My name is Irene. I play I own a starling and she has a riff of the Shadow Dragon from Dungeons and Dragons.
Mistconceptions:Thanks Amy, approximately one hour ago city structural engineers were called to the water treatment plant 23 In the shadow of the legendary solutions tower on the corner of Blonko unsure what streets little is known about the cause of the incident, but the entire structure seems to have collapsed in on itself. The office of Mayor PIP Hamel has informed us that the city's water supply should remain unaffected as treatment plants across the city have redundancy built in. This is in case of damage to the plant machinery or for central maintenance. With all being well and good normal water supplies will be restored once a full damage assessment is complete. Back to you Amy.
Snyder’s Return:We aim to please here on Snyder’s Return metallers monsters and madmen
Unknown:finally have a name yay.
Snyder’s Return:Well done well done team for selecting Sydney. Yeah. So when last we picked up, you had been following the school child and the group. Victor Chang. You had sort of worked through all the clues and and the information you got from the various locations and various sources refers little foray to the classroom questionable on many levels, but again, aided you with the ease of identification from which you identified Victor Chang
Rafa:if it's stupid, but it works, it's not stupid.
Unknown:You found one thing and then just got in trouble.
Rafa:Like like we established it was a snitch, it's not my fault someone else catched me
Snyder’s Return:so you too had been staking out the sort of the local area close to addresses if memory serves for the Chang family and hang on to take refuge almost or going to take a observation surveillance position in sight beings the local coffee house franchise found throughout the city. And it was while you were sat in there that this group wearing sort of the the emo goth ish style attire came sort of along the path along the sidewalk next to the coffee house and then moved in and sort of mingled in and once they ordered their coffee from the barista. They moved to the back sort of congregated around a table at the back of the coffee house it's it's quite noisy it's quite popular as it's you know, it's on like the main street there's there's people coming and going. The doorbell is almost constantly chiming as the next sort of customer comes in and leaves again with a coffee or hot beverage of choice. There are other people sat at tables. It seems to be a young couple, similar aged and maybe yourself. Iona just sat having a having a nice time together drinking coffee there's a sort of an old boys group SAT reading their papers that they sat together they're not actually talking to each other although they seem to exchange weird looks every so often. And then there's you and this collective across the way
Rafa:like I said, I guess last session I'm gonna get ready. Don't look, but the kids are here. Not don't look. Look at me.
Unknown:Okay, what did you see them with? With a with a boy? Or was he just? Or do you just think every child is evil now?
Rafa:Well, I have when I go got in the school, I and I found this kid he was surrounded by his little clique. If you Yeah, well, this
Iona Starling:golf? Kids Yeah.
Unknown:Have you ever seen through demist? I mean, not
Iona Starling:sorry, I'm not sure what you're referring to there.
Rafa:Do you remember? The stone that I gave you?
Iona Starling:You mean the same one? Yeah.
Rafa:Yeah, I told you to to focus on the your power and kind of everyone everything around you because we are essentially surrounded by the mist. Okay, and if you focus, you will see things that are hidden not only to everybody else, but also to to us. And
Unknown:if, yeah, like, like, what, like, clairvoyance or something
Rafa:you could say that people I think, can see differently. And our own ways, I guess it's it depends a little bit on from person to person, but try to, to focus and tap into to the mist and you'll probably see something around the skin.
Iona Starling:Okay, fine. And she reaches into her pocket. And she takes out the little ying yang stone that she's been carrying around for her. And before African she's like, I still think it's fake. I still think it's fake. Not a word. And she, she looks down on it. When she closes her eyes, I guess she tries to forget everything else around her like breathe deep and try and reach down to where her power is nestled where where she can feel and sense the the power of that dragon curled up in her and she tries to bring it out and see the world through its eyes. And I guess like rulings for central mystery Students,
Snyder’s Return:please do investigate with your power.
Iona Starling:So investing investigate? Oh, sure. Nope.
Rafa:That's well, it's a power of two essentially you have mine.
Iona Starling:Yeah. Got nine. So there we go.
Unknown:Which technically is a great success, right? Isn't a great success or is it a mild success?
Snyder’s Return:It's a mild success.
Iona Starling:Okay. All right. So I was alright. I guess I'll use my first one. Um, she tries to see if there's any anything like leeching off these guys like like, like connected to them pouring through them any any sort of power, right? Like like hers or like the weird things she says to the hospital.
Snyder’s Return:Okay, so as you see through the mist with this being sort of your your first time really sort of pushing your boundaries and sort of pushing back that is that you perceive to be everyday life. The stone in your hand, that that you've been concentrating on, you notice it seems to be drawing in some of your darkness, some of that shadow that you create, as your draconic form, seems to almost be absorbing it as well as sort of reflecting and reacting to it as the mess Just sort of starts to dissipate out and the people are sat, the young couple of still sat at a table but but they become almost in a sort of photo negative style, as you sort of spread your shadow to sort of pick out the, your shadow energy to pick up what is truly beyond the veil on the mist, the barista normal behind the counter carries on his day the the old boys sat at the back are continuing to eat and is that that sort of push you get from seeing through the misters as you're trying to do you notice the group start to become almost a amorphous they they begin to sort of their appearance fades away from a young group of legs they stand at first and then become detached from the ground as you as you push push the Miss back and each member of the group as you push them miss back seems to sort of start to rise resemble like a like a floating black orb seems to sort of Spike and spiral in strange oscillating sort of patterns each one seems tied to the next and as that unveiling of the myths pushes back and gets to the the individual you know as as Victor Chang there seems to be a greater mass almost and seemingly almost sort of tendrils connecting to the others as he unbeknownst to you at this point in time is is to everyone else is continuing to sip on his beans cup of coffee. You see the form and this shape just kind of oscillate and move and then it seems to stop and even without eyes, you get the sense that it is looking back at you she doesn't see if she wants
Iona Starling:to talk directly if there's this like, like it sees her and she sees it as as whatever they really are. Can Can there be a moment where they speak to each other like that? Like they they speak connected through their mythos so not like verbally it's not possible with
Snyder’s Return:with the way your see through the mist has sort of unveil but but you don't you haven't quite grasped the full potential tour to see through the mist. There's almost a unseen barrier to communication beyond you know the everyday verbal and nonverbal cues refer refer you're sat there and you notice Victor Chang is holding the coffee cup just sort of halfway up close to taking a sip but very much looking back towards your table the pair of you and as he looks towards the table, you notice the group their heads, now slowly turn to follow his gaze.
Rafa:I will put my hand on I will take ionosonde and kind of try to get her out of looking at demist
Iona Starling:on doing quite reaction that mesmerised by why she's seeing it's this is this is a first for her she doesn't understand it. And that that that feeling the power of seeing the world like this it's it's it's almost surreal to go back to a world where she has to look at people as people it's it seems exhausting in comparison and and I guess the first thing she would try and do with her final clue is try and figure out what the thing is right? What is it? What is this thing's intention? Right.
Snyder’s Return:It appears to be waiting for some for for something. A stimulus you are unaware of until while you're sort of engaged locked in this sort of eye contact potentially not yourself Iona but Rafa, you hear the doorbell ago, and a young young lady young student walks in and calls out. Victor, I'm here. Let's, let's go and do this. Victor. You see Victor placed the coffee cup down slowly, calmly. And then each of the group seems to take the same mannerism to slide out of their chair and position themselves on the floor and then sort of shake themselves into their own routine. As they sort of wander down the ramp back towards the main door to meet this female individual. Pass the barista behind the counter, drop a couple a couple of pennies in the tip jar. And they follow her out onto the main road and start heading off away from your direction away from your eyes.
Rafa:I want to kind of look Victor in the eyes and kind of make that eye contact and if we do cross our gazes I will have like a small smile like found it
Snyder’s Return:but it's just very very
Rafa:very briefly and then I'll just look at Iona
Snyder’s Return:and almost subconscious response Yes. As you look across the pair of you meet match eyes you notice that his either darker almost black it's sort of a there for a moment gone the next I owners as your you start to sort of peel back into yourself having sort of seen through the mist as the mist retakes the skin of the city as it were, its facade. You briefly noticed the eyes change from the sort of a morphism blackened form through to the humanoid form. And then black eyes and then just bluffs back to normal pupils as they continue their way out the coffee shop
Iona Starling:blinks a few times. And she she turns over to wrap up like that must be what taking drugs is like
Unknown:it's so tense right? Oh my God. Is that what the world's really like all the time?
Rafa:I guess for you probably it is just a presentation of how you see it.
Iona Starling:Okay, so So yeah, that group the fixer, he's he's definitely the one in charge. That group had some that they they like little hips.
Unknown:Like, like, like, extensions of himself, although
Iona Starling:I'm not sure how much of dome is in control anymore to be honest.
Rafa:They are all linked to Victor. It was like
Unknown:it was like he was waiting for something. What was he waiting for the girl? Was he waiting for us to make a move?
Rafa:Probably the girl did. I did I see the girl? Yeah, yeah,
Snyder’s Return:she there was no underhandedness. She came in and call to them. And at that point, they acknowledged her presence and began to make the exit
Rafa:was she. I, I want to essentially find out if she is Veronica, but I don't really know if I have any image or any any memories of her. You you have kind of looked like
Snyder’s Return:some No, no, no, there did not seem to be to you that did not seem to be any sort of familial heritage ancestry link between the two they are very much different in appearance and origin. Should we say? Okay, what I will say, out of your periphery AIONA two things. You'll notice one, the stone stops drawing into your drawing from your shadow and returns to be the the the ying and yang stone provided to you by Rafa and in your periphery as she came in the door. this individual did not have that same a morphus or blackened quality in her
Iona Starling:formal eyes yeah all right um well we were that girl was she wasn't like them she was just her son herself as far as I could see
Rafa:okay, that's great to know how many how many kids were there in the group with Victor
Snyder’s Return:there were there were four plots so five of them vector plus four others
Iona Starling:okay maybe maybe you should go after that. I mean what if they decide to make the girl part of them
Rafa:i That's a great idea. And yes, as soon as they go out we will go after them.
Snyder’s Return:All right. You have
Rafa:to do Do you have any skill that could hide us or be useful? Yeah, you kind of be useful for for staking out or for
Iona Starling:stealth, essentially
Bee - Wyldrvir:chugs a little I can blind them. I can scare them. Okay. I might be able to create a shield to hide us and somewhere dark. But no, I can't turn us invisible or anything sorry.
Rafa:No, okay. Oh, maybe Yeah. Was an idea of using darkness and light and I didn't know how to make us disappear. But Well,
Iona Starling:eventually maybe. Maybe we should go before they get too far away and we don't know where they go anymore. Yes. Let's go after them. So as
Snyder’s Return:you put your cups down and go to leave, we move across town back into the sort of the rundown while NOC estate. And we see a accompany sit down, a black model pulled up outside, one of these sort of deridder looking houses. And a man in a relatively smart looking attire sort of busted up, sort of knuckles and clothing. Dark pupils is seen carrying a box of strange looking tech into one of these houses. And there is the go in through the main porch.
Iona Starling:And into the main room. There is a lone female stood in the middle
Snyder’s Return:eyes black as night. There seems to be an exchange without words between them.
Rafa:And this right now outside the coffee
Snyder’s Return:shop. I'll Crosstown So as you've moved. So, yes, thank you. Alright,
Iona Starling:so he has
Snyder’s Return:unloaded the strange box of technology out of this company car and and taking it in. And without speaking, there's there's an order seem to be given from from her. Excuse me from her to this. This gentleman.
Iona Starling:And he says allowed.
Snyder’s Return:Yeah, so I'll go to the next one. I'll get us more we needed for trade.
Iona Starling:And he steps back out. And you'll see for a moment
Snyder’s Return:his sort of helix labs embossed shirt, because who doesn't wear embossed clothing at work? steps down, gets back in the car and heads back into the city. As the pair of you step out into the Main Street.
Iona Starling:The group aren't
Snyder’s Return:miles away, they've not run away. They've not chased off or tried to escape. They're just moving as a group with this new individual. And you see for a moment there their stride just seems to pause for a second and then continue. Which kind of catch catches the new female female student just out of step for a moment as they all briefly pause. Like ha Have a stride was like a step ball change stop step and continue to move
Iona Starling:and they appear to be heading along the road out
Snyder’s Return:of town or to the edge of this part of the town of the district.
Iona Starling:Okay let's stock them I guess Wait, wait, we're not going to like follow them to where they're going to find their headquarters
Rafa:Well, I guess sure we'll go after them and see where where they go because all they said or she said, Let's do this. Right. So sounds like they are up to something I would be interested in in what and let's see. I hope it's not too much trouble
Iona Starling:I hope it isn't too quiet looking in the eyes
Snyder’s Return:think sorry, go yeah,
Rafa:now we'll we'll go go after them. In a safe distance more or less
Snyder’s Return:as you keep your your safe distance you notice they sort of they don't meander but they're taking a very specific route which seems to weave a little bit and as they sort of moving into the more into the housing estate more into the housing area of this district. They move along the road past a couple of houses
Iona Starling:and again, they seem to
Snyder’s Return:to stop outside a particular house like a almost like the frozen in response for a moment again there's there's no there's no verbal cue and you even hear the
Iona Starling:female saying
Snyder’s Return:Victor, what's up and then you can see him sort of shake their head and as he shakes his head, you catch sight of just one or two at the back sort of shaking their head as well at the same time in a similar sort of movement. And then the group carries on again, and it sort of moves past the houses become more sort of interspersed, more spaced out and we sort of start to enter in more more of a industrialised area sort of pushed into the the extremes of this district is or like a smaller industrial state they seem to be heading towards so far when
Unknown:I'm more so whistle going
Iona Starling:like, yeah, I was probably like carefully jotting down like the situation in our head like where they are What path are taking the building, they stopped in front of like, stuff like that, you know? So quick, Laura, quick learner. She's probably memorising this stuff pretty easy.
Snyder’s Return:As you sort of move past the house, you can hear some raised voices. An elder man and Uh,
Iona Starling:excuse me. By elder I mean, like 40s not
Snyder’s Return:like 70 year old. You can hear a a male voice sort of raised quite loudly that the car on the drive is beaten for one of a better description of beaten up and a little bit worn down. The yard is in a little bit of disrepair. A couple of the windows appear to be cracked on the first floor. The you know, the netting in the Windows appears to be tired, shall we say? In its appearance.
Rafa:They didn't enter they just stopped in front looked and then
Snyder’s Return:they stopped. They stopped and pause
Iona Starling:and then continued on with Yeah, don't worry. That's a possibility.
Rafa:I mean, they certainly know that we are stalking them so I just be prepared for whatever they
Iona Starling:have either way we can leave the girl right we don't know what situation she's getting well if she
Rafa:hasn't if she she is not involved or she isn't in fact that for lack of a
Iona Starling:better word
Unknown:we should certainly
Iona Starling:try to see it as it
Rafa:didn't doesn't happen or that she is safe at the end of the day
Iona Starling:we don't know what the
Rafa:the goal from the this kid is but it would be very
Iona Starling:dangerous and yeah, it would
Rafa:be very dangerous leaving this these kids going around
Iona Starling:alright so I'm definitely walking into the middle of the trap all right let's not tell the doctor this will never let us forget it
Rafa:if we if we look at the house he it's rundown at some old house but is there is there anything like strange about it if the stairs is is it is are there people living in it? Or is it you can
Snyder’s Return:you can hear it? You can clearly hear a male male voice raised coming from within the four walls Okay, yeah that you can as you sort of move past the rather sorry looking letterbox has Chang written down the side of it.
Iona Starling:Who? cheering us Okay,
Rafa:so maybe not the most are not the happiest family living here
Iona Starling:let's see what helped
Rafa:us kid isn't broken. All right.
Iona Starling:All right. All right. Let's see. Your Yep. Okay. Yep. All right,
Snyder’s Return:as you continue on down the path. Chris, you're right. You got a collection.
Iona Starling:Yep, I'm good. Chris. We got a monologue off
Snyder’s Return:you at the end to go at the start if that makes any sense.
Unknown:The magic of editing. Sure, I just need to think about what that's going to be
Snyder’s Return:that's fine. If you're if you're ready to not necessarily think about that, but ready to sort of pick up in media res almost we can.
Unknown:Absolutely okay.
Snyder’s Return:So as you guys are walking and moving off down the road, you you sort of start to leave the Chang residents behind you the the voice the shouting starts to sort of dissipate lost into the noise of suburbs. We shift back to the the office of the former Dr. Adams with Dr. Edward stood with with what is left should we say of Doc firms.
Iona Starling:What are you doing next Doctor?
Snyder’s Return:Thanks for listening, you can find out more about the show including our interview episode via linktree or at our website at www dot Snyder’s return.squarespace.com. please consider leaving us a review. City of mist as a TTRPG by sun of oak. You can find out more about city Mist by going to www dot city of mist.co musicans Under effects for this episode from epidemic sounds.com. The intro and outro music were composed by Chloe Elliot. You can find her on Twitter at Khloe underscore with the flow. The logo was designed by Jessie Lowe. You can find her artwork on Twitter at Achaean Nomi underscore RT. We're going to use our help points and be ready to investigate next time on metallers monsters and madmen