Mayday Plays - Vegas by Night, Ep. 11 - "Sentinel"

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

The Coterie plunges into the depths of Lake Mead. What they find could upend the entire balance of power in the city.

Okay, welcome back everybody. I mean, it has been quite a while since we have been here live and in the flesh. Of course, the last session we had was not at all pre-recorded. So we're familiar with that. And now we're back again. This is welcome back. Good morning, Kindred. And welcome to Vegas by night.

Made a little plays. I'm realizing it's been so long that when we last did it, I had no beard and I've been able to grow a beard back. We've become like legit different people since the last time we played. I had the delete mentions of like Halloween six different times off the little welcome page just to get us here. So, but welcome everyone. Welcome to this our last stream before we take a break for the holiday season. We want to wish you and yours an incredible happy holiday.

And I know personally I just like to show genuine gratitude for your presence here with us in our community. It is one of my favorite gifts in my life that I get the opportunity to share my stories and my life. These wonderful people at our table and with all of you at our extended table. I'm working like I'm sure all of us are on acknowledging the things in my life that are beautiful before they are fleeting. And this experience for me is one of the purest acknowledgments. So love to you and your family and of course to this family from from everybody here at Mayday, I'm sure. I've got to go through the usual shit. So here we go.

If you've missed out on any chapters of this are very long little vampire game Vegas by night. Don't fear you can still check us out on Spotify, Twitch, BOD and our YouTube channel as of right now. If you're wondering how you can get more Mayday in your life, you can catch our stream here every other Saturday for our main show. Although we're going to be taking a small break for the holidays, of course. And you can follow us on all major platforms as well as Spotify, SoundCloud, anywhere that podcast friendly recordings are shown. And those will house all our major shows and streams. And finally, you can donate to us on Patreon and join our Patreon Discord. The Discord is really where we've had the chance to build a great little family around the content we put out.

We have patrons who have joined each other's games and played in some host by ourselves. We've started doing emotional maps that coincide with each episode of Vegas by night. We all managed to get sick as an entire community together. So that's among our achievements lately. No clue how that happened. I'm hoping everyone's healthy now. I managed to dodge that bullet. And most recently, we've all been showing off how unbelievably hot the Mayday community is in their perennial Airlines t-shirts.

It has been fantastic. We love seeing everyone rep in the new shirt and you all look fantastic in it. In addition to all that craziness, you get an opportunity to listen to exclusive Patreon content and behind the scenes information. And with that being said, we are releasing very soon the last or second to last origin story for Vegas by night before we get to our lovely Malkavian twins. So look forward to a release of Mal's origin story very soon. I'm hoping to get that out to you within a few weeks here. We'd like to give a shout out as well to our handler level Patreon contributors because of their involvement in our content. We can begin thinking of all the big picture ideas we have for Mayday.

It is because of you that as of right now, we're still getting those shirts out. I hope everyone's got a chance to see our doom to repeat shirts. I think maybe some are still available. I don't know what's what's the word on that search? There is still a decent amount available. I would say, you know, the sooner you order yours, the better, but we still have it. Okay. Beautiful.

So if you're a fan of us, if you're a fan of doom to repeat our first campaign, which just recently won a slew of awards that we're really proud of. This is your time to rep that that merch and show off your Mayday spirit. So thank you to Ankh, to OJPAN, to BimbleWarts, to Cameron S, Eric A, Jonathan M, Ren, WTF, and Alex Johnson for your incredible support to our community. We're really thinking about you during the holidays this time. Thank you so much for helping us out with that. Other than that, please check out our Delta Green campaign doom to repeat that is GM'd by the winner of Minnesota's best GM ever 2022 Web Fest of all time, Sergio. Our D&D campaign centered in the island world of Ashoka where Eli crafts a world so brimming with love, it leaks into every recording. And our old world of darkness campaign using the Orpheus system with the one and only Vince from Black Project Gaming fame, all of which are available on all major podcasting platforms, YouTube and our Twitch.

Finally, we just want to give love out to our last member Vince, who's on a little Mayday vacation and is growing a beard that really gives him that Christopher Maloney vibe, which is something I'm very thankful for this Christmas season. We love you. We miss you. The new gen desperately needs you, so please come back before they go in this fucking lake. Before we get started today, I just want to remind everyone that Vampire the Mass Grade can be a dark setting and as such there are content warnings for any watching. Please be advised that there may be violent themes, plenty of adult language, and the exploration of darker subjects. Please take care of yourself and be aware. Things to watch out for, depictions of demons, possible speaking in tongues, body horror, minor trypophobia, and minor fear of drowning. There will be no actual depictions of such. I promise you that. But the aftermath, of course, as will be treading some dark waters tonight. Please take care of yourself accordingly.

Aaron, do you have a question? Yes, what the fuck is trypophobia? That's the fear of holes, small holes. Okay, all right, cool, fun, fun, fun, fun. Cavities. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. I think I've had that. I do too. I promise I'm not going to go into any illicit detail.

It's just some people are creepy out there in this world, okay? Without further ado. You're hoping to create it? There's creepy people? Yeah, have you seen this game? You've played this ten times already, you know. Okay, let's get started. Welcome back. We took forever on that intro, I know. But we're easing into it. It's Christmas time.

Let's feel the reason for the season, okay? Trypophobia. Humanity was cursed. And for that curse, the millennium was marked as the beginning of the end times. And the deepest burrows of India, at the turn of the millennia, a wave of energy was felt across the world as something awoke that had long stayed dormant. Zapathasura, progenitor of the Ravnos blood, created a rift in the minds of every seer on the planet and wedged nightmares into the visions of every diviner alive. Horrible dreams of the demon king laying waste to the world flooded the psyche of every kindred still walking for seven long nights. As silver veiled nightmares took hold, the anti-diluvian and creator of all Ravnos capitalized and raised the city of Bangladesh for days.

The curse beckoned members of every lineage to take up arms against the possible apocalypse and forced hubris against nature, fighting for days against supernatural storms, art of official sons, and the powerful magics employed to destroy a god. It was then that the anti-diluvian fell. But as is said in prophecy, an anti-diluvian dies only by their own decree. The anti-diluvian left a parting gift in every Ravnos still roaming, a ramble in their blood left unrivaled by any other clan. Their powers over illusion grew tenfold with the release of this curse. But the new power changed the minds of every raven at the moment it happened. The Ravnos were incensed in the absence of their creator and for the duration of the week of nightmares devoured, destroyed, and drank their brothers and sisters. Now, because of that week, the Ravnos blood runs thin.

The last of them die to the nomads' wastes, roaming with no home. This was the first beckoning, the harbinger of final knights, the first world display of the power of the third generation. Now, in the new millennia, separate call is answered in kind. We will deny our end. We will think to control the nature of life and death. We will construct prisons to hold angels, cages to keep gods. We will claim it as our own divine right to uphold and masquerade the fear that burns in our hearts at the call of my voice. We will kill our darlings.

Welcome back to Vegas by Night. Well, there are some things you miss about doing this stream. There are some things you just can never prepare yourselves for. Welcome back. The game is about to start, but before we get into the horrible situation that they have all found themselves in, in a motel just off of Lake Mead, far from Las Vegas, we are owed a recap from the one and only Enoch. Am I good? Yeah, you're good. I was supposed to introduce you guys, but just go. Hey, hey, buddy, yeah, yeah, you find the screen. What? You've never seen a self-aware fictional vampire with a 20-something autistic man?

Man's hand shoved up his ass before? That's right. I know all about your sick little show you voyeuristic mouth-breathing parents. You know, I've long believed that we existed in some type of simulated reality. This shit is way too weird to not be some kind of sick fantasy invented by a pent-up drama teacher of a god with an unquenchable lust for darkness. Well, I hope you enjoy the show, you sick little fucks. Lots of broody, dark, and dramatically delicious things have happened. Here's some of them. Niles and Mal went and explored a creepy Kronenberg house that, for some reason, Niles now wishes to live in. I wasn't there, but I'm gonna ask a question that we were all thinking.

The house. Does it have genitals? Right? Anywho, after gratifying Niles' new home, the pair jumped on some motorcycles they found, I guess. Mal does not know how to ride a motorcycle, and this directly leads to the cranial hemorrhaging of a suspiciously generic midwestern dad. I'm not saying he's the mastermind behind all of the Coteri's problems, but... well. So then there was this truck stop, right? You following me so far? Good. And we were all there because Sybil didn't want my hundred dollars. I talk everyone into gas station makeovers for hick camouflage. But really, I just thought it'd be fucking funny.

And then my wife. Oh, my beautiful wife, whom I love. Say hello, wife! She's not listening to me right now. Then my wife decides to debase herself on the high sodium blood of a backwater trucker. For some reason, I don't know why. Allie dearest didn't drain the creep dry. I mean, come on, darling, if you're gonna splurge on junk food, you may as well go. All in.

Take my example. You know, when I was alive, I think I used to go on a lot of road trips. All around these parts, I drove from that horizon to that horizon to that horizon over there. And I would always stop at the rest stations and buy myself a cup of disgusting black coffee and a jar of Pringles, both to keep me awake. See, when I would eat those dusty little potato flakes with absolutely no nutritional value at all, I would fucking hate myself. Naturally, I shoved them into my fat little face,

and the rage at having so defiled my body propelled me down the road awake and alert for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours on end. I'd always shove the leftover cardboard husk under the seat to hide my shame and disgust. I've gotta make some damn friends. Will you be my friend? What about you, God? Will you be my friend? Okay, and God, how do I make friends? I've tried real hard, and no one seems to like me.

God? God? Hello? Well, then we all went to a motel by Lake Mead for a little sleepover. Sorry, I ate a little too much hat. Sybil had a pet human, which I'm not really sure that we're supposed to do. Maybe I should mention that to Papa. Maybe then Sybil will accept my hundred dollars and be my friend.

Yeah. But no harm no foul, I guess, because after a checker's tournament that I definitely won't. We awoke to one, disconcerately discarded dead body. Then we're gonna have to pay the motel a fucking cleaning fee. Sybil! Sybil! Sybil! Well, next time wrap him up in a hefty bag or something, man. Anyway, we find out the gang of feral werewolf mermaids were responsible and have promised the lady of the lake. We'll brain her the tales of these foul beasts.

At least I think that's what's going on. Alright, take it away, God! Thank you, Enoch. You're my special little boy. Thank you. I hope that that disconcerted all of you this morning. Take that with you to the rest of your week. I'm more annoyed of the one week that we don't record together. It's the week that I just put it at.

Beautifully profane. Thank you, Anne. Let's take this moment to introduce ourselves since I failed to do it before the intro. We'll just look about it. I'm Caleb James Miller. I'm playing your storyteller today. I'm Aaron and I'm God's little boy. I'm Allegra. I'm playing Mal and I just tried to fix my glasses even though they're not here. I'm Amanda and I'm playing Allison. Don't want to attach this one. I'm Eli and I'm playing Niles. I'm Sergio and I'm playing Burroughs.

I'm Zakiad and I'm playing Sybil. Beautiful. Before we get into the action, does anyone want to announce any XP changes to the character sheets? Anything we think we need to inform the audience about before we reveal it in dramatic style? I do need to tell everyone I met four hunger. That's not good. I met three hunger as well. I'm still only one.

Well, we've got some ones. We've got some threes. We've got some fours. Enoch, what did you say, Rae? I met three hunger. We're all feeling a little peckish. Maybe a bite to eat before we go into the water. I just need to talk to Brian if I want to eat. Yeah. So, you all woke up at the usual time in your night, 8 p.m.

The same 8 p.m. you have experienced since the day you died. The same time, the same call, the same return. Because for you, of course, you do not sleep. You only return to the state of undeath. You only return to where the curse is left. And so, again, it is like being brought violently back into reality. But this reality has left you a gift in the frame of a man who trusted you yesterday and no longer has that opportunity today.

F's corpse, of course, is in the center of the motel on top of the dingy shag carpeting that makes up this abode, where a combination of the now almost loose blood and water that is coated over where his chest cavity has been opened is starting to pool around his corpse. There is a disembodied hand from the other salient in the room, the one who is no longer present, embedded into his rib cage, but removed at the wrist.

The revolver from which you all said should suffice last night is, by his corpse, used both rounds that were supplied. Thoughts may roam through each of your undead brains, wondering just what those other four shots would have made for him. I asked what it would have taken to make sure that he was still breathing tonight, but alas, those are questions for the past and not for the future, where you are now. You all are looking at the open door to this motel and wondering just how long that's been open,

how long before those two shots were expended, how many people saw what happened, how many pieces of authority are involved in whatever this is. The floor is yours. I'm going to shut the door right now before anything else happens. Door is shy. Where's Spoonz? Spoonz, a question for you.

Maybe you said this last session, but that was like a year ago. Did you say where you were putting Spoonz before you went to bed? Yeah, I don't think I specified, but I know typically I leave Spoonz to keep an eye or do like a fly by, just keep an eye while I'm asleep. I think that while you sleep is maybe the small moments in Spoonz's life where you are not the only thought in their brain. Largely, Spoonz has been a raven for the night,

has been the bird that he is up on that roof, and has been reconning since you've been asleep. Is there anything in particular you're looking for him? You can still connect with him. It's not as though he died in the night. Did he see anything while we were sleeping? Go ahead and make an animalism plus awareness role here, and let's just use this as a baseline for your connection with Spoonz

to discern his feelings about how the night went. I'm sorry, animalism and what? And awareness. It should be an okay pool, although that sounds like a little clack, not a big clack. Oh, with two successes. Hey, well take it. With two successes, your connection with Spoonz has always been strong. He is our little saw blade baby,

and as he has been circulating all night, trying to keep a steady watch after all of the terrible things that have happened in the past few nights, you do get the sense through communication that weird sense of feeling over anything else that Spoonz did see something. There's a level of danger, and by the moment you connect with him,

it's clear that he has been circling the building for, God knows how long, but he's tired. You can feel the exhaustion in his wings as though he has been keeping vigilant watch. Burroughs is just kind of slumped on the bed looking at Fs. Should have given him more bullets. Well, we can always get another human. I'd like to get a little closer to the body,

and because I have some surgery knowledge, do I get to, like, is there anything distinctive that sticks out that would definitely, like, would pick up on my radar that's unusual? Yeah, go ahead and give me wits plus medicine. Okay. Besides the dismembered hand that is lodged in his chest. There's more to it.

Now, while Allison is rolling that, can I ask a hand, how many scales does it have? Scales? Yes. Are we talking, like, a fish? Yes. Caleb, really quickly? Can you remember me?

Yes. I actually have surgery under academics instead of medicine. Is that okay, if I use that? Just go ahead and add that extra dye that surgery would have given you. Gotcha. Okay. Can I peek outside the door?

Yeah. One to get spoons to come into the room and two to see if there's anything going on outside. Absolutely. So we'll handle Allison, then I'll answer the scales question, then we'll deal with the door. Cool, cool, cool. Three successes.

Three successes. Allison, what you ascertain, and this will probably answer Enoch's questions as well, it's clear that the sort of opening of F was done with brute force. This was no weapon. As you can see, the depressions where the hands clearly broke through into the thoracic cage

and then peeled back. You can almost see fingerprints from the sheer amount of pressure that was installed into this man's body. But one thing in particular that your success merits you is looking at the hand itself, it is an interesting state of decay. The hand itself is dead, but it's been dead longer than this body has been, than F has been.

You could easily imply from the state of decay that this thing was dead when it walked into the room. You also notice that it is notably waterlogged. The sort of bloat that a body will take on when it has been in water for too long is evident in the skin. It is fat and bloated, but it also sags off the bones like a garbage bag that collects too much rainwater,

falls and sloths off the hand, still connected in with those big, gripped, half broken fingernails in the F's body. That's what you can ascertain. As for scales, Enoch, the hand does not look as though it's supernatural on any level as much as the body of it being dead when it came in the room. Looks like a human hand.

But of course, if it was a mermaid, you'd have to look at a leg, not a hand. Obviously, of course, the upper body is all women. The lower body is the fish part. Exactly, of course. As for opening the door, you slide up next to Mal, peek through the door. Is it just a handout?

Are you stepping out fully from the door? How much of a peek is this? I don't want to stick my head out too far. I just want to just do a general crack, because if something is out there already, we would, you know, flashing lights or anything like that. But then I would want to reach a handout to try to grab spoons and bring him in.

I'll say without a roll. It looks like Vegas. It doesn't seem as though anything like major is being drawn to the moment right now. There's no police force. There's no, you know, presence. There's no Camarilla knocking on your door. As far as you know, the site of Leopold hasn't started

the torches yet. Every day outside of the main strip, it's local Vegas. And it's quiet about this time. It does not seem like a very popping area. And spoons comes back to your hand immediately as you put that hand out and call. Spoons looks winded, tired. It's similar to when he was hurt before.

It's clear he's been working extra hard to make sure you're safe. Yeah, I'm just going to bring him close to my chest and hold on to him as I like sit down or somewhere while we figure this out. He preens and pets his head against your neck and comes in real close and absolutely cuddles against you. It is still disturbing to a certain extent

to feel the pull of human flesh on the bird where once were down feathers. But nonetheless, this is your loved one, your fabulous. Niles, does it seem clear? I don't see anything outside. No, it doesn't seem like anybody was bothered by whatever this is. All right, well, we need to get the hell out of here. I'm going to get the car ready.

You guys get that body out there and I'll be ready to go. I'm going to get up. I can take care of that. Grab the keys. I'll head out to Baby Blue. Wait, can I hold the hand? Take the gross waterlogged hand. Yes, that's the one.

What? We might need it. No, I need it. I might need it. Anything we keep. I think it's Sibyls right now, technically. Are we done? Actually, I think by law or it does belong to Sibyl.

I just want to hold it. I don't want it. I'll take the hand and hand it over. And I don't know if it works like this, but as soon as I have the hand in my hand, I would like to scry the soul. Remind me mechanically what Sry the Soul does for you, how we go about it. I love this. Let's do it.

This is why we have our disciplines. Our little cards. I need to get the cards. Sibyl, it is a bizarre feeling to watch all of this as you see. Well, a member of your coterie participate in what has become the bizarre circus of your life, this carnival act that is undeath. As someone you cared for, someone that you vowed to protect, someone that you promised no harm would come to, almost immediately saw that promise broken.

And now your friends are picking at the corpse like carrion birds. I think Sib is being quiet until all of the immediate safety concerns are being met. Like, yes, there's no one in the hallway. We do need an exit plan. And she's waiting until she's alone with Felix. Until people are, I mean, not alone, but effectively there's a quiet moment between her and Felix. Are there any other actions in the room while we are looking up that rules run on scry the soul? I head to the car.

Not really needed. But as I leave, I would like to pat Sibyl on the shoulder and be like, God, that's, I'm sorry for your pet's loss. They're there. And then I'm going to go ahead, head towards the car. Brutal. I know boros, you mentioned you were going to the car as well. Is that happening now?

Yeah, I'm going to get it started and just kind of waiting. Okay. Sib sits down next to Felix. She's just sitting next to Felix. He is, he's cold. The body has run cold since the time of departure. His eyes, you know, the calm brown eyes of this normally erratic individual have gone still. They're glazed and staring up at the ceiling.

It is a sort of change in the body that you've never experienced. You are what he is. You're as dead as he is, but it is something to know that you will continue going on. And he will never know what that's like. Actually, did Allison already leave? And Enoch already leave? It looks like Allison's gone. Enoch has the hand, I believe he's still in the room.

Okay, good. Cool. I don't know if he can hear me if he's sort of. I hear everything. Okay, then don't leave. Okay. But I'll only not leave if you promise to be my friend. Okay.

Yes. I promise to be your friend. Yes. Anywho. Good. Scribe the soul. So, I mean, you tell me, you tell me if this works or not. But the text is by focusing on a person by touch or whatnot.

A vampire can perceive the state of the person's psyche as a shifting aura of colors. Auras reveal little precise information, but do provide clues regarding many subjects, i.e. emotional state, resonance, and keely supernatural traits. Okay. Love it. Let's do it. Do you have to roll for that? Yes.

One rouse check plus intelligence and aspects. Okay, let's start with that rouse check. That is a failure. I get hungrier. Okay. Now I said I had three hunger at the start of the show. I think that's wrong. Okay.

I think I had, because I just, I think I had one, but I'm not, I'm not sure. You did kill that woman in the vent. So it may have been what you were at before you. I think so. I think I'm at one hunger, so I'd be at two, but I don't have proof of that necessarily. Well, let's put you at two. Okay. Okay, and then it is intelligence plus aspects.

So that is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight dice. Damn. This is Enoch's shit right here. That is six successes. Six successes. That's overwhelming. Two things happen at the same time to two people. Enoch and Niles, there is a sudden intercession in your mind.

It is a presence that is not yours for both of you. And it is something that comes on jarringly quick. And it is enough that both of you could probably recognize a change in the other from the sheer, sheer suddenness of this. But a song begins to play in your minds. A slow, lilting, beautiful lullaby. A song that is sung uniquely from the heart, from a voice that is gorgeous, but layered, like a chorus, like the same voice layered over itself multiple times, talking all at

once, a cacophony that liltes into the next verse of the song. It is beautiful. It might as well be set to piano, and it is constant for the two of you in your mind. Enoch, in additional information, you know that ascertaining this beast, whatever it is, it was undead. You get the sense that at one time it was human. You also get the sense that at one time it was changed from that into something more. You do not sense that at any point this body carried the curse.

You think it was something else entirely. Your ascertainment would be that this thing has been dead for years. Centuries is what you feel. You also get the feeling that there are preliminary sort of ebbing and flows of another presence to, in fact, one of which that feels tied to the creation of this being, and another that is just loose at the fingertips, as if just recently interacted with. And from that second presence, the last interaction, you begin to hear screams in a very familiar voice as the sounds of F's death rattles through your brain off of the strands of the cobweb.

As you get this glimpse of him in physical struggle, fighting back to gunshots, the sounds of sirens, a desperate, desperate fight for his life. And that is what you'll get. Real quick, gotta thank Trash Bandico and Parker Woodley for subscribing for a couple months. Thanks, guys. Thank you guys so much. As the vision fades, I stroke my face with the hand and I say, ah, yes, the sirens call. Okay, used to you doing that.

That's, it seems like something that should be shared with the class. Oh, yeah. It's a thing. An undead thing. Yes, very undead, very thing. What? Do you have anything to add to that? Do I, does it seem like, are you physically reacting to what you just saw?

I mean, I'm probably like lost in the fact that I'm hearing a song in my head right now, but I'm just like phased out, look like stroking spoons. Okay, then never mind. A mast to prevent ourselves from being lured in by the beast's call. Are you talking, what? What mast? Well, for the mermaids. You know, they sing the song and they're very pretty and you get seduced by their beautiful voice.

That sirens, that mermaids, that's different. I'm pretty sure they're the same thing. They're not the same thing. Freak mermaids, same shit. No, not the same. Okay. Agree to disagree. I will do research and destroy you, weirdo.

Yeah, great, do your research. I dare you. What's the matter with that? Good luck getting a phone. I would, ugh. I forgot about that. All right. Do we have any other lead other than in the water and not alive?

There were sirens. What spoons have seen where this thing ran off to? Yes, I also feel that Enoch would probably get that as well. So let's give that information to both of you. Enoch, you would have gotten the sense that this thing upon having its fight with F was severely injured on the last limbs of whatever thing puppeting it kept it alive. And both spoons and yourself would have some sort of awareness that it went around the motel to an alleyway adjacent. Enoch starts running. Yeah.

Niles is going to like see that, like get up and tuck. Yeah, run after Enoch. Some birds stand up immediately, stark in the room, and then leave in an instant in front of the rest of you in the room. Those in the car, that's Allison and Burroughs, you would also be treated to a vision of both Enoch and of Niles beating feet around the door. As I run past the car, I scream into the window, Allison, I made a friend, that's all okay, bye. Don't say anything running. Around the corner, you find exactly what you're looking for. In amongst the trash, sort of in that like concrete four by four wall structure they'll have outside of many establishments where they hide the dumpsters back behind.

A body is caught in the middle of the pullout doors that would get you access to the dumpster itself. And you can see that it's sort of wedged in there, aloft with one hand sort of caught in the door jam itself. It is completely stark nude. It is skeletal in frame, but also has that sagging flesh that full of water bloat. It seems to have some sort of appendage restraint, almost like a run of line, a voting line that is tied to it. But not in the way that you'd fashion. It seems that this line has been run through a string, just the end of this thing's entrails. Is it alive?

This thing has lost its life probably in the last two hours. Whatever life it had left after being brought back into this form, it's gone now. It's not moving, it's not showing any signs of life. This thing feels familiar somehow. It reminds me of toilets and burning cabins. Does that make any sense to you, Niles? No, that doesn't make sense to me at all. Well, best be shown it to everybody else then.

I sling the thing over my shoulder with zero reverence, put the hand in my pocket so I can have both arms free to carry the thing, and I lug it back to the cover. Watch him do that, holy shit. As Penoch takes that body back over his shoulder, you realize just how much worse the situation is if someone were to find this thing, Niles. Its face is lacking in eyes, it is completely masked over with flesh, it is just a nose and a mouth. The mouth itself is lacking in teeth, instead feeling out from where the lips are and sort of folding over its off part. Lamp-ray, and just like an eel might have, or a leech that is extending up out of its mouth. And no doubt what you all first glanced at is true. Most things, intestines have been looped around some sort of boating line that is maybe 50 feet of rope before it cuts off itself.

And it drags behind the Enoch as he gleefully takes this mutilated, mutated corpse out into the center of a motel outside of Vegas. I'm so sorry, I just would like clarification. Are we in the parking lot or inside of room? You two are in the parking lot in the car, and you would absolutely see Enoch rounding the corner with what is a monstrosity on his shoulder. What the fuck are you doing Enoch? Don't you get that anywhere near baby blue? I found a specimen. No, I want to dropkick him, he is not getting that anywhere near my goddamn car. Why the fuck did you even pick that up? It's evidence. Smooth, you motherfucker, smoother.

Tell this bastard not to get that thing anywhere near my car. Oh jeez, you find a real mermaid and you think you'd get some appreciation if I throw that thing down on the ground? There's a corpse that has a wet slap onto the ground. If this thing still had blood in its body, it probably would be leaking out. Instead, there's this fetid, disgusting smell of standing water that is mixed with century old corpse that has not been allowed to die. It is vomit inducing. If you were alive today, you'd be losing your lunch, but I'm sure it's just drawing attention. We can't leave it here for us. And well, no, they need to like, this is like evidence about whatever the fuck that is.

I will fetch a rug. Actually, that could, we could bring this back as this is what's there. Just wrap it up and put it in the trunk. God damn it. I'll go back into the hotel room and if there's a rug, I'll take a rug and if there's not rugs, I'll take like the comforters or something. When we open the club, don't worry. If there's any more, just bill me. We'll cover any smell detail. Are you going back into the hotel room? Is there anyone else in the room with me? Me.

Do I see you? Probably not. Then Sybil is set next to sort of leading in front of Felix. And effectively, I don't even think they say that they're sorry. They just look sorry. And then they're at hunger three. They're going to reduce their hunger to zero if possible. They're feeding up. Okay. Okay.

How do we want to handle this? They have iron gullet, so it's... But they don't know how much of them is left. Yeah. Iron gullet negates that drinking from the dead, right? What does iron gullet say for you? Yes. Yeah, I can feed on cold rancid or cold or rancid blood or fractionated plasma, which I don't...

This would qualify as rancid blood. Okay, so you do not have to make any roll to see if you can keep this down. You are able to keep F down just fine, but whether your conscious feels okay with this, that's a whole other story. You slake one hunger with this. But in the middle of doing this, in the middle of taking this from F and knowing that you have not only taken his life, but you've now just effectively drained his empty corpse, I think that this puts you in a special state. Could you roll your humanity pool plus your resolve?

This is just a little roll to decide whether we think this might be a humanity defining moment. Humanity plus resolve. Okay. Five successes. Okay, you're able to do this without any sort of stroke against your major character, or at least not yet. This is the start of the decline, not the bottom. You drain him, and there's no response. He doesn't give permission.

He doesn't ask what you're doing. He doesn't offer any condolences. He's gone. And what he is now is inside of you, and you're using it as fuel. Just like you do every relationship in your life, you sap it of what its use is and leave the remains. For now, the remains are in front of you. Wow, little Sim. Way to use every part of the buffalo.

Do you need something? A rug? We're a comfort. Actually, I guess we'll need two, because we're going to need to take this thing, too. I mean, I can hide now. A shower curtain? How can you hide? Oh, my God.

Hi. Yeah, I saw all of that. Gross. Shadow. I put him over my shoulder. I'm a shadow. No one can see him because I'm a shadow, and I'm carrying him. But what happens?

Are you going to carry him forever? No, I'm going to put him in the fucking car. Okay. We should put him in the shower. Yeah, I don't know if Brose is going to even let that happen. We've already made arrangements. And by that, I mean, my wife said the way it was going to be, and my wife gets what she wants. Okay.

Caleb, I'd like to come back in the room really quick. Sure. And go to Sybil. Question. You're usually very well put together. Do you have any extra perfume or? I feel like probably. Do I have to roll for perfume?

No. Okay. Yes. Yes, I do. Okay. Before I give it to you because I like it. Yes. What?

What are we doing with it? Are we using all of it? She says with Felix's blood fully on her face. Oh, not even going to acknowledge the blood. I'm just going to be like, um, I'm just going to point to that, like, to the corpse and be like, I mean, I know we're dead, but I don't want to smell it. Like, I don't want to like really smell that. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. We can do that. We'll put a little spritz on him. Please God do. Put a little spritz over it. We'll make it a little bit nicer for burrows because that's, yeah.

Honestly, if we wrap them in the shower curtain, that should close a lot of it up and sort of like a sausage. Sort of like a sausage. Okay. Well, line on the casing. Do me a favor. Line the casing of the sauce and then we'll just shove the meat into that. Yeah.

I'm Malcolm's back with the shower curtain. Like four rings still attached to it. Let's move. Come on. Ew, I'm not touching it. I just wanted to say that. We go through the process of rolling up F and then, of course, your new friend who does not have a name and preparing them for the back of Baby Blue.

Baby Blue itself is a convertible, beautiful little Oldsmobile, something of that sort, right? Gorgeous luxury vehicle, something you ride around with the top down, not designed to hold bodies, just so you know. We really ought to fix that. Two full corpses, one of which is bloated with old water, fit in the back of the trunk, but the trunk is open. Can I fold them with my lethal body?

Can I just kind of crack a couple pieces and make them flat? Sure can. So you are cracking those two bodies and the parking lot is that done in the hotel room? I was going to do it in the room. Okay. So you crack them in half, effectively hearing the snap of these people's spines as you fold them into human trezzles and then prepare them for the back of the trunk, just barely getting the top down.

And as you are folding them into the back of your car, there is this brief memory of you holding the hand of your little sister and walking her across the cross guard to her waving at the cross guard as you two passed. You remember, every morning, she'd wave. You taught her that, to be polite, to love, to be courteous. And the dissonance that is employed here as you defile two people, one of which you were talking to last night into the back of a convertible is palpable. All right, let's go.

Let's go. Colin. Really? We got to get ready for the bodies, right? Who's taking the other bike, Allison? Yay. I can take the other bike. We should take this to the Baron of the Dam.

This is evidence about what's in the bottom of that lake. Ooh, I promised her a mermaid tail. Now I can deliver. Do you think this will completely rip? If we turn this in, does that mean we still have to go to the bottom of the lake? Okay, let me just get out of here. I don't know. What if there's more of them?

There's probably more than them. If they can't move kinder than one at night. I mean, at this point, I feel violated. Someone came into my room, nearly killed me. I mean, we should at least figure out what the hell's going on and get this over with. I feel like we talked about how it might show good in the face of the Camarilla too if we kind of solved this problem. So let's go to the lake.

All right. I'll drive back to where we saw the Baron before we met the Baron. Okay. Is anyone going to arrive with me, by the way? Me. Good. We've got the Malkavians on one. Eli on the other bike, and then the rest in baby blue with the fully stocked trunk.

Burrows, you have to be a little looser on the turns just because any amount of extreme movement makes a heavy thud happen in the back of that trunk. And it threatens to open just about every time that you turn that car right or left. But you all eventually arrive at the outlook station that you know to have been where you met Shelly before. The difference here majorly is that there are more cars in the parking lot. It's only about 830, 845 by the time that you guys arrive. Probably closer to 9 with all the viscera cleanup duty. But it looks that people are still operating under their day jobs here at the dam.

You're here. It does give you the outlook over the waters and a view of Lake Mead. We need to find Shelly. Yeah. I'm going to go closer to the lake if that's possible. Sure. Are you talking just to the edges of this outpost to get a look out at it? Yeah.

Or are you talking like the shores? Mostly just to get an overall look at it. See if like just kind of secretly looking for mermaids. But just to see if there's anything off. Well, for anyone who's been to the top of the Hoover Dam, it is a sight to see. It is absolutely gorgeous looking down at this man made or clamp. Essentially this huge domed out area that falls into what is Lake Mead running right up against its beautiful architecture. It is a long fucking way down from this outlook itself.

And any sight of mermaid would be probably way further down into the waters itself as you're just sort of peeking out at the surface itself. But it's a huge stretch. I mean, almost a thousand miles of water, 500 feet deep. I did not Google that. I just knew that off the top of my head. Wow. Yeah. I know.

Impressive. But you've got to look there, Allison. This is what you're about to head into. This is what you're about to tackle. Nothing yet is like looking like I'm just looking for it. It's like even other cars or anything else that might be suspicious that we could. There are absolutely plenty of cars here at the Hoover Dam. That's still absolutely a highlight of Vegas tourists and people who are still living.

And at nine o'clock, you're still going to get a lot of people trying to see it in terms of suspicious activity from the top of the Hoover Dam from the parking lot of this outlook. You're not going to run into a lot without knowing that they're there, you know? I think even without a role, it'd be hard to depict any sort of suspicious activity. No one is pouring dead bodies into the lake from the surface. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't something like very blatantly obvious that we were missing. No. No Bangladesh. Who's coming with me to find the Shelley?

I'll go. Yeah. Sure. All right. I mean, we'll just kind of return to where we last saw them and start digging around and looking around and seeing who would be fine. Okay. So you're trying to enter into that outpost like we had before. There are sort of employees only signs and things of that nature.

And it does look like people are working here today. Is there some sort of cover in here? Are we being stealthy about it? Or are we walking through doors? Good question. I mean, I'm assuming we're leaving the bodies in the car. Yes. I hope so.

Yes. Yeah. Did we? Well. I'm going to take pictures on my phone to see just in case if we have to show them, but if it depends on if we can or not. But I think I'm being a little sneaky. I mean, I'm going to assume Shelley doesn't work for the damn city. So it's a matter of finding where they'll hang out.

The last correspondence you had with her was through Hugh and it was a meeting made specifically through that connection that Niles had made. You know, that's a prerogative that you could use or there are more than a few ways to skin a cat. I can't remember if any of you asked for Shelley's information. We expected to find her back here. You might. You just may have to wait a few hours. Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. I mean, we can just leave a note just in case.

Leave a note where? I mean, you know, right where we saw our last. That doesn't help us now. Why can't we message them? Do they not have phone or something? Just don't have the contact information. I'm willing to retcon if you guys would like to have said that you'd ask for that. I don't see why we wouldn't have tried to get the information because we're in trouble.

You can also just send a message through Hugh if you're looking for that. I think it's easier if we would have already contacted them or had their contact information. Absolutely. We'll send a message out to them now then. Yeah, so with distance from Mal, we'll send them a message while we text. Shoot a text. What is this text detailing? What's the communication out there?

We caught a mermaid meet us at the outpost as soon as possible. You get an answer back that is sort of loose form. It's very curt. It's sort of like how a dad might text. But it reads, can't meet tonight. Doing good work. Have big meeting in Vegas. All the barons.

Meet tomorrow. Same time, same place. Ooh. I got a funny feeling that meeting's got something to do with us. Oh, we're dead. That's straight up. That's dead. That's so dead.

I don't know. It's better to be closer or farther away. Come on. It does not take Scooby-Doo to solve that mystery. No. Let's be for real. We're on our own. So what do you want to do?

I think it's time we all had a come to Jesus moment. We know we what's awaiting us in Vegas. So I say, if there's any issues that aren't settled, let's do that now. Because I personally don't want to be thinking who's stabbing who in the back while we're trying to face off with everyone. Well, it doesn't matter. I think it's time we all had a come to Jesus moment.

Let's go with everyone. Well, all the more reason to go back. Between us and between the Camarilla. What? No grievances. Everyone's cool with everybody. Do we need HR? Yeah.

Everything's fine. If anything, we should solve this matter so we at least have something in our hands when we come back to town. We haven't been sitting with our thumbs up our asses. Well, you don't have to choose. So what are we doing? No, I think we need to come back with the wind. Fuck if I know.

I mean, for all I know, do we want to like go swimming to see if we find more mermaids to cover our ass? Or do we just throw back, face the music? I'm throwing this up to the group. What do you got? I vote we just go straight into that lake. I'm not going in that lake unless I have a couple things. We're going to go in and I need to make some purchases.

I've found some local sporting goods that we should. Well, naturally, we need to harpoon. All right. Now you're thinking like I am. That's. Can't use guns. No, we can't use guns, but they have harpoon guns. You can use guns underwater.

No, the powder has their own oxidizer. They'll work just fine. I wonder how this and I'll point out with my samurai sword. Oh, the fucking sword. Yep. If you actually get some fish, though, we can actually get some sushi because that's that'd be nice to. They're they're all talking about this latest plan for Lake Mead sushi

and for harpoon guns and they're hunting a mermaids. But that song has not subsided for the least. Enoch has stopped hearing it as the scrying has subsided. But for you, it is this dull background music to your life, the lullaby that continues on and on. It feels familiar. Yeah, I'm staring off in the space at this point, like just listening to it, trying to think about it.

I mean. Burles will approach Sibyl and a Sibyl. You don't want to do something proper with F. Maybe we bury him somewhere and just kind of be done with the body. Pretty nice. I'm still thinking about that. I think. I think if we should fix him up a little bit, maybe first.

But he has. I think Sibyl has just taken some time to reflect. I know he's got family, but I mean, if he just dis. So I'm saying you might just have to disappear. It's Vegas. Who doesn't end up like getting lost one way or another. Well, yeah, but what if that that's just one other thing we have to take care of if he disappears, the people care about him.

That's somebody constantly searching for him. And that does not stop as much as exploring. We can't leave him in a big sporting goods. No, I mean, to get our harpoon and stuff. If we're going to get in the water. Well, one thing at a time. Yeah, let's have one conversation at a time. We will leave the body in the trunk.

Well, we need to fix. Okay. We'll fix him up and we'll put him somewhere. Vegas can find him. Okay. It'll be pretty questionable if he's all fixed up. Which means I'm. Well, just not.

I don't know. We remove. Well, some of that's already taken care of, but. Anything incriminating. Like his lack of that's gone. It could seem like he caught. Yeah, but. I don't know.

We put him. I don't know. See this mermaid shit is we might be able to kill two birds. How about a nice burial at sea? That might look a little weird though. But actually. We just tie a nice big rock around his neck and let them let them have a nice swim.

The rock isn't great. But whatever. The the hand. Did you guys talk about all the like hand lore that you guys got? I didn't. I didn't. Okay. Okay.

Never mind. Yeah, I think that. Listen, listen. I've told you, I've told you that there are mermaids and that's all you need to know. The opposite of that is true. But in this case, I do think you're right. Putting him in the water might be the best idea.

Also about the mermaids. Okay. So we, we get. So now we get our glue guns and then we go to the water. I got a couple ideas, you know, some goggles. You aren't as proficient of a swimmer, some fins. What time is it? Is the place even open?

Yeah, it's nine, nine o'clock. It's still living hours. There are plenty of people out there. It's Vegas. It's open late. Hell yeah. All right. So you pull up to a Dick's sporting goods with two bodies in the

back of your blue convertible. A portly man in Hawaii. I'm sorry. Excuse me. In a floral printed shirt in the front seat gets out of his car following some of the most eclectic group of people that have ever existed and a saw blade raven. And you enter the Dick's sporting goods with full intent to buy a

harpoon. Blush of life. Yeah. Blush of life. And I put spoons. I tuck spoons in a jacket. Spoons doesn't sit on my shoulder. It's just trying to paint a picture.

I know. I know. I know. I do want to point out that we, I believe we need to make rouse checks for blush of life. And some of us are at very high hunger. Yeah. So if everyone would like to roll a die in.

I succeed. Thank God. Take a chance. I fail. My hunger goes up. I fail. I go to three hunger. Should I stay in the car?

Yes. Some of us should stay in the car. It's weird. I think this is a great idea. I'm going to stay in the car. I'll stay in the car. I'll stay in the car. Just so I don't have to do a rouse check.

So wait, wait. Who's going in? I'm going in. I'll go. I'll go in. Throws Enoch. Honey, do you want to go in? Okay.

I think that's, that's cool. I'll stay in two. Okay. Now I am checking if you can buy harpoons at Dick's Sporting Goods. And then we can proceed. Why not? You might need. Like me.

If not, can we look up a Bass Pro Shop? A Bass Pro Shop. You should be able to definitely buy them a Bass Pro Shop. Because not only can you get crossbows, you can get bows and arrows. You can get. I would definitely have gone to like the most appropriate place. So you, you're buying tanks. You're buying harpoons.

You're buying flippers. You're buying wet suits. You're buying tanks. Yeah. Burroughs is buying a tank for himself, a scuba suit. As we're like walking through the halls is like, I spent a little time with Hawaii. I got my certification as a scuba. So.

We don't need to breathe. We don't breathe. It's not a matter of whether I need to. I feel more comfortable if I will. So I'm going to get a scuba suit. I like to imagine that. Buy harpoons from Bass Pro. They do not carry harpoons.

Sorry to say. Well, you know what? In Vegas, I guarantee you you found a sporting goods that sells silver harpoons. Can I? It's not even a question. You probably find one on a corner in the right place in Vegas. And I like to imagine Burroughs is walking around with like four carts of this shit, just full on shopping spree.

I'm just I'm prioritizing goggles, fins for everyone. And Burroughs is just going to get a scuba suit and a tank if they sell them. Yeah. Beautiful. Can I buy a fishing pole and a knife? Fishing pole and a knife like a survival knife. Like a big ass bush knife. I will say I would have asked someone to pick me up a knife to like a big knife.

OK, knife. And I think we should all get flashlights to like waterproof flashlights. Yeah, I want glow sticks. Oh, and last thing, I'm going to get a real long kind of similar to what we found on that zombie. I'm going to get a real long line. I'm going to talk to whatever we we need a line from wherever we go to to wherever we're heading so that we can find our way out. Yeah, exactly. Got it.

So you all are going to sporting goods places, to boating places, to fishing shops. This is going all around Vegas. Allison, you had something. A fishing net, you know, because you can actually get like the smaller fishing nets that at least come together. Absolutely. We might need to drag something out. And remind me how many harpoons did we get? I don't know.

I think one each, right? Yeah. I don't think. We have seven harpoons or a crossbow. You guys can have whatever your little hyper fixated hearts. You got your harpoons, I swear. They're there. They're big.

They're poignant. You can stab somebody with them. Enough with the harpoons, guys. You got them. I need someone, one of you to make a finance plus intelligence. I'm in the car. I should not make that role. Everything you need.

Can I just sponsor this? Yeah. I mean, you know, I would certainly give whatever money I have. So. Oh, this is not necessarily to pay because you guys probably have the money. This is a role to decide if you can find everything you're looking for. There's anything that doesn't make the list. I don't have finances.

I'm not. Yeah. I do. But my I have like, I can do like four. Oh yeah. That's probably more than anybody else here. I was never good with money. Allison is.

Two successes and one is a crit success. Oh, okay. Um, you. Absolutely get everything that was required for this group or at least what you would like to do. Um, at the last moment, you also remember an issue that hasn't been presented to the group that I'll give you now. And that's that bodies are naturally buoyant.

You know, even that far down. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

So that's that bodies are naturally buoyant, you know, even that far down. So you do remember to get some weights as well, just in case to keep your corpses at the bottom. In addition, when purchasing these items, you pull them up. You're at probably a harbor freight buying some of the more eclectic items. You know, what is that seven harpoons, six harpoons goes a long way. Yeah, I know. I suppose the harbor freight.

Yeah. The rotund man on the other side of the cashiers spot there is definitely giving some very suspicious looks at these individuals who at nine o'clock are buying full scuba regalia. And just look like some of the most bizarre characters in the world. Some of you, I know Sibyl's face was doused with dried blood. So hopefully Sibyl's not here. But I need one of you to elect to roll a charisma or manipulation plus persuasion to pass this off.

I can do that. Did you? Let's give it a burrow. You're in the car. Yeah. You're in the car. Let's give it a burrow. I'm in the car.

Oh, let's tell them. Yeah, I see him looking. Like, yeah, you see that, you see that billboard outside said, you know, if you find dead bodies, you could, at Lake Mead, you could get some compensation. Yeah, we're looking to start in the business. Five successes. Five successes. Sergio is bullshitting.

He's not. That is an actual billboard that is up in Vegas right now. God bless. Five successes is incredible. He looks at you and he wags this big ring finger at you and goes, damn, that's smart. Oh, that's smart. I wish I thought of that. Yeah, we're hoping to make a killing.

All right. Hey, whoa. Oh, he gives you all of the items that you require. If we, is there a buyback program? Could I sell you a used gun and maybe I can get some kind of store credit? Does that work? Like a firearm? Yeah, I'm not sure you guys have a policy like that.

I see you guys sell some guns. Well, shit, is it license serial coded? Oh, yeah. Everything's above board, of course. Yeah. Okay, you want to go with like gun show laws or actual laws? Well, I mean, if you got your own special kind of law, I'm not afraid to talk about that. If you're comfortable going a little over market price, we could say that you never even asked me about a gun.

That is good to know. What's your name, buddy? Let me read your name. Ronald. Yeah. Ronald, I'd like to cut your jib. All right, I want to remember you. I might have a few pieces for you.

Sure. I mean, I like your jib, too. You remind me of old movie stars. I get that all the time. Thanks, man. Dave Burroughs. Of course. Ronald.

You got that gun you were talking about? It was more hypothetical. I'll come back to you if I find something. No worries. You know what I mean? Ronald at Harper Freight. Don't say up too late, Ronald. Of course.

He bids you guys goodnight and you walk out harpoons in hand and some of the most bizarre Kuchermans possible and get back in baby blue. You now have even less room for the corpses. Well, at least some of the bodies are out riding motorcycles. So there's a little. Yeah, exactly. While they were getting all of our items. Oh, hello.

Can I have just checked my phone thinking about remembering like the memories of my sister and then thinking about what I talked to Cisco about? I think it's been a few days and Mal's going to just check their phone. Okay. It is the usual garbled mess that it is around you is beeping and chirping occasionally, but none of them in any sort of tones you recognize the screen itself looks as though models who have lost their digitizer looks where it's that dull gray like a like a broken TV screen. And it occasionally will flash with this little blue almost lightning strike that runs across

the length of the screen itself and every so often pixels will come to life in different colors and then die right there on the vine. But upon looking, you do hear a garbled version of something you recognize. And that's the notification you had set up for your voicemail. Oh. And there's no way there's no way I can act as it. Not you. Yeah.

You got to find somebody you trust enough to play it for you. Oh, I hate it here. I just want to one last thing, you know, we go to a couple of different stores and at some point, Enoch and I are kind of going down the aisles together, preferably alone. But at some point I turn to Enoch and I say, Listen, man, you know, I've been with a lot of women and I know what it looks like when when she's, you know, wanting you to do something that'll make her happy. You know, the whole the whole checkers thing last night, the whole trying to make friends.

I can tell, you know, she's she's trying to get you to be friendly with us all. Am I right? Yeah, there's no need to freak out. You know, I mean, you and I are cool. You know, we're in a special place. We've seen each other's dicks and stuff. So, you know, we're kind of already friends. Is that the bar these days?

I mean, for me, it is. I mean, hell, I practically know everything about you at this point. Hey, I just want to understand, Enoch, that if you want to be done with the task of having friends or getting all these people to be your friends, it's real simple. You just got to try to put your neck out for them sometimes, you know, let them know that they can trust you. Let them know that, you know, you got their back. And if you can prove that to them, then the task is over and you're done.

Does that make sense? I see. So to be clear, and I would like this in writing, would you say that we are friends? I would say in our own special way, yes, we are friends. Great. Make sure to tell my wife that. I will. And just remember that remember my little bit of vice, stick your neck out once in a while

and they'll think of you as a friend. Okay. I got three friends and only one of them's dead. I mean, I'm technically dead, but fuck. All your friends are dead. I think they're all dead. Yeah. I had one living friend.

Now he's dead, too. His dick knowledge is passed gently between two deep friends. God, don't say it like that. What am I going to say it there? You kind of brought this on yourself. Yeah. Just swapping dicks in dicks. I mean, it just makes sense.

Okay. It looks like we might be all loaded up for this very serious. I think so. That was a long shopping montage. Yeah. It was. So what is the plan for actual entry into Lake Mead? Where is this happening?

How is it happening? Is there a boat involved? Are we just walking to the shore? That's what I'm thinking. We can walk in. There's places to walk in. But haven't you looked at the Hoover Dam and thought, God, I want to jump off of that thing.

I hate to agree with Enoch, but like a little bit of that, I'm up somewhere really high. And what if I just jumped? I mean, technically, that's forced with crush, not coming from a place of health. And if we, if me, say one of us, because we've never done this before, but what if one of us fails and we have to watch them sort of scrape down the Hoover Dam?

That sort of might impact. We have to have for what comes next. Yeah, they might. Fine. I mean, people will definitely see it. Yeah. Let's get a boat chartered and let's just fucking go out to the middle of the lake.

That way we just go straight down. We don't have to go at an angle or anything. Oh, fine. Do they do night charters? A good night time boat rental. I mean, I just met a guy in Harvard. So we're going to find somebody. Yeah.

Go ask Ronald. What? Ronald from Harbor Freight's guy you covered. The connect. I believe, hold on. If we can go to like a boat rental, because if so, I can probably like. Yeah. Charming guy.

Mesmer kiss him where I could just do that lingering kiss and I can get us something. All right. So I'm going to, I'm going to drive around Lake Mead looking for like harbors or docks places where there are boats and start asking around. So you run past a lot of day use entries that are like bars to the public outside of like driving over like gated barriers. But the great thing about Vegas, the great thing about being a kindred in Vegas is that almost everything is open 24 hours.

And Lake Mead is no exception. There are plenty of shores that are available to you that are off the beaten path, but close enough that you could probably walk your way to a boat rental take you a couple minutes, but it is possible. So you guys find one of those spots off and you pull off into the dirt outside of the doors there and walk into the more populated area. It doesn't look like many of these places are open. And in fact, from your first glance into that, that area there, you're probably looking at

very scarce opportunity, but you do find one boat rental on the edge of the property that still has a car parked outside the front of it. All right, well, come in with backup, Allison, but you go ahead and leave the charge and trying to get this. I was it. I'm also right before I go in or anything, I'm going to activate in presence my all so that can give me an extra charisma dice in my rolls coming up. You become what Allison has always been and that is a tantalizing figure to see.

You are beautiful. You are effervescent. You are the puppet master. We're all just the puppets, baby. Stop it. Allison, you peek that there is a light still on in the boat rental off the far left. The rest of the shop seems to be very dark, but it does lead out to a sort of a docking area and the car itself outside part there has a boat attached.

Something big enough that could probably fit all of you, but it would be a baby blue situation that feels a little cramped. By the way, thank you, devilish darkness for the tier one three months subscription. Thank you. Awesome. Is there other things like maybe a canoe or anything like that could even a small man kayak or anything that could also help? You imagine that a boat rental place might probably hide those things inside once the

day is done, just to prevent from people like you. But you imagine if you were to break into this place, you probably steal some kayaks to go with your harpoons. I'm going to go in and see if I see somebody. I'm trailing behind, you know, not trying to bring too much attention to myself, but just as back up. The two of you get up to this rickety wooden structure that makes up the boat rental. It has this cheesy probably from the late seventies, early eighties sign that advertises

for Lake Mead. It's one of the smaller locations out here. And the windows are shaded sort of that like jellied glass so you can't necessarily see inside. And the first door you try, if you try the knob, are you going up? Are you trying the knob? Are you trying to move inside this building? Let me ask that first.

I always try the knob. I'm not being suspicious to me. This is like normal. Like I'm just going to go ask a rental, go through the front door and be like, yeah. So you try the door to the front door. It is absolutely locked. This place is closed. Still light on, but you imagine it's somewhere deeper in an office or something.

You're knocking. I'll knock on it. Absolutely. You you hear some shuffling behind the door from a few rooms in and there's a long while, the sort of while that if you were another person in another life, you're sort of staring through the peephole wondering who the fuck is knocking at your door at Lake Mead at nine o'clock at night, 10 o'clock at night. But eventually you can hear footsteps on the wooden platforms on the other side of the

door. And then through the door, you hear, can I help you? Yes. Okay, this is a little silly, but I'm sorry, we're closed, ma'am. I will hold on just really quickly. It's my birthday and my friends and I really kind of want we want to skinny dip because that's something on my bucket list and we want to know if that was possible. Okay, have fun with that.

Thank you. No, wait, come back. Could you get cash? I got. Yeah, we got cash. Go ahead. Allison, make a manipulation plus persuasion and then add on whatever girls has in persuasion. Oh, I mean, if you want to, that's three.

Oh, shit. I want to know the total on this dice full. Okay, hold on. It's going to be like a 10 between these two. Let me get my manipulation. But then you get to run all of your roll of the dice. And how many was free for us? Three.

Okay. I have a specialty in gaslighting. Are we gaslighting this person? I don't know. I guess it's not Allison's birthday. So that counts. Are you serious? You have a specialty in gaslight?

He sure does. Yeah. Have you seen his home life? He has. Do you have enough dice? Yes. Okay. Oh, I have enough dice.

Okay. So I have to do the math. Hold on. One, two, three, four, five. Yeah, we got five successes. Yeah. On the other side of the door, there's a long while where the two of you think that this just hasn't worked.

And then you hear a sigh through the door. He says, well, skinny dipping in cash, you must have come from the strip. Fine. But you're going to fucking pay. And he clicks three different locks and then opens the door. And you're looking at this older individual probably in his early 40s, a little baseball cap with a fish on it and lots of flannel, a little waffle knit undershirt underneath. He's starting to get a gut, starting to get a little older.

I'm going to reach my hand back to burrows, like to indicate money, like any cash you have slipping in my hand. Yeah. Whatever I've got, it's, you know, maybe a couple hundred. Okay. I'm just saying, I so appreciate this. Yeah. Of course.

I'm happy to help. You said you were skinny dipping with your friends. He looks at burrows very suspiciously. He's my assistant. I can't imagine what he assists with. I'll be driving the boat. Okay. He takes the money and he counts it.

How much money did you put in his hands? I believe with what burrows may have given me, would it have been like 400? Maybe. Would it be four or 500? Yeah. I think that's a good guesstimate, how much a boat would it be for an hour? Hey, it's late night. Like you got, you got to show like we're serious about renting these boats.

Right. He looks at you and then back at burrows and then back down at the cash. He says, well, 420 is usually the half day for a sport model. So you just paid for a regular day and not a drop me out of my office day. It's an inconvenience charge. I'm not oblivious to the time at all that. But you only live once and you're only in Vegas once. So that's why I just, I just have to try.

Is it really your birthday? Yeah. Oh gosh. How old do I look? Oh my God. It looks so old. I don't know. I can never guess these things.

29. Oh my God. That is. Thank you so much for saying that. I appreciate that so much in my head. I'm also a little miffed, but I want to come off nice. You're good. You're really good.

Yeah. It's exactly it. Oh really? 29, huh? Yeah. And that makes him double take boroughs yet again. You know what? It's your first time in Vegas.

You're going skinny dipping. Fine. You can take the boat out. But I'm only going to be here until midnight. So I need it back before that. We'll be real quick. We promise. Okay.

Well, you know the marina. You know where you're coming from. Usually boats aren't out about this time. So you're going to be on your own if anybody comes for you. So you're okay with that? You know what? That is completely fair. So you don't have to worry about anything like that.

Yes. Okay. And I am a very good swimmer. So you don't have to worry about that. Sure. Let me go out back. I'll get the truck. I'll get these slotted in the dock there.

You sure you don't have any extra cash for me? I mean, I'll dig around. I'll probably pull out another $100 bill. You take it. I'll take it. I hand him the hundred and I just say, how do you think I look? Oh, geez, man. I don't think you want that answer.

No, I don't want the answer. Forget it. Forget it. He starts moving out. He starts the truck and you can see that boat start to wheel about and come off to this little dock, this little marina he has for loading out in the Lake Mead. And what he said is true out there on that water. It does not look as though any boats are really patrolling outside of two separate blinking

lights that you imagine might be some sort of security for the lake. Who knows? But he's in position for all of you. While we're walking back to the car, I'm just going to be kind of miffed and I'll turn around and be like, you know, I'm not that old actually. I died in my 40s. Okay. I'll be honest.

I thought you were in your 30s. You don't have to patronize me. I know I look old. You know what? I'm going to die with a big gun and I've got these gray hairs, you know. If you, I'm sorry, if you can't learn to accept a compliment, then that's not a me problem. That seems like something you need to work on. So I'll be.

So let's, there we go. I've meant that in a very nice way because you don't look like in your 40s. So. Really? Yes. All right. That's something I've been a little insecure about since I, well, since I became a kindred. No, no, no, no.

You got, you got, remember, it's, it's your, it's your energy and all that. You have so much. That's what I figured. Yes. And you're singing. Yeah. It brings out. I'll sing like I'm still in my 30s, you know.

No, you sing with the boyish charm of a teenager, but with that, it ducks. It makes you look, honestly, you're fine on that. Remember you own yourself or guess what? No one else is going to love you. RuPaul. Hell yeah. Preach sister. I love that.

I'm feeling better now. There you go. And I'll even smack them on the little tush. I'll do a little pat, like tushy pat and walk off. You have top burrows the secret mysteries of RuPaul and slapped them on the ass and procured a boat seemingly as easy as all fucking hell. You all returned to baby blue where you parked out and now it's just a matter of getting you all to the boat and convincing this man.

You've all come to skinny debt. All right, everybody. I need to, you don't have to get naked, but if you can, if you have any extra layers, let's go ahead and just go to basic shirts and all that. We got to sell skinny dipping. Before you say you don't have to watch us. No, he's not. But if he does or security, it's called having an alibi.

I think you know, like as soon as the word skinny dipping is mentioned, the like the shirt just starts coming off and then you say you don't have to be completely naked. And then I just kind of sadly stop. I'll try to like kind of distract the guy so that we can load in our harpoons and our many accoutrements, you know, just get away from the boat as soon as possible. Okay, so you're taking him away. You're chatting him up. You're giving him a hard time about how he guessed your age.

Go ahead and make a manipulation plus. Actually, let's make this composure plus persuasion. Even better. Plus persuasion. Caleb. Yeah. Since we're closer to the water has the music in my brain gotten louder. Yes.

Yes, it has almost deafening at this point. Two successes. Two successes. Yeah, that's enough. It's dark out here. He is flustered that this is even happening. He's only really working for a hundred bucks more. And now he has to entertain you, but he's just trying to put on a brave face while everybody

gets ready. It's largely him thinking that this is a guys to hide him from the naked bodies and not from the many harpoons you all just smuggled. But we'll say that the rest of you have have boarded this sort of sport class boat that seats enough of you and that equipment. And it's rather baby blued up. So it is stocked and ready. But eventually he is ready to move.

And as long as the rest of you are. We're moving. Let's do it. Okay. I would like to elect that maybe we should take our go ahead, Zach. Oh, no. No. Okay.

Cool. I thought I heard something. It would be a good time to take our little 10 minute break here so that we can get even more time underwater. Whatever they do. All right. So we will take our 10 minute break here. We'll be back very soon.

And we will see what's waiting for everyone under the wastes. Wait. Yeah, that one. I don't think we cleared that one. I'm good. I'm not going to lie. Did anybody hear that sound out in the chat? Just take a guess at what Zach just made us here.

So we are on the edges of Lake Mead past boating hours. It is past dusk. So odds are no boats are supposed to be out here unless they are members of Lake Mead in the park surrounding. So we're making some dodgy decisions with a man we've just met who we don't even necessarily know his name but is giving you his boat half full because you are all beautiful elegant creatures of the night that warped his brain and understanding. But it seems very much aware that he's going to come with you.

He's primed up with this conversation with boroughs. He is standing by the boat. He's lifted it out. He's moved his truck out of the way once it's been sort of moved into that dock. And it's getting close to an hour where he's about to join you all on that boat and see exactly what you're carding. What's your name Captain? It's Rick.

Rick. Everybody. You don't have to call me Captain. Well everyone this is our Captain Rick. Say hello to Rick. Ahoy Captain. Captain Rick. Hi Captain Rick.

Just run a boat rental. And he looks down at what is six harpoons, a full scuba suit, an air tank, goggles, flippers, weights, fishing nets, things that no suitable person would use to skinny dip. Now Captain Rick, I put my arm around him. How on a scale of one to ten, how squeamish are you? He looks between all of you and he's starting to get that hinky feeling, knowing that something's about to go wrong. He says, I don't know what the fuck this is, but you got to explain this to me right now

or we're done here. Cutting off his windpipe until he passes out. I see. Make a brawl plus a dexterity check. Make sure you're rolling your hunger die since I'd like to remind all of you that you're all like it four. Well I'm rolling my hunger die. I was responsible.

I'm sorry. I know. Brawl plus dexterity. That is, that is a messy critical. Listen, you are so adept at ending this man's vocal ability that you actually end his life as you can feel your hand grip around his windpipe break and the hyoid cavity that is stuck in his neck, their collapses effectively closing his throat completely without some kind of emergency tracheotomy.

You imagine that in a few seconds, minutes, he'll probably die. He is affixiating. It is the horrendous, horrendous sound of a man fighting for his life. I don't want to acknowledge this dead man and just be like, can we please stop doing this? He's about to be. We can fix him. Every person we come by, you're never going to meet my family at this rate.

Wait, what? No, hold on. If he's affixiating, I'm biting him. Oh, okay. Mal feeds on the affixiating fresh body and are you draining him? Are you taking some? Are you slaking? Oh, you might as well take it all.

I think Mal's probably at a point that they aren't really in control that much once their mouth touches blood, so I think. There is a memory of your little sister waving to that crossing guard, but you're draining to zero, yes? Yeah. Beautiful. That memory is corrupted. It's filtered through red.

It is doused in artery. You end his life there on his own boat as the blood begins to pool in the walking cabin in the center of the luxury boat. He's dead. Remove one humanity for killing an innocent human being and draining him of his blood. Yeah, it's been coming. Just a bunch of selfish hacks. I'm really pissed and quiet and I'm shaking my head.

I'm going straight to the driver's section with the wheel or wherever. I'm going to just be ready to drive it. In order to get the wheel going, now that the boat has been pushed out to water, you do need the keys, which are on his body, but as you pull into the pocket, you get those keys and there's a wallet, a wallet that includes a few pictures of him and two small daughters, one of which is seven. The others may be three. It looks recent.

It's a nice little modern Polaroid that he must keep folded in. And aside from that is a little heart-posted note that has a stick drawing of a man with a big baseball cap. And he's got $500 a month as well. Take back. So you gain the keys to this boat, the knowledge that you've killed a father and $500. Take him on the boat. OK.

Enoch, you're dragging that body down to the bottom of the lake, not me. That's fair. Are we driving the boat out to the center of Lake Mead? Yeah, I will be driving. Sorry, just so the record's clear, we take the weird mermaid and Felix on a boat with us. Yes, all bodies who come with us. All the bodies. You abandon this man's truck in the middle of his marina with the door still open.

The rental house still unlocked and you drive out to the center of Lake Mead. How far out are you going? What's the expectation? This is a thousand mile stretch, basically, of water that you could conceivably enter to. There are points along the map that would point to deeper areas. It goes as far as about 500 feet, or at least that's as far as they've recorded. I'm going to head in generally that deeper area. OK.

Go ahead and make me a, what do we want to call this? Let's call it science plus intelligence. Science plus intelligence? OK. That's the one. The whole ride boroughs is trying to recite everything he learned when he went scuba diving. You know, staying groups, stick to the, stick to the line that we run down. You know, signals. You have to use signals.

There's no audio down there. There's no sound. Two successes? Two successes. Yeah, you think you find a very nice spot secluded that is by one of the cliff sides that line Lake Mead closer to the dam. And it seems very deep. The waters are incredibly dark at this time. Most of the lights around you are blinking lights that sit out on the horizon.

And as boroughs is fitting himself into that wetsuit running through his scuba signs, you all park over dark deep waters. There's little to no sound, at least for everyone except Niles. It is the white noise of a quiet that is palpable. Here bobbing on the surface of Lake Mead knowing that deep below you is something waiting for you. Does anyone have anything left to say before we go down and are completely unable to communicate except through handshakes and movements? Actually, I think let's let's go over some key ones like this is stop. I feel like this is a good stopping motion or does anyone else have something else in mind? Who's used single digits and that's up for how many things you see or whatever.

Yes. Me, you. Up. Up. Down. Down. Great. Great.

Wait, how do we say good and bad if this is up and down? Good. Bad? No. Bad. Good. I love good. Bad.

Bad. Good. Sorry to interrupt. We have the water interact with our vocal cords. We can actually talk down there. Well, boroughs, don't you have the tank? I mean, yes, I am trying to wear a tank because I'm going to be more comfortable. I don't want to be disoriented down there.

But I mean, if I need to, I'll take it off my mouth. I mean, we could. I could also. Well, yeah, take it off if you want. I'm staying up here. All right. I think we should keep the signs regardless. Allison up here as a lookout and the rest of us are going down.

So Allison is not going to the bottom of like me. Not right now. I will have that. I'm going to unravel that big fishing net thing though. Just think to get that prep. Should we take that down? That could, if that helps. The net.

Yes. The net. All right. If we pull the line. I think that means Allison should. Join. We need to get the hell out for Allison if they're above the water. Yeah.

She shouldn't pull the rope up. The rope has to stay so we always have an anchor to the boat, you know, a way to get to the boat. So, yeah, I mean, I guess if we pull it three times, it means shit's fucked. We got to get the hell out of here as soon as possible. Okay. I don't think it's worth them going down. Okay.

So if it's three tugs, then I can just take off without you guys. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. Shit's fucked. Wait for us to get up. Then we'll all go. Got it. Okay.

So just get ready. Shit's coming. We got to go. Yes. Gotcha. I just wanted to make sure. Because I'm okay with just leaving, but. You would leave me.

You crossed another body right now. I'm a bit pissed with you. As, uh, as you all are planning all of this and the Malkavians are discussing their mutual aggression towards each other, uh, you all noticed that Niles is speaking. Niles, this is not of your volition. This is of something happening outside of your control. The hell you speak rather loudly. Almost as if reciting poetry as if speaking from memory.

Uh, you speak a lot of the Myers. My heart is yours. Even as I am dust, I am carried on wind to your feet. Breathe me in. And it is as though it is not your voice acting as vessel. That would have definitely got my attention. Do they just say it once or are they repeating it? It's just once.

Okay. It's almost lost in thought looking out at the deep dark waters of Lake Mead. Hey Niles. Huh? The hell? What? You were kind of just, was that a song? Was that a poem?

You've been acting zoned out since the hotel. You got something to say? Um, I just keep hearing just a song in the back of my head. I don't know. I've never been here, but this feels familiar. On a scale of one to fucking minds to our insanity. How do you feel? I feel fine.

Okay. Do you think you can handle a weapon without murking the rest of us? Can you? They did just reset something out of their own volition or not of their volition. Fair enough. This might be a helpful way to find whatever the fuck we're looking for. Does the song seem louder now that we're here? Yeah.

Do you think there's a difference? I can barely hear you speaking to me. Okay. So we've got a beacon. If it gets louder, so why don't you just go for the sound is deafening and then we follow you. Well, we'll make now's our point. If you're okay with that now's. I guess that's what you want.

All right, everyone make sure you got a harpoon gun. You know, well, I thought harpoon guns. I thought they were just harpoons. Oh, they're just harpoons and I'm fine with that too. Harpoons. I was going to say a harpoon gun. We'll say harpoons just in the interest. They do.

They hurt things. They're pointy. That's all we need. Yes. Yeah. So Niles is diving first into the water. Yeah. I'm going to leave spoons.

I guess with Allison. He gives you like a concerned little can't of his head as he's looking at you and then over at Allison. And you could feel a sense of apprehension that he's being left with her and not with you. I promise. Nothing. I like I won't. I don't. I promise spoons will be spoons when you.

It's not reassuring. I just give Allison like a very like point in look of like. Don't. Dead ass. She's going to be like, yeah. And as a little goodbye, perhaps his last or at least he feels that way. He steps forward and gives you a little peck on the nose. Yeah.

I give him like a little scratch that like goes under his little beak. Yeah. And I guess since I'm point Niles is going to at least take the jacket off. So it's just the tank top that they have normally underneath. And I guess I'm like crack a glow stick first. Yeah. Yeah. Talk one in the water and have keep one in my hand.

Yeah. And then I'm just going to dive. Yeah. You pencil dive and break the surface of the water. It's incredibly cold and your body is cold itself. Cold is one of the only things truly that can affect a kindred largely because the body can still freeze and the mind can become trapped inside. So that shock of freezing cold water runs up you as you full dead weight with

the added weight that you all accumulated from your, your purchased items. You start to drop, drop into the waters and immediately becomes a situation where the light is fading fast. And you can see the moon just barely up over the shaded little surface, but it's not long before your vision becomes completely clouded in darkness. The sort of darkness that almost feels as though you don't know where your own personhood is. You have to check in and look at your body and try and find whatever light you

can with that glow stick just to know that you are. But outside of the length of that glow stick outside of that light or the flashlights that you all have purchased, there's little to no look for most professional divers for a lot of these situations. It's not until you reach the bottom, not until you reach some sort of end that you actually begin to see. And so for a time it's this sensory deprivation as you fall and fall and fall. Is there any attempt to level at any point to wait for the others or you going

as far as you can the whole way down? I'm going to go as far as I can to see. I'll be the first one to go. Gotcha. I'm going to leave you there for just a moment to check in with everyone else. Everyone else. Are we all getting into the water? Is there anything we want to accomplish there that is not?

Burrows turns to Niles with some fins, but they've already dived into the water. So he just drops them and he's got a full tank. He puts it into his mouth and he fucking dives into the water. Yeah. He does the full back dive over so that the pressure doesn't affect him. But on the way down, it's almost disappointing Burrows. This is nothing like it was when you were alive.

When you were alive, this was exciting. There was a fire in your veins. This was the thought of at any moment I could be taken by this place. But now it is this cold, unfeeling wave, this fog that you have to fade through that you know probably couldn't kill you if it tried. All you can feel is the cold even through the wetsuit and the air that is pumping into your body doesn't even give you any comfort down here in the water. It is just placebo as you feel as in so many things in this undeath for you Burrows that

nothing really brings any comfort. Are you going all the way? Go ahead. I've tied off the rope to the boat and I will lead the rope down wherever we go. I'll basically always have a hand on it and then a hand on the harpoon. I've got a couple glow sticks cracked in my weight, my belt and I'll kind of thinking I'm the most skilled diver. I'll make sure everybody gets in the water and goes down kind of in a group.

Understood. As before everyone does go. I will look at Sybil and Mal and I'll be like, I know this a lot. And I know I'm pissed with him, but do make sure this one does come back and I'm going to point to Enoch and then I'm going to be like, stop fucking up. Just do it. Shut up. I'm going to put the flippers on my feet just in case I got a feeling I'm going to dive

in later. And I'm going to also look at spoons. So do you like, can you hear me? Do you understand me? Or is it just like only like a master pet thing and I'm going to see if the bird acknowledges yes or no. The bird sort of stares at you for a moment, a long extended silence as it just kind of moves its head at you and then full fully 180 away from you and goes to the other side

of the boat to the end. You're going to end up loving me just so you know. Yeah. That's it. Master is going to take Ricky boy down with you. Oh yeah. All right. That's on you then.

Take them all down. Yeah. Oh, I'll take the boy. The other, the non mermaid one. Fine. I'll take the mermaid. Okay. I will take a flashlight, but I'm not going to turn it on and I'll take a harpoon.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's incredibly dark now. And with the corpse with you, that's really the only reality grasping element as you start to fade down into the waters. And it is sort of a Zen experience for you as you settle into what you have called home in the second life.

The darkness and shrouds and it does indeed feel like nothing. And for a moment, memories are quiet. There is something though for you sort of thrumming like a heartbeat. Externally or internally? Both. Not yours. Is it, can I feel like a direction for it? God, somehow it feels like an average direction.

Does it feel similar to when I went over the edge of the bridge? No. Not in the way you're thinking. Okay. Beautiful. Does it feel similar to my home? Sorry. No.

This feels unlike anything you felt before. You begin to sink just like the others. You do find burrows who is trying to collect you all and get everyone together. Is there any attempt to hold hands there to keep to the rope? Are we staying together? Are we listening to burrows? No, yes. I think we should all hold hands as we descend into the darkness.

Is the line, can we follow the line if we just like sort of kindergarten class style? Yeah. Okay. I'm just going straight down and yeah. Okay. You all begin to descend. None of you truly together. None of you holding on to each other, but onto the ropes.

We are disposing of the bodies. When, where, how and what preparations. Let's do that first. I believe once we get down, assuming we can make it to the bottom. I don't know how deep we're going, but if we go down to the bottom, I think we just find some big old rocks and pin them down there. So you're waiting until you reach the end. Yeah. Understood.

You all continued to descend for what feels like forever. Time takes on a weird external circumstance down here. It does not feel the way it does on the surface, especially in this darkness, knowing that you can barely see out in front of yourself. But as you begin to drop, you have to guess that you've gone pretty damn far, more than 10 feet, more than 50 feet, more than 100 feet, maybe. And as you continue to go, it is around 15 minutes from where you felt the first 100 feet that you, you begin to feel your body change in a certain way. Your eyes feel tighter in their sockets and your skin feels bizarrely draped against your bones and your head feels pressed in against itself like a watermelon. And everything feels like you are being constricted, being pressed together. Is there any attempts to change your current situation or are we continuing even lower?

I don't know what the fuck we're doing. So yeah, I mean, I think we're just keep going. We're just looking for something. Okay. That hopefully will be in this one straight line. It's open. You continue down. And there is a bizarre sort of cracking that you can hear within your body and you're vaguely aware that it is you succumbing to whatever this pressure is doing to everything about you.

And you try desperately to push past that. Let me get a composure. Yeah, let's just do a composure plus resolve. For everyone down here in the depths. Okay. Not a bad pool. Oh dear. We got this guys.

Two successes. Four. Two successes. Three successes. One is on the critical die and one is just a normal critical. What I mean to say is one is on the hunger die. One is, but so is it considered a messy critical? I think it is considered a messy critical.

Okay. So that's five total. Okay. Two. Okay. Okay. Everyone had at least one success. Nope.

Beastie failure. Fuck. Four hunger coming back to bite you. Okay. I will keep that in mind. There's a panic in you, Enoch, as you're going down. It's incredibly cold down here. And you being a man of science, you know what the body is subjected to when it goes far deeper than it should.

And in your mind, calculating, running the numbers, you guess that you must be on the fringes of what is normally capable for a human being. You must be around 350 feet, 400 feet. When it starts to dip into the worst parts of the water's ability to hurt, maybe even into the 450s, close to the bottom of what this lake is capable of. And you're realizing that the further you go, the more you're subjecting the ability to lose everything. It's freezing down here. A part of you would do just about anything to get back to the surface. For the duration, until you are on dry land, I'd like you to remove two from your dice pools. Sweet.

Okay. Okay. For the rest of you, you steal yourself and continue on. And it is not long before you find it. It must be what Shelley has been talking about. It must be the understanding of the beginning of whatever this is. For you, Niles, the sounds are deafening and have taken on an echoing quality as that song continues to play. But it has joined in a new slurry of voices.

That voice that was three has become four, has become five, has become tens, hundreds, a huge choir singing just for you. But for the rest of you, there is a sheer cliff-facing of black, Icar within the water, like a wall of pure darkness. That as soon as you rub up against the glow sticks, the flashlights, all of it, bounce off of it like Vantablack. There's no way to pierce through whatever this fog is as you begin to completely lose personhood as the lights are snuffed at the surface. Swimming a few paces back, you begin to regain that light and can at least see a few inches out in front of you. But there seems to be some sort of barrier here before going any deeper. You have not reached the surface, but you have a feeling that this must be at least close.

You know how I used fleshcraft to move the bubblegum in the mansion? Is that something that I can try to do here and put a hand on the Icar and see if I can part it and move it away? I love that, yeah. Go ahead and roll your dots in vicissitude. So it's almost like there was just a layer of fog that when we go into it, it's like darkness, the spell, where you can't see shit and we come out of it. Exactly. If we're talking about the dragging game, you're stepping into darkness where it's like you've become blind and then swimming up out of it, your vision returns. Two questions. One, do you need me to do a rouse check? And two, what else do I pull with the vicissitude? Do a rouse check just the vicissitude? You're trying some crazy shit here. It's intuition based, you know?

Yeah, I passed the rouse check. One success from vicissitude. You are able to parse through some of this yourself and allow yourself a little more light from the glow stick itself and you do not feel as blind as the others do. You have some partial understanding down here, but it is unique to you and only within a few feet from where you are. And you, well, none of us came down together. We came down in a line, right? So you're aware that they are treading water near you. You can feel some of the displacement, but God knows where they are. Are there any actions from anyone else? I will remind you now that that thrumming is still here. Yeah. Can I use Shadowcast to try and manifest a shadow in those shadows and see, like, if I can feel anything or... You're trying to see if maybe you can manipulate it in some way your own, right? Using your shadow to displace theirs. Absolutely, I love that.

Let's go ahead and take whatever your pool in that is and we'll use that the same way that Eli just used vicissitude. Cool. And it's just oblivion. Nothing else. Just oblivion. You're trying some crazy shit. That is three twos. Nothing. Damn. You can use willpower to re-roll if you would like to. I'm going to use it. Don't burn it all because maybe you'll need it later on, but this is absolutely the time. I'm going to use different dice because those betrayed me. We need to get you a dice jail. Fuck. One success. One success. It doesn't work for you completely, but there's a snapshot, a little moment in time where the displacement caused by your crafting of those shadows actually does open a pocket. And you can see, for just the briefest of moments, more of the water on the other side. Still dark, of course, but you can see at least through like a pocket, right? So while Niles can see a few feet in front of them, but not through the darkness, you would somehow open a window now. And that window on the other side actually is brighter than the side you are on now. There are some sort of light fixtures, maybe something of bioluminescence or cast light on the other side of whatever this wall is.

And they are swaying. And then that window shuts. Is it, is like the outside of it hard? It is not hard. Imagine it like a cloud, like a nebula in the water. And can, could I tell how deep it was or how far it went? Judging from your window, maybe 12 feet might be your guess. Not impossible, but anything can happen. Maybe your eyes are betraying you. I think we've been down here long enough. People have been trying some ways of kind of testing this. I just think Burroughs is kind of like looking around, putting things together. He's going to, can we see each other enough that like if I have a flashlight or I'm like pointing it at myself, we can see. No, we're not in the shadow. We're like above it.

Yes. Above it, you can easily see the, the, the sort of very close to the chest. It doesn't really even show you what Burroughs looks like. Just gives the form of someone holding the flashlight that you can absolutely see. I'm gesturing to Mal and Enoch, the people with the bodies. And I just go, I point at the body. I go like this. And I say, and I point down at that shadow and then I start acting like a zombie and I flamed the body down into the darkness. Yeah. You take your mermaid and after seeing Burroughs's hand gestures, you just sort of drop it through. The corpse gathers into that water and has that loose sort of buoyancy of a vessel that can't fight back against the tide. But absolutely, whatever work of gravity is happening here, they continue to descend until all of you watch as the faint fading figure leaves your light and then disappears entirely into that shadowed space and begins to drift onto the other side. And look over full with my mermaid and F and I point at my mermaid and F and I point into the cloud.

Two minutes! Sybil and Burroughs, I would like you to make wits plus awareness rolls. Oh no. Has the thumbing changed any? Hmm? Has the thumbing changed any? Just a steady beat. You could probably put a metronome too. Wow.

Stand to one power. Okay. Okay, that is for me, six, but it's a messy critical. Okay. Nine successes. Nice. Okay. Okay.

Oh wow. I got a critical. Yeah. Burroughs. In fact, both of you for this crit, you guys will take an extra die in the pool for dealing with this situation. We'll just have an extra die? Yeah. Cool.

Burroughs though, you will be compelled to violence out of the fear that is building up in your body. That Ravno's blood is gasoline ready to light and it is telling you over and over again that whatever the fuck is happening down here, you need to make sure you survive. So you will have to take the most fatalistic choice when it comes to preserving, right? Yeah, whatever it takes to survive. Yes, exactly. You're out for blood. Burroughs, something whizzes past your face. Enough that is close enough to the glow stick that you can actually catch some of the form that passes you.

You imagine it's probably taller than you, eight feet. And the glimpse that you got was of this gray, green sort of surface with these plates, almost like scales, as they whip past you. And then you almost think that some of your scuba gear got out because there are actual fins that whip past you and then move out into the darkness. I mean, yeah, being compelled to violence, I'll probably just instinctively swing my harpoon at it. Absolutely. Make a dexterity plus melee. Dexterity and... That is one success.

Okay. You wildly swing out an instinct the second that you see something, but the harpoon does not catch onto that beast whatsoever. It whizzes through the water there and nearly connects back into your own leg. You have to stop the sheer force that you connected with, but you do not catch this thing. Sybil, you have a better vantage point being farther behind and your flashlight catches this thing just well enough. The face of it is almost like a bass, an open-mouthed catfish, one of these massive, you know, bottom-dwelling fish, right? But the face itself is human. It is though someone's visage had been stretched open big enough to contain stop signs of width and the eyes are completely empty.

They are just open sockets that are drifting and actually catching some of the water through and then ballooning out with this pressure. And you can see that there is some sort of light, like a dancing candlelight or fluorescent in the ballooned-out area where those eyes once were. And you can see, plain through, just out of this light, down this thing's gullet and it almost goes completely back to eight feet. Easily this thing could swallow you whole. And it whips right past you. I'm going to pull the cord down so Allison won't feel it. And then give like a stop. No.

Good. I think. Now you do have F in your hands. I mean, burrows will probably like back up and it's like now like protecting everyone, you know, has the harpoon out and is like ready for battle. But. Got it. It's not. Oh yes.

I'll raise the fucking harpoon. Yes. Yeah. So I believe the only two that are interacting with the shade and are unable to see this are Mal and Niles. But Enoch, you are privy to this look. You see that both of them are in a panic and the harpoons are pulled. Here's a long shot. Sense the unseen.

Okay. That helped me in this low light environment since these are supernatural creatures. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So you are, you're trying to see them with sense the unseen. I don't know how much sense the unseen does for darkness. That's the long shot.

Sense the unseen. Let's take a look at this room here. The vampire can detect things that are supernaturally invisible. I don't think that this applies. Damn it. I cannot get it to you. I tried. You know what though?

You can imply your aspects here. Do you have heightened senses? I don't think you do. I do not. Okay. Never mind them. We're good. Unfortunately can't be done.

Is there anything else you'd like to do? Nope. At this point it's pretty clear it's either go up or keep going down. I mean, you know, I think we probably try to gather Mal and Niles unless they're just on their own and try to just agree that we probably just need to keep going down. So Burroughs collects you all. He points down at the wave of darkness and prepares to keep moving.

Action. And I create shadow cloaks so that I am at least cloaked in the same kind of darkness that we're about to go through. You sure can. Yep. You become as dark as the rest of us. I think we will descend. Okay.

I need for Enoch and for Niles to make a dexterity plus athletics rule. Oh no. Two successes. Beastial failure. Two successes. Oh my God. Beastial failure. Good God, man.

Truly that negative two to your dice pool is really helping. Niles, you begin to navigate the darkness. All of you begin to move through. It's harder. It's slower. Your body feels disassociated from reality as you're parsing through all of this. And you can't really hear the others in the silence. You can just hear some of them or feel some of the movements, the displacement of water

down this deep. Enoch, you feel as though your legs are ripped up from under you and your swimming begins to constrict, stop, and then become held completely as you can feel a slimy lubricant begin to slide up your legs. I start stabbing down with the harpoon. Absolutely. That is not before you're going to take some damage. Naturally.

No. You can feel your calves break as the bones there are snapped by some powerful inner jaw. You will take three superficial damage. Yikes. For Niles, you can hear, feel, and sort of sense this big form fly just above you enough that it touches against some of your hair. And you can feel the scaled texture of whatever it is run up just above you, narrowly avoiding

you joining Enoch's fate. Enoch, go ahead and make a strength plus melee as you try desperately to stab your consumer. Well, with a minus two, messy critical. Shit. Two successes. We won't call that a crit because of that negative two, but you're absolutely here. You're loving it with two. You manage to break free at least from that hold just temporarily as that thing begins to

wiggle past you and you can feel just barely what you think are fingers that drape along your back as it fins out into the darkness, screeching out from that attack with the harpoon. It does not seem to affect that thing, but it was enough to get you free to continue into the darkness. Any other actions as we begin to hear some displacements as there's this weird sonic cry out to the ocean here and things seem to be going wrong as you have found yourself in a school of fish. So to be clear, we are now in the shadow. We can't see shit completely fucking dark.

Consider you said you're some kind of like sonic scream or something. Yeah, some sort of muffled underwater screen that's baking out around you and you can feel the displacement of water like people splashing. Okay. I mean, I think burrows would try to like rally everyone for a moment and just double check. I mean, you know, Enoch, would you just be thrashing like a maniac? Like something's attacking you? Oh, yeah, like a little like a complete bitch.

All right. So then burrows would probably like signal like pulling on everyone's shirts and sleeves and bodies go up, up, up, up. And I would try to lead us back out of the shadow. Love that. Give me an awareness plus dexterity and you're moving up out of the shadow, not further down out of the shadow. My main intention is just to make sure what just happened.

It could be that he shit himself. I mean, I'm just trying to assess what's going on here. Got it. I could awareness plus dexterity awareness plus decks. Here we go. One success. One success. It's difficult.

It takes you away from the group, but you absolutely find the Enoch. The trouble is you're now further away from the others. You feel a little disconnected, lost in the shadow. You're hoping that you both are going the way that everyone else is. Is there anything you want to do as you grip onto Enoch shoulder? You're sure it's Enoch? Yeah, I would. I would just grab onto Enoch and try to find that rope.

That's the point of the road. I'm trying to get back to the road. Right. Okay. We'll leave you there for just a moment as you start working back towards that rope, hoping you're going to find it. Pulling yourself over extending just to keep him safe. Any other actions here?

Everyone is still progressing downwards, I assume. I'm moving forward. Yeah. Okay. I need we've seen the things. Now you have not. You have heard the, the, the commotion around you, but you have not actually eyes on this thing as you've been focused with that fog and your shadow yourself.

Niles has briefly seen it. Burroughs has seen a great deal of it off the side. Enoch has not seen it, but felt it and Sybil has seen exactly what we're doing. Let me get athletics plus dexterity for everyone moving down. Burroughs, for you trying to find the rope, let me just get wits plus awareness. And to be clear, I am not trying to move down. Okay. Oh no, I'm asking.

It's up to you. Well, Burroughs has me grabbed and it sounds like we're going up. You feel me taking you horizontally back to the rope. And once I get the rope, I'll probably head back down. Got it. So I do make the roll. Yeah. Which is, I'm sorry.

What was it again? For down it was dexterity plus athletics. One for Niles. So that's no dice for me. Three successes. Three successes. Okay. As long as you have completed one success, then you continue down.

For the three successes, Burroughs, you absolutely find the rope again. But just as you do, you and Enoch are greeted with that full effect. That giant human mouth, those stretched out lips as they open up. And you can see this thing, this big trout coming straight for you. As it collides up off of the rope and tries desperately to bite in at you. And you can see as its mouth closes in, these big incisors shoot out like needle sized teeth, like little syringes at the ends of each of those human gums. It tries to make an attempt on your life, Burroughs.

Go ahead and make a dexterity plus athletics to avoid this thing. One success. One success is enough to get you out of the way. Unfortunately, I believe Enoch had zero successes and no dice. With my minus two, I have no dice to roll. Beautiful. This is unfortunately your moment as this thing again goes for you. The opposite side, it's huge mouth coming into you through the shoulder.

It engulfs the entire thing and bites down as hard as it possibly can against the bone. You can feel it, those incisors grating along your shoulder blade. You take three superficial damage. Ow. Yeah, that's bad. For those going down, did anyone score three successes? No. Okay.

All right. Did anyone score two? Two. Okay. All right. Let me get one more athletics plus dexterity from everyone attempting to go down for Burroughs and Enoch. If you're attempting to fight this thing, if you want to square off with it as it's biting

into Enoch, let me know. I would love to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I'll try to kill it. Okay. I have one. Oh, sorry.

Go ahead. No, I just have one success and one failure. Okay. One BCO failure. Got it. And Sib, how are we doing? It's two successes. Two successes.

Okay. Of course. So Burroughs, go ahead and make an attempt on this thing. So here's the thing. Burroughs is much better at brawling than he is at, you had me do a- Melee. Melee. I mean, could I just try to pop the bubble in this thing's head?

Just like try to punch it? You absolutely can. That would mean getting rid of your very precious, hugely important harpoons. But I'm totally okay with it. You go with the dice pool. I'm just, I'm going to roll poorly if I use this thing. I agree. The harpoons were a mistake.

Hands. I'm using my hand. Give him the hands. I'm going to, I'm trying to give it a good karate chop. So it's a brawl with what strength? Brawl plus strength is you come down on the head of this thing as it's engulfing, engulfing your new friend. All right.

Here we go. Five dice. That's four successes. Four successes. Oh my God. Yeah. You absolutely collide with this thing and you have a sense that you've popped that cavity that sits where their eye sockets used to be and the light from this bioluminescence

in its head completely snuffs out and collapses in on itself. Like you've just deflated the entire thing. You can see as it squishes out onto Enoch's body and this disgusting, fleshy green sludge begins to sponge out of this thing's body as you've completely destroyed it. It begins to float back up to the surface. I'm just going to kind of reach for Enoch and like a pat on his shoulder becomes like a wiping the goo off of my hand and I'll start making my way down. As you pat that shoulder, you notice that there's a noticeable gap in your hand almost

falls into for a moment. But you absolutely wipe off. The rest of you now you got two successes for a total of four successes and moving down, right? You are the first out of the darkness as you extend out into this other layer, which is the the other side of Lake Mead and those lights just as you saw them before these big leaving lamp posts that extend out for as far as you think you can see them extend out to this almost ramp up to this huge cavernous area.

The light is much easier to see on this side, almost illuminated throughout all of this area and you can see some sort of massive entrance into what is a cave wall and even closer than you, you can see the school of fish you all are caught in those mermaids, these elongated human forms that have been contorted back into their own bodies, these hands that are half formed out as sad fins that barely contort into this movement as they ambulate these broken ankles to navigate the waters and there are dozens of them. Some of them floating just above what you imagine is where your friends are all now weaving in and out of that black darkness.

Has anyone else reached four successes on going down? I think I'm one shy. One shy and I think Sybil's one shy. Okay, cool. All right. The school of fish is swarming around your friends. Boros, you just deflated the fucking head of one of these and it's floating up as you've saved Enoch, you have a hand on the rope, you're all descending back down into this madness.

What's the play? Are any of the fish close enough, like close to me? Yeah, there may be 10 feet away from where you are now, so it's not much of a swim, but you'd have to go up against them. They don't seem to have noticed you. This is terrible. Can I take my mermaid and turn it and kind of push it towards them so that they eat it and not me?

Your mermaid was the body that killed Ash, right? Yes. Oh, perfect. So we don't have to deal with humanity here then. No, no, no. Let's go ahead and roll manipulation plus athletics to see if we can get it close enough for one toss. Okay, all right.

Yeah. I'm sorry, this is not a Christmassy session, I've just realized. Four dice, four successes. Four dice, four successes. You throw this human distraction up at them and as this decrepit centuries old body descends up, all of you in the darkness can feel this sudden shift of what you can imagine is maybe 30 bodies around you suddenly moving through the water. And now you are greeted to all of these distended open mouth, crowded human beings swarming over

this body and attacking over and over until they're almost eating themselves and engulfing over each mouth. It is a horrendous swarm of them. But the rest of you feel an eerie sense of calm set in after a few seconds. Let's get athletics plus dexterities for the rest of us going down. Again, if you have reached four successes on going down, you have reached the other side. Am I physically capable of going down? Great, one success, but one failure on my hunger die.

Niles, you have joined the other side. You can see those lights. Two successes. I'm going to grab Niles as they come down and just try to keep them close and like still. Got it. You guys can actually see each other on that other side. You can even make out your features. You can see.

Am I visible or am I still in the darkness? You're still in the darkness right now. You're one off from joining them, I think. All right. Enoch, did you roll for us? I made four. I'm there too. Dexter all anymore.

We'll call your BCL failure over at this point so we can get you through that darkness. Give me two dice. Sybil, you made it to the other side. You're greeted with this sea of lights. You still have F with you. Yes. Success. Beautiful.

One success. Okay. So Enoch is three away. Burroughs is one away. I'm two away because I only had two successes. Excuse me. Two away. Let's get, actually, let's consider this.

I believe with the fish out of the way, the only aspect is finding direction. With the call of your friends and with some coordination, the two of you fall through that darkness and join the lighted side on the other side. And you're all greeted with this horizon of these lights that extend out maybe 15 feet from the bottom of Lake Mead, which you now can see is visible. This big length of sand extends up to that entrance into the cave wall into what is undoubtedly a cavern. And you can see that each of those lights are extended down to restraints, these huge

extensions of boating rope. They look very similar to what was on Mal's Mermaid. And it becomes uniquely aware to all of you as you start to descend back into the light and get an awareness of where you are now as more of those schools of fishes are moving above you, the mermaids making their day, that those fishing lines are connected to bodies. So many bodies. A battle could have happened here. You're looking at hundreds of people that line the other side of this cavern.

All of them with their hands crossed over their chest, their intestines open and wrapped around boating wire, and their bodies limp and lifeless and changing and moving and cascading through the water. Burl's first does a quick side of the cross just says that there's a little bit of light. We're not just an empty darkness. And I think he'll swim over to the group, make sure that everybody's looking at each other as we decide to do what's next. I point down to the cavern.

I kind of gesture to like, we're here. What are we going to do? Can I activate since the beast? Yes, you can. For the mermaids? Yes. OK. What is, could you give me the like?

Yeah, go ahead and roll it. Could you tell me the range on that? Like, does it have a like a distance? I don't think so. Let me see. Since the beast. The vampire can sense the beast. Thanks.

That really helps. That's it. Here. OK. Go ahead. It's not a rouse roll, is it? OK. Go ahead and give me your roll.

And then based on that success, we will dictate just how much you learn from this situation. I still got music in my head. Yes. Yes, I mean. And well, that's tough. It's two successes. Two successes. You absolutely recognize those fish as mortal or some sort of construct.

They're not kindred. But you are greeted with an overwhelming presence of kindred in this minefield. Many of these hundreds are kindred. And now just thinking about it, having an understanding of that, you do see Nosferatu in presence. You recognize some ingral features. Some of these look like kindred themselves physically. And this is like a sense that she doesn't see these people.

It's like a pinging system, almost, or a feeling. But then looking physically as you guys are getting to some of the closer gatherings. You can see some resemblances. Meaning if we get closer to the capital, you see people walking around and stuff? Not walking around. They're all those tied down individuals. Like in a catacomb. Yes.

Okay. Because the dead body we found was not pinging as a kindred. So that's where I am. And there are plenty of those dead bodies that are tracking on both. So there are many kindred among here. And there are also many like your mermit. But none of them appear active. They're all just like.

No. All in torpor. In sleep. In death. How far is the edge of that cavern? It's about a football field from where you are now. Is it deep? Like it's like a cave.

Like there's a ceiling to it. It is a mouth of a cave. That looks maybe 60 feet to its highest point and 100 feet across. And then lowers into what looks like a further cavern path. Okay. Hopefully Zach didn't need to say anything. I feel like we lagged out while they were talking. Let's see.

Hold on. Let me make sure they're still in. Okay. We can hear you Zach. So whatever you're ready. Yeah. Okay. Cool.

I'm like, am I still lagging? You were lagging, but we'll just, you know, take it slow. Okay. Then Sid's just going to turn to the actual mermaids and we don't have a kill function, but she's going to look at them and. And I think just to distinguish that we can kill the mermaids, but leave the kindred. Okay. I'm going to gesture toward F in Sybil's arms and then point to myself and then point to

the cavern. All the saddest finger comes out to take F and I'll activate shadow cloak again so that we're hidden ish and then I'm going to start swimming F toward the cavern so I can slip him up under that lip in the roof. Now you are. I'm going to leave him. You're moving amongst the minefield and you've become acutely aware that you're dragging this body in amongst like fields of people.

An unimaginable amount of people. This could have been a town, a village, if they were all still living and there's no telling who is who and what is what, but there is this silent movement in through towards the cavern with your shadow cloak. You make it very easily across that football field and can look back at your friends who are on the other side and you find that this cavern sort of empties out into this path. That you could probably extend up out of. That is like a little tunnel situation.

It looks like you could follow the water up. I'm going to tuck F up under the rocks so that he, even if you float, he'll hit the ceiling. Okay. Are you trying to target him for the tunnel path itself or just the roof of the cavern? Just the roof. I'm not trying to send him up. I'm trying to keep him underwater. Got it.

Oh, they can't see me because I'm a shadow. I'm definitely gone in the direction of the cavern. I think figuring that's what they're planning to do anyway. Anyone who would like to start traversing the minefield, absolutely. Go ahead. All of you who are doing so make me a dexterity plus stealth. I will stop at the lip of the cave. Got it.

Not going in. Do I get a specialty in dodging stealth for Kindred or just regular stealth? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Use your specialty here. Great. Four successes.

Sibyl, you are making your way. You do not believe you're being perceived. If anybody disappears into a hallway or something or like goes further, I will then follow. I'm basically just always trying to remain as close as possible to the exit. To see everyone. Making sure to see everyone. Yeah. Yeah.

Burrows, what was your stealth? I didn't even roll. Standby. Five successes, but one failure on my hunger dice. Okay. That's perfectly all right. Because the five successes are more than enough to get you to that other side. It is an eerie silence down here that is only filled with that song in your head.

And at one point you stop and see a corpse just a few feet off of you whose eyes are still open. And for a moment you perceive them as watching you until it becomes increasingly aware that their eyes are asleep during their torpor. Awake. Still dreaming, but not here with you. And as soon as you affirm that they're not with you, you keep moving. Burrows, what did we get?

One success. One success. Okay. And Enoch? Have I had a chance to descend that far because I know I was behind everybody. You're with us. Yeah. You're with us.

Absolutely you are. So that's one success on my hunger die. Beautiful. Okay. You and burrows are definitely making the most noise there. But it does not seem to have like perturbed the situation as far as you can tell. And if it did, it hasn't alerted you yet. All of you arrive at the lip of the cave and see that there is indeed this passageway that

you can almost tell stops being water at some point, about 10 feet up past the start. I'll go. Yeah. Yeah, fallen. Why the fuck not? Niles, the second you approach that mouth of that path, the song stops. And you begin to move up. I assume you're going to the lip, joining the, where the surface stops.

Yeah. I'm trying to be stealthy about it. Just kind of peek up the water. Sure. Go ahead and make a dexterity plus stealth for me. Cool. Found some eagles layer. I have three successes, but two, two failures.

And one of those failures was on a hunger dice. Okay. You arrive at the surface. You're a little louder than you'd like is the slosh of water connects with the cave surface, cave floors, and it begins to bounce off this big echo that extends out through it. But you stand up on the precipice and you are greeted with a site that makes next to no sense as the cavern sprawls out to this massive area that has been architecturally designed. Stone has been carved out of this area, almost made of obsidian black that extends out against desert rock and is draped in the familiar cobwebbed ligament of your own mansion and blankets the area. These big black spires that extend up to dangerous sordid points that extend up to towers that push out. This is much smaller than your mansion, smaller than the castle from your dreams, but it is no doubt home to something.

As you can see through this black obsidian arch extending out to this walkway, a throne at the end of the walkway sits in the center, maybe 1015 feet tall, made of the same stoned material. And behind it is this glassed out window that looks in on more of some of this welled water that exists back behind it. And there's this cascading water effect that goes over it. And there's a woman sitting in that throne, maybe six and a half feet tall, seven feet tall. Shelly. Arns are made of double helixes, so twisted and warped that you can actually see through them to the other side like windows. There are four wings that extend out from either side of her body out of the back spine. There is this thorned crown built up out of the forehead itself that forms a corona of eyes that befit eight more on her face.

And she is wearing this wispy see-through material that you've seen before, Niles. And there is a phrase that enters into your body that is in a voice you recognize from a man you have been. The voice of Casimir speaks up. Lada of the Myers, my heart is yours, even as I am dust I am carried on wind to your feet. Breathe me in. The rest of you, down at the bottom of this cavern, looking up where Niles has disappeared, there's quite a bit of time in between. What's the action? I think we've all moved up out of the water.

So we're out of the water. Do we see the house? Do we see? Yes, you are greeted with the same architecture, this beautiful black obsidian castle, this foyer that is rugged out, is furnitureed. There are actual pieces built into this area. This is familiar. Did we go to the house? We saw the mansion. It is absolutely familiar to the mansion itself in the ligament portions. I'm sorry, I was misunderstanding. Yes, this is familiar.

I'm gesturing to Mal because I think Mal was the other person that went to that house. Where's Niles? They went that way. Don't touch the pinky bits. You all are completely in view of this woman too. You can see her as well. Niles is a few feet in front of you, sort of transfixed in the center. But the straight shot past the ligament that runs out the sides along this full cave is straight to her in this throne at the end. Paging Mr. Lovecraft, Mr. HP Lovecraft. Crazy as shit is always just under the surface.

Niles. I'm looking at them and I'm looking back. I'm very confused and scared. Have you seen this person before? In a dream. Was it a good dream? Yes. No. It was for the person in the situation. I didn't think she was real.

Well, look, I mean, she is real and clearly the person who sent that fucking body after us. So I think this is who we want to talk to. We should be in our best behavior and maybe see if we can come to some kind of agreement, right? So no stabbing? As much as I'd like to, not yet. I doubt it. They're putting Kindred in torpor. If they're doing anything worse than that, if we leave her alive, that might be worse. So stabbing. I'm going to say that as wide as possible.

Let's talk to her first, I guess. I got a couple questions to say the least. What the fuck's up? If the thing can even talk. You hope that the walls do not have ears or eyes? And I assume we approach into the foyer? Is that the plan? Yeah.

Niles at the head? Yeah. As soon as you enter into that big foyer, she stands from the throne itself and becomes even taller. She is unabashedly wispy, beautiful in a way that draws your attention in completely, but so horrendously ugly to the eye that it is hard to look. You are caught in this limbo of understanding. You are looking on a dragon and you are standing in its castle. She approaches, takes a step, and it's in that moment you can tell that she has no heel to her foot. Almost like a curved, geared appendage.

Her feet are built in heels themselves. These daggered knives that scrape the floor itself. Her hands as well extended out these massive fingered blades. And you can see through her, essentially. There's a hole in her gut that shows you behind as if she's completely transfixed her body. These massive bone spurs sit out in front of her collars that extended out like a gorgette that sits over her. But she approaches. She looks to all of you.

She says, I apologize for my emissaries. It is not often that I run into people I'd like to keep alive. That's a good start. How have you been, my darling? And she approaches Niles directly. Those big, clawed, double knuckled hands coming up to you, Niles. And she seeks to brush those hands against your face if you allow it.

I do, but I'm shaking because I've never met her. And I don't give her a very unrecognizable look to her when she does that. Her eyes are these black scolaras that look at you, through you, around you at all times. And they blink independent of each other. Casimir, you have taken on a new form, my love. I'm Niles, not Casimir. You're a lot of the Maier, though, right? I am.

Where I was, the Maier has changed in years past as I have been given a new job. But yes, at one time, that is how your other half understood me. We were close, bonded in such a way that I can see the glint of him in your eyes now. Burles knows that Niles could stab him in half, but just kind of feels instinctually protective of them. And kind of walks over and just says, partner our ignorance, but could you tell us what you are? Who you are, we know your name. I am Lotta of the Maier. I am a dragon of Clan Zemisi.

You have not known our people before? I know of them, but I wouldn't say I'm particularly close. Would you like to be? Well, we're in the process of figuring that out. Well, you see, we represent the Camarilla. You know what that is, right? I do. I have had quite the run-ins with the Camarilla in my years, although I do not subscribe to any belief. I think it hinders our ability. I don't care one way or another. All that I care about is, well, we're put in charge as watchmen.

Anybody who wanted to interrupt me any time, feel free. But we wanted to see if we could come to some kind of agreement. We heard a lot of kindred go missing around Lake Mead and, well, we've seen for ourselves. You think maybe you could ease up on that? No. Well, you see, unfortunately Prince Aloysius doesn't ask about these kinds of things. He entrusted us with cleaning up these sorts of events, so I'm afraid you're going to have to shut all of this down. There is new Prince.

Prince Aloysius, Grant. Yes. Did you have some sort of arrangement with the previous Prince? You could say that. I am but a watcher. I hold the keys as a debt to a benefactor. And for your fledglings to go missing is just to keep my hungers at bay. It is a necessary evil as all of us are. Could we make me agree that it's only kindred that get too close?

As it has been before. So long as they stay out of Boulder, I imagine they will do quite well as living. Well, see, here's the problem. You do not have His Majesty's permission to be doing this. So you're either going to have to go ask for permission, or you're going to have to stop. You're a very astute, aren't you? She turns and looks to Niles. Your friends have changed, Casimir. You used to have such good taste.

I've just recently met them. I mean, they're a part of our coterie. Of the other? Of the one you still possess now? Yes. And do you stand with this one? She gestures back to Niles with that big extension of a hand. Or shall I arrange? I think he's just speaking on what he knows and nothing more than that. I wouldn't hold him to it. But he knows so little.

That is the issue. Well, we'll figure out the important stuff later. I think what Enoch's saying is right. If you want to keep doing what you're doing, well, you're going to have to ask permission. Why don't you go to the Prince? At the very least, let us go and communicate your intentions. The only grace that you have arrived in my chambers is the understanding that Casimir was coming to visit. That is to be reunited with my love, my knight, my protector. That is what got you in the door. But what I do here is above princes. It is above kindred. It is above the world.

And I have no intention of allowing you to spread that secret without hindrance. So, you have a decision to make. You are in my castle. You can pay heed. You can kiss at my heels. And I can make you beautiful. And I can tell you what it is I need done. Or we will come to blows and Casimir will show you exactly what happens when you betray me. You have no domain here. I don't see why we would kiss at your heels, as you say. Anyone else want to find out what this favor is they seem to be trying to insinuate?

I would rather do that. I do. Yeah. But what about this being made beautiful, like the... We've been calling them mermaids. Like those out there? Or like the hollow kindred. Mork into myself.

Do you not consider me to be beautiful? You are not forced to be remade in my image if you so love your normalcy. I mean, we were talking earlier about... So, we could continue. Lose them a couple pounds, you know what I mean? I could take anything away you don't care for. Lord knows I have. She extends a hand through her wrist to the other side.

And what would be the cost of that? Of your change? Nothing, only a trust in my design. Well, we all came up your specific goal in mind. Has that goal changed? No, we came to make the Camarilla and maybe the Anarchs happy as a bonus. And I don't see either party being happy as long as we leave all of this going on. We didn't say we were going to stop or destroy.

It's important that we make it... I think Sybil has something. Go for it. I think it's important that we make it back. And I think if we are simply in diplomatic talks for now, then that's more progress than we had this morning. Would a favor slow things down? Could we say favor for just take a break for a little while?

I want to come back with something for the Camarilla. It is not as simple as that. I am experiencing something that I cannot stop. I have been alive for too long. And so long as I hold this position, I am still needed to exist. And that must come at a cost. For as long as I hear the call, I must answer it with blood for every day I stay here.

Well, you heard the lady. She's been alive too long. The least we can do is put her out of her misery. You can attempt. No. You can. But what I guard, what I keep locked at bay, is far more important than anything you think you can attempt to do to me. Then show us. What is it you're keeping at bay? It's so important.

If you agree to assisting me, then I will allow you to see it. But this is not to be taken back to your overlords. It would be punished. What assistance do you need? What do you need help with? The place that I guard is extremely powerful. And with the beckoning affecting me the way that it is, my body is changing and my powers too are leaving.

I am losing control over some of my dearest creations. And one of which I created to assist me in defending this place has fallen under the thrall of the place we are guarding. Like a mad dog, he sits and waits. I must put him down. But I worry that if he can betray me now, he can betray me again. And I do so love my creations, I would not see them killed by my own hand. So if you kill the guard dog, you can see what he's guarding.

Was it here or you that sent those bodies after us? I sent the emissaries after you, but without an understanding of who you were. This is how I feed. The emissaries go for me in the dead of night. They steal young kindred out of their beds, bring them back to me to be devoured. So that I may continue my work. Then why didn't they take any of us? Why didn't I take you?

Why didn't you take any of us? You had two nights to do it, and they just left. Because you have my beloved. And she gestures to Niles. Right. I have the person I hold most dear in my entire life. Had I known from the beginning that Casimir was here, I would have sent invitation. And that is what I was attempting last night, this morning.

But it seems, since you have not brought back my emissary, things must have gone poorly. We brought back what he almost took. I'll gesture back towards F. Oh, I am so sorry I took one of your dolls. That is unfortunate. Well, if he would like, I could arrange for something to be replaced. He would not be the same, of course, but near perfect. Thank you.

But that's not necessary. If a gift is on the table, I would rather it be spent in the future with this dog problem. The place you are about to visit is gift enough. Some members of this city have been searching for it for centuries. But for Casimir, I wouldn't do anything less. Of course, you already know where you are headed. And she looks to Niles with some look of recognition. Can we maybe have a group huddle here for a second and just kind of go over the finer points of what's going on?

Of course. Allow me to remove my communications then. And the ligament begins to retreat. Almost assuredly promising that she heard whatever you said when you came in here. I mean, I think our intentions have been pretty clear. So we're like totally at like a sarcophagus, right? Like where they fucking buried one of the primogens or whatever the fuck the original people were. That's what this feels like.

I don't know. Yeah, probably. I mean, we gotta kill this dog, right? I don't think we have that much of a choice. What are we going to do about Allison? The Enoch's kind of beat the shit. Send him back to Allison, I guess. What do you want to do, Enoch? We might have to go down here.

Do we go up and get Allison? Oh, she would hate to miss out on the stabbing. I mean, what if we're here till after dawn? You know what I mean? Then we have to wait a whole night before we go back up. What about the boat? Do we have a sense of how long it's been? To get down about 500 feet diving by yourself.

God, who knows? Time is so weird. Hour easily is fast. And we probably wouldn't even be able to see the sun if it were out. Probably around 11 p.m. We're safe. I just think Allison's in trouble. Yeah, you could effectively sleep on the bottom of the lake

knowing that sunlight's probably not going to get down there that deep. If you want. I don't think we have much of a choice if I'm being honest. It's maybe midnight at the latest. We could go up, get her, and come back down. Yeah, see through to whatever the hell this fucking person wants. Otherwise we risk her kissing the dawn. And that I can't do.

Now's if you know anything about this fucking person. Now is the time to speak up. All I know is that she used to have a castle. And she has a lot of this kind of power that you see. I don't know if there's any more to explain. I don't know about whatever she said. Is she like your sire or something? Like how the hell does she know?

No, she's not my sire. Who's Casimir? I think Casimir was the person who lived at the mansion. Why does she think you are the venom? Because I ate Casimir. Oh. Oh. All of them.

You dirty dog, you. And I don't know what that means, but. Well, it means we got a slight advantage. This person seems to have a liking to you. So at least, at least we know they're not going to immediately turn on us or something. But then again, we can't be too sure. So what, you guys are going to go get Allison and we're going to do this? We have to.

Can't go home. It's better than nothing. Has the thrumming changed at all since we've been inside this air cavern? As soon as you got out of the water, it stopped. All right. Who's going back up to get Allison? Well, I suppose I should. You got a broken leg, man.

Maybe you should just chill out. I can do it. I can get past the fishies. Okay. But tell her I love her. No. You can tell it yourself. She'll be back soon.

All right. Mal now will go and we'll be back with Allison. Okay. In the interest of fast travel. Good. Let's get a dexterity plus athletics from Mal from Burroughs and from Allison. And that will decide if Allison joins you here in the cavern. As long as we succeed, we're good.

Okay. We need two out of three of you to succeed. And we'll put this at a three. You said dexterity and what? And stuff. Oh, and still power. I will have two successes. I think that's what I said.

You said dexterity and athletics, I think. Oh, well, yeah, whatever, whichever you want to do. Okay. I have only one success. All right. We will call that a win then. You guys come back down through the water. It is arduous.

Allison, it's terrifying. But with the two of them knowing exactly where they're going and the school of fish distracted, you all make it into that. Hold on. Hold on. We got to think about this because when we get to the surface, there is a angered boat with two dead bodies in it. No, we took the bodies.

Just a little blood. Anchored boat with a little blood truck that's still open and a boat rental place that's unlocked. But that's about it. I mean, he got lost at night. I'm thinking I cut the fucking anchor and let him let the boat drift away. Absolutely. Get all of our shit off of it first.

Yeah. I'm going to make sure spoons is like circle above, I guess. Hang on. Yeah. He looks a little upset that you're giving him orders and he kind of like cause and flaps his. I'll say please. As it.

Sorry, please. He'll cause back and then it takes to this guy. I hate to add another wrench to this. But correct me if I'm wrong. We had Rufus with us. No, I don't. Unless we want to write on that. Rufus is in baby blue.

Yeah. I thought Rufus was back at the club. No, we took Rufus to me. Rufus is chewing on the hand back in the. Rufus is chilling. Is Rufus. Where is the where is baby blue water the whole time? It's part of it.

So on one of the open like 24 hour show or shores. So far from the scene of the crime. Great. That was my main concern. Cool. We are good. Okay. You all are back in the obsidian palace.

Yep. During the duration of the three of them getting back up there to get Allison. Lada has actually fed all of you. If you partake in some of the chalices of blood that she's offering to all of you. You can slake to hunger. I don't eat it because it's I assume it's human blood. Yeah. Yeah.

It's human blood. But you can always ask your preference. I don't. I just don't eat it. I don't eat it. I don't eat it. I don't eat it. I don't eat it.

I don't. I just don't eat it. Okay. Burles does not prefer it, but I think I need to go into this battle ready. So I will slake some hunger. Okay. Who else is drinking from the piece of that? Okay.

Is there is there something in the blood I need to be aware of? Like is it anything? Are you searching for that? Yeah. Sure. Go ahead and make. Yeah. Yeah.

Make an occult plus wits. Oh, that's good. Now see, this is why we need to bring Allison down so we could remember the make sure that we don't get roofied. Three successes and one's a crit. It seems like human blood. Question. If I have to hunger and I have this food, does that mean my hunger goes down to

zero or just one? Just one. I previously have given you guys zero off of stuff that technically the rule book does not allow. But I mean, you know, it's, it's going to fucking happen. But no, you go, you go down to one. I am because I drank old Rick. You, you're at zero because you drank a live man to completion.

Nice. I've been rolling hungry. That's when I didn't need to then. Sick. Yeah. Oh yeah. You got the money shot. So you're, you're down to zip.

I think at some point, Burroughs says to a lot of, you know, I'm curious, this, this hound dog years, what, what, what was the disagreement between the two of you? What happened that way? That way we're better prepared for when we face it. Do you have any ability for animalism, Mr. Burroughs? I've, I got an animal I'm close to. Yeah, if that's what you mean.

So you know the intrinsic pull of the heart to the animal answering your every win, the connection that can only be made between fabulous and host. That's what this thing is to you. It is a deviation of sorts. It's something exclusive to the dragons, exclusive to the Zamisi. There's a word for it. We call it vicissitude or flesh craft. They are my creations made whole cloth from my being.

Well, I am fond of them. They are fond of me. That is why the dis, the nature or a disagreement is so perverse. Something that is created to follow my orders ceased to. Well, surely that means something's corrupted, something corrupted it. Like that's just not possible normally. Yes, I cannot decide for myself if it is because of the beckoning or because of the place in which we are.

I believe it may be a combination of both. That's right. You mentioned the whole corruption where we're at. Well, let's hope that it's swift and easy for them. Yes, please, whatever you do put him down with mercy. He was kind to me. His brother served under Casimir and they are dear to us, like family. So question is anyone else drinking the blood?

I'll drink some. I didn't drink. I'll take a little sip. And I'm going to look to you knowingly. I'm like, is it good to drink? Yeah, it's not the best, but it'll get you fed. Okay, I'll take a sip. Okay, so that was Burroughs, Enoch and Allison who took a sip, yeah?

I took one too. Okay, and Sib. Niles no, Mal no. Cool. Awesome. Okay, what's the plan here? You got a little bit of time. I guess we go take our harpoons.

Yeah, that was useful. If you're good at that kind of thing, I'm better at punching. A lot of this thing is just a creature. It's just a matter of poking it enough time so it stops moving. Yes, just mortal flesh really. If you can abandon its connection with this physical realm, then it will die. He is rather big though, always very proud of him. Can he see or hear?

Does he have all of his senses in that? Yes, he has his senses. Some of him is half forged. Some of him is metal. So it does slow him down some, but he is with all of his faculties. Question on, so you can actually, it doesn't matter regardless bone, tissue, ligaments, you can form any piece of art. The powers in the flesh, my dear, anything that I can build out of, well tendon,

I can make real. Are you interested in such things? Oh no, it's just a hoppy of mine. I'm not as artistic as yours. Mine's just a little bit more, how do you say, a little bit rougher around the edges. Of course, there is no shame in being in an amateur. Very few can rival the art of the Zemisi. It is something to control the very flesh that we wield.

Oh my gosh. So you can shape anybody's, even their face. Wow. Like bone structure. How do you think I came to be what I am? I'm always going to want to touch the face out of like pure awe, but I'm not going to be like, like... If you'd like, after certain favors are paid, you and I can have a conversation on some of the finer points of art.

Any of your time would be a gift given upon me, and I recognize that, thank you very much. Of course. This, the twilight of my life has brought me to an understanding that there are many things I haven't passed on yet, and I would like to see gifted to the next generation. Oh gosh, I left my phone up at the boat. I just left. I didn't have art to show. I could show you some of my stuff just next time.

It's like an art book. I have images of my art coming. Sorry. You see, well, I can show you to the pathway. We are maybe two chambers away from the lamplighter, and once he is dealt with, you will behold what you are looking for. That's what you call him, the lamplighter? Yes.

Elvenie. It will make more sense when you're greeted with his visage. Not bad. Well, I say we, I'm all ready for getting a head start. Anybody? Absolutely. I guess let's go. Are there anything we'd like to ask of Lada, or do before we start moving into these chambers?

I have like too many overwhelming questions I need to ask. Um, I think though, I just want to like mention to her, maybe not looking her in the eye like I normally do, but I just want her to know that like I'm not really Casimir, and I'm not the person she's hoping that I am. Okay. And I don't know what this means, and why she even recognizes me or all of that, because I'm just, I'm like Angrel, and that's it, as far as I know. My love, I'm confused. You're telling me you do not possess Casimir within your heart?

I think so. I watched you through the web, through the ligaments. I saw you take him in his most vulnerable moment. Are you telling me that didn't happen? It did, but I didn't know what that was. It was just me being hungry and desperate, and that's it. Oh, you are as much him as he is you. You're just the voice that won.

When you take, you eat, you sup of another. It is a battle of wills, and you somehow you beat my love. I could not tell you how, but you did. And now, you are as close as I will ever come. And I refuse to let you go away again. Okay. This process means, like, his power that I have, like, that's a part of me, too. Is that, that comes with sharing, I guess, Casimir?

Yes. You have taken his life essence, his memories, his being, everything that he was, you have become in some way. This is the only way that you can wield the powers that I do. This is the only way that you are even partially connected with our clan. You will never be true to me, but to me, you are still Casimir. Do you see this as a fault, a loss on your end? No, I just...

I just don't know where my place in it is. Your place is as it has always been by my side. If it is a place that you need a sense of belonging, you have been by me for centuries. Why not continue, even in this new life? Alright, thank you. I have to think about it, but it'd be nice to have a home. Good. Think on it.

Allow him into the conversation as well. See what we did for him. He was like you once. Just looking for a new place to be. Well, I think it's about time you saw what we're dealing with. Are we all ready? As reswear would be, just remember, we're on the hunt, so this isn't a talking situation, this is a stabbing situation. There will be no conversations with that being.

Lovely. She escorts you through this first anti-chamber that turns into a long hallway that extends out and deeper into the desert mountain. There is these big, clayed-out hallways that extend through, and eventually you reach into these big, red clay doors that open up into another, and then dome out to this area that is almost full circle. There is a balcony that runs the length of that full circle on which you all are standing now, and looking deep into what is this sort of coliseum area before you. Maybe 60 feet, 80 feet down to the floor is the lamplighter. There is this beast, this massive, hulking, eight-foot monster with this pained glass construction that runs along the ribbings of his stomach. His midsection is almost entirely taken over by this steel and metal that has been hammered into shape and then broken into glass panes.

And then inside, where the organs have been removed, is this blowing, billowing fire, this lamplight that extends out from the center of him. And this steam extends out from these metal pieces, this struck smithy of a person still standing. He is maybe 350 pounds, 400 pounds massive in size and hulking about the room. He is angry, loud, running from wall to wall, colliding with it, falling back to the ground, standing up, flailing his arms and running against to the other side until you can hear the clang of that metal connect with the mountainate walls on the side. But even more important, behind him, standing at 30 feet tall, is a set of two massive doors. Those doors are huge, they are depicted in familiar sigil, border and decoration. And in the center sits an icon. It depicts a horse standing on two legs.

Its skull is bared free from the skin, long hair that covers most of its features. There is a snaking tail behind him that comes out to a scorpion's point, and in a corona of floating arms around him are human faces free from their bodies caught in an eternal screen. The crying tears that flow from those faces crawl to the center of him and into the cavity of his chest, where a gaping hole sits. Enoch, you are the first to read, but the rest of you recognize characters from a certain set of Sumerian texts you had taken off the disc some time ago. These ones translate Enoch to a phrase that reads high above this horse figure. And it reads, I am sentinel. Ah, fuck. And that is where we're going to leave it today.

Holy shit. Dude, we just locked it on something that everybody in town is looking for, I think we need. Oh my god. And we have to fight some giant mechanical pig monster. Yay. Holy shit. Good save. Well, we will be back after the holiday break to take down the lamp lighter, try to destroy this man, and figure out what is going on with this door behind him and this crazy little horse demon.

Thank you guys for being here. I was trying to get us to that fight, but you know what, I like this better. It gives you a nice little cliffhanger to sit on for Christmas. Oh boy. Two back to back. Yeah, we gave you a cliffhanger for Halloween. We're giving you a cliffhanger for Christmas. I know we will be back.

This was a good session. This was fun. Woo. I'm glad you guys liked it. Thank you guys for sticking around. God, it's all y'all. God, joy. It's all good to play again.

Yeah, for sure. I missed you guys. I'm not joking. Well, we will be back in the new year. I don't know when because I'm very bad at remember to check the schedule. So yeah, we'll make the announcement. I will be a year older. I'll be a whole 28 by then.

Hey, welcome to the 28 Club. Pray for me. I remember 28. I know, right? I remember that time. It's a great year. Yeah. Honestly, I gotta say, once you hit that third floor, it gets a lot better.

30 is where it gets good. Dude, I'm done. No, I'm the 20s is where I want to stay. I don't know because the 30s is like 20s, but with money. I'm a theater teacher. There is no money. We love all you guys. Thank you so much for sticking it out with us.

I hope we didn't gross you out too much. Well, I hope I did gross you out too much. Trash Bandicoot in the chat was quite upset with your descriptions. I'm so sorry, Ren. I didn't mean to do that. Yes, you did. Don't pretend. Enjoy your holidays.

Happy holidays to you and yours. We all love you here. We're so glad you're with us.