Heat makes thing bad, can we solve it?
Knights of the Night
615 - BitD You Came Here in Good Faith or Have a Death Wish
(music) Hello and welcome the Knights of the Night actual play podcast. This blades in the dark story machination is written and run by our GM John. And now please enjoy Episode 615. It's titled "You came here in good faith" or "Have a death wish. Actual play begins immediately." Hello, I'm your GM John, host of KOTN's "Blazing the Dark Campaign" machinations. Players with me starting on my left are... One Thomas, I'll be playing Hadrian's Briar or Burning Briar while on the job, I'm a runaway Erovean demon heir who performs the job of a leech, a saboteur and technician. Tinker of all such sorts we might actually need on our jobs. I can be a doctor, I can be an alchemist, I can make sparkcraft, I can work magic. Baby, just give me a problem and I can solve it unless it's a fight. I currently look like an Acherosi man of healthy build and noble stock fitted with a long coat, some scholarly clothes, a pair of glasses and a thorny Briar rustling about the corners of my mouth and out of my ears, which burns very slightly with a pale blue ghost flame that gives off the truth of my emotional feelings when I'm jazzed about something. It's a very noticeable, big old magical furnace installed in my belly of the burns with the same flame that keeps me going. I have three stress, an instability and a level one harm, a lame foot, absolutely crushed during our last adventure and then replaced by a wooden prosthetic, which means it can't actually shift or move very helpfully and that's my situation. Hello everyone, I'm Scott. I'm playing Tesslyn Vale, otherwise known as the bell of the abyss. Tesslyn is a seborosi whisper. She does the dirty work for the archive of echoes, exploring the past via ghosts with her mentor, Lord Pendren. Tesslyn is a petite brunette who is partial to petticoats. She has flowing, auburn locks, olive skin and green eyes. She has two stress and she has a level one harm of painful cuts that she used when making a blood oath several stories back. And I'm Tom and I'm playing Esther Rowland, who is an ex-blue coat captain who goes by the name of ghost because of her pale skin, eyes and hair. She's a cutter who is a dangerous and intimidating figure, but she also does her best to keep her crew members safe and protected when we're on a particular project. She was accuracy born and spent her entire life in this city and she knows how shit it can be. She currently only has two stress, which for her is pretty low. Okay, then Brian or something, something? I did medical recovery because I was really fucked up with wounds. One level two, two level ones and I'm just one level one because it worked. And I also sat down and performed a ritual with a great friend of mine, Melissa. I don't even have a last name written down. Well, that's a shame. The priest from... She claims it's for a denture, but it's probably not. No, it sounds fake, but my name isn't real either, so we're about even. Okay. The ritual was to try and learn, "Oh, you contacted the thorn goddess?" Oh, yes. We got into a dialogue. We shook hands. I offered up some pain. She offered up some power. I told her of our old mistress and still our mistress, the greater good. And she said, "That could be a God. Just keep working." And I said, "Okay, I should probably tell other people." And then promptly did not. Well, we were still in the middle of everyone else's downtime. Yeah, this is going to be a more social session anyway, so feel free to do so. Probably going to be going over dropped threads, things that have been sitting a minute and need attention, but good to know, good to remember. What is the name of the goddess? I feel like it was our mother of thorns, but there may have been other titles and other flavors, I'm sorry. No, there's always other flavors, but I think that's it. Okay. Well, we still have a downtime action for Tesla, if she has an idea of what she'd like to do. Tesla is torn between the scars that are starting to get infected on her arm when she did the blood oath with the contact for the gray cloak, so I forgot his name at the moment, back when he was in our hideout, and finding out more about the hand of Kotar, and she's narrowed it down obviously to the callous estate, but she wants to investigate some old floor plans, some old archives to see if there might be some building permits for room additions or like a secret room being added to the basement or something along those lines where she's doing some research to see if she was able to find where the hand might be knowing that there's going to be a raid by the end of this week. She decides that though her arm is painful and certainly needs attention, the secret room or the layout of the callous estate at the very minimum is going to be something that's more important. So she's going to go back to the college, or maybe even not even the college, maybe a hall of architectural records and see if she can't pin down a hidden room or somewhere that would seem to be an obvious place that the hand of Kotar might be stored because they don't have it out on a pedestal in the middle of their ballroom. In a glass case. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be hidden somewhere and she wants to see if she can narrow down that possibility. Okay. Sounds like a long-term project that you need to get done soon, honestly. Yeah, well, we have locate hand of couture. Mm-hmm. Oh, legit. Yeah, that could be the same clock. That's what I was hoping for was we could work on that particular clock to get it a little closer or to the finish line. So I'm not sure exactly where architectural records are kept, but that's where she's headed to. A lot of financial agreements, floor plans, records are kept in Charter Hall. If you are looking up records in Charter Hall, there's a devil's bargain of plus one heat, four plus one dice. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and put more heat on us. One, because it's just interesting, I like to have heat on us. And two, I need the extra die. So I'm going to use study. Yeah. That's, that's, I have two dots and study plus one from the devil's bargain, adding the heat on for researching such a thing. Because of their obsession with records, Charter Hall always takes note of who is coming and going, looking at what? Right. So I spend an afternoon delving into floor plans and requisition forms, yeah, permits, and anything at all that might lead me further in my investigations of where is anyone helping out adding a stress to themselves in this study. So your thing that I want to bring up is that when it comes to floor plans, Gordon was just in the place. It's pretty high in stress though. I don't want to volunteer him just that maybe before Breyer steps up. Yeah. Breyer is my normal research partner. So if he wants to come along, I'm certainly okay with that. I can hit Gordon up a little bit later for some details, but he seems to be preoccupied at the moment. So I'm going to turn my attention to Breyer and see if he would like to come along and offer some insights into the floor plans since floor plans aren't really my cup of tea. He's messed with structural stuff a little bit, Breyer, when you brought the temple of the Lady of Thorns down. Yeah, I did. I knocked buildings down. I know a thing or two about reading in blueprints. Yeah, I can help with that. I don't know if it's best to go fully bodily, but I don't know how help all be is just a flame. So whatever. Let's do it. All right. Healthy and free, then my club foot will only be a minor hindrance. Indeed. So my role for study is two dice. I'm going to add two dice, one for the devil's bargain and one for the help of Breyer. The position is controlled, risky or desperate, controlled or risky, let's say risky. And the effect. Charter Hall is going to give you a great effect on this sort of thing. Okay. It should be noted. I want to make sure I'm being 100% forth, right? I do have painful cuts as a level one harm. I don't know if they would have less effect here, probably more in the physical domain. Okay. To make sure I didn't avoid that if it was going to be in play, but not today. Okay. So I'll go ahead and roll my four dice. I roll it two, five, four and four. So I've got a partial success with a high of five. This will take two on the clock. And I'm going to drop one into investigate careless troubles as there's a venn diagram where they overlap here. Okay. You are able to find a lot of records when they switched houses previously they had been based in the lost district before the founding of the spirit wardens and the subsequent fall of the house of Calus as they were raided in a rather dramatic night where several of their elders were killed, a bunch were questioned and they were reinstated into society as recovering necromancers. Yeah. Empire is so restrictive. In the time since then, they've had a number of quote unquote estates. They were slumming it for a minute. But this return to power had them buying a house in silk shore, which is what you're looking for their current residents. The floor plans for such are within the last 50 years, largely during the unity war when they proved useful in increasing the agricultural output of the city and keeping its people fed during the conflict. They garnered a lot of wealth from this and were able to purchase a state in silk shore. They had a lot of contractors pulling in different growing materials, a lot of organic and dirt and stuff and Gordon can back up that there's a lot of growth in what is normally a desolate city, this estate was brimming with different living plants. A lot of them alchemically traded and of particular note, you find an enormous tree imported from your area of the world, or which is to say your culture. Cerverosi. Yes, a Cerverosi, what would be like a big tree that grows in the plains? Gumtree? No, it wasn't, but that is a good thought. I wasn't. I wasn't working near Gumtree. Cerverosi is mostly plains, I guess, is what you're saying? Yes, this is in real life a Gumtree is like a sub-Saharan plant. Okay. Are you sure about that? Gum trees are from Australia, but I would have to go up. You're right now, but they are from plains. Yeah, no doubt, you're right. That is the exact same kind of plain. Well, good thing I didn't look like a fool on the podcast. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure you have a space to make sure that they still grow in the right environment. You're not wrong. You might just not want to say they're from Sub-Saharan. In real life, they're from Australia growing up in the outback dryer environment with lots of grasslands. They are near extinct, so finding one this big was quite a costly venture. It's peculiar that they would spend so much on a foreign plant, but you are able with the floor plans to limit a couple of rooms that it could be in that they have some important operation. They would not spend this much if it did not mean something to them, and it might be in a location that they are doing some of their work with the artifact of Qatar. With that, though, comes the complication, as you just cover these things. I'm sorry, real quick, John, I apologize for interrupting you. The tree is inside the house. It's not outside the house. Oh, it's inside the house. Yes, you can. So that's a big state than if they have a gum tree within the home itself. And there are only a number of rooms that are tall enough to warrant its space for it. And it wasn't seen where Gordon was in the big open entry area, so you look at the dimensions of a couple of rooms, particularly their height. There's even some spaces that aren't on the map that could accommodate it if they were, in fact, just omitted from such record. It's with this knowledge leaving the place that as you pass the desk, there is a hushed conversation with a blue coat operative. The secretary who pointed you into the stacks is pointing in your direction and then gasps when you're headed out. And the blue coat puts a hand on a truncheon and starts approaching you, folk. Oh, no need for that. What can we help you with? What seems to be the problem? You're wanted for questioning down at the station in regards to the disappearance of the Lord Archivist Maxwell Penderon. He's still out and about. I thought he'd been captured by now by your impressive investigative force. That's very distraught, very distressing to hear. And then they can do to help. If you'd like me to come down, I certainly can make an appointment to come down there and answer any questions you might have. I don't think we'll be needing your research assistant, but yes, if you could come with us, there's a number of things we need clarified. I'll be happy to do so. Anything to help the blue coats? I just came off my teeth. I did farewell, though I offer a high sign request of like, do you want a lantern of my flame? I don't know how I would be subtle about it, but I still offer with the hand. I demure and put my hand on your shoulder. It'll be fine. I just have some questions to answer. I'm sure it's nothing. I haven't, haven't and know anything about his whereabouts, so I'm sure it'll go well. Just go back and continue your research and thank you for your help today. I wanted to read about them gum trees. Mm hmm. Very fascinating. They had a rainbow one. This is not going to be gentle. Okay. Do you offer any high signs for you should get back up and follow me because I'm sure we also have similar signs for that and I could go get Gordon. I know we don't have them now, but it wouldn't take me much work to send a signal and get them to intercept. Well, I was thinking that Esther might with her context be helpful as well. Yeah. Then I'm going to give you a get back to base and relay this to Esther. Yeah. I give you the high sign to ask one. Dude, I just flare in the room like immediately. I still have a flame there and try to commune as best I can get to somewhere within the research stacks, so I can actually do the ritual to commune appropriately, which I think it is the ritual. I have to look at my character sheet. You added the ability or should I? Yeah. I picked that up a while ago. Strange methods. No. No. Just wondering if you wrote it down. We're the looking glass. You can look into another source of your demons domain and see out of any other. This access gather information or study is appropriate. Fuck a duck. I was thinking of the other one, which lets you manifest. Bam. Well, it won't let you act, but you are able to communicate. You've kind of established it before. Yeah. That was a fuck up. Just mechanically. It's OK. Everybody is. I'm not mad about it. But if you play this fan, players be a fan pack of, yeah, don't let your players wheeze a lot of the abilities they pick. In particular, this is a weird fan creation of someone who's made a pact with the demon that we have modified to be demonic powers for the demon itself. I appreciate their work, but we are still out here bastardizing it anyway, even though they had a fairly balanced-- It's a bastard of a bastard. Yeah. So just be aware that we're not playing it right, but we're having fun moving on. I send some flares up, and then I flare out to draw their attention and then speak in a muffled voice through the tiny flame. Gordon can be present, but we're not going to have him act until-- Yeah. I thought he arrived, but he hasn't yet. I forgot. When you guys return, Pester is-- I don't know. Just to be clear. To make it clear, what you know before I even return through the fire I leave behind in the-- Your planning hall has a fire that is burning blue? Yeah. White blue. White blue. Ghost flame that is just a manifestation of-- it still provides warmth, but it's a manifestation of Briar, who can basically telephone home. Yeah. I can see and talk through it. So I just-- Well, I'm not listening to it because I'm actually below our house in the area where our little strange squid is-- Yeah. Then that's easy enough to check. I have two flames that I leave at home, one in the garden-- I think Gordon will get you, but if you had an idea for a scene with the squid, I'm fine with that. Yeah. Shit. No, not actually. I was just staring at it and trying to communicate to it. I have the ability to deal and talk with ghosts. Okay. It's not that. I'm just looking at it and it might be doing things that I'm like, okay, is it reacting? And I'm definitely not very good at communicating with creatures of that type. So I'm basically just sitting down there going, I'd like to know more about you, but you can't even communicate to me, can you? And stare at it. It doesn't do anything that I take as an interpretation, but-- and then if I get a message from Briar, that's way more important than I go and pay attention to that. I think Gordon comes in with the message if he was still in the meeting place. Potentially, he could still be there, but he's-- We don't want to involve him, but he might pass the message on real quick. Right. So that's fine if I have to go up and talk to you via the flame. Yeah, we'll go upstairs. Sure. Yeah. All right. The flame flares one more time to grab your attention as you pass upstairs, and then as you pull in closer, so you can actually hear its relatively quiet voice. It explains, and I explain. Tesla's been accosted by your ex comrades in arms, looks to be one of the more violent interrogators who's interested in information about her lord in the-- fuck. The archive of that goes. I give a bit of a sign. She's dealing with blue coats? Uh-huh. I got waylaid and pulled out of the library. She's headed-- well, towards-- shit. Where do the blue coats-- I have the gods. I knew this was something. I knew the route, so I give it to a ghost, but I don't-- On your city map, there are locations in each district for blue coat headquarters. Charter Hall is not too far away from your headquarters. Right. But I give a bit of a sign saying that I knew I should have gone because somehow there's always trouble. Yeah, but we almost got out of there without any confrontations whatsoever. Still, you can get to them before they get to the HQ, I think, zooms in on the Charter Hall map. Is there any way I can take a bit of this flame with me and talk to you as I go and show you where I'm going? Yeah, I like it in lanterns, just got to keep it field. I look around the room, OK, this one, and I grab one. It's got a bit of fuel, and I put-- Without a sun in the sky, lanterns are a regular part of your kit. Oh, yeah, I would think so, right? Makes sense. So I actually have-- lantern is one of my choices in equipment, so I use that to bring prior along communication wise with me, and I start heading towards the nearest one, and I'm like, all right, I'm heading the right direction, and I wave the lantern around a bit. [LAUGHS] Yeah. Don't get me a headache. Oh, yeah. Headquarters of the city watch of Duskfall, it's an old quarter, OK. Where were we partying? Well, I mean, I'm spinning the lantern out. Which side are you looking through? Is it this side? Or-- I am an omni-directional view. [LAUGHS] Oh, sorry, didn't mean to make it dizzy. No, I didn't. OK. We were in Charter Hall. Right. I'm trying to figure out where in Charter Hall, it's a fairly large district, and I don't remember where the library is or what it's called. Yeah, no, you-- Oh, here it is. University Quarter down in the bottom right, and they need to take him all the way up north. There's a bridge. Right, so I just-- There are several bridges to cross. Wyrmwood or Main Bridge. We should catch them there or on Clerk Street. Sorry, you guys are like, real time, a version of Breyer is going over a map, and the other version of Breyer is communicating the ghost. He's having a hard time. He's not actually built to run three viewpoints at once. [LAUGHS] Right, but I mean, I'm pointing in a certain direction. It's like, if you've been to past this area, am I headed in that right direction? Yeah, OK. We'll catch up. It would be so much easier if I was. She didn't want to take a flame. It would have been a little conspicuous. But still. I don't think-- You might spend time crafting a little pocket flame with a gas jet or something that we can make like a one-load item for a fragment of you. Yeah, and a lot of idea for the future. Would it be just occurring to you now as we do not have it? Right. Would it be a four o'clock that we have to-- It depends on the nature of the project. I could make something really complicated and subtle or something really obvious and quick. Well, I think it would be a four if we start with it just communicating with you. Let's try that out when we make it. Yeah, exactly. I understand it. Yeah. And I'm just saying just communicating with you would be a four. But if we want to teleport you somewhere, yeah, that would be a higher level, definitely. But we'll deal with that later. Absolutely. You know, my notion was it was like a little gas jet that you just burn a small cylinder attached to your belt and you can open it up to give it a view, but it's closed otherwise. Right. And you just spark it off of the fire before you head out, sort of thing. And talking and communicating and getting answers there. Very helpful. And so I attempt to catch up with them as quick as quickly. Certainly the Imperial Bridge is I'm pinging where your base is like right around the other side. So you are able to head them off before they get to the headquarters. Did you ping it again? Yes, you are about here somewhere and then the headquarters is here. So we literally just head down 4th Street into Clark Street and wait for him to show up. Yeah. And by him, I mean, that's the officer. And then we as to that, Tesla is loaded into you kill him. Tesla is loaded into a Patty wagon. I don't think any of the listeners hear the gunshots. Yeah, there's actually just just so that listeners know there is a new system or use in Foundry and there's a picture of a gun and when I press on it, it makes a noise that it's shooting. So it's kind of cool. Patty wagon with a couple of officers who were making the rounds looking for just pick ups that they could do when they got a telegram from this rector telling them that there was a person of interest and used to be a blue coat. How do they get a telegram? Is it actually a bird or is it no, it is an electrical system that their headquarters got a telegram. They sent out a runner to the Patty wagon. You are able to head off the Patty wagon. You recognize what they look like and get a short description of the plate number. Question mark the regalia on the side, right? And I definitely know that that number slash regalia is associated with that particular base, but I'm going to try to interfere them and slow them down and talk to them. Hopefully I know one of these individuals. Yeah, you hope so. All right. You just stand in the middle of the road and be like, hey, yeah, okay, I definitely have a weapon. I don't have it out. I may have my hand on it, but not in a threatening way. If they look scared or reach for their own weapon, I'm taking my hand off, kind of hold them both up. But in a way that also is like, stop, yeah, crop hops off of shotgun after motioning the driver to stop the unnecessarily motioning the driver to stop the goats crop is known to you. He's got to stick up his ass. He will not accept bribes. Okay. So we're not friends. You might have been when you had a conscience, when you had a conscience that was in line with his. Right. So I actually tried to convey it is crop, my goodness, it is wonderful to see you. Which is the same you've fallen off the wagon. Yes, some of us do that and I understand that you haven't. And I'm sure you're doing a fine job. But you know how frustrating bosses can get. You know how frustrating higher ups can be demanding you to do something that you don't like. I'm sure you deal with that right now, but it's not the first time I've lost friends to a disagreement with higher ups. I know what happened with the great cloaks, but this isn't that. This is from the Lord governor. She's implicated in crimes with a treasonous. My friend, Tesla is. Yes. I was surprised. The Lord. Go on. Definitely act that. I am definitely acting as if this is a surprise. I was going to meet with Tesla and you're coming from that direction. You took her for what reason. She's closely connected to the Lord archivist, Maxwell Pendron, an associate of his and the more from what we can discern under the table affairs. And if there's anything that the Lord governor would declare him complicit in treason for, it would be something under the table. So it's sure that he knows something so that anyone that ever talked to him is going to be dragged in and thrown into jail. We try talking to Kristoff Beaumore, but he is beside himself. She's the closest contact we have to the underworld that had regular connections with Pendron. I don't doubt that his job involved him messing with spirit traffickers. I don't begrudge him that, but if he's committed treason, I need to investigate those he was associated with, especially when it comes to the underhanded business of spirit trafficking. I understand that, but you know how dangerous I feel it is to be taking her into a situation. I trust you, and I don't have a problem that you talk to her now, but why on earth would you take her into a situation where she'll be way more in danger? She's a friend of mine. Trust me, when I tell you, she doesn't have the information, yet you're threatening her. I have no problem with meeting with you and her right now and have a discussion, and if you're wrong, then she can go. If you're right, then you can take me too. Because we're an association and I'm telling you, she's not involved in anything dangerous. Can we have a discussion before you drag her away to a dangerous place? I don't think you and I agree on what is dangerous in this city, but I'm still leaving it up to your decision. I just want to have the discussion somewhere here where it is safe. I'm just asking you for a favor. We worked together long enough that you know I'm not threatening you. I'm simply asking if we can have that discussion now as you could not, in all honesty, take us in Charter Hall. This is one of our strong districts. I know you came here in good faith or have a death wish, but either way, it's something I feel safe in indulging. It's just that I will have to answer for this and you do not. I had her. They know I got her. This is normal silence, right? I'm not. It is. I'm just thinking and staring at him. Where is this happening exactly? What street are we on? We actually went down Plurk Street and we're going to head up six. I'm paying first Clark and then six towards the headquarters. The ghost field. Is that something that surrounds the city or is that around the entire world, when the gates of death broke, the ghost field spilled into all of the world. Okay. The things that can manifest through it are largely kept at bay through the electric fence. It's still you can do it here. You can attune. If we have the discussion and you agree that she doesn't need to go in, I'm fine with you taking me and telling them that I insisted. I'll take the blame rather than you. Okay. Tesla? How many of the blue codes are there currently? There's one in the back of the wagon. Yeah. One in the back of the wagon watching over me. Yes. You are handcuffed to a bar behind your back. There is a driver and there is the sky we're talking to. So there was a total of three and I am going to use my special ability because I hear the conversation going and I don't think it's going. My way. Yeah. You hear snippets and the tone on crop is not. He's not going to be convinced. So I am going to attune to the ghost field and force a nearby ghost to appear in obey a command you give it. I am not supernaturally terrified by the ghost you summon or compel though your allies may be. I'm certainly hoping that the blue coats will be absolutely there. They differ entirely to the spirit ordinance when they come across such a thing. So what I'm trying to do is attune to the ghost and whisper to it so that he doesn't hear it the one in the back with me. I don't think I have to speak out loud to ghost when it's the spirit realm. I don't maybe I do but it sounds like something you can. You can sub vocalize. Right. And my command is kill him because I need the keys to get out and I need this man that has the keys. I'm assuming he has the keys. He's the one that. Yeah. No, the one in the back with you absolutely has to set a keys for it. That's probably more than one but yeah, I'm going to go ahead and do that. So that is in a tune of three dice and I'm going to spend two stress to increase it to four dice a tune and I try to just summon the evilest, meanest, most horrendous and horrific looking entity that I possibly could think of so much so this man might just drop dead from fear without being accosted at all just by the sheer viciousness of this ghost that gets summoned and compelled into being plus one die. Hold on. Yeah, go ahead. It's possible that I can spend one stress by making this argument very distracting to be beneficial. It will have implications in your conversation like you're getting heated enough that the guy in the back is hearing it and worry right, right, yeah, you can do that. I do it. Nice. Thank you. So plus two dice. The position sounds relatively risky or desperate to me. I'm not sure which. I think with the ghost appearing, it's probably desperate. Okay. And the effect I'm going for. You're going to have great effect. Yeah. Okay. Well, go ahead and mark that. Make the role and let's see what happens. Make sure you get that critical success with two sixes a four and a three. Nice. We love that. All right. Go ahead and mark the attune category. I think it's resolve. Yes. I get it. I get an X be there. Yep. Oh, how nice. Lou's desperate. All right, a critical success on this ghost summoning. I think it makes more than enough sense with a critical that you get to describe how this happens. Oh, thank you. The way I see it is the creature comes up like just a monstrous force. It's quick. It's fast and it comes up from the bottom of the floor and it just shoots forward and lunges towards the one blue coat that's in the back with me. That has the keys that I need and it completely just has several arms and it just envelopes him and its mouth opens up and jaw opens up in a ghostly fashion and just goes to swallow his head. I mean, it's just absolutely like lightning fast and terrifying and that's how the spirit is summoned from the ghost field. All right. He's flailing and tosses his keys and then kicks them in your direction and his flails. He falls to the ground screaming. And you are able to get these keys. Do I have them thinking about it? They have you locked by one hand or they have both hands behind my back? I think they deferred to your dead hand. They went to go lock it up and then thought, mmm, that's not great. Not much can be done with that anyway. So right. So you have a deadened hand to clumsily grab at these keys? Yes, I do. That's what I'm attempting to do. Yeah, I'm not going to make a role about it because you got a critical success here. You are able to unlock yourself and then make your way to unlocking the door. I was hoping that Gordon would be here at this point, in which case he could add a dice if you needed it, but we didn't need it and you pop your way out of the back. I just expected him to be at the back with this knowledge that someone was getting. I do have a dot in tinker, so I think I could work my way through the keys pretty quickly to the back door and open back door. If you were picking locks, you could maybe even manage it with a dot, but you have the keys. It's just a matter of finding the right one. Right. I think Esther and the blue coat captain or leader is in front of the pattern wagon. I am in the back and I am just flat out sprinting. Like just the door opens up and I'm sprinting into the seeding crowd of the city and getting lost in the crowd as quickly as I possibly can. I'm not alerting anyone. I'm not shouting anything out. I'm just fleeing. Okay. When the other guy who had the key screams, I start running towards the back. I'm asking what the hell is going on and I'm intentionally trying to get in the way and delaying or tripping crop so that they can't get to the back Licker because I'm pretty sure I know what's going on. So I don't know if you need me to roll or we're going to go on Tesla critical success. She did succeed in getting the keys and unlocking herself and getting out. It is the escape now, which is probably something you could assist with. Well, I have a skirmish, which you entangle a target in close combat. Yeah. Kind of doing that. But subtly, but subtly, yeah, trying to get in the way and tripping and doing enough to delay. Unfortunately, it's only to die, but Tesla, yes, you are going to have to roll to get away from this Patty wagon with crop trying to give chase. Just abandoning his fellow officer in a time of need, but oh, well, if you want to if Tesla wants to spend a stress to help me in skirmishing and getting in the way, would I just roll my skirmish with her help? It could be spun either way because I could roll three dice. If you think you can roll higher, I don't know what I'd be rolling. Maybe is that three with the additional? That's three with the help of Tesla, yes, it would. It could be proud. It could be, let me check, survey, yeah, finding a place with survey to get out of the way. I've got one dot. So I think I'd rather help you spend a skirmish to trip them up. Yeah, spend a lot harder to skirmish accidentally, like, yeah, it is not a subtle skill. No, it's definitely not. And so I think the implications are at the very least risky. Okay. I was thinking maybe Esther tripped him up and he's stumbling and trying to catch his balance as he goes past the Patty wagon. The door opens up and he slams head first into the door of the open Patty wagon back that I'm escaping out of. And that's me assisting the skirmish by slamming his head into the door just as he's tripping and falling inside. All right. That's some good physical comedy. Let's do it. So risky indeed is the position, but is it a limited standard, great results? I think standard for this standard is more than, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, I'm going to go three days and hope good luck because I don't think I want to go with the devil barn. Tesla's adding a stress for this. Yes, they added a stress. I now have five. Okay. So I am rolling a total of three dice and I rolled a two, two, five. So I do it, but with some consequences like he realizes it wasn't an accident. Probably got to blame me. Yeah. He slams his head after you trip him, it's long down a little bit on his way to getting to the back of this thing, cracks his head on the pavement. If I may, yeah, what I tried to do when the door slams him in the head is grab him and prevent him from being hurt and falling on the ground. But I'm also grabbing so that he can't chase. And so he can argue that I was trying to prevent him from chasing and I was, I'm going to argue that I was just trying to prevent him from being damaged more. All right. The driver jumps off and the spooked goats start running, running into the, into the fog of the city. I literally pull him out from, you were just about to be run over by the wheels. You would have been hurt even more, I'm arguing, but it's not really what happened. I'm trying to prevent him from chasing. Yeah. The driver pulls out a truncheon and pushes you off of them. Hey, hey, I'm just trying to help. I'm holding up both my hands like, like, uh, no, no, I'm not doing the eating them. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. All right. Back away. You want me to leave? I'll leave. I don't want you to leave. He growls. I lost the suspect. You are a second best prize. If you'll walk with me to the headquarters, come on. An accomplice has escaped. You are the next best thing. I don't know anything about what you're even asking. You don't need to know the location of Lord Penderon, but you're a bargaining chip we cannot give up in the chase for him. You know that I'm constantly involved with the blue coats. They think I know everything fine. Take me. I don't care. You know, I don't know what you were asking or thinking of asking. That's why I was saying we should talk to Tesla. But fine. Take me in. Really appreciate it. Thank you for listening tonight's of the night actual play podcast. If you'd like to send us questions, comments, or feedback, you can reach us at a number of ways, including Twitter @KOTN_Podcasts or you can join our Facebook page, which is facebook.com/KOTN.Podcasts. And while on Facebook, you can join like-minded folks at our fans page at facebook.com/groups/KOTN-VAMP. And lastly, there's our blog, which is found at kotnpodcast.com. And please remember to join us next week for more mystery and adventure. I have difficulty when we skip a week because that means I've edited two older podcasts. And that's what I'm thinking about is happening recently when we've got a bit of a backlog. So it's not really recent. Yeah. So my bet. We can just check that. I heard a text. Is that him? It might have been what Scott was sending to me. The link to a mansion. Yeah. I didn't see a new one from him. No. Not from Michael's an hour ago. It was a Discord thing. I'm sick. I don't have a difference on my phone for when it's vibrating. And yeah, I never have it on loud notifications. Some of you use Discord, some of you use Google chats, some of you use like Megan. It's talking about sibling. Someone. Yeah. And it's like, I hear a noise and it's like, okay, what the hell was that? And someone sent me a message somewhere. Yeah. All right. The prizes in the house in this room is warmer and I've got the window open. So if you guys can hear my neighbors screaming, I live in the inner city and you haven't been about my situation. Yeah. Okay. Good enough. Because I can hear. I am definitely at wow, I'm definitely not being able to talk. Hey, Gordon. Okay. Thought I was with the shot. Okay. Oh, wait. It was. Excuse me. Okay. Hello. Welcome back. Are you available? I need a moment. I think I'm good at spending the last half hour of moments trying to set computer up. I don't know what happened. Couldn't get audio. So weird. I finally got the microphone plugged in a different USB port and the audio came on too. So it's like, um, okay, Thomas. Yeah. Do you visit Michael's house every once in a while? You have a spare laptop. Wasn't fucking weird way to ask that question. Yeah. Well, what I mean by that is Aaron gave me her old laptop and you could take it over and he can try using it. I know it's not a phenomenal great one, but it's literally been sitting here doing nothing because I got that small one that does our plaques, et cetera. So next time, remind me, you know, give it to you and Michael, you could try that. Yeah. I have fixed mine, which should be possible. It's just the things that try. I did some research and I got some things I want to try. So I know it's not the most powerful laptop or whatever, but Aaron's like, I don't use it anymore because he got a new one. It's yours. If you want to try. I appreciate that. I'll let you know. Okay. Sure. I was battling with the pool cleaning thing and just scooping slides. It's that time of year. It's been freaking out. The last. Well, also, it's supposed to rain for a few days and the top was actually semi dry. And so I tried to take it off and it was heavy with wet leaves and I scooping it up by hand and it was slimy and then I had to shower and I literally bitched and said, why is it a nice week and then a shitty weekend? That sucks. But anyways, if you can do your intro, then I can cut it and paste it in the beginning. Just so. Okay. Mm hmm. Oh, there are possible titles for this episode. Over available on Facebook are Knights of the Knights fans page in which there was a poll that included your empire is so restrictive. I was nowhere near gum tree. I am an omni direction view. Our mother of thorns and good thing. I don't look like a fool in the podcast. You