Allan and London make promises to Constance Rockefeller while Roberto, Maxwell and Edmund deal with both of their captive blackcourt vampires.
Actual Play starts at 8:45
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Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 81: "Delvery - Promises"
(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to "Night to the Night" actual play podcast. This Dresden file story delivery was written and run by your GM Tom. And now, please enjoy episode 81 titled "Promises." (upbeat music) - All right, before we get started, we need to get you back. We have to go all around. Two comments of the KOTM podcast and we're so far up to 19 votes and we need to play a character. - Yes. And Mike is now pointing over at London, who is running-- - By far the biggest lead in the game. - Yeah. - And he's his character to play. - Who's all I have to say? - What he has is behind in second, but-- - Who? Roberto. - Hi, Gouger. - What is he doing? - Hi, Gouger. - Hey, Gouger. - I got your AKA Kool-Aid man. - The way I see the voting. - Oh, yeah. - The last thing I've looked at it is, when do you watch the very first Star Wars? Could you like better, Luke Skywalker or Han Solo? - Everyone liked Han Solo. - So it's always easy to play the smart Alex Scoundrel. - Yeah, Scoundrel kind of guy, where Mike and some of the others here are trying to play the straight lace, dealing with the moral dilemmas. - All right, the first comment was on episode seven, eight, which was punctuated with punches in which Roberto I. Squisher gained his name. And it was from our friend. We haven't seen him in a while, Rocket. - Oh, wow, yeah. - We said, "Hey guys, it's Rocket. "I'm really enjoying the Dresden social combat aspect "of the game. "I was generally concerned for London and Ellen's well-being "when they were trapped in the room with Constance." - And it was London. - And the sun lamp questioning sequence was a stark contrast to the hospital scene. And I think he's referring in specifically to Bob's conflict with the B-Lady. - Right. - He said that Edmond and Maxwell were holding all the cards. And they forgot about Roberto, right. - Right. - But it's good to hear back from Rocket. - Which is what I said, Rocket. You've been missed. And I'm glad you're enjoying Grozmann. Have no fear of all the darkness. And the return of shoe is just the sun rooms. - Yeah, well, he was talking about you guys had all the power in that situation as opposed to Bob's character was on the run. - Right. - And that's really a fundamental difference between world of darkness and Dresden. - And sure, you guys have a lot more power. And you have a lot more control over the situation. - Absolutely. - But that's an aspect of fate in general, that you, as players, can control the storyline much more. - And I'm looking in the next story too. And the ones going forward, depending on how it works, tweaking the social combat of world of darkness as well to make it a bit more organic. I think it's interesting and have its own right. But there's a couple of different suggestions and a toolbox book called Mirrors that I'm looking at and also some other ones. So anyways. - Our second bit of feedback from kotnpodcast.com was on episode 80. This one was anonymous. And the statement was, "Hey, so I discovered something "while going through my collection of songs "by Lincoln Park, a personal favorite of mine. "I found that the piano part in your intro "and outro songs is the same as a song "called Zero Sky from their album Blood Forest." Just thought that was kind of cool. And I actually gave a call to a gentleman who wrote the song. He's at zenaudiasmith.com. And he wrote the music for us specifically in Astom. If that particular artist was any influence on him. - Right. - No, actually he wasn't really familiar with their music at all, but there are seven basic chords in music and that's something that musicians have to deal with all the time is saying, "Hey, that song sounds like this song." - Right. - He'd never intended that. He might've came up with something, a piano riff or something that came up similar, but that was, they weren't from, I mean, he was familiar of who they were, but he was not-- - An avid follower. - No, yeah, he didn't know their music very well and he certainly not-- - Wasn't trying to riff off of him. - Intentionally trying to copy it or-- - Or that. - Right, but it's nice that, I mean, that's kind of a high compliment in and out itself. - Yeah, that's true. - Hey, your music sounds like a widely popular band that's known throughout the world. So-- - True enough. - I'm sure Jo appreciated the, you know, the enjoyment that you like the internal and outdoor music. So we appreciate that. - Thank you much for the feedback. And finally, we have two additional comments that were posted on Facebook regarding episode 80 by the sword, which is the latest one. The first bit of feedback, we're gonna have Scottree. This next bit of feedback is from Braden Astel. I kid you not. I got goosebumps from this episode. That was some damn fine role-playing gentlemen. This was also the first time I've ever seen a social conflict. They really do add a whole level of depth and story interaction to the game. Really good stuff. You guys are great. Thanks for posting. I'm also catching up on the world of darkness story. I'm a world of darkness fan too. And while the game sometimes moves at a snail's base compared to delivery, yes indeed, the story is no less captivating and fun. Once again, that's a Facebook post from Braden Astel. - I'm not exactly sure about that snail's face comments, but I don't know if it's a mechanic of dressing that kind of forces it to move along. - I think-- - Yeah, and I think that there was so much-- - You guys can drag anything down. - Yeah, I think if your players were, you guys were scared. I mean, in a sense of you didn't want your characters to die and you didn't know what to do next. And there was really a lot of stuff that you could examine from 17 different angles. And I think that's part of the growth of a storyteller too, and something that I was working on towards, and Braden will probably see this as a story evolves. I was working on that towards the end of it of pushing the pace a bit in the sense of, okay, you guys are being a dead horse without saying you're being a dead horse. So you can kind of move forward and the plot continues forward at something quicker than a snail's pace. - I think there were two aspects to that. One, what you just said, we're too cautious or we're trying to ask the right questions, and so we end up having-- - I'm sorry, and you guys really loved investing. - Yes, and I think the other part is just the normal pace of coming back to the table and trying to get up to speed and where we were, what had happened before, and so sometimes things might be repetitive. - Right. - So-- - It's pretty evolving. - Wasn't it pretty evolving. - Just sometimes it just took a while to hash things out and-- - I think that's the one where you're at when we're going. - The complexity of the story, not that this isn't complex, but that had layer upon layer of intrigue that was really hard to decipher at first. - I intentionally made this adventure relatively simple. - Right. - What's going on because-- - I'm being made much more harder than it is. - Yes, you do. Because you all have a penchant to do that, which is to take a simple story and make it much more complicated, which I try to plan on. You know, we make it a simple story because we were just testing out the dress and waters. - Right. - It still ended up going longer than-- - Yeah, you could have possibly imagined it. - Yeah. - At the start of the story. - I'm sorry, John, you said something about-- - They were saying that they tended to recapitulate at the beginning of every meeting so that they could remember what would have happened last. - Yeah. - Was the editing less judicious that that got in there? - No, I don't think so. But I do not doubt that my editing has gotten better over time, so maybe it was, yeah. Maybe I left in some stuff that could have been cut out. - Yeah, I know that you were really striving to keep the episodes at a certain length. And honestly, you know, maybe you guys could spend in game time, two hours discussing how you were-- - How are we gonna open a door? - Yeah, it just, it was, I mean, and again, it comes from experience as we move on. As you guys get more comfortable with the system, as I get more comfortable in the storyteller role, I can kind of push the pace and the plot along with it. - I know the editing was still tight back then, 'cause I remember we weren't really tighter than the actual game play, because we went to lunch with a former player, and he said he had listened to it, and he's like, "God, you guys really stay focused," and he just laughed, because, no, we don't. He's not staying more focused than we did when you used to play. It's just that crap has edited out. - All right. - So, with that, we have one last thing is from Rocket, who is on Facebook now, and actually posted, really enjoying the podcast, keep up the stuller, podcasting. I'm listening to it now. So, it's just a quick little comment from Rocket. - Appreciate it. - Glad to see you on Facebook, Rocket. Hopefully, you'll continue to enjoy the episodes, and with that, we will go on to the adventure. - Okay, my name is Tom, and I'm running this Dresden final adventure of delivery, and starting on my left is, John playing Roberto Martinez, Guardian of Cleveland, empowered by a fallen angel. Scott playing London Deals, a moral seer to the supernatural. Mike playing Alan Montgomery, the new Warden in Town. - Jim playing Edmond Shadowski, part of the Mescator and New World Black court vam. - Thomas playing Maxwell Edison, the undercover of B.I.D. - Okay, does anybody want to make any modifications to their characters? You know the drill. - London's perfect, just the way he is, thank you. - I'm sure London thinks he is. - He certainly does. - Okay, anybody, no changes? - No changes. - No changes. - Last time we left, we had London in Alan about to sit down in a conference with a double. Oh, with constants. - I think he's a devil. - We need to go talk to Constance. - Yes, I will let you guys continue talking to the Warden if you want to flush some things out. And Mike, we kind of did the movie thing where you whisper to him, and there's a plan put in place, but we haven't really discussed what that plan is. If you're still not ready, I'm fine with that. - Right. - We can still do it directly, actively, as far as we will all the way to the end. - I think that'll be probably a flashback reveal when the town comes. - Okay, it works. - I'm assuming Bill gave me the information about the ghoul at Undertown, where to find, does he also know who the father is? - No, he does not. He doesn't know a lot about what makes the child special. He just knows that the child is special, and that Constance wants her, and that he was in a deal to get it, and when it came down to doing it, he just couldn't. - Right, and you don't need to answer this now, but how he even got to the point where he's making that kind of deal is-- - That was my question. - That's like, is this the game awful thing? - Yeah, like, you know what, is this the rock bot, is this him hitting rock bot, and I can't go any further, or trying to save his daughter, what was it doing? - Right, is there a bigger picture involved? - Right, you did asking that, and he kind of deflected, but admitted that he went down a very dark path, and Cleveland ate him alive after the death of his wife, things just kept getting worse and worse. He started drinking, he started doing things he wasn't supposed to be doing, then there was a noose, and they started tightening it on him, and he had to either admit he was wrong, or just keep hiding it, and getting deeper and deeper in the shit. His daughter turning into vampire was not the final, but it might have been near the bottom, because he got more and more uncontrollable, as he went farther and farther, and dropped deeper and deeper, and said the wrong. - So we're done with him. - As far as this point, other than to say that, we will reserve any details, or any other things. I just want to make sure that I have what I need to move forward without having to try to relive that whole conversation. - Right. - What we will do, first of all, he told you that you have to go talk to the conductor, and the conductor is not gonna wanna talk to you, and make sure you bring him a bottle of Mad Dog 2020, his favorite kind, and that'll loosen him up, and he'll talk to him, and then tell him that this, and that, and that, that you knew me, and that we used to work together, and that I told you this secret about the conductor, and he gives you some things that gets you in with him. He will take you down into the subway tunnels. There's a goal there that he can hopefully get you close to, but it's so deep in there that no one's gonna be able to get him without some kind of trouble, even you. They are not-- - I'm sorry, when you say he will take me down. - The conductor. - Oh, okay, that's my fault. - We'll take you down. I'd like to come back to the other guys. Roberto, Edmund, and Maxwell. You guys are doing what? Last time we left you, you had talked to the two different vampires. You had agreed to let one go, Krispy Bruce. - You're trying to remember if we were gonna follow him, or if you were gonna go, he was gonna come back. - You had worked to deal with Krispy Bruce that you would let him go, and he would lead you to where she would normally hang out, but he's telling you that she's not gonna be there now during the day. He'll try his best to get you guys hooked up with her tonight as darkness falls. - We're gonna check today anyways, just during the day. - Yes, that's what he offered to do. - We're counting on, hopefully tonight, getting him to go there. - Yes. - We're hoping she has some lead on the more the babies located, 'cause we don't know where they are, we don't know where the baby is. - How do we keep this guy on the leash? - Do you promise me? - You're talking the other guy? - Yeah, I like it. - Or Krispy Bruce. - I'm both, but this big Krispy Bruce, 'cause it's a great bottle of holly waters. - Krispy Bruce promised me. - So his leash is his promise? - Oh, is that him concerned? - If he breaks it, I'll choose him. - Yeah, like a sniper, that'd be pathetic. - I can't use sniper rifles. - I'm not that good at guns. I'm gonna lay really good at shots. - Oh, can anyone else want one? - Have we asked Krispy Bruce that, hey, we know that your time is limited, and we know you don't want your time to be limited. You'd like to live longer than that. - What are you trying to do to rectify that situation? What is your best bet to stop that from happening? What are you guys, I'm sure you're trying to do something to stop that from happening? So you just run around being crazy, and you got a plan, or at least a certain desperate plan. What is it? - The only reason I'm letting go is 'cause I know he's gonna die. - Us, freshly made new world vampires, are imbued with the soul, normally of a child, simply because they're the most unattached to the body that they're currently in. They've had a very short time. Those souls don't last, they burn out. That's why we die. Getting a powerful soul, the one that's gonna last, probably indefinitely, and use it to create a new breeding mother that can create a whole new race. That's the only way we're gonna make it, and we're out of the timeline. - But that isn't your goal in particular. - My goal is to serve Meghan, and do whatever I can, to help her. - Meghan had given up on this goal, and I just thought she gave up, and I go, "Hey, I don't want to stop it." - No, because if the only reason she wants the baby now is so that she can save her father. - Yes. - That's true. But also, the baby was promised to her. - Does she know that? - Does she know that? - I guess she knows her. - She knows her. - By Constance. - She used to be his new mother. - Yeah. - She's not gonna lose anywhere. - Well, it wouldn't be his best interest to be his, to her, if we leave her to the baby. - That's where she was, to be anyways. - We can't lead her to the baby, we have no idea. - We were hoping she could lead us, and she's not interested in that, if she knows she's gonna be the mother. - We needed more clues. - If it was just that she wanted to save her father, we could team up. 'Cause we want to save her father, there's a light cause there. But saving her saves your father. It's part of the agreement that he gets to go free if the baby gets turned into Constance. - Okay. - Well, it's worth a try. I got more going on. - Yeah. - You guys are still in the room, the UV lamps, and Bruce is there, in the other vampire that you guys never even deemed, important enough to give a name to, and you hear whispering in your head. - Tony Luzans, kill him, you don't need him. - You suck, you don't need to quiet before I can stop. - Everybody hears it, are you hears it? - He hears it. You take the fake point, and you do what? - Can I just look away with stealth? - I don't think you need to stealth. They're sitting there talking to Bruce, and you're trying to decide what they're gonna do. - I was just hoping they wouldn't notice me when I snap his neck. Do I need to roll for this? - He has a consequence of extremely scared that you could tap. He has bound to the cat that he's on. He's under UV light so that he has none of his superior strength for resilience or endurance, so he has no extra stress points. - I've made him do a good thing. - This is for the child's soul, so he doesn't burn up and die with him. - Whatever, let's just sleep. - I got plus two to have his neck, while no one's looking, can he die with that? - No, I can't dodge it all. - Oh, well, then four. - What the hell did my desk do? - Pass them to us, because we didn't watch easily. - I thought I took new ones. Somebody give me new ones. - Yeah, that's a really good one. - Oh, he's gonna give me his bad ones from last week, and this is what we'll show you, Scott, it's all you. - Or is he his dice? - Mine is two. - Six, then? - Yeah, so that actually adds two, and his nervousness. - He snapped his own neck. - Well, no, he was, like, really tense, so... - Okay. - Sure, that helps. That would bring it up to six with the extra damage I get, because of my footer strength. - That's more than enough going to consequences. His first consequences are already there, so it rolls over to the next one, but he's an NPC of an little to no consequence, so that takes him out of the scene, which means you get to dictate how you would should take him out of the scene, which means he ripped his head all the way around until it's pointing in the opposite direction. You guys notice a lot of crack snapped. - Let's get out of here. - One less to worry. - Oh, it's so dangerous. - You're wasting time. This guy's of no use. This one's burning up as we speak, and we're... - So you say, don't kill the advance. - That was him, actually. That was Maxwell that was arguing with that. - And then you guys go ahead and we kill one bone. - That wasn't me. - They've got enslaved child souls. They use it to their own selfish ends. They're just going to die anyway. Let's go. - I appreciate it. You want to kill something, somebody in my place of business that you wouldn't even wear heavy pants. - When they're human, I will. - Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. 50% of the crimes we deal with here at... Amazing detective agency. Don't even deal with humans. - Yeah. - You can't just fucking kill any undead, magical, bullshit guy that you think is inhuman. - Some of my best friends are not human. - Or Ty, you do a chair in your UV room. Does he get to tear your eyes out? - Like, I'm not gonna play it. 'Cause I wanted to kill this guy in the head. I'm not just listening to him. - Common courtesy, if you're gonna kill somebody in my house, let me know first. - You people are disgusting. - Yeah, this does disturb you a little bit, Maxwell, because you were fighting to keep this guy's life. Every life is sacred, you know. - So... - Let's go. - Yeah, crispy Bruce, if you're doing what? - We're gonna give him a wheelchair. - Oh, no, no, no, no, there's a vampire. That thing burns up in the sunlight after you kill it, maybe, I don't know. - From the UV ants on the super high. - And sweep up the dust after us. Okay, but crispy Bruce is still here and he's not done. - You have a wheelchair? We'll bring him in my truck and he'll lead us to this hideout. - No, I'm confused as to why you need to tear her. - She might have a lead on the baby and these that are only lead to her. And if you can call them up, which I think you've failed so far, we got no other leads, unless you know of somebody. - You're gonna boss, what's going on? - I got nothing. - So, crispy Bruce is willing to lead you somewhere, he just, first, you got a timey from this cop, right? - Well, Andrew, can't really lead you for the cop. - For the cop, place where vampires usually hang out. So, there's about 50 guys in there, choose using them on their way to go ahead in that room and let you guys find yourself out. - What? What are you just saying? This guy's nice. - Oh, lead us to a trap. - We just want to get our ass kicked. - As far as I understand, it's just him and Meghan working alone and even then Meghan Knight. - Be there. - You should have a great deal, friends. They work in Paris and he betrayed the clank, remember? - Let's go. - Stop talking and start going. - Okay, what vehicles are you using? What methods are you using to-- - We're putting him in a wheelchair, tying his arms with twist ties down on there and we're going, we own down to a car, take a seat out and put the chair in there. - He's gonna-- - This guy does. - He's crippled, we're helping him. - Look at his face, clearly crippled. (laughing) - He's crippled, man. I'm gorgeous. (laughing) - You know, he is a little-- - We can drive around the back and pick him up. He doesn't need to be out front for everyone to play face. - You do have a freight elevator, that's the use to get the two bodies up here. - Yeah, you try to beat the street. I wash up his face while we're waiting for the car. - A little makeup on, I cover up all those waffle burn marks. - Get him like that iPad. - Yes, you have to get him an iPad, since you poked one of his eyes out. Take him down, the freight elevator, put him into your van. - Really bad? - Company van, I don't know. Something that a chair will come up. - Okay. - You got a nice company, so you can probably have something for picking up people at the airport, or who knows, some kind of vehicles. - Yeah. - He gives you directions to a house on the east side, and you guys start driving there and we will go back to Allen and London. You are talking to your mentor, you've gotten all the information you want, or do you need more? - I think you've given me what I need for now, and the rest will leave with the flashback as needed to be put to me later. - Okay. Remember, he volunteered knowing full well that he has forfeited his life by some of his actions, and a wizard who dies has a death curse to give. - Right. - In leaving that, you knock, I don't know how you're gonna sit there for half an hour until they open the door and your time's up, because there's some proof on him. - Well, I suppose that they are going to give us a minute longer than what we asked for, so I would have used all, not knowing all the details we need to know. I will imagine that we're talking right up until the moment we start hearing the doors start to cycle open. - Okay. - Okay. - It was that likely to proclaim the doom upon him and give him a situation where he can die of working with death without him, or somehow redeem himself. - Is it on the right, the secretary? - Yeah, we don't need her, we don't have Constance. - Okay. - She looks a ball breaker. - She's a ball breaker. You have Constance, along with Dale Williams. - He was the director in charge of-- - Medical research? - Medical research. - And there's Robert Bologna there as well, the big troll-like security guard. - All right, what do you want to accomplish through this? - We are probably going to now hear what the terms are. - Of whatever she and William do. - Right, she's going to give us-- - She being Constance says we can have the meeting here, we can take it to a conference room. Your choice of venue. - I prefer more than usual. - Setting this, Mason, bottle of water. - Suggestion. - Conference room will be fine. - We'll be done. - If you have you two, they will be my self-consense, and Dale Williams will be there. - Hi, Mahoney. - Mahoney can wait outside the door. - Mahoney is dumb. - Or is Mahoney staying bad? - Yeah, I thought he was Bill. - Or is Bill part of these conversations as well? - No, Bill's not about. - Then, as we have two representatives, then, gee, we'll have to have, you know, Bill and Constance will be exactly all. - No, he's probably going to erupt a lot. - You'll leave him, probably. - It's all right. - Okay, with one last knowing look at-- - Robin would occur as the Secretary of Dale Williams. She could take notes, and you water there, or you water just the four of us. - I don't think I-- I mean, it's up to you, but we need an actual-- - No, we don't need a-- - I mean, so I'd need it, right? - Down to the four of you, particularly over to a conference room. - But the race windows, hopefully, they-- - In a rather subdued lighting, it's in the middle of the building. There's the windows, no, sorry. - I mean, the eight edges. - Constance isn't one for direct sunlight. She's not a fan. You see her picture, she's rather attractive looking, but when you're sitting anywhere near her or walking there-- - Which I'm not. - Is definitely the smell of decay. It's a rotting body underneath that glamour that she's wearing. - Right, are they disharmony? - No. - It was an armpitly agreement. - Yeah, or they're just not afraid of me. (laughing) - Well, she knows full well that a ward and a sword is his badge of office, and she's not requesting that you take it away. - Right, this is all under the court anyway. - Yeah, that's right, I invoke this, so I have to be very bad for me to-- - Appreciate it. If I attack, if I defend it, it's a different story. - They take you to the-- - So I'm assuming that this is a different scene. - Yes, it can be. - Which means that-- - Do you heal anything? - Yeah, what type of-- - What happens to our-- - Stress is called. - Stress damage. - All stress is removed. - But not hers, 'cause she's still mad. - Another consequences, those are not-- - Okay, and he ignores mine. - She has three consequences or two? - Two. - I have three. - The first one is she is angry and frustrated. - I have three. - A second one. - The second one is she hates London with a hot passion. - I have mixed low coop pocution, which means I'm not quite as articulate as I normally am because I'm tongue tied in the closet. - Yeah, with just her or in general thought. - I figure that's on point 'cause it's mild. - And then I have a moderate, which is unreasonably angry. - London, usually he's as cool, but he's a little bit on edge right now with everyone, which will be his moderate one for several days or how it seems or how for one last. - Kind of a mirror of each other. Both flustered and both extremely angry at each other. - That's the way to start anything except for negotiation or conversation. - Exactly, this is why you'll do much with speaking. - They said at the table they offer you about water. Let's iron out the details of what we wish to accomplish, your inch. - Well, certainly state what were the terms that Bill was operating under. - Bill was under oath to retrieve the child Janice Lemons and bring her to me. - Is that so hard? - Apparently it is. - Retrieve the child Janice and bring her to Constance. - If you might get Robin in here. - You are angry. - Yes, yes I am. - You know, this was a simple B&E and it's all gone pear-shaped as far as London's concerned. - Well, the difference now is this isn't a simple B&E. - No, I mean, you guys are breaking and entering here. - Oh, okay, I'm sorry. - London's pissed at that. - I thought you were talking about it. - No, I wasn't talking as Constance Constance. - Oh, right. - Now we do have a slight modification in the fact that we have Mr. Donovan here and we will not release him until that contract is fulfilled. - The contract, the payment that he got as well, was that the child was going to be used to modify his daughter, Megan, so that she would not be in the condition that she currently is, which is dying. - Are you responsible for Megan's condition? - No, responsible, it's such a... - No, it's not. (laughs) - You know, things happen. - Was Megan turning to Coorsville or was this something else? - That's not part of our negotiation. - 'Cause that's gonna be a question-making, like conversation, kind of. - Okay, Hal. (laughs) - So it's a simple enough thing, if you take on bills. - Well, it's simple to say, but the difference is that Bill was knocking over a home in Bay Village. Now, we have to relocate. - Are you telling me that you're a friend here? - A friend of London, the most eminent seeker in all of Cleveland, can't find a simple child. - Yes, given the right materials to your track done, said child. Are you saying that you have any type of sample or blood or hair? - You've given him blood before. - Do I know, I don't know this, do I have blood? - All right, so we do a brief aside to catch him up to speed with- - Which were always, yeah. - Their poor sample that they provided me. - It was difficult it was to actually track it in the- - We kind of discussed it before. - I knew that you had some trouble. - What? - Remember you said- - Excuse me? - Trouble. - Give me a bad sample and let me be able to trace anything. - Was the sample bad, Constance? - The sample was of the mother's blood. I don't know how blood can be bad. - 'Cause the mother's blood, not the daughter's blood we are looking for. - You couldn't find the mother. - I couldn't find the mother. - You didn't find the mother, you found the father, the second blood sample, the mother you failed with. - The mother I couldn't find because she was a ghost. - She wasn't dead then. - Says you. (laughing) - No, you happen to know at the timeline that she wasn't dead. - No, no, I know. - That when I'm not admitting it. You may be able to slush out the leaves- - How did I say- - If you consider- - Would you be hidden by now? - What's going on here? - No, he's- - You gotta get out of here. - He's having me in an eternity. - Why I couldn't find her. - He's having an internal monologue in his brain. - One of the other players could feel free to throw in any thoughts of fate. - Wasn't the mother? - Well, here's the thing, Mero too, as well. - The mother was a part of the parapet. She was a- - I thought- - Wasn't she? - The husband, the boyfriend, whoever he was. He was fate. - The father was- - Of the child. - Her husband. - Was not fate. He was human. The father was not the husband. The husband was Vince, the father of the child. She got pregnant. - Right, was fate. - Right, John mentioned she was chimera as well. - I remember that for whatever reason. She had two different goings on it. - Sarah Lemons did. - Yeah, she did. - That's the blood she was- - That he was given originally. - A chimera, whatever. - A curious kind of blood change. - His facial blood change. - Kiesel has the blood samples? - Yes. - Okay. - He was- - They've got hair. - Twiddling it through his fingers, is he? But the blood sample you were given was over the mother. - Right. - John is correct that she was a chimera. And that chimeras have two different sets of DNA, two different blood types, and you have never even heard of that. Let alone try to track somebody down with a mixed, blood type. It's almost, you're looking for one person when you're really looking for two type of thing. It's just way outside the bounds of anything you've dealt with before. - Sure. - And that starts to click on, well, okay, yeah, sure. That's pretty fucked up. That could explain why it failed. - Right. That makes perfect sense, no. - Okay. Well, I have, right now, back in character, I'd say, London has proven his abilities before, and I'm sure he will continue to do so. But the environment, the situation has changed, so I need to have a little more time to recover the child from where I imagine she is now. - From my point of view, take as long as you want. But Megan isn't gonna be around much longer to receive this part of the outcome. - What has dressed me in timeframe for Megan to minimize that? - Less than a week. - How am I supposed to contact you? - There's here, I can give you my home address, wherever you'd like to deliver the package. - What was in the flash forward? - I would prefer a neutral territory, would you know exactly that? - No, that's fine. - I'll bring my package in and bring yours. Mine being Bill. - Yeah, I got him. - Well, we want to specify here, tell me. - A moment with my client. It may not be hard enough. - We need Bill to plan a site with her when this year. She's not listening, she can't hear you. - Okay, fine. - Before we try to double cross her, we want them to know if she's going to be somewhere. - That makes rescue Bill much easier. - Especially if we know where Bill is too. - We know where Bill is. - She knows where to go without that. - Right from the site. - Sure. - My problem is to rescue him. If that's what you want to do, then we want Constance not to be around. So if we know she's gonna be there to have the package, would it be easier then to make a hit on the location that we know he's at currently? And you know I can track him. - I'm gonna point something out. - Sure. - Which, again, your characters live in this world you don't as players. - Of course. - You know for a fact that you had a hair. You used it up to track Bill now. You were in a room with Bill for 30 seconds. I assume you just went, look. It took out three or four of from his head to refuel any attempt that you want to track him down. - Sure, that would be something I think we would do. Anyways, so you don't have to agree with it. I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility. If we know that Bill's somewhere else and we know she's gonna be somewhere, it makes rescuing him much easier than trying to do it with the queen and vampires. - Well, I would love to consider it an option, but right now there's also, rescuing Bill might be giving you a chance to die honorably not as pre-access with him dying in this particular scenario. - Well, I like my job and I don't want to take it back from me. (laughing) - Oh, no, no, no, I, I'm sure you live by the book. - You know he fucked up. - Right. - Big time. - Bill's life is already fourfolded. - No, you understand it, but why aren't you putting other lives at risk by making the final encounter one that's gonna take place in the most dangerous situations possible, meaning with Constance there? - No. - Constance is two things. She is a very powerful black court vampire. She also is a very powerful wizard. So you're right, dealing with her is the high end. She takes it completely. - That's from Scott. - Scott, why don't you say your name? - I don't know, I don't care about my end game. - Right. - You know, if I lose starts, then so be it. But what he discussed with this matter is this is one powerful check. This is, this is the black heart of Cleveland. This is a lot of the nasty, Cleveland still sucks, but this bitch is dangerous. - Right. - And he can redeem himself in any way and take her out or take her. - Or a diminisher power. - You know, a curse, a wizard's dying curse. - Great, I mean, that's all great for the run of it. - Yeah. - What I'm saying is it's not necessarily great for Edmund or for Maxwell or for my buddy, Roberto. - Or for any of you to explain to the cops in your standing in the room with the CEO of Cleveland Clinic dead at your feet. - I think we, you know, you hand her a package and it's a flipping baby doll. And you say, no, couldn't come through, sorry. And meanwhile, we're off rescuing Bill and everyone gets out alive and fuck Constance. Because I don't care if the baby stays with the guardian for the rest of his life. - Well, I have an idea for that. And so far-- - This table probably isn't the place to discuss it. - Right, right. - Right, right. - Yup. - What did you say? - Wait and then-- - Did you? - Yeah. That looks disgustingly at the working man. Holds his tongue. - Oh, that truly is a feet. (laughing) - I didn't get that, I didn't get that. - You're gonna be a fake white guy. (laughing) - It's so against your character. I don't think you can have that, come on. - Oh, that's a pay one. - So, okay, so less than a week for Meghan, if it takes longer than a week, what other-- - I didn't know you were so interested in Meghan, but I assumed your major concern was cleaning up the problem that is built on. And that deals certainly-- - You can go as long as you want. - Well, as we said before, as the authorized representative, the white council I have, we are handling the situation and build out of it. And we will-- - Honestly, we will release into your care in which you can do whatever you want, as soon as you've filled this application. - So that it, do you anything else for me? - She has declared what the requirements are. We have to determined an out of time frame. - Which is open-ended. - Well, if there is a little bit of a time frame, when it deals with initial compensation, I'm just asking if the original reward around time for that, what's the subsequent compensation that you want to offer or conceive? - From my standpoint, the agreement is that you bring the child, I release Bill Donovan. As a bonus, if you do it within a week, we'll uphold the original bargain with Mr. Donovan as well, and save his daughter. It's incentive for you to act quickly. You don't get an alternate incentive if you fail. - Will we be permitted to conduct our business until we rectify this situation, or will we have to deal with the black court while we co-vart a business here? - Depends on where your business is. If it's in our domain, you will definitely be following our roles. - Well, if I need, I mean, I don't know where London's gonna lead me when we try to track down where the child is being taken again. - If I know London, probably nowhere near the child. That's what my point is, am I going to have free passage in order to fulfill this bargain? - I'm not going into your-- - You will not have free rain to walk through my house or free rain to walk through Cleveland Clinic, and post your nose in any place you wish. No, I guarantee you, the child is not under my domain. I would know. Would you? - Is that why you hired someone to try to? - Oh, sorry. - Yes, well, I don't always pick the best help, do I? - No, but if you wish this obligation to be fulfilled, you will remove whatever type of bounty that you currently have on my head. Otherwise, I will refuse to find the girl for anyone. - I can see. - That's hard of our contract. - I can see to doing that. - Thank you. - Can we go again? - London's like, I got my shit. It's taken care of, we're done. - Well, I guess my point, I just wanted to clear up that-- - Well, I got on the phone if we need to get in one of your buildings, all right? - Thanks, let's go. - She nods. - Okay, well, I'm just saying that-- - You're beating a dead horse, let's go. - I know that horse. - Yes, actually. - Okay, surly with me. You're still subordinate in the field of the, I'll strip your rules right after half. - Where's the other half of my game? - You'll get it whenever I get ready. - Until we've fulfilled the rest of the contract. - No, no, I found him. - He did find build-on secrets. - 5K to find build-on. - And you got paid? - I got paid 2,500. - Did I pay the full? - Yeah. - I'm sure you can iron out these petty squabbles later. - Okay. - I'll promise you, I'll get the fuck out of here. - Oh, no, I missed my point now. - Shall we make this official? - Yes. - Don't look at her eyes. - No, no. - She'll agree with a kiss. - Don't do that either. - If you wanna state the actual oath and then we'll both agree upon it. - That I am to locate and retrieve the child jettison bring her to Constance, to Constance Rockefeller. - Okay. - Control location in return for William Donovan's undamaged in person who has treated as a gas bottle. We're pursuing this. - Actually, undamaged anymore. - Any further, any subsequent damage here to four and hence with and forth with. Also, that's, you'd be alive. Megan's condition, if we do it within time to rescue Megan or restore Megan Donovan, then you will perform that as well. - And? - Well, the bounty on London is to be hereby discharged. - Okay. - And, no further bounties for at least another year in a day. - Year in a day. - Oh, year in a day. Where's your outfit? - You might need the next year's day. - You might. - I'm hoping to pursue an avenue where we're gonna have to do a bait and switch. And that is, but part of it is, I'm going to bring it to the place where she is. But I didn't say anything specifically about handing her over delivering unto her, giving the child away to her. I'm bringing it here. - Okay. - But, what I want you to realize is she's a shrewd person. She's gonna notice that the wording is a little bit off, but I want you to make a role to sell it to her. And you can tap into the fact that she is piss beyond belief at this guy that she's also sitting at the table to give yourself a little bit of a bonus. - And I appreciate that. - And they can try to get it done. - And I also acknowledge that I was listening to what you were saying, and I wrote down exactly how she said it, I'm trying to use her words to help disguise that fact. - Yes. - She said bring the child. - Okay. - And please use those words. That's fine. - Well, I will do blood or I will infuse it with magic, so it becomes binding. I'm not afraid to beat her gaze. - You're lacking eyes, man. Look at her nose. - Very pretty nose. - All right, if you're still got one. - So, you're gonna have to make a role to deceive her into not calling me on this. - I want you to see. - Oh, I don't hear that. - That's it. - I'm not saying you have to use the seeds. You have to use a skill that you have to justify the meat. - To conviction does not mean to fly on your right. You truly believe that you're gonna screw her over. - I mean, it is using my magic in a way to fuel the fire. - Yeah. - No. - What's that kind of soul saying? - I'm using magic. - Hey, well, the soul's gonna be sensible and really screw. - Which way? - I swear my sword. - Oh, I swear my sword. - Weapon. - Come on. - I can see. - Wait, what skill are you using? - Here's my option. - Seat. - I don't have the seat. - I don't have presents. - I would suggest lore sneaking in. - Lore is the only thing I could see that would stretch to this. 'Cause I don't know. - This is part of the unsealing of chords. This is a formal. - It's a common ritual. And you are... - Right. - Can you see me in ritual? - If you can explain to me how. - Sure. - But would I be able to tap one of her consequences? - You could give him both of those consequences to tap. - That's what I'm talking about. - Yes. - But you could just do that and say... - I'm pissing off all your talking. - Right. - We can add it. - Just throwing my thumbs up. - Doing something irritating so that it brings to the front that he can grab that. In addition to it, you can do and maneuver that would also do it. Above and beyond, giving him those four points. - Do you just give him two? - Yes. - Now you can just transfer them out, right? - But he has to spend... - No. - Want to tap them? - No. - 'Cause those are consequences. You inflict it on her. - The first time you use them, you don't have to. - And the first time is free. And you can give that use to someone else. - Oh, that's fine. - I think I used one of them last week as all of them. - You may have. - So if you all say I have one consequence of hers to tap, and then I'd like to make a war role to try to, is this a maneuver? - Well, I was also going to maybe confer with him, like, here's what I'm going to say. You're the wordsmith, counselor, how am I? - Right. I was gonna just say something along the line. So you'll obviously hurt not having the proper knowledge of how no works. Just, that allows him to then tap into that anger that she has. I am drawing myself up to my full stature, using my most honeyed words, which are gonna really annoy her right now, and say that she's not quite getting to dumb down the oath because she doesn't quite know how they work, thereby giving him her anger, consequence. - Okay, I got that, and you're also adding a maneuver. And I would say, normally, that it would be something that would be superbly difficult. But, in her present agitated state, I think we take that down to great. - I rolled a fantastic. - Okay. - I rolled a plus one on my fudge dice, and my presence is one thing I really put a lot of points into, so it's superb. So that gives me a fantastic to give him that maneuver. - You got fantastic on your roll, which is enough for you to, again, annoy the hell out of her, above and beyond her consequence, and just get her steamy mad, which is a plus two maneuver for him, in addition to giving him the consequence of plus two. So you have plus four just coming up against her. - Mr. Allen Montgomery. Now, she is using empathy. She's reading people to see if you're trying to pull something over on her. - Wouldn't Dale Williams go rolling and discerning this too? - Calm down, Constance. I can see that. - Sure. - It's a safer or just, it's killing me. - No, it's a valid point. - It is valid point. - Now, is he going to help her with a maneuver as well, or is he simply gonna try to spot the difference with the question? He is not going to assume that she's making mistakes, and try to help her. - He's subservient, he's listening, and if he spots something, he's going to match it. So he gets a roll as well, but he's not doing a maneuver to his own part. - He's doing his own thing. - Right, so it's almost like two or one against one. - He's just being quiet, but if you hear something, well, I can get points here by pointing out that he just tried to pull something, as opposed to him actively trying to help her and say, you're doing it's wrong, you should do this instead. So, they both get a roll, she's using empathy, and he's using his lure to look at the ritual. - Oh, my turn to roll. - It's your turn to roll. - Yeah, all right, I hate this moment, moment of truth. I have the free consequence from London plus two. My lure skill plus four, London's help plus two. - It was maneuver, yes. - It was maneuver. I will spend my feet pointing out. - Not yet, not yet. - No, okay. - So you have eight that you're adding to your fake roll. - I know, I'm about to roll these beautiful, wonderful, and certainly impressionable dice. - I'm kind of in my pocket in Thailand. - Ah, plus one. - One above legendary, that's nine. If you want to beat those up, you do have two tests. - Well, he doesn't need to do that, at least he needs what they roll, correct? - You don't spend him three minutes. - I'm ready, it's before you roll and say anything, I'm ready to spend. - I understand. - So, Constance roll was fantastic. So, your roll was above that. In her present stage, she doesn't notice the slight flaw in your oath. - That's a legendary deal. - Dale Williams rolled right up poorly on his fake dice for A-2, so his was only good. - 'Cause he's ever seen Constance schooled in her own conference room before, like I'm doing. - So, both of them seem to accept the deal. You both class hands and you do a little magic over it to bind it into a magical oath. What is it? - What's that? - Read the name. - Show the audience. (laughing) - Well, that would be very interested in the universe, I'm like. - And you could disguise it, take a look at the baby. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah, gotta put that up on the site if you see this. - I wonder what you're saying, whatever it is. - It is, really. It's spelled just in it. - It's a-- - Janice brand and grenade or something. (laughing) - Yeah, really. I've never heard of one. - I can say the bear's got two device. - Or maybe just a little bus. - That would be freaky 'cause I didn't. - Okay, I don't wanna do a blood oath 'cause she has a vampire after all in the night, so I don't wanna give my blood to anyone. So, I thought I could just excuse my magic and may give it the old. You know how he says, "I swear on my power." - I don't know. - Oh. (laughing) - I don't know, but that's where I'm at my power. - So, did you guys, class pan shake, you do a bit of a spell to bind it? - Yes. - Okay, yes, we'll go with that. And with that, focus, focus, focus, a little bit of airy dust. - We gotta, I gotta, I gotta meeting with a realtor, so-- - Gotta go, you gotta be awesome. - They call back in, Robert Mahoney, who escorts you out of the building. - Totally. - Yes. - No. - We're roughly. - And when you leave the building, your phone vibrates a few times, London, to let you know you've got like two messages on there. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to the Knights of the Night at Actual Play podcast. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures, where you will find character stats, photos, storytelling, props, and even a forum for comments and suggestions. Or you could email us directly at feedback at kotnpodcast.com. Or contact us via Twitter, or leave a message on Facebook. All music for this podcast was created and performed by Zen Audio Smith. If you'd like custom professional music created for your podcast or business, please visit zanaudiosmith.com. And please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. (upbeat music) - Restful you build might be giving you a chance to die honorably, not a super obsessed with him dying in this particular scenario. - Well, I like my job and I don't want to take it back from you. (laughing) - No, no, no, no, either. You know how he says, "I swear on my power." - Ew, isn't it cool? (laughing) - No, that's where I have my power. - It sounds pretty much no matter what the child turns into, it'll be interesting. - Oh yeah, it'll have a long reach effect, so I'm just saying those are some other things you can do. - But perhaps not under the tutelage of the vampire. - Or a ghoul. - Not that I think the phase any better, but. - All the vampires are dealing with that wouldn't put it under tutelage, they would like to do some dark ritual and tire to, not again. - They would sacrifice it. - Do you have a remaining number for it? - Or the being switch. - Hell, no, I'm gonna hate the idea for any of this shit. We're getting it all. - If the other Rockefeller got to hold his child, that'd be interesting. - She wouldn't kill it for one day. - No thing. - She could chain it in magic, 'cause she's gonna kill it. - 'Cause she's a witch.