In the safety of the library’s special collection, the Task Force researches an ancient relic and realizes that even the library can hold unexpected dangers...
Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 22: Shit Luck: Ep. 23 "Arti-Facts"
[Music] Hello and welcome to Knights of the Night Actual Play Podcast. This world of darkness storyline, shit luck, was written and run by our storyteller Scott. [Music] And now, please enjoy chapter 9, scene 1, titled "Arda Facts". [Music] Okay, so we have some feedback from the white wolf forum this week. It's from Tim, from San Diego, and Tim says, "I gave it a try, and to be honest, I wasn't very impressed. The reason is simple. I couldn't actually see what was going on in the game. I would much prefer to be able to see the players interacting with the storyteller than just listen to people talking." So, thumbs down for me, but the idea and concept of doing this is very cool. Perhaps you can get a webcam, or a few webcams, and use them to show different players. So, that's the feedback from Tim. Our first negative feedback, which Tim, at least you rank first there in something because we haven't got any negative feedback. So, it's always good to get the first one. We appreciate him trying it, but the truth is that we very much appreciate it. Actual play aren't for everybody. And, in fact, they're for a much smaller community than normal podcast listeners. Not everybody enjoys that. Right. And for that big, very reason, I think, one of the main reasons being able to visualize what's happening, you know, it's tough for people to imagine is... It's the theater of the mind, Tim. It's the theater of the mind. Well, one thing is, as the editor, I can tell you, there is no chance in hell that I'll ever be doing a video editing. Right. The amount of editing would increase exponentially. It would just be a huge amount of editing. We're far too ugly to do today. We have faces made in the mind. I think maybe there's at least some belief that this is like when you go into conventions and there's people there with hand-painted figures and big houses. Yeah. And we don't do that, Tim. There's not even a marker. There's not even a marker in this game, really. Oh, yeah. Rarely. Rarely. In 4E and other games we use markers and figures, et cetera. But we still don't use the, you know, we don't max it out. Which I am. Maybe... I don't... Scott's basement is very nice. Yeah. Thanks. But, yeah. I mean, we get that it's not for everyone. And right now, it's probably not a step we're going to take, Tim. But we appreciate you giving it a shot. And we're going to try to post more pictures online, probably. Yeah. Stuff like that. Oh, yeah. That's one thing we'd actually talk about which is making an enhanced podcast where you would take the character's picture and display it as the person is talking. But the only problem with that is an enhanced podcast can only be played by Apple devices. When an iPod, an iPad, an iPhone are the only things that can play those. We're about, Tim, you got an iPad? We'd be severely limiting our audience if we did that. And, again, it would be an additional level of... Or you'd have to... In 12. Right. We'd have to release two of them. Right. Well, that's a possibility. That's an intermediary step that might interest Tim. So, if you get a chance, Tim, give us some feedback on the idea of an enhanced podcast. It's something I always thought we should do. I thought we'd be set us apart from other actual plays. Maybe the first podcast in a series or one of the podcasts in a series, you make one enhanced one. Is there something that can download that? Give it some feedback. But in any case, Tim, thanks for trying us out. We do appreciate that. Sorry it didn't quite work for you, but we'll keep plugging away here and maybe something we'll click with you and if not, well, thanks again. All right. This is the world of darkness, story, shit luck. Chapter 9. And with us tonight is... Jim playing Katie O'Connor, non-extraordinary. Tom playing Jay. Mike playing Michael Clay. Bob playing Special Asian Chew Park. All right. So, last week, we left in the library Michael, Jay, and Sister Katie, who were meeting up with Michael's long time, Aegis Kaidor, Rumentor, Nico. Just I believe. And he led you into the basement of the Cleveland Public Library into the special collections. You were beginning to research in the folklore section some information regarding the B statue or idol or figurine, whatever you want to call it. What we're going to do here is do, and the role will be in academics plus, let's say, intelligence applies here as well. There'll be intelligence plus academics. So you can make that role, and if you want any of the other two group members to help you, meaning either Jay or Kate, or if you'd like Nico to help as well, he's available. He kind of let you, you know, he's got you into this collection, this special collection. And, you know, that the Aegis Kaidor, when you have a relic, it's a very special thing, and it's very important to the individual who's found that relic in his research and that relic. So he will not just automatically start researching it with you and put in on your ground. This is your fine, you're even on a mission that he's unaware of at this point. But we've established that he is a known and trusted mentor of mine. As far as you know. Do you have him done as a merit though, as a mentor? No, no. He does not. As he was presented to me, as I presented him, he's someone who got you into the group. You've known him for almost 20 years at this point, and you've never known him to stab you in the back or do anything wrong. But you do not have any points in merit, so he is what he is. So, historically, in using outside of character knowledge, that means he's going to kill us all. Mike, I have... Academics. I will accept any help. Right now, I have my academics and my intelligence. Just to clarify, am I or am I not adding one dice for the knife? Yes, you are. Okay. Your dice, I can hang you in. Your knife will whisper to you. Okay. You know, when you're walking down a bookshelf, or a row of books, a stack, and you just kind of run your fingers along them and your knife just whispers, you know, warm. Or have a little tuggy stuff. Or something along those lines. But that whispering is talking however you like. First of all, Katie, sister Katie, has some occult knowledge from her time in the clergy. She would like to aid you in your research. Just to be clear also, I'm keeping the knife secret from Katie. And Nico is not helping at this point. Correct, he's not. He's throwing his fingers, basically reading a book on a table somewhere off to the side in the library. But Katie, you are helping. What are you doing? And I got a cult role that's better than my academics role. I don't know which one. You could use either one for this role. Well, then I'll use cults. Okay, now don't roll yet, but get your dice pull ready. Would be a cult plus intelligence? It would be a cult plus intelligence. Okay. And so Jay, I have one in a cult and two in intelligence, so I can roll three. Right, so basically you could have, for lack of a better term, two errant boys, in this case our errant boy and errant girl, helping you out with the research. Grab that book. I think it might be this one. Can you go talk to the librarian and, you know, find out if they have this particular volume? That's what you two are doing to assist him. We'll make one role that we're going to say takes up the first hour of your time here in the library. Your role is a cult plus intelligence. You have how many dice? I have five dice. Five dice. And because of the esoteric knowledge that you're searching, you know, the difficulty to find this, I'm going to subtract one dice due to the difficulty of the subject matter. And a second dice due to the fact that some of these old tones are in, you know, middle English and in Latin. They're written in some various languages that you may not be familiar with. Somebody would subtract two dice from your role. Go ahead and make your role. Please, Sister Katie. Let's just do assist, right? This is to assist. I got a knot. Knot. Okay. One dice is still one dice. You can still add a die to his pool. Yeah, but then I can also roll a one. No, that's if you have zero dice. The rule there is a chance role is if you have zero dice, not if you're down to one. So you do not risk a critical or a dramatic failure. After the stellar performance of helping you, that's nothing. They help. It's just not enough to, you know, achieve a success on our own. Right. Or even give you a die. Right. But you're still helping him. In truth, I was going to remove a dice because I wanted to also keep on guard to watch from a security point. So after helping, I didn't. But after helping the first time and deciding after the first time. After the first time. I'm out in helping. I pull just concentrate on the security aspect. Okay, great. All right, ready? Yes, I'm ready. Now you have your dice. Oh, yes. Okay. Are you risking willpower or spending willpower? Which you probably don't have a ton of at this point based on last night. But I think you got a little bit of a fact because you fed into your life. I've only got three left. I believe. Oh, three. That's pretty good. I got one. All right. That's not bad. Are you risking any or are you spending any either or? No, not right now. Okay. So this is the first rule taking an hour. I am going to. Do you have any other languages that you know? Well, part of my history is I'm an anti-diluvian. Which is part of the ancient knowledge of the whole. Now we're going to get into the conspiracy of the ages. I adore it with what we kind of originated from what we consider to be Atlantis. Anti-diluvian is the world before the world that is now. Okay. So I am trained and familiar with. Is that a merit or is that a? That's part of my history. That's part of the quality of being in my conspiracy. Okay. So it's, I don't think it's a diorom. I'm just giving you. Right. I'm going to give you only minus one die as opposed to minus two that everyone else was getting for the language in the esoteric nature of the knowledge. All right. Here we go. I have one success. All right. So in our passes, describe this room. It is a huge room. Marble tiled. Lots of echoes. So someone puts a book down throughout the room. Just high stacks of books. The stacks are long. You know, 15, 20 foot long. Maze like in some sections, we could actually, you know, not. Where's Michael? You know, where did Jay go? You could kind of lose people for a second or two if you're not paying attention. There's also like a clearing area in the middle of this large room where there's an oversized desk on one side and a counter on the other where the librarian of a special collection sits. And the far north of this room is double doors, which lead to a stairway going back up to the main library, and you came down those stairs in order to get to this special section. And to clarify, we are one level or two levels below ground level. You are one level below ground level. Right. And there are, at this point, there's, excuse me, there is a single security guard at the double doors, which are closed. Is it on the other side or this side? He's on your side of the double doors and they're closed. Okay. There are glass block windows along the ceiling. They might be a foot in height. They're right off the ceiling, which is in the ceiling is high. You're talking about a 20 foot ceiling, so you're at least 20 foot underground. And you've got these glass blocks that are about a foot off the ceiling and they're opened up to allow some circulation of air on this somewhat warm spring day. That's where we're at right now after one hour of searching. So you then, Jay, I find a seat where I'm actually keeping a look on all of them and, well, a corner, if at all possible, where I can see everything. But I'm focusing mainly on them and the windows, because anything that comes through the door is going to deal with the garden and the noisole and draw my attention. Right. So you could get a corner seat. You can't see them all the time when they go down a stack. But you can see them most of the time when they're either coming back out of the stack or sitting at a table at the end of the stack where they're kind of ruminating over the various volumes that they're checking my phone. Are we getting a signal down here? That's a great question. I was pretty sure last week he said there was no phone signals. It was, it was, yeah, I mean, I might have said that and what I meant for was it was halting back and forth. I'm just going to roll real quick randomly to see what it's doing right now. Then I asked if they had one. You do not have a bar of signal. But if you look at it long enough, a bar kicks in. So you get low signal, no signal. So you have the best vantage point you can for windows and your teammates. After an hour, Nico comes up to you, my friend. I'm going to go back to the art museum at this point. I hope your studies are going well. You know, you may call me on myself if you need anything. Good. You know, and so we exchanged numbers. You always had his number. You guys are close friends. I mean, but he doesn't have your new cell phone number. He doesn't have your government cell phone number. He has your typical, you know, Michael Clayton cell phone number that you always had is your typical cell. And as he tells me this, with my empathy, I really don't have empathy. But I do have street-wise and subterfuge. And I have a lot of stealth. Yeah, but the skill that you're looking for here, Mike? His empathy. His empathy. Okay. If you're trying to read him, are you trying to read his emotions? Well, I try to take him to you. I'm tired. I'm, you know, I've been already tried to be killed several times in the past few days. Now I would hate to think ill of my good friend and mentor, but one must be careful. Okay. Then make an empathy plus which role? Uh, okay. Oh, I am only going to take two dices since I am unskilled. It's minus one. And otherwise I had to have three. Okay. Are you adding any willpower to this? You know what, and this one I will, I will spend one. Okay. And you subtract one just because of your tiredness. And you will add one because of your familiarity with Nico. Okay. See if I did that? Yeah. Two successes. Seems like your old friend Nico thinking that you've got things under, you know, in hand and he's going to return to his job. So he walks out and packs the security guard on the shoulder as he walks out and walks up the stairs and, um, and heads out of the library. So that takes us to the second hour of research in which case you're obviously on the map. Looking at things, just kind of watching the overall scope. Sister Kate, are you trying to assist in the before we move forward research? Sure. Go ahead. Are there, I did have one success for the first hour. Are you saving up? Are we trying to build towards him? Okay. Just want to clarify. You think you've made something that's important? You think you've got an important piece of the puzzle. But until you get more success is you're not going to know whether or not that's important. Okay. Fair enough. Katie? What can I do to help? Same thing you did before. Aaron Gurl, suggestions. Have you ever heard of this Latin term before? He's throwing things at you and you're trying to help as the research goes on here. It's mostly like, it's like, can you check this book for this book? Yeah. I'm going to go down here for that book. Who wrote this book? You know, who wrote that book over there? Just all that type of interaction. Can you jot down these notes for me? There's a nun and especially probably the Malefacharum. He should probably go Latin, right? She doesn't have, she didn't spend any on additional language. That must have to be part of a benediction. But I would be willing to admit that she knows some Latin. Okay. But I'm still giving her a minus one because she doesn't have a language. And it's not all in Latin. Oh my God. You wrote three dice, got a zero. You rolled one and got another zero and rolled one and got another zero. So now he's up to three successes. Yeah, you get to keep going. You found something really good. Oh. She found something really good. She had a really good suggestion throughout it, which adds three dice to your dice. Well, hopefully I can, maybe she should be researching them just saying. Probably. Did you look under troll dolls? What? Same as it was before. Michael Clay looks at the tome that Katie brings to him. It says "Yateem". Three? And it has three successes. Nice. Some serious breakthrough at that moment. You're jying down notes as you go. You've got, at this point, four successes in. Right around the time that you see some frantic activity with Katie and Mike in the sense of really coming through through a breakthrough in their research. You're just, I mean, you're kind of almost being rolled a little bit into a false sense. That's very rough, none. You didn't get much sleep now. It's quiet. You're bored. So go ahead and make an investigation role, please, for a perception. So my perception would be five, but you mentioned it. You're tired. So, no, no, I'm sorry. It was straight perception. It was not investigate. You're not making an investigation. You're not looking for something specific. You're just looking. You're just perceiving. And because you're tired and it's boring, I'm going to give you, well, I'm not going to tell you you got. Are you done? Hmm. I mean, we were really put forward to that first hour of looking. No, I don't know. I just think so. Oh, minus one guy. Well, I was thinking of risking it. Right, because it doesn't make any sense. Because I only have one. So, I mean, but anyway, it's a long day. There might be something else I don't want to risk you have. All right. So I don't know whether this is what you want to remind us one. And maybe I'm just pulling your chain is right. Right. Right. Right. Minus one and I get two with a reroll. Two successes. All right. Right. 50%. What you notice is along the eastern wall of the library. As you look out, as you're looking at the windows, you can see some plant life out there. Looks like there might be gardens in between two of the, between two of the buildings. The library, the annex. And you see a bee slipped through the window. Oh, I don't know. I don't like bees. Over a fly. Something from a distance. Just some inset slipped into the library. All right. You definitely, I don't like bees really. Yeah. You're not sure it's a bee. It's a long ways away. But if something floated in and it definitely caught your attention because for the last hour, nothing's floated in. Right. I get up and try to follow it. I reach, in my key, you don't know them. When we were dealing with Benjamin's playland garden. Yes. We have cans of rain and a bug bomb. Zoe. We do. We had some of that stuff. I still got it. Okay. Like a can over here and a can over here. Right by your side. Yeah, I got a, I got a, I got a glock and a can of rain. I've got my hand on it and I'm trying to track down the bee to see. Well, it's on, well, where you're sitting is in the far corner and it comes through a window on the far side, which was why it was difficult to see. Right. And it's floating down and you stand up and it's going to be about halfway across the with the library and it's heading to your eyes right towards the security guard. I have flat, fast reflexes and I'm a sniper, damn it. With a can of rain. Sure. It has a scope on it. I stick a, I stick a needle in it to get the, the, the stream down to just. All the way across from. So yes, it's, it's about, by the time you get, you push your chair back, you startled. It's about a quarter of the way across the width. The security guard's halfway where the, where the double doors are, they're halfway, you know, on the wall. So he's about a quarter of the way there and by taking a couple steps forward, start moving quickly in that direction. He's getting pretty close to the security guard at that point and you're probably still a good 80 feet away, I'd say, based on the size of this room. So you're trying to, you're trying to cross it north, south. It's trying to obviously, I'm not going to make it. The security guard, I just tell him, hey, look out, man, there's a bee. You're 80 feet away. You probably, I mean, your voice will probably carry. Are you saying it in nice, calm tone like that? I'm not screaming in panic, although probably inside I am panicking. So you're saying, hey, I just, I'll show you a lot of time to hear it. I mean, I'm not screaming, but I'm saying, hey, you got a bee coming at you. All right. He looks at you like, and anybody who's around you, you probably just don't turn around. Yeah, everyone else in the room. Yeah, he rolls underneath a desk. Right. He, like, looks towards you and then does pointing at it. Right. One of these is looking towards your finger, but doesn't seem to be picking it up. And to your eyes, it, like, either goes behind him or lands on his shoulder or something. And at this point is you're still moving towards him. You're probably 60 feet away. Mm-hmm. And I, guys, look out there. My nose is buried in a book. I honestly wouldn't have noticed anything right now to be if I'm researching and doing what I'm doing. Right. So he shouts out, we might have a problem. Do either. I mean, obviously you're not reacting yet, Michael, because you're really focused on your books. Well, to be fair, if he's security and he says something, I'm going to react. Okay. I am and I did. Um, and Sister Kate, would you have reacted as well in this circumstance or would you have? I'm, I'm sure I know about the whole beat thing going on. Right. There's been some conversation. Yeah. So, yeah, I probably would have stopped to turn around to see what's going on. Okay. So all of you could make a perception check if you'd like. Perception is width, pulse, composure. Got it. And you will subtract if you're trying to, I'm assuming you're trying to see what he's talking about. Yeah. I mean, he's calling the alarm. I'm reacting to it. Right. Katie, are you doing anything? You're just looking over towards the worst point. I'm just looking over towards him or where he's pointing. He'd probably say beat problem or something like that. Right. Or like, where? And same with him? Uh, yes. Okay. I feel like he both is correct. Three dice would be a perception check. I got nothing. Okay. Ooh. One success. You think you see, and now that it's flown either around or behind him, you can make another roll if you'd like to hit them. No. J at minus three as well. Uh, because it's very small B and it, I know, but it's actually, right, right. It's being blocked, I guess. So I'll wait until J finishes his roll and then I'll actually know what happened. One success. Okay. You both J and Michael believe that you see it and it's right on his shoulder. Um, you're about 50 feet away at this point. Um, you both Katie and Michael are a good, I'd say 80 feet away. 90 feet away. He's past you. Um, J is past you as he is. B, B. We got a problem. B. No. I snap look at the be idle that I'm, you know, I've been, my nose has been in the books. Now I'm looking at the idle. Do I notice any change or any quality about the idle that might be different? Besides the fact that eyes are going right, that would be a few little, no, it's not. Okay. One of the bees are missing. So you, you basically, you pull out the, the idle and it, nothing different. That you could eat it quickly in a few seconds ascertain. Right. And like your phone, um, vibrates, because you haven't had vibrates yet. I have vibrates. I look at the call. Does it stop or you still know I'm still moving and I take it out. So you take your eyes off of the man and the P and look at your crown looking at it. Quickly look at the phone and then back. All right. You see an image of, the phone didn't vibrate. It was a D on the phone. I pass out Jade come up on your text message with her little smiling face and it says, call me. Right. And you continue to what? I continue to move towards your garden. Okay. I ask him, you're not allergic to bees or not, can I? So, um, he looks around and he finally, you know, sees the bee on his shoulder and... Help me. He just does a, you know, like a flick and kind of moves to the side. And it goes up into the air towards the ceiling. And you're about 20 feet from him at this point. And he's kind of looking back at you relatively, strangely like... Okay. Yeah. I got it. Thanks. I'm allergic. So I'm just hypersensitive about bees. Alight of them. Yes. Do we see this? I don't know if that's a blindness. I am hypersensitive about bees. You didn't quite see the whole bee, but you could certainly hear the voices. You could certainly hear the voices. All right. In the conversation going back and forth. I got a death grip on the canaway. Are you saying we have a line of sight to both of them yet? I'd say you have a line of sight to Jay and the security guard, but you've never been able to take up the bee. You haven't seen the bee since. Yeah, I saw him go like this. Yeah. Maybe you saw a bee in motion, but you have napped me. Okay. 80 feet away. That's pretty far to see a bee. That was a big bee. But it's like one of those queen bees or something like a big bumble bee, maybe. That's the only way you've seen it from a hundred feet away, but you're getting closer to you. Well, if it went up, you noticed that it was quite a large bee. Mm-hmm. It doesn't look different from the bees we've seen. Chews question was, does it look like the bees we've seen before? And I would say probably not in the sense that most of the bees that you saw before... That's actually a good question. It is a good question. Because we've had shot two different times we've seen bees. I don't know if they're different types. One of them was coming out of Henry, and the other one was crawling a little over Benjamin. We're both those bees. Yes. And you've also saw some commodity security guards. And we have... That's true. So, the rebeeing. Science. And the larvae out of the guy's guts. Any of those bees look any different than a regular bee? Like was, you know, Benjamin's bees different than Henry's bees different than the guards bees? Right. Um, I got a diet, I can roll. That won't roll. Right. The long and short answer is, all of Benjamin's bees were... Looked like they were honey bees, and none of them were queen bees. They were all just standard, typical. Standard honey bees. Not red honey bees. Not red honey bees. Not africanized honey bees. So, the best of your knowledge. Any of you... None of us are... Would have an incredibly difficult time telling you between an africanized honey bee and a regular honey bee. The bees that grew out of the... security guards and... Henry, um, both happened at night in very unusual circumstances that were obviously very tension-filled and extreme. Yeah, but there's just a little in there's... Yeah, exactly. There was nothing about the bees that was so different to lead you to believe there was a difference. But by God, you know... When you were tackled, you were 30 feet away in the dark and you were sliding across the grass because you had slipped and fell. When you saw Henry's bees and then you were far away in the alley except for John Beemer who was up close and personal when those... But like you're saying, you got your average size bee and then you've got those big whopping... Those are bumble bees, though. That's a different type of bee. There's a type of bee that's different bumblebee. But I mean, they're also really big. I'm just saying they don't look like a bumblebee. They don't look like a big bumblebee. This looked like a big bumblebee. Right, and if you see a swarm of big bumblebees, it's going to look different than a swarm of bees. Right, so I would say right now, no, there's no difference between the... What you think to be normal bees in Benjamin's backyard versus the bees you've seen fly out of these individuals. And it's always been looking somewhat similar to a honeybee. This one now, as you get closer, you realize it looks like a bumblebee. It was like a big honking bee. And is it spiraling up? You know, I mean, it's probably the size of a quarter compared to where a normal bee would be... Maybe a dime, if that. That's what you see. As you're like I said, you're about 20 feet away from them. You say, "Ah, I'm allergic to bees." And they kind of freaked me out. And at that point, it's spiraling up just up towards the ceiling. You saw the motions, but don't have it pegged down the bee just yet. And you've been able to follow the bee up off the guy's shoulder into the air. Michael, how high are the ceilings in this basin? 20 feet. I think we're crazy around. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to whip out a cannon and spray it if it's... But now I'm watching it there. Yeah. So, assuming I was sitting at this end of the... You know, like, say the south end of the room looking north and watching them. I'm now at north looking south and keeping an eye on the bee, which is nearby and over there. And I don't like it. Right. And it continues to work its way around the ceiling for the next five minutes or so to the point where probably you two think. It seems safe enough to go back to studying. Do you keep an eye out? Let us know if it does anything. Oh, man. Anybody want to check the army shirt and get stuck? Yeah. I don't know how I would do that. Gee, that thing landed on you didn't sting you. Just to see what he says. Or if he tries to cover it up or anything. What are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about. He says, "No, I'll dig so. I think I'm fine." I didn't feel anything. You're not allergic to him, right? No. Now, my wife likes to garden sometimes I go out and help her, so I'm out in the water. I'm not allergic. Cool. All right, I'm going back with some of my books. All right. Make sure to land on me. We also had a time limit that we didn't want to spend all day here, right? I'm semi. All right. I'm thinking that let's maybe try to spend no more than one more hour and take what we've gleaned so far and move on. All right. In this situation where he's doing research like this, can he come back another day and continue accumulating? Or is it kind of lost? Yes, he can come back and accumulate. I also, he just wouldn't get the benefit of what he knows because he hasn't completed the necessary amount of successes. Speaking of metagameingly, I've got a target number in my head that he has to hit. When he hits that number, all the pieces come together and he goes, "Ah, ABCD, and here's your information. It's how I'm playing this particular scene. There's a couple of different ways to play it. This is how I'm playing it." So if he walks away, he gets nothing but a couple of maybe ideas of, I think I've got a gut feeling it might be here. So you're going to either want to finish the research and put the pieces together on this idol or you're going to come back another day and you're going to have a couple of gut feelings but nothing even able to clarify it. I've got to. You've got like three different paths where you think it might have, in books that you might have, they might be talking about this idol and no one's saying the "be idol" with the exact description of what you have. It's ancient books that you're translating from two or three different languages. So you've got a couple of different lines of, like this could be a reference to it. I need to go to this book and find out if they mention it. Then I know for sure they're really talking about the "be idol" that I currently possess in my hands. So no, until you complete the, it's called an extended contest, so you make the extended roles and get to the goal of that. You've got a couple of theories that seem really good right now but you don't have the final answer. Well I proceed with my researches and I ask Sister Katie to please come back and aid me. Leave the security to the security. It grows. Yes? Yes. And I have a greater sense of urgency. Go ahead and make your role. Take it. Two. Two successes? Two? No, Katie's. I think you didn't mind us too, huh? You are making the most of those three dice, my friend. Well it's either as you're rolling. It's either good or bad or not. You're moving to me. Plus two dice. Plus two. Plus two. If you have a sense of urgency, are you... Spending any of that will... Yes, I will spend another... Or you risking that will power, so you don't lose it. I will spend one more willpower, which will give me three extra dice. You're gonna get those three extra dice and you wouldn't lose a willpower if you risked it. All you have to do is get one success and you don't lose any of it. I want to spend it this time. I'll save my last risk. Fair enough. The pieces seem to be coming together. Three more successes. It takes you to seven successes. Since you were rushing it, I'm gonna say that you got to the library around nine. The first hour was nine to ten. The second hour was ten to eleven. This time with Kate's help and some really nice deductive reasoning and some great research, you were able to finish in about a half hour and get to where you needed to be. You didn't need all the successes. You hit your point earlier in the hour than you would have had you. I had no eureka moment. Yes, okay. So it's around eleven thirty. At that point, I think I got everything put together just fine. I'm sure I have the ceiling. And you watched the B for an hour, bounced around the ceiling. Basically half an hour more. You got the ceiling. Take a quick look at the guard. And this is what your notes tell you. Sorry. This is written in your hand. Okay, my notes from the Cleveland Public Library. From the occultist's Bible, 1874. The village of Claremont in southern France had a ritual dating back to the third century A.D. to appease some version or aspect of Woden, the chief god of the ancient Franks. It involved the creation of Eil's narrow face with a beard of bees. They were said to contain the spirit of the B. Lord, whose pleasant buzz would lull the anger from Woden. A poem, reputed to have been written for King Clovis in 509 A.D. contained the following lines. O heed the king with beard of bees. All of Christendom hails and heeds, and gather in Orleans on fallen knees. This from the folklore of the ancient Gaul, 1902. Note, unfortunately, the rest of this poem is lost to antiquity. Also, from the folklore of ancient Gaul. A description of ancient harvest rites of the Celine Franks. In a circle they clash arms and knelt, wailing with entwined arms raised to the heaven pleading for the Lord of the bees to bring them a fruitful harvest. Alistair Crowley, Book of Law, 1904. The chanting continued in low tone, mimicking a buzz like that of the honeybee or that of the others capitalized, announcing their arrival. The idol seemed to vibrate, matching that of the chant until my hand felt as if they had been stung by a thousand bees. Surrounded by the twenty-two wings of the eleven vessels, I commanded the bee Lord to appear and behold he did. Crowley, the Book of Law, 1904. And I asked, "But how can one protect against the buzzing prince?" And the reply was cold and simple. Without the bee, blood, and the translucent pinion, all is lost. From Crowley, the Book of Lies, 1912. They believe themselves protected by their petty dust and incenses, their magic circles and their magic spells. But none of these appease the bee spirit whose bands would be none of these but something else altogether. That's a little disconcerting. I don't like the whole last paragraph. So Mr. Investigator, what's it all mean? I don't know, I need to ponder it and assemble a little bit more. However, there seems to be, I'm not sure if the reference to buzzing prince and bee Lord are either two different names for the same person or a name for opposing forces. The king with the beard of the bees, you know, as mentioned in the one poem. However, there seems to be one line from Crowley, without the bee blood and the translucent pinion, all is lost. So there are three things that apparently need to be three items. Blood is a lower case, so it's not like a, you know, like a blood line or something like that. At least I don't think so. And I really not sure what the translucent pinion might refer to. I mean, that bears further investigation. There'd be a statement for. But I guess if, if, if, but if he's, if Crowley, if he can be believed. You dissing on the Crowley? I'm just saying. Did I write the satanic? He's, yeah, he did, or he was one of the people that created that. You know, that second to last one talks about how one can protect against the buzzing prince. There's something that I didn't see here, and it's kind of catching me off guard. In the half an hour that he was doing this research, is the bee still on the ceiling? I mean, oh, this is the last half hour. Yes. Yes. I mean, it comes down a bit. Okay. Can we leave here? Yeah. I mean, unless some of this is going to trigger an additional investigation here, we should meet up with the rest of the group. Bees can't hear. Can they? I'm going to tell you. Bees also can't control people and make them do things magically. Bees can't hear, but the only thing that could have told the girl about what- The bees didn't talk to each other, though. We saw them earlier, and what's going on. Oh, yes. But they did that when they were in a host. That's true. Okay. To get away, let's go. All right. They can't get in the same house until that 24 hours, you know, that's what that spell was up. And we threw it up with the other eye. And you're heading back to the same house? Wherever we can meet them, which is probably the same house. Thanks for listening to Nights at 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 form 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 podcasts or business, please visit ZenAudiosmith.com and please join us next episode for more Vistri and Adventurer. [Music] [Music]