For every answer, more questions. For every plan of action, the potential for disaster looms. Task Force S.I.R.E.N. has many questions after the unexpected occurrence at Henry Jacob’s house. They decide to investigate both the mysterious beekeeper Benjamin and the Vitamin Bee Corporation only to discover that conspiracies stay hidden for a reason.
Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 04: Shit Luck: Ep. 5: "Investigating The Enemy"
[Music] Hello and welcome to Nights in the Night to Actual Play Podcast. This world of darkness storyline, shitlock, was written and run by our storyteller Scott. And now, please enjoy the final scene of chapter 3, scene 3, investigating the enemy. [Music] My name is Mike and I'm playing Michael Clay. I'm Greg, I play Dr. Lucius Miles. My name is Bob, I play Chew Park. I am Jim. I play Tony Bonadillo. My name is Tom and I play the character Jay, also sometimes Curtis Jonathan. Fair enough. That scene ends and is everyone going to sleep for the evening? At this point or is there any last minute plans or? I played with the idea of like following Michelle out of the place but I don't know, it's getting late and I'm tired. I think it's more important, I'm going to just stop by pathology really quick and I hit up my buddy to do the tests on the end. On a positive note, Ethan will be under constant monitoring, unlike the uttering Jacob. Alright, you hand in your stuff to pathology. Everyone that I think is going to sleep now, unless you have something else to do. Home is sweet home, at least for tonight. You get a good night of sleep. You rename one willpower, any willpower that you may have spent up to this point. I have to make a roll and make your roll pull. And your wrists are no longer a risk. If you have any bashing damage, it is healed throughout the night. I think that's it for first night of Ethan's car accident. So you're all staying at the condo above the market except for Lucian and like what you'll say. Like Lucian's with Lucian. Yeah, I successfully meditate. So you all get a good night of sleep. You all regain one willpower of anything you spent next morning. You can feel free to chat each other. Oh, is it morning running? It doesn't have to. I just want to email Jay, the letter, know what happened. Now that we talked to this. Alright. And you know, just, if you need to get back to me, any information you can send her. She will indeed. Next morning. Whoops, the game plan. Check my email. Breakfast. Breakfast in Ohio City. I just need some honeycomb. We'll say there's a diner. Hey Greg, you know how it's hitting bananas. We'll be eating for a breakfast. It's called the Big Egg. Okay. Do you guys have a breakfast? The Big Egg on 25th? No, I'm sorry. It's on Lorraine and 44thish. So you guys are eating at the Big Egg and what's being discussed? Time to reassess, sorry. Well, here's what I found with Ethan, why I'm really concerned. Big Egg. He had bruising on his arm right here that looked remarkably like these things. And the thing that I found most amazing about it is the marks indicate a smaller hand. Perhaps female. Or maybe you could have been a small child or a person and then you get this big inflection thing going on you and it can make you look like an old man. No, the old man, I was sitting next to him. Could have his arm. The hand. Yeah. And he says it should be a small child. Or a lady's mom playing a young teenager. Or what a young person or a young man. And I'm saying that a fragile man could have been a woman or a young teenager that just got all that freaking warped out by whatever the heck this bee stuff does. Well, when dealing with bees, remember it seems that it's a majority. So, you know, that we got a lot of information about a creepy old guy that was the last talk to me. Yeah, we're bringing up today on that. You know, and I'm just saying that all of these, whatever, it seems like, you know, there might be somebody, you know, kind, even him. If it's a bee, it involves bees and stuff like that. Usually there's a woman, a queen. All right. That needs to be grown. I talked to some of my friends about different lectures that might be useful for us. That will help identify users of magic and extra worldly power. So, if we're going to check on the beekeeper. And if we do find the beekeeper, I think the important safety tip is to make sure he doesn't get anywhere with an arm or reach of us. If you want, I'll go get my sniper rifle and set up far away to keep you guys sane. Oh, because you're pretty beast. That's just a coincidence. I was just thinking, perhaps we treated it like any bee stink. We'd be vials of up and up from with us or something, or Benadryl's. Oh, and history. Like an antisex. We're just going to check in with a compulsion to do something to a bee stink. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to wear heavy clothing. I don't find these where. Well, somebody doesn't grab your arm and make you want to go. What about everybody? Rabies. Rabies affects your brain stem and makes you not want to drink water. So, you die of basically rabies kill you because you don't want water because you develop a fair block. A lot of diseases can control you. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah, maybe not wanting to drink something, but wanting to crash the window would specifically try to rid somebody before their office was living. I've never heard of it, but it would cause a psychosomatic reaction that you deny. You don't drink water. You become afraid of water. As interesting as this is, Dr. Lee. I'm a scholar. I'm into this conversation. Hi, I understand that. But I think our main goal is obviously this beekeeper. We have to find out where it is. We don't even know where it is, do we? Well, we have a name of the beekeeper. There's a beekeeper in Ohio City by the name of Benjamin. John did. He didn't even have any fucking business cards. There's two different bee places. The bee place he worked for and the bee place he was working. Then he was getting the business. Right? Vitamin B. Is that an actual business card? But that's his business card with the vitamin company he works for. All this freakiness started when, three months ago, he made a sale to a beekeeper. Is there any records of where you might have done business with a beekeeper? Well, do we need to go that far? I mean, Google beekeepers in Ohio City. There's probably not that many of them. I guess you could. What did he say? Did that name come up when we were talking to Henry the name of the beekeeper? In reality. He thought that the name was Benjamin and then John Beamer found a beekeeper, a blog written from a Florida couple who was traveling. They used to be from Ohio and they went to Ohio City Invocation in '06. They bought honey from a beekeeper named Benjamin in Ohio City. All you have is a first name of Benjamin in Ohio City. So, somebody Googled it. I did. Do you want me to give up his Earth Day Coalition in Ohio City? Actually, it does come out of the way. It's not real. So, we're going to say that. It does come out. It's an editorial court that is the address of Benjamin the beekeeper. Well, also, you might want to go to City Hall because actually, keeping bees, you have to get access to that. It's an aerial court. It's right here. We know where it is. I need to go to City Hall. I'm sorry? We know where it is. Why do we need to go to City Hall? Oh, you know where it is? Oh. No, his point was they have to be on record. We knew it. But we would know more than Benjamin. We would know Benjamin so-and-so address such and such. I wouldn't be having address. Okay. I'm sorry. I mean, I'm not getting another last name at all, but we know right there. We're good. Okay. It would be nice for a background check, but... Right. It apparently takes forever. You never get an answer? No. My virtue is prudence, and I just want to be a little thorough. I agree with you. Stop and make sure this guy's license could be. Nothing as a virtue. Well, it is a virtue. I make the call to Dr. Miller and staff to make sure that nothing, you know, that there's not a swarm of bees flying around the hospital. Everything is fine at the hospital this morning. Good. Good. Good. Good. Would send my chief resident to do my work today. Okay. Two years old. Home rings. I look at the number. It's Jake. Hi. There she is. Everyone loves Jade Weston. She says, "I did some investigating into Henry. Uh-huh." Jacob's that you asked. It seems like Henry was unusual in the sense that most of his information was removed from the public databases. Like, you know how you can call different companies and have yourself removed from mailing lists and stuff like that? Yeah. That's him. Who did that? He did that. He started this, like, I have old information on him. And then about, I'd say, is it two or three years ago, everything started to change. It was three years ago. Right around three years ago, everything started to change. And he started to, you know, take his name basically off of all the mailing lists and all the contact lists. He started disappearing, like, off the grid a little bit. Three years ago? Yeah. His driver's license was actually, it was current, but it had the wrong information on it. The house that you told me that you were going to last night, that wasn't the house listed on his driver's license. He had old information. Did you know if you owned that house? I don't know that. I haven't got that point yet. But I do know that the address he was showing was for Athens, Ohio. Now, that makes sense because he has no record of any arrests or any major problems since he was in college. At Ohio University. And he went to Ohio University back in the early 90s, and he was arrested for a drunken disorderly back in '94. But that was the last time he showed up on any of the legal, you know, or police type of databases. His social security number was legitimate, but it had old information on it that led back to his, you know, like, former he was originally from, which was, he was originally from out of state from out of Ohio. And it just seemed to be old information that didn't, like, I looked up that address and no one with the same last name as living there currently. It seems as if that's a dead end as far as I can ascertain his social security card. And that's all I've been able to come up with so far. Is there anything specifically you want me to look into beside that? You didn't get any, like, financial information at all? His financials. Did you run a credit report? Yeah, we ran a credit report. He has outstanding credit, A+ credit. He has a credit score currently of 805, which is, I think, in the top 5% of the population. Did that change within a few years? You know, these credit reports go back about seven years. So, yeah, I would say about three years ago or so, his numbers started to improve pretty quick. When he started taking himself off the mailing list, you could see a definite increase. His credit was only, like, 750 years ago, sorry, about 715 back in, like, 2006, 2007. And it steadily started going up from that point out. I know who Jade is. Yes, Jade is the secretary of your leader. So you haven't met her at the NSA. So I'm allowed to ask questions? Well, you know, he's talking to her, so I'll show you. Um, well, assuming there's not a bunch of people around that have around speaker phone. Okay, yeah, it's a diner, it's busy. Oh, it's better. So you just put around speaker, you're fine. Well, I'd ask her to, like, you know, either check some gas phone, or maybe even IRS records, because it's got to have some type of residence to receive, receive bills and payment. And if he's using fake information, or not fake information, but old information, and then, you know, as a way to maybe cover up his more current activities, then let's see if there's any other record either. Probably I'm thinking. Utilities are usually pretty long and getting back to me, but I will look into that. Well, obviously utilities and also, you know, the IRS needs a current, and it is near the census, so I'll just say it. Right. Who is the actual owner of the house that the address I gave you? The address I gave you that you gave me the address. He is the owner of that house. Oh, he is. He's just at all his other information, like, at all his credit apps and stuff. Was old information. Yeah, we got one of those quotes. Like, his driver's license was old, his credit card app. Maybe he wanted to avoid getting a bunch of junk mail. I don't know. But I could look into it deeper, but he does own the current residence that you were at last night. Okay. He owns it just apparently. Yes. Yeah, I mean, you could say he didn't live there, but you could also... Were you able to get an address of his employer? Oh, employment. Oh, yeah, he works for a place called vitamin B, and vitamin B is... It's located right at the intersection of Woodbine and 32nd. Woodbine? Woodbine, B-I-N-E, and West 32nd, by a little park called Fairview Park, oddly enough. That's not in Fairview Park. So that is where vitamin B is located. I didn't do a full background on vitamin B. I just didn't have enough time, obviously, to pull that off. But I was able to verify employment for you. Okay. Excellent. All right, gentlemen, I'll look into the IRS and the other angles you've mentioned. Does anyone else need anything? What about the Richard thing? Hmm? Where would it be place that we're looking for? I didn't. You could do a quick searching. I know I'll be keepers in a house sitting with the first name of Benjamin. Jade, yes. I did have one other thing. If you could take a look at Michelle... I'll just be in the second area. Michelle, Michelle, Michelle Henry. She's young lady that was seeing Ethan, my young ward in the emergency room, and just confirm whether or not her parents, who apparently she lives with, whose names I don't know are... Probably the last name, Henry. I am an investigator. They crossed the border into Canada to go to Niagara Falls. Okay. Well, I'm sure there's going to be quite a few. Michelle Henry, do you guys have a city that she's from by any chance or have any inside information? Cleveland area. Cleveland area. Okay. I will do my best. She's also a student. Oh, she is a student. We don't know where. Michelle didn't say where she was at when you guys didn't know. Okay, so she's got...make sure we check the IRS for Henry, check on Michelle, and check on beekeepers in Northeast Ohio, correct? Sure. Name Benjamin. All right. Sure, and Jay, could you make an appointment for me and you at the restaurant on Friday? Oh, Jonathan, you are funny. If only I could take a little bit of vacation time and join you guys in the field, but you know that... If only you read the sexual harassment portion. You know that means he keeps me busy as doing you guys. So I'll get back to you just as soon as I can. She'll look around the show and make sure that there's no ball defending guys with big EIs. Nope. Nothing like that. What's the plan? You just want to roll up there? Well, wait. Roll out. To win. Beekeeper land, I guess. Well, wait a minute. How do you keep well? Again, I'm going to try Benjamin Beekeeper in Ohio City. Come here and try to exercise prudence. Here isn't this where we kind of maybe send a few of you special ops guys. To kind of case the joint, maybe just do a little drive by. Let's see if you can get a visual, you know, purification or idea on this guy. That's right. Maybe, you know, not to let it all just show up to the place. But even let's just see if we can even get a picture of this guy. Can I answer what we're doing? We're going to the beekeeper. No, I know we're going to the beekeeper. Why are we going to the beekeeper? Yeah, thank you very much. It's the only thing we've got. What I would like to do is... What are you even investigating anymore? We had a guy who was having bad luck that we were trying to figure out why he's dead now. But you're very mysterious and suspicious. And how is this related to the death of the seven agents that are at the twelve agents? Well, that's very good. How is it? There's a good scene. Were there some ancient spiders that were recovered or they just disappeared? We don't know. I don't know. You know, they're gone. But that's what Winston Tate, the leader of Siren is. The director is trying to use more information. Good chance. What it was has something to do with the beething that's going on in the area. Well, how do we know that? It might be that end. Whatever. You know, when you're investigating something occasionally you'll come across the line. Well, that's a very natural investment. I mean, those are missing. And this is the first... Well, actually, just to be clear. Oh, twelve. And usually, when that much is... That much happening is now in coincidence. And this is the first supernatural event that we've kind of witnessed. So, we're maybe, hopefully, there are a link to it. Maybe that's what we're following up. That's fine. I just want to refocus on what exactly we are. I would like to... Where we think that... Figure out where this... If we can figure out where this bee place is, let's take it out. See if Mr. Baldman shows up to it or not. I don't know if anyone has any contacts at university. We also might want to look at what we can do. The first we should drive by and look at it from really, really far away. Yeah. The first step to conquering appears to face it. Really far away. We also have... And then one of us should be with the sniper rifle from a block away to keep an eye on you guys. We also have a young man... Nothing has to be the spotter for that scenario. One of the targets. He's committed a very serious crime. And if, perhaps, we could give some mitigation to that, perhaps. Because it just doesn't make any sense that he hops in a cart. We have an old wrinkled man and a bee sting. I mean, it doesn't really take... And a shoe here to top it all together. It's all been the bees and it's been cornered by others. Just nippin'. Well, right around the time that Henry died and started eating his bed. Perhaps. Last sale was at the... Perhaps we should do a stakeout of the bee. Hey! Hey! Hey! I am not qualified to do that. I've heard about it. I've heard about it. It's not qualified to. No, you went to class. You just... It eluded you. You're more of like a detail. This is more of a big picture. You know, we're gonna have a reason. Well, it's more sneaking around and hanging out on the street. And I don't like doing that. I am. I'm up for it. Let's do it. Let's stick it out. So, we got a Google Maps to the street view. See what it looks like. Alright, now we got to do the stakeout correctly this time. We did not do it correctly last time. No, you can just... You don't know where his house is on that street to be fair. I told the GM something that wasn't taken. Sorry, Todd, please. Sorry, Todd. It wasn't taken to heart. What's that? I didn't take something there? Yeah, what you set me up was not operating on first stakeout. When you're watching... When you're watching a house like this, you want one person here that can see this surface and this surface. You want the other person here so they can see this surface and this. All four corners of the building is covered. There's no way anybody could exit. You had me way back here. Which would not give me half of them. So, I'm just saying... We could see the back of the house. But you did say you were looking at the back of the house though, is what you told me. But in the beginning I said I want to cover the back two corners. I must admit that I'm starting the opposite corner so that the whole building was covered. We can go to his beekeeper or we can go to his place of work and look around there. Are we going to the company or his house? We're going to his house. Well, here's the stealthiest of us so we won't hopefully be observed or caught in trying to detect. We must stealthy two guys. I must stealthy three. Yeah, why you think I'm supposed to be... I have a special tea with stealth called buildings. Oh, cool. You hide behind buildings? So, let's do a general drive-by first. Then if you guys want to be all sneaky and like... Can you show us how to do a drive-by? Now, let me ask you this. We're focusing on the beekeeper dude. Yeah, you stand on the street corner. I'll show you. What about... Well, there's still Ethan too. I mean... I'm still concerned about Ethan and I'm also concerned about Michelle. It's a fascination with this one, child's check. Bees are... Me, a director. Thank you. And the wounds on Ethan were... And psych-rights are bee-stings. And they were female-sized. He was nowhere near Michelle the entire night. He was near some creepy bug-eyed old man. When he walked out and disappeared, you don't know where he went. You don't know what you couldn't track him? Yeah, so... We walked out the door. So why does it have to be a woman? Because bees are matriarchal or whatever. They're just living in... They're using humans as a host. It doesn't matter. The sex of the host, they live in it. I don't know. The beekeeper was trying to save him. It'd be just... Well, I'm just saying. Sometimes in the strange world of darkness. Of darkness that were... Yeah, I mean... But who's trying to kill him? You don't know who tried to kill him. It was a hit and run. It was a black SUV. And he got hit with a hit and run. And he got a scrub of beading on the street by some young cub. This is Henry. Remember how he's all nicked up and beat up that first thing? You didn't care about his back story and just wanted to... No, apparently not. No, no, no. I broke down some of the back. So, he hadn't been attacked twice. At least, you know him. He'd lost his job. He hadn't had a sale. He lost his wife. Oh, I remember his bullshit. Yeah, right. He had a lot of shit luck going on. His wife. That also started with the same time that they seemed to go off the grid. No, that was way after. He's three years. He said the wife went three months ago. Three months, yes. But the... It was the grid was three years. His behavior, though, would maybe, maybe take his wife two years and... How long has he been working for? A vitamin B. Yeah, how long? Yeah, we don't know that. Three years? Right. She verified employment at vitamin B, but she didn't have a time frame for it. Maybe his... Where is vitamin B? Woodvine and West 31st. So, why aren't we going to look at what vitamin B? So, now we have four places. We should be looking at it. Four. I got two. Ethan, in the hospital. Ethan's in the hospital. What are we going to do? Stared a unconscious person? Well, I'd be interested to see what his chart says or what his vitals are. Or maybe there's been some change in his condition. Well, Dr. Miller said he would contact you if there was a change in the condition. Exactly. Well, what about side street alley? Joe, whatever. Yeah, there's still side street alley. We're side street building. So, let's figure out what we're doing. Okay, am I the only one that's saying that this guy got stung with a B and then started acting crazy? No, why are we not focusing on Bs? I don't know why everybody's talking about anything else. Either. I want to stick over. Ethan was stung by a B and then he started acting crazy. This is A plus B. Hey, would there be one plus two? We still have to find out about the B guy who's saying let's, you know, let's be. So, why are we looking at heroin rattles? Alright, I'm going to call up a vitamin B side street building. I'm going to call him up. Yeah, what? Who? The business. Oh, okay. That's good. I thought you're calling up side street building. Dude, what's up? Yeah. I'm calling up on the hobo phone. He does. He got a hobo phone. Why do you want to be incorporated? How can I answer your call? Yes. Guys, would be good. Henry Jacobs, please. I'm sorry. He isn't in the office today. Can I take a message for him or can I have you be transferred into his voicemail? Oh, and he'll be in next? No, actually. I'm not quite sure what his sales schedule is. He usually works out of the office. So, I'm not sure when to expect him back. The last time he was in the office, he was supposed to have an appointment today. I'm sorry, sir. He normally doesn't work in the office. I'm not sure why he'd have an appointment set with you when he normally does his appointments in the field. Is there anything else or was it, man? My name is, she seems to get a little bit flustered like that. And you notice that when she was telling you that he normally works out of the office, you just caught a hint of something in her voice like her tone and changed a little bit towards you during the conversation. If you're just annoying her with a lot of questions or whether it's something deeper, it's just that she is now officially annoyed and she's like, "My name is Ms. Jansen. How can I help you?" I already told you that Henry isn't here today. Okay. It'd be all. Thank you. Okay. So, he's not there. Oh, yeah. But did we know that he worked? He did? Yes, he did. We did know that before? Yeah, he worked at Vitamin B. He gave you a business card. He tried to sell you a bunch of vitamins. My personal was still in the backseat of my car. It is creepy. It's not my gameplay card. We please drive by. Yeah, let's go. Vitamin B. And Benjamin's place, too. We have many cars. We take a car here. Take your car. The one that had. Oh, wait a minute. I'm arguing to go to the B place? What the hell am I doing? I'm sorry. What did it have in there last night? Oh, yeah. The guy who became the corpse. So, take corpse mobile over wherever you want to go. So, are we all going to get out in our cars and drive by this place? Well, not suspiciously. Oh. Yeah. Real slow. Yeah. Everyone stir up that car. So, what are you doing? Getting in my car. Okay. You got in your car, which is a lot of... A little bit more clean. The brothers helped you clean it up last night after they heard you had some trouble. That's what friends are for. You could cram six people into an envelope or you could take two vehicles if you want. I think we take two vehicles. One person goes one way and the other person goes the other way so you can get an angle from both sides and be able to, you know... How about half of a vehicle over to the vitamin V and half of a scope or the other way? What are we trying to achieve in this drive-by? Just look at the building. That's it. We're just looking at a visual confirmation. So, isn't it actually a building or is it... We're drawing. So, we're there. And we're driving by. And what? Is it a field? Is it a farm? Is it a building? I'm sorry. I don't know which one of the two you want. This is how we're going to do that. It's a big place. Okay. So, you get into two sets of cars and you drive out to Benjamin's address. And it's an oracle court. Unless you get inside the whole way. Right, bitches. Meanwhile, you're getting down in at Google and you pass it by. It's a residential area. Okay. In most cases, this is like last night when you were running around. It was a little bungalow with relatively decent size yards. This street, oracle court, is a really old street in Ohio City. And there's old Victorian cars. I love these types of cars. In there. So, when you drive by... Are there pillars in front of it and everything? It doesn't take a Witz plus investigation role to figure out which one's his house. You know, which one's his house because you've got, you know, Victorian, Victorian. And you've got like, it's May 15 little buds of the tree getting green. You know, it's getting green. It's the beginning of May, right? You drive by his place and it is verdant. I mean, there's pines in these trees that look like it's the middle of summer. It's freaky because the rest of the street is just coming into bottom. Okay, I think it's the best one, guys. This place is very overgrown. This is crazy. And pass it around if you be so kind. As if he has some type of compact with nature to... What the heck? Even the evergreens, which do not rely on populations. And here's your Google Math overhead view of the area. It's very overgrown. It's a large Victorian home. Foot on the subject. The back has fences around it. High Victorian fences all the way around it. The backyard is relatively expansive, bigger than what I'm showing there. It's a little bit wider. So, it's a very, very overgrown home. So, Benjamin's is not a business. It's a home. It's really not far. You can probably get out of that. Are the backyards. Is it this guy's here? It's coming your way. And it's bigger than what it shows on there. Is this a beekeeper? It would mean it's bigger than what it shows on. The picture or the Google Earth? A bee hive. You know, it's about the same size as that bar right there. I mean, they don't have to be a bird. They don't take up a lot of specs. It's true. Well, you need a lot of flowers. You need maybe a greenhouse, which in the backyard there is a green house. Off the map is the yard goes on. There are several long greenhouses in the backyard as well. Yeah, exactly. I just didn't have the space to drop. Click a little satellite view. And I want to see this stand. And there is no light sign in the home that you could detect. Of course, it's mid-morning after breakfast. So, it's like 10 o'clock in the morning or spend on a Thursday. But you don't see any activity. The house seems dark. You know, there's no one walking around the grounds. But of course, you've got the grounds that are pretty extensive house. Yeah, it's a pretty extensive house. And it's a, which I have there in case you need to see it. And the grounds, in the back, you can see pathways and trees. And there's some greenhouses back here as well. So, it's a pretty expansive grounds. It's not just a small little yard in a bit. Yeah. It goes way back. Right. It goes back about twice as far as, you know, like this and then this again. And then there's greenhouses. Is there no household in the area or is this yard? That's a big. It was definitely one of the first homes probably in Ohio City built. And it looks like it's taken up a lot. Is there a garage? There doesn't seem to be a garage or driveway, oddly enough, in this particular home. Maybe you just park in the street, it looks like. And there's parking on the street. Are there cars parked in front of the house? There are cars parked in front of the house. Right down some of the lights. There's quick numbers. Yeah, and they won't. With any stickers that say "I hired ills" or "spots off." Yeah. Nothing obvious. Well, you want to be obvious, but, you know, because it's typically a neighborhood like this. They're on crime watch and you are. Yeah. Yeah. We'll do this turn that light B thing, which is up in this area. And you're past. So, that's your first initial inclination. It's a large Victorian. There's a lot of, it's just overgrown. It's almost like you, you know, there's a thousand places to sneak up on it, to be honest. But there's only one entrance to the back yard you can see. And it's a little bit, it's a little, like, gateway. We're off to the side. Did you find that? Are there any homes for sale on the street? No, there are not. It seems very residential, very, again, old Victorian. All their yards are kind of neat and trim and proper. His looks like, I mean, it's really overgrown. So, they're probably not too pleased with the property value. It's just, if you can look at the picture, it's just very, very overgrown. And seemingly out of, a bit out of season as well. Ahead of its time, maybe. So, now do we want to do some... Now that you know what the place looks like. Now, stakeout makes much more sense. Do you want to drive by vitamin B company too? Just take a look at what it looks like. Oh, that's not a bad idea. It's not too far. Sure. And so you drive by vitamin B. Vitamin B is on a busy main street. Woodvine in 30 seconds is a relatively hopping area. The building itself is shaped like a honeycomb. Meaning it has, right, it has one, two, three, four, five, six sides. It's shaped like a honeycomb. And one thing you do notice when you're driving by is the area is very, it's very busy. There's a lot of new buildings going up. And there's like another piece being built onto it. So there's like a construction on the lot itself. So obviously, business has been good for the B company. Obviously, business has been very good for the B company. I'm for a job. Well, they've got, you know, 12 agents being used as human hosts to feed their ever-growing empire than maybe it is. Wow. That's so... Aren't you afraid to jump that fire? You might fall at that. Looks to be a bunch of activity there. Not within the building itself. I mean, there's lights on, you know, it's a building. It's an office building. But just the street itself seems to be going under like a lot of construction and a lot of business. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on right there. It's like an area of Ohio. It's really being built up right now. You saw as if they were expanding their business. They're expanding, they're definitely expanding their business. You can see that. And there's a lot of activity like almost as if the neighborhood is like more businesses are building up around it. As well. Not necessarily the same kind of business. But the area itself, excuse me, going through a real gentrification and a real rebuilding phase. Does it look unusually guarded, like guard shacks or towers or people walking around? There is a guard shack and a gate. Seems to be like a couple of guards out front as well. Like playing clothes, just like security, detail, whatever. This is some weird stuff. Let's try to get in there somehow. Which one? Which one? Which one? The B Company? The Vitamin B? Or the Victoria Company? Well, this one is open for business right now. Which one you can spot auras and stuff. You know, I think we should send the doctor in to buy some vitamins or some. Talk to these people. At least you get a bottle of what's going on. The position I'd like to see here. But I'd like to see your vitamins. I'm thinking of alternative therapies for my patients. So I'd like to see them. Oh, there you go. Yeah. He's not going to do that. He's going on this Benjamin. I didn't know what he was getting into when he got into business with Henry. The B Company. I'd like to see this Benjamin guy. Because if he's an old bald, cringy little dude, which has a strange, squeaky voice. You know, we should maybe ask his neighbors. Maybe they see him. Oh, no! Well, that's why I was pretty good at it. And as I had told you guys. I still don't know his last name. That's why I was trying to think of the whole real terrain. Benjamin the Beekeepers, how he's listed. Right. I think it's time for the Lutheran hospital. They have a Facebook page. It's the Lutheran hospital. That's why I have to roll for this. They don't have a Facebook page. Initiative where we're giving out free blood pressure tests. Yeah, we can actually do that. We go door to door and try to sell that. Hey, y'all. That's selling. Wow. Yeah. What is our plan attack if we meet Mr. We're bald guy? We're going to knock on this door and give him a free blood test. Blood pressure tests. Yeah, I'm not touching. We're visiting home nurse. So we get a white van and we can just go and... You want to hide your own question? Yeah, let's get a ambulance. Let's get an ambulance. Can you get an ambulance? A white van with a window? Well, I mean, it's got someone. Shameless or something. No. What's wrong with the idea? Just go up and knock on his door. He's giving out just to meet him. I mean, so you went... Well, I wanted to do the neighbors first by asking because the neighbors can tell us whether he's the weird little dude. Dude, next door. We can ask if the guy needs to store his home if he has what he looked like. So we can... He's been a good nurse so far. You can go with him. Right. It's the Lutheran Hospital neighborhood initiative. We'll just go back on the doors, a few doors down, a couple doors next door and stuff like that. And we're offering free blood pressure tests and... Remember it. Hello, man. Greek? I'm a doctor. Do we want to go get... Surveillance equipment. Camera. So we can set up the watch. The cameras are plus two. We don't have them. Not right now. I'm sure we can go get them. You're probably having your stash and your condos and to be on carry around. I also don't carry on with my sniper, right? We need a stash. But I have that. You have a safe house, man. What? Your condos. That's not a safe house. That's not a safe house. That's not safe at all. So what's the plan? What's the island? Is there a safe house? I do have... They're going to get cameras and equipment and I grab my... I think it's a big monitor. He's also getting something so I look more like a nurse. A little badge. I'm going with you. I'm from the... But you're good at surveillance and stuff and you need to tell us what we need cameras. I'm not good at surveillance. I'm not good at investigation. Oh, okay. Like crime scene investigation, not surveillance. So we're just generally knocking on doors near... near and around. Right. You get some, you know, middle-aged housewife come to the door. You know, just... Hi. We're doing... We're doing... We're part of the Lutheran Hospital health care initiative into the neighborhood. And we're offering free blood pressure screening today. And other health questions. And to answer some health questions so that we can get a feel for... I want to say this is a fast talk. Trying to convince her to basically allow you to give her, you know, free... All right. What's fast? I can do fast talk. So fast talk is... I'm not mistaken as system. What's that? Or a system? Anyone that needs to mention persuasion. What is it? Manipulation. Which I got. Persuasion. I can do that if you want me to. Persuasion is the skill. Manipulation is the staff. Right guy. The ability. Plus... I got that. Huh? I have fast manipulation. I got six plus on it. I got six plus. We both got six. I got six plus. Wakes don't roll yet because they're trying to help you. You can never be too safe about your health man. Okay. So, what do you get? How many tests did you get by? One. Okay. So, Q gives you one extra down. I'm helping. I actually get one more because I have striking gloves. Oh, nice. I should have been rolling. Wow. Great. Roll again. These zeros. Roll that one again. Nah. Three more. Anything? Done. Three dice for you. Grides. Three additional dice from him. Ah! But! Because you're unknown to her, although the hospital is known in the area. And she's slightly stressed. House wipe. Remove three dice from your pole. No. 'Cause she popped up on you. Seven. You interrupted her Oprah. How is it possible? Oh, one success. Zero. And one reroll success. Did you reroll that? Well, you keep the zero one of the failures. Yeah. And we're rolling the failures. That way you keep your mouth. It's a nine. I think I just knocked it. No, no. It wasn't. I kept looking at it and going. All right. Yep. Three successes. All right. Three successes. So, she says, you know, how long will this take? Just a minute or so. You can't hold. Fifteen minutes. Okay. Okay. Okay. Come on in, guys. All right. We're like, you look a little stressed. Maybe we should check your book pressure. So, she lets you in. And beautiful Victorian. Nice restored home. Into the house. Sure. It's one right next to him. Okay. There's your face. It's the one right next to him. Yeah. Yes. So, she sits down and allows you to, you know, put the cup on her arm. And, yeah. So, she's. We're asking her if she has help. And, you know, are there any older people in the neighborhood that you've seen? Yeah. Would you rate your stress levels higher? I don't know. I don't know. Are there any older people in the neighborhood that you know that, you know, we probably would want to check out for heart conditions or any. She said, uh, certainly. Yeah. There's, I think it's the Clark's down the street. They're both, you know, I think over 80. They've been living in that thing, you know, in a house city forever. They definitely could use some, you know, you know, our neighbor. They really don't talk to them all that much, but he's an older gentleman. You could try. He's using that around. At least we never see him very much. Oh, you don't see him very much? Does he stay at home? I don't know. He's just, he's never around. Would you consider him isolated? Because one of the bigger health concerns that we have that Lutheran is isolated people. Well, I know that he has a bunch of, you know, like he does beekeeping, which is a little worrisome to me, you know, with the kids and all. But I've never seen any problems with them. I mean, we hear the noises, you know, it sounds like scary, but the bees never come over. So I don't know if the people come over sometimes and buy stuff from him. So I don't think he's totally isolated. Does he look like some honey or something? Does he look to be in a good health? He'd be walking around. You know, he's got really high offenses around his home. So we don't see him that much. He sometimes comes out occasionally. But you know, I see him. I see him. I mean, I've seen him a couple of times, but it's almost like he doesn't, you know, he just doesn't socialize all that much on the block. We do. I would be like this. This is around my mind. I'm supposed to be like... Yes, we want two readings. We want one that's like, as you're in casual conversation. So we get an idea of how it works. I never heard of that before. Well, so let me get your first reading here. Okay, uh-huh. 165 over 7. Very good. Very good. You must take care of yourself. Actually, she does have very good BP. Nice. Oh. Hey, what does this gentleman next door look like? We've knocked in the door a couple of times and we haven't had any response. Yeah, he's really hard to get a hold of. He's kind of frail. He's older gentleman. Mm-hmm. Is there a time you think you might be there where you can catch him? You can let each other out. Yeah. Okay. That's all she says to start with. This is that, you know, he's old and frail. Okay. Okay, do you have any other health concerns? Apart from the bees next door, you have children? Well, uh-huh. Yes, but they're, you know, they're a little bit older now. They're in college. While he's chattin' away with the lady and she's getting blood pressure taken, I'm kind of like looking out towards the back door inside window. Okay. See if I can get a view of you. One side window. Maybe you want to show about it. Yeah, it shows you nothing but fence. And then you move a little bit further, like, into another area of the home and look out one of the windows and you can see that gateway basically up close. And it just, um, you know, it looks like a iron gate, but not, like, intimidating or thick or strong. It's kind of, like, actually very ornate and very thin metal. And so it's closed. And you can see beyond that gate, the only part you can see in the backyard seems to be, like, a hedge or some bushes kind of blocking your view. And that's, that's the view you get. It's kind of like an angle into the backyard. It was some bushes basically blocking the view. Is there any symbology on the gates or any of the high walls? Um, that's a good question, but you're not there. I thought you were going back for a story. Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. Okay. Just, not sure. The gate itself does seem to have some sort of crest and there seems to be, you know, bees. Yeah. That's not an address. Huh? That's not a picture. Okay. Oh, good idea. I'm pretty sure I didn't print it out this weekend. I don't know, but this is going to happen, but I'll give you a picture of what you see. Are you saying that the clarts were elderly? Yeah. The clarts are, what's your neighbor's last name? You know, I really don't know. I've just always known him as Ben, he's been here forever. We've only been here in the last, you know, 10 years or so. And in that 10 years, I've probably seen him a handful of times. I mean, that's just, he seems just to be with his bees and not really social individuals. He's never, you know, we're going to check this on the block parties or never on the block watches or anything like that, you know. But he seems nice. You know, way back, but, you know, we're just trying to keep up the facade that we're just concerned about him. What's the last time you know, you saw him. You know, I haven't seen him for probably since last fall. Last fall, really? Yeah. Because the winner of you, he's not going to be, he's not out and about all that much. And then this spring. That's pretty amazing considering how well landscape is. Well, I mean, it's a little unmanageable, but still. How is he that well landscape? Well, how is he getting around craziness? Yeah. What's going on, Ben? I don't know. He just likes, I mean, we've made complaints to, you know, to the block captains and the block watch, but no one seems to be able to do anything about it. He doesn't answer his door very often. And when we do see him, he's polite, but he just keeps his long the way he keeps it. It's very frustrating. You imagine people coming over to us, do you think that maybe he's meals on wheels or something? Oh, I think it's like people who like, they usually come away with like boxes and stuff. I think they buy you honey, maybe, from the bees. Really? Yeah, I think so. So it works from his house? I think so. How many other people do you think work from their house in the neighborhood? That's kind of important to our study. I, you know, I would think there's, what do you mean, do you count, like, people selling out of their house and stuff like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, salesmen who make appointments and stuff. Not a ton, though, that we're on home business business, but a couple housewives run different home businesses and stuff. But other than Ben, you don't really recognize anybody else. No one jumps out. Does he really leave business from his home? [laughter] Sorry. Ben's been there for a while, and... So that's it for Mrs. Clark? Well, I thought about pushing the mastectomy. I'm sorry, Mrs. Watson. Ellie, Watson. Ellie Watson, yes. Ellie Watson, maybe. Where's Mr. Watson? He doesn't work. What does he do? Mr. Watson, he is an engineer. He's good, please. I told you it was a big monitor. What time does he come home? Yeah, we got to check him out, too, don't we? Oh, you know, I really, honestly, he just got a physical at his doctor's office, probably a month or two ago. So I don't really don't think he'd be interested, but... He said, yeah, ice. It'd been a while. Yeah, some older kids who are in college, you know? I'm not living here now. No, I'm sorry about, you know, people getting stuck by bees in the back. Well, we were worried about that when we were there, because they were only, like, around, they were like in their early teens when we moved here 10 years ago. And so we were worried about the noise. It can be quite noisy, you know? It's scary. But I don't think one bee, I saw ever straight over the yard line. We have bees in our own yard, of course, because we have flowers in the backyard, but never, never escaped or whatever. Well, none of your children have ever been stung by anybody. Not that I don't. No? I mean, again, we were concerned because we have a beekeeper next door. You're going to be concerned, right? Sure. But no, no reports, no interest. So you see me very good at what he does. So you haven't heard of, you haven't seen any large black bees, the African ice bees in your yard. No, not that I know them. No, no, no. You weren't aware of that? No, bees. I've heard of ice bees. I've heard that they were just in the south, because they couldn't live in these warmer climates. We should make a cold call. Yeah. Cold call. It could be one of them. Animal control? Yeah, something. I don't know. Or we could just do a study if we ran it from a backyard. Yeah, maybe catch a few bees to see if they're, yeah. Do these African ones? Would that be something that your husband would be interested in? We could do a quick study from the backyard, not to start Benjamin next door, because in all there's older person. We'd feel like a bee trip. Well, I don't think I really want to get involved. I mean, I don't want him, we have a good relationship with him right now. Sure. I don't want to damage that relationship at all. Sure, and I understand that. I don't think that they can really be Africanized bees, to be honest. I saw a special on Discovery Channel the other day. They said that it's only in the south right now. I think it's, I think they're okay. I think they're just regular honey bees. Well, unless he brought them in. He could, but I mean, I don't see how they could live through the winter. I don't see how they could live through this lady. You know, the winter. Well, it looks like he's a good greenhouse. I don't know, I just heard the thing there, just down south. The lady doesn't want to put it in the trap to help the kids. That's all right. They can move along. Oh, no, the kids are at school. They don't need to be. That's all right. Don't worry about it. Mr. Watson. Do you want to put your kids in harm's way? That's your business. That's ours. You want to put your kids in harm's way? That's your business. That's ours. That's ours. I'll tell you what though. Discuss it with your husband. I'll leave my card. Here you go. Here's my card. It's one of my fake cards that I use to bar. Got my phone number. It's about it. It doesn't say. It doesn't have your real phone number. It has a phone number that works. Right. But not a real phone number to you. Right. It does say move through your hospital because you sell yourself. But it's a doctor's name that doesn't exist. It looks right now. Or you are trying to be one of the others. Right. Or Dr. Williams. He just did the surgery. I just lifted. I wasn't there. Okay. So that wraps up and you learned some stuff about it. You think if we knock out his door right now, he'll be home? I've knocked in this door many times over the years and he very rarely answers. But maybe he doesn't want to answer it for me. I really don't know if I can help you or not with that. It gets you just a roll of the dice. You know, I think it's worth checking home. I think what we do. I think what we do. Honestly, it's we're walking a tour from Ellie Watson's house. I think we go get some of those wasps that eat bees. The ones that come into the hive and just like fuck them up. Yeah. We go get a ton of those and we just come over here and unleash the whole fuck. That's a good idea. Now we can piss out of Mummy's grave. Cool. Here I have a weird one. I don't know. You look at all that. By the way, good blood pressure. Hold on. Oh, listen to me. This is on your way up. You guys pick up your surveillance equipment. You get some cameras. You got some cameras for night. You've got some regular cameras for daytime viewing. So you've got, I think you have some audio as well potentially. And you get all the stuff from your quote unquote safe house in your condo. And you're back on the street. Maybe parked down further down the street because you don't want to be that obvious. And then eventually reconnoiter further down the street away from home. So you're all together again. I took you as long to eat your stuff as it took them to get the blood pestered. What in the pressure? To Ellie Watson. Well, it shouldn't be you talking more people than anybody would do that. But why would the B people want, again, to beat up their own B person? Your arrival, B game. Alright, I guess it might be dangerous to overexpose your... We need more information here. The honeycomb building. The beekeeping company. You worked there for how many years? We don't know. Yeah, we didn't know if it was ten years ago. But three years ago, we started going off the grid. Cool. Henry, Henry. Okay. And it'd be nice to know three years ago. So three years ago, did you start at this place? Yeah. And everything starts getting better for him. And then three months later, he goes to this Benjamin beekeeper. Three months ago. Three months ago. And then Bad Luck starts. So, is the bee vitamin company the brainwashing organization? And this beekeeper is a guy that's trying to stop bad things from happening? Then the bee company wants to wipe them out because he's gone row. Wait, wait. I don't know. We've got a guy that's been hunted down and tried to kill. He was having bad luck selling. But he's trying to kill. He was trying to kill. Before he went to this... No, he's had it for three months. And somebody said a thing about it. The reason he seemed like a bad guy. Suddenly the sales go, "You got a sale." And he said, "Right around the time that his son starts happening." Suddenly the sales go dead three months ago. Why? And who starts going after Kellenham? Why? And his wife starts complaining and leaves soon thereafter as well. A lot of wives. So, one of these two is the bad guy and another one's a three-year guy. Maybe. Or one's the drone of the other. I mean, there's a lot of questions. I'm just saying. I don't know which surveillance we're going to need to do. We could try to get an appointment with another salesman. You know, to say you're interested in buying vitamins. Maybe we can get chewing inside the building or something. At least check it out and make sure it's a normal operation. It does look a little weird. Even if we find a bald-headed guy, he's a badgerman. We don't know it's a bald-headed guy that was next to. Well, from what I heard, he's pretty hideous looking. Look at all. They're pretty late. I got a dream. Maybe once a sponsor, you know, wear drinks. And one of those is that they want to do mead. And mead. How do you brown hail? And mead is fermented from what? Honey. Mm-hmm. That's a good idea. And another way of getting into the vitamin B place is just show up and ask if they have any trouble please. And they have one more than they did yesterday. So, what we've seen? I want a job selling vitamins. Are there any openings? A few percent job. Yeah, I'm going to call up that vitamin B place again. All right. Trying to get an appointment with a sales person. The only problem that is I don't know if I want it. So, we're putting it right here. This is the misgienist answers again. The phone. So, I'm sorry. What are you interested in, exactly? Well, first I apologize. I explained that I talked to her earlier and demanded to speak to Henry Jacobs. Right. I was just a little frustrated. I haven't been able to get ahold of them. Is there someone else I can talk to you about your business about vitamins and issues. Oh, you're interested in personal? I'm sure we can get somebody out to you. What's your name? Out? I'm sorry? Out? Would I be able to come in? Oh, no. Our sales are all done out of the building. We don't take sales in the building. No. Not at all. Not at all. What do you do? I'm not doing that. I was doing that. That's not being stupid. What the fuck are you doing in there? Okay. My name is Sam Sneed. All right. Sam Sneed. He's better than he has. Everyone needs us. Sam, where can I have someone? Can I have someone contact you on this cell phone? You sure can. Okay, so at the cell number. And where are you located, Sam? I am located in the Iowa City area. Okay. Do you have an address? I could tell our representative that they're going to be meeting you at. Actually, I'm just staying at hotels right now. I'm in the area. I'm looking at vitamins through different suppliers all throughout the country. Oh, okay. Kind of traveling around. Interesting. Good opportunity. Well, I'm going to get one of our sales people to contact you back. They're all, unfortunately, out in the field right now. You know, doing their sales. Sit under it. But I'll get you some information, and I'll get them over. You know, I'll have someone contact you today. Out in the field collecting your phone. I mean. They have a way with, well, any cell phone in Google in particular. But you can call giving a number other than the number you're really calling from. And then when they call they can call back. So basically you have Google where three different numbers that come out of the same cell. Right. So if he doesn't want to give out, you know. Really? You're calling as far as that. Right. No. I'm calling from the local area number. You're giving him time for somewhere else. No, even on my fake Google talk. Well, that's one of the ways you can do it. If you're off the phone with vitamin B, it's you're sitting on an oil court right now in two sets of cars parked down the street. That's where he's at. Right. So you can at least do some, you know, talking without having to draw a lot of attention to yourselves. It's a residential area, but you know, it's a cool spring day. There's some people out, but most people are at work. It's a Thursday. So you're not really drawing a ton of attention to yourselves right now. At least as far as you can tell. So what's the game plan? You got it one for right now? I think we're going to definitely check to see if we can't find out how long Henry was working at vitamin B. I think we're some who's already checking into that or no. Jade is probably looking into that very thing. I think we've got two different focal points and I don't know which one we should focus on. Well, there's one thing that's interesting is that you can, with all this new construction, you could probably pull some of the permits at the hive building and either get, you know, registered plans or permits to see what they're expanding. And if that place is such a mystery, maybe that's another target to stake out or maybe see. Yeah, because I think about it as the old Victorian. It was a one, right? Sorry. That old Victorian is not three months old. Something hasn't changed there recently. That is ancient. Yeah, what is three months old, the new construction and new expanding of the vitamin B place? Just saying. Well, like I said, I mean, we can do some prudently. We can maybe do a little research into some of the records and maybe try to get some schematics or plans that have been registered with the firm. If a neighbor has not seen him go out and do anything. Right. Yeah, because she's not monitoring her on 24 hours either. Plus, maybe it would be interesting to see. I'm just saying, where do we use these cameras? Do we use them here or there? Did she say that the guy next to her? I don't know how we're going to set these cameras. He's got tall, pretty high up walls. Yeah, I mean, from what you've been able to ascertain so far, you're going to be able to basically do the front of the house and the sides of the house, but you're not going to be able to do the back of the house or the backyard. You're talking about pretty much 10 foot wooden. Are there any tall trees in the area that we can maybe climb? There's tons of tall trees in the area. We did the Google Earth. You definitely got a shot of their backyard. So obviously, let me hit the saddle. And of course, but same idea. This is an old growth area. There's some old trees. If you look at his yard, you know, there's some big fricking pines in his yard. So, you know, there's opportunities in the neighborhood, sure, to maybe get an angle to the backyard potential. Okay. That's like I mentioned earlier, I've got some powers that I can do that'll tell me supernatural powers and what their sources are. The talamins I and which finder 127. It's just for, you know, next week to try and tend to pursue. All right. Fair enough. Make. So, let's do our round table. We're going to roll this one-dye pin. 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 at 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. Join us next episode for more mystery and adventure. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] (upbeat music)