The Glass Cannon Podcast - Time For Chaos S1 | E3 – First Kiss

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Jackson Elias takes the investigators to a meeting with a local professor. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/ur1gV-OuNmA 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

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There you are, pushing your newborn baby in a stroller through the park. The first time out of the house in weeks. You have your Starbucks venti, because, you know, sleep deprivation. You meet your best friend, she asks you how it's going, you immediately begin to laugh. Then cry, then laugh cry, that's totally normal, right? She smiles, you hug, there's no one else you'd rather share this with. You know, three and a half hours sleep is more than enough. Starbucks, it's never just coffee. You are listening to the Glass Cannon Network, the premier source for role-playing game entertainment. Good evening, folks.

It's Friday night and it's time for chaos. Contrary to popular belief, I did not die after last week's session, but I felt like I did. And as long as I don't laugh at anything tonight, I won't cough. But I do find that if I laugh, I still cough. So please don't be humorous tonight, my friends. Done and done. Yeah, not a problem.

I feel like a laugh's coming on right now. That was really rough last week, and I was telling everybody right before we started that right after that session, I stayed up all night coughing, and it spiraled into like an awful sickness that lasted six days. I had to like cancel recordings.

It was a big old mess. But I'm back and I couldn't be more excited to jump in tonight because it's just you guys got through a ton of stuff last week. We got through, I had 20 pages of notes and you got through pretty much all of it. So I'm really excited to jump back in. Before we do, during the little get to know each other phase, what's everybody watching on TV these days? Do you still watch the old small screen?

My wife and I just finished the first half of the last season of Ozark. Do you guys watch Ozark? I watched the first couple. Couldn't get into it? I watched the first couple. Couldn't get into it? I liked the first and then I just kind of, I lost interest in it at some point. Give it a chance, go back.

It's fantastic, it's really, really good. If you like Jason Baben, I mean, you can't go wrong. Laura Linney, the cast, all these little actors, they're fantastic. I can't recommend it highly enough and they're coming out with the end. Well, actually, by the time this airs, it'll already be out, but I'm excited about it.

But what are you watching these days, Nora? Do you have time for television? Do you lower yourself to our standards to watch TV? Listen, if I get a free moment, I'm definitely watching TV. I just don't have that much time, and I'm a couple of episodes behind but Moon Knight is Sheskiller. Yeah Enjoying these days. I haven't seen it, but I was a big Moon Knight comic book guy

I've got all I still got all my old Moon Knights and then I got back into it like ten years ago when they made new ones Is this the show's good? I imagine it's Oscar Isaac. He's got the Midas touch. Yeah, it's really good. And as an Arab, I like seeing other Arab directors, performers, protagonists. So it's been nice, yeah. That's cool. Kate, I know you have an impeccable taste when it comes to television and film, cinema as you

would call it. What are you watching these days on the juke? Very, very high brow. Well, Michael and I on Saturdays, we have a tradition of we order sushi and we watch TV. So, we just finished Mandalorian and the dropout and just the last couple days I've been binging the entire season of Summer House so what's that it's this really really high brow show on Bravo to a Bravo TV hmm a bunch of like hot people get together and go

to the Hamptons every weekend and party together and like make out with each other and fight and It's great brother. It's based on a true story. Yes Reality it's it's reality to be the realest reality And I might want to watch that is it really good is it like Have you seen the ultimatum on Netflix this one one, this is one of the more ridiculous ones. So there's different flavor of high brow reality and the ultimatum is probably the lowest. It's the lowest of the low. Have you guys seen this?

Have you heard about this? Is it lower than the one where people got dressed up in like prosthetic makeup, like lizards and Dolphins and stuff. And had to date each other. It's lower than that. That one at least had a hook. This one is there's couples that are like

One of the people in the couple is giving the other one an ultimatum like either we get married or we break up You know relations always go well when that happens It's always a good basis. I like smutty train wrecks Wait till you see what happens next So they put seven of these couples in a retreat together and they break up from their significant other and date everyone else in the village to see if they're really meant to be with the one that gave them the ultimatum.

It's like Love Island to like a level that you didn't know you could reach. Amazing. Wow. We're so close with like reality television as psychological torture to just like, it'll be most dangerous game in like two years. Oh yeah, we're so close to like Total Recall, Robocop,

like all those moments that are like satirical, future show commercials, it's like, we're there. The Running Man, there's going to be live death, you're gonna be rooting for death in about three to five years. Climbing for dollars, yeah. What are you watching these days, Ross? Mostly snuff films? Yeah.

You know me. This closet behind me is full of, uh, full of super eight spindles of like, horrid things that should not be viewed by man. No, no, no. It's a lot of cigarette burns ass stuff back there. The only television show that I've got obsessed with lately is this one on Apple TV called Severance. I love it.

I just, it's great. I heard it's phenomenal. It's really, it's a really cool, unique sci-fi story with some hot themes about our contemporary world. And yeah, that is the one that I've been watching deliberately. But there is a show that pops on kind of ambiently that I find myself watching if the television is just kind of on. When the television is tuned to a Korean channel that's on our television, I've more than, more than, very often come across a show called My Little Old Boy.

Sounds like the proper translation. No, I haven't, I've never seen it subtitled or anything, but I've gleaned that what it is, it's a panel of moms and grandmothers who watch their sons and grandsons go through their daily life and just kind of like observe Them and like give commentary Wow and wait now, how do you just have a your cable package just comes with the Korean channel it just comes with yeah Yeah, it's one's one of many channels. That's phenomenal. My little old boy.

It sounds like an anime. Yes, I just love that name. What about you, Rob? What are you watching these days? You a big TV guy? Not as much as I should be, usually because I just get really envious. Like, if I'm watching good television, I was like,

I just want to be on that. Right. Yeah. But we, and I'm also not good at watching multiple things at once, so we either drill down on one or we're not watching anything. But we started watching, there's an American version of it now called Ghosts, but there's a BBC version called Ghosts.

So we started watching that because it wouldn't be me unless I could say, well, the British one's better. So I want to make sure that that's true. And we've been like blowing through it. I mean, the BBC shows are amazing because every season is like six episodes or seven episodes. So you can be like, I did three seasons in a week. Wait, is this that this not that CBS show where the woman like lives in a house with ghosts? It is?

It looks terrible. I know. But, it's so it's that. It's the original. Because that looks terrible. I know, but it's the original format of it. And the pilot is a pilot, so you know, you kind of get through it. But then it like, it takes off. It's amazing. Like all of it.

Really? They're juggling. I mean, honestly, for us as, as role players or whatever we're doing, like ensemble work, right? It is an amazing ensemble comedy. Like the way that the writers especially have managed to juggle, I mean, there's I think six ghosts and then the couple that lives there.

It's essentially like a multi-cam sitcom. It's just one location, but every character in every episode has their own mini-arc. Like they're able to somehow juggle every single person having, like it's not just A story, B story, C story. It goes up to F story and G story.

Yeah, D, E, F, G. Like they hit on everybody throughout every episode. It's awesome. Wow, see now if you had never told me that, just look, it's marketed so poorly because they make it look like this Wednesday Guy comes in with like the Steve Martin arrow on his head. He got killed by an arrow and I'm like, yeah What is this nonsense? Yeah, okay. Well, maybe I got to check that out So there's a couple good actors on there. My guess one might be awesome, too

But the the the BBC one it one, it's been really wonderful. If you watch the credits, it says created by six people, and I think they're all the ghosts. I don't know if they were a comedy group or what. Get out of here. Oh, that's cool. I recognize one of the guys, Simon Farnaby, has done a lot of British alt comedy and stuff, but it's really fun.

Well, there you have it. Your TV recommendations. If those of you are just tuning in to get your TV recs, you can take off. We're gonna play some Cala Cthulhu now for the real fans. I think we lost a lot to Summerhouse though. They've all run to tune into that. I don't wanna do a long recap of last week, but we got through a lot and I'm sure you guys took copious notes, but there was just a lot of things that went on.

So I'm just going to briefly touch base on what happened and then pick up at this climax that we ended on. So you've all come to Peru, Lima, specifically Peru, to meet up with a gentleman named Augustus Larkin. There had been a ton of international press about an expedition that he was looking for people to join to discover lost civilization, these pyramids somewhere in Peru. And for whatever reason, each of you was attracted by this prospect. We mentioned last week that some of you, your reasons may be more overt, more obvious, more you wear it on your sleeve, or at least the reasons that

you want everyone to know, but probably all of you have secret reasons as well, be it for wealth, for moving forward in your academic field, or something maybe darker. But you've all traveled out here to Lima, Peru, and you meet at the Bar Cordano. It's March, it's summer in Peru, it's hot. You meet up, you get to the table, and Augustus Larkin is there with his manservant, this guy Luis de Mendoza, and an American man named Jesse Hughes, who's a folklorist, at least that's how he's introduced at the time, who's also joining the expedition just like you.

You sit down, you start talking to him, and he basically explains. He was in an area in the highlands and he was talking to some local people and he met this alpaca farmer whose grandfather found these relics on this alleged pyramid site. He bought the relics off this guy and the grandfather said that there was a ton more there but he never wanted to go back because he was like afraid that the area was cursed and that even him taking these things had cursed him blah blah blah blah. But come to find out these are valuable items from like the fifth and the 16th century. One of you was able to determine I think Margo with your archaeology check.

And so if there are more items there, this could be a huge payday, not to mention a major discovery of a lost pyramid here in Peru and a lost civilization. You know, as the conversation wears on, Larkin looks like he's getting a little sick, a little under the weather, you question him on it, and he's like, well, truth be told, weather you question him on he's like well truth be told I've been suffering with Malay from malaria for a long time. I grew up in Kenya. I got it there

And it's just I'm gonna. I'm gonna call it a night, but it's we're leaving Monday morning. I've hired a bunch of trucks Meet me there Bye and so him and Dimmondosa peace out I mean Dimmond meanwhile, all night long is kinda giving you dirty eyes, and especially given this American, Jesse Hughes, dirty eyes, but they leave. Jesse Hughes says, why don't we hang out

and chat at the bar? He reveals that his name isn't Jesse Hughes, it's Jackson Elias, and he's not a folklorist, he's an author, an author who specifically is interested in death cults. He just wrote a book called The Black Power, which Vaughn, Ross's character, shockingly read from a luck roll.

So you're familiar with his work writing about cults. And he thinks that Larkin and de Mendoza are somehow tied up in this Peruvian death cult that over centuries has been misinterpreted as like vampires running amok, Cary-Siri running amok throughout the highlands of Peru. He thinks that these things go all the way back

to the conquistadors and that some cult arrived with the conquistadors and has survived all the way to the present day. This just making human sacrifices. And somehow de Mendoza and Larkin are tied into this because while he was researching his book out there, he kept hearing about de Mendoza. Some people even said De Mendoza was a cari-siri.

Now, he doesn't believe in any of that stuff, but he thinks that De Mendoza is a key figure in this cult and somehow Larkin is tied up into it. So this expedition is a dangerous one

for all of us. But yet the prospect of riches, the prospect of knowledge is still very, very important. So he wants to go along with it, but he wants all of you to be on the same page. He says, tomorrow I'm going to meet this professor at a museum nearby, and he's been trying to join Larkin's expedition, and Larkin has been rebuffing him. Let's go talk with him.

He knows a lot about the area. So you go to the museum the next day. Feroz, Nora's character, shows up early and is looking at the gallery and is approached by a graduate student there, a woman named Trinidad Rizzo, I believe. And she seems, she's so excited, you can tell she's just, she loves what she does. And as a fellow student, I'm sure you can appreciate her enthusiasm for this work.

And she's like, I'm so sorry, I must go. My teacher is waiting for something. And so she takes off. You guys meet with Professor Sanchez. And Sanchez tells you what Jackson Elias tells you that basically he heard about this expedition, he wanted to be involved because this is his jam like lost civilizations in Peru. He's heard about this pyramid. In fact, they even found a document dating back to the conquistadors that somehow is going to offer information that

would be invaluable to this expedition and he and his graduate assistant Trinidad Rizzo are just about finished translating it. She just went down to the storeroom to get one more thing. Where is old Trinidad? He says. So you guys offer to go introduce yourselves to her and just tell her that you're there and you want to check this out. You go down into the Stark store room. You notice that the door is open. Vaughn and Feroz walk all the way down to the end of the first aisle.

You see boxes of artifacts have been overturned and lying in a pile underneath these boxes is the body of Trinidad Rizzo, who looks completely emaciated, almost mummified, completely desiccated and dry, with a huge circular disc, whole, ripped off her chest. A little bit of business here. Start of a new session.

Let's do a luck roll to see if anyone recovers luck. And what we at least determined for this session, whether you used luck or not, you still got a chance to recover luck. So, you know, use that luck economy. So a way a luck roll works is you roll, and if you roll higher than your luck score, you recover one D10 points.

If you roll at or below your luck score, you recover one D10 points. If you roll at or below your luck score, you don't recover luck this session. And we're rolling this regardless of whether or not we spent luck in the last episode? This is what we've determined. That could be wrong, but for this session, we'll go with it. Because ultimately, you're gonna need this luck. And so even if you're up to 99,

there might be sessions you're like, I'll spend 60 luck, because you have gonna need this luck. And so even if you're up to 99, there might be sessions you're like, I'll spend 60 luck, because you have to make that roll. And it's a D10, you said? A D10 if you roll over your luck. Did anybody make it? Did everybody make it? Yes. Hell yeah.

I gained six luck points. Okay, Ross, you, Vaughn. Vaughn's not feeling lucky. No But Kate and Rob you both made it as well, what did you guys recover for Margo and Carter I got ten You got ten? Yeah, I Got seven you got seven and Kate you spent I think twelve last week and so nice you got most of it back see pays to spend. All right, so we got the luck back. I also, I think I did this after the session.

I've put some pictures in the sidebar here. I've revealed to you what Augusta Slarkin looks like, what Luis de Mendoza and Jesse Hughes, who is now, you know, Jackson Elias, Professor Nemesio-Sanchez, Trinidad D'Arrizo before the desiccation and Holdener Jest, and as well as some other things there. So, you know, feel free to make notes there if you're like, oh, you know what?

I want to just keep this in mind. I want to really use Roll20's functionality as much as possible. Anyways, so the way we kind of figured it out is that Vaughn and Faerûs were the ones that got there first. This state that you see her in is going to provoke a sanity roll. And what I've decided is if both of you fail that sanity roll, then Carter and Margo will roll it as well. But if at least one of you passes, you have the choice to be like, stay back, don't look at this thing. But if both of you fail,

I'm gonna say you don't have the ability to warn them. So right now, just Vaughn and Feroz, roll a sanity check, and you wanna get at or under your sanity. And if you don't, well then a couple of things are going to happen. Oh boy.

I rolled a 56 under 60. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just like that. Huge. I rolled a 54 over 35. Oh, 54 over 35. All right, so early in the night, that would be a lot of luck to try and take.

You wanna just not worry about it? Let's take it. Just take it. Okay, so here is what is going to happen. You, sometimes even if you succeed on a sanity roll, you take sanity loss. In this case, you don't. So if they ruse, you're okay.

However, Ross, you take one D6 sanity. I'm gonna have you roll it. If you roll a five or higher, we have to talk, young man. Uh-oh. All right, let's see. I rolled a four. Okay, you're fine. You are fine.

So you take four points of sanity loss though Obviously not fine had you taken five or more if you take five or more in one hit You then have to roll an intelligence check to see if you understand the full brunt of what you're seeing And if you failed or actually if you fail that check you're fine You don't understand it if you succeed on that check you understand the full brunt of this horror and you have a bout of madness. In this case, you do lose some sanity, but because Faeruz was able to succeed, Faeruz, you can tell them like, stay back.

What do you guys do? Marco starts walking up, I guess. Yeah, everything alright in there, guys? Do you need any help? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes we do. Yes, yes we need help. And you're seeing Vaughn sort of slumping against the, pulling at his jacket and like kind of unbuttoning his clothing.

I think we'd mentioned that he had like a split second flashback as a veteran of World War I, like this like rasping breath that was coming from the storeroom. Suddenly he was right back, like seeing the green cloud coming towards them and seeing, like, fumbling gas masks on and hearing that same eerie respiration, like, through masks. And seeing this, he's suddenly just like, I'm panicking, cold sweat breaking out as he suddenly realizes that he,

I don't have my mask Damn you, what are we doing? You're doing if you don't fumble it on time you roll we're gonna die Is bond having an asthma attack what's going on? We're coming in I Just I just saw her. I just I just saw her earlier today So someone there? Okay, well. So Carter, Carter starts walking in, I guess.

Like what's that big pile of garbage on the floor there? Carter walks up and you see this woman. You see her, she just looks like everything has been drained from her body. She's just like skin barely like stretched taut over her skeletal structure and a huge gaping hole on her chest. Give me a sanity roll.

God damn it. No, you guys are gonna tell us not to come in. They're too much they're too in shock. Alright I want to roll under. Yeah under your sanity. Obviously which I'm gonna do right now. I rolled yes a nine. Oh nine so you're great. You're able to hold it together and you see Margo walking up behind you. What's going on over here? You guys are all acting very, very silly. Yeah, I don't know what their problem is. This is dead wolf. I feel like at this point she definitely like walked all the way in and sees. Okay, so you see this as well and you see that Faerûze is just standing there in shock and Vaan looks

very shook as well leaning against one of these shelves. You also see like there's a wooden crate next to her that's been smashed to pieces and the way that the crate kind of hit the ground, it looks like the top has been pulled off of it. Like the damage from the crate wasn't entirely due to the fall, someone maybe forced it open. There's straw sticking out of it and poking out from the straw is like a large piece of worked gold.

But then you look down at the body and that provokes a sanity roll. Here we go 65 under 85 Guys pull it together. You're sanity. Yeah, I rolled high on that for some reason. Just she's a very sane artist Don't be sorry for the shock, but I think it's probably understandable under the circumstances. Only to shame-making, what? How could how could this have happened? I just saw her earlier today. You knew her? Well not personally, but I saw her upstairs.

I only spoke to her briefly. I only spoke to her briefly, but... I'm no forensic scientist here, if that even exists at this point. But I would guess that the cause of death would be this circular chunk of missing flesh here. You don't really see that every day. God, what would have made that? Could I just lean down and do like a spot hidden Just gonna check out this situation Yeah, like does it does it look like there may have been that weird mark that we saw? Or or anything, you know, just a general. Yeah. Yeah, give her a guy and give a spot hidden

My skills here. All of you can roll that too. You guys are kind of, you're investigating this. There's blood everywhere as well. Nope, I rolled an 84. Ooh, 47 under 50. Fall directly into the hole in her chest. 47 under 50.

I was wondering, yeah, I was wondering if like, is this like a perfect circle carved out of her chest and like, about that? It's, no, you know, it doesn't look like perfect, but it is definitely circular. Like, that's the sort of overriding shape, but it's not like a geometrical perfect circle. So did anybody else pass

the spot hidden? No, I just missed it. All right so Margo again two ups in a row rolling hot. You see a couple things you see like there's a notebook sticking out of her jacket pocket that's lying next to her and you do see on that piece of gold that's sticking out of the box what looks like freshly burned remains of skin. And then there's also just blood all over the place around her that looks like it was moved around. Like stepped in? Yeah, perhaps stepped in. The bird skin sounds really interesting, but I think she's going to reach for the notebook first. Okay.

You reach for the notebook and you see that the top of the page that was probably the one that she was working on says the final confessions of Gaspar Figueroa. How urgent you are like want to do anything right now, but I'm gonna reveal it to you On roll 20 and you'll see the the note here Yeah, she'll probably take time to read it later even though I passed my sanity I feel like this is a lot and shaken so she says oh As guess we I this notebook here. here might be useful, but look, there's blood all over the ground

at all directions and in this crate. What is this? It smells like burnt skin. We should have a look around. There's no way that this is not natural. She clearly died of natural causes. I suppose the young lady wasn't a thousand years old when you saw her this morning. Vaughn is just looking at, she just... she just looks totally desanguinated and like sucked dry. Mm-hmm.

Um... What about... Tell you what that looks like, friends. Vampire death. That guy was talking about vampires. I mean, what are we looking at here? There's no blood? Apart from the copious amount we're stepping in currently. Yeah, I mean, it does sound similar to what you heard.

However, this disc missing from her chest doesn't seem to match up with any vampire tales you know of. You know, maybe vampires down here, they go straight for the sternum. Could be that variety. And perhaps instead of two slender canines we're working with one giant tusk. Yeah, or like, you know what would be cool is if decades from now there's a movie where vampires have opened up like this and latch on and can be called Blade 2. I'm just riffing. Just a Venus fly trap mouth.

Fun, fun times. Okay. Sometimes I just have thoughts like that, guys. Sorry, I'll write it down in my little journal. Since we're on the topic of it, and since Vaughn has seen wounds before that he was not a medical man I want to get get up close to that wound and see does this look as

though it was made by a blade or because we're talking about it and it's like rubbish there's no it's not like biological that can make such a thing um you'd see teeth marks for example if it was that sort of wound. And do I see teeth marks, or does this look like the work of a tooth or blade? All right, so you look in there. Do you have any medicine skill or first aid? Yeah, first aid. Give me a first aid roll. I'll be darned. I made it.

Twenty seven hundred thirty. Nice. Yeah. So you look into this circle. I mean, it's really horrifying. And so you're kind of stealing yourself against this since you were already shook from the laws of sanity. And you do notice that around the circumference of the circle, jagged marks that look like something kind of

latched on to tear this circle out and they go all the way around. If this was a blade, it's of no origin that I'm aware of. Oh. Why would anybody want to do this? This seems to be the work of nothing so much as some sort of evil. Taking a look around, could I, and having heard mention of the gold items, can I take a closer look at that? Yeah. So Margo tells you there's traces of what looks like burnt skin on this thing that's sticking out of the box that appears to have been pried open.

If you reach down, do you pull it out to examine it? Yeah. Okay. You pull it out and it's just a single length of worked gold, maybe about two feet long, few inches wide, a third of an inch, like a centimeter deep. Both of the ends of it are rough. Like maybe it was taken out or ripped from something larger, a larger design.

It's hefty, weighs like maybe a little over 20 pounds. So it's not like a weapon. It's largely straight, although four sections of it jut out at right angles into short spurs or there's a couple of them that are squared off spirals. And also the surface is imprinted with a series of non-repeating geometric shapes, mostly squares and rectangles. You're a student of cryptology. This doesn't jump out to you as anything you've seen

without even rolling a check. None of these shapes resemble any form of writing that you've ever read about. What I would like to do though, is take out from one of my notebooks that you've ever read about? What I would like to do though, is take out from one of my notebooks and like a piece of charcoal and just do like a rubbing of the marks on the gold

to keep in my notebook. Yeah. So these don't look- Does it look at least similar to the ones that we saw in the cup and the... Similar, very similar, yes. Yeah, so maybe there is some sort of language there or symbolic, you know, some symbolism, I don't know, but it's nothing you recognize.

And I mean, there's no better person to be look examining this than you what do you suppose seems to me if this was some sort of robber that they probably would have taken the most valuable thing about this girl seems relatively untouched apart from the little scraps of charred flesh that our Bosch companion here was so keen to look at what um what about the the codex of this Gaspar Figueroa character? Could it be that this was after the same thing that we were? Let's read that thing. Yeah.

All right. Who would like to give it a read here? Oh, the final confessions of Gaspar Figueroa. Kate, do you want to give it a read here? Oh, this. The final confessions of Gaspar Figueroa. Kate, do you wanna read it? Sure, I'm not gonna read it in a German accent. I know everyone wants that. What the hell? Forget it.

It'll take forever. So Spanish is written by Gaspar Figueroa in 1543 on vellum. by Gaspar Figueroa in 1543 on vellum and he's a Spaniard who traveled to Peru with Francisco Pizarro. Maybe you've heard of him. Not I. But so the text says according to the text, Figueroa set out to seek his own fortune following Pizarro's assassination in 1541, he was accompanied by Hernando Ruiz, Diego Guerrero, Luis de Mendoza, and Pedro de Velasco, fellow conquistadors who had served with Pizarro.

They traveled to the southern highlands of the Andes looking for treasure, hoping to make their fortunes before heading back to Spain and retiring in luxury. Hearing rumors of an ancient temple filled with gold, the men set off into the mountains southwest of Lake Titicaca. No giggles? Okay. Well, this is in a meta world.

There they found a pyramid surrounded by a maze-like structure of underground tunnels. The walls of the tunnels were inlaid with intricate gold carvings. The men pried out a large section of gold, exhausting themselves in the attempt. That night, as they rested in evil sickness, befell Figaroa's companions. In the morning light, they looked gaunt and deathlike. Complaining of agonizing hunger, they pursued Figaroa. De Mendoza caught up with him and started to devour him like a human leech.

Figaroa shot his friend in the head and fled, pausing only to snatch up as much of the gold as he could carry. Figaroa eventually arrived back in Lima, hoping to get passage home, but he was too weakened by his ordeal. Figuro describes himself as wasted, little more than a walking corpse. I read final confessions as Figuro

as attempt to lift the guilt that his avarice? Avarice. Avarice. Avarice had placed upon him. It's greed. He believed that his fate and that of his companions was brought about by the desecration of a holy place and his most crying out with inhumane hunger, and how in the dark of night he can hear another voice, ancient and seductive, promising him eternal life if he returns to the temple. The voice told Figuroa how to contact it, but it seems Figuroa was too afraid to ever attempt this. A postscript written by the priest, who performed the last rites, states that Figuroa died

a day after completing his final confessions. His last words were an entreaty to whatever gods were listening to forgive him his blasphemies. Wow. Pretty standard stuff. A lot to unpack there. That's a lot of information. So A, de Mendoza, people were worried that that guy was some kind of a creature some sort of a bloodsucker. I mean I mean this was

1543 Dude looks pretty good. I'm 21. Yeah, I mean it sounds like a common name It perhaps perhaps it's another Louie Dimmondosa it could be like Smith, but in Spain. Oh, no, no. Oh, geez. I would say, I would say that it sounded a frightfully common, Mr. Tillinghast,

if not for the detail of the leech, when we clearly see this wound, but there must be another explanation. But do you suppose that the gold that was mentioned in this letter is the same gold slab that we just see right here? It does seem to have the effect of this sort of asymmetrical inlay.

Could this be a- Are we going to turn into what she's, ooh. Are we going to turn into what she's turned into? Well, not if this has anything to say about it, and you see him pat his belt. But is this a piece of the very inlay from these labyrinthine corridors? Certainly seems like it.

Well, if it was, what else was taken out of this box then? Because if I'm the guy breaking open this box, I'm taking that golden pickle. Well, don't forget too, there is burnt skin all over the golden pickle. That's gross. We can all tell that that's what that is. It smells like burnt skin. Is there anything else more to tell or learn from the burnt skin?

I do have a little bit of first aid but other than that also the blood on the floor I'd like to look at that too before we leave okay do you have anybody have the track skill no I have ten ten yeah give it give it, you never know, you might get lucky. Or you might fail miserably. Let's see. Nope. What is that under? Oh, there it is. No, I only have... I'll try, but...

No! Margo is overwhelmed and failed pretty epically at track. I got real close. I didn't make it. Close enough to spend luck? Or is it too much luck? I mean, I'm only four over. Oh, oh So yeah, okay Well, I'll answer the question about the the Gold band. I mean it it looks like

someone put their hand around it and There's likes flesh from the hand on it. So like it burned their hand? Wait, is someone holding it right now? One of you already picked it up, I think it was Faeruz and you didn't have that reaction. But it looks like someone gripped it and it seared the skin off their hand. So if that's what you say, then Vaughn reaches for it to just give it a gentle tap, tap, tap.

Is there a feeling of ambient heat coming off of it? Ice cold. I was going to suggest that I hold on to that just in case we needed a big gold bar for our future endeavors, but I don't really want to do that anymore. It's probably cursed. Definitely cursed. Yeah, I would put, maybe put it, maybe just put it down, maybe put it, stop touching it with your skin.

That's why I did the rubbing of the thing instead of actually taking the thing. I don't want to hold onto that. Okay, great. What a bummer. It's just a waste to see good gold go to waste through a curse. So many good pieces of gold ruined that way. It's just a waste to see good gold go to waste through a curse. So many good pieces of gold ruined that way. Now listen, guys, I feel like I can track this. By track, I mean, I guess I'm going to get the footprints in the blood? Yeah, you do start looking down at the blood,

and you see there's footprints going every which way. But you do see them exiting out a side door in the store room okay so in order to pass this check here I just subtract the luck points I need to get under so subtract four you've spent for luck okay great but you'll you'll get it back next time well I mean I'm playing with money I got right yeah I mean it's I don't know why anyone wouldn't use the optional luck rule, it's so fun. Cause sometimes you're just like, that's so close.

Okay. So yeah, you know, you do see in the note that these guys did take some chunk of gold out, and that's what led to all their troubles, it appears. Is that this chunk of gold? You don't know. It seems pretty important. Mm-hmm.

I'd love to, uh... I tell you, I'd love to ask Professor Sanchez about it, post-haste. Oh, would you have to tell him Sanchez about it, post-haste. Oh, would you have to tell him about the girl, though? Yeah, I should probably. I'll break it to him. You guys want me to do it? I think I can do it without... I got a kid touch, gentle hands, so to speak. That didn't sound right. Kid gloves? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the ticket. Yeah, kid gloves.

I can touch kids? What? I'm great with touching kids. Let's go. Let's go talk to them. Are we gonna try, are we gonna, can we still follow the blood trail tracking if we? That's another thing. Yeah, let's just do that first. Dealer's choice, blood trail or Professor Sanchez? I mean, he might be wondering what's going on.

Blood trail, blood trail, blood trail. What do I got as a chanting? Blood trail, blood trail. How feel like you guys are chanting. Blood trail, blood trail. How often do you get to chant that? Eyes roll back and begin to cry tears of blood. Get away from the goal! Show me blood trail!

All right, so you guys are gonna follow the trail of blood. It leads out a side door. I could go wrong. Oh, well, if that's the case, before you left, Margo takes a picture of the girl in the circle chest. She's got a camera. And she would like to take a picture of that. Oh really?

Mm-hmm. Future. I'm sitting here with a sketchbook. Art project. Future art inspiration. Also just like, what the hell? I'm never gonna, I'm not gonna believe that I remembered this.

You come all the way to Peru and you don't see a dead body. Have you really seen Peru? Yep, it's in the brochures They're on the cover of all brochures That's their their local baseball mascot gaping torso wounds Give it up for the Lima torso wounds They're an expansion. You guys follow the blood trail instead of going out the way you came. And it's still dark down there. It's very circuitous. But you find yourself eventually at another staircase leading back

up to the floor where the Professor's office is. Do you continue in that direction? Yes, and I would like to say that Vaughn at this point will pull and ready the 32 caliber pistol that he has in his belt. Oh. Well la dee da. Carter sees that and then is just like, yeah you go, I think you should go first. The guy who just lost sanity. I will follow suit and also draw my 22. Okay, so you should then go you go behind him. Well, we got a marching order. Just walking around the school with guns. You think it was 2022. Hey, this leech man rubbish for a moment, but whatever made that wound, I'd rather be on the business end of this. But I just want to remind you not to knock the wind out of your sails here chief, but the, uh, I think the journal we read said that, uh, Dimmuendoza was shot in the head

by his buddy. And still alive apparently. Still alive. But, but, go get him! And you believe that, do you? Go get him, right? Yeah. You could at least disarm somebody.

I'm just saying don't be surprised. Don't get your hopes up, I guess, Go get him, right? Yeah. At least disarm somebody. I'm just saying, don't be surprised. Don't get your hopes up, I guess, is where I'm going with it. I'm glad that you have a gun. I'm just saying I'd rather have this than whatever you're currently armed with. Perfumes and colognes. Yes. Well, you just be sure to hit your ode-a-rose at him while I give him a taste of the old what-for.

Oh no, I give him a taste of the old what for? So von and faerus pull out their Guns while margo and carter yet again pulled up the rear as you go up the stairs as you start getting up To the landing leading to the first floor you all smell Smoke it's very faint smell that sulfur smell, but you smell You definitely smell smoke. You continue going and there is a hallway that just goes, you can tell that it's going away from the direction that you originally were. So away from the professor's office, but it's the only way to go. So following the blood trail you

continue going down that way and it's just only way to go. So following the blood trail, you continue going down that way. And it's just this circuitous route that eventually you feel like you're going back in the direction of the professor's office. And as you turn one of the corners, you then see smoke coming out of a doorway about 20 feet ahead of you down this long hallway and you see someone like in the doorway just very you get like a sliver of their body and there's like this weird movement like a flapping. What do you do? Is the the whole you should go check that out

yeah is the hallway we're looking down the one in which not such as office is you're all turned around you feel like this is going to eventually lead you back in that direction but that you have not been down this hallway yet. Okay. So there's this strange movement in the doorway of this room where the smoke is coming from? Yeah, you just see a sliver into the doorway from the angle where you're standing, where it's just this like weird flapping movement from what looks like a person. I turn towards Vaughn and I just do the signal and I would like to stealth forward Okay

Has to Give me the old stealth role Faeruz you ninja Thrill yeah, they ruse you ninja All right, oh, did we ever do the if that was something I'd succeeded on in the last game Isn't there a role that we're supposed to? That it increases. Oh, yeah, we're so to mark when we know that so your skills go up any successes Make sure you mark them if you had any yet tonight. But at the end of a long series of things,

then there's an advancement phase. Gotcha, not at the end of it. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Here we go. And I got a 35 under 40. Okay, so Faeruz, you feel like you can be furtive enough to sneak up to that door jam and see, but you hope that they don't hear you.

Those flapping could be just large ears. Does it make water? I do. Yeah. Until I'm able to kind of see better what this thing is. You walk up slowly, alone, with your

22 and every step you get closer to this open doorway, you see more and more of this spastic movement and smoke billowing out of the room, that stench of smoke in the air filling, starting to fill your lungs, and also making it a little hard to see into the room the closer that you get. But you get up there and as you turn the corner, you see Jackson Elias and he's like trying

to fan out a fire in a waste paper basket. He's just like, he's shaking and then like grabbing stuff to try and put on it, but it's just making it worse and he doesn't see you. What? He's trying to put it out, I should say. It's Mr. Elias. Oh, yes, there's a fire was started here. I ran down to see what was going on.

We could smell smoke all the way coming from Professor Sanchez's office. I came out here and I saw this this this waste paper bin was on fire. I'm trying to put it out, but I can't find any water and I feel like I'm just making it worse. So you didn't start this? No. Could you could you help me? Do you have any any water or anything we could use? I don't have any water on me, but looking around, is there something like I could use to smother?

Yeah, absolutely. You just, you were able to help him and within a minute or two, subdue it. He was just more like fumbling around, like, ah, and you were able to help him put it out. But now, there's smoke everywhere and it stinks and you can barely see five feet in front of you. And he's like, thank you, thank you. I panicked. I probably just made it worse.

Thankfully you came. I would have burned down the whole school. It was the strangest thing. We were just sitting there talking and then we smelled something and I came down here to check it out. Just to go on clear, was Jackson Elias in the in the professor's office when we left to go get Trinidad. He was. Yeah. He said I'll I'll stay with the professor. You guys go down.

Is the smell that we're smelling right now burning paper? It smells like burning paper. Yeah. Just like if there's not a window open, I might open one, air it out, and... Yeah. If the fire is out, like... Just take a look around this room.

Like, what sort of room place is it? Is it another office, is it a classroom, is it a... It's kind of like a supply closet, where there shouldn't be a waste paper basket so if you feel like someone pulled this in here yeah and started this fire. I'd like to rifle through what's in it to see what was someone was attempting to destroy. You look and a lot of it is already burned away. What's left is just nondescript papers. Okay, not even a spot hidden could find a fun scrap?

Yeah, no, give me a spot hidden. Let's try. Ooh, extreme success. I rolled a three on a 75. Hey. With an extreme success, you can see that most of the remaining paper in there is completely blank.

A distraction. Is there still blood on the... like we followed blood here. Is there any in the room? Did the blood trail go into this room? When Carter is able to come up, rolling over your successful check from before, as you're still tracking, you do see this, it's faint. It's something that Jackson wouldn't have known was there, so wasn't looking for, but you see it.

And you see that it continues on back in the direction of the professor's office. Perhaps someone did this to get you out of his room. And I began to run towards Professor Sanchez's office. Shoo, shoo, cameras now on Vaughn just running down the hall and you burst into the office and as you do you're looking for Professor Sanchez

and you see him and he's on the floor just like writhing in agony and all around the circumference of his mouth is like all under his nose, around his lips, all covering his chin is this like rancid, waxy, white secretion. And he just looks at you, and with all of his strength, he's like, he kissed me! And he's just convulsing. Ew. I roll to clean up the goo.

Get over here, goo. Get over here you. So messy. Oh dear god. That little schmutz. Yeah. I tear my... I want to get this goop off of him. A piece of your clothing or grab something to kind of just wipe this off of his mouth

Yeah, I think Vaughn Vaughn is Like a school flag in the office For Vaught yeah, I have very disrespectfully rip a piece off the flag American you're fine. You stomp on it a couple times and then you... 1776, asshole! Yeah, the flag catches on fire. The flag catches on fire, and I'm attempting to get it off.

All right, so you reach down to start to take it off, and like, as you're wiping and pulling the handkerchief up, this secretion just like elongates up into the air all the way as you lift the handkerchief up. So you're trying to wipe and you just feel like you're making it worse. It's like smearing it all over him. And he's just like,

uh, what's wrong with me? What, what did he do? Oh no. What's wrong with me? What what did he do? Feel like by this point Margo runs in behind you, but what's happened who who? Blue eyes blue eyes That his mouth his mouth wasn't wasn't right. Oh, and he's like grabbing his stomach. He's like Let me do a first aid roll like the way you're supposed to let me see if I can help him Help administer some some aid, okay I'll try also since I'm there. Yeah

That's all hands on deck and now it's like frantic. You don't know what's wrong with them. Yep, not not it no dice I Guess we all come running up not to do the first date obviously but Just comes running in because of the commotion like oh my god Give some water or something I'm seriously going to upchuck He's just like in pain

He's twisting on the floor and you can tell he's in so much pain in this this white Secretion is just like dripping off of his face onto his chest Everybody give me a spot hidden Have a bad feeling about this. I need a spot my stomach Rolled a one 30 in a one I I rolled a one. No, no, no, no. Roll a 30 under 75.

That ain't no one. Oh. I rolled a 52 under 70. I rolled shit. Yes. Margo's got supersight. Yeah, you all succeed, but Margo, with a critical success.

All right, so you all see he's clutching at his chest, clutching at his stomach, and he starts ripping his shirt open a little bit. And as his skin is bared, you see something crawling under the skin of his abdomen. Just like, and Margo, with your critical success, all you think is we got to get that out We got to get that out of him because Kate is like we got to get out of this Adventure So yeah, Margo she's like looking at him feeling the first aid check me like there must be a way I could help him I just don't know and she's watching him and she sees the crawling

and she goes, look, look, there's movement under the skin. Maybe we can cut it out. I don't know. I have a knife. You got a like a pocket knife or something from the- I do have a knife. Oh. I do have a knife, my obsession.

All right, get in there. Oh. Keep it here, keep it here. Watch me. Do you have a better, like, I have like a one in medicine. I can do a first, I have a one in medicine also, but I at least have a first aid. Cool, I do hand you the knife, because I think that's a very low stat for me. And no one else has medicine or a first aid?

I also have 30 in first aid. Okay, yeah, one in medicine, only Kate can hit. I don't know if it's too meta, Do you feel more confident doing this first date? Oh, I have a 30 in first date. How much do you say? So do I. So why would I do the honors? Go for it.

All right, I'm gonna, I'll hesitantly step forward and then as soon as I see that thing wiggling, I'm just like, ha! And then. Get it, get it, it's right there. You got it, you got this. I have total faith. What did you roll? Let me make sure, let me make it, it's right there. You got it, you got this, I have total faith. Well, let me make sure, let me make sure,

let me make sure, let me make sure. Okay, yes, I rolled a 28, just under 30. Just under 30. Yay. All right, so, you, you start trying to slice where this thing is crawling and you slice into his skin and you see the thing sort of it almost is like it's running away from your knife as you're doing it. And so you cut a little bit more and you succeed in making a small incision.

As you do so, he starts like dry heaving. And I'm just like, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. And then he just like, and this like size of a fist, like white larva just comes out of his mouth like, like size of a fist, like white larvae. Just comes out of his mouth like, oh, and it flaps onto his chest. And it's just this like shapeless mass of white protoplasm. It kind of looks like congealed fat,

about the size of a fist, and it's just flipping around and it rushes to you. Oh, I'm jumping at it. And we'll see you right after this word from our spell. Oh my god. Oh baby, first combat of the adventure. This is going to be wild. But you know what?

Let's start with a sanity check because that was gross Funny that we're gonna hide a slug Like a little larpa It's kind of poetic when you think where this is going to go when you imagine where this is going to go what you'll be Fighting at the end it just starts now with a simple slug So sanity check let me know if you actually let me know if you pass or fail

pass baby! that's at the half yeah that's it that is a extreme success oh did I pass yes oh all right, all right, two passes, any fails? Nope. Carter, all right, great. I got a 28 under 50. All right, you don't take anything on a pass here, because sometimes it's like, pass?

Oh good, you only take 10 sanity. In this case, you don't take any. However- Opalescent throat slug, who cares? Been there, done that. Conk shoo. We just saw a dead woman with a hole in her chest Alright now

We are getting into combat. This is where things get a little crunchy Obviously, this is the systems a little new for people a new for me, too I've only logged a handful of hours at this point 20 hours, maybe running these Who had a drawn gun? Both of you, okay. So, you get a plus 50 to your initiative, because basically the way initiative works in this game, it's all based on your decks score.

So, your typical decks order, Margo has a decks of 80, Faeruz has a decks of 55, Carter has a 40, and Vaughn has a 40. But Vaughn, you'll be bumped up to a 90 for this. And Faeruz, you'll be bumped up to a 105. Because if you have a drawn gun, you get to act quicker. So because of that, Faeruz, you can act first. And just because you drew the gun

doesn't mean you have to use it. Your options are you could shoot the gun, but this thing is crawling on this guy's chest. You could try and stab it because you have established that you have a knife. You can try to do other things or you can just flee. You tell me what you wanna do and then we'll work out how it works.

I think what I wanna do, because I have both weapons drawn, I don't have the stat for the dagger on hand, but I would, because I don't wanna shoot the guy by accident, I wanna try to stab at this thing. Okay, and another thing is where this thing is so small, it has a build of, I can tell you right now, of negative two, whereas you have a build of one. I think Kate is the only one that has a build of zero. Where it has a build of, I can tell you right now, of negative two, whereas you have a build of one. I think Kate is the only one that has a build of zero.

Where it has a build of negative two, if you were to shoot, you actually take a penalty die because it's so small. So with the penalty die, you roll two tens and take the worst number on a D100 roll. So yeah, maybe a stab is better. Definitely want to stab. I'm trying to see if I could find the stats for the knife.

I don't have that on hand, but should I just roll for it first? Yeah, are you just looking for what the damage of the knife would be? It's probably 1d3, but we'll figure it out in the event that you hit. Now I gotta decide what I wanna do. So the way combat works is like,

if someone's attacking you in melee, so not with a firearm, you can either dodge or fight back or do nothing. And if you dodge, tie goes, and you tie basically, you don't take damage. So dodge is kind of the safe way to go. If you try to fight back and you tie basically you don't take damage so dodge is kind of the safe way to go if you try to fight back and you tie the aggressor scores otherwise you have to have a higher success than the person that attacked I could have explained that better but now I'm the defender so I have to decide what I want

to do normally monsters fight back in this case this wiggly little thing is going to try and dodge out of the way so I'll be rolling a dodge against your fighting melee or fighting knife whatever you have. Would I use brawl for that? You would. Okay. Let me get my dodge John up. All right and whoever has the higher success wins. On a tie, I actually avoid, if we both roll the same success, I avoid your dagger. Ooh, I rolled a 12 under 25.

A 12 under 25, so you rolled a hard success, and I rolled a hard success as well. I was trying to see if I rolled an extreme, but I rolled a, let me just make sure, yeah, a heart. So it moves out of the way of your knife, and you stab right on the ground next to the Professor. If you had fumbled, I would have had you stab right through him. Right where he's trying to stab. He already gone through a lot already. I don't know if he'd really...

Why are you stabbing me? First you cut me, then you... Alright, so now it moves to Vaughn, because Vaughn, you have a gun drawn, so you are able to act quickly. Okay, so, it's dodge took it off of the body of our poor unfortunate friend Sanchez. It's more of like a Bugs Bunny cartoon, like it just reshaped around the blade, you know what I mean? So it's still in the same spot, but it just like, whoop, moved out of the way.

It's just this gross little thing that's moving very, very quickly. And so it gets out of the way, as this is all happening in real time. Feyrouz goes to stab down and it wriggles out of the way and it's making its way towards Feyrouz. Just want to confirm that it's off of the body and on the floor now. No, it's like down now near his leg. Okay, okay.

So I will not shoot it. It's only his leg. Take it, it's two of his legs. So instead I think I'll try to just like whip the pistol around and whack it off of him. Okay, just to whip it away. All right, um, Great, so this what's your what's your goal here? This sounds to me like a maneuver. Yeah and This sounds to me like a maneuver. Yeah. And because you have a specific goal in mind, your goal is to use your pistol to try

and knock this thing off of the guy. So you're gonna roll your brawl, and then I, let me just see here. If I try to dodge, you are going to get a a bonus die because I've already dodged this round And I only have one attack so I'm gonna try and dodge so you get a bonus die Which means you get to roll two tens and take the better result and just so I'm just so That's the just the lower the second digit So it would still be 30, but it might be a 35 not a 30. No the other way around it might be if you roll a 5 and a 40 and a 60 then you take the 45 instead

of the 65. Understood okay here we go. All right we're gonna go with the 37 which is under my brawl skill of 45. Okay just checking my situation here and I rolled, what did you roll? Sorry? I rolled a regular success. Regular success and I rolled a hard success. So this thing is just really, really tricky the way it's wriggling around. And now it's its turn. And so on its turn, it spends its whole round, I mean, this is so gross, I'm sorry to do this to you, Nora. It like, in an instant, leaps off of this guy's body and starts crawling its way up towards Feyruz's mouth.

And so it's sitting like right on your neck, trying to make its way into your mouth. No, I don't like it. I don't like it, stop it. It's so acidic, it actually is starting to burn your skin and you take one hit point of damage from it just sitting on your skin and you can tell that it's trying to crawl inside of you.

I am not, can I just try to take that knife and fry it away from my mouth? In three short turns you can. Shish kebab it off of me. Just one of these, boop. I think we have some artwork from the book of what it looks like when this thing crawls onto your face and it's pretty, pretty gross. I'll see if I can throw it up on roll 20, but I know that people at home can see it Hit point thing Here it is yeah, okay, you guys are gonna. Sorry. That's what it looks like

Absolutely not! Oh god, get off me! It ruins his face there. All right, so this is bad. And now- Spear that thing off of my face and into the trash fire, or I will roast it, really. It is now Margo's turn.

Okay. I don't have any weapons, and I don't wanna take her knife and try to stab the thing. I don't have confidence in doing that. Is there anything in the room, like some sort of long stick-like thing, where I can just like grab it and try to like flick it off of her? Totally, yeah. Pry it off me, pry it off me!

Yeah, the beauty of this game is like you can just use anything as an improvised weapon. If you look down at the at the professor's desk, maybe he has a lamp that you can grab and just like swing. And really like, you're trying to hit the thing. I'm not gonna say if you miss, you hit Faerûz. However, if you fumble, well then I might do that. Or I might do something much worse. But you're just trying to hit this thing

and it's trying to get out of the way. But you will get a bonus die because it's already dodged this round. I will gladly take a lamp to the face rather than have this thing come out of my mouth. Break my face. I've seen the light. So Margo grabs the most ornate lamp on the desk.

And so what am I, it's a brawlwl? Yeah brawl. And you said a bonus dice Yeah, so you roll the tens dice twice and take the better roll which is the lower. Okay. No you just you roll and You take the better. So if you roll a 45 and a 75 you take the 45. Oh Okay, yeah, sometimes if you crit I might just give you a bonus side, because normally I might give you a penalty die. I rolled a two. Yes. Oh. Yes.

Holy moly. I can't believe it. Beat that, you little slug. All right, so that's an extreme success, right? Yeah, yeah, I have a 30 in bra, and that's definitely less than a fifth. Okay, so where that is an extreme success, that is maximum damage.

If I don't roll an extreme success on a dodge. I swear to God, if you roll an extreme success. And I rolled a regular success on a dodge. So you get max damage from that lamp, which I'm going to say is a four hit points. So you do four max damage. Actually, but you have a damage bonus. Do you said I had an extra die because he dodged in regard?

That was on the attack roll. But you have a damage bonus because this would would I don't think you do with your strength But does your character sheet have a direct damage bonus damage bonus? No, I have a zero you have a zero, okay? Had you had a damage bonus that might have been enough Because when you roll an extreme success on an attack like that you do max damage with a blunt weapon like that, and you would also get max bonus damage, but you don't have any. However, you do do four points of damage,

so this thing looks like, there's just like blood squirting out of it, it's getting into Feyruz's mouth, and this black bile is leaking down her shirt, and now it's Carter's turn. Carter, you see this thing's on the ropes, what do you do? All right, so she hit it with a lamp, it's still on the face. I love to grab it and throw it

into the wall. Grab it and just huck it into the wall. Yeah, just huck the shit out of it. All right, so that is going to be a fighting maneuver, so you'll use your brawl. We know what your goal is. When you're doing a maneuver. It's all about the goal. But where this thing is so small, you'll take a penalty die. Because your build is 1 and it is negative 2. So you'll take a penalty die to try to pull this off.

Because it's wriggling around and you're trying to grab it and toss it. And then it will try and dodge. So go ahead and give me that roll. Okay, so the penalty die is, like I'm adding another- Roll twice and take the lower result. So roll with disadvantage essentially? Right, but you don't roll the lower number.

Like- The single, yeah. You know what I mean, I'm not saying it right, but yeah. Yeah, yeah. Uh-oh. Yeah. You know what I mean. I'm not saying it right, but yeah. Uh oh. I mean, I don't even know why I'm bothering to roll the other one. Yeah, that was a 96. Whoa.

Okay. That I rolled. Oh no. What is your fighting skill? 70. Okay, so that's not a fumble. If that was under a 50, a 96 to 100 is actually a fumble, in which case I would have had you just suck, Feroz. Just grab Feroz, just tear her nose off. You know, the bad news is I failed the dodge roll, so all you had to do is succeed, and that would have been enough to

get it off of her. We now move to the second round here. I can tell you it's going to be Feroz, then Vaan, and then this thing is going to try and enter Feroz's mouth and do the same thing that it was doing to the professor! Feroz, what do you do? I'm trying to skewer this thing and pry it off my face. Whoa. You want to use your knife. You want to puncture it? You want to stab at it, Do you want to like puncture it?

Like you want to stab at it or you want to try and do the fling? I want to try not overly pedantic because they'll those two different actions here the stab and the maneuver It's more like I'm trying to because I don't want to stab myself. I want to try to flick this thing off of me Okay, well, you know what? Give me the brawl But it's gonna be in a penalty die because this thing is on your face and you're trying to, like, it's wriggling and it's moving, it's gonna be hard to get off. Okay, so this is my fight, my brawl.

Uh-huh. Okay, and then explain to me the penalty die. Penalty die is you roll the tens twice and take the worst result. Gotcha, got you. So like, yeah. Okay. So there's that.

All right. So my worst was still, I still succeeded. It was a 21 under 25. And I failed my dodge. Nice. So you take this thing, you stab it, and you flick it off of you, and it just,

you impale it, it takes a little bit of damage, and it falls to the ground, and it just like, and it stops moving when it hits the floor. Immediately vomit. Right onto the professor's open wounds. Right onto him. Why? Why do you keep getting water in your head?

If there's a coffee cup or anything nearby, I immediately put it over the top of that thing on the ground. And you see that the carpet underneath the coffee mug is starting to burn away from its acidic skin and bile. It's like a trash can, something we could... Like something metal or... You just keep stacking things on top.

Yeah. You feel like you have it under control. We were like a nesting doll of like shit that it's going to burn through. There was definitely that like last twitch as it hit the floor after you pried it off. And then you cover it up and just the ground is sizzling. Jackson is like, what was that? It was all, it almost went in my mouth.

Almost went in my mouth. They almost went in my mouth. Yeah, Carter's like, here, take this. You can keep this. And he gives her his handkerchief to wipe the gross. That's yours. It's great to be a gentleman tilling house, and I offer you my own, but it's currently covered in whatever opalescent ooze was on this creature. Not to that insult to injury, of course, as I'm trying to gingerly put the handkerchief into the waste paper

basket. Won't be taking that back to Hedrids. I got 12 more in my luggage. It's cool. Where did that come from? Excellent question, Mr. Elias. I was wondering, you might enlighten us. So perhaps you, Professor, as I may be slapping, like gently slapping him in the face, like, Professor? Yeah, Jackson kneels down with you

and he kind of shakes out of it as well. And he's trying to help his friend, the Professor. And he's no longer writhing in pain, but he's all fucked up. He's got an incision on his chest and secretions, and he's taken some burn damage from this thing that also crawled up on his face, just like you took. One hit point of damage. He took at least one, and then he's taken some other damage. So he's very dizzy, and he's lightheaded, and he's just like, When you ran out to investigate the...

The smoke that we smelled... It wasn't but a moment when this... This... This... Man, I thought it was a man. Actually, I thought it was one of you! Came in... I thought maybe he had a mustache... Piercing blue eyes... Just dressed rather shabbily, but...

He came in and I turned as if to say, oh, can I help you? And his mouth was unlike anything I'd ever seen. It was extended out beyond any normal, almost like some kind of a fish or something. And he lurched at me and he put his mouth directly over my face and just held me there and I could feel teeth all around just sticking their way in just holding me in place and then he must have regurgitated that thing into me and then he he, when he left, I think he went out the window, I don't know. I hit the ground and immediately I felt this thing inside of me.

And you can tell he's like, he's on the brink of losing sanity as well. And Jackson is just white as a sheet. He's just in shock of this. This is a man, he's not a man of science, but like he doesn't believe in any of this. This is a man, he's not a man of science, but he doesn't believe in any of this, Hokem. Carter looks back to the group and gives him a little wink.

He's like, well, professor, we got good news and bad news. The good news is, you're alive. Yes, and I have you to thank for that, thank you. The bad news is, we found Trinidad downstairs with a gaping wound in her chest and I think she's dead. Very dead. No. No, not Miss Rizzo. It can't be so.

Are you sure? Are you certain it's her? Are you certain she's dead? She was, uh, pickled, I think is the best word for it, or, uh, just, yeah, it was her. But Brightside, she probably died doing what she loves you know she was in the archives studying part of the school university and he just he just starts weeping is the thing I don't know what is Oh, what is happening? What is happening?

The tales of the kind of theory true? And Jackson just like holds him to try and calm him down. And he's, this guy's had a hell of a last hour and he's inconsolable. Yeah. While you guys were talking, Margo runs over to the window that he said he thought the thing jumped out of and just looks out

or looks at the window, looks out it. Yeah, you look. It's one of those double windows that latches from the inside and opens in towards the room. And you look out, and you just see trees and the quad, the area with which you walked in, and it's eerily silent. You don't even see other students running around. Whatever that thing was, it's gone. I'm not gonna lie, guys, this day is not going the way I thought it was going to go when

I woke up late in the hotel. First day ever I've ever had. It makes me almost wonder if I should just give up on this entire adventure. It's pretty intense. But then I think about my home life and I'm still on board Where where do we swear do we start Well, we have how long until we have to meet the next morning tomorrow morning we have to meet at the so it's Saturday You have Monday to meet Larkin If you see this is how much there's gonna be any of Larkin left

Well men don't de Mendoza is the one I feel like we should do our best to either What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him?

What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him?

What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? What do you tell him? So, uh... Jackson is like, we have to call someone to take him...

...take him to a hospital. And you can see Jackson is completely out of sorts. He can't quite piece it together. We need to call an ambulance or something, or he needs to see a doctor. Yes, I suppose the authorities will have to be called considering there's a corpse in your archive and this gentleman is bleeding in his office. Yes. Just try to keep our names out of it, won't you? Yes, no, I can. And he pulled you aside. Can one of you stay with the professor for a moment?

I want to find out more about what happened downstairs. I'll chill with him. I'm pretty good kid gloves and all that. I think I can pretty much walk him through. Actually, you know what, Troy? I kind of like, can I try a... Where is it? Fast talk? Charm? Well, I was gonna charm him, yeah. Yeah, try and charm him. Charm the professor just to chill him out.

Because he was about to look at Margo and be like, would you go instead? Yeah, yeah. So, see if you can charm him, then I won't do that. Uh, okay, so I'm trying to charm, um... Jackson. A lie, okay. Uh, 43 under 75. Uh, so at first he's like... and then he's like,

yes, just keep him safe for a moment. I just want to know what's... what happened down there? He's looking at the other three of you. You found the... Ms. Rizzo? Dead? Was she attacked in the same way? It's it's possible that that's what happened because there was the gaping hole in her chest. I didn't see any of the slime that you have. It's much like lunacy as it sounds.

The wound on Miss R Riso seems to be At least reminiscent of what are the professor he describes right Mr. Professor Sanchez, and I have talked at length about Kerasiri and this folklore we are we are rational men we never believed in any of this is there's got to be a Logical explanation as to as to as to what happened here We never believed in any of this. There's got to be a logical explanation as to what happened here.

Well, have you read this? I know. I was going to say, I know we all want a logical explanation, but I found a notebook and she hands it to him. It can't, yeah, so he can read it. He reads it and he... Particularly, she points at, right here, it says,

Lui de Mendoza. Oh yes, I suppose. De Mendoza's a common name. And it says here that he was killed by Figueroa. Something's not right. Maybe it's an ancestor of his and that's somehow involved in the cult. There's no way that the Dimmondosa from 300, 400 years ago is the same Dimmondosa

that's with Locke and none of this adds up. I understand it's madness, but someone with knowledge of this sort of thing could pay it particular homage. You know, I don't believe in these fairy tales, but I believe that people believe in them and will act on them. And there's something about those blue eyes he keeps talking about. What do you think that means? Well, didn't Mendoza have piercing blue eyes? Yes, Mendoza did have blue eyes and I only know that because he was

staring at me with them the entire dinner. But what do we do? Do we go to his hotel and barge in on his room and confront him? Do we go to Larkin? We have to get to that pyramid. Larkin has everything set up. I suppose I could make other arrangements, but then Larkin might get suspicious. He's going to, I'm sorry, I'm a little,

I'm a little in over my head here. This is not is not I Don't know what to do. What do you suggest? If this Mendoza is the same Mendoza that's in this letter then You can't just barge in it's far too dangerous. Yes. I Agree, I mean maybe the five of us could overwhelm them, but I don't... That's rubbish. That's... I'm not a fighter. I'm an author. Do you think Larkin knows? It was my suspicion that they were in K'uut somehow in this cult, but this Larkin, a 400 year old man as well, I, there was no mention of,

he looks back at the dog, there's no mention of a Larkin here. Well, it does worry me more now that he was sick. Right. I suppose he doesn't know everything, but he knows enough. Whatever it is, he's in over his head. He was sick, yes. Saur, you said that there was a burned flesh on that bit of gold. As though someone had grasped it and burnt their palm on it.

That's what it looked like. It looked like someone grabbed it and it burned them. I'm not saying I believe all this rot, but if this was a fairy tale we were walking into, it seems to me that if Mendoza is one of these Kara-Siri, then whatever that is might burn him up as well. But it's just not logical. No, it manifests. I mean, neither is that slug, but. I, as much as you don't want to confront him, I, sometimes the direct approach is the best approach.

I'd rather have him at knife point than go skulking around where he can slip his mandibles over me and give me the little remora-iel kiss. You mean to confront Demondosa or confront Larkin? Well, if this... I say go, go for what's most threatening. Whatever we do, we have to be careful with how we handle this. My suspicions of Mr. Larkin are just that. Their suspicions.

And while I suspected Mr. DeMendoza was involved in this death cult, this new information is far more than I expected. Whatever we do, we have to proceed with caution. I think we should be very wary of how much we let on. Do we go to Larkin and tell him about Demendoza? Put him on the spot? Do we? What if we, for the sake of self-preservation, mind you, if we act inconspicuous and for the sake of trying to gain more knowledge leading up into, if we let on too early that we know any of this, it's our heads. But if we perhaps pretend like we don't know what's going on and try to get whatever information

we can in the meantime, until we can figure out what the bloody hell to do with this. Play dumb then. Dumbs the mouse. Right. Don't say a word. Bawd the rumble. Indeed. As our boss friend right here say, we'll try to conduct ourselves with the modicum of Sangfroid. Right. Well, we just bloody well better keep our eyes open. I don't want to wake up with one of those opalescent slugs clogging up my windpipe. You're quite burnt. Should we take you to the doctor as well?

No, no, no, no. I would like to avoid that. I don't want to be on record having to do with any of this. Yes, we should be careful what we do. Who knows who's in their pockets. Even reporting this, I should be very wary of who I talk to, but we do have a body downstairs and a man in need of medical attention.

I've met some people I can trust. I'll call them and give them some money and that should be able to take care of this. Give him the attention he needs and give Miss Rizzo and her family some peace. So is the plan to just meet Monday at 8 a.m. and pretend like nothing's happened? Monday at 8 a.m. and Pretend like nothing's happened It's not a bad plan Pardon me, almost wants to like spy on them to see if we could follow, like tail them. See try to try to

Observe them from a distance. Like see how they're preparing for tomorrow. Yes Yeah, like go to the Hotel España and That's where they're staying you guys were staying at the Mori and just kind of scope it out. Maybe if they see us we can just say, oh, we wanted to try another hotel bar. Right. I suppose the best cover stories have the ring of truth and I must admit I wouldn't mind sampling the wares. I could definitely use a drink right now, yes.

Especially after today's proceedings. Wouldn't mind getting a bit tight. I would love a- You guys are separate of Carter and the professor right now, right? You guys are kind of huddled up. Yeah. Okay. Margo, she's gonna say she would love a,

I would love a glass of gin. It was the bee's niece. Anything over, on any of this, I want, I, oh my gosh, and she puts the lamp down, she's been holding it the whole time. She says, so sorry, I whacked you with the lamp. Oh no, no, no, thank you. Thank you.

Yes. Quick thinking that, and smart and dextrous fencing there with that knife of yours. Oh, I just, yeah, think I... Just lucky I had it on hand. Well, I think we should get going. Is the plan then to start watching them tonight? And how should we do that? We all show up at the hotel, it's gonna be more obvious. What do you suggest? Should I go back to the Mori and take care of this situation here and we'll reconvene at the hotel bar there later tonight and some of you head to the Espanha and see if you see anything? What if? What if we try to meet with... or we split up? Part of us stays back to try to have a drink with them at the bar, while the rest of us try to go snoop around in their rooms, perhaps.

Ah, there we are. Bit of the old distraction. Right. Um... um... Who is the best chat? You guys talking about chatting over there? Yes. My girlfriend Tillinghast has a bit of the silver tongue and the gift of gab. Hold on one second.

He turns back to the professor who has his head in his lap. He's just been caressing his hair. And that is how, in 1918, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. You guys talking about charming? That we are. Perhaps if Tillinghast and I wail a Mendoza and Larkin at the bar,

then maybe you two can go snooping around on the sly up in their rooms. I think that's a great idea because I'm looking at my stats right now and I'm incredibly not charming. Don't talk about my friend like that. All right. So who's gonna try and get upstairs to their rooms? That would be me. And me. Alright, so boys at the bar, ladies going up. Alright, so you're all heading to the Hotel España. Jackson says, alright, I will check in with you later. I'm going to try and get this situation under control. And we've already wasted too much time. And so he goes off and he's scrambling around. Meanwhile, you guys head back in the

direction of the hotels and instead of going to the moray, go to the Hotel España. We obviously freshen up a little bit, right? I mean, we're not gonna roleplay the whole thing, but a little bit. Sure. Definitely don't want to have goop. Gussie up. Residual goop on myself. Maybe we do a thing where like, if y'all are separate, maybe like once we get them talking, if I take off my tie or something,

that's the signal that we've got them, got them pinned at the bar so you can take off. I'll scream giggle juice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's better, that's better. I'll scream giggle juice. Yeah, that's better. All right, so You make your way back once you're all freshened up to the area where the Hotel of Spain is This is where you're supposed to meet Monday morning You see it's maybe a slightly nicer hotel than the one you're staying in but not like

significantly, so it's decorated rather nicer hotel than the one you're staying in, but not like significantly so. It's decorated rather eccentrically. The walls are all painted like bright primary colors and the interior of the lobby is covered in paintings and photographs. You can see the common areas like the area where the bar is. There's an eclectic selection of statues plants and artworks in a nice small but ornate bar with a bartender serving pisco sours there's a reception desk that's just has one small white-haired woman in a woolen shawl

sitting there behind the desk. What do you guys do? I'll handle this. Just in character is also already laughing to himself. So she's sort of like she's clearly the employee behind the desk here. Buenas noches, señorita. Buenas noches. Was wondering if it wouldn't trouble you too greatly to ring up.

You must speak slow. I do not understand too much English. My apologies. My brain cells operate at a speed faster than most. So anyway, was wondering if you could call up to Signor... De Mendoza's room, and let him know that Signors Tillinghast and Villiers would love a cocktail in the fine bar down here. De Mendoza, si, si.

I am Petronil Cupidina. I am- I am so sorry. I hope that's not contagious. No, this is my name. This is my hotel, Hotel Espana. I am the Mendoza. Hold on. And she calls up.

And no one answers. He's no answer. It's Mr. DiMandoza. And have you seen him coming or going anytime recently, my sweet pedal? Yes, yes. He come not too long ago. He go upstairs and then he leave again. So he's not here. Si, si.

Are you his amigo? Oh, big time amigo. Yeah, grande. Grande amigo. Grande, that's me. Everybody's grande amigo. You own this hotel, by the way? Si, si. I am the owner. So you must have quite a coin purse yourself, madam.

My business is slow. He holds up his wedding and goes like, Were this not on my finger, I would sweep you off your feet. Oh, you're much too ugly. Yeah, he's just like, you see everything drop. Like, he just got completely just shut, just like, oh, yeah, sometimes I forget that it's there, this gaping hole in my face. Okay, well thanks a lot!

And you just kind of like, you just walk through. What a charmer! I just had a question real quick, is this the same, is Larkin also staying in this hotel, or just Mendoz? He is, yeah.

That's what they said, that it's like there were no rooms left, otherwise they would have put you all up here. So, if Villiers is kind of like, just imagine him on the side of that conversation just like going back and forth as this little repast goes through. As Tillinghast walks away, he's like, what about Signor Mendoza's amigo, Signor Larkin. Don't bother with her, Vaughn, she's a horrible person. Larkin, you see, you see, Mr. Larkin is here too, yes? Well, perhaps he'd care to join, uh, Mr. Villiers and Mr. Tillinghouse for, uh, a bit of raising of the wrist.

If he could stand to look at me. I, uh, I- I call. He's okay. And she calls. And someone picks up. Hello, Mr. Larkin. You have a me. Mr. Larkin. Mr. Larkin. You have a. Mr. Larkin Miss Mr. Larkin you you have a foot

Mr. Larkin you have four amigos here Just us oh To us I to a total for you have to be and she looks at you and she's like he He sounds a is sick him in morning on other end of phone I not understand what he say maybe maybe he's sick or tired oh isn't that a shame um no I'm now of course friends of ours are staying in a room nearby, but he's in room... Oh, Mr. Larkin? Room 402. Yes, of course. Tip of my tongue. Perhaps someone should go up to give him his medicine.

You sure you are friends, yes, amigos? Of course. Well, we'll just consider that. Muchas gracias, senora. You know, actually, now that I think about it, Vaughan, I think Demendoza oftentimes carries his medicine for him. If we could also have Demendoza's room number, maybe we can get in there, grab it, bring it over to our other friend.

She's like, he's in room next door, 403. But you know, I've been doing this long time. No funny business, right? Oh, no, no, no, no. We're friends. Can I persuade her? I- With her eddies. As he does that, Oh, no, no, no, we're friends. Can I persuade her? I... As he does that, I just kind of hold up the telegram that we got

that has his name on it. And our names on it. She says, she puts on these glasses, she's like, uh, see, okay. Okay, well, no funny business, so like, I call police here. Never.

This is my hotel. I own it all by myself until my husband die. I can assure you, madam, I've never been told that I was funny. That poor man leaves such a beauty behind. So just, so we're're now all four of us are here Yeah, they were would you come from oh? I thought that we all four of us were coming in, but we were gonna split off. I was confused Yeah, sorry about that. All right now that now that we just have a book

You could have easily given them that idea But you could have easily given them that idea. We're just like, I just kind of pop my head up from the desk. Yeah, just go for holes up. You guys should be on top of each other in a trench coat with a hat on. Yes. Behind a palm tree in the lobby. Yeah, no, you could easily have given them that idea and maybe Margo and Faeruus are at the bar area. But you're nearby, you all see each other.

All right, so maybe we huddle, like, so how do we play this? Sounds like Larkin might be undergoing a bit of the business that Sanchez just went through. Perhaps someone goes up there, checks on the old boy while someone else remains down here, plays lookout. Right? I've got a gun, I suppose I'll go upstairs. I do not have my lamp anymore. There's probably lamps up there, you know? You know what? You are right.

I should go up and- You've proven your lamp acuity. You're right. I'll stay down here and watch for Demendoza and distract him if he starts coming back. All right, Vaughn, what about you? Well, just in case there's any funny business upstairs,

if it's more of the same, perhaps you'll want another set of hands. Right. Or you would probably be the one to talk our way out of the situation. Well, I don't wish to deprive you ladies of good time. Um, very well. Be about your business. And if Mendoza comes, Tillinghouse and I will give him the run around. About your business and if Mendoza comes our tilling house, and I will give him the runner out No, I'm just gonna talk to him All right, so the two the two gentlemen will wait

Well Margo, I thought if Larkin was upstairs, and we were just like oh hi yeah, we're here on Business I thought that there would be a That Vaughn could help out with that but that's okay we could do this the original plan you guys if he if he you know you guys can go up there saying you wanted to check on him come up with some chicanery yeah I'm like I'm happy to do either we're bar hopping and we want recommendations for bars or come on down have a drink oh you you smell like rotting fish and you have a slug in your throat. We'll come back.

The three of us will go up if Tillinghast stays down and waits for Mendoza. Oh yeah, I was just saying, they could have that conversation too. It doesn't matter. Okay. Whatever you guys want to do. Great. So one of you stays as the lookout. Carter will stay as the lookout in case de Mendoza comes back. And the other three of you go upstairs. Are you going to check out de Mendoza's room since you assume he's not here? Or are you going straight to Larkin's?

Can we do a listen at his door? De Mendoza? Yeah. All right. So you get up to the fourth floor. There's no elevator, so you're just walking up four flights of stairs. Uh, and you get up there, and it's similarly decorated. Paintings.

Some plants. 401. 402, you go past Larkin's room. And there is 403, Domibbendoza's room. Give me a, is there a listen roll? There is, yeah. It's like 90 skill checks, I always forget what they are. I rolled a 41 under 50.

Yeah. 41 under 50? Okay, what'd you get? 27, but over probably 20, yeah. Okay. I'll spend some luck to... wait, no. Never mind, I failed. Okay, yeah, and you already got one success, so it's just like, they make it hard or extreme. So you listen, Fae'ruz.

It's silent, you don't hear shuffling, you don't hear any movement whatsoever. It's quiet as a mouse in there. If I slowly turn the doorknob, just to feel if it's locked. Feels locked. Razzberries. Yeah. Razzlesnakes, what are you up to? Locked down here. Razzberries. Anyone know how to jimmy a lock?

Just sounds so natural coming out of you. Anyone know how to jimmy a lock? Yeah, anybody have a, any of the three of you have locksmithing? No, it's a one for me. three of you have locksmithing? I just really want for me one point Oh, man, yeah, whoops we have we screwed up the teams, okay? Shall I shall I run down and get a tillinghouse these things this might be more his uh his line if you can Um I why not yeah, you do that or if you wanted to break down the door you could do a strength check but obviously you would leave the

Depending on how successful you were you would leave It would be obvious that someone tried to break in yeah, there was a murder Mm-hmm, and you think this might be the suspect I mean, what do you break in or go get Carter? I think I might just like turn to you was like, lockpicking's not really my line. But given the make of this dawn, I could run down and get Tillinghouse, see if this is his sort of business, or just kick the bloody thing in. What do you say?

Well, as Nora looks at her strength roll- yeah, I suppose I could try to kick this door down. Might be, might cause a little bit of a ruckus. Try it, give it a strength check, see if you can boot it down. All right. Yeah, here we go. Here we go. Two feet. I will cheer from the side.

Go, kick it down. I rolled a 40 under 75. So that is not, oh no, it's not an extreme success. Just a regular success. And I also rolled a regular ass success. All right, so the two of you time your kicks at the same time and you bust it open, seeing that the wood is splintered a little bit near the wall.

You probably will notice that. Probably will notice that. Yeah. But luckily you don't see anyone inside. But it looks cool. You see a room that is almost antiseptically neat. There are no personal effects. neat. There are no personal effects, toiletries, any changes of clothing on display. The bed is neatly made and looks to have been completely unused.

Are we sure this is the correct room? Is there a room, a door into the adjoining room? Roll a luck check. That's an interesting question. 14, I smashed it. Yeah, that's a hard success. You know, Ross, it just so happens there is. Um...

Perhaps, uh... Mendoza isn't staying in his room at all. Maybe not. And so I go up to that, uh... Up to the, um... The divider door... And give a listen there. Go up to the divider door,

you put your ear up against it, give me a listen roll. That's a failure. It's thick, it's thicker than the other door right here. I wish you'd just kick it down. He's smashing down doors. Smash it. Pfft. And I think so, because we heard him. Didn't we hear him from coming back from the outside?

Do we assume that's the door that is leading to that room? Yeah, you know that that is. Do you know that that's the door leading into 402? Because you saw already walked by the door. And you know that that's the door leading into 402? Because you saw already walked by the door and you know that someone picked up when the hotel proprietor called up to his room. Shall we? That sounded sick.

Can I just do, before we bust through, can I just spot, hidden to see there's anything in this room? Ooh, smart. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, let's do it. Oh, brutal. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, let's do it. Oh, brutal.

I, um, yeah, I failed. 47 under 50. What was it? Did you get there, Margo? 47 under 50. 47 under 50. Margo? 47 under 50. 47 under 50.

So you're looking at that door leading into the side room and then Vaughn is like, wait while we're here, we should at least canvas the place. And so you're looking around and Margo finds something underneath the mattress. At first it appears to almost be like a mask. It's six inches square and it's made of gold. It looks like a stylized face, maybe?

It's largely made up of blocky geometrical shapes that are raised from the surface, but it's solid and there's no eye holes. Hmm. It's wild looking. Can I roll, like, what did I roll last time to understand what those other gold items were? Archaeology.

Archaeology? Yeah. No, it must have been a praise. I thought you rolled. I have one in archeology. No one knew you probably rolled a one. That might have been the thing you used your luck on to get down to. Right.

I did use a bunch of my luck. Rob, I think you're absolutely right. I think you rolled like a 13 and spent 12 luck to get it down to a one. I'll try it again. Does anybody else have archeology in the room because that would be a praise would tell you what it might be worth But archaeology will tell you it's yeah I I do have some points in archaeology Anthropology all right. Yeah, give me some arc rolls

Oh, okay, I rolled a 29 over 21, so I'm gonna use some luck. Yes. There you go. Spam that luck. Yep. Okay, that is enough to know that it is similar in design to similar in design to artifacts that were found in an area known as Tiwanaku, which was a pre-Columbian archaeological site in Western Bolivia. So maybe you

remember seeing stuff like this in your studies back at Miskatonic. You turn it over and you see the back of this mask is completely unadorned, but it's polished to a high enough sheen that it actually can be used as like a mirror. Now, does it look similar in the raised geometric shapes to everything else that we've seen? Or is this different?

It is similar. It's hard to say if it's exactly the same. But yeah, there seems to be a theme there. Right. Well, this seems to be from the area where we're headed. Pre-Columbian. Yes, the more I learn about this Mendoza fellow, the less I trust him.

So strange. The light from the coming in through the window is like bouncing off the mirror. It's just like every where you move it, it's just shining this weird light all over the room as you guys are talking. I'll tell you what I don't want to do, Troy. I don't want to put this thing to my face. Oh, oh, oh. It's all right now.

It's your life. What if somebody else wants to try it? Oh, oh, Kate wants to try it. Should she make Margo do that? Look how shiny the inside is. We'll just tease a little bit. Margo picks it up and holds it and like looks into it

like the mirrored back of it and like just looks at it. Does she feel fine? Alright so Margo picks it up and just looks into the mirrored back of it for a couple seconds. Yeah. You guys see Margo look at it

and your hand starts shaking as you're staring into the mirror. Give me a power roll. Oh, okay, all right. Oh god, oh god. Power roll. Four under E5. What?

You're a machine. She has too much power. My brother bought me this dice for Christmas. Thank you so much. A four under, so an extreme success. All right, so as you're staring into the mirror, you guys just see Margo's hands shaking. But as you look in, you start to see scenes unfold, Margo.

And the first thing you see is an ancient stepped pyramid on a plateau somewhere. And the pyramid just breaks apart and crumbles as greasy white tendrils dripping with huge maggots begin to reach up and out from the remains of the pyramid. And then they just cover the whole mirror. You almost feel like they're crawling on the surface of the mirror, but you're not scared. You're just like, it's almost like you're driving these visions. And then the maggots dissipate and go away.

And then you see them reform on the ground somewhere, You see them reform on the ground somewhere, wriggling again, and then they turn into people, dancing. Thousands and thousands of people, men and women of every race, but they're not just dancing, they're like having sex with each other and killing each other in this massive blood orgy. And as it pans out, you just see thousands of people involved in this enormous blood orgy atop a huge mountain. And you just come out of it and you let the mirror go and it falls onto the bed. I mean, it's just like.

Careful there, Margo. I don't know how priceless that is. What? Let's see a ghost. This, put this, put this back under the mattress. Larkin, we need to see how he's doing. Let's put this back Right to right Shall we to right give it a little one to I suppose so we did we ever try the knob of the store

Does it just open you have not tried the knob. Let's try that knob. Sure, try that knob. Unlike the knob into Demondosen's room, this one turns. This right on the verge of kicking it down, he's like, hold on, wait, hold on. I also want the refusal to just knock, because you know that guy did that. Let's try this the conventional way.

Yeah, let's crack it and slowly give it a little sneak peep, even though we busted down the door of the neighboring room. Do you want to do a stealth or do you want to just kind of just live dangerously? Fling it open. Fling. We've already kicked the door open. Let's just say you open it. You just open it and crack, but without actual flavor stealth. You look in there and in contrast to D'amendoza's room, Larkin's room is chaos. It's very unpleasant. There are suitcases spilling soiled clothing all over the floor.

There's personal effects covering almost every surface that you can see through the crack in the door and right when you open it you get a whiff of the smell in there and it just reeks of stale sweat and sickness as well as that rotten meat smell that you smell during dinner at Bar Cordano. You also see... Want some of Tillinghouse perfume right about now. I know you did. The perfumes are burning. Mm-hmm.

Cut to Carter in the lobby, just smelling one of them sweetly. Yeah, and he's talking to the woman, and he's like, and that's how in 1918, the Boston Red Sox won the game. Okay. A triumph that is sure to be repeated quite soon. Well, the team like this, no, whatever, yeah.

Just past all of this mayhem, you see a figure like kicked back on a chair in the far corner of the room. But with the crack in the door you can't really make out who it is and what's going on there. I think maybe this is where I just want to create a sense of plausible deniability. Larkin, old chap. We've created so much noise, I feel like the sneaking is absurd at this point. It's like, Larkin, old chap, heard from the lady downstairs that you were a bit of dire straits. Weren't you yourself on the telephone?

Thought we'd come in to take a look at you. I heard from the lady downstairs that you were a bit of dire straits. Once you weren't yourself on the telephone, I thought we'd come in to take a look at you. Thought you'd had an accident, old man. As I come closer and maybe draw the shades so whatever dying light of the day will reveal who is in this chair. And you also hear a very small click from my gun in the shadows. So you peep through the crack see this and then say hello Larkin as you open the door and look in and you see that it is in fact Larkin kicked back on this chair, but he's like in a semi state of consciousness.

And there's two things that jump out at you immediately. One his sleeves are rolled up completely and you see that discoloration that you saw on his wrists. Those veins are discolored in black running all the way up his arm. And in his current state his shirt is more open so you get a better look at what looked like some sort of tattoo on his chest. And you see that it looks like a large ragged spiral that's radiating out from his sternum and it ends like just above his diaphragm where it connects to

a stylized misshapen humanoid figure with large outstretched hands that appear to end in claws. And he opens his eyes and looks at you. And we'll see you next week. Ohhhh! Ohhhh! Baby! Storytelling 101 always end on the chest reveal. Oh, I'll be thinking about that all week.

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