Case 2: Squirm

Briefing By: Jonathan Sims (w/ Loz and Martin Blackwood)

Statement: Loz has a contact in the Starwatch that has tipped her off to an incident that occurred the night before and seems to be tied into a previous statement received by the Argus Institute.

Last night, a man named Timothy Hodge was having a night out to unwind, having a few drinks at The Pewter Mug, a run-down bar in The Puddles. There, he met a young woman identified as Harriet Lee. After some drinks and some dancing, they decided to head back to Timothy’s flat, and Timothy noted that Harriet looked nervous as they walked, scratching at her arms, but seemed to relax once they got inside. Harriet confessed to Timothy that she had been mugged recently while walking home from a rehearsal with the Greater Absalom Performing Arts Guild. She had seen a woman laying on the ground, wearing sackcloth clothes with matted hair. Upon approaching the woman jumped on her, taking her to the ground. Harriet felt a pain in her stomach, thinking that she’d been stabbed, and passed out. When she awoke nothing had been stolen, her attacker was nowhere to be seen, and a local clinic told her that nothing appeared to be wrong with her. Still, she’d been staying to crowds to feel safe ever since.

Suddenly Harriet kissed Timothy and they had sex. Afterwards, as they lay together, she began to double over and complain of stomach pains. Timothy rushed to his bathroom to get a tonic and some water before hearing a wet cracking thump, like an egg being dropped on a stone floor. The moaning stopped. When Timothy returned to the bedroom he saw what remained of Harriet: a pitted and warped mass of flesh on the bed, which was covered in a thick black fluid. The walls and bed were covered in a sickening, creeping mold. In a panic, Timothy set fire to the flat and ran out into the night where the Starwatch found him. Sasha’s contact tells her that the Starwatch found no evidence of arson, no human remains, and subsequently released Timothy, though they’re still investigating.

Of note is that the attack matches the description of a woman named Jane Prentiss, who previously left a concerning statement with the Institute preceding a violent incident with the Starwatch. Jane was found in the attic of her building after neighbors reported terrified screaming, with her arm up to her elbow in “a mound of something” thought to have been mold, although her neighbors did not report seeing any previously. Unfortunately, further investigation was impossible as the building burned down that evening and killed the landlord, one Arthur Nolan.

Prentiss was taken to Whittington House, a clinic in The Puddles, where she is reported to have killed three staff members and two Starwatch guards before disappearing into the night. The Starwatch conducted an investigation, believing that she may have fled into The Siphons – a series of underground tunnels in The Puddles that connect to Absalom’s sewer system, but the risk of drowning and collapse in The Puddles keeps most people at bay.