Roberto has let the rest of the party know he has a Denarian Coin in his pocket, but the one thing we can count on is him taking calm, thought out actions – right?Well, you’ve waited an extra week for this episode – hope you enjoy it!
Knights of the Night
184 - DF2 KotN Actual Play Podcast - DFRPG - Nail Meet Hammer
(upbeat music) - Hello. Welcome to Nights at the Night actual play podcast. This Justin Faust story rituals was written and run via GM town. And now, please enjoy episode 184. Nail, meet Hammer. Actual play starts 11 minutes 24 seconds. (upbeat music) Before we get to the episode, we'll be back. It's also like apologizing to everybody who's good to me. I'm very good with work and birthdays and coaching with someone's team. I'm not a friend of mine, I'm tired of your work. And I just didn't get an episode out, so I'm on this episode's late. So, we've got an iTunes review. This was from the Shrewd Shrewd. - That's a cool night. - You get a knowing to say very often. - But yeah, I don't wanna say it. It was a five star review and it was titled Apple App, almost one. By that, I think he was stating that it was difficult for him to get an iTunes review in. That would be my guess. And I appreciate him sticking through the process and actually getting a review. His review was, I found your podcast about two weeks ago and I've caught up on your world of darkness and Dresden games. - Two weeks? - I know. - Holy shit. - That's like one or four hour list. - That's a lot of listening. Yeah, there's another about it. - Did you sleep? (laughs) - The two systems at my group will run more than a one shot. But it's great to hear your roles and feedbacks in the podcast. The sound effects and the background music bring something even greater to the story and I can't wait for the next episode. And in waiting, I'll start listening to the flaming sofa. - Thanks for the suggestion. - Flaming sofa did changeling? - Changeling. - All the way back down. - It's in the world of darkness universe. They did some of them. So we made suggestions back then. And actually I think they faded. I haven't seen any episodes from them in a while. So, unfortunately. - Gonna play the glory. - Table. - Facebook, episode 183, which was titled, "Where was that about an hour ago?" I already posted and said, "My slack is gone." And so on this episode, as soon as the rubber meets the road, the ride has a new audio system too. Bring it on, Knights. He later posted, "Well, wow. The plan made me ponder on a Dresden book tradition that hasn't happened that much yet. Buildings haven't been burned. The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault. Opening line of blood rights." Oh, and one more thing, wow. Exclamation points omitted for sanity reasons. The whole episode was a roller coaster ride of one excellent moment packed after another. All the players seemed to be hitting their mark after Mark dead on. The chemistry of it all was just spot on. See what I did there? And what an ending. And about seven exclamation points. Exclamation points really were demanded there. - Okay, what he's referring to for those of you who didn't listen to the episode was one that started with Rachel giving the story of the fourth nail and ended with Roberto picking up the fourth nail and saying I have a demon in my head, so. Tom Rackett also commented on episode 183, saying, "Really enjoyed the arc of this story. Well done, Tom. Even if I'm not sure which way the group should go. Well done indeed." - Hey, we aren't either. - That's right, no, no, sir. Mike Land also commented on 183 saying, "Wow, what great work. Both the beginning and the end were really great role playing. The amount of trust being shown between the players and the GM combined to make an incredibly entertaining story. This is a sort of thing why fate is so great with the right group. It becomes a sort of feedback loop where the drama builds upon drama. The spotlight is shared and shifted from one character to another and everyone having a moment to shine or something important to say or do. Again, great work and I cannot wait for more. We got a spot of mail from feedback@kyotnpodcast.com. This was from CBM. Hi guys, I apologize in advance for the verbacity of this missive. It's a bit strange after, oh God, how many hours of listening? I feel like I know you almost as well as my own gaming group. I suppose it doesn't hurt that I'm originally from Cleveland as well. Let me start by saying, I usually don't write fan mail, but your crew deserves at least a morsel of praise for all the time and effort you've gone to in order to entertain complete strangers. So I decided to put a little effort in some feedback. I originally stumbled upon your podcast while surfing the net for anything that might help me get a good handle on character and city creation of the dressing files. While I considered myself a veteran GM, I never played or ran a fate game and was stumbling a bit on making that D20 crunchiness to what the fuck is an aspect transition. (laughing) So, as did many of us, yes, it's beautifully eloquent. So thus, I blundered into the phenomenon that is actual play podcasting and Kyoto on amongst them. It is with some chagrin that I am forced to admit that the first episode I sampled of the nights failed to impress me, which I believed it was a city. He's getting to that. I believe it was the city building for your dressing game. - Well then, hardly worn people about this. - Little drum. So that I tried perhaps a dozen or so other podcasts for the system. By far the majority were heavily lacking either an editing focus, personality, or storytelling gamesmanship, or all of the above. I shan't go into detail to protect the innocent, but eventually with great reluctance, I wandered back to the nights of the night figuring that maybe if I skipped this boring creation and tried the actual gameplay, perhaps there'd be something I could take away from it. Best call I've made in a long time. Delivery was a solid storyline. Well directed by Tom and accidentally role played by all. The Eurodites would morally ambiguous London deals played by Scott was my personal favorite, so much so that I intend to steal him for an NPC appearance in one of my own games. But from Alan to Edmund to Roberto to Maxwell Edison and his hammer. - You had the characters wrong? - It's not. - Now, to be fair, you called your gun your hammer. - I did, 'til it got really confusing, so it stopped. - None of you failed to entertain and did it marvelously. One can hear the longstanding camaraderie that only occurs in a group that's played together for years and years. Your production values are miles beyond anyone else's. Making my hour-long commute to work more like listening to a good radio play. But with all the unpredictable tension that dice rolls and gaming rolls blend in. I found myself grinning and sympathy with Tom as Jonathan unexpectedly made over Roberto into the Gold Ward of Cleveland. And winced as poor Alan Montgomery's plight when he discovered his mentor was not the wrongly accused lawbreaker, the new Warden believed. - That was a good scene. - I chuckled at London's antics in general and his social locking of horns with Constance Rockefeller. There were many other moments for which I am thankful that you shared. Once delivery was completed, I found myself quite reluctant to return to listening to even the next best actual play podcast. So I decided to give a listen to shit luck story that I'd heard so much about. And even though I'm not a fan of World of Darkness, I found to my delight and surprise that it was not a pretentious vampire, the masquerade game, but it was a hunter game. - We don't judge with the vampires. - We really don't. Even the less spit and polished editing took nothing away from my enjoyment of the adventure of the siren team. Tony's I got this and choose girlfriend, the B-host Tammy Sun, standing out as some of the many, many other scenes that made me cheer or grimace. Dr. Miles moments of conscious John Beamer's passing, Michael Claisen Connor with a heart-cooked brain. And Jay Alton's desperate attempt to keep them all on track. All now reside in the neurons usually reserved for those special RP moments created by my own group of misfits. I could go on, but I fear the length of this feedback is already growing too long. So I'll finish with a few points that I've heard from other feedbacks. One, don't cut your feedback from your listeners. It grounds you solidly in the community of fellow gamers and I enjoy listening to it. If you separate it and do its own podcast, Rust Assured, it will be dutifully downloaded and listened to. Two, keep up the marvelous editing. Your production skill already far exceeds your fellows and continues to improve with each podcast to which I listened. Three, keep the game crunched in the podcast. Your audience is a bunch of gamers after all for Guy Gax's sake. It's a no-brainer. Let the non-gamers go download Radio Fanfic dramas. And four, your best stuff is your role playing, period. Your story writing is excellent as well. That's it. I'll save something for future feedback, but right now, however, some of my favorite task force siren characters are in trouble on a farm field in chagrin. Oh, so much trouble. I'm off to listen to what happens next. And the best part, even when the story is done, I've got more Dresden to listen to. Thank you all for sharing your passion with the gaming community. Sincerely, CDM. Just remember, no matter where you go, there you are. Hello. So, what do you want to say? One hell of feedbacks, thank you very much for taking the time to write that email. Yes, thank you. Our last bit of feedback was another email. This from Tim Dickey who said, "Hey guys, it's step up tip of a mage." But you can call me Tim. Looks like St. Pete Mage. Yeah, I could see that. I'm still in your new manera files and cannot grasp the Dresden file fate system. But can you explain the social combat rules to me? I have a character in particular, a mind, mastagos, mage that is very interested in this. For that, we're gonna turn to Scott for an answer. In regards to the social combat, I took a system out of a supplement called Dance Macabre, which is a vampire supplement, because in the vampire splat, they have quite a bit of social graces. It's all about the social interaction. It's combat, but it's also really heavy on the social intrigue, sure. The slicing someone with the rightly timed word in vampire society. But to get back to the original point, I used the social combat system from there, slightly tweaked for the hunter system, but not anything major, just renamed it. Did you write anything out? Because you mentioned that you looked at Dance Macabre and it was, I believe he said it was a bit much or confusing or-- No, I think I use the system pretty much for Bayom. So you might want to go back to that episode and listen in the world of darkness. I believe we used it for the chagrin storyline in a flashback. It's used most prominently in a flashback with Chu, who goes and talks to the wife beater, the guy who is Rockland's wife. We marries and she ends up in an abusive relationship and Chu goes in there and tries to set something straight. And that's the episode where it really kind of goes point-for-point. So if he's looking for it, I don't know the name of that particular episode, but it's probably about midway through the chagrin storyline. I was trying to put it in the show notes, but I'm not going to. Right, it's pretty much for Bayom. And if you slow it down and read it, it's actually a pretty elegant system. We have a perfect example of it taking place in one of our episodes in chagrin. I would say it's about midway through. It was focused heavily on Chu and Danny Rockland's estranged wife. So with that, we'll wrap it up. We'll just remind everybody, again, anybody who has been using the Amazon link, which could be found at kotnpodcast.com, we appreciate it, and someone has been using it. Not quite enough to cover this month. But with that, we'll wrap it up and let you get onto the episode. My name is Tom. I'm running the stress and foul story ritual. And the players here tonight, starting on my right, R. Rachael Plangzada Sykes, an American gypsy who uses the war of her past to construct the feature. I am Jim Plangzadminshadowski, who is a filthy rich businessman and a black heart-powered scion. I am Scott, playing Bunyan Deals, a moral seer to the supernatural powers. Mike, playing Alan Montgomery, the soul-sundered warden of Cleveland. Bob, playing Steven Tillman, a reporter and photographer, would do anything to get the story. Thomas, playing Maxwell Edison, another cover homeland security operative. I'm John, playing Roberto Martinez, a people's guardian and powered by a fallen angel. OK, and this week, Michael is now with us. He's too high to come. Yes. And Bob is your turn. We are going to start as we have most weeks by allowing people to go through a minor milestone. We're going to adjust the skill point and whatnot. We are not going to do a refresh because we ended on a cliffhanger, and we're going to get right back into it. Well, depending on how it's going to happen, I'll probably buy a spoon. I don't know if it matters. The warden sword is a broadsword, right? Wouldn't it be a sword anything you wanted? It's not a katana or-- It's a warden sword. Anything you wanted it to be. If you wanted it to be a katana, it could be a katana. They weren't made uniform. They were made to order back when they were made. Back when they could be made, yes. So what do you got? This one would be to little broadsword. If everybody is ready, we will start with Naruto holding the nail. And after delivering the news that he is possessed or mom. No, you didn't really see her possess. How did you put it? I've had one of these coins and that I don't know what it will do when I let go of this nail. And we'll just take it from there. Ready, set, go. Don't let go of the coin out of his pocket and places it on the table. You keep it in there? And after a couple seconds, he puts the nail-- No, no, no, wait. Someone give me the hammer? No, no, no, no. Wait, Thomas, your character actually wasn't there? So, totally not there. Where are you? Everybody's here. I thought everyone was here. No, we covered this last week. I was at-- First of all, it was two weeks ago. But yeah, you're right. I was doing filing because I didn't think anything important was going to happen. Because we were all like, no, we'll meet up again tomorrow. And then every-- Wow, that's a miss call, huh? I strived up to his ass and started discussing really important shit. Nobody called me. No, wait a minute, wait a minute. Filing. No, didn't you go to the-- Yeah, he went with me to steal the nail. How did you get the nail? Oh, we got a holy nail. I'm going to go to the supply link. Come on. We said we weren't going to do anything about it till tomorrow. We said we were going to have a meeting tomorrow. And then everyone independently drove up to the brownstone. And nobody told me. So yeah, I'm at home doing some reports. He's got his hair up, you know, and he's like relaxing. Yeah, I got this funny feeling. Now I'm like, what about this new kind of vampire that nobody fucking told me about? OK, so apparently Maxwell is there. OK. You can play Rappa because he is there, but he's not here. No, I'm not there. You can't do a story? No. I draw my sword, and I keep it in a defensive guard position. And I say, I go to Roberto. I go, look, I'm not commanding you. I'm not trying to coerce you. But I'm requesting that you know that you should probably surrender and give up that coin. It's on the table. I'm not holding it. So he has-- Well, he said he took it out, put it on the table. And put the nail on top of it and said, give me my hammer. So you also said, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, I don't want to surrender. And I might don't put down. I was saying, no, no, no, to don't put down the nail. So he is-- Down while he's holding the nail-- I know the nail. He is holding down the nail. So you are willfully giving up the coin of your own volition. You're not knowing to make it? I don't suggest you take it. No, I'm down. But my point is you have to be the one to make the choice to give it up. I've already put it down. So you're not touching it anymore? All right, good. Well, no, that's good. Back in the way for-- No, that's back away. Well, it's just got interest. And don't let go of these arrows has to fade. This is what I'm choosing to do. Can you go get my hammer? I don't want to leave this room. I don't think you want to combine a holy artifact and an unholy artifact that makes my kitchen. And you're in this picture. All right? For the record, Brother Francis is there, and he has, like, really big eyes. All right. He's wanting to go with very large-- As I understand, do I need to make a lore check to say how much I know about denarians and coins? Like, for example, I believe that they're trapped in a coin or their absence of their soul or whatever they're-- Brother gave us a rundown before this. Right. You did make a role earlier in this particular run. You're knowledge was pretty limited. The only two that have successfully, if I remember correctly, provided information about the denarians was Brother Francis. And I think London did a lot of research with Stephen and found out about the information. I would suggest that it is very dangerous to disrupt the vessel that holds a fallen angel. This is the most direct form of combat of fallen angels I can think of. So, again, so that-- These are built to combat the dark angels, the fallen angels. This is the most direct form of combat I can think of. They're in these coins. Right. I'm just saying-- I'm sorry, why not? There's like 30 of these coins, and there's one of these nails, and I hate to destroy one artifact that could help you gather up all the rest of the 30 coins just so you can take out one of the coins. They're for these nails? Yeah, but no, three of them are accounted for in the swords. They are not doing the job? They are out there collecting these coins using the power of those nails and swords, and would be nice to have another weapon to help us collect them all. Because the worst thing you can do with these things is keep them away from people and just put them in a lockbox somewhere where it could be forgotten. I can't break them. You may be able to break it, but you might break the weapon to do it, and then there's not 29 of them out there and no weapon to command them with. These things haven't been broken in a millennium. Two millenniums. So my point is, now that you've let go of the coin, that's a good thing, because you shouldn't be under direct influence from the denariant, and while you're holding that spike, that's still very good. - Should we just take this coin to the white council? - Well, that's, as the only one here for that, I'm glad brother Francis is here, because... - I admit, what? - The white council? - You wasn't? - Yeah. - No, this does not need to be in the hands of the white council, but it does need to be contained and put to the proper authority. - Do you trust your council? - It's not that I trust my council. So this isn't the day, and it's you. You are the, all this kind of the demon. - You told me to trust you is the law. - You've been, please listen to me, and back away from this coin, because we don't want to repeat of... - Brother, can this coin possess me if I put down this nail now that I dropped it? - The coin is not contained, it's not protected, it's not prevented from influencing you. - I like a drug that you've taken, you may have cravings, and the demon may have some control over you. - So Frodo, back away from the ring, possibly. - Again, not an expert, he knows probably more than most of you, but he's not a lore expert on denariant coins. - And one brother Francis, you mean? - Yes. - Okay. - Yes, I am referring. - Now, I do... - He believes that he can contain it, and prevent it from possessing anyone else. - We're in London's place. I'm sure London has many expensive suits, and I'm sure, that's a fair assumption, correct? - That's a fair assumption. - And I'm willing to bet that he has a silk pocket square, or a true silk, which is... - As long as I'm holding this nail, I can pick this thing up and throw it across the room. - That's not... - I thought you said you put the nail on the table. - You're playing with the... - I put the nail on the table. - It's on the coin right now. - No, he's bringing it over. - No, he's bringing it over. - No, no, no. - The coin is on the table. You put the nail on the coin. Two of the coins. - The nail on the coin. - Two of the coins. - 100,000 sperm, and you were the fastest. - I know, I swear. - Believe me, this happened a lot faster, and better than I had thought. I thought we were gonna have to fight you to get you to release and let go of the coin. - I wonder what happens when he touches the... - Brother Francis thinks that maybe, since he willingly put down the coin, that's the coin, may not have any control over him any longer. - Which is great. And I want to emphasize that, but I think everyone should get away from this coin for a second. - He didn't really put it down because the voice was silenced, and it wasn't there to sway him in any way, because he was holding on to him. - He put it down, Willy. - Right, but the voice wasn't in his head. - But he also was holding the nail, so that kind of gives him... - Right, it gives him a plus, and a bonus. Maybe even the ability to make his own decision, but his decision was still... - He went down. - And that's awesome. - That was his decision. - On its own. - By the demon. - Right, 'cause what little... - The demon wasn't... - I understand about this, is that he has made his choice. His choice was an influence by us. We didn't threaten him or coerce him, which would mitigate what he's doing. So this is a wonderful act, and I'm congratulate you, Roberto. I'm letting go of this coin, but now you have basically like a nuclear hand grenade here, and we need to contain it and protect it in a way that doesn't destroy London's beautiful home and the rest of Cleveland. - You're telling me this thing is such a living potential bomb that it could... - It's a fallen angel. - Wow. - It can only act through people as far as I'm aware. - We've only just discovered that this fourth nail and this thing has power, so... - And we'll drive it through it, whatever, but... - No, that's what Brother Francis is telling you that perhaps what the word is speaking of is, to drive it through there would unleash power on a pretty large scale. That might damage. - We're talking about disrupting two powerful artifacts. - And it's dangerous, all right? My morning bells, my spider sense, my training for the past century, is telling me that we need to keep those two separate. - At the very least, Roberto, we need to research it and learn more about it before we go jamming a holy artifact through an unholy, fallen angel coin. - And some type of raw silk is one of the only things I can think of that we have on hand that we can handle this coin. - Roberto, we know that Russell's there, doesn't it? - A corner of a shirt that's a piece of the coin and says, "Where should we put this?" That it'll be safe from you or... - I'll be right back. So I go and get a silk square. I think black is fitting for the fallen angel theme. And bring it back to whatever. - Yeah, bring it back and then place it on the table 'cause I want absolutely nothing to do with that artifact. - Do I have my god word yet from... - I'm gonna pick it up at that. - Stop it. - No, I'm gonna touch the coin yet. 'Cause if we do not touch it again, you're fine. - Everybody back away from the coin. - Plus, everyone's using knowledge from the books that they have no idea. There is a coin with a fallen angel and it's sitting on a table for God's sakes. Stop touching it and drawing it! - We're not playing corners with this thing, all right? Let's just leave it alone for his side. - The other Francis isn't sure he wants to touch the silk gap to put the coin in it, but he probably is the most qualified. - He's the most qualified, so... - But it still scares the piss out of him. - Absolutely, it's a dangerous thing. - If you can taint objects after it's touching, what hope do I have? - The fact that you made a choice-- - Free will. - Free will, your choice to give it up is awesome. And that's what you did. - Christianity is based on free will and you chose to freely give up the coin. - Not knowing what I was doing at the time, but yeah. - But that's how you do everything. (laughing) - How is this different than dance ram out? - I'm gonna cut the cord because I'm gonna save him. - Slice one silver cord, and never let you deliver time, John. - So, trying to think, if Brother Francis is concerned-- - But he would think the best choice would be for Roberto to put it in. He's had the most effect. He seems to have the ability to stop it from affecting him, rent it now. - While I hold this, it can't even communicate with me. While I held the coin. I don't see why I can't just put it in a bag now. - It's a pocket square. - It's a pocket square. - Yeah, so it's not a bag, 'cause I thought we were on a get-go or a giant e-go and throwing it in a bag and I just did not like that idea at all. So no, it's just placed into basically a black pocket square. It's not even a pouch, it's just fabric that goes into your pocket. - But he folds it over. - And you fold it in a baggie so that it can't tie it off with some silk string, rolling a string off of one and tie it up so it doesn't fall out, accidentally or slip out of this hole. - It's wrapped up as it's gonna be. - Thank you. - Some spell or benediction you can do. - Well, I was just thinking, I would like to probably use my thaumaturgy to create a circle. Can I help seal it or put a seal on it? - Could you do that on a movable object? - Then we'll stick it in. Well, that's why I'm doing it on the actual object, the silk of the thing to help. I still don't contain it. - Yeah, but then you do so. - And really what I'm trying to do is just give it some protection and keep it from influencing other things because whatever we had on our agenda, what happens when I put down this nail? I can't hold it until we put it into a weapon. - One way to find out. Put it down. - I'm of the opinion that you let go of the nail and put it on the table. - And if worse comes to worst, you. - Holy fuck's sake, fuck's sake. - You just said this. - Let me finish my thinking for God's sake. - I am of the opinion. - Okay, I'll do it. - What happened? - The brothers said you don't just don't speak. - I stepped outside the house and slammed the door. - I can talk to these people. They fucking over-exaggerate everything. I haven't been holding this for years. - Everything? - Seriously? - Strolling outside, stopping. - Right. - That clearly means he's able. - It's like a burden. - It does the one other thing that only Roberto could provide us with, his absence. - Oh. - Something that's quiet here. - Well, this is like having a nuclear weapon in our midst. - I understand that. - Go put that in your attic. - Sit up with the hammer. - I've got a couple of obstacles in the basement. We could place one in just in case until we figure out what to do with it. - I think that would be wiser. Like we're trying to control the team and protect it. - He's got a portable one. - Brother Francis, we're gonna need to, as Roberto said, you're here because you're an expert in these holy artifacts and holy weapons. We gotta talk about how we can get this to a place where it can be properly protected and stored. And I would kind of like to get this out of Cleveland. - Right. - He intends to take it to San Ignatius and put it in some location where nobody knows about it until he can contact some members of the Knights of the Cross, either they're support staff or themselves to figure out what one does when someone has such a weapon. - And about the nail. - He walked away with it, right? - No, drop it. - Put it down, right? - You would've let it walk away. - I'm picking it up and giving it to Zelda. - What happens when a blackboard vampire picks up on holy object? 'Cause I know he's a blackboard vampire. I've been informed. - He has a soul. - Yeah, he's kind of a hybrid. I think like a vampire who is out in the day like that type of thing, he would suffer all the weaknesses of being affected by taking away his powers. But it wouldn't cause him to burst under flames. - I don't want that. - Do you feel a weakening maybe, or do you need to pick it up? - But that's actually kind of interesting because that's data here. I mean, this is an object of power. That lends screams to Zelda's story and history and but also through an understanding for you guys, the power of the nail is scalable by the holder and their faith and their beliefs. It's still a holy item, which is going to deprive the most power. But also this fourth nail is different than any of the three nails for one thing it was never driven into the body of Christ. Does that make it different? - Possibly. - So Roberto's standing in the front porch of a few men. - Yes, extremely. - Well, they talked for a really long time, so I've gone over to my car and I'm checking out my hammer, which is a lot heavier now. - Your hammer still looks like a sword, I think, doesn't it? - Yeah. - Okay. - Your character's probably changed rather radically. You're not hearing the voice anymore. - Not at all. - Not at all. Whether it's sulking or you have severed the link by giving up the coin, by your own free will, you don't know. - Please excuse us, these recordings sound a little different, we are recording them after the fact because these were notes written during the game. - Can I summon the coin? But in character terms, I think that was me calling out to it. I was calling for the demon and seeing if it would answer. Because my character doesn't outright try to summon things, it's not how this works. - Will you help out your hand? - The answer is you don't know. - And when I hold out my hand and call to it-- - The coin appears. - Well, I don't go back inside with that. Not right now, not while they're tying it up. I pocket the coin, try to ignore the voice for now. - And with that, we will go back to the other players. - But I still think there's probably some precedent here where, I don't know if there's so much we don't know. But, Roberta was, we'll see the first one to actually physically grab it and pluck it out of whatever the box we brought it from the museum, right? - The nail? - Yeah, he was the first one at the time. You know, it was a, Zelda was the first one to touch it. - Because there was a box at the museum, they took it from that. - Okay, okay. - With the glamor trailer. - Remember there was a female guard, so-- - Yep, yep. - Yeah, I hate to bring us back onto point, but in less than eight hours, we're supposed to be saving Roberta's father from the vampire feast. We haven't named who the, was it three caters or four, do you recall town? What the number was? - Let's go four. - Well, I also suggest that for the time being, it might be interesting, but it might also be a need some safety insurance to let Roberta bear this fourth nail for a while, or at least for the next 24 hours while we deal with the situation. - Just stop for one second, okay? - And think about what you just said. - Well, let me tell you my logic about this, okay? - There is logic. - If there is any type of residual effect of this coin, until it's time to protect and shield it from the rest of the world right now, this fourth nail is the thing that quieted the voice in his head and the control apparently this very head. - Okay, let me, let me counter your logic with some actual logic, all right? He has survived just fine for the year we've known him, but one thing that's absolutely constant with Roberta is he is going to act rationally and irrationally at the same time. - Right. - So you want to give him the one most potent weapon we might have to the person who is the least stable individual among all of us sitting at the table right now. - I agree with both of you. I'm only, I'm trying to give him the only thing that can keep the denariant in check because he's about to go. - He's been keeping the denariant in check for a year, just fine. - I don't believe that. - Well, didn't he just run to the coin? - He did surrender and that was a wonderful, he should be celebrated and congratulated for that. That's enormous. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, kind of the back. We'll make sure we send him a card. - It's very significant. I mean, it's just by his very nature he got maybe lucky but the fact is he willingly surrendered this coin. - No, I think we all do know that Roberto has a good soul. I mean, like he means well. He just, he doesn't have the capacity to act in a thought-out, well-fashioned manner. He's going to act irrational. - He was on a road, he stabbed something with the thing. Even if we don't want him to, you know he will. If there is an evil creature that we have to stumble across and it's, hey, we can all get out of here safely or we can stab it, what do you think's going to happen? What do you think is going to happen? - He is going to stab as a thug mentality, true. And you just see something and he thinks everything is a nail with his hammer. - How about if we give it to him, if he starts acting weird and we think he needs the boost, then we hand him the nail. But up until that point, I'm just telling you right now, if you give him a chance, he will fuck something up. He will fuck it up. - The car starts up and Roberto drives away. - Okay, well, now we don't have to worry about it anymore. - Well, now we can't see if there, if he is going to have any kind of a factor or if he's influenced by anything, now we don't know. - I understand that but I was hired to do a job which was to rescue his dad. - I understand, but they're huge. - Not to worry about his to fall around a babysit him. - Do you indulge if this is a huge game changer to what's happened? - Yes, and we have the coin. - All right, okay, I don't know why. All right. - No, no, it's not difficult. I just, I don't think you're being careful. - It feels differently than your character does, that's all. I see you scouting, I see your point. - Right, I know what it looks like. - Yeah, yeah, one is totally not seeing your point at all. - It was scaring me to think that he would be the next sort bearer. - I think it's an incredible situation. I don't know what it is. - I kind of fall in the nail. - If we address this incredible situation after we rescue Manny, who's gonna be eaten in a few hours? - I just think it's an incredible serendipity that a denarian finds and comes across the fourth nail and gives it up. I think that's kind of a significant event. - That the area didn't find the nail. - The found the nail. - Yes, but the, I'm sorry, you're right, but in the same, you're right, I'm sorry. - Yeah, why don't you say it? - We're denying it in the same proximity and then he picked the nail and then gave up the, that is the whole purpose of what-- - Right, thank you, I don't believe in fate. I just, I don't. - I understand, sir, but maybe you gotta have a little fate. - The only thing that's fainted is-- - But this object right here that's glowing with light and just, it's kind of-- - He's gonna stab something with it. - Well, whether that's, whether you use it for or whether it's used to-- - The almost causes our lives last time. When he decided to smack something on the head when the situation was already resolved. - We're having a second miracle here because I'm arguing for a bird toad. Do you understand what I'm saying? - I never put him for a bird for God's sake. This is crazy. (laughing) - Maybe it's irrelevant now because he's driven away. But by pointing-- - No, you don't think he's gonna come back or about to try and save his father. It's not like whenever he's-- - I'm thinking he's a very, he hasn't done anything I thought he would do ever. So I really can't judge. - I don't know why I was sitting here talking about this stuff. We have so many other things that we need to discuss. - You left without the coin and without the mail. I think that's a win. - It's a win. It's the best thing that could have happened. Besides possibly him having a heart attack on his way out the door and dropping death. That is the best thing that could happen. - I wouldn't go that far. - I would. - I agree, we still have work to do. - Yes. - I'm just saying we need to come back to this. - So-- - Because over the floor is yours. - Go. - What would you like to discuss? - You said there's many? - Yeah, you were more just-- - What is this? - I'm calling you at it. What do you got? - Okay. What are we gonna do about this whole vampire thing? How many caters do we have going in? - There's four. We have four suits and a truck. - And we have to leave when? - I believe we're supposed to drop off the tables and chairs and walk down about eight o'clock in the morning. And it's probably about 10 o'clock at night now, Tom. - Roughly. - Sure. - So are they supposed to have four people actually walking around and doing the catering, right? - Yeah. - And then you could probably talk a fifth person and do it saying, hey, I'm the guy who's just driving the truck there. - I'm the supervisor or whatever. Yeah, who's not dressed up in a silly uniform. So I'm not putting one of those things on. Sorry. - Well, I guess it's just what I'm confused on is what the actual game plan is once we get inside. What exactly do you expect to happen? - That's what happens. - Get 'em, right? (laughing) - Get 'em, right? Yeah, I don't think we have a very strong game plan just yet. - At all. - No, we don't have anything. - Well, the purposes, we're just disrupting this ritual from the white quad. - I thought we were actually rescuing him. - I think that's what I mean by just, he's earmarked to be a sacrifice, right? - But later on that evening, correct? It's like, it's not till the evening which you are ever dropping the stuff off early. It's gonna try to... - Calimation in the whole party. - Exactly. It's like, yeah, it's the present that they unwrap at the end. - So, yeah, so basically what we're doing is we're just trying to extract, it's an extraction. We're getting him out of there. - Is this gonna be a non-violent extraction? - Tell him to try out. - Well, the converter was not here but it's a distinct possibility, yes. - You know he's gonna show up. It's his father, he is going to be the distraction. - No, there's no distraction. - We don't get a distraction, we have uniforms. - Yeah, but you know he's gonna show up. So, we'll just kind of, he doesn't know where it's at. He's playing beat. When he shows up, here's what we do. - Are we gonna keep rolling with Reba's idea since he's not here? - We'll always wrap this idea. - Of creating some sort of drug or something like that to make Manny less-- - I think that Reba will be back before this actually goes into play. - Oh no, we're going there now. - You're going there now. - What is this group ever done anything quickly? - So he's still working on that then? - Yes, so that's what Reba's busy doing. So in looking around you see the normal group of people you have, Reba is missing because he's not there. Because he's busy making his happy juice. Maxwell is not there and-- - Roberto, Roberto just signed out. - Who do we think should be the four individuals who go into the home? - I'm setting Maxwell message saying we're discussing-- - Important stuff. - Important stuff, you probably should be here. (laughing) - No, no, no, I'm actually setting up a text saying we're discussing important stuff and why aren't you here? - My four to go in would be Edmond and Alan. The reason for that being Alan is probably our most powerful character as far as who's someone who can bring magic and weapons to bear. Edmond you have a fair degree of stealth and not anything fantastic but you have some and you also can bring weapons to bear. Zelda you have an insight that no one else has or will have ever with your tarot cards and your abilities. And then the last person I think should be Steven Tomin because he is the most surreptitious, the most stealthy of any of us sitting around this table. I think those should be the four that go in dressed as caters to try to rescue. The supervisor could be myself or a Maxwell or possibly Repa, although he'd need to shave. - That's not happening. - One of those three could possibly be justified. I promised Roberto that I would rescue his father or find his father for him. And now we have to rescue him because we know what's gonna happen, but I don't have to be there. I can certainly be the supervisor, but I don't have to be the supervisor if Maxwell would feel more comfortable. - Wouldn't you and Edmond be a huge tip-up being there? And what should be noticed by the white courts? - Potentially. I mean, I'm relatively well known. I have a lot of context in the city. So that is a possibility, especially that I hadn't really thought through since I was just shooting off hit. - Thanks to the glamour. - Alan not because I have a glamour on him, but I'd have to do it. I'd have to start changing my glamour around 'cause right now I've got three of them going. I've got the pencil. I've got Alan and I've got his hammer. So I've got three. - Isn't the pencil in a box? - See, to be honest, I don't even sit in where you have the pencil in because the amount of time we need to get things done, they're not gonna notice it that it's missing already. - Well, I thought they'd be there at like eight o'clock in the morning to start opening the museum and that would be before we had everything taken care of. - I thought you would have to be a party. - Well, it's just a pretty people, so they're not gonna trip the alarm anytime soon. So I thought we had time for them. - The objective question was in a box. - Right. - Well, by in a box it's a display box that people can view it, but it's-- - I thought it was in a closed box. Sealed. It was. - It was closed in a box. - Can I have my bar of keys? - I've been working on the realistic looking replica. - You're in the box. - And take a couple pictures and say I need something that looks like this. - Right. You know, I could also, probably just like, I have, one of my road spells is a, like a perception filter that I used for my sword. I could probably create a charm that, London can use that, people just would not, could see him, but they wouldn't recognize or notice him without-- - But he's invisibly has trouble sneaking because he's hurt all the time. - Right. You have a mumble spell. - Well, I also have a, I call it the strike. It's like you're walking down a crowded street. You know, you're not really seeing faces, you're just getting out of people's way. I mean, you still see him, but you don't really react or do anything to him. - Okay. - Thanks, Jeff. - So maybe that is something that I can put on him for a while. - Would you be okay with that? I mean, it's-- - I would tell him a damn-- - It's not armor, but it's going in. - I thought like early morning, before I am, I thought that's what you said. - Oh yes, I am. - Going to still be-- - We're going out. - Eight AM, actually. - Oh, eight AM, okay. - Not really. - Ben, no, it's not gonna be dark. - I'm more stuffed here when it's dark. - And guys, people tend not to notice, or, you know, look too closely at the help if you're dressed like the help. You're a visiting caterer. You're, I don't need to know your life story. - I don't think we're doing the whole, your dead thing, but I don't think I have to keep concealing his hammer. - So I think we can go ahead and remove the glamour from his hammer, and then also potentially from the pencil as well. That would lead me to more glamours I'd be able to then, or a seeming, or a veil that I could place on something. - I can do a veil too. I mean, Steven, he looks like the help anyways. I mean, he's got the look about him of the look our worker, I think he'd be a good fit for this job. Is that a compliment? - This is London, I'm sorry. - About an hour has passed, as you guys have sat around. - Yeah. - Talking about different plans. - Sure. - Maxwell shows up. - Yeah. - Brother Francis has done more or less with blessing. He's got a magic circle around a baggie, which contains a silk cloth, which is totally concealing a coin, which he thinks maybe if we put all this into some type of box, that would be really good. - Probably like a rosewood box. - You're a magic practitioner. - Rosewood is a kind of witchcrafty thing. - Sure, I've got a rosewood box. - I've got a magic. - It's a stuffed box, but it'll do. - He jams all of that into a little box. - You're taking the coin back to the church? - Yes. - Better store. - I think we should go with him. - Really? - Because we've got something, I mean, we have this pending heist that we need to-- - Right. - But why do you think coins are important, right? - Well, it's interesting to bother. - Brother Francis. - Brother Francis. - By himself. - Right. The only ones that know that this coin-- - We don't even exist, as Brother Francis, is the people in this room in Roberto. - Sir. - I know Roberto well enough that I'm not afraid of him. - What about-- - But there's a bunch of denarians loose in the city. - They may know about it. - Well, that's what the spells and that's what the protections were to kind of conceal that fact. - Do you have faith in your magic then? - Oh, yeah, you do. - I have to have faith in my magic or it doesn't work. - Then Brother Francis. - Yeah, I think in Roberto, not Jack in his coin bag. - Roberto's coin? - Oh, yeah, you were going on this highway. - He had a daring coin and he was all possessed of his powers and stuff and then he let go of it and got better and then he ran away. - Good thing he called me before that happened. - Yeah. - You missed a day, you missed a lot. I wouldn't miss a day if you planned these in advance. All right. - Yeah, don't be late next time. - We had plans. I followed them, everyone else said fuck it, let's go talk. Don't tell Max, well, we're good with this. - I thought we sent you some more. - Yeah, I don't really want to send someone with the call to Brother at this point. - You don't want to? - I think our major is to rescue Manny at this point. I don't think we have the resources. - Where is he taking this thing? - Back to the church or back it up. - And it has to go there? - It's the safest place he can think of. - Right, I mean. - So what I don't remember, it's not safe. - He's going to take this unsafe coin. - The best place for an evil person to be a whole thing. - No, he's not going to go by himself 'cause I don't think I'd let that happen. I think by the book, I would escort them to Sigmacious. - Can I give you a fake point to do that? Because it's inconvenient for the storyline, but it is what your character should do. - You can come back in two hours. - It's midnight. - Yeah, I mean, we can fast forward it. - We've over nothing does happen. - You do earn a fake point, but you lose two hours, going there and coming back. - All right, so I had to spend one for Rosewood Box. You get one 'cause you go for a car drive? - Fucker. - Why do you get there? He takes it to the church. - Puts it somewhere, save you. - After seeing the coin though, do we get to see what the symbol is? - Or the name? - You really didn't study the coin. - Okay. - That's kind of paranoid of it. We bring it up. He says he knows it either, but good luck. - I kind of like to know which one. It made me it's better that we don't know which one is. - Do all the coins look the same? - They all have a symbol on there. Or a symbol for a-- - A sigil. - A sigil. - All the magic that we just put it in the fancy stuff. - I'm sure Roberto can cut it off. - Anyways, let's discuss things while he's away. - I think we're sitting back on board and he's back. - Give me back. - That's fine. - I mean, if you guys wanna say what, you spent an hour doing-- - No, it doesn't matter. - You rage quick and throw away. - I know that you guys are gonna plan for hours and didn't wanna sit through. - I've tried that. Doesn't help. So we're going to plan for his father's rescue without him. - Yes. - And we don't plan for that to go through. - I've tried doing that before, when he was here. I don't think he was-- - Expected to go terribly wrong, he just don't plan. - All right, no. - He has a complicated relationship to his father. - All right, but he's still gonna want another rescue. And if we don't plan for him, he's gonna come in with his hammer and just kill someone because that's how it works. - No, he doesn't know where it's at. - No, we didn't tell him. - No, we did not give him the address of the white court. Vampire's house is ready to kill his father because we didn't know what would happen because what would probably happen is he would probably go. - I'll go there today and just barge in and do everything. - Didn't tell him we know and then not tell him or did we just not tell him? - I don't think it was ever brought to Ververa's attention that his father has been found. That's classy. - I still think-- - I think he's smart. - Is what it is. - Well, he's smart. - Maxwell, I think you have a good point and I think you should try to get a hold of release, try to see who he's doing. - Really good stuff like that. - Yeah, we just being grateful. - We are, but he's a variable that I feel that we still need to keep tabs on. - I understand him a text. - The most important thing is in less than eight hours, we have to figure out what the hell we're doing. - You're gonna be invisible? - These four, yes. I feel good about these four, although I don't feel great about Edward because his face is more well known. Edmond, yeah, that-- - Apparently that is false of the avoidance. - Court action, he knows me. - Yeah, I don't think Edmond's a good fit, so maybe we swap out. - Only. - No, you can do illusions. You can change this fucking face, it's not a miracle for you. - Hey, you're not here. - I know. - He's running out of magic. - Right, I send him a text, just doing anything dangerous. - Maxwell, do you feel comfortable going into that situation? - I don't get to bring a gun. - No. - All right, I can lie decent and I can get a good read on people. I think I could be a help in a social situation, but I'm not sneaky. - Social. - Let me hear about your socialness. - I got people who can change the way I look. - You got people that can do that? - Yeah. - Nope. - Like magic? - Makeup artist. - No, like makeup. - Oh, oh. - Oh, no magic. - How practical? - Just makeup. - That's good enough. - Just the disguise. - That's right. - It's got a faint point. - 'Cause I was thinking that would it be hard to smuggle in a weapon or two because Maxwell's gonna have it all hanging out there with nothing to protect him. - Well, Maxwell's not going in. - Oh, there you go, no, no, no. - Or Maxwell will be the supervisor. - Okay. - You want to know about my social skills? - Yes. - I know how people think and feel and I can lie decent. - And you can run really, really fast. That's not social, but yeah, I'm the fastest fucking man you ever met. - Right. - Actually, you have to cover the whole time, right? - And yeah, seven different kinds. - Gordon, you have some social skills. I mean, obviously you're not up to par with mine, but you have some ability, correct? - Yes, I'm not nearly as good as you are, London. - I just want to make sure you can talk your way out of a situation if something presents itself. - I have reported good. - Okay. - Run out of it. - What's the plan? What's the plan? - The plan is I envision it is that once they're hopefully, the Warden will be able to use some of this magic to-- - A tracking spell? - Yeah, basically to find where exactly where Manny is at and then hopefully extract him without too much. - Do I have to hope he should be easy? - I have a slight issue with-- - Sure, I mean, we don't know exactly what we're going to be up against though. - This is part and parcel of going into a-- - How many people are we catering for? We at least should know that. - They're not going to be there. The entire white vampire party doesn't take place to the evening. So you're going into a mostly empty domicile in order to extricate at Roberto's father. - Manny's going to be there. - Sure, what do we hope? I traced him. I went by the house with my father's compass, which was tracking with Manny's blood. I did a ritual and tracked him to that home. As of 8 o'clock this evening, he was there. And since the feast court of court is going to take place tomorrow night, there's no reason to believe they're going to move him in the interim. I mean, I could, but it seems unlikely. - But the feast isn't necessarily at night. It's like afternoon, right? Yeah, we'll talk about that. - White court vampires can go out in the sun. They're not affected by it at all. It's not for event anyways. - Please, something similar to a barfitz mount where-- - Isn't it a batfitz mount if it's female? - Yeah. - And they come of age. - Oh. - And they come of age? - No, definitely not, thank God. - Just to clarify, we mentioned that we were going to have Brother Francis possibly make a weapon out of this nail. And then he left with the coin. Do I still have the wrong nail, or did we give that nail? - You still have the wrong edge. - Okay. - Okay. - All right. - Yeah, I did not want him to have that 'cause it looked like he wanted to make a weapon out of it and not give it back to him. - You know, I wonder if even just the presence of that nail might be enough to disrupt the ritual that they're performing. - Yeah, I don't ever want to get close to them performing the ritual because we're going in hours before it takes away. - Sorry, sorry. - So I don't want her to be honest. I don't think it would be a good idea to take-- - Again, to explain it, you've got a house that is on a very large estate actually right up against the metro parks. It's a very rural area. - Right. - There is plans for the party to be rather extensive. Like somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 plus relatives coming. All of them would be white part vampire. Or half of them with spouses or whatever the case might be. So you don't want that to get to that point. What London's talking about is beforehand, but you still don't have to deal with whoever lives there that staff on site. - Security. - You said the spouse back up against the metro parks, correct? - Yes, it's a very rural area. It's very, very beautiful. It's a very large estate. It's a nice neighborhood. - Like Gates Mills? - I think that we did actually-- - Very much like Gates Mills. - Or Huntington Valley, one of the two. So we go in there, we find Manny. We extract him somehow by taking care of the security forces. - Right. There will most likely be some sort of combat. That's not why you're there though. Your job would be to take pictures. Take pictures of course. But once the warden sussed out the location of Manny, your abilities to move quietly and move stealthily would probably be of very good use at that point. Again, we don't know what we're gonna be up against. You're going in blind. It's not gonna be easy by any search imagination. And if you're not comfortable with that, we can certainly have someone else take your place. I've been in these situations before. I'll happily come along. I won't worry about the uniform. - I'm not gonna say about that at all. I just wanna know what the game plan is before we go in. - Right. - I'm wondering if there's any supernatural beings in the metro parks that I would know of that I can magically enlist to either act as an eyes and ears for us and try to pinpoint Manny or. - I'm gonna throw a lot of those fake points in. - Well that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking. - Can I make some pay or something? - Yeah. - Could you send Bill in? Is a spirit to scout the place out? - Yeah. - When he says Bill, you kind of clutch the patterns you're wearing that ties you to your body. - And you know how you have the ability to talk to spirits and stuff? It's much easier when you're clutching the pendant. It almost becomes like second nature. - So how about this? - Slip into the ghost world type thing and you're seeing a little bit of cloud. You still see these guys fine. But you can see into that world much easier when you're touching the pattern. - I tell everyone to give me a second here. I wanna try something out and I take a hold of my pendant and I shift my awareness or focus from this world and into this spirit realm. - It works way easier than you would imagine it to. - Cool. Do I see like, you know, vapors and stats? - Yeah, you got a little cloudy, shivering type of situations. - I look around, do I see? - You don't see it in an immediate area. - But I sense it. - You always think it would be easier if you had some bind to him, for instance, a certain flask. - Well, I'd also suggest that I'd probably need to be outside of this brownstone because this brownstone is probably protected. - Right, it definitely has a very strong-- - You know what, I'm just gonna go out to the driveway. All right, I go out to the driveway, I take Bill's flask, grab a hold of my pendant, I re-cheese my sword, since I don't need it. Or for the moment, unless Roberto's ready to, you know-- - He's hiding into bushes. - He's gonna shoot. - He's gonna hammer. - Stab you with a hammer, ten times. - Ouch, that sounds like it really hurt. - No, there's no sign of Roberto, his car is gone, but you knew that earlier when you let the next one's out. Out there, you have absolutely no problem opening. - Okay. - Not opening the site 'cause that's not what you're doing. But basically opening a vision into the spirit realm. What skill should he roll this summon someone? - Does someone have spirit? - Yeah, conviction or discipline? - So I could do, I have-- - I have discipline just for focus. - Floor is magical awareness. - I could do lore. - A Calvin ritual, was he summoning something? - I'm just trying to-- - This is a mystical perception. - Rituals go with lore. Let's go with lore. Gonna say the flask isn't a free bonus, but it can be used to tap for a plus two if you need it. - Well, let's just see how it works this way. - Tap that flask. - Positive two, which takes it two plus six. - Wow, yeah. - I believe it's fantastic. - No problem whatsoever. - Not very loud. - Clear. - Bill responds to you and appears before you. - Lot of time you figure that out, kid. - Well, there's so much and I fill a bill in on pretty much everything, but the immediate thing is, Bill, we've made a promise to get, we know that this human who's not a good guy, but he's human. He's gonna be sacrificed by the white court tomorrow and he's on the estate at Rinaldi's place. - It's a cousin of Rinaldi, or-- - Right, I mean it's like a niece or a nephew, I think it was, yeah. - I'd say Rinaldi's involved, and it's the white court and they're the ones over by Gates Mills. - So I'll help you. - Well, can you zip in and zip out, or is that place warded or-- - More than likely they're gonna have a threshold. - We wanna do an extraction. I don't like the idea of going in guns blazing and extracting this guy who is gonna probably not thank us for anything, and it's not who we might want. - He has a bigger grudge against us. - Sorry, getting any ideas, boss? - Like I said, I can scout around the house. I don't think I'll be able to get into the house, though. Unless-- - What if somebody's died in there before and so the spirit is on the premises? - Definitely possibility that people die in this in a place like that, yeah. - Well, if it's a ritual, they've got a place for it and it's probably a place full of plenty and death magic and shades of, I don't know how you guys get along, but-- - Well, I'll definitely come along as a scout, but I'll be limited in where I can go. - Okay. - Because there might be a possibility that there are some rewards on their ritual site as well. If the ritual site is in the house, there's always a threshold. - Well, it seems to overcome. - If I thought it'd be easy, I would just try to cross over to the never-never and then move through portals, but-- - It's always tough because lining up the portal on the-- - I don't think I had that kind of time. - No. - Not if you're talking about something tomorrow. - Do you have any idea or do you remember-- - Keep the flask around so that I'll help you. - Do you remember what kind of rituals these white court vampires perform? I mean, is it just feeding, is it? - It's a feeding in which they kill who they're feeding on, and that's the ritual that brings a white court virgin into a full adult white court vampire. - Well, really can't let that pass, then, right? - No, you shouldn't. - All right, well, if I need you, I'll talk to the flask again, and we'll talk later. So maybe the rest of us should be outside in the van itself as back up in case things go south. - Probably wouldn't hurt. That also puts you guys at risk because if you are around and you do get involved, then you're gonna be probably made, you're a familiar face. - I'm a familiar face anyways, too. - Yeah, but if you just happen by when shit goes down, the white courts are not stupid. - True enough. But the van's pretty big, I mean, sure we could conceal ourselves somewhere, myself, and Maxwell, and potentially Roberto, if he comes back around. - The large grandfather clock that you have in your brownstone, dings as it becomes 1 a.m. in the morning. Three hours have passed out. - As you're driving home's device in your head is certainly back, and it's telling you. - You know, you can't believe everything they say. They really don't know what I am and how I work. - Yeah, they made that evident, but they did tell me not to trust everything you say, and I think that's good advice. Whether they know the full truth or you do. - Have I done anything other than what you wish me to do? Have I done anything but help you make up for their mistakes? Are they the ones that have been truthful to you? - They've doubted me, but I've doubted them. And I've stood by your side the whole time and done nothing but offer you help when you need it. Just suggestions. I've never pressured you. They don't understand what a falling angel is. It is an angel. It has to do with free choice. And that's all I'm offering you. All along this way, all of the decisions have been yours. I've just been here to help. - Then you must respect when I say no. - Have I not? Have I ever pressured you? - There was a time with the Goolor. Do you offered me more power? But I managed it by myself. I think-- - Free choice, free will. - Then this I can work with. - Then we have-- - I've been working with it for years, and I think that if I continue to, you and I can do good. I don't know why you are okay with me doing good. But as long as I can do it, I'm not gonna pressure you. - The other demons are dealing with are evil. Not the demons, but the people that have the coin. As angels, we offer them free will and free choice. Some choose evil, some choose good. - Have you had to see anyone like that? - Look in the mirror. - What about the swords? They don't believe that. Otherwise, the brother would have heard about it. - The brother had some, not exactly correct information that he was spouting. - Like, some of the things he said, he doesn't have all the information. He's certainly no expert. I've been around a lot longer than he has. I think he should trust me. - The nail silenced you? - Yes, the nail did. I can't deny that. God does rule us just as he rules you. And Jesus was the son of God. Was he happy when we offered you more than he did? No. - More than God did. - More powers? More abilities? - So God has nothing to do with you coming to me? The brother told me this was a test of faith. A test by God. - Again, the brother said many things that were not necessarily correct. I don't know if it would have a problem with that statement. - I imagine she wouldn't. But you got to admit that everything in the Bible is not necessarily true. Well, it was written by a man. And then they make mistakes. - Well, we'll see how long I can keep without making one of those. - All I'm suggesting is that you consider what I've done for you and what I can do for you. And believe in yourself, not about it. And I'll just let you think. - Okay. - And with that, we will go back to the other players. - Roberta texted me, I said he's just going to bed for the night, so he's not doing it. - He's stupid, unless he's lying to me, which is screw you all. - Never had it. - It's completely possible, but it's a little odd to tell in text format. - I tell everyone about my brief conversation with Bill, and since we have to be led in to the premises, we can kind of conceivably get inside the wards around this white court. - So then I might be able to let Bill-- - It's an estate, so let in would be in the front gates. When you drove by, you saw there was a gated home where you had a definite wall that went around the premises. - Could we get from Google Maps and the Kater guy, an idea of the estate, what buildings are there, where we're supposed to be setting up. - More than they might be keeping up. - Are you really calling the Kater guy? - I want to point out that you're gonna be there at eight, and it's not gonna happen until late afternoon. You'll have hours to figure that out. - I also would suggest that. - I mean, you can quickly check Google Maps. That's not gonna distort anybody. Large house on the left side of it. Over on the right, there seems to be a large garage. It looks like maybe a five-car garage. Very big estate, walled all the way around for seclusion. It seems to be an area near the back of the property that they use for setting up for uptime type things. Small stream that runs. - Perhaps at that area as well. - Perhaps Edmund can have his company provide, his security company provide an SUV. Somewhere down in the metro parks, kind of close, because I have a feeling that that's where we're gonna have to e-back out of. Once this goes down, we need to kind of get out quick. So I'm thinking maybe we cut out through the metro parks, evade down there, and then take out through. How far from the estate to the road that maybe cuts through the metro parks there? - I'll have to find something where we're gonna go map of it. - Okay. - There is some roads that run on the other side of the stream, on the other side of the woods. - It doesn't look terribly far like-- - And the metro parks aren't necessarily deep woods. - Depends on the different areas. Some of them are very, very hilly. - Yeah. - And it's hard to tell. - Well, I'm thinking about the valley and how I've been up and down those, but some of the places that-- - I'm not saying it's impossible to traverse it. - I don't think there's a horrible risk of getting lost. - Well, one of the problems. - Oh, that's right. - Oh, I mean, you go in any one direction and you're gonna get through it in a short amount of time. - Right. - Our backup extraction plan is through the woods with an overweight, possibly unconscious Mexican man, while being chased by vampire. - And then hopefully we'll be going in another way, following it. - The problem I'm seeing here is that if the party is gonna be set up outside, how do we get inside the home? - So here's what I'm thinking. - That's where Mandy's gonna be. - We're probably gonna be told to set up outside. Someone's gonna have to come up with a excuse, like we need access to water or some refrigerator. But things in the refrigerator, things need to be warmed up inside. And someone's gonna have to come up with a reason to get inside the building where most likely, then you'll be locked up and, I don't know if we can talk about everybody getting in there. If you're nice that someone can get in, then you gotta get past the guards if they're there. I can maybe gonna have to get him out, which would be nice if he could be like invisible. - Lock doors aren't a problem for me. It's just-- - But isn't that an entire thing? - And then you'd have to leave somebody in the place. - Actually, in the Dresden universe, it's kind of all creatures of magical power lose a level of their power by not being invited in, going past the threshold. And again, a threshold is dependent on how long the house has been inhabited and how strong the bond of the people living there are. So if you have an old grandma who raised three generations of people in a house, that threshold is gonna be really, really strong. If you have a guy that lives in an apartment above a drugstore, there's gonna be virtually no threshold there. Going across one is gonna lose you this much power. The other one might leave you almost, completely moral. - So he's not gonna lose any magic. - Whoa, I can't take any pictures. - Oh, shit. - Well, let's manage the pictures. - I don't think this is my power, Jake. - I don't know how helpful your pictures would be. - But Alan would probably be the most effective. - Yeah. - If you're crossing thresholds uninvited, yes. - Can you cast a minor veil? - I can cast a veil. So you can both be invisible. - I hope so. I'm not as adept at it as you are, but veil magic isn't my okay, but-- - Because that's gonna be the key, is getting the person who can move stealthily and pick locks inside the home, but then also with the backup of someone with some strength and some magical power, in case you encounter something when you get inside. - Good. - You're coming, right? - Yes. - Watch your rapport and social stress. - Am I before is good? - Good. - Actually, you're probably almost equally affected than the wardens as a black quartz side. - I'm just saying you own a restaurant, right? So you know a lot about food, food prep, different things like that. Probably come up with a really good excuse as to why we need to get into the kitchen. - Right, that's what I was thinking. - Yeah, if we could get access to the building, that'd be very good. And then maybe we're-- - Maybe bring someone with you, possibly the wardens since he would be most affected. - What if two people wanted-- - One of the building, and you glamored one of 'em, maybe if you look like one of 'em, and then that person left saying, "My co-worker's sick and not feeling well," taking 'em out to the van. And then the other person follows later-- - Or veil. - Or veil. - A veil on any one. - Right, just visibility for him. - And if you could do that, I don't know. - He's got both a veil. - You could also do Seemings? - I am more of a warden's, more of a fighter than getting into some of the more-- - So the answer's no. - Well, I'm looking at it. I can cast spells using, and my specialties are air, water, and spirit, so air is invisibility, right? - Based on what I decided is-- - Sure. - Right. - And the hall clock rings too. - Right. So this guy better be worth it. I don't know. - He is not worth it, I never was. - It's right in the world, but he's got-- - You're gonna pay a million dollars for it. - Two million. - How about it's already up to-- - Yeah, you never told me that. - No. - You never did. - You thought you were gonna be insulted? - Hey, if this all goes to shit, let's call Roberto and have him just come in. - He'll be there. - Well, that's what I'm saying. I think that might be-- - So I would just like lose my prediction. - If you're affected by magic, your heart simply would-- - Wouldn't it work? - You're more likely to get weaker results, more difficult to get our results. - Zelda, you have the ability to shape the future. We need them to be amenable to letting us inside the home. Is there a way that you could shape the future to make them less suspicious? - She's touched. - Wait, is that part of her power? Like, can she create possibilities? - I can't make it, it's whatever I turn up. - Right, she really believes that she's just seeing the future, but what she's really doing is changing the future of what she's pulling from her car. - Well, well, Gee, we only have-- - Yeah. - But, I mean, it makes a good way to put it. - Accessible place like have them-- - I don't think-- - Not rarely move them outside. - Metagaming real quick. Zelda's gonna say she can't do anything like that. - Yeah. - But-- - Right. - In a game sense, we know she can, but I think what we should say is, could you look into the future of this morning and give us a reading, a real reading, not a one-card flip? - There's possibilities here, and I think that there's an opportunity to kind of bill inted this. And what I mean by that is, set up conditions or possibilities that we can take advantage of that will make this a little bit more easy. - So, kind of having an idea of how it's gonna end, we can shape what we do on that? - And when I say by bill inted, you know what, every-- - Excellent capture, of course. - Right, and remember, put the keys behind the bush. And there's the keys behind the bush. - Tell me real quick. When you give your character description, you say that you shape the future. - Right, by whatever I pull up, yes. - Right, but you just said you can't shape the future, that it's just whatever you pull up. - Well, it's technically, because I believe in it, my character. - So, you do believe you can fashion the future of course? - Oh, I could, but I can't control what's gonna come up now. - She can, she can write. - It's all random, so-- - She pulled up in a thing, but not in a way that, like, I'm constructing it in my mind, like, I want this to happen, and then I want this to happen. - But you can see what's there, and kind of, the card is random, but you can push that card a certain way, the result of that card. - The way that, the way that I believe, yeah. - It needs to be done. - Well, if we're gonna do this, what I want to do is do it next week. So, give me a cross reading of how you, as Zelda would read the cards, we've got about half an hour left. - Flip 'em, flip 'em, flip 'em. - I would like to clarify that really quickly, I'm not bringing the nail. - That's wise. - Right, where are we keeping that? Are we just gonna leave it in London's place? - He's got a secure review, whatever that is. - I think-- - I'm gonna be going. - I think it should be out in the car with myself, or Roberto and Maxwell. - I think we should bring it. - Like, we're the backup, right? - So you're saying we should bring it. - I think we should bring it. - I think we should bring it out to the premises. - Yeah, I think it should be. - Because it might set off, my fear is, it might set off alarms when you try to walk through the gate, or drive through the gate of these guys have magic, because there's gotta be some kind of something, I would think. I think someone should go in with as little magic as possible to not set off the alarms. - I'm not fucking there, but would they be able to detect a wizard? - I don't could be able to detect a wizard, I might be able to detect a sword. - Well, that's why I've got the perception of-- - Because I'm trying to damp that down. - Right. - I mean, otherwise everything would be, we'd always have to be naked whenever we do anything. What a world that would be, what a group that would be. - So the general idea would be, for you and Steven to slip away with some kind of veil, or-- - I'm gonna have the flask with me. - Steven-- - The flask is a spiritual object, not necessarily a magical object. It has emotional value to-- - It doesn't have any magical power, it has-- - But it's a psychic-- - A psychic length, right. - To build on you, yes. - So I'm gonna have the flask on me, and that'll be my little daddy's little helper to get me through, that's my story. Hopefully, whatever she does is going to open up avenues for us that we just can't, then let's do that. - We're gonna go with a clock striking 3 a.m. - And-- - Why does this make me nervous that starting your ritual? - If I go to sleep, you just got it with Ouija boards? - No, that doesn't-- well, Ouija boards get the fuck out of me, but this stuff, I find exciting, because it's like, okay, what are the possibilities that are gonna open up to us? - Absolutely. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Night to the Night actual play podcast. If you'd like to send us questions, comments, or feedback, you can reach us in a number of ways. From Twitter, @kotn_podcast, or by email feedback at 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. (upbeat music) (beep) - Good for him. (laughing) Do you mind the dinner and closet? - Oh, there was that closet. - Okay, first of all, you missed the whole part where Rachel- - Oh yeah. - came up with something awesome. - Came up with something awesome, and it's, did you know, Dresden, how they have the Knights of the Sword, there's three guys that have a nail of the cross, and they fight against us in our hands because they have the coins? She found out that there is, this is legit, gypsy lore about a fourth nail of the cross. - Then what it was stolen by the gypsy, and some say that's why the gypsies were cursed, because as thieves, because it was stolen, well, there's a whole bunch of different stories, but- - Some say that gypsies were blessed, because it's stolen. - Exactly. - And you prevented it from having an extra nail. - And then these guys went and found the nail, and are now in possession of it. - Roberto's currently touching it, or was he talking about this- - Was he talking about this, didn't he? - Was he talking about this, didn't he? - Yeah, he was saying that. - Playland has a Hungarian historical museum, and it's in the Galleria, which by the way, it does exist, and it is there. Nothing nail, however, but the museum doesn't- - Oh, well, that makes it for a good story, though. - Right, so they robbed it, but not really robbed it, because one company was in charge of security, so they kind of just went into- - Well, we lost it. - They went in claiming that they were checking security. - Oh, didn't I turn something like a pencil, or a pen, so you're cutting it with a pencil. - Doing some illusion. - Number two. - Right. - How long do you illusions last? - Well, the idea is just- - As long as I take the mental stress on them. - The idea is to swap it out with something more realistic later. - Or put it back to balance we haven't said yet. - Or penny nail. - I went to that one, Red Sports, Artie, we were supposed to cater. - Yeah, still in the future. - Well, not that far, it's like- - Well, tomorrow morning, night time. - Okay, so that hasn't happened yet. - No. - It's a stiletto. - No, that is so- - No, it's not a sword. - It's not a sword. - So many options, Mike. - I know, I'm just thinking. - I know you're a fan of the katana. - I know I've found the katana, but I don't think this one is a katana. I think this one- - It doesn't seem to fit, Alan. - No. - Underwear knowns from- - Question by question. - Question by question by profit. - Profit. - Profit. - First could be underpants. - So as of- - Hey, fuck you. - This man you were- - Ramirez? - No. - What's he saying? - Martinez. - Job actually had to look too. - I thought he read it. - I have an old one that said that. - Oh man, that's right. - You didn't know what my name was. - No, I wrote the wrong name. - So we gotta get to it. - And give homework assignment of- - She loves those. - Telling me the other day. I love when Todd gives me stuff to do during the week. - Well, she- - Comes up with a good stuff. - Yeah, I mean, seriously, I wanna know, did you find that stuff or did this guy help you find the fourth nail stuff that I know you should? - That was good. - She asked me one question, which was how- - About Jack-O-Lanterns, I think. - Oh, and just how real it was supposed to be? Like, could she make stuff up or did she just take history and run with it? And I said, yeah, absolutely. Take the smallest right after one guy at work. - That was because I can't tell any of the fans, 'cause it's like three episodes away. - Right. - And I was telling one guy at work, he goes, "That's really cool." - Yeah. - I said, "Yeah, I know. That's why I had to tell someone about it." - Nailed it. - Aww. - Aww. - Jesus Christ, what's going on? - Are you having a drink? - No, I'm not having a drink. - I'm like a punk. - It's been in my pocket. - Have you been waiting for that one? - Yeah. - Okay. - Don't you have rings and wannoms and different? - I do. Well, I have rings and gloves. I probably won't be wearing my gloves. - Is it like a Jackson, like one glove? - You know, let's see. (laughing) - Yeah. - They're glittering gloves. (beeping) - Our last bit of female is... - What? - Mm-hmm. - Last bit. - Feedback and mail. You just shove it all on the one floor. - Yeah, I guess. - Some of it's not mail. So let's try again. - Take a cookie drink. (laughing) - Yeah. - You sound good. - Drinking it. - You used to contain it. - Originally. - That's why it was really good. (beeping)