Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 September 24th, 2007. 2:27 PM
Speaker 2 00:00:10 Hi you doing buddy. Get that tappy outta your braces. Yet my fighter flight response has been in full effect for three hours now Dad bodies are supposed to work this way. I mean, I don't know. I was married to your mother for 10 years. I hope she haunts you for doing this to me. It's not your birthday and it's people in face painting dumb shoes. Okay, relax. If you had, let me watch that damnedable Tim Curry abomination when I was five, we wouldn't be going through this right now. Old man suffer the consequences of your poor parenting <laugh>. Hey kids,
Speaker 2 00:01:00 Walk away. Bojo is that a Stu Gun in the immortal work of Teddy Roosevelt? Walk softly and carry 20,000 vol. How did you get a stunt gun and how did you get it into the adventure? Now carefully put that fucking thing away. You're scaring your sisters. I'm good. I'd love to see him pay as a clown. Keep me here for another hour and I'm sure you will. Can you imagine if that's what finally gets you sent to juvie? K. You're gonna get extorted in there man. Someone on the yard is gonna ask to see your paperwork and you'll have to be like, yeah, show I taste a clown at the adventure dome because I'm a total, I don't care if it's your birthday, I'll kill you enough. Five feet apart you two. Ellie, stand between 'em. They won't harm a civilian. Yes they will. Look, all we gotta do is take the stupid mascot picture and eat the stupid cake and then we'll go home. The what? No Kaylin.
Speaker 4 00:03:20 Hello everybody and welcome back to Compelled Dual Desert song. I'm Mel.
Speaker 0 00:03:26 And I'm Barry.
Speaker 4 00:03:28 And we are a single player co gmd, T T R P G podcast.
Speaker 0 00:03:34 Previously on compelled dual desert song.
Speaker 4 00:03:39 Uh, there's somebody here to see you.
Speaker 0 00:03:43 I don't want to be seen.
Speaker 4 00:03:47 So there's a basement show downtown that I really wanna go to, but Bailey and Lydia both have work in the morning and I cannot be trusted. Un chaperoned. Can I speed our car up? Like do I think I could do that and it would work? I feel like the effect is similar to like Cartoon Rocket, blasters, <laugh>.
Speaker 5 00:04:09 You know I don't take well to inattentive students. Mr. O'Connell, I'm gonna need you to stay after class. We need to discuss your recent absence.
Speaker 4 00:04:21 You know when someone is so attractive that for like a second your brain just turns into TV static
Speaker 0 00:04:30 Ha.
Speaker 4 00:04:32 Um, I'm Lola by the way. And then the fire alarm goes off.
Speaker 0 00:04:38 Damien, this is the guy in the smoking jacket kneels down next to you and extends his free hand. Michael Dossy.
Speaker 4 00:04:51 So, uh, how long have you been on dead?
Speaker 0 00:04:55 Do you just go places and play paranormal Sherlock homes? Like is this what you do on vacation?
Speaker 4 00:05:02 Only if an opportunity presents itself.
Speaker 0 00:05:06 You are fascinating to me. All you've been doing for the past several weeks is running for your lives, correct?
Speaker 4 00:05:16 Yeah, at least the last couple weeks.
Speaker 0 00:05:19 Wonderful. I need you to keep that in mind as I ask you the next question. How do you feel about a casino heist? And now it's time for end of session experience.
Speaker 4 00:05:37 Let's
Speaker 0 00:05:38 Start with team Damien,
Speaker 4 00:05:40 Did I conclude the current mystery
Speaker 0 00:05:43 Anew? You did not.
Speaker 4 00:05:45 Did we save someone from certain death or worse?
Speaker 0 00:05:49 I'll give you that cuz like Octavia would've died if you hadn't done the big magic. So
Speaker 4 00:05:56 Did we learn something new and important about the world?
Speaker 0 00:06:00 Yes.
Speaker 4 00:06:02 Did we learn something new and important about one of the hunters? We did have whatever that fucking flashback thing was.
Speaker 0 00:06:12 Yeah, yeah, fair point, fair point. I'll give you that one.
Speaker 4 00:06:16 Do do experience, uh, uh, uh,
Speaker 0 00:06:20 And we are doing end of session experience in lockstep on our teams. So everybody on team Damien is getting that two experience.
Speaker 4 00:06:30 And now for team K,
Speaker 0 00:06:33 Did we conclude the current mystery?
Speaker 4 00:06:36 No.
Speaker 0 00:06:38 Did we save someone from certain death or worse?
Speaker 4 00:06:42 Emphatically not.
Speaker 0 00:06:45 Did we learn something new and important about the world?
Speaker 4 00:06:49 I'm gonna say no on that one too just because the information you're going to learn about the world, this arc was not really offered last episode.
Speaker 0 00:07:01 Okay, well I know this one's gonna be a yes cuz it's always a yes because Ks and amnesia can always learning new things about themselves. Did I learn something new or important about one of the hunters?
Speaker 4 00:07:13 I would say that you emphatically learned something new about at least one of the hunters. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:07:18 Okay, bl I only get one experience and so does everybody on my team and now that we're all caught up on that front, let's get silly with it. Damien, we find you in a bit of an awkward position. You are standing in a lush opulent greenhouse filled to the brim with plants from all over the world. Outside the glass panels of this greenhouse, there is nothing something deeper than darkness, just the void of empty space. Next to you are Luke Johansen and Dahlia Amari Castillo Bennett wearing a very nicely pressed suit and cocktail dress respectively. You are also in a suit, have had a nice fresh haircut and standing in front of the group of you between you and the door into this greenhouse is famed TV personality and national treasure. Leslie Jordan.
Speaker 4 00:08:35 Okay sure.
Speaker 0 00:08:39 The beloved actor of Will and Grace fame is wearing pleated khakis and a crisp white button up shirt with a little like poker dealer's vest buttoned over it. He looks around at the three of you, his head to the side and goes, whale shit, I'm sorry it had to come to this. Y'all seem like such nice kids. And then he pulls out a
Speaker 4 00:09:06 Gun. GM's note, this does not reflect our feelings about the late great Leslie Jordan.
Speaker 0 00:09:19 So Damien, what are you doing?
Speaker 4 00:09:25 Does this greenhouse have like rafters?
Speaker 0 00:09:30 I know that if I say yes, the the next words out of your mouth are gonna be some of the wildest shit I've ever heard. So yes.
Speaker 4 00:09:39 Cool. I assume those rafters are made out of some sort of burnable or meltable material. I'm gonna look for a join and see if I can knock a rafter down into him.
Speaker 0 00:09:51 Well he's only four 11 and the ceiling's pretty high so you're gonna have to have good aim, act under pressure.
Speaker 4 00:10:01 Excellent. I get nothing to cool. Um, I don't know what the events leading up to this were exactly, but would we say that I'm dealing with the consequences of my own star casting? Maybe
Speaker 0 00:10:13 I cannot say that for sure. So no, you gotta roll it flat.
Speaker 4 00:10:17 Cool. It was worth asking. That is a 10 to knock a rafter into, into comedy legend Leslie Jordan
Speaker 0 00:10:31 And t a 10 plus. You do what you set out to do. You melted one of the rafters out of this greenhouse and bring it crashing down upon Leslie Jordan's head behind you. Luke cries out. Wait, stop. He's a gay icon.
Speaker 4 00:10:50 Luke, I promise you the real Leslie Jordan does not care that I just did that
Speaker 0 00:10:56 As if to prove your point under this red hot metal bar, one of America's sweethearts is squirming yelling, oh hell, these were my good khakis and his body starts a horrifying transmogrification
Speaker 3 00:11:15 <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:11:15 Growing like extra limbs and stretching out to be way taller as he shrugs off this bar. Are you running for the door?
Speaker 4 00:11:27 Yeah, I um, I think I'm gonna grab Dolly's hand and I'm gonna run, I'm, I'm trusting Luke to be fast but I know Dolly is wearing heels. I am making for the exit trying to skirt around this horrible shifting. Leslie Jordan Monster
Speaker 3 00:11:46 <laugh>,
Speaker 4 00:11:48 How did we get here?
Speaker 0 00:11:53 That is a wonderful question
Speaker 4 00:12:01 Leaving team Damien where they are for now. Kay, you are headed back to the nightclub from last night with Lola. You are, I assume white knuckling <laugh> the wheel of the cut list.
Speaker 0 00:12:17 Yep. Hands 10 and two using all my traffic signals defensively driving.
Speaker 4 00:12:22 Lola has pulled out her notepad and is apparently consulting her interview notes. You pull up outside the nightclub and they look over at it and then at you and then say, so I have bolt cutters, um, but it's probably gonna work out better for us if you're the one who actually breaks in. I'll wait here.
Speaker 0 00:12:46 Um, yeah I'm as down for committing a felony as the next person but where are are are the bolt cutters in your purse?
Speaker 4 00:12:56 Yeah, they don't fit in the pocket of my coat and then they just pull out their bag and start rifling through it.
Speaker 0 00:13:04 How big is their bag
Speaker 4 00:13:07 Big enough for bolt cutters?
Speaker 0 00:13:10 I take the bolt cutters very reverently. Go holly shit. And then I'm gonna go do a, b and E on this nightclub.
Speaker 4 00:13:21 Okay. Uh, roll to act under pressure
Speaker 0 00:13:23 With my negative one to cool. I pull out my phone and Google can I still go to jail if I am dead And then go in with the bolt cutters five.
Speaker 4 00:13:37 Your noodle alarms cannot work. The bolt cutters sufficiently to open this door.
Speaker 0 00:13:42 This is so sad case like giving it her best effort too. She is trying so hard to look cool.
Speaker 4 00:13:51 Um,
Speaker 0 00:13:53 I'd like to try something else to get the door open if that's okay. Caitlin doesn't know that they can do this yet but I do. I took an alternate weird move so I don't have access to use magic but um, I have telekinesis.
Speaker 4 00:14:10 You sure do.
Speaker 0 00:14:12 That's plus weird, which I'm way better at 11. So the rules say that on a 10 or more you move the thing. I get to choose two options off the list and mark one harm, but one of my options on the list is that I can suffer one less harm. So I'm gonna elect to do that and also I'm gonna elect to fling something bigger than a person. I'm gonna just try to rip the door off its hinges
Speaker 4 00:14:47 In your frustration. I think you like stomp a foot and as you do that you feel this weird pressure in your head and then it releases and the doors to this club blow inward off of their hinges.
Speaker 0 00:15:08 Kate blink at the open door, looks back and forth between it and Lola still chilling out in the car and then goes inside.
Speaker 4 00:15:18 You walk in over the shattered ruins of the glass in these doors <laugh> and you find yourself in the club. It is empty and the only lights are like emergency lights and the sunlight coming in through the hole where the doors used to be.
Speaker 0 00:15:43 I'm gonna pull my phone out, turn the flashlight on and head down to the basement
Speaker 4 00:15:49 After a second. As you are going down into the now empty room that you spent a lot of last night in Lola comes trotting down the stairs you see immediately that she has the notepad out and the pen poised. So uh, how did you do that and how long have you been able to?
Speaker 0 00:16:11 No idea. And as far as I know, about five seconds.
Speaker 4 00:16:16 Fascinating.
Speaker 0 00:16:18 Look, all of the interest in my weird dead girl powers is really flattering and everything but um, I made a lot of noise back there and we might have security cameras to worry about. So let's move maybe.
Speaker 4 00:16:33 Oh, she's writing notes in her notepad. Doesn't even look up. Just says uh, don't worry about the security cameras. I have a scrambler.
Speaker 0 00:16:41 Oh what now?
Speaker 4 00:16:43 Now they look up with a big bright smile and say, uh, a scrambler. It would take a second to explain. Uh, basically we can't be caught on security cameras within a certain radius.
Speaker 0 00:16:59 Bolt cutters in your purse and a security camera scrambler. All right, pack it up Kim. Possible. Holy shit
Speaker 4 00:17:08 I told you this is my hobby. Some people spend thousands of dollars on Legos or gundams
Speaker 0 00:17:14 Caitlin feeling extremely seen shuts up immediately.
Speaker 4 00:17:20 <laugh>, huh? Anyway, I'll take the stage side of the room. You take the bar side.
Speaker 0 00:17:28 Yeah, sure thing. Um, and gundams aren't a hobby, they're an investment.
Speaker 4 00:17:35 She raises her eyebrows at you and then says, see I always take it with a grain of salt. When people say that sort of thing about collector's items, like it seems like a way to not own your interest, which you should do, right? Right. I mean I have boat cutters and a scrambler and an SLS camera and some people have entire rooms full of Star Wars toys. It is what it is, right?
Speaker 0 00:18:02 I think Kay like physically shrivels and goes, they aren't rich enough for a room. It's a cabinet and then goes over to the bar.
Speaker 4 00:18:11 Okay, I would like you to roll to investigate a mystery and I'm going to roll the same for Lola
Speaker 0 00:18:19 12
Speaker 4 00:18:22 <laugh>, okay? Uh, ask me two questions off the list and one open-ended question.
Speaker 0 00:18:28 What sort of creature is it?
Speaker 4 00:18:31 You are over at the side of the room with the bar. The side exit that was open last night is over here also, I will tell you, you see more of that weird heat haze you saw out in the alley last night. You have to squint to see it. It's by the side exit door and you can kind of follow a ribbon of it going over to the other side of the room.
Speaker 0 00:19:01 I'm gonna follow it and go see what's over there.
Speaker 4 00:19:06 Lola is standing by the stage and you follow this trail up next to her, right to the edge of the stage where it kind of settles heavily and curls around the amps. As you are looking at this, you notice the amps are blown out.
Speaker 0 00:19:26 They kind of lean in and squint into the guts of these amplifiers sort of poking at the fabric over them. Hey Lola, come here for a second.
Speaker 4 00:19:38 Lola sidesteps over to you and bends down to look at these amps.
Speaker 0 00:19:45 Correct me if I'm wrong, but the music last night was pretty loud, right?
Speaker 4 00:19:51 I mean, yeah, at least through the opening accent the headliner was having technical difficulties.
Speaker 0 00:20:00 What kind of acoustics must this place have for the opening act to be that loud? With busted amps,
Speaker 4 00:20:07 They lean a little bit closer, squinting as deeply into the guts of these amps They can from outside. Well maybe they blew 'em out.
Speaker 0 00:20:20 K shake their head. I wear tiny amplifiers in my ears all day every day so I'm kind of an authority on this. If they blew out someone would've heard them. They don't make a pleasant sound when that happens.
Speaker 4 00:20:35 Lola makes a note in her notepad. You see that it's just a really quick amplifier's, broken underline. What is your second question?
Speaker 0 00:20:46 Where did it go?
Speaker 4 00:20:52 You already kind of know at least part of the answer to that question. You remember seeing footprints outside of the side door that was propped open last night. You notice that the fire alarm is very near that door so you know after leaving the club it went that way. You don't know where it went out of that alley. Would you like to follow that train of thought out of the club or would you like to do that later and finish investigating in here First
Speaker 0 00:21:27 I am gonna follow the trail of logic out into the alley and see what I can see in the daylight.
Speaker 4 00:21:35 You walk out the side door, the footprints are gone by now, but this heat haze you can still follow around the back of the building and two little side street where it abruptly cuts off. Ask me your open-ended question.
Speaker 0 00:21:57 How did whatever the source of this bullshit is manage to get Chloe Hernandez out of here without being caught.
Speaker 4 00:22:11 You notice burnt rubber on the pavement of this side street behind the building and as you are going to investigate that, you see that there is a paint scrape on the corner of the building like on the bricks green paint like English racing green, not low to the ground so whatever left it was a pretty big vehicle.
Speaker 0 00:22:42 I'm gonna scratch some of the paint off the wall like under my fingernail and then go back inside and see what Lola's got going on.
Speaker 4 00:22:53 Okay, here's where I roll for Lola first I'm gonna roll to investigate a mystery that is fucking 13 <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:23:06 Here's
Speaker 4 00:23:07 How we're gonna do that. Um, because I'm jamming the scene, I'm gonna have you decide what question she asks and then I'm going to have her in character decide what information she relays.
Speaker 0 00:23:21 Okay? So with her score it's still two from the list one open-ended, right?
Speaker 4 00:23:26 Yes. But since you're not gonna be able to access the information she's getting from her other questions, I'm just gonna give you an extra clue based on the fact that she rolled a 13.
Speaker 0 00:23:38 All right, cool.
Speaker 4 00:23:40 Are you doing anything else while you're out there by the way?
Speaker 0 00:23:44 Uh, yeah actually I take out my phone and share my location with Lydia Antonov and then text her if you are not working. Can we meet up? Shit's weird and I'd like backup.
Speaker 4 00:24:00 She hands back three question marks. O M W N text.
Speaker 0 00:24:07 Okay, I turn around and go inside. My two questions I would like for Lola to clear up for me are what can it do and what is being concealed here?
Speaker 4 00:24:20 Okay, you head back inside the club and I'm going to roll something else for Lola. Okay, that is a nine. You walk back in, Lola is standing in the middle of the room, eyes closed, eyebrows scrunch together, like they're trying to figure something out and as the side door closes behind you with a noise, they open their eyes and look startled for a second and then she shakes her head and smiles. Okay? So I don't know what you found out there, but I found something that might be relevant, might not and then they walk over holding a piece of paper.
Speaker 0 00:25:07 Okay cool. Taking that.
Speaker 4 00:25:10 It is a poster for last night's show. So you thought the amp was weird and all of that happened while the headliners were on stage trying to figure out their technical issues. Who's not accounted for
Speaker 0 00:25:27 The opening act
Speaker 4 00:25:31 Exactly and I wouldn't find that incriminating. I mean the club was full of people but it's not nothing and it's more than we have on anybody else.
Speaker 0 00:25:42 So something supernatural that can mess with the sound system and apparently kidnaps people. Sounds like sirens.
Speaker 4 00:25:52 Yeah, exactly. Like the thing that ate the apple guy.
Speaker 0 00:25:56 What?
Speaker 4 00:25:58 Right Amnesia. I'll, I'll tell you later.
Speaker 0 00:26:02 Okay. Um, anything else?
Speaker 4 00:26:08 She looks uncomfortable for a second. Uh, nothing that I could find out. I mean we've got the poster. You said something was up at the sound system. Um
Speaker 0 00:26:21 Oh and um, just deductively, I kind of figured out that they for sure put Chloe in the back of a van. She kind of shakes out the dirt and the paint from under her nail and smears it across her palm.
Speaker 4 00:26:38 Lolo whips out their notepad and writes something down. Looking happy to have something to do other than recap what they've figured out. Right? Okay. Um, I asked Courtney Hernandez to meet up with me nearby. I wasn't sure how long our little coffee meetup was gonna run, but I figured I'd ask her a couple more questions, cross reference things after I had gotten in here to check the place out. Uh, so now we have a little bit of information to bring to that. Do you wanna come with?
Speaker 0 00:27:12 Yeah, sure. We just need to hang out here for a couple more minutes. Uh, I called for backup.
Speaker 4 00:27:20 She looks up from her notepad. Confused backup.
Speaker 0 00:27:27 My friend Lydia, aka a the most capable butch I know. Ah,
Speaker 4 00:27:32 Good call. They go over to the bar and perch on a stool with the notepad, just jotting things down, scribbling them out. You gather that she is trying to like deductively reason some things. One thing that's not fitting for me though is and they tap the end of their pen a couple times against the notepad and then slowly say, according to every story I've ever read, people go with sirens pretty enthusiastically. You said it looked like somebody got dragged away from the door and we both heard somebody scream. We're assuming it's Chloe.
Speaker 0 00:28:23 Yeah, that's concerning.
Speaker 4 00:28:28 You know I love investigating this kind of thing, asking these kind of questions. Not such a big fan of the answers not making sense.
Speaker 0 00:28:41 You picked the wrong person to solve a mystery with. If that's the case,
Speaker 4 00:28:47 <laugh>, she laughs and then from up the stairs you hear what the hell And then footsteps and Lydia Antonov stands by the entrance to this basement and blinks a couple times, turns to you and says What's going on? And what the hell did you do to the door?
Speaker 0 00:29:19 Uh, the bolt cutters didn't work. Okay, back to team Damien. Now that we have already experienced the opening scene of oceans idiots, let's find out how we got here.
Speaker 0 00:29:47 Damien. It is before what we saw at the beginning of this episode. You are sitting on the couch in between Luke and Dahlia and Michael is standing in front of the three of you having finally swapped out his smoking jacket and pajama pants for a very nice bespoke Italian suit. The first three or four buttons of his dress shirt undone, he is operating one of those like old school slide projectors that is showing several pictures clicking past each other on the wall of the apartment, which is absolutely ridiculous. You have seen that there are like U S B drive inputs on the side of the massive tv, like he doesn't have to be doing this. No, no I get it. It's the aesthetic, it's the drama. I understand. Oh yes, clearly he's put a lot of effort into this because the pictures in these vintage slides are like recently taken digital photographs.
Speaker 0 00:30:52 He clicks through a couple more, pulls an extendable pointer out of his suit jacket pocket and taps it against the image of a somewhat familiar looking resort on the Las Vegas strip. You're not sure why it looks wrong. The shape of this main building is extremely familiar. It's shaped like some sort of big pavilion or tent, but the aesthetic of it is not matching up with anything in your brain. It seems to be designed very like Paradise Garden themed. There's like thick vines growing up. The outside big beautiful flowers everywhere. Behind this first pavilion like building. There are a couple of familiar silhouettes of resort hotel towers and back behind them is a huge reflective red glass dome that is just shining in the sun of this photograph. Michael clasps his hands behind his back and starts pacing slowly back and forth in front of this projection.
Speaker 0 00:32:06 Alright, so crash course in Faye politics there are two main courts, the Sealy and unsee that are of primary concern, but within those courts you'll find smaller houses sort of like magical crime families if you will. The one at play here is referred to as the solstice throne and as you can see they have very creative naming conventions. He whips back around and taps the pointer into a sign next to this building that reads the solstice casino and resort but lack of creativity aside, they're very dangerous. He clicks to the next slide and it's just a slide that says photo unavailable. They're led by one si Morris of the solstice throne who is the afa mentioned motherfucker who beat me at poker. He clicks back to the photo of the resort. He profited quite astoundingly from the veil coming down and a few years back he bought out and remodeled the circus circus And now you've realize where you've seen this building before.
Speaker 4 00:33:25 Ah man, tell me they didn't get rid of the adventure dome.
Speaker 0 00:33:30 Michael looks at you in a way that is almost appalled and brings a hand up to his chest. Uh, any business I've ever conducted there has been in the casino. Damien, I wouldn't know what is the adventure dome?
Speaker 4 00:33:49 Damien shrink shrinks a little. It's a theme park. They got roller coasters and free clown shows, but that's more fun for some people than others.
Speaker 2 00:34:04 You're not there anymore. You are much smaller than you are now and bathed in the red tinge of light of the sun beating down through panels of glass over your head around you. You can hear the screeching laughter of children playing midway games. You smell funnel cake and popcorn off to your side. You see your father looking exhausted, hands twitching towards a pack of cigarettes in his pocket that he is not allowed to touch. And then over the screams of joy and happiness, you hear a shriek of absolute terror. Your head snaps over to the side and you see a much younger version of the person that you've seen in a couple of these other flashbacks that you've had. The person with the sandy blonde hair and the light brown eyes and the sharp facial features, they are being cornered next to a hotdog stand by an elaborately dressed up clown who is attempting to give them a hug and they are having an absolute fucking panic attack.
Speaker 4 00:35:22 Hey Barry, I just need to know are you like working through something with your CHRO phobia here? Is this like something we should talk about?
Speaker 0 00:35:30 I'm fine.
Speaker 7 00:35:31 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:35:34 Your dad pinches the bridge of nose exhales heavily and goes God damnit. It's just a guy making minimum wage don't blow his eardrums out.
Speaker 0 00:35:48 And you're back. Everybody in this room is kind of just staring at you where you have presumably been spaced out for several seconds and breaking the silence. Luke raises an eyebrow and goes, uh, Hey Damien.
Speaker 4 00:36:06 Uh, yeah
Speaker 0 00:36:08 Do me a quick solid. What's your mom's name?
Speaker 4 00:36:12 Hmm. Couldn't tell you.
Speaker 0 00:36:16 He looks like he's losing his mind briefly. But you remember the goddamn adventure dome?
Speaker 4 00:36:26 I like the adventure dome.
Speaker 0 00:36:29 Luke blinks, unsettling implications. Mick carry on. Mick also blinks and then clicks over to the next slide, which is a picture of again, something very familiar that you can't quite put a name to. It looks like an equal armed cross that has been folded together out of like dried out reads tied off at the ends and then just fully dipped into some kind of black metal. Michael taps his extendable pointer against the image and looks back over at you. This is something called a she shield.
Speaker 4 00:37:13 Okay, I'm gonna guess it's very impressive because otherwise nobody would want it when the name sounds like a she shed
Speaker 0 00:37:20 If he rolled his eyes any further he'd be staring at the inside of his own skull. No, you Emba seal, she as in S I D H E as in the Gaelic word for Faye try to keep up. It's an ancient artifact from Ireland. Not one of a kind, but there aren't very many knocking about in the world if you catch my drift. Essentially it renders the wearer invisible to any agents of the fairy courts. Sounds like something you'd want. Yes,
Speaker 4 00:37:55 <laugh>. Well if it works it wouldn't exactly be unhelpful.
Speaker 0 00:37:59 Oh it works. It's gotten me out of several nasty little scrapes in the past few years. The one question I can't stop asking myself is why would Samaras want it? Even if he could use it, what would he use it for? Who could he possibly be hiding from himself? And then I thought to myself, oh that has some sad psychological implications. I hope he's doing all right anyway. Old chap wanted it off me in a game of poker several weeks ago. I can only assume it's now rests among his collection back at the solstice. I have more than one plan of approach laid out, but I'd be interested to hear input from many of you.
Speaker 4 00:38:39 Yeah, I'm not really a plan in advance sort of guy and I'm willing to bet that whatever Faye Hellscape walking into doesn't exactly play by normal spatial
Speaker 3 00:38:48 Rules.
Speaker 0 00:38:49 Michael kind of taps his nose twice and then points at you a prudent guess
Speaker 3 00:38:57 I look
Speaker 0 00:39:01 The thing that no one around here seems to understand about the Faye is that they're not human and they don't play by human rules, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have rules. Si Mars won the artifact off me in a game by Faye rules. The most effective way to get it back would be to win it back.
Speaker 4 00:39:26 I'm gonna look back and forth between Luke and Dahlia and say, well if there's anything that I've realized about myself, it's that my poker face isn't great and I'm lucky, but I'm not that lucky.
Speaker 0 00:39:39 You notice that Dahlia's actually starting to look really nervous. She's like ringing her hands in her lap and watching this projection on the wall very intently. But Luke sort of interlocks his fingers and cracks his knuckles out in front of himself with a big cavalier smile stretching across his face. Well good thing I know how to count cards and uh, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I've spent the greater part of my life cultivating God's perfect poker face.
Speaker 4 00:40:10 Okay, so his hands like our game plan is that Luke plays some poker and if things go sideways, Dahlia gives us an exit route and highlight some people on fire.
Speaker 0 00:40:18 Michael nods clicking back to the image of the casino and frowning at it. Yes, that's our best case scenario. While I appreciate Mr. Johansen's confidence in his own abilities, it's a very important quality in a man. Si Morris of the solstice throne is an arch fey, a very old one and a very clever one and one who is damnably good at poker not to be a pessimist, but we do need to consider the possibility that Luke could, um,
Speaker 3 00:40:54 How
Speaker 0 00:40:54 Do I put this? Delicately? Royally. Fuck it up. Luke takes the fingers. He was just cracking and braces them behind his head kicking one foot up onto the coffee table.
Speaker 3 00:41:08 <laugh>,
Speaker 0 00:41:08 You sound like my parents.
Speaker 4 00:41:11 Ha, nice one. I put my hand up for a high five.
Speaker 0 00:41:15 He slaps you five without even looking at you by our powers combined. We are Captain Fuckup and Mick very ishly goes. Yes. And the reason that you typically don't see any comic books or cartoons for Captain Fuckup is that usually he dies bloody quickly and wanting for a contingency plan.
Speaker 4 00:41:39 Damien bites at the inside of his cheek for a second and then says point taken
Speaker 0 00:41:46 Next to you. Dalia starts to tangle her fingers up together even faster and harder. You notice her picking at her cuticles until one of them slowly starts to bleed. She looks a little freaked and like she knows something you don't. Michael walks over to the couch where she is and seeing how nervous she is reigns in his own nervousness until it is imperceptible and just reaches out and presses hand to the side of her head and raises an eyebrow. She nods. There's a weird ripple in the air and then Dahlia is noticeably just chill. He looks back over at you and Luke with a grave expression. Dalia isn't just there to give you an exit route, she's there to give you a head start. We have to consider that if this all goes sideways, it may turn into a smash and grab job. You may just have to steal the artifact and run and that is not the Faye approved way of going about things, which makes the whole endeavor much more dangerous. You'll need to case the joint, figure out where it's being stored before you even make an attempt to get it back. And if and when things go sideways, Dalio will stop time. You'll have an extra half a minute or so to run for the artifact and run out.
Speaker 0 00:43:18 And given what Damien mentioned about the possibility of spatiotemporal disruptions, I do hope you a dab hand at cards Mr. Johansen because our last result has an exponentially higher chance of getting you all killed.
Speaker 4 00:43:36 Well again, if need be, I personally am not afraid of burning the whole place down around us that'll keep people occupied at least as long as we need to run out of there.
Speaker 0 00:43:49 And assuming anyone survives, they'll know exactly where Dolly is running home to. Won't be hard to extrapolate from there. Make no mistake Damien, you are getting into the Solstice Casino on my reputation and I am extending my protection as far as I can in return, I need you to promise me that you are going to do your best not to do anything foolish.
Speaker 4 00:44:12 Damien raises bros. I promise not to do anything foolish unless I need to to keep us all alive. How about that?
Speaker 0 00:44:23 He presses one hand over his heart like you are giving him aina and just turns around and plants the other against the wall, leaning his weight into it. What is it with me and brave, stupid little children. But then he turns back around and has a big bright fang to smile on. Perfect. We'll need to get you all outfitted for the occasion. I have someone coming over to help with that and final word of warning, he nods back towards this projection of the solstice Casino on the wall. Under no circumstances are any of you to stay in the solstice Casino after sunset. That place it turns into an entirely different world after dark. And I don't care how brave or stupid any of you are, you are not equipped to handle it. If the operation takes longer than expected and you are even at the slightest risk of nightfall finding you within those walls, you ought to bail out and we will try again later. Am I understood?
Speaker 4 00:45:40 Understood. So what's our way in?
Speaker 0 00:45:45 He smirks at you, but you can see tight lines of nervousness pulling at the corners of his mouth. The only way that anyone with style goes into these things through the front door big and loud.
Speaker 4 00:46:06 So okay, we find you in the driver's seat of the cut list, Liga riding writing shotgun and Lola in the backseat on your way to this meetup with Courtney Hernandez.
Speaker 0 00:46:19 Yeah, it was not in our best interests to stick around the nightclub that we just broke into to catch Lydia up. So I'm in the process of doing that as I navigate traffic. So anyway, we're going siren hunting because I've got nothing better to do on my day off and apparently I move things with my mind now, which is why the door was like that.
Speaker 4 00:46:43 Lydia is just staring at you from the passenger seat <laugh>. She is half turned, not buckled in lit cigarette in her hand, which is dangling out the window. She has not touched it in over a minute.
Speaker 0 00:46:57 Yeah, and completely off topic. Friendlier reminder, this is an old car, the frame doesn't buckle. If we get hit, it will blow up like a game of perfection and go through your ribcage. So seat belts everybody.
Speaker 4 00:47:11 This is like probably the third time you've reminded Lydia to put her seatbelt on. She does not do it.
Speaker 0 00:47:18 I use Telesis to put her seatbelt on her.
Speaker 4 00:47:22 Lydia snaps out of it, gives the seatbelt a dirty look and then taps off ashes onto the road. Okay, sirens abducting girls from basement shows. Cool. I think I might actually know something about this.
Speaker 0 00:47:41 Well, we've established that I know nothing about anything ever. So Lola, Lydia might be a better lead for you on this.
Speaker 4 00:47:47 Oh, Lola is leaning forward over the back of the seat with her notepad <laugh>. They give Lydia a big winning smile and say, uh, yeah, anything you know that would be very helpful. Lydia side eyes them and says, okay, who are you again?
Speaker 0 00:48:07 Oh yeah, introductions weren't great when we were at the crime scene. Uh, Lola, this is Lydia Antonov, my best friend and ex-girlfriend.
Speaker 4 00:48:17 Lydia pinches the bridge of her nose and says, don't introduce me as your ex. It's weird.
Speaker 0 00:48:24 You introduced yourself to me as my ex.
Speaker 4 00:48:28 That's different. I was conveying information that you should have known
Speaker 0 00:48:32 And what am I doing
Speaker 4 00:48:35 Telling somebody I don't know my personal business? And Lola from between the two of you says, anyway, and then they take one hand off the notepad to hold it out to Lydia, uh, Lola St. Laron. I'm sort of like, uh, and then they glance over at you supernatural Sherlock Holmes. Some have said,
Speaker 0 00:49:03 I reach over and steal Lydia's cigarette and take a long drag.
Speaker 4 00:49:08 Lydia makes a face at you. But then says, as I was saying, I had a girl in my self-defense class go missing like two months ago maybe. And then about a month ago, another one said A friend of hers never came home. I don't know for sure if the girl that was actually in the class was at a show the night that she disappeared, but I know the friend was, and it wouldn't exactly have been out of character for the first girl.
Speaker 0 00:49:40 Okay? I mean compelling. But if there were suddenly a bunch of girls going missing at basement shows in Vegas, don't you think the cops would at least call the band to question
Speaker 4 00:49:52 Lydia takes her cigarette back as Lola says. Well, I mean if the disappearances were a month apart, maybe it didn't look that suspicious and you know, cops
Speaker 0 00:50:05 Yeah, agreed, but still that's too big of a common thread to completely discount following up on it. Lydia, do you know what band this girl was going to see?
Speaker 4 00:50:18 Lydia shakes her head, takes a drag off of her cigarette and says, couldn't tell you. Uh, I know she was into like the hyper pop e d m type scene.
Speaker 0 00:50:29 Yeah, no, that's not these guys,
Speaker 4 00:50:32 Huh? Well it was a hunch.
Speaker 0 00:50:37 Yeah, the uncomfortable thing is just, it's either a hunch that goes nowhere or now we're dealing with multiple bands of sirens, kidnapping multiple people.
Speaker 4 00:50:46 Lola is writing in their notepad again and says, well, if we follow up option A costs us nothing. And option B is horrifying. Actually,
Speaker 0 00:51:00 You know, this all sounded really fun starting out, but I wish I was at home with my ferrets.
Speaker 4 00:51:07 Lydia raises her eyebrows at you and says, yeah, cuz sitting alone in your living room, building a house of cards yesterday seemed like it was really fun for you.
Speaker 0 00:51:17 Yeah. And what does it say about the situation that I told you that sitting in my living room building a house of cards was preferable to go in grocery shopping with you?
Speaker 4 00:51:26 Lydia sticks her tongue out at you and Lola leans way over the seat. She is still in her seatbelt barely and points at the mall coming up and says, uh, there we are. Let's, let's go find a place to park.
Speaker 0 00:51:43 Kay looks at the mall, looks back over at Lola and raises their eyebrow house. All right, hate to be the Dr. Watson in the room, but please tell me that we're not meeting your supernatural information source at yogurt land.
Speaker 4 00:51:58 Lola leans back to look out the windows around and says, no, of course not. Don't be ridiculous. A couple minutes later, we find you in front of a pretzel chain that will not be named
Speaker 0 00:52:13 <laugh>. Oh my God,
Speaker 4 00:52:15 A famed pretzel chain with subpar lemonades and pretzel hot dogs.
Speaker 0 00:52:22 Be careful with those spicy takes al. I don't want hardcore fans of, let's call it Uncle Abes coming after
Speaker 4 00:52:31 Us. <laugh>, you noticed on the way in that it looks like somebody drove a car through the pedestrian areas of the mole, like there's burnt rubber and scorch marks and things are all kind of smashed up. There's caution tape around.
Speaker 0 00:52:51 Kay is sort of standing by a window looking out at all of that carnage holding a lemonade. She doesn't remember much, but there's an innate gut feeling that every time she comes here, she buys a lemonade thinking that this time it's gonna be good, takes one sip and then just puts it down. What kind of moron looks at a pedestrians only sign and decides to do that?
Speaker 4 00:53:19 Lola shrugs. Lydia has stepped to the side and is scrolling through her phone as you and Lola move over to the bench to talk to Courtney Hernandez, who is sitting there kind of looking at the ground. She looks like the gravity of the situation is just setting in on her.
Speaker 0 00:53:38 This is an awkward situation with lots of big feelings. So Caitlyn is supremely uncomfortable, unsure of what to do. They take the straw out of their shitty lemonade and throw it away, replace it with a metal one from their purse and just hand it out towards Courtney. May I offer you a lemonade in these trying times?
Speaker 4 00:54:05 She numbly takes this lemonade from you as Lola sits down on the bench next to her. It is confirmed to you looking at her that Chloe Hernandez was the girl in that vision that you had because they look very similar.
Speaker 0 00:54:21 I'm keeping my mouth shut about that. That sounds like a really good way to make this poor girl have a panic attack.
Speaker 4 00:54:28 Lola sits down kind of cross-legged on the bench, rests a bag of pretzel nuggets on one knee and pulls out her notepad and then looks intently at Courtney and says, so, uh, I was hoping to ask some follow up questions about last night
Speaker 0 00:54:45 And I'm here too, but I'm not important.
Speaker 4 00:54:48 Courtney looks from Lola to you and says, oh, okay, who are you?
Speaker 0 00:54:55 That's a good question. We were wondering how much you could tell us about the band that opened for the show last night.
Speaker 4 00:55:02 I I, I don't know anything about the band. I'm, I'm not even from here. I was visiting my sister for her birthday.
Speaker 0 00:55:09 Okay. Um, yeah, I know this must be a really hard situation. I'm sorry, but I don't know how much I'm at liberty to discuss. I look over at Lola, like, help, help
Speaker 4 00:55:23 Lola clicks her fancy pen, looks up at Courtney and says, so how much do you know about sirens?
Speaker 3 00:55:34 Okay,
Speaker 0 00:55:35 So we're just letting the whole cat out of the whole bag. That's a strategy I would've appreciated an update on before I tried to be delicate, which is famously something I'm not good at.
Speaker 4 00:55:47 Courtney looks between the two of you and says,
Speaker 3 00:55:50 Uh,
Speaker 4 00:55:51 S sirens, uh, like the thing that ate the apple guy.
Speaker 0 00:55:57 I really need to get on the internet at some point and figure out what happened there.
Speaker 4 00:56:02 Oh my God, is Chloe gonna get
Speaker 3 00:56:04 Eaten?
Speaker 0 00:56:05 Kay had stolen one of Lola's pretzel nuggets and freezes mid bite.
Speaker 3 00:56:11 No, no.
Speaker 4 00:56:15 At the same time you're doing that, Lola, who has written not informed about sirens in her notepad and is it says, well, we're not sure.
Speaker 0 00:56:27 Do I have to do anything to clap a hand over her mouth?
Speaker 4 00:56:32 No, I'll let you just do it.
Speaker 0 00:56:34 I do that and in her ear whisper, Lola respectfully, shut the
Speaker 4 00:56:39 Fuck up. Lola looks at you wide-eyed from behind your hand like, oh shit,
Speaker 0 00:56:48 It's too late, isn't it? I haven't preserved anybody's emotional wellbeing and I made myself look like an asshole in front of the person. I like
Speaker 4 00:56:58 Courtney Hernandez has put both hands up to her own mouth and goes,
Speaker 3 00:57:03 Oh
Speaker 4 00:57:03 My God.
Speaker 3 00:57:06 <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:57:07 Okay. Uh, Courtney, it's Courtney, right? We are all doing our level best to prevent any untoward munching happening. Okay? We have a couple leads on your sister's location, and I have a very good reason to believe that she's still alive. We just need to find out more about the band. Do you know if she was there for the party or the music? Would she have maybe known them or posted about them on social media? I don't know. I'm throwing spaghetti at a wall here.
Speaker 4 00:57:41 No, I don't know. I, this wasn't supposed to happen. This stuff never happens to Chloe. It's the only reason I go to these things with her.
Speaker 0 00:57:51 Well, not to bring hindsight into play, but as somebody who lives here and knows a little bit about what it's like to be a woman in Vegas, a lot of folks walk around here thinking that these kind of things won't happen.
Speaker 4 00:58:07 No, I mean, she brings both hands up to rake back through her hair and says, look, since 2012, Chloe has been a little bit psychic, for lack of a better word. I i don't worry about her when we do these things because she can always tell she just has to touch your hand. She knows every time she's talking to a scummy guy because she just touches his hand. And
Speaker 0 00:58:39 So she would've known if she had touched someone that had bad intentions.
Speaker 4 00:58:46 Yes, she always knows. I don't. Oh my God,
Speaker 0 00:58:52 Okay. I'm not saying this to be alarmist or make anybody feel worse. I'm bringing it up so we have a fuller understanding of the situation. We heard somebody scream right before the fire alarm went off.
Speaker 4 00:59:10 Lola grabs your hand and takes it off of her mouth. Look, we're doing everything that we can. We're gonna figure out where she is. Trust me, this is like the one thing that I'm really good at.
Speaker 0 00:59:26 She is in fact really good about figuring out things about people that they don't necessarily want her to know. I'll give her that much. Okay, so we're looking for a local band. We're looking for a green passenger van of some sort. I'm gonna pull out the poster that I found at the club and see if it has any like social media links or anything on it.
Speaker 4 00:59:52 Uh, yeah, they have links to very basic social medias.
Speaker 0 00:59:58 I'm gonna walk over to where Lydia's standing with her phone and just pull up all those pages on my own.
Speaker 4 01:00:07 Okay? You leave Lola on this bench with Courtney Hernandez, who she has deeply emotionally distressed.
Speaker 0 01:00:15 I feel really bad about that, but somebody has to do some sleuthing here.
Speaker 4 01:00:21 They give you a, please don't leave me in this situation. Stare as you walk away, but you walk over to Lydia and she looks up at you and then over at the bench and goes, Ooh,
Speaker 0 01:00:36 I'm frantically typing. I'm frantically searching up these usernames names. Yeah, she just told that girl that we're not sure if her sister's been eaten or not.
Speaker 4 01:00:49 Lydia turns back to you Slack jawed and goes, oh my God. Why? Why did she do that?
Speaker 0 01:01:00 Presumably because it's the truth. I don't know. Do I find anything on these social media pages?
Speaker 4 01:01:09 Yeah, you find the bands like individual pages away from the club. It's very generic. They have some images of the band with their instruments on various stages. They have like two performance videos mostly covers. Other than that it's just kind of cross promotion and announcements of where they're gonna be.
Speaker 0 01:01:36 Since Lydia's been on her phone this whole time and is now looking over my shoulder, could I investigate a mystery and maybe have her help me out on my internet deep dive?
Speaker 4 01:01:48 Uh, yeah, I'll roll help out for her. That's plus cool. She only has plus one. That's a nine When you roll to help out, uh, on a seven to nine, your help grants them plus one to their role, but you also expose yourself to trouble or danger. So you see Lydia on her own phone, pull up these social media accounts and you watch her start tapping through lengths and scrolling. Roll two, investigate a mystery and you get plus one.
Speaker 0 01:02:24 Okay, so that's a total of plus three 14 <laugh> 14 <laugh>. What does a 14 get me Al?
Speaker 4 01:02:37 Unfortunately nothing that would be better than a 12. But for investigative mystery, since you rolled 12 or over, you get to ask me two questions from the list and one open-ended question.
Speaker 0 01:02:51 My first question is, what is being concealed here?
Speaker 4 01:02:56 Lydia is tapping through links on this social media just going, okay, it looks like they cross-promote with a lot of bands that aren't in their genre. And you start to notice after a second she clicks on one cross promoted post and you notice that they have the same drum kit as the last one and she clicks on another and you see that the strap is different, but the bass player has the same instrument on the next one and on and on. All of these bands have the exact same instruments. They're trying to make it look like that's not the case. But no, they're the exact same every time.
Speaker 0 01:03:43 Kay nerding out a little despite herself reaches out and starts batting at Lydia's hand, stop, stop, stop.
Speaker 4 01:03:51 Lydia startles and takes her free hand off of the phone. What, what what?
Speaker 0 01:03:56 They all have the same instruments.
Speaker 4 01:04:00 I, I mean, yeah, I guess they all have pretty standard lineups.
Speaker 0 01:04:04 No, I they jam their finger down into the most recent picture on her phone screen. That's a Jimmy Hendrick signature Stratocaster. Those things are just floating around out there and they're sure as hell not something that every garage band in Vegas can afford. And also let's ask ourselves, why does every one of these bands have a lefty front? Man,
Speaker 4 01:04:28 Lydia looks at you for a second and she looks really, really sad and then shakes her head and goes, okay, so they've got this fucked up cross promotion ecosystem going on and they're playing from the same pool of instruments. She taps a couple links and goes, and that explains why none of them have overlapping show dates.
Speaker 0 01:04:58 And I can't think of a single self-respecting guitarist who would turn an instrument that rare into a timeshare. My second question is, what can it do?
Speaker 4 01:05:15 Okay, so what,
Speaker 3 01:05:18 Uh,
Speaker 4 01:05:20 She taps one of the performance videos for the band that you are looking at and as the vocal startup, you really want to get closer to the speakers. Like you really wanna get as close as you can to this voice. You feel like you maybe wanna see the band live the next time they're performing.
Speaker 0 01:05:46 Does the voice sound familiar in any way?
Speaker 4 01:05:51 It is noticeably different compared to the voice you heard last night. Like the front man of last night's band was kind of a tall, lanky white dude, maybe mid twenties. The front man or front woman rather of this band is a very small pixie like Filipino girl soak. The voice is very different. The pitch is almost completely different. The like tamper of it has almost nothing in common with the voice you heard last night. But the inflection is very similar and the effect is very similar. And as you're watching this performance video, you notice that this front woman has very similar mannerisms to the front man of the band last night.
Speaker 0 01:06:48 Different genres, different faces, same music.
Speaker 4 01:06:56 Lydia stares down her phone in horror sirens can shapeshift in like every story I've ever read, they can shapeshift.
Speaker 0 01:07:10 Your hunch was right, the disappearances, they're all connected. It's the same group of sirens. They're just picking people up at different gigs.
Speaker 4 01:07:22 What is your third question Barry?
Speaker 0 01:07:26 Where's this group of sirens playing next?
Speaker 0 01:07:45 For those just tuning in, welcome to the Jackalope America's premier pirate radio station dedicated to exploring the unknown, the unexplained and general weird shit, important update. Moth man is real and he fucks everyone's favorite crypted address the Senate today before their vote on the paranormal Marriage Equality Act. Historic piece of legislation spearheaded by the fact that since 2012 people have been banging a lot of supernatural beings. Moth man became the face of the movement earlier this year in a campaign that took social media by storm taking up the mantle of activism in an effort to finally get the wedding of his dreams. With longtime partner Clayton McLeod of Point Pleasant West Virginia, after what by all accounts, was a very moving speech. The vote passed. It's a twofold victory, folks, firstly love wins. And secondly, upon witnessing the spectacle, everyone's least favor, Republican party leader immediately had a stroke and died on the Senate floor mazel to to the happy couple and to the citizenry of the great state of Kentucky. And now here's Dr. Sunshine is dead by Will Wood in the tape worms. Damien, we pick back up with you. It is about a day or so later from the last time we saw you and you are on the couch in Michael Darcy's cavernous living room, sitting next to Dahlia, watching Old Adam's family episodes. Dalia is going back and forth between munching on microwave popcorn and taking sips of ab negative out of her little Capri sun blood bag. As time goes by, she goes from sitting very stiff and upright on the couch to sort of scoping out if it's okay for her to lean on you.
Speaker 4 01:10:05 Damien is not encouraging anyone in the world to make physical contact with him at this point.
Speaker 0 01:10:13 Okay, you get like one test Nuzzle and then she sits back up. Luke is over in the corner of this great room that has all of the musical instruments piled up in it, just noodling on a vintage saxophone. You hear a couple bars of careless whisper spiral out and from the big recliner nearby, you see Michael back in his uniform of smoking jacket and silk pajama pants. Look down at a cell phone, bite back an expression of terror that briefly crosses his face and whisper, my God, she's here.
Speaker 4 01:10:52 Damien looks at him and then looks at Dahlia and raises an eyebrow.
Speaker 0 01:10:57 Dahlia takes another bite of popcorn, waggles her eyebrows at you and just smirks and goes, good luck.
Speaker 4 01:11:06 I don't find that encouraging
Speaker 0 01:11:09 As well. You shouldn't and neither should you. Uh, guy Luke cuts off mid saxophone lick to glare over at her and go, my name is Luke. It's the one syllable. It's not that hard. And then the front door of the penthouse bursts open as if it has been kicked in.
Speaker 4 01:11:35 I jump and look at the door
Speaker 0 01:11:40 Standing in this entry hall, kitchen, dining space area. The door swinging open. Behind her is a fairly tall lady, about 5 8, 5 9, very strong shoulders kind of stocky built. She has a length of thin, fine strawberry blonde hair that has been pulled up in a messy pile, a top her head held with a banana clip and is dressed for colder weather than you know to be the norm in Las Vegas. She's wearing a turtleneck sweater and a tweed jacket over top of it, A pencil skirt over a pair of thick tights and what you recognize to be obviously riding boots. She has a big like golf umbrella tucked under one arm and over her opposite shoulder is slung a stack of garment bags. She leaves the door swinging open behind her and as she sweeps into the great room, you can see her a little bit better.
Speaker 0 01:12:55 For someone as pale as she is, it looks like she's been in the sun a lot. If that makes sense. For someone who appears to be in her mid twenties, it's odd to see the beginnings of crow's feet at the corners of her eyes and the sort of offset discolored freckles. In contrast to the darker spots speckled along her cheekbones and nose, she comes around the back of the couch very close to you and leans over to Ki Dalia on top of the head and that's when you see that her eyes are blood red. And as she smiles over at you, her teeth are very sharp. Oh, and this is my canvas. Y'all can't just take it easy on me Once in a while I'm getting too old for this shit, you know.
Speaker 4 01:13:53 Uh, a fence taken,
Speaker 0 01:13:57 She winks at you.
Speaker 4 01:13:59 Damien makes a full stank face at her.
Speaker 0 01:14:04 In response, she crosses around the front of the couch and gets your jaw in a vice grip in hand, just sort of examining you. This lady is like fully inspecting the angles of your bone structure on an aesthetic level. You get the feeling she might be looking at your teeth. Oh, I do apologize if I've offended. I'm sure you know you're a little bit of a fixer rubber, but, uh, I'm Flora may baker. I'm Mick's ex-wife.
Speaker 4 01:14:35 Damien gives Mick a sideways look. Disbelieving you were married. You get weirder every time I learn more information.
Speaker 0 01:14:47 Michael, to his credit, looks extremely offended upon hearing the words. Ex-wife. Our marriage was never dissolved by any formal authority. Flora may baker, who is still looking you up and down the most critical gaze you've ever been under goes. Our marriage was never consummated. So by the laws of the time under which it happened, it's invalid sugar.
Speaker 4 01:15:17 Okay? Okay. Just to clarify, why are you here other than to insult me?
Speaker 0 01:15:25 She stops critically looking you over long enough to pat you on the cheek way too hard because a little bat told me that y'all fix and to go fra as with the solstice thrown. And uh, well we can't let you do that without a name backing you up looking the way you do honey.
Speaker 4 01:15:45 Damien puts his head in his hands, okay, so you're here to give me a makeover. Does that mean I get a haircut? Finally,
Speaker 0 01:15:57 She throws all of these garment bags onto another chair and reaches into a big leather messenger bag slung across one hip, comes up with a pair of hair shearers and snips them a couple times. I thought you'd never ask. And in a prime example of that vampire speed that you've seen Mick and Dahlia both exhibit you're in one of the kitchen chairs before you really process what's happening and feel Flora MA's index and middle finger sort of dragging down through your hair to mark off a vague length right up at the top of your ears. This about good or do you want to go shot
Speaker 4 01:16:46 At being tugged somewhere? Damian freezes and then like forcefully unc clenches his muscles and goes, that's great, thank you.
Speaker 0 01:16:58 With a similar speed, Dahlia and Michael have moved into the kitchen with you. Dahlia is hovering close to the back of your chair in a way that almost feels protective and Michael is perching one hip against the open doorway sort of looking. Flora may baker up and down. Now Flora, you don't have to be mean to him. She's behind you so you can't really see the look on her face, but she does tug on your hair a little bit harder before you feel a snip and a relief of many inches of hair falling to the floor. Oh, we need a makeover Flora. We need a wardrobe overhaul. Flora, you're making a lot of demands for somebody who owes me a hundred alimony. Are you thinking or doing anything while this strange vampire lady is cutting your hair?
Speaker 4 01:17:59 Gonna be honest, I'm white knuckling it through this because I don't love the fact that there's someone near my head with a sharp object. I'm just gonna kind of clin a fist in the fabric of my jeans and go So, uh, run me through uh, the plan of approach one more time.
Speaker 0 01:18:18 Well, you and Luke and Dahlia finish getting your glad rags on as it were and then when Octavia gets home from school, she's going to pull the limo around and drive you to the casino. At which point you go in and the extraction operation begins, like I said, right through the front door, big and loud. What could go wrong?
Speaker 4 01:18:43 You know, I kind of hate it when people ask what could go wrong, like right before things start when they're obviously anxious about it.
Speaker 0 01:18:52 Michael gives you one of those big pointy toothed smiles, but his eye twitches, you know, Damien, I hadn't felt anxious in 70 years and then I met you. You are a singular creature, my boy.
Speaker 4 01:19:12 Would you believe that? I get that a lot.
Speaker 0 01:19:16 Oh yes. Instantaneously. There's one final snip at the back of your head and Flora may announces my work here is done. And then Dalia squeals snatches up one of the garment bags and hauls you bodily out of the chair. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Nah,
Speaker 4 01:19:44 I go with her
Speaker 0 01:19:48 Like you had a choice. She tugs you through the great room and down the little hallway into the room where you've been staying and just slams the door behind you. Throws the garment bag on the bed and like does jazz hands at it. I picked it out just for you. Open it.
Speaker 4 01:20:12 This is not a treatment I am used to getting from the women in my life. I am approaching it like a wild animal. I open the bag like Steve Orwin taking a Pit Viper out of its enclosure. <laugh>,
Speaker 0 01:20:31 No pit vipers inside. Just an extremely nice designer suit and a bright red silk button up shirt. The jacket's very cool. It has like a matte finish on the main body of it, but the collar is satin and it has little slashes of red in the back where the vents are. It's like weirdly something that you would wear if you had a shit ton of money in the occasion to wear a suit. It's like perfectly suited to your style. Also, there's a binder in there which is really cool.
Speaker 4 01:21:13 I grab that with both hands <laugh> and then pause skittish Lee and look over at Dahlia and say thank you. I don't know how you knew this would be something that I would wear
Speaker 0 01:21:34 Dahlia smirks at you. I didn't. It just matches my dress. She delicately puts a hand over her eyes and turns around before waving the finger of her free hand in the air. Go ahead, put it on. I wanna see if it fits.
Speaker 4 01:21:53 I I do that.
Speaker 0 01:21:57 See Now here's where it gets really freaky because at no time during your stay at Michael Darcy's penthouse, have you been measured for anything and this suit fits you like it was literally made for you.
Speaker 4 01:22:14 Okay, can't decide if I'm freaked out or I feel like Mia Thermopolis.
Speaker 0 01:22:20 Check your ego sweetheart. You're built like a spirit Halloween decoration and you will never be queen of Genovia. She reaches out to adjust your collar and fusses with the top button of your jacket a little bit. It's nothing creepy, it's just an acquired skill. I've spent a lot of time in costume shops with people that are obsessed with other people's measurements. I've kind of learned how to eyeball these things,
Speaker 4 01:22:47 Fiddling with one of the cuffs on the jacket and just go, I hate that I can't even fight you on the spirit Halloween decoration comment. I feel like somebody's gonna hip check me and I'm just gonna go into a wall,
Speaker 0 01:23:05 Try not to worry too much. I'll add err hips to the list of things we need to look out for. Anyway, I'm gonna go change. I'll see you in a little bit. She swans out. Are you gonna stay in here or are you going back out to the main part of the penthouse? Uh, I'm out A bit of time passes. Octavia does come back. She makes no effort to change. She just displays out across the couch in her jeans and t-shirt and starts playing video games while you wait. And a few minutes later Luke comes out of his room and Dalia walks down the stairs. Luke has had his undercut trimmed up very nicely and has the top of its slicked back. He's in all black, head to toe, black suit, black shirt, nicely polished dress shoes, looks dapper as hell. Dahlia's in this slinky red sparkly cocktail dress with beaded black spiderwebs all over the bods and little jeweled spider clips in her hair still hanging out in the kitchen. Michael is like halfway through his bottle of wine at this point and just brings up a hand, a pinch at the bridge of his nose.
Speaker 0 01:24:24 Alright, please be careful and like I said, whatever you do, don't stay after dock. Yep, got it. Let's get this over with as soon as possible. You hear a groan and a jingle of car keys from the couch and Octavia goes, yes, seconded, I'm missing practice for this. And you head out the solstice casino is off. You can tell from the moment that you pull into the big horseshoe at the front of the casino, the first thing you notice is that there isn't the high volume of pedestrian traffic moving in and out like there are at all the other places along the strip. You see people but it's not nearly as populated as you expect it to be. You've also noticed that Octavia looks a little skittish as she pulls the limo that you escaped your car chase in up to the doors and throws it into park. It sounds like it's got something fucked up in the engine from whatever you did to it. Lu, oops, <laugh>, she sort of drums her fingers along the steering wheel and looks back and forth like she's keeping an eye out for trouble. Okay, uh, just go in and do the thing or whatever. I'm gonna post up in the parking garage, gimme a call when you're out.
Speaker 4 01:26:04 Uh, will do. Uh, and then I'm gonna hop out the limousine.
Speaker 0 01:26:10 You and Dahlia and Luke rock up to the front door of this casino. I think it's like a slow motion shot that pans upward from your feet. As you walk these automatic glass doors slide open in front of you and you are immediately accosted with the heavy cloying smell of dense, lush plant life. It's gorgeous in here. The walls are covered with climbing vines and blossoms of every kind of flower you can think of. There are little disembodied wisp like lights floating up along next to the ceiling. The floors are smooth white marble and directly in front of the doors there is a long polished wooden front desk.
Speaker 0 01:27:07 Again, your memory's a little fuzzy when it comes to your life before all this, but something kind of sets off a ping in your head that casino front desks are usually very well staffed because there's a lot of things that go on there. You know, people are cashing in their chips, people are checking into the hotels. It requires a lot of people to make it run. The lobby is almost completely empty and there is one person sitting behind this front desk, just the tiniest little old white man you've ever seen from the height of the chair that he's sitting in and the way that he's built. You could tell that his feet are probably swinging off the ground. He has snow white hair that's been very neatly combed over and just very kind looking eyes. Looks strikingly familiar, but again, you have trouble with names. You can't really connect anything and you don't need to because your cool casino heist entry scene stops with a record scratch as Luke Johansen pauses and goes Hold the phone. Is that Leslie fucking Jordan?
Speaker 4 01:28:35 Oh my god, that's Leslie Jordan.
Speaker 0 01:28:38 Yeah, it sure is. Upon having the name supplied for you, A couple memories come flooding back of like sitting with your dad and your siblings watching this guy on tv and that is the fact of the matter. Damien, the guy sitting behind this desk does not look like comedy legend Leslie Jordan. It's fucking Leslie Jordan. In between you and Luke Dahlia rolls her eyes and says sort of Soto VK guys, why would Leslie Jordan be running the front desk at a Faye casino? And Luke supremely offended, brings a hand up to his chest and goes, the man has already done everything there is to do with his career. Dahlia, maybe he's pursuing his interests.
Speaker 4 01:29:27 Okay. Yeah, I think with the realization of, oh right, yeah, this is a fake casino that's probably not the real Leslie Jordan. Uh, Damien walks up to the front desk, I think instead of wearing his, uh, spell focus, he's got it kind of turned into a bracelet for the evening and he rubs at the little pendant at the end with uh, his thumb and his pointer finger as he walks up to the desk and puts on a big smile and says, uh, hi, are you still Mars of the solstice throne by any chance?
Speaker 0 01:30:09 Hemi aboard winning Act actor Leslie Jordan snaps an old-fashioned hotel ledger shut in front of him and looks up at you with an expression of outright shock. Oh, of course not. So Morriss is way too busy to be running the front desk of this joint. I am simply his long-term business associate.
Speaker 4 01:30:37 Ah-huh <affirmative> follow up question. Why are you Leslie Jordan <laugh>?
Speaker 0 01:30:48 Well, the long answer is that I am a denin of Avalon, you know, under the hill, the Faye realm. I'm one of them good neighbors. What you hear so much about? I have been told that my true form is both incomprehensible and horrifying to behold. And since I'm in a bit of a customer service position, I choose to wear this face for my own enjoyment and the comfort of others.
Speaker 4 01:31:15 Uh huh I'm assuming the real Leslie Jordan has an opinion on this.
Speaker 0 01:31:23 Oh, I have received several cease and desist letters anyway, y'all can call me Matthew of the Solstice court if you feel like it. And y'all must be the delegation sent here on behalf of Mr. Darcy, correct?
Speaker 4 01:31:40 Uh, yeah.
Speaker 0 01:31:45 Oh, why ain't that just the bees knees. He claps his hands and jumps down off this chair. He's been sitting on almost disappears behind the front desk like you can just see from the nose up as he quickly shuffles out from behind it, you see that he's wearing like these old man khaki pants and a crisp button up with a little and a crisp button up with a little casino dealer's vest over it. He comes over and stops in front of the three of you, sort of bouncing on the balls of his feet, like I said. So Mars is a little busy at the moment, but I'd be happy to give you a tour of the place. Come, come Dalia looks delighted by how fucking weird this all is and Luke has metaphorical stars in his eyes like he has just met the rock or something.
Speaker 4 01:32:45 Okay, um, I'm gonna follow the Faye in the guise of famed actor of stage and screen Leslie Jordan into the casino.
Speaker 0 01:33:01 He leads all of you down a hallway next to this front desk behind you. You hear a hushed but heated argument between Luke and Dahlia. You could just barely catch Luke going. No. Okay, because listen, I know a star when I see one this whole f bullshit. It's nonsense. He's doing deep method for his next big role. Okay,
Speaker 4 01:33:24 Maybe if I just ignore him for long enough, I won't have to debate this. <laugh>
Speaker 0 01:33:30 Dahlia seems to be doing enough debating for the both of you. She kisses something back at him and you only catch the words you willfully obtuse idiot.
Speaker 4 01:33:41 Oh, I almost forgot. Um, I need to know what time it was when we got here so I know how long I have before it gets dark and we have to be out of here.
Speaker 0 01:33:51 It was coming up on 4:00 PM when you got here, so just eyeballing it. You've got like three, four hours give or take. The Faye known as Mathian of the Solstice throne apparently stops at a place where this hallway widens out into a big casino floor that smells strongly of florals and stales cigarette smoke and turns back around, adjusts his little vest, jauntily and grins at you. Now I know y'all are here for the tables, but I will warn you against sitting down at one of the machines. I've been told that once humans post up, it's a little hard to leave as you catch up with him and look out onto this casino floor. The situation goes from surrealist comedy to Eldridge, who very quickly there is a big sprawling casino floor full of automated slot machines and video poker games and flashing lights much like the lobby, the walls are covered in climbing vines. There are flowers and plants as far as the eye can see, and there are people in here, if you could call them that just a scattered crowd of folks in either tourist clothes or their Sunday best wasting away in front of these gambling machines and the vines from the walls and the plants in all of the planters scattered around the casino floor have started to grow into them.
Speaker 0 01:35:48 You see skin becoming bark and hair becoming leaves and blank dazed eyes reflecting the flash of lights, fingers almost autonomously hitting max bet buttons again and again and again where most casinos would have cocktail waitresses walking around with complimentary drinks. You see people in similar uniforms to the one mathian is wearing Wondering around with little plant misters
Speaker 4 01:36:25 Just
Speaker 0 01:36:26 Spritzing someone every now and again,
Speaker 4 01:36:31 I'm, I'm not looking, I'm not looking at any of this. I'm keeping my eyes straight ahead. I am looking away from any of this that I see. I'm gonna plaster on smile drop next to Matthew on and keep my eyes directly on him. So, uh, hey, y'all still got the adventure dome
Speaker 0 01:36:57 Behind you. Luke lets out a hysterical, horrified laugh and goes
Speaker 4 01:37:03 <laugh> the fucking adventure.
Speaker 0 01:37:07 And then you assume Dahlia kicks him to shut him up. This little man looks over and up and up and up at you with a bright smile. Oh, we uh, we overhauled it as part of the renovations. We call it the pleasure dome. Now
Speaker 4 01:37:29 Of course you do. Okay,
Speaker 0 01:37:32 Dahlia giving into her own morbid horny curiosity perks up behind you and goes, I would love to see the pleasure dome.
Speaker 4 01:37:42 I would not. And we are here on business.
Speaker 0 01:37:47 She sticks her tongue out at you but keeps moving. Your group passes under one of those big overhead directional signs that you see in Vegas casinos that has like arrows and labels going everywhere. Off to the left you see an arrow pointing in a sign that says to the rainforest cafe. You see another arrow that says to hotel. You see another arrow that says to the pleasure dome, you end up being led down a smaller hallway that's following an arrow that says two v i p rooms. Mathian is just bouncing along next to you taking two steps for every one of yours. Very animatedly going. Now this is the most recently renovated part of the building. We think we're finally done after this efforts were exhaustive. We had to get rid of all them clowns.
Speaker 4 01:38:51 I am keeping my eyes firmly locked on him as I step around a vine going into somebody's leg and say outta curiosity, um, what did you do with the clowns?
Speaker 0 01:39:09 That is a question. He ushers the three of you into one of these v i p rooms. You can tell from the architecture that this was once a very circus themed space, but now it has been turned into kind of a greenhouse themed area. Again, lots of plants on the walls, lots of flowers, artificial sunlight. You think coming down through some glass pans in the ceiling, there are gaming tables in here. You see a couple like high stakes poker and blackjack tables manned by dealers in that same uniform. You see more of like a lounge area than you think should be in this area of a casino as well though there's like a pond with a fountain and a bunch of coy fish with like porch furniture and chaise lounges arranged around it. Math collapses his hands again, a twinkle in his eye. All right, now I'm gonna go see what the ball span is up to y'all. Feel free to enjoy yourselves, help yourselves to some complimentary hors d'oeuvres, some champagne, a free massage. I'll be right back. Y'all stay put. He turns around in Bustles out
Speaker 4 01:40:43 As soon as he's out I'm going to very tensely turn to Luke and Dahlia and say, nobody eat anything. I am not going to sit down while we're in here. I'm pacing.
Speaker 0 01:40:56 Luke had been reaching for a little cucumber sandwich, but he pauses looking sad and then turns back over to you. What about the free massage?
Speaker 4 01:41:13 I wouldn't,
Speaker 0 01:41:15 I mean you also wouldn't change out of the stinky clothes you'd been wearing for several weeks because you didn't trust the normal clean clothes. So bye
Speaker 4 01:41:27 I drag my hands down my face and then turn to Dahlia and say, if he gets stuck here, it's not our fault we can leave.
Speaker 0 01:41:40 Dahlia doesn't even look up from where she's inspecting her fingernails. Uh, don't threaten me with a good time. You are in here for a while because you're not playing any of the games or engaging in any of the activities. It's pretty hard to gauge the amount of time you spend in here unless you're, you know, counting heartbeats or steps while you pace and maybe it's your anxiety or maybe it's something else, but you feel like you've been in here for way longer than it would take an employee of this casino to go upstairs and get their boss.
Speaker 4 01:42:25 I'm gonna stop in the middle of the room, swallow really hard, and then look at Dahlia and say, Hey, uh, I still don't have a phone. Do you have the time?
Speaker 0 01:42:42 Well, I don't have the patience. That's for damn sure. She reaches into a little beaded clutch and pulls out her cell phone and frowns very deeply. Hey Luke, do you also have no signal? Luke from where he is, splayed across a lawn chair getting a very nice ssu from a very attractive looking Faye gentleman, absentmindedly reaches into his pocket, pulls out his phone and goes, huh, what do you know? It's all right. I'm wearing a watch. He glances down at his wrist and frowns, uh, it's 4 0 7.
Speaker 4 01:43:35 No, it's definitely not.
Speaker 0 01:43:39 Dahlia pokes at her phone a few more times, looking even more panicked and then cuts her eye sideways over at you. Okay, there's more at play here, here than we thought. And this is starting to feel like a trap. Are we bailing?
Speaker 4 01:43:59 I don't think we're gonna get a second opportunity to get in here. So let's put the heist and casino heist and then, yeah, let's get outta here.
Speaker 0 01:44:11 Damien, we don't know where they're keeping the the thing
Speaker 4 01:44:20 Guess it's about time. We found out I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that the guy we're looking for lives in the penthouse of the hotel. If we can get up there, there's probably a safe
Speaker 0 01:44:34 Fucking, okay, here we go. Luke, say goodbye to your new friend. She reaches up into her hair where she has those jeweled spider pins and pulls one out. You notice that the end of this hair pin is very, very sharp. She drags it down across the meaty part of the palm of her hand until a thin line of blood wells up whispers something under her breath. And I'm gonna roll for Dahlia to use her rote to stop time. That's exactly a 10 baby time freezes for 30 seconds. The ripples in this pond stop moving as do the various casino employees around the v i p room and the three of you are left. The sole conscious moving figures in here. Damien, you're calling the shots. What are we doing?
Speaker 4 01:45:41 Um, I saw the sign, uh, with the arrow pointing towards the hotel. I am getting back there and I'm going down whatever hallway it points to.
Speaker 0 01:45:51 Okay, Luke and Dalia fall into step behind you and you follow these directional signs. You notice that Dahlia seems to have done a very effective job with this time. Freeze as you book it, most of the casino seems frozen. You end up down another very narrow labyrinthine hallway going around corners, seemingly doubling back on yourself a couple times and then you get spit out back into the front lobby of this casino where there is a group of elevators off to the side. Read a bad situation for me please.
Speaker 4 01:46:34 Great, cool. Awesome. Uh, that was a 12.
Speaker 0 01:46:49 All right, two questions off the list and one free form.
Speaker 4 01:46:54 Oh, okay. Uh, so I already know this is not great, but are there any dangers we haven't noticed?
Speaker 0 01:47:01 The area around you is still frozen in time, but you do see a couple people scattered throughout this lobby and the light is reflecting off their eyes in a weird way. You don't think they're entirely human despite appearances, but the desk is unmanned. There's nobody stopping you from making a break for it.
Speaker 4 01:47:33 Okay? Um, we're trying to get to the penthouse of the hotel, so what's my best way in?
Speaker 0 01:47:43 As I said, there are elevators off to the side, but given that time has been frozen, you're not sure how well they could work. There is a stairwell though.
Speaker 4 01:47:55 I'm gonna groan and say I'm way too outta shape for this. Uh, and then I'm gonna run towards the stairwell. My third question, I'm just gonna ask another one off the list. I guess what's most vulnerable to me,
Speaker 0 01:48:17 Okay, time is still frozen. You're not sure for how much longer, but as you go to run for this stairwell, the arcane focus and silver amulet wrapped around your wrist grazes past the arm of one of these people standing frozen in the lobby and you hear a hiss and a sizzle like burning meat and the glamor around this person dies away. They had looked pretty human, you know, standard casino patron in an ice cocktail dress, but all of that burns away to reveal the same two big eyes and two sharp teeth and two pointy features of that nurse creature that had been trapping you in your hospital bed not too long ago.
Speaker 0 01:49:21 There are some Faye in here and now you know what can at least reveal them and because you rolled that well, before we end here, I'm gonna give you one little free bit of information your hustling through this lobby trying to go for the emergency stairwell. And as you do, you look up over the front desk and see that there is a clock in here. It's an old analog clock, looks like it has chimes and various mechanisms built into it. And it reads 7 45 I think just reflexively. You turn around to look out through these sliding glass doors at the front and your first fearful impression is that it's dark outside, but given one more second's pause, you realize the even more terrifying truth. It's not just dark outside, there is nothing outside these doors. Luke and Dahlia both skid to a temporary halt beside you and follow your eye line out into the empty void beyond. And Luke sucks in a breath through his teeth. Ah, shit Toto. I don't think we're in Vegas anymore.
Speaker 4 01:51:02 Kaylin, we find you outside of another club. This one distinctly more raver friendly than the last ready to go into another show by presumably the same band of sirens that you saw last night. What are you doing?
Speaker 0 01:51:27 Typing my last will and testament into the notes folder on my phone?
Speaker 4 01:51:33 Well, it's a bit late for that, but whatever makes you feel better, Lydia is standing to one side of you, uh, stance Square looking at this club looking like she is bracing herself to go in and face whatever is about to happen. Lola is standing on the other side holding her notepad, still just kind of looking at the two of you waiting for somebody else to make the first move.
Speaker 0 01:52:03 I mean, it's a club in Las Vegas, so I feel like this is relevant to ask. What kind of weapons would I be able to manage to sneak in here?
Speaker 4 01:52:13 They probably have more security than the last show you were at. You can probably get in a safety cat and your keys and if you have a pepper spray key chain, I think you could do that.
Speaker 0 01:52:31 Okay, better than nothing. I'm going in
Speaker 4 01:52:35 And you go to the busyness and sensory overload of an E D M show. There are glow sticks. The music is frankly upsetting. A lot of people are wearing UV paint and the lights are taking full advantage of that. It is immediately overwhelming, but the band you're looking for is indeed up on the stage.
Speaker 0 01:53:07 Kay whips around to look at Lola and Lydia and sort of jerks her head backwards over her shoulder. All right, so what's the plan? Now we can't exactly bum rush the stage.
Speaker 4 01:53:23 Lola makes a face and says, I guess we wait for them to finish up their set
Speaker 0 01:53:32 And then what? Kill them. If we wanna find Chloe and or any of the other girls, we need more information. Somebody should go scope out the parking lot, see if they can find the van. I volunteer. This music is awful.
Speaker 4 01:53:51 Lydia gives you a look and says you were both at the show last night and if things go sideways, I'm the one who can most handle myself in a fight, I assume. No offense. She says, looking over at Lola, how about you two? Go look for the van and I will stay in here and keep an eye out.
Speaker 0 01:54:17 Okay, bye. I'm going, I'm getting outta here as fast as possible. I hate this.
Speaker 4 01:54:26 Okay, you and Lola head out into the parking lot, uh, the two of you are looking in amongst the cars and then before you find this Van Lola looking off into the distance very quietly says, oh my God.
Speaker 0 01:54:53 Well that doesn't sound promising
Speaker 4 01:54:57 From off in the distance you hear a very excited voice yell, Lola over here.
Speaker 0 01:55:05 Oh my God,
Speaker 4 01:55:08 Crossing the parking lot toward you is Lola's friend Camille wearing a similarly Barbie ish outfit as the one she was wearing last night waving excitedly Lola's steps out from around the row of cars that you are currently investigating and very irritably says, cam, what the fuck are you doing here?
Speaker 0 01:55:39 Are any of these cars unlocked? Can I like climb in the back of one and take a nap?
Speaker 7 01:55:44 <laugh>,
Speaker 0 01:55:45 I know I can't sleep, but can I take a nap?
Speaker 4 01:55:50 No such luck bestie. Camille has reached the two of you by now and is with great offense in her voice saying, well, you didn't come back to the hotel all day and I didn't know where you were. So I turn on find my friends, I can't believe you onto a show without me. That is so rude.
Speaker 0 01:56:14 Kailyn side eyes, Lola, extremely hard. You've got a security camera scrambler and your purse, but you forgot to turn off your location.
Speaker 4 01:56:29 I keep it on for emergencies and then she turns to Camille and says, emergencies, Camie. Oh my god. Uh, Camille looks at you and then looks back at Lola and goes, oh, I see what's happening here.
Speaker 0 01:56:52 I promise you, you don't.
Speaker 4 01:56:55 Lola kind of puts hands up to both of you and goes, okay Cam, I love you. I am doing some serious shit and you are painfully incapable of being serious. You need to go and I'm gonna need you to roll act under pressure.
Speaker 0 01:57:17 Ah yes, the cool base score, the thing I'm good at. Okay, so I could either take this four that I just rolled and level up or I can I assume, make sure some deeply bad shit does not happen. Is that what the case is here Al?
Speaker 4 01:57:45 Well Lola can still roll but pretty much
Speaker 0 01:57:50 Yeha. I'm using a luck point. So that means I either do what I need to do to absolute perfection or I get to do what I wanted to do and something extra fun thing with the spooky. Apparently as I mark off luck points, my dark side's needs will get nastier.
Speaker 4 01:58:12 So that's great.
Speaker 0 01:58:15 I really fucking hope this was worth it, but I had a bad feeling, so no regrets.
Speaker 4 01:58:21 Okay, I'm gonna roll for Lola six. So Lola mark experience, uh, and Camille's not hunter, so she doesn't get to roll. You were too far from the club to really hear the music anymore, but it gets louder. You can just barely hear it. But Camille and Lola stop arguing and both turn towards the club and you watch Camille take a step as if she is going to go inside.
Speaker 0 01:59:06 I turn off both my hearing aids.
Speaker 4 01:59:10 Indeed you do. You hear nothing?
Speaker 0 01:59:15 I'm tall but I'm not hefty. I can't stop both of them. Can I
Speaker 4 01:59:20 That you cannot.
Speaker 0 01:59:23 I'm gonna tackle Lola.
Speaker 4 01:59:26 You do that and as you do, I think you turn your head to follow towards where Camille is walking and you see that the music you were just hearing is not coming from inside the club. At least not all of it. The singer for this band is standing in this parking lot,
Speaker 0 01:59:51 Okay? I'm physically holding Lola not willing to let go of her. Don't know where Lydia is. I'm gonna try to telesis Camille out of harm's way.
Speaker 4 02:00:06 Okay? Oh that's weird.
Speaker 0 02:00:13 Um, that was a 10. So I get to choose two options off the list and mark one harm. I'm not gonna negate my harm because Camille is person sized, which I have to use that as one of my options so I can move something bigger than a person and something is held fast. I am holding her so she cannot be moved and marking one harm.
Speaker 4 02:00:40 Okay? Uh, Camille stops and you see Lydia running out of the club behind the singer with the rest of the band on her kale. I'm gonna roll to act under pressure for her
Speaker 7 02:01:01 <laugh>.
Speaker 4 02:01:04 That is a 13 and Lydia gets to use her. What could go wrong? Move whenever you charge into immediate danger without hedging your bets. Hold two, you may spend your hold to inflict one harm, reduce someone's harm suffered by one or take plus two forward on an act under pressure roll. She's not gonna do that yet, but she skids to a stop in this parking lot and takes something out of her jacket pocket and then looks at you and says something. Uh, she doesn't stop long enough for you to completely make out what she's saying. The intention is clear. Uh, she wants you to get the fuck out of there and she squares her stance like a boxer and circles the singer.
Speaker 0 02:01:56 That's cool that she wants that I'm not leaving her and she can't manipulate me cuz I can't hear if I use Telesis again to try to fuck these sirens up, is that gonna mean that I drop my hold on Camille?
Speaker 4 02:02:13 Yeah.
Speaker 7 02:02:16 Fuck.
Speaker 0 02:02:18 Okay, hope I don't regret this. I'm gonna drop my hold on Camille and use telekinesis to try to like brain this siren with something from the parking lot and hope that it's enough of a distraction for us all to get the hell out.
Speaker 4 02:02:37 <laugh>. That's a
Speaker 8 02:02:41 15. That's a 15.
Speaker 0 02:02:47 So I get two options off the list again. Once again, I'm not gonna negate my harm. I'm gonna take that one harm. I choose something is hurt, two harm smash and something catches fire. And if you need me to justify how that happens, I do have a justification for it.
Speaker 4 02:03:10 I don't need you to, but I do want to hear whatever your justification is.
Speaker 0 02:03:16 It's the outside of a nightclub in Vegas. There's gonna be a half empty liquor bottle around somewhere. I am throwing that at the siren hard enough to smash it and then taking my zippo out of my jacket pocket, flicking it on and telepathically throwing it at the siren and setting them on fire. So they are now hopefully concussed and on fire.
Speaker 4 02:03:43 Okay? Uh, like I said, the front woman of this e d m band that the sirens masquerade themselves as is a like short pixie like Filipino woman that face melts away, as you said, the siren on fire and is replaced by this horrible gaunt shape wreath in flames that coalesces into a very obviously not human creature. It is sharpen all the wrong ways. It's joints bend in ways they're not supposed to. It is covered in scales. It has bird legs and big feathery wings and it screams and you all take one harm
Speaker 0 02:04:41 O
Speaker 4 02:04:44 It is going to make a break for it in amongst the cars as the other three members of this band coalesce on Lydia.
Speaker 0 02:04:55 Uh, okay, I'm rocking three harm already and it's not looking good as far as the numbers game goes. I'm gonna look around at everybody else, jerk my head back towards the club and yell.
Speaker 9 02:05:12 All right, we're out gunned back inside.
Speaker 4 02:05:17 Okay? Um, the sirens are between you and the club door. Uh, you watch Camille stagger up against the car and Lola wrestles away from you and she runs toward where these supernatural band members are gathering to beat the shit outta Lydia.
Speaker 0 02:05:37 I don't have any weapons on me that can do anything right now. I'm just telenet leave flinging shit I guess.
Speaker 4 02:05:45 Okay? And here we go with our first Rio Combat of the series, the siren has run off the backup singers, which are what I have dubbed this particular minion are gathered around Lydia. Uh, Lydia is going to roll to kick some ass on. Let's call it backup Sanger number one. Uh, that is a 10. All right, Lydia. Okay, so she's going to inflict her want harm of her multi-tool and then let's say terrible harm. So it's gonna be two. She lashes out with whatever's in her hand, you're too far away to see and this band member reels back with a grimace and it lashes back out at her. There's nothing in its hand. It doesn't really seem like it has any advantages in this situation, but it just lashes out and hits her and Lydia staggers as she takes too harm.
Speaker 0 02:07:01 Mm. Yeah. Throwing something at it with Telesis. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff in the parking lot. Oh God, that's a six. So, um, I level up, um, on the information for telekinesis, it says on a miss something goes horribly wrong.
Speaker 4 02:07:28 First off, something to acknowledge ho but he's nort. I forgot that since you cannot hear you did not take one damage from that siren scream. But as you try to do telesis, you feel something go pop somewhere in your head and something warm and wet starts to trickle down your face. You take two harm and you have minus one ongoing as you try to fling a tire with your brain and it wobbles and then comes to a still and you see through the cars this horrible siren creature locks eyes with you. Okay? Um, my health is now at unstable. This is bad. We need to go. Yeah. Uh, this siren disappears back into the cars as whatever just happened to you becomes visible. Camille looks back at you and then takes off running past you. Lola draws up even with these backup singers that have surrounded Lydia and she's gonna roll to kick some ass. Well, they get one experience because they rolled a seven and they have minus one to tough. That's not great. Lola takes two harm as she runs up and tries to like elbow one of these backup singers in a move that looks trained and it just catches her elbow and twists her arm. Uh, and you watch Lydia still in the middle of all these backup singers whirl around. Uh, you guess Lola must have made a noise and she points emphatically toward you and then she's gonna roll to kick some as,
Speaker 4 02:09:45 Uh, that is an 11. Okay? Lydia inflicts another two harm on this siren and also takes another two harm. Uh, she lashes out at it again. I think she gets it right in the kidney with whatever she's holding in her hand and it whirls around and just backhand her and she hits the ground. This one that she and Lola have both been trying to focus on looks quite grievously injured. The others do not. I'm gonna try to take one out before we run. I'm rolling. Telekinesis again? Yes.
Speaker 0 02:10:35 12.
Speaker 4 02:10:36 Yes.
Speaker 0 02:10:39 So two options from the list I'm choosing to negate the harm I would take from this. And I am inflicting two harm smash to the backup singer.
Speaker 4 02:10:51 Okay? Uh, I think you pick up another bottle that is in this parking lot and just hook it at this backup singer. It hits it right in the head and it crumples to the ground. Uh, Lydia is still on the ground. Lola is stepping back and holding onto her arm that this thing just twisted and the others look past you and then take off through the cars.
Speaker 0 02:11:21 Kay, still bleeding from several orifices in her face, I suppose, looks around wildly grabs for her car keys and goes, all right, exit stage left. Now
Speaker 4 02:11:36 Lola's gonna reach down and they're gonna help Lydia up and the two of them book it toward you. These backup singers have vanished into the parking lot. I assume you're making a break for your car.
Speaker 0 02:11:51 Yes, and I am throwing them in bodily if I must.
Speaker 4 02:11:57 Okay. Uh, Lydia gets in. Lola stops and looks around wildly. Uh, she's obviously trying to say something to you as she's looking around. Uh, you don't have your hearing aids on and she's moving around so you can't speed trade.
Speaker 0 02:12:14 We don't have time for this. I am piling her in the car, locking the doors and only turning my hearing aids back on once I'm in and in the driver's seat.
Speaker 4 02:12:26 You do that as soon as you turn them back on. You hear Lydia is like hissing through her teeth and you look at her in the rear view mirror and her pupils are like very obviously uneven. She took a hard hit to the head and Lola is just repeating increasingly frantically. Where, where's, where's Camille? Did anybody see? And yeah. Camille is not at your car. The last you saw her, she was running off through the parking lot.
Speaker 0 02:12:58 Oh fuck. I'm gonna drive off through the parking lot and see if we can pick her up on the way out.
Speaker 4 02:13:07 Okay. As you pull out of your parking spot, you see a van English racing green peel out and take off down the street. What you do not see is Camille
Speaker 0 02:13:23 Kay swipes a hand under their bloody nose and stares at this van as it disappears into traffic.
Speaker 4 02:13:32 They got her. And that is where we're gonna end this time. I'm stressed out and you should be, but hey, Leslie Jordan is here. <laugh>, which is of course a great comfort to us here on Compelled Dual Desert Song.
