Shadows in the Smoke S1E19 - "O Gods of the Underworld"

Shadows in the Smoke S1E19 – “O Gods of the Underworld”

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
Let’s return to the tarot card reading of Miss Lydia Wainwright.

[Ethereal ambient drone, clinking chimes]

Kim
T., the next two cards drawn are the Five of Swords, typically associated with violence, and the Fool, which represents the beginning of a journey. Continue the fortune teller’s reading.

Fortune Teller (T.)
The Five of Swords, three collected, two on the ground remaining to be retrieved. The two could be yours, forfeited by your choice, or the three collected, a gain. But either way, I’m afraid the choice you make will bring violence. But such violence is necessary, for from that ending shall come beginning. The Fool steps on the edge of a cliff, ready to plummet or ready to fly, but the choice must be made.

[Chimes fade away, ambient drone intensifies]

Kim
I’d like to return to Kew Gardens, or something resembling Kew Gardens, for the plants and flowers here seem to have a sentience that catches you by surprise. You feel vines trying to reach out and grab you and pull you back towards the Sisters Sendulla as you are making your way through this transformed place.

Mr. John (T.)
Even the fucking flora’s against me.

T.
I would like to strip out of my clothing as it is being grabbed by these vines, and just let them have the garments, like Sycorax’s tree, and continue pelting on through the forest unencumbered.

Kim
I love that. I’m just gonna let you do that. I think that’s cool as hell.

T.
Great. Mr. John begins loping through the forest, now forsaking his eyes, which are only playing tricks on him and leading him on and off paths as they see fit, and trusting into his more bestial senses: his ears, his nose, and the hairs on the back of his neck.

Kim
Alright, this feels like another Night Move to me, but this time with Sensitivity, I think, as you are relying on this other side of you. What are you afraid will happen if you fail here?

T.
I’m afraid that the Quickening will not have been bested for the evening, just momentarily bedded down, and I will transform and, as they say, the hunt will have begun already. And I will run straight into their Mistress’s wood.

Kim
Mr. John, it’s worse than that. By relying upon your cursed state in your hour of need, you will surrender all parts of yourself that are One Shot John as this bestial, cursed form takes over your body and your mind for good.

T.
Well, let’s not let that happen then. [shakes dice]

Kim
This is a Night Move with Sensitivity. I don’t think Drained is at play here, but I do think that Most Beloved is.

T.
Yeah, they really want me.

Kim
Yeah, they really do.

T.
4 and 3 is 7.

Kim
Let’s return to our trio of hunters.

[Hoofbeats and carriage wheels rolling over cobblestones]

Cassandra
Once everyone has gotten back into the carriage, Ena is sitting next to Rabbit’s still form with a hand holding him in place so he doesn’t roll and fall onto the floor of the carriage. And Ena has directed the carriage to go to Kilburn Abbey.

Natalia
Maesie is similarly holding onto this dead girl and is having that feeling of, like, riding in a carriage where it’s just, like, the jiggling of the carriage and the exhaustion is sort of just, like, weighing on her, and she’s just, like, trying so hard to keep herself awake.

[Church bells tolling and echoing, low-pitched chanting]

Kim
The three of you arrive at Kilburn Abbey. This space is lit from within by what can only be hundreds of candles. And you hear bells ringing and discordant organ music, mixed with the sounds of chanting, but not in a language that you recognize.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
What do we do? Where do we go? Do we wake Rabbit? Do we leave him unconscious? I don’t know what to do.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
We’re going to have to take him with us. And it would definitely be easier if he was on his feet.

Cassandra
Ena slaps him across the face a couple of times to see if she can rouse him from whatever slumber he’s currently in.

Robert
Rabbit groans and sort of shifts. He wakes up, but his eyes don’t seem to be focusing on either of them or anything within the carriage. They just seem to be dancing wildly about as soon as they are open.

Cassandra
Ena notices the movement of his eyes and looks at them to check them, as she was instructed, to see if they are still Rabbit’s.

Robert
And as soon as Ena gets close to Rabbit, he closes his eyes tightly.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Too bright! Too bright! No! Too bright, too bright! Can’t look at you!

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I’ve heard that before, dear. It’s nighttime.

Cassandra
And Ena grabs him by the arm, pushes him out of the carriage in front of her, and starts to bodily walk him towards the doors of the abbey.

Natalia
Maesie scoops the girl, straining much more than she did previously, and follows Ena.

Robert
Allowing himself to be led by Ena, Rabbit shuffles along, his eyes tightly pinched, but, even so, his head still turning away from her as though he cannot stand even the chance that he might see her.

Kim
Alright. Where do you want to have this binding ritual?

Cassandra
This girl needs to go back into the exact wall she was found in, and I believe that was a room somewhere in, like, the basement or bowels of the abbey.

Kim
Yes, it was in the wine cellar.

Cassandra
That is where she needs to go.

Natalia
Can we find a way in that isn’t, like, the main entrance to the church? [chuckles]

Kim
You are hearing the strains of what The Man in the Sun Mask had described as a black mass happening as you are entering Kilburn Abbey. As a GM and as a storyteller, the story I am much more interested in hearing about is the exorcism of Rabbit. So, for the sake of getting to that story, I would love to take us to the wine cellar and get this going. The monks might play a role depending on if there are any complications or risks associated with this, but I’m much more interested to just kind of see this scene play out.

Cassandra
As Ena and Maesie and Rabbit get closer to the abbey, this chant that we hear gets louder and Ena stops. She looks at Rabbit and then glances at Maesie.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I think it might be wiser if we found ourselves a side entrance, don’t you think?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I know I told them we’d see them later, but I really would rather not.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I don’t think we should interrupt them.

Cassandra
And as Ena is glancing around, she sees the garden that we saw all of those animal bones in. And starts to lead the way, still holding onto Rabbit’s arm, through this garden and into a side door, where she finds a set of stairs that spirals down into the wine cellar.

[Chanting fades, replaced by sporadic dripping water]

Kim
As you are descending the stairs, you are feeling this persistent cold draft that is emanating from this space. The stairs and the walls are slick and there is the smell of mildew in the air from persistent water damage. And there is, of course, this gaping hole in the wall of the wine cellar where the girl’s body was first found.

I have a Paint the Scene for you all as you are moving into the wine cellar. As you are inspecting the hole in the wall that was once the tomb for the dead girl, what do you see that tells you that the girl was buried alive?

T.
There are tiny fingernail gouges in the brick, stained with the remnants of dried blood.

Natalia
As Maesie approaches and lays down the girl by this hole, the very slight echo of screams and cries for help, that might be there and might not, reverberate from the stones.

Cassandra
Now that the hole in the wall is open, as the body of the girl has been removed, at the base of it, we see little trinkets and toys and things that she was buried with to entertain her while she was entombed in this wall.

Robert
And as Rabbit is no longer able to control his second sight, he actually sees the echo of the girl herself still sitting in the wall, even though her body has been long since removed.

Cassandra
Ena walks into this wine cellar still holding Rabbit and sets him down criss-cross applesauce in front of the hole where this girl’s body was entombed. She walks over to a shelf full of already-filled wine bottles, pulls one off, snaps the neck off of it, goes back to Rabbit, and starts to draw a circle around Rabbit near where this body is going to go back into. She walks over to the body of the girl that Maesie had set on the ground and gently picks the body up, and sits it upright across from Rabbit. And she kneels down and takes both of their hands, puts them together, pulls another cord from her waist, and binds their hands together.

Natalia
Maesie obviously has no idea what’s going on, but knows that, in this moment, being the most prepared that she can be is to go into her Curse of the Deep state, so she goes back into that vigilant, intense, like, eyes roll over black, not really happy version of herself, and just turns to Ena and goes:

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
What can I do?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Stand watch at the door, and make sure that no one interrupts the Katadesmos.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Understood.

[Steam sizzling]

Natalia
She moves to the door and stands there. And you can see all of the humidity in this wine cellar fizzles around Maesie in this doorway.

Robert
That is the first thing that has woken Rabbit from his actively not trying to look at Miss Thanero, and he stares at Maesie with the steaming stones surrounding her. And whatever he is seeing puts him in just this sense of just awe for a moment.

Cassandra
Now that his eyes are open, Ena once again tries to look at them and see if it’s Rabbit peering out or if it’s this demon.

Robert
His eyes are still shifting. He’s trying to avoid eye contact with her, but they are still his eyes.

Cassandra
Having seen for a brief moment that Rabbit is present in his eyes, Ena slowly starts to take her gloves off. She’s kneeling. She sets the gloves in the dirt next to her and looks at Rabbit.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Are you ready to do this?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
What happened to her?

Robert
And he’s still looking at Maesie.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
What happened to who?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Someone hurt her.

Cassandra
Ena sits back for just a moment.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Are you talking about Maesie?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
What happened to you? Someone trapped a light within a human body. You’re not supposed to be here, are you?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Where I am supposed to be is no concern of yours because you’re not supposed to be here either.

Cassandra
And with that, Ena takes her left hand with that tattoo of Aegis on it and grabs both of their hands that are bound together, and a ripple of gold erupts from her hand and from the center of this little circle that we’ve built.

Robert
And, similarly to how it happened at the hedge maze, the veins in Rabbit’s eyes become more apparent and start to creep over and weave in amongst each other until his eyes are just that same solid, deep blood red.

Possessed Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
You can try as hard as you like, but you’ll still be alone in the end.

Cassandra
Ena takes her right hand, grabs Rabbit’s face, yanks it to make eye contact. They are nose to nose at this particular moment. And she says:

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Se déno. Psychí. Glóssa. Schédia. Zoí. Thánatos.

Possessed Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
[dark laughter] You don’t understand what this boy is, do you? I don’t think he understands what he is, either. Or else he wouldn’t have let me inside of him.

Cassandra
Ena just continues making eye contact and says the phrase again, this time in English.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I bind you. Soul. Tongue. Plans. Life. Death.

Possessed Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I’m going to kill you. But first, I’m going to kill all of your friends. And everyone you’ve ever cared about. Then, I will stake you down and watch the oceans as they rise up around you, drowning you.

Cassandra
For a brief moment, the gold that is encircling them flickers, as if it might go out. But she squeezes his face harder in her hand and squeezes their combined hands with her left even harder, and the gold ripples back out again. And she continues:

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Omega theoí tou káto kósmou, synkratíste ton! Min afísete kanénan állon ektós apó eména na ton lýsei.

Robert
Rabbit’s head snaps towards Maesie.

Possessed Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
She’s tricking you. She’s lying to you. She doesn’t really care about you.

Natalia
Maesie, who was in a very sentinel stance, like, paying attention to anything outside of the doorway, suddenly her head snaps and she looks at Rabbit. And then she looks at Ena. And she sort of has this moment of, like, doubt between the two of them and what to do. She takes a step forward, and then she steels herself and she goes:

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
You are not yourself. You are not yourself and you are lying.

Possessed Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
You’ve seen how she is around the ocean. You know that she’s not your friend.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
She has shown herself to be more a friend than you would ever know.

Cassandra
Ena, for a moment, takes her eyes off of Rabbit and looks at Maesie. For the briefest of moments, the gold that is in her eyes radiates out toward Maesie.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Are you with me, Little Pearl?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I am.

Cassandra
And with that, Ena slaps Rabbit across the face, reaches into her hair, and pulls out what looked like pins holding her hair in place, but it is lead rods. And she takes these rods, throws them into the dirt around them, grabs one, and stabs it into Rabbit’s arm where that bandage is that covers whatever is underneath it.

Kim
Alright, this is gonna be several rolls. The first roll to get the demon out of Rabbit. This feels like this has to be a roll from Mr. Lloyd to force it out of you with the help of Miss Thanero. This is gonna be a Night Move, for sure. The stakes are a little bit established, but I am compelled to ask you, what are you afraid will happen if you are unsuccessful?

Robert
I am afraid that this demon will be able to fully take over Rabbit and unlock powers that he is afraid to use.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, it’s worse than that. In your awakened, powerful, possessed state, you will call out to the monks above you who are in the middle of their black mass, and they will descend like a swarm upon your friends in the wine cellar. This is a Sensitivity roll. I, once again, feel like it has to be at Disadvantage because of A Voice In Your Head.

Robert
That is a 9. So we go inside Rabbit’s head. And it’s this small, cozy, lovingly though cheaply furnished apartment somewhere in Soho. And Rabbit is sitting there on a cheap straw-stuffed bed. And standing there in front of him is this demon, not in the guise of the little girl but in something more akin to its truer form. Something horrible, shifting, and indescribable.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
You made a bit of a mistake when you brought me here. This is my strong place.

Robert
And Rabbit stands up. And, as he does, his clothing shifts from the cheap cotton vest and trousers he had been wearing to this elegant tunic made of black spidersilk, a cloak spun from the night sky itself. His hair grows long and shining around his shoulders. And in his hand appears a sword that glints with the light of the moon.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I’ve always had a bit more power in places of the imagination.

Robert
And Rabbit reaches out a mailed hand and grabs the demon by its throat.

[Ethereal ambient drone, clinking chimes]

Kim
Let’s make our final trip to the tarot card reading. Cass, the last card drawn is the Devil, representing the seduction of the material world and other earthly pleasures. Continue your reading and then tell Lydia definitively what she must do.

Fortune Teller (Cassandra)
First, a choice: passion or principle. The established or the rebellion. Violence, damage, pain. But with this pain, a new beginning. A beginning of your choice, but pain accompanies you down either path. The final card: the Devil. The shackles you wear are yours by design. It is time to ask yourself: are you truly helpless or are you stronger than you imagine? Do you have to have one without the other? Are you willing to take everything that is yours? Can you be obsessed with it? Can you take control of it? Lydia, my dear, you can have both if you choose to destroy what your heart does not want.

[Chimes fade away, ominous ambient drone]

Kim
Mr. John, relying upon your bestial instincts to maneuver this forest and escape the Sisters Sendulla who are gleefully hunting you, I’d like to hear what this scene is. Ultimately, you will be able to escape the Sisters, but I think not without the Sisters or the forest taking their trophy.

T.
Mr. John, running from this animal part of himself, has that moment where he realizes the only way he’s going to be able to escape is by embracing this. And the beast of the curse is not a prey animal. It does not run. It is a hunter. Also, knowing that he is in no state to defeat them, that he is wounded and needs to recover, decides to begin hunting something else. Something familiar. He turns his nose towards the sky and with his eyes closed, begins following a familiar scent, something a little bit like soot and ash, something a little bit like the memory of his mother’s kitchen, and something a little bit like sweet poppy flowers. And when he opens his eyes again, he is on the edge of the woods. And looking up, the sky is no longer twilight, but it is the night sky. And standing on the edge of the path is Rabbit, Morgan Lloyd, wearing a strange, dark suit that John’s never seen him wear before, but his signature brown waistcoat and he’s holding a sword. And turns over his shoulder toward Mr. John, a third eye open in his forehead, nods at him, and seems to vanish into the night. Mr. John realizing now that the sky is dark, and he is safe for now, spits on the ground.

Mr. John (T.)
Ain’t my first rodeo.

[Birds chirping]

T.
And walks, taking an evening constitutional through the streets of London back to Belgrave Square, wearing nothing but the skin on his back.

Kim
Mr. John, how are you feeling in this moment?

T.
Hunted. I’m feeling like my past is coming to catch up with me. These sinister sisters are literally hunting me. I know that there are enemies out there, and I am feeling far from in control of them. And I’m feeling like I have to go back to ground. I’m scared.

Kim
Mr. John, take the condition Hunted.

T.
[whoops in disbelief] Bad night for me.

[Grating, ominous wind]

Kim
Mr. John, unseen by you, these two veiled figures break through the treeline and watch your retreating form. They link hands with each other and lean their heads gently against the other and whisper:

Sisters Sendulla (Kim)
Soon, little beastie. Very soon.

[Low ambient drones]

Kim
Let’s end our night within the wine cellar of Kilburn Abbey. Mr. Lloyd, what does it look like as the demon is expelled from your body?

Robert
The bandage, having come off at some point, as Ena was piercing his arm, you see the tattoo that was there: dark red in the shape of the young woman. It then stretches and changes and becomes text, which cannot be read by anyone in this room, and then condenses around the very based of the lead rod. And you see something dark seeping up, some combination of blood and ink, drawing itself up the side of the rod, pulling itself from the very veins of Rabbit’s arms.

Kim
So, because you got a mixed success on this Night Move, I am [going] to give you a complication. The thing that I have in my mind is the notion that while the demon is gone from your body, it has changed you in some fundamental way. I’m wondering if you can help me think about what would be appropriate here.

Robert
You know, I liked changing the vice when the demon possessed him. So why don’t I come up with a third, entirely new vice? And I’ll give that to you in a little bit.

Kim
That works for me. Miss Thanero, the first step of this ritual has been completed. The demon is out of Mr. Lloyd. It seems as though the monks above you have not yet been alerted to your presence. What is happening now?

Cassandra
Ena reaches for the rod that the demon is kind of circling, and in one fluid movement, pulls it out of Rabbit’s arm, slicing through the cord that had him bound but the girl is still bound, and plunges it into the arm of the corpse of the girl in the same position that it was in Rabbit. And then as she reaches back towards these other lead rods, we notice that there are four of them, five in total, and they are all carved into tiny lead swords. And she begins to stab them into the other arm, both legs, and then holds the last one up to where the third eye would be in her forehead.

Kim
This sounds like this is going to be one final Night Move to complete this ritual. What are you afraid will happen if you fail?

Cassandra
If we fail, I think this demon, having no real fear necessarily of me from our previous interaction, and having already possessed Rabbit, will decide to possess Maesie and everything that that would mean. And that would be horrifying.

Kim
I think this is a rare moment where I’m gonna pass the ‘It’s worse than that’ to someone else. Nat, how is that worse than what Miss Thanero fears?

Natalia
[deep inhale through gritted teeth, big exhale] Miss Thanero, it’s worse than that.

[Kim laughs]

Cassandra
That’s a really good impersonation of Kim.

Natalia
Thank you. [giggles] The spirit that you are trying to put back into the girl’s body will escape, but it will not possess Maesie. It will kill her. And it will run rampant in London for you to go find.

Kim
Lovely. Well done, Natalia. This is going to be a Night Move with Sensitivity. This is the rare time that I will say, Miss Thanero, I believe you have Advantage on this.

Cassandra
I do have Advantage on it, and I will need it because guess my Sensitivity is a big ol’ whopping goose egg.

Kim
Yeah. The reason why you have Advantage on this is because when you were dealing with the possessed Mr. Lloyd in the hedge maze, you rolled a 12+ on your Night Move. And, when you do so, the Keeper will tell you some extra benefit or advantage you receive. And we decided off-mic that the benefit you would receive is that you would take rolls concerning dealing with Rabbit or binding this demon at Advantage. So go ahead and make this last roll with Advantage, please.

Cassandra
[big exhale] I rolled a 1, a 5, and a 6. So that is an 11.

[Melancholy organ music]

Kim
Let’s hear what this looks like.

Cassandra
Ena takes this last lead sword and pushes it slowly into the forehead of this corpse. She then grabs the corpse of the girl and picks her up off the ground. It appears she weighs almost nothing compared to Ena’s force. She gently inserts the girl back into the wall. She holds up her left hand. Aegis glows, creating a golden shield over the wall as the bricks that have fallen out start to pen themselves back in around this girl, leaving her face exposed. And Ena whispers one final command to this demon.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Eíthe kaneís na min tin lýsei ektós apó tin…

[Organ music ceases, church bells tolling and echoing]

Cassandra
She pauses. She turns around and looks at Rabbit and looks at Maesie, and then she turns back and makes eye contact with this demon and says:

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Athiná.

[Church bells cease, water dripping]

Cassandra
And the shield stops glowing. Her hand dims. And the body and the demon are now encased back in the wall from whence they came.

Natalia
Maesie drops the Curse of the Deep the minute that’s done, sort of takes, like, a half step, like, recovering from the amount that that takes out of her, and bends down and offers Rabbit a hand.

Robert
Morgan is still completely drained, his shoulders hunched, his head drooped, but he gladly takes Maesie’s hand and gets back to his feet.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Right, well, won’t be doing that again in a hurry. Oh, not what my magic was meant for.

Robert
And as he glances back towards Miss Thanero, he still instinctively looks away and cannot quite put eyes on her.

Cassandra
Ena notices this and averts her eyes to give Rabbit a small comfort, a respite from having to make eye contact with her. Reaches down into the dirt, picks up her gloves, and starts to slowly put them back on, a little uncertain as she has revealed who she actually is to these two people in this wine cellar. And she’s not making much eye contact with Maesie at this moment either as she’s redonning her gloves.

Natalia
Maesie absolutely hates all of this tension and just goes:

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Right, well, it’s a bummer that Mr. John missed all of that. Um, uhh, Ena, that was so magical how you did that. Wow, it was really, was really impressive. Um, yeah, if you ever, if, um, if you ever want to talk about it, happy to listen. Should we– should we get back to the carriage and go home?

Cassandra
Ena has a very small smile on her face, watching Maesie try to smooth the tension in the room. She walks over to Rabbit and, instead of grabbing his arm forcefully like she had in the past, she puts a hand on his back and gently starts to guide him towards the stairs to go back out.

[Water dripping fades, ambient drone]

Kim
As you all ascend the stairs, you hear that the loud chanting that was above you has fallen silent. Indeed, fell silent the moment that Miss Thanero completed her ritual. All of the candles within Kilburn Abbey are extinguished, and the monks lay unconscious but breathing upon the stone floor of the abbey. They’ll wake tomorrow with no memory of what had occurred, probably for the best.

Robert
Later that night, just as dawn is beginning to break and the rest of the residents of Hargrave House are settled in their beds, Rabbit opens his window, sneaks out, and finds himself, like he has many times in the past several weeks, heading towards Miss Beaumont’s.

T.
I think, on the way, as the dawn is approaching, Rabbit sees Mr. John, stark naked, walking through London. John watches Rabbit going the other way, mutters to himself:

Mr. John
I’m not about to follow the White Rabbit.

T.
And goes to bed.

[An ominous, rumbling woosh]

[Soft, melodic piano music]

Kim
Well done, everybody. That was a stressful night phase.

Cassandra
That was wild.

Kim
So, the first thing that we do in the Dawn is collect rewards if we resolved a Threat. And we did!

T.
Yes, yes, yes.

Natalia
Yay!

Kim
So you all get prizes.

Natalia
Woohoo!

Cassandra
Woo, I love that.

Kim
Alright, so these are going to be items for your Personal Quarters. I’ve got two special ones and then two that are just a memento from the investigation, ask another Hunter what it is and then add it to your Personal Quarters. The unique ones are a desecrated Bible, add it to your Personal Quarters, and the corpse that was walled up in the abbey, add it to your Personal Quarters. It can be used by any Hunter for the Demonic Insight custom move, even after it is marked.

Natalia
So we have to take that in order to get the move?

Kim
Yes, because you have to consult the body of the girl.

Robert
[laughing] Just go to the abbey every time we have a question.

Cassandra
That’s why I left her face exposed because, like, well, if her face is out, we can just go.

Natalia
What about, like, a key to the wine cellar that’s moreso, like…

Cassandra
I like the idea of the key.

Kim
Yeah. So, who would like that?

T.
We have to have the Darkened Threshold marked in order to use this Demonic Insight move?

Kim
Yes, you do.

T.
I’ll take the key to the wine cellar because I have a plan for that Mask, and I’ve been rolling poorly and will probably use it soon.

Kim
Fantastic. Can I interest anyone in a desecrated Bible?

Cassandra
I actually want that. I would like that for Ena because I feel like desecrating that particular piece of literature, given her status, she likes that.

Kim
Alright. Then, Miss Douglas and Mr. Lloyd, you each get mementos from the investigation. You must ask someone else what that is and then, as long as you’re good with it, add it to your Personal Quarters.

Natalia
Mr. John, could you give me a memento, please?

T.
Sure. The moment in this investigation that I was most proud of was waterboarding Brother Elijah, so how about some of that holy water?

Natalia
Gorgeous, thank you.

Kim
Alright, Mr. Lloyd, who’s defining your PQ item?

Robert
I don’t have any thoughts. So does anyone have an idea, anything they want to run with?

T.
Those animal bones sounded right up your alley.

Robert
Ooh, yeah, that sounds perfect, actually. I’ve got a good idea. So, like, a bundle of animal bones.

Kim
The next thing we do in the Dawn is resolve any moves that are resolved in the Dawn. We don’t really have any of those this Phase. However, Robert, you and I did talk about making a change to your character as a way to mark the demon leaving your body, and you proposed the idea of changing your vice. Have you given that any more thought?

Robert
Yeah. I was thinking that Morgan is becoming more in tune or re- in tune with the Fae parts of him, so I think I’m going to go a little mischievous and make the new vice Petty Theft.

Kim
How very tricksy.

Robert
It also plays a little in with the demon trying to tempt me into my darker nature.

Kim
And especially now that you all have access to Demon Insight, there is always a chance that it’s gonna make you commit minor blasphemous acts. So, yeah, I think it all ties in very nicely. Go ahead and make that change to your character. 

Now, let’s go to our Dawn Questions. Did the Hunters resolve a Threat?

T.
Yes!

Cassandra
Heck yeah.

Natalia
Yes!

Kim
Yes, we did.

Natalia
Most of us did. [chuckles]

Cassandra
Three quarters.

T.
It counts for me!

Kim
Yeah, we all get credit for it, even if you were not there for the resolution.

T.
I wanted to be there.

Kim
Did we answer a Question?

[chorus of yeses]

Kim
Did we get an Echo in the Night?

Robert
Yes.

Natalia
Yes.

Cassandra
Yes.

T.
Yes.

Kim
I think I know what everyone’s was, but let’s go ahead and say them for the benefit of the listeners. T., what was your echo?

T.
Rabbit in a brown waistcoat with the third eye open, echoing the brown rabbit with the third eye open.

Kim
Natalia, what about you?

Natalia
Magical rabbit.

Kim
Cass, what about you?

Cassandra
The lead swords. There were five of them to mirror the tarot card from the Unscene.

T.
Nice.

Kim
And Robert?

Robert
I also used the magical rabbit with the third eye open.

[Kim laughs]

Natalia
I’m so glad that it was of use.

Kim
That was a very popular echo. Alright, so experience points for everybody. Miss Thanero, did you express a clear preference for the beautiful over the mundane?

Cassandra
I don’t believe I did that today.

Kim
Did you appear in London society wearing risque or avant-garde fashion?

Cassandra
Well, yes.

Kim
Yes, you did. Miss Douglas, did you delight in uncovering lost, forgotten, or ancient magic?

Natalia
If you want to give me the last little comment I made before we left?

Kim,
Yeah, I mean, you were kind of, like, impressed by what Miss Thanero did.

Natalia
That was my attempt to knock that one out before we left.

Kim
Yeah.

Natalia
But it wasn’t as good as I wish it was.

Kim
I’ll give it to you.

Natalia
Yay, thank you.

Kim
Did you subtly or not so subtly invoke your oceanic heritage or your love for the sea?

Natalia
Every damn day I do that.

Kim
Several times, yeah, absolutely.

Cassandra
Mhm.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, did you have a face-to-face encounter with a dark entity?

Robert
I did.

Kim
That’s kinda all you did today. [laughs]

Cassandra
I don’t know, actually.

Natalia
Just a little bit, not sure.

Robert
To be fair, it was mostly my face coming to face with other people, but at the very end I had a face-to-face.

Kim
Yeah, at the very end, when you were in, like, your mind palace, you did.

Robert
My mind apartment.

Kim
Your mind flat. [laughs]

T.
I have a mind one-bedroom.

Cassandra
He’s a humble man of humble means.

Kim
We’re millennials. All we can dream of is a mind one-bedroom apartment.

Robert
That we share with a roommate.

T.
I spend too much time dreaming of mind avocado toast.

Cassandra
Oh my god, that’s so real and it hurts.

Kim
Did you perform a ritual?

Robert
I don’t know it counts. Other people performed a ritual which I was a participant in.

Kim
Well, you performed one with the possessed monks that were trying to drag you out of the carriage.

Robert
That’s right. I forgot about that, yes.

T.
You just didn’t do it well cause no circle.

Robert
It was a very hasty, not well-done ritual. But, yes, I performed a ritual.

Kim
Mr. John, did you stick out in London society for all the wrong reasons?

T.
It’s a long walk from Kew Gardens.

Kim
It sure is, buck naked. Yeah, I’ll give it to you. Did you share a treasured memory from the States during an intimate moment with another character?

T.
Yeah, I was telling Simon about meeting Andrew Carnegie and a porcupine falling on me.

Kim
Does anybody level up?

Natalia
Me.

Cassandra
I do.

Robert
I did.

Kim
Alright, dears, so you can pick an advancement.

Natalia
I am going to increase an ability modifier by 1. I’m going to boost my Sensitivity.

Kim
That makes sense, especially today’s activities.

Natalia
I’m at a 2 now.

Robert
I am going to be using my upgrade on getting another move, and I’m going to be taking A Beacon in the Dark.

Kim
One of my favorites. Could you read that, please?

Robert
When you walk the streets of London at night, your consciousness spreading across the city like a vast spiderweb, roll with Sensitivity. On a hit, you are immediately confronted by a Threat or personified Danger related to the Threat. You may ask them two questions from the list below. They will not answer directly, but rather in the form of a Clue. On a 10+, the Danger or Threat departs as soon as the questions are answered. And the questions are: Where is your lair? How can I get you to (blank)? What do you intend to do? What do you want from (blank)? And what frightens you?

Kim
A really fun investigation move. And, like, so flavorful for the Vessel. Cass, what are you thinking, m’dear?

Cassandra
I believe I am going to take an ability modifier and, given that I have a great deal of care for Maesie and some complex feelings around Mr. John, I think I’m going to take it in Sensitivity.

Kim
Everyone’s ending up a little bit more supernatural today.

Robert
A lot more supernatural in my case.

Cassandra
Yeah, right.

Robert
And a little less sane.

Kim
[chuckles] Indeed. Well, Hunters, this was a difficult night for everyone, but we emerged victorious. Sleep well, because a brand new threat is arriving with the Dawn.

Natalia
Oh, god. I always forget.

[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 Hex DeWitt and all of our incredible Kitten Marlowe patrons in supporting artist-driven storytelling. Thanks for listening.