MIKE: “Alright, let’s go over the facts of the case again.”
[MUSIC FADES IN]
DARIUS: “You wouldn’t happen to know of any places where drug addicts or meth labs would be?”
GWEN: Rosetta Kamen is a young woman. She grew up in a not so great situation. Her dad was involved with some shady stuff.
MIKE: “Okay, I understand, but do you have any form of ID on you whatsoever, credit card even?”
GWEN: And I hand him my library card.
MIKE: That’ll work.
GWEN: It’s got a fake name on it.
MIKE: Okay, what is the fake name?
GWEN: The fake name is Rochelle Stone. “We were coming from Sandra’s house,” and I point to Desdemona.
CHRISTINE: And I am playing the character Desdemona Brown. She is a medium psychic with the trouble aspect of Never Truly Alone. Sometimes Jack helps me, no, that’s bad. We don’t know exactly what Jack is.
MIKE: You are finally able to get a better look at this thing. It’s not humanoid. The details you particularly make out, some of these limbs seem to be wrapped directly around Desdemona’s neck, as if choking her.
THOM: Albion squeezes the bottle suddenly and it just shatters in his hand. “Oh fuck, I figured it out.”
[INTRO MUSIC]
THOM: Alright, so Albion is just sitting there, bottle—his hand is now bleeding probably a little bit, because he just broke a bottle in it because he squeezed it so hard. He’s just like “Son of a bitch. Oh shit, I’m bleeding.”
CHRISTINE: “Oh, oh gosh. I’ll get the kit, it’s in the bathroom. I’ll be right back, I’m sorry. I’ll be right back.”
THOM: “Sorry about your kitchen table there Des, I—“
CHRISTINE: “It’ll clean up, it’s okay. We got to take care of the bleeding.”
MIKE: Real important question, had you finished that Ale-8-One.
THOM: Yeah, I had. It’s Ale-8-One, I drink it fast. It’s good.
MIKE: So, we didn’t waste the precious, precious Kentucky beautiful drink.
THOM: No, I’m not going to have to drive back to a Cracker Barrel for that, thankfully.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: I don’t know where the closest Cracker Barrel to Burlington is. I’m going to have to Google that later.
MIKE: Because I don’t care if Albion is bleeding or whatnot, don’t waste that precious citrus ginger soda.
DARIUS: Yeah.
THOM: So, Albion just kind of looks at Sylvester. “So, I’m about to say a lot of shit that’s going to be even harder to believe than what we’ve already been dealing with, but I just need you to follow me on this.
DARIUS: “Okay.”
THOM: “Alright, so you ever read H.P. Lovecraft?”
DARIUS: “No, but I’m familiar with the basic concept.”
THOM: “Yeah, stuff from outside our plane of reality that is just plum excited to fuck with us, and Mr. Jack might be one of that ilk.”
CHRISTINE: Desdemona comes back with some Band-Aids and some rubbing alcohol.
THOM: “Yeah, so he might be what—I guess the official term is outsider. Which means he ain’t a fae, he ain’t a demon, he ain’t even from somewhere that follows our rules, which means he’s above my fucking pay grade.”
DARIUS: “Shit.”
CHRISTINE: “So, wait, there’s something stuck to me that you can’t even handle?”
THOM: “The good news is, I know people who can. The good news is, I know somebody who might be mighty offended by something like that, and I kind of have a way for him to smite it, I guess, in a pinch. So, we have options, but we also kind of have a bit of a ‘holy fuck’ situation.”
CHRISTINE: “‘Holy fuck’ situation, great! That’s great.”
THOM: “Now, don’t panic. I know it’s hard, because I’m currently fighting the urge to panic. Also, I’m bleeding.”
DARIUS: “Oh yeah, I should bandage your hand or something. Alright.”
THOM: “That would be mighty appreciated.”
DARIUS: So, I’m going to take Desdemona’s med kit and take care of Albion’s hand.
MIKE: I’m not even going to make you roll for that. That’s just basic wound care. You can clearly do that.
DARIUS: Yeah, because I’m great.
MIKE: Correct. I mean, that is your Trouble Aspect.
THOM: “So, you made it this far with this thing, so just kind of try to maintain for now until we can figure out an actual way that we can get him to fuck off.”
CHRISTINE: “Okay.”
THOM: “I’m sorry I don’t have a better plan than that.”
CHRISTINE: “Do you think we should take some precautions when we talk about it again in the future? Like talk in a circle, or maybe some candles or something? The wards don’t always work on him.”
MIKE: Desdemona, I’m going to need you to roll a Lore roll real quick.
CHRISTINE: Yep.
MIKE: The target is three.
CHRISTINE: That is a four.
MIKE: Okay. So, in your line of work—well, with your gifts, you know how people living in a city just get used to the sound of traffic, and when somebody, say, is on a ship, they work or sail on a ship, and they don’t hear the sound of the engine, that’s when they know that something’s wrong? Yeah, you’ve gotten used to tuning out the sort of omnipresent sounds that come with being sensitive to the dead. It’s totally silent right now.
CHRISTINE: “Something’s not right. I’m not sure, but I think we’re being listened to. It’s too quiet, Albion, it’s too quiet.”
THOM: “Right.” I am going to roll an Alertness.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: Alright, let’s see if I can figure out what in the hell that might be.
MIKE: I’m just going to give you a target of three. It’s a base sort of roll.
THOM: Alright, that is a five.
MIKE: Okay. You try to see if there’s anything suspicious or out of the ordinary, and you sort of ignore the pain in your hand as you’ve got rubbing alcohol on there and some minor little wound work happening, but you don’t notice anything of any sort of note, at least not with your normal everyday senses.
THOM: Can I try and—[Crosstalk]
MIKE: I’m sorry, just with that result you’re quite sure that nothing out of the ordinary is around.
THOM: Can I use that to inform a Lore roll?
MIKE: If you want to roll Lore, then go for it. Target again is three.
THOM: Alright.
CHRISTINE: Can I also do a roll, maybe tag Grammy Came To Tea or something, using my psychic powers?
MIKE: Well, you only really need to tag Aspects to give yourself bonuses if you need to.
CHRISTINE: Okay, can I roll something then?
MIKE: Yeah, let’s just resolve Albion’s roll first.
THOM: I got a four.
MIKE: Okay, your supernatural senses—the funny thing is, you should be feeling something, because you’re in Desdemona’s house, and you actually feel less on edge and less spooked than normal. You’ve grown sort of accustomed to the sensation of being in a place where ghosts are somewhat frequent and you’ve noticed that you aren’t dealing with that sensation now.
THOM: Well, the fact that I’m not on edge puts me very on edge. Alright, Albion’s going to reach down and unsheathe—unbuckle that one holster he never unbuckles, and slowly pull out a handgun that is sort of plated silver. It’s a very large gun. It’s hard to identify the make, it looks almost like it’s a custom piece. It’s hard to trace any of the things back to a single manufacturer, it doesn’t look like a Sig Sauer or a Magnum, it’s just a very large handgun, very well crafted, and it’s got these sort of spiraling engravings along the side, etched into the metal, sorts of Nordic runes, symbols invoking Odin, invoking Thor, invoking most of the Vanir, and images in these tiny impossibly intricately small etchings, images of the gods doing battle with giants, or of like fighting Fenrir, and he just sort of slowly puts that on the table, and just taps the slide right above the trigger, just kind of eyes narrow, sort of extending his senses a little, reaching out to who he knows is on the other side of this particular handgun.
MIKE: Okay. Well then, that is an interesting thing that you are doing. Let me look up a mechanical response to the action that you’re sort of taking. Okay, I feel like this might be you using Guide My Hand.
THOM: Not so much that as—a little bit of that, but it’s more Marked By Power that I’m using this, because I want to make it visible that whatever is here, she’s not alone, I’m also not fucking alone.
MIKE: Oh, okay. Great. Des, if you could I guess give me that Lore roll with another target three.
CHRISTINE: That is a three.
MIKE: You think it’s quiet because no spirits are actually around.
CHRISTINE: I would find that disconcerting though, I would imagine.
MIKE: Oh, sure. Most of the time—I feel like you’ve established that this place is just kind of a chill hang for those who have—well, not passed on, but for the dead.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
THOM: One of them walked in on me in the shower. I mean, I was literally in the shower and it came through the wall and did not even say excuse me. It was fucking weird.
MIKE: Yeah, so you’ve gotten to a point of somewhat comfort, at least acceptance of the fact that ghosts and the like are going to kind of go in and out of your place, but the fact that you’re never truly alone, you feel like you are, with the exception of your friends.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, very weird. There’s like no other nothing else that can be sensed though in the sense that would have made everything go away?
MIKE: Right.
CHRISTINE: Great, great. “Oh, I feel completely left alone, Albion, Sylvester. I don’t feel good.”
THOM: Alright, I have a question for the dungeon master—game master, rather.
MIKE: Sure.
THOM: If I were to see Mr. Jack again, would it have a similar mental attack on me, or now that I started healing from that, would I be able to take it more?
MIKE: Yeah, you had to deal with that particularly strong mental attack because you looked at it with The Sight, and it was a particularly horrifying thing to witness, so I threw a lot of basically extra tags on it because you were not familiar or not expecting what you were going to see. So, you had to roll against a very very very high number at that point in time, but you would not be unprepared to see Mr. Jack again. So, it would be not as nasty of a challenge. It’s still looking at something horrifying.
THOM: Alright, just laying that out there. I’m going to do it. “Sylvester, Des, if I pass out, I need you guys to have my back on this.”
CHRISTINE: “Always.”
DARIUS: “Alright.”
THOM: Albion’s going to open his third eye.
MIKE: Ah, for the first time in this campaign, Albion is using The Sight! So, for people that are not familiar with how The Sight works, The Sight is a special thing that all Wizards have, but sometimes people with other magical gifts can get The Sight too. The Sight lets you open your “Third eye” quote-unquote and see what is actually there, see what is real in the world. It gives you sort of an unfiltered look at all of the beauty and horror of reality, and that was how Albion previously saw the entity know as Mr. Jack, and it was so traumatizing that that’s why he has been seeing a psychiatrist to try to deal with the trauma of that, and that’s an actual game mechanic, because he took a massive mental Consequence. So, when you open The Sight, you’ve seen Desdemona and Sylvester in The Sight before, correct?
THOM: Yeah, yes I have.
MIKE: So, those are not unfamiliar sights to you at all. Have you ever used The Sight inside Desdemona’s house before?
THOM: I don’t think I have.
MIKE: Okay. So, when you look around—when you open The Sight, you see your friends, I assume you do a little bit of a scan, because you’re looking for something.
THOM: Yeah.
MIKE: Yeah, you are looking specifically to see if Mr. Jack is there or not.
THOM: Or to see if something like him is here.
MIKE: Yes. I will tell you right now, you do not see anything that stands out and appears to be any sort of entity that is present and occupying the space. You do get to see an idea of Desdemona’s house sort of through your Sight and it is a very welcoming place for sure, and you see some things that sort of suggest to you—it’s sort of hard to describe because it’s a very complicated mix of things, the welcoming energy of this place, the sort of warmth as though every single wall is lit with like the glow of a warm fire, there however are—it’s almost like the house is made of a membrane that things can sort of pass through like a cell wall that allows water through it, so you can tell that the stuff comes in and out of there all the time, obviously, because she literally channels the supernatural, and you see the door down the hallway and the threshold on there is not nearly as strong as you would think a threshold on a lived-in house would be. And now, I do believe we are making a roll for The Sight, because you have to defend.
THOM: Alright. So, with my Discipline roll, that is a—
MIKE: Yeah, I to actually give you a challenge to roll against for the intensity of the vision, and because this a place that you are very familiar with and you are seeing more of it than—you’re seeing it in a completely different light now, I’m going to say that that’s a fairly intense thing because it’s going to alter your perception of a person and a place. So I’ll set it at at least, I’ll say, a four.
THOM: Alright. I just make that.
MIKE: Alright, very good.
THOM: I had to roll three pluses to get there, because Albion’s Discipline is not great.
MIKE: Yeah, that’s true.
THOM: I will say, this is probably also the first time I looked at my—at the gun.
MIKE: Oh, okay. So, are you actually going to look at Gungnir with The Sight open?
THOM: Yeah, I’m looking at Gungnir. I’m probably saying it wrong.
MIKE: Alright. Yeah, so you’re going to choose to—yeah, you’re making an assessment action to try to learn about what you’re seeing, defending against the mental strain of using The Sight, so you did successfully defend against the mental strain, which means that you can now choose to close it, but you are choosing to keep it open for a little longer.
THOM: Yep.
MIKE: Oh, and you have to make a Lore roll to understand the vision.
THOM: Alright, that is a three on my Lore.
MIKE: Okay, so it’s set at the same challenge as the intensity of the vision.
THOM: Okay, so I don’t understand it really.
MIKE: Yeah. So, you don’t get an necessary new information, but you’re going to look straight at your weapon and—
THOM: Not even intentionally, I just kind of look down for a second.
MIKE: Okay. So, before your Sight closes, you do catch sight of the weapon that was bestowed upon you by Odin, apparently, and there seems to be a tether from the weapon, from the gun, to you, and it sort of runs into the core of you. Your right hand is your shooting hand, yes?
THOM: Yeah.
MIKE: It has a tangential arc that sort of runs through the palm of your hand, and you can see in the palm of your hand a very large circular set of runes that seem to link up with the runes that are engraved on Gungnir, and you can see in those runes there’s a supernatural glow to them, and you can see the sort of bas reliefs that are carved into the gun of all the Aesir and Vanir fighting against the various monsters and creature, those are in action. Those are not still images in The Sight. It seems like it is just playing those events out before you. Also, the gun is shaped like a spear.
THOM: Alright.
MIKE: And that is an intensity five for you, so roll to defend against The Sight.
THOM: Okay, that is a three, so I’m going to take some damage.
MIKE: So, you get a two mental stress, and you may make a Lore roll to understand the vision.
THOM: Luckily, my Lore is better, and that is a five.
MIKE: Okay, so as far as you know, yeah, this is the real goddamn spear.
THOM: Oh, shit. That’s incredibly generous of Odin.
MIKE: Or at the very least, it is an aspect of it.
THOM: That’s more reasonable, and less absurdly generous. Alright, I’m going to close The Sight.
MIKE: Okay. Since you matched, you don’t necessarily get the clearest answer, you get a good answer out of that, but you don’t get necessarily a very robust answer. So, you think it’s the spear or an aspect thereof, but you definitely know that it is linked in some way to the actual Gungnir, Odin’s spear.
THOM: “So, as far as I can tell, we are in fact alone, so we should be fine. Also, my head hurts a little.”
CHRISTINE: “Aspirin?”
THOM: “Yeah, that’d be nice. Or also, uh, another Ale-8, probably.”
MIKE: I am going to correct you on this every time, it’s Ale-8-One.
THOM: “Alright, so as far as I can tell, our acquaintance is not here, so I think we’re good for now.”
CHRISTINE: “I’m actually alone.”
THOM: “You ain’t. You’ve got me and Sylvester.”
DARIUS: “Yep.”
CHRISTINE: “Of course, I just meant on another level. It’s strange is all.”
THOM: “Well, we’ll figure that out when we get there. In the meantime, we got to figure out how to make some meth.”
MIKE: Oh, that’s the button on that scene! Alright, and now the million dollar question, how is Ro going to try to not go to prison?
DARIUS: Wanted level increased. Six Stars.
GWEN: So, I’ve figured this out. I’m going to go to Zabby and Elf’s Stone Soup, I’m going to bribe whoever is working with my Resource skill, and see where that takes me, to have them let me work there for a day.
MIKE: I love the setup of this scene. I love so much the idea that you’re going to go into this place to try to flash some cash to pretend to work there.
GWEN: Yeah.
MIKE: Oh man, okay, so good. Okay, so you find yourself at Zabby and Elf’s Stone Soup. I presume that you have been sort of ducking in and out of alleys and such, not taking necessarily the main thoroughfares, you almost certainly didn’t go down the main marketplace to get there, because you don’t want to be—
GWEN: Oh yeah, I’m taking the back ways, yeah.
MIKE: Right, side streets and the like. So, yeah, you arrive there and I don’t really want to make this too intense of an interaction scene, but I want to know what your approach is. Is it just the first person who works there that you’re going to try?
GWEN: I think so. I’m going to walk in and I think Ro’s been here a couple times, so the first person I see and/or looks familiar to me.
MIKE: Okay. This is the first person who approaches and asks—
BRITTY: “Table for one?”
MIKE: -- they are a shorter person, they’re just very thin with curly sort of unkempt jet black hair and a nose ring sort of off to one side, and some various piercings in their ears. Femme-appearing—
GWEN: “Actually, I have a weird question for you. I don’t know if you remember me, I was in about two weeks ago, I ordered the chili and dropped it on my way out. I had a really weird question. Is there a place where we can go and talk where it’s not directly by the door?”
MIKE: She is confused about—she just sort of looks at you and is trying to read your intentions. I think this is a use of the Rapport skill to try to use the Opening Up trapping, because you are definitely trying to get a person to trust you here.
GWEN: Yes, okay.
MIKE: So, make me a Rapport roll.
GWEN: Alright, that is a three total.
MIKE: Great, I need to look up—oh, okay. So, they’re doing an Empathy read on you, and you’re defending against it with Rapport, and if you beat them, the opponent discovers an Aspect about you, but it’s one of your choosing, but right now they’re trying to figure out something about you. So, you succeed on your defense.
GWEN: Okay.
MIKE: So, you get to open up a specific Aspect to them that you want them to know.
GWEN: Alright, I’m going to go with the I’m All In, Baby to prove that I’m willing to do whatever for whatever I got to do.
MIKE: Okay. Great, so you’ve basically given this person a read of ‘you didn’t come to play.’ You’ve got something serious, and you are just going to go for it right now, which does not totally assuage their suspicions, because they have no clue what you want to talk about, but if you can give them one more pitch, I’m going to say you get another roll if you can give me a little bit more of a pitch of why they should agree to this.
GWEN: Okay, alright. “So, I’m in a little bit of a bind right now, and I need—I’m not going to use the word ‘alibi,’ but I need something to be doing right now. I’m in a little bit of trouble, and I’m trying to get out of it. Nothing crazy, I’m not a murderer or whatever, I just need to be somewhere doing something that’s not outside of here. Do you get it?”
BRITTY: “Are you in trouble with the cops?”
GWEN: “It depends on how you feel about them, there’s this guy who’s been following me around, and—“
BRITTY: “So, that’s definitely a yes.”
GWEN: “If that’s what it takes to get you to help me, then yes. I am in a heap of trouble. This person is after me, thinks that I did something or know something that I don’t, and I just need help.”
MIKE: They give you a look up and down and a little grin sort of curls up at the corner of their mouth.
BRITTY: “Man, fuck those guys. Come into the back.”
GWEN: “Just in case somebody asks if I’m here, is it okay if I grab an apron and pretend I’m working?”
BRITTY: “Yeah.”
GWEN: “Hell yeah, you are the best, I owe you a boba, thank you so much.” And I run to the back.
MIKE: As you’re going, they say to you—
BRITTY: “Oh, let them know that you’re with Kris. It’s cool.”
GWEN: “Perfect. Thank you so much.”
MIKE: Yeah, because there are some other employees back there that are very curious as to why you, a person that they don’t know, is just hanging out in the back, and when you say that you’re with Kris, they’re like “Alright.” So, as some time passes, one of the people you are supposed to meet with has texted you to sort of ask where you are.
GWEN: So, I’m going to text back. What time is it currently?
MIKE: I mean, it’s definitely dark, so I’d say it’s around 8:30 or so.
GWEN: Okay, cool, because Zabby and Elf’s Stone Soup closes at 9:00.
MIKE: Okay.
GWEN: Okay. So, I’m going to text them to meet me down the street from where I am at 10:00 PM.
MIKE: Okay, great. As soon as you’re done, a person walks up and says, “Hey, person here for Kris, you’re name Rochelle?”
GWEN: “It is, yes. Are my people here to meet me?”
MIKE: “Yeah, I guess if you—you friends with cops, or what?”
GWEN: “Not exactly, but I want them to think I am,” and then I run out to the front to meet whoever is there.
MIKE: Before they can protest any further, you are already out into the restaurant and there are what looks like a couple of beat cops that are just sort of waiting for you to come out and uh—do you address them?
GWEN: Is the sergeant with them?
MIKE: No.
GWEN: No, okay. So, I come out. “Hi guys, welcome to Zabby and Elf’s Stone Soup, my name is Rochelle. How can I help you guys today?
MIKE: “Ah.” One of them is a somewhat fresh-faced blond male looking fellow. “Ah, okay. Y’know, honestly, I wasn’t totally expecting you to be here based on what sergeant was saying, but hey, great. We’ve got a few questions, if you don’t mind.”
GWEN: “Yeah, let me sit you guys down. Did you want to hear our specials today? We have a great LaPlante farm burger, we’ve got Elf’s Vegan Chili, I’d love to sit and chat while you guys eat—“
MIKE: “That’s okay, ma’am, we’re actually not here for a meal right now. We’re just hoping to take a few moments of your time, and is that alright?”
GWEN: “Yeah, what can I—give me one second. Hey, Kris, I’m taking a 10! Okay, yeah, what’s up?”
BRITTY: “Okay, you got it, see you in 10!”
MIKE: “Do you mind if we step outside? I know it’s a little cold, but—“
GWEN: “Yeah, sure, as long as I’m back for the end of my break, yeah.”
MIKE: “Yeah, it shouldn’t be too long.”
GWEN: “Okay, cool, yeah, sure.”
MIKE: So, you step outside and it is definitely chilly out. It’s beginning of January, and winds do tend to whip off of Lake Champlain, and just it gets real cold at night. “Well, we just had a few questions about your friend.” You’re going to have to remind the GM what name you gave to her.
GWEN: Sandra.
MIKE: Say that again.
GWEN: Sandra?
MIKE: Sandra. “Your friend Sandra? Yeah, sergeant says that you do know where she lives, but you wouldn’t necessarily be able to direct someone there. Is that accurate?”
GWEN: “Yeah, I’m not too great with directions. I’m kind of a ‘moron,’ as my mom would say.”
MIKE: “Oh, okay. Yeah, I’m not super great with directions either, I just know my way around the city, I’ve been here enough. You get familiar with it over time. Do you know generally which part of town you were in?”
GWEN: “I know it’s somewhere south of here, not quite sure.”
MIKE: “Okay, that’s fine, that’s fine. Were there any sort of distinguishing features that were around your friend Sandra’s place that might help us sort of narrow it down?”
GWEN: “I think it’s near a Denny’s, but maybe it’s an IHOP.”
MIKE: “Yeah, you apparently are really bad with directions, aren’t you?”
GWEN: “Just a bit. I know it’s just past Twin Orchards, but not sure from there, bud.”
MIKE: Okay, so one of the biggest and most defining features is that her house is right next to a graveyard, so I need you to roll Deceit.
GWEN: Alright. How many graveyards are in the vicinity? Just so I know.
CHRISTINE: There are three major ones in the city.
GWEN: Okay. That’s a five total.
MIKE: Cool. Apparently he believes you enough to not press you.
GWEN: Yeah!
MIKE: “Alright, well what time does your shift end, ma’am?”
GWEN: “I’m supposed to be here until—I mean, kitchen closes at 9:00, I’m supposed to be here for another hour, so after. Did you need something more from me after that?”
MIKE: “Yeah, would you be willing to assist us in finding your friend’s place? We’re not arresting you, we’re not planning to detain you per se, you wouldn’t be in handcuffs. You’d just be in the back of the police car, trying to provide some additional directions.”
GWEN: “As much as I would love to do that, I’m not necessarily comfortable with that. There’s been a lot of stuff in the news lately, and police make me a little bit nervous, and I hope that you can understand my reasoning behind that.”
MIKE: He sighs and says “Yep, alright, I understand. Never hurts to ask, but you got your friend’s phone number?”
GWEN: “I don’t have my phone on me, because again, I’m working. Do you happen to have the line to Sergeant Ditko on hand?”
MIKE: Alright, Gwen, how badly do you want a Fate Point?
GWEN: I don’t know. I would be willing to accept it, I’m just going to have to figure out how to BS more.
MIKE: Okay. I’m offering you a Fate Point for your phone to audibly buzz, because you did just text someone.
GWEN: I did.
MIKE: If you would like to refuse this compel, you can give me a Fate Point.
GWEN: No, I’ll take it. My phone is buzzing.
THOM: Oh no.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: Gwen, you’re going to get arrested!
CHRISTINE: She going go to jail.
THOM: You were doing so well!
CHRISTINE: My baby.
GWEN: Oof. No, it’s okay, I got this. I got this.
THOM: You can’t arrest her, she’s baby!
GWEN: I’m baby, I’m above the law.
DARIUS: She’s going to baby jail.
CHRISTINE: There’s bars and everything.
GWEN: It’s a Weenie Hut Jr.
THOM: Gay baby jail.
GWEN: Okay, so my phone rings.
MIKE: So, right as you’re saying that you are at work and don’t have your phone on you: brr brr ba-dunk beep.
GWEN: “Oh, guess I do actually. Let me find you her number. It might take a second, I know a couple Sandras.” So, I start going through my phone.
MIKE: “Yeah, that’s okay, take your time.”
GWEN: “Just so we’re clear though, she’s been going through a lot lately, so it might not be best to call her this late at night. Would you guys be able to check in with her in the morning?”
MIKE: “Oh no, that’s fine. We just need a way to contact this person about a piece of potential evidence that was removed from a scene.”
GWEN: “Okay, yeah, not a problem,” and then I give them the number to my landline at my apartment.
MIKE: Oh my god.
GWEN: Remember, Ro is old fashioned.
MIKE: That is absolutely in keeping with the Trouble Aspect that I just compelled on you, so yeah, I’m going to let you make that bad decision.
GWEN: Perfect.
MIKE: Alright, they thank you for the information and they give you a card with the officer’s number, a direct line to the police station that would get you to that officer and tell you that if you have any pertinent information that could help them out here because they’re still trying to follow up on this investigation into whatever was happening on New Year’s morning, they would be very, very grateful for your cooperation and just to give them a call at that number if you have anything that could help.
GWEN: “Yeah, not a problem, officer. I hope you have a good night.”
MIKE: “Well, thank you very much. I won’t take up any more of your time, I’ll let you get back to work.”
GWEN: I give them both a very deep and uncomfortable bow and walk back in the building.
MIKE: He gives you a bit of an odd look for that, and then just says “Have a good night, ma’am,” and gets back into his car.
[MUSIC FADES IN]
DARIUS: Bow to your sensei.
[MUSIC]
MIKE: I’m just going to say that the rest of the day passes relatively uneventfully, because you all need to actually get some rest so that you can be prepared to do the things that you need to do.
THOM: Albion’s going to see if anyone from his group got back to him.
MIKE: Yes. In the evening, Jurgen calls you back because of the time difference, and apparently he likes to get an early start on the day. Jurgen Volandson gives you a call.
THOM: “Howdy.”
MIKE: “Hello again. How has Gungnir been treating you?”
THOM: “Well, I’ve kind of not had much occasion to use it, so, so far so decent.”
MIKE: “Is good. No, this is good thing.”
THOM: “I mean, I’m probably going to have to use it soon though. We got a bit of a wendigo problem in the area.”
MIKE: “Yeah, I heard a bit about this being a wendigo problem. That’s actually why I’m calling you. Do you need some advice?”
THOM: “I mean, I could use advice or maybe backup, but I don’t know. It ain’t just one is the problem. It’s a whole fucking pack of the damn things. Question: Is the plural of wendigo ‘wendigo,’ or is it ‘wendigos?’”
MIKE: “You are asking Swede. I thought you are one that spoke fucking English.”
THOM: “Okay, I’m just going to say ‘wendigo’ is the plural of wendigo.”
MIKE: “да, I can accept this.”
THOM: “It’s like how Pokémon is the plural of Pokémon.”
MIKE: “Now you have lost me again.”
CHRISTINE: Methdigos.
MIKE: “So, here’s thing that I understand about wendigo. Wendigo are not fun to fight. They are difficult to perish. It takes a lot of effort to actually make one dead, but when dead, it stays dead. So, bring big effort. Hit it hard, and hit it hard fast.”
THOM: “Alright, and I have a feeling that something this abomination-like might just be offensive in the eyes of the Allfather, so it might be time that I dust off the old hand cannon.”
MIKE: “Well there is a statistical thing. Do you understand what J-shaped growth curve is?”
THOM: “Yeah, I went to school.”
MIKE: “Okay, so it is that, but taken to extreme. Wendigo are J-shaped growth curve.”
THOM: “Yeah, we want to kill them soon, because the longer we take to put them down, the longer it’s going to be before they’re—the harder it’s going to be, rather. So, they’re just going to—“
MIKE: “Yeah, but you must also understand that all wendigo—this is complicated concept. You can become wendigo, because they represent this idea of J-shaped growth curve in statistics. All creatures in existence want to be on J-shaped growth curve, but that’s why predators exist. Predator–prey relationships, extinctions, et cetera exist because J-shaped growth curve impossible to maintain, resources limited. So, things die off sometimes. Whatever, it’s a whole natural cycle bullshit. Lot of smarter people than me have talked about it, I just watch TED talks. But, uh, wendigo don’t have natural predator, they are unrestricted J-shaped growth curve. They are representation of this, so impossible to ever properly deal with. Individual? Can kill. Idea? No can kill.”
THOM: “No, ideas are pretty goddamn hard to kill. I’m just trying to kill a whole mess of the damn things.”
MIKE: “Well, is fair. Just understand, may have different consequences than you expect.”
THOM: “Most things do.”
MIKE: “Is there anything else I can help you with? I’m going for, I think you call ‘morning constitution?’”
THOM: “Yeah. There’s this app called Pokémon Go, download it. It’ll blow your fucking mind.”
MIKE: “I don’t need to go to polls.”
GWEN: Oh my god, oh no.
MIKE: “I already vote.”
THOM: “I will text the title to you, you get back to me on it!”
MIKE: “I’m sorry, was bad joke, I only know one reference to. Was embarrassing, saw it on YouTube.”
THOM: “Okay, sorry I missed it. I’m very tired, in my defense.”
MIKE: “How did you miss it? You are American. All Americans know who Hillary Clinton is.”
THOM: “Oh shit, that’s what you were bringing up! Ah, hell yeah! That was fucking horrible. ‘I wish they would Pokémon Go to the—’ What that fuck was she talking about?”
MIKE: “You know, I decide to not speculate on this matter, because at this point Game Master has decided he does not want to get into too much of political waters.”
THOM: “Yeah, we should erase this whole conversation.”
MIKE: “No, I’d like to erase from my memory, but I think this is going to be permanently in the world.”
THOM: “Oh, goddammit.”
DARIUS: Womp womp womp.
GWEN: Guys, I can’t stop laughing.
THOM: Anyway.
MIKE: End of scene. Scene is done.
[MUSIC FADES IN]
CHRISTINE: I do know what Desdemona would plan to do this afternoon.
MIKE: What is that?
CHRISTINE: She just wants to go buy some flowers, and she’s actually going to go to a graveyard and visit her grandmother’s grave.
MIKE: Okay.
CHRISTINE: Because the silence is deafening at this point, and she’s a little freaked out, so she needs someone to talk to.
MIKE: You know what? Fair. Sylvester?
DARIUS: Yes?
MIKE: Are you going to be accompanying Desdemona for that scene, or are you going to be doing something else?
DARIUS: I’m going to be buying a shitload of cough syrup.
MIKE: Okay, so is this going to exceed—yeah, this is definitely going to exceed the regular amount that you can purchase once a session with Resources.
DARIUS: True.
MIKE: So, we’re going to have to have you make a roll for that for the cost of things.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: Uh oh, that’s a bad sound. What happened?
DARIUS: No, I just rolled a zero, so.
MIKE: Oh, well that means that you can get something that would cost Resources two.
CHRISTINE: You might have to go to a couple of different pharmacies too. They won’t let you buy too much cough syrup at once.
DARIUS: It’s true, so this’ll probably take a while.
MIKE: Yeah, they kind of know that that’s a thing that people do.
DARIUS: Yeah.
GWEN: Here’s a question though: what if you just Postmate cough syrup from a bunch of different places?
DARIUS: But it’s all got to go to one place.
GWEN: Correct, but it’s not you buying all those things.
DARIUS: It’s fishy as fuck.
GWEN: Oh it is, definitely is.
MIKE: Yeah, and there would be a record of that.
DARIUS: My credit card information.
CHRISTINE: I have a prescription for that, this says ‘I can do what I want exactly.’
DARIUS: Relax, I be a doctor.
MIKE: So, to recap, with your Resources score of two, that’s correct?
DARIUS: Yes.
MIKE: Once per session, you can get anything that’s under $50. So, I feel like the amount of cough syrup you’re getting might exceed that.
DARIUS: This is true.
MIKE: So, you made a roll and you ended up with two total because you rolled flat zeroes, and that lets you buy anything under $500, so that’s definitely a skill roll called for if the item in question is rare, restricted in legality, or has to be acquired within a certain timeframe. Which, it meets two of those conditions.
DARIUS: Yay! Okay, so now what?
MIKE: I mean, it only lightly meets the ‘restricted in legality’ because you can only buy so much at once.
DARIUS: Right.
MIKE: So, okay. Great. So, while Desdemona has a scene, that’s the action that you’ll be taking in the background. I’m going to say that this is happening at about the time that Ro’s scene takes place and so does Albion’s.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: So, Des.
CHRISTINE: Yep.
MIKE: You swing by, I’d say, a pharmacy that’s still open at this point in time and pick up some flowers. What flowers are you grabbing?
[MUSIC FADES IN]
CHRISTINE: It’s probably just some roses and baby’s breath.
MIKE: Okay, great. So, you grab those flowers and you drive back. Do you just park at your own place and walk there, or do you sort of park it closer to the actual grave?
CHRISTINE: I have my bike, so I think I can probably just bike to it through the cemetery.
MIKE: Oh yeah, that’s right, you have a bike.
CHRISTINE: I don’t drive, I bike.
MIKE: Yes, that’s right, you don’t have a car.
CHRISTINE: Ding ding ding ding.
MIKE: So, okay, yeah. You can bike into the cemetery, that makes sense.
CHRISTINE: Well, as I enter the cemetery, I’m starting to kind of reach out kind of energetically or kind of spiritually to see if the deafening silence can have that dull roar of the sound again.
MIKE: You don’t even really need to reach out, you just know. Given your previous roll to determine that the sound or that was gone, you can recognize when it’s come back. It’s a relief, in a way.
CHRISTINE: Okay, yes. It is a relief, yes. So, she continues to bike down and she finds her family tombstone and she finds her grammy’s name and she kind of just sits down in front of the stone and she just starts to sort of absentmindedly trace her grandmother’s name with her finger in the engraving, and she probably starts to talk to it just a little bit, just letting her know what’s been going on with her life, and she starts to get to a part where she starts to talk about the fact that there is something attached to her, something that is from an outside force that’s stronger and above any level that her or her grammy could have had any contact with before, and Desdemona starts to get a little emotional. She starts to cry just a little bit because she’s allowing herself to be vulnerable and scared here, in a place where she’s comfortable.
MIKE: After a time, you feel like you’re a little more comfortable. You’ve been able to sort of express some things that you’ve been dealing with, because it’s been an absolute hell of two days.
CHRISTINE: Yes.
MIKE: So, the last two days have been very much very wild. Possibly as stressful as the entire incident with the hags. You don’t hear your grandmother, but you know that she heard you. It’s not a question.
CHRISTINE: After she’s had a bit of a cry she kind of puts her cheek against the cold stone and touches the stone one more time with her hand and bikes home, hoping that her house isn’t empty when she gets there.
MIKE: Yeah, as you’re turning to leave, you suddenly realize that you are very, very tired.
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
MIKE: And when you do reenter your home, that sort of thundering silence does not greet you. Nothing seems to feel different.
CHRISTINE: Okay. She makes a cup of tea and goes to bed.
[MUSIC; EPISODE BREAK]
MIKE: Hey everybody, it’s Michael, your game master, your best friend in the whole world, but don’t hug me too close this week, because I’m also your sick boy. I finally came down with what everyone else already had, I guess. So, my voice is going to be a little muted on this ad read or this break, whatever this is. Oh geez. Yeah, I can’t even think straight, I love it. Thank you so much for listening, even though I’m a little under the weather right now, that doesn’t mean I can’t thank you. That doesn’t make any sense at all. You’ve stuck with us for episode six. Hopefully you’ve had some laughs, you’ve had some tears, you’ve had some thrills, you’ve had some chills. There’s more of those to come in the back half of the episode, all four of those things, so look out for that. Thanks again to our friends at the Pocket Podcast Network for hosting us, they have all sorts of wonderful shows, and you can listen to them right now, like Home Viewing and No Dice. They’ve both just had episodes come out recently, and Thems The Facts, which is a very fun sort of lying game, which I do enjoy quite a bit. If you wanted to support us financially, I mean you would just be my favorite person, and you could do that mostly by going and buying a Pocket Note and making me read something on air, or sing something, whatever. It’s your money, I’m just going to be your dancing monkey for that. Then it’ll be my money that you gave me. Hooray. Go to pocketpodcastnetwork.com/pocketnotes. If you are still listening this far, hey, why don’t you follow us on Twitter and Facebook at GMMCast. That’s both of them GMMcast for both of those platforms, and if you tweet about the show, please use the hashtag GMMCast. We did not get very creative, but we’re trying to be brand aware. Good. We also have a Discord, and you can play video games like Jackbox games with the cast, so get on that. The link to that is in the description. The link to all those things are in the description. That’s probably a thing I should have said first instead of rambling on. I’m very tired, I’m going to go get some sleep and try to get rid of this cold. Bye!
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[MUSIC; END OF BREAK]
MIKE: Sylvester.
DARIUS: Yep.
MIKE: Since we’re doing a lot of stuff at pretty much a similar timeframe, these scenes—so, Darius, because this is a thing where you are out and about and trying to gather supplies that are definitely going to be used for making meth and I’m going to say you can have a Fate Point if you encounter those same police officers that Ro was talking to. They leave from there and they basically happen to see you leaving a store that you are buying things from, and well, you were there at the same time as everyone else at the waterfront during New Years’ morning, that whole incident, and I’m going to say that they stop and ask you some questions. Would you like that Fate Point?
DARIUS: No.
MIKE: Okay, you will have to give me a Fate Point to avoid the interaction.
DARIUS: Okay.
MIKE: Alright, you are not interrupted. So, what are people’s plans for the day?
CHRISTINE: Well Desdemona’s sleeping.
MIKE: Oh yeah, I mean once the morning comes around.
CHRISTINE: Oh.
GWEN: Yeah, so I need—
DARIUS: I guess the only thing is I would have to get’s lithium and ammonia—
MIKE: Oh my god.
DARIUS: —which I can probably get from the school.
MIKE: Well, yeah. Gwen?
GWEN: Yeah, so I’m sending out a mass text to everyone, kind of explaining what happened with me and the police and kind of explaining everything that I told them, and then asking if either Des or Albion can come to my house in the morning to answer my phone and either pretend to be Sandra, and I will help with the lie, or Albion can say whatever Albion wants and mess with the cops too.
CHRISTINE: I mean, Desdemona’s happy to go be Sandra.
MIKE: Okay. Okay, so Ro is still in the process of information gathering, and that’s a thing you’re doing, so halfway through today, you’re going to get the answers you were asking for.
GWEN: Cool.
MIKE: So, I’m going to say that the contacts that you met last night had to go and make inquiries and they would be getting back to you about them today, and then that’s going to justify the time expenditure of your Contacts roll, so until that happens, let’s have a scene where you and Des talk to the police on your phone.
GWEN: Cool.
MIKE: So, you’re sitting in your apartment and it is particularly early. Des, you turned in somewhat early last night just because of how tired you were, but the police call and they make a rather early inquiry, and Des, I’m just going to say that you got there ahead of time and that’s fine. So, you pick up the phone, and, “This is Detective Sergeant Ditko calling. Am I speaking with Sandra?”
CHRISTINE: “Yes, yes this is. This is Sandra Ramirez, how are you doing?”
MIKE: “Well, I’m doing alright, ma’am, thank you very much. I’m glad that we could finally get through to you. It took a bit of a runaround.”
CHRISTINE: “Oh my gosh, right? 2020 huh?”
MIKE: “Yeah. Anyway, the reason that I’m calling is we have some eyewitnesses that say that you were present during the sort of commotion New Year’s morning. I was there, you were there, we talked.”
CHRISTINE: “Oh my gosh, yes! That was crazy. What was that? Some sort of neighborhood hooligans or something? Was that some sort of weird rave or something?”
MIKE: “I’m not at liberty to discuss details of the ongoing investigation.”
CHRISTINE: “Oh, juicy.”
MIKE: “Especially an investigation that you are currently involved in. We have some eyewitness reports that you did leave the scene carrying some sort of object and we’re not sure—it seems like that might be some piece of evidence that we might want to get our hands on. Yes?”
CHRISTINE: “Well I mean, you heard me, officer, say several times that I was just going to retrieve my boom box and then I’d be on our way, and you allowed me to take my boom box home with me, because that is my own personal property. So, that’s all that I took. I only took what was mine.”
MIKE: There is a moment of absolute silence from that end of the phone.
CHRISTINE: “You doing okay there, hun?”
MIKE: “I am doing just fine, Ms. Ramirez. I’m afraid that the details of that night were a little muddled given the hectic nature of everything, and the amount of information I had to process from that evening, it appears that certain things may have gotten lost in the shuffle. I now do in fact recall that particular conversation that we had.”
CHRISTINE: “Well, I am glad that this is all settled out, so I’ve got a busy day, lots of clients to see, showings and all that, so I hope you have a great rest of your day. Lovely talking with you.”
MIKE: “Wait, before you—“ Do you just hang up?
CHRISTINE: No.
MIKE: Okay.
GWEN: I would’ve.
MIKE: “Before you go, I was curious. Do you have any—since it has been a couple of days now, have you come across any information that may be able to assist in the investigation into the incident of that morning. Do you have any other information to offer?”
CHRISTINE: “Oh no, I don’t. I wish I did, and if I did, I’d be happy to help, but I don’t, so I can’t.”
MIKE: “Alright, well your friend Rochelle does have a number to contact the station, but if you want my line directly, I can—I would like to give you that number so you can call if you have any information that may be able to assist us.”
CHRISTINE: “Oh of course, just a moment, I’ll get a paper and pen,” and you hear some shuffling around.
THOM: That’s some foley work there.
MIKE: We hear some foley—yeah. Okay, he gives you the number with his direct extension, and bids you a good morning.
CHRISTINE: “Have a good one.”
MIKE: Alright, well, that wraps up the loose thread of Michael’s an idiot.
GWEN: No, Michael’s playing a billion characters and has a full story in his brain.
CHRISTINE: Michael’s a busy guy, with lots of hands in many pies.
MIKE: Yep, I’m an adult with many important things to do.
THOM: That’s going to make the TV Tropes page.
MIKE: Oh man. Okay. Well then, let’s move on with our day. So, I guess Sylvester in the background of things, you are trying to secure goods to actually do the ding dang thing that you want to thing thang do, which is cook some meth. What is Albion going to do in the meantime?
THOM: Not have a scene, because he’s had several.
MIKE: I assume you’re just kind of getting some sleep, maybe?
THOM: Albion is—yeah, doing some invocation to Odin, offering of meat and bread, and sort of deep in communion with the Allfather, and with Thor, and then maybe also saying a prayer to the White God.
MIKE: Okay, cool. Are you doing that thing that you can do with Gungnir?
THOM: What thing is that, Guide My Hand?
MIKE: Yeah, that thing where you can drop a Fate Point to swap out any one roll for Conviction.
THOM: I am doing that, but Guide My Hand also just sort of has a passive if something is happening and you need to be there, you will end up there. You have a knack for doing that.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: Gods kind of point you in a direction where you need to go.
MIKE: Yeah, I remember that from the intro test campaign we did where you happened to be in the right place at the right time for that.
THOM: And I Roman Reigns-style speared a troll off a bridge.
MIKE: You did in fact do that thing. Albion’s backstory is very interesting. So, you’re going to spend a Fate Point on Guide My Hand, is that correct?
THOM: No, I spend my Fate Point if I want to swap a skill. Guide My Hand is just an ability I have.
MIKE: Oh, okay, that’s just like the ultimate move version, it’s just a passive thing. Cool. Alright, so you’re doing Guide My Hand, great. Yeah, I’m going to say that the rest of the morning passes without incident. People are able to just do the things that they’re trying to do, Albion gets his invocation going, gets that invocation on, and Ro, you finally get some information from your contacts.
GWEN: Okay.
MIKE: And lo and behold, your father is involved.
GWEN: Shit.
MIKE: So, yeah, amongst the various rackets that your father runs, part of that does involve the drug trade, and you get some information that indicates that a significant part of that drug trade comes in through Burlington. There are access channels that actually lead all the way out to the Great Lakes, so if one wants to smuggle things from Canada or, well, anything connected by the Great Lakes channel system, they can actually do it through Burlington, which is then not too terribly far from where he operates out of Providence. So, you find that a good part of this actually links to some drug runners and actual drug makers that were active in town, and you get directed to a place called the Moran Plant, M-O-R-A-N. So, this particular plant is not active, but it is a famous and historic building that is right on the waterfront. In fact, it is very nearby to Waterfront Park where you encountered the police and the ghost ship and all of that, and the actual ship that surfaced and crashed. So, yeah. You know that it’s near to there, and with a little bit of research, you understand that this is—definitely Desdemona would have heard about this, this particular place, people have attempted to revitalize it and turn it into something new, something different. They were trying to turn it into kind of a community center, because it’s this big old brick building that has a lot of space in it where they could do all kinds of interesting things and really sort of help to revitalize the community a little bit, but in late 2016, there was a community coalition that tried to get this particular proposal passed, it had a lot of support, but then it died in the legislature for reasons unknown. So, it’s basically sat abandoned, but you now have reason to believe it’s not in fact abandoned, but is sort of being used as a place to smuggle drugs in and out. Incidentally, it is two doors down from the US Coast Guard office.
GWEN: Interesting.
MIKE: It’s, also incidentally, basically across the street from the Burlington police department.
GWEN: That’s typical of him. Okay.
MIKE: So, do with that information what you will.
GWEN: Yeah. I’m going to, because I know Sylvester is busy with his supply gathering—
MIKE: This is basically after that. That’s done.
GWEN: Okay.
MIKE: That’s functionally done.
GWEN: I was going to say I’m going to call everyone as a group and see who is up for trying to investigate this area with me. If not, I’ll go alone, but I’ll try to convince any of them to come with me by saying—
CHRISTINE: I mean, I’m already at your apartment, so.
GWEN: Yeah, so Des is at my apartment. So, I’m going to use the line. “I know you guys love fighting monsters, and while these guys may not be monsters, they sure as hell work for one,” and hope that I don’t have to go do this alone.
CHRISTINE: Oh.
MIKE: Oh.
THOM: Text back, “… Ro, are we doing crimes?”
CHRISTINE: Desdemona types back, “Ride or die.”
GWEN: Ride or die gang.
THOM: “RO, ARE WE DOING CRIMES?”
GWEN: It’s just a shrug emoji.
THOM: “Be there in 10.”
MIKE: Albion, does your phone even do emojis?
GWEN: Oh no! It’s just a box.
CHRISTINE: [Crosstalk] face.
THOM: It’s a box with a question mark, and then another box with a question mark, and then another box with a question mark. What does it mean? It means your phone doesn’t do emojis.
CHRISTINE: I used to have an old phone that would do like gobbledygook if I got the wrong emoji sent to me. It would just look like another language, it was horrible.
MIKE: Oh yeah, I’ve seen that. So, is the gang meeting up around the Moran plant to try to investigate?
THOM: Sure.
CHRISTINE: I’m good with that.
DARIUS: Sounds good.
GWEN: Yeah. Is it a crime if we’re stopping crime, but also doing crime?
CHRISTINE: It’s vigilantism.
THOM: “It’s called being a vigilante, and yes, it is technically highly illegal, and yes, I do that often.”
MIKE: Alright.
GWEN: My biggest concern in this is that if we’re right across from the police station, our good old friend the sergeant, Mr. Ditko, he’s going to see us. We’ve just got to be careful.
CHRISTINE: We definitely need to be careful.
MIKE: Okay, sweet.
GWEN: I don’t think he’s Ro’s biggest fan.
CHRISTINE: Why did you say that to the DM? He’s right there, he can hear you.
GWEN: Okay, but I think that was planned for a reason, am I wrong?
CHRISTINE: It’s a trap.
MIKE: Well guys, let’s find out.
GWEN: Oh no! It’s over, it’s canceled. Podcast is done.
MIKE: Okay. The gang meets up at the former city of Burlington electric light plant. It’s an interestingly-shaped brick building. It’s got two floors, and then a bit of a roof with a slightly smaller third floor, and that is basically cut in half, and there is a very tall section that goes up to another row of windows well above a set of doors out to the rooftop access for the third floor, and there is some lettering still on there that says, ”City of Burlington,” but it is no longer an electric light plant, and I believe that those letters are gone, and it is surrounded by a tall chain-linked fence that has barbed wire running across the top in a couple of strips. It’s pretty quiet. Obviously it’s not in active use, at least in any official capacity. No one is visibly inside of there at the moment, and you can see the Burlington police department from where you are, but it’s not extremely visible at the moment, and you can’t totally see the US Coast Guard building from your current vantage point, so you think you might not be necessarily spotted at the moment by anyone you don’t want to be. What do you do?
CHRISTINE: Are there any security cameras around?
MIKE: You are going to have to make me a big old Investigation roll.
THOM: Albion just kind of lowers his sunglasses and leans forward a little.
CHRISTINE: That’s a three.
MIKE: Okay. I keep forgetting I need to set you a challenge, or else it doesn’t work. So, okay. Yeah, I’m going to say that the challenge on that was three, because that’s sort of a baseline for general environmental. You don’t see any cameras around right now. It doesn’t look like there are any cameras monitoring the building, at least none you can see. Because if there were, you recall you are a magic user and you can deliberately hex them.
CHRISTINE: I was thinking that, yes.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: “I mean, I could shoot them, but that’s real loud, and not necessary.”
GWEN: “That’s cooler than me just sneaking over and unplugging them.”
CHRISTINE: “Albion, that brings attention.”
THOM: Albion, you can’t shoot all your problems!
DARIUS: Pew pew pew.
MIKE: There is a door in the fence, and there is a lock on there, and you obviously don’t have a key.
GWEN: Would Albion have bolt or wire cutters in his car that he just has with him?
THOM: Albion? Yeah, probably.
GWEN: Yeah.
THOM: I mean, I got an Aspect literally called I Got A Trunk Full Of Bullshit, Something In There’s Got To Stick.
MIKE: If you want to throw me a Fate Point to have bolt cutters that will get through this lock, then absolutely. I will let you do it.
THOM: Michael, I would like to say that I can justify Albion having bolt cutters without needing a Fate Point.
MIKE: Alright, justify away.
THOM: Albion has to hunt monsters a lot, sometimes that means breaking and entering. Albion probably had bolt cutters, already. Hell, it’s probably part of the Noctis Vigilia initiation kit. So, I feel like making me spend a point—a Fate Point on, say, a silver bullet, or inherited silver bullets, or a crossbow with cold iron bolts, that’s reasonable. Bolt cutters, I can walk to a store and spend five bucks and have them.
MIKE: Okay, counterargument: I’m allowing you to justify bypassing an entire puzzle.
THOM: ...I’ll spend a Fate Point.
GWEN: I liked your argument.
MIKE: Alright, great. So, you have heavy duty bolt cutters, and also this means that it’s your car that’s there that everyone took.
THOM: Oh shit. I probably didn’t put the fake plates on either.
MIKE: Well, that’s up to you.
THOM: I mean, are we within range of the security cameras?
MIKE: You didn’t see any security cameras around this particular building.
THOM: Alright, then that’s fine.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: But Albion is going to find somewhere to park his car that is maybe a block or two away.
MIKE: Yeah, that works. That makes sense. So, you are able to do a little bit of B&E to get yourself onto this property. You make sure that nobody—obviously you look around to make sure that nobody can see you as you enter, and as you approach, you just understand that this place is abandoned and manage to find a door that will actually let you in, and inside you can tell that this is an abandoned plant. It’s a very open and large and reverberant interior space. There are a lot of I-beams and steel pillars that were obviously load bearing, holding up a lot of what used to be heavy machinery, as well as additional floors of a very tall brick building. They’re all rusted. There are multiple sets of metal staircases that lead up, but you don’t see a lot of anything else out there, except for various channels that seem to run through the floor in interesting designs. You’re not totally sure what those channels were used for, but they look like they’ve been there since the plant was in operation. You don’t know what function they served, but there you are. A lot of light streams in through the very large semi-opaque windows. So, it is bright inside, and you can clearly see and make your way around. For those of you who are local, you know that this is where they were planning to put a farmer’s market area.
THOM: “Hey Ro, what are we looking for here?”
GWEN: “Pretty much anything that’s going to be useful. I know from what I know about the situation in other towns there’s going to be a lot of stuff hidden here, or should be. I know they’re running drugs through.”
THOM: “Alright, neat.”
GWEN: “Look for a ledger or something?”
THOM: “Alright, let’s not be long. We got to make this fucking quick.”
MIKE: Okay. How are people going to investigate the space?
THOM: First of all, Albion’s putting on a pair of leather gloves.
MIKE: Okay.
GWEN: Did he bring some to share with the class?
THOM: I don’t know, I’m pretty sure he did not think we were breaking into a drug den. “Guys, just don’t leave any fingerprints anywhere on anything. Please and thank you.”
DARIUS: “So, I probably have medical latex gloves.”
MIKE: Yeah, that’s fair.
THOM: If you have those on you, hell yeah.
DARIUS: I’ll pass them around to the class.
CHRISTINE: “Thank you, doctor.”
DARIUS: “Yeah-huh.”
MIKE: Okay, what’s everyone’s approach to trying to find what they’re looking for?
THOM: Albion is mostly going to be on overwatch. He’s going to kind of be making sure that we’ve got eyes and ears on the door at all times to make sure no one else is coming.
DARIUS: Is he charging his ult?
MIKE: Hey.
DARIUS: Hey.
THOM: Cheers, luv, the cavalry’s here. Alright, no, Albion’s going to mostly be on guard.
CHRISTINE: Could I do a roll to sense the presence of anyone or anything, like on a more supernatural level?
MIKE: Okay, yeah. I’m going to say that this is—I’m going to call this one a four.
CHRISTINE: For Lore?
MIKE: Yes.
CHRISTINE: Alright, that is a five.
MIKE: Okay, I’m also going to tell you that if you beat this by three or more, you’re going to get very specific information. If not, you’re just going to get useful information.
CHRISTINE: Let’s see. Can I tag Hey, I Can Actually Do This?
MIKE: Yep. Justify that for me a little bit.
CHRISTINE: Just Hey, I Can Actually Do This on a more investigatory level for the more supernatural sensing, now that she’s also had a good night’s sleep, so that she’s feeling a little more rested.
MIKE: Okay. You know what? Sure.
CHRISTINE: And I have five Fate Points that I need to burn.
MIKE: Wow.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, I’ve been hoarding.
MIKE: Yeah, clearly.
CHRISTINE: Well Jack keeps coming, and I don’t need to tag anything ever, so.
MIKE: Yeah, you’re welcome.
CHRISTINE: Alright, so I bring that down to a four. So, that would bring it to a seven I think, because I rolled a five, right?
MIKE: You start to extend your supernatural senses into the area to try to find anything that might be, well, supernatural. So, you do start to sense something. It seems like you are finding what you’re looking for, and you know that something is here, but it—it’s definitely a stronger supernatural feeling than you were expecting to feel when you got here. So, that actually makes it easier to try to pin down, because obviously there’s interest in what the source of this could be, so you hone in on this sort of strong aura and sort of triangulate that it seems to be coming from an area somewhere near one of those little channels in the floor, and your sense seems to guide you to somewhere that it doesn’t look like anything, but it’s just part of the floor.
CHRISTINE: Okay. She’s probably going to go to Albion and tap him on the shoulder.
THOM: “What’s up?”
CHRISTINE: “There’s something over there that I sense, but can’t be seen. You ever take down a veil before?”
THOM: “I have not, but—“
MIKE: Sylvester, or and also Ro, could I have you make Alertness rolls real quick? Target is five.
GWEN: Okay. Oh no.
THOM: Just going to say, Albion is drawing his gun. Albion already has his gun out, by the way.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: So, he’s just kind of raising it and aiming it toward that area.
MIKE: Sure. Oh, I haven’t seen the results of these rolls. Oh, there they are. That’s one, and where’s the other one?
DARIUS: It’s going slow.
THOM: Roll again.
MIKE: Ro, did it eat your die roll?
GWEN: I guess so. Does Ro die?
MIKE: Oh wait, there it is.
GWEN: No, wait, there it is. Oh no. Wait, can I roll again?
MIKE: No. So, Sylvester, what's your total from your Alertness roll with a plus one?
DARIUS: Good question. Let’s see.
MIKE: I promise it’s not much longer.
DARIUS: No, I know that, it’s just I’m pretty sure it’s not a big number.
MIKE: Your Alertness is one, so you’ve got a total of two.
DARIUS: Yay! Shit.
MIKE: If you want to, you can spend Fate Points to make this roll.
DARIUS: Yes.
MIKE: Okay. Which Aspects would you like to tag? Desdemona followed some sort of supernatural something to a spot in the floor.
DARIUS: Nobody Likes Wizards!
MIKE: Yeah, that’s a good one. What’s another one that you are going to spend, because you are now one point shy?
DARIUS: Aim Low, Then Go High.
MIKE: Yeah, I’ll accept that, because this is something that is actually kind of sneaky that you’re looking for, so I feel like you have a somewhat deceitful streak running through you, despite not having a good Deceit score at all, so yeah. You happen to see that there seems to be a seam in the floor that doesn’t make any sort of structural sense, and it doesn’t follow any sort of pattern of the rest of the floor and that channels that run through it, so you’ve identified that there is some sort of seam in the floor that’s somewhat square shaped, and looks like perhaps someone was trying to obscure it.
DARIUS: I guess I could call Des and Ro to come take a look.
MIKE: Sure.
THOM: Albion’s just kind of keeping his eyes on that spot that Des mentioned.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: And he’s thinking about opening his third eye.
MIKE: Ro, this looks like it’s a trapdoor of some kind.
THOM: Actually, I know what Albion’s going to do.
MIKE: Okay.
THOM: He’s going to take basically his iron nightstick that he carries around, the light rod he uses, and he’s going to huck it at that corner.
MIKE: Okay, yep. There is a hollow sound when you do.
THOM: At the corner where there is a veil?
MIKE: I didn’t say there was a veil.
THOM: Christine said there was.
MIKE: Christine assumed there was.
THOM: Okay.
CHRISTINE: Sounds like it’s hollow because it’s a trapdoor.
THOM: Alright, in that case Albion’s going to sheepishly retrieve his stick.
MIKE: Alright, so with a little prodding, you can sort of stomp your foot in one spot, and then in another spot, and it does make a very different sound when it’s over that sort of square shaped element of the ground. So, I’m going to say that Ro, you don’t have to make a roll, you can just sort of find the point at which you can actually access the trapdoor in the floor. It’s sort of very nicely hidden in the groove pretty well against the floor. So, you manage to move away this piece of the floor to reveal a ladder that goes down into the pilings under the building that the structure was built upon. It looks like it was hollowed out a little bit, like the earth has been dug out in a significant way, so you don’t think that there was a sub-basement there before, but definitely there is one now.
GWEN: Okay.
CHRISTINE: “So who’s going down first?”
GWEN: “I’ll head down the ladder.”
THOM: “Asps, very dangerous.”
GWEN: “I’ll go.” Ro’s climbing down the ladder.
CHRISTINE: God.
MIKE: Alright. Is everyone going to head down?
CHRISTINE: To make sure she’s okay.
GWEN: Bunch of scaredy-cats.
THOM: Albion’s going down, “One of us should stay topside.”
DARIUS: “I’ll do it.”
THOM: “You sure?”
DARIUS: “Yeah, why not?”
GWEN: “No, it’s okay, you guys stay up here. I’ll go by myself and get murdered,” as I’m climbing down.
DARIUS: Jesus Christ.
CHRISTINE: Well Desdemona’s not going down the ladder.
THOM: Albion’s going down.
MIKE: Okay, so Albion, Ro, and Desdemona are down there, correct?
GWEN: Correct.
MIKE: Okay. As you climb down, you’ve noted that there is a light source coming from down there that you can’t quite understand yet, but you know that there’s clearly something—you can see the bottom pretty clearly from whatever is illuminating down there, and as you climb down, you find yourself in a pretty well dug out area. It seems to be-- there are floors and walls that were constructed in here somehow after the fact, and there are definitely items that indicate somebody has been cooking methamphetamines down here. There’s equipment to do such a thing, there are tables and beakers and equipment and paraphernalia for the distribution of it. You can see that there’s—this seems to be in a sort of disarray. It doesn’t look like, exploded, like a meth lab explosion disarray, but definitely things are strewn about, including... money? Just kind of in various places all around, but none of this is the most interesting aspect of the room.
GWEN: Oh shit.
MIKE: There seems to be an access out to Lake Champlain. There is some sort of tunnel in the pilings that goes out to the waterfront, and there is some sort of metal thing, very oddly shaped, you don’t have time to make out what this metal construction is before the second most interesting thing in the room turns around on his heel.
GWEN: Oh my god.
MIKE: There is a man with shaggy hair and very dirty clothes and a peculiar look in his eye, and then he just says, “Well shit,” and with a snap of his fingers, you all need to make me a Discipline roll, target eight.
CHRISTINE: Oh.
GWEN: Oh my god!
DARIUS: All four of us, or just those three?
THOM: I’m not making this.
MIKE: Not you, because you’re upstairs.
DARIUS: Okay, cool, whatever.
GWEN: Yeah, you’re safe, buddy.
THOM: Guess who doesn’t have any Fate Points and rolled a three total?
MIKE: Okay.
CHRISTINE: I got a four.
MIKE: You got four.
THOM: Burn some Fate Points!
CHRISTINE: I might, yeah.
MIKE: Oh, a plus zero for Ro. What’s that total?
GWEN: That’s a zero.
MIKE: Amazing.
GWEN: So, let’s just say, how many Fate Points would I have to burn to pass this?
MIKE: You would have to not only burn four Fate Points, but somehow give me four different Aspects that you believe justifies why you can not be frozen solid by a magic paralysis trap.
GWEN: Yeah, I can’t justify four of them. Oh no. Guys, we’re in trouble.
CHRISTINE: Well, I might be able to do something interesting.
MIKE: Okay.
CHRISTINE: Because I can spend two Fate Points, can I tag my trouble Aspect, and Sometimes Jack Helps Me, No That’s Bad for both of them?
MIKE: So, you are basically asking to invite Jack into your head in response to a thing that’s happening instantaneously?
CHRISTINE: Yeah.
MIKE: Okay.
CHRISTINE: If I can’t, I don’t have to.
MIKE: I’m going to say that this is all happening so fast that you can’t actively ask for help.
CHRISTINE: Okay, I’m not sure what other Aspects I can tag then.
THOM: Hey, I Can Actually Do This.
CHRISTINE: I already tagged that one earlier.
MIKE: You can tag them again for different reasons.
CHRISTINE: Ah, okay. Could I tag my High Concept, Mouthpiece of the Supernatural as in I can find some sort of Supernatural way to resist this attack and Hey, I Can Actually Do This as in I have a little more confidence in my skills to kind of resist this and have the discipline to overcome it.
MIKE: You know what? Yeah.
CHRISTINE: Cool.
MIKE: I think given that you are a spirit-based caster, I think you can justify being able to resist the effects of this clearly spirit-based or force-based effect.
CHRISTINE: Alright, have my two Fate Points.
MIKE: Okay, give me those two Fate Points. They’re so delicious. So, you are able to actually move and act and react in the round where the following happens. This individual jumps into this odd metal shape, and you hear a bunch of sounds as this thing starts to move. Are you going to do anything of any sort of significance at the moment?
CHRISTINE: Liganta.
MIKE: Okay. You are going to attempt to bind spirit to earth, correct.
CHRISTINE: Yep, I’ll stop you.
MIKE: Alright, I’m going to have you—
CHRISTINE: Where you going, snek? Stop.
MIKE: I mean, that is pretty much what it’s shaped like.
CHRISTINE: Oh, oh great, a giant metal snek, this is great. What shall I roll?
MIKE: Well, you are doing Liganta, which is a three shift maneuver, and you need to roll your Discipline to control that power. You don’t need to roll Conviction to summon it.
CHRISTINE: You said Discipline?
MIKE: Yes.
CHRISTINE: That’s a six.
MIKE: Okay, fantastic.
CHRISTINE: I’m having a night.
MIKE: Yes.
THOM: Hell yeah!
CHRISTINE: I’ma save you with the power of my love.
MIKE: We are rolling a defense against that. Much to your chagrin, the thing does not stop moving.
CHRISTINE: Oh no.
GWEN: Oh god.
MIKE: You hear muffled from inside of this mechanical object that is partially submerged in the water, “What the fuck was that? Oh goddammit, spell casters?” and then as soon as you hear that, you hear some muffled yelling and sort of bemoaning as this object seems to dive into the water, and you realize that it’s not just serpentine. It’s got a much fatter shape in the back.
THOM: Oh my god!
CHRISTINE: What do you know?
THOM: I’m going to let him describe it, and then I’m going to yell.
MIKE: Sylvester?
DARIUS: Yeah?
MIKE: You hear an ungodly commotion and a racket of metal and motion from down the ladder. But incidentally, after a second, you start hearing that same sound coming from outside. How do you react?
DARIUS: Is there a window I can peek out of?
MIKE: Yeah, I’ll say that there’s a window that’s got the same sort of opacity as the other ones.
DARIUS: Alright, cool, I’m going to look through that.
MIKE: Okay. You look through that and you see an object coming into Lake Champlain from a source apparently under the building—
CHRISTINE: Oh my god.
MIKE: -- and at first, you see a somewhat serpentine shaped head and neck, and then a much more fat and rounded middle section with some fin-looking apparatuses.
GWEN: Oh my god.
CHRISTINE: Oh my god.
THOM: Oh my god!
GWEN: Michael, I swear to god.
CHRISTINE: You did.
THOM: Oh no. I’m so upset.
DARIUS: The fuck is that, some kind of eel?
THOM: Is Albion able to move again, Michael?
MIKE: Well, I want to see if you’re still able to move. Like, you’re still recovering from the effects of this as Sylvester is witnessing what appears to be Champ, the Lake Champlain sea monster—
GWEN: Oh my god.
THOM: Mike...!
MIKE: -- from under the former Burlington electric plant.
THOM: Goddammit!
MIKE: But that’s not even the most confusing thing Sylvester is seeing right now.
DARIUS: Well, at least it’s not Ogopogo.
[MUSIC FADES IN]
MIKE: Because while Sylvester thinks he sees one, he in fact sees two.
DARIUS: Oh. Fun. I’m gunna have to cook more meth.
[OUTRO MUSIC]
MIKE: Did you seriously just be like “This is my boom box, I’m taking it home.”
CHRISTINE: Yes, several times. I was just like, “Okay, I’ll take my boombox and leave,” and they were just like, “Yeah, get out of here.”
GWEN: Yeah, I’m fairly certain she said it was her boombox, but that doesn’t make it less suspicious.
CHRISTINE: My boom box, because we were out and about for shenanigans by the water. We do it every year, this ragtag group of friends.
MIKE: Oh my god. Okay.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. I took the boombox and did a tracing spell, then I gave it to Beaumont.
MIKE: You did? Oh, that’s right you did. You don’t even have it now.
CHRISTINE: I don’t even get to—what boombox?
GWEN: Oh no.
CHRISTINE: I’ll need to see the police report, because I don’t recollect any of this.
MIKE: Oh my god. This has gone from worse to worst.
DARIUS: Check minus to check double minus.
MIKE: Yup, that’s right.
THOM: So, what, because you messed up, now we have to deal with the consequences, Mike?
MIKE: Uh-huh.
GWEN: That’s fair.
DARIUS: Oh dear.
CHRISTINE: We’re all going to jail.
MIKE: I believe that’s called a roleplaying game. Oh my god.
CHRISTINE: “Hey Albion, we’re having a lying party. It has bagels, want to come?”
THOM: “I guess.”
MIKE: Okay.
[MUSIC] Pocket Podcast Network. Quality programming, right to your pocket.
Transcribed by Nicholas Johnson (https://draconick.com/)
Twitter: @DraconickGaming