The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone: Dust - Episode 2

Episode Date: March 9, 2018

The Graysons continue their quiet investigation into the killing of Jeremiah Blackwater -- but outside interests are starting to take notice. Gandy plays a crazy game of poker. Errol ties up a quest. Augustus swears on his soul. Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

Previously on the Adventure Zone, we found Jeremiah Blackwale dead in the street. It has every sign of an attack by one of the furs, Dylan Mathis. You'd expect murder, you'd expect anger, sadness, but this was just confusion. Like Wolverines claws have been pulled across his gut. I've solved it. Okay, hold on. There's some trace of, like, dust, some kind of, it looks to be a mixture of silver and copper. There's only one her Dylan cares about, and it's his sister.

What's her name? Anne. Where might we find Anne here at this late hour? Probably still asleep back in my house. I'm surprised, because I would think somebody who's been living around the mines for as long as you have would know a powder keg when you saw one. This town's about to blow up, and we're trying to stop it. You stop it. I'm plan B.

Listen, Aaron, when I brought you here is I'm... needed your help dealing with. There's a deal in the works between me, the Blackwells, and the workers to try to get an arrangement and agreement on paper that's beneficial for everybody and we are so close to nailing it down.

It's the only way we're going to be able to save our collective businesses and this could ruin it. This could tear it apart. And there's a lot on the line here, Errol. Yeah, I know all about deals. There's got to be somebody who's getting maybe a slightly shorter, less delicious part of the stick.

That was a bad analogy, and I'm not saying that sticks are delicious, but who do you think might be this thing that's happened? It sucks, and it seems like whoever did it wants this deal to come crashing down around all y'all. So you got any ideas who that might be? The three main players in this are me, Joseph Blackwell, and Liam, but I trust Liam. He's kind of the unofficial official spokesman for the workers, but he's also a fur. I trust him. Yeah, I mean, fur is definitely can't do bad things. So their furs, that's in the Bible.

Okay, all right, here's what I'm going to do. We're going to keep doing our investigation. We're going to keep poking around. We still got some time until I check my watch. Is it one? It's getting close. This is like the end of this first beat. Yeah.

It's almost when we still got some time. We're going to keep digging our nose and, you know, follow, following our nose, follow the clues and see what we can dig up. But where am I going to be able to find you? You're going to be here all night? Yeah, I'll be here or I'll be at the jailhouse. All right. And talk to Ann. I think she'll be able to help.

Liam's there too. He said he'd keep an eye on the place and make sure nothing went wrong while I was down here. Yeah, we'll go sniffing around, see what we can find. I'm sorry, I'm sick, that's why I sound like this. I don't normally sound so gruff. I have a chest cold. That's a little werewolf choke. She just stares at you. All right, well, mighty thirsty, but I guess nothing can be done about that. So, uh, you be about ready to go, Gus. Oh, sorry, did you want to do some clue hunting? You've just kind of been doing some root beer pranks. I think you've done a marvelous job. I wouldn't dare to impinge on this fantastic investigation that I'm getting to witness secondhand. What a thrill. You know, us elderly people love to watch procedural, so it is quite a thrill for me. I will remind you,

there is another person here, another woman at the bar. Why don't you hit them up, guess? See what they got. Pardon me, other woman at the bar. Pleased to make your acquaintance. You do have a fashion move called name to a face that maybe you might want to use rather than just addressing them as other woman at the bar. Okay, I'll roll against...

Wow, what a weird move. Okay, yes, but yes, why not? I love a... I love a good faction move. This is how we level up, too, are these faction moves, so... How do I level up? with a faction move? When you take a faction move

with each of the four factions you level up. Oh, okay, cool. She is knight, specifically fur, but because Gus is neither fur nor fang, it's just knight for him. Well, I've already done a faction move

with a knight. Anywho, I rolled a, see, I rolled a five and I've plus two with night. So, no, sorry. Yeah, plus two with night, so it's a seven. Okay, it's Marie Jacobs.

You know that she is a fur. You know that she runs the depot, which is, you know, the shop in town. You know that she stays pretty neutral as far as things go, because she's trying to do business with everybody, and that's about all you know about her. Pardon me, Ms. Jacobs, if I could steal a moment of your time, I'm the spectral form of the man who was Augustus Parsons, of the Augustus Parsons. Gashabee Company. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. Yeah, charmed. Glad to see manners have not been completely extinguished here in this dusty wasteland. I was inquiring into the murder of a young vampire this evening, and I was wondering if you might have seen anything out of sorts.

I mean, I'd kind of prefer to stay out of it. You know, I'm doing my best to just make a living, and I need business from the fangs and the furs and the fleshes and everybody. Well, ma'am, I do understand the impulse, but you see that this matter is of the highest import for both your people and the vampires. Plus, I can assure you that any information you give me will stay within my confidence. I will, if you'll permit, stay as quiet as the grave. Well, that's not very evocative, but I... How can we got to give evocation reviews to every spoken word? I thought that was fairly evocative as hell.

Yeah, I think you'll be... But when I said silent as the grave last week, doesn't give me a hard time. Yeah, but like, I'm a ghost. So it's like... It resonates. Those are his word. Um, Jamie, give me a persuasion roll or something along those lines, something you want to do. Does this have persuasion rolls?

Do we have persuasion rolls? Yeah, persuade an NPC, you roll with heart. Uh, on a hit, they do what you ask. On a seven and nine, they modify the terms and or demand a debt. That is a, oh, shit, a 10. Oh, hell yeah. Sick. Nice.

Plus heart. Zero. Heart zero. He's a ghost. He doesn't have a heart. He's dead. Oh, no. You got to go talk to the wizard.

All right, listen, here's what I know. All right. One, Dylan's a good boy. I watched him grow up. I can't believe he would do this to Jeremiah. They always seemed to get along so well. The three of them, them and Ann, they were thick as thieves. They grew up together.

They never had any problem. I can't believe Dylan would do this. And he was here shortly before, I mean, minutes suddenly he perked up, ran out the door. And that's all I know. What was he doing before he ran out the door? Was he alone? Was he speaking with anybody?

No, he was just here doing the same thing we're all doing, just drinking. Yeah. Just sitting quietly and trying to find a second's piece, you know? Some of us aren't able to drink because of reasons beyond their sort of understanding. Do you mean because he's a ghost? No, because they won't give me one, a root beer. It's all I'm in the world.

Wilder, give him a dang root beer. Grow up. Mission accomplished. Goodbye, guys. I finished. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been dust. Carol Ryehouse's weeks-long quest. Now, Griffin, Wilder, slides it on the bar.

I'm going to need you to roll to see if you can. It's a four. That's a four. You catch it, let all the root beer slashes out of the glass. No! God! The show continues! I kind of embarrassed, like, mime drinking the root beer out of the empty cup.

And while they're just kind of like, you know, massages the brisage of his nose. Can you think of anybody who would have had it in for Jeremiah? Honestly, no. it was a good crop of kids, you know what I mean? I can't. I mean, lots of people have things against the Blackwells, but nobody seemed to have anything against Jeremiah specific. Tell me about Ann a little bit. We have not met her as of yet. A smart girl. Like, probably the smartest one of the bunch. She's, you know, kind and she's a mathist, but she ain't a fur. She's, I mean, she's flesh.

you wouldn't know it the way that they take to her. I mean, she's family, of course. Sure, yeah. You know, she spends a lot of time hanging out with Jeremiah and Dylan, of course. They grew up together. She's about as good as they come. You seem like a sort of woman who keeps her ear to the ground, who knows things, who sees things. Give me something I can work with.

If somebody's trying to tell you that this was done in anger that Dylan attacked Jeremiah out of hate or whatever, there ain't no way that's true. There wasn't bad blood between the two of them. And if this was done in anger, it was anger towards the black wells or anger towards the copper mine owners. This wasn't because of Jeremiah. There's no way. All right, well, Ms. Jacobs, I will leave you to your brew, and I thank you for your time. Pleasure.

Do we hear a clock bell? Clock bell, call, yeah. I don't know if they do that at night. That would be very annoying, I feel like. They don't. That is not how that works. But let's say Augustus has a spectral timepiece. A yokey watch, if you will.

Sure. God, that was a good joke that was wasted on you, fucking plebs. All right, so that brings us to one to three. Wait, we're doing two hours in this one? Yeah, so you're gonna get to

pick more beats. Two to three. Same amount of beats, really. Yeah, we trust you. Can we take a second because we kind of jumped into the episode, run through the clues real quick for the folks at home? I have them all

written down here. Sure, go for it. But some her didn't want Dylan to talk. We're assuming it's Anne, his twin sister, who is not a fur. Yes, they're fraternal twins. And you remind her, genetics-wise, it's their co-dominant genes. So she just is that. I actually did research to make sure fraternal twins did not share DNA. And that's Anne?

That is Anne. Yes, the blood on Dylan's clothes was Jeremiah's led to the church. According to the ghost in the graveyard, Jeremiah was confused and betrayed when he was killed. He had claw marks across his gut that had silver dust from the local silver mine around it. We're going to succeed in some way in this thing. That's less a clue and more just sort of a little reminder, a little hang in there, kitty poster I have up on the wall. There's a deal that was, okay, the rest of this stuff was from five minutes ago,

so you don't need to hear that again. And can you give us a list of where we can go now, because we have the option, right, of sticking together or splitting up again, I imagine. Yes. So there is the Mathis home where Anne and, and Liam R. There is the Sterling, which was the last place that Jeremiah was seen.

You could head over to Silver's linings. You always have the option to head back to the sheriff station and check in with Connors and Rosa. The church with Father Dante, but you were just there. So I mean, you really wanna walk all the way back there. No, I think for now, those are the kind of ones you've been pointed at. There's other areas, but you don't have any to use a technical term leads that would point you towards them.

Sure. So unless you just kind of want. Where's Anne? Anne is at the Mathis home. The Mathis House, which we have a key to. I was of mind that we should wait until we had more clues before I went there, but I think we have enough time that we could maybe take two trips. And it seems like. Well, that was when you thought that Abigail was going to be there.

You wanted to have a reduction. But we sort of ran into her. organically. So maybe we should just go. We should hit up there. I also think maybe we should split up because I also think the Sterling last known location is something we should also pursue. At this point, Gandhi has rejoined the party, right?

We're all together making this decision? In this, you remember, this is the center of town, right? So I assume because you're staying at the Sterling, you're working at, so the Black Mariah is probably parked right there. I mean, you're all within 10 yards of each other. I would like to go to the. Mathis household just because I am a werewolf kind of and I don't know, there might be something that I can use there to find something out.

And that's kind of my inclination. I was thinking I'd like to go to the Sterling, which is the last sort of place that Jeremiah was seen. That's where Gandhi, Gandhi would like to go there too. If you split up in any way, one and two or whatever, one in 101, you'll get two beats. So you do get the added bonus, Gandy, of being there and contributing. But if you want to cover more ground in the one to three range, you might want to completely split up, but it's completely up to you. I am just reminding you how the mechanic works. I mean, Gandy just had a scene by yourself, and I, super cool. I'd like her to interact with one

of her partners. You don't have to explain yourself to me. You're doing great. Who wants to go first? Errol or Gandy and Gus? How about Gandy and Gus, since Gandy hasn't done anything in this episode yet? Excellent. I'm going to go invisible again. When you walk into the Sterling and has a completely different feel from the full moon saloon, where the full moon saloon was, to use modern terminology, more of a well-polished and very clean dive bar, the Sterling is sparkling.

There's metal accents everywhere. The gambling tables are clean. and well kept, and it has the smell. And if you've never been at a casino, it's hard to describe, but the smell of a well-oiled and, you know, clean table and clean machines and it just smells like money. And you can tell that the focus, whereas in the full moon saloon, the focus was have a drink and forget. Here it's take a risk, you know, feel alive.

And so when you enter, a couple of things immediately draw. attention. One is the woman who isn't really working the bar so much as she's just at the bar on customer side, but clearly in control of the whole building. And you know from your intel that that is Isabella Slate, the owner of the Sterling. She has owned it for the last two years after the previous owner, Marcus mysteriously disappeared. And when Isabella took over, she turned the whole thing around. It didn't used to be this house of chance and, you know, risk. It used to be incredibly poorly run, I would say, and bad. Nobody went there. But now the Sterling is the destination in Dry River. The other thing you notice is there's only, with it being such a late hour,

there's only one kind of table that's actively being used. And there's, there's a There's two people that, you know, just regular humans. But the one that draws your attention is the spectral gambler, who you know to be M. She has quite a reputation in the area as being a card shark. And she, her stack is about five times the size of anyone else's at the table. So you can tell she's kind of been running the table all night. Please interact with the ghost gambler. No.

I've already done a faction movie. with her faction twice. I'm not, no longer interested. Augustus. Augustus. Yes, Gandy. Look around. Look very carefully.

Is this place not the bomb? It's this not the coolest thing you've ever seen? Why would Candy say the bomb? She could say it's dynamite. It's dynamite. That was. It's dynamite. Look at this.

And there's a ghost. A ghost. gambler, I've got to talk to her. I've got to talk to her. You're impressed. Hey, I didn't want to clarify something. To what extent are people of this world hip to ghosts? Something I should have clarified before I tried my ghost dad stunt in the last one. People, like, I'm not going to be able to run me ghost scams on people of this world. Yeah, like, they kind of know what's up. Well, yeah, I don't think you're going to support, like, it's not going to be like, what a ghost? But I think that not everybody can perceive

you had you not moved the mug they probably wouldn't have put two and two together okay that's all I need to know thank you well yeah candy see what you information you can

obtain I actually you know I'll watch okay great so she walks over to the table what game is being played at the table it's poker How crazy would you say this particular game of poker is? Thank you for asking, Justin.

I would say it didn't begin as a crazy, but it has become a crazy game of poker. Now, if you could repeat that for about eight minutes. Well, right now it is a crazy game of poker, but when we talk about it later, we'll say it was a crazy game of poker. We'll get there, you know? So many references. Okay. Sorry, should we talk about some Steely Dan? Is there a Steely Dan poker song?

I'm sure there is. Actually, there is. Okay, okay, okay, I didn't mean to send you down a fucking rabbit hole. You going black jack, do it again. Okay, fine, fair. Okay, so Gandy sits down at the table and can I get some chips, please? M points over to Isabel and says, she'll give you the chips. Go talk to her.

Don't talk to me. Oh, I'll be right back. She runs over and gets a bunch of chips. I love the visual of Gandy being very, very rich, and so she doesn't know how much is a good amount of chips, and so she gets way too many chips. Pardon me, I would like to purchase a hundred dollars worth of ghost. Chips. Isabella smiles. Yeah, that sounds great.

That sounds just right. Here you go. And slides $100 in chips over to her and takes her money. Is this a lot of chips? This seems like a lot of chips for, okay. Yes, for this time period, $100. Yes, that's quite good. Again, it has a great per diem.

So it's all right. When you sit, when you sit back down at the table, Emma, M's spectral eyes just light up. She sees in you quite the mark. And she turns to the two people playing with her and says, yes, excuse me, could you two just give us a second? I think I need to have a talk with this young woman now. We'll get back to the game, don't you?

and they kind of grumble and they stand up and, you know, they kind of go get a drink at the bar. Young lady, is there something I can do for you? Well, I was just interested in participating in this game, and I'm just, I'm very excited. I love games, and I thought I'd take a crack at this one and see what I can do. Well, I'll tell you what. How about we'll increase the excitement? you put it, we'll go, it's called in the business all in. All in, okay, yes. You put that stack up and I will, well, what do you want from me?

That's what I want from you. What do you want from me? Oh, well, I just would like to get to know you. I'd like to maybe learn a little bit about what's going on in here. That's my secondary goal. My secondary goal is to kind of find out more about what's going on in town here, but my primary goal is to play this game. These tiny little pictures with people with crowns on them,

is there a significance to the crowns? She smiles even bigger. Here, I'll tell you what. How about we make this deal? If you win, well, if I win, that stack will become mine. but if you win, I will answer, I'll answer three questions. That sounds great. Let's play.

How do we start? Well, Clinton, you're going to do a straight up and down roll with no bonuses. No, she doesn't say that. I say that. I was a little meta there for me. Here's the thing, though. I was going to help him cheat. Because I can see the cards and I could like poke Gandy with some hints.

So if you're going to do a straight up or down roll, like I'd like to be able to lend an advantage somehow. How about a plus? Well, okay, here's what we'll do. So, Justin, you roll first. Okay. And your role will determine how much you're able to help. I got a nine. Okay, cool.

So we'll say you out a plus one to whatever dad rolls. And I rolled a 14 and a 9. So that's 23. Two D-6s and you got 14 and a nine? D-6s. Yeah. Come on. It was a joke.

It was a hilarious joke. Good God. I wish I could believe that was true, but I don't know what to believe anymore. All right, here we go. All right. She's rolling. It is a four and a four. So straight up roll.

That's an eight and then plus one with what Augustus added to it. So I'm going to say you push. You tied, basically, so you don't lose your money. You're going to do double or nothing. Okay, double or nothing. I'd need more chips. Okay, well, let me. Does that mean?

I'm sure you're good for it. And if you win this one, we'll do five questions. Okay, great. That's so many questions. It almost sounds like too many questions. And you won't have to use them all at once. Uh, Justin,

do you want to cheat again? Yeah. Uh, there's an eight that time. Okay, so once again, we'll say plus one. Okay.

It is a six and a four, ten. Great. So that puts you at 11. So you win. Uh, royal flesh. I don't know,

fuck it. So they all have crowns. Look, they all have crowns, and they're all the same color. That is... Well, the 10 wouldn't have a crown, but it's good.

Oh, that's good. Okay, gotcha. Well, shit. Oh. Oh, all right. No. Uh-uh.

It's good play. Listen, I love the game. You know, don't hate the player. That's what I always say. Um, one more. All right. One more time. Please, please, please.

For ten questions. Just one more hand. One more hand. Please. No, I think. I'll put up $500 in ghost dollars. $500 in ghost dollars. Gus, do you want to say anything here?

I, uh, I mean, I don't want to blow up my spot. All right. Okay, I'll, yeah, I'll manifest. Oh, Don, and I was hoping my ghost friend would win. Hello, my name is Augustus Parsons. I'm the spectral form of the man who was once known as Augustus Parsons of the Augustus Parsons' cashew company. It's a pleasure to make your phantasmagoric acquaintance. Yes, hello. My name is M. I am the ghost of M. The gambler. Fantastic. Not to disagree with my compatriot here, and Gandy, I hope you don't mind me stepping in. I do think the five questions is probably quite enough. Well, let's get to it. I've got more games to play. What are said questions? Well, I'll let Gandy explain. You and she seem to build up quite the rapport. Well, what I was curious about, this big deal that everybody's talking about is, is there anybody who's maybe not happy about it,

doesn't want to see it all come together. I mean, I know it's probably good for the furs and it's probably good for the fangs, but what about everybody else in town? Oh, child, don't you know anything about compromise and gambling? At the end of the day, if you've done it right, nobody's happy. If people walk away from a table happy, it means that somebody's losing. So you've got to make it so that everybody walks away feeling like they got something so they'll come back to the table, but they can't really win or else they feel like they're done. Do you understand? Yes.

She adjusts her Ponsnay. By the way, that's how you pronounce it because she looked it up on the book of faces. It's an information outlet. I assume it's a book made out of face skin. Yeah. Okay. And everybody has a little picture of their face. It's very.

Yes. So many questions. Okay. Tell me somebody who doesn't want this deal to happen. I don't know off the top of my head, honest. And I can see the top of your head. That's really interesting how I can do that. Yes.

I was curious. Had you, did you see Jeremiah Blackwell in this establishment this evening? Yeah. He was here. He was in good spirits. Ha-ha. Get it? and you know you i do appreciate that very much thank you very much i did not respond as quickly as i

should have that was excellent thank you um you know everything seemed fine he you know said he was celebrating didn't say what um everybody seemed in good cheer nothing seemed to miss uh he walked out of here alone um it he's here pretty much you know five or six nights It's weak, honest, and mostly doesn't drink as much as he did tonight. Mostly it's just, you know, kind of a nightcap, as they say. But tonight, he seems to be tying one on a little bit and walked out of here alone about 11, I don't know, late, close to midnight. A few minutes before, nothing seems amiss at the time. Hmm

Then all of a sudden Round about You know Just shortly after a few minutes later We could hear Dylan Screaming crying out Um Went to the door

And there it was Over over Jeremiah covered in blood When he was in here drinking Was he by himself Yeah I mean As by yourself as you are Surrounded by people

But he didn't come in with anybody He didn't spend time with anybody in particular. Was he celebrating or commiserating? Celebrating. Now, that is five questions. So thank you very much. Oh, my God. You guys.

Have a good night. I only did one, so I can't really be blamed. She turns back to her game. She kind of motions back and that game begins. Now, Gandy, you feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn around to see the red head that would have been sitting at the bar that you know, as Isabella's sleep, um, I couldn't help but notice that you were talking about the murder of Jeremiah Blackwell.

I'd love to help if you'd welcome it. Well, of course, too, do I need to cash in these chips? Because I have a shitload of them. Well, I'll tell you what, how about you just hold on to them and you can use them in the future? We're not going anywhere. Well, I have some information that I think might help you, But you'd have to come with me next door to my house. Both of you.

Can I, can I get a to-go cup, a little dry? A traveler, yes, of course. Always take a traveler. Always take a traveler. Oh, good, good. I'd like a traveler, please. You get it. She gives you a sippy cup of whiskey or whatever.

And we're going to head next door. Tequila, please. Goss, if you agree, we're going to head next door. Yeah, let's do it. And it's not going to count as another beat. is all going to be tied into the same beat, but first, let's go check in with Errol. Can I establish something? Yes.

This is a house where people live in when I've talked about Carian Street as being like the residential neighborhood. Is it possible that this isn't? I really haven't done anything with the neighborhood stuff. And so I'm wondering. This is the fur neighborhood. We'll say that they live on Carian. That's Carian like C-A-R-I-O-N.

Yes. It's not like carrying. Yes. Which is like, it's not a, I don't think it's a bad place, as bad as the name suggests. I think it was called that before Errol got here and tried to turn things around. Yeah, so the way I'm kind of envisioning Aral's territory and tell me if I'm off base here is like within the Crescent territory in each town there is a like fur territory and that then kind of fits into Errol's purview. See, I almost kind of like it better if it's almost not exclusively. uh one one and and and it's your your game your world but like i almost like it better if it's just

like if if it's actually some folks you know crossing the cross in the boundaries a little bit maybe it's maybe it's primarily a fur territory or maybe that's how it started out but like i like the idea of this being a nice neighborhood because of errol's like stewardship and so maybe maybe that like uh is it makes it so it's not exclusively one type of people live here oh and and i should say it didn't come up in the conversation but But in my kind of head fiction, Abigail specifically requested Errol's team because she knows the work Errol has done for kind of like furs and the neighborhoods. And so like your reputation kind of precede yourself a bit. Yeah.

Like I like the, my vision board for Errol is like he has a house on Carreyon Street that is a cute little house. And I think he's like turned his front yard into a community garden where like folks come and and sort of folks of all sorts come. No. Improved for the people who are already living there. Yeah, sure. Great. So you had to the, the Mathisome. On your way, you are stopped by Deputy Rosa. Hey there, Deputy Rosa, can I, investigation's going great. Hundreds of clues, if not thousands. Good, good, good. I did want to talk to you real quick. Sheriff Connor sent me, I'm glad I could catch you. We felt you should know. And listen, we're not. proud of this, but the Black whales don't know about this yet. Shit.

Oh, that sucks. Yeah. We kind of, we, and, you know, maybe we'll feel different about this in the morning, but we kind of felt best to keep them out of it until we knew what was going on. But if, I just wanted to let you know that so that if you remember, into them, you might have to, I mean, they should be asleep now, frankly. So I don't think it will come up. But unless you decide otherwise, we don't see the need to get them involved until we know a little bit more about what's going on.

Yeah, I mean, good news, bad news. Good news, you're lean into that instinct. It's the right one. We don't need that complicated matters. Bad news, if your boy didn't come home and it was 1 a.m., I don't think you'd be getting a lot of sleep. So these are vampires, right? Wouldn't they be, wouldn't they wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't, they wouldn't, these are not vampires in the Brahm stoker kind of thing. Yeah, these are, okay, these are real vampires, God, all right.

Ah, real vampires. Yes. All right, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go, I'm, I've got a hot lead, this didn't count as a beat. I did not. Hey, everybody, this is Griffin McEloy, your best friend, your werewolf, detective, and your best friend again. I'm two of your best friends. In your top five cellular plan, I occupy two of those spots. Thank you for listening to The Adventure Zone Dust.

This is the second episode of Travis's mini-arc, and we're having a lot of fun recording it. Sorry, we're a day late. We were recording earlier this week, and Justin's Internet fell off the face of the earth, as it is want to do. I got a few ads for you that I want to read, and then I'll get you right back into the rest of the episode. You'll hardly even notice I was here, but do notice I was here and go purchase the things that we advertise. Got a few jumbotrons here for you as well. This one is all about the podcast, Bombardid.

It's a very good name for a podcast. It is tough for me to find the right emphasis. Bombardid, which you can get wherever you get podcast or at bit. LY slash bardcast and follow them on social media at BombardedCast or use the hashtag hashtag bardcast. Bombarded is a musical D&D Adventure. It's a podcast that features Dallas-Fort Worth band Lindby playing as an all-barde cast. I'm worried about team composition, but I am in love with the concept.

Dungeon Maestro Kyle leads Yashi, Razul, and Randy through their education at Stromlott School for Bards and the misadventures that they encounter along the way. Everyone brings real instruments to the table to perform their bard spells, and each episode provides new song composed by rolling cord dice. Holy shit. Find out what musical mischief this trio gets into every other Tuesday. This is, man, this one is on my fucking vision board. It manifests in response to my desires and wishes for a very good D&D podcast.

Holy shit. Okay, that's bombarded. Again, you can go to bit.ly slash bardcast or just search for bombarded wherever you get your podcast. I also want to tell you all about what the folklore. It is a podcast that comes out every Tuesday on iTunes or Google Play or wherever, I guess, so you get the podcast. What the Folklore is a weekly comedy podcast about making sense of senseless tales. Every Tuesday, Tyler Crowley, hi Tyler, Carmen and Gordy tell obscure fairy tales from around the world, fix plot holes, and cram them into a vast folklore conspiracy theory.

Taz fans can enjoy recurring story elements like a war between fairies and fairies. Birds, the Church of the Knife, Demi God Drinking Buddies Baba Yaga and Immortal Boney, and Eternal Pervert, The Cherry Man. Find us on iTunes and Google Play or at WT Folklore Around the Web. That's a very good podcast. Also, a lot of good podcast this week. Go fill up your feed or whatever. Go fill your feed. I want to thank everybody who's been tweeting about the show using the Zonecast hashtag. If you do that, you could end up as a character. in this arc. I think, again, I didn't, I'm not doing this one, Travis is, and I'm not sure what his plans are. But we sure do appreciate you spreading the word either way because we don't

pay to advertise the show. And so your word of mouth is the only way that we are able to sort of get new listeners and have this great audience that we have. And we, we appreciate the hell out of you for that. We also appreciate the MaxFunn Network. Go to Maximumfund.org. Go to check out a bunch of cool free podcasts and go listen to them, download them, fill your feet up with all these great shows to like tights and fights and Switchblade sisters and Jordan Jesse Go and all these great shows. And if you want to hear more stuff that we do, you can go to macroyshows.com. I think that's it. We're going to get you back to the rest of the episode now.

Next one will be up next Thursday, God willing, in the Creek, don't rise, which is going to be March 15th. Ooh, the aides of March, a spooky day where Julius Caesar, was famously killed. Thanks for listening. Bye. So, Errol heads on over to the Mathis home and he gets there. What do you do?

I mean, I have a key, but that seems wild, right? Like, I'm not just going to... If I'm doing an investigation, I need to talk to people. I think breaking and entering is maybe not the... Well, it's not really breaking if you have a key, but I understand what you're saying. Sure, I'm going to knock on the door. Can I, like...

What's this house look like? Like, what's it? I imagine it is one of the... or houses in the territory? Well, no. Actually, it's fairly regular size. The thing about the Mathis is and kind of the way that this family, this is another thing you know from your intel, is that what they have is kind of a cluster of houses. So you've got Abigail's house where Anne still lives with her, because she's fairly young, and then next door is Dylan's house. And on the other side of Abigail's house

is her brother, Julian's house. And, you know, they kind of spread out as they grow, so they don't all live in the house together. It's more kind of a... It's like a compound, to more of a compound. Yeah. Okay, I knock on the door. You hear kind of a snuffle, snoring kind of reaction,

but nothing immediately happens. All right, I put the key in the lock, and I very slightly open the door and say, Hey, uh, hey, this is Errol. Rye House. I don't... Immediately. There is a figure in the door.

He is a barrel-chested, a kind of scruffy-looking fella, who you assume to be Liam. He's got sleepy eyes, but he is up and ready for whatever he's happening. Not a burglar. What?

Not a burglar. Who are you? Yeah. My name's Errol Ryehouse. I, uh, Errol Wright House? Yeah, I, uh, you know, I live just a couple houses down, uh, just like a good neighbor. Errol is here because doing, uh, just sort of, sort of talking to some folks in the neighborhood. What do you want?

Yeah, well, what I want to do is apologize for visiting at such a late hour. I recognize that some folks like to sleep when it is 1 a.m. And for interrupting that I am truly and deeply sorry. Who sent you here? Well, I was just talking to Abigail down at the full moon, and she gave me the key, and I showed the key just to prove that, like, I am not lying. And suggested maybe I swing by and talk to... Do you want to come in? Yeah, if that's all right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, come in. I come in. He opens the door and he, you know, lights a lantern or two. You can see a blanket and pillow on the couch. He was clearly sleeping there, keeping, you know, keeping a watch, as it were. What do you need? Well, I came here to talk to Anne. Is she conscious right now?

Leave Anne alone. Okay. I'm not going to, like, attack her or anything like that. I just got to ask her a couple questions. I'm doing some work for the Grayson's, you know, trying to do my part here. You got a badge? Do I have a badge? Yes, you do.

It's simple. It's a circle with just graces across it. Okay. Yeah, here it is. We just got to put together. So it's the sort of first, like, rough draft of the badge design. If you know anybody with sort of a graphic mind, that might, you know, send them our way. But yeah, here it is.

Michelle. What do you want to talk to Ann about? Boy, this is tricky. Um You know anything about what happened tonight? What? What? Yeah, see, I can't really tell you it's privileged information.

But you're Liam, right? I'm assuming. Yeah. All right. I'm doing an investigation with the Grayson's, Abigail brought me on for it, and that's all I can really say about that. But let's just say, that deal you've been working on with the Blackwells and the Massachusetts.

and the workers in town, it's, uh, it's in trouble. And, uh, I'm, I'm here to help sort of keep it from falling apart. So if you could just help me talk to Anne real quick, go get her up, get her a cup of, you know, instant cuppa. And, uh, maybe we'll, uh, you know, wake her up a little bit and let me ask a few questions. I would, I would, I sure would appreciate it, Liam. And I have, Abigail sent you? Yep. Sent me right on down. Oh, okay. Yeah, sit down and I'll go see a fan. We'll talk to you. Okay.

So Liam heads upstairs. When you sit down at the table and he sits down, you know, one of the lanterns there on the table with you, you see a pair of gloves on the table. They're very large, so they're clearly not ants. So you can figure that they're Liam's. They're workmen's gloves. and at the tips of the fingers, they are kind of claws, very razor-sharp at the ends of the fingers. And the gloves are covered in dirt and what appears to be silver dust. It is silver dust, then.

Yep. Liam heads up. Is there any blood? Is there any blood on the gloves? No. You hear some knocking, quiet, mumbled conversation. And Liam returns with Anne in tow. And she looks sort of to be the spitting image of her mom, but younger.

And, you know, kind eyes, sleepy. Yeah. Did you, you needed to talk to me? Yeah, sure. I'm sorry. Where are my man? I'm Anne. Hi, Ann.

I'm Arrow Rye House. I live just a couple houses down run. the community garden. Yeah, of course. Yeah, maybe you've seen our night bloom and Jasmine. We're doing some good work down there. Um, hey, Liam, uh, cream no sugar, though. He just looks at you. For the coffee. Oh, uh, yeah, uh, caught. Liam, I don't, I don't need coffee. Could you give us a minute, please? Yeah. Uh, and he just keeps standing there. Uh, yeah, don't go too far. I do want to ask you about these weird gloves. Those, oh, those are my diggers.

I work in the mine. You just punch through the nut wall like a fucking akina? No, what's your deal? No, I, I can't handle the silver because I'm allergic, you know, not bad. I mean, not so bad I can't work, but I, I use those to, you know, take samples and dig out things I find to find the right place to kind of focus our efforts. Yeah. If I touched it, I'd probably, I don't know, break out, you know, rash or whatever.

I reached down and just like gently graze the one of the claws and there's like a slight sizzle. And I'm like, yeah, trust me, pal, I get it. Tell me, are these a common thing down there? Lots of people got these gloves? I mean, as far as I know, I'm the only fur that works in the silver mines. I've never seen anything like them. Okay, and then Gus has burst to the door. Oh, shit, we got you.

We've got him. Lock him up. Jacques Hughes! We got him. Liam, I know this is a weird question. You probably got a shift in the morning, so I can make sure you get them back to you. But do you mind if I take these back to the old lab? Yeah?

And I'll get them back. Oh, yeah. I'll humming back before Sunrise, pal. Don't worry about that. Oh, okay. I gently placed them in an evidence bag? No, I probably just have a... Like a messenger bag or something.

I probably just have like a messenger bag. I tuck them in kind of... Saddle bag. A saddle bag. For what? Okay. Yes. Abigail, if you need me, I'll go sit on the porch.

I'll be real close by. If you need me, you just shout, okay? Oh, okay. Thank you, Liam. And he steps out of the door. Wait, did he just say Abigail? Oh, sorry. I'm in.

I'm in. Ann. Okay. Why did I make, I made all these names they started with J's and A's. I don't know what I was thinking. And everybody has the same voice and this is real tough. Anyways. And tell me, you've been, uh, been asleep all night?

Wait, that's a weird way to phrase that. What times do you go to bed tonight? You're asking about Dylan, aren't you? Yeah, I'm asking about Dylan. You know something? Mom told me what happened. Okay, see, I had to tiptoe around Liam. It was real uncomfortable.

So you know about Jeremiah then too, right? Yeah. I'm real sorry. I know y'all were close, and I know this must be real difficult for you. What with your brother being in Slammer and your pal being dead in the street? Dylan wouldn't.

Didn't do it. He couldn't. Yeah, I mean, that assumption is kind of why I'm here. It's why your mom hired us. So I got a couple questions if you could help me out as much as you can. I think you'll actually be real important. important and helped me crack this one. Of course. Anything for Dylan and Jeremiah.

We talked to Dylan, tried to get him to be as helpful as you're hopefully going to be here tonight. And her brows suddenly kind of, what did he, what did he say? Well, he gave us a little bit. Enough, I think, for us to make some real progress here on the case, but seemed a tight lip. And I'll tell you what worries me. he said that she wouldn't want him to say much and we talked to your mama and she seemed to think that the only she in dylan's life that would be able to have that sort of influence on him would be actually you and so i'm i'm wondering what all that's about i don't know much about y'all's relationship but hopefully you can shed some light here that damn fool she kind of smiles he he made me it promise Mr. Ryehouse and he's so dang loyal. If I tell you something, will you keep it to yourself?

No. Yeah, I mean, long as it's, yeah, I can keep a secret. And you'll use this to help Dylan, right? Yeah, that's why I'm here. A few days ago, me and Jeremiah got married. Well, shit, Anne, I'm real sorry about everything then. I mean, listen, when you live out here, it ain't like death is a distant thought, you know?

And frankly, if I'm being honest, I don't even know if I'm dealing with it yet, but Dylan was there. He was the witness, and he fully supported it. He wouldn't, he wouldn't have done it. Jeremiah was like a brother to her. I mean, almost literal, Dylan wouldn't have done it. I want you to know something, Ann.

I don't think your brother did it, and that's not just like werewolves watching out for werewolf stuff. That's just the facts. I think whatever's going on here is about, and this may be hard to hear, that your betroth was just murdered for such a crass reason, but I think it's just business. And I don't know how plugged in you are,

to the big dealings that's going on between the mines, between your family and the Blackwells and the workers in town. But that's kind of where our investigations look at right now. Is there anything you can tell me about that? About the deal, about your big buddy Liam there with his murder weapon? No, Liam's a big old sweetie. He wouldn't... No, he's always been so kind to me and my family.

He wouldn't. No, you're barking up the wrong tree there, but here's what I know about the deal. Listen, Mr. Ryehouse, as you will know, Dry River ain't been doing so well over the last couple years. And I think the only thing, you know, Mr. Blackwell and mom think is going to help is getting incorporated. And that ain't helping it unless we have a little more order around here. So I think they're just trying to get affairs in order so that maybe we can get a little support from, you know, the higher-ups. then who would want to stop that and is that somebody's not happy about this deal and until we find out who that is

are we're just going to be running in circles i don't know i i would think everybody would want to help the town i don't know why anybody be against that i'm trying to figure out where the moment is where errol kind of and i don't know if this is some i don't know if errol even knows they're in this territory, but there is one person that Errol probably knows about that would be a sort of fan of chaos and be really against incorporation. We're going to get to that in a second, but first, let's cut back to Isabella Slate's house. She leads you in. So little intel, here's what you know about Slate.

She is a fang, but she is not from Dry River. She showed up here about two years ago. And on that night, Marcus was not seen again after that. And suddenly, Isabella Slate had assigned a deed and contract to own the Sterling. She lead to her home. Now, listen, as I'm sure you know, I'm not from here. I didn't see anything. And I can't give you much background.

Uh, but I think I might know somebody who could answer some questions for you if you'll follow me. And she leads you down into her cellar. Hmm. And you find a cage, a prison cell containing Marcus. The previous owner of the Sterling? Correct. Marcus. Wake up, sweetie.

There's some people who want to talk to you. Hello? Who's there? Hello, Marcus. My name is Gandy. Gandy. Hello. And I am the spectral form of Augustus Parsons, formerly the human Augustus Parsons of the Augustus Parsons of the Augustus Parsons Cashoe Company. It's pleasure to make up points. The late Augustus Parsons. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Why is he caged? Well, Marcus is not a good person and Trust me, this is about as good as he deserved. Anyone with less of a heart would have killed him by now. Don't listen to her. She, every night she comes down, feeds a little, and then leaves me here in the dark. If you all would, do me the cut.

the kindness of, you know, just killing her and getting me out of here, I sure would appreciate it. Yeah, I wouldn't try that and I wouldn't listen to him. Now, Marcus, these people have some questions about Jeremiah Blackwell and Dylan Mathis. Can you help them out? I don't, I don't see what's in it for me. Okay, wait, hold on one second. I realize that we're not lawmen in the Grayson agency. But this is obviously, it's not great. It's an unlawful imprisoning. Are we just going to blow right past that and just question this?

That's up to you. This is the moral quandary you found yourselves in. Isabel, how is this useful to our investigation? Well, Mark, here had his, how do you say, his eye and ear on all the seedy underbelly before me, he ran a fairly underbelly type sort of establishment. And if you're looking for any kind of rumors or dirt or any kind of knowledge that maybe you wouldn't be able to find as agents, I think Marcus would be able to give you the scoop, as they say.

Marcus, I have one question for you to see if you can help and we'll move on from there. If a partnership was brewing between the fangs and the furs, specifically their mining interests, who would benefit from that partnership collapsing? I'll make you a deal. Here we go. And he looks at Gandy. You take my place in the feeding tonight, and I can tell you who would be against it.

To be specific, the feeding would entail getting bitten somewhere and certain bodily fluids being placed in another location. We accept. You drive a hard bargain. Wait, wait. Wait. May I speak to my colleague for a moment? Absolutely, Gandy. This is, that could kill me. What a grand experiment, though. Think of all that you would learn from being fed on by a member of the Vampier. I am, if I may be honest, a bit jealous that I no longer have the corporeal wherewithal to, uh,

take your place in this transaction. Gus, Gus, listen. It's Augustus. I'm, I, yes, I know. I love the pursuit of knowledge, and I'm all in favor of that. I want to learn, but I don't want to die. Well, worst case scenario, well, not worst case. There is a scenario in which maybe perhaps you will turn and you will beat that old Reaper carrion bad fella Now, Chasin, I do want you to know, Gus, that this I think is going to fall under witness the scene of victimization and do nothing mark corruption. Hell, yeah, that's closer to leveling up.

It is a bonus for me. I've been looking for some scenes of victimization that I could witness and not do anything about. I actually counted me cheating at poker as one of those. Because she was victimized and I did know nothing about it. Perfect. In fact, quite the opposite.

All right. All right. If you make me a promise. Also, I would push back against that. For what it's worth, as much as I would love that big, big, juicy corruption point, I don't necessarily think that Gandy's submitting to this would be a victimization.

No, he's talking about the guy in the cell. Oh, dunk, yeah, cool. All right, I witness that. I'm doing it. Fuck all about it. I am definitely getting that point for sure. Let me just mark that, lest I forget. If I can jump in real quick, it would only take a second, and it's not, I'm not going to drain you.

Don't be gauche. I don't know who you are. I don't know how delicious I might be. I haven't killed him in two years. Why would I kill you tonight? Maybe I'm just extra scrumptious and you won't be able to control yourself. Once you pop, Gandy, the feeding won't stop. I am the peringles of blood, maybe.

If it's, I will make you this promise, Gandy. If it seems like our host is becoming a bit overzealous with her consumption, I will manifest and I will sort things out. You swear on your soul? What little I have left? All right, bite away. So before that happens, Marcus says, listen, here's what you need to know. Don't look in the town for people trying to stop it.

You've got to look outside. There's tons and tons of people making money off of the minds here, specifically because it's unincorporated. That money's untaxed. that money is not regulated, so it's just going to them without it. You've got to look beyond. Not only that, you got groups like the church, the law, and other groups like that, that if this town were to become incorporated, they would lose a pretty big handhold in the Crescent territory.

It sounds like the deal, as you described it, is beneficial. for the people making it, you got to look bigger. Marcus, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to use my experience from when I won the Constantinople Poker Championship two years ago. I am going to up the ante.

Me getting bitten and bled, I need more than that. I have one very specific question I'm going to ask you afterwards. and I want an honest answer. Deal. I'm going to want to know who the Banshee is. And then we cut to Aero Rye House, walking back from the Mathis home,

when he's confronted by two, uh, I was going to say thugs, but they're too well-dressed for that. They smile and it's actually a fairly warm smile. Mr. Ryehouse, so sorry to interrupt your stroll. Do you have a minute? Uh, at times actually kind of of the essence, uh, there, gentlemen. I, uh... I think this is very important. It's going to be in your interest to say yes.

It's been my experience that when people say that. It rarely is, but, uh, it sounds like y'all aren't giving me a whole heck of a lot of choice, so, uh, I'm... Oh, no, no, no, please. Feel free to say no, but our employer will be very disappointed. The Banshee's really looking forward to talking to you. Comedy and Culture, artist-owned. Listener-supported. Hi, I'm Ben.

And I'm Adam. And we host The Greatest Generation, and we're here to announce a new show. The Greatest Discovery is Maximum Fund's new podcast about the new Star Trek series Star Trek Discovery. We're going to be recapping every single episode. It's going to be a limited run podcast, and we hope you'll join us. It's a show that we're really excited to watch, and we're really excited to watch, and we're really excited to talk about it and provide our signature fart joke coverage of a new

entry in the Star Trek franchise. So if you like irreverence, adult humor, irreverence again, and Star Trek, we really hope you'll join us on Tuesdays on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcast to the greatest discovery. Oh, they made us edit dick out of the last promo that we submitted, so...

You should keep that part in the promo. Going into a bullseye interview, I know it's somebody who does amazing work, but it's an actual conversation. I don't know where it's headed. Absolutely. You're absolutely right. You said it actually better than I did, so I have to think about what that means. Hey, this is the straight talk that you're going to get on this show. Bullseye, creators you know, creators you need to know.

Find it at maximum fun.org or wherever you get podcasts.