Shadows in the Smoke S1E18 - "The Hunt Has Begun"

Shadows in the Smoke S1E18 – “The Hunt Has Begun”

Kim
Shadows in the Smoke is intended for mature audiences and may contain material that some people find disturbing. Please see the episode description for content warnings, and listen with care.

[Shadows in the Smoke theme]

Kim
Welcome, my dears, to the Dusk Phase.

[Soft, contemplative piano]

Kim
We begin, as we always do, with a Quickening roll, please. Let’s have it, T.

T.
I’m not taking any chances. I’m going to take the drawing of myself that I got today from Mr. Whistler and focus in on my human figure to try and keep this monster at bay. Because we got work to do.

Kim
Oh, I love that. Go ahead and mark it and roll with advantage.

T.
Which means my roll is a 4.

Natalia
Fuck.

Cassandra
Well… [Laughs]

T.
Damn it. Just like that. Okay.

Natalia
Oh, everything’s going to shit immediately.

Cassandra
This is two bad Quickenings in a row. Everything that was planned, gone in an instant.

Natalia
John is out of control.

T.
I think my first ones were like 12, 11, 10. And I was like, “Alright, I can do… I can work with a countdown.” This is fine. Let’s go. And then they were like, “Go fuck yourself.”

Kim
Even with advantage!

Cassandra
That’s hateful.

T.
With advantage.

Natalia
What did you roll?

T.
Two 2s and a 1.

Cassandra and Natalia
Oh, god…

Kim
The dice tell the story they wanna tell, I suppose. But it’s still in your hands, T. You could bump this up. You are not currently Drained, so it would just be a mask. But also, you have one, one-time use where you can fail and not retire this character.

T.
I don’t think I’m quite ready yet. I’m gonna mark a Mask of the Past.

Natalia
[Snorts]

Kim
Oh my god.

Cassandra
Dang.

Natalia
God, not another one. I’m so scared.

Cassandra
Oh my god.

T.
Unless it’s life or death, this is all I’m using these for, though, in the future. But my god, I can’t believe I… Okay. We’re fine. Everything’s fine.

Kim
I love how coy you are being about transforming into the creature, but it is coming at quite the cost.

T.
I think it’ll be worth it.

Narrate a flashback to a time after you finally went West, which show you happy and free.

The Mississippi River, spring 1839.

[The sounds of a busy ship]

T.
The bosun calls out his last, “All aboard!” And the gangplank scrapes across the jetties. The young man scrambles aboard the Hungarian, and Memphis shrinks to just another cluster of lights in the distance.

“You’re catching us as we’re heading upriver. We generally try to stay below the 36th till first thaw. We’ll turn around in Twin Cities and then head back toward the Gulf. You ever been to Kentucky?”

“No, sir.”

“Well, your luck’s about to run out. We’ll be in Paducah tomorrow morning. If you decide this ain’t for you after all and want to run off, I suggest you at least hold out till we reach St. Louis, but trust your gut!”

The young man’s eyes drink in his new habitat as he’s led below decks, through a labyrinth of halls and stairways, through doors he both has to step over and duck under to pass through.

“Don’t talk to the performers while they’re rehearsing, don’t talk to the passengers while they’re dining, and don’t talk to the captain at all. Constance here will see you accommodated.”

And then he saw her. To describe her now would fail utterly to explain her. To describe the difference between moonlight and starlight to a boy born blind would be easier than trying to make you understand her with wanting words. She bereft him of all words.

She does not feel the same about him.

“I thought you told the new faces to leave us alone while we’re rehearsing.”

“So?”

“So I’m a snake charmer, Tim.” She says, giving the young man a diagnosing glance. “If there’s a man aboard this ship, consider me in rehearsal. Accommodate the new face yourself.” And she slammed the door in his face.

No one had ever done that to Augustus Beaufort Hutchinson before. But then, the young man was no longer Augustus Beaufort Hutchinson.

We see him start as a swab and he hates it because he’s no good at it, but the work is good for him. It hollows out the pieces of him that are spoiled and puts calluses on his knuckles. Having run away, he no longer has any money, and so nobody treats him like he does. With neither fear nor fawning, he’s just another hand.

But he is also blessed with good looks, and it’s not long before Mr. Northrup, the man who runs the show, puts a flintlock in his hands – loaded with blanks, of course – and folds him into the patter.

She did, eventually, like a stone in the sun, warm up to him.

[A quiet night, insects chirping]

T.
See them now, one evening after the show, laying in a field in some yet uncharted meadow, fireflies glittering below and stars twinkling above. She points them out to him.

“That’s the great bear, and that’s the little bear next to it.”

“Workers back home told me they’re called dippers.”

“And I’ve heard sailors say they’re a mother and daughter seal. I’m teaching you the names educated people use. That big box-looking one is Pegasus. He’s the horse with wings. He’s riding right up next to Andromeda.”

“Who’s she?”

“She was a princess.”

“Oh, just like you.”

“I’ve told you about calling me that. She was a princess, and her daddy pissed off the god of the sea. So he chained her to a rock, offered her up to a sea serpent, which I guess was supposed to make the god happy. Then Perseus – he’s the next one over – he rides in on a white horse and turns it to stone and saves her.”

“How’d he turn it to stone?”

“He had the head of Medusa, the lady with snakes for hair.”

“So this is a vocational story.”

“John, I’m telling you once and for all, leave the show on the ‘Arian. But no, it’s just another story of some white knight saving a princess, and – what are you smiling at?”

“Promise not to laugh?”

“I will do no such thing.”

“Always wanted to be a knight, ever since I was a little boy. My father insisted I learn French so I could pass myself off as something fancy. I fell in love with Malory and Caught Me Like the Pox. I must have seen that O’Hara play 200 times. Percival was my favorite. Story of him and the Fisher King. I wanted to swing a sword and rise a horse, slay dragons, and save princesses.”

“I’ve told you, I’m not a fucking princess, and I don’t need saving.”

“Well, I’m not a snake, but you’ve charmed me. I know, I know, I’ll leave it on the deck.”

She rests her head on his chest. “Of course I charmed you. I’m not limited to snakes, you know. I can charm anything without arms.”

He squeezes her tighter to him. “And what do you call these?”

She holds up his flintlock. “What do you call this?”

“Easy now, that’s dangerous.”

“It’s loaded with blanks.”

“Still breathes fire, princess.”

“Call me princess one more time.”

“Okay, okay, okay. Not princess. How about a queen? My Queen of Hearts.”

“All the punters pick the Queen of Hearts. You gotta know me better by now. I’m the Queen of fucking Diamonds.”

“Alright then, Diamonds, give me back my gun. Anyway, turns out there’s rules in the constitution against being a knight. Kind of ruined my dream. And boy, didn’t I make that everyone’s problem.”

“You know, Percival was a virgin.”

“Hmm. Well. I guess I spoiled my own dream, then.”

“Mmhmm. You’re much better off as a dragon. Now get over here and devour me.”

[Soft, contemplative piano]

Kim
So on a 7 to 9, take the Condition: Drained. Miss Douglas, would you like to do Moonlight Upon the Waves tonight?

Natalia
No, I think we have other plans for our Night Phase.

Kim
Alright. The next part of the Dusk is I would like to invite you all to answer a question, should you wish. As a reminder, we are ready to resolve the Demon of Kilburn Abbey. There is nothing left to answer, concerning that Threat. The Creature of Cremorne Gardens, we still have the threshold question of, “Is the creature real or is it a hoax?” And we’ve got a lot of Clues for that today. We’ve got seven Clues for the Creature of Cremorne Gardens. And for the Spider Silk Seamstress, we have three different Questions we could be working on, and we have amassed four Clues. So how are we feeling about answering any of these questions today?

Cassandra
I do have a pitch for answering the threshold Question for the Creature of Cremorne Gardens.

Kim
Lovely. Alright. The Clues you have amassed are a flyer that Miss Douglas found that is advertising an upcoming horrors of the sea waxwork from Madame Tussauds, numerous reports of drunk and disorderly behavior happening at Cremorne Gardens at night, large glowing eyes peering at Mr. John (the Most Beloved) from the darkness, Miss Thrum reported that her engagement ring was missing after her encounter with the Creature of Cremorne Gardens, Miss Douglas received a piece of scrimshaw depicting a fish-like man rising from the water, the sky rained saltwater, and Miss Douglas noticed an iridescent pattern of fish scales on Beulah’s hand.

As a reminder, the threshold question, if you get it wrong, if we roll this and it is a miss, you do not have the opportunity to try and re-answer it. The opposite conclusion is considered true and we move on to the next layer of questions, unless you choose to use a mask to bump it up.

Cassandra
I think, given the Clues, it can go either way. There might be, like, some merit to discussing which route we want to take. Because if you look at all of the things that could be considered like very mundane – you have reports of people being robbed when they have an encounter with this fish-like person, which is a very simple, everyday kind of crime. Which would lend itself to being something where it’s a hoax.

Kim
Yeah. Unless this is, like, some sort of like hoarding mystical creature.

T.
Seaweed magpie.

Natalia
I mean, fish and birds are attracted to shiny things. And they both live by the sea, so.

Robert
Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?

Kim
[Laughs]

T.
Yeah, there is Little Mermaid precedent, there.

Cassandra
Well there’s also merit in, like, there is this new exhibit that’s happening at Madame Tussaud’s. So there is a costume available to potentially be poached. All of the things are happening at Cremorne Gardens, so there could be like a rivalry situation thing. Like, we want to take down Cremorne Gardens to have more people come to the new exhibit at Madame Tussauds.  Like that’s an option for it to be a hoax.

Kim
Yeah. Or someone at Cremorne Gardens being like, “Oh shit, the waxwork is having a sea creature exhibit. We gotta do something with sea creatures at Cremorne Gardens.” Like it could go either way, for sure.

Cassandra
Sure. Yeah, yeah.

T.
But then we also have glowing eyes and saltwater rain, which are a little bit more difficult to pick up from your local wax exhibit.

Kim
And the scales on Beulah’s hand, unless we want to say that was like a rub off…

Natalia
An artistic choice.

Kim
Tattoo. A temporary tattoo.

T.
Or paint, or whatever. I feel like we can make the justification for there for like stage makeup, or something. I feel like that’s another one that could work either way for us.

Cassandra
Maybe she’s in cahoots with whoever is doing it. And so to kind of keep the heat off of it being a person, she’s now got this like scaled thing that no one can explain, basically. So it’s like… it could be that as well. Or like on the flip side of it, whatever is causing everyone to be hysterical, maybe there’s like a contagion element to it, as well. And that is something that’s showing up on people that haven’t, you know, walked off the pier yet.

Kim
Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

T.
Oh, like the black spot in Treasure Island.

Natalia
Mmhmm.

T.
There’s justifications for all of it. It’s just… It’s up to us. Do we want to break Maesie’s heart, or do we want to give Kim the opportunity to break Maesie’s heart later?

Cassandra
Either way, sorry Maesie.

Kim
Robert, what do you think? You’ve been pretty quiet.

Robert
I mean, it really just comes down to do we want another mundane threat or do we want another supernatural threat? And honestly, given the party makeup, I’m kind of leaning towards supernatural.

T.
I do like supernatural.

Cassandra
I feel like we’re leaning supernatural, that it’s real. And now we just need to pick our four clues and say, “Why is it real?”

Kim
Alright, so tell me why it’s real.

Robert
Well I mean, the most obvious piece of real evidence we’ve been given is that the Lady Thames literally gave Maesie an image of this creature in the scrimshaw. I also think that the large glowing eyes, that’s a pretty clear sign of a supernatural thing. Same with the iridescent pattern of fish scales. Maybe there’s something contagious about it, or it’s actually literally just like a piece of its skin got jammed on her.

T.
And I think the saltwater rain is hard to explain away in a mundane setting.

Robert
Yeah. Like if we accept that the magical creatures around here influence their atmosphere, that London is affected by the dark spirits living in it, that maybe that’s just a sign.

T.
That’s four.

Robert
And now the real question is, who wants to roll?

T.
I feel like because so much of this revolves around Maesie…

Natalia
Oh god, okay. Am I rolling both?

Robert
I’ll take the other one.

Natalia
Okay, thank you. Please don’t put this all on me. I’m so scared. [Rolls dice]

Robert
[Rolls dice]

Natalia
I got a 6.

Robert
I got a 2. So I’m glad you got a 6.

Kim
All right. The answer is correct! The creature is real!

Natalia
Yay! Success.

Kim
So now we have unlocked the second layer of the Creature of Cremorne Gardens. This question is, if the creature is real, what does the creature want? Which is a Complexity 4. You resolve the Threat by luring the creature to you, then destroying it or convincing it to go back wherever it came from. However, because you got a mixed success, I do get to present a little bit of a complication. But I think that will arise next Day Phase.

So, are we interested in having a London Night Phase, or a Hargrave House Night Phase tonight?

Cassandra
I think we gotta deal with a demon inside Rabbit of it all. So I would say a London Night Phase.

Natalia
Hell yeah.

Robert
Yeah, definitely.

Kim
I will go around and ask everyone what they plan to do tonight. I mean, I think I have an idea. But I’d like to hear it.

Robert
Well, I would like to get this demon out of me.

Natalia
I would like to get the demon out of Rabbit.

Cassandra
Having experienced the demon firsthand, Ena is ever watchful over Rabbit and would like to also get the demon out of him.

T.
I would like to get this demon out of Rabbit.

[An ominous, rumbling woosh]

Kim
Tonight’s Unscene is called The Tarot Card Reading of Ms. Lydia Wainwright.

[Mystical ambient drones, gentle bells]

Kim
Lydia Wainwright is a young woman of 19, born into a respectable family. Her mother has commanded her to marry Edgar Thornton, the son of a wealthy industrialist. But her heart belongs to Samuel, a poor but very handsome chimney sweep. Lydia has snuck off in the night to the home of a fortune teller, seeking guidance on the matter. Paint the Scene: as Lydia enters the home of this fortune teller, what do we see that shows this place has real magic?

Cassandra
As Lydia enters and softly closes the door behind her, she looks around into a space that is covered in deep, jewel tone scarves. And the door is closed, all of the windows are closed, but there is a faint breeze that whispers around her as she steps into the room.

Robert
Despite the fact that the fortune teller’s home has unusually high ceilings and tchotchkes lining its shelves, there is not a single speck of dust or a cobweb in any of the corners, as though someone is keeping this house tidy for her.

T.
Lydia wouldn’t recognize this. But among the tchotchkes on the shelves are bits of anachronism. Inventions from the future, such as a wind-up alarm clock, that could only have been given to the fortune teller from another time, or from someone from another time.

Natalia
Lounging delicately on a small seat in the corner is a small brown rabbit that looks fairly normal at first, but as Lydia looks at it and looks away and looks again, she notices it has a third eye embedded in its forehead.

Kim
So hunters, I’d like to remind you all of something that I said in our very first Night Phase. Remember when I said that while the Day belongs to you, the Night belongs to me?

T.
Yes, we remember.

Natalia
Yes, I’m scared.

Kim
I’ve been a bit lenient about letting you all do what it is you wish to do. And I will let most of you do what it is you would like to do this evening. But Mr. John, the Most Beloved…

Natalia
Ah!

T.
Yes, my dear?

Kim
I don’t believe you make it down to the foyer of Hargrave House tonight.

T.
Oh no!

As I look at that sketch of myself that James Whistler painted, doing everything in my power to keep my humanity, instead I takes me back to myself as a young man, looking at the foolish boy who had his heart ripped in two. And that rips something else inside of me until every part of me aches, trying to wrestle the Quickening under control. Every time it has been getting more and more difficult. I grit my teeth, they’re sharpened. My eyes flash gold, and they have a thin slit of a pupil in their center. The shoulders swelling up, and something begins to bulge out of my middle on either side, just below my ribcage. And with deep breathing, wrestling it under control as hair begins to swell, and then my back splits, the flesh underneath my skin showing. And with a mighty effort, I stitch it back together by sheer force of will, and calm.

Kim
And as you slip into that calm, it is short-lived. For you feel hands about your throat and about your body as a heavy veil is thrown over your head.

[Eerie, discordant, screeching bells]

Kim
And you are dragged, with surprising strength, out of your bedroom window, down the rooftops of Hargrave House, and bundled, tied, into a carriage which speeds away down Belgrave Square.

Mr. John (T.)
[Muffled sounds of struggle]

Kim
The rest of my hunters. How do we begin your evening?

Natalia
Maesie’s definitely too scared to approach Rabbit on her own. So she goes to Ena’s room and sort of knocks quietly on the door.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Ena, I don’t even know what we’re doing. How are we… what are we…

Cassandra
Ena opens the door, dressed now all in black with a very heavy skirt and a black jacket. She’s putting her gloves on. She takes in Maesie’s face and the tone of her voice, and puts both hands on her shoulders.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Little pearl, I’m going to need some of that wonderful energy you used on our policemen friends in play tonight. Can you do that for me?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Yes. Absolutely I can, yeah.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
It’s going to take all of us to get Rabbit out of harm’s way.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I will do anything I can. Just tell me what to do.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I have a plan. Let’s go find Rabbit and we can start to figure it out.

Robert
Rabbit is waiting for them downstairs in the garden, trying just to keep himself calm and very present in the moment, so that he can stop the demon from taking him over while Miss Thanero is getting ready for what it is she needs to do tonight.

Cassandra
Ena walks out into the garden and approaches Rabbit, and in her hands is a similar gold cord to the one that she wears on her shoulder. But she walks up to him and says…

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I need to tie you up, dear. Is that alright?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
It’s alright with me.

Cassandra
And she takes that gold cord and starts to wrap it around his wrists and then puts the hand that Aegis is on – it’s gloved at the moment – but puts it on that gold rope and it glows, ever so faintly for a brief moment. And then goes back to being a simple gold cord.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Alright, Rabbit. Have you heard of a Colossus Binding?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
No, that’s not something I’m familiar with.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
It’s probably for the best. We don’t want to give our demon friend any hints as to what we’re going to be doing. But first what we need to do is we need to get the body of that girl and we need to get to Kilburn Abbey.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Well, maybe we should have waited to tie me until we were there, then.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Oh don’t worry, darling. We’ve got our little pearl and we’ve got Mr. John, who I haven’t seen yet this evening. Maesie, do you want to go check and see where he is?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Yes, I will. I will get him.

Natalia
Maesie runs off back into the house and starts climbing the stairs up to Mr. John’s little turret.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
The body should be safe and sound in the mortuary. The demon is somewhat barred from re-entering that place, given that it’s in me at the moment. So it should probably be safe. I’ve not been to the abbey myself, that was more Mr. John’s territory.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
So if you can’t go into the mortuary, it’ll be up to Maesie, me, and Mr. John to get the body out of the morgue.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I mean, I suppose I could go in, but then, you know, the demon would go in with me. And I think from what you’re saying, that’s probably not something we want.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Yes, definitely not the wisest choice.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Just, really quickly. Look at my eyes. Remember what they look like. As long as I’m in control, these eyes are my eyes. The demon will not be able to fake them.

Robert
His eyes are s oft green that has almost a bluish tint to it, with little streaks of white. Similar to greenstone, a type of jade.

Cassandra
Ena looks carefully, taking in all of the little specific details. Nods her head, and then turns on her heel and walks back into the house to go and have her carriage called.

Kim
Miss Douglas, you knock upon Mr. John’s door. No answer.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Mr. John, we’re going to get the demon out of Rabbit and we’re leaving soon! Mr. John? …Mr. John?

Natalia
Maesie, like, pulls the door open. Never having been in this room before, is very taken aback by the giant cage attached to a bed.

Kim
Yeah, indeed. There’s a lot in this room that takes you by surprise, I feel. The giant cage, the bookcases everywhere, and notably – the lack of One-Shot John.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Mr. John?

Natalia
She looks around the room. She doesn’t want to step too far in because it feels like an invasion of privacy. But she does sort of a cursory glance, sees that he’s just not anywhere in here, and just goes…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I guess he’s already downstairs.

Natalia
And starts leaving, and intercepts with Ena in the hall.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
He wasn’t in his room. Do you… have you seen him?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I haven’t seen him. What do you mean, he’s not in his room? He always goes there.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I went in there. He wasn’t there. I asked for him by name, and no one responded. Therefore, he’s not there.

Cassandra
Ena shoots up the stairs, opens the door, sees everything in there and doesn’t see him. And then turns back around and looks around the hallway, as if he’s going to be there. Obviously, he’s not. She is worried for a moment, but then puts her warrior exterior back on, calmly descends the staircase, and looks at Maesie.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Well, I’m sure he can take care of himself. WE have to get Rabbit sorted, though, before that demon takes him away from us forever.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Alright. Alright. Oh, lordy, this is gonna be a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be. Ooh. Okay, yep.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Little pearl, you can do this. I can count on you, right?

Natalia
Maesie looks scared, but does the same thing that you did – sort of puts on the brave face and sets her shoulders, and just goes…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I will do everything I can.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
You’re going to be fine.

Kim
Let’s go to our second Unscene prompt.

[Mystical ambient drones, gentle bells]

Kim
Robert. The first two cards drawn in the five card spread are The Lovers and the Ace of Wands, the latter of which is typically associated with passion. Speaking in the voice of the fortune teller, begin telling Lydia what you see in the cards.

Robert
“The Lovers. An interesting card. At first, it could just seem to mean you and your gentlemen, but in reality, it means a choice. A choice that, once taken, cannot be done back. Paired with the Ace of Wands, that tells me that this choice is not going to be an easy choice. It is going to be a choice between your head and your heart, your passion and your principles. And the choice that you make might be the right one for you, but it might be the wrong one for everyone else. The rest of the cards will guide you on this choice, but ultimately it is yours and yours alone to make.”

Kim
I would like to remain with our trio of hunters who are speeding in their carriage towards Gastrell’s mortuary. When you arrive, you see that the nearby gas lamp illuminating this block of London has been smashed, this street unnaturally dark, and the door to the mortuary has been pushed – nay, forced – open.

Cassandra
The carriage pulls to the curb. Ena opens the door and sees that the door to the mortuary has been forced open, takes the cord off of her shoulder, cracks it like a whip, and we see the spear once again that she used in the garden in her hand.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Rabbit, you stay here. Little pearl, do you think you can accompany me?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Right. Let’s do it.

[Empty, abandoned ambient tones]

Cassandra
Ena has the spear pointed forward and she makes her way through the halls of the mortuary, looking in each of the rooms. Having not been here, she’s not sure where the body is. But just makes her way all the way to the back, where that little tea party took place with Mr. Gastrell.

Kim
Miss Douglas and Miss Thanero, as you tread further into this mortuary, you begin to hear chanting voices. As you go into the main room of this mortuary itself, you see the body of the girl, who is being wrapped in linen cloth as the brothers of Kilburn Abbey are anointing her with oils and chanting.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Looks like the party started without us.

Natalia
Maesie, as surreptitiously as possible, grabs like a scalpel or something sharp from nearby.

Kim
I have a Paint the Scene for you all, actually, as this is happening. As you are looking at the monks of Kilburn Abbey, how can you tell that they are not acting of their own accord but rather under the influence of the demon?

Cassandra
As you look around the circle, you would expect to see the eyes of these priests, but instead every single one of them, their eyes are rolled back into their head, and their eyes are just all white.

Natalia
They're also all moving in complete synchrony. There is not a moment’s hesitation between any of their movements. They all act as one, as if something is controlling all of them together.

Robert
And the odd symbols that Rabbit once noticed on the corpse have started faintly, but noticeably, appearing on the hands and forearms of the brothers.

T.
Not only are they moving in sync, but the way they’re moving is as if something is playing with them like they are dolls. As if invisible hands are jerking their hands forward, and moving their legs akimbo. They don’t move fluidly or naturally, but they do move in unison.

Kim
Upon your entrance into this chamber, the brothers all at once straighten and look at you. And wordlessly, they all grab scalpels off of Gastrell’s table and advance upon you, chanting…

The Monks of Kilburn Abbey (Kim)
New vessels, new vessels…

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Oh darlings, I think not.

Cassandra
And Ena steps into the middle of this and starts hitting these priests away, trying to subdue them but not kill them, because she knows they’re under the influence of something otherworldly. And as she’s doing so, looks over her shoulder at Maesie.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
A little bit of that sea magic might be good about now!

Natalia
Maesie starts being so small and petite, because she’s a little girl. She starts, like, jumping and diving between the priests to get as close to the body of the girl as possible. And once she’s in the middle of everything, you see her, like, grab onto the table.

[Sinister, underwater ambience]

Natalia
Her shoulders roll, and her eyes roll over black the way they did the last time that Ena saw her do this. And I’m going to use Curse of the Deep.

Kim
Alright. When you lash out at someone threatening you or your allies – check. Invoke the magic of your kin and roll with Sensitivity. I am gonna put this at disadvantage because you’re Hesitant.

Natalia
Maesie gets to this operating table that the girl is on, and pulls forth the Viking flag that she has previously used as a blankie, and wraps the girl in that instead. Or I guess, onto of the shroud that she’s already wearing.

Kim
I love that. Go ahead and mark that Personal Quarters item. So this will be a flat roll, 2d6 + Sensitivity.

Natalia
[Sighs] It’s gonna be a 5.

I wanna burn a mask. I can’t not…

Kim
Miss Douglas, are you spending a Mask of the Past or a Mask of the Future?

Natalia
I will be using a Mask of the Past.

Narrate a flashback to your young adulthood, in which you explored what the surface world had to offer.

[Gentle harp music]

Natalia
To protect our home and our family, the rule is this: as children, we are only allowed to doff our pelts at night on the safety of our isle, where no humans can find us. But once we turn 14, we are unshackled and allowed to travel to the mainland – with an adult the first time, of course – to walk amongst the people there.

The first time I set foot upon Scottish soil, I think I cried at least a dozen times. My tears have always brought me closer to the ocean. A tiny drop of seawater I make on my own, when my emotions cannot be contained by my heart. It’s magic.

The first several times I cried involved food, as I’d never had the opportunity to try a potato before. And I’d had eggs, just never cooked, so that was incredibly exciting and new. And don’t get me started on sweets. When I bit into a shortbread cookie and the sugar melted on my tongue, I thought I’d cry for a week. I certainly cried when my mom said I could not take a box home with me because, “It would get soggy on the way, Maesie, then you’re just gonna cry some more.”

And she was right.

Tears stung at the corners of my eyes from the coughing fit I had after my first sip of scotch burned down my throat. Tears threatened to spill over when I ran my hand across the blue and green pattern of a soft woolen bolt of fabric that I just had to have. And tears flowed freely down my cheeks when I heard the lilting call of a jig from inside a tavern, and I felt my feet carry me into the warm embrace of a step dance that did not let me go for hours.

My mother practically had to drag me out by my skirts when it was time to go home, but I’ve been tapping my toes and flapping my fins to the fast-paced rhythm that sings to me across the waves, ever calling me back to those shores.

Kim
Beautiful, Natalia. This bumps your roll up to a 7 to 9. You get to choose one. You have advantage on your next roll, they are overwhelmed with fear and flee, they refuse to harm someone of your choosing including yourself, or they gain a deep fear regarding bodies of water.

Natalia
Again, I feel like the only one that is going to protect all parties involved is they are overwhelmed with fear and flee.

Kim
I’d love to hear what this looks like.

[Sinister, underwater ambience]

Natalia
Maesie takes the Viking flag, wraps it around the girl on the table, scoops her up, and with the strength of the ocean and the tides and all of the magic of her kin inside of her, heftily throws this girl over her shoulder – which is remarkable, considering that they are about the same size – and turns towards the priests.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
There is a time and a place for magic. And this magic does not belong to you. I highly suggest that you go back to your abbey, and we’ll be seeing you soon.

Natalia
And starts walking between them towards Ena, and back towards the carriage.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, while all of this is going on, you hear the smash of glass as the window of your carriage is broken by a club, and you feel hands start to grab at you. One of these wild-eyed priests is reaching for your bound form, whispering…

Possessed Priest (Kim)
Join us, brother.

Kim
As they are trying to pull you out of the carriage and abscond with you.

Robert
Rabbit’s first instinct is to try and escape, but as his hands are bound and there’s no obvious way out of the carriage other than through one of these brothers, his mind soon turns to an alternative tactic. He finds, in the shuffle, a piece of glass that has been broken, and palms it as carefully as he can. With the knowledge that, should worst come to worst, his own blood or one of these monks will do, even if he’s not able to first create the circle to contain his magic. And he takes that piece of glass and he goes limp and lets the monks grab him. But the moment one of them is close enough to his bound hands, he takes that piece of glass and slashes the monk in a place that would be hard to recover from, spilling his blood and summoning the dark spirits that are always surrounding and inside of him.

Kim
Alright, Mr. Lloyd, this sounds like a Rite of Salt and smoke. I am gonna put this at disadvantage, because of the Condition: A Voice in your Head. The demon would like you to go with these brothers.

Robert
Luckily earlier, Rabbit had found a letter containing steps to bind a demon. And while he obviously can’t bind a demon himself, being bound at the moment, and the demon being inside of him, magic is mutable. And he’s able to take some elements of that magic and work them in with his own.

Kim
Yeah, go ahead and mark that Personal Quarters item and roll 2d6 + Sensitivity.

Robert
[Rolls dice]

Natalia
Why are we all struggling?

Cassandra
This is not a good day.

T.
Can we… Yeah, can we scrap this one?

Robert
I rolled a 2. With my +2, that’s a 4.

Kim
Well Mr. Lloyd, these priests will abscond with you into the night.

Robert
I am going to spend a Mask of the Future.

T.
Ooh, boy.

Robert
As Rabbit has attempted to do magic for the first time in a long time without first the preparation of creating a circle around him to contain and focus that magic, the energy that goes coursing through him when he tries this is just too much, and it breaks his brain a little bit. So I’m going to be marking The Cosmic Passage in order to bring that up to a mixed success.

Kim
Alright, Mr. Lloyd. Everyone’s Cosmic Passage is a little different, but yours specifically reads, “Increase your Sensitivity by 1, max of +3. And reduce your Reason by 2.”

Robert
So that brings my Sensitivity up to a 3, and my Reason down to a -1.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, mask spent, you get to choose an effect and a complication, please.

Robert
So, one of the effects is banish a spirit or curse from the person, object, or place it inhabits. Would these brothers be considered cursed?

Kim
I think I would allow it, yeah.

Robert
Then I will choose the effect “banish a spirit or curse from the person, object, or place it inhabits” and get rid of the curses on these monks. Get them back to their somewhat normal state of mind. And the complication, I’m going to go “the effect is short-lived.”

Kim
Alright, what does this look like?

[Trickling, mystical tones]

Robert
Rabbit takes the piece of glass that he had palmed, slashes the forearms of one of the brothers, and as the blood begins to spurt out, it doesn’t flow out like a liquid. But rather, begins to seep out like a dark gas or a smoke, and shapes and shadows in the gaslit street grow longer and more distended as animals, people, and something somewhere between the two made out of smoke and shadow itself begin to surround Rabbit and the monks. And they grab the brothers away from Rabbit. And as they hold the heads of the brothers in their hands, disappear into the bodies of the men who are knocked down to the ground, the demon temporarily replaced with something else.

Kim
Miss Douglas and Miss Thanero, as you are carrying the body of the girl out of Gastrell’s mortuary, I think you arrive just in time to see these monks that were just attacking your carriage flee into the streets of London.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Right. So things may be a bit more complicated than we thought.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
You don’t say?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I think I need to take a little lie down.

Robert
And Morgan passes out, back into the carriage.

Cassandra
Ena cracks the spear again, and it goes back into its cord form. As she’s walking towards the carriage she’s refastening it to her shoulder, and she just huffs out a sigh of frustration, picks Rabbit up with no difficulty, and lays him into one of the benches that’s in the carriage.

Natalia
Maesie carries the dead girl exactly the same. Just into the carriage, lays her down, like plops down next to her, and the black seeps out of her eyes. She looks exhausted.

Kim
Mr. John, speeding in a different direction. The carriage slows to a stop, and you are dragged in your drained state through what feels like vegetation and brush and bushes. You’re somewhere lush and somewhere outdoors. As the veil is lifted from your face, you find yourself in a secluded garden-like space. This is a lush part of London. I think far off in the distance you see a towering lass greenhouse, this wonder of modern architecture.

[A strange, magical forest]

I’m not sure if Mr. John knows precisely where he is, but I do have a Paint the Scene about this location, being Kew Gardens. The gardens are a world of their own, a marvel to behold. As you pass beyond the walls, what gives you the sense that you have entered another realm?

T.
Even though I was abducted at dusk and I know how long I had been traveling, the sky here is gloaming twilight, neither dan nor dusk, and this purple-pink rosy orange haze.

Natalia
The gardens are lush and green and overflowing with plant life, but plant life that is ethereal. It glows on its own. Its colors are to rich and too vibrant and changing in color constantly, in a way that demonstrates its otherworldliness.

Robert
There is the sound of music, as though carried from some far-off land on the cool night’s air. Tinkling, swaying, and just slowly working its way into the back of your head.

[Odd, twinkling bells]

Cassandra
With each step taken into this realm, the flora will pull back off of the path, as not to be stepped on. And as soon as the steps past, it will crawl back onto the path.

Kim
Mr. John, you perceive all of this. But mainly, you perceive your captors. Two veiled women, completely covered. One is binding you with this silver thread, holding you in place. While the other is pulling from bits of sky these long silver needles, and thread that seems to be made from the shadow itself.

Sisters Sendulla (Kim)
He’s awake, sister.

Mr. John (T.)
And he’s pretty pissed off. Get your fucking hands off me.

Sisters Sendulla (Kim)
Oh, no. Not as you are. No, we must transform you before we are to give you to our mistress. Yes, you will be the prize in her court. A great beast, we shall hunt.

Mr. John (T.)
I ain’t nobody’s fucking gift. And if you don’t want to be hunted yourself, I suggest you let me go. We can all forget about this.

Sisters Sendulla (Kim)
Our gift talks so rudely, sister.

Yes, we must fix that.

I shall sew his lips shut.

Mr. John (T.)
You do, that, the other mouth is going to come out. And it’s a lot ruder.

Kim
Mr. John, these sisters are advancing upon you with their wickedly sharp needles.

T.
I am Drained.

Kim
You are. Which means you are going to be making Vitality moves at disadvantage.

T.
I mean… Yeah. This is just animal instinct. I gotta make a break for it, Vitality disadvantage be damned.

Kim
This is gonna be a Night Move for sure. What are you afraid will happen if you fail?

T.
Well Kim, I am afraid that these sisters will tie me and truss me up and deliver me to their fae mistress to be hunted like a jabberwocky.

Kim
Mr. John, it’s worse than that.

T.
Had a feeling it might be.

Kim
What makes it worse is just that, perhaps playing upon the sentimental side of Mr. John, your three fellow hunters will just assume that you have cruelly abandoned them.

T.
Alright. I’m gonna make a break for it and head toward that greenhouse. It’s the only landmark I’ve got.

Kim
Alright, this is going to be a Night Move with Vitality. This will be at disadvantage, because you are Drained.

T.
7+2 is 9.

Kim
Mr. John, you flex your muscles, and we hear the ripping of this silver thread as you escape the clutches of the Sisters Sendulla. But as you are making your way through these gardens, the vegetation is reaching for you, as if it is trying to hold you back. The path is twisting out of your view, and you’re hearing the giggle of the sisters as they pursue you.

Sisters Sendulla (Kim)
Yes. Run, little beast. The hunt has begun!

[Shadows in the Smoke theme]

Kim
Shadows in the Smoke is a Kitten Marlowe production. This episode was edited and produced by Kim Dalton, and featured a theme song by Jake Pierle. You can find out more about us by visiting kittenmarlowe.com, signing up for our newsletter, or following us on socials. For Discord access, an exclusive behind the scenes show, and more, visit Patreon.com/KittenMarlowe and join Levi Phipps and all of our incredible Kitten Marlowe patrons in supporting artist-driven storytelling. Thanks for listening.