Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the all night society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queens court games.
Then our story begins tonight in an alleyway on the south side of Chicago, near enough, the university, which bears the city's name. The medical center is a modernist architectural abomination. Glass and steel and brick assembled in the same order that you've seen time and time again, made unique only by the large name plastered across the front of it in three foot tall backlit letters.
This hospital could be anywhere. It would be lucky if it was, because anywhere else, there wouldn't be the three of you.
It's a little weird, honestly. How, despite being ostensibly three good people, anytime you end up in the same room, things start to get a little strange, honestly. Maybe it's not even the three of you. Maybe it's just the two of you. That Ivy and Maya, you have a knack for ending up in the wrong place. Or a knack for turning the right place into the wrong place. I don't know.
Regardless, this is where we are. Schmendert gave you a time and a place, and you have arrived right on schedule.
What good friends going to go off on a limb and say that Maya and Ivy did not arrive together? Is that correct?
Would you suffer the indignity of that? You don't have reason to be hanging out with her beforehand, then?
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Probably not. I already have one passenger in my car. I don't really want a second one.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Alex, what has Ivy told you about tonight?
[00:02:11] Speaker C: I know that I'm going on a mission. I know that I'm going to do a job.
I don't feel that there's been too many details given to me, but I don't always get to ask.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: I want to interrogate that thought for a second. He said, I'm not allowed to ask.
What's given you that impression?
[00:02:30] Speaker C: Maybe it's the past. Oh, gosh. Day, if that.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Well, Ivy, not that Alex said that out loud, but how does that make you feel? Accomplished, right? You've done the job. You've convinced the dog not to come barking unless he really needs to go.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: I mean, that's. That's always been the plan. And he's right. I definitely did not give him much room to ask any questions.
He says, what are we doing tonight? And I say, we have a thing to do. And partly it's because I don't really feel like leaving him alone in the manner, but also because something just tells me to bring a little muscle. It's probably not the worst idea.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: No, you're totally right about that. But what I want to know is why you're not giving him the full story. And it's not a moral judgment. Actually, the thing that I'm trying to really zero in on. Is that a pedagogical style that you've always had in you, or is this the way that parenting descends through generations?
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Thing about the tremere is that everything's on a need to know basis. I told him what he needed to know and nothing more. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
[00:03:38] Speaker A: Perfectly acceptable answer. If I were a regent interrogating your loyalty. But that's not the question that I asked. But maybe the fact that you're avoiding the topic gives us the answer that we. Huh.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: If you're asking if I learned this style of parenting, as you called it, from Gabrielle or from any other parental figures I had in my life, Gabrielle would be the one.
[00:04:02] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: It's funny how that works out.
Well, we've established that you have arrived separately.
Ivy driving her nice little black car, Alex in the passenger seat like a good boy.
Maya being driven. Maya, this should be a bit of a shock to you.
Has anyone told you about Alex?
[00:04:27] Speaker D: I don't think so. No.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: How would we tell her?
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Any one of a hundred ways.
[00:04:34] Speaker D: You can always leave a message. With my people. You can. I'm a well known figure. I do talks and book signings. You could have just showed up.
You don't call, you don't write.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: I've just been keeping a very, very busy schedule the last couple days. Communication is a two way street.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Maya. Well, everyone who had five minutes for your Maya. Ivy, back and forth. Pull. Go ahead and collect your prize. All of this is to say that in addition to the general malaise of being pulled out of bed to come deal with this thing, Maya and Schmendrick having never been especially close. There's going to be the awkward moment where Maya, you get out of your car, and instead of Ivy and Schmendrick waiting for you, there is Ivy and this man.
Alex. Will you remind us what Maya sees when she glances past ivy to you?
[00:05:33] Speaker C: Since it has been some time since we went shopping for clothes and a wig, I think now I'm still in my jet black hair that has been combed up and just kind of parted over a little bit. Jet black beard kind of hugs the chin line as well as my eyes piercing back kind of denote a boylike charm. About me. If I was to describe my general fare of clothes, you could call me a lumber snack.
Flannel, tight jeans, fancy boots. Not great for cutting trees, but great for cutting looks.
However, I look about as sheepish and confused. As much as I loathe this metaphor. A puppy dog who has just found out what the big dogs are really like.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Well, Maya, behold, a new guest.
[00:06:26] Speaker D: Barbie. You found a ken.
Oh, my gosh, I'm so proud.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: Hi, Mike. My name isn't Ken. My name is Alex Scott. It's great to meet you. What's your name?
[00:06:42] Speaker D: Oh, that's fine. I'm going to call you Ken.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: Please don't. I don't like that.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: This is Maya.
Or Stacey, if you like.
[00:06:54] Speaker C: Oh, is she the one you're telling me about?
The Sabat Stacey formerly?
[00:07:01] Speaker B: Yeah, this is the one.
[00:07:05] Speaker D: All good things, I hope.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: I'm sure if Ivy put her mind to it, she could think of one good thing to say about Maya.
[00:07:12] Speaker D: I have great hair.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Her book makes an excellent doorstop.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Stand corrected.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: Is that not nice? That was perfectly nice.
[00:07:22] Speaker D: Sure, but in all seriousness, what is happening here?
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Right?
Do you remember that night after the meeting with the prince, I couldn't hang out with you because I had to go pick up a book at the store?
[00:07:38] Speaker D: I know. I was crying for hours.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I was too, when I got a call from Schmendrick that Josh had a really important package to drop off for us.
[00:07:52] Speaker D: It is a huge.
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Yes. Anyway, long story short, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and got turned, and here we are. But wouldn't you know it, the little baby Bruha.
[00:08:16] Speaker C: Hi, I'm new in town.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: You're not new in town. You've lived here forever. You're just new to being a kindred.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Well, yeah, okay, so the past couple of days, the entire dialogue is I'm now this new baby vamp, okay? So I'm like, oh, I'm a baby. Everything's new to me. So, hello, my name is Alex Scott.
[00:08:34] Speaker D: Yeah, quiet, Ken. Does the prince know?
[00:08:38] Speaker B: No, the prince does not know, because Josh, in his infinite wisdom as hound, could not bring himself to dust this poor little Bruja because of his big, dumb dad heart.
[00:08:53] Speaker D: We could just do that.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Now, look, trust me, I've thought about it a lot, but Josh called in a boon from Schmendrick, and why he's with me instead of her, I will never know. But here we are.
[00:09:13] Speaker D: I'm going to give Alex a real hard look.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: What are you looking for?
[00:09:19] Speaker D: I don't know. A glimmer of intelligence. Some hint as to why Josh would have not done his fucking job?
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Well, I mean, intellectually, it's fairly easy to understand, right?
You can see how he got to where he is. I think the question you're really asking is why Josh didn't stick to his.
[00:09:38] Speaker D: Principles and why it's now our problem.
But interesting that he'd let this slide, considering his clan.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: In fairness, his clan is all about judgment.
This was somebody who doesn't really need to be judged. Being a kindred is not his fault. He was a victim of circumstance.
[00:10:03] Speaker D: With the exception of certain clans, being a kindred is nobody's fault. It happens.
So, aside from bouncing baby Bruha, does.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Daddy know what you're up to with the brouha? And then I'll just gesture to the building.
[00:10:21] Speaker D: I gesture at both Alex and the building.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: No.
And if all goes according to plan, he won't have to.
[00:10:32] Speaker D: I love this look for you.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Thanks, Alex. You've been watching this conversation to date. Maya is apparently the only vampire in the universe who talks to ivy this way. It's a new dynamic for you.
[00:10:47] Speaker C: It's like watching your mom and your aunt have a passive aggressive fight at Christmas. And you just learn it's best to leave the room and let them have it because it doesn't concern you. It's about you, but it doesn't concern you. So standing there, watching them go through this, I just eyeball the building, patiently waiting for the conversation to change topics.
Oh, I really love the font of huh. That's a really cool building. Chicago is such great.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: Hmm. What?
[00:11:17] Speaker C: What we talking about?
[00:11:19] Speaker D: Someone could eat him up.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Don't get any ideas.
[00:11:24] Speaker D: I just want to know, if I throw a stick, will he run after it?
[00:11:29] Speaker C: Okay, I get it. Dark, brooding atmosphere, passive aggressive tendencies. I'm guessing you're the member of our little superhero team that really likes to butt heads with the leader, right? You're like.
Oh, you're like the comic relief who's just got to be right.
You're metal, man. That's what you are. But, like, less alcoholism.
[00:11:49] Speaker D: I'm going to need a minute. Or like, twelve.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: I can hear it in your voice, but can you describe the face that you're making as Alex rambles at you?
[00:12:02] Speaker D: I don't think Ivy has ever seen me.
Ever.
You know when you encounter a toddler who isn't quite verbal yet, so they babble at you and you conceptually understand that they are trying to speak to you. They are trying to communicate, but words are not coming out of their mouth. But their parents seems to nod along as if they understand what's happening. Even though all of us have agreed they are not speaking a language.
That's about where I am right now.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Does Alex have the emotional intelligence to pick that up?
[00:12:42] Speaker C: He's definitely picking up that there is a sense of pandering happening and as he's clocking that, he just kind of nods along the same rhythm. Almost like when you are actually trying to communicate to someone, but you don't speak the same language from two different countries or two different worlds, and it becomes very apparent that you're never going to really communicate on how to go to the bathroom or order a pizza. So once this just, I continue to look her in the face and go, yeah, you're metal man. Yeah, you're metal man. Ew.
Don't get me wrong, I love your shoulder pads on point.
[00:13:19] Speaker D: You said your name was Alex?
[00:13:22] Speaker A: Alex Scott.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: Nice to meet you.
[00:13:24] Speaker D: I'll shake his hand.
You're either going to be very, very useful or a huge problem.
So where's Schmendrick supposed to be here already?
[00:13:36] Speaker B: She got here about, I don't know, half hour ago. Told us to show up a little afterwards. She was going to go inside, get some stuff set up and we're kind of just there to help her get everything out.
[00:13:48] Speaker D: It doesn't seem like it needs a full retinue.
All right, whatever. She's the mastermind behind this.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: I'm just here to make sure that things don't get out of hand and that the things that need to stay here, stay here.
So I let her do all the heavy lifting.
[00:14:08] Speaker D: In fairness, I think he does the heavy lifting.
[00:14:11] Speaker A: It's been ten minutes as you've talked. Soon enough, it's 15 minutes as you sit and wait. You going to let it get to 20, to 25, to 30? At what point does Schmendrick's absence. Because, to be clear, your nosferatu friend has not poked her bat ears out of the side door.
At what point does that become concerning?
[00:14:37] Speaker D: She's probably just gotten distracted by something. We can let 20 minutes go by and we'll get worried.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: I'll shoot her a text around the 15 minutes mark. Just a simple question mark, hoping that if she did get distracted by something, she'll get the little vibration and check it and then refocus.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: And how long are you willing to go without receiving a response?
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Only a couple minutes. She's very, very prompt with her text returns. It's one of my least favorite things about her.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: Maybe this marks a turning point.
She's changing her habits, letting you dangle a little bit.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: But tonight of all nights, if it wasn't tonight, I would think that maybe she's learned. But tonight feels like a weird night for a change.
[00:15:35] Speaker D: Yeah. We're going to have to check on her.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so.
[00:15:43] Speaker D: She's probably just gotten distracted chatting with the security guard.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Well, security guard or Annika.
And if she started talking to Annika, I don't even want to think about what she could be doing talking to Annika. Right. It's. Yeah.
Let's go upstairs.
[00:16:07] Speaker D: What's the worst that can happen with her?
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Considering this is a tremere blood bank, a lot.
[00:16:15] Speaker D: I'll immediately start walking to the door.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: So scale from one to ten. How much worse do you feel when you go to the side door and it is not, in fact, unlocked when you pull on it and you hear the nice metallic banging of a bolt still in place?
[00:16:35] Speaker D: Okay. Concerned. Maybe a three. That's still light and breezy.
The door is still locked.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: Fuck. And I just kind of roll my eyes as I say it.
If she seriously got so distracted by everything that's up there in those rooms that she forgot to come and unlock this door, I don't know if I really feel like babysitting much longer.
She's going to have to find room in that shipping container for Alex. And I turn and I look at Alex. Sorry, Alex. It's not personal.
[00:17:13] Speaker C: No, it's fine. I'm just worried, too, because they strike me as someone who is extremely overtly meticulous. Just trying to turn on their computer is a three stage process. They have backups to their backups. They're the most type a person I've met. Now, I've only known them for like, a day, but I feel like this is not a gap that makes sense with their personality.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: The piece that you're missing, though, is that she's incredibly hungry and has had nothing to eat since.
Well, since she gave you her last juice box the other day.
[00:17:53] Speaker D: Okay, so I don't know. This is daddy's blood bank. Why don't you just go around and be like, my father owns this. Can I please come in?
[00:18:00] Speaker B: That's not how it works. Not everybody here knows this. There's only one ghoul that runs the place.
[00:18:09] Speaker D: Okay? So you walk in and talk to the ghoul.
[00:18:12] Speaker C: Okay, so it's one ghoul. It's one little Gregor. What's really the threat here? If I can throw farm equipment, what's one not vampire going to do to us?
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
You are all brawn and no brains. And it is so cute.
I don't imagine you have any experience picking locks, do you, Alex?
[00:18:40] Speaker C: I mean, when I was in college, I would use credit cards to jimmy them, but I think at this point, I'm better off literally just busting it off the handle.
[00:18:49] Speaker B: Okay, well, we're not going to do that.
[00:18:51] Speaker D: It's not a maximum security prison. I'm going around the front, Pop.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Quinn, you following Ivy? Alex, you let my handle on her own.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: I don't want to let her handle anything involving this on her own.
So if she's storming off and isn't willing to stick around and try and figure out how to open this door with me, then, yeah, I'm going to chase her down.
[00:19:14] Speaker D: When in my history of the all night society, have I ever done well in front of a door?
[00:19:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Fair.
[00:19:23] Speaker C: My plan is I think I'm going to stay at this location because this location was part of the plan for a reason. So, if you all can get access to this door, then I'll come walking right in with you. I mean, if anything, the person who stands out the most right now is the baby bruja with big dumb eyes and a flannel shirt. Compared to the glorious superhero shoulder pads and vampire mommy money bags, I am so out of my element.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Also, to say nothing of the fact that the artist's rendition of Alex's face is plastered all over local television stations.
[00:20:00] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, you're a criminal.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: That, too.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: Oh, that's right. I'm a criminal. And I'm dead.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: Yeah, you see, sometimes Alex has good ideas. He at least has enough self awareness and know that he's wanted for questioning in connection with a vicious crime and that maybe he shouldn't walk to the lobby.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Smart. At least there's that.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: As for our la sombra friend, did you have a plan when you started stalking off towards the lobby of this hospital, or were you planning on coming up with one along the way?
[00:20:41] Speaker D: I would assume that the old standard of walk in, dominate the concierge and wander inside is a pretty good one.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Let's do it.
So, Ivy's on your heels. You're not waiting, not showing any patients. You walk into the lobby. It's a beautiful three story atrium.
All the labs and outpatient clinics on the upper floors. You take the elevator, you can look down into this little area. There's some kind of boring corporate dangling art hanging in the center of it all places, a ghost town, of course. Except for the security officer at the desk. So you walk up and he's got that confused.
Nobody comes here. I took this job so I could just read comic books for 8 hours. Why is there somebody here? Look on his face.
Lasts for a few seconds before he shifts into actually doing his job.
I'm sorry, ma'am, it's closed for the evening. Something I can help you with?
[00:21:47] Speaker D: Oh, my assistant was here earlier and I think she might have left the company card in the back rooms while she was taking a tour. Do you mind if I pop back and grab that?
[00:21:58] Speaker A: I don't actually have the keys to any of the other offices. Is it an emergency?
[00:22:04] Speaker D: I mean, it is a company card.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: I understand, but it's also like two in the morning.
[00:22:11] Speaker D: I don't have time for this shit. I'm going to use dominate.
We tried.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: All right. What command do you give?
[00:22:19] Speaker D: Shut up and face the wall.
Two successes.
All right, well, looks like security's out to lunch. Ivy, do you want to help me in?
[00:22:31] Speaker B: I catch up to Maya as she's issuing this command, and I see the guard turn and I just bring my hand up and kind of massage my temples.
Yeah, fine.
Left down this hallway to get to that stairwell.
[00:22:50] Speaker D: Thank you. And I'll head in.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: It's a short walk. The place is unpopulated.
You're able to arrive at the not fire escape. That would involve an alarm. But the side entrance where Alex is waiting, push the door open. It's got a nice weight to it. One of those fire doors.
You let your little gentleman inside.
[00:23:12] Speaker D: Still no sign of Schmendrick though, right?
[00:23:15] Speaker A: Nothing.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Great. I'm really hoping there's a good explanation for this, but three floors? Lot of mischief to get into.
[00:23:27] Speaker D: You are such a pessimist.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Taking the stairs or the elevator?
[00:23:32] Speaker B: Stairs.
[00:23:33] Speaker D: Stairs.
[00:23:34] Speaker A: Fair enough. Not like you have to worry about cardio or your calves. You are not animated by normal biological processes.
So you climb the concrete stairwell, the kind that no patient ever sees arriving on the third floor, pushing open another door. It's an outpatient clinic, so you have one long corridor stretching between numerous offices, audiology on the left, blah, blah blah. The blood labs at the end of the hallway. Ivy, you've been here before.
It's weird. The lights are on.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: It's only weird if I wasn't expecting Spendrick to be here.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: Maybe she got the party started without you.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Rude.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: Can the three of you all roll wits and awareness for me?
[00:24:24] Speaker B: Three successes.
[00:24:26] Speaker D: Three successes.
[00:24:27] Speaker C: Two successes.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: I don't know why Alex didn't pick up on it. He maybe just wasn't as concerned as the other two of you. In terms of how not normal this is, but with three successes, it's difficult to distill any kind of detail from the sounds coming out of the lab. But you can say with great certainty there's more than a couple people in there. You would expect there to be one Annika and one schmendric. Presumably, they would be conducting their business quietly, and that assumes that she's doing the business without having brought you up into the room. So all that's a little strange on its own, but there are definitely more than two people in there, just based on where you hear shuffling, the amount of it. Msmendrick's up there. She's not alone.
[00:25:16] Speaker D: On instinct, my shadow cloak goes up.
I'm still there if you look for me, but you don't want to look at me.
[00:25:26] Speaker C: Once I see her melt into the wall, my brain just becomes a light with possibilities. That is so freaking cool.
She's like, the shadow cloak. Oh, we're gonna have such an awesome superhero team. It's gonna be so cool, though.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: I hear this little excited sort of noise coming from Alex's direction, and I quickly just bring a finger up to my lips, because if he's not picking up on, like, this is not the time to make sound.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: What's the next move?
[00:25:59] Speaker B: I'll look in Maya's direction, and I'll just kind of look between her and the room at the end of the hall.
And then I can feel the eye roll coming from the shadows, and I just gesture between her and myself and then up and down my body in a way to kind of say, what makes you think I can do this?
You are in the shadows. Please go be in the shadows and figure this out.
[00:26:31] Speaker D: I look at Ivy, and I point to my shoes, which are customarily heels.
[00:26:38] Speaker B: I look at Alex, and I lean in very close, speaking very, very softly, and I'll say, there's no chance that you are good at being sneaky is.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: No.
No, I'm not sneaky.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: I didn't think so. I didn't think so.
[00:27:00] Speaker D: Looking between Ivy and Alex, I bend down and take off my shoes again and hand them to Alex, and I'll move forward.
[00:27:10] Speaker A: Well, now, shoeless Maya, will you roll dexterity and stealth for me?
[00:27:16] Speaker D: And just in case, can I rouse the blood?
[00:27:19] Speaker A: Course. Make your rouse. Check.
[00:27:22] Speaker D: Well, I'm a little hungrier, but three successes, that's excellent.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: That means, as you. I won't say skitter. That's the wrong verb. As you say, prance, tiptoe. What motion verb would you choose?
[00:27:38] Speaker D: Saunter, maybe.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: Okay. As you saunter stealthily, of course, down the hallway, you will be the only person who is not immediately detected when the door to the lab is pushed open. There's a gurney being pushed by a man, tall, with long, narrow features, looking a bit gaunt, face more an oval than a circle. There's something lumpy on the gurney. There's a sheet over it. Can't identify what's under it, but without knowing that you're there, he just pushes his way through the door. Maya. The shadow of this place, it's not lit for daytime business. It's like every third ceiling outlet is on.
He doesn't see Maya as he begins to turn the corner, heading right away from you towards the elevator.
But he does see Ivy and, of course, Alex, who you can spot from quite a distance immediately. No blinking, no question. No. Hey, what are you doing here? He yells out, Eric. There's more of them.
[00:28:45] Speaker D: Unseen, I hit my face with my.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: Hand, and inside the room, you hear a son of a bitch. We'll deal with it. Get her out of here.
So the man with the gurney starts charging towards the elevator, at least as fast as you can, reasonably, with a medical device in front of you. And from behind him now pour two additional bodies.
The first one, short and squat, a little chicken hockey, has that kind of kingpin build where he looks thick but strong.
The second one, cast almost from a peaky blinders extra, has that street look to him. Grizzled teeth, messed up.
That, I imagine, is not what draws your attention to begin with. I think it would be number one, the firearms, both of them carrying shotguns.
And then on a level above that, none of these people are Annika. None of these people are Schmendrick, and they look a bit angry.
Maya, I will give you the benefit here. Because you are in stealth.
We'll say that you'll get to go at the top of the initiative order if you choose to. But, Ivy and Alex, can I get you to roll for me? Your.
[00:30:11] Speaker B: Oh, look at that.
Critical success.
[00:30:17] Speaker C: Two for me.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: And then, Maya, you don't have to roll. Not for this purpose. Because here, initiative really isn't about who starts combat, who gets to fight first. Initiative here is more about reacting. Alex, you did not pass your test. Ivy, you did. Which means, as these weapons come to bear, 50% of you can dive into some kind of COVID realizing what is about to happen. Unfortunately, Alex, that 50% of people does not include you. Maya, you're hidden. They can't target you, Ivy.
Do you tumble in behind the counter in the front of this place? Do you duck into a door when you see two people bearing weapons down on you? What's your move?
[00:31:04] Speaker B: Find the nearest door and run through it. Use it as cover? If I can.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: Which means second by second, Alex, you see Maya disappear. She makes it a few feet down the hallway. You see the door kick open. You hear the shouting. If you look to your left to see what Ivy wants to do, she's not there. And then you hear the roar of shotguns.
[00:31:28] Speaker C: There's absolutely a string of terror shooting within me. I don't think I've ever heard a shotgun fire this close to me before.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: Well, the first gentleman rolls three successes. You will get to defend against that with your dexterity and your athletics. Probably that's two successes. On the bright side, you do have rapid reflexes. You don't take a penalty for being out of COVID against firearms.
You'll take the difference of this in damage, plus the damage of the weapon. You take three, superficial damage. As you look left, Ivy's not there. You look right, he's about to fire. You start to dive out of the way, but you get clipped.
Now, in a way, this is terrifying because you're being shot at. But this is also a learning moment, because you're getting shot at and you don't care as much as you thought you might when the buckshot spread goes tearing through your bicep and your shoulder.
Because that's the thing about being dead. You don't need muscle or blood vessels or capillaries. It doesn't matter until they blow that arm off. It's just as useful to you as it was under normal circumstances.
The second one does not fire immediately. He is taking a different position. He dives across the hallway. Ivy, based on the layout of this place, and we'll describe it for everybody, there are three rooms that we kind of need to worry about. Bisected by a hallway down the center. On the left, where Ivy has just now started to take cover, is the reception area. You come in, you take your number, you wait to be called.
Behind that room is where they actually do the draw. So they have the long tables and the equipment they need, the empty blood bags, things like that. On the right side, where the three gentlemen and the lumpy cloth covered bag are, is the laboratory, where they process the samples, they run the tests and things like that. So Ilie is taking cover in the reception area. Alex, you'll be heading in that direction, too. Once this first little blast of shotgun fire comes by. And then, Maya, you are in the hallway still, but stealth kind of pushed up against the wall, right. They can't shoot what they can't see. So the first gentleman who's shooting at Alex is still taking cover in the doorway leading into the laboratory.
The second man has headed into the draw room, where he can either continue laying fire down the hall, or he can flank from the lab up into reception.
So that's the situation that we have right now.
The first aggressor we'll call him has fired at Alex. The second is holding a shot. The third is unseen at the moment.
That closes the first round of combat. Which means I need to know what the plan is.
They don't seem eager to talk, so I'm going to go off on a limb and say that none of you are going to try to diplomacy this one, eh?
[00:34:39] Speaker D: I always want to. And I know I'm not going to get that here.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: Yeah, they kind of screwed the pooch in that regard when they shot at us first.
[00:34:48] Speaker C: Yeah, they want to go hunting. I'm going to give them a beast to hunt.
[00:34:52] Speaker A: Interesting. Alex, not waiting for further instructions. Going straight to the violence part.
[00:34:59] Speaker D: There's someone heading for cover in another room, correct?
[00:35:02] Speaker A: Yes. In the draw room.
[00:35:04] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm an ambush predator. I'm going to go for the one who's separating, and then we'll let oblivion deal with him.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Ivy, funnily enough, I was also planning to go for the gentleman who separated himself.
I'm going to go after him through the door that connects the lobby to the draw room. And, well, I mean, this is a place for needles of all kind, right? So a blood needle is not out.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Of place when all you have is a hammer, as they say. Now, what I need to know is, based on the action you've chosen, what is your pool size?
So, for Maya, it would be your oblivion roll. For Ivy, it's your occult and your thalmaturgy. For Alex, it is your strength and your brawl.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Seven.
[00:35:47] Speaker D: So it looks like I have four.
[00:35:49] Speaker C: Yeah, that'll be six dice total for me.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Based on those actions, I believe that Ivy will go first, then Alex, and then Maya. Ivy. The lobby is as lobbies are cheap plastic chairs, very low stalling tables with out of date magazines on them. The entire place, despite being modern, still has the alternating black and white. Not linoleum, a little fancier than that, but plain hospital tile. The ceilings and walls are, of course, normal commercial.
The painting has that hospital beige. And that's the room that you're darting through as you try to circle around, find this man. Now, he's also coming around to meet you, which means not even thinking tactically, but in the sense of generic self preservation, you're going to want to stop at the doorway. That way you're still in cover. Is that fair?
[00:36:39] Speaker B: Yes. I don't have any plans on barging through that door.
[00:36:43] Speaker A: Very well. We'll see if that remains the case. In the meantime, why don't you describe for me what happens as you take up a post on the doorway? Take it from there.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: What's a little blood magic without a little blood? So as I'm running across the room, I'm dragging a nail down my forearm because I need the blood to form this blood needle. And as I post up next to this doorframe, you can actually see the crystalline shape of this blood needle begin to take form and sharpen itself and become larger at one end, glinting in the overhead lights as best it can.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Well, roll your pool for me. We'll see what happens.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Four successes.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: As always, a gentleman gets to defend himself. He musters two successes, which means there's a margin of two between your role and his role, plus one for the basic damage. He will take three superficial damage. As this needle pierces through him, you will notice immediately that he doesn't bleed the way you think he should.
It's not necessarily vampiric, in fact, more likely ghoulish. But you're not dealing with immortal Maya locked in the shadow. You see him position himself inside the drawing room, waiting now for he sees ivy running one direction. He's moving to intercept her, which means you can get into the room behind him without too much trouble.
And as the clinic is not fully lit, as we established, well, there are just shadows aplenty for someone who was so inclined.
[00:38:24] Speaker D: If I can get close enough, touch of oblivion will do just fine. It's an oldie but a goodie.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: A classic indeed. The rolls normally strengthen brawl to make purchase on his flesh. He doesn't know you're there, so I'll give you a plus two dice bonus. Of course, you can always rouse the blood if you're not feeling confident.
[00:38:45] Speaker D: I don't like taking chances, so we're going to rouse anyway.
[00:38:49] Speaker A: Well, then, let's start with a rouse check.
[00:38:52] Speaker D: Not any hungrier. That's good.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: Of course not. The beast loves violence. It loves surviving. If it gets to accomplish those two things at the same time, why would it demand anything of you? So go ahead and make your strengthen brawl. Roll adding three bonus dice.
[00:39:07] Speaker D: Four successes.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: Not the worst role in the world. He does get to defend himself, but having already made one action this role, he will have a reduced pool.
Oh, this is a good news bad situation, depending on whose perspective you're taking. He rolls three successes in attempting to defend himself, which means those perfectly manicured nails do indeed grip round him. So I need to know two things.
First of all, will you make a rouse check as you activate touch of oblivion?
[00:39:44] Speaker D: Okay, we're a little hungrier. It's fine. I can handle that.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: And second, where do you grab him?
[00:39:54] Speaker D: Listen, he's got a face. He's not going to have it for very long. Have you ever played guess who with someone?
[00:40:00] Speaker A: Once or twice.
[00:40:02] Speaker D: So while he's engaged with Ivy, I will sneak up right behind him and cover his eyes.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: And you ask, does he have a face? And I say, no, and you start knocking down the little plastic bits. Is that how it goes?
[00:40:17] Speaker D: Yeah, pretty much.
[00:40:20] Speaker A: Touch of oblivion on a successful grapple always does two aggravated damage, but also causes a crippling wound. In this case, blindness. It's a bit backwards. Normally you associate blindness with searing, white hot light, but in this case, you close your hands around him, connect yourself to the umbra, and then just pump the void, just pure entropy and atrophy into his eyeballs. And the sound of that scream might haunt a lesser person. I won't judge you if you find it exciting or anything like that, but you can feel the coldness of this other dimension radiating out of you. And maybe it's for the better that you can't see his eyes as they shrivel and decay and shrink like withering grapes inside of his skull.
[00:41:11] Speaker D: Oops.
[00:41:13] Speaker A: Alex, you've watched Maya make a sharp left, followed immediately by the sounds of screams like you have never heard.
There is that guy who shot you. So you have some options, target wise.
What Kind of violence are we doing today?
[00:41:32] Speaker C: The ultra kind.
As the impact of the shotgun takes my body back, spinning a little bit, I become elated at the sense of peace. There is no pain, there is no fear that I can track.
But in my head, I'm hearing war drums slowly build and rise. And in that comes a very mighty need for destruction.
I would like to activate prowess and I want to rip this man in half.
[00:42:06] Speaker A: Prowess, adding your potence rating to your damage and strength rolls. Not for nothing, you get lethal body for free. Which means you're not just going to punch this guy. You can rip him limb from limb.
[00:42:18] Speaker C: It'll start with a punch and it'll end in a rip and tear.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Well, let's handle these things in order. First, can you make a rouse check for using prowess for me?
[00:42:29] Speaker C: Success on the rouse.
[00:42:30] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. No hunger to be gained. As you set your sights on violence, will you go ahead and roll? Strength plus brawl. You'll add three from using prowess.
[00:42:42] Speaker C: Total, it gives me four successes.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: That's a terrible role considering the number of dice you threw at the table. I'm just saying, that is not great.
[00:42:53] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a lot of twos and fours.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: Boo. Four. Success is nothing to sneeze at. He will get a chance to defend himself.
Mustering three successes, not quite enough based on your margin, and using prowess, that does five points of aggravated damage. And here's the thing. My guy, he's only got five health boxes.
Now, if you were doing superficial damage, if he were just a little tougher, it might play out differently. But in this case, you have rained down a flurry of blows that just ends this man in seconds. So what do you say, Mr. Big Bruja? Tell me the story of this moment. Tell me, starting from Alex making the decision to finish this guy, you're stalking forward. What does that look like?
[00:43:48] Speaker C: With my head turned down from the impact of the shotgun and the feeling overwhelming me as the beast is let out of its cage and the war drums sing me to my glory, I slowly turn up with a smile on my face.
A shotgun.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: I say.
[00:44:09] Speaker C: Shotguns for fucking cowards.
You use your bare goddamn hands when you fight me. I am slowly walking to him, hands down by my side, slowly pulling off my lumberjack flannel shirt as my fangs begin to bear. I raise no hand until I'm upon him like a looming shadow of death. And with a smile, like a wide grin cheshire, I punch my hand through his chest and then I slide my other one in and I rip him in half like opening a ziploc bag.
[00:44:46] Speaker A: Calls to mind an image of. Yeah, like a ziploc bag of a particularly thick soup.
Won't say that the entire thing bisects. It's not that kind of horror movie. But the wound does leave. I will say spillage is the word that I want to use as Alex eviscerates this man. And the last thing you see, of course, there's the face he's making as you're walking up, which is, oh, yeah, big man, big talk. And then just surprise, because it's difficult for anyone to process. If I asked you right now, what would it feel like if someone punched through your rib? Cage and just liquefied your innards. You would struggle to describe that to me, and so, too, he is having a difficult time describing it, not only to you, but to himself. Maybe if he had a few more seconds, you'd see the brain go into panic mode. But his life has ended too quickly, and you just see it like someone pulled the plug out of the wall and he collapses onto the ground.
So that's one enemy dispatched and three vampires having used their initiative. These next things all happen roughly in sequence. First things first. The person running away with the gurney certainly wasn't going to stop to begin with. Definitely not going to stop now that he's seen what Alex is capable of. You will hear from the end of the hallway. The ding of the elevator arriving and him shoving the gurney inside. Turning to face you, panic. Smashing the button, trying to get the doors closed.
Inside the lab, two more bodies remain. Based on the voices that you heard, they will come pouring out the first thing they see, being Mr. Alex Scott. We'll get to that in a moment. Inside the draw room, there's a blind man with a shotgun. Not saying he has the best ods of solving the problem, but in this moment, if you will pardon the phrase, blind panic, he's going to swing the barrels towards the nearest source of noise and, honest to God, just hope for the best.
We'll say that his bonus for being at point blank to you is canceled out by the fact that his eyes don't work anymore and just give him a standard pool. It'll be dexterity and athletics ordinarily, but in this case, being close enough to touch him, it's going to be more of a grapple. So let's try strength in firearms. That's not a role you get to use very often.
Well, it's pretty easy, it turns out, to aim a shotgun at point blank range. Whether or not you have eyes, Miss Lugasa, you can defend yourself. That would be dexterity and athletics.
[00:47:33] Speaker D: I do not want to get shot again. I don't even roll enough to defend myself.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: I don't think every single point of success you get takes one point of damage off.
[00:47:44] Speaker D: So, two successes, motherfucker.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: Well, based on his role and your defense, and the fact that he's using a shotgun, he musters seven superficial damage against you. That is enough to fill your health tracker once and a little more so you'll end up with three aggravated damage and two superficial.
[00:48:08] Speaker D: I should have gone for the dick.
[00:48:10] Speaker A: We all make choices. Those choices all have consequences.
This choice has ended with a shotgun aimed, say, at the upper part of your torso. So when the shotgun goes off, you get across the shoulder blade, collarbone and lower jaw. Being dead, great. It's not going to hurt as much as it would, but flesh blown off from the cheek, a little bit of bone showing the dark black, charred streaks of aggravated damage running across your shoulder blade downward. The joint is obliterated. If you were still constrained by the limits of your human body, boom. Dead instantly. You have only your vampiric gifts to thank for survival.
Alex may yet find himself in a similar position. There are two gentlemen who exit, one of whom looks significantly more dangerous than the other.
Ivy, did you ever go over the clans with our young bruja friend?
[00:49:12] Speaker D: Surface level?
[00:49:13] Speaker B: The ones that matter, anyway.
[00:49:15] Speaker A: So he has no idea what a gangrel is or what it looks like?
[00:49:19] Speaker B: No.
[00:49:20] Speaker A: Okay then, Alex, I leave it to your own interpretation of the person who pulls through the doorway. One of them looking not unlike the gentleman you have just ended, but the other, very dark skin and animalistic features. The nose is slightly hawkish, the ears tilted backwards, flat like a bird you've seen a nosferatu. This isn't that kind of ugly, but there's obviously something unnatural about him.
First gentleman has a firearm. He is bearing down on you, ready to go. When he sees the body down in front of him, the animal faced man behind him just shoves him forward and says, deal with the other two and squares up against you. He's cracking his knuckles.
Kind of man who likes to use his huh? What do you say you and huh?
[00:50:21] Speaker C: Rock and roll, soldier boy. I wanna make your fucking day.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: So, my good friend Alex, turns out you're not the only one in the room who has access to prowess. Maybe that little beastial part of you is amused at the opportunity to have an equal fight. Or maybe the human part of you wonders just how well you can stand up against an equal.
It's an easy thing to punch your way through.
Mortals through ghouls.
You've been a vampire for two days and already killed two people. Must feel pretty strong.
Now we get to see if that confidence holds.
He musters five successes on his strength and brawl roll, also drawing on the blood to fuel his potence. You will get a chance to defend yourself. So that would be dexterity and athletics.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: Four successes.
[00:51:11] Speaker A: Amazing. That will redound greatly to your benefit. Not enough to stop the damage from reeling in.
Now, you were using lethal body that enabled you to rip an enemy limb from limb. And whether or not this man has that power as well, he has chosen not to use it. You get the sense squared up against him that he wants to drag this out. This isn't a contest of pouring out damage. It's just a chance to dance a little bit.
That means instead of taking the four aggravated damage, you will only take four superficial damage. You have five health boxes, which means right now you've ended up with one full box and four with just superficial. Tell me, Alex, have you ever been in a fight before?
[00:51:58] Speaker C: Before tonight, I would get into some scraps, but after a bad tackle and some punch is on the back, we usually tried to break it up.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: I don't think that's going to happen this time. But you should take some solace in noticing the way your organs don't slide around when you get hammered.
When you take that punch to the gut, your diaphragm doesn't flex. You don't get that bruising, numbness spreading through your biceps as you raise your arms in a guard and get walloped across the side.
Imagine what you can accomplish when you don't feel pain.
[00:52:35] Speaker C: The possibilities are feeling limitless, endless.
I want to end this fight, but I also want to savor this moment. This is the first time I've actually had a challenge.
But there's a mission at hand, and I don't know where my priorities should lie.
[00:52:57] Speaker A: You all have time to figure that out. Right now, we are more concerned with Ivy and with Maya.
Maya, I'd like to give you the benefit of the situation and say that having various parts of you destroyed by gunfire, you collapse or at the very least hit the floor.
[00:53:19] Speaker D: I'm going to have to, I think, just from concussive force alone.
[00:53:25] Speaker A: That makes sense to me, which also, to use the phrase again, redounds to your benefit, because that means the gentleman smashing through the door with his shotgun drawn does not see you, or at least sees you on the ground and does not realize he has to finish the job. He pays very little attention to his friend, eyeballs still smoking, and instead points his weapon at Ivy Larue. Ivy. That's a critical great five successes total once you give the paired bonuses.
[00:54:01] Speaker B: Well, with my critical, that makes five.
[00:54:05] Speaker A: What a great day for collegiate athletics. That's the raw athleticism that you showed way back in the day. Coming into play, he levels those barrels and pulls the trigger. And it's preternatural the way that you dive back behind. Now, because he scored a critical, I'm going to say that that is destroying some of the COVID which means you're either going to need to retreat back into the lobby or push forward into the room. But the blast knocks the door a bit ajar. It's leaving chunks out of the walls. It's not a safe place to be anymore.
That will then take us back to the top of the initiative order. Correct.
The order will go Ivy, the gangrel, and then Alex, and then Maya. And then if there are any humans left over after you all take your actions, they will get a turn.
So, Miss Le Roue, it turns to you. There are two assailants. One of them having just leveled Maya. I mean, you know, she's not dead because there wasn't a cloud of dust that sprung up, but you saw it chunk her.
Now he's blind. What are the ods? He can pull that off again.
The other one, less blind and stalking in your direction. So what's your move?
[00:55:27] Speaker B: These guys may not be completely human, but they are mortal. Which means there is one very important thing that I can exploit from them. Namely, the fact that they still have blood.
So after seeing this doorway get destroyed, I'm actually going to position myself in line of sight of the gentleman who shot at me. It's a risky move. And as I position myself in the doorway and I lock eyes with this gentleman, I just kind of point my arms straight ahead. And then I rotate it. And then start making a beckoning gesture with my hand, my full hand. And I'm going to use theft of Vita.
[00:56:01] Speaker A: Well, I need two things from you. First, a rouse check.
[00:56:05] Speaker B: Unfortunately, I do get hungrier. But hopefully that won't be an issue here soon.
[00:56:10] Speaker A: Fingers crossed. I believe it's wits and thalmaturgy. From there, that is five successes. I don't imagine he'll be able to muster up sufficient defense, but let us see. No, indeed not. Which means you reach out to beckon. And beckon you do. What happens next?
[00:56:31] Speaker B: If you were watching this man, you would see him kind of freeze in place. And then this long, bloody line start to form down his forearm. It splits open, creating a very fresh, very obvious wound.
And as I continue with this motion of my fingers, I'm calling the blood to me from across the room.
And when this wound is fully opened, you see blood forming a nice, long sort of line. And it is a little undignified to stand there with your mouth agape like some sort of weird fish. But you can't argue with the results, right?
[00:57:19] Speaker A: No. Although it does surprise me. In the thousands of years they've had to master it. The premiere haven't come up with a better way. To get the end part done.
[00:57:27] Speaker B: I'll bring it up at the next meeting.
[00:57:29] Speaker A: It's a project for you to consider as you work your way up the chantry. Alex, on the topic of people looking a bit awkward initiative wise, the gangle gets to attack again. Before you do so he gives you this first fleary of blows, a warning shot almost, and I don't know what it is if you stagger, if you're just mentally a step behind.
But just as that first reigning fury of fists ends, there is a second upon it, the break in the middle, just long enough for him to go. You like that?
Although, you know what they say, pride goeth before the fall and such the first punches were very cleanly laid over. Confidence seems to have taken him over. At this moment, he musters only three successes, despite a considerable pool. Stands to reason your decks and athletics might be able to nullify this attack altogether. What do you say we find out?
[00:58:35] Speaker C: So, with my two crits, that becomes a five.
[00:58:39] Speaker A: A stunning maneuver. What I would like to know from a gentleman with your fighting background is how you counter, how you retaliate with.
[00:58:48] Speaker C: Extreme severity and violence. As always, if he's going to swing at me, I'm going to take the lower ground under his blow, shoot in so I can get my arms around that waist. Because now I want to punish him for even thinking to lay hands upon me.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: We're taking the punch truck to Poundtown.
[00:59:09] Speaker C: I am going to step over that and do something I think I have always wanted to do when I was little, Alex watching Saturday morning wrestling. I want to give him a german suplex right onto his head.
[00:59:26] Speaker A: Interesting choice.
Well, I don't know how that's going to turn out, but I am willing to bet that a strength and brawl will tell us the answer.
[00:59:37] Speaker C: And would I be able on this action or maybe later, to maybe rouse the blood a bit, get an extra dye, really put some umph into this, buddy.
[00:59:47] Speaker A: It is your blood. You can use it however you want. It will cost you one rouse. Check to use prowess again, and then you can rouse a second time for that bonus.
[00:59:58] Speaker C: First one is a success, second one is not a success.
[01:00:04] Speaker A: Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as they say. But what a surge of power you get in return.
Your strength and your brawl pool is already considerable. You add another three from activating prowess and another two from your blood surge. So let's see how this goes.
[01:00:26] Speaker C: Hold on. That's six. Seven successes.
[01:00:31] Speaker A: Eight successes indeed. It is a bucket of tens falling on the table. Eight successes.
He gets to defend himself. I'm going to go off on a limb and say it's not going to matter a ton.
And I was right. He gets one success. So that is nine successes minus one. Plus three. You do eleven. That is a heap of superficial damage, unfortunately, lethal. Body not working on vampires. But it turns out in this case, that doesn't matter a ton, because with that amount of margin, he just does not have the health points to keep up.
Now, you have never seen a vampire die before, which means this is going to be a little interesting. You might be expecting that moment where you reach in and call him off the guy again, right? Works once, works twice. But in this case, you charge up under him, lift him up off his feet, you come slamming down on the ground, and then. Is it hammer fisting, just like windmilling down on him? Are they jabbing punches?
[01:01:39] Speaker C: I am going to reach for the belt loops on my jeans where, when the shotgun blast first kicked off, I placed these lovely stiletto heels of our very fond and friendly la sombra et. I pull out the stiletto heels as I have him in the full mount, and I begin beating him in the chest and forehead with these high heeled shoes, like I'm hammering a pin or a railroad spike through the dirt.
[01:02:13] Speaker A: Well, it doesn't take long to see those results. The first crack of the heel glinting across the forehead. The second one, you can see the fracture of the skull. The third one, then down through the eye socket with the other hand, same thing. You should see the bruise. You don't, he doesn't bleed. And then at that point, the anger just takes.
At a certain point, it's hard to tell which of the blows accomplished it, but you push him over the edge.
[01:02:45] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I'm going to pound him way beyond his actual death. I'm going to beat him way beyond that.
[01:02:49] Speaker A: And it's difficult for you to tell the exact moment he transitions from unlife to final death. One, your judgment's clouded, and two, when he dies, he's not old enough to totally decay.
But there is a point of transition where you go from beating something that looks mostly alive to hammering what remains of Maya's shoes into an honest to God corpse. Because that's the thing about final death. When a vampire finally leaves this world, their body decays immediately to the point it should, based on the age at which they died. So if you're a two day old vampire, you would look pretty fresh. Still, if you're a two century old vampire, you get that poof of ash and dust in this case, a well seasoned corpse. Perhaps something from the body lab.
Which means you go from pounding viscera to pounding the slimy, fetted remains.
And I wonder how long it will take you to realize that the body has transitioned from one phase of a matter to another. Whether it's the smell that hits you first or the way that the viscera comes flinging up with every blow. But I do believe that question will have to wait until we see what Maya is going to do.
Now, Maya. Ivy has disabled the most dangerous of the attackers. I think it'd be rude to share the meal, to say nothing of the fact that there's not a ton of him left.
Which means the most imminent danger for you is the man swinging his shotgun around, trying to echo a, locate a target.
[01:04:37] Speaker D: Is he still sort of above me?
Yeah.
Well, taking stock of everything that's happened in the last few minutes, I think I'm going to rouse the blood and patch up some of whatever's happening to my face.
[01:04:55] Speaker A: La sombra, heal thyself, make a rouse. Check.
[01:05:00] Speaker D: We're a little hungrier. And to be honest, I do not think I can ignore this anymore. The man with a shotgun is within arm's reach. Yes.
Yeah, I can't be picky right now. I'd like to feed on that.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: Very well.
Is a strengthened brawl. Check. To grapple him. He is blind. Which will work in your favor.
[01:05:27] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm going to rouse again because strength is not my specialty. And what's the worst that could happen now? I kill a man.
[01:05:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I kind of presumed that was where you were going with it.
[01:05:36] Speaker D: Anyway, while I don't get any hungrier, let's fucking do this.
[01:05:40] Speaker A: It's like it knows, right? Like, nah, man, this one's on me. I know what's coming next. Well, it is strength and brawl. Plus two bonus dice.
[01:05:51] Speaker D: Two successes. Jesus fucking Christ.
Absolutely insane that I'm so bad at this.
[01:05:58] Speaker A: Well, two successes, not a lot. But a, he is blind. B, he doesn't know where you went. Which means, really, all you have to do is grab the nearest ankle. Right. This isn't sophisticated or elegant, but we'll worry about that later.
Based on his result of one success, you are able to find purchase on a limb and sink your fangs in. The most difficult piece would be ripping through the khakis that he's wearing. But that's just a small problem in the grand scheme of things. You find the gentleman, grab and bite.
Well, despite my best of efforts, it seems that you have cleared the field, Alex. Having rendered two enemies unto pulp, the other two will die shortly enough once they are drained of their life's essences.
Maya and Ivy, I'm guessing you're going all the way on this one.
[01:06:55] Speaker D: Hell, yeah.
[01:06:57] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely.
[01:06:59] Speaker A: Well, the two of you can join the zero hunger club as you feed yourself. Well past the point of satiation this whole process will take. We'll call it a minute or two at the speed with which you are drinking. That gives Alex time to peel himself off the floor to realize what he is spattered with.
[01:07:20] Speaker C: As my blows upon my foe slowly stop to the rhythm of the wardrobe in my head, I take one last sigh of joy. Looking at my handiwork. The greatest glory of any soldier is dying for their art.
You absolute piece of shit. Spit on the corpse. I get up.
[01:07:44] Speaker A: I walk back.
[01:07:45] Speaker C: I put my shirt on to cover all of the blood that's upon me. Still holding my victorious weapon of the la Sombra stiletto heel, casually walking back to where the others are, the beast satiated, and now Alex, his full consciousness returning. Hey, I killed a guy with a, um. I think we need to go.
[01:08:08] Speaker A: I don't think we're gonna get much of a response from the ladies at this point.
Ivy, for one, cannot give you any of her attention, lest the spell be broken. Maya, I think, has bigger concerns, so I appreciate the innocence in your voice as you turn the corner, but the spectacle might not match the mood.
There's one gentleman standing up, arms limply at his side, a deep arterial wound cut into his skin, and then a stream of blood floating through the air like it's fantasia into Ivy, who is gulping it down in a way that we have described again as undignified. Maya taking a slightly different approach on the ground, gnawing at this man like an animal. Greedy, blood smeared fangs digging deep into his legs.
Not for nothing, you are covered with five year old corpse.
So whenever you think that smell is going to catch up with you, you let me know. But right now, innocent baby Alex sees mommy and Auntie gorging themselves in a hideous, animalistic fashion.
[01:09:18] Speaker C: Being on this side of this activity, it's a very different experience. Having only fed a few times and knowing the bliss of that. And unfortunately, the cleanup of that. I've never seen it so grotesque and carnivorous.
[01:09:39] Speaker B: You literally drank a dude and then stuffed his body in a dumpster.
How exactly is magic blood floating through the air? Worse than that?
[01:09:53] Speaker C: Like I said, I'm on this side of it now I'm seeing it for the first time that's a very different reaction for me.
[01:10:00] Speaker D: If you would like, we can shoot you with a shotgun, and then you can tell me how you look when you're trying to refill.
[01:10:06] Speaker C: Looking at them feed and being taken aback by it being from this perspective, I decide maybe it's best not to interrupt mommy and auntie when they're feeding. I turn on my heels, ironically holding Maya's heels, and I begin to walk into the laboratory adjacent, ready for another one of these interesting vampires that I'm probably going to have to kill with a shoe again.
[01:10:34] Speaker A: Going to run out of shoes soon enough. I don't. No offense to Maya's shopping taste, I do not expect that her heels were designed for that kind of violence.
[01:10:44] Speaker D: And traditionally, you only get the two.
[01:10:46] Speaker C: Yeah, look, Cho Madden makes some dope night shoes, but I imagine those heels are going to snap eventually.
[01:10:54] Speaker A: Well, I'm there for all of that.
One small concern, because you did fail a couple rouse checks over the course of your violent adventure, which means you are also approaching the cusp of peckishness. So what I'm going to ask for you to do as you turn the corner back toward the lab is roll for frenzy on the basis of your hunger.
Rolling?
[01:11:22] Speaker C: My frenzy? That is three successes.
[01:11:26] Speaker A: Excellent. Then you won't feel compelled to eat. Annika. I'm sure Ivy is grateful, because that is indeed who you see as you turn the corner. A young woman, bookish as all tramire and their ghouls tend to be, but attractive in a way that would make her graduate school program quite awkward. She doesn't have much to say in the moment. What, on account of being tied, bound and gagged, surgical tubing wrapped around her wrists and her ankles, and a cleaning rag apparently stuffed into her mouth. That would have been awkward if you'd killed Ivy's friend. It also would mean that you wouldn't have had the chance to see the device sitting on the table nearby.
Alex, you are not the kind of person who's been to explosive ordinance disposal school, but you are the kind of person, I presume, who at one point, has seen an action movie or an episode of Law and Order, right? Oh, yeah.
So you know the golden rule of Hollywood, right? All bombs tick.
[01:12:26] Speaker C: Yes. And you have to cut the red wire.
[01:12:30] Speaker A: Well, that depends on which movie that we're in. But those are the two important pieces. There is some kind of improvised explosive device happily ticking away, and a bound and gagged lab assistant. I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you explained the concept of Annika to Alex, so he knows that she's not an enemy, anything like that?
[01:12:52] Speaker B: Yes, I believe she would have come up before.
[01:12:55] Speaker A: Sounds reasonable to me. Well, Alex, mommy and Auntie are busy. You find yourself with a small conundrum. What's the move?
[01:13:03] Speaker C: I look at the bomb, I look at Annika.
I know nothing about diffusing bombs, and I know that this person's life is in jeopardy.
So my choice in this moment is to run over to Annika and free her.
As I'm rushing over, I realize, okay, right, you're a big, scary monster. You're also a hero, big guy. You're about to have your very first save. This is your chance. And so I bend down to look her in the eye, and I begin to just try and be very polite and comforting.
Hey.
[01:13:41] Speaker A: Hey.
[01:13:42] Speaker C: How's it going? My name is Zet Apex, and I'm the hero who's here to save you. But listen, we don't have a lot of time. There's a bomb on the table, and there's.
Well, I don't know how you do with violence, but let's just say it's pretty bad out there. But we're gonna get you out, okay? Do you need shoes? I have two shoes.
[01:14:02] Speaker A: The words individually difficult to make out on account of the gag, so you do get a lot of.
I know that Ivy has explained the concept of Annika to you, which means you know that she's a tramir ghoul, and the things that come out of her mouth, despite being unintelligible, might leave you asking, are all tramir women like this? Because in her tone and in her eyes, you can hear the whole you fucking idiot monologue happening.
Nevertheless, quite grateful when you undo her bindings, when you remove the gag, and instantly she launches into an exposition. It's quite short, not a lot to cover.
That is a fire bomb. She would like to not be here.
[01:14:53] Speaker C: Great dope. We are going to get you out of here. I offer my hands out as if to say, jump into my arms and I'll carry you to safety.
But I'm quite awkward. And I begin to slowly retract the offer.
[01:15:10] Speaker A: I don't know that she even catches the awkward part, because the second you unbind her, she is on her feet, being a strong, independent woman who doesn't need no big, dumb man.
Also, there's the urge of survival. She is stalking out to get the fuck out of this building.
Now, Maya, Ivy, is it about this time that you will have wrapped up your respective meals and I'm guessing exiting towards the lab, at least to see where the kid got off to. Right?
[01:15:35] Speaker D: As I finish with the bloody business of feeding, I'll stand up, feeling a little more refreshed. And in a motion that would be featured in many a corporate sexual harassment video, I would just like to use touch of oblivion, a place that does not usually see sunshine.
[01:15:53] Speaker A: I will give you that if you'd like a rouse check. Yeah, sure. I appreciate the malice.
[01:15:58] Speaker D: Yeah, we're fine.
[01:16:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that you rolled a ten on it.
[01:16:02] Speaker D: Let's fucking go.
[01:16:04] Speaker A: I think I will approach that the exact same way Maya did. It happened, we acknowledge it. There's no need to discuss it. It's on.
[01:16:12] Speaker D: Uh, yeah, I'll head into the hallway.
[01:16:14] Speaker A: I think given that one little extra parting gift, Ivy, you'll be the first one out of the room, which means, you see Alex. You see Annika. You see Annika being panicked. Panica, if you will.
[01:16:27] Speaker B: I will not.
[01:16:29] Speaker C: I will.
[01:16:31] Speaker A: And she relays the same information to you with one small addendum.
There's a bomb. We have to get out of here. But they took Schmendrick.
[01:16:42] Speaker B: Took Schmendrick?
[01:16:43] Speaker D: Where?
[01:16:44] Speaker B: What do you mean, took her?
[01:16:45] Speaker A: Ivy, I. Were you paying attention? There's a bomb. Look at me. Do I look the kind of woman who wants to die? No questions later. Leave now.
[01:16:55] Speaker B: Fine. And I'll turn and look over my shoulder just to catch Maya doing Maya things. And I just kind of, like, give a sharp little whistle, and I'm just like, we have to go now.
[01:17:08] Speaker D: Ivy. Do you speak Hebrew?
[01:17:10] Speaker B: Why would I speak Hebrew?
[01:17:12] Speaker D: Maya says something you do not understand, but anyone who's spent any time in the Middle east might understand as some very choice swear words.
Yeah, let's fucking go.
[01:17:25] Speaker A: Proceeding out to the stairs. Because, of course, in cases of emergency, you don't use the elevator. Everyone knows that. And once you're starting to make progress down the stairwell, Annika begins to explain the basic details of what happened.
Schmendrick came as was planned. She was intercepted by one of the gentlemen posing as a security guard, who brought her up to the lab at gunpoint, at which point the gangrel staked her.
[01:17:53] Speaker D: Staked is not dead, though.
[01:17:56] Speaker A: No. And that might give you some semblance of relief that perhaps Schmendrick can be rescued. There is one detail I have yet what to mention, and I expect, cinematically, this will happen as the coterie bounds out of that security door that you let Alex through in the first moment, heading towards the van.
She explains. I don't know why they kept her alive. All that was just so silly. They came in, they had me. They were talking to Schmendrick, interrogating her about blood bags, why she was here, what she knew about disable. And then the last thing I heard was, well, you can tell it to Bronwyn. Oh, fuck.
[01:18:37] Speaker C: Who's Bronwyn?
[01:18:39] Speaker D: We will tell you when you're older.
[01:18:42] Speaker C: Okay, yeah, no, I killed the guy that staked our dear friend. But no, I'll have to wait to be old enough to know who Bronwyn is. Sure.
[01:18:53] Speaker B: I stop in my tracks and clench my fists and kind of cock my head a little bit before spinning around on my heels and putting my hands up in front of Alex, using them as punctuation, almost.
I gesture along as I just start going off on him. No, Alex, this is not the time for. Oh, let's everybody be friends. Do you understand the gravity of the situation that we are in right now? Buying wigs for you, that was fun. Buying contacts for you, that was fun. Watching you throw equipment. Hell, that was fun. You throwing me, less fun. But you know what's really, really not fun? The fact that a bomb just went up on the third floor there, and they're going to find a fire, and they're going to find bodies. And you know what's not cool in addition to that is the fact that there are secret government organizations that are out here hunting us that are already kind of on alert. And I've almost died to them once already, and I'd like to not almost die again to them, much like how Maya almost died today. Like, there's so much going on. And I know that you don't get it because you're just a child, and you've been unalive for, like, three days. I've been here for, like, 30 years, and I really like my life as a vampire. And it seems like you're kind of coming around to it, too. But if you want to keep living as a vampire, you need to fucking change your goddamn attitude, because. Yeah, Alex, I get it. You think you're apex. You think that you're this big old superhero with big old superhero powers. But the truth is, the real reality is we are still capable of dying. And I would like that not to be the case. And also, what Annika just said about Bronwyn being involved with this. Bronwyn is one of the most powerful Malkavians in the city. So now, not only did we have Jason fucking Newberry to worry about before, but now we also have a second Malkavian to worry about, and they have Schmendrick. And God knows what they're gonna get out of Schmendric, that little fucking nosferatu who knows everybody's secrets and has information on all of us. We have no idea why they have her and what they're looking.
[01:21:08] Speaker D: Technically, Ivy.
[01:21:10] Speaker B: What?
[01:21:12] Speaker D: Technically, you've almost died. To the second inquisition. Twice.
[01:21:17] Speaker B: Thank you for that, Maya.
[01:21:19] Speaker D: Just here to keep us accountable. Speaking of, you still got my shoes, buddy?
[01:21:23] Speaker A: Oh.
[01:21:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I sure do. You might not like the state they're in, though.
[01:21:30] Speaker D: Yeah, I'll bill you later, Ivy. This is bad.
I understand it is bad. And baby will learn the upper level of bad in a place that's not on the street outside the flaming building. What do you think?
[01:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah, fine.
You're right.
[01:21:55] Speaker D: Wow. You guys look like shit.
You blow buildings.
[01:21:59] Speaker A: Often a voice you do not recognize, emerging from the shadows as you all turn to look. Because I presume you will all turn to look. You see a young woman, chinese features, dressed head to toe in dark gray. Dark black, very neutral urban wear. Curly hair on her head, capped with a beanie.
It's not a face you recognize.
[01:22:29] Speaker B: Sorry, do I know you?
[01:22:33] Speaker D: I don't think so, but is this about time? I mean, you guys just sort of smell and. This is a little weird. All right. I'm gonna kill her.
Not so fast. My dad is Jason Newberry. I think you might know him.
[01:22:49] Speaker A: Well, there is a name that just keeps coming around. I know for a fact that you all have very different reactions to this moment, and I'm super excited to explore them. Maya, of course, having the strongest feelings about Jason Newberry.
Alex, unfortunately, destined again to be confused.
You've heard these names in the same way that people remember presidents. Yeah, so and so was the 14th president. Can't tell you what he did. That is the legacy that Jason numery has for you.
Mysteries upon mysteries. Schmendrick is missing. Bronwyn is making moves. Du Sable is at risk. You are all in the middle of it. And now a guest who purports to be the childa of your least favorite Malkavian.
I presume you have questions. Well, friends, I have bad news for you, because that is a story for another night.
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