Shadows in the Smoke S1E47 - "Excellent Spot for an Ambush"

Shadows in the Smoke S1E47 – “Excellent Spot for an Ambush”

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
Good morning, hunters.

T.
What’s morning about it?

Natalia
There’s no sun anywhere!

Kim
It’s true. You didn’t see the sun rise, though the sky is lit – albeit cloudy. However, the rain did stop today.

Cassandra
Oh!

T.
I hate this. All the good news is bad news.

Cassandra
Yeah, the rain stopping is not great. We’ve got a vampire who can control the weather. Don’t love that.

T.
Is it the morning after the party?

Kim
Yes. It is the very next morning. Hunters, I have a very special threat to introduce to you all today. It is special because it supersedes all other threats. All of your other threats are paused for the time being. Their countdown clocks have paused as well. This is the only threat you need to concern yourselves with today.

This threat is called The Assault on Hargrave House.

Cassandra
Oh, no…

[Theodora’s theme]

Kim
Mrs. Brathwaite is sending a group of her henchmen to lay siege to Hargrave House tonight. Perhaps she is tired of playing cat and mouse. Maybe she wants to send you a message. She may be testing you, or toying with you. No matter, the result is the same. Her forces intend to ransack the house, and you have to stop them. You don’t have much time to prepare a defense.

This threat will begin and end in a single cycle of play.

T.
[Sighs]

Cassandra
I’ve never been so stressed.

Kim
After which, win or lose, you must answer the Mastermind Question, and we will procede into the endgame.

Natalia
Oh, god!

Kim
There is one Question you need to concern yourselves with today, hunters. How can we defend Hargrave House from Mrs. Brathwaite’s servants? It is a Complexity 6. You resolve the threat by defending Hargrave House and capturing one of Theodora’s servants. If successful, the servant will reveal a Mastermind Clue in the form of vital information about Mrs. Brathwaite’s plans.

Natalia
Want that.

Kim
There is no threat mask for this particular threat. And if you fail to answer the Question, the assault will happen anyway. It will just be much, much harder to survive.

I must ask, has the Breakfast Phase gone by the wayside today? Did you sleep, really, after that particular announcement from Mrs. Brathwaite?

Cassandra
I feel like after telling us that she would see us tomorrow, that we promptly wrapped the party up.

Natalia
Mmhmm.

Cassandra
And I hope had a conversation about what that might mean.

Kim
Let’s see it. Let’s go ahead and wind the clock back, ever so slightly.

[The hum of a crowd. Pleasant party music]

Natalia
Maesie is standing at the top of the stairs. Still a little too drunk to be doing this.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Everybody go home! Everybody ahs to go home now. Please find your way out of any door. Just out. Everybody go!

Cassandra
Ena walks up the steps with a very strong cup of coffee, and puts it in Maesie’s hand.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I… You did this. You did this to me. You told me to drink.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I will take responsibility for that. You need to drink this, right now.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
[Sighs]

Cassandra
And then Ena turns around and starts going room to room. Very much having the appearance of calm, but…

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Thank you so much for coming. We’ve decided to go ahead and wrap it up for the night, so please make sure to grab your party favors and see yourselves out. Thank you so much for coming…

Cassandra
And she’s just ushering people, as politely and calmly as possible, out of the house.

T.
Hutchinson fires his gun in the air.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Out!

Natalia
More than the coffee, that wakes Maesie up. She’s like…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Shit!

Kim
I think via all of these combined efforts, the four of you find yourselves alone in the foyer of Hargrave House.

[The sounds of the party quiet]

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
What the fuck are we gonna do?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I suppose that depends. Which version of Hutch are we talking to now?

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
The one you’ve known. I’ve put the creature to bed, for now.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I’ll see how long I believe that.

T.
He thumbs the photo of Andromeda.

Natalia
Maesie hugs this version of Hutch.

T.
He wraps his arm around her, with the hook.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Oh, god! Forgot you had a hook.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
I’m so fucking sorry.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Well I’m glad to see that you’ve returned. Seems like we don’t have much time to prepare. I think she has finally decided to take us, uh… Out of the picture.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
She said she’s going to destroy the house.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
She was walking around the whole thing.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
She did. She has the layout.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
I mean, is she capable of something like that? I mean, there’s Scotland Yard. There’s police. There’s…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
The police are under her thumb, absolutely. And besides that, they are useless. So I wouldn’t count on them.

Cassandra
Ena is throwing the golden apple in her hand, similar to a baseball.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
And clearly, wealth for buying people, property… Any type of help she needs is no longer out of the realm of possibility.

Cassandra
And she hucks the apple across the room.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Power is all that matters to people like that. She doesn’t care what she has to spend, so long as she can get what she wants.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Yeah, I ain’t so naïve to recognize that money can’t make a lot of people look the other way.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Money and titles, I’m afraid. Welcome to the old world.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
So what? We barricade the house? We dig a moat? What are we doing?

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Not a bad suggestion. Even with all of the funds at her disposal, she couldn’t just roll a gatling gun down the middle of Belgrave Square without turning some eyebrows. So I’m imagining foot soldiers. She’ll probably put it to the torch.

Natalia
Maesie thinks back on that picture taken by the Whateley Camera, of Hargrave House in flames.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
[Sighs] Well. The house is large, the house has been here for years. I assume there is more to be found than we have seen.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Yeah unfortunately, that means more points of entry. We should start by bulwarking the doors we know about. Looking for good vantages, and any kind of traps we can set in, should they breach it. I doubt they’ll only assault the front door, so we should check any rear entrance as well.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
We should also make sure that any windows are also barricaded.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
If there’s anyone we trust to help us out, now is the time to cash in those favors.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Well if I didn’t scare off Rebekka, she might be able to help us supernaturally. Something tells me the Ebon Marquis and the Crimson Duke and all them are gonna be making an appearance.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Do you want to go talk to Moc’h, or should I?

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
I’ll handle it.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Well I think I should probably head out.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Head out? Where are you going?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I’ve got some preparations I’ll need to make. I’ll see you lot in the morning.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Make sure you’re back well before night falls. We’re going to need your help.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Without a doubt.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Well. First thing’s first, we’ve gotta start barricading. And then we can start looking for additional entrance points that we also need to take care of.

Kim
Let’s bring you all to the present. Clue gathering for the Assault on Hargrave House works the same as what you have done previous threats, in that we’ll be rolling the Information Move and/or utilizing the Vulnerable Move, should you choose to, in order to generate Clues. However the Clues themselves are less esoteric, I suppose, than they usually are for your ordinary Threats. Things like a cache of weapons, or materials to build a barricade. Or a Side Character offering their help. So be thinking on how it is you wish to “investigate” this Threat.

Let us begin with Miss Thanero. What have you been doing for the last several hours?

Cassandra
Ena has been going from room to room and marking windows, doors, different entrances. Looking strategically at how the first floor of Hargrave House might be breeched, and then using that information and moving up the floors to figure out where good retreat points are, where there might be opportunities for them to get on the roof, like via the parapets or other windows to stave off any kind of attacks that might come from the air. And she’s just trying to gather as much information as possible about a house she spent a lot of time in, but not in this way. Not as being on a battlefield.

Kim
This sounds like an Information Move with Reason, considering you are utilizing your wisdom and knowledge of battle, to figure out how to best defend this house.

Cassandra
As she has been going through the house, making notes of all of this information she needs to defend it, she’s been thumbing the rosary made of small animal bones. And so I’m going to take the Information Move with advantage.

Kim
Please do.

Cassandra
That’s a 4, a 4, and a 1. So an 8.

Kim
Miss Douglas. What about you?

[Dream-like ambience, chimes]

Natalia
Maesie wants to go talk to Greco to see if in their discussions and their experiences of moving into the dream realm and being disoriented by this. She wants to see if Greco can set something up that would serve as a distraction, essentially, for whoever tries to infiltrate the house. In the way that it happened to Maesie while she was auditioning for the ballet and she ended up hurting someone she loved? She wants to see if Greco can enable a situation like that wherein they might attack each other instead of anyone at Hargrave.

Kim
You ascend the stairs to knock upon Greco’s door. And in much the way that many of you are familiar, you never quite make it to Greco’s door. Instead, you find yourself walking hand-in-hand with Greco through a little-known side street in London.

Paint the Scene: something about the behavior of the Londoners on this street makes us think we are in a dream. What is it?

T.
Everyone is walking backwards.

Natalia
Certain people are repeating the same behavior, in the exact same way. As if they are resetting themselves back to the original motion. And then completing the motion, and then resetting.

Robert
When you look directly at someone, they have a face. But the moment they leave the center of your vision, their faces get blurred and vanish.

Cassandra
Some of these repetitive actions give off the sensation one feels when they are falling in a dream. So stepping off of curbs, or tripping.

[A London street]

Greco (Kim)
And how was your party last night, Miss Douglas? I am very sorry I did not attend. My work keeps me so busy at night.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
It was nice. Um… And then Theodora Brathwaite threatened everyone. Not everyone, I suppose. Just the house itself. So we’re trying to figure out ways to protect the house from infiltration.

Greco (Kim)
I see.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Would you have any thoughts about altering reality, in the ways that… I mean, clearly you’re doing right now in this moment. So that we might distract or confuse anyone who enters the house?

Kim
Please make the Information Move with… This feels like Sensitivity, to me.

Natalia
I think I’ll use the book of spells written in Old English.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I don’t know where exactly you get your magic from, but I know there is a lot to be gained from old knowledge. Perhaps this can be of use to you.

Natalia
And she proffers the book to Greco.

Kim
Alright. Make this with advantage.

Natalia
Oh, dice be kind to me… Please… I do get to add 3, which is fun.

[Rolls dice] Oh, baby. 5 + 5 + 3 is 13.

Kim
Alright. So that is not only a Clue, but a Mastermind Clue. Very interesting, indeed. I will think on what it is you should receive.

Mr. Lloyd. You said you were out all night. What have you been doing?

[The banks of the Thames]

Robert
Gathering a few supplies. But mostly, making sure that he was down by the banks of the Thames when dawn comes. Dawn is a moment of change. Rivers are a symbol of change. We’re trying to line up that sympathetic magic as he attempts to summon and speak with the Lady Thames.

Kim
So this doesn’t feel like a true Rite of Salt and Smoke, considering you’ve already done a ritual to be able to speak to the Lady Thames. So just tell me how it is you are calling to her.

Robert
It is still a ritual, so there still has to be sacrifice. So Morgan does bleed himself. But it is just a pinprick to the finger, nothing complicated. He then takes that finger that has just a little bit of blood flowing from it, and dips it into the river and allows the blood to mingle with the water of the Thames.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Lady who rules all the waterways of London. Queen of the river. Daughter of the ocean. I wish to speak with you.

[Magical, dream-like ambience]

Kim
The water on the banks of the Thames starts lapping about your ankles and your legs, and then starts pulling you into the center of the Thames.

Robert
Morgan does not resist. He goes with the flow.

[Underwater ambience]

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, you are pulled into an embrace and dragged beneath the waters of the Thames. And then you are pulled into a kiss, as you feel air being pressed into your lungs. And when you open your eyes, you find that you can breathe beneath the waters, and you are face to face with the Lady Thames.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Hello, your ladyship. I am sorry that I’ve been a bit absent as of late. I’m sure you know exactly what has been going on, as you have eyes all over the city.

The Lady Thames (Kim)
I know all that transpires in my city.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Well. A little fish told me that you were hoping to speak with me.

Robert
And he pulls the conch that Maesie gave him out of one of his pockets.

The Lady Thames (Kim)
Our last meeting was so brief.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I’m afraid I cannot promise you that it’ll be any longer today. But if you wish to have another one with me. If you wish to talk again, I must ask you for a favor.

The Lady Thames (Kim)
You may ask.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
An enemy seeks to destroy the place where I live. Hurt my friends, and me. They plan on using fire for this. And, well, I thought to myself… Who wouldn’t be afraid of a little bit of fire? The queen of the water.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, please make the Information Move… Trying to think of what the stat is, here. If it’s Sensitivity or if it’s Presence. I think it’s Presence. You’ve already done the magic to speak with her, you know?

Robert
Sensitivity is my better stat, but I do think it’s Presence. And I am going to invoke the conch that Maesie gave me.

[Rolls dice] Alright. So that is a 7 on the dice, +2, so a 9.

Kim
And finally, Mr. Hutchinson.

[An empty, abandoned space]

T.
Hutchinson, wasting no time, beats tracks down to the Larder. And down there, where he left it on the floor, is his own hand.

Kim
[Gasps]

[A low shudder]

T.
And as he swallows, he says…

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
If you ever gave a damn about this house or anybody in it, we need you right now.

Kim
Alright. The Larder reads, when you succumb to the sudden urge to consume raw flesh in the larder, you draw the attention of the pagan swine god, Moc’h. Roll with Sensitivity. If the flesh belonged to a humanoid creature, roll with advantage. The humanity of Hutchinson is occasionally in question, but I think the spirit of the move says that this is at advantage. Which is good. I’m going to go ahead and impose my own disadvantage, considering you are the Chosen of Moc’h. Sure, that would allow you to speak with Moc’h. But Moc’h wants an act of devotion. Moc’h wants a sacrifice. So this will be a flat roll with Sensitivity.

T.
Boxcars, baby. 6 and 6 + 2 is 14.

Kim
Thank goodness. On a 10+ you get a Clue, and you may clear an appropriate Condition.

T.
I’m clearing Drained, because I think it would be rude to clear Chosen of Moc’h when asking him for help.

Kim
That would be interesting. But yeah, probably best to clear Drained.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
I need to know this place like the back of my hand. Place a layout of Hargrave House, and highlight any points of egress in my mind’s eye.

Kim
Mr. Hutchinson, you’ve been spending a lot of time down here. You feel the presence of Moc’h in this room.

[Monstrous snorts and growls]

Kim
You feel this embrace of raw meat around your shoulders. And a low voice whispering in your ear…

Moc’h (Kim)
I will help thee, piglet. My prized butcher.

Kim
And appearing on your one good hand, like lines of a tattoo, is a floorplan of Hargrave House.

T.
Slick.

Kim
And as you study the lines of this map as they appear on your skin, you notice an unfamiliar doorway. One that would open to what must be an impossible room. A room that, by all logic, should open out into air on the third floor. And yet, the floorplan maintains there is indeed a room there, and a secret door with which to access it.

That is a Clue for the Assault on Hargrave House.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Thank you to the great He-Sow.

T.
And I head toward that room. But on the way out the door, I pause. I look to my left. Something that has bothered me for months now. There is a silver-laced fig in a glass dome that is never touched. And using my hook, I knock it off the edge of the table.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Show up or shove off.

T.
And I head back upstairs.

Kim
Miss Thanero. You have been scouring the first floor, using your keen militaristic mind to figure out how best to defend this place that you call home. And you have narrowed in on a section of the first floor that, with the correct barricades across the correct doorways, could lead into quite a chokehold for an encroaching force. An excellent spot for an ambush or a trap. That is a Clue for the Assault on Hargrave House.

[Unsettling ambience]

Kim
But Miss Thanero, as you start examining these doorways, figuring how best to force an enemy into a vulnerable position, the air grows humid and salty.

[A wave crests]

Kim
And as you open the very next door in front of you, a tidal wave rises high above your head, threatening to pull you into this small ocean contained within this room.

Cassandra
Oh, shit. I think the most logical thing at this moment, because you can’t fight water with weapons, would be that she tries to close that door against the water, and is trying to force the water to stay in the room.

Kim
This feels like a Day Move with Vitality. Miss Thanero, as you move to slam this door closed and hold it closed, what are you afraid will happen if you fail?

Cassandra
I am afraid that this door will burst open. And knowing that Hargrave House is home to many secrets and magical abilities, that the house will flood and everyone in it will drown – but I will be held in a state of, like, perpetual drowning.

Kim
I like it. And because you marked the first step in the Dance of the Nutcracker, you get a +1 to your Vitality roll.

Cassandra
Great. [Rolls dice] So it’s a 6 on the dice, plus my Vitality of 1, plus my Vitality from the Nutcracker, for an 8.

[A London street]

Kim
Miss Douglas. You and Greco continue walking down this street.

Greco (Kim)
I do believe there is some way I could help my roommates. I am not a magician, per se. Not the way that Mr. Lloyd is. Not the way that you will be. But I do have talents of my own.

[Muffled, heavy silence]

Kim
And as you continue walking down this street, all of a sudden the two of you are plunged into this impenetrable darkness. It’s brief. Greco keeps a firm hold of your hand.

[A London street]

Kim
And a few steps later, you are back out onto this remarkably sunny dream street of London.

Natalia
I will add that during that moment of darkness, Maesie seems oddly at peace.

Kim
Greco turns to you and gives a small smile.

Greco (Kim)
I can wield that not just in dreams. Tell me where, and I can make a hallway, a room, shrouded in darkness.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
If you’ll allow me to get back to you with that information? I believe a conversation with Ena and her strategic military mind will be of use before I conclude where that should go.

Greco (Kim)
Of course. Let me walk you home.

Kim
And the two of you turn and start walking the other way up this street.

[Theodora’s theme]

Kim
And as you pass these dream citizens of London, all looking at you with these blank, shifting faces… You notice that all of them have the most beautiful sapphire blue eyes. Not quite eyes. As one of them gets closer to you as they pass, you notice that their eyes are sapphire blue gems. A crowd of people with sapphire eyes.

That is a Mastermind Clue.

Natalia
That’s so unnerving. I don’t like that.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Thank you, Greco. I will come back once I know where your darkness will be of most use.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd. Beneath the waters.

[Magical, dream-like ambience. The sense of being underwater]

Kim
The Lady Thames winds her fingers through your hair.

The Lady Thames (Kim)
I can provide help. If fire is what you will contend with this night, I will see to it that it is snuffed out.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Thank you for the generous gift. What can I possibly give you in return?

The Lady Thames (Kim)
Another kiss.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
A simple gift, but one I am glad to give.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, you fall into this kiss once again. The Lady Thames winding her fingers through your hair, and then pulling at your hair. Pulling you deeper and deeper into the Thames. She losing herself in you. And you threaten to lose yourself to the River Thames.

Robert
Rabbit realizes what is happening in the moment, and attempts to ground the both of them, to sort of break this spell. And in order to help him do that, he reaches into one of his pockets where he holds an iron nail from a church. And feeling the iron, pulled from earth’s soil, he attempts to pull himself back to shore.

Kim
Go ahead and mark that Personal Quarters item. This is going to be a Day Move with Composure. What are you afraid will happen if you fail?

Robert
He knows that the Lady Thames means him no harm. But he also knows that he needs to make it back to Hargrave House before sundown tonight. So perhaps he will be drawn into this realm for a little bit longer than he wants.

Kim
Oh, I like that very much. So go ahead and make a Day Move with Composure, with advantage.

Robert
[Rolls dice] Well, it’s another mixed success. It’s an 8 on the dice.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, tell me how it is you escape the passionate embrace of the Lady Thames.

Robert
I think “escape” is the wrong word. I think it is just that he finishes the kiss. He allows the earthiness of the iron nail to resonate throughout him, and presses back into her as hard as she is pressing into him. And then breaks the kiss, breaking the spell, and breaking the moment, and rising back to the shore.

[The banks of the Thames]

Kim
How do you feel in this moment?

Robert
In this moment, Rabbit is feeling things coming to an end. This may be the last time he communes with the River Thames. He will be leaving London soon, and he already misses it.

Kim
Please take the Condition: Homesick.

Things are going pretty well, hunters. That is thus far four Clues for the Assault on Hargrave House. Well done.

Mr. Hutchinson, as you leave the Larder, where to next? Are you enlisting the help of Rebekka Salomon?

T.
I can’t imagine she stuck around. And I don’t feel like leaving the house is a good idea, right now. Hutchinson is going to go through the physical work of boarding up windows, barricading doors, and closing off access points – while also setting up gunners’ nests on the second and third floors.

Kim
Oh, I love that. This feels like an Information Move with Vitality. I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t invoke Most Beloved once again. Mrs. Brathwaite took a lot of time casing the house last night, and also appraising you and your current state, your strength, your abilities… I think that gives her a bit of insight into how you might go about protecting the house.

T.
Well, as I am suiting up for war, I feel like it’s appropriate I don my Anglo-Saxon armor.

Kim
I love it.

T.
I will mark that to roll this flat.

Kim
Go forth. With Vitality.

T.
[Rolls dice] 4 + 1 is 5, +3 is 8.

[Waves beating against a door]

Kim
Miss Thanero, you slam this door closed and push your shoulder against it as you feel these waves beating the wood. This salt water seeping out from under the threshold. But you hold firm. You keep this wave at bay. For now. How are you feeling?

Cassandra
There’s a level of maybe not so much physical exhaustion as it is emotional exhaustion. And this feeling that no matter what she does to hold back what this water represents, that it will not stop coming until it’s consumed her.

Kim
Miss Thanero, please take the Condition: Even Stone Can Be Worn By Time.

Cassandra
Nice.

Kim
Mr. Hutchinson. Much like Miss Thanero, you do a pretty thorough accounting of the defenses of Hargrave House. I think it’s easy for you to build some barricades across important doorways and windows. But more importantly, you find an excellent little lookout and sniper’s nest in the ramparts and parapets, right above your room.

T.
Yay!

[A rooftop. Wind and birdcalls]

Kim
And as you climb your way to the rooftop of Hargrave House and look about along Belgrave Square, you see, thanks to Richard Harlowe’s monocle, the slightest glint of light from a nearby rooftop.

[Eerie rising tone]

Kim
And as you focus your gaze there, you see Tatiana Brathwaite, laying down, leveling a sniper rifle in your direction.

[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 our cats, Virgil and Dante, and all of our incredible Kitten Marlowe patrons, in supporting artist-driven storytelling. Thanks for listening.