Curtains#2 - It Came From Below!

[Rybaer]

Dr. Linderman is very much interested in seeing Professor Fate as soon as possible. That other metahumans might come along makes him even happier.

Professor Fate's call to Jorgi conveys the information about meeting Dr. Linderman at the Biological Sciences building on campus as soon as possible.

*****

Back at the Keyhole Apartments...

The officers on the scene get interrupted by a call over the radio. They apologize for having to leave the scene, but apparently there is a more pressing issue needing their attention.

"Doesn't look like this one's going to be much hassle anymore anyway," one cop says on his way out. "Just keep everyone out of the basement for now."

Jorgi relays Professor Fate's message about meeting a professor at the university's mycology lab as soon as possible. They pile into Lawrence's brother's car and head up toward campus.

*****

Thurman Biological Sciences building, CC State University, Coast City
Apr 17
23:05

Professor Fate spots his fellow metahumans as they pile out of a car in front of Thurman Hall. Late on a Saturday night, this part of campus is nearly deserted and Fate's landing attracts no attention.

"I've never felt like such a fifth wheel before," Andrew says as he locks the car.

A janitor meets the group at the door, unlocking it to let them in. "You've gotta be the guys that the Professor asked me to let in," he says. "Can't imagine anyone else wearing an outfit like that on campus unless it was Halloween. You can take that elevator over there to the seventh floor. Hang a right when you get up there."

The building is deathly silent and dimly lit. The hum of the elevator only accentuates the quiet. The doors slide open at the seventh floor into a lobby adorned with display cases and dozens of posters and photographs. Many pictures are of bizarre and colorful mushrooms. Other pictures are of organisms too far outside the realm of the mundane to be able to identify.

A sign in the center of the opposite wall proclaims:

"Mycology Research Group - where the fungus are among-us!"

An open door with Professor Linderman's name stenciled in the window welcomes them just a short walk down the hall. The room is clearly a well-used lab, stocked with chemical bottles, microscopes, crowded benches, and terrariums full of various fungi. There is a strong earthy, decaying smell to the lab.

Fate knocks politely on the door and a head pops up from behind one of the benches. "Oh, hello there," he says and comes around the shake hands. "I'm Doctor Linderman, but you're welcome to call me Mike. So glad you could come on such short notice."

Dr. Linderman is a slightly overweight man in his late fifties. He's balding on top and what hair is left is mostly gray. He wears wire-rimmed glasses, a coffee and dirt-stained labcoat, and a friendly smile.

"So, all of you are metahumans then?" he asks. Andrew, from the doorway, politely comments that he is not. The others all admit that they are.

"Well," he says, "I was going to start by asking what you know about fungi. I think it might be more appropriate, however, to start by asking how much you know about what the Curtain energy fields have done to your own bodies."

 

[Keia]

Professor Fate: Unhurt, Hero Pts 4

Thurman Biological Sciences Building
CC State University, Coast City
Apr 17
23:05

"Well," he says, "I was going to start by asking what you know about fungi. I think it might be more appropriate, however, to start by asking how much you know about what the Curtain energy fields have done to your own bodies."

"Good to meet you, Doctor," Professor Fate replied, politely. Such as politely, he continued. "I understand that you may be curious about our condition, but perhaps we can table that matter until after we attend to whatever is in the sewers killing people. What do you about this and how do we stop it?"

 

[Rybaer]

Thurman Biological Sciences Building
CC State University, Coast City
Apr 17
23:08

Dr. Linderman blinks at Fate.

"Killing people?" he says. "I hadn't heard that. My apologies. I guess I've been lost in my studies here in the lab longer than I realized. I'd heard something about the nature of the sewers backing up.

"That only makes my question even more pertinent and relevant. You see, I study mycology - fungi. I know next to nothing about these Curtains or how they affect living organisms. I fear that what has been set loose in the sewers is a fungi from my lab that has been affected by the Curtains. I was hoping your personal experiences...and possibly any research or studies that have been done on you...might help me understand the greater implications."

He sits down heavily on one of the bench stools.

"Please," he says, "explain how people are dying. There are few fungi that are that outright harmful to humans, and most of those are only when ingested."

 

[Radiant]

Jorgi Vadislav

Thurman Biological Sciences Building
CC State University, Coast City
Apr 17
23:08

Dr. Linderman blinks at Fate.

"Killing people?" he says. "I hadn't heard that. My apologies. I guess I've been lost in my studies here in the lab longer than I realized. I'd heard something about the nature of the sewers backing up.

"That only makes my question even more pertinent and relevant. You see, I study mycology - fungi. I know next to nothing about these Curtains or how they affect living organisms. I fear that what has been set loose in the sewers is a fungi from my lab that has been affected by the Curtains. I was hoping your personal experiences...and possibly any research or studies that have been done on you...might help me understand the greater implications."

He sits down heavily on one of the bench stools.

"Please," he says, "explain how people are dying. There are few fungi that are that outright harmful to humans, and most of those are only when ingested."

"Yeahyouknow,thisoneiswalkingaroundandsmashingpeoplesskullsin."

Jorgi shows no interest for any of the biological science stuff around him.
If it ain't a machine it's nothing worth spending your time with for him.

 

[Keia]

Prof. Fate, Unharmed, HP's: 4

Thurman Biological Sciences Building
CC State University, Coast City
Apr 17
23:08

Fate will add what descriptions he could to the explanation of the creature that was formerly human.

" . . . in fact, I tried to reach into its mind and speak with it and there was no real intelligence to speak of . . . much less than even animal intelligence," Professor Fate finished.

 

[Velmont]

Lawrence listen to everyone, but feel a bit lost and out of subject. He doesn't know anything about the mushroom or the curtain. He looks back and see his brother. He walks next to him.

"I know you feel a bit useless, but since the start, driving us have been more usefull than what I have done. And I dunno how I will be able to help on that. What I can do against some mushroom? Anyway, hope they'll have some bright idea."

 

[Mimic]

Thomas will tell the professor about what happened in the sewers, going into specifics about how the tendrils seemed to burrow into the maintance man and how they were attracted to his skin.

 

[Rybaer]

Thurman Biological Sciences Building
CC State University, Coast City
Apr 17
23:10

"This just gets more and more strange," Dr. Linderman says. "Well, let me show you what I have."

He leads everyone through the lab and sits before one of a pair of computers on a table. He pulls up a file full of images and clicks one. It opens a picture of a greenish gray fungus in a terrarium. Along the bottom of the terrarium is a fibrous mass similar to what everyone has already seen. Growing out of that are half a dozen more traditional mushroom stalks. Additionally, there are some skinny stalks with small bulbs one the end of them.

"This is what we've tentatively named the Green Wool fungus," he says. "We discovered it on a collection expedition down in the Amazon this winter. I won't bore you with all the scientific jargon, but essentially it appears to belong to a previously unknown and entirely new sub-class of fungi. It shares many traits seen in other species, but also some unique ones.

"The indigenous tribesman call it the Demon's Mind, for the spores it releases have a powerful hallucinogenic effect that can lead to psychosis. And while hallucinogens are well documented in mushrooms, they typically work by injestion. These puff-ball structures can spray out clouds of inhalable spores and induce a powerful and rapid reaction."

The professor clicks through a few more slides, pointing out the puffball structures.

"Now, this is where my concern begins," he says, turning to face everyone. "About a month ago, immediately following the most recent energy Curtain that passed through Coast City, we found that this particular fungus had increased in size some ten-fold overnight. I suspect it might have grown more had it not been contained in a sealed environment. Further, it had gained some manner of internal luminescence.

"We suspected that the specimen may have been altered or mutated in much the same fashion that people and other animals have since the passing of the Curtains. One of my grad students, Paul Link, took it upon himself to carefully document the changes.

"About two weeks ago, I started seeing less and less of Paul. I could tell he was still studying the Green Wool at night because things would be moved in the lab. That sort of thing is pretty common with grad students, so I paid it little heed at the time.

"Well, three days ago, the terrarium was gone. I tried to contact Paul, but no one has seen or heard from him in several days. His roommate told me that he hasn't been to their apartment since about that time either, but that he had started acting very strangely a couple weeks ago.

"From your description of the material you've seen, I can only assume that it is one and the same...the Green Wool. I have no idea about what exactly it's doing to the people who have been affected by it, but clearly it has changed in powerful and dangerous ways.

"If anyone knows a way to stop this fungus, it would be Paul. He's the only one who's studied it in any great detail. Problem is, he took most of his notes when he disappeared and he's likely the one who released it. I've been trying to reconstruct some notes from deleted files on the computers, but it's not exactly my specialty and the going is slow, even with this program I bought."

 

[Rybaer]

(ooc - I'll be out of town for 4 days. Posting may be spotty.)

 

[Rybaer]

(ooc - back to mostly regular posting.)