Episode 38 - Tunnel Rats, Part 2

[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the All Night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queens Court Games. Our story continues, then, in the tunnels underneath Chicago. Not the deepest tunnels, but still deeper than the subways and the pedways that you may have traveled in your mortal life. Alex Calamity has come to your rescue in a matter of speaking. A face of concern arriving out of the dark. You know for sure what you experienced was not real. The way the shipping container walls melted away, the way the voice retreats into the depth of the tunnels, echoing as it goes. Despite that, the wound on your shoulder is entirely real. Waxy dead flesh torn asunder by phantom claws. How are you holding up? [00:01:31] Speaker B: Physically, I've had much worse. Emotionally? Emotionally, this is, I think, the worst I've felt since the very beginning. There's a rage building in me from this. [00:01:50] Speaker A: Yeah. There's a specific reason you hunt on, the kind of people you hunt on? [00:01:56] Speaker B: Absolutely. Every time I close my eyes, I see her face. [00:02:01] Speaker A: What's curious to me, and pardon me if I'm being presumptuous, is that imagine the kind of man who would do what you did in the shipping container. Imagine the mentality that you have to build up all of its constituent parts. The superiority, the smugness, the feeling above human laws. The idea that there are two kinds of women in the world. There are those who adore me and will give me what I want. And there are those who are wrong and should be punished for it. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, does that not sound like the gym rat crypto bro who so often makes his way onto your menu? [00:02:47] Speaker B: For the most part. But I find that nowadays I don't. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Always look for a type. I just look for a gender. [00:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah, assholes are easy to spot, but when everything's a nail, I am the hammer. [00:03:08] Speaker A: I live in a world of nails now. [00:03:11] Speaker B: Doesn't matter what they do with their money. Doesn't matter how they dress. If they're men, of course they're crypto. [00:03:17] Speaker A: Gym rat, protein chugging assholes, and that. [00:03:21] Speaker B: Means they're mine to kill. [00:03:23] Speaker A: Are we going to say that that is mere coincidence or are we going to pathologize it? That's not a question for Alex. Actually, that's a question for the rest of the coterie. Calamity, you were closest. You saw the face Alex was making just then. He's confessed to you parts of what happened on the night of his embrace. What do you make of. [00:03:49] Speaker C: Like I feel like I'm the last to judge storyteller. You know how my embrace came about. You know what I did. The men I shredded because I could, because they made me angry. That's the beast. When you first come back, when you are so hungry that it feels like the creature under your ribs is going to rip its way out of your chest, what else are you supposed to do? [00:04:24] Speaker A: Lots of different people with lots of different answers to that question. I think Ivy and Maya have different backgrounds that might elucidate different perspectives. Maya, your background does not condone this kind of wallowing. Can't imagine a moment in the past when one of your pack mates would even have this feeling, let alone feel confident enough to bring it to you. But if they did, I don't see the Maya Lugassi of your being willing to tolerate that. [00:04:54] Speaker D: The Maya Lugasi of now is not willing to tolerate it. Whatever feelings of shame and regret Alex might have based on the sudden realization that his feeding preference might have more to do with killing an inner demon than it does just sustenance. [00:05:14] Speaker A: We all have to live somehow, one way or another. Ivy LaRue, you frequently choose another. Whether or not Alex feels bad is irrelevant for someone who refuses to allow emotions to enter the equation. Not about whether he's a good person or a bad person. It's why does he keep making mistakes? Why is he not focused? Why is he putting everything at risk by leaving so much of himself on the table? Did I get that right? [00:05:43] Speaker E: Yeah, you could say that. This has been the biggest issue in my time with Alex. Fundamentally, we are very different people, and Schmendrick may have been more well equipped to handle the various emotions that Alex portrays. I'm not sure why he gets so wrapped up in things. There's too much to do to waste time on feeling bad about something. You can feel those emotions, but set a timer, cry it out, and then get back to work. [00:06:21] Speaker A: I'm sorry. Wait. I don't mean to interrupt, but when is the last time Ivy cried? [00:06:26] Speaker E: It's a figure of speech. When was the last time I cried? [00:06:32] Speaker A: Oh, gosh, it's your story. And far be it for me to infringe upon it, but as I have heard the tale of Ivy LaRue, I imagine the stiff upper lip started around four or five years old, which explains a lot in the modern day. But I don't imagine your parents let you get very far down the road of having emotions before they decided that was unbecoming. [00:07:02] Speaker E: I think the last time I cried, I was probably about six years old. I couldn't even tell you what it was about anymore. I just remember my mom telling me that I needed to stop because it was embarrassing. [00:07:23] Speaker A: Well, there you have it, Alex. Weak and embarrassing. But we don't have to confront those thoughts because they're not being said out loud. Calamity helping Alex to his feet. Alex, are you going to mend that wound or leave it? [00:07:43] Speaker B: The feelings that I feel are just present. They are upon me. That has in no way stopped me from my goal. If anything, it has enhanced my goal. The plan coming down here was to find Jason Newberry and eliminate the threat that he presents to our own safety and that of the tasks given to us by the prince, the only thing that this creature has done is instilled a new resolve. And any anger, any pain, any hurt that I feel, I will put through his face with five knuckles of wrath. This is not oh, woe is me. This is oh, woe is that dumb son of a bitch who pissed me off. And I want to make this ironclad crystal clear. I'm going to fucking rip him in half. [00:08:42] Speaker A: Well, if there was any doubt that Alex was a bruja, that should put it to rest. But my question was about the claws that ripped through your shoulder blade. Are you going to leave that wound open or would you like to rouse to heal it while we have a moment? [00:08:55] Speaker B: I was mostly thinking about the claw in my heart, but if we meant the claw in my shoulder, then I should probably patch that up so I don't appear weak around my fellow coterie. [00:09:06] Speaker A: Well, I will take a rouse check from you. You can go ahead and mend out that superficial damage regardless of the outcome. But we will need to know if you become hungrier or not. [00:09:18] Speaker B: Blend the rouse check. [00:09:19] Speaker C: Now. [00:09:29] Speaker B: That is one success. [00:09:34] Speaker A: Very well. Makes sense. Alex's identity is built around not showing weakness, and the beast, in the most part, agrees. I will leave it up to you from a narrative standpoint, whether or not Calamity noticed the full scope of that wound before it mended. But by the time that Maya and Ivy arrive, it will no longer be apparent. Speaking of Maya and Ivy, you've been wandering about in the darkness. Soon enough, you will find Alex and Calamity. Or rather, one of you will find Alex and Calamity. Can I have each of you roll alertness for me? Call that wits and awareness. I should probably just say it correctly to start with. Can I have each of you roll wits and awareness for me? [00:10:29] Speaker D: Two successes, one success. [00:10:34] Speaker A: Well, if there's one thing I can rely on Maya for, it's keeping things interesting with the dice. But this isn't a pass fail situation. I just wanted to know which of you is being less alert. That means the flashlight that falls upon Calamity and Alex will belong to Ivy elsewhere. Maya's exploration of the area. Not yielding any friends cowering, rather. Instead, you continue passing your way down the brick corridors. I don't remember when it transformed from that smooth arc concrete floor and small rail line to the black and white tiles you are walking over now. I don't remember there being sliding prison doors elsewhere in these tunnels. I don't remember there being so many guards. And I certainly don't remember them ignoring you. What a bizarre thing. [00:11:41] Speaker D: How fucking dare you? [00:11:43] Speaker A: I'm likely as confused as our audience. Maya, why would you be thinking of a prison? Or more to the point, why would you have a thought of a prison buried in the deepest, deepest, deepest parts of your brain? [00:12:02] Speaker D: I don't know, storyteller. Why is there someone rooting deep in my brain? [00:12:08] Speaker A: I can answer that question quite easily. You're stalking into the lair of one of the masters of Dementation. Torpid or not. Something radiates off of this place that finds the things that make us weak, finds the things that scares us and opens up the little boxes that we've hidden the secrets in. Or digs up the graves, in some cases, and exposes them for a nefarious purpose. [00:12:37] Speaker D: He can try. I'm trying to keep the shaking in my body down the same I felt the first time we were here. [00:12:53] Speaker A: Visitation, if I recall. [00:12:56] Speaker D: No. Technically, yes. They don't usually let you visit after hours, but money is a superpower. [00:13:08] Speaker A: Don't let Alex hear that. [00:13:10] Speaker D: The last time I was here, I couldn't move. I didn't know how to move in shadow as easily as I do now. And so what is now? Canite ability then was just a matter of bribing some guards and a warden. [00:13:32] Speaker A: Who could possibly be worth such effort? You're barely generous with your funds now. You were chosen by your clan for your ability to handle money and not emotions. [00:13:46] Speaker D: This is different. You've got to pay respects to a victim every once in a while. And Ivan didn't deserve anything that happened to him. Not like everyone else. [00:14:04] Speaker A: Hmm. Well, if he didn't deserve it, how did Ivan end up in this cell? [00:14:12] Speaker D: Everyone else had more money, and everyone else got luckier than him, and it's I did not take that into account when we orchestrated that the one decent person who worked for us was also the one who didn't have a contingency plan for when we brought everything down. [00:14:40] Speaker A: La Sambra do not embrace without first requiring sacrifice. If they're going to give you the powers they possess, if they are going to let you bear the name of their clan, they require you first to prove you can live up to the archetype. You're going to be destroying lives for the next several centuries if it goes according to plan. We need to know that you can do it before we make you immortal. So it goes and destroy lives you did. [00:15:15] Speaker D: I thought I had covered for everything, and I did. I just didn't I just didn't realize that he hadn't. And he's going to be paying for everyone else everyone else's sins for the rest of his life. And two more, if I remember the sentence correctly. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Well, that's the thing about the life sentence. It only lasts until you die. So really, you have the terms of your own probation in your own hands. [00:15:56] Speaker D: I wanted to give him the chance. I don't know how it all works, but if I have to leave the rest of my life behind, I want to make sure he's okay. [00:16:09] Speaker A: My memory of this moment is a little fuzzy, but I don't think the hallway was this long. And as far as I remember, the Illinois penal system does not lock up televisions playing the news reports of the events that happened. It doesn't have the interviews you gave. Absolving yourself of responsibility, pointing the fingers in the directions they needed to go. Doesn't have the reams of paperwork that guarded you from consequences. The hallway ends with a cell. Not the open bars, the kind that has a tiny little slit for meals. There's a note. Plain white office paper. Twelve point font affixed to the door. The letterhead looks familiar. [00:17:07] Speaker D: All law firms have the same fucking designers. It's somehow an amalgamation of every fucking rejection. No one would take his case. Feels like it was by design. [00:17:24] Speaker A: It was by design. You designed it. [00:17:29] Speaker D: I didn't. I designed everything else. And this is the thing that fell through the cracks. And if another entity decided they wanted to keep fucking us, it's not my fault. [00:17:44] Speaker A: No, you did everything that you were supposed to do. And if other people can't handle their own business, it's because they are not strong enough to do so. And what do we say about those who are not strong enough to survive in this world? [00:17:58] Speaker D: It's not my fault that he got hurt. It's just I can do something about it before I go. And I wanted to offer him that. [00:18:11] Speaker A: There's a loud buzzer, the sound of a door being remotely unlocked. You hear the heavy metal clunk of the cell door unlatching, followed by the scraping of furniture across a floor and the snap of dead weight. [00:18:36] Speaker D: It wasn't my fault. And I can't visit during the day. I couldn't get here before this. There's no way. I try to back out of the room. I can't. This isn't what is this? What happened? This isn't what happened. This couldn't be what happened. [00:18:58] Speaker A: You try to reverse. It seems the hallway has gotten a lot shorter since only a moment ago. Your back hits the cold cinder block of a prison wall. There is a door now, a single door in front of you, a tiny sliver of light peering out from the cell. Will you make a willpower rule for me? [00:19:25] Speaker D: I'm going to fail. It five successes. [00:19:31] Speaker A: Well, I have to give you credit, Miss Lagasse. You have constructed for yourself a narrative that insulates you from the most severe of consequences. The doorway is there. There is no way but forward when you open it up. There is no body hanging from the noose. But there is another figure in the room, standing partially in shadow, her face framed by the bedsheets that have been knotted together. You remember the shoulder length hair, black as the night you inhabit. Deep, deep, cold eyes. The sharp nose and full mouth curled into an approving smile. How long has it been since you've seen your Sire? [00:20:30] Speaker D: It has to have been three to four years now. When something happened, it happened to all of us at the same time, but it hit her. She wanted to go to Tel Aviv, I didn't. We parted ways. Not amicably, but enough. She left with others. [00:21:00] Speaker A: Seems amicable now. She's never smiled at you, but there's something that curls in the mouth to show approval. You and Ivy have that in common. She does not speak. She merely turns to the side, reaches to the wall to open a door you didn't know was there and walks through it. And when you follow, it is not the cold prison you find yourself in, but the crumbly brick tunnels underneath Chicago. [00:21:43] Speaker D: Ace and fucking Newberry, which is the. [00:21:46] Speaker A: First thing that Ivy will hears immediately before Maya. Looking left and right, but somehow managing to miss you in the darkness, collides with your person. Not a sprawling movie knockdown, papers flying everywhere. Collision just a little scary bump in the dark. [00:22:09] Speaker D: Fuck. [00:22:13] Speaker E: Where did you come from? Are you okay? Maya? I kind of shine the flashlight at her, and I can see there's. Not that there's usually an amount of color to our skin, but she's looking a little paler than usual. There's just something off. She doesn't have that usual Maya glow about her air, whatever you'd call it. Are you. [00:22:56] Speaker D: Fine? I'm fine. Newberry is doing something to us. There's something here. [00:23:09] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm sorry I left you the way I did. I heard the scuffle. He's even in Torper. I think he's managed to figure out how to fuck with us. [00:23:29] Speaker D: And Ivy, because you're close, you can definitely still feel me shaking. [00:23:34] Speaker E: I'm going to reach out and I'm just going to squeeze Maya's upper arm. [00:23:40] Speaker D: I immediately flunch. Don't don't touch going, let's just fucking kill the guy. [00:23:56] Speaker E: Okay. Well, then I just have one question, I guess, for the classroom. When you say fucking with us, Calamity and Maya, what exactly do you mean? How fucking with us? How? [00:24:18] Speaker D: He's just messing with our heads, just rooting around in there. If you can do something about it, I'd advise it. [00:24:32] Speaker C: I look at Alex briefly, but I'm not going to spread his business. [00:24:42] Speaker B: He's he's playing mind games and he's choosing to piss a lot of people off. I mean, I don't think that's any different from what I've heard about him. You haven't gotten anything at all? Like a weird sense that you're in an unusual part of the environment? [00:25:04] Speaker A: Ivy no, I've been walking around the. [00:25:09] Speaker E: Tunnels this entire time. [00:25:11] Speaker B: He hasn't chosen to come after you just yet. Or maybe in the great Ivy way, there's some protection or something that's blocking him so far. Who knows? [00:25:22] Speaker D: All that repression, maybe. [00:25:26] Speaker B: I think that would make it worse because there's something to hold on to. There's a lot of repressed feelings, but who knows? All I know is that the only way to keep ourselves safe is to keep going forward. And that's what I aim to do. [00:25:41] Speaker C: Yeah. We got to end them before he decides to root around in somebody else's nagging. [00:25:48] Speaker A: It's charitable of you to think he might not come back to fertile ground. Alex might be onto something. If the memories are repressed far enough, can he reach them? [00:25:58] Speaker E: Clearly. [00:26:00] Speaker A: Well, I am not going to inject myself into the contest of which of Maya or Ivy has buried their trauma deeper. I don't feel like that is a contest for this episode. [00:26:13] Speaker B: I mean, take it from a guy who used to pound beers and go to a UFC gym. There's nothing healthy about a competition of that's. I don't think that's a sign of good health. [00:26:27] Speaker A: No, we've seen what Ivy's like when she's a little mad about things that don't matter. I don't think we want to turn that nozle up. All of that said, Alex is only partially correct. The way is not forward, it is down. And with the coterie reconnected, you find a doorway circled on one of Ivy's maps. No doubt an access tunnel built by the city. You never know where you need to go. Inspect some old routes. Right. An ancient tunnel with an equally ancient ladder. Old steel wrought back when Lake Michigan was the artery through which American industry pumped iron ore. Coming down the barges into Gary, crafted by strong union hands. It's a bit rusty now. [00:27:24] Speaker E: All right. I would say onwards and upwards, but not exactly the direction we're heading, so anybody want to go first? [00:27:35] Speaker B: I'll go. [00:27:37] Speaker D: I'm happy to go for us. Little. [00:27:40] Speaker E: Okay, let's do it. [00:27:43] Speaker A: Not a terribly dangerous venture. There's the groaning of metal, the smell of dust and mildew. It's unpleasant, not dangerous. The same cannot be said for the freight tunnels the door opens into. Well, Calamity, I suppose you'd be the best person to describe it. The floor gravel, of course. Rails laid across it. The tops, crossed beams, timber, some rotted despite their treatment, but otherwise holding up well enough. [00:28:34] Speaker C: I get to the bottom and I turn and I see it. And in spite of my usual tenacity, I stop. Freeze. [00:28:46] Speaker A: Really, I should do you all the service of saying that this actually isn't a nightmare part. That's what the tunnels look like. [00:28:54] Speaker E: Well, with Alex going first, then Maya, I'd probably be the closest to Calamity at this point. Hearing her stop, I'll turn and take a look at her. Cal wave my hand in front of her face. [00:29:16] Speaker C: Sorry, where'd you go? [00:29:18] Speaker E: Are you okay? [00:29:23] Speaker C: I'm not a big fan of being this far away from this guy, I'm being completely honest with you. But ain't much to be done about that, is there? [00:29:35] Speaker D: Please don't pile claustrophobia along with whatever Newberry's fucking doing to us and say. [00:29:42] Speaker A: That newberry won't have to do anything to affect claustrophobia. The tunnels are smaller. When you had to dig rail tunnels by hand, you tended not to expand them enough for comfort's sake. [00:30:01] Speaker E: Are you going to be okay? [00:30:05] Speaker C: That's the question. But I'll sort of roll my shoulders and shake my hands. Got a fucking job to do, don't we? [00:30:16] Speaker E: Yeah. Do you feel more comfortable staying in the back? Do you want to be with the group? What's the best place for you here? [00:30:32] Speaker C: I think I'll feel better as long as we don't get too separated again. Okay, take a look and keep following. Trying not to go fast enough to potentially stomp on anybody's fingers on the way down. [00:30:52] Speaker A: It's perfectly reasonable to take your time. Newberry is not going anywhere, right? [00:30:57] Speaker C: No, he ain't. [00:31:01] Speaker A: At least we hope not. Okay, well, following along the tunnels built for narrow gauge rail is quite an easy endeavor. This is not a sprawling network as the level above. Much more intentional, this. It's also significantly colder, three inches a point. When you've gone this down deep in the earth, that a breeze. It's hard to say. You don't need to breathe, so it's not like you're generating that slow in and out wheeze that comes through the tunnels. [00:31:39] Speaker E: Based on the research that I did on these tunnels beforehand, is there anything that I can think of that would be the cause of that, or is it just likely one of those things that probably happens? [00:31:52] Speaker A: It does happen. There's actually quite a lot of wind induced phenomena, as the paper would have blindly described it. These tunnels open somewhere. If you imagine that it is a straw and you blow across the top of it, that causes the air to move inside. There was a time before air conditioning where they used tunnels like these to move cool air around the city. The very first building in Chicago to take advantage of that was a movie theater. Little bit of history for you. The wind is normal. The silence is normal. You are quite far away from the city above. There is nothing down here but you, which means every step of a boot into the gravel makes that fully perfect crunch. Deafening against the background of nothing else. Every time Alex fidgets nervously with a part of his costume, you can hear the tug of a zipper or the snap of a button. The tension in Maya's Gait becomes apparent because it's quiet enough that each of you can tell the difference between your footsteps. Different amounts of weight, different kinds of shoes. You know exactly who is stepping when. I don't know if it's just the. [00:33:12] Speaker B: Fact that I can hear nothing at all or because it's just dead quiet. That all I can hear is my own voice in my head wondering when the fuck I'm going to get there. Been going in this subway train underground for what feels like hours. It might only be minutes, but all I know is that this Jason guy is not only a threat to my health and my coterie friends, but also everything. And I mean everything for something I barely understand. And I just need to get there. And I just need to deal with the problem and I have no fucking clue where I'm going. Okay, so who do we talk to when we don't know what's going? I don't know. We go to Ivy. So I have to kind of stop myself, take a pause because I can't take a breath anymore and I turn Ivy. I've been going in the dark now for God knows how long, and there is a dangerous threat that could take over at any point again. And I need to know, am I going in the right direction? Is there anything you can tell me to help me out here? [00:34:27] Speaker E: Let me see. And I'm going to take a look at the maps and see if I can figure that out. Trying to hide the fact that maybe I don't know. [00:34:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not confident about your ODS. That is wits and survival to navigate off the back of the map. You made so many notes on this map, you researched so carefully, it never occurred to you the maps might not be 100% accurate. Why wouldn't they be accurate? If you made a map, it would be accurate. If a competent person made this map, it would be perfect, and it's not. And that infuriates you on, like, an existential level. You're going to have really strong words for the map makers guild when this is over. But right now, Alex is agitated. Did you see the way he spun on his heel to stare you down? The last time Alex looked at you like that, he had just thrown a two by four and you almost ended up the next county over. So I will take Whitson's survival to see if you can pull off the LaRue miracle of finding the right answer in a crisis. [00:35:41] Speaker E: One success. [00:35:43] Speaker A: You have the paper oriented correctly, you're counting your steps. Something must have gone wrong when you were lost. Did you go too far? Was it this access tunnel? Was it the other access tunnel? What does it sound like when Ivy is trying to cover up the fact that she doesn't know the answer to a question? [00:36:00] Speaker E: You know? Alex I don't know. And all we've all been here and we're all in the same space dealing with the same thing, and we are all here walking in these tiny, cramped little tunnels. Some of us have it a little bit easier as I look at Maya than the rest of us do, but it would have been really helpful if any of you had come to study any of this beforehand instead of just relying on me all the time. I don't know why it had to be all on me. I did so much. I can't be expected to do everything. Tunnels are not my forte. These maps are. I have no way of knowing if these are even current. [00:36:49] Speaker C: Just Abby. [00:36:54] Speaker E: So to answer your question, Alex, I do not have an answer for you. Okay, so how about you just turn around and keep walking until we hit one of these points that I have written down on this. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Okay? [00:37:13] Speaker C: Okay, great. [00:37:14] Speaker B: That's what we're going to do. [00:37:15] Speaker E: Great. [00:37:17] Speaker A: Okay, great. [00:37:19] Speaker D: I want to slap Ivy so bad. [00:37:22] Speaker A: Makes sense to me. Who's been making all the plans? Who has been keeping everyone on their best behavior? Who has been guiding the coterie, stopping it from ambling about in random directions? Someone who's not going to be a parent in life or in death. Ivy has certainly had to do a lot of mentoring children. And what's amusing to me is that it didn't require Jason Newberry to make that come to a head in the. [00:37:51] Speaker D: Middle of Ivy's Rant, down to the fucking short joke. I'm sure Ivy can feel it, but the rest of you who are gathered close can feel my shaking start to calm down as the beast rises a little ivy's little tantrum. I'm just a fucking raw nerve and my hand unconsciously raises just to get her to shut the fuck up. [00:38:30] Speaker A: Storyteller. Do I see this? I am of the belief right now that Alex is furious, and whether or not you see it is a separate question from whether or not you care. I think the only person who is lucid enough, which is stretching the definition, considering the tension rising in the room, is Calamity. Because with Alex being that agitated, I don't think you're going to resolve that problem politely. [00:39:01] Speaker B: Probably not. No. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:07] Speaker C: I have my own tension in this moment. I could feel the air, and there may be a breeze, but it's that stale underground, hasn't actually circulated up from anything in God knows how long. But I look over and I see that look on Maya's face and I see her hand start to come up and back. And I will grab her wrist, not too hard. I'm not trying to break anything. I'm just trying to keep her from escalating before things get worse than they already fucking are. And I will look to Ivy and say, I'm sorry, darling, I might be able to help a little bit. Can I take a look at what. [00:40:00] Speaker E: You'Ve yeah, yeah, I'll hand over the iPad. [00:40:06] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:40:08] Speaker A: Same role for you, Calamity. [00:40:12] Speaker C: That's two successes. But I think I'd like to willpower this because I don't want to be down here any longer than we really have to. [00:40:20] Speaker A: It's your willpower, and that is a fair use of it. [00:40:24] Speaker C: No, that did fuck all. [00:40:30] Speaker A: I suppose you have two options. Do you admit that you don't know, or do you stalk off into the darkness pretending that you know which of those is more Calamity right now? [00:40:43] Speaker C: I'm a terrible liar, you know that. Well, even my backwoods ass is a little turnaround down here. That's fun. If we get to an intersection of some kind, maybe we can have a second, get our Barons, figure out where we're going. Right? At least. [00:41:04] Speaker E: Intersections give us information. [00:41:06] Speaker D: How far do we think new barrier's influence can spread? [00:41:10] Speaker A: I don't think any of you know the answer to that question. But you're getting closer to him. [00:41:17] Speaker D: I hate this. So, yep, we start walking. And the next time something happens that we can't deal with, that we can't explain, might mean we're headed the right way. [00:41:37] Speaker A: On a scale from one being totally explainable and ten being not at all explainable, where would you rate a situation where everybody's flashlights went out at the same time? [00:41:50] Speaker D: Not unless I was holding all of them. [00:41:53] Speaker A: That does not appear to be the case. [00:41:55] Speaker B: I mean, it would be par for the course and right out of a favorite horror movie of mine. And if that is indeed what happens, best believe I'm going to signpost it by saying ah, fuck. [00:42:08] Speaker C: Oh, son of a bitch. [00:42:10] Speaker A: Just exploding echoes down the tunnels. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch. [00:42:17] Speaker C: Everybody still here. [00:42:19] Speaker D: Literally haven't moved. And you still have my hand still. [00:42:24] Speaker B: Leading the front or second now. [00:42:29] Speaker C: Sorry, Maya. I'll let go. [00:42:34] Speaker D: Ivy, are you with us? [00:42:37] Speaker E: As far as I know. Look, let's just move forward. Whether or not these flashlights come back on, there's no point in standing here. [00:42:51] Speaker C: Storyteller. Then I'd like to activate as the beast. At the very least, if I can wiggle through to the front, I can guide the rest of them along. [00:43:04] Speaker A: Yeah, having to put a hand on different folks'shoulder, organize the walking party. As it is the rest of you seeing the red of Calamity's eyes as they begin to glow, it brings the world into a fuzzy. Not quite sapia, not quite black and white. It's not a full color rendition of the world. It is animalistic. It is a predator's vision, less concerned with color and more concerned with acuity of motion. Finding things to hunt. But you can proceed down the hallway. Of course. I'm going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and say that you don't throw the flashlights away, that you will keep them only off chance they work again. [00:43:46] Speaker C: Yes, exactly. [00:43:49] Speaker A: Well, if Ivy or Calamity had interpreted the map correctly, you would know that it is about half a mile to the next intersection and that is a long time to be stalking down when you arrive. This is not an intersection where two tunnels connect with one another. It is a junction where at one point, they might have planned that to be the case or built this segment so that it could be connected. So your tunnel opens up on the right and the left to a pair of platforms. There's a door on each side, then the tunnel continues ahead of you. If you ever played a game with a sewer level, you recognize this part. Where there's a small staircase leading to a platform, there's a door. If the developers are worth assault, you can tell in advance if you can open it or not in this case, hard to say. But map wise, you're fairly sure you should go. [00:44:53] Speaker C: Right then I suppose if we're still going by the map, I'm going to reach out, grab the hand of whoever's behind me. Who is behind me? [00:45:08] Speaker D: Probably me, considering. [00:45:11] Speaker C: All right, yeah. I'll just kind of grab loop a finger around another finger and tug the leash down. Come on, this way. [00:45:22] Speaker A: Piling up onto the platform. I expect one person probably bangs a toe on a step they didn't know was there, but we'll all make it more or less in one piece. Someone is going to reach to open it. Calamity, you're in front. I presume that's you. [00:45:40] Speaker C: Yes, sir. [00:45:41] Speaker A: Then what do you do when the door doesn't open? [00:45:45] Speaker C: Push harder. [00:45:48] Speaker A: Push it? Pull it any direction you want. It just doesn't jiggle. There's like an 18th of an inch of give in it. But it appears to be rusted shut or locked or secured somehow. Difficult to tell. [00:46:07] Speaker C: Alex isn't the only one who's got superhuman strength. Can I borrow from our bruha friend and muscle through it? [00:46:18] Speaker A: Of course. I'll take strength in athletics. This is a situation where more than one person can wrestle on the door. So if you want to enlist Alex to help, absolutely acceptable. [00:46:31] Speaker C: Hey, puppy. [00:46:33] Speaker A: Yeah? [00:46:35] Speaker C: I need your muscles, darling. Come on, help me out. [00:46:39] Speaker A: All right, let's go. Well, Alex is assisting, so if you. [00:46:42] Speaker B: Will roll first, that is one degree of success. [00:46:49] Speaker A: Then, Calamity, you have one bonus die for this role. [00:46:57] Speaker C: I believe that'll be five successes storyteller. [00:47:01] Speaker A: Quite a result, actually. Quite a bit more than the door required. Is it tension? Is it aspiration in my head, and this is speaking to someone who doesn't have any more than the bare minimum number of muscles required to locomote. I think it works where you push on the door and then you just push harder and harder and harder until it gives right minimum amount of force. Calamity does not do that. I would like to know why. [00:47:33] Speaker C: Because it is dark and close and I would very much like to not be in these dark close quarters anymore this far underground. So I imagine it's one of those things where between the two of us, I'd throw my shoulder in and whatever was left of the actual door mechanism probably just kind of pops off. [00:48:00] Speaker A: It does indeed. And I have good news because as soon as you come crashing through this door, more force than necessary. In fact, a bit suspicious that it comes off its hinges so easily as you lurch forward when only a few moments ago it seemed more secure. There's good news. It's significantly brighter where you land. The bad news is that we've used the word land because Calamity goes sprawling forward off a five or six foot drop landing onto a dusty tunnel floor. [00:48:41] Speaker C: Meant to do that. [00:48:44] Speaker A: If it is your intention to be speaking to Maya or Alex or Ivy, I regret to inform they cannot hear you. [00:48:53] Speaker C: You mean they don't fucking hear me. They're right there. Stand up. Dust myself. [00:48:59] Speaker A: OOH about that. When you say they're right there, who is the they you are referring to? [00:49:06] Speaker C: Ivy, Maya, and Alex. [00:49:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So the situation's changed a little bit. Unless Alex and Maya and Ivy have, in the last handful of seconds, found themselves some nice coveralls and some sturdy little helmets with nice little lights on the headplate, it's a very different kind of tunnel you find yourself in. [00:49:43] Speaker C: Let me guess. Dirt packed earth and pine beams for support. [00:49:57] Speaker A: So many pine beams and dozens of headlamps cutting through the black dust. Eyes staring out from coal black faces. Hands caked in the fruit of the deep earth. Your senses are coming back to you one by one. You hear the clang and clack of pickaxes, the rumble of minecarts along tracks. Every now and again, a foreman's roar. [00:50:38] Speaker C: It's not real. Ain't fucking real. And I would like to start pushing back the way I came. It says it's Jason fucking newberry. He's in my head. And if I push past it, there's got to be an end to the illusion somewhere, right? [00:50:59] Speaker A: One hopes you turn around looking for the door that you had just a moment ago knocked off of its hinges. There's no door blocking your way this time. Rather a body. It's been a while since we talked about it. Can you remind me what your father looks like? [00:51:18] Speaker C: Broad shoulders, tall, deep brown skin. Kept a beard that Mama fucking hated. Starting to go gray last time I saw him. [00:51:41] Speaker A: Hard to tell that age has taken a claim on his hair with all the soot and black. You recognize him, but he does not recognize you. Shouldering into you muttering something about clearing the way. He's being followed. Two gentlemen. I'm sure you know their names if your father mentioned them, but I don't think you ever met them as a child. The two of them, each leaning into a cart heaped high with those familiar red stuffed tubes, tangles of explosives, carefully wrapped fuses, blasting caps with those little bits of safety metal still strapped on them. [00:52:33] Speaker C: For the most part. Daddy took the job loading coal because he'd be left alone. Foreman didn't much care what we did as long as we got the damn job done. It paid and it's not real. And I know it's not real, but it's been a long time since I've seen his face. [00:53:12] Speaker A: Is that what compels you to follow him for a moment? The promise of seeing someone long lost? [00:53:22] Speaker C: Yeah. It's that we all still have bits of our humanity left. Bits that we cling to. Maybe this is just me following that last little trail. [00:53:43] Speaker A: Then you will hear him converse with his fellow miners, discussing the abundance of explosives. Why so many? It seems imprudent. A bit on the risky edge. A voice coming back explained that orders from on high say there has been a spike in the quotas and they're going to have to push if they want to make the deliveries on time. There's no OSHA inspector. There's no Department of Mines. There are only brave men in the deep dark and the pearly white faces above who have numbers on a page to meet. [00:54:24] Speaker C: They had to fill their pockets, make that big red line go up and oh, God, no. There's the part of me that wants to see this face that I knew. This face that meant so much to me. But I know how this story ends. [00:54:55] Speaker A: Well, then you don't need me to describe to you what happens next. You can tell me what happens when the errant spark from a clanging tool lands inside the minecart and brings fire to the belly of number 14. [00:55:17] Speaker C: It's loud and sudden like. Closest thing I could think of to what a dragon might belch up from its gullet. And then there's the rumble sound of the mountain starting to crumble in bit by bit. I think I start trying to run before I know what's happening. [00:55:59] Speaker A: You are not the only one. We think of mine disasters as these sudden things. That there is an acute beginning, a few seconds of catastrophe, and then the end. But people from those communities know better. It's very rarely the explosion that causes the damage. It's the fires that follow. It's men trapped beneath the earth, unable to see their way towards the elevator that would take them to the surface. Unable to breathe in the smoke and dust choked air, some of them wounded, limbs blown asunder, scared and alone in the dark. Maybe the fire will go out. Maybe they will find safety. And then at that point, it's the long, long wait, knowing that there's only so much air down here. And every second the fire burns, it steals that much more of it away. You weren't in the mine when this happened. You were on the surface. So you know that so many thousands of feet from you right now. There's a fire brigade rushing the offshift, miners being called in to clear the way, to rescue the people trapped below. But you and I both know that's not how this story ends. [00:57:31] Speaker C: No. 111 souls. 111 souls lost that day. [00:57:46] Speaker A: You've told yourself it's not real. You told me it's not real. And we both believe that. We know in our heart of hearts. But let's make a willpower roll and see if Calamity knows. [00:57:58] Speaker C: Horse excesses. [00:58:01] Speaker A: That is nice. Yes. Good. Because I was not looking forward to explaining what your father looked like in his last moments. [00:58:19] Speaker C: I run. I keep running. [00:58:25] Speaker A: That is where we would join the rest of the coterie. Whatever has happened in Calamity's mind has only taken seconds. From your perspective. You see this woman barrel through the door, land splayed out a few muttered phrases and then she is on her feet, screaming forward through the darkness, a bolt of raw kindred speed. [00:58:54] Speaker D: Al. [00:58:59] Speaker A: Caldis runs the fuck off of Sprinting. I don't think you've ever seen a vampire move that fast, let alone this one storyteller. [00:59:09] Speaker B: I have solarity and at least two points in it. Can I attempt to catch up to them? [00:59:18] Speaker A: Absolutely you can. Rouse to activate your solarity. Calamity is running at vampire speed, so you would be able to catch her regardless of any dice roll once you have activated your solarity. [00:59:31] Speaker B: Okay, I attempted a rouse check. I did not get a success in the rouse check. [00:59:38] Speaker A: What's a little hunger between, huh? [00:59:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:41] Speaker A: The beast is selfish. You want to help yourself, maybe it's there for you. You are trying to show kindness to Calamity. What a waste of the gifts Kane has given you. [00:59:52] Speaker B: Maybe instinct takes over, but I run as fast as I can after Cal stopping in front of her, putting my hands on her shoulders and just instinctually kind of going into a quick hug before I kind of whisper into her ear, hey, I don't know where you are. I don't know where you are right now, but you're here still, okay? You were there for me. I'm going to be here for you. Just breathe. Just breathe. Just breathe. Just breathe in and out. Just force yourself to breathe. I don't give a damn if it's real or not. Just force yourself to breathe. You are still here. Okay? We need to stay together. We don't need anyone running off and I sure shit don't need to have the person with the big fucking guns running off into the darkness. Okay? [01:00:33] Speaker A: Just focus. [01:00:36] Speaker B: Just focus. You're still here, okay? I want to hear you whisper back. I want to hear that you know you're here, okay? Tell me you're. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Here. Where are you? [01:01:00] Speaker C: Fucking undercity. [01:01:04] Speaker B: I was going to go for here, but yeah, you're fucking undercity. Okay? [01:01:09] Speaker A: We're here. [01:01:13] Speaker B: And we know who did this. And what's more important is we know what we're going to do when we fucking see that asshole, right? [01:01:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we will. We'll get out of here. [01:01:25] Speaker B: Just think about tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, okay? The present that we're in. Yeah, kind of fucking shitty. But tomorrow won't be here, okay? You're here. Tomorrow you won't be. I'm going to ask you one more time, cal, where are you? [01:01:47] Speaker C: I'm here. [01:01:48] Speaker A: Fuck yeah. [01:01:49] Speaker B: Rockstar all right, let's stop running and let's go join the rest. Ivy's having Map rage and Maya is doing something spooky in the dark and we need to go back to them because they need us. They're squishy. Okay. [01:02:10] Speaker C: Fuck. Sorry. I'm sorry. [01:02:13] Speaker B: Don't be sorry. Don't be sorry. Don't be sorry you saw me fuck up. Now we're even. It's okay. [01:02:24] Speaker C: God damn it. [01:02:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:30] Speaker C: Let's swear to God, I'm gonna put fucking rope between the four of us like a bunch of fucking kindergartners. [01:02:45] Speaker B: You do that and you take off again. You'll drag our asses halfway there like a doberman. Let's maybe reconsider that option, but that might not be a bad idea for now. [01:02:58] Speaker C: Okay. [01:02:59] Speaker A: I'll be pleased to know that it wasn't in Calamity's head that this tunnel is brighter. That's how you know you're going in the right direction. A string of lights over the ceiling. Bare bulbs connected with a single wire, but obviously the markings of construction having happened, a way to get to the next level of the tunnels. And so we shall. Some of us faster than others on account of having sprinted ahead. No need to catch your breath when your lungs don't work. Alex slightly hungrier for the effort, but having spared you the nightmare scenario of Calamity going missing, having been left behind. [01:03:45] Speaker D: By Cal and now Alex, I do catch Ivy's arm in case she also decides to abandon me with her six foot track legs. [01:03:57] Speaker A: I don't know, Ivy. What are you making of the situation? I suppose I have a couple of questions for the whole class. This has been uniformly terrible for three of you. It is impossible that it ends without it being uniformly terrible for all of you. Why are we still going? Newberry's buried. He hasn't been. Whatever. He messed with Anna. 0.5 of you give a shit because what's the alternative? [01:04:34] Speaker E: We leave knowing that he's still alive? Alive? Finger quotes after what happened. [01:04:45] Speaker C: I don't. [01:04:46] Speaker E: Want to speak for Maya, but I feel confident in saying that neither of us want to see him continue to get away with the things that he got away with, even if it would be 100 years from now. Because that means in 100 years we will have a very angry enemy. And I don't plan on dying before that. So I'd rather take care of the problem now than 100 years from now. [01:05:16] Speaker A: Fair enough. Stands the reason that Ivy is the instrumental rational one of the group or no. Oh, my. I can't help but wonder how much of this is motivated by something personal. [01:05:27] Speaker D: I don't want to wait a hundred years. Newberry fucked with us and then has kept going. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know how he has influence while he's still in Torper, but that has to stop. [01:05:46] Speaker A: Was the fact that it would be a pretty little bow in your hat to show Tucia Van Buris filtering at all? [01:05:53] Speaker D: Only a little side benefits being what they are. [01:05:59] Speaker A: Alex, you're a superhero. Newberry is by all accounts, a supervillain. That part makes sense to me. And you haven't really been unalive enough to really grasp how valuable that is. Is it just bold bravery carrying you forward? [01:06:18] Speaker B: Wise man once said there is more fear and bravery than not. It's not the absence of fear. It's what you do in spite of it. I think I can have the luxury of bravery only because I have the reality of terror. If this is him at his weakest, if there's anything I've experienced that torper is temporary. Sometimes I still don't know everything about it. But I woke up pretty quickly, and I'm not half as strong as this guy. And if he wakes up and becomes. [01:06:52] Speaker A: Worse. [01:06:55] Speaker B: That'S not a reality I want to live in. So I'm going to rip his lungs out through his back because I don't want to see one more day of this. And and let alone the threats he could cause. The prince, my coterie. Chicago. I don't want to lose myself to whatever mind games he's going to put in my head. Again, I don't like the idea of what he can make me do. [01:07:24] Speaker A: Entirely reasonable. And then calamity. You're not supposed to be here. Both literally in these tunnels. Click the map up. Chicago. You did what you were supposed to do. The werewolves are dead. Some of them by you. Well, one of them by your hands, the si having smoked the rest out. You've been alive how many years and never gotten attached, never risked yourself for something like this? I know Alex is cute, and I know Ivy can do magic. Apologies, Maya. I can't think of anything that appeals to Calamity on your account. [01:08:15] Speaker C: She's funny. [01:08:16] Speaker A: Okay, Maya's funny. I do not know that I would put cute, funny, and smart on a scale next to crawl into the tunnels, find a man who can twist my mind up, possibly more, make this balance work for me. [01:08:39] Speaker C: You're at cute and funny and smart wouldn't be enough of a reason to drag myself this far under the fucking streets of Chicago and deal with Jason fucking Newberry rooting around in my head and pulling up shit that I wish would stay buried. But it may not be werewolves, but this is part of what I do. Help protect people when they are otherwise outnumbered or outgunned. And as a whole, kindred might be the fucking worst of the bunch of anything walking this goddamn planet, but they're still my people, in manner of speaking. I couldn't do anything to help my daddy. At least I can help here. [01:09:41] Speaker A: Fair enough. Well, it remains to be seen whether these myriad motivations will lead to your ruin if your pursuit of individual needs is worth it. But according to the map I have in front of me, we have one more layer of tunnel. Because at the very bottom of this stack of infrastructure is the great Yawning portal through which Chicago's drinking water will flow. Must be nice, Calamity, when you make it through that next door, that next ladder, and arrive at something 50 times your height. [01:10:28] Speaker C: On the one hand, that much open space makes it feel a little less like the dirt is going to come crunching down onto my shoulders. But then I think about how much dirt is between that ceiling and the street, and I know we don't really get nauseous anymore storyteller, but there's a part of me that has to swallow. Kind of a reflexive gag. [01:10:54] Speaker A: It's funny how many things the body does, even when it's dead, can take the life out of someone. But why do you wince when something hits you? You did the entire time you were alive. There's some part of you that is still faking being human. [01:11:14] Speaker C: Old habits die hard. [01:11:16] Speaker A: Well, it's hard to not feel a little proud of being human down this deep. It is a colossal investment of time and engineering skill. Enormous. You've seen the pictures of the tunnel, of those Elon Musk projects. This dwarfs them in scope. And it makes sense why Newberry was buried down here after everything you had to go through. Even not accounting for the various twists and turns your brain has taken. The journey is not simple. Ivy made the maps, calamity attempted to read them. Even through. Then you barely made it. And imagine a less capable mind trying to make this journey. But we aren't done yet. Thankfully, for the purposes of navigation, this tunnel only goes one direction. It goes from the lake, it goes away from the lake. Very easy to make the correct turn and proceed. I don't know if it's the yawning space above you or if it's the collected tension as a menace in the air. That anticipation like clacking your way up the first hill of a roller coaster knowing what comes at the end. Alex? Pretty sure hands in the air. Yell and woo. Both in the metaphor and in this moment. The rest of you, I don't know. You were told that the Prince had invested heavily in securing this place, and I suppose that filled your imagination with all kinds of thoughts. What could possibly be down here? What would you have to prepare for? What is it you imagine this underground fortress built to stash away the city's most dangerous prisoner, looks like. [01:13:26] Speaker B: I imagine to deflect, to hide, to create a masquerade of it. Maybe even almost to insult its occupant. It is extremely plain. Not opulent, not important. Just cold, neutral, neutered and barren. Maybe some steel walls, maybe some iron bars. But nothing to suggest that what is trapped in here is by any means a prize or something that should be considered. If the Prince put him down here, put him in a prison. And from the two harrowing conversations I had with him is any indication, I don't think he's the kind of man to extend poetry to a creature he deems unworthy. And I think he wants that message to be felt by Newberry forever. I think he's just in a cold metal box, maybe. [01:14:32] Speaker A: Do the rest of you agree? [01:14:34] Speaker D: Well, I certainly wasn't expecting Raiders of the Lost Ark, but I assume that's not what I'm seeing. [01:14:41] Speaker C: No, I don't think he would be in some sort of this isn't white collar prison. This is a bunker under the fucking lake. Gold, steel, concrete, that's about it. [01:14:55] Speaker D: I assumed an inconspicuous pine box with a Do Not Open and maybe a padlock. The security is in the mundanity of it, right? [01:15:10] Speaker A: That's what we were led to believe. [01:15:12] Speaker E: Ivy, I would be surprised if they put a box down here. He's already in torper. He's staked. Put a body on a slab just as good as a box, why go through the trouble? And if our theory is correct, that somebody's been feeding him, I don't know, it feels like a lot of hassle. They would either have to leave the box open the whole time or go through the trouble of opening it every time they wanted to feed him. I'm going with slab or some sort of think like a medical cart. Like you'd find in a morgue. Right. Just there. [01:15:58] Speaker A: Well, I'll be happy to put all of this to rest in a moment. When you investigated the construction records, you found the prince's fingerprints on a very particular part of the tunnel door three one four. They are labeled in quarter mile increments down the tunnel. So you will have that delightful sense of apprehension as the numbers get smaller and smaller and smaller, ticking away like a nice little menacing countdown. Ivy was correct in that the door has to be opened if someone is feeding them. This one is not locked. When you open it leads into an antichamber of sorts. The room is four pumps rattling with equipment, watertight, but mostly a mass of whirring machinery, big foot thick pipes. At least it is for three of you. Because, Ivy, whatever you guessed would be behind this door, whatever prison you imagined, it stretches belief that the prince would have constructed a fine wood paneled parlor this deep underground in a place that no one is supposed to see. Neither would he have filled it with such expensive furniture. End tables that cost more than people make in lifetimes, curtains from Paris, cushions from Turkey, art from all corners of the known world. There are two people sitting in this little foyer. Are you going to make me do this? [01:18:03] Speaker E: I'm certainly not going to. [01:18:06] Speaker A: Then I will describe your sire and the man she has enlisted as her partner in schemes and life. A tall, thin gentleman, an immaculately trimmed beard, reading from an open manila folder through plain black glasses. He has a twisted face, curious, thoughtful, like he's chewing on a particularly hard puzzle. The woman, of course. Beautiful for every taste. They say Helen Troy launched a thousand ships, and you'll have to build bigger shipyards to capture the woman who sits opposite him with a stunning mane of crimson red hair. A dress built to highlight and hide all the best parts of her body, timeless and immortal as it is. [01:19:11] Speaker E: What are they doing here? [01:19:14] Speaker A: Discussing something. [01:19:16] Speaker C: What are they discussing? [01:19:21] Speaker A: Well, you seem to have run in the middle of the conversation, although it is strange. They do not recognize your presence or stop the gentleman. No, I understand these are significant goings on. Honestly, I thought you might appreciate the ingenuity with which she's played, the hand she's dealt. Chicago was a dangerous place. The woman clocks with dissatisfaction, calling to mind immediately a thousand lessons over dozens of years. Every single small mistake met with that same disapproving punctuation mark. You're missing the point, Nathaniel. I need someone who is competent in that. I have. But she's made more of a splash than I would like. We have a plan. And that plan requires her to play her role and no more. I appreciate her intellect. That is why I recruited her. But the word slices through the air like a guillotine set free. I would have expected more. I don't know. You tell me. Is she crumbling under the pressure? Did I not teach her well enough? Somewhere? A mistake has been made, Nathaniel. Now, thankfully, that mistake will rectify itself, but it still leaves me with the question of a proper heir. The man is nodding along. He knows where the conversation is going. I presume, at this point, you already have a name in mind. She nods. And that's why I need you to roll Willpower. [01:21:31] Speaker E: Two successes. [01:21:37] Speaker A: The brother will do. I know my line is meant to be carried by women through the ages, but that has not worked according to plan. I'm sure my sire and my grandsire and their grandsire will understand if it means the rest of our plans come to fruition. Clan and house tramire is too important to cling to tradition. The conversation keeps going from there. But I don't need to describe it to you, because I know that you are not listening. That no matter how their lips move, no matter what sounds come out, it is just that sentence over and over and over again, echoing in your brain. Ivy LaRue, you are Miss Calm and Cool and Collected, but this is quite literally the worst possible thing that could crawl into your head. And with your Willpower role, I know that you are not capable of controlling the emotion that wells up. What happens? [01:22:43] Speaker E: Um no. I'm I'm staring between the two of them, and I realize that there's still time. I can fix this. I can be who Gabby needs me to be. I can be whatever it is that she wants. The person that I need to be in Chicago to make her proud of me and to do her well here in Chicago. And the answers are going to be in that folder. Because if everything that I've done wrong is in that folder, then I can fix it. And I can know how to move forward. And I can know how to fix it. Wherever she said it, I'm going to run forward and I'm going to grab it, because I need to go through. I need to see what is in that folder. [01:23:33] Speaker C: It. [01:23:34] Speaker A: Is not a long walk across that room, neither face acknowledging you as you step forward. You lean down to the coffee table. Both hands or just the one? [01:23:45] Speaker E: Both hands. I'm doing it very quickly to scoop. [01:23:50] Speaker A: Up the contents of the folder. It is hot in your hands, scalding, searing, burning industrial heat. And it's that blistering remnant of pain as your hands blacken and twist, that will snap you out of this illusion and what everybody else in the room sees miss Ivy having charged a few feet towards the wall of equipment and shoving her hands into and among the steaming hot pump machinery. [01:24:33] Speaker C: Can I pull her back? [01:24:36] Speaker A: Certainly not before the damage is done, but before it gets worse. [01:24:41] Speaker C: I will. I'll charge forward, grab Abby by the shoulders and spin her to face me. [01:24:47] Speaker E: And just hold her. [01:24:56] Speaker C: All right. [01:25:02] Speaker E: I reach up and I'm not I'm not crying. Just so we're clear. [01:25:22] Speaker C: I didn't see a thing, darling. Okay. Take a breath, honey. [01:25:45] Speaker E: Um, the oh, God. [01:25:50] Speaker C: Oh, my I'm gonna rip. I'm gonna take off the flannel that I'm wearing, just strip down to my tank top and rip a couple of strips off and cover her hands. [01:26:04] Speaker A: Sympathetic gesture. [01:26:07] Speaker C: Very least you won't have to look at it. [01:26:09] Speaker D: Can you use them? [01:26:11] Speaker E: Yeah, they're fine. [01:26:15] Speaker C: Can you wiggle your fingers a little bit for me? [01:26:19] Speaker E: I do. [01:26:22] Speaker D: Good. In that case, if I was hiding a fucking maniac in Torper, where would I look? [01:26:30] Speaker A: That is a question we can answer with wits and investigate or wits and alertness. [01:26:37] Speaker D: That is only one success. But this means a lot to me. I'll willpower reroll it. [01:26:46] Speaker A: Four successes, or we'll do it. The thing about being a good investigator is looking for that which does not belong. And Maya has owned an industry or two in her time, but never gotten down to the nitty gritty of it. Still, you do enough PR tours, enough rally the troops, the boss shows up, make everyone get together kind of things, and you know a few things about how these places are put together. There is something in the business known as a lockout tag. If you're going to interact with or repair dangerous equipment, you put a tag over the power switch or the lever that turns it on. That way, when you're inside messing with it, no one can walk by and say, oh, hey, shit, someone turned this off, and then cause you problems when the machine starts spinning. The thing about lockout tags is that they are usually locked. They do not just hang open. And that will be what draws your attention to the lever. A nice, big, black, industrial one. Big red knob on top, a very satisfying pole, if you're into that kind of thing. And that's what causes the big plate on the pipe end to unlatch. And what you have discovered is a hidden door. There's nothing in the pipe. In fact, the pipe doesn't go that far. One small foot of brassy metal that opens in to a much larger room on the opposite side. This carved from Hewn's stone bedrock excavated. No lights, no gurney. Apologies, Ivy. A single, solitary monolith of stone in the middle with a plain crate on top. I expect the next words out of someone's mouth will involve charging over to it, wrenching the lid open, and finding the monster inside. But there's one thing I neglected to mention, which is that the room is not entirely unoccupied. Because as the sound of the steel rolling away from the pipe dims, you hear the rumble of stone. The wall directly opposite you begins to shimmer. Liquidy cracking in places, but twisting. A large limb, grotesque and gray, thumps forward with a massive step a second behind. It also granite. Then a torso. Then two sprawling wings flanking a grotesque fanged face and a pair of red eyes stares down at you from this hulking twelve foot figure as a gargoyle emerges from the wall. Ivy has plenty to teach us about gargoyles. I'm sure Calamity may have seen one in her travels. Maya, you've heard stories about the Tremere creations and the havoc they've caused, but your reactions will have to wait, because that's the 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 queenscorpg.