The ending begins
Knights of the Night
627 - BitD Psychonaut Distillery
[music] Hello and welcome to Night of the Night actual play podcast. This Blades in the Dark story machinations is written in run by our GM Cha. And now, please enjoy episode 627, titled, "Psychonauts Distillery". Actual play begins immediately. [music] Hello and welcome to Night of the Night actual play podcast. I am your GM and host, John, running our Blades in the Dark campaign machinations. This should be the beginning of our final score this season. We'll be taking a break and moving on to something else. Players with me, starting on my left, are... I'm Thomas, I'll be playing Hadrian's Briar, or Burning Briar while I'm on the job. Run away a routine demon there and a... An omnidisciplinary saboteer and technician who can produce all kind of creations. Grand inventions of spark crafts, objects of great magic, and hell, I'm a doctor too. You want it? I do it. Looks wise, I currently bear the shell of an accuracy man of healthy build and noble stock fitted with an open chest at long coop. Pair of glasses and a tiny bit of thorny Briar barely poking out of the corners of his mouth and ears. Also noticeable is a replacement foot sculpted immaculately to match a bare human foot. He has two stress and an instability. Hello everyone, I'm Scott, playing Teslin Vale, otherwise known as the Bell of the Abyss. Teslin is a saberosi whisper who does the dirty work for the Archives of Echoes. She explores the past via ghosts with Lord Penderon, her mentor, and secrets in by her, she is of him. She's a petite brunette who is partial to petticoats. She has flowing auburn locks, olive skin, and green eyes. To her mortification, she has a dead left hand sewn on to her left wrist, her hand lost in an experience that she doesn't discuss. Teslin has two stress and she also has a level one harm of painful cuts. Hello folks, I am Jim, I am playing a recovering silver tongue slide named Skievan being also known as busy. When not getting into trouble and crew business, Busy spends his time trying to revitalize the finances of the Bing coal mining family. This socializing and enterprising handsome young Ecarosi Noble is always looking for new ways to profit from the good and bad fortune of others. He is currently looking forward to the day when he no longer needs to be disguised as the Spirit Warden Delegos. I am currently recovering from a lung injury and have cleared up my stress boxes. And I am Tom, I am playing Esther Roland, an ex-blue coat captain who goes by the name of Ghost because of her pale skin, eyes and hair. She's a cotter who is a dangerous and intimidating fighter, but she also is defensive and does her best to keep the crew members safe. She is Ecarosi born, so she's been in the city forever and she knows all the good and bad stuff here, mostly bad. Her current stress is free. I am Michael playing Gordon, a young, thin, scovish lurk. He specializes in infiltration allowing him to bypass most security measures. Gordon currently has two stress. Last time we played, your lowest grunts of the grunt you are eager to demonstrate their promotion material, Delegos. You give the order to march into the Kellis Estate, how's this fair? I thought I was talking to the Kellis about... Oh yeah, no, it goes terribly. But this is why you talk to me. This is why you talk to me. Tomorrow I'll speak to my guys before we go in. And then they meet terrible demise and we end up talking to them, but yeah, give us your rousing. I'm just going to say that these guys ahead must have been doing more looking around and trying to keep things intact so we can find things. I think we need to get a little bit more rough, guys, let's go. All right, you whip around, everyone falls behind. There's a whistle down to the folk in the canal to hold up. Be ready. And Cedric is riding his little spark craft wheelchair ramp down with his cane over his legs of the grind staircase. As the bloodied marble of the floor, your first squat are kind of like leaned up on a wall, not gone, but bad. Cedric is just calmly riding down, unfolds his legs, clambers off of this thing and wanders over. Gentlemen, I understand you're here on business. It's finally nice to meet someone of authority in the group. What am I meeting today? I am Spirit Warden Delegos, and I have been commanded to search the promises for things that should not be here. Yeah, and this is no doubt backed by the word of our great Lord Governor. Has Chircono sent you then? You have the papers. Yeah, well, if only I'd seen this first, I'm sorry about your friends here. We should have what we need to take care of them. If you would like the tour or you want to figure it out yourself, we know what we're looking for. You brush past them at all, just kind of yeah, right? I stump on past, throw the sheet in his lap or his hands and stump inside. All right, we're going to roll the Spirit Warden's tier versus this defense, the obfuscation that Gordon has done. Gordon, you have a clear eye on the people downstairs, or which is to say, on the boats, the backup crew? Yes, they are whispering among themselves, they've kind of folded up their stuff to be less conspicuous. Dimmed the lights as it were, but you saw them approaching, so you don't have a problem keeping an eye on when or if they decide to go all in. Let's give it a roll. This is risky, we're putting it to a fortune die. The tier of the Spirit Wardens is a four. Their morale has been hit, so I'm going to reduce a dice here. For the edginess, they're kept a little too concerned about how that engagement roll went. That they lost their first crew at the gates. Any subtraction for kind of led away from the real secret passage by Delegos, otherwise known as Busy? That was in the engagement roll that kind of traveled down here. Okay, we've got a six, a one, and a one. The roll on Gordon's part was a six, five, four, one. So they are just with a sixth, one, they are several below a six, five. Gotcha. This is a bit ad hoc or adjudicating for versus factions on setting up and searching, but it is what it is, where we ended up. It's not even Delegos, he's working his way there. There is a shout of alarm and a crunch as whomever is pummeled into the ground via the golem who is protecting this greenhouse that holds the psychonaut distillery, the spirit distillery, that is operating to purify their plants. The creature was set down here to defend and just sat conserving battery until somebody opened the hatch, wandered down, and then ground them into the ground. And this is the decoy, right, I should be saying that's probably where it's at, let's check that out. The old man is far behind you at this point, but your men seem reticent to wander down in there with a killing machine. Yeah, one dies. So yeah, this is the place, go get them. I think you're going to have to convince your men or find some other way to secure this bounty. Because right now they're like, we just pour boiling oil down there, I don't know, we just lock it up and never go down there. They don't want to run down there and fight this thing, necessarily, because it's just on kill orders. Use your command busy, get them focused and riled up. I mean, they're ass kicked this whole time. Yeah, I'm telling them this is why we're here. We can't go back without finding something that we were looking for. It's either we get ground by that thing or ground by Catherine. So move. It's one against all of us, we can do it. So I am going to command them or sway them. Command is like a group of cadre telling them what to do. Sway could work, but it's like keying into one person's arguments, so you'd have to like go against your corporal versus the whole squad. Yeah, I'm not as good as command as I am in Sway, but I guess it just sounds like the thing you'd want to do. It is definitely the quickest way to get them all down there. Can I spend stress to try to talk them into it? Yeah, before you do that, I do have a devil's bargain for you. This hall is the spirit door that the reconciled will use to pour through. That is a devil's bargain. You don't have to accept it, but it does give your crew something to do and potentially a good distraction. It is the complication that you folks are worried about. I'm just putting it in your lap as an extra dice if you want this bad thing to happen. If it happens somewhere, it probably would be a good thing. If it's going to happen somewhere to happen here, because that way the reconciled will have to deal with not only the hall, but the spirit wardens as well, instead of them coming in somewhere where we're not. Yeah, so let's do that. Alright, give it a roll first. Let's see how this winds up. Taking a devil's bargain is not taking stress, though, right? Correct. No, it's a free dice. Yeah, you both associated with downsides. Push yourself, take to stress or accept a devil's bargain. So you don't need to push yourself to get this bonus. Okay. If you are getting help, that's another matter and it would add another dice. Potentially, this could be the flashback of the hungry spirits that veil has set up. Adding to the confusion. And that would cause to stress to do that, right? No, it would be on her, and she has already spent the stress for a flashback question mark. I don't think she did. I did spend one myself and busy each spent one saying that Catherine had a gray market sideline that we were going to tap into. So I don't think I spent anything for the vials of spirits that would explode if necessary. If we were being attacked. So what does that cost? For it to have the perfect timing to add to the chaos here, it would be another dice and one stress to assist. Okay, I'll do that. Alright, busy two dice extra for your command. Man, I'm sorry, Delegos. It could happen busy. Come on. I have a plus two die. It is risky. Yes. And standard effect. For great. I think it's great since you're the commanding officer here. They're nervous, but. That's their job. How many days you got busy? I got the two plus. I only have one dot. So three. Okay, roll a six buddy. I got all fours. Three of a kind. Three of a kind should count for something. Yeah. That's a golf clap over here. Two of these callous defenses are represented by the hull as it shuts down and the crystal inside that has housed. Crystal of Bo more cracks and shatters as a spirit gate is opened through it and spirits come pouring out of it. One of them a very confused no longer beholden Kristoff Bo more. But just a small voice in the noise of the chaos that is ensuing. Your corporal at the top of the ladder pulls out a whistle. And anyone attuning right now gets an earful, but it is otherwise kind of dog whistle silent. The spirit wardens outside get the signal to jump on in. We've got trouble. As ghosts start pouring into this chamber are those ghosts from me or from the reconciled are both the reconciled and your spirits are converging on what looks like a likely host of tasty subjects. Not that they're out there causing chaos among the defenses, the knock on the defenses was mostly because the hall was taken out of commission. Okay, what if you possible to tune through the dog whistle and tell my spirits that I placed strategically about to attack the reconciled not the whole or the spirit wardens. We can go to you on that. Yeah, you can try to rustle them up and modulate the tone to piss them off in a particular way. Okay, I have a tune of three. I don't know what else to do you are good to play gripping what is essentially a sound wave in another spectrum and trying to warp it as it travels through. Oh, okay. You haven't done that before. No, I don't think I have, but it is risky because of your ignorance. Okay. It's not powerful enough to be desperate. It's just that you might fuck it up and give incorrect order. Fair enough. The effect. The effect is great. This whistle is pissing them off. That's where they were going. You're just telling them what specifically to do when they get there. Okay, and the modifier is plus zero dice. Yeah, for now. Okay. Here goes. Not barring anyone helping you. To be fair, I was in another greenhouse watching from a distance to make sure I'm in the greenhouse with the actual secret passage. Mm hmm. So I'm watching this from a distance and watching it all fall apart. I don't know if that affects the role though. It makes it hard for anyone to help you. So I think it doesn't affect the great effect or risky position, but does make it. No one can help. Unlikely for people to help without a flashback. Fair enough. I'll have three dice and unless someone wants to help me and I can understand if you don't, I'll go ahead and roll those three dice. I don't mind helping and it is my job to keep an eye on everybody that I can in our group. Yes. No. Reflecting back, you were probably in the entry chamber when the first wave came through. Yeah. And probably responsible for why it went so poorly for them. I'm not solely and you were definitely in uniform disguised, but you are keeping an eye on these focus they travel through. I was keeping an eye on the hall and the minute that I saw them all break in their spirits and ghosts and the whole thing. I immediately look over to Tesla and give an indication and then in any way that I can help, I will help. I do have the ability to fight spirits, but I don't think I want to do that. Without bringing additional supplies, usually when modulating that the ghost field, you're using your own life forces of battery. A second person, even if they're unskilled is another power source. So why steering and understanding that risk now falls on the two of you. I draw energy from ghost. To be clear, when you saw Chico down, you had to run to another greenhouse where Tesla was guarding the real treasure. Correct. I would definitely go there. And one more stress is not a problem as I put myself kind of there to protect her. And when required, give her a little extra energy. Sure. Yes, I say this might hurt a little and I go ahead and draw energy from mostly myself, but also ghost does have some energy. She is a strong spirit. She's strong willed. She can grab all spirits as well. So right. I grab that onto that and I thrust that power forward and that command towards the spirits that had laid in ambush. The spirit bottles and go ahead and unleash them upon the reconciled potentially. So I get plus one because of ghosts. Correct. Yep. Okay, for a total of four dice. Here's hoping we get a six. Critical success. A whole six. Yeah. A three five and double sixes. That role, by the way, was you ghost the last one. Yeah. Can you explain again what the reconciled are. The reconciled are an anemesis of Tesla and they are ghosts that have maintained their mind and do not need to feed off of humanity to stay sane. They're kind of just people without bodies. Immortal. Very old. Very old. A lot of them. They are trying. What you've learned throughout the history of this podcast is that they do not have some of the most powerful ghosts in their retinue, but they do want them and think that they are. Probably the best to lead the city. Right. Because of their ancient wisdom and long vision of things. It may or may not be known to you. I think not given Tesla's secretiveness. That's one of them is the reason she has a dead hand. Right. Like she doesn't talk about it. It was just out of character. One of the spirits in the archive of echoes was one of these reconciled that managed to possess her and escape. Very painfully. A big effect on this. We are going to mark four ticks on the spirit wardens morale. They are very damaged in this kind of put on the back foot. I was actually going for the reconciled with the spirits, not the spirit wardens. No, they do take a little bit of damage just from the thing coming. Plus the shoots aren't all fan. Certainly the reconciled ones aren't, but there's a lot that the reconciled have brought that aren't as self-directed. Like they are self-possessed able to make decisions and you may have made these targets look tasty, but they know what they're here for and you're just manipulating things. The hungry ghosts they brought to just cause chaos don't know shit from fuck. And so they fuck shit up and cause more than enough chaos for what you're looking for. That would affect the spirit wardens, wouldn't it? Absolutely would. I put a check on this clock. It was not the direct target. I'm introducing a third clock here of reconciled forces. And so we needed a third clock. You never have enough clocks. We are going to hit three on that. Ghost, you did some assistance here, so we're going to move on to somebody else. Okay, that's right. Gordon, the message may be warbled and modulated. They don't particularly understand why, but the spirit wardens do hear the whistle one way or the other. They aren't spirits themselves, so they're not driven to attack the reconciled per se. They just heard their boss sound a whistle and they spark up and start opening the servant store down here and storming in. These are the ones down on the saffron water, bursting their way in through the canals that you have your eye on. Okay, I have some throwing knives with me. You should do. Always. Yeah, I'm going to hit the first one in line, probably the one leading the charger, the one directing people in just the first one, whichever that is. Oh, yeah, whoever touches that door. Well, hopefully it isn't busy. Well, he's already inside. We did know that he was heading over land, so we're good on that. You're not. I just want to add. Yeah, I came in the front door. Yeah, I just want to add some negative reinforcement. Absolutely. All right, gravity is helping you here. I think you're going to, even though they have armor. Pretty good. You are assisted in this from your position, so you're going to have great effect. And given where you are, bullets can reach you, you might end up falling through the glass if shit goes really bad. So I'd say it's risky. With a fight like that, you are, this is a sneak attack. You're probably prowling. It's not up close and personal, but it is from a place they aren't expecting striking from the shadows. And prowl can be used to sneak attack like that. So it's risky standard. Great. You're going to have extra effect on this crew. All right. I'm going to do it. Get some sixes. Oh my goodness. Oh, grab the wrong end. Oh, three, three, two. And so I duck back into cover and say, fuck. Or fall out of your cover. Well, it says things go badly. You suffer harm. A complication occurs. You end up desperate position. You lose this opportunity. Wow, that's a lot of bad things at once. They are and or and or and or. Oh, okay. So as many as I see necessary, risky, controlled and desperate, all have their own levels of what kind of harm you could suffer, what kind of position you could wind up in. If you fail a controlled position, you're going to wind up in a risky one. But in this case, it would be risky is a level two harm potential. I say that you're at risk of that as you do manage to get this first one and he falls directly into the kind of domino style into another guy who was ready to charge in behind him. And as the two of them tumble into the saffron, whoever was directing them takes an eye, does a brief calculus of trajectory points up at the glowing roof, where you are not much of a silhouette. But as no one has entered yet, they all pull pistols and just hail fire down on that thing. Feel free to tell me how you already had something to grab onto when this glass underneath you shatters. Yeah, I'm assuming I'm behind something, whether it's a chimney or. You were unfortunately the way this glass outcropping works is that it's iron reinforced. But once the frame breaks that's where the majority of your body weight is you can try to grab onto the edge. Oh, so that's wrong with your fingers. But yeah, while none of the bullets hit you, you are in like a three story fall if you can't catch something. Prior. Yes. Any chance you're nearby and could be helpful. So I arranged where I was. I imagine I was providing overwatch for most people through. Propane pocket watches or lantern flames, but I could easily also have planted. An amalgam of yours and the ladies seeds around the place. Yeah, I'm looking forward to using some of those flashy ones that weren't going to do any damage to absolutely devour some ghosts chasing important people, but that's not what we're here for last grasping vines might be of help here. So you got a grabby plant that could grab him as he's fallen easily. It is just one story down. I think for dramatic effect. But I can't roll for you question. I think this is a resistance role where I am assisting. Correct. It's basically that. It's called bodyguard. You jump on the way to take damage for somebody else. I know this is the thing only ghosts can do. I actually get a plus one dice when I do it. I think that anyone can do it. It is just that ghost is extra good at handling it. Just get out of my way. I know how to fall. But in that case, I'll just provide an assistance and you can roll for it. I just work as well. Yeah. Only three at any given resistance. Only. So if you have better than that, go ahead. And even if you don't, me assisting will quite possibly make it better than that. But when you are looking at resistance, you press the word insight prowess or resolve, and it rolls a number of dice equal to the first dots you have in each skill. Because you rolled prowl to attack. We look at the top of that bar. It says prowess. If you click on that text, well, it's red. You're counting the first dots of all of them. So I believe you have three finesse prowl and skirmish. You don't have any rec. Just items, not that. Just the first dots of those each skill. So if you have all four skills, you've got four. Don't have rec. So I've got three. Okay. It will calculate that when you press prowess modifier. You're going to say plus one dice because there are some vines that try to grab you. In this case, hopefully, as you try to not fall three stories. Okay. And that is a stress from Breyer as he tries to reach out through his fly like vision. There are other ways to reduce harm. If you succeed in this, you'll take six minus whatever you roll in stress. So if you roll a five, you'll get one stress. And it will be one less level of harm. So from a broken leg to a sprained one. But if you also say that you brought armor with you, that could reduce it to zero. One stress and zero consequences. No, I don't know. Arm is not. Not your style. Not what he does. Can I burn too stress though to add to that? Or that's just the either or thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I can't do that while I'm getting. Assist. Is that accurate? I think you're allowed to do it while you're getting assisted. It's whether or not you want to accept a devil's bargain or spend to stress. So you could push yourself. Yeah. I've only got three stress burnt. So I'm going to add two to that. So that's clear. I got three stress burnt. So I'm going to add two to that. So that's close to. All right. Then this will probably end up being a level one stress of rope burn as your fall is caught by various whatever's you grab onto. Okay. There goes. Oh, hell yeah. A six minus six is zero extra stress. If I rolled a six by five, five, three. Wow. If you managed to get two sixes, you actually erase a stress like. I feel good about the fine death is my every day. Yeah. Okay. So I guess I'm on the ground off. It's where you want to be. So if you are smashing back, or if you're riding these tendrils Tarzan style back through one of the glasses, they shattered and dropping out of the boat. Sure. You can be action hero, but I don't know if you want to end up in that much trouble. Yeah. How many are there? There is about 15 of them on the boat. Two of them have sunk into the waters to 12, but they have. And I don't know. It's up to you. They have guns. Where do you want to wind up? At home in bed. No, I just fall like inside. All right. Right. Land in the. The roof. Sort of speak was, was this the stained glass or just. Yes. Okay. So I go through that and land inside the house because they're still out in there. They are not. No, they're deep. They're either deeper into it or on the canal. Okay. Yeah, I landed side. Grabbing. Green things as I fall. You slide down as servants are dragging the wounded spirit wardens outside and tending to them. You actually like nearly vault over one of them as you're like sliding down this rope. Or vine as it were. They drop the person heavily on the car as glass comes raining down and they're covering their heads and like running away. My bad. So sorry. You didn't shoot the class. Don't worry about it. Yeah. Bastards. And ruined a pretty thing. Yeah. So I'm going to scramble for cover and. Yeah, let's put a level one harm on you. If you want to click above the word stress is a couple of red blood drips on your character sheet. Yes. A level one of friction burns. This is a physical consequence of actually having to slow your fall and all that on these things. There's significantly better than if you had not grabbed them, but still out. And that's back to Breyer. Oh, Breyer, go. Okay. Well, if any of the spear awards are still spread out and we have less stress on their track than everyone else's. So I'm going to hit some of the stragglers as they rush to go help their bosses. Yeah, they're all called by whatever masks they have on kind of like pick up this whistle by design. And whatever they were investigating there headed that way. So. Fair enough. Some of my plants reach out surreptitiously and stealthfully to grab the stragglers. Hopefully to restrain them hard enough they cannot reply. So they'll get less back up than they expected, hopefully. Yeah, and maybe somebody watches their friend get taken from around a corner just for terror effect. We'll see how well I roll. But this is, I believe, a direct attunement as I call for the help of the Lady of Thorns and reaching to my own magic to make my babies do work for me. Agrobits that are a part of me are more geared towards ghost eating and that, well, it would still be a tune, but it would probably be a bit easier than making a whole bunch of plants I designed to act to my whims so actively. This is my domain bow to me. Welcome to the horror show. I roll two dice. I think I get a bonus one for strange methods plus one result to your role when arcane designs are being crafted or used. That makes it from a standard effect to a great one. I imagine myself on the rooftop gardens or maybe in an even different greenhouse dancing away within the plants and communicating with them from afar due to fires. So I don't really know how this is dangerous for me beyond. Because attuning to these things is putting a fraction of yourself in them and if they die, you are harmed. Hi, there you go. Question answered. You are not entirely physical being and we should reflect your harm as such. There you go. I'm rolling plus zero dice with great effect. I don't know that anyone can help me with this unless most or our Lady of Thorns is actively assisting me. Our Lady of Thorns is assisting you but not in giving you an extra dice. She is giving you extreme effects. Okay, that's not even a thing, but we get it. It is a thing. It bumps your tear effect too higher. All right, that's fine. I cannot put that in the role. All right, let's go, baby. I rolled a two and then a six in exactly that order. So I do succeed, but it starts bad. Then he smiles, a gleeful smile at least into the flames as it goes worse and some people get absolutely ganked by plants. Yes, short montage, a bunch of people running around corners and then tripping and getting pulled by grasping vines only to reach screaming pitch as the pitcher is right there. It was already positioned right above the door. As a plant, you know the flexibility of plants, your foot would work better if you could do more with it. But there's only so much cellulose can shrink and bend like a muscle. But the Lady of Thorns doesn't give a shit. She is pulling people into the earth and sometimes like severing limbs doing so. Oh my. And yeah, these specters would be haunting these gardens, either for if it were not for the fact that by channeling this, you've got blue flame burning through these things. And you've just got a good chunk of spirit energy to burn now. She's fertilizing even you. Tasty. Tasty. So go ahead and erase a stress. Hell yeah. I don't understand how anyone else has trouble with stress as the vampire as he drinks on every mission. Anyone surviving is going to take note of the fact that. X many spirit wardens died and were not reclaimed and there are no haunting spirits here. And the death bill tolls. I mean, that was just book. Did that affect the spirit ward tomorrow? Hi, that would hope so. I'm working on that. It's not here nor there. They are almost broken in that you have managed with extreme effect. But a lot of ticks on the clock here managed to nearly break the spirit wardens as no help is relieving them as the reconciled wander in. And they don't really distinguish between reconciled and other ghosts that are eating each other. Oh, we can pin this on the reconcile. So they just see spectral chaos as tons of spirits are pouring in. Eating at each other, eating at the dead, eating, eating, eating. They are whipping their lightning hooks back and forth. But when you're surrounded and there's not enough of you to make a circle to defend one another, they are very shaken. And while ghost did assist, Tesla ghost, you never had a proper turn. Correct. I did a number of things. They were assisting. Sure. But I don't have time for you to act on your own. Yeah. No, I understand that. It's something fun. Do something to help the damn spirit wardens. They need to find the secret stash. Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to push it this hard, like out of character in character. Right. Briar is laughing, Giddily and dancing among the leaves. He's having time of his life. He's completely lost focus. He's a little drunk. Is there any way I could convey that this is not associated with the house of Kellis and try to help the spirit's warden. Oh, I have a suggestion that I meant to offer a long time ago. There was a number of spirit wardens during the first assault that ghost was later implied to be involved with. You could have gotten one of their masks, one of their uniforms, you could bust in there and say it's the work of the reconciled. I have this and this proof and then get to fucking ghost murder, which, okay, if I can do that, if I can put on something that makes me at least look like one of the spirit wardens. I would run in there and argue that we've got enough information. Let's just get out of here now while we're all still alive or come in with some damning proof that we wanted to plant. There's tons of spirit warden masks and cloaks all over this damn place. Yeah, so as many as have fallen, yes, mostly covered in blood, but yes. That does most of the living ones are also bloodied. Yeah, that's not out of place. I would like to argue that we should leave Lee Lee Lee leave and potentially using a command to demand everybody to get the hell out of here and that would be the move. Yeah, and if I can have something to give them that was, this is what's relevant in this room. Let's, we got it. Let's go. Yeah, you were not in the thick of it. This is kind of like you had a backup proof on your. Yeah, we can all we can all say that we all had a vial that we can use a backup proof. That is a really obvious plan. That we did not think of as a result, it is zero stress for that flashback. I would cost it one because we really should have thought about it. At least because pay the price, but I get the price because I want you to be able to use flashbacks for stuff you should have thought about. Yeah, that's valid. Yeah, I probably would. You're the one who addressed me as being involved with the first go around. That wasn't even my decision, but yeah. I agree. I would have done that absolutely. So as a flashback, I would have also grabbed some of their zero stress increased effect command. In order to command these people, you are going to have to be in a risky position just because of the shit they're up in dealing with. Sure. And I'm going to assist by saying listen to him. All right, we got the extra extra good when your commander says, yeah, he's right. I was going to ask him to do that. So I had a dice. You have to spend a stress doing that. Unfortunately, one stress, one stress. And in fact, it's going to be great, standard, limited, great, because they want an out. And you have all the things necessary. And the right garb. To be clear in the long term, this is not someone you can impersonate because they know when a spirit warden dies. No, yeah, this is just plants. It's just on scene, kind of, you can hand that, you can hand the vials to me. Yeah, in the chaos. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because I don't want to leave with the vials. So I will definitely hand them to you. Okay. I think when Ghost is trying to leave with them, I will kidnap her with plants. I will hang back. And then if you want to grab me to prevent me, I'm fine with that too, because I don't want to follow them. I'm going to spend two stress to just add one more dice, because I want to succeed. And oh, my God. I rolled a one, a one, a five. Oh, my God, a five and a six. The important one is the six. I'm glad you guys are all high because I have not been. Yeah. Well, I don't know that one, one, one is high, but the five and six managed. Yeah. Three, two, three is not terribly high either. No, but you did live. But apparently I succeed in getting them to leave, handing over the item to busy and then hanging in the back and just pushing everyone forward. Go, go, go, go, go. And then have someone grab me and I scream like a massive pain and then I disappear. Oh, no. I just realized what a bad idea is to trust me with that job right now. Perfectly reasonable thorns is probably wanting more blood than ghosts is willing to give up. It was a good plan when we made it. It was a lot worse when I accepted the eldritch help of an evil God of pain and did not think about the consequences. You might want to use Gordon instead as your, oh, no, I got kidnapped again. Still, I am planning to help with that part of the plan. We will see what we can have Schrodinger's a sister as long as Gordon is willing to be that second potential helper. Of course. I don't know if Gordon can. Oh, right. This is an assist moment is an assist. We can have an extra die depending on how it goes. It was either that the vines grabbed you or Gordon spirited you away. I'm rolling one more day. One more roll for one more for an assist on command to get people out of here like we got what we needed. Oh, hold on. Yeah, no, I was just talking about the extraction. I wasn't even sure we need. Oh, yeah, we're not rolling all that into one bundle. Okay. Okay. Yeah, you got a six. We're good. Okay. Then we'll talk about it when it comes to extraction. You succeeded. Do I get one more in the spirit warden morale? Actually, I think that builds it up. And you improve their success there. Oh, okay. I thought the morale was just getting a lot of. Yes, you're right. If that's where I'm measuring it is full. I meant that there's a potential we can live. Thank God. In universe, their morale was greatly improved by this successful retreat out of universe. You did tick their morale box and filled it and they're dead and they're retreating. Yeah, the morale was like, yeah, it's time to leave. Let's go. Yeah, as far as they were where they succeeded. It was a great cost, but they got the proof they needed. They lost a fight for sure, but. And it has the effect that we wanted to, which is that we do any more to the house. Kelis defense. We're not done yet. They're reconciled. They're still here. They can do that. Yes. Now that we've had everyone have a turn. We are going to have the enemy factions do a thing. The spirit wardens have been successfully routed, so they're not directly fighting anyone left in house. Kelis, but the reconciled are kind of unchallenged now that the spirit wardens are running away other than. Tesla did sick a bunch of, and I don't have a health bar for them or anything, but the wild spirit she brought in. Yeah, they are being occupied just not as egregiously as it was when this. I think that I will split the damage that the reconciled do against your ghosts and the house. Kelis. Okay, as they try to push people out of the estate to get what they came for. The reconciled are a tier. They are the fringe. They are tier three. This is actually reconciled take around. They got a six, which is three successes on a clock that pushes back your wild spirits and does two damage to house. Kelis. Okay. Making it reconciled versus three health remaining house. Kelis for discounting player characters stress and health. That's a whole thing. Oh, but they are pushing back guards who are not equipped for such things. And in response to this Cecil has caught on to what has happened here is regularly attuning. Not in view of anyone, but off-camera is gathering Mildred to perform a binding ritual that keeps basically a circle that locks them out from where they want to get into adding defense to the house, Kelis defenses versus specifically ghosts. I thought he was freaking out about everything and he was going to lock me up. It's just perfectly reasonable reaction. He cannot attune to what you are. That's not his specialty. Yeah, that's very fair. So when he sees a bunch of spirits pouring in, he gets the spirit salts ready. Yep. I'll give him a short roll, but let's do experience for now and we'll reconvene. Maybe I'll come back with more danger. I don't know. Do it. Make the battle between the reconciled and the rest of us epic. All right. I've been waiting for a long time to spring this trap. So make it count. Yeah, they get a tick back on their defenses as the damage done to them was done by a higher tier force. They kind of recover a little bit. There are spirits pounding at the barriers as we call it for the night. Experience for the crew. So how we start execute a successful accident disappearance murder or ransom operation. I think accidents. We're about to do a disappearance, but we'll hold on to that. I'm tend with challenges above your current station. Yes. So that's too so far. Both your accused reputation is certainly among the calluses. Express goals drives inner conflict or essential nature of the crew. I don't know. There is stuff about the secret, but I think I want that to play out before I reward for it. That seems fair. So we'll give three XP for that. Yeah, this has been a self interested mission more than a. Like I never called up the goddess of greater good, not that I can talk to her yet or anything. I don't think she's fully formed. I called on the goddess of pain because we're doing murder shit. We're not. It's really caring about whether this family is helping the world or not. Okay. And players with me. Did I only desperate actions? No, I safely removed myself from conflict. Pat's demon self on back. But I did address a challenge with both technical skill and mayhem. I built some new and terrifying plants and then laughed maniacally as I slaughtered the spirit wardens. I think I hit both keys. I think that counts for two in that regard. Expressed my belief drives heritage or background. I complimented the nature of holes while everyone else sat uncomfortable with the fact that we caused it. Holes. Yeah. And then I don't really count it, but I did spend the entire mission working remotely because I don't need to be physically present anymore bow. And then as for the last one, you struggled with issues from your voice of trauma. Yeah, I gave in to causing a bunch of pain I didn't plan to do. And the death bell told, so we're getting heat for it. Right. This could have been quiet and I fully intended to warn everyone only cause glancing blows. And then I called up paying goddess and she was like, I could make this awesome. And I said, yeah. Awesome. I mean, deadly. Yeah, you could. Let's do it. And that's good enough. I put three points into resolve and upgraded to tune because God, I'm getting pretty good at magic. That's my first three dot. And then I put the last point into insight. Didn't go anywhere with that, but I wanted to mention it out loud. Okay. You address a challenge with knowledge or arcane power. I certainly used a lot of knowledge in the sense that the overall plan of the fake secret stash. Yeah, it was was Tesla's. You definitely were a key figure in that. And arcane power. She did twice, I think. I don't know if you want to hit it twice or not. That's okay. If you don't. She laid down the chaos spirits to act as a possible weapon in the battle. And then she used her arcane power to unleash them upon the reconciled. So one or two there you decide. I think one for now. It was like the same spirits you were just giving them targets. Yeah, I got you. You expressed your beliefs, drives, heritage and background. The only time I really did that was when we said, do we care about collateral damage of the spirit wardens? And I said, I don't. Meaning we could attack and if some of them died, she didn't mind at all. Because she thinks I'm so intently. Had a bit of a shutter of success when you heard the deathbell. Yeah, even though it's going to cause trouble for your crew. Right. Go ahead. So that's a total of three. I did not struggle with any issues for my vice or traumas. To my knowledge today. So I'm just going to take the three and run with it. Okay. As far as busy goes, no desperate actions. I address every challenge with deception or influence. It helps when you're half not a real person. Yeah, when I'm always in disguise, no matter what I'm doing and always lying to people. We're influencing that in some way. Definitely one for that here expressing my belief drive, heritage or background. I don't know if I did that as much today. No, part of the season cliffhanger is that your brother's under arrest. We'll deal with that going forward. He'll get points for it. But there are other ways to hit it. Obviously, I just mean there's definitely one cooking. Yeah, I mean, the only drive I was trying or belief I was doing was when I'm in character and in disguise. I try to do it. Even though I may be trying to fail, it's hard for him not to try to look like he's trying to succeed and maybe accidentally succeed. Maybe accidentally succeeding because he's trying to put on a good front. Sometimes more than he's trying to fail or do the thing he's supposed to do. Okay. It's like telling them to go in there and just wreck shit. I mean, it probably shouldn't have. Yeah, I'm into that. Let's make sure that happens. Going forward. I think one for now, I'm definitely going to reward it when your role takes over the good. How your crew's doing. Right. I'll definitely reward that. So too. Because I didn't struggle with any of my vices or traumas. Yes. Yeah, that's a good total. And just going forward like to be sure. If you endanger your crew with the role that got to your head, you are getting XP for it. Yeah. Okay. In my case, nothing was a desperate action. But as far as addressing a challenge with violence or coercion, I believe at least once I was involved with violence. Now. The first one, which is kind of off screen. I don't know if that counts. If there are no consequences to you, I don't know. It is just. Consistent with your character is why I threw it in there. Yeah. It's when roles risk you that we're getting. Makes more sense. So yeah, I would say just one in a sense that I was using command and that kind of. Yeah. Sounds like the coercion. But. My express and my beliefs drives heritage and background. Yeah. At least once as well, maybe twice as I attempted to set up in a situation where I would protect my entire squad. At one point, I did. Assist on more than one occasion. Yeah. You were putting your soul as a battery on the line. So you got that there. Okay. So that's it. And Gordon and Gordon. No desperate actions. Well, there was, but I didn't. That wasn't a desperate role. Was it? I don't even know how that was risky. Oh, okay. Like you could have survived that fall. Desperate is like you might die about it. I see. That's desperate. Just a challenge with stealth or evasion. Yeah. Stealthfully fell through the sky glass there. And although I did. I was a good evasion falling inside. I think the evasion it hits for that you were like willing to. Reposition to get your drop again. Yeah. So I was like, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that. I did take one point from that earlier. But I don't think you did. No, I think you're right. So let's go to for that. Since you're actually putting all your chips down for this. Particular venture. And then even keeping secrets from those who have housed you. Mm hmm. I struggled with issues from my vice or trauma. No, I mean, I've already associated with the girlfriend. So. Yes. I don't think we're going to hit her twice. She could have been either. But we did use her. Yeah. Okay. All right. That's looking good. All right. This has been machinations. KOTN's. Bleeds in the dark campaign. I've been your. And I speak to the Kota backwards. I'm your host and GM John. Thanks for listening. Yeah. Thanks. Hope you enjoyed it. Another good night. Folks. Thanks for everybody for listening. Thanks everybody for playing. All right. I anticipate to be done next session. There should just be cleanup and cliffhangers. Okay. 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 at 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 and our fans page at Facebook.com/groups/KOTN_Fant. And lastly, there's our blog, which is found at KOTN_Podcast.com. And please remember to join us next week for more Mystery and Adventure. And bring it out here. And how big do I got to make it? Eight, I think you said earlier. I believe you're right. Oh, I canceled instead of hitting Apply. Silly. There we go. All right. Okay. You're having me check the damn sheet again. I'm sorry. Let me check assistance. There's definitely a way to do it for ordinary folk that just isn't as safe. Yeah. Protect a teammate. Face danger for a teammate. Step into suffer consequence in their place. You may roll to resist as normal if you wish. The car drives by very loudly. Yeah, I did. I heard it, but I don't think anybody else did. I had a listener being like, "Isn't it a plot hole? How hard it was to get busy in the Spirit War?" And then you can just put on a mask. Hello, and welcome to the Knights of the Night Actual Play Podcast. This Dresden-interested file. Jesus Christ. Other possible titles that were available for voting for on the Facebook Knights of the Night Fans Page were kind of a dog whistling silence. A three, five, and double sixes. One of them is the reason she's had a dead hand. You can never have enough clocks. Welcome to the horror show. And she's pulling people into the Earth.