S3 Ep3: Sons & Daughters

[00:00:30] Speaker A: Hi, my name is legacy, and I'll be playing Rosanna, the faithful hunter. [00:00:37] Speaker B: My name is Scott, and I'll be playing Arthur, also the faithful hunter. [00:00:42] Speaker C: Hi, I'm termite, and I'll be playing the underground. [00:00:47] Speaker D: And I'm vladied porcelain. I will be your storyteller for the evening. Academics, hackers, seekers of truth, hunters. All consider knowledge to almost always be a net positive. Ignorance, after all, kills as quickly and effectively as any monster. But the knowledge waiting in the dark is tangled in bloody strings. For even the knowledge which does not corrupt the mind directly, inevitably pollutes the purity of its purpose, sows the seeds of discord. A bent arrow is of no use to a hunter. And a hunter who forgets their drive is of no use to the light. [00:01:28] Speaker B: They cannot stand still. [00:01:30] Speaker A: They cannot go back. [00:01:32] Speaker C: There's nowhere to go but forward. [00:01:36] Speaker D: So they march into the abyss, hoping that it will lead to light and not darkness. Tonight, let's continue our hunter story. Good evening, players. [00:01:51] Speaker C: Hello. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Hello. [00:01:53] Speaker D: Boy, was last session of time. There was a lot of coffee, some stir fry, lots of research, some frank and honest discussions about the need to make deals with people we don't necessarily want to be, but have to accept the existence of. There was conversations about the realities of what it is to exist in a world where monsters are real. Curses affect our friends. And the keys to defeating the dark may be. May in fact be found in the most unusual of places. Rosanna learned from her passenger how to perform another incantation. Piper had a nightmare that showed that while she may have. While she may have avoided the worst of the curse so far, it has nevertheless begun to take its toll on her subconscious. And Rosanna had a dream that may have simply been a dream, or may have very well been prophetic, as so many of her dreams have been in the past. Isabelle was called away by a contact and will be gone for at least the night, perhaps longer. She seemed to think it would only take the evening, but did warn that sometimes it can take a little bit. A little bit more time than all of that. Meanwhile, the rest of you have found a lead on someone else whom. Who, it seems, may have been affected by the very same curse that Piper has been affected by. And seems to have been cutting a path, a bloody and dangerous path, through the midwest. In an effort to keep the insatiable need to take trophies and experiment on the things that she has killed under some semblance of control. We return to our hunting cell as they wake up in. Well, in and around various. Various parts of Isabelle's home. Isabelle's car is not in the driveway. Arthur and Piper in their respective guest rooms. Rosanna wakes up in the rv. [00:05:26] Speaker A: I'm gonna put clothes on. [00:05:29] Speaker D: Oh, well, that would be a good change from last time. [00:05:36] Speaker A: I don't need to embarrass myself again like that. Um, so, yeah, first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna, gonna put some clothes on, and then I'll. And then I'll, then I'll go and make an ass out of myself and know Isabel's house. [00:05:51] Speaker B: Arthur would be up writing in his notebook slash journal that he always keeps, sort of documenting his feelings about. [00:06:03] Speaker D: Seeing. [00:06:04] Speaker B: And experiencing the ritualistic magic that Rosanna did the other day. Well, last night, I guess if no one else is up to make coffee, he's making the world's worst coffee. [00:06:22] Speaker A: That's why I'm running inside. Door swings open. She'll look at you, say, you don't dare touch that coffee pot. We just spent good money on that coffee pot. [00:06:33] Speaker D: Arthur has a scoop of coffee in his hand, down, and is halfway to the pot when Rosetta appears in the doorway. [00:06:43] Speaker A: Down. [00:06:45] Speaker B: Okay. I was just gonna make coffee. Didn't we buy the filters or optional machine? [00:06:51] Speaker D: No. [00:06:54] Speaker B: Well, all right then. I'll leave it to you. [00:06:56] Speaker A: Hmm. Good boy. And she'll, she'll go and she'll make the coffee. [00:07:05] Speaker C: Is that the. Has he still not learned how a coffee filter works? [00:07:10] Speaker A: Nope. [00:07:12] Speaker C: They're not that hard to use. [00:07:14] Speaker A: It does not taste bad. It does taste fun. [00:07:18] Speaker C: Also, the taste is not the issue. It's the fact that it has the consistency of pudding. [00:07:26] Speaker B: I just don't understand why you all like to see the bottom of your cup. [00:07:33] Speaker D: Well, that's gross. Okay. [00:07:38] Speaker A: No. [00:07:41] Speaker C: No. [00:07:49] Speaker A: I'll take care of breakfast. She'll, she'll start working on a quick meal for everybody. [00:08:01] Speaker D: Okay. [00:08:05] Speaker B: Um, I guess, uh, our Patty and tov here. [00:08:12] Speaker D: Tov, um, his bike was gone when you looked outside. Patty's bike is there. And it is as Rosanna is working on coffee and breakfast that you guys hear the, the shuffle of feet coming from down the hallway. [00:08:30] Speaker B: Okay, I just want to. You know, since she's taking care of coffee and breakfast, Arthur's just gonna take time to check in with him and see how everything's been going. Anything of note? Any concerns about the compound? I know we were just there, but, you know, there's a different kind of assessment that he can give versus, you know, what the people there will give because they don't know what's going on. [00:08:58] Speaker D: Yeah, you catch him in the hallway and he's got the look of somebody who just climbed out of the shower, but still isn't entirely awake. Like, his hair is kind of sticking up in different directions, and he just sort of like, leans his shoulder against the wall and looks at you. There's not much to tell, boss. Um. Sorry. The clang through me. [00:09:33] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:09:34] Speaker D: There's not much to tell, boss. We haven't really seen anything unusual. I mean, there's always the. The cars of people whose families may not be super thrilled that they're. That their folks have moved in around the outside, but they don't. They don't come bothering anybody. And it's. You know, it's not like anybody's told they're not allowed to leave. [00:10:02] Speaker B: That's true. Okay, well, that's. That's good. It means everyone's safe, at least for the most part. And safe being as relative as it can be. But if there's been no kick up in activity now that I visited, then that's a good sign. Or that I was potentially going to visit. [00:10:27] Speaker D: Not that I've seen. I know. Before you showed up about a week before we had to replace a bit of the fencing, but he'll just sort of shrug. That could have really just been teenagers damaging it because they decided to sneak out or in. [00:10:46] Speaker B: Sneak in? [00:10:49] Speaker D: Yeah. You know how teenagers are. They go looking for. Looking for any way to prove their manhood and just tied like that. [00:10:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That makes sense. And they're not super beholden to any of the like practices until they're at least 18 anyway, so. [00:11:06] Speaker D: Nice. But we didn't see any. Any sign that it was anything more than. More than that. [00:11:14] Speaker B: Okay. All right, well, that's good, then. I'll leave it to. We've got coffee and breakfast coming, so obviously it's your house as used to live here more than we do. So I'll leave you to it. I didn't mean to interrupt. Wanted to hear how things were going. [00:11:35] Speaker D: Aye. And he'll just sort of give a little, like, groggy nod and continue to shuffle down the hallway until he reaches the kitchen where he smells bacon and coffee. And he kind of, like, walks up behind Rosanna and, like, half looms over her in order to, like, look down at the pan that she's working in. You're a fucking gem. [00:12:01] Speaker A: Oh, well, thank you. It's just a quick, quick little thing. But you should eat before you take off for the day. [00:12:11] Speaker D: Today's my day off. I'm not going fucking anywhere. [00:12:15] Speaker A: Well, look at you. I'm a little jealous. It is a. It's kind of like an all in one scramble. So it's like a scrambled eggs with, like, fresh peppers, onions, a little bit of, like, beat up like, sausage. And it's going over like a bed of potatoes and with a little bit of cheese on top. And she'll pop that bad boy in the oven and just let it cook for a little bit before turning around and making sure that the coffee's good to go. And she'll even give. It's patty that's on the. That's behind her, right? [00:12:56] Speaker D: Yep. [00:12:57] Speaker A: She'll even turn around and give him a little pat on the head before. Before walking off. [00:13:01] Speaker B: She's gotta, like, reach up and, like. [00:13:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:13:08] Speaker D: He. He takes the pat on the head and returns it, like, half mockingly on top of her head, except that he doesn't have to stretch. It's just you come up to his chest anyway. And then he goes and he makes himself coffee. Casually fist bumps piper on his way back out of the room and disappears back down the hallway, seemingly to finish waking up for the morning. [00:13:52] Speaker A: Well, with, uh, with Miss Isabelle, um, spoken for today. What are we gonna do? [00:14:07] Speaker B: Okay. [00:14:11] Speaker C: Um, I mean, we still need to make sure we can. I am this, but I also have a conversation happen today before we go running off to another state again. [00:14:30] Speaker A: All right. With who? [00:14:37] Speaker C: My soon to be. [00:14:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:14:46] Speaker C: Do what we have to do for the job. [00:14:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:54] Speaker C: More danger associating with me than. Nah. So. [00:15:00] Speaker A: Well, we're here. [00:15:06] Speaker C: Remember that porcelain can I do, like, a composure subterfuge. Kind of just shove emotions down? [00:15:14] Speaker D: You can certainly try. [00:15:16] Speaker C: All right. Oh, fuck. Jesus. Piper wants no one to know I got five successes. [00:15:36] Speaker D: Yeah, she seems pretty able to compartmentalize her shit today. Last time y'all had this conversation, it did not seem like she had come to terms with it. Maybe that's why she didn't commit to the plan everybody had made and follow through. But this time, Arthur, you can kind of see the stone cold bitch you imagine. Piper's gotta be normally to work with the kinds of people that she worked with before becoming a part of the cell, because she gives nothing away. [00:16:25] Speaker B: Well, I understand. I've been there before. So, listen, I'm. I'm here to support you and your decision, even if it hurts. [00:16:44] Speaker C: I'm just worried what fallout it'll have for us. [00:16:58] Speaker A: Well, no matter what, we deal with it. [00:17:13] Speaker C: All right. [00:17:16] Speaker A: But first, breakfast. And at that point, the timer would go off, and she's not looking at the timer. [00:17:26] Speaker B: The first breakfast is the wisest thing I think Rosanna has ever said. [00:17:32] Speaker C: I think it's the wisest thing any one of us could have ever said. [00:17:36] Speaker B: That's fair. [00:17:39] Speaker A: All right. [00:17:40] Speaker D: Rosanna divvies up plates. Everybody has coffee. Hattie stops in long enough to get his own plate and then sort of makes himself scarce again to give you guys the space to do your thing and not get in the way. As an aside, Rosanna, when you woke up quiet, was already gone for the day. He would have told you the night before that he picked up another shift. You get the feeling he is keeping himself busy so that he doesn't just spend all of his time sitting in the rv waiting for you to come home. Right. So he is picking up shifts to give some of the guys who work the compound here in California some time off because they don't get it very often because the compounds are big and it takes a lot of people. [00:18:29] Speaker A: She's gonna snap a picture of breakfast and send it to him and just say, I'll save you a plate in the fridge for when you come back. [00:18:38] Speaker D: You get a thumbs up emoji. Quiet. Doesn't really text much, so emojis are about as much of an answer as you typically get from him, unless you ask for something specific. But if it's just a general update, it's usually a thumbs up emoji or a thumbs down emoji. If he's not super thrilled about whatever. [00:19:01] Speaker A: The news is, I got a thumbs up emoji. He's super happy. [00:19:10] Speaker D: Um, okay, so what's the plan, guys? You have breakfast, you have coffee. [00:19:22] Speaker C: Uh, what day of the week is it? [00:19:25] Speaker D: Oh, God. You would ask that? [00:19:28] Speaker C: Um, yes. I'm going to meet with somebody that has an actual job. [00:19:35] Speaker D: We'll say it's a Friday, not date night. [00:19:42] Speaker C: Oh, that's unfortunate for you, buddy. [00:19:44] Speaker A: That's rather sad. [00:19:45] Speaker D: Oh, no, wait, that is true. I'm sorry. That's my bad. We'll say it's a Wednesday, then, because you would have come out on the weekend. Yes. Arthur, it is becoming increasingly clear to you that you are not going to make it home for date night. You guys haven't even really started to unravel all the things that you have to unravel. [00:20:05] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:20:07] Speaker A: I mean, you guys could do, like, a zoom date. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah. What does that mean? [00:20:14] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Okay, so here is what. And then she'll go into, like, a whole, like, she'll. She'll basically take a few minutes to describe, like, what? What, like video calling is? [00:20:23] Speaker C: Yeah, no, hold on, hold on. Ethel, have you ever heard of Skype? [00:20:28] Speaker B: Uh, that was that one chat program, right? [00:20:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what? It's like modern day Skype. [00:20:40] Speaker C: Just ignore the fact that Skype is still around. [00:20:43] Speaker A: We don't talk about Skype. [00:20:44] Speaker B: Wait, so Skype exists, but we don't. We don't Skype meetings? No, they're called Zoom meetings now. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Zoom meetings. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Yeah, zoom there via chat program. [00:20:57] Speaker C: Zoom is also pretty terrible, but, you know, it's fine. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Well. [00:21:08] Speaker D: Skype, Arthur, it's all bad. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Yeah, you know what? It's. If we can't. It's a. If we can't get back to Louisiana before Friday, it's a better than nothing deal. Cause then you're still showing up for date night. It's just, uh, I can set y'all up with a. With a movie or somethin'black. Lady and the tramp. [00:21:33] Speaker B: I mean, sure, why not? Disney always works. [00:21:39] Speaker A: Or, like, I don't know, silence of the lane. [00:21:45] Speaker C: Not that one. Not that. Not that one. [00:21:48] Speaker B: No. I don't know. That's a good date night movie at all. [00:21:52] Speaker C: I think it would be different, but definitely, given our work, I don't think that's a good. [00:21:58] Speaker A: You know, I think that's a good one. Van Helsing, I'm giving you all my. [00:22:05] Speaker C: Abraham Lincoln vampire slayer. [00:22:07] Speaker A: Slayer. [00:22:09] Speaker B: Wait, Abraham Lincoln was a vampire slayer? [00:22:12] Speaker C: Yeah, according to a single movie, yes. [00:22:16] Speaker A: It wasn't very good, but, you know, it's fine. [00:22:22] Speaker B: Okay, well, thanks for the suggestions. [00:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:27] Speaker B: Have to message Caitlyn and see what she wants to do. [00:22:30] Speaker C: Please don't pick any of the suggestions we gave. Other than lady in the triumph. That's actually a good movie. [00:22:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it's cute movie. The little dogs bumping, like, noses with, like, little, like, meatballs and husks. It's never. Ever since I've watched lady and the Tramp. [00:22:47] Speaker C: That's the only part of everybody remembers. [00:22:49] Speaker A: Yeah, fair. [00:22:54] Speaker B: You can have spaghetti, but I guess we're going to talk with your person. And, um, I guess we'll kind of catch up with isabelle a little later, after we go somewhere to investigate. Is there anything we can do around here before we have to just abandon ship? [00:23:20] Speaker A: Probably pack things up for Isabelle and Cleen. [00:23:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I should definitely get. She looks over at what used to be the dining room table. I should probably clean at least some of my stuff up. Yeah, I'm sure that'll be fine. [00:23:36] Speaker A: It's fine. Everything's fine. Right. [00:23:43] Speaker B: So where do you normally meet your person, your girlfriend, fiance. I'm not sure what your status is, Viper. I've never asked. [00:23:53] Speaker C: That hasn't been important. [00:23:56] Speaker B: Oh, but I should have asked. [00:23:58] Speaker C: No, we never ended up getting engaged. [00:24:02] Speaker B: Okay. But close enough. [00:24:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Got it. So. But, yeah, um. I'm not sure where I should meet. Time. Well, probably shouldn't license last time, just for safety. [00:24:46] Speaker B: Well, what about. Is there anything near her place of business that she could go to? Coffee shop or restaurant or something? Maybe just a park? [00:25:03] Speaker C: Actually, a park probably wouldn't be a bad idea. It's open enough that it would be difficult for people to watch us. BP, is there, like, a park or something we could go to? [00:25:21] Speaker D: Yeah, little city park. It's not very big. [00:25:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it doesn't need to be anything too big. [00:25:30] Speaker D: People could certainly watch you, but they'd have to watch from a distance. [00:25:33] Speaker C: Yeah, that's fine. [00:25:38] Speaker D: There's no way for it to be truly private. Unless you want to have, like, your clandestine meeting and, like, the little stone. Like, the little brick building. That's the bathrooms. [00:25:49] Speaker C: No, this isn't going to be that kind of conversation. [00:25:52] Speaker D: Okay. [00:25:53] Speaker A: In a bathroom. [00:25:56] Speaker B: That would be awkward. [00:25:58] Speaker D: All right, so what time do you want her to meet you? And are you texting? Calling. Calling. Okay, are you calling now or are you gonna call later, like, towards lunchtime? I need to know what your plan is. [00:26:16] Speaker C: She will try and call now. Cause he said it's, like, an hour for us to get there. Hour, hour and a half to get there, right? [00:26:22] Speaker D: Yep. [00:26:23] Speaker C: Yeah. So I will call now. If she doesn't answer, then call again later. [00:26:30] Speaker D: Okay. You call at first, you don't get an answer, and it. It goes to voicemail. But about a minute later, your phone lights up and it's her calling you back. [00:26:46] Speaker C: Hello? [00:26:48] Speaker D: Hey, it's me. Hey, sorry I didn't answer. I was at work, and I had to get away before I could. [00:26:56] Speaker C: I know. [00:26:57] Speaker B: I know. [00:26:58] Speaker D: What's up? [00:27:00] Speaker C: I think I've made my decision. We can meet at Insert park here. [00:27:11] Speaker D: Okay. [00:27:13] Speaker C: I'm about an hour out, so. [00:27:19] Speaker D: If you leave now, we can meet on my lunch break, or. [00:27:23] Speaker C: Perfect. [00:27:24] Speaker D: Okay. [00:27:26] Speaker C: All right. [00:27:27] Speaker D: Yep. I'll see you then. [00:27:29] Speaker C: Yep, see you then. [00:27:32] Speaker D: She hangs up. [00:27:43] Speaker C: All right, I'm gonna get going. Feel free to keep an eye. [00:27:50] Speaker B: I was gonna say, you understand that I'm going to follow you and make sure you're okay, right? [00:27:54] Speaker C: I figured you were going to. [00:27:57] Speaker B: So, I mean, I guess the question is, do you want to accept that we're going to be driving the same path together and wasting fuel, or do you want to ride with us? [00:28:15] Speaker C: I think it's best if I take my own car. [00:28:22] Speaker D: Piper gives zero fucks about global warming. [00:28:28] Speaker C: One person driving a car is not going to make a f difference. [00:28:33] Speaker D: Look at her wrench faces. Like, first of all, fuck you. [00:28:39] Speaker B: Meanwhile, Arthur was like, oh, I wasn't concerned about that. I was just thinking about the cost of fuel. [00:28:44] Speaker C: That's more pressing. [00:28:46] Speaker D: Arthur gives zero fucks about global warming. Got it. Okay. [00:28:52] Speaker B: Like, the rapture is going to happen before that anyway. [00:28:55] Speaker D: You all take a quick, like, 510 minutes interval to clean up the best you can to organize the chaos that you have turned poor Isabelle's house into a little bit more patty sort of waves Rosanna out of the kitchen. When Rosanna tries to start doing dishes in this house, the cook doesn't do the fucking dishes. Go. [00:29:24] Speaker A: I don't mind helping. It's okay. [00:29:26] Speaker D: You cooked, you helped. Now get out. [00:29:34] Speaker A: You know, I thought with quiet enough about this. Fine, fine, fine. She's going to appear like she is going to leave, but she's going to quickly take, like, a dish rag and, like, wipe down the table and throw it back at him. [00:29:49] Speaker D: He just sort of rolls his eyes, catches the dishrag, and returns to the sink and the dishes that have to be scrubbed. [00:30:01] Speaker B: You know, he's not wrong. Caitlin and I instituted the similar rule not that long ago, and it certainly helped. [00:30:09] Speaker A: Yeah, but thank you. I think you forget who I am, and I lack everything particular way and, and, you know, like, it's, it's, it's, it's a system, right? Like, I, you remember I used to go around the rv, like, kick it three times, make sure that everything was, like, good to go, and, like, make sure that, like, the tires were clean and the outdoor it was clean and that the inside of it was clean. Mostly because I was, like, afraid that something pop out and try to kill us, but now it's just become a habit. Mm hmm, mm hmm. Listen, listen, I am fine, okay? Everything is. [00:30:58] Speaker C: That is the. Among the least of the issues that we have. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. See, see, it's, it's, it is. It is a. Oh, and she starts cleaning again. [00:31:10] Speaker B: No, no, no. Come on, let's go. We got a long drive ahead of us in the rv, you and I. [00:31:17] Speaker A: Fine. Who's driving? [00:31:21] Speaker B: Gozer. [00:31:24] Speaker D: Gozer is not here. Gozer. What was his. [00:31:28] Speaker B: I know, just kidding, just kidding. He obviously doesn't know how to drive yet. [00:31:34] Speaker C: He doesn't know how to drive. We're not teaching the dog how to. [00:31:36] Speaker B: Drive could be used. [00:31:41] Speaker A: Chill out, Mystery Inc. We don't need to teach do how to drive. Okay, no, hold on. [00:31:47] Speaker C: I think. I think I could make something work. [00:31:52] Speaker B: It's a new type of drone. It's just a dog. A well trained dog. A good boy. [00:31:58] Speaker D: It's a dog with a gun. And it can drive. [00:32:02] Speaker C: It would be more like, um, like, like an attack. Like give him, like, little arms so he could actually manipulate the steering wheel. [00:32:13] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:32:15] Speaker D: We don't talk about Google Gadget Gozer. [00:32:19] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. There will be a gun on it, but we don't need to talk about that right now. BP. [00:32:29] Speaker D: Okay, you all eventually manage to drag Rosanna out of the house before it's perfect. But you know, it's never going to be perfect because it's Rosanna, and that's just who she is. And get her onto the rv, where Rosanna proceeds to clean, because, you know, she's got to scratch the itch somehow. So Arthur drives, Rosanna cleans, Piper drives her own car, and you all head up towards the city. Takes a solid hour, hour and a half to get there. It is a largely uneventful trip. [00:33:05] Speaker B: What I said, listening the whole time to the sweet sounds of talk radio. Anyway, just a little flavor. [00:33:18] Speaker C: That's the real reason that Piper's in her own car, I think. [00:33:23] Speaker A: I call immediately, and all it says is, help me, help me, please. [00:33:30] Speaker D: Um, okay, do you guys. Are you guys stopping anywhere, doing anything on the way there? Are we just going straight into the city? [00:33:39] Speaker C: Piper's not stopping. [00:33:41] Speaker D: Okay, even if Arthur had the thought to stop, he wouldn't have the opportunity to, because Piper does not slow down. Piper, you arrive at the park about 1015 minutes early. Is there anything you want to do prior to going to meet your soon to be ex? [00:34:07] Speaker C: I mean, she's going to do a basic look around, but not anything, like, super major, just anything that stands out as something that might be dangerous for right now. [00:34:27] Speaker D: Okay, um, make me a wits and awareness check. All right. And I will give you two extra dice because you have Rosanna and Arthur also keeping an eye out. [00:34:49] Speaker C: Yep. [00:34:49] Speaker B: As I say, because that's what Arthur's turn to. So cool. [00:34:53] Speaker C: Four. [00:35:05] Speaker A: Oh, right. [00:35:06] Speaker D: Cause you rolled the two extra dice separately. I was like, what is. [00:35:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I put in the first roll before you said anything about the extra dice. [00:35:13] Speaker D: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. You guys don't see anything immediate? You definitely spot some places in the surrounding, like the surrounding buildings that are higher up in elevation than anywhere in the park that could provide good lookout spots, but you're too far away to really be able to tell if there's anybody in them. You just know that if you were going to try and get a good look or to spy and surveil, that's where you would do it from. Well, that or drones. And let's be real, Piper would probably be in one of those spots and using drones at the same time, because that's just who Piper is. She's sneaky bitch. Okay. You make your way over to a set of picnic tables, Piper, that nobody's really sitting at right now. It's the middle of the work day. There are people, like, at a nearby, like, jungle gym area, but it's a good 40, 50 yards away. You can see them, but they're nowhere near close enough to be disruptive. And none of the parents are going to be all the way over here because they're too busy watching their kids. And it's about 1520 minutes after you settle in that you finally get a text message. It says, I'm sorry I'm running so late. I got stuck at work a little bit longer than usual. I'll be there in five. And then another five minutes passes, and eventually you see her, and she is walking relatively quickly from where she parked. She's got that kind of harried look of somebody who's just had a really rough day in the office and is just, like, desperately holding on to any sort of self composure that she has. Because it's just been a really long day. It's been rough. She hurries her way over and gives you a little uncertain smile. And. [00:37:35] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a second where Piper goes to hold out her arms for a hug, but then she remembers the situation and kind of stops. [00:37:45] Speaker A: And the moment that we see girlfriend coming, um, Rosanna's just gonna loop an arm through, um, through Arthur's and pull them away so we. So that we're not, like, interrupting her. [00:38:03] Speaker D: Yeah, I assumed you guys were up with the. With the. The rv, but you. You guys could have been hanging out with Piper so that she wasn't sitting there alone for half an hour. Yeah, Piper. Melanie sort of hesitates as she watches these two random people walk away from you, but it isn't super clear if they're with you or not, or if they're just continuing their walk. She does give Arthur a weird look because he's at a priest's outfit and has a woman with her tits out on his arm, which is a little weird. [00:38:40] Speaker B: It's la. [00:38:44] Speaker D: It is not. [00:38:45] Speaker B: It is San Diego close enough? [00:38:48] Speaker A: Right. She just sort of. [00:38:51] Speaker D: She just sort of gives it a peculiar look and then just sort of shakes her head like she's decided that she just doesn't want to know and makes her way over to you. When you hold out your arms, she looks like she is ready to go in for a hug. And then you lower them, and she kind of blinks a little bit and, like, rubs her palms on her slacks. And Hedda looks around awkwardly. Hey. [00:39:30] Speaker C: Piper takes her sunglasses off, sets them down on the table. It's clear she's been crying. Um. [00:39:38] Speaker B: Hey. [00:39:41] Speaker C: Um. Kind of. Kind of looks Melanie up and down. You've not had. You've had a long day at work, haven't you? [00:39:54] Speaker D: Yeah. Looks like you've had a long day too long. [00:40:01] Speaker C: Couple of days. Um. I. I thought about this a lot, and, um, I think it's. I think it's safer for you if you find somebody else. There's a lot going on that I don't want you caught in the middle of. [00:40:33] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I see. [00:40:42] Speaker A: Okay. [00:40:43] Speaker D: Um. You came all the way out here just to tell me that? [00:40:57] Speaker C: I would rather at least do it in person than, you know, over the phone. It's not fair to you if I were to do that. [00:41:10] Speaker D: I guess that's true. [00:41:12] Speaker C: I'm sorry. It was on a day like today, though. [00:41:19] Speaker D: You couldn't have known. Um, can. Can I, um. Can I ask you a question? [00:41:40] Speaker C: Yeah, go ahead. Ask me anything. [00:41:45] Speaker D: Did I do something wrong? No. [00:41:49] Speaker C: No, you didn't do anything wrong. [00:41:51] Speaker D: Do something to make you think that I couldn't handle you being away or. [00:42:05] Speaker C: Mel, I. This is going to be a conversation where you probably think insane again. Um. You know, the. The job that I was away doing. [00:42:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:42:27] Speaker C: We killed two werewolves. That's what shot me. [00:42:34] Speaker A: Oh. [00:42:38] Speaker D: Okay. [00:42:41] Speaker C: I. This is. I don't want. I don't want to let this go. [00:43:05] Speaker D: But you are. [00:43:06] Speaker C: I think it's. I don't want you to be in. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Danger because of me. [00:43:14] Speaker D: And I guess I'm just supposed to be in less danger without you. I guess. [00:43:28] Speaker C: Do you want to be a part of this? [00:43:32] Speaker D: I don't even know what this is. You disappeared for months. A year, really. And then you show back up and you tell me that werewolves are real and you've been shot, and I'm in danger because you know me. And now I'm supposed to, I guess, just pick up the pieces and keep going. Cool. [00:43:59] Speaker C: Piper's gonna take out her phone and go to the photo album. She didn't take any pictures of anything obviously supernatural. She did, however, take a picture of the weird portal thing they built. She's gonna kind of show that picture. Um, this obviously probably won't help me seem any less insane, but I built this to help. Banish, I guess, is the best word. Something back to where it came from, I think. And Piper kind of. Her hands kind of followed her lap. I guess what it comes down to is I just want you to know, and if you want to do the same thing and run away and pretend you never knew me, then you can. But if. If you want to try and make this work, then I wouldn't. But I don't. I don't think it's a good idea. There's. There's too much going. [00:45:54] Speaker D: Okay. I don't, um. I don't really know how to answer any of this or. Or what any of what's going on really is. And I'm a little overwhelmed. And I've had a really shitty day. My boss yelled at me. I was late. I blew a tire on the way to work. It's the cat. Threw up this morning. It's just been a day. Um, but I guess this is for you. Um, and she. She takes her. Her purse and sort of shuffles through it and pulls out an envelope and hands it to you. Um, it is sealed. I don't know what's in it. He just said that when this conversation happened, I should give it to you. And I'm gonna go back to my office now and try to keep my job, because I now have an apartment and two cats to pay for by myself. So. Was, uh, good to see you, piper. [00:47:19] Speaker C: Uh, piper kind of looks between the envelope and Melanie. Yeah, it was. It was good to see you too. I'm sorry. And she's fully breaking down. [00:47:36] Speaker D: You can tell that she is actively fighting not to do the same. And she again reaches into her purse, flips open her glasses case, and swaps out her. Her usual just basic transitions glasses for, like, proper sunglasses so that you can't see her eyes, puts them on, and then turns and walks away with that kind of, like, very stiff backed. I'm desperately holding on to control, because if I don't, I'll just buckle. Kind of walk and makes her way back to the parking lot, climbs into her car, and is gone before you really recognize that you're still standing there crying in the middle of the park. [00:48:39] Speaker C: I'm gonna open the envelope. [00:48:42] Speaker D: Okay. The envelope, for what it's worth, does not have anything written on the front. But inside, you find a typeset letter. It's not very long. It's only a couple of lines. That makes it clear. Makes it clear that they have the sneaking that whoever has been keeping an eye on Melanie kind of knew that this day was coming. And you get it basically says, sorry, you crying made me cry. As the storyteller, um, it just says, miss Ashe, um, we believe you've made the correct choice for her, if not for yourself. We should talk. And then at the bottom, it says, agent Greenbrier. And there is a. What you recognize just from looking at it is probably a secured number because there is a. It's like a phone number and then a string of numbers under it that you are pretty sure is like a password to tap into a secure line. This is not something you could just do from a cell phone. And then it said at the bottom, in handwritten. Looks like somebody scribbled it down with a pen. Don't make this call if you're not sure. [00:51:06] Speaker C: Is it handwriting I recognize at all? [00:51:09] Speaker D: No. [00:51:10] Speaker C: Okay. [00:51:14] Speaker D: You get the sneaking suspicion that the letter itself, from what you know of how the agencies work, the typeset, part of the letter was probably filed like a copy of this was put somewhere. And then whoever, Agent Greenbrier is, broke with protocol and wrote the bet at the bottom. And it's probably not filed. It was probably an afterthought and something that they weren't supposed to do. At least if they're, you know, typically following all of the other rules. This is something out of the ordinary. [00:52:08] Speaker C: She'll fold the letter up, put it back in the envelope, and kind of put it in her pocket before walking. She's just walking to her car. [00:52:27] Speaker D: Okay, Arthur and Rosanna, you watch Arthur look at her. You watch Piper look at some piece of paper in her hand that was handed to her by Melanie. And then she pockets it and makes her way to her car without a word. [00:52:48] Speaker B: I think we should go talk to her. [00:52:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:57] Speaker A: For a few minutes, though. Okay. [00:53:01] Speaker B: I was gonna say, I can never tell if Piper's the kind that needs space or just needs someone to stand there and hand them coffee. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Sometimes it's both. And give her a few minutes. Just let her. Let her collect herself. [00:53:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I get that. At least she didn't lose it like I did and just start screaming at people about supernatural nonsense. [00:53:35] Speaker A: No, we shouldn't. Yeah, that, for some reason, I don't. I don't know why. I don't know why, but I don't think that's gonna work this time. [00:53:48] Speaker B: No, no. [00:53:53] Speaker A: Well, let me just. And she's gonna take out her phone and just send Piper a quick text. Do you want us there? [00:54:06] Speaker C: Uh, the moment Piper got back to her car, she pulled the letter out the envelope out of her pocket. She took the letter out of the envelope and put it in the glovebox, and then just started tearing the envelope. [00:54:25] Speaker D: All right, so you're wrecking the envelope, but not the letter. Okay. You do get a text message from Rosanna in the middle of this little fit. [00:54:43] Speaker C: Picks up her phone, starts typing, erases it, starts typing, erases it. Does that for a solid two minute. [00:54:53] Speaker D: Roseanna keeps watching the three dots pop up, disappear, pop up, disappear, pop up, disappear. [00:54:59] Speaker A: I think by the time she gets a message back, it's going to be that few minutes that we're going to give her anyway. [00:55:04] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:55:05] Speaker D: Probably by the time you finally actually type something out and hit send, you look up at Rosanna and Arthur, right? [00:55:13] Speaker C: Yeah. In the end, it just says, yeah. [00:55:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a straightforward answer, but here we are. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Hey, what's up. [00:55:29] Speaker B: Piper? I know I'm usually not the one to say this, but don't just, hey, what's up? Us. [00:55:43] Speaker C: Not sure what else to do. [00:55:46] Speaker A: Rosanna's just gonna reach into her bag and take out the kleenex, the little travel sized Kleenex again. And this time, she's gonna toss piper the packaging. [00:56:01] Speaker B: I mean, it's fair. Listen, if you need to punch something, or we could find a gym, or if, uh, we're so expensive fucking. [00:56:24] Speaker A: I have an idea. I have an idea. I have an idea. [00:56:29] Speaker B: Strawberry creams. That's usually. You go to. [00:56:34] Speaker A: You know me so well, and she's just gonna reach into her purse again and pull out some purse candy. Um, and she's actually gonna crawl inside of the passenger seat of piper skin car and just sit next to her. [00:56:55] Speaker C: The glovebox, by the way, is still just hanging. She didn't close it. She just put the letter in there and started ripping the envelope. [00:57:05] Speaker A: Awesome. Awesome. She's just gonna close the box. Not gonna ask questions. Not the time to ask questions, but she's just going to. She's just gonna reach around and give piper a hug. [00:57:31] Speaker C: There's a couple seconds where piper kind of just tenses up, but she eventually returns it. Very weakly, but she returns it. [00:57:48] Speaker A: If you don't want to be alone, I can take the drive back with you. I can let. I can drive. So you can do what you need to do. [00:58:02] Speaker C: Now, if we have a job, we need to do I need. Stay focused. [00:58:11] Speaker A: Okay. [00:58:12] Speaker B: But it is. [00:58:18] Speaker A: I don't want you being alone right now. [00:58:24] Speaker B: I actually agree with that. It wasn't an easy choice. I know. Trust me. I made the other one. [00:58:44] Speaker C: I've had nearly a year to be ready for it, so. [00:58:50] Speaker A: Doesn't make it any easier. [00:58:55] Speaker B: Not at all. [00:58:56] Speaker A: You can have all the time in the world to prepare for a moment like this and break up. Oops. They kind of suck. [00:59:11] Speaker B: And they suck when you aren't a hunter. [00:59:16] Speaker C: Yeah, they're pretty awful when neither of the people involved actually want it to happen. [00:59:24] Speaker D: I'm so sorry. [00:59:28] Speaker A: It's okay. It's. It's not okay. And I got that. [00:59:42] Speaker D: And we're here for you. [00:59:44] Speaker A: And we love you. And I love you. I'm more important. [00:59:52] Speaker D: Shh. [00:59:53] Speaker A: Don't tell Arthur. [00:59:56] Speaker C: She. Piper turns her head to look at Arthur. I'm assuming you heard that. [01:00:05] Speaker B: I mean, she's not wrong, though. [01:00:08] Speaker C: No, no, she is. We're all equally important. Yeah, especially in. Especially in this job. [01:00:19] Speaker A: Right now. This. Let's put a back burner to the job, at least for the ride home. Okay? You're not gonna be able to focus if you don't allow yourself to process your emotions. Trust me, trust me, trust me. So I want you to get in that passenger seat, and I want you to relax for a little bit. [01:00:58] Speaker C: Hey, you've met me. You know I can do that. [01:01:01] Speaker A: I know, but you need to. You need to. You need to breathe. Cause I can tell you've been holding in your breath. I know. Drink some water, chill out, listen to some music, scream, cry, do what you need to do. We have an hour. Drive back. I'm driving. Get your ass in the passenger seat. And that's not a request. That's normal. [01:01:37] Speaker C: She will begrudgingly get out of the car and go around to the bathroom. [01:01:41] Speaker A: She'll climb over to the driver's seat. You want to follow me home? [01:01:48] Speaker B: I mean. Yeah. [01:01:51] Speaker A: All right. [01:01:54] Speaker B: Get to listen to some more talk radio. I assume Abba will be blasting out of this radio. [01:02:03] Speaker A: Maybe not ever. Maybe not this time. [01:02:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Too soon, right? [01:02:08] Speaker A: Too soon, too. [01:02:09] Speaker C: A little too soon. [01:02:10] Speaker A: Oh, well. All right. And she'll close the door, turn on the ignition, and wait for Arthur before taking off. [01:02:30] Speaker B: Arthur will go in the rv and drive home. [01:02:34] Speaker D: All right, you guys, get back into your respective vehicles. Arthur with the dulcet sounds of talk radio and Rosanna and Piper listening to whatever it is Rosanna and Piper choose to listen to. Are you guys doing anything on the way home, or are you just going all the way home in silence? [01:03:06] Speaker C: Piper just kind of stares at the letter. She takes it out of the glove box, and she kind of stares at it for most of the ride home. [01:03:22] Speaker D: Okay. [01:03:23] Speaker A: All right. The entire time, um, Rosanna's got, like, her left hand on the steering wheel. Um, and her right hand kind of, like, on, like, the, um, the. Not a prindle. It's a gear shift. If you know. You know. Um, but every once in a while, like, she'll move her hand just to kind of, like, give Piper a little squeeze on the shoulder and make sure that, like, she's drinking water and breathing. [01:04:04] Speaker C: She's. She's definitely drinking water. She's usually breathing. You definitely have to yell at her a couple times, be like, hey, breathe. [01:04:16] Speaker A: Breathe. It's all right. The earth's gotten off oxygen for now. And. And, um, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want, but I don't want you holding an in if that's not gonna help. [01:04:49] Speaker C: No, talking about it's not gonna help. Um, we might need to have a conversation. Get back. [01:05:10] Speaker A: Is it about the letter that's in your hands? [01:05:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:05:13] Speaker A: Okay. Do you want to talk about it now so that way I know what to expect in case Arthur throws a fit? [01:05:25] Speaker C: No, no. This is something that I'm going to bring up to both of you. [01:05:31] Speaker A: Okay? [01:05:32] Speaker C: I doubt he'll pitch too much of a fit. It's at least regular people. [01:05:36] Speaker A: All right. Okay. That is fine. And she'll just throw on some light traveling music, whatever crappy, like, oldies from, like, the seventies, like sixties, seventies and eighties, like, rock. Rock album. The radio is kind of blasting. [01:06:06] Speaker D: You filled in before. Before I could tell you what you were gonna listen to. That's fine. Okay. Doesn't take long to get home. Weirdly, going back never seems to take as long as leaving, um, when you go on long trips like that. So, um, you guys get back to Isabelle's house. Uh, all of the. All three of the motorcycles are gone now. Um, and Isabelle's car is still not in the driveway. But we will say for the. We will say for the sake of ease, that you were. You were given a key so that you could let yourself back in. Well, not that that would have stopped Piper, but not that that would have stopped Piper. But I think Isabelle's smart enough to know that that wouldn't have stopped Piper, and she would rather not risk the lock to her door being damaged. So she'll just give you a key. [01:07:13] Speaker C: Yeah. There's a moment where Piper's like, one of y'all has a key, right as she's reaching into the backseat of her car. [01:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah, one of us has got a key. [01:07:23] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:07:24] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Okay, please don't break Isabelle's door. I don't know if she has a deposit on this place or if it's a mortgage. [01:07:35] Speaker C: Oh, I wasn't gonna break the door. I was just gonna creatively open it. [01:07:44] Speaker B: Also known as breaking. [01:07:46] Speaker C: No, I was just gonna pick the. [01:07:47] Speaker D: Lock, which always runs the chance of breaking. But that's fine. We won't argue any more than we. [01:07:56] Speaker C: Already have nothing to intentionally break. [01:08:01] Speaker D: You guys let yourselves in. The place is cleaner than it was when you left. Turns out being raised by what was probably a very catholic mother means that Patty knows what he's doing when he has to clean up after a lot of people. All your stuff is still there. It's organized, but the piles are much, much neater. He has wiped out all of the surfaces. It looks like he may have even pulled out one of those little, like, handheld, like, carpet cleaners, like the little green shark vacuum things to go over the spot where Piper spilled the chunky coffee that Arthur made the night before. Or I guess, the two nights prior. But the place is quiet and empty. He seems to have cleaned up and then gone out for the day. [01:09:18] Speaker C: Piper kind of walks over to the table and kind of sits down and flips the letter on the table, still folded up. Kind of puts it in front of her. [01:09:31] Speaker B: Should we ask what parting message she gave you? [01:09:36] Speaker C: That's not from her. [01:09:41] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [01:09:43] Speaker C: Yeah, if it was from her, we wouldn't be having conversation, but since it's not, both of you, sit down. [01:09:53] Speaker B: All right. [01:09:59] Speaker A: All right. [01:10:03] Speaker C: And then Piper is going to just unfold and read the letter to them. [01:10:18] Speaker D: I'm not going to repeat what it says. [01:10:20] Speaker A: It wasn't that long. [01:10:21] Speaker D: If y'all weren't listening. [01:10:22] Speaker B: No, no, that's fine. So this agent working for the second inquisition or someone else? [01:10:37] Speaker C: I'm not entirely sure. Working for an agency. Likely tied to them in some way, at least. [01:10:49] Speaker A: Have you reached out yet? [01:10:54] Speaker C: No, not stupid. [01:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah, we definitely need burner phones and be on the move, right? I'm understanding how this tech works in this way anyway. [01:11:15] Speaker C: This one might be a bit more complicated, but, I mean, you're at least on the right track. It's a tier level, so. [01:11:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:31] Speaker B: Well. Hmm. Okay, well, do we think this is gonna get us any closer to Rin by talking to this person, or do we think that this is gonna work against us? [01:11:50] Speaker A: Well, it fully depends on how. How active this guy is with the five torches. [01:12:00] Speaker C: And I think it depends on what he wants to talk to me about. [01:12:07] Speaker B: Also a good point. [01:12:11] Speaker C: I have an idea. He also felt it. Or to tell me to not call if I wasn't sure. [01:12:35] Speaker B: Is it something that us, or is it kind of the things that you told us about from before? [01:12:43] Speaker C: I think this is. I think this has to do with what happened earlier today. I think I could be wrong. But, porcelain, out of curiosity, do I think with the funny little thing you gave me between seasons that I could get information on this? Given that it's here? [01:13:21] Speaker D: That is quite possible. [01:13:28] Speaker C: Okay. [01:13:30] Speaker D: It is. You're not sure because you've never used it before. Because using it requires a fair bit of risk. [01:13:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:13:45] Speaker D: But if you could find answers without talking to Agent Greenbrier anywhere, that seems like one of those resources. Just as a reminder, though, this is a one use thing. You only get to do this once this season. So. [01:14:15] Speaker C: I might be able to get some information without actually talking to him, but it's risky, and I think I can only use one. So I don't know if this is worth it. [01:14:33] Speaker B: What is the worst that can happen by talking to him. [01:14:39] Speaker C: I'm arrested and put into prison for the rest of my life. [01:14:48] Speaker D: Piper, you know enough about the agencies that you have fucked around with and pissed off enough that ending up in prison is not the worst thing that they could do to you. [01:14:57] Speaker C: No, I know. [01:15:00] Speaker B: Don't they have to find you first? Pretty sure there's some kind of due process and whatever. I know that there's Guantanamo Bay style, hold you for indefinite reasons as a terrorist. I get that. But they have to find you first. [01:15:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Unfortunately, they have a lot more resources than we do, so they'll be able to find. Especially if we reach out to them. [01:15:36] Speaker B: I guess I'm. I guess I'm kind of lost a little bit. Because if they wanted to find you, couldn't they have done it already? If you're right about that. [01:15:54] Speaker C: I mean, they know who my partner is. [01:15:57] Speaker B: Right. And you met with her in the park. You met with her the other day. [01:16:04] Speaker A: Sometimes it's just a timing thing. [01:16:07] Speaker C: I don't. I don't necessarily think that Sagen is entirely following protocol, so that could be why. [01:16:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess my point is, it seems like he wants you to reach out to him. I mean, that's obviously a tactic. If you want to find someone, arrest them. But at the same time, why. Why go through that when they could have just shown up at the park earlier. Just my thoughts. [01:16:54] Speaker A: Public thing. They could want this out of prying eyes. There's a number of reasons that don't necessarily make a whole lot of sense as to why people do things. You know, my sister could easily find me. [01:17:23] Speaker B: So then why doesn't she? Yeah. Leads to an interesting question, doesn't it? Like, is there something else going on? Is there some other reason, some other protection that we don't know about? Or maybe it's a different angle or. [01:17:41] Speaker C: It'S because they still want to be seen as the good guys. It's a lot harder to do that when you show up and pull shit without any real reason. [01:18:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Listen, you distrust whomever you distrust. I would do the same thing if it was the speaker, you know, a year ago. So I understand. Just wanted to offer perspective. [01:18:34] Speaker A: Good. [01:18:39] Speaker C: So I. I genuinely. I don't know. I should call them. [01:18:46] Speaker A: Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be right away, does it? It's not like you have three days to call us or this is gone forever. Right? Or is it? [01:19:06] Speaker C: I doesn't say anything about it, but. [01:19:09] Speaker A: Okay, then we have to leave for another state anyway. Why don't we make the necessary. Take the necessary steps. If reaching out to this guy is something that you want to do to where you make your call, throw the phone out, throw the sim card out, do whatever you got to do. And we hit it with our car, and we just keep driving that way in case he's trying to use that as a means to find you and track you. It throws him off the trail a little bit. Just a little bit. [01:19:57] Speaker C: If. No, I don't think he is set on finding. If he was doing that, he would have used melanie more directly. From what I've heard, they're fairly good friends. So. [01:20:22] Speaker A: You either do or you don't. Either way, we don't know. This could be a good thing or. [01:20:29] Speaker D: It could be a bad thing. [01:20:35] Speaker A: But you're not gonna know until you make. Until you decide whether or not you're gonna make that call. That's why I'm saying you shouldn't just make the decision right now. Sit on it for a little bit. There's no pressure. It's just a letter. It's just a letter, right? There's nothing, like, attached to it. Listen, I'm not saying that there is, but, you know, there have been some things that have happened that kind of make me question everything. But if it's just a letter, it's just the letter. Take your time. Not everything needs to be rushed head first. [01:21:38] Speaker D: Uh, Piper. [01:21:41] Speaker C: Yes? [01:21:42] Speaker D: Role me. Wits and insight. [01:21:49] Speaker C: All right. I'm not great at that. [01:21:59] Speaker D: You are not, but you're not awful at it either, so. [01:22:04] Speaker C: Okay, six. [01:22:06] Speaker D: See? You're not awful at it. Piper is in his own. Turns out high emotions help. Piper, Melanie said something when she handed you that letter, which was that she was told to give it to you when that day came, when that event happened. That event being you breaking up with her. [01:22:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:22:35] Speaker D: So you're not 100% positive, but that sort of implies that this may have some more to do with the timeline than you might have originally thought. You may have set some steps in motion. Events in motion more than stop slump. [01:23:08] Speaker C: Great. Great. No, I. I don't think. I call it. I think there's. There are a lot of rings, but I think. I don't know. On the one hand, I would like to not have to worry about any of this anymore and just trust that she'll be safe with whatever they're gonna do with her. I assume that's at least part of it is they're gonna move her to somewhere else so I can find her, but at the same time. [01:24:22] Speaker D: I don't know. All right, so what's the call? [01:24:41] Speaker C: Uh, she folds the letter up and just puts it back in her pocket. She's not gonna call, at least not right now and doesn't intend to do so. But she's not. It's not out of the picture entirely, at least. [01:25:01] Speaker D: Okay. [01:25:04] Speaker B: I guess we head to the midwest. [01:25:05] Speaker D: I will make a note. [01:25:09] Speaker B: Hunt down the other person, leaving a trail that we can follow. [01:25:24] Speaker A: Gonna check my emails. [01:25:27] Speaker D: Okay. [01:25:29] Speaker A: Oh, I have a minute. [01:25:32] Speaker D: Are you looking for something specific? [01:25:35] Speaker A: Just checking to see if anything's there. [01:25:38] Speaker D: I mean, you've got emails. You always got emails. There's nothing unusual, though. [01:25:43] Speaker A: Boy spam. [01:25:48] Speaker D: You know, there's people checking in. You've got quite a few notifications from your other gig of people commenting and wanting to know where you are, when the next day ASMR recording is coming out. Your publisher is emailing to remind you that your drafts of the next few chapters of your current work are due and were due, like, a week ago. And they haven't heard from you. [01:26:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:26:35] Speaker D: Technically speaking, the timeline that you have worked out for them is malleable as long as the whole book is done by a certain point. So if you're late on getting things done, that's fine, as long as the final deadline gets met. But the more you push it, the more likely to fall completely behind. You are? Yeah. Nothing from Peter, however, if that's what you were looking for. [01:27:02] Speaker A: Okay. She is gonna send him an email really quick, and all it's gonna say is, hey, it's been a little bit since I've heard from you. I know that you said that you were gonna be busy for the next couple days. Um, I just am reaching out to check in. Um, when you can give me. Shoot me an email back. Things have been kind of weird recently. Xoxo, Rosie. [01:27:48] Speaker D: All right, you send that off. What next, guys? [01:28:04] Speaker C: Well, we probably shouldn't go on a road trip with Isabel just not being here. [01:28:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:28:11] Speaker D: Oh, that does remind me. You guys do get a text message from Isabel on the way back. You got one as just a group text on the way back from Isabel. Basically letting you know that her meeting is taking longer than she thought it would, and it's probably going to be a day or two before she's home. So if you guys end up moving on to pursue the researcher, to just, you know, drop a pin, let her know where you are, and she'll meet you there. She'll get the boys to drive her if she has to. [01:28:50] Speaker C: All right, so road trip. [01:28:51] Speaker A: Road trip. [01:28:52] Speaker B: Road trip it is. [01:28:53] Speaker D: If you want to. This is me as a storyteller giving you permission to go on a road trip if you would like to. [01:28:59] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going on a road trip. Because if not, we're going to send our asses and twiddle. Twiddle our thumbs for a day. [01:29:05] Speaker C: Yeah. Piper. Piper's order of operations was, uh, whatever the fuck just happened with her life. It's fine. She's fine. Um, a very close second, uh, find this goddamn book. And this is the closest leap we have to finding the goddamn book, so. [01:29:26] Speaker D: Okay. [01:29:27] Speaker C: Cowabunga. [01:29:33] Speaker D: All right, well, this seems like an opportune moment to figure out whatever. What last minute preparations you guys are making before we take a break. So what are you guys doing? Is there anything you want to get? Anything you plan on? Uh, you know, shopping trips? Do you. Do you want to, uh, I don't know, grab something special? Does Piper want to work on one of her drones? [01:29:55] Speaker C: Yeah, uh, actually, Piper's gonna. Piper's gonna make sure that the big one is, uh, is functioning. Um, and. And look at Rosanna with, you know, puppy dog eyes. Can you buy me bullets? [01:30:11] Speaker A: You know what? Actually, yes. Cause I gotta go get a gun and some bullets anyway, so. [01:30:17] Speaker B: So while they're doing that, Arthur's just gonna take one last trip to the compound and just be like, hey, everybody, it was nice seeing you. [01:30:23] Speaker D: Hope. [01:30:24] Speaker A: Come back again later. [01:30:31] Speaker D: Call it later. Out. Bye. [01:30:33] Speaker A: Yeah, Rosanna's shopping trip is as follows. Groceries gone, and then to the dry cleaners to go pick up her shit. [01:30:45] Speaker D: Are you, she's calling quiet. I was saying, are you going to let your partner know where you're going? [01:30:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, no, she's, she's gonna, she's gonna, she's gonna call quiet while she's on her way to get the gun. [01:30:57] Speaker B: I mean, if that's at the compound, Arthur could also relay the message. I don't know if it would go. [01:31:01] Speaker D: Over very well, but he could probably not. Quiet. Answers the phone. Hey, babe. [01:31:09] Speaker A: Hey. Okay, so you know how things been a little bit weird and a little bit. [01:31:15] Speaker D: Why do you have that don't be mad at me voice? [01:31:19] Speaker A: I gotta go to the midwest. If you wanna come, you can. Um, but it's gonna be Piper, Arthur and I, and we're going to hunt down that thing that I kind of told you about last night, uh, after dessert. [01:31:38] Speaker D: Uh huh. Uh huh. Do you want me to come? [01:31:45] Speaker A: I would if you, if you want to come. I'm not gonna. [01:31:48] Speaker D: Don't pull that shit with me, woman. Do you want me to come? [01:31:50] Speaker A: I would love for you to come. [01:31:55] Speaker D: Okay. Let me call Patty. [01:32:00] Speaker A: I'm gonna get a gun. Do you need bullets? [01:32:05] Speaker D: Have you met me? [01:32:07] Speaker A: That doesn't answer my question. That doesn't answer my question. [01:32:12] Speaker D: Rosanna, I brought one bag. [01:32:18] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [01:32:19] Speaker D: And three cases. You never asked what was in the cases. Honey, you, you don't need a gun. We have guns. [01:32:34] Speaker A: I know, I know, I know. I gotta go pick up, I gotta go pick up bolts for popper anyway, so figure it out. [01:32:39] Speaker D: Just get ammo. That raises less flags than weapon itself. [01:32:45] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. Okay. One of these days, I'm gonna get my own pink gun glittering. [01:32:50] Speaker B: Uh, yeah, California wait times. You'll get it next year. [01:32:55] Speaker A: Yeah, that's why she's gonna wait till they get to the midwest. [01:32:59] Speaker C: Yeah, we can just, we can just stop on the way. [01:33:01] Speaker A: We could stop at Walmart. Um, yeah, all right, well, we're gonna be taken off relatively soon, so if. [01:33:12] Speaker D: You can just pulled up, as I. [01:33:16] Speaker B: Say, arthur's like 10ft away while they're having this conversation. [01:33:19] Speaker A: All right, well, um, okay, well, I will. I'll see you in a little bit. Um, don't kill Arthur on your way home. Okay. Love you. Bye. And she'll hang promises. [01:33:31] Speaker D: Click. Awesome. Arthur, you pull up to the gate not knowing that this conversation has just happened and quiet just gives you a little half wave as he is putting his phone to his ear again. [01:33:56] Speaker B: Seems about right. [01:33:57] Speaker D: But they let you through the gate? [01:34:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not really anything major. Martha just visits all the pertinent people and drops off a couple of messages from Katie Lynn to the people that she wanted message delivered to, picks up the recipes, whatever she was supposed to pick up from them. Clearly no one was expecting him to only come for a day and then bounce, but. Yeah, but he'll check. [01:34:31] Speaker D: They didn't expect you to show up in the first place, so. [01:34:33] Speaker B: Also true. Also true. So surprise and goodbye. He'll give like a semi lecture, sermon thing, you know, to just make sure that everyone knows that he's still doing his job. Yeah. [01:34:52] Speaker D: Yeah. Okay, so you make your appearance, say goodbye, pass on messages from Katie Lynn, snap a couple more pictures for Katie Lynn. One of the. One of the. One of your earliest wives who you'd married off before you left last time. You find out she just had a baby, literally the night before. So you're let in to do the baptism and everything before you go. It's. It's all very special. And you get a picture for Katie Lynn to coo at over the baby. And then as you are leaving, you climb up into the rv and quiet is in the rv, casually. Casually as ever, cleaning the largest gun you've ever seen. It's in pieces, but it's clearly one of the biggest guns you've ever laid eyes on. [01:35:58] Speaker B: Sounds about right. It's okay, Arthur. [01:36:02] Speaker A: Just remember, size doesn't matter. [01:36:06] Speaker C: Definitely not a threat. [01:36:09] Speaker B: Uh, well, I guess you're coming with us. It's good. We need to protect you. [01:36:14] Speaker D: Didn't ask me. [01:36:16] Speaker B: I'm glad she did. Cause I would have asked you otherwise. Did you hear about the kids or whatever? The fence cutting seem odd to you, or is it just kids? [01:36:29] Speaker D: I trust Patty and Toph. They seem to think it was probably just teenagers. [01:36:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess I'm just a little paranoid. [01:36:39] Speaker D: I wasn't here when they fixed it, though, so I can't really say one way or the other. When I walked the perimeter, I didn't see any signs of anything other than just, like, general foot traffic, so. [01:36:56] Speaker B: All right, I guess I'll let it go for now. But it's always gonna be the little itch in the back of my head. [01:37:05] Speaker D: Get that. [01:37:10] Speaker B: But, uh, yeah, I'm glad you're here. Well, at least have the best protection we can. [01:37:21] Speaker D: So, you know, she's not bad. She practiced a lot when you guys, uh, weren't around. [01:37:31] Speaker B: Yeah, she told me. It's good, right? It's good for her to pick up a hobby that's also something that can be used to protect her in the future. [01:37:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I wouldn't want to be on the other end of one of those arrows, that's for sure. I don't know how she does all. [01:37:56] Speaker B: Of that, but, yeah, I don't ask questions. [01:38:02] Speaker D: Me either. [01:38:07] Speaker B: Um, actually, we should probably talk about something, since it's just the two of us and that doesn't really happen. [01:38:20] Speaker D: Sure, if you want. I think it's a good idea. [01:38:28] Speaker B: So I guess this really just kind of relates to you and Rosanna, doesn't it? [01:38:40] Speaker D: What does? [01:38:43] Speaker B: This conversation, mostly. But I know that I pay you, but that's not really why you're here at all. And I know that you know that we don't even have to talk about it. But I want to make sure that she is good and that you or going to take care of her. [01:39:25] Speaker D: That's all I've done since I met her. [01:39:29] Speaker B: I know. And I, I guess I'm not sure if I'm in the way or not. [01:39:42] Speaker D: That's up to you and her. I don't have a say in that. And he says that as he is like snapping pieces of the gun back into place in a very like, pronounced but easy fashion. [01:40:14] Speaker B: I guess that's a good point. [01:40:19] Speaker D: So I guess you have to make a decision. [01:40:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess that's right. You're a wise guy. Quiet. I don't care what they say. Just kidding. They say you're a wise guy. At least Rosanna talks about that all the time. So she may not gush about you in front of you. She does. [01:40:54] Speaker D: He doesn't say anything. [01:41:01] Speaker B: You know, it's really interesting. I've had this conversation with dozens of guys in the past. The husband conversation. But some part of this feels different, doesn't it? [01:41:17] Speaker D: It is different. She's not your wife. Never was. [01:41:28] Speaker B: That's a good point. Some part of me still feels protective over her, though. [01:41:38] Speaker D: It's okay to be protective as long as you're not gonna turn around and break her heart. It's not enough to just make sure that she's physically okay. [01:41:58] Speaker B: That's a good point. Well, listen, I know that there's one thing that you and I both want. It's her safety. [01:42:15] Speaker D: Yep. [01:42:18] Speaker B: So, guess while she and I figure out whatever is happening here, and you and her figure out whatever's happening there, you and I can at least work together on that front, don't you think? [01:42:34] Speaker D: Oh, we already were, sir. [01:42:39] Speaker B: Yeah, but it always felt like you were kind of pushing back. [01:42:48] Speaker D: I think I have more faith in her than you do to be able to protect herself. [01:42:55] Speaker B: You know what? You might be right on that. And with that, Arthur will just start up the rv and start driving. [01:43:08] Speaker D: Hi, Burke. [01:43:09] Speaker C: Hi. [01:43:10] Speaker D: I'm given to understanding that before you leave, you are sending a text message. [01:43:16] Speaker C: Yeah? Yeah. [01:43:18] Speaker D: What does that text message say and who are you sending it to? [01:43:24] Speaker C: It's a text message to Melanie. Not expecting a response, but it just says, I'm sorry for everything. For not being around for so long, for hiding things from you, for breaking your heart. If you ever need anything, please just ask. I would give you the shirt off my back if you needed it. I will continue to keep every promise I've ever made to you. I hope you can find someone that makes you happy. Please be safe. Okay. [01:44:00] Speaker D: You send it, and as you are kind of staring at it and wondering if you made the right decision and typing it out, you see the little red notification pop up, but you receive no answer. Rosanna? [01:44:15] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [01:44:16] Speaker D: You buy ammo for Piper and then return to the house. Do you have anything you want to do before you leave? [01:44:23] Speaker A: Um, there is one thing that I wish to do before we, uh, before we take off. Um, and it's going to smoke up the car real fast because she's going to go inside and begin lighting sage and incense to kind of cleanse the car. And she's going to do rv. Yep. Cleanse the rv. And she's going to use that as kind of like a means to enact with a, with a member of the pantheon that she now follows. [01:45:07] Speaker D: Okay, who are you praying to and what's the prayer? [01:45:11] Speaker A: She is going to be saying a prayer to the great mother of the irish pantheon. I believe it's pronounced Danu. And if it's not, is it? Did I get it? [01:45:26] Speaker D: You did. Hell, yeah. [01:45:28] Speaker A: That's the first time I've actually pronounced a God's name correctly on the first try. Um, but yeah, so she is going to, um, kind of begin to gently light, um, all of these. And they're very musky smells. Um, they smell like the woods. They smell of like patchouli. They smell of kind of like you found yourself lost in the woodlands. And the entire time that she's going around and lighting all of these different incense and everything. Oh, great mother, listen to the woes of your daughter. I need your guidance and your wisdom. Shine your blessed light down on me and guide my path. Walk with me as I learn your mysteries. Help me if I stumble and I will be strong. Bless the ones that I love, my family, my friends, and all of my sisters as I honor you. Bless them with your love and your sweet life. Mother, help me let go of the fear and the pain of my past and to move forward with your truth. Guide and bless my spirit in which I dedicate to you with all my heart. Thank you, Mother Danu. Blessed be. And she stands in the middle of the kind of ring of smell, and she closes her eyes, and she'll just stand there for a moment in a bit of a silent meditation, taking it all in as the different smells and everything kind of circle around her. And for the first time in a very long time, there's not an ounce of anxiety on her face. She's not nervous. She is very content. Happy. [01:47:54] Speaker D: All right, I would like you to make me a resolve and occult role. And you can add your specialty. This is not something you can willpower, just FYI. [01:48:13] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's fair. [01:48:32] Speaker D: Oh, okay. Well, you say your prayer, things seem to go well, but you don't get any, anything particularly special for it. It's mostly just, it helps you feel better. I was trying to see if Rosanna could funnel that awesome, awesome prayer into a bonus to something, but with only one success. I'm afraid not. [01:48:58] Speaker A: And I can willpower it. [01:48:59] Speaker D: Nope. [01:49:02] Speaker A: Okay. [01:49:03] Speaker D: It would kind of negate the whole point of giving you a bonus anyway. You'd be spending something worth more than any bonus I was gonna give you. Which is why I said no willpower. [01:49:12] Speaker A: Okay. [01:49:14] Speaker D: Okay. Arthur, anything else you want to do? You and quiet came back to the house, quiet unloaded so that he could go in and help out with whatever was needed. And you unloaded from the rv to give Rosanna a chance to have her moment. So is there anything else you need to handle? [01:49:35] Speaker B: No, no, I would have just been smoking outside. If she just staring at the fog inside the rv, that would be created by its age. [01:49:45] Speaker D: Yeah, that's about how it goes. In fact, when she opens door to come down out of the rv, it just billows out, looking like something from a, from, like a rockstar video where they open up the door to the tour bus and it's just pot smoke. [01:49:59] Speaker B: Or just a cheech and Chong film. [01:50:01] Speaker D: Yep. [01:50:04] Speaker A: Hey, Arthur, how you doing? [01:50:08] Speaker B: Probably not as good as you, but, yeah. Okay. [01:50:11] Speaker C: No, I was just like, it's fine. [01:50:13] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:50:15] Speaker A: It is. [01:50:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Uh huh. [01:50:18] Speaker C: You know, white Sage can have very similar effects on someone. Right? [01:50:23] Speaker A: Ah, it's fun. It's fun. Come on in. Come on in, y'all. [01:50:27] Speaker D: Um, Piper, did you, were there, are there any roles or anything you have to make to work on your drones before you go? [01:50:35] Speaker C: Um, I mean, the only role. There is a role involved to see how long the battery lasts. But I don't think it was damaged or anything. [01:50:46] Speaker D: So, I mean, you've had nine months, so even if it was damaged, you would have replaced it by now. [01:50:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:50:52] Speaker D: Let's see. [01:50:58] Speaker C: I can do an intelligence plus science test to see how long the battery lasts. [01:51:03] Speaker D: We'll deal with that later. It's plugged in and charging for now. All right, so Rosanna and Arthur climb up onto the rV, quiet, loads up a couple of things that Rosanna kind of set out that need to get loaded up. He takes around into the, what do you call it? The garage space. That's sort of like half surgery, half where their bikes go. And he makes sure that the bikes are properly strapped down so that they're not likely to fall over onto anything or be damaged. And then he climbs on and you all pull out of the drive and head east and north. Okay, who's driving? Rosanna is driving. All right, Rosanna, you have the first session at the wheel. You want to give me a decks and drive check? [01:52:12] Speaker A: Can I opt for composure and set? [01:52:16] Speaker D: No, because you are not in a particularly busy area where it is high stress. All right, this is just a. How well do you handle vrv? [01:52:27] Speaker A: Uh huh. Uh huh. Okay. All right, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Three. [01:52:38] Speaker D: That's great. It's a little awkward cause it's even bigger than the last rv, but you're doing way better than you did in season one, so you've dramatically improved in the last while. [01:52:54] Speaker A: Three is better than zero. So, you know. [01:53:00] Speaker D: I'm just saying. All right. It takes a hot minute. Where are you guys headed precisely to start this search. [01:53:17] Speaker C: I can't remember if we had, like, a last, like a most recent case that seemed to be tied to this person, but if not, then we probably just start at the university. [01:53:30] Speaker D: Okay. Do you at least remember what university she was part of the staff of, or are you depending on me to give you those details? [01:53:37] Speaker C: I did write it down. I think I wrote it down. Let me check. [01:53:43] Speaker B: Hmm. [01:53:47] Speaker C: Too many goddamn channels. [01:53:51] Speaker B: This was. Was this Beth Ann Miller? [01:53:55] Speaker D: Uh huh. [01:53:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:53:58] Speaker B: That's the only note I have. [01:54:00] Speaker C: Oh, shit. Cause I wanna say it was University of Iowa. [01:54:06] Speaker D: Yeah. It's almost like taking notes in an investigation game is important, guys. [01:54:16] Speaker B: Well, someone was. We just didn't share them with each other. [01:54:23] Speaker D: All right, so you're headed to University of Iowa? [01:54:25] Speaker C: Yes. [01:54:27] Speaker D: Okay. [01:54:30] Speaker B: See, that's not too far from Louisiana. Arthur could make it back in time for date night. [01:54:36] Speaker D: You are not going to make it back in time. [01:54:38] Speaker C: You're not. [01:54:39] Speaker D: The more this goes on, Arthur, the more sure you are. You should probably text your wife. [01:54:47] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:54:49] Speaker D: You're not gonna, but you probably should. [01:54:51] Speaker B: Oh. At a certain point, it would become obvious, and he would. He would need to text her and say, hey, how does the zoom dinner sound? [01:55:02] Speaker C: You mean on Friday evening? [01:55:06] Speaker B: No, no, no, no. Sometime on Thursday. [01:55:10] Speaker D: Friday morning. [01:55:12] Speaker C: Friday morning? Friday at noon. [01:55:19] Speaker D: Okay, cool. This is a decently long drive. Does anybody who isn't rosanna want to do anything during the drive? Is there anything piper is looking to accomplish? Are there tweaks you want to make to your drones? I don't know, doing research into something? What's going on? [01:55:47] Speaker C: She's probably just gonna go back over the files that we have. [01:55:52] Speaker D: Okay. [01:55:56] Speaker C: See if we have. See if we are, in fact, going in the right direction. Make sure that we're following the right lead and not gonna end up going in the opposite fucking direction. [01:56:09] Speaker D: Okay. Okay. Make me an antid investigation check, please. [01:56:18] Speaker C: That for me? Four. [01:56:35] Speaker D: All right, now this is me going through my notes. All right. I don't remember if I said which one of these was most recent because I just have a bunch of them listed and not dates. So we're going to say that the most recent one is do, do, do. We're going to say that the most recent one took place in Omaha, Nebraska. You guys have to drive across, like, half the fucking country, so it's gonna take a while to get there. Um, but eventually, after several days on the road, um, Piper, at any point during the trip, do you, like, check in with Delphi again to see if there are new kills? [01:57:50] Speaker C: Uh, yeah. Yeah. [01:57:52] Speaker D: Okay. Can you roll me two more dice? [01:58:01] Speaker C: Sure. [01:58:03] Speaker D: I'm just gonna let you add desperation to it because you're tapping into dark web stuff. [01:58:08] Speaker C: Oh, well, in that case. Fuck. [01:58:13] Speaker D: Oh, dear. [01:58:15] Speaker C: Cause that's a one. [01:58:17] Speaker D: Uh huh. All right. [01:58:21] Speaker C: It makes sense, given her situation. She's going into despair. [01:58:25] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:58:31] Speaker C: Which does mean I think she fails. [01:58:34] Speaker D: Unfortunately. [01:58:36] Speaker C: So ignore everything that I learned. [01:58:40] Speaker D: All right, you guys, look, there is a long list of places that she has had kills in. Unfortunately, it is really difficult to link up to Delphi and have a stable connection when you are on the move, especially driving through some of these states where you are in the middle of nowhere relatively frequently, it is hard to get a good, solid connection. And eventually what ends up happening, Piper, is that while you are trying to do searches, you start to get errors thrown back at your queries. And you realize after a few moments that you get forcibly disconnected, like Delphi has decided that this is just not working and that you are causing more problems than anything else by attempting to force it to happen on such an unstable connection. So you have a list of kills that have happened. Piper is unsure if she is going to be able to connect to Delphi again or if she has been permanently disconnected. She won't be able to tell until you guys get somewhere stable enough for her to have at least a few hours and you continue the drive. Arthur, will you please make me a Dex and drive roll? [02:00:33] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Yeah, I gave you that. [02:00:35] Speaker D: Well, I'm assuming that at some point, Rosanna's gonna need a fucking break. [02:00:39] Speaker B: Yeah, they'll definitely trade off. And being that it's the kind of vehicle where you can just trade off and sleep and stuff at the same time, easy enough. Texan drive. [02:00:54] Speaker A: He is gonna take me the passenger seat. [02:01:01] Speaker B: Mm hmm, mm hmm. [02:01:03] Speaker D: What'd you get? [02:01:04] Speaker B: One. [02:01:09] Speaker D: Um. [02:01:11] Speaker A: Got it. Nope. [02:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it's three dice. [02:01:15] Speaker D: I mean, it's not a complete. It's not a complete botch. It's not great. [02:01:23] Speaker B: Arthur can get the rv down the road. [02:01:28] Speaker D: Where? Zannah, you make a note that as long as you guys are on these kind of country highways, Arthur should be fine. But if it looks like you guys are going to be jumping back onto an interstate, you or quiet are going to have to take over. [02:01:41] Speaker A: Yeah. While they're barely clinging on in the rv, um, Roseanna's gonna work on her. On. On her book. Um, probably for the best. [02:01:55] Speaker D: I'm assuming you answered your editor and your publisher, and we're like, I'm so sorry. I'm behind. I'm working on it now. [02:02:01] Speaker A: Yep, yep, yep, yep. Um, gonna make it a. Make it a. Make it a point that, um, there are going to be specific times where she's going to look towards Arthur, nod, and then look back down at her laptop and keep typing. [02:02:15] Speaker D: Okay. [02:02:21] Speaker B: I mean, if. If date night comes by, he's gonna attempt the zoom thing, but I don't even know if Caitlyn has a connection to be able to pull that kind of thing off. [02:02:32] Speaker D: Um, roll me a d ten. [02:02:35] Speaker B: Oh, a d ten. Yes. [02:02:38] Speaker D: She does. Low. She does not. [02:02:41] Speaker B: Which one do I roll for? Just the dice. The rolls? [02:02:44] Speaker D: Yeah, just, just do h roll. And then one. [02:02:50] Speaker B: Ok. Oh, crap. [02:02:56] Speaker D: One. Nope. She is not set up for it. [02:03:03] Speaker B: Didn't think so. Not in a rustic compound. [02:03:07] Speaker D: No. You guys end up having date night just over the phone. Rosanna and Piper teach you guys, kind of on the fly, how to download a video call app onto Katie Lynn's phone. And then you are basically given a, a basic ass smartphone from the collection of cheap ass burners that Rosanna keeps. You were given a burner. What are those cheap ass smartphones that you can get at Walmart for dollar 50. You're given one of those. It's not the best date night ever. Kay Nealon is clearly not pleased, but it is clear that she has decided, at least for now, to not be as mad as she could be. Because at least you had a backup plan. [02:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:16] Speaker D: But there's probably going to need to be a conversation later about how this is going to continue to work if you are going to continue to go out on the road the way that you have been. [02:04:29] Speaker B: Doghouse. Got it. [02:04:32] Speaker D: Probably. But at least you'll be. You won't be in the doghouse until you get back. So it's fine. [02:04:40] Speaker B: Just fine. That's a tomorrow Arthur problem. [02:04:44] Speaker D: That is a tomorrow Arthur problem. That is the correct attitude to have for now. Until it is a tomorrow Arthur. Until you are tomorrow Arthur. And then it's gonna be bad. [02:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:04:58] Speaker D: Quiet. Occasionally swaps off to drive when you guys get onto the interstate so that it's not all Rosanna. It's not all on Rosanna to deal with. Which gives Rosanna time to work on her book a little bit more. He lives up to his name. He doesn't talk much unless somebody talks to him or needs something. [02:05:21] Speaker A: Again, Rosanna's just hanging out in the passenger seat. This time when, when quiet's driving, she's a bit more putting her hand on, like, on his thigh and just like, making sure that he's got physical contact, keeping him kind of like awake and aware. All right. [02:05:46] Speaker D: Very cool. Where are you guys headed? To the, to the University of Iowa. [02:05:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought so. [02:05:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I think so. [02:05:59] Speaker D: Okay, how, how do you guys plan to go about searching for Miss Miller? [02:06:12] Speaker A: We could try the school directory first. [02:06:16] Speaker B: That doesn't work. We can. Chaplain service around the campus. This, this does get me places sometimes. [02:06:25] Speaker A: Uh, I've gotta wait for us to get places, too. [02:06:28] Speaker C: It's okay. [02:06:31] Speaker D: Money slaves. I mean, what. [02:06:35] Speaker B: Ah, frat parties and whatnot. Got it. [02:06:39] Speaker C: I mean, the, the directory is most likely just gonna say that she's on sabbatical. [02:06:47] Speaker D: Piper. [02:06:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:06:50] Speaker D: You may be in despair, but you could. You could pretty easily just try and search for her home address. The white pages may not get published physically anymore, but it still exists. [02:07:01] Speaker C: I guess that's fair. [02:07:07] Speaker D: Like, that's not even an illegal method. It's just a look it up thing. [02:07:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Would you like an intelligence and technology from that? [02:07:16] Speaker D: Yeah. [02:07:19] Speaker C: All right. For success. [02:07:22] Speaker D: Yeah, it's more than enough. You find her home address? She lives in an apartment complex about 10 miles from the university. [02:07:38] Speaker C: All right, so I have an address. [02:07:41] Speaker B: Oh, well, it's better than walking around campus and praying over people. For sure. [02:07:46] Speaker C: Yeah, we can go check that out. I doubt she's gonna be there. These files are all over the place, so I imagine she's been grappling. But we should go check it out at least. [02:08:07] Speaker D: Is that what you guys are gonna do? All right, you parked. But you basically parked in one of the parking lots at the university for about an hour while piper looked some stuff up and ran some searches on phone numbers and addresses and things, just to make sure that the address that she has is current before you pull back out again and head onward slightly across town into a small apartment complex. This is one of those buildings that is. It's got maybe 20 apartments in all. It's not very big. And the entrances are all inward, so you have to go, like, inside through a front door and then down a hallway or upstairs in order to get to the doors. It is the midwest. It's fucking cold here. They don't do external entrances to places like this. You know that. Her apartment is 30 c, so she is on the third floor, the third door down the hallway. [02:09:33] Speaker B: Well, I'll follow you since you can creatively open doors. But we can knock first. [02:09:39] Speaker C: Oh, I can. That's what I have the robot for. Well, I guess I could, but I'm better with the robot. [02:09:52] Speaker B: Well, we could just knock, see what happens. Say we're with the church of the rising star, just want to talk about whatever. If no, someone answers. But if not, then we can figure out what's going on. The book may or may not be here, right? That's what we're thinking. [02:10:15] Speaker C: I doubt it's gonna be here, but she said it had already disappeared before. [02:10:23] Speaker B: But, yeah, who knows? [02:10:27] Speaker C: So it's worth checking out. [02:10:29] Speaker B: Second book, right? [02:10:31] Speaker C: That's where might be, but that's. That's what we're looking for. But I don't fucking know. If nothing else, we might be able to figure out where she is. Or at least which direction? Like where she went after everything. [02:10:53] Speaker B: Okay. [02:10:54] Speaker A: All right. [02:10:55] Speaker D: Are you guys all going inside or. [02:10:59] Speaker A: I'm gonna stay out here just in case. [02:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah, in case someone jumps out a window, and in case somebody tries to. [02:11:06] Speaker A: Come in and get up the stairs. [02:11:08] Speaker C: And go to the apartment, also, that, that works. I was gonna have Piper stay out. Cause Rosanna's good at talking to people. [02:11:19] Speaker A: No fair. [02:11:22] Speaker C: Piper can at least be there. Experient and robot. [02:11:26] Speaker D: Hey, other than Arthur, who's going inside? [02:11:30] Speaker A: I'll go inside. [02:11:31] Speaker D: Okay. Are you sending quiet, or do you want quiet to stay outside? [02:11:35] Speaker A: Um, uh, hmm. I'm gonna have him stay up. So that way, in case Piper needs it. She's got backup. [02:11:48] Speaker D: Okay, um, Rosanna and Arthur, step out of the RV. Piper, are you sending in one of your drones? [02:11:58] Speaker C: Yeah, she'll send in a little one, a little flying one. [02:12:01] Speaker D: The one that can pick locks? [02:12:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:12:04] Speaker D: Okay, quiet. Follows Rosanna and Piper out, but he does not follow them up to the building. Um, Piper, all you see is that he steps out after them and then turns in the opposite direction and goes around the back of the RV, and you don't see him afterwards. Understand? [02:12:29] Speaker B: So. [02:12:34] Speaker A: So what? [02:12:36] Speaker B: Well, just what do you think the odds are that she's here? [02:12:40] Speaker A: Mmm, slim. [02:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I absolutely wouldn't put money on this. [02:12:46] Speaker A: Me. How I see it is crazy. Doesn't stay in one location. [02:13:00] Speaker C: Out of curiosity. Beepey. [02:13:02] Speaker B: Sorry. [02:13:02] Speaker C: To derail this, would an engineering specialization apply to the role to determine how long the battery on the drone's last? [02:13:12] Speaker D: For science, I'd allow that. All right. [02:13:17] Speaker C: Sorry, you guys keep talking. [02:13:21] Speaker B: I mean, it's fair, but I guess we're hoping to find that second book and stop this curse. [02:13:29] Speaker A: There's only one way that we can. That we can do that. [02:13:39] Speaker B: I just hope if someone is home, it goes better than the flower grandma. [02:13:46] Speaker A: Oh, I miss her. I haven't reached out to her in a while. I should give her a call. [02:13:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think this time all played the same card. That did not work out the last time. [02:14:02] Speaker A: Oh, the, the card of the, of the, of the boyfriend who cheated. Who's cheating on his girlfriend. [02:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it didn't work out last time, so. [02:14:11] Speaker A: No. [02:14:11] Speaker B: No, it didn't, Brantley. Not a good cover story. [02:14:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:14:20] Speaker A: All right, well, let's see what we can find. Okay. All right. [02:14:30] Speaker D: You knock on the door. Wait, knock again. Wait. Nobody answers. [02:14:40] Speaker B: Oh, here I was about to start talking with the Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. [02:14:44] Speaker A: Yeah, with me. Come on, holy man. Let's once I try to at least get this door open, I think that Piper might have sent something to help us pick a lot. [02:15:00] Speaker D: Oh, Piper's drone has been hovering behind you guys the whole way. [02:15:04] Speaker B: Arthur will step back and just be like. [02:15:08] Speaker C: All right, Piper, you've seen this before. [02:15:10] Speaker B: So curious. [02:15:13] Speaker D: Okay, Piper, is there a roll, or do you just do the thing? [02:15:17] Speaker C: Uh, it. So it's basically what it is, is I get to use my wits plus technology in place of the normal, you know, larceny roll that would be involved. [02:15:28] Speaker D: All right, make a wits plus technology roll I would normally allow you to use underground, but, uh, well, you know, it's fine. [02:15:38] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. It's fine. [02:15:41] Speaker C: Um, yeah, it's not much better. Four. [02:15:50] Speaker D: Well, good luck. Thankfully for you, this is a very basic ass front door. Um, it takes a few extra minutes because she does have a deadbolt that seems to be thrown. [02:16:02] Speaker C: Fucking deadbolts. [02:16:04] Speaker D: But that, too, can be picked. It's just a little bit harder. And Rosanna and Arthur hear the little. The little. The whirring of the little engines and mechanisms inside of the drone as it has to turn its tools particularly hard to throw the deadbolt back. But eventually, they hear the chick of the deadbolt sliding home. And then the drone very delicately withdraws all the little spindly tools that it uses to pick the lock hovers up and over their heads again. [02:16:45] Speaker B: You know, a couple years ago, if you told me I was going to be walking around in a cyberpunk universe, I wouldn't have believed you. [02:16:53] Speaker A: I'm surprised you know what cyberpunk is. [02:16:56] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, when I was in college, that was a genre that was quite popular. [02:17:03] Speaker A: Uh huh. [02:17:07] Speaker B: Still relatively new. But in. [02:17:09] Speaker D: Before we all find out that Arthur was a nerd who played tabletop games. [02:17:14] Speaker A: I ever hear of dungeons and dragons? [02:17:16] Speaker C: Arthur and Rosanna get a text in the group chat. Just says, when Arthur was in college, like, 40 years ago. [02:17:27] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [02:17:28] Speaker C: Yep. [02:17:30] Speaker A: That's. That's that. Yeah. So back when they just first invented the wheel. And coming up on the door now. [02:17:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was around when. Covered and. [02:17:48] Speaker A: Dirt when. When Eve took a bite out of the apple. Right. [02:17:52] Speaker D: The little drone is hovering. And is it like. As it are, as it hovers and moves to go through the door with them? The buzzing isn't just the right tone that makes you thinks that it might have just said, okay, boomer. [02:18:11] Speaker A: Oh. [02:18:14] Speaker B: No. I was. You know, I was buried in my books, mostly latin studies and biblical learning. But you have to take some time to watch a movie or two. Or read a book. [02:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I get that. What isn't? [02:18:26] Speaker B: The Bible. [02:18:27] Speaker A: What were you lacking? [02:18:28] Speaker C: College? [02:18:29] Speaker D: Um, before that. Before that question gets answered, um, I would like Arthur and Rosanna to make me wits and awareness. And I would like Piper to do. Let's do wits plus technology. Because you are looking through your drone. Yeah. [02:18:59] Speaker C: And awareness is one of its skills. [02:19:01] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [02:19:07] Speaker C: What the fuck? [02:19:10] Speaker A: On, God. [02:19:13] Speaker C: At least I'm consistent. [02:19:18] Speaker A: I'm gonna spend a willpower to roll some of this. [02:19:20] Speaker B: I know. Just debating it myself. I have three successes. [02:19:24] Speaker A: Four successes. [02:19:26] Speaker B: Very good. [02:19:27] Speaker D: Are you rolling willpower, Scott? [02:19:30] Speaker B: You know what? I might as well. Cause I haven't at all. Rule four for me as well. [02:19:38] Speaker D: Piper. It's a little hard to see. It's really dark. And you would think that the little light that's on top of the drone would help, but kind of all it does is wash out the surroundings because of just how dark it is inside. Plus, Arthur isn't paying a whole lot of attention because he is busy looking past the drone into the room, and he bumps the drone. And so all you see is everything kind of go by in a rush for a minute. As the drone struggles to maintain itself. [02:20:06] Speaker B: It's hard to see around Arthur's misunderstanding of technology. [02:20:12] Speaker A: Well, Arthur, if you took off the glasses while we're in the dark, I hope. [02:20:23] Speaker D: What Rosanna and Arthur notice as they walk in is, number one, the room is very dark. Number two, the room is cluttered as fuck. There is shit everywhere. Until the lights are on. You're not entirely sure exactly what all you're looking at, but you can see stacks and piles of things all over the place. And it doesn't smell bad, but it smells musty, like nobody's aired this place out in a bit. [02:21:05] Speaker B: Presumably, there's a light switch on the wall near the door, as there often are in apartments, there is in general. So Arthur's gonna just kind of awkwardly search around the wall fashion like this. [02:21:22] Speaker D: The first thing you realize when you put your hand on the wall to look for a switch is that there's paper all over the walls. And every time you move your hand, you are ruffling papers that feel like they've been, like, taped or tacked up some somehow. But eventually you manage to kind of rifle under and through them until you find a switch and you hit it. And when you look around, you, um, the first thing you realize is that this woman doesn't just research books at. At work. There are damn near floor to ceiling bookcases. In fact, these probably with all the books that are on them, way more than she should really have in her apartment for being on an upper floor. Um, uh, and the window that faces the outside of the building is there. You can see curtains, but there are also stacks of books on the window seat that are mostly covering the window itself. Like, it would be hard to get to the window because there are so many books stacked up. What floor, what walls are bare of a bookcase, are covered in papers. There's new newspaper clippings, there's scribbled notes. There's a big ass map of the US that's been pinned up with newspaper clippings and notes pinned on top of it. You realize rapidly as you look around that the floor is covered in discarded papers, whether they have fallen off of walls and tables and whatever, or if she just dropped them, there is. You're not sure. This is the home of someone whose mind is scattered and busy and has had a lot going on. It's just a mess. There is a doorway that leads into what looks like a small hallway off to the left and to the right in the back wall. Um, one of the back walls is, is a doorway that looks like it might lead into, like, a kitchen or something like that. [02:24:18] Speaker B: What was that about? Crazy. [02:24:23] Speaker A: Crazy never stays with the same place for very long. [02:24:29] Speaker B: Hmm. So this must be what it looks like when it stays too, too long in one location. I mean, aside from trying to look at the different newspaper clippings and find out if there's any correlation behind them, I think Arthur's probably gonna wander toward the different rooms just to make sure that they're safe and there's not something or someone in any of them. [02:25:06] Speaker D: Okay, well, you're, you gotta pick one, or you go into one of the other rooms. [02:25:10] Speaker B: I'm gonna wander through the rooms just to make sure it's safe before really staring at any of the things on the walls. [02:25:16] Speaker D: All right, Rosanna, what are you doing? [02:25:21] Speaker A: I would like to ground myself in the room that is the most chaotic, which I assume is the room that we're in. [02:25:33] Speaker D: Well, you haven't seen any of the other rooms, so you don't know. [02:25:36] Speaker A: Well, I'm gonna ground myself in this room because this room is mess. I'm gonna place my hand on, like, some of the, some of the walls that are lined with the paper and stuff and everything. Clutch my necklace. And I want to focus. I want to see if I can have a, they're not called premonitions. [02:26:02] Speaker D: A vision. [02:26:03] Speaker A: I want to have a vision. I want to see if I can have like a vision, something that might guide our help. Help? Kind of like guide where she might have ran off to. Because this place seems like she hasn't been here in a while. So I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna take a few minutes to see if I can pick up something on her because there's a lot of her stuff around, so. [02:26:31] Speaker D: Okay. [02:26:40] Speaker A: You have any real wits in awareness? [02:26:43] Speaker D: No. At the cost of one superficial willpower damage, you may attempt to force a vision or omen. So spend a willpower. [02:26:51] Speaker A: Yes, ma'am. [02:26:56] Speaker D: Arthur? [02:26:59] Speaker B: Yes. [02:27:00] Speaker D: Are you attempting to be sneaky or are you just looking around? [02:27:05] Speaker B: I think Arthur's basic modus operandi in this case is just to walk around. [02:27:14] Speaker D: All right, make me into an investigation. Okay, Rosanna, Rosanna, roll me. Roll me wits. And actually, let's make this resolve and insight. [02:27:52] Speaker A: Okay? [02:27:55] Speaker B: Hmm. [02:28:00] Speaker D: Arthur, what'd you get? [02:28:02] Speaker B: I got. Wow. I think I'm gonna reroll some failures. [02:28:07] Speaker A: Hey. [02:28:07] Speaker B: Alright, I got four. [02:28:09] Speaker D: All right. [02:28:16] Speaker A: I'm going to also reroll some failures, okay? Because this is actually very important. Five. [02:28:25] Speaker D: All right, Arthur, first things first. This is not a particularly large apartment. There is nobody else here. [02:28:36] Speaker B: Good. [02:28:37] Speaker D: That does not, however, mean that the apartment is entirely safe. When you pass through the kitchen, you get the distinct metallic tang of blood on the air. You don't see any, but you can smell it. In the bedroom. There are more books and stacks and stacks and stacks of what look like old and recent newspapers. This looks like somebody took the process that usually takes a hoarder years to accomplish and did it in months, if not weeks. There are like, you step into the bedroom and one of the stacks immediately falls over just because you stepped funny and you knock something against it and a heavy ass stack of newspapers topples over. So while not currently host to any other person, it is a mess. And it is not necessarily what you would consider safe. You would certainly not bring children into a place like this because they'd end up buried under something. And one of the things that you find when you walk into the bedroom is that not only is the bed unmade and you almost miss it as you are walking around just to double check, like the en suite bathroom, there is at least one weapon under, like the blanket of the bed. Like you barely, barely catch sight of what looks like the handle of a knife sticking out from under the blanket. [02:30:36] Speaker B: Hmm. Well, Arthur doesn't have any gloves on him, but you can certainly attempt to use the sheet or something to pull the knife out. Just to look at it, see if it's covered in blood, the same bloody smelling or whatnot. [02:30:56] Speaker D: It does look like it was covered in blood at some point. It is since dried. [02:31:01] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [02:31:03] Speaker D: But it hasn't been cleaned properly. [02:31:09] Speaker B: Fun. Okay. [02:31:17] Speaker D: Rosanna, you take a moment to center yourself in this room, and then you reach out with your hands and you start running them over the papers on the walls and the stacks of books around you, just desperately trying to get something. Something to point you in the right direction. And as you slide your hands over the map, you touch a number of the pins, the pushpins that have been used to pin some of these newspaper clippings to it. And you begin to get flashes of imagery in your head. They are rapid fire and dark and frenetic. It is hard to focus and really make anything out for very long. It's like one of those anxiety inducing moments in a horror film where the light keeps flashing off and on. And every time the light is on, you're in a different place and seeing something different, and it's all just a snippet. Like somebody blinks and you get just the moment that their eyes are open. And then it's gone, and then it's something else. You hear a growling noise. You hear hissing. You hear a scream. You hear the wet sound of a blade sinking into flesh. You hear the. The loud bang of an. Of a gun. Make me just a straight resolve roll. [02:33:22] Speaker A: Three. [02:33:25] Speaker D: Okay. You make out three images clearly. The rest of them happen so quickly and are so dark that you can't figure out what they are exactly. One of the images has the gleam of fangs that are very distinctly vampire fangs. I won't make you roll for that. You know exactly what they are. A moment before you see a feminine hand that is already covered in blood, plunge a stake into the throat below the mouth that the fangs are in. It is not a clean thrust. It is not from somebody who has been trained. It is desperate. And then you hear the gurgle and a rasp of air, and the body of the vampire begins to slump in front of her. And then you get another series of intense flashes that make it hard for you to focus, let alone breathe, before you get another flash that you can actually make out. You are looking at a man. You are not sure if he is human or some sort of supernatural, but you hear, what the fuck? What are you doing? And then bang. And then the body drops. You get. And then you get another flash. And it is one of those large signs that they put up outside of venues and outside of. So you've seen them outside of, like, shopping centers, but you also see them sometimes outside of, like, housing developments where there are spotlights angled up onto the sign and a shadow passes over the sign like somebody is walking between the lights and the sign itself. [02:35:38] Speaker A: What does the sign say? [02:35:41] Speaker D: The sign says, um, sorry, I had the line highlighted in my notes and then I clicked off of it. Now I gotta find it again. I'm sorry. Hold on one sec. Stony oaks shopping center. And then you hear a growl, a deep, resonant growl. And. Rosanna, this sound specifically chills you to your core because you have heard something very like it before. And then you snap out of the vision and you are dizzy and your knees are a little wobbly. [02:36:35] Speaker A: Arthur. [02:36:40] Speaker B: Arthur's gonna grab one of the newspapers and use it to kind of wrap the knife. It occurred to him while he was staring at it that maybe they could do something with it. You know, investigate the blood or whatever. Just a thought. Just Arthur being Arthur. But as he hears Rosanna call out, he will move quickly back to the living room. [02:37:07] Speaker A: And she's like. She's, like, practically, like, knees wobbly. Like, she looks like she's, like, about to, like, kneel down, grabbing onto whatever to kind of, like, hold herself up. [02:37:21] Speaker B: What happened? [02:37:25] Speaker A: I had a vision. I had a vision. And. And she's werewolf, vampire, man, human, maybe mortal, maybe not. Stoney. And you said that it was the Stony Brook mall shopping center. [02:37:47] Speaker B: Stoney. Stoney Oaks. [02:37:49] Speaker D: Stoney Oaks. [02:37:50] Speaker A: Stony Oaks shopping center. Where is the Stony Tony Oaks shopping center? [02:37:57] Speaker C: Piper immediately, like, hearing this through a. [02:38:00] Speaker D: Drone, immediately starts into an investigation. Please. [02:38:05] Speaker B: Meanwhile, Arthur's gonna scoop up underneath Rosanna and try to help support her. [02:38:13] Speaker D: What the fuck? What? You good? Okay. [02:38:20] Speaker C: I failed completely. [02:38:22] Speaker D: Oh, wow. Would you like to willpower that? [02:38:25] Speaker C: I did. [02:38:26] Speaker D: Oh, shit. That's a lot of tubes. Mm hmm. Termite. Unfortunately, Stony Oaks is such a common name that you can't find. You have no. It could be one of, like, 30 places across the country. [02:38:51] Speaker B: 800 references come up. [02:38:53] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:38:55] Speaker A: Could I attempt? Because I was able to get a. [02:39:00] Speaker D: Look at the sign and you are not anywhere. You could do the search right now. Not even have to go back out to the rv. [02:39:10] Speaker A: Okay, but, yeah, no, she's just gonna cling on to. To Arthur for a moment. This bitch is crazy. Holy fuck, she's crazy. Okay, um. Vampire. [02:39:27] Speaker B: She kept a bloody knife in her bed. [02:39:31] Speaker A: You saw the. [02:39:35] Speaker B: I mean, I have it here. And Arthur will show it to her in that. Wrapped in the newspaper. [02:39:41] Speaker A: I wonder if she has stake on her still. I wonder if she has the gun. [02:39:53] Speaker B: Probably. I didn't find a gun or stake. Of course, I didn't dig into the bed too deeply. [02:40:02] Speaker D: You also weren't looking super deep on your search. I gave you what you would see at a glance without looking too hard. But if you wanted to look harder, you could absolutely keep searching. [02:40:13] Speaker B: Mmm, not at this moment. I mean, I think we can assume that she has weapons. [02:40:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:40:20] Speaker B: And is on the hunt. [02:40:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. She's dangerous. Very, very dangerous. Come on. [02:40:38] Speaker D: Piper. What are you doing with your drone? While Rosanna's freaking out and Arthur did, like, a cursory glance. What's the drone doing? [02:40:46] Speaker C: Once Rosanna seems to. Like. Once Arthur comes out, once Piper hears Stoney oak, starts doing her quick search, but doesn't find anything, she's gonna start looking around with the drone. [02:41:01] Speaker D: Okay. [02:41:02] Speaker C: Since it's a lot easier for it to move around because it can fly, it just unfortunately can't move things. But it doesn't risk, you know, getting buried, at least nearly as much. [02:41:14] Speaker D: How in depth are you looking to be with this search? [02:41:21] Speaker C: I mean, as in depth as possible. [02:41:25] Speaker D: Okay, let's do wits plus technology. [02:41:29] Speaker C: All right. [02:41:33] Speaker D: And. All right. Not bad. [02:41:37] Speaker C: I can roll successes. What do you know? [02:41:39] Speaker D: You are capable. Sometimes. [02:41:41] Speaker C: Sometimes. [02:41:42] Speaker D: Um. All right, here's some stuff that piper gets in the kitchen. The kitchen isn't as cluttered with books and things as the rest of the apartment is, but as you kind of buzz over all the stuff that's out on the counters, because it's not cluttered with books, but it is cluttered. Right? There's stuff here. And when Arthur first walked through to him, it just kind of looked in passing, like a messy kitchen that she hadn't done the dishes in. In a hot minute. It. But what you realize is that it isn't that she hasn't done the dishes. It is that she's. There are jars and what do you call it? Like, the. Not tupware, but like, the glass. [02:42:45] Speaker C: Pyrex. [02:42:46] Speaker D: Yeah, like, pyrex type of stuff. And there are things in them, and those are not things that you would normally think to eat. You see a finger with a long clawed nail at the end of it. You see what looks like a tongue that may have been cut out of someone's head. You see one jar that doesn't have any liquid or anything that anything is. Is in. But you are pretty sure that at the bottom of that jar, you see a minimum of five or six fangs. There are little splashes of blood on the counter that looks like they got missed when the counters might have gotten wiped down at some point. Because it does look like she at least made an effort to try and clean up after herself in her days. And in her manic, what you would assume is probably a manic state. There's. It's a lot. But you know that the general effects of this curse is that she wants to understand, and she wants to gather information to add to the book. That's what the impulse is. And you are looking at the trophies of things that she has taken from people that she has killed. You can't be sure, but you would assume that the fridge is probably worse. And while. Did Arthur mention the smell of blood in the kitchen? [02:44:46] Speaker B: No, he didn't mention it because Arthur was keeping it to himself while still looking for danger. [02:44:51] Speaker D: Okay, then, never mind. We'll move on from that. You would expect, given the general trail of Gore in the kitchen, Piper, that the fridge is probably the worst place. But given that your drone can't open the fridge, you don't know for sure. You continue to buzz around. One of the other things that you find is you realize that there is a panel off of the secondary spare bedroom, which is more of a mess than the rest of the apartment is. As far as books and newspapers and things goes, it looks like this has become the room where she just put stuff. But there is a panel in the wall. It's one of those, like, low but relatively large square panels that probably leads into what could be used as, like, a storage space or a crawl space behind the wall. It is currently closed, but there are markings on it that suggest that it was forced open at some point and was never repainted. And there is actually a path to get to it that has been cleared out. Like, stuff has been pushed to the side to make it easier to get there. Okay. [02:46:26] Speaker C: All right. Anything else? [02:46:31] Speaker D: I mean, not right now. I might give you more stuff, as you have. As you have people with, like, bodies who can help you look at stuff. I may feed you more information, but for right now, that's all. The drone gets on a first. [02:46:42] Speaker C: That's exactly what's going to happen. Drone is going to go fly to where the other two are, and it's kind of like. Kind of like, bump into one of them. [02:46:54] Speaker D: Arthur, you get bumped into throwing bumps into the back of your head. [02:47:00] Speaker B: Uh, okay. [02:47:06] Speaker C: Does he, like, turn and look at it? [02:47:08] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, assuming that piper flew it badly. [02:47:16] Speaker C: No, like, once he turns, like, it bumps into his forehead and then flies to the kitchen. [02:47:25] Speaker B: Uh, I'm not fluent in drone language. Does that mean follow? [02:47:32] Speaker C: You get a text that says, go to the fucking kitchen. [02:47:36] Speaker B: See, that would have worked. I don't know why piper didn't just start with the text. [02:47:43] Speaker C: You. [02:47:44] Speaker B: Okay? [02:47:49] Speaker C: Arthur specifically gets a text that says, don't let Rosanna. [02:47:54] Speaker B: Don't let Rosanna. [02:47:56] Speaker C: Don't let Rosanna. See. Oh. [02:47:59] Speaker B: Um. Okay. I guess you should probably sit down. If you're not feeling. If you're feeling woozy don't want you to fall? [02:48:08] Speaker C: Don't want you to get hurt I. [02:48:08] Speaker A: Don'T want to sit in this house. [02:48:11] Speaker B: Arthur, maybe we should step outside or have a little fresh air. [02:48:19] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't put my ass on anything in this house. Even if paid me. [02:48:32] Speaker B: I could, but that would be a different situation. [02:48:35] Speaker D: Here. Three sub. Anyway, that's. [02:48:40] Speaker B: That's a joke, but you should take a step outside. Why don't you have some air, and I'll see what else we can find. Obviously, Piper wants me to check something out. [02:48:55] Speaker A: Are you sure you don't need me? Like, as backup? [02:49:01] Speaker B: Being composed and the best you could be would probably be the best place for us, as backup goes. [02:49:13] Speaker A: Okay. [02:49:17] Speaker D: Yeah. You. [02:49:18] Speaker B: You're here. Um. I know this is awkward, but take this. Hold onto it for me. Any hands? Are the blade wrapped in newspaper? [02:49:30] Speaker A: Mmm. Really bringing this book. [02:49:35] Speaker B: I'm just hoping it has something we can use. [02:49:39] Speaker A: You know what? She'll take the blade and she's gonna kind of hold out like this. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Okay. Do we have, like, a ziploc bag or something that we could put this. [02:49:54] Speaker D: In, out in the rv? [02:49:57] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Okay. I'm gonna go back to the rv then, and just put it somewhere where it's not gonna give us tetanus. [02:50:05] Speaker B: That's fair. And maybe take a moment to just sit with quiet. [02:50:17] Speaker A: She's just gonna put a hand on his arm and move the knife away and just give him a little hug. Hug back, knife out this way, one off. Um, sorry for. If I scared you. Um. And she'll pull away and go back down and find something to safeguard their treasure. [02:51:05] Speaker B: As soon as she's out, Arthur will start heading toward the kitchen and just go. Okay, Piper, what am I looking for? And stare at his phone. [02:51:16] Speaker C: Motherfucker. [02:51:19] Speaker B: No, he'll follow the drone as best he can. [02:51:22] Speaker C: The drone will kind of, like, bump into the handle of the fridge. [02:51:28] Speaker B: Okay. Arthur will open the fridge. [02:51:32] Speaker D: Arthur, the first thing you get when you open the fridge is the overwhelming smell. Of blood. [02:51:40] Speaker B: Smells like blood. Smelled like blood before. [02:51:45] Speaker D: You and Piper both see some of those Pyrex containers and mason jars and what looks like old, like, everything from, like, old pickle jars to, you know, like, emptied out, like. Like, jelly and jam jars. Like somebody just got their hands on whatever containers they could, and they are filled. Some with, um, some with liquid that's clearly meant to try and preserve whatever is inside. Some just have stuff in them. Piper, perhaps the most disturbing thing for you is that one of the top, obviously newest Pyrex containers has what looks like a strip of skin that has been flayed from someone's body, and you are reminded of the nightmare that you had where you cut into your own arm. [02:52:44] Speaker C: Yep. [02:52:47] Speaker B: So we have dumb or level fridge here. [02:52:52] Speaker D: Arthur, out of curiosity, is there a role associated with your PTSD flaw? [02:53:00] Speaker B: So far we haven't had one. I think we've done it in the past. I think we've done just a willpower roll. [02:53:05] Speaker D: Can you make me a willpower roll? [02:53:08] Speaker B: Yeah, with my lowered willpower, since I've been using it for some rolls. [02:53:12] Speaker D: Uh huh. [02:53:13] Speaker B: Fun times. This is how the game works. [02:53:15] Speaker D: Like, if you burn through that, that there's always a risk that it's gonna come back to bite you. [02:53:19] Speaker B: Correctamundo. Can't willpower. Willpower all either. [02:53:24] Speaker D: No, you cannot. Your heart rate picks up a little bit, but you muscle down the impulse and the feeling of panic that rises in your chest. You swallow hard and push it down. And there is a small part of you as you look at what are clearly. What clearly look to be bankers taken off of a shifted werewolf's ball in a jar. There is a moment where you wonder if that was one of the last things that Jillian saw before she died. [02:54:18] Speaker B: Arthur's gonna turn and look at the little buzzing drone and go, I see why you didn't want Rosanna to see it. [02:54:28] Speaker C: Arthur gets a text, just says, trophies. Close the fridge. [02:54:36] Speaker B: Without hesitation, Arthur closes the fridge. [02:54:42] Speaker D: Okay, Rosanna, you get back to the rV. Piper is sitting there. Piper knowing that you were coming, I assume would have shifted to make sure that her screens are not visible. Yeah, to somebody just walking into the rv. You find a gallon ziploc bag and are able to drop the knife into it. Piper, what next? You are the tour guide of the creepy apartment of doom. [02:55:14] Speaker C: Gonna lead Arthur to the crawl space or toward the crawl space. Okay. And she will once she sees Rosanna. Once they're safely out of the kitchen, we'll shift the screen so Rosanna can see if she wants to. [02:55:30] Speaker A: Yeah. While Rosanna is kind of watching Piper's screen, she's going to go on her own laptop and begin to kind of look and to see if she can find any information about that shopping center. [02:55:45] Speaker D: Okay, go ahead and make me an investigation role. Arthur, are you gonna try and open. [02:55:54] Speaker B: The crawl space, follow the drone, get to the crawl space and go. Okay, you're like, small, creepy door. [02:56:03] Speaker D: Great. [02:56:04] Speaker B: What am I gonna find in here? Body stashed in the walls. Who knows? [02:56:13] Speaker A: Bonus die. Because I've seen, like, a sign of this place and have. [02:56:19] Speaker D: Yeah, I'll give it to you. That's fine. Arthur, are you opening the door? [02:56:26] Speaker B: I do. [02:56:27] Speaker D: Okay. [02:56:28] Speaker B: Against my better judgment, I do. [02:56:31] Speaker D: So I don't know if you've ever seen one of these. They don't have handles on them, so it's a little hard to get it open. [02:56:36] Speaker C: You can. [02:56:36] Speaker D: You kind of have to, like, push on it and figure out which. Which side and which corner will move. And then you finally get it to budge, only to realize that it stops a couple of inches in. Like, you can't get it fully open at first, and you kind of have to push at it a few times. Whatever is behind it will move if you push against it. Okay, got you, Rosanna. But eventually, you get it back away from the edge enough to kind of turn it and kind of awkwardly push it off to the side. It's not really, like, attached to the wall, it's just sort of slid into place. You know what I mean? [02:57:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:57:16] Speaker D: And you realize that what was blocking it from moving is, in fact, a foot. [02:57:23] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I was expecting to find. [02:57:29] Speaker D: Something is weird, though. You would expect a body to smell. This. Doesn't really smell. [02:57:41] Speaker B: Okay. [02:57:45] Speaker C: Piper is gonna fly the drone into the opening. [02:57:49] Speaker D: Okay. I'm assuming you are turning the little light on the front of it back on. [02:57:53] Speaker C: Yep. [02:57:54] Speaker B: Arthur is going to look to his protective bracer and try to do the thing where he makes it glow if there's something supernatural. [02:58:06] Speaker D: Okay. Is that a role? [02:58:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. It's kind of the same role as the empower, but it's not empowering. It's just the detection portion. Like, it glows. Gotta activate it. I think if I understand. [02:58:20] Speaker D: Let's do that. Let's do that first, because that only took. Takes a split second. [02:58:23] Speaker B: Yep. Yeah. [02:58:24] Speaker C: Piper also has her phone out, has, like, texts to Arthur opened, and just the text run with, like, three exclamation points is ready. [02:58:35] Speaker D: Okay, how many successes do you need? [02:58:43] Speaker B: That's a good question. You need four cents. [02:58:46] Speaker C: Three to five for sense of natural base. [02:58:50] Speaker D: All right, Arthur? Nothing. Well, does he want a willpower? [02:58:55] Speaker B: Ah, Jesus Christ. Yeah, why not? [02:58:58] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah. [02:58:59] Speaker D: No go. The dice have decided what the story is and y'all are fucked is what the story is. [02:59:08] Speaker A: I mean, at least it still does. [02:59:10] Speaker B: Its half damage protective thing, regardless of whether it's been activated or not. [02:59:20] Speaker D: Piper, you fly the drone into the crawlspace, and the first thing you realize as you are flying over this is that. Number one, it's a body. Number two, it is very, very deathly still and it is male. And the further you get, the more blood there is. Eventually you are hovering over the chest and you realize why it is so still actually make me into an occult role. You have a specialty in a cult you cannot see yet. [03:00:13] Speaker C: I don't have dots in a cult. [03:00:15] Speaker D: Oh, then just an int roll. Unless you want to have Rosanna looking at your screen at the same time. At which point I will allow Rosanna to make the antidote roll. [03:00:26] Speaker A: I believe that she had shifted the screen so I could watch anyway. [03:00:32] Speaker D: Yeah, right, but you were also searching, so I'm asking, are you. Are you gonna pause from what you're doing to look over? I didn't want to assume. [03:00:40] Speaker A: Okay. If called upon. Okay, Piper. [03:00:47] Speaker C: Um. Oh, Yunster better judgment. Piper will turn to Rosanna and kind of point to the screen. [03:00:56] Speaker A: Let me take a look. And you said end to Nicole? [03:01:03] Speaker D: Yes, ma'am. [03:01:04] Speaker A: Yes, ma'am. I'm gonna willpower three of those dice. Yee ha. Nope. Two. [03:01:19] Speaker D: Perfect. You're not entirely sure why when you first see it, because you've never specifically run into this before, given that your focus has been werewolves and the like. Oh, no, wait, you guys did have a background in vampires. Yeah. So Rosanna, Piper, you're not entirely sure. You have some brushes with vampires, but you've never seen a vampire like this before. They've always been, you know, either in record or up and moving. And you didn't want to stay in the same place, so you will. You got the fuck out of Dodge. Rosanna, on the other hand, though, you recognize immediately as the drone passes over the chest and you see a stake sticking out of the body or out of the chest that this is a vampire. She has staked it and for whatever reason, instead of finishing it off, has left it in this crawlspace. [03:02:31] Speaker A: Don't let him touch it. [03:02:36] Speaker D: You also realize as the drone continues to move over the body, that this is probably the same one you saw in your vision. Because there is a chunk of the throat missing. Looks like the first time she hit it with the stake, she missed and got it in the throat. And the second time she drove it into the chest. [03:02:57] Speaker A: Tell him to back out. Tell him. Tell him to get out. That. That thing. That thing right there. You know what that is? You know what that is? You know what that is proper? That is? That is a vampire. That is a vampire. That is maybe still alive. Alive. [03:03:17] Speaker D: Oh, it's alive. You've seen enough vampires die to know that when they die, they go to ash. This one isn't ash. It's still. Ah, well, I mean, Piper knows. It's. It's kinda hole. Piper has seen that there are pieces missing. [03:03:35] Speaker A: Text him. Tell him don't touch it and leave. [03:03:40] Speaker C: Um, Piper, just text Arthur. Get out. We're leaving. [03:03:46] Speaker D: Okay, Arthur, you have now had time to look into the crawlspace if you wanted to. And that drone, the light, is as much a benefit to you as it is to them. You know what you're looking at? [03:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's not moving. [03:04:03] Speaker D: It is not moving. [03:04:05] Speaker B: Daytime. [03:04:06] Speaker D: It is not. [03:04:08] Speaker B: It is nighttime. [03:04:10] Speaker D: Yeah, it's early evening. [03:04:12] Speaker B: Okay. Hmm. I either have moments before it wakes up, or it is in that state of not quite dead. [03:04:25] Speaker D: You do know that if they get hurt enough, they basically quote unquote die until they either have time to heal or they get finished off. You guys did manage to put one into that state very briefly before you finished it off in one of your early, early hunts. [03:04:46] Speaker B: So Arthur needs to leave because they're all telling him, get out, but for a little bit longer than necessary. He's going to conceal burning down the entire building because there's these preserve fluids, these preservative fluids around him, some of which are flammable, likely, and he's going to consider it for a little bit too long and paper and stuff, and then just start to back out, but standing at the door, trying to figure out what they should do next. And he's going to call them from the doorway. [03:05:33] Speaker D: Piper, are you having your drone follow him out of the room? [03:05:37] Speaker C: Yes. [03:05:38] Speaker D: Okay. As you. As your drone passes over the body, you get a glimpse of one of the hands, and you realize that there are. There's at least one finger missing from the hand. [03:05:54] Speaker B: Does anyone answer their phone or does everyone just sit there? Let the phones ring. So what we have here is a vampire in that near death state. [03:06:14] Speaker C: And we're going to leave it. And we're leaving. [03:06:19] Speaker B: We could fully kill it. [03:06:23] Speaker A: Not when I'm around yeah, it's not a good idea. [03:06:33] Speaker B: I mean, genuinely, can't they heal and get up eventually? [03:06:43] Speaker A: Is it a good idea to play what if when Papra's in the state? [03:06:53] Speaker B: So what if it wakes up? [03:06:56] Speaker A: If he's staked, he's not getting up, that they're stuck, they can't move, they can't speak. Was he staked? [03:07:19] Speaker D: He was. He saw the stake in his chest. You're not entirely sure because it was with a drone. You're not entirely sure just how, you know, solid that connection was. But there was a stake in his chest. Hey, Arthur, will you do me a favor? [03:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [03:07:36] Speaker D: Can you roll me two d ten? [03:07:40] Speaker A: Okay. [03:07:40] Speaker D: No reason. [03:07:42] Speaker A: No reason to haul. [03:07:44] Speaker C: No reason at all. Just like there's no reason for dangerous gun, though. [03:07:49] Speaker A: None. [03:07:49] Speaker B: None whatsoever. [03:07:53] Speaker D: Two and a nine. Okay. [03:08:02] Speaker A: She'S gonna send him a text. [03:08:05] Speaker B: I mean, I'm on the phone. Rosanna. [03:08:08] Speaker A: No, she's gonna send him a text and all it's going to say is when we send her back home, we can go take a look. I don't want to risk it. [03:08:26] Speaker D: Arthur. [03:08:27] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [03:08:28] Speaker D: You get a text message from not one of them. [03:08:33] Speaker B: Okay. [03:08:33] Speaker D: This one is from quiet. All it says is, you good, boss? [03:08:43] Speaker B: Spending a little extra time because he has to type out extra numbers. He responds, respond to quiet and say, we have a vampire inside. [03:09:00] Speaker D: Understood, is all. You get back. Whatever the fuck that means. [03:09:08] Speaker B: Listen, I'm just telling both of you, I'm not comfortable with the idea that we walk away when we have the opportunity to rid the world of one of these monsters. For once and all. I don't want to burn the building down because there's people who live here. [03:09:33] Speaker A: Rosanna's gonna start heading out of the van and up the stairs. Papr, turn off the drone. [03:09:46] Speaker C: Why? [03:09:47] Speaker A: Turn off the drone or fly it back to you. I will be right back. And she's going to him. She's going to go back inside. [03:10:06] Speaker C: I'm going to do a. I'm going to do a. I'm going to do a stupid thing. Hey, BP, can I have the drone try and, like, hide so I can still see what's going on? [03:10:16] Speaker D: Yeah, uh, tell me how you want to do this. [03:10:25] Speaker A: Um. [03:10:28] Speaker C: I mean, basically because my assumption is what's about to happen is that, uh, Rosanna's gonna go up there and she and Arthur are going to do something and it's gonna involve the apartment. So before. Before Rosanna has had the chance. Like after Rosanna's left the rv, but before she's made it into the building. Piper's gonna fly the drone, like, into the apartment and just kind of, like, have it land, like, by a bunch of shit in a point in situation in a position where, like, it's still visible, but it kind of. There's, you know, a bunch of shit around it, so it's less likely to be noticed. [03:11:29] Speaker D: Okay, make me a wits and technology roll. And I will allow you to add. I will allow you to add your two dice for stealth. [03:11:56] Speaker C: All right, six successes. [03:12:04] Speaker D: Very good. Cool. You are relatively certain that you have managed to tuck the drone away. [03:12:18] Speaker A: And. [03:12:18] Speaker D: That Arthur did not see it. Basically, you had it like Lee, like, go. Like, it was headed out towards one of the. One of the outward facing doors. And while Arthur was busy tapping away on his phone to respond to one of. To respond to a text message, you had it kind of zip in behind his head and you have it settle into a corner in the room. I need Rosanna and Arthur to mute and deafen themselves, please. [03:12:54] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [03:13:02] Speaker D: Okay. [03:13:03] Speaker C: I was waiting for this to happen. [03:13:05] Speaker D: Hi, Piper. [03:13:07] Speaker C: Hi. [03:13:08] Speaker D: Do you remember what happens when you are faced with a body, whether it is your kill or not? Mm hmm. [03:13:20] Speaker A: So. [03:13:23] Speaker D: Here is what I am going to tell you. The corpse of any quarry, regardless of it being killed by the cell or by someone or something else, conjures an overwhelming urge for the accursed hunter to collect trophies. Every time the hunter is faced with an opportunity to collect a sample from a creature, they must do so unless they spend a point of willpower to resist. Doing so also prevents them from regaining willpower until a sample of said creature has been collected. So you can resist it, but you do not get to regain willpower until you get a sample from this or another body. [03:14:12] Speaker C: All right, that's awful. I'm gonna do it. [03:14:17] Speaker D: All right. Are you gonna use the drone or. [03:14:20] Speaker C: No, I'm gonna spend the willpower. [03:14:23] Speaker D: You're gonna spend the willpower? All right. What is your willpower at currently? [03:14:28] Speaker C: I have one left. [03:14:30] Speaker D: Oh, boy. Really? [03:14:34] Speaker C: Yeah. So if this gets bad, I'll start taking aggravated willpower damage, which is a problem. [03:14:42] Speaker D: Uh huh. Cool. Anything else? [03:14:55] Speaker C: No, no, I don't think so. She's just gonna watch what happens. [03:15:01] Speaker D: All right, I'm gonna bring Arthur and Rosanna back. Alright, you two. [03:15:23] Speaker B: I saw myself appear on the screen over there. I went, oh, okay. And then saw them. [03:15:29] Speaker A: I saw myself eating a chicken nugget. And I was like, couldn't have given us just like a tiny bit more warning before you brought us back? No. [03:15:37] Speaker B: Nope. Well, nope. [03:15:40] Speaker D: All right, Rosanna, you make your way inside, up the stairs and down the hallway to where Arthur is. [03:15:47] Speaker B: When Arthur sees Rosanna coming, he's going to text quiet and let him know that they're going to need him to keep an eye on the back, the door to this apartment. So he may have to get closer. But mostly he doesn't want. If something goes horribly wrong and someone is about to get out of this apartment, he doesn't want them to get far. [03:16:16] Speaker D: Understood? That's all you get back. [03:16:20] Speaker B: That's all I can expect. [03:16:22] Speaker D: Yep. [03:16:23] Speaker B: Yep. [03:16:25] Speaker D: You get the feeling. It's just best that you not know how quiet does. What quiet does? You may never sleep well again. [03:16:32] Speaker B: Mm hmm. It's how he operates. I just need to know that he's doing his job as a perfect tool. [03:16:42] Speaker A: All right, we're gonna make this quick. [03:16:46] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [03:16:47] Speaker A: I don't want Piper scene. [03:16:49] Speaker B: Okay. [03:16:53] Speaker A: Come on, show me where the body is. [03:16:56] Speaker B: All right. [03:16:58] Speaker A: And so, Arthur summoning out. She's gonna start summoning her bow and arrow. [03:17:06] Speaker B: Um, I think I'm gonna try to empower the thing if. While we're heading in, if that's right. [03:17:14] Speaker D: That is fine. [03:17:16] Speaker A: As a man. [03:17:21] Speaker D: I would like you both to roll, please. [03:17:23] Speaker A: I believe that's what resolve in Colt. [03:17:26] Speaker B: Mm hmm. Uh, I have intonicult for the airflow into Nicole. [03:17:32] Speaker A: Oh, infinite colt. Okay. [03:17:34] Speaker B: God damn it. Yeah, no, this one I know. I need four and I got three. [03:17:43] Speaker A: I'm gonna. I'm gonna. [03:17:45] Speaker B: I'm not gonna. [03:17:47] Speaker C: Just gonna go with it. [03:17:48] Speaker A: I'm good. I got four. [03:17:50] Speaker B: Okay. And then, yeah, move in, obviously, toward the crawl space. [03:17:57] Speaker C: Keep in mind that if you fail, you do take willpower damage. [03:18:00] Speaker B: Oh, cool. Fun. [03:18:04] Speaker C: The margin of failure. [03:18:06] Speaker B: Oh, just one. So it's fun. [03:18:09] Speaker D: Okay, so you. You have not managed to empower, but Rosanna has. [03:18:13] Speaker B: Yes, yes, correct. [03:18:15] Speaker D: Cool, cool. Rosanna, you are led back into that spare bedroom. Piper, from where you have settled the drone, you can see everything that is happening as they move into the bedroom. [03:18:29] Speaker C: Seeing them go into the bedroom. Piper's just gonna fly the drone out. She just wanted to. Mostly just wanted to confirm that they were doing what she thought they were doing. [03:18:39] Speaker D: Okay. [03:18:42] Speaker B: Okay. Um. We try to drag it out or just crawl in after it. [03:18:56] Speaker A: I don't want to risk moving the stake, so I think we should just crawl in. [03:19:05] Speaker D: I'm just going to put it out there that there's not enough room for both of you, and there's certainly not enough room for that bow and arrow. [03:19:10] Speaker B: Correct. I was thinking we're going to have to pull it out. All right, I'll grab it by its feet and hope for the best. [03:19:22] Speaker D: Okay. [03:19:24] Speaker A: If I were you, I would grab, like, a leg and then grab the stake and hold the stake down and drag it out. [03:19:33] Speaker D: I wasn't go, like, at first. I didn't think I was gonna have to ask for this. And then I looked at your sheet. You've only got one dot in strength, so I'm gonna need a strength and athletics. Arthur. [03:19:42] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I figured I was gonna have to make a roll for that. There's no way Arthur could pull a body out of a. [03:19:46] Speaker D: Listen, if you'd had two dots in strength, it would have just been awkward. But I'd have. [03:19:53] Speaker C: Nah, I'd have allowed it. [03:19:55] Speaker D: But you've only got one dot in strength because Arthur be like that. [03:20:00] Speaker B: That's why. [03:20:01] Speaker A: I could have sworn you had two dots in strength. [03:20:04] Speaker B: Nope, nope, nope, no. [03:20:06] Speaker D: He always had one. I thought he got. And I thought he took a dot because he was training, but. But I guess not. [03:20:12] Speaker B: Nope, never did. Yeah. Two successes. [03:20:16] Speaker D: Two successes. That's not bad. Rosanna, make me just a Dex roll, please. [03:20:24] Speaker A: Okay. Just my decks. [03:20:31] Speaker D: Dex and athletics. I'll give you the one extra. [03:20:34] Speaker A: Oh, you're so kind to me, storyteller. Thank you. [03:20:39] Speaker D: You're welcome. [03:20:42] Speaker A: I love you, too. [03:20:45] Speaker D: As you should. [03:20:46] Speaker A: There it is. One success, baby. And, no, I'm not empowering it. [03:20:51] Speaker D: Okay. All right. There are a few things that happen all at once, Piper. You see them come into the room, you wait for them to be well into what they're doing so that they don't see the drone fly out, because you let them believe that the drone left earlier when you told it, when they told you to. So you watch as Arthur leans down and grabs the ankles of this very still body and begins to pull. And there isn't a lot of room to maneuver in this space. There is stuff everywhere. There's basically just a path. And that path is not really big enough for two adults who are on their feet. And another adult body that is just dead weight. And neither one of them is particularly strong. Let's just be realistic about this. So, Arthur, as you pull, the arms catch on the edge of this crawl space, and it's almost like the body is trying to hold on and resist you as the more you pull, the more the arms are forced above its head in this weird sort of pseudo rigor mortis that it has fallen into. Rosanna, you see the. You see too late, as this is happening, that. That stake was not as deep into the chest as you thought it was originally. And all of this pulling has jarred it. And you reach out to try and grab it just in time to watch two blood red eyes snap open and stare at you. And a mouth opens that only has one fang. And that is where we are going to call it for the night.