Transcript by the lovely volunteers at TAZscripts.
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Travis: Previously on The Adventure Zone:
- Connors: We found Jeremiah Blackwell dead in the street. It has every sign of an attack by one of the Furs: Dylan Mathis.
- Jonathan: You would expect a murdered person to— you would expect anger, or sadness, but this was just confusion.
Travis: Like Wolverine’s claws have been pulled across his gut.
- Augustus: I’ve solved it!
Griffin: Okay, hold on.
Travis: There’s some trace of, like, dust. Some kind of— it looks to be a mixture of silver and copper.
- Mrs. Mathis: There’s only one “her” Dylan cares about and it’s his sister.
- Augustus: What’s her name?
- Mrs. Mathis: Ann.
- Errol: Er, where might we find Ann, here at this late hour?
- Mrs. Mathis: Probably still asleep back at my house.
- Errol: I’m surprised, because I would think that someone who’s been living around the mines for as long as you have would know a powder keg when they saw one. This town’s about to blow up and we’re trying to stop it.
- Mrs. Mathis: You stop it. I’m Plan B.
[Theme music (The Adventure Zone: Dust Theme by Griffin McElroy) plays]
- Mrs. Mathis: Listen, Errol, when I brought you here, it was because I needed your help dealing with— There’s a deal in the works between me, the Blackwells, and the workers, to try to get an arrangement — an agreement — on paper that’s beneficial for everybody, and we are so close to nailing it down. It’s the only way we’re gonna be able to save our collective businesses. And this could ruin it. This could tear it apart. There’s a lot on the line here, Errol.
- Errol: Yeah, I know all about deals. There’s got to be somebody who’s getting maybe a slightly shorter, less delicious part of the stick. Uh— that was a bad analogy, and I’m not saying that sticks are delicious but— who do you think might be— this thing that’s happening. It sucks? And it sounds like whoever did this wants this deal to come crashing down around all of y’all, so, you got any idea who that might be?
- Mrs. Mathis: The three main players in this are me, Joseph Blackwell, and Liam, but I trust Liam. He’s kind of the unofficial— official spokesman for the workers, but he’s also a Fur. I trust him.
- Errol: [sarcastic] Yeah, I mean Furs definitely can’t do bad things to other Furs. That’s in the Bible.
[Clint and Travis laugh]
- Errol: Okay, here’s what I’m gonna do. We’re gonna keep doing our investigation, we’re gonna keep poking around, we still got some time till—
Griffin: I check my watch. Is it one?
Travis: It’s getting close. This is like the end of this first beat.
- Errol: It’s almost one, we still got some time. We’re gonna keep digging our nose and you know… following our nose, following the clues, and see what we can dig up, but— Where am I gonna be able to find you, you gonna be here all night?
- Mrs. Mathis: I’ll be here or I’ll be at the jailhouse.
- Errol: All right. Uh.
- Mrs. Mathis: Talk to Ann, I think she’ll be able to help. Liam’s there too, he said he’d keep an eye on the place and make sure nothing went wrong while I was down here.
- Errol: Yeah we’ll go— we’ll go sniffing around, see what we can find. Ahem. I’m sorry I’m sick, that’s why I sound like this. I don’t normally sound like this. I don’t normally sound so gruff, I have a chest cold. That’s a little werewolf joke.
Travis: She just stares at you.
- Errol: All right, well. Hmm. Mighty thirsty, but I guess nothing can be done about that, so. You about ready to go, Gus? Oh sorry, do you want to go clue hunting? You’ve just kind of been doing some root beer pranks.
- Augustus: I think you’ve done a marvelous job. I wouldn’t dare to impinge upon this fantastic investigation that I’m getting to witness secondhand. What a thrill. You know us elderly people love to watch procedurals—
[Clint and Travis laugh]
- Augustus: So it is uh, it is quite a thrill for me.
Travis: I will remind you, there is another person here, another woman at the bar.
- Errol: Why don’t you hit them up, Gus, see what they got?
- Augustus: Pardon me, other woman at the bar. Pleased to make your acquaintance, I am—
Travis: You do have a faction move called Name to a Face, that maybe you might want to use instead of addressing them as “other woman at the bar.”
Justin: Okay, I’ll roll against— wow, what a weird move, okay yes. But yes, why not? I love a good faction move.
Griffin: This is how we level up, too, with these faction moves.
Justin: How do I level up with a faction move?
Griffin: When you take four faction moves with each of the four factions you level up.
Justin: Oh, okay, cool. Uh, what’s their—
Travis: She is Night. Night, specifically Fur, but because— because Gus is neither Fur nor Fang it’s just Night for him.
Justin: Uh, well, I’ve already done a faction move with a Night. Uh, anywho. I rolled a [laughs] I rolled a five and I have plus two with Night— uh no, sorry— yeah, plus two with Night, so it’s a seven.
Travis: Okay, uh, it’s Marie Jacobs. You know that she is is a Fur, you know that she runs the depot, which is, you know, the shop in town, you know that she stays pretty neutral as far as things go because she trying to do business with everybody, and that’s about all you know about her.
- Augustus: Pardon me Ms. Jacobs, if I could steal a moment of your time. I am the spectral form of the man who was Augustus Parsons of the Augustus Parsons Cashew Company. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.
- Ms. Jacobs: Uh yeah, charmed.
- Augustus: Glad to see manners have not been completely extinguished here in this... dusty wasteland. I was inquiring into the murder of a young vampire this evening and I was wondering if you might have seen anything out of sorts.
- Ms. Jacobs: I mean, uh. Listen, uh, I’d kind of prefer to stay out of it, you know. I’m doing my best to just make a living, and I need business from the Fangs and the Furs and the Fleshes and everybody.
- Augustus: Well, ma’am, I do understand the impulse but you see that this matter of the highest import for both your people and the vampires. Plus, I can assure you that any information you give me will stay within my confidence. I will, if you permit… stay as quiet as the grave.
- Ms. Jacobs: Well, uh, that’s not very evocative, but I—
Griffin: How come we gotta give evocation reviews to every spoken word in this—
Justin: I thought that was fairly evocative.
Griffin: That was fucking evocative as hell!
Travis: But when I said “silent as the grave” last week, Justin gave me a hard time!
Justin: Yeah, but like...I’m a ghost, so it’s like—
Clint: [laughs] It resonates!
Justin: So it’s hysterical.
Griffin: Those were his words.
Travis: J-man, give me a persuasion roll or something along those lines. Something you want to do.
Clint: Mm, persuasion rolls. Mmm…
Justin: Do we have persuasion rolls?
Griffin: Yeah, to persuade an NPC you roll with heart. On a hit they do what you ask, on a seven to nine, they modify the terms and/or demand a debt.
Justin: That is a— oh shit, a 10! Oh hell yeah! Nice.
Travis: Sick.
Griffin: Plus heart?
Justin: Zero. Heart zero.
Clint: He’s a ghost, he doesn’t have a heart, he’s dead.
Travis: Oh no, you gotta go talk to The Wizard.
[Clint giggles]
- Ms. Jacobs: All right, listen. Here’s what I know, all right? One: Dylan’s a good boy. I watched him grow up, and I can’t believe he would do this to Jeremiah. They always seemed to get along so well. The three of them— them and Ann— they were thick as thieves. They grew up together, they never had any problems. I can’t— I can’t believe Dylan would do this. He was here, shortly before— I mean, minutes before. Suddenly he perked up, ran out the door. That’s all I know.
- Augustus: What was he doing before he ran out the door? Was he alone, was he speaking with anybody?
- Ms. Jacobs: No, he was just here doing the same thing we’re all doing, just drinking.
- Augustus: Yeah.
- Mrs. Jacobs: Just sitting quietly and trying to find a second’s peace.
- Errol: Some of us aren’t able to drink because of reasons beyond their, sort of, understanding.
- Ms. Jacobs: Do you mean because he’s a ghost?
- Errol: No because they won’t give me one, a root beer, it’s all I need in the world.
- Ms. Jacobs: Wilder, give him a dang root beer. Grow up.
Griffin: Mission accomplished! Goodbye guys! I’ve finished.
Clint: Ladies and Gentlemen, this has been Dust!
Griffin: Errol Ryehouse’s weeks-long quest.
Travis: Now Griffin, Wilder slides it down the bar, I’m going to need to you to roll to see if you catch it.
Griffin: That’s a… four? That’s a four.
Travis: You catch it but all the root beer sloshes out of the glass.
[Clint laughs]
Griffin: No! God! Please!
Justin: The show continues.
Griffin: I kind of embarrassed, like, mime drinking the root beer out of the empty cup. Okay.
Travis: And Wilder just kind of, you know, massages the bridge of his nose.
- Augustus: Can you think of anybody who would’ve had it in for Jeremiah?
- Ms. Jacobs: Honestly no. It was a good crop of kids, you know what I mean? I can’t— I mean, lots of people have things against the Blackwells, but nobody seemed to have anything against Jeremiah specific.
- Augustus: Tell me about Ann a little bit. We have not met her as of yet.
- Ms. Jacobs: Ah, smart girl. Probably the smartest one of the bunch. She’s, you know, kind and… she’s a Mathis, but she ain’t a Fur. She’s Flesh… You wouldn’t know it, the way they take to her. I mean, she’s family of course, so.
- Augustus: Sure, yeah.
- Ms. Jacobs: She spends a lot of time hanging out with Jeremiah, and Dylan of course. They grew up together. She’s about as good as they come.
- Augustus: You seem like a sort of woman who keeps her ear to the ground, who knows things, who sees things. Give me something I can work with, please.
- Ms. Jacobs: If somebody’s trying to tell you that this was done in anger, that Dylan attacked Jeremiah out of hate or whatever, there ain’t no way that’s true. There wasn’t bad blood between the two of them. And if this was done in anger, it was anger towards the Blackwells, or anger towards the copper mine owners, this wasn’t because of Jeremiah, there’s no way.
- Augustus: All right, well… Ms. Jacobs I will leave you to your brew, and I thank you for your time.
- Ms. Jacobs: Pleasure.
Griffin: Do we hear a clock bell— clock tower bell or something?
Travis: BONG.
Griffin: I don’t know if they do that at night, that would be very annoying I feel like.
Travis: They don’t, that is not how that works, but let’s say Augustus has a spectral timepiece.
Griffin: A Yo-Kai Watch, if you will.
Travis: [beat] Sure.
Griffin: God, that was a good joke that was wasted on you fucking plebs.
[Justin & Clint laugh]
Travis: All right, so that brings us to 1-3 [a.m.]
Griffin: Wait, we’re doing two hours in this one?
Travis: Yeah, so you’re gonna get to pick more beats— two to three— same amount of beats, really.
Griffin: We— yeah, we trust you. Can you— can we take a second, because we kind of jumped into the episode, run through the clues real quick for the folks at home? I have ’em all written down here [crosstalk] just sort of the salient stuff.
Travis: [crosstalk] Sure! Go for it.
Griffin: Some “her” didn’t want Dylan to talk, we’re assuming it’s Ann, his twin sister who is not a Fur.
Travis: Yes, they are fraternal twins, and a reminder, genetics-wise they’re codominant genes, so she just isn’t [a Fur]— I actually did research to make sure fraternal twins did not share DNA.
Griffin: Fantastic.
Clint: And that’s Ann?
Travis: That is Ann.
Griffin: Yes. The blood on Dylan’s clothes was Jeremiah’s, led to The Church. According to the ghost in the graveyard, Jeremiah was confused and betrayed when he was killed. He had claw marks across his gut that had silver dust from the local silver mine around it. We’re going to succeed in some way in this thing, that’s less a clue and more just sort of a little reminder, a little “Hang in There” kitty poster I have up on the wall. There’s a deal that was— okay, the rest of this stuff was from five minutes ago, so you don’t need to hear that again. Can you give us a list of where we can go now? ‘Cause we have the option, right, of sticking together or splitting up again I imagine.
Travis: Yes, so there is the Mathis home, where Ann and Liam are. There is the Sterling, which was the last place that Jeremiah was seen. You could head over to Silver’s Linings. You always have the option to head back to the sheriff’s station to check in with Connors and Rosa. The Church with Father Dante, but you were just there, so I mean, do you really wanna walk all the way back there? No, I think for now those are the kind of ones you’ve been pointed at.
Griffin: Mmkay.
Travis: There’s other areas, but you don’t have any, to use a technical term, leads that would point you towards them, so unless you just pick one—
Griffin: Sure.
Justin: So where’s—
Travis: Hm?
Justin: Where’s Ann?
Travis: Ann is at the Mathis home, Ann and Liam.
Griffin: In the Mathis house, which we have— which we have a key to. I—
Justin: I feel like—
Griffin: I was of a mind that we should wait until we had more clues before we went there, but I think we have enough time that we could maybe take two trips, and it seems like—
Justin: Well, that was when you thought that Abigail was gonna be there. You wanted to—
Griffin: Yeah.
Justin: But we sort of ran into her organically.
Griffin: Good point.
Justin: So maybe we should just go.
Griffin: We should head up there. I also think maybe we should split up, ‘cause I think the Sterling last known location is something we should also pursue.
Clint: At this point Gandy has rejoined the party, right? We’re all together making this decision?
Travis: Yes. In this— you remember, this is the center of town, right? So I assume, ’cause you’re staying at the Sterling, you’re working— so the Black Mariah is probably parked right there. I mean, you’re all within 10 yards of each other.
Griffin: I would like to go to the Mathis household just because I am a werewolf kind of, and I— I don’t know, there might be something that I can use there to find something out. That’s kind of, my inclination.
Justin: I was thinking I’d like to go to the Sterling, which is the last sort of place that Jeremiah was seen.
Clint: That’s where Gandy— Gandy would like to go there, too.
Travis: If you split up in any way, one and two or one and one and one, you only get two beats. So you do get the added bonus, Gandy, of being there and contributing, but if you want to cover more ground in the 1-3 range, you might want to completely split up, but it’s completely up to you. I am just reminding you how the mechanic works.
Clint: I mean, Gandy just had a scene by herself and I—
Travis: Super cool, absolutely.
Clint: I’d like her to interact with one of her partners—
Travis: You don’t have to explain yourself to me, you’re doing great. Who wants to go first? Errol, or Gandy and Gus?
Griffin: How about Gandy and Gus, since Gandy hasn’t done anything this episode yet.
Justin: Sure.
Travis: Excellent.
Justin: I’m gonna go invisible again.
Travis: When you walk into the Sterling, it has a completely different feel from the Full Moon Saloon. Where the Full Moon Saloon was, to use a modern terminology, more of a, you know, well-polished and very clean dive bar, the Sterling is sparkling. There’s metal accents everywhere, the gambling tables are clean and well-kept. And it has the smell, and if you’ve never been to a casino it’s hard to describe, but the smell of a well-oiled and clean table and clean machines and just smells like money. And you can tell that the focus, whereas in the Full Moon Saloon the focus was “have a drink and forget,” here it’s “take a risk,” you know, “feel alive.” And so when you enter, a couple of things immediately draw your attention.
One, is the woman who isn’t really working the bar so much as she’s just at the bar, on the customer’s side, but clearly in control of the whole building. And you know from your intel that that is Isabella Slate, the owner of the Sterling. She has owned it for the last two years after the previous owner, Marcus, mysteriously disappeared. And when Isabella took over, she turned the whole thing around, it didn’t used to be this house of chance and, you know, risk. It used to be incredibly poorly run, I would say, and bad. Nobody went there, but now the Sterling is the destination in Dry River.
The other thing you notice is there’s only, with it being such a late hour, there’s only one kind of table that’s actively being used. And there’s two people that, you know, just regular humans, but the one that draws your attention is the spectral gambler, who you know to be Em. She has quite a reputation in the area as being a card shark. And her stack is about five times the size of anyone else’s at the table, so you can tell she’s kind of been running the table all night.
Griffin: Please interact with the ghost gambler.
- Augustus: No.
[Griffin laughs]
- Augustus: I’ve already done a Faction move with her Faction twice. I’m not— no longer interested.
- Gandy: [whispers] Augustus, Augustus. Augustus...
- Augustus: Yes, Gandy.
- Gandy: Look around. Look… very… carefully. Is this place not the bomb? Is this not the coolest thing you’ve ever seen!?
Travis: Why would Gandy say “the bomb”?
- Augustus: Why would you say “the bomb”?
- Gandy: Because it’s—
Griffin: She can say it’s dynamite.
- Gandy: It’s— it’s dynamite, look at this! [Gasps] And there’s a ghost! A ghost gambler! I’ve gotta talk to her. I’ve got to. I’ve got to talk to her.
- Augustus: You’re impressed—
Justin: Hey, I did want to clarify something. To what extent are people of this world hip to ghosts? Something I should have clarified before I tried my Ghost Dad stunt in the last one. People like— I’m not gonna be able to run many ghost scams on people of this world, yeah? Like they kind of know what’s up?
Travis: Well, yeah, I don’t think you’re gonna surpri— like it’s not gonna be like, “What?! A ghost?!” But I think that not everybody can perceive you. Had you not moved the mug, then they probably wouldn’t have put two and two together. Um… yeah.
Justin: Okay, that’s all I needed to know, thank you.
- Augustus: Well yeah, Gandy, see what information you can obtain. I actually… You know, I’ll watch.
- Gandy: Okay, great! [clears throat]
Clint: So she walks over to the table— what game is being played at the table?
Travis: It’s poker.
Justin: How… crazy would you say this particular game of poker is?
Travis: Thank you for asking, Justin. I would say that it didn’t begin as crazy but it has become a crazy game of poker.
Justin: Now if you could repeat that for about eight minutes.
Travis: Well right now it is a crazy game of poker but when we talk about it later we’ll say it was a crazy game of poker. We’ll get there, you know.
Clint: So many references. Okay!
Griffin: Sorry, should we talk about Steely Dan— is there a Steely Dan poker song?
Clint: I’m sure there is… Um, actually there is.
Griffin: Okay, okay, okay, I didn’t mean to send you down a fucking rabbit hole.
Justin: We’re going blackjack, do it again…
Griffin: Okay, fine. Fair.
Clint: Okay, so Gandy sits down at the table, and, um—
- Gandy: Can I get some chips please?
Travis: Em points over to Isabella and says:
- Em: She’ll give you the chips, go talk to her, don’t talk to me.
- Gandy: Oh, um, I’ll be right back.
Clint: She runs over and gets a bunch of chips.
Griffin: I love the idea— the visual of Gandy being very very rich and so she doesn’t know how much is a good amount of chips and so she gets way too many chips.
- Gandy: Pardon me, I would like to purchase a … hundred? dollars worth of ghost chips?
Travis: Isabella smiles.
- Isabella: Yeah, that sounds great. That sounds just… right. Here you go.
Travis: And slides 100 dollars in chips over to her and takes her money.
Griffin: Is this a lot of chips? This seems like a lot of chips.
Travis: [crosstalk] Yes it is. Yes. For this time period, 100 dollars? Yes. That’s quite good.
Clint: Well, Gandy has a great per diem, so it’s all right.
Travis: When you sit— when you sit back down at the table, Em’s spectral eyes just light up! She sees in you... quite the mark, and she turns to the two people playing with her, and says:
- Em: Uh, yes, excuse me, could you two just give us a second I think I need to have a talk with this young woman now. Um, we’ll get back to the game, don’t you worry.
Travis: And they kind of grumble and stand up and they go get a drink at the bar.
- Em: Young lady, is there something I can do for you?
- Gandy: Well, I was just interested in participating in this game, and I’m just— I’m very excited. I love games. And I thought I’d take a crack at this one and see what I can do.
- Em: Well I’ll tell you what. How ’bout, we’ll increase the excitement. You put— We’ll go —it’s called in the business— “all in.”
- Gandy: “All in?” Okay.
- Em: Yes. You put that stack up, and I will, uh, what do you want from me? That’s what I want from you, what do you want from me?
- Gandy: Oh! Well, um, I just would like to get to know you. I’d like to maybe, uh, learn a little bit about what’s going on in here. That’s my secondary goal, my secondary goal is to kind of find out about what’s going on in town here, but my primary goal is to play this game. These, uh, tiny little pictures with the people with crowns on them, is there a significance to the crowns?
Travis: She smiles even bigger.
- Em: Here, I’ll tell you what. How about we make this deal. If you win— well, if I win, that stack will become mine. But if you win, I will answer, mm, I’ll answer three questions.
- Gandy: That sounds great! Let’s play. How do we start?
Travis: [In Em’s voice] Well, Clinton, you’re going to do a straight up-and-down roll with no bonuses. [Normally] No, she doesn’t say that. I’ll say that.
Clint: I was going to say, that was a little meta there for me.
Justin: Here’s the thing, though, I was going to help him cheat.
Griffin: Ooh.
Justin: Because I can see the cards, so I was going to poke Gandy with some hints. So, if you’re going to do a straight up-and-down roll, I’d like to be able to lend advantage somehow.
Travis: Okay, we’ll do a plus two. Well, okay, here’s what we’re going to do. So, Justin, you roll first, and your roll will determine how much you’re able to help.
Justin: Uh, I got a nine.
Travis: Okay cool, so let’s say you add a plus one to whatever Dad rolls.
Clint: And I rolled a 14 and a nine, so that’s 23.
Griffin: What?
Justin: [simultaneously] Whoa.
Travis: Two d6s, and you got a 14 and a 9?
Clint: D6s.
Travis: Yeah.
Griffin: Come on.
Clint: It was a joke! It was a hilarious joke! Good God.
Travis: I wish I could believe that was true, but…
Griffin: I don’t know what to believe anymore.
Clint: All right, here we go! All right, she’s rolling. It’s a four and a four, so straight up roll that’s an eight, and then plus one with what Augustus added to it.
Travis: So I’m gonna say, you push. You tie, basically. So you don’t lose your money… you’re going to go double or nothing.
- Gandy: Double or nothing! I need more chips.
- Em: Okay, well, I’m sure—
- Gandy: Does that mean I have—
- Em: I’m sure you’re good for it. And if you win this one, we’ll do… five questions?
- Gandy: Okay, great.
Griffin: That’s so many questions.
- Augustus: That almost sounds like too many questions.
- Em: And you won’t have to use them all at once.
Travis: Uh, Justin, do you want to cheat again?
Justin: Yeah! And that’s an eight, this time.
Travis: Okay so once again we’ll say plus one.
Clint: ’Kay. It is a six and a four, 10.
Travis: Great! So that puts you at 11. So, you win! Uh, Royal Flush, I dunno, fuck it.
Clint: So they all have crowns. Look, they all have crowns and they’re all the same color. That is…
Griffin: Well, the 10 wouldn’t have crowns but it’s good.
Clint: Oh, that’s good. Okay, got you.
- Em: Well shit.
- Gandy: Aw.
- Em: All… all right. No, good play. Listen, I love the game, you know? Don’t hate the player, that’s what I always say. Um.
- Gandy: One more! One more time, please! Please please!
Griffin: For ten questions! [cracks up]
- Gandy: Just one more hand! One more hand! Please!
Travis: No, I think—
- Gandy: I’ll put up 500 dollars in ghost dollars. 500 dollars in ghost dollars!
Travis: Gus, do you want to say anything here?
Justin: I, uh, I mean, I don’t want to blow up my spot. All right. Okay, I’ll, I’ll, yeah, I’ll manifest.
- Augustus: Aw, darn, and I was hoping my ghost friend would win. Hello. My name is Augustus Parsons, I am the spectral form of the man who was once known as Augustus Parsons of the Augustus Parsons Cashew Company. It’s a pleasure to make your uhh… phantasmagoric acquaintance.
- Em: Yes, hello, my name is Em. I am the ghost of Em, the gambler.
- Augustus: Fantastic. Not to disagree with my compatriot here, and Gandy I hope you don’t mind me stepping in. I do think that five questions is probably quite enough.
- Em: Well, let’s get to it, I’ve got more games to play. What are said questions?
- Augustus: Well, I’ll let Gandy explain. You and she seem to have built up quite the rapport.
- Gandy: Well, what I was curious about… This big deal that everyone’s talking about, is there anybody who’s maybe not happy about it, who doesn’t want to see it all come together, I mean… I know that it’s probably good for the Furs, and it’s probably good for the Fangs, but what about everybody else in town?
- Em: Aw, child, don’t you know anything about compromise and gambling? At the end of the day, if you’ve done it right, nobody’s happy. If people walk away from a table happy, it means that somebody’s losing. So you gotta make it so everybody walks away feelin like they got something, so they come back to the table, but they can’t really win, or else they feel like they’re done. Do you understand?
- Gandy: Yes.
Clint: She adjusts her pince nez [pronounced ponce nay]— By the way, that’s how you pronounce it, because she looked it up in the book of faces. It’s an information outlet—
Travis: Ah. I assume it’s a book made out of face skin.
Clint: Yes, and everyone has a little picture of their face, it’s very—
Griffin: So many questions.
- Gandy: Tell me somebody who doesn’t want this deal to happen.
- Em: I don’t know off the top of my head, to be honest.
- Gandy: And I can see the top of your head! That’s really interesting, how I can do that.
- Augustus: Yes, I was curious. Have you, uh, did you see, uh, Jeremiah Blackwell in this establishment this evening?
- Em: Yes, he was here. He was in good spirits— heh heh— get it? And, you know—
- Augustus: Thank you, I do appreciate that very much. Thank you very much. I did not respond as quickly as I should have. That was excellent, thank you.
- Em: Thank you. Uh… Everything seemed fine, he, you know, said he was celebrating, didn’t say what. Um, everybody seemed in good cheer, nothing seemed amiss. He walked out of here alone. He’s here pretty much, you know, five or six nights of the week, honest, and mostly doesn’t drink as much as he did tonight, mostly it’s just kind of a nightcap, as they say, but tonight he seemed to be, uh, tying one on a little bit, and walked out of here alone about 11… I don’t know, late, close to midnight, a few minutes before. Nothing seemed amiss at the time. And then all of a sudden, around about… shortly after, few minutes later, we could hear Dylan screaming, crying out, um, went to the door, and there he was, over— over Jeremiah, covered in blood.
- Gandy: When he was in here drinking, was he by himself?
- Em: Um, yeah, he— I mean as by himself as you are surrounded by people, but he didn’t come in with anybody, didn’t spend time with anybody in particular.
- Gandy: Was he celebrating, or commiserating?
- Em: Celebrating. Now that is five questions, so thank you very much—
Griffin: [disappointed] Oh my god, you guys.
- Em: Have a good night.
- Augustus: I only did one, so I can’t really be blamed.
Travis: She turns back to her game, the two gamblers— she sort of motions back and the game begins. Now, Gandy, you feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn around to see the redhead sitting at the bar that you know is Isabella Slate.
- Isabella: Um, I couldn’t help but notice that you were talking about the murder of Jeremiah Blackwell. I’d love to help if you’d welcome it.
- Gandy: Well, of course. Do I need to cash in these chips? ‘Cause I have a shitload of them.
- Isabella: Well, I’ll tell you what. How about you just hold onto them, and you can use them in the future, we’re not going anywhere. Well, I have some information that I think might help you, but you need to come next door with me to my house. Both of you.
- Gandy: Can I— Can I get a to-go cup? I’m a little dry.
- Isabella: A traveler? Yes, of course.
- Augustus: Always take a traveler.
- Isabella: Always take a traveler.
- Gandy: Oh, good, good. I’d like a traveler, please.
Travis: You get it. She gives you a sippy-cup of whisky or whatever.
- Gandy: Tequila! Tequila please.
Travis: And you go next door— Gus, if you agree, we’re going to go next door. And it’s not going to count as another beat, this is all going to be tied into the same beat, but first! Let’s go check in with Errol.
Griffin: Can I establish something? This is a house that people live in, and we’ve talked about Carrion Street as being like, the residential neighborhood? Is it possible that this is in— I really haven’t done anything with the neighborhood stuff, and so I’m wondering if—
Travis: This is the Fur neighborhood, and we’ll say that they live on Carrion.
Griffin: That’s Carrion like C-A-R-R-I-O-N. Which is not like—
Travis: Yeah, it’s not like “carrying,” yes, I got that.
Griffin: Which is not like, it’s not like, I don’t think it’s a bad place, as much as the name suggests, I think it was called that before Errol got here and tried to turn things around.
Travis: Yeah, so the way I’m kind of envisioning Errol’s territory, and tell me if I’m off-base here, is like within the Crescent Territory in each town there is a Fur territory, and that then kind of fits into Errol’s purview, so here—
Griffin: See, I almost like it better if it’s almost not exclusively one— one— And it’s your game, your world, but like, I almost like it better if just like, if it’s actually some folks crossing the— crossing the boundaries a little bit? Maybe it’s primarily a Fur territory, or maybe that’s how it started out. But like, I like the idea that this is a nice neighborhood because of Errol’s, like, stewardship, and so maybe—
Travis: Absolutely.
Griffin: Maybe that makes it so it’s not exclusively one type of people living here.
Travis: And I should say, it didn’t come up in the conversation but, in my kind of head-fiction, Abigail specifically requested Errol’s team because she knows the work Errol has done for kind of like Furs and the neighborhoods. And so like, your reputation kind of precedes yourself a bit.
Griffin: Yeah, like, I like the— like, my vision board for Errol is that he has a house on Carrion Street that is a, you know, cute little house, and I think he’s like, turned his front yard into a community garden where like folks come and sort of- folks of all sorts come and you know.
Travis: Improved for the people who are already living there.
Griffin: Yeah, sure.
Travis: Um, great, so you head to the Mathis home. On the way you are stopped by Deputy Rosa.
- Errol: Uh, hey there, Deputy Rosa. Investigation’s going great. Hundred of clues if not thousands.
- Deputy Rosa: Good, good, good. Uh, I did want to talk to you real quick. Sheriff Connors sent me. I’m glad I could catch you. We felt you should know, [sighs] and listen, we’re not proud of this, but the Blackwells don’t know about this yet.
- Errol: Shiit. Aw, that sucks.
- Deputy Rosa: Yeah, uh. We kinda, we… and you know, maybe we’ll feel different about this in the morning but, we kinda felt best to keep them out of it until we knew what was going on. But if, uh, just— wanted to let you know that so that if you ran into them, you might have to… I mean they should be asleep now, frankly, so I don’t think it’ll come up, but, unless you decide otherwise we don’t see the need to get them involved until we know a little more about what’s going on.
- Errol: Yeah, I mean, good news, bad news. Good news, lean into that instinct, it’s the right one. We don’t need that complicating matters. Bad news, if your boy didn’t come home and it was 1 a.m., I don’t think you’d be getting a lot of sleep, so.
Clint: These are vampires, right? Wouldn’t they be— they wouldn’t sleep at night, would they?
Travis: These are not vampires in the Bram Stoker kind of thing.
Griffin: Yeah sure.
Travis: These are real vampires, Dad.
Clint: Okay, okay all right.
Justin: Ah, real vampires.
- Errol: Well, I’ve got to go, I’ve got a hot lead. This didn’t count as a beat.
Travis: It did not.
{35:57-42:05} [advertisements and announcements]
Travis: Um, so Errol heads over to the Mathis home. When he gets there… um, what do you do?
Griffin: I mean, I have a key, but that seems wild, right? Like, I’m not just going— if I’m doing an investigation I need to talk to people— I think breaking and entering is not the—
Travis: Well, it’s not really breaking if you have a key, but I understand what you’re saying.
Griffin: Sure. I’m gonna knock on the door. Can I like… What’s this house look like? I imagine it’s one of the bigger houses in the territory.
Travis: Well no, actually, it’s— it’s fairly regular sized. The thing about the Mathises and kind of the way about this family is, this is another thing you know from your intel, is that what they have is kind of a cluster of houses. So you’ve got uh, Abigail’s house, where Ann still lives with her, because she’s fairly young. And then next door is Dylan’s house. And then on the other side of Abigail’s house is her brother Julian’s house. And you know, they kind of spread out as they grow? So they don’t all live in a house together. It’s more kind of a-
Clint: It’s like a compound! It’s more of a compound.
Griffin: Okay. I knock on the door.
Travis: You hear kind of a snuffle-snoring kind of reaction but nothing immediately happens.
Griffin: All right. I put the key in the lock and I very slightly open the door and say,
- Errol: Hey, uh, Hey this is Errol, uh, Ryehouse. I’m not—
Travis: Immediately there is a figure in the door. He is a barrel-chested, kind of scruffy-looking fella who you assume to be Liam. Um, he… he’s has sleepy eyes but he is up and ready for whatever’s happening.
- Errol: Not a burglar. Not a— not— Not a burglar.
- Liam: What— who are you?
- Errol: Yeah, uh, my name’s Errol Ryehouse, I uh.
- Liam: Errol Ryehouse?
- Errol: Yeah, I uh, you know, I live just a couple houses down. Uh, just like a, like a good neighbor, Errol is here because— doing a, just sort of talking to some folks in the neighborhood, I apologize.
- Liam: What do you want?
- Errol: Yeah, well, what I want to do is apologize for visiting at such a late hour, I recognize that some folks like to sleep when it is 1 a.m., and for interrupting that I am truly and deeply sorry.
- Liam: Who sent you here?
- Errol: Uh, well, I was just talking to Abigail down at the Full Moon. She gave me the key.
Griffin: And I show the key just to prove that like I am not lying?
- Errol: And, uh, suggested that I swing by and talk to— talk to—
- Liam: Do you want to come in?
- Errol: Yeah, if that’s all right.
- Liam: Yeah, yeah… yeah, come in.
Griffin: I come in.
Travis: He opens the door and he, you know, lights a lantern or two. You can see a blanket and pillow on the couch. He was clearly sleeping there, keeping, you know, keeping watch, as it were.
- Liam: What do you, what do you need?
- Errol: Well, I came here to talk to Ann. Is she uh, conscious right now, is she?
- Liam: You leave Ann alone.
- Errol: Okay, I’m not gonna, like, attack her or anything like that, I just gotta ask her a couple questions. I’m uh, doing some work for the Graysons, trying to do my part here.
- Liam: You got a badge?
Griffin: Do I have a badge?
Travis: Yes you do.
- Errol: Fuck yeah, I got a—
Travis: It’s simple. It’s a circle with just “Graysons” across it.
Griffin: Okay.
- Errol: Yeah, here it is, we just got ‘em put together, so this is sort of first, like, rough draft of the badge design if you know anyone with sort of a graphic mind that might— y’know, send ‘em our way.
- Liam: What do you— what do you want to talk to Ann about?
- Errol: Boy, this is tricky. You know anything about what happened tonight?
- Liam: Wha– What?
- Errol: Yeah, see, I can’t really tell you. It’s privileged information. Um. But uh, you’re Liam, right? I’m assuming.
- Liam: Yeah.
- Errol: All right, um. I’m doing an investigation with the Graysons. Abigail brought me on for it, and that’s all I can really say about that, but… let’s just say that deal you’re working on, with the Blackwells and the Mathises and the workers in town, it’s uh, it’s in trouble, and uh, I’m here to help sorta keep it from falling apart. So if you could just help me talk to Ann real quick, go get her up, get her a cup of, you know, instant cuppa, and maybe we’ll like like, uh, you know, wake her up a bit, I should would appreciate it, Liam.
- Liam: And Abigail sent you?
- Errol: Yeah. Sent me right on down.
- Liam: Oh, okay. Sit— sit down and I’ll go see if Ann will talk to you.
- Errol: Okay.
Travis: So Liam head upstairs. When you sit down at the table and he sets down one of the lanterns on the table with you, you see a pair of gloves on the table. They’re very large, so they’re clearly not Ann’s, so you can figure that they’re Liam’s. They’re workman’s gloves, um, and at the tips of the fingers, they’re kind of claws. Very razor sharp at the ends of the fingers. And the gloves are covered in dirt and what appears to be silver dust.
Griffin: Uh, is it— it is silver dust, then?
Travis: Yep. Liam heads upstairs.
Griffin: Is there any blood, is there any blood on the gloves?
Travis: No.
Griffin: Hm.
Travis: You hear some knocking, kind of quiet, mumbled conversation, and Liam returns with Ann in tow, and she looks, sort of to be the spitting image of her mom but younger, you know. Kind eyes, sleepy. Sleepy.
- Ann: Did you— You needed to talk to me?
- Errol: Yeah, sure.
- Ann: Sorry, where are my manners? Hi, I’m Ann.
- Errol: Hi, Ann, I’m Errol Ryehouse, I live just a couple of houses down running the community garden.
- Ann: Yeah, of course.
- Errol: Yeah, maybe you’ve seen our night blooming jasmine, we’re doing some good work down there. Hey, Liam, cream no sugar, though.
Travis: He just looks at you.
- Errol: For the coffee.
- Liam: Oh, yeah, uh, coffee.
- Ann: Liam, I don’t— I don’t need coffee. Could you give us a minute please?
- Liam: Yeah, uh.
Travis: And he just keeps standing there.
- Errol: Yeah, don’t go too far, I do want to ask you about these weird gloves.
- Liam: Oh, those are my diggers. I work in the mine.
- Errol: You just punch through the wall like a fucking echidna? What’s your deal?
- Liam: No, I- I can’t handle the silver ’cause I’m allergic? You know. Not bad, I mean, not so bad I can’t work, but I- I use those to, you know, take samples and dig out things I find, to find the right place to kind of focus our efforts.
- Errol: Yeah
- Liam: If I touched it, I’d probably, I don’t know, break out, you know, rash or whatever.
Griffin: I reach down and just like gently graze one of the claws and—
- Liam: Oh, be careful—
Griffin: And there’s a slight sizzle and I’m like:
- Errol: Yeah, trust me pal, I get it. Tell me, are these a common thing down there? Lots of people got these gloves?
- Liam: I mean, as far as I know I’m the only Fur that works in the silver mines. I’ve— I’ve never seen anything like them.
Justin: Okay, And then Augustus bursts through the doors like:
- Augustus: Aw, shit we got you! We’ve got him! Lock him up!
Clint: J’accuse!
- Augustus: J’accuse! We got him!
- Errol: Liam, I know this is a weird question, um, and you’ve probably got a shift in the morning so I can make sure to get ’em back to you, but you mind if I take these back to the ol’ lab?
- Liam: Yeah? And I’ll get ’em back?
- Errol: Oh yeah, I’ll have ’em back before sunrise, pal, don’t worry about that.
- Liam: Okay.
Griffin: I gently place them in an evidence bag? No, I probably just have a, uh—
Travis: Like a messenger bag or something.
Griffin: I probably just have like a messenger bag, I tuck them in kind of—
Clint: Saddle bag! A saddle bag.
Griffin: For what? Okay, yes.
- Liam: Abigail if you- if you need me I’ll go sit on the porch. I’ll be real close by. If you- if you need me, you just shout, okay?
- Ann: Oh, okay. Thank you, Liam.
Travis: And he steps out of the door.
Justin: Wait, did he just say “Abigail?”
Travis: Oh, sorry. I meant— I meant Ann.
Justin: Ann. Okay.
Travis: Why did I make— I made all these names that started with J’s and A’s! I don’t know what I was thinking.
Griffin: Yeah, it’s tough.
Travis: And everybody has the same voice, and this is real tough! Anyways.
- Errol: Ann, uh, tell me, you been, uh, been asleep all night? Wait, that’s a weird way to phrase that. What time did you go to bed tonight?
- Ann: You’re asking about Dylan, aren’t you?
- Errol: Yeah, I’m asking about Dylan. You know something?
- Ann: I… Mom told me what happened.
- Errol: Okay, see I had to tiptoe around Liam. It was real uncomfortable. Um, so you know about Jeremiah then too, right?
- Ann: [very softly] Yeah.
- Errol: I’m real sorry, I know y’all were close and I know this must be real difficult for ya what with your brother being in the slammer and your pal being dead in the street.
- Ann: Dylan wouldn’t— didn’t do it. He couldn’t have.
- Errol: Yeah, I mean that— that assumption is kinda why I’m here. It’s why your mama hired us so… I got a couple questions if you could help me out as much as you can. I think you’ll actually be real important in helping me crack this one.
- Ann: Of course. Anything for Dylan and Jeremiah. [sniffs]
- Errol: We talked to Dylan, tried to get him to be as helpful as you’re hopefully gonna be here tonight.
Travis: Her brows suddenly kind of furrow.
- Ann: What did he… what did he say?
- Errol: Well, he gave us a little bit. Enough I think for us to make some real progress here on the case, but seemed tight-lipped, Ann and I’ll tell you what worries me. He said that “she” wouldn’t want him to say much, and we talked to your mama and she seemed to think that the only “she” in Dylan’s life that would be able to have that sort of influence on him would be, actually, you. And so I’m wondering what all that’s about. I don’t know much about y’all’s relationship, but hopefully you can shed some light here.
- Ann: That damn fool.
Travis: She kind of smiles.
- Ann: He made me a promise, Mr. Ryehouse, and he’s so... dang loyal. If I tell you something, will you keep it to yourself?
Clint: [Imitating Errol] No.
- Errol: Uh, yeah, I mean, as long as it’s— Yeah, I can keep a secret.
- Ann: And you’ll use this to help Dylan, right?
- Errol: Yeah, that’s why I’m here.
- Ann: A few days ago… me and Jeremiah got married.
- Errol: Well shit Ann, I’m real sorry about… everything then.
- Ann: I mean, listen, when you live out here…it ain’t like death is a distant thought, you know? And frankly, if I’m being honest, I don’t even know if I’m dealing with it yet, but Dylan was there—he was the witness and he fully supported it. He wouldn’t…he wouldn’t have done it, Jeremiah was like a brother to him. I mean, almost literal. Dylan wouldn’t have done it.
- Errol: I want you to know something Ann. I don’t think your brother did it, and that’s not just like werewolves watching out for werewolves stuff, that’s just the facts. I think whatever’s going on here is about — and this maybe be hard to hear, that your betrothed was just murdered for such a crass reason— but I think it’s just business. And I don’t know how plugged in you are to the big dealings that’s going on between the mines and between your family and the Blackwells and the workers in town, but that’s kind of where our investigation’s looking right now. Is there anything you can tell me about that? About the deal, about your big buddy Liam there with his murder weapon?
- Ann: No, Liam’s a big old sweetie, he wouldn’t— No, he’s always been so kind to me and my family, he wouldn’t. No, you’re barking up the wrong tree there, but here’s what I know about the deal. Listen, Mr. Ryehouse, as you well know, Dry River ain’t been doing so well over the last couple of years. And I think the only thing, you know, Mr. Blackwell and Mom think is gonna help is getting incorporated. And that ain’t helping unless we have a little more order around here, so I think they’re just trying to get affairs in order so that maybe we can get a little support from, you know, the higher-ups.
- Errol: Then who would wanna stop that, Ann? Is that— somebody’s not happy about this deal, and until we find out who that is, we’re just gonna be running in circles.
- Ann: I don’t know… I would think everybody would wanna help the town, I don’t know why anybody would be against that.
Griffin: I’m trying to figure out where the moment is where Errol kind of— and I don’t know if this is— I don’t know if Errol even knows that they’re in this territory, but there is one person that Errol probably knows about that would be a sort of fan of chaos? And be really against incorporation—
Travis: We’re gonna get to that in a second, but first! Let’s cut back to Isabella Slate’s house. She leads you in— so, a little intel, here’s what you know about Slate. She is a Fang, but she is not from Dry River. She showed up here about two years ago, and on that night Marcus was not seen again after that, and suddenly Isabella Slate had a signed deed and contract to own the Sterling. She leads you into her home.
- Isabella: Now, listen. As I’m sure you know, I’m not from here. I didn’t see anything, and I can’t give you much background, but I think I might know somebody who could answer some questions for you. If you’ll follow me.
Travis: And she leads you down into her cellar. And you find a cage, a prison cell, containing Marcus!
Griffin: The previous owner of the Sterling?
Travis: Correct!
- Isabella: Marcus, wake up sweetie, there’s some people who want to talk to you.
- Marcus: Hello? Who’s there?
- Gandy: Um… hello Marcus. My name is Gandy.
- Marcus: Gandy, he— hello.
- Augustus: And I am the spectral form of Augustus Parsons, formerly the human Augustus Parsons of the Augustus Parsons Cashew Company, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Clint: [laughing] The late Augustus Parsons.
- Marcus: Yeah… uh-huh.
- Gandy: Why is… why is he caged?
- Isabella: Well, Marcus is not a good person, and trust me, this is about as good as he deserved. Anyone with less of a heart would have killed him by now.
- Marcus: Don’t listen to her, she— every night she comes down, feeds a little and then leaves me here in the dark. If you all would do me the kindness of, you know, just killing her and getting me out of here, sure would appreciate it.
- Isabella: Yeah… I wouldn’t try that, and I wouldn’t listen to him. Now Marcus, these people have some questions about Jeremiah Blackwell and Dylan Mathis. Can you help them out?
- Marcus: I don’t… I don’t see what’s in it for me.
Clint: Okay, wait, wait, hold on one second. I realize that we’re not lawmen in the Grayson agency, but this is obviously—
Griffin: It’s not great.
Clint: It’s an unlawful imprisoning. Are we just gonna blow right past that and just question this poor schmoe?
Travis: [cheerfully] That’s up to you! This is a moral quandary you’ve found yourselves in!
- Augustus: Isabella, how is this useful to our investigation?
- Isabella: Well, Marcus here had his, how do you say, his eye and ear on all of the seedy underbelly. Before me, he ran a fairly underbelly-type sort of establishment, and if you’re looking for any kind of rumors or dirt or any kind of knowledge that maybe you wouldn’t be able to find as agents, I think Marcus would be able to give you the scoop, as they say.
- Augustus: Marcus, I have one question for you, to see if you can help and we’ll move on from there.
- Marcus: Uh-huh.
- Augustus: If a partnership was brewing between the Fangs and the Furs, specifically their mining interests, who would benefit from that partnership collapsing?
- Marcus: I’ll make you a deal.
- Augustus: Here we go.
Travis: And he looks at Gandy.
- Marcus: You take my place in the feeding tonight, and I can tell you who would be against it.
- Gandy: To be specific, the feeding would entail… getting bitten somewhere? And certain… certain bodily fluids being placed in another location?
- Augustus: We accept. You drive a hard bargain—
- Gandy: W— WAIT. WAIT. [nervous laughter] May I speak to my colleague for a moment?
- Augustus: Absolutely, Gandy.
- Gandy: This is— that could kill me!
- Augustus: What a grand experiment, though. Think of all that you would learn from being fed on by a member of the vampyr. I am, if I may be honest, a bit jealous that I no longer have the corporeal wherewithal to take your place in this transaction.
- Gandy: Gus, Gus, listen.
- Augustus: It’s Augustus.
- Gandy: I’m— I— yes, I know. I love the pursuit of knowledge and I’m all in favor of that, I want to learn. But I don’t want to die.
- Augustus: Well, worst case scenario, well not worst case. There is a scenario in which maybe perhaps you will turn, and you will beat that old reaper carrion bad fella once and for all.
Travis: Now Justin, I do want you to know, Gus, that this I think is going to fall under “witness a scene of victimization and do nothing,” mark corruption.
- Augustus: [OOC] Hell yeah, that’s closer to leveling up. That is a bonus for me, I’ve been looking for some scenes of victimization that I could witness and not do anything about. I actually counted me cheating at poker as one of those. ‘Cause I— she was victimized and I did do nothing about it, in fact quite the opposite. But Gan—
- Gandy: All right. If you make me a promise.
Justin: Also I would push back against that.
[Travis laughs]
Justin: For what it’s worth, as much as I would love that big big juicy corruption point, I don’t necessarily think that Gandy submitting to this would be a victimization.
Griffin: No, he’s talking about the guy in the cell.
Justin: Oh, dunk, yeah cool. All right, I’ll witness that, I’m doing fuck all about it, I am defo getting that point for sure. Lemme just mark that, lest I forget.
- Isabella: If I can jump in real quick. It would only take a second, and it’s like I’m not going to drain you, don’t be gauche.
- Gandy: I don’t know who you are, I don’t know how delicious I might be—
- Isabella: I haven’t killed him in two years, why would I kill you tonight?
- Gandy: Maybe I’m just extra scrumptious and you won’t be able to control yourself?
Griffin: Once you pop Gandy, the feeding won’t stop.
- Augustus: Ah, I— if it seems--
- Gandy: I am the Pringles of blood, maybe.
- Augustus: If it’s— I will make you this promise, Gandy. If it seems like our host is becoming a bit overzealous with her consumption, I will manifest and I will sort things out.
- Gandy: You swear on your soul?
- Augustus: What little I have left.
- Gandy: All right. Bite away.
Travis: So before that happens, he— Marcus says:
- Marcus: Listen, here’s what you need to know. Don’t look in the town for outsi— for people trying to stop it. You gotta look outside, there’s tons and tons of people making money off of the mines here. Specifically because it’s unincorporated, that money’s untaxed, that money is not regulated, so it’s just going to them without— You gotta look beyond. Not only that, you got groups like The Church, the Law and other groups like that that if this town were to become incorporated, they would lose a pretty big handhold in the Crescent Territory. It sounds like the deal, as you described it, is beneficial for the people making it. You gotta look bigger.
- Gandy: Marcus, if I’m going to- to do this, I’m going to use my experience from when I won the Constantinople Poker Championship two years ago, I’m gonna up the ante. Me getting bitten and- and bled, I need more than that. I have one very specific question that I’m going to ask you afterwards, and I want an honest answer.
- Marcus: Deal.
[Music fades in]
- Gandy: I’m going to want to know who the Banshee is.
Travis: And then we cut to Errol Ryehouse walking back from the Mathis home, when he’s confronted by two… uh, I was gonna say thugs, but they’re too well-dressed for that. They smile, and it’s actually a fairly warm smile.
- Gangster: Mr. Ryehouse, sorry to interrupt your stroll, do you have a minute?
- Errol: Uh, time’s actually kinda of the essence there gentlemen.
- Gangster: I think this is very important. It’s gonna be in your interest to say yes.
- Errol: It’s been my experience that when people say that it rarely is, but uh, it sounds like y’all aren’t giving me a whole heck of a lot of choice, so uh I’m…
- Gangster: No no no, please. Feel free to say no, but our employer would be very disappointed. The Banshee’s really looking forward to talking to you.
[Theme music (The Adventure Zone: Dust Theme by Griffin McElroy) plays]