Critical Role - Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace

Episode Date: August 5, 2019

Pick up the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set for a cosmic horror adventure of your own and use the code CriticalRole at check out for 10% off your entire order: http://critrole.com/cthulhuBrought to you by our friends at Chaosium, this special Call of Cthulhu one-shot features Keeper of Arcane Lore Taliesin Jaffe guiding investigators Marisha Ray, Erika Ishii, Phil LaMarr, Travis Willingham, Ashly Burch, and Liam O'Brien through a horrifying adventure.

Greetings, investigators. You're listening to Call of Cthulhu, Shadow of the Crystal Palace, on the Critical Role Podcast Network. I am Taliesin Jaffe, your Keeper of Arcane Lore, for this special one-shot episode, brought to you by our friends at Chaosium. You can watch Critical Role live on Thursdays at 7pm Pacific at twitch.tv slash criticalrole, and find all the information needed to discern when more special one-shots can be viewed at criticalrole.m. Pacific at twitch.tv slash Critical Role, and find all the information needed to discern when more special one-shots can be viewed at criticalrole.com. And now, let's begin. Good evening, children, and welcome to Call of Cthulhu, Shadow of the Crystal Palace. We'll be getting into that vibe in a little bit. In the meantime, I'm Taliesin Chaffee. I'm your keeper for the evening. This is possibly your first time watching this game

or playing it, and it's almost mine, too. It's certainly my first time running it, so be gentle. I'm really excited to run this game. It's gonna be an awful lot of fun. This one shot has been developed with our friends at chaos iam. There are the people who make call of Cthulhu. It's a Fun game. It's a very different vibe from your normal Dungeons & Dragons and I'm looking forward to showing you what you can do with it For those of you who don't know call of Cthulhu is the classic horror role-playing game where players take on the role of journalists academics

detectives, any of the kind of pulp adventuring archetypes to investigate terrors of all sorts. We'll have a special one tonight. Our story tonight has a soft connection, do I have it somewhere here? I believe I put it here. All the way over here. To their new Call of Cthulhu starter set,

which is the perfect gateway product for anyone interested in Cthulhu, but not sure where to start. When they threw this at us, they were asking if we wanted to run it, and then we were of the opinion that we didn't want to spoil it for you. So this game is a subtle prequel that you can either incorporate into your version

of the game or ignore and do something else interesting. Either way, depends on how things go. I have no idea. The starter set gives you basic rules and some starter adventures and ready to play game characters and some usable dice and prop handouts. We'll be talking about prop handouts in a minute. And you can go pick up the starter set right now and use the code CRITICALROLL when you check out to get 10% off your entire order. Go to critroll.com slash Cthulhu, and I will spell that for the uninitiated, C-T-H-U-L-H-U. Right now to check it out. And don't forget to use the code word when you check out.

I have a lovely collection of investigators before me. I don't know if you can see them yet. Including everyone from our own Marisha Ray, Erica Ishii, Phil Lamar, Travis Willingham, Ashley Birch, and Sam Riegel, who are joining us. I'll allow you just that. I just got the one out. It's the other one. Oh, Liam O'Brien will be joining us.

Hello, darling. Hello. I'm so happy everyone dressed up. Part of the fun of this game, and I'm going to lay out a little bit of what I like about this game before we start playing so that people know what to expect, is that it's a little less heroic than what you're used to in Dungeons & Dragons. It's a little less of the killing of dragons

and a little bit more of running for your bloody life. Poor Travis. I picked you especially for this. It's also a very prop-heavy game, and I've gotten to develop a whole bunch of really exciting and interesting props that none of these players are ever going to find. Because they're going to just go completely off the rails. I love prop comedy. This is the absence of prop comedy. I love prop comedy. This is

the absence of prop comedy. I don't know what that is. Rule of threes. Or the rule of threes. With disadvantage. A couple other things. What else do I want to cover? There will be some interesting props, hopefully, that we'll get to show off

and how that relates to the game and makes the game a lot of fun. I also want to just put out for anybody who is interested in this genre, I'm a big fan of cosmic horror. I love cosmic horror. One of my favorite memories was walking home from the movie In the Mouth of Madness,

which if you've never seen, the idea of walking home in a mist without another living human being there. What the hell? Nearly gave me a heart attack. Oh my god. So good. And the high wire balancing act between the scale and fragility of the human experience

set against a hostile world has always been my adrenaline candy. And before we begin, it's worth noting that the man behind the name most associated with this genre was a problematic mess even by the standards of his time. But it is a big genre with lots of big things happening in it right now and many voices doing really important work that is going to be heavy

and terrifying and great. And I'm excited to show what you can do with these tools so that you can join the nightmare choir of the Neverliving, and maybe make the story a little less about him, and a little bit about you, and what scares you. It's gonna be fun. So, I suppose unless anybody else has anything

they wanna say before we begin. Can I leave? Can I be excused? I've hidden your keys. Your wife knows to lock the door. She wished me goodbye, just to go and text her, you know what it meant? It was certainly someone who looked like her.

It could have been anybody. Don't do this, Taliesin, why are you doing this? I love you all. I'm getting it out of my system now, because we're gonna start late. Are you? Are you getting out of your system or are you just gonna start?

I'm getting a taste for it. It's like tasting human flesh. This is just a warmup. Right. Without further ado, my wonderful investigators, I will be your keeper tonight, and we will be having a Critical Role journey into Call of Cthulhu and a little story I have called

Shadow of the Crystal Palace. Thank you. LSp4 2.70 © BF-WATCH TV 2021 It was a lovely October evening. It's a beautiful night, and all of you have elected, for reasons that are going to become obvious, to attend the first meeting of the year of the National Cat Club at the Crystal Palace. The National Cat Club is very trendy, but it is open to an awful lot of different social standings, so it tends to be a bit of a mix. People are titled and fluent there, but plenty of you have enough social capital to go in, and all of you have cats entered in the cat show. The cat show opens to the public in 15 days, but in the meantime, they were just going over some new business, old business, and otherwise.

Jonathan Lansky, the minute keeper for the Cat Club, is going over some of the news of the day. Mr. Harrison Weir has resigned his seat as judge for this year's Catshow, an institution founded by Mr. Weir himself more than 20 years ago. If we count rabbits, pigeons, poultry, and other domesticated creatures, Mr. Harrison Weir has spent over 40 years as a fancier judge. In a letter to Poultry Magazine,

he has explained that he has given up his cat show judgeship due to some differences between the manager and himself regarding classes and schedules of prizes. Mr. Weir considered that out of fairness to exhibitors who incur so much expense and risk in forwarding their pets to these shows. The number of classes should be increased. His judgeship on the fruit committee of the Royal Agricultural Society

is the only position of this kind of which Mr. Weir means to retain. It is necessary in this company to say that cat lovers and cat exhibitors across the country regret Mr. Weir's decision. With over 600 breathes to be displayed, as this remarkable speech moves forward, all of you feel a tap on the shoulder to a young man, well-dressed, with bushy blonde hair, that many of you recognize as Mr. Rupert Merriweather, to a young man, well-dressed, with bushy blonde hair, that many of you recognize as Mr. Rupert Merriweather, as he slowly pulls you into a side room to meet him just off the corridor.

I imagine no one really wants to stay to hear the end of this speech. I do, I'm going to be here for the next four hours. Okay, just, I have a recording you can put on there. I'll be right back. I have four pages of it. Have we already parted with our own personal cats at this point?

Oh yes, they are already being housed at the exhibit. Oh, what a shame. Mm-hmm. He motions for all of you to go meet him in this side room. Can I say for the record that my cat is actually just a rat that I attached cat ears to? A very large rat. You might have been able to get away with it,

to be magnificently frank. You would. It's so exotic. There must be a new species, I'm not sure. Siamese just became very popular in recent years, so they really, I mean, like, anything is game. They're like those hairless Egyptians, you know? Not sure.

Love every minute of this. You are taken aside into a small, what just appears to be a sitting room, an adjunct office to this main room that they're having the meeting in. We are all together. All together, all six of you. And Mr. Meriwether.

Well, I am just pleased as punch. All of you who were willing to go through with this, what could be a slightly dangerous and definitely mildly criminal forwarding. None of you, I assume, know each other. I'm almost certain none of you have ever met. So for the sake of introductions, let me begin. As most of you know, I am Mr. Meriwether.

I'm funding this project. All of you have agreed to terms and stipulations of what's coming forward, and many things have already been put in motion. Now, I am hoping to retrieve a small casket, which several of you have a reasonable description of, from the Crystal Palace outside us. Now, of course, normally, on a normal day, the Crystal Palace, which is a huge building,

would be open to the public and bristling with people, but thanks to the evening and the fact that all of you had cats that we could enter into this show, we may be able to walk around unencumbered tonight. There's minimal security, as long as you don't go into the upper floors and stay only into the wing that is currently closed off

due to the cat show. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out where they're unpacking and unboxing things. Somewhere amongst all of that, our friend, Dr. Pocket, here has moved the casket in question into the Crystal Palace. We will be able, sadly we don't know where in the exhibit it's currently being stored.

We weren't capable of having that much control over the situation. So Dr. Pocket has been in contact with the casket and knows its parents already? Sadly, as far as I understand, Dr. Pocket simply did the paperwork. Oh, I misunderstood. I was not in possession of the casket,

as neither has been Mr. Meriwether. Don't you have details? Bills of lading, mostly. Okay, what's in it? Well, that is a question, isn't it? It is approximately two feet long, about another third meter high, and it's,

you guys use meters, that's right, I have to keep remembering. And it is apparently some, possibly Egyptian in derivative, we're not really entirely sure, but it is classified as Egyptian, as an Egyptian antiquity. I have obvious need of this,

and you have all been paid, or at least compensated very well for your time here, and all of your skills have been, you've all been hand-selected for your skills. The hope is you will have time to go into the Crystal Palace, find the casket, and return to this room where you will meet me, or at the very least, my butler, Captain Badger there,

will ferret it away to me as quickly as possible. So you will not be coming with us, Mr. Meriwether? I am trying to keep a bit of a low profile on this one. There are plenty of people who already know that I am interested in this particular antique. And if I am publicly seen during this entire expedition, well, then the better that no one suspect that I have it. Mr. Meriwether has many interests elsewhere.

I assure you, I will be here to assist you in any way that any of you might need. How much time do we have? Well, I would have said you only have two hours, but at the speed at which this meeting is going, I think four to five is a far more likely proposition. In need of additional time, is there anyone who could potentially stall?

I don't necessarily think it'll be necessary with the oratoria prowess of Mr. Lansky, but just in case, I have some contingencies if things go wrong, and I will be waiting for your signal. In the meantime, I recommend, at the very least, that you all take a second to familiarize yourself with each other, and I would imagine the First Order of Business

will probably be trying to figure out how to get the lights on in the North Hall, where we're going to be. I've got that handled, no worries there. Why don't you start? I'm Ida, pleased to make all the acquaintances. I'm an engineer, and that's about all you need to know about me.

Short to the point, I like it. I know you. Do you? Mr. Conan Doyle says such wonderful things. Well, I don't like to toot my own horn, but if Mr. Conan Doyle will, I can't forbid him. I'm here as a bit of a security measure, although not in the way some of you might think.

The item in question is old and wrapped in mystery, and I am here to make sure that we are safe from threats on the other side. Do you believe it is haunted, then? Few things in this world are not somewhat haunted. This, I believe, is very. Mr. Septimus, I believe you do like to toot your own horn. Well, if you've got it, flaunt it.

I assure you, all of you are the top in your field, and of course, Mr. Goodfellow, Mr. Septimus Goodfellow, is the top in his, and I have spared no expense. I don't expect anything particularly unusual to happen, but there are more things in heaven and earth, et cetera, et cetera. And it never hurts to be prepared, and I've always a big believer in being prepared.

And I'm willing to spend on it. Ms. Codswell, as well, is the finest that you can, that you could hope for in this direction. No matter how the electric lighting in this building is put together, I am assured she will be able to figure out how it functions and to get a running lickety-split. Tony Stark meets Doctor Strange.

And while I'm sure that everyone at least has a mild idea of who you are, Miss Hayashi? Yes, Hanako, or Hana, if you will. My parents are the Contess and Count. What? No, I'm just, I'm so enamored. I very rarely have the ability to socialize

with such esteemed guests. Oh, thank you, Teichel Summer. My parents are very well known in the scene here, and my mother very much has her little tea parties. They're diplomats, and, you know, I'm well known at all the parties, and I've actually been curious when you'll attend one yourself.

Oh, well, I just have to get to that side of the continent. It is good to see you again, though. It is good to see you. Welcome back, by the way, to London, Miss O'Neil. Oh, thank you. Where's this from? Oh, I got this from the Dalai Lama himself, my darling. The Dalai Lama? I have been quite busy.

Traveling alone. Yes, I am Alexandra. I'm a bon vivant, bit of an adventurer, self-proclaimed, I guess. But it works. So you're here for a bit of the rough and tumble. Yes. And you're here to grease the wheels?

That's a lark. We're going to have a bit of a laugh then, aren't we? I assure you, Miss Hayashi has many, many skills, which will come into play when necessary, but everyone has been selected for their capabilities. Miss O'Neil as well has quite a bit of experience with antiquities and otherwise, and it's good to have a couple people who know what they're looking for.

It's going to be a bit odd in there. There's a lot being worked on. Most of the exhibits are in total disarray. It's going to be confusing. And there are, I'm told, hundreds of cats as well, so there might be a bit of a sound and a smell. I should also say none of this would be possible without Dr. Mason Pocket. Thank you so much for agreeing to fudge a bit of paperwork on our behalf.

Well, that's supposed to remain between us, Mr. Meriwether, but we're all mates here. Friends, yes. Yes, and I am very honoured to be in such esteemed company and I am merely an antiquities archivist, not famous and world-travelling

adventurers, beautiful exotic people. But if after we are... You're a charmer, though, clearly. Thank you very much. And, you know, if after we've finished in a couple of hours, if anyone would like some light reading,

I have copies of my pamphlet, The Sacred Nightmare of the Ancients. It's a piece I've worked on. It is really my life's work, and I believe the Countess would really enjoy reading it. Is it a work of fiction? It is most assuredly not, actually. I have read it, and I'm looking forward

to further funding your endeavors in this study. I think that there's a lot of interesting research to be done. I've actually read it as well. I think you sell yourself short. Thank you very much, Vesa Neon. The words out of my mouth, Vesal Neal. The words out of my mouth,

you're writing about shadows. It's fascinating. It is only the beginning. Captain, you look a little... green around the gills. No, shadows. I may be the one unbeliever in the group. You're not the only one.

Yes, more rational minds, yes. No, as far as antiquities are concerned, we certainly have redundancies between the Good Doctor and Alexandra. Mr. Meriwether was clever enough to make sure that we were covered in that area, so we will be more than adept up to the task. Shall we get the lights on?

Yes. Let's do it. Well then, good luck, godspeed, and I wish you all the best. Thank you, Rupert. Yes. Where shall we meet you when we return? Oh, right back here. Perfect. If you would just make your way back to these, to the royal suites, then everything should be tip top.

Very good. We're heading to the North Hall. How do you think your cat will fare in the contest today? Oh, I have every faith in Kevin. Kevin? Yes. What a unique name. Thank you. Kevin shall have to meet Beth Sheba later today.

Oh, that would be delightful. Once we're done with the job. Bit of a play date. Easy. So? I mean, let's capitalize on that opportunity. Should we all name our cats real quick? I think that's a lovely idea.

I think Nefertiti will actually place very well. Wow. We just went there, did we? Brought over from India. She is quite the sight. Nyan is a great Persian, white and fluffy, very well bred. Io is a tabby.

Io, it's spelled I-O. Like a cow. Yes, the lover of Zeus. Yes, mine is Achoo. I found it right outside. Put it in with a bit of cheese. You're not really a cart person, are you, Captain? What gave it away? You're a bit nervous, aren't you?

No, of course not. It's all right. We'll be there by your side the entire way. And why would a non-believer have any reason to be nervous? Exactly. So we have Nefertiti, Nyan, Io, Achoo, Kevin, and Bathsheba. Yes. Care to place a wager?

I'm feeling very confident. Ooh. Oh my. Hmm. Sure. I've just gotten paid. Thank you. Money on delivery.

Yeah, good, good. I'm so confident I will place 10% of my earnings, this job, on the line. Oh god. I might as well start a book, 10% from Septimus, okay. I will call. I love Kevin, but that's not what I'm doing. This is going to become a Cat Fancy sim so quickly.

Isn't it? That's why I agreed to this. This is going to be my next game, Call of Cthulhu Cat Fancy. You knew what this was when you did it. I didn't really think about it, and then earlier, Brittany went, cats, and I was like, oh no, what have I done? I know, we're just gonna go to the cat room,

and we're just gonna hang out there a little time. Well, we know this many cats, what room is not the cat room? La la la la la la. 20. 20%? Oh my goodness. Very confident in your cat room. I shall meet it.

Good lord. It's getting rich for my blood. The British Museum does not pay quite that well. But thanks to Mr. Meriwether's generosity, I shall join at 10%. Sounds lovely. I'd like to keep my money. Io comes from mythology. Yes, well, with the champion blood

running through Achoo's veins, I will abstain. You better hope that there's no flies about, then. Mm-hmm. That's a little mythology joke for you. Exactly. What? I'm so pleased. All right.

Let's see about those lights, then. Down the north hall? So, as you make your way into the next room, you step into a massive steel and glass pavilion, two stories tall, like stepping into the greenhouse of giants. It is,

there's almost a sense of vertigo to the sheer amount of space. In front of you, you see many, many yards forward the beginning of the bazaar stalls where people are selling odds and ends and wares. Past that, the more crystal walls have been set up that shape in the individual exhibits.

You're not sure which ones are beyond that. that shape in the individual exhibits. You're not sure which ones are beyond that. To your right and ahead of you is a giant three-tiered fountain indoors with water just careening down it in three directions. It's a special system. They even had to develop a special water tower just to get this amount of pressure to create these fountains. It's quite a sight and makes quite a noise.

So you're far forward and to your right is the main entrance to this wing of the Crystal Palace. It is very dark and there are smaller rooms to your left against the wall. But it is a little disorienting. There's moonlight, but it's very dim. Do I get a sense of where I need to go to turn on the lights?

Or can I make the first roll of the game? Why don't you roll as I get the things so that I know what I'm doing. It's all the way over here, because I have too many pieces of paper. Spot hidden? Make a, I'll give you something fun. Give me something fun.

Let's use a, where's something fun? I know I'm doing this a little slowly Use a, where is something fun? I know I'm doing this a little slowly because I have not looked. That's all right. Do an electrical repair roll. Oh, that is more fun. Just to see if you can see where the wires are running to. Oh, I failed it so hard!

You failed that real hard. I failed it so hard! I mean! That's fine, that's fine. So failed it so hard! I mean! That's fine, that's fine. The building is all glass, how can you not see where the wires are going? I know, I'm wondering how I could push. It is a bit chaotic in here.

There's a lot going on, despite the glass walls, there's also so many stalls and so many shadows moving against the walls. It's hard to see what's what. There's a thousand lions in here, and they're all shadowed. Perhaps, yeah, perhaps, I don't know, what are you going to do?

Does anyone have a light source that's not too, you know, attention-grabbing? I just need a- A lantern. You have a lantern? I always keep one on me, I'm an adventurer! What? A prop comedy! Oh.

I'm assuming I can pull this out now, right? No, you actually can't. You were sitting next to me. Where were you keeping that? But it's over there! So, wait, where did that come from, and where did you put it back? That's a lot of fun.

That's something never asked, and the lady never tells. So is the coat check next to the lantern check? You could try and find a coat check. Oh. Is that where I'm going? I don't know. Check to my lantern? No, a coat check would be near an entrance. It only serves to reason that perhaps

an entrance would also have access to light. This place is abandoned where we are, this part of the castle. You don't see or hear anybody. Yes, could we look for a coat check somewhere where there's a reception area? Mm-hmm, so you can follow the wall to the left or the wall to the right?

The right goes to the main entrance, but that's probably busy with people. The smaller rooms over here. I agree. So which way are we going? To the left. I agree. So which way are we going? To the left. Well done. To your left, you find, past a small open corridor

and a set of stairs that look a little precarious, there is a small guard post. There's a little guard post. Is there a guard at the guard post? There is a guard at the guard post. Roll, everyone, everyone to roll a stealth check. To the left, to the left, everything in the guard post to the left. Pass that one, thank Christ.

Roll die. So you're rolling these two, and then you're trying to get underneath your stealth. Everyone's rolling percentiles and attempting to roll below their percentiles. Single percentile. Mm-hmm. I have failed.

Oh wait, you're right, yeah, I'm sorry. So you failed. So you want to be lower than your number, and if you're not lower than your number, then you fail. Your stealth should be on the final column of the Navigator's Skills. 40. Okay, so these two jabronis fail.

Two fail, three fails. He said jabroni. Success. I feel like perhaps maybe the entire party doesn't need to do this sometimes. I, not, sometimes it won't be the entire party, this time it's the entire party, because you all just Scooby-Doo'd into this.

Yes, we do. I shall catch up. If you don't have a number, then it's just 10%. It'll just be that. Oh, it's actually right here. Same as mine. Can I sort of tiptoe past, since I'm the only one that seemed to succeed?

Oh, this one, yeah, okay. You are probably hiding behind the larger members of the group. You can certainly duck behind so that the guard doesn't see you, but he does see the rest of you. Oh, um. Oh, right, what's all this then?

Why don't I suggest the captain is talk to the captain? What's all this? One military man to another? Mm-hmm, yeah. My dear sir? Yes? My friend here has something of hers that she's left in the coat room.

Yes. Where might she find it? Oh, how would you leave something in the coat room? What does it mean? And is there anywhere else to get more champagne? Are you just cat... There's the cat show going on, right? Yes, we all have cats.

In the show. We're quite nervous. Something to settle the nerves. Oh, right. So when did you leave your coat? Was it today or was it yesterday? It was earlier today, and I just got so wrapped up in the chaos,

I'm not sure where I left it. Hold on, hold on, it would probably be right here. There's a, I see, don't have a coat here, let's. Can I keep an eye out behind us for anything weird? Sorry. Go ahead. Since I am not being seen by the guard, can I keep an eye out from behind us of anything weird?

Nothing weird so far. Okay, great. And while he's searching, can I keep an eye up from behind us of anything weird? Nothing weird so far. Okay, great. And while he's searching, can I look to see if he has a light source? He does. How close? I mean, I don't think you'd be able to get past him to get to it, but it's there.

Okay. Because he's working by it. Okay. Well, all right. It's a lamp. It's a lamp. It's a lamp. It's a lamp. It's a lamp. It's a lamp. It's very specific.

It's a very specific coat that, yes, it's gray. It's got these scallops. I got it the last time that I went to Russia, and I would just hate to lose it. From the Zah himself. Exactly. Please can you go back in the back and just check for us? Oh, the back's quite far away.

Let's, hmm. Please. I'll tell you what. If it's not here, it's probably been moved to, well, they wouldn't have moved it to the back storage because it's full of cats right now, so they probably have moved it over next to the electrical arcade.

Oh, that's not. Oh, that's just past here. Have you never been here before? No, first cat convention. Well, welcome, I suppose, although it does terrible things to my allergies. I try and stay entirely away from that. It's been killing me all evening.

I'm so sorry. It's not nice. But I'm not really supposed to leave a post. We can go by ourselves. We'll manage. It's all right. I'm not really supposed to leave a post. We can go by ourselves. We'll manage, it's all right. She can get another one the next time she's in Russia. Yes, we'll just dip in, dip out.

Yes, we'll not even notice we're there. That seems fine. Where did you say the electrical arcade is located? Well, it's, it's hard to, oh, I think I've got something for you here, hold on one second, and he pulls out a map for you all. Oh, thank you. We have it over there, and at some point,

I'll put it in the middle of the table so that you can all see it a little bit better. I can do a little we are here for you. And I want to show you on the map where the storage closet would be, where they would be holding the code if it's there. Storage closet is what I meant, yes. Let's... I'm going to show you on the map where the storage closet would be where they would be holding the code if it's there. That's what I meant, yes.

Let's attempt a charm roll. Me or her? You. Or both of us? Both of you. Okay. What's your charm? I'm just realizing I'm not great at this. No, you're not. Oh. Come on, Dora, this is cool.

Oh, I actually succeeded. 30%. He saw you eyeing the lantern. Did he? It's a beautiful lantern. You can take it with, it's not. I assure you. You can take it with you as you head down there,

just so you don't get trip over anything and all get in trouble. And I suppose that's just a loss on the champagne then, isn't it? I say this with as much honesty and relative humility as I can. Do I look like the sort of person that they would tell where the champagne is hiding?

Right, well. You have an honest face. I'm sure they would have told you these things if it had been important. Bless your ignorance, Jarl. Anyway, so good luck to all of you, and just try and get in and out as quickly as you can. You're welcome.

Do we have money in this game? You have a little bit of, you love a little bit of pocket change. You all have a little, I've given you all a little bit of pocket change. For Mr. Merriweather, I will give him a generous tip for his help. Wow, thank you, sir, that's awfully kind of you.

Thank you. And yeah, let me know if there's anything else you need, I suppose, and yeah, just don't make too much trouble, all right, you all. What was your name again, sir? Oh, oh, that's right. My name's NPC, there we are. There's Mr. Weyland.

Nigel Peterson. That's why I'm the third. Joseph Weyland's the man, at your service. Yeah, please, let me know if there's anything you need. So you have that map, and actually, do you want to grab it or should I grab it? I can grab it if it's easier for you. Your pants are more exciting than mine right now.

Well, that's not true, my pants are exciting, just in the wrong way. Use your imagination. Yeah, she looks like a ghost, Marisha. You do. So. You look like you should be haunting a house right now. The Ghost of Christmas Past. I see the news. This is good. So. You look like you should be haunting a house right now. Stop saying that. The Ghost of Christmas Past.

I see the others. This is good. Yeah. Prop number one, you have a map. Okay, excellent. So, you can see down there, that's where you're entered into, right there. That's where you just went into?

That's where you came from. Open corridor, right in front of you, is the guard post. And beyond that, right past the medieval court is where you would find the electrical arcade. Ah. Okay. So shall we head there? Yes, let's.

Let's go. We head there. Excellent. So, walking past the surprisingly shoddy Byzantine exhibit that's been overtaken with crates. In fact, I will say, as you walk through the palace, it is scene better days. And maybe it's just because all of the exhibits

are in a little bit of disrepair because they're setting up a new exhibit, but there's an age to the building. It's not holding its own as well as it should be. It's starting to show its show around the edges. The places where

it leaks from the rain are becoming apparent, especially in London. And the only light we have places where it leaks from the rain are becoming apparent, especially in London. And the only light we have in here is coming from the lantern, correct? And the moonlight, because the walls and the ceiling are all translucent. The crates in Byzantine Court, are they all old and dusty, like the building,

or does it look like there's anything that's been recently delivered? Oh, many things look like they're recently delivered. Yeah, it's, obviously they have just shoved things in every corner because cats are nightmarish. And that's why we love them. Yes, you said it. This does not look like a well-organized machine.

This looks like a giant mess. But you do make your way past the medieval exhibit to the electrical arcade. It is a long corridor heading up of, of course, glass, and tables and tables and tables of machines and devices of every sort running into cables that go up into the ceiling, into what are obviously a series of

what were once gas lamps, but have now been completely retrofitted, and a few interesting attempts at brand new devices. Hundreds of different designs of light bulbs, some of which obviously are not necessarily working. Different types of engines, steam engines, electrical generators of all sorts. Could I roll something potentially to see where a particular piece of machinery is?

Of course. That I might futz with. You can use spot hidden or you can use, or if you want, you can use one of your science or electrical. I'll do electrical. What are you looking for, out of curiosity? Something that my previous employer might have. The on switch? I'll tell you what, since you're looking for something Edison,

and you would know what it looks like, roll with advantage. Okay. Yes. I got it anyway. All right. Yes, you do actually, off into the corner on the far right table, you don't only just recognize something of Edison's,

you recognize one of your designs. Oh, fuck. That piece of shit. I'm sorry? I'm sorry? Nothing, nothing. Can I sort of surreptitiously start, like, fucking with it? You're going to walk over to it? Yeah.

You definitely see that it's there. What you see is a small, portable Sterling engine using a gassa displacement system of your design with the name of a very particular person connected to it. There is Jasper Stagwell's entry into the Crystal Palace. Can I

take my tools out and just So you don't have tools at the moment because, yeah, you don't have any on you. I didn't bring any. It is rather small. In fact, actually, since we're staring at it, I'll tell you what. It is rather small. In fact, actually, since we're staring at it,

I'll tell you what. I mean, it is right here, to be fair. Fascinating. What is that? It's not a, I mean, yeah, so it is right there. Is this something we should be concerned about? Nothing. Do you know that they invented an electrical device in Japan in 1776?

Have you heard of it? What is it? It's called an elekater. Elekater? Yes. A man named Genai Hiraga created it. It's called an elekater. Elekater? Yes. A man named Genai Hiraga created it. Do you know anything about that? I don't know about that, but I know about this. This was my design.

And some asshole put his name on it. And what exactly does it do? It produces electricity. Really? And do you steal it do? It produces electricity. Really? And do you steal it from you? Yes. So I punched him in the face. Anyway, let's get the lights on, shall we?

Can I look about to see if there's anywhere in here? I hold up the lantern and hope for help. Yep. Anybody who wants to actually know it would be you, because you would know what it looked like, unless you wanted to attempt to explain it, is a, do a electrical, yeah, electrical repair. I did remember reading about that,

I enjoyed that story. I failed again. Gave him quite the bruising effect. It's eluding you. There seems to be. I'm upset, so I'm thinking straight. You're not entirely thinking straight. If anybody else just wants to help out, possibly.

Is there anything I can do to assist you here? I need to find, what am I looking for? I'm looking for, specifically. It would probably be where, like a point of contact with all the, where there would be a main switchboard system. I'm looking for a switchboard. While she's hunting about,

I take a few steps forward and place fingers to my temple, reach out the hand out. I would like to attempt to sense any aura in this larger chamber. Anything to worry about? Roll an occult roll. Parapsychology, yeah, the Parapsychology. Psychology, all right.

New game, who dis? I know. That is a success. I think I've given you, you've got your room notes in there, so. I won't as much. Yeah, it'll be, yeah. Actually, yeah, you didn't even need to roll that. That's in the room notes in there, so you, so, so. I thought as much. Yeah, it'll be, yeah. Actually, yeah, you didn't even need to roll that. That's in the room notes, go ahead.

Are you well, Septimus? I am well. We are not alone. Well, there's quite a few of us here. I was going to say the same. Yes, yes. I'm alluding to the presence on the other side. Oh, for god's sake.

I'm looking for a box with lots of wires going into it. Can you find it? Metal, wood. Metal. Yeah, I will search for it. Alexander, will you keep an eye out just to make sure we're not visited by- Roll spot hidden. I look to see if we've-

That's called spot hidden, I know. Fourth column on the right. And I have to be lower than? I did not succeed on that. Well, that's a shame. Can I look hearing? Fourth column on the right. And I have to be lower, then? I did not succeed on that. Well, that's a shame. Can I look for the metal electrical box? Yes.

Sure, roll a... Are there any wires running from this machine, too? There are a lot of wires running through this machine. There's a lot of... Seems to run on some form of electricity. Yeah, you can either make a spot hidden check, or make a... or a science check.

Both of those are shit. Let me help you with this. Spot hidden and where's science? Can I also? Mm-hmm. Where's science? Oh, fuck that one. You can also suggest things and I will tell you whether or not they'll work. Oh, no, that's bad.

That was good as me. I shit the bed. It's very dark in here, I'm so sorry. I'm so delighted that you are all stuck trying to turn on a light switch. Fuck! While this is happening, I'm keeping track to make sure all stuck trying to turn on a light switch. Fuck! While this is happening, I'm keeping track to make sure that no one is following us.

Roll a, yeah, roll a stealth check. Stealth check? Stealth or survival, up to you. And may I try to spot the box? You will spot the box. Ooh. Fail. You are all hilarious. It's below.

Oh. Where's that? No, that's 100. If it's zero, if it's, no, there is no, because you can't get 106, so zero is super low. Zero zero. You got eight seconds. It occurs to you, you've been here before.

In the daylight. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. It occurs to you, you've been here before. In the daylight. Oh. You're a little distracted, and I also think maybe, perhaps you were taking the measure of some of those people around you. I was a little intimidated, yes. You can go ahead and lead everyone to the contraption about five meters down on the right.

I apologize, I haven't got my head on straight. I think I know what you're talking about. I think it's right down here. Thank you. Oh, wonderful. To be fair, it's a bit dizzying in here. Does anyone else feel that? Absolutely. Man was not meant to live within glass.

No. Agreed. Miss Cogswell, is this what you were looking for? I assume it is. Yes, let me just get the lights on. Just a moment. I'm sorry. I know we've been instructed to turn the lights on.

This whole house of glass, won't that give away what we're trying to do? It's just this wing. Surely. You can roll with advantage. Actually, this is obvious enough that I think there wouldn't even be a roll for it. There are very obviously breaker switches

to different chunks of the Crystal Palace, and it's pretty well marked that you can just turn on one chunk of it, and if you were so inclined. Keep it in the darkness until we get to the wing that we need, right? Right, which I suppose is, we don't have a sense of where that is, do we? Well, we wanted to go to the North Hall, right? Well, this is a... This is a... Oh, the entire thing. We don't have a sense of where that is, do we? Well, we wanted to go to the North Hall, right?

Well, this isn't. This isn't. Oh, the entire thing. We don't have a sense of where the casket is? Nope, somewhere in there. But we do have a map, and one area says the Egyptian Court, suspicious. And if I throw this breaker, it would illuminate this entire section of this map.

Only one way to find out. Great, good. I say we do it. One vote for Duet. We've got the guard on our side. Fair enough. Maybe we want to go room by room with the lantern first. Carefully. Yeah.

I feel like that might be smarter. As you wish. Sure. We can always start with the Egyptian court. That seems to be the most obvious of plans. And currently, are we closer to the outside of the Egyptian court. That seems to be the most obvious of plans. And currently, are we closer to the outside of the medieval court, or are we more in this direction? Yeah, you're on the, what would be the far side, so the French area right over there.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. And the breaker's kind of like in the wall. This place is massive. Surely we can't all crowd around the lantern and get the whole thing. The breaker runs the lights to an underground generator from what you can glean or you assume such.

Make a, make a, hmm. Make a mega. Make a mega. What would you want to roll to see if you, I would even say roll an electrical repair roll or yeah, if there's any other skill to just sort of examine this really quickly. I finally fucking passed it just barely. Yeah, that is.

Literally, just barely. I'm so glad it's not me. It's so good to be on this side of that reality for once. What I will say is this. You definitely know that you can isolate the lights to this section of the Crystal Palace. You also can glean that the way that this is set up,

as long as you have some sort of generator pushing through this thing, you should be able to get light through it. So like, this system is pretty open, so it's like all you would have to do is roll it to the generator down below right now, and it would be very, this is just a nice push button solution to a light problem at the moment.

We'll also say that the farther in we go, my senses are heightening. There are spirits all around us, and for the most part, here. I have no worries, but again, further in, I sense a change. So please, watch your steps. Well, spirits don't like shadows.

Spirits don't like shadows, right? So shall we just? Turn on the lights. Turn on the lights. Doctor. I second Mr. Goodfellow. And only out of curiosity, Serpentess, what will these spirits do? Well, one can never predict out here, I believe.

What have they done to you? What have they done to you? Did they hurt you? Good lord. They have never hurt me. If one is open and willing, they wish to talk in their way.

I see. They wish to talk in their way. Mm. Mm. I see. I see. I consider your words heeded, sir. Okay, so. Lights. Lights or not? Lights.

Yes, please. Lights. Flick. The room illuminates brightly with electrical light. It is a brilliant, beautiful sight. You heard dirty cats go. You know what, I'm going to say there's enough white noise from the fountains that you probably don't hear the cats go, what the fuck is happening?

Also, to be fair, being cats, you just turn on the light, I think they all did this in unison. Are there any cats in the room that we're in now? There are no cats in the room right now. I should have made you roll for that, that's okay. Roll for cats. Roll for cats. There are no cats in the room, although now you see the tables and tables and tables of exhibits, it's truly spectacular.

You do hear from down the hall just a little, is everything all right? Oh yes, Mr. Weyland, everything's fine, thank you. Well, just a reminder that your generosity is always appreciated, and just please turn off the lights once you find your jacket. Most, most assuredly.

Almost there. And if any bubbly shows up, you know. Nothing to worry about, just go about your business. Nothing to worry about, just go about your business. Is there any sort of skullduggery I would want to do here, other than whatever I've already done? I mean, honestly, I don't know. It's just sitting there.

I'm going to take it. You're going to take it? I'm going to take it. What are you doing with that skull? I love skullduggery. Just a little dugger. You dugger? I mean, I'm sure there's, I'm sure,

I'm sure if there was time, I'm sure you're welcome to examine a few other things and see if there's other things around here that this was just, you rolled and this is the first thing you saw because it was from your head. Right. I'd like to look around.

Okay, have a little look around. You roll for fancy in here. Just for clarification, the casket is, what are the dimensions? Two feet long. It's about this, it's about this. It's a carryable, heavy but carryable. Do we know if it's made of wood, gold, metal, jade?

You would probably know that it is made of stone, of like a light, of a light limestone, but very, but like carved ornate and relatively thin, surprisingly. The descriptions of the casket that I've read say that it's of limestone. Oh. So, I mean, hopefully you can lift it.

But yes, with some ornamentation on it. Excellent. And we look around the room to make sure that it's not visible in this room. Yeah. It'll be a very short adventure. Do you know what kind of role you would like to make, or do you want me to tell you what kind of role to make?

Spot hidden, perhaps. Okay, yeah, make a roll. Nope, no, just want to. There's a lot going on in here. What about anything of particular value that is small in size? Describe small in size. Nothing quite that small around.

Everything, there's nothing pocketable. That's probably one on the smaller end of the sorts of things that you're generally going to find in this room. What about anything eclectic or strange? Literally everything is eclectic and strange. What's the strangest talism? Roll a...

Yeah, give me a roll. Probably either intelligence or a spot hidden, whatever you feel like. From characteristics at the top? Oh, got to go with intelligence. Ooh, nice. Yes, found. There's a very odd wooden box that looks very old. Is it behind glass, under glass, or out?

It is definitely behind glass. What'd you find there? Something very old and very interesting. Maybe extra credit for later. Ooh, extra credit for now. I can help you with that glass. Do tell. Mm-hmm.

Show me what you've got. Does it look like the glass can be opened first off? Um... Show me what you've got. Show me what you've got. Show me what you've got. What is the one for this one? Skills are always, I'm just getting used to this again. Let's see if there's a lock.

Yeah, go take a look, do a little bit of a, do an intelligence roll for this one. Just straight intelligence? Yeah. And while she's looking at the glass, I know what this is, don't I? You do know for this one. Just straight intelligence? Yeah. And while she's looking at the glass, I know what this is, don't I? You do know what this is. I succeed, just barely, but also by one point. Yes?

The case appears to be locked, but can be opened. It is on an easy hinge. It's one of those wooden lifting tables. There are five or six interesting pieces of engineering ephemera in this. These particular ones are a small pair of tongs that seem to roll into a weird, almost heart shape that look like electrical energy is generated between them.

There's this old wooden box with a floral, like a floral design across it that's very interesting. There's a couple, what appear to be jars of liquid with salt crystals starting to form on the edges of them, A couple, what appear to be jars of liquid with salt crystals starting to form on the edges of them, with wires running between them. But yeah, they're in a case and there is a lock. Are there any potatoes? What was once a potato is now covered in vines,

strange eyes, yeah, no, there's no potato. I love a good potato clock, though, I almost bought one. Does the case have any glass behind it, or is it just the top? Just the top. Let me see, do you mind if I take a look? Sure. All right. I'll go pick.

Go ahead, give it a roll. Give it a roll with advantage. Also, quick glance, no one's walking this way, right? Still very unimpeded. Give me a, yeah, just a... Yeah, just a... Oh, shit. Oh, yeah.

Give me a stealth or survival for this one. I know I'm using this a little weird, but I'm in the mood. I have a skill. Actually, give me a listen. Why, was this better? Ooh, 20, not great. Oh, fuck all that. Yeah, it's quiet as a mouse.

Everything's fine. I sort of position myself in front of it, and with extreme success, I... Very extreme. What did you roll? A 10. Oh, never mind, I was going to give you a little bit of it, never mind.

Yeah, you manage to pull a little pin out of your hair, and I don't even think you make eye contact with the thing. I think you just dangle it and it pops open. I have quite the eye for things. Did you learn that at the embassy? Oh, you know, just little things you learn at finishing school. Sneaking out?

Yes. A little adventure. I like it. The case is open. All right. What's inside? It doesn't look like it's alarmed, or perhaps... Spot hidden. Spot hidden, yeah, spot hidden. 1800.

Is it being vented? Not barely. I want to do this at half, this is difficult, so it would be at your half level. Oh, should I roll again? What's your spot hidden? 60. So did you go under 30?

I put that back. Looks fine. Difficulty means that you have to get double what you would normally get, so if it's a 60% advantage, you now have to hit 30 or below. So instead of 60 below, it's now 30 or below. Looks fine. Looks fine.

Why all the hubbub over this item? What do we see inside? Can we see what's inside? The two jars, the box, and the odd tongues. I thought she opened the... Oh, she opened the case, but there's a little wooden box inside. Oh.

Okay, I'd share with all the extreme attention is over. It's just a little trinket from my country. Real country? Yes, the old country, the mother country. Are you? I grab it. Oh, wow. I'm joking. Are you serious?

No, just kidding. This is like 1890, I think. Some drunk asshole in the corner going. Red laser light. Entrapment. Exterminate, annihilate, destroy. Oh, we're doing good. Cool, cool, cool. So yeah, it's the old,

are you opening the top of it? I mean, the top comes off. She got it! She got it! She got it! So inside, you find all of the parts to the static generator and a small piece of paper shoved in the corner. Wait, what? This is dope! Oh, sorry.

Ooh. Ooh. So. Something written in the language of the Orient. Is that a static generator? It is a static generator. It's a static generator. This is a hundred-year-old static generator. Oh.

Hundred years prior to now. Are you actually trying to? What? Is this the machine that you were talking about? The Elekater. The Elekater? So wait, it's here. Odd, isn't it? You know there are labels in the cases,

if anyone ever bothers to look. No one goes to a museum and reads the labels. It's really frustrating. Pictures with. What does the label in the case say? The label in the case says, the Elektiker, 1776, Jirai Hirana, built in Japan, static electricity generator,

traditionally attached to a chemical battery. Well, I mean, if you're looking at it from the right angle, you're just taking it back. I haven't even looked at the paper for that. That's exactly how I'm looking at it. You're so clever. Does it in any way resemble what our dear genius would have imagined? Oh, nothing quite as

intense as that. Oh. Yeah, yeah. Okay. No. This is a Model A, this is a Tucker. Mm-hmm. That's a Tesla. Gotcha. Ah. For real, okay, yeah. May I look around to make sure,

I mean, because we've got the lights on, we're in a room full of stuff. Nope. Can I look and make sure the casket is not here? Yeah, you can do a little look around for the casket. Would that be an archaeology roll? I'll take you an archaeology roll for that, sure. Can I look to see if I see any jades?

Yeah, you can take a look for, yeah, give me a, unless you have something that you want to, give me a reason why you use it, I would say just a straight intelligence roll. I like it. You're Taliesin Jaffe, so is there an actual Elek'etur in that box?

No, sadly, although it is in fact based on the real Elek'tikr. Oh wow! Actually built by Djarah Rana in 1776. That's amazing. That's a good replica. Yeah, wow. Our prop department don't fuck around.

Good. And Djarah Rana is an interesting historical character. That's a good replica. A prop department don't fuck around. Dry Harana is an interesting historical character. Highly recommend if you're bored, look him up. He wrote some very, very nice reviews of the best gay brothels in Japan when he was walking around. And a pamphlet on farting.

And a pamphlet on farting. Pamphlet on farting? Yes. Is that what you got there? What is that report on farting? I, as a player, my congee is about at a second grade level. I'll also say that that congee is not, in fact, I didn't have time to actually have it translated, although that, I don't remember.

It's about farting. Did you wingdings the congee? No, I tried to at least make a bit of a, what's the word I'm looking for, Easter egg. If I recall its review of the most recent Sailor Moon musical, I would read it. Amazing. Oh man.

I was in a bit of a rush. But at least the signature is correct. Do you want to try and translate it, or who wants to give it a roll, give it a go? Well, we can do a little bit. I'm sure your Japanese is far better than me. Well, let's do it together. All right, maybe you could teach me a thing or two.

And I rolled a 55, looking for jade. Anything jade, anything? Nothing catching your eye. Copy that. Nothing, again, a lot of machines in here. It's mostly machinery. Same for, what was your archeology role? No?

This room actually is not nearly as packed as some of the others, so it's a little easier to look around and see that this is. Mostly machines. This is also still open to the public, so this is the very edge of what's closed. So this would be, you're right on the border of where things just become chaos.

This is probably a bridge too far, but since we're talking about farting, could I say that I brought in a box of Kevin's droppings and I'm going to put it in place of where I found this? To really, to the fucker? It's London in the 19th century. You probably have some shit in your pocket, I'll lie. Fuck you, Stugwell.

Like San Francisco, you see that? Yes. Fuck you, Stugwill. Like San Francisco, you see that? Yes, I say, I say, Skater. We both say 60, Dave. Okay, so you get the best of the two. I have different levels of translation that are available. Ha! Oh, I want to hear all of them.

Things can go wrong. Or just a really heavy accent. All right. Congratulations, you now know what the note says. This is our best gift to you. I've discussed at great lengths with my fellow Franklin, Toda, Daniels, and Fann. We have tried to cast a net around the world.

We leave it in your hands to finish the weave. To be known, even itself is to destroy. Therefore, it fears out sight and would drag us back into its shadows. Oh, it fears our sight, sorry, and would drag us back into its shadows. Good luck. May light and knowledge prevail.

Janai Hiraga. It is very flowery. It, what is the it that text is referring to? Oh, the shadow. Sure, I don't know. The shadow. What were the four or five names again? What was it? Probably just a coincidence. Franklin? Maybe.

Are there coincidences, Mr. Goodfellow? Totar? Daniels? Totar? Uh-huh. T-O-D-A, am I saying that right? Totar. Totar. You're correct. Daniels and Fan. Well, this was created in 1776, and Mr. Benjamin Franklin was around about that time,

and experimenting with electricity and keys, yes. Make a history or archaeology check. Okay. At difficulty. Difficulty? Yeah, half point. What did you say, history? Or anthropology, or archeology.

Actually, anthropology, history and anthropology. No, there's like no way. A lot of no matter, I'm condescending. I know a few things about history. You can also make a history or anthropology roll at half difficulty. I'll make an anthropology roll. 36. 70.

Just fake. 70, so. Woo! So half difficulty means I have to die. Yeah, I have my little warlight. So I need a 35? You need a 35. It's just out of reach.

Just out of reach. That's okay. It's right on of reach. Just out of reach. That's okay. It's right on the tip of my, I can't remember. Tongue. That's all right. Your tongue. I tapped away at my stats. The Lone Event to itself destroys it.

Therefore it fears our sight. Fears our sight. And will drag us back into its shadow. Ah, there's that word again. Yes. May light and knowledge prevail. Well, that's also fairly thematic. Plenty of light.

One more, I'm so sorry, one more time from the top. Could you translate again? Yes. Forgive me if it's a little stumbly. This is our best gift to you. I have discussed at great length with my fellows, Franklin, Toda, Daniels, and Fan. We have tried to cast a net around the world

to leave it in your hands, we leave it in your hands, sorry, once again, still learning to finish the weave. To be known even to itself destroys it. Therefore, it feels our sight and would drag us back into its shadow. Good luck, may light and knowledge prevail. Hmm. To be known even to itself.

That's around the world. Why, Miss Codswell, Miss Codswell seems very well equipped to take up that mantle then, bringing light to the world. Why, Miss Codswell, Miss Codswell seems very well equipped to take up that mantle then, bringing light to the world, yes. I do terrible. Well, there are myths about darkness and light fighting darkness, and if one were to cast a net

of electricity around the world, it would put light everywhere, forcing anything that fears light away. Seems a rather Herculean task, the entire world. Oh, not so Herculean. If you have the right tools, like this little beauty here. I think there should be electricity in every home. A wheel in every home.

Electricity in the homes of poor people. She's a witch! Walk my words! Well, it's a dream. It is worth noting that you did work for a company for two years that was doing that until they had to close because it was a nightmare and everything was going wrong. So you did just get laid off from the job.

Off my words! Didn't go well. Worth noting. I'll see you burning hell. Yeah. Now, high class swap meet aside, perhaps we should try to get the thing that the rich guy wants? We are on a bit of a schedule. The next room, perhaps?

Where do you want to go? Shall we head to the Egyptian court? That seems a good place to start. I agree. So you walk north, up. And have we turned the light on in the courtyard? The lights are on. the lights are definitely on. It is well lit, it's not beaming, but it is definitely, to the outside observer,

it would probably just look like work is being done. I'm sure work has been being done at all hours, thanks to these bloody cats. So you do, you can make your way to the Egyptian exhibit at all hours, thanks to these bloody cats. So you do, you can make your way to the Egyptian exhibit with little to no fanfare. Very good. As we walk, I talk to Mr. Goodfellow. Seems Mr. Hiraga was a believer as well,

if I interpret that correctly. Well, we've been speaking to the other side for thousands of years, and our understanding evolves and changes with the passing of the years, but the core remains the same. We're all just reaching for the same truth and describing it in different ways, I imagine. Mm.

Pardon my ego, Mr. Goodfellow, but speaking to the other side is a bit quaint and pedestrian. I would be careful what you attempt to reach for. There are scary things on the other side. You sound versed yourself. The things I've seen, you wouldn't want to wish on your worst nightmares. Shall we continue on? Yes. Certainly. Do we see, do we need to be stealthy? Are there other people in these rooms

that we're attempting to enter? You don't see anybody yet. You seem to, actually, honestly, because of the hour and because no one's really paying attention, I think you kind of have the run of the place. And is this a fountain? That is a giant bloody, do you want to go take a look at the fountain on your way to the Egyptian court?

I do, I am quite the fan. Is this the three-tiered fountain you were talking about? It is a phenomenal piece of engineering. It is beautiful. Sadly can't show you these until later, but just so I get my description correct of it, correct, I'm going to. Is it the picture of all of our possessed bodies?

It is, in fact. I know what all of you look like when you're dead. Those are in Taliesin's bedside table. It's a series of layered, almost crystal chandeliers that are just cascading water pours over them, almost like a dining room that is just sitting in the rain. It's just these beautiful, beautiful arcs

of glass and stone with crystals hanging from them, the water pouring down them in these beautiful streams, and several high-pressure, three high-pressure streams making their way through the front and two side chunks of the fountain. Are you taking a serious look at it? I'd like to. There is also a plaque on your end of it, if you guys are heading to the Egyptian court.

There's, in fact, a plaque that can be read as well. I would mind nonchalantly striding up and reading. As I toss a... And might I say, as a museum employee, I would really implore you all to read the plaques. We put a lot of work into them. Any coins in the bottom of a fountain? Oh, quite a few.

I will toss a coin in. Toss a coin in the fountain? All right, do you want me to read it, or do you want to read it? Because I have the plaque here. At your preference. I enjoy your voice. It's a voice that's launched a thousand shipwrecks.

The plaque reads, very true. Oh Crystal Palace, when I stood within thy walls, not the first time or the second I had sought those gleaming halls. Far before me in dim distance stretched that fairy-like arcade, glorious objects faintly looming through the half-mysterious shade. All my parted earthly treasures, some that I may see no more, till we walk in the light together on the golden Hades shore. O thou source of light eternal, hear the nations when they pray, and through

life's long night of darkness, guide them into perfect day. William, make peace, Thackeray." Delightfully with you. This plaque seems to have been somewhat a recent addition, probably within the last 15 years. It's been bolted on covering a previous plaque, is what it looks like. It is a copper plate, if anything, more than a plaque, I suppose. Oh, thou source of light eternal.

Obsessed with light, yeah. We are. Any symbols or logos? It's either crystal packs. No, just the four bolts that are holding it onto the masonry. Bolts, or are they? Bolts. They are bolts.

If you had a screwdriver, it would not help you. But they don't look, they're jeweler's bolts. They're not necessarily a... They're tough looking, but not, you know, who knows? They are now good and tight. Far before me in dim distance stretched that fairy-like arcade, glorious objects faintly looming

through the half-mysterious shade, all my parted earthly treasures. In the arcade? Well, the whole place is an arcade, really. Yes, but there was. But specifically the electric arcade? Is the plaque on this end of the fountain? Mm-hmm, right at the front.

I'm going to fiddle with one of the bolts. You're going to fiddle with the plaque? Mm-hmm. Right at the front. I'm going to fiddle with one of the bolts. You're going to fiddle with the plaque? Mm-hmm. It's a little loose. Oh, nice. I mean, it's spinning, but the plaque is just like, not to be too inside baseball. Have you ever attempted to pull the sword, the Excalibur sword from the stone at Disneyland?

It's got just enough give to irritate a child for hours. I say, definitely not from experience. So yeah, it's definitely, again, this place has seen better days, and they really ought to get a man in. So to speak. So you think the captain can yank it off? Oh, I'm sorry, yes, we were moving this.

I was enjoying the rhyme. Are you a poet, captain? No, I also don't read very often, I suppose. Not enough. Could I try and? Well, you did that beautifully, suppose. Not enough. Could I try and? Well, you did that beautifully, anyway. Thank you. Could I try and use my cane to?

Well, the cane is, the cane itself is too thick to slip underneath the. No corner or edge to pry? I mean, there are corners and edges to pry, but your cane is a cane. I mean, you would need and edges to pry, but your cane is a cane. I mean, you would need something thinner to pry properly. Can I just like pull it? Do I see anyone else looking?

Only the companions that your employer gave you. Do me a favor and take a step back, will you? All right. And I'll take the top of the cane and I will remove the sword from beneath it. Cannot believe you convinced me to let you have that. Sorry, a relic of the Second Afghan War, an officer and all that. And I will stick it under and try to pry open it.

I was going to make this a harder run, make it a strength check, straight up. Should be good. Come on, baby. Come on. 40. Make it a strength check, straight up. That should be good. Come on, baby. Come on. 49, yes, 60, which is, yeah, just a regular success. It takes some doing, and you don't quite pry all of them off,

but just enough that it slides off a bit. Oh man, this is some... You just did some damage to the fountain. I mean, the fountain's still operating, but you gave it a good pry, and it definitely has unhinged off. They really need to do some work on this place, and you just probably cost them a bit more money. I think our employer's very wealthy. It was, what you can see now, though, is that that plate was covering a time capsule.

Oh! Oh my god. Oh shit. Oh, his things that he left. His precious treasures. Right. Well, most buildings had them. It was not unusual to usually put under a deeper stone

some sort of time capsule. Usually in the christening of a large building like this, you would fill a box, an airtight box with a bunch of ephemera of the time that it was built, and then pour the concrete over it so that 300 years from now or otherwise people were supposed to open it.

Something like this would have probably been more of a, please open in 50 years, and there would be some record in the. How long has it been, then? We don't know, because this one is not labeled well. It's just got a poem, which is odd. Yeah. Another poem?

No, the poem that we read. Captain? Can I reach in and remove the capsule? You do, there's a bag inside. There's just a small, rough bag. Or a lap? No, it's just like a silk velveteen, but it's rotting pretty nicely.

Can I make a survival check on this bag? Hmm? See if the bag survives? If there's something weird about it, or a smell or something? Sure. I didn't make it. Did I help her with that? It smells winter fresh.

No, it's definitely mildewy. It's just gross. But there is something inside the bag. Well, any objections? No, I don't like the presents. Ooh, open the bag. I know presents like the time capsule. No!

I love presents. Thackery wasn't, not much of a finding. Okay. Not much of a sorcerer. You find an odd red crystal. How do you know? An odd red crystal. A very, an odd red crystal. An odd red crystal. A very, very odd red crystal.

Oh! I'd be careful with it, but yeah, you found, it's a little odd. Do I recognize it? It is a red stone. Is it red iris by chance? It's not squishy like that. I don't know.

It is not squishy like that. Okay. And don't prod it too much, but it is definitely an odd ruby red stone. It's circular in form. Oh! It has veins of a black onyx material that run through it. This particular one forming an odd pentagram It has veins of a black onyx material

that run through it, this particular one forming an odd pentagram or five-pointed star. And yeah, roll a, I mean. Mr. Goodfellow, do you sense anything? Have I seen anything like that in my travel? Give me an occult roll. Ooh, that's the first one, right? Mm-hmm.

I have nothing, I don't have a good occult. Ooh, so it's just 0.05. Because, unless. Yeah, or you can use, throw me another stat, if you don't mind. Intelligence is 80, or psychology is 50. I'll let you take psychology as 50. Okay.

No. No, not off, I think you're, unless, I don't remember if I put it in your book, but unless I put it in your book, which you're welcome to check your notes to see if it's there, but if it isn't there, then you don't know. It seems a little unsettling.

Well, red stones are very common in mythologies of cults throughout continents. Cults? Might I do an occult check? You can do an occult or an anthropology or archeology check. And does this look like the same one that I saw? That's right, you've seen one. It is, you absolutely recognize this.

Yes, I do. What is that? Well, I've seen one of these before. Wait, you have? Oh, yeah. You have. Go ahead. Yes, I succeeded. It didn't have a star, though. It was a different symbol. Okay. It was a spiral.

Success. You have read quite a bit on the possible interconnectionists of all these different belief systems, and the red gems show up over and over and over again, Often described as a source of power, whether it be light, heat, or emanation. There are definitely some, you've also read of some possible ways

to activate these gems, although it would require maybe sitting down and fiddling with it for a bit. But again, that's for later. But there's definitely, you know what this is, and this is definitely an activatable point of power, according to your reference, of some kind. I've seen one of these at the

Lykir Monastery. Good notes. In Larrak. This is a very powerful relic. They keep theirs locked in a temple. They call it the Red Iris Stones. And they're believed to guard arcane doorways and protect this realm from that which should not enter. If no one has any objection, I would like to call dibs.

On the stone? Oh, I might have an objection, but we'll talk about it later. Yes, locked away in a monastery temple, what did you say? Yes, in India. And it guards a doorway. Yes, the monks of Lykir have been very adamant at attempting to defeat a creature that they have called the Village of the Hungry Night. Is that an exact translation?

I believe so. I'm not entirely sure how a singular monster can be called a village, A hungry knight. Is that an exact translation? I believe so. I'm not entirely sure how a singular monster can be called a village, but... Must be a very big monster. I agree. His presence is unquestionable. Wait, of what, the stone? Yes.

Well, you don't... Did you want to hold it, Septimus? Noss-eye. Ah. Make a power roll really quickly, Septimus. Ooh, shit. Ooh, I rolled the wrong one. I could pretend like the 10 is a one,

or I could roll that again. 25 is under 40, so. So a success for whatever just happened. You sense specifically what's in your notes from the, you sense the thing, you sense from your notes. It is a risk to hold. Oh, like I'm doing now?

I thought you weren't worried about stuff like this. I'm not so. Ha ha. Ha ha ha. Badger, I would be very careful. Roll a constitution check. No way. Shut up, really? 40, I succeed.

I already succeed. You crushed it. Everything's fine. Do you feel faint? Dizzy? No. Strange? Well, let's do our best to perhaps respect the customs of others, then. And I would rescind my dibs. And Badger, I want you to be in constant communication

with us. If you feel anything untoward, anything out of the ordinary at all. If it would make everyone feel much better, can we just put it back in the bag and then you can just carry the bag? Excellent idea. Perhaps that will be enough.

Shrink. Your appearance drops 10 points while you smell of the bag. Sorry. Shit, that's precious, I can't lose that. Come on, man. Let me switch chairs. I would really drop that bag at some point. That's precious, I can't lose that! Come on, man! Let me switch chairs. I would really drop that back at some point.

That's rank. He's just so unattractive, it's making me. My mom is one of the most handsome boys! It's just a shower away from pretty again. Damn. Oh, well. Can of Dapper Dan. Shall we try the Egyptian wing?

Yes. On our way in, would I have known about the Elekator? Would I have heard about it? No. Okay. Although you know what a static electricity generator is. It's a big crank that they rev up and then the static electricity charges and they normally stick two little prongs in that thing

and then you get a little, you start to get an energy charge from it. Hannah, would you mind if I took a harness, sorry. A harness? A harness. Would you mind if I took a look at that? Oh, nice job. And is there a roll I can make to sort of ascertain anything widgey about this guy? Make a widgey roll.

Yeah, you can make an engineering roll or a, that's interesting. Here it is. What's this? Oh. That's a key. I was actually supposed to, oh, all right. Yes, a key?

That's fine, I don't know. It's Taliesin, there just might be keys and things. Sometimes things have keys. It seems to have a false, there's something in here. Oh. Oh. I didn't even need a roll. Is there a keyhole?

I'm looking, do you see anything? This is a breakaway, something. Perhaps it slides. Seems like. Does it slide? This is so dope. I don't even know what it slides. It seems like. Does it slide? This is so dumb. I don't even know what's happening. It's a puzzle box or something.

I'll pull to that or anything. It's cut here, so. Is there another? Should I pull on it? I don't want to break it. Try sliding, perhaps? He seemed to be okay with me to be. Oh! Oh shit! Oh shit! Fucking teamwork!

What? Kind of goosebumps. Can anyone read this? Yeah, you die instantly. Yes. You die instantly. There is also an object that does. Oh, there's more. But wait.

There's more coin. Well, the coin is actually a token for the thing that was actually making noise, which will not fit in that, because that's smaller than the real box. Inside, you find a small bag. And this is, so you can display it later

so that people at home can see it, but you find this bag inside, and this was the thing that was making a little bit of a ruckus. Does this one stink as well? No, this one is actually weirdly dry. It smells better, and I get my ten points back? That's right. Here's a little, if you want to just leave it somewhere

so you don't have to. This seems sketchy. Oh, it's very sketchy. You guys are doing quite well. What does it say? Move my giant ass map from the center. What did you roll? I can come to this?

Oh, sorry. For the translation. Hard success? Yes. Okay, that'll do. Not the electricity, Alexandra. It's, to be fair, this is not a difficult piece of translation, since it's such a short sentence. In the same handwriting, as the previous note, is that.

A dark reflection can reveal intentions. Be safe. What is that, what did you find? It's a black mirror. Where did it go, my god, oh, here it is. It is a black mirror. Where did it go, my god, oh here it is. It is a black mirror. It's a small black mirror. Perhaps we should look around the corners and...

It's reflective, isn't it? And the first text that you read talked about the entity, this something, being shown itself. To know itself would destroy it. What did this man know? Does anyone with more knowledge of this kind of thing know what this is, actually? It goes in a lock.

Thank you, does anyone have any more insight than that? Thanks, Grog. Thanks, Grog. Occult or anthropology, What insight than that? Thanks, Grog. Thanks, Grog. Good job, Grog. Part two? Occult or anthropology difficult. Occult or archeology difficult. Okay. Wait, do I have to pick, I have to say

which one I'm rolling? Pick one. Pick what's more favorable. Doctor. Okay. Whatever's higher, the higher number. All right, I'm going to try for the archeology. How'd we do? No? Are there any of you ladies, or?

Anybody? Antiquities, come on, man. Is this archeology, is that what you said? Archeology or occultism, or occult. Would I roll the same thing I did for occult before? Since I didn't, what before? What was that? You let me do psychology, didn't you? Yes.

As a stand-in. Yes, yes, yes. That's fair. Success from archaeology. No, no again. Success from archaeology. Yes. The symbol on the key appears to be connected to some sort of

Roman glycon cult, perhaps? Roman light cult? appears to be connected to some sort of Roman glycon cult, perhaps? Roman light cult? A glycon. Roman glycon. A later Roman deity with a snake with human hair is the whole thing. Oh.

A snake with human hair? A Roman deity. But a Roman deity, a late Roman deity. Good roll, well done. But a Roman deity, a late Roman deity. Good roll, well done. Kind of a Medusa-esque quality to it. Yes, backwards, yeah. Strange, was there anything actually relating to any sort of mechanism at all in here? The mechanism works, there was just a,

I mean, like, you could get it to work. It would make a static charge in an electric generator, but it would be, it's hand crank. And it's mundane compared to the other shit that's inside. Perhaps, and I say this with such love and affection, Tucker was a little bit too forward. It's a Model A, and that's a Tesla, yeah. Hold up, hold up.

I'm not going to be able to let this go. This deity with human hair, it had human hair? Blonde, blonde. Or earmen out of Little Peoples? Long, no, long, blonde hair. Good point, good point. Okay. Well observed. Who doesn't like lycans? Lycans are great.

Everybody likes lycans. Did we ask about human hair? No, we didn't. William, make peace, stop. Do any of us know? That would be a, that would be a, that would be a intelligence or education, education role for anybody.

Oh good, me? Yes. One moment. My education's been a bit, actually. I have a hard success. Hard success? Ooh, extreme, baby. He's, he's, he's a living, well-known poet. Well, I don't know him. I'll just say I'm his. He's a living, well-known poet.

Well, I don't know him. I'll just say I'm not serving in the war. Give this back to you. Thank you. Well done, good work. He's a popular poet. Well, I don't know what he says. Yes. Now, before we go, I have to ask, Septimus. Yes?

Is that okay? I'm beginning to think I'm in almost any sense here. I am not. I'm messing with you. Sure. I'm right here. Literally right here. No, that is basically a mirror. Oh, that's nice, yeah.

I'm so pleased. I do think we should have that at the ready for whoever's leading the charge. All I know is if we find any green glass, I'm out. Green glass? Why? Red stones, green glass, black mirrors, these are all symbols that recur throughout mythologies.

I think we're doing something more than just a delivery. Like what? I don't know, the talk of powers and beings and shadow and dark. We may be stumbling into something far greater than what Mr. Meriwether has led us to believe. You think he is part of the cult? Possibly. Maybe he's part of the New Age group, along with Franklin and Toda and Daniels.

Well, it's all very popular. It's an old age group. It's very popular for salons to speak of things like tarot and astrology and shadows and monsters. It's the trendy thing to do. I can tell you that Mr. Meriwether is an enthusiast, a collector. As the keeper of his house, I can tell you he has many of these sort of artifacts on display. I'm sure it is merely avoiding paying a high price for such an item. How long have you known Meriwether, Mr. Batcher? Actually, finest job I've had.

He's a good man. Odd. Into the shadows and such, but a good man. Has an appetite for the strange and unusual, then. A bit. Who doesn't? Yes, the successful always seem to somehow. Nobody of any worth. What's that?

The Egyptian room? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. You make your way north, up into the Egyptian Room. This section has been partitioned off to be a little more cozy and a little... There's a feeling of sacredness, I suppose, by it.

They've reconstructed a chunk of arch from what are obviously pilfered pieces of shrine and temple and attempted to reconstruct them as best as possible to give the appearance of walking into a temple. As you walk in, there are statues and tablets with hieroglyphs on either side, statues of Egyptian gods and goddesses going up to a large shrine to Isis and Osiris at the very, very front, with a couple of boxes

set to the left or right, including a couple more lanterns if anybody wants to grab one. There's two or three hanging around. You'll find them by your feet. And also, you can actually turn that one on if you like. If you hit the button once, it does light up. Button? I will as well. Not that you need it right now, but yeah.

Click it one more time. Does it flicker? Yeah, click it one more time. One more time again. There you go. I double-click it again. As this arcane light extinguishes and replaces it with, there we go. Also, as we're walking,

I'm coming no closer than 10 feet to Badger. Sure. For the smell or the occult gem? And do remember these are hot, so be careful. Poison. Hot to touch, I've burned my hands on these. And these, of course, are electric, but the real thing is hot enough that I briefly thought

it would be fun to get the real thing, then I remember that I burned myself the last time. I don't want to do that. There you go. Locked boxes, boxes with keyholes. the real thing, then I remember that I burned myself the last time I did it. There you go. A very strange appearance. Locked boxes, boxes with keyholes. Locked box. Take a look around. See what you see. Use either a spot hidden or just a straight

intelligence check if you don't want to get too deep into things. Let's go with that. I will search for my jade. A spot hidden will get me something better, I'm assuming. It'll get something a little odder if you're looking for odder. I got a success spot hidden. Single expense for a spot?

I also did a success for a spot hidden. I also did a success for a spot hidden. Let me find my notes. Looking for odder, looking for just things? Jade, specifically. No jade to be found that you can see, although there are a couple crates that are closed, and I'm sure if you asked, you could pry them open.

Okay. I'm looking for a box with a keyhole. You find no box with a keyhole, but you do find, again, a couple crates, a couple lanterns, and actually, there is a worker's toolkit. Ooh! So, sitting that you can purloin. I don't know where I put that,

or else I would give you your props. Although they're just adorable and not really useful. I'm looking for one that might be what we're searching for. You do not see anything immediately, but again, you haven't opened the caskets yet. Is anybody, and did you do a roll as well? Not yet.

Spotted and 45. Yes. Hard success. A hard success. Nice. Okay, you, what you notice as you were walking through this exhibit is that there's something off about the statue of Isis.

Something off? There's something unusual. The statue itself? Mm-hmm. Normally, the crown goes into a pair of horns that are holding a red sun or a gold sun. This sun is black. Is it reflective? A bit from where you are, but you would have to get closer.

I go to examine. Is the statue reachable, is it not? You can get up onto it, yeah. It's slightly bigger than human size, but you can get up and probably inspect and touch it if you were so inclined. Yes, I'd like to inspect and touch it, see if the sun circle comes off. A daughter pocket?

Is something amiss? Yes, this image of Isis is not a normal symbology. Someone has, for some reason, made this differently. I need to see what this is. Are you trying to get all the way up there? Yes, could you give me a lift? I suppose.

So you're going to try and lift, and you're going to try and dislodge it. Make a... I just want to see, actually, I want to see if it is attached as a statue should be, or if it is loose. Okay, you can just make a standard strength check to lift him up there, and then. Black sun.

Make a, it is a black sun. Make an intelligence check. Extreme success. Extreme success, you've got him well handled. Intelligence. Just an intelligence check. What is that? Go, talk about it.

12 times. Extreme. Ooh! Ooh! He's smart. Dark pocket. Much like a piece of campaign furniture, this statue is in fact designed to come apart in pieces from its original design.

This mirror is big. I mean, it's a much larger than that tiny one that you found. Do you have any similarity to this? Uh, yes. Not, I mean, there are obvious differences, and if you're close enough to examine it, you probably can already see it's not the flat,

it's not the flat black that you're used to. There seems to be, this piece has a little bit more of a concave build to it, it's not a flat piece, almost like a dish. And it's also, there's something about it, it's been treated in some way with some chemical, perhaps, and you can almost make out, it's been treated in some way with some chemical, perhaps, and you can almost make out, there's like some scripting on it,

but it's very, very hard to see. Oh. How are we doing, Doctor? There's writing on what is supposed to be a sun. Is there any way to read it? Do you need more light? Pass up a lantern or bring it down here? Can we bring it down?

You can make an attempt. Wait, how heavy is that? You're not? You have no idea how heavy it is. Oh god. Do it. Do it. Are you going to make a strength check?

I'm going to make a strength check. Make a, yeah, strength check with difficulty. It is difficulty. Oh, all right. Uh-oh. This is not good. This is bad. 40 strength, 17. Ooh!

Lucky fucking rushes. You have lifted it, and so you're now holding it. Make a dexterity check with difficulty. Wobble wobble wobble. Oh, fuckballs. No, that's a bad failure. Why did the man who needs a cane, because of a war injury. Fair enough.

Oh, you need the cane, I thought it was just an affectation. I thought so, too. I mean, I'll try to dive and catch if it falls, if it comes to that. There's a tumble happening here. There's a bit of a tumble. Do you want to try and, who are you, are you trying to catch people or objects?

Objects. Yeah. Okay, this is going to be a disadvantage, disadvantage, dexterity. Dexterity. Dexterity at disadvantage. Oh my gosh, so under 30 at disadvantage. I would also like to run for it. Yeah, can we all make a dive?

No. Can I make throw bodies? I mean, I think he got in, and I'm kind of, this is not football. Yes. Crash. So, sadly, oh no. I want to do it.

But is it metal? Shit. It was not metal. It was glass. And it shatters loudly. I rush to the door to see if anyone has heard. Lantern's off. Wait, is it light in this room?

It's still light. I was still like, fuck it, lantern's off. I love the double click. This thing is ruined. Completely and utterly ruined. Ah, damn it. Does anyone that's very socially adept want to maybe skitter out and see if...

Mr. Whalen on the way. Mr. Whalen, you don't, are you listening for him? Yes. Roll listen. I'll run to the door. I should just, um... Light it up. Ow. It's okay.

It happens, you know. Sometimes you shatter. Um. Light it up. Oh. It's okay. It happens, you know. Sometimes you shatter. Shatter artifacts. It's Egyptian artifacts. Seems fine. Hmm. Yeah, I don't hear anything. All right. Are you still listening?

I'm going to go to the entrance of this room, just sort of dudley moor against the side of the doorframe in case anyone comes. I think we should make quick work of what we were looking for in here and then leave. I start... Yeah? I go with him. I just try to brush the shattered shit

underneath something. Suddenly there's a popping sound out of nowhere. And the lights begin to flicker a bit. Oh. And suddenly the power goes out, just like that. You are now in the dark other than your lanterns. Is everyone all right? This doesn't work, does it? I mean. Nightmare fuel.

What does it? What do you mean, does it work? Is there a way I can use this to generate light? I mean, technically speaking, yeah, you know how this device works. So, that by its nature turns heat into electricity, so you would need some sort of energy or heat source to connect it to, and then you would have to wire it

into the main wiring plug that you saw earlier. You could bypass it, you looked at it long enough to know that you could absolutely bypass it, especially with the tools you now have, but you would need to create some sort of heat. Heat? That may be enough, possibly something a little heavier, though.

Ida, what did you do to the lights? I didn't do anything to the lights. You saw I was right on this crate. Well, we have lanterns. It may have shorted. Perhaps this is maybe a little less, uh... Conspicuous. Yes.

The building is in disarray, probably just shorted. I could go back and try to... Shh! Anything? Everything's a little off. Can I reach down and grab a few of the shattered pieces of this thing and shove them into the bag along with the...

You may. I look into the darkness and to the shadows and start paying attention to the shadows. They're very dark. Can I do a listen roll? You can do a listen roll. Ooh, yeah. I think I got that.

What's a 50? I'm not good at math. Even though I'm an engineer, I did an extreme then. Extreme! Extreme! Extreme! Definitely the music that was coming from the main party seems a little muffled.

Perhaps there's actually the short cause some problems in other parts of the building. That would explain that problem. In the distance, there's, I mean, maybe it's just your, maybe it's just adrenaline, but the building is settling a little. Yeah, it's nothing unusual. You can hear a little bit more than normal, though,

because the power that runs the fountain seems to have been cut. But you don't hear anybody moving around out there. Well, let's get on with it, then. Might I suggest, between the Roman glycon symbol and the fact that the casket we're looking for is limestone, perhaps the Roman room might be... Agreed. Because it seems like they're placing items in the realms that they are connected to.

Seems like as good an idea as any, shall we? As we exit the Egyptian room, so the fountain is no longer making sound. No. Is there water in the bottom of... Well, there's still water in it. Standing water. The Roman room, so the fountain is no longer making sound. No. Is there water in the bottom of? Well, there's still water in it, but the pressure hoses have obviously been cut. That's unfortunate, I'll have to be a bit quieter. Let's check the Roman room.

If we don't find it there, we can come back and check these crates. Careful. I'll meet you. There is a restlessness growing. A what? Restlessness? Restlessness in the air. You're probably just sensing my frustration.

Let's move. We're moving to the Roman room. Moving towards the Roman room. Everyone make a stealth roll. I'll set, I'll set, I'll set. A what make? Stealth. Oh god, terribly shit, oh shit. What for me? Stealth. Oh god, terribly.

Got it. Super fail. How many successes, how many fails? Success. Success, success, fail. I love it, success, fail, fail. 50-50, considering where we are in the game, I'm gonna let it slide.

Woo hoo! Okay! You may not be so lucky later on. Not so I could know what that meant. No. Tentacles. So, moving on to the Roman Room. Where is my Eldritch Warrior? The Roman Room

has been... It's completely empty. Honestly, there's not a lot of Roman antiquities in here. It's also very hard to see, because it's very dark. You're only doing this by oil light, by lanterns. The Roman Room has been overtaken by crates. There's a couple antiquities, a few helmets, a few other things. You would have to go in deeper to see if there's,

I don't necessarily know what you're looking for, but you would have to do a very, it would be a difficult investigation of the room with the current light level. Are there any statues? There are no statues in the Roman Room. That's odd. That is odd. Maybe they're not out of the crates.

We'll keep an eye out. Perhaps they're Roman. Ba-dum-bum. The building. Oh! Don't do that, you guys. Don't do that. It's a Weeping Angelship. Again, let's at least open one of these up. Yeah, can I check the labeling on the crates

to see if any of it corresponds with the shipping paperwork that I had to do? Yes, that's very clever, actually. That will give you a slightly easier time. You can take a minute and just do a straight intelligence roll to see if this matches any of the numbers that you put forward. Come on, pockets.

Dark pockets. Oh no. How bad of a failure? Six over my intelligence. Oh, six, okay, so that's not a huge failure. Is it a luck spending? You could, okay, that's actually a thing, this is a thing you can do. You can spend luck, thank you for What?

You can spend luck. You can spend a thing of rolls. Although you only have a certain amount of luck, so if he spent six, then it would go down from whatever your current luck level is. I got so much! I wasn't going to let you start using that until this point, but no, this is the correct point, well done. Thank you for So I can spend luck to succeed, or to reroll?

You can push a number down by that number. Right, so if he spends six luck. And push it down to my intelligence. That's cool. Is there any limitation to that? Could you blow it all in one go, not that I'm going to? As far as I know. I think it's just, but then you only have a certain number.

Yeah, sure. So if my intelligence is 70, I gotta push it down to 69 to succeed? Or is it 70 or below? 70 or below, so as you can, yeah, I believe it's 70. I was waiting, I was like, is anyone going to say nice? Equal or.

Equal or. Okay. So. Or, oh no, you have to be one below, I'm so sorry. Okay, so, so. Yeah. So yeah, I'll push it down. It's all the other six. I'll use seven luck. Okay, so. So yeah. So yeah, I'll push it down. It's all the other six.

I'll use seven luck. Okay. Thankfully, you take a second. You're a little thrown by everything. It's very dark. It is very dark. And the moonlight is being, for some strange reason, a little more uncooperative than before.

Passing clouds, maybe, something. It's just, it's making it difficult to pay attention. None of these numbers correspond with, on the crates to anything that you would recognize. Okay. Should we go back and check the crates in the Egyptian room, just in case? I suppose so.

Are we looking at numbers? If you do, I could try and contact Mr. Whalen, let him know everything's okay. I could also try to jerry-rig this into the system and get some light back, unless we feel comfortable doing this by lantern, although I'll need to, would all of these lanterns be enough?

But then we'd be wasting our only light source. Yeah. I'll head with Mr. Pockets back to the Egyptian room to check the labels on the crates and help him there. He didn't go to medical school for you to call him Mr. Pockets. Oh, I'm sorry. Don't go to medical school.

I didn't go to medical school either. Period. P-H, not M-D. So the two of you are going to split off to the Egyptian? What are the rest of you going to do? I'll go find Mr. Whalen. You're going to walk towards Mr. Whalen, and what are the rest of you doing?

To re-tip. I will also go, I'll go with Mr. Whalen. Excellent. Yes. Go charm him? Yes, we have a rapport. I suppose we'll be right back. Weyden. Excellent. Yes. Go charm him. Yes, we have a rapport. I suppose we'll be right back. I shall keep you company. Start with the two of you, then. Start with the two of you.

You go to the Egyptian room to, actually, no, we're going to do you last. I'm making some decisions. All right, who are the other group? I'm going to the Byzantine port. Shall we? I don't know, might as well. You want to push on ahead? That's a bit of a backtrack, but otherwise

we're just sitting here without. Don't you have the key? The Roman room key. Oh yes, can I look for anything that has a... You can, make a, yeah, just a... Roman room, right? Pick either a mutant or just a straight intelligence. Straight intelligence, because I'm looking

for something specific. Thank you for reminding me. Oh, I crushed it, though. Straight intelligence, because I'm looking for something specific. Thank you for reminding me. Oh, I crushed it, though. You crushed it. I crushed it. There is, in fact, in the corner, a large metal chest, ornate, with silver inlays, and a strange coiling, like they've hammered the silver out

to look almost like a reptile skin. It's beautiful, and there are three cut pieces of stone set into the top in sort of a cross fashion of red, black, and green. Oh, look at this. I bet the Haki might fit in here. Shall I pop it open? You want to go ahead now, and it's just the two of us, or?

Oh, what could happen? The casket might be in here. I take several steps back. RP! Shall I? Fuck it. Yes. Click. You open it.

Mm-hmm. You turn the key. The double question, yes! And I lean in. From just behind you, just out of the corner of your eye, you just hear a. Make a sanity roll. What?

A sanity roll! Come on, baby! Oh, I fucking crushed it, dude. Sorry. Wow. So sane? Sorry. Kid storing stones or glass is terrible. Stop trying to make sanity rolls happen, and not be trying to happen.

That's a six. You are... Iron flat. What-meaning trap. What's the phrase? Some of us are just so sharp we could cut ourselves. Where's Sanity? You open the casket. Sanity.

What's inside? Well... Oh god. Let me consult. You find... Tickle me Cthulhu. Which of my... He have a young Cthulhu for talking! you find... Tickle me Cthulhu. Which of my... Oh!

He had a young Cthulhu for talking! You find... an odd stone, another red stone, but this one has a strange, almost snake-like, tentacled shape to it. Another one of the crystals.

I take another few steps back. Oh, you don't like these, right? Here, is there something? Was this actually in a bag? It was in a bag. I'll slip it in. Very well done. So you found that. I feel better.

So, moving on to Travis. I wish that I did. You are going to walk towards the front. Along with Harlan. Oh, the two of you are going that way. One second. Captain? Yes.

I'd like to thank you for your discretion. But of course. What? I'm sorry. Mr. Meriwether was grateful for your participation in this venture. It's a bit of a lark, isn't it? It's really why I agreed. Mommy and Daddy don't need to know about the necklace, though.

Still, there are definite bonuses to this little adventure. Hmm. So really, I should be thanking Mr. Meriwether for finding me red-handed with that necklace. Yes, I think that would go a long way, and also, any other bonuses you may find, I feel inclined to speak on behalf of Mr. Meriwether

that you might be able to keep them. Thank you, that's very generous. Why are you here? Why, I'm here to make sure that this car stays on the rails, as it were. And to assist, of course. Really? Yes. A very tough, very capable former captain,

a veteran, working as a butler for Mr. Merriweather, an eccentric American. It's very unusual, don't you think? Yes, well, I do anything and everything that Mr. Merriweather requires. Keep his house, check his financial records, books, look after his interests and affairs. He's a good man.

A bit strange, but good. It's like a script that you keep reciting from. It's a good one. Wouldn't you agree that there are dark corners in this world? Easier to find than the light. Everybody's got their dark corners. There's so much sexual tension. I know!

Buff Alfred. No, no, who's 40 now? Oh my god, she's 40. She's like, got like a hanky and is like. Wouldn't you agree? The halitosis. Last time on Gentleman Jack. He's been very good to me.

I've had a string of bad luck for a while. Well, I hope your fortunes turn, Captain. I've had a string of bad luck for a while. Well, I hope your fortunes turn, Captain. Thank you, Hanna. Well, Ida, if you're looking for a heat source, I think you ought to talk to these two. So. We approach the guard position. From your,

since you're only guard using the oil lamp. Just one. Yeah, he's not, he's not directly at the post. You don't see him at the post. He said he wouldn't leave his post. Yes. Would you like to get closer?

He said it in such a his post. Yes. Would you like to get closer? Yes. He said it in such a friendly way. I'm sure. Why would he leave? As if it'd be a lark. Yes, well, go check his station. You walk up to the guard station at the front, and you take a look around,

and you do see Mr. Weyland. He's actually a little bit off. He appears to be staring. You can only see him from the back because he's staring through the glass with his own lantern up, apparently just looking outside. Mr. Weyland, I'm sorry to disturb you.

I'm sure the racket must have... What are you doing? Nothing to worry about. Just go about your business. Is there something outside we should be aware of? Nothing to worry about. Why did the lights go out so suddenly? Nothing to worry about.

Just go about your business. You mentioned that already. Is there anything we can do for you, sir? Roll a sanity check. Oh god. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Do I have to roll below it? You have to roll below it. Okay. You did. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Do I have to roll below it? You have to roll below it.

Okay. You did. I did. Oh, I won over, I won over. Uh-oh. Use your luck, use your luck. I'm going to get a little more. Push that shit down! Okay, I'm going to push it down. You got to push it two down.

I'm going to push it down. Push it two down. Okay, okay. Push it real good. I will say it, Katie. Repress that shit! Push it real good. I will say it, Caden. Repress that shit! Push it real good. What would I call this?

Yeah, I'm not going to give you anything. Nothing to worry about. Just go about your business. It's spooky in spooky. I know! Me versus Badger want to do two different things. Let's go about our business then, shall we? Yes, let's. If you need anything, we'll be looking for a coach.

He's not moving, and he's not turning around. He's still looking outside. Lantern raised. Just looking through the window. Can I slowly work my way to the right? Can I see his reflection in the glass? No. Oh!

I can't? Or he doesn't have one? No. You can see your reflection in the glass, but you don't see his. What? I'm sorry. What does that mean? I don't know, but my head got tingly. Make another sanity roll.

No! All right. You got it, you got it. You're so sane? got tingly. Make another sanity roll. No! All right. You got it, you got it. You're so sane. You're so sane. You told me to go about your business. Fail. He failed. He failed. I think I failed.

Pretty significant fail. Do we start this now, or I can, it's been a while, I'm trying to remember. It's a failure, I think your sanity lowers is the first thing that happens, if I recall. But not by the amount that you failed by, right? Or you roll, you roll for your sanity points, right? Yeah, you have to roll a d4.

That's right, I remember this. Come here, d4, help me. What was it? Do you need it? Yeah. One. Oh, okay. You lose two sanity points. Okay.

Now it's going to be that much easier for your sanity to start going wrong. And you've gained a compulsion. You are going to have to, you are going to need to check your reflection in every mirror you come across, because that's fucked up. I'd like to leave now. Yes, all right.

We'll go about our business. Meanwhile. Checking good old fashioned labels. You are in the Egypt. Egyptian looking at the Greeks. And while we are checking these labels, Dr. Potter, I have been quite consumed with a thought ever since you brought it up.

I've been thinking about your whole black, red, and green theory. Yes. Yes. And the... Would you like to read my pamphlet? Oh, you've read my pamphlet. I have read your pamphlet. I was concerned when I first met you, because I didn't want you to know that I believe you are more

spot on than perhaps you even realize. I think it's for the best that the general public think that your writings are fiction. It keeps the peace. But, Miss O'Neil, I mean, if there are truths that are hidden, we must know them. Only can we, the only way we can protect ourselves

is to know what we are protecting ourselves from. I agree, and it is for people like us to discover that. And we can protect the general public at large. Back to your theory. Excellent. The ulterior motive that I am here for, the monks of Lakir have asked me to find a relic. A green relic. A jade planchette.

Ah. They themselves are already in possession of a black chalice and one of those red iris stones, as we have seen here already. So the jade, the green glass, that. Yes. Is the only thing missing. I honestly feel quite ignorant

that I didn't even put it together myself, but I'm glad we are here with a librarian and a doctor. Anyway. Perhaps it's in one of these cases. Yes, we check the cases. You check the cases one of these cases. Yes. We check the cases. You check the cases. Check the cases.

Do we have to roll? Roll an intelligence check. Just intelligence. Just intelligence. Straight intelligence. Check the cases. Check the cases. Do you want the booze?

Booze of success. Success. None of these are what you are looking for. However. Oh, fuck. Out of the corner of your eye, as you're checking the final case, you, not the corner of your eye, this would have been

just out of earshot behind the statue that you so recklessly broke. Oh, forgot about that. Comes a sound. Did you hear that? I do. But there's no one else in here but Tass. Ida?

Mr. Goodfellow? From behind the statue, just barely in the light from what you're casting, you can almost make out two people standing in the corner, and they're not facing you. They're facing the wall. Mm-mm.

And we'll be back after this. No! You guys are fucked. I don't have, I don't believe I have any mid-game announcements, and if I do, I will give them after the break, because I do not have a thing here, but we're gonna take a moment and collect ourselves and have a stiff drink of something and we'll see you. You're listening to the Critical Role Podcast Network.

If you're enjoying yourself, please consider helping us make more of these haunted jaunts by checking out our shop. You'll find T-shirts, pins, dice sets, and a plethora of other curiosities. Now, let us return to the escalating horror. Well, the group is a little scattered at the moment. Touch wood. So, let's start with the two of you. Mother, people standing in the corner!

Okay, I'm okay. What are you going to do? How about, go, go, go, go. Yes, let's go. I want to leave. Let's join the others, shall we? Yes, let's find them. Did you see him?

Who? Mr. Weyland, yes. Yes, he was acting very strangely. But he wasn't in the window. There was no reflection in the window, you saw. I'm not crazy, I looked and there was no reflection. He was not there. You're under a lot of stress.

I am. This isn't going very well at all. It's fine, it's fine, let's rejoin the others. It's fine, yes. Where are you headed? To the Egyptian, no, to the Roman room? Where did we last see them? What was the place at the moment?

I am not here to tell you. They were going to. Fuck a duck, where the Roman room? Where would I see them? What was the place at the moment? I am not here to tell you. They were going to the. Fuck a duck, where are we going? Some of them are going to the Egyptian room. Let's go there. And leave. Let's head there. Heading to the Egyptian room. What do the people want? We will never see each other again.

We were the Romans. You two are in the Roman room. We just got the ruby thingy. We just got a ruby thingy. We just got a ruby thingy. Let's push ruby. Okay. Where to? What are you doing? It's been a minute, hasn't it?

It has. You know, I am very aware that you are not a fan of the intangible, but I will tell you this truthfully, look me in the eye, you can believe me, I am very good at reading the room, and the room is turning. You're not really good at reading the room, though, are you? Mm-hmm.

Look, you were worried about this chest. I opened it, it's fine. I am a little worried about us getting discovered sneaking about here, though, so maybe we should find the others and try to get on with it. Very well. Okay. You like the lead off to you. Great.

In the Egyptian room, did they say? Yes. All right, so off we go to the Egyptian room. Oh my god, her bell. Doctor? Yes. There are, they're hard to see, these two people with their back towards you.

They are well-dressed. They're at least wearing, one's wearing a suit. The other one is probably wearing a suit. It's very dark, they're not coming into the light. Ms. O'Neil, since our mission is to not be discovered, might I suggest we leave before they turn around and discover us? They leave before they turn around and discover us. Is there an echo in here?

I'm an archivist, not an adventurer. I don't think they're going to turn around or they're particularly concerned about discovering us. I hear that echo, too. They're casually walking back behind the statue. What do you mean, walk back? They're moving? They are. They are stepping very quietly behind the statue into the statue. We may walk back, they're moving? They are. They are stepping very quietly behind the statue

into the shadows. They were always in the shadows, they're now just deeper in. They have never faced you. How long until the rest of us get back? You guys took some long conversations, you did not. Did we? I'm afraid to leave, what if they, um.

I'm afraid to stay, what if they, um. Now we're echoing. Oh, okay. You hear a tapping from outside the room. Make a sanity check, both of you. I don't want it. Ooh, can I push luck? I can push luck on this, right? Can I believe push luck on sanity checks?

Wait, you know what? I don't know, actually. I don't have that in front of me. I already did. Yeah, but that was before shit got weird in front of me. I already did. Yeah, but that was before shit got weird. So push and luck are slightly different. So push is you can roll again,

and if you fail a second time, it's worse, or you can spend luck, but I don't know if you can spend luck on sanity points. I don't think you can spend luck on sanity points. So if you want, you can try to roll again. You failed. Roll a d4. I believe a good doctor. Two. Two.

Take three points away from your sanity. Okay. Um. You are going to have a slight disadvantage with your dexterity, because you keep thinking someone is breathing on your neck. And you keep turning around, because you are being followed, and it's just going to make you a little twitchy.

There's maybe someone just always standing right behind you, but they keep vanishing before you turn around. Suddenly, the rest of everybody else shows up. You also failed. You also failed. Roll a d4. Oh shit. Did you see that?

Currently. Oh. You take three points away from your sanity. What am I going to do to you? I had a nickel for every time I heard that. How much did you have? 75 cents. I think you're feeling a little bit of blame for this system. I think you're feeling a little bit of blame for this system, and I think you're starting to believe

that maybe you were onto something, I think you were onto something with your little pamphlet. I think that you are going to start having a little bit of connective compulsion. So, when you start talking about your shadow creatures, not before, but any time you start talking, you're going to keep talking about it until someone calms you down.

It's just going to start flowing out of you like a bit of a ramble until you run out of words. Is it happening now? Well, next time it comes up. I see. So, it's going to be interesting. You all enter the room, and it fills with light from four lanterns.

Why are you following me? Have you been here the whole time? We just got here. Yeah, we just came back. Well, now you need to leave. Is everyone okay? There are people here. Who? But they're not real people. They're dark creatures, they're shadow people.

They're shadow people who are very well dressed. Okay, take a breath, take a breath. It's okay. I think strange things were happening to us as well. What, what happened? Mr. Wayland, he wouldn't look at us, and he had... You're repeating the same thing. Nothing to say here.

No reflection in the window. I know how that sounds. I know what I saw. No reflection. I saw us. I couldn't see him. But he didn't turn around, did he? No.

Neither did he. They never turn around. The shadow people never turn around. They are always facing the other way, because they're your shadows. What do you mean? What do you mean, shadow people? And you think it's a coincidence that there has been a theme of reflections?

Because I broke the mirror. I broke it. Wait, wait, wait. I take the bag out, and I start removing pieces of the mirror. I broke it! Wait, wait, wait! I take the bag out and I start removing pieces of the mirror from it. Should we look more closely at it? Ida, bring out that mirror you have as well. This before? Yes.

Well, reflections can reveal intentions. Can we see any of the words in the broken? It's shattered. It's safety glass. What happens if I take that mirror and hold it towards the reflective shards? It can't look at it. Nothing yet, but are you waving that mirror around a little bit?

Yes. And I'm kind of doing the jailhouse thing. Make an occult or an intelligence roll. Okay. Up to you. Intelligence. Success. Just for fun, add a spot hidden.

Oh, failure. Okay. While the mirror is swinging around... No, wait. No. That's... It's lower? Equal?

No, no, no. No, it's not. Okay. While you're swinging the mirror around, something catches your eye. You don't know what, but there's a momentary glimpse in the black mirror when you're rolling it around. I turn around.

Do I see anything where the reflection would be? I mean, you're looking in the mirror. Where are you looking? I mean, I'm looking to see if there's something that would be where I saw it. Where are you looking in the room with the mirror? Like, are you looking at yourself in the mirror? No, no, no, I'm kind of angling it

and looking behind me. Behind you, there's nothing where, I mean, like, unless, like, what's behind you? I don't know. May I? The statues are broken. Yes. I'm going to look towards the statue

that the glass mirror broke where they describe seeing people. In the reflection, you see two people with gaunt faces staring at you hungrily. What? Oh god. Are you seeing that? A man and a younger gentleman staring at you hungrily. What? Oh god. A man and a younger gentleman,

and they are, it's almost as if they're held back and they're just teeth and eyes, just hungry. Like they haven't been fed in so long. Is there anyone physically standing behind you? I look with bare eyes for a moment, and then I'm like. It's too dark to tell. Is it a trick of the light, maybe? Is there an artifact or something in this room?

Is it a painting or something? What is happening? There are two individuals standing behind me right now. It's the shadow people. Can I hold my lantern? Mm-hmm. Carefully. The shadow vanishes, and they scurry.

They're just gone. Fuck! What's that? What was that? Do you see? Is there a portal, or a a door or anything behind the statue? Is there a wall behind the statue or is it an open space? You have to go back there to tell. The mirror is not very good.

All right, very clearly, we need to get the lights on. And look, I don't, I'm sorry, I never- The casket is not in this room. We need to leave this room. All right, let's get out. Get out. We need light in. I don't mind the idea of getting some light on. Yes.

Except I'm going to need, I have to take a look at it. Captain Badger? Yes? Can I see that gemstone, that red one? Yes, of course. I take the bag out and remove the crystal. Codswell and I found another one.

What? Yes, we did. Your key, it opened a chest in the Roman room. Oh, with three stones on it, actually, you mentioned before, black, red, and green. Black, red, and green stones. You said those were indicators of? Coins. Yeah.

And the monks that I work for, the monks of Lakia, they sent me in search of a jade planchette. They've spoken very highly and have invested in some deep protection towards a black chalice and one of these red iris stones. The theme continues. I... It took me a moment, but I recall the monks having some sort of meditation process

with this, and that these can be activated in some way. Activated? What do you mean? I don't know. My understanding is limited. Do they produce heat? Yes, exactly. Do I have?

Or some sort of energy, I don't know. Make a cult or a archeology roll for that. Okay. That's 50. 12. Out of 50. 12 out of 50? You have definitely read of these stones,

of versions of these stones creating light, heat, cold. They've been mentioned as some sort of almost elemental keystones that can be charged via ritual or meditation. And you said we found another. Yes, in the chest in the Roman room. Well, let's see it. Is it the same or different? It's slightly different. There's different markings on it.

I don't really know what they mean, not my expertise, but... The ones that the monk have have a spiral on it. This is more of a, I don't know. What about Septimus, do you? Star of a kind. How do you feel about this stone? He doesn't like it. Can we activate them and get ourselves some light?

What do you mean? Because the light will drive away the shadow people. The shadow people are struck by the light. Dr. Pockett. Sorry. Get a hold of yourself. Look, to get the lights back on, I either need to see if there's something I can do

with the circuitry that's already in the machine arcade, or I need to attach my device with some sort of heat source. So if you're telling me that these can be activated to produce heat, then that would help, but I don't understand how a stone could produce heat. Septimus, could I ask a favor? Could you please hold one of these stones and tell us what you feel?

I would really rather not hold either of them. We'll have luck. But I think things are clearly turning here. Yes, I'm sorry, is this something you know that you're not telling us? No, no, I mean, he was talking about feeling the room and presence and the lights are going out and he didn't have a reflection and he won't shut up about the shadow people. I just want to put maybe the right items in the hands of someone that might be able to tell us something we don't know.

There is most certainly an ill feeling in the air now. It is undeniable, and I am beginning to feel the worm has turned air, and we may better to have made our exit. We can't. Why would you need casket? We need that casket. For what? For Mr. Merriweather. For what purpose?

I don't know! Is it so important that this? Mr. Goodfellow? Yes? What did the people look like in the mirror? Um, lean. Hungry. Not entirely human, perhaps. The village of the hungry people.

What? That's what the monks told me. The monster, the entity that they were fighting, that they were keeping at bay. The reason why they wanted the planchette. Maybe if we find the planchette, we can stop this. This is difficult. May I see that mirror, please?

Take a quick look at the statue. Are they there again? How well lit is it right now? Come with me. I'll go with her. Yep. Two lighters. Trying to bend it so that we can look at the statue and behind the statue. Is it your lighting beneath it?

Yeah. There's nobody there. Look, I'm going to get the light on. If anyone would like to join me, they're welcome. Yeah. See if you can heat this up. I try to spot anything unusual, but I poke it. I, you know, feel it. I don't know what I'm looking for. It would be a,

it would be an occult roll to figure out how to activate it. Because I have no, my roll before, there's no, I have knowledge of it, but I don't know how to activate it. No, you could make an archeology roll with difficulty, with disadvantage, and get lucky. Maybe you read something a while ago. Okay, archeology or occult?

Whatever's better. I'll say archeology with disadvantage, occult without. Okay. Archeology's probably still better, right? Is your occult like a five, or is it? No, they're both the same. Oh, okay. Big money.

41. Mm. 41. Occult, occult. And what's your occult level? 50. Ooh. You know that it requires, it's a meditative process,

so it's anybody who's trained in any sort of occult meditative practice, astral projection, tulpa creation, anything like that would be... Anybody who has got some basic understanding of how to manifest magical energies would be able to activate one of these stones. To what effect?

We don't know. Could you tell us what this planchette is, what it looks like? It's made and crafted of jade and almost has a compass-like structure to it, but has a hollow orifice in the middle. The green thing that you used. Yeah, well done, actually,

considering that I don't think you've seen it. No. Well done. Just what they told me. Ms. Coswell, the green piece that you saw. It was on a chest. It had a black, a red, and a green piece on it. Did it look like it could be made of jade? It was, it was, yeah, they were traditional stones.

It was more of a, it was like a nice stone inlay. It looked jade, sure, yeah. Well, should we all move together and take a look? Do we really want to keep moving in darkness? No. I say light first. You're right, light. Oh, who can, who wants to take a moment? I mean, you're...

Mr. Goodfellow, you don't know any sort of meditation that could activate the stones? It's more like a tuning fork. That sounds like exactly what we need, though. Why don't you give it a crack? What's the worst that could possibly happen?

Don't ask that, please. I need a heat source to get the light back on. I cannot promise, but I will try. Is there anything we can do to aid you in this? Watch my back. All right. Usually done. Done. Are you doing this here, or are you doing this

at the generator, at the generator conduit point? That seems like a leading suggestion to maybe do it this way. Let's stab a little Rosie, maybe, first. Get the fuck out of here, please. Because if we activate that, it will... We don't know how long it'll last, maybe. I was just curious.

Let's move quietly, whether it's spirits or spirits, Activate that, it will. We don't know how long it'll last, maybe. I was just curious. Let's move quietly, whether it's spirits or the guards, I don't want to be caught. And I would keep that glass handy. Let's head to the arcade. From the Egyptian room. We have four person strength fighter. Is it?

Well, so I assume we're going to move with stealth. I do this. And with your lanterns. And with your lanterns. Assumption until the end of our lives. So first off, I will have everybody make a stealth roll. And three. Yep.

Failure. Failure. Three. Do we have? No. Four failures. Oh, stealth. I have both. Oh shit.

So. Wait, what? Nice playing with you guys. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Cool. As you slowly and quietly make your way to the machine gallery, you huddle together, get together closely with the mirror and the lanterns,

trying your best to, I imagine move is a bit of a armadillo through the area. What'd you say, a human centipede? Oh no, yes. I may reroll, see human centipede? Oh no, yes. I may reroll, see if we can. No, no, no, no! It was actually invented by the ancient Egyptians.

You're being careful. You're keeping your eyes peeled. The one thing that you're possibly not paying attention to, though, are the shadows cast by the moon on this beautiful steel structure of glass. And as you are gingerly making your way there, Hannah, your foot falls into one of these shadows. You just step into it, not a big deal.

You're just stepping in. Suddenly, two hands grab you from the shadows and attempt to pull you deeper in. Oh! About to get pulled into the shadow, what are you going to do? Um. Jiu-jitsu, jiu-jitsu.

Jiu-jitsu, jiu-jitsu. Yeah, I kick out, I strike out with my leg. We're cutting the papers! Fruity chicken, fruity chicken! I strike out with my leg and move the lantern. Okay, I'm looking at my combat thing. Okay, that's a... Where's my combat?

Here we go. Surprise attack. So, what's your dexterity? 80. 80. Oh, that's good. So, attempt to use... Attempt to... We're going to do a maneuver. What are you attempting to do, then?

You're going to fight back? Yeah, I kick out and shine the lantern. So roll a percentile die. I'm not going to welcome our dark horses. I'm just going to fight them. Come on. Come on. What'd you get? How much did you lose? 86.

Spin luck. I can spin luck? How much did you lose? 86. Oh. Spin luck. I can spin luck? Or you can push. Oh, push. But pushing would be pretty risky at this moment, I think, because if you fail again, he can do something gnarly to you.

Oh, right. But I mean, it's up to you. I'm gonna push. You're gonna push or use what? You are grabbing and getting sucked in right now. Does anybody? Yeah, yeah, yeah, reach out! I grab her. You're gonna grab her? Yeah, yeah, yeah, reach out! I grab her.

You're gonna grab her? Yeah. Make a strength check. I succeed, 39, hard success. Yeah. You have a hold of her, she is starting to get pulled, and you are pulling against her, but there are two people with their backs towards you who have contorted enough that their hands have grabbed her

and are trying, not even looking at her, to just claw her in right now. I'm gonna let her go. You've got a hold of her, but you haven't pulled her out of the shadow. What do you do? Anybody? The light, the mirror. Help me! I put my lantern towards it.

You put the lanterns towards them? Yes. Yes. I'm just watching in the mirror. They are forward in the mirror. Oh! Oh! They are attempting to bite and claw and grab right now at her.

You guys put the lanterns forward? Yes. They are just, they run at a speed you cannot even contemplate, and they're gone. We need light. We need light. We need light. You are bleeding from the back. You have five health points that just took a stack of you.

What? Where are you at, by the way? Oh shit. Four. Okay. Septimus is just spinning around, trying to see if they're around. There were claws in you. Fuck it, run.

Run, run, that's what I said. There's no sense in being stealthy. All right. You make it to the, yeah, that was their one roll. You're there, what are you going to do? I go immediately to where I flip the breaker, and I try to see if there's an easy way to get it on without using this device.

Okay, I need heat now. Septimus,ist, please. Set it on the ground, set it on the ground. If anyone else has any ideas, that would be welcome. Lanterns around on the ground. Yes, make a circle. Make a circle of our lanterns around the red stone. I'm just going to.

Are the lanterns, how are you using the lanterns? Just trying to. Oh wait, are you using the lanterns? Just trying to. Oh wait, are you holding the stone? You set it on the ground. Lanterns cast shadows. Is there a way to hold the lanterns that we don't cast shadows on him? Surround us in might. Yes, if we go back to back or all together.

Oh jeez. And make a cone of. And make a cone. Clever. All right, I'll allow it. Okay, so we do a lantern pyramid. I'm going to place the mirror just above so I can see in it. Very clever.

And I am going to focus on the energy surrounding this stone and reach out to those around me. What are you going to do to the stone? What? I don't know what the fuck that does. Did your accent just change? I'm sorry, I don't know what the fuck that does. What the fuck is happening?

He's a charlatan, isn't he? Oh fuck, we're so fucked! We just need to get the fuck out of here. I knew it, I knew it! Hold on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very clever. We need to get the fuck out of here now. I it, I knew it! Hold on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very clever. We need to get the fuck out of here now. I don't know what that does, I don't know what that does,

I don't know what those things were. We need to get the fuck out of here. I had my suspicions, you fraud. Who the fuck cares what happened before? We need to go now. Wait, wait, wait, are you saying you can't activate this stone? No, he's a fucking fraud!

I'm not gonna activate a fucking stone! You have to touch it to activate it. I'm an actor! I push Septimus out of the way, and I say, take a lantern, you piece of shit! And I sit down, and I put the, kind of prop up the glass, and then I touch there, and my hands just cup the fucking both of them!

You can only do one at a time, you know that. I don't know what seems more heat-like. The one with the star. Yeah, I'll do the one with the star. All right. Pentagram. That's that one. Yeah, sure, just fucking throw them around,

and that's good. The other one, try Zeus. Try anything. I always go with star over tentacles. Then take what limited knowledge I have learned from the monks, just study into it and meditate. What's your POW score? My POW?

POW! POW! POW. POW, POW, POW. 70. Cool, just make a roll, you know what you're doing, make a roll with advantage. With advantage. This time, you know what you're doing. Okay.

What's half of 70, 35? Fuck, 37. Oh, that's good enough for now. Almost, yeah. You meditate on it. It suddenly gets very, very hot, too hot to hold, to be honest. Thankfully, yeah, it's going, but it's too hot to hold. Do I have it powered up enough, do I feel?

I'm going to just start attaching things. I would recommend putting it in something, I would recommend putting it in something so that you can manage it. Okay. Oh my god, I love you so much. Oh wow, I was gonna have to do that. Tis warm.

That's why it's squishy! Yeah. So put it in the pouch. Too hot to handle. Too cold a hole. I would recommend putting it in the pouch. We should call them ghosts or something. And now I would recommend putting the engine on top of it.

Oh, you fucking brilliant bastard. It's gonna fucking go, isn't it? Oh my god. So you're gonna have to give it a second while it powers up. No way, no way. I would get it nice and, nice and, and I would also recommend turning it

so that the audience can see. Oh right, turn it so that the wheels, there you go. Yeah, and give it a second, and you probably need to, it'll probably need to jump start in a minute just to give the wheel a little roll. Come on, you fucking bastard. Let's see if you can...

Oh! Come on! It'll take a minute, but yeah. While this is happening, it... The lights are starting to flicker on, so it's going to work. Yeah, you want to get it nice and firm there. You want to get the whole surface on the bottom.

Oh, my God. Come on! I'm using my god. Come on. It will. I'm using your accent now. Sorry. Come on, keep doing it. It's going. It's going. You might need one more little bit of love.

I think we have it. If I push down real hard, it goes. It's going. It's going. Well done. All right. Thank god somebody knows what they're up to. By the way, is she bleeding out, or are they scratches?

They're oddly acidic. You're not a useful doctor, are you? Oddly acidic? Yeah, it's more of an acid burn than anything else. Are the lights on? The lights are on. The lights are on, at least. That's really good, because the shadow people,

they don't like the light. They can't stand the light because- Doctor, shut it! Thank you, thank you, sorry. All right, what the fuck are we going to do? Yeah, what's the plan here? How long that is going to last? So, I recommend we move quickly.

We're just going to get out of here, right? Yeah, we're going to get, I'm just saying sometimes- I don't care about the castle anymore. I'm sorry, Captain. What rooms have we not been in? The Byzantine court, but we can't stay here, surely. How about the fucking exit? You've got to know when to cut and run.

You don't. Look, I've got debts across Europe, but it's not worth dying over. All right, what are you not telling us? You don't want to do this. Will you just fucking tell us already? You don't cross Mr. Meriwether. We need to deliver this item to him. I don't know, you frightened of him.

He can't do anything worse to us than what, look, did you see what happened to her? There were people. God, I'm brilliant. Coming from the shadow people with their claws. What if it's in the other room? We can make our escape, we get out of this, we never speak of it again.

Would you like to do it by yourself? I might have to. I'm leaving. I'm coming with you. Which exit are you heading for? Is there more than one? There's the guard post, there's technically the front entrance to the building, there's, you could, in theory, go to the,

although the lights are off out there. The lights are off everywhere else. There is just the place that you entered into. If we get the casket, can we stop this? Yes. You kept me. There aren't lights anywhere else, and I don't know if I can turn them on there.

We'll just fucking make a run for it. We tried that last time. I don't think there's any getting out of here. Could you try to enjoy this a little less? Perfect grid. It's fair. Are there any

other rooms we haven't gone in? Besides Byzantine. There are? Besides Byzantine? Let me get the map. The Nineveh Room. Rather large. What is it? The Nineveh Room. Yeah, bring it back. It's unfolded.

I should also mention there is an entire bazaar. There are a bunch of rooms behind the Egyptian exhibit. There's a lot you haven't seen. What's the Alhambra Courts? We're all the way back. The Alhambra Courts? The Alhambra Courts are behind the Egyptian exhibit as well.

Yep. Doctor, do you have any, do you remember seeing anything about the planchette in your papers? When this stops, do the lights stop? Only one way to find out. Yeah, let's not wait. Could you hand me the mirror?

We can use this to navigate around these corners. We'll be fine for now, right? The lights are on, so if we move quickly. The last time, the lights didn't last. And we don't know how long the power is going to last in that, so we might as well move while we can. Look, I know this doesn't seem well advised, but... Do we...

Should we split up? No. No, please. We have covered such little ground. I actually agree. Well? No, we can't go randomly. We don't have time. We don't have time! There are people out to get us.

Why don't we start with the medieval court and the Byzantine court? They're right next to each other. We can just pop in the rooms and we'll be within earshot if anything goes wrong. Can I make a... You've done the medieval court, technically. Fuck, we've done the medieval court!

Byzantine, you have not done yet, though. We haven't done Byzantine and what else? Byzantine, the baza Court, technically. Fuck, we've done the Medieval Court! Byzantine, you have not done yet, though. We haven't done Byzantine, and what else? Byzantine, the Bazaar, the Cat Show, or anything behind the Egyptian exhibit. Can I do an intelligence roll to try to remember in my paperwork if there was anything, any clues in the paperwork that tie to the things on the map that would give us a clue about where it would be?

There isn't. Actually, you know what? I'm going to give you, I'll give you an intelligence of difficulty. Okay. So we have two chances at this. Come on, Doctor. Fuck.

No. Why are you thinking that? It would have been quite a leap of logic to figure out where things were going. We need to just start moving, because I'm pretty sure since we only have two of these, that's as much time as we have. I'll walk out to the middle area

and just poke the mirror around and sort of look around. Fine. Let's run. Can I look in the mirror? Yes, you should. You're there. The mirror, something about the way that the mirror reflects makes you look weirdly gaunt. Ooh.

Can I stop looking at the mirror? Now you can. Okay, Byzantine Court. You'll probably want to check again in a minute Now you can. Okay, Byzantine Court. You'll probably want to check again in a minute. Let's run to the Byzantine Court. To the Byzantine Court. Oh, yeah, that's the closer one. Mm-hmm, that's one of the ones right next to you.

Thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun. It's like the end of Clue. You arrive at the Byzantine Court. I rip off a bottom piece of my dress, just the bottom lining, and I kind of very quickly patch her up. Do you want to try and make a medicine check to see if you can heal her a little bit? Sure. While they're doing that, can I look around for anything? You can. I will actually give a description of the Byzantine court, since we're going in here. Currently, the

exhibit is also waiting to be set up for the show, because it's just a giant mess. It is more and more crates. Traditionally, there's a wonderful huge tent that is set up made of silk and velvet, and it's wonderful, but the whole thing is kind of leaning to the side in a giant mess right now, because somebody knocked it down when they were moving all these crates into here

for the new exhibit. There are a couple interesting arcade machines around the side, in the traditional sense. There's some hand crank novelty machines, including, roll a, let's do some perception. Let's do an intelligence roll. I wish I'd have done this on my character sheet. You can scoot it forward and it should be fine.

Big success. It'll keep running, it's going to be fine for a little while. I failed the first aid check. Okay, no better. Extreme success. Extreme success for me as well. Thank you.

I'm sorry, I'm not a doctor. There might be someone in the room. There might be someone in the room? You think you see a person in the back. Hey, Badger. Yeah? You want to hold that mirror up and take a look around in here? There appears to be a man at a desk,

and he is not moving. There's a man at the desk, he's not moving. Is there anything interesting in here that we should give a shit about, or should we just leave? Is the man at the desk facing us, or facing away? He's, the desk is actually, you have him in profile. He's just sitting at a desk and he is not moving.

He is just sitting at a desk. All right. Can you watch him and everyone else? You're not close enough to really see. I will take a lantern and I will. It's lit. Oh. You're lit, the lights are on, see? He's not a shadow person?

I mean, he's not in a shadow, but he's hard to see because he's a little far away because he's behind some crates. You! You there! Don't talk to him! Go through these crates, see if there's anything in there. He's not moved, he's not responded. All right. While they do that, I want to check the labels.

All right, do the roll. I will stay on this. Fucker. What was I? It's a standard intelligence check. I need to push more luck. Okay, I'll say that, yeah, you kind of lost count. You're going to have to start again. You're really distracted.

You're also, some of the crates, you can't get to because they're without getting closer to the guy. I'll get closer to the guy. I've got the lights on. Close enough to, it's still rolling. without getting closer to the guy. I'll get closer to the guy. I've got the lights on. Close enough to, it's still rolling. Yes, I'll go with you, I'll take the sword. But it is slowing down, you're right.

I'm going to start tearing through the cabinets looking for that planchette while they do that. Okay. Go, do what you need to, Doctor, I have him. Yeah, you can do a spot hidden. It's not a man. It's an automaton. He's only half a person sitting at a desk

with a writing pen. Oh my god, that's even worse. There is a, it says, the future scribe, the automatic man who sees the future on loan from the estate of Sir Joseph Paxton. There is a slot for a coin. Oh, I got the fucking coin!

But that wasn't placeholder, that wasn't it. You do actually, you all have pocket change. We have pocket change. She wanted to attempt to roll it. Put it in, why not? Miss O'Neil, you might need to go back to the... Is there anything written on the desk? He has pen and paper,

and he pulls the paper to write, obviously. But nothing's written yet. but nothing's written yet. But nothing's written yet. One more pitch to run for the fucking front door. Just hang on! The light's wrong. It's a spot hidden. There is no jade.

Any of more of the, or the red iris stones? Nothing you see in here. Is he writing, is the automaton writing something on the desk, any sort of a poem? I put in a coin. Fork's sake. Machines are so creepy. Bing!

You ever seen anything like this? No. Biff Tannen is president. Here you go. It's a real name anyway. Archie. We've got to get back, back to the future. The ground directly beneath the lamp is always darkest.

The ground, oh, right. Right. Okay. Hold it sideways. There's also always more coins, I'm just saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll stick it back, stick it in. Roll a percentile, guys? Yeah, probably.

Which one? Fuck! The first one? Yeah. 50. Okay, cool. This town is on fire. Ding! Come on, suck. Shit.

Grant me my wish, make me big. Truth depends on the color of the crystal through which one sees it. Fuck, they're all red! Riddles, riddles. Truth depends on the color of the crystal. All right, I try my luck. Still rolling.

It's true. Green, red, black. Ding! Oh, there's so many. Roll a percentile. Green, red, black. Ding! Roll a percentile. Green, red, black. The lights are fucking flickering. Oh god, oh god, oh god. 30. It stops.

Light lanterns up! Oh! The lights go out again with a slow fade. Mirrors are liars. They show us only what we expect to see. I call bullshit on that one based on our experiences. Is there an optimal way to hold these so that we aren't in the shadow ever?

You can attempt it and we'll see what happens, but you're holding on pretty well at the moment. Hey, engineer, you got one of those crystals on you? It doesn't matter because that's back at the, uh... All of them are back there? No, the machine is back there. Can you use this to act as a channel for some of the lantern light?

You're flipping that around like that? Are you going to try that? Yeah, like you hit the sun, and you can make it dance and shit. Can you hold it, and does it make a spot move on the ground? It's hard to tell. Okay. Not a lot of light out of these things.

Does anybody have one of the crystals on them? Can I look in the mirror again? We have to go back to the arcade to use it. Do you have a sense of whether or not these, are these all single-use items, these crystals? Maybe we can meditate again. They require, you would remember, they require days to recharge.

They usually need a lunar month. Okay, so we have about that length of time, one more crystal, and we need to search how many rooms? Three. Or we need to get to an exit. Or we need to get to an exit. If one of you feels so encouraged as to venture outside, please, be my guest.

What was your percentile, by the way, when you rolled when you got your fortune? 30. 30? Okay, that's fine. Here's what I think we need to do. I think we need to go back to the machine arcade. I think we need to turn the lights back on,

and then I think we need to split up. Split up. Yes. All right. Move now. Who's going where? How many teams? Lights on first. Yes. All right. Move. Now. Who's going where? How many teams? Lights on first.

Yes. Captain. Yes. Are you saying that if we don't find the casket, it won't even be safe to leave? If I hadn't seen that man's reflection disappear in the window, I would have said that outside seems like a viable option. In the real world, I wouldn't disappoint Mr. Merriweather,

but given what I saw, I wouldn't go out there. Come back with a warrant! No, that knocking, that's the sound that happened before the shadow people in the- Doctor, calm down. Thank you. Give me that stone, give it to me. Let's move.

As you leave the room... That's not helping at all. No. I've been waiting to see you say this my entire life. You're just an asshole with a ruby on his eye. Bless you and keep you. Make a spot- check, anybody who's got a decent spot hidden check as you're leaving the room. I only got 45, who's got better?

What's decent in a call of duty room? 45. Wait, what are we rolling? Super fucking bad. Yeah, spot hidden. How'd you do? 79. Didn't do it.

Hmm. 005. Oh. You really saved the day. Yeah, spot hidden. 50? How'd you do? 79. Terrible. Didn't do it. Hmm. 005. Oh. You really see stuff. Yeah. You see the space and time.

So as we're leaving, as you're leaving the room, the crystal divider, the glass divider that leads out of this room, the light catches on the glass in just an interesting way that you see something in the reflection. As you're staring into the reflection cast by the light, you see things that I have on the list that are not there, there we go. You see the lantern that is being held, but it's not being held by the person,

it's not being held by Hana, it's being held by Joseph Whalen, it's being held by the security officer. And he's staring at you through the glass, and he's tapping on the glass. And he's tapping on the glass. From the outside? From the outside. It looks like. It's a divider.

It's a divider from one room to the other. Made of glass, and. So I see him in a glass world, through a glass, darkly. Ooh, nice. And he has been tapping on the glass, and he's nodding no. He looks concerned.

He doesn't look well at all. Does he look gaunt? No. Okay. Just translucent. Make a sanity roll. Oh, no. We are not in the building.

12, 10 and two. Ooh, 10 and two? Steady, steady, steady lad. Keep moving. I tell them what I saw. If you look back, anybody who looks back sees him reflected in the glass, in the light. Holding up a lantern. Holding up your lantern, almost as your reflection.

That's exactly what he was doing when he looked for it. Everybody else shows up? Everybody else is there. What? Why? What do you mean, that's what he was doing? He was staring into the window, holding up the lantern. He didn't turn around and look at us, though.

He's tapping on the window a bit more. Let's get out of here. He's pointing. Pointing where? Let's get out of here. He's pointing you towards the machine arcade. He looks concerned. Wait, he's nodding, like, go that way, or like, fuck that?

You can interpret it as you like. Where's the fucking machine arcade? You can interpret it as you like. Where's the fucking machine arcade? You know where it is. The, where we're at. Around the corner. It's not a long walk, so the stealth roll is not going to be as difficult as it could be. Oh my god, let's go.

Yes, let's go. Does he want us to go back? All right. So we head back to the machine arcade? Mm-hmm. Yes. I go. Make a stealth roll to go back. All right. So we head back to the machine arcade. Mm-hmm. Yes. I go. Make a stealth roll really quickly, all of you. Fucking damn it.

The shadow people will be waiting for us there. They... Okay, yeah, 19. No, no, no, yes, yes, yes. That'll do it, make it back. Miss O'Neil? The second one, please. Time will be of the essence.

Oh no. Crystal me, somebody. Archie. This is awkward. There you go. Christ. Ah! Who are you? Is there anything you can do?

Fight, run, be prey. Did you bring anything to drink? I need concentration or something like that. Just start. We'll discuss this later. We should discuss what, who's going where. I'm going to. No, we should, yes, yes.

Okay. Okay. One of the three remaining areas. The cat show. And while we do that, can we place your lamps on the ground? I think we should do the exact same thing that we did last time. Okay, do the exact same thing. Exactly 70. All right.

Okay. This is not difficult. Exactly my level. And you've got luck. Burn a luck and you'll be fine. I will spend one luck. This is not a hard thing to roll. Okay, so two of us can go in each room.

I call Nott Archie, and I'll go to... Nobody knows the value of a good red shirt anymore. He can stick with me. So what's left, Nineveh Court? Sure, big man. Nineveh and the bazaar. And behind the Egyptians, but yeah. And behind the Egyptians?

I mean, there's just a bunch of rooms back there. It's not really a... That's where we saw the spooky people, right? Was actually against the wall, yes. But they were in the Egyptian court, not the kind of stuff behind it. You don't happen to be a fan of cats, are you? Yeah, you know what's weird?

We've seen no cats this whole time. They're in cages. Never had a cat in my life. It's funny, though. Miss O'Neil? Paid off the judges. Do you want to do the honor, or, did you activate it? Oh, oh, yes. You can activate it over there

if you want to really milk every moment of this. Yes, I do. Did you say paid off the judges? Where'd you think I made that bet? Just laying it out there. Who is the Golden Dawn to you? Who's the Golden Dawn? Me. Yeah.

Why, I know them. That's a fucking good question. Go, go, go, go, go. There you go. Fucking good, Jax. I wish. Miss O'Neil, would you like to join me in the court behind the Egyptian court?

As soon as this gets going? How do you know who the Golden Drift is? On the Golden Dawn? The Golden Dawn. We'll give her the moment while she gets it rolling. The power begins to slowly turn back on. They're very trendy, very popular in the Zons. A lot of very prominent members. Sure. Occultists.

Showmen. Yes. Showmen. Yes. Let's be fair. Good ones at that. A little more. Why? Is Mr. Mayer either one of them? No. Here's a small dossier on people of interest

and our resident fakery over here. Not in very good favor with the Golden Dawn. Yes, light, let's hurry. It's rolling, it'll take a minute to get going, but I'm going to give you this while you get it going anyway. Okay, great. I'm just very good at what I do. You and me to the court behind the Egyptian courts?

You two to Niven, I guess? Captain. And you two? We're going to the court behind. Someone needs to go to the cat show, the other person needs to go to Niven. Cat show? Cat show's in Niven.

Fucking love cats, let's go. You too? All right. Yeah. Wait, they're in the same place? Niven's the cat show. Where's the bazaar? The bazaar is at all those tables in there

that you haven't taken a look at, all those little booths. Is that a room that we're counting that we haven't been to? Mm-hmm. And then behind. And then behind the Hall of Justice, so to speak. Okay. We're heading to the Hall of Justice in Alhambra.

And we'll go to Nineveh Court. Then that leaves you two to the bazaar. We're going to the cat show. The cat show is in Nineveh? Then we'll go to the bazaar. If it helps, take cat show. The cat show is in Nineveh? Then we'll go to the bazaar. If it helps, take it out of the bag. If it's really being really difficult, you can take it out of the bag.

Take it out of the bag. Is it going? Take it out of the bag, you'll get more heat. That's it. Take it out of the bag. We're going. Okay. Got to unbag it. Catch up. Break. You're good, you're rolling. Just rolling.

Seems slower than the last one. Oh god, that's hard. All right. Let's go. Let's go. So wait, we last one. Oh god, that's hurry! Okay, let's go. Let's go. So wait, we're going to the bazaar. Yes. Okay. All right, we go to the court, behind the Egyptian court.

Can I get the number, can I jot down the number of the crate from Doctor? From Dr. Pockets? From his paper? If you have a second, you can take a second to write them down. Just quickly copy the code? So it's, yeah, you're looking for one particular code that you're looking for, so you got it, yeah.

Okay, let's go. What's the roll that we should do to look for things? Do an intelligence roll. Intelligence roll. Goddamn it. I failed. Success. None of these crates are the ones you're looking for. Fuck!

Okay, out to the court. Quickly look around. What's all looking for? Do I see, once again, any planchette, any artifacts? Behind the Hall of Justice? Yeah. No. No? Nothing, it's just crates.

There's not even objects back here, it's just a big pile of crates. The bastards probably hid in one of these, but we don't have time, let's go. Okay. And then the other place is the bazaar? It's the bazaar and the cat show. Where in the cat show?

We're in the bazaar. Let's head to the bazaar and we'll meet in the middle. Should we look in the cat show? Sure. Yes. Yes? Right. Do we roll a lucky thing? You enter the cat show. It's interesting, there are hundreds of cages with cats.

Oh, great. Like almost two perfect lined walls of cats in cages waiting to be judged with tags with their names and owners. They haven't quite been set up, but they are, and they're not all there yet, but there's quite a few of them. They're all quiet and they're all staring at you. Yes, that's unsettling.

Naming, who's in there? It's, uh. It's the two of us. There is, definitely there's a, you notice at the very, very back of the exhibit, there are some antiquities back there. At the back. Let's go, Harry. Yeah, all right.

Let's find this fucking thing so we can get out of here. It is not hard to see. But there is, in fact, a casket. Why didn't we go to the fucking cat show? In the far corner. It's the last place he'll go. On a pedestal on a table? It is not on a pedestal on a table, it is in a glass case that is locked.

Cool. At this point? Any objections? I'll have a go at the lock. The lock! I just take my cane and I'm. Smash that fucking thing. You smash the glass? Yeah.

Roll to smash the glass. That was light. Strength? Yes, that'll be a strength roll. I would've been survival, I would've called. Yeah. The glass shatters. Yes, that'll be a strength roll. That would've been survival, I would've called. The glass shatters, and as the glass shatters,

there's an accompanying sound of an unearthly shriek. The casket bursts open, and the body of a mummified cat dissolves instantly. The dust pours out and makes its way behind you down the row of cats that all breathe it in and start going insane. makes its way behind you down the row of cats that all breathe it in and start going insane. The cats are clawing at their cages trying to get out. The sound is deafening.

Roll a sanity check. Yep. I'm gonna be a great storm prick here. 10. What do I roll? Four. You guys are fine. No, no, 64.

Oh, 64. So I have to go lower than what now? Oh, your sanity, which is a 40. So I have to beat the sanity number? And you did not. You do and you did not. Roll a d4. All right, here we go.

Four. Ooh. You run. You take five points of sanity, and your immediate compulsion is to get the fuck out of there. The fuck are you going? Now. Now it is. So the casket's open.

Can I shut the lid? You can. Can I grab that damn thing? You can. And I'll start trying to carry it and let my happy ass back through the hall of insane-looking kitties. They are beating at their cages, like, no, they are mad. They are, these cats, something has gotten into them,

and they are feral, vicious beasts. They are pounding themselves against the cages in an attempt to get out, just ripping at them like wild animals, biting at the metal to try and claw their way out. Tell them I found it! Tell them I found it! Arashi's going for the front door.

A couple of them are starting to actually tear their way through the cages. Oh no. They do not look okay. Oh no! Meanwhile. Meanwhile? We are heading back that direction. Because there's a meanwhile,

I'll let you get a little more heat out of that before it goes. Well, no, it's still going, it's still going. Did we hear the screeching? Not yet, it hasn't happened yet. You're in the arcade still. These guys haven't gone yet. Mm-hmm.

Super cool. So we go to the bazaar. Do we see any crates? There are no crates. The bazaar is just a series of beautiful booths, like a dealer's room of antiquities and strangeness. There's everything from taxidermy, carpets, bones, skulls, Egyptian artifacts.

Do we see any jade? There is, in fact, a booth that sells a lot of jade, jade cups, jade statues, et cetera, et cetera? You can dig through if you like. Yeah, I want to look through the green glass, the things at that booth to see if there's anything that I recognize from my readings and my research.

I'll look to see if there's anything that matches her description. Do a spot hidden, do an occult. Or an antiquities. How does pushing work? If you push this, if you fail again, it's going to be bad. But yeah, you spend luck, and if you push it again,

it's good. Hard success. Hard success. Hard success. There is an object. Very odd object there. Oh! That's it. Is that what Alexander was talking about? Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Oh. What do you see? Yes. What happened? Nothing? It's a planchette, you have to use it. Anyway, you have to know how to use a planchette. So, moving on to, you've got your success. You do hear, and you hear the insanity happening at the other end.

Oh my god, it's the cats. So we head that way. You're going to head towards the cats? All right. I've always found cats to be very uncanny. Since you two just did your thing, you do also hear the screech. Shall we head that way?

Because are they in Nineveh? I think we shall. Everybody is in Nineveh, if that's where the cat show is. When you arrive, you see Septimus, or are we Archie now? Sure, Archie, yeah. Running bloody hell. The lights are off. And the lights go off just as you leave the room.

All right, just remain calm. All is well. Are we all here together? I've got it! What? I've got it! So are we, so are we! The cats are going crazy. And we've got the planchette. We run towards. I don't know what it is, but I've got it.

Suddenly, you guys are going to run toward? You're running, so run. We're running towards where? Where did you run towards? I was going to book for the front-end entrance. Run, make a dexterity check at disadvantage. Oh no! At disadvantage, okay. Make a dexterity check at disadvantage. Oh no! At disadvantage, okay. I fail, no, but I can push it, right? You can push it.

So I'm going to, yeah, I'm gonna use luck and get it just under because. So that would take four luck. Yeah, I will do that. Okay. So far, nothing terrible. I will do that. Where's the. Okay. So far, nothing terrible. You're going to make your way towards the door that you came from, is that where you're running towards?

We came in over there, didn't we? No, I'm going for that. You're going for that one? Yeah. The entrance. Okay. Sure, it's what I'm closest to. Yeah, yeah, because you're right there. As you run towards the entrance, the lights go out. Am I still running with a lantern in my hand?

You don't, do you have a lantern? I thought I did. I mean, you have one right there. You have one right there. That's a lantern. You do have a lantern. So Travis is in complete darkness, I'm sorry. As you get to the window, there are four people in,

Elizabethan clothing, I suppose, would be the best? No, that's my, what I think, would be the best? And they're all standing at the window looking at you, and they're all tapping. On the outside or the inside? The reflections would be of people on the inside if they were there, but it's just the reflections. Are there benches or anything around here by the door?

Are there benches, there are no benches by the door. There's nothing that could be picked up? Anything? By the entrance? Yeah. You couldches by the door. There's nothing that could be picked up? Anything? By the entrance? Yeah. You could go into the bathroom and maybe get lucky, or you could go back to the bazaar to maybe find something, or you could just make a push for it.

A push for it, what? You could try, I mean, like, you could try and run towards the door, but it is, I will admit, by the entrance door. Yeah. It's pretty dark, you only have that. And they're on the other side of that glass? They are on the other side of that glass and there's a big stripe of metal beam that you would have to jump through.

So Archie runs towards it like he's going to smash himself through and wusses out and stops and just stares at them, gobsmacked for a minute, and then starts to run back towards the fucking others. All right, make another dexterity, dexterity at difficulty. Difficulty. Dexterity, under 60, I succeed.

Slippery bastard. Slippery bastard. Slippery motherfucker. You're back with the group. I give the planchette to Miss O'Neil. Holy. Alexandra. What is that noise? What is it? What happened?

Dark Engineer, you got a plan, right? Where's Badger? Badger? He's here, right? Captain, I put my light around. You did make out of the cat show. Go, go, go! I got the casket. Badger! The darkness seems to be spreading. Little tendrils start grasping out

of the points and places around the beams everywhere the shadows are cast. It starts reaching out for you. It's trying to trap you in. Lights! Lights toward Badger! Do we form these back to back to back? Back to back? Yeah.

Are you going to do back to back to back? I, around Badger. Around Badger. In the center. Okay. Do you see that? In the shadows that are being cast by yourselves around you, there are now seven people

with their back turned just outside of your view that are shuffling slowly around you at the edge of the darkness. The shadows, we're making shadows. What do we do? Give me that crystal that we burned through. Oh, it's not here, it's not here. That one, together.

Do we throw out the other one? It's right over here. Yeah. Ugh! I take it from the planchette. Try and hold it to the light, anything? No, but sadly, I will say the shadow that you're currently casting with the planchette,

two shadow hands burst out of it towards your face and try and pull you towards it. Alexandra! Please! Make a strength check. I shove the lantern. Oh, no. I'm going to spend luck to succeed. Seven points.

You do succeed. Well, that's the thing, it's actually a contested roll. Okay. What did you roll with your luck that you spent? 66. With the luck that I spent? Yeah, are you with the luck? 59. You manage to pull the planchette hard enough

that the hands let go. They do, on the other hand, knock that lantern down and it shatters, you're one down. Big loss. Get it off the table. Big loss, take it away. That's a big loss. I hold the planchette, I kind of angle it Big loss. Get it off the table. Big loss. Take it away. It's a big loss. Oh no.

I hold the planchette, I kind of angle it, and I kind of, not to get anywhere near my partners, hold it up in front of this thing. For the Black Mirror? The Black Mirror that we shattered. I think this is what this was for. Do you know the technical use of a planchette? No!

To hold it over a thing and find shit out, and there was writing and script on that big mirror thing. It was. Are we just fucked? We might have fucking killed ourselves. I think we're fucked. What about the casket? What's the casket?

We have it. Is there anything on it? Why don't we go to the entrance? I don't know, is there anything on the casket? There's a lot of hieroglyphs on that casket. There's symbols, and, and. Put it on the casket! The shadows are creeping.

I put the planchette over the casket. It's acting oddly, but nothing helpful. It's just sort of giving you a series of weird swirls. Dump out, dump out that glass that we shattered. Just dump it on the floor. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. Anything lighting up? Okay.

It puts the planchette over the casket or else it gets the hose. What do we see? What does she see? It's sparkling and doing weird stuff, but nothing, you're not getting anything out of it. Nothing? And what about... I think we have to run to the Egyptian room.

Wait. The Egyptian room, why? Where the rest of the glass is. Why don't we go for the exit? Well, front door's not exactly an inviting option. Well, they're not grabbing at us. No, I think, you can't confuse the mirror people with the shadow people. The shadow people are trying to kill us.

Doc, please. Yeah, you're fucking listening to yourself right now. What about all three of them together? Nothing? Well, no. Oh, god. Damn it. What did I do?

You just passed that across from that right in front of her. Another hand reaches out for you, make a dex save. You have to be mindful. That's right, because she's got... Oh, pass. What'd you roll? 62. Oh no.

It reached and grabs the lock of your hair and reels it back into the planchette. Into the planchette? That's where the shadow came from. I rake the planchette. Into the planchette? That was where the shadow came from. I yanked the planchette out of the way, like I did before. Mm-hmm. Toro, Toro. Does it work? Okay.

It's fine. All right. We need to move, yes? The glass sparkles, right? The glass sparkles? Let's go to the Egyptian room. Go to the Egyptian room! Everyone roll a stealth check.

Fuck. We're surrounded! Yeah, we're fucking running. Pass! Are you guys running? Yes. Stealth check at disadvantage. Oh.

Well, I already failed. Oop, still pass. Pass. Fail, fail, fail, fail. Oh, none of it fucking matters. We're all going to die. We're all going to die. We're all going to die. As you're running,

as fast as possible, to the Egyptian room, there's just, the shadows are crawling, and the shadows are making their way out of the beams on the floor into little veins as they crawl and claw their way into this world, there's something about you they really don't like. As you are running by and you cross into one of the

beams of shadow, two backwards men run full speed to tackle you. Oh fuck. Through a beam of shadow. Make a dex save at disadvantage. Make a dex save at disadvantage. I mean, I already failed.

It's a fail? Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to try and push, or? I mean, at this point, I might as well, fail? Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to try and push, or? I mean, at this point, I might as well, right? Yeah. Come on, baby, come on. I passed. As you're running by,

so this is push luck. They make a push and they grab, and they manage to claw into you, but they don't grab you. You do take some damage, though, from their roll by as you get bitten, as they roll by backwards with the back of their head as you see them roll towards you,

and they make their pass, almost as if a mouth just grows on the back of their head and they get a good bite out of you. I don't. You only take three damage, well done. It burns like acid. And they get that good and then it just vanishes back into the shadow.

You guys going to keep running? Yes. Why? I'm feverishly looking for anything metal that can be picked up. Not where you're going. Heavy, but not too heavy, all right. There's only one place you're going to find anything.

You're back at the Egyptian room. How big is the planchette? That big. Because there's shit everywhere. Yes, but the shadows move as fast as we move. It's about one fifth the size. It would have been like, it's like a. It's 100% for that to have been useful.

What do we do now? There's shards of glass on the ground still. Do we try and puzzle? No. You can roll it over. It is giving a sparkle, but it's not. It needed to be together. We killed it.

Maybe we get out. Do we have to go behind this statue? Where those people are? We can try it. You look behind the statue, there are now three people behind the statue. Yeah, we don't go back there. We get the fuck out of here.

The lanterns that you have are currently keeping them at bay, but just barely, and they are trying to edge ever closer to you. They are walking as close as they can with every shadow that gives them foothold. Okay, let's try and make our way back to where? The royal apartment?

Yeah, Mr. Merriweather said he was going to be there. There's one really, really, there's actually two really, really big ones and about four kind of medium ones. So I think they could be placed in one hand. No. For what? You're going to hit the shadows? He's going to try and break his way out.

We move slowly, keeping the light as concentrated as we can, and move toward the royal apartments. Take it under consideration. Let's get the fuck out of here. He's right, let's try slowly. Okay, we'll do what we can. We're going to move slowly.

Stealth at disadvantage. Dammit. No. No! No! Oh! Oh! Yes. Yes.

Super success. Yes. Success? Fail, fail, fail. Three success, three fail. Three success, three fail. Three success. Oh man.

Oh no. As you're walking by again, as you're walking out of the Egyptian room, Oh man. Oh no. As you're walking by again, as you're walking out of the Egyptian room towards the bazaar, there's just no way to make it. There's just no, it's almost a labyrinth. There's just no way to walk through this place without crossing a shadow.

It is too crystalline. there's too many hard angles, and it's finding nooks and crannies everywhere to gain purchase. A backwards woman in a almost silk black robe makes a run at you, hands forward to try and grab. You can try and dex out of it, or you can try and strength out of it at disadvantage.

Actually, strength out of it, disadvantage. That's what you've decided? I think she got you. They went for the push last time, I think she's making a grab. You can try and get away, but she's really going. So strength at disadvantage? Mm-hmm.

Pull away before she gets it by the end. Nice doing, you guys. She got this, she got this, she got this. You can get it, you can get that! Failed. Push it. You can. You think I should just spend the luck? Well, I didn't write this one, sorry.

Oh, I really fucked it up. I have to push. Do-do-do-do-do. At disadvantage, right? Mm-hmm. Oh god. Do- I really fucked it up. I have to push. Do do do do do. At disadvantage, right? Oh god. Do do do do. Oh my god, can I spend seven luck? Can you do that on a push? Oh, I don't know.

You know what, I don't know if you can do that on a push. Fair enough. You had one or the other. He's got blood in his eye. Dramatic consequence. You get grabbed by this strange, old, backwards woman. I'm also holding a lantern, everyone. She takes a big bite out of you,

right out of your shoulder. The back of her head? From the back of her head, and yanks you really, really hard right towards the fountain, which is currently in shadow, and you get pulled, bleeding from the shoulder, right into the shadows of the fountain, where there should be a splash,

but instead there's just nothing. You mean nothing. No sound? Boy, no sound. No nothing. Don't leave Boy, no sound, no nothing. Don't leave the table, though, but. Ida's just gone. The lantern's gone? Ida's gone, the lantern went with her.

Oh my god. It hit the shadow and died. You guys are really fucked now. You dick. All right. What are you going to do? Oh god. Okay. Are you stopping or are you going to do? Oh god. Okay.

Are you stopping or are you running? Go, we go. For the exit? Or do we just run through a window? The apartments, the royal apartments. Mr. Merrimather. Are we talking about it or doing it? We're doing it.

Roll a stealth run, disadvantage. Jesus, why am I following you people? I like your knowledge. Fuck. It's a disadvantage, stealth, a people? I like the knowledge of hell. Fuck. It's a disadvantage, stealth, disadvantage? Yeah, stealth and disadvantage. Fuck. Disadvantage?

Actually, I'm so sorry, not disadvantage, roll one more time, it's stealth and difficulty. I'm so sorry. That's what stealth and difficulty means? Means you have to roll at least half of it. Same. I'm so sorry. I'm good.

25 roll. A good? Yeah, 14. Oh, two, three bad little children. Money little children. Dr. Mason, as you are running through the bazaar, one of them, as you run through the bazaar and you're going through, you're passing one of the booths in the bazaar

that sells just nice housewares. And as you look in the mirror, furniture and the like, you see something in the mirror that catches your eye. You see Ida holding the lantern, tapping. You can't speak, but at the very least, she seems like she's cheering you on towards the exit.

You are currently finding yourself behind the glass in this weird Alice in Wonderland twisted version of the Crystal Palace, where when the darkness hits, just the very reality that you were stuck in twists and vanishes into some other strange Byzantine universe. But as long as there is light,

you can see it pour through the reflective surfaces in the world you are, and you can see your friends running for the exit. And you can follow them, if you like, in the reflections. And they can hear your tapping. And you can, yeah. Is it me? It is you. I guess I'll follow them, then. Help us.

You can also see that there are tons of these creatures descending upon this building, and there are a lot of other people in the glass along with you. You are not alone. I told you to go for the entrance. They're mirror people, not shadows. Devilman? Where on this map are we right now? There. Should we just go for the entrance. They're mirror people, not shadows. Devilman, where on this map are we right now? There. Should we just go for the entrance? You do find a poker.

You do find a, if you're looking, I know what you're looking for. I do like a good poker, I do. Grab a fire poker for your trouble, good men. To break the clock. Should we just bust through the entrance, fuck the apartments, it's way closer. You guys are going full speed,

but you stop to look in the mirror. Right. And suddenly, two hands pull right out from underneath one of the booths and the shadow that it casts that your feet are on. Can they see me, or just Dr. Pocket? He's the only one who's noticed you so far. So they don't know to go for the entrance?

No. So you need to make a strength check for the disadvantage. I'm urging you to go to the entrance, but only he can see. Come on, dog. See him getting grabbed? Come on, dog. That's a good reaction. How bad?

Can you push? You should push. You can. Ooh, you take seven points of damages. Two of them grab out and start take a chunk out of your leg. You're okay, you're okay, you're okay. You're a pretty stout dude, you're a pretty stout dude.

Seven, seven tip points, but you do, you're bleeding, it's bad. I also need you to roll a sanity check. No. Yeah. The dice are turned on me. No. No? No. The dice are turned on me. Three points of sanity damage. Should they ever do it again? It's all right.

Your hypothesis is correct. The mere people are here to help you. Oh shit. You were absolutely right all along, and all of those idiots are going to feel so, so fucking embarrassed for ever doubting you. And all you need to do is break the glass to get her back out.

He fixed this. After failing his sanity roll. Right. So, are we all moving on? No, I'm looking around, I'm seeing everything that's happened, I've seen people get grabbed by things that don't exist. I see this for the lunacy that it is, and I am bolting back towards the front entrance

with my poker. I am going to smash the fucking glass. Make a, I suppose I'm going to just do a stealth roll of extreme advantage, a disadvantage. Extreme disadvantage, so that means a clatter. For fuck's sake, where are you going? If you're not even being careful about that, are you being careful about the shadows?

He's taking a lantern, too. Oh my god! I am. No! So, am I even rolling for stealth? I'm just booking it? It's just to see if you actually somehow, by the grace of God, manage to just do it.

Okay, so at disadvantage? Mm-hmm. Extreme disadvantage? Extreme disadvantage, well, I failed, because one of those is an 80. Yeah, yeah, that's bad. Okay, well, I'll push, I suppose. Yeah, you will.

Come on, bud. Come on. Whoa! Big wave! Archie. That's a pass. No, you will. Come on, bud. Come on. Whoa! Big boys. Archie. That's a pass. No, extreme disadvantage. Extreme disadvantage.

Can I use, can I chisel that down? No. No, well then that's a fail. That's an extreme, that's the intense pushed fail. Sure. Oh god. You run into a shadow. Go big or go home.

You run straight for the fucking door, screaming bloody murder. As you run, you run right into the darkness. They hear the clamor of your poker as it hits, and they see your severed head roll out of the shadow. What? Roll into of the shadow. What? Roll into the next shadow, and it's gone, too. What the fuck?

The sounds of hungry, hungry snarls begin to just fill. Did the lantern go with it? Yeah, yeah, bring it on. Oh, yeah. No, the lantern disappeared! You only Yeah, yeah, bring it on. Oh yeah. No, the lantern disappeared! You only have one, I would really run. I run out! You're there? Okay, roll a stealth, just a standard stealth

with a stealth at disadvantage against half, 50%. No. No? Uh, very no. No. Three no's. If you show up on the other side of the glass and you're like, come on! Without my head. Without your head.

This one guy. Do you think we're going to die? You are deciding whether or not you're going to run or whether or not you're going to break the glass. Oh yeah. That you see from. You believe you can get me out. Right. Which glass?

The mirror that she appeared in, she was tapping at you at. Oh, right. I don't think we even notice. He's gone. No. Yeah, no, I'm going to try to break the glass. All right. How are you going to break the glass? Oh, that's what I was thinking. You're going to punch it, or you're going to break the glass? Oh, that's what I was thinking.

You're going to punch it, or you're going to pick up something? Whatever you like. Well, you said it's housewares, right? Yeah. So there's got to be something hard. There's tons of things. There was the poker one I got pulled. There's fireplace attachments.

There's a whole bunch of cooking ware. There's just stuff everywhere. There's a frying pan. There's a bunch of vases. You're going to take it, you're going to throw it, or you're going to smash it? You're going to smash it. You run up to it and you get a good smash at the mirror.

Make a strength check, easy peasy. Very little strength. Come on, dog. Advantage, this is a mirror. Oh, yeah, 006. Oh, it shatters everywhere, big, huge noise. Doesn't have any effect. But now I need you to make a dexterity save at extreme disadvantage, because that lantern,

the only one left, is long gone. All right. I'm gone. My dexterity's 50, his is 26. What's its? Oh, you're just over half. Yeah. Luck it. Can I push it? It's actually, did you roll disadvantage? No. Did you roll three die?

Oh. You have to roll a three die. What do I, wait, three? Yeah, roll that percentile die. The percentile die one more time. So just the one percentile die. Don't want the two numbers on it. 40. So that's a 40 is what you got.

So you have to take the higher number. Oh, okay. Which is great. You still succeeded. No, because it's halved. So you need to hit 25 or... I'm not so lucky, though. You can, can you push still, or can you not push? You've only rolled once, you can push.

Okay. So roll a disadvantage one more time, all three die. So wait, do all three? All three take the highest number and the 10s. Buh-bye. Welcome to Mirror World. As you stare at the broken mirror and your friend is not back,

I think it occurs to you that there is some satisfaction in hypothesis and test and result. And if nothing else, you have reminded yourself that you are a good scientist who follows the data. You don't even feel what happens next. The shadow just, it's just everywhere. Are you the only three left? Last roll to make it to the door.

Oh god. Disadvantage? You're still headed to the Royal apartment? Mm-hmm. I don't even know what I'm doing. Oh! Did you make it? I'm going to use luck. Is it hard success, or? Oh wait, it's got to be half.

It's got to be half? No. It's got to be half. It's got to be half? No. It's got to be half. No, no. How much luck do you have? A lot. I'm going to use 20 points of luck. You can burn it. You can burn it, burn your luck if you have it.

Ho, ho, yes! Success. Everyone's doing well. I'm also doing well! You have the Wings of Dread! Oh no! You... What's your luck? Get distracted when you see Archie in reflection.

I'm so sorry, you don't see Archie in reflection. That's wrong. You see Dr. Wait, can I push my, I haven't pushed my luck yet. You can push if you like. I will attempt to push. You don't have luck to spend, you just have to push. Oh, she does, she has a lot of luck.

I do have luck to spend. Do you have enough luck to succeed? I rolled a 37. And how much would you need? And I need half, so I need 20. So I could spend 18 luck. I spent 20, spend that shit. Spend so I need 20, so I could spend 18. I spent 20, spend that shit. Spend it now.

I'm doing it, okay, okay. All right. Somehow, you see Dr. Mason in the reflection in front of you in the wall, and he is pointing at the door frantically. You are both pointing at the door frantically. Which door? The door. To the apartments?

To the royal apartments. What? From behind from a shadow, you are also now still being chased. Backwards by the back of a head that looks vaguely familiar as Archie. Just the head? No, he's together, but he's backwards. Like the body's running forward

and the head is backwards? It's going. Everything's odd and he looks hungry. Like the body's running forward and the head's backwards? Yeah, the head's on the floor. It's going. Everything's odd and he looks hungry. All right, I push open the doors. The door bursts open. It is thankfully unlocked. We all explode out.

Light pours from that room, because the lights are not off in that room. Fuckers. I thought the lights were off everywhere. Not in the rich people. Mr. Meriwether. What on earth is happening? Shut the door, shut the door, shut the fucking door!

The shutout! He shuts the door. You are now in a lit room. Together. What's wrong with, where's everybody else? Come on. They're dead, they're gone. They're dead, they're gone. What are they?

Why don't you tell us? I dump the casket at his feet. Is it open or closed? It's closed. That's excellent, let's take a look at it. No! He opens the casket. He has this necklace around his neck

that he places upon the casket and gently opens it. He flings it open. Where's my cat? Where's the cat? The cat shot out of it in a horrific scream and dispersed amongst all the other kittens in the fucking showroom! It's still in there, isn't it? Yes! Along with a bunch of other shadowy people that are gaunt and hungry and were running out of every bit of darkness in every corner of the room! Darkness? Like, what do you mean darkness? Like the shadows.

What happened to you, Mike? Shadows with hands. Why don't you tell us if this is the right choice? There are three of us. We started with six. Where do you think the other three are? This is gonna get a little rough. I do apologize.

What do you know? What do you mean, your cat? The lights begin to flicker. No. Oh god. The room begin to flicker. No. Oh god. The room is going dark again. It knows you're in here. Archie kicks open the door as the lights begin to flicker,

opens the casket, grabs the planchette, grabs his necklace, puts all three together, grabs the planchette, grabs his necklace, puts all three together, and begins to meditate. Are you going to help? Is anyone going to help? Archie or Mr. Meriwether? I'm sorry, not Archie, Mr. Meriwether. Archie's long gone.

Mr. Meriwether begins a small ritual. After bursting open the door, the shadows are now crawling into the room. Wait, with the planchette, the stone, and what else? The planchette, the stone, and the necklace that he was wearing. The necklace. I help him.

Gonna sit down, give me a power roll. Fucking, fucking fuck! Yeah, I'll help, I don't know how, I'll help. Shadows begin to crawl. Super, super, super success! What'd you roll? Zero! You rolled a zero? Yes.

Wait, does that mean 100? Yeah. It's exactly zero! It means, it means. Because you said this goes to 99 in this system. Yeah, so it's perfect success. You rolled a crit. I rolled a crit! You critted on that roll?

Look, look! It's a zero! Erica can see it! It's a zero! Three zeros. I was so looking forward to murdering the rest of you. The room begins to howl with wind and screams as the two of you sit together with this and focus on it. He is gripping the casket with all its might. You can now see, looking into the room, that there are

dozens of backwards people, Archie included, running full speed towards you, towards the door, ready and hungry like a zombie run. There are also feral cats that have had their faces cut open and scratched in their attempts to push their way out of their cages as they are running, screeching towards the door for the next group of living people within the building.

The casket begins to howl. The casket, almost a vacuum, begins to pour within it as the necklace becomes frigid cold. The placet begins spinning of its own accord. The green swell, the green jade inside begins flashing occult symbols as it shifts through a series of incantations. As the casket begins to shudder,

does anybody have... You three are left. Somebody roll a perception. Give me an intelligence roll really quickly from the three of you, just standard. Mm-hmm. Nice. Eight, that's an extreme success.

57. In the portraits on the wall, you can see, you catch out of the corner of your eyes, you watch Mr. Meriwether holding for dear life, his reflection begins to waver and vibrate, and a shadow version of himself in the reflection begins, separates from what he's doing in the material world and begins rounding up like some wizard conductor

of evil and shadow, forcing all of them into a huge whirlpool of power as he pours all of these spirits into the casket. They are screaming, trying to run away now as he collects them in the casket. Chunks and bleed from his reflection are pulled along with them like a gravitational pull as you just watch his reflection lose...

Lose thickness and gets light and light. And finally, he closes the casket. And the lights come back on. Everything seems normal other than 20 or 30 very, very bloody cat carcasses on the wall, on the floor outside in the other room. And Mr. Merriweather? He seems fine.

He shuts the door. To the room? To the room. I would ask the two of you to leave and never speak of this. You do not know what this has cost me. It has been contained for now. I may be requesting your services in the future. For now, it is contained again. For now, I is contained again.

For now, I will be hiding this artifact somewhere safe until such time as we can figure out how to defuse it. Your secrets are safe. We will... come up with a good excuse for your back. There's shattered glass in there. You were being unruly. Does that work for you? Mommy and Daddy wouldn't be surprised.

Your mother, maybe, your father, I don't think so, either. Keep that, I think that'll go a long way towards making them feel a little better about everything. I don't know what happened. Are you all right, Bentley? Yes. I'm fine.

What did you do? I have bounded for now. It's using a bit of my own power, what little I have, I'm just a student. The trouble with sacrificial magic is it requires sacrifice, and I'm going to be requesting your help in the coming years to figuring out how to untether myself from this thing.

If you're not too thrown by the events of this evening to maintain your service, I would like to keep you on the payroll, if that's all right. Throne. Yes. We lost Ida, Archie,

Dr. Mason. Some of them may have survived in a fashion. This place, there's a reason we bring things to this place. Most things that die in here, they don't ever really leave. It's sort of a trap, if you will. It's why we brought the pieces here, because we knew it couldn't leave without getting out a main entrance. So perhaps in some time, at the very least,

we can get them out of here, and hopefully they'll stay safe from all the other things that are trapped in there. I'm sure they'll be fine. I know Invention. What is Invention? Please make sure that the world knows. It will still be entered into the

into the gallery under the proper name. Under her name. Of course. Yes. A debt is a debt. Her parents were also being compensated the money that was owed. And our compensation?

Paid in full, of course. And then some, I would expect. I know you want to keep that artifact, as long as you promise that I can gain access to it when I need it, it's yours. Mister. We will be employing you again in the future, I imagine. Oh, joy.

I hesitate to even ask. What would have happened if you had failed? They say that there was a time when the sun would set thousands of years ago, and a beast would feed until the sun rose, and it would walk the plains of the earth, consuming whatever it liked.

Imagine it would walk again. Hints of it might still be out there. We will do our best to illuminate the night as best we can. The more light we can make, the harder it's going to have at time feeding. Perhaps one day we may even finally starve them to death. Are there others like you? Who knows?

Now, we can cover that later. I imagine you're all tired, and the speech is still going on in the other room. So, why don't you do whatever it is that you English do? Put yourselves together, stiff upper lip, and we'll hide you in here, and I will mention that you are missing,

and you can just sit and wait for someone to arrive with some medical emergency, and you can prepare your lie for them. Does that suit you? Always does. Thanks for the lock. We may call upon you again as well, if you are interested, this time for

mutually beneficial no blackmail, of course. I'm always up for a walk. Well, good night, poor mortals. I hope your cats survive the night. Let's get out of here. He opens the door into the other room and quietly leaves, not making eye contact with anybody. Well, I suppose this is goodbye for now. I wish you continued success with the Escapades of the Night Fox.

And to you, I hope I don't see you again for quite a while. Same. It has been wonderful. Where are you going next? But not really. I think I will go back to the monks. Back to Tibet?

We shall see. I think I have much news that they might be interested in hearing. And perhaps maybe I can strengthen my own mind for future encounters. As I do think, we are rid of them. Keep them in the light, yes. No playing in the dark. I think I'll have a nightlight for the rest of my life now. And you, Captain?

Steady on. Steady on. Until the next gala, Hannah. Perhaps I'll come visit you sometime. Please do. No one else will be able to relate to what we saw tonight. Well, I suppose I shall go back to my functions and everything and my escapades. And I do hope we meet again sometime, Captain.

Before the next time the world needs saving. We're lucky. With that tension, I'm going to leave. Say goodbye to your mom for me. Or hello to your mom. Freudian slip, it's been a rough night. I shall. And I get the fuck out.

Who's Freud? Oh. Oh yeah! Fuck. No, Freud's fine. Freud's fine, you're good. Okay. Where you found the cat? German fella with a big mustache. And with that, my good gentlepersons,

you have been watching Shadow of the Crystal Palace. For the further adventures of poor Mr. Meriwether, you can find out what happened to him in this wonderful little box that we were given to play with. You guys, that was a ton of fun. I can't believe how many of you survived. Can I ask you a question? Of course.

What would have happened had we gone out the entrance? Would we have spread darkness and terror everywhere? Yeah. It would have opened it up to the world. If you managed to get into it, it would have made a breach and all sorts of—it would have then also been whoever's trapped in the mirror trying desperately to keep them from getting out. Wow. There's also, if more of you had died earlier, oh man, so many strange things,

there were a lot of different ways this could go. It was basically a giant version of a. What was the mirror, what was the big mirror that was shattered in the first hour? That was what was containing it. Ugh. So we did let it out! We did let it out.

The doctor was right. And the cat demon, well done, you did both. Oh, there's two different ones. Oh, it was very Cavern in the Woods. It was just a series of mouse traps and I was waiting to see which ones you kicked. Yeah, the fountain wasn't good either. I'm not going to keep you guys there for too long,

although there'll probably be some fun posting on this, because I love the historical insanity of these sorts of games. I do want to do a special thanks to the crew, the cast, first of all, you guys were amazing, and I loved it, and our crew worked so bloody hard on this game. You guys, and especially, and thanks to Jenny Newman

for coming up with the costumes. Jenny Newman! And Chris Lockheed, who worked his butt off on this. And everybody in Max and Danny and Vy. Everybody did such a good job on this amazing set and these amazing creepy shadows, which I'm going to have a long talk with everybody about. The fucking hands reached out a point. The fucking hands, man. Yeah, they were a of fun, and I'll probably be talking about how we made some of these. Chaosium, guys, thank you so much for giving us an excuse

to get this crazy. And I've had a lovely night. Thank you all, and is it Halloween yet? Well done, sir, well done. The final lantern is snuffed. So, my friends, you've made it to the end. If you're not too horrified, please leave a review on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, or whatever podcasting app you're using. Your input may lure a new investigator into the madness.

Thank you for listening to Call of Cthulhu, Shadow of the Crystal Palace, on the Critical Role Podcast Network. Until we meet again.