Preparing the Midnight Crew
Jeff
Okay so the plan is
get the info from Granite Peak.
Befriend the longhair with the deck of cards in his hands so I can fulfill a lifelong dream I didn’t know I had of being able to write “knows Ricky Jay” on my character sheet,
Get our best Houdini paraphernalia together and try a seance in the crawl space, in the afternoon before the concert or during the concert,
assuming the result of #3 doesn’t change our plans, gather everybody relevant and/or sensitive and/or promising to the concert space once the concert is over, and try the seance again, which might have the end result of exorcising the pinhole, or not, we’ll see what Houdini wants.
Michael
When you both get a chance, would you mind giving me some rolls for synthesizing the content of the Friday and early Saturday panels? For Marshall it'll be Psychology; for Mitch it'll be Occultism.
(I promise, being a fly on the wall at the Carnival of Knowledge will be of use to SANDMAN and URIEL outside of the Houdini Affair; I expect a lot of business cards and notes are being taken this weekend.)
Brant
Psychology-18
>>>> SUCCESS
Jeff
Occultism-12
>>>> SUCCESS
Michael
So I know Marshall has been preoccupied on a lot of counts this weekend, but the main takeaway from the psychographics, radio marketing, and media theory panels from the weekend is that the explosion of electronic media likely in the next 20 years — radio stations both small and large, the opening up of the UHF television bands to independent station ownership, and advances in satellite technology — are going to lead to a new age of micro-targeting audiences on their interests and "lifestyles." Existing radio station owners, the panels have been saying, have to begin precisely targeting who their audiences are and what they buy so that the music and entertainment played and promoted by their stations can appeal narrowly to those interests and consumer targets. In 20 years, Tom Donahue says at one panel, every radio station will play music from a particular genre of music for a particular audience. Radio (and eventually television) stations will be themed, not general. This is one of those moments, say the media prophets in these panels, where you are being given the one key method by which to survive long-term in the media world; what you choose to do with it is up to you. The remainder of these panels talk about the ways to accomplish this; with what we'd today call "branding," creating personalities, especially DJs, to help the listeners identify with the station, only promoting concerts in one genre of music, only doing in-store and on-location appearances that appeal to the consumer tastes, etc.
On Mitch's side, the music and art and woo side, of the Carnival: well, it seems evident that the craving of the younger generation for mystical and metaphysical fulfillment is going to filter down into consumer behavior as well. The musicians and "counterculture" experts are unified in telling record and media executives to not be afraid to get too "weird." The next big thing, consumer-wise, is going to come out of the "ruins" of the counterculture, and it's likely not going to be political. Instead, it's going to be all about achieving one's potential personally and individually, and the panoply of products and services and art that extol this desire (health and wellness, New Age spirituality) are going to filter out of books and lectures and into entertainment like music, television, film, etc. America's always been a land of seekers, Dr. Hip says in one of his panels on the Age of Aquarius. That seeking is going to take different forms than it used to. It's not going to come from churches and preachers and bishops; it's going to come from small affinity groups with roots in America's long tradition of alternative spirituality.
Brant
This is Mitch and Marshall’s opportunity to get in the ground floor of the emerging field of Lifestyle Consumerism!
Michael
Okay, now the second half of our pre-dry run/two-man seance assignments: the communique back from Marshall's contact at Records at Granite Peak. So they were able to get into the archives of the pre-SANDMAN orgs that grew out of the Duncorne Foundation and give you all the generic code-sign info you could ever hope for; lots of details on how agents identified each other and established networks of informants and contacts in the 1920s, any number of which you can try on Houdini if and when you get to talk to him directly. Files on Houdini himself and his career are a little more fragmentary; his work with DC-R (as the umbrella organization made up of Duncorne, Tavistock, and the Office of Archeological Control was known in the interwar era) seems to have consisted primarily of "consulting" work on general espionage, especially escapology and cryptography; on psychological distraction techniques (Houdini apparently had amazing—but not strictly superhuman/neurolinguistic—charisma and the ability to sway crowds); on mass media manipulation; and on the history of both stage and ceremonial magic. Many of the books from his library on those topics ended up in the Duncorne library. So here's the really important bit of the Houdini files: Marshall's contact said that getting Houdini's "press clippings" and career information wasn't a problem, but the files specifically on Houdini's death are sealed under SANDMAN's absolute top secret most restricted clearance. This classification of files indicate the type of information or history that, if they're read or believed by enough people, could possibly trigger a reality quake. Marshall's contact obviously did not press any of this further, because that in and of itself could get them flagged. But yeah. That's a little concerning. (Brant, Jeff, if either of you have any information gaps that you specifically want to say you asked about, let me know but this is the basic outline of the Houdini Files.)
Brant
Would Houdini presumably share a similar understanding with us vis a vis History B and the Bull-Man? Like does he know what a "kusarikku" is, etc.?
Michael
Yeah, the Madness Dossier book doesn't say anything about when "History B" was coined but you've now got the 1920-appropriate terms for various ontoclastic phenomena. The terms for specific Irruptors come from Mesopotamian myth so those haven't changed since 1888 when History B was (re)discovered.
Brant
OK, well this is certainly something. Marshall's strong inclination now is to do a two-man séance prior to the "real" séance to see if they can "talk to" Houdini, because at this point even Marshall is feeling out of his depth.
Jeff
Ricky Jay is my friend now right
Michael
Jeez, Jeff, I'm glad ONE of us has their priorities straight
Jeff
I'm not the one who said "oh btw Ricky Jay is here no big"
Don't make me roll to befriend Ricky Jay though I am sure I would roll an 18 and for the rest of his life Ricky Jay would tell the hilarious anecdote of how this one time in '73 a drunk homeless man tried to pick him up with a line about a Houdini seance
Michael
Well, Jeff, if we take it for granted that Mr. Jay, an ever-curious dilettante in the areas of the strange and unusual, would be curious to play a part in an impromptu Houdini seance with none other than the J.B. Rhines, friends and colleagues of the great magician, it stands to reason any relationship forged in such unique circumstances would depend on how the seance goes
Jeff
Ok guys stakes just got real
Michael
Sometime between 4 and 8 pm as the stage crew are setting up for the Saturday evening musical performances, I figure Marshall can Fast-Talk his and Mitch's way backstage to get us some time down in the crawlspace with the pinhole. So let's start with that roll.
Brant
Fast-Talk 16
>>>> SUCCESS
Marshall’s dressed like this guy:
Michael
Beautiful. Marshall gets the two of them backstage and into the crawlspace while there are loads of stagehands and roadies upstairs moving amps and instruments into place. Likewise, Dave helps Mitch and Marshall move all their available Houdini props into place down into the crawlspace under the stage. Now, Mitch got a peep out of Houdini when Marshall found the poster and made his comment about practically advertising for History B. The two of you aren't sure how to get Houdini to talk, but you do have lots of stuff from his life, you have proto-SANDMAN call signs and information, and you have what you've learned over the past 48 hours. So here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to have the two of you—the members of Operation URIEL with the most training in clearing one's consciouses of extraneous thoughts—meditate together and concentrate on Houdini's "spirit." Can both of you give me a Meditation roll please?
Brant
HELL YES.
Meditation-16
>>>> SUCCESS
Marshall will also have had Dave bring some candles and stuff to light in a circle around them. He has no idea if that’s a thing but it seems to him like something one would do in this scenario.
Michael
(I should say that I am assessing bonuses based on all the supporting "equipment" you've got like the bits from the Houdini rider, the poster, the SANDMAN data; generic seance equipment also qualifies.)
Jeff
woo woo
>>>> SUCCESS
Michael
All right. Marshall and Mitch blank their minds as best they can given the ruckus above their heads. Mitch concentrates using Detect (History B)—no roll necessary, Mitch has basically spent so long analyzing the nature of the anomaly at this point, it's like second nature. And Mitch begins to hear that voice again, this time the faintest possible whisper. "I can only see very faintly," the voice whispers to Mitch (Marshall is not hearing this; it seems like between Mitch's abilities and past interactions, the spirit has chosen Mitch as medium), with the audibility very clearly fading in and out. "Have you... have you brought... Chinese Water... I can see the care you've...." and then, silence again.
Like tuning in a distant station on the radio.
Jeff
"Chinese Water," Mitch repeats, and passes the info along to Marshall as best he can.
Brant
"Chinese water ... ? Like, the device he uses? The box? Or does he want us to get ... water ... from China?"
Jeff
Water trick? Water cloth, the tarp thing we don't have?
Brant
(Do we have something that would work as a Chinese water torture box?)
Jeff
In theory I have a second use of Serendipity I could burn to find a suitable prop
Michael
Whispers again to Mitch alone: "No... I appreciate... not the objects, although... too weak, there are not... minds to concentrate and focus... the force of will is... a circle, the communal force of...." and then silence yet again.
Jeff
"He says it's not the props or lack thereof, he appreciates it I think but we need more bodies. More people thinking Houdini thoughts."
"I mean, seems like he's game to try it tonight."
Brant
"If you say so. Guess we have no choice but to rope in the others; I told them to meet us at the bar in a little while. So we could head there and wait for them?"
Jeff
"Yeah. Yeah, I think so."
I gotta say, though, I absolutely love the image of Mitch and Marshall carting all their Houdini paraphernalia down to the spot, and Houdini being like ‘wow you guys managed to acquire 80% of the Chinese Water Trick materials, this is helpful in terms of allowing me to focus but it’s insufficient, I need more brains thinking those Houdini thoughts” and Marshall and Mitch mishear and are like, “shit, he needs the tank, he’s saying he needs the tank, where the fuck are we going to get a glass box six feet on a side and how are we going to fit it down here and fill it with water for him to materialize in, shit” and Houdini has to be like “whoa whoa whoa guys, it’s okay, it’s okay, I don’t need the stupid tank I just need Ricky Jay’s soothing flat affect.”
Michael
So our unlikely group of 8 ghost-hunters definitely leans toward the Weird, as I may have mentioned when we first started talking about casting lines for them. Ricky Jay, as his stage name goes, he's definitely coming across as a young insouciant chubby hippie kid with a kind of hard-edged ironic stage presence that he keeps up even when he's not "performing" (I'm going to say Mitch chanced across him doing a card trick for a bunch of younger progressive radio types the other day). Dr. Hip is game for anything (and probably wants to get a sense of "why the hell Marshall Redgrave is spending time arranging a seance? Some kind of honeypot op to try and trap the next Manson family?") Sydney Omarr is definitely doing it for the clout; getting close to Marshall would be a coup for his various astrology businesses and undoubtedly has tried to corner Marshall at some point during this impromptu drinks hour).
Scott Rogo is a weird one; one of those young kids hanging out with Ricky, he tried to corner Mitch to talk about theories of harmonics and higher dimensions and communication with the dead. Anna Turner is quiet, but intensely curious; she listens to the Rhines when they talk about Houdini, ESP, and anything else otherworldly.
(I should add that Ricky is definitely so-so on Houdini; he knows his lore backwards and forwards but finds him "a terribly uninteresting conjurer" — out of earshot of the Rhines, of course: he's not an asshole necessarily — but does recognize he was the best of the last 100 years on either side of the Atlantic in self-promotion. After some early fits and starts, he cultivated a public image that defined him and made him larger than life. Truly groundbreaking work. Ricky also seems envious that Houdini made enough money to put together the best magicians' library ever assembled. Ricky finds Houdini interesting, but not necessarily intellectually compelling as a magician.)