My name is Irene, I play I own a starling and she has the risk of the Shadow Dragon from Dungeons and Dragons.
B. Dave Walters:Are our schools and education programmes failing our children, we examine if the academic support for the young people of our city really makes the grade or if it needs a reset today at 11 First though, we find out what's happening on the roads rails in sales when that traffic report with Chris crystal son.
Snyders Return:Bad news for all you commuters out there was a merge of work on the subway dragon and metro lines means there'll be a rail replacement bus service between the affected sections of the city. This is already having a knock on effect on the roads, supplying your journeys accordingly. With the subway being a warn of tunnels, it'll be a minor victory if those areas are ready for the evening commute. No problems have yet to be reported that the ferry port or the city ducts was ceilings going ahead as planned. Again, if you're making your way to these areas, please allow extra time for your journey catches for the traffic report on the hour, every hour. So as you continue to move this this student had sort of clocked you and as you sort of disappear off
Rafa:there wasn't anything strange about that student was just a regular student
Snyders Return:as far as you're aware. However, you're able to sort of move nimbly and reasonably quietly through the sort of the halls sort of you believe keeping a sight of other people but you do hear some some heavy footprints sort of moving through the school and you it sounds like a pair of boots sort of moving quite quickly so two people moving in tandem sort of moving quite quickly they seem to be sort of moving on one corridor and then coming back you can hear doors opening and closing it from various sections it sounds like sounds like somebody or or there's like a search going on
Rafa:sir i Okay, I would it's behind me so another corridor coming my way yeah, the
Snyders Return:boots are continuing to sort of make that movement sound you get here door swinging open and then being pulled shut again.
Rafa:That had that happened right after the boy used his cell phone and went away right?
Snyders Return:You don't know quite what the timeframe between between you and this student sort of making eye contact and you checking further into the schools layout. Okay, something has triggered these two sets of boots to start moving around the the the building
Rafa:I'll go to the toilet. I'll go kind of after that boy.
Snyders Return:So as you make your way back through keeping it out of sight as best you can you can you can hear the boot sort of ascending a set of stairs and sort of moving around and up and down as you go to the toilet. This sounds very strange. I'm going to say as soon as you enter the toilet to try and find a student they are no longer in the toilet.
Rafa:The student I am in the toilet but the student isn't they are not correct. Is not can I see through the mist or try to find you can certainly try find. Yeah Some find some some some hint of mist, or that something may not know maybe black ish or see through the misuse of the mystery was
B. Dave Walters:it's just an investigate using your mist rating.
Snyders Return:So you need to reach out, investigate plus two, then it's
Iona Starling:in this the two, and it's
Rafa:an eight.
Snyders Return:Alright, so seeing through the mist from here in the toilet and sort of trying to take in everything so that the structure of the school remains, it becomes a ghostly visitor goes to the outline of, of the structure, the school itself appears to be as, as you would expect it as a new built structure. Scanning through it, across it, to your eyes piercing through what would be solid walls, there appears to be at least two or three other things that sort of flag up on your, your sort of visual spectrum, one appears to be sort of greenish in its coloration one appears to be sort of like a bluish in coloration. And another one appears to be sort of a, a, a black in its coloration. Sort of these three colours are separated as though in two separate parts of the building. But there is a cluster, shall we say, of black in one section?
Rafa:Okay, and that's, this is kind of all over the school. It's not obviously in the in the bathroom facility?
Snyders Return:It's not in the bathroom? No, it is within the structure of the school, but it is not in your precise location.
Rafa:Okay, can I? Can I? There there? Okay. And in the toilet itself, there isn't? Is isn't any hint anymore of the mist?
Snyders Return:There is no child, there is ice, there is no student, there is no trace of mist, there is a faint smell of of sanitary products. Other than that, it's or cleaning products it is as it should be.
Rafa:Okay. Okay, green, blue. And Black, Black will most likely be my target. Green and Blue is very interesting. Do I know or more or less than or which direction the black would be? Or
Snyders Return:so it is in the sort of opposite colour. So you're quite near the entrance and it is, is sort of almost diagonally opposed towards the back of the building. If that helps in any way, shape or description?
Rafa:Yeah. Okay. There are still boots and footsteps probably coming up. They will very likely is there Can I feel any other toilet or any small cupboard cupboard? Any row that I can transport myself to that is near to the black aura. You are actually I could go out of any door.
Snyders Return:I mean, technically, if you open a toilet door, you could? No that's not quite. Even if
Rafa:if I leave the toilet, I can leave a classroom door and the other side.
B. Dave Walters:The bathroom door work.
Snyders Return:That's what I was thinking with the bathroom. Yeah. So yeah,
Rafa:I think it's too wide for that. It has kind of to be a closed frame, the
Snyders Return:main door into the bathroom would would work potentially is. So having a scope about you could put yourself near at the back of the building, you wouldn't be able to put yourself exactly, yeah, next to that
Rafa:down article. Or at least I'll try and maybe not kind of opened the door into any longer.
Snyders Return:So as you're approaching the door to activate this power and shift yourself between the locations, you can hear blueprints, heavy boot impacts coming down the corridor that sort of heavy impact followed by a squeak as it sort of presses and twists on the lyoto linoleum and as they're coming down you can see the shadows forming across underneath the toilet door back where you are. I would like you to actually go going toe to toe
Rafa:Okay, um, I will use well I have the suit Bring human strength. So maybe that I can rush towards the door and reached for anyone else does, do you have anything else to put be? I will use disorienting trends. Okay, so yeah, to kind of already laid the ground for the worst and maybe make the people behind the door a bit unsure of their actions,
Snyders Return:let's give it a try.
Rafa:And that will be to power. Okay, go toe to toe, if it's an it's an eight.
Snyders Return:Again, you're scraping on in there. So with an eight you get to choose one of the following things you achieve your goal, you get them good with a tear equal to your power, which is two or you can block dodge or counter their best attempts. So which of those would you like to do?
Rafa:I will open the door before data and close it before I don't know what the thing would be if one door is opened and the other kind of door is still closed. And they want to try it that's paradox territory. But yeah, I will try to slip true.
Iona Starling:All right, so
Snyders Return:as you as you sort of grabbed the door handle open it and it forms the the portal or the new location you're expecting just as as your sort of it forms in front of you, the sound of the boots moving across sort of fades away pretty quickly as you as you move but as you move and the door closes behind you, we flipped back across to the bathroom, the other side of the of the school and you can see AHJ like cracking through the bathroom and scanning the scene and finding nothing the two of them looking bewildered looking each other hands sort of pressed onto a host of pistols looking everywhere and we stay with them just for a minute as they start pushing stone door open as you emerge in a different part of the school in a very different situation from the one you've just left
B. Dave Walters:again the parasite
Rafa:it's it's great I like it very much before I do anything else I will take my phone out and the texts are yeah I'll text a good doctor with might have found something it feels black. Alright,
Snyders Return:so you said that you emerged Find a quiet corner send this text message talk to what have you been doing wall owner has been at the hospital and Rafa has been walking into school bathrooms.
B. Dave Walters:The doctor has been travelling by subway to reach Dr. Drake's has in the help of meeting Hi there.
Snyders Return:So you travel on through the subway and go to the address as given on company files for Dr. Drake's home. Again, it's sort of sequestered away in a quiet part of the city. Sort of not too far from where referees really it's quite well appointed, but it's clear it's been it's been left alone that the gardens been allowed to overgrow a little bit the the bins the trash cans Don't kid appear to have been taken out any time recently. Sort of while the structure of the door and the house looks look sound, it's very much just been left, shall we say. As you're sort of taking in the scenery here a sort of a deep growling car engine sort of pull up to the curb, couple of 100 100 200 feet further down as the cold rocks and you hear the car door slam is as high as sort of stretches his large frames and begins to sort of move towards you.
B. Dave Walters:The good doctor reaches into his coat pocket and removes his inhaler. You betta takes a long hit from the hailer and poses His eyes as his frame begins to swell. The good doctors expression contorts with discomfort as the bones moves, right side, crack and extend and the muscles swell the reaches out towards the front door of the house with his bright palm and just palm strikes the door to snap it off its hinges. Wow.
Snyders Return:Nice as the door, sort of buckles splinters in is pushed inwards by your, by your contact with it. You hear a hide over your shoulder sort of gruff, almost kind of just as you're sort of stood silhouetted by the door within the doorframe. He's just kind of nonchalantly taking in the rest of the house. With the look of almost sort of disgust on his face.
Iona Starling:The doctor sort of looks through the very periphery of his vision, and His face has become craggy and features more pronounced. It has a good half inch underbite with a job that is severely disproportionate. The rest of his skull is brown jets forward, and he rumbles low tide. Good. You're here, shall we? Yes, Dr. Michelle, and
Snyders Return:you want a man of science, we hit a check on a man of science. I would prefer to have had a team to sweep the place first.
Iona Starling:Seems we're on a tight schedule. One of my associates are liable. That's an apt description of either seems to think he's found. Candidates, Dr. Dre was experiment. They may
Snyders Return:be important to you, doctor, but they're not important to me. Either way, I guess. 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. Go and check them out. Follow the links in the description below to go and give their show. Listen, engage with them and engage with us. We'd love to have you back as the cases continue to progress. Speaking of which, let's get back to the action.
Kevin - GKH:We are the game night heroes. And you can be too. We are a group of five friends playing tabletop role playing games. And we strive to tell story and character driven narratives that are immersive and exciting. We're currently adventuring a Dungeons of dragons fifth edition with green Romaine Publishing's Freeport campaign setting. Our heroes are exploring a pirate town gone budget. Heartbreak sinister secret. New episodes come out every Tuesday. You could check us out at game night heroes.com We are found on all streaming platforms. See our main hub and maker.fm/gamenightheroes We'll see you out there so
B. Dave Walters:I would like to investigate the scene for any
Iona Starling:information. Yeah,
Snyders Return:absolutely. Roll rolling investigate for me, please. What I will say while you're putting that together, sorry, God. Yeah, well, I will say well, you, you have made this entry. The source sort of the loud sound of the door being buckled under your weight. And the two sort of large dark shadows moving in. But the lights are off so you only have sort of what natural light is getting into the house. And there seems to be various bits of mechanical apparatus and some sort of scrambled sort of research paperwork here, there and everywhere. All over the Place this some headed paperwork. Some of you do recognise and some you are vaguely familiar with, if that makes sense to you and you can sort of get a sense of, of quite how Dr. Drake was was living at that point. Right.
B. Dave Walters:So I've got researcher helix labs resources, imbibe the serum personal transformation, powerful physicality, and Ayana and mark if you don't mind I'd like to burn agents and associates from the crew tag crew, agents and Associates.
Snyders Return:So how are you? How you using your powerful physicality to investigate on your transformation? Oh, is just how are they helping you investigate
B. Dave Walters:is he's physically like moving everything out of the way and ripping open wall panels looking for any signs of a personal lab in the same way? Dr. Edwards has one see if there any hidden secrets Gotcha.
Snyders Return:All right. Yes Then please roll up weaknesses I would say in your new file Form I want to say different agendas while you do have that much more between you in the crew say since you've taken a hit from your serum maybe addicted Sure.
B. Dave Walters:So investigate
Rafa:at least something is someone is rolling well above it
Snyders Return:Wow. So let's say Haha,
Rafa:you have like eight now write
Snyders Return:the stories in the failures. So yeah, you got a 13 with the power of five so you get to ask add these to your many clues.
Unknown:So there's
B. Dave Walters:a lot out there for different purposes, I don't think I can use my bank ones to investigate the home
Snyders Return:which would beg the question When could you use them
B. Dave Walters:but as far as these ones presumably when looking at the
Iona Starling:research notes that they were involved in alright.
B. Dave Walters:But is there any secret information hidden? Perhaps
Snyders Return:short answer is yes. There is there is a lot of research detail much like if someone were able to sort of penetrate your homestead in your sort of personal lab, they would find notes for things you were working on and information pertaining to things that should not be common knowledge,
B. Dave Walters:okay. What information within the secret stores pertains to project vector.
Snyders Return:There are the business proposals and funds are allocated for global genetics, there are the employment records for those working in the blue collar facility. There is like a equipment required list also pertaining to properties related to general sorry, global genetics and to the now destroyed helix labs. outpost want to prevent event description Dr. Drake's squirrelled away lab there is a what appears to be some sort of external server backup here sort of hooked in but you'd have to spend time breaking that metaphorically
B. Dave Walters:what other secret side projects off of the helix labs books if any, are referenced in these materials?
Snyders Return:There are links to the project that Professor Leyland is working on, which should have been sort of kept more under wraps. Somehow Dr. Drake has come into into possession of materials pertaining to the I get the pronounciation right so this one take a couple of attempts. The
Iona Starling:higher Chaos Engine
Snyders Return:or Also known as the fire Kindler. So, that is what Professor Leyland is working on out in his out of town or out of area laboratory where he contacted you from recently. So he has information pertaining to that there is information pertaining to other mechanical perfection studies based and tied to the human anatomy as well. All right.
Dr. Henry Edwards:believe that's three. Yeah. So far.
B. Dave Walters:According to the information
Iona Starling:Dr. Drake had on Dr. Whelan project, what is it Kendler.
Snyders Return:The fire Kindler or the fire kindling engine
Iona Starling:is a
Snyders Return:working sorry, is not a working it is an in development system. The device set up its its exact makeup is sort of theorised more in Dr. Drake's notes, but it is to identify risks with specific mythos. And that's kind of underlined in Dr. Drake's notes. So that is what Professor Leyland is working on.
Iona Starling:Really, I guess last clue what dangers does a project vector affected individual pose
Snyders Return:scanning through the preliminary notes a lot of it seems to suggest there could be a an issue with with contact, like a contact transference. The information doesn't delve too much deeper into that there seems to be a lot more research that needs to take place before they can get sort of a consolidated consensus of the impacts that one of these individuals out in the wider city could have. But there does seem to be a lot of links to issues with with sort of contact transference. Close proximities doesn't mention anything about a, an airborne component to it. But the there are notes made about the markings both in the skin and deeper on the body surface or deeper into the body. And also a note about sort of vocal traits or repeated phrasing. That does seem to be notation of things like phrasing that comes up from the about the subject repeated several times, which would indicate some sort of unique pattern almost encoded into this project vector, this vector that Dr. Drake has been looking into. And while we leave you mulling over those thoughts, we will rejoin Iona with Tobia across in the Trinity our hospital. You guys are with Dr. Matic, Kilroy you're in his office, it's it's a very nice office. It's quite spacious, quite well laid out, you know, glass, glass windows, to allow sort of people to come through but it has that that sort of privacy style glass we could be frosted, for private meetings, private consultations, if required. So you guys are all way a medical doctor you're he's across on his desk and with yourself Iona and Toby being in close proximity. You can see him working away on the computer going through all the notes, the latest intake of patients those through the ER and just general admissions. Yeah, so he doesn't turn the computer screen away from you but he's typing at a pretty good rate because he knows sort of which boxes to fill out as the screen on the screen as they come up passwords followed by a date times and and injuries as described by by yourself. It doesn't exactly invite you to sit right next to him, but he does not try and dissuade you or Tobia from looking at the screen. And while you're lucky you can hear him sort of in a in a soft tone to himself. Consider each of the sort of the the admissions as they come up.
Iona Starling:Maybe in no doesn't matter No.
Snyders Return:This one and he sort of reaches his finger out and taps the screen.
Iona Starling:This, this individual
Snyders Return:that he sort of turns and gives you a unknowing smirk stands out and as he points back at the screen and you look across the name given for admissions is Joe Bloggs
Iona Starling:Joe Joe Bloggs, like Joe Bloggs.
Snyders Return:Like just like anonymous basically might as well put Mickey Mouse on on the admission form. You know, the every man, Joe Bloggs. So he taps to it and says, that's that's someone that either doesn't want to tell us who they are, or can't tell us who they are a bit of a John Doe, shall we say, but not down in the morgue. And he pauses for a second and looks at looks at you and looks at Tobia and he says is are we going to be safe if we go and see him he's he's been isolated in a room on on his own
Iona Starling:when she sees the fake name. And she says back and She frowns or says probably not if we walk in there breathing the same air as him. We are on are kind of getting sad, Tobia. She's she's never been good at behaving suddenly around people without giving too much away. We, we believe there might have been some contaminants in the air, we're just hoping it doesn't cause sickness
Snyders Return:coming by the admissions and how busy we were about night. No, none of the other staff have exhibited any symptoms that you've mentioned. As I say they were looking at the notes, and again, scrolls down the screen a little bit more. And you can see over his shoulder, some burns superficial. It's noted there was some sort of sort of darkness, some sort of love maybe sepsis or something in the army. That's that's potentially what they
Iona Starling:traded for, like in his veins, they were dark. Mm hmm.
Snyders Return:I mean, the staff or had aprons and gloves and long sleeve jackets and things. So from what I can tell this individual has been sort of cared for and then and then moved into a recovery suite,
Iona Starling:has anyone has anyone touched his blood, or come into contact with his den fluids, anything like that?
Snyders Return:Let me have a look. And he again, scroll down a bit further and perhaps in like the search function to see if there's any blood work. Looks like the blood works still at the lab. I mean, there was a large backlog from large just on general, you know, emergency room detail plus everything else that happened with the explosion plus everything else. So I mean, I can try and push it to the top of the list or, or we can just wait and see how it how it pans out. I don't want to start panicking the staff and sort of bringing undue stress. But you know, I understand your concerns,
Iona Starling:right, there's let's let's not panic, the staff, I just think it'd be better to keep that man isolated for now. Or not to let him you know, the usual stuff when you think someone might be sick. Warranty?
Snyders Return:Sure, let me I'll put a I'll put a note here on the record. So any of the staff looking to look after him will know to be appropriately dressed? Until Until we know and we can always move them to a a, an isolate a more isolated unit here in the hospital if needs be to ensure safety. I'm sure we can. We can manage that if the blood work comes back with anything we need to be worried
Iona Starling:about. Yeah. All right. Kill the word with you please.
Snyders Return:Yeah, sure, Anna Marie, I'm just gonna step out with and you can see, Maddie has already given me that sort of friendly backhand wave is like Go Go, go, go go. I've got this sorted. And that medical doctor Kilroy turns back to his computer and starts sort of typing and putting notes into the system. And your brother Toby. Stan's moves out of his chair to, to join you.
Iona Starling:As soon as the room is in a glass surround, make sure no one's around to listen in, which is like this thing. Is this thing's the black bread. Is there any chance? Do you think you could do something about it? Do you think you could heal it?
Snyders Return:I've never pushed push myself that hard to take on something as notorious as the
Iona Starling:Black Plague. I mean, it's not so much I feel like, you know, you you've dealt with illnesses before. It's not that it's it's the fact that it's it comes from a risk. It's not a normal sickness. But that's that's the thing, even if it is the black plague, you know, none of the things we have no idea of any of the cures we have here. Wait, is there a cure? I don't think there's a cure for the Black Plague, right? We just have treatments. Anyway, whatever. Um, like those things we do for treatments. We don't know if any of them work. Maybe we need a riff to combat a rift and you're the only one I know with with abilities like yours. I'm not saying walk into the room and touch the guy with the black plague. I'm just saying push comes to shove. You know, if this becomes a bigger and bigger issue, you you might be the only one who can help these people.
Snyders Return:Thanks for listening. You can find out more about the show, including our interview episodes via our link tree or at our website at WWW dot Snow's return.squarespace.com please consider leaving us a review. City of mist as a TTRPG by some of you can find out more about city of 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 Jesse Lowe. You can find her artwork on Twitter, at ACC in Noemi underscore art. We're going to use our help points and be ready to investigate next time on meddlers, monsters and madmen