You're listening to Twisted Tropes. Familiar
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Scandals and Scavengers. A post -apocalyptic
Regency romance. Episode 9. Secrets and Spirits.
Or Low Juice Seance. Last time on Scandals and Scavengers,
the drama really ratcheted up for our protagonists.
Ruby returned home from the ball to find a smoldering
pillow in her comatose father's bed. With no
explanation for its existence, she called for
the doctor again and finally received the results
of the blood tests. Her father had been poisoned!
Needing more answers and running out of options,
she threw herself into planning for the seance
that evening. Edgewater rode some highs and lows.
First, she learned that Gladstone was out ring
shopping for a possible proposal to Nigella.
Wonderful! Then was disappointed, but undeterred
when her father tried to discourage her from
her interest in Samuel. At the Drake residence,
Samuel was once again visited by Mr. Rubbleroy
with no marriage certificate in sight. After
a bit of... gentle persuasion, Rubbleroy admitted
that there were rumors circulating that shed
doubt on Samuel's innocence in the circumstances
surrounding Henry's death. It was time for action
to be taken. In the meantime, Mary eavesdropped
on Connor Carson and Edison Sparks as they met
in his office. It seemed that Edison was admonishing
Connor for continuing some sort of dangerous
experiment, and Connor was threatening him in
return. On the other side of town, Salt entrusted
Ford to deliver a mysterious letter to Beardere
and Alistair Clarence prepared for his presentation
at tomorrow's Carnival of Progress. Repeating
a past mistake, Samuel once again invited both
Mary and Edgewater to call on him. Samuel explained
to both women individually that he would be throwing
a masquerade ball and scandalously inviting servants.
But more importantly to Edgewater, he asked her
if he could officially court her, and there could
only be one answer from her. Now let's find out
if another seance will deliver Ruby the answers
she needs. Alright, so here we are again, and
we're going to pick up with... Edgewater leaving
the Drake residence and heading right over to
Rhinelander Hall to have a very calm, very polite
conversation with her friend Ruby. We find Ruby
in the same exact location we left her when she
was writing the letters. She's sitting in the
doll room, looking in the mirror, flashing the
mask across her face, taking it off, flashing
it, taking it off. And I think for the first
time in a... I think it's taken Ruby the entire
day, but she can't tell the difference, if that
makes sense. She sees a mask where there are
slashes and cuts in it. And she, for the first
time, wonders if she's been wearing a mask for
a long, long time. And then she will take it
off and walk down the stairs very slowly and
go get the door. And will go, oh, Edgewater,
it's good to see you. Ruby, why are you opening
your own door? I'm sorry. I've been in a... You're
right, I forgot. Sorry, it's been a long couple
days. My dad set his pillow on fire last night.
What? Yeah, or something happened. Come on, come
on in. We gotta talk about a lot of stuff. Of
course. How are you, Edgewater? How was
the rest of your night? Oh, it's unbelievable.
But let's talk about your thing first. Oh, yeah.
So the dolls were cradling each other in one
of their beds upstairs. What do you mean they
were cradling each other? I don't know. Inanimate
objects. Yeah, that's a good point. But they
were. And then also my dad last night. uh i came
home and he uh there seemed to be fire in his
room and then- Fire? Is he all right? Um he's back in
a coma but he did wake up from his coma and
he shouted uh Rosamund um who yeah i don't know
Um, and then that happened. And then, oh, I did
talk to the doctor, um, who said that there were
some sort of like, um, some sort of like poisons
in his, in his blood or something like that.
From what? I don't know, like a flower or something
like that. And then, uh, um, and then also, um,
last night I could, uh, my powers developed a
little bit more and now I can summon a, uh, a
face on my face. I'm, I, no. I'm sorry, a face
on your face? Yeah, I'm gonna... Like your face
on your face or someone else's face on your face?
I'm gonna show you and I just want you to be
ready. You ready? Is it good? Three. Oh no. Two.
I saw a mouse today. One. In my hand. And I will
make my mask appear. Oh god! And you can look
at your phone. Well, on that topic... Lord Drake
is throwing a masquerade ball. You'll fit right
in. Oh, all right. Yeah, it was probably my powers.
It was like a premonition of some sort. And Edgewater
Clarence graduates from the Ruby Rhinelander School
of making it all about me. Yeah, I don't know.
This has just kind of appeared. My dad's back
in a coma. Now I have this face on my face. and
um... But you can take it off? Yeah like this. And
I phase it off and now I just have my face back.
Much better. Oh yeah I don't know what's going
on um there's a lot um there's a lot happening.
Also um I'm gonna tell you this because I do
um but like also uh I um might have seen somebody
the other night while I was out and about um
with um Ruben. Wait I'm-Who is first name Ruben?
And Ruby, in this moment, doesn't know his last
name. Oh, you know, that man who... You couldn't
mean Mr. Weller. Oh, yeah, that's his last name.
Third child of Lady Weller. Yeah. No, you couldn't
mean Mr. Weller, third child of Lady Weller.
You are talking about some Lord Reuben that I
can't possibly think of right now because they
are from outside of society a little bit slightly.
No, we're talking about the same guy. You know,
we met up in public a few nights ago and it was
super fun. In public? What do you mean in public?
There were other people around? I don't know
if that's good or not. I'm sorry. I'm short -circuiting
right now because... Were they all chaperones? Yes.
They were. They were all chaperones. Oh, thank
God. All right. And they were all watching us
with all of their eyes. But also then another
fellow came in to meet with him. Also, there's
just something. Have you ever... there's like this
symbol that he had like a tattoo of on his arm
and it was like a circle with three bursts out
of it. It kind of... and as she's like trying to
describe it she's trying and she's using her hands
to talk and she will cast silent image as she
fully displays what she saw on Ruben's arm. What
are you doing? I don't know I've never done that
before. Oh that's amazing! Oh my god that's amazing!
I don't know. I saw this symbol. It was on his
arm. And then I also saw, and then I'm going
to show, I saw boots like this. But it shows
the bar background because I can't separate the
boots. Those are normal military boots, I believe.
But where on earth were you, Ruby? I'm going
to be fully honest. No, don't be. That's not
the right tact. A different one. Try something
else. I don't know. Okay. We'll work on this.
All right. The military boots, though. This was
the person... Who wanted to go talk to Lord Weller.
Lord Weller. Yes. Lord Weller. Mm -hmm. Okay.
Is that the right title? What did they say? It's
not the right title. That's the right title.
Well, no. I mean, he's Mr. Weller. All right.
Probably will never be Lord Weller. All right.
It's at least better than Ruben. I don't know
what they said, but they needed to meet. And
it seemed a little off to me. And I don't know.
Ruby, you thought that was off, but you didn't
think it was off for you to go out with... Never
mind. Go ahead. Anyway, I saw those boots at
the party last night. Okay. Were they attached
to someone? Yes. And I'm going to use silent
image to conjure exactly the person that I saw.
Desmond Gammabloom. Who? Jesus Christ. He's
the third son of the Lady Gamma Bloom of the
firearm manufacturing business. Oh, another third
son. That's weird. DM. Would Edgewater have ever
seen that symbol on any of the jugs or anything
that they... No. Also, you don't really hit the
factory floor. It's not really your thing. I
don't know. I just want to be fully honest with
you. Ruben, I think, has been sending me these
gifts. He bought me a deck of playing cards that
are really nice, and he bought me these earrings
that I'm still wearing, the fish hooks with the
dice on them. Well, gifts are lovely, and there's
nothing wrong with that. Yeah, I know. I don't
know. I just want to wanted to say that I don't
know. I haven't been all myself lately. And now
that my dad's been sick, it seems that my powers
are more coming to me. And so I don't know. I
just I don't know. I don't know if they're connected
or if maybe I'm just secretly a doll or something
like that. I was just thinking perhaps they're
just coming to you in your time of need. But
maybe you are a doll. You do have a porcelain
mask, face, thing. Yeah it's not... I don't know... I...
it's... it might intimidate some people. Oh sure.
I can definitely see that. Um but this is why
I wanted to do the seance because I feel like
something's going on in that room and maybe some
of these dolls might be able to... I don't know...
Belladonna was so great last night. She definitely
knew something about those dolls. She did. I couldn't
believe how accurate she was. Also how do you
feel about her kissing your man? Oh! That was
fine. That was Lord Drake's husband kissing Lord
Drake. It's to be expected. Well, you know what
I heard? You want to hear the whispers that I
heard? There are whispers? Yes. I heard. No,
I mean, you must go over everything so that we
can determine what the truth is and find whoever
is spreading these rumors to begin with. Smart.
I hold out my hands. I take them. I heard that
you are the gem of the season and that people
are whispering that you have found a true love
match. What? I truly don't know what to say about
that. Ruby, what am I supposed to do? I don't
know. Just keep being yourself, doing what you're
doing. I don't know. Correcting people? What was
that? Correcting people. Um sure yeah do that um
but in like a sexy way. Like you do? Like with
your hips out? Yeah. Forward. Yeah. Like that. Yeah
this is great. I like this and then um also um
I think just making... Honestly I think Lord Drake
just likes you but I... I'm and I just want to let
you know I've invited Lord Drake tonight as I
said in my invitation. I know um Belladonna and
also Mr Salt um yeah mostly because he needs
to fix the doll um- Right you said. But also I
thought... you know it would be good to have him
here as well, um just in case, you know um an
extra chaperone for you and Lord Drake as well.
That is very kind of you and very smart Ruby.
Thank you. I don't know there's a lot going on
right now. My dad seems okay but I'm just wondering
what else is going on there. So tonight, what
we're going to do is I'm going to go up there.
I need your help. We're going to get the dolls
ready for Belladonna. Okay. We're going to set
them up, make sure they look super cute. We're
posing them? Yeah, we're going to, well, just
make sure that they're clean enough, I guess.
We did so well with the cleaning last time. Yeah,
we did, and we're going to make sure they just
look super cute, and then Belladonna will come
over, and then we'll do this thing with everybody
in the room. But do you think Lord Drake can
fix the door first? Can he fix doors? I'm pretty
sure he can do anything. Great. I knew it. So,
like I said, he's throwing a masquerade ball.
And get this, he's inviting servants. Yes, I
know. But you know what? I think it's so no one
will know who's of the upper class and who's
of the lower classes, because the lower classes
can get away with much more at a party than the
upper classes can. I love it. I know! I know!
This is like the biggest middle finger to all
those rules. What? What? Nothing. I didn't say
anything. Okay. You seemed strange for a moment.
Sorry. No, sorry. I just... Sorry. There are
just so many rules sometimes that stress me out.
Okay. This is going to be a fun night. Did you
learn how to dust in the meantime since we were
last in here? Yeah. I heard there was this one
thing called a broom. Oh right, Gladstone mentioned
it. Yeah, it's this way. Okay. All right. Thank
you. And we're going to fast forward. I don't
think we need to do another 20 minutes of cleaning
fun. I don't want to do a seance there anymore.
I'm sorry. I don't want to do it. It's scary.
It's going to be fine. I don't want to. It's
going to be fine. Don't worry about it. What
could possibly go wrong? No. Is that the doll
voice? No. Not yet. Evan, if a doll kisses me,
I quit. I'm quitting the podcast. If a doll touches
me, I'm going to freak out and then I'm going
to leave. Does that include me with my mask on?
Fuck you. Double. Fucking double. All right.
So we're going to flash forward to about nine
o 'clock. Mr. Salt, you'll make your appearance.
When was Lord Drake going to show up? He was
told to arrive at 9:33. He tends to be a little
early, it seems, so it might be like 9:31 by
mistake. Forgot how fast he can walk. Today's
been an exciting day. A little spring in his
step. What? Okay. So, at 9 o 'clock, there's
a knock on the door, and you are admitted and
announced. Well... Hello there, Mr. Salt. Good
evening, Ms. Rhinelander. Thank you so much for
coming. Of course. Ms. Clarence is here already.
Good to see you, Ms. Clarence. Hello, Second
Lieutenant. Thank you so much. I just want to
let you know that I would love for you to come
look at the doll that is broken. Absolutely.
And he kind of gestures. He's got a little, like...
tool bag, a little go bag of stuff that he has
randomly thrown together that might fix a porcelain
doll. I appreciate it. Also, Belladonna is going
to come and we're going to do a seance and you
are more than welcome to stay there as the invitation
says. Stay and partake as well if you want to
talk to any of the dolls. I was under the impression
that we talked to the dead here, but you know
what? New things. It's always good to try new
things. Agreed. You say that and Ruby for a second
thinks in her brain, are they one in the same?
The dolls and the dead? And then walks up the stairs.
Goes- This way to the room I didn't notice until
three days, four days ago. Gotcha. Salt will
look to Miss Edgewater and if you, I'll wait
to follow behind you. And I'll follow Ruby. I
imagine I'm ducking through a lot of doorways,
because this is a halfling house. This is like,
yeah, Gandalf is in the Shire. This is just a
lot of thuds. The nice thing is that this is
a reclaimed house from this time. So technically,
everything is still approximately the right height.
Now, some of the furniture may not be super comfortable
for you. Gotcha. But yeah, so this is the room.
Yeah, we just happened to get into the door a
few days ago. Can I take a quick look? How busted
off the hinges is it? Like, is it... Oh, it was
a clean break. Honestly, the frame is still in
pretty good shape. It was like the hinges had
been, there was metal fatigue from them not opening
for so long. And really, that was leveraged.
Gotcha. I think he kind of looks here and says,
Lord, Drake. Oh, yeah. I know. And then Ruby
goes, is he here? Is he coming? Yeah, he'll be
here in a little bit. Pleasant surprise. Yeah.
Also, quick question. Do you know somebody named
Rosamund? I don't think so. No, I can't say I've
ever met a Rosamund. All right. Don't worry about
it. Anyway, the broken doll's over here in the
crib. Oh, good. I was wondering how we might
pick it out from all these so many dolls. Salt
will walk over to the crib. Okay, so the doll in
question, the arm has cracked and has been repaired
once before. It's mostly like cracks in need
of sort of spackle and paint. Oh, it's not like
detached. It's not broken off. No, it's just
it was broken and has been fixed. Gotcha. I don't
honestly know what you would have to try to effectively,
you know, make this repair. I think maybe the
first thing he'll do. Very aware of how ill -suited
he is to this task and how delicate the thing
before him is. The first thing he reaches out
is some very thick rolls of bubble wrap to place
it down upon to give it a kind of soft surface
to work on. Excellent. Oh, wow. I think he really
knows what he's doing, Ruby. And then he sits
kind of looking at it for a second. And I think
he thinks back to like some of the broken toys
of Lefroy's when he was much younger, especially
ones that were definitely either broken beyond
repair or like once we found them were kind of
missing parts or whatever. And thinking of ways
he can hide the fact that it's broken more than
actually repair this. Ah, okay. Maybe try to
like paint over it a little bit and see if it
could just look a little. smoother and filled
in than actually... Yeah, like a thick enough
coat of paint that it kind of fills the crack.
Okay, cool. Let's just make a dexterity check,
and we'll see how successful you are. That's
not too shabby. That's an 11. In low light in
here, it'll probably pass. Also, you don't think
that Ms. Rhinelander pays a lot of attention,
so being told that it's fixed will probably do
most of the work. Is its copy nearby? Yes. How,
like, looking similar, does it look passably
close? I mean, you're looking at it, so not really.
Gotcha. But if someone was giving it a quick
inspection, probably you'd get away with it.
As I'm working on it, which, yeah, I'm not doing
much, but I think taking a long time, does its
twin watch me? Oh, God. No, no, you can't say
that it does. Okay, that's good. Then, yeah,
I'll just kind of do that. And I think especially
kind of towards the end, once he's really not
just kind of like moving a brush back and forth
over like dryly is like distracted and looking
around the room at all these dolls in here and
just kind of, yeah, very, very. I think this
is unique among rooms he's been in before. Oh,
absolutely. Yeah, it's this is unsettling. Plus,
there's one dressing table that is pristine and
one that has a like radially shattered mirror.
as if something struck it with great force. Gotcha.
I think he'll see the mirror and really fight
against his instinct, but know that the proper
thing to do is... Miss Rhinelander, while I'm
here, would you like me to take a look at the
mirror? No, that's okay. Phew! It kind of broke itself,
so I wouldn't go near it. Can I, having... helped
raise a young boy who I'm sure tried to lie his
way out of having broken something before. Can I
roll insight to see if that is actually what
happened? Absolutely. Or if he believes that
that's actually what happened? Absolutely. Persuasion
or deception? 11. That's a 15 persuasion. He's
unsettled by the fact that he believes that a
mirror broke itself. Broke itself. Did it fall
when the door was kicked over? No. Did something
else happen to it? I just looked over and it
was broken. I think back and forth in this exchange,
he's going to glance occasionally at Edgewater
just to see if she's giving an affirming yes
or if this is just...or her vibe on the situation,
knowing it a little better. 100 % backing Ruby.
Cool. In that case, he'll just kind of fuddle
around until the start of the seance. How was
your father doing? If he's awake, I'd like to
say hello. Last night, he set his pillow on fire
in his coma, so. Oh. And also, oh, oh, also,
oh, good question. I found out from the doctor
that there's like some sort of barbiturate in
his blood, which means, I guess, like poison
flowers of some sort. He was not taking barbiturates
then. Medicinally, I mean. Oh, of course not.
I don't, I mean, he's been sick for like six
months. Six months. But no, I don't think so.
I don't know why he would take flowers or something
that would make him sick like that. And you said
he set his pillow on fire. Well, it was on the
ceiling above him. The pillow was on the ceiling
above him? No, no, no. There was a flare mark.
So fire kind of went up. And burst on the ceiling?
Yeah. Through the pillow? I don't know. The pillow
was like, it was like burning a little bit. Where
was that pillow normally situated in the room?
Probably under his head, I would assume. It was
one of the extra pillows, so it would have been
sort of off to one side of him. Yeah, it would
have been in his bed. While I'm at the crib,
can I look to see if both cribs have a pillow
in them? Make a perception check. Fuck. That's
a 21. Yes. Absolutely, both cribs have. pillows
in them they're cribs. I mean, I mean one of them
has one more than actually you'd think. One of
the dolls is holding a tiny like pillow from
it looks like a dollhouse. Wait. Sorry, the doll
is holding a pillow. Yeah. That's- Was it- A tiny,
a tiny um- This is the one I wasn't... This was
the other one. The fixed one. Or the healthy
one. Healthy's not what I meant and I really
don't like it. It's like a miniature pillow.
Something that would have come out of an appropriately
sized dollhouse. Does it have a scorch mark on
it? No. Okay. Because only one of them is holding
it, yeah? Yes. Did these have a dollhouse? Oh,
that pillow's new. That wasn't there last night.
No, I've never seen that doll holding that pillow.
Not that you noticed. Oh, not that I noticed.
Wait, not that you've noticed, what? The dollhouse
or the pillow? Oh, okay. But you said one of
them was holding the other. Oh yeah, I put them
in separate cribs and then I came back and they
were like cradling each other. Oh, this is what
you were asking about at Lady Gadwallows. Yeah.
Oh, I think, oh, that's the door. I think Lord
Drake's here. I'll be right back. Oh, we will
keep this door wide open because it doesn't close
so that there will be no question of... Or you
could step into the hallway. Oh, good idea. I
think that is a great idea. Yes, let's leave
this room. Are we close to Lord Rhinelander's
room? You would assume so. You've never been
up here, but yeah. Is the door open? That's a
good question. Would his door have been left
open? I think so. I don't think I'm good at closing
doors. Gotcha. Not the reasoning I expected,
but we'll go with it. And as we walk by, I'm
going to kind of... Salt's going to casually
kind of peer in to see if he can see the burn
mark or see what it looks like. Without breaking
the threshold of the door. Yeah, make another
perception check. Where are you going, Mr. Salt?
Where are you going? Oh, just making sure everything's
okay. In there? That's a six. I mean, yeah, there's
a scorch mark on the ceiling. It's kind of hard
to tell. exactly what caused it but yep definitely
a scorch mark on the ceiling. Edgewater is definitely
looking around his shoulder. Someone's looking
over someone's shoulder! ooooooh That's like a scooby
-doo? Yes, exactly. Around a door. Um yeah, no, it's
it's a scorch mark. It seems to be like a... one
singular gout of flame. And the pillows next to
lord Rhinelander? Those that are still remaining
there, look fine? Yeah. There's none missing?
Like there's not an obvious space where. there
is one missing? Right where another person would
lay next to him? Anything technically would be
beside his head. So yes, if you want to interpret
it that way, sure. Okay. It would be off to his
right side. Right. But there's just the one pillow
that's missing. Okay. Gotcha. Then I'll follow
downstairs. Lord Drake, it's so good for you
to have come. Miss Rhinelander, I appreciate
the invitation. Is this about what happened last
night? No, we're going to have a seance, and
I was hoping you could maybe look at the door.
I'm just here to fix the door. Thank goodness.
I did not want a repeat of last night. Oh, but
there is going to be a seance. But I don't have
to attend. I'm just here to fix the door. Oh,
all right. You don't have to attend if you don't
want to. Samuel will you make an insight check? 21.
Ruby is very sad that you don't want to attend
her seance. She's not very sad that my husband
fucking kissed me last night. You got some. She's
jealous. One thing I did want to ask Evan, I
forgot that award I found that was congratulating
Henry for rescuing Mr. Salt back during the military
days. Was that like a small like plaque with
a metal or is it something feasibly I could have
carried in like my coat here? Um, yeah, it was,
it was just a, um, basically an order of commendation.
So it was like, it was like a letter. Yeah. Perfect.
So I was bringing that because my assumption
is I'm still hopefully meeting Mr. Salt after
this. And I have three more invites in my pocket
as well. I apologize, Miss Rhinelander. Yesterday
was an emotional evening. I would be happy to
accept your invitation. That was very rude of
me to just deny you like that. I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to be rude or anything. Last night was a
lot for, I think, a lot of people. Yes, and I'm
forgetting you heard from your deceased mother.
Of course, that must have been just as pressing
on you. In whatever capacity you need me, I'll
be here. I did hear from my mom, I guess. But
also, that was wild when Belladonna kissed you.
Speaking of which, you got here at 9:31. You
were scheduled to show up at 9:33. So, Belladonna,
are you on time or are you late? Oh, I'm three
minutes late. For mystique. But I believe you
said it'll start at 10:03? Yes, 10:03. Oh,
it's already 9:35 and 55 seconds. She was due to
arrive at... Oh, the knock at the door! Knock,
knock, knock! Oh, that must be her. I'll wait
for somebody else to open the door. One of your
servants opens the door. You're presented. Hello,
my dear. Oh, Madame Belladonna, thank you so
much for making this call on such a short notice.
I knew that the spirits needed me to be here
tonight. May I introduce my spiritual guardian,
Nicka...P(unintelligible). Nico-Penis? Run that by me one more time. No, it
wasn't Nico-Penis. It was Nicka Beavis. With
a B, okay? Edgewater! Edgewater! Shocking! No.
Nicka... Nicodemus. Or as we call him, Beavis.
Nicodemus looks at you and just cocks one eyebrow.
I'm so sorry. I'm going to give him some money
after this because I panicked. And we'll come
up with a better fake name for the next one.
Don't worry, he won't be... Don't... Don't worry
about him. Ms. Clarence, do you need a moment?
She's upstairs. I'm not there yet. Oh, man. All
right. Are you crying? No, we're good. Let me
show you the way to the doll room. As you pass,
Samuel just gives you an awkward head nod of
just acknowledgement. Lord Drake? I am so moved
that the spirits have led you to join us this
evening. Just, Madame Belladonna, and he'll just
look down at the ground. Please, Madame Belladonna
was my mother. No need for formality among friends
here. As we walk up, I go, oh, and Miss Clarence
and Mr. Salt are here as well. Madam Belladonna.
Sir. Oh, good evening. It's lovely to see you
again, Madam Belladonna. You as well, my dear,
you as well. And Lord Drake, wonderful to see
you this evening. Miss Clarence, pleasant surprise.
Mr. Salt. Lord Drake, a pleasure to see you.
Fortuitous really is the theme for today. I couldn't
have said it better myself. Let me show you to
the room. Daniel, I see a tear trailing down
your cheek. I can't tell if you're crying or
if Ruby's fully lost it. No, it's Daniel. Oh,
man. It was the Nico-Penis that got me. I
didn't say penis. I didn't say penis. Bo said
penis. I didn't say it. I said Beavis. All right.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah, so this is the room
that I didn't know existed in my house until,
you know, a little while ago. There are dolls
on the wall. Indeed. This mirror broke itself,
I think. It was broken. Also, I don't want to
alarm everyone, but I have, there are dolls on
the wall, but I have awakened an ability to put
a doll face on my face. Okay. It is rather alarming.
Oh, you've seen this? Oh, yes. Do you want to
see it before or after? I think we should let
the spirits reveal themselves as they will. Of
course. And Mary Smith would like to make an
insight or perception check on Ruby to see if she
is okay. That'd be insight. Yeah, that'd be insight.
I think Salt is going to shuffle over to stand
close to Samuel, knowing how this went last time,
and just let him know someone's nearby. Meanwhile,
Nicodemus is laying out a cushion and a couple
of mismatched scented candles next to the cushion,
lighting them and stepping back. I got a 22.
How's Ruby doing? Ruby is, there is a deep and
utter confusion about who she is as a person
and what her purpose is. I think she's holding
it together, trying to hold it together and she's
trying to search for some answers. And she's
looking for it in her dolls. One might say some
cracks are starting to appear. Yeah. Oh, that's
very funny. You put a pillow there. My dad's
pillow exploded in fire last night while he was
in a coma. Messages reveal themselves in many
ways indeed. Mary's thinking to herself about
the version of Ruby that she met at the beginning
of the season. who was very confident, a bit,
you know, alternative maybe, maybe a bit dissatisfied,
but a pretty secure, confident person. You mean
the version from four days ago? Yeah, you know,
many moons ago, when we were all different people.
And she doesn't know any of these people super
well, except for, unfortunately, Edgewater. But
she's in this room. It's a weird double -mirror
doll spooky hellhole. And she's going to go forward
with the seance. But she's starting to suspect
that maybe this might be another one of those
a real ghost shows up situations. And she's really
glad she asked for extra money for this one.
Because otherwise she might have had to leave.
All right. So Nicodemus sets everything up. Belladonna
is wearing a very like basically full gauze.
Just like floaty, maximum layers again, but everything
is floaty gauze layers. You're dressed as a mummy
for Halloween. Yes, basically. Basically a very
fancy mummy. And she'll settle herself on the
cushion and invite everyone to settle around
her on the floor. They don't get cushions. And
she will kind of center herself and make eye
contact with Nick slash Beavis. Make sure that
he's ready. I'm assuming he's kind of stationed
at the door. He gives you the slightest of nods.
All right. She will have everyone hold hands.
This will be very similar to what we did last
night at the ball. I move Samuel to be as far
away from Madame Belladonna as possible. I was
going to say, if... he would... wait for the ladies
to take their seats first, but if there is room,
he would target to sit next to Edgewater for
a bit of comfort. Edgewater would try to be sitting
next to him too, so I think that would work out
pretty easily. She will say that the spirits,
when they reach out their hands, I think it would
be like Oooh from Edgewater. Please, contain yourselves.
Sorry. The outbursts might scare off the doll
spirits. Whatever else is in the room with us.
We're hoping to avoid that. It's unclear. I don't
presume to know the will of the spirits, Mr.
Salt. And Mary's normally she just gets in the
zone. But right now she's really skeeved out.
She's not really sure what's about to happen.
So she's just going to try and settle herself
and say, all right. Are there any requests for
messages? Yeah, if the dolls know who... Oh,
sorry. No, go ahead. Yeah, if they know who Rosamund
is or if they understand why they were cradling
each other in the cribs. Oh, wow. Okay. Or, yeah.
The pillow. Or why the pillow burst into flames.
The exploding pillow, yes. Burst into flames.
Okay. Oh, maybe about the third brother thing?
Oh, yeah, if they know what this symbol looks
like and I cast silent image and you see the
circle with the three bursts. Yeah, or if they
know what this is. Does Salt recognize the symbol?
You would have no reason to. Well, that is a
lot on the agenda. Sweet, sweet Ruby. Belladonna?
Yes, Lord Drake? If my husband does return, can
you focus on the third son? I will try to do
so. Miss Clarence? Oh, um, I mean, I'm pretty
good. If my mom shows up, just, I mean, hi. Good
to see you. Just a hi, quick hi. Yeah. I can
absolutely, yes. We all have those that we would
like to say a quick hi to in the beyond. Mr.
Salt? I'm all set. The dead have plenty of ways
to talk to you, and I find it best not to respond,
but thank you for the offer. It's very spiritual.
I would not have assumed your spiritual prowess,
but that is good to know that I have a fellow
seer in the room. My eyes get gigantic. Do you
still have the Coke bottles on? Yeah, the Coke
bottles are on. Yeah, absolutely. With your gigantic
lenses, you can see Nicodemus sort of behind
the circle sort of looking at you with a, are
we upping the juice? For audience purposes, it
was like a little juice. Just a little. Some
pulp. Nicodemus kind of like... he unbuttons the
top button. He's kind of like cracking his neck
like, okay, you want a little juice? Just a little.
Yeah, basically whatever our personal version
of thieves cant is, I'm like, just a little. Just
a little. a little juice. 'Cause otherwise I'm
going to freak. I'm going to get scared. So a
little juice. All right, cool. So I'll, I'll
start my, uh, uh, process. We'll have, you know,
the, the lights will dim. The candles will flicker
and I will, uh, cast a really hesitant side eye
at the, at the dolls, I guess, to, to kick us
off to see if I'm inspired by any, if they do
anything. They don't seem to be doing anything
right now. Thank God. All right. Just a normal
scam as usual. Let's do it. All right. I will
lead us all in a deep breath, and then I will
cast my eyes up to the heavens. I'll say, oh,
yes, we are no longer alone. Except, I mean,
the dolls were here before, but again, more so
now. We are no longer alone. Who else is here?
Someone with a... A name that begins with R.
I don't... It's so hard to make it out through
the mystic fog. What could the name be? Something
with an... Roz? Roz? Roz? Rosamund? Rosamund.
Yes. Yes. The name that you had sought in the
ether. It is coming to me. And it is... Oh. Oh
my god. The mystic whispers. They're whispering.
Rosamund. Rosamund. Fire. Oh, fire. I'm seeing
flames all around in a comforting way. And it's
feeling maternal fire. It's really comforting.
It's so powerful. So few words coming through,
but the feeling is so strong. So strong, Ruby.
Almost as if your fire is being reflected through
a ruby itself. Oh, so... She's here. What message
would you like to speak to Rosamund? Who are
you? Oh, she says, my name is Rosamund. Oh, it's
so clear now. It's so clear. Hey, Ruby. Yeah.
Can you throw me a wisdom saving throw? Sorry.
That's a natural 20. Okay. Good? You feel that
tangling sensation, but it subsides. That's tangling.
That tangling sensation. As soon as I feel the
sensation, I think my mask fades over my face
without me thinking. All right, let's do it.
That's the one. That's it. And you all see a
porcelain doll mask with cuts in it. There it
is. Cuts or cracks? It's appearing on the text
feed. It is cuts and cracks, and it's discolored,
and it looks dirty. They're seeing it. Yeah,
it's going to be bad. Is that blood? No, it's
paint, clearly. Clearly paint. Wow, Ruby. Yeah,
there it is. Oh, and those eyes are just black
voids. Whoever is sitting next to Salt in their
circles, I apologize, but your hands are like
crushed as they tighten as this thing pops up
and he's like, ha! I think the two fighters are
just like, at attention. Get me the fuck out of here.
Oh, okay. Wow. You truly are... the spirits have
gifted you. That is beyond even my gaze. What
should I look for next? Ooh, boy. Can I do an
insight check or something? That voice is not
right. Oh, boy. It's not Ruby's voice. Did the
mouth move? No. Oh. Okay. I'm going to try to
do some sort of persuasion check to get Ruby
to come back. Okay. Cool. Ruby? Ruby, are you
all right? Yeah. Rosamund, I cast thee into a
peaceful other place. Okay, you're going to have
to make another wisdom save. Far away from here. Five.
Okay, the tingling sensation does return as a
version of Ruby exits her own body in a spectral
fashion. It is Ruby, and yet it is not Ruby.
It is Ruby, but with scars and wrinkles and greater
age. It is like if Ruby had suffered instead
of living the life of the daughter of a noble.
And this... Spectral Ruby emerges and then rushes
right at Belladonna, only to evaporate as she
touches her. Ruby! What? We all saw that? Oh,
everybody saw that. That was a thing that occurred.
A translucent, angry, curvy, tortured halfling
woman just popped out and went, blah! Madame Madonna,
are you all right? It is... Do you still have
your mask up? I think my mask would fade after
that, I think. Yeah. I'm going to look at Ruby
again and cast Detect Magic on her. Nice. Okay.
Make an insight check. That is a dirty 20. Twisted
20. Twisted 20. All right. You have called on
this ability not a lot in your past, but there
have been times where you just thought it necessary.
And the information is still hard for you to
exactly decipher. But what you're seeing right
now is there's definitely magic. It's not in
Ruby. It's... next to Ruby. It is like if someone
took Ruby and took a photo of her and it was a just
slight after image, just like a little, like
a quarter second to the left. That there's like
a little bit of an extra aura just tacked on,
one hand on her shoulder. Just a little touch
behind her. I think Mary is having a moment of
realizing that she may be in over her head. And
she is worried about Ruby. She knows some things
about magic. She has some magic herself that
she uses occasionally, but mostly to evade notice
and, you know, lie to people, or whatever. So I
think that you are looking at Belladonna and
her, you know, very dark eyes and her, you know,
raven hair and very kind of mystically va -va
-voom look, you know. Big ol' eyes. And you see
her face kind of almost soften and she says,
you have something on you. Some spirit. Some
magic. I don't know what it is. But it is on
your shoulder. She did develop powers six months
ago. Fuck you all. That's so weird. That's when
my husband died. Oh my god. I don't have more
answers for you than that right now. What do
you mean the magic is... On her shoulder. It's
in her. She just showed you. Some of it, maybe.
But most of what I am seeing is just, just outside
of her. Is that how magic works? It just sort
of hangs out next to you until it's ready to
go in you? It varies. I don't know. I'm not an
expert. I am an expert. I, yes, know many things
of the unseen. Belladonna. Yep. In your expertise,
would this be considered a haunting? Yes. Can
I look into the crib and see if the dolls have
moved or done anything? Absolutely. No, they're
still just kind of chilling out. With the pillow?
Yeah. Can I turn around over my shoulder and
look into the mirror in the room? The cracked
one, of course. Is anybody looking over me? Okay,
so you're looking at the mirror. Sorry, I'm turning
over and I'm just looking in the mirror to see
if I see a reflection of anybody but who's sitting
in this room. And your mask has faded. Yeah.
You turn and look and you and only you, there's
no one behind you, but... Half of your mask is
there. And this time it's smiling. Just half.
Long symmetry. So the left half of your face
is covered in that mask and it smiles at you.
And then returns to its normal demeanor and fades
from the image. I turn around and I just look
at everybody nodding. Are you okay, Miss Rhinelander?
My mask smiled at me in my mirror. I can't lie
about that. Wait, what? Salt's going to stand
up, and I think he looks a little taller than
usual, standing a little straighter than people
have normally seen him, and he's just going to
go over and take the mirror and face it down.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Salt. I think that was appropriate.
Of course. All right. Well, thank you, everyone.
I think that was a successful seance. If you
want to fix the door very quickly, as I'm sure
you can do, or I can hire somebody else, Lord
Drake. Madame Belladonna, was that everything?
Or do you want to leave us with any parting words?
Yes, indeed. One moment while I commune with
the spirits and I... look over at Nicodemus.
He just looks at you with fairly wide eyes, just
shaking his head like, we don't want any of this.
No, I think that is it from the spirits tonight,
but I have a feeling that they are not done with
us. Okay. That's great. Good night, everybody.
Good night. Here's your money. Thank you. Yes,
my child, my child. Thank you. Yes, this will...
further the spirits and my work with the poor?
Were you asking us that? Oh, the spirits just
were, you know, chatting in my ear. I got distracted.
All right. Well, if anybody else knows anything
about, you know, poisons or Rosamund, the name
Rosamund, or if, you know, you find anything
else about, like, the sons, the three sons, let
me know. This was great. So thankful for all
of you. The third son. Yeah, thank you. Thanks
so much for coming over. This was a great time.
Yes. I'm going to, before I... gather my various
scented candles and knickknacks and cushy pillows
and whatnot. No, it's Nicodemus. Oh, yeah. He'll
do that for me. But while I wait for him to collect...
No, not knickknack. Oh, yeah. Oh. See, I was
thinking of him as Beavis. I was in character.
While he's collecting all the knickknack -edemuses,
whatever, I'm going to do a surface level detect
thoughts to see if... Who else? Because I'm a
little spooked. And obviously there's people
in the room. But there's also a lot of dolls.
And I want to see if there's any other spirit
kind of actually in the room. Okay. Interesting.
But I don't really want it to be part of the
seance because that would be too scary. Make
an insight check against your own spell DC. Yeah.
There's definitely one extra brain in here, but
it's not clear. It's kind of like you're getting
it kind of badly tuned. Yeah. So it's kind of
like... And it's not giving you a lot to work
with. Kind of relieved. Belladonna, Nico Beavis,
I'll escort you out. I think they're going to
need a moment to themselves. Thank you. I can
take a crack at the door while I'm here. I looked
at it on my way in. I don't think carpentry is
needed. I think it just needs to be new hinges.
You might just need to purchase those, Miss Rhinelander.
Oh, yeah, of course. I'll go purchase them tomorrow.
Or I'll send somebody to purchase them. I'm going
to stay with you tonight, Ruby. I don't think
you should be alone. Perhaps we can call on my
other friend, Miss Smith. Perhaps she would come
and stay to be our chaperone. She often comes
to chaperone me, and she's very delightful. She
sounds like a responsible young lady. Oh, Madame
Belladonna, you're still here. Yes, I think she
quite is. I'm exhausted by channeling the spirits,
and I have to go immediately. Wish I could stay
longer, but I must, I simply must go. All right.
Thank you. Have a good evening. Nick and I skedaddle.
All right. Skedaddling occurs? Yep. Okay. We're
going to do a little bit of fast forwarding,
quick other conversations with Ruby and Edgewater
or Samuel and Ruby and Edgewater or what are
we doing? Not tonight. I was going to call in
that favor. Ruby owes me, but she's had enough
tonight. What are you talking about? No, I think
as soon as that is over, Ruby goes back to herself,
perfectly fine self, as you guys know it. And
she's like, oh, yeah, we can go have some cocktails
or something, drink some alcohol. Yeah, of course.
We can go to the sitting room and have some sherry.
Yeah, sherry. Mr. Salt, won't you join us? Salt
will look to Samuel and kind of look to kind
of gauge him and be like, I'd be happy to stay
unless Lord Drake, if you were to retire and
wanted company for your walk home, I'd be glad
to escort you back to Affle House. Oh, point
of correction. Affle House is my manor outside
the city. Ah, my mistake. Good memory. You don't
see them in the city a lot. God, this has been
an episode. I think it's like the measuring of
both. He's just like, really want to talk to
you one -on -one. But he's like, I think I trust
these people enough. He's like, um. Perhaps we
could just chaperone these two while we wait
for Miss Smith to join us. That would be wonderful.
Thank you. If you don't mind, Ruby, I'll check
in with your butler to get that message out to
Miss Smith. Yeah, that would be great. Thank
you. We could still have a word. I'd be happy
to. Thank you. How quickly would it take for
them to send a word? Oh, there's like... If you
ran straight home, you would get home just ahead
of the letter. Okay, yeah, then I'm sprinting
and stripping at the same time. Nick's right
behind me, catching all my layers as I take them
off. I'm like, that was really fucked up, wasn't
it? I'm really glad you didn't channel any real
spirits that time, because I think I might have
seen one. It was really scary. Seriously. Keep
up. You fucking think I was going to do that
when we saw exactly what that room looked like?
Fuck that. Fuck that. I know. It was horrible.
I hated that. Rich people are goddamn weird.
I know. I'm glad we got extra money for that,
but it was too scary and I don't want to do it
again. Let's go on sabbatical. Just take a week.
Go zero juice for a little while. I think we
got to go zero juice for a little bit. Juice
cleanse. Yeah, okay. Juice cleanse. Juice cleanse.
And then I'll very casually be like. you know
in my room uh waiting waiting for correspondence.
Oh you're up here. In fact I was looking for... you
weren't here- yeah in the bathroom- you got a summons from your
sort of cousin. Oh right yeah my sort of cousin
slash sort of friend Edgewater. Oh well friend?
Yeah I know friend is a strong strong word for
it but It's developing in that way. I'm glad
to see you have an age -appropriate friend here.
Yeah, I know. I know, Trudy. You've been on that
for a while, haven't you? It would make my life
less sad to have an age -appropriate friend,
but, you know, I'm busy. So, yeah. Ouch. Yeah.
Oh, well, I mean, never too busy for you. You
know that. You do what you got to do. I'm going
back to bed. Okay. You go sleep. Bye. And then
I run back. So I get back to the house. I'm so
tired. Oh, man. Okay. We're going to have a Drake
and Salt conversation. Where would we go to be
scarce? That's a problem. I did kind of offer
us up as chaperone. So maybe we do what my butler
does. Outside the door, inattentively chaperoning
these two. Just kind of whispering to each other.
Mr. Salt, a couple things. You, again, kind of
in a more hushed voice than this, but something
you said last night really sparked something
in me. You gave that tactical assessment in how
we're surrounded. You're right. And I think a
trap is about to be sprung. I would prefer it
get sprung on my terms. That's a wise man. He will
pull out the last invitation he had with him.
Will hand it to you. If you open that up, it's
an invitation to the ball. Specifically for you.
And I will get you two more. Choose two more
of your staff to attend. Masquerade. No working.
Relaxation. I'm pushing the envelope, so to speak.
And quite literally. Also, how often... Do you
happen to run into staff of other families? Not
infrequently. I'll see them picking up stores
a few more frequently than I'd like. But yeah,
every now and then. Over the next few days, can
you get the word out to as many of them as possible
that the most senior of the staff can pick two
additional. And once they have a list of who's
coming, I will get invites out to you to pass
on to them discreetly. I would be happy to. Is
there... Any amount of this that should be shared
or should not be shared with the invitees? The
rest of the ton will know that they are coming
to a masquerade ball. Somehow, the guest list
will be larger than they expect. Very good, sir.
You might have also noticed, if you do open that
up in the details. Yeah, he'll open it. Scan
it over. I understand, unfortunately, the wages
you all make don't allow you frivolous purchases.
I will be providing outfits en masse for those
who cannot afford it themselves. I will pass
the word along. I'm quite excited. Strangely
more excited that it was prefaced that this is
in fact a trap for who I don't know, but I'll
be happy to attend, Lord Drake. That brings me
to my second point, and he'll pull out another
envelope. I happened to find this in my husband's
effects. I'll take it and look it over. I think
he recognizes the form of it quite quickly. And
I think kind of smiles as he reads it. I understood
you knew my husband. I didn't realize how close
you two were. I knew Henry quite well. I didn't
want to start quite so heavy when we met some
days ago but yeah it was my- he kind of gestures
to the letters- it was my last deployment by necessity
more than choice. At the time Ensign Drake had
been assigned to me we had been told there were
bandits robbing warehouses. A nothing gig with
no consequence but a good time to train the new
guy. And so he shadowed me. We watched and we
waited. And one night we got very lucky. Saw
them walk in and followed them behind. Got up
on them without being noticed. And I dropped
the thief quickly. I didn't notice that tucked
into his cloak he had a psymac crystal the size
of a tangerine. And he held it up, charged it
up with some lightning or something, and blew
the warehouse to high hell. And if Henry hadn't
tackled me out the window and he kind of gestures
to his shoulder, he goes... I'd be doing a lot worse
than I am today. Your husband's the reason I live
to bride another day. Like a long low whistle
of just like thinking for a second and then he
looks at you. My husband was a great man. I'm glad
you got to know him that was a debt you owe him
and you owe me nothing, but you've shown me a
kindness since I've been here. When I spring
this trap, you are under no obligation, but if
somebody needs to toss me out a window, I would
prefer it be you. I may not owe you a favor,
but I do think I owe you something. If you wouldn't
mind coming by mine on your way out tonight,
I have something for you. Of course. And then
we turn back to the ladies in the room. That's
quite a bit of sherry. So what are you going
to wear to the masquerade? Ruby, are you all
right? No, I don't think so. Okay. I don't know
what's happened. I don't know if my dad was poisoned.
I don't know why the dolls are moving by themselves.
I can now summon a mask, and there's somebody
watching over my shoulder. Who could have poisoned
your father? I mean, I don't know. Who was near
him? I mean, anybody who works in this house.
That's true. And me. But I didn't do it. When
was he poisoned? It would have been before the
doctor arrived. Probably. Well, it would have
to because otherwise it wouldn't be in the blood,
right? Unless it's already been in his system
for a while. Well, yeah. Sure. We don't know
how long. True. Could have been anyone at the
ball-or the garden party. I mean, I do have a
list of people for... Explosives. Oh, with a
pillow? Yeah. You think it was an explosive pillow?
I don't know, but why would my dad be targeted?
Do you think the dolls are doing it? I'm... I
think that before this evening, I would have
said perhaps not, but now I'm not so sure. It
could be the dolls, I suppose. Why do they want
to blow up your father's head? Or it's something
that he knows, somebody else, that they don't
want him. Something that he knows. They have
to blow it out of his brains. Oh, my God. Yeah.
There's a slight clatter from outside the door.
I don't know. I just don't know. There's a lot
going on, and there seem to be some threads that
are having me concerned. I'm not the best at
connecting things. What about that man who came
with the business paperwork? Yeah, what about
it? Could he have poisoned your father? I guess
so. He tried to hand me some paperwork, but I
couldn't read it. He said it was in common, but
it was like in sigils or something. It was in
gibberish. What? Yeah, I couldn't read any of
it. It was like all in... He said, oh, sign here.
And I said, where should I sign it? This isn't
common. That's very unusual. I've never heard
of that before. No, me neither. Maybe I should
call upon him again and say, get me those business
documents. That's a good idea. Very forceful.
I like it. Um, Ruby, what about this Lord? No,
I'm sorry. Mr. Weller. What about him? Has he
been here to the house? No, I don't think so.
Oh, that's good. Then he's definitely not a suspect.
No worries. Has he? You haven't received him?
No. Were the gifts hand -delivered or were they
found? The gifts were delivered by a footman.
Okay. No, he hasn't been here. Okay. Well, we
can scratch him off the list then. Yeah, no,
he's great. Yeah, no, he's not a suspect. He's
totally okay and probably, you know, the love
of my life. Wow. Yeah. You should have seen him
jump down off the balcony. I probably should
have seen him. I should have been there as a
chaperone, but yes, jumping off a balcony. Yeah,
descending down the fabrics. This is quite the
show. Dancing with me, holding me up. And at
this point in time, Mary Smith arrives. Thank
you. I just got your message. Miss Smith are you quite- Do you need a
chaperone? Yes. No, I just hurried. It's so fast. You are
so kind, Miss Smith. Every time anyone calls
you to be a chaperone, you are right there. I
am right there. Ruby, Miss Smith is so kind.
She has chaperoned each of the times that I've
gone to see Lord Drake. You are so kind. How
are you doing? I'm doing, you know, I don't know.
Some weird shit's happening, to be fully honest
with you, in this house. Oh. My dad's in a coma,
but you know, I can explain later. It's weird.
A lot of weird magics are happening. But yeah,
thank you for coming here. Weird magics? Yeah,
I don't know. Do you know anything about magics
or poison flowers? Or this, this, I cast silent
image again, or this image of, or anything about
the three sons or anything about that? Or the
boots, the boots. Or the boots. Wow, there is
a list. Yes. My gosh. At this point in time,
with Mary Smith's arrival, you two are no longer
needed as chaperones. Miss Clarence, Miss Smith,
thank you for having us, Miss Rhinelander. Of
course. Good evening. I'll repeat the pleasantries.
Does Salt see the image of the boots? If they're
up there, yeah. Does he recognize them? I think
we've kind of settled that they're military boots.
Oh yeah, they're definitely a military issue.
Are they befitting of a rank? The individual
ranks don't have individual boots. Gotcha. They
are clearly maintained in a way that a common
infantryman would not have the luxury of doing
so. Gotcha. So probably at least some kind of
an officer. Gotcha. Then I guess, yeah, as he's
taking his leave and sees this, I was always
jealous of boots like that. My officers always
wore them. Good evening, Miss Rhinelander. Wait.
Mr. Salt? You actually, in your rank, did have
to maintain your boots to that standard once
you got your official rank. Gotcha. Then if he
had them... I always hated those boots. I always
had to maintain them. It was such a pain. Wait,
are those your boots? Oh, no, I could never keep
mine quite that clean. It's certainly not anymore.
No, they're officers' boots. They're a standard
issue for anyone of a rank. Officers in the military.
All right. A military conspiracy. A military
conspiracy? A military conspiracy? Well, good
evening, everyone. I don't know much about that.
Those boots are meant for walking and not much
else. And that's just what we'll do. And we'll
turn, lock arm in arm, and get the fuck out of
there. Oh, my God. Oh, God. All right. So other
than an info dump, is there anything happening
with Ruby and Edgewater and Mary? I don't think
so. I think I want to just, as I come back in
their kind of... talking about the seance and
what's been going on and everything if I can
I don't know I feel like I want to do some sort
of check to see if like I'm remembering anything
about like understanding that I have of like
my own magic or of like other magic that I've seen
because I'm like this is very new for like this
this type of like magical experience to be happening
for me and like If I can remember anything about
what this might be or what might be happening
in the house. Okay, make an Arcana check. It's
a 15. Okay, a couple things strike you. For one,
honestly, Ruby is being pretty fucking free and
easy with that illusion magic she's doing. And
it's detailed to a point where it isn't a low
-end little throwaway cantrip. Yeah. Either she's
a lot more powerful than she's told anyone or
she doesn't work by the same rules that you do.
Okay. And the way she's been talking about it,
she's gifted like you are. Yeah. But apparently
the rules don't seem to work the same for her.
Yeah. You've always had a weird kind of interaction
with magic. By its very nature, magic sometimes
kind of falls apart on you. And you don't know
if that's what happened to the image or not when
it rushed you. Yeah. But this definitely feels
like it is not anything related to your sort
of natural gift. There is another force here.
Okay. I don't know if this would be a separate
check or anything, but in all the people I know
in the ton, is there anyone who's particularly
well -known for being very gifted in magic? Interesting.
Most of those people tend to go into more of
the academics. But you do know there are a number
of different flavors of magical ability. Both
the Gearboxes and Gammablooms do a lot of item
magic. So whether that be artifice, alchemy,
anything like that, their magic is usually tied
into objects. Similarly, though they are technically
sort of medical benefactors, Agatha Blood and
to a lesser extent her eldest daughter Vivian
are gifted in the manipulation of life force.
There are some others that have minor gifted
abilities, but those are your like the three
major families who do a lot in that world. But
none of it really strikes me as like. Being more
similar to what Ruby's doing than what I do.
No, it's actually almost the other end in a lot
of ways. A lot of that is very studied, very
precise, nigh on scientific magic. Yeah. This
is drifting into the world of pulling power from
something else. Yeah. Your power is kind of contained
in you for better or worse. Especially seeing
that other... aura slightly offside it feels
like there's either a devotion, an agreement, or
a tethering that is somehow affecting Ruby's
powers. All right I will probably mostly be keeping
that to myself but more and more Mary's starting
to like worry that she may tragically have an
ethical responsibility to be honest with someone,
which is counter to everything that she stands
for, but she's starting to think about it. Okay,
and we're going to do Salt and Drake having their
final conversation, and then we're going to wrap
for the night. Then I'll kind of lead over to
the seltzers and invite you in. Thank you. If
you'd like, you can wait here. Is anyone else
up or around? I would introduce them to you. Oh,
no, it's a little on the late side. It's a down
evening for social obligations, so it's a fairly
quiet night at home. Gotcha. In that case, if
everyone else is kind of asleep, I think I'll
maybe bring you over to the little training warehouse
shack separate from the house. It's not much,
but if you'll wait here just a second, then I'll
run up to his room. Grab the letters and then
come back down. And first I'll hand you an open
letter. I got this some time ago. It is a letter
from Henry that reads, Hope you are keeping well,
old friend. Some big news will be arriving with
me when I next return. I presume that that was
you. Should you not hear it sooner, please hold
on to this for me. I have to test a theory. I
will come for it later. And he produces the sealed
envelope. I haven't opened it yet. felt strange
to do, but I didn't want this to be the first
introduction to life in Neo -Britannia, but if
you'd like to. Would you mind being here with
me? Of course not. A quick swipe of the claw
to open the seal. Is it a letter? No, it's the
exact same marriage certificate you signed earlier.
Yes! What the fuck? I am so sorry, my lord.
Had I known, I would have filed it promptly.
This solves so many problems. Thank you, Mr.
Salt. If you don't mind me being a bit forward,
what might he have been testing? This was supposed
to have gone out with a certain second lieutenant,
and it never arrived where it was supposed to.
Yours... arrived exactly where he wanted it to
be. I think I know who might be laying a trap.
And with that ever so subtle revelation, we're
going to close for this evening. And we're going
to pick up tomorrow and it's going to be, you
all had a late night, so there's going to be
some sleeping in. We're going to jump right to
the Carnival of Progress. And... Thank you all
for listening, and we'll catch you on the next
one. Bye. Who or what is haunting Ruby? Will
Edgewater officially get her own room at Rhinelander
Estate? Will our protagonists ever find out that
Madame Belladonna is actually Mary? Is Salt now
missing the relative quiet of his military days?
Will Samuel finally be free of Mr. Rubbleroy
now that he has the marriage certificate? The
questions are endless, but we must find some
answers on the next episode of Scandals and Scavengers.
Thank you for listening to Scandals and Scavengers,
a post -apocalyptic Regency romance with Daniel
Began as Ruby Grace Rhinelander, MattstheLast
as Lord Samuel Drake, Johnny McEIearney as Second
Lieutenant Immortan Salt, Emily Carmen Welden
as Mary Smith, Bo Powell as Edgewater Clarence,
and Evan Kelly as the Game Master. Produced by
Evan Kelly, Trope Warden, Bo Powell. Hey, this
is Daniel. Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying
what you're hearing, consider supporting us on
Patreon, where we release episodes early, and
you'll get access to our post -show cast discussions,
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