Shadows in the Smoke S2E3 - "A Door at the End of the Hall"

Shadows in the Smoke S2E3 – “A Door at the End of the Hall”

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

[Shadows in the Smoke theme]

Kim
Welcome, hunters, to the Dusk.

[Gentle piano music]

Kim
The first thing that we do in the Dusk Phase is roll moves that are rolled in the Dusk. We have two moves this Dusk Phase that we must concern ourselves with. Let us start with the familiar, first. Miss Douglas, would you like to do Moonlight Upon the Waves tonight?

Natalia
Not tonight. I’ve got plans.

Kim
Dr. Branford, could you please read your move?

Madeleine
The Resurrectionists. A gang of graverobbers led by a man called Harley White is loyal to you. Each Dusk Phase, pick two… The graverobbers will dig up corpses that night during the Dawn Phase – acquire a body part for the child. The graverobbers will search for other valuables that night – during the Dawn Phase, ask another hunter what they found, add it to your Personal Quarters. A graverobber, either Harley or another (name them) will accompany you during the upcoming Night Phase. Take the following Condition: Ghoulish. Any rolls associated with actions the graverobber is helping you with are taken at advantage. And the hopefully forever, but probably not forever: you’ll face no blowback or complications from any criminal activities the graverobbers get up to that night.

Kim
Yeah, that’s really an important one.

Madeleine
We’ve learned that.

Natalia
We love that one.

Kim
So Dr. Branford, please select two.

Madeleine
As I’ve been gone for so long, I need some body parts for my child. So I will be taking that one. And I would like no blowback, please.

Kim
Gorgeous.

Cassandra
Keep it safe.

Madeleine
For now.

Cassandra
For now.

Kim
Next, I would like to invite you all to answer a question, should you like to. You have two Threats that you are currently working on, that being The Cursed and The Whateley Camera. We’re doing pretty good on the Cursed threat. Our first Question is a Complexity 4, and we have gathered six Clues thus far. Well done, Hunters.

The Whately Camera, we still have only gathered five Clues for our Complexity 8 question. So answering is theoretically possible, but it will be done at a -3. What are our thoughts?

Cassandra
I believe Madeleine and I have a pitch for answering the question for The Cursed.

Kim
The Clues you have gathered thus far for the Cursed are as follows… Spotted on the creature itself, a brand of a sun in the middle of the creature’s spine, between its wings. And the mane along the creature’s neck is not a mane of hair, but jellyfish tentacles. Dr. Branford pulled a long, sharp quill out of the body of a victim of the Cursed. Moc’h made mention that the butterfly will always return to its chrysalis, and then turned into a very disconcerting meat chrysalis…

[Everyone chuckles]

Madeleine
Delicious.

Kim
Spotted in Miss Thanero’s portrait: a painting of patients at Bethlem Royal Hospital, tearing each other apart like wild animals. And spotted on the bloated, mangled body of a victim of The Cursed: the insignia of a bright, burning sun.

The Question that you must answer right now is, “Is the transformation permanent or reversible?” And it is a Complexity 4.

Cassandra
Alright. Well, we are going to say that the transformation is reversible, using the following Clues… A mane of jellyfish tentacles, because jellyfish possess regenerative abilities, and can actually revert to a former stage earlier in its life. So we’re using that as justification that it’s reversible.

Madeleine
Mmhmm. Mmhmm.

Cassandra
A long, sharp quill. A quill rewrites, it amends, it’s often used in contracts. So his cursed form is not biological, it’s a written condition. The written agreement that Hutch has made is revisable.

Madeleine
It’s legal terms

Cassandra
In legal terms!

Madeleine
Yes.

Kim
How fascinating. So the quill that you’re positing right now is a writing implement, not a porcupine quill.

Madeleine
So I posit it appears as a porcupine quill, but… So if you know anything about birds, which I unfortunately know a lot about birds…

[Everyone laughs]

Cassandra
Unfortunately? Not unfortunately!

Madeleine
When feathers come in, they’re encased in a little sheath.

Kim
Uh-huh.

Madeleine
They’re called pinfeathers, or bloodfeathers. So it’s literally like the body is trying to transform. The legalese is coming out.

Natalia
[Chuckles]

Madeleine
Trying to put it onto another body, which brings us to more of our Clues.

Kim
I love it. Alright, please continue.

Cassandra
A butterfly returning to its chrysalis symbolizes a reversal in transformation, even though you would think it’s impossible. And lastly, the brand of a sun in between the wings on his back, the brand of the sun is a mark of the contract. Because in mythology, gods often use brands as part of divine bargains. So these are basically a physical manifestation of the terms. And with any contract, terms can be met or nullified.

Kim
Intriguing. Why the sun? Certainly the god that we surmise gave Mr. Hutchinson the curse is not ordinarily associated with the sun.

Cassandra
So if we remember correctly, Hutch made that bargain to have his wife returned. So his wife is symbolic of being Hutch’s sun. Basically, he will get her back if he fulfills the bargain. So it’s a manifestation of his wife.

Kim
Ohh, okay!

Natalia
I like to consider the idea of the sun setting in the ocean. If you know about what the green flash is, that’s when the sun passes right through the water during sunset, it typically shines very brightly green through the ocean. And that, historically, is meant to be the souls of the dead returning to this world.

Kim
Lovely.

Cassandra
Love that, too.

Madeleine
That’s beautiful.

Kim
Alright. So that is four Clues for a Complexity 4. You looking to add any more to that, or just make the roll flat?

Natalia
Maybe add one?

Cassandra
I think we add one.

Madeleine
This evening I may be planning on maybe getting more clues.

Natalia
In the time that we need to answer the second question, I think we can get back up to at least four, if we use one more right now.

Kim
Alright. So looking to add one more Clue to this answer. What are we thinking?

Madeleine
The doctor would love to add the vision of the Bethlem patients.

Kim
Tell me about that.

Madeleine
Specifically, because there are multiple of them, and they are all behaving similarly in an animalistic fashion. Traditionally, Bethlem or places like that are set to be places you are hopefully discharged from at the end of the day? So while you are there, they are men behaving like animals, but at the end of the day they can be returned to a past state, before they were long gone.

Kim
Ah, the belief in rehabilitation.

Madeleine
Yes.

Cassandra
Ah-ha!

Natalia
Nice.

Cassandra
Very nice. I like that.

Kim
I enjoy this theory very much! Let us see if you’re correct. Who would like to put dice on the table for this? This will be made at a +1.

Cassandra
I feel like I have to do at least one.

Madeleine
Sure.

Cassandra
You wanna do one?

Madeleine
Let’s do it.

Cassandra
Okay. I got a 5.

Madeleine
I got a 3.

Cassandra
So that’s a 9?

Kim
So your answer is correct. Congratulations, hunters.

Cassandra
Yay! [Claps]

Natalia
We did it!

Madeleine
Wheee!

Kim
Mr. Hutchinson’s transformation is reversible.

Cassandra
Oh, thank god!

Kim
This now unlocks the second question on the threat The Cursed. That question is, “What is the creature’s weakness?” And you resolve the Threat by performing a ritual or other procedure to reverse the transformation for good, when the creature returns to Hargrave House. It does note: the American does not re-enter play, but instead returns to the United States. This question is a Complexity 4.

Dare we try to answer the Camera today?

Natalia
I think not yet. I think we’re still a little too under in the Clue department.

Kim
Fair enough. Then a further question for you. Hunters, would you like to do a London Night Phase, or a Hargrave House Night Phase?

Madeleine
I would love to be out and about in London this evening.

Kim
Great. What are you planning to do tonight?

Natalia
I, Maesie Douglas, am going to try and convince Ena to dream walk with me.

Kim
Oh! Utilizing the move that you unlocked from your Resident of Hargrave House, Greco the Dream Sovereign. So you would like to do A Society of Dreamers tonight?

Natalia
I would love to try that.

Kim
A Society of Dreamers is not a move that one can undertake by oneself. I need at least two hunters to be willing to do it.

Cassandra
I believe, given that Maesie is feral about finishing the camera, that I will offer my services and do A Society of Dreamers with Maesie.

Kim
Dr. Branford, setting out alone into London tonight. What are you planning to do?

Madeleine
I plan on visiting an old friend of Hargrave House, Rebekka Salomon.

Kim
Alright. As Miss Thanero and Miss Douglas prepare to enter the realm of dreams, and Dr. Branford visits an old friend, let us to go the Unscene.

[A deep, rumbling woosh]

Kim
Tonight’s Unscene is called “Moonlit Mudlarking”.

[Mournful orchestral music]

Kim
The port of London is one of the busiest in the world. And with so much cargo being loaded and unloaded, the odd crate ends up overboard. The ebb and flow of the Thames deposits this lost cargo up and down the riverbank. Under the light of the full moon, the desperate or optimistic pick through the sucking mud of low tide, stinking of shit and rotting fish, in the hopes of finding treasure.

Paint the Scene: what debris from industry, trade, or home life is found washed up on the mudbanks of the Thames? What does it tell us about the city?

Natalia
We see peppered throughout the river lumps of coal, that have fallen off some transport. And it shows us those who are crouching in the mud, looking for these lumps of coal, that in these sunless times, there are people desperate enough to look anywhere for a way to stay warm.

Madeleine
There are shoes. There are so many shoes. Unpaired, paired, different sizes, big ones, small ones... But they’re all in one little area. Some have been left from being inhaled into the wet mud. Others have been rolled back onto the banks, tossed from the Thames – she no longer wanted them. And the mudlarkers refuse to touch them. Perhaps out of some superstition? But all of the shoes are pointing upstream. And it’s definitely the tides doing that, and not something else.

Cassandra
Alongside all this other detritus, we see rusted horseshoes, half buried in the silt beside bent nails, broken bolts, and iron bolts shaken loose from barges and warehouses and the ceaseless machinery of the docks. Every piece of metal one held something together. And now they soften and rust in the mud, forgotten by men and the progress of a city moving forward. The Lady Thames keeps the discarded bones of a city that grew so quickly, it scarcely noticed what it left behind.

Kim
Miss Douglas and Miss Thanero, let us first concern ourselves with A Society of Dreamers. This was a move that, when you unlocked it, I said was quite long and quite complicated, and I wouldn’t be reading it until it came up.

Natalia
Here we are!

Cassandra
Yeah, now’s the time.

Kim
And, here we are. The consultations with Greco have led to an increased interest in dream explorations. Among the books in the vast, weird library of Hargrave House is a Norwegian tome called Et Samfunn av Drømmer, or A Society of Dreamers. The book details a ritual that allows a person, the Diver, to enter the dreams of a sleeping individual, the Dreamer. The actions of the Diver are controlled by other individuals present during the ritual, called Guides.

A hunter can declare during the Dusk Phase that they wish to dive into the dreams of a Side Character during the Night Phase. So long as at least one other hunter is willing to participate as a guide and the hunters are able to meet the ritual requirements, the dive takes place and lasts the entirety of the Night Phase.

So first things first, which of the two of you is being the Diver? Who is going into dream?

Natalia
Maesie is going to dive.

Kim
Alright. With Miss Thanero as the Guide. Whose dreams are you going into? Which Side Character are you choosing?

Natalia
I would like to dive into Cyrus Abernathy’s dreams.

Kim
Oh, lovely! The proprietor the Society Obscura. Also Penelope made mention that he was the one who photographed her and sent her, either purposely or inadvertently, into the Fragrant Void.

Kim
So there are a series of tables to describe the ritual to go into the dreams. Natalia, let us decide what the Diver must do. Please roll a d6.

Natalia
That’s a 4.

Kim
Alright. The Diver must repeatedly cover and uncover their eyes with seven multicolored layers of silk. Whilst the Dreamer… What must Cyrus Abernathy do? Someone pelse roll on behalf of Cyrus.

Natalia
That is a 5.

Kim
Cyrus is wrapped head to toe in layers of linen, inked with runes. A very fabric-based…

Natalia
Very cloth-heavy, yeah.

Cassandra
Yeah.

[Everyone laughs]

Kim
Finally, the Guides must… Cass, please roll.

Cassandra
That is a 6.

Kim
The Guides must hang upside down around the Dreamer and the Diver.

Cassandra
[Sighs] I’m gonna go stretch.

Kim
There’s some fun, sensory details here that aren’t going to quite land, with us being an audio medium. But, uh, I will read them, in case other people should decide to put this move in their game, because it is very cool. To get the full effect, play the Night Phase by candlelight.

…Sorry to spoil the surprise, we’re playing this game at 11 in the morning, so…

[Everyone laughs]

Natalia
Not quite candlelight. I can turn off all the lights in my room!

Cassandra
Yeah, I’ll turn my light off, yeah.

Natalia
How about that? Now I’m just backlit.

Cassandra
Perfect.

Kim
The dive begins with the Diver closing their eyes. Their eyes should remain closed for the duration of the Night Phase. They will not be required to participate in the Unscene.

Alright. Uh, goodnight Natalia.

Natalia
No, wait. Can I still do the Unscene, though?

Kim
Yes, you can still do the Unscene.

After the first Unscene prompt is resolved, the Keeper reads a dream prompt aloud and asks the Guide what the Diver should do. The chosen Guide will respond with whatever action they think the Diver should perform in the dream. The Diver then describes what they see as they perform the action. This conversation goes back and forth, until I am satisfied. And then I will cut to another hunter, or the Unscene. And this will continue until the last round of hunter scenes. But we will detail what that looks like later.

Alright. So lengthy explanation over, I will now pass control over to Miss Douglas and Miss Thanero. Let’s set up this ritual, shall we?

Natalia
Maesie makes her way home from sending Burt into the beyond – wherever he has gone to – very determined to finish this. And the only thing that she can think of is conversations she’s had with Greco about the dreamwalking she’s done before. And he’s told her about this Society of Dreamers book in Hargrave…

Kim
Yes, it was probably deposited in the library. It was a personal effect of Rabbit that probably has just ended up in the library.

Natalia
And Maesie makes her way up to Ena’s room, in the hopes that she is here tonight. And she knocks on the door.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Uh, Ena?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Yes, little pearl, come in.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Alright. Um, massive rundown: I know you’re busy, I know you’re looking into Hutch, and I know we need to deal with that. But there’s this thing with the camera. And I went to go see Penelope in the void, and she’s sort of there but also not. And I feel like we need to bring her back. And then I sent her boyfriend or fiancé, whatever he is, I sent him into the void, but I was trying to not go into the void. And I think we should visit Cyrus Abnernathy in his dreams. And I have a book, we could do it, would you help me, please?

Cassandra
Ena’s mouth is slightly open, just taking in the onslaught of information she’s just received.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Well, that’s quite a lot that’s been going on, and I’m sorry that I haven’t been more helpful on that particular front. Are you sure you want me to do it? The last time we walked with Greco, it did not go well for me.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
It didn’t go well for me, either. Maybe if we’re both there together, it’ll be fine?

Cassandra
Ena takes in how shaken Maesie is, and calms herself and walks over and puts her hands on Maesie’s shoulders.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
If you want my help, you have it.

Natalia
In this moment of… probably the first physical contact Maesie has gotten from Ena in a very long time, Maesie just drops the book and hugs her, really tight, for a moment.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Yeah. No, I would love your help. Um… And then I promise once this is done, then I will devote myself entirely to finding Hutch. It’s just… It’s been hard. I don’t really want to find him.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I know. And thankfully, we do have Dr. Branford back. So I’m sure she can tend to some of this business with Hutch on her own this evening. If this is your priority, then I’m going to help you.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Thank you, Ena. Right, so, kind of weird: do you have seven multicolored layers of silk?

Cassandra
Ena raises an eyebrow at her. Doesn’t answer, and just walks to a closet and pulls out a large, ornate box. Puts it on the bed, opens it, and it’s definitely more than seven scarves. It’s every possible scarf, in every color and style, pattern, that you can imagine. And she just gestures to the box.

Natalia
Maesie starts digging through it, and is like…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Is there anything in here that we can write on? We have to ink something with runes. It should be made with linen, though.

Natalia
Just keeps digging.

Kim
I’d like to move us, if I may, to the Society Obscura.

[Creeping, eldritch ambience]

Kim
To the sleeping Cyrus Abernathy. Miss Thanero, this is your first time entering the Society Obscura. And it’s not that you feel the presence of a god here, because it’s something older and more power and more ancient than a god. You feel another world, trying to press itself into this house, and into the denizens that dwell within.

Cyrus Abernathy is asleep in his bed. He is dressed head to toe in a form-fitting white bodysuit that is tight in all the right places, with silver cords wrapped around his arms, legs, and neck. Curiously, placed in a location of reverence within this house, is a moon mask that has a black veil pulled over it.

Cassandra
Ena would absolutely walk over to it and not pick it up, but kind of run her hand around, like, the aura that would be present on the mask, to feel it. And then would maybe turn over her shoulder and look at him in this very avant-garde outfit he’s fallen asleep in and just kind of cock her head and go… huh.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Well, Maesie, we’re here. So I suppose we should get started.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Yeah. Alright. Um… First thing’s first: wrap him?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I suppose so.

Natalia
Picks up his feet and starts wrapping the linen cloth about him. Sort of binding him, puts his arms in a cross over his chest.

Cassandra
Ena has started doing the same thing at the head. They’re essentially mummifying him.

Kim
Yeah.

Natalia
Maesie pulls out a small bag that she’s brought with the scarves. Sort of sits herself at the end of this bed near Cyrus’s feet and closes her eyes, and pull out the first scarf and wraps it around her head.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
What am I supposed to do? Am I just standing here?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
You have to hang upside down? Can you do that?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Can I do that? Of course I can do that. I just have to find a place…

Cassandra
And Ena starts looking around the room, trying to figure out where she’s going to do this. And takes off her shoes, looks at the door jam…

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Alright, I suppose this will have to do.

Cassandra
And with exceptional grace, she scales herself up the doorframe, hooks her toes over the jam, and then gracefully, slowly, controlled, unfurls herself back down till she’s hanging upside down in the doorway.

Kim
Alright. The ritual begins. Natalia, please close your eyes.

[Mystical, dreamlike ambience]

Kim
Cyrus Abernathy dreams. He dreams of the shores of Lake Hali. Miss Douglas, you’re standing ankle-deep in the foam. Behind you and around you, an ink black lake of unfathomable vastness, underground. At your disposal, a little boat. Ahead of you, a city of amber and brass, lit by an enormous brazier that burns in a tower like a false sun, though not bright enough to create more than a dim glow through the city’s alleys and passages.

It is a city of artists and scholars and mad people.

Miss Thanero, what should she do first?

Cassandra
Little pearl, you’re going to get into the boat. But first, take off your shoes and leave them pointed toward the city.

Natalia
Maesie, incredibly willing to remove her shoes at any moment, unlaces her boots, leaves them in the black sand of the shore, and then steps into the boat. And the boat begins to move on its own, further into the lake, until she reaches a very slow-moving whirlpool.

Kim
Dr. Branford, going to Rebekka Salomon’s synagogue.

Madeleine
Yes, indeed.

[A gentle fire]

Kim
I imagine the two of you overlapped as hunters together. And while you decided to continue your work with Hargrave House, Rebekka “retired”. Dr. Branford, you can find Rebekka in her study. She has pulled out several diaries. There’s a large bookshelf behind her that is meticulously organized and ordered numerically. These are personal diaries of her time working at Hargrave House. Both the diaries and the study itself are littered with memories and artifacts that she cannot bring herself to dispose of or forget.

Paint the Scene: what of her former tenure at Hargrave House, revealed through these details, still haunts her?

Madeleine
We see to the side a photo that she had set down on the table in front of her. And in it, her old room at Hargrave House, which still had both of the leather armchairs that are now in her study. But in the photograph, we see a young girl, perhaps possessed, perhaps dead.

Natalia
As Rebekka flips through one of these journals, she hesitates on a page with a very detailed diagram of a corpse with its chest cavity carefully sliced open and peeled back, and the lungs placed outside the body. With notes on several different locations.

Cassandra
And as she’s sitting in that memory and looking at that book, her eyes drift to her hands that still bear scars from a variety of painful, excruciating burns.

Kim
At the sound of someone approaching the study, Rebekka Salomon tenses and reaches for a knife at her side, and then relaxes when she sees a familiar face.

Madeleine
I think she probably hears the very familiar of jangling of Dr. Branford’s large bag.

Kim
[Laughs]

Madeleine
Even before she turns around.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
My dearest friend and my oldest nemesis.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
Welcome home. Last I heard you were in Africa. It does not look as though the trip was restful. Are those new lines I see, old friend?

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
They were always there. You could just see them better now.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
[Laughs]

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
I see you’re revisiting Hargrave House yourself from afar this evening.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
It has been some years since I have been counted as a hunter there, and yet… I cannot entirely close the book on that chapter of my life. Sit. I’ll make tea.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
I wish I could say that I was here to relive those memories this evening, but I… I must say, I come here on other business.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
Oh? Do the hunters need the help of an old retiree?

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
I do.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
What troubles you, Doctor?

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
I came for advice, and for warning. You know Mr. John? Or, Mr. Hutchinson, rather, I think he had been going by more recently.

Kim
Her eyes raise in surprise. This is news to her.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
Ah, yes. I once thought of John as a friend. Our last conversation was not particularly pleasant. He seemed to be undergoing a struggle that I did not understand. I haven’t heard from him. I had heard he had left the house.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
In a way. The last time you spoke, you were able to communicate with him? That means it was quite some time ago.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
Yes.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Rabbi Salomon, he is no longer himself. He is utterly transformed. Some sort of physical transformation, the cause of which I have not entirely determined.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
Possessed?

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Perhaps a biological contract. Maybe a parasite. Who’s to say? The cause does not matter. What matters is John is not himself.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
I see.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
I saw him the other day. And though he seemed outside of himself, I do think he recognized me in some bizarre way. And I seem to feel him in this city, and I… I am concerned for all current and former residents of Hargrave House. I think he is revisiting former scenes. Former locations. Former… hauntings, as you all like to call them.

Kim
Dr. Branford, as you say this…

Madeleine
No! [Laughs] I brought him here! Oops…

Kim
May I remind you, you all got a mixed success on Answering a Question concerning The Cursed.

[Unsettling ambience. A pounding sound]

Kim
Both you and Rebekka Salomon hear something pounding at the door of the synagogue. Wood splintering. Rabbi Salomon sets down her tea.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
This place is warded, but… Against demons. Dr. Branford, our Mr. John was a frequent visitor to my synagogue. I do believe you have brough the creature here.

Kim
Let us return to the banks of the Thames.

[Mournful orchestral music]

Kim
Natalia. Two youths come to blows over a case of whiskey, with a couple of bottles still intact. As they push and shove in the slimy mud, how do we know this fight is about more than just the find?

Natalia
We see a young girl struggling against the weight of this crate. And another girl, a little bit taller, a little bit bigger, makes her way through the mud to leer over her.

Usually, the younger, smaller kids will defer. But as the taller girl leans over, her shirt falls open and a glint of silver sets off the younger girl. She jumps at her, dragging her into the mud, pulling her hair, ripping at her shirt, until she manages to get a hand on this necklace. And starts twisting it, and twisting it. And no matter how much bigger or stronger this other girl is, as she is pushed down into the mud, she is unable to catch her breath. The silver cord tightening around her neck. Her eyes watering.

And the young girl takes a moment, when her adversary has finally stopped struggling – still wheezing, but unmoving – to unclasp the necklace very delicately and press it in her palms. And then take a moment to look at the pictures inside of the locket, wraps it around her own neck, gets up, brushes off as much of the mud as she can, and continues to drag the crate up the bank.

[Unsettling ambience. A pounding sound]

Kim
Dr. Branford, Rebekka Salomon has set down the tea and is now approaching one of the bookshelves in her study. She pulls a candlestick, and the bookshelf wheels around, and she has a line of weapons before her.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Oh! Well, I shouldn’t put this past you. This seems very you. Any recommendations? I’m a poor shot.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
Well it sounds as though you have mor experience with this creature than myself. Believe, me, I do not believe that we can kill it or stop it this night, but hopefully we can drive it out. You are something of a blunt object…

Kim
She holds a morningstar in front of you.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
This will do.

Kim
She pulls out an ancient crossbow and some bolts for herself.

Madeleine
Branford is like testing the weight of it in her hand, kind of swinging it from side to side, just to try to get a feel for it.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Alright. Um… other exits?

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
One in the back, but I would hate to see my synagogue destroyed.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Well then, we shall have to stand our ground and see where things fall.

Kim
Another loud, thudding sound. The wood splinters. You hear something alien and monstrous gurgling with too many mouths. Salomon looks at you.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
I do believe that is our cue.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Let’s do this.

Madeleine
And she is going to, from her pocket, grab a little jar of graveyard dirt that… I have a feeling we’re going to be needing, in a moment.

Kim
The two of you leave Rebekka’s study. And standing before you, silhouetted in the threshold of this synagogue, is this chimera-like monster. It tracked you here, Dr. Branford. Or perhaps, was lying in wait for Rabbi Salomon. And when this creature senses and Rabbi Salomon, this tentacle-like appendage emerges from one of its many mouths and wraps around Salomon’s throat.

Madeleine
Upon seeing this, Branford is gonna sprint at her top speed to be right alongside Rebekka, Morningstar in hand, coming down with as hard as she can on the tentacle. At the same time, she’ll attempt to grab Rebekka and pull her further away from the monstrosity.

Kim
This is a Night Move with Sensitivity. What are you afraid will happen if you fail?

Madeleine
I’m afraid that Rebekka will be dead because of me. That I will be dead, and so will the child – never completed.

Kim
Dr. Branford, it’s worse than that. You likened the Cursed’s condition to a parasite. That will prove all too true. This chimera will attack you and somehow lay eggs inside of you, turning you into an equally monstrous chimera.

Night Move with Sensitivity. This will be made with Disadvantage, because you are marked by the Cursed.

Madeleine
Before I grab Rebekka, I will be throwing my graveyard dirt into the upper face of the monstrosity.

Kim
Lovely. That cancels out my disadvantage, making this a flat roll. And indeed, that is what it is. I believe you have a Sensitivity of 0.

Madeleine
That is a 5.

Kim
Dr. Branford, you whip this morning star down onto this tentacle, simultaneously pulling Rebekka away. Unfortunately, the tentacle does not let go. Rebekka’s neck is snapped by the force of you pushing her. She falls to the ground, dead.

The creature then turns its unseeing eyes upon you. And we just hear a series of wet squelching sounds and Dr. Branford’s screams as she is torn apart, and a clutch of eggs placed inside of your eviscerated belly.

[Mystical, dreamlike ambience]

Kim
Miss Thanero, Maesie has described getting in the boat and coming upon a vast whirlpool. What should she do next?

Cassandra
Having looked at that moon mask in Cyrus’s room…

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Little pearl, you’re going to look up to the moon and ask it for help in navigating the whirlpool.

Natalia
Maesie hears that. For a moment, is distracted by the water and drags a hand through the glittering blackness. Brings it up to her mouth and puts a finger in, and then sighs at the lack of salt. Shakes her head, and turns her face up to the sky.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Uh… Hello, moon. Um… I believe I’m meant to traverse this whirlpool. And I do request your assistance in whatever way you might offer it?

Natalia
Hesitatingly, that echoes out through the vast emptiness of this lake. And then the moon begins to move across the sky, until it positions itself directly over the whirlpool. And as it does, the water that was funneling starts to empty until a dock appears that the boat stops at. And a staircase leads down into the lake.

Kim
Let us return to the banks of the Thames.

[Mournful orchestral music]

Kim
Cass. An older woman picks through the mud. Lost in her own world, she does not seem to focus on items of monetary value. What do we see her collect?

Cassandra
As this old woman is digging through the mud, we see her pass over coins and silver buckles and bits of brass. Instead, she stoops for objects that remember people. A cracked child’s marble, worn smooth by countless games. A carved bone button, still threaded with faded blue cotton. A lock of auburn hair, preserved inside a broken mourning locket. Each treasure disappears into her apron with quiet reverence. She gathers not what the river has made valuable, but what it has been unable to make forget.

[Mystical, dreamlike ambience]

Kim
Returning to the dream. A vast staircase going down into the lake is before Miss Douglas. What should she do?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Little pearl, you should go down the staircase, and see what lies beyond.

Natalia
Easily enough. Maesie steps out onto the dock and begins to descend the stairs. The moon is placed directly above this inverted tower, illuminating her as she makes her way down. And once she reaches the base, she finds herself in a room with several doors.

Kim
Paint the Scene. I want each of you to describe a door.

Natalia
One door is made of wrought iron, more of a gate than a door. With vertical rods that reach straight from the top to the bottom, with living flowers and vines weaving their way so thickly between the bars that it is impossible to see beyond the gate.

Cassandra
One of these doors is pure, almost liquid gold. With a moving filagree pattern dancing across the door. And in the middle, there is a circle like a window, with blinding light casting a beam on the floor. And the light is so bright, you cannot look into it to see what lies beyond.

Madeleine
There is a door that sits a few inches off the wall behind it. It’s painted the flat green of a hospital corridor, with a small square window, about head height, with wire set into the glass. The handle is on the other side. So if you wanted to open it, you’d have to squeeze in the gap between the wall and the door.

Kim
Miss Thanero, which door should Miss Douglas walk through?

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Little pearl, go for the door that looks like it leads to a hospital.

Natalia
Maesie observes all the doors, finds the one she believes Ena is talking about, and wedges her arm between the wall and the door, to reach that door handle from the other side. She just barely reaches and wraps her hand around it and pushes down, opening it very slightly so as to pull her arm back out. And makes her way into a dingy, poorly lit corridor with more and more of these doors running down either side of the hall, and a staircase at the end of it.

[Unsettling, sinister ambience]

Kim
Dr. Branford, you have died.

Madeleine
Oops!

Kim
Now, you can always choose to flip back a couple pages. But it will cost a Mask.

Madeleine
Absolutely.

Kim
Dr. Branford, will you be spending a Mask of the Past or a Mask of the Future?

Madeleine
So I rolled incredibly poorly.

Kim
Yes, you rolled a fail.

Madeleine
I would like to bump it up with a Mask of the Past.

Kim
Sure.

Madeleine
And then I would also like to bump that up to a full success with a Mask of the Future.

Kim
That is something that you can do that is theoretically possible. It is an extraordinary use of your resources. Are you sure you wanna do that?

Madeleine
Absolutely.

Kim
Alright. Let us contend with the Past Mask first. Please read the prompt.

Madeleine
Narrate a flashback to the first time you experienced love for the person you lost.

[Rain falls. A fireplace crackles]

Madeleine
We hear rain on a window, a fire, a child breathing badly.

I was five. Or… I think she was. One of us was sick. The kind of fever that goes on for days, and makes you long for new skin – or at least, a fresh pillow. Nanny used to call it the poc sí. But father was away demonstrating some new technique for arterial sutures in Edinburgh, so Nanny had been sitting by our bed for two nights and lightly snoring away in her chair.

It was just us, two shivering forms in nightgowns – one crushed with fever, the other soaked from sharing a sweat-shodden sheet. One tiny hand pressed against a forehead like we had both watched nanny do. A gentle kiss on the forehead, a soft whisper…

I don’t remember what was said exactly, but I recall it in my bones, deep in my marrow, in that moment, with our foreheads touching that I would do anything for her. I would die for her. A love so immense and deep that the only possible way to prove it scientifically would be to destroy it and revisit it later with kinder, wounded eyes.

I was so overcome with love, I let out a small sob – a coo – which she returned. With a start, Nanny snored herself awake and saw us: our four eyes, glassy with lack of apology. She chuckled and pulled the thick blanket that had fallen onto the floor back over our small frames.

“Now my sweet pigeons, try to sleep, you two. If one of you is burning, the other will soon put the heat out.” She tucked the blanket tight beneath us, pressing us close. “That’s how it works, with sisters.”

And we believed her. Our foreheads pressed together, we began to fall asleep. Our breath passing one into the other, so close it was the same breath. And the sweat was the same sweat. And I could not have told you in that bed which skin was mine, and which was hers.

Kim
And what of your Mask of the Future?

Madeleine
Is Most Beloved on the table?

Kim
Why yes, Dr. Branford, it is.

Madeleine
I feel incredibly beloved, in this moment. Running into the beast twice in one day.

Kim
It is also very appealing thematically, considering Hutchinson was the Most Beloved in the last season. That somehow, this encounter with The Cursed has passed that curse onto you.

Madeleine
Mmhmm.

Kim
Dr. Branford, please take the Condition: Most Beloved. It cannot be cleared.

[Unsettling, sinister ambience]

Kim
Masks spent, Dr. Branford, Most Beloved, you have now rolled a full success in defending Rebekka Salomon from the Cursed and driving the Cursed out of the synagogue. What happens here?

Madeleine
When Branford wrenches Rebekka back away, the force with which she does tears off a piece of the shirt she’s wearing. Branford wraps it around the ball of the morning star, runs over to the eternal flame, looks at Rebekka quickly, and says…

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
I’m so sorry.

Madeleine
Lights it. Runs back towards Hutchinson.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Mr. John, I don’t want to hurt you. I won’t take pleasure in it. But I will find a way to do it, if you do not leave.

Madeleine
And she begins brandishing the morning star lit with flames, trying to catch at his tentacles that are coming towards her.

Kim
Dr. Branford, Mr. John is not in a state to be reasoned with. You start brandishing this fire. It is licking at some of these jellyfish-like protrusions, some of the almost dragon-esque wings on the back of this creature. Rebekka Salomon, after taking a moment to gather herself, stabilizes the crossbow against herself and fires off several bolts. Her aim is true. They sink into the flesh-covered eyes of the goat-like creature.

Madeleine
While Rebekka’s getting the shots off, Branford observes her surroundings, looks up, and sees a very large, very plain, very heavy chandelier. And with that, she runs to the wall, lights the rope hanging it up to the rafters, and watches as it comes crashing down on top of the beast.

Kim
Let us make our final trip to the Thames.

[Mournful orchestral music]

Kim
Madeleine. Several bedraggled children poke a bloated corpse with sticks. Those who do not double over retching rifle through the water-logged effects. What last traces of this person’s life or death do they run off with?

“He’s sleeping, right?”

“Sure, if that makes you check his pockets faster.”

He reaches his hand out, almost feeling the barrier of death extending beyond the bounds of his skin.

“I’ll just… take this, then.”

They take his hat. A bowler in so-so shape. They rip out the coins that had been lovingly sewn into the inside for luck, and as a permanent “just in case.” They laugh at the delicate inscription embroidered inside: “On your graduation, my bonny boy. Never stop dreaming.”

And they took his boots. One, with an iron driven into the heel.

[Unsettling, sinister ambience]

Kim
This chandelier comes crashing down onto the Cursed. You hear bones and cartilage breaking. This wet, slimy sound as this creature starts trying to disengage and negotiate itself out of from underneath this impressive iron chandelier. It bellows this tower of steam, like a whale, towards the both of you. Extinguishing all of the flames in this synagogue.

The two of you are plunged into darkness. And the Cursed vanishes.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Well, I don’t think you should be alone for the evening. And I rather say you’re easy to find here. There’s always safety in numbers at Hargrave House. I’m sure your room is still waiting for you, if you would take it.

Kim
Rebekka is massaging her neck.

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
Are you trying to get me out of retirement?

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Would that get you into Hargrave House?

Rabbi Rebekka Salomon (Kim)
Lead the way, old friend.

Madeleine
She brushes her shoulder as she walks past.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Are you going to keep up, or will I have to carry you there?

Madeleine
And she walks out the front door.

Kim
I have one more part of A Society of Dreamers to read. I will do so now. At the start of the dream dive scene following the last Unscene prompt, the Diver rolls plus the number of guides assisting with the dream dive. Miss Douglas, please roll 2d6+1.

Natalia
[Rolls dice] Alright. That is gonna be a 7 on the dice, +1 is an 8.

Kim
On a hit, the hunters will discover two Clues for an active Threat of their choice. Players should describe the Clues based on what was experienced during the dream dive, up to that point. The Clues should not conclusively answer a Question by themselves.

However, on a 7 to 9, the Diver will also encounter a danger. We shall deal with the danger momentarily. Ladies, which Threats are you thinking? I’m owed two Clues. Two Clues for one Threat, or one each.

Natalia
I would like them both to be for Whateley Camera, personally.

Cassandra
Given where we went, who we chose, it only makes sense to me that they’re both for Whately Camera.

Kim
Inspired by some of the bizarre imagery and the scenery that Maesie went through, the adventures that she had in the dreams of Cyrus Abernathy, what are two Clues for me?

Natalia
I have one, that I think would be good.

Cassandra
Okay.

Natalia
Considering other things that we’ve already established.

Kim
Lovely.

Natalia
The moon at the highest point of the sky.

Kim
Oh!

Cassandra
Oh, I love that.

Kim
That’s great.

Cassandra
Okay, so what about in this long hallway that Maesie is in, there’s a door way down that is slightly ajar that looks like a door that’s in the Society Obscura.

Natalia
Yes!

Kim
Oh, I like that.

Cassandra
We could take it a step further and say there’s like a breeze coming through it, to kind of give you, like, “maybe the void’s there.”

Kim
I have written down a recurring dream of a particular door in the Society Obscura – a breeze can be faintly felt.

However…

[Everyone laughs nervously]

Cassandra
Aw, shucks.

Natalia
Oh, no…

Kim
Miss Douglas, you enter into this dreamy impression of a hospital. Patients in rags are running wild. It smells astringent here, like disinfectant. All of the patients are bowing in front of a large floor to ceiling oil painting.

[Ethereal, eerie ambience]

Kim
You can’t discern in this dream who is depicted in the painting. But as you enter into this hospital, the patients turn. They look at you. Most of them don’t have eyes. They’re blindfolded, or their eyes are gone – just empty sockets.

You feel hands around you, Miss Douglas. They are trying to pull you closer to the painting. They are trying to shove you into it.

Natalia
In Maesie’s experience with dreams and in her teachings from Rabbit, she has learned a lot about the ways to cross between awake and asleep. And in the waking world, while her mind still remains in the sleeping world, Maesie’s hand reaches out to this bag full of scarves: Rabbit’s carpet bag, that she brought with her. And she pulls it into her laps and pulls out the final scarf, and ties it around her face.

In the dream, similarly, a scarf appears, so that she may show these patients that she too is blind. That she is one of them. And that she does not belong in the painting.

Kim
Miss Douglas, as this veil passes over your eyes, simultaneously Miss Thanero is pulling the final veil off of your eyes. And you wake up in the Society Obscura.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
[Gasps]

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
You alright?

Natalia
Maesie blinks at the light.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Uh, yeah. No, I was in a hospital. And there was a painting. And there were all of these patients, and they were blind. They didn’t have eyes. And they were trying to drag me into the painting. But it’s… It’s fine. I showed them that I was blind too, and that seemed to work? Dreams are weird.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
That sounds harrowing, to be sure.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Nothing we haven’t faced before, I suppose. Crossing between worlds.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
That is very true.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
There were a couple things. There was something about the moon being high above me. And there was a door at the end of the hall, I feel that… I felt drawn to. There’s something about that. It might be here. I think we made progress.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Good. Well, it’s late, and we should get you home so you can get some actual rest?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Yes. That sounds lovely.

Natalia
Maesie starts gathering the scarves back into the bag, and…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
We should… We should unwrap him, yeah? Probably?

Cassandra
Ena considers this for a moment, considers leaving him wrapped, and then goes…

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Oh, alright…

Cassandra
And starts to unwind him.

Natalia
Maesie helps.

Kim
As this is happening, a question. Miss Thanero, what’s going through your mind at Maesie’s description of this painting and these blind worshippers?

Cassandra
Ena is quiet and focused as she is unwrapping the body of Cyrus Abernathy. But her mind is racing over the fact that Maesie, in a sense, has now seen the masterwork. Even if she couldn’t really identify what it was. And she is definitely now more concerned about how all of that is tying into what’s happening at the Society Obscura. So she realizes now that she might need to split her focus a little bit, and focus more on what the camera is doing, and maybe leave some of this Cursed work to Dr. Branford instead. Because she can’t have anyone finding out how all of this works.

Kim
Miss Douglas. As the two of you leave the Society Obscura, how are you feeling?

Natalia
Maesie’s feeling strangely not out of her depth. She’s becoming more and more comfortable with going into worlds beyond this one. And honestly? She’s a little excited to keep looking into this. She wants to go to the void. She wants to see where this ends.

Kim
Miss Douglas, please take the Condition: One Foot in Other Worlds.

Natalia
Okay…

Kim
We will end our night in Hargrave House. Dr. Branford, you have seen to the injuries of Rebekka Salomon. Thanks to your quick thinking, they could have been much, much worse. After a begrudging but warm thanks, Rebekka retires to her old rooms. And there is a knock at the servant’s entrance of Hargrave House.

Madeleine
Branford quickly looks around, to see if anyone else has returned from their nightly activities. Notices she is in fact alone. And walks over to the door, returns it with four quick raps and waits.

Kim
You hear two raps, a slight pause, and then two more.

Madeleine
Branford opens the door.

Kim
Standing before you is Harley White. He is dressed in dingy workman’s clothes. He smells of wet, turned gravedirt. He grins at you with cracked, yellowed teeth.

Harley White (Kim)
I was surprised to get your call, mum. I thought you were still abroad.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
I was for quite some time, but thank you for continuing to check the windows.

Harley White (Kim)
Always, mum. I think you’ll be quite pleased with what me and the boys dug up.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
I’m sure I will. Load it in where you always do.

Madeleine
And her head points. Around the corner, down from the window, outside the Conservatory is a dumbwaiter.

Kim
He pulls out a wrapped bag.

Harley White (Kim)
I know it’s not my place, mum. But might I ask what it is you’re doing with these experiments?

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
My dear, the less you know, the better. And the more you know, the less I pay you!

Harley White (Kim)
Too right, mum.

Kim
He tips his flat cap at you.

Harley White (Kim)
G’night. You know how to find us.

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
Always.

Kim
Dr. Branford, what is in the dumbwaiter?

Madeleine
Dr. Branford heads up to the Conservatory, opens a window, pulls up… It’s fairly light, given the size of the package. Opens up the fabric, and inside we find a heart.

Kim
Dr. Branford, please narrate a brief, pleasant memory that comes to mind concerning the person you lost and a heart.

Madeleine
Dr. Branford walks back towards her room, and then towards her other room. And while she’s doing that, she is holding the heart with only the layer of fabric in between her hands and the flesh, the viscera, the meat. She becomes hyper aware of the rain that has started to fall on the roof of Hargrave House…

[A thunderclap. Rain falls]

Dr. Branford (Madeleine)
She always had a trick for thunderstorms. She’d climb in beside me and hold me close my ear against her chest, and say…

“Listen, it’s going faster than the thunder! So the thunder’s losing!”

And it made no sense at all, but it worked every time. Her heart always did a quick run, quicker than mine, and I could have told them apart in the dark from that alone.

Kim
Please check off the heart.

[A deep, rumbling woosh]

Kim
Welcome to the Dawn.

[Quiet piano music]

Cassandra
Ooh!

Madeleine
Wooo!

Kim
What a night, hunters!

Cassandra
What a night!

Kim
Natalia, you can open your eyes finally.

[Everyone laughs]

Kim
Oh my god, I can see!

Cassandra
[Sighs]

Natalia
I turned my light back on, so now I’m illuminated once more.

Kim
The first thing that we do in the Dawn Phase is collect rewards if we resolved a Threat. Not yet, but we did make good progress towards the Whateley Camera, as well as we are one question away from the Cursed. So, well done.

We then resolve moves that are resolved in the Dawn. We have already dealt with the Resurrectionists.

Now let us go to Dawn Questions. Did we resolve a Threat?

Cassandra
No.

Madeleine
No.

Kim
Did we answer a question?

Cassandra
Yeah!

Madeleine
Yes!

Kim
Yeah. That is 1xp. Did you get an Echo in the Night?

Natalia
Yes.

Madeleine
Yes.

Cassandra
I did.

Kim
Lovely. What were your Echoes?

Cassandra
Mine was when Madeleine was describing all of the shoes on the Thames pointing upstream. And then in the dream with Cyrus, I told Maesie to leave her shoes on the shore and have them point toward the city.

Kim
Yeah. Excellent.

Madeleine
Mine was Ena having the aura around a mask. And then the little boy poking at the body felt the aura of death around the body.

Cassandra
Very cool.

Kim
Natalia, what about you?

Natalia
Mine was the silver cord wrapped around Cyrus’s throat, and the silver cord that the girl was choking the other girl with in my Unscene.

Kim
Beautiful.

Cassandra
Stunning.

Kim
Dr. Branford, did you dismiss the possibility of a supernatural explanation, despite everything you have experienced?

Madeleine
It’s all parasites, baby. Absolutely.

Cassandra
[Laughs]

Kim
That is true. You did attribute it to parasites. Did you put your hands in a pile of guts and love every moment of it?

Madeleine
Earlier today, does that count?

Kim
Absolutely, yes.

Madeleine
I put them in so many bodies.

Cassandra
You were busy today, with that.

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

Cassandra
I can’t remember if I did that during the day, so I’m gonna say no. Because I definitely didn’t do it at night.

Kim
I don’t think you did. Did you appear in London society wearing risque or avant-garde fashion?

Cassandra
Well yes!

Kim
Yes. I do have that one marked.

Cassandra
[Chuckles]

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

Natalia
Not really delight, no. Just kind of did it.

Kim
The Society of Dreamers was, you know, some ancient, interesting magic. I don’t know if there was a lot of delight happening.

Natalia
Yeah. We were kind of just doing that.

Cassandra
Yeah.

Natalia
We were busy. There was no delight. There was only concern.

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

Natalia
I did do that, while I was in the dream.

Kim
Alright, so everyone please mark xp. I don’t believe anyone levels up.

Madeleine
Not yet.

Cassandra
I’m close. I’m two away.

Madeleine
Same.

Kim
Yes, I will remind those of you who have already maxed out your playbooks, we do have the rewards from Theodora that are still available. And those are rewards that are available for every character at the table, even if you were not personally present for the resolution of Theodora.

Madeliene
Hell yeah.

Kim
Alright. Well. This was a busy, harrowing night.

Cassandra
[Chuckles]

Kim
Both physically for Dr. Branford, and mentally and emotionally for Miss Thanero and Douglas. I think it’s time for you all to rest.

A note, I should perhaps say. This was a pretty peaceful cycle of play.

Natalia
Are you sure??

Cassandra
Sure, what a great word. That’s the word I would use!

Natalia
[Laughs]

Kim
Namely, that there was no Mastermind present. That changes next Day Phase. Sleep well.

[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, exclusive cast talkbacks, ttrpg materials, and more, visit Patreon.com/KittenMarlowe and join Walter Gray IV and all of our incredible Kitten Marlowe patrons in supporting artist-driven storytelling. Thanks for listening.