Team S.I.R.E.N. pays a visit to the strange beekeeper, Mr. Benjamin and quickly discover it is unwise to cross a supernatural being on their own home turf. Michael and Chu are drawn into a dream world and must make a choice that will have unforseen consequences, such as bringing the rest of the team face to face with Benjamin Plantard himself. Will Team S.I.R.E.N. escape the dream? Will their choices reveal their virtues or vice? Listen to find out...
Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 08: Shit Luck: Ep. 9: "Wrap Up and Discussion"
[Music] Hello, and welcome to Night of the Night Actual Play podcast. This world of darkness storyline should lock what's written and run by our storyteller Scott. [Music] And now, please enjoy chapter four wrap up in discussion. [Music] Alright, so this is going to be chapter four of World of Darkness story shit lock. [Music] My name is Mike, and I'm playing Michael Clay, who is an academic adventurer who deals in artifacts. I'm by playing a shoe park, a rescue, a special investigator for the FBI. Alright, and they open the gate and they walk through it. You are now all together in the same place at the point. I think we can confirm some things because you lost. [Music] I'm just going to pass it around because this is your description, and words don't do justice. We could not take a picture of him, none of the electronics worked. He didn't seem particularly afraid of my gun, although I didn't overtly... I might kind of sort of suggest a threat in saying that he put one of our friends in the hospital to what he said. He's just a pawn in the big game. Oh, there, now he's always bad. Okay. He also says he's got what it takes to take out the honeycomb, and he doesn't need our assistance. And vaguely threatened us, and by the way, jabbing needle in your eye is not a fun thing. And in this case, it didn't really work. I couldn't get a read out of it. Obviously, he's way more powerful than him. He also failed my role. But I don't describe that, I just say he was more powerful. Luckily, I cut the picture off that, at least we do appreciate it. I know you would. So, yeah, he's not a creepy looking guy that would stand out in a bar without the bees on it. He talked to you? Yes. Basically, telling us to get off his property and we don't belong here. And then... She's got the honeycomb hideout taken care of. Yeah, but he didn't necessarily admit, but he never contradicted the suggestion that he was the one who took control of Ethan and took out Henry. He never admitted to it? He never admitted, but he never denied it either. It was just, these people are pawns, and I do what I have to do, and it's none of your damn business, and I am above your question. You have no right in questioning me. Things of that nature. And he definitely had control of the bees. They seemed to respond to his... My ass hurts. He seemed to... More bashing. He seemed to respond to his emotions. The more upset he got, the more agitated they got. It's an important thing, but I am thinking Earth age is some type of somebody who has power. So burns house now? I also asked to see his hand in which he showed me, and there was no stingers out of it or anything, but... Dude's got, you know... You can create nazes out of it. You can hear so. So that's great. That's great. I mean, do you agree with that, and do you remember anything else that occurred? I mean, you guys just have any questions of it and answer them. Well, what's our condition, other than being wounded and blown out into the front lawn? We were blocked. Just out of the gate into the side area. Just home. For the record, our number one concern was where were you guys, and he told us you were out. You were kicked out of the mason. We were covered in that. See, he didn't lie. No, he didn't lie. No, he didn't lie. That was the first question. Just so you know. So how'd you guys get hurt? There's a giant bee that came right for us, and I was defending Chu here, and I took the first hit. I gotta say, if it wasn't for John here, I wouldn't have made it to me. No, I... Well, since I'm not proud of my choice, I will not discuss it. Pride, is it your vice? I know, but since it was... I mean, with pride, you might not want to tell the truth, but you know, with greed. Right. 'Cause I'm like... You still haven't. Oh, I do. Oh, yeah. Wow. Wow, that's real. It's exactly what I described. I was hoping I could get a picture of it before I didn't print it out 'cause I didn't... I didn't think you were actually gonna, you know... Ask her about it. Make that picture. You're going to amaze me. There was a lot of things that had to happen tonight, where it's a really play out, so I didn't print out a picture. Well, no, but I didn't want one. But if it's an actual... Do you realize that? I could have had the answer. My work here is done. It's okay, but we'll tell about all the cool stuff we took. Yeah. Why don't you guys describe what happened to that? Okay, you know, our concern was you guys, but apparently you were shopping or something. The issue was that... I don't know if you noticed in the ground, but I was trying to carve arrows in the maze trying to... Since I anticipated this... No, we didn't get to the area that you were lost in. Oh, fair enough. You were lost in the area? Well, what happened was we rounded the corner and then we found ourselves in a strange meadow. And there was a dreamlight state. And at least for what happened to me, I saw the gate back. Can we move out to the car show that I can get away from you? Sure. As we're walking, we moved out to a gate and there's the choice of, you know, thinking the prudent decision, which is the gate. Or there was an artifact sitting at a table. You know, and well, you got far enough away, just like that. And it was one of those things where, you know, it was kind of a Sophie's choice of, you know, which way they go with your virtue or your vice. And I wrestled with it for a little bit and then I decided to, you know, leave it a little bit to fate to see if... This isn't exactly one of the things that my whole thing is about. It's finding artifacts on the field and recovering them and it's the key to getting any type of status in any type of door. So, gotcha. My crash. So I figured, yeah, I'm always, you know, he's in his room state. He's looking at a piece of paper and I'm open. I'm like, just to know. So... And then apparently I got shot out like a potato cannon. I'm through the thing and looking and getting more hurt than what I did. What did you say? A small statue of an ancient person or a god presumably with a beard of bees. Well, this guy didn't have a beard, but he was pretty much covered. I don't know enough about it. I'm going to have to do a little research on it, but yeah, it's, um... The old was deep. I wasn't, to be honest, I thought it was going to be some type of glamour illusion that, uh... That basically I have chosen poorly and not enjoyed that. Well, I can get some information for you on that, excuse me. If anybody wants to see his, the idol he found, I'll print it out for next week, but it's... Oh my god, it's hideous. Well, he didn't. I told you it was an ancient figure looking like it was some kind of, you know, maybe a monk or a priest-like figure with a beard of bees. It looks like a lawn gnome. No, not really. That's what you covered. Well, it was an artifact of power. He hopes... Can you do anything with his artifacts right now? Yeah. Or it's a troll doll. Oh, there he goes. And bees based it. I'm sorry, what? Is there anything special you can do with it? I don't know what you should do. We should get like a troll doll and call them some artifacts. Split the hair. It's the purple troll doll. As we're walking out. Find a way. Can I do a little quick, uh, little magic on my eye? That survived the batch. And, um, just maybe try to, uh, try to log in to their wireless. Let's see if I can crap a little security wall. It was wireless. The arcade too. The arcade. Was it catea? Was it catea? Was it catea? Or E.W. Or it could go from there to yours. Does he have, like, power lines and phone lines going to his house? We said that there was a wireless, uh... Um, no, he does not happily enough. Good question. That was a good question. Well, this street seems to be, um... We should have a long time ago. Yeah, it's old and they seem to, like, they seem to go up except for him. They seem to have taken a lot of pride in not having street lights and, you know, a bunch of unsightly cables. And what not? So your, your guess is, you've seen neighborhoods like this in other cities, in other areas. That is probably submerged. There probably are some types of warriors going into his home, but they're probably not overtly placed. Anyway, if I can maybe take a little stab at it. So, he says Belgium guy's bad? Sure. Um, apparently, he's a lot more. He's not nearly the old hunter who's still... He's obviously a different kind of boy. I was guessing that he was a powerful mage that was so careful. He said he was trying to kill him. He said that Ethan was a pawn in the game of chess. Did he imply that the other missing Valkyrie people were also pawns? He didn't come up. He's quite belligerent wanting to cut the conversation. To your point as well. Wasn't like he had 30 questions with... I got a list here, could you? Right. Could you please answer these now? He pretty much had the end. It was leave or fight is what it came down to. So we chose to leave. He had a swarm behind him. Just to make sure you guys are safe. I mean, that was ultimately our... Well, that's good. Thank you. But next time we... I want to ask that question. Are you good for more of it? Before we handle your situation, as you're walking back to the car, your phone rings. It's what's her name? Oh, you're good. What number is it? Oh, it's a local number. You don't recognize it. But it's coming in and... Is it coming in and the false number you gave out? What number is it coming in? Would you be able to tell? Yeah. Okay. And the answer is yes. Let's try honeycomb hideout people. Yeah. What was the doctor's here? He's very... Well, you're not bad with people. No, I wanted to... Anyway, I need to answer the phone, I guess. Sorry. There's monkeys in the neighborhood. I wanted to interrogate him in one of those sealed off quarantine rooms. In case it's escaped from his body somehow. They would be in the room. Or, you know, there's a place to meet that we could... I would say that we could... Well, if nothing else you could tell him you want to meet with him. Set up an appointment and tell him you'll get back to him on the location because you're changing hotels for whatever reason. Right. And then we're going to arrange a specific location at a later time. But once we talk to Dr. Looshus over here that... No. You know? Is it? One, maybe two? Yeah. One o'clock in the end. Well, you did stop it. Yeah, somebody say it's about... That's good. 1.32 o'clock. We'll say in the afternoon at this point. I know. I'm seeing how much time they've left the night before. Well, we have time to have the interview with John. If you want more, we can handle... I just think if you want more time. He's probably going to call the interview and trick up the puns? I'll answer the phone now, but we'll take care of it. Well, yeah, we're all just... But I asked him specifically, I said you have a friend of ours that is in the hospital because of your actions and he basically said that just a pun. A pun in the game. He's never been expected to be accountable for his actions and works along those lines. To Benjamin? Yes. Somebody never expected him to be accountable or he never expected to be... Oh, he's not accountable. He's not accountable. That's all there is to it. Oh, he is not. I don't expect to be held accountable for my actions. Was the direct quote, which I'm sure you could actually make. Alright, how do you make him? That means a memory check just to know the... My character would probably get a better memory than I would. Intelligence plus composure is remembering. So if you want to remember something specifically, it would be quite easy to make that role and I can give you an exact rundown if you want to know what was said. Loan success. And no time has passed, literally. So I know my answers here. So what do you want to know? Also success? Well, both of us got our success. So we both remember quite well. I don't want to remember. I mean, I don't... Just testing? Well, you're exactly what you said. Exactly what you said. So that would be... Right. So you don't need any additional... At this point, I don't think so. But what exactly are his actions? That he did not... He did not say. In numerates. I suggested that they were to control Ethan and go after Henry and... He didn't disagree. He did not deny. What did he say about that? But, you know, you knew that he'd confirm. He simply said his actions are not coming. And they also... He said these are conspiracies upon conspiracies. You know, you are foot pawns in the game. He actually sent it like this on a much more annoying voice. Yeah. And we said that, you know, you're pawns in the game. You have nothing that you can offer, Em. What do we know about the occult? For instance, is it common for mages of power to be able to take out electronics without... I would say... I mean, time to make it a culprit. I mean, in some cases, like in some stories, for instance, in Dresden, it's a by-product of magic. Is that the case? You could make it a cult role. It'll be wits because you're trying to come up with something on the fly that you remember as opposed to intelligence where you're actually researching it. I would think. I'm not quite sure, but that seems to make sense to me. I struggle with the... Sometimes the pairings of these talents. I would... Understand why? A lot of garbage. I don't know. Abilities and... I have much smaller dice while I'm rolling. I only have three. But... Don't ask me, you know, in success. Well, it just wasn't your thing. The mage is an electronics. I mean, come on. Well, no, I'm so... I've been pushing it back. I've been pushing it back. Actually, the occult is my thing. So... I know it is, but I've met this particular part of it. Well, there's a cult in it. I've been pushing the mage thing. It's an actual human caster. Oh, which? How does your conspiracy feel about which is, Michael? They're not fans. Oh, not big fans at all, are they? No. That doesn't mean that you don't have to be a big fan or not. Well, you know what? In general, I think it's something along the lines of burn, which is burn. Burn, baby. Yeah, they're not fans. But... I believe... That's the way... That's the way... You're talking about the sword... Great, great group of the... Right. Angels Kider. I'm the scroll. Right. You realize there are... They're an ends to a means. Or an ends to a means. Or an records test new finds to deal with and learn how to use them. I'm an engineer. Right. I make things go. All right. Does anyone else want to know about majors and electronic equipment and try to make a role based on their whole knowledge? Yeah, echo, echo the success. I know. But someone might get two successes. Or a three. Or a four. Or a four. And have more information. Do you have any skill in area, Chup? No. Isn't there, like, devices that can block cell phone signals and maybe scramble devices? Oh, sure. Technology? Technology? Yeah, sure. Technology, absolutely. You know, if you want to look into the occult side of things, you can make an occult plus which role and see if you know more than Jonathan does. Okay. Okay. Okay. You read something somewhere in some occult? Don't. A hairy Dresden book. A hairy Dresden book. And you were able to remember that you do think there are spells which can-- Okay. So it's not a side effect, but I think it would have to be an attempt. Right. Well, that's what you remember. Right. But John, who seems to have a good memory for these things, recalls reading something specifically about a witches or mages, whatever you prefer to call them, whatever works for you, have schools of magic and-- So lovely. I'm sorry. I just remembered that, you know, the whole dagger with the whole knowledge type of thing. I forgot to add that. So if I may roll over. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Hey. Success. So you had the same amount of information that one success that John or Jonathan or Jay had. So John Beamer says that there are schools of magic in one of the schools that he remembers reading about. This could all just be conjecture. It could be wrong. Right. But it discusses how mages protect their sanctums, their hollows, their property. And there is a school of magic specifically on protecting your home. And perhaps this mage had something along those lines that interfered with the electronical devices. Which is what we tried to get a picture of him, to show the bar, to a tender, and we could telephoto lens. All right. So we're going to go out. Actually, we kind of assumed that since our phones weren't working to communicate. We're going to call the night here. Okay. And then what we're going to do is we're going to go through everyone rolled the item to talk about what they've learned this evening. This comes in the play of one on the-- Oh, if you look at your experience point sheet. I hand out guys. Right. When you look at that, there's a learning curve and stuff that you say throughout the value, but specifically at this end game point, play into what award you get for that type of experience. There's a learning curve column in your experience point sheet. And that's where this plays in. You roll 10. Yeah, but that's it. I did drill 10. Which they roll again. Okay. Eight. Five. Two. Two with a two, so we go actually two and two. Go around the board. Counter clockwise. Starting with-- I can't find my character sheet. But Jay or John at the end. You put it up or I could-- There you go. She's right there. I brought it. Just that. That thing. But then I guess that's what I was looking for. Oh, the experience. It could be about the story. So does learning? Just have to be about the supernatural. It could be about the story in general. The learning curve. Yes. It was what again? It's learning curve is specifically information about the story. Learning about the story itself. What have we learned? What events do you think? What do I think? You did that triggered the story's progression. No, no. More like how do you think the story is evolving? Evolving. I think that-- So if I think it's more, I give more experience. I think it's evolving. Great, Scott. I think that Benjamin is a friend or an enemy. I think that you're making leaps and conclusions about the story. But wouldn't you're giving more points to someone to point out? You're going to remember exactly what you said throughout an entire evening and what you said at the end. What am I awarding points? I can't remember what was that half an hour ago. One of my awarding points, something you said three hours ago that was a perfect tie-in. Now, you could also say things after that, things you learned about the supernatural. That plays into practical experience, which you all get points for. When you learn new things about practical, like dealing with the supernatural, you get additional practical experience. So it's two-fold here. Go ahead. Just as a group, I think we're up to five practical experience now. So if we want to read into how that's spent and anybody has any suggestions on it. Because it could both be spent as a group and learning for us and individually. It would help the group if I learned this. So I think that's something we should all try to look at before we play again. I think we got a lot of information tonight about-- Well, just not necessarily information, but I think verification of stuff we were guessing at. Which is that Benjamin is a mage and a caster of some type of power. And that he is going against the vitamin B company. And that he was the one that took out Henry using Ethan. Which was all things we were guessing at. And I think to some degree that was not necessarily verified, but it wasn't. I mean, he had a chance to deny any of that and he didn't. Right. Which, you know, leans towards verifying it. Because that could hold up in a court of law. It's a little bit less enigmatic. And this idea here between the talking point here is for you to make your assumptions. You know, you don't have to prove it to me. You're just trying to make what is your character believe right now for the story. I think all of that stuff is what he was leaning towards last week. And in his mind, that's all been determined. This is all a fact and this is all true. And we've got two different entities here. And one may be truly evil, which is the vitamin B company. But we've also got a mad, insane, powerful individual who's taking him out in a way that could kill many people along the way. They're useful and easy. Okay. So now, can you tell me what he learned about the supernatural as Jonathan being a member of Task Force Siren? What has he learned about the supernatural, you know, during these scenes tonight that he didn't know before? It seemed that his magic was emotionally charged and that his mental state and agitation and anger could increase the amount of energy and magic he had. The magic seemed to be tied to emotion in my character's mind. You thought that's what he witnessed. All right. John, story itself, you know, pieces being put together and then a supernatural occurrence that you think you've noticed tonight or learned tonight that you share with your teammates that you hopefully stuck away that if you meet this guy again, you know, it comes to fruition and you're more better protected or better prepared to deal with them. Go ahead. Continue from where he left off and that I think Benjamin is going to use potentially awesome when he said pawns to attack the B Company. It did cause that and it might not be a good idea to be hanging around employees of the B Company because they might be getting attacked or we might be used. All right. We should look at the ways to defend against the manipulated or whatever happened to Ethan. I would say that was his casting spell of some sort on Ethan by, you know, actually physical contact. All right. Is that your summary of storyline wise, what you learned tonight or what your character believes strongly tonight? Besides not reiterating what, Tom slash Jay has already said. Okay. And what do you think you've learned about the supernatural? Were your characters learned about the supernatural that you didn't know before? That if you were to approach something that happened again tonight, like next week, if you were to approach something, how would you play it differently because of something you learned tonight that let you know just how difficult, strange weaknesses strengths, you know, that kind of thing. I guess a weakness could be that it's not so much something that they chose to do what they're doing. It's just, that's what they do. Like you said, they're emotionally charged, so their choices aren't necessarily thought out. It's just something to do. So they're kind of reckless. Yeah. Michael. Well, this has been kind of a wake up call from Michael in the sense that he's been probably too much associated with the academic and the looking at artifacts and objects not really dealing directly with people or threats in the field. So perhaps some of his, he's been reminded that maybe he should pay attention more to his prudence than maybe some of his eagerness to get more information. Oh, good Lord, you're going to get some more slower in making decisions. No, that's not an issue, but it's slower. It's an issue of being more cautious and truthful and making sure you're making the right choice but forward. Okay. That's a personal thought. That's good. Personal thought. What do you think story-wise? Story-wise that maybe it's too quick, without this experience that I'm getting, you're making too many leaps or assumptions. Even though I wasn't there for it, the reports of Benjamin are not at all fitting into what I had already kind of imagined what he was going to be like. What do you think he was going to be? I thought he was going to be like an old generation hunter that, you know, this was kind of one of those last things to do to... Because while he is, you know, apparently dark and evil and has some powers or, and seems to be answering to an authority, you know, he says that he believes he will not be held accountable, which applies that there's a higher authority that he... Over answers to, and stuff like that, he has still lived apparently harmlessly in a community for quite some time. If all the neighbors know about him and really don't have any problem with him, anything else story-wise. I don't quite understand now who is the threat. I mean, it's not clear whether, you know, I'm not, you know, before I thought it was vitamin B was the threat. And now I don't know what really who the target is or what... If the mission is to find out where the Valkyrie members are, you know, it clearly, after experiencing this maze, after experiencing or hearing about the power of Benjamin, and apparently Benjamin is targeting his powers against vitamin B, there's, you know, I kind of feel like an ad in the light of giants here. That's right. Excellent. And then Supernatural, what do you think you've learned about the Supernatural tonight that you didn't know, and you would, you know, use in the future as knowledge? Take the blue pill. Right. You came over here scary gnome. Well, that's, yeah, who knows what that's going to be. Maybe that'll be a clue, and actually maybe there will be a clue to maybe this is some type of... I'm starting to think about what it could be. Right. I mean, a man with B's and a beard, and then the guy who controls B's, I can't help but think there were a connection there. Supernatural? Supernatural. Yeah, it's a lot more painful up front, and I don't know, I just feel that I guess I feel that my attempt at mundane defenses of the ortho feels... Ridiculously inadequate. So, I feel like we need to be armored and equipped and tricked out in order to even compete with the courses that seem to be swirly around. Great. But, otherwise known as chew, storyline, what do you think, how hard are the progress, you know, what do you know tonight, or what do you think even tonight, even if you can't really prove it? What do you think, or what do you know that you didn't know three hours ago? I was in Benjamin's private wizard or some sort. So Benjamin's been confirmed as a wizard to your mindset. Hey, do you ever answer the phone? He did, but we decided we were gonna do it next week, or when we were gonna take care of it. Anything else story-wise that you... Sucks going last, by the way. Yeah, everyone just steals all the thunder. Yeah, I don't know. Okay, how about the supernatural? Because you're learning about the supernatural tonight that, you know, gives you a little bit more insight. Mases suck. Mases, do suck. But to put that into a thought, do you think, I mean, was that a magic that you thought he was capable of pulling off? Do you think he pulled it off? Are you... I mean, are you more frightened of him or less frightened of him because of what you experienced? You know, how did that make your character feel the deal with a maze that he couldn't trump? Well, I... My character thought he shouldn't have been there in the first place. Right, your character was very disappointed to go in there, I bet. Um, I don't know, just keep away from him until we can figure out more what's going on. Do an actual stakeout, instead of breaking another hand. Alright, actually use the tactic instead, right? Okay, case closed. Good night, gentlemen. Thanks for listening to the Knights of the Night actual play podcast. 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