Tennessee [Mind Games] Mission Summary

Mind Games
Tennessee
Christos (Mission Leader), Amy, Sebastian, The Doctor w/sg Mulder & Fowley | February 2015

The Knights were briefed about a price-fixing scam in Tennessee involving genetically modified corn (that wasn't) which had led to the FBI being brought in to investigate. The agents, however, were attacked by reptilian Shadowkind in the silos, and escaped, but asked for the Knights' assistance.

Arriving in Tennessee, they headed to scope out the silos. The Doctor, however, realized that there were no signs of any tracks of reptiles - perhaps unusually none. Agents Mulder and Fowley arrived, They offered their description of what had transpired: four of the creatures had appeared abruptly when they were inside the silo, and had knocked their flashlights away, so they hadn't gotten a good look at them. They were small, scaled, bipedal, and had long snouts, and had left claw marks on Agent Fowley. They discussed the possibility that the reptiles had been nesting in the silos.

Together, they headed inside the silos, again finding no trace of any lizards. Amy & Eleven casually dropped that the Doctor was an alien, blowing Mulder's mind. He was, however, unsure of if they were serious or not, given their offhanded manner. Christos seemed convinced that the FBI agents had simply imagined the creatures, given the complete lack of evidence of anything in the silos. Agent Fowley asked them to remain in town on call while they finished the price scam investigation. Amy gave Mulder her number after some shameless flirting.

They returned to a hotel, and shortly thereafter, Amy got a call from Mulder, who explained that he and Agent Fowley had been attacked again - this time in their hotel room. It had been waiting in their room and appeared to be a hyena-headed man that looked like a gnoll, trying to break into Diana's room. Mulder had shot it in the chest and it vanished. There were no tracks or fur left, but scratches in the door. Mulder posited a theory based on an old scifi movie about "monsters of the id", projections of the subconscious that were partially real and could be created by psionics. He thought that the psychic might be connected to the price fixing scam and was trying to stop their investigation. He asked them to go get a read on Robert Quail, the man who was working with them from the company, who Mulder suspected might have been "gotten to" by the criminals.

Christos suggested they masquerade as IRS agents and headed to the Quail house the next morning. Christos, was, however, the worst fake IRS agent, but Amy managed to cover for him and convince Robert to let them in. They found out that his daughter was home sick that day. They told him he was being audited, and he went to get his tax documents. While he was gone, they searched around, finding anxiety meds and antidepressants under the name Cindi Quail, but were interrupted by Robert's daughter showing up and cannily catching on that they were up to no good.  She told them they needed to go away, and they learned that she was worried about the FBI agents.  Amy realized that the little girl might be projecting the monsters of the id to protect her father.  Robert returned with the files, identifying the young girl as Cindi and Christos pointed out that she hadn't seemed sick. Robert explained that she suffered from terrible anxiety attacks that he allowed her to stay home for from time to time.  He seemed surprised that she knew anything about the FBI agents, that he had kept it secret from her to avoid upsetting her. They admitted that they weren't really IRS  agents, asking if Cindi was a psion and he grudgingly admitted she was, and that they'd tried to keep it secret to protect her.

Robert went to fetch Cindi again and Christos and Amy argued about the best thing to be done with her: whether to leave her with her family or take her somewhere else to train.  Robert came back and told them that Cindi had escaped out a window, and Sebastian found a stuffed kobold in the azaleas outside.  Amy called Mulder, asking him to come help. They decided to go look in her treehouse, where they ran into a huge psionic monster that Cindi had conjured up.  The Doctor tried to reason with it, staying Christos' plan to attack it, until Mulder ran out and the psionic creature mind thrusted Amy away from itself, prompting Christos to attack.  The Doctor climbed into the treehouse to speak to Cindi while they fought the monster, and found she was terrified that the men in suits were going to take her father away.  Christos killed the psionic monster and The Doctor learned that Cindi thought the FBI were there because of her, and her father was going to get in trouble because he'd been keeping her powers secret.  He calmed he down and brought her back down to her father.

Fowley finally arrived, and they explained how it had been the product of Cindi misinterpreting the situation and thinking her dad was in danger. The armed police she was with frightened the girl and Mulder told her to send them away, but Amy managed to calm Cindi down again.  Mulder headed off to the hospital for his wound from the creature and Christos convinced Robert to allow them to put him in touch with people who could train his daughter to use her powers.

Canada [Hollow's Last Hope] Mission Summary

Hollow's Last Hope
Canada
Logan (mission leader), Abigail, Nels, Miles, Grimrot | March 2015


The Knights were briefed about a mysterious disease plaguing the small town of Falcon's Hollow, in Canada, called blackscour taint.  The disease seemed strangely resistant to clerics (who were few in the area in the first place), but a local herbalist had come up with a cure.She needed assistance gathering the supplies from a dangerous part of the woods that had fallen through from the Shadow World.  

Arriving in Falcon's Hollow, they talked to a local cleric, who told them that there was line of people outside of the herbalist's shop, so it should be easy to find.  She also told them that the locals tended not to trust clerics around here because of the dangers presented in the nearby region transported from the Shadow World, which she called Darkmoon Vale.  They found the shop, Roots and Remedies, and they skipped the line, heading inside to meet Laurel, the herbalist.  She described the disease to them, and the cure she had gotten from a book of her grandmother's, which required three ingredients: elderwood moss that would gross on the oldest tree in the Vale, rat's tail, and seven ironbloom mushrooms.  She suggested they look for those in the woods where there were rumors of dwarven ruins, and for the rat's tail at the home of a local witch, Ulizmila.

They headed out to the woods, passing through a lumber camp, where they talked to some people and got a map of the woods with directions to some of the locations they were seeking.  They were also warned about copious monsters in the forest.

They went into the woods anyway, where Abigail fell into a hunter's pit trap, dislocating her shoulder.  Miles and Logan rescued her,  and they found a little fox caught in a hunter's trap as well, which Miles rescued.  They were attacked by Grung, a hobgoblin, who had been using the fox as bait and everyone talked Logan out of killing him.  Grung told them that the dwarves who used to live in the woods were evil and he marked the spot of the ruins on their map.  They let him run off and went to find the oldest tree. It was a titanic darkwood, which Logan started climbing, before he found dead bodies hanging in it.  He was attacked by a reptilian creature, and Nels threw a blade that sliced it right in the throat.  Logan cut the packs free from the bodies, where they found some gear, and then collected the moss and climbed back down.

Their next stop was the witch's glade, where they found a creepy, ugly cottage that seemed abandoned.  They started searching the hut, when the cauldron abruptly came to life and attacked them. They destroyed it and Abigail found a magic shrunken head called a soulspeaker, as Nels came up with the rat's tail.  

They headed on, past giant mosquitoes,  and found the ruined monastery.  They discovered a partially dismembered body in the yard, and found a mushroom.  Heading inside, they found the mummified remains of a dwarf blacksmith clutching a note asking the dark father of the forge to forgive him.  They were attacked by darkmantles, that they easily dispatched.  They figured out that the place had once had a shrine to Moradin, the dwaven All-Father, but it had been defaced.  In a study, they fought some wolves and then came across a giant talking wolf, named Greypelt, who asked them to destroy the monsters that had taken root in his home, in exchange for his mushrooms.  Abigail had a bad feeling about the deal, and Grimrot recognized the creature as a worg.   They killed it instead and collected the needed mushrooms.

As they were leaving, they were attacked by even more wolves in the courtyard.  They were heavily injured from the fight so they decided to rest in the witch's hut on the way back.  The next morning, they returned to Falcon's Hollow to bring the ingredients to Laurel.  The cure worked, saving the townspeople, and reaping a big reward to send back with the Knights.