Welcome to Momento Talis, where the dice aside
and moments are made. I'm Liv, your lightkeeper,
your friend, your adversary, and everyone in
between as Game Master. And these are my friends.
I'm Israel, and I'm playing Manny Quinteros,
a magician bartender. Hi everyone, I'm Samantha.
I'm playing Maude Florali, who is a medium and
also an embalmer at her family funeral home.
What's up? I'm Rachel and I play Arden Barlow,
an investigative journalist. And this is The
Circle, a fragmented glass. We're playing Candela
Obscura, a game made by Darrington Press. If
you'd also like to join the investigation, you
can buy the game at darringtonpress .com. Now
let's roll some dice. In the north of the Brindiborn
Mountains lies a city nestled in the crook where
the rocks meet softy grassy hills. Cascadia is
a city born from enterprise where once it was
a group of gold miners. Now has become a hub
of industry, though through the Great War, the
great cogs of the machine stagnated. Now that
the war is over, the cogs are turning once more.
We turn to the city. The dim light of green flickering
lanterns illuminate the darkness ahead of a man.
He pushes a cart full of liquor bottles that
had just been delivered from the delivery boat
at the docks. Crush. The sound of glass breaking
slides through the quiet of the darkness. It
came from somewhere behind the man. He whips
around, peering into the darkness with eyes tired
from the day. A dark figure moves in the dim
light. The man rubs his eyes, unsure if what
he saw was real. But as he opens his eyes again,
the figure is gone. He sure as he just imagined
the figure. Perhaps the noise too. It had been
a long day after all. As he returns, the push
in the car, one by one, the green lanterns of
the tunnel flicker out and he is plunged into
pitch black. Above him, on the streets of Cascadia,
Pastor Baez will report they heard a main scream,
but no one knows for sure where it came from.
We turn to a train about four hours south of
Cascadia later that day. A woman whose face is
half -stuck in perpetual twisted grin and scars
marring her face from the corner of her mouth
to the earlobe is illuminated by the filtered
rays of sunshine through the clouds outside the
windows of the train. The half of her face that
isn't paralyzed in a horrified way is contemplative.
Her brow is furrowed over her dark gray eyes,
and the other half of her mouth is pursed. People
pass her seat, and she instinctively grabs her
hood and covers her face even more, retreating
to the shadows it offers. She catches the eyes
of a passenger who's staring at her face, the
scarred side. And instead of turning away, she
gives the man, likely one of the many intrepid
entrepreneurs on their way to Cascadia, a glare
that could freeze the glass sea itself. As the
man pales and quickly retreats back to his newspaper,
the woman allows herself a small half -smile.
She returns to her thoughts as one of her hands
thumbs the Candela obscure pen on her lapel,
and the other hand taps the tip of her pen on
a notebook. She didn't like leaving New Fair,
felt wrong to have ran while the organization
was under attack, but good soldiers followed
orders, and she took her job as a newly formed
Circle's Lights keeper seriously. She would follow
these orders, but she didn't have to like it.
Now, what are you guys doing on the train? And
just to give you an overview of the train, there
are three cars. There is a dining car, a sleeper
car, and a passenger car. Manny will be... in
the dining car, a half -eaten sandwich and chips
in front of him, a completely empty set of beer
bottles, three of them, next to the half -eaten
sandwich while he's sipping on a fourth, staring
out the window, thinking about everything that's
happened over the last week and how quickly everything's
escalated. GM, may I ask what time of the day
it is? It's about... afternoon. You probably
have, uh, let's just say about five more hours
of travel. It's gonna be a long train ride. It's
about 12 hours from Ufair to Cascadia. Arden
is going to be in the sleeper car in her room
on the train, and she's gonna be fully awake,
just having elected to not leave and socialize
with anybody, but she's got a small notebook
pulled out. She's seated on the little foldable
bed. in the train car and she's looking out the
window and filling her filling her journal with
some messy entries just jotting down a bunch
of thoughts as she tries to process the events
of the previous week and um occasionally also
adding in crude little sketches of what she sees
passing by outside. Maude is in the passenger
car looking for anyone who will listen. to what
she wants to talk about about her day and she's
got in her lap a few colorful ribbons she's taken
from home and is kind of like mindlessly braiding
them together undoing them and bringing them
together again um a little bit nervous about
leaving her family behind for who knows how long
this mission is going to be um is a mave in the
passenger car as well Yeah, she's sitting probably
just a little bit, maybe a couple rows ahead
of you. And you've attracted the interest of
a couple other Candela people who are also on
their way to Cascadia. Will, he's a soldier,
dark -haired man with a well -trimmed mustache
and goatee. And Caldwin, a medium, they then
pronounce. um they're wrapped in sort of religious
clothing where you really can't see much of their
like figure besides just their piercing blue
eyes and that's that's about it for some reason
they have been very curious about these ribbons
is um cold wind nearby yeah they're uh they're
sitting like like you know how some of the uh
the seats are facing each other they're like
across from you oh perfect so they chose to Be
sitting near me. Yeah. Yeah Is it okay if I strike
up a conversation with them Sure, where is their
pin? Can I see it in a obvious location on their
person or Yeah, I would say most candela people
carry it like, you know kind of hidden on like
a lapel or like on You know a cuff link or things
like that Caldwin has it as a cuff link. Just,
you know, very subtle. Alright, then I think
Maud is gonna try to open by pulling her own
new Candela Obscura pin from the bun in her hair
and kind of brandish it in her fingers so that
Caldwin takes notice of it. I appreciate that
you also have a good taste in jewelry. What is
your name? Caldwin, you know, reach us out. grabs
her hand, shakes it, and goes cold one of lamp
light, circle of lamp light. Interesting. And
just as you're getting to know each other, the
train starts slowing down. It's weird because
you guys are in like the middle of the Brindleborn
mountains. There are mount - like, it's the train
tracks and the mountains come up on the sides.
As the train starts slowing down, you see outside
four riders on horseback. their heads covered
with red fabric the there's red paint over like
the horse's eyes like to splash on running towards
the train getting closer and closer as they get
closer and the train is slowing down all four
of these riders jump onto the train so you're
going to have one in the dining cart One in the
passenger cart and one in the sleeper car actually
sorry two in the passenger carts the one in the
sleeper car Manny towns his beer his last one
stands up slightly wobbly grabs a bite of his
sandwich and takes off towards the passenger
car well walks walks briskly while trying to
As it's slowing down as you're walking one of
the riders will come up in front of you, because
you know where the trains themselves meet. He's
going to slide through that door and face you.
Let's turn back to Maude and Arden, see what
they're doing. Um, being that I have kind of
kept myself isolated in my room, how aware am
I that the train has been boarded by these riders?
Um, you're probably not terribly aware. Like,
you notice the train slowing down, and that may,
like, do you think that's going to tip off Arden?
I'm gonna say yes, I'm gonna say yes, because
I think Arden typically is someone who's pretty
aware of her surroundings, and if this train
seemed to have been going at a steady pace to
its destination and this was an unexpected, unannounced
stop, she would definitely be suspicious. Okay.
So that being the case, um, Arden's going to
quickly finish writing the sentence that she
was in the middle of forming into her journal.
She's gonna look up and glance out the window,
notice that The train has, I assume, now come
to a complete stop and just instantly get to
work putting away her belongings and preparing
herself to face whatever may be outside of her
door. Alright. Um, I think at the first sign
of recognizable danger, Maud is going to kind
of instinctively look to Maeve for an order on
what to do. At this point, Maeve has gotten up
from her seat and she is... It's not telepathic,
I'm not gonna say, but she's given a look to
one of the other Candela people that's on board.
He's an older gentleman. He doesn't have a right
hand. It looks like it has been replaced with
like a metal hand kind of thing. He has salt
and pepper hair. He's wearing a nice suit. And
he, they sort of just exchange a look. Like,
oh, this is happening. All right. And he takes
out a gun of his own and he shoots one of the...
one of the riders. The straights up pops up and
that person falls dead. Okay, I think Maud is
gonna say, all right, Caldwin, nice chatting
with you, but I think it's time to get back to
work. She's gonna put her pin back in her hair,
put everything back into place as quickly as
possible, probably still too slow for Maeve's
liking, and get some ribbon ready and go towards
the last... the one person left in the passenger
car. She's just moving forward to be ready when
Maeve says jump, pretty much. Okay. And then
as that happens, Will, who's the soldier, he
starts charging this person. But unfortunately,
the writer pulls out his gun in retaliation,
shoots Will. Will's down. Now let's turn back
to Bainie. Quick question. Can you please...
Remind me GM, in what order the cars are connected
to each other? Okay, it's a dining, passenger,
sleeper. Manny's standing between the cars in
that space with the dining car behind him, blue
button up, gray slacks, and a shoe or a boot
that's made for walking. Something that, you
know, would be on someone who's used to traveling
and going places and being on their feet for
a while. Flicks up his collar and, you know,
straightens his jacket. Wobbles a little bit
and says hell are you doing here and the writer,
you know looks at you again He raises the gun
and he you know, he says something about grab
it. Oh you grab it Oh, yeah. Okay, then I guess
Let's do this you don't just you don't just pull
up on Manny let's go Manny And the I guess the
writer will say something about like give me
your money kind of stuff the writer woke up and
chose violence and many said bet All right, I'm
gonna burn a drive cuz I have no I got nothing
and in control Clearly as I'm trying to grab
a gun out of someone's hand Okay, the fates are
with me that's a six Let's go. All right, you
you successfully grab the gun out of the writers
hand one die On one die. Let's go. First roll.
Let's go. Yeah, I grab it and I toss it off the
side. OK. Are you going to do anything to the
guy? I'm just going to smile at him. OK. And
he's going to try to punch you. That's what I
thought. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess we'll we'll have
you take a move roll to try to get out of the
way of a strike. All right. I'm out of move.
I don't have any moves, so I'm going to roll
a disadvantage. And I rolled two fives. All right.
Yeah, so he doesn't hate you, but you kind of
stumble a little bit when that happens. Now we're
gonna head back to Arden. So now we're that something
is wrong, I'm gonna assume I'm gonna ask GM.
I assume Arden heard the gunshots going off in
the passenger car. Yeah, you probably heard those.
And you also hear a guy coming down sort of the
hallway, because you know, the sleeper car has
like, you know, little quarters where there's
bunk beds and things like that. So this guy's
coming down the hallway, he's knocking on doors
going, open up, hand me your valuables. How far
away from my door does he seem? Am I able to
tell at all? Yeah, let's say a couple doors down.
You're not entirely sure how many, but a few
doors. I'm going to put my hand on the doorknob
and twist it so the door is ready to open. I'm
going to wait for the rider to approach my door
and I'm going to attempt to ambush him in one
of those comedic, where you just fling the door
open and splat in the other person against the
wall kind of situations. What else I'm going
to do? I'm going to sit and wait. Okay. Well,
you do know these doors they slide they don't
open like swinging. Oh crap. I'm sorry if I didn't
specify that Okay Change in plans that being
the case. Um, are there any windows on these
doors at all? Or is it just solid? It's uh The
windows are pretty like they're very Blurred,
you know, so you can't see inside privacy sakes
kind of you know, like a doctor's office learning
Okay, then that being the case, um... I'm going
to... If my door is locked, I'm going to unlock
it. And if there's any room to the side of the
door, I'm going to try to press myself as close
against the wall as I can to the side. Okay.
Hopefully just enough out of you so I can attempt
to surprise this person. Okay, alright. Uh, so
the person, you know, knocks on the door, you
know... Open up. Give me all your valuables and
he'll like open the door and he'll peek in. What
are you gonna do? I'm gonna attempt to And he's
got his gun out by the way. He's you know, he's
brandishing it. Oh good Great love this for me.
Um, I'll give you time to think about let's turn
to mod. All right. Um mod is Mod is wanting to
check on two things. First, are the non -Candela
Obscura people in the passenger train? How panicked
are they? Are they leaving or are they kind of
in the way right now? They're kind of stuck in
their seats because they're like, oh, you know,
don't shoot me. I'm just, you know, here's my
money. They're just grabbing their valuables
and trying to hand them over. The person, the
last, you know, rider who's in the car, he just
shot down Will. And he has turned his gun to
anyone else who is standing up, so I guess that
would probably be you, Maude, unfortunately.
I think so, yeah. She's pretty short, so I'm
not sure if he would notice that she's actually
standing up, but yes. Okay. And then the second
thing she would want to check on before taking
any actions is how are the horses doing outside?
Are they okay? Yeah, the horses are okay. They're
just, they're just chilling. They, you know,
they got their riders to the train and they're
kind of standing like, you can sort of see it,
but they're sort of in the front, somewhere in
front of the train, somewhere just to the side
for like a quick getaway. Mod being a horse girl
is now a valid headcanon. It's so it's so real.
She comes from such a rich family I feel like
it's kind of impossible to not make her a horse
girl. She's thinking about those horses. That's
a nice pinto. She's gonna look for the heaviest
thing around her, which is probably going to
be her luggage case of a different outfit for
every day of this mission, I would imagine. I
think she's gonna get ready to charge the person
and smack if it comes to it. Let's do a strike
roll. Because I assume with this guy's gun, you
know, at you, you're gonna grab the suitcase
and just whack him. Yeah. That's what I'm seeing.
Yeah, just chuck it. I think I'm gonna spend
a drive on this. Okay. Okay, that's a five. Awesome.
Yeah, you hit him, like, in the jaw. And he's
like, he stumbles a little bit. You know, you
don't, you're not able to, like, unarm him. Like,
he's still got his gun, but he's stumbling. And
so with that, we're gonna go back to Manny. Having...
You know, dodged out of the way a little bit.
I'm going to like push off the wall and just
one, two, three jab cross hook. All right. Yeah.
Give me another strike role, please. I have I
have points and strike. So let's see if they
they do me well. Oh, they had to come back at
me. I got a one and a two. I'm going to take
the two. OK. All right. Yeah, you. Indeed. you
miss him unfortunately it's you know you're able
to like sort of scrape his face so like it's
he'll be bruised but you don't hit him enough
where he's not like you know rattled and he's
going to come back and he's going to hit you
you know what i'll do a strike roll for him he's
got a four so he he hits you but he doesn't knock
you out all right let's go back to ardern so
i'm trying to imagine i'm i am pressed up against
the wall right next to the door is there i don't
know how how big is this room it's it's pretty
small it's a pretty small you know it has the
seats that turn into like bunk beds um it's your
you know just a sleeper car there's not much
room there's uh some overhead for your luggage
but that's it and let's say that i sorry just
just to get a visual image of of the surroundings
so if i were to enter the room what would be
on the right hand side what would be on the left
left hand side uh Well, we'll start with in front
of you is a window, and then to your left and
right are both bench seats that then convert
into beds, and there's a little loft area too
for another bed. Okay, so let's say that facing
the window, I'm standing to the left -hand side
of this room. Is there anything I would see within
arm's reach that would be at my disposal? Probably
luggage. You know, I'd imagine you probably have
a suitcase of some sort in there with you. And
you know what, just because I think it would
be fun? A fire extinguisher. I'm gonna grab the
fire extinguisher. Alright. And I'm going to...
Do I see his head at all or is it mostly just
like his arm with the gun? Mostly just his arm
with his gun. Like he has opened the door, he's
pointing it inside. He's, you know, he hasn't
spot you quite yet because it's not that bright,
but you have a few seconds. Okay, so I'm gonna
grab the fire extinguisher, and I'm gonna attempt
to bash it down on his hands. All right, give
me a strike, please. This might be a mistake,
but I'm gonna save my drive for this roll. Okay.
That would be a one. Yeah, you miss, and he takes
it out of your hands. He's able to, like, push
it out of the way. As you come down upon him,
he steps out of the way, kind of, like, just
slaps your hands, and you drop it. Oh, no! And
now we're going to turn to mod. Oh god, I'm so
worried. Do you want to start with the writer's
reaction first? Right, so you just sent with
some luggage with all your outfits. It didn't
rattle him. My 10 million shoes. Your 10 million
shoes, which are so heavy. They're so heavy.
He's, you know, he's kind of reeling from a little
bit of that strike. I'll give you that because
you got a five on that, right? Yeah, I got a
five. He hasn't dropped his gun, but he's just
kind of stumbling back at this point. Am I closer
to him than Maeve and the other Obscura members
are? Yeah, and I'll say behind you is... the
other members and Maeve. Maeve is like, she was
closer to the front, he kinda came towards the
back. Gotcha, gotcha. So you turned and faced
them. So yeah, they're kinda all behind you.
Caldwin is scared, unfortunately. They're kinda
just chilling in their seats right now, not sure
what to do. Yeah, I don't blame them. Real quick.
the door to the passenger car that is behind
my current guy that I'm fighting. Is it opened
or closed? It's closed. Okay, continue. Yeah,
no worries. I think Maeve, seeing that she has
an attack of opportunity here, is gonna rush
forward with the sturdiest and longest piece
of ribbon that she has in her hair and try to
strangle or in any way like... hold down this
person so that Maeve can get to them and disarm
them or whatever she needs to do. Okay, so we're
gonna... I know you meant mod there. We're gonna
do a... I kinda wanna do a control roll for this
one that feels like you're trying to control
the situation. Does that feel right to you? That
works for me. And then I'm not gonna spend a
drive. That's a six meow. All right. Yeah, so
you you you took their ribbon you wrapped it
around his his neck. He's like And you got behind
him and so actually one of the other candela
people brings out a gun and shoots them and he's
down He's fucking down. All right back to Manny
Good job mod. I love that. Thank you We're just
gonna we're gonna keep this brawl going I'm gonna
I was gonna push him through the door into the
other guy, but since the door is closed I'm just
gonna push him into the door and just start throwing
elbows. Okay. Yeah more strikes Let's do this.
I'm feeling good This is the send train. I just
I heard mod In the back of my head just choke
a dude out. I'm ready Three Okay, ooh. Yeah,
you missed some strikes. He... Okay, I'll give
you this. You hit him, but he's able to turn
around so that you're back to the door. He's
got you cornered now. Is there anything you wanna
do? So I'm back to the door now. There's a couple
gaps that would go off of the train to the side.
I'm gonna try and push him off of me and then
spar to kick him off the side of the train. Let's
go, Manny! Let's go! Alright, let's make that
a control roll. Let's do it. Again, you're trying
to control the situation. Yep. I'm okay with
this. I'm gonna burn another drive out of this
because I don't have anything in control. And
we got a four. Alright. Yeah, you're able to
push them off of you. You're no longer cornered.
You're on this small, like, little platform because
on sides of you is, like, open. And, um... he's
he's starting to fall back he hasn't completely
fallen back yet but he's he lost his balance
and that we're going to turn to Arden. How's
it looking for me GM? Let's see so you hit him
with a fire extinguisher he slapped you slapped
it out of your hands you missed completely and
he's got the gun back in your face he's asking
for the valuables he's kind of pissed off. We
are facing each other. Yeah, yeah, you can smell
his bad breath through his handkerchief. He's
a scarlet runner, he doesn't have hygiene. The
scurvy. Um, whereabouts did the fire extinguisher
fall when I dropped it? Uh, it fell out of your
hands and it rolled underneath one of the benches.
Of course it did. You rolled a one, I mean, bad
things happened. Okay, uh, I'm going to attempt
to just... Give me a second, give me a second.
Yeah, yeah, we can go back to Mod. Mod, what
are you doing? Um, has the life left this man's
eyes yet? The killer. Um, yeah, he's, it's not
quite there. You have him choked. He just got
shot a couple times. Now that the Candela people,
you know, you're, you get control in this guy.
Yeah, he's got a shot. He's he's gurgling on
the blood and stuff. He is pretty much dead.
He's not a threat. Okay. And then I think like,
as she's tightening it more and more around him
to finish the job, she like leans down to whisper
on his like, on his on his in his ear on his
right side. This is what happens when you mistreat
your horse. And and she's gonna end him. Alright
and I'm afraid of making them either I mean literally
I'm afraid of making him I'm not afraid of working
with them Yeah, he'll uh, you know, he hears
that he kind of like gives you confused look
as he's And then he just slumps to the ground
his last thoughts are just confused. All right,
that's my that's my turn All right, we'll go
back to Manny. How do I compete with that? You
hear a weird gurgling thumping noise. Why do
I compete with that? I mean, now I feel like
we've got to incorporate ADR into this show.
Yeah, I'm gonna continue to try to knock this
dude off the train. And if I am successful, I
am going to then jump off the train and continue
to beat him on the ground. We're going to try
to make that happen. I've had a few too many
and now I'm upset because I'm getting hurt. All
right. Give me give me more strikes. Yeah. All
right. All right. I got another four. It's going
to hurt, but. All right. Yeah, you you're able
to throw them to the ground. He loses his balance,
he falls off the little platform. And you're
coming down, you're going down, about to do a
piler on his face, but he's able to roll away
before you do that. You're not hurt, but you
don't give him that full attack. Back to Arden.
I am now ready to make my move. So he's demanding
valuables from me. I'm going to... I assume I'm
kind of somewhat bent over since I just got whacked
and dropped a heavy fire extinguisher. I'm gonna
slowly straighten myself up and say, okay, okay,
calm down, calm down. All right, just give me
a second here. I'm gonna have both my hands up
to indicate that I am not armed. I'm gonna slowly
turn my back and start. And his eyes are on you.
They are trained on you while you do this. I'm
going to move over to where my... my luggage
my suitcases and I'm going to And as you do that
he said slow little lady slow Show you little
lady Say it again say it again I Kind of just
glare at him look back at my suitcase slowly
uh, unclasp the lock. This is going to be messy,
but I'm going to take my now open suitcase and
kind of just grab the handle with one arm and
kind of fling it so all the clothes go flying
and kind of try to create a bit of a chaotic
situation, a bit of a mask here. All right. Yeah.
Uh, I'll give that one a control roll. Yeah,
let's roll control. At this point, would you
consider this a high -stakes roll? Yeah, you
know, he's right here, he's got a gun to your
face. This is, yeah. Okay, in that case, I'm
going to use my Cool Under Pressure, which allows
me to spend a cunning drive to make this roll,
so I can get the extra assistance. Okay. I rolled
a 2 and a 4, I'ma take the 4. Alright, yeah,
you're... Your stuff just goes everywhere. He
is, like, confused. He still has his gun, but
he's, like, moved it out of the way, so it's
not right in your face. He's just like, whoa,
whoa, what's going on? And, like, he actually
shoots the gun, not at you. Luckily, it doesn't
hit you. But he's just, you know, he's going
kind of just pew, pew, pew. In Mids of Chaos,
I'm going to, just purely running on adrenaline
now, I'm going to attempt to charge through...
the falling clothes and just full body tackle
this guy down. All right yeah give me a move.
That's another four. All right yeah you're able
to grab him around the waist uh he's he is confused
he's not quite down yet but you got him we're
gonna move back to mod whoa now that this this
individual's dead in front of you what are you
gonna do? Now that she's murdered a horse abuser.
I mean, what else are you supposed to do when
you have all this power? No, fair, fair. I'm
supposed to, what, have a job like a normal person?
Please. Okay, can I see through this sliding
door Manny's brawl, or am I in the wrong location
for that? Is that something that I can perceive
from where I'm at in the train car right now?
yeah if you were uh yeah you could probably see
that because you turned around the guy he was
closer to the back of the car and man is on the
back of the car that's in front of the car you're
in if that makes sense so when you turned around
to choke that guy out you can see over his shoulder
or at least he did you could see manny just pummeling
someone through the glass that is like yeah and
you see man is going overboard um I'm imagining
him totally beating the crap out of this guy,
but the sound effects are like those inflatable
squeaky hammers. I feel like Manny was thinking
about taking and beating this guy with one of
the dining table chairs, but all the chairs are
welded to the floor in a train because it's moving,
and he's just trying to use it as a weapon, but
it's sealed to the floor. I think Maude is gonna
look at Maeve and say, we gotta go, there's more
trouble in the back. Okay, and Maeve is gonna
nod at you and she's gonna turn and she'll grab
her cane and follow you. Yeah. And then we're
moving towards Manny and making sure that he's,
um, if he's all good, I'm like more than happy
to let him beat the shit out of this guy. But
if he needs backup, then at least we'll be there
on the other side of the door. Okay, so you move
towards Manny Manny you're now on the ground
like you as you're moving towards him mod You
saw him whoop jump out of the the side of the
train So Manny, what are you doing? If we're
both on the ground, I'm gonna Cuz I'm a I'm a
dirty fighter We're gonna grab a rock off the
ground and I'm just gonna roll over and smash
him as hard as I can with it. Here, I'll smash
his head with the rock. Yeah, let's do another...
I guess that'd be another strike. Alright, alright.
Let's see, let's see, let's see. Double six is
critical. Critical success. Alright, alright.
Yeah, so you take that rock and you just... Smash
against the skull and you feel his skull cave
in as you do it and you just go again and Again,
and again until this man is not moving. There's
blood his face is smashed Mod and Maeve Like
go through the door. They see you on the side.
You're covered in blood. You're just smashing
this guy's face in I'm just gonna get up. If
you need a wet wipe later, you know where to
find me. And we're gonna keep moving towards
the back. Alright, so then we'll go back to Ardyn.
How you doing, Ardyn? I have no thoughts in my
head. Quite literally, head empty, no thoughts.
And I'm just on survival mode right now. I've
just tackled this guy, so I'm gonna assume I'm
kind of... I'm in a more advantageous position
than he is, I'm assuming. Yeah, you've got him
around the waist. You went down and just grabbed
him and pushed him, so now you're kind of out
of the room itself. You're in the hallway. He
still has his gun, though, but he just got tackled.
He's not doing anything right at this moment.
The cults kind of went flying everywhere, so
I'm going to grab whatever the nearest article
of clothing is. No care in the world for what
it is, but I'm just gonna kinda reach for it.
Kinda like, just crumple it in my hands and attempt
to smack it onto his face just to disorient him.
So I am gonna release him to do this, but I'm
gonna release him and quickly kinda just... And
then with my other hand, attempt to... It's a
dirty pair of pants. I'm gonna attempt to take
the gun from him with my other hand. Alright,
we'll do a control roll. See if he can wrestle
it out of his - his hand. Do I spend a drive
on this? Do I? Do I? That's a five. Yeah. Yeah.
So you do get the gun out of his hand. You rip
it from his hand, uh, and as, you know, you hold
it aloft, he kind of, like, slaps it a little
bit so you fall. But you have the gun. Was -
was it a hard slap? Like, did it rock my world
or am I still... in the moment enough yeah you're
still in the moment you just got like pushed
a little bit you're just i'm gonna jump back
and like whack him with the butt of the gun all
right yeah let's do some striking rolls i just
want strike roll whip it whip it good that's
a four all right yeah you hit him uh he's not
quite out yet uh but he's you know he's bruised
Knocking him in head till he's out. I'm not I'm
not all right. Yeah, fatal blows here, but I
just want I want the lights out Okay, yeah, and
we'll say with that for your it takes a while.
It takes more than you think He's he's confused
why is this somehow more cruel than what we were
doing suffocating I'm not like Yeah, you knock
them out. So with all the the riders out now
and other Candela peeps have, you know, dispersed
just to check the cars. One of the other people
came in. Candela people came to you Arden. Sarah,
you met her briefly. She's a detective. She has
dark skin. Her hair is tied up in a tight bun
above her head and she wears a long trench coat.
She comes in. She has her gun out. She's looking
and she sees you. Whacking this guy. He's out.
She's like you good I'm gonna kind of very lacking
in grace gonna kind of stumble back off this
guy and like kind of scatter more clothes out
of my way as I stand up and he's out but I'm
still gonna keep the gun pointed at him when
I stand I'm see yeah. Yeah, I'm good. I just
I'm gonna have a lot to clean up after this Okay,
yeah, and she'll she'll not at you and she'll
point her gun at this guy just in case he gets
up again Mod, Manny, what are you guys doing?
Now that I'm good, I'm gonna jump up and be like,
are you okay? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're good. I'm
actually feeling great. Where's Arden? I don't
know. We were gonna go check on her after making
sure you were all good. I think she's still in
the back somewhere. Let's go. And I'm gonna climb
up and stumble my way up onto it because I'm
four deep and half a sandwich in. Sort of leaning
on Mod a little as we... walk our way back and
as you're walking your way back the the fifth
kindela person uh griffin he's a doctor older
gentleman hair grain he comes up and he tries
to check you out man he's like you good is do
you need anything like you need some stitches
oh yeah no this isn't mine i'm gonna need a new
shirt though and he just kind of like he nods
and he'll let you go and he continues to check
other people who might be frightened moving quickly
to go figure out where Arden is, because obviously
I'm worried about her. Alright, so you guys make
it to the sleeper car, and you see Arden standing
over with Sarah, guns out on one of the riders.
You okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'm good, this,
yeah, this guy kind of just, and I'm gonna compose
myself. and put on kind of like this this false
confidence and yeah he i you know i got under
control he tried to sneak up on me but it's good
it's good and as i'm speaking i'm definitely
still shaking from the intensity of the moment
we're gonna slowly reach out and take the gun
from her good i'm glad you're okay i'm going
to Kind of still in the headspace of having just
fought this guy. My guard is not fully down yet,
so I have now kind of put on my investigative
cap, and I want to know who this guy is. So I'm
going to brush aside any loose pieces of clothing
from my suitcase that may be around us or on
this guy, and I'm gonna search his pockets. Okay.
Yeah, let's get a survey roll. Sweet. I'm gonna
move. While they're searching the body, I'm going
to start moving to some of the other passenger
cars and kind of check on other people to make
sure they're OK asking, you know, if they're
all right and stuff like that. And as you do
that, Griff and the doctor, you see him, he's
moving around. They found like a sheet somewhere
and has put it over Will, who unfortunately died
from his wounds. And on the other rider in the
passenger car, they found a sheet and just kind
of put it over his face. It wasn't as nice. Uh,
I rolled a four on the Gilded. Okay. Yeah, you
don't really find too much on this guy. Like,
you find his holster. You find, you know, obviously
you have his gun. You just kind of notice that,
you know, he just kind of looks like a cowboy
that has been, you know, in the terrain for a
while. He's dirty. He's gross. Um, you find a
little packet of spice, scarlet spice, on his
person. Clearly, you know, he deals it and...
Maybe he's even taking it? You're not entirely
sure. I am going to take the Scarlet Spice, and
I'm also going to take a Solster. Okay. Arden,
is this - are these tweed pants over this man's
face? Can we - okay, listen. I - I don't think
now's the appropriate time to be judging my fashion
sense or the lack thereof. Don't - don't speak.
Don't speak. I - I - I know that look. Just let
it be. Just let it be. And I'm gonna get to work
starting to very quickly, especially with Maud
standing there judging me. Gonna quickly start
gathering my clothes and stuffing them. Going
back into the room to stuff them back into the
suitcase, just not even bothering to fold them,
just trying to get them all in because I can't
be bothered right now. I think Maud, not realizing
that Arden was calling her a little bit shallow
for making fun of her fashion sense, turns to
Maeve and says, Alright, geez, all I was saying
was that if you're gonna strangle someone, you
might as well make it a non -breathable material.
That's all. Maeve is just gonna, you know, look
at you, and, you know, she'll just - she'll just
nod. And she'll continue just kind of perusing
through the cart, trying to see if there's anything
like any other dangers, but it seems the dangers
has passed. And at that, you know, we're going
to - we're going to move time, we're going to
move to when the train has actually arrived to
Cascadia. Because after that, all the people
that were a problem were dealt with, things got
cleaned up. Hopefully Arden, you got all your
stuff. Maybe you lost a sock or two. It happens.
And yeah, you guys arrive in Cascadia pretty
safe and sound. What are you gonna do? And we'll
start with Arden and Maude because Manny, we're
gonna do something. Um, are the horses okay?
Did they get repossessed? The horses get repossessed.
It was weird, like they they grabbed the horses
and brought them on board. I'm not entirely sure
what was going on with that, but yeah, the horses
are nice and safe. Okay, good to know. Arden,
if you want to go first. Um, so I'm sorry, say
again, we have now like just arrived at the station
or this is a little after and we're? Um, yeah,
this is like we just arrived at the station.
Maeve has basically, she's taken off with Manny.
and you know basically I was told because we're
going to go to the chapter house yeah so I'm
going to finish up cleaning all belongings shoving
them back into my suitcase doing a thorough inspection
of the room to ensure that I haven't left anything
behind making sure I've still got my journal
and my writing materials and any other valuables
took a little bit of time to to fix my hair and
make myself appear a little less disheveled and
less like I just stepped out of combat. I'm going
to exit my room and walk out the train car, being
sure to thank Sarah for her assistance as I head
out. And you, by the way, you have an address
for an apartment Candela has gotten for you in
Cascadia. Perfect. You all have apartments in
the West River District. So I'm going to exit
the train car and stand on the platform outside
and I'm going to wait for Mod before splitting.
Okay. Once Mod knows that the horses are okay
and have new homes where their teeth are gonna
be brushed and they can eat carrots all day,
she's gonna go check in on Caldwin who looked
pretty frightened the last time she saw them
on the train. Caldwin has since the experience,
because it's been a few hours since the... the
incident. Caldwin has, you know, brought themselves,
you know, back together, mostly. They're still
a little shaken. You can tell, like, their hands
still tremors, but they're back to put together.
And they assure you they'll be fine. They're
going with Charles, who is their light keeper.
He is the older gentleman with the right hand
missing, and they're going to go to their chapter
house. All right, Caldwin. It was nice talking
to you before we almost died on that train. Hopefully,
I'll see you one more time before we both have
to move back home. And she's gonna give them
a pink carnation. Aw, Colwin will take it. Say,
you know, it was very nice meeting you as well.
They hope that, you know, this assignment to
Cascadia doesn't take too long. Alright. And
then, with that, Maud will go ahead and meet
Arden outside. So that was quite the train ride.
Sorry, I had to take a moment to check in with
you. Are you okay? Oh, I'm great. Yeah. I've
never been better. Good! Great! Okay, yeah! That's
awesome. You've got your address, right? You
know where you're going? She's gonna flip through
her notebook and Arden can look over her shoulder.
if she chooses to and she'll see a bunch of like
flowers and like like skulls and like crossbones
kind of scribbled all over the side with kind
of illegible cursive. Yeah, yeah, I've got it
here, I think. Yeah. Are we living in the same
apartment? GM? I wouldn't know. I wouldn't say
it's like the same apartment building. Candela
got their, you know, these apartments as kind
of wherever they could and such short notice,
so. They're going to be all around the West River
District and you can decide where exactly it's
going to be, but you won't be like right next
to each other. Does it seem that our two apartments
would be within walking distance of each other?
Yeah, yeah, you guys could walk to each other's
places. Okay, with that being the case, I'm going
to quickly read Maude's address and flip open
my journal to the page that has my address written
down on it. And I'm gonna say, hey, why don't
we let's grab a ride we can head down together.
Yeah, that sounds great. I was so hoping that
we would be neighbors, but hopefully at least
one of ours will have a pool so that we can do
like a summer pool party if it takes that long,
but I won't be too picky. Hey, summer pool party
sounds fun. Definitely we'll figure out a way
to make that work. Man, I love mud. Yeah, I'm
gonna take a moment and kinda, kinda laugh. It's
a good... She's a breath of fresh air after the
intensity of the previous hour, however long
ago it was that this happened, and... What seems
to be the vehicular mode of transportation in
this part? Yeah, there's, there's carriages.
There is a, like, I almost want to say it's not
a subway, but there is sort of a, um... Like
a monorail? Like a monorail streetcar? Like,
uh, like the Bay Area? Yeah, like a streetcar
that, yeah, like the Bay Area, um, where you
could, you could hop on and hop off, uh, and
it goes around the city in like a big circle.
So knowing Maud's affinity for animals and specifically
her love for horses going to suggest Yeah, I
don't know about you. I think I've had enough
of being in the car for a day What do you say
we get a carriage? That sounds lovely and we're
gonna try to hail a carriage All right, I'll
I'll let you guys do that and then we'll turn
to Manny and Maeve Maeve's gonna turn to you
Manny and says Let's check out the chapter house
first before you get to your apartment. I'm going
to make sure everything is good there. Yeah,
let's do it. Do you know how secure it is? How
fortified? Is it safe? Not sure yet. I would
assume that because Candela picked it, it should
be pretty safe. The city has a history of speakeasies
that were able to survive prohibition. And from
what I know, this tavern has a secret location
for us to meet. I know I'm not feeling too confident
in their safety standards at the moment, given
everything that went down on the way out. So
I just want to make sure the girls are safe.
And she'll she'll give you sort of a knowing
look like, yeah, the train ride was pretty dangerous,
wasn't it? And then you two will take a carriage
to the tavern. And the tavern is called Portland
Speakeasy, as it's in the Portland District.
It's a popular tavern in the West River District.
It's like on the border between West River and
Portland. It used to be a speakeasy when the
company owned Cascadia before it was incorporated
into Hale, and prohibition was the law at the
time. However, you know, the tavern is still
around and there's no prohibition anymore, so
there's not really a need for the secret location.
And as you enter into the tavern itself, you
know, you see the set up, a bar, chairs, tables
for people to sit and drink. And in the back
you see sort of a bookcase, just against one
of the walls. There's a couple bookcases, but
this one stands out to you. And at the bar itself
is Duncan. He is the owner. The Portland Speakeasy.
He's a walrus mustache man. He was this clean
the bar. Big mustache entrances exits bookshelf.
What am I seeing in regards to like back rooms?
I assume windows and stuff for people to see
in just give me a quick Layout of the this is
what man he's thinking about as soon as he walks
in he does a scan of the whole place And he's
trying to see points of entry points of egress
Just getting to the out -of -place bookshelf
in a speakeasy Yeah, so you have the doors to
the the entrance of it. You have the bar and
you can kind of spy behind the bar. There's another
door to like the kitchen area and there's probably
an exit back there, you can assume most likely.
And that's that's kind of two exits you can see
right now. There are stairs to upstairs as well.
Is there anybody besides Duncan that stands out
as suspicious in the bar? No, there's just, you
know, a couple of people drinking, just, you
know, sipping on. something. I scratch my head.
I flick my collar and my jacket again in a nice
cleaner shirt and continue following Maeve's
lead. Maeve's going to introduce herself to Duncan.
She was given a dossier about him so she knows
he is the owner and this has been deemed as a
secure location for Candela and you know she's
going to introduce herself and she'll introduce
you. Is there anything you'd like to say? I'm
quiet and I nod. I'm just watching. All right.
And Duncan is going to introduce himself and
he'll he'll say, Hi, I'm Duncan. I'm the owner
of the Tavern. Pleased to have you guys here.
I wish you guys could have been here better time.
Some of my my workers have been go missing in
the tunnels under the city. I've lost to this
month and I really hope you guys can help me
find them because if I can't if I keep losing
workers. We're gonna shut this place down in
the tunnels I Thought I thought yeah. Yeah, there's
tunnels they go from the docks to all the taverns
around here It just helps keep the shipments
a little bit more secure When you you know if
you're walking around with a cart on the streets
with a bunch of liquor you might get robbed Yeah,
that's fair all right Maeve. We're gonna look
into this so she'll look at you and she'll she'll
nod and then Duncan will move around the bar
and he'll point to the bookshelf. He says, this
is where you guys can meet. And he'll go up to
bookshelf. He'll pull a book, you know, pull
it back and the shelf moves out of the way on
its own to reveal a nice, warmly lit interior.
It's there's velvet couches. Um, It's very Victorian
-esque. There's more books. There's a little
bit of, like, weird stuff in it already. It seems
like Candela has made this already a spot that
they have used before, so it's a little dusty,
but Maeve seems happy, from what you can tell.
For clarity's sake, the bookshelf's, like, in
the proper part of the tavern. Like, it's just
there, and this entrance is, like, in the main
part of the tavern. Yeah, it's like in the main
part of the tavern probably won't be careful
if you're going to enter into it But this tavern
doesn't seem like terribly busy right now Okay,
I'm gonna I'm gonna just make a mental note of
that and then ask me a few questions later on
Okay, and then I guess we'll go back to Arden
and Mon. Yeah, so we hail the carriage to get
to our apartments I'll say that I asked the driver
to drop us off at whatever would be the intersecting
corner between our two apartments. I will pay
the driver their fare and also throw in a little
bit of a tip. And as they drive off, I'm going
to turn the mod. You got everything? Except for
petting the horses while they were working, yes.
I have everything ready to go. Maybe next time,
maybe next time. You know where you're going
from here? Uh, I think so. I guess I'll see you
at the next time we're meeting up together, the
new place? Yeah, sounds good. I think, um, I
might be bullshitting here, GM, uh, would it
be okay for me to say that there are plans to,
for all of us to meet up together as a circle
later that evening? Yeah, yeah, that could totally
be a plan that was made. Then I'm definitely
gonna say that with full confidence. Yeah, I
mean, we've still got to meet up with Manny tonight,
so I guess I'll see you there. And if you need
anything, you know where to find me. Same to
you. Let me know if there's a pool or not, and
then we can go from there. I start heading off
to my apartment. If there's nothing else anyone
has to do, we can move on to that evening. I
guess I've met... First thing I'm going to do
is check if there is a pool. I need to know if
there's a pool. There's not, unfortunately. I'm
so sorry. Cascadia is in sort of a colder climate
than Newfair, even. Newfair is a cold climate,
Cascadia is a little bit colder, and it got hit
with a shiver a little bit worse than other parts
of the hail. So people don't really have pools,
unfortunately. Mod is destroyed. She's so upset.
My party plans. My party plans. But it's okay,
Mod, because your apartment has a really nice
kitchen. I'll give you that. You have a nice
kitchen. It's kind of bare bones elsewhere, but
like, for some reason, it's just a nice kitchen.
It's because Maeve knew I would complain if I
didn't have at least something. Yeah, she wanted
to take care of - she wanted to make sure you
were well taken care of. Then I'm gonna organize
all of the stuff in my closet first, unpack.
Okay, yeah. Yeah, Arden's gonna do the same.
She's going to enter her apartment, kind of take
in her new surroundings, and set to work unpacking
her belongings, getting everything organized,
taking extra care to make sure that she's got
somewhere in the apartment to sit down and write
and focus and get work done, whether that's journaling
or otherwise. Mm -hmm. And let's say your apartment
has a nice desk. I would assume Maeve would want
to make sure you're well taken care of as well.
And she requested a, you know, a desk for you
to write at. Manny, is there anything you would
like to do between checking out the tavern and
that evening? I'm going to ask Maeve, well, I'm
going to mention to Maeve, you know I'm a Huge
fan of bars. I've been working in them for as
long as I can remember at this point, but that
entrance to this space is a little, it's a little
conspicuous. Again, I value Candela a lot, but
my priority is keeping all of us safe. And we
need to do a little something about the entrance,
make it a VIP area, throw a curtain up something
just to like what if we come into the middle
of the night and the bar is popping and You know,
we just push a bookcase aside and there's somebody
not so nice watching us go inside I feel a little
This is a little a little out of out of place
to me I just want to make sure you know, our
bases are covered. Otherwise the space is great
looks like they used to do some brew stuff down
here, so I might be able to Put my my skills
to work a little bit and make us a little custom
Custom brew down here. Yeah, I don't know. How
do you feel about that? May full, you know turn
to you. I agree Bookshelves is too too conspicuous
as you said I'll talk to the owner and see if
we can Get a get an entrance through the basement
or something that might be better. It's good
to know that it's there though I would just love
to have at least one more point of entry or exit.
Yeah, otherwise I dig it. It's nice I'm gonna
take a walk Okay. And Manny will exit the bar
and kind of just walk the neighborhood and kind
of get an idea of the Portland neighborhood a
little bit and the other bars, the other restaurants
and businesses in the area along the port side
area. Yeah. like the port side area so there
are docks for a bunch of boats to come to drop
off goods. Basically the boats come in from the
ocean and they'll travel down the river and get
to the heart of Cascadia that way to deliver
goods. Around the tavern is actually Manny's
apartment, it's not too far from the tavern so
pretty close so if he wants to work at the tavern
he can. There's restaurants, there's more living
areas. West River is pretty like in between.
There's not a lot of, like, wealthy people, but
they're also not, like, people who are really,
you know, on the cusp of super poverty. You'll
find some homeless people here and there, but
not too bad. So, yeah, you can get LA of the
rent land that way. Awesome. Notes taken. All
right. For the meeting man, you'll find just
a bench or something in a park near the water
and just sit there and watch. people and boats
and water until the Sun gets low enough and it
comes time for us to meet as a circle. And as
you're sitting there, you know, you see a couple
boats come by. You see like it looks almost like
a Navy vessel. Kind of just like dock for a little
bit and leave. You just see a bunch of boats.
And I guess we'll move forward to that evening
if you guys want to meet at the Tavern. I'll
be there first. off and on conversations with
Duncan and I'll just be sipping on a What would
Mandy be drinking at this point at this time
at this point? He'd be sipping on a brandy slow
sifting it and just nursing it taking his time
with it And Duncan will be telling you about
sort of the business. He's of course been told
by Candela, you know you can you're going to
work here if you want and Maeve has gone off
you're not entirely sure where she's gone but
she's she's not around but he he did get to talk
to her about that entrance and he's going to
see if you can find something like the the back
room or downstairs in the basement where they
keep all their storage like a little entryway
to the secret location yeah it's my first time
on this side of town uh i've been here it's been
a while it's been some years I grew up in this
area, actually. But yeah, I've never been to
the Portland side of town. Always over on West
River or on the north side. So this is different,
it's nice. But yeah, if you need a hand here,
once we figure out what's going on, I'd be more
than happy to give you a hand around here on
the bar. Thank you, yeah. You can definitely
use some good workers around here. There hasn't
been much people around since the Great War.
A lot left to fight in the war, not too many
came back. That's kind of the story everywhere,
isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And plus, people don't
like the cold, apparently. It's too cold for
them here. It's one of the reasons why I left,
amongst other things, obviously. You got any
playing cards? He'll pull out a deck of cards.
He's like, want to play? I just want to... fidget
a little bit and it just man he just starts deftly
shuffling them one -handed cuts rolling cards
around his fingers kind of like just kind of
messing around but like doing like really interesting
hand motions creating designs in the cards opening
up splaying them out cutting the deck into four
pieces rolling them back shuffling them cutting
it in one hand rolling the cards just in Interesting
ways and just kind of sips his drink with his
other hands. No, I'm good. I'm just gonna goof
off a little bit. Okay, and as he waits for The
other two to show up Is there Is there a clock
in my apartment or did I possibly bring one I
don't Is there way for me to tell what time it
is? Yeah, I'll say you have a clock that you
brought with you, you know, you you need time
for your job as a journalist or at least, you
know, when you were a journalist in New Fair.
So, you know, you, you definitely have some sort
of analog clock. You probably even wear a watch,
I would assume. Okay. Yeah. Uh, I'm going to,
I'm gonna say since she got everything settled
in, in her apartment, Arden has been seated at
her desk and just continued journaling what she
was writing when she was in the train car. But
also of course, adding on a recollection of the
chaos that ensued during that trip, and she's
going to be in the midst of making a sketch of
Maude petting one of the horses, and glance down
at her watch and realize what time it is, and
just under her breath, she's gonna take a sip
of the coffee that she had. sitting on her desk,
her go -to work refreshment. And let's say you
found some old beans in your kitchen. Yeah, it's
bad coffee, but it's coffee nonetheless, and
it's gonna get her through the night. So she
rushed us to the door. grabs her coat, grabs
her red scarf, and wraps it on, cracks the door
open a bit, feels the chill of the night, says,
oh, absolutely not, goes and grabs some extra
layers, grabs her hat, and then heads out and
makes her way over to the tavern. And I'll say
that she, yeah, she gets the tavern and she enters
to see Manny, shuffling the cards, and she's
going to say, bye! That's a new one. I haven't
seen, I haven't seen that trick. When did you
pick that up? Am I not showing you this? I figured
all the time we spent together at the bar talking,
you would have seen this one by now. And I just,
I keep doing it. This trick, Manny cuts the cards
in a way. He picks them up half and half. So
they're kind of like in a triangle and then he
lets it go and they kind of waterfall together
into a nice sideways deck again. Cause yeah,
I picked this up after, after she left. You remember?
Told you about that. Yeah. This was one of the
one of the things I picked up doing Around that
part of the time. So yeah, you know, I've got
some tricks up my sleeve Arden takes that last
sentence as a bit of a the catalyst to which
to kind of push some of Manny's buttons she knows
that he takes a lot of pride in his skill sets
and the tricks that he's able to do and being
a person being personable and She tends to take
this moment to kind of add some levity to the
situation and just, hey, okay. I mean, that's
impressive, but can you guess my card? Yeah,
sure. Let's do it. So Manny folds the cards out
and like just plays them out and says, go ahead,
take a card. And I'm going to grab a card from
just slightly off center. Go ahead and look at
it. Don't show it to me. Manny will like make
a show of looking away. You know, looking around,
waiting for you. You got it? You got it? Yeah,
I got it. And he'll cut the deck in half and
he'll start, like, slowly dropping cards. Go
ahead and put it anywhere. I stick the card back
in. He claps it together, pulls it around. He
starts shuffling it, flipping cards in his hand,
you know, just doing a lot of the same things
you saw him doing a moment ago, and then stops
and he goes, all right, so I didn't get to see
your card. What? And he smacks the deck and snaps.
And is this your card? And it's going to be a
two of diamond. Arden's going to kind of push
her cap further back on her head and lean over
the table to inspect the card a little closer.
No, no, I had the Queen of Hearts. She's going
to let that sit for a second and wait expectantly.
Oh, that's right. Awesome. And he reaches into
his pocket, all the cards in his other hand.
And he's, so this is your card. And he pulls
out the Queen of Hearts out of his pocket. Yep.
You got it. You always do. Well, one of these
days, I don't know how, I don't know when, I'm...
One of these days, I'm gonna stump you. And she
knows it's a total lie, but she enjoys messing
with him anyhow. Come on, sit down. Where's Flower
at? I don't know. She should be here any second.
Maude enters the room with a grocery bag of carrots
in hand and strolls up to the bar, just missing
the end of that card trick. Evening, everybody.
Arden's gonna take note of the bag of carrots
and... kind of jokingly. Those for us? Oh yeah,
totally. You see her have like a very guilty
side -eye, feeling a little bit bad that she's
thinking of horses instead of her circle mates
once again. Alright, come on, take a seat. She
goes ahead and sits down. I call Duncan over
and get everybody something to drink, whether
of the alcohol or non -alcoholic variety, and
we kind of get together and we start talking
and sharing. things about our apartments, and
I inform them of the entrance to the chapter
house and where we'll be working. And at this
point, Maeve will come in. She's, you know, using
her cane, stepping not too slow, but yeah, she
seems a little sore. And she sits down next to
you guys and asks for a whiskey on the rocks.
a carrot that's like half whittled down by her
teeth. She's been dipping into her seltzer at
Maeve. Maeve will kind of sigh at it. Thank you.
No, thank you. I'll be fine. Maude takes the
hint and keeps munching. And then at this point,
Maeve turns to you guys. So I spent the rest
of the afternoon talking to other taverns around
here. They've all had the same issue as Duncan.
Workers have been quite missing. Now, we want
to get on Duncan's good side, so we should probably
figure out what's going on. But this doesn't
have to be immediate if you guys need to take
care of some stuff first. Hold on, hold on. You
said people are missing? How many people are
we talking about? How long has this been going
on? Duncan from behind the counter. He's wiping
down the counter. He's cleaned some, you know,
glasses. He turns to you guys. Yeah, um, it's
been a couple months now. A couple of taverns
around here keep losing, losing people. I've
lost two this month. One just this morning, he
was delivering some shipment from the docks in
the tunnels, and he never came, never came out.
So then these tunnels are used pretty frequently,
it sounds like. Yeah, there's tunnels connecting
all the taverns around... from the docks to their
storerooms. Just makes it a little bit easier
to move things around. It rains a lot here, so
the new shipment also doesn't get wet. The tunnels,
did you say? Yeah, yeah. They're used, you know,
every evening, every morning. Doesn't seem like
there'd be too much opportunity for people to
go missing down there if there are a lot of people
going in and out throughout the day. What are
the names of the two people that have gone missing
from here? At the one missing this morning, his
name is Godrej. He worked here for five years
or so. Really good employee. I think his name
was Charlie. He hadn't been here for long. It
was his first day, honestly. It was pretty sad.
And he said these tunnels are typically used
for carrying shipments that have come in from
the docks, but they're... be any other reason
that people would be using these tunnels that
you can think of? Back in the day, these tunnels
were used for getting liquor to the taverns,
too. It was, you know, for prohibition, but prohibition's
over, so there's really no use for that anymore.
But besides that, no, these are just shipment
tunnels. What's happened? Are people losing product,
or is it just people missing? Just people. The
product is left behind. So they're they're not
even making it to the docks for the pickup Well,
some won't make it some will pick it up, but
they'll be lost along the way. It's Pretty random
and then the products just in the tunnel. Yeah
sitting waiting. Yeah We've sent a couple police
officers down there, but they find nothing No,
but they get lost too. They don't know the tunnels
like waiting You got a map of the tunnels at
least the routes that your guys take. Yeah, he'll
he'll give you a map He'll be like this is for
our newbies. But yeah So if you guys are going
to be investigating this, you'll need it. Man,
he just observes the tunnel routes. Can you do
me a favor and kind of just make a note on mine
where your shipments were left or lost? Yeah,
he'll he'll make a note. I don't know where our
guy got lost this morning. No one has wanted
to go down the tunnels. He's like he's like the
tenth one. So. No one wants to go back down there.
I can't hire anyone. Manny will kind of glance
at everybody. Well. Maybe we should look into
this. Definitely. Duncan, when did you say the
peak hours for your shipments were? Or does it
vary by your schedule? It sort of varies by the
schedule. And granted, this is for several taverns,
too. The tunnels branch out to other taverns
around here. So, you know, the shipments come
mostly at night, sometimes in the morning, but
it just depends on which one. If I'm getting
vegetables, I get it in the morning. Have all
the disappearances also been happening at a certain
time of day? No, nothing that we can pick out
from. It's very random. I'm very sorry about
that. Yeah, I miss him. He was a good worker.
And Charlie too. It was his first day. Rip Charlie.
No one else is saying it. That's poor man. F
in the chat. Horses get more respect than Charlie.
Honestly. Okay, and then what are the names of
the other taverns in case we need to ask them
about their people as well? We got West Bank
Pub. They actually do a pretty nice... Pretty
nice wine, I will say so, but they're not as
good as we are. You can tell there's a little
bit of a competition between the taverns, but
hey, you know, they all know each other. And
Duncan will continue. There's also the Flagon.
That's the other tavern around here too. There's
a couple other ones. I can't name the entire
list. But if you go to those two, I know those
guys well. They'll talk to you. Is there anybody
who isn't suffering from this disappearing workers?
Not that I could tell. Everyone's getting hit.
And it's only tavern workers who have gone missing?
Are you aware of anyone maybe working at local
flower shops or grocery stores that have gone
missing as well? As far as I know, it's anyone
who goes into those tunnels. But because it's
only Tavern Workers to go in the tunnels, they're
being taken. The only similarity between all
these people is that they've worked, they're
picking up some shipments, and they're on their
way back, or they're on their way there. Okay,
okay, good to know. That narrows things down
quite a bit. Does anyone have any more questions
for Duncan? Yeah, can I get a refill? I'm gonna
need another drink if we're gonna be doing this
all night. Do you want to maybe pop pub crawl?
I mean, I mean, if Candela's paying for it. Yeah,
yeah, for sure. Arden says somewhat absently.
She's got her notepad out and is furiously scribbling
down notes from the conversation. Slide the map
down towards you. Arden's gonna. kind of make
a very quick sketch replicating that map into
her notepad just so she has it on her. I mean,
we'll slide it back once they're done and then
tuck it into his coat. It'll pour you, you know,
a thing. He's like, I got, there's some customers
coming in. If you need anything, you know, just
raise your hand. Maeve will turn to you guys.
I do think we should look into this, but don't
tire yourselves out tonight. You've had a long
day. We can start tomorrow. One more thing, Duncan,
sorry. Did you... Do you know when the next shipment
is coming in? Yeah, I should have another shipment
at the end of the week. And Jim, what day of
the week is it currently? I want the exact hour
and day. One second. There's actually not 12
months, there's only 4 months in the hail. So
give me a second. Because there's the seasons.
Let's say it's a Tuesday. It's spring. And you
know, it's getting late at night. It's probably
like 8 or 9 at this point. And then the shipment
date? Yeah, the shipment will be probably on
Friday. It'll be Early in the morning. He's expecting
something around like 5 a .m Many slides the
mat or the map over to him on and flips it over.
Do me a favor write down I'll go pick it up Write
down who I'm supposed to talk to And who I'm
picking up from tell me what I'm picking up and
I'll have it here Friday morning All right, and
he he gives you that he writes down the information.
He tells you what ship to look out for which
one will deliver his goods and what to pick out.
Yeah, and the cart and everything's in the back.
Yeah, yeah. I'm getting low on carts, too, so
if you can find the one that was left in the
tunnels, that'd be great. I'll see what I can
do. Secret tunnel. Secret tunnel. Under the city.
Nerds. Love y 'all. And yeah, with that, decompress
a little and any last conversations we have.
Well, now I'm worried about the flower shop,
Arden. Do you know of something that I don't?
No, no, it was just a general question, and Arden
seems genuinely confused about this question,
and she's also still, you know, got her focus
split as she's continuing to... write down notes,
just recalling anything she can, putting it down,
and also looking back over those notes and trying
to preemptively connect any points. And before
you guys separate for the end, Maeve is going
full Manny aside. I know it's weird being back
in Cascadia, but let's not stir up anything of
the past, okay? That is the last thing you need
to worry about from me. I left to get away from
the past, and the further it stays away from
me, the better. Good. And we do not speak about
Jack. I know. I know. All right. And she lets
you go. She goes her own way. Not sure where
she goes, but she probably has an apartment.
Does Arden notice that Maddie's been pulled aside
to have this conversation? Do you want to roll
for it? Sure. Let's do a survey roll. Actually,
no, let's do a read roll. Read. Okay. That's
a three. Yeah, you don't really get much like
you'll see it happen. But then you get pulled
in conversation with Maude about the flower shop
because she's really into this flower shop. I'm
just gonna keep reiterating the fact that it
was a completely random example that I pulled
from the top of my mind and trying to ease her
nerves and reassure her that I know of nothing
nefarious and it wasn't a tip at anything. She's
still suspicious. Eventually, I just kind of
Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. Just don't worry
about it, okay? And I'm gonna take a sip from
my drink and let her continue eating her carrot.
Do you want one? And I'm gonna glance at my now
empty glass and at my notes. Yeah, why the hell
not? Give me that carrot. She's got the multi
-color pack because of course she does, so you're
gonna have to pick a color. I'll take whichever
color you don't want. I'll give you the white
carrots. I'm going to take a bite of the white
carrot. and kinda hide the fact that I'm almost
choking it down. And I guess with that, we'll
take a break here and end the session. Thank
you all for playing this evening. See you next
time!