File No. 34b6, Subject: Officer Quinton McBrady

[Wellingstone]

Dr. Smedley’s Asylum: December 12, 1906

 

Attending Physician: Dr. Stanley Grimwell

 

Patient: Officer Quinton McBrady, Male, 35

 

Symptoms: Apparent Schizophrenia, Hallucinations, False Memories, several broken ribs and lacerations (treated).

 

Recommended Treatment: Full frontal lobe lobotomy and steady opiate medication

 

Patient Interview Transcript Attached: Forward to Dr. Ian Smedley (along with voxiphone recording for further recommendation.

 

[Begin Interview]

 

Grimwell: Tell me officer, what exactly brings you here?

 

McBrady: Our last assignment [long pause] I saw things. Things I can’t explain.

 

Grimwell: Malifaux is a strange place, being an officer of the Guild, you must have seen more than your fair share of the odd.

 

McBrady: Sure I’ve seen Neverborn monsters, Arcanist constructs, and the dead rising to fight you. But these were something different [shivers] Is it cold in here?

 

Grimwell: Nurse, please adjust the heat to the room, our patient is uncomfortable. Please start from the beginning, what happened?

 

McBrady: Our post had received a report that a Resurrectionist was seen operating in our sector and we were to head into the quarantine zone and apprehend him for interrogation and execution. It was me, Riflemen Dobbs and Farley, and Sgt. Hanley. We set out at dusk in hopes of finding him in the open, rather than having to poke through abandoned buildings and old ruins for this creep.

 

Grimwell: Seems to be a fairly typical assignment. What happened on this one that unsettled you?

 

McBrady: So it did not take us long, we found a man matching the description. Long laboratory coat, prosthetic arm and leg, and some kind of device on his back protruding from his coat, very thin build. He was wearing a hood, so his face was obscured. He was just standing there, in the middle of the street.

 

[McBrady sips his coffee and pauses for 23 seconds.]

 

McBrady: Sgt. Haney drew his pistol and approached the man. Giving him the typical “You are under arrest by order of the Governor General.”  This is when all hell broke loose [Mcbrady shudders]

 

Grimwell: Take your time, recall the details as best you can.

 

McBrady: [Voice is lower, difficult to understand] The necromancer, if that’s what he was, reached out his arm to Hanley. Hanley fired and put one round square in his shoulder. He flinched but maintained his reach. Hanley dropped his pistol to the ground and gripped his throat with both hands. Blood was pouring out from his eyes and mouth. Dobbs, Farley and myself opened fire, we emptied our weapons on him. He slumped to the ground, blood pooled around him. Dobbs reloaded while Farley and I rushed to assist Hanley. [McBrady looks to the floor]

 

[Several seconds pass]

 

Grimwell: Please, continue when you are ready.

 

McBrady: [Angry] Why are you smiling, do you think this is funny? Do you find this amusing doctor?

 

Grimwell: Certainly not officer, my research shows that smiling can put the unwell at ease. Please continue.

 

McBrady: [calmer, but trembling] Hanley, he had no eyes, his skin was drawn tight around his bones like some kind of sick mockery of a human. Then [tears begin welling up, can not maintain eye contact] his head [10 second pause] came off and [5 second pause] thin metal legs came out from inside it. It it it [stutters uncontrollably]rose up and Hanley’s mouth screeched at us in a tone that hurt, all over. I struggled to reload my revolver but it had already crawled away. [shivers violently]

 

McBrady: Then we heard Dobbs scream in agony. The necromancer was behind him just lightly touching him on the shoulder. The necromancer was covered in gore. How did he get there? How was he still standing? Dobbs’ scream turned into a wimper as the… life… left him. His flesh shriveled on his bones, blood seeped from his pores.  

 

[McBrady gags, perhaps on vomit. 13 seconds pass]

 

McBrady: Then [4 second pause] his legs got up, but without the rest of him long metallic tendrils flailed out of his open lower half. Then Hanley’s head wandered into the street. Then several more… creatures as different as they were horrible joined them. Then [12 second pause, McBrady begins sweating profusely] they began, consuming or joining into each other. An unholy mountain of meat and machine stood before us. Farley opened fire as the monster charged us. It ignored the bullets completely. A gigantic fist came down on Farley and he was smashed into red paste, his guts splashed onto me. With another motion that same fist swung at me. I went flying, through an abandoned storefront I think.

 

Grimwell: Fascinating! And you believe these events to be hallucinations?

 

McBrady: I’m, I’m not sure. I woke up the next morning and stumbled to the nearest Guild post and recounted what happened to the ranking officer there. He told me that I needed to come here and have my head looked at. So here I am.

 

Grimwell: Of course. My assessment is that you do seem to have suffered some violent trauma on assignment and your brain is struggling to make up a story to justify your injuries. Perhaps this is what is causing you to remember such an unlikely occurrence.

 

[McBrady sobs]

 

Grimwell: Fear not officer, we have a treatment that is proven to relieve you of these horrors. Nurse, please escort the officer to the operating theatre, I shall join you shortly.

 

[End Interview]