The investigation leads to the doorstep of William Hobson who may hold the key to unlocking the mystery. Later, the heroes slumber is distrubed by a "bump in the night" - which turns out to be...
Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 11: Shit Luck: Ep. 12: "Big Momma Hobson"
[Intro Music] Hello, and welcome to Nights of the Night actual play podcast. This world of darkness storyline, shit and luck, was written and run by our storyteller Scott. [Intro Music] And now, please enjoy chapter 5, scene 3, titled Big Mama Hudson. [Intro Music] This is the world of darkness, chapter 5, in the story shitlock. My name is Tom and I play the character Jay, also sometimes pretty Jonathan. My name is Bob, I play Chew Park. I am Jim, my play Tony Bonadillo. My name is Mike and I am playing Michael Clay. Okay, so let's get it underway. You feel, though, that you're pretty comfortable that you needed to go back again. You probably could. Okay. You just don't have the easy in back door access. Well, like I said, I would have, remember, I would have documented what we had. I had to go to the washroom for a second, so you guys feel free to carry on. It would have been all along, but it would have been like, if anybody comes in from this IP address, let them write in. The only other thing I'll work. My, here's another thing that, now that you're out of the system, that while you're in it, maybe you could have seen if they had any transcribed printed or audio recordings of any of the bad ones. Well, that's what, I mean, assuming will be the detailed records. We would have downloaded the doctors, that's what I meant by doctors notes and evaluations. The only thing interesting is you scanned over the doctors notes and I'll write something up, so it has to be official for next week. I mean, you said the insights. The only thing exactly was the fact that he was suffering from three different types of mental illnesses that they could diagnose. And the specific reference to the insects during some of his psychotic breaks. So at this point, that whole exercise took an hour to hack his way in, so it's 5.30, then you probably spent a half hour or so in the system. At a, at a, at a spiral, so it's got to be about 6 p.m. at this point. It's for the party. Yeah, she's on me. Right. So you all head down to... Do we have a greater legs? Yeah, and we've had a secluded table and... Yeah. Disgusting. Not a problem. Stacy's your waitress. You talked to her, actually you did Tony, and you did Chew. Last night, you spoke with Stacy. She was one of the ones that were on staff. She's on staff again, so she's got your table. I call Dr. Lucie's name. I ask him how Ethan's doing. Is there any updates? Sure. He tells you that Ethan is still in a coma. They expect to bring him out of the coma tomorrow morning or tomorrow early afternoon. They put him in a coma after all the surgery just because he was, there was so much damage. And it was especially some damage to his brain that they did it as a precaution. It's a very light situation where they just wanted him to be resting and that thing disturbed. So he will be out of his coma. Nothing unusual. Nothing unusual. No one's made an attack on him or... No one's made an attack on him and he hasn't freaked out. And he hasn't... You're right. And has you heard back any information from the... Aaron? No, he oddly has not heard back from them. Regarding the... Otherwise... The body I'm assuming you're... Yes, we've worked in. We've run any information that can provide us from that. And I expressed him on the importance of us getting information. Yeah, good luck with that. Three of their field agents are out here. Potentially in danger. Okay. He will pass along that message to his contact. So, dinner, anything important need to take place there? We move on from dinner. We discuss next move. I would say... Mr. Hubson's house maybe. Does someone do some research on... Okay. The plantards... That's fine. The plantards? What about it? And plantains. Also... Plantains? What is it? No, it's the plantard. Plantain is a banana. Plantain is a banana. That's... Yeah, do some research. It needs to sit. With them and with the statue and same vice. So, you know, in what correlation all those things have in common. So, dinner last. By the time you get washed up and ready for dinner, it was 6.30. Go to each of your condos. You kind of, you know, clean up a little bit. Go down 7 o'clock. Hour and a half of dinner. Just talking over everything that you learned. What's going on so far since this story has began. Go for another ride. Where do you now? Check out Hobson's house. It's 8.30 at night when you can be dinner. That's a great deal. What's that? We're going to go check out of Hobson's house. Apparently, that's a great deal to do it. Okay. I just want to see... Oh, I don't want to pretend it. I'm just kidding. I really do. I'm just kidding. I really do. Two for five. One for five. Team Court. Yep. We drive down. I'm just kidding. Yeah. Wapping three minutes away. YouTube? No, they're doing their research thing. Yeah. Go back to the common room. Then, yeah, I'll begin my field methodology for the artifact. Right. Do you have anything that helps you with that? No, I... You have a very strong feeling, Michael, that you're going to need a library. This is not something that you're going to be able to look up. This artifact is not going to be able to pull up on a Google page somewhere. No, no. It's just not going to happen like that. You're going to be needing to look in some dusty old tomes that you would be accustomed to in Austin where you're from. If you also remember, the reason why I'm in Cleveland at this time, or part of my cover... The reason we were in Cleveland... Was working... Before you got transferred. With the museum. Right. So, I'm sure through those channels... ...and with my academic credentials... ...I should have access to... Right. All I'm saying is you still have... The show is still showing in Cleveland. Right. You've been taken off of that. Okay. Because you are now a part of operations. But I still have access to those siren. You still have access to those individuals. I know. Your status of one in... ...a G.S. Kai Doru is still in play. Right. You're just not actively working for them right now. But you're going to need one of their libraries. To do anything real. Allies that have been there. They're in every city. They're conspiracies. So, I can call them to help. So, you two head back to the common room to talk things over regarding... Absolutely no reason to... St. Bartholomew. But I have. The statue and what else do you want to review too? The gate. Any of the symbolism... Oh, the plantar. The plantar. Right. Okay. So, you two go back to the common room and I'll just break for a second. You two head out in one of your, you know, lovely government issue vehicles. Simple. Yeah. You're in Pala. And you head out to... We're driving by Mr. Hobson's house to see if the lights are on or... The lights are on. Just to scope the house out. What does 25, 15 for it look like? Not very pretty. Isn't that meticulous? No. It's not meticulous. It's a shack. It's kind of run down. Not a shack, but it's a really run down bungalow. Or a ranch actually. It's not a bungalow. It's a one level ranch. Cheek. Love. Is subterfuge. To play. Yeah. That was good. Very good. And... What? Manipulation? You have a... And I can look it up, of course too. But you have a sheet that I gave you when we first started playing in your folder. It's rolling through somewhere. And it has all the important roles that you'd want to make. Well, I'm not going to make this because I am not good at either of these things. But... What do you do? It's up to people. That's fine. That's fine. Yeah. That's fine. Manipulate persuasion and equipment. Now, see? That doesn't really... So, what we want to do is... I think it would be a good idea. Tony... Is to tell Mr. Habsen that we are, like, maybe investigated reporters, checking out the deal that... Where he lost his land. And... Oh, protesting in similar domain. Right. Like... Like... We're on his side. Sort of thing. Solid. So, that way he's going to willingly talk to us. I don't know if you guys are going to say what it's going to be. I don't know if you guys are going to say what it's going to be. I don't know if you guys are going to say what it's going to be. You've got to be... I mean, if you want to... Well, I wouldn't have to add if you were actually involved. We use our phones to tell our fellow cell members. I'm going to actually say that that's probably something you would have discussed. You were going to walk us to the door during dinner. Yeah. Because we didn't play out now. We're going to have a roll playing out. So, if the lights are on, we're going to stop in and see what we can get from them. Chewie, go in and out. I want to go with you. All right. Michael, you're left on your own. Okay. You've got to be asking before in mind. I'm used to that. Well... The... FastTalk actually says the talker is manipulation and persuasion and equipment. Which are... Manipulation and persuasion and equipment or online equipment. Well, you have... What's your manipulation plus persuasion? Jim. Six. Six. What is yours, Jim? I mean, if I... Equipment might be press credentials or stuff like that. If you had something, if you were dressed like a... Like a lawyer? I got... I got to close in that. What? No. I would say we're going for like the Cleveland Free Press or something where we're just... We're doing... Oh, yeah. Yeah. We've been investigating a report about eminent domain and these big companies stealing away from the little man and... Because he's the little man. So you're all about yourself and that, you know, kind of. Yeah. You're pretty comfortable. That... What's the target of opportunity? He's got... That known thing's looking at you, man. He's got the guy who's not here with... We're just a phone call away. You're told that... That's true. That was really making you nervous now. Mr. Storyteller, the... The versus is composure plus empathy or self-refused. I'm a... That's a subject. That's a subject. I should have used my dagger. I got this specialty. So you guys... Okay. First of all, you drive by the house to lights on. You decide you're going to go up to the door. We're going to pull the... All three of you. Well... I don't have to. I'm asking her. I don't have to go up there. I don't care if it's all three or not. I don't have to go up there. I don't have to go up there. I'm no good at this. Maybe we should write him a letter. He's good at like actually bullshitting people. So go up there and bullsh*t. Just tell him that you're from the Cleveland Free Press. You're not going in? No, because I'm not good at this stuff. Because he's a biker in here. No. I'm just... I don't have any of this skill set. This isn't what I do. I'm just going to be a hindrance. I'm not a magazine. I have three people coming up from a magazine. That seems a little much. I mean... Two ones... Two ones are a photographer. Yeah, one guy is taking a picture. He's a photographer. He's a reporter. That's amazing. What the heck is that? I didn't realize you're sorry. Yeah, but what did that mean? He's a photographer because he's the talker. He's the one that doesn't talk it. I can't talk. I'm a photographer to be talking and asking me all the questions. I thought he was... Why are you behind Jay? He's the doctor. He's the mathematician. He plays the violin. So... So much of the video. That's true. Who do you go on? First he's... He's... He's precise. Then he's talking about the camera you carry around with you all the time. Like a turan. I think it would look better if Tony was delivering a pizza. Turan. I never heard of Italian. Yeah. I got you. I should be delivering a pizza. Reporter, photographer. I should be delivering a pizza. I should be delivering a pizza. I should be delivering a pizza. I should be delivering a pizza. I should be delivering a pizza. You dress up for the occasion. You got the camera around. No. You're drunk biker. Who cares? I need to roll on some reviews to discuss this. Get a bottle, wait a minute. Let's talk to this guy. I'm the photographer. He does his phone. They still don't have to do that. I... We can just be right. You hear a very loud television in the back. I'm not on the door. Louder in the doorbell. All right. All right. Are ready. You hear a shouting from behind the door. And the door opens up and there is probably one of the most unattractive women you've ever seen in your life. Got to be pushing 400 pounds. Nice. Cigarette dangle from her mouth. Curlers in her hair. In her early 50s or so. What the hell do you want? William Hamson. William Hamson, is he available? That no good son of a bitch. If you find him, you tell him. His mama never wants to see him again. Once the last time you see him, we talked about him. What are you friends of his? No. We need to talk to him from the... Playing pretend. Yeah. He says the same guy on the car. Oh. Go ahead with your stuff to be. Oh. He sounds like you're scared of her. You want to have more? He is scared of her. And okay. I don't know what's going on man. Go ahead. We're doing a report. What? No. We're looking for it. We're looking for it. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. And the teacher said run. What about rolling? I mean rolling fast talk would be manipulation plus subterfuge. Can I assist on that? One for your equipment bonus of looking like a re-border. You can assist on that. You just wore your five dice. You said you weren't wearing a camperman before, right? Yeah. Or thick ones. Oh yeah. I don't understand this, but fast talk has manipulation plus persuasion. Whoa. And subterfuge as the listener. What? Because subterfuge is like street smarts. You're a bull crap in me. All right. I have three successes. Go ahead. How many guys do you got three successes? You wasn't a mean. He was a different role. No. You're using manipulation and persuasion. Manipulation plus persuasion. And then that makes more sense. Yes. A lot more. No. That's all right. So five dice. No. Don't reroll it. You're using manipulation plus persuasion. Yeah. Take a picture. Right. You get three extra dice because of his success. He lends himself well to the story. I was a photographer, man. I want to take a picture of even of what that is. Can we take a picture of you for our magazine? The wounded citizen of big government? I want to get these cookies out of these guys. Oh. Look at you. Damn. One more. Look at you. Oh. He. Shite. Wow. That's a lot of success. How many successes? You needed it because she is one in posing, intimidating lady. And she normally is not used to being a fast dog. You. Excuse me, my lovely lady. Oh. Oh, man. But beautiful woman. So imagine a zine article. Is your father home? It's supposed to be a versus. Yeah. She rolled. She got four successes. Yeah. We tell her her dice. So it was a tough. An article for the paper. An exceptional success. We did. To beat her and you did. We tell her do you want to ask for the paper and how we lost his business? You might get your picture on the paper and that's probably what? More and more. Yeah. And that would be a two page spread. That's why I'm talking. That's why I'm talking. He said, that's why I'm talking. He said. Centerful. Much different than the two page spread. Damn. I haven't seen him for a couple years. He's been gone. I don't know. He's always trouble. Just always trouble. I really wish I could help you. I think he's probably lives on the street now or with friends. I don't know what he does. Because my name is side street. William Hopson. Billy. Billy. We were doing some. You were doing some research. I was looking at William Hopson. What? Sorry. He's looking at your side street, Billy. Oh. In the room? No. Billy. William Hopson. Oh. Oh. Well. I'm just saying. She says that if she sees him. She will have him get in touch. Do you have a card or something or a number that she could... Oh. Does he have anything else? Oh, exactly. Can we see his old room? Trying to think of a ring that we could get in this. He just kept on her job. Yeah. We were doing some research, you know, for our article and what that. And we found out that he spent some time in the mental hospitals. Is that true? Do you know anything about that? Yeah. When everything fell apart, he really had a hard time when his partners died. Yeah. He went through a bad phase. I really... You know, for that I feel sorry for him. But he was really no good. He's a bad scene from the start. And, you know, he was just... He was always bad news. But I do. He really... He had a rough time with that. I ask her, "Does anybody else who is associated with the business that would know about the business that we can talk to you since we can't get a hold of him?" It was just the four of them. You have any contact with them at all? No idea. What do you say? No. I haven't talked to him in over two, two and a half years since he got out of the mental hospital. He visited him a couple times when he was in there. But after he got out, I told him he didn't have a spot here. I just... I couldn't... He's just bad news. But she gave us names of the people who he was partnered with. That was in the art world. It was in the art world because it was from the story. It was like a make up three names for you, but... It was a total of four of them. You know, that was the four that owned the company, the business, and they were all... That was who worked there. There were no other employees. All right. I'm like listening in my little earpiece like one or is it? I don't think I have any other questions. Yeah. No, I got nothing for you. No one has anything? I guess. Take a picture. Okay. This case. Yeah. Let's take a landscape. It's not portrait. Why don't we... All right. Sorry for bothering you. I'll give her my Google number. And yeah, if you happen to come in contact with us, you know, please let us know. We really want to get the story out. She tells you that if she sees him, which he doubts, she will because they left on... You know, they left on pretty much bad terms, right? And there was no mistaking that she did not want him to come back home again. And that's when she lost... What? She thinks she lost him forever. Why don't you take him out for us? He's a bad seed. She said basically he was a bad seed. He hung her on bad people. He did drugs. He was always getting in fights. There was people, you know, around all hours of the night. Just bad news. But you look inside the house and there's a TV set blaring. And there's a bunch of, you know, blood or visor. Yeah, exactly. Bear bottles lying around and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. So... But... Yeah, it's her point of view. All right. We'll leave. Okay. So you get back to the common room. Yeah. Find anything out? Michael. You should go find anything out. You found out that you don't have nearly enough information. No, I need a lot of deeper facilities than this. So... I gotta go visit the local, just kind of room. Plus French. Just kind of bring my brain. So... Do you care still? Yeah, I should still be able to get in there. I think you're gonna be right, sir. You're gonna give my... What? Side truth calling. Yeah. Might be right. You get like a cookie or something. See, I was looking at it all along his record. Oh, crap it. I did it, huh? What? No, I was gonna ask you if you had any tattoo. You guys on the picture? Yes. That's why he wanted to know. She helped you fight her. Do you think? Well, any of that stand out. Yeah. On his face. He can't ask that. And we're at real stuff. No. Um, let's say in retrospect, since he really can't ask that. But say that when she was talking about how bad he was, she mentioned the fact that, um, you know, he hung out with a bunch of tattoo freaks. Yeah. They got him into it. Yeah, and they got him into it. And so she mentioned the fact that he had tattoos. She didn't say specifically had one on his face. Right. Right. But she did say... You could... You were just, um... You knew. Hey, everyone's well. Like Bill and Squirrel finds a nut. That was the... When you guys were... Well, we only knew Billy's last name. We have William Harrison. Well, we don't have Billy. No. If only. Sorry. Internal. Model on. Go ahead. What am I missing? Exactly. Go ahead. Oh, carry on. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. No, he's just... Is he gonna play with me? No, I'm not. Oh, he... He has knowledge we don't. Right. Sometimes it's... It's one of those things you can't possibly explain because you have to give too much away. All right. Well, what I want to do... Exactly. But you guys came across it soon enough. So, you're back at the common room. It's probably at this point. Probably at 9.30 during the evening or so. So, it's getting a little bit late in the evening. Don't should be late. And, you know, you could place a call, Michael, to one of your... Ajias Kaidoru members, right? One of the members that are a little bit higher in status than you are, who's perhaps running this... this artifact show that's traveling from city to city and is currently at Cleveland Museum of Art. You get him at his hotel room. He's staying at a hotel on the east side, closer to university circle. And, actually, it probably wouldn't be the east side. It'd probably be in university circle area. He's probably in a hotel there. And he answers and he tells you that... You know, tomorrow morning he can get you into the Cleveland Public Library. There's... In some of the archival areas underneath the library, they've got some areas you would find very interesting. It might help you in your research of this... Do you reveal him? That there's an artifact? Or are you just telling me you need to do research? I just tell him I need access to follow up on a few leads and I just need our resources and thank you very much. Sure. Feel free to make my name for that guy in the future. And some personality traits, because he'll be one of your main contacts going forward. Very helpful. Alright. So, 10 o'clock. Yeah. That's what it looks like. He likes to do anything I say. That's his personality. That's totally awesome. He's extremely thorough and lives only. Right, ever. Ever has been known to make a mistake. Poor betraying. Poor betraying. Well, the first place you should start looking for Side Street Billy would be asking the park edges around, because he... Well, he comes for handouts. Yeah, that's... Here. So, I mean, that's where we first spotted him. We've seen him before. Well, to be fair, it was at the Market Avenue wine bar. And he kind of... A lot of times was found in that side street. Right. And you look here on the map. It's that area. Yeah. It's that area right... That blank area right there at the edge of the board. That is a... Mike, can you move your notepad back a little bit? See where it ends? And see where there's a bricked-off door there? And then there's two more doors there and there that he would knock on to get his handouts during the day. So, you know that he's often found... Does it make sense or not? Yeah, no. That entered the job describing it. No, no. It's a bricked-off entranceway. And then there's two doors. And he would always come to the doors from the alley, along with some other vagrants and ask for handouts. And sometimes you've got the idea in just the two we've been here in Cleveland. And the two weeks he'd been working at the Market Avenue that he was pretty bad in heroin. And so, either he would be totally out of it on a heroin high. I mean, just seeing different things and not even really there. Or he'd be withdrawing because he didn't have the money to pay for the heroin. Which would put him in a bit of a surly mood. When John Beamer saw him at the start of the story, just yesterday afternoon, and he came to the door and said, "Why do you got that glass in your face?" That was... He was high. He was definitely on a heroin high. And Beamer recognized that as being the case. He was not withdrawing at that point. But he seemed frightened or just... There was something about John Beamer that scared him to some extent. And he stumbled away without getting any food at all. So you know that he's often... He doesn't live in this side street, but can often be found. And he lived like in 15 different places usually. You know, they usually have different places that they live. So he's often in this side street. And this was the building that he came to for food. There isn't a alleyway behind the Great Lakes Brewing Company. So right now it's just the great... The Market Avenue wine bar that he would come to. So we can go there. That's close to the public. Close to the public. But still there would probably be employees there. At the very least emptying out the food. Because I don't know. Yeah, there's work on those big don things going on. Yeah. Let's go there and see if anybody's seen him. I mean, since it's the end of the day, everything else is going on. Everything else is scheduled for the Market Avenue wine bar. So we go to the Market Avenue wine bar. Wow. And there are a couple people that are emptying the freezers. And they say that they haven't been here all day. They've been in and out throughout the day. And... 11. Just about 11. And they have not seen him. He hasn't shown up. Hasn't shown up today. But again, we've only been here for a couple hours after we're now at the freezers and what not. So... So we go in the back alley and check around us. Are there any big rooms? Is he crashed in the corner or some of his friends? The alleyway this evening is empty. Hmm. Find a hobo. That's my hobo. What do you want to do when we find him a side-desk question that he probably isn't going to be there now? You might know stuff that we don't know. No, and it's barely a shoe could tap into it. So what do you think kind of happened? Do you think this place... I'm going to say you guys go back up to the common room at this point. Yeah, we'll probably go back up to the common room. What was the question? This... Where do I think... Or what do you think's going on? You got... Something happened at the bike shop. Whether it's the local... His partners were killed so that they could get the land to build for the B... Vitamin B company. The honeycomb building. That's what I believe happened. Yeah, but I'm wondering why they wanted that site once or so. Why they wanted that site once or so special about that site. Well, we obviously went out of search if it was anything unusual. Yeah. They went way out of the way to get the site. All right. We call it a night. We got a lot of things to do tomorrow. Go ahead. Did you get something else? Sure. If as long as everyone's going to bed for the night. All right. All right. In that case, I would like... Nope. We're going to start a large encounter. It's going to take an hour. Yeah. Yeah, don't mind it. No. Everyone goes to bed for the night in their condo. And I would like everyone to make, first of all... We probably have Tony and I something because as the people that are on the second floor, we're there to protect the people above. So we probably have something in place. Cameras. To monitor the hallways and stuff. Cameras. We're going to go bust things. Someone walks down the hall. They hit a light switch. Yeah. I mean, nothing. Nothing. Just some kind of warning system if someone is, you know, breaking into the area. Okay. If you know that nobody but us should be going up and down, up to the hallway or up and down. You shouldn't. Those stairs are locked. You know, that door has a keypad. And you have locks. It is also, you know, deadbolt didn't lock. And so you have the waiting to get in. And it's pretty protected. I mean, these are condos that are in a area that can be very gentrified. And very artsy, but also very scary and, you know, drug related and gang violence as well. So. Cool. Cleveland. So as you rest for the night, everyone is people who. In a deep sleep to make a perception role, minus three dice. Oh, well, then that's very easy. If it's zero, you'll still get to make a chance. Oh, it's a composure, whatever. Exactly. And because you're sleeping, it's minus three dice. Can we use well? No, we can kind of drill yourself in your dreams to wish for more better. Minus three dice, you said? Yeah. Oh, thank you. The fries are still dicing. No. I got two. Minus. Nothing. Nothing. Oh, that was such a zero, too. Nothing. Nothing? Okay, we're all dead. So everyone sleeps. And then everyone make a perception role instead of minus three dice. This time roll minus one die. Okay. The fire alarm? No. But. Cool. Cool. It's zero. Except. Good. Three successes. Wow. I have one. He got three. How many? I got a good night's sleep. Oh, zero? Yeah, zero. I have like a light. Oh, two. All right. So what you hear, everyone except for Tony, you hear very vaguely in your dreams and let's all say you rolled one or two successes. It was vague. You rolled over and barely heard it. And above two successes, you heard it pretty clearly and it will be startled. You hear glass shattering in a window that sounds like it's in the alleyway. So thinking like in your head is you're raising and you're all thinking this that have woken up, you're thinking window in the alleyway that's got to be. You know, one of the doors that have windows on them because one of them does have windows on them. So you think it's the single door that's right at the very edge there. Well, actually right in the middle, I should say. And you think that that's got to be the window. I mean, it's that clear to you. And then you also realize that you are having a hard time breathing. And you're incredibly, I mean, incredibly dizzy. Like, you sit up in bed in the room, swims around. Over the backside. Oh. And you realize with a start that there's something very, very, very wrong here. And you start running to your door, you know, and you each open your door at different times and go out in the hallway and you're just coughing and gagging. And you're realizing that you have inhaled a lot of nasty something or another. The damage for you to go on first with you. I'll accept whatever damage you want to go on our way. I'm just, if I live with my three detect that, okay, I hear that and I'm aware of this. I'm going to make a roll to kind of read it like, you know, an oxide go to the window and open up a window instead of going to a hallway. Yes, you may. All right. I would say that would be intelligence and wits. Yeah, that would know. It'd be wits in composure. What's a composure? Which I think is smart. Yeah. And if anyone wants to make that roll to not go to the hallway, I just thought you'd want to leave the area. But you teach your characters. So whatever you want. Okay. Three. Four. Six. Okay. So you run to the window and throw open. Are you on the market avenue side or the hall or the, the, the. The alley side. Alley side. I'm sorry. Alley side of things. I'm sorry. Yeah. You were definitely frontside. Your alley side. Okay. You're on the third floor both for you. You made it. Two successes. Okay. So you run to a window as well. Did you want to run to a window? No. Actually, I run to the hall and yell. I want to make sure everybody's away. And when I, when you yell, it is more of a hacking. Like, because you literally are just sucking in poison gas fumes. Your, um, your health is. Seven, I think. Three, four, seven, eight, eight. Okay. You have taken five. Bashing damage from the poison. Okay. Michael, you have taken. Now all your bashing is healed from earlier in the day. And how much, what is your health? Um, my health is. Determine. Uh, what's my size? Three. Five. Five. All right. So it's a total of seven. All right. Five bashing damage and two. Five bashing damages. You all woke up with a start. If someone would have woke up earlier, notice the change in the whatever. Uh, well, actually I don't want to tell you what it was because you never detected it. Not that, not the poison, but what would have woke you up. From, from that perspective, you don't know. But you all took five bashing damage. You're sucking air as, you know, traffic is, is very quiet right now on market avenue. Could you please make a perception check to minus where are you at? What's your health? Currently, um, well, I'm down five. My health is seven. Seven. So you're actually minus one on your role because the third last health square. If you cross it off, you know, if you, if you mark the next through it, you're minus one to your actions. Second, last one, your minus two, your actions. The last one, your minus three, your actions. So you're minus one to your actions. So it's a perception check. Minus one for that. And minus one because of the bad lighting in the alleyway. To minus two. When you get to your last three points, your minus one, two, and three. Yes. And you can mark off five right now for you, Tony. And you're still sleeping. All right. Oh, it's plus. You can literally die from carbon monoxide poisoning and never went down two. It's five. He's right across the hall. So I'm checking his door. We're going to stop with you going the hallway, coughing, yelling, trying to enforce voices. You can't draw any real good oxygen. I got a ton of room. Okay. Two successes. Two successes. You see a form dressed in rags leaving the alley and shooting up. So basically they're right here. They're in this back alley and they're shooting up West 26th Street, turning the corner out of the, out of the alley and away north on 26th Street. I see that right now. You see as you open the window and start coughing, as soon as the glass was shattered, you see what looks to be a vagrant leaving the scene. And Tony, is there a part of your escape? Um, yes, there's going to be one and we're going to do that all next week. He's helping. Helping us. Oh, he was probably jammed. I rolled the one. Be mine venom again. I won. Does anyone do this thing? No, he's. Oh my gosh. Yes. Sorry. Everyone, roll die 10, please. Oh, you too roll. Place two and three. Three. Would you roll my four? Four. Three. So Michael, Tony, Jim, Jay. Yeah, that's me. Okay. Michael, what did you learn about the story tonight? Well, that the high strangeness has been going on for at least three years. There's indications that this is something that is not been bigger than the recent disappearance of our twelve agents. It's actually been going on for three years. Okay. Tony, what did you learn about the story tonight? Oh, we learned a bit that Side Street Billy is actually the owner of a person that was building before the tea company took over. I think we learned a little bit more about what that idol is and some reason on that. And we learned a lot about the CEO. In fact, she's got some of the same characteristics as Henry. What do you know more tonight than you know I have more questions? You were answers? Yeah. It looks like we had some new developments in this case and some other ways we can, you know, pursue this. But it's definitely a lot more people that we can kind of key tags on and kind of mess them. You know, what's going on interrogate them, question them. And that apparently William Hopson is Side Street Billy. And he can kind of have premonitions supposedly. You can't see the future. He might be another pawn in the sauce, his fingers. Or maybe not a pawn, maybe he's a knight or bishop on a chessboard or a rook. So I don't know, this is a lot more questions. But I think we'll have some more answers. Jay, next time. I know, his mom's a queen. I think, you know, what's with his name. When Billy or William was in the psych ward, somebody was doing magic on him there. That he was seeing bugs or he was actually seeing bugs but they were being hidden from the rest of the people that they thought he was insane. So somebody at Vitamin B has the ability to muck about with his mind. Or something that was done to let the scar be. Potentially, something either scarred him magically. But up till now, all we've seen from Vitamin B is these B possess people. We haven't seen them do anything overtly magical. A lot of weird things. But besides being inhabited by bees. Well, that, yeah. I mean, admittedly that's magical, but they weren't affecting other people's behavior. They were just really weird. It seemed pretty normal. No. I'm saying it's definitely, I mean, even frost. Well, they did seem pretty normal except for, you know, keeping. I think what he, you take away the sauce. Yeah, I'm saying what you're saying is that you couldn't detect that there. I mean, besides it can be a flat affect. Right. It wasn't much to really go for. Go on. Right. And in here, I'm saying somebody was doing some magic. And thus it was Benjamin, which we know is an overt mage. Somebody at the bee company also has the power to do magic. Other than this weird bee possession thing. And he couldn't be just a random or rogue talent. Is that his ability? Potentially. Potentially he was, yeah. Maybe he's got a power of his own and he was seeing things connected with the murder. Like Chew does where, you know. So you can read people and you see things like rituals, et cetera. Well, maybe he was seeing bees and bugs because he was pre-cagging and will kill his partners. That's a possibility. But some other power was there involved. Either whether it was Billy or someone had to be dead. Well, he seems like he has a power now because he said that the whole thing was a glass. Right. Definitely a good fall on that. Billy had a blank shop and all the people there died of carbon monoxide. But he wasn't there. Wait, wait. And he survived it, right? He was involved. He's a surviving person at the bike shop where all his partners died or whatever, carbon monoxide poisoning. And now we've just been carbon monoxide poisoned. And it looks like he may have been running away from the place after it happened. Kind of a coincidence. Well, yeah. But, you know, what I was saying, Chew's idea about pre-cog is good because maybe even back then he saw that something was going to happen. So he wasn't there to die with the rest of his partners. And then in the mental institute he was seeing bees and bugs because that's, you know, again. And we definitely know that he warned John about the glass. So there's a good bet that he's a pre-cog of sometimes. And actually breaking the window down might be what we'll try and attempt to see. So, yeah, and then he wasn't breaking the window, which is what woke us and then he was trying to let the air out and he was stopping somebody else. That's a possibility. But yeah, this is your time to guess because that's all I got. Okay. So, and then the last, so everyone during this learning curve time, I'm just going to Jim because he doesn't remember it. Or maybe we didn't do it with him before. This is the time when you kind of make your guesses as to what's happening in the story line and what you believe is going on or what you've learned. Now, we do inverse order, so we start with Jay. Oh, this is no. And no, this is old. I thought we did double. This is, now you talk about, did you learn something about the supernatural tonight that you did not know before? Did you learn, so this is your, this is the area of practical experience. I guess I learned that Benjamin is obviously, has a religious background as well as his nature calling it the, the relic that he found. It seemed to be heavily tied into Christian beliefs and mythology. It seemed to be very strongly spiritual, right? And, yeah. Well, not just spiritual, but specifically Christian. Yes. Or specifically, appears Catholic. Okay. Yes, they're Christian. Sure. Okay. So, the one thing you think you learned tonight, supernaturally, was that a mage can have, religious beliefs as well. Right. It's not strictly nature, nature-based. Right. Which is how you thought of him beforehand. Yeah. And then, in fact, it could be a description. Shoot. Did you learn anything at all tonight regarding the supernatural? Instead, a philly seems to have psychic abilities, and he's able to pick up on certain things. Um, whether or not that's because someone did something to him, or, you know, something he's always had. You believe he's a supernatural being, though. No, he's not a supernatural. He has supernatural powers. What I meant was, you don't believe it was just some drug-induced state that gave him that pre-cog. Like, it wasn't just some coincidence. You think it has to do with magic? Right. Okay. It could have been that he was taking drugs to dull it. So, it wouldn't bother. It might be too overwhelming. It could have been, like me, he takes drugs to triggering, which is, you know. Well, he did have that vision when he was, supposedly, on drugs. He's always on drugs. Yeah. I'm sure he was on drugs when he was in the Institute, too. You know, they probably had him hopped up on all kind of crap. Charlie, did you learn anything regarding the supernatural tonight, in this, in the game? Anything that they do that you didn't know before, anything that you think would aid your group in the future, 'cause you're saying, "We know that we know the supernatural can do this, so it's a way to protect yourselves or to ready yourselves in the future." And if you don't, that's okay, 'cause sometimes there's not that much that gets revealed in the night. You might think of something, but if you don't, it's okay to pass. Yeah, it means I've taught my head nothing that hasn't been mentioned yet. Okay. And then you started it off, Michael, so you'll finish the magical part of it. Supernatural, right? Well, one thing is that we need to get better either warnings or protections or defenses against them. And if it means that we have to start following some protocols or whatever, that, you know, we are in some type of combat zone and we have to start treating it like one, so we're a little bit more cautious. It's always good to be attacking, that means you're getting close. 'Cause we're pretty sure, sure. I say it's a good indication that the Empire knows we're here. Yeah. Where we meet, who we are and where we live. Did we give that information to anybody? Your deep cover. Where did this attack come from, mister? See, that's where I was, that's where I'm going. Is that, you know, now there's usually some... Well, see, that's why I was worried about it. [laughter] It didn't seem like that was the... There's the... There's the B Queen. Or the Hive, or whatever you want to call it. There is Benjamin, and I still think I can't pin it down, but I like, there's another... I think there's another player that I just don't know whether that's us, whether it's... Never, I don't know, it just seems like the supernatural is very good at sticking to the shadows and hiding it. I didn't think it all the way through, but yeah, how did we... Are we being pursued? I mean, you know, we tried to be... You felt relatively confident leaving Benjamin's, just as a reminder. Right. That you were not followed. Right, 'cause that's one of the things I wanted to try to pay attention on. You were totally careful, and you wanted to see what I am. Well, the only difference is that we do have an artifact from that. Well, see, I'm not interested. You covered up an oxide poison? Nothing rubbed you. It does not sound like Benjamin's ever. No, but it seemed like a no. Like, you don't even know. Like, if mom would be the kind of person who would get on the phone and she didn't seem like she... I won't do that. She didn't seem like she wasn't anything that you worried about anyone who follows us. No. You know what? It moved our headquarters. It's got to be Billy. I mean, we once saw his mom, and, you know, he was with business partners before that, you know, died of carbon dioxide poisoning. But Billy... He's got to be him. I don't know why I don't know. That serves two purposes. One, it makes a noise that would maybe wake us and rouse us up. And two, if he wants to kill us with poison, you know, you don't want to put up events. You don't want to, you know, give me a transfer of escape. You'd break the window in a lot of the air. No, I mean, why would you break... If you were trying to kill people in the building, why would you break the window? The only thing I could think of is if he was... You might break the window to be able to put something in and see it so that you... Which window is guessing? And it's around four. Like, at the restaurant. That leads to the kitchen area, that door. One of the two that lead out. There's a glass, stained glass window. It's kind of thick, and it was shattered out. I'm guessing that he came here to help us out, that he was not one of the guests. Yeah, but like, it's a guest. Lastly, would you like us to give you a list of things that were there's no way in hell we're ever going to do next week? Because that's pretty much what you do each week. I've got some good stuff because you asked Jay to get back to you regarding some stuff so I can work on that, and I've got a pretty good idea of some of the... The phone call, the salesman, the... Yeah. You know, that seems the most likely. And then in search of... Well, we'll answer the search clue of our house for our apartments for closures. Well, we have to survive. Yeah. Surviving is important. Good job, guys. All right. That's the end. [Music] Thanks for listening to Nights of the Night actual play podcast. Visit kotnpodcast.com for more information on this and other adventures. Where you will find character stats, photos, storytelling, props, and even a form for comments and suggestions. Or you could email us directly and add to feedback@kotnpodcast.com. All music for this podcast has been created and performed by Zen Audio Smith. If you'd like custom professional music created for your podcast or business, please visit ZenaudioSmith.com. That's all for now. 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