Once again the party is split in two, but all members are desperately attempting to get back together. Or are they… Where did Silverbell go and what is she up to?
Knights of the Night
210_WoD3_KotN_Bandelier_of_Useless_Bullshit
[Music] Hello, and welcome to Nights at the Night Actual Play podcast. This world of darkness story, "Sinnators," was written and run by a storyteller Scott. And now, please enjoy episode 210, titled, "Band of Layers of Useless Bullshit." Actual play begins 39 minutes 47 seconds. [Music] Okay, we'll start with the feedback from our KOTN vlog page. Under the episode number 209, "Mystic Realms of Bullshit Mares." Yeah. I'm trying to think him up with that name, very nope, that was nice. Tom Rock had posted and said, "Thanks, Tom, for the easy listening tonight. Hope the ride home was easier than a Scott adventure." "Cheer in the nights and ladies." I had to post it on Facebook. It was actually, we almost had to do that, Tom. Yeah. Actually, I was posting on Facebook that I was coming up from work. And I have like a 45-minute drive and it's in the snow belt of Cleveland. And there was whiteouts, I mean, there was times when there was a truck, maybe five feet in front of me and I couldn't see it. Alright. It was wind trying to push me off the highway and all kind of fun stuff, passing car after car in the ditch all over the place. So, works an automatic message and said, "If you want to work from home rather than kill yourself trying to get in, we're okay with that." So, that was nice. Yeah. Over to Facebook episode 208, "In God We Trust," Ari posted and said, "Now, that's a gag reel ending, the best ever." And that was one in which I took the dulcet tones of "Edgard Monteis" and put it to music dropped it down and active or so. So, my voice needed to be lowered. You had to bury your weight. I did. It was a very weight tune. Yeah. Do you remember which way it was? I don't know why I didn't hear this. Aren't they all the same? No, they would think I are all the same, but it was actually one of my wife's favorites. Do I have to have your love feed? I can hear it. I can't remember the title. Anyways, I had fun with it. And apparently, Ari appreciated it, so. Good fun. Episode 209, again, the mystical realm of bullshit mirrors. Steve Elliposted and said, "This one is early, or is it a week longer than I thought?" So I explained that we had been recently releasing on Wednesdays or Wednesdays. Right. Late Wednesdays. Because of most people saw it Thursday morning. Because of the holidays, I moved it to Tuesdays, and then I dropped back to Wednesdays, and but it came mid Wednesdays, so this guy was all screwed up. And he said he probably doesn't load it up until Thursday anyways, and he's looking forward to listening to his commute. Kevin Bates posted and said, "Every time I get frustrated with Rachel's behavior in the game, I have to remind myself that it's Silverbell, who's the asshole that refuses to be a team player, and Rachel isn't even the one who's playing the character. I'm a bit surprised more that the players aren't treating the characters an outright antagonist, or at least an untrustworthy DMPC, Dungeon Master PC." Looking forward to the return of Dresden, where the characters and players have more than 0% narrative control, and they're at least get to play their own character. Rachel is my favorite character in the last Dresden story. And the 180 degree change of my opinion for the quality of the roles she's been allowed to play makes me sad. I don't think we're necessarily slamming Rachel as much as, "I don't know, Scott, maybe." We've discussed Rachel's character ad nauseam in the last two weeks in feedback, so I'm actually not going to go there because it's just repeating what we've talked about. Go back and listen to my last two responses if you want to know about how Rachel's playing her character and what kind of control she has over it. In regards to, can't win you get back to Dresden, I can understand that. He enjoys games. Listen, the horror genre, big breaking news here, it's not about player control. Reed, Lovecraft, Lee, Reed Poe, Reed King, Reed Barker, Reed, any of the masters, and it's not about giving characters narrative control. That's fate and that's a mystery. I think you inadvertently left Dresden out of one of the masters there, Scott. All right. I think I did. Yes. Intentionally. Because it's not horror. Well, the horror genre is supposed to be facing the unknown and dealing with horror. It's not supposed to give the characters complete narrative control. Some of the best moments in the game, let's take Chew Park in the very first story, deciding to take a can of raid and spray it into his eardrum. You get shocking, incredibly compelling storytelling moments like that because the character didn't have complete narrative control or even a portion of narrative control in that particular instance when you woke up from his dream. I would personally say that it's a different genre and if you don't like it, then that's okay because you don't have to. It's not about making everyone like my DMing style or my storytelling style, it's just, it's horror. And if Chew could have said, "Oh no, I take a willpower point and I wake up before that happens and I don't have a be in my ear," well, we've just lost an incredibly compelling scene. And that's one scene. I mean, I can name countless scenes where I put you guys in harrowing, again, because of the horror genre, situations and you have responded in amazing, incredible role-playing ways. So I look forward to Dresden too because this is exhausting. It's supposed to be. It's horror. It's a completely different genre. That's my... To play. Don't keep that response. To play devil's advocate in filling for Kevin Bates because he's not here. I think you might say, for instance, last week when Thomas came up with the spirit and connecting and getting all the pieces and summoning a spirit, it seemed that you just slammed that shut because you had somewhere else you wanted to go. That's not true. I didn't expect you guys to be in glass boxes. No, I got that. Right. And you guys throw curveballs. So again, I do take it with no narrative control. Give me a name. You chose not to. You guys... Absolutely. I'm not... I agree with that point, but I'm saying Thomas came up with an approach that he wanted to use. Right. He wanted the narrative to control the use, the power of his character, to do something. Now, that something could have ended up even more horrible than what it intended, but it was almost like, no, this is going somewhere. Let's just get to the part where you're on the spot. Where in the first week, the week before, and I think you forgot, you had said, these are all the components you need and now all of a sudden it was this other component and it didn't work, poof, he's gone and seen, and you almost pushed it along a couple times too quickly where I even said, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not done trying here, but it seemed to me that you had an end point you wanted to get to. Right. Well, I could understand that. And we have nothing to do. Right. Well, it's just sit back and wait and then we can take control again. So that might be what he's referring to. If that's what he's referring to, then I, yeah, perhaps, I just felt like there wasn't a lot of time. The guy had to basically step through a mirror and he's at his hollow and there wasn't a bunch of time to make the decision. So yes, maybe I did hurry it along, but yeah, I mean, sometimes I guess that could happen. So if that was the point. Plus, there's a fact, but how many of us are there here? I don't think you four or six, seven, eight players. Right. It's hard to juggle that. Was this the time that Thomas's character, Edgard, gets to use his power to do something interesting? Well, maybe not. He does. There are eight of us and you got to juggle that time between everybody. Sure. Well, no, I mean, it's an interesting and valid response. I don't take any. I really don't take offense to it. It's a different genre and I'm not going to run it like a deserting campaign because it's not, it's not a mystery. It's not suspense. It's horror and it's different. But I still think you guys do have some narrative control. It's not as much as mystery gives you. Thank you, Kevin, for the feedback. I also want to say that I think Rachel's running her character like Rachel's running her character. I mean, we all have starting points with our characters and we have to play our character. I did the same thing to Mike that I did to Rachel in the senses. Mike didn't have an idea of what you wanted his character to be. So he kind of made up a character with a lot of my influence on what that character was. But because he's not an outright antagonistic and again, they're different characters though. I don't want to get back into this because I think we talked about this, you know, again over the last couple of minutes. Well, you know, even last time we talked about it and I just want to take just one more quick moment to ask Rachel is you explained how you guys came about making her character. I want to know from Rachel's point of view, do you think at this point that Silver Bell is your character and you're doing what you want with it now? Now, not when you started, but it's about week to week now. What do you mean? Are you still being forced to make decisions based on things that were set up prior? Or do you believe you've taken this character as your own and the actions that you're doing for yours? Silver Bell has passed and a certain set up to her that makes her act the way that she acts being very suspicious and very haughty, very judgmental, very closed off to herself. And I absolutely certainly do make a lot of decisions when I'm role playing based off of that. How would she act knowing her past and knowing what I know, that's exactly how she would act. Is that what you're asking? Yeah, I mean, it's similar to what I was asking, but in the beginning, you definitely felt like you didn't have much choice in how Silver Bell was set up. As you go along, I would hope that you make the character more your own and you feel like you have more choices. I definitely feel like, yeah, I mean, I've added certain things to it that make her my own. Sure. It's just, I am limited in what I can say, what I can tell you guys of what I can do. I mean, I can't really say any more than that. She's supposed to be vague. She's supposed to be something that's frustrating. And from my perspective is how I set her up. I told Rachel her background story. What happened to Silver Bell before the moment you burst in to save her? How Rachel decided a person would react to that background is how Rachel decided a person who would react to that background. If I were to gave that character to Mike and had him play it, he plays Silver Bell. I think it's fair to say, without pinching upon Rachel at all as a role player, because she does a fantastic job, it would be a completely different character. And yes, there is a back story to the character, but how Rachel chooses to portray that back story as she sees it as the only way she can play that because that's how she sees her characters back story. Yeah, it's very integral. It's very integral, I feel, to who she is. So I personally think that Mike would have played Silver Bell completely different and I would have, as a GM, played Silver Bell completely different, but I think that's part of the joy of storytelling is Rachel sees this character as someone who would not be willing to share, and someone who would not, based on her background, be able to trust. And at least not quickly, I think would be a fair way to put it, whereas I, when I first played Silver Bell back at the end of Shagran, I had her being a little bit more open to being trusting. She was younger too, though, right, when you were born. Right, of course. She's aged like six years. So I mean, that, I think, has made a big difference too. Well, no, she's not really as a joke between Tom and now. She's not really younger. But she was younger. But she was younger. She was younger. I think, in Tom's eyes specifically, maybe the other players as well, they could go back and listen. In all of humanity. Yes. But there is no strings tied to Rachel to say, "You have to act this way." She is not a GM character. I told her the backstory of her character, and she reveals or hides, conceals, what she chooses to do. And if he's finding her character annoying, that's Rachel's fault. No, it's not Rachel's fault, because I created the backstory, so I certainly take some of that blame. I don't think there's any blame. She's playing a teenager that's annoying. That she's doing great. Yeah. She's doing perfect. I don't think there's any. But from Kevin's point of view, not enjoying her and providing a different point of view. Yeah, exactly. I think that, truly, she's doing a fantastic job of playing an incredibly annoying teenager. That's what she is. And that is exactly what she is, and I actually give her kudos, and I know she frustrates the living shit out of probably half the people around the table. No conversation. You have a little play. One. Mike's just got his mouth shut and his head shaking back and forth. No. No. But I think that's exactly how Rachel wants to play him. And everyone here, I'm assuming listeners, they all know everyone's backstories and why they are the way they are. And they don't know yours. And they don't know mine. So I'm sure it must be very frustrating because you make allowances for these characters because you're like, oh, well, you know, there's XYZ going on. So that makes sense. But they don't know anything about me, and that lends... Well, there have been listeners who have made comments, like, if she would have been an art party, I would have a freighter. Yeah. I was just chattering my head. And you've got to keep in mind, in this strange world, yeah, I mean, where we're trying to play real people realistically, and no matter how much you find a teenager annoying, you're not going to shoot them in that. Well, plus we might not have had any way to get back to the rest of the day. Yeah. Hopefully none of us would have any information based on the hunt because everyone was looking for her. So yeah, to say you would just shoot her in the head or treat her as an antagonist or... What's the age? Well, yeah. I'm 16. How long is it? I think Jason is mid-30s, upper-30s. So saying it's going to be annoying to a degree, like, I'm supposed to be playing someone who's 16, who is an outlier, who doesn't have, like, anything in common with you guys. To me, she hasn't done anything to warrant being shot. Well... No, I'm not saying... No, no, no, no, I'm sorry, that was wrong. I didn't want to say well. I didn't mean that. I just want to find my point is that there's only one person at the table that can... There's no way we can possibly know anything about her except through her. Right. And she's not sharing. And she's not sharing, and she's evidencing certain abilities and powers that are... Like, I think she said it, you know. She's not annoying, but it's unclear if she's an antagonist or not. And right now, after coming off last night of getting snikered, and where we found her... I was about three nights ago. I was just three nights. I'm sorry. But where we found her, and where we are now, it's like, it's still relatively fresh. Sure. Okay, is she causing everything? Is she not? Is she with us? Is she not? And I think there's so many big question marks, and the only person that can possibly answer it is being very snarky. So... Right. It's been three days. No doubt, dude. Like, I'm not gonna spill my life story in three days. Okay. See, it feels like several years. I'm gonna jump through the feedback quickly here, because I'm trying to represent the listeners. Right. Over on Google+, Steve Ella said, "An invisible entity tracing a circle in the shattered mirror covering the floor. That calls for a grenade into the rooms, folks." You are an overly cautious man. But, he's got a valid point by saying, "We're dealing with something we don't know. It's mysterious. It can go through mirrors of my travel, and suddenly something's happening over here." First reaction is just grenade the sucker, and then we'll worry about it later, because she never told anybody what she was doing. She just went and did it. And the natural reaction on somebody, apparently Steve Ella, in a situation like that where he's cranked up his nerves to the top, shoots first. They worry about their end cases later, because we're supposed to be a team in a squad, and she's acting outside that parameter. Right. That's what some of them are saying. But, if you do step back from that, you're also for the past decade, that also feels like a scotchrap. Well, if you step back from a dealer's view into trying to do something totally against your character, so you can lose your sanity. I would say it's safe to say that the reason why we didn't shoot whatever the heck was going on, the mysterious thing that was going on, or throw a grenade, or whatever is the fact that she was muttering the spell, and we thought it was her. It was obvious it was her. I could actually see if I knew what was hers, right? I knew something was going on, and I was right there, I was the closest to it. I don't have a gun to begin with, but if I did, I still don't even know what was going on. Those are the room hearder voice, so it was her, so that's why. If it would have just been somebody drawing a circle with no voice, then maybe we would have to. Mike is over there, indicating that he's still with a shot, or any one. I don't want to shoot her, but there are certain things like you said, and if she's a magic using person, that puts her into a category with us, Ethan. I'm just saying, the same things that drive me to drive you, so I don't feel like she's on our team yet. Okay. That's valid. Yeah. So, she doesn't trust her. And it's like, okay, because I'm just going home, damn it. I'm waiting to get stabbed in the back, or if you're something, they have Katie try to draw a protective circle around whatever the hell she's doing, and oh stop, let's go ahead. And then this motherfucker is going to grin and laugh and mock me from across the table. So, what's wrong? When did you do anything? Your character should have killed her in the first place, but that was you. You chose that. He's tried to trick me into hurting a child, which he knows I will not do. It's a sky trap. She's a 16-year-old. Technically a judge. I guess. When we first met her, she was eight years old. Now she's 16. She's 32. Alright. We could go on, I'm sure, for quite a while, but we'll go back to the KO team. I don't think I really have a problem with her saying that they consider her, and I don't have a problem with Kevin even, or Steve's saying she's antagonistic. I don't either. Because that's exactly what she is. She's indefinitely antagonistic, and you may, some people might have calmer nerves and be able to accept her and say she's been through a lot, she's young, whatever, and that might be what? Daniel or Ethan? Yeah, Daniel or Ethan's viewpoint is, or even Jay, to some extent, has been. He was harsh on her. He's got a younger sister. Yeah, he's talking a bit more times. Oh, another times her sister. Got it. But if you or Clay or anyone else is thinking they want to put a slug in her or tie her up and restrain her, I don't think that's a completely invalid thing to think when you were thrown 70 years into the past, and you think she might be the cause of that, and she's not giving strong answers. So I don't think that's wrong at all. If she's a key back, then I don't think we want to harm her. Right. That's about it as well. It just might be the timepiece, though. That's all we wanted to do. You should have had to grab the timepiece. That's necessary. See you in my next opinion. Okay, back to the Facebook main page. This past week, while I was off vacation, we went to the Cleveland Art Museum. They posted a couple pictures off. One of them was an obvious fake, and then it was a picture of Jesus, and it had on the cross, and it had the two nails on the feet. I mean, come on. It's all disproved that already. Right. So that was fake. And then there was an ancient Bible that was written in a language that had no clue of what it was. And they said that Michael Clay and we needed him to choose. Did you see the ball, the big giant iPad wall? Yeah. That was cool. That was really neat. I think the word up in the armory that had the name, it has a blessing where it's the guy who created it is he loves his enemies so much that he's going to send them to heaven. So that's the translation, roughly, of what his sword is. So I thought that was pretty cool. I got sort of a... They have a great medieval idea at that particular museum. They changed it a lot, too. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. But I took a picture of that Bible with the language and said that Michael Clay had translated, and Amanda and Danji posted, and she said, "I'll pass this along to my friends. We love ancient manuscripts, specifically, apocryphal ones. Demon summoning is so fascinating. Our interest is strictly academic, mind you. We never tried out ourselves." I believe Jim was the one who posted and said it was a chocolate chip cookie recipe. And a lost one. Ciderot. He just ciderot. They make the best cookies. Which Amanda posted again and said, she said, "We also love chocolate chip." Cookies. Love them. They are so tasty to us. Our name is Legion, where we are many, and we love chips. Old-mail raisin for the one, no. No. No raisins. Chocolate chips. I'll go with the Old-mail raisin. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Knowing I'm in the minority. Solidarity roger. Okay. Back to the feedback. Steve Ella posted on Facebook and said, "What would your top three lists of other podcasts you enjoy? I'm looking for something on the same lines as KOTN with quality and a good mix of rules and role-playing." They look like an actual play. Yeah. I did. That's what I said. I think he's going for actual play night. The actual plays I listened to are the Rusek, Amers, Gutter Skypes, Porcelain, Alama, Theatre, and Dyches Heroes. But they're all different than we are for different reasons. Some of them go on for three hours in there. Wow. With little to no editing in there. And they're still good. There's a good story there. But they don't do the editing part. Anybody else got podcasts I'd like to suggest? I do not. Anyone? Yeah, for actual play. All the crazy people. Oh, an actual play. An actual play, too. I'm a big fan of the Smodcast. Okay. I listened to Mr. Actinmark, Amers, Table, RPG Gamer, Dad. He's a good one. Scared. Do you really listen to him? I'm kind of Robin. Once in future podcast? I've heard of it. I have not listened to it. They actually do actually butchered. Whoa. Sorry. Oh, Jesus. And Mike, because of Rappa, turned beyond to psychedelic salon, is it? Right. You know what I'm going to do? They're all blind, but it's neat. There you go. Yeah. I like Mr. Actinmark as well as the other ones, Ken and Robin. Ken and Robin. Talk about stuff. There. I always listen to those, too. Yeah. And intended to choose the first time I listened to that one, I really didn't like it. And then I tried another one and I was like, "Oh, this is good." And I don't know if I caught one where they did more talk about food and restaurants and stuff like that, less gamer-related. But they do tend to focus on gaming because that's what they do. Eventually they come around back. Yeah. And so the second one I listened to was really good, and then after that I listened to every single one of them. Even though I'm back listening to some of them, it's really good podcast. Well, having met the one guy and then kind of having a book from the other guys. Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Got them walls. Bronnie Davis posted on the main page just a quick one who said, "Two dice ten is greater than one dice twenty." Always. That's all I said. And we're not even going to start. That was greater than or equal to. Well, it is greater than or equal to, but I just think it's greater than so. All right. I'll leave now. I'm the editor. Okay. Greater than an equal to. Chris Naples said, "saw this and thought of Scott." I won't say anymore in case your listeners are an arc behind. It was a picture of a person standing in front of a helicopter with lots of weapons giving the finger. You took that thing down, didn't you? I chased it away. Disabled. Pretty much. Let's say disabled it. Amanda also puts it on the main page and says, "Hi, I was wondering if you guys ever played the slasher hunter expansion. I'm really into the book since the slasher Vescue dichotomy is so naturally compelling to me. From my standpoint, it's basically a game of hide and seek with sharper implements. Other than that, the Vescue agent strike me as a fun riff on Mulder and Company, even more than the usual hunter gangs." I'm sure that however played it, the quick answer is no, but for Amanda's, I'm sure she knows this, that she was a member of the Vescue conspiracy. I mean, he says it every week, so I'm sure she's aware of that. But he hasn't got a chance to really stalk or hunt a serial killer and a slasher just for those rumtable who are out of where slasher was a world darkness book ripped off of a hunter with super-powered serial killers. So they're serial killers, but they have supernatural abilities, which makes them even more horrific and scary, which one can kind of go back and see, choose background with his father and see where he might be interested in hunting those types of things. That's definitely where he wants to be, but unfortunately he's stuck with. Taylor McClureg also posted on the Facebook page and said, "In my weekly burning wheel game, one of the players was grabbed by a zombie and the other player refused to believe that it was truly a zombie even after he failed the stat dust, non-zombies let go when you stabbed them." I couldn't help but think of Edmond and Schu, in the trailer. The trailer sucked. Well, the second worst trailer ever. Edmonds gobbled up on his memory base. The worst trailer I've ever been in. So the second one was used to believe that there were zombies? Yes. He said they were high in bath salts or something. That's what you said. That's about. There's no zombies. Well, he's a non-believer. Yeah. I mean, science. Okay. And lately... It was an ex-plo-ed one suddenly, it's... Okay. And lately... I'm not crazy here. I'm so free of the vampire. You have words to read? Sorry. That was a different game. You're mixing your universes. On the fan page, lately, I think I made a new drinking game. I've been posting the title suggestion, like four or five different things I've heard within the episode. Sure. I thought I would make a good title. For instance, the last one for two, two on nine was... The winner was the mystical realm of bullshit mirrors. But it was also, she seems to be doing one of her things. That had to be Mike? That was the thing. And we said, not only now, but you have to choose which one you like, but who said it before you hear the episode? Oh, yeah. It's Michael's life. So Michael's life. So Michael's life was, she seems to be doing one of her things, and it was about Rachel. Well, there's only one her here, so... Sister Katie. Michael's real her. Look at her. She does her things, too. Jim does things that annoy you. Violent dance of combat, that was actually Scott describing. What Ethan was seeing in the... Oh my gosh. Shatter glass on the movement. Long Island I.C.E. was Ethan, in this case. You were saying, "What the hell is this spirit trying to..." 'Cause he was saying all the components. Oh, London. Right. Alcohol, London. It's a jar, which I think, again, was Scott describing the door was open, and some of the fans liked it just because it was a door that couldn't be argued about whether to open or not, 'cause it was already open. Right. There was no hesitation, but the door was a jar. And we still managed to argue. Yeah, we did. I wasn't there, but you guys did. Right. I walked right in. I didn't argue. And it's a long-term goal now. Yeah. I wrote it that way. No, no, no, our collection. I remember. Okay. Mike said it after he determined he wasn't going to be able to get the watch to look at. So... Our drinking game just got more complicated. No more reasons to drink, 'cause you drink whatever in there. Right. With that, we have one additional bit of feedback. This was... Well, actually two. I'll talk to you later about how it turned out to be a cartoon review, and it was actually requested this time that Roberto, or actually John, read it. Here's an iTunes review by Mad Hatter, five stars. So I've just caught up with World of Darkness Hunter and Dresden campaigns. After finding this podcast about two and a half months ago and listening for four years worth of about 200 hours of podcasts, I will now have to wait a week, like the rest of your fans. At least I have your dungeon world and noumenara campaigns to get me through with the trolls. This podcast has the whole package. The stories are enticing and compelling, the editing is top-notch, thanks to Tom. At least the first story should lock starts out with exposition and ends with a rough editing. But it is a good story. Either grit through the beginning or start with delivery or chagrin. The players are not glory hogs and generally interesting in their own right. All the characters are always important. It seems they always come second to the story. I'll give you five stars and may the iTunes gods bring you to the attention of more role-playing fans. Thanks, Matt Rader. Thanks. Thank you. Good review. Mad Hatter also sent in an email to feedback@kotnpodcast.com. Double down, man. Nice. So his email starts with, "I believe the house rules are excellent if not necessary and fully support them. Therefore, this critique is where house rules weren't explicitly stated. If there are house rules, then please ignore." In the World of Darkness campaign, I noticed the following inconsistencies. If house rules overrule these, that's fine. But if not, I'm bringing them to your attention. The resistance trait, generally in composure, were used as active traits, meaning the characters rolled composure plus socialize or subterfuge to do something actively. By canon, resolve, stamina, and composure are all meant to be defensive or resistance traits, power versus finesse traits. Which case? It's written right on the character sheet. It's like trying to open a door with stamina. Arguments or house rules can be made in certain situations, but this isn't the standard role. I would say that I normally call the house role in the sense that I just look for the best fit. And with plus composure, I mean, that's your perception and that's not a resistance role. So by nature, one of the major roles in the game uses the composure stat and isn't necessarily just a resistance stat. Maybe we should read the whole thing because this next line is, "What seems to be overused? Which should be used for all perception roles?" It should be. But it also should be used when book learning isn't, as I understand it, as when book learning isn't appropriate. Intelligence is used when you have either learned it before or are researching something, is my understanding. And wits is more when you're trying to fly just off the handle and throw something together kind of on the fly. So it may be overused, but I think as a system is designed, it tends to get overused in most playgroups that have it. But certainly a good point, but I tend to think that when it's something that's more off the top of the ear head, it's wits. If it's something you're trying to remember that you studied in the past or you're going to be studying, it's intelligent. So if they're doing research in a library, that's academics plus intelligence is what it should be because it's actual research. But if you're trying to remember an occult book from five years ago or someone talked about it before or you're trying to just guess what you think might be the best way to handle it, that's more along the wits line as I understand it. But certainly a good point. You continue to use wits seem to be overused, which should be used for all perception roles, all thinking on your feet roles and some defensive roles. Remembering things is generally the purview of intelligence, both because they either studied the information or they didn't. So thinking on their feet has little bearing. And because wits is used in so many roles, that intel needs some or it's beneficial in a metagame sense to purchase higher wits than intelligence. Right. And that's a good point. It really is. I probably should use intelligence a little bit more when someone's saying, I'm trying to think of what would be the best way to handle it instead of saying, make something up with wits, what you've got feeling, it should be, did you read it before and it should be intelligent. So I like his point. I think it's actually pretty strong. Empathy and subterfuge seem to be used in reverse order at times. This seemed to be corrected more recently. Yes. But as recently as sin-eater story that were still being used incorrectly, empathy is to read emotion and to tackle eyes subterfuge is to lie or to hide emotion. These are mostly diametrically opposed. Yeah. And I wouldn't disagree with that. I'd say sometimes a story, just, you know, we're telling a story. So we sometimes, I'm not going to stop to look up a role normally speaking unless it's a normal stop in game play. So sometimes it just roll with it, but he's absolutely correct there. We did. There are misuses of the skills. Onto the dressing campaign, while it was mostly fixed in rituals, there are a lot of abuse of the skills in delivery and still some in rituals and using skills that characters are good at in place of appropriate skills that is fine in some situations with GM approval but should not be overused. Some aspects were poorly worded. Well, I've heard a lot of feedback on, but I'm London. I could make the same argument of always applies to been there, done that. I think it was yours. So I was just thinking of what we were saying. And you can do whatever you put your mind to. Overall, as long as there's a disclaimer that they can be abused, I don't think it's a problem as this group doesn't abuse it. Still, I thought it should be mentioned. And for the record, I don't think these issues should detract from the listeners' enjoyment as they generally are used to enhance the story rather than to win in any sense of the word. Right. That's kind of the important part. That's a great point. Because when I picked been there, done that, I was kind of cautious that that could be easily abused. Yes. And my character is 60 plus years old, so he's been there and done that. And again, the very important part of that whole thing is that I trust you guys not to overuse these things. Right. Yeah. And he's got to do it a little in the first one. In the first one. He's going to act them around and make them stop. Right. One of the problems we face in fate is that the aspects are a bit more powerful than they should be simply because we refresh so goddamn often. Because our sessions are shorter, and we've come back and you thought it's refreshed. But towards the end of it, you said you guys didn't rest. Why would you refresh fate points? So I think we're on our way to fixing that. And as you said, we are not exploiting it too much root, generally good about a role in that. But it was nice to see someone with critical eye towards systems because that's my job in fate. And he's right on every fucking car. There you go. I mentioned it when we finished. He had one additional paragraph, and he said Rachel read it. Where Tom seems to give a bit of ground in the challenge to tell a good story, Scott seems to give a bit more challenge to tell the story he wants. From giving some players pre-generated characters to concocting a 35 episode, 18 series combat, to giving players-- It seems accessible. It was. It was accessible. To giving players one way to solve something, i.e. get ridden by heart cook spray. Yeah, that's my favorite. Or not be able to win. Scott never seems to lack for ways to railroad players into a certain story, whether they want it or not, even as London by invoking what I'm London, and arguing presence trumps all. He never seems to run out of ways to turn the story to how he perceives it. It was bashing on Scott today. That's all right. I'm totally cool. That said, the strength of shit luck was the reason I got hooked and have stuck around so long. I plan to continue giving you shit, Scott. Has you made your own rocket review? Continue giving. It was my own personal rocket. Yep. Continue giving good story, but take the criticisms as they are in the comments as tongue-in-cheek is somewhat true. Right, somewhat true. But you nailed it. Come on. And I just want to point out that apparently Rocket now is a meme. He's got something like a meme. Yeah. Now, Felique, Scott, and Bob have their own rocket. You got the rocket. Yeah, actually you are a rocket too. You got three rockets out there. All right. You mentioned at one point that there were situations where it didn't seem we could win. I don't think we've ever experienced one of those. They've all been fuck away for cold. You're right. That's all right. We've never experienced a win. Never. Did I miss that thing? Really? Well, okay. That's not fair because I haven't been here for the whole time and someone's fucking died while I wasn't here. But since I've joined, none of us have died under extremely questionable circumstances. Give us another episode. Yeah. There were some close calls. Okay. Let's talk about... I think everyone here almost died. Let's talk about my spending six months on the verge of death bleeding out. That was what I was saying right next to him. And you got healed. And now, how's your character doing now? Impailed up. I already know how I feel about that situation. But never have we entered a situation where we haven't come out alive as of when I do it. So... Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I would dispute that there's one way to solve the problem. There have been a few moments. Because, to be honest, the story never even ends up where I had it anticipated going. So I don't know how you could possibly indicate that there was one path that you were shunted down the entire way. No way. It could seem that way for us. I'm sure from a blister. But, I'll tell you right now, I had a perfect idea how things are going to work out with the shattered man and... I mean, basically just crumbled up and throw it away because you guys did the exact opposite of where I thought you were going to be. I'm sorry. Did you really think we were going to give a name? Here. Go kill this kid. I would have if I was thinking. What do you want? Michael now? I didn't say you had to give a kiss. It said, "Give me a name." I thought you guys would say something, Adolph Hitler, or Joseph Stalin, or just something. He would... Binary hex. Binary hex. Binary hex. Binary hex isn't his real name. Any more than shattered man is his name. Does he need a real name? You don't know. Apparently he does. He said that's not my real name. Your point is, it isn't whether or not it was within your characters per view. I mean, you guys made your... You guys don't have characters. You do what you want to do. But what I'm saying is, I thought was going in a certain direction, and I did it. I had to do a complete 180 because that is not where I thought was going to go. Same with the doctor. I mean, there's so many times you guys, and I have an idea of where this story is going, and you guys absolutely floor me with your decisions, and it's not a bad thing. That's actually cool because it keeps the story fresh. Please. If you didn't have a fake game, okay? Right. No, I know what you're saying, but it's the second time so it's mentioned. I have no idea where it's going. There's no other options, and that's just, from a storytelling standpoint, you guys constantly take whatever course I think is the most likely and turn it on its head and go a completely different course. So, from a storyteller, it seems a lot different. Maybe from a lister's perspective, it doesn't sound that way. With that, that's the end of the feedback. We want to just take a moment to thank everyone who's a patreon. We have a January t-shirt to give away. So Michael, if you could... Hold the magic dice. Hold the magic dice. Dude. Damn, that's... It's seven. Nice. Samuel David Evans Powell. This is full name. All right. Also winner of January t-shirt. We will be contacting Daniel, get his address, and the slogans he wants on the back, the sayings he wants on the back of the t-shirt, and you have that shirt sent out to him as soon as possible. Sorry. And with that, we will get on to the adventure. This is the world of darkness story, the cineer, I'm your storyteller, Scott. And with us tonight, starting on my left is... Rachel playing the elusive silver bell, or Grace Rockland. Tom playing Jay Alton, member of the ascending ones. Thomas playing Edgar Montes, maybe we're doing breakfast here, and I'm member of the lay mysterious conspiracy. Bob playing FBI Special Agent Chew Park. Mike playing Michael Clay. The academic adventure of the ages kydoro. Jim playing Katie O'Connor, done in NASCAR driver. John playing Daniel Morgan, the mountain man term mercenary, and next member of the test force Valkyrie. Michael playing Ethan Clark, a medical doctor and member of the ages kydoro since 1929. Let's briefly take the story back to the trees and the hedge, and Chew groans quietly and comes to as both yourself, Jay, and Edgar. You're moving, and you're just seeing what kind of movement you have, and it's not much. You are impaled fairly firmly on these unnatural branches. Reminiscent of Calgary, the three guys hanging and suspended. Which one's the Messiah? Which one's in the middle? Actually, that was Michael Clay, the chosen one. Why aren't you hanging on the tree, Mr? I'm out of there, you know. You have time. So Chew, you come to, and what you can recall up to this point was you noticed someone who looked almost exactly like Tammy Sum in the entranceway to the Amsterdam. But she was leaving, and you decided to pursue that lead because if Tammy came back as well, obviously something deeper and more complex was occurring. We followed her out into the streets of Cleveland, and she was moving at a brisk pace. So you started working way through the crowd, calling out her name, but she wasn't responding. She worked her way towards an alley, which is actually the entranceway to her apartment complex, and that is the last memory that you have. Was reaching out and touching her shoulder, her turning around, and it looked incredibly like Tammy, but yet there was something different that made you think in that one instant that it wasn't Tammy. And then you woke up and paled upon a tree, and this gray expanse of razor shark trees and steel colored sky, and just this weird dimensional place that you feel like it's not part of any earth you've ever known, nor could it be part of any earth you've ever known. It's a different place. Yes, entirely. And when you come to, you see Edgard and Jay impaled on each of them impaled on a tree, Jay to your right, Edgard to your left, and they are breathing with discomfort as you are as well, because it's incredibly painful to be impaled in these trees, yet as you look down on yourself and on them, you see no blood. You see nothing that would seem to indicate any more that you're being impaled besides the fact that there's difficulty in breathing and the fact that you're obviously impaling a tree. Are we each in separate trees? Yes. How many trees are there? There are thousands. You look around and there are thousands and thousands of trees. There's a small clearing in front of you, which is where they will eventually tell you that they came down in their cubes on the trees because there was a clearing in front of them to be able to be impaled. But you don't remember any of this. You weren't in a cube to the best of your knowledge. You just touched Tammy's shoulder where you thought was Tammy and you blacked out immediately. I woke up here. I had a new aspiration. Yes. I bet you do. Are there any children around here? That would have been one of the first things I looked for. Right. You can't, the trunk of the tree is larger in width than you can turn around and see. So when you look and turn around, what you see is this... They're on the edge of a forest and there's...we see each other in a flower. Yes. Each other is outward to a brief clearing and then more forest in front of you. And what looks to be, to the best of your knowledge, almost like a black small stream. It's a stream, but it's very dark colored liquid that's running, could be watered, tough tail at this distance. But you can't see. Me, all three of you, can't see behind you just in front of you. Those are our children. They're behind you. They're not in front of you. It's like a cots of trees and you're right on the edge of it and then there's another cots of trees and another cots of trees all around you. There's just a clearing between the two of them or the stream runs. All right. We don't see anyone else. No one else. And briefly back to the other scene. You see the chalk. You've put on your goggles immediately. You see the chalk glowing slightly, but you can't see who's drawing it. But you hear the mumbling of a girl's voice, which again isn't too hard to suss out. It's surprising that you can't see her, but it's not tough to use her voice now over two or three days and that mumbling is coming from Silverbell. You can't see her. You can't see the chalk, but you can't see the chalk being left behind as she draws a circle and is mumbling quietly to herself. What sounds do you for all purposes like some type of spell? Well, go ahead and turn out the light down and is it pitch dark? It's dark. There are some electrical lights outside. Those are few and far between. It's more the case of oil drum fires in the corners that the vagrants are using and the unemployed and the destitute. I would turn it on the flash like the blade on the floor in an area that can't be seen from the window so we can see enough not to fall, but enough to. Right. And to be fair, the window is probably a good like two and a half three foot off the ground where the huge plate glass window starts. So you could put a light on the ground, your flashlight on the ground, your torch, if you will, and because you're British and then you could, you know, so you can see the floor better and the glass, but it doesn't really light up the whole place. You still are catching a little bit of glow from down the hallway in the mail room where there was a light on there as well when you first walked in. Sister Katie, we didn't get a chance to do much with you besides he walked in. The light went off, you saw a flashlight go on, you did not feel the presence of Silver Bell moving past you. You don't, it's way too far away to see the chalk on ground. I'm waiting for a cue from Ethan whether I should come in or something like that. Right. And Daniel's at the other side of the door. So you're both kind of by the door looking at each other, looking in, you know, kind of gauging the situation. Michael Clay, you were at the beginning of the alleyway and you were surprised by seeing Silver Bell disappear, but that's where you're at right now. You haven't done anything else since that point. Okay, well, do you want to stay here and keep an eye on the car in the alleyway? At the door, you're by the car by the alleyway, I walked down the alleyway and I'm by the back door. Yeah, they are both on either side of the door being Daniel and her. We have no more equipment in the truck, right? We all took our gear with us, so they shouldn't be able to take all the guns. You know, there's a napsack of guns in the back of the flat bed of the truck. Any long arms we had are left in there. Except for the shock. Okay. Well, you just can't leave that lying around. For a second. We may have had this discussion on the way there. We're not taking everything in. We could lock it. I would have the key and we could lock it. Yeah, but we can't leave it on the flat bed. And I also, if we're going to watch this, we should never have them with us. He isn't a key to lock the door. If you lock the door anyway, I don't have to unlock the door. Excuse me. If you lock the doors when you left. I have the key. He can lock the door. Either way, you can either lock them in the cab or you can take them. I'm grabbing the satchel, cursing out of my breath, and I'll lock the door because it's not my car and I, you know, it's really kind of your property. And so I grabbed the satchel and I go into the, into the western union. Okay. So you walk to the back. I'll say you grab the satchel and then you walk down the alleyway towards these two in your turn ends. You finish drawing your circle, silver bell, and then that's, you're going to proceed. I'm going to roll a psych plus or a key plus resolve, which is nine. Sure. I have my target numbers five. And it takes like how long per roll? I can roll for the ceremony once every ten minutes. Okay. Make your first roll, you're picking up a piece of glass. Not yet. I'm not touching it until I'm done with this. Okay. But it is touching your feet. Oh yeah. But I'm not going to pick it up. Okay. So I'm going to be clear because there's class all over it. It's kind of impossible not to stand on it. Right. I don't know. Okay. So go ahead and make your first roll. Okay. Three. Three successes and you may roll a ten again. Okay. Three successes and you need five for your end goal. You start hearing a little bit louder of a chanting going on as silver ball starts or incandations. No. Now this is two different colors. Okay. There you go. Yes. White's are successes. Yeah. Four successes. So you're doing very well. You feel very in tune with your objective as you start your incandation. I'm probably getting a patient and starting to move my weight. And he actually comes in and waves you guys in. And at that point, let's say that everyone goes in at that point. Michael Clay with the weapons, Katie, Daniel, I'm sure you want to come in as well or do you want to watch the alleyway. I'll stay on the other side of the door, but inside rather than answer. Got it. Does anyone know anything about the light in the mailroom? I've put my head in there. Make sure there's nobody in there. There's no one in there. There's no one in there. It's been definitely... I think we should be shooting on it. I've moved through. We're shooting down the lights. Yeah. It's easier for them. Except for the flashlight. Okay. So everyone's inside the Western Union, Daniel, the door is still a jar, correct? With a brick between the back door and the... Well, we're all in. It doesn't matter. Yeah. You want it closed? Yeah. And if it's locked, then I can just join them in the room. I forgot to have a lock. Yes. You can lock it. Okay. It's all good. He didn't break the lock and we just picked it. He's got it. I described what I saw. He looked good as far as the casing. It's good coming from me. The movement that might be currently running. Okay. So he filled you guys all in to the incantation that's taking place with Grace, although he doesn't have a lot I can tell you and I, just that she drew a circle. She's invisible and she's doing some type of spell. Oh, then I'm doing a spell. Now, you recall that you are tainted. So what type of benediction would you like to do? I suggest not casting anything while she's in the middle of casting something either. There's magic going all the way around here. Last time I held off, I got myself killed and it takes a while for me to get ready. If I tell you to do it, will you not? Do you want to know what you're doing? I'm putting all that's right. No, that's right. No, that's right. I may not know what she's doing. No, no. That's what she might have said. No, it's a theme of the night. So this is what I'm doing. You might be able to explain it and it might make sense. I'm putting myself for combat. You're what? I'm putting myself for combat in case it happens. What way? Armering myself right now is the first thing I'm going to do. Okay, so it looks like there was a battle here. We don't have to micromanage her. I see how that yep. It's not going to work anyways. Yeah. Alright, so switching back to the scene in the woods. The hedge. Yeah, I'm trying to get off this thing and that would start with getting these reverse facing parts shaped off with the ninth. Excellent choice. Yes, you have to. Chew, do you have a weapon of any sort that you were carrying? I'm a person. I would probably have a. I mean, you have a leather block and a leatherman, a leather blade. So in a very difficult voice, Jay suggests that we try to remove the barbs. You know, I think what he's doing is he's trying to saw at them and they are incredibly resilient. But as you sit there and saw away, one of them, it would be in your way to remove yourself from this impaling thorn or branch even because the thorn is kind of a misnomer and this thing's huge. You're definitely making some kind of a dent in the bar. So it's not as if you can't, besides if you're seeing no progress at all. It's just slow and it's really hard to gauge time in this area with no sunlight, no normal ways of gauging time. So I'd say that all three of you are having some success with your leatherman or your knife. It's uncomfortable because you're shifting your body and sometimes the knife will slip off and you'll, you'll shift and you'll catch yourself. As of right now, let's say that all but your last three boxes are filled with bashing and your first box is filled with lethal from the impaling. Let's go with that as the damage that you'll have currently. Sorry to add prior damage. We get better. Then if you had prior damage, what kind of quality you did, then you would, how much damage did you have? I had three. Three lethal. So your last three boxes are now filled but you're conscious now. You went unconscious for a brief while when you got impaled. You're conscious now. You are not bleeding out. You now have the four boxes with lethal. So all your boxes with bashing. Four boxes with lethal. Do you have any damage? I had three lethal I guess. Same. The car crashed so I'm not sure if we healed any at all. I think there's a night's sleep. I'm not sure how. I don't think you were here for the sister healing session. I'm actually going to say that if he disappeared before or after that. It was after but we accounted for his disappearance after that. Then you're healed. A very shady individual healed you. Someone can fill them in to the details. Actually I think the sister would have been the one to do because we only had so many shady healings to go around. He would have been somebody you would have considered. So I would chew your heal and someone can explain to him what happened. Damn. So you're all bashing in one lethal and you didn't have any damage. Did you get? I did. How much? I had one lethal product. So now you have two and everything but your last two boxes are now filled. So I should have one lethal, three bashing and then three untouched. Correct. Okay. I'm drawing a circle around her circle. Okay, right. Should I say that all three of you are attempting to wear down the barbs on the various things that you're impaled upon? Yeah. The various branches. Or someone doing something different? Chew. I know you have some specialties that are different from Edgard and from Jay. Nothing that would happen in this situation. Jeremy Whiskey. Yeah. Did you happen to bring a show of whiskey and get the flaps out of your own? Fuck out of your own. He brought a show of whiskey. How does that work? I don't know. Some prick decided he wanted something extra that I couldn't possibly have. Anyone? Anyone? No. Alright. Y'all done drinking? I think this is it. Sorry, I'm chasing that drinker. I'm having a band of leaves of useless bullshit. All the fucking time. That's what it is. I'll get back to your scene again. But think about it. There's something you want to do that's not involved with shaving down these barbs. Chew, if you have any powers that might be of use, I don't know. Going back to the scene, at this point, let's say a full 10 minutes has passed. You guys have looked at... Daniel stops the nun from drawing a circle around a circle. Look. We don't need to poke it. Can you do that in another room? No. This is to protect us from anything that might come out of whatever she's doing. You don't know what she's doing. Right. Yeah, we don't know anything about what she's doing. So, why is there arguments? It's not going to mess with us. They are arguing. I want to use my goggles and find a bigger piece of glass than the rest and stare at them. When she finishes her circle, it starts... I'm not necessarily waiting for her, but way out of the time of it. But all I'm saying is it glows. Oh. So now we've got a glowing circle? Your circle. Not... Anyone else. Wasn't shaving at the glass. Not to anyone else. To him wearing his goggles. He puts on a pair of, if you're familiar with steampunk in a way. So he puts those on, and that's what you see. As you definitely see it, a glow. Are you saying anything a lot about that? I see a glow. It generally means that there's some kind of doorway into another... So, is Grace in the room with us? Yes. You can hear her. I believe so. I can't see her. I can't see her, but... You can see what she's drawing. Right. And is the circle complete? The circle is complete, but it's a glow that you haven't seen before. What color is the glow normally when you see the things that you see? Green. Green. The opposite of green is... It's glowing orange. I think you two need to work out your issues. Yes. Because he doesn't want the none to draw a circle, and the none wants the draw. The protection spell to stop anything evil from coming out of the circle and attacking us. I'm okay with that, but you told me it was armor and you just changed it. No. I changed. I'm not doing that. I'm doing something else. Yes. You didn't do your protection. Okay. We did back at the apartment. Big, though. We needed to fit red. Between them. How long is your incantation tape? How many square feet is her circle plus a couple more square feet around it? I don't give a shit. Grace, tell us what you're trying to do before you, if you're going to open a door, we need to know about it. We don't know what you're trying to do, so we don't know whether this is a threat or this is helping us. Can you please answer this question? I would probably stop mumbling for a second. Yes. You can pause it briefly. Briefly, though. You can't lose the mojo. Uh. So maybe, like, ten seconds down. Yeah. There's just the, wow, the circles and process. Yes. There's just one circle. The second circle is completely. Well, I'll probably continue to still write, but I'll stop there a second. Sure. Like, presentation at least. You just say, um, don't touch anything. Don't move. It's not safe yet. She's making it. Always the mystery. It's never a barrier. I'm making it double. Yeah. I saw what the doctor did before. Is this related in any way to what the doctor has done? Can I do a role to see if I recognize anything like I did with the doctor? I know. Well, she's writing what she's doing. It's completely different. Completely different? Absolutely different. I'm not doing anything. I wouldn't have any chance to recognize it. What's that? She's just doing a circle. She did a circle. And then you have to write a little... Yeah. She's like making lips and different symbols within the circle. Okay. So, there's a lot of chalk drawing going on. A lot of scribbles. Well, that's what I'm asking. Can I make those work a little bit quicker as well? The glyphs and the symbols. Go ahead. Is there anything I can do to observe these glyphs or symbols, like I did with work the doctor or...? Can you certainly look? A cult plus... Wait, I would say? All right. A cult plus wits gives me six dice and does the trained observer make any value? Sure. Why not? Which means that this is definitely making it. It's probably worth less than I'm not going to know what this is. You said you wanted me to be the... You can see it better with the goggles than without. You can't see shit with the goggles. I can see it with the chalk. You can see it with the goggles. But you don't know if anyone else can see as these goggles. Do you want to try this? Yes. Is there at least one ordinary mortal inside, like are any of them considered an ordinary mortal? They're hunters, so they're not really mortals. So no. Okay. All right, so I get a hold of these. Oh, cool. What are these? Yeah, I see it. That may help me see. Yes, I get to add two dice. No. No. No. No. No. He's standing outside for sure. Oh, well, yeah. Well, yeah, but I mean, he's going to be one should. If you can convince him, sure. It's not safe yet. Daniel, give us a... What I get to know if I'm not. You have to ask him to come inside and join you. You have to ask him to come inside and circle. You're safe. He has to trust you. Okay? Let's see. I have nine dice right now. Oh, that's way too many. Subtract three. Four. Okay, so he doesn't like you. That's awesome. It's a language in a magic UW game you had familiarity with. Go ahead and roll your six dice, please. All right. I'm using his goggles. I'm going to suggest he try them. And if it helps him, he can use them. And if not, I'll take him back. Plus one die for the goggles. They make the glyphs easier to read. All right. She's a sloppy writer. She's always good in magic. I've got three successes, the trade observer. This isn't a perception. Well, this is, you said, in a cult role and everything like that. So it's not really a perception role. Yeah. It's not a perception role per se, but you're certainly- Okay. 'Cause it's eight again if it's perception, but I don't think we- Okay, no. I'll give you the bonus die, but not eight again. Okay, fair enough. So I have the one bonus die. Ten again. Ten again. And three successes. With three successes, you have a fair degree of certainty. Even though that some of these glyphs are in languages that you're not familiar with. Specifically French. It's always the French. They have something to do. You've seen the word some bastardization in French of the word shield or protection wall. You've seen some of these different variations of words or something that she's trying to accomplish. You have no idea what that means in the sense of what she's exactly trying to do. But you do seem to think that there's a defensive nature to it perhaps? Okay. Based on the language being used? That's what I'm looking for. I'm guessing from what I can see that she is making some kind of protection or shield or barrier. So hopefully this is something that is not going to be a prelude to an attack. Right. Okay. Asks. So what? No, you're not done yet. You have to make your next ten minute role. You have four successes you need to get to five. Ten minutes has passed at this point. All right. But I'm saying... Oh, you want him inside? Oh yeah. Inside before I make the role. So you have to stop again and you have ten seconds. Nine seconds. Eight seconds. Daniel, I need you to come inside the circle. Help with the protection. Sister? Don't. She said it's protection. I think it's enough. I don't want you messing with her. Go ahead. And I'll prove you a second. He starts mumbling and I walk inside the circle. I'll get him back his goggles, by the way, just because he... Right. You step across the threshold. Sister Katie, what do you do? 'Cause there's obviously a disagreement here in you. Get to have your say as well. So I don't want to take it away from you. Daniel's saying please let her do what she wants to do. Don't interfere. What do you do? I said I'll prove you it's safe. And I stepped in the center. Now, you might want to wait until see what happens to me. I continue to do what I'm doing. I physically restrain you. Don't cross the streams, man. Just give it a minute. 'Cause I got it. Can you? Yes. I don't think lately. He's walking up and being stopped, please. Putting the foot in front of the chalk, anything. This might be her taint talking. What, I walked in. Sister, please, just let Grace finish what she's doing first before you interfere with it. I cracked my knuckles. Please, sister. You're not well and you haven't had your confession yet. I'm going to step on the chalk. Don't let's not interfere. We only got a few seconds. She's almost done. And, fine. Okay. Make your roll. You're all dead. I'm okay. I needed one more projection. We're not. You can even hear the circle. There's idiots. She calls me my successes. And there you go. So you have one kind again. Eight successes and eleven dice. Cheese. Is that an exceptionally successful success? Guys, an exceptional success. We guys are going to like this. Okay. There's dancing ball. No, it kills the sister, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. He knows dead. His blood, his innocent blood will feed the doorway to hell. Everybody saves. He's a small man. I need him to kill him. More no. Nicely good. That'll satisfy my aspiration. Okay. Everyone stay inside the circle. Get in. Okay. Get in. She says... How long is your inside the circle? He's still wearing the goggles around anymore. Dad, put him back out. Okay. The glyphs are absolutely shimmering power. It's quite the impressive sign. But orange. Can eight dice success kind of glimmer? Yeah. It's like an exceptional success kind of glimmer, right? Oh, how evil could a six-year-old girl be? We're going to find out. Yeah. So it was locked up on a farm for several years. I thought it was an empire, but... It carries around severed heads. Yeah. And we speak, I guess. So basically, anybody who's inside the circle now gains a plus three dice rule to resist any supernatural powers or any supernatural being from hurting you. So long as you're inside. Okay. Excellent. You all feel very warm and comfortable and as if nothing can hurt you or affect you. Did you bring that piece of glass that you were looking for? I did. And once I'm in here, I want to take a look at it. And then I'll hand it to you. Okay. So you pick up the piece of glass. If you look at it, it is glass-like with the goggles. With the goggles. There is no glow to the glass with the goggles. It is simply a piece. It looks to you like a piece of either obsidian or obsidian colored glass. It's dark. It has veins within it, but they're very subtle. It's just an exceptional looking stump. All right. Well, in that case, I wanted a piece of the mirror as well. Okay. Well, believe me, when she drew the circle, there is glass in from the mirror inside the circle as well. Okay. So not a problem. That's what I thought I was looking into. The original glass. And jumping back. Everyone's inside the circle, jumping back to the trees. Two. Did you have anything you wanted to attempt? If I try to move my bodies into painful, to actually attempt that, to remove myself from the thorns of that one. Yes. By grasping onto the tree branch, the thick tree branch, and pulling yourself forward, it's incredibly painful. And we said this barbed. That's the incredibly painful part. It's painful anyways. But just going forward, the barbs are like stuck in ribs, parts of tissue and in organs. And so you're yanking on those with some ribs and it's going to hurt. And there's more ahead of you. So the key is, from Jay's perspective, is to get rid of as many as you can and then just take the punishment. There's no blood at all. No blood at all. Just, yeah. Trying to breathe. It's really difficult. You feel like your lungs are being compressed. It's painful in that sense. So Jay and Edgard and potentially chew, depending on what you decide to do, go ahead and make. Once first, sometime you don't know and make a roll. And what you're doing is you're making an attack roll to see if you're able to whittle down the reverse barbs. Okay. So it would be your weapon skill plus your strength or dexterity, depending on who you are. And you would make an attack roll against the barbs. It does. It does. You got impaled worse. Minus two because your work, are you having an exercise? I haven't picked that far enough if that's what you're doing. I thought someone was and so I was like, oh, how wonderful. Your right arm is pinned. So you can't really move it to help. So you're scraping with your left hand. So minus one die because you're scraping with your left hand and minus two die because you're impaled. And that's just uncomfortable. Okay. Like it is egregious and is strong and forceful as you want to get with your workings of the knife. Four successes. I'm five fucking dice. Four successes on five dice is very impressive. Nice. And after a prescribed period of time, you're able to snap four of the barbs off of the main branch that's impaling you. There is one more barbed left, the very tip that you cannot get to unless you pull yourself up there. I didn't know I was allowed to choose which branch I was scraping. I assumed it was the closest one to start since it was so difficult. That would be the one in the middle of. Yeah. How about the branch by right hand is impaled on. I want that in the future. Okay. I was going with the one through your left shoulder because your left hand could reach it the easiest. That's true. So four of the five barbs are now off after a certain period of time. Well, after I get the fifth one, I'm just saying that. The fifth one is not going to be reachable unless you pull yourself to it on the center bar. Okay. Are you guys? Spending a whole power. I have two and Wapundry is two. So seven dice. Actually, it's not quite as bad. And there weren't as many barbs because of the fact that you were able to dodge a little more effectively than Edgar was with the incoming. So go ahead and make your roll. It's minus one for your impaling. One success. All right. This is a perseverance based task. I don't know about spending a lot of power on it. He needs it. He doesn't have as many dice as you do. I don't. So you snap off one. You tell me which one because you would think of that being tactical. A fucking hand stuck wouldn't think of it. No. It's too far away to hurt too much because you're so wounded. My legs coming off first. I'm not dangling by my leg. Okay. It would be really, really uncomfortable. That one only has three barbs on it. So actually only three barbs on it. So that's actually one third of the way down at this point. And then two. So this damage retook is when we got in failed? Yes. So this is very real. At least it feels very real. It feels very real. They're so freaking sharp that and you're not bleeding. So that's kind of weird. Yeah. I thought about ripping myself off of this. Yeah. Except for the damage we took when we hit it. Well, I guess it took out my weatherman. Yes. Go ahead. Weapons plus strength or dexterity if you have the skill to use that to switch it. Otherwise go ahead and make your room. Maybe I'll just try to pull myself right. Maybe I'll just hang here. All right. I guess it's worth a roll. Tip which one. Strength and weapons if you have it. I do not. So it's -1 to use your weatherman in that capacity. What's your strength? That would bring me down to one die. One die. Now you can use willpower. That you have. That'll give you three dice. We have no concept of time. We're not sure how much time has passed in the world you're in. Do I feel tired? No. If you don't feel tired. Hungry? Don't feel hungry. This doesn't matter how long this takes. You want me to look at it? It's a zero. Ten. Roll again. So close. Ten. One. All right. So switching back to the scene with the gang in the western union. What happens next? Everyone comes inside the circle? I offer, yeah. Do you all come inside the circle? Yes. She's asking you all to come inside the circle. Do I need to prepare for battle? Not that I know. Okay. I don't know what you're doing. What your end game is with what you're doing in here. You're summoning us in a protection. She's protecting, she would appear to be a circle of protection against supernatural being, not a portal into somewhere else. But if there's a protection from supernatural being, does that end? It follows that there's about to be a supernatural being, sure. Or that there is the potential for one to manifest itself. Seeing as how there's broken glass, we don't know where two of are. All I want to do, that's all I'm asking is, should I pull up some defenses or should I wait to see what happens and then try it? It's up to you. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. What are you going to try to do, now that we're in here? I'm going to try and use that mirror to find out where I'd wear it in Jape. Okay, I could wait. I'd wear it in Jape. So Bill, these shards of the shattered matter, that's what you're going to use? Potentially, if there's one big enough, yes. Okay. You see a lot of that's a little bit more clear now that we know what's going on. That does make a little sense and that kind of ties into what I was hoping Ethan was going to do. Are you her dad? Do you have to explain everything to you? No, a teenager would say. No, but I'd like to know what's going on, especially in this situation where our leader... Do you not trust me? Look, I don't get this enough for my 11 year old. I'm sorry, I cut you off Chris. You don't trust me? You haven't given me a lot of words. I haven't given you a reason to not either. Is there logic? That's a logical circle. It doesn't make sense. It's not that you don't trust me. It's just nice to know what's going on. Especially in our leaders' missing, we just, before you take action that could affect the whole group that we're all supposed to be a part of, we'd like to know and coordinate so maybe we can help each other achieve what we're trying to do instead of discovering at the last minute because we almost had sister interfere with her spell and that's what I'm saying. If we know what's going on and we communicate with each other, it all works out for the best. Michael, I'm going to suggest that she looks into this, I mean, as the next step. Does that make sense? I think it's a great step and I also think that before we do have this confrontation, we still have some research to do about a band. We never got around to figure out the band for this thing and we're not sure if Jay is a trained band. The band is the way to stop it or turn it away or the way to protect yourself. Guys, guys, do you want to know where they are or not? We do, but we also want to know if we can fight off Jay as one of the best fighters I know and apparently he was taken by this shattered man. So Jay is the best guy with weapons that we have and there's shell casings all over and it does appear that there are shards from the sky, but I don't know if that was effective or not. That's not going to show up when you look at them. Yeah, we have had some dealings with spiritual beings before and typically they have a weakness and I think we should maybe know what that weakness is. Do you want to even know if they have them first? If they have them. If I'm sorry, if the shattered man has them first. It's not like we're going to just jump in there. Yeah, but we're just looking. That's what we're doing now. We're talking about another, we have the circle of protection and we can plan for that. How long does the circle last? Okay, boss, you do your reconnaissance with the books. You took pictures of her. Yeah, you can do hers with the mirror. I agree. As long as we're all, all I'm saying is that let's just talk to each other and understand what's going to happen before. I told you what's going to happen. Then let's do it. Let's just turn everything out and see what happens. Let's throw every switch. Let's turn on all the lights. It's got all the police here and let's just everyone do their own thing and see what happens. Cool. Sounds good, seeing as how we're inside a warning circle. As long as it's plus three, it does. It's not a mute line, so I wouldn't say it like that. That's right up here. I think there's-- So you claim. Nothing. So you claim that it's a protected circle. There's strong physical evidence here that gunfire is not the way to go. Yeah, it's not effective. Which is why I'm saying that maybe we should take a moment to try to figure out what we could do. I'm not trying to stop going through a doorway and take forever at our door. We did find some pieces. I would like to be a little bit more informed. Sounds like grace is a warning. Is there something you still need to know? Grace is just talking about a window. We're talking about-- Grace, you just want to look through the window. You're not going through a door. No one's going through it. Can we have one conversation going on here? So look through the window. Let's see what's going on. Do we have a shotgun? No. Oh yeah, that's how you do. We've got two shotguns. You brought the whole-- I apologize. Yes, we do. I got the satchel, get all the guns. Because if hitting this thing with a bullet causes minor damage, hitting it with many bullets maybe would cause more damage. That's where you're at. That is usually a good solution. Maybe blood objects rather than firearms. I'm just making suggestions. If I have them either-- It was best at shooting. I got it. I'm going to get it. Okay. Well, that's here. I'm good. And as we organize that. Let's all begin our research. I'll try to figure out what weapons I can gather. I think you take a look, see if we can figure out where we're going and where they are and how we can get to them. You know, guys, like all I'm going to do is find out where they are. You might not even be with the shattered man. They might be back at the hotel Cleveland for all we know. And the more we sit here and argue about whether or not we're going to find out just where they are. I say find out. Go for it. Then go for it. Find out where they are. Jesus. Yes. Do your thing. Point is not what you're doing. The point is him coming through what you're doing. Yeah, here's the thing. We don't know what you're trying to do. Boss, that's on stage. So how can we possibly react to what you're doing until you do it? So go for it. Turn it on. Go for it. So it's psyche plus wits for the role and then minus however many you want to. Because, well, typically minus one if the damage, the mirror's damaged. Not how much you want to take off since it's so. Right, so damage. Yeah. Can I see your cooking sheet guys? So basically, I can say. You have the whole killer. Sure. Because you latch everything. Do we have any other heavy weapons? Absolutely. Shit. We have a got all the big sniper rifle, military grade, and a shotgun. We have a rifle. We have two rifles. One, I picked up from the farmhouse, another I brought with me. Rifles or machine or automatic rifles? They are full-time. All right. Give me the second heaviest gun you got and someone else wants to carry out. I think I'll... I've got two pistols and a knife with me. Miracles do more damage than a pistol. Yeah, but pistols are going to be up close and have your shots probably. Shoot at another shotgun. Okay, yeah. If you didn't take his weapon, we got two shotguns. Shotgun seems more practical. Anyone else with firearm experience? Two guns. You can have the other shotgun. I could give you my revolver, but you have enough in your pistol. I've got firearm experience, but I would prefer the pistols. I'm going to run in the back of the office to see if they have anything to do. To work it to make shit club. I don't see that they would, but I don't know what's back there. If there's that chair, I guess you give a bus stop. Okay. You get plus one die because you know Jay's. Hey. Hey. Who is the one you're looking for, correct? I guess. You have to pick my name. Yeah, who they want me to do, since they want to have so much say in this whole thing. Minus three dice. Plus one die because you know Jay's first name. Minus three dice because of the condition of the mirror that you're trying to use to look for him. That's good. You need dice? Okay. Don't roll no successes. Because if you roll no successes, I'll do really evil things. Oh really? Yes. That's really difficult. Mine target numbers four and once every minute. Good luck. It's three successes. All right. As you look into a rather large shard of obsidian color glass. You start to get very, very basic images. Everyone else standing close to her sees a piece of glass. There's nothing happening at all. But she seems to be quite excited by her progress. This is the same thing we saw last time she played with the mirror. Yes. Very similar. Yeah. Okay. So one minute passes, unfortunately not. Do you want to try the goggles? Wait a second. I'm sorry. Just to be clear. She's been invisible this whole time, right? She wasn't visible, but this is a new scene now so she's manifested back to a regular one. When you stepped into the circle, you could see her. I just wanted to be clear on what's happened. Once the circle was created, that's when it would have worn off. That's when I wouldn't have needed to be. So do you want to try the goggles to see if they did anything for you now? Sure. If he's willing to. He's willing to wear them. He's good, sure. So go ahead and put the goggles on and make your second roll. Same. Two. Three. No, ten again. I hit my target. Right. Six successes, correct? Six. Six. Six. Six. Eight. Four. You know, they talk about mortals and non-mortals in the descriptor, so I'm going to go with the fact that you actually see the same gray trees that you saw the children being held onto. But this seems a bit more vicious. The trees are larger. The branches are sharper and more wicked. And you see Jay in... you just see Jay. Your vision is narrowly focused onto Jay. You see some trees behind him, but you don't see the other two there. You just see Jay impaled upon three large limbs of the tree, running, pulling himself forward a bit, trying to hack at the various blades, thorns that look like blades, almost metallic in nature that are holding him on. And then the scene fades. With the goggles on though, that's what I see. There's nothing else weird that we noticed otherwise. No, there was nothing different with the goggles on than what you saw last time as far as the tree. So yeah, we know where Jay is. Awesome. Do we? Yeah, what do you see? Can you have to try this? Oh, when you said scene fades, I thought you meant work time. The scene fades in your city and lives. And they could see nothing the entire time. And you know that others can't see. That's what you can call it. Okay. Well, the Shadowman didn't come out. I guess the warding circle worked. Yes, you're right, Grace. What next? What next? What do you see, Jay? Yeah, yeah. He's at the head. Did you just, were you only looking for Jay? Do you see Edgar? I could, I could redo it and look for it. No, it's... Fuck that guy. Just Jay. No, I just... Edgar, why you risk it, right? I wanted to finish hearing what you would see before you got into a new track. Same thing. Like with the children, except just Jay. So they're alive. Well, as far as you can tell, he's alive. He's alive. He's trying to get out. But he's... Is there any way, you can only see things you can't communicate, right? I cannot. Cannot. Communicate. It's possible. I'm not trying to be rude. I'm just trying to understand how you're answering the question because you cannot communicate with Jay. I don't have that ability. Okay. But you can see where he's at. Do you know of any way we would somehow get to him or find him or... Well, I don't know how to get this. If you can find him and see him, I'm just wondering if there's... I have an idea of how we can somehow use that to get to him. And of course that means having to go talk to the doctor. I don't know how to get there. All I can do is show you where he is. I'm afraid we may have to go ask Dr. Collins for help. If you can figure out the bond, can we order the shadow men to take us back? I have a couple ideas about what we can do. None of them are good. Okay. But the two ideas, one would be to figure out this band and then summon the shattered man ourselves and try to deal with them with Grace's protection and you're all up. The other way is to maybe see if we can get the doctor to open a portal to wherever Jay is using what Grace is just saying. What Grace is just found for us. She thinks that he could do this. Oh, I don't know. He's the only one I know around here that has some ability to use magic. She just said she can't... I can't talk to him. Okay. I'm sorry. Do you know how to... I don't know how to get... I mean, if you gave me some more information, if I had other things available, possibly. But I'm not saying I couldn't possibly ever do it. I'm saying with what we have right now. There's nothing I can do right now. I don't understand or know the extent that you are capable of. So what you're now saying to me suggests that you have the ability... It's possible. As I said, it is not... Okay. Personally. Now I know that that's on the table, but that's a possibility. Right now. I can't. Okay. There's another option. Apparently Grace just said she may be able to open up a door to give us to Jay. Let's ask for specifics. Okay. What's your idea? I don't have any ideas right now. What would you need for Must to help you be able to do that? Do you need an item of his or... Do you have any idea what would help? I honestly don't know. I'd have to do some research. Uh, okay. Seems like... It is for Bond fans. Fans. Mm-hmm. You guys had this inscription, right? It's some Latin chant or some other. And we do have three things that we can continue to research. Do you remember? There's one... Yeah, I've gotten written by this one. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but this is the second time that we have looked through a mirror that he has shattered and he hasn't been able to come back through it. It seems that there are only completed mirrors that he can come through. There's enough loads around. There's that shattered ones. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but... I remember seeing one particular inscription. You guys were looking at two similar ones, but then a different one was like backwards or something. Well, here's one thing I don't understand too, is that I thought according to the story and when we read, the shattered man only goes after children or the first born children. So, I'm not sure what happened. I don't know that that was a story. I remember that it was the... I think all the leads to the children that... Only the children were the ones missing. I think that's his current MO. It's always been that we can't say. Yeah, okay. I think he's a hired hitman. I think somebody tracked him down and wherever he came from and said, "People pissed me off. Let's go out." I think someone's been compelled. Yeah, he's been compelled. That's my guess. We just pissed off a time spirit. We went back in time and the time we went to is someone's going after first borns. Like they're trying to stop something from happening in the future by killing somebody. If it has anything to do with time. I don't think we have enough to call that yet. That's what a conspiracy theory. Okay. I just want to get to Jay. But yeah. Okay. Rachel? No, I need to talk to you about something. Okay. Let's call it here. It's late. And I think the scene has come to its conclusion naturally. And we'll see what you guys can do next week to... Well, I just don't know if they're going to leave this place. They might want to take things with them. So I'm sure they'd like to think about that before you push them back to the hotel. Right. I'm not saying they're back at the hotel. Just I think this particular scene has kind of drawn into a close. You guys want to think about it for a week and then come back and see what you want to take. Once we leave here, we're probably not going to be able to get back because... Well, that was my question. What day of the week is this? Was this the weekend? It was a Thursday. Okay. Once we leave here... Good God. I'm sure in the morning there's going to end. We're not going to be in these right now. Thank you for listening tonight's of the night's 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. [Music] And Kevin Bates posted and said, "Every time I get trusted, you ready, Rachel?" Okay. It's a play devil at it. A play? Well, I really am in trouble tonight. She was embryonic when we met her. She was a fetus. I've done it again. My life spirits left her. Those time spirits left her shoulder. Yeah, clearly. [Music] Oatmeal raisin and oatmeal cranberry. Oh, that sounds good. Cranberries, we're good too. Snickers, we're good. I'm a big fan of those. Enough of the cookie cake. Russian tea cakes are good. They really appeal to me. Ginger creams. Oh, I just tried to roll dry my apples in a while. Except for a doughnut. Did you bring a couple? Or no, you didn't. Ginger creams. You didn't do ginger creams this year? Or no? Not successfully. You tried? Yeah, I tried. It's Russian tea cake. I know. I will probably die. They weren't supposed to die earlier. Because of my clogged artery. Yes. Oh, then I'm doing a spell. [Laughs] Well, she's going to do a spell. I'm going to do a spell. [Music] I'm going to have a band of layers of useless bullshit. All the fucking time. [Laughs] Do you think it doesn't read that note? [Laughs] I secretly read your character. She's why you guys are gone during the week. Put him down. Kind of like a price is right, babe, you know? [Laughs] How many square feet is her circle? Plus a couple more square feet around it. I don't give a shit. 13 feet. It's 13 feet. Exactly. 13 feet in diameter. Exactly. 13 feet in diameter. So yours needs to be at least 15 feet. We'll stand in between space. At least 17 to give two feet all the way around. Maybe this is what I thought you described. I thought you said that he's only one could possibly see it. So how can you draw something bigger? There's that fucking thought. He can guide her. Hold on. We can all see the chalk. We just can't see a glow, right? Yes. I'm sorry. That's true. You can see the chalk. You just can't see a glow. [Laughs] Magic chalk. Okay. It's magic or baseball chalk. So we can't see the circle as chalk. Yes. We don't see the glow. Right. Now, and we don't know if Grace is in the room with us, but we can hear her. We can hear her mumbling in the middle. Yeah, mumbling. So you could just try to talk. Yeah. That was just going to say, can we say a lot? Yeah. I'm trying to work towards that. Yeah. Did you bring that? You need to do this on a safe house. It was on a safe house. Yeah. You do this every day. Can you say that again? Because there was a little bit of over talk. This episode better be called Leatherman. Right. Another use. [Laughs] Leatherman rule. Something. Oh my God. Do you want to talk? No. No. Okay. Wait, you can only see things you can't communicate, right? Right. We went over that last time and she saw the game. I'm just trying to remember. Let's let her answer. Yes, her answer. That way. Something like this. Not really trying to cut you off. I don't think you were. No. Okay. Oops. Now, he was arguing with Rachel. Yeah. But I was arguing with Grace. Extinction, man. And everybody's arguing with me. Well, if you don't want to talk about that, I must not make another one. Well, mine. Don't cross the strings, man. We know how she wouldn't even tell us it was a circle. I didn't get to make this argument because I didn't do it. This thought process I had, which I didn't say because it wasn't there, is you might be preventing something from happening that she wants to happen. If you put a magic circle around someone else's ritual, they might be trying to draw energy or fear, synergy, and you're blocking it. I don't know. I'm just... No, part of my problem is that it's a lot of guesswork. Everybody take a beat. We're playing for the night. We all get a beat for the evening. Did anyone do a short-term goal? Yes. What do you get? I get the same thing. Thank you. So, two beats for you. Anyone else? No, this game's slower than I get. No, you're using it. Yeah, no, he's standing with your beats. I escaped the box. Me too. Is that what you said? I escaped the box. Yeah. Okay, take a beat. No, short-term goal, but I'll probably change it. You get something that we can deal with. Yeah, really. We should cross it all. Okay. I have four. What did you do? What was it? She tried to stretch around quicker. I totally right. I expected. I can buy a new attribute point. Straight. Awesome. Yeah. Well, actually, I used decks, so it doesn't matter much. So, give me back, Bob. Sorry, it wasn't such a cool weapon point. Oh, hey. You know, no worries. You've got everyone. Not everyone here. Yeah. Well, do you know what people do? You're stuck with me. It's an exciting night for you, Bob. You're just hanging out. This next week.