Episode 10 - Ambush

[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the All Night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queens Court Games. Well, what an interesting turn. Events that has been right as you're beginning to unravel the various layers of this conspiracy, all the myriad forms it could be taking, your scheming is interrupted by a phone call. Charles Dawson, of all people, wants to meet with you right now. You've all been a bit skeptical as to whether Charles is actually responsible for this mess. It would be unwise, however, to let that skepticism get in the way of good judgment. Whether or not Charles is ultimately responsible for the attack on the Diamond Yama, he is still a wanted man, and your investigation, such as it is, is all predicated on bringing him in. Now, Maya, you have a pretty clear feeling about all of this. Whether or not Charles is responsible, your obligation here isn't to the Prince, it's not to the Camarilla. It's to Sierra. [00:01:34] Speaker B: That is true. [00:01:36] Speaker A: And the rest of you, no matter how honest your intentions or no matter how satisfying your relationship with Charles, are also obligated to the prince's orders. Now, Charles gave you the address of an industrial shipping zone on the east side of town, closer to the Indiana border. This part of Chicago is well known for being a transit hub. There are a number of chemical refineries there. Back when the town was a seriously booming home of industry, there were all kinds of peers along that part of the lake for bringing in iron ore, coal, that kind of thing. So you're well outside your normal comfort zone in terms of Chicago territory. [00:02:16] Speaker C: So that was Charles. I kind of look at the group, look back at my phone, stare at them as they just stare back at me. He wants us to meet in the next half hour. He obviously knows that something is up. I don't know if this nervousness that he has is because he knows that we know that it was him or if he knows that somebody's trying to set him up. But he didn't sound like himself. He didn't sound like his normal self anyway. [00:02:49] Speaker D: Interesting. Do we know if whoever is potentially impersonating him can also impersonate his voice? [00:02:57] Speaker E: Know about any spells that could do that? If so, then we could be walking right into an ambush. [00:03:03] Speaker C: It's not out of the realm of possibility. We definitely shouldn't go into this expecting everything to be totally fine. I assume we're going to meet with we have to meet with him, right? We can't just not. And I think it'll be important to approach this with a bit of skepticism on our part. [00:03:20] Speaker E: Oh, we're going to meet your boyfriend? We're just going to prepare for the worst. Where's our little rendezvous at exactly? [00:03:29] Speaker C: Closer to the Indiana border. Other side of town. [00:03:33] Speaker E: Shit. Is there a problem? [00:03:37] Speaker D: Well, that sounds like right in the den of the people that are causing this problem. [00:03:43] Speaker E: Not in their den exactly. More like in the den of the Garu themselves. That place is off limits. And if Charles is hiding there, he has to be desperate. Kind of like their training grounds of sorts. Bunch of new welps looking to get their first taste of blood. We're going to want to be on our guard, and not just because of Charles. [00:04:03] Speaker C: You're joking, right? This is just one of those, like, I bought a new car and now I see that car everywhere kind of thing, right, where we talk about a place and you're like, no, it's totally Garu, because that's all that you are about. Please tell me that this is not a thing, like an actual legitimate concern that I have to have right now. [00:04:21] Speaker E: Are you scared? Not really a time for joking, LaRue. [00:04:25] Speaker D: It's also anarch territory, if that helps you any. [00:04:29] Speaker C: I mean, to be honest, schmendric. I Anarchs or Anarchs geru. Or geru. It's apples and oranges, you know, just. [00:04:40] Speaker D: Well, yeah, one will come straight at you and tear you to pieces, and the other one will wait until you're sleeping. [00:04:47] Speaker E: Are you scared? Ivy? She wouldn't be wrong to be scared. I've been fighting those things for far longer than most of you have been walking around. We're not walking into something that's easy to deal with. We're going to need to be on. [00:05:01] Speaker C: Our very best guard if I am scared. Maya, I don't think it's unheard of just thinking about walking up to something that could rip you in half. I think that anybody who's wise would have reason to be wary. [00:05:20] Speaker E: It's a fine line between being brave and foolhardy. [00:05:23] Speaker B: You've already killed a Lasombra. I can't imagine the Garu are much worse. [00:05:29] Speaker C: The Lasambra was a walk in the park compared to whatever the Garu can throw at us. [00:05:37] Speaker D: Thinking back to my contribution to the fight, I just kind of laugh and shake my head at Maya. [00:05:44] Speaker A: I don't know. Ivy is ascribing a great deal of weight to how easy it was to deal with Melanchov, to things that had more to do with luck than skill or execution. [00:05:55] Speaker C: I mean, of course, but I wouldn't tell Maya that. She feels so strongly and thinks so highly of the Lasambra and mentioning him in a conversation about the geru. At the very least, the Kindred are the devil. You know, the Garu are much harder to deal with. [00:06:14] Speaker A: Well, Rebecca has ample expertise in that area if you wanted to ask her for your Garu avoidance tips. [00:06:21] Speaker C: Rebecca? Ivy, you always talk about the Garou, and I thought that that was just going to be a you thing. You and Anita and Rosa and you guys were going to go play with the dogs and that could be your thing. And if I need to concern myself with them, as apparently I now do, what have you got for me? What are some things that we need to know going into this pretty typical. [00:06:58] Speaker E: Don't worry about the wolf till it's at your door. But the area we're heading into, it's a proving ground of sorts. They send their young ones out here to get their first taste of blood, prove their metal. So anyone's we do face out there are going to be looking for a fight? We do have an advantage here. They're unproven young. Agaru is chaos incarnate. They will rip you apart without regard for anything about them, even if it means their own destruction. They will fight you until their last breath. But I've my experiences with fighting them so we've got power. Sure, we've beat Malinkov, we've fought terrible things, but a Garu is something else entirely. We can't let pride overtake us when it comes to the Garu. They can come back from any wound, no matter how severe. Their claws cut through you like sunlight. Or the hottest fire. Silas, he's older than I am, and they took him out for almost a year. Just be on your watch. If we do encounter one of them tonight, we have to be careful, no matter how much power we have at our beck and call. [00:08:07] Speaker D: So that sounds great and all, Rebecca, but that's not exactly a fight I'm going to win. And I don't want any of us to really have to deal with that. How do we avoid them? [00:08:20] Speaker E: I chuckle. She says that. Oh, believe me, I don't want to fight them either. Garu's the last thing you want to find at the end of your claws, no matter how sharp. But the way they hunt, it's a bit like an animal. Well, they are animals. It's to be expected. Whatever is in our blood, they can smell it. It's not something that a musk or some cloak can cover. We're going to want to find areas that aren't traveled much. They have poor civilization, will want heavily populated areas blending in with the sheep, so to speak. Is what we're going to want to try to do. If they do pick up our sense, then they're not going to come rage again in their war forms, at us be among the humans. [00:09:05] Speaker D: Too much for wait, so you're saying my ability to go poof isn't going to work with these guys? [00:09:15] Speaker E: You reek of the worm, shmendrick. And I'm saying that to all of us. [00:09:19] Speaker D: The what? [00:09:21] Speaker E: Ah, right, I forget. You haven't had the chance to study them. The worm is corruption. It is their natural world taken from them. Poisons being pumped in through rivers, air. We are a perversion of the natural cycle itself. So, Noshmandrick, your disappearing skills, they're impressive. But if we're being tracked on by the Garou, it's not going to save us. [00:09:47] Speaker D: Oh, great. That's basically what I do. [00:09:52] Speaker E: Which is why we're going to try to avoid them at all costs. [00:09:56] Speaker B: I assume this means that we can't mask the scent either. [00:10:00] Speaker E: No, I think our best bet is sticking to populated area cities. They won't reveal themselves in front of humans. It's a hard sight to forget. Not even their mists can help them. So the garu also follow the masquerade. Fascinating. As much as beasts can. [00:10:21] Speaker A: Their motivations for it are slightly different. But yes, the Garou are another of the species in this world of darkness that understand the value in hiding their existence from humanity writ large. Well, that's quite the predicament, isn't it? Charles has asked you to meet him in territory that Prince Jackson considers Anarch domain. But anyone whose anyone knows actually belongs to the Garrow. Your suspicion is already raised by the possibility it might not be Charles at all. But as Ivy has pointed out, you don't really have a choice. You have to go. So, given the information that Rebecca has presented about the best practices for avoiding ending up on the receiving end of werewolf violence, what precautions and preparations are you making for the trip? [00:11:11] Speaker B: Rebecca knows the Garu best, so I listen to experts. However, how much time do we have before sunrise? I don't want to get stuck somewhere. [00:11:21] Speaker A: Not as much as you would like. This rendezvous point is easily 35 45 minutes from your current location, if traffic cooperates. Given that commute, if you want to make it back to Chicago by your own havens before the sunrise, this meeting with Charles better not take more than an hour. Otherwise you might want to be looking for cheap hotels in Gary. [00:11:46] Speaker C: That's so worrisome. I'm not excited about the idea of being caught in the sunlight. And I'm really not excited about trying to find a place in Gary. [00:11:56] Speaker A: Which of those things upsets Ivy more? Being dusted by the sun or having to stay in a roach motel in the gutted out deindustrialized Husk of America? [00:12:06] Speaker C: Having to stay in a roach motel in the gutted, out industrial husk of America, obviously. Why is that a question? [00:12:13] Speaker E: It's not the first time that I've had to make plans up on the fly when it involves werewolves. My time in Tucson was spent doing just that. The Gavri wait for no one. I sort of take a leadership position. Ivy, can you look up maps? I want you to find populated areas, nightclubs, roads, hotels, anywhere like that. We're going to want to keep a trail close to humans. Maya, your shadow abilities, how far do they reach exactly? [00:12:40] Speaker B: If I can see it, I can use it. Does that make sense? [00:12:45] Speaker E: I see you're going to want to keep them on the down low. Those creatures can sense the umbra being manipulated a mile away. schmendric anything you can do with your computers from there. Or rather, when we're there. [00:12:58] Speaker D: I was thinking about bringing a GPS. [00:13:02] Speaker E: GPS? Is that like the thing you call. [00:13:06] Speaker D: People with global positioning satellite? It's a map, but digital and plots, routes for you. [00:13:15] Speaker C: Remember I showed you in the car with the big birds in space? [00:13:21] Speaker E: Right. The birds. The birds in space. Got it. Use that. We'll need it to track our way through here. And as of for myself, well, got to prepare myself physically for the worst. [00:13:34] Speaker A: Case scenario, of course, for no special reason. Could everyone tell me what their current hunger level is? [00:13:43] Speaker C: I am at hunger two. [00:13:46] Speaker D: I'm also at two, but I'm at home, and I could take a snack now if I wanted. [00:13:51] Speaker E: I'm at one. [00:13:52] Speaker B: And I've been dreading this question because I don't know if my herd is here. [00:13:57] Speaker E: I'm also at one. [00:14:00] Speaker A: Well, I'm asking for this reason as it is. Your meeting with Charles can go no longer than an hour. If you want to make it back to Chicago proper before the sunrises, if you want to grab food before you go, that's going to shorten your window further. Now, you're all hanging out in Schmendrick shipping container, so she, of course, can access her reserves. Ivy, if you asked nice and held back the urge to vomit, you might be able to slake a hunger that way. [00:14:34] Speaker C: It would require two juice boxes. I don't know if schmendric has enough for that. [00:14:41] Speaker D: I should have enough for that, but just barely. I also did offer juice boxes when people came in, so you are welcome to whatever you require, so long as I have the stock for it. But I'll definitely need to do another run after this. [00:14:57] Speaker A: You got Bob for that. [00:14:59] Speaker D: Thank Bob. [00:15:01] Speaker A: So, schmendric, you are going to avail yourself of the frozen food section? [00:15:06] Speaker D: I am, yes. [00:15:08] Speaker A: And Ivy. [00:15:14] Speaker C: Schmendrick, can I please have a can I please have a couple juice boxes? [00:15:26] Speaker D: I'm just watching this internal struggle going through Ivy's face as she asks this, and without questioning, I just take a couple out of the fridge and hand them to Ivy with a smile. [00:15:40] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:15:42] Speaker E: You're welcome. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Drinking stored blood is an acquired taste. Of course, nothing will ever match the flavor, the intensity, the satisfaction of blood fresh from the vein, hot throbbing against your tongue in time with the beating of the heart. The very moment you separate the blood from the body, it begins to lose all of those things that make it special. As you've already indicated, vampires of a certain power can't actually draw sustenance when the substance is that far removed from the host. But regardless of your capacity to draw nourishment from this plastic baggie, the flavor borders on agony. It's not stale water or flat soda. It's the nothingness of taste like wallpaper paste. It's the texture. It doesn't flow freely. It's a little thicker, tainted by the various anticoagulant chemicals they pump into it to make sure it stores. I don't know if Ivy's much of a Sci-Fi reader, but this is exactly what you think unflavored nutrient paste would taste like in the dystopian future. And if you can manage to resist the urge to throw it aside after that first drink, if you can muster the will to make it to the bottom of the bag. Every single gulp or slurp is going to come with that bob of rejection in the back of your throat. You have to force yourself to swallow it down. This is not the way civilized creatures eat. [00:17:24] Speaker D: I would be hurt by that statement, but I'm probably not a civilized creature. [00:17:31] Speaker C: Oh, God. I can do this. Ivy, just spendric this is this is a lot. This is a lot. [00:17:46] Speaker D: I promise you we'll get you some good stuff later. [00:17:51] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Spendric. Oh, my God. Thank you again. I can't overstate how happy I am to have this and how appreciative I am, but oh, my God. [00:18:08] Speaker D: I realize I'm quite unique in my tastes, and even other nospradu that I've known have not enjoyed juice boxes in the way that I have. So I sit there and I just kind of, like, rub her shoulder, help her through it. [00:18:25] Speaker E: Ivy. [00:18:26] Speaker B: If it's so disgusting, there's always that fine gentleman outside. [00:18:31] Speaker C: I give a quick side eyed glance at Maya. I know how important Bob is to schmendrick, and the fact that Maya would ask that really rubs me the wrong way. I look at Maya and just say, there are some lines you don't cross, Maya. This is one of them. [00:18:52] Speaker D: Yeah. Bob is mine. I've kind of laid claim to him. I guess it'd be the equivalent of muscling in on someone else's herd. Except I don't feed from him. [00:19:04] Speaker B: I put my hands up. Just a suggestion. [00:19:09] Speaker C: Trust me, Maya, if I thought that it was an option, I would not be enjoying this lovely juice box. [00:19:19] Speaker A: You're not even through the first bag yet. [00:19:21] Speaker C: I know I'm not. There's so much left to go. [00:19:25] Speaker A: Oh, God. So much. [00:19:27] Speaker C: It's awful. [00:19:31] Speaker D: Well, considering time is of the essence, as long as you don't spill any. I don't think open container laws really apply to blood bags. [00:19:40] Speaker C: That's fair. It's going to take a while. And at that point, I could have just gone and had my own snack, so it's probably best to take this to go. [00:19:51] Speaker D: This may surprise you, but I'm the only person who stays in the shipping containers, so there's not a whole lot of people to choose from around here. [00:19:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I know. I'd have to find somebody and it would take time, and I can't imagine that it would be more time than this is going to take, but let's just car. Let's just let's just go. [00:20:15] Speaker B: If you spill blood in my car, the garou are not the only thing you will have to worry about tonight. [00:20:22] Speaker C: Well, no worries on that front, Maya. This is barely blood. [00:20:27] Speaker D: As we all begin to file out of my home sweet home, I rattle my backpack a couple of times and the largest sewer rat you've all ever seen crawls out from my bed and hops inside the bag. And nonchalantly, without even really addressing the rest of the people in the room. I just close up the bag, put it on my back. [00:20:50] Speaker E: All right. [00:20:50] Speaker D: We ready to go. [00:20:52] Speaker C: Where the fuck did that come from? [00:20:55] Speaker A: You were sitting right next to him. [00:20:57] Speaker C: Yeah. No, I understand that. I understand that. And I'm just seeing him for the first time. [00:21:03] Speaker D: Hey, he was cozy in the bed. [00:21:05] Speaker C: In the bed? [00:21:07] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:21:09] Speaker C: Schmendric. [00:21:13] Speaker B: What, like it's weird. [00:21:14] Speaker E: Yucca and I share a bed. Well, then she isn't perching. [00:21:18] Speaker C: Of course you do. Of course. Everybody does. [00:21:22] Speaker D: Listen, Eric Stoddle knows a few things that I don't when it comes to predators. I'm hoping that he'll notice any garu long before I do. [00:21:35] Speaker C: You named your rat eret Stottle. [00:21:38] Speaker D: Yeah, it's a pretty good, huh? [00:21:40] Speaker C: It's an unfortunately fantastic name. [00:21:44] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:21:46] Speaker E: Ashmendrick brings out eretztaddle. I realize it's probably going to be a better idea to have more eyes than just ours. And I'm going to call upon yucca. She's probably been just hanging out perching somewhere and hopefully isn't too startling as a Cooper's Hawk comes alighting down and lands on my shoulder. [00:22:06] Speaker A: Quite the menagerie you're developing in this car, Maya. [00:22:09] Speaker E: I'm. [00:22:12] Speaker B: Trying not to think about it. [00:22:15] Speaker C: We don't have to worry about Yucca eating Aristotle, do we? [00:22:21] Speaker E: Of course we don't. She's trained. Isn't that right, girl? Then I'll give her a little scratch on her little birdie head. [00:22:29] Speaker C: Sure. [00:22:32] Speaker D: Great. [00:22:35] Speaker A: Well, on the topic of accessories, we'll call them, is there any other equipment you're interested in bringing along? [00:22:46] Speaker B: Do we have access to anything that would do damage to the garu beyond our own capabilities? [00:22:52] Speaker E: Not physical damage per se, but I have something that might be of help here. Depends if you're hollow right with taking a few minutes while I go and grab something. [00:23:02] Speaker D: I mean, whatever can give us an edge, right? [00:23:07] Speaker A: Schmendric, you've already dropped Rebecca off at the grain silo once before. You know the way. [00:23:13] Speaker D: That's right, I do. So once everyone shuffles into the car, I will head straight towards Rebecca's quaint little home. At least it's not a shipping container. [00:23:25] Speaker A: I know schmendric has seen it before. I don't think Ivy has. And we know that Maya hasn't. [00:23:32] Speaker C: I've never been this far outside of civilization. [00:23:36] Speaker A: Well, as promised, it's only a few minutes outside of your most direct route for kindred. A Cooper's Hawk and a rat with the best name in all of Ratland. Schmendrick, still in the role of chauffeur, pulls Maya's car sedan as black as. [00:23:53] Speaker E: Her heart I'm blushing. [00:23:55] Speaker A: Into this obviously abandoned grain silo in the parking lot adjacent. I'm guessing Rebecca's gonna make a quick jaunt up to her quarters to retrieve the object. [00:24:08] Speaker E: Of course, I'll leave Yucca behind, quickly, hop that fence and go and grab my trophy. [00:24:15] Speaker A: So as you descend the ladder and come walking back to the car, describe this trophy that you have to say. [00:24:24] Speaker E: That it's worn would be an understatement. This thing looks about as old as I am. Although, in truth, it's only half as old as I am. I walk out holding a tattered green flag. It's been torn in places. It looks like it's seen better days. But on its dark green surface, there's a symbol. It appears to be a bunch of scratchings. I couldn't tell you the meaning, but it once stood for a certain pack of Garu whose leader I vanquished. And I returned in the car, sat with it across my lap. That's all I needed. Shall we? [00:25:06] Speaker C: Maybe this is a dumb question. What purpose does this flag serve? [00:25:15] Speaker E: This? I pulled it up. Any Garu, especially the young ones, they see us wielding their fallen leader's flag like this, they better know to turn tail. I'll tell you what shows that we've already dealt with them. Psychological warfare. I like it. [00:25:31] Speaker D: Not too shabby. [00:25:34] Speaker A: Yes, the Garu war flag, which Rebecca captured in Tucson, allows one of two things in any given story, she can wield it to intimidate weaker Garou into fleeing the scene. Or, if that doesn't work, the Garou who do see it will focus on her single mindedly. Rebecca, with her war flag in tow, rejoins the coterie in the vehicle. And just like that, it's time to get on the road again. You don't make it that far before there's a sound. It's metallic. Ivy, is that some kind of clicking coming from the floorboard? It's got to be Schmendrick's bag. What is that? [00:26:20] Speaker C: Schmendrick's bag? Maya's car. I don't know. I kind of like, rustle the bag a little bit and I turn my head to Schmendrick and just say, should your bag be clicking like this? [00:26:35] Speaker D: That's just aristotle. He's playing with my pistol. [00:26:40] Speaker C: I'm sorry, what? [00:26:43] Speaker D: It's not loaded. I have to worry. It's just in there with him. He's chewing on it. Life things. [00:26:51] Speaker C: Granted, I don't keep rats. I don't think that a rat should be chewing on a gun or playing with it. I feel like that's just generally good advice. [00:27:04] Speaker D: Probably not good for him. [00:27:06] Speaker C: No. [00:27:06] Speaker D: Like, his teeth are only so tough. But you don't have to worry, he's not going to load it. If you can find me a rat that can load a gun, I will replace Aristotle in a heartbeat. [00:27:17] Speaker A: I hope he didn't hear that. [00:27:19] Speaker C: I was going to say it was partially a joke. [00:27:24] Speaker D: Being my Familius, he would understand. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Well, Ivy, Schmender's given you an answer. Does that make you feel any better? [00:27:33] Speaker C: No, actually, it does not. The thought that there is a rat at my feet, first off, already upset about this, but the fact that there's a rat at my feet that is also playing with a pistol, somehow weirdly, does not make me feel better. [00:27:50] Speaker A: It's not loaded. What are you worried about? [00:27:53] Speaker C: I don't know. You give a rat a I just schmendrick. [00:27:59] Speaker A: You've taught Eric Style proper firearm safety, haven't you? [00:28:03] Speaker D: It's never come up. It's not like it's one of his prime directives. So to speak, but today we're having a moment. I am telling him as sternly as I'm able to not play with that, and hopefully everything will turn out for the best. [00:28:22] Speaker A: For Ivy's sake. [00:28:24] Speaker C: It's been, like, a really hard half hour for me, so anything that makes my life a little bit easier, I appreciate greatly. [00:28:33] Speaker A: How much of that bag you got left? [00:28:35] Speaker C: I got like a quarter of to go. Yeah. [00:28:41] Speaker A: Oh, Ivy. It's like getting to be room temperature. [00:28:48] Speaker C: I mean, does it make it worse? Does it make it better? At this point, I just don't know. [00:28:53] Speaker D: It's going to start coagulating. [00:28:55] Speaker C: No, it's like really bad. Boba, is it better or worse if I close my nose and just try and shotgun it? [00:29:06] Speaker A: Well, you tell me. [00:29:09] Speaker C: I have to imagine it's better, right? It has to be because if you rush through it and you don't think about it, it's like ripping off a band aid, right. It has to be better than this slow, agonizing pain of just sipping on it. Right. [00:29:31] Speaker A: I think the tactic is something like cough syrup where you kind of want to consume it in a way where it skips your tongue. And if you can find a way to just kind of, like, pour it onto the back of your throat and swallow without tasting, maybe that's the right way to go about it. [00:29:49] Speaker C: Okay. The warmer it gets and the more that I notice that it's getting thicker every time I go to take a sip because it is getting warmer, I have to just bite the bullet and try and chug this second bag as fast as possible. [00:30:07] Speaker A: Will you roll a stamina and resolve check for me? [00:30:11] Speaker C: Sure. [00:30:12] Speaker D: Even I'm noticing at this point and I basically go, come on, Ivy, quit nursing it. [00:30:19] Speaker B: Cut the bag and chug. [00:30:21] Speaker C: That is four successes. [00:30:24] Speaker A: You've got this. Okay. Just tear open the bottom and shotgun. [00:30:34] Speaker C: Nod. I nod. I keep nodding. I'm nodding a lot like more than a normal person would be nodding because I'm psyching myself up for this. And without too much regard for any potential splatters that may end up on Maya's car, I rip off the bottom and just tilt my head back and just squeeze it into my mouth and try and ignore everything that is happening. [00:31:02] Speaker A: I mean, you managed to slog it back. It's not the most pleasant thing you've ever done by a long shot. But find the bottom of the bag eventually. It's not a satisfying meal. These aren't even like empty calories in the way a twinkie is. It's just empty flavorless void fill in your gut like the hunger is gone. But it's not satisfying. It's not rewarding. None of that normal vampire peak that comes with a feed. [00:31:34] Speaker C: Schmendrick. I'm not going to lie, I don't understand why you put yourself through this. [00:31:47] Speaker D: Never known anything different. [00:31:50] Speaker C: But you could. Schmendrick. [00:31:53] Speaker D: I've tried. Couldn't do it. [00:31:57] Speaker E: I'm just taken aback by the fact that Ivy LaRue, of all people, didn't use table manners. [00:32:04] Speaker D: I mean, I suppose the day will come where I will actually feed from a living human or animal. I'm not looking forward to it right now. The bags do me just fine. [00:32:18] Speaker C: Well, I for one, cannot wait until I can go have an actual worthwhile meal. Not to insult your juice boxes again, very happy for them in this moment, but I'm looking forward to anything else. [00:32:35] Speaker D: I just give Ivy this broad smile. Keep driving. [00:32:41] Speaker C: It's so much weirder with your fangs. [00:32:44] Speaker A: That's the thing about kindred. Each of you has your own little quirk, some sacrifice that you make in order to stay closer to the human world. Ivy might feed from people, but she still keeps plenty of them around for their company, for their intellect. Schmendrick, by the nature of her curse, is not entitled to those kinds of friendly social circles. But rather than descend into the imagery of a hideous monster leaping up out of the sewer to consume life, she chooses instead to feed through blood freely given, Rebecca cares deeply enough about humanity to restrict her feeding the same way, and even Maya, she hasn't admitted it to anybody yet. But dark as the Lasambra may be, they still keep human company. Everyone makes choices. No one lets go completely. But on the topic of things that make Maya uncomfortable, rebecca, can you tell me how big is a Cooper's Hawk? Like softball? Football? [00:33:53] Speaker E: Well, she's definitely not the size of a softball, I'll give you that. The average cooper's hawk. And Yaka being female, she's on the larger side of that spectrum. She has a 37 inch wingspan, and not too bad in terms of bird world heavyweights. She's 14oz. [00:34:13] Speaker A: I've never kept hawks, professionally or recreationally. I'm assuming Yucca is well behaved, but how often do they feel the need to shift their weight? And I would say, hypothetically, fill up the space of the backseat of this car with the full glory of their wingspan. [00:34:31] Speaker E: It would probably be after I set her down to go get my flag from my home. Then as I return, I give her a little pat on my lap. Hop up. And while birds, they don't have arms to help pull them up to places, you got to use your wings to give you that extra oomph. [00:34:48] Speaker B: This is a nightmare. [00:34:50] Speaker A: I mean, yeah. Maya, when's the last time you had a bird in your car? Well, to say nothing of your car, when's the last time you had a bird winging is? [00:35:03] Speaker E: Oh, my God, I car bird people. [00:35:08] Speaker A: This is why the Lasambra keep to themselves. You start hanging out with the nosferatu, you start hanging out with the gangrel, and next thing you know, you got rats playing with guns and birds. I mean, she hasn't relieved herself, but it's only a matter of time, right? [00:35:25] Speaker B: I'm going to have to roll when that happens. [00:35:27] Speaker A: I. [00:35:27] Speaker B: Know it, I have gone as still as physically possible. Not because I'm trying to shrink away from the bird, but I know for a fact that if I do anything to try to mitigate or change the situation as it is, I cannot be held responsible for my actions. And I'm trying to be nice. [00:35:51] Speaker C: For what it's worth, in between dealing with Eritzdotl at my feet and the juice box, catching Maya's discomfort is very comforting to me. [00:36:07] Speaker A: Well, thankfully, the shenanigans both rat based, bird based, blood based, and stone cold Maya keeping her shit together based are not enough to interrupt your travels. And after a 1520 minutes drive down an industrial highway bordering along Lake Michigan, you arrive at the address that Charles gave you. Like so many of the industrial sites that hover on the border between Indiana and Illinois, it's a checkerboard of abandoned properties, mills barely hanging on, and a few conglomerate properties that have somehow managed to escape the ebb and flow of economic times to remain profitable. It's easy to see why werewolves don't like this place. It reeks of the corruption and pollution that defines the worm human activity that rips away all that is natural. The roads, carve unnatural tracks through the terrain. Water itself has been brought under human command through a series of hideously polluted channels carving their way in from the shoreline. It seems every time you look left or right out of the car, there's another train loaded up with some kind of chemical in its round tanker cars or filled with processed plastics and other things in box cars. This is barely a place for humans, let alone for vampires or werewolves. And the fact that Charles ended up this far away from his usual haunt suggests either incredible desperation or something entirely more nefarious. But the GPS, Rebecca, those are the Skybirds dings politely to let you know that you've arrived at your destination. The air is quiet, the unsettling, dead quiet that comes with uninhabited places where nothing but the wind howling through broken windows, whipping around abandoned machinery, and the soft, rhythmic crash of the lake's waves against time worn eroding stone piers stretches out. Well, you're here. [00:38:18] Speaker C: Well, my first instinct when we pull up is to activate, sense the unseen. We're dealing with somebody who does have obfuscate powers, whether it's Charles or somebody else, and I'd like to be prepared. [00:38:34] Speaker A: Go ahead. Call upon that sight beyond sight, peer beyond the visual realm. Three successes the world is dead. If anything is lurking outside the purview of visual sight, it eludes you still. [00:38:52] Speaker C: Well, as far as I see it. Then we have two options. We can either sit here and wait, or we can get out of the car and see if we can't call him out. [00:39:03] Speaker E: He's expecting us. Might as well make an entrance. [00:39:06] Speaker C: I'll hop out of the front seat of the car if nobody else is moving. [00:39:10] Speaker E: Yeah, I'll get out. [00:39:11] Speaker B: I'm deciding if I should use oblivion'sight here. I don't want to become a beacon, though. [00:39:16] Speaker E: Yeah. As I get out, I'm going to launch Yucca from my arm with the basic order of any movement. Come back to me with the hope that if Charles isn't obfuscated, she'll be able to pick it up. [00:39:28] Speaker D: A lot of my friends have these supernatural abilities to detect things. I'm not using something so complicated. I just have with me my rat. And as the saying goes, rats from a sinking ship, they always seem to have an innate feeling for danger and will run the other way for the most part. That's why ERT's Nottle's here. Let me know if anything is going to sneak up on me or if any danger is going to arise. [00:39:56] Speaker B: Did Charles give us a specific location or are we supposed to smell him out? [00:40:01] Speaker C: No, he just told us the general area. We don't have like a specific meeting place. Standing outside of the car watching Rebecca send Yucca up, I kind of look around, listen for anything before just calling out Charles. Ollie, ali oxen for you, Charles. [00:40:23] Speaker A: Well in order. Rebecca, can you make a charisma and animal ken check for me? [00:40:31] Speaker E: Will do. [00:40:32] Speaker A: We'll also need one from schmendrick. Issuing commands to your families is easier than it is for other animals, but you still have to communicate to an animal using words and thoughts that are not natural to yourself. [00:40:45] Speaker E: Of course, it's about that partnership and that would be four successes. [00:40:50] Speaker D: I have two successes. [00:40:52] Speaker A: I say two successes on two dice is. [00:40:57] Speaker D: Know I consider myself lucky, so let's hope that plays out for me. [00:41:03] Speaker A: Well, Aristotle takes a few tentative steps out of your backpack. This is I mean, of course rats live in places like this, but this rat doesn't. And the sickly chemical melange of new smells, new tastes in the air are a bit disorienting. He doesn't make it very far out of your bag before it's all a bit overwhelming. And you recognize that the rat isn't acting out of fear. It's not like he immediately senses danger, but he's taken a moment to collect his little rat senses and try to place all these different stimuli, sort them out in his tiny little prey animal brain. Rebecca, you have better luck with Yucca. She spreads 3ft of wings soaring aloft onto the strong breeze coming off the lake. The animal makes a wide, lazy circle. And then there's that moment where you see something get picked up by that predatory sight. She goes swooping down low over the top of the building, scraching before arcing back up into the sky before coming down as commanded, with a thud on your outstretched arm. [00:42:22] Speaker E: Looks like something's over there. How much are you willing to reckon it's our friend Charles? [00:42:29] Speaker D: Well, I hope it's Charles, at least. [00:42:31] Speaker E: If it was a garu, it would have been rushing out at this point. I've got a good feeling. [00:42:38] Speaker A: The bird is rocking anxiously back and forth, leg to leg, fluttering its wings. It feels uncomfortable being landed again, vulnerable. You can feel that anxiety transmitting across the psychic link that you share with your families. [00:42:59] Speaker E: I would like to tune in using feral whispers and see what specifically, house are so worked up. If it's a Gauru, then we're going to need to know immediately that's it what troubles you. [00:43:13] Speaker A: Communicating with animals is, of course, its own unique skill set. They don't have the same vocabulary that humans do. They see the world in an entirely different way. But all predators, hawks and vampires included, have the evolutionary ability to detect where things belong and where they don't. It's that instinct that allows the hawk to tell the difference between swaying grass and a rabbit creeping towards its warren. It's that instinct that lets a rat detect the otherwise imperceptible tilt of a ship as it starts to dip below the waves. Yuka can't use the words, you know, but she can communicate the presence of several creatures who, in her animal mind, don't belong here. Men, by her description, at least, you don't expect a garo to be described as thin compared to other animals. A body type like yours, seven, maybe eight, as best as she could count, lurking in the ruins of the structure. [00:44:25] Speaker E: Clearly, since the rest of the group doesn't speak hawk, I'll relate this to them. Yuka says there's about seven to eight, not garo. They look like men, or at the very least, human. [00:44:38] Speaker C: Be on your, uh, seven to eight people. [00:44:44] Speaker E: That's what she saw. [00:44:46] Speaker A: And what do you call it? The big bird, the human bird. She says seven or eight menlike things, and she's anxious about returning to the sky because of the bigger bird. [00:45:01] Speaker E: The bigger bird? You don't think they have Samuel? I do. Uh, hey, Ivy, as I break from conversation with Yakka, is there anything that mortals use that are like birds? [00:45:14] Speaker C: Big, but not a, um aside from. [00:45:19] Speaker E: Things like planes and drones, helicopters, anything in the sky. They've got one of those, too. Yucca doesn't want to face it again. [00:45:34] Speaker C: I'm very shocked. I was expecting Charles. I wasn't expecting seven to eight human shaped individuals and a large bird. [00:45:46] Speaker E: How far away are they? [00:45:48] Speaker A: Molyuka only made it so far as taking a loop of the roof, some of which is collapsed. But she can't communicate the concept of stories on a building or meters beyond a doorway. She doesn't know what an industrial furnace is or what a chemical tank is, so she's not going to be able to describe that in a tactically useful sense. [00:46:10] Speaker E: It can only go off of where she alerted. [00:46:13] Speaker D: Can she let us know whether or not the bird was stationary or making any noise? [00:46:18] Speaker E: I'll save that question to her. Was this bird in the sky? [00:46:22] Speaker A: In the sky, yes. Circling as predators do. [00:46:26] Speaker E: It's out and about and patrolling the. [00:46:29] Speaker A: Image that presses back against your consciousness is an owl. But an owl with a 20 foot wingspan. Jeez. [00:46:39] Speaker E: So whatever it is, it's large, it's aerial, and it's patrolling as well as quiet. [00:46:47] Speaker A: But Yucca knows what an owl looks like. Yucca has experienced other birds. She's not saying it's a big fucking owl. She's saying it's big, circling like an owl. [00:47:02] Speaker B: So some sort of surveillance drone? [00:47:06] Speaker E: Most likely. I can't say I'm too educated on the manner. Hey, Schmandrick, you know anything about that? [00:47:13] Speaker D: The 20 foot wingspan throws me a little bit for a loop. If it's a drone, it's a really big one. [00:47:20] Speaker B: Is there a way you can check and see if something's sending signals locally? [00:47:25] Speaker A: If it's any consolation, I expect the answer to this will be no. But the actual wingspan of this particular craft is 49ft. [00:47:34] Speaker D: At Maya's suggestion, and my innate curiosity at solving mysteries of this sort, I will try to use my laptop to figure out if there's any transmissions going back and forth between this large owl and the people inside the building. [00:47:53] Speaker A: Will you make a wits and technology role for me? [00:47:57] Speaker D: Four successes. [00:47:59] Speaker A: Well, the radio frequency environment this close to any city is going to be filled with commercial radio, citizen band, cell phones. Even the GPS signal bouncing down into your antenna occupies a certain chunk of the radio spectrum. But with four successes, that is not what catches your eye. There are only two groups in the whole world that you know of that use the frequencies between 138 and 144 MHz. If you opened up one of your little hacker bibles, it would say, essential Military Requirements for Operational, Air and Land mobile Communications. And they're talking a lot. [00:48:41] Speaker D: See, now I'm curious who we pissed off with this amount of power. I'll relay this to the others. It's high military, so, not your run of the mill stuff. [00:48:56] Speaker A: In fact, it's a felony for anyone else to broadcast on those frequencies. [00:49:00] Speaker C: I stiffen as Schmenderk mentions. High military. [00:49:05] Speaker B: Second inquisition. High military? [00:49:07] Speaker C: The moment Maya says second inquisition, it clicks. A high military vehicle that circles above a site and has a wingspan of 49ft. I know what this is because I had to hide from the infrared scanners attached to Predator drones when I was in Las Vegas. [00:49:30] Speaker A: Hey, schmendric. Eric Stadle figured out that smell. [00:49:34] Speaker D: Oh, no. What is that smell? [00:49:37] Speaker A: Fresh rubber diesel exhaust fumes. The kind that would come out of a military truck or a government SUV. [00:49:46] Speaker D: So we're completely surrounded. So, calmly, I will look to the others and say, we're leaving. [00:49:56] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:49:57] Speaker A: Yeah, we are. Well, hold that thought. And I'll tell you this. Each of you has about one action left. Rebecca, you are the tactical genius for this moment. Right? [00:50:11] Speaker E: Oh, gosh. [00:50:13] Speaker A: It's okay. No, I got your back. Think like a prey animal. If you were out in the open and there was a very dangerous bird circling around you, where would you go? [00:50:28] Speaker E: Without even turning from Yaka, I just say buildings. Now, let's go and start running. We need cover now. [00:50:38] Speaker B: As soon as Rebecca says run, I'm going to kick off my heels and make sure the coast is clear and start running for the nearest cover. As soon as I know the coast is clear obstacle wise, I'd like to use shadow perspective to make sure there's nothing ahead. [00:50:57] Speaker A: All right, make a rouse check for me. [00:51:00] Speaker B: Oh, come on. All right, that's a hunger game. [00:51:04] Speaker A: All right. You call upon those vampiric powers, they have a cost. And the beast stretches wide as you hurl your senses out of your own eyeballs and place them in the shadows instead. I'll let you know what you find here in a second. But, schmendric, what are you up to? [00:51:22] Speaker D: When Rebecca tells us to run, she really doesn't have to ask me twice. I'm already on my feet getting ready to seek cover from somewhere. But before I do, I still have my laptop out. I would like to try and scramble the radio frequency, maybe take that predator drone out for a couple of seconds. It'll buy us some time. [00:51:43] Speaker A: It's going to be a tough ask. It's going to be tough to type and scramble at the same time. And this isn't your supercomputer back home. Not saying it's impossible, but it's going to be difficult. [00:51:53] Speaker D: I'd like to imagine I have some programs for these sorts of situations that I can just press and go, but maybe I don't have them on my laptop with me right now. [00:52:04] Speaker A: Will wits and technology hold the answer? [00:52:07] Speaker D: Three successes. [00:52:09] Speaker A: When you fire off the program and you set it to work, you imagine you smashed in the correct parameters as you scrambled towards the building as fast as your little nosferatu legs could carry you. [00:52:20] Speaker D: Before you go too crazy with this, can I Willpower? Because I want this to work. [00:52:26] Speaker A: Sure. Earn that point of willpower and reroll three of those dice. [00:52:31] Speaker D: All right. One more success. [00:52:35] Speaker A: Well, describe for me what you correct in that last minute. It's not doing what it's supposed to. Is it just a matter of another command, or do you just whack the antenna? [00:52:47] Speaker D: In my haste and the fact that I have extremely long nosferato fingernails, I mistyped something. It wasn't working as efficiently as it should have, and the moment I catch that, I attempt to correct the mistake and hopefully boost the signal. [00:53:05] Speaker A: Well, one additional success. You manage something. It's not a glorious feat of electronic warfare, but based on the numbers coming back through the screen and the interruptions that are spiking in the frequency, you know you've done something. [00:53:22] Speaker D: I would like to assume in this situation, that something is better than nothing, and I may have just bought us those extra seconds. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Well, that leaves one person left. Ivy. You've been here before, and you didn't like it. [00:53:38] Speaker C: I still don't. I'm stuck. I prepared myself to deal with kindred, right? That's an everyday preparation. I can handle that. I can go out and I can deal with Kindred. I know their powers and I'm ready for that. And I didn't expect to have to deal with geru tonight. And at least having Rebecca there, there's something there. And I can take a little bit of solace in being prepared to deal with the geru, but I'm not ready to deal with the second inquisition. I didn't know I'd have to deal with the second inquisition tonight. The drones, the military, just every aspect of it. So much time spent out in the Las Vegas desert hiding from these things. I can't do it again. It's everything that I went through in Vegas just comes rushing back. And I know that if they find me, it's not going to be good. Like, I'm already a known blank body to them, as they call it. But it doesn't matter because I'm stuck. I can't move. [00:55:16] Speaker A: So two things happen in this moment. Maya as you project your senses through the umbra into the shadows, you get a clear enough picture of the first floor of the building. In the center of what used to be the main factory floor, there's a single chair, like a dining chair, seated on it as an average sized human body, a burlap sack fashioned over its head, its limbs, its torso, tied securely with industrial strength cords. From this particular perch, you can't see any armed goons waiting. There are no vampires lurking in the shadows just on the other side of the wall that you're hoping you can hurl yourself behind for cover. But, of course, projecting your senses into shadow requires shadow, which means you and Ivy, in this moment, have the clearest, deepest appreciation for the tens of thousands of lumens of industrial light that come blinding, searing, out of carbon arc lamps like searchlights positioned around the perimeter. You hear them snap on with that deep, circuit breaking chunk, chunk, chunk. And just like that, the parking lot where your car has been resting night turns. Today, I would like Maya and Schmendrick and Rebecca to roll a Dexterity and athletics check for me, and that's going to determine how much cover you got in before things go pear shaped. [00:56:52] Speaker E: Oh, boy. [00:56:54] Speaker D: So that's one success on my end. [00:56:57] Speaker E: That's four successes on my part. [00:57:00] Speaker B: That's one success on mine. [00:57:03] Speaker A: You're just not fast enough. You're not built for this. First of all, you wore heels, so it's a little bit your fault. Maya but at the end of the day, the vampiric body is still a body, and without solarity or rousing the blood to make just that little extra distance, the lights are on before two of you have managed to make it into cover. Rebecca, with your expert near parkour like skills, you cover the distance in a blink. Mantling over a broken window, sliding down through the grass, cracked concrete, peering up over the entrance you had just hurled yourself through. To see two of your friends not quite making it and a third, still frozen by the car staring into the lights, is blinding. But lurking just outside, you can see the hints of movement. And even if you couldn't see it, you can hear, plain as day the commands. Bravo one, two targets in sight. Moving to south side of building. Copy that, Charlie team. Roof access cover exit points. Eye in the sky has one tango near vehicle three entering south side exits. One five seven. [00:58:17] Speaker E: Rats in a cage. Rats in a cage. [00:58:21] Speaker A: The two of you who didn't quite make it into cover, it's not the greatest news. The trap has been sprung and you barely have time to recognize the sound of generators kicking on and lights opening before the sound of automatic gunfire rips through the night. Maya, you're luckier than most. Maybe it was just the angle you chose. You happened to be heading for a window they didn't have covered as quite as much as they wanted to. You can hear five, five, six NATO rounds smashing into the brick, into the concrete, sending up flecks of the building materials all around you. spawling. And just as you make it to the window, just as you're about to haul yourself over, you feel the hydrostatic shock of around piercing just above your left hip, tearing through vampiric flesh. That's enough for one superficial damage. schmendric things go less well for you. You find that doorway. You're going to make it. But somebody has your number. On the other side of that light, in a place you can't see, a young operator staring down his M four, looking through that red dot sight, he has you zeroed. You can feel the bullets climbing up your back as the recoil pushes the barrel of the weapon further towards the sky. The first through where your kidney should be. The second would have been enough to deflate your lungs. The third crashing into your shoulder blade. Thankfully, you don't need organs. If you were still possessed of a mortal body, this would be the end for you. But vampires don't go down that easy. It's only two superficial damage for you, so that puts three of you in cover. Two of you haven't taken a little bit of a beating on the way. But Ivy is frozen, glued to the side of the car. There are bullets tearing through the vehicle. Ivy it is a miracle at this point that you haven't been shot. And you can hear the boots, just like you heard the boots in Las Vegas. You can hear the radio chatter in the orders. The same radio chatter and orders that echoed through the hall of the Las Vegas chantry as Gabrielle hauled you out the secret exit, while your friends and your knowledge and all the work you'd done was put to torch by the Inquisition. What does that feel like? What are you doing? [01:00:53] Speaker C: Ah. If my heart still beat, it would be ripping out of my chest right now. The sounds, the the smells, the radio chatter, the boots. I just want to cover my ears and duck down behind the car and just try and put it out of my head. I the I don't have Gabrielle, though. I don't I don't have a way out of and that, I think, is the worst, the scariest part, because I had a way out before and there's no way out now. And they're coming from everywhere and they're shooting at my friends and I don't have an out here. [01:02:07] Speaker E: And I don't. [01:02:07] Speaker B: I don't know why. [01:02:08] Speaker C: I don't know what to do. I just don't know what to do. What do you do? I need somebody to tell me what to do. [01:02:22] Speaker A: No. Mirsire isn't here, the Tremere aren't here. The pyramid isn't coming to help you. Annabelle doesn't know that you're here. Prince Jackson is busy. All of the people you have put your trust in either don't know or don't care what's happening to you. That leaves Rebecca, who you saw make it to safety. That leaves Schmendrick, who you saw take those rounds. That leaves Maya, who, even in your worst of moments, you find it difficult to imagine yourself indebted to Rebecca. The car is 15 meters away. You can tell by now that Ivy's not going to make it out on her own. But going out there out of COVID that's a death sentence. [01:03:05] Speaker E: I face worse. ODS and looking back and seeing Ivy. [01:03:09] Speaker B: Frozen to the spotlight, I see a. [01:03:12] Speaker E: Little of myself before I took out in this mantle this immortal guardian helpless. I don't care what the second nuke position is going to do for me. I'm going back out. I'm getting ivy. I launch myself out from the place I've hidden and run as fast as I can, not thinking about who's shooting at me, just knowing that Ivy's at the end of it. And we need to all be safe. And I'm going to take the full advantage of my blood and blood surge. [01:03:48] Speaker A: All right? Make that rouse check for me. [01:03:50] Speaker E: That's a rousing success. [01:03:53] Speaker A: It's a strange thing when the beast doesn't make demands in a situation like this. Maybe later you can reflect upon that what it means that the beast did not demand to be fed in exchange for helping you with your friend, because that's not a thing beasts normally do. [01:04:10] Speaker E: Maybe I'm not a beast. [01:04:12] Speaker A: So call upon the power of that ancient blood and make a dexterity and athletics check for me. [01:04:19] Speaker E: Four successes. [01:04:21] Speaker A: Ivy, you are a bit busy in the moment. You will not see Rebecca leap with grace and determination out from COVID and go screaming with near supernatural speed across open concrete. At this point, with your senses clogged as they are, you can't hear the rattle of so many rifles, so many bullets, as god knows how many military men unload in her direction. In fact, the first indication you have that you're being rescued is Rebecca arriving there at the car with you. Rebecca. What does that look like? Do you slam into cover, shake her back to her senses? Or do you just pick her up, start sprinting back in the other direction? What does that look like? [01:05:10] Speaker E: I know in this moment that trying to shake her out is going to be impossible. She's like a lamb in a storm. The moment I reach her, it's one arm under her legs, one on her back. I'm using my body to shield her as we're running across the parking lot. [01:05:28] Speaker A: One athletics check on the way in, one on the way out. This one's harder. Ivy isn't thick, I believe is what the children say, but that's still more weight. [01:05:41] Speaker E: I am going to once again rouse the powers of my blood hunger gain on that side. [01:05:46] Speaker A: Oh, that is curious. Helping yourself, no charge, second you drag someone else into it. The beast has needs, something to think about. But let's see if your dexterity and athletics check again, aided by the gifts of ancient, powerful blood, gets you out of this mess. [01:06:05] Speaker E: Five successes, Ivy. [01:06:09] Speaker A: I don't know that you'll actually be able to remember it in the future. The moment that Rebecca scooped you up, you're so far deep in the rabbit hole of your own memories, paralyzed with fear that you have not felt since the embrace. But the next conscious thought you have will be the sting of concrete. As Rebecca I won't say throws. Drops is a better verb as she drops you behind the wall into safety. But, Rebecca, you knew the dangers when you charged out there and you made the decision to shield Ivy with your own form. The men closing in on your position already had Schmendrick zeroed when you came back out. They'd been shooting long enough to bring those weapons to bear, to know exactly where to shoot that next. Salvo knows exactly where to land with six successes and a critical hit. That gunfire. Who. You haven't felt pain like that in centuries. You don't get to have that damage on a critical. You take six superficial damage as bullets meant for Ivy, fill up your chest, sting through your arms, nip at your heels, and crack into bones. You'll drop Ivy, and as the bullets land, you will less than gracefully tumble across the same window, the two of you ending up sprawled on the so. That's where we are. Rebecca splayed out on the floor, ivy in safety, but still swallowing back the horror that's pounding around in her skull. Maya schmendric, what were you up to while this daring rescue was affected? [01:07:59] Speaker B: How much? Light it's clearly they've prepped and they've got floodlights, but how much? It's not so bright that there isn't anything to work with, correct? [01:08:10] Speaker A: No. The floodlights on the outside of the building cast actually incredibly long shadows through the structure that you're in, and there are lights inside, but not so much that an enterprising young La sambra couldn't make use of things. [01:08:26] Speaker B: Perfect. In that case, do we have eyes on the gunmen yet? [01:08:32] Speaker A: The ones who are outside the building? You're going to have to deal with those search lamps right now. Those lights are entirely too bright for you to find the people who are coming out towards you. There are ones in the building. You can hear them descending staircases, covering different angles. [01:08:51] Speaker B: Okay. Unfortunately, outside, it doesn't look like there's any way I can reach Rebecca, but I can definitely stop what's coming from inside. And using my shadow perspective, I can definitely see some men headed towards us, so I'll use arms of Aharman to stop them in their tracks. [01:09:19] Speaker A: Well, first things first. Let's get that rouse. Check. Yeah. [01:09:23] Speaker B: Arousing. Success. [01:09:27] Speaker A: Fuck these miserable peasants. How dare they? The beast is all too happy to oblige your urge to cut them to ribbons. No one stands up to a lasambra. [01:09:41] Speaker B: That's two successes. [01:09:44] Speaker A: It's not your finest work. Could be the stress of the situation, although I doubt you'd ever admit it. Maybe it's a little bit of that fear creeping in tentacle that emerges two dimensionals, sneaking across the wall in between the beams of light piercing from outside. I hesitate to use the word flaccid, but there's room for improvement. [01:10:06] Speaker B: I'm going to use the willpower and reroll. That's not enough. [01:10:10] Speaker A: No, it isn't. [01:10:13] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Complete miss. Complete failure. I'm so mad. [01:10:18] Speaker A: Willpower alone is not always enough to accomplish one's goals. Unguided will is just fury into the breeze. [01:10:28] Speaker B: Real life lasambra problems. Okay, this is fine. I'll work with what I've got and let those slow down anyone headed towards us, and oh, God, how much of a hero do I want to be in this moment? [01:10:46] Speaker A: You saw what it got Rebecca. [01:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah, but I'm not Rebecca. I'm going to run into the building and make a lot of noise and start heading to the first shadow I can find. [01:11:04] Speaker A: Well, let's start with the first part of going to you've. Activated arms of aharman. The tentacle is creeping across the flat surface towards its nearest target. It has to bring you some small satisfaction that even with the slightest of effort, even with a middling success in your practice of the lasombra's craft, even that's enough. This man is military trained, obviously part of some special unit that hunts vampires down. And even given all of his knowledge about who he's pursuing and all of that training, he still finds himself tangled up as this tendril of inky black comes up off the stairs, wrestling its way around his leg. And his dexterity in that moment is not enough to save him. [01:11:57] Speaker C: Perfect. [01:12:00] Speaker A: You see him tumble forward. He's descending the stairs at that point, and with one leg rooted into place by shadow, he has. No choice but to tumble down. Forward weapon clattering out of his hands, his body knocking through his friends who were only a few steps ahead of him. Sounds like it hurt. Although it's certainly not enough to take any of them out of the fight. But with that action taken, you sprint off, making more noise. Now, I would love to know how Maya gets people's attention. [01:12:33] Speaker B: Well, the first thing I'm going to do is throw one of my shoes at them. [01:12:39] Speaker A: Perfect. [01:12:40] Speaker B: And then I'm going to turn and start running into the modeled shadow of the warehouse. Turning, running. I'm definitely going to start yelling dirty limericks. There once was a man from Nantucket. [01:13:00] Speaker A: We all have our own battle cries, each one steeped in tradition. Assuming you all survive this, I would love to hear the conversation as Maya explains why that was her choice. For the time being, though, there are more urgent matters. Schmendrick, you are isolated in this moment. You're within ten or 15 yards of Ivy and Rebecca. But there's a lot of gunfire separating those two groups of kindred. I know that you kept out of the fighting in New York. It's not really your style to get hands on involved, but you're no idiot. You know that. If you want out of this, especially if you want your friends to come with you, you might have to get your hands dirty. [01:13:44] Speaker D: That's true. But before that happens, almost on impulse, I turn to try and connect eyes with whoever shot at me and just go, Ow. Before vanishing from his sight. I'm not sure if he'll have infrared and be able to pick me up later, but for now, I am going. [01:14:02] Speaker A: To use unseen passage, obfuscate being a mental skill, and with your additional benefit of being immune to technological detection, it doesn't matter if he has infrared sensors. First of all, your body's cold. It's not going to help. But the power of obfuscate is the power to be ignored. So why don't you make that rouse check for me? [01:14:27] Speaker D: Rousing success. [01:14:29] Speaker A: The beast has many desires, but among them, survival. And it would be very rude of it in this moment to demand more of you when all you're trying to do is keep it alive, right? [01:14:39] Speaker D: Very true. [01:14:40] Speaker A: So, Rebecca, Ivy, you see Schmendrick disappear, as she is often want to do. What's your next move, schmendric? [01:14:50] Speaker D: In this particular scenario, I know the best bet for all of us getting out of here alive is to take out some, if not all, of these lights. The lack of light will cause some issues for the soldiers, I'm sure, as well as provide my friends some cover. I know a few of them can see in the dark well enough, so a few of the lights surely won't be missed. And with that, I'm going to unplug cut cords, whatever I need to do to make this place just a little bit darker. [01:15:24] Speaker A: The internal lights, as best you can tell, have been wired near the top of the building. Whatever is powering them, they are mounted on the upper railings. Shining down the exterior lights would require you to brave gunfire that I don't think you're quite willing to take on quite yet. So you'd like to head upstairs towards where those lights are? [01:15:48] Speaker E: Yes. [01:15:48] Speaker D: I will handle the outside ones later if I have to, but for now, definitely the upstairs lights. I will be seeking to do more sabotage than anything else, because I know sabotage will take them longer to repair. [01:16:05] Speaker A: Of course. Well, not that any of you can see it, but Schmendrick is on the move, attempting to give you the tactical advantage that might see you survive this encounter. Ivy, have you come to your senses? [01:16:17] Speaker C: Uh, I don't know. Is that a role that I should make, or is it just a yes. [01:16:22] Speaker A: I have just make a willpower role? [01:16:24] Speaker C: We'll see two successes on a willpower roll. [01:16:30] Speaker A: You're gaining some awareness, but you're not quite ready to stand up and be a hero. [01:16:35] Speaker C: Makes sense. Being dropped on concrete and sliding across. You get a little bit of that burn. It doesn't really hurt. It more smarts than anything else. But the shock of that kind of helps me come to. And I shake my head and I look at Rebecca, who's looking a little worse for wear at this point, and I piece everything together in my head. I don't remember getting here. Rebecca is now full of bullets, and she wasn't before. And it's all coming together for me. And I look at Rebecca and I just say, why did you come out for me? [01:17:38] Speaker E: It takes me a moment to find my voice. I've been riddled with bullets. But as I gather my senses, I. [01:17:46] Speaker B: Take a look at IP and say, it's not the time. Just stay alive. [01:17:51] Speaker E: None of it's going to be worth. [01:17:52] Speaker B: It at this point if you're not. [01:17:56] Speaker C: That was so dumb. You realize that was dumb, right? [01:18:07] Speaker E: Rebecca, at this point, I pressed my lips together. I'm not answering her. For some reason, I'm refusing to make eye contact. I'm trying to focus on the battle right now. I do not want to think about why I went out and saved Ivy. I'm not ready to contend with those feelings. [01:18:23] Speaker A: There are some horrors that men and vampires alike are not meant to confront. [01:18:27] Speaker D: There's already that pang of regret. [01:18:30] Speaker E: Not regret, but there's a pang of something, and I'm not ready to contend with it. Especially not with sights trained on me at the moment. [01:18:39] Speaker A: You do have more important problems to deal with. [01:18:43] Speaker E: Precisely. [01:18:45] Speaker C: Look, you told us that to deal with the Geru, we had to be smart. That wasn't a smart move. That's all I'm saying. [01:18:55] Speaker E: I swallow, give her one long, searching look and say, I know, and then turn back to the battle. [01:19:08] Speaker A: What's your next move? [01:19:10] Speaker E: I'm going to roll a rouse check and activate those feral weapons of mine. That's arousing success. [01:19:19] Speaker A: The second inquisition done fucked around. Now it's time for them to find, huh? [01:19:24] Speaker E: They're gonna find out, melankov's style. [01:19:28] Speaker A: Joshua would refer to this as a target rich environment. Rebecca will not have to travel far to find someone who she feels is deserving of the violence. Welling up behind her curled, talon like fingers. Military folk don't travel alone. Though Maya has already attracted some attention. You can see a group of them 1520 yards away, pointing their weapons in that direction, beginning to fan out into appropriately executed search pattern. Are you charging straight at them? [01:20:00] Speaker E: I'm not an idiot. I've already taken quite a bit tonight. So I'm going to take these shadows into consideration and use them as my cloak as I begin to stalk these hunters so called hunters, of course. [01:20:15] Speaker A: Charging straight into these people, well, that's how you got shot in the first place. A stealthy approach. There's wisdom in that. Be a dexterity and stealth check from. [01:20:24] Speaker E: You will do four successes. [01:20:28] Speaker A: This isn't the first time that you've hunted down a mob of gun wielding soldiers, right? Just like old times. Centuries change, but some things stay the same. [01:20:39] Speaker E: Silas would be proud. I think so. [01:20:42] Speaker A: Ivy watches as Rebecca departs into the shadows, crouched down low, stalking her prey. What she doesn't see is that the power of the blood calling forth to your flesh, mending the damage done by bullets. With nothing more than a thought and a little bit of vampiric power, you can feel your skin begin to mend, individual bullets being pushed out of your body to rattle down your pant leg or your sleeve ivey. Unfortunately, that means you've been left alone in this moment. And while Rebecca clearly has designs to deal with the interlopers, I would like to think at this moment you've learned your lesson about huddling defenseless. What are you going to do? [01:21:25] Speaker C: The problem with the second inquisition is that they're in armor, and I can't do much against that. I also don't want to be on the ground floor where there's a bunch more dudes coming in from the outside. I got to run. I got to book it. [01:21:41] Speaker A: Dexterity and athletics four successes. Well, it's not the speed of the climb or even the destination we need to worry about. The problem is that you're in a fishbowl, and the moment you pop out of COVID there's someone ready to take that shot. With four successes, that's an athletic advantage. You don't make an easy target, but the second you break from your position and start charging up the nearest stairwell, the rattle of automatic weapons is not too far behind. They're fast, you're faster. The combination of surprise not knowing exactly where you are. And by the time they've swung their weapons around and pulled the trigger, you're drawing upon that track and field instinct. The bullets are landing, always just a couple feet behind. So Ivy ascends the nearest staircase, her trip punctuated by the sound of bullets slamming into metal, slamming into brick. Maya is taunting from the shadows, of course lure them into the Lasambra's domain. schmendric is ascending en route to take away their advantages. And Rebecca is about to indulge in some good old fashioned problem solving. Among you, I believe that Rebecca has the highest initiative. So in this moment, you've made a stealth check. You have your approach. Several of those rifle barrels tracked to follow Ivy, and she sprinted up. Now's your chance. [01:23:10] Speaker E: I'm gonna take up. [01:23:11] Speaker A: You can hear them issuing orders. Command, one tango heading upstairs, west side of the building. Second tango, south side. You're close enough to hear it in their radios. Copy that. Where are the other two? Lost sight of the rat. Yeah, no eyes on the second one. [01:23:30] Speaker E: You know, I'll take that Assassin's Creed moment. We are outnumbered, they are well armed. Let's see how many I can take out with these two claws of mine. [01:23:42] Speaker A: So count up the number of dice you have in your strength, plus brawl pool, and you can divide them between the targets as you like. [01:23:49] Speaker E: That would be four successes on one and one success on the other. [01:23:54] Speaker A: Attacking out of stealth. The first person is not going to have the chance to defend themselves in this moment. They are the victim instead of the hunter. So claws drawn, razor sharp, there's no amount of human construction that can defend against that kind of vampiric power. And your first strike carbs an angry triple slash down across this man's shoulder, through his neck, across the back, through the spine. You haven't finished your slash before. His body is already crumpling, robbed of its life. But no man takes a hit like that without raising some alarm. And the peripheral vision that these soldiers possess, of course, allows them to see you striking down the first of them. The second gentleman is only half aware of your attack. But just as your attention was divided, so too were your efforts. And as you bring that second claw to bear, he swings his rifle around, catching it with a parry and shoving back your attack. Of course, quarters this close are not suited for rifles. And you find yourself locked into a brawl with the two mortal soldiers. He parries your attack and uses that motion to launch into an offensive of his own. One hand dropping from the stock of his rifle to draw a tactical knife out of his kit. And it's that knife that he's attempting to plunge into you as you struggle, locked in a grapple. [01:25:18] Speaker E: I'm going to make every attempt not to get stabbed. I've already taken enough tonight. That's a messy critical with seven successes. [01:25:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. Well, the knife in this soldier's hand is very quickly turned against him. You are stronger. You are faster. You are also injured and defending your friends a knife is a tool like any other. And you wouldn't be the first person to use a knife as an impromptu can opener. We'll say prying open the armor at this man's throat. In this moment, Rebecca isn't in charge. You're in a fight for your survival outnumbered, outgunned. And the Beast isn't going to let you play this halfway. There are two things, Rebecca, that vampires bring to combat. One is claws. What's the other things? And as the Beast guides this knife to cut away the throat guard, it bears for you the perfect target of opportunity. Why wouldn't you help yourself? [01:26:28] Speaker E: Because I'm not a monster. But I can't control the beast, can I? [01:26:35] Speaker A: The Beast, in this moment, isn't interested in feeding. Your hunger is not that high. But a claw through the back, a gunshot through the chest these things kill just as quickly and easily as fangs through the throat. The first man you kill with your claws. His sounds alert his friends to what's going on. The second man won't be able to scream. To scream requires vocal cords that you have removed, latching down across the exposed flesh of his throat, bringing your jaws to clamp down, not with the strength of a shark, but vampiric nonetheless. Crushing windpipe, severing jugular. It's not enough to kill him immediately, of course. It'll take another 45 seconds to a minute before his brain is starved of oxygen and he won't be able to scream. Even as his lungs try to push out, draw in air, you left nothing but a bubbly mess of blood and torn cartilage behind. And before you have a moment to even consider the level of violence you have brought to bear, the Beast has discarded this body, pushed it to the floor. There are other targets that require your attention, Maya. You can see the flash of violence, the blur of a gangrel leaping into action. If you attuned your senses just right, you could hear the little crunch of her jaws finding their mark. But just as Rebecca has her own problems to deal with, so do you, as the gentleman that you so gleefully taunted have made their way down the staircase and are now closing in on your position. [01:28:12] Speaker B: Can I get to a dark room? [01:28:14] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [01:28:16] Speaker B: That's exactly where I'm headed. How many do I have following me? [01:28:21] Speaker A: Three of them. A trio of insolent pitiful welps. [01:28:26] Speaker B: I'm going to lead these three men into the darkest room I can find and see if I can get within arm's reach. [01:28:35] Speaker A: We'll start with a dexterity and stealth check. We'll see if you can evade detection as you set your trap. [01:28:41] Speaker B: As I move to the room, I'll activate Shadow cloak to help with any stealth. Later. Three successes. [01:28:48] Speaker A: You live the shadows. You breathe them. They're the source of your identity as kindred. I'm sure there are flashlights, there are searchlights. But save for placing the sun in the center of this room, there will always be shadows. So you call upon your bond with the darkness slipping out of sight. Just as these three hunters appear in the doorway, they begin to fan out. They know you're in here. [01:29:15] Speaker B: I'll wait until they get into the room. And as the last one enters from the shadows by the door, I will reach out and grab his helmet, being careful to make sure my hands get right on any receivers. [01:29:31] Speaker A: Okay. It's not going to be incredibly difficult because he is unaware of your presence, but you're still making a very nimble move. So can you make a brawl? And, Dexterity, check for me. [01:29:44] Speaker B: One success. [01:29:46] Speaker A: Well, one success is enough. He wasn't expecting you. And in this moment, all you had to do was not fail. So out of the darkness comes Maya's arm. Her hand clamping down around this piece of communication gear. What happens next? [01:30:01] Speaker B: They say it's a curse. But right now, I'm going to lean in very close, and I'm going to lean in very close and speak into his face, for lack of a better understanding where his mouthpiece would be. [01:30:17] Speaker E: Hello, Chicago. [01:30:18] Speaker B: You're up way past your bedtime, aren't you? Hope you slipped into something comfortable. I know I have. And let my Lasombra voice echo through his. [01:30:30] Speaker A: Hmm. The lasambra. Bane. You don't handle technology well, do you? [01:30:35] Speaker B: Technology doesn't handle us well. [01:30:38] Speaker A: Right. And, man, this guy's skull is full of it right now. Under normal circumstances, you would have to make a technology role to see what goes wrong. Mai doesn't have that skill set. In the very moment that your hand touches it, your voice touches it. The technology of mankind is revolted by your presence. You don't hear your voice going through the microphone, and you're used to that as a lasambra. But you do hear the 140 decibels of Squelch, first in this man's helmet and then echoing out as dozens of helmets with all their earpieces and communication technology suffers. It's the sound of electronic agony as your curse propagates through this military communications network, the three gentlemen nearest you are hunched over in pain almost immediately. That's the kind of sound that'll make your ears bleed if you can't get away from it soon enough. For a hundred yards in every direction, well trained men are ripping out their earpieces, trying to get out of their helmets. Anything to stop this screeching from boring through their skull. That, for now, is the end of your turn, though, which takes us to schmendrick. We're navigating upward from the second floor. You have a pretty clear idea, actually, of where these lights are being powered from. It appears that they are rigged into the building's not yet disabled electronics. If you wanted to short them out or to disable them, you had to make it to the third floor. Of course, the lights aren't the only thing that's up there. More men, more guns watching down over this wide open swath in the middle, waiting for another Rebecca moment where they can shoot someone who doesn't know they're there. [01:32:25] Speaker D: Before I send to the next level, I want to find a relatively secluded area and take off my backpack and look inside. And assuming Aristotle's okay, I give him the impression that there are cheese in the circuits in the walls and that he should go seeking that. [01:32:44] Speaker A: As I understand it, rats are more than happy to ruin electrical systems with or without your help. But you have yourself a loyal servant and you have made him hungry for change. [01:32:55] Speaker D: We'll say I give him a really good impression of which ones he should be looking for, which ones have the most goodies inside, and I turn them loose. Luckily, he'll be able to go places that I cannot. And as I finish with Aristotle, I will activate cloak of shadows again. [01:33:19] Speaker A: All right, so you issue orders to your comrade Rat, he sets off on a journey of great importance and you return to the shadows. Will you make that second rouse check for me? [01:33:29] Speaker D: That is a hunger game. [01:33:31] Speaker A: It is exhausting dipping in and out of conscious recognition. But what's a little hunger if it means keeping you alive, me alive, and. [01:33:43] Speaker D: Hopefully everyone else alive, if I can play my cards right. [01:33:47] Speaker A: It's going to take a bit of time for your Rat to find his way to the circuits you have pointed him towards. Are you going to remain here on the second floor waiting in the meantime? [01:33:56] Speaker D: No, I've got my own things to do. I'm going to continue heading up to the third floor so that I can play my part as well. [01:34:02] Speaker A: Very well. Sushmendrick pauses to issue a command to her loyal friend Rat and then continues her way up the stairs. Ivy, you've managed to sequester yourself for the moment, judging by the sound of things. The bloody gurgling, the electronic screeching, your coatry's, putting in some work. And indeed, from your visage point, you can see the aftermath of Maya's spectacular demonstration of why La Sambra should not be allowed to touch things. [01:34:36] Speaker C: So obviously they saw me run up the stairs. Do I have anybody following me? [01:34:41] Speaker A: You have several somebody's following you. [01:34:44] Speaker C: Fantastic. I would like to try and find some cover here on the second floor and try and get a shot in with blood needle. Without their helmets on, I at least have a shot. It's a difficult shot. [01:35:02] Speaker A: Those require a certain degree of precision that slashing open your veins for supernatural pressure does not cooperate with by itself. But you're a master, Thomaturge, right? Who knows? [01:35:14] Speaker C: I'd also like to rouse my blood just for that little extra oomph, make the projectile a little bit stronger. [01:35:23] Speaker A: Is that the technical term for it? [01:35:25] Speaker C: Yes. [01:35:27] Speaker A: I don't know. I'm not the thalmaturge, but if it's in the books that way, then okay, what do I know? [01:35:35] Speaker C: Hunger gain. [01:35:37] Speaker A: So that's one rouse check one hunger gained as you stir the blood, give yourself that little dexterous edge to steady your hand. Line up your aim. [01:35:48] Speaker C: Rousing success, though, to cast the blood needle. [01:35:52] Speaker A: Better than nothing. [01:35:55] Speaker C: Four successes. [01:35:56] Speaker A: So Ivy leans out of COVID steadying herself. But the very moment you're exposed, you feel the flashlights coming down on you. You know they're attached to weapons. You launch the projectile. And while these men are not experts in thalmaturgy, they don't know what's happening. There's a certain human impulse, by default, to dodge crystalline spears coming your direction. It's not a successful dodge in the sense that he gets his head out of the way, but it's motion enough that you see the needle smash into the chest plate just below the collarbone. There's impact enough to stagger him. But that wasn't the effect you were. [01:36:33] Speaker C: Going for, not at all. [01:36:36] Speaker A: Unfortunately, exposed as you are, gunfire reins in almost immediately. But you have dexterity and athletics to draw upon. Can you get back in cover in time? [01:36:49] Speaker C: That is a bestial failure. [01:36:52] Speaker A: So you're in a bit of a shooting gallery now. It feels a bit like Call of Duty, each of you popping up behind cover every now and again to take shots at one another. Rebecca, you have a slightly more primal approach to your particular problem. There's only one man of the trio still remaining standing, the black, glossy reflection from his mask showing your blood soaked face. He intends to fight to the death. It's a matter of survival. [01:37:21] Speaker B: It wouldn't be the first time. [01:37:23] Speaker A: Well, what steps are you going to take to ensure that you are the one left walking away from this encounter? [01:37:29] Speaker E: What worked for the other two, I think, will work here. Fight like hell and put these claws of mine to use. [01:37:36] Speaker A: I mean, I like your ODS, but why don't you make a strength and brawl check and we'll see what comes of it? [01:37:43] Speaker E: Four successes. [01:37:45] Speaker A: You don't need me to describe it. You are capable of a furious, overpowering amount of physical aggression. No amount of training can make up for raw strength. No amount of armor can protect you from vampiric claws. And just as easily as you'd cut down the first, just as easily as you'd cut down the second, so, too, the third falls some time from now. You'll have to reconcile with this moment. Think about how easy it was for you to snuff out three lives like candles in a matter of seconds. It's been a long time since Rebecca's killed, and now she's running up the score on people who, ultimately, they appear defenseless. Nothing but pitiful attempts to stop your. [01:38:30] Speaker E: Aggression like lambs to the slaughter. [01:38:33] Speaker A: Those are thoughts we'll have to reconcile with later. Just as we'll ask how does Maya extract herself from the situation she finds herself in? This electronic distraction only lasts so long. And the three men are still very armed. Yes, eric Style's on a mission to stack the illumination odds more in your favor. But there's still plenty of technological threats that a rat's teeth cannot solve. And just as Rebecca is the epitome of success in this moment, ivy finds her aim erring and the curse that pumps inside her dead veins. It won't allow that the coterie has found itself in a trap. Your first order is survival. Your second order is there is still a gentleman tied to a chair in the middle of all this mess. So many questions to answer, so many challenges to overcome. But the outcome? Well, that's a story for another night. You've been listening to the All Night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queen's Court Games. If you enjoyed your stay, be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast app. For more content, including exclusive art and audio, follow us on Facebook or Instagram at Queenscorp games or on Twitter at Queenscourt. RPG.