Here Comes the Rain Again

Synopsis

A contractor has appeared at the makeshift medical tents in Derk's Field, passing through at night in bright ball of light and healing the sick and injured. They're doing good, but what's the cost? Wittikka the Riddler, Officer Jamie Kane, and Reverend James Joseph Franklin III are motivated to find out, their reasons all different. As they dig through the secrets of Derk's Field they come to face with the reality the damage the Flood caused on all those years ago.

Plot

Wittikka, a bloodied contractor who's found a grotesque way around the terms of his contract, Detective Jamie Kane who seeks to catalogue every contractor, and Reverend James Joseph Franklin III who wants to bring the Lord to all the sinners meet on chance. All of them come to question the recently retired Jack Sheffield, a former trauma surgeon at Derk's Field. After a brief questioning, they discover Sheffield believes there is a contractor at Derk's Field, and he wanted to bug out before they cause another Flood with the power they're showing. He directs the party to his coworkers at Derk's Field for more "help."

The three unlikely allies investigate Derk's Field together, discovering a place that looks like a warzone out of Ballpark. Many are injured, sick, or suffering from the mysterious Spirit Sickness. Speaking with the staff at Derk's Field, in particular the perpetually drunk Dr. Roger Hammer, and triage nurse Joan Kozbi, the party learns that this contractor most likely works at Derk's Field and their intentions seem pure.

The people of Derk's Field healed in the night can recall nothing but an aura of bright light and gentle hands as their wounds and ills were healed. They speak of this person as the "Healing Knight" in reverent tones which inspire the Reverend to believe this person to be a prophet of God. The party lays a trap as the people of Derk's Field are close lipped and clearly protecting this contractor.

However, they are unable to catch the contractor in the night, only able to perceive they have a feminine form. That, and learn that the contractor is exceptionally powerful, capable of wiping them away in an instant if they had chosen too. The nature of their contract must be an exceptional case, and the Spirit they contacted with one of great power.

They go to the area surrounding Derk's Field determined to discover more about Derk's Field and the Healing Knight. They are approached, first by a member of the Bureau of Domestic Logistics named Keller. He offers his assistance in finding and eliminating the Healing Knight should the party find any leads. Disgusted, the party turns him down. The second to approach them does so in a run down dive bar in Derk's Field where the workers like to drink after a tough day.

A weathered Magician and P.I., Stadtfeld, offers a cigarette and to bounce ideas off together. Despite their suspicion the party agrees and take some of his advice, searching for who hasn't been at the bar lately. Through this they discover from a reluctant Dr. Hammer that Joan hasn't been seen at the bar in weeks. But Stadtfeld also leaves them with the concerning knowledge that people have gone missing around Derk's Field as of late.

The party decides to confront Joan in the day reasonably sure that she is, in fact, the mysterious Healing Knight. Their assumption is correct and she doesn't bother to deny it, not ashamed of the secret. She and the party separate, the party deciding what they want to do with this information.

Unfortunately, their discovery pushes Mrs. Kozbi to action, and she reveals herself as the Healing Knight in front of the entirety of Derk's Field. She speaks to the people who've lost so much due to the ongoing war between the Lions and APCA and the Stream overhead. She herself lost her husband and both her sons, all first responders; she can't watch the same thing happen to more kids younger than her boys.

A near riot starts in Derk's Field in which the party and Stadtfeld have to run, being singled out as enemies of the Healing Knight (despite Joan's protest.) Derk's Field is off limits, but the party still thinks something stinks. They still haven't learned what the cost of Mrs. Kozbi's contract is.

They follow up with Salt Lake Records to discover Joan's residence, but run into a dead end. Detective Jamie Kane instead digs deeper with his resources and discovers a residence in Zimri Kozbi's name. Marriage records show this to be Joan's deceased husband. The Records haven't been updated since the Flood.

Finding this residence, the party breaks inside and discovers Joan Kozbi's cost: she must deal out harm equivalent to the healing she performs. Those few missing people around Liberty Wells and the Ballpark are here, being tortured by a reluctant and horrified Joan so she can heal hundreds more. The price of her contract is such a thing, and as she fulfills it the Stream inches closer.

Joan enters the basement at that time, dragging someone along with her and apologizing all the while. She doesn't hide her shame from the party and insists there was nothing else that would work. This was the only way she could make a difference.

The party attempts to flee and is only successful because Joan can't bring herself to kill them in such cold blood. The party barely makes it out and comes to the conclusion they have to enter the Stream. This means they would need to find the exact point where Joan entered.

They identified the exact spot on intel from Stadtfeld, where 3 candles were laid out for Kozbi's family and enter.

The Stream is an alien place, with unfathomable geometry and no clear way forward or back. As the party walks across a tapestry, their breathing, weight, and sense of self gone, they can feel nothing but see everything. To experience sight without feel or scent is surreal, and the fact their heart has stopped beating and their chest stopped rising and falling would cause anyone with less experience with Spirits to panic.

The party walks across an endless knot, a path woven of ropes. They encounter the same things again and again on this path, over and over again in some inane surrealist puzzle.

1. Happiness and Sadness express themselves of visions of events from someone's life.
2. Progress and Stagnation express themselves as a man paving a road and damming a river, respectively.
3. Life and Death express themselves as the birth and death of a single child.
4. Comedy and Drama express themselves as the story of Cozbi and the Israelite, speared by the Jews for one of the faith taking a Midianite concubine. Comedy from the union a Midianite and Israelite being a sign of peace and being ironically struck down, and drama from the fact it led Moses to slay all worshippers of Baal.
5. Love and Hate expressed as the the love and hatred of man.
6. Balance expressed as a pair of scales blocking the path.]

The party eventually realizes all symbols are balanced and form a parallel path to another event, except the encounter of Balance. It alone is unbalanced. In discovering this they find the route to the Spirit, revealed by balancing the scales in earnest and falling with the scales into an endless void.

There they meet Scales, the Spirit of Balance. Each of the party see a different version of this, each seeing something like a yin and yang symbol. The Spirit is both in front of them and the environment in which they stand. It is all encompassing and overpowering. The Reverend reveres it as an angel, Wittikka as a dangerous Spirit much like the one that bound him, and Jamie Kane as a potential threat to Spirit City and rhetorical trickster.

And yet, as the party learns the true nature of Joan Kozbi's contract, they cannot beat it without playing to its games. The Reverend accepts the same contract as Joan, and Wittikka accepts a second contract, agreeing that his life's end will mark the end of 3 contracts: his own, Joan's, and the Reverend's. The Reverend is dangerous and believes the Spirit an angel.

And so the party walks away, two more contracts made and the Spirits the only winners in this conflict. The party are let free of the Stream and return to Derk's Field, determined to have their final confrontation with Joan Kozbi. The Reverend is ready to throw in with her, show the Lord to everyone.

Wittikka and Detective Jamie Kane try to stop Joan Kozbi, determined to make her see reason. Kozbi wants to make a difference, she wants to stop everything that's happening, but this simply can't be how it's done.

In front of all of Derk's Field the party reveals what the price of her contract was. Kozbi didn't deny it. So, she chose to ignore the price, and decided she would only heal, because this was her power.

A battle ensued, quick and gruesome. Kozbi's power was immense, and ignoring the terms of her contract had the Stream surge closer, building into another Flood as she scared everyone who believed in her. Despite their best efforts, the party could not convince the determined Kozbi to give up.

She had to make a difference.

Wittikka killed himself, ending the contracts of himself, Joan, and the Reverend. As the three lay dying, the Stream surging forward just short of a Flood as they fulfilled their contracts, they watched as the healing Joan had given disappeared. Wounds and sickness and death reappeared to thousands crowded in Derk's Field. Everyone the Healing Knight had saved perished.

And all that was left for it was the people Joan tortured and hurt.

And then it began to rain for the first time in Spirit City since the Flood.

Cast

• Joan Kozbi${}^{✞}$
• P.I. Stadtfeld
• Mr. Keller
• Dr. Roger Hammer
• Duncan as Wittikka${}^{✞}$
• Amelya as Reverend James Joseph Jones Franklin III${}^{✞}$
• Jordain as Detective Jamie Kane

#spirit_city #episode