[Music] Hello, and welcome to Night of the Night actual clay podcast. This world of darkness storyline, shitlock, was written and run by our storyteller Scott. [Music] And now, please enjoy chapter 13, scene 3, titled "Help from Behind." [Music] This is chapter 13 of World of Darkness and the World Darkness story shitlock. And with us tonight is Mike playing Michael play, Tom playing Jay Alton. Greg playing Dr. Lucius Miles. Bioplane special agent Chewbacca. All right. And these are two excerpts from Alistair Crowley's The Book of the Law from 1904. First excerpt. "The ritual would be led by myself, of course. I had obtained the B relic from a Frenchman of disagreeable repute. I wished to see what the relic could achieve in the correct hands. In the end it would not disappoint, but this night we were sorely disappointed. We had gathered the pinions in the blood of the queen and we stood waiting for the B relic, held aloft to the heavens. But my incantation fell on deaf ears and the lord of a bee's did not appear for us. The second item. It was a week later that the B relic would serve me well. I slept until late in the afternoon as the daylight bores me. Only is the world alive at night. In the heavy gloom of an early autumn sunset I heard a buzzing through my open window. A near swarm of bees were working busy in the dying light. I removed the relic from where I had secreted it after the failed ritual of the previous week. At this time I lived alone as most people tend to bore me after the initial excitement wears thin. Yet I heard the distinct creaking of the floorboards in my library on the first story. Gathering up a candle, my home was quite dark. I ventured to the library in my smoking jacket and slippers, unconsciously placing the relic in an oversized pocket. I anticipated that a servant had returned from their duties earlier in the day, perhaps having left something behind. I could not have been more incorrect. The creature stood a full head and shoulders above me. It was incomprehensible in its monstrousness. It was an amalgamation of women and insects with ascensions in its eyes that froze my movements. The spirit had arrived, but it was unlike any spirit I had ever set eyes upon. As I stood transfixed, my hands subconsciously moved to the relic secreted away in my jacket. As my flesh touched the ancient clay, the relic itself began to vibrate. At first a gentle tingling, then as much as to make it seem my hand had fallen asleep. The foul creature spoke, but I could not understand its words. As it did so, spittle or drool slipped from its mouth or proboscis. I was in a terror but could not think to flee or even to speak. It seemed to want to do me harm. Its misshapen wings fluttered madly and it fainted towards me, but always it shied back away. I finally thought to remove the relic and at the sight of it, the bee creature departed through the large library window and had apparently entered through. Never again did I see the creature and I could not be more pleased. It was not a spirit, I think, as much as some cryptozoological nightmare. That was your problem, the book of the law. Excerpts from the pamphlet, The Capture and Trial of Giles Graneer, author unknown, 1589. The one they called Giles Graneer snarled and thrashed in Jean-Pierre's makeshift prison. He was shorn of the common sense of virtuous men. Spittle ran down his chin and his eyes were wild with panic like that of a sheet before the slaughter. I feared the wooden bars would sunder under his devilish throes, but the sheriff beat him mercilessly with the blunt end of his glaive and the wolf man retreated to the far corner of his cell with a growl. Jean-Pierre asked the best method of killing the creature as he was aware of my recent return from the trials of Burgundy. I reminded him that the law must prevail and that only a trial by the courts of Lyon would decide the temporal fate of Mr. Graneer. And only the Lord could decide his eternal punishment. Jean-Pierre reluctantly agreed and settled in for a long night with the luke guru. Jean-Pierre took the first watch and I was able to sleep for several hours. Mr. Graneer was calm since his capture and ceased his scratching and howling. I awoke for maddens to find Jean-Pierre in a deep conversation with Mr. Graneer. All the wild hysteria that had been gripping the man earlier in the day was replaced by a calm, nay and even articulate manner. I listened from my straw mat not wishing to disturb the proceedings. The following is to the best of my memory what was spoken between Jean-Pierre and Mr. Graneer. Mr. Graneer, you must return to my home and retrieve my relic way. It is a clay with a face of a man and a beard of swarming bees. It is the only way to stop the madness of the luke guru in your sweet province, my sheriff. What does this rather have to do with the mutilations and methods in French comment? It was you, Gao, who was found carrying the child's happy den body. Yes, my sheriff. It is I who murdered the child. I confess. But whose child was it? That is the crux of our problem. The child was now cider. Not a child at all, in fact. But a witch who was possessed of the devil. It was not a child as much a spirit from the shadows. A child possessed by the devil? I never heard of such a thing. The youth had seen no more than seven summers. Who could the devil do with such a child? The child was of the family St. Clair and the two from last month were masons and relatives of that very family. Think for a moment, sheriff. Six murders in London and its peaceful surroundings and all are related within two births of the St. Clair's. Evil is at work and the matriarch of the St. Clair's is at the center of its devil tree. She must be stopped and I can no longer end her reign as you have stopped being with your shackles and wooden bars. A portion of the manuscript was damaged here. Your words during true would reason to my ears go. But I have heard many a confession, perhaps not as many as the good brother sleeping on his strong mask. But I know a truth when it strikes my ears. But I cannot arrest the matriarch on suspicion of devil tree without good cause. I did more than your words, Luke, everyone approved. At this time, Mr. Grenair closed his eyes and began to react gently to his knees. He looked for all the world like a man of God, deep in his matine liturgy. When he spoke again his voice commanded attention and I felt a spell coming over me. It took all my will and graciousness of God to resist his words. Then prove you shall have. Gather up my idol Jean-Pierre. Gather the idol and with it in your hands go to the apiary of the St. Clair's. Go at Vespers and pull twenty-two pinions from the sleeping workers. Not a single bee shall perish by your hands. Now find the queen in her hive and gather a single drop of her blood. She too shall not perish by your hands. With the pinions and the blood in your possession go Jean-Pierre. Go to the Chateau of the St. Clair's and the rest of the manuscript is lost to time. So what does all mean? Well one of the things I think I am getting from it is a little bit of the ritual that has to be performed. Are we discussing this because I still want to discuss your possession? Well I'm not being possessed right now. You said you're not the ritual right? Well I think the ritual is in here. You know all the beginning ingredients of the ritual I believe are in here. What are you going to do with those twenty-two pinions? Where are we getting the twenty-two pinions? These are our store right down the street. Did you say the spirit inside of you can perform this ritual or can assist us when the time is right? Yeah that's what it said. So your notes are worthless? No my notes are not worthless. Don't be hostile to you. I'm just trying to understand this. So am I. Apparently there's spiritual realms here that are converging and maybe just the locus. Maybe it's a combination of a couple of different things going on here. Well but let's break it down in the simplicity. Do we know where the safe area is? Where do we get the twenty? Then two how do we get blood of the queen? The queen. That's what makes me think we need to talk to Benjamin again. He's the beekeeper. He's correct me from wrong but is an e-peary? Basically a beekeeper. Okay well he's the beekeeper with a bunch of bees in his Victorian home. We've been there before. How'd that go? Well this time though I suppose we go and knock at his door. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What? It's a coin. Where about the coin? Yeah you're right any kind of measure. Can't we just walk right to the maze? We've got a coin. You're right. Oh so we don't have to. But I still don't want to talk to him. Well I thought the spirit that was riding you would overpower him or imagine and say hey look I need your bees. Now does it mean that when we don't take the wings off of the bees we won't kill any or is that a command? It's not an X-ray. In other words is it a happy expectational phrase or a command? Maybe a little cupidot will help control the bees. Also I think. Expectational happy phrase like and when you go and rip these wings off the bees, nothing will happen. Or. The wings and the blood must be collected during the time of vespers. Which if I remember wrongs. It took me wrong Nico but I believe vespers is either the morning or the evening prayer. Or is it both? Kate pipes up and she says that's the first prayer at sunset. He was one or the other. The pamphlet is something entirely different from the Crowley notes right? Interestingly Nico was working on one set of data and he was working on another set of data. I'm just saying that vespers and nighttime probably like the night. And to be fair we were interrupted. I mean we did not do full of research before. Mikael started to get. Wasn't he calling that? Is that crazy? He'd be cheating. The vapors. Don't women get that? In Victorian times I do think we've got the vapors just wondering. Nico would not on record side with everyone else. At the end of the night. Nico is a very following all fast but he knows me. We're pals. He knows you can take it. Yeah but he's still talking to you as a matter of fact. Is it Mikael? Is it the archetype of Cleveland? So one of the goals in the stake action would be when the CEO comes in those. We would contract her down to get her blood. If the CEO was anything like the queen that Ellister encountered in his study or whatever. Now find the queen in her hive and get a single dropper in her blood. I don't think she's going to do it. I don't think we need her blood. No I think we need a queen. What do you say? Just a queen bee? Yeah. Really? Just a queen bee. It didn't go find the mixture of a woman in a large bee that probably was talking about. Go over to the bee hive and get some wings and some blood. Well then we could do this all by like mail. Well somebody has to hold the idol. He also plays it where you could mail over. Oh the internet's amazing. Do we even have to get it into vitamin B at all? Can we use the ritual and maybe a place of our choosing to do the rituals, summon them to us? I think we can cast her out. Are we still doing a stake out? I think we are right? Sure. We can put cameras up in the tower if we have access to that. Yeah we have access. Right sister. Yeah. She thinks she can do it. She thinks she can talk father or leery into allowing for it. Well I think I wanted one of those microphone dishes or whatever. Oh the parabolic tract. Your task force siren phone goes off with the page. I'm sorry. Text message. Okay. I got the page here. You're on duty tonight? Your task force? No it's 1994. Would you like to dance again tomorrow morning? T.S. T.S. T.S. T.S. Tomorrow what? Tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning. You danced with her this morning. I think that's what she's referring to. She has your number. Which is really your number but it's a number that feeds through to your number. Right. So she's able to text you. We call Jade never contact the boss we need some supplies for us to come. Yes we need 22 wings. And yes. Oh don't be scared. I say will you meet me somewhere? Of course darling. Time and place. You have a. So Jade answers the phone. She's a little groggy because it's a little bit after 11. I'm better ready so. She of course gets certain calls routed to home because with task force siren you're on 24/7. So you get to the groggy Jade answer in the phone. Hello? Hello Jade. Hi. Hi Jade. Everything okay? Yeah. Good. This is one of the good calls. Oh I like the good calls. We just need some supplies for us to take out tomorrow morning. Well actually. Important. Dr. Lucius. What about? He's been terminated. Oh. Yeah. You're right. Good call. Okay well I we put a requisition in for some silver bullets and because we knew you're having some trouble with that potential werewolf activity. So I could add some stuff onto the invoice and make sure it all gets so. We want to we want to take out vitamin B. We want to do it tomorrow. Okay. And this is what we need. So I give her the list which is. Van. Okay. White with. Would you want to. You want anything in the second? No. Be opinions. It's really not going to happen. Wow. You don't know how to stop. Ask. I'm not asking her for 22. What else did we need? We need cameras. Be blood. Be blood. You have to have a queen right? A pair of Bolica microphone. Uh. But I Claire's. Telephoto line cameras. Did you want more dogs? Or you just know that we would take them hours a lot. Right. Did we want to eat smoker thing? If we can get. Smoked grenades. No. That's a machine that calms bees by smoking the area that they use. Okay. So she jots it down. So we. I'll try to make sure that you get it by tomorrow afternoon. Anything else? I also fill her in on Dr. Lucius. Oh my. The whole thing that we got. We got Tony out and saved him. But. This might be. He lost Dr. Lucius. You know. Like. I assume that it's information that's not supposed to be shared. But I know he's one of your teammates. Uh oh. So I think that we flew Tony into one of the medical centers here in D.C. to take a look at him. He's really bad off. But I think he's getting the best care possible. So hopefully we'll be able to have a good report sometime when you see your. But he's not doing well. I'm really happy about that. So. It's great. I think our cover has gone at Great Lakes and we're done with that until the end of this mission. Same with the Dr. Lucius. Right. That seems to be where we'll just be operating 24/7 and that's how we'll have to take it. Winding down. Okay. Well good luck with your stakeout. I'll get the stuff to you as quick as I can. I know where you're at. So we'll send it there and if you guys aren't around we'll make sure that it's waiting for you. I don't think we really want to put you in a straight check. We don't have it on hand. For you? Possibly. Yeah. Well let's see if you guys just want to put a bullet to me if I'm circling. That was my plan. You can see I don't like scrolling all day. Er. Squirrely. Er. What did you find in looking in the first set of notes anything? The ritual would be led by myself of course. That one? Sure. During the be relic from a Frenchman of disagreeable repute I wish to see what the relic could achieve in the correct hands. In the end it would not disappoint but this night we were sorely disappointed. We had gathered opinions and the blood of the queen and we stood waiting. The be heroic hell aloft to the heavens. But my incantation fell on death airs and ward of bees did not prepare for us. What was the one bit of new information there besides the fact that elves are prowling it up with the be relic which is cool in and of itself? But did you guys know about opinions before? No. Yeah. You've heard about opinions before? Yeah. Those are the first stars. You guys hear about be blood before or some blood that you're going to need? Yeah. Okay. So what happened new in that paragraph? Date. Time. Time. You had to do it in the afternoon. You're right. Thank you. Yeah. But what was the big thing that... What happened? The alert occurred. No. He tried to get the B-lord to appear. And it didn't. Thank you. That's all. I'm looking at this work. But then it showed up in the end. A week later. Right. It did show up a week later. Correct. But his attempt to summon it fell and I wouldn't give you information on that account. It didn't mean something. So attempting to summon it would fail. Unless you do it in the afternoon. We do need to go into vitamin B and confront the woman because summoning her won't work. Right. Well, according to your first notes, he was able to summon the B-lord. The chant continued in the low tone. That was the book of the law in 1904. This was 1904. Right. But from the first notes. So no, summoning her won't work. All right. That's right. Okay. So we're back to nuking for morbidity. Well, you had some good ideas there. You realize that you need twenty-two opinions. Right. We need some materials. We need some materials. We can use the coin to get into the backyard. Hopefully we can use the idol to calm and control the beast and make harvesting of the blood and the pinions a relatively painless affair. We are not affecting any of the bees or the queen. So technically we're not going to be damaging them. Except for the eleven paraplegic bees that we're leaving. No, because it says specifically that the bees will not be harmed. No bees will be harmed in this ritual. Okay. So he's taking it as an insurance that it's going to happen. I'm also taking it to mean that the guy who loves bees that has all this awesome earth mage power won't come looking for some payback on J. Right. Why is there not J? Well, are you going to be the only collecting it from the bees? Oh, yes. I'm the likely choice to go into a bee infested backyard. If someone needs to get blood of a bee, you have to go with needles. I'm the only one that has a bee phobia. Why am I the one walking point into the backyard? I love bees. They kind of fly into my skull and brainfuck me. Well, I have a note from my doctor. At least he has a spray his ear twice with a word though. All right. Well, at least my character is actually inversely effective. I'm not going to be the world to go get bee blood. What else do you get to do, Doc? A lot of jobs. We don't do anything anymore. I'm a little foggy here on why we need the opinions in the blood since it didn't work anyways. Come on now, that's a different ritual. Now, what is it? It is a different ritual. Does it say anything about the brain? It doesn't, but there's a thing called a ban that you guys are trying to find. That's me. Without the bee, the blood, and the translucent opinions all of this loss, it's the only protection against the buzzing prints. So, it's not used for summoning, but instead it's part of the protection of the bee. That's what I was asking. Very good. Well, because I didn't see any words in it. Yeah, but it was in the first paragraph you put on it. Yeah, and also the last thing, Mr. Kanye. Gather the idol with it in your hands. Go to the beehive, pull off 22 wings somehow. Don't kill any workers, but not single bee shell pears by your hands. See, when you read it like that, it says, "You can do it, but don't kill a bee." Or, "You can do it, and none of it will get harmed." I like the second version of that. This is if it all goes to play. So we drive the van, you just hold the coin out, walk it back, and get the bees in the bottom, and go, "Alright, just like that, huh?" Well, first of all, it's about midnight, which is past Vespers. You're closer to Matins at this point than Vespers. We gotta come up Vespers. We gotta wait till tomorrow. Someone mentioned that you might need to go at Vespers because of the fact that it was, you know, what was written. I cannot tell you whether or not that's the trick. It seems to specify that it had to occur at Vespers, which means that we gotta go visit the Victorian house again, uh, tomorrow afternoon. Dustin. Dustin. Dustin. And do what? Well, get their alert. Hopefully he'll be out of his house, and we'll just be... We won't be out of his house. Well, then somebody's gotta distract him in the front while someone sneaks in through the door. There it is. I'll talk to him up front while Lucius goes back. Last time we were there, he did not answer his door. The bees do have blood, it's pale amber color. Maybe what we can do is, uh, just using the magic of the coin. Sticking again. When I have to go, I ask him if we can buy this stuff from him. Well, that's what I thought, too. But if we have a coin that magically, you know, lets us walk through barriers. Well, you dealt with him more than I did because I was not gonna cut him. And that was actually... John Beamer's no longer with us. Literally. Literally. So, you're the one that has the best knowledge of... Benjamin. Oh, Joel. You're the one here. Again, the bees. But I'd like to go there 'cause maybe he's asking what do you think he would say. Mike was asking for your opinion of what would he say if you went up to his door and asked for 22 of his bees to rip their wings off. And the queen to, uh, just inject a needle into it. We don't need 22 bees. We just need 11 'cause it's 22 pinions, so we can get two off each one. Oh yeah. Unless you want to make them the bees that fly in a circle. Right. But this way, some left, some right. He's not gonna give it willingly. No, but it's also... And especially if he knows why we're getting it. 'Cause we're going to attack... His daughter? His enemy. His daughter. His daughter. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I forgot. Daughter. Yeah, right. But are we attacking... You're attacking? We're not well. Are we attacking his daughter? Are we freeing his daughter? I say freeing. Yeah. Well, what does he think we're doing? I think it's a little more to the point. I thought we're freeing her. Liberating her from the evil clutches of the Shahar. For sure. You don't read this protection as we need to drive off her blood. No. No. For the band, we need an actual bees. Queen. Okay. Benjamin would be the logical choice. He's not a best term with him, right? Here's the thing. What do we need to affect her? The relic? We got it. The bees. The coin. Maybe it isn't. To get us the wings and the blood. He had all those things. We took the relic from him. He's got plenty of access to wings and blood. He's not going to... You know, I mean, why didn't he do it? The whole thing about the relic is still a mystery. Oh. Oh, we don't know. It's just coming to me. It's coming to me. I know why he was not able to do that. Is this Michael or the spirits being? This is Michael remembering what the spirits said. What? There was a key point I forgot to share. A key point information I just remembered. Because maybe I blocked it out. But the spirits told me that I was the chosen one. Two. I'm not even listening to him anymore. Oh, really? I am so done listening to you. No, really. That's... That is... It's that I'm really attractive and my friends like me too. This is 25 dollars. It's something I was always... Did you go to your psychologist then? Or that somehow all these events... It's much like the locus have converged on me that I've got to be the... Okay, let's assume for a minute that we believe in the chosen one. Well, I didn't say that the spirit inside my head said that that's what... Which no one but you can hear. Yeah, I got that. Otherwise, notice the voice inside your head. By the way, I thought the storyteller is supposed to be arbitrary. I thought you'd be joining him. It's too good to pass. I'm going to write you in a situation, but you're going to have to walk around in a two, two, and sing songs and do all sorts of crazy stuff. That's a twist in the wind. Yeah, I just leave the room so when you come back I can join in and take a look at it. Anyway... So, let's assume for a minute that we actually believe that you're the chosen one. Then what you're saying is he did not have access to this task. I'm just using your words. I'm going to kind of do it for, hopefully, what will be the defeat of the struggle. He did not have access to this bee idol. He was not... He might have had access, which of... Again, I don't know why I even got the bee idol from the dream world. I mean, it was... What was that about? I still don't understand what happened. He had the answer. Didn't... Damn, why there's that? He's probably on the slope with 22 bee wings and then a little Bible applied. Didn't you do something with the idol and saw him have it in his hands using it? He... You did it. You did it. You did it. Did you get a vision of this bee idol being held by Benjamin? Not by Benjamin. He was used in rituals for life. Like during harvest time and whatnot. But I thought you saw a link to Benjamin. Like Benjamin had it in his hands. No. I thought that he did too. I mean, without going back and listening to the episode, I would think that there would be a connection with Benjamin sure. I'll give you that. I thought he was looking at it lovingly. Right. Like it was on his hand a little bit. Yeah, sure. He would definitely be missing it. So, he had that. He had the wings. He had the blood. Benjamin had it all. Maybe he didn't have the knowledge. He was not the chosen place. Witness! Right. So, will the idol protect us from Benjamin? Because we can get through his magical defenses, but is it going to stop us? We can all run in front of Benjamin is going to get him pissed off. He's going to be pissed off no matter what. Yeah. Maybe there's an obvious answer. Maybe the reason Benjamin can't use all those things is because it would affect him in the same way he would affect that week. Oh, wait a second. Yeah, what if it burns off the person who is using it? I thought you were going to tell us something else is here. No. I mean, these stock of prints, not necessarily in the Queens, so maybe he's the prince, and maybe he wouldn't put this all together because... Or maybe it's going to harm his daughter and he couldn't bring himself to do it. So... Go get some blood and get some movement later. Oh, yeah, that took tomorrow. Well, I need the rest of anyone. All right, we rest. Nico says, "Yeah, I will go now and leave you to your plans." Thanks, Nico. Thanks for everything. Mm-hmm. You're okay, Nico. I'm okay. If we need to. You want that I should stay and cook you some porridge. No, that's fine. Thank you. You know what we need, Nico? What is that? Good doctor. Twenty-two big cigars. I heard that, my good man. You should go get that. Oh, okay. So... It sounds very dangerous. We're going up to the tower to put something tonight, right? Yeah. And while we're doing that, I take my sniper rifle. Okay. I have a question. What's the plan for the spirit? Um, after, say, we free the locus? What happens to the spirit then? I think it drives it back to the spirit world, if I remember correctly. No, the spirit that's possessing him. Well, it's possessing him. I gave him a second adventure. Yeah, I gave him permission. It's definitely rarely right along me, right? To serve its purpose. And you can force him out if you wanted to. Did you think that was great? No, I don't think so. I did. I did. Let me tell you what its purpose is. Raping fourteen-year-old girls. No, no. It sounds a little harsh. Shit. No, no, no. But... It did say that once the purpose was served, then I would, you know, it would be free. Well, that's the reason. Right. So I'm sure it all goes, everything will be fine. You sure it's fine using you. Which is why... Just just curious, if this was the prudent action, what was the... I did struggle. Which is why, if this is why I was saying that if I started to get squirrely, it's... Oh, I'll take you out. I would rather you guys do what you have to do and take me out, just like the werewolf. But yeah, apparently the werewolf nature, buddy. Yeah, let's hold off on this. Let's wait a second. Maybe you can't wait to put a bolt into my eyes. Okay. I can see it. I can see it. Honestly, you're a lot easier to kill it. It's a platonic ideal spirit that is... The personification. The personification of the essence and everything that makes up this area. It is the trees. It is the cities. The people. The water. The lake. The emotions. The lives and the deaths that have occurred over hundreds of years in this area. And somehow it manifests into some type of entity or force. And that is the spirit. It's not like a ghost or a demon. It's time I'm pretty sure. It's what it told you. Yes, you were probably out to fit a flaw of my logic. But then it was a weapon in an ally. And it's something you needed. 20 things. Winning Browns team. It doesn't do too well. I'm sorry. How about a hockey team? No, no. The spirit is the spirit of losing at the last minute. Oh, yeah. I'm still crushing defeat. I can't help but think about that too a lot as I clearly curse. That's what you are. The manifestation of the Cleveland curse. Wait, listen. I can hear it. It's the drive where you get so close. It's Red Route 88. It's the drive. It's the fumble. Yes, I get it. It's BP building a huge building in public square and staying there for about eight years. To all of that and more. What could go wrong? The spirit knows the ritual, the chanting or whatever. We provide the materials and the spirit. I would imagine that we provide the ritual and the materials and the public provides the power of the stream. It probably you find out for sure. I'll try and talk to yourself and find out. See the way you make it sound. It's crazy. But you guys didn't hear the voice, okay? I heard the voice and it was spooky and it scared me and it really sounded honest. Let me ask you this. It's such a spirit and assuming it exists, which it's just really late at night and I got my ass kicked today. So I'm just going to go with this. But assuming you have this spirit, if you walk down where this locus is by the bee place where we all felt if you work and team spirit and all this happy horseshit. Don't you think that the reason this thing is riding with you is it wants to get there? Well, wouldn't it be in like a happy place there? Two things. I think the reason that it's all what we feel like is a happy place is actually a compulsion by the Shartha to the locus to motivate and get people to work and they're really not happy. They're just being worth it. How does it describe more that the... Everything was busy. Locus. Two that was generating a feeling based on who was controlling. It's called the resonance. But in game terms. But yeah. You're correct. Well, this resonance probably belonged to the Shartha. The Shartha. No. Billy installed it. That's what he said anyways. And to be clear, Billy said he installed and it was a locus of murder and death. He read the history. A lot of bad stuff happened. Right. And they changed it to more of a feeling of... That's too serious. No. Well, they didn't like that, but they changed it more to like endurance and soldiering on and, you know, neighborly, you know, relationships and just a stronger community. Brotherhood. Yeah, like a brother pack. Yeah, like a pack. Which makes perfect sense for why they would do that. Then they said the bees came and completely tainted, from his point of view, the resonance of the area. And all of a sudden it became a resonance of industry and work hard and... Cleveland doesn't need that. Right. See, I'll just get that out of here. Get that shit out of here. So, in a way, the vestige has been taken over by the Shartha. And I think this spirit wants the old vestige of the endurance and the power to go back. So maybe that's why it's chosen me. Oh, shoot. To be the instrument of its defeat. I will say... There was a list of things we should call Tate about. Was one of us being possessed, one of them? No, no, I don't think that was mentioned. Okay. Are you sure you're not stressed out? I mean, you're the first time in the field, right? Yeah. Pretty stressful. It is. Pretty spooky. Alright, let me be very cynical and look at from your point of view. Well, let me get my ass beaten up by the bees' zombies. The bombies. Yeah. Then that will give you an opportunity to shoot and take down other, you know, whoever. So, it works out to everyone's advantage. I get to be the lightning rod for whatever. Do you get the bait? Sure, why not? It helps you use the bebait. I'm the honey. I don't know if I can quite trust the spirit that might be possessing him. I appreciate that. And that's why I say if I start to get squirrely or do something that I was obviously... Seriously? I'm sorry. If I do something that would put the city of risk or would affect my compatriots, who have shown me such a love in there, if I can't come here, then do what you gotta do. That's the way the field people roll, right? You know? I'm trying to be cool. I'm trying to be cool. I'm trying to be cool. I'm going to bed. Hey, let's try to talk to yourself and figure out what's going on. Yeah, let's check out that tower, I guess. Yeah, we'll do that and then we'll go back. Alright, so you go up to the tower and it is a typical more standard church tower. There's a large bell up there. It's rather large as far as the area. It's a pretty wide tower. There is beautiful views of 360 degrees around of Cleveland. And more importantly, the honeycomb building. And so you can certainly put a camera up here as well to make that happen. And any other cameras being put up tonight, or just that one. That's the one we have quick access to. The other one's going to be in the parking lot. I don't know what kind of equipment we have right now. On hand, if we have any telephoto lenses or anything like that, or video cameras. Oh, what happened? I know, I might have my personal one, but I'm not sure. Well, tomorrow. No, the case you did have telephoto lenses, you had great surveillance equipment as far as that goes. I do have one concern about the text that Tammy's songs sent to you. And is it something that seemed like a little jab at us implying that she knows that we're planning to do something tomorrow? No, it's just a royal bitch. Well, yeah, I mean, that's another option we have. If she actually is willing to meet me somewhere, we could set up an ambush or whatever. Or set up a meeting and see if she actually leaves the compound or whatever. We can get an extra drop of blood and whatever. It might be an opportunity to perform. Is there a way she can test her? She might be a major self or something, because she's able to command the bees. I don't know if that's just the way that they talk or whatever. But she had it pretty weak. I didn't see that. I'm just going to take it out of faith. That's what happens, because I trust her and believe in it. Well, I have a dead bee carcass to prove what happened. Look, I have an ancient robe. I broke back at the screen. We only met what? Henry. The security guards. These are things controlled by bees. Henry, the security guards, and Tammy. The security guards didn't seem to have her power level, right? No, she seemed to be someone who had some power of authority. Henry seemed to be a worker and no idea what was going on. Or maybe was fighting it somehow. But then I don't know if the bees were acting on their own, because they are supposedly spirits. There's 127 feet high. It's a good sniper roof. The church roof is 93 feet above the floor. It has a chime of 11 bells. The largest collection on the west side. There weren't going to be bells there. So, if you set up your sniper roof, then you set up your camera. So, the game plan is to do the stakeout during the day, and then go to Benjamin's at dusk. For not getting the equipment until afternoon, then we can't do the stakeout. We have some equipment. We can set up cameras here. The actual stakeout. Yeah, probably not through the van and other stuff. You have new vehicles that aren't new. But they are different from the ones that vitamin B seemingly meant. We can go into the thing as a drywall or something. Right. You know, work then. I'm not so sure we really need to do that having figured out pretty much what we need. Okay. So, that's a way to figure out how to break in. Yeah, I mean, we don't know where we're going once we get there. So, what's the plan for next weekend? I really don't think. I really don't think that all the workers are possessed. That's a lot of workers going home to their wives and acting weird. The area just generates the feeling of wanting to work. How many bigger, something bigger than yourselves? How many members do you think they have? I don't know. And they would help. Right. It would be helpful. How does this take out work, can we do part of it tomorrow and then take a break? Oh, yeah. Okay. I mean, if you take a whole break in the sense of no one's looking at the building at all, but you've got some cameras on it, you can still glean some information from. So, if we start, you can link it right now in infrared lens to be able to do rolling pictures from night and their video cameras. You've got some really great equipment that he sucked. I mean, that Winston hooked you up with the start with. Well, let's use it. All right. We'll use that and then tomorrow we maybe go put another one in the wooded area, pointing at the back end so we can have two cameras watching it. And then we'll go get the wings in the blood. That's going to hurt. I can't even imagine that going well. I think that I don't want to protect this. Hi, Benjamin, we found a lot. We get the blood and the wings for the rest of the ceremonies. So we can go mess up your daughter. He didn't answer the door last time. I mean, that's-- He was going to say Gary, when you-- That's something we're just going to have to play by here. I think that I don't like to protect this from. Hopefully not, hopefully not. Does Benjamin have a telephone? Telephone's didn't work. It didn't work. There was an experiment. When they went through that gate with the plant-hard crest on it, as soon as they walked around the first corner of the small little maze, it looked like on the map, but it ended up being this large magical maze. They got lost in. Soon they walked around the first corner. All the phones went completely dead. So you don't know if that would be the same inside the house or in the backyard, because no one really paying attention. Just when they got to the backyard, they actually met Benjamin. They had a bunch of bees around him that he could probably have just-- They could tell that he was kind of-- No, it's not that. We were talking on the phone right up into the point where they rounded the corner and it went dead. No, outside is fine. But in the backyard, would they work? Yes. You think they would work in the backyard? No. And I thought you were saying we weren't paying attention to where the phone stopped working. Certainly. Yes, you absolutely worked. I think the idols would protect us according to this pamphlet. He would put a catcher and try all of the house card names. Twenty-two? Looking for Beoween. Watch a buy. One of my people. And what do you think, Bob? I think this idol will protect us from the St. Clair's. At least according to the where it was. Yes. To jump here to go and get the idol for him. Wow. And we have the coin that came with the walk right hand. The only thing we have to worry about is the actual bees and we have bug spray. Hopefully not to be that bad. Hopefully the idol will control or manage the situation. If it doesn't, then we fall back to the bug spray. And your spirit? Possibly. I don't know how my spirit will affect. But my spirit might be able to negotiate with the Benjamin. I don't know. I'm just guessing. Is the spirit like your alter ego, like the badass mic? Ha ha ha. Yeah, maybe I should get a little more specific on what is a takedown opportunity and not just being weird again. Oh, don't worry about us. We will do a stake-up. We will do Benjamin's and we will do the final confrontations next week. Are you sorry? Roll your dice, John. I think we have two more weeks. They roll a single dice tonight. Wow. Yeah. That's storytelling. Yeah. Nice. Bob, tell us about anything you learned new in the story tonight? Tell me like the most important thing. Super natural. I guess the major thing we learned tonight is more about the ritual. What needs to be done to perform it and what steps we need to go through and what materials we need to collect and work through. They collect and work through a performant. The only thing that concerns me is the actual chanting that may be involved or some of the finer details we still do not know. Super natural. It has a mic getting possessed supposedly. Yeah, that's new development. I'm not sure what the deal is with that. Where the spirit came from, if it is the spirit of Cleveland. I'm not sure what its motivations are. Why would want the bees out of there? Again, we have more questions than we would be answering. Right. Tom? The coin is going to get us into the garden. We learned the use of the coin that it's going to get us through the maze so that we can get to the bees, get the wings and get the blood in a much easier fashion than previously. Yeah, it could have been really ugly. Yeah, I didn't want to do that again. Mike. I was literally told by a strange, mysterious force that I have been a chosen one and I always was. So either I'm starting to lose my mind or I have been contacted by something spiritual. You got to call from your mother. And in spite of the ridicule and mockery of whom I thought were my compatriots. Who apparently are okay with ravenous werewolves that are rampaging through the place, but I'd say I hear voices in a popular song in my head that all of a sudden I just, you know, need to be put down like a sick dog. That's all coming to a head very rapidly. I have a more direct role in this than I was expecting. So I'm pretty confused and terrified about what exactly I have to do in order to defeat this queen bee. All right, Greg. I learned it's very difficult to get a group of people to decide on one course of action. And that the roof of St. Patrick's Cathedral Church is a nice 93 feet above it. With 117 foot tower. That's about it. Thanks for listening to the Knights of the Night at Actual Play Podcast. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures. Where you will find character stats, photos, storytelling, props, and even a forum for comments and suggestions. Or you could email us directly at feedback@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 ZenAudioSmith.com And please join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. Is the spirit like your alter ego like the badass mic?
