can suffer some real
consequences for what she did? Like if we mended her she’d just have a lingering sense
of guilt for some strange thing.
Griff: what the fuck is wrong with you people that you’re so fine with sitting in a circle
and deciding that someone should die? Doesn’t it disgust you just a little bit that this is
your answer, “Do we murder this woman?”, and so soon after Francis’ trial. Put her to
sleep, she’s no threat to anyone that way, right?
Post Session
The group managed to get Anna to agree to a sort of all or nothing treaty for the debate.
During this, they were unable to recon what exactly Anna's new abilities were but did get
her to sign the contract
At the actual debate, the two found their policies remarkably similar, with Anna's claims,
focused more outwards towards the problem peoples of America while Kelly was only
ever focused on Seattle
Kelly was also able to name drop a lot of the folks he had met through his charity work,
raising media attention and paving the way for longevity in the mainstream eye.
The group eventually decided to Mend Anna, wipe out her memories, and send her to
start a new life. The Gatekeepers were informed and kept a close eye on her. “Anna
Rooker” is dead— Mended by Michael, gifted mercy by Francis, and a second chance at
a normal life from the P.L.U.

187
 Art book
The following is an incomplete collection of art pieces commissioned, drawn, and collected during the events of
Scopophobia.

Imgur
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A
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Artist Contributors by Order of Appearance:

Pg. 188 – Tara Warford, @So_tarafyd (Instagram), Michael and Francis

Pg. 199 – Tara Warford, @So_tarafyd (Instagram), J.P. and Michael

Pg. 190 – Heather L.W., @Heatherlaurenw (Instagram), Michael and Buer

Pg. 191 – Heather L.W., @Heatherlaurenw (Instagram), Michael on top of the City

Pg. 192 – Lesle Kieu, @Leslekieuart (Twitter), Michael Portrait (One arm)

Pg. 193 – James M. @jdmd0.ig (Instagram), Alec’s fall at the hands of Michael

Pg. 194 – James M. @jdmd0.ig (Instagram),

Top: Michael tells Anna he will prove her wrong
Bottom Left: David Nwen emblem
Bottom Right: Illin’ Michael

Pg. 195 – James M. @jdmd0.ig (Instagram), A ghost summoned by Saarid beating up a tree

Pg. 196 – (Top) James M. @jdmd0.ig, (Bottom) Judas Salieri @inexorableangst (Twitter)
Top: A Caricature of “Mr. Fantasy”, The Counts’ end game moniker.
Bottom: The Count convincing Nguyen to help with Francis’ suicide.

Pg. 197 – Windlass, @MusketAnna (Twitter)

Top: Francis and the Count, in the slums sitting with the warded anti-divination car.
Bottom: Francis cornered in the secret basement, with a ”dead” J.P. in the background.

Pg. 198 – (Top) Percy, @sadtamales (Twitter), (Bottom) Judas Salieri @inexorableangst (Twitter)
Top left: Drunken Francis sit’s in a kitchen.
Top right: Illin’ Francis.
Bottom: Sam Woodrow’s makeshift funeral.

Pg. 201 – Judas Salieri @inexorableangst (Twitter), the full main cast of characters seated in Another
One Opens.

199
A heartfelt thank-you to everyone that made this possible; from my fellow players Nolan and Hayden, to all the
artists that brought our characters to life, the musicians that created the music we used, and the City of Mist
team that created the system in which such a beautiful thing became possible. All of these people have given us
the pieces to create something that I have no doubt I will cherish for the rest of my life. Scopophobia and the
memories associated with it will forever be close to my heart, and I hope this work will let me share even just a
little bit of that love with others.
Thank you all, for everything you have given me.

- James M.
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