My name is Irene. I play I own a starling and she has a riff of the Shadow Dragon from Dungeons and Dragons
Unknown:okay
Rafa:first thing that I want to ask is kind of a flashback is BBEdit Iona you ever tell me that your brother also has a rift?
Iona Starling:No, I'd like to say, but I'd be up to. It'd be up to Adam if his rift is visible like mine is at all.
Snyder’s Return:I mean, between you Yes, the roof. Like, there is a sense but you know, Rafa has the nose ring, and another sort of traits, so I'll let you decide. I don't know how much you have told Toby are about Rafa. I'll phrase it that way.
Iona Starling:Um, yeah, no, definitely tells him whatever she definitely tells him he's a rift. Sorry, Rafa
Rafa:definitely tells him okay, because if you do, Rafa will be pretty curious. And as soon as I meet your brother, I would look beyond the mist. And we cannot do that maybe later because I would have looked again. Now in the Elliot wave,
Iona Starling:asking, I mean, I guess if you asked him I feel like he'd be open to answering but I don't know, again. So
Rafa:I'll just just kind of do it real quick when we meet but okay. In the in the, in the alleyway. I will all ask for what happened to whoever is there. Martha is outside too. I would help her up or kind of go to her and ask her what happened.
Snyder’s Return:She says to you, I just bought I saw this this person this this gentleman was was hurt from from my songs he was he was very emotional and I wanted to speak to him to make sure he was okay. But when I came out here into the alley he'd been he'd been attacked by buys some hooded thug. As soon as I came out and saw that the man on the floor I turned and there was this, there was this hooded, hooded figure making about make their way off and I shouted, I shouted, and, and thankfully, a young lady came past and she's going after him and, and these two appear to be sort of looking after this gentleman. It's I mean, we need to call the police. This is this is all too much.
Rafa:And so Iona ran away again. Okay. Now I'll turn to turn over and ask him. What what happened? How did it? How did he get get hurt? Did you get attacked? Did he get stabbed? Or what? What's the situation?
Snyder’s Return:Tobia looks at Nathan was the pair of them are sort of knelt over this person, this man. And he looks up at you refer these like it's a bit hard to tell at the moment. I mean, we're not getting a Polish, but we're doing what we can but we need an ambulance. We need EMC we need one the police for whatever has happened here. But I mean, it's and again, it gives a long look at Nathan, the surgeon and the pair of them sort of look at each other and look back at you refer and they're checking this guy's pulse or lack thereof. There's only so
Rafa:much fun. Yeah. Yeah. I'll turn to Martha and ask her.
Unknown:How did you how did you? How was he attacked? I see.
Snyder’s Return:I came out and then the man was on the floor and the hooded man. He went that way you're the lady went after him. He she must have done it. He must have done it. One whatever has happened to this man on the floor, I came out to console this this this poor man and this is what I found. And as soon as I as soon as I found them like this I screamed for help.
Rafa:Can I investigate if she is bullshitting or lying to me? Because I already have this sensation that her saying was kind of abnormal, and now she is
Snyder’s Return:single shows. Yeah, so it was it was emotional.
Rafa:It was very, very impactful. And now, he must have done it. That means she is accusing him of something that she might not even be sure that it was. So I am a bit on on the cautious side here and bit on the edge and I want to know if she's seems to be lying. may investigate. Okay. I will use blackmailing because I know how to talk to people. Sometimes Sometimes when it works, and yeah, I don't. I think in this case, it's the only thing that I can use. Yeah, okay. Let's investigate with a power of one. That's a much success.
Snyder’s Return:All right, but then he got a power of one get to ask clues.
Rafa:clues into your fuzzy your clue. Okay. I ask you Okay. Well, yeah, I want to know if if she is lying, or, like, if I can see that she's not being truthful. And in some way,
Snyder’s Return:there is a certain amount of performance to her performance, shall we say? But while you were while you are asking her, she says in a very, very kind way she she asks what Braff is pitch I read this correctly. So as a hard move, the MC will ask your character's greatest pain as Martha consents your answer. So she she, while she is sort of explaining and you get there's a certain amount of maybe theatricality to the way she's putting the words across. She manages to sort of word into it. She's like, it's painful. It's don't taken such a toll on me to see such bad things. What about you, my friends have used in such things before? And you need to tell me what Rafa's greatest pain is?
Rafa:Rough his greatest pain Okay,
Dr. Henry Edwards:is humiliation at falling unconscious Yeah, seriously,
Rafa:it's really nanananana it's in character to worry about Yeah, it's, it's reminds me of how I failed to save people before.
Unknown:Is that too vague?
Snyder’s Return:She says to you, maybe one day I will be able to help you overcome that pain. I will sing a song for you. Maybe
Rafa:I am a bit concerned or a bit freaked out about this this song. Like I say, homoeopathy, homoeopathy I'll refer just turns for and say yeah, I'll be looking forward to it. And I'll go kind of in the direction in which Aiyana left
Snyder’s Return:so refer as you go to check out what is happening with Iona Dr. Edwards, things with Veronica seem to be progressing. That's about as good as an update as you're gonna get. Dr. Stevens and has sort of managed part of the company in in the day to day stuff that Dr. Adams would have. He has lent heavily on Latoya Belvedere to sort of fill in the gaps between what Dr. Drake was working on. What Dr. Adams was working on. The support, you need to run R and D. But he's been in and out recently dealing with family issues a lot. And he comes to you and he says I'm sorry to disturb your doctor which but I've been working on something that that i And ironically, Dr. Drake has sort of been working on separately, I was hoping to show you my my finding it's my work at some point, if I can, if we can nail down a meeting, at some some point in the next week or so. I see. It wouldn't take long, I think it could really help with providing prosthetics to and and, and, you know, building on mobility aids for, for those that need them in the city. If you'd be willing to sort of check out my work, and my findings I'd be honoured doctor was it's been such a privilege to work to work for you and get promoted to the position. Now, as
Dr. Henry Edwards:I'm sure the advantage of being promoted to that position is that you can approve such projects without my consideration. I am. And please do not think me cold saying this. I'm interested in such mundane avenues of research, by all means, pursue your project, even use the department's resources to do so
Snyder’s Return:as he's about to, to answer and he looks very excited when you pass it on his phone begins to ring. And he says I'm sorry about it. Am I okay to take this?
Dr. Henry Edwards:One last thing first, understand that the reason for your predecessors untimely termination was a leak of information within this department. I understand you've improved Internet security, but understand that between yourself and Latoya, I expect there to be no more leaks. Period.
Snyder’s Return:Ups. Absolutely. Dr. weave between us and the security team and and the other the other heads of departments, we've, we've been sure we've been putting the best and Mr. crit, the the cybersecurity guy says that he's going to check through and make and backtrack any, any sort of unusual accesses into the system. So we can chase them down into and, you know, get them lawsuits and stuff filed in
Dr. Henry Edwards:the hands as I understand that. Above, putting a great deal of effort into closing any of the gaps in our security. I just also wanted to be clear that I am not one to tolerate failure. And in such a case heads will roll.
Snyder’s Return:I understand my phone. Dr. Evans, yes.
Dr. Henry Edwards:Go and see your phone. While he
Snyder’s Return:literally like answers it there. Is everything okay? Someone else was picked on Friday. Sorry, I'm sorry, Doctor. I've got I've got to go and deal with this. It's my son. I'll be at home. Okay, I'm on my way. And he disappears off out out the door as he goes out your door and one way Latoya comes down the corridor and then your way from the second. I'm sorry to disturb you. Dr. Edwards. Chairman Chow has one did have a meeting with Dr. Adams, about some, shall we say? A changes to their agreement with respect to supplying Chairman Chow with with various items from helix labs, various departments. I can cancel the meeting. It's it's due tomorrow. I can cancel or reschedule if you'd like. It's evident that Dr. Adams will not be attending unless and she gives you a wry smile.
Dr. Henry Edwards:I think it would be best if Dr. Adams did attend this meeting. determine the extent of her breach of confidence. And close it.
Snyder’s Return:Understood Dr. Edwards. I will ensure all the right provisions are made for Chairman Charles visit.
Dr. Henry Edwards:Yes. It has also been brought to my attention that that Chairman Chang has been operating a, shall we call it a procurement system in the city and procurement for my my beating around the bush, he's a human trafficker. Let's see if we can't clean up that operation while also making use of the resources he has been building as a result, I think they would be better off in our possession then is
Snyder’s Return:Chairman Chow is a formidable individual in the city, but I'm sure we can better our position, if you trust me to do so. Dr. Edwards.
Dr. Henry Edwards:You're one of my deputy heads of department. If you if I didn't trust you, you'd already have been replaced.
Snyder’s Return:Speaking of replacements, work is ongoing to track down the Frank mistake. I will have more information on that as and when I get it. Well, needless to say that the Suez on the helix labs have been sanitised. But this individual so far has evaded our our efforts,
Dr. Henry Edwards:see haps I shall investigate that matter personally.
Snyder’s Return:Understood Dr. Understood, and she wheels away and leaves you to it. And as we follow the now on hooded individual, as they flee through the various streets of the city, how we follow them back to a car garage, back in smaller, sort of side section of the industrial zone. So ironically, not that far away from where Dr. Oz is at the moment but not on his doorstep. Martha is taken to the police station to to answer their questions. The unfortunate soul on the floor outside the washboard is taken to Trinity art morgue, having been unable to be revived at this point in time. And we find Dr. Stevenson moving through quiet alleys in one of the suburban districts out in suburbia, having found who is bullying, poor Freddie his son, and we watch as with a real sense of cold detachment initially knocks the man out, then stabs the man, we watch his water Stevenson takes this individual this this body, this person back to the garage at the side of his house, and begin to cut and shall we say, detach certain sections, what remains with cold detachment. Water Stephenson loaded back into the boot of his car wrapped in a nondescript blanket drives through to one of the many bridges that criss crossed the small rivers that go through suburbia, and dump what is effectively a bloody stump off into the water, water Stevenson parks back at the house. And as we follow him through the garage, there appear to be limbs hanging both wood and flesh, different puppets sat watching silently, and he goes into the house and his cold detachment breaks and stops. As he goes over to his young son Freddy kisses him good night and goes to have a shower. And that is where we will end. It's your MC Adam here just taking a break from the case momentarily to let you know about our great friends in the tabletop role playing game community and the TTRPG family. So the following is a short trailer for one of our many friends. Don't check them out. Follow the links in the description below to go and give their show and listen and engage with them and engage with us. We'd love have you back as the case has continued to progress? Speaking of which, let's get back to the action.
PassAggPerPod - Ivan:If you're obsessed with tabletop role playing games like we are come check out passive aggressive perception with decades of gaming experience between us we are your forever GMs and your hosts Hi, I'm Ivan and this is the suede Benny to my de 20. Steve, how are you bud? Passive aggressive perception is a system agnostic TTRPG discussion podcast we ask the questions that we as tabletop gamers care about. We cover topics ranging from metagaming interviews with industry leaders to bring in real life socio political issues into your campaigns we work to make your next session the best one yet plus our contents evergreen so find a topic that resonates with you and go for it. Find us at I cast spells.com or anywhere you get podcasts. Should I like role for persuasion?
Iona Starling:Nice Wow. Nice, bro.
Unknown:Wow. Okay.
Snyder’s Return:So I don't know if you want to city, a lot of things are happening. You pull on any threads and totally unravel. Probably meet at the end. Do you want to geek out during the credits?
Rafa:Yes. I would just very quickly ask like so. Like I said I would have looked beyond a mist on Tober just to check what he might be or what kind of aura he emanates.
Iona Starling:His name's Tobia topia Tobia
Rafa:Toby. Also German.
Dr. Henry Edwards:No. I just call me me alone. I mean, I would have assumed he was Jewish, but
Snyder’s Return:Right. So looking at Tobia, who sort of average height looks well. Sure I only can describe Toby's looks better than I. But looking through the mist and peeling back both him and Nathan's present you different firms so Tobia, instead of the man that you see. You see a small sort of dwarf in almost traditional Japanese sort of garb with their hands hands out and tending to tending to this one, the deceased individual but trying to attend to them anyway. I will try not to completely ruined this scicluna A bit corny, but kkona kkona kkona or sukoon Agha sicura he caught up Nakagami or the small man of renown is Japanese mythology to off deity who protects against disease and wild animals? Mega a god of healing and brewing sakeI because those two things are inexplicably tied. And all good good person, Nathan, however, Nathan Ergo what you see from him, is the Nergal than Mesopotamian sola, sola god of noontime and the summer solstice. So a man effectively cloaked in the warmth of, of the sun, and just, again, trying to apply healing. But unfortunately, even with the combined medical abilities, both through training and through the rifts that they are part of, can do nothing for this victim of this horrific attack. Whoever perpetrated that horrific attack you will have to find out eventually. All right, so who wants to geek out through the geek out during the credits first?
Iona Starling:Well, I'm gonna just say if I don't get a help point
Rafa:well then let me start I am so proud of you. I'm so happy you both are going to get a help point because Rafa is just so relieved after he wakes up and sees that mostly everything's alright. Three people that yeah, the House still stands and The girl is okay. I mean, yeah. Side casualties. It's like, it's sad. It happens. But it's more than I could ask for, or at least I hoped for. So yeah, I will give you both a help point. And how has the crew grown? I believe it's it's just distrust and this. The handling of a stressful situation can go better than expected. I think so I think it's kind of a step towards professionalism, if we can say that, but it's nice to see that we aren't like complete shitshow
Snyder’s Return:completely in disarray.
Rafa:Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we haven't burned anything. So I will give our query theme attention.
Dr. Henry Edwards:So we have another improvement. Really wrap it up.
Rafa:And teams themes is under most strain. I will give hacktivists an hour crack because I did want to use a bit of my blackmailing or social skills, but that didn't get to it and I haven't been used in using it for a while.
Snyder’s Return:Well, now you have some direct competition with aqueous tech support being installed across all the sites that you've previously had full access to. So we'll see how that plays out.
Rafa:He likes dongle. Okay, that that's for
Unknown:me. Okay.
Snyder’s Return:Who would like to follow up? Rafa?
Dr. Henry Edwards:Yeah. How's the crew grown this session? I'd say cooperatively. Question mark, apostrophe question mark. I think the fact that there wasn't a conflict regarding how this was handled was kind of impressive all things considered. So I too will mark attention. Which character had the most meaningful interaction with your character this session? I think Dr. Edwards adding another hurt point, Iona. Yeah. Because she was awfully sassy for someone defending a human trafficker.
Iona Starling:Trafficking poor kid in control of something she barely understands. People. Okay, we listen, we don't know if she purchased them or her dad did. We don't really understand the situation right now. That's the issue. And either way, she's a kid with this unknowable power which could be doing God knows what to her is not exactly. She's the mother, Vitor.
Snyder’s Return:I will step in and say it was more of a trade than it was. It doesn't matter. It was all bad. Okay, whether
Dr. Henry Edwards:it was on the barter system where currency was in volved doesn't really matter. She bought people.
Iona Starling:She didn't buy people her dad did
Dr. Henry Edwards:know her dad sold her the people
Snyder’s Return:who are the people. Her dad knew where the bad person was the get the people. She used the information from that to facilitate a trade. She's not all sweetness and light. But she has been.
Iona Starling:She is what I'm saying. She's like a kid.
Snyder’s Return:She's been. She's been influenced by her puppies.
Dr. Henry Edwards:It doesn't
Iona Starling:reflect she was an angel. I'm just saying that I own it literally has a telepathic connection to her now, and that she sees a lot of herself in her on some level and that she wants to help this kid not suffer in a prison without any idea what's going on.
Dr. Henry Edwards:That's fair. They also call that projection
Unknown:projecting. There's a lot to
Dr. Henry Edwards:anyway, let's see which of your themes is under the most strain. I don't think any of them are really under strain. He's balancing the themes, kind of obnoxiously. Well, actually. I kind of argue. That's me. All right.
Snyder’s Return:Well, thank you very much for that. sticking with this and thank you, all three of you, and your characters for sticking with this. It has been a bit of a roller coaster just getting young Veronica, back into some sort of safety and protection. But because this is this is it little up because this is a city that never technically sleeps because it is not a week you are the awakened ones. See what I did there? Pick up the next case next session so she couldn't traverse fucking kid. Thank you very much, guys. That was good fun. I enjoyed that.
Unknown:No, it was great. Are you actually
Iona Starling:this I can't be pinched about a fictional day.
Dr. Henry Edwards:I mean, you can it happens
Iona Starling:when I have bigger things to worry about. No, like, I get it. There's, you know, she's She did a fucked up thing. And I'm not saying that's okay. Right. Like, I feel like I should clarify because this is like a, like a public thing. I'm not saying you know, woowoo people are free to do whatever crimes you know, it's good. But I mean, she is a kid. And we don't really understand what the nature of her power is or how much of a pull it on on her. Like technically, I'm kind of running on the assumption that that she's not really herself. Like she's not in an ability to make completely normal choices and she is a kid. One.
Dr. Henry Edwards:That's a fair assumption to make about her victims than her considering she was remote controlling them like a bit. I'm not saying
Iona Starling:it's okay. We're not Sumption that this was like some guy out there. You know, like, like in the real world where we see situations where people are betting for their own selfish, horrifying game. This is a kid who seemed to be in a really awful situation that did something she thought would work. Right. Like, like, who knows her situation right now. We can't make moral assumptions based off her right now. That's just what I'm saying.
Dr. Henry Edwards:Fair enough.
Rafa:What What we also have to consider is what I kind of asked. For from before that. Adam says era, Adam said that she was not herself for a while and you pulled her back into being Veronica. So yeah. Very well be that the mythos itself was in control and is ruthless and was doing all that shit. And Veronica, Veronica became the carrier has not Yeah, it's it's just the whole for the Black Death.
Iona Starling:Yeah, her her screaming and crying and you know, saying being very panicked in the middle of a bunch of people. Clearly not wanting a situation doesn't strike me as human trafficker. You know, got
Dr. Henry Edwards:she was, so she used her superpowers to acquire them. This
Snyder’s Return:is not how social media works. Anyway, so yes, it was fun.
Iona Starling:To preface this, human trafficking is awful. I'm not accusing anyone who doesn't disclaim it just so we know. Like I'm, I'm totally not like if a real human trafficker, I would not be making these. But this is a fantasy world filled with like fantasy powers. So I can't really apply the same moral judgement, you know? I can
Snyder’s Return:write Yes. Thank you all again. I'll make sure I put
Rafa:a wonder to ask about the crude theme improvement.
Iona Starling:Oh my god, do we got another improvement over
Dr. Henry Edwards:a new power tag or improvement? Yes. Okay, yeah.
Snyder’s Return:Thanks for listening. You can find out more about the show, including our interview episodes. viral entry or at our website at www dot Snyder’s return.squarespace.com please consider leaving us a review. City of mist is a TTRPG by Sun evoke. You can find out more about city Mist by going to www dot city of mist.co music and sound 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 Akkad Noemi underscore art we're going to use our help points and be ready to investigate next time on MEDLARS monsters and madmen