Maple Shade Timeline S1

July 1976

• 9th - 13th: Chapter One: The Haunting of Maple Shade
• 14th - 21st: Downtime Interlude 1

Chapter Two: The Bewitching of Maple Shade

Session Six: 07/06/2018

Thursday, July 22nd, 1976

Sgt. Haywood Mane

Officer Oscar McMillan

• More Bad Dreams: Lucas dreams of the Dark Room. Something rises within it, barely visible in the dark, and suddenly turns to reach for him! He startles awake, slamming into the wall of his small meditation room on the other side of his bedroom wall.
  • At almost that exact moment, Matthew bolts upright in bed, startled awake by something he doesn't have a name for. He is sweating and terrified, but can't quite place his finger on what it was actually awoke him.
• A Morning Run: After getting up early, doing some work down in the shop, Lucas goes on a run once it finally gets light enough. As he and Krypto are making their way back home, Krypto begins growling as they near a corner.
  • Reaching the corner, they see two bikers. One is standing in the street laughing, a bottle of Jack Daniels in his fist. The other has a homeless man in his grip, and is punching him over and over.
  • Recognizing the man as Sgt. Haywood Mane, Lucas tells Krypto to "Stay" and intervenes, charging the biker with the bottle. He hits the man, knocking his whiskey from his grasp, and the biker leaps to the attack.
  • Lucas warns the other biker away, and he begins retreating, calling to his buddy (by the name of "Saw") to come on. Saw sweeps Lucas' legs out from under him, and the two bikers make their get-away.
  • Lucas checks the man over, making sure he's not critically injured, before getting him up and to his apartment, studiously ignoring all the blood the entire way. Once he gets there and sets the man on his couch, he rings Rose's house. In short time, she is over there. Lucas hands her his first aid kit, and spends the next few minutes in the bathroom, ostensibly cleaning himself up after the fight (but also simply very squeamish at the sight of the blood).
  • They rouse him, and he reassures them that he is staying with his buddy Tommy Stevens, from 'Nam. Tommy is just out of town, and his "old lady" wasn't comfortable with Manes sticking around with him gone. So he cleared out for a while, stayed at a shelter for a bit, but folks who are worse-off than him needed the beds, so he made room for them.
  • When Rose notices that he has a pretty bad limp, she wonders if he has an injury she didn't tend to. He assures her he's fine - that's the injury that got him discharged from service.
    • He tells a story about how he and his patrol were out in the jungles, and were attacked by something. It disembowelled one man, and then clamped down with big nasty teeth on his leg and shook him like a chew-toy.
    • He shows her the ugly tooth scars; she suggests it looked like a crocodile had bitten him. He tells her that her dad saved them, though he passed out and doesn't remember all the details.
  • Lucas emerges, having been listening, and invites Sgt. Manes to stay at his place and rest up while he goes to work, and call his friend Stevens to see if he's home yet from there. Manes accepts gratefully.
• A Visit: A little after noon, Officer Oscar McMillan comes into Apollo's Athenaeum, asking some questions.
  • He's there because the manager, Myrtle, called him about another bout of graffiti, this time in the opposite stair-well. He shows Matthew a Polaroid of it. It is the same sigil as in the other stairwell, except in mirror reverse.
  • Officer McMillan asks him some questions about it, wondering if he knows what it is, and intending on distracting him with woo-woo nonsense, Matthew accidentally stumbles onto a connection: It heavily resembles the sigils in a book called the Legemeton, an old grimoire filled with a bestiary of "goetic demons," said to have been summoned and bound by Solomon the Wise and used to build the Temple.
  • Officer McMillan interprets all of that to mean it was probably stupid heavy metal-heads spraypainting their favorite band's shit on a wall, and Matthew is happy to let him leave thinking exactly that.
  • On his way out, Officer McMillan also passes by the comic book shop, notices Lucas at work there, and pops back in just in time to help Lucas pick up a stack of comics he has just knocked over for some reason.
    • He sticks around and chats for a while, not really noticing that Lucas keeps banishing Toby onto breaks or to do inventory. They chat for an hour or so, Officer McMillan remaining warm and genial the whole way through. He leaves with a stack of comics about military heroes and war.
  • At the end of the day, Lucas returns to his apartment, finding Manes still there, and discovering that the man has cooked up some dinner. Krypto also seems to have quite taken to him.
• A Chat With Mom: At the end of the day, Rose asks her mom about Sgt. Manes. She remembers him, saying that her father used to invite some of the soldiers around on BBQs.
  • When Rose asks if her dad ever told her about the thing that happened to Sgt. Manes, her mother explains that he spared her that. After all, the VC often forcibly recruited people, and her own brothers – Rose's uncles – were among them. The fact was that it was very difficult to think of her husband out there killing her brothers, and so it was never something they discussed.

---

Session Seven: 07/13/2018

Friday, July 23rd, 1976

Mrs. Schneider

Sergio Cavazos

Horrifying Demon Things

• A Work Trip: Harry leaves town with his boss, who is going down to California to pick up some cars being brought up from Mexico. He'll be gone for a couple of days.
• Taking Care of Tumplin: As Rose is on her way to school, she is stopped by Mrs. Schneider on the first floor, who asks her if she will look at "her Tumplin." Tumplin turns out to be an incredibly fat orange cat with digestive problems.
  • Humoring her, Rose takes a look at Tumplin and applies some of the veterinary skills she's been learning to diagnose him. She gives Mrs. Schneider some advice on tending to him.
• Opening Shop: Matthew is opening up his shop. When he opens the door, his shop-cats Bast and Grizabella streak out of the opened door, and Archimedes backs away hissing.
  • He cautiously enters the dark shop, and distinctly hears something within.
  • Seeing something quick and about the size of a small animal, but also with no fur, he quickly clicks on his flashlight, using his strange abilities to seize up that light and cast it all about the room.
  • The light is suddenly "absorbed" by multiple bodies around the room, the light feeding them into visibility. They are monstrous little things the size of small dogs. When they suddenly realize that they are visible and he can see them, they all quickly dash away, leaping through walls to escape.
  • Matthew opens up his shop nervously and immediately begins doing some research, discovering that they may very well be demonic entities of a sort referred to as "goetia."
• A Familiar Face: As Carol is getting ready for work, a knock at her door reveals the very stressed person of Sergio Cavazos, the man Natalie invited home on the night of her disappearance!
  • The police had let him go, after officially declaring the case to be a disappearance rather than foul play.
  • Carol spends some time grilling him, trying to get the full story out of him. As it turns out, she's better at that than the police were, as they both realize that there are some parts of his memory that are missing, likely due to trauma. Carol resolves to see if they can recover them.
• Down to the Shop: After a while, Carol and Sergio head down to Matthew's shop, "Apollo's Athenaeum."
  • He is there, poring over books, but acts a bit nervous when they show (not that the two of them notice, as they have their own reasons for being unsettled).
  • She explains what has happened, and Matthew agrees to try and help.
  • He then uses another strange ability, psychically reaching into Sergio's mind and seeking details of memory from that night which he might be suppressing.
  • Matthew discovers a memory, wherein Sergio is relaxed, having been drinking, shirtless on the sofa.
    • He watches as Natalie pours some more drinks for them at the counter bar on the other side of the room, and starts to walk back toward him.
    • Suddenly the lights flicker and go out, and Sergio sees (by the light of the flickering chemical emergency lights from outside) a strange, horrifyingly sinuous form rise up behind her. It is some eight feet in height, twisted and compressed within the room, with too many limbs that have too many joints.
    • She spins around when she feels it behind her, and there is an inhumanly fast movement, and Sergio feels his face and chest spattered with hot blood right before he loses consciousness from shock.
  • Returning to his senses, Matthew is shaking some from the memory, but Sergio's sudden recollection is deeply traumatic. He falls to his knees screaming.
  • Next door, Lucas hears the sudden screams, and comes running over to Matthew's shop.
• Horror Made Manifest: As this is happening, Matthew senses something strange and reacts with his light ability.
  • The multiple demon-creatures have returned.
  • They all turn their attention toward the screaming man, however, and he flees, running out of the shop.
  • Just as Rose gets off the bus coming home from school, she sees a flash of light from Matthew's shop and then a man run screaming out of it.
    • She darts into the shop, and sees the horrors. She immediately pulls her KBAR and snatches up an antique wrought iron side table to use as a make-shift shield.
  • Behind her, Sergio stops running in the middle of the street to turn and continue shrieking at the shop, screaming something about something in his mind. He is suddenly hit by a station wagon that attempts to screech its brakes, but does not, sending him flying.
  • Carol hurls a blade she snatches off the wall at one of the things, injuring it somewhat, and the things begin to attack physically and ravenously. Their face-tentacles spread and cling where they can, revealing skulls full of chewing, horrible teeth.
  • After a few moments, the light the things seemed to use from Matthew fades from within them, and they fade from solidity once more, but not before they have injured some present, including some grievous injuries to Matthew and Lucas.
  • Lucas passes out from all the blood.
• Aftermath: Heedless of the gathering crowd and sound of sirens outside from the accident, Rose quickly applies first aid assistance to Matthew and Lucas.
  • She then glances outside to see if Sergio is alive, but he is very clearly not.
  • Carol and Rose quickly leave; Rose goes home, while Carol goes to stay the night at her dad's house, while he is out of town. She has nightmares of tentacled things dropping down on her all night long.
  • Both Matthew and Lucas are taken to the hospital.

Session Eight: 07/20/2018

Diem

Patrick Meeks

Bulldog, of the Gypsy Jokers

Saturday, July 24th, 1976

• Rose awakens to shouting between her mother and her Aunt Tammy. Tammy got in late last night, and Lori is accusing her of being a whore, and shaming the family.
  • Lisa is on the terrace crying, and Holly is with her, trying to comfort her.
  • Grandma is simply watching what is going on. If Rose asks her, she says that she's afraid there are bad spirits around – everyone in the family is acting their worst, like with bad energy.
  • She asks Rose to take her to the Nam Quang Temple, where she finds Brother Diem, and asks him to come to cleans her home.
  • He arrives and performs some basic divinations. He applies bits of paper with writing on them to the heads of the Aunties, and almost immediately they feel better.
  • He then properly cleanses the apartment, and Rose recognizes it as a proper Warding, using specific sutras as a Bane.
• Harry is dropped off by his boss from their trip. Nancy missed him, and is glad that he's home. She tells him about all the news: there was a terrible car accident out in front of the complex. The man that was hit was the man they found in the apartment the night Natalie disappeared!
  • Some of the neighbors are saying that one of Natalie's friends pushed him, but she doesn't believe that.
  • Matthew and Lucas were pretty badly hurt, too, though she's not certain exactly how. But they're at the hospital, and supposed to come home today.
• Carol wakes late and makes a decision to call Patrick Meeks, her father's former bodyguard.
  • She asks him to go with her to buy a gun and teach her to use it.
  • While they do so, he seems to know that something is going on with her, but he respects her willingness to not talk about it.
  • He also makes it clear that he's happy to teach her other means of defending herself.
  • The gun practice jostles her injuries some, and Meeks notices them, but she doesn't explain where they came from.
• Detective Guy Burgess shows up at Matthew & Lucas' hospital room. He asks to speak with them, one at a time.
  • Matthew is evasive in his questions, not entirely convincing the detective that he's being truthful about what happened.
  • In contrast, Lucas' rambling is obviously panicked and possibly even somewhat mentally ill; the detective arranges a 24 hour observation of him in the psych ward.
  • Officer Oscar McMillan shows up in civvies, offering to take Matthew and Lucas home. They are both confused that Lucas has not come back from the interview, and McMillan makes some inquiries, discovering that he's under observation.
• One of the Gypsy Jokers, a biker named Bulldog, shows up at Harry's place.
  • Bulldog tells him that Brick, the leader of the Gypsy Jokers, is sponsoring a drag race at midnight on Sunday. He says they've all heard a lot about Stella, and would like to see him race. He mentions his competition and the prize money, and Harry says he'll be there.
  • When Harry shows Bulldog out after a beer, however, both he and Bulldog see Dylan Newcastle roaming around, calling out for his wife Lisa. "Have you…have you seen my wife?" He is very high, and smells strongly of pot.
  • Harry offers to help Dylan look for her, but in actuality leads him back home in the hopes of sharing in some of the man's stash.
  • Down on the second floor, however, they see Esmie Sandberg on the terrace, leaning over the balcony looking at the courtyard. She is smoking. Her husband Noah is standing beside her, all but begging her to "come back inside, we can figure out how to make all of this work" and she is just morosely ignoring him.
• When they get to the ground floor, they find Matthew, who has just been dropped off by McMillan. Harry gets Dylan back into his apartment, and offers to help Lucas get upstairs.
  • They take the elevator. When the door opens, however, there is a sudden flash. Jamie Sinclair is wandering around, all coked up. She is going around capturing photos with her Polaroid. She seems to delight in Matthew's pain, and wanders off, pocketing the picture of it.
• Carol gets home and relaxes.

Sunday, July 25th, 1976

• Harry wakes up, and Nancy looks sick and pale, trembling.
  • She doesn't feel well, just wanting to sleep. She asks him if he'll make her some breakfast.
  • When he goes to do so, he finds that the eggs in the carton have gone bad: they are filled with a horrible smelling black-red grossness, which almost immediately begins drawing flies to it.
  • On his way to dump out the horrible egg-mess, Harry sees Myrtle Connor lingering in her office doorway, drinking at noon. She has dark circles under her eyes, and a haunted look. She asks Harry if he's "seen them, too? The bruise-rats? They kept me up all night with their hissing." And then she mimics the hissing, and laughs drunkenly.
  • If pressed, she has vague memories of waking up hardly able to breathe, and totally paralyzed, with the sensation of something sitting or kneeling on her chest.
• Lucas is released by a doctor, who is confident that he isn't mentally ill, although he does prescribe him some quaaludes on his way out.
  • About the time he arrives, heading directly to Apollo's Athenaeum, Carol heads down there herself to get some more answers.
  • They encounter one another in the elevator. On the ground floor, they find Reneesha & Imani Scott shouting at one another in their corner store. Reneesha is blaming Imani for stealing money, and Imani is heaping abuses on her.
  • They hurry into Apollo's Athenaeum, where Matthew is awkwardly trying to clean up, despite his wounds.
  • They talk about what's gone on, and Matthew calls everyone who is in the know about the situation besides he and Lucas: Rose, Carol, and Harry.
• As they are discussing their findings, Meredith Pritchett shows up at about noon, with a small group of her fellow church-goers, who harangue Matthew.
  • As they are leaving, however, all of them see a small, quick flash of one of the demons in the shop window, and Merideth falls off the side of the curb, breaking her leg.
  • While everyone is paying attention to the old lady's fall, Matthew sees the figure standing across the street once again, in a long coat and hat. As before, though, he turns and disappears.
• With that, they decide to go upstairs to do some research into more goetic and spirit lore.
  • Harry quickly gives up on all the book-reading, and goes home for a beer.
• Once he arrives, however, he finds Nancy has developed pneumonia and immediately takes her to the hospital.

Session Nine: 07/27/2018

Brick

Sunday, July 25th, 1976

• Nearing midnight, Harry leaves Nancy at the hospital to go to the drag race on 82nd, sponsored by the Gypsy Jokers. He meets the leader of the Gypsy Jokers, a biker named Brick.
  • The first rounds of races are enjoyable, but finally it's his turn. He is matched up with some guy in a dark blue Impala.
• The race takes off, and Harry quickly gains and keeps the lead throughout the race.
  • They are nearly at the finish line, when a trio of Portland PD cruisers come tearing onto 82nd along a side street, sirens and lights blaring.
  • Everyone gathered at the racing points, take off, as does Harry's competition.
  • Harry finds himself pursued by two cop cards, but loses them pretty quickly.
• Harry makes it out to the biker bar called Jester's, which is a sort of defacto hangout for the Gypsy Jokers.
  • He is invited to sit at Brick's table, along with the other winners from that night, and Bulldog hands him his wad of winning cash, wrapped in a thick rubber band.
  • He stays out partying with them, and doesn't actually remember driving home.

Buck Grayson, Carol & Nancy's dad

Monday, July 26th, 1976

• Carol is awakened very early by a phone call from her dad. He is at the hospital, and very upset with Harry. Demands that she wakes him.
  • She does so, and finds him stinking of booze and hung over. She has a very terse conversation with him about leaving his wife in the hospital.
• Rose awakens to her Aunt Holly all but gasping for breath, trying to breathe. Like Nancy, she is pale, withdrawn, and mostly out of it.
  • She, too, develops pneumonia as the day goes on.
  • Once her mom and aunties (other than Holly) have gone to work, Rose's grandmother suddenly starts yelling profanities in Vietnamese, in the kitchen.
  • Rose goes to see what's wrong, and finds a single cracked egg in a bowl, the insides a black and red, phlegmy horror. Her grandmother demands that she takes the eggs out of the house and throw them away.
  • Rose takes them out, but secrets them aside, planning to use them as her means of getting revenge against Jaimie Sinclair.
• Carol and Harry arrive at the hospital, and discover Buck there, being much more restrained.
  • He leaves, after urging Harry to buckle down to his responsibilities.
  • They discover that Nancy is pregnant (six weeks). The doctor reassures Harry that Nancy is doing well and recovering quickly from the pneumonia.
  • Carol spends a little time with Nancy, who seems thrilled at the good news. Then, she departs for a day of work.
• When Lucas wakes, he and his bed is covered in this weird soot-like dust. He can't seem to find a cause for it, though it seems to have radiated outward from his own sleeping form.
  • Stepping out to haul his laundry next to the door, Lucas finds breakfast being made by Haywood.
  • Lucas showers, and while they eat, Haywood talks about what a good dog Krypto is. He mentions that he used to work with some of the service dogs on the base.
  • He also mentions that he was lucky Krypto held off jumping in when Lucas did with those bikers, and offers to show him how to train her not only for advanced obedience training, but also for defense.
  • He points out that this is a bad neighborhood, and he knows Lucas goes jogging with her a lot. And that even if he never gives her a command to attack, having her go through the training will ensure that she follows all his orders in violent situations, even if those orders are to stay out of it.
  • He tells him it's a way of earning his keep a little. Stevens is back in town, but his wife doesn't want Haywood coming back over.
  • But Stevens is going to try and get him a job at his security company; he wants Lucas to know he'll be out of his hair really soon, and can leave any time he needs him to.
  • Lucas assures him that his cooking is a good contribution, and to not worry about it.
• Matthew opens his shop, hauling some books downstairs to do some research while he's at work.
  • After a couple of hours, Lucas shows up and helps him continue to research.
• Rose and Shirley hang out, and Shirley seems loath to break into Jaimie's place.
  • She does, however, agree to help pop the truck to her car, and Rose plans to plant the Eggs of Horror into them.
  • They hang out, waiting for Jaimie to come home.
  • While they wait, Lance comes up the stairs, freaking out and punching walls, his fists bloodied.
  • Rose clocks him with a bat, and then helps treat his injured fists.
• Matthew & Lucas discover sufficient lore about the goetic squires and the principles of ephemera bans and banes that they're pretty sure they've figured out what it takes to properly ward against the goetic squires: they need someone of faith, with a strong will.
  • Testing Lucas' own Egyptian-focused eclectic spiritual system, they arm him with an ankh and attempt to ward Apollo's Athenaeum.
  • When they finish the warding, they can both barely detect a liquidy hissing of protest, which they're pretty sure means the warding was successful.
  • Matthew starts calling the others to help begin warding apartments.

Brass Urn

• Getting home from work, Carol is invited to sit down with Winnie Suttle, sitting out in the courtyard.
  • Winnie calls out to her, saying that she read her latest article, and quite liked it. She very much enjoyed her turns of phrase, and that a lady reporter was allowed to talk about things that were so important.
  • She bemoans the fact that it has truly been a very difficult summer. She suggests that it might be the heat making everything so crazy.
  • She mentions that her daughter and son-in-law had the most rollicking argument, about the most normal things. "Heat makes some people very cranky, I suppose."
  • After a few, she stands up to go inside, and Carol notices there is a small brass vase, its mouth stopped up with wax. There are weird etchings all over the body of the thing.
  • Thinking for a moment that it might be Winnie's, Carol notices that the etchings are tied to the weird goetia they've been researching, and she lets Winnie go without saying anything.

Session Ten: 08/10/2018

Tuesday, July 27th, 1976

• Carol wakes from sleep without having rested whatsoever. Indeed, she is pale and shaking, with scratchy lungs and trouble breathing.
  • Recognizing the symptoms as those shared by Nancy, Carol calls in and then gets herself an appointment to see her physician.
  • She is also haunted by a feeling that something of importance happened last night while she was sleeping, but she can't seem to lay hands on it.
  • As she leaves for her appointment, she encounters Rose, who recognizes that she's ill. The two chat, with Rose pointing out that her Aunt Holly has the same illness.
  • They both suddenly notice that Rose's grandmother is eavesdropping on their conversation, and insists that Rose "check the eggs" in Carol's apartment.
  • Carol gives her the go-ahead to do so, but leaves for her appointment. Rose does indeed find that the eggs in Carol's apartment are filled with the black and red, stinking goo, and throws them out in the dumpster.
• Harry awakens early and tends to Nancy, who seems to be recovering, though she's sleeping a lot from the medications they've given her. He heads out to work.
• Arriving at her appointment, Carol is seen by her doctor, and promptly hospitalized, receiving treatment before whatever is afflicting her turns into pneumonia.
• Lucas wakes and finds Haywood working on breakfast. They eat, and then Lucas packages some up, taking some down to Matthew and some to Toby, who has already opened the shop.
  • Lucas and Haywood then go out to a local park to start training with Krypto.
• The delivery driver for Tuesday stops by Matthew's shop, and it is not Aaron.
  • When he stops by the comics shop, Lucas asks him what happened to Aaron, and the driver shrugs, mentioning that they assigned this route to him short-term.

Barb, Brick's "old lady"

• Around noon, Harry gets a visit by Bulldog, who insists that Harry jump on the back of his bike with him. Harry hesitates, suggesting that he take Stella instead, but Bulldog insists. He acquiesces.
  • Bulldog takes Harry a couple of blocks away, to an old run-down house still in the Brooklyn neighborhood. It has a bunch of motorcycles parked in the driveway, and chairs in the yard where various members of the Gypsy Jokers are still waking up, breakfast beers in hand.
  • Among them is Brick, the leader of the Gypsy Jokers, with a biker chick in short cutoffs that show off the spiraling barbed wire tattoo around the tops of her thighs. Brick introduces her to Harry as "his old lady," saying her name is Barb.
  • Harry hangs out there for a while, shooting the shit with them. By the time they're done, Brick has talked about his mechanic abilities, and mentions that Bulldog speaks highly of him, and then hands him a set of keys.
  • Harry is now the boss of Ray's Automotive, which the Gypsy Jokers own, and need someone dependable to run for them.
  • When Harry returns to Ray's, he finds that the old boss, Stan, has already cleared the office out, and Harry starts to settle in to his new role.
• Once hospitalized and treated, Carol calls her father, who comes by immediately. They have a somewhat terse conversation about the "hellhole" Carol and Nancy live in now, but she calms him down (if only to avoid aggravating her health at the moment).
• Spurred into action by the previous night's researches, Lucas, Matthew, and Rose get together to ward Matthew and Lucas' apartments against goetic squires.
• Once Carol is home and resting again, Matthew calls her about warding her place next, and she mentions her own illness as well as the weird brass urn she found.
  • He closes up shop and the three of them come up to work a warding.
  • As they do so, Matthew realizes that there's a very good chance that whatever is causing the illnesses isn't the goetic squires, who are incapable of affecting physical things (at least not without the weird "drinking his light" thing they did), according to his researches.
  • They discuss this fact, and Carol's insatiable need to know as much as possible about the supernatural rears its head. She mentions that she's pretty sure something happened to her that she's forgotten, and though she's terrified of reacting to recovering that memory the way Sergio did, she feels it's important.

The strange flayed hag

• Matthew agrees to use his strange telepathic gifts to search for the memory; while he does so, he also discovers the inquiries that Carol has made into his past! He also recovers this memory:
  • Carol wakes, gasping for breath, feeling like something is sitting on her chest.
  • She can't move her body, but her eyes flutter awake, and she can see a horrifying figure.
  • It looks humanoid, and is naked not just of clothing, but of flesh: it is all glistening, oozing bloody muscle, with a bare skull for a face.
  • The figure is vaguely feminine, and she is crouching on Carol's chest.
  • She leans down, and inhales, and Carol is suddenly gasping for breath as this weird steam seems to leave her mouth, and is inhaled by the monster on her chest.