October 17, 2025 • 68 mins
In this terrifying episode, Professor Mouse, the Cosmologist, Teddy, and Prince B enter the world of Call of Cthullu to answer a mysterious invitation to a spooky manor.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We go out to a foldy story of Franker sign
a man of science to create a man after his
own image.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Me shock you, I think it will you my game
A Hey, everybody, and welcome to another edition of Thus
it is just Bad Frank and Die Edition. I am
(00:35):
your humble lord Keeper Teddy, and I am joined with
our instigating investigators. Say Hi, instigating Investigators.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hi, instigating Investigators.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Amazing, so lovely audience. Today we are doing something a
little different. We are, in fact playing Call of Cthulhu.
It is a slightly different game, but we're gonna be
doing a little bit of horror stuff. There's gonna be
some horror scene setting, so if that's not your bag,
this might be uh at the episode to miss. Other
(01:12):
than that, players, are you ready for a quick game
tutorial before we get started?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Let's do it?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah? All right. The basics of Colin Cuthulhu are thusly.
You'll see on your character sheet there are various stats.
Now they are much higher than you might see in
D and D. This is because we are actually going
for a D one hundred based system. Now you'll notice
(01:42):
that everything here you'll have within your stats. You'll have
things like size, constitution. All of that is pretty similar
to what you might find in D and D. Here
are some of the big differences when it comes to
when you do your skill check. You aren't going for
(02:04):
a natural twenty. You're not going for necessary to be
able to actually get to your areas. You're just trying
to hit certain benchmarks. We have extreme success, which is
your best, a hard success, a regular success, and a fail.
The easiest way to think about this is if you
(02:25):
roll your D one hundred and it is above your stat,
then it's a fail. Below is a regular success. If
it is below half of that stat, that's a hard success,
and for your extreme successes, that's within one fifth of
(02:48):
that stat. Makes sense a little bit of math, but
it's a lot easier with your D one hundreds when
you start getting these bigger numbers. Now, for our audience
in you all, just to let you know, Call of
Cthulhu is in fact an Eldridge horror game. So we'll
be discussing things about sanity and some uncomfortable themes. And
(03:09):
as I said at the beginning, if this is not
your bag, this might not be the episode for you.
Will be every so often. The other thing to know
is that you have a stat called sanity, and as
you lose that sanity, there is more and more stuff
that I get to do to you, and there are
(03:31):
dire consequences as we do these dire consequences. Again, they're
all attached to your stats. So if we let's say,
need to investigate a book or need to understand the
chemical composition of something, you'll roll that stat and see
where you end up. But remember, extreme successes aren't always
(03:56):
going to be good for your sanity, So the more
you understand and the more things might get a little weird.
The last little piece of this is the mechanic of
push the role. So if you roll something and you know, oh,
that's real bad, I you can ask me or I
(04:16):
can solicit from you all a push the role, meaning
you get to roll one more time, but the stakes
are a little higher, meaning that it's going to go
up a level of instead of success, extreme success, instead
of extreme success, super success. And I'm going to give
you an additional consequence. Don't worry, I'll tell you what
(04:38):
stat you'll need to hit to be able to do this.
Aside from that, we're going to have a couple other
stats that we'll talk about throughout the game. But I
think I've done enough of the predisposition. Are you all
ready to play?
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Hell?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The summer of eighteen sixty was the year without a summer.
Throughout Europe, Africa, and Eastern Asia, the sky was gray.
(05:15):
Many described it as a time where almost the color
itself was leached out of the planet. Crops failed, and
people were colder than they had been in generations. Throughout
this year, the Frankenstein estate had been doing far better
(05:41):
than most with the lack of sun. Without the normal sections,
the estate still flourished, leading many to question why, especially
with the rumors abound of the last fifty years. We
(06:01):
hear the clopping of hoofs as a carriage is beginning
to come up to the estate of this Swiss manner.
On a hill. We see this road continuing to extend,
and as trees go from generally wilted, we see them
(06:26):
ablaze in autumn, but it's August. The yellows, golds, and
reds are stacked. There's nothing on the ground, but you
can see that the trees are alive with a hint
(06:53):
of something. As our cage comes up cresting over a hill,
we see the manor, a cemetery to one side, and
a nearly dilapidated building coming into view. And as we
(07:15):
see this, let's introduce our first character, Carmela. How do
you feel as you've been on this track for I
think it would be almost a week and a half
you've been on the road to get here. How is
Carmela feeling in this moment in the carriage?
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Carmela is feeling enervated, She's feeling dehydrated, she's feeling frankly hungover.
She was at an inn last night when they stopped
before making the the final leg of the journey, and
(08:04):
she was playing a sort of local drinking game with
some ghosts and was doing pretty bad, which was also
part of her intention. So she the kind of rumbling
and shaking on the uneven, difficult terrain of the path
(08:30):
is making her a little bit nauseous. But she's also
excited because she knows that her cousin is coming and
she's excited to see him finally be out in the world.
And she's also done this a billion times and so
she's kind of a champ. She's gonna perk right up
once the festivities begin.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And what do we see as Carmela is just ruminating
on a wicked hangover just last night, a whole bunch
of being like, oh my god, yes, so amazing. What
do we see in that night while you're take us back?
What does she look like then? And what does she
look like in the carriage.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
So so she's at the end, she is wearing just
a like an incredibly immaculate dress, but all the vestments
are sort of like just torn apart. I mean, she
(09:32):
is a violent drunk in a lot of ways. And
so she starts, she begins falling out of her clothing
and stuff, and she has no shame, and this is
part of her sort of social reputation, and so you know,
as you know, folks are sort of chiding her on,
there's also part of her that is to be profoundly
(09:55):
self destructive. And so she doesn't really care if she's
using whatever game. She doesn't even really understand it. She's saying, oh,
just roll the die already, And there's cards all over
the table and not a dice to be seen, like
it is an absolute disaster, but this is also kind
(10:16):
of fun for her.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Heck, yeah, Carmela, you are hungover, and you get the
sense that someone's looking at you. And before we get
into that, would you please roll for me three D
six and then multiply the result by five forty forty total. Alright,
(10:46):
that is the amount of luck that Carmela is going
to have throughout this game, and we'll tell you about
what you can do with luck when it comes up.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Sort of also nods off and goes booberry as she
feels the gaze of somebody on top of her, and
then just kind of Richard treats back into herself.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Gazing upon Carmela is the other person within this carriage,
her escort cause, would you please introduce your character to us?
And what does carmelsy through the haze of just a
awful hangover?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
So General Codwalader Mills, a silver haired, middle aged man
who is studying her closely, trying terribly to pretend like
he's not, but cannot keep his eyes off her as
(11:56):
he thinks about the law circuitous route that has gotten
them here, reunited him with her finally, but taking them
into unknown consequences that have haunted him for a long time. Unbeknownst,
(12:18):
perhaps to her, he has been trying to keep tabs
on her, her whole life after building her, and so
this is he had very little involvement in most of
her life, and he is both intrigued and astonished and
(12:42):
a little disgusted at what she's become in his absence,
although of course that was entirely his choice to dip out.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Rough And last night, Carmela is downstairs in this in
just having a hoot, has gotten into a little bit
of a scuffle with somebody in this large Swiss man.
She just kind of decked. But everybody's just enjoying themselves,
and you are watching. You go back to your room
(13:15):
and you ruminate on a letter you received, the invite
to a Victor Frankenstein's house. Can you tell me what
was the general's last conversation with Victor Frankenstein?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Oh, Victor, poor foolish Victor.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
We were.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Friends more than friends, had a wonderful time together as students.
He seemed so bright and brilliant and full of fascinating,
if unorthodox ideas. But our last conversation, after one weekend
in Vienna, I had to go back home to their rebuild.
(14:01):
There was a horrible explosion at the factory that I
had been building. I'd come to Europe to learn the
secrets of life and death so I could bring them
back to revolutionize my studies in the States. And we
promised each other that we would stay in touch. We
promised we would keep sharing our research and be the
(14:24):
best of pen pals. And in my last conversation, although
we swore oaths of loyalty, I got the sense that
he was already starting to lose it. Something was terribly wrong.
And I never heard from him again until this letter.
(14:46):
So I'm very curious to see why. Finally I'm famous,
I'm well respected in my field. He could have found
me if he wanted to. He fell off the phase
of the earth, as far as I'm concerned, So why now?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Wow amazing. So as we're cutting back to this, uh,
to this carriage scene, you hear the driver.
Speaker 6 (15:10):
Goes, yeah, we feel bare in about say half hour,
maybe forty five minutes, so please, uh take take your time.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
There should be uh, there should be some water skins
if you need.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Excuse me, driver, is it necessary to be so loud?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
What I can't hear you of his horses? Not?
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Just please just a little softer I'm going through. I'm
going I have just please a little softer and mills, Mills,
can you please stop breathing so loud.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So we continue on. You all are seeing this estate
go through, And as this cart continues on, let's cut
over to the road. Mister Barry, a intrepid reporter, how
(16:16):
do you You've received a letter from Victor Frankenstein A
little unclear as to how he found your exact address,
but he did generally know that you were moving in
with your cousin. How how are you approaching the manner?
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Ah, Carmela offered to have me come in the carriage,
and I turn her down. Right now, I'm kind of
I'm on the outs with Victor. Uh. We kind of
(17:01):
had a tiff. It's I'm going through the independent, rebellious
teenager phase. So right now I got invited, and I'm
not sure if I want to go or not. Carmela
tried to persuade me. I didn't, So right now I'm
just angrily brooding, uh to myself and considering whether or
(17:25):
not I should take my cousin's invite to go up
to the manor.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
So is this at this time, like last night before
you actually started coming up? Uh? Yeah, Okay, let's say
you're at this inn, Carmela is just being rowdy. That
kind of creepy suitor hu General Mills just gives you
(17:49):
kind of the willies. I don't like, Yeah, are you
in your room or are you just around the inn?
Where where do you think you would be?
Speaker 5 (17:57):
I'm around the inn. I'm just not pacing, but going
for a short walk again, not wanting to see or
speak to Victor, but also trying to take my cousin's
words into into advice. And maybe I'm on the fence,
but I'm leaning towards.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
No, leaning towards no. Understood. You're at the bar, you're
going around, and I think, go ahead, and we'll make
our first stat roll today, and I want you to
(18:39):
roll yeah, do a general either intelligence or yeah, roll
roll in intelligence for you for me. And let's say
it's a yeah. Let's let's let's say it's fifty fifty
(19:02):
three fifty three, all right, that's an eight.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Oh, that's fifty eight fifty eight.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
That is a success. You know, in your time as
a reporter, you've begun to develop just it's not a
single sense. It's understanding when something in your environment changes
(19:30):
and there's some footsteps behind you that you begin to
key in on that they aren't moving like normal. They're
heading towards you, and you notice that there's a little
bit of a shadow casting. So somebody's coming up behind
you and is beginning to reach for your shoulder. What
do you do?
Speaker 5 (19:51):
You said, they reach for what?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
They're reaching for your shoulder to like put their hand
on your shoulder. But you hear them like right before,
So you hear somebody walk up behind you, and then
you can hear the movement of their clothes as too.
They're about to like reach up and tap you.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
I pull the arm that's about to reach on tap me,
and then like yank somebody from behind me and they
fall in front of me.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Oh ow. So you see a shorter kind of wayfish man,
brown hair, just wild coke bottle glasses that they're kind
of askew now, and you would recognize him because it's
(20:39):
been a little while, but you've still seen him. This
is Fritz, your Frankenstein's Victor's assistant and general confidant and friend,
but has been working for the family for a number
of years at this point, so you recognize Fritz.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Fritz, what the hell are you doing behind me?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Hallo? Master Stein. I'm sorry, Master Barry, as we're going,
it's good to Uh, it's good to see you. May
I pick up your tab?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Sure, I'm never gonna say no to free drinks. Why
are you here, Fritz?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Well, you know in the neighborhood, figured go to the
go to the local tavern and caught a rug just
so happened to see you.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Yeah. I don't buy it. I'm a reporter, not a
bullshit eater. Uh did your did Victor send.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
You always with the smart ones this one? Yes?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Go ahead and yeah, actually yeah, you see he's just
of course, yes he did. I just wanted to well,
he did in his way, I should say was out
without overstepping. I just wanted to check in with you
(22:04):
before tomorrow's festivities, the demonstration, it would be. Yes, I
wanted to check in with you. Do you need anything.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Other than more drinks in space? No? I don't need anything, Fritz.
I suppose this is where you try to persuade me
to attend Victor's big event.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
No, no, just attending the demonstration beforehand. You don't have to,
even though the big party will be full of contacts
and more areas for your writing. But I think you know,
there might be something something there for you, a new
(22:49):
story if you need, if you come tomorrow with your cousins.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Fritz, do you think I should attend? Or are you
just saying what Victor wants you to say? What do
you think? Fritz?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Hmm, Okay, go ahead and roll roll fast talk for me?
And yeah, roll fast talk. If you roll super well,
I'll give you a lot. Twenty six twenty six, all right.
(23:25):
You see a moment on Fritz's face where he there's
a little bit of the facade the professional, you know,
Fritz as kind of unflappable, and something gives way. Fritz
looks around and goes, what look, Frank, say's master Frank
(23:57):
would allow me to be bolt. There's been a lot
of changes within Victor, the way he's been operating. It's
beginning to worry me. Did you here? Well, you're a reporter,
so I'll assume Elizabeth has been missing. And after there's
(24:29):
been a change again with in Victor. He's tired and
he's even more let's say, willing to push his craft further.
(24:50):
And I don't know how well he's doing, and I
just for we don't know what's the next sets of
We don't know what's going to happen soon. The man
is doing well, but he's not. I I think it
(25:11):
would be good. I'd like you theah, but you are
your own man. It's your decision. But I don't know
how you will feel six weeks, two weeks if you
don't attend well.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I was gonna pass, Fritz, but both you and my
cousin have encouraged me to go. So no, the the
journalist in me says, two sources of yes out waste
one no. So put me down as attending. Fritz, you
can give the news of Victor.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
All right, we'll see you tomorrow. I am going to
make my way. I'll see you at the man and tomorrow.
And with that, Fritz puts down some cash to the
bartender and he begins to leave. It is the next day,
(26:13):
and you are on your way. Are you taking a carriage?
Are you taking a horse? Or are you hoofing it?
Speaker 5 (26:19):
I'll take a separate carriage from my cousin and the general.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
All right, you're taking a carriage, and i'd like you
go minutes after understood. I'll go ahead and roll three
D six and tell me what you get, and it'll
be times five. I got a five, You got five?
All right? You have twenty five luck. So let's say narratively,
(26:47):
fifteen minutes after Carmela and oh wow, a lot of
the carriages are kind of being rented, so you almost
miss one, but you end up getting it, and you
are on your way. I've gone a little bit ahead
of time. You all begin to arrive at the manor,
General and Carmela, you you maked it there first. And
(27:13):
as you are beginning to exit the carriage, General, go
ahead and roll three D six for me.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
That's eleven times.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
All right, you have fifty five luck.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I have no idea what that means. I'm excited to
find out. Okay, So the general, as they open the carriage,
in General gets out first and like very officiously, you know,
reaches out his hand to Carmela, like my dear, I
know it's been a rough night here, and offers to
(27:46):
help her get out of the carriage.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Carmaralo slaps his hand away. Oh General, you're such a bore.
Come again. What was that general honorific placed on you
for time served in the military or is it purely kremembor.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I'll have you know, I've fought in more conflicts across
all more places in the world than you've even visited.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Or no exist, Oh, I'm sure, get out of my
way and just brushes aside him and heads towards the
entrance of the Manor.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
All right, you head towards the entrance to the manner. Wow,
just the shade. Go ahead, Carmela, as you begin to
walk up to the top of the Manor, go ahead
(28:45):
and give me an appraise.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Roll in a praise.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Roll.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Okay, it's not even a skill I have on my
sheet sixty.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Three sixty three. You clock it instantly again as a socialite,
you've been going around every so often, playing music, entertaining.
You've been to all sorts of places, crumbling and not.
And the thing you notice immediately Victor didn't send carriages
(29:24):
to pick you up, pick you in the general up.
He ostensibly didn't send any carriages to pick up Frankenberry.
And in fact, you aren't seeing many of the staff
that you would think would be around here, especially for
(29:47):
something looking relatively manicured. When it comes to the lawn
and the orchards, there just aren't a lot of people here.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Yeah, Carmela blocks that and kind of to nobody says, oh, dear,
I think doctor Frankenstein's gone poor.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
And as you say that, the door to the manor
opens and you see this wafist gentleman with black hair
slipped over and coke bottled glasses, looking kind of tired.
Come up and go a hello. Will come in real,
come in, Come on in.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Excuse me, sir, Where are the people.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Oh you know, we have the staff. They're getting ready
for the lodge engagement in a week, in a week's time.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
In a week's time. This is the pre engagement.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
This is a demonstration, yes, please please.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Come in, come in, a demonstration of of mixology, a
demonstration of good music.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Ah. So excited, it's so exciting to see you come in.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Uh, it's going to be the main, uh centerpiece of
the next phase of uh Dr Frankett Dr Frankenstein's endeavors.
We're going to be having a large tet tet and
we wanted you all to be the first to experience.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Ah.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
So this is a VIP style situation. Please after life,
please just gussie it up so I don't feel like
I've totally wasted my time, because if you're telling me
the real parties in a week, and I'm here early.
There must be a reason.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
As there are. Let me leave that to uh to
our to our your host for the evening. And he
bends forward and ushers his hand in and ushes you inside.
So you and the General are welcomed inside the house. Yeah.
(32:19):
And when you, yeah, you arrive. You arrive initially into
the fourier. It's the entrance, you know. It's kind of
this mud room where people can take off their jackets
and do that. And it's actually, oh, fairly spacious. You
see a couple doors to enter more closets and expanded
(32:43):
mud rooms. This one is, you know, relatively clean.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
I look for someone like the help or whatever, and
I say, take the jacket, leave the glasses, please, it's
far too bright here.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
A very good, very good, And Fritz takes your jacket, Carmela, General.
He also gives a quick bow and reaches his hand
out to take your jacket.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Don't touch me, little man.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
And please you're not bowed to this man. Everything about
him is stolen valor in cold.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Okay. And Fritz doesn't quite know what to do with that,
so he's just going to say victors. In his office,
he'll calm down and meet you in a bit. Please
feel free, And he begins to hang up your jacket
and he'll he'll take you to I guess, yeah, he'll
(33:51):
he'll start taking you to the tea room. Okay, he'll
he'll actually, so we can ily bring you to his
tea room or the pantry. Do you need anything at
the kitchen? Do you need anything to drink? What can
I do for you?
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Tea will be fine. I think my companion here could
use as much caffeine as you can pump into her.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Ah, yes, yes, so please to the tea room if
you go over there, and he points over to the
left and he goes, please make yourself welcome and at home.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
And as he leaves out of earshot of General Mills,
I turned to him and I go and also, I'm
feeling like I might need a little bit of pick
me up, and my nasal cavity is feeling awfully empty. Well,
(34:55):
if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Go ahead and roll fast for me to see if
you can get your message across.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
What could she possibly be saying?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
A three? That is an extreme success?
Speaker 5 (35:24):
You see?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Uh, Fritz stops a moment and goes, see, I knew
recommending you to come to this would be excellent. And uh,
he hands you a little box of snuff and he goes,
don't worry, Allah brings the extra good stuff in a moment.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
Thank you, stick around all week. I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
So fun, so fun. And you see, Uh, Fritz leads
you over to the tea room, opens the door and
starts heading out. Uh, in in prep to bring you
some tea and a little bit more of a pick
me up, a little more than coffee.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Mills takes out a little book from in his jacket.
They didn't want to give up and starts making little notes.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
While yeah you all enter. Are you all both going
into the tea room?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Yeah, yeah, I'm going wherever the coke is.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, I mean Fritz has left, so he gave you
a box if you want to do them, if you
want to give you a little box of sneef. But
I think he's could. He is intimated that he's going
to get something a little more suited to your tastes
if you wait for him.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Yeah, so I'll wait for my I take a bump,
you know, put the box in my inventory or whatever
we have.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
You have a box of stuff around with it amazing.
You notice instantly that this room like it's definitely been
unused for a time.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Mills looks around, and this looks nearly identical to the
last time he was here decades ago at this point
when he, you know, was with Victor h And it's
strange that this place hasn't changed at all.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Yeah, I mean the last time you were here. The
only change is that it's accumulated some dust, not so
much that it would be an impropriety. Well, actually, depending
on who you are, it seems like this room hasn't
been really used in months. But other than that, yeah,
(37:56):
it's mostly the same. You knew that Elizabeth. You heard
rumors and once he and Elizabeth had really she used
to be the one that really maintained things, and that
seems to no longer be the case. As you are
(38:20):
going up We'll have you all are getting settled in
the tea room and Frank you are coming up to
Frankenstein's manor. As you're coming up, when did you stop
going by Frankenstein and start going by franken Berry?
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Say, a couple months back when I moved in with
my cousin, Okay, left it a tiff.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah, the last time you'd left, would you say you
what was your relationship with Elizabeth? This is Frankenstein's. You've
probably some have rudely said Elizabeth to the Elizabeth the second,
but this is one of his. You know that before
(39:24):
you were around, he was dated someone else named Elizabeth,
and this is you know, another Elizabeth. When you left,
what was the last conversation you had with Elizabeth?
Speaker 5 (39:40):
If you did, she was very kind and understanding, different
from how Victor was. She was being very supportive a
lot of things that Victor wasn't. When I was going
out on my own to live with my cousin and
find my own and leaving the the I guess the
(40:03):
house of.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Victor and uh, you know when you when you were leaving,
she was a little pallid. She had just been slowly
the color seemed to have been draining from her face
over time. But oh, Frank, Frank, I I'm you do
(40:29):
deserve to be your own person, and I understand. Just
don't be a stranger, Okay, promise you'll come back, and
he promised that he would, and also try and be
just be mindful around Carmela. She has you know, we
(40:52):
do have some semblance of reputation left.
Speaker 5 (40:58):
I can't promise anything on cousin's behalf, but I will
keep an eye on her, all.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Right, wrap up, dear, And you left a relatively nice
interaction punctuated by a very unfortunate day.
Speaker 5 (41:18):
So you.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Franken Berry now but former heir of Frankenstein. You walk
up a familiar driveway, and it seems just as you
left it. Maybe you knew that there was some hard
(41:47):
financial times, so some of the servants had been let go,
others had stuck around on a temporary business. Really only
Fritz was the last kind of person here. And you
make a make an intelligence role for me. Let's sell
(42:09):
call it a DC Yeah, call it a d C
sixty twenty six. Oh wow. Another, Is that an extreme
success for you?
Speaker 4 (42:23):
Yeah, it's less than half of his intelligence.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I'll write, but not quite a fifth. So it's a
it's a it's an it's a good success. You know
you're again this one your your reporters uh knows for things.
(42:47):
Uh some call it nosy, but you make connections. Either
Fritz is a superhuman, which he might be, Fritz is
incredible capable. The house looks a little too good for
how many folks have left, and you know, it's the
(43:15):
strangest thing. Seems like there's the entire time you didn't
quite notice it in the carriage, but now that you're
walking up, there seems to be like a lenticular almost.
It's very faint, but like a small sheene on the house,
(43:38):
like almost like a rainbow kind of ship. You know,
it might be you've you've been traveling on. It's you're
kind of tired, but you could swear that there's something weird,
there's something there.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
This is outside the house.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Yeah, this is outside the house. Hmmm, do you want
to go in? Do you want to walk around? What
you would you like? What would you like to do?
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Yeah. The reporter and me notices that the flowers are
up kept a little differently than before. So I just
say out loud to myself, hmm, little change, how strange,
And then I walk in very hesitantly.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
You walk in hesitantly, you walk into the mudroom, take
off your uh, take off your coat and you know,
off the off that last role because you did really well.
I'm gonna say you notice that there are footprints. It's
it's kind of clear that Carmela and the General are here.
(44:50):
And as you continue on and you get ready to
come in, almost like do.
Speaker 5 (44:55):
I follow them into the tea room or follow the footprints?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Rather? Well, you you definitely see the footprints, and you
almost feel like a draw to continue to explore the house.
It's there's something in like it's almost like something's drawing
you inside, and you're like, well, and you can definitely
see where they headed over to. Yeah, you can see
that they went to the tea room. And you see
(45:20):
that again on that success, you see that there's just something.
There should be more footprints. It's a little too clean.
(45:41):
There should be more. Yeah, he let some servants go,
but there should be more evidence. Even you, you grew
up here, you know what to look for. Yeah, rich
people can clean, and rich people will make something presentable.
But there's always clues. There's always something. And that's what's
freaking you out a little, because there's only footprints of
(46:09):
your cousin and general Mills going to the tea room.
Speaker 5 (46:13):
Yeah, I say outline to myself. Memory serves. Victor always
entertained larger crowds than this. This house seems. Let's use
the usual unusually unused one would say.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
And oh, and from here as you say that, you
make your way to the tea room, and you see
the General and your cousin General and Carmilla. You see
Frankenberry come up and as you walk in, Frankenberry, what
do they see, like to describe your character, what do
they see as you walk in?
Speaker 4 (46:52):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (46:52):
Yeah, so yeah, they see Frankenberry, Uh, just kind of
examining the floor and other doorways very suspiciously with a
very like fixated stern look on his face, as if
something is a miss. He doesn't have a magnifying glass,
(47:13):
but in another one shot he would have with.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
A with a do you want a magnifying glass? No glass?
Speaker 5 (47:23):
In a different continuity, he would be doing very much
a Sherilockean search of different things on the floor. So
that's what they see. They just see him fixated with
like footprints and lack of footprints throughout the tear room
and other parts leading up to the tear room. So
they're just confused why he's so fixated on it?
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Can can I?
Speaker 4 (47:44):
So the Carmelos sees him come in, immediately goes up
to him, puts her finger on his chin that's looking downward,
raises it up and goes cousin. I've told you keep
your head held up high. You are catch, my friend.
You have all the confidence in the world, and thank
(48:04):
god you're here. I've been befuddled by all the phone
nonsense and science and gobbledegook and note taking that this
absurd wayfish Man has been regalling me with the entire trip.
I'm so glad you decided to come.
Speaker 5 (48:23):
Yeah, I almost didn't. It was actually because of you
and you know, are old associate Fritz, that I decided
to take the plunge. But right now I'm not really
interested in the general trying to woo you, Carmela. I've
just noticing how different the whole Victor manner is. Didn't
(48:50):
you notice that there are less footprints than usual? Doesn't
he usually have more people come through this. It feels
like a train station has been abandoned. Darling.
Speaker 4 (48:59):
If you know anything about you know that I haven't
noticed anything besides the lack of social life and the
lack of booze in this establishment. And we need to
get to the bottom of that. But there's nobody here.
There's a layer of dust on everything that help has
absolutely taken a break on their duties, and we need to.
(49:19):
And then she points to the snuff box and liven
things up a little bit, don't you think.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Wild?
Speaker 5 (49:29):
You live it up as much as you want. But
I feel like there's something we're not being told.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
Well, if that's true, then we might need to take
a little rumination on that. She points to her nose.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Frankenberry with a nose for details, an eye to look
out for mysteries, even if it's a face for radio.
Your reputation precedes you a pleasure to I meet you.
I hear you are very familiar with our mutual friend
Victor Frankenstein.
Speaker 5 (50:07):
Yes, very General. How many soldiers did you lose on
the last battle you commanded? Just curious?
Speaker 3 (50:15):
Wow, any losses are inconsequential in the pursuit of knowledge
and science and the mysteries that you, as a reporter,
should be well and truly in support of my endeavors.
Speaker 5 (50:30):
Oh, cousin.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
In this case, inconsequential means fabricated.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
I yeah, Actually, General Mills, you are a scientists, but
you do have the moniker, General, do they was that fabricated?
Did you have soldiers? Oh?
Speaker 3 (50:46):
I fabricate all kinds of soldiers. But that's a mystery.
For another time.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Uh amazing. Uh, you know what we're going to do
our first PvP role. What I want you to do
is roll either persuade, So General Mills roll either persuade
or fast talk, and Frank and Berry go ahead and
(51:16):
roll either spot hidden or listen.
Speaker 5 (51:22):
I got seventeen and I rolled in eleven.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Wow. So how hhmm? Adjudicating this, your reporter, you pick
up a lot. There's something that there, there is something
off about the General, and you know it like there's
double there's layered meaning to a lot of what he says.
(51:50):
But General, you've been doing, you've been in the game.
These in your eyes, incredibly young peep. But these two
incredible youngsters just don't seem to fully know and you,
(52:10):
you know how to navigate these social areas a little
bit more, don't you.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
I wish I could explain it to them there. Truly
I feel for my children, but they they've done a
lot to learn.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
And as this rep artee comes up, you see Fritz
comes in. Ah, we're all here. What a what a
lovely time for you old to be here. He sets
down some tea and there's a little bottle and an
extra little box. He winks at you, Carmela, and goes,
(52:50):
I'll ensure now is that we're all here. I'll go
and talk to Victor and he will meet you all momentarily.
Enjoy and he speeds off again. Little you notice, Carmela,
a little bit of pep in his step.
Speaker 4 (53:09):
Oh, Fritz, you and me are on the same wavelength,
and by the looks of it, that were the only
people in the same wavelength here a powdery pep stuff.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
And it looks like Fritz has also left like a
bottle of brandy along with the tea. Okay, eighteen sixteen, Switzer,
It's not like they don't.
Speaker 4 (53:31):
Carmelo cracks the brand the open and just drinks right.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Out of the bottle. Oh, just skipping the tea.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
Yeah, skipping the tea entirely, and then looks back at
the two other folks in the room and goes, I
mean kind of bare bones. Don't you think we're the
only ones here? And I mean, trust me, I've been
in many VIP rooms, but this kind of strikes me
(53:58):
as odd. I half a mind to leave this place,
and no mind in a literal sense.
Speaker 5 (54:06):
I agree. I just wrote a paper a few weeks
ago for the local publication about war profiteering, and there
is much less of that going on here than usual.
So Carmela, you might be onto something, my cousin.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
Yes, and this brandy and snuff is not quite of
the quality that I can overlook war profiteering for. So
should we just get out of here.
Speaker 3 (54:35):
We have to come a long way to meet Victor,
and I think he'll have something interesting for all of us.
Let's get let's hear him out. But you're absolutely right.
He's fallen off from when I knew him, and I
expect a war more welcome than all than just this.
Speaker 4 (54:53):
Well here, who out? There's nobody here? Where's Victor?
Speaker 5 (54:57):
Cousin? I'm here for you and Fritz. This is I
could be spending writing more articles, so I don't want
this day to be wasted.
Speaker 4 (55:04):
Well, if he doesn't, good and damn well show up soon.
We are getting out of you and going back to
that lovely end that we stopped in on the way here.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
Mills gets up and goes to the door that Fritz
zoomed out of and is going to open it and
shout down the hallway. What do you shout, Victor? It's
been a long time we won't have much time left
(55:37):
to waste. Come get down here.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
Amazing, you know what, Go ahead and roll persuasion. Call
it a forty.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
Five rolling ninety six.
Speaker 2 (55:52):
Yo. You try and yell and it's dusty.
Speaker 3 (55:54):
So Mills turns immediately around and like makes a beeline
for the tea to start like trying to gulf a town,
choking and hacking and coughing.
Speaker 4 (56:07):
I see this happen, and I go moo. This is
a mansion that's not gonna work. If we want to
get something done, we're gonna have to venture out into
the into the premises. And I take elf down the hallway.
Speaker 2 (56:21):
Okay, what are you looking for?
Speaker 4 (56:24):
Anybody? Anything? It's so everything is just empty.
Speaker 5 (56:30):
Mela just wants the party to come to life.
Speaker 4 (56:32):
Armela has no inhibitions. She's looking for anybody or any
sign of life or somebody that you can interact with,
because her her cousins down deep down in the depression hole,
and she and Mills are annoyed with each other. So
she's just going out and looking for just anything.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
All right, go ahead and roll spot hidden for me.
Speaker 4 (56:50):
Twenty oh, you.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
You all are rolling? Really, I don't get to do
all the cool stuff regular success.
Speaker 5 (57:01):
You do.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
Yeah, that's actually really good. So as you're going around,
you're beginning to oh, you're beginning to notice the discrepancy
between how certain how clean certain rooms are and how
clean like the hallway is versus the tea room versus
(57:24):
some other things. You see certain rooms are used far
more than others. And you come to one that is
clear that no one's inside, there's no candle, or yeah
there's some there's not really electricity, very like, there is
(57:48):
some electricity, but you don't see it fully wired throughout
every house. And you see one door that is definitely unlocked,
but it seems like the handle is polished from use
a lot more than the others. In fact, you on
(58:08):
a on a you said a twenty twenty on a twenty,
you actually see a When you are walking around the hallways,
you see a couple of really well used rooms and
some that aren't. So I'll ask you this, on that
(58:28):
twenty you're looking for are you looking for general signs
of life or are you looking for what is? What
is Carmela's like specific? Like? What are they looking for?
What is she looking for?
Speaker 4 (58:40):
She's looking for?
Speaker 5 (58:43):
Victor?
Speaker 4 (58:44):
She has very much like let me talk to your
manager energy right now. So she's either she's looking for.
Speaker 5 (58:50):
Victor Carmela turned on Karen mode.
Speaker 4 (58:53):
Yeah, but if she if she can't find him, she'll
settle for anybody. And so she's she's gonna go more
towards like rooms that look like they've been used recently,
or like doors that have been opened to peek in
to just see if anybody is around.
Speaker 2 (59:13):
Okay, you're going through and on that you you notice
a couple of things. One Victor is probably like, as
you're going by, you pop your head in. You're doing
these surveys and you're are I guess you're making a
(59:37):
little bit of a ruckus.
Speaker 4 (59:40):
Not being quiet at all. Just when when's the party
going to begin?
Speaker 2 (59:48):
And you yeah to twenty two. I think that works.
You burst into a room that was that it's next
to the tea room, but you didn't see it at first.
It looks like, folks, it's well used, and that's the
(01:00:09):
only reason you like you spot it, the fact that
certain things are clean, certain things are There's one room
that looks like it's used almost too much, but it
doesn't really have a real door.
Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
Secret passage. Is that what you're saying, not.
Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Full secret passes, just a slightly obscured what looks like wall,
but you can tell it recesses a little bit. It's
like a nook. It's almost like an optical illusion where
there's a nook and when you look into the nook, oh,
there's a door there, and you head in and you see, oh, no,
(01:00:53):
a laboratory.
Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Remains are scattered piles of bat wings and pumpkins and
peep like pieces like dissected. Some look like they have
been up butchered with skill, and others look like they
(01:01:21):
have been experimented on. And that's not the thing that
catches your eye. What you see are three giant tubes
outside of these vats and these tubes. One has this
(01:01:43):
purlescent vapor that seems to be shifting and moving.
Speaker 5 (01:01:48):
Did you one like like pipe tubes?
Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Yeah, well kind of. These are more like giant glass vials,
but they're giant.
Speaker 5 (01:01:58):
I just want to make sure I heard you wrink.
Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
And one is filled with this acre and yeah, you
rolled at twenty two, So this will be to your
choice if you want to roll your first luck. As
(01:02:23):
you see these tubes and this body, these bodies, there's
something that begins to scratch at the back of your mind,
a memory, something that you it's it's it's beginning to
(01:02:44):
bother you. It's beginning to really itch. Go ahead and
roll intelligence for me. Yeah, this role is going to
be a twenty five.
Speaker 4 (01:02:59):
Great, Can I just say what Carmela's head space is
in and maybe influence if I have to roll at all.
I don't think this is what she was looking for,
So I think she's kind of still refusing to call
a little bit and she would at this point she
(01:03:21):
would open this go oh, dear, and then call her cousin,
because I know her cousin is interested in uncovering these secrets,
but she has no interest in doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
Okay, to resolve this, because I hear what you're saying
and I get that. So we're actually not going to
have you roll intelligence. We're gonna have you roll education.
And yeah, you call for your cousin and you roll
(01:03:59):
and you educate. But because you saw this hidden a
little too good, Yeah, you still got a role. So yeah,
role education you need to beat a twenty not indeed
do ooh an extreme failure. Okay, so you can if
(01:04:19):
you want push the role, meaning you get to roll again,
or I can make this worse, or you can spend
your luck. Now, spending your luck means that you bring
the role down, So you can spend a certain amount
(01:04:39):
of luck in order to add on basically to your role.
So it basically adds on and allows you to I
essentially bring down the difficulty by whatever you roll. So
you can push your role if you like.
Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
Can I just choose to fail?
Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
Yeah, you can certainly choose to fail.
Speaker 4 (01:05:05):
Okay, this is an education role, So this is like,
what is this? I guess adjudicating.
Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
This is adjudicating less about the scene in front of
you and more about why this is bothering Carmela so much.
Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
I love this because from the vibes of getting from
Carmela's that she would not want to interrogate that feeling
at all.
Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Yeah, so I kind of failed the role. Yeah, I
don't give a shit, all.
Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
Right, Carmelo. As you look upon this scene, it's the
empty glass vial that is beginning to bother you because
it's not a vile it's large. It's more like a chamber,
like the iron lungs you hear of, but made of glass.
(01:06:11):
And what bothers you. Is not what you see here,
but what is in your mind's eye. You see the
reflection of part of your own face. No, it's not
your face, it's another. You are looking beyond and you
(01:06:33):
see the General, You see Victor. You see something in
a lab almost like you're out of your own body,
looking at yourself, but looking around you begin to panic.
A smoke fills this glass chamber. You remember pain almost
like these pains along your along your arms, like sutures,
(01:06:56):
like you've been sewed up and ripped apart and sewn
up again, all of it coming back to you all
at once, and you see that icher on the inside
begin to flow up. No, it's coming out of these
(01:07:17):
stitches and sutures. You want to scream, You want to
bring these arms up, but you're strapped down inside. The
General and Victor are arguing, and there's pain and then nothing.
There's understanding, there's calmness, there is a reflection, there is light.
(01:07:42):
There is a stretching perspective, almost like you your eyes
and your retinas are beginning to ride a lightning bolt
in from inside of the tubes up through the sky.
You connect to something great. You see Switzerland, You see
(01:08:03):
the earth, you see something beyond and crashing in general,
and Frankenberry you hear Carmela scream Carmela, I want you
to lose ten sanity, and as you do that, we'll
see you on the next one.
Speaker 5 (01:08:25):
Bye.
We go out to a foldy story of Franker sign
a man of science to create a man after his
own image.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Me shock you, I think it will you my game
A Hey, everybody, and welcome to another edition of Thus
it is just Bad Frank and Die Edition. I am
(00:35):
your humble lord Keeper Teddy, and I am joined with
our instigating investigators. Say Hi, instigating Investigators.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hi, instigating Investigators.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Amazing, so lovely audience. Today we are doing something a
little different. We are, in fact playing Call of Cthulhu.
It is a slightly different game, but we're gonna be
doing a little bit of horror stuff. There's gonna be
some horror scene setting, so if that's not your bag,
this might be uh at the episode to miss. Other
(01:12):
than that, players, are you ready for a quick game
tutorial before we get started?
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Let's do it?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah? All right. The basics of Colin Cuthulhu are thusly.
You'll see on your character sheet there are various stats.
Now they are much higher than you might see in
D and D. This is because we are actually going
for a D one hundred based system. Now you'll notice
(01:42):
that everything here you'll have within your stats. You'll have
things like size, constitution. All of that is pretty similar
to what you might find in D and D. Here
are some of the big differences when it comes to
when you do your skill check. You aren't going for
(02:04):
a natural twenty. You're not going for necessary to be
able to actually get to your areas. You're just trying
to hit certain benchmarks. We have extreme success, which is
your best, a hard success, a regular success, and a fail.
The easiest way to think about this is if you
(02:25):
roll your D one hundred and it is above your stat,
then it's a fail. Below is a regular success. If
it is below half of that stat, that's a hard success,
and for your extreme successes, that's within one fifth of
(02:48):
that stat. Makes sense a little bit of math, but
it's a lot easier with your D one hundreds when
you start getting these bigger numbers. Now, for our audience
in you all, just to let you know, Call of
Cthulhu is in fact an Eldridge horror game. So we'll
be discussing things about sanity and some uncomfortable themes. And
(03:09):
as I said at the beginning, if this is not
your bag, this might not be the episode for you.
Will be every so often. The other thing to know
is that you have a stat called sanity, and as
you lose that sanity, there is more and more stuff
that I get to do to you, and there are
(03:31):
dire consequences as we do these dire consequences. Again, they're
all attached to your stats. So if we let's say,
need to investigate a book or need to understand the
chemical composition of something, you'll roll that stat and see
where you end up. But remember, extreme successes aren't always
(03:56):
going to be good for your sanity, So the more
you understand and the more things might get a little weird.
The last little piece of this is the mechanic of
push the role. So if you roll something and you know, oh,
that's real bad, I you can ask me or I
(04:16):
can solicit from you all a push the role, meaning
you get to roll one more time, but the stakes
are a little higher, meaning that it's going to go
up a level of instead of success, extreme success, instead
of extreme success, super success. And I'm going to give
you an additional consequence. Don't worry, I'll tell you what
(04:38):
stat you'll need to hit to be able to do this.
Aside from that, we're going to have a couple other
stats that we'll talk about throughout the game. But I
think I've done enough of the predisposition. Are you all
ready to play?
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Hell?
Speaker 4 (04:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The summer of eighteen sixty was the year without a summer.
Throughout Europe, Africa, and Eastern Asia, the sky was gray.
(05:15):
Many described it as a time where almost the color
itself was leached out of the planet. Crops failed, and
people were colder than they had been in generations. Throughout
this year, the Frankenstein estate had been doing far better
(05:41):
than most with the lack of sun. Without the normal sections,
the estate still flourished, leading many to question why, especially
with the rumors abound of the last fifty years. We
(06:01):
hear the clopping of hoofs as a carriage is beginning
to come up to the estate of this Swiss manner.
On a hill. We see this road continuing to extend,
and as trees go from generally wilted, we see them
(06:26):
ablaze in autumn, but it's August. The yellows, golds, and
reds are stacked. There's nothing on the ground, but you
can see that the trees are alive with a hint
(06:53):
of something. As our cage comes up cresting over a hill,
we see the manor, a cemetery to one side, and
a nearly dilapidated building coming into view. And as we
(07:15):
see this, let's introduce our first character, Carmela. How do
you feel as you've been on this track for I
think it would be almost a week and a half
you've been on the road to get here. How is
Carmela feeling in this moment in the carriage?
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Carmela is feeling enervated, She's feeling dehydrated, she's feeling frankly hungover.
She was at an inn last night when they stopped
before making the the final leg of the journey, and
(08:04):
she was playing a sort of local drinking game with
some ghosts and was doing pretty bad, which was also
part of her intention. So she the kind of rumbling
and shaking on the uneven, difficult terrain of the path
(08:30):
is making her a little bit nauseous. But she's also
excited because she knows that her cousin is coming and
she's excited to see him finally be out in the world.
And she's also done this a billion times and so
she's kind of a champ. She's gonna perk right up
once the festivities begin.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
And what do we see as Carmela is just ruminating
on a wicked hangover just last night, a whole bunch
of being like, oh my god, yes, so amazing. What
do we see in that night while you're take us back?
What does she look like then? And what does she
look like in the carriage.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
So so she's at the end, she is wearing just
a like an incredibly immaculate dress, but all the vestments
are sort of like just torn apart. I mean, she
(09:32):
is a violent drunk in a lot of ways. And
so she starts, she begins falling out of her clothing
and stuff, and she has no shame, and this is
part of her sort of social reputation, and so you know,
as you know, folks are sort of chiding her on,
there's also part of her that is to be profoundly
(09:55):
self destructive. And so she doesn't really care if she's
using whatever game. She doesn't even really understand it. She's saying, oh,
just roll the die already, And there's cards all over
the table and not a dice to be seen, like
it is an absolute disaster, but this is also kind
(10:16):
of fun for her.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Heck, yeah, Carmela, you are hungover, and you get the
sense that someone's looking at you. And before we get
into that, would you please roll for me three D
six and then multiply the result by five forty forty total. Alright,
(10:46):
that is the amount of luck that Carmela is going
to have throughout this game, and we'll tell you about
what you can do with luck when it comes up.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Sort of also nods off and goes booberry as she
feels the gaze of somebody on top of her, and
then just kind of Richard treats back into herself.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Gazing upon Carmela is the other person within this carriage,
her escort cause, would you please introduce your character to us?
And what does carmelsy through the haze of just a
awful hangover?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
So General Codwalader Mills, a silver haired, middle aged man
who is studying her closely, trying terribly to pretend like
he's not, but cannot keep his eyes off her as
(11:56):
he thinks about the law circuitous route that has gotten
them here, reunited him with her finally, but taking them
into unknown consequences that have haunted him for a long time. Unbeknownst,
(12:18):
perhaps to her, he has been trying to keep tabs
on her, her whole life after building her, and so
this is he had very little involvement in most of
her life, and he is both intrigued and astonished and
(12:42):
a little disgusted at what she's become in his absence,
although of course that was entirely his choice to dip out.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Rough And last night, Carmela is downstairs in this in
just having a hoot, has gotten into a little bit
of a scuffle with somebody in this large Swiss man.
She just kind of decked. But everybody's just enjoying themselves,
and you are watching. You go back to your room
(13:15):
and you ruminate on a letter you received, the invite
to a Victor Frankenstein's house. Can you tell me what
was the general's last conversation with Victor Frankenstein?
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Oh, Victor, poor foolish Victor.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
We were.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Friends more than friends, had a wonderful time together as students.
He seemed so bright and brilliant and full of fascinating,
if unorthodox ideas. But our last conversation, after one weekend
in Vienna, I had to go back home to their rebuild.
(14:01):
There was a horrible explosion at the factory that I
had been building. I'd come to Europe to learn the
secrets of life and death so I could bring them
back to revolutionize my studies in the States. And we
promised each other that we would stay in touch. We
promised we would keep sharing our research and be the
(14:24):
best of pen pals. And in my last conversation, although
we swore oaths of loyalty, I got the sense that
he was already starting to lose it. Something was terribly wrong.
And I never heard from him again until this letter.
(14:46):
So I'm very curious to see why. Finally I'm famous,
I'm well respected in my field. He could have found
me if he wanted to. He fell off the phase
of the earth, as far as I'm concerned, So why now?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Wow amazing. So as we're cutting back to this, uh,
to this carriage scene, you hear the driver.
Speaker 6 (15:10):
Goes, yeah, we feel bare in about say half hour,
maybe forty five minutes, so please, uh take take your time.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
There should be uh, there should be some water skins
if you need.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Excuse me, driver, is it necessary to be so loud?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
What I can't hear you of his horses? Not?
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Just please just a little softer I'm going through. I'm
going I have just please a little softer and mills, Mills,
can you please stop breathing so loud.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
So we continue on. You all are seeing this estate
go through, And as this cart continues on, let's cut
over to the road. Mister Barry, a intrepid reporter, how
(16:16):
do you You've received a letter from Victor Frankenstein A
little unclear as to how he found your exact address,
but he did generally know that you were moving in
with your cousin. How how are you approaching the manner?
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Ah, Carmela offered to have me come in the carriage,
and I turn her down. Right now, I'm kind of
I'm on the outs with Victor. Uh. We kind of
(17:01):
had a tiff. It's I'm going through the independent, rebellious
teenager phase. So right now I got invited, and I'm
not sure if I want to go or not. Carmela
tried to persuade me. I didn't, So right now I'm
just angrily brooding, uh to myself and considering whether or
(17:25):
not I should take my cousin's invite to go up
to the manor.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
So is this at this time, like last night before
you actually started coming up? Uh? Yeah, Okay, let's say
you're at this inn, Carmela is just being rowdy. That
kind of creepy suitor hu General Mills just gives you
(17:49):
kind of the willies. I don't like, Yeah, are you
in your room or are you just around the inn?
Where where do you think you would be?
Speaker 5 (17:57):
I'm around the inn. I'm just not pacing, but going
for a short walk again, not wanting to see or
speak to Victor, but also trying to take my cousin's
words into into advice. And maybe I'm on the fence,
but I'm leaning towards.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
No, leaning towards no. Understood. You're at the bar, you're
going around, and I think, go ahead, and we'll make
our first stat roll today, and I want you to
(18:39):
roll yeah, do a general either intelligence or yeah, roll
roll in intelligence for you for me. And let's say
it's a yeah. Let's let's let's say it's fifty fifty
(19:02):
three fifty three, all right, that's an eight.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Oh, that's fifty eight fifty eight.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
That is a success. You know, in your time as
a reporter, you've begun to develop just it's not a
single sense. It's understanding when something in your environment changes
(19:30):
and there's some footsteps behind you that you begin to
key in on that they aren't moving like normal. They're
heading towards you, and you notice that there's a little
bit of a shadow casting. So somebody's coming up behind
you and is beginning to reach for your shoulder. What
do you do?
Speaker 5 (19:51):
You said, they reach for what?
Speaker 2 (19:52):
They're reaching for your shoulder to like put their hand
on your shoulder. But you hear them like right before,
So you hear somebody walk up behind you, and then
you can hear the movement of their clothes as too.
They're about to like reach up and tap you.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
I pull the arm that's about to reach on tap me,
and then like yank somebody from behind me and they
fall in front of me.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Oh ow. So you see a shorter kind of wayfish man,
brown hair, just wild coke bottle glasses that they're kind
of askew now, and you would recognize him because it's
(20:39):
been a little while, but you've still seen him. This
is Fritz, your Frankenstein's Victor's assistant and general confidant and friend,
but has been working for the family for a number
of years at this point, so you recognize Fritz.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
Fritz, what the hell are you doing behind me?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Hallo? Master Stein. I'm sorry, Master Barry, as we're going,
it's good to Uh, it's good to see you. May
I pick up your tab?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Sure, I'm never gonna say no to free drinks. Why
are you here, Fritz?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Well, you know in the neighborhood, figured go to the
go to the local tavern and caught a rug just
so happened to see you.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Yeah. I don't buy it. I'm a reporter, not a
bullshit eater. Uh did your did Victor send.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
You always with the smart ones this one? Yes?
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Go ahead and yeah, actually yeah, you see he's just
of course, yes he did. I just wanted to well,
he did in his way, I should say was out
without overstepping. I just wanted to check in with you
(22:04):
before tomorrow's festivities, the demonstration, it would be. Yes, I
wanted to check in with you. Do you need anything.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Other than more drinks in space? No? I don't need anything, Fritz.
I suppose this is where you try to persuade me
to attend Victor's big event.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
No, no, just attending the demonstration beforehand. You don't have to,
even though the big party will be full of contacts
and more areas for your writing. But I think you know,
there might be something something there for you, a new
(22:49):
story if you need, if you come tomorrow with your cousins.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
Fritz, do you think I should attend? Or are you
just saying what Victor wants you to say? What do
you think? Fritz?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Hmm, Okay, go ahead and roll roll fast talk for me?
And yeah, roll fast talk. If you roll super well,
I'll give you a lot. Twenty six twenty six, all right.
(23:25):
You see a moment on Fritz's face where he there's
a little bit of the facade the professional, you know,
Fritz as kind of unflappable, and something gives way. Fritz
looks around and goes, what look, Frank, say's master Frank
(23:57):
would allow me to be bolt. There's been a lot
of changes within Victor, the way he's been operating. It's
beginning to worry me. Did you here? Well, you're a reporter,
so I'll assume Elizabeth has been missing. And after there's
(24:29):
been a change again with in Victor. He's tired and
he's even more let's say, willing to push his craft further.
(24:50):
And I don't know how well he's doing, and I
just for we don't know what's the next sets of
We don't know what's going to happen soon. The man
is doing well, but he's not. I I think it
(25:11):
would be good. I'd like you theah, but you are
your own man. It's your decision. But I don't know
how you will feel six weeks, two weeks if you
don't attend well.
Speaker 5 (25:29):
I was gonna pass, Fritz, but both you and my
cousin have encouraged me to go. So no, the the
journalist in me says, two sources of yes out waste
one no. So put me down as attending. Fritz, you
can give the news of Victor.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
All right, we'll see you tomorrow. I am going to
make my way. I'll see you at the man and tomorrow.
And with that, Fritz puts down some cash to the
bartender and he begins to leave. It is the next day,
(26:13):
and you are on your way. Are you taking a carriage?
Are you taking a horse? Or are you hoofing it?
Speaker 5 (26:19):
I'll take a separate carriage from my cousin and the general.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
All right, you're taking a carriage, and i'd like you
go minutes after understood. I'll go ahead and roll three
D six and tell me what you get, and it'll
be times five. I got a five, You got five?
All right? You have twenty five luck. So let's say narratively,
(26:47):
fifteen minutes after Carmela and oh wow, a lot of
the carriages are kind of being rented, so you almost
miss one, but you end up getting it, and you
are on your way. I've gone a little bit ahead
of time. You all begin to arrive at the manor,
General and Carmela, you you maked it there first. And
(27:13):
as you are beginning to exit the carriage, General, go
ahead and roll three D six for me.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
That's eleven times.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
All right, you have fifty five luck.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
I have no idea what that means. I'm excited to
find out. Okay, So the general, as they open the carriage,
in General gets out first and like very officiously, you know,
reaches out his hand to Carmela, like my dear, I
know it's been a rough night here, and offers to
(27:46):
help her get out of the carriage.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Carmaralo slaps his hand away. Oh General, you're such a bore.
Come again. What was that general honorific placed on you
for time served in the military or is it purely kremembor.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I'll have you know, I've fought in more conflicts across
all more places in the world than you've even visited.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Or no exist, Oh, I'm sure, get out of my
way and just brushes aside him and heads towards the
entrance of the Manor.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
All right, you head towards the entrance to the manner. Wow,
just the shade. Go ahead, Carmela, as you begin to
walk up to the top of the Manor, go ahead
(28:45):
and give me an appraise.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Roll in a praise.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Roll.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
Okay, it's not even a skill I have on my
sheet sixty.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Three sixty three. You clock it instantly again as a socialite,
you've been going around every so often, playing music, entertaining.
You've been to all sorts of places, crumbling and not.
And the thing you notice immediately Victor didn't send carriages
(29:24):
to pick you up, pick you in the general up.
He ostensibly didn't send any carriages to pick up Frankenberry.
And in fact, you aren't seeing many of the staff
that you would think would be around here, especially for
(29:47):
something looking relatively manicured. When it comes to the lawn
and the orchards, there just aren't a lot of people here.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Yeah, Carmela blocks that and kind of to nobody says, oh, dear,
I think doctor Frankenstein's gone poor.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
And as you say that, the door to the manor
opens and you see this wafist gentleman with black hair
slipped over and coke bottled glasses, looking kind of tired.
Come up and go a hello. Will come in real,
come in, Come on in.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Excuse me, sir, Where are the people.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Oh you know, we have the staff. They're getting ready
for the lodge engagement in a week, in a week's time.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
In a week's time. This is the pre engagement.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
This is a demonstration, yes, please please.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Come in, come in, a demonstration of of mixology, a
demonstration of good music.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Ah. So excited, it's so exciting to see you come in.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Uh, it's going to be the main, uh centerpiece of
the next phase of uh Dr Frankett Dr Frankenstein's endeavors.
We're going to be having a large tet tet and
we wanted you all to be the first to experience.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
Ah.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
So this is a VIP style situation. Please after life,
please just gussie it up so I don't feel like
I've totally wasted my time, because if you're telling me
the real parties in a week, and I'm here early.
There must be a reason.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
As there are. Let me leave that to uh to
our to our your host for the evening. And he
bends forward and ushers his hand in and ushes you inside.
So you and the General are welcomed inside the house. Yeah.
(32:19):
And when you, yeah, you arrive. You arrive initially into
the fourier. It's the entrance, you know. It's kind of
this mud room where people can take off their jackets
and do that. And it's actually, oh, fairly spacious. You
see a couple doors to enter more closets and expanded
(32:43):
mud rooms. This one is, you know, relatively clean.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
I look for someone like the help or whatever, and
I say, take the jacket, leave the glasses, please, it's
far too bright here.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
A very good, very good, And Fritz takes your jacket, Carmela, General.
He also gives a quick bow and reaches his hand
out to take your jacket.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Don't touch me, little man.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
And please you're not bowed to this man. Everything about
him is stolen valor in cold.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Okay. And Fritz doesn't quite know what to do with that,
so he's just going to say victors. In his office,
he'll calm down and meet you in a bit. Please
feel free, And he begins to hang up your jacket
and he'll he'll take you to I guess, yeah, he'll
(33:51):
he'll start taking you to the tea room. Okay, he'll
he'll actually, so we can ily bring you to his
tea room or the pantry. Do you need anything at
the kitchen? Do you need anything to drink? What can
I do for you?
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Tea will be fine. I think my companion here could
use as much caffeine as you can pump into her.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Ah, yes, yes, so please to the tea room if
you go over there, and he points over to the
left and he goes, please make yourself welcome and at home.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
And as he leaves out of earshot of General Mills,
I turned to him and I go and also, I'm
feeling like I might need a little bit of pick
me up, and my nasal cavity is feeling awfully empty. Well,
(34:55):
if you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Go ahead and roll fast for me to see if
you can get your message across.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
What could she possibly be saying?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
A three? That is an extreme success?
Speaker 5 (35:24):
You see?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Uh, Fritz stops a moment and goes, see, I knew
recommending you to come to this would be excellent. And uh,
he hands you a little box of snuff and he goes,
don't worry, Allah brings the extra good stuff in a moment.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
Thank you, stick around all week. I'm just getting started.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
So fun, so fun. And you see, Uh, Fritz leads
you over to the tea room, opens the door and
starts heading out. Uh, in in prep to bring you
some tea and a little bit more of a pick
me up, a little more than coffee.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Mills takes out a little book from in his jacket.
They didn't want to give up and starts making little notes.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
While yeah you all enter. Are you all both going
into the tea room?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Yeah, yeah, I'm going wherever the coke is.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, I mean Fritz has left, so he gave you
a box if you want to do them, if you
want to give you a little box of sneef. But
I think he's could. He is intimated that he's going
to get something a little more suited to your tastes
if you wait for him.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Yeah, so I'll wait for my I take a bump,
you know, put the box in my inventory or whatever
we have.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
You have a box of stuff around with it amazing.
You notice instantly that this room like it's definitely been
unused for a time.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Mills looks around, and this looks nearly identical to the
last time he was here decades ago at this point
when he, you know, was with Victor h And it's
strange that this place hasn't changed at all.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Yeah, I mean the last time you were here. The
only change is that it's accumulated some dust, not so
much that it would be an impropriety. Well, actually, depending
on who you are, it seems like this room hasn't
been really used in months. But other than that, yeah,
(37:56):
it's mostly the same. You knew that Elizabeth. You heard
rumors and once he and Elizabeth had really she used
to be the one that really maintained things, and that
seems to no longer be the case. As you are
(38:20):
going up We'll have you all are getting settled in
the tea room and Frank you are coming up to
Frankenstein's manor. As you're coming up, when did you stop
going by Frankenstein and start going by franken Berry?
Speaker 5 (38:42):
Say, a couple months back when I moved in with
my cousin, Okay, left it a tiff.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Yeah, the last time you'd left, would you say you
what was your relationship with Elizabeth? This is Frankenstein's. You've
probably some have rudely said Elizabeth to the Elizabeth the second,
but this is one of his. You know that before
(39:24):
you were around, he was dated someone else named Elizabeth,
and this is you know, another Elizabeth. When you left,
what was the last conversation you had with Elizabeth?
Speaker 5 (39:40):
If you did, she was very kind and understanding, different
from how Victor was. She was being very supportive a
lot of things that Victor wasn't. When I was going
out on my own to live with my cousin and
find my own and leaving the the I guess the
(40:03):
house of.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Victor and uh, you know when you when you were leaving,
she was a little pallid. She had just been slowly
the color seemed to have been draining from her face
over time. But oh, Frank, Frank, I I'm you do
(40:29):
deserve to be your own person, and I understand. Just
don't be a stranger, Okay, promise you'll come back, and
he promised that he would, and also try and be
just be mindful around Carmela. She has you know, we
(40:52):
do have some semblance of reputation left.
Speaker 5 (40:58):
I can't promise anything on cousin's behalf, but I will
keep an eye on her, all.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Right, wrap up, dear, And you left a relatively nice
interaction punctuated by a very unfortunate day.
Speaker 5 (41:18):
So you.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Franken Berry now but former heir of Frankenstein. You walk
up a familiar driveway, and it seems just as you
left it. Maybe you knew that there was some hard
(41:47):
financial times, so some of the servants had been let go,
others had stuck around on a temporary business. Really only
Fritz was the last kind of person here. And you
make a make an intelligence role for me. Let's sell
(42:09):
call it a DC Yeah, call it a d C
sixty twenty six. Oh wow. Another, Is that an extreme
success for you?
Speaker 4 (42:23):
Yeah, it's less than half of his intelligence.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I'll write, but not quite a fifth. So it's a
it's a it's an it's a good success. You know
you're again this one your your reporters uh knows for things.
(42:47):
Uh some call it nosy, but you make connections. Either
Fritz is a superhuman, which he might be, Fritz is
incredible capable. The house looks a little too good for
how many folks have left, and you know, it's the
(43:15):
strangest thing. Seems like there's the entire time you didn't
quite notice it in the carriage, but now that you're
walking up, there seems to be like a lenticular almost.
It's very faint, but like a small sheene on the house,
(43:38):
like almost like a rainbow kind of ship. You know,
it might be you've you've been traveling on. It's you're
kind of tired, but you could swear that there's something weird,
there's something there.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
This is outside the house.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Yeah, this is outside the house. Hmmm, do you want
to go in? Do you want to walk around? What
you would you like? What would you like to do?
Speaker 4 (44:08):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Yeah. The reporter and me notices that the flowers are
up kept a little differently than before. So I just
say out loud to myself, hmm, little change, how strange,
And then I walk in very hesitantly.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
You walk in hesitantly, you walk into the mudroom, take
off your uh, take off your coat and you know,
off the off that last role because you did really well.
I'm gonna say you notice that there are footprints. It's
it's kind of clear that Carmela and the General are here.
(44:50):
And as you continue on and you get ready to
come in, almost like do.
Speaker 5 (44:55):
I follow them into the tea room or follow the footprints?
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Rather? Well, you you definitely see the footprints, and you
almost feel like a draw to continue to explore the house.
It's there's something in like it's almost like something's drawing
you inside, and you're like, well, and you can definitely
see where they headed over to. Yeah, you can see
that they went to the tea room. And you see
(45:20):
that again on that success, you see that there's just something.
There should be more footprints. It's a little too clean.
(45:41):
There should be more. Yeah, he let some servants go,
but there should be more evidence. Even you, you grew
up here, you know what to look for. Yeah, rich
people can clean, and rich people will make something presentable.
But there's always clues. There's always something. And that's what's
freaking you out a little, because there's only footprints of
(46:09):
your cousin and general Mills going to the tea room.
Speaker 5 (46:13):
Yeah, I say outline to myself. Memory serves. Victor always
entertained larger crowds than this. This house seems. Let's use
the usual unusually unused one would say.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
And oh, and from here as you say that, you
make your way to the tea room, and you see
the General and your cousin General and Carmilla. You see
Frankenberry come up and as you walk in, Frankenberry, what
do they see, like to describe your character, what do
they see as you walk in?
Speaker 4 (46:52):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (46:52):
Yeah, so yeah, they see Frankenberry, Uh, just kind of
examining the floor and other doorways very suspiciously with a
very like fixated stern look on his face, as if
something is a miss. He doesn't have a magnifying glass,
(47:13):
but in another one shot he would have with.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
A with a do you want a magnifying glass? No glass?
Speaker 5 (47:23):
In a different continuity, he would be doing very much
a Sherilockean search of different things on the floor. So
that's what they see. They just see him fixated with
like footprints and lack of footprints throughout the tear room
and other parts leading up to the tear room. So
they're just confused why he's so fixated on it?
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Can can I?
Speaker 4 (47:44):
So the Carmelos sees him come in, immediately goes up
to him, puts her finger on his chin that's looking downward,
raises it up and goes cousin. I've told you keep
your head held up high. You are catch, my friend.
You have all the confidence in the world, and thank
(48:04):
god you're here. I've been befuddled by all the phone
nonsense and science and gobbledegook and note taking that this
absurd wayfish Man has been regalling me with the entire trip.
I'm so glad you decided to come.
Speaker 5 (48:23):
Yeah, I almost didn't. It was actually because of you
and you know, are old associate Fritz, that I decided
to take the plunge. But right now I'm not really
interested in the general trying to woo you, Carmela. I've
just noticing how different the whole Victor manner is. Didn't
(48:50):
you notice that there are less footprints than usual? Doesn't
he usually have more people come through this. It feels
like a train station has been abandoned. Darling.
Speaker 4 (48:59):
If you know anything about you know that I haven't
noticed anything besides the lack of social life and the
lack of booze in this establishment. And we need to
get to the bottom of that. But there's nobody here.
There's a layer of dust on everything that help has
absolutely taken a break on their duties, and we need to.
(49:19):
And then she points to the snuff box and liven
things up a little bit, don't you think.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Wild?
Speaker 5 (49:29):
You live it up as much as you want. But
I feel like there's something we're not being told.
Speaker 4 (49:35):
Well, if that's true, then we might need to take
a little rumination on that. She points to her nose.
Speaker 3 (49:48):
Frankenberry with a nose for details, an eye to look
out for mysteries, even if it's a face for radio.
Your reputation precedes you a pleasure to I meet you.
I hear you are very familiar with our mutual friend
Victor Frankenstein.
Speaker 5 (50:07):
Yes, very General. How many soldiers did you lose on
the last battle you commanded? Just curious?
Speaker 3 (50:15):
Wow, any losses are inconsequential in the pursuit of knowledge
and science and the mysteries that you, as a reporter,
should be well and truly in support of my endeavors.
Speaker 5 (50:30):
Oh, cousin.
Speaker 4 (50:31):
In this case, inconsequential means fabricated.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
I yeah, Actually, General Mills, you are a scientists, but
you do have the moniker, General, do they was that fabricated?
Did you have soldiers? Oh?
Speaker 3 (50:46):
I fabricate all kinds of soldiers. But that's a mystery.
For another time.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Uh amazing. Uh, you know what we're going to do
our first PvP role. What I want you to do
is roll either persuade, So General Mills roll either persuade
or fast talk, and Frank and Berry go ahead and
(51:16):
roll either spot hidden or listen.
Speaker 5 (51:22):
I got seventeen and I rolled in eleven.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Wow. So how hhmm? Adjudicating this, your reporter, you pick
up a lot. There's something that there, there is something
off about the General, and you know it like there's
double there's layered meaning to a lot of what he says.
(51:50):
But General, you've been doing, you've been in the game.
These in your eyes, incredibly young peep. But these two
incredible youngsters just don't seem to fully know and you,
(52:10):
you know how to navigate these social areas a little
bit more, don't you.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
I wish I could explain it to them there. Truly
I feel for my children, but they they've done a
lot to learn.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
And as this rep artee comes up, you see Fritz
comes in. Ah, we're all here. What a what a
lovely time for you old to be here. He sets
down some tea and there's a little bottle and an
extra little box. He winks at you, Carmela, and goes,
(52:50):
I'll ensure now is that we're all here. I'll go
and talk to Victor and he will meet you all momentarily.
Enjoy and he speeds off again. Little you notice, Carmela,
a little bit of pep in his step.
Speaker 4 (53:09):
Oh, Fritz, you and me are on the same wavelength,
and by the looks of it, that were the only
people in the same wavelength here a powdery pep stuff.
Speaker 2 (53:20):
And it looks like Fritz has also left like a
bottle of brandy along with the tea. Okay, eighteen sixteen, Switzer,
It's not like they don't.
Speaker 4 (53:31):
Carmelo cracks the brand the open and just drinks right.
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Out of the bottle. Oh, just skipping the tea.
Speaker 4 (53:36):
Yeah, skipping the tea entirely, and then looks back at
the two other folks in the room and goes, I
mean kind of bare bones. Don't you think we're the
only ones here? And I mean, trust me, I've been
in many VIP rooms, but this kind of strikes me
(53:58):
as odd. I half a mind to leave this place,
and no mind in a literal sense.
Speaker 5 (54:06):
I agree. I just wrote a paper a few weeks
ago for the local publication about war profiteering, and there
is much less of that going on here than usual.
So Carmela, you might be onto something, my cousin.
Speaker 4 (54:22):
Yes, and this brandy and snuff is not quite of
the quality that I can overlook war profiteering for. So
should we just get out of here.
Speaker 3 (54:35):
We have to come a long way to meet Victor,
and I think he'll have something interesting for all of us.
Let's get let's hear him out. But you're absolutely right.
He's fallen off from when I knew him, and I
expect a war more welcome than all than just this.
Speaker 4 (54:53):
Well here, who out? There's nobody here? Where's Victor?
Speaker 5 (54:57):
Cousin? I'm here for you and Fritz. This is I
could be spending writing more articles, so I don't want
this day to be wasted.
Speaker 4 (55:04):
Well, if he doesn't, good and damn well show up soon.
We are getting out of you and going back to
that lovely end that we stopped in on the way here.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
Mills gets up and goes to the door that Fritz
zoomed out of and is going to open it and
shout down the hallway. What do you shout, Victor? It's
been a long time we won't have much time left
(55:37):
to waste. Come get down here.
Speaker 2 (55:42):
Amazing, you know what, Go ahead and roll persuasion. Call
it a forty.
Speaker 3 (55:46):
Five rolling ninety six.
Speaker 2 (55:52):
Yo. You try and yell and it's dusty.
Speaker 3 (55:54):
So Mills turns immediately around and like makes a beeline
for the tea to start like trying to gulf a town,
choking and hacking and coughing.
Speaker 4 (56:07):
I see this happen, and I go moo. This is
a mansion that's not gonna work. If we want to
get something done, we're gonna have to venture out into
the into the premises. And I take elf down the hallway.
Speaker 2 (56:21):
Okay, what are you looking for?
Speaker 4 (56:24):
Anybody? Anything? It's so everything is just empty.
Speaker 5 (56:30):
Mela just wants the party to come to life.
Speaker 4 (56:32):
Armela has no inhibitions. She's looking for anybody or any
sign of life or somebody that you can interact with,
because her her cousins down deep down in the depression hole,
and she and Mills are annoyed with each other. So
she's just going out and looking for just anything.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
All right, go ahead and roll spot hidden for me.
Speaker 4 (56:50):
Twenty oh, you.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
You all are rolling? Really, I don't get to do
all the cool stuff regular success.
Speaker 5 (57:01):
You do.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
Yeah, that's actually really good. So as you're going around,
you're beginning to oh, you're beginning to notice the discrepancy
between how certain how clean certain rooms are and how
clean like the hallway is versus the tea room versus
(57:24):
some other things. You see certain rooms are used far
more than others. And you come to one that is
clear that no one's inside, there's no candle, or yeah
there's some there's not really electricity, very like, there is
(57:48):
some electricity, but you don't see it fully wired throughout
every house. And you see one door that is definitely unlocked,
but it seems like the handle is polished from use
a lot more than the others. In fact, you on
(58:08):
a on a you said a twenty twenty on a twenty,
you actually see a When you are walking around the hallways,
you see a couple of really well used rooms and
some that aren't. So I'll ask you this, on that
(58:28):
twenty you're looking for are you looking for general signs
of life or are you looking for what is? What
is Carmela's like specific? Like? What are they looking for?
What is she looking for?
Speaker 4 (58:40):
She's looking for?
Speaker 5 (58:43):
Victor?
Speaker 4 (58:44):
She has very much like let me talk to your
manager energy right now. So she's either she's looking for.
Speaker 5 (58:50):
Victor Carmela turned on Karen mode.
Speaker 4 (58:53):
Yeah, but if she if she can't find him, she'll
settle for anybody. And so she's she's gonna go more
towards like rooms that look like they've been used recently,
or like doors that have been opened to peek in
to just see if anybody is around.
Speaker 2 (59:13):
Okay, you're going through and on that you you notice
a couple of things. One Victor is probably like, as
you're going by, you pop your head in. You're doing
these surveys and you're are I guess you're making a
(59:37):
little bit of a ruckus.
Speaker 4 (59:40):
Not being quiet at all. Just when when's the party
going to begin?
Speaker 2 (59:48):
And you yeah to twenty two. I think that works.
You burst into a room that was that it's next
to the tea room, but you didn't see it at first.
It looks like, folks, it's well used, and that's the
(01:00:09):
only reason you like you spot it, the fact that
certain things are clean, certain things are There's one room
that looks like it's used almost too much, but it
doesn't really have a real door.
Speaker 5 (01:00:24):
Secret passage. Is that what you're saying, not.
Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
Full secret passes, just a slightly obscured what looks like wall,
but you can tell it recesses a little bit. It's
like a nook. It's almost like an optical illusion where
there's a nook and when you look into the nook, oh,
there's a door there, and you head in and you see, oh, no,
(01:00:53):
a laboratory.
Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Remains are scattered piles of bat wings and pumpkins and
peep like pieces like dissected. Some look like they have
been up butchered with skill, and others look like they
(01:01:21):
have been experimented on. And that's not the thing that
catches your eye. What you see are three giant tubes
outside of these vats and these tubes. One has this
(01:01:43):
purlescent vapor that seems to be shifting and moving.
Speaker 5 (01:01:48):
Did you one like like pipe tubes?
Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
Yeah, well kind of. These are more like giant glass vials,
but they're giant.
Speaker 5 (01:01:58):
I just want to make sure I heard you wrink.
Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
And one is filled with this acre and yeah, you
rolled at twenty two, So this will be to your
choice if you want to roll your first luck. As
(01:02:23):
you see these tubes and this body, these bodies, there's
something that begins to scratch at the back of your mind,
a memory, something that you it's it's it's beginning to
(01:02:44):
bother you. It's beginning to really itch. Go ahead and
roll intelligence for me. Yeah, this role is going to
be a twenty five.
Speaker 4 (01:02:59):
Great, Can I just say what Carmela's head space is
in and maybe influence if I have to roll at all.
I don't think this is what she was looking for,
So I think she's kind of still refusing to call
a little bit and she would at this point she
(01:03:21):
would open this go oh, dear, and then call her cousin,
because I know her cousin is interested in uncovering these secrets,
but she has no interest in doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
Okay, to resolve this, because I hear what you're saying
and I get that. So we're actually not going to
have you roll intelligence. We're gonna have you roll education.
And yeah, you call for your cousin and you roll
(01:03:59):
and you educate. But because you saw this hidden a
little too good, Yeah, you still got a role. So yeah,
role education you need to beat a twenty not indeed
do ooh an extreme failure. Okay, so you can if
(01:04:19):
you want push the role, meaning you get to roll again,
or I can make this worse, or you can spend
your luck. Now, spending your luck means that you bring
the role down, So you can spend a certain amount
(01:04:39):
of luck in order to add on basically to your role.
So it basically adds on and allows you to I
essentially bring down the difficulty by whatever you roll. So
you can push your role if you like.
Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
Can I just choose to fail?
Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
Yeah, you can certainly choose to fail.
Speaker 4 (01:05:05):
Okay, this is an education role, So this is like,
what is this? I guess adjudicating.
Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
This is adjudicating less about the scene in front of
you and more about why this is bothering Carmela so much.
Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
I love this because from the vibes of getting from
Carmela's that she would not want to interrogate that feeling
at all.
Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Yeah, so I kind of failed the role. Yeah, I
don't give a shit, all.
Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
Right, Carmelo. As you look upon this scene, it's the
empty glass vial that is beginning to bother you because
it's not a vile it's large. It's more like a chamber,
like the iron lungs you hear of, but made of glass.
(01:06:11):
And what bothers you. Is not what you see here,
but what is in your mind's eye. You see the
reflection of part of your own face. No, it's not
your face, it's another. You are looking beyond and you
(01:06:33):
see the General, You see Victor. You see something in
a lab almost like you're out of your own body,
looking at yourself, but looking around you begin to panic.
A smoke fills this glass chamber. You remember pain almost
like these pains along your along your arms, like sutures,
(01:06:56):
like you've been sewed up and ripped apart and sewn
up again, all of it coming back to you all
at once, and you see that icher on the inside
begin to flow up. No, it's coming out of these
(01:07:17):
stitches and sutures. You want to scream, You want to
bring these arms up, but you're strapped down inside. The
General and Victor are arguing, and there's pain and then nothing.
There's understanding, there's calmness, there is a reflection, there is light.
(01:07:42):
There is a stretching perspective, almost like you your eyes
and your retinas are beginning to ride a lightning bolt
in from inside of the tubes up through the sky.
You connect to something great. You see Switzerland, You see
(01:08:03):
the earth, you see something beyond and crashing in general,
and Frankenberry you hear Carmela scream Carmela, I want you
to lose ten sanity, and as you do that, we'll
see you on the next one.
Speaker 5 (01:08:25):
Bye.
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