Griffin O'Callahan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
icastsword) wrote2025-03-07 06:30 pm
icastsword) wrote2025-03-07 06:30 pm
Entry tags:
Session 185: Spooky Bros
You know who would know where the Spooky Bros are? Breddit.
Nellie hugs her mom goodbye and asks how she is, oops, she forgot to do that when we barged in last session.
We return to New Orleans in the Earth Realm. Griffin goes home to see his moms.
Shane hops on the Internet, the Information Superhighway, to learn about the Spooky Bros. He rolls an 18 to Investigate. The Spooky Bros have their own sub-breddit. He’s looking for Spooky Bros sightings in the New Orleans area.
Shane finds a repost of the OG video that sent the Spooky Bros viral. Their big break was their coverage of the Utah Obelisk. The Utahbolisk.
The official Interplay story is that the Spooky Bros found an unstable gate to another realm. The Spooky Bros caught video of Interplay using the Obelisk to shutter the gate.
Regardless of what this video shows, we need to find these guys, because they’re fucking around with shit they shouldn’t be fucking around.
Griffin offers to try DM’ing the Spooky Bros on Instagram. Jericho says that’s a good idea. Griffin rolls a 9 to Investigate for the Spooky Bros. He hands his phone to Crimeny, who rolls a 25. The SB have an Instagram, it’s full of all the spooky places they’ve been, and a bunch of goofy selfies.
The Spooky Bros are based in New Orleans. Griffin, AKA Office Thor, sends them a DM asking if they want to meet up. He rolls a 22 Persuasion.
While we wait to see if the Spooky Bros get back to Office Thor, do we want to check out the storefront that got wibbly-wobbly chaos’d? Might as well. Let’s roll Survival to find it. Griffin rolls a 7. So does Nellie.
Jericho rolls a 19. He has a feeling he knows where this storefront is. He’s lived in New Orleans for a significant portion of his life.
The place is pretty busy, because people keep coming by ever since it aired on Spooky Bros. Now we roll Insight: 14. It’s time to vibe check. Everyone but Shane is familiar enough with these shows to know that the things that they show are embellished. Yeah, embellished is a good word. These ghost-hunting shows will make a mountain out of electromagnetic static.
The fact that the storefront seems perfectly fine - did something actually happen here? It seems weird. Shane has a churro. The business itself seems to be doing very well. What kind of business is it? It’s a sandwich shop. It’s Jesse James Po’Boys. For some reason it’s cowboy-themed. They specialize in the beef Po’Boy, they call it the Cow’Boy.
Griffin wants a sandwich. So does Jericho. They go inside and procure sandwiches for the entire team, even for Crimeny.
Inside the shop is a wall of photos. They business is capitalizing on the sensation of what happened to their storefront. They’re selling merchandise that have photos from that video clip. They’re selling Spooky Bros t-shirts (unlicensed) There are pictures of Bulk and Skull on the wall with the owner.
We’re going to be waiting in line for a while. It’s pretty packed in here. Jericho Investigates for someone who looks like a Spooky Bros superfan. But he only rolls an 8. It’s too noisy in here. Shane rolls a 16. He doesn’t see any super-fans. He sees a portly-looking man. He’s kind of sweaty. He’s wearing a Spooky Bros shirt under an apron. He looks like he might be the owner or manager. This man looks like he sweats crawdads.
Shane points him out to the crew. He’s standing off to the side, watching the proceedings. He clearly works here, but he’s not working.
Griffin and Jericho are in line. They can’t leave the line, otherwise they’ll lose their place! Who has the next highest Charisma? Shane. He approaches the man. He rolls an 18 Insight. That man is the owner. "Damn! You guys are really busy!"
He learns that the Spooky Bros come here all the time. Is Shane a fan? Yeah! He’s seen all their episodes! What’s his favorite episode? The Skinwalker Ranch where they find aliens! Shane rolls Deception: 21. This man believes him. That was a good episode.
How long have the Spooky Bros patronized this establishment? A couple of years. They live out in the suburbs. What was this man’s favorite episode of the Spooky Bros? He’s most excited for the upcoming episode about the chaos egg.
At this point, Ant reminds us that we’re looking for Garfield Bulkowski and Mortimer Finskle. Why don’t we just look them up in the yellow pages? Crimeny rolls a 22 Investigation. They find the boys. They live in the New Orleans suburbs. Somehow they have landlines. They both have landlines. WTF.
We get our Po’Boys and leave the sandwich shop.
Shane rolls 13 History. Bulk is definitely the showman, it stands to reason that Skull is the researcher. He tells Jericho to call Finskle. He calls the Finskle Residence. He gets Gertrude. She sounds like a little old lady. She screams for MORTIMERRRRR! Jericho has to hold his phone a foot away from his ear while she screams for her son.
Skull has apparently heard of the LaCroix’s. He is VERY excited. WAY too excited. He asks for Jericho’s number. After a moment’s thought, he gives Mortimer his number. Morty wants Jericho to come to his house. Jericho tells him he would prefer if we met at his office, without any extraneous people around.
Well, now we know why these two guys have landlines. THEY don’t have the landlines, the parents they live with do. We have an hour to figure out what we’re going to say to them.
Jericho suggests we offer to go get the footage FOR them, as long as they don’t go following us.
Nellie suggests we come up with a different, better story for the two dummies to go chase. That might work. What kind of shit do they usually cover? Shane rolls History: 18. Anything paranormal - ghosts, aliens, cryptids, conspiracy theories.
Griffin has a question. Jericho Investigations is pretty famous in the magic world, but not so much in the Mundy world. How did Skull know who Jericho was?
They probably know us from the museum park fight where we had to beat down living statues without dropping our glamours.
Nellie asks Crimeny what kinds of things are out there on the internet regarding Jericho Investigations? Crimeny rolls a 22 Investigation - this is something they keep track of. There’s photos of Office Thor, there’s the piano battle at the museum. There’s the Dickensian Orphan versus the statues. We have a bit of a footprint, but a lot of people suspect this is staged. We’re kind of a phenomenon, but not enough that important people would notice or care.
There are also definitely some IRC channels speculating about what Jericho Investigations are. If you’re going to talk about magic shit, you’re going to do it on the Dark Web.
There’s a rumor that we’re a coven of warlocks or witches, there’s a rumor that we’re a government plant meant to draw attention away from the real ills of society - false flag bullshit. And there are other places where there are clearly knowledgable folk in the realm of magic who see us as harbingers of good. "This is their detective agency, they seem magic, this one’s clearly a child."
There are people out there speculating that we’re magic, but no one’s been dumb enough to act on it - yet.
JERICHO: Crimeny? I need you to write up an NDA. Or is that more Griffy’s territory?
Griffin and Crimeny will come up with an NDA together.
We can send the Spooky Bros after Bourbon Street Batman, AKA Crimeny. Jericho needs a dossier on the Bat Man of Bourbon Street.
We head out to the suburbs of New Orleans, to the address Skull sent Jericho. It’s a little one-floor house with a nice vegetable garden. It’s very suburb. It’s the most suburban house we’ve ever seen.
Jericho knocks on the door. The sound of a small angry dog, barking like crazy, emerges from within. Then there is loud scrumbling. The sound of someone pressing up against the door to look out the peephole is very audible.
We can hear the guy inside telling "Mothman" to stop. His dog’s name is Mothman.
SKULL: Mr Jericho LaCroix, I presume?
He’s scrawny and weasley, he’s got a grungy vibe. His jeans are too long. The hems are frayed at the heels from being constantly walked on. He leans against the doorway, trying to look cool. "Welcome to Casa de Finskle."
Jericho rolls a 28 Intimidation. Jericho is very good at looking down at people and making them look small.
Morty introduces himself. He steps aside and lets us in. Jericho graces this domicile with his presence. There aren’t a ton of doilies in here, but there’s more than one. The wallpaper is egregiously 1970s. There are a number of Precious Moments figurines. This is very much an old woman’s house.
Morty brings the group into a kitchenette and offers refreshment. No one needs anything. He leads us down into the basement. We head down the creaky wooden staircase, and right into Spooky Bros Command Center.
The basement spans the breadth of the house. There are all types of Christmas lights set to the green setting, strung all the way around, hanging from the beams. The tech center is in the far corner with a number of monitors and televisions hooked up to cam corders and such.
Adjacent to that is a pretty hefty-looking library. There are about 6-7 bookshelves that span a good chunk of the wall, filled with books. There are also action figures posed on the bookshelves. There is a very worn-out looking couch in front of a coffee table filled with snacks, soda cans, there’s the Playstation controller and the Switch, directly across from a television.
Next to that is a decently-sized media shelf.
There is the sound of a chair rolling from behind the monitors. In the chair is an orb of a man. He is wearing a t-shirt with flames on it, and the text (in flames) says "I want to believe." Over that shirt he is wearing a blazer in an attempt to look professional. He is wearing board shorts, flip flops, and sunglasses.
"Well. Well. Well. Jericho. LaCroix." He stands up and walks over to Jericho. He holds out a hand. Jericho shakes his hand. He’s not covered in Cheeto dust. He’s wearing a tasteful amount of Axe.
JERICHO: It’s good to meet you. I’ve seen a little of your work.
BULK: Only a little?
He slings an arm over Jericho’s shoulder. He’s gonna show us something. He goes over behind the monitors, and reaches up to the rafters, where he grabs a pull string. He pulls down what started life as a projector screen, but has since become a conspiracy board.
Right in the center is a picture of LaCroix Investigations, surrounded by photos us - a Dickensian Orphan versus a statue, there’s a piano, there are photos of Axe Con, there are strings and lines drawn all around. There’s a picture of Crimeny with a ton of question marks around it. "STOLEN CHILD???" There are photos of Griffin from his Instagram - "Reincarnated Conan the Barbarian?"
There are photos of Shane with the word, "BRITISH???????" Nellie’s photos say, "Child from future? Fairy?"
For Serra, it says, "Angel of Mercy????"
There are some photos of Morpheus’ wedding. "Friends with DA??? Why??"
Bulk has been following our really recent careers for a really recent long time. He’s been hoping, one day, that he’d get to meet us. Because he wants to know. He wants to know if we saw his breakout video - the Obelisk in Utah? Yeah - we saw that.
He’s throwing out a theory that he and Skully are really passionate about. If he’s right, he’s going to need OUR help. He believes - he and Skully believe - they’ve done SO much research, MONTHS of research. They believe that ghosts are coming to take over the world, and what we need to do is raise a militia of true believers, and we need to fight the god of ghosts.
Jericho is stonefaced. That is the role he has decided he’s playing.
Crimeny is the One Punch Man "OK" panel.
Shane is clowning. He is fucking with these guys.
Griffin is bemused.
Serra is asleep.
Nellie does not have a poker face. She has the look of a woman who is thinking about restraining orders. She rolls Perception: 14. Something catches her eye. As Bulk is wildly gesticulating and talking about the god of ghosts, something on the bookshelf catches her eye.
One of the books is a hefty-looking tome. On the spine is the emblem of the Right Hand of Mystra.
Ooooh, boy, this is a pair of clowns who’ve found something they’re not supposed to. Nellie rolls a 13 Stealth to walk over to look at that book. She’s not very stealthy, because she has to cross in front of Bulk to get there.
He notices her with a 16, and switches form his sales pitch to talk about their library. 80% of the books are Skully’s. She asks what’s his source? They go to old bookstores and look around in the occult section. A couple of them may have been borrowed from the library and forgotten to give back.
NELLIE: You don’t mind if I take a look, then?
BULK: By all means!
NELLIE: Okay!
Nellie immediately grabs the RHoM book off the shelf and starts paging through it. She recognizes a name: Gretchen Royse. She rolls History: 26. She remembers Gretchen. Gretchen was a human wizard, and she was studying the soul membrane, and what potentially lay beyond it. She rigorously documented her work, and from the looks of it, this book is an unauthorized copy.
NELLIE: You got this from the library!?
SKULLY: No - that’s my grandma’s.
Nellie hugs her mom goodbye and asks how she is, oops, she forgot to do that when we barged in last session.
We return to New Orleans in the Earth Realm. Griffin goes home to see his moms.
Shane hops on the Internet, the Information Superhighway, to learn about the Spooky Bros. He rolls an 18 to Investigate. The Spooky Bros have their own sub-breddit. He’s looking for Spooky Bros sightings in the New Orleans area.
Shane finds a repost of the OG video that sent the Spooky Bros viral. Their big break was their coverage of the Utah Obelisk. The Utahbolisk.
The official Interplay story is that the Spooky Bros found an unstable gate to another realm. The Spooky Bros caught video of Interplay using the Obelisk to shutter the gate.
The obelisk was actually some of Interplay’s sloppy handiwork. The official story was that they had found an unstable gate to one of the other realms that they were locking down and closing and that the obelisk was placed a sort of “spatial lightning rod” to lock the gate in place so they can close it. However, Spooky Bros got exclusive video that was then confiscated by the government. Fortunately, Skully has been circulating a backup on the Dark Web for the last few months. Whenever it pops up and gets taken down, several more copies get dispersed.
What is in the video?
The video showcases the obelisk operating almost like a piston or hammer. It extends and rises into the air briefly before hammering down. Every time it does, flashes in the sky appear; breaks in reality where eldritch horrors attempt to break through. They’re the briefest of flashes, as if someone tore a section of sky away and beyond it was static and horror for one flash of a second, always in syncopated rhythm matching the pulse of the obelisk.
Regardless of what this video shows, we need to find these guys, because they’re fucking around with shit they shouldn’t be fucking around.
Griffin offers to try DM’ing the Spooky Bros on Instagram. Jericho says that’s a good idea. Griffin rolls a 9 to Investigate for the Spooky Bros. He hands his phone to Crimeny, who rolls a 25. The SB have an Instagram, it’s full of all the spooky places they’ve been, and a bunch of goofy selfies.
The Spooky Bros are based in New Orleans. Griffin, AKA Office Thor, sends them a DM asking if they want to meet up. He rolls a 22 Persuasion.
While we wait to see if the Spooky Bros get back to Office Thor, do we want to check out the storefront that got wibbly-wobbly chaos’d? Might as well. Let’s roll Survival to find it. Griffin rolls a 7. So does Nellie.
Jericho rolls a 19. He has a feeling he knows where this storefront is. He’s lived in New Orleans for a significant portion of his life.
The place is pretty busy, because people keep coming by ever since it aired on Spooky Bros. Now we roll Insight: 14. It’s time to vibe check. Everyone but Shane is familiar enough with these shows to know that the things that they show are embellished. Yeah, embellished is a good word. These ghost-hunting shows will make a mountain out of electromagnetic static.
The fact that the storefront seems perfectly fine - did something actually happen here? It seems weird. Shane has a churro. The business itself seems to be doing very well. What kind of business is it? It’s a sandwich shop. It’s Jesse James Po’Boys. For some reason it’s cowboy-themed. They specialize in the beef Po’Boy, they call it the Cow’Boy.
Griffin wants a sandwich. So does Jericho. They go inside and procure sandwiches for the entire team, even for Crimeny.
Inside the shop is a wall of photos. They business is capitalizing on the sensation of what happened to their storefront. They’re selling merchandise that have photos from that video clip. They’re selling Spooky Bros t-shirts (unlicensed) There are pictures of Bulk and Skull on the wall with the owner.
We’re going to be waiting in line for a while. It’s pretty packed in here. Jericho Investigates for someone who looks like a Spooky Bros superfan. But he only rolls an 8. It’s too noisy in here. Shane rolls a 16. He doesn’t see any super-fans. He sees a portly-looking man. He’s kind of sweaty. He’s wearing a Spooky Bros shirt under an apron. He looks like he might be the owner or manager. This man looks like he sweats crawdads.
Shane points him out to the crew. He’s standing off to the side, watching the proceedings. He clearly works here, but he’s not working.
Griffin and Jericho are in line. They can’t leave the line, otherwise they’ll lose their place! Who has the next highest Charisma? Shane. He approaches the man. He rolls an 18 Insight. That man is the owner. "Damn! You guys are really busy!"
He learns that the Spooky Bros come here all the time. Is Shane a fan? Yeah! He’s seen all their episodes! What’s his favorite episode? The Skinwalker Ranch where they find aliens! Shane rolls Deception: 21. This man believes him. That was a good episode.
How long have the Spooky Bros patronized this establishment? A couple of years. They live out in the suburbs. What was this man’s favorite episode of the Spooky Bros? He’s most excited for the upcoming episode about the chaos egg.
At this point, Ant reminds us that we’re looking for Garfield Bulkowski and Mortimer Finskle. Why don’t we just look them up in the yellow pages? Crimeny rolls a 22 Investigation. They find the boys. They live in the New Orleans suburbs. Somehow they have landlines. They both have landlines. WTF.
We get our Po’Boys and leave the sandwich shop.
Shane rolls 13 History. Bulk is definitely the showman, it stands to reason that Skull is the researcher. He tells Jericho to call Finskle. He calls the Finskle Residence. He gets Gertrude. She sounds like a little old lady. She screams for MORTIMERRRRR! Jericho has to hold his phone a foot away from his ear while she screams for her son.
Skull has apparently heard of the LaCroix’s. He is VERY excited. WAY too excited. He asks for Jericho’s number. After a moment’s thought, he gives Mortimer his number. Morty wants Jericho to come to his house. Jericho tells him he would prefer if we met at his office, without any extraneous people around.
Well, now we know why these two guys have landlines. THEY don’t have the landlines, the parents they live with do. We have an hour to figure out what we’re going to say to them.
Jericho suggests we offer to go get the footage FOR them, as long as they don’t go following us.
Nellie suggests we come up with a different, better story for the two dummies to go chase. That might work. What kind of shit do they usually cover? Shane rolls History: 18. Anything paranormal - ghosts, aliens, cryptids, conspiracy theories.
Griffin has a question. Jericho Investigations is pretty famous in the magic world, but not so much in the Mundy world. How did Skull know who Jericho was?
They probably know us from the museum park fight where we had to beat down living statues without dropping our glamours.
Nellie asks Crimeny what kinds of things are out there on the internet regarding Jericho Investigations? Crimeny rolls a 22 Investigation - this is something they keep track of. There’s photos of Office Thor, there’s the piano battle at the museum. There’s the Dickensian Orphan versus the statues. We have a bit of a footprint, but a lot of people suspect this is staged. We’re kind of a phenomenon, but not enough that important people would notice or care.
There are also definitely some IRC channels speculating about what Jericho Investigations are. If you’re going to talk about magic shit, you’re going to do it on the Dark Web.
There’s a rumor that we’re a coven of warlocks or witches, there’s a rumor that we’re a government plant meant to draw attention away from the real ills of society - false flag bullshit. And there are other places where there are clearly knowledgable folk in the realm of magic who see us as harbingers of good. "This is their detective agency, they seem magic, this one’s clearly a child."
There are people out there speculating that we’re magic, but no one’s been dumb enough to act on it - yet.
JERICHO: Crimeny? I need you to write up an NDA. Or is that more Griffy’s territory?
Griffin and Crimeny will come up with an NDA together.
We can send the Spooky Bros after Bourbon Street Batman, AKA Crimeny. Jericho needs a dossier on the Bat Man of Bourbon Street.
We head out to the suburbs of New Orleans, to the address Skull sent Jericho. It’s a little one-floor house with a nice vegetable garden. It’s very suburb. It’s the most suburban house we’ve ever seen.
Jericho knocks on the door. The sound of a small angry dog, barking like crazy, emerges from within. Then there is loud scrumbling. The sound of someone pressing up against the door to look out the peephole is very audible.
We can hear the guy inside telling "Mothman" to stop. His dog’s name is Mothman.
SKULL: Mr Jericho LaCroix, I presume?
He’s scrawny and weasley, he’s got a grungy vibe. His jeans are too long. The hems are frayed at the heels from being constantly walked on. He leans against the doorway, trying to look cool. "Welcome to Casa de Finskle."
Jericho rolls a 28 Intimidation. Jericho is very good at looking down at people and making them look small.
Morty introduces himself. He steps aside and lets us in. Jericho graces this domicile with his presence. There aren’t a ton of doilies in here, but there’s more than one. The wallpaper is egregiously 1970s. There are a number of Precious Moments figurines. This is very much an old woman’s house.
Morty brings the group into a kitchenette and offers refreshment. No one needs anything. He leads us down into the basement. We head down the creaky wooden staircase, and right into Spooky Bros Command Center.
The basement spans the breadth of the house. There are all types of Christmas lights set to the green setting, strung all the way around, hanging from the beams. The tech center is in the far corner with a number of monitors and televisions hooked up to cam corders and such.
Adjacent to that is a pretty hefty-looking library. There are about 6-7 bookshelves that span a good chunk of the wall, filled with books. There are also action figures posed on the bookshelves. There is a very worn-out looking couch in front of a coffee table filled with snacks, soda cans, there’s the Playstation controller and the Switch, directly across from a television.
Next to that is a decently-sized media shelf.
There is the sound of a chair rolling from behind the monitors. In the chair is an orb of a man. He is wearing a t-shirt with flames on it, and the text (in flames) says "I want to believe." Over that shirt he is wearing a blazer in an attempt to look professional. He is wearing board shorts, flip flops, and sunglasses.
"Well. Well. Well. Jericho. LaCroix." He stands up and walks over to Jericho. He holds out a hand. Jericho shakes his hand. He’s not covered in Cheeto dust. He’s wearing a tasteful amount of Axe.
JERICHO: It’s good to meet you. I’ve seen a little of your work.
BULK: Only a little?
He slings an arm over Jericho’s shoulder. He’s gonna show us something. He goes over behind the monitors, and reaches up to the rafters, where he grabs a pull string. He pulls down what started life as a projector screen, but has since become a conspiracy board.
Right in the center is a picture of LaCroix Investigations, surrounded by photos us - a Dickensian Orphan versus a statue, there’s a piano, there are photos of Axe Con, there are strings and lines drawn all around. There’s a picture of Crimeny with a ton of question marks around it. "STOLEN CHILD???" There are photos of Griffin from his Instagram - "Reincarnated Conan the Barbarian?"
There are photos of Shane with the word, "BRITISH???????" Nellie’s photos say, "Child from future? Fairy?"
For Serra, it says, "Angel of Mercy????"
There are some photos of Morpheus’ wedding. "Friends with DA??? Why??"
Bulk has been following our really recent careers for a really recent long time. He’s been hoping, one day, that he’d get to meet us. Because he wants to know. He wants to know if we saw his breakout video - the Obelisk in Utah? Yeah - we saw that.
He’s throwing out a theory that he and Skully are really passionate about. If he’s right, he’s going to need OUR help. He believes - he and Skully believe - they’ve done SO much research, MONTHS of research. They believe that ghosts are coming to take over the world, and what we need to do is raise a militia of true believers, and we need to fight the god of ghosts.
Jericho is stonefaced. That is the role he has decided he’s playing.
Crimeny is the One Punch Man "OK" panel.
Shane is clowning. He is fucking with these guys.
Griffin is bemused.
Serra is asleep.
Nellie does not have a poker face. She has the look of a woman who is thinking about restraining orders. She rolls Perception: 14. Something catches her eye. As Bulk is wildly gesticulating and talking about the god of ghosts, something on the bookshelf catches her eye.
One of the books is a hefty-looking tome. On the spine is the emblem of the Right Hand of Mystra.
Ooooh, boy, this is a pair of clowns who’ve found something they’re not supposed to. Nellie rolls a 13 Stealth to walk over to look at that book. She’s not very stealthy, because she has to cross in front of Bulk to get there.
He notices her with a 16, and switches form his sales pitch to talk about their library. 80% of the books are Skully’s. She asks what’s his source? They go to old bookstores and look around in the occult section. A couple of them may have been borrowed from the library and forgotten to give back.
NELLIE: You don’t mind if I take a look, then?
BULK: By all means!
NELLIE: Okay!
Nellie immediately grabs the RHoM book off the shelf and starts paging through it. She recognizes a name: Gretchen Royse. She rolls History: 26. She remembers Gretchen. Gretchen was a human wizard, and she was studying the soul membrane, and what potentially lay beyond it. She rigorously documented her work, and from the looks of it, this book is an unauthorized copy.
NELLIE: You got this from the library!?
SKULLY: No - that’s my grandma’s.