Curseborne - Stealing the Show, Episode 1 • Sponsored by Onyx Path Publishing

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello friends, and welcome to another single serving tabletop adventure from Queen's court games. I am Aaron and tonight I return as the story guide as we walk the Onyx path anew with an early access exclusive. Our dear friends have generously allowed us to peer into the upcoming tabletop world of Curseborn, a game of family, mystery and folkloric horror. We will have plenty more to show you in the 2 hours to come. We will have plenty more to say after the game has ended, but I would be rude to do so without first introducing the three accursed who will be sharing the stage with me tonight. First up, playing the host to a ghost who wants sorrow the most? It is Blake Sweeney. We played a game that has vampires in it. She didnt make a tremere. Big round of applause for v lock. [00:00:50] Speaker B: Thanks guys. [00:00:51] Speaker A: Appreciate you all adjacent. It is gravity, not gravitas. When were talking about this kind of fallen star as supernatural dance instructor Subra Stern hello. [00:01:05] Speaker C: I regret making you make all those s's. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Yeah, there's an audio technician who's just like the word sibilance is bouncing around in their brain. And lastly, joining us once again from their usual perch at transplant rpg as an emotional vampire who is also an emotional vampire playing Lucas Somerset, it is Kai here to be a problem. Pleasure to be here. You can find links to their assorted social media accounts by sending exclamation point cast in chat or use exclamation point game if youre interested in purchasing a copy of Curseborn for yourself back in the Kickstarter. All those things. Also, before we go any further, tonights game contains certain themes that viewers may find disturbing or distasteful, among them anxiety, demons and possession, emotional abuse, drug and alcohol use, and occultism. For a full list because there are more, please type safety in chat or check the show notes below. If you're watching on YouTube or checking via podcast, the cast and I have discussed our lines and veils in advance via session zero. We have a code of conduct that we're gonna follow to ensure a safe and respectful environment, but we want all of you at home to stay safe as well. I'm really proud of this game. It's super good. It is not so good that you need to harm yourself to watch it, so let's all just make sure we're staying on the right side of things. With all of that said, I believe we have a play to catch. [00:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. [00:02:36] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:02:36] Speaker A: Well, in that case, let me tell you a story. Our story begins in a New England college town large enough that we're not in the kind of city where everyone knows everyone's names and everyone's parents names and everyone's grandparents names, but not so large that an individual can get lost in the teeming masses of humanity as one might in New York or Boston. It is a town where the leaves change colors, where the population ebbs and flows, new faces every fall. Dear departed friends, every spring. Tonight, though, we are not traveling college campuses, we are not bar hopping, we are not complaining about the party in the frat house down the street for two very important reasons. One, the three of you are beyond this. Your bodies exist beyond the comprehension of mortals. Your priorities exist beyond those of mortal minds. There are many things an accursed will put up with if it means being able to feed the way they need to feed. But second, and more positively, tonight is a joyous night. A night of celebration, a night to dress up, to put on something fancy, to make dinner reservations. But for real. Because tonight is the debut of the local repertory, avant garde experimental theatre company's latest product. Each of you has your own reasons for attending tonight's premiere, which we will get to in just a moment. But first, let us indulge in a bit of good old community world building. I would like each of you, in no particular order, to submit to me a canonical detail about the play we're about to watch. About the cast of the play, about the theater. Any little spice you want to add a. I'm willing to take a volunteer. Absent that, I will use the die of assignment. [00:04:47] Speaker B: I would love to talk about the theatre. It is a beautiful, ornate theater. It was built. It was built by a local architect who was known for gothic revivalism. It's called the Ophelia. It's very ornate. It has red velvet seats on the inside, you have gold accented walls, and there's this really large chandelier that hangs out in the foyer. When you enter. It feels a little out of place, but at the same time, it feels like it fits into the area. [00:05:23] Speaker A: I feel like this place is entirely too expensive for this repertory theater to afford based on operations. So it has to be the case that the person who designed it, like their wife, was the first experimental theater person in town, or their partner, and it has been left to the company like in the will. [00:05:41] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. 100%, yes. This was built for his partner, of course, who was very much into local theater, and they didn't want to be subjected to the local community college theater or what have you. In the off season, they wanted someplace nice and beautiful and big that could rival Broadway without, you know, Broadway prices. [00:06:04] Speaker A: An artist who found it offensive that they were asked to perform in a small, blank, underdeveloped theater. Never heard of this. Can't imagine that person existing. [00:06:13] Speaker B: Couldn't be me. [00:06:15] Speaker A: I'm not going to say someone's name after that, or it will sound like a personal attack. So, Subra or Lucas, is there another angle to the detail you'd like to tackle, what play we're watching? [00:06:27] Speaker D: So because this is an avant garde theater, they go reaching a little bit further outside for interesting plays to perform. And this is probably the most mainstream they've done in a minute. They're doing the lieutenant of Inishmore, a dark, black irish comedy done in a town that probably does not have a dialect coach. And so it is an irish play being done by a small theater that doesn't have any sort of accent abilities at all. [00:07:03] Speaker A: It is also New England. So some of these irish men are irish by way of Boston, and. [00:07:09] Speaker D: Uh huh. [00:07:14] Speaker A: And then, personally, for me, is this a real play, or is this. [00:07:18] Speaker D: This is a real play. [00:07:19] Speaker A: Okay, then. [00:07:19] Speaker B: I. [00:07:20] Speaker D: It's a play I've actually seen many times. But you may. You may butcher it to your heart's content. You can't go wrong. [00:07:24] Speaker A: I mean, the repertory is. I don't see why I shouldn't be allowed to. [00:07:28] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. [00:07:30] Speaker A: And then for you, Subra, what is something unique about this performance? Perhaps there's a newcomer on the scene who's a big star. Perhaps they've taken a tremendous liberty with the script, trying to flip it on its head or to reimagine it. [00:07:48] Speaker C: Well, one of the things that the theater, the theater owner creator, left in his will is that it still should serve the community in a way. So what they have been doing is like. So basically, there is a open casting policy, not in the way you think that makes sense and is good. If you want a role in this play, you will get one. So every time they do a show at this theater, it is with choruses of dozens in shows that simply do not have choruses. And a lot of local parents find this really great way to get their kids into the arts. And so in this play, which has. I did look it up, probably seven actual roles, there's also a greek chorus of people who are there who have new roles written for lines written for them. It's a little like being cast as a tree in your school play, but everyone's really excited to be there. [00:09:00] Speaker B: I was gonna say, do we have, like, mute Mike, the mailman who just, like, comes on stage and has no lines. [00:09:08] Speaker C: They do. [00:09:09] Speaker D: Also, this is the worst play for this, and I love this. [00:09:12] Speaker C: They do also have a habit. I don't know if they're doing it this time, but they do have a habit of doing a pop number at the end that everyone gets to join in on who is in the show, sort of like, as their curtain call. [00:09:27] Speaker B: Look, if they weren't going to do that tonight, there's no reason I'd be here. Of course they're doing that tonight. They have to be. [00:09:34] Speaker A: I would probably add that this enthusiastic open arms policy includes to every department. So if you want to be a set painter, you don't need to know how to paint or production design. You are allowed to go there. Your spotlight operators, I mean, probably the electrical, they make sure those people know what they're doing. If you have to rig something or plug it in, that's safety oriented. But there's a costume out there made by someone who, like, crochets, dinosaurs for Etsy, and that is the limit of their creative and artistic talent. And your lead is wearing those pants tonight. [00:10:12] Speaker D: Mi Kai hates this. Lucas is going to thrive. [00:10:17] Speaker C: My time has come. [00:10:19] Speaker A: So, having set the scene so wonderfully so, we've established why the community loved this particular performance, but we haven't established why our characters do. When you are playing Cursedborn, every single character in the party is some variant of a cursed being. The nature of the curse changes. The powers that come with it, the things you have to give up for it, those change depending on which particular brand of cursed you are. But in our case, perhaps you can enlighten me about your particular brand of damnation by saying what you might be doing otherwise were it not for this crucially important cultural moment happening this evening. The die says its v. Blake Sweeney. Youre dead. [00:11:16] Speaker B: I am? Very much so. I mean, ish, yes. Technically, yes. Um, yeah, I I mean, that's. That's literally the name of my lineage. I am indeed a member of the dead. I just so happen to inhabit a body that didn't have any other inhabitant before it. It's fine. Um, but tonight, uh, if I wasn't going to be at this, uh, wonderful event, uh, I would actually be out, uh, keeping a watchful eye on any of the people that I work with. I am an in house therapist for very, very high ranking, kind of, like, secret government and government adjacent companies, just dealing with people who have a lot of secrets that weigh very, very heavily on them, that they need to share things that they may feel guilty about. You know, just. It's fine. And there are times where I need to kind of get a little bit more information than they are willing to bring up in our sessions. And I do this by, well, going incorporeal and just kind of enjoying my time out of body and experiencing life without restriction. [00:12:44] Speaker A: How many times over the course of your career has someone said, I don't know. I don't know if I can trust them with this? And you've said, don't worry, dead men tell no tales. [00:12:58] Speaker B: I try and avoid that, actually. I'm not that quippy. Weirdly, most high ranking execs in the businesses that I'm in don't find things like that funny, especially when you're dealing with folks who may find themselves in lines of fire or in positions where their jobs may be at stake. It's not really something. It's kind of like shouting fire at a movie theater or bomb at an airport. You just kind of don't really do it. [00:13:29] Speaker A: Well, that's on me. I did not pick up national security. I thought we were going a different direction. And, no, you are absolutely correct. And thank you for your restraint. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [00:13:39] Speaker A: Well, for our other accursed, the die comes up four. That means it is Subra, what would you be doing were it not for what will surely be the most talked about thing on the regional theater circuit for, like, years to come? [00:13:56] Speaker C: I actually regret to say I would be here. I planned on being here because they're. Because one of my students choreographed the show. Again, this is the show that does not usually have dancing. And I just want to support my kids, and I want to support my students, and I do find the whole endeavor incredibly earnest. And for that, I have to go. [00:14:30] Speaker A: There's something appreciable and honest about that. But beyond supporting your students, I understand the need, if you're a parent, to go suffer through some kinds of theater. But surely if it were as bad as you think it might be, this could be the one where you're like, no, sorry, I have an out of town thing. What makes you routinely make it? Why are you a season ticket holder? As opposed to just a. A wander on in lookilu? [00:15:00] Speaker C: It's the connection to everyone else. You're for one moment with everyone in the space enjoying this, having the same experience. And it. It's the closest I have felt to what they feel. I just want. I just want to. Even in the strange nuances they make, this feels like unique human culture in a way I want to understand, and I have to keep trying. [00:15:34] Speaker A: They are people pretending to be people. You are up, not people pretending to be people. Theres some value in that. Ive been waiting for this answer the whole time. I personally, as the story guide, know a lot about Lucas, but I cannot wait for the audience to find out. What would you rather be doing? [00:15:58] Speaker D: Well, rather is the wrong thing. Originally on my calendar tonight was the local book club at the little coffee shop. But because the technically, there's no leader, it's a book club. But because of course she had to be in it and sort of cast herself in one of the lead roles, the book club's leader, in quotes, were leaderless is not available to run the book club. So book Club was canceled, which is unfortunate because we were reading some New New York Times best selling self help book. But instead I could have been haunting the squash ball at the gym or, I don't know, there's always some obnoxious person in the park yelling at birds. But I am so excited because I make a point to go see these shows. Maybe not on opening night, but opening night for this one just sounds too delicious to resist. [00:17:05] Speaker A: Based on my own personal real life experience with theater, I am certain that sorrow, regret, disappointment in self is an emotion that will be present, to say nothing of many, many others. It is a buffet, to be sure. [00:17:23] Speaker D: Sounds delectable. [00:17:25] Speaker A: The town is big enough that one can disappear, but that's less true for the accursed. You have a way of leaving your touch on the world. Uh, it is not necessary to see a ghost leaving a body. If Blake decides to perhaps avoid traffic for the day by just bopping down to Trader Joe's without driving, it leaves a mark on the world. Likewise, Lucas, you might have caught glimpse out of your eye of someone who's in the traditional vampire sense, you get that feeling of them hearing the heartbeat or like seeing the vein of the neck. There's an element of that, of being able to detect the human in the human. Every now and again to the corner of your eye, you just see that energy that is far too bright to be coming from one of the mortals. Likewise, Subra Blake. There are some people, you've probably met them at the store coming in one day, they are loaded to the brim with some kind of tense emotion, something on the cusp of bursting. And then you meet them the next day. It's gone an entirely different personality. Most people attribute that to hard therapy or harder drugs. But, you know hungry. When you see one's leftovers. So, that said, you are likely aware of one another in this particular city. That does not mean you're friends. It does not mean you agreed to come together. But if you did, I am desperate to know what the conversation is like in the lobby. So, first question. Would you have agreed to come together? Do you know each other in that way, or is it the fact that in the lobby, it is impossible to avoid each other? And you can say, ah, you're the one I've been seeing and speak in polite circumstances. [00:19:31] Speaker B: I think Lucas and I definitely know each other. [00:19:34] Speaker D: That makes sense to me. [00:19:35] Speaker B: Yeah, we've partied together before. We have very similar appetites, I guess you could say. And we play off of each other very, very well. We have very important skills that we can bring to the table that work well with each other. [00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:52] Speaker D: Maybe met at awake or some sort of moving event that all of these living people are so infatuated with. [00:20:04] Speaker A: I don't know if it's entirely the correct vibe, but I imagine that Lucas is the kind of person with a certain sense of humor who also is not entirely interested in Blake Sweeney as, like, a complete human individual. So it would make sense to me if in his phone it was not Blake, but it said, like, thirst trap, as in the trap I use to get other people to slake my thirst. [00:20:28] Speaker D: It's nice that you think that he puts people's names in his phone. If there's a name attached to it at all in the system, it's just like a number or a location. It is where this person was when he met them, at best. Sometimes it's literally like that voice to type just, oops, I accidentally pushed the microphone and there's just something there. He doesn't really pay attention to that, and his phone is kind of a mess. [00:20:59] Speaker A: So this one just says funeral home. [00:21:03] Speaker D: It might just say funeral, and that might be the whole thing. [00:21:08] Speaker A: Excellent. Well, then let's start there. And to set the pace, we'll have that conversation happening, and then Subra enters it at some point and your little accursed sense starts tingling. [00:21:21] Speaker B: Wonderful. [00:21:25] Speaker D: I think if it's good with uv from fully in the lobby, having set himself up to sit on one of the very few benches and stuff that they have clearly in there for, like, elderly people who actually need to, like, sit. And there's this, like, prim and proper college type guy sitting on. On the bench waiting. And when you come in, you just hear, I think, over any other, like, excited family sounds and, like, normal sounds that people have in the. In the lobby of a theater, Blake Sweeney. If I live and breathe. [00:22:05] Speaker B: Every time, this is not the first time Lucas has greeted me like this. This won't be the last time that Lucas has greeted me like this. And every single time Lucas greets me like this, I just roll my eyes. Like, I strain my eyeballs, rolling them so hard, because, oh, my God, it was maybe funny the first time, but at this point, it's been, like, 70, 80, 90 times. It's not funny anymore. But I will turn and I will say, lucas, it's always great to see you. You look wonderful, as always. [00:22:39] Speaker D: Thank you. You smell delicious, as always. [00:22:45] Speaker B: Well, thank you. Thank you. Are you excited about tonight? [00:22:52] Speaker D: So excited. I heard that they got all of the murder out of this story entirely. I cannot wait to find out how. [00:23:01] Speaker B: All of it. [00:23:03] Speaker D: All of it. [00:23:04] Speaker B: There's none. [00:23:06] Speaker D: None. None at all. Everyone lives. [00:23:08] Speaker C: The playwright is really excited about it, actually. At least the one who adapted it. I think this is. Subra is trolling the lobby in the way that, like, saying hi to her students or, like, the families of students who've come in. I've seen Lucas and Blake around. Blake, everyone sort of shines in the same way when you're. When you're accursed. Blake is sad, and I just. And they seem to have an understanding of emotion in a way that I really crave. And I can fix Lucas. I know it. So, yeah, I think heading over, just sort of sliding over, like, recognizes, like. And I'm so excited that. I'm really excited. You're here to enjoy this with me. [00:23:57] Speaker D: Oh, my goodness. Aren't you so scrumptious looking? Um, hello. Uh, you are subra. [00:24:11] Speaker C: Then I'll hold a hand out. [00:24:14] Speaker D: You get the limpest, like, awkward. Like, almost fist bump. Kind of, like, little bit cold palm. Like, how do I. Oh, and then, like, a kind of a, like, loose pinch, pinch finger shake. It's not even a real handshake. [00:24:31] Speaker C: It's the polar opposite. I will shake for you. This is things people do. [00:24:36] Speaker A: I'm imagining a version where someone goes in for, like, the victorian era. I will just daintily hold your hand. [00:24:43] Speaker D: Yes. [00:24:43] Speaker A: And then Subra goes in for the. Nice to meet you, sport. And that is the. What we see. [00:24:49] Speaker C: It's the music teacher. Two hands. I'm so happy you're here. [00:24:53] Speaker A: Even more awkward. Even better. [00:24:57] Speaker B: Oh, I'm. I am watching this, and there's. There's. There's a. I'm enjoying this because. Oh, that's. That's not anything that Lucas is ever used to. And Supra has a very unique energy that is lacking in this dynamic. [00:25:14] Speaker A: Otherwise, not quite bright enough to make up for your respective lack, but giving it a good on a shot. [00:25:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know, double nothing is still nothing, but I mean. [00:25:35] Speaker D: Subrah. Subra. [00:25:38] Speaker C: Yes. [00:25:39] Speaker D: Subra. Hello. What are you, a spotlight in this show? What's the story here? [00:25:49] Speaker C: Oh, no, these are. I teach at the local dance academy, and I'm just as the disco ball as the. I teach dance. [00:26:10] Speaker D: Close enough. [00:26:11] Speaker C: A lot of the kids I teach are in the show. [00:26:16] Speaker D: Oh, I'm so excited. [00:26:18] Speaker C: Right. They're so sweet. [00:26:19] Speaker D: There's kids in this show and their. [00:26:23] Speaker C: Parents are all here. [00:26:25] Speaker B: Is that why there's no murder in the show? Because of the children? [00:26:30] Speaker C: That is my assumption. In the spirit of community, they're rewriting a lot of. They've allowed some of the students who are in the community college to work on sort of a writer's room rewrite of the project. [00:26:44] Speaker D: Oh, that's that adaptation course. Yes, I work at the college, you see. Oh, I've heard a little bit about it. They tend to talk to us. But I work in classics, real literature. [00:26:56] Speaker B: Have they ever thought of just writing something new instead of butchering existing works? [00:27:09] Speaker C: Oh, I'm sure they do that, too. [00:27:16] Speaker A: I don't know what you mean. There is no art without transferring information. [00:27:24] Speaker D: Well, cannot wait to see what they've done with this. We'll call it a loosely embraced play, not necessarily a classic. As people have said. There is a difference, you see, classics have to be from a certain point in time. People think Shakespeare is a classic. That's not true. Either are classics. Right? You understand, right? Subra. [00:27:53] Speaker C: I'm so sorry. A point in time like a. Like they have to take place at a certain point of day. [00:28:04] Speaker B: Can I. To interrupt this line of conversation, because Lucas can just go on a tangent. I am actually going to activate creepy doll just for a moment. All I have to do is I'm going to inhabit the chandelier, and I'm going to flicker the lights on and off to signal that the play is starting. [00:28:29] Speaker A: With the knowledge that when you do this, you are a corpse. [00:28:34] Speaker B: I'm standing. Yes. And if anybody were to actually look, yes. They would notice that something is wrong. But my body doesn't fall to the ground. It just exists, standing as it was. Just for a moment. Just for a moment. [00:28:50] Speaker D: Just a little rigor mortis as a treat. [00:28:52] Speaker C: You ever want to get out of a situation so hard, you die. [00:28:59] Speaker A: Then we arrive with confusion in the theater, obviously, the ushers are not ready, but the crowd has been programmed, so the light goes. People start to move. They get to the doors. The doors are like, actually. And then someone with a very beat up, like, stage manager microphone kit can't really hear because it's an old building, and you kind of have to lean around the corner if you want the radio signal to make it. Just trying to figure out what to do. But that's only the left side, whereas the right side, the guy's just like, oh, okay, cool lights is letting people in. And so it begins. You're not sitting together, so some of you will be stuck in the one line. Some of you will just be powering through for the other. But eventually, the confusion will solve itself. A very exasperated stage manager loses, like, a year and a half off of their life as the heart rate goes, and they're already at quite severe risk. So I wish them the best. And then the lights inside the theater will dim. The music that does not belong in the original and is performed by a band where anyone is allowed to join begins. There is a delightful beginning. Timpani roll. As all orchestral songs must begin with a timpani roll and then a very low woodwind, and then someone's very enthusiastic child rips into a triangle solo on top of it. You can see if you're close enough in the front seats that somebody in the section is, like, putting the thing down. Eventually, the play begins. Whether or not it is good is. How can one even say this transcends the critical realm? It exists in a place all its own. So different from that, what we know, that we must create a new critical rubric to sufficiently encompass what has happened here. You leave feeling full but confused. Confused. When the intermission begins, there's not even, like, a murmur of discussion. There's just people who have. There's a certain feeling you get when you watch Tommy Wiseau's the room, and it's that vibe in theater being digested by, shall we say, not the most studied or experienced audience. So I imagine this takes the entire gamut between Lucas reaction, but there's also a 35 year old guy who's just trying to find good things to talk about, being nice, and then someone who doesn't know this person but is of the community trying to internalize that as legitimate criticism. And, like, did I miss the point? Did this guy get it? And that is the vibe. But much as this play and its, uh, its myriad parts are an interesting bit to think about, it does not actually come tomorrow, what will be the most interesting part of your day? Because perhaps you get a cocktail to fake drink, as is the way perhaps you head outside to loiter with the smokers, who are obviously pretending to be the most intellectual. That is why they smoke in a college town. Or perhaps you're just sitting in the lobby, standing quietly, watching people performing human around you. But eventually we return to our seats. The music begins. They've taken the triangle away. That doesn't mean the person on the clarinet can play any better. The show continues. We reach a moment of dramatic climax in this film, or, sorry, in this play, and I have not read it, but I'm going to guess and see how close I get. There's a crucial moment where the. The female lead, who they have gender flipped for this performance, not out of any need for the story, but, like, just because. Why, let's make it slightly different, is in a battle between doing the thing that the other lead character thinks is the best, or charting their own course. Are they going to be a follower? Or are they going to be a leader? And in the play, this person is supposed to be interrupted by a knock on the door. A child, perhaps their childhood. The way this has been rewritten, perhaps it's an insert of the newsies musical. Who knows? But the door knock sound effect comes over the speaker, and everything's frozen for a moment. Not frozen, like out of time and space, but frozen as you see the actor ready to do the next thing. And then there's an awkward moment somewhere up in the tech booth. They're like, did the thing? No. Push the button again. The sound effect knocking happens again. Nothing. If you peer up and look, you can kind of squint down into the front row and you can see the stage manager stand up, turn around, look at the back of the theater, up into the booth at the top, where there's a technical director, some other person. They're communicating. And then, seemingly without their knowledge, the stage curtains begin to swing shut. Not in a malfunctioning way, but just in like a. How rapidly can we get these to shut? The lights come half up, but not all the way up. Someone comes over the intercom and says, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry, if you could please just keep your seats. There's been an issue with the performance. We're sorting it out, but please just hold it. [00:35:17] Speaker D: The voice over the intercom has to speak over Lucas, standing and clapping. [00:35:25] Speaker A: I bet you are not the only one. I bet there are certain people there who have just gotten, like, the biggest brechtian. [00:35:34] Speaker D: He took the opportunity to lead the, of course, grand applause for this artistic choice. [00:35:42] Speaker A: I don't know that the number of people who join you will meet the moment as you imagine it, but as you remember it, they will have. [00:35:54] Speaker D: I'm brilliant. I know. [00:35:58] Speaker A: This proceeds for a good while, actually. It's 20 or 25 minutes before you get any more information. And people want to stand up and leave, and they're saying, no, you have to keep your seats. Now, there's a gimmick for the play, right, but that couldn't possibly go on this long. And we live in a certain millennium, so there aren't that many compelling reasons why they would ask everyone to stay put. There's an issue that is not the kind we need you to evacuate the theater for, but the kind we do need you to stay put for. And as you're doing that math, or maybe not in Lucas's case, who might be just. This is great. They went for the gag, but now they're going the whole way. This is. Oh, that's so brave. Right? [00:36:46] Speaker D: Smells delicious. [00:36:49] Speaker A: It is likely not until you hear sirens outside, not the ambulance or fire kind. And then some uniformed officers appearing in Silhouette as the doors finally opened. They don't speak to anybody. There's no searching the audience they like. One pokes a head in, one goes. It'll be 15 minutes more before they let you out. Now, over the course of this, you can't communicate with each other, but if you wanted to bother a neighbor, if you wanted to postulate or in lucas, if you wanted to address the audience in its entirety, feel free. What would that look like? [00:37:35] Speaker C: I'm going to start making my way, if I can, through the audio. Like, out. I have a center seat. This would be. If this was a play anyone wanted to see, this would be an amazing seat. But I'm going to see if I can make my way to the wings. Like I said, a lot of my kids and one of my students is working the play. Maybe I want to see if I can kind of get towards there and see what's going on. [00:38:07] Speaker A: Looking to peer into the pit, or are you trying to peek into the curtains? How? [00:38:14] Speaker C: On either side, there's usually little doors that'll let people go from the house to backstage. I'm gonna see if. I would like to see if I can get over there, or at least pier, if not to the pit, just find someone I might actually know. [00:38:27] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure you can. I think it will become a role because at this point, you have to convince a stage manager that or a stagehand that you are who you say you are. Or if they know who you are, you have to persuade them that it's okay. You just want to check on your students. But in either case, that will probably be persuasion and I presence. If you're doing it based on. Do you know who I am? Or manipulation. If you're doing it on, like, I need to check for my students. And if you had students you cared about, you'd understand, right? [00:38:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Why didn't I take persuasion? That's just a flat manipulation. That's just my manipulation. Stat. [00:39:08] Speaker D: So that's four dice, first roll. [00:39:12] Speaker C: Why would you let me make that? Oh, no. [00:39:15] Speaker A: What do you mean let? You asked to. [00:39:16] Speaker C: I know. I don't know why I did that. I was being brave. [00:39:20] Speaker D: So proud of you. [00:39:21] Speaker C: That is a single hit. [00:39:25] Speaker A: Well, that works out entirely. Well, you only need one to do the thing. This wasn't an especially difficult bit. Can't purchase any tricks, but there are also no complications to buy off. So you have someone who you've probably seen adjacent in the theater universe. They know who you are. It doesn't take that much pushing to let you go backstage rather than have you bounce person to person interrogating them. I assume you find one specific person to either check in with or, like, your designated gossip mom, right? [00:40:02] Speaker C: Yes. Oh, I was gonna go some way. You've got. I've gone another way. Student. Who was the choreographer? Choreographer? Her mom is here. She is egg shaped, mouse brown hair clipped up. She takes her job as stage mom very seriously. She has bullied her way into being the mom who runs all of the younger kids in the theater. She has large plastic framed glasses in red cat's eye and is wearing the widest scarf that she will never hesitate to tell you is from Italy. But the city it's from changes every time I've seen her. I don't have a solid enough understanding of geography to tell her she's wrong. [00:41:01] Speaker A: No, but at some point, it becomes self contradictory to remove all doubt. Mm hmm. I'm also imagining this person holding a clipboard. But it's not a clipboard with, like, actual stage information on it. Like, she's printed out her own spreadsheet that has things she cares about on it. [00:41:19] Speaker C: Like, it is a plastic build your own binder agenda that she has purchased from the local craft store. And it is mostly her daughter's agenda. [00:41:29] Speaker A: Got it. Does she know you as Subra, or do you use a different name? [00:41:34] Speaker C: Miss Subra. Miss Stern, one of the two, depending on how much she respects me. [00:41:38] Speaker A: So then when you see this woman, it is Subra, because she is ghost white, full panic mode, obvious elevated heart rate, eyes a little red, but not in the crying way, but just in that stressful maybe weepy body is starting to activate the survival glands. The reptile brain is kicked on, and the anxiety is building. And you see, even as she's holding the clipboard, it's kind of shaking in her hand. So she's physically still doing the stage mom pose, I assume that's the thing. But also trembling slightly as she holds the clipboard. And so when you appear, at first, she doesn't even recognize you there. Right. You can't just creep into the side of her vision and expect to be noticed. Instead, it is like, oh, God, Subra, when you finally speak or move. [00:42:35] Speaker C: Is everything okay? Misses Cline. [00:42:38] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Did they not. No, of course they wouldn't tell you. No, no, there's a. There is. Lucy is missing. [00:42:51] Speaker C: Okay, uh, um, what do you mean missing? [00:42:55] Speaker A: I mean, they. They checked the costume room, they checked the bathrooms. They checked the. The juice box table, they checked the orchestra pit. They asked the triangle kid, and, like, no one can find Lucy. [00:43:05] Speaker C: Okay, well, sometimes Lucy gets a lot of stage fright and needs to go under the stage in the pit. Did you have anyone check the pita? [00:43:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, they've checked out. It's been 25 minutes. They're looking outside now. Like, are there tracks in the leaves? Were there cars that left? Like, we can't find Lucy. [00:43:32] Speaker C: Okay, calm down. Everything is going to be fine. [00:43:45] Speaker A: Okay? Oh, okay. [00:43:52] Speaker C: I don't know how to talk to adults. [00:43:58] Speaker A: To your great credit, I don't imagine this particular person is going to remember the details of this conversation since that's not how the adrenaline brain works. But there are similar levels of panic being manifested in different ways wherever you look. Not everyone is willing to be interrupted, but there are some people who. You might imagine someone whose job it is to watch the backstage doors so that no kid runs out into the fire alarm. That person looks terribly guilty. There's somebody else in costume who is like, I saw Lucy. I put her in the newsie outfit. I had the cap and everything. I signed off on that. Did she make it to Jeff? Jeff's the one who. Who, like, works the side. I don't know what it's called. Where, like, the place you would put an adult to hold a child back when they need to. Like, I will let you know when it's time to go on stage when your cue is, did he make it to that person? And that person's like, I haven't seen Lucy all day. Like, she was here for rehearsal. And, like, there is just this mixed reporting, confused details. Some people earnestly trying to solve the problem. Some people going into full damage control. I don't want to be wrapped up in this mode. It's kind of a mess back there. [00:45:12] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't do great in panic situations, mostly because I don't know how to react to panic situations or how I'm supposed to react or they are, but we can figure it out. Okay. I'm gonna step back out into the front of the house. [00:45:29] Speaker A: Yeah. You don't want to spend back there too long for no other reason, because you've been around panicked humans enough to know that you don't want to be caught up in it. Right. [00:45:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:37] Speaker A: So you've gotten a little bit of information, but it's time to go. They will eventually let you leave the building. It becomes apparent after the fact. The first thing they did was search the cars. They were looking for tracks, checking surveillance footage, and they didn't want everyone in the middle of that. Once they realized that they either found what they were looking for or couldn't find what they were looking for, then they were willing to let people go. That does not mean you have to leave if you intend to stick around. But I will let you know that it is considered an active crime scene. So there are, I'm not going to say law enforcement professionals, because it's kind of a small town. So this detective is not the best. But there is some poor dude and his exhausted partner. He. And they are gonna have a really busy night doing something they are not at all qualified to do. [00:46:34] Speaker D: On the way out. And it's been running for a moment now. Lucas has been live streaming on his phone, the phone that he's very bad at operating, but he's been walking around just like, selfie camera on. I'm so scared of. I heard that there's something terrible and saying all of this very loudly and is, like, walking with people as they are trying to leave. [00:47:09] Speaker A: I expect that provokes one of two kinds of reaction. People who shove you and people who just quietly one hand, like, I cannot say no enthusiastic takers, no one willing to participate in your person on the street interview series. But damn it. Yeah. [00:47:28] Speaker D: Then I look for the intellectual smoker circle once more to just go and loiter nearby and continue to loudly talk. [00:47:37] Speaker A: To my phone because you are engaged in this loud activity. I'll ask you to roll for this. Let us call it survival and cunning. [00:47:53] Speaker D: Ooh, cunning. Rough. All right, one of them escaped. [00:48:04] Speaker C: Get back here. [00:48:09] Speaker D: That's no successes. [00:48:14] Speaker A: Now that whenever information has just been lost to. It's hard to see that close to the glowing super intellect that is Lucas. Right. A very bright star washes out all the color in the room, obviously. That said, blake checking in with you. [00:48:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I don't, uh, really have a horse in this race. Um, but, you know, we did just make friends with Subra, so I think I'd probably go find Subra and, uh, see what her plan is, um, or if she heard anything, because it's a little weird. But, you know, I mean, if there's a. If this is somebody's fault, uh, there. There may be somebody who's feeling awfully guilty about that, and, you know, I'm. Could use a snack at some point. [00:49:11] Speaker A: So good to see that your priorities are aligned correctly. Missing child. At least their mom will be edible. [00:49:20] Speaker B: Look, I'm just. I'm not a detective. Theoretically, the detective will find the child, but, I mean, you know. [00:49:33] Speaker C: I'm hungry. [00:49:36] Speaker A: Well, this meeting will be difficult to have inside, if here's your intent, there will be people ushering you out, some of them wearing uniforms with badges. So happy to have this happen in the parking lot, but that is where it will occur. [00:49:47] Speaker B: Yeah. I would kind of be looking out for Subra at this point. Like, if Subra is planning on staying behind versus going outside, that obviously changes it. [00:49:56] Speaker A: But in that case, Subaru, having spent more time in the back, I expect that Subaru will exit second, or rather second, between the two of you. It seems like Lucas is first, then Blake, and then Subra, not in rapid order, but just for the chronology of myself. So as you exit, there's a sound. It is difficult to place, and it doesn't come from the crowd, and it doesn't come from under a nearby rock. It just kind of arrives. It sounds in terms of volume and echo far away, but in terms of, like, physical proximity to you, very close. And it's quite simple, just fainter than I'm doing it now. But if I do it too quiet, no one's gonna hear it, but a very faint ba ba da ba ba ba. Just like this haunting, empty echo. Ba ba da ba ba ba. You only hear it once, but I'm repeating it for your benefit. [00:51:17] Speaker B: Does it look like anybody else heard anything? [00:51:21] Speaker A: It's fairly slippery for one. That's difficult information to parse right? Because, like, imagine the face you would make if you'd just heard a strange noise. You'd be like, hmm. That's also the same face you'd make if someone was, like, giving you their theory about what had just happened in the theater, or if you didn't know there was a missing child but were still trying to figure out why they were going to do the newsies inside of the show. Also, it's possible someone didn't hear it because, like, at one point, someone was trying to get in their car and leave, but then another something was showing up, like an ambulance, and then there was honking. You can see Lucas with literally a spotlight shining down into his face. You know, why he didn't hear it. And based on the volume with which he is speaking, it is likely no one around him heard it. But none of that is about the noise, you know? [00:52:15] Speaker B: Mm hmm. Okay, well, if nobody else heard it, it could just be weird. My weird brain doing weird brain things. So I will head on over to Lucas just to make sure that he also didn't hear it. But, yeah, chances are not high. [00:52:39] Speaker D: Oh, blake. Blake, come here. Come here, everyone. I found one of my favorite hosts. Haha. And blake, dear. Well, do you have any information about this strange evacuation going on? It's obviously some state of grand emergency with all the emergency vehicles and everyone screaming and running. [00:53:03] Speaker B: Oh, yes. You know, it is mayhem here at the theater. Honestly, I'm surprised that you found such a quiet spot here with all of the mayhem that is currently around us. But, you know, I've heard tale that there was an abduction. It could even be a serial killer in the making. Just, you know, there are. There are so many theories that are. That are running around right now, and, you know, it just. Ooh, there's. Hopefully we'll figure it out soon. And, you know, gosh, I am definitely terrified for my life at this point. [00:53:42] Speaker D: Absolutely harrowing, everyone. Well, for now, flex signing off in case there's another emergency and immediately cuts it as fast as he can. [00:53:51] Speaker A: Two things I want to add. One, if you are in a real emergency situation in your real life, do not do this. [00:53:57] Speaker D: Do not. Do not do this. Do not do this. [00:53:59] Speaker B: Do not. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Do not do this. [00:54:01] Speaker B: We are literally monsters. [00:54:03] Speaker A: Second, as Blake is ending their explanation to you, there is a sound you hear. Lucas. Blake, you did not make this sound. You do not hear this sound. But Blake, to the end of it, like, maybe it's a serial killer. I don't know. We'll have to find out. And then you hear that? [00:54:28] Speaker D: I think he visibly jumps in the ruse of this horrible Persona that he puts on, especially to do things like livestream terrible events kind of drops as he kind of cuts a very looking, knowing eye that there's something strange on the air, and immediately wraps that into a really unsatisfactory end to his live stream. He's like, oh, okay, you have to go. Bye. And then he's looking around for a source of sound. What could possibly. If someone's got an errant fiddle laying around or someone's turned the exterior speakers on in the theater or something like that. [00:55:10] Speaker A: Let's call that intellect and culture. [00:55:14] Speaker D: That is one. Ooh, this is fun. I rolled a critical success on my curse die. That's all I succeeded with. [00:55:26] Speaker A: Okay. [00:55:26] Speaker D: But it's two successes on my curse die. [00:55:29] Speaker A: Well, Subra gave us our first failure of the game, but Lucas has the honor of giving us our first wicked success. When you roll dice in Curseborn, you have a number of normal, ordinary dice for your pool. We add two things together. If you've played any kind of pool based system game before, you know how that works. But as a cursed, as you indulge in your particular hungers, as you embody the lineage or the family that you belong to, you accumulate cursed die that replace the dice in your pool. These can be used to activate powers. Some only require you to have a number of dice in the pool, as Blake's power does. Sometimes you have to spend them. There are lots of ways to use them. But when you roll and only succeed on your curse die, that means things have gotten just a little weirder than they should be. Likewise with failure. We'll wait to explain that until it happens, but for now, Lucas, you get it's special. [00:56:33] Speaker D: Just like me. [00:56:35] Speaker A: The reason I asked for the culture roll is because this is a very particular kind of noise. You imagined a fiddle, perhaps. It sounds like a doppler effect. The. [00:56:46] Speaker C: Hmm. [00:56:47] Speaker A: And there's a definite change in volume and pitch. And the culture piece is because that is a harmony. It is the specific sound that a specific kind of college acapella group ends. Their jokes, their songs, their statements. With it is peak barbershop quartet as performed by a legacy admission to Yale. And you get that not because you recognized it through culture, but because when you reach out to grab that memory and think about it, you. It's like grabbing a lightning bolt that exists in. In the cosmos around us. You haven't reached into the. Into the space and grabbed a. A shooting starlet's passing by you've, like, accidentally gripped the curtain too hard and pulled something else with it. So you hear that sound in its entirety, in its fullness, in its truest form, and that's scary. As a hungry, you are used to invoking the accursed world on your own terms, and you might encounter it in an understandable form in speaking with Subra or Blake. It is not a Lucas Somerset experience to just have the outside being like, hey, bro, thanks for calling. Haven't talked in a while. And so it was soft when you heard it. When you try to remember it, it is incredibly loud, obviously wrong, and immediately sets that part of your, like, there's that part of your hungry body that really likes being alive and doesn't like to be threatened. And that part is on edge. [00:58:52] Speaker D: Something's wrong. Sorry, some, um. There's a sound. Um. Do you feel something wrong in the air? [00:59:10] Speaker B: Story guy? Do I feel something wrong in the air? Okay. [00:59:15] Speaker A: Uh, well, I mean, there's, like, an aura coming off of Lucas, but that's probably just Lucas. [00:59:19] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's normal. Uh, no more than usual. [00:59:25] Speaker D: Like, I'm being serious. I mean, and he actually, like, drops his voice. He purposely isn't drawing attention. Something's wrong. [00:59:41] Speaker B: Wrong how? [00:59:44] Speaker D: I could feel it. Um, you know when this is maybe a bit in poor taste, when someone steps over your grave or, uh, you know, the knowledge that someone around the corner maybe has an affinity for silver or anything like that. [01:00:06] Speaker B: Hmm. [01:00:11] Speaker A: It's. [01:00:13] Speaker B: It's weird that I. Like, if there was something like that going on, that I wouldn't also feel it though. Um. [01:00:25] Speaker D: Hmm. [01:00:26] Speaker A: We'll let you two chew on that for a moment, because we did leave Subra behind. And as we approach our break, I assume that Zubra is not live streaming. An ongoing tragedy and thus possessed of their entire faculties and is not staying in the building. Trying to convince the police that a dance instructor is crucial for this process. Yes. [01:00:50] Speaker C: Oh, my God. No. I'm actually trying to get out of here as fast as I can now. I have a habit of being a little too off putting to be around police. [01:01:01] Speaker A: Then you will exit the building, Blake and Lucas, in the live stream mode. You don't quite know when Subra leaves. Subra sees you. I'm assuming you'll be heading in that direction, and we'll pick that up after the break. But you'll each have a slippery piece of information to hold on to that establishes a fact you already know something supernatural is going on. There's a child missing, and between the three of you. The noises played in order would be Blake. Ba ba da ba ba ba. Subra hearing ba ba da ba da. And Luke is hearing. Mmm. And we will see which of our audience members took a certain kind of degree program when we come back from our break. For now, this is the first half of Curseborn. Stand up stretch. Do not livestream tragedies. And also be curious about people who are being incredibly rigid in theater lobbies. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Welcome back, viewers, and welcome back, accursed. We've had an opportunity to take our little break and then discuss some potential venues, avenues, rather avenues out of the venue. There we go. That's why I make the no bucks as we continue our investigation in Curseborn. So it's going to be the case that at a certain point, loitering outside of this building is going to be suspicious. There will be that initial moment where they know that people are processing things. There's an EMT on site just checking in. Did anyone have an anxiety attack? Do we need handing out water? Things like that? The staff are there. How do we shut this down without. Also, there's a crime scene, so I can't pack these things up. I imagine that there is a. I've picked on costume designers. I've picked on stage managers. There is a lighting designer who is, like, about to argue with a police officer about why those lights cannot be left on this long. Eventually that will be resolved, but as that winds down, you do not want to be the only people here. So two questions. First, we'll use game changer rules. First person to give an answer to the pick where you're going to meet up at a later date. Tomorrow night or tomorrow morning or whatever. [01:03:48] Speaker C: As everyone is starting to flood out, I do feel find Lucas and Blake. And it is. I would. Damn it, that's good. I would argue that Lucas has never seen anyone look at him with such hope in a way that clearly belies that Subra has no idea this kind of person. [01:04:14] Speaker D: No, she's never met this. [01:04:17] Speaker C: I've met this, but not this. And just the biggest, shiniest eyes finds both of you and takes your hands earnestly. There's something terribly wrong and we can't talk here. [01:04:38] Speaker D: I was just saying that. [01:04:42] Speaker C: There'S a 24 hours diner we can reconvene. I don't. I don't know if you eat, but people eat jitters. [01:05:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Let's go. Come on. And I'm going to kind of corral the two of them and, like, head towards the car, because at this point, Lucas is just going to keep talking, and Subra is obviously going to keep talking, and somebody has to do. Do the walking. [01:05:16] Speaker A: Every group meets that friend. You said jitters. Is this like a diner or. [01:05:21] Speaker C: It is a 24 hours diner. It is tonally dissonant from the rest of the town. Actually probably works pretty well with the rest of the town in that they are staunchly unique. They're staunchly not a franchise. The woman who owns it has probably owned it for a. For multiple decades, and the coffee has been in that pot for as long. [01:05:50] Speaker D: Actually, I eat there quite often, and. [01:05:52] Speaker A: I don't know if you did this on purpose or not, but immediately following a theater production, regardless of how it ends, where do people go? [01:06:02] Speaker B: Denny's. [01:06:02] Speaker A: 02:00 a.m. but not Denny's in this town, because we are liberals who support local businesses. Yes. I will give you all the benefit of the doubt that you can sort yourself into cars, respectively. They have searched vehicles to make sure there are no children in them. So you can take your car out, but that way we don't have to worry about in the future. You have to go back and get yours. Whatever. We make it to jitters. [01:06:28] Speaker D: Get into my Hummer. [01:06:31] Speaker A: Do you mean the h two, the production version? Or do you mean, like, the Schwarzenegger Humvee? [01:06:37] Speaker D: No, no, no. At h two. [01:06:39] Speaker B: H two. [01:06:40] Speaker A: Okay, look, it could have gone either way. Don't make it sound obvious. [01:06:46] Speaker D: Champagne. H two. [01:06:51] Speaker A: Now, because I have to know, or I think I can guess that Blake drives something, like, a little flashy but economical. You drive a civic, like. But the sport package. [01:07:03] Speaker B: Oh, no, I definitely. I have money, right? I have to look like I belong in the businesses that I work for. So I drive, like, mid tier Audi. So, like, not super high, not super low. Just like, something that is, like, respectable. [01:07:22] Speaker A: Fair enough. Subra. Whether or not you have money, I imagine you drive something terrible. [01:07:31] Speaker C: I'm a dance teacher who has an identity via an eldritch league of deal makers. I drive a Honda civic that has seen better days. [01:07:41] Speaker A: Old civic. Mm hmm. [01:07:44] Speaker B: Oh, the 1998 Honda Civic. That was a good year for sure. [01:07:47] Speaker D: Hell, yeah. [01:07:48] Speaker C: Yeah, it runs. One of the doors is not the same color. [01:07:54] Speaker A: Then to start the joke, an Audi, an ancient Honda civic, and a hummer. H two. Walk into a Denny's. It is. Yes. There are people here. There's an amount of adrenaline that comes with the kind of experience people have just had that demands greasy food, cannot go home and lay down. It is not overflowing with creatives eager to celebrate their particular part of the performance while blaming failures on a different department. But there are some people around. I think it is probably the case that you're going to want to compare your notes first. Well, one particular series of notes first and then the next bit. So let's begin there. You've ordered your coffee or your two sunny side up, whatever the combination is, and then conversation. [01:08:54] Speaker C: One of the. One of the kids is missing from the play and no good explanation as to where. [01:09:06] Speaker D: Does mid play. [01:09:11] Speaker C: Yes, that is why it is an emergency. I guess it's an emergency after as well. [01:09:20] Speaker B: Well, I mean, yeah, obviously, you know, she checked in because you wouldn't have started the play if she wasn't there to begin with. Did you happen to get a look at any of the dressing rooms or, like, any place that she might have been? [01:09:36] Speaker C: They have looked everywhere. It is safe to say that she. They would not call the police if she was not missing. Missing. I'm more concerned about the fact that. I'm more concerned about the fact that there seems to be something else in the space. Or rather. [01:09:56] Speaker D: So what did you feel, hear, smell, shine on? [01:10:06] Speaker C: I feel like you're making fun of me. Here. Yes, here. Music. [01:10:20] Speaker D: Just any music. Like la, la, la. [01:10:26] Speaker C: Music. Outsider kind of music from not here, but music that was composed here. [01:10:38] Speaker D: Oh, my goodness. So did I. [01:10:44] Speaker B: Did we hear the same thing? [01:10:50] Speaker D: Well, mine was just kind of a single section, a chord, if you will, a harmony of notes. [01:10:59] Speaker B: That's not what mine was. And I hum mine out, too. [01:11:06] Speaker D: Wait a minute, do that again, Blake. [01:11:11] Speaker B: Fine, and I'll do it again. A little bit louder. Kind of annoyed. Just a twinge of annoyance at the back end. [01:11:17] Speaker A: Can I pause to ask, scale from one to ten? How tone deaf is Blake? Cause I trust Luke's ability to put together, but I wanna know how bad it sounds when you do it. [01:11:27] Speaker B: It's a little flat. It's probably about a four. Music is nothing. Not my strong suit at all. So just a little flat. And I assume that subra, at some point after hearing this, would say, oh, would it be more like this? And then correct the pitch. But that's neither here nor there. [01:11:44] Speaker D: Got it. [01:11:45] Speaker C: Thank you. And then second verse, same as the first. A little bit louder and not as bad, actually. [01:11:54] Speaker D: Doesn't that sound familiar to any of you? [01:11:59] Speaker C: Um, only in the fact. Only in its, um, not here nature. [01:12:06] Speaker D: It. Okay. But the music itself, the other part is bad. Bad. I don't. I don't know if you know this, but some others of my kind are a little distasteful, and I can't help but feel like maybe there's something bad happening that I don't really want to get involved with. But the music that I can kind of understand. [01:12:29] Speaker C: Something bad is happening, and I right to the. [01:12:33] Speaker D: To the human child person. [01:12:37] Speaker C: Yes. [01:12:39] Speaker D: Yes. [01:12:39] Speaker C: And they're not equipped to handle this well. [01:12:48] Speaker B: Okay, so if it is our thought, then that whatever happened to this small human has something a child has to do with us or, you know, those like us, then we probably shouldn't leave it to mortals to figure out. [01:13:16] Speaker C: Story guide. Would this feel like an outcast thing? Would I be able to notice this? [01:13:25] Speaker A: There are certain elements of it that are in the outcast neighborhood, but it's not something you can chase too far without running into a problem. It's outcasty in the way that it evokes that outsidedness that you're aware of, liminal spaces that touch just a little too close to the beyond. You all are. The outcasts avoid them for different reasons than others, but it's a thing. You are also aware of the ways in which others hunt. So Blake could say, no. A dead would definitely do something like this to terrify a bunch of people. Likewise, Lucas, you could think of a reason that a hungry would act this way. More likely, each of you can find a way to pin it on the other, because to the degree you are attached to your lineage on a personal matter, there's still that me and my brother against my family, me and my family against my village kind of vibe. I think it would manifest with Subra first being like, yeah, it's probably outcasty, but it's definitely more hungry. And that conversation could play out. You don't have to, because at that point, you're just kind of sniping at each other, and it makes me feel weird when friends fight, but, yeah, it's an angle you could pursue if you wanted to zero in on which kind of lineage is most likely to have perpetrated this. [01:15:05] Speaker C: I would like to rather, instead of snipe against people who are just as lonely as I am, I think rather try to triangulate what would hunt children in this way. [01:15:21] Speaker A: To the great credit of the authors of the book, there is no group of lineage that explicitly targets children. You're welcome, Onyx Path. But then you have to think about, you can rule some things out, right? Yes. It's probably not the vampire that eats ghosts. It's probably not a primal because they have a different relationship with their curse. So it's not a shifter. If it's a dead, it's going to be one of a few kinds of dead. I if it's an outcast, it's probably not the battlefield angels. It could be a munificent looking to trick people in a very, like, I will exacerbate the amount of fear and then use that to scare people. And scare people. Right. Could work. The ones that. And sorcerers. Like, everybody hates sorcerers, who is not a sorcerer. And also sorcerers hate sorcerers. So there are some you can rule out based on their nature, and there are a few that make sense, but it's too broad a category for you to really zero in without another piece to put in that puzzle. [01:16:37] Speaker C: I can probably get us back in the theater when they're all gone. [01:16:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't need to go back now. [01:16:49] Speaker D: I think this whole time, Lucas has been rearranging the music because even though me, Kai, fully understands this lucas, this is not necessarily his wheelhouse. He just happens to know random things. He's trying to put together what the music means. He's like, yes, yes, the small human also needs help. But why this? What is. What are the notes? [01:17:18] Speaker A: I also think that, like, this particular musical is beneath Lucas. Right? Yeah. [01:17:29] Speaker D: He listens. He. He goes home and listens to, like, obscure european composers. [01:17:37] Speaker A: If you want to do. To do that puzzle, you could do intellect and enigmas. If you wanted to go at it. You could also Subra and Blake. If you want to get this information in character specifically, that's fine. It is not so important that I'm also just not willing to tell you because it feels a little silly making kai and Clara especially roll to recognize the music, man. [01:18:01] Speaker D: I'm okay with making Lucas roll. I think it's funny. [01:18:06] Speaker A: Then we shall proceed. Let us see how correct we are about Lucas Somerset. [01:18:11] Speaker B: I love the idea that Subra sitting there, like, knows what this is, has already pegged it, and didn't think it was important enough to mention. And Lucas is just like, what is it? [01:18:21] Speaker D: Yes, what is it? [01:18:23] Speaker B: Gotta focus really hard. [01:18:25] Speaker C: I'm worried about the child. And Luke's is like. It means something. [01:18:31] Speaker D: It's so funny to me that I only seem to be succeeding on my curse. Die. It's the second time you've only got the one. [01:18:41] Speaker A: The odds of this are difficult to achieve, and. Yeah. [01:18:44] Speaker D: Yeah. It's just the one success on my curse die. [01:18:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, then this will provide an interesting clue, but perhaps not in a way that you wanted to. [01:18:55] Speaker D: I love that. [01:18:56] Speaker A: It is impossible at a certain point to keep it in your head, right? If you're trying to place a song, you're gonna sing part of it or at least vocalize a little bit. And this time, the first time that you heard it and you thought and it was bounced on your brain, that was fine. But now you have vocalized it, you have brought it into the world, and just not important except for a bit of flavor. Do you do it in the correct order? [01:19:27] Speaker D: I think eventually he does hedgesthe, does them in every order, maybe way too many times. But then eventually, yeah, it's like, no, it's got to be this one. And actually. [01:19:41] Speaker A: And then you hit that barbershop quarton on the end, and as you finish that, there is, like, a millisecond beat. And then the glass in the corner of your booth, spiderwebs cracked. Not shattering, not dangerous. But imagine, like, a small pebble has hit it, and then there's just this. [01:20:05] Speaker D: Big cracking piece is up rail straight. [01:20:11] Speaker A: And then people all over the restaurant are just like. [01:20:19] Speaker B: The fuck? [01:20:23] Speaker D: Huh? Haunted melody. [01:20:29] Speaker A: There's someone who doesn't realize what's going on, and you say that, and they think it's a funny joke, so they kind of giggle, diffusing the tension. The manager has appeared from behind the kitchen now and is like, oh, son of a bitch. Not blaming you, but I very insistent for liability reasons, that you need to move to a different booth. And, like, I can't kick you out, but if you wanted to leave just for my sake, like, wouldn't mind. It's fine. Like, this table. [01:21:01] Speaker C: It's okay. Not everyone knows their own strength. [01:21:06] Speaker D: I didn't do anything. It just cracked. [01:21:10] Speaker A: Intellect and esoterica would be the figure that out. Skilled. I'm gonna ask you to not keep rolling those kinds of failures because my creativity in a denny's does have limits. [01:21:31] Speaker C: Okay. Two hits. [01:21:36] Speaker A: Awesome. In the investigation, since there's not a lot of tricks you can spend. So the easiest way for you to resolve that is to get the answer and then also gain one momentum. [01:21:48] Speaker C: Awesome. [01:21:49] Speaker A: Yeah. Asking question tricks. It doesn't make sense for you to roll this onto another target, right? And in fact, it's quite simple. Right. You said the magic words, and the thing happened. These words. This thing has powered as part of an incantation and through a combination, weirdly, of correctness and also ignorance. I think the hubris being the glue that make that particular sandwich come together. Lucas essentially said the magic words, didn't say it correctly, obviously didn't have the full incantation or something, but got close enough in some kind of ritualistic performance of, like. I know we've been avoiding the s word, but supernaturalism, that part of what that energy is supposed to do worked. [01:22:47] Speaker C: Mmm. Oh, no. Okay, well. Hmm. That seems bad. [01:22:55] Speaker A: It does narrow it down, though, because who has to use ritual to do magic? [01:23:06] Speaker C: Oh, no. [01:23:11] Speaker D: Something to do with numbers. [01:23:14] Speaker C: Oh, no, no. Over here, buddy. Oh, dear. It feels sorceress. [01:23:27] Speaker D: Like magical numbers? [01:23:29] Speaker B: No, like a spell. [01:23:33] Speaker D: Like a spell. [01:23:34] Speaker A: Oh. [01:23:36] Speaker D: Or whispering. Well, yes, a spell is possible. [01:23:41] Speaker A: Could also be outcast, but less likely. [01:23:50] Speaker C: I'm willing to put my money on a sorcerer first. [01:23:56] Speaker D: Well, that should be easy to sniff out. [01:23:59] Speaker C: Well, I don't think I've seen any outcasts around, and that's usually a thing we can note. And also, sometimes people, like other people like to come by and say hi and not rub it in my face. That would be a mean thing to do. [01:24:20] Speaker A: This gives us the answer. To what, but not who or why. [01:24:29] Speaker D: Well, if we think that we're looking for a sorcerer, I think. And he looks around this diner at all of the miserable, confused, unhappy people that might be here, I wonder if anyone's seen anyone casting any spells. You see, I know a thing or two about books, and those people tend to cross over with my interest. [01:24:57] Speaker B: I can't imagine a sorcerer would just take a random child. Perhaps the parents have seen something, somebody that shouldn't be where they've been lately. A weird pair of eyes. [01:25:15] Speaker D: Just eyes that I. [01:25:18] Speaker B: Yes, Lucas, just eyes. Not a body. Just eyes floating in the void. [01:25:23] Speaker C: I can talk to the parents. [01:25:25] Speaker B: Okay, yes, that's. That's a great idea. I think talking to them is probably good. I'm sure the cops are talking to them right now, so maybe want to wait, but. [01:25:35] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, that and maybe. Also, I talked to one of the stage mom. Like the chaperones, she didn't see anything. But maybe Lucy's parents did. [01:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah, or someone. You haven't made a full survey of the cast and crew? We'll say. Yeah, yeah, that's two angles to pursue. There are three accursed sitting here. Is there something else we can think of? You have a ritual you mentioned you need a specific child. That might be something to tug on. But then why would you need a specific child in a way that connects with something else you already know? We know there's some kind of spell ritual thing going on. Who's doing it? And why do they need this, kidde? Could it be any kid? Is it this kid. Hmm. But in pursuing that, it seems to me like we have one idea to go back to the scene of the crime, and we can bring our ecto detector kits euphemistically and see what is around. EMF reader was the thing I was looking for, but I got lost in Ghostbusters for a second. There's also the social angle of asking, hey, has there been anyone around unusual? You can ask that question of the parents. You could also ask that question of other accursed. Maybe there's a new person running around the region. And then lastly, yeah, this ritual element. Are there rituals that are musical in nature, or does it at least attach to some other form of magic? Who might know that? But those are three areas that we can touch upon. But rather than have you dig into that now, because I can see the wheels turning and two things are happening. You're like, who do I talk to? And how do I make it entertaining to listen to? And I appreciate both of those urges. So I want to give you some time. Just as the stage techie body needs greasy bacon and pancakes at two in the morning to fuel itself before, one assumes doing the next show the next day, so too, does the accursed need to fuel themselves. And if it is a sorcerer, if this is a capital s supernatural situation, you probably don't want to run in with just the basic amount of access to the things that make you good. That's fine for dealing with mortals. They don't know what hit them, but probably not the best to go in just willy nilly with the bare minimum, which means you will want to find a way to stock up euphemistically. So we've had the meeting, we've established the clues, and I feel like you all kind of have that same look. It's a little gauche to discuss. I'm gonna go find a lonely person and consume their humanity for my benefit out loud. But there's a. You all know, you all know. There's also something kind of deeply private about it, which is why I'm going to make you explain it to me for the benefit of others. So let us begin there. We know that we're going to continue the investigation, but in the time we have remaining, we'll considering this the the closing shot of our first episode as the unlikely found family story. This family hates each other, goes off to their own businesses. What does that scene look like? It can be immediately after now. It can be immediately before arriving together. We'll say at the theater, it can be anytime in between, but approaching the situation, knowing that you want to really be ready for something. Where do you go and who do you go to? [01:29:53] Speaker D: Well, Lucas has been kind of never giving up the hunt this entire time. He came to this theater production to meet someone who was probably standing outside smoking, who's had a notepad out off and on throughout the production, someone who's paying attention, who maybe actually knows what the play is supposed to be about at all and would love to strike up a conversation and make this person regret ever starting it. [01:30:29] Speaker A: Clarifying question. Do you find someone you know you can upset or. Because there's two versions of this one. Lucas taking the easy route, and then there's also Lucas playing with his food, whereas let me meet someone and find out how I can upset them. [01:30:44] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that the goal tonight was to try something new. You know, it's a new show. It's maybe a new crowd, or at least a different version of the same crowd. So when he was out hanging out with the smokers and talking loudly, he was also looking to see who was listening, who was purposely avoiding looking at what he was doing or listening or responding and, like, holding back some commentary of, like, hey, maybe, shut the hell up. He's looking for that person. [01:31:12] Speaker A: And remind the audience what your particular feeding preference is. [01:31:17] Speaker D: Lucas prefers as he feeds on any emotion to upset and devour the frustrations of intellectuals. [01:31:28] Speaker A: Not hard to find piles of those in a college town, some of which genuinely enjoy this kind of theme, or some who were pulled there by people who genuinely enjoy it, that they would like to date. In either case, some number of them are smokers. I imagine this one smoking club cigarettes, because that somehow makes it worse. [01:31:47] Speaker D: Yep. [01:31:49] Speaker A: And now we have a ride. We can all picture this person in our heads waiting for an Uber outside jitters. No need to drive. It's college town. But it's late, and there might be a serial killer. According to a local expert on the news, we want to play it safe. So you see this person separated from their friend circle, and thus, I imagine the theory goes, from the network of restraint. It's one thing to pick a fight in front of your friends and your. Your partner or the person you are courting. It is quite another thing to just lash out at a dude in a denny's parking lot. [01:32:28] Speaker D: Well, and Lucas is many things, but he's nothing stupid. When he hunts, he loves upsetting people. He loves upsetting people in front of other people. But also, he wants to come again, eat the same food. Sometimes, you know, sometimes you really like that particular meal. So in this case, I think he slyly offers, instead of them getting a, you know, paid Uber ride. Well, I have my car right here, and we were talking briefly back at the theater, so why don't I just give you a lift? The town's not that big. [01:33:08] Speaker A: A combination of the simplicity of it. There's probably also, because you are a regular attendee and adjacency, that they might know you specifically, but they know you communally. And whether or not this theater has broken stairs, I'm sure they all have missing stairs, I believe, is the theory that we're using here. Intellectual dude by himself. What does he have to worry about? So it's that right balance of I am not enough at risk, and I am exhausted enough to not want to wait for someone to come from the other side of town that will put this person in your car, I guessing. [01:33:50] Speaker D: Also, there's something deeply disarming about a guy in a mis buttoned hawaiian shirt wearing flip flops asking if you want to ride in his hummer. [01:33:59] Speaker A: The flip flops, I did not know. But do really tie the whole image together. The intent to be to not only isolate them, but also capture audience. Yeah. [01:34:14] Speaker D: And so it's on the drive. I'm doing something nice for him. He should be grateful. And so as the conversation goes from, well, what do you think about the original intention of the play versus the adaptation and all of that stuff, and it becomes more and more about, well, I think that they were making incredibly intelligent choices by adding music and removing this death and, oh, doing it without blood and glitter instead is actually a brilliant and inspired choice. And they should have been doing this on the off Broadway production as well. Not being afraid to throw in when I'm a classicist. So, of course, you know, when you talk about the perspective of the bacchanalian sort of view of theater and really just laying it on as thick as humanly possible and making this man probably fully loathe talking to Lucas, he's doing something nice. So it's like adding seasoning of how this poor victim of this man just wanted a ride home. [01:35:14] Speaker A: And then what is the form the feed takes? The hungry do have to consume. For some, it's fairly straightforward. They can drink the blood, they can eat the heart. But when you're trying to get an emotion out of someone that's a little different. How does that manifest visually? Or how do you imagine that looking for Lucas? [01:35:36] Speaker D: There's a certain threshold. He is drawn to what he thinks smells good, and it's just like an ambient displeasure. People just kind of unhappy. Like, he loves people having to wait in long lines, that sort of thing. Just an ambient feeling. But when people begin to get heightened, I mean, technically it's any heightened, but his favorite is when people are frustrated, angry. He can see it kind of come off of them in waves. And I think usually he looks very unassuming. He's just kind of a bland looking guy with a slightly receding hairline on, somewhat like, dirty blonde hair. He's just a really normal looking guy. But once he can see that, his eyes just flash this red. And the very few vampiric features just kind of creep out as he just inhales that, like, almost mist, this miasma of rage. [01:36:46] Speaker A: And you cannot consume without actually removing it. So I imagine for the victim, there's this cliff of emotional drop that comes immediately after that. You've gotten this guy worked up enough that, like, face turning red, like, fist under the jaw as he's arguing with you. And then eventually, you just say the one line that makes him snap, and it's like, hand comes down, and then it's like, both hands on the. On the glovebox, like, look. And the cannon is loaded, the range is dialed in, and it is time to pull the little string and make it go boom. And you just absorb all of that. And without responding, the argument isn't necessary anymore. Without, like, the emptiness from having all of that emotion exit the emptiness of the abrupt end. There's no denouement here. It is just a cliff. There's a hollowness to that emotional experience that you can just see. And it's not pale in that you've been drained of blood. And it's not pale as in scared. It's just eyes that don't know where to look. A slightly confused thought train. A body where the adrenal system is saying one thing, but the brain is saying another and trying to power cycle the electro machinery until these experiences make sense. [01:38:29] Speaker D: And I think right as the silence is almost too long is when the really loud Hummer stops at the destination. [01:38:38] Speaker A: Excellent. And then he just gets out and turns to look at you. And this is the part where he's supposed to say thank you. But, like, what is gratitude? Where does that emotion live? I'm not entirely sure right now. So it's just a confused look back at you and then turning and slowly, not drunkenly, not wobbly, but unsteady in themself as they make it to their residence. [01:39:11] Speaker D: And that incomplete argument that was cut short by the feeding almost reflects back on Lucas, as there's this hollowness where part of his humanity remembers what gratitude looks like. But this is how he encounters most people. He doesn't actually know what gratitude looks like anymore. [01:39:36] Speaker A: That is dark. Well, Blake, Subra cannot imagine that it's any easier for you. [01:39:52] Speaker B: Well, it's a little easier for me, because unlike Lucas, who has to eat whatever it is that he eats, I just have to try out a new body. Life is boring if you never change your hair or your clothes or your nails or anything. This is why people wear makeup, and this is why people get their hair done and dye their hair crazy colors. But as a shade, I am uniquely equipped to be able to just change bodies when I want to. With a couple caveats, obviously, being that they can't already. I can't, like, possess somebody that's already, like, got a soul in it. [01:40:47] Speaker A: Very important one. [01:40:49] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, as far as they go, sure. So it's very fortunate that I have made friends with somebody who works at the local morgue. Don't think too hard about it. [01:41:08] Speaker A: What's this person's name? [01:41:10] Speaker B: This person is Andre. Andre Thompson. Mm hmm. [01:41:15] Speaker A: That. That is fair enough. And I'm about to ask a question that I really do not want. Want to commit to recording, but am required to. You don't have a ton of options in terms of people who have recently died in this town, but you do have some options. So which model are we joy riding tonight? [01:41:40] Speaker B: Um, so that's. That's kind of the fun part about my torment, is that sometimes it's not up to me. It's kind of whichever is in the vicinity. Because typically what happens is we hop down into the morgue and we place our current body somewhere safe. And then when we exit that body, it's kind of whichever body has the biggest pull at the time. Yeah, so I actually. I have a list of pre made ones, so I'm going to roll a d ten because I think it's more fun that way. So today it is. Professor Lila Montgomery. She is a 64 year old historian and, hilariously, professor of occult studies. Did not plan that, I promise. [01:42:35] Speaker A: And then what does one do? [01:42:38] Speaker B: A lot of times, it's just kind of taking it out. Lila is taller than. Than my previous body. It's about experiencing the world from a different height. Playing with hair that isn't mine, enjoying the world from a new perspective. [01:42:58] Speaker A: Okay. I feel like all of these things different, they're still. What's a thing this body can do or can't do that. Your old one can. Cause I'm imagining if I were short for a day, I would be fascinated by the new eye level. What does the world look like when you're five? Two? Or if I were tall for a day, like a puppy that has grown its legs but does not know, I would be smacking into things and learning things about the body. So what's, um, what's something fun? Is not the correct word unique about piloting our dearly departed professor compared to the day to day of Blake Sweeney. [01:43:52] Speaker B: So she was a historian and professor of occult studies, but she also liked to run marathons. So she. Her body is very lithe and very sinewy in a way that mine has never been and will never be. I cannot imagine getting enjoyment out of running, but here we are. And so there's a speed that comes with long legs that I've never experienced before, and having a body that is poised to run, we kind of do that. I'm sure if I was in a different area, it would be very strange for a woman to be out running in the middle of the night. But, you know, we'll just put. I have headphones in. This is the safest time of night for me to run. Obviously. [01:44:41] Speaker A: That visual is incredibly bizarre. I am fond of it, but the idea of, I've never run a marathon, and I want to see what it feels like when, when. And you're just going? [01:44:50] Speaker B: Just going, yeah. [01:44:51] Speaker D: Yep. [01:44:52] Speaker B: I don't have to worry about lactic acid buildup. Like, just. Let's go. [01:44:57] Speaker A: Yeah. What do you, like, pretend to breathe, like, for the experience, or is it really just, like, robot? [01:45:04] Speaker B: No, it's really just going. I mean, I don't. I don't have a heartbeat. My blood doesn't, like, pump through the body or anything like that, so I don't have to worry about it. It's just kind of going to go. This is actually one of the reasons that I have to, like, help Lucas find food, because if he ever were to, like, bite me and, like, drink blood or, like, any of his friends were to do that, like, I would run out of blood, and I have no way to, like, rebuild it. So, um, yeah, no, I don't. I don't have a heartbeat. I don't breathe. I don't. I don't do. Because I haven't. I haven't taken a breath in so long, I I don't think I'd remember how to even, um. So, yeah, it's just kind of feeling the. The, like, the sensation of running the wind in the hair. Yeah. Feeling the. The muscles. [01:45:42] Speaker A: It's. [01:45:42] Speaker B: It's all very strange. [01:45:44] Speaker A: And then one final question that, again, I'm going to regret asking, but. [01:45:52] Speaker D: Oh. [01:45:53] Speaker B: I can't wait for this. [01:45:56] Speaker A: What about your body are you happiest to have back when you return? [01:46:04] Speaker B: Ooh, gosh, that is a good question. Oh, my God. [01:46:13] Speaker D: Wow. [01:46:14] Speaker B: This took me by surprise. I was not prepared for this. You know, I'm younger than 64 and I really like how nice and firm and perky everything is. Obviously, we talked about her being sinewy and, like, there's an amount of form that comes with having musculature and being sinewy, but it's very different when you're a sinewy, muscular 64 versus, like, a young 30 something professional who, with a skincare regimen, gravity is unkind. Yeah, it is. It's kind of a bitch. Yeah. [01:46:56] Speaker A: Then this is a wonderful shot. I imagine in the television version that Kai is driving, having this argument, and as, like, a nod to the audience, you just see she cannot be nude. I know the body in the morgue is nude and you didn't bring body clothes, but we're not going there. So a 64 year old marathoner just, like, powering down, like an automaton powering down the sidewalk just goes past in, like, the parallax of the shot. [01:47:29] Speaker D: Yeah, someone's a go getter. [01:47:33] Speaker A: Yeah, but I don't think either Kai. Sorry, you're Kai. I don't think either Lucas or the victim even noticed because you are reaching the crescendo of your argument. It's just for the. [01:47:42] Speaker D: Yeah, we're young. [01:47:44] Speaker A: And then finally, before we depart, Subra, you also don't feed in that. In that specific way. So what's on the agenda? [01:47:52] Speaker C: Are you ready to be real sad? [01:47:55] Speaker A: Honestly? I'll take that over what I am currently experiencing. No, no, like, brackets, positive. But. [01:48:04] Speaker C: Subra waits till, like, I'll wait till the other two leave and take. And drive, like, drive home. But then I take them. I take the chance to walk to the shelter because shelters have very specific rules on how, like, you can stay. So unfortunately, outside of them, when they cannot take people, there are just a lot of people milling about, and every once in a while there are people who want something that I can offer them and sometimes they will take me up on that and it doesn't go well for who. They already know for who. So, yeah, there's. There's a gentleman who is sitting separate from the rest of the folk out there. And his name is. I almost said Andre again. But yes, there's a man sitting outside, and his name is Jay. And we made a deal a while back for. We made a big deal a while back so that he could have financial success, and we didn't discuss how to keep that. And so he won a lot of money, and then he lost a lot of money, and it only cost him his connection with his loved ones at the time he won it. So a meteoric, no pun intended, rise. And just as bad of a loss when it all went away. [01:50:13] Speaker A: Thinking about a broader universe and where people like Subra and accursed like Subra exist. Now I start to understand why the affirmasm. What the good Lord giveth, the good Lord taketh away. It's because of the lord in this case, is an outcast, fae like, mercurial creature of contracts and lies. [01:50:34] Speaker C: I didn't lie. We don't lie. [01:50:37] Speaker A: And. Yeah, and that is what separates you from the bad ones. [01:50:43] Speaker C: I cannot help him more. He doesn't want to take my help anymore. But sometimes he lets me sit and talk with him. He knows enough of what I am and what I can do that he feels that he can be honest. I like to think of him as a friend. And I don't love being out at night. Not because I'm worried for my safety or anything like that. But outcasts say that we live in a panopticon because the archons above us, the ones who are from where we're from, are always watching. And it feels so real right now because I can look up and see every other star making fun of me. [01:51:41] Speaker A: What are you hoping to gain in speaking to this man? [01:51:50] Speaker C: We've already tried one way of him achieving what he wants. And now I just sort of keep trying to put him on the path of construction. It's very easy when you have not. We don't have much to wallow. And so I just want to sit with him, and without being what I am, make his life better. [01:52:25] Speaker A: So there is a common theme that the three accursed have stumbled into. I don't know intentionally, or if it is just the way the characters manifest, but it is unique to cursed born. And I think it's worth calling attention to because the creatures you inhabit, they are not human. Some of them were at one point, but ceased to be. So when you got involved, and some never were. But what defines you is your relationship to the things you live around the people. And you will notice that none of those relationships are good. That none of you have described a person whose life is better because you were in it. And in each case, there's an experience you get to gain at the expense of someone else with varying degrees of severity. I don't think the professor minds, but Subra is learning more about humans process grief, in part because Subra is the one who created this grief. And Lucas can expertly manipulate people's emotions because he's required to do so. It's not a good thing. There's an emptiness inside of you that is the curse that you are feeling, but there is also an emptiness of person that when you became or were created as curseborn, there was something fundamentally human missing about you. And those two things together are informing how you interact with the world. In the case of Blake, it's a little different. You were human for the whole time until you weren't. But in literally detaching from your human body, you are also detached from the value of something else. This professor is not someone's grandmother to you. It is a toy. It is a suit you can put on. It is an item of clothing you can wear in front of the mirror and be like, meh, not for me, and put back on the shelf. So the motivation to gain that power, that I understand, and I think you understand too. But it's that second element that you found by accident that I want you to think about as you play your characters and that I want our audience to think about as they consider Curseborn coming soon, because that is, in fact, the end of our session. Wow, that went in three directions. I did not expect wild the things I have had to visualize in my head in the last 20 minutes, but that has been a journey I am happy to go on. And I'm happy to go on it with the following three persons in reverse starting order. They have come all the way to New England college town from transplant RPG. Same amount of emotional energy, very different application from what I have seen of your oeuvre. But as the hungry Lucas Somerset, it is Kai. Kai. A week from now, we will let people see more of you. But if they have the desperate urge to binge Kai content right now, where do they go? [01:55:39] Speaker D: Oh, my God. Gosh. Well, between now and then, you can find me in the finale of the Lumu severed strands over with no quest for the Wicked, which is a tales of the Valiant series that drops this Wednesday. Wherever you get your podcasts, where I'm just playing a cute little guy, not at all depressing, which is a wild swerve, even just for me in normal times. And then you can find me on Thursday with the premiere of another tales of the Valiant series that I am doing, sun and chains over on Bat House RPG, where I'm playing a horrible man, which is kind of my other brand. And then on Sunday, you can find me overdose on Taino tales playing City of Mist with the doomsayers as Marek, who hungers for the cut threads of fate and is trying to unravel a mystery of a dead God. And outside of that, you can just follow me everywhere as Estella Dean Ladras, where I tell largely sad but super interesting, hopefully to all of you stories. Thank you so much for having me back on QCG. I'm so excited to be here and go on this adventure with you all. [01:57:01] Speaker A: I have referred to in the past your content schedule as the super Kiway, and I am not going to apologize for that. Oh, yeah, but you can. You. Every day of the week, there is something on. On the super Kai way, moving in reverse order. I know where I find you all the time, but I am sure people of a certain mind appreciating a certain kitsch, wanting desperately to see how Subra performs this music related mystery in the future. But mostly now. I just want to see more of you, Clara. Provide them instructions. [01:57:40] Speaker C: You have this remarkable habit of making the way you introduce me so profoundly confusing to me that it. It derails anything I was about to say. [01:57:50] Speaker A: I'm not gonna. I cannot tell a lie. There's a part of me that does it on purpose. [01:57:56] Speaker C: But yes, if you are inclined towards social media, you can find me at clearly golden pretty much everywhere. I managed to grab it as many times as I can. I am on QCG's actual play video. Actuo plays fairly regularly, as it's been in these last few months. Months. And you can hear me on every other Tuesday as my lagasse, the kai, equivalent to the problematic dude. I play problematic woman, and that's good for me, actually. Otherwise, checking all of the socials is pretty much the best way to find me because I am everywhere, and that feels like a threat, and it kind of is. [01:58:50] Speaker A: And, vy, we've played enough together that I have struggled over time to remain fresh and interesting. And I'm probably not going to accomplish that now, because instead of a fun pun, I feel like I just want to introduce something else of value to the audience. So, with your permission, how about a short question and answer? [01:59:10] Speaker B: Oh, sure. [01:59:15] Speaker A: It's a Saturday afternoon. You're at home at your usual residence. There's a knock at the door. It's Danny Devito. Using only things in your refrigerator right now. What do you offer him for lunche? [01:59:33] Speaker B: Ham and cheese sandwich. [01:59:34] Speaker A: Easy peasy. Just like that? Yep. [01:59:37] Speaker B: Because I have a pre made ham and cheese sandwich in the fridge. [01:59:41] Speaker A: You're gonna feed Danny DeVito. You're refrigerated. [01:59:47] Speaker B: It's either that or a bowl of frosted flakes. He can take his pick, I guess. [01:59:51] Speaker A: Is this a lack of interest in Danny DeVito or a lack of things in your fridge right now? [01:59:55] Speaker B: A lack of things in my fridge? Oh, I do have. I do have some chocolate chip shortbread dough. If you would like a fresh cookie, I can toss it in the air fryer. Have a fresh cookie in twelve minutes. [02:00:05] Speaker A: We've actually invented an interesting three course meal. I will ask this a question again next week. Hopefully you've gone grocery shopping. [02:00:14] Speaker B: Hopefully. I've been sick the last few days, so I have not left my house to go grocery shopping. Honestly, I'm amazed I washed my hair for this recording today because even that took a lot of energy. So grocery shopping, weirdly, if it's not for like cold medicine or throat lozenges, can't be arsed right now. So, you know, I thought I was. [02:00:34] Speaker A: Setting up for success because V always shows interesting things. They are cooking to me in the EMS and I have asked this question on the one time that will not work, which says something about the luck I bring to the universe. [02:00:46] Speaker B: Well, I had such good food the other day, but right now I don't. [02:00:50] Speaker A: Let us. Let us solve it. Thus, let us say if someone wanted to dm you or tag you in a recipe that they think you would enjoy, being the kind of person who only eats frosted flakes and ham and cheese sandwiches at time of recording, where should they send that information? [02:01:08] Speaker B: Excuse me. Yes? [02:01:10] Speaker D: No. [02:01:10] Speaker B: If you would like to fill my inbox with a way more interesting recipes than frosted flakes or ham and cheese sandwiches, you can find me on the Internet for vampire because my name is V and I like vampires. You can also find me on the Queenscore games discord, if you're not over there. First off, why? Second off, you should be sorry, Aaron. Yeah, you can definitely find me there. You can also post it up. We have channels for that too, so. Or you can just tag Queen's court games and any of our stuff and just be like, where the hell is v? And somebody will point you in my direction. [02:01:47] Speaker A: Not at the grocery store, am I right? [02:01:49] Speaker B: Not at the grocery store. Absolutely not. Never couldn't be me. [02:01:56] Speaker A: At this point, if someone does not send me a recipe, I will be upset myself and I will show you my ire from words on Twitter, or more likely from our official count Queen's court rpg on the bad site, and then Queen's court games on all the other less bad, but mostly still problematic sites. We will return one week from now, but approximately 2 hours ago with more curseborn. In the meantime, if you need desperately to know more, Blink is going out right now in the chat. It's in the show notes for the Curseborn Kickstarter. It'll go live in October. So this. This episode is coming out. Before that, you can go make your pledge and enjoy your own accursed mysteries in a world of folkloric horror. Until then, as we all say, bye for now.