Our Crews operation begins, so many things we need to deal with
Knights of the Night
605 - BitD We Will Burn That Bridge as We Are Crossing It
Hellooo and welcome the nights of the night actual play podcast. This played in the dark story, a machination, was written in run by a GM John. And now please enjoy episode 605. Gradled, we're burning this bridge as we're crossing it. Actual play begins immediately. Hello and welcome the nights of the night actual play podcast. I am your host, John, leader of Blaze and the Dark Campaign machinations. Players with me starting on my left are... I'm Thomas, playing Hadrian's Briar, or Burning Briar while on the job. I run away Iruvian demon air. Currently. I look like an accuracy man of healthy building noble stock with long coat scholarly clothes, a pair of glasses, and a thorny Briar bursting out of my mouth into ears. And most peculiarly, a furnace somewhere below my sternum but above my belly that burns with bright white blue fire. Sometimes the wisps of flame bother to spell out what emotions I'm actually feeling cause my face can't do that no more. I have a total of three stress. I have a level two harm and I'm a leech. My job is to make all sorts of potions and drugs and machines and such. Hello everyone, I'm Scott. I'm playing Tesla in Vale, also known as the Bell of the Abyss. This is a Saverosi whisper. She does the dirty work for the archive of echoes. She explores the past via ghost with Ford Penderin, her patron, who is on the outs with the Lord Governor of the City at this point. Teslain is of olive complexion, curly brown hair, petite physique with striking green eyes. She also has a dead hand sewn to her left wrist that no longer operates or functions properly, which she is mortified about. She has two stress. I'm Jim Plains, Stephen Bing, also known as busy. He is a socializing and enterprising handsome young noble trying to revitalize the finances of the Bing coal mining family. Stephen very much enjoys running his many businesses and side hustles, always finding creative ways of making money from both the good and bad fortune of others. He currently has three stress. And I am Tom. I'm playing Esther Roland, known as Ghost, and I am a cutter, a former blue coat. And the reason I am called Ghost is because I have pale skin eyes and hair. My major job is to keep all of our crew members safe as possible, and I beat you all. I have seven stress because I rolled the one last time we played. Hello, I'm Michael playing Gordon, a young, thin, good-natured, skullfish lurk. Gordon specializes in infiltration, which allows him to bypass most security measures. He currently has four stress. If you guys add up all your stress, is it still less than mine? Just curious. What's yours? Seven. We've got a force. I don't think so. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. There you go. That's seven there. Hey, first of all, a.k. Achorus. Achorus. Do we go over this? I ought to pronounce it and what it is again? It's the people who are the beginning people of the empire. They were kind of like with the emperor when he started conquering things. So if you are one of these people, you are a what? Achorus. Is that the city we live in now? Or is that further? It's an ethnicity. We live in Duskfall. Yeah, I just mean, is that the general populace here? Like, if you're... They are probably the most populous. The second most would be Skovish, who are an island to the north, who recently rebelled. They... This was an outpost of theirs before it became part of the empire and got colonized. So like, they're not exactly native either, but more so than you folk, who came with the emperor and like put a flag in the ground and said, "Part of us now." All right. This job we're doing, or we're about to do, we're gonna wail a delegates and I'm gonna put his mask and suit on and become him. Yep. And we're doing this because we're trying to show our Patreon support money person that we can do stuff they ask us to do. And we're like... Yeah, they offer a staggering amount of money for you to basically begin spy work by pretending to be the sky. Now, the questions I got, how long I'm supposed to be in the sky shoes... They said as long as you can manage it, they expect it to get hairy and hopefully your friends can pull you out, but that is why they're paying you a lot to be in there as long as you can manage to pull it off. I mean, are they thinking like, "Oh, hope you could be in there a week or a month," or are they thinking, "You know, if you could just make it a couple hours and get some information, that would be great. Is there a..." It's definitely closer to month or two, if you... Yeah. They're thinking longer term, something your character would know is that there's a big event coming up for the Spirit Ordance holiday called Arkanvor by law. Everyone like turns out they're lights and they patrol the streets in a show of force and basically purge the ghosts and they probably want you there for that. And that's in like a week and a bit. My last question, at least to the guys in such as Delegos is a person who kicks Spirit ass. Yes. And I am not. When I have equipment that can help you, because they... How am I supposed to pull this off? Ghosts, your friend, has learned techniques to fight with regular weapons, but every Spirit Orden has fine lightning hooks that allow them to grapple ghosts and eviscerate them, more or less. They are much more malicious than the usual ones that get them into bottles. But isn't his role more of a commander? He is high ranking. He's the highest ranking you can be while still beating pavement. So ideally, you'll have people to say, "Get them!" But at the end of the day, you don't need to know how to wrestle a ghost with your bare hands because you'll have a big tool for it. I know you're not good at fighting. That's why they pick this guy who's like a commander, so maybe you can get away with it without having to. Gotcha. The only other thing that is in the back of his head is, "I see this not lasting forever," and they see this not lasting forever. But once the Spirit Wardens figure out that Deigos is up, the trick will be to get out without being found out who I am. Yep. We've got a play to find out how that happens. All right. And what will your patrons ask for to continue patronizing you? We don't know. Cool. But we'll burn that bridge while we're crossing it. Right. Okay. We'll burn that bridge while we're crossing it. But after we cross it, it's an old throwback that I use that line a couple of times. I've heard that. I don't remember where. So you all rolled a great result, a full success on your engagement role. You can do a flashback, but there's no more planning for the score. We're into it. With that, though, if y'all have an idea of where you ambush him that is ideal, the easiest one I can think of is when he's in the six towers district, a sparsely populated place, like in between on the middle of a patrol route, maybe you lure him off from his followers in some way. I was actually thinking of a different way that we can get a hold of him if he's off schedule and in a bar somewhere, whoever he's interested in. If it's a female or male, then we can entice him and get him to one of the things about spirit wardens. And this is worth repeating. They have unknown identities and hide behind these masks. After their work is done with the spirit wardens, they have special exits, not from the building, through underground tunnels that they reemerge into the populace. So that would be more difficult. You don't know who he is behind the mask, which makes this a little more complicated. Well, not really. If we not the ambush, just the assuming his identity, no, if we ambush him, we take his mask off. We know what he looks like. Yep. And then you've got to figure out who he is to somebody else. Right. I don't know who that man is from Adam. I don't know. Most faces in the city and while I believe you know more, I don't believe you know all of them. I don't know. And then we need to pretend to be him, which is more than just knowing what his face looks like. I have a suggestion. He's looking diligently for Lord Pendren, my boss. I could try to lure him to a location with information on Lord's pendren, Lord Pendren's whereabouts. And we could wail a him at that meeting. I think if I told him to come alone or we got a message to him saying come alone, the target Lord Pendren might be big enough that he might actually follow through with it. Don't know for sure. Just a possible suggestion or we can just wail a him on the street as well, whatever one's in the mood for way to is walking down the street and say, hey, there's a ghost around the corner. Take care of it. But he'll probably be with other people. He won't be walking alone. He is a commander. That is why you're taking his role. So he's going to have people around him that will have to deal with as well, which is why I thought maybe some subterfuge might be a way to get him alone and make wailing him a little easier for us. Well, we tell them for a while. So we kind of know when he is and isn't alone where he goes and what he does, I think. On the job, yes, you do know that. So you know his patrol route and you can pick a place to meet him near there where he'd probably think he could do it in his day to day and still get the info. Yeah, there's a couple of places where he was doing his side hustle, where he was taking bribes or meeting people that he shouldn't be meeting. And it's like when he loses his posse to go, it would be like when he walks away from his group to go do this, it'd be probably the best time to, I think, to jump him. You can combine the two ideas and give him one of his bribe people have a lead on it. You made a connection with the dimmer sisters last session. You made it sound like you had strings on him, but either way, could do it. We rolled a success, so we could just describe what we did. Yeah. Pick the best one you think gives us you enough privacy and do it. Tesla, I'm going to suggest that your idea might be good in that we have a building that we set it's in and we make some kind of noise in there so he sends a bunch of people. And then on a side alley, we make the same noise so that he goes and checks it by himself and then we take something like that. Okay. I'm up for anything. I just thought there might be a case where he might be interested in venturing out alone. If it meant more information about Lord Pendren, who is his number one target right now, but I'm okay with also whaling him on the streets. I certainly have no love lost for that individual and very eager to exact some revenge for him breaking up the archive of echoes. Yeah, I'm not suggesting that my idea is the only one if you guys have other ones fine. It's just a thought. Here's my suggestion, you've offered to give him info. If it seems like he wants to bring his whole crew, you have a distraction ready for the rest of them. But we would definitely say in the info about Lord Pendren's whereabouts that he's to come alone. Yes. If you disobey those, then you have a distraction ready for his underlings. And that would be an easy enough thing that did busy with switch and then come back and go, ah, this is all a farce. When busy takes over, he could just say, this was all just deployed. There's nothing here. Let's go back to work. Seems reasonable to me, but well, I volunteer to be the rabbit that the fox is chased. So we need to drag anybody somewhere. That's a good move for that. I'm confident I can do that better than they can. This is in a controlled position. So I'd say that if Tesla's okay with it, can you tick off a spirit bottle that you, Gordo, have a little distraction that will nicely wrap up the, this is like an archive of Echo's ghost that has been tapped dry of no use anymore. Just a very low individual who had some info, but everything's been retrieved at the end of the day. It's some electroplasm, but not much more. And so it's just a ghost you can release into a house to distract them with some noise and get them interested and notice it's something they need to address. But the fact that we succeeded, he doesn't need to roll, correct? No, he doesn't. It just works. He's in a controlled position. If this was risky, the ghost might threaten him as well, but we're all good. I think that it's a ground level in a house adjacent to this alley that you pop this ghost bottle and the spirit starts summoning up a wicked cold that cracks the glass and some crackling as it manifests and you slink away easy peasy, Gordo. He says, it's not one thing, it's another. I still need to meet this contact, but the rest of you handle that. With that, Tesla, you are alone with Warden Beggaloos. And I have backup, I assume, by all means, in a controlled position. If it's a physical thing, you know, I'm there. Right. So are we meeting in an abandoned factory or? That works. Yeah. Okay. Well, then I would imagine that ghost would be hidden behind some empty crates or something like that that are stacked up somewhere close. Briar would be there as well, as long as it's okay with Briar, we'd want to have as much firepower there as possible, thinking that he's the leader of the spirit wardens for a reason. He's got some skills. Yeah. He's not the hedges. He's the highest you can get while still having to go down pads and whatnot. But yes, he is a big deal. So by all means. Very convenient. Great. So I'm going to assume that standing behind maybe a metal table that was used for some different factory purposes. And he comes in. I'm going to place this on the map in case rather in the future. Okay. Continue. Yeah. And so I'm just standing there. I have a cloak over my eyes and most of my face so that I'm not noticeable for who I actually am. And I say, so you're interested in Lord Pender. I have information you might find valuable if you'd like to parlay. That is why you've drawn me here. Yes. I'll have you know that my friends aren't far behind. So be sure not to pull anything. I wouldn't dream of it. I want to see him captured just as much as you. But I want some recompense for my information, if you will. So why don't you tell me just how important Lord Pender is to you and what you're willing to part for that information. I know where you staying right at this moment and you can ambush him in his domicile. I can offer one coin for information, a follow up when he's taken down, a follow up being an additional one. You're not doing the dirty work here. I'm the one with my life on the line, certainly. But you don't want to look without me and two coins sounds rather paltry for a figure in as high as standing as Lord Pender it. The weak swages for one such as you should be more than enough. Has he approached a table to parlay or is he elsewhere? I want to. I think he read a drawing a book down on the table. He's standing and he's like two steps away. He's not far, but he's the people I think what you're angling for. Yeah, the table I had kind of imagined being maybe 20, 30 feet into the factory. So it's not like right at the doorway. Yeah, I might have like a lantern on the table to provide some light in this enclosed space. So it doesn't look as if I'm just looking to way lay him, but my idea is to draw him into the room so that ghost and they can be behind him at this point. Yeah, so they can cut off his retreat. Yeah, you're in a controlled position. That's fine with me. You drew him in. He's close enough that they could ambush him or he does have his hand resting on a sword, but it seems his civilian rest kind of somewhat on guard. He is haggling. So he's not counting coins yet, but he is, you know, well, I think the thing that kind of keys him off to go ahead and attack is me increasing the light of the lamp, turning it up a bit when I feel like I've got him drawn in the room enough. I say, well, let's not be such strangers. Let's parlay face to face and I draw my hood back. And then with my right hand, I turn up the light and wait for the next action to happen with with ghost in in Briar. Okay, I think it takes a moment and he sees a lot of faces, but he remembers the one who you didn't kill his teammates, you knocked them out with electricity. Which is not pretty at the best of times. There were burns. It was not a stunning baton and even those leave burns. He takes a second to squint behind his mask and then draws his blade and levels it at you, you turning trade or is this just another play in the game? Who did you expect to have the information on his exact whereabouts, if not me? And at this point, I'm assuming that ghost in Briar are coming out of their location. We can go to them. It sounds like you guys are going to be making the role here. It's more than likely more than possible for Tesla to add a dice here. Yeah, I assumed that perhaps the light was distracting enough that it would have been helpful. That's if you need it because you're in a controlled position and we're going to slash your bright enough to try to blind them a bit or make it hard for him to see the shadows. Yeah, traditionally the sneak attack is sculpt or prowl sorry different game. I don't know if we have any of that brawling, but I have one prowl. Okay. That's why I also have one. It will be louder if you don't use that, but you are starting in a controlled position. It's just how it messes up. Yeah, Tim, when we could have been awaiting for Gordon to sneak around with this with more prowl. Yeah, I've got plenty of prowl. I was assuming I was keeping an eye on these guys to make sure they're busy and worn or just be a backup if they start to approach. It makes sense to keep an eye on them. If you want him to make the role, it might cost a stress for the flashback about it, for a prowl. Right now, because you're in a controlled position to switch plans up in the middle of it. Because you're in a different building right now, prior can you control the prowl and we do it as a team? I am the exact same level of skill as you are. Yeah, being how many failures you get is stress on the leader. And I can't. I have only two stress left. I have two dots and prowl. Shit, maybe it's busy that leads this. Yeah. By all means, busy, take over. I only have good plans for going loud. So if busy wants to be quiet about it, the alternative is to make a situation the busy will have to explain his way out of, but this guy is getting captured. That's fine by me. I am adding a dye by using my special ability compel to attune to the ghost field and have a spirit come from underneath the ground up right onto DeGelos. The spirit's kind of entwining itself in his legs to stop him from running away. Yeah, well, basically that's it's a compel is a special ability. But I'm just adding a dye using compel by kind of lessening his ability to react and move quickly. But that's okay. If busy is the only one making a role, that's fine in a group action. Since there are so many dice involved, usually we don't like give one to everyone. Okay. Oh, we can give one to somebody. I'm going to give one to busy with the ghosts, the spirits coming out in when trying themselves in DeGelos's legs to try to hold him up. Sometimes that really partaking anymore. I'm just kind of standing on the other side of the table, letting them do their thing. He's fairly armored. So we're going to have standard effect for your fine weapon. I think limited effect for anyone without a fine weapon. If you have a fine weapon, I have a cane sword, but I'm not trying to kill the guy. Right. It's not that I would have brought a bat or a heavily laden piece of soccer clothing or bag or whatever it is. Something we've failed to do is decide how heavy our load is today. Yeah, I assume medium, but I'm like, I didn't want to send him off by having him think that I was prepared for battle. So I went like ghost's medium, but I will go for a medium for normal. I have a question. Yeah. Why aren't we killing this guy? Because we were supposed to hold him. He will be alerted or his organization will be alerted if he is killed. Unless I can do that thing, the ritual I do that stops the crows from finding him. Right. And you can capture his spirit and we can ask questions and learn things from him. I think our benefactors asked that he not be killed right away, but they were doing that because they were worried his death would cause suspicion of people found his body or spirit, spirit, both that's basically it is that the contract was that he not die. And the idea behind it being that his people will know if he dies, they might have a power that we don't know about. So, okay. Yeah. Okay. So who's rolling? I'm assuming I have like a bat and just knock him upside the head with. You can take off a large weapon for that. Don't tick off anything before you need it. I understand the disguise gets going to be important and the cane sword is kind of a signature. Yeah. Which I probably would not have brought because what am I going to do because you are being a fake person. Yeah. Yeah. I just clicked unusual weapon, which I think is kind of that that fits absolutely. I think we're just going for him being unconscious. I'm rolling. I'm rolling. Prowl with at least plus one die. Right. Yes. Do you want to not bring a big hefty tool and I could just have connected up the drug? It's like my whole job. That's sir. I could just mark a bandolier and grab a drug. I'll have it to have you blow it in his face as you sneak up. Well, you know, it could be a sock full of some drug that just when you hit him in the head with it, it just poofs out an air and knocks him out. I like that. That's good inventive use of it. I just realized that this is all just flavor because we've already paid points to make sure he gets a bonus dice. So the position is controlled, right? And in fact, the standard with a poison, it is absolutely standard. Yeah. Trolled standard plus one roll. Hmm. Not bad. Got a five and four one. So five high. Okay. Thomas, can you tell me what Breyer is used today for the drug? I forgot where the drugs were, but they're in your notes, I believe. Yeah. I mean, at a quick glance, drowned powder would work. Yeah, it works. Maybe trans powder. Drown powder speaks to itself. How does trans powder manage the silence wasn't hypnotic trance when inhaled. I mean, if we're looking to get them off site subtly, that's the best one to use. Sure. I think with the trans powder and the ghost tripping him up, he falls on you busy. And the powder poofs into the air. And let's give you a level one harm of spacey, a little fucked up. You didn't get the full dose, but in moments of stress, it takes you a second to react. Gotcha. So that's so I didn't take a stress from that. When I took a trauma or when did I take what do I do? Or is that just something we would, a little blood drops by your perfect, it opens up the harm. This would be a level one harm of spaced. Gotcha. If you want to make a special note of it, parentheses score, it will go away at the end of the score. You can resist this harm, but you might take a lot of stress. Yes. It is always an option to resist a consequence I give you. This reduces it by one harm level from one to zero. So that could be nice, but you roll resolve would probably make sense here. And then the whole category of resolve and you take the stress of six minus the highest role. I don't know. Is this something you think I guess I should do or well, if it's specifically a harm that's going to go away, then I need to stress myself out about it too much. Right. Stress takes more effort to go. So just a thought. Yeah. You'd be high for a little while, you know, might be nice. Right. There's a couple of money might get you in the zone. You wake up and the score is down and said everyone says, nice job, busy. We're questions though. I did some weird questions though. Yeah. So I hit him in the face and he went down and grabbed me and I went down and he enters a hypnotic state, unlike busy, who's just kind of zoned for a sec. You come to not getting rid of the harm, but you are able to hold him down here. Tesla and your ritual is not immediate. I'm talking to Breyer. Oh, is he okay? Giggling a little. You did that stuff, right? I made it. Yeah. So that's what you're asking. Okay. What did you just say? It didn't make any sense to me, I couldn't hear. Okay. We need to bind him and transport him quickly to another location before his men lose their distraction that Gordon is so nicely put forth for us. I'm assuming, yeah, you're not talking about busy, but I've got extra twine in my bag. He tries to reach, but he's like grabbed by busy. I have manical and chain. Oh, okay. That's a little heavier. Yeah. I mean, it's just an item that I naturally carry. It's one of the default ones. It doesn't even count. Yeah, it's just busy for a while, but you can just like carry a manical and chains no big deal. Yeah. We're going to take this mask off and see if we know what this does. Take this mask off and put it on yourself, busy. Also take his jacket and other accruitements. Yes. Yes. I like him and we can get him out of here. Also any items he has in his pockets that you might need at work, et cetera. Yeah. Yeah, we dress him down and I dress up. Okay. You don the mask. You get the uniform off. He's a giggling fool in whatever you spare him. I'm just curious to see how many coins he has a coin on him. Just a drop. There is one around for bribes. So go ahead. You could put that in the tabular also. I don't care who gets it. Actually, you could put it anywhere. I'm assuming he had it. Keep it in your pocket. I'm putting in my pocket. Maybe you planned on giving it to the next person coming up and it sucked because I have no money right now. Well, now you do. It's not a bad idea. Yeah. It's now that Gordon manages to catch up to you folks that the wardens have managed to capture the spirit. Okay, Gordon. Where are they? Because busy needs to go over and talk to him. We're still in a controlled position. So you can decide how much time we have realistically within the fiction that you managed to lock the door behind them and they have to get their way out or whatever. Yeah. I'm marching back and forth trying to, is this the walk? Just the look. I think I got it. I think him without a mask on and with manacles on it, he looks like a completely different person. Obviously, want to change his clothes as well. Yeah. As long as we take his overcoat off and drag him through the city, he won't make a damn difference to anybody. Or get a cab and just put the party. Don't you want a chance to study some more of his mannerism is busy or you're just gonna. With his mask off is something I wanted to get to. There's a flicker of a memory for you, Hadrian. And it's rough because it's not your memory. It's practices. Oh, Lord. But your roots are digging into his brain. It's got to dig a little deeper. Do you have any consort? Just one point. Oh, I will say the Tesla can also make a role here of the same category. She has any. What role is it again? Controlled consort. Control consort. So consort. Limited standard. It's limited effect for you. I think it's standard effect for Tesla. Hadrian has a brain that's actually connected to the rest of her body. This is true. Hadrian has a role to straight six for his limited success as his vines go crawling into the subcategories of memory. I had a partial success with a four or five and a one. So five. Okay. You're going to remember different things because you're in different positions in this organization. But this was a Moreland's College of the Unseen Arts professor going by the name of Dr. Lysander. And this might burn for you a bit, Tesla, with your patron, Lord Pender and had a jovial relationship with Dr. Lysander. Neither of you know too much about his home life, but from what Hadrian can remember, he specialized in the binding or how biology reacts with spirits possessing them. How especially relevant Dr. Lysander Hamilton, he seemed to be learning about how life essence is drained by ghosts, how it's interacted with just the border between the physical and the dead. Okay. Had a jovial relationship with your mentor, apparently he seems to be the one who was sent to hunt him down. Just so I'm clear, Dr. Lysander Hamilton, was he part of Charter Hall University? Was he part of the, oh, he, so he wasn't a member of the archive of echoes. No, he was, you were both in the university, the archive of echoes is kind of a cult. It had special dispensation by the emperor to do research. It was essentially a subwing of Moreland's unseen philosophies. He was the head of it, and there were several members who could practice in the archive of echoes, you among them. It had cult-like features as they had their own private meetings and membership outside of the university occasionally. What would they call it again? The wing of the university was Moreland's unseen philosophies. It's just a particular wing. There's like an alchemy college. There's a craft college. Yeah, there's multiple divisions of this university. Charter Hall, it's the name of an entire district that it resides in. There are legal divisions that operate strongest with the people of the city, and the rest is generally academic shit that is useful in the empire at large, profitable, no doubt. A lot of guilds hire from here. But he used to work there. You don't know much about his family life, unfortunately. He used to work there, and he run that particular... He wasn't the dean or anything. He was another professor. Just a professor. But with this knowledge, you can probably go to Charter Hall and figure out where he should go home to at the end of the day. Got it. That'll be something during the end of score cleanup, but yes, there is a little bit of urgency as we have Gordo come back, and our friends are done dealing with the spirit. Looks like I got to go back up and rendezvous, folks. I'm going to go to the university and get some information about where Dr. Havilton lived, so you can have an abode to return too busy. Yeah, but hopefully he doesn't have a family or anything he's going back to because I don't look like him. Well, if he does, no, you don't. But also, that'll be a big problem because they will alert the authorities if he doesn't come back home, obviously, and they'll know something is a mess, so let's hope that he was a bachelor. Well, I'm going to see if I can finish his rounds, make my way out, and then we'll rendezvous and see what you guys have found out. Perhaps you should be seen leaving the city. That's an interesting thought. Busy in zone. Maybe getting on a train with the mask on. But, you know, we still got information and things to find out here. So if I left the city, then he'd be just gone, then the job would be over and not in a good way. Briar, Gordon, the three of us have to get this gentleman to our where we're going to put him. Our hideout, maybe? Well, I assume our hideout, but I mean, near the creature? No. No. No. Probably even. We'd have to. No. Busy. I'm sure we could lock him and something. Yeah, we'll take him to just our HQ and the board. Are we not killing him? No, I asked that as well. Not yet. Okay. Then we can hold him prisoner in our boat and keep him hopped up on fucking trans powder, I suppose. Ooh, nice idea. Yeah. That's a good idea. I'm not long term, gentlemen. It doesn't work long. Ladies. Jesus, you're both ladies. We are. Yeah. Gordon isn't. But hey. I'm bad at this language. Lame it on the language. Yeah. It's a good cover. Hm. Anyway, I can keep him contained for now. This is not a good long term solution. It's not our HQ. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Temporary it is. Let's get this show on the road. All right. I actually have a uniform that when I used to be a blue coat, so I'm going to look like a blue coat that's carrying a prisoner. That's probably something they've questioned you about when they pulled you in. Where's my uniform? Yeah. They need that. They need your badge and your uniform. Well, they probably have my badge, but I'm sure I kept the uniform, so at least someone looking at me would assume I'm a blue coat. You'd be like, I burned that damn thing. Exactly. Yeah. No, I don't have it. I destroyed it because you're all assholes. Something like that. And just to find you. Here's a coin. Leave me alone. What are you going to do? Leave me. They arrest you. As a matter of fact, we can. All right. We call cab, I suppose. If we want to take our drunk friend home that way, or we can just walk home pretty far, question mark. I want to make sure that he's locked up, just escorting our friend face. I'm heading to the college. So I'm going to disengage from this plan and get some information on the doctor. I'm going to send my ass Gordon or somebody to just keep an eye on me when I run the voo and get going just to make sure there's no hiccups. Oh, I think Gordon would be the best choice. Yeah. All right. We'll do that. Me and Ghost will escort him. I am nine miles of conspicuous, so I'd prefer to perform overwatch from afar with my various fires while I make my own way home. But that would be dangerous. What if I get accosted? Let's just go together. Okay. But with that, you've decided to head back to your HQ. Yes. Specifically, Hadrian and Ghost. Cool. Busy and Gordon are going to stick together. Not arm and arm, but in the same area. I think Gordon, you're in the background, right? You're hidden. And keep it. I am going to go rough tops or whatever. Yes. Keep an eye on them. Okay. I can offer teslin to give light of my fire in her lantern and take it with her. I can provide overwatch, spy around, make sure nobody sticks up on you while you're stealing documents. That's an interesting complication. I'm fine with that. Sure. It sounds cool. Good. Now I'm in two places. Yeah. That was kind of your power now. Let's start with the immediacy of Gordon and Busy reconnecting with this group and trying to pass off Busy as the new Degas. I think we want to pass them off as the old tailors. Yeah. Obviously. The new one improved. The new Degas passing is the old. So your crew meets up with you in the alley. They end up shattering a second story window. They've got like a rolled up ladder that they hang out the window and start climbing down. The first one to get down reports to you. It's only a matter of time before this district runs down, such as it is, sir. I've talked to this guy before. I've seen this guy before. I don't know if he's like nice with people or addicted to his people or people in general. So whatever personality he tries to. Yes, the dickishness in the orders you give to his people. You have a disconnectedness of what they have to do and just order them around. And he tries to make sure everyone survives. He is warden Esteban because you kind of person would say, Oh, geez, you need to take you along or see the kind of person to be like, well done, just expected, you know, let's go. You're the rougher sort. Yeah. It's all business, right? Yep. You rub shoulders with much more important people than your squad. They've kind of rubbed off on you. The important people, not your squad. Yes. I guess I would just say as the matter been handled. He presents you with a spirit bottle. We've wrangled another one, sir, ready for the incinerator. Excellent. It's the on our way. Hopefully we won't have any more distractions on our way back. He hesitates. This one doesn't seem of much import from what it had to say, but it's always worth presenting to our superior officers beforehand. You know, they swirl things away just in case sometimes he's basically saying I should take this jar to our superiors and give it to them. Is that what he's saying? Yeah. Apparently some bottles disappear rather than getting incinerated and he doesn't know what this one's about. I'm going to look at the bottle and say it doesn't sound like and look like it was much of a hassle. Basically, I'm going to say that I think higher ups are busy or something and then I don't think this is that big of a deal and worth their time and I don't think it's that big of a ghost that would require or be something that would be interested in. The underlings provide some of a sigh. Yeah, I'd rather be something a little bit more important and a little bit more worth their time and effort than this be easily, but I don't think I want them talking to the spirit, right? Probably not since it came from your ally, right? The lower wardens give a sigh as like they've heard such before and they are feeling like their struggle was belittled. Right. Which it has done. Yeah, but Esteban steps in and says, yes, sir, as you say, sir, you have more experience with this stuff. I think you know what our benevolent leadership desires. Yes, would I tell them to dispose of it or would I just take it? I don't know what he would normally do or what beard mortars would normally do. Your job is to dispose of it at the end of the patrol. Yeah, so I think I would just take it and I'll take care of it either way. Thank you, sir. Please do. All right, let's be on our way. This is where the role happens to make sure you blend in. Am I consorting with my friends and contacts or am I trying to sway? They think you're a friend in contact. You will be consorting. I am in the sky, so can I get a die for that? Your effect is going to be increased to great effect for your leadership here. I have the special ability of cloak and dagger when I use my disguise or covert misdirection. I get a plus one to my roles to use or deflex this mission. Yes, you get an additional dice. As long as you've checked off your disguise kit. Yeah, I'll do that. I will hit consort and I will add a modifier of one. I'm risky position now, right? I know. Am I still in control for this score? Because of how smoothly it's gone, you're still in control. And standard effect. Yep. Well, you are in great effect because you're a superior to them. 4, 2, 1, and 5, so I guess a 5. This has a minor complication, a reduced effect, or you suffer less harm. You end up in a risky position. This is not necessarily or if we can come up with more than one. Right now, I think that you are in a risky position because Esteban has been with you when you've bribed the dimmer sisters who normally keep this district quiet. So he's wondering if they aren't doing their job or if you are going to sell the spirit to them. So basically, he's asking me that. He's not asking you that. It's when we meet up with, because you do have one more place to hit up and it's meeting up with the dimmer sisters and now you have to pretend like you're someone they know who's not right, but he's going to be keeping an eye on you as you have this confrontation with them normally. Normally, Douglas sends them off, but he wants to know what you're up to with this bottle. So he's going to be spying. That being said, this is very obvious to Gordon, who is keeping a distance and following behind. So when we get to the scene where you have that meeting with the dimmer sisters and pay them off with the coin you grabbed, Gordon will have an opportunity to intervene. Just something, I don't know what Gordon will come up with, but make sure Warden Esteban does not complicate your affairs. Yeah, I'm just up on the roof picking my nails with a knife. Yeah, they are having much too long conversation for your liking and eventually they start heading down the road, but it's one of those descending rooftops from a hill where you can just kind of hip hop to the next top as you go down toward the water line where the dimmer sisters have a satellite like outpost. With that, we should head to the people escorting their drunk friend out of six towers, which is to say, Ghost and the majority of Briar. Most of me. You probably head down to the arms of the weeping lady. The Grey Roberts Lane is a heavily trafficked area, has a bridge over to Charter Hall. And there are nobles who make patronage here as part of their religious practices. It is basically the city's only medical care for free, a charity organization that is named after the first lady governor of the city who you all summoned as a ghost back when you were having moon tide escapades with Lord Penderon. But this group worships her as a sort of suffering mother seeking to taking care of the poor and wounded and ill. The Weapers are not a forgotten god cult. They are like a modern god cult sort of deifying the weeping lady as a ghost who has survived incineration, historically, the spirit wardens were founded after the weeping lady ran the city. So, like, there wasn't an incinerator for her to go in back then. But they did have whispers that got rid of spirits. The gondoliers are an age old organization that kept the spirits at least under control. But you've seen her. She manifests and they have miracles to attest to her continued existence. But from here, there are many carriages and gondolas operating to take rich patrons hither and yawn as well as the middle class who can afford such. Is there any chance? I mean, I know there's quite a lot of them here, but any that we've dealt with before, who we know won't share any of this information where they're taking us. I think Ghost in particular has escorted people who've been savaged by narrative wells to be taken care of because you don't have the hospice care yourself. Right. So you know a couple of Weapers that are trustworthy? Well, I find one. So they can give us a ride. I manage the stumblingful, try to keep his hood up. Almost sick and drought. They've fallen from noble status. Hers was an upjumped alchemist family before they were slammed down by the city council. But her family continues patronizing the weeping lady and she herself is sleeps here. She's made it her life. If anyone had a vice, hers would be duty and it's here. So you've brought people to her before. She's a doctor of sorts, much more trustworthy than sawtooth who keeps fixing up your enemies. Sawtooth will fix up anybody, right? Yeah. No bad. Yeah. It's more about the money for him. But second drought has never received wages, she just receives food and supplies from the weeping lady. And she can be quiet about certain affairs for you. Okay, Breyer, I assume that you could provide her with food since that's what we use to pay her. She's also in desperate need of alchemicals more often than not. I mean, I make all sorts of alchemicals in my labs. I have production methods other people would quail at and also don't know more importantly. I could get her some alchemicals food. I don't have a garden set up. That was a long term idea once we get Starlight's house set up. Okay. I thought that was something you're working on, but it is. It's a long term problem once we get a garden set up under Starlight's pen, which we don't even have set up. Why are we bribing the same lady and bribing? Why are we donating to this young lady's cause? Is she going to give us a ride, Jim? That's what I was. She can organize such a she's gotten folk home before. She can do that for you. Okay. I just heard of her skills as a medic and I was like, that's not what we currently want. Right. Kind of have the same problem. Breyer, what we want to do is use her services. She can definitely get someone to help us get this individual to our hideout without any knowledge going to anybody. So, yes, but she's trustworthy. I've used her before and it would be very beneficial to helping influencer by offering some of the things you suggested. Sure. I'm just worried about her association with ghosts and our bad association with the reconciled. I don't understand the weeping ladies position upon the reconciled, but I trust that you trust her. Let's do our thing. Yeah. I have kind of an arm around this guy because he's obviously not doing so great and he's still very drug, so he's not doing great. So I go over to Alma and say, I need some assistance of it all possible to get this individual taken care of in the sense of we want to get them somewhere. Can you find us a good source of driving us where we want to go? She props up in his jaw, asks him to click his tongue while he does so dutifully. She takes a sniff at his breath. This lad's going to need alcohol. I understand. Myself could use some alchohast, this is not something that's forthcoming in my supplies. That's why I want to get him to the place where Breyer, a friend of mine has that ability. Breyer, you could provide that to Alma as well. Can you not? Of course. An alchohast is a necessary ingredient to many a concoction, a good base for many a potion and a fine suker to most ills. Many of the people we get in here are overdosing from some such or another and alchohast is what they need. This fellow, if you want him on his feet quickly, we'll need it, but that's what we're trying to go. Yes. We give him a day or so he'll be cogent enough. I understand, but that's my point is we want to get him to safety. So if you could help us get him there, we can assist you with that particular chemical. Do you have any consort, one point, ghost? No. You're not only friendly to this person, you don't have any positive relationship with. No, but I talked to her before and perhaps I just start being a little more forceful because that's kind of what I do. It's vitally important that we get him there as soon as possible. Could you please assist us? If you want your friend to take over, he can. Oh, that's fine. Yeah, he can. I feel like we need your help. Also, I'm going to roll command now as a bad look if you have more command by all means. I'm pretty sure a bandolier is enough to give you three doses of drug. Yes, it is. All right, so in that case, I will use the UI we're using has difficulty with that for listeners. Foundry has an alternative UI that is a little more helpful than as default if you want to look in modules, but it does not have multiple uses of a substance, unfortunately. And Foundry is the application we're using instead of using a virtual tabletop called Foundry, yes, I just realized I don't want to give her any fucking alcohol because then why didn't I give to this guy, which is why I'm like, why did we bring this guy here? Maybe you can pop two potions and be like, I'll spend this one on him, then here's yours. Thank you. You could play ignorant. Aren't they saying they're trying to get him to a place to administer him this drug and so we could just take him in to give him the drug and then I'll come back out with your gross, because they're just trying to using her for transport, right, that's the main thing. Yeah, I didn't understand exactly the tangle of things he was trying to communicate while I was also trying to figure my own way out of this part. I was just trying to figure a way to sweeten the deal because I can roll sort of one. But you were going to get increased effect if you can consult of one and give her an increased effect, it will be somewhat risky because she is always concerned for the health of patients. And this is the first time that Esther has brought someone who is not here to be healed. Correct. All right, I'm going to go hold hog on it then as I roll a single vial of alcohol cast out and offer it to her, and I say, I would be more than willing to help your patients. And even more willing than that to get a danger like this off the streets if you would help us. And as he does, there is a sinister smile that leaks out of his ghost flame ephemera that's normally very little leaking out here or there to convey much of anything. This time it blooms out into a dangerous, jump or smile as he rolls the vial through his slender fingers and offers it to her. I roll a consort, I'm going to say it stays risky, but bigger effect. It is great effect. It is risky. If you want to be leading a group action, there could be an additional die from Esther rolling her own one die and consort, question mark zero. I have zero and consort, but I might not be useful, never mind. No, it doesn't sound like it. But I mean, I have command if I have to insist that she stay here and take care of people, you just need to get home and you need to help us. We'll leave that for a follow up, if there is one need. You can't assist me with how much stress you have. No, unfortunately I can't. That was why I was suggesting the meeting, but actually I could. You can take one in that? I have two before I hit a trauma, so I could do one. I would rather find a Devil's Bargain. A Devil's Bargain. Okay. The Devil's Bargain here would be that Lysander is recognized as an exorcist by someone other than Olma, a clock for later. Ooh, that is a Devil's Bargain. I could see making an enemy of Olma, like me personally. She just likes how the demon is infesting this fucking human, who as far as she can tell us still alive, and then I would ask, "I mean, it's reasonable because she took a smell and knew what drug he was on." She could also smell it on Briar in his pockets or... If it's a four-clock and you're okay with that, yes. Four-clock, she doesn't like me. Honestly, I already have enough enemies. I'd rather somebody notice this guy we're trying to keep subtle. Reasonable? Okay. That is a six. She's in the spooky category, and I don't particularly want to piss off this ghost. She doesn't really seem to deserve it. So I will instead make enemies for our prisoner. No, she's an unusually kind person, so... Yeah, she seems to be more up our alley than the other ghosts I've been pissing off, despite my ghost predator nature probably pissing her off anyway. So that's an additional die for weepers. Seek out Degellos. I didn't assume weepers. At first, I assumed it was going to be somebody else who was using the weepers as a recovery station on their way back to Charter Hall like another mysterious one. No, it's people who are supplying their services to the weepers. Okay. That doesn't matter. It's your decision. Regardless, I flash my sinister smile and explain the dangers of this individual in exactly no words other than implication. That adds plus one dice. I'm rolling too. It is risky. My effect is great. I rolled a 4 for partial success on the second dice. Thank God I rolled too dice. There's a consequence. You suffer harm, a complication, you have reduced effect, or you end up in a desperate position. I could see you scaring up ghosts with my display. I am merely going to add two ticks to this clock. I could see that too. It was pretty brazen. Okay. That's two out of six of this weepers. Seek out Degellos' clock. And now it's a four. And now it's a four o'clock. Now we take them back to our HQ like brilliant people. The brilliance of this particular clock is that if busy ends up assuming the role of Degellos, he may end up performing whatever Lysander needs to do for the weepers. Depends on how deeply he assumes this role. True. I didn't know the weepers had desires for Degellos. He's performed exorcism duties as a whisper before. Yeah. Oh. Oh. I didn't think of them as a wizard. I never assumed any wizard would sit down and work for the fucking spear wardens. But I suppose as a professor of Charter Hall, he may have been. In fact, many of the higher ups of the spirit wardens will end up being whispers. But that's for us to find out. That's fucking corruption all up in there is what that is. Anyway, without any knowledge that someone weavers spotted Degellos. Right. Lysander. I simply praise Breyer and say that you did a great job. Normally she wants to heal somebody right there. So we were able to get him away and where we want him to be. So thank you. You did much better than I could apparently do. He's got to make clear that he's a threat to her and hers. And she won't want him in the neighborhood. True enough. With that, a cabbie has delivered more than one overdosed noble back home and drives you all back to Brightstone. No questions asked. Perfect. Just so you know, once we get there, we do keep him locked up to something so that he can't escape if we somehow fail to right. But absolutely, Breyer, how often do we have to give him that particular medication? Oh, let me work out a schedule that won't actually ruin his brain. And then I'll tell you how often we need to give it to him. Sounds good. I don't have a problem with you all working out a dosage. That's fine. Good. I say, give me 30 cats. How quickly they die. Dr. Breyer, let me do some tests. Like I don't want to do it on people. Let's go, ghost. And get you just read the description on the bottle. It's chemical he's making. If it came from a pharmacy, maybe you made this dipshit. You figure it out. I'm sorry. Should I say it's a chemical they are making? Are you? You could. It would be safer. I ended up with a different gender at some point. Understood. I've lost out with these two metal bodies. This Breyer has possessed a couple of bodies. It remains to be seen where they land up. I think currently you're a he, but yeah, we'll just say they. I was thinking of doing a chick next time, but then everyone was like, oh, I use Breyer. I'm sorry. That's the wrong name. Thank you. Practice. So, practice his body. Did I use? Well, one thing you didn't learn to control is your element. So you might burn this one up too. Oh, yeah. That's why I built this furnace in the chest here that keeps me from, I just got a, oh, speaking of which he takes a break from the cat experiments to refill the furnace with some coal and some probably charcoal is the easiest thing for him to make. All right. Don't want to take up too much time. No, we're good. Then successful. Thank you for listening tonight's of the night actual play podcast. If you'd like to send us questions, comments or feedback, you can reach us at a number of ways including Twitter at KOTN underscore podcast or you can join our Facebook page which is Facebook.com slash KOTN dot podcast. And while on Facebook, you can join like-minded folks at our fans page at Facebook.com slash groups slash KOTN fan. And lastly, there's our block which is found at KOTN podcast dot com. And please remember to join us next week for more mystery and adventure. Here, I'll burn that bridge when we get to it. Yeah, per regular people say everyone's hello. It's an easy thing to fuck up on purpose. But we're not regular people, I guess. I know I'm not playing make believe as adults. Wait, is that what we're doing? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, there's lots of rules to make it cozy, but that's what we're doing. I'm good with that. Oops, I knocked over a cup. This is all a farce and- It's official. Let's go back to work. Yeah, it happens even over the mic. You did hear it, huh? I heard you say it. That was an empty cup, so other possible titles for this episode were available for voting on the Facebook nights of the night fans page. And the titles were out without being found out. Time to split the party. We will rendezvous and see what you guys figure out. Good, now I'm in two places. No, it will probably eat him. And I can see that it's pretty brazen.