The crew drops into their friendly neighborhood coffee shop only to find something very, very wrong..
Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 52: DFRPG 1_2 "Tea for Two"
(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to Knights of the Night Actual Play podcast. This Dresden File Story is run by a GM Tom. And now, please enjoy scene one titled T for two. (upbeat music) Just to put the sides of old games on main episode, to explain our erratic release schedule as of late. As some of you may or may not know, our release schedule has been affected by some of the real life activities of our players. Bob, the player behind Chew, has just become the father of a little girl. Ryan, player behind John Beamer and Bob's brother, has also become a father to a little boy. Scott, our storyteller, has become the father of three children, as he and his wife have been graced with the adoption of three wonderful children. So, as you can see, things around here have been pretty hectic. But, as school comes around and things settle down a bit, we should be returning to our semi-normal release schedule. Thank you for your patience, and now, on to the episode. - I'm Tom. We're doing the Dresden Files, and I am running a little bit of a canned adventure so that we can try it out. And the name of the adventure is Neutral Grounds, and on my left is, Thomas, I'll be playing Martin Capouti. He retired psychic detective. - I am game playing with Olivia Lanzi. They help help the illusionists. - My name is Mike, and I'm playing Sean Barnes, a bass player in several local metal bands, and a werewolf. - I'm John, and I'm playing Zach Mehrm, a precious wizard. - So, it's Saturday's morning, and you're just coming from a gig, and Zach is with you, and you're walking up to Neutral Grounds, and you guys happen to be walking up at the same time. So, this is everybody gathers in the bar routine. And, love those. And, it's your typical Starbucks-type thing. You've got class front windows, and... - Oh, I thought... - But, it's a little bigger than your Starbucks, so there's a lot more tables than people can. But, the place is empty. And, that's not really all that usual, 'cause we're gonna say it's probably like 6.30. You guys are really, really early, 'cause you're still out. These guys, you might be heading in for make up some paperwork, so you want to stop and get a coffee, and you don't have a life, 'cause you're retired now. So, yeah, you're gonna go up to Young Common Ground and sit there for a while, and just pass the time with... - Is there every morning in sports with me? - And, Diane, and all you girls, and it's just 60. That doesn't mean you can't flirt with girls. Actually, at 60, you know more about how to flirt with girls. Life isn't over after 20, guys. (laughing) You're young, and with a staphosis, feels that we sometimes. And, unfortunately, what you discover in the neutral grounds, there is truly nobody there, because two of the baristas, actually the only two, are lying on the ground in pools of blood. - Dun-dun-dun. - A female, and a male. - Up to the people I work there at that. - Two of them who work there. There's nobody apparently in the building other than this. I mean, that's all you see is there's a... - Why don't a door at rings the bell where you see two bodies lying on the floor? - No, you open the door. It's not locked, and you open the door, and you walk in, and they sometimes have those stands with a cup you can buy and a little knickknacks or something. One of them is just knocked over, and things are everywhere, and one of the bodies is there, and behind the counter, where all the coffee stuff is, you find the other body, it is time and a list, so you know both of them. I mean, you've seen them, you've talked to them. In the morning, there's normally those two, and Diane, and the building. - Diane's a boss. - Diane's a boss. - And then you don't see Diane, but you definitely see those two. The two that are there, I would say, young 20s, college student type, like I said, you've talked to them before, you know them. - Obviously, I'm checking to see what they look like they call you. That looks... - No, recently. - Should I should go running off the back door right now, or... - Okay. - Seeing somebody should call 911. - Alertness. - Yeah, let's write down alertness order really quick. Who's got what? - I'm a alert, good, three. - Great, four. - All right. - And this hits her comment. - You know, I like our alertness. - Fair two. - Two. - And I didn't accept a minus one since I probably learned this one. - Really? - It's your athlete. - It's a very alert app. - Hey, I had to have more. - Something had to be low. - Can't be good at all, thanks to you. - We'll start with Martin. - What is the action you wish? - Investigation. - The cause of death. - Okay, no real need to roll because it appears that there are bullet holes in the closest one that you're looking at. - They got shot. - And detective? - Oh, awesome. - With one of these? - Surprised you're not paid for this. - No. - Used to be. - It looks fun. - Oh yeah. - On turn. - Well, you bend down, you look, and it kind of got a... Yeah, bullet holes. - But I have room for the joint, making sure that the owner is not, is there not there, what's going on, so make sure there's nobody else. - Okay. - In the back rooms, in the back rooms, every word is checked out for everyone. - Yeah, the way that works, okay. - True. - Perfect. - This is a perfect kind of sheet. - Okay. - Roughly something like this. You have one main zone, which is where you guys came in, that's front here. One of the bodies is lying here. I'm making little stick figures, yes I am. And the other one had knocked over a display here, and these are like coffee tables as well. - And where are you going? - I think I hit first. - And the end is heading back. - All right, this is the counter, right? So back here is your espresso machine and your different things like that. And this is a glass counter, which has bakery and cookies and such, and the register over here. And this is a hallway that leads to the two bathrooms, and then there's another door that leads into the back end where they might have storage and different things back then. So, each of these is a different zone. - Can you get that door too? You don't have to store this, okay, right. - You're in here and to go into another area, you would either sprint, like you're running quick, but that doesn't give you much chance to look, or you just move one area, which would put you in the hallway, next to the bathrooms here and the background there. - That's how you do it. - Do you move into the hallway? - You're not. To sprint, you would roll your dice, athletic, and then result would be how many zones can you move? How many zones you can move? - Okay, chance, look it. (laughing) - Traverse, traverse. I mean, we didn't hear any shots, we didn't see. - No, you didn't look like it's super, super approach, so I'm not in a rush. - It looks, it looks reasonably flush in the fact that the blood is still red. It's not that dark color, and shot that you're-- - You don't have. - Right, they're not still heart meeting type things. - So I'm not in a super, I'm just looking to see if she's here, too, right. - Okay, then shot. - I back up the smell of human blood always kind of fixed me on a little bit, and I checked the door. The door was open when we came in, but was the door jimmyed, or was the lock broken, 'cause it looked like a, it was a break-in? - No. - The door does not look like any force was used. - Open 24 hours? - Well, no, it's not, but they opened like six, and it's 6.30, so. - Okay. So either this one-- - Unless you have a really good estimate on how long they've been dead, I don't really have-- - The ability. - Information to guess that it's either half hour gone, or somebody opened the door, so either it happened late last night, or early this morning. Or at least from the front drive, it's in the back door, I don't know. - Yeah, if you were to give a rough estimate, less than a couple hours, just because of the blood. - You probably have enough knowledge about blood to know that. - I'm also very apprehensive to even touch anything and leave any fingerprints. - Any fingerprints or anything here, so I just kind of look around the room and try to use a, I don't really have investigation, unless it's part of alertness. - No, it's a different skill. - Different skill title. - Then I will sit here and shake my head, and wonder what happened. - A list of all the skills there, and investigation is a separate skill entirely. So if it's not listed on your character, that means you have it at zero. - Okay. - Everything defaults to zero. - John, Zach's turn. - I'm gonna go bolt out the back. I'm gonna go here one by me. - How many is that? - That would be, you would be traversing one into, and if you're actually leaving that storage room, that would be 30. - And back here would be an alleyway, and there would be garbage cans, maybe a dumpster type of thing over here. But you would need to roll an athletic roll to see how many zones you could run. - It's like a big deal, it's big there. - Yeah, this is like, wow, there you go. - Or, it's, you rolled nothing. - What we should, we tend to tell the audience because they don't know that. - I am rolled, plus nothing. - What I have in athletics is great, which is plus four. It's okay, so you can move four. - And you leave this area at a run, and through this hall here, and into the back room, and you actually run into a guy there. The way they go. - It's been off. - Okay. If you imagine, you're gonna catch a bullet, then. That was your goal. - All right, so. - As a subsequent action, no, I can't, I sprint. - Right, which I'll pull around. - I'll shout out. - Shit! - Yeah, pretty much. - Okay, actually, you caught him as much by surprise as. You did, you, and we are, go back to the top, and it's smart. - I heard that, right? - Oh, yeah. - I'm gonna investigate these bodies. (laughing) - Wow, you heard that. - Do you hear him take off at a run, and you're talking, boom, boom, boom, down the hall, and you hear the door swing open, and then you hear, oh, he said! - Shawn, go get that. I'm gonna escape these bodies. Wow, I rolled really badly. - I rolled, what do you, I rolled. - I was gonna investigate these bodies, figure out time, death, and, you know, maybe the scene in general. I rolled negative two, though, and I have only four, so. - Oh, that's sad. - Wait, wait, wait, wait. I also have plus one, when investigating crime scene, and this is crime scene. - You got a quick eye. - No, that just makes it happen faster. - Okay, I don't know how fast. - I don't have to read on that. For long term investigations, like, where the bullet entered from, and who shot it where. - So you're talking, like, CSI stuff. - Yeah, that was trying to take longer. Holistic, and then, such. - It's trying to estimate the time of death, or, arc 10, then, it would probably take less, and this would make it less even, so. - I have negative, I rolled negative two, but I had an effective plus five, so I rolled three. That's not very good. - Actually, that's good. - That's good. - Strangely, not that's exactly good. - It's not great. - No, but, you would estimate that it was between, at least 20 minutes ago, not more than 40. - Right, I'm done. - Which part are you investigating? - The guy collapsed. - The guy's back here. - The woman who collapsed on the counter counts. - Were they shot in the front or the back? - They were shot in the front, he tells you. - They were shot in front. - She was shot with two bullets in the front. - She shot two bullets. - Like, execution style, or just, like, they were in the way, and they weren't, they didn't even have time to turn and run. - Probably the second one. - All right. - They didn't seem very precise. Like, it wasn't. - I guess my point is that this wasn't an execution, which implies, okay. - Yeah, it wasn't, like, upside the head. There were more, like, one was in the chest and one was up in the shoulder. - It wasn't, I'm just talking. - I understand. You can ask him, that's not your turn. - Okay. - You're like, you know, each transporter represents a couple of minutes. Doesn't always work that way. - Right, buddy. - Yeah, it's enough time for you to ask questions. - And it is, Dana's turn. - You're in the hallway, and you see Zach run by, and then you hear him scream. (laughing) - Yeah, I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it in one of eight. - All right, have a gun or not? Or would I? - No, that's not, like, standard stuff for, your girl works in a medical building, yeah. - I think I would... - Unless... - Hey, can I say I just want to put a veil on? I would have to have to ask if I could be able to do that. - No, you just say you put a veil. It just happens, but it is your action for that turn. - And then, can I, like, put a veil on it? - Go into the room, or just, I can just put a veil on it. - You don't have any speed or anything. That's something you can gain later, right? - Mm, speed. - It's like a stealth, where it's about here. - It's okay. - You're probably gonna... - Oh, oh no. - You're probably an action to roll your veil. So you have to roll, is it deception? - Yes. - So if you want to move into the room, you're still gonna swing the door open, so what you're gonna be invisible. And if the guy's paying attention, something else... - I use my deceit to oppose, to oppose Everest's discovery. - Right, so into here, rather than the room I'm in, storage facility. - He's in the hallway room. He moved in last turn, so Dana moved in last turn. So this turn, if you want to move into the room, even though that happens after your veil, that's free, 'cause it doesn't require a dice to move. But that gives you a minus one on your deception to form a veil. So you gotta, it's more difficult because you gotta hold the concentration as you're moving. So roll your deception, or take your deception skills, subtract one and then roll the dice to determine how good your veil is, as you move into the room. - You might deceive this for. - Right, so now it's three, because of... - All right, and then I roll the seam. - Right. - With the eyebrows. - No, you roll to add to that. - Oh, I roll this. - Enid. - So, your veil is three as you're moving into the room. His alertness will determine whether or not he notices the door opening in this smudgy blurry thing walking in, or if it's yours is so clear that he doesn't notice anything at all, just the door swinging with you. His alertness is fair. And I roll a one, so it's three. Oh, it's yours? - Three. - Seven, it's equal. So he kinda notices something, like he definitely notices the door, but maybe depending on how he's thinking on whether or not that, you know, you mean something to him. If he's used to magic, and you think that someone would actually be invisible. - For what it's worth, I have echoes of the bees, which means in human form, my senses are strongly tuned. It says specifically, my keen ears give me close one to an artist's walls, but I'm imagining smell, sight sounds, and all that comes in the plate too. - Okay. - So I'm sorry, you don't? - It is your turn. I hear-- - No, does anybody know? - By that I mean you too, because you've read the book probably more than you guys don't want. - If some of the witness is tied, what's the breaker? - Tied breaker. - It's those relevant skills. - That's how is it? - Really, really bad. - That's really big. - Athletics maybe. - What helps the story? We're gonna go with athletics. In human form-- - No, don't tell me to. - My athletics is good. - Three. - All right, you go first. - All right, I have an obstacle story. - Case of a tie, call upon some other related skills, soft things, and physical conflicts, this could probably be resolved with athletics. - Look at that, got nailed at my job. Okay, so I move, I hear Zach kind of explain in a minute here something, so I move to the back, to the, I move to this, the door to the back of the coffee shop and come over here and open the door. Did Zach stop in the door leaving a little bit or was he inside the room or what? - I think you've got a few steps into the room. I don't know what you did once you got into the room. - I probably just stepped into the room. - I ran into the room expecting to run all the way. - My idea is to go in there and pick something up and hit the guy with it. - You, let's say you came in here. Zach came in here and rounded the corner and he was standing here. And Dana came in and walked over here to the side and you come in right up the middle there. So Zach's here, you're there, she's there. And the, - And what does this person look like? - He looks like a typical gang banger, you know? I mean, he's got, he's wearing colors. - He hates coffee shops. Does he have a t-shirt? - I hate coffee shops? - No. (laughs) - He's a drug dealer thug. - Okay, I know. - I don't have-- - I know. - So you moved how many zones, too? - If I move from here-- - You moved too. So that means you actually can't, unless you sprint. - So I do, I do that sprint. - Okay, so that means you roll your athletics to see if you get at least two. Your athletics is three, right? So unless you roll on minus two, you're set. - Whoa. - Minus one. - Minus one. But that's enough for you to get into the room. - Okay. By the way, it's morning, is there any sunshine outside or are we using regular lights and-- - Let's say it's just time of year and it's 6.30, so it's probably light. - Okay. - Any aspects on the room? - And this time of year would be light show. - Any aspects in the rooms or buildings? - Yeah, the front room would be debris stream and very aromatic smelling of coffee because the one behind the thing was in the process of making it and when he fell backwards, it hit the ground and coffees everywhere, mixing in with the blood and the whole place smells very pungently of coffee. The back room that you guys are in would be extremely cluttered. There's boxes all over the place, you know. Boxes of different pastry, very little room to maneuver. So cramped and cluttered. This guy, these two people, one closer than the other and one just walked in the room. He points the gun at Zach, shoots, and then runs out the back door. So the shot takes place minus one. And you're all the giant blank. His gun is two, so that's only one. Minus two for your, oh, minus three for your athletic role. - Yeah, I thought it was a four, so we tied. - So that means out of tie, his gun is a weapon two, you will take two damage. - I take that. - I do a seams on this guy, he's leaving and trying to make the door look like it's something called the gun it is to prevent it from going anywhere. - I'm not outside your turn. - Okay. - Unfortunate. - I feel like the matrix, turn around, the door is gone. - What the hell? It's a bunch of boxes, with the door gone. - It's a brick wall. - All three of you in the back room, roll me an alertness. - My alert is straight up for my role. - If it's nothing, it's zero. - Oh crap. - Oh wait, your alertness is great. - Plus two, five. - Wow. - Plus one, fair plus one, fair plus one, fair plus one. - Call the minus one? - Yeah, I know. - Yeah, you were really, really surprised by this guy in the back room. - You shot me? - Yeah, he shot at you too, so. - Oh, he fired the gun, did I miss that? - Yeah, he shot at Zach. - Oh miss. - No, actually hit. No, I just-- - He pulled the same. - He pulled the same. So the weapon damage comes into effect, the weapon damage is two. So Zach takes two, but he takes it at a stress just getting out of the way of the bullet, it kind of tires himself a little bit around, but that actually is spinning down. - Oh my, okay. - And the guy bolts out the back door and you two noticed, he was a little too startled to notice that something's off of that guy. Like he was, you know, doing that stare. - You know, like he was kind of zoning out on the bullet by possibly drug related, yes. - And it is, Zach's turn. - Is it? - Well, after that guy, he-- - He looked like he was sprinting to add to-- - Absolutely not because he did an action of shooting you and then moving so you could not have been-- - I can catch up with him. - I'm walking through the store and gonna like beat this guy down with my subsequent action, I can do that right. - Okay, so you walk into the back alley and he's in the back alley trying to run away, but he's still in the same zone you are. So you can take a subsequent action at minus one. - Can you maneuver it prevent him from doing a certain kind of action, like, no, it's a block against movement trip. - Okay, now I can raise a wall of stone at the end of the alley. - Yeah, I'm gonna hurt this though. - He runs head-person in the wall. You can raise a wall of stone around him and trapping him if you can-- - Okay, if you could beat his athletics with your magic, and that'd be tricky. - And he might be a pro, or he might be hindered by whatever effect he's under. - Glass-y-eyed, five-mile stare he's kept going on. - I'd have to attack that. - But you didn't actually notice it, all right, I can't. - You were quite old. - I would've been able to do it for free if I'd noticed. That's like an aspect, isn't it? - They discovered it, so they can use that for free. - I don't think we caused it though. - No. - I thought if you learned about a person's aspect, you can use it for free once, because I'm not expecting it. - If you learned a guy as a shortcut, you could be like, yeah, no, but you have to, like, piss 'em off. They have to specifically guess. I'm just giving them something that they noticed. So if they could say, I think he's drug-addled, that would be like making an assessment, it's called. - Is he mentally controlled? Is he drug-addled? - Is he, you know, can I say my name is Blasai and I don't know. - Okay, it would be. - Well, I'm gonna catch 'em. - Okay. - This is gonna be a spell four, shifts, power. - And here I go to control that. - Is it minus two pluses? - Is it plus one? - Is it plus two control? - Yeah, plus two, so three. And then my staff gives me offensive earth control and defensive earth control. - Okay. - So what? - I dig it in and kick up a wall. - Is that offensive? - Yeah. - In which case, I would get four and perfectly control that and only take one stress. - Well done. So you control with a block of four to hold it in place? - Yeah. - His athletics is a chew. He rolled the even, so he does not exceed your block and-- - Make sure you scale it, doesn't quite make it. - He's currently trapped by, yes. - He could try again when it's his turn, but it wasn't like he just simply sidestepped it and kept going. It was, it whirls up out of the ground surrounding him and he's like, stopped in his track until it's his turn. - Okay, so Martin, we can't get to him or is he? - Oh no, you can get to him, yeah. Well it's, I mean, he could be that the ground came up and kind of wrapped itself around his legs, you know? And it's just kind of holding on there. - How about the gun in his hand? (dramatic music) - He missed once already. - He was obviously not very good at it. - We got athletics and great, anyway. - And then we go to Martin. - Right, so she was shot 20 or 40 minutes ago. - He's an old slow-moving guy. - This is the combo. Sorry, I don't mean to, one more thing. I'm just wondering, one more thing, I'm thinking, maybe he was shot two. He was shot two and she was shot. - She was shot 20 or 40 minutes ago. - Mm-hmm. - Shh, this is over, right, combo I was? - For you, apparently. (laughing) - All right, you walk over to him and yeah, coffee absolutely everywhere, but it's the same period of time. - There's actually going on and the retired cop is like listening in to it. (laughing) - They got it, the wolf. (laughing) The wolf in the wizard, they got it. I got investigating this. - 20 to 40 minutes ago, both shot, death, two bullets each. You have to take it. I don't know about the guy. - The guy, yeah, two bullets. Two bullets, that's four bullets. (laughing) - Could have been the same gun, clearly. - I don't know. - You think caliber? - Roughly? - Yeah, yeah. - Okay, let's, I touched the display that fell over when she fell in it because that's got to be somewhere in there that happened there. - Okay. - I touched it. - It's an assessment action using, like, we must have got it. - It's like commentary. You have a semi-emagical psychic talent for catching bunches of the past in each. Yeah, that's helpful. - No way, because you can perform an assessment action on the history of a given object that you are able to touch and contemplate. This is a standard investigation role, but instead of searching a physical location, you are rifling through the situations that the object has been exposed to in the past, looking for glimpses of something significant. - Okay, so give me an investigation. - There's a lot of coffee cups somewhere. - There you go. - You're taking a coffee to hit the ground, is that why I need to use this for now? - Um, it's good. - It's supposed to be more difficult than usual, but my investigation is awesome. You are an awesome investigator. - It's like a fairly fine, really expensive. - I rolled a positive one, so that's like six. - Six is fantastic. - Fantastic. - So in looking at this shelf, and you see the life of this shelf in the last 24 hours, this is, and the life of this shelf shows you, none other than Mr. Damocles and his silly looking jacket and big boots. - I hate that guy. - And it shows you a thug. No, wait two. - Two thugs. - And guns. - Guns. - Guns, guys. - It shows you Eric McCullough. - Ooh. - The ex-boyfriend. And these are the things that you see. Of prominence, there are lots of other things that flash by, but those are the swirling ones that come out of, as much more focus. I mean, you see, you know, joke, have driver coming in, and you see, you know, some people that you recognize, but they flip by really quick, and those pictures hang for a bit, and then they're gone. - We don't know that guy. - Not yet. - Right. And then, it's Dana's turn. - That we're guns, guys. I'm really sure. I'm sure there was guns. And now you know there were two guns. - That's true. Really crowded enough to get you either plus to get the blend into our crowd. - Let's see. - There's not much in our crowd. - This is a crowd. - Hey, plus, you're in the stock room, so you're gonna have to move to the outside. And you have to re-roll your bail, if you wish to continue it. 'Cause you're moving, and you have to remain concentrated. - I'm gonna be helping. - Keep it up. - What do I need to roll? - You need to re-do the deception as you come out of the building. And it's minus one again, 'cause you're moving. And next turn. - Can we? - Yeah, as I'm moving out of this in the alley, can I pick something up in the attention that hit the guy with it? - Sure, that's a free action. I'll have a problem. Like a. - No mouth or something. - Sure. - Large handle mouth. - And your deception is three, four, four. So you're still free. Because you're moving. So you move into the back alley, and you come near him. Now next turn, you'll have to do two actions if you want. You can remain bailed, so you'll have to bail again. And then you can attack him with the broom. 'Cause you can't attack now. - But how do we get plus is if I'm-- - Oh no, the plus you get is he gets no defense. - Okay. - So his athletics, gone. - Dead. - Zero. - 'Cause he has no idea that he's there. - Let's see if I walk up hand. - He does. - What's I'm doing? - I'm really kind of busy, though, I mean. - When I did a maneuver to work with him. - That gave him an aspect, right? - It was not a maneuver, it was a block. It was a block. - If it didn't ensure the hell shit up, I'm gonna say he has the aspect of rooted in place. - It was a block, not a maneuver. He doesn't get an aspect from it. - I say he has the aspect of rooted in place, but he doesn't get a free pack. - Look, why? - Because you didn't do a maneuver. - Fine, okay. - If you had done a maneuver, you're spending your old turn doing nothing but setting up a plus two. In this case, you spent the whole turn stopping him from moving, definitely, he cannot. In addition, you give him another aspect that you'd have to spend a fake point attack, right? - How can I fight dead a maneuver now or in the next turn? - You really can't, 'cause you've done two things, which is move and fail. - The next turn. - That's the motion you can do is two and the second one is a minus one. - Sorry? - The next turn I can do a maneuver. I want to do it to help them. - You could? Yes? - Okay. - It's 100 outworks. - Yeah. When you spend your turn doing nothing but a maneuver, if you do it against someone, they still get to defend. But if you succeed, the other person gets a free plus two. - Okay. - Go on. - Well, I don't hear anything coming from the investigators, so I will rush out trying to help out. - It's difficult. - Although, I'm not really, I'm not gonna change. No, quite. No, I suspect I know what the guy is on. I just can't say it. So, I go to the door because you haven't said it. So. - Are you mitigating? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Well, I just, from the books and the stories, they're like, oh, well, damn it please. So, I bet he's like a venom-ed man. - Oh, man. - Not drug-ed. - But. - You might know about that because you're... - I might be able to smell it or me a little bit. - As an investigator and doing it. - Well, yeah. We're not dead. - So, I will go outside. First of all, is there anything in this room, and what else do you know that I'm at? And we came across the government in this room. Is there anything missing, or is there anything like... This is the background. I'm starting from this office. - Right. I'll tell you, for free, nothing off the top is obvious. - Right. You would have to spend the entire turn investigating to see if you find it. - No, and that's my point. And I'm using my... - I'm wolf senses to help with my alert. - Let's say there's boxes here and here, and over here's a desk that Diane used as kind of her office type thing. And there's boxes all along here and here. - And you spend the turn investigating in there. So you have to roll your investigation. - Which, if I don't have... Oh, this isn't an alert. This thing, this is an investigation. - Right, because you're making a conscious... - Ah, two. - Gather information. You're not passively noticing something. - So, in that case, I don't have a zero, but I do have... My B-Senses only implies like an alertness or... All my senses are strongly tuned. So I don't know, and it only specifies hearing, but when it says senses, some of my eyes here, my eyes, and whatever, if I notice anything, do you want to give it to me? - But what is it did that? - And it's a watch, so I find nothing. - You can use a fit point on your high concept of a wear wolf to add to, but it certainly got one, so it's not like a 10-year-old is yours. Two isn't great. - No, I don't know what to... I don't know what I'm looking for. Hey, man, this looks like a place of employment, not a stage, you know what I'm saying? So it looks all good to me. - Yeah, there's nothing obvious that you guys. - That's fine. - And we want the small, the coffee, and everything might be masking in my other senses. And so after Sean's turn is the thugs, and he's busy, he's busy. - He's kind of like a place. - You only take one shot. So he's actually... - He picked it different, and then shot people. - Wow, I mean, let you know. - Big waffle shoe with his gun, as he shoots the two, as you come out. It's casting stance, and he's like... - So, for example, for example, he's spinning one way or another, trying to get a shot at you and didn't get off of it again. - And Dresden, he spelled his leather duster to armor. - Right. - So that would be an item of power that adds... - No, it's an insane item. It's got different rules than an item of power. - Okay, but... - Item of power is like a way to get powers without being a super national person. - Like the swords. - Okay. - The swords are items. - Yeah. - Okay. - The armor in this game work as the antithesis to weapons. So when you hit and you exceed the person's defense, you add that weapon back in for damage. Armor subtracts from the total damage done. The total stress is removed from it. So it's different than a block which adds to your ability to avoid getting hit at all. - Which is why his duster could block a bullet, but not like a 50 caliber block. - Right. - Right. - Blocks only last until the beginning of this tournament. - Right, unless he extends it. - No, you cast it against him. - Same strike. - Any strikes you wanted? - If you have to recast it entirely, or can you just spend, yeah, I can't. - You said the pass, maintain it. - Well, when you first craft block, if you put shifts into it for-- - It lasts longer than the tournament, I realize. - Yes. - Yes. - No, no, you're right. You just have to-- - I thought I remember-- - I remember you cast now just as the duration or strength if you wanted to. - Any spell against him? - No, you would have to say you're spending your turn maintaining the block. - And make it last longer. As many shifts as you want to have it. Put in it, it lasts it's that much longer. One shift-- - Okay, one thing I didn't mention before is there's three levels of characters as far as NPCs go. One of them is the equivalent of a minion or a move. You exceed their stress and they take any kind of consequence. - Literally gone. - Another one is like an intermediate step where you've got to do something over if you get them at a moderate, they're just-- - And then there's full name NPCs which have the full load of all their player character for all purposes. They take a lot of damage. - Except refresh. - The refresh could be negative .2, you could say. - Yeah, yeah, I just mean from the point of taking consequences in stress boxes and having fade points and having aspects that could tap their player characters for all those purposes. And you wish to do what? - I run in it, whack this guy from the head. - All righty. - I mean, I can check rocks in. - Fire away. - Two plus? - Two plus. - That's a four. - To hit. To look forward to hit, is that adequate? Are you going to try to add more? - Is that adequate? I mean, like he's tied up. - He is a two and he rolled even. So you hit him with two damage plus any weapon. - This is a good one. Baseball that I mentioned, right? - A staff equivalent of a baseball weapon. - Sure. - That's a weapon, too, then. - Yep, so that means you get to add the two that you exceeded him by and two more before and that takes him out of the scene, which you can feel free to state how that happens. How do you take him out? - Whack him in the head with my staff and fall down. - Okay, well that's fine, that's perfectly acceptable. And that ends the combat portion of it. If you guys want to do anything before, I don't know if you intend to call the police or you want to call the cops. - We definitely got to call the cops. - So I just see him in a very short scene. Do you want to do anything before the cops get here? - I'll do it. I'm guessing that he was just hiding in the back waiting for the manager to show up. - Zach, what are you doing with this guy? Dragging him back into the coffee shop? - Yeah, before anyone notices. - And the guy's too stupid to come in here and actually, I know the guy. He didn't, he wanted to kill her and then didn't think to make sure she was here before he walked in, comes waiting for that idiot. At this point, that's his theory. And you guys all meet to discuss that. And Martin stills you in with what he saw or what he, I don't know if he's like admitting to any of you what he can do. - Yeah, totally, yeah. - Okay, so he said exactly what he saw, which is, Captain, please Raven, two thugs and the ex-boyfriend were all in here at some point in the last. You're guessing from the way the thing was saying? - Yeah, you guys in the last six hours. - And we know that Damocles is a Red Court vampire. - If you are anything in the know about the Baltimore-- - I don't wear Wolf, I would know what he would know than you would know. - So that would make me, then it would be a normal-- - Yeah, you. - And I would need like an investigation to learn that. - Martin would absolutely know he was a detective at the working police department and he had powers himself, your faith, you would know, and he's a wizard. All four of you are like, Damocles, that asshole. - But I'm also thinking that this thug might be a fraud. You know, that someone who is addicted to their venom and will do what they-- - Yeah, I'm pregnant. - That's the drug that plays look at that he's a fraud. - There is an ability to have to kill. - That is, they're not challenging? - Well, I gotta change the good old life cycle and then change that, and I don't feel like changing my clothes. - Ow, then get naked. - The girl wants you to get naked. - Okay, suddenly get awkward. - The site works to detect black background-- - The girls, I don't know about red court balls. - When they're addiction on the shop on the site, good. - You'd have to actually open the site on this guy to get it. - Yeah, I don't have any thaumaturgy, that's the drug. - Could I get my aspect of I know people to say I know this guy is a problem, this guy is a problem. - Do you need evidence I can change? - You could try to roll the seat if you know this guy. You can't say that you do. - I'm putting my mouth in one of you-- - Because-- - Open in a dog, don't follow me, 'cause I was the thinking act. Either to find out where this guy's at, or where she, or what's the-- - Hey, there's a picture of me, I know people. - Right, I don't have a problem with you making some kind of roll the seat. If you know this guy, using that, I know people as a plus two, that I don't have a problem with that. But you can't claim that you know this guy was a thrall of it, stand up please, because he might not have it. - Like I'd say, I know this guy is the one, so-- - Just stand up please, walk around, just throw it all the time. This might be a new one. - He kinda hangs with other red court vampires. - All six of 'em. - Well, five, 'cause he's one of them. - Oh no, so Zach is opening up the site and looking at this body that's entertaining, 'cause the guy's not dead, he's just unconscious, he's fucking-- - Right. - So, Dana would roll contacts, and if you wanna spend a fake point, you can tap the "I know" person to add plus two to that. - So at your contacts, skill, plus your roll, plus your two. - Yeah, that's a fake point. - No, it is a fake point. - And I don't think it's that thing of it. - Oh, you know what? - Sorry. - I'm gonna save that point. - Okay, you could just roll when you used to get it. - I don't know. - You're knowing people. - Application of the site. - If you have a strong kind of skill, you know why I'm wrong. - I'm sorry, people. - Well, we got a lot of people talking about it. - It's three. - Are you over three? - So you decided, I don't know if that's exactly-- - Three is good, and I would say, yeah, you actually, there is in the projects area of Baltimore, there's a guy who kind of runs the drug trade, and you know, this is like one of his thugs. So this is a guy who's a gang banger and a drug dealer. No relation to that in a place that you've ever seen. - Zach wants to do the site on the knocked out thug that Dana has just determined as a drug dealer. So to open your site-- - Seems safe. - You just simply open it, staring at him only. And you get a reading. - Do you have to roll to open it? - No, you have to roll to control it. - Okay. - And in looking at him, you see a lot of dark imagery around him and it's swirling, and then you have to try to interpret that with your role discipline. So I use the intensity of the vision, and the intensity is actually good. It's pretty strong, it's plus three. And it assaults you, rather poorly, and it's minus two is what I rolled, so it's only one. So you have to defend with your discipline. - I see lots of pluses. - You got the first five, it was a superb defense. - Wow, yes it was. You have defended against the site, and you can close it if you want. We kind of skipped though, so we're gonna have to backtrack a bit. The intensity was three, and you have to roll a lore role to interpret what you're saying. - Okay. - Minus one, that was a one. - So your lore is one and it's minus one. - No, it was fair. - Your lore is two. - I rolled the minus one and my lore is fair, plus two. - Okay. - So you get, you don't, 'cause intensity was three, and you've only rolled a one, you-- - I'm gonna get it to get it clear. - Don't quite understand what the picture is. You see black, like swirling, almost fingers around this guy's body, but you're like, you can't focus enough to understand what's going on. - I'm gonna go for a full round. - And you tried to defend against this, so you didn't take any damage from the site, and you have the option to close now, or you can stare longer, but you'll have to fight it again to close it. - That's fine. - So you get another lore role against the intensity of three. - I got a tap and aspect there at all. - Oh, that would give me enough, yeah. - All right, so you roll the minus one, you're two, so it takes you down to one. If you spend an aspect by being an apprentice wizard, I know what I'm about. You get the plus two, which then clears a bit, and you see the black tendrils actually digging into his brain, and then spreading out to his limbs, and then going up almost like a puppeteer type thing. And what you ascertain from that is, he is being controlled not by venom, but by someone actually who had manipulated his brain, that there was some magic, which is a big no-no. - It's a violation of one of the laws. - It's violation of one of the laws where they actually changed his brain. - There you go, that guy. - Yeah, and that's like, oh, that's bad. - Put your word in it. - Now, do you, as an apprentice wizard, have obligations to report this generally to a warden? - Another warden. - This was yet another wheat tack, as it's minus one, two, it's three, so it's two. And you, you discipline, oh, minus three. All right, I think it was one. So you get two tack, and your discipline is one. - I think it's ordinarily a plus two. - So you wrote minus three, so it's minus one. So you actually take three stress damage, and you can't close it. - Well, it just fades at the end of this vision. - No, you have to close it, you have to control it, and you didn't. - Ah, yeah. - So you can take another stab at the lower while you're there. - Okay. - 'Cause you're gonna have to stare. Anyway, is it one more turn? - Yeah, yeah. I got four on that. - Okay, so this time you get a little more. And you definitely-- - He's desperately trying to close it as he's forced to-- - I don't want to see it, and what you're seeing now is the person manipulating the brain thing. And you see that it's a guy with some serious tattoos. And up and down his arms and the cross is like, so. - That's also, well, we're still here, I couldn't-- - Intensity is still three. But you gotta, oh, I do have to modify with the dice roll, and this time it's a blank, so it's a three. Getting more intense, it's got spokes into you. - Cool. - Oh! - So you're one, you've got another aspect, and you can shake it off. - Is there anything you can do to help him, or is this a mental battle? - I'm sorry, two mental battles. - I take too stress. - It is, it is a mental, but you like, you see him, and he's like staring, and then he's staring deeper, and then he's starting to look a little gaunt in his face. And you guys could try to affect him by giving him a maneuver that would help him. - Like, I have empathy, could I try to-- - Spin him around. - Like, I turned into a wolf and look his face. Like, pump happy thoughts at him, or something that, you know, I don't know. - Yeah, it's not your style. You're like, if I kick him with my mental boots, would that help? He definitely is, like, obscuring what you're seeing and trying to make it easier. - Last one, all right. - So, yeah, you can, you might as well. - Oh, so you got no additional information? - Yes, I did. (laughing) - Here's a thought. - I have no idea how much I don't know. - If we kill this, you're going to conduction. - I'm not killing it or not, I can't kill a person. - I can't kill a person. - I would tap an aspect, giving me a plus two. My rule was, plus one, my law is plus two, so that is, plus five. - Yeah, what you're getting is that the puppet master is Eric McCallen, this guy over here. - Yeah. - You're also, what's the level you got up to this time? - Five. - Is that what you had before? - I had four. - You had three, four, and then five. - Yeah. - And what you're getting is he's getting, he's got more power. Well, you never knew he had power at all. - And I don't like something. - The power that he hooked into this guy was pretty substantial. - Okay. - And you would have thought, then running into him on a previous times, and you would have noticed the power level of that. - Okay. - And the, hopefully, last attack is an even, so it's still at three. - I get a plus what now? - You get plus two from Dana's attempt at helping you with a maneuver. - Oh, there you go. - Lot of pluses. - I got, plus two. - Plus her two is four. - Plus two for my discipline score. - Six, so you blast it wide open, and you're like, what site? I'm okay. - And then these sort of kind of stresses disappear. - It's like a cup of coffee. - Or maybe that you were holding on the site trying to find out who was behind this. - Yes, that's what, as soon as you get the glimpse and your eyes meet, then you break the connection and get out just in time. - That's the way he sells it, anyways. - Boy, did I learn things. - This scene is over. Anybody who has any stress, it goes away. - Wow. - Any enough stress. - Stress automatically goes away. Any consequences? - Not. - He had a gun, so I could form a cytometry on the gun. - Yes. - And we'll do that next week that we're gonna call it at us. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to 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 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) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)