Vampire: The Masquerade - The Dying Fields, Episode 2

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello, friends, and welcome once again to a single serving tabletop adventure from Queenscourt games. Tonight we are still playing the dying field, a scenario from the streets run red supplement for the masquerade. As always, I'm Aaron, and tonight I will be your storyteller as we leave the safety of a beautiful hotel with great bones for the open skies and small town living of Willerton, Illinois. You can find a link to street Run red by typing exclamation point scenario in chat or by following the link in the show notes. If you're joining us via podcast or YouTube, that also is where you will find our content warnings. Because Vampire the Masquerade is a storytelling game of personal horror and as such, contains topics that some viewers may find uncomfortable or objectionable. That said, is everyone here? You are familiar with the content warnings? Everyone's in a good place, good to play. Everything is okay. That was an unfortunate rhyme, but what can you do? [00:01:00] Speaker B: Let's go. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Well, excellent. We have the suv parked outside of the Hotel Willerton, named because it is a hotel. And in Willerton, where five kindred are on the trail of Everett, York, there remain a great many mysteries to be uncovered in this town. But before I do, I'm not uncovering anything. Before they do, let me introduce to you our cast once again, survivalist guru. I think she'd be a TikTok star if she'd come around a little later in life, but she's a gangrel. She's Hailey Drake. She's queen v of the court. [00:01:39] Speaker B: Hi. [00:01:43] Speaker A: Located not too far, far away, immaculately dressed, looking fantastic this evening. From the boardroom to the room made of boards, it's Lasombra. Roxanne Silvestri, played by Laura Tutu. [00:01:59] Speaker C: Hello. [00:02:03] Speaker A: Looking forward to the information that Katja finds out. The former SI agent, perhaps on the heels of a not so former SI agent scoping out this town full of vampires. She's a banu. Hakeem. Which very loosely, almost rhymes with Aubrey. Hello. No, Hakeem. Aubrey. Sorry. A little bit ago, I was watching this video where Eminem tries to make things rhyme with orange, and it's just been in my head since, like, I don't know, an hour. Other words that are difficult to rhyme with. Kitsch. Letting that joke hang in the air, because our toreador, Jordan Phipps, tonight, joining us, QCG's very own outdoor cat, Clara. [00:02:57] Speaker C: I have to go. I'm getting second hand embarrassment. I think it's firsthand now. [00:03:06] Speaker A: And tolerating this introduction for the entirety, smiling the whole while. Joining us all the way from the lovely craftians and her new studio, othersider Studios. It's Sade. [00:03:17] Speaker D: Yeah. What's good? [00:03:20] Speaker A: Well, I can tell you the introduction is not good, but that's okay because we're done with it. And assuming that everybody here will be able to hold down the bile and noctis energy rising up after that, perhaps I can tell you a story. Oh ho. But I was just kidding. Because as is tradition in the second, third, and fourth series of a one shot, I absolve myself with the responsibility to tell the audience what's going on and make one of you do it instead. I've got my dice on standby. If there are no volunteers, is anyone feeling brave enough to take one for the team? See five quiet faces. I've asked them to come to the board, and all of a sudden, Barry, everyone knows is in the textbooks. So, Lara, why don't you tell me what happened in the last episode? [00:04:41] Speaker C: I'm getting to think that. No dice like me. Ever. Cool. So, based on my notes, we were summoned as second string by the Prince of Chicago to investigate a missing kindred courier, Everett York. Around the town of Willerton, a small community outside Chicago steeped in a little bit of mystery and vagaries. After gathering the crew together, we headed out. There have been reports of other missing people. There's a hotspot for ghost hunters, as there is a very, very old cemetery in the area, as well as some very old, very lovely buildings. While we were there, upon arriving, my Jordan had what I'm going to describe as a kitschgasm and proceeded to be useless for the rest of the game, in no small part because I cannot roll for shit. And our very own Lasombra did her spooky best to look around the area and found what we can only describe as motes of sacred geometry moving throughout the town. Who knows what that is? We'll find out later. After recovering and as the kindred went to their rooms for the night at the Hotel Woolerton. Woolerton hotel doesn't matter. Hailey discovered that there was evidence in her room of another vampire having inhabited the space as someone had fucked up the most beautiful, beautiful vintage wallpaper with duct tape. That, or they just really didn't like the design. And that is something you should take up with the people who own the building. And in investigating the stickiness, I don't know why I've used that word with her. Is it celerity? Celerity? Nope. That's a speedy one. I'm losing vampire credit immediately. [00:07:02] Speaker A: Someone want to rescue Clara? [00:07:04] Speaker C: I don't have my character sheet up. This is my fault. Auspex auspics. Thank you, Powers. Jordan was granted an emotional vision of the kindred, hopefully kindred's last few moments in that space. And I think that's everything. [00:07:30] Speaker A: Is it everything? [00:07:33] Speaker B: No. Because also, Jack had gone down to check the logbook and discovered that somebody checked into the room, but was never recorded as having checked out. [00:07:49] Speaker C: Yes. The actual mystery. [00:07:51] Speaker B: The actual mystery. The actual important part of the story that we are here to tell. [00:07:55] Speaker C: Listen, I can tell you when that fucking hotel was built. I cannot tell you who checked in. [00:08:00] Speaker A: When was the hotel built? [00:08:03] Speaker C: 1886. Was I wrong? [00:08:07] Speaker A: I don't know. I made it up when I said it out loud last time. Not written down. [00:08:11] Speaker C: I'll check the VOD. [00:08:14] Speaker A: All those things said. Now we. I mean, first of all, I mean, amazing. Yeah, you should have volunteered, because that was an excellent recap, minus the. The one thing that we won't call attention to again. But all that said, the very last thing that I think we established was that everyone but Jack, you were upstairs in your respective rooms. Jack ducked down to speak with Kayla about who had visited when saw the logbook, and was just returning upstairs. I believe that is the exact last piece, chronologically. Does that sound about right? [00:08:49] Speaker B: It does. [00:08:51] Speaker A: And touching on one question that I would have answered a little earlier, Clara is, in fact, a kindred. You can tell your auspex powers would let you know that you can detect the latent beast that is still in the room. [00:09:06] Speaker C: Heck, yeah. [00:09:10] Speaker A: Well, it's not so late that you couldn't wander around, uh, either the hotel or Willerton proper. You probably don't have enough time to get into too much trouble, uh, lest you risk being somewhere you don't want to be when the sun comes up. Before we go down that road, though, Haley, I have to know, are you the kind of person who sets up the room immediately when you get there? [00:09:35] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. You don't want any surprises. God forbid there's an issue. God forbid you find that you need to run out to the store because you accidentally forgot something or you didn't bring enough of something. Yeah. No, you need to set that up immediately. First rule of survival. [00:09:53] Speaker A: Do you do everyone's room or just your own? [00:09:57] Speaker B: I guess it depends on how poorly everybody else does their room. [00:10:03] Speaker A: I think, off the top of my head, I would imagine that Katya is pretty good at it. Just. Just vibes say that Katya would be good at it. Jack and Roxanne, I don't know. For different reasons. And Jordan's distracted now that this is the kind of thing you have to roll about. I'm not going to kill your character on the back of a failed survival role. Just trying to zoom in on the characters. So, like, Roxanne. Reason that I believe that I'm sharing. [00:10:28] Speaker E: A room with Roxanne. [00:10:29] Speaker B: Room with Roxanne. [00:10:30] Speaker F: I'm fine. Like, she does this so much better than me anyway. I might as well just let her hand. [00:10:34] Speaker A: I wasn't talking about the mechanics. I was just thinking about if I put Roxanne in a car and said, the sun comes up in ten minutes, what's that going to look like? Because, Roxanne, I can't imagine that you've seen duct tape in person, let alone touched it in a bit in a while. Like, you have people for that. [00:10:58] Speaker F: I mean, it goes on ducts. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Well, in windows, in this case, yeah, apparently. [00:11:10] Speaker F: Like, why would I. Why would I need. Why would I need to do anything with it? [00:11:14] Speaker D: I don't understand. [00:11:14] Speaker C: Never taken anyone hostage. [00:11:17] Speaker B: You can make a cool wallet out of it. [00:11:22] Speaker C: There are two kinds of people in this world. [00:11:26] Speaker F: I'm sorry. A wallet. I'm gonna pretend like you never said that. [00:11:33] Speaker D: Said what? [00:11:39] Speaker A: And, Jack, I think in my head you are not afraid of duct tape in the same visceral way that Roxanne just demonstrated. But have you lived an unlife where you've had to master the skill of panic, taping trash bags up to a window to keep yourself alive? [00:12:00] Speaker D: I don't think so. I feel like I would have probably written out a list of what I need to do because of missions like this. So I probably have, like, a notepad of, like, how to set up a room, to be honest, and might ask someone else to double check my work just in case. Otherwise, that's about it. [00:12:24] Speaker A: Well, then let's set the scene thus where Hayley is going room by room inspecting people's work. Jack, you've been downstairs talking to Kayla, which means Haley is in your room before you are, and you find Haley looking at your list. [00:12:41] Speaker D: Oh, hey. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Did you really have to write it down? I mean, first off, it's kind of bad practice. Cause, like, anybody found that. I mean, first off, hide it out of context. [00:12:59] Speaker D: I don't know if they would know what. What's going on. To be honest, out of context, it. [00:13:02] Speaker B: Kind of makes you sound like a serial killer just, like, a little bit, right? Just like, you have, like, a list of, like, tarps and, like, duct tape. It just. It just sounds a little like a serial killer. Just a little bit. [00:13:13] Speaker D: I mean, to be honest and to be fair. Yeah, yeah, but, like. [00:13:20] Speaker B: I mean. But, like, you don't want to let anybody, like, think that, right? [00:13:24] Speaker D: Okay. This is maybe, like, the third or fourth time I've done this, so forgive me if I'm still getting used to it. [00:13:32] Speaker B: Okay, well, this is one of those things that you should just practice until you got it right. Cause you don't really like. The last thing that you need is to be caught outside with no way to keep yourself safe. [00:13:44] Speaker D: Yes, ma'am. I will do that next time. Anything else to reprimand me? [00:13:51] Speaker B: That depends. Does the list look like it makes sense? Is the list, like. Is there anything missing from the list that you can tell or that I can tell, rather? [00:14:01] Speaker A: No offense to Jack, but sunlight proofing a room is not a deeply scientific or engineering task. Right. You don't need to have done a lot of. There are no diagrams. Right. It's pretty much just find something that stops the sunlight and tape it to the window. So unless Jack is the kind of person who likes to orient himself visually and has drawn, then. No, I think it's pretty straightforward. [00:14:32] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, great. No, but, I mean, I can help you if you want. We can just run through it real fast. [00:14:43] Speaker D: I would appreciate that. Thank you very much. [00:14:46] Speaker B: Great. I'll whip around real fast, and I'll just, like, run over and start grabbing pieces of things and, like, pre cutting, because at this point, I know exactly how long the pieces of tape need to be. So it's just, like, pull them out. [00:14:59] Speaker A: Pull. [00:14:59] Speaker B: Pull them out. [00:14:59] Speaker D: Like. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Like, tear them off in, like, strips, and I collect them on my arm just, like, you know, in a row, because I know exactly how many I need. [00:15:08] Speaker A: Waste not, want not. [00:15:09] Speaker D: And I would say that I go up to, if this is, like, you're on one side and I'm on the other side, we're, like, kind of splitting up work. Very much. Appreciate it. And while we're doing this, I will divulge what I found out. So, apparently Everett was here under a different name. Never checked out, though. [00:15:32] Speaker B: Oh, that's worrisome. Right. That somebody would check in, but, like, not check out, but, like, all of his stuff is obviously not in the room. [00:15:43] Speaker D: Mm hmm. Could have just came off as someone left and never came back. But if it's a worrying thing, then, yeah, clean out the whole entire room. [00:15:53] Speaker B: Well, yeah, clean out the whole entire room. And, like, if the room has been, like, light proofed, then, like, somebody had to walk in and see that and then had to take all of it down. [00:16:05] Speaker D: Apparently, a different shift person was in charge of that. But the one downstairs. Kayla. Kayla. Her brother was there, and he might be coming by so he can ask questions. [00:16:21] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, that. Hmm. I don't like that. I don't like that at all. [00:16:29] Speaker D: Yeah, me either. [00:16:31] Speaker B: I mean, it was bad enough when it was. Sorry. Go ahead. [00:16:34] Speaker D: No, even if we proof it, and I don't know how, did he vanish from here? Is that what happened? [00:16:44] Speaker B: I mean, we just. All we know is that he's gone. Like, he was here and then he wasn't. And that. Did the book say, like, when. When he checked in, did it say how long he was going to stay for? [00:17:01] Speaker A: No, it's more like one of those log books that you see outside, like a bed and breakfast where you just sign your name and then leave a cute note. [00:17:12] Speaker B: Okay. [00:17:14] Speaker A: Said you are interrupted with a knock at the door. [00:17:21] Speaker D: I go to open it. [00:17:23] Speaker A: Very happy to see you. Face on the other side. It's Kayla. She's beaming. [00:17:32] Speaker D: Oh, hi. So information provided. Everything good? [00:17:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I talked to him, and he's out with Jenny, which means he's gonna be, like, out, at least for the rest of the night, based on what I know about her. But he said he could come in, like, tomorrow and go over what he knows, if that's okay. [00:17:54] Speaker D: Yeah, that's great. Did you. I just wanted to check something. If you don't mind coming in for a moment, there's something I wanted to check with you. That's okay. Just notice something in the room. [00:18:08] Speaker A: Oh, sure. Yeah. So Kayla walks inside at this point, noticing that the windows are covered. Oh, is it drafty? You mean we could have just turned the heat up? That's. [00:18:26] Speaker D: I don't know if it's drafty, but I am. [00:18:30] Speaker B: I'm a really light sleeper. I just. Any sunlight and, you know, I mean, we've been traveling so late, and God knows, like, I really do not want to be woken up any earlier than I intend to wake up. You know how it is. So any. Any light at all, I will just immediately wake up, and it ruins my whole day, you know? [00:18:51] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. You know, Bradley's like that. And I bought him a sleep mask once for Christmas, but then he put on his face and said he couldn't sleep because he had the weight on his face and he hated it. So I don't. I never thought about this, duck. Is that just, like, a regular tarp, or is that like. Like a special tarp for this. [00:19:09] Speaker B: I mean, you can just get away with, like, a regular tarp, but there are ones that, like, reflect sunlight, like the ones like you have in your car, you know, so there's. There's all sorts of. There's all sorts of good things available. You got. You got to be careful with the ones that you get, because you don't want to, like, trap a bunch of heat. You want to make sure that you're, you know, keeping the room cool because it can get really, really hot. [00:19:32] Speaker D: While this conversation is happening, I am going to assume that, like, you're distracting very well. I'm going to close the door and come up on Kayla and, like, initiate trying to feed at the moment. I'm new to this. This is a baby kindred. That's what I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to chow down right now. [00:19:53] Speaker A: All the basic mechanics are pretty easy. The kind of thing that you know intuitively. I mean, you've seen movies enough, right? [00:20:01] Speaker D: Just movies enough. [00:20:02] Speaker A: Damn. [00:20:02] Speaker D: I'm going to come up behind her, going to attempt to stifle a scream if it does happen, and going to bite from behind, essentially on the neck. [00:20:13] Speaker A: Well, Kayla is in the middle of a very enthusiastic and interesting conversation about how the various kinds of things you can put into a window to keep the sunlight from coming in. I don't know if Hayley meant to be distracting or if she's just really enthusiastic about it, but in either case, no, Kayla will not be aware to any degree that you're coming up behind her. Not so much on the screaming side. And this is something that Jack would know that they call it the kiss because it is pleasurable. Barring certain folks of incredible faith or people who are struggling for their lives at the time. When a human is fed upon, it feels pretty fucking amazing. And most of them just slip off into a not comatose, but you know that really satisfying fall feeling you get when you've had, like, oh, man, I've been craving bulgogi steak for, like, three weeks now, and I finally ate it, and I ate too much. I'm just gonna lay here and love it. Same vibe. Just turn that up some. Turn that up a lot. All of which is to say that Kayla will remain there, happy to be feeding you for as long as you choose to drink. Now, unlike V, I didn't punish people by having them roll to see how hungry they were before it started, because I didn't want anything to happen to Kayla, which means you shouldn't be so hungry. That you have to make any kind of check. Is that right? You're not at four or higher. Well, in that case, with most humans, you can take one dot of hunger worth of blood without getting yourself into too much trouble. That will leave them essentially as if they donated a pint. Right. They won't be woozy. No problems at all. Two, then. You're getting into that. I should probably have a juice box and sit down. Avoid operating heavy machinery, being at free hunger. That's as much as you would need. It's not going to be the case that you want to kill her to get down to zero, right? [00:22:35] Speaker D: Exactly. I do not want to kill her. I just want to eat. Just a little peckish. [00:22:41] Speaker A: Well, you can decide whether you take one or two. Are you leaving her entirely intact and only a doctor would be able to know that something had changed, or are you going to go take two off and leave her a bit woozy? [00:22:58] Speaker D: I'll just take one. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Just a light snack. The 100 calorie snack pack of kindred. Well, in that case, the fog after it will eventually lift. She's looking at you. Not entirely sure what happened. It's. I'm gonna be honest, it's confusing because this is not a girl who's had this kind of experience. And all she really can put together is that, like, your mouth was on her neck and, like, it felt amazing. But, like, this is the kind of stuff that we're not supposed to do. This is why we can't dance at prom, because it leads to this. And she's, like, super confused. Yeah. [00:23:53] Speaker B: Gotta leave room for Jesus. [00:23:58] Speaker D: Sorry. Are you okay? Didn't mean to surprise you there. [00:24:01] Speaker A: I, um. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm. I'm great. [00:24:08] Speaker D: That's good to hear. [00:24:10] Speaker A: You can see the heat, like, flushing up into her face. Very nice, pinkish, pleasant glow. [00:24:20] Speaker D: Cute. Did you want me to get you anything? Maybe something to drink or anything like that downstairs? Take a moment. Take a breather. [00:24:27] Speaker A: Oh, I mean. I mean, you're the guest I'm supposed to be. Oh, it's kind of gross how enraptured she is with you right now. Like, it's not okay. [00:24:41] Speaker D: How's Hayley feeling? [00:24:43] Speaker B: Oh, I have turned and I have just gone back to putting stuff up on the walls because this is. I was not expecting you to do that. And I was not. I mean, not that I haven't experienced this before, but. I don't know, it's weird when it happens to one of your friends, so you just. I'm just trying to ignore it and just putting stuff up on the walls. Should I go? Is it weird that I'm here? Should I just leave? Should I. I'm gonna go. Maybe I'll just go see what happens. [00:25:14] Speaker D: We have business to attend to anyway, so. Yeah, like, Kayla. We'll talk later. [00:25:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:22] Speaker D: Okay. [00:25:23] Speaker F: All right. [00:25:24] Speaker D: See you later. [00:25:26] Speaker A: Bye. Definitely, like, backing towards the door. Like, Twitter paid it, I believe, is the correct adjective, and then, like, backs into it because it's. Well, it's closed, but, like, backs into it, but she's trying to reach. And then she's gonna spend the rest of her shift thinking about how she embarrassed herself in front of that beautiful man. [00:25:50] Speaker D: So I close the door behind her, and Blake's like, so we should talk to everyone. Just continue going forward as if that didn't happen. It's like, so she knew. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Can you warn a girl next time, Jack? Just, like, just. I was having a fantastic conversation. [00:26:09] Speaker D: Oh, you actually wanted to continue that conversation? I thought you were giving me an opening. [00:26:16] Speaker A: Sorry. [00:26:18] Speaker D: Misread the situation. I'm so sorry. [00:26:21] Speaker B: Yeah, and you know what? I think Kayla did too. But that's your problem, not mine. Let's go. [00:26:31] Speaker A: We'll do the benefit of the doubt and assume that we get everybody in the same room as opposed to going piece by piece and letting people know what's up. So then a few minutes will pass forward, and the information has been communicated that there was a kindred in this room. As Jordan can tell, someone signed into this room but did not sign out, as Jack brings to the table, giving you a fairly good idea of what might have happened here. Unless there's another vampire who, you know, what are the odds. [00:27:08] Speaker C: Jack gets to eat? I get to have pie anyway. [00:27:15] Speaker A: Well, Jordan has her priorities in order. What are the other two of you doing? [00:27:23] Speaker F: I think I'm gonna go with Jordan just to make sure that she doesn't get overly distracted by the. [00:27:33] Speaker E: Hi. [00:27:35] Speaker F: Everything, to be honest. So, like, at least one person to keep her on track, to be perfectly honest. [00:27:43] Speaker E: It's probably a good idea. [00:27:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Might take more than one, but we'll see. Jack and Hayley, any thoughts? [00:28:01] Speaker B: Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff that I'm curious about, I feel like, is stuff that will take a little bit longer, because obviously, the graveyard is super interesting, but I fear that that would take longer than then we have. Night. [00:28:16] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, I'd be down to check out the graveyard tomorrow night, see if we can learn anything. [00:28:25] Speaker B: The other option would be if Jordan is going to the diner, there's also the saloon. For transient tourist, bikers, truckers. And if we're looking for somebody who was passing through, stands to reason that maybe they would have seen them there. And perhaps there's a kindred or two floating around. [00:28:50] Speaker E: That's a very good idea. [00:28:53] Speaker C: It is worth just asking. Also on my to do list, probably not tonight is to check the library. [00:29:03] Speaker F: Also potentially on my to do list. [00:29:06] Speaker A: Okay, so we've listed literally everything you could do. Yeah. What are we actually going to do? [00:29:12] Speaker E: I like the idea of going to the saloon tonight. You know, it's. We got a, we got some time left. It's going to be a bit before last call. We can, you know, pretend to drink, get our bearings. Get our bearings? You know, be like, hey, we're looking for a friend. This is the description. We really feel like poking around like that. [00:29:36] Speaker B: Yep, that's where I'm going. [00:29:38] Speaker E: Yeah, same. I'll go saloon as well. [00:29:42] Speaker C: Partake in the local culture. [00:29:45] Speaker A: Well, you have yourself a gps map that does not work in a town that you are not familiar with. So who is taking the lead en route to this perhaps pie place? I see that Jack has a question. [00:30:02] Speaker D: I do have a question. Since there's like, like a night, like the way where we're staying, do they have, like, that, those things where, like, there's pamphlets or, like, maps or something like that of the town? [00:30:14] Speaker A: I know exactly what you're talking about, and I wish that was the kind of town that had that. But this is the only hotel, right? So why would you have a 40 slot brochure thing when it would, you know. [00:30:28] Speaker D: It was worth a try. Never mind. Continue. [00:30:29] Speaker A: No, I like that you're there. It's good genre sense of a nice american road trip, but, uh, there's just not that much to do here. [00:30:39] Speaker B: I mean, I'm sure Jack could ask Kayla for directions. [00:30:44] Speaker D: Hmm. I don't think I would get an answer. Just giggles. Nothing but giggles. [00:30:51] Speaker C: You never ask. The answer's always no. [00:30:55] Speaker F: Sure. [00:30:56] Speaker D: Jack is gonna go to Kayla then and ask if she can provide any directions about the town or even a map of the town or anything like that. [00:31:06] Speaker A: Well, she looks a lot better than she used to. She's certainly calmed down. The confusion is still there. But whatever amount of professionalism is required to be the night clerk at a hotel in a town like this, Kayla has found it and is ready to go again. She is going to be happy to give you directions. I will provide for you a literal map. You're just going to have to ignore the fact where it says Indiana and not Illinois. As is true in all great historical epics, there is PI to the west and saloon to the south. Where go, ye noble wanderers? [00:31:49] Speaker E: To the saloon. [00:31:51] Speaker C: Do we want to split it, or are we going to have to delay pie? [00:31:57] Speaker B: I don't care about watching you eat pie. That's the thing that grosses me the hell out. So if you want to handle the pie, you can. Yeah, fine. [00:32:14] Speaker C: Let's all go to the saloon, get. [00:32:17] Speaker F: You the damn pie. Jordan, don't look at me like that. [00:32:26] Speaker A: I presume you drive. [00:32:28] Speaker E: Yeah, I drive. [00:32:30] Speaker A: Everyone piling back into the suv. Willerton looks a little different now that you're behind tinted glass. It was already dark before, but that extra little sheen makes it just a little bit more menacing. Same visual effect, as if, like, that low fog had rolled into town. And it gives you that slight chill where, you know, it's a totally natural phenomenon. But that doesn't make it any less creepy. But we proceed all the same. Roxanne, will you make me a wits and a cult roll, please? [00:33:11] Speaker F: I surely can. I was actually going to ask if, while we are traveling on down the road, if I could pop oblivion site up again. [00:33:21] Speaker A: Presumed as much. [00:33:24] Speaker F: I'm sorry, you said what's in a cult? [00:33:26] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:33:36] Speaker F: Reading my things. Sorry. Would having oblivion sight up help? [00:33:48] Speaker A: It just makes it possible. In the first place, two successes. It's not great. [00:34:08] Speaker F: Not awesome. I mean, I could willpower it. It's early. [00:34:19] Speaker C: Did you tell us about the shapes and stuff yet? [00:34:25] Speaker E: I believe so, yeah. [00:34:29] Speaker F: Let's see if I can fix that a little. That's better. That'll put me at four, I believe. Storyteller. [00:34:40] Speaker A: Yeah, there seems to be a problem with the plugin, because it had you roll five dice, which is entirely too many for a willpower reroll. [00:34:47] Speaker B: I think she rolled all of her willpower as opposed to a reroll. [00:34:51] Speaker D: Oops. [00:34:56] Speaker A: We'll call it two successes and then just knowing better for next time. Four total is more than enough that you need. And assuming that Katya doesn't have too many questions when you say no, turn left here real quick and allows you to follow the direction you'll be able to map in very short order the shape that stretches out above this town. You are familiar with the. The normal, uh, like a hexagonal crystal shape, right? Um, sometimes they come d four s and d six s in this shape. I actually might have one in my dice bag, if you will. Indulge me, because the shape looks a bit like this. Right. So you have the tops that are pointed six sides around. So imagine you had that map of Willerton and then someone set it down, poof on top right, with all the necessary vertices, in this case, the piece north to south aligned. Now, I don't know why you at one point in your life had to memorize this information, but you recognize that sigil as a sign of protection award. You've heard it referred to as a cage. But as is true with all magic of this nature, it's not entirely clear. Would you use it to keep something out or would you use it to keep something in? Can go both ways, right? We put dogs in cages, but then if you want to go shark hunting, you put your shark scuba diving, put yourself in a cage. Right. Go either way. But that is the nature of the sigil you discover. [00:36:54] Speaker F: I mean, with the hauntings. And as we are driving about, I will let the rest of the coterie know what I have discovered. [00:37:12] Speaker B: Now. [00:37:16] Speaker F: Storyteller, I know we haven't really gotten to the bottom of any of the. We haven't gotten to a point on any of the occult stuff besides, you know, woo woo, ghosts. I'm just trying to parse out, like, for the specific locale and what has popped up. Is there any way that I would be able to know what could be being held or would that be more research? [00:37:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, you would use this to anything, right? Like it could be anything. The important part is that this is not by accident. It takes an amount of time to create sacred geometry, to infuse it with something of meaning. And there's all these rituals that go with it. And that's just if you want to put it, like, on your fridge door to stop someone from taking the last beer, to do it to a town. Now that is a thing. That is an endeavor, and for it to be as bright as you can see it, that is also significant in a pretty, pretty big, bad way. [00:38:29] Speaker F: Bright as in powerful or bright as in fresh? [00:38:34] Speaker A: Both. Oh, you would have to do a serious amount of work and also regularly maintain this ward for it to be in the condition that it's in. [00:38:47] Speaker F: Would there be any way to deduce when the last time it was refreshed. [00:38:55] Speaker A: That you'd have to, I mean, oh, maybe you could wing it. It's enough to say that you have to be. For it to be this strong. We're talking like once or twice a month at minimum. Someone is actively maintaining it in this town is the important part to come away with. I see Jordan has a question with. [00:39:25] Speaker C: The way it's laid out on the map. Are there any locations that are hitting any of the vertices? [00:39:35] Speaker A: Yeah, if you spend a little bit more time traveling around, not so much that it becomes a problem, but you can essentially circle around the town, find the outsides of it, not around the town. It's leaving the town circle kind of the big square block here, and then work your way in. The geographic center of this sigil seems to be the motorcycle diner, but there are structures at every single vertices. But the center of the sigil is the diner. [00:40:18] Speaker E: Does that change our plans? Will Jordan get her pie? [00:40:26] Speaker C: Depends on whether or not the. Depends on whether or not it's on one of the vertices that's important. Is there a way to find. This is weird. Is there a way to, to find out if any points on the shape need to be significant in any way? [00:40:49] Speaker A: If they need to be significant in any way. [00:40:52] Speaker C: Let's say you wanted to make the head point of it. It had to be a place of knowledge. [00:40:59] Speaker A: Oh, no. For that you would have to find the individual person who made the seal. Sacred geometry relies on shapes, but the meaning comes from the person and the location. It's bespoke created. For the moment, at least I hope it is, because I just made that up. If there are any sorcerers in chat, feel free to let me know that I got it wrong. But for our purposes, the answer is no. [00:41:22] Speaker C: Okay, that helps me a lot because I don't want to project outside knowledge into this. Driving through it, do we have the time to swing by all the points? [00:41:33] Speaker A: You could. Woolerton's not that big. Summer houses. None of it appears especially important. There is just a structure at every vertices. And as far as you can tell, there's no pattern to them. As opposed to. Some are made of wood, some are made of bricks, some are made of cinder blocks, some are houses, some are businesses, some are one's a storage shed or something like that. Right. There's no rhyme or reason to any of that. [00:42:03] Speaker C: And is the library and civil, is there like city records, are those going to be at the library or city hall? [00:42:10] Speaker A: Yeah, in this kind of rural town you're lucky if it's at the library here. If not, it would be in the county office. Most municipalities of this size don't have their own department for that kind of thing. It's barely incorporated. Right, but if they were in the city, they would be at the library. Else you're gonna have to go two towns over and, you know, mess with that. [00:42:39] Speaker F: Where does the graveyard sit on all this? [00:42:43] Speaker A: Looking at the map if you now I lost it so you find Hotel Willerton there in the center and then travel directly southwest so the graveyard is directly south of Sam's motorcycle diner shop or southwest from the hotel about equidistant. [00:43:04] Speaker F: From both and as far as the lines of the geometry is it on a point or is it structured in between anything? [00:43:16] Speaker A: No I mean it sits on one of the lines but so does a lot of this town. It does not appear to be one of the important places. [00:43:42] Speaker C: I'm seeing a very good argument for PI I'm just. [00:43:45] Speaker E: Saying I mean if it's at the very center there's got to be something there. [00:43:56] Speaker D: Is there a way to track who made this? What? The sacred geometry like who is in charge of it? [00:44:06] Speaker F: Is there a way to track like a signature? [00:44:10] Speaker A: Oh so I mean yes there's a signature in that everybody does it a little differently but no, not imagine that you know you can spot a dolly because it's so strange but without knowing this sometimes you know the specific painting like that Monet did but telling one impressionist from another or one pointless from another is eh, especially in this case when none of them have been studied or in museums you know there's no college level textbook on this particular person. [00:44:46] Speaker F: So and I'm assuming to get a bead on like the actual magic itself we would probably need a tremere with. [00:44:54] Speaker D: Us probably. [00:45:00] Speaker C: I have faith in you. [00:45:07] Speaker F: I don't have exactly the same kind of occult knowledge that a tremere might I can certainly try but I don't have like the same supplies the same I don't know basic knowledge. [00:45:28] Speaker E: Can'T do the spooky blood magic I will tell. [00:45:31] Speaker A: You for the sake of the story that there's not much more there there the important clues are that there is a shape it is a cage of containment or protection who knows? There are structures at each of the individual vertices that hold it together they have been consecrated in some way you assume but it's not evident based on first sight and the motorcycle diner is. [00:45:57] Speaker C: At the center of it all motorcycle diner? Obviously if we set all of these buildings on fire it will break the cage and will have solved our problem I'm assuming that's not the solution we're going for though what I'm seeing is pie. [00:46:17] Speaker F: Fine, let's go get you some fucking pie. [00:46:23] Speaker D: Jordan wins. [00:46:25] Speaker A: Jordan wins vindication making a U turn then heading up north halfway down to the saloon before heading up in the other direction now the pie place is open the actual motorcycle repair place is not. Jordan, I don't know if your obsession with Americana stretches on a wide enough time period to encompass both midwestern craftsman Gothic and, like the Fonz diner. But if so, you will be in luck, because the motor, the diner, part of Sam's motorcycle diner, was constructed exactly in the middle of the soda shop. Like red overstuffed booths, black white checkered floor. Still has the actual soda jerk thing going on. The menu has changed. Ice cream does cost more than a nickel, but the jukebox and the decor are frozen in time. Hell, yeah. [00:47:40] Speaker C: There's something so uniquely american about the first road trip having been taken as an advertisement in Germany to show off the volkswagen, but is now absolutely an american thing. The cross country road trip. It's like my second favorite time period is, you know, the heyday of Route 66. [00:48:04] Speaker B: Sure. [00:48:07] Speaker A: Well, the eponymous Sam does not appear to be in the restaurant at the moment. Unless Sam is female, but he is not. There is a woman sitting behind the counter. It's pretty thinly populated. There are a few people. They look like locals. Just kind of based on the not decor. It's not called decor when it's on a person, based on the clothing they're wearing. Very farmer chic. Had a long day. Just gonna sneak in some last meal because I don't want to have to go home and cook kind of situation. This is definitely the kind of place where you can get a nice big burger for moments like that or a cup of coffee if you just want to shoot the shit with some old friends. [00:48:58] Speaker C: I bet they were in Carhartt. [00:49:07] Speaker F: Well, in we go, I suppose. [00:49:10] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:49:12] Speaker A: Is it clear what you want to accomplish here, or are you just wandering in for the sake of it? [00:49:20] Speaker E: Gonna take a look, like, journey is fine. I'm gonna try to, like, look around, see if I notice anything off that's not the kitschy americana. Like, are there a lot of people in here who may be not pushing food around their plate and maybe not eating it? [00:49:42] Speaker A: Oh, not even a little bit. This they are. They are eating. There's no sense of the beast. Cackles aren't raised. Everyone is definitely alive. [00:50:01] Speaker E: And then I'll probably rely on our resident occultists to see if there's anything spooky here. [00:50:07] Speaker C: Well, I'm going to find us a table and maybe order us, I don't know, five slices of pie and coffee. [00:50:17] Speaker D: I did not want to participate in eating pie. [00:50:19] Speaker A: That was all of yours. Okay. [00:50:23] Speaker E: I was just gonna order a cup of coffee. [00:50:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:27] Speaker F: Yeah. Small plate of french fries to, like, poke at and push around, make it look like I'm eating. [00:50:33] Speaker A: Well, I presume somebody pays. Sorry. Go ahead. [00:50:37] Speaker F: Oh, also, I would potentially make sure Jordan finds us a corner booth to where I can be sort of tucked away from the outright glare of the fluorescent lighting. [00:50:55] Speaker E: Back to a corner. Make sure you got eyes on all the exits. [00:50:59] Speaker F: Also, if I have to do more oblivion sight, I don't want people to just directly see my face. [00:51:05] Speaker A: That. That part too. [00:51:06] Speaker D: That part too. [00:51:07] Speaker F: Just in the back of my brain. [00:51:11] Speaker B: As everybody's going inside, can I, like, is there anything going on outside the building? Anything, like, is anybody acting strangely? Are there any eyes out? I'm just trying to think of anything that we could be missing. [00:51:31] Speaker A: No, nothing. Pretty damn boring in a very. In a way that only small towns can be boring. It's a super specific kind. Kind of boring. And it's that boring. Anyone who is, like, if you're. If you're from a town that has this many people in it, you know, the only thing that there is to do is to drive to other towns. And, like, if you show up here, first of all, everyone knows everyone. It's the same ten people you see day in, day out. And it's. It's got to be Groundhog day, right? Guy comes in from doing his farmwork, sits down. Ed or Vera says, hey, how was the thing today? Oh, you know, the John Deere was acting up. Cool. You have a cup of coffee, and then they just talk in the way that, like old men do if you've ever been inside, like an american legion or a VFW. Kind of the same vibe. Just like old men being old men together. Except in this case, Vera is behind the counter fair. [00:52:35] Speaker F: I think I'm gonna lean into the city slicker nonsense and keep some sunglasses on just to put a pin in the asshole vibe. Also, it'll cover my eyes. [00:52:51] Speaker D: Question. Since this diner is, like you said, like, the epicenter where everyone goes to hang out, talk, is there like a. I don't know what. It's like a bulletin board or like, a thing of things going on in the town kind of situation here. [00:53:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Are you interested in girl scout cookies? [00:53:13] Speaker D: Are there missing persons, flowers? [00:53:15] Speaker A: No. I'm sad you went straight to that, because I was going to ask about four h. I was. I had so many cool little events that I was going to see if you were interested in, but no, you went straight for missing persons. No. No signs? No milk cartons? No, I don't want girl scout cookies. [00:53:30] Speaker D: Maybe Jordan would, but I don't want. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Girl scout cookies, nothing like that. It is dreadfully small town. Might be like a missing cat, but no people. [00:53:48] Speaker B: The only other thing that I can think of then would be to ask about our missing friend here. [00:53:57] Speaker E: Yeah, somebody who's more people friendly should do that. [00:54:02] Speaker B: I mean, Jordan actually gets to eat the pie, so there's something to be said for Jordan sitting up at the counter having pie and then talking with whoever's behind it while enjoying the pie. [00:54:14] Speaker E: While the goths go sit in the corner. [00:54:19] Speaker C: I will enter with them. They can find their table and just head in. Um, evening. I'm just, uh, passing through. I heard the pie was excellent. [00:54:33] Speaker A: Oh, well, yeah, if you're looking for pie, you came to the right place. This woman, if you were making a cartoon about the most wholesome small town in America, whoever you cast to play that, you'd pick her, right? Like Tara Strong can go off to. No, you want this person because she has the grandmother iest. Like, it's a voice that instantly calls to mind that candy tin full of sewing supplies. You just know instantly what's going on. And she's not wizened, like. Like in her late fifties, kind of, you know. Well, small town grandmas come pretty quick, generationally as they go, but just the best warmth coming out of her. Oh, yeah. I mean, pies to die for is what everyone keeps saying. That's why we. How'd you hear about it? [00:55:37] Speaker C: We got into town, like I said, we're passing through, and the girl at the hotel actually mentioned it. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Oh, Kayla. She's the sweetest. Yeah, we keep telling there's nothing special about no commissions. She just honest to God believes in the goodness of the pie. Well, yeah, it's a little late at night. We don't keep it out too long. I have pecan and I have chocolate silk. [00:56:04] Speaker C: Can I get one of each? [00:56:07] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. Just grab a plate real quick. And I don't know what restaurants you've been to, what kind of expecting, but this is pie that is like, underneath a glass lid that she pulls up and gets the piece and pulls it. It's not like a spinny rotating thing. It's not in an air conditioned case. This is. She made the pie and brought it out and put it under this thing and then makes. Makes a bit of a spectacle out of cutting what is also a very generous proportion. If you are used to living in the city and you order pie and you get like a. The back is like, you know what? Like pumpkin pie at a. At a work outing. Where you get, like, a one inch radiant or whatever of pie. No, this is. This is a solid, like, 6th of the pie here. The real plate filling, serving, and, oh, the way the filling oozes out of the side of it. It's. It's stuffed so full that once you've breached the physical integrity of the pie, the filling just cannot. It's gonna be good. [00:57:14] Speaker C: I'm both excited and terrified because I realize that I have ordered two of these slices, and I can't technically process food. We will deal with it later. [00:57:26] Speaker A: Also, a reasonable price. That'll be 7.84, please. [00:57:33] Speaker C: Absolutely. And I hand her cash as I'll take a bite. I assume I can. [00:57:44] Speaker A: If your tongue could come. Yeah, no, that's how good this pie is. You know, the face that Kayla was making this a little bit ago when. When Jack was. Was having a nibble. This pie makes you want to do that. [00:58:08] Speaker C: Uh, I'm. Do I have to roll for frenzy to enjoy? [00:58:15] Speaker A: Okay, well, there are only three reasons you frenzy. [00:58:18] Speaker C: That's true. That's true. But it sounds like I would being. [00:58:21] Speaker A: Hungry, being afraid, or being furious. And none of those three emotions come to mind. Um, true on the topic of pie, but. And I. I'm sorry if I've misled you. The pie is actually not the point of the adventure or the scenario. [00:58:38] Speaker C: So my point. The point of my existence, as that's why I asked to play this game. No, as I will make small talk. I'm getting into small talk. Well, but no, as I take a natural pause in eating like a human would. Absolutely. I will ask, um, weird. A weird question. I, um. I was actually supposed to meet a friend in town this week as well. Um, we were gonna head into Chicago together. Uh, how do I do this in a way that's not weird? Uh, do I know what this guy looks like? Do I have a photo of him? [00:59:20] Speaker A: No. [00:59:21] Speaker B: False. [00:59:24] Speaker C: Uh, all right, let's just go for it. Hasn't every York stopped by? [00:59:35] Speaker A: She gives the question all the respect it deserves. I won't say it's an overly elaborate think, but she does give it a good sink. Like Everett, York. Have I heard of in Everett, York racking her brain? Nothing comes to mind immediately. Oh, no, sweetie, I'm sorry. I haven't heard anyone going by that name come through. They're supposed to meet you here this weekend. [01:00:01] Speaker C: Uh, only we only had vague plans. The sort of thing that you, you know. Oh, if you're in town, I'm in town. That'd be kind of cool if we hung out for a bit. Got pie, you know. [01:00:10] Speaker A: Hmm. Yeah, well, I mean, I can't say there's been any. Any strangers coming through. I know there's a two tourists, those, um, those german fellows that are in town, but I can't imagine that's the one you're thinking of. [01:00:23] Speaker C: Nah, probably not. Uh, I guess you guys must know everyone who comes through or if someone else is new. [01:00:32] Speaker A: Aren't that many folks who come through Willerton now? And as evidenced, they all come through here. She gestures at the pie. [01:00:47] Speaker B: Hmm. [01:00:49] Speaker C: Starting to wonder if this was a bad. If eating pie was a bad idea. No, because kindred, not all kindred, can eat. Interesting. I must have just missed them. Then they would have been in bi. Like a week ago. [01:01:05] Speaker A: A week ago? It's quite a strange plan you're making. But they would have stayed at the hotel. Did you ask Kayla? [01:01:15] Speaker C: I did. I don't know. I don't think she knew anything. I think her. She has a brother who is also on shift around those houses. [01:01:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. No, Bradley. The two of them, I. Yeah, I said I haven't seen anybody, and if I haven't or Kayla hasn't, then they may as well not exist. Exist? [01:01:36] Speaker C: We. Okay, so we actually do know the fake name that Everett used. I just don't remember what it was. [01:01:45] Speaker D: You want me to say it? James Bustamante. [01:01:49] Speaker A: No. [01:01:50] Speaker C: James Bustamante. All right, well, I'm gonna try take one more shot at this. I'm gonna give it another, like, few minutes of just pie eating and natural humiding at this counter, and I will fake check my phone. That's so weird. Uh, I had mentioned to a friend I was coming out, and he also said he'd been through James Bustamante. [01:02:35] Speaker A: Wow. While you're making this small talk, I'm leaving that question. Why don't you roll charisma and persuasion. If you're being a little, when it goes subtle with it, you could say subterfuge, manipulation, some combination of those things. Whatever you feel is appropriate to be ringing some facts out of this woman. [01:02:55] Speaker C: Let's go. Charisma, persuasion. Four successes. [01:03:06] Speaker A: Well, the name doesn't ring any bells, but she can confirm that it was a gentleman coming through, traveling alone about a week ago. He came by, didn't order anything, was just seeing the sights. But he was only in for a few minutes and then headed on out. As far as she knows, he was just kind of person coming in and saying, I've. Everyone said, check out the pie place. I'm not hungry. But it's one of three things to do in Wilarton, so I should show up. And that by itself, would be. Yeah, weird. Whatever. But as she's giving that answer, she's sizing you up a little bit. And then she says, you know, he didn't order off the regular menu in the way that you might. She squints. [01:04:07] Speaker C: Is there a secret venue like an in n out? [01:04:17] Speaker A: I'm presuming you're asking that rhetorically, because there's no way this woman knows what an in n out is. [01:04:22] Speaker C: That's absolutely true. Damn. [01:04:29] Speaker F: Like Starbucks. I don't know. Starbucks. [01:04:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Is this like a. Is there, like a. I did not. Is this sort of like a dunkin, make your own drink sort of situation? I mean, I would kill to someone. [01:04:41] Speaker A: Oh, I'm sorry. I must have been mistaken about something about that. No, think nothing of it. [01:04:46] Speaker C: Oh, okay. I'm gonna. I'm gonna do something risky, and we'll just deal with the consequences. And it's not as bad as eating someone. Can I activate my awe? [01:04:59] Speaker A: It's not going to do anything. It's not gonna make you passed with four successes. [01:05:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:05:06] Speaker B: Okay. [01:05:08] Speaker C: Okay. I'm gonna. Hearing a little bit more of this. I am gonna lean a little farther forward. When you say secret menu, are you talking more of a liquid diet situation? [01:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah, for people with dental issues such that they cannot enjoy solid food. [01:05:33] Speaker C: I totally understand. I know several people with really, really sensitive dentures. [01:05:38] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [01:05:40] Speaker C: Huh. You're gonna have to excuse me. What? [01:05:49] Speaker B: Hmm? [01:05:51] Speaker A: Well, at this point, are you. So based on her speech, she's not 100% that you are. So are you playing along with it? Are you revealing anything about yourself, or are you just like. Oh, yeah, no sensitive teeth. Of course they should use sensodyne. Nine of ten dentists recommend it, from what I understand. And then blowing it off, I'll give. [01:06:20] Speaker C: Her a big hokey wink if it helps. But, like, I'm not gonna fucking violate. Do a full masquerade violation in the middle of a fluorescent lit diner. [01:06:30] Speaker A: Okay, so. But you. You are saying, like, yes, I know what you're talking about. [01:06:33] Speaker C: Vampires are real. [01:06:34] Speaker A: Okay? [01:06:38] Speaker C: Like, give her a wink. Like, someone who knows how to blink. [01:06:46] Speaker A: Well, that much she can confirm. [01:06:52] Speaker C: So what's on the secret menu? [01:06:54] Speaker A: I. The secret menu is people, Clara. [01:06:56] Speaker C: No, I know. I know. I'm trying. I'm trying to figure out how to get her to show me, but weird. Weird all around. Excuse me for, like, two minutes. How do I let you guys know? [01:07:08] Speaker D: I think we're all looking at you. [01:07:09] Speaker C: So if you want a moment all. [01:07:12] Speaker F: Around staring like an asshole, I'm, like, doing the broody, city slicker asshole lean in the bar. I can't believe you assholes dragged me to this hellhole. [01:07:21] Speaker C: Like, I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask to do something real stupid, and I'm just gonna hope my friends have my back. And if they don't, I'm gonna die. Cool. Well, if I was interested in something a little more tooth sensitive, would I meet you around the back? [01:07:46] Speaker A: Oh, um, no, not. Not me. I don't know. There are other people in the congregation there that's more their area. I don't really mix that way. [01:08:01] Speaker C: Okay, now we're getting some more congregation. [01:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the Methodist church here. I mean, I can't imagine it's still Methodist, based on what they get into, but. Same community of folk. [01:08:15] Speaker C: Oh, okay. Well, I suppose we could go to church. Um, thank you for your time, I suppose. [01:08:26] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, of course. You enjoyed the pie. Was it a. Was it what you were led out to believe? [01:08:32] Speaker C: Better than anything I've ever tasted. [01:08:36] Speaker A: Bad to hear that. Yeah, it's excellent. I was two different flavors every single day of the week. [01:08:41] Speaker C: Amazing. I will have to come back and try them all. If you excuse me, I'm gonna get up. I've already paid, so I don't need to deal with that. And I guess leave. Not joining you guys at your table. It's weird now. [01:09:00] Speaker A: Well, in John harbor, blades in the dark, he makes emphatic the point that you should just skip to the action whenever possible. So we're not going to worry too hard about the way that you reconvene with the rest of the coterie. What? Suffice it to say that Clara share. Sorry. That Jordan shares the information that she has acquired. [01:09:26] Speaker B: Well, from here, as we leave and we start talking about this, and Jordan mentions the church, is there enough time? Because I just want to drive by the church and see if there's maybe, like, maybe the lights are on. Maybe there's, like, a midnight mass or something. Exactly. Just on our way back to the hotel. [01:09:49] Speaker A: You will be tragically disappointed. [01:09:52] Speaker B: Damn it. That's upset. [01:09:56] Speaker F: One of those churches that has the big old, like, the billboard thingy, like, in the lawn. [01:10:03] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's by one of the people who doesn't. Really the kind of person who writes unironically with no sense. It could have another meaning. You are always strongest on your knees. [01:10:16] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:10:17] Speaker C: It's beautiful. [01:10:21] Speaker B: Perfect. [01:10:21] Speaker A: Like a kind soul. Who just could never, would never cross their mind that that could mean anything else. They are just really into Praying. [01:10:33] Speaker C: Absolutely. What's Reddit? Okay, so what we know is there's a group of people who are associated with this church who also know that, you know, Kindred exist. And I feel like that's a thing that someone's si friend would have told us. [01:10:53] Speaker B: I mean, we know that there was a Kindred population here. Like, much larger than. I mean, the fact that there is enough Kindred in this city to consider it a population with a city population of 665, I mean, that is curious enough, but this whole place is strange. So I. Hmm. [01:11:23] Speaker C: Was able to suggest that we order off Menu. That's where I'm at here. That is Scarier. [01:11:33] Speaker E: We didn't like Blush of life or anything. We went in there. We're all pretty pale. [01:11:40] Speaker D: I mean, pushing around. Fries. [01:11:42] Speaker C: Yeah, you walk in. Listen, you walk into a town and they're like, hey, vampires, excellent. Hey, we're. We actually have something set up that you can go munch in the corner is not normal. We know this, right? [01:11:55] Speaker E: Yeah, we do. [01:11:56] Speaker C: Okay. [01:11:57] Speaker A: Collectively it is. That's weird. [01:11:59] Speaker E: Fucking weird. [01:12:01] Speaker C: Well, additionally, I just feel like this town should not be as amenable to goths as it is. [01:12:06] Speaker F: Yeah, no, the fact that nobody kind of like, well, I mean, there's a decent amount of people that probably, like, wander through looking like jerks. But, you know. [01:12:17] Speaker A: I mean, Taurus town, who else would come here except for like, hipsters and goths who want to enjoy it ironically, right? [01:12:27] Speaker C: How dare you? [01:12:28] Speaker A: Ghost hunters. They know their clientele. [01:12:32] Speaker D: Exactly. [01:12:35] Speaker F: We're ragtag enough. Maybe we're the next, like, big offshoot ghost hunter team that's trying to take off. I don't fucking know. [01:12:45] Speaker D: Roxanne, are you picking up anything about this place? [01:12:50] Speaker F: Just the fact that it's built on a fucking occult cage of some sort. Whether that means it's something that needs to be kept in city limits or something that they're trying to keep away from the city, I don't have any way of knowing. I would need to do, honestly. Probably some more reading about the town and what is here. [01:13:15] Speaker C: Sounds like something we can do at the library, but probably tomorrow night. [01:13:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't really feel like breaking into a library right now. [01:13:24] Speaker F: No, I'd rather not. [01:13:26] Speaker C: Maybe they keep kindred hours. [01:13:29] Speaker B: They don't. They close at eight. [01:13:33] Speaker F: Yeah, well, I mean, that'll give us a decent amount of time. [01:13:37] Speaker E: A couple hours at least. [01:13:38] Speaker F: In the morning. Or in the morning. Once the. [01:13:40] Speaker A: In our morning. [01:13:41] Speaker F: In our morning. So, uh, I would like to go to the library tomorrow for sure. [01:13:52] Speaker C: Provided no one tries to set us on fire while we're asleep. I feel like we have some time. [01:13:58] Speaker B: This isn't Chicago. [01:14:00] Speaker A: What are we going to do now? [01:14:03] Speaker B: I assumed we were running out of time and had to head back to the hotel. [01:14:07] Speaker D: Yeah, same. [01:14:08] Speaker A: Okay, because we've established that main street goes east and west across the. Across the town. So all you have to do is pull out of the parking lot and then start heading east. Right? Remember, you came that direction. So you start driving, and you'll make it past. I think it's Kaiser street. And then past Mile Avenue and then past Bowman Avenue and then past Bowman Avenue and then past Bowman Avenue and then past Bowman Avenue and then past Bowman Avenue. [01:14:47] Speaker E: Hey, guys, what's going on? [01:14:51] Speaker B: That's the same street. [01:14:52] Speaker E: That is. That shouldn't be going to try a different route. [01:15:02] Speaker A: Where you headed? [01:15:04] Speaker E: Um, let's see if we can head towards, I don't know, the church, maybe? [01:15:12] Speaker A: I see, you want to turn right onto. I believe that's Horton. [01:15:18] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:15:19] Speaker A: Which is. Okay, you'll find that at the next intersection. And then based on the map, you know for a fact that Horton doesn't intersect with 6th street, but then you're on 6th street and then Magpie Road. Or Magpie street. [01:15:46] Speaker E: Okay, what the fuck is going on? [01:15:49] Speaker C: I figured out why the GPS stopped working. [01:15:53] Speaker E: Yeah, that's the GPS, not the fucking roads. [01:15:57] Speaker B: Well, no, I think. I think that's the point, though, is that the GPS doesn't know where we are because the roads themselves don't know where we are. [01:16:07] Speaker A: I think I know why they call it Magpie street. [01:16:11] Speaker B: Why do they call it Magpie street? Are there magpies? [01:16:15] Speaker A: There's so many magpies. Like, an alarming number of magpies. And then Magpie street. And you can look down one block ahead and see Magpie street. And then down that Magpie street and stretched out the. They have the traffic signals that hang, not the ones that are on poles and just exactly equal, equally spaced birds sitting on top of that wire. Stop. [01:16:44] Speaker B: Stop the car. Stop the car. Stop the car. [01:16:46] Speaker E: I'm stopping the car. [01:16:47] Speaker F: Also. Sorry, storyteller, just to clarify, are we running into the same thing? [01:16:51] Speaker E: Where. [01:16:51] Speaker F: It's Magpie Street. Magpie Street. Magpie street. Are you also talking literal magpies at the same time? [01:16:57] Speaker A: Both. Yes. [01:16:58] Speaker B: Yes, both. [01:16:59] Speaker F: Both. Great. Both. [01:17:00] Speaker B: I'm. I'm gonna hop out of the car, and I'm going to, like, walk to the nearest group of magpies. [01:17:12] Speaker E: Gonna do the thing where I open the door and lean out slightly, and underneath the door, I have a weapon ready just in case shit pops off. [01:17:23] Speaker A: Well, group of magpies is going to be difficult to find because they are equally spaced. Like Christmas lights, but birds. [01:17:32] Speaker B: Okay. [01:17:33] Speaker A: Okay. [01:17:33] Speaker B: Well, then the closest one to me, can I, like, does it do anything as I get out of the car? [01:17:42] Speaker A: No. I mean, you can tell it's alive, but it should be moving or flapping or pecking. It should definitely not be standing still. It should definitely, definitely not be staring at you. [01:17:55] Speaker B: Can I activate Ferrari whispers and try and talk to it? [01:17:59] Speaker A: I mean, if you'd like. [01:18:00] Speaker B: I would. I would. Oh, luckily, I don't get any hungrier, so that's fantastic. And then it's manipulation and charisma and animalism, because I'm just. I just want to talk to them. Charisma right there. That is two successes. [01:18:39] Speaker A: It's not gonna make it. Unfortunately. You reach out, and in the way that the beast can speak to beasts on two successes, you can tell that it hears you. It just doesn't deign to give you its attention. [01:18:59] Speaker B: And I will power reroll to see if I can, like, I mean, because obviously what's happening is that there's. There's some weirdness going on in the city, and that's just, like, interfering with my abilities. So can I, like, call upon the beast to try and, like, really try and get through to these birds? [01:19:16] Speaker A: Your willpower to your call. [01:19:26] Speaker B: One more success. So, three successes. [01:19:28] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Yeah. Um, roll frenzy for me. [01:19:35] Speaker B: Oh, well, that was not what I was making have happen. [01:19:38] Speaker F: Okay. [01:19:42] Speaker B: Three successes. [01:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah, because you were not expecting to reach out to the bird and say something. I'm going to paraphrase, like, well, hello, creepy little birdie. What are you doing here in this town that's out of space and time? My name's Haley. What's yours? Right? And then the beak opens, and it is like a thousand bird voices in this, like, atonal, shrieking, furious. Like, angry. Not. Not. The bird is angry, but the sound is angry, and you know that like, that tinnitus pitch, right? Or in the movies when, like a grenade, right? Yeah. So, like that. That pitch. Pitch. One bird mouth opening, and then imagine a bird beak, but, like, put a human tongue in it, and then it's trying to speak, but it doesn't have vocal cords, so it's at that. And then there's a thousand of those, but it's only coming out of one mouth. And Hayley Drake possessed of the brain does not know what to do with that information. You're making that face, right? The beast recoils. And three successes is actually not enough to overcome this terror frenzy as you are touched by something that even the apex predator in your rib cage is afraid of. Now, you're smart enough to not go running down the street, right? [01:21:32] Speaker B: I would hope to know. [01:21:33] Speaker A: Right. The beast was in the car with you. It knows what. Something's fucking on the street sign. But the rest of you, Katja, you are watching slightly armed. And Jack and Roxanne and Jordan. See essentially Haley walking up to talk to this thing like it's a small animal or a child going so far, maybe getting down on one knee like, hey, little buddy. And then you can't hear the sound, but you can see her face and the speed with which she turns, hissing fangs out in the way that cats when they're afraid, right? And she doesn't step up into the car so much as she scrambles, leaps up into it, slams the door hard enough to where. I mean, it's a miracle the glass isn't shaking. [01:22:26] Speaker E: Seeing that I am in the car in drive, we are going. [01:22:32] Speaker F: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. [01:22:33] Speaker D: What happened? What happened? [01:22:38] Speaker B: There's the birds and the sound and the. [01:22:46] Speaker D: What? [01:22:47] Speaker B: It was not the look at me. It was just, it was the, it was the. Yeah, um. [01:22:59] Speaker F: Look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me. [01:23:06] Speaker B: It was, um. [01:23:06] Speaker F: Okay. [01:23:10] Speaker B: It was horrible. I've never heard anything like it. It was loud and shrill and just. It wasn't a conversation. It was just noise. [01:23:32] Speaker F: And we, like the bird didn't open its beak at all. [01:23:35] Speaker A: Kept staring at her and opened its beak. You didn't hear anything? [01:23:40] Speaker F: Oh, like not even Katya was. [01:23:42] Speaker A: No, just, I mean, Katya was there and would have been able to see the bird. I'm not gonna do it. I almost fucking did it with my face, but I'm not gonna let people clip that. See the bird, just be like no sound. And then within less than a second, Hailey is scrambling back on her hands, launching herself into the vehicle. Um, caught you, though, on the topic. You just said the second that Haley was in the car that you just floored it. [01:24:09] Speaker E: I'm getting out of here. I'm trying to find a street that's not Magpie street. [01:24:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't take that long because you slam onto the gas and you go about 4ft before you realize you're at the intersection. The main intersection of town. What the fuck? Well, before we, before we get too much further into that, it is about halfway through for us, right? So why don't we take a break here? We'll let you think about the travel you just undertook, the noises you just heard, and in maybe in ten minutes from now, we'll have an idea of how we want to handle that. We are going to stand up, stretch, and wonder what just happened to you in the audience. Please do the same. We'll all come back together and we'll compare notes, see whose theories are right. We're not going to be able to act on yours because you're right now in the future from when we are. But imagine how great it's going to feel if you figure it out before we do. Well, you got to come back in ten minutes to enjoy that feeling. So please remember to join us when we come back from our break. See you in a bit. Well, friends, we made it back. I hope you also made it back. We've. We've been spending this time writing down our theories. I hope you have your theories as well. To recap, kind of the last moment, we had a bit of trouble getting back to the hotel. Willerton ended up on some streets that don't exist, some streets that should not exist that many times in a row. And then Hailey Drake tried to speak to a magpie that had some very interesting things to say. Katja was able to help everybody escape this encounter, but in a blink and you miss it moment, they escaped the endless parade of Magpie streets and ended up, once again, directly in front of the Hotel Willard. So we can pick up there with Hayley still on the wrong side of terrified. I'm not going to have you go charging off into the night, as is my storyteller's prerogative. But you are in a bad way. Having been touched by I. What makes the beast afraid is the question you have to answer. Like, what would make the apex predator go, oh, God, no. Because that is what your beast found. A little piece of Katya, of course, the sudden transformation of streets that shouldn't be into streets that definitely are on the list. And the three of you get to watch both of these things happen together. So let's pick up there as the suv, I hope, comes screeching to a halt once you realize where you are. [01:27:12] Speaker E: It does. [01:27:14] Speaker A: And you're sitting in the intersection now with the streetlights that are just blinking red. Once it hits a certain time of night, they swap the signals over. It's just the dead silence of night, broken only by Haley's exasperated breathing and the idling of the suv's motor. [01:27:44] Speaker D: Are you okay, Kaylee? [01:27:47] Speaker B: No, it's not. I think I will be. I just. You know, just sometimes you just kind of get a little not in control of yourself, and, um, there's not something you can do about it. It just. It's just a thing. Um, so I think. I think maybe I will be. [01:28:15] Speaker C: Uh. [01:28:16] Speaker B: And I'm. I'm glancing out because I'm just making sure there aren't any demon magpies leering above us, around us, etcetera. [01:28:27] Speaker A: Nah. [01:28:29] Speaker B: Okay, good. Uh, I mean, if that's the case, then I'm definitely willing to get out of the car and just go into the room, because these streets have. Have officially creeped me the fuck out for the night. [01:28:43] Speaker F: I think I'm going to go inside. [01:28:45] Speaker A: How many dots on survival do you have? [01:28:48] Speaker B: I have four. [01:28:50] Speaker A: Yeah, then, I mean, you might not think of it right now, but eventually they'll hit you. Magpies aren't even in this part of the country. You gotta get, like, two states close to the rocky mountains before you start finding those. They don't live here anyway. [01:29:12] Speaker B: I don't like that piece of information. Thank you. Not a fan of that. I will say that, though. If that idea comes to me, I'll just kind of mutter it just to myself. And generally just. The magpies, they shouldn't even be here. This is not the right place for them. It's not. I shouldn't be here. [01:29:38] Speaker A: Okay. [01:29:43] Speaker F: Patrick, can you get us parked? [01:29:46] Speaker E: Yeah, I imagine I'm doing it at this point. You know, we're probably parked in the thing, and it's just like, you know, sitting in the car, kind of just, like, not really sure what to do. [01:29:58] Speaker F: It's that, like, after you've, like, very nearly, like, had a bad accident on the road, and you just kind of got to sit there and get your bearings again. [01:30:06] Speaker B: Like the. [01:30:09] Speaker D: Again got all of me or all. [01:30:13] Speaker F: Of my bits and pieces here. I just. To be honest, I think I've only ever seen one of us react like that when we're faced with, like, fire. [01:30:28] Speaker E: Yeah, definitely one of that response. [01:30:33] Speaker F: Yeah. Um, hales, that didn't like, it didn't, you know, give you that, like, didn't turn into something while you were staring at it, did, did it? [01:30:42] Speaker B: Uh, physically, no. Um, it was. It was just the. The. The sound. It was, um. It was kind of like a. Like a. Like a ringing in, like, kind of like tinnitus, but, um, worse. Um, and it was. [01:31:02] Speaker F: It. [01:31:04] Speaker B: It had a human tongue, though. [01:31:11] Speaker F: Like, open mouth. Instead of little creepy bird tongue, it was bit. [01:31:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Which I guess is probably a good indicator that it was not like a. Like a real magpie. No, definitely not. [01:31:31] Speaker F: Definitely not. [01:31:34] Speaker B: Which explains why they're. Why they're here. Because they're not. I mean, they're not real. [01:31:41] Speaker E: And Magpie Street's not real either. [01:31:45] Speaker C: At least not here. [01:31:46] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:31:51] Speaker B: Okay. These. These streets are weirding me the fuck out. Can. Can we go inside, please? [01:31:58] Speaker A: Yeah, let's. [01:31:59] Speaker E: Let's get indoors. [01:32:04] Speaker A: Heading back, of course, up the stairs, the small stairs leading to the wraparound porch and then in through the front door. Kayla? Apparently on our smoke break, no one behind the desk. We're just heading upstairs. [01:32:21] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:32:22] Speaker F: Yep. [01:32:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:32:24] Speaker A: And towards no doubt, what will be a fitful wait for the day's sleep to come, as promised. No one bothers you, whether that's just the nature of the hotel Woolerton or something about the town, there's no knock on the door, no housekeeping to worry about, no light sneaking through your windows to prematurely end the investigation. And as we arrive the next day. Sorry. As we arrive the next night, rather, I will invite each of you to make a rouse check as the sun sets and you return to unlife once more. Oh. [01:33:07] Speaker E: I failed, so I'm hungrier. [01:33:13] Speaker B: I did not. [01:33:15] Speaker D: I've succeeded. [01:33:17] Speaker C: Good. [01:33:19] Speaker A: Still have some of that Kayla in you. Well, I don't know if there was officially a plan for everyone to touch base again, but the hallway being what it is and the arrangement of the rooms being what it is, you really can't leave without letting each other know, just arbitrarily. Who's the first person who's going to be down the stairs? [01:33:50] Speaker C: I'm a morning person. Oh. [01:33:53] Speaker B: And I mean, look at me, right? I am little miss survival. I am ready and active and eager and let's go. And maybe it was just the time of night that we were out. And the creepy things won't happen if we're out a little bit earlier and get home a little bit earlier. So, yeah, I think Jordan and I actually are up and ready to go at the same time and are probably in the lobby waiting for. For Roxanne and Katya and Jack. [01:34:20] Speaker A: Okay, then I'll return to my question, which is, who is the first person down the stairs? [01:34:28] Speaker B: I mean, Jordan can be leading. [01:34:31] Speaker C: Yeah, it's fine. I'll head down the stairs, meet you guys in the very cute bed and breakfasty sitting area. I'm sure that one exists, even if it's not full of food. [01:34:42] Speaker A: Indeed. And whether you're walking only a few steps ahead of Haley. Or not is a bit beside the bridge point. All that matters is that as the first person going down, you'll be the first person to see the woman standing behind the counter. Although woman is not exactly how I would phrase it, because this tall, felt human is aggressively nonbinary, if you're familiar with the Sasha Vicos look. It's in that vein of someone who has gone through tremendous lengths to erase the signs of gender on their body. Perhaps not those lengths that the Smisi would be happy to assist with, but in their dress and their demeanor, carries themselves as someone who has escaped the confines of a gender binary, they see you and waste no time in asserting who you are. One hand raised up. They say you're the ed of Towers. Yes. [01:35:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:35:50] Speaker A: Nazir. It's nice to meet you. I'm sorry we couldn't speak last night. I was busy. [01:35:57] Speaker C: Uh, I wasn't aware that the hotel had other owners. [01:36:04] Speaker A: Oh, and there's a pause, a bit of a deflated the ego kind of shrinking down. They didn't tell you? Of course not. No, I'm sorry. I am what they call one of the loyalists here. I'm the camarilla representative for Willerton, Nazira. They reiterate clan Tremere. [01:36:34] Speaker B: Oh, I kind of look at Jordan and then back at them. I was not told that there was a tremere up here, much less a camarilla one. [01:36:53] Speaker A: Well, depending on who you ask, the particulars are actually quite embarrassing. But that's neither here nor there. I'm surprised no one mentioned it. And more surprised that you would come here without looking yourself. But perhaps that proclivity is unique to my clan and not shared amongst the rest of ours. Obviously, neither of you or Shamir. You can see them looking you over, just weighing what you are. In any case, there are more than two of you. Yes? [01:37:23] Speaker B: Yes, there's three more upstairs. [01:37:26] Speaker A: Well, then, pardon me. I'm just. I'm not in the mood to explain it more than once. But I'm more than happy to speak once they've all joined us now. [01:37:34] Speaker C: You're valid. I would have assumed that if being sent. Being sent on assignment would have, what's the word? Meant that someone would have known you were here and let us know ahead of time, rather than us having to find it out ourselves, you know? [01:37:49] Speaker A: Oh. Is it sincerely your intent to quibble over the details there, or shall we get to the business of Willerton? And you can tell that bringing that up has definitely struck a nerve. [01:38:00] Speaker B: I am gonna go get the rest of the group. And I quickly and very awkwardly turn around and, like, trip up the stairs because I'm trying to get out of here very quickly. So I stumble up and then catch myself and kind of, like, crawl, walk up the last couple, and I go, and I just, like, knock on Jack's door and then knock on katya's. I'm not waiting for answers. I'm just trying to, like, get their attention. [01:38:28] Speaker F: I think we would have been, like, partway out the door when you came up anyhow. [01:38:33] Speaker E: You probably. [01:38:35] Speaker D: I'm going to say that I'm the last person out. Everyone else gets there before me. [01:38:42] Speaker A: I will, Jordan. You won't worry too much about it. Nazira finds a chair, drapes one very long leg over the other, rests one hand on top of the other on a knee, and says exactly nothing to you until everybody else has arrived. [01:39:02] Speaker C: Definitely bounce and attempt at small talk, and it is painful for everyone. [01:39:09] Speaker B: Before I. Oh, sorry. No, by all means, before I bring everybody down this stairs, I will let them know what's going on, and I'll just lean in and say very quietly, because I don't want them to know. And I just say, there's a. There's a Camarilla tremere here in the lobby who knows that we're here and we don't know anything about her. Them. I'm so sorry. Them. And just. Yeah, don't. Don't talk about the fact that we and weren't told that they were here. [01:39:44] Speaker E: Good to know. [01:39:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:39:48] Speaker E: Tremere. [01:39:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:39:52] Speaker E: Interesting. [01:39:54] Speaker B: And I'll turn and lead the rest of the group down the stairs. [01:39:58] Speaker A: Roxanne, I feel like you, as the only one who has dots in politics, will be best positioned to make this role. Will you make an intelligence in politics role for me? Well, I wouldn't worry too much about that. No, the name Nazira does not mean anything to you. [01:40:27] Speaker F: I mean, here's the thing about the Lasombra word. Well, and maybe it's not just las Lambra. Maybe it's me being picky. I don't like not knowing people, not in my line of work. Would it be possible for me to fix that with some willpower? [01:40:49] Speaker A: It's your willpower. You can spend however you'd like. [01:40:56] Speaker F: Try this again. One is better than none. [01:41:03] Speaker A: Yes, but two is not quite enough. Anyone else has politics or a cult is a stretch, but politics is what we're looking for. Or status camarilla, if that's on your sheet. But I don't believe that is the case. Ah, well, regardless, Nazira waits till the five of you have assembled, introducing themselves exceedingly politely. There's a formality to it that might read, oh, are they. Are they like this or are they trying too hard? Oh, if you knew them a little better, you'd be able to split it. [01:41:47] Speaker D: But yes, talking about, I think I am a camarilla, like, sect wise, would that be helpful? [01:41:56] Speaker A: Um, it's not having status being a member of the sect, as opposed to being someone who is respected in the sect and. [01:42:01] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm just. I don't know. Jack doesn't know what's. What's happening. [01:42:08] Speaker A: You just see an immaculate them. Um, again, I. It's a. It's a sense of being overly eager, very much. A little bit of a. Oh, thank God, someone civilized vibe. And then also a lingering grit in the back of the teeth about the. The perceived slight. In any case, they introduce themselves in accordance, one by one by one by one by one, down the line, and makes a grand show, saying, well, I welcome you, of course, as the Camarilla representative of Willerton two. Willerton, you are welcome to keep your haven in this hotel as long as it's required. I wish I would have been able to make contact with you sooner. We would have dispensed with the idea of payment, but all the same, rest assured, I'll see if we can't get that cleared up. You are free, of course, inside your rooms. I shall give you sovereignty over that, as any prince might. Not that I would claim to be a prince, of course, but just so you understand that I intend to respect your boundaries while you're here. In exchange for this, I have only one small request. And that is, please, as you feed, don't feed on any of the staff or any of the guests, either on the hotel ground or anywhere else in the city. Is just. We like to keep those boundaries separate here, if that's okay. [01:43:40] Speaker B: Got it. Apropos of nothing, should we find ourselves in a situation where we were, say, incredibly hungry and a staff member was unfortunately the only source of food, is that still, like, really discouraged? [01:44:04] Speaker A: Well, discouraged implies that there's some room for equivocation and navigation, the sub, that we might end up in a position where it would be possible to create circumstances where it might be okay. So I would like you to step away from that idea because. No. In no circumstances would it be acceptable. [01:44:21] Speaker B: Noted. Double gotcha. Noted. Just. [01:44:26] Speaker A: Yep. So then with the rules established, then I should. Yes? [01:44:33] Speaker D: Nothing. Go ahead. [01:44:35] Speaker A: Then. With the rules established, I would also before continuing at the business, ask that you keep some distance away from the last chance saloon. Not for my sake, but for your own reputation. The local anarchs, let's use the word with some amount of trepidation, as they are barely representative of the cause. In any case, those are not aligned with the wisdom of camarilla. Tend to keep their counsel there. [01:45:01] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:45:05] Speaker A: But that's it for the tour, as it were. What brings you to Willerton? [01:45:16] Speaker F: Well, is here. We were looking for a friend of ours. James. Might have gone by. James came through about a week ago. [01:45:44] Speaker A: Let's see. Wits and insight, probably. [01:45:51] Speaker E: I would also like to wits and sight them. [01:45:55] Speaker A: Well, take the best of you and have you do it. Because numerically speaking, with. With five people, someone will pass it. Which at that point. Why are we rolling so well, Katya. [01:46:07] Speaker F: Then you should do it because only get four. [01:46:08] Speaker E: Yeah, I got five dice. [01:46:16] Speaker A: How I built my character. Standard distribution being what it is, if you let five people roll for anything, one of them will get it. [01:46:24] Speaker E: So, Spence, with successes, I am going to spend willpower to reroll those other two. [01:46:31] Speaker A: See if I can. [01:46:40] Speaker E: Three successes. [01:46:43] Speaker A: So as Roxanne is inquiring on the missing person's front, you can see Nazira tense at the mention. It's not guilt, nothing like that. It's just obviously a topic that. Is it reasonable that that would be the reason you showed up? Sure. Was that were they hoping it was absolutely something else? Definitely. So not like a slip of the guilty tongue or a twitch of a guilty eyebrow, but more of a more dignified version of oh, fuck. Of course it would be that. As though you asked James, have you met him? Nazira would reply, I don't believe he goes by that name. If we're talking about the same person, we can dispense with, of course, the obfuscation and go to the fact that you're looking for the messenger who came through Wilarton. Yes. [01:47:45] Speaker D: Yes, Everett. [01:47:47] Speaker A: Yes, Everett. I'm aware that he came through and, in fact, that he disappeared, but I can't say I know much more than that. [01:47:58] Speaker D: I turned to Jordan. [01:48:02] Speaker C: Uh, I have a. I just have something that's been tickling at the back of my head since we got here and, uh, stopped by the diner. You're the camarilla representative. Representative. It's a little odd, wouldn't you say? How cool these people are with us, right? [01:48:30] Speaker A: Indeed. I lay most of the blame for that on the anarchs. They conduct themselves in a way that I certainly wouldn't. Neither would any prince with jurisdiction of this area feel that way, but I am but one representative. And the only thing worse, I think, in this moment would be drawing attention through some kind of protracted blood war or anything like that. I'm sure if Prince Jackson has a problem with it, he could dispense with the problem himself in one of his hounds. The fact that he hasn't, of course, he surely knows, signals that it's under control to a degree that does not require my involvement. [01:49:06] Speaker C: I mean, there is the small part where we had an interesting encounter with trying to, I don't know, travel or leave that might be preventing. I don't know, anyone from checking in on you. [01:49:25] Speaker A: Oh. [01:49:29] Speaker C: Uh, I look at Katya Magpie street. [01:49:34] Speaker E: Ring a bell? [01:49:37] Speaker A: I'm sorry, no. We. [01:49:45] Speaker D: What about the fact that, if I remember correctly, Jordan, that you sensed that he vanished from his room? [01:49:53] Speaker C: Not so. It felt more like he. And you can correct me if I'm wrong, storyteller felt more like a kindred, came in and was able to go to sleep. [01:50:04] Speaker A: You're missing the part where there was a violent struggle. [01:50:08] Speaker C: That's true. Violent panic. Right before that went to sleep. [01:50:13] Speaker D: But there was a violent jump, is what I remember. [01:50:19] Speaker A: Is that so? Well, of course, that puts an entirely different spin on events, but as I said, I wasn't aware of his disappearance. It would be tragic, of course, if he'd gone missing in that way. But I don't know anything that I can do to help you in that regard. [01:50:39] Speaker C: I mean, what do you know about sacred geometry? [01:50:48] Speaker A: Surely more than you do. Why do you ask? [01:50:52] Speaker C: Sorry. Reminds me so much of someone I don't know the. [01:51:00] Speaker B: I mean. [01:51:00] Speaker C: Then explain it to me like I'm dumb. Like I'm five oh word that I. [01:51:05] Speaker A: Had that much time. I know that individually, our lives are quite long, but the night actually is rather short. [01:51:10] Speaker C: Sure. Then why is this town built on what looks like it's a cage? [01:51:20] Speaker A: What you will come to find as you go back and forth with Nazir on this issue is that I'm sure they know a great deal about all kinds of things, but they're not entirely willing to share it with strangers. Especially when they haven't quite sussed out what your level of competence is or your allegiance is. So you come into town, you didn't do the research. That kind of rang a bad bell. They are leery of getting involved with someone who. Why would they put themselves out on a limb if it's a circus that came to town instead of a coterie? Right. So until they get a better measure of you, or you're able to convince them otherwise, there's a bit of hesitance lurking there, and they'll. They'll continue to stiff arm you about it and circumlocute and. And just generally give you the runaround until you find a way to break through that. [01:52:16] Speaker E: Or break them. [01:52:17] Speaker C: I was going to say Hayley can wedgie them until they talk, but I don't think that's going to be useful. The point is that we are here on behalf of the prince. And if you are a representative of the Camarilla, you should be able to be amenable to working with us on that. Whether or not I picked up that, considering the slight earlier, I don't know. I have no points in politics. [01:52:44] Speaker A: I struggle, of course, and please don't take this personally, but as representatives of the prince, do you have some way that you could prove that? A letter, a seal, a mark, a sigil of any kind? We could call him, I suppose, but I don't have his number handy. Do you, as his representative, have a way to get in contact with him? We. [01:53:09] Speaker E: We all got missives. Right, Josh? [01:53:14] Speaker A: And you understand it's nothing personal to you, but any number of kindred could come through this city and say, they're here on behalf of the prince. Right? And then wouldn't it be terribly embarrassing if I were to give those people any kind of information or incinerator? It led to our investigation, and then it turned out that they were not, in fact, working on behalf of the great Camarilla. [01:53:38] Speaker E: The missives we got did have, like, official looking seal on them. [01:53:45] Speaker A: In point. Like, we can dance around back and forth about trying to do it, but you're going to look for a role of some kind of way, too, to break through. [01:54:00] Speaker E: Someone who's good at talking. [01:54:01] Speaker A: Please. [01:54:02] Speaker C: I can do a charisma insight or academic. [01:54:05] Speaker D: I was gonna do a persuade charisma. [01:54:08] Speaker C: Go for it. [01:54:09] Speaker A: Persuasion and charisma would be himbo. Save us. [01:54:18] Speaker D: Three, six senses. [01:54:24] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure it's Jack's warmth, stumbling by accident through the mess of the politics and the subtext. Jack is not the kind of person that subtweets, whether on Twitter or in real life. So there's something very earnest, of course, that either slips past Nazira's defenses or is endearing to them in a way. On three successes, Nazira is at least willing to share two pieces of information with you. And I'm not exactly sure how you get there, so I'm just going to give them to you and pretend that that is not an indictment of my ability as a storyteller. The first thing is that, yes, the travel you experience with the Magpie street is there's no Magpie street. And I've happened to quite a few people at different times. Are you familiar with the goblin roads? [01:55:30] Speaker C: No. [01:55:33] Speaker A: All I can say is, based on my research in the area, that it appears that what is normally confined to a rural phenomenon is somehow magnified here, and that similar effects to those found as traveling through that particular network of passageways can be experienced here. It's been quite curious. The locals seem to be immune, the human population. Anyway, I've tried crafting all manner of alembics and sigils. Hair, bone fragments, blood, skin. None of it seems to carry on the immunity. [01:56:13] Speaker C: Are you stuck here too? [01:56:20] Speaker A: I am thinking to see how she would answer that. Sorry, how they would answer that question. And I think the answer that you get is torn on two things, because you are asking, are you stuck here because of the goblin roads? And that is not immediately what flashes into Nazira's mind the reason why you are stuck here? Well, yes, but not for the reason you think, and I really don't care to explain either of those things, is the vibe that passes through the face and then out of the mouth as they sidestep the question. [01:57:04] Speaker C: So we can physically leave if we would like to. [01:57:09] Speaker F: Just. [01:57:11] Speaker C: Have to figure out how. And also, you know, the thing we're actually here to do. [01:57:18] Speaker E: Yeah. It's not worth it, being able to leave if we don't get done what. [01:57:25] Speaker A: We need to get done. The other piece of information that, absent a protracted back and forth, I tried to lure you there by accident. Nazira will explain, on the topic of sacred geometry, that it is, in fact, quite peculiar for such a thing to be oriented here. Vertices are anchored by structures. But what do we know about towns, especially old dying towns in the middle of nowhere? They're constantly changing. So for this to work, you would have to have structures in places that don't move for as long as it takes to build something this powerful. And quite frankly, the odds of that happening by accident are rather astounding. I've done, of course, research with the local historical society, but whoever's responsible has done a remarkable job of hiding their tracks. If is intentional at all. Or perhaps it's also possible that it's some kind of background influence, a whisper in the dreams kind of situation, if I can borrow the parlance. But there's something very intentional about what's happening here, Jordan. [01:58:39] Speaker C: Yeah. Once more. [01:58:47] Speaker D: What is wrong with this mic. [01:58:52] Speaker F: Jordan? You. You found something, didn't you? [01:58:56] Speaker C: Not so much found. I was going to say if you did research with the historical society. And I think. And I, like perk. I perked up, absolutely. When they mentioned that they also worked with it with them. I was looking into the town and I did notice there's about a year gap in the record, in the newspaper records of the city of the town being just gone. [01:59:21] Speaker A: It's gone from our library. [01:59:26] Speaker C: I haven't checked your library yet. But when I was looking before we came into town, about. Sorry, I gotta go look at my actual notes. May 1888 to September 1889. [01:59:47] Speaker A: I was quite curious. I'm sure there could be any number of reasons why such records weren't digitized or at the very least, left from your collection. But if any originals were to exist, it would be here looking. [02:00:00] Speaker C: The intention was to head that way. But if that those dates don't ring a bell, that's fine. I get that you can't know everything, but nothing. [02:00:10] Speaker A: No, there's, of course, the general folklore of places like this, but certainly nothing to put stock into. And the dates not. And you can see Nazira going through. I mean, is like an enochian calendar, is it aztec calendar? Is it like all the different myths and doesn't line up with anything that I'm aware of off the top of my head. [02:00:34] Speaker C: Not even a local legend? [02:00:37] Speaker A: No, especially not. [02:00:40] Speaker C: I was going to say, there's also the whole. I just punched my mic the gray. One of the places we were told to check out was the graveyard. It's also supposed to be very old, uh, but just local ghost hunter stuff, to my understanding, yes. [02:01:01] Speaker A: And in that, I can say your intuition is correct. Whatever is happening here, the graveyard is ancillary. It is, of course, wonderful for attracting new humans to the town if you feel like feeding from someone you haven't met a dozen times before. But aside from that, I've done considerable research into the nature of the graveyard. And aside from being exceptionally large, doesn't appear to be anything uniquely suspicious about it, does she? [02:01:28] Speaker C: Does that feel true? Or do you need me to roll the insight to find out. [02:01:34] Speaker A: Whether or not she's lying? She is infinitely capable of hiding her intention there. The important mechanic here is how many successes you get on convincing her to be upfront with you. Because if she is lying to you and you see it, there's nothing you can do to make them tell you the truth. Right. [02:01:56] Speaker C: Good point. So, I mean, I know, we've had a roll for it. Do you mind if I roll again? [02:02:03] Speaker A: You can if you want to try something different. [02:02:06] Speaker C: I think historian to historian, antiquar. Whatever it is, this place is fascinating, and I'm sure there's more that a tremere like yourself would love to just dish about. [02:02:24] Speaker A: I want to go wits and academics. I don't think you have a cult, but you can try to take the angle of. Okay, brain person, let's talk like smarty pants is. [02:02:34] Speaker C: Can I make an argument for charisma persuasion? [02:02:37] Speaker A: Well, charisma is what Jack started with, and also, you are the one who came out with force of personality that went poorly. There's something flexible about this where you're thinking on your feet, which is why I'm leaning for wits. It's not just like charisma is raw force of energy. And you're not just showing up, being like, I am an academic. Behold and spill your secrets. [02:03:02] Speaker C: Come for me, nerds. Well, two successes. I only rolled four dice. [02:03:10] Speaker A: I mean, two on four dice is statistically right in the center of it. [02:03:14] Speaker E: Like, 50%. [02:03:15] Speaker C: Listen, I don't roll well here, but. [02:03:19] Speaker A: Two successes does not connote to Nazira the level of academic expertise that would be able to get their guard down. [02:03:30] Speaker C: I want to throw willpower in there, but I don't know that it's going to be helpful. [02:03:34] Speaker A: You would only be able to reroll one die, which is not terribly good odds. [02:03:41] Speaker C: If three successes at all will help, I would do it, but it doesn't sound like it is. [02:03:45] Speaker A: I couldn't tell you that would be cheating. I see Roxanne having a thought over there in the corner. Now that your microphone continues to defy you, this is what happens to see. Well, it just worked there. [02:04:04] Speaker F: I don't. I need a new mic is what I'm hearing, so we're gonna get to work on that. And I've been listening, and I've been watching, and I may not have. It's the La Sabra bane. And I may not have the same level of occult knowledge that a tremere might. Obviously, I don't have the same access to sorcery, but there is a level of. I hesitate to say, kinship, but understanding different ends of the occult spectrum, the the umbra and the blood sorcery, is it not so, Nazira, I do want to thank you for coming out to meet us, and I do apologize for not taking the time to ensure that we talk to the right people. Truly. It's just the more that we've seen the more fascinating it's been. And it seems you've been here for so long and your knowledge of the occult, given your background. And I'm a bit of a dabbler myself. I just. It's fascinating. I don't suppose there's any way we could work through to what we're trying to get to here. We just want to get our job done, that's all. [02:05:37] Speaker A: Let's call that manipulation and occult. It sounded pretty manipulative from where I was sitting. I feel like I'm being manipulated. Little bit. Little bit. [02:05:57] Speaker F: That's four successes. [02:06:01] Speaker A: Oh, well, outstanding. Have you ever been at a dinner party or some kind of social gathering, and then you managed by accident to find out you share an obscure hobby with someone and they just unload at you? Right? [02:06:24] Speaker F: Yeah. [02:06:25] Speaker A: Well, then I don't need to do much more explaining. Because the second you start talking about sacred geometry and the layout of the place in the goblin roads, there's a point where you start saying something and then Nazir gets intellectually excited and before you know it, the two of you are just ripping back and forth. And not the first tremere in the world to get too excited about secrets, to forget that they are secrets. Calling it a secret might make it sound more sinister than it is. It's more, as I said before, that they are just interested in protecting themselves from your incompetence if you prove to be incompetent. Right. [02:07:01] Speaker F: Yeah. [02:07:02] Speaker A: I suppose we arrive at this conversation and there's a little more of that folklore than they were originally letting on. Of course, there is a normal amount of folklore in all places like this, and it stretches back forever in families and generations. But this is specific because the locals here, not that they have indulged them with this information directly revere something called the harvest God. And as best as I can tell, there's no evidence of this written in any kind of legend that I've seen before. Right? I mean, all the normal books that I've been through, and they will recite all the normal books of demons and gods and things like that. This isn't a babylonian myth transcribed into Illinois, annoyed dirt. This is something entirely unique for itself. But I don't. Have you been in the fields yet? [02:08:01] Speaker F: No, I can't say we have. I mean, to be fair, we just got here the night previous. We haven't really had the chance. [02:08:08] Speaker A: I would avoid it if I were you. You will find they reek of something potent and powerful. It's a blood that calls from the soil and taking even more than a few steps away from the road. Believe me, I've tried it. I fell to my knees and in a most undignified display, as the hunger claimed me. But there is something strange out there. It has a basic accounting to it of things, you know, transposing from one field to another. I would suspect the vita could be involved, which, of course, might explain why your missing friend went. But exploring unknown power is dangerous, even for someone so skilled as myself. [02:09:00] Speaker B: Oh, there's. [02:09:02] Speaker F: There are limits. Unfortunately. [02:09:12] Speaker D: I'm at the point where. [02:09:15] Speaker F: I'm at the point where Laura. Knowledge is starting to get in the way of things, because this sounds like the vibes of some. Some shit that's been brought over from somebody's Pennsylvania dutch ass relatives and implanted into the dirt that obviously no one's gonna write down because they all know that shit. [02:09:39] Speaker A: Such as the nature of strange cults in the cornfields, as a general rule. I mean, I would say you don't write down the secret cult instructions, but I think it's a trope of the genre that you literally always do. So what do I know? [02:09:52] Speaker F: Yeah, well, that's the thing. That's. [02:09:55] Speaker A: Maybe there's a grimoire somewhere else. [02:09:57] Speaker C: You're gonna accidentally read them. [02:09:59] Speaker F: Yeah. And, storyteller, forgive me. I hope I'm not getting too mish mashy with my information. This is just something that popped into my brain. Nazir, I apologize if this is out of pocket, but is this something, perchance, that you would find in family records, genealogy? [02:10:32] Speaker A: I'll pause to say that I doubt there's any universe in which Nazira knows what the phrase out of pocket means, but context is being what they are. I don't know that it's tied to the genealogy. I would expect you've heard of the missing person's report. So if we are going to believe, literally, that the harvest God requires some kind of blood sacrifice, then it is apparently not necessary for that person to be of the town or even of the family. Right. Then visitors. [02:11:04] Speaker E: If it's probably easier to just grab visitors as they pass through. [02:11:11] Speaker A: Or something to that effect. It's possible that family blood is more potent. Of course, this is a new novel theory that I really hadn't considered until just now, but were that the case, no. Perhaps family blood is better for whatever trying to accomplish, but. And then you can see that now Nazira is just bouncing around through all the possibilities. Little brain lighting up as neurons fire back and forth. [02:11:38] Speaker F: Better for keeping the cage intact. [02:11:43] Speaker A: It's entirely possible. But we could also be barking up the wrong cornstalk, as it were. [02:11:54] Speaker F: There's a piece here. There's a piece here. There's a piece here. Damn it. [02:11:58] Speaker A: Well, far be it from me to assume, or imply or give orders, but perhaps this is the connection with the missing articles that you're friend spoke of. [02:12:13] Speaker F: Entirely possible. And if they weren't digitized, the best place to find them would be at the source library. [02:12:24] Speaker A: One would hope. [02:12:27] Speaker E: I guess you're getting your wish. [02:12:30] Speaker C: We knew we were going to the library at some point. [02:12:34] Speaker A: I do hope, of course, you'll apologize. You'll accept my apologies. I can't attend with you. There are a great many things that require my attention this evening. In this new inspirational thought. I need to find some journals of mine and revisit some thoughts I haven't had to have since my earliest lessons at the chantry. Do let me know, of course, if you find anything. Yes, sure. [02:13:00] Speaker F: Nazira, I do hope that we can work together on this. I feel like it might be beneficial for everybody here, if only because this shit is weird. [02:13:11] Speaker A: Well, I'm certain any solution that you find or information that is made available through the archival records would be most useful to me. But let's reconvene, perhaps at the end of the night, a few hours before sundown. [02:13:28] Speaker F: Here in the lobby. [02:13:30] Speaker A: Of course. Okay, perfect. [02:13:34] Speaker F: Thank you, Nazir. I truly, I do appreciate your time. [02:13:38] Speaker A: Well, it's nice to have an intellectual talent worthy of my time visiting Willerton. As you can imagine, small towns like this don't normally get those kinds of minds. [02:13:48] Speaker B: No. [02:13:49] Speaker F: The very least, they'll be passing through rather swiftly. Seems like we won't have that luxury. But we'll try to keep it interesting for you. [02:13:58] Speaker D: Of course. [02:14:02] Speaker F: We'll see you later this evening. [02:14:04] Speaker A: Indeed. Nazira departs, exiting through the front door. It does not appear that they drove, but all the same, wherever Nazira goes is a bit less important than where you all will be going. And I don't know, I think I. I bet Jack could guess I'm not going to be able to see. But I think we all know, right, to make a game of it, where we all say on account of three where we think we're going. Sure. There's no way the latency of the Internet's going to make that as funny as it would be. [02:14:46] Speaker D: It's going to be funny. [02:14:48] Speaker F: Yeah. No, let's go to the library. [02:14:51] Speaker E: Let's go to the library. [02:14:53] Speaker A: Hacha. Are you good? [02:14:55] Speaker D: I do have to talk to Bradley, though, if I remember correctly. [02:14:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, you can wait for that. Let Nazira go collect yourselves. I'm sure that Jordan and Roxanne. Or actually, none. I'm thinking about it. You could have had this conversation while Roxanne and Jordan were engaged with their bit, right? [02:15:20] Speaker B: Make sense? [02:15:22] Speaker A: Yes. So let us send you off to the desk where a young gentleman, younger than his twin sister, or at least he looks like it. The very pimply teenager vibe. There's a crackly voice to it. The name tag does not say Bradley. But you were told it was Bradley. Chad. [02:15:54] Speaker D: Chad. Is it Bradley or is it Chad? [02:16:02] Speaker A: Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. [02:16:06] Speaker E: It's not. [02:16:06] Speaker A: It's not my name tag. It's my friend's name tag. Because I was gonna put my shirt in the washer, but I also had a pet in my pants, and then it exploded, and then I couldn't wear that to work here, so. I'm sorry. No, I'm Bradley. He shake your hand and then realizes that he's at work and kind of, like, pulls it back. [02:16:21] Speaker D: Slowly I reach forward and, like, shake it before he fully pulls it. Nice to meet you, Bradley. [02:16:28] Speaker A: Oh, hi. Yeah, thank you. Yes. And you also guessed. [02:16:35] Speaker D: Brandon. [02:16:36] Speaker A: Sorry, I don't know Brandon. Oh, yes, that's right. You met my sister and then the called. Yes. Sorry, it's been a really. It hasn't been a busy night. I'm sorry, I'm just. There's a lot going on. [02:16:49] Speaker D: Yeah, it seems like it's. I wanted to talk to you about a friend of ours that was staying here a week ago, James, if you know anything about what happened, because apparently we were supposed to meet up with him and we haven't seen him yet. Do you know anything about that? [02:17:07] Speaker A: Oh, James, I gotta say, I don't really keep track of names. Do you have, like, a description? [02:17:17] Speaker D: Excavante. Like, very memorable last name. Elias. [02:17:21] Speaker A: Oh, you know what? You seem to crack the weirdest, like, huge smiles. Like. Yeah, because, I mean, I made this joke that, like, when you look at that, it looks like he's gonna bust a man. Tea? And I was like, you know, it's gonna bust. You know? And anyway, yeah, no, he left after a few days. Skip town. [02:17:48] Speaker D: Really? [02:17:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it happens sometimes. People come in and then, like, they check in, but then, like, they have a thing for three days, but they don't pay the money. That's why we do it up front now. Cause, like, they would pay, and then they would just leave after a few nights. And in those cases, like, well, what can we do. So he left. I mean, he left some of his stuff behind and then like we always do, we just throw it out and clean the room. [02:18:14] Speaker D: So you threw out its stuff? [02:18:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we can't keep anything. No, because like that would be, I think it's illegal, right? Is it? Can you steal? I mean, what if he came back, right? Or maybe lost in the found situation. [02:18:31] Speaker D: Like didn't leave like a tip a node or anything like that? [02:18:35] Speaker A: No. Are you supposed to do that? [02:18:40] Speaker D: I mean, it would be nice. It's good manners. Just leave something behind. [02:18:43] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean, I was kind of like rude to like leave without a note, but I didn't know if there's the same thing with hotels any and. Sorry. Anyway, um, no, I'm just, uh. Look, this job is really, really important to me. And like they say I talk too much, I irritate the guests, and then if I keep doing it, they're going to fire me. And like, I did not want to go back and work in the fields. Oh my God, the hay is so itchy. But so, I mean, like if you could just, look, if my boss calls you, can you just say that I was like super, super helpful? [02:19:12] Speaker D: Sure. [02:19:13] Speaker A: And also didn't, didn't talk so much. [02:19:16] Speaker D: Of course. How often does the garbage disposal come around? [02:19:23] Speaker A: Oh God. I mean, most like, well, Thursday's trash day, but. Unless it's recycling. But I mean, your friend, Mister Bustamante, um, he would have, uh, no, that was probably a while back ago. Yeah, I gotta be in the landfill by now. [02:19:41] Speaker D: Gotcha. Can I just do a insight check real quick on him to see if he's hiding anything? [02:19:48] Speaker A: You don't need to insight, he's a fucking idiot kid. [02:19:50] Speaker B: Like, okay, I'm just kidding. [02:19:51] Speaker D: I'd like it seemed like it. I wasn't sure if he was a mastermind of some sort. And like, just like, oh, look, I'm stumbling over my words all the time. [02:20:01] Speaker A: Very much. [02:20:02] Speaker D: It's not an act, it's just this kid, all right? [02:20:05] Speaker A: Very much the, like, ah, the movie popcorn is too expensive. Like, lady, I fucking work here. I don't set the prices. All right? Like, yes, he is very upfront about that. [02:20:23] Speaker D: You didn't keep anything of his, right? Didn't leave anything valuable? Nothing like that? [02:20:29] Speaker A: Oh God, no, no, no, I. Who told you? No, who told me what? Well, like there's been some rumors that, I mean, like I was dealing. Anyway, first of all, it's not true. I do not hate. I started saying, and I instantly regretted it. Because I was just trying to make this kid a fully realized character and was going to introduce some mean rumor from his high school, but I can't because I know the five of you will be like, yes, he's the one with the shaving cream, and the entire scenario will tear off in that direction. So I have to stop it immediately. And I apologize. [02:21:02] Speaker D: Okay, sorry. [02:21:04] Speaker A: Uh, no, he's. [02:21:06] Speaker D: He does not have anything. [02:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah, no, he's just a sealy kid. [02:21:10] Speaker D: Okay, no worries. All right, well, it's a bummer, but I appreciate it. [02:21:18] Speaker A: I will. Well, actually, you know what? Yes, do make a wits and insight check. Or a wits and awareness, whichever those things you like more. I'll try a wits and awareness. [02:21:39] Speaker D: I don't know if that's enough, but we'll see. [02:21:42] Speaker A: How many did you get? [02:21:43] Speaker D: Two. I got two. [02:21:45] Speaker A: Oh, no. I mean, you're not gonna get too much out of it. There is a flash of his eyes when you are talking about things that get left behind to that staff door just at the base of the stairs, and then he's looking back at you. But that is not an indication that he is lying. He is not an evil super genius. Just you said will work. [02:22:08] Speaker D: I don't think that anymore. I don't think that anymore. Not even a little bit. Can I use one willpower to roll? [02:22:14] Speaker A: You don't need to. That's. That's the clue. That's just the clue. [02:22:17] Speaker D: Okay. [02:22:17] Speaker A: If there is other stuff being hidden by someone who is much smarter and also nefarious, that's the room where they probably keep it. [02:22:24] Speaker D: Okay, good to know. [02:22:26] Speaker A: For whatever period of time they have to keep the stuff. Like, I don't know if there's a law about throwing people's stuff away. It's in there. [02:22:34] Speaker D: Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate you back to doing whatever you're doing. And then goes back to the group. [02:22:45] Speaker A: And we'll see that those two conversations end at approximately the same time. [02:22:52] Speaker E: Fish the keys out of my pocket and just sort of jingle them a little bit. Like, who's up for a field trip? [02:23:00] Speaker C: Yay. [02:23:02] Speaker A: Oh, field trip. Nazira laughs. It's a pun, Hayley. Field trick. [02:23:15] Speaker B: Yes, no, I get it. I'm aware. I just. Creepy. Talking about the creepy field and the creepy stuff that happens in the field and then the creepy birds from last night. Night. I just. [02:23:29] Speaker C: I'm sorry. [02:23:30] Speaker B: I get it. I just don't like it. [02:23:34] Speaker D: I also relay the information to everyone that I found from Bradley as well. [02:23:38] Speaker A: Obviously nothing else we can say that you discussed those things en route to the library, because I believe that is indeed where we are headed 100%. I don't know if you've been in a small town recently, but when, if the town was important enough in the late forties through early sixties, you know, that they have an amazingly good library. Can see the number of people there because that's when all the work's progress, money was flowing through. That's when, like, they just built temples to civic governance and beautiful town squares and things like that. Willerton is not one of those places. This is definitely a Reagan era, cinder block, bare minimum kind of library, just a big old square. It would be brutalist if there was some kind of design element into it, given the amount of concrete. But in fact, it is just concrete. A disappointingly bureaucratically looking building in an otherwise beautiful town. If the hotel you're staying at has good bones, the Wilburton library has no bones. That said, your competition with Nazir did not last so long that it is closed. However, looking at the time, you'll probably have about 30 to 45 minutes before the librarian is going to want to wrap things up and send you home. That is a problem that we can cross when we get there. In the meantime, in general, any kind of rote investigation searching through an archive is going to be intelligence and investigation. But I'm open to alternative explanations. [02:25:33] Speaker E: I mean, yeah, I have intelligence, investigation, six dice. [02:25:38] Speaker C: I have six in intelligence, academics. And I could make an argument for that, being academics, being a similar skill set for what we're doing. [02:25:47] Speaker A: Oh, academics would be terribly important. Well, we know that Jordan is going to avail themselves of the newspaper archives, and then we can say that, katja, you are looking generally for the things that are, like, in the Dewey decimal system. Cults, subtopic fields, something like that. [02:26:06] Speaker E: See if there's anything on this harvest. [02:26:08] Speaker C: God, if anyone. [02:26:11] Speaker A: Good. [02:26:12] Speaker C: If anyone has politics or anything, it might be worth looking into who owns, like, city ordinances for building the buildings that are now anchored to the hexagon so that we can see maybe who's behind the mind behind it. [02:26:31] Speaker F: Would a few dots in a cult be helpful with that? Because I could look up. Shoot, I don't know why I keep getting stuck on this. The makeup of the town. Like I mentioned, genealogy. So if we've got folks from western Europe, eastern Europe, Celtic, baltic gods and folklore, that could affect agriculture, that sort of malarkey. [02:27:06] Speaker A: Sure. I don't know what part of the library you find that in, but we can look for it. That's another Dewey decimal joke. [02:27:23] Speaker C: Three successes for academics and intelligence. [02:27:28] Speaker A: Okay, keep that in your pocket. [02:27:34] Speaker E: I'm gonna spend a willpower for that. [02:27:37] Speaker A: Yeah. That's honestly embarrassing. Yep. I'm getting lost. [02:27:43] Speaker E: They've really not like upkeep. Dewey decimal system. Very well here. [02:27:46] Speaker A: That's it. The librarian is like 89 years old and does not file anything back where. [02:27:51] Speaker F: It'S supposed to be, and she can't see for sure. Like with those code bottle glasses. [02:27:56] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Well, therein lies the problem. It just takes a little bit of willpower to push through the fact that it is not organized and resign yourself to have to going shelf by fucking shelf the whole time. And three successes out of Roxanne. Well, this is going to be quite informative. I apologize in advance for the exposition dump that is going to happen. Who would like to go first? [02:28:33] Speaker E: Can you just go in the order we rolled? [02:28:34] Speaker B: I guess. [02:28:35] Speaker C: Yeah, give me that local history, baby. [02:28:38] Speaker A: Sure. Well, beginning with Katya, what you read about Wilartons history is always going to begin with a quintessentially american story. There is an agrarian urge to find places like this. Doesnt matter that theyre too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. The soil is deep and dark and bountiful. And such is the story Willerton as it begins, unfortunately, in terms of historical records, also kind of where this story WIllerton stops, because once you get past like the sixties or fifties, we go away from recorded history and more towards oral history. Thus we arrive at the Willerton's Farmers almanac. This is going to catch your attention because it is in the reference section where you would find encyclopedias. But this is not an encyclopedia, and in point of fact it's not the Ben Franklin's falmer's almanac either. And it is this suspiciousness that will draw the eye to the text. In addition to the farmer's almanac for this year, there is a physical copy of every single annual farmers Belgium farmers almanac going back to the town's founding, which means there are roughly 240 of them in order. So you're going to be spending some time wriggling through that with your background in in pattern recognition, looking for things that are out of the ordinary. You don't actually need to know a ton about the occultism, although rock sand will surely be helpful in this regard. You know that well, I mean, I can just ask you, right? What are the big festival days? You're a farmer, whether it's like four BC or 2007, like what are the two festivals? [02:30:52] Speaker B: Planting and harvesting. [02:30:54] Speaker E: Planting and harvesting. [02:30:55] Speaker A: And when is planting festival? [02:30:58] Speaker E: Spring. Spring, yeah. [02:31:01] Speaker A: Roxanne's on it, right? [02:31:03] Speaker F: Yeah. It's the. The equinoxes. [02:31:05] Speaker A: Uh huh. And then when is the other one. [02:31:07] Speaker E: Is the fall equinox. Yeah. [02:31:10] Speaker A: Right. So we have May 1 and October 31. Right. We have the. Until the. Since the beginning of time, the mayday festival and then all hallows Eve and all of things getting wrapped up together. Right. So, like, that's just stuff we know. The question I posit to you then is why the fuck does Willerton celebrate its planting on the 21 May and its harvest on the 14 October? That is a great question. Right. So you will take that information. It's good that you both took this approach, because if you only get half of this, it makes it very, very awkward. But Roxanne, at some point, Katie's going to come over to you and be like, I've got some stuff here that smells like it's for you. [02:32:06] Speaker F: It smells weird. Here you go, Roxy. [02:32:08] Speaker E: This is just. This is occult stuff. I don't understand it. [02:32:12] Speaker F: This is weird. Here, take the weird. [02:32:15] Speaker E: Take the weird. Give me your patterns. I'll look at them. [02:32:21] Speaker A: Well, it's a bit of a leap, to be honest, but it's the kind of thing that you. You make this intuitive step forward, a leap of faith, and then when you land, you're like, oh, no, that makes entirely too much sense for it to be wrong, because you know how the sacred geometry is drawn and, you know, the shape and those things together mean that if we take this sacred geometry and then place it in the cosmos, those are the dates when the geometric pattern would be the weakest. That is when the stars are right, as it were days. [02:33:06] Speaker E: They probably need to up the, uh. Do the ritual. Yeah, sacrifice, probably. [02:33:17] Speaker A: Either that's when something is about to get out, or that is what? Or that is when something has the best chance of getting out. Or that is the best chance of something getting in. And now you are all piecing it together. But the question then becomes, what is the ritual? What are they doing? And for that, we turn to Jordan. Because Nazira was correct, no amount of researching microfilm in any other library in the country would be able to give you any new information. But searching the physical records yields unto your hand a clipping in an otherwise unmarked Manila folder stuffed into the void where that time should be. It is dated May 31, 1888, and bears the title speaking out against the blood orgy. It is a scathing editorial written as a letter to the editor. It doesn't explain what a blood orgy is, it seems, primarily concerned with how out of hand the last one got and how the town will surely bring ruin upon itself if this continues to happen. It is infuriatingly vague about key details that you would want to know, but the gist is there's something called the blood orgy. It happens on May 21, a week ish, and some change after that. Somebody reacted to the extreme nature of the last festival such that they wrote a letter to the community that was placed in the local paper. [02:35:28] Speaker C: And there's nothing else in that time period. Or like, this is where the missing I have filled in the gap that I'm missing. [02:35:38] Speaker A: That is, unless you're interested in local obituaries, wedding announcements, school spirit, celebration happened. There was a Sadie Hawkins dance for the spring feast, that kind of thing. But no, nothing that draws your attention thus. But the three of you can put this information together armed with the dates, the reference to the blood orgy, seeing through it, that unlocks the last piece of the farmers almanac. There is a description of what they do for their festival, but it's written purposefully, vaguely. You know that Willerton celebrates their spring festival by tilling the earth with fertilizer and blood. Roxanne, you know, just back of your occult brain. Fertilizing soil with blood is not uncommon in pagan Europe, not something we do anymore, like even modern day pagans. But in that time, when we weren't entirely sure if the course of human history was going to let christendom come to the top, tilling soil with blood was quite, quite common. Well, common ish, depending on your flavor, that is. The spring festival, of course. You'll want to look at its corollary, but the autumn festival? Nothing unusual there, so far as blood or orgies go. [02:37:38] Speaker F: Okay. [02:37:41] Speaker C: I have one more tree I might shake, if we can, but Roxanne. [02:37:47] Speaker F: Well, real quick, is there any way to narrow down the pantheon at all? [02:37:57] Speaker A: It's possible. It's not really relevant in the text of the scenario. Yeah, I can make it up if you'd like that. Or if you already have an idea, you can just sprinkle that. That flavor in. But whoever wrote this does not appear to know or care. [02:38:16] Speaker D: Okay. [02:38:17] Speaker F: I just wasn't sure if that was actually relevant. Because it's relevant in some versions of this nonsense. [02:38:26] Speaker A: That is where we are. [02:38:30] Speaker C: How old is the librarian? [02:38:33] Speaker A: Like, mid fifties. [02:38:36] Speaker C: People don't tend to get out of small towns like this. I assume that if she's working here, she may have lived here most of her life. [02:38:45] Speaker A: Oh, you want to talk to the olden librarian? [02:38:49] Speaker C: Hell, yeah, I do. [02:38:52] Speaker A: All right. Wasn't prepared for that. Okay, so we have a. Well, before I go down that road, Jack, Haley, anything you'd like to add, either as Jack and Haley or as players who are participating in the mystery. [02:39:08] Speaker D: That is what I wanted to do because, like, I was like, yeah, like, I would like to talk to the librarian. By all means, if that was okay. If, like, that's what? Something you wanted to do, Jordan. [02:39:19] Speaker A: That's. [02:39:21] Speaker D: But, yeah, I would assume that I would have looked at, like, a call, like, columns of books, saw everyone expertly handling that, and I would have been like, you know what? This isn't my thing, and went to the librarian, who I'm not sure what she's, like, doing. Probably just checking in, checking out books. I don't know. So going up to where she is. [02:39:47] Speaker A: Wherever she is, at her age, being upright isn't a cheap worthy of an hourly salary. It becomes apparent rather quickly that no one is going to fire Hannah, the town's beloved but ancient librarian. This woman has seen this community grow like, she got the job when she was 22 and has had it ever since. Everyone in this town knows you can't get whatever. On the other hand, if you need something moved or filed or handled, you're probably going to want to come back in the morning when the other librarian or one of the local kids who gets hired in the afternoons is there to help. Not to say that you cannot talk to her, though I'm sure she's quite lonely at that age. [02:40:43] Speaker D: Oh. So, yeah, probably sitting somewhere comfortably, I walk up there and I say, like, hey, I'm looking for something specific, but I'm not really a book person. Maybe you can point me in the right direction or even help me out a little bit. Maybe tell me something you know about this town. [02:41:05] Speaker A: So we'll do the librarian move? Yes. [02:41:12] Speaker D: Oh, this lady's so sweet. I'm sorry. [02:41:17] Speaker B: How old do you think 50 is? [02:41:21] Speaker A: No, she's not 50. She's like 88. [02:41:25] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought you said she was like, mid fifties when we asked. [02:41:30] Speaker A: No, that's when the library was built. [02:41:33] Speaker B: Okay. Okay, great. Because I had in my mind that she was like a decree repet 50 year old, and I was very confused. Okay, all right, great. Sorry. [02:41:44] Speaker E: Rural living is hard. [02:41:45] Speaker A: Back to it. [02:41:47] Speaker D: Setting the vibes. [02:41:50] Speaker A: I'm not going to do an old lady voice because that's offensive to old ladies. [02:41:52] Speaker B: I know. No, it's fine. [02:41:53] Speaker A: It's really incredibly sweet. Oh, no. Yes, by all means. How? Anything that I can help with? [02:42:01] Speaker D: Yeah, I was wondering if. If you know anything about a little bit of local history. I'm looking into perhaps some disappearances that happened. My team were like, ghost hunters and stuff like that, and we wanted to look further into it. [02:42:16] Speaker A: At the first sentence, she giggles, but says, my dear, I am local history. But the question that follows brings a bit of a sourness to her face. Not foreigners. And it is your fault. And more of that. Oh, someday someone will ask me about how we were quilting world champions in 1964, when, you know, sending things off to the boys in Southeast Asia. But no, it's always about the ghosts and the murders. [02:42:47] Speaker D: The sour face. I was like, oh, I'm so sorry. Does this happen often? [02:42:51] Speaker A: Like, it happens more often than it should. [02:42:56] Speaker D: Should I see. [02:43:01] Speaker A: To that? I will need you to make a role. [02:43:07] Speaker D: What kind of role? Insight? No. What would it be? [02:43:12] Speaker A: Charisma. Persuasion is always appropriate. You're not manipulating this poor woman. [02:43:19] Speaker D: I would never. I would never dream of doing that to him. Hannah. [02:43:27] Speaker A: Three doesn't take too terrible much. For one, does not have her guard up in the same way that Nazira did. And for two, just. You want to talk about something that is not the graveyard full of ghosts. Like, pause. Consider how negative an experience this woman had with farty Pete. [02:43:50] Speaker D: So, you know what? Actually, I take that back. You don't have to tell me about that if you don't want to. [02:43:58] Speaker A: Oh, no, the fact that you're being incredibly kind is enough for her to be. Oh, you know, it's just. That's the difference, right? They came in and had like, the podcast microphone in your face and being like, we're here with the ancient keeper of records. Tell me, old woman. Right, right. And then you are being much more polite, the missing persons. And I guess it's the sadness that follows in her eyes because, yes, there are strangers that go missing. And honestly, she, like the rest of the town, aren't much bothered by it because the police come and investigate, and then they say it's a runaway or missing person's case, and like, that's all there is to it, right? There's nothing by itself nefarious about someone coming to Willerton and then leaving Willerton. People leave small towns all the time, but, and this is the part where the sadness creeps in, is that whenever the tourist season slows down, people stop paying so much attention, but the missing persons keep happening. And then it's a loner family member who goes missing, or an old relative who has an accident or wanders off, or a husband who leaves town after a fight with a loved one. [02:45:40] Speaker D: So it's not just, and this is me talking to you, storyteller like so it's more than just the four we heard about there. It just keeps happening past the tourist season, and people don't report it or say anything about it. [02:45:52] Speaker A: Small towns keeping their own secrets, as it were. [02:45:58] Speaker D: I'm going to nod. I'm taking that information in. [02:46:04] Speaker A: So as we approach then, the end of the episode, we can reconvene on some of the things that we've learned. There is something resembling a pagan ritual happening in Willerton on dates that don't make sense. If you're trying to do a pagan ritual, if you're trying to do a weird amalgam of sacred geometry and pagan mysticism, it makes sense. But then why here? Why these people? And more so, the geomantic web that has been constructed has survived at least 200 years, but the requirements are that structures be in specific places and things have been going on this long. That does not sound. It's not something that happens by accident. You don't do that by just mixing up two different traditions. It's not just people that are visiting who are going missing. Whatever this town or some subset of it has decided to get themselves involved in, it also involves their own loved ones from time to time. And whatever the blood orgy is, it got a little too public and a little too out of hand. Questions that we haven't been able to answer. What does this have to do with kindred? To be terribly honest, if a a bunch of rural Illinois folk want to sacrifice one another to the soil for good crops, like it's kind of their own business, one would presume that a capable courier such as Everett York, or any kindred for that matter, would be able to fend off a few farmers, right? And yet Everett goes missing. So what made him special? Why do they need an Everett as opposed to any one of the tourists coming through town with their still beating hearts and their still warm breath and so on and so forth? Well, perhaps we will find the answer to that question in our next episode, but for now, I must leave you wandering and waiting. Until this time next week, we have been playing the dying fields scenario for the masquerade in the streets run red scenario book. You can find that, along with six or seven other scenarios to add a little rural flavor to your chronicle by putting exclamation point scenario in chat. None of this would have worked without my astounding cast. If you would like their social media information, I'm going to make them tell you in just a moment using the power that I have to summon forth that information. But if you don't want to wait or you want to copy paste instead of type, you can put exclamation cast in chat, and it will get you there just as quick. Now, last time we did this, I had to go in QCG to guest order. In the interest of mixing it up, I'm going to reverse that now. So, first of all, as playing Jack Bowman, joining us from the lovely, crafty and starting up there on project very soon on other outside. Oh, God, no. I've done the thing again where I mix up your company and her company. [02:49:40] Speaker D: No, exactly. I've been doing it like I've been doing the same thing. Don't even trip. [02:49:45] Speaker A: Other siders. [02:49:46] Speaker D: Yes, other siders do. [02:49:47] Speaker B: VLC. [02:49:51] Speaker A: I remembered. That's Sade. Sade, it's me. [02:49:54] Speaker D: Hi, everyone. It's me, Sade. I am the founder and creative director of other Cider studios, and we are going to. We're actually in the middle of recording, uh, the next installment to the Arcane core series, which is arcane core aftermath. So stay tuned for that because apparently it's a lot longer than I thought, so it's gonna be a good time. We also have the Lovely craftings podcast, even though we are on hiatus, we have four seasons, so if you are a binge listener, by all means, take the time, enjoy yourself. Um, you can also find me on first Fridays for a siren song with friends who roll dice. And, of course, you. Well, whenever we record again, because I'm so excited to see how this wraps up, as well as this interestingness, as well as much of a himbo. As I have been charismatic and all, I cannot wait to see what happens next. So stay tuned and to the next word. [02:50:44] Speaker A: If they are not following you on Twitter and desired to, where would they go? [02:50:48] Speaker D: I always forget that one. I don't know why you can find me on Twitter as ssambrose because Twitter hates me and I can't get rid of that underscore. So that's what's going on everywhere else is ssambrous. [02:51:01] Speaker A: Well, there you go. Next up on the guest list, in a kind of guest, kind of not guest. Not unlike Willerton, Clara also keeps herself half in one reality and half in another. There's the reality where she works for QCG, and there's the reality where she doesn't want responsibilities that come with working with QCG. Clara, tell us who you are, where people can find you. If someone wanted to send you a DM that was just really emphatic about you just coming all the way over. It's okay. We'll adopt you. Where would they send that DM? [02:51:40] Speaker C: I feel so called out right now. But I promise you, if you. If I joined QCG, I will stand outside the door and meow loudly until I can leave. No, I'm all over the Internet as clearly golden. Unless you're into mermaids, in which case you can find me on Instagram. As mermaid clarity, I am mostly here. Most of my projects are here now. Oh, my God. But you can also sometimes find me on Sundays playing demigods. There's a name to it, but we haven't spinning up, literally, in a few days. Playing demigods over at Happy Jacks on Sundays. And I'm all over their backlog as well. The show has been around since 2001, I want to say. So there's plenty of backlog for you if you find yourself with nothing else to listen to. But, yeah, that's where I will be. And, oh, yeah, I guess we're probably spitting out Mekong at some point, which will be here at qCG. [02:52:39] Speaker A: Allegedly. [02:52:40] Speaker C: Allegedly. [02:52:42] Speaker A: I've heard rumors to that effect. If you are the kind of person on the Internet who thinks it would be really cool to watch an all asian cast play beam saber in a planet hopping mecha space opera based on southeast asian mythology and myth, then, like, boy, do I have some good news for you. Not the only good news that I have, because some of the other good news is that fairly recently, QCG added two incredible people, and I can never decide which one of them that goes first, so I just always had to switch back and forth. But sometimes I forget who was the last time. And then I have honest to God, real anxiety that one of them thinks I'm favoring them over the other. V, please pick between Laura and Aubrey so I know who to introduce next. [02:53:30] Speaker B: Aubrey. [02:53:32] Speaker A: Aubrey, joining us from Gobbleton Gaze, where, when she's not busy being a pathfinder goddess, she can come over here and let us play vampire games together. Aubrey, tell them. Tell them where they can find you. [02:53:47] Speaker E: Hello, everybody. [02:53:49] Speaker A: I'm Aubrey. [02:53:49] Speaker E: You can find me everywhere on the Internet at Mad Queen cosplay. And as Aaron said, I am the GM code producer editor. Wear all a lot of hats over on goblets and gaze, and we are pathetic to epodcast set in the homebrew world. We're on our final season. So go check us out. You can also find me over on bring your own mech, which is in its second season, and on escaping Carcosa as well on their Pathfinder team. And then any other time, I'm over here doing as many things as they'll let me. [02:54:25] Speaker A: The list gets longer and longer and longer, to be sure. [02:54:30] Speaker E: I just keep saying yes. [02:54:33] Speaker A: I mean, that's. That's how it happens, right? We say, hey, do you want to do one thing? Like, yes. And then we just don't stop asking you. Isn't that right, Laura Tutu? [02:54:46] Speaker F: So, like, here's the thing. Like, it wasn't so much. I was kind of like, do you want to do the one thing? And I was like, yeah, I'll do the one thing. Do you mind if I stay? And I didn't really give anybody a chance to tell me no. So, hi. You can call me Laura or tutu, or Laura Tutu. At present, I am wrangling the social media accounts for the lovely folks here at QCG and making sure people know Aaron's face, even though he hates it. You'll be able to find me, obviously, with these lovely folks, and you'll be able to hear my voice when I join Chicago's favorite coterie as calamity Madden, gangrel, lupine hunter. You'll be able to see me insult and scandal. You'll be able to see me in viral. You'll be able to see me breaking hearts when I play follow me down with v. And, yeah, if you want to find me on Twitter, where I should post pretty consistently, you can find me at Laura 22. That is, as in the fluffy pink ballerina skirt. Not the number. [02:55:49] Speaker A: Oh, God, no. I would have never thought that. But then I'm like, no, it's. I saw it right the first time. And if you said, laura tutu, I would put two twos in, because I'm in. Oh, man. Well, thank you for having me. [02:56:00] Speaker F: My whole story behind that nickname, too. [02:56:03] Speaker B: Why wouldn't you just be Laura 22? Like, if someone said, oh, yes, my name is Laura two two, I would be very confused about why you wouldn't just say 22. What's wrong with you? That's strange. [02:56:18] Speaker A: I'd run into the story. [02:56:21] Speaker F: I'm not going to tell the story right now. There's not a lot of time for it. I don't want to sit here and force you all to listen to me. [02:56:27] Speaker A: So here's what we do in the future on content. We'll tell the story, like, two sentences at a time in the end of every episode. That way, if you want the whole story, you have to watch, like, three months of content, literally. [02:56:39] Speaker F: Like, it's not a huge story, but thanks. [02:56:44] Speaker A: Well, you know what is a huge story that we could spend lots of time talking about? That is the huge story of how Victoria Locke, our arts are, keeps the company afloat with amazing advertising content, Patreon content, and on top of all of that, incredible performances in a great many vampire end of the games v. When someone says to themselves, like, I like this QCG thing, right? I get they're doing all right, but this v person, like, ooh, I that specifically, like, when you order dinner and, like, you get a side of macaroni and cheese and you're like, yes, but can I have some extra macaroni and cheese? Because that is my favorite part of the meal. For the purposes of this metaphor, you are the Mac and cheese. Tell our friends where they can order Mac and cheese. [02:57:32] Speaker B: Well, if you need to order Mac and cheese, you can do so at. V is for vampire on Twitter because my name is Vy and I like vampires, and pretty much I exist here. Every now and then I get invited to do fun things over with other people, and the rest of the time I have to say no because I'm doing all the fun things over here. But yes, I have. I have art on Patreon. I have. I have so many. I don't know. There's too much. There's too much on our calendar right now. I have a million places that I need to be this month for various recordings for our channel, and it is so, so exciting. So I'm just very, very excited to see what we put out. But most of those records recordings are, in fact, with you. And there's one that'll just be me and Laura, and that's going to be amazing. But most of them are going to be with you. And if people want to know what you're doing in between then and now, now and then, flip that. Where can they find you? [02:58:33] Speaker A: Well, hi, I'm Aaron, and you can find me on Twitter Aaron, in words, where most recently, I have been procrastinating on the very important editing deadlines that I have to get to. But aside from that, you can find me posting memes about how tremere are terrible memes about how you shouldn't trust the tremere memes about how the tremere are the worst clan in the vampire, the Masquerade. I think that kind of sums up my recent posting activity. Aside from that if you want to find out what games are running, where you can watch them, what's coming out, if you just want to vibe and chat with us, then you can do so at Queenscore RPG on Twitter or Queen's court games, anywhere that you are allowed to have a longer username. You can also join us on our discord. There's a link to that in chat as well. You can chat not only to us, but to a few of our newest patrons, including Alex, Roo and Nico, and our duke tier patrons, Callie, Ben, and Mark, without whom none of this would be happening. So we are incredibly grateful to the six of you. Come on in, say hi, meet the rest of us, but most importantly, join us next time, this time next week to learn more about the secrets of Willerton. That's not really Willerton. Like, we're worried about the blood underneath, right? So much blood. [02:59:53] Speaker F: So much blood. [02:59:56] Speaker A: I mean, maybe. [02:59:56] Speaker E: Maybe they just want. It's the vitae. [02:59:59] Speaker A: He's got special powers. [03:00:02] Speaker F: It's extra spicy. [03:00:04] Speaker A: It's. [03:00:04] Speaker E: Yeah, he's very. It's spicy blood. [03:00:07] Speaker C: We. We lie and we say we found out and he left and he said, fuck the camarilla. And then we go home and nothing. None of this ever happened. [03:00:14] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. He's werewolf. Got him. Happens all the time. Yeah, werewolves. [03:00:18] Speaker B: Hate to see it. [03:00:19] Speaker E: We were not paid to fight werewolves. [03:00:22] Speaker F: Yeah, we were. We weren't paid to deal with creepy rituals. We were just going to find this fucker and come home. [03:00:29] Speaker E: He got sacrificed. [03:00:30] Speaker B: Bad idea, generally. Don't do it. [03:00:33] Speaker A: We will see if that lie holds water next week. Until then, bye for now.