Episode 30
Episode 30 - Beyond the Toads
Another unrestful night spent in Northampton means it is now All Hallows' Eve. An unknown Enemy has spent more than two centuries waiting for this moment. The Agents need a plan.
Based on a scenario by Thomas DiPaolo.
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Transcript
Hello?
Speaker B:What time is it?
Speaker B:Who is it?
Speaker A:I don't know, I.
Speaker A:Situation green.
Speaker A:I've got a fill in.
Speaker A:Sorry honey, I have to take this.
Speaker A:You all sit in various crumpled heaps on the now damp carpet of the bookstore.
Speaker A:You hear only sounds of your quickened breaths and the susurrus of.
Speaker C:Wait, I thought we established that.
Speaker C:We're all standing there feeling fucking awesome.
Speaker C:Like looking like superheroes, right?
Speaker A:Nope.
Speaker A:It's actually gonna be crumpled sad heaps on the now damp carpet is what we're establishing.
Speaker C:Cool.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So yeah, all you can hear is your quickened breaths, your gaspings and the sound of water lapping at the top of the basement stairs.
Speaker A:Your clothes are soaked through and the cool air bites at your flesh.
Speaker A:Agent Kane.
Speaker A:You still feel a rawness in your throat and lungs.
Speaker A:The putrid taste of the ancient storeroom's water burning your sinuses.
Speaker A:The rest of you notice a profound reek of rot and mildew now emanating from your persons.
Speaker A:The beacon of light from Agent Ryan's burner phone suddenly flickers out.
Speaker A:It's valiant work complete.
Speaker A:You are left in relative darkness with only the bright downtown street lamps casting insufficient yellow gleams through the cracks in the bookshelves around you.
Speaker D:We all good?
Speaker E:I'm feeling all right.
Speaker D:Let's get the fuck out of here.
Speaker D:I got a lot to tell you.
Speaker C:Yeah, we gotta get out of here right now.
Speaker C:Let's go.
Speaker B:Someone help me up.
Speaker E:Ryan's going to help Kane up and then given that he's the least.
Speaker E:Actually Ryan is dry.
Speaker A:There was enough splashing and moving around.
Speaker A:You're not soaking.
Speaker A:But you are.
Speaker A:You are.
Speaker A:You are in.
Speaker A:Dampened, I believe is dampened right by the moldering water.
Speaker A:Minus.
Speaker D:Yeah, minus four to your dex roll.
Speaker A:Surrounded by moldering books.
Speaker E:Mouldering books.
Speaker E:I'm going to help Kane up and then.
Speaker A:Oh, and Ryan, you are covered with funko sludge.
Speaker D:Yeah, but that's home all been there.
Speaker E:Ryan's going to help Kane up and then lead the lead the way out of the bookstore to the car.
Speaker A:All four of you stumble out of the front door of depths into what is now a pouring rainfall massive downpour and make your way down the sidewalk towards your vehicle.
Speaker E:Ryan weeps as his moldy friends wash away from his hands.
Speaker D:So anyways apprentice is looking around making sure no one's like noticed them.
Speaker A:It's hard to really see anything.
Speaker A:All you can really make out through this massive downpour are the halos of light of the street lamps above and the low fluorescent bulbs in Some of the shops around you.
Speaker D:When we get in the car, assuming we get there safely and there's no choo choo cheering coming.
Speaker D:This is gonna explain what he read.
Speaker A:So you four are now inside the car.
Speaker A:As rain patters down on the windows outside, you're all still fairly close to what was just a incredible paranatural event.
Speaker A:Ryan, I assume you're taking the driver's seat as per usual.
Speaker E:Yes.
Speaker A:Do you get the crew away from this location or do you guys sit tight while Prince starts unloading?
Speaker E:Ryan's good.
Speaker E:Going to turn to Prentiss.
Speaker E:Are we good to start at least heading back to the hotel?
Speaker E:I.
Speaker E:I need a shower.
Speaker D:Let's get there.
Speaker D:Absolutely.
Speaker E:All right.
Speaker E:Ryan's going to start driving back while we listen to Prentice's Tale.
Speaker D:Stockton essentially has from the past figured out his family tree into the future.
Speaker D:And from the past to some demon situation where he is apparently the offspring of some unholy union all the way to his final progeny.
Speaker D:Janet pound.
Speaker D:That's not all.
Speaker D:Back when the coven happened, back in the old times, they took lodestones and put them in the gums of people's teeth.
Speaker D:And they could speak to them throughout the valley.
Speaker D:Now people are hearing shit throughout our valley here in the now.
Speaker D:I just think that's something there also.
Speaker D:We have till tomorrow till Stockton apparently comes back.
Speaker D:They're gonna sacrifice Janet pound over his remains.
Speaker D:So we gotta find where he was killed and put an end to all that.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker C:Shit.
Speaker B:So my.
Speaker B:My recommendation.
Speaker B:Showers first.
Speaker B:If somebody could patch me up, that would be useful.
Speaker B:Pretty sure I damaged my ribs at least.
Speaker B:And then more research.
Speaker B:I don't think we're getting a whole lot of sleep this time.
Speaker E:Did you get any idea of where she was gonna be sacrificed?
Speaker D:Well, I mean.
Speaker E:Or how.
Speaker D:Where Stockton was killed is where his bones are?
Speaker E:Was that in the book?
Speaker D:Did we.
Speaker D:Chris, did we read that anywhere?
Speaker A:You know, somewhere in Pioneer Valley.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:His.
Speaker A:According to Janet pound his body was stacked with stones until he perished.
Speaker C:Okay, Apprentice, how much time do we have?
Speaker C:You said till tomorrow.
Speaker D:Halloween.
Speaker D:All All Hallows Eve.
Speaker C:Paris looks at his watch and sees that the time is.
Speaker D:We have till the full moon.
Speaker A:Roll your luck.
Speaker C:Come on, man.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker C:First rule the night.
Speaker C:Checking the time.
Speaker C:Here we go.
Speaker C:Hmm.
Speaker C:Three out of 50.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So John Paris is the kind of guy who's gonna get like the most waterproof of all watches to wear.
Speaker A:And so it's doing just fine.
Speaker A:So you look down at your wrist and you can see here, it's early Sunday morning now.
Speaker A:About 1:30am oh, so we have less.
Speaker C:Than 24 hours to get this figured out is what I'm hearing.
Speaker E:Math checks out.
Speaker D:I'm gonna see what time the moon rises, so I guess I'll be in the business center.
Speaker D:My phone's waterlogged.
Speaker E:You had said that they were communicating by implanting something in people's teeth.
Speaker E:Is that lodestone?
Speaker D:It's like metal rock that is magnetic.
Speaker E:Okay, so that sounds like some witchy shit I'm not even going to try to understand.
Speaker E:I don't need to understand it.
Speaker E:But is that the connection to the dentist that Janet had mentioned?
Speaker E:She saw the dentist, which made no sense at the time, but maybe he's part of this somehow.
Speaker E:The modern day coven.
Speaker D:Could be.
Speaker C:I mean, I think it might be worth taking stopping by.
Speaker D:So he said he spoke to people through their teeth?
Speaker D:Maybe.
Speaker D:I've got a feeling.
Speaker D:Do you all have fillings?
Speaker E:I don't have a feeling.
Speaker E:Have you been hearing voices?
Speaker D:No, but it's just mulling around a thought.
Speaker E:Fair enough.
Speaker E:But I've got.
Speaker C:I've got a feeling that we should go visit this guy at his home.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker C:I thought that you were doing that.
Speaker C:I thought that's what you were doing, Eric.
Speaker D:No, but I love it.
Speaker E:I like the cut of your jib.
Speaker A:You brought tonight.
Speaker D:Welcome to John's Choice.
Speaker E:Yeah, I doubt for that to be the end of John here.
Speaker E:A stray bullet and never comes back.
Speaker E:It's the back passenger seat.
Speaker C:Freak accident, right?
Speaker D:Freak accident.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:A family of ducks waddles across the road and.
Speaker C:And Ryan doesn't want to hit him and anyways to hit them.
Speaker A:Yeah, he got him.
Speaker C:Maybe we should go visit this doctor or.
Speaker C:Sorry, this dentist.
Speaker D:The dentist?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker C:I know it's a little late, but I'm sure we can get him out of bed for this conversation.
Speaker E:Or tomorrow during the day.
Speaker D:Why?
Speaker D:Yeah, why would we do that now?
Speaker E:Let's just.
Speaker C:I don't know what kind of.
Speaker C:I don't know what kind of conversation y'all are planning to have, but maybe not one we're going to have in this office when we put him against a wall and say putting weird lodestones in people's teeth.
Speaker D:I don't know what is actually happening to the radio stations.
Speaker D:I was just spitballing, so I just want to get that there.
Speaker D:Where that's a big leap to go to violence on this guy.
Speaker B:I mean it's a lead.
Speaker B:Not all for helping with that, but can we please get dry and patched up first.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:So let's all meet back in the lobby.
Speaker E:What?
Speaker A:7Am you drive up to the hotel, go ahead and make your way into your rooms.
Speaker A:You all have your priorities.
Speaker A:Some wanting to shower.
Speaker A:Someone need to try to get some rest.
Speaker A:And in the case of Agent Kane and Agent Prentiss, a physical examination to hopefully do something about the flailing.
Speaker A:Violent, violent kick that she took to the abdomen during your near death experience.
Speaker A:Go ahead, Agent Prentiss, enroll your first aid.
Speaker D:Ooh, 98 out of 70.
Speaker D:So this is.
Speaker E:God damn.
Speaker A:Take a look.
Speaker E:Welcome back, guys.
Speaker D:Check that.
Speaker A:And you can see the blossoming of some very significant bruising on her abdomen.
Speaker A:You can definitely tell that she is going to be feeling it.
Speaker A:You don't feel a clean, obvious break at this step.
Speaker A:You would probably want to perform an X ray to see if perhaps there's a break you can't feel or a fracture or something more.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's kind of smart.
Speaker A:You think?
Speaker D:Well, I hate to tell you it's nothing we can really do unless you want to go get an X ray.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:We should probably not draw attention to ourselves.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:And so I'm going to go look up the moon schedule for tomorrow and see you at 7.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And just attack on there.
Speaker A:Agent Prentice, you found no indication of significant internal bleeding through your examination.
Speaker D:You probably won't die.
Speaker D:He says his finger guns his way out the door.
Speaker A:You're going to want to check her out again in the morning because if there is any patterned pooling in certain places, you want just to be aware of that to see if she needs to go to a hospital immediately.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker C:You're going to give her a discounted rate since, you know, you caused all the damage.
Speaker D:It wouldn't be prudent.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:Full.
Speaker C:Full price.
Speaker D:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker C:Yeah, I gotcha.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You start giving a friends and family freebies.
Speaker D:You know, everybody wants a freebie.
Speaker D:And then you're poor.
Speaker D:It's just not gonna work that way, man.
Speaker C:How else can you pay for all the strippers and blow?
Speaker D:That's right.
Speaker C:Not with.
Speaker C:Not with discounts selling seashells.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:Good callback.
Speaker D:There you go.
Speaker A:Good callback.
Speaker A:That I can't use because it didn't have any recording.
Speaker A:Okay, Agent Ryan, I just rolled the four for you.
Speaker E:Why?
Speaker E:Ryan's not part of this.
Speaker A:You're not part of the game.
Speaker A:You're not playing.
Speaker E:No, no, no.
Speaker E:He's in his room.
Speaker E:He's showering.
Speaker E:Everything's going.
Speaker E:Everything's going fine for Ryan.
Speaker D:You don't know that.
Speaker A:Agent Ryan.
Speaker A:You cleanse yourself of the stinking putrid waters of depths.
Speaker D:I call them putrid waters too, man.
Speaker A:And as you're drying yourself.
Speaker A:Hotel.
Speaker A:God damn it.
Speaker A:Another thing I can't use because that's off the air.
Speaker E:We talked about lodestones, not that we.
Speaker A:Didn'T talk about load stones on air.
Speaker A:Not yet.
Speaker E:There's been no spelling on this podcast so far, Chris.
Speaker A:Not correct spelling at least.
Speaker A:So you're drying yourself off with this hotel towel and you make your way to the bedroom.
Speaker A:Now, you don't really have to sleep, but after the experience you had, you do feel exhausted to some degree.
Speaker A:Even though you don't have to sleep.
Speaker A:You can sleep if you choose to.
Speaker E:Real quick, to Eric, John and Amber.
Speaker E:I forgot I had talked about to Chris about sleeping.
Speaker E:That's why he's narrating this whole fucking bullshit.
Speaker A:No, no, I'm narrating because our audience knows of your strange conditions and they are listening with no.
Speaker E:I know, but I love that.
Speaker E:Like I was like, no, leave Ryan alone.
Speaker E:And I had asked for this part specifically.
Speaker E:Is so funny.
Speaker E:Ryan feels genuinely exhausted for the first time in quite a while.
Speaker E:Has often really liked that he doesn't have to sleep every night if there's a lot of utility in that, but feels that that is necessary this evening.
Speaker E:And so he's going to go to bed and get as much sleep as he's able to in the hours remaining of the night.
Speaker D:So he can just shut it off like a switch.
Speaker E:I think it's more that I like to think of it as the.
Speaker E:Or is that not a serious question before I start making up shit?
Speaker A:So, yeah, just like I said, he can choose to sleep.
Speaker A:Eric, that's cool if he wants to.
Speaker A:The mechanic is he does not suffer from the exhaustion rules.
Speaker A:If he does not sleep, that's it.
Speaker D:That's pretty cool.
Speaker A:But if he expends willpower to, say, project or to transfer acute trauma, then the only way to get that willpower back is to rest, which he can choose to do.
Speaker A:Pretty cool.
Speaker F:He's.
Speaker A:He's got some.
Speaker A:It's a balancing act, Eric.
Speaker A:There's going to be some negative consequences if, if, if we haven't recognized those already.
Speaker A:They will be exacerbated over time.
Speaker C:Ryan, if you could get some of that blue fungus in a pill and pill me up, that would be great.
Speaker C:Sleep is overrated, John, are you sure.
Speaker A:That'S the one that's doing this?
Speaker D:Yeah, you don't know.
Speaker D:He could.
Speaker C:I have no idea.
Speaker C:No, no, I just.
Speaker C:I was trying.
Speaker C:I was trying to.
Speaker C:It was a.
Speaker C:That was a poorly executed, like SE Lab reference.
Speaker D:Take your pill, pill eater.
Speaker C:Stimulax was an incredible episode.
Speaker D:Yes, it was.
Speaker C:Total sidebar.
Speaker C:My first.
Speaker C:That was the first Adult Swim cartoon I ever saw.
Speaker C:And I remember watching it as a young person and I was like, what the am I seeing on TV right now?
Speaker C:All right, sorry.
Speaker C:My bad.
Speaker C:Bring it back.
Speaker E:I've never heard of this.
Speaker A:Agent Ryan.
Speaker A:You lie down in the hotel room bed and your eyes close and almost immediately sleep takes you.
Speaker A:Your dreams are extremely lucid.
Speaker A:In fact, they feel almost real.
Speaker A:There are images of your mother, your father, your childhood that are in a mishmash jumble, as if someone's flipping through a book of still photographs, moving from place to place, skipping to the end, going back to the beginning, until finally the image settles and you are at a firing range.
Speaker A:To your right you see Agent Snedeker.
Speaker A:He's again putting perfect bullet holes through his.
Speaker A:His target.
Speaker A:As he empties magazine after magazine, you look down and in your hands, this medium sized pistol.
Speaker A:You raise it up and you begin to take your turn at your target.
Speaker A:Your eyes are a bit bleary, though it's hard to focus on the paper outline of a burglar far down the range.
Speaker A:In fact, tears start welling up in your eyes.
Speaker A:You put down the pistol, bring your hands up to your eyes and back down front of you.
Speaker A:You look in the palms of your hands and there's this clear mucosal fluid pooling in your palms.
Speaker A:More and more begins to fall from your eyes, down your cheeks, into the palms of your hand, onto the ground.
Speaker A:You continually try to wipe this fluid away, but no matter how frantically you swipe at your face, your unable to clearly see and unable to fully remove the liquid.
Speaker D:Is it putrid waters?
Speaker E:It's the low.
Speaker A:You feel this sense of panic mounting, mounting in your chest.
Speaker A:You look over and Agent Snedgar is shaking his head.
Speaker A:He looks disapproving and disgusted, revolted.
Speaker A:He backs away.
Speaker A:You turn from him and start to stagger away from the gun range into the backwoods, through the trees.
Speaker A:Branches whip against your face and chest.
Speaker A:You stagger through the woods.
Speaker A:As you do, you break upon a clearing.
Speaker A:There's a rushing river in front of you.
Speaker A:You can barely see as fluid continues to stream down your face, across the bank.
Speaker A:You see the figure of a man waves to you.
Speaker A:You look down, try to screw up your eyes, push more of this fluid out.
Speaker A:Look back up.
Speaker A:The man's gone.
Speaker A:The panic starts to subside in your chest, and you turn around to make your way back to the gun range.
Speaker A:But the man is right there, front of you.
Speaker A:He was standing right behind you.
Speaker A:The man's face is deformed, and it is so close to yours, it's as to defy belief.
Speaker A:The man's crooked grin bears yellow teeth, and he kisses you upon the forehead.
Speaker A:You, frozen, paralyzed in terror.
Speaker A:He crudely whispers to you.
Speaker A:Wake with a start in your bed.
Speaker A:Your face is covered in tears.
Speaker A:Please roll your sanity, Agent Ryan, as per usual, you may choose, since you're unaware of if you failed or passed this role, but you may choose to draw upon the strength of one of your bonds to project any potential loss.
Speaker A:Is that something you'd like to do?
Speaker E:No.
Speaker E:I haven't gave my willpower back.
Speaker E:You're right.
Speaker E:Not yet.
Speaker A:I'll.
Speaker A:I'll let you know once we get through a few more of these vignettes.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker E:No, I guess I was making.
Speaker E:That kind of goes into my decision to not project.
Speaker A:Oh, yes.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker A:That is correct.
Speaker A:You're gonna need to go back to sleep.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:If you're.
Speaker A:If you're able to.
Speaker A:To have any chance of that.
Speaker E:Okay, then I stand by my not projecting.
Speaker A:You hear something outside besides the heavy rainfall?
Speaker A:It almost sounds like thumping against the balcony door.
Speaker E:Is that on me to now narrate what I do?
Speaker A:Yeah, you don't have to do anything at all.
Speaker A:You can just go back to sleep.
Speaker E:I wasn't.
Speaker A:I wasn't awake with a sound.
Speaker E:I wasn't sure if you.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd like.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So you've got tears streaming down your face.
Speaker A:You've woken with a start.
Speaker A:There's heavy rainfall outside.
Speaker A:But you also hear what sounds like arrhythmic thumping against the balcony door.
Speaker E:I don't move, but continue to listen to see if it persists.
Speaker A:It does indeed.
Speaker E:Then I will get out of bed and pull back the curtain to look out.
Speaker A:All right, we'll get back to you in just a moment.
Speaker D:It's a ghost.
Speaker E:Hopefully.
Speaker A:Agent King.
Speaker C:Don't apologize.
Speaker C:That was beautiful.
Speaker A:After being examined by Dr.
Speaker A:Prentiss.
Speaker E:Gross.
Speaker A:You want to file a lawsuit, Go ahead and shower, clean up.
Speaker A:And I think you mentioned you wanted to do some research rather than sleep.
Speaker A:Is that correct?
Speaker B:Well, flipping through the white pages ain't gonna be too much trouble.
Speaker B:She is, however, going to disassemble and clean the Glock, make sure everything's dry and oiled after what it's been Through.
Speaker A:Okay, go ahead and roll your luck.
Speaker B:And that is a failure.
Speaker B:It's 75 over 50.
Speaker A:Yeah, it looks like you don't have nearly enough water displacing oils to really, really do this properly in your hotel room.
Speaker A:So either you need to work with an expert tomorrow if there's a gun store that's open on Sundays, or purchase a full kit to take the whole thing apart, or you can take your chances.
Speaker A:Now, go ahead and roll your firearms, please, Chris.
Speaker E:I'm pretty sure it's called Glock juice.
Speaker A:Yeah, sorry.
Speaker A:The Glock juice that you need to purchase.
Speaker D:No problem.
Speaker B:That is a critical term.
Speaker B:Success at 33 under 50.
Speaker E:Well done.
Speaker A:You know that you should not use a single one of these ammo cartridges.
Speaker A:None of them are trustworthy.
Speaker A:So at the very least, you get rid of the ammunition.
Speaker A:You do need to get new, fresh ammunition that hasn't been submerged.
Speaker A:Otherwise, you put yourself in danger, not just of misfires, but potential late fires, which could be extremely dangerous.
Speaker B:Well, the good news there is she's already got replacements in her bag.
Speaker B:She does carry extra magazines.
Speaker A:Great.
Speaker A:So you separate out the waterlogged ammunition from the fresh, dry ammunition and ensure that if you're going to fire this gun before it's completely taken apart properly, at least you're using dry cartridges.
Speaker B:And then she's going to sleep.
Speaker A:Just like Agent Ryan.
Speaker A:Sleep overtakes you quickly.
Speaker A:And it's much as I described.
Speaker A:You have a very clear and lucid cavalcade of images, as if someone's flipping through your life.
Speaker A:What is a very important time in Agent Cain's life?
Speaker A:What's something that defined her professionally or personally?
Speaker B:One of the moments that would likely come up is sitting at an old kitchen table with her mentor and her best friend.
Speaker B:Carith and Jacob.
Speaker B:They'd be discussing work.
Speaker B:Just the one she's probably thinking about.
Speaker B:They're rehashing something that went horribly wrong.
Speaker B:Trying to figure out how it could have gone right instead.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:So we've got Jacob and Gareth.
Speaker A:And these are folks who have gone on extremely dangerous operations with you.
Speaker A:You're a field agent, correct?
Speaker A:She is, yeah.
Speaker A:You guys are, for lack of a better phrase.
Speaker A:You know, you're fellow warriors, right?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:So you three are seated in your kitchenette playing hand of poker and shooting the shit, talking about some close calls, stories that you've all heard and told over and over again.
Speaker A:And this is as clear as day to you.
Speaker A:It's as if it's happening.
Speaker A:Or you're watching a playback video cassette recorder.
Speaker A:And when it's your turn to comment and bring your own story to the forefront, you open your mouth and it's not your voice that issues forth.
Speaker A:Will you boys remember the time when good old Abreking Gass cut up that little boy?
Speaker A:You stop yourself.
Speaker A:You hold your throat for a moment.
Speaker A:You look up at Jacob.
Speaker A:You look up at Gareth.
Speaker A:Their eyes are full of confusion.
Speaker A:Gareth screws up his brow.
Speaker A:You try to speak again.
Speaker C:And that's when Ginny Willoughby licked up.
Speaker A:The pieces of their skull.
Speaker A:And you stop speaking again, clutching your throat now more firmly.
Speaker A:Gareth stands up.
Speaker A:He looks disgusted, revolted.
Speaker A:He turns around, his back facing towards you.
Speaker A:Jacob just looks disappointed.
Speaker A:He looks down at the ground.
Speaker A:No matter how frantically you speak or exclaim, you can't find your own voice.
Speaker A:It's someone else's.
Speaker A:It's Zeke's, performing one of his broadcasts before waking.
Speaker A:Your last memory is attempting to scream, but only screeching radio distortion comes out of your mouth as Gareth and Jacob just leave your home.
Speaker A:Please roll sanity for me.
Speaker A:Would you like to project any potential loss?
Speaker B:No, not this time.
Speaker A:The rain beats down outside of your door, but you hear something else.
Speaker A:An arrhythmic thumping against the wood of the door and the door frame.
Speaker B:Kane is gonna reach over to the nightstand next to the bed, grab the combat knife she would have dropped there and go take a peek.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker A:We'll get back to you.
Speaker A:Prentice, what do you do when you go back to your hotel room?
Speaker D:Just gonna take a shower.
Speaker D:Go to bed.
Speaker A:The moment your head hits the pillow, sleep takes you away with startling clarity.
Speaker A:You've seen flashes of your past, your present memories shuffled through by some invisible hand.
Speaker A:Suddenly you're sitting back at school.
Speaker A:You're.
Speaker A:You're taking some test.
Speaker A:They were all.
Speaker A:They were all pretty easy for you.
Speaker A:You don't really recall which one, but you remember this one being particularly important.
Speaker A:Something that was gonna get you, well, hopefully past a few classes and maybe out a semester early.
Speaker A:It was actually one of the more important ones.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:You remember that day now.
Speaker A:You actually studied.
Speaker A:You look around and you realize this isn't the same room you took this test in.
Speaker A:As your eyes tear from these familiar questions, it's not a well lit room.
Speaker A:It's a cold, damp basement.
Speaker A:It's lit by a single flickering candle.
Speaker A:The forms of students that you thought you saw in your peripheral vision are gone.
Speaker A:The general outline of your professor, her outline is gone as well.
Speaker A:You hear a steady drip of water in the distance and you feel panic starting to rise in Your chest.
Speaker A:Real panic.
Speaker A:You hear something behind you, the sound of something large.
Speaker A:A giant, slick, wet bulk shuffling up and down a set of concrete stairs.
Speaker A:Concentrating on your work is.
Speaker A:Is all you want to do.
Speaker A:And you look back down at the paper, but it's near impossible.
Speaker A:The words, the numbers, they.
Speaker A:They swirl before your eyes.
Speaker A:No matter how much you try to turn to see what that is behind you going up, down the stairs, just cannot do so.
Speaker A:There's a fluttering in your mind now.
Speaker A:There's a level above this terrible basement.
Speaker A:There are things tearing at each other, screeching, moving through the air at impossible speeds.
Speaker A:And as if in response, the thing shuffling up and down the stairs starts to quicken its sickening gait.
Speaker A:The panic in your chest is so strong now that it's all you can feel.
Speaker A:Your teeth are gritting together with an incredible pain.
Speaker A:You feel blood pull at the edges of your mouth and drip onto the test in front of you.
Speaker A:Roll your sanity, please.
Speaker D:No projection.
Speaker A:You wake.
Speaker A:You're filled with an unshakable dread.
Speaker A:You look behind you at the wall of the hotel, at a pastoral painting of a small farmhouse surrounded by purple flowers.
Speaker A:The rain is coming down like you would not believe outside, but a the room above you.
Speaker A:You hear the clacking of talents pacing back and forth on those floorboards, back and forth.
Speaker A:Every once in a while you think you hear the beating of wings, as if shaking droplets of water off an.
Speaker D:Umbrella apprentice will grab his gun and curl up around it, basically ready to shoot if anything comes in.
Speaker A:Paris, what do you do in your hotel room?
Speaker C:Well, fuck all that.
Speaker C:He goes to IHOP and drinks all the coffee and never goes to sleep again.
Speaker A:Got it.
Speaker A:Very wise.
Speaker D:Very meta wise how to play this game.
Speaker C:That's how that works.
Speaker A:I heard what happened to the others.
Speaker A:I'm not going to sleep.
Speaker A:No way.
Speaker C:Hard pass.
Speaker C:That's a hard pass.
Speaker C:No, no.
Speaker C:He.
Speaker C:So Paris is gonna go back to hotel.
Speaker C:He.
Speaker C:He, you know, takes a shower, gets him some clean clothes.
Speaker C:He's.
Speaker D:Undergarments, you mean?
Speaker C:Yes, his under undergarments.
Speaker C:He does an inventory of his gear.
Speaker C:Paris.
Speaker C:In his mind, the shit is gonna go down and it's gonna go down today.
Speaker C:So he's gonna go through all of his gear, make sure everything is functioning as it should.
Speaker C:I was trying to figure out if there's.
Speaker C:If there's like a thing that marines call that or soldiers call that when like, hey, I'm gonna just do a check of all my gear, make sure everything's working as it's supposed to, but.
Speaker A:I'm sure there isn't.
Speaker A:You know, it's a personal inspection for all intents and purposes.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, going through making sure you're in reg.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Basically he knows.
Speaker C:He's got a really good sense that it sounds like he's going to be going into combat potentially within the next 12 to 24 hours.
Speaker C:So he does everything he needs to do to prepare for that.
Speaker A:As you are a special operator, just like our agent Kane.
Speaker A:You can roll a firearms for any sidearm that you brought with you into the basement.
Speaker C:That would be a.
Speaker A:It's a failure.
Speaker A:You know, you probably need to go ahead and get it looked at before you fire it.
Speaker A:Yeah, probably by a good gunsmith or expert.
Speaker A:And you make a mental note that.
Speaker C:You don't use this.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, you know, it'll be a backup.
Speaker A:So that shouldn't be your primary.
Speaker C:No, no, my primary will.
Speaker C:Will.
Speaker C:I'm gonna go back to my M4 with the breaching charge launcher on it and do a once over on that one.
Speaker C:Make sure that's still in clean operating, oiled, happy order.
Speaker A:Yeah, no problem.
Speaker A:That doesn't take you too long.
Speaker C:Well, outside of that, he fuck.
Speaker C:He lies down in bed and closes his eyes to go to sleep.
Speaker A:Yeah, he gets some sweet, sweet Z's, boy, does he?
Speaker A:Because immediately as sleep overtakes his consciousness, he begins experiencing visions of incredible clarity.
Speaker A:You're at an exquisite banquet dinner.
Speaker A:You're surrounded by friends, loved ones, guys from your unit, guys from your boot camp.
Speaker A:It seems like everybody's here.
Speaker A:They're all happy, laughing, toasting to you and to each other.
Speaker A:You're filled with a kind of joyful exuberance.
Speaker A:You look down and faceless waitstaff brings you a juicy, succulent steak.
Speaker A:A giant ribeye with a thick rind of fat.
Speaker A:You begin meticulously cutting the steak into bite sized pieces.
Speaker A:Finally, you place the first piece of steak into your mouth.
Speaker A:You realize something.
Speaker A:It hits you like you should have known it before.
Speaker A:You don't have any teeth.
Speaker A:Your gums close down on this delicious piece of steak, but it just falls from your toothless maw back onto the plate.
Speaker A:In fact, no matter how purposefully or desperately you try to mash down on this meat, you.
Speaker A:You can't chew it.
Speaker A:You're struggling.
Speaker A:You hear laughter.
Speaker A:You look up, you see your friends.
Speaker A:You see your loved ones.
Speaker A:You see your brothers in arms.
Speaker A:They're widely smiling, healthy teeth on full display.
Speaker A:They're all clearly mocking you.
Speaker A:Mocking you for your own lack of teeth.
Speaker A:Some of them Even reach down, pick up your steak with their hands, and just tear a nice big chunk out of it.
Speaker A:Others begin to laugh as your pitiful attempts to chew your steak yield nothing.
Speaker A:Your belly growls starts to make loud and uncomfortable noises.
Speaker A:You feel pangs of hunger even in this state.
Speaker A:You know, Paris.
Speaker A:You know that these people have stolen your teeth and they're now mocking you.
Speaker A:These are your own teeth in their mouths.
Speaker A:You walk around and you ask for help.
Speaker A:You beg, you cajole, you threaten, trying to reacquire your teeth.
Speaker A:But you're cast aside.
Speaker A:You're pushed back.
Speaker A:You're so weak, all of your overtures are met with mockery, derision, and laughter.
Speaker A:You wake as this derisive laughter reaches a deafening cacophony.
Speaker A:Your jaw just aches as though you have been grinding your teeth all night.
Speaker A:Go ahead and roll your sanity, please.
Speaker C:Nah.
Speaker C:Do I have to?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Helplessness.
Speaker E:These were all helplessness, by the way, your helplessness.
Speaker C:Do I have all my teeth?
Speaker C:I check my teeth.
Speaker C:Paris immediately checks his teeth.
Speaker C:Does he have.
Speaker C:He counts them all.
Speaker C:They're all there.
Speaker A:There's actually redness around the bottom of some of your teeth, as if you have indeed been grinding them.
Speaker C:Fun, fun times.
Speaker A:Grinding them to the point where you were drawing blood, loosening them enough for blood to draw.
Speaker C:Hence the sanity roll.
Speaker C:There you go.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:Did you want to potentially project any loss or let it ride?
Speaker C:No, no, no.
Speaker C:Project.
Speaker C:Let it ride.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker C:It's so hot now I really want to go visit the dentist.
Speaker A:With that being said, you hear a rhythmic thumping at your door, heard over the incredible downpour of rain.
Speaker A:This is the door to the outside balcony, not your front hotel door.
Speaker C:He carefully gets out of bed, grabs his M4, and attempts to attempt to look outside the window and see if he can see anything.
Speaker A:Agent King, Agent Paris, Agent Ryan.
Speaker A:When you look outside your balcony door, moving the curtain, you see dozens of fat, brown toads, their slick skin gleaming in the moonlight.
Speaker A:They're splashing through the downpour on your balcony, piling atop one another, scrambling from place to place as if in a frenzy.
Speaker B:What the heck?
Speaker E:Ryan is gonna just walk through?
Speaker E:Kind of intrigued, pretty freaked out.
Speaker E:But watch it.
Speaker C:Paris sees it, tries to.
Speaker C:First thing he does is try to acknowledge or try to ascertain if there's any immediate threat of toads entering his hotel room.
Speaker C:Again, he's rolled sanity.
Speaker C:So this is where he's at right now.
Speaker C:Then proceeds to look past the toads to see if there's anything, you know, beyond the toads.
Speaker A:Very Very fun phrase for me to hear.
Speaker A:Yeah, you look inside, directly inside the doorway to see if any toads are in your hotel room.
Speaker A:Does not appear.
Speaker A:So they are mindlessly jumping on top of one another, scrambling outside of that door on the balcony.
Speaker A:The balcony itself is not attached to adjoining balconies.
Speaker A:It's kind of your own tiny little balcony there.
Speaker A:And you can even see through the railing of this balcony, some of the toads are falling off balance and then falling off the balcony to presumably their deaths below.
Speaker C:Dope, I guess.
Speaker C:I guess.
Speaker C:Well, Paris is going to move the curtains back, pull a chair up, and just sit there watching these toads throw themselves against the glass and fall off the balcony to their death.
Speaker A:After about an hour, the frenzy dies down.
Speaker A:Take another peek, and there's still a good amount of toads out there, but they're kind of sitting and not moving as quickly or as frenzied, their little throats expanding and contracting as rain pelts down upon them.
Speaker A:Agent Kane, is there anything that's.
Speaker A:That you're doing?
Speaker B:She's going to double check the lock on the balcony door, grab her earplugs, and go back to bed.
Speaker A:Sleep takes you this time.
Speaker A:It is a dreamless, thankfully dreamless sleep.
Speaker B:Enough to get some willpower back.
Speaker E:Ryan's only going to watch it for, like, three to five minutes before establishing that it's just weirdness.
Speaker E:And go back to sleep.
Speaker E:I wanted to get that go back to sleep part in there, in case that wasn't you.
Speaker A:Go ahead and put the pillow over your head.
Speaker A:And sleep does take you.
Speaker A:It's a pleasantly void, like sleep.
Speaker C:Paris does not go back to sleep.
Speaker C:So I know I'm probably gonna take a hit, but I don't think he.
Speaker A:The next scene, it's all four of you at a diner nearby.
Speaker A:You're the only ones there at this early hour.
Speaker A:You're all there a bit earlier than you said you were going to meet.
Speaker A:Paris said, hey, let's meet early.
Speaker A:Everyone seemed amenable to that, just due to the disruptions of the prior evening.
Speaker A:So you're sitting there nursing coffee and certain breakfast items that you prefer more or less alone with a waitress who does not seem concerned with your conversation, getting things ready for what is presumably a late morning Sunday crowd.
Speaker D:Everybody sleep okay?
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:No, I did not.
Speaker E:Great.
Speaker E:Ryan's not any more forthcoming than that.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:Apprentice just is pushing the food around on his plate, and she kind of says, yeah, me neither.
Speaker C:We need to get this sorted out real quick.
Speaker E:Yeah, it feels like a lot of Weirdness in this.
Speaker E:This town.
Speaker E:I'm ready to get the fuck out of here.
Speaker E:Prentice, you said that tonight's the night.
Speaker D:That's right.
Speaker D:We have till tonight.
Speaker E:All right.
Speaker C:We need to be.
Speaker C:We need to be extra cautious here.
Speaker C:I don't know how y'all are feeling, but I think there's a target on our backs.
Speaker C:Clearly.
Speaker E:I.
Speaker E:I also have a feeling that whatever power that's going on here, either it knows that we're trying to get in its way, or we stumbled in its way, and it's not too happy with this, but either way, let's.
Speaker E:Let's figure this out.
Speaker E:So last night, we.
Speaker E:We had talked about going to visit the dentist.
Speaker D:Flapping last night.
Speaker D:Did y'all hear that?
Speaker D:Flapping, flapping, flapping.
Speaker B:No, Lots of.
Speaker B:Lots of toads outside trying to slam through my door.
Speaker B:But no.
Speaker B:No flapping or nothing.
Speaker E:Yeah, I had the toads, too.
Speaker E:I wasn't sure if it was real, though.
Speaker A:Prentiss, you hear some intense flapping sounds just on cue.
Speaker A:You can't believe it.
Speaker A:Your mind is suddenly starting to just try to piece things together.
Speaker A:And you look over to your left, and you see the waitress looks.
Speaker A:Just taken some bar rags out of a small heated dryer, and she's clapping them in the air and loosening dust off of them.
Speaker A:Kind of dirty, but very cinematic.
Speaker E:Chris.
Speaker A:The sound is.
Speaker A:It's like nails on a chalkboard, and you cannot believe it's happening at this exact moment.
Speaker A:Something's messing with you.
Speaker D:Prentice goes, excuse me, miss.
Speaker A:She looks over.
Speaker A:Yes, honey, you need some more coffee.
Speaker D:Do you mind not doing that right now?
Speaker D:Trying to have a conversation.
Speaker D:It's very annoying.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:She puts the bar rag down.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker A:Looks a little confused.
Speaker C:Look, I completely forgot what I was about to say.
Speaker C:Shit.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:I said a whole inspirational speech that Paris is about to give that's ready to pump us all up and say, hey, we gotta fight through this.
Speaker C:This is what we deal with.
Speaker C:There it is.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker A:Oh, my God.
Speaker C:Let me sort of go ahead and leave that one in.
Speaker C:Yeah, just.
Speaker C:Just.
Speaker C:Just hang me out there.
Speaker C:It's fine.
Speaker C:This.
Speaker C:This is.
Speaker C:We need to move fast.
Speaker C:This is what this is.
Speaker C:This is what we signed up for.
Speaker C:This is how it goes.
Speaker C:We need to assume whatever we're about to face knows we're coming and knows we're trying to stop whatever he's trying to do.
Speaker C:So what's the game plan here, everybody?
Speaker C:What's the move?
Speaker D:We got to fight.
Speaker D:We got to find where.
Speaker D:Where this guy was where his bones are.
Speaker E:And there wasn't any indication in that.
Speaker E:And whatever happened with you?
Speaker D:No.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker D:Just in the Pioneer Valley some.
Speaker C:What are the leads we got.
Speaker C:What do we got here?
Speaker C:We've got the.
Speaker C:What was her name again?
Speaker A:Janet Pounce.
Speaker C:Yeah, I got it, Chris.
Speaker C:We've got Janet.
Speaker D:We gotta find her and keep her from whatever we need to find.
Speaker C:We need to find Janet as quickly as possible.
Speaker D:If they can't kill her, then they.
Speaker E:Well, that's the thing.
Speaker E:They're gonna bring her to wherever the bones are.
Speaker D:So we gotta find.
Speaker E:7:00Am let's give her a call and see where she's at.
Speaker E:Maybe she wants to go for a hike.
Speaker E:That nut.
Speaker B:I mean, she's been hiking every day, so it's a safe bet she's out there.
Speaker C:Yeah, we could.
Speaker C:We could go post maybe.
Speaker C:Maybe we could post up at the parking lot to the entrance of the hiking trails and see if she comes through.
Speaker C:I mean, I don't know if we want to engage her directly or do we want to let this thing play out and follow her.
Speaker D:There's no reason to believe that where.
Speaker C:It'S going to happen, this is happening.
Speaker D:To her that we know of.
Speaker D:All we know is they're going to sacrifice her.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker D:I mean, I hate to say it.
Speaker C:But if we pull her out of this, we're not going to find the people who are perpetrating this.
Speaker C:I don't want to say we should use her as bait, but we should at least tail her.
Speaker D:I mean, she is bait.
Speaker C:If.
Speaker D:If we come to her, they'll have to come to us to get her and.
Speaker D:And they'll try.
Speaker B:There is that.
Speaker B:We do know that she's been going in the same place every day.
Speaker E:Why don't we give her a call, see if she's going to be there.
Speaker E:Tell her that we really like the.
Speaker E:The hike.
Speaker E:Sorry, there's an airplane.
Speaker E:Let me take a second.
Speaker C:How close are you to the airport in Dallas?
Speaker C:Very next to love.
Speaker E:Yeah, like a mile from love.
Speaker C:Yeah, Very, very close.
Speaker E:And a mile in airport time.
Speaker E:Airplane time is very small.
Speaker C:Nice, like dog years, but fast.
Speaker E:Anyway.
Speaker E:Fuck.
Speaker E:What the fuck was I just saying?
Speaker E:Oh, yeah.
Speaker E:Why don't we just give her a call, tell her that we like the hike.
Speaker E:We're thinking about going back out there, see if she was going to be there as well.
Speaker E:Boom.
Speaker C:I mean, pleasant.
Speaker C:My only concern.
Speaker C:My only concern there is.
Speaker C:I mean, yeah, like I said, they know we're coming, but then that's just us telling them, hey, we're about to walk into your.
Speaker C:She does party here.
Speaker E:Oh.
Speaker E:Because they can.
Speaker B:We get there.
Speaker C:Get there ahead of her.
Speaker E:I think that if I were a being trying to resurrect myself, I would be as stick with the plan as I could be.
Speaker C:We could.
Speaker C:We could.
Speaker C:If we're.
Speaker C:If we're confident that we know where this is taking place, we could try to get there now ahead of them and set up in advance.
Speaker C:But if we're wrong about the location, we only have one shot at this.
Speaker C:We don't get a do over here unless Chris decides to let us redo the recording.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:No loads, no reloads.
Speaker B:What if two of us go on ahead and two of you contact her and stick with her, Split the party.
Speaker C:My only thought was, I mean, Amber's idea of, like, getting there ahead of them and, like, setting up, like.
Speaker C:I mean, you know, my character is a Marine, right?
Speaker C:So I don't know, climb up in a tree and throw on a ghillie suit and put some mines in the.
Speaker E:Ground if we have them or some shit.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And just to let y'all know, they've had 289 years to prepare.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:But I've seen Home Alone, and so I know.
Speaker D:Legos.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker E:Looks like Price is ready to go.
Speaker B:Toy store on the way out.
Speaker C:Okay, maybe that's not the.
Speaker C:Okay, maybe going out there first is not the best idea.
Speaker C:Maybe if we did have Janet, we're not gonna have her on board because she's clearly compromised.
Speaker C:Yeah, Right.
Speaker C:She's got happy teeth and is hearing radios in her head, so she's doing great.
Speaker C:But she can lead us to the location of where this is gonna go down.
Speaker C:We need to.
Speaker D:She could absolutely lead us there because she's done so much research.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:I mean.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So no matter what, you need to find her and either.
Speaker C:Either work with her directly or.
Speaker C:Or tail her and follow her.
Speaker C:One of those two things has to happen, Right.
Speaker C:Unless I'm misleading the situation.
Speaker C:So then we need to be on.
Speaker E:Her like, you know, loads on a stone.
Speaker C:Oh, man.
Speaker C:What are those saying?
Speaker C:Loads on it.
Speaker C:Like, look like.
Speaker C:Like, we need to be on her.
Speaker C:Like, loads on a stone.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker A:Jesus Christ.
Speaker D:We don't specifically know where the guy died, but we can just tell her we'd like to be shown where he died so that we know even if they don't try to take her then and there, we at least know where it's at.
Speaker C:I think someone needs to be tracking down Janet as quickly as possible as well.
Speaker A:Do you Want to pick up the phone, Paris, and give her a call?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Thank you for reminding me.
Speaker A:No problem.
Speaker C:How about I just give her.
Speaker C:How about I just give her a call right now and see how she's doing?
Speaker E:Wow.
Speaker E:That's a phenomenal idea.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:I have my moments.
Speaker C:Paris picks up the phone and gives her a call.
Speaker A:After a few rings, Janet picks up.
Speaker A:You can hear heavy rainfall in the background.
Speaker C:Hello, Janet.
Speaker C:How are you?
Speaker G:Oh, hi.
Speaker G:I'm good.
Speaker C:Hey, we had.
Speaker C:We had such a good time hiking with you the other day.
Speaker C:We were wondering if you had plans on heading back out in that direction again today.
Speaker G:Yeah, I've been camping out here.
Speaker G:I'm actually out on the MM Trail right now.
Speaker G:Or off of it.
Speaker C:Oh, okay.
Speaker C:How would you feel if we swung by and did some more hiking with you?
Speaker C:If you wouldn't mind showing us around a little bit more.
Speaker C:The wilderness.
Speaker C:You seem to know so much about it and have such an enthusiasm for it.
Speaker G:Mm, yeah, maybe.
Speaker G:What time are you thinking?
Speaker C:I mean, you know, whatever's good for you.
Speaker C:We're just wrapping up breakfast now.
Speaker C:Don't have any concrete plans at the moment.
Speaker D:Mm.
Speaker C:Whereabouts.
Speaker C:Whereabouts are you again?
Speaker G:Oh, I'm off the MM trail.
Speaker G:The Metacomet Monadnock Trail?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Could you be more.
Speaker C:Could you be more specific if we wanted to come find you?
Speaker G:Yeah, I'm pretty close to some of the places we visited.
Speaker G:Pretty close to some of those places.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Hey, Janet.
Speaker C:Are you doing okay?
Speaker G:Oh, I don't think I got much sleep last night.
Speaker G:It got.
Speaker G:It got.
Speaker G:The weather was pretty bad.
Speaker C:Gotcha.
Speaker C:Well, hey, tell you what.
Speaker C:We'll.
Speaker C:We'll plan on catching up with you in a little bit.
Speaker C:Kind of covers the phone.
Speaker C:It's like.
Speaker C:Is there anything else I should say to her right now?
Speaker C:Like we have any questions.
Speaker B:Does she want us to bring her coffee?
Speaker C:Hey, Janet, do you want some.
Speaker C:Want some coffee?
Speaker C:We could bring you some.
Speaker G:No, I.
Speaker G:I don't drink coffee.
Speaker G:What.
Speaker G:What did you say again?
Speaker G:You wanted to come out here and meet me?
Speaker C:Yeah, like I said, we just had a great time hiking.
Speaker C:We wanted to do some more hiking around the back.
Speaker C:The woods out there.
Speaker C:You seem to have a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm for the space.
Speaker G:When did you want to come?
Speaker C:Well, tell you what.
Speaker C:What would be best for you?
Speaker G:I don't know.
Speaker G:I think I lost some of my gear.
Speaker G:I can't seem to find my watch.
Speaker G:I guess I can just look at my phone.
Speaker C:Hey, it sounds like you had a night.
Speaker C:Tell you what, Willa, I'm having a.
Speaker G:Hard time reading it.
Speaker C:Your phone.
Speaker C:Gotcha.
Speaker C:Okay, you're having a hard time reading your phone.
Speaker C:Paris says it's, like, to the table, kind of looking around.
Speaker G:I think there's water on it.
Speaker C:Yeah, Paris puts it on speakerphone, puts it on the table.
Speaker C:You said there's, like, no one in the diner, right?
Speaker C:And, like, the witches were very uninterested in whatever we got going on.
Speaker A:There's actually several imagesic.
Speaker A:12 agents in the booth right next to it.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker C:They're cool, cool, cool.
Speaker D:They're with us, so.
Speaker C:Hey, guys, check this out.
Speaker C:Put on speakerphone.
Speaker C:We'll tell you what, we'll start heading that way, see if we can catch up with you, and we'll, you know, we'll bring you some coffee and get you covered.
Speaker C:Oh, you don't drink coffee.
Speaker C:That's right.
Speaker G:I don't like coffee.
Speaker B:I want some tea.
Speaker C:We'll bring you some water, get you sorted out.
Speaker C:How's that?
Speaker G:There's a lot of water already.
Speaker A:Her voice quavers as if she's afraid.
Speaker B:We'll bring you some tea.
Speaker B:Sugar.
Speaker B:How's that sound?
Speaker G:No, I don't want tea or sugar.
Speaker D:Are you okay?
Speaker A:The phone clicks off.
Speaker B:Is it?
Speaker D:Let's get out there on the MM trail as soon as possible.
Speaker C:Yeah, I think we need to move.
Speaker B:Yeah, forget about the dentist.
Speaker B:I think we need to get to her now.
Speaker A:Before we go to that scene, I just want to ask y'all how.
Speaker A:What the plan is to find her out there in the wilderness.
Speaker D:Well, we went on the trail the other day yesterday, and so I assumed we'd follow the same trail we were on and look for the same markers to find the general area that we.
Speaker D:Areas that we visited.
Speaker A:Gotcha.
Speaker A:So y'all are going to do your best to try to retread yesterday's ground when you were barely keeping up with.
Speaker A:With Janet.
Speaker D:Correct?
Speaker A:Is that correct?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I just want to let all of your characters know and you know, that you are all fuzzy on.
Speaker A:On the directions because of some failed Constitution rules.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker A:But we'll get a chance to roll survival.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:So, I mean, she.
Speaker C:She did give us a.
Speaker C:I guess.
Speaker C:I guess she didn't give us very clear direction.
Speaker C:She just said, like, she's off the trail near those locations.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:You don't know where she is either?
Speaker A:Is she near the locations?
Speaker C:Well, that's what she said.
Speaker C:I mean.
Speaker C:Well, we got.
Speaker C:We have what she told us, which is she's off the trail near those locations.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:Y'all will have A chance to rediscover those locations with a roll.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:Is all I'm letting you know.
Speaker A:That's what it's going to come down to since y'all don't know exactly where it is.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker E:So Chris, am I understanding correctly what you're saying is we are in the day of the finale of this campaign and we will have a series of rolls to determine whether or not we waste the day.
Speaker A:Basically, I wanted Shaal to understand you don't know where she is and you don't know how to find those places exactly.
Speaker A:But you can kind of wander around and hopefully remember by going down some of those obvious trails and then some of the off the beaten path places if you're able to see them.
Speaker A:And that will depend on survival rules.
Speaker A:So it's if, if you knew exactly where she was, I think we'd be in a better spot.
Speaker A:I'm just letting you guys know you actually don't know exactly where she is.
Speaker E:Can we text her asking her to share her location?
Speaker A:Yes, you can.
Speaker C:Yeah, I think what it's.
Speaker C:Chris, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's coming down to like, it could take us an hour to find it or it could take us like eight hours to find it.
Speaker A:Of like one or you may not find her at all because you don't know where she is.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I shoot her a text to say, hey, can you give me.
Speaker C:Would you mind giving me like dropping a pin?
Speaker E:Just share your location.
Speaker C:A pin.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:Yeah, just share location.
Speaker C:Drop a pin for us.
Speaker A:After a few minutes, you receive this back.
Speaker C:Oh, just.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker D:Oh, no.
Speaker D:It's not even a tasteful nude.
Speaker C:Actually, here's a question, Chris does is.
Speaker C:What do we got?
Speaker C:I got three unnatural.
Speaker C:I guess I'm like, is this a thing I would.
Speaker C:Paris would recognize?
Speaker C:I guess not.
Speaker C:Probably.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's a bunch of eyes and A's.
Speaker A:I I, Right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:You can roll a natural for anything though.
Speaker C:I mean, let's find out if he's running.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's a bunch of eyes and a's, one after the other.
Speaker B:That's odd.
Speaker A:E, Aw.
Speaker D:E.
Speaker D:Aw.
Speaker D:Like that.
Speaker C:Hmm.
Speaker C:Here's an idea.
Speaker C:What if we go to the local Best Buy or Walmart and purchase a short distance drone with a camera and fly it up and see if we can help ourselves find something from the sky.
Speaker D:Sure.
Speaker D:That's a novel solution.
Speaker C:Save ourselves time because I imagine some ruins would be sticking.
Speaker C:Well, here's a question.
Speaker A:I love that idea.
Speaker A:So Much.
Speaker A:But the heavy downpour is not going to allow your drone to function properly.
Speaker C:That's right.
Speaker C:Weather.
Speaker C:Got it.
Speaker A:No, that's a great idea, though.
Speaker D:Looks like we're down to some rolls, people.
Speaker B:So we can still get back to the dentist?
Speaker B:Yes, we can still go back to the library.
Speaker D:The guy who's the historical guy, Zeke, did say that Benjamin ain't dead and he's gonna wear Janet pound out something along those lines so he would know.
Speaker B:Let's turn on the radio.
Speaker B:Honestly, we talked about calling in.
Speaker B:One of us should try.
Speaker A:You guys don't have a phone number for the ghost radio station.
Speaker E:All right, let's go in the wilderness.
Speaker E:How about we stop by the dentist office on the way to see if there's anyone around?
Speaker E:If this is a big night, maybe they're doing some prep at the dentist's.
Speaker B:Sounds like a plan.
Speaker A:It's still fairly early in the morning.
Speaker A:Sun's barely cresting over the horizon.
Speaker A:So as you finish up your breakfasts, finish up your coffee, pack into your gmc, you make your way to the address of Perlisle White's Dentistry.
Speaker A:As you approach the building, you can see that it is a residence that's been converted or at least used for this business purpose.
Speaker C:This is a house.
Speaker C:Basically a neighborhood.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:So two story.
Speaker A:A two story red brick building serves as the storefront or the business front and office of this dentist.
Speaker A:There's a elegantly painted sign outside on the lawn, but no indication that it is currently bustling.
Speaker A:Now it is again, early in the morning on a Sunday.
Speaker D:Okay, what's.
Speaker D:What's the plan?
Speaker C:Is there any sign that anyone's there?
Speaker E:There any cars parked near, like in the drive or the parking lot?
Speaker A:Yeah, visually, there is no sign that anybody is there.
Speaker C:So no cars, no lights are on.
Speaker B:What are the signs on the door say?
Speaker A:Are you going to get out of the car, walk up to the front door?
Speaker B:I will.
Speaker A:You guys park the car in the driveway of the offices.
Speaker A:And Agent Kane asks to exit the vehicle, which she does, walks up to the front door.
Speaker A:There is no sign on the front door.
Speaker A:Now, there is a sign in the yard, as I mentioned, which does have the business hours.
Speaker A:There is nothing on Sunday or Monday.
Speaker A:You look through the windows of the front door, though, since you did walk up there, it is dark inside, but you see what looks like a kind of a messy waiting area.
Speaker A:Looks like there's a kid's puzzle on the ground and some Legos scattered about.
Speaker A:Lots of highlights, magazines.
Speaker A:See a administrator's desk nearby.
Speaker A:With glass separating it from the rest of the waiting room, but otherwise, you don't see any activity.
Speaker A:Go ahead and roll your alertness, please.
Speaker B:That is a critical success.
Speaker B:At 22 under 50, you hear, however.
Speaker A:Very, very slight sound of what sounds like dental work being performed.
Speaker A:Drilling, in fact, coming from inside.
Speaker A:Maybe the second story.
Speaker B:I'm gonna turn back to the car, stand where I am, and wait for the boys to join me.
Speaker E:Ryan will get out and join her.
Speaker C:Paris does as well.
Speaker A:All right, you guys close up the car.
Speaker A:Go join Agent Kane after she beckons you forward.
Speaker B:So I don't know about y'all, but listen, I'm.
Speaker B:It sounds to me like somebody's doing.
Speaker D:Dental work in there, so knock on.
Speaker D:The apprentice knocks on the door.
Speaker B:How about we try the handle first?
Speaker D:Okay, fine.
Speaker A:It's locked.
Speaker A:No one answers when you knock.
Speaker C:How difficult would it be to break open this lock or just force it open?
Speaker A:There's a window, in your estimation?
Speaker A:Not too difficult, because, yeah, there's a window right next to the.
Speaker A:To the handle there.
Speaker A:However, your eyes alight on what is obviously an alarm system attached to the window here.
Speaker A:Looks like it's set up specifically for that purpose as a deterrent.
Speaker B:Back door, maybe.
Speaker C:If there were, like, a.
Speaker C:It's a bit, you know, this being like, a business thing.
Speaker C:If there's an external breaker to the house, would that also.
Speaker C:Would that trip an alarm system, or would that actually deactivate the alarm system?
Speaker A:Craft electronics.
Speaker A:Go ahead and roll.
Speaker C:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker A:Or if you have any special training in, you know, burglary systems or security systems, you can roll that as well.
Speaker E:Criminology.
Speaker E:Fond of that at all?
Speaker E:Hey, no, I don't think so.
Speaker A:Yeah, criminology is a decent role.
Speaker A:I'll take it.
Speaker A:It'll just be a minus.
Speaker A:No, actually, I'm good with a full.
Speaker A:A full roll on that.
Speaker C:Hey, Chris, Paris is like, it.
Speaker E:You're damn right you'll take it.
Speaker E:90 out of 61.
Speaker C:Paris says to the group.
Speaker C:Paris is like, hey, there's an alarm system on this.
Speaker C:I don't think we can force it, but maybe we could kill power to the building if there's a breaker.
Speaker C:I don't know if that's gonna trip the alarm system or deactivate it.
Speaker C:So that's a.
Speaker B:Can I try criminology as well, Chris?
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:Nope.
Speaker B:That is a fail at 75 over 50.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What Paris does sounds about right.
Speaker A:I mean, who knows?
Speaker A:Alarm systems are weird.
Speaker D:This is a lot cheaper than my system, but my system's got a Battery for situations like when power goes out.
Speaker B:Maybe there's a back door we can get in through.
Speaker B:I mean, it looks like a house.
Speaker D:So just any knocks again, louder this time.
Speaker A:No answer.
Speaker A:No one comes to the door.
Speaker C:I'll check for the back door.
Speaker C:Paris heads around the side.
Speaker A:Yeah, there's absolutely a back door and a small patio beyond.
Speaker A:An unlocked privacy fence.
Speaker A:And yes, there is a locked door back here.
Speaker A:It is also glass and it is also rigged in the same way.
Speaker C:Is he from where Paris is at now?
Speaker C:He kind of looks up the second floor.
Speaker C:Does he see any movement from this vantage?
Speaker C:Any lights?
Speaker C:Any sounds?
Speaker C:Anything?
Speaker A:Roll your alertness.
Speaker C:74 out of 50, that's a fail.
Speaker A:You don't see any movement at all.
Speaker A:You don't hear any sound from this side of the building.
Speaker C:Paris heads back to the front.
Speaker C:Say it's the.
Speaker C:Yeah, same situation on the back.
Speaker C:Alarm rigged like, locked door.
Speaker B:Well, there's gotta be a number on the sign out in the yard.
Speaker B:Maybe you could give that a call, Paris.
Speaker B:See if anybody answers.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker A:You call the number and it goes to an answering service.
Speaker F:Thank you for calling Purlisle White Dentistry.
Speaker F:We are not available to take your call at this time.
Speaker F: -: Speaker F:We will open again Tuesday at 7:30am thank you.
Speaker C:Paris says fuck it and texts the emergency number.
Speaker A:You are called back within about 30 seconds.
Speaker A:There is a cheery woman's voice on the other end.
Speaker F:Hello, this is Dr.
Speaker F:Perlisle's emergency page line.
Speaker F:Are you okay?
Speaker C:No, no, I'm not okay.
Speaker C:I was just on a car.
Speaker C:I'm sorry, guys, I don't have to phone calls.
Speaker D:Please continue.
Speaker A:I was loving it.
Speaker E:Keep going with it.
Speaker E:We did not commit though.
Speaker C:Okay?
Speaker C:Steph.
Speaker C:Such a hard time, man.
Speaker C:I'm breaking my balls back.
Speaker E:John.
Speaker E:I'm sorry, buddy.
Speaker C:All right?
Speaker C:Unless I hear her laying so raw, I need Texas now.
Speaker C:Sorry.
Speaker E:I was so good.
Speaker C:I'm peeking hard over here, by the way.
Speaker C:Sorry, Chris.
Speaker A:Dude, it's totally fine.
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:As long as you're not peaking during normal speech.
Speaker A:I've got it covered, bud.
Speaker A:You can peek when you laugh.
Speaker A:You can peek when you do horrible gum sounds.
Speaker A:You're good.
Speaker F:Sir, Sir, I'm so sorry to hear that.
Speaker F:Look, is there a reason you haven't called 911?
Speaker C:Well, I live right next to the dentist here.
Speaker F:Sir, we aren't open normally on Sundays.
Speaker F:However, we have been holding appointment only hours.
Speaker F:Just due to the volume of folks taking advantage of Dr.
Speaker F:Prolisle's newest special.
Speaker F:If you can wait a few hours, he'll be there and I can get you in.
Speaker F:But if you are having an emergency, you should go to the hospital.
Speaker C:I think I can wait a few hours.
Speaker C:I think it'll be.
Speaker C:How soon could he see me?
Speaker F:Let's see, his first appointment is at 11.
Speaker F:He typically gets in a bit earlier.
Speaker F:I can call him and see if.
Speaker F:If he can see you first thing.
Speaker C:Would you, sweetheart?
Speaker C:I'd appreciate that.
Speaker E:So good.
Speaker C:Dude, I hate.
Speaker C:I hate myself.
Speaker F:Yes, I'll arrange it with Dr.
Speaker F:Perlisle.
Speaker F: We'll see you around: Speaker F:In the meantime, it would be okay to take some ibuprofen up to 500mg and then we'll see what.
Speaker F:See what we can do for you.
Speaker C:Thank you so much.
Speaker A:All right, the call's ended.
Speaker E:Dude, that was so.
Speaker D:Well, picture Chris frantically googling how to treat emergency mouth situations.
Speaker A:Nope, just twirling my beard.
Speaker D:Oh, okay.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker E:That 500 milligrams sounded very pulled out of his ass.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was.
Speaker A:That was Web and D all the way.
Speaker C:I don't know why I thought, oh, my God.
Speaker C:After all that, Paris puts the phone down, looks up and just says, all right, we'll see him at 10 o'clock.
Speaker D:So we've got hours to kill.
Speaker D:Prentice puts his like two hours.
Speaker D:Second set of sunglasses on.
Speaker A:Actually, Prentice, I just checked your character sheet.
Speaker A:That's your third set.
Speaker D:Third set, yes.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm ascending.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're.
Speaker A:You're feeling some wood now on the bridge of your nose.
Speaker A:I'm gonna need you to roll a constitution to see if your nose can handle this much torque.
Speaker D:That's a lot of.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker D:Okay, here I go.
Speaker D:Oh, that's a fail.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Everyone hears a loud snap as his nose just falls to the ground.
Speaker A:All three of his sunglasses clatter with extremely loud thunks.
Speaker D:My best feature.
Speaker B:I think I got some dive tape we can put it back on with.
Speaker D:Anyways, back in character.
Speaker D:All right, so we got.
Speaker D:We've got several hours to kill.
Speaker D:Well, we got some research we can capitalize on, like finding out when the moon rises so that we could pinpoint.
Speaker D:We can put that little timer countdown on the edge of the screen of our minds.
Speaker E:We're calling that research.
Speaker A:The full moon should be visible before the sun goes down today.
Speaker A:Okay, that'll be.
Speaker A:That'll be around 4pm today.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker D:So we have to.
Speaker C:You're depriving us of going to the Local university.
Speaker C:Going to the astrology.
Speaker C:Astrology department.
Speaker C:Astronomy department.
Speaker A:What's chance?
Speaker D:Ooh, asparagus.
Speaker A:Yeah, not a good one.
Speaker A:So two hours?
Speaker E:Well, until the doctor shows up.
Speaker E:Chris.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker A:I'm just checking.
Speaker D:99 bottles of beer.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Is there.
Speaker A:Do you guys have any plan?
Speaker D:I mean, we could listen to hours of Z code.
Speaker D:Radio station.
Speaker A:Yes, you could definitely tune into WXXT if it's broadcasting.
Speaker E:That's correct.
Speaker C:We could also stake out this place if we've got nothing else to do.
Speaker C:Just block away, post it up, keep an eye on things.
Speaker C:Let's tune into our favorite radio station.
Speaker A:Yeah, so let's.
Speaker A:Let's assume we're going to tune into.
Speaker A:To our favorite radio station.
Speaker A:So are we going to stuff John's mouth full of gauze and, you know, throw some food coloring in there and then, like, carry him in?
Speaker A:All three of us, like, how are we.
Speaker A:What's our plan?
Speaker A:I'm just curious if y'all have thought.
Speaker A:Yeah, this is step two.
Speaker D:Periscope.
Speaker C:Hey, Chris, let me.
Speaker C:Let me.
Speaker C:Let me take that one then.
Speaker C:So, all right, I got us a woman at 10 o'clock.
Speaker C:What's the plan?
Speaker D:I've never knocked a tooth out, and I'd really like to try.
Speaker E:I don't know if that's necessary, but I think our goal here, obviously, is to find this dentist and call it jumping to a conclusion.
Speaker E:But I'm going to assume that he's one of the bad guys and could do with some questioning.
Speaker E:Maybe he'll have more information about what's going on tonight.
Speaker E:And if not, then, well, let's just see if he has some more information.
Speaker C:Do we think he would be.
Speaker C:I mean, I guess we got two options here.
Speaker C:We could either try to force the information out of him, assuming he has it, or stick around and wait for him to leave for the day, assuming he's going to go to this place.
Speaker E:I would go with the first one.
Speaker E:Because if he doesn't give us the right information, I think it's worthwhile to interrupt whatever trouble he could cause by removing him from that possibility.
Speaker C:Worst case, we have a aggressive conversation with him, and if it turns out he doesn't know anything, we just disappear.
Speaker E:Correct.
Speaker C:Before the police show up.
Speaker E:Correct.
Speaker C:Gotcha.
Speaker C:Well, then all the more reason to keep an eye on this place to see who else might be around.
Speaker D:So what.
Speaker D:And what do you want to do about your face?
Speaker E:We don't need to do that.
Speaker C:Oh, I think my face is perfect.
Speaker C:I don't know what we would do to it.
Speaker D:I mean, we could knock a tooth out.
Speaker D:That way it looks like.
Speaker D:That way it looks like you have a tooth problem.
Speaker C:I mean, we could go that far.
Speaker C:I figured we just let him open the door and then.
Speaker D:Yeah, but.
Speaker C:Walk in.
Speaker D:We got to make this look real.
Speaker C:Start.
Speaker C:But you really want to take a tooth out, don't you?
Speaker D:I've always wanted to.
Speaker D:It's on my bucket list.
Speaker D:Come on, man.
