S2 Ep3: 99 Problems

[00:00:30] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Aubrey, and I play Isabelle. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Hi, I'm legacy, and I play Rosanna. [00:00:39] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Scott, and I play Arthur. [00:00:42] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Termite, and I play Piper. [00:00:47] Speaker E: And I'm bloody porcelain. I will be your storyteller for the evening. In the tumultuous existence of a madman, fixation becomes their greatest asset and their ultimate downfall. The realm of immortals manipulating the world like pawns on a chessboard. Ferocious werewolves, capable of tearing humans asunder in an instant. And enigmatic mages, effortlessly reshaping reality. Secret cabals entwined in conspiracies of mythical proportions. These are the challenges that consume the thoughts of these madmen, driving them relentlessly toward solutions, no matter the cost. But when one's entire focus is invested in the solution of a world shaking problem, it is easy to overlook the smaller things. The well being of an ally, a family secret, a belonging, a marriage. Things mad men desperately need either to keep them going or simply to get them by. Things others might consider too precious to forget, suddenly become secondary and not important. Until suddenly, sickeningly, they are. And those things the mad men have neglected suddenly become problems. Tonight, let's tell a story about the Mad Men. Good evening, players. Last episode. Last episode was an episode of revelations and final fulfillment of longtime promises that had been left for too long. You found out that one of your members is gifted and able to see visions of past, present, future. For better or worse. You found out that there are forces in the world working to give you secrets, inform you on things that you weren't aware of before. But you're not entirely sure if those forces are working towards the same ends you are or working against you. You solved puzzles. You met with friends, and you looked out for each other. But you also forgot something important. Something that never should have been left behind. Was while you traveled hours away. So tonight, we pick up with three of you in the RV, looking out at a number of lunar moths. And one of you, having just left a tea shop, having finally gotten to sit down with a longtime pen pal in person. And with precious, precious bounty handed over by that friend in your pocket. Arthur, Isabel. And Piper. Piper, you saw? Like you could look over at your screens, you know? Rosanna has officially left the tea shop. Seems perfectly fine, in great health. Seems to even have a smile on her face, and is looking down at a little, I don't know, something cylindrical in one of her hands, but otherwise seems to be in great spirits. Arthur, you are staring at these moths and remembering the things that Victoria told you. About the Linnaeus society, this secretive group that she was looking for that had abandoned her suddenly and without warning. And because your thoughts have strayed to Victoria, it's about now that it hits you that in your desperation to make sure that Rosanna wasn't alone when she went to this meeting and that she was safe to be nearby in case something happened, you left Victoria behind. Isabelle, you've been buried in your research on Rosanna's lineage, trying to get to the bottom of this mysterious vision that she had. So what are you three doing? How's it going? How are you feeling? [00:06:34] Speaker A: I looked up. Everyone's like moths. And I go, yeah, those are moths. That's weird. Back to research. Unless somebody says something to pull me away from my research, I am elbow deep in Ancestry.com right now. [00:06:49] Speaker E: That is very. [00:06:52] Speaker D: I know what kind of moths these are, and it's weird. There's a lot, but animals are fucking weird. [00:07:02] Speaker C: So Arthur has conflicting feelings. His stomach sort of drops out when he realizes that he left Victoria's body unsecured in the place 2 hours away. And also that Rosanna is right there in a field of moths, essentially. [00:07:24] Speaker E: Well, you said that you guys were going to park at least a couple of blocks away. You are not right on top of her. You have no idea if there are moths anywhere near her. Piper could always have a look around with her drones, but as of right now, her Drone is focused on following Rosanna. [00:07:45] Speaker C: Okay, but still, it's still something that he still forgot the body. So he's like, we forgot the body? Victoria's body? [00:08:01] Speaker A: Was she going somewhere? [00:08:07] Speaker C: If whoever did what they did to her can, I don't know, hunt her down by smell or something, find a corpse. Yeah. I'm suddenly realizing that if Beatrix gets there and we're not nearby, that might be a problem. But also, it may not be there when we get back. [00:08:38] Speaker A: Why is the corpse going to get up and walk away? I didn't see any evidence. [00:08:44] Speaker C: It might. It might. I mean, we're still kind of unclear on what killed it. And we know that sometimes some things that die come back. [00:09:02] Speaker D: How long has it been since she's been killed, Arthur? [00:09:06] Speaker C: I guess it's been a few days. [00:09:08] Speaker A: Yeah, she was a blank. She'd already be back by now. [00:09:12] Speaker D: Tend to come back faster than a few days. [00:09:18] Speaker A: Can I roll to see if there's anything that Arthur is not saying? If maybe Arthur knows more than he's. [00:09:25] Speaker D: Saying, can we do a wits insight? [00:09:32] Speaker E: I will allow a wits insight, but I am also going to allow Arthur either charisma and, oh, goodness, what addition are we in? Persuasion or manipulation? Subterfuge, depending on if you feel like you are lying, Arthur. [00:09:53] Speaker C: So the thing is that I don't think Arthur is lying. He's not really hiding anything. He doesn't know if whatever killed her could bring her back. So I don't know that he would actually be trying to hide. [00:10:07] Speaker E: Mean, that's very. [00:10:08] Speaker A: So I guess it's more of, does Arthur know more about what he's saying that he's telling? Because it's suddenly like, what if the corpse gets up and walks away? Why would the corpse get up and walk away? [00:10:21] Speaker C: I guess technically it's kind of hiding something because I do have a thought that why it might get up and walk away. And I don't know that Arthur would share it. So, yeah, I guess we could do. [00:10:28] Speaker D: And also, also, Arthur knows that these moths have something to do with the society, which could also be relevant. [00:10:35] Speaker E: So. Very true. [00:10:36] Speaker C: Also very true. Yeah, good point. [00:10:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm going to roll with insight. [00:10:50] Speaker C: Yeah. Those dice bowls are the same for me. [00:10:56] Speaker E: Really? Because it used to be that manipulation and subterfuge were significantly higher. [00:11:01] Speaker C: Well, the only question is whether or not bluffing plays into effect. Otherwise they're the exact same pool. [00:11:07] Speaker E: Yeah, it does. [00:11:10] Speaker A: I'm going to spend a willpower to reroll some of those failures for me. I got one success, but now I'm up to two successes. Oh, Jesus. [00:11:18] Speaker B: Wow. [00:11:19] Speaker E: Yeah. As far as you could tell, Arthur is mostly just worried about whether or not there's a body thief on the. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Look, it's not that far. We'll be back there soon. I'm relatively sure that the fridge doesn't open up from the inside. [00:11:45] Speaker C: Okay. [00:11:50] Speaker D: Most of the time those doors close and if people are inside, they need to be able to get out in case of, I don't know, the door closing on them. [00:12:00] Speaker C: Yeah, some kind of push lever or something from the inside. [00:12:06] Speaker A: That's true. Yeah. But I mean, to be fair, when was the last time anybody looked at that thing? It has not had proper safety maintenance in a while. [00:12:18] Speaker C: Well, either way, I think maybe we make sure that Rosanna is still safe and headed back and then we can head back as quickly as possible. Because I think that we need to. [00:12:36] Speaker A: I mean, it's not like I can go anywhere. I'm just a passenger. If you think we need to head back, we need to head back. [00:12:43] Speaker D: Yeah. I would like to check in on Rosanna, make sure that things are still going okay over there. [00:12:59] Speaker E: You have a look at Rosanna. Rosanna has officially climbed into her car and is driving away. She seems fine. [00:13:11] Speaker C: Now we get the awkward situation where we're going to be on the same highways going the same place at roughly the same speed. And so. [00:13:26] Speaker E: Yeah, y'all didn't exactly tell Rosanna that you were following her. You attempted to convince her to let somebody go with her, and then realized that that would be weird because she was going to meet, like, a singular friend and showing up with three extra people would be od. So she left on her own, and y'all just kind of followed without saying a word. So that's going to be fun to justify. [00:13:55] Speaker A: I mean, to be fair, Isabel didn't really. Isabel was like, whatever. And then everyone else made the choice. [00:14:02] Speaker D: Arthur made this choice. [00:14:05] Speaker C: Arthur made the choice. [00:14:07] Speaker E: Piper was perfectly happy to just watch her via drone from a distance. And Arthur was like, now I'm driving. So that's going to be something that you guys get to grapple with. And by you guys, I mean Arthur, because I think Rosanna's smart enough to know that Arthur would have been the one to make that decision. Isabelle, your research. So the first thing that you encounter is you get a little sidetracked by her surname for a while, because her surname is know, which has obvious, like, french connotations and whatnot. And you kind of go off on this tangent and go through, follow this whole labelle family line for a while, only to realize after a good 20 to 30 minutes that somewhere in her family history, about two or three generations back, somebody married into that name. It is not something that her most direct ancestor had any actual genetic ties to, if that makes sense. There's only about two generations worth of genetic ties to that name. And so you kind of, like, back yourself up a little bit, go back to that branching point and follow the other part. And that other part is what kind of explains her hair color and her skin coloring, because Rosanna is a fairly fair skinned woman, and she's got this very pretty strawberry blonde hair, and she's got coloring that suggests that she shouldn't be french. It just doesn't fit. And you manage to find a number of branches that are throughout most of what is now the UK and Ireland. You're not entirely sure what exact branch is hers, but you know that basically, as far back as you can go, they were very staunchly catholic. Deep, deep ties to the church. And that's about where it peters out, is just before the formation of the Church of England, when Catholicism was still kind of the predominant paradigm. And you get that much, you know, that it definitely goes further back than that, but it's just a matter of. There aren't really records that have been. There are very few records. The reality is that the church probably has more thorough records, but they're not exactly digitized and on the Internet for just anybody to find. [00:17:17] Speaker A: And then I was also looking for any connections to Salem or Salem witch trials as well. [00:17:22] Speaker E: Yeah. So you can see a point where members of her family landed in Massachusetts, but you can't find any signs that they participated in or were a part of the witch trials. It looks like they weren't in Salem at the time. If she were going to be tied to witch trials, it would have been probably before they came to the US, like her family line would have been. It would have been long before they came to the US. We're looking at just before to just after. When Henry Vi reigned is when the witch trials really started to kick off. Although they lasted for a couple hundred years, off and on throughout much of Europe, there weren't a ton of them in the UK and Ireland. But that doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't get caught in one of those smatterings of occurrences, or that there weren't members of the family who were in another part of Europe at the time. So that's kind of what, a cursory glance over records? And I say a cursory glance, it's a deep dive, but it's as much of a deep dive as you can do with the access that you have currently. Yeah. You have the feeling that if you and Piper were to sit down and dig into the kinds of records that may not necessarily be on the public Internet, you could probably find a lot more. Piper could probably get you the information, and your research skills would let you parse that information down, but it would be a very time consuming process. You've only been at this for a couple of hours, and this as it is, you've done more genealogy work than some members, than some people managed to do on their family over the course of years. [00:19:31] Speaker A: I have taken over the conspiracy board with, like, a little corner of it with all of this information. [00:19:38] Speaker E: Correct. Okay. That said, um, piper, I'm assuming that you're going to pull your drone back. Are you going to try and get it to slip into the backseat of Rosanna's car when she gets in? Like, what are you doing? Yes. So, Rosanna, when you go to get into your car, you open the driver's side door, and this little drone just sort of swoops down and inside just before you get in, it barely misses hitting you in the head. [00:20:21] Speaker B: Great. I'm going to wave at it, directly. [00:20:25] Speaker D: At it, and just, like, lands in the passenger seat and just sits there. [00:20:31] Speaker B: Does this count for carpool reason? [00:20:35] Speaker E: No, I'm afraid not. [00:20:41] Speaker D: Does the drone count as a passenger? [00:20:47] Speaker B: All right, I'm sure that everybody is still at the restaurant watching over the body. Definitely did not drive all the way out here. I have nothing to worry about. I'm gonna start heading home. [00:21:04] Speaker E: Okay, Arthur, are you gonna go back and try and get there before Rosanna does? Are you? [00:21:11] Speaker C: Yes. [00:21:12] Speaker E: Okay. I am going to need both of you to make drive checks. However, I would like Arthur to drive with. We're going to say decks, because you are trying to move at speed. Rosanna, I would like you to use wits, because this is mostly about you noticing. Because unfortunately for Arthur, there's really only, like, one highway or interstate in, so. [00:21:58] Speaker C: Oh, hey, two out of three. [00:22:06] Speaker E: Out of four. So, Rosanna, you're about half an hour to 45 minutes into your drive home, and you just happen to look over because, hey, there's an rv over there that looks an awful lot like. That is our rv. And that's, like, your thought process? [00:22:27] Speaker C: Come on, it's Florida. There's got to be at least one other really trashy rv on the highway. [00:22:36] Speaker B: Matching license plates. [00:22:39] Speaker E: There are plenty of other rvs, which is why at first, it's just, oh, hey, that looks an awful lot like ours. And then she really looks at it and goes, wait, that is ours. [00:22:49] Speaker C: It gets just close enough that she can see, like, a black sleeve in the window, and she's like, wait a minute. [00:22:55] Speaker E: See, my thought was that she came up, like, on the back of the rV, saw the license plate. And so, Arthur, as you are know, without really thinking about it, you turn and look at the car next to you, and you see that Rosanna has gotten into the other lane and sped up and is pacing you and is giving you this glare that says, I know what you did, you son of a bitch. [00:23:22] Speaker B: She's going to just very quickly look at the drone and then just flip them off and then keep driving. [00:23:29] Speaker E: Piper, you just got flipped off in the camera of your right. [00:23:37] Speaker C: So, Arthur, one reaction to her passing, he'll look over at Gozer, who is probably in the cheek, because that's where Gozer liked to be, and just go, hey, at least you weren't looking out the back window, buddy. Good job. Good boy. [00:23:55] Speaker E: Gozer. Accepts the pat, but also looks at you like you were in so much fucking trouble. Like, you could suck up to me all you want. It's not going to make a difference. [00:24:07] Speaker D: You're in trouble. [00:24:08] Speaker C: He's not wrong. [00:24:12] Speaker E: So we're going to skip ahead a little bit because not much happens while you guys are on the road. You arrive back at the restaurant and I would like for everybody to make me wits awareness, please. [00:24:37] Speaker D: Well, that's not great. [00:24:39] Speaker B: It it. [00:24:48] Speaker E: Two, three, two. [00:24:50] Speaker C: I'm gonna reroll some failures, I think. Unless that's not a thing you want. [00:24:55] Speaker E: You can reroll if you would like to. [00:24:59] Speaker C: Well, it didn't help me. Oh, wait, maybe it did. [00:25:02] Speaker E: Give you three. [00:25:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:05] Speaker E: Okay. Two, three, four. Y'all are just aiming for mediocrity tonight, okay? [00:25:17] Speaker B: On five dice. That's not bad. [00:25:20] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, four successes is pretty decent. Yeah, I got two on five. [00:25:26] Speaker A: I'm perfectly average. [00:25:31] Speaker E: Listen, you have to bear in mind that these are the people that last season, for the finale, nobody could seem to roll below a seven. So I have gotten used to Rosanna and Arthur doing exceptionally well. And so it's weird to see them aiming for perfectly mediocre. [00:25:48] Speaker B: Listen, we're back at the beginning of season one. [00:25:53] Speaker E: We were last season because all of that experience just definitely went away at the end of last season. All right? [00:26:00] Speaker D: That's how that works. [00:26:03] Speaker E: Okay, you guys pull up. Rosanna, you're the first person to realize that there's something off you guys had left the combination lock that realtors tend to use on these doors in place when you left. In fact, you never really removed it. You would just open it enough to be able to turn the thing and then you would close the door. And you realize as you pull up to the side of the building, outside of this door, that that lock is on the ground. Arthur, you realize that a couple of seconds after Rosanna realizes that because you can see her looking at something on the ground outside of the door. And that's when you realize that the lock isn't where it should be. [00:27:12] Speaker B: I have some questions, Mr. Dent. [00:27:20] Speaker E: Oh, shit. [00:27:24] Speaker C: Yes. [00:27:27] Speaker B: What is the lock to the restaurant on the ground? Where's Victoria? [00:27:35] Speaker C: I haven't gone inside to find out yet, but I think we should. [00:27:43] Speaker B: She doesn't. [00:27:44] Speaker C: Before we have this conversation, we probably need to go inside and find out if she's. [00:27:49] Speaker B: Yeah, because you and I need to have a talk after this. And then she's going to open the door and just run into the back. [00:28:00] Speaker E: Okay. [00:28:01] Speaker C: Arthur will follow but a little bit more carefully. [00:28:05] Speaker A: I'll also be following because it's just suddenly the whole, okay, this corpse was going to go somewhere other than the person we thought was going to pick it up in a couple of days. [00:28:16] Speaker D: It got up and it walked away. [00:28:24] Speaker E: I love everything about this hot mess of a group. Okay, Rosanna, I need you to roll me your remaining willpower, please. [00:28:40] Speaker C: Whoa. [00:28:55] Speaker E: All right. Jesus, Arthur, I need the same thing from you. And I'm also going to need the same thing from Isabella and Piper. [00:29:07] Speaker D: Great. This can't be anything bad, I'm sure. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:29:23] Speaker E: Full botch from Isabelle. Oh, boy. Okay, all right, well, Rosanna got six, Arthur got four, Piper got three, Isabelle got zero. Thankfully not a botch because you didn't roll any ones. Fair, but it's a. [00:29:46] Speaker B: So the score decline. [00:29:51] Speaker E: Rosanna, you charge in and it's a mess. There are those tables and the standing, what do you call them, shelf sets and things that were kind of all over the place. All those stainless steel fixtures are just pushed to the sides. They're turned over. There's damage to the walls, and one of the overhead, like, hanging fluorescent lights, is shattered. It looks like somebody came in here and broke shit for the sake of breaking shit. Like that's how bad it is. And the door to the standing refrigerator is not open, but it's not shut. It's kind of like resting, mostly closed, if that makes sense. Arthur, you see the same thing when you walk in, Piper, you as well. Isabel. You walk in and something hits you and it feels like you've been physically struck, like, dead center in the middle of your chest. And it sinks into you and it feels like someone is driving, like, icy spikes into your lungs and into your heart, and it's spreading through your veins and making your entire body go cold. And you realize as you are standing there that you look at your companions and you can watch as within seconds, Arthur goes from looking hail and healthy to looking emaciated and pale and wrinkled. He looks like a body that is, like, drying out over time, but in, like, rapid, like, in seconds. [00:32:31] Speaker A: That looks like that, or is everyone. [00:32:33] Speaker E: All of that was just. It looks like it's happening to all of them. Their hair is going dry and brittle. Their skin looks dry and wrinkled, and they look like they're walking corpses. And all of the light and color in the room is being sucked out of it. [00:33:01] Speaker A: And I'm just sort of there, kind of frozen at this, trying to catch my breath. When you start hyperventilating, just being like, essentially trying to think. My way out of this. Being like this has to be something that is affecting me. If I can roll against any of that, or if I'm just going to succumb to complete panic. [00:33:41] Speaker E: If you are specifically trying to roll against the impulse to panic, I will say that you can roll. Da da da. I'll say that you can roll. Like resolve and insight. [00:34:05] Speaker A: Okay. Would my flaw impact this in any way? [00:34:12] Speaker E: I have to look at your flaw. [00:34:13] Speaker D: Hold on. [00:34:17] Speaker E: No, it would not. [00:34:18] Speaker A: And you said, what was it? Resolve what? [00:34:23] Speaker E: Resolve. An insight. [00:34:24] Speaker A: Okay. That is three successes. [00:34:38] Speaker E: You catch yourself before you go into a full blown panic attack. You are a medical professional. You know what panic attacks look like, and you sort of catch yourself and steal yourself against it and take a couple of deep breaths. The world does not look any different. Like that weird decaying and gray sight is still there. It won't go away. But you are coping in the face of it, if that makes sense. And I am sending you a thing that I'm going to need you to add to your sheet. [00:35:27] Speaker A: It's kind of like going to take some cautious steps back. Been leaning on one of the booths to try and get. Just get my breath back. Avoiding looking at anybody. [00:36:05] Speaker E: Okay. Rosanna and Arthur and Piper. While Isabelle is getting her bearings. [00:36:21] Speaker C: Arthur's gonna move toward the door to see, like to be the first person to go through it, or at least be standing its way when it's opened and know, try to see what's going on inside, because Victoria is likely not here. [00:36:47] Speaker E: Roseanne, are you going to allow him to go in front of you? Because you were technically the first person in the room. [00:36:55] Speaker B: She is going to step back and allow him to get in front, because if anything, she knows how he can hit. [00:37:09] Speaker E: Okay. [00:37:11] Speaker B: But she's going to have her hand on her chest, ready to summon things if need be. [00:37:18] Speaker E: Okay, Arthur, you move to the door of the walk in fridge and you pull the door open. The inside is as much of a mess as the outside was. And there is no body. Even the tarp that you guys had laid her on so that there wouldn't be blood everywhere is gone. [00:38:05] Speaker C: Well, this is what I feared after. When I saw the mods, I realized that I made a mistake. [00:38:32] Speaker E: Rosanna, you didn't see any moths. [00:38:37] Speaker B: What moths? [00:38:42] Speaker C: There were lunar moths that landed on the rv and various cars in the parking lot we were in. As if. As if they were sent there or they were signed. If the others had. If they hadn't seen them, then I would have thought it was some kind of vision. But they did. [00:39:12] Speaker B: You think it might be a calling card? [00:39:16] Speaker C: Yeah, for the Linnaeus society. [00:39:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:24] Speaker C: Are there's destruction everywhere. Is there any kind of obvious signs of anything? Know, something to trigger Arthur to look more? [00:39:40] Speaker E: Unless you are purposefully using something to find that out. No, it just looks like this place got trashed and there's a body missing. [00:39:47] Speaker C: All right, well, he'll wait for the others then, who are a little bit more investigatory, but then start looking around. [00:39:57] Speaker D: Isabelle following us to the freezer. [00:40:00] Speaker A: If she just stopped, is stopped. She is looking down. You wouldn't see it because her head is down. She's got her eyes closed, and she is essentially doing a thing where she is counting backwards. [00:40:21] Speaker E: She's certainly acting weird for somebody who normally seems really unflappable in the face of all of the horrors that you all have seen. But she is not moved from that spot inside the doorway. You also notice that Gozer has not come inside. Gozer is standing outside the door looking in. [00:40:43] Speaker D: Can I sense the unnatural? [00:40:46] Speaker E: You can absolutely sense the unnatural was waiting for that. Go ahead and roll. [00:40:53] Speaker D: I can never remember science. Yes. [00:41:00] Speaker E: And you have to hit what, how many successes? [00:41:04] Speaker D: Between three and five, depending on your quim. Basically. [00:41:17] Speaker C: It'S time to take. [00:41:22] Speaker D: Oh, I'm going to go ahead and reroll. Okay, there we go. [00:41:27] Speaker B: All right. [00:41:28] Speaker E: That's much better. Yeah. You reach up and you tap something on that earpiece, in your ear. And there is immediately a high pitched alarm, like wine playing in your ear. There is something very, very unnatural and wrong here. It is magic. You can tell that much. It's not like a being. It is like a lingering miasma of something awesome. [00:42:11] Speaker D: Piper is going to walk up to Isabelle, take something out of her pocket, and then just kind of pin it to Isabelle. [00:42:22] Speaker E: And the closer you get to Isabelle, as an aside, the louder that ringing, the louder that noise gets. Okay. [00:42:33] Speaker D: That's not normal. Hey, Isabelle. [00:42:40] Speaker A: Yes. I'm not looking up at you. My eyes are still closed. Looking down, you kind of heard like a countdown from ten. And then I haven't opened my eyes. Looking down, just being like, yeah. [00:42:56] Speaker D: You are not. Hold out your hands. [00:43:00] Speaker A: Hold out my hands. And not even opening my eyes. [00:43:03] Speaker D: She's going to put a little device in your hand, pin this to your shirt. [00:43:09] Speaker A: I have open it so I see what it is and going to do what I hold, because I'm very much. A lot of things. [00:43:21] Speaker B: This doesn't feel right. [00:43:22] Speaker A: And I don't know, maybe this will make it better. [00:43:26] Speaker D: That's the hope. Can you follow me? [00:43:30] Speaker A: Yeah. What if I pin to my shirt? [00:43:33] Speaker D: You have no fucking clue. It just looks like some little mechanical device. [00:43:40] Speaker E: Do you like to tell the storyteller what you've been to her shirt? Because I'm not sure either. [00:43:44] Speaker D: It's not actually anything important. It's like we talked about when I took ward. [00:43:49] Speaker E: Oh, right. Okay. [00:43:52] Speaker A: Does it have any mechanical benefits? [00:43:54] Speaker D: Not yet. [00:43:55] Speaker E: Okay. She has to activate it. [00:43:57] Speaker A: Have to activate it. That's fair. [00:43:59] Speaker D: And I want to get everybody else close, so she's going to essentially ask. Can you follow me? We need to get to the others. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Opens her eyes, but she's still looking down to the ground. [00:44:17] Speaker D: Okay. And she's going to walk to the freezer or the walking cooler where the others are. [00:44:29] Speaker E: You can do that? No problem. There's nothing to stop you. I'm assuming that Isabelle's going to keep her eyes either down or closed for all of. [00:44:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:40] Speaker D: All right. She's going to walk up to Rosanna and Arthur both and give them very similar looking devices. Pin these to yourself. Give me one moment. And then I would like to do the role to extend the ward for thwart. [00:45:01] Speaker E: Okay. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Just in case. [00:45:03] Speaker D: And this, for some reason, doesn't give me a difficulty. [00:45:10] Speaker E: Thwart the unethical is composure plus a cult. [00:45:13] Speaker D: Yeah, it gives me the role, but it doesn't give me a difficulty because the ward is 2 meters plus 1 meter for each success in the marching. [00:45:22] Speaker E: Right. Got you. Just go ahead and roll, and I will figure it out. [00:45:31] Speaker D: All right. Four successes. [00:45:35] Speaker E: Okay. I am making sure. Don't forget that you have to spend willpower to do this. [00:45:43] Speaker D: I think it's only when I actually cancel an effective. This just allows me to apply it to other people as well, instead of just myself. [00:46:01] Speaker B: Right. Okay. [00:46:06] Speaker E: Um. Yeah, I mean, you. You could do that, no problem. The whining does not go away. [00:46:15] Speaker D: Yeah. This was more to prevent anything else from happening. Okay. There are a few things going on here, and none of them are good. [00:46:29] Speaker C: Yeah. It seems that someone came into Victoria's body, and I'm hoping we can try to figure out why, how, or where. [00:46:38] Speaker D: That's not what I'm talking about. There is some kind of magic. Just ambient here. It seems like it's hitting Isabelle pretty bad. [00:46:58] Speaker A: And you all still notice that. Not looking up. Not looking at any of you. Looking down at the ground. And then occasionally, you'll hear her do a soft countdown to herself as she tries to just center herself and not panic. [00:47:11] Speaker E: Hersanda's had enough anxiety attacks to know that what that is that's centering behavior? [00:47:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Isabel? [00:47:24] Speaker A: Yeah? [00:47:29] Speaker B: Take my hand. Squeeze. [00:47:35] Speaker E: Oh, boy. Are you going to do that, Isabel? [00:47:40] Speaker A: There's a lot of reluctance. It's kind of like the hand is like kind of sort of reaching out, and it's just like Rosanna's going to have to cover the other amount of distance. [00:47:54] Speaker B: She will. [00:47:57] Speaker E: Rosanna, before you do anything else, I need you to roll. Let's do. I need two rolls from you. I need your unspet willpower again. I am also going to need your vision roll. [00:48:22] Speaker B: Perfect. That's what I was going to trigger. [00:48:28] Speaker E: You're getting smacked with a vision one way or the other, but I need to know how bad it's going to be. [00:48:34] Speaker B: Got it. [00:48:37] Speaker E: Four successes on your willpower. Cool. [00:48:40] Speaker B: On my willpower and then on my vision roll. Three successes. Can I spend a willpower to reroll. [00:48:51] Speaker E: Two of those on the vision? Sure. [00:48:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Five successes. [00:48:59] Speaker E: Holy cow. Five dice. Five successes. Pretty good. Okay, so the first thing that happens is you get a very similar feeling that Isabel did where you feel like you are having ice spikes jabbed into you and they spread through your whole body and you feel cold. Freezing from the inside out is what it feels like. The second thing that happens is you get smacked full force with one of the strongest visions you've ever had. Um, you are standing in a dark room. You cannot see the walls, you can see the ceiling, and it is just off black. It's got like a shine to it, which is the only reason why, you know, it's there. Your feet feel like they are standing on a floor that is somehow both solid and soft enough that you are slowly starting to sink into it. And you can feel the floor kind of coming up and wrapping itself around the bottoms of your feet so that it is hard for you to move. And you are not sure if you could pick them up at all if you tried. And you realize that the air around you has gone frigid. And even with as little light as there is around you, you can see your breath as you exhale. And inhaling is painful because it's so cold, but you have to, because otherwise you'll die. You know that, but it hurts. And I am going to need you to roll me. [00:51:04] Speaker B: One more roll. [00:51:06] Speaker E: And I need a straight stamina roll, please. [00:51:27] Speaker B: One success. [00:51:29] Speaker E: Okay. [00:51:30] Speaker B: On two dice. [00:51:32] Speaker E: Oh, boy. Isabelle Rosanna reaches out and takes your hand and starts to say something. And then her knees buckle and she's unconscious. [00:51:49] Speaker A: If I feel that, can I attempt to catch her? [00:51:53] Speaker E: You can certainly try, Dex. Athletics. Go for it. [00:51:59] Speaker A: Yes. That's not a horrible role for me. [00:52:03] Speaker B: My girl, my girl, don't let me fall. [00:52:08] Speaker E: I mean, it's just the floor. She might have a headache when she wakes up, but it could be worse. That's three. You manage to catch her. You do. She is dead fucking weight, so it's not easy to hold her up. But you managed to catch her. Problem being that you were looking down, and now down is directly into your arms, and you look like you are holding a corpse. [00:52:33] Speaker A: There is just like Isabelle. [00:52:45] Speaker E: I want you to describe the sight of a corpse that you had to work on in your job that affected you the most. But project what that looks like onto Rosanna, because that's what this looks like. [00:53:03] Speaker A: So it. The corpse was a car crash victim? It was when I was. And the. The airbag was faulty, so it kind of acted a bit of like a projectile, shooting the bits into their face, kind of slicing open the cheek. Probably an eye that's ruptured. A lot of facial lacerations that bled a lot while the person was dying. [00:54:03] Speaker E: Yeah, that's what Rosanna looks like. She looks like that dead person. [00:54:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Isabelle may or may not have very specific car related trauma. And so car crash victims are always hit her hard, and it's that and she sees it. And then it's not enough to call it a scream, but it's kind of closer to a panicked noise. Like a cat would make, like a bit of a. And then it's just like Arthur. [00:54:50] Speaker C: And it's just like seeing all of this and hearing, especially looking around and then hearing Isabelle just being like Arthur. Turning to see what's going on. He will snap his eyes around and throw up his wrist. I'm actually going to see if he can activate the sensei unatural. Because now he thinks that they're under some kind of attack. [00:55:15] Speaker E: You can absolutely activate sensei. Unnatural. I love it when more than one pc does the same thing. It's so much fun. [00:55:22] Speaker C: Yeah, well, for him it's a little different because I have to see if the artifact triggers or not. Right, because. [00:55:30] Speaker E: Roll your pool. [00:55:34] Speaker C: Where is my numbers? Okay. It doesn't get to add itself to itself, unfortunately. [00:55:42] Speaker E: Yeah, it starts glowing the second you focus on it. [00:55:47] Speaker C: All right, so he's going to move toward Isabelle and Rosanna's unconsciousness. Because he's thinking that he has to defend them against whatever's coming. [00:55:58] Speaker E: The closer you get to them, the brighter the glow. [00:56:06] Speaker B: Please take her. [00:56:08] Speaker F: Please. [00:56:11] Speaker C: He's going to reach out his arm to take her, because obviously Isabelle's struggling. Does anything happen with the artifact? [00:56:23] Speaker E: It's continuing to glow. It doesn't do anything. [00:56:26] Speaker C: It doesn't get brighter, even. Okay, that's what I wanted to know, if it got a little bit brighter. [00:56:30] Speaker E: I mean, it always gets a little bit brighter when you get near Rosanna. Because Rosanna is in and of herself, to some degree, unnatural. Piper, is there something you would like to do? [00:56:44] Speaker D: Yeah, can I spend a point of willpower to actually use thwart on whatever is going on with Isabelle? [00:56:53] Speaker E: You are certainly welcome to try. [00:56:55] Speaker D: Okay, I'm going to. I'm not sure if it'll do anything. [00:56:59] Speaker E: But. [00:57:03] Speaker D: I have spent the willpower. [00:57:06] Speaker E: Okay, so here's what happens. You start to realize how bad this is when Rosanna goes limp and thinking on the fly. You reach over and you've got one of those, like, smartwatches, but it's like hack to hell, jailbroken as I'll get out. It's barely even the same watch that you bought. And you tap a couple of things on the little screen. And Isabelle, you feel that thing that you've pinned to your shirt start to pulse and vibrate, and it sends this kind of soothing sensation through you. And you watch as Rosanna is taken from your hands and she slowly starts to look a little bit more normal. Now, out of character, I'm going to tell you that this is not an effect that is going. That you're not going to be able to thwart this for forever. It's basically going to negate the effects for a scene. Okay. [00:58:23] Speaker D: Yeah, I have out of character. I have an idea of what it is. [00:58:30] Speaker E: It is something that is going to take actual resolution to get rid of for forever. But for now, Isabelle, you start to feel a little bit better. The floor under you no longer looks like it is. Know, a very tentative glance up at everybody else shows that they are looking more and more human and alive. But Rosanna's very much unconscious. [00:58:55] Speaker D: Very much unconscious. I do have recognition. So do I get a rough idea of what was happening? Do I essentially get like it looked like everything was decaying, or is it just kind of a. I don't know, but it stopped. [00:59:08] Speaker E: Now, Isabelle, you don't know exactly what the effects were, but you recognize that Isabel got slapped full force by a pretty nasty curse. Cool. [00:59:19] Speaker D: All right. [00:59:21] Speaker E: Yes. As an aside, because you've used all of this in such close proximity to Rosanna, you realize that Rosanna is also under the effects of a curse. [00:59:33] Speaker A: Oh, good. [00:59:35] Speaker E: You do not know what kind of curse it is. But, you know, it's. [00:59:41] Speaker A: Like reaching out the floor, being like, okay, it's fine. It's real. And it's kind of like you can kind of see that Isabel's eyes are kind of a little shimmery. Like, maybe it's just like, oh, my God. It is very. Not much like the person you've known for a day or so. It is very shaky. And just like, I'm here, it's fine. I'm grounded. I'm grounding myself. Everything is fine. It's not as I see it. It's kind of constant muttering to herself. [01:00:17] Speaker E: Arthur, you get Rosanna into your arms and you are holding her up. And because you have sense, the unnatural up again. You don't know what it is exactly. You don't even know that it's a curse. What you do know is that it feels bad. You know that. That flaw that you have, that flaw that makes you dread things. [01:00:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:51] Speaker E: The second she's in your arms, that feeling comes back full force. [01:01:00] Speaker C: Shit. [01:01:03] Speaker E: Everything'S bad. You're doomed. It's all awful. [01:01:07] Speaker C: We're not going to get out of this. [01:01:11] Speaker D: Yeah, we are. You all don't have a fucking choice. You're getting out of this. [01:01:20] Speaker E: You all hear a whine from the side door of the building. Gozer is standing outside of the door like he knew to stop. And he's, like, doing that thing that dogs do where he's, like, hunkered down and he's got his head between his little paws and he's, like, staring at you, but he is too afraid to get closer to you. He's tail. [01:01:47] Speaker A: Mean. Piper says we need to get out of here. Isabel's up and moving out of. She doesn't even look at anything else. I just want to be away from here. Because in her mind right now, maybe it's just here that's making me see these things. Maybe once I get out, it'll be fine, and then nothing else will happen, and everything will be fine, and I won't have another panic attack. [01:02:09] Speaker E: Okay. I'm going to guess that Piper is going to stay with Isabel because if Isabelle gets too far away from you, that's going to stop. Isabel turns to walk, very panicked, out of the room. And Arthur, you see Piper take off after her. She is hot on Isabelle's heels, like she is terrified that she's going to get too far away. [01:02:36] Speaker C: That's fine. Arthur's plan was to get Rosanna to the rv and then once more back into the fray. But not after touching her and realizing that we're all going to die. [01:02:52] Speaker E: Okay, Rosanna, you are standing in this dark room. The floor has continued to suck you in. It is up to your ankles now, and there's a little bluish green light on the horizon. And then another and another and another and another and another, until it seems like there are hundreds of them all around you and they're getting closer and closer and closer and closer. And then you realize when they're all about 10ft away that they're not lights, they're moths, lunar moths. And as they flutter in around you in this swarm that seems like it is big enough that it could swallow you, you kind of lock eyes on one that is reasonably steady, it's not darting all over the place. And you watch as that bluish green color slowly starts to bleed into a deep, deep red until all of those beautiful bluish green lights are blood red around you. And then they all suddenly rush at you at top speed. And when they hit you, it feels like they are cutting into you like you are being sliced up. And as you scream and try to bring your hands up to protect yourself and just move on instinct, you wake up screaming in Arthur's arms as he is carrying you into the rv, blailing and screaming. I can't tell if she's not making noise for real in real life or if your microphone is like. I think your microphone might be cutting it out. [01:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah. If it's you're being too high up in the range, it's like, no, it's not. It's just. [01:05:32] Speaker B: No, no, that, that silence was intentional. Okay, good. [01:05:40] Speaker C: Arthur's going to try to struggle to lay her down where she won't hurt herself because she's fighting him the whole time now, but at least she's awake, which is good. Not that anything matters right now, but at least she's not dead. [01:05:58] Speaker B: And when he lays her down, she's just going to hook under him, grab onto his shoulders and just keep still, actively fighting off a panic attack herself. Oh, boy. [01:06:21] Speaker C: M. [01:06:24] Speaker D: So we're not going back in there? No. We should know. You might be the only one that can safely go back in there. [01:06:43] Speaker E: Fuck that. I'm not doing it. I don't care if I can safely go in there. [01:06:46] Speaker A: No, the fucking corpse has gone. It's nothing else we need in there. [01:06:52] Speaker D: We should tell anybody that might be coming here that they shouldn't go in there either. [01:06:59] Speaker C: Okay, you said something about magic and then shit just hit the fan. What is going on? [01:07:05] Speaker D: Like I said, magic I'm pretty sure somebody set something on the place knowing that we would come back to it. That's why. Gozer, go inside. Because she figured it out. And we didn't figure it out until. [01:07:18] Speaker B: It was too late. [01:07:20] Speaker D: By the way, Isabel, you're cursed. Now, just ahead, really. [01:07:24] Speaker A: Don't fucking say. [01:07:28] Speaker B: Moths. Moths. [01:07:33] Speaker A: I would take moths as a courses, Emma. [01:07:39] Speaker C: Moths? [01:07:41] Speaker B: Moths, moths. Hundreds and hundreds of moths. And there was sinking. And then they went from blue and purple to red, and then they started. Cuff. [01:08:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:09] Speaker D: You're still alive. [01:08:11] Speaker C: You are. You are. And I have you. We got you out of there. [01:08:21] Speaker B: She's going to just wrap her arms around him and pull him in and just whisper. I think they have her. I think they have her. And they're going to use her for bad things. [01:08:37] Speaker A: Who is who? [01:08:42] Speaker B: The moths. The Litneus society. [01:08:47] Speaker C: The Linnaeus society. It was an organization that Victoria was part of at some point or connected to in some way, and they abandoned her. [01:08:58] Speaker D: You didn't think this was important to mention? [01:09:03] Speaker C: I forgotten about it until I saw the moths. [01:09:07] Speaker D: I didn't think it was important to mention when we saw the moths. [01:09:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it was 2 hours ago, Arthur. [01:09:16] Speaker C: Well, if we came back to find that nothing had happened, then it was just me being paranoid. [01:09:24] Speaker D: Paranoia is what keeps us. [01:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah, like, if we had known that people like that were after Victoria or connected with Victoria, maybe we would have actually not rushed in there and fucked ourselves over. [01:09:40] Speaker E: Like. [01:09:45] Speaker B: Why did you all leave? Why did you all let them get to her? Why were there moths everywhere? What happened? I would have. Whoa. Oh, no. What if they have her? What if they. Oh. Security cameras. We need to look into the security cameras. Papa. You're good at security. [01:10:32] Speaker C: Yeah, this is. [01:10:32] Speaker B: And she's not letting him go. [01:10:36] Speaker C: This is all my fault. This is my fault. [01:10:44] Speaker A: I'm not going to disagree with you, but now is not a time for a fucking pity party. [01:10:49] Speaker C: I'm not asking for a pity party. I'm just saying that when things go down, whatever happens, it's my fault that I brought them on you. [01:11:00] Speaker D: Well, now is the time for this sentiment, Arthur. There are more important things for us to be doing. [01:11:08] Speaker A: Is there anything else we need to know? [01:11:12] Speaker B: Moths. Linnee society is secret society. I was doing a little bit of research with Victoria into them because she had some mentor there that she told me about, and we were looking into them because I really wanted to reunite her with her mentor because I know how much that one person meant to her. I just am having a hard time remembering her name. His name. Her name. His name. His name. Her name. BP. Am I able to remember if Victoria brought up the name of her mentor from the society? [01:11:56] Speaker E: She did bring it up, but given the state that you were in, I'm going to say you probably don't remember it. [01:12:07] Speaker B: There was a was. [01:12:12] Speaker E: You know, that it was madam something. [01:12:14] Speaker B: But beyond that, I remember it was a her. And she was a madam. And Victoria loved her very much. Like a mother. Like a mother. But I don't remember the mother's name. [01:12:25] Speaker E: I don't remember. [01:12:26] Speaker B: Mother. Madam. Madam. Madam. I don't remember madam's name. Just give me a minute. Just give me a minute. We're gonna. I'm sorry. [01:12:48] Speaker D: Yeah, don't apologize. [01:12:50] Speaker A: You're literally the only one who doesn't have anything to be sorry about. [01:12:59] Speaker B: Much better. If I just stayed. Washed out body, we would have been. Miss. [01:13:07] Speaker A: If I'd known that there was a chance that somebody might come after the body, I would have insisted I was. [01:13:20] Speaker B: No, it's 12345. [01:13:27] Speaker C: Well, I. I didn't. I didn't think that they would come after the body. I assumed that if someone was going to come after body, it was one of the monsters that tried to kill her. I feel like we're all hunted by something or someone, and that would be who would probably come for us. I had forgotten about the Linnaeus society until the mods, because it's not something I think about on a regular basis. That was Victoria's thing. And from what I understood, she couldn't find them. But I never thought that they might try to find her. [01:14:07] Speaker B: We need to get out of here. [01:14:11] Speaker A: Where the fuck are we going to go? [01:14:13] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:14:14] Speaker E: We can. [01:14:15] Speaker D: Anywhere but here. [01:14:16] Speaker B: We need to get rid of this fucking van. We need to get rid of this fucking rv right now. Because whoever is after us, they know this rv, they know the license plate. They will find us and they will kill us. We need to get rid of it. [01:14:31] Speaker A: It's the middle of the night. [01:14:34] Speaker B: I will make calls. I do not care. We need to get rid of it. We need to abandon it, ditch it, something. We can all pile into my car. We can go to my house. We need to get out of this fucking vehicle right now, or else we will all die. [01:14:55] Speaker C: We have another problem. Piper, what was that you were saying about this place? That we should warn people not to come here. [01:15:08] Speaker D: Like I said, somebody left something. Either on the entrance. I don't think it was the entrance, though. I think it's the building itself. I think anybody that goes in there runs the risk of getting whatever cursed Isabel. [01:15:30] Speaker C: I think that we have to destroy it then. We can't let this be like an open magic mine for some random exploring kids to wander into and then burn. [01:15:43] Speaker A: It to the fucking ground. [01:15:46] Speaker B: Okay? Burn it to the fucking ground. [01:15:52] Speaker A: I mean, look around for bottles of alcohol. [01:15:55] Speaker C: Would that be searching through? I mean, Arthur's occult knowledge is not super great on the magic. Does he think that would work? [01:16:06] Speaker E: Make me an intelligence and occult role? Honestly, anybody who wants to can make. [01:16:12] Speaker A: That role because I think under other circumstances, Isabelle would. But not functioning on smart brain right now. [01:16:22] Speaker E: I got you. I feel like that is very sound reasoning on your part as a player. And I'm never going to say no to a player wanting to screw themselves over. I'm totally fine with that. [01:16:35] Speaker D: Oh, well, I don't need the role, but I'm going to. [01:16:39] Speaker E: Jesus. [01:16:40] Speaker D: Hell yeah. [01:16:41] Speaker E: Wow. [01:16:42] Speaker C: Okay, I thought four was good, but. Damn, child. [01:16:50] Speaker E: Without knowing more about the spell itself, it is a reasonable conclusion to decide that destroying what the spell has been cast on should negate the effects of it. Because most spells. Not all of them, but most spells have some sort of physical component. And if you can destroy the physical component, you could stop the spell. Now, Rosanna, you specifically know that not all spells have a physical component. This could be a spell that is tied to a measure of time where it'll fade naturally on its own. But you don't know what kind of spell this is. You would have to see more about how it was cast. Which, with your measure of knowledge, you know that you might very well have access to that knowledge, because you have a piper. And Piper is very paranoid and set up cameras on her first day here. [01:18:06] Speaker B: Look into those cameras for me. I need to see something really fast. Because if this is anything that isn't a normal incantation, what have you be? There might not be anything physical tied to it. It could be like a speck of time or an orb. An orb, orb, orb. This entire time, by the way, she's not let Arthur go. She's just been, like, flailing one arm in the air. [01:18:41] Speaker C: Arthur, you're just, like, hunched over awkwardly because you can't stand all the way back up again. [01:18:47] Speaker E: Yeah, you've been smacked a couple of times, but she doesn't seem to notice. Piper, I'm not going to make you roll for this. These are your systems. You took the couple of cameras that were already here and just integrated them into your little mini network. It doesn't take you long to find footage of the people who did this. Most of them, you can't really see specifics because your cameras are up high, and they kind of purposefully stood in ways that kind of. All you could see was, like, the tops and backs of their heads. However, there are two people who stand out to you. One of them is a tall, thin, slightly gaunt man with kind of wavy brown hair and a well kept beard. He is wearing, like, slacks and a vest and a button up shirt. He looks very well put together, and he looks to be the one casting the spell. There is also a woman with him who is wearing, like, the thing that stands out the most to you is that one. She's pretty. She's an older woman. She's definitely got badass biker mommy vibes, kind of. She's got an eye patch over one eye, and, like, a black leather newsy cap. And she's wearing a lot of rings. She is working with him. You can't tell if she's actively part of the casting, but she is definitely, um. She is definitely helping him in some way, shape or form. Whether that is just that she is kind of there to. To be, like, an assistant, and she's giving him the things that he needs. Or if she is actively casting, it's hard to tell from the video. The others are mostly just. It looks like a little team that were brought in specifically to retrieve the body and get it out. There's four of them. They walk in, they go into the fridge like they knew exactly where the body was going to be. They get the body, and then they leave. While the other two are working in the space. Rosanna, as you look over piper's shoulder at this recording, the first thing you recognize is that they do not seem to be utilizing anything physical. They're not placing items anywhere, they're not drawing on the floor, anything like that. The second thing that you notice is that they are utilizing a lot of blood. The man uses his blood. He, like, cuts his arm open, not his wrist, but, like, his forearm. And you know immediately, the both of you know immediately upon seeing this that he's a blank body, because it looks like it takes effort for him to bleed. The other thing that you realize is that the woman holds out her arm and she bleeds immediately upon being cut. She's human or something else that just bleeds easy. And they are having some sort of a conversation throughout all of this. You. [01:22:57] Speaker D: It's ought to be fun. [01:23:09] Speaker B: Great. [01:23:14] Speaker C: These are the spell casters, which. [01:23:25] Speaker D: The man to deal with more blanks. [01:23:37] Speaker C: Well, the other day, yes, like I. [01:23:43] Speaker B: Said, we are not prepared to fight. Right now, two of us are. Probably one flick of the wrist away from another full blown plant. Panic attack. And what good does that do anybody? We don't have the weaponry to fight a blank body right now. [01:24:19] Speaker D: Question for storyteller. [01:24:22] Speaker E: Yes, dear? [01:24:23] Speaker D: Do I recognize this man? [01:24:29] Speaker E: Not well, let me think. Make me a int and. [01:24:46] Speaker B: Just a. [01:24:46] Speaker E: Straight int role for now. Three, he looks really familiar. But you're not sure why. You just know you've seen him somewhere. [01:25:03] Speaker B: Cool. All right. [01:25:09] Speaker E: The good news is that you've gotten very clear images of his face. [01:25:14] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:25:16] Speaker E: So while you don't necessarily remember where you've seen him, you could probably figure it out. [01:25:21] Speaker B: Hopper, you know who might know? [01:25:28] Speaker D: I think so. [01:25:29] Speaker B: I think it might be time to pull them in. [01:25:34] Speaker A: This is. [01:25:38] Speaker B: Kind of right up their alley. [01:25:39] Speaker D: Kind of both the best and the worst time. Yeah, I think so. [01:25:46] Speaker B: I know. And I kind of feel bad that we haven't talked to them in a couple of days, but. [01:25:54] Speaker D: Shit, that reminds me, I need to go make a phone. [01:25:59] Speaker B: We gotta. We gotta figure this. Please. Please. You and I need to have a talk. [01:26:04] Speaker E: Arthur, Rosanna, with your seven occult role and having now seen the video, you are reasonably certain that this is one of those spell effects that will fade with time? You're pretty sure you don't need to blow up the building? You can close the door, put the lock back on it and just. Isabella, pretend it never happened. [01:26:25] Speaker A: Already prepped. Four mold up cocktails. [01:26:28] Speaker E: Like, what we doing? [01:26:32] Speaker C: Do we have to do this? [01:26:34] Speaker B: No, we don't have to blow up the building. I'm pretty sure a couple of months back I have dealt with something fairly kind of, sort of similar. If it's what I think it is, it will fade. We don't need to blow up any buildings. We don't need to cause any cops to get involved. We don't need know. [01:26:59] Speaker C: But we do need to call Dietrich and stop him from coming in. [01:27:04] Speaker E: I am almost regretful that you rolled so many successes. I was hoping that you guys would have blown up a building on both coasts. It would have been great. [01:27:15] Speaker D: Well, we still need to get rid of the RV. [01:27:19] Speaker B: We can blow up the RV. [01:27:22] Speaker E: Jesus. Rosanna just wants to bookend the country. That's all it is. [01:27:34] Speaker B: Okay, let's go back to Tennessee. It was fun. [01:27:38] Speaker E: Okay, well, it is very late because, Rosanna, you went out for dinner 2 hours away and it took you time to get there. And then you had a nice, long, quiet meal with Peter and then you drove 2 hours back and you've had to deal with all of this. It's pretty late. You guys can call people. It is hit or miss on whether or not you will get in touch with anybody. It really kind of depends on who you are calling. Reaching out to. [01:28:16] Speaker C: Someone needs to call Dietrich. And I think thus far it's been Rosanna. [01:28:24] Speaker E: Rosanna is immediately like, not it. [01:28:29] Speaker D: I already have somebody I need to call. [01:28:31] Speaker A: I don't know this person. [01:28:33] Speaker B: Fine. I will call Dietrix. But if he starts yelling, I'm giving you the phone. Um, I'm too raw. [01:28:43] Speaker C: Actually, you. You made a good point. I should call him because it was my. [01:28:48] Speaker B: Okay. We should talk still about some things after that call. Oh, by the way, if anybody wants any, my friend got me my favorite candy. They usually cheer me up when I'm 3 seconds away from a panic attack. And she's going to rip open the package and she's going to take a couple out and just slide them over to Isabel. They help. [01:29:22] Speaker A: Isabelle will just sort of nod softly and just put them in her pocket. If we're not blowing anything up, just. We'll take the rag out of the bottle of alcohol. And Isabelle is just going to start drinking because it's just like, you know what? I need something because theoretically, I don't. [01:29:41] Speaker E: Think candy is going to cut it. Yeah. [01:29:46] Speaker A: Unsure if it's going to come back or when it's going to come back. But she's going to drink until the problems go away, which always works. [01:29:55] Speaker B: Okay. [01:29:57] Speaker E: Rosanna, I know that you have a phone call to make. Or, Arthur, I know that you have a phone call to make. However, comma. I also know that there is a second phone call that you very much want to make. [01:30:10] Speaker C: Yes. [01:30:13] Speaker E: I, as the storyteller, while I know that you would probably make the call to Dietrich first, am going to make the executive decision that you were making the other phone call first. [01:30:24] Speaker C: Well, it makes sense. I was going to play it the other way. But this also ties in well, Dietrich is the significant other, as far as we understood Victoria's understanding of. [01:30:44] Speaker E: His understanding of relationship. Yeah, basically. [01:30:46] Speaker C: Yeah. And so it does sort of remind him that there's a and other that he. [01:30:54] Speaker E: You haven't spoken to in neglecting. [01:30:56] Speaker C: Yeah. So that makes sense, too. So he steps outside, taking the opportunity to have a phone that's all know, hopefully, VPN and Whatnots of the interwebs of protection that Arthur has absolutely no understanding of how it all works. But it does. And that's all he needs to know. And he's going to actually call someone else first before he calls Dietrich. [01:31:30] Speaker E: Okay. [01:31:30] Speaker C: Feels like he's going to have to throw this phone into the ocean after he's done. [01:31:35] Speaker E: Okay. Let me make sure that everything is ready. You step out of the rv and into the parking lot, kind of dreading calling Dietrich. And as you are looking down at your phone, you realize that there is another phone call that you should have made months ago and that you've been putting off. And now, suddenly, compared to the other phone call that you have to make, it's a lot less scary and a lot less weighty for you to deal with. So you call the phone number that you provided to Katie Lyn, and it takes two rings, and then that familiar female voice picks up. [01:32:37] Speaker B: Hello? [01:32:41] Speaker C: Katie, it's me. [01:32:45] Speaker F: Arthur. Oh, my God. It's late. Are you okay? [01:32:58] Speaker C: I'm alive and uninjured, but okay is probably not the best word to describe me. Are you okay? [01:33:13] Speaker F: Yeah. It's been a little crazy here, but everything's great. I really missed you. [01:33:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I've thought about you a lot, and recently. Everything's okay there? [01:33:41] Speaker F: Yeah, it's been going really well. We're getting ready to move, and I've just been up late packing and helping the other wives. [01:33:53] Speaker C: Move. Where? [01:33:57] Speaker F: The speaker's moving a couple of us to Louisiana. [01:34:03] Speaker C: Oh. [01:34:06] Speaker F: He's got some big plans, I'm sure, about expansion. It's been crazy. We're all lots of late planning meetings and just. [01:34:16] Speaker E: It's exciting. [01:34:22] Speaker C: I'm. I'm sure that it is. And so it's. It's you and all of the wives. Others? [01:34:33] Speaker F: Not, not all. Just a couple of us. [01:34:38] Speaker C: Select few. Um. [01:34:46] Speaker F: I think it means really good things, especially after everything that, you know, everything we've been through the last couple months. [01:34:56] Speaker C: I'm surprised that my leaving hasn't affected his view on you and the other wives. [01:35:06] Speaker F: I don't think they have. Well, honestly, I think that you leaving has just really strengthened his need to keep us around. [01:35:19] Speaker C: Has it? [01:35:23] Speaker F: And, I mean, some of the other wives just remarried, so I've been helping them settle into their new life, et cetera. [01:35:31] Speaker C: Sure. I mean, things have to go on even when I'm not around. [01:35:43] Speaker F: Are you sure you're okay? You sound late, but you sound extra tired. [01:35:49] Speaker C: I. You're. You're so much smarter than I am. Yeah, I am very tired. Can't even admit it to myself sometimes. [01:36:09] Speaker F: Well, hopefully. When? Hopefully you'll be able to come back soon, or at least meet us in. [01:36:24] Speaker A: Think. [01:36:25] Speaker C: I think I might meet you in Louisiana. [01:36:30] Speaker F: I think the speaker would love that. [01:36:34] Speaker C: I think this speaker and I probably have a whole lot of catching up to do. [01:36:40] Speaker E: Sure you do. [01:36:42] Speaker F: It's been crazy. We've been spending so much more time together recently. You don't want to hear about that. It's strange to talk about having fun without someone. [01:36:54] Speaker C: Yeah. I obviously want to hear about everything that you're doing and everything that's going on. How that the things the speaker is teaching you or helping you understand. Is he talking about ascension with you at all? [01:37:14] Speaker F: Storyteller. [01:37:18] Speaker E: So, I mean, he talks about it with everybody, right. Ascension is kind of like the ultimate goal. It's that state of higher being that everybody wants to get to. You know, a few people have ascended in the time that Arthur has been away, but he has not specifically talked about you ascending anytime soon. It's one of those things where he has made it very clear that he really wants to work with you to get you to the point where you can ascend. Does that make sense? He's preparing you for that? [01:37:56] Speaker F: Yeah, no, he talks about it, but it sounds like I still have a lot to work on. I guess that's why he's sort of brought me back in, especially after. Again, it was a little rough, but I think this means good things. [01:38:15] Speaker C: Well, I'm glad that you're safe and happy, and that's all I really want for you, honestly, to be safe. [01:38:31] Speaker F: It's not me you should be worried about. You've been gone for so long. Is there any chance you're coming back anytime soon? I miss you so much. [01:38:48] Speaker C: I miss you too. And I do want to be back with you. Let's try to find you in Louisiana. [01:39:03] Speaker F: We'll see. Speaker doesn't know we're still talking. [01:39:13] Speaker C: That's probably best for. I mean, when I left, it sounds like you were left alone. And so I think that if they knew that we were still talking, then people might react badly and do it again. And I would want that for you. [01:39:38] Speaker F: No, of course not. But like I said, I think things have really turned around. Not that there is an inner circle in that way, but I think that he really trusts me. [01:39:52] Speaker E: And. [01:39:55] Speaker F: I think coming back, he would trust you too. [01:39:58] Speaker E: Again, he's. [01:40:03] Speaker F: It's. It's strange. I. It's interesting seeing him. He's usually so collected when he's around everyone. It's interesting to see him in private. [01:40:21] Speaker C: He's different than that in private, just a little more. [01:40:28] Speaker F: I don't want to say volatile. I'm not being. [01:40:31] Speaker E: He's not it's not curved. [01:40:34] Speaker C: Right? Nothing disparaging against the speaker, of course. [01:40:39] Speaker F: Maybe more animated. [01:40:43] Speaker C: You spend a lot of time with him in private, then? A lot more time than before. [01:40:50] Speaker F: It's still a group setting. You don't have to be worried. [01:40:55] Speaker C: Oh, no, of course. I've obviously transcended the need and feeling of jealousy and whatever I was just the new situation privacy was always kind of reserved for. You're right. Not the inner circle. Right. We never really said that, but we all kind of felt it. [01:41:24] Speaker F: It brings me comfort to see him open up a little. He seems stressed. [01:41:32] Speaker C: What could he be stressed about? He has all power and he's everywhere. Can see all things. [01:41:39] Speaker F: Probably the responsibility then. [01:41:42] Speaker C: Good point. I mean, to be fair, that's kind of why I'm stressed a lot of the time. [01:41:52] Speaker F: Well. [01:41:54] Speaker E: Maybe. [01:41:58] Speaker F: I can't be such a broken record. I. I just miss you so much. I. I was going to say maybe when you come home, but that's silly. You have work to do, I'm sure. [01:42:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I have a little bit more work to do. But then I promise that I will find you and I will see you again. [01:42:23] Speaker F: Hopefully not too long. [01:42:27] Speaker C: Yeah, as soon as I can. Soon as I can make it happen. [01:42:34] Speaker F: I'll try to let you know where we are when we land in Louisiana. [01:42:39] Speaker C: Yeah, please. I mean, it's not that big of a state, but there's a lot of people in it. So tell me exactly where you are when you can. Of course. Probably going to be hard with everyone when you first get there, with all of the people around you all the time, trying to get acclimated to the woods and find out where to go to go shopping and things like that. [01:43:09] Speaker F: I mean, it's moving. [01:43:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:43:12] Speaker F: It's always going to be stressful, but I have the speaker and I have the other wives and I have the rest of the. Everyone else. It's just hard. [01:43:26] Speaker C: Yeah. But hey, I mean, new experiences, right? You can see new things, go to new places. [01:43:36] Speaker F: Absolutely. [01:43:42] Speaker C: I'm glad you're okay and still smart as a whip. [01:43:52] Speaker F: Are you actually okay. [01:43:59] Speaker C: So far and I don't know. I don't know if I will be, but I'm going to try. You know me. I'm going to do everything I can to do the best that I can to help all the people I can. [01:44:17] Speaker B: Okay. [01:44:21] Speaker F: Hey, be nice to my husband, okay? He's a really great guy. My husband is still you. [01:44:35] Speaker C: I thought you were talking to somebody else. I was a little confused there. [01:44:39] Speaker F: Of course not. At least not yet. It's a good sign. It means you're still on the speaker's good graces, I think. Listen, it's getting late and. Well, it is late. [01:44:52] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. I'll let you go. And sorry to call you at a time when you could get in trouble. Not my apologize. [01:45:09] Speaker F: Honestly, I think it's safer this way anyway. [01:45:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. I'll call you again. When do you leave for Louisiana? [01:45:24] Speaker F: You know, I'm not sure. [01:45:26] Speaker C: Okay, well, I'll call again. I promise. [01:45:33] Speaker F: Hey. I love you. [01:45:35] Speaker C: I love you. [01:45:44] Speaker E: Okay. Thank you very much, Katie Lynn. As Arthur wraps up his call with his wife inside of the RV, Rosanna and Piper are attempting. Are talking about what to do next and who to reach out to. [01:46:12] Speaker B: I'm just saying. I know that I haven't talked to them in, like, a week, but I think cricket might be our go to. There's just so too much. [01:46:29] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:46:29] Speaker D: We don't have time to look at all this. [01:46:34] Speaker B: If they're anything, they're reliable as fuck. [01:46:37] Speaker E: Okay. [01:46:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:46:41] Speaker E: Okay. So you all are reaching out to cricket. [01:46:48] Speaker B: You just see two nerds on opposite sides of the rv in their respective computers. [01:46:56] Speaker E: All right, Piper, I'm going to assume that you are the one who makes the initial first contact because you've got the most secure setup. But it doesn't take long after you go through about the five minutes of just generally getting through all of the layers and layers and layers of security that, you know, cricket has set up, because they're very paranoid. They're the only person that you've ever met that is more paranoid than you are. But eventually, you manage to get in touch with them. Cricket, you are at your computer, one of your computers, kind of doing your thing. You are working on your latest round of research into some weird catholic sect that's up to no good. Probably doing some shady business. When you get an alert that you have a message and you look over and, Piper, remind me what your handle is online. [01:48:14] Speaker A: Fuck. [01:48:14] Speaker D: I don't remember what it was. [01:48:17] Speaker B: Your handle. [01:48:23] Speaker D: I swear to God, I wrote it somewhere. [01:48:26] Speaker E: Okay. It's from Piper. Insert whatever the handle is because termite has forgotten her own character's names. [01:48:35] Speaker D: Very bad at this. [01:48:38] Speaker E: And it is a request for a video call. And you see that Rosanna has also been tagged into it. Rosanna, what's your handle? Do you remember? [01:48:49] Speaker B: All it is, is Thorn. [01:48:53] Speaker E: Gotcha. [01:48:56] Speaker G: Before an acceptance, there is just a text back because it has been a decent amount of time. That is just three more layers of coded encryption and the phrase what's our word. And it's just one last. Like, if I was hacked, what is the thing that I would say, like, that Facebook meme that goes around, but actually, what is the thing that lets them know, like, hey, it is me and not some asshole pretending to be me? [01:49:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:49:41] Speaker D: First you get a message back up. Are we going to do this every fucking time? [01:49:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:49:49] Speaker E: Fucking lootly. And then accept. All right. And the three of you are on screen together for the first time in a bit. [01:50:12] Speaker B: Cricket. Doing. [01:50:16] Speaker G: I'm apparently better than you. [01:50:18] Speaker E: How are you both? [01:50:21] Speaker D: I'm just saying, I think I'm doing the best of the group that we've got now. [01:50:28] Speaker B: I don't know. I think I'm doing pretty well. You know what? I'm going to stop myself right there. We are alive. [01:50:37] Speaker G: Always good to hear. Like, Alive alive. [01:50:43] Speaker B: Kind of dead inside, but, like, alive physically. [01:50:47] Speaker G: Okay, acceptable. [01:50:53] Speaker B: Listen, we need a little bit of help. [01:50:58] Speaker G: Are we talking, like, simple help, or are we talking, I need to dig down for, like, three more days kind of help? [01:51:06] Speaker D: Depends who this person is. We got a couple of faces we need you to run. [01:51:10] Speaker B: Okay, Popper send them the photos from the security footage? [01:51:19] Speaker D: Yes. All right. Yeah, she'll send the pictures. [01:51:24] Speaker B: What we are sending you is some footage that Popper pulled up on the site we've been kind of sitting at for the last couple of days. Breaking and entering. You remember that girl that I had you look into? I remember. You want to explain this one, Popper lose it? [01:51:57] Speaker D: Yeah. We left and a group decided to show up and they took her. And these are the only faces that I could get from that group. [01:52:16] Speaker A: I swear to God. [01:52:16] Speaker D: I've seen that man somewhere before, but I don't know where. [01:52:23] Speaker B: Okay? [01:52:25] Speaker D: And at this point, we need all the information we can get on them. [01:52:36] Speaker E: I have a question. Out of character for Piper and Rosanna. As far as I know, you two have not updated cricket since the request that cricket help you find Victoria in the first place. Has anybody bothered to tell Cricket that Victoria is dead? And that when you say that they took her, you're talking about. [01:52:59] Speaker B: I assume that I let cricket know. When I let Piper know, I assume it was in that same. [01:53:07] Speaker E: I think that's fair. Okay, so, cricket, just to be clear, you know that a body has been stolen, not a person has been kidnapped? Because that's a very important distinction. [01:53:20] Speaker G: Yeah, just a bit. Okay, I can run facial recognition to start, see what that hit, if that brings me back. Anything I can do? A deep dive, because if it's familiar, it's very likely that whatever I'm going to hit on a first pass is going to be best a fake identity, if not just a straight burner. [01:53:44] Speaker D: Oh, absolutely. [01:53:47] Speaker B: While you're at it too, I'm going to make the request. Listen, I need any information that you can find on the Lunaeus society. Anything you can find on them. Location articles, anything that you can find. [01:54:02] Speaker D: Compile if you come across any mentions of strangely high density of lunar moths. Fucking anything. [01:54:14] Speaker G: Okay? [01:54:16] Speaker E: Cricket. Given your area of, I hesitate to say, expertise, because really it's more of an area of obsession. Your whole thing is secret societies and cults and things like that. You know, the name the Linnaeus Society. [01:54:41] Speaker B: Okay. [01:54:44] Speaker E: You know that they are a secret society that is very into the esoteric and the occult. You also know that people who tend to go into their ranks and don't seem to fail out relatively early on have a habit of disappearing. [01:55:07] Speaker G: Like missing persons disappearing or like disappearing and then someone suspiciously that looks like them shows up across the country kind of disappearing. [01:55:17] Speaker E: Yes. [01:55:19] Speaker G: Okay, dope. So at that, then, there's definitely the immediate flash of recognition when asked about the society. And before the sentence is done, there is a zip, like a zip file that has its own separate password protection, that has its own separate files within it that are encrypted, sent to both of you. Here's what I have right now. It's going to grow. I can send you updates as I find more, but this is decently extensive. The important thing is if your body was taken by someone from the society, then it's very likely either you're not going to see them again or you are definitely going to see them again. But it's not necessarily going to be by that name. It's, I'd say about a 50 50 shot of either one. [01:56:26] Speaker B: All right. Yeah. If you find anything else in them, feel free to send us whatever you got, you know, the long and encrypted chain of emails that I like to send back and forth. So attach onto one of those. All right, I also have one more personal request for you. [01:56:54] Speaker G: Okay. [01:56:55] Speaker B: There is a church that has base somewhere in California and I think Louisiana. And I need you to do a little bit of digging to that for me as well, called the Church of the rising star. [01:57:14] Speaker G: St. Given, you know, that general interest. [01:57:18] Speaker E: All right, church is a very strong word. They're a cult. They're just straight up a fucking cult. They are not a Doomsday cult, but they are cult. This is one of those cults that people tend to go in and not come out of. They're very. They're their own weird, warped version of Christianity, but also a weird kind of odd blend of Christianity and norse paganism. But from what you have been able to figure out, it depends on which location you go to as to what they lean into. The California branch is very christian, and the Louisiana branch is much more. Is like Christianity married with that kind of norse paganism, norse flavored paganism. People go in plural. Marriages are a thing. Big, big families are a thing. Women almost never leave the compounds unless it's to get moved to a different compound. And then they go back in, but they go back behind the walls and they're not seen again. But some people join and where you would expect them to kind of snap out of it and go back to their lives because every cult has a certain rate of that where they just can't hack it. They bulk at the extremism that very rarely happens with this. Like, the rate is much, much lower. [01:59:06] Speaker G: Okay, so, yeah, there's definitely a more somber tone of just thorin. You certainly give me some interesting things to look into. Both of you give me some interesting things to look into today. It's almost like it's my birthday and sends off an email with a very similar dossier that's probably not as extensive, but is definitely still decently large file size. If you need me to look into a particular. Because they've got kind of the two big. They've got the California side, they've got the Louisiana side. If you need me to focus in on one of them in particular, I can, but otherwise, this is just what I've got in general. I can do more digging. It's just going to take. [01:59:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't need a specific location. I need a specific person. Okay. What do you know about this? Arthur calls him the speaker. I think he's the cult leader. [02:00:19] Speaker D: Title like that, I'd be surprised if he wasn't. [02:00:22] Speaker G: Yeah, I know. He's the big dog on top. [02:00:31] Speaker E: You don't know a ton about him. He's very secretive. He tends to not do a lot of public appearances. He did some about 25 to 26 years ago, which is when the cult really got started. He was much more public facing then. The things that you know from that is that he was widely known to be incredibly charismatic. He was one of those people who could kind of sell. Anybody had. If he told you that he had a bridge in the middle of like that. He had the Golden Gate Bridge, but it was actually in the middle of Texas, you'd believe him. Like, he's that level of charismatic. He built up a following really quickly and established the first location for the cult in Louisiana and then kind of dropped off the face of the earth. And you know that he's alive because occasionally people spot him in public, but it's never for long. He's always got at least one bodyguard, and he doesn't really talk to people very much beyond that. More often than not, when it comes to recruiting, he sends out people to do the recruitment for him. He sends out his own. They have their own pastors. Not unlike how Rosanna has described Arthur. And in fact, I'm not sure if Rosanna would have told you that Arthur belonged to this group before now, but she's probably mentioned Arthur once or twice. And you're starting to put the pieces together because you're just that kind of paranoid thinker. You're like, well, she's asking about a cult and she's traveling with a preacher. What are the ods? [02:02:35] Speaker G: She's traveling with a preacher. She's asking about a cult. [02:02:39] Speaker E: Cool. [02:02:40] Speaker G: So this is definitely happening. And if it's not, then I'm going to be very pleasantly surprised. [02:02:44] Speaker D: I mean, she did also just say that Arthur knew stuff about speaker called the guy the did. [02:02:53] Speaker E: That's fair. I missed that. [02:02:57] Speaker G: Definitely. Cool. [02:03:01] Speaker B: Not that I'm looking to join a cult or anything. Trust me, I've got enough problems to deal with. I don't need to slap on some guy trying to. I don't know. I don't know what goes on. [02:03:14] Speaker D: I got enough people that want my head. I don't need to add more to the list. [02:03:18] Speaker B: Very fair. [02:03:20] Speaker G: There are also better cults to join that are far less secretive and far less likely to just lock you away in a compound. I'll see what I can dig up. He's really gone. He's alive. People have seen him. But he's not nearly the face he was when things first got rolling. Doesn't need to be. He's got people now. So I'll do what I can. It's going to take more than a. [02:03:46] Speaker B: Bit, frankly, I don't expect rushed perfection. I expect perfection from you, but not rushed. [02:03:56] Speaker G: Have I ever delivered anything else? [02:03:58] Speaker B: That is why you're one of my favorites. [02:04:01] Speaker D: One of you have to compete with me. [02:04:06] Speaker E: Fair enough. Yeah. [02:04:08] Speaker B: And unlike you, she was willing to come up. [02:04:12] Speaker G: Also fair enough. Look, I am happy to assist from behind two more layers of security. And that's about where my interest lies. [02:04:23] Speaker B: Listen, I don't blame you if you had asked me if I was doing this a year ago, I'd laugh in your face and tell you to shut the hell up. But it is always good to see that you are alive. [02:04:37] Speaker E: Let's use that. [02:04:38] Speaker B: A habit. [02:04:43] Speaker G: I don't think I'm the one that needs to worry about staying alive at this point. Stay safe. [02:04:49] Speaker B: Let's do. [02:04:59] Speaker E: Thorn. [02:05:00] Speaker G: I'm going to send you a couple things real quick. [02:05:03] Speaker B: Okay. [02:05:04] Speaker G: And in addition to forwarding that in a separate kind of file, just kind of underneath it is a separate document that has your name. Not Thorn, like Rosanna in it. In associated, like cropped up kind of together with the church. Thought this might interest you. I'm going to leave it at that and stay safe. [02:05:37] Speaker B: You too, cricket. [02:05:39] Speaker E: Hey, Rosanna. As you look at that file, just to clarify, your name has been cropping up in some of the research and searches that cricket has been doing related to the catholic church. There's no context provided. Like, it looks like cricket didn't have a chance to figure out why. And it looks like the searches were really recent. So it could just be that you're back on another watch list. Could be nothing, too, so. Okay. [02:06:30] Speaker B: And at that, she's gonna get up and walk out. [02:06:35] Speaker E: All right. While all of that was happening, and Arthur was making his call to Katie. [02:06:42] Speaker G: Lyn. [02:06:43] Speaker E: Isabel, I swear to God, we're going to get through this, guys. I promise. Isabel, would you like to have maybe stepped out of the rv to make a private. Yeah. [02:06:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's that. It is stepping out and honestly, going probably even a little further. I'm probably sitting next to Rosanna's car, just being away from people who could look like corpses at any time. [02:07:14] Speaker E: Yeah, got it. [02:07:18] Speaker A: After downing that entire bottle of whatever liquor it was. [02:07:24] Speaker E: Okay. So you step out of the rv and you brush by Arthur, who looks almost pained as he's in the middle of this phone call that he's making. But you walk away. And as you walk away and you put distance between yourself and Piper, the vibrating in that thing on your chest goes away. And you watch as the world around you starts to crumble and decay. But hey, there's no people over here, so at least you're not looking at bodies. It just looks like a scene out of fallout, that's all. Exactly. [02:07:59] Speaker A: It's like physical. [02:08:00] Speaker E: Cute scene to fall out, loss of us. Something like that. [02:08:03] Speaker A: Something like that. [02:08:04] Speaker E: No corpses. [02:08:05] Speaker A: That's fine. [02:08:08] Speaker E: Okay. And you are calling. Why don't you tell the audience who you're calling? [02:08:20] Speaker A: She's listed in Isabelle's contacts as Allison calling Dr. Allison Langley, who she's contacted before because stuff. But it's partially. Partially to ask for information and partially to hear a comforting voice. [02:08:49] Speaker E: Okay. There's a couple of rings, and then a tired voice answers. Langley. Hello? [02:09:03] Speaker C: Hi. [02:09:06] Speaker A: It'S me. [02:09:08] Speaker E: Isabelle? Yeah, what's wrong? Are you okay? [02:09:14] Speaker A: Physically, yeah. Okay, I wanted to ask, what do you know about curses or something like that? I got whacked by something nasty. [02:09:35] Speaker E: Okay. Before we get into that, I'm going to need you to do a couple of things for me. All right? I'm going to need you to sit down. I don't care where you are. Sit down? [02:09:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:09:47] Speaker E: Make sure that you were leaning against something. Are you in a chair or are you on the ground? [02:09:55] Speaker A: I am sitting in a parking lot. [02:09:58] Speaker E: So you are on the ground? [02:10:00] Speaker B: Yes. [02:10:01] Speaker E: All right, I want you to pull your knees up towards your chest, and I want you to just kind of tuck your head between them and take some real deep breaths for me, okay? Need you to focus on your breathing. Close your eyes. Tell me five things you can hear and five things you can feel. Well, not out of character, not actually five things. Do. Like two or three. [02:10:29] Speaker A: Yeah. I can hear light. [02:10:38] Speaker E: Okay. [02:10:39] Speaker A: I can hear the cicadas in the distance. [02:10:48] Speaker B: Good. [02:10:49] Speaker A: Rumbling of the cars on the interstate. [02:10:54] Speaker E: Good. [02:10:56] Speaker A: I can feel the rock, the grant, the asphalt underneath me. I'm leaning against a car. I can feel the metal of that, and I can feel the leather of my jacket. [02:11:17] Speaker E: Good. Okay, another deep breath. Feel better? A little bit more focused. [02:11:30] Speaker A: Yeah, as long as I don't open my eyes, I'm fine. Everything's fine. [02:11:36] Speaker E: Okay, so this curse is visual. Yeah. All right. What happens when you open your eyes, Isabelle? [02:11:46] Speaker A: When I open my eyes. You remember those game fallout? I know, the one where the world's gone to shit. Yes, it looks like that. Everything is decaying and crumbling. I can feel it and know that it's not. But everything looks like it is. And anybody I see is emaciated, decayed, and looks like corpses. [02:12:25] Speaker E: Okay. All right, well, I can tell you this for sure. I've never heard of a curse that couldn't be broken. [02:12:44] Speaker A: Thank you. [02:12:48] Speaker E: Number two. And I know that there is a chance that this is going to trigger something, so I just need you to keep breathing. Do they look like specific corpses, or do they just look like corpses in general? [02:13:06] Speaker A: Well, the only one I've gotten a real close look at definitely looks like corpses I've had on my table before. The ones that get to me. Car crash victims okay. [02:13:20] Speaker E: Has anybody else gotten hit by that curse? [02:13:26] Speaker A: I think that one of the other members of the cell got a little affected when they touched me, but they're not seeing corpses or anything like that. [02:13:38] Speaker E: Okay. All right. So there's a chance. Sounds like this is either going to be one of those corpses that is impacting people based on things that are personal to them, or this is just a broad effect that's going to hit everybody and it just is hitting you particularly hard because of your job. If it is a broad based effect where everybody is going to see corpses and buildings that are falling apart, we know it is a much more basic and less specific curse. It's not shaped to you, which should mean that it should be easier to lift. Personalized curses tend to be a little bit more tricky. Yeah. Could also be that she's just sensitive to the energy, but she managed to resist the curse itself. Okay. Without knowing more about how it was done, what kind of magic it is. I don't know how much guidance I can give you on how to fix it. I'm not exactly an expert on curses. If you had questions about blanks, I could help you a lot more. I can tell you that there are blanks that can weave curses. [02:15:07] Speaker A: Yeah. I heard a couple of the other members talking and they think one of the people who did it. [02:15:17] Speaker E: Was a blank. Okay, well, their magic is different from other types of magic. I mean, we know that all supernaturals have their own kind of specific brand, and brand of magic, I guess, is the best way to put it. But if this was done by a blank, you could probably find another blank that could do it, or you could. This is. This is. I laugh because it's funny to me that I, of all people, am suggesting this. Somebody with particularly strong faith may be able to break it, but it means a certain amount of. You kind of have to buy in a little bit for that to work. So I don't know how well that'll go for you. We don't really talk about faith stuff much, but that's also multiple different brands of faith can do it. Like, I've met pagans who have just as strong faith as christians do and can break things just as easier, if not easier, because they are more likely to buy into the occult and magic than christians are. You mentioned last time I talked to you that you were in Florida. Are you still. [02:17:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I'm still in Florida. I did get the stuff sent to you, so you should be getting it soon. [02:17:12] Speaker B: Good. [02:17:16] Speaker E: I don't know what part of Florida, you're in. But if you can get yourself to New Orleans, I have some contacts there who may be able to help you. There's a pretty high population of magic type people there. The stories are not. [02:17:42] Speaker A: I mean, I don't know where we're headed. Her plans got a little taken up tonight. [02:17:50] Speaker E: What's wrong? [02:17:56] Speaker A: I was brought over to take a look at a body. It's no longer there. [02:18:04] Speaker E: Wait, what? [02:18:06] Speaker A: Someone came and took the body while we were away, and they left the gift for us. [02:18:16] Speaker E: Oh. Okay. [02:18:20] Speaker B: Damn. [02:18:22] Speaker E: Whoever it was either really doesn't like you or really wants to scare you off from their trail. [02:18:30] Speaker A: A couple of the other members were saying something about a group called the Linnaeus Society. [02:18:41] Speaker B: Really? [02:18:44] Speaker A: I don't know if they're the ones who did it, but they at least, we at least think they're connected to it in some way. [02:18:52] Speaker E: You know? I mean, this could be nothing. Could not. It could mean absolutely nothing at all. Do you remember the series of explosions? Everybody thinks that they were terror attacks in Chicago months ago. [02:19:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I do. [02:19:30] Speaker E: The Linnaeus society kind of cropped up in the city before that, and they cropped up again after. I don't know if they have anything to do with the explosions, but we definitely saw some upticks in activity from them in and around Chicago. I mean, they kind of have a tendency to crop up and go away kind of all over the country. They're really good at popping up for a month or two and then disappearing before anybody really gets a chance to look into what they're up to. But they've definitely been in and around Chicago. We've seen them over in California, mostly in LA. And yeah, I could be wrong, but it. It seems like they're tied into some nasty stuff, so if you guys are tangling with them, you need to be careful. [02:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I wasn't aware when we locked right into that trap. [02:20:52] Speaker E: Well, who the fuck are you working with that they wouldn't tell you? [02:20:55] Speaker A: That's a great, uh. Didn't learn until after. Yeah, okay. [02:21:11] Speaker E: Listen to me. I don't care what they have to say about it. You find a way to get to New Orleans and I'm going to make sure that my contacts there, even if they can't fix the curse, are going to give you some means to protect yourself a little bit better. Because I'll be damned if I'm going to let you run around with a bunch of amateurs who don't tell you anything without some extra layers of protection. [02:21:38] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah, I'll make my way there. [02:21:45] Speaker B: Good. [02:21:48] Speaker E: Okay, listen, I'm going to keep this line on and available. Do me a favor and at least text me once a day and just let me know that you're alive. [02:22:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I will. [02:22:04] Speaker E: Is there anything else that you need while I'm here? [02:22:08] Speaker A: Nothing that I can think about. Okay. Everything? Yeah. I don't know if it helps. When it happened, there was this dabbing feeling in my chest and I got real cold. I don't know if that helps. [02:22:31] Speaker B: Hmm. [02:22:37] Speaker E: Well, if you're seeing things that are dead and decaying and it made you feel really cold, it could be that the curse was trying to create a connection between you and death itself. And honestly, with what you do every day, I imagine it would be easy to establish that kind of connection. You're always surrounded by death. [02:23:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't realize it would affect me so much. [02:23:14] Speaker E: Well, nobody ever expects a curse, honey. Okay. Make sure that you find things that help you feel particularly connected to life until we get this sorted out. Okay. And lean into what you do for a living. You see bodies on your table every day. Okay. I know these are fucked up. I know that. At least from what you're describing, it seems like it's showing you the ones that hurt you the most. But it's just a body. It can't hurt you. [02:24:18] Speaker A: It's just a body. [02:24:23] Speaker E: And I'm going to call my contacts and I'm going to do everything that I can to find you. At least a way to help you control this. [02:24:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Thank you. [02:24:35] Speaker E: You call me if you need anything. And if you have to come home, come home, okay? [02:24:46] Speaker A: I'll let you know. [02:24:49] Speaker E: And if I have to fly out there and kick somebody's ass, I'll fucking do it. Don't tempt me. It's been a while since I've been in the field, but I train every damn day. [02:24:59] Speaker A: I know you all, but I was yelling earlier, so I think we should probably, as a cell, not yell at each other so much because we're trying to trust each other. But there was a moment. [02:25:21] Speaker E: I'll come yell at people for you. [02:25:23] Speaker A: Heck, yeah. I don't even know what time it is anymore. I should sleep. [02:25:31] Speaker E: You should definitely sleep. Go get some rest. I'll be here if you need me. [02:25:41] Speaker A: Thank you. [02:25:43] Speaker E: Anytime. And she will wait for you to hang up before she hangs up. [02:25:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be a moment and hang up, and then I'm just going to kind of stay there for a few more minutes, just listening to the world around me with my eyes closed. Doing the things again, finding all the things to just ground me. And after five minutes or so after that, get up and head back into the RV. [02:26:17] Speaker E: Actually, after about a minute and a half of you kind of sitting there and listening, a warm, furry head plops itself in your lap. [02:26:30] Speaker A: Not even going to open my eyes because I don't want to see that. [02:26:34] Speaker E: Well, you can feel him and it's gozer. And he is cuddled up with you. [02:26:41] Speaker A: Yeah, it's eyes closed. Reach out and scratch. And it's definitely not opening eyes because you're afraid. I'm afraid of what I'm going to see. So it's almost quietly like. Do you have any guide dog training? [02:27:07] Speaker E: Weirdly enough, when you decide that you are good and ready to go back to the RV, as far as you know, he doesn't have any guide dog training, but he seems to lead you pretty unerringly to where you need to go. Maybe he's just exceptionally well trained. Maybe he's smarter than your average puppy. You're not sure? I'll take it right now, but get back to the RV and step up inside around the time Rosanna is stepping outside. [02:27:49] Speaker B: You doing all right? [02:27:53] Speaker A: And I look at you and I just say, yeah, I'll be fine. A contact of mine knows some people in Louisiana that may be able to help with this. [02:28:13] Speaker B: Well, like, I know I've only really just started really getting the chance to talk to you. I know we didn't really talk much, California, because I'm paranoid about everything. But I meant it when I said if you ever need to pick me up and she just hands her over another wrapped piece of candy, they might just be candies, but they bring back really good memories, you know, like when you're, when you're, when you're a kid and like, yeah, you get a chance to go to the candy store and, and your mom hands you, like, a. [02:29:09] Speaker E: $5 bill and tells you to go crazy. [02:29:11] Speaker B: And, and it's the know, candy was actually cheap back then, so $5 got you a whole ass bag and then a couple of pieces on the side. [02:29:20] Speaker A: That's fair. I'm not usually one for the incredibly sweet thing. I was always the one that liked the spicy candies. But I'll unwrap it and put it in my mouth. [02:29:42] Speaker E: Strawberry is a cream. Nothing quite like it. And when you put it on your tongue, there is an odd but not unpleasant sort of tingling. It takes you a moment and you realize after a second that maybe it's Rosanna's influence and her intentions behind it. Maybe it's all in your head, but it tastes a little bit like what a summer day should like. That perfect summer day as a kid should taste like. [02:30:22] Speaker A: Thank you. I will also apologize for not making direct eye contact with any of you for a bit. [02:30:32] Speaker B: Listen, I don't know what happened to you in there, but I get it. [02:30:38] Speaker A: Yeah. You know how I deal with dead bodies? Certain ones affect me more. Car crash victims. And whenever I look at. I looked at you earlier and you looked like a car crash victim. You look like. All of you look like dead bodies. And I'm usually good with that. It's just the curses decided to make you all look like the ones that affect me. [02:31:24] Speaker B: Don't worry about it. [02:31:25] Speaker E: Okay. [02:31:27] Speaker B: I don't know what's going on, but if you need, I can help you look into it. [02:31:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to do some research, and if we're going towards New Orleans, I would not mind figuring out what my friend knows there. [02:31:55] Speaker B: Well, we'll get you the help that you need with your friend. I need to step outside for some air. But. Just go. I've got tea in. If Arthur didn't move it. I have a tea stash on the far left counter, top shelf. Help yourself. [02:32:26] Speaker A: I think I'm going to lay down. I kind of killed that half bottle of whiskey, and I'm pretty sure it's going to hit me at any point. [02:32:38] Speaker B: Got it. Puke buckets in the bathroom. We've had to use that a couple of times between Arthur and I. [02:32:47] Speaker A: That's good to know. I honestly also don't remember the last time I ate real food. [02:32:53] Speaker B: Eat something. Eat food. Don't. Don't not eat food. What the hell is up with this sale and not eating proper food? Never mind. Never mind. I don't need to yell. Sorry. Go get some sleep. [02:33:07] Speaker A: That's fine. I don't know. Shove bread in my face and then go to sleep. [02:33:14] Speaker B: Fair. And then Roseanne is going to make her way out of the rv. [02:33:23] Speaker E: Okay. Arthur is outside, and it looks like he is just hanging up the phone. [02:33:30] Speaker B: How'd the call go? Arthur? Arthur. [02:33:39] Speaker C: Oh, hey, Rosanna. [02:33:44] Speaker B: Hey. Um, Dietrich's doing alright. [02:33:52] Speaker C: I haven't called him yet. [02:33:58] Speaker B: Oh, we need to. [02:34:14] Speaker C: Yeah, we do. Do you want to do that now, or do you want me to call Dietrich first? [02:34:23] Speaker B: Let's just do it now. I don't think Dietrich's is gonna be picking up the phone tonight anyway. It's really late. [02:34:36] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I hope he's not already on the way. Here. But I guess if he were, then we can just have the talk. Whatever's about to happen, face to face, when he can probably just hit me a few times and maybe get out of his system. [02:34:53] Speaker B: He. I'm not going to let him do that to you. Why? Sorry, I know it's been a rough couple of months. Unfortunately, our first time back together in two months. Three almost. And it's because shit's gone off the wall a little bit. [02:35:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:35:47] Speaker B: Can I. Can I ask why you followed me 2 hours away? [02:35:58] Speaker C: It's easy to answer. Because I was afraid. [02:36:04] Speaker B: Of what? [02:36:06] Speaker C: That something would happen to you. I know you said it would be all right. And spur. I guess I should have trusted you. But it wasn't you that I don't trust. It was that you could be 2 hours away when something happens and I wouldn't. 2 hours isn't is a very long time. And if something were to happen to you. I wouldn't be able to save you. [02:36:47] Speaker B: Was that the only reason? [02:36:52] Speaker C: That was the main reason this. There was. I mean, look at. Look at what happened. We left Victoria alone and she died. We left Zephyr alone and he disappeared. We leave people alone and bad things happen to them. [02:37:22] Speaker B: You're not wrong. I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring to us. I don't know what a week from now is going to bring to us. I barely know what the next 6 hours are going to bring to us. I've. [02:37:52] Speaker E: I'm so bad at. [02:37:56] Speaker B: Remember how you told me that life is too short to be waiting on people? And that we need to take the moment while we can. And I was out with my. With my friend. I'm sure you got a good look at him. I know that you guys have the drone. Almost the entire time I was with him. I loved every moment that I got to spend. But not in the context that some people on the outside looking in might have expected. Peter is a fantastic friend. But there's just too much in my mind going on. And the entire time I was with him, I was thinking about something else. [02:39:40] Speaker C: It's a lot going on. [02:39:46] Speaker E: So. [02:39:47] Speaker C: I mean, it's bound to happen at some point. The hunter life keeps you from being able to live your life and enjoy it. [02:39:54] Speaker B: It's not the hunter stuff we started talking about, like relationships and stuff. And. [02:40:27] Speaker E: It. [02:40:30] Speaker B: I was thinking about us a lot. Um. And I been wanting to talk to you about it basically since I left. Laugh not a guarantee anymore. It never was a guarantee, I guess. But there are fewer and fewer opportunities for us to bond with people and to have relationships that make us feel normal. And I, the one person I feel normal around, despite what we do. And. [02:41:49] Speaker E: It. [02:41:50] Speaker B: I don't know if it's the desperation that we find ourselves in every day, or if it's maybe spending as much time with you as we did, and then spending so much time apart and then seeing you again. I've been thinking about you a lot, maybe in ways that I shouldn't. [02:42:54] Speaker C: I think about you a lot, too. And what's going on with us, and how we're changing and becoming and maybe it's dangerous, maybe it's not. But it's almost like a daily thought. What is happening here? What should we do? [02:43:34] Speaker B: You. It. We could not think about it for a minute and just see what happens. [02:43:51] Speaker E: It's. [02:43:56] Speaker C: I guess seeing what happens is exactly what we've been doing. [02:44:06] Speaker B: Maybe. [02:44:11] Speaker C: I think, though, that we should probably. Maybe try to find out what is going on and figure out how to stop your magical changes, because that would make it. Unless that might be where you're going, and that could make it dangerous for everyone. [02:44:41] Speaker B: I don't know what's happening to me. I know that I have an ability, a couple of abilities. I know that there is somebody who is linked to me. I know that my bloodline is not normal. And I know that the one thing that. [02:45:51] Speaker A: I want to do right now. [02:45:55] Speaker B: Because if I say it, I might try to act on it. And I don't know if it's mutual. [02:46:21] Speaker C: Is what you're thinking dangerous or. [02:46:26] Speaker B: Dangerous? It not dangerous, but. [02:46:43] Speaker C: Well, then I think that perhaps you need to think about what it is that you want or need. And hopefully you can make the better choice. One that wouldn't go wrong or be deadly to anyone. If you're having these thoughts, we should probably talk about. [02:47:11] Speaker B: Um. Maybe I'm not being as clear as I thought I was. Arthur, I want to kiss you. [02:47:25] Speaker C: Oh, I. [02:47:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:47:34] Speaker B: You know what? [02:47:37] Speaker C: I'm sorry. I thought we were talking about something else. [02:47:42] Speaker B: Oh. [02:47:47] Speaker C: Okay. Wow. I'm sorry. I was totally off base with this. [02:47:59] Speaker B: Maybe I should have been a bit more clear. Sorry. [02:48:04] Speaker C: This is not right. I forgot this is not your strong point. You haven't really done this before. [02:48:14] Speaker B: No. [02:48:15] Speaker C: I see. [02:48:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:48:21] Speaker C: Okay. Let me approach this again, now that I understand. [02:48:31] Speaker B: Did you think I was going to try to commit murder? [02:48:37] Speaker C: Yes. I thought that's what you were trying to say. [02:48:40] Speaker B: Absolutely not. I don't want to hurt anybody or anything that doesn't deserve it. You don't think I'm a monster. [02:48:56] Speaker C: I don't think you're a monster. But I don't know what makes you remember a long time ago where I said a monster is what we do, not who we are. [02:49:09] Speaker B: Okay. [02:49:09] Speaker C: And I was worried that you were. [02:49:11] Speaker B: I don't want you trying to. No, I was just nervous. I'm nervous around you. I don't know what it is that's going on between us. Literally, unlike a good day, it. [02:49:35] Speaker C: Okay, well, this. I can't. I. I think there is something going on between Estrozanna. I believe it, and I feel it, and I know it, and part of me wants it. But this is really not your fault. It's not your fault. Right now is not the time for me. Not because of you. I just found out that the speaker is taking Katie Lynn somewhere, and I believe that it's part of something very bad. And so right now, again, that's not your fault. [02:51:01] Speaker A: But this was. [02:51:05] Speaker C: Not a good time to have this conversation, because I'm feeling all kinds of different things right at the moment and thinking different things. And I think that if I were to give you an answer on what we are or what we're doing right now, it's either going to be a rash response or the wrong response, because the last thing that we need is for me to make the wrong decision, and you and I and the cell to be in a bad place. But I'll admit, part of me wanted to follow you because I was not just worried for safety, but also to find out who this person was because I was jealous. [02:52:31] Speaker B: I thought you didn't get jealous. [02:52:35] Speaker C: I lied. [02:52:48] Speaker B: I'm sorry that I sprung that on you. I just needed to get off my chest. I'm gonna. [02:53:17] Speaker C: Arthur leans in and just starts giving her a hug. It's fine. You didn't do anything wrong. It's okay. We can. We can talk about this at about better time. Okay. This is not a. No, this is not a go away. This is just maybe not the best time, but it's not your fault. None of this is your fault. [02:54:07] Speaker B: I'm going to go for a walk. [02:54:10] Speaker C: Well within eyesight, right? Because if you try to go outside of it, I'm going to have to chase you, because. [02:54:25] Speaker B: Maybe that's what I want. And then she's going to walk away. [02:54:32] Speaker E: Damn. Okay. Piper, you had a phone call you wanted to make? I sure did. All right, let's do that. I'm assuming that you are calling Melanie. [02:54:55] Speaker D: Yes. [02:54:57] Speaker E: Okay. You have some blessedly quiet alone time in the rV, because everybody else leaves for a little while. Cool. [02:55:11] Speaker D: It makes it super easy. [02:55:15] Speaker E: Except Isabelle has come back in, but she kind of immediately heads to one of the beds. You see her put some earbuds in and she puts her back to the rest of the room. She's obviously not in a talking mood anymore. So you are basically alone. I really should have just called this episode 99 calls and Dietrich ate one, but. Okay. Once you are certain that you are alone and have the privacy that you need, you make your call. And it takes several minutes, and the call ends up going to voicemail the first time and you kind of hang up. That anxiety is kind of starting to grow and spike in you because it is not like her to not pick up. And then your phone rings and it's her. [02:56:22] Speaker D: Real quick answer. Thank God. [02:56:27] Speaker E: Hey. [02:56:28] Speaker D: Hi. [02:56:31] Speaker E: Do you have any idea what time it is? [02:56:36] Speaker D: I have a rough idea. Yeah, I needed to make sure you were okay. I'm so sorry. [02:56:42] Speaker E: I mean, I was dreaming about you. And now, I guess now I'm talking to you, so that's better than just dreaming. But you couldn't have waited until there was at least daylight outside? [02:56:58] Speaker D: I meant to do this hours ago, but then work went aggressively sideways. [02:57:10] Speaker B: Are you okay? [02:57:11] Speaker D: I'm fine. I think I might be the most fine of the people I'm working with, which is not saying much, but knowing. [02:57:23] Speaker E: You, it's definitely not saying much. [02:57:27] Speaker D: Yeah, we're fine. Everything's fine. [02:57:30] Speaker E: You don't sound fine, honey. [02:57:34] Speaker D: It's hilarious. You remember that vehicle you saw that was parked outside your house? [02:57:47] Speaker E: Yeah. [02:57:51] Speaker D: I'm pretty sure they were after me. And I wouldn't be surprised if they followed me. And I wouldn't have put it past them to hurt you to get to me. I just needed to make sure you were okay. [02:58:16] Speaker E: Well, I'm. I'm okay. And then. All right, so you know how we've always had that agreement that I'm not going to ask you too many questions? [02:58:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:58:43] Speaker E: Well, you just told me that you think that somebody's going to hurt me to get to you. So do you think maybe I've earned a little bit of a reprieve on the rule and I'm allowed to ask some questions? [02:58:59] Speaker B: I think so. [02:59:00] Speaker D: But I'm not sure if you'll believe the answers. [02:59:07] Speaker E: Okay, well, you can't just drop this kind of shit on me and expect me to not ask the questions. [02:59:17] Speaker D: Ask the questions. [02:59:19] Speaker E: That's fine. Okay. So who do you think is going to hurt me? And why would they want to hurt you? [02:59:35] Speaker D: I don't know their name. I'm not sure if I ever talked about this. Did I ever mention my college dorm getting blown up? [02:59:55] Speaker E: No. [02:59:58] Speaker D: Yeah, I poked a bit too far into some things and found some things that somebody really didn't want me to know. And I don't think they're going to let me get away with that. Thought I was hidden enough, but. [03:00:28] Speaker A: Well, they're. [03:00:37] Speaker D: Took my mom first, so I wouldn't doubt that they'd be willing to go after anybody else I've ever cared about. [03:00:56] Speaker E: Okay, well, this is kind of a lot. You don't know who they are, but they took your mom and you think they might hurt me to get to you and they blew up your door. [03:01:31] Speaker D: Yeah. [03:01:35] Speaker E: Okay, well, they haven't been outside. They weren't outside today. [03:01:47] Speaker A: Okay, let's go. [03:01:51] Speaker E: Things have been kind of pretty normal. Cool. [03:01:57] Speaker D: Okay, cool. [03:02:01] Speaker E: There's even. I got a. I made a new friend at work, which was very cool. He's. He's pretty nice. [03:02:17] Speaker A: Oh. [03:02:18] Speaker E: Helped out with that really big project I've been working on, so I. I don't have to work through the week. I didn't have to work through the weekend, so that was cool. [03:02:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [03:02:28] Speaker D: Not having to work the weekend is always nice. [03:02:31] Speaker E: Yeah. [03:02:38] Speaker D: This is going to sound really paranoid. What's this guy's name? [03:02:45] Speaker E: Matt. Matt. Matt Greenbriar, I think. [03:02:54] Speaker B: Okay, cool. [03:02:59] Speaker E: Yeah, he's a real fucking whiz with this stuff. You would think that me being the person who's been there longer, I'd know more about. I'd be able to do. I would know more and I'd work faster and better. But he kind of swept in and was like a little whirlwind. But everything got done a couple of days early and I didn't have to work through the weekend and it's pretty awesome. [03:03:28] Speaker A: Okay. [03:03:28] Speaker D: Mel, have you mentioned me to this guy at all? [03:03:36] Speaker E: Well, sure. You're my girlfriend. [03:03:39] Speaker D: Okay? [03:03:47] Speaker E: Just please be careful. I mean, I'm not going to cheat on you, if that's what you're worried about. I mean, you know very well I don't swing that way. [03:03:57] Speaker D: No, I totally get that. Sorry. Like I said, I'm. What are you eating? I'm glad you're okay. [03:04:11] Speaker B: I'm great. [03:04:12] Speaker D: Glad you're making friends at work. [03:04:17] Speaker E: Yeah. Everybody from the office went out to celebrate when the project was finished and. Yeah, it was awesome. It was really nice. I think I might be getting a bonus. My boss seemed really pleased. [03:04:31] Speaker D: That's amazing. Remind me that I owe you a drink when I did that. [03:04:38] Speaker E: You owe me way more than a drink. [03:04:41] Speaker D: Remind me that I owe you a drink for this. [03:04:46] Speaker B: Okay. [03:04:47] Speaker D: But, yeah, hopefully. I'm really hoping it won't be too much longer. Hoping it won't be a couple of. [03:04:57] Speaker E: Weeks because we're supposed to. Hopefully you'll be back in time for us to go to that movie before it's out of theaters. You promised. [03:05:10] Speaker D: I will do everything I can to make sure I'm back. [03:05:15] Speaker E: Okay, well, I'll be waiting. Try not to drop off the face of the earth again. I won't know that you're alive every now and again. Yes. And I'm going to attempt to sleep and not lay awake thinking about the fact that you think people are going to hurt me. How would you feel about me getting a dog? [03:05:49] Speaker B: You know what? [03:05:49] Speaker D: Go for it. Honestly. [03:05:54] Speaker E: My brother trains dogs for security companies and stuff like that, so maybe I can get him to. [03:06:05] Speaker C: Help me. [03:06:05] Speaker D: Absolutely. [03:06:07] Speaker E: Get a guard dog. [03:06:08] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that's a good idea. [03:06:13] Speaker B: Okay, cool. [03:06:19] Speaker E: You sound like you need to go sleep. You sound a little stressed. [03:06:23] Speaker D: Yeah, it's late. [03:06:27] Speaker E: Yeah, I know. [03:06:29] Speaker D: I was asleep and I'm 3 hours ahead of you. [03:06:35] Speaker E: Okay. [03:06:37] Speaker D: Yeah. I will talk to you tomorrow at the very least let you know that I'm okay. Check in. [03:06:45] Speaker E: You had damn well better. I will. And just to prove that I'm fine, I will even send you a picture that we took when we went out, when the office went out. [03:06:56] Speaker B: Okay. [03:06:56] Speaker E: Because frankly, I looked fucking good. And it was a little sad that you weren't there to panic the way that you always do. [03:07:06] Speaker D: You can't hold that over me forever. You know that? [03:07:10] Speaker E: As long as it keeps working, I'm going to. [03:07:13] Speaker D: All right. [03:07:17] Speaker E: I love you. I love you too, baby. And she hangs up. And about 30 seconds after she hangs up, you get a couple of pictures in your texts. One of them is just her looking really cute, like she's about to go out for the night. And the other one is a group of people from her office you recognize, like her bosses there. And some of the people that she hangs out with regularly after work. They go to happy hours and stuff like that. And among them is a face that is very new to her office but not new to you. And he is standing beside her and he's got his arm draped around her shoulders and they are just both cheesing really hard for the camera. And he looks a little too comfortable. [03:08:19] Speaker D: Is that empty bottle of whiskey still around? [03:08:23] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, that and a couple of other bottles that were like half empty because Isabel was making molotovs with them. [03:08:30] Speaker D: Oh, no. She takes the empty one. She goes outside and she fucking smashes it. [03:08:35] Speaker E: Oh, okay. Yeah, that's fine. You burst by Arthur and by Arthur. Rosanna is off in the distance somewhere. Rosanna, you hear a shattering glass. Arthur. You watch as Piper marches outside and hauls off and hurls an empty whiskey bottle at the side of the building. [03:08:53] Speaker B: I would like to point out that the moment I hear the bottle shattering, I get ready to shoot my bow out of my hand. I turn around and I just see it's Piper. And I'm like, oh, yeah, Arthur. [03:09:08] Speaker C: Arthur just watches this go down. And then he's smoking a cigarette. At this point. [03:09:15] Speaker E: He'S just like, trauma smoking. [03:09:19] Speaker C: He just looks at Piper and goes, you too. [03:09:26] Speaker B: You too. [03:09:28] Speaker C: He holds out a cigarette, his pack. See, if that's a thing that Piper. [03:09:33] Speaker D: Does, she does not take one. [03:09:39] Speaker E: Piper, I have a question for you. [03:09:43] Speaker D: I may have an answer. [03:09:46] Speaker E: Given this new revelation, would you like to send this image and what you know about this person to cricket? [03:09:58] Speaker D: Yes. [03:10:00] Speaker E: Okay. We will just say that somewhere, presumably in some random bum fuck corner of the US, cricket has received more information and has added one more bullet list to their research. Okay, Arthur, are you going to call Dietrich tonight? Are you waiting until the morning? [03:10:40] Speaker C: Oh, dude, he's going to have to call the night. But Arthur is not in the mood. But he's going to have to because he doesn't want to leave and then end up here and then some bad stuff happens to him. [03:10:53] Speaker B: Okay. [03:10:57] Speaker E: You pick up the phone, I'm assuming after Piper has gone back inside, after Piper has calmed the fuck down and gone inside to send cricket things. And the phone rings and rings and rings and goes to voicemail. [03:11:30] Speaker C: He just leaves. He just says, hey, dietrich, this is Arthur. You're probably going to have to call back on one of the burner numbers since I'm going to have to one of the other ones because I'm going to have to dispose of this phone. But, well, I fucked up. That's basically it. I fucked up. And some of Victoria's old contacts or something have come back, and it's better if you don't come out here to the restaurant, and it's not you call me and we can talk about it. It's not because I don't want you to come out here. You can come out if you want, but I don't want you to come out here because there's something weird and bad that will happen to you if you do trust me, this is that hunter thing. So anyway, call one of us so we can tell you about it. And then he just hangs up. [03:12:32] Speaker E: Hey. All right. Are there any other scenes that need to happen before people go to bed? [03:12:39] Speaker A: I'm already. [03:12:40] Speaker C: No, I need to get. No, I'm just kidding. [03:12:42] Speaker E: Oh, Christ. Rosanna. [03:12:45] Speaker B: I have one more that I want to do. And she'll do this with an eye shot of Arthur. So he has full awareness of what is going on. But as she takes off, she's kind of like looking around the floor for rocks and stones and stuff. And after she's able to kind of gather enough, she's going to lay him out in a circle and kind of lay her hand on her chest because this is the last connection with this woman that she had that wasn't her holding chains and a vision. And she's going to sit down and kind of meditate on this one for a while, again with an eye shot of Arthur. So he's fully, like, he gets to get the full view of this, and she's going to just begin murmuring to herself, I want to activate my incantation. [03:14:14] Speaker E: Oh, boy. Okay. I didn't think we were doing this tonight. All right, cool. Just one. Just trauma. On top of trauma. On top of trauma. You get a trauma and you get a trauma. You get a trauma. [03:14:25] Speaker B: Everybody gets a trauma. Let's go. Thanks, Oprah. I fucking hate it. [03:14:34] Speaker E: All right. I'm pretty sure that there is a role associated with that. [03:14:39] Speaker B: I have to roll my willpower and then a charisma and a cult roll. [03:14:45] Speaker E: Okay. [03:14:48] Speaker B: So I will go by my willpower first. [03:14:56] Speaker E: This is going to require a fairly high number of successes. Just so you are aware, in case you have to spend willpower. [03:15:11] Speaker B: Five successes to initiate the ritual. [03:15:14] Speaker E: Yes, that works. Okay. [03:15:16] Speaker B: All right. And then five successes to activate and call upon. As she's placing all of these stones, Arthur can actually hear a tune being hummed out very out loud. And she steps into the middle of the circle and looks up into the air. She rests her hand on her chest and she is going to scream out to the heavens the name of a. [03:16:12] Speaker E: Do you need me to tell you how to pronounce it? Please. I kind of figured it's tuath Fla. [03:16:19] Speaker B: And she will scream out the name of a tuath fla. I beg of you to come to me in this time of need. And then she'll just sit on the floor and wait. [03:16:38] Speaker E: Well, it doesn't take long for something to happen. You call out this name, this name that you know, in the core of your being is the true name of the woman that you saw in your vision last episode. The first thing you feel before anything physical happens around you that Arthur can see is it's like a pull, but it is a pull in the center of your chest, like it is attached to your heart and the core of your being. It doesn't feel like how the bow feels. It feels deeper than that, Arthur. You watch as these emerald and sapphire colored lights start to dance around Rosanna, and then you watch as something that couldn't possibly be real starts to happen in front of you. Trees and grass and rocks seem to grow up out of the asphalt without ever damaging it and create this mystical looking forest clearing around her. And there is a burst of light in the whole spectrum of color that you can see that seems to happen around her. It is very bright. I'm going to say it is bright enough that I will allow Isabella and Piper to both make wits and awareness roles, despite the fact that you were asleep, Isabelle. That's how bright this is. Piper, you're not even going to roll. Your little earpiece is going big. This is big fucking magic. And you also have a chance to have heard her scream, which is why I'm giving you the wits of awareness. [03:19:07] Speaker A: I do have that plus two difficulty on perception based roles for fright. Would this not count for that? [03:19:14] Speaker E: Your eyes are closed, so, no, you don't have that. You're essentially sleeping, so, no. [03:19:30] Speaker A: Literally the best role I've had all night. [03:19:34] Speaker E: Termite. You are muted, my love. [03:19:38] Speaker D: I thought you said I didn't need the roll. [03:19:40] Speaker E: Oh, well, you know what I was saying. You don't have to roll for the earpiece. But I'm now realizing that because the earpiece is going off, you shouldn't have to roll anyway, so that's fine. That's fine. You two are both immediately awake, and you are immediately hit by a charge in the air. This is power. It is raw, and it is wild feeling. Isabel. This is so intense that even when your eyes fly open and you know what you're supposed to see, you don't see it. Everything looks normal. It's a little bit like standing in, like, the ambient air around an exposed live wire. That's a little bit what this feels like. And you can tell that while you can feel it inside, it's not coming from inside. It's coming from outside. [03:20:46] Speaker A: I'm definitely going to go investigate. [03:20:48] Speaker D: Yeah. Once Piper earpiece starts going off, she immediately flies out of bed and out the fucking door of the rV. [03:20:59] Speaker E: You guys burst out of the rv in time to see Rosanna standing in the middle of a circle of trees and grass and stone. And as this bright light that was around her begins to fade, there is a woman kneeling in front of her. And you can see silver and gold chains running from manacles around her wrist to Rosanna's hands. But you can also see the faint outline of those chains going past her hands directly into the center of her chest. Like they look physical from the woman's wrists to Rosanna's hands, but they seem more than that, like they go further than that. The woman kneeling there is pale. She has very finely boned, almost elphin features. In fact, you can see one of her ears because her side is to you and it is very slightly pointed. She has incredibly long, like, copper curls that hang from the top of her head nearly to where her knees touch the ground. And she is wearing an outfit that looks like it is woven from flowers and leaves and strips of silk. It somehow covers everything and leaves almost nothing to the imagination. At the same time, she is impossibly perfect. And she looks panicked and is looking around her like she doesn't entirely understand where she is or how she got here. [03:23:24] Speaker B: And. [03:23:28] Speaker E: But eventually her eyes returned to Rosanna. How? [03:23:38] Speaker B: How did she. [03:23:42] Speaker E: How did I come to be here? [03:23:44] Speaker C: What in the living hell just happened? Rosanna. [03:23:51] Speaker B: You're her. You're the woman who gave this to me. I keep seeing you in my envisions and. And I didn't think it would actually work. I'm not going to lie. [03:24:24] Speaker E: Of course it fucking worked. [03:24:26] Speaker B: I did not know that it would work. [03:24:30] Speaker C: I didn't know that you had an idea in your head and you told me you weren't having ideas in your head. Then you act on the idea in your head and something happens. [03:24:40] Speaker B: I don't have time to talk about this with you, ma'am. I don't know if I should call you miss or ma'am. Listen, you might have answers to things that have been happening to me which are affecting my compatriots here. Yeah. What is this? Why am I able to do this and this? And why am I able to see things? And who are you? Can we start with who you are first? Okay, first of all. And she turns around. I told you I wasn't going to kill anybody. [03:25:27] Speaker C: No, you just summoned some kind of. [03:25:29] Speaker A: Thing out of thin air that you. [03:25:31] Speaker C: Expect us to do. [03:25:31] Speaker E: What? Trust? Listen to. [03:25:39] Speaker A: And I suggest that we don't do this out where people can hear us. [03:25:44] Speaker E: Isabelle, and Piper, could you please both roll me wits and insight while these two are yelling at each other? [03:25:51] Speaker D: Yeah, I can do. [03:25:52] Speaker A: Yep. Literally the same pool. [03:25:59] Speaker D: I don't know. Shit. [03:26:04] Speaker B: I'm going to reroll. [03:26:08] Speaker D: I know. Slightly. More shit. [03:26:09] Speaker A: More successes. [03:26:12] Speaker E: Okay, this wasn't going to take a ton of successes. Piper, the woman kneeling at Rosanna's feet is terrified. She looks panic stricken. Isabelle, what you notice that piper doesn't realize is that she is becoming more and more panicked the more and more animated and upset rosanna gets. Look like she is actively cringing away from Rosanna, but can't get far because of those chains. [03:26:54] Speaker D: Okay, no, first. [03:26:56] Speaker B: What? In how we're trying to figure that one out. [03:27:02] Speaker A: Arthur, can we just not have this conversation out in public where anybody passing by could possibly hear us? [03:27:13] Speaker C: Okay, is he. Normally, I'd agree with you, but she just. I don't know, made trees appear out of the freaking concrete. Okay, I think we're beyond people noticing. It just lit up like the freaking middle of the day right here. [03:27:27] Speaker E: Fair. [03:27:29] Speaker D: Now, before you go on about whether we can trust this person or not, maybe notice that she's in fucking chains and she's scared. [03:27:41] Speaker A: She's really scared. [03:27:46] Speaker B: This is the woman I've been seeing into my visions. [03:27:54] Speaker C: Okay, so you summoned the vision lady here. [03:28:02] Speaker B: She's going to turn around and drop to her knees. I'm sorry, I just. I need a little bit of help understanding. I didn't mean to pull you out of whatever or wherever. But last night I had come to come to my senses moment where doing this felt natural to me. And it would keep me up at night if I didn't at least reach out to. Are you safe? Why are we connected like this? [03:29:10] Speaker E: You really don't know? [03:29:11] Speaker D: If I had to have it a guess, I'd say it has something to do with the curse. You've. [03:29:24] Speaker E: Friend. She'll kind of glance between Piper and Rosanna like she's not sure if that's the right term. Close enough, good enough, not entirely wrong, but you really don't know? No one ever taught you? [03:29:43] Speaker B: Nobody. I'm not really on speaking terms with my family, so I don't have anybody to ask about this. And I'm again, sorry that I don't know why I did this. I don't know why I did this. Not in my right mind right now. I'm so sorry. [03:30:15] Speaker E: I. [03:30:20] Speaker A: What? [03:30:21] Speaker E: You. We're connected because your ancestors tricked me. All of those things that you can do, they're not yours. They're mine. Or they're supposed to be. I gave you that. She'll gesture at the bow. Because I thought you told me to. [03:31:03] Speaker B: I was just. [03:31:05] Speaker E: Do you. I'm sorry. Do you have a twin? [03:31:11] Speaker B: Yes, I do. [03:31:15] Speaker E: That explains that. [03:31:18] Speaker B: What happened her? Do you know what happened her? Where is she? Where's Ren? Where is Ren? [03:31:23] Speaker E: Is she safe? I don't know. That's not how this works. She summoned me and told me she needed a weapon, and I said I'd craft it. And then the next time I felt the pull, I pulled back and you showed up, and I thought you were her because she looks just like it, except her hair was a little bit different, and she didn't. No offense. She didn't dress like you. She'll sort of gesture to your cleavage. She was in a bit more strict get up. [03:32:08] Speaker B: Correct. As in how. [03:32:12] Speaker E: You know, it covered more. A little bit like how he's dressed with the buttons all the way up to the neck. No. [03:32:36] Speaker B: Collar and everything? [03:32:39] Speaker E: No. Though she did have a different mark of the church, if that's what you're asking. [03:32:50] Speaker C: Hold on. Okay, so I am trying not to do something, but what did this mark look like? Because we can track it down that way. It was a cross just across. [03:33:06] Speaker A: Not. [03:33:06] Speaker C: A stylized cross, not a cross with a little Jesus on it. [03:33:12] Speaker E: Listen, I hate to break it to you, but I'm from a time before all of that shit existed. And I don't exactly get out much these days. Oh, my God. [03:33:30] Speaker B: So. Brat. [03:33:37] Speaker E: But she was in a. She was in a black like dress, and it was buttoned all the way up to her neck. And she had a big. Well, I say big. She had a chain of beads with a cross at the end of them. At the end of it on her waist. [03:34:11] Speaker B: So she's not missing. [03:34:15] Speaker C: She's a nun. [03:34:19] Speaker E: What's a nun? [03:34:21] Speaker A: Mmhmm. [03:34:30] Speaker B: Really? Sorry. Is there, like, a way that I can break you of these chains? Is there anything that I can do to. [03:34:46] Speaker E: I mean, there's always ways, but you can't do it alone. It would take both of you. [03:34:58] Speaker B: I don't even know where to look for her. I don't even think she'd want to talk to me. [03:35:13] Speaker E: I don't have an answer for you there. [03:35:15] Speaker D: If it will help this lady out of her jeans, then I will make her talk to you. [03:35:30] Speaker E: I. [03:35:37] Speaker B: So we're not bad people, are we? Who's the newer of our generation? Does everybody in my line call on you? [03:36:05] Speaker E: Not everybody. Twins, mostly. Sometimes I just get tucked away for a long time until twins are born, and then I get pulled back out again when they're old enough. Sometimes someone without a twin will come along, and they're strong enough and they know enough to be able to call me on their own. But usually it takes two. [03:36:41] Speaker B: Oh. So this doesn't really belong to me, you know, that makes a lot of sense. [03:36:55] Speaker E: By the old laws, it does. But. [03:37:00] Speaker B: This wasn't made for me. That's fine. Not much I can do about it anymore. [03:37:16] Speaker E: I mean, I can take the ball back if you'd like, but if it's been useful to you. I'm not losing anything by you having it. Because you can pull on my power one way or the other. So it's not like the bow is a conduit. You are. My power has been tied to your family for a very, very long time. [03:37:52] Speaker B: You. So what does that make my family, if you don't mind me asking? We're not. You're very obviously some form of. I can only assume an elf. My family's not tied to. I mean, obviously, we might be tied to what is my family, if they are anything except for con men and tricksters. [03:38:31] Speaker E: Eve. And I think on that note, that's where we're going to wrap for the evening.