Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the all night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queen's court games.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Your captors wasted little time getting to the root of the matter.
It has become apparent over the last 12 hours that their primary concern is the location and identity of your siren. Its amusing the things they think they know but dont.
Its terrifying the things they think they know and are right about your body, at least at this point, shows ample evidence that these hunters are educated beyond the realm of fairy tale books and Internet knowledge.
You are not the first kindred theyve met.
You are not their first experience in taking a vampire apartheid. Unfortunately for you, the one thing they want to know the most is the question you cant answer.
Where is Martin Shell?
When is he coming back for you?
Where is he going next?
No matter what other topics of conversation they warble onto, and believe me, there have been more than a few digressions, every conversation returns to those three points.
And so the most recent interrogation begins as they all have calamity Madden sitting on a chair. They brought their own. This one's metal, your body strapped down to it by large chains, the kind you'd see on the back of a truck hauling something down the highway.
And a man in a black duster and a black turtleneck, arms folded across his chest, eyes narrowed as he asks you once again, where is Martin Shell?
[00:02:24] Speaker A: I don't think I've ever gone this long without the day sleep storyteller.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: It's.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Being run down in a way that I didn't think I could be anymore, so that's special.
Look at this corny. Some bitch and his stupid fucking turtleneck.
If I could give you the answer in another language, motherfucker, I would.
I don't.
No.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: He looks over at his companion, this one having come late to the party.
It's a squat, round faced woman. She's never spoken to you watching, always staring. You feel peeled apart every time her gaze lands upon you and he looks over.
She shakes her head.
When is Martinschell coming back?
[00:03:46] Speaker A: I can't decide if you've got mud in your ears or shit for brainstor.
Martinchale.
We'll be back whenever Martinshell feels like coming back.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Where were the two of you headed when you stopped here?
[00:04:10] Speaker A: You're mama's.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: You hear the sharp exhale, a snort that stops just short of being a full laughter.
The man takes a few steps closer.
He leans forward, eyes only a few inches from yours.
I doubt that sincerely.
Unless you're digging her up.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: My condolences.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: You'll understand if I don't take you seriously, considering it was your kind that did it. How many are there of you?
Does Shell have any other associates?
[00:04:52] Speaker A: You really want to know?
Come here, I'll tell you.
Come here, come here, I'll tell you. I'll tell you what I know.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: He sits up straighter a bit at this point, again looking over to the woman. You can see her brushing long bangs out from her eyes, squinting at you.
There's a long pause, several seconds passing before she shrugs and makes a little bit of a nod.
The man says, very well, and he leans in. You can almost feel the warmth of his cheek, his ear, the barest distance from your mouth.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: And with my adversary in melee range, I would like to turn in the headbutt. That bastard.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: Even in your mentally sluggish form, you are still faster. You are still the beast. You are still the predator, and he scarcely has time for his brain to register the motion before there's the crack of skull against the bridge of someone's nose.
His hands reach up to his face reflexively, all of a sudden coated in that viscous red warmth that you've brought forth.
He grunts the pain away. Swallowing back. He knows you're getting satisfaction out of this. You can see in his eyes he regrets giving you the opportunity, but more than that, he regrets giving you the reaction.
His left hand pinches underneath the bridge of his nose, attempting to stop the bleeding while he hollers for someone, give me a fucking bandage and put this one back in the fucking box.
The box you are familiar with it is stage two of putting calamity away.
Stage one, if you'll recall, is the sharp pierce of a wooden stake.
At least this time you're paralyzed with a smirk on your face.
Two men come in from outside, larger, bulkier, but duller. You've heard them grumbling to each other, a thick regional drawl. This is muscle. You're not even sure they know what you are, each of them taking underneath one of your arms to pick you up and drag you towards the storm cellar.
That requires going outside, though, and with your eyes squinting in the dregs of laughter, you can see a tint of light in the distance, just the tiniest little glow. Orangish white lamps.
You'll hear it before they do, rubber on gravel.
Unlike your captors, you recognize that engine.
Who the fuck is that?
One of the gentlemen says to another, cocking his head.
The second squints into the darkness, knowing full and well he won't be able to see but he doesn't know who's supposed to show up. I don't know, boss. Probably calling in more muscle. You've seen her? We're gonna be here a while now. Boss didn't say anything about it. You should go check that out.
Curious people. Warn them off.
Don't worry about her. She's not going anywhere.
There's a pause. Momentarily you can tell he doesn't want to do this.
As much as they believe they have the situation in their control, there is something still terrifying about you, and the idea that someone might be coming to rescue you. There might be something bigger, more dangerous than calamity Madden out there is not something that sits well in this man's head.
Which means, Martin Schall, the first sign of life that you see at this tiny cluster of tin wrapped buildings is not calamity Madden. Pacing angrily in the yard, waiting, wondering what took you so long.
Is not the quiet stillness of a site abandoned as your child spends the night investigating, hunting whatever's gotten into that head of hers.
No. In the beams cast out from the front of your car, you see a mandeh. Thick built, mechanic structure, equal parts muscle made by heavy labor and body made by mom's food.
He's staring into the headlights, hand coming up above to shield his eyes, squinting, trying to see who you are.
He's about 15 yards away.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: Who in the fuck is this big bastard?
Storyteller. Do I just see the one fella?
[00:10:10] Speaker B: The first thing you would notice, I think, that we established the drive towards this little cul de sac is fairly short and not especially curvy, so your eyes would travel across the gravel up to this man, and then behind him, you would see two vans, one black. A normal work van, except entirely unmarked.
Looking past him as your eyes follow up the gravel, you see him and squinting behind you would see two vans, one black, unmarked, the other ostensibly belonging to a local utility company.
There are three or four more bodies wandering about the place. They don't look like they have any particular intent to them. More idle pacing than anything else.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: I don't think calamity's made any fucking friends since I left.
And they can't possibly be here for any utility given this shack ain't got none.
[00:11:16] Speaker B: Both outcomes do seem incredibly unlikely.
[00:11:21] Speaker C: This can't be fucking good.
About. You said I'm about 15ft out from the van.
I'll bring the car up about half that distance and just leave the lights on. I actually put the high beams on in a moment.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: As he winces in the light, turning away. You don't need keen senses to know you can feel that human reflex in his face. Pupils shrinking to block the light out. He yells out, is there a problem, sir? Uh, you lost?
[00:11:58] Speaker C: Lost? Yeah, I was just hoping, um. I was hoping there was maybe a phone up this way as I get. As I kind of holler that as I'm getting out of the car, kind of keeping head down, staying behind the glow of the fog lights.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Oh, sorry. There's no phone, no electricity here. We're just out with the county doing some surveying. Tell you what, though, if you turn back out the way you came, head on left, just about 4 miles down that way, see a gas station. They got something there for you.
[00:12:36] Speaker C: I did. I did see a gas station. On my way, thank you very much. You said you're surveying?
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Yep. You know, thinking about redevelopment on all that money coming back out into the area, trying to do a tax credit, something. I mean, look, man, I don't know. I'm just here to go count paces and see where utility lines might go. Doesn't make any sense to you? He's obviously lying, doing survey work in the woods at night.
You can see this man does not have an abundance of brain cells, but anyone from this part of the world knows you don't do that kind of work in these kind of woods at night.
[00:13:19] Speaker C: Son. It's a. It's a damn shame that you come out here after dark and I will rush him from behind the light and attempt to just grab him by the throat.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: It's not going to be a difficult task. You can tell by his build he's not the fast one. And even if he were, there's an ancient power in your blood and in your bones.
Still, for dramatic effect, why don't you roll dexterity and athletics for me?
[00:13:57] Speaker C: Um. Three successes. Storyteller.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Well, the thing about the line is that it cuts both ways. Harder to find your footing in the gravel. But three successes is more than enough to take this man clean off his feet.
And the question that I have is, what do you do with him once he is no longer on the ground?
[00:14:18] Speaker C: As I have this poor, poor bastard in my grip, I will use my feral weapons to grow my nails into claws as I've got it gripped around him.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: And you hear the grunt, the gurgle, that very particular sound a voice box tries to make when it can't move air. And then it gets wetter, frothy, as the claws pierce through the thin skin around the neck, opening up the arteries inside.
See his eyes? They're wider now. Feel his body trembling as his nervous system comes alive. There's a helplessness and a terror. You can see the raw reaction of a body that knows something is wrong but doesn't know how to fix it. Just flailing.
[00:15:09] Speaker C: Oh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh. Now you knew what you were coming out to. Now you're gonna reap the rewards.
And I'll grip a little tighter and then just let him drop to the ground.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Two, I imagine, very satisfying. Foley affects the first of a tiny pop and crackle.
Vertebrae weren't meant to bend that way.
And then the heavy thump of a body hitting the ground.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: Well, let's go see who's home. And I'll head straight for the front door. Storyteller.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: You'll make it another ten yards. And it's at this point that your actions have attracted some attention.
At first, they just saw their friend walking over, trying to take a tourist and send them somewhere else, or a curious local push them on down the way.
But there's no mistaking the interaction you've had with your gentleman friend for anything other than what it is. And of all the sounds that punctuate the night, in the moments to follow, there is one that will cut clean through the air and define the rest of these folks. Evening.
Holy fucking shit. Holy fucking shit. That's him. That's Martin Shell.
[00:16:35] Speaker C: Oh.
They know my name.
And I will go into mist form.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Two things happen roughly simultaneously.
The first is a half dozen. Scared, but motivated by that bold human emotion that even in the face of terror, you can stand up and be a man. Right?
Faces drawing weapons. Then the rattle of gunfire in slow motion. You can see them swing those long guns around, can see the flash of the muzzle, knowing what's coming out the wrong end.
And then make a rouse check for me. I believe you'll need three to do it as quickly as you want to do.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: That's one success.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Yeah. If you'd been able to take your time, would have been a less acute use of that power. But when you demand the beast move quickly, it makes its demands in return.
Now, you started the night at two, hunger. Which means your total is now four.
But it also means that metal, those slugs, those nine millimeter shells go cruising through the air as you explode outward into a reddish fog.
What happens next?
[00:18:03] Speaker C: Which one of them is screaming? The loudest storyteller?
[00:18:07] Speaker B: Well, that honor belongs to the tallest of the bunch. He's got the widest open mouth, the eyes squinting the hardest in terror, the grip loosest on his weapon, as his brain desperately tries to make sense of.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: What he's seen right in his lungs.
That's where I'm going.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: I presume I can guess what happens next.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: I ain't gonna stay there forever.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Storyteller then we exchange one red mist for another, as biology tries and fails to accommodate the size of Martin's shell. Inside this man's chest cavity, he splits open like a steer being halved into sides of beef, the wet slop of his innards piling now at your feet, as you rematerialize.
Now, at this point, we are going to have to go directly into initiative order. Things are happening fast.
You got the drop on them? One of them more than others.
But with that first round of them shooting, having now passed, it's time to see what they manage.
You find yourself amidst four combatants. There were six when you arrived, one crumpled up by the car, one dissolved. I think is the verb we're looking for. At your feet.
Two of the remaining are armed with shotguns. You've seen those Remingtons before. Meant more for hunting deer than vampires. But a gun's a gun. The third has a very expensive looking assault rifle, and the last with a machete. Is that. That the bass pro shop logo on.
[00:19:53] Speaker C: That bastard couldn't even spring for a good one.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Well, we will see how effective it is.
So, there are four combatants, which means you're going to have to decide how much of your attention to spend on each one when it comes to dodging, blocking, and otherwise avoiding being harmed.
What's your theory of the case there?
[00:20:16] Speaker C: Uh, reckon I will rouse. Rouse my blood to add some more dice to the pool and probably split pretty evenly across the three folks with guns.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: All right, so I'll need a rouse check from you.
That's a failure from four to five. Well, that's going to cause a small predicament for Martin Shell, but we will address that shortly. Having roused your blood, you have twelve dice to split between them. So that's three each.
We should probably start with the folks who are furthest away and move our way forward. So the gentleman with the assault rifle bringing it up as close as he can to his shoulder. He is not a trained tactical warrior. He knows which end makes the loud noises, and vaguely remembers the advice from his pappy about making sure that it stayed nice and tight to not close both of his eyes. And you hear the pop, pop, pop as he squeezes the trigger.
So with that first attack, what was your dodge result?
[00:21:23] Speaker C: Two successes.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: That's two against his, four which means the first damage of the evening. Well, that's not entirely fair. Some people are quite damaged. But the first damage you suffer this evening will be three superficial wounds as the nine millimeter bullets rake against the side of your body.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: I'm a son of a bitch.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Followed close, closely behind a pair of shotguns more dangerous than other firearms just by proximity. But surely nothing you can't handle.
[00:21:58] Speaker C: So for the first shotgun, that is zero successes. And the second shotgun is two successes.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: Now, the first one is not so much a problem, because it turns out it is quite difficult to aim a shotgun effectively when you are pissing yourself in terror. Because that gentleman rolled zero successes on his attack. There's no telling where that buckshot went. But it's not into your body, so it doesn't particularly matter.
The second one you tie, unfortunately ties coach the attacker. So it's one superficial wound for you, the sting of buckshot damaging your skin less than your jacket, I imagine. Now, which of those you care more about.
[00:22:45] Speaker C: Fuck.
Well, the jacket doesn't heal, so I suppose the skin is okay.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Which leaves our friend with the machete. Makes sense that the one with the melee weapon is the bravest or the stupidest, but either way, he's charging directly at you.
[00:23:05] Speaker C: Oh, come on, boy.
Zero successes.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: That's the problem with vampire hunters, is that they travel in numbers. A werewolf, one on one, you can dance there all day. But the second, you turn your attention to the man with the rifle, then the shotgun goes off. And just as you're reacting to that fight now, of course, the blade comes swinging forward.
It's bad news. You. Because with five successes against your zero, that is six more superficial damage.
So that's gonna put you pretty close to taking aggravated damage.
But it is the second round of combat, and you are so much faster.
So what's it gonna be, Martin? Shell?
[00:23:52] Speaker C: I'm gonna grab this fella by the wrist and pull him in real close.
Bravery just doesn't become you, but. And I'll grab him by the side of his head and wrench his head to the right and just bite down as hard as I can and drink.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Ordinarily a strength and brawl roll, but I can see your character sheet, and I know you have entirely too many dice for him to stand a chance of getting out of this. That part is easy. So we'll say, if you are devoting your entire attention to this task, I won't make you roll for it. But it does mean the other two. And we'll see in a moment if they are brave and or stupid enough to fire at their friend will get to attack you unimpeded. Is that a fair trade?
[00:24:40] Speaker C: Sounds fair to me.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Then the gunfire is interrupted by screaming for a moment. Hard to keep a grip on a machete when your neck is being opened up. And I don't mean a cute little slice on the jugular. This isn't modern tv vampires. This is an animal. This is the kind of wound that some coroner is going to wonder how sick and hungry that bobcat had to be to attack a human. Because that's the only kind of thing that could do damage like this.
That is ripping and tearing and a shower of bliss and red pouring past your lips. A fountain that you can drink from until your heart is content give you the benefit of also being able to use that blood for any purpose in this turn.
So the others are going to get to attack. Are there blood powers you want to use before we get there?
[00:25:42] Speaker C: I'm gonna activate my fortitude and out heal anything they can do to me.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: The benefits of potent blood splitting two directions. At this point, you have quite a bit of fortitude. Enough to knock off quite a lot with the damage that's coming in. We'll see what the roles have to say.
But also you can heal four of that superficial damage.
What a sight that must be for the three of them watching. You presume one of their friends, or at least a colleague, snatched up like a reed, bent like grass.
It will take you one turn to get to the bottom of this particularly wriggly Capri sundae. Of the three, there are two who are panicking. One at the moment having thrown his weapon to the ground, and he is running towards the woods. The second now banging against the door on the off chance whoever's inside hasn't heard what's going on. But hard to think clearly when you're watching one of your friends be a exsanguinated.
The third, you can't see this, but an omniscient observer would be able to see that flicker in his eye, knowing that he should be shooting you. Worried about shooting his friend, realizing his friend is already dead so he will attack.
[00:27:18] Speaker C: Three successes.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Yeah, he's attacked not doing as well the second time around. I wonder what's changed about the circumstances to cause his aim to err. But those rounds won't be meant for Martin Shell. They will be meant for his associate. On purpose? On accident, no one knows.
But you can feel the kinetic impact in the body you're holding as it shutters against your chest.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: Ooh spicy.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Which brings us to the next round. You have a corpse in front of you, being dignified at this point to lick the spoon, which means combat begins anew. What's the next move?
[00:27:57] Speaker C: Storyteller, you said there's one fella that is hightailing it for the woods, right?
[00:28:02] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:28:03] Speaker C: Mm. I can't have that. So I will reach down and pick up this fine specimen of metalwork from the bass pro shop and hurl it out. Their runaway.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: That is fucking cool. A dexterity and athletics, please.
[00:28:23] Speaker C: Seven successes and a critical.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Suppose the imagery takes you back to a time when you were alive, Martin, being on the camp, army marching south. Have to feed the troops. That means building a fire.
How do you build a fire? Well, first things first. You sent a whole bunch of low ranking enlisted folks out into the woods to start splitting wood.
And do you remember that satisfying feel when you got the balance on the axe just right, brought it down right in the center, and the two halves of the log just split out, flying off in each direction? Remember how satisfying that felt? Mm.
[00:29:02] Speaker C: That was, uh.
That was always a good feeling.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Well, then it must be nice to relive those memories, watching the machete, poorly made as it is, there's something to be said for sheer force as it buries itself into the back of this man's head, cleaves deep through the gray matter, and falls to the ground like a puppet with strings cut.
[00:29:30] Speaker C: Still got it.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: The door swings open at this point to two people inside.
There's a woman, round face, long bangs, and a man, thick grandpa built. And I got that old man's strength in a black duster and a black turtleneck.
[00:29:51] Speaker C: Is that motherfucker still wearing a turtleneck?
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Ah, he does existential time. Martin.
[00:30:00] Speaker C: Turtleneck. What the fuck are you doing out here?
[00:30:04] Speaker B: I'm looking for you.
Found your friend instead. But I'll take both.
And he racks the slide on his shotgun.
[00:30:12] Speaker C: I have terrible news for you, Turtleneck.
You fucking found me.
[00:30:20] Speaker B: What's the action that follows that statement?
[00:30:23] Speaker C: I am saying all this while still holding up my little jukebox and would like to pitch said jukebox at turtleneck through the door.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: That would be strength and athletics.
[00:30:37] Speaker C: I believe that's eight successes.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: It's hard to look smug when you're being smashed in the face by the bloody, limp remains of one of your associates. It's enough to knock the shotgun down out of his hands as both he and the woman and the corpse go tumbling into the building.
It's gonna take them a hot minute to extricate themselves from the pile of limbs.
That does mean that the one who was pounding at the door until only a moment ago does get to fire.
But since you are one on one in this situation, you won't have to split your dodge.
[00:31:22] Speaker C: That is five successes.
[00:31:26] Speaker B: Five beats. Three, greater natural speed.
We're still like 30 years before the matrix comes out. But I'm starting to think I know where the Wachowski brothers got the idea. Because those bullets cut through the air cleaning and there's just a blur.
Angry, ancient Appalachian closing the distance.
[00:31:50] Speaker C: Oh, come on, son, you're gonna have to be faster than that. And I'll run up and grab the barrel of the gun and get right up in his face.
Let me show you how. And I will draw out the beast.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: In this fella reaching to the the apex of animalism. Your mastery over the beast in yourself and also in men.
He blinks. And in that single solitary expression, you can see the predator wake up inside of him. That ancient old part of his brain, the raw survival instinct like you, reached into his limbic system and turned all the glands all the way up to eleven. It's not going to bode well for the woman who has been so far silent, because he will turn the full of his attention at her. And with no weapon in his hands, this is going to be a gory experience.
Stands to reason, based on her behavior, that she did not sign up for this part of the event. She's backing away from her friend. She can see the look in his eyes, hands raised.
James. No, no, no.
But he doesn't care. In the same way you don't care. You know what it's like to have this animal inside of you. It is only by time and willpower that you have mastered it. Been able to push it down when you need to.
And just the barest shred of that put into this man.
Oh, his brain doesn't stand a chance.
Based on the dice that I've just rolled, neither does she.
Which means we arrive now in an interesting situation.
Just Martin Shell and Mister Turtleneck, who has used the distraction caused by his woman associate trying to escape, and his male associate preventing that from happening to rearm himself and pull the trigger.
Now calamity already knows what's special about this shotgun.
And Martin is about to find out for the first time.
[00:34:00] Speaker C: It is five successes.
[00:34:03] Speaker B: Five is good. It is not quite as good as seven. And a critical hit.
Seems probability has swung the other way.
Your use to some amount of fire coming out of a gun. That's the hot gas. Well, that's the explosion. That's what makes the gun, a gun.
Significantly more fire. This time as the hammer hits the primer, which ignites the powder, which sends the shell casing forward with white hot magnesium pellets bursting out in a cone of dragon breath fire.
The bad news is you don't take superficial damage from fire being what you are.
So on the margin, that is five aggravated damage.
And to make matters slightly worse, because it is a critical, we are going to say there is one teensy also problem, and that is your clothes are on fire.
[00:35:17] Speaker C: Shit, shit, shit, shit. Oh, God.
I'll try to kind of tear off as best I can and pat it.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Out, but well, before we, before we get that far, we need to see if you have control of yourself in this moment. Can you make a frenzy? Check for me.
[00:35:37] Speaker C: That is four successes.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Oh, that's actually quite good. You can feel mortality and that's a strange thing for an undead creature to experience. You know that this is what kills you.
It's not the fire by itself. It's the fire plus panic. It's the fire plus inaction. It is the fire plus losing sight of the objective. And Martin Shell has not survived this long after his death by losing sight of the objective.
So you will be able to extinguish yourself as you desire.
[00:36:12] Speaker C: So I will reach down and try to tear off as much of the burning shirt. I can't fucking stand fire, but I feel like maybe he can either and I'll throw it into his face.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: Something positively medieval about this. Right?
Nobody likes fire at this distance. It's less of a throw and more of a shoving in its face.
You have many dice and he has few, which means the next sound screaming out into the evening is Mister Turtleneck. There's something that only people who work, work in certain industries. No?
For example, in aviation, you don't wear synthetic fabrics. In the event there's a fire on the airplane, you don't want your garments melting to you. But this man bought this turtleneck in the late seventies and he's about to learn a valuable lesson about the hazards of cotton poly blends.
I will leave as an exercise to your imagination and that of the audience what someone looks like when flaming molten fabric is applied to the sensitive skin of the face, we will all be spared. And by knowing that in order to see what happened underneath, you would first have to peel off those molten layers.
And I don't think Martinshell's that curious right now.
[00:37:35] Speaker C: I bet you regret that fucking turtleneck.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: Now don't you look at Martin's character sheet. I don't see in language tortured screaming. So I don't think you can understand what he's saying.
The body's still moving. He's not dead.
You can get the gist that he's having a not very good time but it's gonna be slightly more difficult to interpret any meaning.
[00:37:59] Speaker C: Okay.
Do I have eyes on Cal?
[00:38:05] Speaker B: You do not think you'd be able to see that the back door is open and you know that the back door goes towards the woods and the storm cellar. Based on your initial scoping out the place.
[00:38:20] Speaker C: I will grab turtleneck by the knot molten part of his shirt and toss him towards the back door. It's kind of like kicking and beating him back that way.
Trying to find Cowen.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: All the respect one shows a carpet that they are disposing of on moving day.
Walking out the back door you can tell based on sense you're an expert tracker. There's no drag marks, no footsteps leading out into the woods. Were that not enough, you could hear maybe sniffling sounds very much like someone trying to be braver than they are coming from the storm cellar. And if you descend those stairs, cause I assume you do, you find another gentleman. The youngest of the bunch, probably 19 or 20.
Probably played football for his high school. Not quite good enough to go up to the college level, but still a stockier kind of lad. Very short, close cropped, red hair.
He's got a machete, same store.
And he's holding it up to Cal's throat.
Cal still staked at this point. You can see the pine jutting out from her chest.
Don't you fucking do it. I'll end her, son.
[00:39:46] Speaker C: Do I look like I'm in the fucking mood for this game?
[00:39:53] Speaker B: I fucking mean it. Don't you chant me. You can see the metal sharpened edge of that blade cutting down into the skin like peeling wax.
Acutely aware of how dry, dead, eternal that skin is.
[00:40:10] Speaker C: Storyteller. How about how. How long is this stake in Cal's chest?
[00:40:17] Speaker B: Now last episode we established they were using crossbows to fire some of them. And I don't imagine they would have brought a separate, like home and away stakes, right? It's a fairly long piece of equipment, like at least ten inches.
[00:40:31] Speaker C: That's long enough.
And I will rush forward and push the stake the rest of the way through Cal into the fella behind her.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: Calamity, you actually get to see this for the first time.
No doubt there's an amount of emotion rising up in you as you see your sire illuminated by moonlight, descending the stairs like a scene from a horror movie.
Skin charred, face and facial hair caked in gore. And then he's just sprinting at you.
Then two things happen simultaneously.
First, calamity regains control of her physical faculties.
And second, the man behind calamity loses control of his get up.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: I don't think I can get up, but I'm gonna scramble, roll, get her away.
I don't. I know I don't need to breathe, but I think it's just reflex at this point.
Martin, now get.
[00:41:43] Speaker C: Get the fuck up. Get the fuck up. And I'll, like, kind of half pull her and half, uh, kind of roll her off to the side.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: Probably. I don't imagine Cal's resisting, right?
[00:42:01] Speaker A: Nope.
[00:42:04] Speaker C: What does this fella look like in front of me right now?
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Well, it's difficult to tell what color the shirt was because it is currently soaked in his heart's blood.
Skin's getting pale. He's not dead yet, but he's well on his way.
[00:42:23] Speaker C: I will stand up.
And as he is bleeding out, reach down and grab that bass pro shop machete and just kind of check the edge with my thumb.
No, y'all really couldn't. You could have done better. I mean, fuck, it wouldn't have helped you, but you could have done better.
And we'll just kind of toss it further back into the basement as this guy just bleeds out.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: You can see his eyes follow the sound as it clatters.
His eyes wide.
You can see his chest trying to rise and fall to draw breath, but there's too much liquid in that cavity. The diaphragm isn't working right.
No telling how long it'll take him to die.
But Martin Shell has made the decision to let that life run its natural course. Finger quotes around natural, given his involvement in the process, which means by the time this conversation finishes, only calamity and Martin Shell will remain well and a slightly molten houseguest.
[00:43:40] Speaker A: Martin. Martin. I didn't. They came out of nowhere. Um.
[00:43:49] Speaker C: Yeah, you're, uh.
You're fine. No, you're. You're fine. Fucking fine.
Uh, and I'm kind of taking stock of the injuries that I have acquired.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it's hard telling which of you has had it worse. And calamity has been through it.
You can see the telltale signs of aggravated damage on her body, just as you can on yours. Sunlight, flame, hot metal, whatever they wanted to get out of her, they were taking their time trying to get it.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: I didn't tell him shit. I wanted to know where you were. I didn't tell him shit.
[00:44:44] Speaker C: Well, you didn't fucking know where I was, did you?
We're not fucking done, cow.
Get up. Come on.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: Back onto your feet. They remember how to move, surprisingly, up the stairwell. It's weird how stiff it feels. You're dead, but you're animated by something from beyond the grave. But the flesh isn't supple after being exposed to the sunlight.
And there's that lingering psychosomatic, the part of your brain that knows it shouldn't walk on bones this bruised.
You shouldn't be alive. And based on what Martin Schall did, neither should Mister Turtleneck. And yet both of you are persevering into the night.
The cloth is still on his face. He's made, apparently some attempts to pull it away hasn't gone incredibly well.
I don't think that Martin Shell is enough of a musical theater man to have seen Phantom of the Opera. But maybe in the future he'll be able to connect these two sites together.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: Motherfucker.
[00:46:08] Speaker C: You look like shit, turtleneck. Only you could see. Can you see? And I, like, wave my hand in front of his face.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: One eye is covered by the burning material. What you have thrown at him, singeing hair, singeing the side of his face, it's stuck there. I'm sure a skilled surgeon could peel it off, or a callous calamity could rip it off, bringing some amount of the underlying tissue with it.
It's the lowest piece of that clothing that has caused the most trouble, because what was on fire when you threw it is what melted against the top, his collarbone, along his chest. So he's essentially wearing around his neck a very heavy pendant of.
I want to say it looks a bit like a slurry. It's hard to imagine if you made a candle out of a person, but you get that. That kind of vibe. Suffice it to say, when it comes to answering your question, no, retinas do not work after being boiled in their own eye sockets.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: And you know what storyteller you mentioned?
You mentioned pulling the smoldering wreckage off his face. And I'm feeling a little petty.
Cause he already burned my ass, quite literally. So that's what I'm gonna do.
[00:47:45] Speaker B: I don't know what's making this come to mind, but I just suddenly have a visual of a fast food commercial for a grilled cheese shop.
[00:47:55] Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't feel very good, does it? You son of a bitch.
[00:47:59] Speaker B: It's bizarre hearing someone scream through charred vocal cords.
[00:48:05] Speaker C: I will come over and kind of squat over near Turtleneck's head and say, it's just.
It's a damn shame, really. You lived and hunted and ran this goddamn turtleneck, and now you're gonna fucking die in Ithoodae. Is that irony?
[00:48:34] Speaker B: The raspiest voice that comes out, and you can see behind those cloudy eyes the amount of energy it takes him to muster up the words that follow.
Fuck you.
[00:48:53] Speaker C: Fuck you, too. Well, and I'll just take my claws and just slice across his neck, expediting.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: The process of his demise. He wasn't going to make it through the night. Now he won't make it to the top of the hour.
Cal, you see your siren dispatched with his nemesis, and the floor now stained with fresh blood.
They tell you that when it comes to rural living, it's not the noises in the forest that you need to be afraid of. It's when the woods are quiet that something is wrong.
In the aftermath of this fight, it is the quiet that stands dominant. There's no chatter from hunters, who now lay in various amounts of physical disarray.
There's no banter between Cal and Martin for a moment.
And every animal in the middle of the night, they know what you are.
I can feel it. There's silence in the holler.
[00:49:55] Speaker A: My first instinct is to ask if you're okay, sir, but that seems like a foolish inquiry.
[00:50:06] Speaker C: I gotta look down at the charred bits of shirt and scorch marks, blistered skin.
No, I don't think I'm doing so hot.
[00:50:25] Speaker A: Storyteller.
We've had some bad fights going up against the lupines, and I know for a fact that after a certain point, if a kindred takes a certain amount of damage, taking a day, sleep becomes dangerous.
Is that what I'm looking at here?
[00:50:55] Speaker B: Safe to say, setting aside for a moment the danger of sleeping at a crime scene on the off chance someone else shows up.
If you go to sleep now. If Martin goes to sleep now, odds are good he's not waking up for a good long while.
[00:51:16] Speaker A: Not at his big age.
You, uh.
Sorry. You stay here. I'll.
I'll find you something to eat.
[00:51:33] Speaker C: I wasn't really keen on fucking going anywhere.
[00:51:38] Speaker A: Now you look like you came out the wrong end of a butchered pig.
Um, we don't. I don't hug him. We aren't huggers, not really. But I think before I step out into the night, I grab Martin's hand, and I hold it in a grip that is so tight that it's almost bruising.
And Martin can feel the way. My hands are still shaking.
[00:52:10] Speaker C: You better go for that beast. Settles down.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
[00:52:16] Speaker B: Well, this raises an interesting question.
Under normal circumstances, it would be enough to bring an animal back. That'd be enough to slake both of you. Just enough.
But not tonight.
There's not enough time to round up the number of stags it would take to make sure that Martin makes it out the other side.
You are going to need human blood, and you're going to need a lot of it.
Now, I am not the one who got us into this mess. So I'm not the one who's going to. To get us out of this mess.
It is you, calamity Madden, who will have to choose the innocent life that you are trading for your freedom and for Martin Shell's freedom. So I'm gonna put my storyteller pen down, and you're going to describe for me the person you find.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Nice thing about a place like this, a holler like this, you get someone who's well fed on that. Good old fashioned cooking, strong, built by decades of hard labor, filled on family recipes, been passed down for generations.
I don't.
I don't lure people like some of the kindred do.
Not particularly coy about it, but if I wash my face and hands, and if I, uh.
If I make sure the cut of my shirt is just low enough, it's not hard to get someone out.
Into the back alley behind the bar.
[00:54:19] Speaker B: An attractive woman alone in the middle of the night. An unsuspecting victim, 200 pounds of manual labor and mom's chicken and dumplings.
And then a too strong hand over his mouth so the scream doesn't make it in a long, silent trip back to the cul de sac.
Martin, inside, you've made it past the part where the beast needs to survive because of violence. But that hunger is mounting.
Or 40 years or the word hangry will enter our lexicon. But it is an emotion you are acutely familiar with in this moment.
And when a vampire your age, with your strength, reaches that point, you are dangerous.
[00:55:12] Speaker C: Get it. Get it together. Come on.
[00:55:15] Speaker B: Just hold.
And that's what you hear, calamity. The stalking, heavy footsteps, the animalistic grunts.
The full curse of your gangrel progenitors burning hot in martin shells veins.
Loud enough almost, to overpower the whimpers of the gentlemen, but not loud enough.
What happens next, I imagine, is a bit like feeding time at the zoo.
Big cats pacing in their pen. Cause they know it's time.
And the zookeeper pulling up in their little cart, cuts of meat pulled out and thrown one by one into the enclosure.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: We are hunters.
We are beasts.
It is only natural to fight, to survive.
We are just trying to survive.
[00:56:30] Speaker B: Now, I'm sure the gentleman who you've brought with you could say the same thing about his labors.
Only one of you will be able to offer that soliloquy come the next evening.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: And just before I push the door open and push the poor bastard inside.
I don't know why, but I just tell him.
I'm so sorry. Darling.
[00:57:05] Speaker B: You don't have to be sorry. You don't have to do this. You don't have to. And then you shove him. And then you slam the door shut. And whatever thoughts he had are soon subsumed by a different kind of need.
You don't have to watch what happened, but you can't help but hear it. It won't take long for Martin to accomplish what he has set out to do.
Are you still curled up in your own guilt?
510 minutes later, when Martin emerges.
[00:57:46] Speaker A: Find me sitting next to the front door, knees tucked up to my chest.
I managed to keep myself from outright covering my ears.
Cause if I'm gonna send a man to his death, at the very least, I should witness it, so to speak.
[00:58:11] Speaker C: We need to fucking go.
[00:58:15] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
And it's orders. He gives me orders, and I can follow orders. It's simple. It's how we do things.
[00:58:27] Speaker C: I'll make a beeline for the door, heading out towards the car, but I'll stop at the passenger side door.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: Sir.
[00:58:40] Speaker C: You're the one that fucking got us into this, so you're gonna be the one that gets us out.
And I'll toss her the keys.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: Catch him.
Look down at this key ring.
Just nod. Before. Before I open the driver's side door.
[00:59:04] Speaker B: A lot of adjustments that need made.
Adjust your understanding of your relationship with your sire.
Adjust your level of optimism about what can be accomplished.
Each of those things shifting just a little bit at a time.
Like the side mirrors, like the rear view.
And it's going to be talkative in the car as you depart this small town, having gained quite a lot of perspective, each of you, and having left a pile of corpses in your wake.
Eventually you will find that place respite from the sun.
Martin striking a familiar pose behind the tarp wrapped windows.
Calamity running her hands over the tape one last time.
The only thing that weighs heavier than that. Silence. Is the guilt the price?
Glamity. You said you were a hunter, and I suppose there was an amount of hunting required to find the victim who you fed to show.
And I believe you. You're right. Vampires have to hunt to survive.
But just like any hunter in this part of the world knows you only take what you need. And when it comes to what you've taken, the question is, why did you need so much?
Whether it's Martin's cold stare as he refuses to discuss this or the echo of screams from a man who did not have to die, but for the decisions you made, it's going to be a very restless sleep.
And before we can figure out what kind of person you are when you wake up in the morning, I'm going to need you to make a humanity roll. For me.
[01:00:51] Speaker A: That is zero successes, storyteller.
[01:00:56] Speaker B: The dice obfuscate what is actually a much slower process.
It's not acute moments of guilt and remorse.
It's not an acute moment of transgression and failure to forgive. It's a longer process than that.
The death by a thousand cuts. That transition you from someone who considers mortal something worth protecting to something that exists only to ensure your own survival.
You make a decision like this once, and it becomes easier the next time, and the next time and the next time. And that's how it happens.
So when the sun finally gives up its claim on the sky and you enter into the night once again, just a different perspective on whose needs matter.
Your blood tells you that near the top of the food chain, you rule over this domain.
And tonight, more than last night, you believe it just that little bit more.
But that is where we will leave our story for the evening.
No doubt plenty more to come between Cal and her sire.
Hopefully the evenings are a bit less eventful. I think, given the last few nights, Cal would happily trade a werewolf for the things that they've experienced, and Martin will be happy to have something to talk about that isn't the way his child failed them both.
But that story, like so many others, is for another knighthood.
[01:02:31] Speaker A: You've been listening to the all night Society, an actual play podcast brought to you by Queenscourt 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 Queenscourt Rpg.
