Shadows in the Smoke S1E8 - "Quite the Shindig"

Shadows in the Smoke S1E8 – “Quite the Shindig”

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 go back to the Grand Guignol.

[A broken, music box melody]

Kim
Cass. Describe Act Two, in which, pushed past her limits, the nanny murders her bratty charges. How does the audience respond?

Cassandra
The nanny tries to take a step away from the children, just to give herself a moment to calm down, because she’s seething. And she goes up to her flat, and I think she walks over to, like, some cabinets that are inlaid in the wall. Pulls out this old, wood box. Opens it, and pulls out a little handkerchief that’s got some embroidery and a date on it. And it looks like it was meant for a child, possibly a child of her own. And this thing that normally brings her so much comfort in the height of all of this stress from these children, sends her into a rage. She sees red. We see her grab this plate, this single dish that is all she has to eat her meals off of, and she just cracks it across the table and it shatters into two large pieces. And she picks these pieces up, and in this rage, goes back downstairs.

The kids are screaming. It’s loud. One of them runs up to her and begins to just hit her on the legs, and she takes one of these plate pieces and just rams it right into this kid’s neck. The other kid across the room goes silent, and she looks at him. He looks at her. The child starts to run. She chases him, and does the exact thing – gets a hold of him and just rams this dish into his neck.

And out in the audience, obviously the rich, these people are looking on this scene in absolute horror. They cannot even imagine. There’s fear of, “My children are at home right now, what is my nanny doing?” But then you see some of the poorer people. They work these jobs, they work in some of these kitchens, they are nannies themselves on a rare night off. And there is almost a sense of satisfaction in this side of the audience, of watching this violence occur in front of them. As if they themselves have entertained such fantasies about what they might do to the people in their charge. So it is a very, very split reaction across the audience. But every reaction is valid.

Kim
I think I’d like to pick back up with the ballroom. We have Maesie Douglas dancing with the figure that we now know to be Sally No-Face, or Vittorio Clemenza.

[A Beethoven string quartet]

Natalia
Maesie continues to dance with Sally No-Face. Honestly, having a good time. Like, she knows that she is in peril and it is very stressful. But she likes to dance, and she can’t help it.

Kim
Miss Douglas, this could be a Vulnerable Scene.

Natalia
Mmhm.

Kim
If you want it to be. If you want to be vulnerable with Sally No-Face, you could clear a Condition and get a Clue out of this.

Natalia
Yeah. I’ll do it.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
So… Quite the shindig you’ve got going here.

Kim
You hear Sally chuckle a bit, behind the mask.

Sally No-Face (Kim)
It is rather grand isn’t it? Only the best, the most interesting, are invited to my parties. Only the most useful material.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
It’s a very proprietary way to speak of others.

Sally No-Face (Kim)
People only come to me when they want something from me, when they want something of me. I ask you, when is it my opportunity to take? My opportunity to demand? To see what it is that pleases me and say, “I want”?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I know that feeling. I know it well. And I do understand, the need to see those who are holding something over you, who are asking or demanding things from you that you do not want to freely give. And I cannot say that I have always made the right choices. Well, I can say that I’ve made the right choices. Whether they have been good choices, is different. But I do know that when it comes to harming others, there is a right choice. And what you are doing is not right.

Sally No-Face (Kim)
No. But it is beautiful.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I would argue that beauty is subjective, is it not?

Sally No-Face (Kim)
It’s true, Miss Douglas. They do say that it is in the eye of the beholder. But my eye is excellent. My eye is superior.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Your eye is rather well-hidden.

Natalia
And I try to take the mask off.

Kim
Alright. So, doing a Vulnerable Scene with a Side Character will instantly trigger the Day or Night Move. In this case it’s a Night Move, that’s pretty self-explanatory. However, because you engaged in your vice, I will give you the opportunity to clear a Condition, should you like to.

Natalia
I think I would like to clear Self-Satisfied. Because I did gain this Condition when talking to Vittorio last time, and I do think having spoken to him again has sort of helped me see the way I behaved last time I was in his presence.

Kim
So this is going to be a Night Move. What are you afraid will happen if you fail and lose your nerve here?

Natalia
Oh… I think that by attacking the host of this party, all of the staff will immediately turn on me and I will..

[Shudders]

Be in trouble.

Kim
It’s worse than that. Miss Douglas, you will be skinned and put on display.

Natalia
Not my pelt! My human pelt!

Kim
This is a Night Move with Vitality, to do this as you are dancing, and trying to enter Sally’s personal space. I am going to give you disadvantage on this, because you are so Defiant. I think you are not entirely the most composed in this moment, especially talking to Vittorio.

Natalia
Alright. I do add 1 to this, so there is that.

[Rolls dice]

Okay. I got a 6 + 1 is a 7. I would like to use the Mask of Beauty to bump that up.

Kim
To a full success! Yeah, this seems like a good opportunity.

Cassandra
I think so.

T.
Yeah, let’s do it.

Kim
So, Threat-specific Masks ask all of you to narrate a flashback. The Mask of Beauty reads as follows: each hunter narrates a flashback to a time when they felt truly beautiful.

[Water laps against the side of a boat. Crickets chirp]

T.
We hear the churning of something moving water rhythmically, like a mill’s wheel. The light is from an oil lamp that teeters gently back and forth over sweat-stained sheets in a crew’s quarters cabin below the deck of a ship. A woman tracing her fingers on the chest of a completely unscarred Augustus. She looks at him, and notices something troubling him and says, “What?”

“You’re just about the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen and, I’m… I’m scrawny, and barely enough meat on my bones to keep me warm through the winter. There’s no reason why you should have anything to do with me. Constance, I..”

And she puts a finger to his lips. “Don’t you know you’re about the most delicious thing I’ve ever seen?”

And he sees himself reflected in her eyes, and takes her hand a pulls her closer to his chest.

[A dark, moody string quartet]

Robert
We see Morgan a few years younger, but an entire world away. His face is clean-shaven. His hair is longer, almost down to his shoulders, the curls forming into beautiful, flowing waves. He’s wearing a billowing, dark grey silk poet’s shirt, tucked into a very tight black breeches, and a black mask.

The room he’s in is another ballroom, but unlike this one, it is impossibly large. The space that it seems to take up could not have been constructed by mortal hands. The columns and the pillars in the room are the size of the great redwood trees. And it is filled with the most beautiful people you could imagine, swirling, dancing.

And as Morgan as his dance partner descend the black marble staircase, he looks at her, she looks at him, and everyone in the room, for a moment, stops what they’re doing and looks at the two of them.

[Airy, ethereal ambience]

Cassandra
It was just after the forging of the Parthenon. The people of this city had lit lamps in her honor. There were flames dancing off of the marble, and the scent of olive oil was really thick in the air. And they had carved her in stone.

But she was there, cloaked in her mortal form, just watching. And there’s children dancing, and old people laughing, and people hugging each other. And they were placing figs and flowers at the base of his beautiful statue. And the sculptor was sitting at the foot of her likeness, just praying. Not really believing what he was saying, but praying nonetheless.

And just, for that very brief moment, pretending, playing at being mortal… she felt like she’s not a weapon in this moment. She’s not wisdom, sharpened toa point. She’s just something radiant, something beloved. And for the first time in her many, many years, something whole.

[Beneath the ocean]

Natalia
There are many shipwrecks surrounding Great Britain. The oceans are dangerous, and not every ship makes it to port.

[Gentle harp music]

Natalia
And it is one of the great pleasures for Maesie and her siblings and her cousins and her friends to go scavenging in this wrecks beneath the sea. And hidden away in a box in one of these ships is the first time that Maesie comes across a mirror. And she’s seen her reflection before, because that is what water does. But it is never as clear or as pristine as what can be seen in a looking glass.

And seeing her face and her eyes and her whiskers and her little seal nose for the first time, at such a young age, is just an experience and a moment that she never forgets. Knowing who she is, and how beautiful she is, all of the time.

[Distorted string quartet music]

Kim
Elsewhere in the ballroom, I would like to focus in on Mr. John and The Dapper Boy.

Mr. John (T.)
So this is how you feel powerful, huh? Finding girls down on their luck, no money or power to their names, you kill them for your own pleasure, huh? Or rather, you have your goons do it for ya.

The Dapper Boy (Kim)
I don’t kill them, sir. I merely pass the information along.

Mr. John (T.)
And then you come and gloat, and look about what you did.

The Dapper Boy (Kim)
Well it is a very pretty trophy, don’t you think?

Mr. John (T.)
Trophies are for men who act, not for little boys who pass information along.

T.
I reach down and rub the side of the dagger with the ivory handle on my thigh holster.

The Dapper Boy (Kim)
I suggest you watch yourself, sir. For there are those here who are watching you.

T.
And I take a moment and look around, and I’ve got these, like, heightened senses from having the Quickening kind of in check. And I do clock, like, who’s got eyes on him. Can I try and identify his employer?

Kim
You can see that the Dapper Boy’s employer is currently dancing with Maesie Douglas.

T.
And that brings me back to the moment, and the task at hand. I remove my hand from my thigh.

Mr. John (T.)
I suggest you watch this. You ever seen an American dance before?

T.
And I kick off my shoes and I go barreling toward the dance floor and I say…

Mr. John (T.)
Hey, can somebody play something with a beat?

T.
And I go to the dance floor and start trying to, like interrupt the intimacy of the slow dancing movement, and start trying to just, like, dance and clap and holler and draw attention to myself – and away from Maesie.

Kim
This sounds like a Night Move to me. What are you afraid might happen if you fail or lose your nerve here?

T.
I’m afraid that instead of drawing attention onto myself and removing a threat from Maesie, her treat will act faster and kill her or harm her in some way.

Kim
Mr. John, it’s worse than that. You will cause a stir here, but you will cause such a commotion that you will not notice one of the Dapper Boy’s goons slide a knife in between your ribs.

This is a Night Move with Vitality. You do have advantage on it, because of your good Quickening roll.

T.
[Rolls dice]

Seven.

[The Woman in Sapphire’s theme starts playing]

Kim
I’d like to go elsewhere through the Exhibit. Mr. Lloyd, talking with the Sapphire Woman.

Robert
Can I see the dance floor from where I am?

Kim
I think you can.

Robert
Okay. Then Morgan was keeping an eye on Maesie, and he sees Sally No-Face over there. So he says…

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Sorry, my lady. Hate to be rude, but I’ve got a pressing engagement that way.

Kim
As you move to leave, this woman extends a gloved hand and catches your arm.

The Woman in Sapphire (Kim)
If I may offer some advice? I suggest you be careful, Mr. Lloyd.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Always am.

The Woman in Sapphire (Kim)
Mr. Clemenza is a fine hand with the blade.

Robert
Morgan walks purposely towards the dance floor. On his way, he grabs a plate, clears whatever detritus is off of it and smashes it against the table. He hides a few shards from that plate in his hand, which he then puts into his pocket and mixes with something unknown.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, it feels like you’re trying to set up a Rite of Salt and Smoke, here.

Robert
I am.

Kim
Go ahead and make that roll. Let me take a look at your Conditions… I think this is going to be at disadvantage, because you are very Conspicuous in this moment.

Robert
Well luckily, he has a bag of lavender ash that he took from his witch’s cupboard. So I am going to be rolling that at a neutral.

Kim
Fantastic. Go ahead and mark that personal quarters item, and roll 2d6 + Sensitivity.

Robert
That would be an 11.

[Distorted string quartet music]

Kim
Finally, Miss Thanero and Dame Margaret Teasdale. Ms. Teasdale is pressing glass after glass of champagne in your hands as she is chattering away about the gossip of the day.

Cassandra
I think Ena’s just, like, taking a sip and Dame Margaret is just so distracted, just like by her own self-importance, that she doesn’t even notice that Ena just keeps setting these glasses down. And just, instead, is just, like, looking at, like, all of the food and just contemplating mistakes made up and to this point. But this woman is talking, and Ena’s blood pressure is rising.

Dame Margaret Teasdale (Kim)
I am curious about the choice of trousers for you. Dearest Ena, is there anything wrong with a good, classic gown?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I do find just a good, classic gown to be rather mundane, honestly. What’s wrong with an immaculately tailored pair of trousers? They show off the legs, they show off the curvature of the calves. I mean, they’re just to die for, honestly.

Dame Margaret Teasdale (Kim)
Well, I suppose when you’re young you can pull anything off. But trust, dear. When you become rather advanced in years, you must approach your fashion choices with a bit more care and consideration.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
And I’m to take advice from you?

Dame Margaret Teasdale (Kim)
Why of course. Everyone does.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Is that right?

Cassandra
And I think at this moment, Ena has been holding a plate. And just, listening to this woman think that she knows everything that there is to know, and she’s so advanced in years… she just snaps this plate, just out of anger. Looks at the pieces, and then gently sets it down. And I think at this time, I would like to do Taketh Away.

Kim
Let’s go ahead and read that move. It begins with “When you destroy a Side Character physically, spiritually, or socially.” So I’d like to know what it is you are doing with Dame Margaret Teasdale in this moment.

Cassandra
So we’re standing at the buffet table, and this will absolutely, 100% be social devastation. Cause there’s a lot of people here. This party is very, very full. And there is nothing worse at this time that can be done to Dame Margaret Teasdale than to destroy her in front of all of the people that she so desperately wants to impress.

Kim
How does destroying this woman socially make you feel?

Cassandra
Ena does not like people who wander this earth proffering wisdom they don’t actually possess. It is her deepest, deepest bane, is for people to move around as if they know everything when they in fact know nothing. So to destroy someone who thinks that they sit at the pinnacle of wisdom on any subject, to do that is to absolutely put a person in their place. Which is well, well, below that station. And it feels good.

Kim
Miss Thanero, I would like you to scar your reflection.

Cassandra
Oh, you got it.

Kim
And I would like you to roll with Vitality. I will put this at disadvantage, because you are, of course, A Close Friend of Dame Margaret Teasdale.

Cassandra
Am I, am I… Alright.

Fuck! It’s a 3! God damn it. Um… I’m gonna give you a Mask of the Past for this, to bump that up to I guess a mixed success.

Kim
Go ahead and read your first Mask of the Past prompt.

Cassandra
My prompt is, narrate a flashback to your childhood that shows how, even then, people were willing to suffer in order to make you happy.

[Dark, ethereal ambience]

Cassandra
In the hush of a violet twilight, atop the great mountain, a young child sat cross-legged on a marbled outcrop, a heavy scowl wrinkling her usually serene brow.

“I said I wanted a creature that knows things!” She huffed, kicking a pebble over the edge. “Not another squawking peacock or a glimmering deer!”

She was eight – the tempestuous age of brilliant ideas and divine tantrums.

The muses, usually patient with her, shifted nervously. One, clearing her throat:

“Dear child, perhaps… A sphinx!”

The child gave her a look that could chip granite. “A riddle cat? Please. I want something small, wise, with eyes like stars and silence like stone!”

From behind a laurel tree, her nanny hobbled in. “I could fashion –”

“No! Real! I want it to fly, and blink, and… and know!”

The gods were exhausted. For three days and two lunar eclipses, the child had demanded a creature to mirror her mind, to perch on her shoulder and understand the world as she did. No feast had been eaten, no poem recited. Dionysus even gave up wine. Dionysus.

Finally, one weary nymph named Glauce stepped forward. She had been a woodcarver, once. Quiet, and clever.

“I’ll make one for you,” she said softly. “But it must be born from pain.”

And so, in a sacred grove, Glauce plucked out here own eyes and offered them to the earth. From where her tears fell, a feathered creature rose – round, silent, and knowing. The first owl. It fluttered to the child’s arm, tilted its head once, and blinked in agreement.

The child smiled for the first time in days. The skies cleared, ambrosia returned to the table, and all the gods sighed in relief. And somewhere, Glauce, now blind but proud, knew that her sacrifice had given the child her eternal companion.

Even then, they were willing to suffer for my joy. And even now, I have never forgotten.

Kim
Let’s take our final trip to the Grand Guignol.

[A broken, music box melody]

Kim
T., describe Act Three, in which the nanny gets her comeuppance. The final scene should be very bloody.

T.
The curtain rises on the nanny where we left her at the end of Act Two, dripping in the children’s blood. Standing triumphant, having snapped and finally given them what she feels they all too rightly deserve. When, who should come in, but the parents of the family, home from an evening at the theatre themselves?

They see the nanny standing over their dead children, and waste no time in apprehending her. Rather than going to the authorities as the man of the house suggests, the lady of the house, looking at the discarded bodies of her children, takes matters into her own hands. Takes one of the steak knifes off the table and slices the nanny from top to tail, from toe to snout.

As she’s bleeding, she takes the tablecloth and, with all of the many sets of dishes shatter to the floor, staunches the bleeding and puts pressure and says, “No, no, no. Not yet. Not yet.” And while she’s still alive, wraps her in the sheet and puts her into the oven, large enough for a feast on this table, but instead to burn the nanny alive, for now she will at last be warm.

We close for an epilogue on the family, dining on her body on the ruined table. “They call it hysteria,” the man says. “And all should be scared, when they’re calling it hysteria. The rich have their own cure. But for the poor, this is the only prescription.”

Kim
I’d like to come back to Miss Thanero and Dame Margaret Teasdale. Miss Thanero, on a result of 7, you may choose one from the list below.

Cassandra
Alright. So my choices are: clear any Condition you wish, including Most Beloved, your next roll is taken with advantage, you may take something from your victim and add it to your Personal Quarters, and there are no long-term consequences for your actions.

I feel like since John and Lloyd rolled on our initial Answer a Question, that I’m going to take my next roll at advantage, in the even that I end up rolling a singular die with potentially Maesie or someone else, to take responsibility for the rolls in facing Sally No-Face. That’s what I choose, is roll with advantage.

Kim
Okay, fantastic. Now, I want the scene, Miss Thanero. How are you destroying Dame Margaret Teasdale?

[A creeping, malevolent ambience]

Cassandra
Ena’s standing there, again – these two halves of this plate in her hand. It’s a very brief moment of losing the control and composure that she absolutely has within her. And I think she just sets these two halves of this plate down on this immaculate buffet table, wipes the porcelain from her hands, and then just turns to Dame Margaret.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Dame Margaret, how astonishingly brave of you to enter the room with such confidence! I do so admire a woman who can march so fearlessly into society, armed with nothing but arrogance and a rather unfortunate face. You speak with the authority of a women who’s been ignored her entire life and is now exacting revenge on the world one tedious opinion at a time. Your voice has all the charm of carriage wheels over cobblestones: loud, jarring, and entirely without purpose.

Cassandra
And I think as she’s here, the room is getting quiet. The room is watching it, like, “What is going on here at the buffet table?”

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
As for your gown, which you seem remarkably proud of, is it mourning attire or simply your sense of fashion finally surrendering to time, taste, and your reflection? I mustn’t be too cruel, of course. It must be terribly taxing carrying the weight of your self-importance, your misjudged confidence, and that jawline through every drawing room in London. How commendable of you to do so with the grace of a wounded mule and the subtlety of cannon fire. But truly, Dame Teasdale, you are a monument. Not to wit, nor wisdom, but to the resilience of bad manners, bad taste, and worse lineage. One wonders what sins your ancestors committed to land you among us.

Cassandra
And I think she just clears her throat, and Ena picks up one of her drinks, sips it, never breaks eye contact.

Kim
I think we hear whispered conversations, and little titters of laughter all directed at Dame Margaret Teasdale.

Assorted Socialites (Kim)
“I’m so glad that Miss Thanero had the courage to finally take Miss Teasdale down.”

“Yes! Yes, of course. I always thought that way about Dame Margaret, didn’t you?”

“Well yes. I mean, goodness, I’m so glad someone said something about that jaw and, oh, the garish way that she dresses.”

“Well, I certainly won’t be inviting her to our very next fete. Oh no, Margaret. Absolutely not.”

Kim
And we just see Dame Margaret slink away from the Exhibit. Out of the party, never to be seen in society again.

You can go ahead and clear A Close Friend of Dame Margaret Teasdale. It is a Keeper reaction to clear Conditions, should they no longer be fictionally relevant. But Miss Thanero, I have one more question for you.

Cassandra
Yes?

Kim
How has your Reflection changed for the worse, as a result of what you’ve just done?

Cassandra
In keeping with the theme of beautiful faces, we see a menacing narrowing of the eyebrows, and the eyes darkening. And then the rest of the face just ages and becomes a little bit older and wrinkled and sun-spotted. But the big thing is just this menacing look to her face, because she was absolutely unkind in this moment. And now we see that there is meanness in her.

[The final moments of the Beethoven string quartet]

Kim
I would like to now move our focus to the ballroom itself. Miss Douglas, on a 10+ of trying to remove Sally’s mask, narrative control falls to you. Tell me what’s happening.

Natalia
I think in this moment, it’s the hunters lining up in sync for the first time ever. And Maesie knows that while she can be a little loosey-goosey and do her own thing, they did come here with a purpose. And it fell to her to confront Vittorio in this moment. But she does see out of the corner of her eye, Rabbit making his way here. John, loudly making his way here. And knows that she has backup. And as she rips the mask away in this dance that they’re doing on the dance floor, she spins him around and shoves him at Morgan.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, on a 10+ of Rites of Salt and Smoke, what is it you’re trying to do here?

Robert
Trap a specific person or creature.

Morgan walks towards Sally No-Face, now revealed to be Vittorio, on the dance floor. And as Maesie pushes them towards him, he grabs Vittorio’s hands in his own.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Mind if I cut in?

Robert
And starts dancing with him wildly.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
One of my friends here had a bit of a theory about you. About why you do the things you do. Something about beauty? Perfection in an imperfect world? Something like that? Well let me tell you something. I’m a magic man. I can make dreams come true.

Robert
And with that, he grabs Vittorio’s hand so tightly that the small shards of plate cut both of their hands open. The blood mixes with the lavender ash that he had in there, polluting the blood and turning it thick and dark. And Vittorio smiles for a moment as the light flees his eyes and he faints.

Somewhere across the Exhibit, a pair of painted eyes on a mannequin seem just a little bit more real as Vittorio’s soul now resides in one of his creations.

T.
John’s coming forward, seeing all of this going on, and is positioning himself in this place to do what he does best, which is violence. And to be protective of two people that he doesn’t particularly respect as adversaries, as foes in a formidable sense. And then watches as Miss Douglas stands up for herself, removes the mask and removes the threat from her, pushes it into Rabbit’s hands, who he expected to be bait, who then… does something. Who’s to say what? And then takes care of the threat and watches Vittorio go limp in his arms, and feels himself useless, in that moment. Like, he doesn’t have anything to do. So instead, hearing the commotion from the other side of the ballroom, says…

[A gentle Chopin Nocturne]

Mr. John (T.)
Well, I came here for a reason.

T.
And walks up to Miss Thanero, bows gracefully – wearing no shoes, disheveled… Like, suit is all mussed up. Hat’s nowhere to be found. And then extends a hand, and says…

Mr. John (T.)
Would you care to cut a rug with a know-nothing nobody like me?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I would adore it.

T.
And then dances with Miss Ena Thanero, letting her take the lead.

Cassandra
Hell yeah.

T.
Trousers and all.

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

T.
A little bit put out to pasture, but in a pleasantly surprised way. This is the first time One Shot hasn’t felt, like, “I have to be the one to pull the trigger, I have to be the one to organize everything, if I’m not in control then everything will fall to shit.” So I think that in addition to being the follow in this dance, is letting the night take itself as it will, and kind of just giving over to having a dance with a lady he respects.

Kim
Mr. John, take the Condition: Not The Leader. But I do believe this little picture of Mr. John and Miss Thanero dancing amidst the chaos of the Exhibit is how we will close our Night Phase.

[An ominous, rumbling woosh]

Kim
Well done, hunters!

[Gentle piano]

Casandra
We did it!

T.
We did one! We got one!

Cassandra
We got one!

Kim
The first thing we do in the Dawn is we collect rewards if a Threat was resolved! Hunters, I will read you a list of available rewards, and you will each choose one of them. The rewards are as follows:

Sally No-Face’s wooden mask – add it to your Personal Quarters. Sally No-Face’s… It says “scalpel” here, but I like the idea of using the woodcutter’s knife instead. So Sally No-Face’s sloyd knife – add it to your Personal Quarters. A mannequin – add it to your Personal Quarters. And a victim’s face – add it to your Personal Quarters. And finally, a memento from the investigation – ask another hunter what it is, and then add it to your Personal Quarters. And that option can be chosen by as many people as would like to, if I can’t interest you in a face or a mannequin.

Natalia
Is it fair if Maesie takes the mask?

T.
Of course!

Cassandra
I think you’d get that. You did it.

Robert
You literally took the mask, yeah.

Natalia
Thank you.

Kim
I think that is more than fair, Miss Douglas.

T.
This is a bit macabre, but I think One-Shot would like to take Vera’s face and put it in his room as a reminder of the consequences of his actions. Or inactions.

Kim
I love that.

Robert
I think in that case, Rabbit is going to take the mannequin that Vittorio Clemenza’s soul now resides in.

Kim
And Miss Thanero?

Cassandra
I think I want the sloyd knife. I have an affinity for woodcutting.

T.
Yeah, after that Mask.

Cassandra
I do like crafts, so…

Kim
The next thing that we do in the Dawn Phase is answer our Dawn Questions. So, did the hunters resolve a Threat?

[An overlapping chorus of “yes” from the players]

Kim
That’s one point of experience. Did the hunters answer a Question?

[Another overlapping chorus of “yes” from the players]

Kim
That’s one point of experience. Did you get an Echo in the Night?

Cassandra
I think everybody went for that plate.

Kim
I heard a lot of plates happening.

Cassandra
We all liked that plate.

Kim
Miss Thanero and Mr. Lloyd both plated.

Cassandra
We plated immaculately.

Robert
Plated it up.

Kim
Mr. John, did you get an Echo?

T.
I tried to set myself up with the, “You treat the rich one way, you treat the poor one way” with the Dapper Boy, and then doing it in the epilogue of the play? But I don’t think my verbiage was close enough for it to echo.

Kim
Miss Douglas, what about you?

Natalia
I feel that I echoed the dining table settings in the play, and then in the fancy townhouse.

Kim
Miss Thanero, did you express a clear preference for the beautiful over the mundane?

Cassandra
Yes. I believed I used almost the exact sentence.

Kim
Yeah, you did. And did you appear in London society wearing risque or avant-garde fashion?

Cassandra
We wore a full men’s suit tonight, so I’m gonna say yes.

Kim
I would consider that to be pretty avant-garde for the 1860s, certainly. Miss Douglas, did you delight in discovering lost, forgotten, or ancient magic?

Natalia
I don’t believe I did, no.

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

Natalia
I did do that earlier in the Day Phase, when I was looking for pearls.

Kim
Yes, absolutely. Mr. Lloyd, did you have a face to face encounter with a Dark Entity?

Robert
Not today.

Kim
And did you perform a ritual?

Robert
At least two!

Kim
Yeah, so go ahead and take that point of experience. Mr. John, did you stick out in London society for all the wrong reasons?

T.
I would like to think so.

Kim
I believe you would, yes. And did you encourage a fellow hunter to let loose for a change?

T.
I will leave the judgment of that up to Cass.

Cassandra
I think yes. I’m gonna say yes to that. Cause I mean I let loose verbally, and then just did something fun right after. Unhinged. Absolutely.

Kim
I like the notion of you, you know, deigning to dance with an uncouth American is Miss Thanero’s version of letting loose.

Cassandra
Yeah, absolutely.

Kim
Alright. So, tallying up all of your yeses, does anybody level up?

T.
We all do!

Kim
Everyone! Alright. So I would like you all to pick an advancement from one of your available options.

Robert
I’m going to choose to take another move.

Kim
Lovely. What are you taking?

Robert
I am taking Familiar.

T.
Yay pets!

Cassandra
Yay!

Robert
You have a small animal companion, through which you can work some of your magic. When you take this move, choose your companion, name it, and add it to your Personal Quarters. It can never be marked, so long as the die roll you are taking advantage on is associated magic related to the familiar’s listed affinity.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, I’m very curious to know what animal you have chosen?

Robert
I think we’ll do a scene tomorrow where he introduces it for the first time.

T.
You monster.

Cassandra
Yay!

Natalia
It better be a rabbit, just saying.

Robert
Rabbit’s not one of the options.

Natalia
Dangit!

Cassandra
Fuck.

Kim
Alright. What about advancements for everyone else?

Natalia
I will also be picking an additional move from my playbook. And I am going to be selecting Curse of the Deep.

When you lash out at someone threatening you or your allies, invoke the magic of your kin and roll with Sensitivity. On a 10+ choose two from the list below, on a 7-9 choose one. And my options are: 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.

Kim
I love that.

T.
I will also take another move. I’m gonna go with Tall Tales.

When you tell a story from back home that is wildly unbelievable in order to charm someone, roll with Presence. On a hit, they fall for your charm and do as you wish, or reveal a Clue – my choice. On a 10+, they won’t ask for anything in return. On a 12+, they will also give me a keepsake to remember them by. I ask another hunter what it is, and then add it to my Personal Quarters.

Kim
I feel like you’ve been doing this move regardless, so it’s nice that you finally get to roll dice associated with it.

T.
Yeah, just activating it.

Kim
And Miss Thanero, what about you?

Cassandra
I decided that for my advancement, to take an ability modifier by one.

Kim
Excellent, what are you raising?

Cassandra
I’m gonna raise Presence to a 3.

T.
Ooh-hoo!

Kim
Powerful. That’s as high as it can go.

Cassandra
Well, now I’ve got it.

Kim
Finally this Dawn, we resolve any moves that are resolved in the Dawn. There is only one. Miss Douglas, I am owed a Clue from your Vulnerable Scene. Now we have already resolved Sally No-Face. We don’t need any Clues for that. So the only Threat on the board is the Demon of Kilburn Abbey. It’s entirely possible that while on the dance floor, you overheard something or noticed something that might be giving you a Clue. It can be anything, as long as it does not definitively answer a Question.

Natalia
If anyone has any ideas right off the bat, I do not. So I’m open.

T.
Oh! You know something that I personally feel is a dark portent and would love to have a reason to ascribe it to something? You know sudden bird death, when murmurations of swallows just drop out of the air?

Natalia
Ooh…

Cassandra
That’s fun.

Natalia
I like this. Okay, okay. While we were present at the art and science exhibit, there was a collection of gilded cages in one area of the party, filled with beautiful songbirds and decorative parrots, and all of these wonderful creatures… That all so suddenly all died at once.

Kim
Well done, hunters. One Threat resolved. But a hunter’s life is never easy. Rest tonight, for there is a new Threat on the horizon.

[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 Chris Smith, TheZMage, Wade Owl, and Diana Murray in supporting artist-driven storytelling. Thanks for listening.