Allan attempts to get information from the ghost of Sarah Lemmons. But, Allan is a rather cold - by the book Warden. Will his friends be able to help him comfort this emotional spirit who has lost so much?
Actual Play starts at 14:07
Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 72: "Delivery - Ghost Visions"
(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to Knights of the Night Actual Play Podcast. This Dresden Fowl Story Delivery was written in run by your GM Tom. And now, please enjoy episode 72, titled Ghostly Visions. (upbeat music) - I am your GM Tom, and this Dresden Fowls game of the week, and you'll be the player starting on my left. I'm John, playing Roberto Martinez, Guardian of Cleveland, powered by a fallen angel. - Thomas, playing Maxwell Edison, undercover FBI agent. - Scott, playing London Deals, a moral seer to the supernatural. - I am John, playing Edmund Chidowski, pride investigator in a new age black court vampire. - And I'm Mike, playing Ellen Montgomery, the warden who has come back to Cleveland to clean the mess up. - Okay, before we get back into the adventure, turn phones off, so much. Yeah, that would be nice. Before we get into play, we'll do some feedback. Our first bit is from RBG Crosstalk's Forum. The comment is based on our just released episode 71, House Call, in which you guys go to a coffee house, then you go and case Sarah Lemon's house, break in, and start looking around and finding things. And it stops just as Mike's character, Alan, creates a circle, and summons the ghost of Sarah Lemon's. The comment is from PAIP, who we haven't heard from for a while. He actually was a fan who posted quite a bit on shitlock, and he says, "Ooh, a cliffhanger." I'm loving this guys. I was wondering how Scott would fare, not being the GM storyteller, but you've got him under control. If London does survive the next episode and get back to Cave du Vin, I hope his veneer of European sophistication has him pronounce something at Aev Duvahn, and holding on by his fingertips. - What does that mean? - PAIP. - I would think the wine glass, you know, a little fingertips issue. - Finger extended. - What do you mean though? (laughing) - Is that how you would pronounce it? - Yeah, I don't know the European pronunciation a little London. - Cave duvahn is how I would pronounce that. - That's Amma Markin. Where does Pierre Aev Duvahn? - Don't know, he's posted, he's been to the forums, like I said, for quite a while, he's posted under shitlock, he was a fan of that, and I'm posting a response to anybody, stuck around and listened to the Justin stuff and seems to be enjoying it as well. As far as keeping Scott under control, it's not really a problem. He gladly gave up the reins of, well, Mike might have a different opinion after a recent in the episode, which won't air for about a month, but it's not a problem Scott willingly gave up the seats, so he does an occasion on a rough shot over these guys and make him do his thing, but that's his character, not necessarily him. He's played characters in the past two that are-- - That's just him, not just Scott, it's also his character. - It's also his character, both. (laughing) - This is true. I mean, London is gonna try to get his way, but he's trying to try to do it's a little more sophisticated in manner, but he also has times when he lets others shine because he's not gonna put himself in harm's way, at least not intentionally. He didn't think that this was gonna turn out, which everyone will listen to in four weeks or so. But he didn't think that this particular situation that he got himself into, which is yet to air, was gonna turn out to be a violent situation. - Just to give everybody a little peek behind the curtain. We have a few episodes in the can, so this feedback and stuff, we're gonna place in front of something that's been recorded a few weeks back, so sometimes we may refer to things that haven't happened yet. And we have one additional piece of feedback, Gillette Scottree, and it's in reference to the roundtable discussion that we had Dungeons & Dragons announcement. - How long have you been waiting for in that? - Right, this is Colter Guthrie. If you guys did really like D&D 3.5, you should try out Pathfinder. It is 3.5 with some good additions and corrections. So that's Colter's comment. - Which we actually did mention that. - Yeah, I'm not sure if I can edit it out or not. - No, I remember. - It was in the opposite. Certainly something when we get our fantasy kick back again, sometime in the future, she will give it a new shot. - I'm not sure. - They're basically 10.5 years, 3.5, a new shot? - Yeah, they, as far as I've heard, they've rectified like the grappling rules and other problems that 3.5 had, but now that we've branched out, I mean, we were extremely fantasy-centric for a very long time. - Decades. - And now that we've tried other things, like modern horror or whatever you wanna call Dresden, I mean, modern horror would definitely be World of Darkness, the stuff we've played. And we've tried other systems. I'm not sure I wanna go back to 3.5, or any version of D&D, I'll tell you the truth. - Fair about fantasy. - Urban fantasy, it's good. - For a one shot fantasy sometime, it could break up the different, more modern genres. I can see-- - Well, I'm not saying that I have to see-- - I play in Skyrim and I occasionally go, "Oh, you know, gotta come up with an idea, "you know, riff off of it a little bit," or just enjoy the old hack and slash occasionally. So I can see, you know, potentially going back to it sometime for one or two adventures. Not like people were before though, where it was the dominant system that we told stories in for a long period of time. - And I have no problem with going back to fantasy of some type, but I'm saying there are other things out there that are then D&D itself, no matter what version you're talking about, that we can try. - Right. - Just a thought. - Yeah. - I don't know. I don't know how you guys are feeling in general about going to different systems. I mean, we went with World of Darkness for a while, and it was actually kind of a struggle to get dressed into the table. You guys weren't openly reluctant. - No. - But you weren't. - We weren't embracing it either. - No. - I, yeah. - And then the beginning of the learning a new system again. - And the beginning of some stories. - The beginning of creating the city was a struggle. It was just a huge undertaking. - I personally don't think I've embraced the character generation system of either World of Darkness or Dresden. At least I don't have the same experience or enjoyment or, that's not true. I just, I don't, I didn't engage with it as much as I remember engaging with the three five. - Did you ever sit down and read the whole book? - This thing. - I can't say that I read it like page per page. I mean, I did go through it in the beginning, and when I was reading the abilities and I was like, "Ah, this would be a cool character concept." I was like putting them in. It was a shopping list, kind of. I would pull abilities out. - I don't, I'm sorry, you're good. - No, it was just that enabled me to enjoy it. Like I did for a few people. - That's what I need to do. - Yeah, I just, I don't think, you know, switching the World of Darkness for the shit luck story. Now we look at it in retrospect and oh, it's one story of what's going to be in our because we enjoyed it. We had a good time with it. At the time, it was just another system we were trying for another week in which we didn't really want to all read the book and sit down and really pound through it from page one to page 246 or however many pages they were. So I guess what I'd like to say in, not in rebuttal, but just kind of like riffing off of that is that maybe because you would devour, you know, when the three, when 3.0 or 3.5 and 4.0 came out, you devoured those tones. And they had computer website based character generation, in some cases Excel spreadsheets and others. But you really were in a certain mindset where this is just some system we're trying out for some modern horror. Will we ever play it again? I don't know. Do I want to read 240 pages? Not really. I'll just let Scott tell me what I need to do to make the character and make the character. Not the least in which their organization made it not. Yeah, I mean, the book itself is not as easy. But what I felt was that GND, I felt that everything progressed and your character was a measure of that progression. You know, your power, your abilities, your levels, your experience. Whereas this was something I enjoyed about World of Darkness was we had, we had, and we still do. We have a lot of experience sitting on the table that has not been applied to the characters that we earned because I was engaged. What was the story? It was three or four days of real time. So now there's going to be a gap between now and the next story. Down time in which we can actually spend that, those points. Look, but it's like I didn't need to spend those points. I didn't need to increase those abilities. I didn't really have to have to play my character and to achieve what I wanted to achieve, or I'll pull it out when I need it. There's two questions I have in there. They're kind of related. The first one is, the only thing that matters, they're having fun. Do you have fun in 3.5? Did you have fun in World of Darkness? Did you have fun in Dresden? And the other one is, are any of those systems designed in a way that it's easier for you to get into a character and be that character? Any of them have mechanics that help you do that? I do not think I would enjoy the storytelling, open-ended, everyone contributes kind of thing as much as I did. And I wasn't exactly sold in the very first time we did, although I do admit that the effect of that crow tapping in the door kind of. Since you don't necessarily know you're looking at it, Scott, you're talking about the world of darkness. Right, the world of darkness. In the first one, he's not talking about shitlock. We didn't release that one, but let me try that. We played maybe a year or two before that, which was based in Chicago, which wasn't like a normal type story of facing the evilness. You know, I was reluctant, or modern horrors, not really my thing as much. I liked the perceived high adventure, the fantasy element, you know, a lot. But then again, that's what we played for, like, Scott said decades, and in a way, there was a bit of a deep programming process. So-- - It'll be interesting to have this conversation in about five years. - Well, in the first of all, we do plan on doing, like we did at the end of World of Darkness, to have a whole night in which we just pick over Dresden. - Right. - What we learned, what we thought, what we liked, what we didn't like, what I did well as a GM, what I didn't, what you guys did, as your characters that you would have changed if you could, now that you know more. We'll have a whole night that we'll discuss with that. But I would ask Jim the same question, because he hasn't been speaking in, we want to get him on Micah, and in his opinion, you know, same thing. You've played all three of those systems. You've played D&D, both 3.5 and 4.0. You've played World of Darkness, you've played Dresden. Did you have fun in all of them, or any of them? One more than another. - And did you find it was easier to get any character on any of those? - I don't know, they all had the good points, the bad points, you know. There's things I liked about some, and things I didn't like about some. Like you guys were talking about on the podcast, and I listened to it about the 3.5, 1.4.0. I agree that it was just, the whole card thing was just cookie cutter, different. It wasn't really, it was shiny and new, but then I got it. - Yeah, it wasn't. - It made things easy to organize, but I couldn't really get into the character that I really wanted to get into, or do the things I wanted to do. And D&D always, no matter what version we were playing, it always seemed like, once we got into a battle, it's five minutes a row playing, and three hours of a battle, and five minutes a row playing, and three hours of a battle. - Yeah. - And I wish the battles were quicker, which is what they tried to do with the cards, but I don't think. - It works. - Yeah, it worked that well. And as far as World of Darkness goes, I liked the idea of the game. I liked the flavor, I liked the characters, but I don't like trying to work with the character. Make one, upkeep it, spend points every time I try to do it. I had no idea what I'm supposed to spend and where, and how to find something in the manual, and how to compare this skill from that skill, or pick this power from that power, or where they're even at, in which book they're buried in. It's a nightmare trying to do any upkeep on a character. It just makes, it takes the fun away from the game. I'm thinking of how I got stuff I wanna do, but it's gonna take me three hours to do it, 'cause to find that I have to read 20 hours of flavor to try to find what I want, didn't mean there were some. - Five minutes a row. - It's crazy. And this is okay. This is interesting, it would differ, but still, in any sense, it could be better, but there's things that I thought this character would be able to do that I'm learning he can or can't do, and trying to change the character around and make it the way I thought it was gonna be when I first started. - All right, and you guys, Thomas, John, both of you played 3.5.4.0. And no world of darkness, but you played Dresden, so. - Right now, I like Dresden the best of all of them. Honestly, 3.5 has its own appeal, and I'd be willing to play Pathfinder if we ever do do that. But I really do like Dresden, and it was honestly the first adventure where I've actually had fun role playing, because in D&D, I was just a hack and slash guy, honestly. - I like how it adds mechanical weights to role playing, how your character needs to stay true to who he actually is in order to get fake points. I mean, it kind of, I mean, walks the line of. - I mean, I like the social work that I do. - Okay, there's a hack, and we haven't really come across a system that had something to handle right yet. - Yeah, that's true. - Well, the darkness kind of fight is that D&D hand-waved it. - I would like to get back to fantasy at some point. It's one to do, but I don't know, hurry. - All right. - And as much as is, well, the darkness drives me crazy, I'm looking forward to playing it again. - But in any case, with that out of the way, then we will end the cliffhanger and return to Alan's spell, which is already in progress. - Upon establishing connection, you hear a blast of a woman just screaming in anguish and pain, and she's crying out, "You know, help me, help me, save my baby, save my baby." - Save your baby. - Yes. - Oh, no. - That's what you hear. - What is your baby's name? - We're gonna need a social conflict here, because at this point, she's extremely distraught and she's trying to-- - See the only one who can communicate with her? - Yes. - Ah, damn. - Good luck. - You guys communicate with him. He can communicate with him. - You guys need to help me gain, socially, the empathy I need to interact with your girls. - Who has high empathy? - I have. - Did you do another role where you talk to her? - Well, unfortunately, you know. - Well, actually, maybe it's-- - No. - No. - I can't. (laughing) - You know, you could sort of, well, no. - If you wanted to cast it again to get us all in here, it'd be a much higher-- - Oh, much higher, because you are not in tune with his skill or he can handle it. - Well, she's sat down. - Talking to the dead, you can't really lend that to you. All of you would be in much lower pace. - She's freaking out. - She's freaking out. - How do I calm her down? - You could say try telling her this, or talking her this way. - Right. - Yes. - Oh, you see. - And how many people can try to help him, at once, without becoming overwhelming? - She said, "Deezy, get over this dead." - I'll see if this is terrible. - I'm probably one of the best people talking through, talking to her. - What do you have? - I have a report to them. Super. - Ooh. - I have a presence of-- - It's a report. - I have a presence of superb. - Well, buddy, I would have an empathy of great and a report of-- - I could scare them. - Okay. - So three of us-- - I really think only one of you can help him on a given exchange, because three people shouting at you what to say. - I agree. - Not at all helpful. - Yeah. - You have to determine what you want. I can give you charisma. He can give you empathy. He can give you what's report, Jim, understanding? - I think empathy is probably the best thing to go on though. - I have to agree. I think people should order to cry in. - I think it's Maxwell that should be talking to you above anyone else. - I could accuse myself from this. - Console that weeping woman. - All right. - Or your mental children. - What target do you want? - I'm saying your target's just there. You know, you've dealt with victims before. You know how you-- - Our ults superb. - You definitely have the answer on how we should deal with her, and he passes that as a plus two maneuver to you. - And that makes it a great response. - So you're empathizing with her and her-- - Yes, I understand. - Oh, her defense was only an average. She is wanting to be consoled. - Okay. - And you calm her down and what was your total? - My total is great. - Yeah, you are attempting in this social conflict to get control of the situation. - Okay. - Right now she's still fighting a bit, but you did a lot in establishing a rapport with her. - Okay. - She is trying to-- she's stuck in a circle with you. She's moving towards you and she's trying to grasp you and shake you to inform you, you know. You've got to help me. You've got to find her. - Is this a significant success? - It really shifts. - The difference between you two was three. So you did three social damage to her. - Gotcha. - To overpower and get control of the situation. - Okay. - Her attack back was to physically grab you and shake you and tell you, but she's an inexperienced ghost and didn't realize that she is a ghost, so her actual attack was terrible. - And how would I defend against a ghost trying to physically touch me? - Well, she's not really-- she's trying to infect you with her emotions. - Socially. - Any of the social. - Would my magical discipline handle this? Is this a magic thing? - Yeah, I can see discipline being something where you can be like, "Yeah, you know, a ghost is trying to grab me." - Or is it my conviction since that channel's power? - I think this one is emotional control, so I think that's what you're talking about. - Yeah, emotional, so you're talking about empathy or-- - Does what he did still count? - No. - Okay. - However, since I'm dealing with a ghost, does my specialization add to this discipline role? - No. - Only when casting. - Only when casting. So not-- - Dude, she rolled a terrible, just roll. - Great. Her super-- - Yes, you easily ignore the fact that you don't freak out because she was grabbing you and trying to-- - Spin. - So it was good enough to give spin to give yourself one more in your neck. - To bind her to my will. - What? - No, not my will, that's bad. It's freaking the law. - To get her calm in response. - To give you the information you want. - I think that's legal if you really wanted to do that. - Dan's like a puppet for me. - Ghost. - I think that's abusive. - I think that was any way. - You gotta get her. - We'll tell us what happens so we can bind her daughter. - How old-- - I don't know this, but how old is she? Can you tell that she's like in her-- - Could you ask me him? - I'll describe her, Joel. - I just haven't heard it. - There's only time in this, she's saying help my daughter. Is she 30 or 20 where her daughter's-- - This is not like baby I haven't found out yet. - If anyone can say baby-- - Well, the ghost that you're seeing, and sometimes it's hard to tell because the ghost might be a rejection of how she thinks of herself. - Sure. - And that might be younger than she really is or who knows older. But you are seeing a ghost that looks in her older 20s, young 30s, and now that you've been communicating with her, she's coming more into focus. She does look extremely pregnant. - Who? - Wow, gross. - Go ahead. - Is she screaming "Where's my daughter, where's my baby?" or "Where's my daughter?" - Save my baby. She's taking it literally. - She did save baby. - She did save daughter both. - Yeah, that's all literal. - I asked Sarah, calm down. Tell me what happened to your baby. - What skill are you using to defend her? - Do I still need to gain control of the situation more? - It's still a social conflict. - Okay, so is this a situation where I'm trying to-- - I think you still apify her. - Then still apify her. - Can you help me? - Feller, you will help her. - And? - I could use cold logic, but I'm not gonna call logic. - So you're trying to convey, this is slightly more difficult. They went from very good. Help me form a more human connection with this ghost. - So he gives you his, he's had that training, you know. - He's very personal. - Right, I rolled in. - Fantastic. - Wow. - He explains quite well on how to deal with it. - It's very cold, mothers and all right. - I will try to do that. - I'll tell him, victims. - Pat consolingly. - On a firm hand. - Wow. - Well it's, whatever you're doing is working because that gives me superb. - Well she's been, just fantastic. - That's reassuring Pat. - Her defense against your cloning was just fair. - Which goes past her social trust, takes her out of the combat in which she's now willing to give you. - No, she's communicating. - No, she's communicating. - She's communicating. - You have air quotes defeated her. - Now that I've established this connection and this rapport with her, do I need to reestablish it in the future? Or will I always be able to speak with her pencil? - I think you have our relationship with her. - Okay. - And if you come back to a place where her spirit is existing, you could talk to her. It's not like she's going to follow you around like a puppy. - No. - Like be a spirit guide for you. Or actually maybe she would and that would be a bad thing for me that all of a sudden. - That might be something you want to consider. I'm trying to get my rest and you're not doing enough to fight my baby. You're not doing enough. - Hey, rename one of your aspects and she'll follow you everywhere if you want. - No. - It would be something you could tap. - Blood. - You could tap that. - You could tap that ghost. - Well, you know, are you throwing me to beat the baby? - No, not at all. - But I should make a new character suggestion. If you think for your character that would be an interesting growth. - You're often by a... - It's a burden. - I kind of like it. - You said to point out burdens to kind of... - Yeah. - No, I kind of like it. - But I'm saying at the beginning of each session you can change one of your aspects. - Okay. - You know, if you have one that's a little weak. - Well, I also... - I might be... - I have a feeling that we may need to tap her for more information in the future. - Okay. So she's calmed down. - I gained a... - She's still like... - I mean, you can talk to her, but she's still like my baby. - And I say, you know, Sarah, calm down and tell me what happened. - Again, the vision of the ghost comes more into focus. You're establishing this rapport with her. You definitely can see that she does indeed have two different color eyes. - Okay. - She has a blue one and a brown one. She starts to tell you that she doesn't know what happened. They just burst into the door. - Who bursts into the door? - The men. - And they... - That narrows you know... - They started to argue. They started to argue and then the one started throwing at spells. - Do you remember which man? Or do you remember any names? - Yes. I mean, the one throwing spells, I knew him. I've seen you before. - And his name is... - I know. - Big Bill? - No, he obviously have that wrong, Sarah. - Let's try that again. - What did she say? - What did she say? - She got what wrong? - It's really hard to make out. - Don't cross over. - Oh, he's talking to the ghost and while this is all going on, I want to carefully see if I can investigate the house. - Who missed? - Who was here with you? Who was here helping you against Big Bill? - There was Vince. He was trying to protect Janis. That's your daughter. The one guy, I didn't know him, but after he killed Vince, the warden killed him. - She's part of a parent, right? We didn't know that for sure, but she's saying that she saw spells and she knows that Big Bill was a warden. - Yeah, it didn't seem like someone who had never seen spells before trying to grasp the idea of someone throwing around spells. She seemed to be familiar with the concept of it. - You don't know if she's part of the parent, but she's definitely aware. - She knows the feeling. - Someone didn't know. Then it just went all bad. - It sounds like things did better. - When there was explosions, there was gunfire, there was. I don't know what happened. I tried to get to my baby and... - There's still one more body I'm not accounted for. - There was Vince, herself, one guy that she's saying the warden killed. - Vince herself, stranger. - So there's two more bodies here. - Sarah. - Herself and Sarah. - We have Ryan Nelson on this list. He met earlier with Ben that day. Maybe he came in with Ben. You should ask about the name. - Was Ryan here? - No, Ryan wasn't here. - Do you know who Ryan is? - Ryan is trying to help you. - Make sure you get the last name. It's about two Ryan's. - What about Ryan? - Ryan Daniels was the one who originally worked with London. - Can you please ask her if she knows why anybody would want to take her? - Sarah, why did they come for your baby? - I don't know. - Why did the dingo eat your baby? - I don't know anybody wants to take your baby. - She's special. - Well, there's all sorts of really... - Other reasons. - She can't speak. She doesn't know. - She can't hear that. - I repeat what you said, didn't I? - I thought I did. - What did you ask? - Do you know why they were coming for your baby? - Or why did they take your baby? - She breaks into tears and says, "My baby, my precious baby." - I agree. - Why did they take her? - A little empathy, Alan. - Well, I had a fantastic success on her. I thought I had her under control. - So you're just going to be all that stuff? - So what up with your baby? - They took her baby, she sang. But in fact, when you're asking her questions, she was saying she was trying to get to the room to protect her baby and she never made it. - You're which room? - Where is my baby? - Which room? - The bedroom. - So she's the outline? - You can't leave the circle, I'll do that. - Wait a minute. - Well, we haven't seen the bodies, but I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't... - I think that your body is actually pretty gross. - I think it was clearly... - It was clearly people trying to protect the baby and clearly people trying to get to the baby maybe and who knows who got away with who to wear. - Well, they may have just ripped the baby out of the door. - I am definitely going into the little kid's bedroom to look for evidence as to what I happen on the door. - In the kid's bedroom, you see a crib there, you see scorch marks on them, all things broken as well as here. There's one outline of a body there that now, because of what's being said, you might believe that that was serum. The crib is one of those old-fashioned, larger ones and the whole side railing is down. - Wait a second. I am really looking for... - Baby hair? - Can I? - Did your baby board? - Ed, give me an investigation roll of that bedroom. And Sarah is in tears again, and after you give her a moment to recover, she says... - She wasn't even a day old. - So, when I am seeing her and she's more resolved now, image-wise, she looks like a woman who was just finished being pregnant. - Right, she looks nine months pregnant, but that might be her residual image of herself. - And so, she delivered in this home. - If the baby is only a day old... - Are you asking in that home? - Yeah, I mean, well, that actually might go along with the hedge wizards and there was an earth mother, blah, blah, blah. - Fantastic. - I looked at her in there. - You find in the baby's room, there is a crib with a side that's ripped out. You find some blankets that are rustled in there, and in the crib, amongst the blankets too, you find a newborn pacifier. - Very tiny. - How did the baby was still there? - No, yeah, the baby's there, the cops didn't notice, it's been there for four days. - No, it's... - It's a whole week's. - It's a vampire baby. - No, there's a small pacifier. - There might be... - Eyelasher. - Yeah, a few stray flakes of skin, or... - No. - Most babies don't have a lot of hair. - We wouldn't have to go with a baby diaper. - Yeah, no poopy diapers, sorry. - Sorry, back to Alan, you were doing what? - I don't know if it's really important, but I'm just trying to piece the facts together. - Did Ryan die defending you? - No, I said Ryan wasn't here. - How about Cindy Matthews? - No, it's not. - Cindy... - Cindy Matthews. - Cindy Matthews. - No, aren't you trying to help me? - I will help you, do you know where they took her? - I don't know. - Alan? - I was dead. - Did they... - I never made it to the baby. - I never... - Alan, what? - She said that Ryan was helping her do what? - Like, what was Ryan helping you do? - He's the one that helped me find Lila. - Oh yeah, yeah, Lila. - Who was Lila? - Who was Lila? - She says Lila Morris. - She was my midwife. - Did your name your baby, Janice? - Yes, I told you that. - It came. - How do you spell it? - What? - You said you were going to help me. - I need all the information. - I need all the information you can give me. - Janice, find her. - See, that changes things. - It does change things. - For those who... - I just knew that no one means to your baby, Janice, J-A-N-I-S-E. Would do rubber install the Janice's out there. - Oh, the Janice is not the audience. My name is... - Just now, it's just not a common female baby name at this point. You're not going to find it in the top one. - And it really doesn't help, but it has a significance. Our spiritualers are seeing it against the Janice. - And share what you think the significance is? - Well, I just had to do a little research and check my lore, but if I remember correctly, it's like a gem, and it's a two-sided coin. - Two-faced. - It's too-faced. - Or between two worlds, between two things. - I can see where this is going because... - It's a changeling. - Yes, no. - I don't think that's the other way. It's a reverse changeling. - I have a feeling this baby has a lot to do with me. - What? - It's that self-centered. - Are you the daddy? - I'm not the daddy. - You guys know I got some super-unhuman powers. - What? - You do? - That's ridiculous. - I don't... - No, you guys know and you guys do stuff. - You never give an explanation, but you know you've seen it. - Well, I know I do stuff, but I don't know specifics. - Teachers, boss. - London, help me find out. What killed my father? - I attacked my mother way back, and it was... - She sang my baby, my baby. She's starting to throw herself against the circle that you have her trapped in. - No, alright. - Sorry, Jim. Didn't mean to cut you off, but... - It's kind of leaving the ghost hang in here. - Please continue. - Okay, so I'm just... Let me reassert control and... - Wait, I didn't want to interrupt Jim, but I'm just telling him that the more he delays, the more aggravated she gets, the less receptive. Now, we will pause what's currently going on so you can finish what you were saying, not to say that you're delaying him and talking to her. - So I'm saying that when we tracked down who attacked my mother when she was younger, we found out it was a black court vampire, and what we realized is that she was pregnant with me at the time she was attacked, and the venom that got into her was one of these genetically modified freaks that passed on the powers that he had on both her and me in such a way where it isn't anything like what black courts have. It's not anything like what we've even seen, but it's a different type of thing, where I just got some low-key powers and there's not everything, and basically not much of the way the weakness is. And I think this baby has got the same kind of thing going on with it. - I'll show you what's going on in the city and all the crap and the vampires running around, I couldn't be surprised if one of them got away and made another baby that's a hybrid of some sort. - I ask Sarah who the father is. - She seems very distraught with that question. It's probably going to require her all to get her a little bit back under control, because she seems to be babbling in stuff like old events, poor events. We didn't know, we didn't know. - Not fits. - Do you think? - You guys got anything to share? - Oh, just Genesis got up beginnings and transitions. Gates, doors, doorways, endings, and time. Too-faced guy that looks at the future in the past. - What? All those have poor tents and implications that are not cool for us. - Yes, difficulty in the head. - It almost seems as if the baby is some sort of... - It's the prophecy. - It's a new word. - It's a new world vampire, it's where I'm going. - Well, I've asked her about who the father is. I wanted to ask, and I'm thinking about asking, "Are you bitten?" - All right, so I'm going to re-exert my control. Maxwell, can you help me? - I gotta just explain that it's totally okay if her husband or lover... - I'm not judging your life choice. - There you go. - All right, so, uh-huh. - But I did roll. - I knew all the good. - Actually, I was looking for... - Okay. - That was enough too. - All right. - I'll give you the plus two. - I need it. - Oh! - Or you can do a re-roll. - Yeah. - You want to get a grade from you plus four. So, great. - How many shifts do I get for spending a fade point? - Two. - You need total of four. - You can spend the fade point to re-roll. - Yes. - Then use the maneuver for a plus two. - Well, what I will do... - Well, see, that's the smart way. - Can I use the maneuver for a re-roll, but you can use a fade point for a re-roll. - I will use a fade point to re-roll. - And first, you had to tell me what aspect you were spending this fade point. - And I would apply to a re-roll in this situation. - You can see where it beats the odds. - Good enough. - Yes. - Okay. - That will suffice. - What's the odds? - Teamwork. - Do I still retain, or do I lose the plus two from here? - Since you're doing a re-roll, it's the same roll, so you still get to have a plus two. - All right. So, please... Ugh. - Only mine's one. - Shit. - This is going to be tight. - All right. So, actually, that still comes out to... - You ate a plus one. - Plus one. - You can only make it a plus. - Three good, which is what he needs. - You calm her down and she stops flailing against each. - Fairly. - And she was about to... - Plus disperse herself. - Yeah, you ended that well. - Good job. - Well, it's nice. - Well, well, well done, Alan. - We don't see anything. We just see what we need. - No way. - Okay. - Okay. - Okay. - All right. - But I'm clearly watching outside. - So, I asked the question. - Who was the father? - Who was your daddy? - Who was your baby daddy? - I... - They... - They don't give their names. - They miss power. - They? - It's a plural. - Did you... - Go to the clinic to... - It was... - It was... - It was an accident. We didn't mean to breach into the never-no. - Oh, sad sex. - Damn. - So, in talking to her, you've been in peace together that the father was actually... - A fairy? - Yes. - Well, who said he was a change lady? - Call the... - Well, anti-change lady. - So, wait a second. Did the fairies come with the warden? - No, I don't think so. - I don't think there were. - Then who else did Lila die? - No. - There was four that broke in. - There were four that broke in. - So, there's two who died. - I don't think they die on earth. - They leave behind a corpse. - And they don't take train guns. - And they got tape for five corpses here. - Right. - So, that logic would tell you that... - No space. - They died here or none were. - Outline number four. - Sarah, Vince, stranger. - Then, we don't know who the other two is. - Two more of the goons and that leaves only Bill. - Who escaped unless you're one of the dead people. - If it's really Bill. - Is it Bill? Were the fairies coming for you? For Janice or were the vampires coming for Janice? - I don't know what you're talking about. - Okay, good. Thank you. - Who they were. - I don't know. - Can you describe you with Bill? - All right. Do you know where Bill is? - Bill came in with these fairies? - She said that? - I think she is. - No. Bill wasn't battling. - Bill was... - No, she said four came in. - Including Bill. - And then, when she gave an explanation, it seemed like in fighting started. - Okay. - I guess they were using the fairies to try to purify their new strain of... - I don't know. - Oh, no. - This is a new angle here, and I'm not sure what it means. I don't know how it tends to be the vampire. - Ask which court they belong. I don't know anything about courts. - Should it? - Well, if they were vampires. - She doesn't know. - She doesn't know what to... - She doesn't know what to... - She doesn't know. - All she knows is Bill. - She didn't know what was there. - The reality was? - No. - Whether or not they are fairy or vampire. - She, I asked her... - She... - Sorry, Jim. - I don't know. - What you noticed is before, as her connection to you was solidifying, now it's like she's losing energy, and she's starting to become more ethereal. - I will. - And you think you probably have a limited amount of questions. Maybe equal to the ones you've asked so far? - Yeah. - So that's a substantial number of questions. - Yeah. - But there is a time limit. - All right. To your connection. - At the last... Do I know, or, you know, can she... or do I know about this as Ecomancy? Can she show me or share what she saw or experienced? And I'm willing to take whatever stress or damage it is to absorb the terror and order of that moment. I will present this to her as a way to use what she can give me to help her... - You can save your daughter. - So, I know it's a little cold, but that's okay. I've got a low empathy and I need to get the job done and do what I have to do to plant this mess. - Okay. - And if it means, but I'm willing to also accept that... - She doesn't want to relive this, and it's going to take a lot out of her to do it, so it's going to require a role on your part to convince her to do it. - I would also submit before you say anything that building on the trauma of what I'm probably about to do, I would accept a time release of... Like, it will take me a while to assimilate and understand and get this so I don't need to have all the answers to the minute it works. Like, I may need to recover from this experience and other things will be made clear once my brain is set time to assimilate this information. - Time out. - I have presence of support. One of the key words in the presence is command. If you're trying to get her to do something that she really doesn't want to do, do you think this might be more effective than empathy? Please, will you do it for me? I need this. - I'm playing on the main point I'm trying to convince her is that this action is her best chance of me helping her be empathetic or you being charismatic in saying I need this information because if it is, I should be making the role in this particular case. - I don't think you can communicate with him. - I can't, but I can give him help on what to say. - But only the only skill I have that I can use to communicate with her is empathy. Because you would be helping him in an attack on presence. He would have to use the skill of presence with your plus, too. - And you have a much higher empathy? - No, empathy is one of my worst skills. - Well, what's your presence? - I don't have presence. - So it's zero. What is empathy? - Average. - One more. - It's a good baseline. - But Thomas has empathy. I'm sorry, Maxwell has empathy. So if he's going empathy, Thomas, if he could go with presence, I thought that he might have presence. - Right, but I'm the only drawerweight to her. - Right. I completely understand that. I just was like, I thought you had a higher presence than you had empathy. - No. - Okay. - So you have a different kind of verb. - There is a difference between demanding her to do this and using your presence and trying to empathize and convince her to do this. The targets will be different. But you can make that call. - I'm not trying to command her. - Okay. - 'Cause that's a controlled thing. I'm trying to empathize her with the emphasis that this may be the only way to save your child. - I know it's what's better. - This will require a good... - Yeah. - A good... - Maxwell, I need to help one more time. - One last bit of advice that will push me over the edge here. - That's correct. - That's wrong enough to give you plus two. - All right, so the simplest thing in a couch book. - You've never threatened someone from your right hand. - So I need at least... - No, no, no. - Command doesn't mean threaten. - No, no, no. - It just seems like... - You're talking to someone who is wrong. - Actually, Vince is her husband. And she was rather submissive white. She followed Vince's lead. - So I've been using that, so... - The command actually would have been probably a factor. - Again, I don't mean like a violent command. - No, forceful. - This is what we need to do. - Shake it off. - This is what we have to do. - Like when you slap somebody to snap them out of it. - Right. - You're just done now. - All right, so it'll be clear. - So to be clear, I have to at least get a good. - Yes. - Correct. - So I cannot get anything worse than a negative one. - Okay. - So no negative twos. - Anything worse than a negative three is right out. - A negative four. - Ooh, three classes in them. - Well done. - Well done. - Well done. - Okay. - You're probably good on your own. You're nearly in my own today. - Well, I know I always need you to help Maxwell. That's why you can work together as a team here. See? See what type of results we achieve when we work together? Don't ignore me. It's okay to feel good about it. It's okay to smile. - She breaks into sobbs and like collapses into you as if to give you a hug and wanting support. But she actually floats right into your body. - Ooh. - And you start to see what she saw on that day. - Which is. - Terror. - Horror. - Yeah, it's not a fun sight. - Revolve and fear. - Almost. - Success. - Like you had opened your vision. Your wizard eye to this. - Oh wait a second. Could I have just done that in the first place? (laughing) - Kidding. I'm making my soul gaze out. - No, no, no, no. I'm gonna ghost. That would be interesting. You actually probably would have been much more affected because you would have seen her. I mean, you're seeing this and you're feeling terror and horror. But to live it through her, your vision would have been much more assaulting on you. So you see, her and her husband there, in the home, is late in the afternoon, it's dark. Just starting to get the dusk. The side door, someone bangs on it. And Vince goes over to answer it because she's sitting in the couch in the living room. And you just hear the door bang open. And then you hear people coming in and you see it. - The cross is threshold without being invited. - Yes. - Mm-hmm. - Mm-hmm. - Okay. - And what you see when she gets up and runs into the kitchen is you see you recognize this build on of it. - Yeah. - Okay. - And... - Could be a veil. Alright, go on. (laughing) - The other three are gentlemen that don't look in any way supernatural. One of them is a short, stocky guy. - Bald. - Baldtuffs. - Pretty much, yeah. You just look like your average, you know, one guy looks extremely Italian. He has darker hair. And the third guy is Hispanic. She comes around into the kitchen and the three of them are arguing and Bill's arguing with them. And the one guy just takes out a gun and caps a few times and he goes down in the kitchen. That's when Bill loses it. He starts arguing. He throws one guy up against the wall and he starts casting. One of the guys goes chasing after her because she bolts for the door and goes towards her baby. And you see her run into the baby's room once you get shot on the back and goes down. You see? Yeah, you do. You see her slowly trying to crawl towards the crib but then things start to go dark. And in the background you hear just earth shattering going on. - Interesting. That's not how I thought it would go. So that implies that either Bill used magic against the remaining three to destroy them. Maybe that's where the other two bodies are. Or that somebody, it sounded like there was, hmm, there's a lot of different implications here. Bill had a plan, the backup there, that maybe he didn't want there. Maybe that represented another party. They took matters into their own hands. That went against Bill's plan. He retaliates. Unfortunately the innocents die. They could have been changelings. As the vision ends, she leaves your body and she is very, very thin. She's floating towards the circle. She's not going to be able to pass through unless you cancel this fellow, let her out. Gonna kill her. Again. (laughs) After experiencing what she experienced and filling her pain loss, I scuffed my toe across the circle, breaking this fellow. She floats out and disappears. You guys never saw any of this. Waiting for him to explain what he's seeing. We just see big, wobby tears rolling down Allen's face. Yeah. Well, and that's... I'm going to fill out something you can choose to use it, but this is my initial information that I've processed. That's not to say that there isn't more, that I just haven't been able to process or understand yet that maybe we'll be revealed later or we'll come back to kickstart some memory or some emotion or feeling. At least I have a visual on the four guys. I got a visual on the warden. We got the binky and the hair for... And we got a binky and a hair to try and track down Janice and hopefully... When you mentioned the binky, you... a little bit of it. Is it the lactate? You do. No. Hey, your shirt's getting wet. You, again, in your mind, flashes her dragging herself across towards the crib, and you can see the baby in the crib. All right, sir, I got it. Looking at you, and its eyes are barely open, but you can see the same two colored eyes that she had. She's a baby of two worlds. We'll stop it. Sorry. I mean, I know that, like, the way they got to keep in mind, Blackheart vampires won their kill. We'll revert. You know, if they have any kind of... It's stinking aged four. Right. So it's not a girl. A girl. Thanks for listening to the Knights of the Night 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 form for comments and suggestions, where 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 Zen Audio Smith.com, and please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. ♪♪ It would be something you could tap, but you could tap that. You could tap that question.