The Peaceful Texas Town

Ambrose hands over the Technocracy phones to the chantry's head. He pulls a gun out and shoots one, then hands the other over to the Virtual Adepts. Ambrose builds himself a new cell phone.

They head to Texas to investigate the town Michelle told them about. Rey pilots the plane, and Mark and Ambrose come along. On the flight, Ambrose tells them the story about his quest, mentioning that Aila's happy Turtle Rock is unchained.

Ambrose talks to people the next town over from the place in question. They're confused and blank on it, insisting that the place has been a ghost town for ages.

In the town, Ambrose notes ghost readings. Aila spots a ghost at a window. Looking inside, it looks like people simply got up and left and never came back. Upstairs, there's a wraith on the bed, repeating a pattern of getting up to look out the window. Aila identifies it as a drone. They note the moment of shock on its face before it restarts, like it saw something. Looking out, they see footprints in the road, as if everybody went out into the street.

Sonya notes no records, searching license plates, birth records...anything in any database. Nothing on anybody from this town. Considering how dusty the town is, Ambrose indulges a sneaking impulse and analyzes the dirt: it's the mineral composition of the human body. They disintegrated.

They split up to check the town hall and store security cameras. The tapes in them show people walking out to gather in the road. They all turn to face the same direction. The tapes don't catch what they're looking at, but it's like a wind blows and they all turn to ash. One guy wanders across the parking lot, looking confused and very upset, but unaffected. Something changes in his eyes, and he runs away. Taking the tape, they catch up to the others at the town hall.

Rey picks the lock on the town hall. Sonya recognizes the town's seal laid as a mosaic into the lobby floor, as a magical sigil--a binding or sealing sigil. Dances finds the town's "oddity file." Somebody traced the town's history back for at least 1000 years, and the records show that every 200 years something odd happens here. The town disappears and is then refounded each time, about two years later. The work was done by one Roger Sanders, the police chief from 1952. 30 years served, WWII veteran. The date this file was submitted was two days before the town records end. They get his address. Rey snatches some valuables.

The town seal was designed by a man named Milwood Jennings at the "founding" of the town. Interestingly, it's the same seal...and the same man designing it every time. They get his address, too, and let the others know. Then they hit up the historical society across the street. There are lots of log entries there from Sanders during his research. They find a book of local tribal folklore containing an appeasement ritual the tribes here used to practice. When the Europeans came, the natives tried to warn them away.

400 years ago, Millwood Jennings first designed the town seal. He stuck around and didn't seem to actually do anything else. Ambrose notes the seal is mathematical--a constantly changing equation that has to stop every 200 years for about four hours. He's impressed.

During their wandering, they spot lots of drones around town. Ambrose reads one--shock, then...nothing. There are pictures of Jennings here and there, from various periods. He looks the same in all of them. Ambrose looks through some historical society texts while the others ponder Aztecs, and finds that there's always a huge party when the town is establish--almost ritualistic in its 'town fair'ness. The others find Sanders' research, which is always stuff he pulled as weird or ritualistic--and always the same ritual, even though these groups couldn't have known each other, seeing as they were disintegrated. Jonas pulls out a flyer...for the Midnight Circus. Every time the town is founded, the Circus is there.

On the other hand, the word 'Croatan' was never carved here before, and a newspaper article being written about it is new. No one ever noticed what happened to the town before.

Rey and his group head to Sanders' place. Dances finds a metal box under the floor boards in the study. It's research notes, along with a note, "Need to go see Jennings." He was worried about the Circus, but also confused. It almost seems to co-locate at these events, being reported in other locations at the same time as the town. Mark explains to Dances about the Circus. They theorize that it might be drawn to an old-fashioned carnival rite, and ponder the possibility of it being a not-negative manifestation of the Circus.

Close analysis of the pattern of the traditional dances at the festival show they're very similar to the town seal. Sonya recognizes this: the dance channels the energy of the town's spirit, so to speak. The seal must mimic it, so it's holding something back. Something down at the lake, which is the traditional site of the festival. Dances thinks the dance is closer to something Mediterranean or Middle Eastern than American or South American.

The others go to Jennings' house. It's palatial, five floors with a courtyard that contains statues. The house and everything is was carved by hand. Jonas unlocks the house. Ambrose calls out, but there's no response inside, so they slip in, making a note of where things are positioned. Aila thinks she smells cooking. The others are startled to note no food smell at all--not even rotting. The place is clean, dust-free, and there are newspapers from a couple of days ago.

Ambrose puts things together: all the pictures were taken at night. Jennings might be a vampire.

Downstairs, there's an artist's studio. Ambrose notes the paint is wet. The sub-basement is just a huge granite door, with a mathematical/language-operated lock. Ambrose is incredulous: "I'd have an easier time going through the wall." Only that's reinforced too. He spots Enochian and Garou glyphs in the languages. What is this guy?

20 minutes till nightfall. They go upstairs. The second floor is a library. Jennings' handwriting is on relics dating back to 3000 years ago. RF spots the mysterious 'guy who survived' in a lot of pictures starting around three years ago. He stopped aging around 1970, it looks like. His name is apparently Tommy. Vampire definitely seems like a good bet.

The top floor is an observatory. Ambrose notes the telescope is Etherite-built. The rest of the group arrives, and they all head back out to regroup after a quick second look at the library. Rey spots a book radiating Glamour in a place of honor in the displays.

Ambrose supports leaving and knocking politely when the guy wakes up. This they do, and the fellow greets them, inviting them 'back in.' He's agreeable about explaining.

The thing in the lake is a "Word-Eater." Ambrose realizes that the seal recalculates names, keeping it preoccupied. It eats names, erasing people from existence so that others don't even remember them. Cultists murdered Sanders. They came from the next town over--the guys who published that news article, in fact. And he tells them about five Nephandi who've been poking around, and a Black Spiral pack that came through. They're the ones who carved 'Croatan.'

The town has been eaten and re-established 15 times. Jennings calls people back each time because he needs their energy to keep things going, and keep the thing in the lake. It has never left, but he doesn't know if it could if it had nothing to eat. It only eats living people. The Nephandi are poking at it because the appeasement ritual involves binding a person to it to become its courier in the world. They've been mucking in the town with cultists too. The BSDs were more concerned with back-tracking the Balam's trail.

Ambrose wonders, what if you got the Name-Eater to eat its own name? The vampire says he's been trying to find its name. Ambrose admires the telescope, which Jennings offers to let him use, so long as he calls ahead.

RF asks about Astarte songs. Jennings has two. He says the Circus is very different when it's here; safer, less tainted. The pack figures they can't do much here now, but expect to come back. Meanwhile, spring whatever trap is waiting for them here (obviously the BSDs lured them deliberately) and then go cult-busting in the next town over. The Balam is startled by Jennings' civility.

There is indeed a trap. Laid by the Nephandi, it slides right off Rey's fairie car.