TEXT: EX
  Astoria
  Ruth Tillman
  
  EX ASTORIA
  2
  Publishers
  Simon Rogers and Cathriona Tobin
  GUMSHOE One-2-One System Design 
  Robin D. Laws
  Author
  Ruth Tillman
  Cover Art 
  Christian Knutsson
  Design and Layout 
  Cathriona Tobin, based on a template 
  by Christian Knutsson
  Editing and Development
  Will Jobst, Cathriona Tobin
  Playtesters
  Jae Cooper, Chris HAQ, Tony Kemp, Luke 
  Mathieson
  Copyright © 2017 Pelgrane Press Ltd.
  Cthulhu Confidential and GUMSHOE One-2-One are trademarks of Pelgrane Press Ltd.  
  Pelgrane Press is co-owned by Simon Rogers and Cathriona Tobin.
  
  3
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  GETTLER’S ANALYSIS 
  19
  SCOURING THE ASH HEAPS 
  20
  MARK ARNOLD 
  21
  FINDING IRA GRABER 
  23
  WHAT IRA SAW 
  23
  HEAD SHRINKING 
  24
  UNION DIVIDED 
  25
  BREAKING INTO THE STAGING YARD 27
  THE DESCENT 
  29
  THE BOWERY BAY HORROR 
  31
  DENOUEMENT 
  34
  ALTERNATE DENOUEMENT 
  34
  ANTAGONIST REACTIONS 
  35
  EX ASTORIA PROBLEM CARDS 
  36
  EX ASTORIA EDGE CARDS 
  40
  VIVIAN SINCLAIR 
  42
  TABLE OF CONTENTS 
  3
  EX ASTORIA 
  4
  THE STORY SO FAR 
  4
  RELATIONSHIP MAP 
  5
  SCENE FLOW DIAGRAM 
  5
  VIVAN SINCLAIR 
  6
  TIMELINE OF PAST EVENTS 
  7
  CAST 
  7
  PROPERTIES OF DHOLE EGGS 
  7
  SCENES 
  8
  COVERING THE RIOT 
  8
  THE OLD SCAB’S STORY 
  10
  THE STATION HOUSE 
  11
  PROBING THE HUDSON 
  12
  WINN WATER TUNNEL MAP 
  13
  THE UNION LINE 
  14
  MINDING O’MARA 
  16
  BELLEVUE 
  17
  NO PLACE FOR SNOOPS 
  18
  
  EX ASTORIA
  4
  EX ASTORIA
  This adventure brings Viv into the world of 
  labor unions, city power brokers, and scabs. 
  The city’s growing infrastructure comes into 
  conflict with an ancient, toxic evil. What have the 
  workers uncovered and what’s the fate of the few 
  exposed? Can Viv prevent further injuries and an 
  environmental disaster?
  Although the branch in this scenario is 
  fictional, City Water Tunnel no. 2 was constructed 
  by unionized sandhogs, laboring under 
  extraordinary, dangerous conditions. Buried far 
  below the busy streets, it remains invisible to the 
  millions who rely on it for water access daily. This 
  scenario asks--what else lies, invisible, beneath 
  the city?
  If this is your player’s first time playing Viv, 
  she will need to choose a starting Problem, like the 
  four given in the opener for “Fatal Frequencies” 
  (Cthulhu Confidential, p. 181). If you’ve already 
  run at least one scenario for your player, the 
  journalist probably has some lingering Continuity 
  Problems still in hand. In that case, write an 
  introduction that connects the most salient of 
  those Problems to the following assignment.
  The Story So Far
  In the summer of 1933, sandhogs, the urban 
  miners who construct New York’s infrastructure, 
  labor tirelessly 500 feet beneath the city, working 
  to complete the longest large diameter water 
  tunnel in the world, City Water Tunnel no. 2. An 
  ambitious New Deal project, it funnels water from 
  the Catskills Aqueduct into the Bronx, East River, 
  western Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. In his 
  Chanin Building boardroom a thousand feet above 
  them, Adrian Rush, founder of Hudson Enterprises, 
  plans to siphon that New Deal money into his own 
  coffers by proposing an addition to the already-
  ambitious project. Surely, the borough of Queens 
  deserves more than the few miles of City Water 
  Tunnel No. 2 currently slated to run through it.
  Rush and his ambitious assistant, Mark Arnold, 
  move through Tammany back rooms, convincing 
  them that New York can get even more money out 
  of Roosevelt’s National Industrial Recovery Act. 
  But they have to move fast—interim Tammany 
  mayor John O’Brien goes up against popular 
  Fusion candidate LaGuardia in the fall. Alderman 
  Samuel Winn sponsors a resolution to build a 
  pipeline, joining City Water Tunnel No. 2 just after 
  it makes landfall beyond Rikers Island. The tunnel 
  will then pass diagonally through the borough, 
  carrying water southeast to the far side of Jamaica 
  Bay.
  Workers break ground on the Winn Water 
  Tunnel in October 1933. The project proceeds 
  apace until the blast crew encounters an anomaly. 
  A charge intended to blast through solid rock hits 
  something far more malleable and sends a toxic 
  substance in all directions, including back at the 
  blast crew, leaving five sandhogs severely injured. 
  Union president Ernest Foley calls for a work 
  stoppage until the company agrees to the union’s 
  safety terms and provides some compensation. 
  Meanwhile, Arnold discovers something far more 
  horrifying beyond the explosion—a tight cluster of 
  enormous, opalescent spheroids in a cavern that 
  stretches wide across the path of the tunnel. Not 
  only does the cavern pose a significant challenge, 
  the toxic substance which debilitated the sandhogs 
  also burned into the rock.
  Although initially stunned by his discovery, 
  Arnold returns night after night to the cavern to 
  commune with the strange clutch. Soon, he hatches 
  a plan. While Rush continues negotiations with the 
  union, Arnold recruits scabs from Hoovervilles, 
  
  Ruth Tillman
  5
  RELATIONSHIP MAP
  SCENE FLOW DIAGRAM
  
  EX ASTORIA
  6
  VIVAN SINCLAIR
  Investigative Journalist
  Investigative Abilities 
  Accounting 
   
  Assess Honesty 
  Bargain 
  Bureaucracy 
  Cryptography 
  Evidence Collection 
  Flattery 
  History 
  Inspiration 
  Locksmith 
  Oral History 
  Photography 
  Reassurance 
  Research  
  Streetwise 
  General Abilities 
  Athletics 
   
  Cool  
   
  Disguise 
   
  Driving  
   
  Filch  
   
  Fighting  
   
  First Aid 
  Fleeing  
  Preparedness  
  Sense Trouble 
   
  Shadowing  
   
  Stability  
   
   
  Stealth  
    
  Story 
  Pad and pencil in hand, journalist Vivian 
  Sinclair tracks down leads, grills witnesses, 
  and turns in hair-raising stories of corruption, 
  crime, and parts of the city''s underbelly 
  most would rather not see. Where a detective 
  sees a case, Viv sees a story. She'll follow it 
  relentlessly to its  conclusion, even putting her 
  life in danger to get at the truth.
  breadlines, and work registers. They quietly 
  resume construction on the tunnel, as far as the 
  cavern. If they can bring the tunnel right through a 
  path in its center, the inspector and union miners 
  need never know what truly lies below. He engages 
  several scabs in clearing this path and has them 
  remove one egg-sphere for his own purposes. 
  Arnold doesn’t suspect the truth, that these are 
  dhole eggs, laid by a creature brought to this 
  dimension in ages past by a sorcerer, and long since 
  banished. He only knows that something about 
  them speaks to his mind.
  Meanwhile, the injured miners continue to 
  deteriorate from their exposure to this mysterious 
  acidic fluid. The negotiations drag on. The scabs 
  Arnold uses in his plan to disguise the cavern’s 
  existence behave more and more strangely, as their 
  character warps toward a particular flaw. Their 
  greed outweighs any sense of caution or self-
  preservation. One of them, Dan Willard, breaks 
  into several stores in broad daylight, starting 
  with a pawn shop near his rooming house. When 
  arresting officers discover the nature of Willard’s 
  employment, someone drops a word to Union 
  president Foley. Union picketers face off against 
  the scabs for several days until Benjamin Miller, 
  another of the affected scabs, can’t control his 
  temper any longer and sparks a riot. At this point, 
  Viv enters the story....
  
  Ruth Tillman
  7
  Timeline of Past Events
  September 1933 (7 months ago): Hudson 
  Enterprises wins their bid for Alderman 
  Winn’s proposed Water Tunnel. How they 
  could have prepared such a thorough bid in the 
  time allotted puzzles exactly no one.
  6 months ago: Construction begins at the tunnel’s 
  northeastern end, just south of the Astoria 
  Light, Heat, and Power Company power 
  station.
  22 days ago: The blasting crew hits the pocket 
  filled with a toxic fluid which severely injures 
  five men, including blasting foreman Connor 
  O’Mara. Sandhogs evacuate the tunnel and 
  union boss Ernest Foley calls a work stoppage 
  until safety can be assessed.
  21 days ago: Mark Arnold inspects the area of the 
  accident and discovers the mysterious cavern 
  and also the magnitude of the problem. He 
  advises Rush to stall negotiations, promising 
  to take care of things and find a friendly city 
  inspector.
  15 days ago: Arnold circumvents Rush and the 
  negotiations and quietly brings in scabs to 
  continue the project. He plans to get past the 
  problem by literally getting past it.
  4 days ago: One of the scabs, Dan Willard, rob 
  several pawn shops in Queens. After learning 
  about his current employment, local police 
  alert buddies in the union to the presence of 
  scabs in the project.
  Today (March 28, 1934): A brawl between scabs 
  and picketing union men turns into a riot, 
  which Viv and other reporters head out to 
  cover.
  Cast
  Mark Arnold, 34, the Hudson Enterprises fixer. 
  His curling blond moustache reinforces his 
  perpetual smile, but his eyes remain hard. He 
  needs the water tunnel project to succeed, or 
  Rush will have his head. If it succeeds, well, 
  maybe he can have Rush’s.
  Ernest Foley, 44, union president. His hair-
  trigger willingness to picket a job, though it’s 
  given him a reputation of incorruptibility, 
  stems as much from his desire to deliver 
  speeches as his concern for the men. Foley has 
  his eye on a political career.
  Neil O’Mara, 25, son of the union blast supervisor. 
  A gangling redhead whose hair has started 
  graying around the fringe and who walks as 
  though he has the weight of the world on his 
  shoulders.
  Benjamin Miller, 24, and Ira Graber, 28. Former 
  coal miners from Pennsylvania, but not union 
  men. Bitter about their pasts and surly to 
  authority figures, they decided to try their luck 
  in the city.
  Rafael Escalente, 52, a Cuban émigré and former 
  grocer whose desperate circumstances led him 
  to scab for Arnold. The oldest of the scabs, he 
  has a trick of rubbing the corner of his right eye 
  when uncomfortable.
  Gemma Leone, 48, lifetime Queens resident and 
  proprietor of one of the pawn shops robbed by 
  Miller and Graber. Neighborhood gadfly and 
  amateur local historian.
  Alexander Gettler, 52 (1883-1959), a toxicologist 
  at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, 
  located at Bellevue Hospital. Father of 
  American forensic toxicology. 
  Properties of Dhole Eggs
  Dholes lay dozens of eggs in clutches, festering 
  deep beneath the surface of a planet for a millennia 
  or more before hatching. No one knows whether 
  the eggs gestate for a specific period, or whether 
  certain seismic conditions must arise for them 
  to hatch. The first dhole in a clutch to hatch 
  immediately consumes the surrounding eggs, 
  growing to twenty-five or fifty times its original 
  size. These large, spongy eggs measure about ten 
  feet in diameter. Only an extremely sharp object, or 
  one projected with great force—such as a bullet, or 
  rock exploding from a blasting charge—can pierce 
  the flexible, pliant shell.
  The minds of unhatched dholes reach 
  out beyond their shells as a vague, corrupting 
  influence. To the dhole, such contact is merely a 
  benign act of self-preservation, allowing it to hatch 
  prematurely in response to perceived threats. 
  But the touch of their alien psyche warps human 
  personalities. Physical contact with dhole eggs 
  forces a human’s stability to contend with the 
  
  EX ASTORIA
  8
  external influence. The more unstable feel the 
  reinforcement of their worst traits and impulses. 
  Slowly, especially with repeated exposure, the 
  victims enter the grip of mental illness, leading 
  them down a destructive path.
  A dhole’s body consists of an extraterrestrial, 
  acidic mucous which it can use to form temporary 
  limbs, lob at attackers, or bore through the earth 
  at terrific speeds. This mucous also forms the 
  distributed substance of a dhole’s central nervous 
  system, rendering them extremely difficult to kill 
  without completely destroying their bodies. No 
  human caught in the backwash of an adult dhole’s 
  death could survive the acidic damage more than 
  a few seconds. For the sandhogs caught in a blast 
  of stone and extradimensional mucous, however, a 
  crueler fate awaits. They decay slowly. Perhaps it’d 
  have been kinder to leave them behind, as no force 
  on Earth could neutralize effects of the alien acid 
  in which they were briefly bathed.
  Scenes
  COVERING THE RIOT
  Scene Type: Opener
  Lead-Outs: The Old Scab’s Story, The Station 
  House, The Union Line, Probing the Hudson
   
  Around 3:30 on the afternoon of March 28th, Viv’s 
  office buzzes with word coming in from Queens. A 
  brawl between picketers from the miner’s union 
  and scab laborers working on the Winn Water 
  Tunnel has turned into a riot, and several buildings 
  have already caught fire. The newsroom boss, Greg 
  Callahan, sends Viv along with a photographer, 
  Carmela Savino, to get the word from the street as 
  soon as possible.
  Once Viv confirms the existence of a riot and 
  fire, the newsroom boss will want a phone update 
  as soon as possible with material for the evening 
  edition. If she gets a good enough story, and 
  pictures of the flames, she might get the front page 
  of tomorrow’s edition.
  Viv already has some context for the riot 
  before she arrives, which she may decide to 
  relate to her photographer. (Note, sending a 
  photographer with Viv does not insult her skill in 
  Photography, rather the newspaper expects Viv 
  as its reporter to focus on the story and Carmela 
  to focus on capturing front-page images while 
  Viv works.) Although the photographer doesn’t 
  play much of a role in the scenario, the player may 
  describe how she and Carmela, a peer in age and 
  experience with a charming smile and eye for 
  capturing the city’s people, have worked together 
  before.
  Streetwise: The miner’s union is technically 
  chapter no. 147 of the Laborer’s International 
  Union of North America, but everyone calls them 
  the “sandhogs.” They work deep underground, 
  constructing city infrastructure—subways, bridge 
  supports, gas tunnels, water tunnels—and have 
  one of the lowest life expectancies and highest 
  fatality rates in the city. Getting the union’s side 
  of the story shouldn’t prove a challenge. Their 
  president, Ernest Foley (core, “The Union Line”) 
  loves making statements for the paper. Even if 
  police haul him in briefly for the rioting, Foley 
  should spend tonight in the union hall conferring 
  with other officers about official statements.
  History: (alternate, “Probing the Hudson”) 
  The Winn Water Tunnel has been contentious 
  from the start. The Catskill Aqueduct, completed 
  in 1924, brings water through a series of four 
  reservoirs down into the city. Until now, however, 
  the water had only reached the Northern and 
  Western boroughs. The City Water Tunnel No. 2 
  project promises to bring cleaner water to the rest 
  of the city. Its planned route cuts down to Queens 
  near its border with Brooklyn, then runs across 
  Brooklyn to Staten Island. Plans for the Winn 
  Water Tunnel were developed several years later, 
  at the pushing of a local alderman. Most outside 
  Queens consider it an unnecessary graft project.
  When Viv arrives at the scene of the riot, 41st 
  St. and Astoria Avenue, the fire department and 
  police have already set up a cordon at 8th and 
  15th to keep out civilians. A Difficulty 5 Quick 
  Test of Stealth (to blend in with the street’s 
  residents, frantically moving their goods to safety) 
  
  Ruth Tillman
  9
  or Athletics (to climb a fire escape and get on 
  the roof) or a Push with Bargain will get Viv and 
  Carmela an excellent vantage point to watch the 
  riot in its final moments.
  Firefighters struggle to extinguish the blaze 
  that has spread through five buildings on the 
  northern side of the street, but seem to have 
  already succeeded with the two on the southern 
  side. Debris and refuse litter the street alongside 
  the valuable items thrown or carried out of the 
  buildings - primarily business premises, with 
  apartments on their second and sometimes third 
  stories. One rioter still struggles against police, 
  even as his body writhes under truncheons. Police 
  have the rest separated into two groups on either 
  side of the road, as wagons take them off in shifts. 
  Viv’s Streetwise easily distinguishes the groups; 
  the scabs appear a far more motley collection of 
  drifters.
  If Viv attempts to speak with any of the rioters 
  in custody, police shuffle her off. Scabs remain 
  silent as she goes, but a union man will shout 
  “An injury to one, is an injury to all!” Fists fly up 
  along the union line in solidarity and police shift 
  uncomfortably.
  A middle-aged Italian-American woman, 
  Gemma Leone, paces just outside the police cordon 
  insisting they let her back in, now that the fire in 
  her place is out. She shouts at the final rioters “It 
  wasn’t enough? You and your buddies came back to 
  make sure it’s all gone now?” Police and firefighters 
  receive just as much of her abuse, as she demands 
  to speak with someone in authority. If the player 
  doesn’t pick this up without a hint, Viv recognizes 
  the value of an eyewitness to interview and maybe 
  a good human interest story in the bargain.
  Gemma responds positively to any approach by 
  someone to whom she can tell her story:
  • 
  Two nights ago, a no-good drifter smashed a 
  window in her pawn shop, grabbed a bunch of 
  stuff and ran, even though she was right there 
  in the store. But he was such a greedy weasel 
  that the police caught him just up the street, 
  breaking into a jeweler’s.
  • 
  If that weren’t enough, apparently he was 
  working some kind of scab job up on Astoria, so 
  there’s been picketers up there making every-
  thing tense. Between that and her boarded up 
  window she’s had no business for the last two 
  days.
  • 
  And if that weren’t enough, tonight the picket-
  ers got in a fight with the scabs and it exploded 
  back down her street and now everything in 
  her shop has been ruined, thanks to the firemen 
  getting water everywhere.
  She punctuates her speech with agonized gestures; 
  glances at the wet, smoking facade of her pawn 
  shop; and angry sneers for the scabs. Appropriate 
  questions or simple prompts yield the rest:
  • 
  About forty or fifty rioters total. Maybe two 
  dozen of the union men who’d been picketing, 
  the rest dirty scabs.
  • 
  (alternate, “The Station House”) She’s already 
  pressed charges about the man who robbed 
  her and she plans to go down to the precinct 
  tonight and identify the men who started the 
  fight. She wants them all charged with destruc-
  tion of property.
  • 
  She thinks the scabs started it. Not all of them, 
  but one seemed real hot-tempered yesterday 
  and some of the men held him back. One of 
  the older-looking men tried that again today, 
  but then the scab punched him so bad he went 
  down. No honor among scabs. That’s when the 
  fight started.
  • 
  (alternate, “The Union Line”) The union men 
  kept up one of those monotonous chants all 
  day, it made your head hurt. Something about 
  “An injury to one is an injury to all” and “We’re 
  gonna hold this picket line, ‘till a city inspector 
  says we’ll be fine.”
  • 
  If Viv mentions her work, Gemma asks her to 
  include a line about the pawn store and the 
  massive sale she’ll be having on Saturday. “All 
  damaged merchandise must go.”
  (core, “The Old Scab’s Story”) Once Viv concludes 
  the conversation or determines there’s no more 
  to be gotten out of her, Gemma Leone excitedly 
  points to an older man slipping quietly into one 
  of the street’s alleys. She hisses that he’s the one 
  who tried to stop today’s fight. The man scuttles 
  with a slight limp and cradles one arm. He glances 
  over his shoulder, but the officers on the scene 
  have grouped around a single man who’d remained 
  fighting.
  
  EX ASTORIA
  10
  THE OLD SCAB’S STORY
  Scene Type: Core
  Lead-Ins: Covering the Riot, The Station House
  Lead-Outs: Probing the Hudson, Mark Arnold
  Taking advantage of the police’s distraction, the 
  injured man tries to make himself scarce. After 
  getting through to a clear street, he moves his 
  broken body as quickly as possible to the nearest 
  elevated station (the Flushing line) and tries to 
  disappear into a train full of commuters.
  The player may attempt to approach him on the 
  train, but Streetwise picks up his body language, 
  signaling that he’s injured and will attempt to get 
  away as soon as possible. If Viv decides to approach 
  anyway, she may use a Push of Inspiration to 
  convince him that the right thing to do is to talk to 
  her. He agrees, but needs to get back to his place 
  and make a sling for his arm before he can give her 
  more than some of the following basic information. 
  However he will let her ride with him the rest of 
  the way.
  If Viv either chooses not to follow him or fails 
  the Shadowing test, she may still find the old man, 
  Rafael Escalente, by following up at “The Station 
  House” (p. 11).
  The Central Park Hooverville, a shanty 
  town named for the president under whom the 
  Depression started, spreads out across the park’s 
  old reservoir. Ill-dressed children play around 
  dozens of shacks of varied size and construction. 
  Women lean on doorways, while men hunch down 
  on wooden boxes, playing cards or smoking. They 
  watch Viv as she passes, but avoid eye contact. 
  Escalente stoops to enter a shack constructed of 
  mismatched wooden planks. Blankets hang on the 
  inside, filling the cracks between planks. This place 
  will be a death trap come winter.
  Escalente’s primary focus is constructing a 
  sling for his arm. A simple use of Reassurance 
  that she won’t name him but wants to find out 
  what happened will get him to give the following 
  responses to appropriate questions:
  • 
  His name is Rafael Escalente. He came to this 
  country from Cuba as a young man, after the 
  Spanish-American war. Used to be a grocer, 
  but most of the people he sold to were now on 
  breadlines and he couldn’t afford to keep the 
  store.
  • 
  (alternate, “Probing the Hudson”) About two 
  weeks ago, another man told him about the 
  chance of work. He and a couple other men 
  from this Hooverville met a fellow represent-
  ing Hudson Enterprises, who promised them 
  several months of work. He expects he’ll have 
  to tell their wives that they’ve been locked up.
  • 
  He hadn’t liked the man who slugged him, 
  Benny Miller, from the start. He was the kind 
  of tough guy Escalente’s seen over and over 
  again—he thinks he can intimidate his way into 
  anything. Still, it had surprised him to see how 
  violent Miller got with the police—anyone with 
  a lick of sense would’ve known they had him 
  beat and just surrendered.
  • 
  (core, “Mark Arnold”) The guy Benny and his 
  buddy Ira Graber, along with Dan Willard, the 
  man who’d been arrested for robbing that old 
  Italian lady, got special favors from Mr. Arnold, 
  who had them stay late the first couple of 
  nights the men worked. 
  • 
  After that, Arnold kept those three working 
  ahead of the rest of the men. Said it had some-
  thing to do with the accident cleanup and told 
  the rest to stay back from that area because it 
  FOLLOWING ESCALENTE
  Shadowing
  Advance 3+: You stay on his trail all the 
  way to the Central Park Hooverville, 
  where he slips into a makeshift shack.
  Hold 2: You manage to follow him 
  into the subway, but lose him in the 
  commuter crush. As your car pulls out 
  of a transfer station, you catch a final 
  glimpse of his stooped form hurrying 
  toward an arriving train.
  Setback 1 or less: As per hold, also gain 
  Problem 1, “Scanty Copy”
  Extra Problem: Problem 2, “Harried”
  
  Ruth Tillman
  11
  wasn’t yet safe. Escalente minded his own busi-
  ness, but after Benny got in a couple of messy 
  fights with the other guys, it surprised him 
  that Arnold kept him on. Must’ve been because 
  they’d been miners, actually knew about being 
  down deep.
  • 
  He had mostly kept the cement mixer running. 
  Mr. Arnold wanted them filling out work the 
  union men had blasted through. No blasting 
  work for them, thank goodness. Some of the fel-
  lows said they could weld and they made steel 
  frames for the tunnel. The other guys laid the 
  cement, real thick, in these frames.
  • 
  You couldn’t pay him to go back down there, 
  even if his arm weren’t busted. He’s too old for 
  this kind of work. Next time he might get killed. 
  Better just to fade out and die in a place like this 
  Hooverville.
  Viv may attempt to assist Escalente by offering him 
  food and shelter, money for a doctor, or by taking 
  him in hand herself. If she gives him money, he’ll 
  tell her he’s saving it for the winter, if he lives that 
  long, so he can buy a bed in a flop house. In doing so, 
  she may earn Edge 2, “Warm-hearted.”
  THE STATION HOUSE
  Scene Type: Alternate
  Lead-Ins: Covering the Riot
  Lead-Outs: The Old Scab’s Story, The Union Line, 
  Bellevue, Probing the Hudson
  Viv may learn more of what happened before and 
  after the riot at the 115th Precinct station house in 
  Queens (Northern Blvd. and 92nd St.) to get more 
  information for her story. This text assumes that 
  she visits on the night of the riot, although after 
  having followed Escalente. The GM should alter 
  aspects to reflect time passed (if she comes back 
  the next day) or lack thereof (if she chooses to 
  accompany Gemma, rather than tail Escalente).
  Entering the station, Viv encounters a satisfied 
  Gemma Leone taking her leave of the sergeant on 
  duty, Sgt. Andy Parker. “Well I’d say it was a pity 
  about that louse, but if he couldn’t keep his hands 
  off of other people’s things...” Using Oral History, 
  Viv learns the following in response to questions 
  put to garrulous Gemma or delivered in a stilted 
  and official fashion by the sergeant:
  • 
  Dan Willard, the louse who robbed Mrs. Leo-
  ne’s shop last week, died in prison last night, 
  after another inmate caught him nicking ciga-
  rettes and shived him. Nasty bunch in there.
  • 
  (alternate, “The Union Line”) The police 
  are holding the scabs in the drunk tank, but 
  are keeping the union men down the hall on 
  benches. The sergeant has made a call to the 
  union HQ and they expect someone to arrive 
  with bail any minute.
  • 
  (alternate, “Bellevue”) Orderlies from Belle-
  vue have already removed the man, Benjamin 
  Miller, who Gemma identified as so violently 
  attacking the old scab (Police: “‘Old Raffy’ the 
  prisoners called him”/Gemma “that poor old 
  man”). Police consider Miller the primary 
  instigator of the event, but don’t yet know 
  if they’ll be able to charge him—it depends 
  on whether or not doctors bring him out of 
  whatever kind of fit he’s having. They’ll hold 
  the other non-union men overnight, but the 
  sergeant confides he doesn’t expect many to 
  manage the bail. Most likely they’ll cut them all 
  loose and just prosecute Miller.
  • 
  (core, “The Old Scab’s Story”) Police plan 
  to find and question the old man, whom the 
  sergeant reluctantly admits they lost track of 
  while attempting to restrain Miller. However, 
  they learned his presumed address — although 
  one really can’t call directions to a shack an ad-
  dress—from another scab, and will be sending 
  officers to take a statement in due course. The 
  sergeant brushes off the man’s slipping away. A 
  mere oversight. Mrs. Leone has testified that he 
  did not take part in the riot and thus they have 
  no intention of charging him.
  • 
  A total of five buildings, including Mrs. Leone’s, 
  sustained major damage from the fire, and 
  another three will require reinspection. 
  Additionally, houses north toward Astoria 
  Boulevard suffered broken windows and other 
  minor damage from projectiles thrown during 
  the riot.
  • 
  (alternate, “Probing the Hudson”) The sergeant 
  called Hudson Enterprises, and got assurances 
  
  EX ASTORIA
  12
  that they shut down all work to avoid this hap-
  pening in the future. The owner, Adrian Rush, 
  seemed surprised by the whole thing, but the 
  sergeant supposes he wouldn’t want people 
  knowing he employed scabs. He thinks the 
  chief should find a way to fine them for causing 
  this kind of public disturbance, to make up for 
  any bail or fines they’re likely to get from this 
  crew. Meanwhile, he told Hudson Enterprises 
  to post its own people to preclude sabotage, 
  now that the union men know there’s some-
  thing afoot.
  By using a Bargain Push, or dropping the name of 
  her police source, she learns the old man’s name 
  is Rafael Escalente and he lives in a shack in the 
  Central Park Hooverville. Otherwise, with the 
  information given above, the player finds Rafael 
  Escalente’s shack (core, “The Old Scab’s Story”) 
  after a brief montage of searching from Hooverville 
  to Hooverville, starting in Queens and moving 
  out. Along the way, she meets other broken old 
  men. If, through her own inspiration, the player 
  suggests checking out the Central Park Hooverville 
  right away, she finds him with comparatively little 
  difficulty.
  Any attempt to question the union men will 
  end with them referring to Mr. Foley. “Not saying 
  one word we are. You better talk to him.” As Viv 
  leaves the station, the union men get led out by a 
  representative who has posted bail for them. He 
  tells the men to get home and clean up, but that Mr. 
  Foley wants to see them at the union HQ tonight, 
  and they’d better not keep him waiting too long.
  If, having identified Ira from Escalente’s clues, 
  Viv wants to question him, she learns the police 
  took him along to Bellevue too, to answer questions 
  about what might’ve caused this. All the other 
  scabs claim to know nothing about Benny. The 
  desk sergeant expects he’ll be released, too, unless 
  he turns strange and they decide to throw him into 
  Bellevue.
  PROBING THE HUDSON
  Scene Type: Alternate
  Lead-Ins: Covering the Riot, The Old Scab’s Story, 
  The Station House, The Union Line
  Lead-Outs: No Place for Snoops, Mark Arnold
  Research, whether in the newspaper’s morgue or 
  the New York Public Library, reveals the following 
  about Hudson Enterprises, and the Winn Water 
  Tunnel:
  • 
  Adrian Rush incorporated Hudson Enterprises 
  during the skyscraper boom of the late 1920s. It 
  currently occupies the 48th floor of the Chanin 
  Building at 122 East 42nd Street, which Viv 
  recognizes as a rather nice art deco building, 
  but nothing special by 1934.
  • 
  The only clippings she can find for its con-
  structions projects are several modest office 
  buildings.
  • 
  Its stock nearly tanked in 1932.
  • 
  In 1933, multiple offhand mentions connect 
  the company with government contracts, 
  and eventually with the work done in putting 
  through the bill for the Winn Water Tunnel. 
  Rush and representatives from Hudson appear 
  in lists of persons at civic hearings.
  • 
  Three companies bid for the project, but only 
  the bid from Hudson Enterprises met all the 
  necessary criteria. The other two lacked minor 
  requirements, unclearly described in the legis-
  lation. Bureaucracy recognizes this as a trick 
  of legislators to ensure their preferred contrac-
  tor wins the bid.
  • 
  (core, “Mark Arnold”) Photographs from a 
  Queens hearing on the construction of the 
  water tunnel extension include one of Rush, 
  Winn, and a blond, mustached man named as 
  Mark Arnold. The accompanying story refers 
  to Arnold as Hudson Enterprises’ former Chief 
  Engineer and current Vice President of Opera-
  tions.
  
  Ruth Tillman
  13
  Bureaucracy, in the form of a phone call or trip to 
  the Buildings Department, tells her:
  • 
  The Winn Water Tunnel is the only project in 
  the city for which Hudson Enterprises has any 
  permits filed.
  • 
  The general path of the Winn Water Tunnel. 
  (See map, above.)
  • 
  (pipe, “Breaking Into the Staging Yard”) The 
  company lists two addresses, its headquarters 
  at the Chanin Building, and a lot just south of 
  the Astoria Light, Heat, and Power Company 
  plant, along Winthrop Avenue. The map puts 
  the second address at the northeastern end of 
  the proposed water pipe, making this likely a 
  staging facility.
  Winn Water Tunnel Map
  
  EX ASTORIA
  14
  THE UNION LINE
  Scene Type: Alternate
  Lead-Ins: Covering the Riot, The Station House, 
  Mark Arnold
  Lead-Outs: Probing the Hudson, Gettler’s 
  Analysis, Minding O’Mara
  The Local 147 headquarters are in a squat building 
  at the corner of 36th and 24th streets in Queens. 
  Its front window is hung with thick curtains, and 
  covered by banners proclaiming labor slogans, 
  flyers advertising current meetings, and remnants 
  of older flyers. Just inside the door, Viv is stopped 
  by Neil O’Mara, a tall, gangly young man with 
  graying hair around his temples. If Viv came 
  straight here from the riot, her arrival surprises 
  him, as he expected the union representative who’d 
  gone to bail out their men. Either way, he knows 
  Mr. Foley likes talking to members of the press. If 
  she came any time after the “Station House,” she 
  recognizes several men from the riot among those 
  milling in the main meeting room. 
  In the main meeting room, rows of benches 
  face a podium with a “LOCAL 147” banner 
  permanently draped across it. Tables in the back 
  display buttons, literature from several pro-union 
  sources, and home-made pamphlets with jaunty 
  titles like “Johnny’s First Subway Ride: Courtesy 
  of the Local 147!” “Clean Catskill Water Costs 
  Sandhog Lives!” Viv’s Streetwise notices the 
  mark of a sandhog on each man—a small badge 
  worn on the belt reading “Compressed Air Worker” 
  with instructions on where to take him, should 
  he collapse in the street. Even Foley wears one, 
  although he hasn’t worked a job in years.
  The bluff Foley likely recognizes Viv and, if 
  not stopped, launches right into a speech to the 
  following effect:
  • 
  Clearly his men weren’t at fault, those scabs 
  not only don’t know not to cross a picket line 
  but not to strike, heh, a union man (a few si-
  lently raise fists).
  • 
  By rights, the job belongs to his men, only they 
  encountered some kind of underground pocket 
  of noxious fluid and several became gravely, 
  yes indeed Miss Sinclair, gravely ill. And not 
  in the usual way, nothing like the bends at all. 
  Fortunately, the union takes care of its men, so 
  they called a halt on the project.
  • 
  (alternate, “Probing the Hudson”) He’s been 
  negotiating with Hudson Enterprises in good 
  faith. He was profoundly shocked by the turn 
  of events which alerted them to the presence of 
  scabs on the project. As far as he knows, nego-
  tiations continue, but he will take a firm hand 
  with Rush now.
  In response to appropriate questions, he provides 
  the following:
  • 
  They have two very reasonable demands; first, 
  compensation for the men whose health was 
  compromised, in a turn of events which Foley 
  would grant even Hudson Enterprises could 
  not have predicted. Second, they wish to see a 
  city health inspector’s certification that the site 
  no longer poses any risk to the miners.
  The Staging Facility
  The location of the staging facility lays 
  pipe for a player to realize later on that 
  Arnold had the opportunity to move a 
  dhole egg the length of the completed 
  pipe and thus surface it somewhere 
  farther from prying eyes. Should the 
  ambitious player jump right to this point 
  and visit the lot, she discovers a fenced 
  facility, guarded by several toughs, also 
  non-union, who ensure its security. If 
  she manages to get a look over the fence, 
  she can see a fair amount of ordinary 
  construction equipment as well as a 
  couple of sheds, one with “Warning: 
  Explosives” painted on the side. If the 
  player successfully argues Viv’s ability 
  to break in in, adapt Antagonist Reaction 
  “No Place for Snoops” for her discovery, 
  and removal to chat with “Mark Arnold.” 
  Adapt that scene to including Arnold’s 
  patronizing attitude about not pressing 
  charges. Frame this positively, as the 
  player now knows to come back to it 
  when she has more context.
  
  Ruth Tillman
  15
  • 
  The turn of events to which he refers? On a job 
  like this, his men work in several teams, one 
  blasting ahead down the tunnel and several 
  more following behind to clear the slag. Then 
  they build the tunnel’s frame and pour con-
  crete. They work in segments. Now, the blast-
  ing men had one go wrong. It doesn’t happen 
  often, except when the kind of rock changes. 
  They build the charge based on the kind of rock 
  they’re blasting through and how big a hole 
  they want. 
  • 
  Here it wasn’t so much the rock that changed 
  as they found a kind of empty pocket behind it. 
  So the charge had much too much force for the 
  rock. That’s happened before, once on another 
  project they blasted into mud and it sucked 
  three men up into the East River. Only this 
  empty pocket wasn’t mud and it wasn’t empty 
  either.
  • 
  They didn’t get a good look at what they blasted 
  into. They immediately evacuated with the 
  injured men, lost a lot of time to the pressure 
  locks, and Hudson Enterprises hasn’t allowed 
  anyone to re-enter, except perhaps these scabs.
  • 
  (alternate, “Gettler’s Analysis”) The men 
  were covered in a horrible, gooey substance. It 
  burned them terribly before the others could 
  get them out of their clothes and cleaned out. 
  The doctors don’t exactly know what it was. 
  They sent it off to the office of the Chief Medi-
  cal Examiner.
  • 
  (alternate, “Minding O’Mara”) None of those 
  men are in the union headquarters. They’re 
  doing very poorly, but Foley’s been pulling for 
  them. Connor O’Mara, father of the young man 
  who let her in, was the blast supervisor. Such a 
  shame. The hospital sent them home a few days 
  ago—not enough beds and no hope.
  Should Viv wish to see an injured miner, Foley will 
  dissuade her by suggesting that she would find the 
  entire experience overwhelming. Assess Honesty 
  tells Viv he’s not telling the whole story. Neil’s 
  reaction, if he overhears, tells her more is definitely 
  up. If she speaks to Neil separately, Reassurance 
  convinces him that taking her to see his father 
  would be the right thing to do. She may either make 
  arrangements to meet Neil at a later time—he gives 
  an address in a rather shabby part of Queens—or 
  ask him to take her to see his father right away.
  If Viv wants to learn more about the kind of 
  work sandhogs do and the risks involved, a use of 
  Oral History gathers a group of primarily older 
  men wanting to share their stories. From them, she 
  learns the following colorful tidbits:
  • 
  Sandhogs first organized when building the 
  Brooklyn Bridge. They died of the bends at ter-
  rible rates back then, all that underwater work 
  and people still figuring out how to do it right.
  • 
  There’s a difference between some of the one-
  job men and a sandhog. For sandhogs, it’s in the 
  family, in the blood.
  • 
  You start at 15 or so, just hauling out the slag, 
  not doing the serious work, but then you gener-
  ally learn what your dad does or your uncle 
  does. The O’Mara family, for example, they 
  blast. Then you’ve got your welders, like Foley.
  • 
  The rules say they have to retire at 40, but the 
  men have a good laugh about that. If you can 
  still work, you work. Ernest Foley looks a little 
  uncomfortable about these remarks.
  • 
  Right now, the sandhogs have the Lincoln 
  Tunnel project and City Water Tunnel No. 2 
  going on as well as the Winn thing, so most of 
  them will find something to do. There are over 
  a thousand sandhogs working in the city right 
  now.
  From her source for Medicine, Louisa 
  Reynolds, she may learn that “bends” or 
  “caisson disease” (named for the bottomless diving 
  bells in which the men work bridge jobs) happens 
  when someone moves from high pressure to lower 
  pressure too quickly and gas bubbles (mostly 
  nitrogen) form in their blood,. It can lead to 
  anything from headaches and nosebleeds to 
  complete collapse and death, even on the first 
  ascent. Companies working on pressurized 
  projects keep hyperbaric chambers on hand for the 
  treatment of men who collapse, although it doesn’t 
  always work in time. Repeated exposure can lead to 
  disability and impaired recovery time. If this 
  project wasn’t pressurized, men wouldn’t be at 
  risk.
  
  EX ASTORIA
  16
  MINDING O’MARA
  Scene Type: Alternate
  Lead-Ins: The Union Line
  Lead-Outs: Mark Arnold, Gettler’s Analysis, 
  Scouring the Ash Heaps, No Place for Snoops
  The O’Mara family lives in a decaying row home in 
  southern Queens. A smattering of children, some 
  neighbors and some O’Maras, play in in the street 
  outside. Neil introduces Viv to his mother Siobhan, 
  a middle-aged woman with a deeply lined forehead 
  and grim mouth. When Neil announces Viv’s 
  intention, Mrs. O’Mara simply nods a resigned 
  assent.
  Connor O’Mara rests in the darkened bedroom 
  upstairs. Neil brings a miner’s lantern, which he 
  points away from his father. The lantern provides 
  enough light for Viv to see Connor’s body. Although 
  only in his mid-to-late 40s, O’Mara looks skeletal 
  and haggard, more like the victim of a terminal 
  illness than a man who worked a construction 
  job only a month ago. His breath comes in ragged 
  gasps. His skin sloughs off in patches, leaving some 
  areas exposed and oozing. Neil tuts and busies 
  himself applying bandages to the freshest areas. 
  Scabs over older sores have an unhealthy look to 
  them, and a smell of rot and acid permeates the 
  room.
  O’Mara breathes out his answers as gasps. He can 
  tell Viv the following:
  • 
  (core, “Mark Arnold”) Mr. Arnold came by 
  when he was in the hospital and told him not to 
  talk to reporters. He threatened that Hudson 
  Enterprises wouldn’t pay a single dime to his 
  family or the other men’s if they talked. He 
  guesses from Viv’s presence that Neil didn’t 
  take kindly to that. He sure didn’t either.
  • 
  (alternate, “Gettler’s Analysis”) A man from 
  the chief medical examiner’s office, Alexan-
  der Gettler, has come by several times to take 
  blood samples and ask him questions about his 
  health.
  • 
  He can’t remember much about the accident. 
  He calculated the charges himself and they had 
  worked every time before. In the hospital, Foley 
  told him that the stone hadn’t been solid all the 
  way through, that there had been empty space 
  and...something else on the other side.
  • 
  (alternate, “Scouring the Ash Heap”) He won-
  dered if it had something to do with the Flush-
  ing River, maybe they had hit it underground. 
  Those old Corona “meadows,” the mountains 
  of ash heap you see from the train, used to be 
  some kind of marshy water, too. When he first 
  looked at the job, he’d asked if Arnold thought 
  they might encounter some kind of under-
  ground stream, but Arnold didn’t think so. And 
  this, well, this wasn’t a stream.
  • 
  He always expected to die young, his father 
  died at 55 and his grandfather at 48. And he al-
  ways hoped he would die like them, not in some 
  kind of accident. He just wishes it would all 
  end. Most mining accidents have the decency 
  to kill you right off or it’s something you live 
  through. He can’t take knowing he’ll die with-
  out there being a damn thing he can do about it.
  Neil provides the following information in 
  response to questions about his father, after 
  moving the conversation out of earshot of both his 
  father and the rest of his family:
  • 
  His father’s condition has worsened since leav-
  ing the hospital. Whatever happened caused 
  some kind of progressive wasting. He doesn’t 
  understand, he stripped his father’s soaked 
  SEEING CONNOR O'MARA
  Stability
  Advance 9+: You interview him calmly and 
  pleasantly, as you would any subject who might 
  bring you a valuable story. Earn Edge 1 “Neil's 
  Gratitude”
  Hold 5-8: You grit your teeth through the 
  interview but manage to keep down the 
  contents of your stomach.
  Setback  4 or less: You take one look at those 
  sores, catch a whiff of the smell, and lose your 
  last meal. Take Problem 3, "Miffed Miners."
  
  Ruth Tillman
  17
  READING BENNY'S RECORDS
  Filch
  Advance 6+: You tip the file off the table into 
  your lap just long enough to take in the details. 
  See "Psychological Assessment of Benjamin 
  Miller", below. Earn Edge 3, “Light-Fingered.”
  Hold 2-5: You tip the file off the table into your 
  lap just long enough to take in the details. 
  See "Psychological Assessment of Benjamin 
  Miller", below. 
  Setback  1or less: The nurse turns around at 
  just the wrong moment and calls for the officer 
  stationed outside the ward to evict Viv. Take 
  Problem 4, “In Hot Water.”
  Extra Problem: Problem 5, "Twitchy"
  clothes right off, carried him up through the 
  elevator himself. Surely not enough could have 
  gotten on him to do this much damage.
  • 
  (alternate, “Gettler’s Analysis”) The chief 
  medical examiner’s office has sent someone by 
  several times since his father’s release to take 
  blood samples and otherwise track his health.
  • 
  The other men injured in the accident are in 
  similar states nearing death, but their families 
  are unwilling to talk to outsiders since it might 
  risk the compensation from Hudson Enter-
  prises. Neil doesn’t believe anything more than 
  the union pension will ever materialize and 
  considers it now his responsibility to support 
  his family.
  • 
  Because of his father’s age, he’d worked hard to 
  get them on this project and not the main water 
  tunnel work. He thought it would be safer. His 
  father wasn’t even supposed to still be working, 
  but no sandhog worth his salt actually retires at 
  40. The main water tunnel has to go under sev-
  eral stretches of river, high pressure work. This 
  job should have been more like a deep subway. 
  Assess Honesty tells Viv Neil blames himself 
  for his father’s condition.
  BELLEVUE
  Scene Type: Alternate
  Lead-Ins: The Station House
  Lead-Outs: Finding Ira Graber, Head Shrinking, 
  No Place for Snoops
  Viv may choose to visit the prison ward of Bellevue 
  in an attempt to learn more about Benny Miller 
  and his condition. The attendant physician on duty, 
  Dr. Klein, a crisp-toned, graying man, will not allow 
  her into the prison ward. A use of Reassurance 
  or Flattery persuades him to send a nurse for 
  Benny’s chart with the stern instructions only to 
  share the full list of charges with this nosy reporter.
  The nurse, Mabel Ritter, treats Viv with 
  the jovial good-humor found most often among 
  those whose work would otherwise jade their 
  worldviews. She reads off the list of charges as 
  though the length was an inside joke between Viv 
  and herself, raising her eyebrows or feigning shock:
  • 
  Disorderly conduct,
  • 
  Disturbing the peace,
  • 
  Public brawling,
  • 
  Destruction of property,
  • 
  Attempted murder,
  • 
  Failure to obey a police officer,
  • 
  Assaulting a police officer, and
  • 
  Destruction of police property
  Interpersonal use of Oral History reveals that 
  only one other person has visited Miller, a young 
  man named Ira Graber. Graber was brought in 
  by the police, as they couldn’t keep Miller lucid 
  enough to answer questions at first. Some days she 
  feels like the whole world’s going mad and they’re 
  all coming to New York. Give her your average 
  burglar with a broken arm any day.
  (core, “Finding Ira Graber”) Graber hasn’t 
  come back. Nurse Ritter remembers him saying 
  something about “back to the breadline.” 
  If Viv wants the rest of the information in 
  Benny’s medical file, she’ll have to wait until Nurse 
  Ritter leaves and make the following test, or make 
  a Reassurance Push to convince the nurse she 
  doesn’t intend to publish the details.
  Alternatively, if Viv comes up with the idea of 
  using Disguise, a Difficulty 5 Quick Test allows her 
  to impersonate Benny’s sister and read his medical 
  records. On a success, have the player describe the 
  preparations she makes and how she intends to 
  prove her identity.
  
  EX ASTORIA
  18
  Psychological Assessment of Benjamin Miller
  Viv learns the following substantive points from 
  reading the assessment:
  • 
  Subject is a 24-year-old male from Cambria 
  County, Pennsylvania. Note: subject’s friend 
  Ira Graber, was brought by police to provide 
  information about his history. Viv’s History 
  recognizes this as the heart of Pennsylvania 
  coal country, which flourished in the 1910s and 
  1920s but got hit hard by the Depression. 
  • 
  (pipe, “Head Shrinking”) Subject suffers from 
  acute homicidal mania of unknown cause. 
  Note: Graber supplied information that source 
  “had a temper” but confirmed this behavior 
  as new. Graber confirmed the subject had 
  been in several violent altercations with other 
  transients in the past week, all incited by the 
  subject and over trivial matters.
  • 
  Subject may have been affected by greater 
  depths and different atmospheric pressures 
  on his most recent job than the mines to which 
  he was accustomed. The shortened lifespans 
  of both coal and city miners makes study of 
  long term psychological effects of underground 
  work on the men difficult.
  • 
  Subject is being treated with injections of 
  phenobarbital (Viv’s source for Psychology, 
  Louisa Reynolds, can confirm this as a fast-
  acting and powerful sedative). His outbursts 
  upon awakening have grown so violent toward 
  himself that, even in a straightjacket, the at-
  tending physician feels concern that he may 
  self-injure and has prescribed round-the-clock 
  sedation.
  • 
  NO PLACE FOR SNOOPS
  Scene Type: Antagonist Reaction
  Lead-Ins: Minding O’Mara, Bellevue, Probing the 
  Hudson
  Lead-Outs: Mark Arnold, Union Divided
  The same persons hired by Hudson Enterprises 
  to keep an eye on union activity notice Viv’s 
  presence at the union headquarters, visiting an 
  injured miner, and generally asking questions 
  about the company. When the timing seems 
  right for a Challenge, three men begin shadowing 
  her as she walks between locations, transit, and 
  her home. The scene might occur in unfamiliar 
  alleys in Queens or Manhattan, a subway station 
  temporarily empty during the afternoon or late-
  night lull, or even around the corner from her own 
  building as a threatened implication “we know 
  where you live.”
  As soon as no one one’s in sight, two men fall in on 
  either side of Viv and attempt to take her by the 
  arms, turning her to face a third.
  FOOTFALLS IN THE ALLEY
  Sense Trouble
  Advance 9+: You sense the footsteps matching 
  your own, the pace, the pauses. Someone is 
  moving up on you from behind, but either 
  you’re on top of things or they’re not being as 
  cautious as they should. Gain Edge 4, “Sharp 
  Senses”
  Hold 5-8: You feel a bit of a chill walking these 
  streets alone, probably the sharp spring air.
  Setback  4 or less: A walk down these alleys is a 
  perfect time to contemplate how you’ll frame 
  this story. You focus more on the problem 
  in your mind than the surroundings. Take 
  Problem 6, “Off-Guard.”
  
  Ruth Tillman
  19
  Streetwise: These men didn’t show signs of 
  belonging to an organization or mob. Viv doesn’t 
  recognize them from among the scabs she’s 
  encountered. Unlike the scabs, they appear to 
  have regular employment, of the physical variety 
  or as security guards. If she got an Advance on 
  both tests, she clearly recalls seeing one of them 
  patrolling the floor at Hudson Enterprises.
  GETTLER’S ANALYSIS
  Scene Type: Alternate
  Lead-Ins: The Union Line, Minding O’Mara
  Lead-Outs: Scouring the Ash Heaps, Breaking into 
  the Staging Yard, Union Divided
  Viv finds Alexander Gettler in his laboratory on 
  the third floor of the Office of the Chief Medical 
  Examiner, above the city morgue (see Cthulhu 
  Confidential, p.174). Although a ceaseless 
  campaigner for public health, Gettler makes 
  do with a small staff and minimal equipment. 
  His laboratory contains dozens of ongoing 
  experiments—beakers, sample jars, ovens, 
  chemical solutions all carefully labeled with 
  official case numbers or personal notes.
  Until Viv informs him otherwise, Gettler 
  assumes that she’s come to write yet another 
  of the recent news stories about a sensational 
  murder whose trial just ended, and passes her 
  off to an assistant. Upon hearing of her interest 
  in the miners, however, he interrupts and waves 
  off his staffer, showing his first real interest in 
  her presence. He shows her a set of blood sample 
  phials for the five men injured in the accident, 
  taken from every man, three days apart, for the last 
  three weeks.
  Meanwhile, one of his lab assistants, wearing 
  thick, padded gloves, unlocks a cupboard and draws 
  out a large glass jar appearing to contain a thick 
  yellow jelly-like substance. The presence of the 
  jar immediately quiets the rest of the laboratory. 
  Gettler himself unscrews the top, which reveals a 
  creamy bubble of mucous-like fluid in the center 
  of the jelly-substance. He volunteers the first 
  two bullet points and, in response to questions, 
  provides the following information about the 
  blood, the strange bubble, and the accident:
  • 
  Each of these blood samples has a progres-
  sively lower pH; in layman’s terms, they grow 
  progressively more acidic.
  • 
  (pipe, “Union Divided”) A normal human’s 
  blood ranges between 7.3 and 7.4 in pH. The 
  first sample he took from the miners has blood 
  range at 7.25—worrying and too low to sustain 
  health but not necessarily fatal. In the weeks 
  that followed it continued going down...7.20, 
  7.10... Dipping below 7 almost certainly leads 
  to death and he can find no cause or way to 
  reverse this trajectory.
  • 
  Right now, the men’s lungs attempt to com-
  pensate for the lack of oxygen in their blood by 
  breathing faster. This would explain the deep, 
  labored breathing she’s heard from O’Mara if 
  she’s visited him. But they’ll suffocate in their 
  own bodies if it goes much further. Moreover, 
  whatever affects their blood also seems to 
  be causing lesions on their skin. He can’t tell 
  whether the lesions result from prolonged 
  TEACHING THE LADY A LESSON
  Fleeing or Fighting
  Advance 11+: As arms reach for you from 
  behind, you dodge easily out of the way, even 
  managing to get in a couple licks of your own 
  (if the player chose Fighting, invite her to 
  describe her parting shot) before leaving three 
  toughs scratching their heads how a dame 
  could get the jump on them. Gain Edge 5, “On 
  Top of Your Game.”
  Hold 5-8: A couple of toughs steamroll up beside 
  you, pinning you in place by your arms while 
  another fingers a switchblade, suggesting that 
  you consider moving to a less dangerous line 
  of work. “Ain’t it better for a dame like you to 
  cover something safer like the fashion pages? 
  Or do those Frenchies cut you as bad with 
  their little sewing scissors?” Streetwise: As 
  you dust yourself off, you realize they probably 
  didn’t have orders to hurt you badly, just to 
  shake you up so you’d drop the case.
  Setback  4 or less: Same as above, but take 
  Problem 7, “Hobbled.”
  
  EX ASTORIA
  20
  hypoxia (deprivation of oxygen to a part of the 
  body) or some other cause.
  • 
  The jarred substance is all that remains of 
  the acidic mucous he managed to obtain from 
  the sandhogs’ clothing. It slowly ate its way 
  through nearly everything he used to contain it, 
  but luckily it didn’t dissolve, it just kept slowly 
  wearing away at whatever was beneath. Get-
  tler describes a rather frantic afternoon spent 
  with his assistants constantly shifting in new 
  substances—lead, limestone, etc., in under one 
  another as it gradually eroded its way through 
  them all.
  • 
  The jelly in which he’s encased it is a mix of 
  several bases, which keeps it stable enough that 
  he can take it out and work on it, although in 
  the weeks he’s had it, he’s had to refill the jelly 
  several times.
  • 
  His analysis on the mucous has revealed 
  several chemicals of unknown origin, but he 
  makes very slow work on it as it eventually 
  erodes away any tool he uses to examine it. He 
  doesn’t have the time or the budget to keep 
  replacing equipment.
  • 
  (alternate, “Scouring the Ash Heap”) Using 
  records from Hudson Enterprises, he’s pin-
  pointed the scene of the accident as occurring 
  directly under the Corona “meadows” ash heap. 
  He doesn’t yet have enough evidence to justify 
  launching a full investigation, but he considers 
  it quite likely that the Brooklyn Ash Removal 
  Company may have disposed of dangerous 
  acidic substances, or perhaps those only dan-
  gerous in combination, in addition to their ash. 
  If these substances leached far enough down, 
  they might pool in a place where the miners 
  eventually encountered them.
  • 
  (core, “Breaking into the Staging Yard”) He 
  hadn’t yet opened an official investigation 
  because he thought no more work was happen-
  ing at the. He’d spoken to Foley as part of his 
  investigation and they’d agreed on an inspec-
  tion as critical. But he’s had so much to look 
  into he waited to hear from Foley or Hudson 
  Enterprises. He expresses relief that none of 
  the scabs have experienced that kind of burn-
  ing again and will call Hudson to ensure they 
  actually stop work this time. 
  If Viv expresses the desire to get some of Gettler’s 
  stabilizing jelly base, “just in case,” she may make 
  a Push with Bargain, promising to engage her 
  source, Nettie Rice, in the puzzle. This allows 
  her to Take Time with Nettie and work out some 
  practical use of the jelly, as a defence or a weapon 
  (depending on the pulp flavor). A player without 
  Pushes may call in Nettie to Gettler’s office later to 
  collect the sample, but the disruption in Nettie’s 
  life leaves Viv holding Problem 23, “Nettie’s 
  Nettled.”
  Gettler asks Viv to give him a call if she learns 
  more about what happened. He doesn’t have much 
  hope for the men, but the puzzle of the thing will 
  keep him up at night, even after they’re gone. If 
  he could know what happened...and prevent this 
  from happening again… He doesn’t have enough 
  funding or assistants to keep chasing this, but 
  he’d appreciate a heads up on anything she finds 
  in her sleuthing. If Viv calls him in during the 
  Denouement, she earns Edge 13, “Gettler Owes 
  You.”
  SCOURING THE ASH HEAPS
  Scene Type: Alternate
  Lead-Ins: Minding O’Mara, Gettler’s Analysis
  Lead-Outs: Breaking Into the Staging Yard
  What happens to the land when a dhole passes 
  under it? And the effects of its blighting brood 
  yet unhatched? This scene provides an historical 
  grounding to the horror that lies beneath the city. 
  Keepers may need to convey to players that the ash 
  removal company are digging up the meadows. The 
  player should come away from the scene aware 
  that this problem predates industrialization, and 
  with pipe laid for a thrill of horror over the World’s 
  Fair in the Coda (p. 34).
  Over fifty million tons of waste—ashes and 
  the residue of Brooklyn householder’s burned 
  garbage—forms the ninety-foot mountain and 
  rolling dunes of the Corona Ash Heaps. F. Scott 
  Fitzgerald described the road as shrinking away 
  from these smoking piles of ruin and rubbish, 
  this “valley of ashes.” Like most New Yorkers, 
  Viv knows they exist; their bleakness confronts 
  
  Ruth Tillman
  21
  every rail passenger who undertakes a journey to 
  Queens. Yet familiarity breeds indifference and 
  many in the city look on them as a fixture in the 
  landscape, as unmovable as the Statue of Liberty.
  Research in the newspaper’s morgue quickly 
  turns up the following facts about the Ash Heaps:
  • 
  In 1909, the Brooklyn Ash Removal Company 
  purchased the land from the City. 
  • 
  In November of 1920, the Department of 
  Health investigated reports of rats coming 
  from the Corona meadows dump. The depart-
  ment’s agents found horrifying conditions in 
  both the ash dump and the neighboring homes, 
  and ordered massive extermination proce-
  dures.
  • 
  While the Flushing River runs through the 
  area, it’s become a nearly buried creek by this 
  point. Historically, it’s been more marsh than 
  river.
  • 
  Articles from earlier this year record the new 
  mayor’s decision to revoke private ash dumping 
  contracts, most notably that of the Brooklyn 
  Ash Company. The byline on all the articles 
  concerning the subject come from one of the 
  Herald’s political reporters, Molly Reid.
  Viv finds Molly Reid, a capable 50-something 
  with sharp eyes and sharper questions, working 
  on her most recent article in the Herald’s bullpen, 
  and in need of a sandwich (at any time of day). In 
  response to questions about the Ash Heaps, Molly 
  can provide the following:
  • 
  While it may have “Ash Company” in the name, 
  they dump far more than ashes. McCarthy’s 
  men would take anything from a dead horse, 
  it’s said, to a mattress. However, nothing she’s 
  uncovered in allegations about the company’s 
  shenanigans hints at chemical waste at scale.
  • 
  La Guardia’s administration plans to shut it 
  down, and has proposed a number of alternate 
  uses for the land, but first they have to figure 
  out a way to remove all that ash and refuse.
  • 
  It wouldn’t surprise her if some kind of awful 
  waste filtered down from the ash heap, but that 
  land has always been blighted.  She’s read up 
  on the history, and as far back as she can find, 
  people have used that land as a dump. Early 
  Dutch settlers described it as “brackish and 
  foul marsh”, and called it “a scarred ground in 
  the midst of plenty.” There’s something wrong 
  with the land.
  • 
  (core, “Breaking Into the Staging Yard”) 
  Perhaps the strange substance the sandhogs 
  encountered under the “meadows” filtered up 
  to the surface, not down from it. If Viv can get 
  herself down there, she might find answers 
  to more than just an industrial accident. Of 
  course, the only way down is through the 
  construction site. Molly’s meaningful look 
  hints that she’s engaged in a bit of breaking and 
  entering herself over the years. 
  Although her conversation with Molly should 
  satisfy Viv that the horror comes from below, not 
  above, a determined Viv may choose to visit the 
  dump. The gate guard and workers confirm the 
  following:
  • 
  La Guardia’s orders stopped the daily delivery 
  of 110 tons of ash and waste.
  • 
  None of the workers have seen anything like 
  the substance the miners encountered.
  • 
  The packed ground on which they stand must 
  run ten feet or more deep in sheer refuse accu-
  mulation, so they have no idea of what might be 
  beneath it—nobody’s seen that land for a long 
  time, only this smoky waste.
  • 
  MARK ARNOLD
  Scene Type: Core
  Lead-Ins: The Old Scab’s Story, Probing the 
  Hudson, Minding O’Mara, What Ira Saw, No Place 
  for Snoops
  Lead-Outs: Finding Ira Graber, Union Divided, 
  Head Shrinking, The Union Line
  Viv may choose to phone up Hudson Enterprises 
  and ask to meet with Mr. Mark Arnold. 
  Sufficient Flattery about the company or other 
  Interpersonal approaches to his secretary gets her 
  five minutes on his calendar. Or she can pull an 
  ambush journalist’s move and just show up.
  Mark Arnold’s outer office is done up in 
  fashionable 20s-era bronze highlights to match the 
  overall decor of the building. His secretary, a well-
  coiffed young woman in her late twenties, has a 
  high, chipper voice, but Viv’s ear detects a tremble 
  
  EX ASTORIA
  22
  in it. At the time of her appointment, as soon as 
  the secretary presses the buzzer to announce her, 
  Mark Arnold bursts out of his office.
  A good looking man in his mid-30s, Arnold 
  sizes her up with hard eyes and invites her to get it 
  over with. He volunteers the first two bullet points:
  • 
  Regarding negotiations, he can only comment 
  that they have not yet concluded.
  • 
  Hudson Enterprises only wants to lead this city 
  into a better future. He says their state-of-the-
  art elevator and depressurized project provided 
  a far safer work environment than the rest of 
  City Water Tunnel no. 2, on which half a dozen 
  men have already died.
  • 
  The accident? A tragedy, although they must 
  still determine what caused it and whether it 
  was carelessness, or perhaps even sabotage by 
  a disgruntled union worker.
  • 
  What he does know is that he found most of 
  those men some call “scabs” in Hoovervilles 
  and breadlines, and they just wanted to do the 
  work.
  • 
  (core, “Finding Ira Graber”) Why the young 
  man in Bellevue—for which he blames union 
  agitators—Arnold had seen him and his friend 
  in the St. Francis breadline every day while 
  walking to and from Penn Station. He offered 
  them a job. Thanks to those union toughs hold-
  ing Hudson hostage, one’s institutionalized, 
  and the other man’s probably back in the same 
  breadline again. Does she think the city’s better 
  off now?
  If Viv has heard Ira Graber’s story, Arnold 
  switches tactics, and dismisses it as ridiculous. He 
  chalks it up to a fragile mind unused to working 
  underground. It takes a certain type, after all, to 
  withstand the weight of rock and city above them.
  Should Viv flat-out ask Arnold whether he 
  or Hudson Enterprises sent the men after her, 
  he simply notes that New York is a large and 
  dangerous city with plenty of unfortunate types 
  on the streets. Surely a woman with her penchant 
  for sticking her nose into the affairs of powerful 
  men has made plenty of enemies. Assess Honesty 
  confirms that he does indeed believe what he’s 
  saying, including the “powerful men” part.
  (pipe, “Union Divided”) As she leaves, Arnold 
  gives her a warning. If they know what’s good for 
  them, those union fellows will steer well clear of 
  her. If he gets even a hint they’re slandering him to 
  a paper, well, they won’t like the consequences.
  Whether Viv pushes him, or accepts his 
  responses and prepares to leave of her own accord, 
  he suddenly turns surly and shouts into his 
  intercom for his secretary to come immediately. He 
  orders Viv to leave his office, berating his secretary 
  for wasting his valuable time with busybodies. 
  “Adrian Rush would never tolerate such behavior 
  in a secretary!” The woman soon returns to her 
  desk, crying.
  Powder Room Confidential
  At this point, Flattery, Reassurance, or 
  Inspiration and a clean hankie can convince the 
  secretary that perhaps she should take a trip to the 
  powder room with Viv to wash out her eyes. The 
  switchboard girl can handle Mr. Arnold’s calls for a 
  bit. While washing her face and reapplying powder 
  and lipstick the secretary, Maude, squeaks out the 
  first bullet point and sequential points in response 
  to appropriate questions:
  • 
  She doesn’t know what’s come over Mr. Arnold 
  since the accident, he never used to be this way. 
  She used to be so proud to work for him.
  • 
  Viv saw the way he was back there, well that’s 
  happening more and more often, and not just 
  when she makes a mistake, like letting Viv in 
  might’ve been. She can’t figure out what he 
  expects of her, all of a sudden. And he’s been 
  behaving so oddly.
  • 
  (pipe, “Head Shrinking”) He stopped taking his 
  new ideas to Mr. Rush, like he used to, he just 
  does them. And she caught him practicing giv-
  ing speeches. Not speeches in front of a crowd 
  but the kind she did before meeting her future 
  in-laws. “Oh, certainly, Mr. Mayor, we’d be only 
  to pleased to take on that for you. If you insist, 
  Fiorello. Of course, men like you and I…” She’d 
  been so excited to think the new Mayor was in 
  there with him… but then there was no one and 
  he was only talking at his window. He reacted 
  furiously, of course. 
  • 
  This started just after the accident. At first she 
  felt bad for him, he went all to pieces about it, 
  saying they’d never be able to get the work 
  
  Ruth Tillman
  23
  • 
  done now. Then he started staying out all night. 
  He hired a bunch of drifters without Mr. Rush 
  knowing. Even after the dust-up and Mr. Rush 
  found out, such a fight they had, he still stays 
  out far too late, but he says he’s working.
  • 
  Maybe it’s the influence of those drifters, giving 
  him ideas. Otherwise she doesn’t know what 
  could have happened to him.
  FINDING IRA GRABER
  Scene Type: Core
  Lead-Ins: Mark Arnold, Bellevue
  Lead-Outs: What Ira Saw
  In a city full of wandering, hungry men, finding 
  Ira may seem like an impossible task. But Viv has 
  several pieces of evidence to go on. If she visited 
  Bellevue, she learned from Nurse Ritter that he 
  planned to go back to a breadline. Mark Arnold 
  got more specific about the breadline (the St. 
  Francis of Assisi church). She may revisit the 
  Station House (p. 11) and use Bargain, or call 
  on her Source O’Connor’s Cop Talk to get a look 
  at Graber’s mug shot from the night of his arrest. If 
  she wishes to make a copy of the mug shot, she may 
  either spend a Push with the officer on duty or use 
  her own Photography and develop it. Or, she may 
  visit the Central Park Hooverville and use a Push of 
  Reassurance to convince Rafael Escalente to help 
  her identify Graber.
  Viv finds Graber in the St. Francis of Assisi 
  breadline, near Penn Station. Even without 
  Arnold’s lead, it only takes a morning to get 
  through the area’s five breadlines, as most wait 
  in these lines for hours, but it only takes twenty 
  minutes or so to scan the line. Escalente, if taking 
  her there, explains that when you’re not working, 
  you don’t have much else to do anyway. You get up, 
  walk down there, stand in line, and eventually walk 
  back up. The breadline doesn’t start moving until 
  at least 10am anyway and, unlike some folks, the 
  monks have a smile and a kind word for the people 
  coming through. 
  Graber stands in the line with his arms folded 
  across his chest and right foot tapping incessantly 
  with nervous energy. He glances around every 
  thirty seconds or so, scanning the passersby. The 
  moment he detects Viv’s focus on him, he breaks 
  out of the breadline and runs into the street, where 
  he is hit by a car. The accident occurred at no more 
  than 15 miles per hour, but Graber’s left leg bleeds 
  freely from where a hood ornament gouged it. He 
  flails in the street, attempting to get himself up, 
  which only intensifies the blood flow. If Viv wants 
  answers, she’d better do something about it now.
  WHAT IRA SAW
  Scene Type: Core
  Lead-Ins: Finding Ira Graber
  Lead-Outs: Breaking Into the Staging Yard, Mark 
  Arnold, Head Shrinking
  Ragged and bloody, Ira trembles as he answers 
  Viv’s questions about everything that’s happened:
  • 
  (core, “Breaking Into the Staging Yard”) Eve-
  rything started when he took that job down in 
  the tunnels. Down in the tunnels is where they 
  are. Down in the tunnels. He doesn’t even want 
  to see that staging yard again. You can’t build 
  walls high enough.
  • 
  (pipe, “Head Shrinking”) He ran because he’s 
  afraid. He heard what happened to Dan, the 
  SAVING IRA
  First Aid
  Advance 6+: Your hands ably find the exact spot 
  to tie a tourniquet. He’ll need medical attention 
  as soon as possible, but you can hold a proper 
  conversation while waiting for the ambulance 
  to arrive. Proceed to “What Ira Saw.”
  Hold 3-5: You manage to staunch the bleeding, 
  but Graber passes out after providing three of 
  the possible answers in “What Ira Saw.” Ask, 
  and ask quickly.
  Setback  2 or less: Despite your best efforts, 
  Graber expires under your hands. His dying 
  words? (core, “Breaking Into the Staging 
  Yard”) “Down, they’re down...in the tunnels. 
  He he took...one...” Take Problem 8, “Material 
  Witness.”
  Extra Problem: Problem 9, "Covered in Blood".
  
  EX ASTORIA
  24
  fella he barely knew, and then saw what hap-
  pened to Benny. He doesn’t know what’s going 
  to happen, but he feels like he’s being strangled, 
  all the time. Something’s trying to get to him, 
  watching him. His heart beats too fast and he 
  can’t slow it down. It’s been building, growing, 
  inside him ever since he saw those things down 
  in the cavern and...touched them.
  • 
  (pipe, “The Descent”) This happened down in 
  the water tunnel. The things he saw was big 
  and round like...he would say eggs, but they 
  weren’t really hard like eggs. They were softish 
  too, bent like a piece of fabric stretched around 
  your arm, although they rolled ok. And big. Like 
  snowglobes big enough you could fit a person 
  inside them.
  • 
  (core, “Mark Arnold”) It happened the first af-
  ternoon, after they came out. Mr. Arnold asked 
  him and Benny and a big fella named Dan, the 
  one who got pinched for robbing that pawn 
  shop, to come back after supper, told them it’d 
  be worth a sawbuck ($10) each if they’d help 
  him take care of a little problem up ahead.
  • 
  The accident left an enormous hole (If Viv has 
  seen Gettler and his sample by this point, she 
  has the information to deduce why this differs 
  from the sandhogs’ report of a small hole), but 
  the really bad thing was what he saw beyond it. 
  The hole opened into a massive cavern. It runs 
  north-to-south-wise from what he can figure 
  and diverting around it would be really tricky, 
  better to go through and build the pipe like a 
  normal above-ground pipe. Only these things 
  ran all across it.
  • 
  Mr. Arnold said these things was some kind 
  of natural formation and blowing a couple of 
  them up caused all the trouble. He said to be 
  real careful with them because whatever was 
  inside could burn away through stone and boy 
  did they see that. Mr. Arnold just wanted them 
  moved out of the path of the pipeline. It took all 
  four of them to roll one, including Mr. Arnold. 
  The work made him feel real bad, at first he 
  thought it might be the bends even though they 
  said the pressure shouldn’t be bad at all, but he 
  realized later it was the things.
  • 
  At the end of the night, Mr. Arnold had them 
  roll one up into the pipe. He said he wanted it 
  for testing, to figure out what it was made of. 
  A couple of times, trying to get it up into the 
  tunnel, he thought it would break and then 
  everything would be quits for him.
  • 
  He doesn’t know what happened to it after that, 
  they put it into one of the wagons used to carry 
  off the slag from blasting and he didn’t see it the 
  next morning when they came down.
  • 
  Mr. Arnold kept them working between the...
  things… which gave him real chills some days. 
  He wanted a whole set of scaffolding built for 
  the pipe so the other men could get through 
  there in as little time as possible.
  HEAD SHRINKING
  Scene Type: Alternate
  Lead-Ins: Mark Arnold, Bellevue, What Ira Saw
  Lead-Outs: Finding Ira Graber, Breaking Into the 
  Staging Yard
  Once she’s encountered Connor O’Mara, Mark 
  Arnold, Ira Graber, and possibly Benny Miller, Viv 
  may wish to consult her Source in Psychology, 
  Louisa Reynolds, to discuss the men’s conditions. 
  Doing so gives her Edge 14, “Popping the Swelled 
  Head.”
  As understood by the psychological practices of 
  the time, Louisa can tell her:
  • 
  Benny’s change from hot-tempered to fre-
  quently murderous sounds to her like a case of 
  homicidal mania, not fixated on a single person, 
  but now directed at the entire world. Those 
  suffering from homicidal mania don’t have a 
  particular reason to lash out violently, just a 
  deep-seated urge to kill. Unless Viv can offer 
  insights to help his doctors, she should prob-
  ably avoid him for her own safety.
  • 
  (pipe, “The Bowery Bay Horror”) Mark Arnold 
  displays classic megalomania, a belief in his 
  own power or importance. If Viv approaches 
  him, she may want to play to his ego, as he’s 
  likely to overrate his own capacity and let 
  something slip. Louisa notes Mark’s not the 
  first man Viv’s handled who thought more of 
  himself than he should, although perhaps the 
  most deluded.
  
  Ruth Tillman
  25
  • 
  Dan Willard certainly had kleptomania, an 
  irrational need to steal even under conditions 
  where he risked arrest. No one would act like 
  that except under a strong internal compulsion. 
  Clearly an extreme case.
  • 
  (core, “Finding Ira Graber”) If Viv has not yet 
  met Ira, Louisa warns that Viv may want to 
  approach him with caution. Should the player 
  take this to heart when roleplaying in “Finding 
  Ira Graber”, the Keeper may wish to improve 
  numbers for the “Saving Ira” Challenge.
  • 
  (core, “Breaking Into the Staging Yard”) If Viv 
  has met Ira, Louisa believes Ira Graber suffers 
  from severe anxiety and possibly paranoia. 
  He feels like everyone is out to get him. Given 
  what’s happened to the men he recently spent 
  time with, external forces may have rein-
  forced his delusions. If Viv feels guilt over the 
  accident, Louisa attempts to assuage it. She 
  suggests that the best thing Viv can do for Ira 
  is (if he’s alive) go down there and find answers 
  which might help his doctors, or (if he’s dead) 
  figure out what led to this, and make sure it 
  doesn’t happen to anyone else.
  These men may have experienced such symptoms 
  before, either as moderate mental illnesses 
  or personality flaws. By now, each has a full 
  psychological disorder, one whose presence would 
  not have allowed them to function this long. It’s 
  possible existing issues were exacerbated by acute 
  stress, but it seems awfully coincidental.
  UNION DIVIDED
  Scene Type: Antagonist Reaction
  Lead-Ins: Mark Arnold, No Place for Snoops, 
  Gettler’s Analysis
  Lead-Outs: Breaking Into the Staging Yard
  This scene triggers if the player wants to engage 
  the union again, instead of heading to the work 
  site after talking with Mark Arnold and being 
  threatened by his guards. The Keeper may also 
  choose to use it if the scenario doesn’t feel dire or 
  horrifying enough, within the limits of the player’s 
  expressed desires. 
  Viv receives a phone call from Connor O’Mara’s 
  wife, or a message delivered by one of the smaller 
  O’Mara children, which reads, “Come here. You 
  need to see what you’ve done.”
  When Viv arrives at the O’Mara household, 
  a red-eyed, angry Siobhan O’Mara hisses at her 
  children to go outside or to a neighbor’s house. 
  She leads Viv to the darkened sitting room, where 
  Neil O’Mara lies on a couch (if at night, a single 
  heavily-shaded lamp provides dim illumination) 
  and motions to him. The bruises from his broken 
  nose spread to blacken both his eyes. One ear has 
  swollen severely and Viv can see the gaps in his 
  gently wheezing mouth where several teeth used to 
  be. His right arm is in a homemade sling.
  If Viv tries to speak, Siobhan silences her and, 
  after having let her seen the damage done to Neil, 
  leads her into the kitchen, where she breaks into a 
  hoarsely-quiet tirade conveying the following:
  • 
  She found Neil on her stoop earlier today, in 
  this condition.
  • 
  She knows exactly who did this to Neil, as they 
  kindly returned his union card and his father’s, 
  both torn in half. She’s already spoken to Foley, 
  the scumbag.
  • 
  Last night, one of the other men injured in the 
  accident died. Mark Arnold claimed that since 
  the union had slandered him to nosy report-
  ers, he didn’t feel any need to keep up his end 
  of their deal and pay death benefits. The man’s 
  family was furious, as were the other men. 
  They needed someone to blame, and Neil was 
  that person. 
   –
  Streetwise: Viv knows bosses like Arnold 
  use any excuse to avoid paying injured 
  workers, even in dire circumstances.
  • 
  The families of the dying men pressured Foley 
  into calling a meeting, which ended in them 
  blackballing the O’Maras from the union. Siob-
  han is sure the beating was an extra touch from 
  the boys of other dying men. Viv’s Streetwise 
  tells her that if Foley feels any guilt about hav-
  ing directed Viv to the O’Maras, he certainly 
  wouldn’t let it threaten his control of the union.
  • 
  She knew that snake wouldn’t pay anyway, but 
  she’d expected to get something from the un-
  ion, at least. With her husband not dead yet, she 
  won’t be entitled to anything. With Neil hurt so 
  
  EX ASTORIA
  26
  bad and blackballed, what’s going to happen to 
  her family?
  If Viv has taken on Alexander Gettler’s offer of 
  work, she may choose to reassure Mrs. O’Mara 
  that agents of the city have noticed the situation. 
  Gettler hasn’t promised money, of course, but she 
  might be able to use his influence to shame Arnold 
  into something.
  Of her husband, Mrs. O’Mara says she’s done 
  what she can, and since he can’t take food any 
  longer, he’s in the Lord’s hands now. All they can 
  do is wait. She advises Viv against seeing him, 
  although her bitterness shows in a remark that Viv 
  will do whatever she wants, advice or no.
  If Viv sees him:
  A pillow half-covers his face, and you see a story in 
  the trail of fresh blood crusted on its side. His right 
  hand twitches where it hangs in exhaustion, and 
  his one visible eye meets yours.  With Evidence 
  Collection, you see his agony, and realize from the 
  pillow’s position that he’s tried to end his suffering, 
  but lacks the physical strength. 
  His few labored wheezes sound deeper and 
  come farther apart than they did a few days ago. 
  His body appears to melt in slow motion. No 
  bandages could keep up with the exposed, oozing 
  skin and the bits of muscle and tendon that begin 
  to show through. Mrs. O’Mara says that all she can 
  do is wait. Surely only hours remain to him now.
  If Viv engages with Neil before leaving, no matter 
  what’s happened with his father, she gets the 
  impression that he’s angry at her, angry at himself, 
  and furious with the union. He feels even more 
  helpless than he did when they first spoke.
  Confronting Foley
  After witnessing what’s happened to the O’Maras, 
  Viv may wish to confront Foley. If the player feels 
  inspired instead to immediately investigate the 
  work site, but confronts Foley later, this scene may 
  be adapted. 
  She may again find Foley at the union’s HQ. 
  From the atmosphere, she gets the impression that 
  if she were a man, they’d hustle her out or even 
  repeat what they did to Neil. Foley reluctantly 
  provides the following defense:
  • 
  He wants to look out for everyone, but he 
  doesn’t control the men. If they vote for some-
  thing, he won’t overrule it. It was fraught, but if 
  someone breaks with the union like that, some-
  thing has to be done. They might have looked 
  the other way if the consequences weren’t 
  so catastrophic, but would she like to face all 
  those angry, heartbroken wives? 
  • 
  He adamantly denies any allegations by Viv 
  that he set up her to talk to Neil, and seems 
  worried about it. She gets the sense that some 
  men around the room find these allegations 
  very interesting.
  UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
  Cool
  Advance 5+: Even when faced with the 
  consequences of your investigation, you make 
  an argument for the value of truth and answers 
  over silence, calming Siobhan, at least a bit. 
  Earn Edge 6, “Assertive.”
  Hold 4: You and Siobhan stand in uncomfortable 
  silence, angry on her side and helpless on 
  yours.
  Setback  3 or less: You attempt a convincing 
  explanation which trails off miserably as your 
  explanations sound vacuous, even to you. Take 
  on Problem 10, “Loss of Faith.”
  Extra Problem: Problem 11, "Hollow Promises".
  SEEING WHAT REMAINS OF 
  CONNOR O'MARA
  Stability
  Advance 10+: You somehow hold yourself 
  together long enough to get back downstairs to 
  sanity. At 12+, Earn Edge 7, “Standing Firm.”
  Hold 5-9: Your mind reels at the depth of 
  suffering he must feel. Take Problem 12, “In 
  Shock.”
  Setback  4 or less: Same as above, but you know 
  you cannot let him continue to exist in this 
  condition. Describe how you dispatch O’Mara, 
  and take on Problem 13, “Put Him Out of His 
  Misery.”
  
  Ruth Tillman
  27
  • 
  (core, “Breaking Into the Staging Yard”) If she 
  wanted to help, maybe she’d come around here 
  with some answers. What’s she doing for them 
  by riling up the bosses when they’re in the mid-
  dle of a negotiation?
  After just a few answers, Foley and the union men 
  insist Viv leave--politely or roughly, as necessary. 
  If the Keeper considers it in line with the story, 
  one may follow her and confirm Foley’s complicity. 
  His tone indicates something’s going to happen in 
  the union, but also that she’s not welcome when or 
  where it does.
  BREAKING INTO THE STAGING YARD
  Scene Type: Core
  Lead-Ins: What Ira Saw, Scouring the Ash Heaps, 
  Head Shrinking, Gettler’s Analysis, Union Divided
  Lead-Outs: The Descent, The Bowery Bay Horror, 
  Alternate Denouement
  A reporter worth her salt needs to get down into 
  the tunnel and see all this for herself. The entrance 
  to the work site stands on 20th St., north of the 
  scene of the riot and Gemma Leone’s bedraggled 
  pawn shop. In that most New York way, residents 
  and shop owners have already found ways to 
  pick up their lives and make do as they get things 
  back to normal. A large, hand-painted banner 
  “DAMAGED ITEMS HALF PRICE” hangs in front 
  of Leone’s Pawn Shop.
  The East River staging yard sits just south 
  of the massive Astoria Light, Heat, and Power 
  Company plant. It occupies a swath of land 
  eventually designated for the plant’s expansion. 
  Outside its ten-foot wooden fence, in a lighted 
  gatehouse only big enough to hold a chair, a 
  watchman guards the entrances, a locked door for 
  the regular workers and a wide, chain-bound gate 
  big enough to admit trucks and other construction 
  vehicles. The watchman periodically leaves the 
  gatehouse and makes rounds of the fence, flashing 
  his light along the boards. If Viv gets a good look at 
  his face, she recognizes him from her run-in, “No 
  Place for Snoops.”
  Just beyond the entrance, Viv encounters the twin 
  elevator system to which Mark Arnold referred. 
  On one side, a large flatbed open elevator sits 
  under a high roof, evidently meant to carry loads 
  of freight and construction materials. Next to it, a 
  smaller pod-shaped elevator with glass windows 
  and doors appears more suited for human cargo. 
  Along with various safety warnings are a printed 
  list of instructions for operating the elevators. If 
  Viv chooses to go down, move to “The Descent”, p. 
  29.
  Viv may also choose to explore the staging 
  yard instead of, or before, descending. The yard 
  houses twenty-foot towers of unmixed concrete 
  sediment, mixers, handcart-friendly wagons, and 
  a pair of dump trucks. Tiers of tarpaulin-wrapped, 
  twisted steel lie on a large, temporary structure. 
  Even during the day, the sound of the power 
  plant creates a strange sense of isolation rarely 
  GETTING PAST THE GUARD
  Stealth
  Advance 5+: You glide past the guard, pick the 
  lock, and disappear inside.
  Setback  4 or less: Well, now he sees you. Move 
  to the next challenge, “Subduing the Guard”.
  Extra Problem: Problem 14, "Obvious Trail".
  SUBDUING THE GUARD
  Fighting
  Advance 9+: You not only clock him cold, you 
  stash and secure him inside the staging yard. 
  You’ve got until the next shift arrives, at least.
  Hold 6-8: You clock him hard enough that you 
  can break into the staging yard and lock him 
  out. It’ll buy you the time that it takes for him 
  to get help and get back in, but things could get 
  sticky later on.
  Setback 5 or less: The guard gets you in a solid 
  hold and secures you long enough to call for 
  backup. Move on to “The Bowery Bay Horror”, 
  p. 32..
  
  EX ASTORIA
  28
  experienced in 1930s New York.
  Toward the East River side of the yard stand two 
  wooden sheds, the first labeled “WARNING: 
  Explosives” on all sides and the second, larger shed 
  with a handwritten “KEEP OUT” hung over the 
  handles of its doors. The yard’s only exits are on 
  the western edge toward 20th Ave, a heavily-bolted 
  pair of gates through which a truck might fit, and a 
  smaller locked door, over which hangs one of only 
  three lights in the staging yard. At night, the dimly-
  lit yard seems darker for its proximity to the power 
  plant’s yellow glare. To the east, Viv may catch 
  sounds from boats on the East River and see their 
  lights flash past between the fence’s rails.
  WARNING: Explosives
  The smaller wooden shed, which responds to 
  Lockpicking, contains thirteen boxes of DuPont 
  Extra Dynamite 60%, stacked against the wall. 
  On its opposite side are several boxes of blasting 
  caps. Without a General Ability in Explosives, 
  Viv knows she has little chance of successfully 
  cobbling something together using these, although 
  she may choose to take a stick and blasting cap 
  with her—in separate pockets. If the player wants 
  Viv to have familiarity with dynamite, they may 
  supply a story for which she used Research to 
  learn more about it. In that case, Viv would know 
  the necessity of a blasting cap for an explosion and 
  how comparatively safe modern dynamite is to 
  handle. 
  KEEP OUT
  Lockpicking also opens the large shed. Whatever 
  Hudson Enterprises had kept in here, it now holds 
  only one thing, an enormous, pearly egg. Whether 
  it’s the glow of the sun, the pale moonlight, or 
  the dim yellow glare filtering in from the power 
  plant, Viv can’t help wanting to touch it, at least 
  a little. If Viv already touched another egg of her 
  own volition and failed her Stability check, she 
  automatically fails the test below.
  After investigating the yard, and with the guard 
  temporarily out of the way, Viv may choose to leave 
  rather than descend below. Keepers may encourage 
  
  Ruth Tillman
  29
  reticent players by introducing the voices of more 
  security arriving on site, or asking the player to 
  consider whether Vivian Sinclair would leave such 
  momentous stones unturned. If the player remains 
  adamant, move to “Alternate Denouement.”
  THE DESCENT
  Scene Type: Core
  Lead-Ins: Breaking Into the Staging Yard
  Lead-Outs: The Bowery Bay Horror, Denouement
  The pod-shaped elevator’s design allows any 
  worker to operate it in an emergency. Shutting 
  the doors and pulling the lever on its floor begins 
  its descent. The elevator moves far more slowly 
  than those she has used in New York’s buildings, 
  and descent takes nearly five minutes. Should Viv 
  attempt to work the freight elevator, she discovers 
  its mechanism includes switches marked “lower” 
  and “raise” and a button labeled “emergency stop.” 
  She may throw the switch and hop on the elevator, 
  but the GM may wish to note that someone could 
  press the emergency stop button, and the elevator 
  does not appear to have an override.
  The elevator arrives at the second tier of two 
  levels of open mesh walkways between valve 
  controls, pipes to the surface, and switches. From 
  here, engineers control the pressure of the tunnel’s 
  water and any necessary shutoffs or flushes. 
  Descending the stairs brings Viv to the tunnel and 
  the opening of the freight elevator. Underground, 
  Viv immediately notices the quiet. She has moved 
  completely beyond the city’s noise, as though she’d 
  shifted to another world.
  After switching on the lamps hung along the 
  tunnel on deliberate outcroppings in the concrete 
  and steel beams, Viv doesn’t have to worry much 
  about illumination. She finds a staging area for 
  the work, including carefully-secured blasting 
  caps and dynamite, unmixed concrete and several 
  mixers, curved steel beams, drills, pipe mold forms, 
  headlamps, and flashlights. A half-dozen small rail 
  carts with gasoline motors attached stand lined 
  up along the side. Viv sees several large wagons, 
  likely for carrying off slag, and other kinds of 
  attachments which could be fitted onto them. 
  Tracks run down the floor into the tunnel.
  Given that the site of the accident is several 
  miles southeast of here, Viv will likely want to 
  take one of the refitted rail carts down the tunnel. 
  Maneuvering it onto the tracks takes some effort, 
  but as she’s not under duress does not require a 
  test. The gasoline motor smells foul and its fumes, 
  in this enclosed space, are doubtless unhealthy for 
  the men who work around it regularly. At the end 
  of the line, beyond the concrete and embedded rail, 
  Viv must walk a final eighty feet or so through the 
  blasted rock, ducking under scaffolds set up within 
  a circular steel frame.
  Evidence Collection: If Viv inspects the 
  tunnel, she sees the details of its construction and 
  BEARING THE DEPTH
  Stability
  Advance 9+: Looking around, you see evidence 
  of the power humanity has exerted over the 
  raw forces of natural stone. Earn Edge 8, 
  “Unflappable.”
  Hold 5-8: You experience the natural moment of 
  awe and fear any surface-dweller feels on their 
  first journey below. But you move forward.
  Setback  4 or less: The size and weight and 
  stillness of it all floods down on you. This rock 
  and Earth’s molten core far beneath it—so 
  old—this city so vast and populous. Your 
  human life makes no more difference to this 
  rock than an ant crawling on the surface. It 
  stood long before men blasted through it and 
  it will shift back, someday, as this human-
  made concrete crumbles into the stone from 
  which it was formed. Take Problem 16, “Under 
  Pressure.”
  NOT TOUCHING THE EGG
  Stability
  Advance 8+: You feel a brief psychic pull, as 
  though something inside it wants to commune 
  with you, but it was probably just your 
  imagination.
  Setback 7 or less: If not currently held, take on 
  Problem 15, “Tendrils in the Mind.” If already 
  holding Problem 15, the problem intensifies, 
  becoming a Continuity Mythos shock.
  
  EX ASTORIA
  30
  where the work shifted from skilled to unskilled 
  labor. The tunnel is formed around a steel shell 
  constructed within the path blasted out by O’Mara 
  and his crew. Into this shell, workers poured and 
  pressed concrete, which hardens three feet thick to 
  create long-lasting walls. Blobby welds and rougher 
  concrete show where amateur hands tried to match 
  the sandhogs’ decades of skill.
  Another twenty feet beyond the steel 
  frameworking, a cavern stretches from about forty 
  feet to the right down another eighty feet to the 
  left. The distance across at the tunnel’s entrance 
  might be only fifty feet. In the light from whatever 
  source of illumination Viv has brought along past 
  the tunnel lights, giant white globules stretch off 
  in either direction, like clumps of insect eggs on 
  the underside of a leaf. A clear path between them, 
  perhaps 25 feet wide, stretches from just below the 
  opening down to the far wall.
  Streetwise: On the path, someone has laid 
  out the base of a steel frame and heaped slag rock 
  underneath. As a New Yorker, Viv has watched 
  enough concrete pouring to see how this might 
  support a stable pipe, right through the middle of 
  the cavern. Sandhogs might attribute the difference 
  in quality only to inferior craftsmanship.
  From the edge of the water tunnel, it’s only 
  about a three feet drop to an ovoid crater in the 
  cavern’s floor. The edges of the opening gape wide 
  in comparison to the controlled rock tunnel she 
  just passed through. Around the opening, her light 
  reveals a wave-like imprint of something splashing 
  into the rock from inside the cavern, hard or 
  caustic enough to leave a mark. In both the crater 
  and the imprint, the rock bubbles slightly.
  Photography: The strange bubbles in the 
  splash mark and crater floor call to mind the 
  time Viv’s skill with darkroom chemicals led 
  an expedition leader (the player may decide the 
  kind of expedition) to deputize her to clean and 
  photograph fossils. She recalls how those acid 
  baths ate away only the soft stone, leaving harder, 
  fossilized substances behind. It looks as though 
  something similar happened here, although with 
  stone, not fossils.
  At any point, Viv may wish to use 
  Photography to obtain grainy photographs of her 
  surroundings. The lights hung along the wall and 
  any source of illumination she brings will provide 
  only minimal light, but she may make a Difficulty 3 
  Quick Test with Preparedness to see if she brought 
  flash bulbs—if she hadn’t already specified them.
  A closer look at the eggs shows them to be less 
  white and firm than they appear from a distance. 
  Their surface appears almost soapy with a complex 
  shifting of colors and refractions. It appears far 
  more malleable than eggshell, as Ira indicates if Viv 
  has spoken with him. Of course, confirming that 
  would mean touching an egg.
  Viv may decide at this point that she needs to 
  destroy the eggs, here and now. This would serve 
  as an entirely appropriate alternate ending to 
  the scenario. However, the GM should remind 
  the player of two things before she makes any 
  such attempt. First, destroying these now would 
  preclude any scientific attempt by Gettler, or her 
  source Nettie Rice, to study the substance of which 
  they’re composed, and the acid they contain. Still, 
  the risk may outweigh a loss to science.
  Second come the logistical implications. Viv 
  has seen how the acid ate away at the rock. If she 
  manages to destroy all these eggs, the chain will 
  certainly eat away the entire floor of this cavern 
  and might collapse the end of the tunnel as well. 
  In collapsing the end of the tunnel, she risks her 
  own chance of escape. She may certainly use her 
  gun, retrieve blasting caps and dynamite (or have 
  brought them with her) and make a best effort. 
  Viv does not have skill in Explosives and the GM 
  should work with the player to devise a reasonable 
  Quick Test or argument for use of the ability. 
  Anyone can try to set off dynamite.
  TOUCHING THE EGG
  Stability
  Advance 11+: You marvel at the structure 
  and substance of this enormous globe, but 
  something about it chills you.
  Setback  10 or less: You sense it, the power and 
  life inside this protective sphere. And it senses 
  you back. Take Problem 15, “Tendrils in the 
  Mind”.
  Extra Problem: Problem 24, "Dissolved".
  
  Ruth Tillman
  31
  After Viv has seen the cavern, unless she made 
  it down behind the guard’s back and without taking 
  on Problem 14, she hears the sound of a motor and 
  voices coming her way down the shaft. Whether 
  the next shift has arrived and noticed her tracks, or 
  the guard came back with help, two men cautiously 
  make their way through the tunnel, shining 
  flashlights in an attempt to discover who’s got the 
  lights on and what they’re up to.
  As the track ends, Viv slides into the main 
  underground staging area. As long as Viv got a Hold 
  or higher on the handcart (“The Long Way Out” 
  Challenge), she has sufficient distance to get on the 
  elevator and start figuring out the controls before 
  her pursuers catch up. If they’re close behind her, 
  she barely has time to run up the flight of stairs and 
  slam the doors of the elevator before they catch 
  up. As her elevator begins moving up, she sees 
  them headed back down to the freight elevator. 
  Ascending, the elevator travels even more slowly 
  than on the descent.
  If she escapes the staging yard, Viv has bought 
  herself enough time to make a clean getaway into 
  the streets of Queens. By the time the men realize 
  she’s not hiding in the yard, she’s far enough gone 
  for them to be unsure how to track her. 
  EVADING THE GUARDS
  Stealth
  Advance 6+: They don’t notice you until 
  they hear the sound of their cart driving off. 
  Meanwhile, they’ve got to weave back through 
  the eggs to get to the tunnel. Take +2 to “The 
  Long Way Out”.
  Hold 4-5: You barely jump into the cart and start 
  back along the rail before you hear the sound of 
  the second cart’s engine revving behind you. 
  Setback  4 or less: You find yourself trapped in 
  the cavern with no way back to the cart. Unless 
  you make a suicidal move at destroying the 
  eggs while hidden among them, the guards 
  catch you, and you move on to “The Bowery 
  Bay Horror.”
  THE LONG WAY OUT
  Driving
  Advance 7+: You quickly get the handle of this 
  machinery and put it into overdrive. You follow 
  the path of the rail back to the elevator and are 
  headed aloft long before they arrive. Take on 
  Edge 9 “Head Start."
  Hold 4-6: You manage to keep ahead of the men, 
  but not by much.
  Setback  3 or less: Your pursuers swoop up 
  behind, neatly docking their car to the back 
  of yours. One stays to drive while the other 
  climbs over and takes you prisoner. You 
  complete the ride together and, at the end, they 
  take you to “The Bowery Bay Horror.”
  Extra Problem: Problem 17, “Adrenaline Rush”
  ESCAPING THE STAGING YARD
  Fleeing
  Advance 10+: You weave between mounds, 
  vehicles, and sheds in a way that convinces 
  any pursuers that you’ve gone in an entirely 
  different direction. You’ve bought yourself 
  those critical moments to pick the smaller 
  door’s lock and escape. Earn Edge 10, “Putting 
  It Behind You.”
  Setback  9 or less: ou see the gate, but can’t 
  make it there before your pursuers or 
  unexpected guards cut you off. Move to “The 
  Bowery Bay Horror”
  Extra Problem: Problem 18, “Nightmares”.
  
  EX ASTORIA
  32
  THE BOWERY BAY HORROR
  Scene Type: Conclusion
  Lead-Ins: Breaking into the Staging Yard, The 
  Descent
  Lead-Outs: Denouement
  Viv’s captors bind her hands and take her to the 
  larger shed on which the KEEP OUT sign hangs. 
  The shed still smells vaguely of machine oil and 
  marks on the floor indicate that it had recently 
  stored some kind of heavy equipment, all of which 
  has been dragged out to make space for its one 
  central feature… the missing egg. If thrown in with 
  it, it does not tempt Viv as it might should she 
  approach it of her own volition.
  After some discussion and argument, one of 
  the men decides to chloroform her, just to make 
  sure she doesn’t get up to nothing. Viv awakens 
  sometime after dark (if it wasn’t already night; if it 
  was, she may wonder for a moment if it’s the same 
  night) to hear the sound of the men’s voices outside 
  the door. Her head aches but she doesn’t pick up 
  any new Problems for her situation.
  Facing Arnold
  Light from the staging yard slants into the shed as 
  one of Arnold’s toughs open the door. Several more 
  flank him and Viv notes guns and clubs on their 
  hips. Arnold already holds a gun, which he points 
  at her.
  • 
  He thanks Viv for coming to him. If he’d done 
  this on the streets, she’d have been so much 
  harder to catch without a fuss. Now? He 
  doesn’t even have to worry about what to do 
  with her body.
  • 
  He’d wondered about exactly what happened 
  to those men, those miners. He only saw a 
  little of it. Now he’s going to shoot the egg and 
  see exactly what happens and how it affects 
  her. If she tries to run, he’ll shoot her too, only 
  he doesn’t want to accidentally kill her. That 
  would spoil it.
  • 
  Eventually she’ll just dissolve and disintegrate 
  on the floor of this shed and nobody will ever 
  know what happened to Vivian Sinclair.
  Using her insight from Louisa Reynolds and 
  Flattery, Viv may stall him by asking him to clear 
  up some questions before she dies. Surely he has 
  vision she wasn’t smart enough to pick up on. Like 
  any egomaniac on the cusp of a presumed triumph, 
  Mark Arnold provides the following answers:
  • 
  He brought the egg up here because he knew 
  fate intended for him to find it. Somehow, it’s 
  the key to unraveling his glory. On reflection, 
  though, another egg might do. Assess Honesty 
  detects that he’s trying to convince himself an-
  other egg would do as well - he apparently feels 
  a genuine, if bizarre, bond with this one.
  • 
  Before the accident, he was a lackey. That night 
  he went down to see the extent of the damage 
  and discovered them, he discovered he was re-
  ally meant for something more.
  • 
  He’s come here many times since, to commune 
  with it. There’s something alive in there and 
  he knows it makes him stronger, wiser, ready 
  to replace that fool Rush, if only Viv hadn’t 
  interfered.
  • 
  He hadn’t planned to use the scabs forever. 
  They were disposable men. He just had to get 
  the tunnel through the cavern, blast a hole on 
  the other side, and he’d pull it off—a miracle. 
  If only they hadn’t turned out to be so useless, 
  hardly men at all.
  • 
  That’s why he found and brought in these men 
  (the guards/men who jumped Viv). It takes 
  tough men to get jobs done and these are the 
  kind of men he can count on. (The guards pre-
  sent don’t react to this statement.)
  • 
  Rush doesn’t get it. He thinks you can negotiate 
  with a union, that you don’t need initiative. 
  • 
  Now he knows he must wait. If this is an egg, 
  then it’s all about waiting, no matter how hard 
  Rush pushes him. Rush has no vision. Only he 
  has vision. And soon, he’ll know what comes 
  next, he can tell it.
  • 
  If reminded of the danger the eggs might pose 
  to the water pipe (and its contents) if they 
  burst...or hatched… he waves it away. The eggs 
  existed for him...
  If Viv spoke with Arnold’s secretary, and discussed 
  him with her source Louisa Reynolds, she can tell 
  that he has indeed fallen deep into the throes of 
  megalomania.
  
  Ruth Tillman
  33
  During Arnold’s monologuing, Viv may work 
  out various kinds of Quick Tests she could use 
  to escape the situation, most likely Athletics 
  or Fighting. Only her hands are bound, leaving 
  physical options open. Set a reasonable difficulty 
  for the tests, but allow Viv to be in the moment of 
  succeeding when the dhole awakens. If the player 
  freezes, Arnold comes back to himself after making 
  a suitable number of megalomaniac statements. 
  Either way, as the action begins, Viv feels the 
  vibrations in the floor of the shed. Describe Viv’s 
  success at any Quick Tests, or her failure and the 
  antagonists’ attempted response, just as…
  A white, blobby worm-thing (baby dhole) 
  explodes out of the egg, only about 8 feet long and 
  three in diameter. It writhes, smashing at the sides 
  of the shed. Arnold’s reverence changes to terror. 
  He gets off one shot at it, which seems to have no 
  effect, before all hell breaks loose. Before Viv can 
  move, she must make the following test. 
  If she can withstand the mental shock, nobody 
  will stop Viv from running, as the guards have 
  gone into the self-protection business. Whether 
  or not Viv escapes, Arnold stands mesmerized 
  by the event which he had thought would bring 
  his transformation. As the fledgling body flails in 
  search of eggs to consume or a path of escape, it 
  tosses Arnold aside. He flies against a pile of steel 
  and his neck twists with a sickening snap. As for 
  the other men, of four present, two escape out the 
  front gate, leaving it open, while another runs back 
  to the elevator to get himself underground. The 
  fourth, like Arnold, froze and died, crushed under 
  the powerful throes of the infant menace.
  If Viv looks back or returns later, she sees the 
  devastation it wreaks on the staging yard as it 
  thrashes itself towards the East River edge of the 
  yard. There, it burrows into the gravelly bank and 
  seems to vanish below the bed of the river. The 
  rocks, sand, and bits of waste thrown from East 
  River boats shift for a while on the bank’s surface 
  and then settle into a disturbed pattern.
  Avoiding the Horror
  Viv may successfully complete her adventure 
  without ever witnessing the hatching of Arnold’s 
  pet egg. If so, essentially the same scenario unfolds, 
  although to Mark Arnold alone. By the time police, 
  Gettler, Rush, or others whom Viv may engage 
  make it to the staging yard, they discover the 
  havoc wreaked by the newly-hatched dhole. Mark 
  Arnold’s body lies crushed under flattened piles of 
  steel and fine-ground stone. Something writhed 
  here, recently, before bursting through the fence 
  on the East River side. The gravelly sand along 
  the river’s edge oozes in a discomfiting way which 
  suggests perhaps it didn’t go into the water...
  HIDEOUS HATCHLING
  Stability
  Penalty: -2 if holding Problem 15, “Tendrils in 
  the Mind,” whether for this egg or another.
  Advance 12+: You see it now, some kind of great 
  worm or slug, perhaps a prehistoric leftover 
  which the miners awakened by exposing it 
  to air like a spore. Whatever seemed alien or 
  strange about them surely came from their 
  enormous size and the disturbing effects 
  of exploding them. Yet surely, these are 
  things of Earth and merely out of historical 
  time. Counter any Mythos Shock card with 
  this clarity which surely explains all the 
  strangeness you’ve encountered.
  Hold 4-11: Whether this thing is alien or 
  prehistoric, it should not exist here in 20th 
  century Queens, in this era of steel and 
  machinery. You escape the staging yard safely, 
  but take on Problem 18, “Nightmares.”
  Setback  3 or less: You stand, spellbound, 
  whether in awe or horror, as its small body 
  comes crashing down on you with unexpected 
  force, smashing your bones on the floor of the 
  shed. Workers from the power plant find your 
  broken body near the lifeless corpses of Arnold 
  and one of the guards. Take on Problem 19, 
  “Shattered.”
  Spending Edges: Any to Stability or General / 
  Mental
  
  EX ASTORIA
  34
  DENOUEMENT
  Scene Type: Denouement
  Lead-Ins: The Descent, The Bowery Bay Horror
  If Viv survives to the coda, she may determine how 
  she wants to use the information she has to resolve 
  the situation, whether by going to Gettler, bringing 
  the entire problem to Rush (whom Arnold seems to 
  have kept in the dark on most of this), marshalling 
  the union to investigate below, or taking it to her 
  editor. Her discoveries within the cavern convince 
  Gettler that the city must destroy the rest of the 
  eggs for public safety. This effectively halts the 
  construction project, as the acid works down 
  through the stone, lowering the cavern’s floor by 
  another 50 feet. Either way, Hudson Enterprises 
  folds soon after the incident at its staging yard and 
  its inability to address the union’s concerns.
  After resolving any other elements of her 
  coda, Viv flashes forward to September 23, 1935, 
  when she picks up the New York Times and reads 
  “GREAT WORLD FAIR FOR CITY IN 1939 ON 
  SITE IN QUEENS,” “City to Lend New Park,” built 
  on what had been the valley of ashes and...what 
  may still lie beneath.
  ALTERNATE DENOUEMENT
  Scene Type: Denouement
  Lead-Ins: Breaking Into the Staging Yard
  With no more than hints of wrongdoing, Ira’s 
  statements from his recovery bed in one of 
  Bellevue’s regular ward/Viv’s summary of a dead 
  Ira’s testimony, and Viv’s own attestation of 
  witnessing one of these strange egg-things while 
  illegally on company property, it takes Gettler 
  weeks to get a warrant. The judge only backs 
  down when Mark Arnold mysteriously vanishes. 
  A search of the staging yard finds nothing but 
  ordinary construction equipment. A descent below 
  finds the cavern empty of any eggs, although it has 
  sunk another fifty feet and Gettler detects in the 
  rock residual traces of the same acid substance 
  from the miner’s clothes.
  Hudson Enterprises folds under its inability 
  to complete the project, the shaft lies abandoned, 
  and Viv must resolve Problem 20, “Too Little, Too 
  Late” in her coda.
  
  Ruth Tillman
  35
  ANTAGONIST REACTIONS
  Trigger 
   
  Reaction                                            Setback                                 Hold                                           Advance                                Extra Problem
  Viv holds Problem 3, 
  “Miffed Miners”
  3-5: Viv 
  successfully 
  defends her 
  motives and 
  promises to 
  provide results.
  6+: You win her 
  over. Gain Edge 
  12, “In to Win.”
  Problem 
  11, “Hollow 
  Promises”
  Problem 7: 
  “Hobbled”
  Viv holds Problem 
  13, “Put Him Out of 
  His Misery”
  Viv holds Problem 
  8, “Material 
  Witness” 
  Mark Arnold decides 
  Viv didn’t take his 
  warning seriously. 
  (occurs after “No 
  Place for Snoops”) 
  Sinead O’Mara 
  sends police to 
  interview Viv, the 
  last person to see 
  her husband alive. 
  Cool.
  1 or less. Viv is 
  briefly charged 
  with the murder 
  before a judge 
  finds the evidence 
  insufficient. 
  Problem 20: “Too 
  Little, Too Late.”
  2-5: Viv quashes 
  any suspicions of 
  murder.
  6+: Viv 
  eloquently lays 
  out the pathos 
  of O’Mara’s 
  situation. 
  Gain Edge 6: 
  “Assertive”
  n/a
  A miner’s wife comes 
  up to her in the street 
  and accuses her of 
  interfering in the 
  whole thing.  Cool.
  2 or less. You 
  start doubting 
  your own 
  abilities. Take 
  on Problem 22, 
  “Illegitimate”
  Lt. O’Connor 
  comes by to see 
  why Viv left 
  the scene of an 
  accident. Cool.
  1 or less. Viv’s 
  friendship with 
  O’Connor chills. 
  2-4: Viv 
  manages to 
  patch things up, 
  but O’Connor 
  urges her to 
  work with 
  the police in 
  future. 
  5+: O’Connor 
  admits Viv 
  had good 
  reason to keep 
  going with her 
  investigation.
  n/a
  The same three 
  men jump Viv 
  again, this time 
  with the intent 
  to do her harm. 
  Fighting
  2 or less: 
  Viv takes on 
  Problem 21: 
  “Stabbed”.
  3-9: Viv gets 
  away.
  10+: Viv cleanly 
  takes out her 
  attackers, 
  earning Edge 
  11, “Dishing it 
  Out”.
  
  EX ASTORIA
  36
  Harried 
   
  You nearly lost him in the 
  subway crowd. The near 
  miss left your nerves on edge. 
  Succeed at a Difficulty 4 Quick 
  Test of Cool not to snap at the 
  next person who irritates you—
  whether Escalente or your boss. 
  Or Take Time to get your head 
  straightened out to discard this 
  card.
  problem 2
  Ex Astoria Problem Cards
  Twitchy
  For a moment, you wondered if 
  the police caught you whether 
  they’d lock you up right there. 
  Paranoid, sure, but it’s left you 
  shaken. Take a -2 to your next 
  Cool test..
  problem 5
  Miffed Miners
  You’d do better presenting 
  yourself as some kind of friend 
  to the victims of industrial 
  accidents if you had the 
  stomach to back it up. Even 
  union men not present below 
  hear what happened and go 
  frosty, though they cooperate. 
  Get rid of this problem by 
  ensuring Neil knows of the 
  case’s outcome.
  problem 3
  Scanty Copy
    
  You spent so much time trying 
  to get back on his trail that you 
  have almost nothing to report 
  to your boss. Photographs of the 
  riot and fire appear on the front 
  page of the Herald tomorrow, 
  but without your story or byline.
  problem 1
  In Hot Water
  Continuity
   
  News gets back to Lt. O’Connor 
  and sours your relationship. It’s 
  not just that people know you 
  and he are friends, it’s that he 
  expected better of you. Resolve 
  this card by assisting the police 
  in some way or Taking Time to 
  connect with him.
  problem 4
  Off Guard 
   
  You’ve gotten so caught up in 
  your own successes that you 
  worry more about not being able 
  to put together all the details of 
  a story than the physical perils 
  into which your work might 
  take you. Take a -2 to your next 
  Fighting or Fleeing test and 
  discard this card.
  problem 6
  
  Ruth Tillman
  37
  Hobbled
  You managed to hold it together 
  while the men threatened you, 
  but once they leave, you realize 
  the sharp twinge in your knee is 
  more than the awkward position 
  in which you stood. Whether 
  on purpose or as a side effect 
  of their threat, they left you 
  temporarily hobbled. Take a -2 
  to Athletics and Cool tests until 
  you Take Time to get medical 
  attention and a brace.
  problem 7
  Material Witness 
   
  The police will want a 
  statement. Take Time to make 
  it now, opening yourself to an 
  Antagonist Reaction on your 
  way back to the work site, or 
  deal later with hostile cops 
  who eventually track you down 
  from the statements of other 
  witnesses.
  problem 8
  Covered in Blood
  You didn’t let anything stop your 
  efforts to save Graber, definitely 
  not worry over a few blood 
  stains. The bloodstains come off 
  a bit differently when you’re not 
  in the middle of working over a 
  dying man. You can’t Push with 
  Interpersonal abilities until 
  you Take Time to resolve your 
  sartorial situation. 
  problem 9
  Loss of Faith 
   
  You let things get out of hand 
  and people got hurt. Maybe you 
  could have approached this 
  differently, gotten fuller union 
  support, done something. You’ve 
  lost faith in the worthiness of 
  what you do. Take a -2 to your 
  next General/Mental test.
  problem 10
  Hollow Promises
  In convincing others that the 
  miners made the right choice 
  in speaking to you, you promise 
  that things will work out well 
  for the O’Mara family in the 
  end. Resolve this card during 
  the coda (or before), such as 
  by using remaining Pushes to 
  convince Adrian Rush he should 
  generously compensate the 
  families of injured miners.
  problem 11
  In Shock 
   
  You just witnessed a new level 
  of human suffering. Take a -2 
  to Mental Abilities and you 
  can’t Push with Interpersonal 
  Abilities until you Take Time 
  to recover or reconnect with 
  something which makes you 
  feel the possibility of goodness 
  again.
  problem 12
  
  EX ASTORIA
  38
  Obvious Trail 
   
  You manage to get past the 
  guard and successfully into the 
  work site, but in your haste, you 
  don’t have time to cover your 
  tracks. You’ve bought yourself 
  some time below ground, but 
  expect company.
  problem 14
  Put Him Out of His 
  Misery
  Continuity
  You know you took the only 
  course open to a merciful 
  person, but it doesn’t make 
  you feel any better. If O’Mara’s 
  family realize the truth, they 
  may use it against you. If Gettler 
  does, he may charge you. And 
  even if you know you did him a 
  mercy, you still must live with 
  having taken a life. Resolve by 
  spending a Push to improve 
  their quality of life.
  problem 13
  Tendrils in the Mind
  Mythos Shock 
  Your perspective slowly warps 
  in tune with your deepest 
  character flaw. Decide Viv’s 
  worst vice. How does cosmic 
  contact whisper of her rightness 
  and convince her to ignore 
  voices of reason around her? A 
  fastidious sense of dress could 
  become a fixation on clothes. A 
  fear your rival Lawrence Ames 
  will scoop your story turns to 
  mild paranoia. If you take on 
  this Problem twice, it becomes a 
  continuity Problem.
  problem 15
  Under Pressure
    
  You can’t shake the weight and 
  the scale of what you experienced 
  beneath the surface. Lose a die on 
  your next Stability test.
  problem 16
  Adrenaline Rush
    
  Flying through the tunnel 
  leaves your head spinning with 
  the combination of thrill and 
  biochemistry. Take -2 to your 
  next Mental Ability Test and then 
  discard.
  problem 17
  Nightmares
  Continuity
  You wake nightly in a cold 
  sweat, half-remembering 
  dreams in which you are fleeing, 
  always fleeing. The dark pit of 
  the city threatens to swallow 
  you up. Something far more 
  horrible lurks above if only 
  you could see it and run faster. 
  Counter by spending an Edge 
  giving benefits to either Cool or 
  Stability.
  problem 18
  
  Ruth Tillman
  39
  Too Little, Too Late
  Continuity 
  You lose weeks of bylines. Your 
  editor starts assigning you the 
  stories nobody else wants. The 
  general public only cares briefly 
  about the sensationalism and 
  you have to start working your 
  way back up the newspaper’s 
  hierarchy.
  problem 20
  Nettie's Nettled
  Nettie seems bent on doing two 
  lifetimes’ work in one, but she 
  can’t manage two lifetimes and 
  your urgent call, right when her 
  experiments were at a sensitive 
  stage and she had midterms 
  to grade. Smooth out your 
  relationship by Taking Time 
  to help her catch up on some 
  administrative tasks and bring 
  her some real food.
  problem 23
  Dissolved 
   
  Whatever you use to touch it 
  dissolves in your hand, and 
  you let it go just in time. Your 
  brain recoils in shock at your 
  close escape, and fixates what 
  could have happened. You 
  have lost the item, and take 
  a -2 to General/Mental tests 
  until suffering a Setback, then 
  discard.
  problem 24
  Shattered
  Continuity
  Mythos Shock 
  You’ll live, but only after dozens 
  of surgeries and time in a 
  sanitarium doing rehabilitation. 
  As for the psychological 
  damage, what you saw before 
  it crushed you, you’ll carry that 
  with you even longer.
  problem 19
  Stabbed
  This time, they mean business. 
  -3 to your next General/
  Physical test and -2 to all 
  subsequent tests. Counter by 
  Taking Time to see a doctor. If 
  you don’t resolve this card, you 
  grit your way through the story 
  but collapse and die at the end.
  problem 21
  Illegitimate
  You spend enough time proving 
  yourself to others, you don’t 
  have time to start proving 
  yourself to yourself too. Take 
  a -2 to General/Mental tests 
  until suffering a Setback, then 
  discard.
  problem 22
  
  EX ASTORIA
  40
  Ex Astoria Edge Cards
  Neil's Gratitude
  You proved your grit and treated 
  his father with respect. After 
  leading you back downstairs, Neil 
  shakes your hand. “It means a lot. 
  If you need a hand with this case, 
  Miss Sinclair...” Spend this card 
  to give you +2 to a Stability test or 
  bring in Neil as your backup.
  EDGE 1
  Warm-Hearted
  You know you’re a force for good 
  in this world. Spend this card to 
  take a +2 to your next Cool test.
  EDGE 2
  Light-Fingered
  Feeling light of foot and finger, 
  spend for a +1 to your next 
  General/Physical test.
  EDGE 3
  Sharp Senses
  You’re ready for whatever 
  comes next. Take +2 to your 
  next Fighting or Fleeing test.
  EDGE 4
  On Top of Your Game
    
  Someone thinks they can get 
  between you and a story. That 
  someone clearly knows little of 
  Vivian Sinclair. Take an extra 
  die to your next Mental test.
  EDGE 5
  Assertive
  You convincingly back up your 
  belief that you’re doing the 
  right thing. Discard to make a 
  Push. This Push may be used 
  on Ernest Foley to reinstate 
  the Connor O’Mara’s pension 
  because you’ll make his life 
  hell if he doesn’t. It may also be 
  used on Adrian Rush to resolve 
  Problem 11, “Hollow Promises”.
  EDGE 6
  
  Ruth Tillman
  41
  Dishing It Out
  Spend for a Push or an extra die 
  on a General/Physical Test.
  EDGE 11
  Standing Firm
    
  You have looked into the hell 
  of this man’s suffering and felt 
  only pity, not horror. Spend 
  to take an additional die on a 
  Stability Test.
  EDGE 7
  Unflappable
  Your mind remains complete 
  in itself, confident in the power 
  of humans and the many ways 
  science and industry have shaped 
  this country for the better. Spend 
  to recover from the effects of a 
  Mythos Shock.
  EDGE 8
  Head Start
    
  You’ve picked up momentum 
  and you keep it going. Spend 
  to take a +2 to your a General/
  Physical test.
  EDGE 9
  Putting It Behind You
  As the door to the staging yard 
  slams behind you, your head 
  clears. You see everything 
  as a story, divorced from 
  the horrifying real world 
  consequences. You can fix it. 
  Spend to recover from the effects 
  of a Mythos Shock.
  EDGE 10
  In to Win
    
  You not only convince the 
  woman, you remind yourself of 
  past successes and lives you’ve 
  saved or changed. Spend to take 
  a +2 to a General/Mental Test. 
  EDGE 12
  Gettler Owes You
  You’ve got a friend in the city’s 
  most senior toxicologist. He 
  doesn’t have much funding, 
  but he’s got the equivalent of a 
  Chemistry Push, a Bureaucracy 
  Push, or an introduction to just 
  the person Viv needs to know in 
  the Office of the Chief Medical 
  Examiner.
  EDGE 13
  In to Win
    
  You not only convince the 
  woman, you remind yourself of 
  past successes and lives you’ve 
  saved or changed. Spend to take 
  a +2 to a General/Mental Test. 
  EDGE 12
  
  EX ASTORIA
  42
  VIVIAN SINCLAIR
  Investigative Journalist
  sources
  His honesty and honor is bigger than his bulb nose. 
  Lt. O'Connor serves as a valuable ally to shake up 
  or question suspects.
  A bohemian bombshell easily identified by her heavy kohl 
  makeup, bangles, and robe-like dresses; it's no wonder Viv and 
  Stella were once an item.
  A first generation Cuban immigrant, Esteban caught 
  wanderlust early. He guides amateur archeological 
  expeditions across the world and has found 
  many  mysterious idols.
  In her opinion, journalism could use a generous dose of the 
  scientific method. Clad in tweed and over-caffeinated, she's 
  here to help.
  Viv's third cousin is a stern, no-nonsense woman in her mid 
  40's. While neither a doctor nor psychiatrist, she's absorbed a 
  vast amount of knowledge of medicine.
  LT.JOSEPH O'CONNOR, Detective
  Cop Talk, Forensics, Intimidation, 
  Law, Streetwise
  ASTELLE "STELLA" ABRAMS, Amateur Occultist
  Architecture, Craft, Cthulhu Mythos, Occult, 
  Theology
  ESTEBAN MANUEL ARAGON GONZALES, Explorer
  Anthropology, Archeology, Art History, 
  Geology, Outdoorsman
  ANETTE "NETTIE" RICE, Professor 
  Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Languages, 
  Physics
  LOUISA REYNOLDS, Nurse 
  Medicine, Pharmacy, Psychology
  Story 
  Pad and pencil in hand, journalist 
  Vivian Sinclair tracks down leads, 
  grills witnesses, and turns in hair-
  raising stories of corruption, crime, 
  and parts of the city''s underbelly 
  most would rather not see. Where 
  a detective sees a case, Viv sees a 
  story. She'll follow it relentlessly to 
  its  conclusion, even putting her life 
  in danger to get at the truth.
  Investigative Abilities 
  Accounting 
   
  Assess Honesty 
  Bargain 
  Bureaucracy 
  Cryptography 
  Evidence Collection 
  Flattery 
  History 
  Inspiration 
  Locksmith 
  Oral History 
  Photography 
  Reassurance 
  Research  
  Streetwise 
  General Abilities 
  Athletics 
   
  Cool  
   
  Disguise 
   
  Driving  
   
  Filch  
   
  Fighting  
   
  First Aid 
  Fleeing  
  Preparedness  
  Sense Trouble 
   
  Shadowing  
   
  Stability  
   
   
  Stealth  
    
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Cthulhu Confidential (Gumshoe)/Cthulhu Confidential - Ex Astoria.pdf