The Glass Cannon Podcast - Time For Chaos S1 | E18 – Maniac Mansion

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

The team prepares to head to the Carlyle Mansion for a charity gala in the hopes of gaining an audience with Erica Carlyle. Watch the video here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtu.be/egSC7yZHgTQ For a limited time, use code "TFC" to save 15% on Cthulhu products at ⁠⁠⁠⁠chaosium.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. Access exclusive podcasts, ad-free episodes, and livestreams with a 30-day free trial with code "GCN30" at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠jointhenaish.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join Troy Lavallee, Joe O'Brien, Skid Maher, Matthew Capodicasa, Sydney Amanuel, and Kate Stamas as they tour the country. Get your tickets today at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hubs.li/Q03cn8wr0⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. For more podcasts and livestreams, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hubs.li/Q03cmY380⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Watch new episodes when they premiere every Friday at 8PM ET on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/theglasscannon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, starting July 11th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where's your playlist taking you? Down the highway? To the mountains? Or just into daydream mode while you're stuck in traffic? With over 4,000 hotels worldwide, Best Western is there to help you make the most of your getaway. Wherever that is. Because the only thing better than a great playlist is a great trip.

Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Book, direct, and save at bestwestern.com. The Warning Woods has haunting horror stories that are sure to linger with you long after listening. I'm Miles Tridle, writer and narrator of The Warning Woods. Each week, I write an original scary story and share it with you if you're into scary stories you need to check out the warning woods listen on Spotify Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts just search for the warning woods and click play at your own risk you are listening

to the glass cannon network the premier source for role-playing game entertainment. Good evening everybody, it's Friday night and tick tick tick tick ding! It's time for Chaos, folks. I think this is gonna be a special ep. Maybe I'm spoiling it, maybe it won't be, but I don't know, I just feel like we are quickly going down the drain that is season one and tonight has all the possibilities to be something special, but I don't know. We discover this live every single week. I have been reducing the amount of prep I'm doing and just really trying to follow the

lead of these investigators and you guys have been taking us on quite a journey and I just feel like tonight, based on all the decisions you have made as of late, is going to be a humdinger. But in the meantime, Rob, you made a little offhanded comment pre-show that your house is under attack? Yeah. Black widow spiders are terrifying to look at. And I killed four of them in my garage over the last like two weeks. And now there's like I'm in the basement. There's a there's a window well window right there. You can look out that thing. And it's like I have a terrarium of five black

widows chilling right here. There's another one right there on the other side of this window. It's horrifying. Are they native to Denver? I don't know. I mean, yeah, they're just, you know, they're Chile. I don't know where they're from, you know, originally. I've never seen a black widow. They're the ones that have like the cross on their back.

They got the hourglass and they're like poisonous. Yeah, that's no good. Or they're Scarlett Johansson. Scarlett Johansson is not in my window well. I want that clear. Be careful, Rob, or she'll crush you with those powerful thighs. She can do that thing where she jumps up on my head and then does this twisty round and then walks like this.

This is a real problem. You have small children. Are you calling an exterminator? What's happening? I did. Don't worry, guys. I've called the experts. They're coming on Thursday, and I'm just telling my children and pets who don't understand me to stay away from the window wells.

And they're large. They're like much bigger than I expected. Okay. All right. Big, bold, black bodies and crinkly, pointy legs. It's awful. You know what we have out here in Westchester, which I had never seen before in my life?

Have you heard of cricket spiders? No. What? Okay, these fucking things. We don't see them that often, but sometimes they come out and then we'll see them like three times in a week and then we won't see them until next year.

And that's too much. They are about this large, these spiders, and it's all legs. Their body, I mean they don't even look like spiders. When you first see them you're like, is that a rat with like six snakes coming out of it? It is so huge and they're like, I don't want to say they're intelligent, but there's something extra creepy about them in that they feign death. I've taken a shoe to them and I'm like, bang, bang, bang. Got him.

And then I'll walk away to go grab something. I come back and he's gone. No, that thing is walking around somewhere. I'm looking at these now. That's not cool. Are they crickets or are they spiders? I think they around somewhere. Oh, I'm looking at these now. That's not cool. Are they crickets? Are they spiders? I think they're spiders. I think they're cricket spiders and they jump as well.

I mean, they are the craziest things and you can beat the living shit out of them. One time I was like, ah, ah, ah. It was like my fifth one in a row and I just beat the hell out of it and I scooped it up and I put it in the toilet and I flushed the toilet and I was like, fuck you, fuck you. Woke up my children, watched some TV and then I later was like, oh, I got to use the restroom. I went in there. It was like an hour and a half later I opened it up and it's like crawling out of the toilet. I was like, no, no, no. I started stamping in there, poured gasoline.

I mean they are the nastiest looking things because you see it and you're immediately like, ah, ah. Then they put up a fight and feign death. Cricket spiders. They're also known as cave crickets or hogan bugs. Hogan bugs? Yeah, like hogan bugs. I don't even want to Google one, but I'm going to. Do any of you have any pests that are...

Oh, God. I mean, this isn't even doing it justice. If you're looking on Google, this doesn't really do it justice. The antennae and the legs are generally twice as long as what you're seeing here. Just go for days. Yeah. Go for days. So it just looks like, what the hell is that creature?

I guess it's a spider, but an unholy alliance of crickets, spiders, and death-fainters. No, thank you. I don't have any pests, but I have a very loud, needy cat. A cave cat. Hogan's cat. Hogan cat. Well, that's why you don't have pests.

Because of your cat. Yeah, that's true. She's good for something. Yeah, yeah. My cat does keep some of the pests out, but he doesn't. I don't want him eating the pests. I don't mind if he beats the shit out of them, but I don't want him to start eating. So I have to intervene, but then he gets mad because he wanted his fresh kill. And so I have to give him something else as a thank you. It's pretty gross.

You guys, anybody like really anti-spider, like freak out city? Yeah. That's why I feel like weight is on my chest right now with these things all around me. My lizard brain is, but my thought brain, my higher thinking brain is like, they're fine, they're your friends. But black widows were like my childhood fear. Children were like, I'm afraid of a fire or I'm afraid of tornadoes. I was like, I'm afraid of a black widow being in my shoe and I don't live anywhere near where they roam. Yeah, I remember seeing one or two in LA, but that was over the course of almost 20 years.

But this is, I've seen like eight or nine in a week and a half. That's not right. That's not right. Ross, are there any pests, animals or reptiles that just really not your speed? Give me a go. I mean, yeah, I don't like spiders. Same, same, Kate.

I realized there are buddies. They're just a part of the circle of life, but there is a part of me that, that, that recoils. I, when I was a teenager, I had a job working in a restaurant and like, one day it was like, it was like, you got to like unload at the, uh, like the, the rubbish cans, like a little bit further away from the place, which were down underneath this parking deck in this, um, in this restaurant and going down there. It was like, like open the door, go down in this restaurant. And going down there, it was like, open the door, go down in this shadowy space. And then I was like, oh, a spider dangling.

And then I look up and it's just like dozens hanging up in the ceiling. And I'm just like, ugh, just like the ice water down your back. I could not, I was like, I don't wanna do that anymore. God, it's like those Instagram videos of like, there's a weird buzzing sound in the wall and they tear the wall open and there's 9,000 hornets.

Ever seen those? It's like, oh God, burn down the house. There's no way. When I was a kid, I hated wasps because when I lived where, your area Troy, where you live, where I grew up, like there was two things, it was wasps, because those were always like around somehow

when I was a kid, but then like that one year when like cicadas came back up out of the ground. Oh yeah. Cause they chase you. Yeah, they're horrible. Imagine a rat with wings, like that's how big they are. The cicadas? Yeah, and then they're like, there's like just a whole swarm of them and they're chasing you.

Yeah. They also leave like the husk of their body behind when they molt or whatever. So you'll walk outside. It was all the time in Louisiana. It's just like, oh my God, there's, but it was just like a crispy shell. Yeah. You're like, oh, the fall leaves. And you look down like, no, it's not fall leaves.

It's cane coasters. Yeah. Exoskeletons. Yeah, exoskeletons. Do you ever feel bad murdering an insect? Because there are times I'm like, man, I'll be in a mood where I'm like, I'm going to carry this spider to the garden. And then there's other times I'll boil a pot of water

and kill 300 ants. And I'll be like, I just committed ant genocide. But I walked a spider a half a block. Boiling a pot of water is so medieval. Sometimes it's just like you look out the window like, is that 3000 ants that wasn't there a second ago and you just boil a pot of water and then they're not around anymore after you do that. Yeah.

Like the invading army at your castle gates. I literally personify inanimate objects. I could never, Michael kills all the bugs in our home. But one thing I'm not excited about when I move is the new pest that I will have in my neighborhood are black bears. Oh yeah. Oh, oh, they just walk around

like on the way to the grocery store. They're driving convertibles. They're like big terrifying raccoons and they're like fuck fuck with your garbage. And they just, they roam all over the place. Like I didn't think, but I'm gonna see them. Like my friends who live nearby have a camera and they had footage of one and a child the other day.

And I was like, I'm gonna live like five minutes away from- With a child? A mom and a child. Who? Oh, a cub. A, yes. Okay. I was like mom and a child. Who? Oh, a cub. Yes. Okay. I was like, someone with that child to be raised as a bear. You're looking through your ring cam, you're like, damn, my Amazon package is here, but

there's a fucking bear outside. Right? Yeah. You're always ordering honey from Amazon, right? All the time. Oh, no. I can't do that anymore. Fresh honey deliveries.

Overly ripe bananas. We have a raccoon in the neighborhood that only eats my trash. It's very, very strange. Either that or like a neighbor that just hates me and wants to destroy our trash every week. But I look at everyone else's trash out on the street and it's fine and our trash is all over the roadway. So I've told my wife, I just want to kill it. I want to find it and I want to kill it.

But there's these wackadoo neighbors that live down the block who have like a huge banner on their house that says like, save the fucking coyotes. And I know they're feeding this raccoon just to like keep it around. And I know where they feed it. So I'm thinking about taking this rat poison that I have and sprinkling it in the thing they're using to feed the raccoon. I can't go, I can't kill a mammal.

I can't kill anything with the spines. I think the cones are so cute. Yeah, they always look like they're like, guess what I just saw. You know what's not cute? Cleaning raw eggs and diapers off your driveway twice a week. Sure.

That's not as much fun. Raw diapers. And it could just be taken care of with a little murder. I don't know. I haven't done anything yet. You haven't talked me out of it. I realize you're probably trying to pivot away from bant, but I have to say, like my folks live in North Carolina and my dad has a running war with a squirrel who's like, how's this for a snapshot of Southern living?

There's like a peach tree back there and this dang squirrel is stealing peaches. Cut to my dad with a pellet gun on the back porch, like just waiting like American sniper for this like, for this scroll to show up on the peach tree and he's going to put like a just a two millimeters of hot lead into this thing. I don't know that he's ever succeeded. Yeah. I'm getting to that point where it's like I'm way into birds, but I want to kill this raccoon.

Let's talk about last week because a lot went down and it was only one day of game time and that day was Thursday, January 22nd. We got through a full day. I'm looking at my notes here. Fairooz, you were interested in looking at that ledger that Carter took from Juju House to see if there were any references to Cairo and Egypt based on that thing that you found from M. Warren Besart mentioned the street of jackals. You didn't see any mention of Faraz Najir or Najar, but you did see that there was a

slight connection and that there was mention of deliveries from Cairo, Egypt. Obviously you spoke with Rebecca Schozenberg at the New York Times who told you that Millie Adams has gone missing. Vaughn, you then go on to tell Rebecca everything you saw at Juju House as well as your suspicions about Naquane, Madare, and Captain Robeson and that you have evidence to support those suspicions. She's ready to go to press, but you all understand that if she were to do that, that it could be very dangerous if Millie

Adams was indeed taken by them. Any sort of expose right now could be dangerous to all of you. Rebecca herself was worried that maybe she has been seen or marked as well and decided to just sleep with a gentleman she doesn't really like just so she didn't have to go back to her house. I forgot about that little detail. Yes. I mean, it's not, it's, who knows?

Maybe she didn't, but it appeared that that was what she was going to have to do. Fay Rouse started digging into the book that you found beneath Juju House, Africa's Dark Sex. Farrouz started digging into the book that you found beneath Juju House, Africa's Dark Sex, the book that Jackson Elias was interested in from Harvard University. You spoke to the librarian there and the librarian was like, we had a copy of that book and it mysteriously disappeared. When it did, we noticed that day that there was this weird smell in the area where that book was. Well, you found the book.

As Farrouz digs into that book, you learn that they're the collected notes of a man named Nigel Blackwell who described seeing these otherworldly creatures and cults before clearly devolving into some sort of madness. Well, Faerûz herself, as you're reading this book, you start to lose sanity. You, in fact, lose nine points of sanity. But as your initial reading of this mythos tome begins, you start to gain mythos knowledge and lose maximum sanity in the process, something that has already happened to Vaan by just being exposed to

some mythos creatures. Meanwhile, Margot and Carter arrange a meeting with Lieutenant Poole on the west side. You meet him at a diner. It's pouring rain out, thunder and lightning, and you basically share with him all of the stuff that you told Rebecca Schozenberg. You say that Vaughn witnessed an officer likely taking a bribe, that Robeson, that you think that the name in the ledger WR14 is probably related to Robeson taking money from them. You have a knife, a headband with a mummified tongue on it.

Margot starts showing the pictures that she took and then shows the picture that she found as she was developing with her wearing that mask that you found, that you neither took from Juju House or ever put on. In fact, you remember leaving that photo at the hotel, but as you're looking through these photos, there it is again, almost as if this photo

that you never took has been following you around. As Lieutenant Poole is looking at this evidence, you can tell that he is starting to crack a little bit because of the things that you are showing him. But he promises that he is going to take care of this, he can care of this as best he can. He understands the urgency of the situation, but it's very dangerous because that isn't his precinct.

He has to kind of go off the books and do this with two officers that he respects and trusts and he told you to leave it alone. He's going to go take care of it and that he would call you sometime on Friday. Meanwhile, while that conversation is happening, Margot looks outside and sees standing across the street in the rain a man wearing a trench coat and like a hat covering his face and you are sure that he is just staring at you standing in the rain. So Margot, you leave the diner. You try to follow this man who's walking towards 8th Avenue, and he goes around the corner. You get to the end of the street and turn, and he's gone.

You come back to Carter, and the two of you take off. Meanwhile, Vaughn calls up the Carlisle Estate to try and secure tickets to a gala tomorrow night. You speak to Reginald Smythe, who works with the Carlisle Foundation, who tells you there is a gala happening Friday night at the Carlisle Estate in Westchester. a charity benefit to help orphans from Brooklyn specifically and you bought four tickets that are the modern equivalent of $1,000 each to go attend this gala rather than wait until next week to meet with Erika Carlisle. You're going to go there and see if you can get some face time with her, even though when you spoke to her lawyer, Bradley Gray, he was like, she doesn't really want to talk about her brother and you might want to just leave this

alone but you rolled high enough during your conversation with him that he would at least set up the meeting. You are just going to circumvent that and go to this party. Then we ended the day back at the Waldorf Astoria. Fay Ruse, you received a message from your father that Professor Cowles, this visiting professor from Australia who is at Miskatonic University now, who was in New York doing a lecture at NYU that Jackson Elias seemed to be interested in, you tried to get a hold of him, talked to his daughter on the phone. The daughter was not having it.

You went to your dad. Daddy got you the call. Professor Kiles is going to call you on Friday. Meanwhile, Vaughn answers the phone and there's no one on the other line, but you distinctly feel like you hear breathing. Margo goes to the bathroom to kind of shake out this photo that has been following her around that she has no memory of taking. She's looking in the mirror as she's washing her face.

She's got the shower running, and suddenly it looks like the shower curtain has begun to breathe. And Margaret turns and puts her hand on the curtain, and a hand from the other side starts pushing against hers. So that's where we pick up today. The end of the day on Thursday, January 22nd. I want to direct you to roll 20 real quickly to show you Painting I think this has come up on the network before

Are you familiar with this painting called the hands resist him? No Just really look at it The artist is not super well known, but his name is Bill Stone. I painted this in 1972. What's most known about this portrait is its history is possibly being haunted.

You see there's just a boy standing there next to what looks like a girl, but as you look closely, you see that it's a doll or a mannequin holding something. Then the boy's looking directly at you. Behind him is a window or a doorway and there's just hands in the darkness coming out. That's what I was thinking of as I kept replaying this scene of Margot in the bathroom all week, these hands pushing against the window. I found this photo years ago when I stumbled upon a YouTube dive of haunted paintings.

The story goes that this painting was at one time owned by the guy that plays. He's in The Godfather. Jack Woltz, he plays Jack Woltz, the one's like he wakes up with a horse head in his bed. That actor bought this painting for a while. He had it for a while and then he passed away and the painting just showed up in this couple's house and then it went to – they were trying to sell it on eBay and there was this whole thing that the painting was haunted that the little boy and the doll would leave the painting at night and walk

around their house and all sorts of other things that their position would change on the painting from time to time. And so it became this urban legend. But I always think of this painting and there have been other versions of it. I don't know if the original artist did it or not, but it's like part two and part three of this painting of the boy is an old man and the doll has gotten older as well. And this anyways, if you want to deep dive into it, you can look at the hands resist him. No, I'm good. This is the mood that I want to get you into.

It's just haunting. His face, what is the doll holding? Some people thought that the doll was holding a gun, like threatening the boy, but if you look closely, it's just like a battery with some wires. I thought it was like a cup with a twisty straw at first. Very, very creepy. I thought it was like a cup with a twisty straw at first. Very, very creepy. But as Vaughn is standing there listening into this receiver, listening and perhaps

with your listening role hearing on the other end, the slightest sound of breathing, we cut back to Margo in the bathroom. Margo, you press your hands against this breathing shower curtain and the impression of another hand comes up to push out against yours. What do you do? So does she feel the pressure of the hand against hers now? Yes. She tries to hold it and open the curtain.

So you try to like almost interlock fingers. But you're not going anywhere and I'm opening the curtain, yeah. And you go to like almost interlock fingers. Like you're not going anywhere and I'm opening the curtain, yeah. And you go to grab at something and you feel something resisting against you and you open the curtain and you see the entire tub is full of thick white maggots. They are crawling out of the shower head

and just plop, plop, plop, falling into the curtain. In fact, on the other side of the curtain, you see that they're crawling up and down the entire curtain. Perhaps they were making this hand on the other side and they are spilling, starting to spill out onto the floor, onto your foot. Give me a sanity roll.

Oh, sick. All right, onto your foot. Give me a sanity roll. Oh, sick. All right, here we go. 59 under 85. You're able to hold it together. What do you do? I think because of the fact that like, she's been feeling so like feeling so much has happened today, and she's alone in the bathroom and all this has happened,

and she's feeling a little defiant. So she's like, no, I'm opening the curtain, and I'm not gonna see anything. Or, show me who you are, what's going on. So she's prepared to maybe see some mess when she opens the curtain, but still, when she sees it, it's probably, you know, lizard brain happens, and she stumbles back and screams because maggots.

Everybody in the room, you hear that scream coming from the bathroom. Mago? Carter runs up knocking on the door. Are you OK? Fall in the door. It's like, are you okay? Did you fall in the shower? What's going on? There's maggots, there's maggots everywhere. Just help.

Okay, I'm gonna boil some water. Call back. Yeah. I don't think we even have a hot plate in this fucking hotel room. Forget it. Shit, I'm sorry, I thought we were in an apartment. Is the door locked? I'm gonna try to like open. If I locked Shit, I'm sorry, I thought we were in an apartment. Is the door locked?

I'm gonna try to like open. If I locked it, I feel like maybe she would have, so like she goes to unlock it and get out. You weren't getting ready to take a shower. The steam was coming over the top of the curtain. So you turn to unlock it and open it. You guys, what do you do? Stumble in?

Yeah, just kinda peek, peek in. What do you say to them Margaret? I stumble out. I go the maggots Oh gosh, we need to shut the door. Should I get out shut the door? Just kind of like kind of clear away from Margo to come out Do you not, does she still see the magnets? Magnets, the magnets? Yeah, I kind of like peek in. All right, so Margo, you come rushing out and you tell them to shut the door

and Faeruz you come up to slam the door, but as you do, you look inside and you don't see anything. As I'm about to like shut the door and I kind of like peek in, instead of shutting it, I slowly creak it back open, wait for a second, and then I wanna take a closer look. So I actually do walk in and kind of move the shower curtain. So Margo, you see Faeru's just not take heed

of your warning and walk in. You move the shower curtain, there's hot water coming down, the room's all steamy, the mirror's all steamed up, and you look inside and it's just an empty tub full of hot water in a steamy room. The pharaohs, what are you doing? Listen, I don't wanna say I don't believe you, because I do, but I didn't see anything. What do you mean? They're everywhere and she peeks back in.

Look, there's nothing there. Mark, you step up hesitatingly and look over and there's nothing there. But... I... And she just kinda... trails off. I'll make you a drink, hold on. We've all... We haven't gotten a lot of sleep. We've all been through a lot.

Maybe it's just catching up to us. I want to say that Vaughn maybe set down the receiver for a moment. But put it back up. Is the silence and breath still on the line? You put it back up and you just hear. Troy dial tones are not invented until 1937. How dare you. It's a chorus of young men. You have reached the chorus hotline. Some loatheous operators, all right. So yeah, I'll hang that up. I think... Yes, yes, we're all rather on edge.

I dare say someone wants to send us a message that they know where we are. What do you mean? There was no one on the other end of that call except some... It's barely audible breathing. Well, just now? Just now. At the same time. Yes.

Someone was watching us when we met with Poole. Maybe it was them. What? Someone was watching you? Yes, there was someone watching us across the street, and I left to follow them, and I was them. What? Someone was watching you. Yes, there was someone watching us across the street and I left to follow them and I lost them. Carter, you saw them, right? I didn't.

Oh my gosh. I believe you, I believe you. Listen, we've seen a lot of crazy shit, all right? So if you're telling me you saw a guy, you're telling me you saw maggots, I think it's possible. I mean, we're all seeing bonkers stuff, except Vaughn, Vaughn, you seem pretty chill. Things been fine for you lately, right? Huh?

Oh yes. My nerves are quite steady tilling, yes, yes, after the fright of the past days. But I begin to wonder if we're not safe here. Where would we go? Yes, yes, where would we go? But perhaps a vigil should be taken up just in case someone attempts to do to us here what happened to the unfortunate Mr. Lies. Are you suggesting we take turns keeping watch?

Yes, yes. I suppose we could do that. Couldn't hurt. Yeah, I think all of you guys are working on about four hours of sleep over the past two days. So you all have to be pretty punchy. A vigil will, you know, is going to reduce all of your overall sleep even more, but this will still be the most sleep in a night any of you have got in a few days. If we do watches, I don't know if we could, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, for sure. I was like, yeah, I'll take first watch. Or should we split into two teams? That way, if one person falls asleep, the other person can catch them. Or if one person sees maggots and they're not really there. Right. Apparently. I'll also, I'll join him. My adrenaline is very high.

I can't sleep right now. Yes. You two get some rest and we'll wake you in several hours and you'll do likewise and so we shall pass the night. All right. Good night. Good night. I hope you're done. Sayreuse kind of grabs the book she was reading because it has this hole that she can't let go of it.

And so she's kind of curled up with it and probably can't fall asleep immediately. Yeah. That's like a good ghost story. So Carter and Faerûs go to rest. Faerûs clutching Africa's dark sex. A book. Faerûs, are you sure you want to spend any time with that thing? I feel like we came in, you were just reading that and you kind of, you know, were a little loopy. We have. Don't you see there's going to be... There are secrets in this. Secrets, secrets that add up to the secrets that are hidden in this diary. Don't you see?

We're going to find them out. Yeah, I just don't know if you're going to really absorb those by holding it close to your body. We have came. We've come too far. We're so close. I can't let this go. Because if we lose this, we lose everything, you see. And close to your body. We have came. We've come too far. We're so close.

I can't let this go. Because if we lose this, we lose everything you see. Okay. That's okay. Half, yeah. Just pretend it's like a teddy bear with- I will find out what's in here. And it will tell us everything we need to know.

Wait, are you gonna keep reading it right now? If it calls to me, yes. That's not the response that I was hoping for in terms of books. Carter, don't you see? If I can unlock what's in this book, then I could unlock what's in this diary and everything that we've done. Maybe it's all connected. Oh, okay. All right.

Um, and I'm gonna be keeping watch with you later, is that right? Yes. Okay, all right. Tomorrow night, I'm going to be the belle of the ball. I know, baby. That's... You got it. Let's... Okay. All right. That's guys I tried Yes, give whatever rest you can Until until we wake you you're in you're in good hands

So for this first shift, what is the general conversation between Vaughn and Margot? Are they even chatting or are they just trying to do everything they can to stay awake? I think Margot has a drink and she's just maybe sitting nearby but off to the side and she's sipping the drink and just she has the mask, the gold mask on her lap and it's just kind of looking down at it. Oh man. Things have been nothing but trouble since you found it. Because she saw maggots earlier today and she sees maggots when she looks into that. She sees maggots when she dreams

and she's just trying to understand and she's never put the mask very close to her face. But like, Faeruz feels a pull and she heard you say that before we split up. She's wondering the same thing now. Do I feel anything when I look at this? Is it pulling me? That you look down. I had the mask on in the photo. I never put this mask on. Yeah, so you have this mask that you found underneath Domingo's bed in the hotel in

Peru. The second mask that you found is this one that was underneath Juju House, but you guys left it there. You never put it on, but you've seen this picture now come show up of you like screaming with this mask, like cage over your head like the Wicker Man. So you stare down at the eye holes of this mask. It's also like a, it's more like a golden mirror than it is a mask, but it is something you can put on and something you have put on. As you stare down in the eye holes, you just get flashes of those first images of the stepped

pyramid with like a writhing tentacle coming out that burst into maggots and then of course the Death blood orgy that took place with hundreds of people something that has haunted you yet again when you were watching this from afar and Jackson Elias came up symbol carved into his forehead entrails falling out of his stomach and said, and become with me a god. And so those images are just replaying as you stare down into the eye holes. Vaughn, I imagine you see her lost.

In growth. Yeah. lost in gross displays. Yeah. Brought that all the way from from Peru, did you? I don't think she hears you at first if you say that quietly. Because you haven't been very showy with having that around for us to see it. Yeah, not really. I feel like you all know that I have it. I did bring it out in Juju House. I don't think you were there.

Yes. Freiline. Freiline Sauer. But what? I didn't know that you'd... But I didn't know that you'd, um, you brought a souvenir from our, from our late adventure. Well, yes, it's, it's special. It's, it's gold. It's treasure. treasure. Yeah, why not bring it everywhere? I suppose there are some who would keep such a thing more secure, safekeeping.

The safest it could be is with me. I don't talk about our experience terribly much, but you remember when we were down there, gave a bit of a plunder to the pyramid, though I believe he found that mask in the hotel. I took, well, some of the others were rifling through various golden objects, I just took one plump little relic from that pyramid, and that little, that little Venus, as it were, is currently on my bookshelf back at Hagel's Grange. You don't keep it with you? You don't feel a pull to it after everything we've been through? My memories are enough, I dare say.

She maybe like turns away from you and looks back down at the mask and she like says quietly, I still see the pyramids and maggots. Still see them? Yes. Yes, I do. I have trouble not seeing them. Well, I can see them right now in the mask. Inside it?

It's a mirror, and if you look at sort, you know, I don't... When I look at a piece of artwork, I can tell if it's beautiful or not, but I confess I have a difficult time seeing into them, as those of your particular persuasion do, but do you mean to tell me you actually see things when you put this on? Do you put this on? Do you put it on? I've never put it on. I don't know if I should, and I don't know where that feeling comes from, but then she points the mirrored side at you,

and she goes, you don't see anything in here? And I reach out and take it. And she doesn't let go of it. Okay, so I just have a hand on it, and I'm looking at its mirrored inner surface Give me a power roll I'm sure that's your best stat I'm sure the knuckleheads weird the security detail. Okay, here we go.

Forgot about that. Sorry. Fun. Okay. Um. Pow, eh? Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Oh boy. You got it. Huh? What do you know? I made it. I made it hard. I rolled a 14 under 35.

Yeah. So you stare at this thing and you feel immediately the same draw that you saw in Margo as Margo was almost entranced the way she was talking about it. And you start getting pulled into it as well. And you see a scene play out of like a hand coming into the frame and it's your own hand. And then you look and look and look and realize that you must be in the mirror now.

Reaching out towards a rock. There's this large red rock. And as your hand gets closer to it, you can feel warmth radiating off of it. Heat that as you get closer and closer starts to almost singe the tips of your fingertips but you can't stop reaching and you actually reach out and put your hand on the rock and it doesn't burn it just fills you with this warmth that shoots up your arm and into your chest and then down into all of your extremities. And you find yourself in a room that is like lit up by lights that you cannot see the source. And you hear a voice calling perhaps your Calling, perhaps, your name, but in a language you do not speak.

Coming from down and to your left, and you look next to this rock that you're touching, and you just see a black pit of darkness descending into the earth and some voice within that pit is calling out your name in a tongue that you have never heard but you are so certain it is your name. What do you do? Imagine if you failed. Oh my god. Yeah, my god. Yeah, I know. What do I do? Okay. So Troy, am I still sort of operating under the, it's reduced, but still somewhat cracked from? Yes, you are. And in game terms,

if you were to lose even a point of sanity right now, you would have another bout of madness, as you are currently indefinitely insane. so you're right on that brink but now you just find yourself transported you look back and you are in a cave or something with these lights but you don't see the source. Amazing. Amazing. You see something?

The tomb. Tomb? In which... You can hear Margo's voice. It sounds like it's a hundred miles away coming from down a cave. Into which she goes. They believe that death is triumphed over him But in three days he rises again

And When he comes again in glory The st. John of Patmos swears shall happen He will call all our names and we will rise. If we walk among the living we shall disappear as if a thief in the night has taken us. And if we are dead we shall rise up. Such arrogance to think that he should speak in a tongue that we would understand when he shall speak in a tongue that we would understand. When he shall speak in the language of the angels. And I look down into the pit.

And... Is there a way to go? Like... Oh yeah. There sure is. Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I'm calling you from somewhere deep within. And yeah, I follow the voice. You descend into this darkness and the room that you are in touching that large rock the light of that room almost immediately winks out and you are just bathed in

pure unfathomable darkness and that voice is still calling you from somewhere deep within but that sound starts to get drowned out by another sound that's like a scraping like a... What? What is... It should... It should be fearful. There is a fear...

Fear... It should be fearful. There is a fear when we attend to things of the divine. And yes, it says that the Almighty dwells in light, but also in darkness, that those who behold him see him shrouded in clouds of impenetrable dark. For the human mind is not made to behold his glory. I am here. I am here. And you walk towards that sound, and you

start to see something in the distance. Your eyes start to adjust to the darkness, and you see a small figure, and it looks like it's painting something. And you look as you get closer, and you see that there is indeed a painting that this person is etching on a canvas. And so you move closer and closer and you start to see that the painting is that of

a serpent with your face on it. But when you get right up within like 10, 15 feet of it, the artist stops and just turns at you. But instead of a head, there is just a galaxy of stars, and you're just thrown back into the Waldorf Astoria with Margo. Did you see angels? You said?

I think a little fire is starting because a cigarette has fallen out of my hand and like there's like smoke rising from the carpet. Is this provokes sanity or no? Does the power... I'm going to need a sanity roll, yes. Really? Why? Why did you say that?

As you offer it up to him. Too much just happened to him. I told you I'm gonna... Oh God, okay. Well a 43 would be a pretty reasonably good roll if my sanity wasn't currently at 27. Yeah. Never stood a chance.

What did that hard success even do? My God, what would have happened if I just exploded? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Do I see angels? Yes. He's not answering maybe, and she's just like looking deep in his eyes and waiting for a response or anything

You're only going to take one point of sanity loss from that failure were you succeeded on the power roll Unfortunately in your state that is enough to provoke About and I'm going to say that this results in Vaughn getting Unnaturally violent all of a sudden doesn't have to be with someone who could be but how does that manifest to you? violent She's also still holding on to the mask with you Mm-hmm. Okay. So, God, so the last thing, I like reached through it and you just saw me like holding

onto it for maybe just for a split second and then... Yes, the serpent. And I cursed the serpent to crawl on its belly that thou shouldst eat dust all the days of thy life, and I shall place an enmity between your children and the serpent. Your son will bruise his head, and his head shall bruise his heel." And Vaughn is taking bullets out of the pistol that he had to guard the door with you, and he's taking out five of the bullets. So what are you doing? The angels have shown me that there is a part of me that is still the serpent.

I don't think we saw the same thing. I don't think anything in here is real. That there is a part of me that must be purged away. And she grabs... And he places the gun to his forehead. she grabs it away and pulls it away. It's quite alright. No? Freyline Saur, even if the flesh perishes, I shall return. But we need you here.

We need you here this way. Maybe if you come back, you won't be the same. And we don't know what that will be. A better verse, not the same. We need you't know what that will be. Better or worse, not the same. We need you this way. We need you. Margo, Margo, Sour. If I return, I shall not be the same.

I am counting on it. That's not what I meant, no. Margo, what is your strength? Not as good as his. It's 35. 35. All right. And Vaughn, what is yours? 70. OK. Give me an opposed strength roll here.

Both of you roll against strength. And let's see what happens. I failed. I rolled an 86. I got a 12 under 35. Hard success. So tell me what you want to do here. I thought maybe reasoning would help and it's not.

So I put all my might into it to pull it away and I get louder too hoping to wake everyone else up just in case. I know he's stronger if he has all his wits about him. So yeah, I pull it away and I try to take it out of his hand so he's not holding it. I love this. So what I'm gonna do is fast forward through this scene here.

It's like you grab it, you're able to turn it away from him and Ross, Vaughn has lost control here at this point. He's no longer driving the car. And so you start yelling loud enough that it wakes up Carter and Farrouz. Farrouz, you guys probably, we're just getting into REM sleep, and you come out and we just see this struggle ensue

where you're trying to hold Vaughn down, and Mari's got the gun, and Vaughn's just yelling, and it's a whole scene, and we black out at this moment. You don't understand. I'll come back. Damn you all. Just trying to get some sleep. God damn it.

And the next moment we hear a phone ring in the darkness. Lalalalalalalala. And eyes open up. And's fae ruse and it's morning. What do you do? Oh no, oh no, oh no, I was just like, I'll pick up the phone. Hello? Now let's take a quick word from our sponsors. Pardon the interruption here, Nace.

Just a quick hop in from me to let you know about Heroforge. If you're not familiar with Heroforge, they are a phenomenal custom miniature making site for your tabletop minis. I have used them for many, many years, including using them to build all of our custom minis of our characters for the Gen Con gauntlets. I love this website and they're sponsoring the GCP. How sick is that?

You can use a code to get a discount off of any color printed physical miniatures on the website right now. I'll get to that in a second. But for those that aren't familiar, Hero Forge is a browser-based miniature making site where you can make your own character using dozens of different fantasy species and thousands of different component parts to choose from to make your character unique. And they also make these color plastic ones ready to go. Table ready right out of the box.

Color printed miniatures using photopolymers, meaning no paintbrushes required to bring your character to life. Head to HeroForge.com to design your perfect tabletop miniature, add custom colors, patterns and decals, and then prepare for adventure. It is the spring after all. Let's prepare for those new summer campaigns. They also have STL files and digital miniatures that you can get and double-sized color printed miniatures. So like amazing printouts for like your big bad battle or just for an epic centerpiece on a table.

Honestly, it would look amazing. Head to heroforge.com and use code GCP and you'll get 5% off all orders of color printed physical miniatures. That's heroforge.com. Use code GCP, 5% off all color printed physical minis. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner.

Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Did you know there is an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door, and they've found a way to combine THC with carefully selected functional ingredients

to target nearly every mood and health concern you can think of? I'm talking about Mood.com's incredible line of functional gummies. And you can get 20% off your first order at Mood.com with promo code CANON. Forget one-size-fits-all supplements that only get you high. Mood's functional gummies are optimized to kick in in as little as 15 minutes and take you to the mood you're looking for. Whether that's mind magic gummies for deep work and creativity, PMS support to ease cramps and balance mood swings, or their sexual euphoria gummies to help you feel ready for action and turn every touch into a full-body experience.

Listen, you can find gummies to just get you high pretty much anywhere these days, but Mood's functional gummies combine premium, federally legal THC with targeted botanicals to help you get into the perfect mood usually in as little as 15 minutes and everything ships discreetly right to your door no dispensary lines no awkward conversation just better days and nights delivered to your doorstep I've talked about my trouble at dispensaries I have a very hard time communicating kidding with those guys I just got some I got the gummies and I also got the sleepy time THC tincture use it mostly at bedtime and being honest it's some of the best sleep I've ever gotten.

It's amazing. But best of all, not only is every mood product backed by a 100 day satisfaction guarantee, but as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code CANON. So head to Mood.com, find the functional gummy that matches exactly what you're looking for, and let Mood help you discover your perfect mood. And don't forget to use promo code CANNON, C-A-N-N-O-N when you check out to save 20% on your first order. Can you believe we're almost an hour into the show and we haven't done our luck roll yet?

Let's see if anyone's luck improved. Guys who do, you're gonna need this luck. Can't stress that enough. This is really gonna come in handy. Wouldn't have come in handy in that opposed roll, because I read this morning, can't use luck in a post roll. Any improve people, anybody fail the roll?

You wanna fail this oh? Nope, I got a 44 over 38. I just made it All right, keep yourself a detail. I think you're the only one right I got a 99. Oh 99. Oh yeah, nice. Oh seven beautiful The phone rings you look over at the clock. It's nine thirty in the morning. I imagine after this tussle with Vaughn that the original plan sort of went out the window and you did your best to kind of scrape together to keep some sort of watch

while Vaughn obviously needed maybe perhaps some more sedatives to calm him down. But the phone rings and it wakes you up and ferries you around and everyone's asleep in various places throughout the room. All right. Everyone look alive? Huh? Yeah, everyone looks alive. Okay.

I thought you were saying everyone looks alive. I thought you were saying, everyone look alive. You hear a voice on the other end. Hello, can I speak to Faeruzdubraal? Speaking. Really? I don't want to do this accent, but let's try! Yes, I was told to call you. My name is Anthony Dimmesdale Cowles. I'm the professor of anthropology

at Miskatonic University. I was told by my superiors to give you a ring at this number. Yes, thank you so much for calling me back. As Nora, not Feroz, looks through her notes to remember why she wanted to talk to him in the first place. Yeah, this was the guy who was an Australian guy currently lecturing at Miskatonic and you found a brochure for a lecture he was doing at NYU that Jackson was interested in.

If you once again look at your notes, you'll find a flyer. The Cult of, tonight only, The Cult of Darkness in Polynesia in the Southwest Pacific. A two hour lecture with slides delivered by Professor Anthony Cowles, PhD of the University of Sydney, Australia, and presently, the Loxley Fellow of Polynesian Esoterica

at Miskatonic University in Arkham. Shaila Hall, New York University, 8 p.m. So Jackson was interested in that. You tried to get a hold of him and spoke to his daughter who was like, nope. And so your daddy made it happen. Oh yes, hello, I understand you spoke to my daughter, you, yesterday. I hope she didn't give you too much of an hard time. Well, it's quite understandable. I appreciate your phone call. I understand you're a very busy man.

So I understand completely how she would be screening your phone calls, but I very much appreciate your calling me back. I did have some questions for you, if you would be so kind as to help me, help my friends in a little bit of a matter that we were trying to gain more clarity on. Yes, I'm sorry, did I call you too early in the morning?

You sound a little tired. No, no, no, no, no, no, I do appreciate you calling me back. Were you associates or friends with a Mr. Jackson Elias by any chance? Jackson Elias? Well, I know of the name, but I didn't know Mr. Elias personally. I'm aware of his writing.

In fact, I read some of his work in Polynesia, New Zealand. If you told me some of the titles of his books, I'm sure I could drum up some of the details, but no, I never met the man in person. Well, I'm very interested in your research, and just have any questions of... Did you find anything unusual? I don't, I do apologize.

I don't even know if this is, if a phone call is the right way to discuss this. Pharaoh is gone, we're trying to sleep. Good night, Jesus. And as Carter is saying this, I literally kick him awake. Ow, ow, ow, what? God. Just while I'm trying to kill himself again?

As I'm on the phone, I'm like gently nudging everybody else. And I'm like mouthing to everyone as I'm speaking, but I'm doing it silently, that thought I'm speaking with Professor Cowell. I'm always on with the Professor Cowell. I'm the on with the Professor now. Oh my god. Is he a guy? Ms. Gibron, I'm sorry, I'm, you know, I'm happy to take this call. Clearly you've got some powerful connections here at the University. But I'm just not sure what it is you're looking for. Like I said, I never met Mr. Oias.

Well, he's been murdered. What's that now? It has to do with something he's been researching murdered what happened when did this happen well fairly recently well I'm so sorry to hear of your of your loss he was a friend of yours yes very interested in your work. In my work? He was based out of New York, wasn't he? Yes, he was. I was just in New York, not but a month ago doing a lecture at NYU. Were you? Did you happen to catch any of the...

special areas of New York that might be useful to your research? I knew. I was just asked to do a lecture and so I went and I did the lecture. I saw the Statue of Liberty. Then I had a corned beef on rye and I came home the next day. My daughter, she misses me now that her mother's passed and so I didn't want to be away for too long. Ask him about the cult of the bloody whatever. The bloody tongue. The bloody tongue, yeah. Ask him about the cult of the bloody thing.

All right, all right, all right, all right. I'm leading up to it. Will you walk us up? You overslept. It's your fault. I'm like not taking responsibility for any of this. Listen, I'm going to have to cut to the chase here. I do believe that Mr. Elias's research has led him to his untimely death.

And I wanted to know if in any of your research you've heard of this cult of the bloody tongue. Cult of the Bloody Tongue. It sounds familiar, but that's not what, what I've been focusing on, as it were. There are cults that I have been researching. In fact, it was one of the reasons I was in New York. I was talking about my more recent research that I've been doing, Bloody Tongue,

but now you've got me interested. Hold on, let me get a pen here. Celta the bloody tongue. You think this has something to do with Mr. Elias' death? I do. And may I ask, who was it that actually invited you to give that lecture? Oh, it was part of my fellowship here at Miss Katonik. A friend of a friend at NYU asked me to come and give the lecture.

I mean... I do study at Miskatonic University. Who might this person be? You study at Miskatonic too? What are you doing in New York? You should be in class, young lady. Right. Well, you see, I'm doing a bit of research myself now, given the recent circumstances. Well, listen, I can tell that you're a smart cookie. Let me tell you what I know, and maybe it'll be helpful to you, maybe it won't. But as I mentioned, you've got some powerful friends here and I don't want to get in trouble for not helping you out. You mentioned a cult, well this is part of the reason that I came to NYU was to talk about cults. Now what

I'm about to tell you might sound quite strange if you're sitting in a lecture hall, it might sound weird, but over the phone it's gonna sound even stranger. Frankly the first time I started looking into this it made me laugh. sometimes I I'll still catch myself laughing. how so? well once you start to believe all of this laughter is both a defense and a first sign that you're no longer the one behind the wheel if you know what I mean. I wish I could share your humorous insight into all this but I can assure you that given the things that I've seen and given the things that have happened in the past few weeks I am not laughing. Good. I hope it keeps that way for you. You mentioned this cult of the Bloody Tongue.

I'm going to have to look into that. But the cult that I was interested in and speaking about at NYU was a bat cult that existed among the Aboriginal people of Australia long, long ago. It was known across the entire continent and the god of that cult was known as the feather of all bats now feather father of all bats father the father of all that's I understand now I'm looking forward to having this role playing me done with I don't know very good Australian accent it's the feather of all bits now yes please no please continue. I did not mean to.

It's 11.30pm here. I've been drinking. Please. Now, actually no, I'm not in Australia. I'm in Boston. It's the same time. Why did I call you so early? Anyways, the adherents of this cult from long, long ago, they believed that by making human sacrifices to their god,

they themselves would become worthy enough that one day this father of all bats would come and appear to them. Once he was enticed to appear, this god would conquer all men. That's what they believed. I see. Yes. So, apparently, according to legend, these human sacrifices were gathered and run through a gauntlet of worshippers who struck the victims with clubs that were embedded with the sharp teeth of bats. Now, if that wasn't bad enough, the teeth were coated with a fast-acting poison somehow derived from fermented bat droppings. So these victims apparently went mad long before they died from the trauma of being

beat to death by sharp clubs. Now it was said that the leaders of the cult reputedly could take the forms of bat-winged snakes enabling them to fly through the sky and steal sacrifices from all across the land. Now, you have to understand, my dear, these are just legends among most people. But I believe that this cult did exist and became dormant or even extinct hundreds of years ago.

In fact, its former existence is the reason that I became interested in Jackson Elias's books about present-day cults. Do you think that this cult may have spread on to other regions? Well, perhaps, but more importantly I think that cult's still operating today. Really? Now this poison that you say, does it have a specific color, a specific odor, a name? Are you aware of its contents, its compound? These were just stories, like reading something out of the Bible. You know, no one really takes it as fact.

But there's no way of knowing if what the color was. That's not really the point here, Ms. Gibran. Let me tell you. I know that the questions I have might seem a little cryptic, but I have one last one for you. Yes. If there is any mention in your research of maggots. No, no maggots. Mostly bat, bat related stuff. Guano, poison, clubs.

But let me tell you this. There was this aboriginal song cycle that mentioned a place where enormous beings gathered somewhere in the west of Australia. Now the songs would say that these gods, who were not at all like men, built great sleeping walls and dug great caves. But then one day, living winds came and blew down the gods and overthrew them, destroying

their camp. And when this happened, the way the songs go, that opened the way for the father of all bats, who came into the land and grew strong without the opposition of these gods. Now if you were there at the lecture, you would have seen these four overexposed slides that I brought, glass slides that came into my possession from a mining engineer by the name of Robert McKenzie from Port Headland, Australia.

Mr. McKenzie was the estate executor of a man named Arthur McGuire, and these plates belonged to him. Now, McKenzie knew of my research and brought them to me along with McGwirr's diary. McGwirr was part of an expedition recently, only a few years ago, part of this party that discovered something

that apparently led to their entire demise. I wish you were here, I would show you these slides. Might this be the Carlisle expedition? Carlisle expedition, no. But as you were here, I would show you these slides. Might this be the Carlisle expedition? Carlisle expedition? No. But as you mentioned it, I've heard of the Carlisle expedition. Very similar circumstances. All party wiped out. These slides in the diary that came back to me, if you look at them, you would see there's a bunch of sweating men standing besides enormous blocks of stone. These stones are pitted and eroded but clearly dressed and formed for architectural purposes. You can even see dim carvings decorating some of them and there's billows of sand everywhere.

These were the men from Arthur Maguire's expedition party. And in his diary, McGuire recorded several attacks on his party by Aboriginals, and all of the victims' bodies, according to the diary, had small punctures on them, reminiscent of the earlier Bat Cult. Now, Arthur McGuire wrote that diary in 1921. I believe that the slide showed the discovery of the site with the great sleeping walls and caves that were built by these enormous beings mentioned in the Aboriginal song cycles

and that the death of the potty by way of these small puncture wounds show that this cult of the sand bat is still alive and well. Now when you say puncture wounds, are these the classic two fanged puncture wounds or does it take on a different shape, perhaps a round one? According to McGuire's diary they were loaded with them, like they were struck with something, repeatedly, just like the legends say from hundreds of years ago. And these human sacrifices that you speak of, that you've studied yourself, did they include disembowelment? Disembowelment? I didn't see anything in that, in the diary

about that. I wish I had it on me still. I could look it up for you right now, but it's back home in Australia. Might that be something that I could borrow through the university, of course? Well, it's like I said, it's back home in Sydney. If you're ever in Australia, you can talk to my friend David Doge. He's looking over my estate while I'm away here at Miss Katonik. But my daughter and I will be here in Arkham for the next seven months. If you're ever in Australia, I'm happy to provide a little introduction to David, to Robert McKenzie as well, for what it's worth, but

sounds like you've got your hands full stateside. Let me ask you this, you're so interested in my work. Was Mr. Elias interested in my work as well? Oh absolutely, as he was studying cults himself, though not in that region. That's what I know about that, that is. Have you ever studied myths, Miss Gibran? I have. I'm assuming a pharaoh would have absolutely been studying myths. Why, yes, of course.

I've always loved myths, even as a boy I liked hearing about Zeus and Hera, Achilles and Athena. But I knew them just to be stories, right? Allegories. Well, but there's always some sort of truth within them, isn't there? There is indeed, and as I've gotten older, I've come to believe that perhaps they were true. There's this myth that I heard.

It's a tale I collected while traveling near the hour of furor's Sea in Northern Australia. This tale goes that the Sandbat, or the father of all bats, once had a battle of wits with the Rainbow Snake. The Rainbow Snake was this aboriginal deification of water and the patron of life. Well Rainbow Snake succeeded in tricking and trapping Sand Bat and his clan in the depths of a watery place from which Sand Bat can only complain and is unable to return to trouble the people. Well, what if, Mr. Braun, that Rainbow Snake

existed and what if this father of all bats existed as well? And what if the father of all bats got out? If you were to read this diary, that wouldn't sound so crazy. Well, I should love to get my hands on this diary and read it, but I could tell you, Mr. Cowell, Professor Cowell, that if you had told me all this- Dr. Cowell, actually, I'm a PhD! Doctor Cowell, yes. If you had told me a few years ago, Doctor Cowell, that all of this you believed to be true, I would have laughed and had some unkind words for you.

But I could assure you now, given what I have experienced and given what I have read, perhaps you're correct. I've studied these myths and stories for a long time. It wasn't until I came upon McWhorst's diary and these plates that I started to put two and two together that maybe this cult is alive and well again. Something about reading this diary though shocked me in ways that I can't even explain. But hopefully you'll be careful in your studies as well. You said these guards west of Australia. Where do you believe that to be?

Ah, not sure. It was my thesis that got me this fellowship here at Miskatonic. I'm sure once I get back home I'll be right back out on the road, digging my hands in the sand and doing my research the old fashioned way. Right. I don't know if you know this, but I'm Australian if you couldn't tell from my amazing Australian accent. This guy just sounds like he's pointing at various creatures and looking into a camera talking about nature. Because I do have the phone held down

all of our ears are kind of pressed. Was this helpful at all, Mrs. Jepron? I believe it might be. And do keep in touch, because I do think that in the future, perhaps my research and your research, perhaps we could help each other. Oh, I would like that indeed. And I'll be looking into this call to the bloody tongue If you're ever back here at Miskatonic, make sure you stop by like I said I'll be here for another seven months and I'd be happy to show you these slides I do have those in my possession, but I wish I had that diary Is there any way that you couldn't have it shipped to you? No ship to you? No. No, I wouldn't trust the post to send it all the way over here. It's too valuable to my research. Wouldn't want to get into the wrong hands, Mr. Gibraun,

if you know what I mean. I try to understand both. Well, thank you so much for your help, sir. Of course. Of course. One more thing, Mr. Gibraun. This might seem like a left field, but now you've got me all worked up here in the morning. I think I'm gonna go hit the library and start looking into this cult of the bloody tongue. But, well, if you've been with me this far, maybe this won't sound that crazy, but have you ever heard of Cthulhu

in the lost city of Relay? I don't believe I have. Oh. How do you spell that? Cthulhu? Yes. That's C-T-H-U-L-H-U. As I take out a pen and I write it on Carter's arm.

Hey, hey, hey, ow, that's a fountain pen. And Relay is R apostrophe L-Y-E-H. The reason I bring it up is there's a disturbing amount of parallels between this sand bat and Cthulhu. Some Polynesian legends discuss them also although the tales are different. Have you ever heard of the Pwn Ape scriptures? No, I don't believe I have. Oh, well, it's for the best. It's a disturbing and disgusting tome. The University of Sydney only had one copy and I got a hold of it once and dove in during my research. I blinked and all of a sudden it was one in the morning.

Must have been there for hours. I lost time. I don't even remember half that time I spent reading that book. Eventually I returned it, but I kept dreaming about this book almost as if it was calling to me when I was away from it. I tried to check it out again just to kind of expiate this feeling I was having, but apparently it was lent out to someone from Boston, Massachusetts and never returned. Anyway, that's not important. The important thing is these Pwnape scriptures is where I first learned about the Cthulhu mythos.

My mind's never been right since. At least that's what my wife would always tell me before she passed. All of this is to say just be careful what you go digging into. Mm-hmm. Well, sound advice and thank you for that. But then I know I probably shouldn't be asking this, but if I were to try to find the parallels between what's happening here and what's happening with this Cthulhu that you speak of. Where would I go looking? Well, I would head to a really good library. I know Miss Katonik's got one hell of a library in Harvard.

Can't go wrong once you return to Massachusetts. There's no good libraries in New York. Well, I don't disagree with you on that. I find that, I have this suspicion that there is some common thread between the things that you have seen and researched, the things that I have seen and that has come to pass

in the last few weeks here and this Cthulhu you speak of perhaps if gods and monsters do exist who's to say that they are confined to one region They are confined to one region. Well, I agree with that. As the old saying goes, there's more things in heaven and earth that are dreamed of in our philosophy now, isn't there, Ms. Gibraun? You're quite right. I'm gonna go have some Vegemite and coffee.

I'm sorry, what is that? Cut a go! I'm coffee. I'm sorry. What is that? Be sure to bully someone to make me call you again Yes, don't be a stranger Ta-ta. Good day, crikey He hangs up Well that guy sounded positively Australian There's one thing you can say about him. Wow.

I wouldn't think there was a time difference because he seemed to have way more energy than I do at this time of the morning. What did you write on the carter's arm as Kazoo-Loo? I don't know but according to Professor Cowell, Dr. Cowell, now he has me correcting myself, according to him, there's some commonality in these cults that have to, that somehow have to do with this. Though I've never heard of it myself. Cthulhu R-R-Riley?

I don't know what that second word means. But Miskatonic University, apparently, their library should have some sort of information on this. Highly doubt we'll find anything here. I'm just sick and tired of fucking cults, man. This is getting ridiculous. There are too many. I'm up to my tits in cults.

God damn it. All right. Be that as it may, our friend is dead. We have one person, my mind is blanking, who is, we're trying to prevent from getting the death penalty and his wife now is missing. And we have to go to a party tonight. Well a party is not for socializing. No, no, of course not, no. You're safe with information.

Vaughn? Hey, Vaughn, is he awake? And if you look over at Vaughn, you can see that his eyes are just kind of a little bit open and he's just kind of regarding you. Yeah, I did nudge everybody, although I kicked you, Carter. What's that, Tillinghouse? Hey, hey, buddy. Unfortunately, Dr. Cowell's cult that he studies is not like anything we've seen, although he mentions strange god with bat wings wings on a snake body whatever that means. Here's the thing with Australians

They're the descendants of a prison colony They can't be trusted and I feel like it has nothing to do with what we're doing right now Right. I mean, am I crazy? Am I the only one who just hates Australians? I feel like This puzzle that we're trying to piece together, the board just gets larger and larger. That is making it a progress. Just another pain in the ass.

Why was Jackson interested in this? I mean, it seems pretty obvious. This is right up Jackson's alley. It's almost very similar to what he told you when you first spoke to him in Peru about a you know this myth of vampires, kari-siri, that everyone was like, yeah they don't exist and he's like no I think there was a cult that existed that has lived on to the present day. Well it's a very similar story this cult of the sandbag. A benevolent deity that got that trapped this evil one underground. They all have different gods, they all have different zombies, I don't

know. There seems to be this commonality of resurrecting these gods from whence they've been slumbering. I just feel like they could have used another vowel or two in this Cthulhu thing. I mean who's C T a that's ridiculous Yeah, it's almost oh, it's just like it's almost like German. Oh, sorry Cuz I can't say suit Cthulhu That's never gonna stick come come telling us there are languages that are made to be spoken with Inhuman mouths Hey buddy How you feeling Vaughn in human mouths. Hey, buddy. How you feeling, Vaughn?

You seem good. Yes. Mr. Braun, did you say that this chap was speaking of serpents with the heads of the men? A serpent god with the wings of a bat. You see Margot like a father of all that Rick staying on the aimbo snake ray Troy Troy is there a way what happened? I mean we cut to black I Want to know how we?

Like tied to a chair Yeah, I mean in in in game terms Vaughn would be the only one with they would have no memory of it Okay in fact once you have a bout of madness usually you just completely forget and then we fast forward in time and Vaughn wakes up and doesn't remember anything. So that's really what happened. I imagine What happened is what you guys decide happened. I think that once Margo got that gun away and woke you up,

it was just like a dog pile. Maybe a sedative needle, and then you were just all riled up and then eventually all passed out. Mm-hmm. So yeah, serpent bat. Yes, rainbow snake. Have it read through this whole book yet Yeah, perhaps there's some other

Maybe there's some mention of it. Maybe there's mention of maggots. I Feel like let's just assume that there is I don't feel like you really need to really peruse That was the peruse. What else are we doing here? What's our purpose, Carter? I walked in here, you were nose deep in that book, and you were bibble babbling, and you got vaudeville riled up, and I'm tired of people looking at things that they shouldn't be looking at, if it's a mask, or if it's a book, just got everyone stop looking at shit. Alright, everyone just close their eyes. Close their eyes real hard. If you close your eyes, you're not gonna see anything.

When I close my eyes, all I see is maggots, cartilage, are you here? Okay, don't close your eyes. That's fine. I'm just sick and tired of everyone fucking losing their shit. You're making me lose my shit. Just can we not can we not just can we not just save Hilton Adams? Can we just save this man's life? Maybe we find Millie Adams? That would be a nice plus. Adams, my God. Was Poole successful in his raid? I don't know, I gave him the handwritten card

for Mystery Squad, he has yet to call the number. Wasn't he supposed to call us? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. What time is it? What time is it? 9.45 AM. Maybe we have a message? Yeah, can we call the precinct? Yeah, let's call him up.

His precinct and see if he's... If you call down the desk, you have no message. Give a call to the precinct. Chelsea. Who's on the phone? We're all on the phone. Everyone's like, hmm? One word at a time. Let's go. I'm not on the phone this time.

Hello? I had the phone over. Yeah, let's go. I'm not on the phone this time. Hello? I had the phone over. Yeah, hi, hi. Is, professor, is Lieutenant Poole there? Can I ask who's calling? Yes, Carter Tillinghast of the Mystery Squad. Is that our name now? Oh yeah.

Hold on just a sec. Carter takes a pen and writes it on Faeruz's arm. Mystery Squad. That's what it feels like. That hurt. What the fuck did you do? Yeah exactly, it's a fountain pen. It's like you tattooed me.

Voice comes back on. Sorry, what did you say your name was? Carter Tillinghast? Carter Tillinghast of the Gloucester Tillinghast. The Gloucester Tillinghast. Massachusetts. He's not available right now. Can I take a message?

Has he been in at all today? Officer Tillinghast. Massachusetts. He's not available right now. Can I take a message? Has he been in at all today? What is this about, sir? Police business. Are you an officer? You would have identified yourself as such. One would say that I am an investigator, yes. Do you want me to leave a message?

Yes, please. Call Carter Tillinghast and he knows where to find us All right, and where would that be? He knows All right, sir, you have a good day. Yeah, what was your name again sir? Click. Motherfucker. He clicked me Guys I got a bad feeling about pool should we go to the juju house I'm too late to shopping I don't know I just know that the authorities are probably not the best allies at the moment We don't know how deep the 14th precinct's conspiracy goes.

But we do need to prepare ourselves for tonight. Paul said he was going there last night, yes? He seemed to... Bringing two of his best men? He talked about these two guys he was gonna contact. I don't know when, I don't remember him saying when he was gonna go, do you, Margot? I don't remember a specific timeline. Was it implied that he was going there then? At first he was kind of non-committal about it and then you pushed and say like there's a woman missing

and she could very well be in danger. And he was like, all right, all right, I'll see what I can do. I'm gonna get my best men. But it was, you weren't quite sure what he was able to do because he's going off the books and into a precinct that isn't his. There's a lot of risk there. So you just don't know.

But he did say he would call you today. Okay. All right. Well, I've got it on good. It was a good source inside my mind that says he was going to call today. So I mean, shit, guys, what do we do? I mean, Millie, I mean, Millie Adams is missing. Well, if we're going to this function tonight,

I need a different outfit for sure. What day is it again, Troy? Is it Friday? It's Friday, January 23rd. And Saturday is the moon business, right? Right, Saturday into Sunday is the the dark of the moon To water definitely yeah Well if you

Places if we do our faith in those authorities yes, I don't know that that's We've been trying with no luck. Yes. I don't even know who we can trust anymore. This feels real helpless. Chosenberg, I mean, we could check in with her again. Chosenberg, yes. I do have faith in her.

As far as the authorities go, I don't know. Chosenberg's in a bit of a holding pattern, waiting to see what's going on because she doesn't want to expose you, herself, or Millie. Pool is kind of like your last hope in a way, and then whatever you discover at this gala tonight, if you're able to get some one-on-one time with Erica Carlisle, but that meeting is really to, I mean, I don't know what your plan is there,

maybe find more out about Roger Carlisle. The Carlisle expedition. That's more about the expedition. That's a more broad, exploratory thing. I mean, I do want to go to this party, but it's also like, it's so not depressing. It kind of doesn't, I don't think there's any way the party's going to help exonerate Hilton Adams or save Millie Adams' life. But you're torn in so many directions because you've got Jackson's dying wish for you, which would involve this.

And then you've got these other pressing things that you kind of feel helpless over at this point. Yeah. Yes. I do know that at this function, you could try to see, try to gather the names of the people on the Carlisle expedition and track them down because somebody has to still be alive. Yes. Guys, somebody has to know something. Perhaps, perhaps in this, in this city, in this system of ours, there are few things that hold sway more than prestige and wealth. And perhaps if we can get on the Carlisle's good side, if they can put in a word for Mr. Adams with the authorities, if they can see an investigation opened up.

Possibly. If perhaps they could go over Robeson's head in some way with the mayor or some such. That's a distinct possibility. Rich people can do whatever they want. I have found that to be often the case my own I don't see a motive for them to do so at this point but no I don't we get if we talk to Erica Carlisle and we say look what happened

to your brother could be happening right now to people in this city yes right like there's a connection between what happened to him and what's going on right here. You have a chance to stop this. You have a chance to prevent something from happening to other people. What happened to your brother could be happening to other people right now, and we can stop it.

And I'm sure she'd want to know exactly what happened to her brother. Plus we got that info, right? The other idea I had was that we call the fire department and say there's a fire in Juju House. And we get them to fucking storm in there. Because they're not on the take, they're in the fire department. Yes, in the basement.

We could start a fire outside of Juju House. That might be a little much. I don't know how to really contain a fire, feel real bad. If it took over all of Harlem, that would suck. That is true. But if they do, let's say that we do, fire or not, the department is called and they show up and they find the mess that we all saw and were a part of. And then what then?

They contact the authorities and they cover it up. Yeah, that's a good point. I'm just worried about where it really ends. I just don't know who to trust anymore. I don't know. It seems to me that the paths that lay, the distinct paths that lay open before us are to me that the paths that lay, the distinct paths that lay open before us are to either return once again to that damnable Curio shop and see if Poole has been successful, if anything has changed and seek to see if the unfortunate Mrs. Adams has been... Do you think?

...has been... Do you think we can go over on the new moon and maybe catch them in the act? I mean, that's the last resort. I feel like that's... If we haven't heard from anybody... ...you know, by that point, we gotta go back over there. Yes, they know that someone's been lurking about the place, that somebody's broken in. I made quite a hash of their door, but, and I saw, who I think was Silas Noquane,

running to fetch reinforcements when I came down there to find you lot, and everything becomes rather a blur after that, but the, perhaps, yes, if we were to catch them in the act of whatever it is they do on the Dark of the Moon. It'll be dangerous, but at least we know what we're up against now. Yes. So let's try it. We'll try to get on Millie's good side. I mean, not Millie. What's her name? Erica. Try to get on Erica's good side. Look, rich people, they might not even have to go to the cops. They got their own people. You know what I mean? Like... Yes. Muscles. Maybe. And if she doesn't cooperate? Then tomorrow night we go to Juju House. Yes. Perhaps it's my sense of repulsion of returning to that place, but I'd much rather spend tonight anywhere else. Yeah.

Well, the good news is tonight we got a party. Tomorrow night we might die. If we are not successful with Erica Kyle, I think we should take the opportunity to at least look for that safe while there. Yep, exactly. We're going to do it a little split-sies. Yes, I'm... I'll... not to speak offensively, but there... as horrid as it is to speak about, there are certain stratifications of class.

And I suppose it would perhaps be in the best interest of her for me to do the talking with Miss Carlyle, perhaps? Unless of course she has an interest in matters academic, in which case perhaps you, Miss Ron. Or perhaps she's a collector of art. If the two of us maybe chat up Miss Carlyle, if it comes down to us having to look for maybe, shut up, Ms. Carlisle. If it comes down to us having to look for the safe ourselves, perhaps, that Carter and Margot, you can go looking for it, because Margot,

if you can even at least get some photographic evidence, and Carter, there's no one who could pick a lot better than you. That's true. I am awesome. Yeah, that makes sense. I don't know how much in the moon I'll be in for small talk. So yes. Oh, it's going to be great. We'll get a couple of cocktails, schmooze, get some, you know, little canapes or derfs. Oh, don't eat beforehand, guys.

We're gonna party. How are you guys dressing for this affair? I mean, that's what we're gonna spend the rest of today doing. Vaughn has the credit rating to pull this off. I might wanna maybe do a luck roll to see if I could contact one of my dad's ex-girlfriends who lives in the city Borrow something. Yeah, give me a luck roll. See if you can get something nice from one of these floozies. I rolled a

45 under 72. Yeah, it just so happens That one of them lives on Park Avenue Just a an avenue away and a couple blocks up, so you could secure a dress. Margo, where are you getting your threads? I was thinking maybe artists can be cool, right? And they could maybe wear fashion forward things if not expensive.

So that's the route I'm hoping to go for, is someone's got something like fashion forward that the rich people will like, maybe haven't got their hands on yet. It's flapper time. They can't tell it's not expensive. Flapper time. Flapper time.

Okay, I like that. And Carter, are you just making Vaughn buy you something? Let's talk for a second about haberdashery somewhere in this town. I suppose it's rather early. somewhere in this town. I suppose it's rather early. Yes, if Misha Braun is sorted and Froiline Saur is going the bohemian route, let's you and I go to wherever in this blasted town passes for Savile Row. Yes, I'm a 40 long, let's rock.

I love that you guys are having a shop with Montage right now. Right? I love that so much. So yeah, like, get along. And trying on hats. Oh yeah. Then yeah, we'll go somewhere and get fully black tie kids. Mr. Peanut Me, let's go!

Alright, so you guys get all suited up up and this is pretty much your day. If you check back into the Waldorf Nothing from pool nothing from shows and no Millie Adams doesn't show up. I'm fine like nothing Are you taking the train up there or are you? barring the car renting a car Vaughn. Yes, I suppose it wouldn't do much good to arrive at such a gale on foot.

And I'll call a car service and have a... I can drive if need be. I've got driving skills. I put some points in. I mean, I've got the credit rating. I spent points on driving. You are going to have one too many cocktails. Yeah. There's no such thing as a designated driver in the 20s no one gives a shit I'll hire a driver in a car. Everyone's just drying these iron tanks

All right, so you're gonna take car and then last question are you coming to this party armed Yeah question are you coming to this party armed? yeah. what a typical question. yes always. I have my lady gun in my purse. I mean Carter's not great with. I don't know I don't think you could bring a sawed-off shotgun. I know. however. if that dress is baggy enough, you can bring whatever you want. At least a knife. I do have another gun. I have a handgun I can bring. It'd be hard to bring a sawed-off shotgun to this gala for Brooklyn orphans. But what if it made me happy? Well...

It might not make the security happy. I'll bring my handgun and maybe my brass knuckles. The only sharp thing Carter needs is his tongue. There it is. Yeah. Dangerous thing, where are... I was certain this was loaded. Oh, yeah.

About that. That. I think you dropped your gun and the bullets came out. Well, I'll just have those then, Tillygast. Why don't we wait? Why don't we wait? I'll be with you. I'll hold on to these bullets for a little bit. Um, are you quite sure? Shouldn't we rather be prepared? Yeah, but at this moment, I mean, there's no threat right now. I feel like a couple bullets in my pocket. It's not going to hurt anybody. You know, you've been going through a lot emotionally speaking and I just think it's for the best that I'll just hold on to the bullets for a bit. Once

we get to the party, let's chat. Anyway, if you insist. Yeah, I insist. So you rent a car, you get new outfits or borrowed outfits, you do conceal some weapons on your person, and you head outside of the city to the Westchester County estate of Erica Carlisle, formerly the estate of Roger Carlisle when he ran the family business. As you're driving up the, I don't know if it was called the Taconic back then, but that's what you'd be taking now. You can see in the distance be taking now. You can see in the distance an ominous glimpse of Sing Sing Prison not too far away. You know somewhere in there in the death house, Hilton Adams is hopefully still sitting waiting to be exonerated, probably with no idea that his wife is missing and in perhaps worse danger than he is in

and like a huge pang of guilt is hitting on like just like Imagining himself explaining to Hilton Adams that he is going off for an evening of socializing in the midst of all this Yeah, you're just driving by all dressed to socializing with a purpose. I feel like the car is just like dead silent. We all feel bad. And you pull up to the Carlisle State. There is an elegant three story mansion in the distance sitting on top of five, six acres of absolutely superb immaculate grounds. There's a 12-foot high iron fence with sharpened finials surrounding the entire property.

You see partygoers, galagos, dressed to the nines, black tie affair, tuxedos, women in evening gowns, all walking through the gate, having their car doors opened as they walk up towards the estate, and two men walking back and forth on the perimeter with shotguns. Jesus Christ. Think the Godfather, like the Godfather compound. When they would open the gate and a car would come in, there'd just be a couple guys walking around with rifles. It's that same thing.

Seems that Sing Sing isn't the only highly guarded facility in this neck of the woods. My God. See another guy with like a pack of dogs just like in the distance going around the back of the estate. So it's heavily guarded by both armed guards and guard dogs. You park the car and I imagine Vaughn looks in his element here but the rest of you are playing dress up a little bit. Playing pretend. What is everyone's credit rating? Not you Vaugh, but everybody else. Oh. Mine is low, but I did get dressed by a high society woman.

Oh, yep, 20. Mine's a 10. I'm a 10 as well. Without the wife around, I guess. Everybody adds too much fold in money. Everybody add 40 to your skill and give me a roll based on that. Okay.

As you approach the front gate. I rolled a 10. A 10. Okay. Success. Yes. So we were supposed to add 40 to whatever. 40 to your face, yeah.

So 10 under 50. 10 under 50, that's an extreme success. What'd you get Carter? I got a 63 over what is now 50. I got a 98 over 20. Can you push a credit rating roll? I mean, you could. I don't know if you'd have to explain what you're doing. OK, so, so Carter, you can use luck.

You could spend 13 points a lot. Here's the thing. I've got 35 luck. A little nervous about going deep on the luck. I'm gonna push it. I'm gonna. He gets out. Maybe he realizes that his zipper's undone. Well, you see you're both. Whereas, whereas Vaughn and Faerûs are being let in with no problems, not being frished at all,

the guard takes one look at Margot's attempt at fashion forward and Carter's half face. And- What's Margot wearing? I don't know. A trash bag. Fashion-forged. It looks like a...

Some avant-garde like... It's a hefty bag. Dress. I feel like I see like them just ease in and I like start fussing like making everything straight. I want to push it too. All right, give me some pushes. All right, Carter zips up his tie and straightens his tie. Oh, no, that's good. Zips up his line and straightens his tie. Oh, no, that's good. 26 under what is now 60.

I rolled a fucking one. Oh, no way. So you see them. Zero, zero, one. Zero, zero, one, yeah. You see them walk up to you as if they're about to ask you to lift your arms so they could just frisk you real quickly. And then another guy comes up and puts his hand on.

He's like, they're with them. Don't worry about it. Yeah, I'm with them, sir. As is she. As you can see, she is a living work of art. Obviously, this is past your taste. Yeah, your provincial minds can't even understand what's going on on her.

Me? I'm a slick motherfucker. Let me through. Gentlemen, gentlemen, please let them in. They're here to save Brooklyn orphans. We need to save Brooklyn orphans so later they can open coffee shops and start record labels. Please come in and make yourselves comfortable and you walk past these guys and up to the steps and the door is wide open and it is just full of people dressed to the nines and this place is just, it just smells of old, old money.

Everything looks rich down to the last detail. There's a large sitting room where many people are gathered. There's a salon. You see just rooms upon rooms and elegant staircase leading up and people are everywhere. Ferruz is like, fuck yeah, this is exactly the kind of life that I've dreamed of having. She's dressed in this long, like deep cut and fitting that like flares out at the bottom but it's like this beaded champagne gown and she has this fox fur stole around her shoulders with like the head of the fox still there chilling on her like right hand side and like with the tail still dangling on the left. And she's got like her hair coiffed in like the style

of the time with this like beautiful jeweled comb sticking out on one side of her hair. And she is just like ready to be in this society. She's been waiting for this moment. I could hear Nora describe her outfit for another five minutes. I feel like the joy that's spilled forth. She has this extravagant perfume that smells of night blooming jasmine

as she walks by. What do you guys want to do at this party? I mean, it is mingle o'clock here. You don't know anyone. You look around, you don't recognize anyone. I think we gotta find out which one of these broads is Erika Carlyle. We don't even know what she looks like.

I didn't expect so many people to be here. I don't know why. I say we look for the group, of the largest group of people that are surrounding one single woman, and that's her. Cause everyone's gonna wanna want a piece. She is also the host of this function so I'm sure she's going to be giving a speech at some point yes yes Australian

accent which is well alright do you want to split up or are you going off in groups or are you just like Scooby doing your way as like shuffling along as a foursome? Do you want to break off in those pairs we described? Yeah, we can split these. I kind of like take Vaughn's arm and grab a glass of champagne with the other. Yeah. And the gentleman? And the gentleman?

And the gentleman? And the gentleman? And the gentleman? And the Yeah. And the gentleman? Carter does the elbow. Not even looking at the same. Thank you. Sour, let's do this. Let's do this. I love this pair. The two couples just spread out into the party. And yeah, let's, I'll like cast my eye over this, just like we were saying.

I don't know what if this is a spot hidden or if there's a way I could parlay this as a credit rating thing if I could like, if Vaughn's highly class attuned background can read this room such that he can find it the center of its hierarchy your class star. Yeah class star Yeah, yeah, psychology even Yeah, what does your spot hit you're looking for it is yeah All right passed 58 over 75 Yeah. All right.

Passed 58 over 75. 58 under 75. Okay. All right. So that is a regular success and you're looking around and I mean, man, there's just a lot going on here and you're also as a man of culture impressed by this place I would imagine. And you're looking and you just see like rooms off of hallways and there are people coming in and out. So this party

isn't just like taking place in the salon. It appears as if people have some sort of semi freedom to walk about. At a thousand dollars a plate they know that there are no riffraff in here. Or are there? With a success on that spot hidden you do not see anyone that, I mean you don't have a description of her really, unless you've taken some time to read the high society pages, but you don't see anyone that like jumps out at you like that's got to be her. You do however see her lawyer, Bradley Gray. He's dressed in a very fancy ascot, he has his hair slicked back and he's holding court

with a group of people and drowning some red wine. Okay, well I know. Well, Vaughn? Who do you suppose is Ms. Carlisle? Well, I haven't spied her yet on the floor. I do see one of her general factotums over there. Mr. Gray, I've already had the pleasure. Oh.

And Vaughn is like fully code switching into like super effete. Well, perhaps he can make an introduction. Yes, quite. If you'd be so kind as to accompany me. And I hold my hand out like this. Extend my wrist. And take it. This is already worth it, by the way. This entire decision is already worth it.

And we will sweep across the floor and roll up on the little circle of people listening to Bradley Gray. Yes, and he's just talking, he just finished a joke and they're like, and he turns and sees you, von Villiers! I wasn't expecting to see you here this evening. You had mentioned that you were a man of means and here you are to save the Brooklyn orphans. Yes, as you see, Mr. Grey, my word is as good as my bond. He looks over at Faerûs and is this your friend? Colleague. Colleague. I see.

Yes, Faerûs Gibran. Such a pleasure to meet you. Ah, and a pleasure to meet you as well. She extends her hand out. Oh, and he licks it. He puts three fingers in his mouth. I take off my glove and slap him. I demand satisfaction, sir. And a pleasure to meet you. We do it at John.

Eat your hand. Oh, yes, well, now, Mr. Villiers, are you here to try and get a jump on your meeting with Miss Carlisle? Because I don't think she would take too kindly to that. This is, after all, a charity event, not a time to be bringing up memories of sad things yes and we have made a considerable donation oh but of course I know how expensive these plates are I of course get in for free but I could afford it I assure you I assure you I'm paid quite well by miss Carlisle I can't remember. I know he was rather selfish. Good with the champagne.

Well, I can see that her generosity and philanthropy knows no bounds, seeing as she's even so kind as to allow employees to join in these little fests. Oh, Mr. Villiers, please, you do me an unkindness. Oh, no, no, no, I did not wish to offend. But if I do have the chance to bend the ear of Miss Carlisle, I'll be only too happy to only seek to make her acquaintance and not to bring up any horrid memories

that should cause alarm. Well, I mean, I'm sure I could fix something. Perhaps you could bend my ear, Mr. Villiers, and he grabs champagne. Do I see you drink perhaps another glass, Mr. Villiers? And as he hands you that glass, uh, favors give me a spot hidden. All right.

Oh, I can't believe the police are here already. It's 8.30. The security is tight here. They don't usually come to mine. It is a 53 under 80. 53 under 80. As Bradley Gray is, it almost seems like he's trying to separate Vaughn from you. You look over his shoulder and you see on the far side of the room a man like canoodling with a woman much younger than him, your age. And he's like laughing and toasting. And he laughs and he turns and it's your father. Whoa. What on earth is he doing here? Well, I'm sure you boys have so much to catch up on. Why don't I go freshen up?

I'll go look for the powder room and I will reconvene with you later. Yes, yes, absolutely. So Mr. Villiers, tell me, are you here to stay in New York or you'll be heading back to the Motherland? I think it may be brief, but one never knows if the charms of a place to light one then One may have cause to stay or a person Okay, yeah Yes, perhaps Perhaps indeed. Thank you ever so much as a lightful vintage it'll cheers mr. Gray and Perhaps indeed. Thank you ever so much. It was a delightful vintage.

He'll cheers Mr. Grey and drink. All the while keeping an eye out to see if he can clock Carlisle. Clock Carlisle. And it almost feels like he's lording over this idea that like just hang out with me for a little bit and maybe if things go well, I'll give you an introduction. Let's cut back to Feyrouz and Carter also, arm in arm, walking throughout this party. Margot. Margot. Margot. Margot. Carter and Margot. What are you two knuckleheads doing? Alright, so the trick is, when they come by and they offer you like a cocktail shrimp,

what you do is you say, um, yes, thank you. And then when they come back again, you hide your napkin and they forget that they gave it to you. There's so many people here. You get another cocktail shrimp. I don't care how many cocktail shrimp I have. Why can't I just eat some cocktail shrimp? I'm just saying I'm giving you a life hack on how to get more cocktail shrimp.

Because if they see you, listen, I spent some time on how to get more cocktail shrimp because if they see you listen I like how to get more cocktail shrimp just get some whenever they pass them around it's free yeah but I'm telling you I'm better do you like a cocktail shrimp thank you so much thank you yeah and one for you mm-hmm all right thank you and here's the thing no what I'm telling you is if they see a napkin in your hand from the last cocktail shrimp, they'll skip over you. That's why you get rid of the napkin. Cocktail shrimp, anyone? Yes, thank you so much! Yes, thank you.

I'm literally still eating this one. And they gave me another one. Okay, well maybe this party's a little different than the parties I've been to. Alright, fine. That's fine. Listen. I don't know whether or not we should wait to see if Vaughn corners Erika Carlyle or if we just go look for the safe.

No. Like, it looks like we can just kind of mosey wherever we want. So maybe we take, like, do what everyone else is doing, mosey around, try to find maybe where the important safe room is. And you know, just be cool until then and then try to get into that route. That's the other side of the pillow, baby Let's do it now. Listen. I think we should each get a drink because Otherwise, we'll stand out. Oh, I already have one. Oh, you don't have one. No, I just I'll get another one I'll have another thing. Do they not give you one if you already have one?

Is that another life hack you take the shrimp tail drop it it into your champagne, and you get a little shrimp champagne. Ew. Shrimp pain, it's called. I'm in shrimp pain. Yeah. Delicious. Even though it's prohibition, I would imagine a party of this stature

would be serving alcohol and no one would, there's plenty of, probably the mayor is here. It's a great point. This universe is ignoring that law. Troy, Troy, is there a- No game of mine is ignoring that law. Troy. Troy. No game of mine is gonna be dry. Is there a world where, given my background and how I've gotten in with this old lady,

just sort of having a kind of a notion on where I could, where the first place to search for a safe would be? Like maybe there's an office upstairs, like, like you know I'm sure not every huge mansion is the same but If you look up to the top of the stairs You see an armed guard standing up top If you wait a little bit and watch he's not moving So getting upstairs doesn't seem like it'll be an easy task What do you know about a possible safe here?

Do you know anything? We know from... And you guys can talk group-wise if there's something one of you knows. We know from Jackson's... One of Jackson's letters. We know like what could be in it. I don't remember reading anything about like where it would be in their giant mansion. Yeah, I don't think it was spelled out.

It was just like, need to get into the... The psychoanalyst files are in there. Yes. I think that's separate. There's the psychoanalyst files and then there's... It might be in the same letter, but there's something about getting into the Carlisle safe. Yes, I will say that despite the... The books are in Carlisle safe, sorry to cut you off.

The books are in Carlisle safe, but so there are arm guards, those are the main stairs in all of mansions that were built in though, especially in that era, there's usually a hidden maids stairs that go from the kitchen up to the other floors. So you might want to try that route. OK, Carter knows, of course. You don't want to see your help moving about. Yeah.

Fortunately, that actually, that was the idea. Or a dumbwaiter of some kind. We could sneak in. Sometimes there are elevators like that, but there's guaranteed for a lot of those homes built in that time, there's usually a stairwell for the help. You're looking around for that,

and a woman sees the two of you, and you both sort of strike a unique look, as opposed to everybody else in this party. She's like, oh, oh my, and who are the two of you? Carter Tillinghast of the Gloucester Tillinghast. And this is my date for the evening. Margo Sauer, artist extraordinaire. Tillinghast of the Gloucester Tillinghast.

Any relation to Myrtle Tillinghast? Indeed, I am her husband, believe it or not. Oh, oh. And how are you? I was so sorry to hear what happened. We were acquaintances, of course. A cousin of mine played bridge with her every week and we had met through her.

I never was a bridge partner of hers, but we were friendly. We played in the same circles as it were. I'm so sorry. It appears as if you've moved on rather quickly though. Far better for me to judge I'm still Carter Carter's whole Whole demeanor the whole like hey finger gun guy is fucking gone immediately Just just evaporates and he just kind of like looks off. He's like

Yes, it was it was quite a blow. I just made Ms. Sower's acquaintance recently. This is a friend situation and he's not like, he can't, there's no talking his way out. He is not, there's not even like a charm attempt here. It's just like a dark cloud just passed over his face. And he's like, we're, um... We're all still trying to, uh...

Uh, pick up the pieces. Oh, I can imagine, yes. Well, I... I-I-I am sorry, uh, to meet you under these circumstances. I-I had heard that you were off traveling and I had met her new friend Mr. Vickers it was Bart Vickers a lovely young man why he was he was a bit of a talk amongst our circle but yes I'd never had the chance to meet you I'm sorry to meet you in this way. Thank you I I appreciate that do you have have you spotted Erika Carlile by chance?

Oh, Miss Carlile. I should only be so lucky. I'm sure her dance card is full this evening. But perhaps I will get a chance to thank her for such a lovely party. You know, those Brooklyn orphans, they're not going to save themselves. They're so poor. They're so poor and they have nothing, especially parents. Yes. It is the worst borrow. You just don't want to lose your parents. That's just rough.

It's a raw deal. No, no. And especially not in Brooklyn. In Brooklyn especially. Brooklyn will never become anything. It's on the downslide. Well, I'm stealing house and Mrs. S Sour as it were. I hope the two of you have a lovely evening and perhaps we will meet again.

Perhaps. Thank you. Thank you for your thoughts. And she leaves. What was that about? I don't want to talk about it. Let's see if we can find that dumbwaiter thing. Okay. And you start to... Let's talk about it. Let's see if we can find that dumbwaiter thing. Okay. And you start to- Carter's grabs her hand and starts plowing through the crowd. Start walking through the crowd

in the direction of the kitchen, perhaps looking for some sort of back made staircase or a dumbwaiter to go sneak up or down, depending on where you're trying to go. As you're moving through, Margo, give me a spot hidden. Okay. Come on. A 12 under 62.

Is that extreme? It is. 12 times line is 60, right? Yes, it certainly is. Okay. You're getting pulled through and just rich person, rich person, rich person being brushed by you as Carter, something in that conversation has kind of taken him out of this. And he pulls you and pulls you and pulls you and you're, I don't know, have you ever been in a party like this with this much wealth?

Probably not. Probably not. So it's a little overwhelming. And you look across the room and you see the gentleman that was staring at you from across the diner. Now he doesn't have a trench coat on, but he has that exact same hat that he was wearing. And you look now and you are certain

it was the man that was standing in the rain outside the diner staring at you. And with an extreme success, you see him looking at you and then he looks away. Carter, Carter, wait, wait what remember when I saw as a man with a pool he's here he's here he's right there. The guy that disappeared on you? The same hat on yes it's him he looked directly at me now he's pretending he doesn't see me and we're going over there right now.

Okay all right let's go. Okay I go over there. You start to walk over to this man. We go back to Vaughn, who is being plied with drink from Bradley Gray. And Fae Rus, meanwhile, is walking towards her father, who is like nuzzling the neck of a woman at least Feyreuse's age. All of you being pulled in separate directions and Bradley says, oh look, there's Erica.

And we'll see you next week. Oh shit. So much drama. There's Erica. And we'll see you next week. It's time to make your membership official. Start your 30-day free trial today and become an official member of The Niche at JoinTheNiche.com with the promo code GCN30. That's JoinTheNaish.com and use code GCN30 to gain access to exclusive podcasts, ad free episodes and content you can't find anywhere else. Once again, it's jointhenash.com and use code GCN30 at signup to get your first 30 days

for free. Tell your friends, come join yourself and see what everybody's talking about when you join the nation today. I don't have much time. I am being transported by the Ecclesiads vessel Markava to stand trial for heresy of the Highest Order. But I will not renounce my work, and to my last breath I will speak the truth of this plague-ridden world, that ours is not a loving God, and we are not its favored children.

The Heresies of Reddelf Burnt Wine Chapter 2, now available throughout the known world. American history is full of infamous tales that continue to captivate audiences decades or even hundreds of years after they happened. On the Infamous America podcast, you'll hear the true stories of the Salem witch trials and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia and D.B. Cooper, and of events that inspired movies like Goodfellas, Killers of the Flower Moon,

Zodiac, 8 Men Out, and many more. I'm Chris Wimmer. Join me as we crisscross the country from the Miami drug wars and Dixie Mafia in the South, to mobsters in Chicago and New York, to arsonists, kidnappers, and killers in California, to unsolved mysteries in the heartland and in remote corners of Alaska. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes available to binge. Find Infamous America wherever you get your podcasts.