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Episode 2 - Too Many Legs

76m 8s

Episode 2 - Too Many Legs

Federal agents arrive in the quaint town of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, to investigate a series of deaths locally blamed on a bear. Their initial interaction with the sheriff is tense and unproductive; he is hostile, dismisses their assistance, and refuses to provide deputies or detailed evidence, focusing instead on organizing a civilian hunting party for that evening. While in town, the agents note odd phenomena, including a strange heat haze over a bookstore and a commotion at a flower stand where all the blooms have suddenly withered and died—the second such incident in a week. Purchasing some of the dead flowers, the agents speak with the distressed shopkeeper, who suspects local youths. After being effectively dismissed by the sheriff, the team decides to proceed alone. They travel to the coordinates of the first crime scene, the location where a victim named Guy Mayor was found, trekking through fields and into a thick forest where they begin searching for any remaining evidence.

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(phone ringing) (phone ringing) (door opens) (sighs) Hello? What time is it? Who is it? I don't know. I. Situation. Green. Unwrapened. Front. Sorry, honey. I have to take this. (phone ringing) (phone ringing) (phone ringing) (phone ringing) So Mechanicsburg is that quintessential old-fashioned small town, anachronistic gem, right outside the towering, dirty steel skyscrapers of horrible Columbus, Ohio, the trash town from which Michael Hills. Mm-hmm. The roads are mostly cobbled. You can see that most of the shops along the main street, well, they used to be tin smiths, harness makers, millenary shops, you can see where folks have preserved the old street signs for these shops of old. But now, of course, they're occupied by small coffee boutiques and clothing stores. You can see a large, fairly old building. At the end of main street, it says Mechanicsburg, United Methodist, it's got a towering, brick steeple, white cross, visible from all points of the small village. As you drive through, folks walking down the street wave at you. You pass a outdoor flower shop, man is setting out his wares for the day. It's also a busy looking diner. You see a couple of patrol cars as well as a sheriff's truck parked in front of it. It's called the Blue Plate Diner. Otherwise, it's just an idyllic setting. It feels absolutely gorgeous here to those used to the busy life of a dreary city. Agent, where would you like to go? I think we're going to wait to meet the sheriff. Sure. If I could have each one of you please roll your alertness. So we got Romeo of Success, Royson Failure, Relic Failure, Ryan Success. Got it, got it. Something about that second SUV. That second SUV is turned on. I burned all my luck on that one apparently. Well, Relic and Royson are enjoying this pleasantville-esque town, Ryan and Romeo. Both of you notice kind of an odd haze above one of the buildings. Looks like it has a bookstore. It used to be some sort of leatherworking shop, according to some of the faded paint on the side of the brick building. Above the second story, again, there's this thing kind of heat line just lifting up as if somebody's maybe cooking something up there. As you get closer, it just dissipates or no longer visible from your perspective or angle. You don't think much of it. You notice that, right? The weird haze coming off that building? Let me see it, right? Sure do. Okay. I think it's worth taking a closer look at or maybe we just let's store that one away and see if. Yeah, I'll tuck that in my back pocket. Sounds good. Both drivers' park near what is obviously the main square next to a small courthouse. There's a gazebo in the center of it covered with beautiful foliage and well manicured set of flowering bushes. You four slam your door shut, begin to kind of mosey your way over. You see a couple of uniformed officers standing there with star-phone coffee cups. They look up as you approach, but then they continue their conversation. You four? I'm sorry. What was the name of that bookstore yet? It's called the blank page. Would you describe this as a bookstore full of possibility, Chris? You know, I'm going to have to have you roll an alertness inside the building first. And then we can determine how much possibility it's stocked up on. Then Ryan just runs right in there. Okay, roll! Now, quick! That never runs well. Suddenly you grow too many eyes. Yeah, you have too many eyes now. All of that's a joke, by the way. I love that. I just wanted the blank page. But with sad. You're wasting your successes on the jokes. Oh man. You four, loiter there in the main square. Before long, you see some other officers emerge from the blue plate diner. And slowly laughing to each other. One obviously in a sheriff's uniform, another in a deputy sheriff's uniform. About four or five officers make their way. Hello, Sheriff. As you see that, one of the men, really, really the largest man in height and in width, looks up. He's round in the face as well. He's got a small mustache. He screws his brow when you say that. So if he's looking at you from many miles away. And then Bob's his head in recognition. And you see him look over at the deputy next to him and the deputy laughs. Sheriff's obviously said something that you're unable to pick up at this distance. But he starts to stride over in the direction of where you're standing near the gazebo. The deputy's follow. I guess these are my park rangers. He says as he approaches. Sheriff, that'll be federal police. But, uh, yes, it's good to meet you. He nods. He doesn't put out his hand. So, I guess you're a roison. He turns to you, agent roison. Yes, sir. Who else we got here? My name is Romeo, John Romeo. Okay. Agent Ryan, great to meet you and thank you for your help. He steps forward and shakes his hand. The sheriff is a little bit thrown off kilter, but he does awkwardly shake your hand when it's offered. Your power is over 14, correct? No, it's over 9,000. My power level. Yeah, that's what I'm like. So, um, did you airplane land that shaken? Just watching the overarm swoop down. So, yeah, he shakes your hands. All right. Well, look, let me just make this real, real quick for y'all. We've got a pretty, uh, tied schedule. I can't spare any deputies to take you out to any of the old sites where the. Any of the old sites. And, uh, honestly, probably not a good idea for y'all to be traipsing out there on your own. Now, I said it once. I'll say it again to all four of you now. Elements pretty much gone over those sites within the first couple of days. Ain't much to see there. But if you want to go out there, be careful. There's some treasures ground. And obviously, you'll be on your own. You need to bring your own rifles. Uh, quick question. And this wasn't covered in our information. Was the hunting rifle that was found by guy mayor? Was that discharged at all? It had not been discharged, sir. Thank you. Do y'all have the evidence from the sites down at the station? I think some of the evidence is being held in Columbus at the medical examiners. Medical examiner's office. We did get a firearm, as you mentioned, turned over to us. Sure, but, uh, just wonder if we could review the, uh, on-site forensic reports, you know, first officer on scene. That kind of thing. Just get a little debrief at the situation. Y'all sure, Sheriff's office wouldn't have that. Maybe you can talk to one of the locals here. They have probably have a simple police report for it. I'll tell you what. I looked through those. They didn't have much on them. I did have some pictures from the site. I think that was sent to you, if I recall, because I had one of my deputies do it. Pictures from the scene, but, uh, but yeah, the reports themselves. He shrugs. Trails off. Not a lot to go on then. Okay. Well, we didn't get the pictures from the scene. I think they got tied up in red tape back at the office. Would it be possible for someone to show us those? He rolls his eyes exaggeratedly. I know it's such a hassle. We hate making the newest sense of ourselves. We just want to help as much as we can. And float underneath your notice because we're here to help not get in the way. You know how those higher up desk people are. They always take longer than they need to. Look, I'm busy putting together another sortie to go out tonight at dusk. And again, I will be frank, you are not needed. Honestly, I can't have a bunch of folks from out of town falling in a ravine or a sinkhole because they don't know the land. Okay. When it comes to pictures of these scenes, we got bare-paw prints and we got blood and we got lots of. Lots of what? These are people I knew miss. Okay. It's just a bunch. It's a lot of gore. But if you want to see that, he turns to one of the uniformed cops who's been drinking coffee by the gazebo this entire time. He waves the cop walks over and she says, "Yes, Sheriff? Can you scrounge up the scene photos for Boone, Mayor, and Kemp for these agents here?" She kind of looks each one of you up and down quickly. She nods because, "Sure, Sheriff, I can do that." She turns, she walks away. So officer coer there will get you covered. So Sheriff, your plan here is to just keep going out each night and looking for a bear? Before he answers, he kind of pauses, stares at you. It's not a pleasant stare. Oh, I can stare right back. Rollier, a thousand miles, stare. It's like who can squint their eyes harder? Agent, we are going to find this bear and we're going to put a bullet in its skull and we're going to make sure it doesn't take another child from this town. Mm-hmm. We're good luck with that. We don't need luck. We just need damn good planning, damn good folks to help. You, uh, notice he's looking past you and you see that a couple of trucks have arrived in you. Watching look like locals take hunting rifles off the backs of their trucks and make their way over to where the sheriff is standing with you. Adrian is going to smile wide at the sheriff and say thank you again so much for your guidance here and having one of your fellow officers help us out. We really do appreciate it. It seems like you've got a really great, great plan here and a lot of people showing up. Have you guys figured out a pattern to sweep or are you going by zones or sectors or I'm sure you've got a great plan in place here and we don't want to get in your way so if you could let us know where you'll be we'll make sure that we aren't anywhere near those areas. You got two rolls. One is going to be survival minus 20%. The other's a persuade roll. Which one's worse? Survival please. Still a failure. In terms of the survival thing does it add all matter if I was lying about the us staying out of their way and we're just using it as a means to get an answer? I don't care about your motivation. Go to really persuade. All right. First way this is regular flat. Yes, yeah. It'll be fun kidding me. God damn it. Can I take it? But I also have a little help. That's a failure. Okay. With my 80 per sway. Yes, that's a failure which is bullshit. Given my power level. Sorry, go on. The sheriff looks at you. Can tell this might be your first time doing something like this. That's okay. You don't have to help us on the ground. Again, we don't need your help on the ground. What you can do maybe is get all that paperwork ready that I bet you have waiting to put on my desk when we find that bear and get it taken out. Why don't you go ahead and file that up, put some paper clips where the paper clips go and bundle it up all nice for me for when we're done here. Agents, he turns around and doesn't walk away. He just turns back to his deputies who are chuckling kind of looking up at you for. Begin speaking and measure tones to them. I'm actually sounds like he's completely switched gears and is talking about what the sorty plans are going to be like tonight. Yeah, we don't exist to him anymore. Okay, I guess we're on our own there. Look over the guys. Well, since the sheriff's useless, I say we get to work on our own. All right, black SUVs out and Romeo twirls his finger like a helicopter. Excellent. You four begin walking back to your vehicle and our vehicles and everybody rolls there. Oh, learn this please. So we've got I've got a roising and a Romeo success situation and a Ryan success as you are walking back to your vehicles. Relic, you're kind of looking back at the sheriff and he's kind of side glancing you because he heard what you said. Yeah, I'm just I'm sort of cut up, cut laughing to myself right now. It's yeah, and failing all of my roles. That's get him out of the way when it doesn't matter or it doesn't matter who knows. You three as you're walking back by you, you notice there's a little bit of commotion around the the flower stand that you passed on the way here. It's only about a block down. It's like a few people have kind of crowded around, but it's obvious to you even from this distance that what was what you thought was a vibrant stand looks withered in dead the entire arrangement, which was quite large. Several racks of beautiful flowers he was putting on display. And that commotion is how many people? It's about three people. Okay, and they're probably freaking out over how many looks like their flowers went dead. Looks like they're yelling to each other or saying something loud. Romeo holds up his hand and walks over there. He holds up his hand to his group of people like hold on a second and walks over to get a listen on what's going on. Do the other agents follow? Yeah, Royzen's right on his tail. Yeah, Ryan follows. As you forget closer, you see the flower shopkeeper you imagine he's wearing an apron. He's actually yelling at one of the pastors by an older woman. He says, it's your no good kid who does stuff like this. And this is the second time in a week that the whole stand has gone dead like this in an hour. You hear the woman respond now you're getting fairly close. Carl is at school bill. He didn't do anything to your flowers. You're now fairly close and it's unmistakable that row after row of what you thought were gorgeous arrangements are just withered on the vine. When was the last time your flowers went dead if you don't mind asking as a random pastor by? The man turns, snapping his head towards you, taking advantage of the distraction. The woman spins on her heels, continues in the other direction down the street. His eyes soften when he sees you. Oh, sorry, this is the second time it's happened in a week. Last time must have been, I guess, I guess four or five days ago, somebody's must be putting something. And they just did a matter of moments went dead on you. I go outside, I'm fixing up my arrangements for the day, and I go inside to get more, and I come out, and everything's just like this. He holds his hands up. Five days ago. Helplessly. Yeah, it must have been a Monday. It must have been Monday. Yeah, it was because I know I had to put in an extra big order Tuesday morning. That's a real shame, sir. I don't know of any way to make flowers, die like that, but it certainly is. Well, it's some sort of kids prank. Ain't it? It's got to be some sort of kids prank. I personally, I don't know any kids that would know a prank like that to pull or had the facilities to do so, sir, but I assume you're insured and you could definitely claim that. So I don't think so. I don't think insurance is going to cover this. He runs his fingers through his hair. Nonetheless, I think you should report it to the police and get that reported to your insurance. Certainly is terrible that that happened to you. That's your livelihood after all. He kind of turns from you and stairs. Tell you what, I'd like to buy some of these dead flowers from you. I'll take a bouquet. He turns his fill awful for you. No, no, no, it's just, yeah, let me just he hands him a $10 bill and says, I'll take that bouquet of flowers right there. Any gestures at what used to be roses? He nods weekly and says, well, take your pick, sir. You got a good heart. Thank you. Do do report it. I know these police are, got their hands full right now, but you know, at least make a record of it and file that with your insurance if possible. Do what you can to mitigate your losses, you know, are you like some sort of lawful good paladin in this game? No, he's just really taking that FBI. Yeah, you're going all the way. He's that same thing. He nods weekly and he says, yeah, yeah, how might just do that? He's just staying in his cover. Anything the other agents want to mention or say? Ryan sidles up next to Romeo and sort of under his breath. Did you work an insurance? God no, I'd kill myself for it and that. He chuckles and he says, "But with the strangeness in this town, I think it's worthy of note." I don't care enough. I, uh, Romeo's gonna take the, uh, dead flowers back to the vehicle and put them in the back, wrapped in a evidence bag. Ah, okay, nice. Inruise it. I, so this is definitely a unusual sort. It's weird stuff like this happen around here all the time. He kind of morosely turns back towards you. Uh, this second time somebody's done this to me. So, Roy's in, he, he just kind of trails off. He doesn't really register what you're asking beyond, you know, what's right in front of him. I mean, sir, if, if other people are playing pranks around here, maybe we can figure out who did this to you. Uh, it's gotta be that Williams kid. He's no good. Always smoking behind the church with those other, you know, black clothing types. Yeah. Used to be emos or goths. I don't know what they're called now. The rebellious ones. He nods weekly. Continues to stare at his. stands. Maybe if you name some of the other kids, I can talk to them, try to figure out what's going on. Oh, I think they live in some of the outline farms. Uh, there's, there's that girl, uh, Chelsea. That is, uh, used to be working on the, on the big Williams. Uh, he seems to trail off. He seems confused. He's rubbing his forehead. Can I roll a, he, he meant here to see if I can see anything? Sure. Nope. A lot of things. Super fit. He, he seems very confused and upset. He trails off and when you ask if he's okay, Roy's in, he looks up because, uh, just, this is the damnedest thing. Miss, this is the damnedest thing. If you don't mind, I'm just gonna, just gonna go inside and figure out the hell I'm gonna do. He turns, he won't. Trying some water, take some aspirin, maybe take a nap. He nods weekly as the door closes to a shop. He stumbles inside. A repair returns and says, "We should probably, uh, get a move on. If we're gonna check out these sites." Cool. Which site would you like to check out first? Let's go in order where they were when they were found. Should we maybe go in reverse order? Just because given the erosion of, you know, storms or the, the sites in my perspective, that's a great idea. So that means the, where a guy mayor was found. That's gonna be south of the town in some wooded areas. Just looking at it from above. You can see there's no roads out in that direction. It's a park on what looks like a small ranch road next to a, maybe a private drive. That looks like it winds in the wrong direction. And then trek over, it's like farm fields and through some woods. And we're not trespassing though, right? To get there? You have no idea. Oh, I love that. Well, I'm packing. And bringing my friends a kit. Okay. Anything else I need to be aware of that's coming with the crew? Well, I mean, I put on, I mean, I was already wearing it, but I am wearing my, you know, says police federal agent on the back of my, my blazer. I look like a cop. Delta green windbreaker. No, I've got the utility belt with like cuffs and all that stuff. So it's like, I look like myself. You look like an officer. Okay. Cool. You guys begin trekking through, well, somebody's field. There's no signs. The fence was hardly a fence. And for us, leotipes, you're making your way to a tree line. Before long, you're moving through thick wooded area. Is it with two seas? Yeah, it is. It's got two seas. Okay, I just check my notes on that one. So naturally, yeah, yeah, you don't want to be wrong. I don't want to fuck something like that up. So, yeah, you, you, you're in a very thick forest. And hopefully my enunciation made it clear that time. Yeah, very clear. You are having a very hard time, even though you're close to what looked like the given coordinates by Snetiger. You have an a hard time locating anything on the wooded floor that would indicate crime scene. But if everybody wants to who can roll a survival minus 20%. And they people help you out. That's not even, but that's worth a shot, I guess. I don't think that's worth it for me. I've got the 10 survival. Yeah. I mean, same. It's still fair. Okay, John, if you fail this one. Oh, oh, I failed. Yeah, yeah. You're still chuckling to yourself about pissing off the sheriff. No, I'm just daydreaming about that. I got two cars for us. I showed that guy. You four are just unable to really see anything. No prints, no traces of blood, clothing. It's just woods, leaf covered ground, twigs, few fallen trees. How long have we been out here? Looking just a few minutes or has it been a while? You spent 90 minutes so far looking for any indication at this coordinate. I mean, I'd like to keep looking for another hour, maybe, see if that would that help? I forget because of what the exact rule is in terms of like additional time. Yeah, I would. I would. If you can convince the team to help you for another hour, I'll give you a survival minus 40. I looked at you guys. Um, the hell found anything yet? No, to be quite honest, I'm pretty helpless in the woods. I mean, I like going camping, but I don't. I have no idea what I'm doing as far as searching for a former crime scene in the woods. Without police red tape, I'm useless. I found a rock. And what a beautiful rock that is. I'll be honest, I'm a little frustrated. I'm not finding anything here. Well, you're the guy to find it. I know. Just according to yourself. What did help perhaps if you-- What did help perhaps if you looked again? Yeah, tell you what. If somebody else wants to move on to the next side, I could. I'll stay here and keep looking for for a little bit longer. And then, uh, I don't like the idea of that at all. I, yeah, be quite pleased with the party. Please put the party first thing. I love it. If you want to stick around and search, um, I don't want to leave you out here on your, on your own, being, um, that's how people disappear forever. So, uh, well, Rullick, it sounds like you've got some experience in the wilderness. Well, you know, I thought I did. What, what, what are you typically looking for? Maybe we can, we can help you out. Is there a particular moss or-- Relic free with that, with that particular role. You feel like there's going to be no trace. The elements have scrubbed away anything. And to dig deeper, you know, you would really need to put some time to it. You'd start to really have to start turning some of these leaves and looking for, you know, things on the actual force bed. And, you know, you don't feel like that's going to be super fruitful based off the role. But, I can't open that. You're welcome, you're welcome to go again. It's just going to take some time. You're going to have to convince the team. I can roll, I can roll play that. Let's see. Just, I hear him say like, "God damn it, I, uh, I fucking Sheriff was right." "Uh, yeah, no, he's right. There's just, the elements have just taken everything here. This is just, we're probably not going to find anything else on the other side. But, for the diligence, we should at least check." Well, if we get lost out here, I am not drinking my own piss. That is not happening. Flash forward, 20 minutes later, 20 minutes, and he is-- You guys, it's a matter of survival. (laughs) Royzen just pulls an enormous water bottle out of her backpack and shuts it out of him. (laughs) Can he catch it? And, of course, it's going to bounce off his forehead in a comical slapstick manner. Well, of course, it's going to be comical. Yeah, yeah, we want-- Oh, no, it's going to hit him in the back of that. There we go. Yeah. His suit is completely entattered. He's caught it on every bush, every tree. Do we hear the monsters laugh? Yeah, it was going full stealth until it saw that and it gave away its position. So, I'd fire North Northwest. (laughs) Like, it was a depredator, right? When they just opened up on the guns and blades. You four trek back north towards where you parked your car. And, yeah, it's already noon. So, you're going to wait a while until you're ready to pile into the vehicles. And, yeah, you can definitely drive back north to where the kimpo boy was found. Unfortunately, it's not going to be right on a road again, but it's definitely not in the middle of the woods. It looks like it's in the middle of a field. Well, if the second location is correct, it should probably be easier to find than it should be. in the middle of the woods. So here's, here's hoping that number two is our lucky one. It doesn't take long to check out there. And the field itself is fairly unremarkable. None of you can see any indication that there was a gruesome crime scene here if there was one at all. You've been assured there will has been. But certainly no evidence of such exists at this juncture. - Okay, I'm kinda reading between the lines here and we're wasting our time. - All right then, we have other avenues to look at. What do you guys think? Did I feel like we're not getting anywhere and we're going back to further in time with these other ones? I don't feel like we're gonna find anything of value. - I think given as far apart as these are, even though this is still one area, but I don't know how we're gonna piece things together, given the days of past and just by looking at these sites. Plus, if there is something worse than a bear out here, my guess is that do we think it would go back to the same place twice? - No, I mean, it's been all over the town. It's, first one was east of the town. The second one was Southwest, the third was South. Sorry, North. And the fourth was South. So it's not the same places in all over. I just can't imagine it would hit the same place twice is what I'm trying to say. - Can I ask a question outside of the? - Oh yeah, please. - 'Cause I don't know the span of how this works and I could also ask this in character as well, but I mean, is the concept of us getting a drone from the government possible? - Oh, absolutely, definitely. You could give Sennettaker a call and ask for him to take it to you an aerial surveillance setup if that's what you want. He may say no, but doesn't her to ask if that's what you think will help you out here? - Ryan will bring up the idea. A useful tool if we're trying to canvas a large area might be a drone could be worth calling big boss man and see if you'll get one out here to us? - Worth a try, I mean, the worst still do it say no. - I mean, what would we do if it, I've heard of surveillance programs that track moving cars and whatnot, but wild animals little harder to track? - All we have to do is get eyes on it. - Yeah, you're right, but someone's got a man the drone and no word of fly it. - I'm definitely better with drone handling than I'd be walking around here in the woods looking for tracks. - Well, for sure, that's fair. We've got other avenues, I mean. - What are you thinking? - Well, we've got numbers we can call here that Sennettaker gave us. - Okay. - We've got a couple people in town we've got that we can check out their homes. - The deputy's supposed to be getting us pictures of the crime scenes from what they found, right? - And we could speak. - I'd like to see those. - We could speak to the family of the deceased victims, see if we can draw any parallels here or any kind of, - You think there's some intentionality behind these attacks? Some through life? - I am not able to make any heads or tails thus far other than the weird organ thing. There's no, I don't see any link other than they were all outside of town. Other than that, I think we'd have to get to digging into these people's lives and seeing what's up. - I think that that's a great idea. I'd also argue that while limit ourselves given that we're really trying to figure this out and from whatever angle we can, I think I'm gonna go ahead and make that call, but definitely agree if it's worthwhile. - No, go right ahead. I'm not saying no, I'm just saying. What are we gonna get from that? The next best option I think is starting to talk to next of Ken. - I think that's a really good next option. And personal favorite is Amanda Boone. She has no next of Ken, but she certainly lives somewhere and we've got that we can use. We can check out her place without bothering anyone for starters. - All right, are we, I assume we're still out at the last site, right? - Exactly, you're just kind of hanging out in your air condition, one of the air condition vehicles so that you can kind of dry off this Ohio sweat as you speak and try to plan your next moves. So it sounds like we're gonna make a phone call back to Agent Snediger first, correct? - Yeah, on the drive back in. - Got it, got it. Where are we gonna head as we drive back into town? Are we going to the point of that house? - Oh, the house is where. - The address of Amanda Boone is corner of the sheet. It's 180 rowsdale. - Yeah, yeah, it's actually on your way back into town. It's a good choice. - Cool, cool, cool. - So as you're driving in, you make a phone call. Snediger does pick up fairly quickly. Go ahead and roll your bureaucracy plus 20%. - Oh, looks like you succeed with flying colors. - So you did regard plus. - See John, you're supposed to succeed at what you're good at. - Yeah, John, take notes. - Sorry, you're right. - Relic pops out a little window pad and starts scribbling and saying, "Oh, it's really good, how do we do that?" (laughing) - Agent, absolutely. Go ahead and have a chore you bring that in. And, well, before the end of the day, where are you staying? - The Western. - One of us decided that the best Western was the best option for us to stay. - I'm not aware of any best Western side. - I know there's a, I know there's just a Western now in Columbus, I was referring to. - Yes, yes, that is the one. But hey, we found out that there aren't any bugs in it, which one might argue is worth that time spent. - Agent Romero's face kind of screws up into an annoyed look. - 'Cause I mean his passenger seat, making this phone call. So I'm definitely hamming it up on my end. - Good, good. So I could replace. - No, did. Is that all, Agent? - Yeah, if you could have that there tonight, that would be great. - It will be. - Thank you. - You're an agent. (dramatic music) (dramatic music) - You four pull into a residential neighborhood. Close, closely spaced homes, all single story with small, shortened front lawns. Some well manicured others need a trim. If you were to gauge this particular neighborhood, probably middle, lower middle class. Do you go ahead and park near the address? I ask with a question mark. - Yeah, it crossed the street. - Okay. - You four leave your vehicles and walk up to the home. Miss Boone's home is the only multi-story home on the block. However, it's oddly shaped in that it has, what it loses in its width, it makes up for in verticality. In fact, on the outside, she has an impressive set of stairs running the side. It's not a fire escape. This appears to be part of the way to enter the home. The door is unlocked. - Doob. - You walk straight in. Agent's cool with this? - I'm cool with it. - Sure, sure. - Very cool. - Very cool. - I'm in the back. - I'm seconded back. - You four file in, closing the door behind you. I assume Agent Reisen. - I don't know if that's true. - Yes. - Okay. - You born in a barn? - Her home is striking upon entry. It's a rather impressive museum of trinkets and gugas. In fact, it appears she had a penchant for old Coca-Cola toys and ornaments from the early 20th century. And as you kind of step through this menagerie, you get to what was once a living room, but is now a display area for the most notable section of her home. She has a wide array here of fossils. See, trilobites and corals, bivoules, crinoids, falapods. She has them all. And as you step through kind of scanning over this, looking for where this woman might actually live in the home, you see that a fewer of truly monstrous size. These are amazing recoveries for an amateur. You see her largest is a tabulate coral that's sitting on the floor. It looks incredibly heavy and it eerily resembles a massive human brain. As you four kind of pair through this, walk up and down the stairs, you finally find a bathroom and a bedroom. But it seems like she must have spent most of her time doping over her collection. Doesn't have a television set, but she does have a landline. And you do see she has an old style tape recorder, air-sea machine attached. You don't see any pending messages, but there's definitely a lot. lot of notes scribbled on a pat near by first glance. They seem to utility related. Yeah. Otherwise you're not super surprised with what you're finding here. She had a couple of prescriptions, a statin that she find in her in her bathroom cabinet. Otherwise, it's just cold medicine. Romeo reaches into his blazer and pulls out a handful of nitrile gloves and hands them around. If you're going to touch anything, have these gloves on. He walks his way over to that notepad and looks for anything that isn't a utility note. Anything spring to spring up there? Yeah. There's there's one that springs out at you. It reads Jeff from Watts W O T S about the coral again. Okay. Well, there's a lot here. He pulls out that smart phone and searches that Senneter gave him and searches Watts on that. Are there agents? What are you doing? Bryzen's going to reach over and just hit play on the answering machine because even if there's no pending messages, there may be some she hasn't raised yet. Did she do that with gloves on? Yes. Okay. Okay. Cause I was going to have a special comment. If you didn't, we just keep that special comment for another scene, sir. Ryan just slammed his hand on the nearest day. He licks it and he's got the he's got the bathroom door open. He's wildly missing the toilet bowl. Sound not unlike a tea pot boiling coming from Romail. Hey, it's Jeff again. Listen, listen, everybody hears this from the answering machine. I'm not much of a negotiator, but I got to tell you, you got something real special over there. Now, let me paint you a picture, special backroom exhibition, classy glass cases, all felt lines. I'm thinking secrets of mew a true record of our world. Can you just see it? They'll be lining up around the block, Amanda. Now, you know, I got much, but we'll call it a donation for the tax man and I'll give you 25% of the entry fee for each truth secret through the door. Just let me know I got the space all set up. Click. Someone was just doing his hands on this thing. Yeah. Um, did you say secrets of of what was it again? Mew, Mew, Mew, that's something I should know or is that a weird thing? Almost people know about Mew, too, but they were. Yeah, we're all you're a cult, man. Oh, man, I should even bother. Yeah, sounds fine. I feel. Yeah, it's not something you've really come across. You're not sure what the guys talking about on the recording. Do I come up with the page on my phone or anything? W O T S? No. Yeah. Nothing that seems relevant to mechanics, Berg or Columbus or bears. This guy doesn't have a website. That seems like a dead end. Well, let's go down my relic is just spending more time looking, it's just a deeper, deeper search through the, through the place. Mm hmm. And I should mention because I didn't that it was Jeff from Watts about the coral sample W O T S W O T S is capitalized all four of those letters. Was there a callback number? Nope. Is there a number on the G2 paper? Unfortunately not. Does the answering machine log a number? It appears to be a very old answer machine. And unfortunately has no digital capabilities appears. And then to boom, why? Could we pull the phone records for this place? Actually, before we do that, Prisons going to pick up the handset and just hit star 69. So what what you end up getting? Unfortunately, and I won't roleplay this. It appears to be one of Amanda Boone's relatives, homes who didn't leave a message. Oh, what's worth a try? Yeah. I try searching Watts all capital W O T S. Yeah, it you separate. You can straight up type that in and to Google right now and those are the results you get. Still nothing. Okay, well, guys, we don't have a webpage. Well, you need to get some more contacts in order to find something if you just type in W O T S you're going to get random shit. I hear you. We like doesn't exist online. So does he exist? That's what I'm saying. Got it. If I can't find him by doing a simple search that he doesn't okay. He's not real. Yeah. I'm in a final case closed. Case closed. This isn't I think this is a red herring. At the at the current moment, there's nothing tying this to what she's doing other than the fact she was looking for fossils. No, I mean, that's a mild coincidence. A worth a worth note, but not I don't see any reason to stick around in this place. Yes. Yeah. Relic agrees. Fine with me. You for leave the home. And you notice that there was definitely somebody across the street staring at you as you all left who shut his curtains very quickly when you met his eyes. All four of us noticed this? Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't a difficult one. Even relic notices this. You still chuckling about his his slams earlier against the sheriff, but he did notice. It's been hours. Yeah. It's finally getting over it. It's already getting. Yeah. I'm going to have to find like a long chuckle audio file to play during the last. And just have that on the means. Yeah. That would be perfect. Yeah. Just for the audio comedy, you know, it's just so good to have that playing in the background. Ryan's. So it was all clocked that, but I mean, small town. We are obviously federal something. Ryan's inclined to see if he can charm an answer out of the gentleman or more more information. Walk across the street and knock on the door. I'll turn to the group and say and kind of give a shrug and say, might be worth asking what kind of company she kept, especially if he's used to looking out the front window. Couldn't hurt. We don't have much of all four of us know. It's Ryan. Yeah. Go ahead. Now, Zahee walks across the street. There you go. Hey, we're on the same page there. Knock on the door. This is good. A few moments pass. And the door opens. And you see this gentleman, he looks like he's in maybe his mid 60s. He's got a towel around his shoulders, although he is fully dressed. And he's using the towel to stensibly dry the interior of his ears when he opens the door. He is looking very, very casual at you. And he says, Oh, hi there. How can I help you? Hi, sir. My name is Ryan. And we were asked by the sheriff to help with the recent animal attacks if you've heard about that terrible, terrible tragedy going on lately. Oh, yeah. Of course. I mean, it's all anybody's talking about no one's going out after five because of the man he'd are out there. That seems like a pretty smart idea. We were just across the street at Miss Boone's place. And since you guys are close neighbors, we thought we might come over here and ask if you know what kind of company she kept. We saw some really incredible fossils in her, her home. Were you guys friendly? He looks up into the left before he answers. And they meet your eyes and says, Yeah, me and Mandy, absolutely, absolutely. We were great friends and neighbors and her fossils, very cool, very cool fossils, he says. Amazing. Yeah, absolutely. What which one of them were you most interested in? Oh, well, I couldn't really tell you there's the curly cues. And in the big, the big round ones, those are pretty good. She used to go out all the time and would bring all that crap back and it would sit on her doorstep until she was ready to get a display case for her. And it looked like, you know, she didn't bring him in very quickly. They would stay out there for a while. And you know, that wasn't the greatest, but I would get a good look at him, I guess, when they were sitting out there for days. Wow, you're an incredibly understanding neighbor. I'm a city guy myself. And to be honest, there's something about an ice or out on the street that just really doesn't, doesn't appeal to me, but you're, you must be a better man than I. Yeah, look, we don't have an HOA here. We don't, right? But you would have some common decency to not leave a bunch of stupid looking rocks all over your yard, stacked up sometimes waist high. Some sort of weird, listen, Mandy is fine, right? It's a tragedy what happened to her, but she would bring any and everything out of that damn creek and just leave it in her yard. And honestly, he trebles off. Honestly, you're kind of, you're happy to see that, that won't be happening. Oh, I thought this was just an agent Ryan spotlight moment. It was, it was. I didn't realize y'all had snuck up behind him to chime in. Oh, that'd be so - Yeah, it was like pop over shoulder. Oh, what was that? - No, we're all ominously sitting in a sneeze as proper feds do. - Aviator's glinting in the sun. - As he's kind of going off like this, agent Ryan, you notice movement behind him in his house. And you see, it's a bear. (laughing) - Sorry. - Case closed over there. - Case closed. - You see a small black cat scratching up what looks like a leather chair in the living room. As he continues his rant, the cat really digs in there, really rips some shreds off, takes its time, and skulks away. But what causes your brow to just involuntarily furrow, his, the cat has five legs, two, four legs, three hind legs. It scampers off out of you. He finishes his rant, he's panting a bit. Oh, apologies, it's just like, it was really kind of a, I guess a sore point between myself and Mandy than I thought. - No worries, I completely understand. I honestly, I think might be in a similar state of mind myself. Did you ever talk to her about it? Ask her to clean it up. Did you spend much time over there at all? - I mean, I left a lot of notes, right? Didn't really, our schedule's dinner ain't a line up, but I left her lots of notes. - I understand, I understand. If I might ask her, and this is just so we're getting to know the community a little better, do you have a spouse or you live here by yourself? - Oh, it's just, well, me and the cats, I've got seven other little beauties. He smiles, why? - Wow, seven cats. How do you even keep track of that, Manny? - Well, some come and go actually, kind of a, I like to call it kind of an open house for the feline friends, and they come and they go in big, big G that's short for Garfield. He's really kind of, he's an older cat, and he starts really going into the cats. - They sound incredible, sir. If I may stop you though, I wouldn't wanna spoil the surprise of seeing the cats around the neighborhood for myself, so I think it might just leave the rest to find out for me, but it really sounds like a really sweet operation that you've got. - Well, I've got to keep them safe. I've got to try to keep them all in while this thing's on the loose. - You wanna be careful, I was gonna mention that, if you're just letting any cat into your home, you wanna be careful to make sure that, you know, you're not letting in any creatures that would do you any harm. - Wow, wow. He seems flustered. I didn't think about that. - Are all your cats around right now? I've got some of my colleagues here who are very familiar with the nature far, far more than I am, and they might be able to help look at some of your animals and make sure that everything's gonna be safe for your own good, of course. - Well, do you think the bear can get through a cat door? - We hope not. We certainly hope not, sir. - You know, it's, you have a veterinarian with you to look at my cats, he seems confused now. I mean, I'm not as well lie, right? - I mean, have fun with it, man. - This world is yours, sir. - The only consequences are the consequences. - Fuck you, right. - Let's go with it. - Not a veterinarian, but somebody very familiar with animals due to their line of work in nature. So don't do this. - He's real distracted today though. He's did some sweet ribs earlier and he can't do laughing over there. - Get your making a mistake, don't do it. (laughing) - He seems confused. He's like, I think my cats, you know, they'll be okay, but thank you for the offer. It's nice to meet another fellow animal lover. That's wonderful, but you know, I've got to get back to it. He smiles. - Absolutely, and thank you, sir. If I may ask that you, if you do see any suspicious activity or strange behavior in the neighborhood, please let us know. We're here to keep you safe. I'll call 911 immediately. He nods. - Thank you, have a great rest of your evening. - He closest the door. - I turn back to the team and say, well, oh, did it go so well. - Overall, not a huge fan of our Vic over there, but our victim, my guy's not a scop, so that was ridiculous. (laughing) - No, no, I just got to go with it, just say it again. (laughing) - He said he was a lot of perjure. (laughing) - He needs it, Michael. He needs you to say it. - I'll say it again. Well, that gentleman wasn't a big fan of our Vic over there, Miss Boone. - Our Vic. - That's what we were. - Our victim. That wasn't a fucking bit, Jesus. (laughing) - I didn't have a, I just, I was so built up. - He had nothing. - We'll never, we'll never backtrack for you again, sir. - That was so funny. Our, our, our victim over there, but I could have sworn one of his cats that walked by behind him had five legs. - Well, as a resident expert on animals, I can tell you, with certain, it's weird. - Hold on, hold on. - Roll for that. - Should I roll for that? (laughing) - I need to roll for that first. (laughing) - I'm not gonna get excited to cat it out of me. (laughing) - You're just like, no, that's fine. (laughing) - Just like, at least pass that one. - Yeah, you're good, man. - So I'm, I'm, it makes me wonder if there's something bigger going on throughout this whole town rather than just some of the, the outlying areas. - So the only other mutants we've seen up till now were the dead and, and you've seen a cat with five legs. - That's correct. Seems to be the case. - Did you ask where he got that cat? - He lets the cats come in and out. He does, I didn't ask particularly about that cat, but they're not his cats. He just, - If he's our next victim, that's gonna, I'm sorry, Vic. (laughing) That's gonna be real fucked up. - Ryan Winks. (laughing) - Starwipe. (laughing) - Starwuck to the next victim scene. (laughing) - Well now he's gotta keep the Vic bit. - Well, we did our best. Sorry, Delta Green, this one's out of our league. (laughing) - I'd say Ryan's spotlight fades and we, we pass it back to our GM Chris. (laughing) - For, you for to sigh, that you're going to head to another victim's home? Perhaps, where would you like to go next? - Yeah, I think, unfortunately. Or fortunately, I guess, the only other victim that has no next of kin is Guy Mayor, and so we may wanna check him out before we go bothering people that have families, who probably will be crying and grieving and therefore making our investigation night to say about difficult. So my vote is for Guy Mayor, who also had no next of kin. And I am hoping lived alone. - Had to sit team feel about that. - That's a good looking farm. It's a lot going on there. - Honestly, that is chaotic as hell farm. But like very well contained. - A lot of donkeys, I'm gonna have to listen or, - Who listens? - Ten donkeys, listen or, - Ten donkeys. - Did you just count the donkeys and my stock photo of a farm? - There's 10 donkeys. One good one might be a llama. I might have missed, this is hard. - This was not meant to be a puzzle in the game. - There's too many. - I have a puzzle for you, but this is not it. - There's something in here. (laughing) - There's also Turkey's chickens and geese. - They're all facing certain directions. Now if you line those directions up. - Do you see that one of the chickens? - Is it flashing a free mason's side? - I do see that. - Now follow that down the rabbit hole, sir. - Quick everybody, count the legs. - Well what we have here obviously is a conspiracy to mutate animals. I think these animals are all just one animal and they have divided. - So, in that case, Ryan walks around and gets into the passenger seat as they head over to the, the Myers home. (laughing) - The funhouse is closed, Derek. - As you, yes. - Fuckers drive away. (laughing) - I would like to point out this is not a high-o-farm. This is an Idaho farm, but who's counting it? - Woof, got him. - How day? - I was looking to say it. - We got next for a few years. - I was like, all right, fine. I'll fail some more roles. Don't worry, you'll get yours. - Good, good. - As you leave this residential area to make your way west towards the mayor homestead, Agent Ryan, you do notice there's a five-legged black cat looking at its four-po in the window of the man's small home. It fades out of you as the car turns and continues west. The homestead, as you drive up to it, it's kind of all by itself an enormous nearly-fallow field that you drive a gravel path through toward the edifice itself is scattered with various foul few dogs. monkeys. You don't see any fences in these ranch animals seem to have free reign of the small homestead. There's a large chicken coop next to what looks like the quarters themselves, as well as a barn set aside a few paces away. It's a small barn. You see a woman in the large coop, she's wearing gloves and overalls, she looks older, and looks up as your vehicles come up for the drive, but she continues working. Looks like she's dealing with quite a few of those chickens feeding them as they kind of swarm around their trough. She's chewing some others off of their watering trough where it seems like they are both eating and shitting into it, which is what chickens do apparently, something that I recently learned, and now you guys get to learn too. That's some foul foul. There be fouling their own water trough. Anyway, that's what I'm saying. I'm dying on that hill. As you for a walk up to the coop, you can hear this woman cursing, "Have no idea why a guy did not for an automatic waterer, like everyone else." She's there, a wiper gloved hands on her overalls. She turns and faces you through the chicken wire, not leaving the large coop. She smiles. Hi there. Hi, man. Are you friends of Guy? She scans over Agent Relic, or maybe you're more police. Well, we're with the Department of Interior, man. We're here to investigate all the recent business, you know. Okay. Okay. Well, I'm Judith. I live down the road with my husband. We just have been pulling double duty here. Trying to keep these good animals least somewhat healthy until one of Guy's family members can get down here. We were under the impression he had no next of kin. Was that incorrect? Is it only in the area that he doesn't? Hell, I don't know. I'm hoping somebody gets claimed to this. I don't know how much more double, double duty, we can pull. Probably need to figure out a way to get these animals to somebody else until she shakes her head, trails off. And I'm that maybe best. Judith walks doing her best not to step on any of the swarming chickens, but she walks out of the coop, comes around to meet you face to face. She's fairly short, slight, but she smiles and says, "Well, if there's any questions I can answer, I guess I'm your woman." Thank you, ma'am. You don't happen to have a key to the inside of the house. We just need to take a quick precursory look around. Oh, it's being as it seems to be an animal attack. We absolutely don't suspect any foul play, but just want to check all the boxes here across the tees. The eyes, you know. Oh, it's open. It's open. Yeah, you can have, you can go on in there anything to help the bear task force. Absolutely. Is there anything that stands out in your mind about the day that it happened? Well, I don't know exactly what happened. I can tell you guy was a stubborn man like most of them, but you know, he loved the kids. He loved the kids of the village. He worked at the the area senior high school's gun club. He taught most of the kids gun safety and survival basics. He definitely went a bit off the bin, started drinking a bunch with the news of Archie. I know he was hunting and ranging around the area at all hours. I know he was hoping to be the one to put a bullet to that damn bear skull. Thank you. So it's safe to say he was maybe on a mission and do you think he was drinking the day that he died? I don't know. Probably. Okay, just want an idea of his mindset at the time. Good man. She says kind of straightening up a bit. Real good man. Just took it hard. We all took it hard. Can't boy. He was a good boy. He was a good boy. She smiles. Well, man, we're going to have a look around and point me to your house and come ask if we have any questions. Oh, I'll be up out here. I got to get some of those jackasses out there. She motions in the general direction of this several donkeys that are grazing in the nearly fallon field, not at the other agents. I counted too many donkeys. I got to try to round them up and get them back in the barn. So I'll be out here for a while. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Anybody else want to ask her any questions or you guys want to enter the house or the homestead of Guy Mayor? Are the animals pretty widespread? Really what I'm looking for is as we survey, do we see any other physical abnormalities across any of the farm animals? Yeah. Go ahead and roll your search please. That was a failure. You know, Agent Ryan is, he has a really rich background, but the rural life not necessarily one of the largest slices of that background. They all look like farm animals. You don't see any extra appendages from here. Fair enough. You fall or wind into the small shack like homestead. And inside it's a testament to the life of a proud hunter. The trophies decorating his walls as you kind of peruse through. You can see he lived a fairly Spartan life, but took great care and utilizing looks like nearly all parts of the animals he hunted. He's also got several chest freezers full of plastic wrap elk deer meat, you assume. At the time, at least that's how it's labeled. Definitely has a rifle collection that would rival perhaps the nearby National Guard Armory. I mean, he has an extensive, extensive collection. But it's when, yeah, that's called a secret GM role. But it's when Agent Relic opens the door to the garage that all of you stop what you're going through and answer his call asking for all the agents to join him there. You can see and now smell that guy mayor was very busy in this garage. It's a converted workshop of some sort. It wreaks of chemicals different than those that you smelled at the hospital morgue, but reminiscent. You see that there are several animals here that are in the process of being well stuffed. And as you kind of walk through this interesting setup stands and frames, looks like bags of, is it sawdust or stuffing? You're not sure. Partial, taxidermed, deer, there's a bear, small black bear. There is a bobcat. Looks like he was working on quite a few things. The center, what it looks like he was actively working on. There's lots of tools around it. In fact, see a bizarre fusion of several deer necks affixed onto one body, three in fact. Well, that's creepy. Yeah, it's not your typical taxidermy. Are there any books or anything around that might indicate that there's some, I don't know, pagan protocol he's trying to follow? Hmm. Interesting. Go ahead and roll your search. Also a bill. You don't see any materials, notes, any indication that he was writing anything or this must all just be with skill that he was attempting to develop on his own. And you're not a taxidermist yourself. I don't know if Agent Ryan has dabbled in the purchase of such things, but you can't tell the quality or if he was particularly skilled. Does it look real? Okay, that eyes look weird. Agent Ryan comments to the group. Seems like an odd hobby for a guy that misgreened out there was insisting with such a sweet gentleman. I mean, you know, Hunter's man. I don't. Well, I mean, yeah, Hunter's man. I think it might be worth our time to do a pretty deep search of this place. I'd like to roll my search too. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, in light of, normally I wouldn't look twice as weird taxidermy, but in light of what we've been seeing around town, it might be worth tearing this place apart. Metaphorically speaking, the deep search. I'm saying it was a rich place. I'm saying let's look at the quote. You know what I'm trying to say. All right. Sure. Sure. So, so let me, let me understand your search tactic before we dive into perhaps multiple roles here. Are you breaking open these partially taxiderms? I guess animals? I'm just thinking like kind of like a forensics search. Like I want to, you know, just, okay, not like dusting for prints, but just like, methodically moving through, you know, the garage, and the rooms of interest, just like really spending the time. You're trying to do a search where you you basically leave it as you found it. Yeah. Got it. Okay, that's what I needed to know. Go ahead and anybody who wants to partake in this search, everybody go ahead and roll, but really only one is going to account because we're doing something where you guys are kind of stepping on each other's toes. So we're just going to use the book rules for this. Ryan is not going to roll because he just wants to stay out of everybody's way. I believe I heard an oof from Roy's in. Yeah. She just started flailing her hands. Nope. I, it's gone over something. Face landed right into the wall. You're now comically accidentally wearing one of the deer heads on your own and wandering around blindly. Yep. - Yeah. - You drop your glasses and you're searching around and then one of us steps on 'em. - Now you don't have glasses. - You'll start kind of looking through this. And you find bottles of chemicals. Some actually quite dangerous. There's definitely some formal in here. You're not sure if that's normal or not, but you know it's dangerous. And as you start kind of moving through what is a workshop, door opens and Judas standing there. She says, "Oh, it's wondering where y'all got off to. Been here for almost an hour." She says. - We're just trying to be thorough, man. - What do you think, guys? Work here. She nods towards the strange deer. - You know, not for me. - She laughs. Guy and a old Jeff from the Weirdo store on the 36. They used to make little novelties for the shop. And Jeff still-- - Romeo turns his head and looks at her. - Jeff still has from what he was searching. - Jeff still has guys, the first Jackalope under glass up there. Now see this, this was going to be guys masterpiece. The great servities, Cerberus, he said it was called. She shakes her head. - I'd love to see that Jackalope. Can you tell me where this store is? - Oh, of course. I guess y'all didn't come in from the north, huh? Probably came in from the big city. - Yeah. - Yes, that's where-- - Up on the 36, you know, Jeff Jenkins, he's got a great shop up there. He's been a fixture of the area for years. I guess he called it a roadside attraction. But yeah, it's called Wild Out There Stuff. The big old Crosswick monster statue, he's got up there alone, it's worth the trip. But he's got a lot of fun stuff in there. - I won't definitely have to stop and take a look. - She nods, you should. You should. He's got a sort of showman's energy to him. He brings in pastors by by the dozens. Some say he's maybe the biggest tourist magnet in the area, but that may be giving him too much credit. She laughs. - While we're in town, there's no harm in checking it out. - Oh, absolutely, you should. - Oh, I want to roll a human on that one. That was weird. He said that. (laughing) - I mean, you can roll a human whenever you want. - Oh, shit, okay. Yeah, I actually wasn't entirely clear on how that, how that's supposed to be appropriate for you. - If you're gathering human intelligence on somebody by taking note of their behavior and the patterns of their behavior, you can roll. - Oh, well, look at that. Man, I bet it was for nothing. - And finally, she's an old lady. - She seems really excited about y'all checking out while out there stuff and seeing the Crosswick Monster statue. - Yep, Crosswick Monster, huh? Hmm, that sounds delightful. - What is this Crosswick Monster? I've never heard of it before. - Oh, you've never, well, if you're not from the area, I'm not too surprised. Old legend, big lizard that folks saw back in the day and supposedly, you know, attacked a few people, but townsfolk banded together, drove it out of town and never came back. Kind of a local legend. - That's interesting. Do you know where we can, is this, while out there stuff, is that about the only place we'll learn about that or do you have any further information in the library about it? - Oh, like from Newspaper Club? - I mean, it's kind of all over. I think even there was a, there was a camera crew about 12 years back from unexplained Mysterium or something that did a show on it. It's pretty, pretty well known. I don't think you'll have any issues bringing up information about it. - Thank you. - Sure. - She lies. - Well, this has been, there's nothing here sticking out to me as a clue as to what got him. So I think we'll put things back the way we found him and head on out when we're done, but thank you for checking in on us. - All right, if you'll just keep that door closed, make sure that old Peter don't move the latch on the barn again and let all the jackasses out. - He was old Peter? - Oh, that's the nag. - Okay, we'll make sure the nag doesn't do that. - Yeah, she leaves. - As soon she leaves those Romeo turns to the group and says that's two people, three people. If you count the note in the file that had some strange connection to possible cryptozoology going on in the area, and two of them connected to this Jeff guy. - Not to mention what teenage boy isn't fascinated with cryptozoology. - 100% with you there. - What's a nag? - Well, some would call it my wife, but. - Did you do it? Did you do it my wife? - Did you do it my wife? - My wife. - No, he just rinds us in the group. - He doesn't know. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, no Romeo, but in a honest state, Romeo is like a lady horse. - Ah. - Old Peter the nag. - I think we've got a deepening connection here. - We got at least somebody in town that we can ask someone or self-host. - Somebody else we can talk to and dig into this cross with lizard monster, see if that has any feet. And if it does, where would it be? - And how many it has? - Yeah. - Probably an odd number if patterns hold. - Oh boy. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Federal agents arrive in the small, idyllic town of Mechanicsburg to investigate mysterious deaths, initially attributed to a bear.
  2. The local sheriff is uncooperative, dismissive of federal help, and focused on organizing a local hunting party.
  3. Agents observe strange occurrences in town, including a mysterious haze over a bookstore and the sudden, unexplained withering of an entire flower stand.
  4. After a tense interaction with the sheriff, the agents decide to investigate independently, heading to the first crime scene in a wooded area south of town.

Summary:

Federal agents arrive in the quaint town of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, to investigate a series of deaths locally blamed on a bear. Their initial interaction with the sheriff is tense and unproductive; he is hostile, dismisses their assistance, and refuses to provide deputies or detailed evidence, focusing instead on organizing a civilian hunting party for that evening. While in town, the agents note odd phenomena, including a strange heat haze over a bookstore and a commotion at a flower stand where all the blooms have suddenly withered and died—the second such incident in a week.

Purchasing some of the dead flowers, the agents speak with the distressed shopkeeper, who suspects local youths. After being effectively dismissed by the sheriff, the team decides to proceed alone. They travel to the coordinates of the first crime scene, the location where a victim named Guy Mayor was found, trekking through fields and into a thick forest where they begin searching for any remaining evidence.

FAQs

Mechanicsburg is described as a quintessential old-fashioned small town with cobbled roads and preserved historic shops, contrasting sharply with the towering steel skyscrapers and urban environment of nearby Columbus.

The agents observed an odd haze above a building that used to be a leatherworking shop, now a bookstore called The Blank Page, which dissipated as they got closer.

The sheriff was dismissive and uncooperative, stating he didn't need their help and suggested they handle paperwork instead of participating in the search.

The flower stand's entire inventory withered and died suddenly, which the shopkeeper reported had happened twice in a week, suspecting it might be a prank.

The sheriff mentioned that most evidence had been washed away by elements, but he could provide scene photos, though he noted they contained gore and were limited in detail.

The agents decided to investigate on their own, starting with the site where a victim named Guy Mayor was found, trekking through wooded areas south of town.

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