Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the all night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queen's court games.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Our story begins at 10,000ft as the whirring turbines of McDonnell Douglas trijet begin to slow, allowing the aircraft to descend on the final leg of its flight from San Diego to Miami.
Its a red eye, of course, wouldnt do well for those of your kind to land. As the morning sun crests up over the Atlantic, it's also first class and eighties first class. All the extra legroom, all the extra luxury.
So much luxury, in fact, that as the smoking light remains active, the flight attendant hired for her looks in a way that will become dramatically unacceptable a few decades hence, begins to make her final rounds.
She arrives at seat four c, a tray strapped to her waist. She reaches out with a daintily gloved hand, gesturing at its contents.
We'll be arriving in Miami shortly and it's our pleasure to present you with a going away gift. Can I interest you in a drink or a cigar?
She doesn't know that the creature she is speaking to is a vampire.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Absolutely.
I will readily help myself to a cigar.
I haven't stopped appreciating things yet.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: She plucks it from the tray, smiling wide, a fake plasticine gesture of appreciation, and holding it out for you so you can grab it by the metallic band around its center.
You recognize the brand?
It's fancy, although not fancy enough to show they care without breaking the airline's budget.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: I'll make a shove, smelling it and thanking her profusely.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: It's absolutely my pleasure, ma'am. Thank you for flying with us.
And for you, miss.
She looks past Miss Lughazzi and as she does either tell us what she.
[00:02:40] Speaker C: Sees, the flight attendant sees a very comforting looking person. Round face, large round eyes, plush round body, dressed, let us say, elegantly, in the garb of is this a senator's wife? Possibly.
But she would never be so cautious too divulge the secrets of her household.
Oh, that's so kind of you. I would very much appreciate a sherry.
And sweeps the shoulder length ringlets towards the back of her neck as she reaches out to accept the drink.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: There's the slightest hint of discomfort as her eyes take in your features, pleasing, but turned too much in the wrong direction. Comforting, but in a way that doesnt feel natural.
We havent quite reached the era of plastic surgery. Turning young California would be starlets into Barbie dolls, and the way your body sits in her visage awakens something in the deepest parts of her, a primal instinct that something is wrong.
But it would be unprofessional to show such things on your face.
And she remains, as so many women of the era do, smiling away even as the scene plays out.
Of course, ma'am.
[00:04:28] Speaker C: And as my fingers wrap around the glass, discerning people would notice that they are just a little bit too short, a little rounder than you would think they should be.
And the glass covers the small, knowing smile as I pick up a wrinkle in the flight attendants brow.
A little twitch to that smile.
Aren't you just the sweetest thing?
[00:05:00] Speaker B: There's no telling whether it's the obligations of the rest of the cabin or her desire to extricate herself from this situation and see the flight attendant moving on.
But in either case, she does so with speed.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: You are going to have to teach me how you do that, I say as I light my cigar, waving it more than actually smoking it.
[00:05:28] Speaker C: It's the subconscious.
They're animal brainstor.
The fun is mostly in getting them to ignore that little voice in the back of their head that's telling them the truth.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: I meant that you can't drink the sherry.
[00:05:54] Speaker C: Oh, that.
That's simple. Everyone expects you to go to the restroom and freshen up before you land.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: It seems you've thought of everything.
That is why they pay you the big bucks.
We have about five minutes until we land, and you told me that you'd tell me who our target was before we landed.
Unless their name is getting rapidly shorter as we wait.
[00:06:24] Speaker C: You're so cute when you're impatient.
But a promise is a promise.
Doctor Abraham Pidot, renowned in his field, some would say a genius.
But seeing as most people are insufferably unintelligent, the bar is low hob in his field.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: A genius, and yet earning a visit from us.
Whatever could he have done?
[00:07:00] Speaker C: His ego has outgrown his common sense and respect.
Top of your field is one thing.
Extravagantly the top of your field, some would say unbelievably the top of your field is quite another.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: So the Sabbat have a distaste for us establishing our superiority over the kine.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: When it goes against their interests.
Of course they do.
[00:07:32] Speaker A: And is that the bishop speaking, or is it you?
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Well, look, we're here.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: A question interrupted by the captain coming over the intercom.
Even at this hour of night, the Miami summer is sweltering, and a previous version of yourself would be dreading the moment the cabin doors open and the hot, humid Florida air comes rolling into the cabin.
That won't be a problem you have to deal with, though, as the humans around you stand to retrieve their belongings from various overhead compartments, you can already see the beads of sweat forming on their inferior brows, their clothes stained by the biological necessities of maintaining temperature.
It's a fate you have escaped, and one that a more careful observer might notice might draw the wrong kind of conclusions from.
But at this hour of night, your traveling companions are not but weary businessmen, last minute budget travelers, all of whom have more important things on their mind than what's aching in their brains.
What isn't normal about the two of you?
And so you will deplane into a terminal devoid of life.
All the normal shops and newsstands closed, metal grates drawn tighten. Its a short walk, then to the front of the terminal. Theres no transportation security Administration exit point to pass. Its alarming how easy one can traverse an airport in this era.
And just like that, the city of Miami opens up before you abandon all.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Hope, ye who enter here. Theres not a lot of time until the sun comes up.
Are we going to grab a car or call a cab?
[00:09:32] Speaker C: Well, I do know that you like to travel in a certain amount of style, so if you would like to control your own destiny by driving a car is fine with me.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: I actually have something better in mind, and I will give Heather the slightest of nods towards a couple who has passed us, having left the plane and are also headed to the parking structures.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: I'm trying to understand this couple in the way that Maya would describe them. So I suppose the best question to.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Ask is income bracket, hopefully upper middle class.
The stink of desperation on an older man who has just realized that his life is catching up to him, and a wife who is smiling through something. It's not pain. Yet.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: I'm imagining a gentleman wearing khaki slacks and a polo shirt, both several sizes larger than when he was in his prime.
He's wheeling a set of golf clubs. She has an overnight bag.
They're each displaying wealth in their own way. But you know, he's wearing the cheapest offering from that particularly expensive watch brand and a ring that size shouldn't have diamonds with those few carats.
They are people who are trying desperately hard, but the discerning eye can see the difference.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Turns out greed is good, doesnt account for taste.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Can we follow this couple to the.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: Parking garage, then, a healthy distance away? Who wouldnt want anyone to be suspicious?
[00:11:31] Speaker B: No, of course not. There was a presidential election last year defined by the spiraling crime rate in Americans decaying urban core.
And based on the attire and accoutrement of your targets, I think it's safe to say which side they voted for.
And so the two of you proceed. Obviously. Meaning this couple. Ill will.
Can't imagine it's your intent to ask to carpool.
Which means Maya and Heather are about to become the hunter.
We haven't decided when that strikes will happen. And believe me, we'll get there. But I know what Maya's like when she's stalking a subject.
What about you, Heather?
[00:12:16] Speaker C: I'm walking with a sense of nonchalance.
Everything that happens from here, with these people, with their vehicle, is inevitable.
I know, as I walk through the parking garage with its horrific base stench of decay, that everything here, everyone around us, all of these little beings, are slowly dying by inches.
So I believe that Maya's.
She would call it discretion, I'm sure. I call it trepidation. That little vestige of fear in youth is completely unnecessary.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: It's the benefit of years that lets you skip past the caution when you know that you are the apex predator and have mastery over a space and domain.
It's obvious between the two of you which has done a better job exploring their limits.
[00:13:25] Speaker C: I don't worry at all, though. There's time.
Well, some time.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Time, at least until they enter the vehicle and turn the engine on. Which means we only have so many minutes. As they shake out the last little bits of stiffness from their legs and arrange their bags in the trunk, just.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: So as we get closer and they are going about their business, I will call to them from a safeish distance away.
Excuse me. I'm so sorry to bother you. I know it's late and it's empty. Parking garage. Um, we.
I think one of us left the light on when we left and our car is completely dead. Would there be any chance that you could give us a jump?
[00:14:15] Speaker B: The gentleman turns with curiosity at the woman with alarm. A strange voice in the middle of the night, provoking two different reactions.
They exchange a glance. You can see on her face the frustration with the moment. She only wants to get home and she just knows her husband is going to make a scene of it.
And he can see that in her face and doesnt look forward to the drive home with. With that being the tone. And thus you can see him going to his second idea.
I think there's a phone on the next light. Pull over. You can call airport services. They're really good at this kind of thing.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: I know, it's just. It's late and, you know, how it is for two women who are just in this empty parking structure by themselves.
I'd rather just get out of here.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: I see what you're trying to do, Miss Lughazzi. I believe it's going to require a manipulation and subterfuge role or successes.
More than enough. Not only to convince the gentleman, but also his very tired looking wife.
There's something about the two of you looking not helpless, but delicate. Put upon.
Punished by this awful world.
And so, as the husband looks to wife a second time, checking for permission, you can see that resignation. As she gives her consent and allows him to proceed, he lights up in the way that only a middle aged man who is about to demonstrate an expensive piece of technology can.
Oh, sure, of course. I keep an automatic charger just for these kind of occasions. It's japanese, new model, no cables, anything like that. Where did you park?
He's already moving to the trunk.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: It's not too far, just a couple rows down.
[00:16:19] Speaker C: As Maya so definitely maneuvers this gentleman towards the trunk. I approached and wife batting my round dough eyes at her.
Oh, I absolutely love that ring. Did you get it at the Mariana bee shop in Miami?
[00:16:41] Speaker B: She lights up.
Oh, you have expert taste for you to be noticed. Yes.
She holds it up. A gaudy thing perched on a limp wrist.
You can see the weakness in her muscles, the failure of the flesh.
This is a creature of decadence.
But while Heather sizes up her prey, Maya, it falls to you to decide when to strike.
So as this man bends forward into the trunk, revealing the ball, that spot that he thinks the spray fixes but does not, what happens next.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Its almost like an accident, really.
As he bends to look into the trunk, one could almost miss a shadow lightly playing over the top of the boot until the door slams down, activating.
[00:17:40] Speaker B: The arms of Ahermande first. I would ask for a rouse check.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: I get a little hungrier, but I think that I'll solve that problem soon.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: Doubtless. And then your discipline.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Rule four successes.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Honestly, you would have expected it to be louder. That's what the movies teach you, right? But this is a well maintained machine. Smooth hinges and the dull thunk and crunch as you bring the trunk crushing down upon your victim. Its effective, if not unsatisfying.
Youve only a split second before the wife turns to see what made that noise at her.
[00:18:20] Speaker C: Just as the noise of the trunk slamming down starts to echo through the parking garage. I snake my arm around the back of the womans neck and pull her into what looks like a motherly, loving embrace.
Firmly wedging her face against my chest, smothering any noises she might make, enveloping her inside myself, she finds no hard surface to wrench herself away. Everything is soft, malleable.
It sounds almost like fists against a pillow. But her struggles get smaller and smaller as she runs out of breath and finally stills.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: In a way, you might have done her a favor, although I do believe you are doing yourself a slight amount of discredit. Because whatever life she had will reach its apex when she gives it unto you.
And so, our two kindred feast.
We are not bound by the camarilla's moral qualms. We are not concerned with what happens with the corpses we leave behind, and where a weaker creature would have only sipped and suckled barely enough to sustain themselves as the nights come, you can drink fangs latched into a vein until you feel the last shudder of an empty heart trying to pump blood that no longer exists in veins.
You can each reduce yourself to zero hunger.
Now we proceed to the matter of the aforementioned corpses.
My instinct says we're going to hope the trunk is large enough. Unless someone has another idea.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: That all depends on the kind of car it is.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Well, having established certain key facts about this couple, I suppose the car would match the womans jewelry, something flashy and ostentatious, but the least pricey version thereof. And I am not a car expert by any means, but when it comes to the late eighties, the first thing in my mind is a Ferrari testarossa.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: You would be surprised at how much the trunk of a testarossa can hold.
Ill help myself to the mans keys and wallet as I bundle him into.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: The trunk and our zamis friend, I.
[00:20:49] Speaker C: Think there might be a use for this ring later. And if nothing else, I enjoy a little memento from time to time.
So I divest her of the ring and compactly fold her body into the corner of the trunk.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: The sound of the trunk closing is much quieter this time, and soon the only sound that permeates the air is finely tuned italian engine coming to life.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: Well, I can get his address from his license. Thats easy enough.
However, I will indicate to Heather to pull the randalle out of the glovebox so we can find where were actually going.
Of course.
[00:21:29] Speaker C: Anything for you, my dear.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: Unless youd like to drive.
[00:21:33] Speaker C: Cute.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Want to risk your precious fingies getting hurt by the rough leather of a steering wheel?
[00:21:41] Speaker C: If it had been real leather, it would be one thing, but this cheap plastic imitation not quite up to snuff.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: No, there's just something special about real flesh, whether human or animal. But in Heather's case, I repeat myself, the drive is uneventful. The roads shared only by the last dregs of nightclubs and dance parlors shuffling out to go to their various residences, and what few police patrol the streets, are likely more concerned with intoxicated drivers than a pair of well meaning women in expensive car.
And so you follow the directions of the atlas, this road and that road, until you arrive in a very wealthy neighborhood in front of a french chateau, mutilated by the architectural urges of the decade, white stucco and clamshell pink gaudy landscaping defined by lighted palm trees and entirely too many water features.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Like I said, no accounting for taste.
[00:22:51] Speaker C: You continue to expect much too much.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: I don't expect too much.
I just wish for more.
[00:23:02] Speaker C: I don't know, though.
If you look, there's something about the absolute cognitive dissonance that it takes to turn what this house began as into what it has become, and also be proud of it.
That's very interesting.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Is this what you say about your creations as well?
Sounds like it.
[00:23:31] Speaker C: Well, my creations are perfection themselves, each in their own unique way, a characteristic taken to its utter and complete end.
They each serve their purpose, parts of a greater whole.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: I think. This could do with several less parts, then.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Well, if these are your feelings about the exterior, what happens next is likely to be worse.
The front door opens to an atrium, black and white marble clashing delightfully with the seafoam green and brown striped wallpaper.
The chandelier that sits above the stairwell is too large for the space by far, and you can tell even from a distance, it's not real gold.
To your left, an unlit gas fireplace stands guard over a conversation pit, carpeted through and through, of course, pinkenhouse matching the exterior and flanked on all sides by broad leafed ferns for a splash of color.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: I think perhaps we did a service in that.
[00:24:47] Speaker C: I agree. It's too bad we don't have any time to redecorate.
I think the fair blush of her skin would have been a much, much better shade to use for that couch.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: If it's anything like your last upholstery project.
[00:25:04] Speaker C: Well, it's possible the skin of her corpse will actually be slightly enhanced by a full day in the trunk, but we'll have to find out because the sun waits for no one.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Are you asking if we can bring this to the bedroom?
[00:25:20] Speaker C: Well, if the living room is anything to go by, then the bedroom is absolutely going to blow your mind.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Well, whatever your expectations might have been, having seen the exterior and the ground floor. I regret to inform you that, like Dantes Inferno, this house only gets worse the deeper in you go.
The primary bedroom is not difficult to find, the other rooms having been converted in various ways to offices and studies and exercise rooms. But youll know youre in the right place when you see the California king waterbed with the large half moon mirror perched where the headboard should be.
The dressers are oversized and a dark oak that doesn't match the interior. It seems that their wealth was not sufficient to furnish the entire home, and they focused on the parts that guests would see.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: I'll take a second to blow a kiss to my own reflection before heading to the windows.
Heather, I know that you have your, um, thing you need to do for bed, so, um, ill just handle the other preparations and I will start closing.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: The curtains, a task made easier, no doubt, by the weight of them.
How fortunate that, given the direction the windows face, the previous owners opted for something heavy enough to keep even the strong summer light out. As for Heather, a different ritual taking place.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: A lady is never without her purse, and in my case, a bag filled with the earth that I was originally buried in. What to some people becomes mundane or routine is still, to me, almost nostalgic.
A scent of home as I upend a bag of grave dirt into the bed and spend an inordinate amount of time massaging it across the sheets.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: What better to add the decor full of fake things than to fake humans?
Slumber will come quickly as the sun reclaims its stake in the sky, and the time will pass in dreamless slumber.
How long do you wonder before someone notices the neighbors have gone missing? Is this the kind of neighborhood where anyone bothers? Well, they saw the car come home. What else is there to worry about?
And then a blink and night returns. And with it, so do you. One rising from a peaceful slumber, the other rising from an impromptu grave.
The wonderful thing about being dead is you wake up exactly as you died. Theres no need to shower or brush your hair. Its exactly as you intend it to be. And with no hurried breakfast to scarf down, you can leave from the bedroom directly to work.
You do remember your job, right?
[00:28:24] Speaker C: Of course. Business comes before pleasure. And I wouldnt want to leave Maya any more astray.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: So, the tsmitz we're supposed to see today, should we know anything else about him before we go?
[00:28:39] Speaker C: Honestly, I think we're doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of him.
Overblown sense of his unimportance he most likely has made himself some attendance, but we're more than up for the task of.
Why are you nervous, darling?
[00:29:01] Speaker A: I'm not. I considered offering to follow your lead, but you and I both know that probably won't happen.
[00:29:09] Speaker C: Your charm is in your initiative, and if you were to give that up, then what would be left?
And I gently stroke my hand down your cheek.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: Perhaps not the vote of confidence that Miss Lugh was hoping for, but work does call, and the only thing that could perhaps make the moment less comfortable would be delaying it by picking a fight.
And so we return to the car. We return to the streets. We return to Miami, this time taking a left off the highway, traveling across the Eisenhower causeway, all the little yachts lined up before arriving in South beach. Because where else would an ostentatious surgeon stake his claim than the city's most prominent zip code?
In this, at least, you do not require an atlas.
You need only look to the sky. Specifically to the large orange glow of a neon sign billboard. High doctor Abraham Pideau in broad arcing letters underneath. World class surgeon, blinking on and off with alluring rhythm.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: Do you think you're allowed to call yourself a world class surgeon if you don't have any international references?
At least none you can speak of.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: Well, what is the world but what we make of it? But I do feel like if you have to announce it so loudly.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: Smells like hes compensating for something.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: Well, if the size of the billboard.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Is any indication, unlike most establishments of this sort, this one maintains a small impression of being open. Im sure Abraham explains it as a way to tend to wealthy clients who demand discretion.
In your case, it means parking the car, crossing the lot, and walking to a pair of glass double doors.
His name stenciled, of course, on each.
Looking through them, you can see a receptionist. Rather even at this distance, you can spot the handiwork.
When we say a woman is beautiful, as if crafted by God, this is what we mean.
Although the maker that's divine.
[00:31:36] Speaker C: It's really such a shame to see so much skill be failed by such a lack of imagination, don't you think?
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Well, you know what they say. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So let's meet him and I'll push my way in.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: One might expect the receptionist in this kind of establishment to be more surprised by two strangers coming in the middle of the night. And again, she is not a normal receptionist. And this is not a normal surgery clinic.
You can tell she is a ghoul, which means she is likely keener eyed when it comes to discerning your true nature.
Nevertheless, she puts on the facade required of her station, cheerfully speaking in a melodic voice. Oh, hello. Are you here to see Doctor Pidot? Do you have an appointment?
[00:32:32] Speaker C: We're old friends. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to entertain.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: You can see something flash in her eyes. This is not a situation she has been programmed especially well to deal with.
She recognized, recognizes you as dangerous, but so too does she recognize her master as dangerous. And she's wondering in real time which of you it's more.
And she's wondering in real time which of you would be the greater risk to offend.
[00:33:07] Speaker C: As her gears are turning oh so slowly, the small smile that was on my face grows and grows and grows a little more.
This body's lips didn't originally open that wide, but they say the size of the smile is the size of your intent. Or if they don't say that they.
[00:33:33] Speaker B: Should, regardless, by out of definition, your intent is well beyond what humans can normally accomplish.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: Im sure doctor Pideau would not turn away to people seeking to partake of his hospitality, especially as weve brought a small token of appreciation for his time.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Theres something about that word that flashes in her brain. Hospitality. Where has she heard that before?
The gears dont turn quickly, but they turn nevertheless. And while they do, Heather, you roll. Manipulation and etiquette for me. Three successes, a fine enough showing whether or not the nurse understands is in a way unnecessary. You've at least made it far enough past her defenses that she won't feel too in danger by making an introduction. She nods. Customer service face returning.
Oh yes, of course, course. Then please follow me. He's in his surgery now, but I'm sure he won't mind.
There's something about the way she uses that phrase that clues you in. There's no human patient to speak of.
And so you walk down the wide surgical hallway, taking a right at an unmarked door and entering an office, the kind any doctor of a certain station would have all the normal trappings. You can see his diploma on the wall, pictures of him shaking hands with various celebrity clients and other luminaries.
But rather than departing, instructing you to wait, the ghoul proceeds to the wall. She reaches down to an end table where a fine lamp sits and twists it at its base. A wood panel begins, begins to slide away, revealing on one half of the wall a door, on the other half a window.
And you can look into Mister Pideaus secret surgery the doctor does not notice the transition at first, not until his school reaches to press a small intercom button. What good is having a secret surgery if it isnt soundproof after all?
Speaks to him in the same melodious voice.
Doctor Piteau, I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you, but you have guests.
This one has asked for your hospitality.
There's a hope in that word, a prayer, that she correctly estimated the importance it holds.
The doctor's hands, currently a flurry atop the surgical table. Pause and he cants his head over his shoulder.
He doesn't recognize either of you, but you did say the magic word.
In a curious mirroring of normal human behavior, he does not take off surgical gloves, but rather puts them on such that you will not have to experience the viscera he has currently enveloped himself in.
And the door eventually slides open with a satisfying hiss.
Yes, guests fatality. I'm terribly sorry. I didn't know that I was to expect you. The way the question hangs on the end of the word, it's clear he doesn't even know your names.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: Well, we can't all be as well known as you are, doctor. I'm Heather. My friend here is Maya. We've been so eager to meet you. And your reputation speaks volumes about your character and skill.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: There's an increasing level of discomfort in his eyes. He's trying to place the names.
Eventually you can see when that match is struck and for the slightest second he forgets to unclench his jaw.
That means Oleander sent you.
[00:37:31] Speaker C: You had to expected.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: I don't know. What does she need? Is she expecting to come here? I've done everything they've asked. There's no reason for a new pack to come into Miami.
[00:37:45] Speaker C: Just one reason.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: In a few seconds, he's going to order his ghoul to reach for a button. It'll come down to wits and awareness. You're both allowed to roll as to whether you notice. Time to do anything about it.
[00:38:01] Speaker C: Three successes.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Only one. And it's on the hunger die.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: Oh, we can tell by the tone of your voice what you expect will happen. And I need you to know it doesn't bring me any pleasure to say that you are correct, but when the beast slips through a bit too much, there are in consequences sebestial failure. You're going to solve this problem, but in the worst way possible. And so the question I have for you is, as you sense something going wrong and lash out out of primal instinct, is that rage directed at the ghoul or at doctor padot?
[00:38:45] Speaker A: The Lasombra aren't quite known for having a soft tattooer subtlety.
And knowing what we're here to do, and seeing the hesitation in the doctor's eyes, I just go for it.
I reach out almost on instinct with my shadows trying to push him away, maybe crush his throat.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: As always, first arouse, check. And then your discipline roll while we wait for the results. Heather, you have the benefit of foresight. You recognize the button, you understand what the ghoul is going to do. Whatever action you choose will happen simultaneously with Miss Lughsis efforts.
[00:39:27] Speaker C: There's something about the conventional aesthetic perfection that the doctor has gone for in his school that offends me on a deep, deep level.
And I honestly believe that it would be much enhanced by the rearranging of her joints.
I reach out and grasp the hand of the ghoul, almost in an echo of the motion that I used to take the hand of the woman in the parking garage.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: I have a sense of what's coming next. But first we need to see if your grip retains purchase. Would be dexterity and athletics, if you don't mind.
[00:40:12] Speaker C: Well, four successes and it's a critical.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: There is something excellent about when a plan comes together.
I'm sure later Heather will explain it as having put the exact application of force in the exact correct place. Such that whatever intention you have for this woman, everything is as it should be.
The moment lines up perfectly.
Maya, have you duplicated your partner's superlative efforts?
[00:40:46] Speaker A: Perhaps not as thoroughly, but a successful rouse and three successes.
[00:40:54] Speaker B: It is an opposed role in this instance. To see if the tentacles are able to do their job. The doctor musters too in his attempts to deflect your attack. Which means your tentacles not only find their grip, but manage to keep it.
Which direction is this force going?
[00:41:14] Speaker A: I believe I saw an autoclave towards the back of the lab. I would like to drive him that way.
[00:41:20] Speaker B: And so you do. Stepping forward in to the surgery. Heather.
Grip secured and grin menacing. What happens next?
[00:41:32] Speaker C: I caress this, by some definitions, perfect hand and believe that it would be much enhanced as a treatise on the banality of beauty. A reversal, if you will.
And as I stroke her palm, I reach out to bend this fragile, malleable flesh to my will.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: What is smooth turned coarse, what is perfect turned gnarled.
This beautiful creation of flesh and bone, rendered unto something gross, grotesque by the powers given to you by your progenitors. The struggle in the surgery continues.
He is of course being pushed in the direction that you desire. But he is not without free will. Entirely.
And so a tentacle wrapped around one arm, the other shoving at his waist. His free hand reaches to the table for the largest implement he can find. Not sure Maya would recognize a bone saw when she saw one but it is sufficiently large and sharp to attract attention as it arcs in your direction.
So I will require dexterity and athletics, if you please.
[00:42:56] Speaker A: Five successes. Also critical.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: More than enough to power past his efforts. And critical to boot. A shadowy appendage grabbing his wrist as it attempts to strike and forcing the blade back against its owner.
Where do you cut?
[00:43:17] Speaker A: I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm not.
Perhaps being the most poetic.
I will bring the bone saw directly across his face.
[00:43:29] Speaker B: The flesh peels, waxy and dry. There is no bleeding such as a human would produce. Only the thick ooze the tiniest little secretion of the vita that powers your bodies.
There's no scream. This creature is beyond pain. But there is anger in his eyes, of course, because he's been struck but more so because you have ruined that which is perfect.
On that topic, Heather, you have successfully rendered these beautiful hands into something more appropriate. Is your work here done?
[00:44:07] Speaker C: I believe so. As my last parting gift to this pathetic creature I've turned all her nerves up as far as they will go.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: What is the purpose of a gift? It cannot be appreciated. So, what better way to exemplify the moment than to give this ghoul a perfect sensory memory of the experience?
The pain, suffice it to say, is dehabilitating. And whatever willpower she had left, whatever order she had planned to complete is now pushed away by the red hot, searing light that dances up and down her spine and forces her brain into its most basal acts of self preservation.
She crumples before you, Miss Lugassi.
Last I checked, we were attempting to insert a gentleman into a piece of industrial surgical hardware. Has the plan changed?
[00:45:13] Speaker A: Nope.
Much like the door to a trunk. I intend on shoving this man as far as I can into that machine ahead of me.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: In that case, because the arms of Ahriman are doing the work that is the pool we will use.
He'll be rolling against his defense. Let's see what happens.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: Four successes.
[00:45:38] Speaker B: Double what the doctor can muster. Which means he soon finds his head in inserted into the stainless steel machinery.
It's a device meant for sterilizing equipment. Steam and heat used to remove impurities. How very apropos.
Assuming you intend to use it thus.
[00:45:59] Speaker A: Oh, I fully intend on using it for its proper purpose.
And I will try to use this machine with his head still inside it.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: A task that would ordinarily be made more difficult by your bane. But in this case, the machine working incorrectly is a bit the point. No need for safety interlocks in a moment like this.
And so, reaching out to touch it, you feel the machine's revulsion, familiar to you as a lasombra as its circuitry protests youre presence. But what can it do but sputter into action?
In breaking, it performs exactly as you prefer.
The hiss of steam starts slowly as individual tubes heat as the pump begins to whirr.
And soon the good doctor finds his vase enveloped in a cloud several hundred degrees too hot for that kind of thing. The skin peels and boils, bubbling up as blisters begin to replace that which had once been smooth.
And even if he were inclined to scream, which, thankfully, he is not, it would be difficult to do so with several hundred degrees of searing, gently caressing his vocal cords.
Well, as Doctor Piteau double, double, toil and troubles in the cauldron that Miss Lugossi hath wrought, there's only one other problem that might need solving.
Heather the ghoul is at your mercy.
[00:47:45] Speaker C: She's a work of art.
Every bit of light, every breath of air across her skin is a testament to experience.
And what better art than a living, breathing piece?
The steps she takes will be seared across her senses for the rest of her, admittedly, probably very short life.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: Oh, I assure you, it will be an agonizing transition.
There is yet vampiric vita still within her body, and she will try to use it to restore herself.
But the damage is far beyond that which a single sip can cure.
Which means, as the transition reverses and she is robbed of the power lent to her by the good doctor, her experience will be entirely too human.
But that brings us to the end of our little skirmish.
Maya, I assume, holding the doctor's head until she is certain that nothing but a stump remains. And then what?
Do we invite Heather to witness our handiwork?
[00:49:05] Speaker A: I assume Heather will have notes when she sees it. But I've gotta admit, I think this is one of my more creative endeavors yet.
[00:49:16] Speaker B: Well, Heather, perhaps you're rubbing off on Maya.
What do you think when you behold her masterpiece?
[00:49:24] Speaker C: Oh, this is a phenomenal effort. I'm so pleased.
There's just something wonderful about how you've used the dressing of your surroundings as an imaginative way of dealing with a problem and making it into something much more interesting.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: I've learned from the best, and I.
[00:49:50] Speaker C: Am such a wonderful teacher.
[00:49:53] Speaker B: Well, two masterpieces created, then one admittedly more amateur than the other. But in fairness, Heather has had significantly more practice.
And as you said, Mayas has its own vernacular charm.
But dealing with Doctor Pideau is only one part of the problem. We cant leave evidence behind, and that is a problem that will require solving. But the way in which our two Cainites decide to absolve themselves of the evidence, that is a story for another night.
[00:50:27] Speaker A: Youve been listening to the All Night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queens court games. If you've enjoyed your stay, consider supporting us on Patreon for access to exclusive art, audio, and private fan only games. For more content, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok Queenscourt games or on Twitter eenscourtrpg.
[00:51:49] Speaker B: Sadeena.
