[SPEAKER_00]: Hello everybody, my name is Kendra Gokendo, which you prefer, and you are about to listen to a very special episode.

[SPEAKER_00]: What makes it special?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad you asked imaginary listener.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's special because this is our very first feed drop, where we'll be showcasing episodes of other actual play podcasts that I enjoy and I think you'd like to.

[SPEAKER_00]: I figured since we've got so much time between episodes nowadays, this space is probably best used up lifting some of our fellow creators and sharing some art that's inspiring me at the moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I have the pleasure to say that our very first feed drop is of Maya's Game Room, and there are new two-part series, look behind you, a liminal horror actual play.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maya's Game Room is an actual play podcast anthology series that is home for narrative first actual play stories, crafted with intention and heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: From high polished podcast productions to focus story first sessions, everything here is built to spotlight strong characters and immersive worlds and emotionally resin and storytelling.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that copy can be more accurate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I actually just finished listening to this episode and I was blown away.

[SPEAKER_00]: This show is dripping with dread as it follows Oliver Valentine played by Michael on a covert delivery that he swears it's his one last job and things only get more eldritch and dangerous from there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maya is a fantastic GM and handles liminal horror with ease using its rules light system to seamlessly add beats of excruciating violence and lingering terror.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Michael's characterization of this professional career of unknown goods is immediately resonant.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we listen to him describe the small rituals that keep him safe and sit in on the conversations with those he's closest to.

[SPEAKER_00]: We get the image of a very tired man who just wants to make it to the next day safe and with money in his pocket.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, that is too much to ask.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not to mention the sound design is immaculate, and draws you into this carefully crafted world full of superstitious families, elusive clients, unsavory connections, and a drunken new year's Eve.

[SPEAKER_00]: From start to finish, I felt like I was peering through the window, catching just a glimpse into this world I was never meant to see, witnessing the cruelty of my ears and Michaels in city ascending slowly gripped the soul of a man just past his prime, and there was nothing I could do, but watch, less eyes suffer the same fate.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you listen to this episode and decide you just need more my years game room, you can find the link to the show as well as links to my years and Michael socials down in the description.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can also find content warnings for this episode in the description as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well with all that said, I can be more honored to have my years game room be our very first feed drop.

[SPEAKER_00]: So without further ado, here's look behind you part one, a liminal horror actual play.

[SPEAKER_07]: This series is intended for mature audience and contains material that some may find disturbing.

[SPEAKER_07]: For specific content warnings, please see the episode description.

[SPEAKER_07]: Liminal horror is a roles-like adaptable modern horror role-playing game, about normal people and their struggles against the things that go bump in the night.

[SPEAKER_07]: The game focuses on investigation, blending simple old-school inspired roles with modern, narrative-first principles, where survival is not guaranteed, and those who do survive are often forever-changed.

[SPEAKER_07]: The final hours of December thirty first, twenty forty-two, cloak Chicago in a biting cold.

[SPEAKER_07]: Despite the bitter wind, whipping off Lake Michigan, the city pulsates with defiant warmth.

[SPEAKER_07]: Everywhere, the air thrones with anticipation.

[SPEAKER_07]: Music spills from packed bars, laughter echoes down to avenues, and the festive glow of neon signs paints the wet streets in vibrant streets.

[SPEAKER_07]: Drunk revelers, bundles of scarves and coats, dance and impromptu circles, their breathing fogging in the frigid air, the scent of cheap champagne and street food mixes with the sharp tang of ice.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's loud, it's busy, and every corner promises celebration as people drink the night away, counting down to midnight.

[SPEAKER_07]: Now, we pull away from the glittering chaos of downtown, drifting towards a more residential neighborhood, tucked close to the industrial hum of the city's underbelly.

[SPEAKER_07]: Here, the street lights cast longer, starker shadows, and the cold feels less like a celebration, and more like a warning.

[SPEAKER_07]: In one of these quieter apartments we find, Oliver Valentine, getting ready for the night.

[SPEAKER_07]: The faint muffled sounds of the city's party still reach him, but they feel distant.

[SPEAKER_07]: Almost unreal.

[SPEAKER_07]: Michael, will you please describe Oliver Valentine for us?

[SPEAKER_07]: What does he look like tonight?

[SPEAKER_07]: You know, dressing for his upcoming job?

[SPEAKER_07]: What's his general mindset as he prepares for this one last run?

[SPEAKER_03]: Oliver Valentine stands at a lie and wirey a man of forty eight years old so he's past his prime but still has a bit of an athletic build but a lot more gone to then and a little more tired than he used to be his muscles aren't as big and his reflexes aren't as sharp but [SPEAKER_03]: He knows he can get the job done.

[SPEAKER_03]: To get prepared for this job, Oliver slept in and brought out his lucky jacket from an old track suit that he used to wear.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's black with purple streaks in it.

[SPEAKER_03]: and has a like a wolf claw on the back from this that's faded away since then but it's it's lucky to him so his family has a long history of luck and curses and superstitions so it was inevitable that it would bleed into his daily life as well so he knows he's gonna throw that on in addition to some cargo pants his work boots and one of his nicer button up shirts just to look at the semi professional [SPEAKER_03]: He takes a long time to shave away a good deal of some overgrown stubble on his face.

[SPEAKER_03]: He stares at his face for a pretty long time and takes a couple of deep breaths.

[SPEAKER_03]: Looks himself in the eye with his faded blue eyes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Looking at the gray streaks in his once jet black hair.

[SPEAKER_03]: One last job, and then we're done.

[SPEAKER_03]: He then washes his face, splashes with cold water, and grabs his bag with all the tools he would need.

[SPEAKER_03]: And make sure that his grandfather is asleep in the chair in the other room with the television on like he always is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, apparently they're having a little problem getting some sound from ironies, but we're having no problem at all getting some sound down here on state street.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once again, on New Year's Eve, Chicago came through with a little snow.

[SPEAKER_07]: Now, you're expecting your grandfather to be asleep, but you're asleep, smell the scent of brewing coffee.

[SPEAKER_07]: Something cooking on the stove.

[SPEAKER_07]: It kind of hangs every in the air as you make your way into the small warm, leaving your room, your grandfather, Tobias.

[SPEAKER_07]: He said it in his usual armchair, kind of a warm blanket over his knees and his gaze is still sharp, despite his age as he looks at you.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you see that he left some food cooking on the stove, but he went back to sit down.

[SPEAKER_02]: Told you to turn the oven off when you're done.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got it.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_07]: You see, he was like going to stand up to go get it.

[SPEAKER_03]: Park a keyster, I got it.

[SPEAKER_03]: Then he turns it off and puts transfers things to like a top aware and a small plate for him.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, he says it was a chicken pot pie.

[SPEAKER_06]: It wasn't a review of eating tonight.

[SPEAKER_06]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_06]: It's at my mind.

[SPEAKER_06]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_04]: No, no, it's all right.

[SPEAKER_04]: All right.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll take a couple of bites now and I'll have more later.

[SPEAKER_04]: Gotta keep late.

[SPEAKER_06]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_06]: You still going out tonight, Ali?

[SPEAKER_06]: New Year's Eve, all night.

[SPEAKER_06]: It's most folks are certainly sending in for a warm drink.

[SPEAKER_06]: Not heading out to that bitter cold.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got an offer that would be pretty good for both of us.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just, you know, holiday pay.

[SPEAKER_06]: What kind of job you got?

[SPEAKER_03]: He doesn't really like to go into detail.

[SPEAKER_03]: He knows that his grandfather knows a little bit of his work life, but he's constantly been paranoid about accidentally spilling information.

[SPEAKER_03]: Despite his grandfather's deteriorating memory and things like that, the less he knows the better.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, just, um, just dropping off some, uh, some press, some goods to an office for some kind of party.

[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing crazy.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just got to go into downtown, so traffic's gonna be a shit show.

[SPEAKER_06]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_06]: You're always with the vague jobs.

[SPEAKER_06]: You said this one, this one paying enough to make it worth missing the ball drop.

[SPEAKER_06]: You used to be, if you asked me.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think so.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if I'm lucky, I'll be able to see it.

[SPEAKER_06]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_06]: I hope it's a sweet deal.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sweet is candy.

[SPEAKER_06]: Okay, just keep your eyes open.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know me always do.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you see he's like thoughtfully thinking about something he's kind of hesitating and he's like looking at you for a second.

[SPEAKER_07]: He says, you know, yeah, you're old man.

[SPEAKER_06]: He always knew how to keep his head about him.

[SPEAKER_06]: So I, uh, cautious, just like you.

[SPEAKER_06]: Um, and I know that's why you're still here.

[SPEAKER_06]: I suppose, and yeah, that old family charm of ours, something.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's all you got.

[SPEAKER_07]: Sometimes it's all you got.

[SPEAKER_07]: You hear me?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's all we got.

[SPEAKER_04]: And, uh, I promise I'll be, I'll be even more careful than I normally am.

[SPEAKER_06]: Okay, just get the job done, come back in one piece, and we'll tell us the new year proper when you're home.

[SPEAKER_06]: You promised me that now.

[SPEAKER_02]: Alrighty, that means you got to be awake.

[SPEAKER_02]: Listen.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's what the coffee's for, ain't it?

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: I put some coffee on to like, it's stay up and watch the ball drop, but we still got a few hours.

[SPEAKER_07]: How about I take a little nap?

[SPEAKER_07]: You wake me up when you get back.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sounds good.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: And he kind of turns back on the TV.

[SPEAKER_07]: The news is going.

[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, this is watching like people enjoying themselves, but through the TV, you can hear it quietly as you're making your way.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he pours some hot coffee and leaves it next to the food on like a little dinner.

[SPEAKER_03]: TV dinner, stand next to the recliner that his grandfather's in and takes one more look and then he goes out to the door.

[SPEAKER_07]: with those last words from your grandfather, you know, echoing in your ear, you step out into the sharp Chicago night.

[SPEAKER_07]: Do you get in your car?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he takes a moment to kind of pant to the left and to the right of his house and mutters a counting to the number seven to himself, sort of something he does to kind of.

[SPEAKER_03]: Like a baseball, or any sort of sports superstition, he counts to seven, because it's seven steps from the door down to the street.

[SPEAKER_03]: He counts it out in his head and makes his way to his car.

[SPEAKER_07]: Describe what your car looks like to us.

[SPEAKER_03]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's got a ninety-eight Honda Civic hatchback.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's a compact sedan.

[SPEAKER_03]: The back is a little more crushed in.

[SPEAKER_03]: He prefers something like with a gray color.

[SPEAKER_03]: So this was a perfect find for him.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's not something that draws attention like a red sports car or a bright yellow car or anything of a bright anything bright like the neon lights of Chicago that would draw attention to him.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's very unassuming, but in that it's also adaptable.

[SPEAKER_03]: He can get that into some tighter streets, park it in and out of crazier situations.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's small, secure, inconsequential, exactly what he needed for his job.

[SPEAKER_07]: Now, as you're driving through these empty and residential streets, the car, among these kind of distant lights, you could see out into like the wider proper downtown of the city.

[SPEAKER_07]: You are heading first to meet Cassie at your usual all night cafe.

[SPEAKER_07]: What's the name of this cafe?

[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's called the lofty waffle.

[SPEAKER_07]: The lofty waffle, is it like a mom and pop shop, but you know, it's open twenty four hours, seven days a week?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's run by mainly the family, but then they've, you know, they've hired out some local people.

[SPEAKER_03]: They give a lot of work to younger kids and students who are night owls by nature, so they don't have to work the late shifts, so it's usually just the students, not any of the owners will be up at this hour.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, okay, so probably some like college kids who are working.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah, college kids who are just dying to get off the clock.

[SPEAKER_07]: Of course, of course, especially on this night of all night.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you're driving, you pull into the parking lot of the lofty waffle.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you get out, you head inside the cafe, hums with a quiet, almost melancholic warmth, start contrast to the distant revelry you hear of New Year's Eve outside.

[SPEAKER_07]: The air inside is thick again with a scent of still coffee and fried food, but you're used to it.

[SPEAKER_07]: This is the lofty waffle.

[SPEAKER_02]: same old smell.

[SPEAKER_07]: Now, a few scattered painter and still sit hunched over their tables, you know, soft glow of their phones kind of like illuminating their face lost in their own worlds.

[SPEAKER_07]: You hear that muffled thumping of bass in the fake distant roar of like distant, uh, distant cheers.

[SPEAKER_07]: Still can hear that through the cafe's windows.

[SPEAKER_07]: And at a booth in the back, they're seeing a cold cup of something sits Cassie.

[SPEAKER_07]: A woman in her early thirties with the sharp observant eyes.

[SPEAKER_07]: She wears, she's wearing these like practical dark clothing.

[SPEAKER_07]: Probably designed to blend in with the night.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah, definitely was something he mentions, you know, always wear dark clothes, but maybe for yourself, but a little color to it.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I imagine that you had mostly black and gray, maybe a streak of some kind of color.

[SPEAKER_07]: Uh, but right now you just kind of see uh, she is like looking down at her cup kind of like nursing it.

[SPEAKER_07]: She hasn't looked up at you yet.

[SPEAKER_03]: He will casually slide into the other side of the booth.

[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, hey.

[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, make us.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I thought you wouldn't make it.

[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, you're cutting it close.

[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, just some traffic.

[SPEAKER_04]: Nothing.

[SPEAKER_04]: I can't stop me.

[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, so, tell me again, what do you plan for tonight?

[SPEAKER_07]: Cause he said we can't meet for as long as we usually do.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, um, [SPEAKER_03]: I got to go pick up some stuff for my grandfather and he's getting on with his condition.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I got to pick some stuff up from some pharmacy downtown and bring it back to him.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're trying this new medication that's supposed to help with his issues and make life easier for me.

[SPEAKER_07]: She kind of looks at her drink, picks it up up in drinks for a second.

[SPEAKER_07]: It looks back down.

[SPEAKER_07]: Her eyes are watching you and are you lying to me?

[SPEAKER_03]: He smiles and he looks at her and gives it says a phrase that she's used to hearing.

[SPEAKER_03]: Do you want the good answer?

[SPEAKER_04]: Or do you want the honest answer?

[SPEAKER_07]: Preferably, I'd like the truth.

[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, you both know that all pharmacies are closed tonight.

[SPEAKER_07]: Ollie, come on.

[SPEAKER_04]: I let that one slip.

[SPEAKER_07]: All right.

[SPEAKER_04]: I got a call.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I learned from the best in my life.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, one of these days you will be the best.

[SPEAKER_04]: Catching me like that.

[SPEAKER_07]: Well, thank you.

[SPEAKER_07]: So what is it?

[SPEAKER_04]: I got a call from a client.

[SPEAKER_04]: They want me to just drop off some sort of small package to a location downtown.

[SPEAKER_04]: And very vague, very discreet.

[SPEAKER_03]: So clearly either someone with influence or someone with so much fame they don't want people to know.

[SPEAKER_03]: Usually in a high profile, high maintenance type from what I could gather, what little words they shared with me.

[SPEAKER_03]: I go pick up the package at one location, drop it off at another normal mailman, fetchwork, and a big payload.

[SPEAKER_03]: Hopefully enough so I can take a grandfather and maybe a little vacation out of town for a while.

[SPEAKER_02]: Get some fresh air.

[SPEAKER_07]: Big payload?

[SPEAKER_07]: Big payload like how big like retire big?

[SPEAKER_04]: It certainly would make retiring much easier, yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: Wow, she sets back and like, you know, rubs her chin.

[SPEAKER_07]: She starts thinking, well, what's that big?

[SPEAKER_07]: Probably should be careful tonight, then.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know me.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: Um, you're looking at the clock on the wall.

[SPEAKER_07]: You know, you have to be there before nine p.m.

[SPEAKER_07]: Correct.

[SPEAKER_07]: For the pickup.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you're looking, it's like eight, fifteen.

[SPEAKER_03]: he's got time he knows the locations not too far from here but uh he's drinking his hot coffee a little faster than he should they burnt his tongue for a moment um and very quickly tries to change the subject so what about you um [SPEAKER_03]: Got anything planned, party romantic rendezvouss or anything like that for you.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yeah, no, no.

[SPEAKER_07]: That's not how I'll be bringing in the new year.

[SPEAKER_07]: That's a shame.

[SPEAKER_07]: Actually here.

[SPEAKER_07]: Was it I'm actually here for you.

[SPEAKER_07]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_04]: about.

[SPEAKER_07]: Listen, the family's not happy.

[SPEAKER_07]: You're running outside their their books.

[SPEAKER_07]: And I swear this is just, you're my friend.

[SPEAKER_07]: And I'm warning you, you know, you know how they get this job.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's, I'm just saying it better be worth it.

[SPEAKER_04]: I wouldn't be risking doing something on holiday and cutting our usual meals together short if it wasn't.

[SPEAKER_07]: Just think I don't trust these big deliveries, you know?

[SPEAKER_07]: The pace always good, but there's always strings attached.

[SPEAKER_07]: Why can't you just come back to us?

[SPEAKER_07]: It's just, you won't have to worry about them anymore.

[SPEAKER_04]: And that's the thing.

[SPEAKER_04]: Of course, there's going to always be strings.

[SPEAKER_03]: But with them, it's more like a spider's web than strings.

[SPEAKER_03]: Every time you think you've cut them, they have a little more sticking to your leg or your knee or anywhere you can't see.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just, they're getting impatient.

[SPEAKER_07]: They're asking about you.

[SPEAKER_07]: And they say, hey, Cassie, that's your, that's your mentor, right?

[SPEAKER_07]: And I'm trying to, I'm trying to hold them off as long as I can.

[SPEAKER_07]: But the press in me and so now I'm here and listen, they said, [SPEAKER_07]: They said if you keep this up, they'll make an example.

[SPEAKER_07]: I don't know what that means, but you know how they are.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_04]: Do you and I both know you know what that means?

[SPEAKER_07]: And I don't want to see that happen.

[SPEAKER_07]: Listen, hey, you could still come back, you know, I could talk to them.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm done with them.

[SPEAKER_04]: My bones hurt.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I stayed with them longer than I wanted to.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I just want to help.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think that vacation I mentioned is going to be more permanent.

[SPEAKER_03]: So if anything, I get this done.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'll be out of their hair because I'll be out of town.

[SPEAKER_07]: You know, they have, you know, that web you're talking about.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: You know, it's not just here.

[SPEAKER_07]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll tell you what.

[SPEAKER_03]: Let me reach out to you after I finish this job.

[SPEAKER_03]: And maybe you come with for a little bit, and after we both get a little bit of a break from the city, we can approach this situation with the family.

[SPEAKER_03]: I worked with them for a long time, and I would think some sort of respect is owed for the work I've done for them, so the shit I've covered up.

[SPEAKER_07]: She just has this large sigh.

[SPEAKER_07]: Ah, you know, I'm into deep Oliver.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's easy to just say we can untangle ourselves from all of this, just get away.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'm into deep.

[SPEAKER_04]: What do they got on you now?

[SPEAKER_04]: I told you not to take favors from them.

[SPEAKER_04]: Just do the work.

[SPEAKER_04]: Go home.

[SPEAKER_07]: Listen, my little brother.

[SPEAKER_04]: Cache, you good?

[SPEAKER_07]: My little brother got...

You could talk to some mess again.

[SPEAKER_07]: Listen, he got into some mess again, and I needed to bail him out.

[SPEAKER_07]: That was the only way.

[SPEAKER_04]: Fucking Carter.

[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, I get it.

[SPEAKER_03]: I understand family burdens.

[SPEAKER_03]: My him won't shut up every night.

[SPEAKER_03]: I get it.

[SPEAKER_07]: So, I owe them not only for me, but for [SPEAKER_07]: For say, you know, he, he, you know how his mind is and sometimes he, you know, he's just, he or things and he sees things and I'm trying to get him some, some help at the hospital.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you, you know, the bills are, you know how it is.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, that's actually been not a complete lie when I said, you know, medical bills and stuff from a grant for a grandfather.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's, uh, I've been hammering money for years on him.

[SPEAKER_07]: And so I can't just, we can't just get up and leave, it's not that easy.

[SPEAKER_07]: Just be careful out there tonight, okay?

[SPEAKER_04]: I will be careful, and I'll be quiet, and I'll tell you what I will.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll reach out to you soon as I'm done.

[SPEAKER_07]: you have my number and listen if things get too crazy out there you know that old exchange building near the river oh yeah it's quiet go there i'll meet you if i can that is you know that's my spot if i i have my quiet place exchange building you've been there before if it gets too crazy just give me a call and we'll meet up okay i'll try to help you because [SPEAKER_07]: The city's a wild card on New Year's, and not just with drugs, okay?

[SPEAKER_07]: I don't want things to get messy.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I wouldn't want to get anything messy on my lucky jacket, you know, so as you feel.

[SPEAKER_03]: He tries to get her to laugh, I like popping the collar on a stupid little, the cracksuit jacket.

[SPEAKER_07]: She's like, come on man, that old thing.

[SPEAKER_03]: How many times have I, have I bungled something when I'm not wearing this?

[SPEAKER_03]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, maybe it is lucky, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, just be careful and call me if you need help, okay?

[SPEAKER_04]: We'll call you if I need anything.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you see, it is about to be eight, thirty.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oliver will take out some extra cash to pay for Cassie's coffee.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm assuming she didn't grab any food.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, he throws her some money.

[SPEAKER_03]: I got this one.

[SPEAKER_07]: I don't need this.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'm fine.

[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, that just means you owe me a cup of coffee next time and that's a promise.

[UNKNOWN]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: I owe you.

[SPEAKER_07]: Call me.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll do.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you know that you have to get to the L train platform and down down Chicago.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's the only thing they told you.

[SPEAKER_07]: Sit in a specific seat in front of, so you'll see like the poster of the mayor and his political campaign on the L train platform.

[SPEAKER_07]: So it told you to go to the area at precisely nine o'clock and no later.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yep, he will take the back roads around to park his car off the main road with just enough time to stroll on over and find the seat.

[SPEAKER_03]: Look at the faded poster of the mayor.

[SPEAKER_03]: The message is scribbled out as it's been graffitied over and washed over graffitied over so many times, but the depictions there.

[SPEAKER_03]: and he sits in the left side of the bench as he looks at the clock on his phone to see a few seconds before nine p.m.

[SPEAKER_03]: and he plants himself exactly on the zero right on time.

[SPEAKER_07]: You've made it to the L train platform just as instructed.

[SPEAKER_07]: Now, the air here, despite the constant rumble of passing trains and the distant shouts of hot dog vendors, it feels oddly colder than it should down here.

[SPEAKER_07]: Especially because there's a lot of moving bodies, even with the crush of people moving around you and their herd footsteps and the muffled chatter.

[SPEAKER_07]: There's no communal body.

[SPEAKER_07]: The chill seems to sink deeper than the usual Chicago winter.

[SPEAKER_07]: You're sitting at that bench, just as described, directly in front of that faded weather, beaten poster, the mayor's reelection campaign.

[SPEAKER_07]: As you settle, as you're, I imagine the seats kind of like this cold metal.

[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's not comfortably uncomfortable.

[SPEAKER_03]: Just there, just to be a place to sit, but not comfortably.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: Suddenly, the platform sounds subtly muffled.

[SPEAKER_07]: As if like a thick, unseen blanket has fallen over the world.

[SPEAKER_07]: The bustling crowd movements around you begin to feel strangely slowed.

[SPEAKER_07]: Their festive energy, replaced by an uncanny, almost dreamlike quality.

[SPEAKER_07]: The train arrives.

[SPEAKER_07]: You hear that hiss, as one of the doors open, revealing your specific car.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's entirely empty, a stark, unsettling void amidst the usual New York, uh, not New York, New York's Eve Chaos, and it waits for you in invitation.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oliver will stand up.

[SPEAKER_03]: He will hit a record button on his phone as he always does when he meets a client just to make sure words aren't minced and talks it back in his jacket.

[SPEAKER_03]: He is definitely a little unnerved by this sort of soupy atmosphere and the uncanny temperature and the lack of people.

[SPEAKER_03]: It is definitely a lot of odd things at once, but he kind of counts to seven in his head several times walking up to the platform.

[SPEAKER_07]: You stand up to Hedden.

[SPEAKER_07]: You see that a tall man.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's kind of uncanny because he's tall, but it's not just that.

[SPEAKER_07]: It has very long limbs, it seems.

[SPEAKER_07]: He looks to be about maybe six, three, six, four, which is not a crazy height.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's not abnormal.

[SPEAKER_04]: No, not abnormal.

[SPEAKER_07]: But you could just notice the way that the clothes kind of hang on his body just looks very lengthy, very long elongated.

[SPEAKER_07]: Like you're looking at the manifestation of a spider in human form.

[SPEAKER_03]: How's about to say to Tim Burton draw this person?

[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_07]: He is cloaked in a long dark jacket as a hat that kind of obscures his eyes and he steps into the doorway of that empty train car.

[SPEAKER_07]: There is a type of grave air that hangs about him.

[SPEAKER_07]: He holds a flawless black suitcase, modern, untouched, not a scratch on it, and you see that the surface seems to absorb like the dim platform light.

[SPEAKER_07]: As you look into it, it's kind of like leading to a black void, a pit.

[SPEAKER_07]: Your stomach feels uneasy if you look at it too long.

[SPEAKER_07]: and he offers a small kind of deliberate gesture, one hand, like pale, long fingers, to gesture you inside.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oliver will, he will stare at the suitcase for a moment.

[SPEAKER_03]: he begins to write everything that's feeling uncanny off to maybe the coffee was was bad and he's getting some jitters and he shakes himself and gives himself a smack on the cheek and will take the offer and he he's been around eccentric people before this one is no different as far as that is there is still like goosebumps crawling up the back of his neck but [SPEAKER_03]: He thinks about the number, the number and the number of zeros behind the number that he was offered for this job, and he really, he kind of just, he swallows that doubt at least for the moment than steps on through.

[SPEAKER_07]: You step in and you immediately notice that the door stays open.

[SPEAKER_07]: There's nobody else in this train car.

[SPEAKER_07]: And the train hasn't closed the door as it hasn't moved, which is kind of odd.

[SPEAKER_07]: Doesn't not have a schedule to keep.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he looks at PCs.

[SPEAKER_03]: What you would normally see on these sort of trains were like that, the track and the times as well as to arrive.

[SPEAKER_03]: And it is very odd as you look all the way to the left and doesn't see anyone to the right, doesn't see anybody appearing through.

[SPEAKER_03]: He kind of just, well, I guess we'll be here for a moment.

[SPEAKER_03]: Looks like there might be somebody partying on the tracks or something.

[SPEAKER_07]: And the door stays open.

[SPEAKER_07]: Do you sit or do you stand?

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to stay standing and kind of just clutch one of the standing poles of people would hold on to when it is crowded as uh he doesn't like he trusts this gig enough to go step through but not he's not comfortable enough to sit there's the urge to sit but he knows if he sits that's half a second less of time he has to react to something if it goes south so he's just going to stay standing [SPEAKER_07]: The man finally speaks, it's slow, and his voice is barely above a whisper.

[SPEAKER_07]: You kind of have to crane your head forward.

[SPEAKER_05]: Deliver the suitcase to the Omni-Corp Tower.

[SPEAKER_05]: The delivery must be made at twelve a.m.

[SPEAKER_05]: and not a minute later.

[SPEAKER_05]: The consequences for tardiness will be dire.

[SPEAKER_07]: and he hands over the suitcase.

[SPEAKER_03]: He takes a second to get all that in his head.

[SPEAKER_03]: Omni-Kortauer, before midnight.

[SPEAKER_03]: Big problem if he doesn't do that.

[SPEAKER_04]: They're location in the building I should know we're just right through the front door.

[SPEAKER_05]: You'll know.

[SPEAKER_03]: He scoffs for a second.

[SPEAKER_03]: And as soon as this is done, right into my account, right?

[SPEAKER_07]: And you see, just give the slow nod.

[SPEAKER_07]: And his eyes are still a little obscured.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's hard to see his face.

[SPEAKER_07]: He's not truly looking at you in the eye.

[SPEAKER_07]: But he nods.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Here's to a happy new year, eh?

[SPEAKER_07]: With lightning speed, he pulls a small chain from his pocket and cuffs the case, theorist.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, the fuck [SPEAKER_05]: For peace of mind, no tool, no key, no force will remove it until it reaches its destination.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is a bit much, but is this what your client wants?

[SPEAKER_03]: They'll take this off when I get there.

[SPEAKER_03]: They'll be someone there to do that.

[SPEAKER_07]: He backs up.

[SPEAKER_03]: They asked a question.

[SPEAKER_07]: You see him walk off the train.

[SPEAKER_07]: And he kind of disappears into the crowd.

[SPEAKER_07]: Again, as soon as he leaves that train and his presence is kind of gone, [SPEAKER_07]: Immediately, snap back and hear the crowd once again, hear the hot dog vendor shouting, hear fireworks once again.

[SPEAKER_07]: And it's kind of like, kind of like your brain kind of just surges forward.

[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: Recognizes, I'm back.

[SPEAKER_07]: And it realized that I was kind of like in this liminal space.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's like a head rush and he feels like he's been standing and holding that pole and it's almost as if the train like shifted back and forth as is but only he reacts to it as everyone as if time resets and he's [SPEAKER_03]: He feels like the hair in the back of his neck is shot up and he's in a strange like his heart beat is increased and he looks at the suitcase and the chain attached and he does his best to use his jacket to cover the part attached to his wrist so it's not going to draw any sort of strange attention so that it just looks like a decorative chain around the suitcase.

[SPEAKER_07]: For that, I'm going to say because I forgot to say this, that entire interaction.

[SPEAKER_07]: with the tall man causes too de-stress.

[SPEAKER_07]: Do you have a coin, maybe?

[SPEAKER_03]: I actually think I do, just a second.

[SPEAKER_07]: And we'll just say whatever heads is one and then tails is two.

[SPEAKER_07]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_03]: All right, Washington, let's do this.

[SPEAKER_03]: That is heads.

[SPEAKER_07]: OK.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you take one point of stress.

[SPEAKER_03]: OK.

[SPEAKER_07]: I believe that affects your HP.

[SPEAKER_03]: Correct.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I have five on that.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so that drops me down to four.

[SPEAKER_07]: So yes, once again, the crowd is moving.

[SPEAKER_07]: Again, it's just a blurred faces.

[SPEAKER_07]: You're not really paying attention.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you hear the announcement that the train is getting ready to leave.

[SPEAKER_07]: And it says it's like car doors closing.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, according to where I need to go, I need to get off the train.

[SPEAKER_03]: So he very quickly, like shows people, like as best he can, like to not come off rude, but he urgently dig dashes to get off the train.

[SPEAKER_03]: And kind of again, very uncomfortable with the chain around his wrist and is trying to cover that.

[SPEAKER_03]: So he's very awkwardly like with his hands together, just shuffling out.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you making way back to your car?

[SPEAKER_07]: Is your heading out of the train car?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_07]: You are bumped in the shoulder as you step off.

[SPEAKER_07]: Hard.

[SPEAKER_07]: Like your whole body shifts.

[SPEAKER_03]: Instinctually, he will just absorb that bump and keep the suitcase against his hip.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he covers it against his hip and keeps his arm inside of his jacket for his knife.

[SPEAKER_03]: He absorbs it and keeps moving but is prepared to retaliate.

[SPEAKER_07]: We'll tell me which arm is holding the, uh, this is the case.

[SPEAKER_07]: Left or right?

[SPEAKER_03]: I'll say that he put it on his left arm.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: As he's right handed, so his right hand is free and his left arm is sort of like has the chain and sort of like holding it against under his arm.

[SPEAKER_07]: Try to make your way out.

[SPEAKER_07]: You feel a big, like, meaty hand, grip you on your right arm.

[SPEAKER_07]: Hold it right there, smart guy.

[SPEAKER_07]: You got something that belongs to us.

[SPEAKER_07]: and you hear that voice coming from behind you.

[SPEAKER_03]: And this is a different voice from the creepy tall man.

[SPEAKER_03]: He is not going to make eye contact.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to keep his eyes forward as being in this job as a courier and a smuggler of things.

[SPEAKER_03]: People recognizing your face is bad.

[SPEAKER_03]: So he's not going to give this person enough time to study his face.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to keep his face out of the door.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he's going to say, I don't know who you took.

[SPEAKER_03]: Got the wrong guy.

[SPEAKER_03]: I got to go.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he's going to try to wriggle out.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, can I get a strength save from you?

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh boy.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I have a strength of eleven.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: So not the worst, but not the best.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: I have rolled a five, so that would be a success as it is under the score.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so you are able to rent your arm free.

[SPEAKER_07]: What do you do next?

[SPEAKER_03]: he continues to get out the door hoping that this person will get shoved.

[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, that's what he's going to do.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to move forward and he's going to kind of position himself where he's going to shove other people in this guy's way.

[SPEAKER_03]: He sees like an older gentleman with some friends.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to like break through their little bubble of people so that they kind of conglomerate the space he was in to keep potentially slow these people down as he's just trying to get off the train.

[SPEAKER_07]: You're able to get off the train.

[SPEAKER_07]: The man who is holding on to you, rent your arm out, but it's still like a packed train, like the platform is still pretty back.

[SPEAKER_07]: So lots of people getting in and off, having places to go, lots of drunks on this night, and you know you have to go back upstairs to even get to the parking lot or wherever you park your car.

[SPEAKER_07]: Did you park it outside?

[SPEAKER_07]: Parking lot?

[SPEAKER_03]: Where do you park it?

[SPEAKER_03]: He parked it a couple of blocks away and walked because he doesn't want his again this sort of ritual that he does is he always parks himself Two streets to the left of wherever he's supposed to be so that his car can ever be traced easily and it again this weird superstition that he's always had that it's just like he always has to park two streets to the left of wherever he's gonna be So he's a couple blocks away from the parking lot parked [SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so you're able to, like I said, rent your arm free, and you don't, voice is gone.

[SPEAKER_07]: It doesn't look like anybody's chasing after you.

[SPEAKER_07]: But at the base of, uh, there's an escalator and there are stairs.

[SPEAKER_07]: Which one are you taking?

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, stairs.

[SPEAKER_07]: Stairs?

[SPEAKER_07]: At the base of the stairs, you see a crumpled burner phone lies discarded, catches your eye, screen flashes.

[SPEAKER_03]: You see, he'll scoop out a web symbol.

[SPEAKER_03]: A web symbol.

[SPEAKER_07]: That's it, and then the flash goes away.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's about to pick it up, but then when the web screen flashes, he drops it and keeps moving.

[SPEAKER_07]: Now, like I said, you're heading up the stairs, trying to bustle your way through people.

[SPEAKER_07]: The New Year's Eve crowd here is denser than it was moments ago, more erratic in its movements, creating these unexpected kind of choke points as you're trying to get out of here.

[SPEAKER_07]: Can I get you to make a deck save to try to get out of here quickly?

[SPEAKER_03]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_03]: I have a decks of six teams, so that's significantly better, but we'll see what the dice have to say.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, that is a six, so that would be a success for me.

[SPEAKER_07]: perfect.

[SPEAKER_07]: You are, I mean, how does it look?

[SPEAKER_07]: You are, you're kind of very doubt getting through here.

[SPEAKER_03]: Being a native to the city and knowing how the flow of people traffic works, he anticipates where these crowds are going, he's able to continue to Bob and weave [SPEAKER_03]: like he's going with the flow of a sea but the sea is drunk excited people going to celebrate which makes it easier for him to get around because he knows these people are going to stop they're going to spread out he's going to shuffle to keep to the walls and especially going yeah in the stairs where he picks up speed because people are always so slow on the stairs we're going to like weave around them [SPEAKER_07]: You are expertly making your way through these people.

[SPEAKER_07]: You've done this before, this is not your first rodeo.

[SPEAKER_07]: You get out and you make your way, do your car?

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh yeah, he's be lining to his car.

[SPEAKER_07]: You eventually get to your car, dodging still through people in the street, and hearing the sound of the New Year's Eve cooking forward.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's now getting closer to nine thirty PM.

[SPEAKER_07]: You make your way to your car, and you immediately see it.

[SPEAKER_07]: Four tires, neatly, uniformly, slashed.

[SPEAKER_03]: He can't contain it.

[SPEAKER_03]: He goes, fuck!

[SPEAKER_03]: This sort of sits him reeling for a moment because he's never been spotted so easily.

[SPEAKER_03]: So now, he immediately walks past his car, not making complete eye contact and containing any sort of like facial reaction.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he's gonna keep walking past while he's going into his head thinking about, okay, so if I can't use my car, I can either take a car from someone else or I could [SPEAKER_03]: take use public transit to hoof it back and forth.

[SPEAKER_03]: What I have time to do that like without a car.

[SPEAKER_07]: The trunk of your car is open.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so he'll retcon for just a moment and go back over to the back of his car.

[SPEAKER_03]: If it's open he's going to he's going to walk across the street.

[SPEAKER_03]: Cross it and then walk past just so we could be right next to his car and give a passing glance to see like was the car torn to pieces or was this [SPEAKER_03]: I think with the line of work that Oliver's been and he would know the difference between looters and somebody looking for a specific thing.

[SPEAKER_07]: You look inside, it doesn't look like anybody rifled around with it as you're looking.

[SPEAKER_07]: It just looked like it was pride open.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you see something scurrying along in the trunk.

[SPEAKER_03]: Scurrying?

[SPEAKER_07]: A large Brazilian salmon pink bird eater.

[SPEAKER_07]: This is the largest tarantula you've ever seen in your life.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you take one D for stress.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, no.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: That is a two.

[SPEAKER_03]: I will take two more, which means I have two points left before I have to suffer more.

[SPEAKER_07]: You hear the hiss coming from the spider, if we can even call it that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's that noise they make.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, and you see the lines on it.

[SPEAKER_07]: The pink line is going over.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's back.

[SPEAKER_07]: This thing is huge.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's dark.

[SPEAKER_07]: It has this imposing form and a subtle pinkish hair is a very disturbing anomaly in the dim light.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you see, it's movements are almost like two deliberate as if it's observing you.

[SPEAKER_07]: But you know that it is a spider.

[SPEAKER_07]: It can't be observing you.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he's, would I know if this is a calling card for the family?

[SPEAKER_07]: You would know that they do similar things like this.

[SPEAKER_07]: Sometimes it's not a spider, but always has those themes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Like the burner phone, yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to slowly back away from the spider.

[SPEAKER_03]: He has the tools he needs to get this job done in his back.

[SPEAKER_03]: His car had some [SPEAKER_03]: some emergency supplies, but nothing that he can't replace.

[SPEAKER_03]: So he's gonna slowly back away.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he's gonna see if the spider is following his movements, like as he gets further and further away, like keeping his eyes on it.

[SPEAKER_07]: You notice that it's not following your movements.

[SPEAKER_07]: It seems to go back to its normal behavior.

[SPEAKER_07]: And it seems like that moment was just like, you feel like shake your head a bit and kind of clear the fog in your rain.

[SPEAKER_07]: No, this is just a regular.

[SPEAKER_07]: Spider, I can't be watching you.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, that'd be crazy.

[SPEAKER_07]: No, it can't be watching you.

[SPEAKER_07]: And as you're backing up, you back into a body.

[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, slow it down there, Val.

[SPEAKER_07]: And two other men come in and close and you see their wearing suits.

[SPEAKER_07]: Tailored suits.

[SPEAKER_07]: and they're moving with this kind of unnerving, synchronized precision.

[SPEAKER_07]: And so it's the man in the back of you and you have two on the side, and then you have your car open with the transcha in the front.

[SPEAKER_07]: And they say, hand over the case, Mr.

Valentine, where the snite will become exceedingly unpleasant.

[SPEAKER_04]: Do you guys the ones that abandoned your pet spider in my car?

[SPEAKER_07]: No.

[SPEAKER_04]: Who do you work for?

[SPEAKER_07]: We work for a very important person who'd like to see this case in the right hands.

[SPEAKER_04]: Shit.

[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I'm also working for someone very vague, powerful, and they kind of disagree with that request.

[SPEAKER_03]: So you guys seem like a nice folk, but I got a stick to my guns here.

[SPEAKER_03]: You understand?

[SPEAKER_03]: And as he's talking to them, he is going to attempt to [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he's going to attempt to increase the space between him.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he's going to try to basically dart around them as he sort of like he puts his hands up for a moment.

[SPEAKER_03]: He kind of like talks to them.

[SPEAKER_03]: He talks to me.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's hoping to stiff arm pass the smallest of the three.

[SPEAKER_03]: If there is one or just the one to the left, he always trusts the left path.

[SPEAKER_03]: So he's always going to shove the one to the left to sprint back towards the crowd.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'm going to have you roll for initiative.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Do you want to based on my deck that is sixteen?

[SPEAKER_03]: Ooh, that's higher.

[SPEAKER_03]: If this was strength or my control, this would've failed, but because it's for my decks, a twelve would be a success.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, you rolled twelve?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so you can act before them.

[SPEAKER_07]: It doesn't necessarily mean that you got out of their way.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, here we go.

[SPEAKER_03]: I am relieved to say that I rolled a two, which in most games is bad, but it's well under my decks score, so that would be a success.

[SPEAKER_07]: perfect.

[SPEAKER_07]: You're able to slip under, you go to your left.

[SPEAKER_07]: The guy to your left, you're able to slip under his, there's like a small opening.

[SPEAKER_07]: You make your way through.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, all of us going to reach into his jacket is going to pull out a small silver.

[SPEAKER_03]: a sphere he's going to pull a metal line out of it is going to throw it behind him over his shoulder while he's still looking at the destination across the street which is just sidewalk building into the across the block to the main crowd he's going to duck his head down and cover his eyes with his left hand as he knows this will emit a massive flash okay so you let it loose and [SPEAKER_07]: It's gonna make a loud noise, but to New Year's Eve, might just get covered up with the other loud noises tonight.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, party poppers.

[SPEAKER_03]: You know, all those things going off.

[SPEAKER_07]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you throw it.

[SPEAKER_07]: And so I'm going to roll, uh, deck safe for each one.

[SPEAKER_07]: The first one is success.

[SPEAKER_03]: Damn.

[SPEAKER_07]: The second one is success.

[SPEAKER_07]: Third one is a failure.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you see, one of them, it's the guy you kind of dashed by.

[SPEAKER_03]: Lefty.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, so you see him.

[SPEAKER_07]: Ah, kind of screams as eyes are blinded.

[SPEAKER_07]: The other guys kind of get their hands, they're quick enough to cover their eyes first.

[SPEAKER_07]: And so immediately head whip towards you as you are running across the street.

[SPEAKER_07]: They also are right on your tail.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you see that they had whipped out batons.

[SPEAKER_04]: Shit.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so they do catch up to you.

[SPEAKER_07]: You hear, like, we see black batons have been whipped out.

[SPEAKER_07]: Because this has no role to hit, I just roll their weapon die.

[SPEAKER_03]: Correct.

[SPEAKER_03]: And it's multiple attackers.

[SPEAKER_03]: So it says, if multiple attackers target the same foe, me roll all the damage dice and keep the single highest results.

[SPEAKER_03]: So you basically, this is where like an advantage comes in.

[SPEAKER_07]: They have run up to you.

[SPEAKER_07]: You feel them, one of them hits you right in the best place in your kneecap, the right knee.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you hear that, right in your knee, swear something, you're like something popped, something cracked.

[SPEAKER_07]: You're not sure.

[SPEAKER_07]: But you take four damage.

[SPEAKER_07]: You immediately fill it in your knee, and your old body, well, not your old body, but your body is older.

[SPEAKER_07]: You're no longer the young man that you were when he started this.

[SPEAKER_07]: And so you can immediately fill that this is not good.

[SPEAKER_07]: This one's gonna take a long time to recover.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Do you want me to roll the critical damage now?

[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, yes.

[SPEAKER_07]: Go ahead and make these strengths safe.

[SPEAKER_03]: So my strength drops in nine, so I have to get a nine or a lower on this roll.

[SPEAKER_03]: I have rolled a seven so I have just barely scraped by.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think he grits his teeth and lets the adrenaline take over for the time being and he's gonna gonna try to keep pushing forward.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so are you trying to do like a movement in an action or are you trying to retreat?

[SPEAKER_03]: Would you argue that I'm closer to the crowd where I could have access to the retreat or now?

[SPEAKER_07]: Close, I mean the crowd is absolutely everywhere.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think what he would do is he, again, one of his personal traits that we selected for him is that he is a bit of a coward.

[SPEAKER_03]: And after that hit, he's not going to stand and fight.

[SPEAKER_03]: He knows that losing two people is easier than losing three.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I think he's going to take the action to move closer to the crowd.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to scan the street.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to find the biggest gathering of them probably like outside of a bar or [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Something like that, and try to disappear in there, and utilize the retreat action.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's a good idea.

[SPEAKER_07]: You do see down the street, there are like two bars, kind of right next to each other, and both are packed.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you can see, and even like spilling out a little bit, but if you go inside, you can definitely get lost in there if you want it to.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you have the destination.

[SPEAKER_07]: You just need a successful deck save to try to make it.

[SPEAKER_03]: All right.

[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to call this bar the tips he had, and hopefully that name will give me good luck.

[SPEAKER_03]: Now you see, I've rolled a twenty, which in other games would be a complete success.

[SPEAKER_03]: In that twenty, in this game, that is a complete failure.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you're trying to, you're trying to get away.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you spot it.

[SPEAKER_07]: Your destination just out.

[SPEAKER_07]: I just need to get to that bar.

[SPEAKER_07]: Your knee is killing you.

[SPEAKER_07]: You see, the two come together.

[SPEAKER_07]: They have this precision strike.

[SPEAKER_07]: And they go for your ankle of your left leg.

[SPEAKER_07]: Another baton.

[SPEAKER_07]: And this one is [SPEAKER_07]: Right, it's just in the right area where the bones meet and where your feet, where your foot kind of that allows you to go that flexibility.

[SPEAKER_08]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_07]: Right there.

[SPEAKER_07]: And so I'm going to roll the damage is a little bit higher because of how precise it is.

[SPEAKER_07]: Ouch.

[SPEAKER_07]: And they both go once again.

[SPEAKER_07]: I rolled an eight for the first one, and I rolled a one for the second.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: So, it's non-legal damage, but you take eight damage as you can feel like your ankle explodes.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's definitely if not sprained, probably broken.

[SPEAKER_03]: So this would go into my dexterity then, if it's going for my mobility.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so, goodbye, high stat.

[SPEAKER_03]: I will miss you.

[SPEAKER_03]: That drops the down to eight.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you need to make a dexate.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's I do.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Nope.

[SPEAKER_03]: I have rolled an eighteen, which even at my original desk would have been failure.

[SPEAKER_03]: Now the high rolls are showing up, which means I believe that's a critical wound.

[SPEAKER_07]: Uh, so he's ever wound from the wounds table.

[SPEAKER_07]: I don't have the wounds table up.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just going to say that it is a broken ankle.

[SPEAKER_07]: You have to, at the very least, a bruised right kneecap.

[SPEAKER_07]: You feel the bone just in the pain explode.

[SPEAKER_07]: You feel it behind your eyes as you see white.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: What does it do?

[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, boy.

[SPEAKER_03]: Um, I'm going to have to, well, he's on the ground now.

[SPEAKER_03]: So running is not going to work.

[SPEAKER_03]: Is the crowd reacting to this in any way?

[SPEAKER_07]: Roll two D six and I'll tell you how they're reacting.

[SPEAKER_03]: The total is seven.

[SPEAKER_07]: They're curious.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's a lot of people are looking [SPEAKER_07]: No, what is really stopping to do anything?

[SPEAKER_07]: I think there's such a haze behind people's eyes.

[SPEAKER_07]: People are just drunk and having a good time and not really paying attention.

[SPEAKER_07]: I think these men in these suits are professionals and they're not being loud about it in a way.

[SPEAKER_07]: Of course, it's already loud out here.

[SPEAKER_07]: But what I mean is they're very, this last one was a precise strike.

[SPEAKER_07]: So their arms aren't opening wide to make this very noticeable hit to you.

[SPEAKER_07]: So they have this heavy baton kind of like stealthily hit that left angle you feel like the bone just crack And just some people are are curious and looking but like one you see like one drunk guy come closer Hey, hey those are those are cool suits Why are you just so fancy and?

[SPEAKER_07]: One of them turns around and says leave [SPEAKER_03]: as soon as he turned that guy turns his back.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oliver wants to take his knife out and cut at the guy who still focused on him to see if he can get out of the situation.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oliver has been, he's gotten the shit kicked out of him enough times to know that when the upper hand tilts their leverage just a little bit, that's your only chance sometimes.

[SPEAKER_03]: So he sees that one of the guys is distracted by a drunk, he's gonna focus on the other guy and cut it his hand to get him away, you know, try to at least stick a wound into him.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: Sounds good.

[SPEAKER_07]: Let's go to just roll the damage, aye.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yep, that is a D six from my hunting knife.

[SPEAKER_03]: That is two damage.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so that would be to his strength, I believe.

[SPEAKER_03]: Correct.

[SPEAKER_07]: If strength were to do so, I'm going to make a strength, it would be okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: Your role is a nine, so he doesn't get a critical wound, but he does stick the damage.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's not even looking to make it a deadly strike.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's doing it to kind of make a wound that'll bleed and that will cause some pains that he'll have to address it so that he can scramble away.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_07]: So, oh, I forgot they have armor.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, no.

[SPEAKER_07]: So it's just one damage.

[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, it's enough to, if anything, it sort of, he treats it like a surprise attack where he hasn't really tried to show that he had anything on him, so he just kind of turns, pulls it out from under his jacket.

[SPEAKER_03]: Swipes, I think cuts open his hand.

[SPEAKER_03]: That was holding the, the, the, the baton.

[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, cuts that hand open, leaving a gash wound that he, that like, he dropped the weapons that he can run or like, well, not run, hobble very quickly.

[SPEAKER_07]: as cool as possible in a broken egg.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you do that.

[SPEAKER_07]: You start to look down.

[SPEAKER_07]: The baton does drop as he starts to kind of tries to wrap it with a piece of his shirt.

[SPEAKER_07]: He pulls this untux his shirt starts to wrap it and then quickly looks up and this is the moment that you have to try to run away.

[SPEAKER_07]: Oh yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you're going to have to make a deck save.

[SPEAKER_08]: Oh boy.

[SPEAKER_07]: And is this, well, you can't retreat anymore because this is just a regular action.

[SPEAKER_03]: Correct.

[SPEAKER_07]: Which is a move in an attack.

[SPEAKER_07]: So you're just trying to get out of there.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's got in my inventory.

[SPEAKER_03]: I have seventy dollars and I'm willing to just throw the cash up in the air to see if it'll cause like the drugs to grab for free money to cause like a ruckus around him.

[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: I see.

[SPEAKER_03]: I'm bargaining.

[SPEAKER_03]: I can sacrifice my slot.

[SPEAKER_03]: Sacrifice your slot because my money is what takes up one of my inventory slots.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm hoping I can use that as a bargaining chip to potentially roll twice or if you can.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so it would be I would say a control save to try to just get that to work as you're trying to convince people for you money.

[SPEAKER_03]: All right, you know what, I'll move and do that and see if it works.

[SPEAKER_03]: Right now controls my best number, which is still just a ten.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'll snap that one down fast.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: All right.

[SPEAKER_03]: I have rolled a four, so that is a success.

[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so you throw the money up in the air.

[SPEAKER_07]: You see, the guy he was talking to, the drunk, him and his buddies, he's like, hey, this guy's given up three money.

[SPEAKER_07]: And like four of his friends all kind of like surround you and you just have a whole bunch of people reaching for bills all around you.

[SPEAKER_03]: Creating the the drunkest human shield.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_07]: So that was your action.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's back to their turn.

[SPEAKER_07]: What they're going to do is that now they're turning, they're seeing like all these drug people are in the way.

[SPEAKER_07]: And so they have to spend their action to just move them because you could create that, that kind of in between like meat shield of humans.

[SPEAKER_07]: Uh, uh, so they're going to spend their action.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just going to roll a strength to see if they can, that's going to be their action.

[SPEAKER_07]: They're going to roll strength to try to see if they can just pry through all these junk people like grabbing at money.

[SPEAKER_07]: I rolled a twenty so that's no on one.

[SPEAKER_03]: We both rolled a net twenty.

[SPEAKER_07]: and a nineteen.

[SPEAKER_07]: They are not able.

[SPEAKER_07]: They're kind of stuck in these like human meat shills going from money and you see them getting entangled.

[SPEAKER_07]: Uh, but that was their action.

[SPEAKER_07]: They didn't take any movement.

[SPEAKER_07]: So it was back to you.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oliver is very much going to continue to grit his teeth through the pain.

[SPEAKER_03]: And as he sees that his plan to distract has somehow worked, he is going to use his movement to get as far away on the other side of the street and try to retreat into the bar because he couldn't get to it so that he can disappear.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so that, yes, that would be that dexive.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, come on, dex don't fail me now.

[SPEAKER_03]: I know you're not as big as you used to be.

[SPEAKER_03]: I have rolled exactly in eight, which is what it now is, which is a success.

[SPEAKER_07]: That is a success.

[SPEAKER_07]: You are able to hobble away as the man in those suits are caught up in the drunks.

[SPEAKER_07]: And you make your way to the bar and you're lost inside.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's gonna get to a bathroom stall.

[SPEAKER_03]: and like lock the door sit like prop hit like sit up and try to prop his hurt ankle on the side and like gets it like let let himself come down from this so he can just breathe he probably vomits to before he sits down because he's definitely in a lot of pain and held it back I think all that adrenaline leaves him for the moment because he can actually take a moment to breathe and address the situation that he's in [SPEAKER_07]: and you're trying to address a situation, are you, do you think he's sweaty?

[SPEAKER_07]: No, when people, at least when people throw up, they sweating.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's, he's sweaty.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's, his fighter flight kicked in.

[SPEAKER_03]: He, he's in like there, he felt something pop when he hit.

[SPEAKER_03]: His kneecap was hit and then he felt something shatter when his ankle was hit.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's no fool.

[SPEAKER_03]: He knows he's in a lot of pain.

[SPEAKER_03]: His movements hindered, which is going to deeply complicate his situation.

[SPEAKER_07]: you feel a hum coming from the suitcase.

[SPEAKER_07]: And it's getting louder and louder.

[SPEAKER_07]: As a sound of New Year's Eve and the party and the ruckus that's going on in the bar seems to fade.

[SPEAKER_07]: You can feel like your hand is like glued to this suitcase as you feel it start to vibrate.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, all the noise, all the partying, all of the care-free celebration that he brushed past to get into the bathroom that, you know, the life he chose was a solitary life.

[SPEAKER_03]: He kind of just, he's learned to tune that out, seeing these people enjoying regular lives, or at least the facsimile, facsimile of regular lives.

[SPEAKER_03]: sitting in the bathroom, feeling that vibration.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's going to flip it around to see where the source of it is at the entire suitcase that's just vibrating, like physically.

[SPEAKER_03]: The entire?

[SPEAKER_07]: Yes, you feel it getting stronger and stronger and your arm is starting to be shaken as well.

[SPEAKER_07]: Are you looking at the suitcase?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he's looking at the suitcase to try to see if there's something he might have hit or if he's worried the suitcase might have been damaged in the scuffle.

[SPEAKER_03]: So he's checking it for damage.

[SPEAKER_03]: He's checking to see if anything any snaps went on the gun unlocked or something like that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Just see if he can get it to stop.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's definitely been scuffed up.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's not as pristine as when you first got it.

[SPEAKER_07]: You have fallen, you've gotten back up, you have tried to run through a lot of people in different crowds.

[SPEAKER_07]: You see, like, a slight stain on it from some alcohol.

[SPEAKER_07]: There's been poured on it, kind of ruining a little bit of the, of the black.

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you never saw anything about the condition it just has to get there.

[SPEAKER_03]: He says out loud to himself to calm himself down.

[SPEAKER_07]: and you're looking at the suitcase, you're frozen in time.

[SPEAKER_07]: It's kind of like you're being hypnotized, and you see just like circles within circles and infinity, amount as you're looking.

[SPEAKER_07]: It kind of breaks your brain a bit.

[SPEAKER_07]: You start to think back to different places in the past.

[SPEAKER_07]: You get a flashback, you get a flash of your grandfather.

[SPEAKER_07]: You get a flash of that time where you almost died where you should have died.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_07]: and it gets hard to breathe.

[SPEAKER_07]: But you can't stop looking at it.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think his head is also kind of just softly doing a circle as he's staring at it.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he can't differentiate that between like the physical beating he just took.

[SPEAKER_03]: So he's not sure if this is real or if this is just some sort of reaction to the, you know, the intense pain he's been trying to stay off and [SPEAKER_07]: and then you hear loud.

[SPEAKER_07]: Someone else's voice scream in your head.

[SPEAKER_07]: And that's where we have to hit pause.

[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you so much for listening to part one of this liminal horror duet.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'm your game master, Maya, and our beleaguered runner Oliver Valentine was played by the wonderful Michael.

[SPEAKER_07]: Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss the finale coming very soon.

[SPEAKER_07]: And if you're feeling generous, leave in a quick comment or review helps us reach more listeners and we'd love to hear what you think.

[SPEAKER_07]: Thanks again for tuning in.

[SPEAKER_07]: Stay safe out there.