Time to question the prisoner - or will he end up being another clueless pawn of the enemy?
Knights of the Night
220_WoD3_KotN_True_Old_God
This world of darkness story, The Sin Eater, was written and run by her storyteller Scott. And now, please enjoy episode 220, titled "The True Old Gods." Actual play begins 12 minutes, 39 seconds. This week's feedback from kotampuckets.com, Eric E. wrote in and said, "I just wanted to say thank you for being my driving companion for the past few years. Your group's antics in compelling storytelling has kept me awake and made the hours pass quickly as I drove from Iowa to Maryland, roughly 16 straight hours of cheese to the oven." That's a haul. And that's some pretty boring country. Very flat. Ohio, Indiana. We're in Ohio. So I'm... Indiana, Indiana. In Indiana. Right. Illinois. It's pretty flow. This is in Ohio, mostly corn. Indiana's all corn, except for Indianapolis. Okay. There goes the school in New York, and she says all of her friends sing, "So Ohio is nothing but corn." Well, they're not entirely right. I've never seen corn at all. Oh, that's not... She had tomatoes too. Aras Tilton also posted on kotampuckets.com. I have to say, it's laughing because his first name is nothing but initials. I would agree. He said it. I agree with the sentiment. I listened to it at work while I'm drafting for nine hour days, and I love that I can have a quality gaming podcast to listen to with great production values. I'm on the West Coast, but I hope I can get to one of the kinds you guys attend and game with you. That'd be fun. I love it. Yeah. Well, I mean, we go to the Buffalo one, and I'm not sure how much longer the kind of the kind of the kind I'm just going to survive in Ohio. Yeah, it sounded kind of shaky when we went to it last, but I've been getting some stuff on the email stuff, so they're going to have it. Origins. Columbus, we did that one year. We did that one year, but we don't have to put it. And we're not doing GenCon ever again, because that stupid governor. I don't even know the story. We won't even speak of it. It's a lie. He's lying. No, I'm not lying. He did sign it. It is now in effect. What is it that businesses can turn away people based on their sexual orientation? Well, fuck that guy. In Indiana? Yeah. And GenCon is like, well, that's the very issue why he doesn't know you're going somewhere else, you asshole. Yeah. Good for them. Do you know where they're going? Especially because they have a contract until five years out, but they are talking about it. Based on their religious-- I think they have a right to reject customers based on their religious-- Don't. I'm not defending this guy. I'm just saying don't store owners or businesses typically reserve a right to refuse service to people for any number, like no shirt, no shoes, no service. They don't even really lie. Yeah, but I think it's in to-- No shoes, no gays. No shoes, no gays. But it doesn't matter. Yeah, when it gets into your civil rights, when it gets into your civil rights, when it gets into your civil rights, it's no longer defendable from a constitutional stamp. Believe me, I am not coming down on the side of defending this guy. I didn't-- My client said it's not that at all. It just happens to be a coincidence that this bill went into effect right after, you know, gay marriage was-- You know that? Well, it's not that. It's the state legislature. Well, they passed it and they signed it, yeah, I mean it's not the same type of-- Well, I'm sorry, because legislative passed gay marriage and then said, but you can totally turn away people based on their orientation. What the fuck are they doing down there? It might have been a vote among the people that, you know, like a referendum. I'm sure I would have heard about that. Wasn't it? Because KOTN is-- It's all about politics. No, about acceptance and love and-- Well, when you're talking about civil rights, yes, I think that no institution or no secular institution should restrict-- it should be equal for all. The law should apply equally to everybody. However, if a religious institution chooses not to have a gay marriage, the Catholics will not let you get married in a church. Oh, no, that's reasonable. That sucks. But that's-- Well, yeah. It's their viewpoint just like, but I think all right, that's-- Yeah, I guess it was about a business establishment-- Yeah, that's wrong. --based on that. That wouldn't even stand up-- Well, it just bleached some of the owners of the company. Mm-hmm, yeah. That wouldn't stand up in the spring form if you got that. It feels un-American to me. Yeah, it's that what we're about, man. But fuck that guy. Fuck him. Did he even bring this up? But I will reject this. No, no, I can't. You did. He said it right out. He traveled for Iowa. Yeah. He traveled for Iowa. It's your fault. It is absolutely my fault. Well, we were talking about-- because he said he wanted to see us at a time. Right. So I think the best way he might have a chance at would maybe be origins if we go back to that or the one in Buffalo. QCC in Buffalo. Right. So you guys do since then, do you want time, too, or no? But just-- that's Ohio's Queen City. I'm getting confused with the Queen City that Buffalo calls itself, which is New York's Queen City. It's a different Queen. Right. Our Queen's better. It's Queen of New York, as opposed to the same Ohio. Facebook, Episode 219, kicked in the Jimmy. Yes. What a title. REJ, as opposed to all the other REs, posted and said, "With me tonight, starting at my right, very poetic. P.S., thanks for all the Finland bashing." Oh, yeah. No problem. We hit that button. We're doing it again. You kept that bit? I kept it that way. You said something about fucking Finland. Actually, I put it at the end, but apparently-- With their craggy coastline and their fjords. I just want to say, for the record, that I enjoy Scandinavian women. Women? Yeah? Fujazen is right. But also, I enjoy Scandinavian movies and music. Cereals? Not cereals as in food, but cereal kiwisias, Norwegian cherries, the infamous-- And everything off the skin. --speedish, meatballs. No, actually, I like the Scandinavian culture quite a bit. And left side, ludefus, giving it all that fun. You don't like one of those, too. I think it's the ludefus. No one likes this. No one likes this. Swedish fish. All you will-- I believe you described it as an abominable kiwis. Oh, yeah. The Swedish fish. I bet they don't even eat those in Sweden. They're probably made in England. There's no way. I'm a definitive, ugly American. I just want to say, for Ari, that most of us around the table enjoy the Finland-ish culture. Except people, except for Thomas, who-- he's never-- I don't know if he's ever been. He never been. I don't know if any of us are related to have some Swedish. Swedish. Yes. I'm not in significant person. I don't. Dan was a quarter, right? Norwegian Swedish. Yeah. No, what was half? Dan was half Swedish? Yeah, half Irish. Yes. Okay. So it was half Irish, half Swedish. And mom was-- A hundred percent check. That must've been a fun boat ride. All right. And back to Facebook, Kevin B posted and said, "Well edited. I was super excited when we got to the Roberto and Demon private moment with Silverbell, and the audience would finally get a peek behind the curtain and actually learn some stuff about her new power. A few minutes of scrambled audio later left me even more in the dark than before." Okay. Do they understand how to unscramble it? Or is it still a mystery? More than a few people have suggested they knew how to unscramble it, and the reason I did it the way I did it is because those who want to spoiler can spoil it for themselves. But basically it was Scott and Rachel going aside and Silverbell saying some things that I thought was way too revealing, so I scrambled it a bit. That was pretty good. I gave her a demon voice and she's speaking in tongues, and therefore reinforcing the view that she should-- You're a evil. The other day when I revved you, and it doesn't really take a whole lot of-- Well, no, I'm sure. If anyone is stumped, they can go to the fan page, I'm sure, and see some of the separate ideas. They're now-- They've got to do the work. There's probably transcripts up by now. They've got to do the work. There might be transcripts up. Yeah, as a listener, I have nothing to do with editing, so I can say this. That was very well edited to the whole. Yeah, I like the way it turned out. I get some unique decisions. Kevin B continues. "Such trolling." Wow. I thought I caught a few words in reverse. Was she just thematically edited to speak backwards in those sections or scrambled in some other way? Do I just say, you know, she actually spoke the whole thing backwards as you don't sky? She is a talented young lady. She can hear that very much. She's bilingual. She has that about. Bilingual. She goes in backwards. Yeah. Also, in my defense regarding the end of the session outtakes, from when Rachel showed back up, I put the part when I thought it was actually her wife that was doing the same thing down here. She was talking about feedback. I know she wasn't at the scene when the three members of the team were captured. I met that when the second team showed up at the Western Union and saw the whole first team was missing and something had gone very, obviously and very horribly wrong. They investigated the scene, found broken glass with Edgard's name written on it, that interrogated the first drone who knocked on the door and determined that the first team had been captured by the shattered man. And then Silver Beltran invisible and started casting spells without saying what she was doing. Rewinding an hour or two at that point would have saved the first team. It also would have saved Jay from permanent blindness in one eye. She admits she has the power to rewind time at that point. Now, whether she can really rewind time that much or whether you believe her when she says she can't rewind time that much, that's another matter. But I feel enough that's been said about Silver Belt just clarifying what I meant. And at this point, even I am sick of all the horse beating. Yeah. No horses were injured in the making of this episode. But yeah, I mean, I think, well, you got one true fan in Michael Clay, I mean, you think she's evil. Why are you trying to start a fuck? I'm not. I'm just saying you think she's evil. I don't think she's evil. I just don't think. I don't know what she's in. She hasn't given me clear. I don't think she's forthcoming. I don't think she's telling us the truth. Those are quite. She's definitely. Here's the thing, it's a character created by Scott, so it's either got to be a dick or evil. Well, driving over here tonight, I also thought it's something kind of what we talked about earlier. And I, he mentioned it in the feedback, which was she has a, she has a time power. When we first got here, something happened where, you know, she, you know, binary hex seems to be able to hack people as we encountered with the drone that we needed. Someone seems to be able to hack people, because we've now encountered it twice. And so I'm thinking something happened on that fateful trip, our first trip through time, and I'm wondering, did she get hacked by, by this person? And her power was somehow augmented. So while she is telling the truth that she is not responsible, she was still the tool by which it occurred, very interesting. But since we had no context, then we didn't know that she could have been hacked. But this entity seems to have the ability to hack people through space and time. And the reason that Rachel isn't commenting on any of this is she's not here for this particular topic. Her time is bloody because she's biting it so hard. No, she's not here for this particular topic. No, yeah. She told me to shut the fuck up. Already long before then, you wouldn't have got that sent us out. Which I will just end with at the end of the feedback, I would take a moment to say happy birthday Mike. Happy birthday. Happy birthday Mike. We have a t-shirt to give away if Michael will take out the magical signing dice and all that. And the winner of the t-shirt this month is Paul Bennett. All right. Paul Bennett. Paul Bennett. Into the chapel. Go. He is currently releasing a podcast called Sword Nut. Sword Sword Nut Radio. Yeah. With the explicit tag I hope. I believe. Paul Bennett was also the one that did the little sheets and rolls. Yes. I believe you're right. You gave you. Yeah. And we'll get the five phrases he wants on the back of the t-shirt and get that out to him as soon as possible. With that, we'll remind everyone, Patreon, Amazon, Link, all that fun stuff. Thank you for all your support. And we'll get under the episode. Oh, and happy Easter to those of you who celebrate. This is the world of darkness story, the cinneter, your storyteller, Scott. Give me tonight's starting on my right is Michael playing Ethan Clark, a medical doctor and a member of Aegis Kideros since 1929. Tom playing Jay Alton, a member of the ascending ones. I am Jim playing Katie O'Connor, a member of the Alias Alpha Karam. This is Mike playing Michael Clay, the academic adventure from the Aegis Kideros. Thomas playing Edgar Montes, if we're doing practitioner on a number of the latest three conspiracy. It's Bob playing FBI Special Agent Chew Park, a member of the Basky conspiracy. John playing Daniel Morgan, a mountain man turned mercenary and ex-member of Task Force Valkyrie. Rachel playing Silver Bell, angsty and awesome time slipping teenager. That changed. Slipping. I'm a flipping modest. I guess that's the role good, huh? I guess you will. Well, you were very successful the last time you did. So have you determined your three modifiers? Yes. One quick question. Ethan, are you intending on getting involved with this? I'm sorry, no quick. It might help Chew if you decide what tact you're going to take to start off with and then people can know whether who's going to be best to help you and age you in your endeavor. Yes, Mr. Clay. Did the doctor, Ethan, administer the sodium pentathol? He's under the influence of sodium pentathol. What is sodium pentathol? Treats, yeah. For lack of a better word, it's a truth. No, it's not magic. It's something that's real. It has mixed results. We get a bonus on it? He might be. I will give a bonus for that and equipment bonus for that, correct? Resistance to questioning. You're kind of low-y and you just answer the questions as they're presented. You don't really get to think and try your functions are unparalleled. I wouldn't say impaired, you can't lie effectively. The reason I was asking about Ethan is I have two lethal damage shows, opening the sister and/or Ethan could go on another rum and do some healing just for you to leave more rum and hair. You don't want to be involved in an interrogation of the key suspect. I don't want the sister anywhere near anybody who's going for an interrogation. Well, I'm sure you can convince her with your sincerity of your wounds. Well, Jim can be the one who determines that, but Jamie's healing. I have two lethal, but we're interrogating this guy. I shouldn't do realize that, but he is not a canine. I'm not going to take heart in the interrogation, but I'd like to be present while they're questioning him. Social combat. Make him do it. I have no problem with you staying here, but anybody who's not involved with this, which is true and whoever he chooses his system, needs to keep quiet. No problem. I was stable to a tree for quite some time, so I'm not really interested in this. Yeah, I was a guy too over on the other tree. I was there before you, and then you fell into the neighborhood. I was there. I got to do a pharmaceutical interrogation. Wait a minute. I'm confused with the set to do with the interrogation here. I may not be up to speed as to what's going on. What questions? Exactly. Well, why don't you prep him? Well, I'm saying who would you like to assist you? Pick two people. Well, how are you going to approach it? What's your best social skills to approach this social combat? What are we using? Are we using the same numbers? Yes. That you would be using it for a system? Yeah. Yes. If you want to use the same exact numbers that you're using because you're trying to aid it, like if he's using interrogation and being forceful, you want to look somewhat menacing. You might want to say, oh, we could always just take a finger off Jim. It's just things like that, or you're aiding his attempt to be aggressive. I think I'd rather be the good cop. Well, Daniel's a bad cop. What? I'm a teddy bear. Fucking scary teddy bear. Let's do it. I'm going to go with Daniel. He's pretty good at getting his point going with interrogation. You're going with the forceful? No. You're going to make him think he's not going to get out of here unless he tells us answers. That's plan B. He wants to cover his social bases. I just want to talk to him. I can figure out a lot. You just can't adjust. Turn turn. See, that's the key too, because he can go from being forceful one turn to being understanding another turn. So he can definitely change it. See, if you look at someone who's going to have the highest manipulation, what are the things? Manipulation, maybe, presence. Edgar does. He's kind of shady. He wants to have the highest what? Manipulate. Attribute, right? The attributes that are in the social arena, let me think they're not real quick. I think Edgar would be good for that. Right. Presence, manipulation, composure. Those are the three. So you want someone who has a strong basis in all three of those, that's just possible. And then you want people who also have strong social skills like empathy or interrogation or other type of skills in that realm. Someone who's well rounded in that area would be very useful or someone who's somewhat well rounded area and who knows the time. So like Ethan might be valuable in the sense that he can give you clues as to how to talk to this person the way that they would understand because he understands the 1930s. That might be an option as well. He's probably well rounded and very lopsided in my social abilities and I think we kind of feel the same. I can only pick two. Can I pick two before he becomes cluttered? No. No. I'll make two. Okay. Expression two. Those are all my social skills. I guess I'm going to go with Ethan then. He's more well rounded. Daniel. I'm going to say it's listen wise, guys. Right. Ethan? Right. Daniel. All right. So what first thing you do is you determine intent. So you say what your goal is. It's a short declarative sentence of what you want to occur when you win this. Some examples if you look at the examples on the sheet are I want a seducer. I want to subtly insult her social standing in front of everyone. I want to convince him that he's worthless and leave him depressed. I want to threaten him so he'll stop beating his wife. I want to get her drunk and stupid. I want to buy him. I want him to buy my think Rolex watch for far too much money. So these are all just short declarative sentences. What do you want this particular individual to do? Ultimately, I want him to tell us why he is summoning the shattered man and possibly who he's working with. Okay. So you want him to spill his beans on what he knows about what happened tonight pretty much. The first thing we do is determine who is often the strongest start in the social counter. Does he have to project some sort of strength from his held position or whether you immediately start off on the attack and are able to maintain that type of dominance. So we go ahead and roll for social initiatives. So if you roll one die ten and add your dominance modifier to it. Give him a boost to dude's drop to it. Once I have. Did we search this guy and find out if he had any possessions on him? Yes. His pockets were searched all he had on him was the gun. He had some cigarettes and he had a cross he had an emblem. He was wearing a symbol. What is it? An amulet? It's some sort of yeah some sort of symbol. Can I roll the cult at it or is it? Well you know when he did that so yeah that would be right but do we take that off of him? Is he still wearing it? No one is taking it off of him yet. Shall we take it back? Yeah. Last time. I take his initiative. Is this like initiative? Is this initiative and you get a plus two equipment bonus and the fact that he is or a situational bonus because he is an obvious in a state of weakness. I'm also giving a plus one because there's a large group of people in the room as well which is somewhat intimidating so you get plus three to your roll. Go ahead and roll. Okay and also. Correct. Five. You roll a total of five? A total of five. Alright. With all those plus I gave you you rolled five. Yeah. Plus three. He's making sure so. Alright. I don't know. You add your presence plus manipulation. Your dominance modifier. Okay. So it's nine. Okay. He rolled a six. So thank goodness. You're off to the setting. You've determined dominance in this situation. As you start to talk, Edgard walks behind him and removes his necklace. I'd turn it to the doctor. He quickly looks behind him and looks back towards you and says what the hell is going on? Why don't you tell us? Who are you working with? Go ahead and make your attack roll. So in this case, sounds to me like you're opening up with a fairly innocuous opening. You're not being intimidating at all. You're actually being almost social, would you say? I'm using, I think, persuasion. Okay. Chantal persuasion. Yeah. I'm going to say that that is persuasion and I'm guessing you want to use your sounds like you're using your composure here, chew. So before chew, I mean, chews, goes ahead and says that now the two supporting actors go ahead and make a roll. So both Daniel and the good doctor, Ethan Clark, get to make a persuasion plus composure roll. Any successes add to his diet pool. If you have no successes, you subtract one from his diet pool. Really? But 300 so from mom. Okay. So Mr. Park, I'm sorry, Mr. Morgan gives you two more dice and then Mr. Clark. Daniel, that was two out of three. Yeah. Persuasion plus composure. First three. So your composure is three, right? One. One success. By means of whatever they choose, body language or a word put in here or there, they support your actions of why don't you tell us who you're working for. Go ahead and make your attack. Now you've rolled, how many dice you have in your diet pool? Any equipment bonus still for the sodium penthenol and the fact that he's restrained? Did that just play a part in the dominance moment? I want to say that you get those three dice, at least the start of this social combat as well. So how many total dice do you have in your diet pool? Just to set the picture, this guy has his hands behind his back. Right. Okay. A zip tied, behind a chair behind his back and his ankles are zip tied to the chair as well. So he's feeling quite constrained. 13. Wow. You subtract his social defense, his guile, which is his social defense, which is two. Go ahead and roll. Now whatever successes you roll, two, he then takes damage on his, what they call a nerve in the system, which is your social health. So whatever his nerve is, if you break that down, you then win the social combat. So if you had enough successes on this first roll, you could actually win the social combat before he could really even defend himself. He realizes he's in a completely helpless situation and just spills his guts. Can't say how much willpower I use. Yeah, you can't, because it's a new friendly world of darkness. If you want to use a willpower, that means you can actually, once you know what the diet pool is, you can actually spend a willpower or risk a willpower if you want to. I'm going to risk. Okay. Okay. You get two advantages when you risk. The first is you're going to take three extra dice. I did. And then what's the second advantage, nine again, three successes are critical success. How would the critical success play out here in the social combat? I don't think it does. It's funny. Because in normal combat, it's meaningless to get out critical. Yeah. Right. I would give you more information or I would break him down quicker. I would give you more equipment bonuses later on. Storage. Yeah. I think not again. I thought it was these dice. Okay. Nine again. What's amounts to, I think, 13 or 14? Where you at? Two. Two is a master interrogator. Okay. Go for it, bud. Four, two, three dice. You're going to roll one. What do we got? Well, it wasn't so awesome. I'm going to got nine again. It's a nine. That actually really helped because I rolled three nines and eight and a ten again. So, yeah. Okay. How many extra dice are you rolling? I am rolling four. Okay. Nine and a ten. So you're up to six and two extra dice because you get nine again. Holy shit. Nine and a ten. Uh-huh, yeah. Eight decent. That was... Yeah. One fucking roll. Shut up. Nine. Another nine. And what? The six. Oh, you now have nine successes? It starts whimpering. Or whiting. Eight. Ten successes. That's a double critical success. That was the fastest social combat in the history of social combat because I was looking forward to the give and take in the back and forth and your mother, you know. Oh, right. That's Phil. That's Phil. I mean, they absolutely right there. Sure. What did you say again, please? For the audience because it was so fucking impressive. Oh, uh, why don't you tell us who you're working with. Yeah. That is commanding. Yeah. What he said. How he said it. He said maybe he was like me. Yeah. Well, then he goes in the background with his revolver checking bullets. Right. He's kind of spinning the gun. I'm sure he said it's your in your best interest to let us know. He looks around the room. He looks like down on either side and sees that he is completely helpless and bound and says I was sent by the bishop. Hell yeah. The bishop. Yeah. I go and I crack a mirror and I write a name on it and I leave. It's just that's why I do it. It helps. Who's the bishop? So many questions. Why did you write Edgar's name? I'm a mirror. Who? Who? What? That's not important. Who is the bishop? I don't know. I just I go to the spot where I meet him and he gives me an order. He gives me a name. He gives me a location. I follow because that is the will of the gods. He said gods. What do you mean by the gods and it helps with what? Well it helps ease the suffering of the people. I mean if you've seen the world, the way it is, the state of the world right now, horrible. And if there's anything I can do, if we have ignored the old gods for so long, we have forsaken them. That it is time to let them know that we need them and we care. So we appease the gods of transportation. We worship them and we bring about in the city of Cleveland jobs and opportunity and it's working. Things are getting better. But I recognize our children. What? We don't sacrifice children. What are you talking about? What happens to them? All I know is I go into a location, I crack a mirror, I write a name backwards and I leave. That's all I do. Because the bishop tells you to do this? Well yeah, I mean the bishop, he speaks with the gods. So of course. Was the bishop? I guess not already. You can pass notes. You're there. Yeah. I mean if you think the feuds, all can talk. I mean this guy is broken at this point. So he's just a sputtering bull who's, I imagine, big much more. While he was building his original guts, me and the doctor wanted to look at his neck. I wanted to look at his necklace and try to identify it. Sure. Let's take a quick break. I want to do the necklace thing real quickly. As anyone who want to give chews and gestures, if so, maybe you can just step away really quick and tell him another room that doesn't distract everyone. The case is I can do the amulet/symbol thing. Okay Rachel wants the paper to add a question. Okay. Or do that. Okay. A cult role please. Plus, let's say, intelligence because this would be something you would have learned in a book. What kind of dipoles do we have at this point? That's six. I also am a relic analyst. Would that qualify? Why not? Three right now. For Edgar? Okay. Yeah. I'm at seven dice for me. So, I'm going to say that based on your separate history, I'm going to give an extra die to Michael Clay, based on your background of Aegis Chidor room. Okay. This is a little outside your purview egg guard in that being very low-esque. Go ahead and make your roles please. Because of the esoteric nature of this particular symbol, minus two dice to your role. Now, chance die though for your egg guard straight up. These two are kind of looking at that off to the corner. Those are so hot baby. Eight and a ten again and two successes. Okay, two successes for Dr. Clay. Zero successes for egg guard which isn't surprising. Go about purview. Go out to your purview region. You remember seeing something like this, Michael, in, again, old manuscripts page and two. But this is not old in the sense of, well, it is. It's, there's a blending of what to you looks like old Norse symbology. Like, yeah, room symbols mixed in with a 1930s art deco style. So you've got this symbol that is in a very art decoish type of artistic rendering. But it's, it looks to you for all the world to be a symbol, a Norse symbol referring back to ancient gods of travel, and maybe commerce or something along those lines. It's very vague in your mind. But there's some ancient symbology there that is speaking to you in a Northern Europe type of relic or symbol that reminds you of maybe it was maybe a seafaring god or a god of trade inside. It's hard to say. What's the bridge from West 25th, that's the god's transportation? Sorry. At this time it was called, I believe, the Lorraine Carnegie Bridge. Yeah, it was not. The whole memorial bridge to Hope was still alive at this point is, actually it was named after Bob Hope's father. It wasn't named after Bob Hope himself. But you're thinking of the eight art deco forms that are known as either the gods of transportation or the guardians of transportation. Is the official term of the guardians of transportation. So there are four large pillars that hold up either, two that hold up either end of the bridge. And on either side of the pillar is a huge art deco carving of a guardian of transportation. And in the internship they were already built. Yes, they were actually quite recent because the 20s were the era of art deco mostly. It was fading out of fashion as we got into the 30s. It's actually a very impressive piece of artwork and I'm glad they didn't knock it down in the 70s when some people had suggested they did. They are statues to the guardians of transportation. It's supposed to look over Cleveland because we're based on a lot of automotive and a lot of transportation type of industry back in that time. That's what the guardians were in reference. Well, and this guy mentioned the old gods appeasing them and he specifically mentioned gods of transportation. So I'm paying an answer. Sure, absolutely. It makes perfect sense with what you're seeing this symbol is beating. And the fact that if it's been recently carved and put in here, that might also suggest a few things. Okay, just seems to be working, doing better than we did. I've answered your questions. I would like you to turn to my family as possible. Not yet. We have one question. I don't know anything. It's a cloaked individual who is called the bishop. I mean, what more do you want from me? Where did you first meet him? What do you mean, where did you first meet him? I didn't meet him. I was brought into the church by other members of the church. How many members of this church? Probably, I don't know, we all, like, hey Bob, how's it going? I mean, it's not how it works. We're all cloaked. It's there's some anonymity. But I was approached by someone in the shanties. And they said they had a way that I could help improve life of the people in the city. And I wasn't doing anything anyway, so I thought I could help. So I started attending the meetings. And that's eventually I got to meet the bishop. But it was very minimal. And he asked if I wanted to do more. And I said yes. And then I started running these errands for him. Where do you meet? Well, we, all different places. I mean, sometimes we meet in shanties late at night. Sometimes we meet at the castle. Sometimes we might meet just in a abandoned warehouse. The castle. The castle. Where is the castle? Yeah, how about that? When and where is the next meeting? When is the next meeting? It usually ends up being, he tells one person and they start spreading the word. It's very clandestine because, you know, I think with any unsanctioned religion, there's going to be persecution. People aren't going to understand what we're trying to do to help the city. So it's kind of secretive in a sense. I don't know. I guess it's the answer to that question. I don't know what next meeting is until someone contacts me. What do you do to help the city? You go into these people's houses, you crack a mirror and what? We pray in their houses while they sleep. No, no, no. When we meet together as groups, we have ceremonies. Like a church. It's a church. That's great. What do you do to hear those houses? The mirror vandalism helps out. I honestly don't know. All I know is that since we started doing it, things have changed. It's just been a fortnight and things have started improving in the city. Do you know what else has changed, buddy? Eight children have gone missing. You are facilitating kidnapping of children. I don't think that could be true. I think you're lying to me. You crack the mirrors, you leave immediately? Yeah, I leave immediately. My job is to, I prick my finger, I write the child's name in reverse. You write the child's name? The child's name in reverse in blood on the mirror, and then I go. That strikes me as very ordinary. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Put your mind out of the cup. Hey, hey, hey, hey. What children's name have you written before? Since this isn't the first one you've done. It tells us that, and we say they've been kidnapped, we don't give them any information that he doesn't already know. Just say the children's name and he'll realize. I'm not saying any names. I'm asking him what names has he written before. They're not going to be on the wrong one. I wrote Ruben. Two, I wrote Emma's name tonight, and I wrote Kelly's name, I don't know, like a week ago. That's one of the names. I look over at Clay, is that one of the names? Yes. Both of them. Okay, we're going to your next meeting. What? No, you're not. You're not a believer. You questioned me? Yeah, I questioned you. Yeah, pro. I don't need to fucking believe. We're the people here with the guns. We're going to do foam around all day. I want to do intimidated, but that's not how we want. So I don't know if I can do that now. What church are you meeting in? We make our own churches because we're a persecuted religion. No one believes in the old guys anymore. It's just frowned upon. Like a blessing. We might meet in the shanties at 2 a.m. We might meet in the abandoned warehouse. It's different every time. Why are the places that you've been meeting? We met in an abandoned warehouse over on 25th, maybe like a month ago. We met in the shanties for a midnight vigil. That was about two weeks ago, I believe. And then occasionally we'll be summoned to the castle. That's usually not where we have our ceremonies. But we're like, sometimes we're summoned to the castle and the bishop will give us orders. What about the white king? Who's the white king? You know? I just know that sometimes he's known as the bishop or the white bishop. Maybe it's the same thing. I don't know. No one else ever gives you orders. Ever. No. Chew, did you get through your list? Do we miss this guy's name? He tells you that his name is Eli. And I just really want to get back to my white and kids. What do I haven't done anything wrong? Besides, write a name on a mirror and I'm pretty sure the-- Over the child. Children that I've done missing because of you. Says you. Children have gone missing. I punched him. Okay. He goes, oh! Go looking for those children. You can just talk to their mothers. They're missing. It's a simple thing you can follow up on your own. It hasn't been reported in any newspaper or by the police at all. I believe they're lying. Come. Care. So much about people in the shiny towns you're working to improve. You know they don't care. I don't believe that. Check up on your own. That's all you need to do. Okay. Let me go and I'll go check. I can't. That's not my decision. Actually, do we? No. We're not done. Who are the gods of transportation? Who are these guys? Can I get a sip of water or something, please? I'm out this really dry. We're almost done here. Okay. You're doing great. So what? What's the question? Who are the gods of transportation that you worship? The old gods. There's so many old gods. Oh, none of them go. He started on old gods. Some of them saved lives here. He fills up a container of water, pours it over. Don't. Well, he punched her. So you know, it's all right. He, you know, obviously she's headed and says, "There really is no need to get violent. I'm trying to answer your questions." I'm trying to be reasonable. Obviously, I'm going to disadvantage here. I don't know who you are. I don't know why I'm here. I just, you know... It would be better if you just answered the questions. I'm trying. I have no idea what she's going to do next, so you might want to just answer the questions. I get the answer water. And thank you profusely. And he comments the lecture half. Oh. It is a nice hat. Okay. So he says, "The old gods, they're so ancient. They don't have names." Many visages, though, right? Hermes, probably. Well, I mean, sure, if you want some bastardized version, but... Try it. The true old gods don't have names. They don't have form. They just are. I see. I disagree. So you're just trying to help people. Absolutely. You're not trying to harm these children. No. What's this guy? I have children. What's this gun for? Protection. Have you ever walked around the shannies in the middle of the night? Yeah, we've brought guns. Yeah. Okay. That one kind of came back a little bit. Damn. No, I don't. He seems to be... No one's doing like an empathy tasker, seeing if he's subterfuge, to see if he's lying. He seems to be genuine in the way he's talking to you. And he is under sodium pentatol, so he's a bit groggy and a bit out of it, but he... I think he's telling the truth. I think he's an innocent that's been duped by Bishop King. Well, let's... No, I'm innocent, but I'm not being duped. Right. Look up the children. I'm not a flunky. Have you heard of any of the other children visited? Have you caught their names? Who's their children? I just know the two that I went in as their followers also. If they're children, you're not the only one. Really? Well, that makes sense to me. We're trying to help as much as we can, so that makes good sense. Yeah. You say it hasn't been a fortnight and things are already improving. What exactly has improved? What are you talking about? Well, apparently you don't read the paper, but the government has enacted reform. To help the people who are poor. FDR is doing some amazing things in Washington to help all of our situations out. And those bills were supposed to fail, but just out of nowhere, they get passed is obvious that we're having an effect. This is a direct result of your looking-glass vandalism. Well, you call it vandalism, I call it ancient right, and old gods being empowered to walk the earth once more and help us. Magic is magic. I've done plenty of things and don't make sense. Exactly. I think this is so. The Negro understands. You just lost all your support. It's amazing. It goes up in flames. It's about as respectful as you get back then. Yeah. You're trying to be nice. Unfortunately, true. Do you know who's next? No. Who? Who? I feel like you're not listening to me. Okay, but do they give you a list beforehand or do they just tell you who's leading to me? Someone contacts me every so far. It's been once a week. They have a name. I have a location. I follow it. When I say someone contacts me, they contact me to go to the castle. I then go to the castle and I get verbal instructions from the white bishop to do what I do. And they approach you on the street or does it do? One of the members. Yeah. I mean, it usually tends to be pretty discreet. It's just like someone walks by and places a note in my pocket or something along those lines. We really don't know who the others are for protection. Okay. You mentioned Franklin Castle. You mentioned you go there when you meet the bishop. Do you always go there when you meet the bishop or just often? The two times I have met, well, the three times, excuse me. Once he asked me if I was up for this job. Right. And then twice I've gone there. So three times I've gone to the castle and three times he's been there. I haven't gone anywhere else. I'm sure we need to talk for a minute, away from him. I got a great idea. You can let me go and I will then be away and you can talk all you want. Daniel, can you drag this guy with the chair into the bathroom? No, no, no, wait. Just say one more question, please. You said you have children of your own? Yes. Yeah. Well, what if you were to, I don't know, write your child's name in your blood on the mirror? What if you were told to do that? Would you still do it? Absolutely. He's crazy. I'm sorry. I don't think, I think it's crazy. It's helping. It's a true believer. Put him in the bathroom. Daniel, you drag him in the bathroom and he blows the door. You don't stay in there though, correct? Oh, he's not staying in there by himself. I do not want him touching a mirror or getting in there. You want to stay in there with him? I want to persuade him to check up with him. I push him gently to the floor. Well, tie to the chair. Okay. By the way, the mirrors were taken out of the bathroom, remember? Yeah. Yes. It's so not necessary. Okay. I step in there. I want to talk to him. I want to persuade him to check up on those children and see the other one's. Do it in the bed. Fine. Good stuff. I think the only useful information we're going to get out of this guy is, as regards the bishop. He's a patsy. Yeah. I don't need to have a connection from him to the bishop. Anything else this guy tells us is not going to be much use. I don't think, I mean we can ask more questions if you want, but I don't think we're going to get anything additional from him, and I also don't think we can let him go until we go to the castle and see the bishop. I agree. I agree. If we... Absolutely agree because he's just going to tell him. Yeah, he's going to warn him and we're going to lose any advantage we have. Supposedly, he has us in check or something. So... It was the last statement you got while we were gone. White bishop to black castle check. He's not the king. Yeah. It's a hierarchy thing. No, I get that. I'm assuming that the bishop will lead us to the king. Presumably. Okay, let's have a check. Oh. I wonder what P.C. is. Is it worth asking about the doctor, what's the argument with Sullivan? It was an Irish name. It was Marty Collins. Marty Collins. Marty Collins. Marty Collins. Marty Collins. There's the Martin. That was right. Yeah, Doc Martin. We'll ask him about Marty Collins, and then we ask him. He was curious if Dr. Collins is a member of this congregation. Didn't say. Oh, by the way, my pucker factor goes up enormously whenever someone mentions old gods because those are weird massive bad news. Just as a general, I don't need to know about your pucker factor. I'm just saying. Give it to yourself. I love you. We now have the... Final. Final. There's no way that the pucker factor is not going to make it. It's the number one. I wasn't trying for that. I was just saying. I'm fine with you guys asking me as many questions as you want with him. But, Dr. Ethan, if you can't make him unconscious and safe again, I can. I think you're a way to probably be a calmer. We can sit on this damaging. Yeah, I was going to say. It has a take to do that. But in that case, I've done this take too. All right. So, he is sedated. I'm assuming. Well, wait a day wanted to ask. Yes, is there any further binary hex and/or? I'm curious if he knows the name of Dr. Collins. Both of those. Binary hex and Collins. You get blank stares from both. Well, actually, you don't get a blank story from Dr. Marty Collins. He takes umbrage to the fact that you would obviously try to tie him to something that you think is bad. You know, he doesn't think it's bad. He doesn't think it's bad. But Dr. Collins is an outstanding man who helps his community immensely. And there's nothing that you could say that distraces his name. So there he would never be associated with you. So, yeah. So you're wrong. Is that what you're assuming? No. When I'm saying it's he's not... There's nothing... You think that if you were in the White House or some crazed individual, you couldn't tie Dr. Collins. That he is an outstanding man. So you know Dr. Collins, you admire his work. Everyone in the Shantytowns knows of Dr. Collins. I don't know him personally. You don't see him at the church? No. Hoods, remember? Hoods. Well, yeah, because secrecy is always instrumental to... What? What's his grade? Off weight. Any Negroes in the congregation? I wouldn't know. We tend to... What do you wear fucking gloves too? Why not? No, Kate. Yeah, I really never... Pay the attention. That's right. I appreciate that, actually. He makes you a better man. He doesn't see color. Anything else from the 4-half list? Did you want to ask him about the 9-0s? Michael? Maybe the 9-0s. It's pretty clear what it is. I don't think he knows anything about the necklace. He just thinks it's related to the religion. Binary Hex, what do you know about him? Heard the name? I don't know what you just said. Okay. Appreciate it. Okay, night, night. He protests. And then he puts a button on him. Okay. He stops protesting. He doesn't scream though. Just like, no, you don't have to... No, no, no, no, no. I don't know about ready to fall over. But, I think... For me, he's left an essence. Yeah, how much sleep did we... What time is it? Not much. At this point, it's my 4-3 in the morning. If the bishop gives his followers this necklace, it might have some... He already has powers of some sort. He can summon his creature. That would have been a question. Why don't you get the necklace? Yeah. I'm a little worried that the necklace might give him a clue that we're on to him. If we carry it along with us or something. I don't think we're going to get it away from a Mr. Dr. Play. Well, are there any other than I investigating the symbology of it? Is there any other things I can learn from it being a relic analyst? Is there power to it? Is there... You would probably need a little bit more understanding and more than two successes to be able to tell if there's actual power in the... Uh... The relic analyst says, plus one to learn a relic's trigger to detect curses and to figure out practical, not historical uses of this picnic. Okay, pretty much. Yeah. Shoots that down. So, your two successes let you know that it seems like a... Well, here, before you say anything, I was only just trying to identify it before I wasn't really investigating it as the relic person that I am. So, if you want to make me do another role... Please reroll. Okay. Thank you, guys. What do you have? You had me do, uh... Intelligence and a cult. Cult was... Which was a total of six dice, then plus one for the relic analyst. And then you took two away for the esoteric nature of the item. Go ahead and roll. Is it still esoteric now that I can know what it is a little bit more? Minus one. Okay. Cool. Yeah. You gotta hack 'em. I'm going to spend some will. Spend? Or risk? What a friendly world of darkness. I'm going to risk. So, that gives me, what, three more dice? Three more dice and you can have nine again, or you can determine that three successes are an exceptional success. Three successes are an exceptional. This is very often, let's see what you got. When you successfully risk, you gain an additional one back. You said anything? Yeah. Cool. It is. I need to change the mind. Alright. One is ten again and one nine. Two successes on nine and then one then again. This would be determination if whether or not you can. Oh, it doesn't look like an exceptional success. Oh, no. It was so close. It took a chance. Okay. Now, what you are able to tell from the symbol is that it is made of cold iron. Oh. And it is not otherwise magical in any way that you can ascertain at this point. Okay. But that suggests protection against the fight. Right. The hedge. Well, if you're the one summoning a fee, you kind of want to protect the people who are doing it. Alright, if I lay down because I'm running on fumes, I want to wake up and Grace is going to be gone and let the castle. So Grace and I are going to the castle. Hold on. Right now. Anybody else coming? I've got an idea. Yeah. I mean, why not? What? The healthy among us can head there, you sit here with the sister, all of you on the tree and get some healing done. No. And get some healing done. No. Add guards. Add guards going to be the, well, along with Grace, the most able to penetrate that without being clogged. I do well. I do well. I think Grace can handle it. Does this govern, is this a spy mission? Is it a recognition? I think it's a recount at first and I don't like sending any single person in. If two people can go in and they both do it well, had guards very good at penetrating. We know Grace can as well. She can become invisible and rewind time. I'm just fired. Which of these does not help? Okay. What? The ability to both rewind time 60 seconds and become invisible means that she can't fail at this. Yeah. She can do that infinitely. I don't think. Her battery is going to run dry eventually. Well maybe. Does it? You never send one person in. Yeah. Okay. It's just not seven. I know who's going to be saving who's ass. And that's fine. Saving yours. But. All right. So you guys decide right then and there that recon is the way to go with all of you. But only two going in. Is that the general idea? Jade, that you kind of... That's what we're talking about as we leave here. They head to there. Okay. I'm going to also... Go on. Our radios aren't going to operate that far away, right? Actually this is closer than Jackass Hill was where Marty was and so yes. I'm going to go ahead and be agreeable and say that they can. And I would also say that I'm going to... You guys are exhausted. I know that. So I'm going to say that for this mission when we reconnoiter next week since I think we're drawing to a closer... June? I would think by this too. I was going to think about this one. Okay. Just the exhaustion is starting to wear on everyone. No sleep and chasing, chasing, chasing and getting beat up and... I was trying to get in here. So I'm just going to give everyone a situational minus one on this mission just to highlight to you the fact that... Oh, I was talking minus two for me and maybe like Edgarden too. I don't think anyone... We were in another dimension nailed to a trip. Since... Well here's the thing. Yesterday. We stopped the attempt on the child. So do we still have the sense of urgency to get things done in the next four hours? That's your question. I think we could take four hours in sleep. On the other hand I have some stuff that I could give anyone who needs to stay awake. I think we could use a little sleep but we should definitely get that place up soon. I think we need to get advantage right now. I agree that you wanted a kid in the morning but I'm also thinking that it might be worth it to get two or three hours of sleep. Your special forces, you have to train to do this. It's dark. Yeah? That's going to be our benefit. Time is of the ascent. We might be racing the shattered man to report back that something's gone wrong. We don't know that. After all is talking. That's true. But yeah. I think we should leave right now. I'm just saying people tend to make decisions when they're fatigued. Do they have... Do they have Red Bull in 1935? Yes. I have some in my black bag. It's called cocaine. It's awesome. It's legal. Well... Yeah. Back then it was like they gave it... Yeah. It's not an accountant. Yeah. So we're here for the day. Let's go around the table real quick and talk... Well, go ahead. You have a question you want to ask about the other ones? Yeah. I was talking about them. So you guys are sleeping? No. No. No. There was debate. But we didn't know that. It was stupid. Okay. Everyone gets a point for the session. A beat. Excuse me. And Chew had a double success. So I'm going to be two beats for that extraordinary success. I only rolled 14 dice. It was 10 success. It was 10 success. Working dice is still damn impressive. You say two? Correct. Yeah. It would be a little more strange at this time. It was... It was chews night to shine. So very good. You guys all had moments to go. 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 in a number of ways. From Twitter @KOTN_podcast or by email feedback@KOTNpodcast.com. And don't forget the iTunes reviews or our Facebook page, Facebook.com/KOTN.podcast. Speaking of Facebook, join like-minded folks at our Facebook fan page. And lastly, there's our blog page, KOTNpodcast.com, where there's an Amazon link on the right hand side. Thanks to Zen Audio Smith for the intro and outro music. Get your own music at zenaudiosmith.com. And join us next week for more mystery and adventure. I can't lie effectively. You don't poker face it. We're all playing this person as Mike. He starts laughing when he starts. Bob fixes him with a hard stare as he started laughing. Yes, he is. I would lose it social, I've got no weapon. It's funny. Alright. I want to seduce her. Oh. Tim, that was an example. Okay. I think you need your eyes checked first because it's a guy. Still, your beans had to be a 35. Yeah, I smell the beans. One guy. Right. So, it's very good. I have to talk like that. Social plus persuasion? Social is not a thing. Social is not a thing. No, it's not a thing. It is- Presence? You want to use- I'm sorry. Yeah, I was going somewhere else with it. Careful, Lord, man. It's trademarked. I know if it's got looked down as she wrote all the names. It's totally better for you to remember, I'm sure it's from- Do we ask this guy's name? Fuck off. That's something weird to say. Fuck off. It's just really bad. I could fit right there. Can we ask him- Does he know the Dr. Martin? We can- I don't know, that's a TV show. No, whatever. It's a good one, by the way. No, it is a good one. What's the doctor's name? Well, we didn't ask him about binary. That's what he said. That's what he said. Dr. Dr. Dr. Martin. Hush. Keep quiet. Oh, by the way, abrupt. I binge watched all of "Foil's War". Awesome, wasn't it? Yeah. Love it. Reminds me of the saying I'd never want to be associated with an organization. Someone might be able to- My denial there just didn't work very well. That's almost like a detect magic from the old V&D days. Question we asked this guy before we put him down. Are you supposed to report FQ pray in this house? Sorry, I wasn't asked. It's not that friendly of the world of darkness. I don't think so. So, you guys decided to not sleep. You use the cover of darkness to go to the castle. Ah. You guys need the cover of darkness, okay. Yeah, some of us can't walk through walls. That wasn't a good idea. I'm going to do it a little bit at a time. Well, I might be able to convince someone to let me walk through walls, but that's a lot more than just sleeping. I pressed the report button and it didn't stop. Yeah, there's actual stop button. It's like a square. Oh, yeah, the typical stop button. I'm surrounded by cornfields and- Now we love it. Yeah, I've seen soy fields. We have assholes too. Mm-hmm. What? Well, you know what Iowa stands for. Indeed, it's not walking around. [Laughter] Alien or- Our whole world- I don't even have electricity there. All four of the people in Iowa can listen to us anymore. This guy- Hawkeye listener is now gone. Did they understand how to un-scramble it? [Laughter] He's pointed at the end. She doesn't listen to me. Maybe, as a gift to you, I'll take it out. Thank you. I had a beard. It's my beard, man.