Welcome, my little critters, to Tales from the Crit Season 2, The Level Up.
We're an actual play podcast with an ever-changing cast of players making our way through a bunch
of different RPG systems, from micro-RPGs to some of the more well-known role-playing
games out there, and the occasional highly narrative tabletop game.
Content warnings can be found in the episode's description.
My name is Riley Groves, and I am the Crit Keeper on this episode of Tales from the Crit.
Last time on Crits on Bikes, Danny, Josh, and I, Billy, went and got some milkshakes
to talk about how sad we are because Andy's gone and Jack went to an insane asylum, but
we made a new friend named Maxwell, and he's really cool.
And a kid went missing in the woods following a loud roar, and these two creepy twins pushed
a teacher into the fire and she burned to death.
Welcome back to Tales from the Crit.
I am Riley Groves, your host as always, and I am joined by my co-host, Connor.
Hello.
And Derek.
Hello.
And we are continuing our playthrough of Kids on Bikes Part Deuce, and before we get into
that, we're going to ask you a question from the Ultimate RPG Campfire card deck.
This card is from your present, and the question is, which aspects of your daily routine do
you look forward to the most?
Out of all of you, I feel like Maxwell has the strictest routines, probably.
Ironically, that is his favorite part of the day, is getting up and planning his day and
his weeks and making sure he's got this planned schedule.
Yeah, there's a very strong need to feel the, you know, what's that word, rigidity of a
day, like that there is, it is planned, it is happening, that structure, there we go,
structure, that was what I was looking for.
It's a very structured, like, he kind of needs that due to the upbringing that he has had.
Which one of you two is next?
I can tell this is something that the both of you are struggling with.
No, I think I figured it out.
I was going to say that it was hard to figure it out, but I feel like since we've established
that he's suspicious of the food at school, it's probably dinner because him being low
income, he's probably eating at the school breakfast and lunch.
So it's probably getting home and actually having something to eat around six o'clock
at night.
That's probably what he looks forward to.
Is it like a home cooked meal or is it like a hungry man TV dinner kind of situation?
I don't think it matters.
I think it's just that it's like safe food.
He goes through the entire day hungry and it's just like, I don't think it really would
matter if it was a meatball sub out of a trash can at that point.
It's not whatever they're serving at the school, which he thinks is great.
Yeah.
Okay.
Dinner.
Solid.
I guess Danny's favorite part of his daily routine would probably be the time from usually
when he can get out of school before he has to actually interact with his parents for
his time just to do whatever just by himself, play video games, look at magazines or, you
know, read other things, play with knives, whatever young teenage boys do before their
parents get home.
A good two and a half hours of alone time to fulfill every teenage boy's dream.
All right.
So let's jump into it.
All of you plus Shelley are outside of the Bethlehem bookstore and you run to the sheriff's
department.
Along the way, you guys see many, many cop cars go flying past you as well as you can
hear sirens off in the distance.
When you get to the sheriff's department, there are people running around like crazy
in here.
There's just officers trying to get out of the building.
It's not a huge sheriff's department.
So I don't know how many more people there could be in here, but there's just like the
call center ladies at the front desk and they're frantically answering phone calls.
Well, based on how we were treated last time, we tried to give our statements to the cops
and they were much less busy than this.
I don't think that anyone's going to help us guys.
Nobody's stopping.
Everybody's running around.
They look really busy.
Probably on account of the deaths.
Probably.
Well, at least they probably know about that then.
They do seem busy.
So maybe someone's already told them, should we go back to the school?
Shelley pipes in.
You just want to leave?
Like what about Dale?
Well, even know about Dale.
We don't know.
But if we go to the school where all of, I mean, I actually don't know if all the cops
went there, but they went another direction.
I mean, we can try and go over to the desk.
How long do we wait though?
Should we just follow the cops?
Have we actually tried asking for help yet?
Shouldn't we just ask somebody around for help?
Excuse me.
Hello.
I walked to the desk.
The phone's ringing frantically and there's these two older women in police uniforms just
answering them frantically.
Yes.
Yes, we know.
We're sending people to the school right now.
Yeah.
Hold on, child.
Go sit.
Yes.
Hello.
I turn around and rejoin them.
Yeah, they're definitely aware of what happened.
I think we're good to go.
They seem to be doing all the calls.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, we've been sitting here in the lobby arguing for a few minutes now and no one seemed
to care and they turned you down at the desk.
So maybe we should just go.
Should we go find Dale ourselves?
You want to go?
Do we know where he just went missing in the woods?
Do you have an idea of which way to go?
I know which way the sound came from.
Did you hear where the cops are going?
I think the cops are going to the school.
I mean, the direction the cop cars looked like they were going.
Yeah, the cops are all going to the school because of the murder that we were going to
report.
So they're definitely on it.
Well, let's go check the scene out there and then reconvene on whether or not we're going
to go into the woods alone and look for Dale.
And you all leave the sheriff's department.
I don't know where Dale went, but somebody has to find him.
Hey guys, who is Dale?
Who is Dale?
Dale's the reason why we're here.
Was Dale near the murder?
Was that the teacher's name?
What teacher?
What are you talking about?
I thought the art teacher's name was something else.
The teacher fell in the fire.
The teacher that got pushed in the fire?
What are you talking about?
The twins pushed the teacher in the fire.
Those two creepy twin girls at school, they pushed the teacher into the fire.
She lit on fire.
She died.
She's dead.
Who's Dale?
Isn't that why you're here?
We're here because Dale went missing in the woods.
What is happening?
Did the scream come from or did the roar come from towards the woods, Shelley?
Like are from the school?
Which way did it come from?
I thought it came from the woods, not the school.
Okay, so we're-
I thought other people heard it and that's why I heard screaming coming from the school.
That's what I thought too.
What are you talking about, Miss Melbourne died?
Yeah.
A gruesome and horrible death.
Twins just pushed her in.
I'll see it in my dreams every night for least...
A foreseeable future.
We probably should get back to the school then.
I don't know if I want to go back there.
What if everybody's just getting pushed into the fire?
We'll keep our distance from those creepy girls that you say did this and the fire.
Times like this I wish I had a big strong strapping girlfriend like I used to have three
days ago.
It's okay.
I pat him on his shoulder.
Oh, what a poor little weird kid.
We should go tell somebody.
I don't know.
Maybe they don't even know about Dale.
They might not know about Dale.
If they're at the school, if someone got pushed into the fire, that certainly seems like a
more pressing instance than...
Maybe Dale's already back at the school.
Maybe he heard the fire.
So let's go.
We'll go search there and see what we can find.
And you guys run out of the sheriff's department and back around the back of the school.
When you try to get back there, there are several cop cars parked blocking the parking
lot and entrances too.
And there's several cops.
Oh, okay.
We don't want you guys to go in there.
Just stay, probably go back home.
There's been an incident.
What kind of incident?
One of the teachers unfortunately tripped into the fire.
Oh, here comes the ambulance right now.
Move aside.
That's definitely not what happened.
I was here.
We were here.
We watched the teacher get pushed.
Yeah.
Pushed?
I already saw it.
Everybody saw it.
Pushed by who?
Those...
The new twins.
The girls that look exactly the same.
They just started school today.
You might not know them.
All right.
So we're going to go down the curb quick, we're going to talk to you in a moment.
Just hold on there.
And they sit you down on the curb and continue to direct traffic.
Eventually a cop comes over and does take your guys' statements.
Can the two of you tell me what your statements are?
Yeah.
So there are these two girls that...
They're twins and they were at the fire tonight.
And then they were over by where the music...
Excuse me.
The art teacher was.
And then they pushed her in the fire.
Okay.
The girls' names?
Callie and Laura.
Okay.
All right.
And what about you?
What do you have to say?
I see them in my dreams.
Okay.
All right, boys.
Thank you for that.
Appreciate that.
And you two over there, did you see the same thing?
Did you see these kids push this lady into the fire?
So we actually weren't at the fire at the same time.
We ran into them afterwards because we saw something else or witnessed something else
concerning to our friend Dale.
And what's that?
Well, we were all hanging out in the woods, taking a break from the bonfire festivities.
And then there was a loud kind of roar and then some screaming and Dale was gone.
We couldn't find him after that.
So we're looking for him now.
All right.
The two of you, why don't you hang out with this officer?
Scott, will you walk these two around the bonfire, see if they see their friend Dale?
And so another cop comes and escorts the two of you back behind the building to the bonfire,
while the three younger boys still continue to sit on the curb.
I don't think they bought it.
Well, what?
That's what happened.
I know.
It's what we saw.
But it just sounded like they didn't quite believe us.
Yeah, I don't think that the dream thing helped.
Yeah, but it's true.
I know.
But I think if we just stuck to what had physically happened at the fire.
I mean, I had the dream too.
But didn't you see?
Did you see what happened?
Oh yeah, we saw a push.
Right.
I just don't think that was the best.
But that's fine.
We probably don't have to stick around.
I don't think that they're going to have any more questions.
I think we could just head right out.
Where should we go?
My house is down there.
My mom's home.
My dad's not.
Oh, yeah, it's probably best to stick together.
And it was pretty crazy in the middle of town.
The hotel is probably going to be pretty not still.
Oh, yeah, you live in the hotel.
Yeah.
Let's go to your house.
Come on, Josh.
Yeah, I guess that's probably a safe place.
I mean, it's a lot of people there, so it's probably protected pretty well, I would imagine.
Yeah, what floor are you on?
The third.
The third?
I wonder if we can get to the top and look off and see down to the fire from the roof.
Actually, this seems like a pretty good idea.
We could probably see a lot of what's happening.
All right, let's go.
All right.
We're like halfway across the street, like trying to wave you to your own house.
Danny, you and Shelly and Officer Scott walk around the bonfire.
You kids see who you're looking for at all?
I don't think so, but I've only met him a few times.
Shelly, do you see Dale?
I don't think I see him anywhere.
He's not here.
Why are we looking here?
Why are we not looking in the woods where he went missing?
Well, we were just checking to see if maybe he was playing a prank on us and ran back
over here.
Well, I don't see him anywhere.
The officer gets on the radio.
We might have another situation here.
We got a missing kid.
Then the police escort you guys back to the front of the school and take the rest of your
statements and send you on your way.
Okay, we like have to get in the woods and find him or we got to do something.
We can't just leave him out there.
What if he's hurt?
Well, maybe the cops will go look for him.
I guess we can go check back where we were last time we saw him and see if there's any
signs of distress or, you know, hopefully nothing scary in the woods.
All right.
Do you have like a flashlight or a gun?
I definitely don't have a gun.
I have this little knife, but no flashlight.
I have a lighter, but, you know, I can't hold that and keep that on for very long.
It starts to burn.
All right.
Well, yeah, let's just let's just go.
Maybe one of those kids has a flashlight.
They're like Boy Scouts.
Sometimes they're prepared.
I don't even know where they went.
That's true.
They were supposed to be right here.
Okay.
Well, I guess to the woods and the two of you have set off into the woods next to the
school.
Do we see any of our other friends?
Like were we the only ones that knew Dale was missing?
Where did everybody else go?
They're all fucking assholes.
They just left us.
They left Dale.
We should go find Carrie.
That's Dale's girlfriend.
I know you don't really run in that circle.
So okay, if you know someone who also knows Dale, because I, you know, I've seen him around.
He knows Dale.
There's like 400 people at this school.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I know of him, but you know, I've had like one class with him last year.
That's it.
Okay.
So we'll go, we'll go find Carrie and maybe, maybe they're just hanging out.
We'll just keep hopeful.
He was like, you know what?
We're just going to sneak off.
So let's, let's go over and see if Carrie's home or if they're at Carrie's house.
Okay.
She lives in the silk mill apartments.
So let's head over there.
Let's jump back to the three boys running through the hotel.
I don't feel like that makes Maxwell very comfortable actually.
Like actually them, Billy and Josh running through the hotel.
I definitely wouldn't be running.
We weren't in a rush to go anywhere.
Like every floor you go up, Billy and Josh are all already at the end of the hallway urging
you to come quicker.
Come on Max.
Come on.
Come on Max.
We got to get up to the roof.
Oh, come on to the roof.
Yeah.
I don't, I don't think that this is quite a, um, as much of a rush as you think it is.
We're kind of just watching.
It's not like it's an active event still.
Well, did you know last year in the basement we were attacked on several occasions?
By who?
Oh, once a janitor and I froze his arm and then a crazed lunatic and his kids who eventually
died.
Mostly because of my sister.
Is this?
And our buddy Jack.
Is this normal in this, around here?
Seems to me.
Yeah.
This one time, um, I was, I lived in a town where, uh, dinosaurs were coming through a
portal and just running through the town.
Oh, we only had frog people.
You had frog people?
Yeah.
They were plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop.
I think we had this guy that died in one or we might've killed him.
I can't, I can't quite remember.
One time a girl just gone.
Not sure what happened to that one.
Probably.
Oh yeah, we had several of those over the years.
Oh, man.
Aren't those weird?
Yeah, that happened to Jamie.
Well, the, the world is a really messed up place.
Oh, Jamie.
I remember when Jamie and I used to go get ice cream at that same place that you brought
us.
You know, I wonder if we could see the ice cream place from the roof.
We definitely can.
If we can, can you bring, can you bring us ice cream again?
Oh, wait.
Where am I looking?
Just to have my inner self.
You new guy, you tall guy, you, you, we room service ice cream to the roof while we're
up here, there.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
Talking is just so much right now.
I just want to get to the roof.
Come on.
I miss my girlfriend so much.
Jamie.
Jamie!
I'm going to scream that from the rooftop.
We have to get up there now.
I can't hold it any longer.
Fuck yeah.
All right.
You guys get to the roof and the door seems to be locked.
That leads directly to the, to the roof itself.
I think I can get this one.
I have my, my Swiss army knife and every once in a while I'll get lucky at locks.
Okay.
Let's see a roll.
I don't have any, we don't have any adversity tokens, do we?
Not yet.
No.
I would say brains for like a smart roll or for a street smart roll.
Yeah.
Let's get a brains roll.
Let's put the check at a seven and eight.
All right.
What die do you roll for a brains roll anyways?
D12.
Nice.
All right.
And eight.
Is it just a Swiss army knife?
Yeah.
The toothpick has been broken for a little while now, but everything else on it works
great right on the broken toothpick like slides in perfectly.
And you're able to use that in conjunction with the corkscrew to really just manipulate
this lock and the door swings open and with a burst of cold fall, autumn air, um, hitting
you guys in the face once again, as, as the door just like slams all the way open.
You hear this faintly from the street below.
Um, Danny, you just hear like on the wind, the name Jamie getting like scream cried.
Whoa.
Did, did you hear that?
I didn't hear anything.
Okay.
Why?
Did you hear the beast again?
No, it, it sounded more like a brat.
Uh, no, I didn't hear anything like that.
Okay.
Let's, let's keep going.
I'm sure it was nothing.
Okay.
On the roof.
What are the three of you doing?
Trying to console Billy.
He's just like crying on it.
Like three feet from the edge.
I'm going to put my hand on his shoulder and rub his back.
It's okay, buddy.
It's okay.
Just, I just miss her so much.
We know you do.
If you want, we could probably, uh, we can go get that ice cream now.
Um, you know, that makes you happy or happier, right?
I can, I have room.
I do have rooms.
We can't, we don't, I don't have roof service, but I do have room service if we want to go
back down or do you still want to look around for stuff?
Well, yeah, let's look off the edge of the roof.
Are we close enough to see off the roof?
Sure.
What are we looking for?
I mean, not right now.
If we move up a couple of feet.
Yeah, sure.
What are we looking for again?
Oh, look, I can see the bonfire from here.
I can't believe they kept feeding it wood.
They should have just let it go out.
I mean, they spend all that money on the wood probably.
So like, you can't just waste it.
Taxpayer money.
I guess.
Or is that just how?
Nah, nevermind.
You guys, I forgot how, I forgot how little you guys are.
I don't have to probably say that.
Well, no, you said you saw some of the same stuff I did.
So like, do you think that bodies just burn that bright for that long or did they pull
her out?
I think that's her right next to it.
They're loading her onto it into the ambulance now.
Oh, she wore a lot of perfume.
This is true.
Probably the accelerant.
Didn't Danny say he was in the woods?
I can't see shit into the woods.
I thought that's where Dale was.
Well, Danny was with Dale.
Just like look over and look from like across, like down the street.
So give me a smarts, right?
Brains?
Brains roll.
The six, please.
Eight.
All right.
Eight explodes.
So go ahead and roll that again.
Four.
So 12.
12.
So here you can see that the diner that you get the ice cream from typically is closed
next to the school.
You can see that they have loaded Miss Melbourne's remains in two parts into an ambulance.
The ambulance is leaving without its lights on or without the sirens on.
No need to move fast in this situation.
And as you see cop cars driving up and down the main street here, you also see very faintly
what you think is a light from the bookstore, but it very quickly goes out.
Okay.
Guys, I got some bad news.
What was it?
There's no ice cream.
The diner's closed.
Ah, man.
Well, the room service thing.
Yeah, we can just go that route.
I'm sure at worst, you know, go leave or have like a ice cream sandwich or something.
Maybe we just go to Jamie's house and confront her why she likes another boy more than me.
Oh, I don't think that's the best idea, buddy.
Yeah, I think we got to figure this out first, man.
It's okay.
Okay.
Headed over to the Soak Mill Apartments.
Danny, you and Shelly go inside.
She knows right where Carrie's house is or what apartment she lives in.
Knocking on the door, Carrie's dad answers.
Why hello there, Shelly.
Who's the young lad you got with you?
Hi, sir.
I'm Danny.
Oh, Danny, it's pleasant to meet you.
Do you go to the high school too?
I sure do.
Oh, that's awesome.
If you're here to see Carrie, she's just off crying in her room.
I couldn't really understand what she was saying.
If you head right in, if you want, you know, door three inches, please.
Okay.
Yeah, we thought she might need some consoling or, you know, someone to talk to.
That's why we came over.
Why did something happen?
There, I mean, there was a whole big thing at the school.
One of the teachers fell into the fire and there was a lot of stuff going on.
She fell into the fire?
Who is it?
Is she all right?
I think it was the art teacher, Mrs. Melbourne.
Carrie didn't say anything about that.
She said she lost track of her boyfriend.
I don't know what's going on here.
Either way, but we're going to go talk to her and see if we can piece something together.
All right.
Well, it's getting late, so try not to stay too long, okay?
With everything going on, everybody should probably get back to their houses.
Yeah, we'll try.
Okay.
He heads off, the two of you head into Carrie's room where she's just crying.
Hey, Carrie.
How's it going over there?
Shelly, why'd you bring him?
Who is he?
It's Danny.
You know Danny.
Well, my boyfriend's gone.
Why is yours here?
We're not dating.
We're just hanging out.
And anyways, Danny was there.
We thought maybe we could help find Dale or you knew where Dale was.
We were hoping Dale was here.
But he's not.
I haven't seen him.
Do you remember when was the last time you saw him?
He was out there in the woods with us and then, you know, we turned around one minute
and did you hear that that noise?
Guys, I think it was the reefer.
I'm done smoking it.
I started hearing shit and I saw things and I just, I think it went, I don't think I can
smoke anymore.
Here, you guys take the rest of mine.
I don't need it anymore.
I think you're making a wise decision.
I will take this for you.
I can step up for that.
So what kind of things did you say you were seeing?
Because we didn't see a lot, but we heard some stuff that sounded kind of frightening.
I don't know.
Dale got mad at me and he ran off into the woods and then, then it all gets fuzzy.
And I saw this giant creature and I saw it take him and then I didn't see anything anymore.
And I was like, this is the worst high I've ever had.
And maybe it's just sativas that I have and maybe it's indigo.
I don't know.
But I think he's mad at me because that other shit's not real.
Yeah.
I mean, sometimes, you know, guys get irrationally mad.
I wouldn't, wouldn't hang up too much about it.
What tell us more about this creature.
You saw a creature that sounds crazy.
I mean, it did.
It wasn't real, Danny.
Obviously, there's no such thing as creatures.
It's like a gigantic wolf.
A gigantic wolf.
And, and you said it took him?
Yeah.
But obviously that's not real.
He's just mad at me and he ran away.
Which way did he run?
Into the woods.
Just, just into the woods?
Oh, Shelley.
Uh, Danny, maybe we don't question her so much right now.
I don't know if you two know each other that well.
And she goes over and sits on the bed and begins to stroke her head and console her.
That's a normal thing.
She goes over and consoles Carrie.
Yeah, you're right.
Maybe I was asking too many questions.
You know, sometimes thinking about things and answering questions distracts you from
being sad.
So I was just trying to help in the weird way I can.
She sobs really hard into her pillow.
I see it's not, not the most helpful thing for her though.
I'm going to just go, go outside and let you console her for a little bit.
I'm going to just walk down the street and see if I see those kids anywhere.
I won't go far.
So when you're done here, just, you know, meet me outside.
Shelley looks at you and just mouths, be careful.
And she stays in the room.
So then I go out front of the apartments and I just kind of walk down the street a little
bit the one way.
And then the other way, just trying to look around and see if I see anything, see if I
see Dale popping himself out of the woods or an alleyway between some buildings, just
kind of waiting since I really stepped in and up there and don't want to make the situation
with Carrie worse.
And her dad told me to not stay very long.
So right on.
You don't see Dale out here on the street.
You just see a lot of police officers.
You see the ambulance pull out without its sirens on and head towards, towards the hospital.
There's a lot of people on the streets, but it does look like the schools like being evacuated.
There's a few cop cars left around there.
So I'm over here at the silk mill.
They're on top of the hotel.
All right.
So I'm just walking around in this area.
Yeah.
So as you stand out front, you hear very faintly, just the most intriguing, but perplexing violin
sounds.
They seem like they're carried to your ears from the wind.
Like you can't pinpoint where they're coming.
There's nobody playing a violin on the streets.
Man, I need to go get my hearing checked.
I swear earlier I was hearing stuff on that ghost walk and then I swear I heard Billy's
girlfriend's name on the wind.
That was really weird.
And now just hearing some violins.
This is kind of want to find out where it's coming from.
This one sounds more, more clear, but I told Shelley I'm going to wait.
I'm just going to sit here and walk down the street just a little bit towards the direction
that the violins are going that I feel like I hear the rounds.
Do you have a direction?
If not, I'm walking towards the hotel.
Yeah.
No specific direction, honestly.
Are these the woods here behind the school off into this area?
Yeah, they're just kind of like all behind all around.
The school is pretty much set.
You know, a spot was cleared in the woods to put the school.
OK.
And the school is surrounded by the woods.
That's what I thought.
Yeah.
So I'm just going to walk down past like the diner, see if I hear these violins getting
any more clear.
As you're walking, you feel something brush against your calf quickly.
And when you look down, there's a black and white cat just circling around your legs,
rubbing its cheeks all over you.
Oh, hey, kitty.
Meow.
Who are you?
And Danny gets down and starts playing with the cat.
And then from on top of the building, Billy's like, oh, I think I see Danny.
And he's got a cat.
Oh my Danny.
Danny, I want that cat.
Oh, guys, guys, we've got to get down there quick.
He's got a cat.
I want to play with it.
And then Billy just starts running, forgetting all about his ice cream, and is just exiting
the roof of the hotel as quickly as he can down the stairs into the hotel.
Billy's running to go try and find this cat that Danny is now petting.
Billy, hold on.
We're right behind you.
Oh, he almost went off the roof when he did that.
Yeah, I really thought he was just going to go for it.
Well, let's go.
All right.
We run after Billy.
Cats, cats, cats, cats, cats.
You're kitty, kitty, kitty.
He's getting away from us.
Let's go.
How does he run so fast?
Cats.
Oh.
Enough said.
The cat, you know, after you hear Billy yelling from the roof, the cat looks startled at the
hotel and then sprints down past the school and takes a left into the woods past the school.
Bye, kitty.
OK.
Well, I definitely heard Billy that time.
So that might explain what I heard earlier, but still not those violins.
Oh, he's going to be mad that didn't catch that cat for him, too.
Oh, well.
Cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat.
Danny, where's the cat?
Oh, Billy, you just missed it.
I think it heard you yelling.
Where were you?
It ran away, though.
I was going to catch it, but it looked like its claws were sharp.
Roof, roof, you can see everything on the roof.
We saw Mrs. Melbourne.
Two pieces come crashing into the door.
Oh my God.
Why are you running so fast?
It's actually didn't catch the cat.
It's not even a cat.
Oh, hey, Danny.
You have a cat out here?
How are you?
I had a breath.
Oh, um.
I train a lot.
I love trains.
For various reasons.
They're great.
It's the imagines.
All right.
Guys, I'm sorry I didn't catch the cat, but I'm glad that, you know, you guys are all
safe.
Hey, where's Shelly?
Did you get arrested?
What happened?
What were you doing in the bookstore?
Did you find Dale?
What do you mean the bookstore?
Oh, I saw a light off the roof.
I thought it was you.
No, but we should come back to that.
Um, in the bookstore, you say?
Yes.
We went to go find Dale, our friend who went missing's girlfriend.
We thought they were, you know, hanging out in private and we wanted to go see what that
was about.
We went to go see if Dale had been seen by his girlfriend and we got there.
She was alone and very sad.
So, um, I'm not good in those situations.
So I left Shelly there to see how she was doing and see if she could get any more information.
But Carrie did say that Dale got mad at her and turned into a giant beast and ran away
or something like that.
What?
She was crying a lot.
It was hard to understand.
A beast?
He turned into a beast or a beast ate him?
Um, you know, one of those things, probably.
I think she was very sure that he was mad at her.
That is what we do know.
Dale was mad at her.
But they're very different things.
They are different things.
So maybe we should go in the woods and see if we see any signs of a giant beast.
Was beast actually used as more of a description of his behavior?
No, she actually said creature.
I'm paraphrasing.
Oh, yeah.
So then she said giant wolf.
Now that I think about it, maybe she did say a giant wolf carried him off.
Not the frogs?
No, not the frogs.
That doesn't really seem metaphorical.
Well she said that she was under a lot of stress and couldn't quite remember what was
going on.
You know, sometimes kids get into stressful situations and things seem a little bit hazy
when you're hanging out with your friends and it gets really a lot of excitement happens
sometimes.
Uh, Maris, you said you saw dinosaurs before.
Maybe this is like that.
Um, yeah.
Is there wolf dinosaurs?
Yeah, I guess that could make sense.
Up until last year, I only cared about superheroes, so I didn't pay attention to dinosaurs at
all.
We should go check out around where the wolf was.
Maybe there will find a portal.
Maybe that would be.
I hope that is not what we find.
I mean, yes, that could be better than some alternatives.
So we should do any of you have a flashlight because this lighter doesn't throw very much
light.
Nobody's failed to roll yet.
I don't have any adversity tokens, but I do have a backpack.
So yeah, bust out a flashlight.
You're cool.
You got a flashlight.
Yeah, I got one right here.
I'm gonna pull out the flashlight and hand it to Danny.
Josh, I knew that you would have one.
You're always prepared.
It's come in handy before us last year, many times.
Yeah, that's why it's still in here.
That's good.
All right.
So I told Shelly I wouldn't go far, so we should either wait a little bit longer or
I should go in and tell her that we're leaving.
Yeah.
You know, my sister never would have left us alone like this.
She would have been here to protect us.
Yeah, you need a new girl.
You need a better girlfriend for this.
Shelly's not a very big, good older sister yet.
Well, she's not my girlfriend or your older sister.
She's just a girl who goes to the same school as all of us and is a friend.
Yeah, just like last time.
Hey, Danny, can I ask you a question?
Sure.
Do you think it'd be a good idea for us all to go find Jamie's house and then question
her on why she loves another boy more than me?
Not tonight, I don't think.
Tomorrow?
Yeah, that's what we told him.
Not tonight.
Yeah, maybe another night, but not tonight.
Okay.
So are we going to go in the woods and find the big bad wolf?
Yeah, I see some lights turning on and off in this building.
I'm going to go see if Shelly's ready.
Let's all walk into the foyer of the apartment building and you guys stay here.
I'm going to go knock on the door real quick.
Don't...
We're really good at knocking on doors.
I remember, so I'm going to take care of this one now.
All right, well, right here.
And then I walk over to Kerry's apartment and knock on the door again.
You know, I don't think it's rude if...
Do you like pushing buttons, Josh?
I do.
Look at all these buttons on the wall.
Oh, hey, guys, I don't...
Oh, yeah, I...
Oh.
Isn't this fun?
Max, can we help us?
One giant step back away from the buttons.
No, you're going the wrong way.
Look, you can play music.
Danny is not going to be happy about this.
Oh, boy.
I'm just going to study my planner.
This makes me feel uncomfortable.
As you're getting to Kerry's house, the door just swings open and her dad is so flustered.
Oh, hello again, Daniel.
I don't know what's happening out there.
This is driving me absolutely mad.
Is somebody on the intercom?
Any storms by you and down towards the foyer of the apartment building?
Oh, that's not good.
And then I run in to where Kerry's room is and knock on the door if it's closed, but
do not wait too long to open it.
There's three inches that it's open.
Oh, okay.
And you open it and it's just Kerry sobbing on the bed alone.
Hey, Shelly.
Dale?
Oh, God.
You're not Dale.
Nope, still not Dale.
But I am going to go look for him in the last place I saw him that wasn't school.
Tell him I love him.
And I'm sorry.
Give him this note.
Okay.
And I take the note and I say, all right, Shelly, I found those kids and one of them
has a flashlight, so we're going into the woods.
It's wild when you say this because Shelly is not in this room.
Shelly's not in the room.
Kerry's crying on the bed by herself.
Oh, no.
Danny, she's not here.
Where did she go?
She was right here with you last time I was here.
She went to the bathroom and Shelly pops out of her room right next door.
Oh, Danny, you're back.
Oh, okay.
Good.
I thought someone else went missing tonight.
All right.
So, no, I just had to pee.
Oh, well, good.
Because we're about to head into the woods.
Do you want to?
Are you staying here and hanging out with Kerry?
Or do you want to come to the woods?
One of those little kids had a flashlight.
Oh, you're back with the little kids.
Strength in numbers, you know, all of them.
Like all three of them.
Yep.
Well, they're a lot.
They can be.
How about if we went out back to the apartments real quick and maybe took care of some of
that stuff that Kerry just gave us and then you can go off with the little kids and I'll
hang out with Kerry and just hang out with her in case Dale comes back here.
Then I can come find you.
Okay.
That sounds good to me.
I mean, that'll definitely make dealing with these little kids a little bit easier.
Let's go.
Kerry, we'll be right back.
And she leads you out the back entrance of the apartments and like uses this little brick
to prop open the door because it's not the same situation as the front.
The three of you, you see like a bunch of angry adults coming down the hallway towards
the foyer.
Max, Max, we have fans.
Billy, your mom's going to catch us.
Run!
We gotta go!
Run!
We gotta go!
Come on, Maxwell!
And Billy grabs your arm as you guys run out the front of the silk mills.
Thank you!
Boy, you guys really know how to cause...
I didn't know that they would hear it.
I just thought they were buttons.
Well, what do buttons normally do when you push them, buddy?
Open doors?
Uh...
Or stuff?
Make toys sing?
They are open.
Huh.
Which way are we going?
Where are we running?
Oh shit, where's Danny?
Run out and around the side of the building heading towards the back.
Those are running.
And so Shelly and Danny, the two of you are doing what kids do when they have a bag of
weed and all of a sudden these three boys bust around the back of the apartments.
There he is!
Danny, run!
Oh, Danny!
Guys, we gotta go!
We gotta go!
Come on, there's a skunk!
Good, good!
Alright, Shelly...
Skunks aren't kitties!
We're going to take a quick break to listen to an ad for another show on the Wolfbeard
Games Podcast Network that you are sure to love.
Hey there, how's it going?
I'm Carl and this is my drive-in movie theater.
I've been running this place for ten years now.
Business has been really picking up the last six months, which is great.
The first nine and a half years though, not so much.
Julie...
Julie?
JULIE!
Get Josh out of the radio and tell him to pay more attention to trucks!
I just saw three kids hop out of the truck and that blue boat of a car over there.
Come on, Josh!
Remind him what we've talked about, Julie!
Holy biscuits!
I wish I had the A-Team here tonight, but they're recording a new episode of their podcast,
Bear Muses Theater, and I can't be mad because it's a good show and those kids deserve to
have fun.
They work hard.
Not like Josh.
I gotta keep that kid on the ticket window or he eats all the popcorn.
And he thinks I don't know, but I do know.
I do know, Josh.
He leaves marks everywhere.
I can track him with minimal effort.
That's why I started putting more butter in the popcorn in the first place.
Anyway, you make sure to go listen to Bear Muses Theater, a podcast all about seeing
if the movies you remember being your favorite still hold up.
I don't want to spoil anything, but the first episode is Rocky and Bullwinkle and that's
a movie that I had never seen before.
Didn't even know it was a movie.
It's a classic TV show.
Why did they want to make it into a movie?
All right, I gotta go.
Got a business to run.
Make sure to listen to Bear Muses Theater, available wherever you can get podcasts.
I'm Carl.
This is my drive-in movie theater.
And remember that every spot is the best in the lot.
Okay, I've got to go catch them.
Take this, stay with Carrie, and we'll catch up later.
Dandy break your girlfriend!
If she's big and strong like Dandy, she can really help!
It's now or never.
I gotta go.
What are you doing?
I'll hang out with Carrie.
Yep, I'll hang out with Carrie and maybe I'll see you tomorrow or something.
Hopefully, yes.
All right.
That's the plan.
Okay, and like a stream of adults starts, like you can hear them coming down the alley
between the two buildings.
I'm gonna go back inside.
All right, I'm gonna go find those kids.
And then I'm going to look in a perpendicular direction to where I know that the kids ran
and yell, where are you kids going?
Stop running so fast towards the hardware store!
Give me a charm roll.
You have something to charm adults, don't you?
I am rebellious.
I think that's the opposite.
I think so too.
Okay, super, super easy.
Give me a roll of a four for charm.
Got a d6.
D6, all right.
We got a chance.
Four!
All right.
You guys are getting zero adversity tokens because you keep passing and the kids, the
adults get down here and one goes, ah, skunk!
Which way did they go?
They went that way, down, down towards the hardware store.
And no less than six adults run down towards the hardware store.
And then I go the other way and find these kids behind the building on the other side
of the apartments.
Yeah, that one's just abandoned, it seems like.
And so yeah, you run into the three of them.
What did you guys do?
They did not like our live music.
Were you pressing the doorbells?
No, Max was.
Sorry, Max.
What?
No.
I didn't know they were doorbells, but I didn't push anything.
All right, well, next time we go to one of those, you know, places, those are doorbells.
If you're going to press them, you got to try and talk to the person on the other side.
But if you don't know them, you shouldn't do it.
So just let's not press buttons we don't know about in the future.
Did you get sprayed by that skunk?
I did get sprayed by the skunk.
I thought it was a cat at first and I was like, oh, if I don't catch this one, Billy's
going to be mad.
So I bent down and I went to scoop it up and you know what?
It was a skunk and it got me right in the face and in the eyes a little bit.
They're all red and you know, my hands smell skunky now.
You smell bad here.
And I hand them bug spray out of my backpack.
100% D. Perfect.
I spray it right on my bare arms and legs.
Yeah, that's happened to me several times.
Mom really hates it.
She knows how to get the smell out though if you want to go to my house.
Well, let's go to the woods.
Are we still going to look for this big wolf?
You guys are ready for that?
Yeah, yeah.
I guess so.
Well, it's either that or you get in trouble with your mom for when they catch us.
And I point towards the adults who are-
Oh yeah, we should get out of here.
The sound of the adults.
All right, Danny, lead us to the woods.
All right.
So it was this way and just let me know if you start smelling that skunk again because
there was one of those near where we were before.
Do we think it's a skunk?
I mean-
Did the skunk take Dale?
Skunks are nasty creatures, but I don't know if they're big enough to take Dale.
What if it's a were skunk?
You know, with what we saw last year, I wouldn't be surprised, but I'm going to hope it's not
that.
Yeah, frogs don't usually get that big.
And they didn't have teeth.
They were really gummy.
And they also smelled bad.
See, it's something there.
There could be a connection here, you guys.
But I think that this whole town smells bad.
All right, Danny, lead us to the woods.
We go back across the street into the woods next to the school past, you know, where the
police are not letting people by.
There's a cop car with this light still going, but there's no police near it, like blocking
off the one side of the school still.
And then we go to the woods.
I'm like, all right, guys.
So we were at the fire and then we walked this way for a little bit.
And then we turned and we were all hanging out right around this little clearing right
here.
Okay.
So let's look around and see if we see any wolf or other large animal tracks or signs
of a struggle like blood or, you know, broken sticks and stuff.
All right, everybody get to looking.
So let's have everybody, I guess, make brains rolls.
Let's say, well, if there's only one flashlight, what's going to happen at that point?
That's true.
Are we all just staring together as the beam is going around?
That's a good point.
Or do some people need to have disadvantage?
Just getting really close.
Maybe his is a lower roll.
Let's get a group check of a 14.
Josh is just pointing the flashlight around and we're all just trying to scan the area.
You have it.
Oh, you gave me the flashlight.
So I'm just pointing it around like, you guys just keep looking.
I got six, 10.
All right.
Awesome.
As you guys are looking around the clearing, you hear and you see that a little black and
white cat walk through the woods and then it stops and turns and looks at you and then
takes off down a path.
And as you're looking at where it went, you see that behind it are gigantic footprints
leading into the woods.
The footprints are already there, not just like appearing behind this cat as it goes
and it's making abnormally large footprints.
Correct.
Yes.
It is not making the abnormally large footprints.
That was a great distinction.
I was picturing the big footprints being made.
I was going to leave it vague.
I set it vague to leave it vague in case anybody wanted to clarify it or speculate wildly.
Daniel, that's going meow.
I think that was the same cat that I saw earlier.
Oh my God.
That's the cat.
I love cats.
And Billy just goes off zooming down.
Billy, wait, wait.
There's the big prints.
Oh God, guys, we've got to catch him.
He is going.
We guys eating candy.
Why is he so fast again?
You guys do this every time?
Does he just take off like that every time?
He really likes cats.
He's got a thing for cats.
His mom just won't let him have one.
You should get a really long rope or something.
All right, I guess we could get him.
While the three of you are standing there having this brief discussion, you hear an
extremely loud snarling and Billy just comes booking it straight back down the path.
We've got to go.
It's not a cat.
Oh, oh boy.
All right.
Turn.
Yeah, Josh, who's used to chasing Billy, just turns on a dime and just still thinking he's
chasing the cat.
With a roar coming from behind you, you hear branches and sticks and trees begin to snap
behind you down this path.
Oh, yeah, that sounds bigger than a cat.
We should go.
And I keep trying to look back behind me, but the sound is too scary and I keep running
forward until we get to the end of the woods.
And then I stop once we're out.
Ooh, everybody give me a flight check.
Oh, no.
What's your flight?
A four.
Oh, all right.
We're going to call it four.
15.
Okay.
Maxwell, super proficient at flight.
Okay.
Billy and Maxwell, you guys make it out.
You're pretty terrified of what's going on behind you and you trip over a stick and into
a bunch of very thick brambles.
And as you do, and you're laying there looking up, you see a giant hulking creature smash
through the woods.
You don't get the best look at it.
And you are covered in tiny little cuts from this pricker bush.
But it runs on by continuing to chase Maxwell, Billy and Josh.
Oh my God, it's got me.
Oh no, it's just a pricker bush.
What is that?
Oh my God.
Well, it didn't see me, but it's going after the kids.
Okay.
I got to, I get up and kind of fight with the pricker bush trying to like, you know,
rip it out of my legs and where it's pricked into me and got me snared.
Give me a smarts roll actually too.
Only have a four.
You failed the roll too.
So here, have an adversity test.
I rolled a one on that.
You're using the biggest, most obnoxious adversity tokens that I have.
Awesome.
All right.
So I'm rolling a brain's roll to untangle myself and...
Not to untangle yourself.
All will be revealed.
I got a seven.
As you're untangling yourself from this pricker bush, you see tatters of Dale's clothes also
in this, this pricker bush.
Oh my, what, what is this fabric?
And I pick up the shreds.
And it's covered in blood.
Oh, that's not a good sign.
I'm not going to pick this up actually.
I'm going to make a note of what color it is.
Yellow and red.
Do I actually recognize that it was Dale's clothing or I just, you know...
Definitely, because it was a yellow shirt, it was very recognizable.
And now the very easy to recognize 90s logo from this shirt that was also yellow is like
torn and has just a big splotch of blood on it from a shoe brand called Mikey.
And it's just kind of do it as their slogan.
If you want, do it if you want.
Oh, I'm pretty sure this is what Dale was wearing earlier.
This is no good.
I finished picking myself up and look around to see if there are any body parts of Dale
around.
You find a thumb.
Oh God, I'm going to pick the thumb off.
Okay.
You pocket the thumb?
Yep.
I pocket the thumb, put it in my back pocket.
As you're picking up thumbs, you hear the three boys screaming off in the distance.
Billy and the two of you running down this path, you guys can see the streetlights from
Main Street, no more than a hundred yards in front of you.
And with great haste, you bust out through the woods and as soon as you guys hit the
sidewalk, you no longer hear the beast, the snarls of the beast behind you.
Okay.
Head count.
Three.
All right.
One, two, three.
Daddy's missing.
Oh, we gotta go back.
We gotta go back guys.
And for the cat.
We can't have it get hurt.
All right.
When's the last time you guys saw Daddy?
I was running so fast.
He's not fast.
He fell way back there probably.
He's not that quick.
They caught him.
Over the years, it seems like he gets slower and slower somehow.
Maxwell's running right back in there.
All right, let's go get him.
We gotta get him.
Here we go.
When I see you, I'll post a note quick.
And the three of you begin to run.
You guys, well, Maxwell, you don't really know, except for from your experiences tonight.
But Josh, you know that Billy is fast, but for some reason he is way faster than he's
ever been before as he takes back down the path.
I can't catch him.
I think he's so fast.
In a flash, you see Billy just take off or like the image of Billy move right past you.
Danny through the woods.
Billy, Billy, I'm back here.
Why is it going so fast?
I see another cat.
Billy.
Danny, Danny, have you seen Billy?
He took off.
He just went.
He just tore past me.
I had fallen down into this pricker bush here.
I don't look too closely, but I don't think that we're going to be finding Dale around
here anywhere.
No, Dale.
How much candy did that cat eat?
I don't know.
Did he see another cat?
He just kept going.
With a thud, Billy lands like in between all of you guys after tripping over a branch and
just like is laying face down in the mud.
Oh yeah.
You gotta be careful that one, Bill.
That one got me too.
How did he just run that move that fast?
Does he always do that?
Cats and candy.
You always move that fast, Billy?
Uh, not usually.
Um, I was just really scared that something was going to get that kitty and and and then
and then the Danny.
So I just ran.
Yeah, you definitely did.
All right.
One, two, three, four.
We're good.
Let's get out of here.
Yeah, where's the cat?
You were the last one who saw the cat, Billy.
I thought you were chasing into the woods.
What happened to it?
Did it get eaten by that thing that was chasing you back out?
I didn't hear.
I you you you called for me, sir.
I turned around.
Well, I'm glad that you guys came back for me.
I appreciate that.
I did fall and got a little cut up here and found some of these bloody clothes and some
more stuff.
And we'll talk about that when we get out of the out of the woods.
When did that monster didn't catch up to you guys?
No, no, we didn't see it at all.
I thought it got you.
Yeah, I it was not interested in me once I fell out and over, you know, couldn't smell
me or didn't see me.
But it went right past.
It was it seemed huge.
It was moving very fast.
It seems so strange that I wouldn't be able to smell you.
Very pungent skunk mixed with the interesting scent.
Maybe it doesn't like skunks.
Maybe it's you know, yeah.
Maybe it doesn't like skunks and I camouflage to it.
Maybe we should all get sprayed by skunk.
All right.
My mom won't be happy about this.
Yeah.
My nose is bleeding.
I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for that.
Well, there's not a skunk here right now.
Billy, are you OK?
Your nose is bleeding a little bit.
You all right?
I'm a little lightheaded.
All right.
Let's get back out of the woods because the woods is not a safe place right now.
We ran all the way out there to come back and get you.
And then we should have ran back out.
Yeah, let's not run so fast this time.
And why don't you get in between me and Josh here and we'll help you along.
Actually, Maxwell, why don't you on the other side?
You guys are all a similar height and a lot easier than me crouching down.
All right.
Come on, Billy.
Let's go.
And the four of you make your way out of the woods hastily.
All right.
Well, that was a lot, guys.
We should do something.
But it is getting late.
It sure is very late.
I'm a very tired boy.
Well, something to think about for tonight.
And we should find a meeting spot.
We can all meet at my place tomorrow at the hotel room at my hotel.
I mean, I guess my house or where I am living.
That sounds like a good centrally located place away from Josh and Billy's parents.
So I'm on board with that.
I mean, is it a double room that you have?
Are there two beds?
Because these two just...
I just want to have a sleep.
I'm going to have a moment to see my mom.
You're going to see your mom?
OK, then never mind that.
I don't think she'll be so happy.
I was supposed to be home just hours ago.
Yeah, no, I get a room with just one big bed instead of two little beds.
That's true.
And there was, you know, police activity in town.
You're right.
Your parents are probably going to be, you know, worried that you didn't come home so
quick.
So probably.
Yeah.
We should all go home.
At least the moon's making it really bright.
Josh, do you want to sleep over in my house?
Is your mom going to be mad?
Definitely.
Yes.
Yeah.
I hope my mom's house is there with me.
She'll save it till we're alone or something.
Nah, I'm good.
Maybe I could sleep over at your house.
No, my mom's going to be mad.
No, no.
Danny, can you walk us home or bring us home?
Yeah.
Yeah, let's all head back.
Max, you're the closest, so good luck.
We'll see you in the morning.
All right.
Thanks, Danny.
See you later, guys.
I hope you're all right, Billy.
Stay out of the basement of that hotel.
It's a weird place.
Oh.
All right.
OK.
I thought that that's where the gym was, but I could, I guess I could just do calisthenics
in my room.
There was a guy named Jim down there last year when he tried to kidnap and kill Lobos.
Yeah.
So yeah, that's where he was.
That's where he is.
Yeah, you knew it.
Awesome.
Yeah.
Definitely going to lock my door, all the locks on the door.
Good call.
Yeah.
That's probably a good idea.
All right.
Is there anything else I should know about this hotel?
It's got great beef wellington.
All right.
Sometimes the people in here are really angry.
OK.
Mm hmm.
I'd more.
That was more a lot more.
On Halloween, they have great candy selection.
However, they're not fond of the tricking.
Excellent things.
I will.
I'll see you guys later.
We'll find you in the morning.
Hopefully you're still here.
Bye, Maxwell.
All right.
See you later, Billy.
Bye.
All right.
Come on.
Let's go.
Let's let them go.
We'll get you kids back home and figure this all out in the morning.
I go check on Shelley.
I get these kids home first.
What about the bookstore?
What about that?
That's right.
You saw a light in the bookstore.
That's right across the street from the hotel.
Should we go peek in the windows before you guys head home?
Yeah.
He's just going to get yelled at.
I sure am.
All right.
In for a penny in for a pound, right?
I don't know what that means.
It means you're already going to get yelled at, right?
Is she going to yell at you?
More?
Probably, yeah, but I can take it.
I'm a brave boy.
Good.
See?
Exactly.
You're a brave boy.
You can get yelled at by your mom.
You don't care about Jamie.
It's all good.
Come on, Billy.
You got to be brave like your sister.
She was the bravest one I ever knew.
She's not returned any of my letters since she went to school.
That makes me real sad.
Well, she, you know, she wants you to be tough and independent because she can't always be
there for you.
Maybe Tanny's heard from her.
Have you heard from Andy?
No, I have.
I have also not heard from Andy.
We've all been forgotten.
Let's go to the stupid bookstore.
They don't even serve milkshakes anymore.
No, but we can get milkshakes at the diner.
They have a milkshake counter.
It's closed.
Well, it's late.
Yes.
I'm not talking about right now, guys.
Obviously, we've had enough milkshakes today.
All the lights are off in this place, Josh.
Yeah, but there was there was just like a flashlight in here.
I thought it was Danny when I when I looked off the roof.
That was a little while ago, though.
But nobody should be in here.
Blung, blung, blung, blung.
Billy pounds on the window.
I don't see anybody.
All right.
Well, I do feel like the best time to sneak around here be at night, but it's also very
late.
Where did you see this flashlight?
You feel like it was in the front of the store?
You see from the side window?
It was over there.
My face pressed up against the glass.
I'm just going to try the front door.
Definitely locked.
All right, guys.
Well, it's locked.
We can't even get in anyway.
So so we'll go around back.
You know what?
I do remember there was a side door.
Let's let's go on around back and see what we can find.
You wander around the back to where you and Shelley were looking for the back door earlier
and you find the back door.
It is locked also, but it is just a wooden door.
All right.
We got a wooden door back here.
Let's see if we can get past this one.
Josh is going to throw himself at it to see if he can crash through it like in the movies.
OK, at 11 years old.
How many pounds is an 11 year old?
70?
I was going to say 80.
80 pounds.
OK.
An 80 pound person throwing themselves against a thick wooden door.
Give me a what's it?
Braun grit.
Either brah.
I'd go with Braun, but either one works for me.
All right.
Give me a brawn of 10.
Three.
Here is your token, my friend.
Yeah.
You hawk yourself on it and like the door doesn't even make that sound like that it
shifted a little in the jam.
Which is like a hearty thud and you come away and your shoulder is like real sore, immediate
sore.
It's going to be pretty bruised as I pick myself up off the ground.
Ow.
Josh, I was thinking about that, but I don't know if that was the right move.
I admire your enthusiasm.
You weigh more than me.
You give it a try.
Maybe I warmed it up for you.
It seems pretty thick, but I'll give it a kick.
Sure.
And I'm going to try and kick the door right next to where the lock is.
OK.
That would be a nine for you.
For Braun?
Yeah.
All right.
I've got a 12.
So 12.
I'll blow it up.
Five.
17.
You successfully kicked this door.
It slams open.
It's pretty dusty in here.
I was just going to burn it down.
If this was last year, I would have put my hands on it and burned it right down.
Yeah.
I mean, I didn't plan on the B&E, but you know, you guys got me worked up.
So let's go.
It's not a B&B.
It's a bookstore.
Anyways, should we go get Maxwell again?
I feel bad, but we just abandoned him.
I mean, we're already here.
And I want to look down to see if the rock next to it has a key underneath it.
OK.
I don't know what to roll.
It was a five.
It doesn't matter.
You pick up the rock next to it and it's not a hidey key.
It's a rock.
I'll just toss it.
So what do we do now that the door is open?
Shine that flashlight in there.
You have the flashlight?
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
We're going to shine the flashlight in there and just look around and see if we see anyone
or anything that looks like, you know, it's really dusty in here.
So if we see anything that is looks like it's been freshly disturbed, we can investigate
further otherwise.
Say we just try and prop the door back up and come back tomorrow.
Yeah.
Let's head on in.
Let's go.
All right.
Wait, I'll go get Maxwell.
OK, sure.
That's a good idea.
Come on, Danny.
Back across the street.
Oh, we're all going?
Oh, you're going to go by yourself?
OK.
I could go get him.
He's right over there.
All right.
Yeah, you go.
We'll go in the store.
Josh, you go.
We'll go in the store.
Josh, you can take the flashlight back.
All right.
It is yours.
I head in with the flashlight in my hand looking around.
It's pretty dusty in here.
It has not been touched in about a year.
It's eerie because you guys remember what it looked like the last time you were in here,
which was the last day that it was open.
The fridge and the electronics have been turned off.
So all the milkshake shit is like causing a foul odor from over in the corner.
There's not a whole lot going on inside the building.
Give me give me brains of six, please.
I got a five.
You swear for a moment you can hear that same erratic violin music that you heard earlier
in the night.
But as quickly as it comes, it dissipates as well.
Stop that, Josh.
Stop what?
Did you see something that sound you're making?
You know, whatever you can hear that.
No, I'm over here looking for trapdoors and he's just pulling books off the shelves thinking
one of them is a lever.
OK, that's weird.
All of a sudden you get a pounding on your door, Maxwell, just like erratic little fists
slamming on it.
He goes and checks the peephole to see what's going on in the hallway.
You can just see the top of someone's head through the peephole as they continue to pound
on the door.
I pound back twice.
Maxwell?
Oh, Billy, is that you?
Yeah, usually.
Oh, I open up.
Oh, hey.
Hey, what's going on, buddy?
Oh, nothing, nothing, nothing.
Not too much.
What are you up to?
I was kind of having a snack and then I was going to go to bed.
Is it candy?
No.
Oh, is it like carrots?
No.
Oh.
It's some granola on top of some Greek yogurt.
Oh, sounds terrible.
So me and the guys, we got distracted and we broke into the building next door.
First Josh tried and he just kind of ran into the wall and he got hurt.
Maybe pretty bad.
I don't know.
He might not be able to recover.
But then Danny kicked the door open and then I was like, we should go get Maxwell.
It feels wrong to exclude him.
And then you said the thing about the granola.
And yeah, now that brings us to here.
Oh, all right.
Well, thanks for thinking of me.
Did you have more of that granola?
Yeah.
Do you have any chocolate syrup?
No, no, this is just a hotel room.
I don't really have.
I mentioned room service earlier.
Do you think they have chocolate syrup?
I mean, I imagine the kitchen.
I don't really think that's something you can buy on a food menu.
Let's go down to the kitchen.
Can I ask you why are you in the bookstore?
Oh, yeah, the bookstore was the last place we went to last year before we got attacked
by some cultists, maybe.
Or just like a really deranged family.
So you're trying to find the cultists?
Well, they were arrested.
So I don't know what we're doing in the bookstore.
Sounds like you're breaking and entering.
I just said something about a B and B, but I didn't really get the reference.
Oh, I think he meant B and E or else he said that.
And you just you didn't either way.
I think he meant breaking and entering.
Oh, let's break and enter into the kitchen.
One thing I know, Danny and Josh love snacks.
OK, yeah, I'll show you the side way there.
And I'm going to bring him down the stairwell and then just take the side entrance right
out of the hotel, not into the it's just how you get down from the stairs.
Strange, I never thought you'd have to go outside to get to the kitchen here.
Oh, we're just heading over to the bookstore.
Oh, trance.
All right.
Oh, look, I can see the flashlight still inside there.
Oh, you guys should be way more careful if you're doing that.
I'm sure that you could get in big trouble for this type of stuff.
Oh, that's right.
It is right across from the sheriff's department.
Yeah.
Oh, we got to go tell him.
Yeah.
Pick up the pace.
Run on in.
Turn off the flashlights.
God, I've run so much tonight.
Danny, turn off the flashlight.
Josh, turn off the flashlight.
Damn it.
What?
No, you guys haven't found anything yet.
Turn off the flashlight.
We can see it outside.
Why?
Because we could see it outside.
We were coming over.
And he shuts the flashlight off.
Just then, a cop car does begin to come around the corner.
It's got the spotlight shining into the bookstore.
Why don't you each give me?
I will let you guys choose either Brains or Flight for this check.
We'll make it pretty easy.
It's just a four.
All right.
Is Brains your second lowest?
Brains is my second lowest.
Yep.
Oh, no.
What are you each doing to hide?
I'm saying everybody get down or behind something and I'm dropping to the floor.
Seven.
I got a six.
I got a two.
Oh, no.
Josh grabs a stuffed animal and stands like a cardboard cut out and just freezes.
The spotlight as it searches through the front window of the bookstore settles on you, Josh,
with the stuffed elephant.
And it lingers there and then it moves off and the cop car continues to drive away.
Here's another adversity tome.
That was close.
We should get out of here.
What are you doing in here in the first place?
I don't remember.
Josh said he saw a light.
Yeah, it was right over here.
Do you think it was other people who came in with flashlights looking for stuff?
All the doors are locked when we got here.
Oh, right.
I forgot.
That's what the breaking part of breaking and entering is.
It was also still very dusty.
I don't think I saw anything that looked like it had been disturbed at all.
Is there an office that we should look in?
Is there a basement or an attic?
You said it was an occult, right?
Well, there's no secret doors behind these bookshelves.
Yeah, I'm going to look around some more to see if there's any buttons underneath the
like, you know, the counter there.
There is an obvious lack of buttons underneath the counter.
However, looking in the corner, you do see a staircase that you're pretty convinced you've
never seen before.
It's a spiral staircase that goes up to a second floor.
Huh.
I don't must not have ever looked in this particular corner before.
Josh, do you do you remember that last time we were here?
No, it also seems to be not as dusty as the rest of the stuff in here.
It is definitely as dusty as the stuff in here.
Never mind.
I didn't forget to put my glasses on.
Everything looks fine.
Also I take two adversity tokens instead of one.
I'm taking one more there.
Yeah, do your thing.
I love spiral staircases.
All right, Billy, so you want to go first?
Is that what you're saying?
Right up the stairs.
Oh my God.
And made up after him.
You get up there and it's just like boxes of musty old books.
There's nothing good up here at all.
So underwhelming.
I'm going to head toward the stairwell to go up as I'm going.
I kind of just try to see what the majority of books are, if it's just like a regular
bookstore or there's some sort of occult thing happening.
There are lots of normal books here, but there is an occult section.
Does it just does it seem abnormally large to me for I don't know if that's something
I can tell by looking at it.
There are like from normal bookcases or bookshops, it does seem like there's probably a few more
homes of the occult here.
You may not know about the town, the town lords.
They have a very deep history, winking back to different ghost sightings and all sorts
of stuff.
So it's almost like a shtick of the town, although Maxwell may not know that at this
point.
Gotcha.
OK, cool.
Yeah, I'm going to head up the cool spiral staircase.
All right.
So just some more books up here.
I guess let's look around and see if there's anything behind these boxes or if there's
any if there's a particular book inside of these boxes that they were hiding.
It doesn't really seem like it.
They just seem like overstock.
But we didn't see this entire staircase before.
So who knows what else could be hidden up here, guys?
Are there windows up here?
One window.
All right.
There's only one window up here.
Does it face the police station?
It faces the hotel and it's not facing the direction of the police station.
So I think it's OK to turn the flashlight on if you just keep it low and don't point
it towards that window.
Oh, I think I can see my room through that window.
And you can.
Doesn't that make you feel safe?
It does.
You know, no one's in your room now.
Yeah, it lights are off.
That's pretty good.
All right.
I guess you could kind of see it from anywhere outside.
I just thought it was cool.
You could see it through the only window in the attic.
It's a good peeping window.
Well, I don't see anything else going on up here.
I'm going to I'm going to head down to start checking another room, I guess.
Before you get the chance to head down the stairs, all four of you hear a very loud slamming
on the main floor of the bookstore.
Just like one large, loud slam.
OK.
Everybody be quiet.
Someone's in the building.
I think we should try to hide again.
Also, I don't know what that noise was.
It kind of sounded like something falling over or maybe one of the doors down there
slamming open.
Let's just get real low and listen a little bit.
See if there's more noises.
And I'm going to kind of just crouch a little bit and put my ear to the floor.
Two minutes passed and you don't hear any follow up noises from downstairs.
All right.
Well, you know what?
I think there's a bathroom downstairs.
Let's go see what's going on down there.
It's been a few minutes.
We haven't heard any other noises.
Maybe it was just one of the books that Josh was flinging around was precariously balanced
and just fell.
Yeah.
Let's go see if anything fell down or what could have maybe we can replicate the noise
by closing stuff.
Josh is going to start heading down the stairs holding the flashlight off, but like a like
a handgun ready.
Yeah.
Ready to flash it on.
I'll go last.
Danny should go first.
He's the biggest and the oldest and strongest.
If anything is going to attack him, it should be him.
Okay, Billy, I'll go first.
Josh, give me the flashlight.
Are you sure?
Yes.
And I also stick it out in front of me like I'm ready to blind whatever comes at me with
it.
The shine in that.
I'm like, you know, the brightest light they've ever seen.
You know, the batteries are dying and it's not that bright.
You head down the stairs and you see that the occult section that Maxwell was looking
at, there are several books now fallen off this shelf and the back door is closed.
We should leave.
There's ghosts.
Yeah.
But are they in here with us or did they leave already?
If they all slept, that's even worse for the town.
Yeah, but it's okay for us.
What if they're going to follow us home?
It looks like some books are missing over there.
I'm just going to go check that out before we leave.
Yeah, I was just looking at them before I went upstairs.
I wonder if I'll recognize which ones are missing.
I'm also looking to see if it's just like there's a row of all the same book for sale
and just so I can tell that one of those was missing or if it's like a library or just
like one or two of each kind of book and there's not another copy.
You can't tell.
I'm curious to know which books hit the floor.
It's like a random assortment of books.
It's probably like at least 10 books have hit the floor.
As far as knowing which ones were missing, I'm going to say you can't tell that any actually
are missing necessarily or that any have gone that are missing from the shelf or any are
unaccounted for since you last looked.
I'm going to look at the ones on the floor and see if any of them have a wolf on the
cover.
You know, exceptionally large wolf.
I mean there are various ones that have stories of werewolves laying on the floor.
You do also see that maybe it's from the books.
You're not entirely sure, but a lot of the dust that was here on these shelves and on
the floor here has kind of been scattered away or at least pushed away, blown away,
whatever you want to fucking however you want to envision it in your mind.
And there are two footsteps leading out the back door.
Two footsteps leading out the back door.
Are there any footsteps leading in from the back door that aren't ours?
No, not of the same size.
Guys, I think that we might have missed something earlier.
Look at these.
Do you guys, any of you see these footsteps right here that aren't my shoes that I stepped
next to it or any of yours coming in to the store?
I quickly take the flashlight, cut my hand over it, look at the ground like 15, 20 feet
around the door in the immediate area.
The back door or the front door?
Back door.
No, these are the only two of these unique footprints that you see.
Are there any leading in from the front door?
No.
However, when you guys are looking around, you do see the front end of a cop car begin
to slowly pass the bookstore again and its searchlight is making its way through.
The light from its searchlight is peeking through the front window and they're slowly
driving by again.
Lights out, everybody down.
I'm going to flip the light off and drop to the ground.
We should get out of here.
Yes.
These ghosts have feet that are huge.
Maybe we could follow the dust outside and have an idea of where they went.
The police lights go past the rest of the building.
You guys are in the clear.
I think they're looking for somebody.
When I'm on the ground, hopefully they're looking for Dale.
I hope so.
I don't even know who Dale is.
I don't think they're going to find him.
Not whole at least.
What does that mean?
You know, just I found this thumb in the woods earlier that I forgot to tell you guys about.
Really throws up.
Gross.
How do you know it's Dale's?
It was near some shredded bits of clothes that I'm pretty sure Dale was wearing earlier
in the day.
So I don't know it's Dale's, but I have a strong suspicion that it is.
I'd go show Carrie, but I don't think that's a good idea.
What if the clothes were shredded because Dale is the creature?
We still haven't established if he is or if he was taken by it.
That is also a possibility.
Do these look like Dale's feet?
I'm not familiar enough with Dale's feet to know.
And who's Carrie?
Is she your new girlfriend?
Do you know I'm Shelley already?
Shelley is not my girlfriend.
Carrie is not my girlfriend, but Carrie is Dale's girlfriend.
Does she know about Dale's feet?
She would probably be more familiar than me with Dale's feet.
We should go ask her about it.
Okay, remember what these feet look like.
Yeah.
We gotta get out of here.
It's like two in the morning.
I'm tired.
I agree.
Let's, let's go on and get out of here.
I mean, the cops went by a few times and we don't want to be in here again.
You know, they must have noticed that that cardboard cutout holding that stuffed animal
wasn't there this time.
All right.
And you guys head out the building.
Maxwell, you said you wanted to look for dusty footprints leading out.
If they were coming into the essentially trying to like, do they come into the front door
and then out the back door?
They are only the two that are leading out the back door.
Okay.
Are there any dusty cat prints?
There are no dusty cat prints.
I feel like we should go out the back door and see if the footprints lead anywhere.
What direction do they go?
Out the back door.
No, but towards what?
Towards the woods.
Oh, I do see them.
I was suggesting the idea that we go look for them because I didn't know if they were
there.
So there's one, I will say there's one footstep off the two concrete steps that lead up to
the back of the building.
There's one more footprint in the mud that is aimed towards the woods, but that's pretty
much as much as you can gather from that.
All right.
It looks like they're heading back.
I don't know about back, but it looks like they're going to the woods, which from my
understanding would be a great place to do a whole large variety of occult things.
So maybe they just needed a book for something they were doing out there and they accidentally
dropped all of them.
That could be.
There's also, I mean, if the footprints didn't enter from anywhere, they just left, maybe
they came from underneath.
I mean, that whole upstairs portion we didn't see ever before.
Maybe there's a basement too.
Yeah, the cults like the basements.
Oh, so maybe we should check downstairs before we go into the woods.
I definitely don't want to go back into the woods tonight, guys.
Do you remember we were just in there like a half hour ago and it was terrible?
Oh yeah, I kind of forgot because I got excited about the ghost steps.
Well, I mean, if you want to remember, you can hold onto this thumb.
You won't forget anytime soon about that.
That's a very human thing.
I don't think it has anything to do with ghosts.
Yeah, maybe you should bring that to the police.
I don't want to touch it.
I'm worried if I bring it to the police, they're going to think that I cut it off or something.
They're not good at listening to us.
Just say here, officer, I found this in the woods.
Why?
Why did you pick it up?
Because I wanted to make sure it was a thumb in the woods and the police, no one ever listens
to us when we try to say that there's, you know, frog people summoning a demon in the
factory.
So, I'm like, if we have a thumb, they might be more likely to believe that our friend
is missing or this guy Dale we know is missing.
But I'm also worried that they're going to think that I'm the reason he's missing.
So, I don't really know why I have it now, but I worry at this point that my fingerprints
are on it and I can't get rid of it or I'm going to be in trouble more.
Maybe it was just there because of that.
Well, I heard one time there was someone that was murdering hitchhikers.
So maybe they can't hitch anymore.
Maybe I'll just hold on to it for now.
And I'm going to just put it back into my nasty back pocket where the severed thumb
was.
You're kind of a weird guy sometimes.
I just wanted to say it because thinking it isn't always the nicest thing just to get
it.
You're very nice, but that I've never seen anyone just put a unattached thumb or any
sort of digit into their back pocket like that.
That's pretty wild.
Well, I didn't have anything to wrap it up in on my person.
So back pockets is the place I don't put my hand very often if I don't accidentally stick
my hand into severed thumb.
Yeah, but you're going to need to get rid of that because my grandpa watches his FBI
show and you can get a lot of trouble for stealing things from crime scenes.
I know.
So maybe I should go and bring it back to the crime scene tomorrow while also telling
the police we found a crime scene.
Oh, have you checked the hospital for Dale?
Maybe he needs his thumb and he could be in the hospital waiting for it.
Maybe you helped out.
Yeah, maybe they have a lost and found.
We could drop it off to them.
I like that idea.
Lost and found for thumbs.
Maybe we just drop it off at the police station and, you know, they'll bring it to him.
I don't think that's the right place to do that.
I agree.
Yeah.
Suddenly, Danny, you feel a few tiny little pinpricks into the back of your leg and you
spin around and there's a black and white cat who is just using your leg as a stretching
post.
Ah, cat.
Hey, that's the same cat.
Hey, that's the same one we saw earlier.
Hey kitty kitty kitty.
Danny reaches down and grabs the cat and picks up like, I got this one, Billy.
Okay.
Is it being tame?
Yeah, it's not scratching you.
Okay, excellent.
All right, Billy here.
I'll hold on to it.
You can pet it.
It seems pretty calm for now.
I know you like cats a lot, but remember they like to be pet gently usually, you know.
Pets with like reckless abandon.
But then you guys hear two car doors slam from out in the street, not from in front of the
bookstore, but kind of around the side because it is on the corner of the street.
So it is the side kind of closest to you and you see the light of two flashlights begin
to peek around the corner.
It looks like we have to go find that basement to hide in because someone's coming.
We should just run.
We definitely should just run, but not into the woods and not not towards the flashlights.
We're still behind the bookstore, right?
Yeah, so you guys would be here.
Oh, so run out the back.
I gotta get home.
I don't know if you're making it home tonight, Billy.
There's a lot going on.
I thought I was gonna kill me.
Guys, we gotta go.
They're getting close.
We can call from my room.
Come on, we gotta go.
Let's go to my place.
That's the closest.
Let's go to Max's.
And we run down the alleyway.
And across the street and into the hotel.
And for like the fifth time tonight, the hotel people just watch a gang of kids run through
the lobby.
And then you're back at Max's.
This time with a cat.
Yeah, this time with a cat.
Oh, I forgot I'm still holding this cat.
Thank goodness.
Max, I hope the hotel won't be mad we brought a cat to your room.
We'll figure that out.
I'm sure it won't be too much of an issue.
When you get back to your room, Billy collapses so hard on your bed and I just need a minute.
Yeah, like six hours.
Six to eight hours.
Okay.
And passes out.
Perfect.
He can do that.
I feel like someone should be calling Billy's and Josh's parents.
I feel like they should have called their own parents and said they were sleeping over
at the other one's houses.
It's after two by the time you guys get back to Maxwell's.
I mean, Danny and Josh, do you guys go home or do you stay?
I'm...
Is it a school night?
I can't remember what day it is.
It's a Friday.
It's a Friday the 13th.
Yeah, no.
Max, is it cool if I just pass out here on your floor?
Yeah, do you want to call Billy's mom first to let her know?
She's probably worried about where he is.
Yeah, I'm going to call both of their parents.
You have very aggravated conversations with both of their parents.
Billy's mom is hysterical.
It has been for a while.
It has already called the cops, she lets you know that she's already called the police
that he's been missing, afraid that he was a part of the problem.
Josh, your dad doesn't answer.
That's exactly what I would expect.
Perfect.
We're good.
In the morning, I want that boy back in my house.
As soon as he wakes back up, I'll bring him right over.
I'll come and get him at six.
Okay, bring some cinnamon rolls.
He'll appreciate that.
No, definitely not.
That boy is grounded.
Okay.
Click.
All right, well, that went better than it could have been.
That's fine.
Billy, you're going to be grounded.
He's fine with it.
Josh is going to grab a blanket and curl up sideways in a chair, like his legs hanging
off of one arm and his head laying on the other armrest.
And that's where we're going to end today's episode.
So until next time, we will see you next next Tuesday.
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Danny Cat, Danny Cat, Danny Cat, Danny Cat.
We're going to call it a four because I don't want you to die.
For some reason, it's unlocked.
Who knows why?
Actually, no, it's not.
If you don't ever do it eventually, like Mike, we will pressure you a little bit more.
It's Riley's eyes that get you because he just stares at you.
He's like, take over.
I have to ask.
I am just a fucking step behind right now.
Who is Dale?
Dale was just a boy that was with.
He was in the woods.
He was in the woods with Danny and Shelly and like the group of older kids that went off
to do the old ghost tour route.
And when they came back, Connor heard a very loud roar and then a scream and his friend
went missing or not his friend, but somebody went missing from his group at the same time
that the old teacher fell into the fire and caught on fire and burned that you guys were
at.
Oh, okay.
So you actually probably wouldn't have any clue who the fuck Dale was.
Okay.
You guys want to talk to the cops?
I mean, I never want to talk to the cops.
Yeah.
That's the golden rule.