The Magnus Archives - MAG Duskhollow PD - Part 1

Episode Date: January 23, 2020

Join Jonny, Frank, Sasha, Alex and Lowri as they play MacGuffin & Co's original TTRPG 'Duskhollow PD'In this first episode of 3 we meet a team of likely cops whose task it is to solve completely normal crimes...Thanks to this week's Patrons: Charlie Haglin, Jason Dawson, How Should I Know, Tonya Downing, Negev, MOLLY WHALEN, Bonster, Richard Drumm, Ben Stillwell White, Ren Martin, Nancy S, megan schreiber, Keller, Jon Cantwell, Mel Barsana, Lynny, Dan and Heather Norbury Montalto, Lucas Rozell, Ann, Katey LannenIf you would like to join them, be sure to visit www.patreon.com/rustyquillEdited this week by Michelle O'Toole, Tessa Vroom & Alexander J Newall.In this episode, we used The Cthulhu Hack created by Paul Baldowski, to find out more or support Paul, head to:cthulhuhack.com patreon.com/cthulhuhackIf you'd like to learn more about or support MacGuffin & Co.head tohttps://www.macguffinandcompany.com/https://www.patreon.com/macguffinandcompanyCheck out our merchandise at https://www.redbubble.com/people/rustyquill/collections/708982-the-magnus-archives-s1You can subscribe to this podcast using your podcast software of choice, or by visiting www.rustyquill.com/subscribePlease rate and review on your software of choice, it really helps us to spread the podcast to new listeners, so share the fear.Join our community:WEBSITE: rustyquill.comFACEBOOK: facebook.com/therustyquillTWITTER: @therustyquillREDDIT: reddit.com/r/RustyQuillEMAIL: [e-mail] Magnus Archives is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill Ltd. and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 International Licence Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first radio ad you can smell. The new Cinnabon pull-apart only at Wendy's. It's ooey, gooey, and just five bucks for the small coffee all day long. Taxes extra at participating Wendy's until May 5th. Terms and conditions apply. Hey everyone, Mike here, Rusty Quill's video guy, and I'm here to announce Rusty Quill's brand new show. On the back of all the support you've shown us through Patreon and our ever-gr growing community, I'm stoked to announce that we're now able to branch out into new video content and we're starting with streaming. Come by and join in at 3pm GMT on Saturday the 25th of January as me and our community manager, Anil, embark on a brand new gaming live stream series where we aim to introduce new players to the world of gaming through a variety of indie,

where we aim to introduce new players to the world of gaming through a variety of indie, retro, and AAA titles and genres, so we can show you how and where to start on your new voyage of discovery and community. And no doubt, you'll see some guest appearances from other RQ crew and friends too. That's RQ Streams, starting Saturday the 25th of January at 3pm GMT, over on www.twitch.tv forward slash rusty underscore quill. See you on the stream. Hi everyone, Alex here. I'd just like to take a moment to thank some of our patrons. Charlie Hagelin, Jason Dawson, how should I know? Tonya Downing, Negev, Molly Whalen, Bonster, Richard Drum, Ben Stillwell-White, Thank you all. We really appreciate your support. If you'd like to join them, go to www.patreon.com forward slash Rusty Quill and take a look at our rewards. Hello, it's Johnny here.

Johnny from the Magnus Archives, you remember. We are playing a role-playing game as part of our season break content, so I have with me here some other people. So, who do we have? I'm Frank, and I voice Basira. Hello, I am Laurie, and I produce the Magnus Archives. I'm Alex, I voice Martin and do like other shows as well. And I'm Sasha. I voice Georgie.

Fantastic. So we are going to be playing a game of Dusk Hollow PD, which is a setting from MacGuffin and Company, which is mine and Sasha's games company. Just in case you didn't know. We make games. Yeah, we do. The nepotism. It is a system neutral micro setting so we are going to be playing it using the cthulhu hack which is a very simple rules light investigation

and cosmic horror system by paul baldowski and yeah it's going to be some spooky probably a little bit funny but mainly spooky times i'm sure with a name like the Cthulhu hack everything's going to go fine. Yeah, it's just a standard normal police procedural. We're in for a gentle time. Yeah, no, absolutely. Stuff like the water cooler's out of water is our big problem for the session. I mean, that would be a problem for the whole department.

I can't wait to interview little old ladies that are just little old ladies and nothing more. So, the idea behind Dusk Hollow PD is Dusk Hollow is a weird town. The rain never stops. The crimes are all horrific. And you guys, you're the police who have to investigate all these definitely normal crimes. Extremely normal. The normalest.

Dusk Hollow is somewhat of a city out of time. You might ask where it is, to which I would say, I don't know, Extremely normal. The normalist. Dusk Hollow is somewhat of a city out of time. You might ask where it is, to which I would say, I don't know, probably... Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably Britain, but, you know, Britain where a lot of people have sort of noir American accents. Cardiff, then. Yeah, probably.

Not Cardiff. The rain never stops unless it's high summer when it's perfect arson weather dry and hot that does sound like cardiff i was gonna say it stops raining that's not wales then there's a reason it's so green okay technology is fixed for each thing at the perfect noir level so the phones are rotary some of the bars still run on gaslight. There is an internet connection at the library. It's an old CRT monitor and it works. The dial-up connection works at one revelation per case. Your car is a 1956 Ford police car and you all have 1920s detective special revolvers. And at the police station, most people are still going on typewriters. Or at least there's the background sound of typewriters, even if everyone's actually filling in their extensive case reports, mostly by hand.

So when I say Zoom enhanced, someone just holds the newspaper slightly closer at me. Yes. Well, no, I mean, who knows? Maybe forensics has some really high tech, like they might have microscopes that have a screen. As they find that, wait, this sample, it just doesn't make sense. Unless it's a perfectly normal crime. Yeah, obviously it's a perfectly normal crime. So the rules of the setting are as follows. First up, player characters cannot laugh. You guys can laugh and your player characters can occasionally make the uh you know a grim quip

here and there but they cannot laugh they are not having a good time all cases must have at least one mundane lead followed before anything even remotely supernatural can be brought up by the characters with the exception of well one of you which will get to you there are no ghosts lots of weirdness. No ghosts. Everyone in Dusk Hollow thinks ghosts are ridiculous. And finally, everyone in the Dusk Hollow Police Department is overworked, jaded, and has no time to be forming grand unified theories of weirdness.

With one exception, which we will get to in a second. So before we go through a little bit of system explanation, let's go around the table and just have a quick introduction to everyone's characters. I'm Frank again. I'm playing Carl Hasselbeck, who is the sergeant. He is a man. Doesn't have to be, but he could be.

He probably is. Let's say he is. Don't undermine my choices, Jonathan. No, sorry. You're right. He's a man who places a lot of emphasis on arrests and not enough emphasis on paperwork or evidence or due process. Yes.

One thing that I should point out, and we've had a conversation about this beforehand, is player characters in Dusk Hollow are or were bad cops good cops don't end up in Dusk Hollow so we've had a conversation off air about what aspects of bad or corrupt policing we're comfortable portraying in a fun recording so that will be feeding into the characters that we are playing. Lowering. So I am playing Emma Walensky. She's got a squint. She's a conspiracy theorist,

doesn't trust anyone, and has ended up in Dusk Hollow because it hasn't been proven, but maybe she may have. In the interest of proving to the rest of the world what she already knows. Intricate conspiracies require evidence. They do require evidence, and I know, but the world doesn't know.

So she may have tampered with some evidence in the past. So obviously your character is the exception to the, you can't make connections and you can't leap immediately to bizarre conclusions. You can do that as much as you want. How do you feel about Emma's belief in ghosts? Emma can probably believe in ghosts, but everyone thinks you're an idiot. I lost my cat. Ghosts!

Ghosts! It was ghosts. I got a T again. Ghosts! Alex. I am playing Archie Murdoch, who is a rookie beat cop. That's Archie Murdoch of the Dusk Hollow, right? Yes.

Yeah, Archie Murdoch of the Dusk Hollow Murdochs. And Archie is a cop in so far as technically graduated from the academy? Actually thinking about it your family might actually be from Morgans Hill which is the bright lovely neighbouring town just over the river to Dusk Hollow. Okay there we go

and it's a bit of a disgrace that you've ended up with a beat in Dusk Hollow. But it's fine because Archie just makes a point of telling everyone that it was a choice because this is where the most work's needed. Yeah, like honestly, the Morgans Hill Police Department, they do very little. There's a lot of helping old ladies across the streets. You can only recapture the same swan so many times.

It's just not real police work. Absolutely. They have a lot of like dress uniform functions, but I mean, you've never really seen a Morgans Hill police officer not in dress uniform what I would say though is a lot of people claim that to be you know a good cop you've got to have you know skills training experience what Archie has is is a can-do attitude which is basically the same thing right if you believe you can do then then maybe you can do. Participants still get a medal, right?

And Sasha. I am playing Gabrielle Schreiber, a no-nonsense detective who takes an attitude to policing of, like, there are definitely patterns to crimes and they can always, always be solved by just looking for the simplest solution. Like, all murders are done by spouses and if the neighbour says that they saw the victim's brother, like, turning up with an axe, knocking down the door, and then leaving covered in blood,

they probably didn't. It's always the spouse. Circumstantial evidence. It's always the spouse. You are playing, I believe, the sceptic. I'm playing the sceptic, yes. Okay. Sweeping statements are the best statements, is what you're saying.

Yes. Generalisations exist for a reason. Yes. Okay. Sweeping statements are the best statements, is what you're saying. Yes. Generalizations exist for a reason. Yes. So the Cthulhu hack is, by way of various indie games, very, very loosely based on first edition D&D. So what you have is you have your six main stats that are the same as Dungeons & Dragons, so strength, dexterity, constitution, wisdomdom, Intelligence, and Charisma. You have a score in each of them from 2 to 20, and these are for your saves. You will be rolling them whenever you are trying to not come to some sort of harm. That can be physical harm, you're rolling Dexterity to dodge a missile. No one's firing missiles at you in Dusk Color,

don't you worry. Or Intelligence to solve a puzzle before a ceiling collapses on you. Or charisma to not be convinced that your partner is secretly a shapeshifter who you should probably just, you know, just take out. Pro tip for the rest of the party. Notice he only said missiles weren't going to happen. So that means the other two are a given. So when you need to make a save, you take a 20-sided dice,

you roll it, and if it is under your score, you have succeeded. If it is equal to or over, you have failed. Ah, First Edge, you're so strange and interesting to me. To be fair, I don't think... It's a very... It's an emphasis on hack.

Because it was... I think it was first edition went into the black hack and then the black hack became the Cthulhu hack there's a whole pedigree but if you're rolling with advantage you roll two 20 sided dice two d20s and take the lowest if you're rolling with disadvantage you roll two and take the highest now alongside your core stats you also also have resources. These are things you use to advance the stories, find clues, and do your investigation. So you have flashlights, which are to find clues by examining areas, reading books, you know, nerd stuff. Then you have smokes. That is what you use to find clues by talking to people, social interaction. You will also have a list of supplies, which are things that you personally have that you can use to solve problems, move the investigation forward,

etc. Each of these is a die type, from a D4 to a D12. And the way it works is if you're using it, you succeed. What you want to happen works. You then roll the dice and on a 1 or a 2, something bad happens as a consequence of your success and your dice type goes down one. So if you were rolling a D8, it's now a D6 for the next time. If you roll a 1 or 2 on a d4 you are out of that resource and something real bad happens so your flashlights and your smokes and your supplies are all things they're resources that you spend to advance the investigation and you kind of don't want to run out of them for instance frank you'll notice that hustlebeck has a hip flask that has a die type of d4 that means if you're using your hip flask that has a die type of D4.

That means if you're using your hip flask to solve a problem, that's a high-risk move. New party goal. We have to make it so that this story must advance by removing your sobriety. It's the only solution to this problem, guys. Achieve a higher plane. You also all have some special abilities, which we'll get into as and when they come up. And I have nicked a little bit from Trail of Cthulhu, where everyone has various expertises or skills that dictate who gets what clues. I've kind of incorporated that into this, so everyone has a list of expertises. What that means is, given a lot of you are probably going

to be at the same crime scenes at various points it dictates who gets what clues if there's a clue about say accounting who has accounting i really hope it's alex oh very much not oh no it's your sergeant your sergeant has accounting as an expertise so if you're going over some account books you're the one who gets those clues i understand if the numbers get too confusing you can use your hip flask D4 to make those numbers line right up. Or at least double. I fixed the budget crisis, guys. Also, your expertises can potentially serve as hints in terms of, if you're trying to think of ways to advance the investigation,

just have a look at your expertises and see what options might be there. Lastly, you have damage dice, which are how much damage you do unarmed or armed. investigation just have a look at your expertises and see what options might be there lastly you have damage dice which are how much damage you do unarmed or armed if you somehow get into a fight you have a stress dice called a sanity dice in the cthulhu hack but i prefer to contextualize these things as stress because within the context of dusk, it's much more very intense periods of horrific things occurring in short order, which can, let's say, lead to some extreme reactions, rather than, you're gradually going mad. Well, also, I mean, indescribable horrors don't tend to come across great in an entirely

audio format where we have to describe all the horrors. Also, Alex, that's what we do in our other podcast. we have to describe all the horrors. Don't never stop Lovecraft. Also, Alex, that's what we do in our other podcast. They're not indescribable. We just spent 160 episodes describing them. So when you have a particularly stressful experience, I will ask you to roll the stress dice. Similar to any other resource, if it's a one or two,

it degrades one step, and you will have a bad reaction to what's going on if you roll a one or two when it is a d4 you have a bit of a breakdown you will be removed from the case and will spend the rest of the investigation having a chat with doc slaughter the police psychiatrist who's lovely sorry i mean i immediately i hear the surname slaughter and i immediately go to rhymes i'm like doc, Doc Slaughter, ship's daughter. Like stuff I can't help it. It's just the way I roll. No, no, Doc Slaughter,

she's the psychiatrist for Dusk Hollow PD and she's very good. I think you're thinking of a phone surgeon, ship's surgeon. I am! Thank you. That was where I was going with that. And finally, you have your hit points.

If your hit points are gone, you might die. When you lose all your hit points sorry, if you lose all your hit points I will roll a dice to see what horrible thing happens to you. Freudian slip back? No, no! It's not an honest mistake. Freudian promise.

We are fine. A-okay. So, it's a rainy day in Dusk Hollow. Well, a rainy evening. The days go fast and night is starting to fall. The streetlights outside are coming on one by one. And people are walking the streets. Umbrellas up, coats on, heads down.

You can almost hear mournful jazz, but it's just the wind, a bitter wind. Bitter syncopated wind. In B-flat Mariner. A call comes in. There's a new body. Geoffrey Mariner, heir to the Mariner fortune, has been found dead and mutilated in his uptown apartment.

The case comes to you guys. I've already forgotten everything you told us except the name Geoffrey Mariner. Geoffrey Mariner. He had an uptown apartment. He's rich. The heir to the Mariner fortune, they made their fortune in boats, shipping.

It's a shipping fortune. And he was dead in his apartment? He's been found dead and mutilated. Oh, boy. Least according to the reports. The reports come in from the housekeeper, a woman named Nellie. Your car pulls up in Uptown. The townhouses of Uptown are tall.

They're narrow, tall, very well built, lots of arches. The door to this one is open and there is another police car already there with some beat cops just putting down markers and going about the business of establishing this is a horrible crime scene.

Horrible, horrible crime scene. Do we recognise them? Have we worked with them? I mean, yeah, they're also from the police department their names are Greg and both of them Greg and Greg

yeah big Greg and bigger Greg they're both very tall I don't trust them no you shouldn't they're too tall

they definitely one of them definitely stole your yoghurt from the fridge what did they use it for? That's what I want to know They ate it You can't see I'm doing air quotes I could hear it in your voice

even if I wasn't looking at you So the car door opens and you step outside I'm going to just charge in Doors open I don't need to check with anybody I'm just going to walk straight in The housekeeper, a middle-aged woman in exactly what you would imagine an uptown housekeeper to be wearing, is standing off to the side of a long corridor,

and the activity seems to be mainly around a study just off the corridor to the left. OK, I'm going to follow. I'm checking for scorch marks on the way. There aren't any scorch marks that you can see. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of violence or disturbance in the main hallway at all. Suspicious. Ah, jeez. I'm going to go hang out with Big Greg and Bigger Greg,

because as a beat cop, I have to check in with the beat cops. Yeah. So we're the thing in the mutilation, yeah? Nasty. All right. Adopts a sort of faux kind of P.I. pose. What are we looking at, boys? He's dead.

He's in there. Right. We'll put the tape up. Good work, boys. And then Archie's going to kind of migrate slowly into the building because no one seems to be minding. No one stops you. Then migrates Archie does.

I will also approach the Greggs now that this embarrassment has gone inside. That's me. So, dead body. Yeah, it's in there. Any idea how long ago he died? I don't know, not a detective. Any hunch? A while ago. Or now.

Between a while ago and now. All right, thanks, Greg. No worries. Thanks, Sarge. I'm going to go inside. So, the study is messy. It's cluttered. There's papers all over the desk, a few knocked to the floor. Bookshelves line the walls, and those walls that are not lined with bookshelves have framed...

Often they look like official pieces of timetabling, and one or two are announcement posters for various pieces of industrial transportation. Quite a lot of... You know how they always used to have announcement posters for, like, new trains? Or new, like, train lines and services. Wait, the new IP90 from Chicago to Dallas in only three minutes?

Yeah, absolutely. There's quite a lot of those around. A few for boats, like new plane routes. Looks like this guy was going into infrastructure. At least he was until somebody murdered him because his corpse is currently sprawled out in the middle of the study. Likes, infrastructure, dislikes, evisceration. That is a very good point. You should roll flashlights for that.

We can't know that. Yeah, so that's a clue. You've acquired a clue, so roll me flashlights. Okay, I am trying to remember how, so I have to use my D8. Yes. And then I have to roll... You just, like, you have already found the clue ah okay so you're rolling to see if there's any negative consequence of you finding the clue two okay there is yeah so what was your die type d8 it is now a d6 and you are so busy looking at

the posters on the wall you straight up trip over the corpse. Oh man, Archie's... Archie! Found the thing, found the guy with the... Oh, it's on my shoes! His hands sort of accidentally, his hands like kind of gripped around your ankle and the dead eyes stare up at you. Oh, these are new socks.

Oh my god. It takes so long to get corpse out of the tray. I'm probably going to actually say that you should probably make a stress roll as well, following off from that. The rest of you don't have to make a stress roll. You've seen a lot of dead bodies, and weirder dead bodies than this in Dusk.

Yeah, I haven't seen such an incompetent rookie before, though. Yeah. Just, like, mad-dogging you from across the room. None of you need to make a stress roll, because Johnny likes all of you. Let's see. A three. That is enough.

Boo! It's unpleasant, but you're keeping it together. Oh, my doormat's going to smell of it. Can you stop stepping in the court? I'm trying. He's everywhere. Oh, God. Okay, one sec. I just kind of keep backing away

until I hit wall and then sidle, maybe brushing a few things of the wall. Yep. Until I eventually escape the puddle that is this person. I'm just staring at you the whole time. Emma puts her arm around you and says, look, don't worry about the corpse. The important thing, these timetables, they're perfect, Archie.

They're perfect to hide codes in. It's very important you don't touch them. Step on the corpse, don't move the timetables. Right, yeah, okay. To be fair, quite a lot of the papers on the desk are also various sort of... clearly research into similar things. There are timetables on the desk as well, if you want to have a look.

Absolutely. OK, please roll me flashlights. So I'm rolling eight. What is your flashlight score? Then, yes, you're rolling the eight. So you see your bandolier of flashlights remains well stocked. Oh, two. Okay.

No, that's fair. What are your expertises, by the way? Cryptography, occult, photography, flattery, document analysis. Document analysis. Do you want the rest or are we just going to stop on that? No, that's fine. Between cryptography and document analysis, these are definitely the clues you're picking up on.

So, yeah, it looks like he was writing a book on trains, specifically the different train types that were issued by British Rail over the 20th century. There are a lot of, you know, old documents. There's one that seems to have been burned, though. It was definitely a timetable. You can tell

by the corner that remains unburned. But yeah, it's in the sort of the metal waste paper basket, a lot of ashes and the corner of what looks like a timetable. It also looks like he was corresponding with someone about it by the name of Angela Grockle. Great surname. Nice. And the last letter from her reads,

Dear Geoffrey, finally managed to find this. Hope it lives up to everything we were expecting. Good luck, Angela. So you've been looking at the timetables, the documents. Who's looking at the body? I am. Okay. I'm trying to see if I can get a vague idea of time of death,

if he was mutilated before or after he died. Okay, so it looks like you would guess sometime within the last 24 hours but the body is cold so definitely recently but not immediately the mutilation you'd guess happened afterwards given the lack of blood around in fact there's very little blood around the body so it's probably moved here specifically given the amount of chaos around, it certainly looks more like... There was definitely some sort of physical activity here. Maybe a struggle, maybe a dance, you know. But some people were moving around here a lot

immediately before he died. Specifically, he's had his chest just carved open. And you're not an anatomist, though you do have forensics, I believe. Yes. The heart is missing. How long ago did we get the call? You got the call about two hours ago. OK.

Yeah, it looks like you would guess after he died, someone came in here and just carved out his heart. Can I get a flashlight's roll from you? Can I just check? Because I rolled a two on my flashlight Does that mean I'm now on a six? Oh goodness! Yes, I forgot that you'd failed

You're now on a six And yeah, I'm going to say as a negative consequence You are absolutely... Like, the timetables are the key to everything Timetables are 100% the key to everything I had already anticipated that I've got a one Which I can't believe because I tested all the D6s.

You guys are... I'm really, really happy with this. So you're already on a D4 for flashlights. Yep. This is going to go... Hmm, brilliantly. You are now covered in blood. You could go home and change, but you're not going to have time.

You've got to work this case. It's just coffee through to the arrest at this point. So you're spending the rest of the adventure just a bit covered in blood. Fine, that was right eventually. Yeah, I would like to go and interview the housekeeper. Alright. Yes.

Hello, officer. Hello, it's Detective, actually. Detective Schreiber. Sorry, Detective. Yeah, sorry for your loss and all that. It's, I mean, it's Detective, actually, Detective Schreiber. Sorry, Detective. Yeah, sorry for your loss and all that. I mean, it's a real tragedy. I didn't, you know... Oh, nasty old business, isn't it? Yes, it certainly is. So, was the victim married?

No, no. Oh, really? OK. Geoffrey, he didn't really go outside much, didn't talk to a lot of people. He had his pen pals, but, you know, mostly he was just doing his research. His mum and dad, they're not in the country a lot, you understand, always travelling for business,

very much just leave them to his own devices. Right, OK. So, pen pals, you say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, where from? Oh, I don't know, he didn't really talk to me about it a lot. There was just a lot of letters came from the occasional package, and he sent out a lot back, you know? Just, it was nice to see him, to see him have friends.

Just so you know, I'm drifting over to listen to this, and I'm going to subtly try and just throw some salt on his skin, because that's how you tell if someone's an alien. Oh, sorry, yeah. I seem to have some salt on me. I do apologise, detectives. I love the entire room is immediately gone. It's just like, was he married? No.

Oh, so you did it then. I'm learning a lot. And you say you found the body, did you? I did. So about maybe midday, i had a lot of crashing from the room but that's not that's not always uh that unusual and generally if i if i you know if i check up jeffrey gets a little bit got got a little bit um irate so i left it for a while but he didn't come out when it was

dinner time so I checked and I found well I found him like this but there was, the window was open and I ran to it and I saw someone climbing over the back fence to get away. Did you know? Yes

And can you describe this person? Well they had, I mean they were kind of bloody, but they had short, blonde hair. I think it was a woman, but she was tall and thin and had a scar on her face. Oh, really? A scar, eh? How convenient. What was it? They've always got a scar, haven't they? And can you tell me what you were doing for the day before you found him?

Cleaning, cooking, arranging the bed. I read a book for an hour or two. I like to take my breaks around two o'clock and I tend to read. Archie pipes up at that point. And what was the publication on that book? What was the publication date, hmm? I mean, it's Joseph Conrad, so I imagine sometime in the, I mean, 1920? I don't really know. You don't know the exact publication date of a book you'll read? I mean, I've got it here. She will sort of pass you a book. Oh, you have it with you, do you? Very convenient. Archie, again, like, looking just for the approval. Yeah. Dead convenient.

Do you always carry your books around with you at all times when you're being interviewed by the police? I mean, I wasn't carrying it. It was on the table just there. You saw me pick it up. So you're saying this is your book, then? Can you recite the I-band number for me, please? No.

I have expertise, librarian. Sasha, can you please roll smokes? Yes, OK. Three. That's enough, that's fine. So, while this interview is going on, is anyone doing any more analysis of the scene, any more investigation?

There was something genuine I was going to do. As much as I'm riffing around, I'm like, give it back. Kind of trying to pull off suspicious, but not really. I am actually going to attempt some legitimate investigation and go over to the window to see if the route that the escaping killer took is something that can be like also examined

that kind of thing sure make me a flashlight two good lord how far do I fall out that window so you notice a few things going over to the window firstly that the back fence is clearly visible from this window. If someone was climbing out over the fence, you could see it from here.

Secondly, there is an ashtray next to the window with various cigarette butts in, most of which are camels, but there is one which is a Marlborough brand, and there is a matchbook for The Last Drop. Oh, I love a good matchbook. Yes. Oh, what's the matchbook of? Matches.

As in, like, is it from, like, the pink pussy cat? No, it's from The Last Drop. Oh, it's literally from The Last Drop. It's from The Last Drop. I thought you were using lingo meaning The Last Drop sick. No, no, no, no, The Last Drop is, like... That's what I thought as well. You probably wouldn't go there.

It's kind of a rough establishment. But it is a bar in the downtown area. Famous for just... There's a back alley where there are lots of bodies there. Mostly from the pub, but sometimes people just leave one there

for a laugh. Hilarious. I'd love to leave a corpse for a joke. Bants in it. But also you're right you did fail your flashlight as well so you fall out the window. Nice. Could you roll me a d4 and take that much damage? I'll d4

and take that much damage. Four. Oh my god. Okay cool. Can't believe the rook is dead. What is your health by the way? See if I tell you that you'll try and avoid killing me I'm sure. No I'm, you'll try and avoid killing me, I'm sure. No, I'm not going to try and avoid killing you. This is a one-shot. I've gone from 13 hit points to 9 hit points.

Okay, noted. You guys are... It's like less than... You're on the ground floor. He just lands really awkwardly. I'm just in a bush. I'm going to use that distraction as a time to pocket a timetable or two. I'm going to need more than one, because I'm going to use that distraction as a time to pocket a timetable or two.

I'm going to need more than one because I'm going to cross-reference. Absolutely, you need them for the wall, for the corkboard. Yes, absolutely. I'm going to be looking for codes later. I also want to plant some goo, homemade goo, that I carry around with me in a key place. Maybe if I've noticed the ashtray, in the ashtray, just because sometimes people need a little bit of help to understand that the aliens are all around us.

So you're just dropping some goo in the ashtray? I'm dropping some goo in the ashtray. What's your goo made of? It's like a slime recipe. So we've got, what is it, flour? Like corn flour. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, OK, so you've popped some goo in the ashtray.

It's got glitter in it. Can I get a dexterity roll, actually, to see if anyone else notices? So I'm rolling my d20 and I have to... You're rolling your d20 trying to get under your dexterity. I have a dexterity of eight. Well, let's see. You know, it's possible. Nope.

Nope. Fifteen. So you guys, you sort of pop up and just get a face full of goo. Yeah, I saw that one coming. Oh, jeez! Causing you to slip back down and take another point of damage. Oh, jeez! Oh, man.

What are you doing, kid? So the sergeant is covered in blood, the rookie's covered in goo. Is there any more investigation you'll want to do for this? I'd like to have a look to see if I can find, like, a diary or an address book, because, OK, sure, Geoffrey Mariner wasn't married but he probably had like a cheating partner or something like that okay maybe his girlfriend was married

maybe his girlfriend was married or his boyfriend or his boyfriend yeah roll some flashlights just turn on my torch got a five okay he does have an address book it's a little bit bloodstained because it was in the inside pocket of his jacket Turn on my torch. Got a five. Okay, he does have an address book. It's a little bit bloodstained because it was in the inside pocket of his jacket,

along with a pack of camel cigarettes. Opening it, there are actually a lot of addresses. For someone who didn't leave the house a lot, he had a lot of addresses in his book. No real detail about any of them, but there is one page that is clearly more thumbed and referenced than any other, which is Angela Grockle and an address in Dusk Hollow, out in the suburbs. Are there any photographs around the room?

Some photographs of trains. There's one of a good-looking lorry. The reason I ask is because I have expertise photography and I was wondering if I could gain any extra clues from... No, you can't. Oh, jeez, well, I mean, this is an unsolvable case. What are we thinking? I'm going to look around.

Spontaneous hard combustion? I just want to see if there's, like, any... You know, just, like, bloody handprints or anything that looks like it's been moved around or taken. You know what, even without a flashlight roll, I'll say that it looks like a lot of the furniture was moved away from the centre of the room. There are a few divots. You're like, oh, the chaise longue should be here, but it's been pushed up against the wall. So it does look like someone's cleared a space in the centre of the room.

There's a knock at the door and the two Greggs are there. Sarge, coroner's here. Wants to take the body. If you don't mind, I'd like one last check on the body before they take it. I'm going to just... Spray some goo. No. I was actually going for the salt to see if he

dissolves. No, he does not dissolve. Right, okay. Good to know, good to know, good to know, good to know. Can we take a photo of the body with one of those, like, big flash? I mean, I think... Oh, absolutely. Emma gets out her camera and takes... Sorry, no, it's... OK, I have a weird obsession with,

and it's a really specific period of time, bloody love it, the period of time where you still have the sort of, you know, like, the canvas expanding ones, but they were pocketable, but it was like this case and you would open it and expand it so it was like a pocket camera that still goes about as big as your head yeah that's that's what it is that's what you have like who shot roger rabbit yeah yeah that's the one everyone there's the bulb flash and the oh yeah love it and the what is that stuff the smoke that comes out

there shouldn't be not with this design of camera Phosphorus. A little bit of phosphorus. There shouldn't be, not with this design of camera, but there's still a little bit. Absolutely. Yeah, I take a very lovely photo. You can get that developed in a dark room later. So, the ambulance has pulled up. A couple of EMTs are wheeling in a gurney, along with Dr Smilton,

who is the coroner for the police department. He's very tall, very thin, slicked back hair and always a big smile. Are we all done? Oh, hey, Doctor. Yes, hello. Hey. What a fascinating corpse. Are we all done here?

I can take it away, do my autopsy, see what's inside this... Or what's not inside. What's not inside? Sergeant, you intrigue me. Well, his heart's missing. Oh, fascinating. Wonderful. Obviously not for him, but for me, lovely news. Yeah, so maybe you could keep an eye out

and see if anything else is missing. Absolutely. Or how well it was removed. Yes, well, that is always the question, isn't it? People are so keen to cut up people's bodies, but they're often so bad at it. Or if it was just one hell of a heart attack. Could be. A heart attack so powerful that it exploded and disappeared.

Possible? That's my job to find out, and I am eager to do so. So, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and start cutting him up. What a good day. Speak to you later. Nice guy. Out of character. Izzy, though.

Izzy! Izzy! In character. Yeah. I don't trust him. So, is there anything else anyone wants to do with this crime scene? I want to have a look at the path that...

What's her name? So, is that to get out the window from the body? Yeah. I'm not going to go out the window. One of us already has. I'm not going to make you have a flashlight roll for that. It's, like, this room is walked through enough that it's hard to tell.

There are some scratches on the windowsill, but whether that is somebody climbing out or just the fact that it sees relatively common use with Geoffrey smoking out of it, who can say? Again, the back garden, there are some squashed plants, but whether that is somebody fleeing to the fence or someone doing some gardening. Hard to tell.

And, again, there's... Actually, no, I will have one flashlight. No, you've only got a D4. You've only got a D4, and it's too early to completely burn you out. Just do what I do and don't investigate anymore. Like, at all. Just stand.

But the fence, it's a little bit askew. Could have just been poorly made. Could have been someone vaulting over it any marks on it? not obviously no do you want to make a flashlights roll? do it I don't know what the ramifications for you losing it are I can't see it what is it

that's a 1 you're not dead bludgeoned to death by your own flashlight you do find a bloody handprint. It's faint, like clearly the blood wasn't super fresh, but yeah, somebody gripped the top of this with a hand that was bloody. And that's the fence. That's the fence.

Okay, metagame. For some reason I'm assuming we're pre-DNA, but you can do a blood type match. That's a thing. You've mistaken me for someone who ever cares. You know what? That's a good point. That's a good point. I apologise. So Nellie obviously didn't have anybody to verify her alibi

of I'm cleaning all day. So I won't be going through the whole house just checking up on how clean it actually is, looking for dust. Real clean. It's real clean. She said she was cooking. What's her food situation? Is the fridge stopped?

There is a big pot of stew that hasn't really been touched. I'd better test that. Does it taste good? Roll me flashlights. Real good reason to lose a flashlight. Ten. Oh, it tastes good. Damn it.

Tastes real good. Got me some tasty stew. Or tasty poison. That explodes your heart. Oh no, I shouldn't have done this. I think I upset Janet by solving the mystery too early. I'm real sorry. Frank, just to be clear, you're now out

of flashlights. I know what's going to happen because of that, but for now you're not able to look around for clues. You can still talk to people for clues, but you can't look until something happens that refreshes your flashlights. You've got tired, tired eyes. We'll see how it goes.

What if I arrest them? Time to have a nap in the police car. I'll just do it in the garden. It's already a mess. So I'm probably going to call the initial crime scene there and probably the first episode, I think. We were wildly successful, so it does make sense.

You've got a lot of clues. You do have a lot of clues. You should be able to solve it like that. I think this is an open and shut case. I think we all know what's going on here. Poisoned stew. Poisoned exploding heart stew. Aliens.

Yeah. So, we will be back in two weeks with the next instalment of Dusk Hollow PD. This episode is distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 international license. For more information, visit RustyQuill.com, tweet us at TheRustyQuill, visit us on Facebook, or email us at mail at RustyQuill.com.

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