Task Force S.I.R.E.N. enters deep cover and investigates Ethan's "accidental" car crash. They return to the Great Lakes Brewery and retrace Ethan's actions before the incident. The Task Force learns Ethan encountered a very strange old man which could bee the lead they're looking for. Meanwhile, Dr. Lucius does his best to protect his patient at the hospital without raising suspicion regarding his own mysterious activities. Listen in as the plot thickens...
Knights of the Night
KOTN Actual Play Podcast 03: Shit Luck: Ep. 4: "Great Lakes"
Hello, and welcome to Nights at the Night to Actual Play Podcast. This world of darkness storyline, shit luck, was written and run by our storyteller Scott. And now, please enjoy Chapter 3, Scene 2, Title of Great Lakes. I'm Greg, I play Dr. Lucius Miles. My name is Bob, I play Chew Park. And Brian, I play John Beamer. I am Jim, I play Tony Bonadillo. My name is Tom, and I play the character, Jay, also sometimes Curtis Jonathan. My name is Mike, and I'm playing Michael Clay. So the hospital scene is over. There's one vehicle left at this point, because Lucius' car, obviously, is staying with Lucius at the hospital. There's one car left, it's Tony's car, the four, you could easily fit into the Impala, and head back to the Impala. Oh, the blue boat or something. And head back to the Great Lakes campus and basically your condos and whatnot. When you get there, you see there's still some sirens, you still have the police cars there. And it taped off, as far as getting back into the market, you're not getting back into the market tonight. The Great Lakes Brewing Company, the restaurant is up the street, and you can easily go, right? And you get there right before midnight, the restaurant park is closing at midnight in this particular locale, but they're probably going to stay open a little bit later tonight because of the fact that the wine bar is up until two. Are we pretty familiar with the staff there? Yeah, because you worked here too. It's just, you basically go wherever they need you, that's scheduled that week. So yeah, it's kind of happened because there's all the activity from the wine bar moved down to the restaurant now. So the restaurant's going to stay open a little bit later. How about you even got locals just coming in to ask what's going on? Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's basically a scene right now, there's some cops there, it's a big scene. Gregory's moving on, or Lucius, he's moving on to the head right now. There's a huge gash right down, like a park, right down the middle where he came through his windshield and hit against the bar, the huge glass mirror from the bar. So he's got a huge gash in his head and all the glass was most they picked out beforehand, but the gash is going to open up and just make sure there's not some structural damage or cracked skull or something along those lines. That's where he's going right now, he wants to check to make sure that's happening. So he's moving on to surgery. So you four are down in the Great Lakes Brewing Company right now. You walk in and they're basically just hopping right now because of the activity, so it's kind of hard to get someone's attention, but that's where you're at right now. We might have to wait until closing time to talk to the staff here. Why is that? You even like letting it in. Yeah, I'm pitching in to hell, I guess. I'm talking about you. I'm pitching in like, hey, you know. I'm pushing in. Back up is there. She went down and helped them out, she knew they were going to be busy. What's your favorite waitress is down there? So we're back where now? They're at the Great Lakes Brewing Company, otherwise just known as the Lakes, so you guys in the campus. So yeah, you got a couple waiters with servers working and you got a couple, we got one bar tender working behind the bar. We walk in, there's a long bar, there's a bunch of seats for tables and what not to eat at, and then it shoots off the little left and there's like a separate room with a bunch of dining tables and stuff, and then the back of the room, there's a stairway down into the basement, which is another bar area that opens up. So it's quite a expansive space. So when you go in there, you can actually, they have some huge tanks there as well that they ferment beer in. When you go to the left and there's a dining area, there's a huge glass wall there with three huge tanks. You can see people working and what not, honestly. It's past midnight, though, right? It's right about midnight, right. It would normally be closing with your staying open because of the increased activity from the wine bar that shut down and just the buzz in the neighborhood. I'm sure people here know that we weren't in the bar when the car came through. Yeah. Especially people working. You know, kind of what's going on as far as Ethan's condition in the hospital. So when we come into work, I'm sure they're saying, "Hey, what happened?" "This is what happened. It was crazy." And we were up at the hospital and we checked in on him and he's like, "Okay, so far." And then trying to ask, "Was he was here before? Did you see what happened? What was he like? What was going on? Where was he?" If you got the setting at the bar, I'll go over to the bartender and ask him questions. If he was sitting at a table, I'll ask the waitress who was waiting on him while he was running. So you're basically trying to gather information. Yep. Yeah, I'll do the same thing. Who was the bartender when Ethan was there? Martin Connor, who's known as Marty, was the bartender and he still is the bartender. Moving around quick, behind that long bar, trying to get everyone served. You see Becca working and you also see Earl what you both know, or all four of you know, named Stacey Williams, who's also working. Marty and Stacey are the two people who are on this first level of the likes that you haven't swapped to yet. Are they working? Yeah. Yeah. He was, you've learned that he was sitting at the bar. He was basically just socializing with the customers, killing time, he was drinking before his girlfriend was due to arrive, sitting with just waiting for Michelle. This is Marty, the bartender, telling you. Killing time. So he was just killing time. Was he killing anyone else just telling him? It got, no. Just time. It got a little bit later in the evening, got around six o'clock right around the dinner rush. You know, this place was just hopping. We had a ton of people in here. It was, it was really packed. It was shoulder to shoulder. I don't know. There was some, there was some bald guy sitting next to him that I noticed, but that, that spot all I can tell you, you know, that's, that's, yeah, that's what I know right now. I mean. Is there anything unusual about him? Yeah. He was creepy looking at him. You know, no. What do you mean? You know, you're sitting at the bar and you're sitting at the bar and you're sitting at the bar and you're drinking juice. Juice or wine? No, just juice. Fran Barry, I think. Fran Barry. Was he, was he talking to you even? Yeah. You know, I guess they might have been talking. You know, it was, it was hopping. You know how it is. I was supposed to be waiting till his girlfriend got there and then they were going to leave together. I was trying to figure out why he left. Right. I know he was able to see for her, but then it got too busy to save a seat for. You know, he worked here. He knows. You know, you got to get a seat of customer wants it. You're not going to, you know, you're not going to screw with a customer. So the guy sat next to him, I just remember him being just thin, he's old, he's bald, he's just creepy looking, he was ordering Fran Barry juice that he didn't really talk to anyone that I really know is like, wasn't really socializing. You've never seen him here before. Well, he came and talked to Ethan, huh? Well, what if he sat down next to Ethan? Yeah. He sat down next to him. They had a conversation. I don't know. Well, there's security cameras that might have gone. No. Okay. Right. They could investigation plus which role, please. Go ahead. I'm sorry, man. Did you play with cash? Yeah. He paid cash. Was Ethan hanging out with anyone else? One success. Was Ethan hanging out with anyone else? He would chat. You know, he'd chat up the waitress. But once we got busy, he knew we'd have to, you know, we'd show a waitress talking. He's pretty good for us with Stacy. You know, his chat was Stacy a bit. Oh, yeah. Well, you look pretty busy so I'll let you get back here. What, was he at a table or was he at the bar? He's at the bar. Go ahead, though. Right in the middle. Pretty much. I don't know. I wonder over there and just kind of, you know, to my way in, I probably will like help her to be cleaning up, you know, last call type of thing. Right. But I'm also looking for maybe anything around the table there. Right. But look just real quick. You're in surgery. Yes. You notice something that you didn't notice before. When you work, when you get to the head area, he drops like, you take the sheets and pull it down a little bit because there's also damage to his neck and to his upper chest. When he compacted through the windshield and then into the mirror. So they pull it down a little bit, you know, like the dressings or whatever, the covers. Down to maybe, let's say, like his belly button or something on those lines. Well, on his right arm, you notice what looks to be almost like, like if someone grabbed a child really hard and it bruised and they had almost like in a shape of fingertips, there's four bruises on his arm. And then when you look over to his, you know, on the other side, like his bicep, you see a thumb mark, almost like someone grabbed his arm. And in like where the fingers are, the bruises, there seem to be like several, not just like one for each finger, but several raised bumps, almost like some sort of bump like or beasting. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Anyone else had something like this? Oh, that's great. Sorry. No. Yeah, she's like, wait, she's down that one side room, basically. That's her room tonight. So she's got like maybe about six or eight cables down there. And then again, they've got the glass thing where it shows the brewery itself and people are working, you know, making the beer. Petter basically there and she's just, everyone served and I know it's ordering new, but she's just refilling and stuff. So she can take a few seconds to talk to you about what she's doing. I'll take over what she's doing so he can, she has a minute to talk to him. Okay. All right. Cool. Thanks. What did you find out? Oh yeah. He's probably going to be okay. Pissed her operating on him and it sounded pretty good. Yeah. That's good. I mean, is he like, going back to work soon or is he like really, I mean, we heard he was really fucked up. He was. Yeah. I mean, he went through the windshield. So it was pretty messed up. Why are you serious though? You don't want to do something like that? I have no idea. I mean, you know, I've been asking people, you know, I'm kind of curious, knows anything unusual about him or no, he just, you know, I mean, I guess he looked like he was kind of pissed because, you know, I think Michelle was running late or whatever. So, I mean, I talked, I gave him a smile a couple of times going by because I know, you know, he hates the weight. So he's kind of pissed. Yeah. He's just a little bit upset that she was, you know, was taking a little longer than he thought. You know, he thought she'd be down here a little bit earlier, but she wasn't and he was just getting tired of waiting, I guess. And then I don't know, some, you know, he was talking to some guy next to him for a while. I don't know if he's just, you know, whatever, just, you know what he was talking about? No way too noisy, you know, it was, it was rush, it was, it was getting a rush. It seemed like the guy was pissing him off or something. Is that what? Yeah. He just seemed to be talking to the guy, normal conversation, I guess I'd say. But again, just walking by, I just looked over to see if it was Michelle and I was surprised. I knew he was saving the seat for her, but then there was this guy sitting next to me, he was chattin' him up, probably just killing him time. Is that a normal looking guy? You know, I could just see the back of his head because he was sitting at the bar and I was walking past the bar from behind, so he was bald, thin, probably a little bit older. That's all I could really tell. Who was first telling us about the guy, drinky? Marty. The bar time to be a Marty. This is Stacy the waitress. Stacy Williams and Marty Conner. You didn't actually even serve him any drinks or anything, right? Me? No. Marty Conner of the bar. You were working. Yeah, I was working, you know, this, whatever, you know, the brewery room or whatever late college, you know. When I head up for a refill store up at the bar, I'm going to ask Marty, I said, "Well, that's not where the guy's home. You come to the bar and you just drink juice." I go, "Is anybody ever seen anybody else ever come in here and do that often or lately?" See you on the go on. You know, I mean, you get people that come in here and just order water or, you know, 'cause they're a designated driver. I guess some people order juice sometimes. I think it was just a combination of the fact that he was old, I never saw him before, kind of creepy looking and just drinking juice and then, I don't know, he just struck me as weird. Yeah. You know, you get a vibe. He struck me as weird. Yeah. I don't know if he's hitting none. I mean, or just something was creepy about him. I don't know. I just see him in here. I haven't seen him before though. No. And then he's got to run. Did I see him while I was in the bar? I don't know what I remember saying. When he came back in and asked you and said, "Yes." He was like, "Alright." He went right to the bar and just like hunkered down to the seat and he said, you know, he ordered a beer or something. So, you know, you basically just chatted him up a few seconds. You owe me one kind of thing? You know? Yeah, yeah, I got you. I got you. I'll pick up a weekend shift for you if you want. And then... You saw him sitting there but it wasn't as busy, it was 4.30, you know, it was pretty rushed. But I didn't see the bald guy. Oh, the bald guy. I'm sorry that you're talking about Ethan. No, you did not see the bald guy. He was not in there. When you were in there. Alright. I'm Bob to keep that area open and clean. Do you mean the womb? Where the rooze is in bumpside. Okay. Dr. Miller is really, like, he does a little, you know, wow, that is, I don't have to get to get back before. Right. I suggest tetanus and after napalm, look, right now. Okay. He thinks that's a fine idea. You know, they can basically do an infusion while he's under and out. I'm looking for stings. Are there any actual stingers left in any of these? No. Just like the wounds are relatively recent, you know, bruises with little marks within them. Kind of odd, but you don't see any stingers. The wounds don't look, they look recent, but you don't see any stingers. That's how I'm going to wreck that. How big would the hand be that grabbed it? I mean, you know, the fingers, the bruising, you know, the bruising is always going to be bigger than the actual thing that made the bruise because you've got, you know, a little bit area around it that also lightens up or darkens up in this case. So you're thinking that, you know, it was at this point, not knowing what they know, you're thinking a woman or maybe an adolescent or a young teen grabbed his arm. Okay. That's what you're thinking at this point. All right. And the little bumps are they expressing any sort of pause or anything like that. Nope. Nothing. Nothing that you can DNA test, you know, or grab some kind of sample up. Just looks like a beast thing. When do we expect some cranial damage? Well, there's a bit of a fracture on his skull from the impact. Uh-huh. Dr. Miller thinks it's the second impact of the mirror as opposed to going through the windshield. But basically there's not, I mean, not that you can do the swelling underneath is somewhat severe. So what he's going to do is he's not going to stitch this up tonight, even if he's going to keep it open, but obviously he's going to clean it and he's going to keep it open to the air so that if there is more swelling in the brain, you know, they'll be a space for the brain based in the move, he stitches up the skull in the head. He feels like that might obviously create a lot of pressure and could obviously kill the patient. So he's going to use, you keep the idea of he'll do some more surgery or one of the doctors, tomorrow we'll do, you know, one of the specialists will do the surgery. He thinks it's a bad idea to sew up the head right now at this point. Mm. What's the possibility of swelling? Anything else in the bar? Do you see anything on the bar today? Sorry. Do you remember that now? You go to that seat and it's certainly occupied by someone that sees it, you think this, you know, gird at and the seats are taken and you look around and you don't see anything obvious. But if you want to do, let's say, a width plus investigation role for a very quick overview of the area. Do you want to give me a minus for anything since there are people there? I'll start collecting glasses and stuff like that as if I'm working there and like it or less. Let's go with minus one. Go ahead and make you roll. What's that? All right. Unfortunately, I'll probably have three or four people that have sat next seat and you don't see anything obvious, like, stingers that spell out or something along those lines. Nothing that really draws your attention. It looks like the area is just two views at this point to gather much information. Right? Was it a little weird? Well, the guy talked to anyone besides Ethan who he asked me. Odd button. Back to Marty? Yeah. I guess. And Marty says, you know, no, no, he came in about, I don't know, 6'15 and I'd say he left right after, I honestly, I thought he was hitting on anything. Might have some weird old freak and when Ethan left, I thought he followed him right up. Yeah, I thought maybe he was, you know, talking on him or something. That's talking about like he'd been turned down and was leaving kind of thing because I know he doesn't fly that way. So I'm just thinking that might have, yeah, that was what had it. But he was maybe in the bar for a total of 15, 20 minutes. He ordered two cranberry juices and just talked Ethan a little bit, I guess. Hm. Hm. He isn't seeing bothered by the fact this guy was talking to him. I didn't get that. I didn't get that. He was agitated at all. I got like it was just some, if he was, I didn't catch it. I mean, I'd be pissed if some guys hit me, but you know, he's got a lot calmer than I am. I mean, I get a little more pissed off. It's like, oh, somebody had a point and it's how you're doing, or was it, oh, let's just talk and just sit next to me. Yeah, it was more like, let's talk to your sit next to me. Hey, what's up? You know, that kind of thing is what it looked like. I couldn't hear shit. Yeah. Shh. That's 6'15" falls right into the timeline. Wow. I just tried to get a good description from him and the waitress of what this guy, again with this guy looked like, which was basically kind of an older guy, maybe bald, molding, creepy looking. Yeah. Tiny hand. Then small. You know, he was a little guy. Yeah. Like his nose was too big for a space. I don't know. The guy was just freaky. He just had to see him. He just had to see him. He was freaky. I mean, if I saw him again, I could pick him out a hundred times out of a hundred. That's how freaky he was. You could put a bunch of freaks in front of me, but I would know this freak than any other freak. His ears just stood out, he had a big nose and big eyes with huge heavy lids. Look, he was half asleep all the time. Well, he just gave me, I mean, I looked at him and I got the chills. Never saw him before that. Did he say anything to you other than show orders more cranberries? No, he had kind of a nasally high voice. It was weird. You know, his voice was weird. Yeah. And it just, you know, he just asked for cranberry juice and that was it. Starting a buck? Give me a buck tip. Chart your buck? Give me a buck tip. A whole time. Just small little glass, cranberry juice. Can you put it in the U.S. currency? Yeah. Wow. There's nobody working the door at that time, right? That's a good point. Like a bouncer? Right. They... It's Wednesday, so there was a smaller staff and it would seat yourself. I know. Am I done with surgery now? 1230, you're done with surgery? Okay. We're packing him off into the... I'm doing my best to get him in a private room. Yeah. He's gonna be in a private room. I see you. He's intubated. He's still unconscious at this point. I'm checking on my messages and I'm catching up to date and we're sending them out. Yeah. Where's Michelle? Where's Michelle? She's growing up. She's so mad at the hospital. She's in the waiting room. Yeah. Talked to her. She's very waiting room. Clean. I'm going to see Michelle in the waiting room. If we're talking or texting it's make sure you keep an eye out for some bald, when looking bald guy who was probably even before she disappeared. The big nose and one of them. Yeah. We have a big... Big elephant ears. Big nose. Sleepy eyes. All right. So, you go down to Michelle. You guys know that it would seat yourself tonight. You know, again, there wasn't a, there wasn't a, um, a greeter, so to speak, uh, at the restaurant. At this time, Jonathan, you're whatever you want to be. Yeah, no, I, I just want to either youth center maybe? The, um, from the city kids? No? Sure, why not? The, um, I just want to either increase my status within the ascended ones or I don't think you want to do that. Yeah. That's a little too early, I think. Okay. Then I would go with increasing my knowledge of elixirs to a level higher. So I need more power here. I want something that blah, blah, blah. Tell them a story and then, uh, my ability. And then upping my elixirs to three from two would open up a few, um, additional elixirs that are... Wouldn't that cost too many experience points? It's a merit. Yes. And it says times two. So three times two is six. Was it six? And you have six. I have six. Spend away. Okay, anybody else? Questions? Jonathan? Yes, I'm going to look at Michelle. I can get your conversation with Michelle here in a second. Anybody else? No, no, no. What are you doing? I'll probably do the same. All right. Can I get ready to crash for the night? So Michelle is there with Maria and with Tony. Okay. And they're basically just sitting, you know, talking amongst themselves, killing time, into waiting room. Dr. Miller wants to know if you want to give the updates and she knows people. Ah, yes. I'll give the updates. All right. So they're sitting there and they look up and they're like, "What do you have any news on Ethan?" You know, they're all concerned. Well, he should be fine. We have him in, I give a completely bold room number. He's the number that I know off the top of my head is like some bullshit training room. Right. Yeah, exactly. There's some clause at somewhere. Yeah. Head emergency room. There's that you have the trouble with. We have him up there in room 41B. He should be fine. You know, Michelle, I do want to talk to you about some of the things he's talking about. I'm a little bit concerned. You know, he's got some strange bruising on his arm, which, you know, there's going to be a pretty thorough police investigation after this, obviously. He drove his car through, you know, I don't know what the crime's involved here or anything. I'm sure the officers can answer those questions and prosecutors, but maybe if you gave me a little bit of background of what happened and where you guys were and what you were talking about before all this happened. What made him get in his parents' Porsche? And where was the Porsche? And why did he get in it? And how did this happen? Right. She, you know, is obviously happy to hear that it looks like he's doing better. And she's very excited to rise. Get really big when, you know, you say that he's talking. You know, that she just, she seems really genuinely excited or thrilled about that. And then when you ask about him, she says, you know, all I can tell you is the same thing I told the police and the same thing. You know, all of my friends, just that, you know, he borrows his parents' Porsche a lot. He thought he was working today, so they let him use it. We found out my parents are going away on just a quick trip that we didn't, I didn't know about. So I called him and asked him if, you know, he wanted to maybe, you know, spend some time together. And he said he'll try, he has to work, but he'll try to get off. But then he called me back a few minutes later. And he said that John, who works at the wine bar, was going to cover for him, John Beamer. And then, you know, I called him a couple hours later. Well, I know I was finally getting ready because my parents just didn't leave for a long time. You know, I thought they were going to be gone a lot quicker, but they ended up sticking around longer than I thought. So I couldn't leave until they were gone. I didn't want them to be, you know, school night, so I didn't want them to think that meaning college. And she's like, you know, I didn't want them to think I was going to, you know, blow off classes tomorrow by going out tonight. So then I took off and he seemed a little bit upset that I was running away. But I told them I'd be there shortly. Where were you supposed to meet at? The lakes. You live with your parents? Yeah. Where are your parents going to? They're driving over to Niagara Falls for like a long weekend. Is there a anniversary or something? All right, well, there's nothing more for you guys to do here. It's all going to take time. I can't see him? No. It's it's it's better that you don't right now. He's got he's got an open. We've had to keep the head wound open at the back of those requests and to keep, you know, to keep it clean and stuff. So you're not going to want to see it right now. So she's fighting for a while. You give her another. No, you're not going to see him. And she's done. You got to keep in mind. I mean, at the end of the day, he committed a crime. Well, there has to be a reason. You wouldn't just do that. I agree with you. And let me give you hope because it's a virtue of money. I agree with you. There has to be a reason. We're going to find that reason. We're going to figure that out and we'll all we'll all come to a conclusion together. But right now isn't the time. So why don't you head on home? Yeah, Tony kind of picks up on your cues and he's like, yeah, let's, you know, let's go. Let's get you back home. And she's like, well, I don't want to be alone tonight. It's like, you know, well, you can crash my place tonight. So Mario and Michelle, they thank you. But they go off and then Tony thanks you. So I'll make sure they get home safely. I quickly dropped down by the emergency room, talked to any of the intake people to see if Ethan said, talked, did anything. You know, I mean, what was he talking about anything when they brought him in? Did he, you know, any of the ER people, you know, the hospital got, I mean, the ambulance guys, they say anything. Right. He was barely conscious what he went into the ambulance. And by the time he got to the hospital, he was unconscious. The emergency response person who was in the back of the ambulance with him said that he thought he heard of mumbling something about like ding or something. Hmm. The artist, I don't know. Like maybe, you know, like, I don't know. I heard saying this. Or it could have been ring or sing. It was something that was really low, though. He was just getting ready to pass out, and that's the last thing. I mean, the only thing I heard come through his lips was something about sing or sting or ring or ring. I don't know. All right. Before I leave for the evening, I go through some of the computer records and I make sure that bullshit room that I gave to those three people is pretty much the bullshit room that's in every record that I could possibly find. The hint to being, you know, anybody asking or, you know, unless it's like legitimate law enforcement. We're not hiding this guy. Right. Genome law enforcement. But other than that, Tony, Maria, Michelle, anybody like that has trouble finding him at least. Right. Initially. Right. Exactly. You know, I try to tell Karen Noak, the emergency room, head nurse to lie to Michelle tomorrow morning. Are you? A little bit authorized, personally. She's not family. It's a girlfriend. You don't have to tell her anything. Hippo says you can't do it. Hippo says you can't do it. Fair enough. That scene ends, and is everyone going to sleep for the evening? Thanks for listening to Knights of the Night Actual Play Podcast. 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