Transcript - Episode 4: The Obverse of the Mirror (Part 2)
Audio for The Obverse of the Mirror Part 2
The Obverse of the Mirror Part 2
Wed, Sep 10, 2025
“Push the Roll with Ross Bryant” is produced for the ear and includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
cuppycup 00:00
Alright, so, Ross, we talked about pushing the roll and what that might mean for the mechanics of the show. Of course, in Call of Cthulhu, when you push the roll, you're re-rolling and doing something a little more dangerously. So the results could be disastrous or spectacular. [laughter] In the spirit of that, we're gonna re-roll against our random table of Patreon titles to introduce a second title to the game.
Ross Bryant 00:24
Great.
Virginia Lee 00:24
Yes.
Paula Deming 00:25
Oh, cool.
cuppycup 00:26
Now, Ross, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to reshape the whole thing, but just to incorporate this second title in an interesting way. And of course, the players can do that too. So we've rolled and the next title comes from Duckling in Yellow on patreon.com/pushtheroll, and the title is "The Toll Collector."
Ross Bryant 00:49
Yes.
Paula Deming 00:51
Oh no.
Ross Bryant 00:52
[MUSIC: melancholic guitar theme] The cosmos is a cyclopean infinity of chaos, infinite branching paths stretching off to vistas in the distance that will drive the mind mad. Shall we shrink in the face of all this? Or will we climb aboard the chaos and ride it to the end, letting chance guide the way? This is Push the Roll. We're rolling dice against your Patreon suggestions to create improvised Call of Cthulhu adventures in real time with themes of eldritch horror, the weird, the transhuman, the transmundane, the cyberpunk, the splatterpunk, the anything punk. We don't know until we roll. Anytime, anyplace, anything can happen when you push the roll.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 02:06
[MUSIC: eerie piano] Oh, Mr. Bastian, you are wicked. Yes, I think that that's precisely what we need. How deliciously theatrical. Yes, yes.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 02:18
Well, in America, we mostly call it asking for trouble. Miss Windby, you must be, uh, have some experience in that area.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 02:26
In seances? I mean, a lot of table knocking, if you ask me. But I mean, it's worth giving it a shot. People have had stranger things happening. I mean, there's clearly something going on with this mirror, and maybe we can get to the bottom of it,
Virginia Lee 02:41
I say. I'm looking at it again, and I'm looking at Anna and I'm looking at the mirror.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 02:47
Yes, is something going on? Are you... now, I know of venerable objects of all sorts and extractions come into my possession. Why those candlesticks right over there come from Norgate Abbey. Yes, I have all manner of beautiful sacred objects that have found a more secular setting within my humble abode. Are you saying that this, this exerted some manner of power over you, Miss St. Clair? We're all modern people of the world. Don't tell me you really believe in that sort of thing.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 03:23
Oh, um...
Paula Deming 03:25
As she looks at the head of her mallet and it's clean.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 03:28
You know, it's not really a true mirror, so maybe it just distorts what you see. And I don't know, you know, I saw something strange. I will just again, I will be vulnerable. I saw myself looking so beautiful, but also using my mallet to beat someone. And I wasn't doing that here, but I saw it in the reflection and there was someone over my shoulder, and I don't think I imagined it. But then, how could that be? How could that be true? What does it mean?
Paula Deming 04:06
And I will look at all of my, you know, mystery solving, friends, my Scooby Doo crew.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 04:10
What does it mean?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 04:13
It means that we should get on with the seance at once. This sounds marvelous.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 04:20
Don't you want to look? That sounds really interesting.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 04:23
Yes.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 04:23
Do you mind, Lord Bierbaum, if we all take a peek?
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 04:27
You're all going to look?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 04:29
Well this, of course, my dear man, is why I brought you all here, because I know that you, like me, are delvers into realms grotesque. So yes, of course, look to your heart's content. As for you, Miss St. Clair, I fear that you have carried some previous shock into my party. I don't want you to cause a terrible scene for I don't like scenes at my parties that I am not the center of.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 04:54
Oh, no, of course. Of course not.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 04:56
I'll have Stoker bring you around some sherry.
Ross Bryant 05:00
And he exits the room. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 05:05
Perhaps I shouldn't have spoken so freely in front of him, but I experienced something. I don't think it was in my mind and well, you three are the ones that I trust with everything strange and unusual, we've seen so much together.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 05:18
Miss St. Clair, I believe absolutely that you saw what you say you saw. I think you lack the imagination to make it up.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 05:27
Oh! [laughter] You're probably right about that. Actually, I don't think I'm even offended. I think that's true. I mean, look into it if you want, but I am... just be careful. I don't want anything bad to happen to any of us.
cuppycup 05:46
Well, if I look, we'll know for sure, because I have no imagination. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 05:50
[SFX: heavy footsteps] A large, darkly complexioned man walks into the room in sort of a black livery. He's got a crystal carafe on a silver tray. He sets it down and pours you a little glass of sherry. [SFX: clinking glass and liquid pouring]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 06:07
Oh, thank you.
Paula Deming 06:08
I down it like in one, I don't sip it, I down it in one go. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 06:13
Bierbaum sweeps back in the room.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 06:15
Yes, thank you, Stoker, leave the bottle. I find it to be most soothing to the constitution.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 06:21
Yes, indeed.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 06:22
Now you gave a little start about the derangement of your senses. I find that this too provides a lovely languor to the senses. If Sherry is not doing the job, Stoker has other things that may be able to cast a pall over your sensitive faculties.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 06:41
No, no, no. Sherry is fine for me. I won't speak for everyone else, but this is quite sufficient. Thank you.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 06:47
Now you said something about a seance. Do any of you feel equipped to execute this sort of thing?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 06:54
Not in the slightest, my dear man, but that's never stopped me before. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 07:01
And I'll say that we've set this up at a little decadent soiree. If you want to enlist someone else, there might be someone else at this party who might know something about the mirror, or at least is capable of running a seance of the type that you're suggesting. But if you want to do it on your own.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 07:18
Miss Windby, do you recognize anybody here that could maybe help us do this? Are you saying, Mr. Bastian, that we should perform the seance and then look into the mirror? Is that how you're seeing this play out?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 07:29
Oh, no. I was suggesting that we make the mirror the focal point to the seance, that we use it to divine. We use it as a way to manifest the spirits. Because I believe that is probably what its purpose was, and if not, well, it is now. [laughter]
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 07:49
Fair enough.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 07:49
To answer your question, I haven't recognized anybody in the party, but there were a lot of people hiding their faces with fans and in dark alcoves and whatnot. So if we take a look, we might be able to find somebody. There are a lot of people who are into that sort of thing who go to these sorts of parties. We're sure to find somebody. Perhaps the Fox sisters are in attendance. [laughter]
Paula Deming 08:14
Ooh! Wouldn't that be something?
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 08:16
And I did see a fellow with, like, a hypnotizing spiral mustache. Did you see that guy? [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 08:23
Yes. How does he get it to grow that way?
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 08:25
Exactly.
Ross Bryant 08:28
Wow. All these things are true. Yes, you've got spiral mustache guy. You don't know how good of a medium he is. We put you at a party, so feel free to talk to as many people as you want, but the Fox sisters are definitely also there, whoever they are. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 08:44
Well, did you want to look in the mirror? Should we go out and see if there are any mediums about?
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 08:54
Well, I'm not gonna know anybody here, so I'll take a peek in the mirror while y'all gallivant, whatever it is you do.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 09:02
I feel that we should approach this with our own particular spirit of inquiry, because if we were to go out into the party and find a skilled medium, they would undoubtedly just guide us through some tedious table rapping. But here we have a chance to experience something truly other.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 09:26
Do you want to try and run the seance in here with just us ourselves? Is that what you're suggesting, Jasper?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 09:34
Indeed, yes.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 09:38
Oh, all right. Um, well, we could try.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 09:41
Yes, I suppose we could try. Um, Stoker, bring some candles. There's a good chap.
Ross Bryant 09:47
And soon you've got the room fitted out with some candles all around you on the table. The mirror is under its velvet covering in the center of the circular table. The five of you are now seated around it as you were before. Stoker departs, leaving his sherry.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 10:04
Well, I've done, of course, as you say, Mr. Bastian, I've been a part of numerous seances. I've seen, I've heard rappings, seen things float, seen ectoplasm produced from who knows where. But, I'm not, as you say, a skilled medium. What are we to do? I suppose it starts by holding hands. And he reaches out for your hand, Bastian. [laughter]
Scott Dorward 10:29
Which I take with enthusiasm. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 10:33
Does anyone know ancient Greek? I think that's what is marked on the back. Maybe we speak in ancient Greek, it'll awaken something.
Ross Bryant 10:41
Do any of you know ancient Greek?
Scott Dorward 10:44
Not a word.
cuppycup 10:46
Not unless that's "Language: Own." [laughter]
Paula Deming 10:49
Language: Own!
Ross Bryant 10:51
It's not Language: Own.
cuppycup 10:52
I just need to know does Miss Windby put the gloves on for the hand holding?
Virginia Lee 10:56
No, I take them off for the hand holding.
cuppycup 10:58
Okay.
Virginia Lee 10:59
I don't have Greek, and I know it's a completely different language but I do have Latin as a Language: Other. Different alphabet.
Ross Bryant 11:08
Different alphabet entirely, but you might be able to know something. I would let people roll. This is kind of a stretch of the use of it, but Library Use to kind of just read it.
Scott Dorward 11:20
Or perhaps, for those of us with a classical education, as the British school system did at the time, perhaps just an Education roll.
Ross Bryant 11:26
That's a great idea. Yeah, if you did a classical education, then yes, you'd have some knowledge of Greek. You might have translated some chunks of Xenophon or Socrates.
cuppycup 11:39
So I'll roll Library Use. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 11:44
Silas knows it's writing. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 11:49
I don't want to be the one to say it out loud, so I'll let either of you, Claire or Jasper, give it a try.
Scott Dorward 11:54
And I got a regular success on my Education.
cuppycup 11:57
Same for Library Use.
Virginia Lee 12:00
Okay, so mine is 65 and I rolled a 57.
Ross Bryant 12:03
Yes, you two upon close inspection of the reverse side of the glass, see again, those, those like classical Greek letters, but there's something wrong about them. Of course, they're they're super stylized in the way that, like extremely decorative calligraphy, sometimes makes things illegible, but it's more than that. Your success tells you that, yeah, this is Greek, but you'd be hard-pressed to read it because it's backwards.
Virginia Lee 12:31
Oh, I pipe up and I say,
Claire Windby (Virginia) 12:34
Odd question. Do you have an actual mirror, like just a plain one?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 12:39
Oh, of course, my dear woman, yes, there's not one in here, but if you care to come to my nearby bedchamber, if you wouldn't find it too cloying, I, of course, have several full length mirrors. One must look at oneself during one's toilette, one's dressing, and when one is engaging in other activities. [laughter]
Claire Windby (Virginia) 13:03
Oh, perhaps Stoker could maybe fetch a hand mirror so we could, you know, keep in the room with the seance. The energy, we don't want to disturb the energy in the room.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 13:15
Oh yes, if you insist.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 13:17
I'm afraid I do. [laughter]
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 13:21
It is a very fine mirror. There's one above my bed. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 13:28
What could that be used for?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 13:30
Stoker! [laughter]
Scott Dorward 13:32
I think at that point, Jasper colors bright red.
Ross Bryant 13:39
Stoker returns. Bierbaum's like,
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 13:41
Yes, to the toilette Stoker, to the hand mirror.
Ross Bryant 13:44
And in a moment, Stoker returns with a hefty metal hand mirror. It seems to be more decorative than it is useful, but it is fine. It's again, like every inch of it is covered with little floral motifs, but it is a proper hand mirror. The two mirrors are now side by side.
Virginia Lee 14:06
I will put my kid gloves back on, and I'm going to pick up the golden mirror and I'm going to hold it up to the hand mirror, but I'm not going to look at it. I'm going to look at Jasper. [laughter]
Claire Windby (Virginia) 14:22
What does it say? Can you read it?
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 14:24
Oh, look, y'all there's writing on that thing. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 14:28
Oh, yes, Silas we... Oh, you're just now noticing.
Scott Dorward 14:32
Jasper will cheerfully read this out loud, because nothing bad can happen there. [laughter]
Paula Deming 14:40
Nothing bad.
Ross Bryant 14:41
So you're facing the mirror to the reverse side.
Scott Dorward 14:44
Yes.
Ross Bryant 14:45
You look at the distended and curiously scrawled Greek on the back of the mirror, and you hold it up to the hand mirror, and it resolves now into its correct syntax. I'll let your Education roll carry over so you can now rudimently kind of piece it out in your schoolboy Greek.
Scott Dorward 15:05
Yeah, the tenses will be completely wrong, but we'll work with what we have.
Ross Bryant 15:11
[MUSIC: ominous drone] Be present goddess to thy suppliant's prayer. Desired by all whom, all alike, revere. Blessed, benevolent with friendly aid dispel the fears of twilight's dreadful shade.
cuppycup 15:30
Wow.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 15:31
That feels a bit ominous.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 15:33
I do prefer Walt Whitman. [laughter]
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 15:36
I may have to take a rubbing at this and publish it in the next issue of my journal.
Ross Bryant 15:42
If people can make a hard Education roll or a regular Occult roll, you might know something about this inscription.
Scott Dorward 15:49
Oh, I'll try an Occult roll.
Virginia Lee 15:52
They're the same for me, just regular success.
Ross Bryant 15:54
A regular success on Occult though?
Virginia Lee 15:56
Yeah, yes.
Paula Deming 15:58
I got an extreme on Education. I rolled an eight under 65.
Ross Bryant 16:02
Amazing.
cuppycup 16:03
And I have just a hard success on Education.
Scott Dorward 16:06
I rolled a 98 but happily, my Occult is 50.
Ross Bryant 16:13
Damn it. Okay, great. So you got an extreme success, Anna St. Clair?
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 16:18
Yes. Oh, I just suddenly remember something buried deep inside, from school.
Ross Bryant 16:23
From school. I want to say that this is school, but it maybe is not from a teacher, perhaps a tutor, a young teacher. I want to imagine years ago, the very young Anna St. Clair, and there is a tutor talking through some Greek. And you're, vibing out, you're well into the night. Perhaps this is one of those unrequited crushes that the young Anna St. Clair...
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 16:47
He's just so lovely to look at. I would listen to him talk about Greek all night long. I just keep asking questions, because the more questions I ask, the more answers he gives, and then the later we go, and father doesn't mind, it's educational. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 17:03
And that snatch of translated poetry that comes out of the mouth of Jasper Bastian strikes a chord in you. [MUSIC: romantic piano] And you remember something very similar coming out of the mouth of let's call him James Lindmore, your crush as a as a girl.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 17:19
Oh, yes. Oh, I wonder what he's doing now.
James Lindmore (Ross) 17:24
One thinks of those old gods. Could one really have believed them? But then, of course, they are the hymns of Orpheus, the Orphic Hymns, some of the most ancient spell songs in the entire Western canon, apotropaic songs, to Prothyraia, to the stars, to Protogonos and to Nyx the mother of night. It is after he mentions that that he intones some of these verses, and you hear again in his voice, "by fate's decree, you constant send the light to deepest Hell, remote from mortal sight, for dire necessity which not withstands, invests the world with adamantine bands. Be present, Goddess to thy suppliant's prayer desired by all whom, all alike, revere.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 18:16
Oh, it's beautiful, isn't it? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 18:19
And, yeah, and what you realize is what is inscribed on the back of this mirror is a prayer to Nyx, the elemental goddess of night.
Paula Deming 18:33
I share this with the group.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 18:35
Oh, I have a sudden memory of a boy I loved, a man. I guess he was a man. Anyway, I I believe this is calling out Nyx, the Mother of Night.
Ross Bryant 18:44
And you would know that... You had an extreme success, right?
Paula Deming 18:47
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 18:47
That Nyx is well known by her children, Hypnos, Moros, Nemesis, Eris, Charon. Nyx is sort of the wellspring of these sort of conceptual personifications of things like sleep and doom and retribution and strife and death.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 19:11
I always looked back on my memory of learning this bit of poetry fondly, like it was something nice. But now in hindsight, it seems as though this might be evil, like it has to do with death and darkness and falling into a slumber, and I think we should tread very carefully.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 19:32
Evil. Oh, delicious. Why, Mr. Bastian, it's rather like the memento mori of your illustrations, is it not?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 19:41
Indeed, indeed.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 19:44
Is love and beauty not more beautiful when set off by death and doom?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 19:49
Indeed and so much of what makes the world beautiful is deemed evil by this society in which we find ourselves trapped. Anyway. Can we not find the true roots of beauty, of transcendence in what others would call evil?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 20:08
Yes, Mr. Bastian, what society deems evil. There are those of us, the elect, know is transcendent beauty.
Ross Bryant 20:17
He's gazing deep into your eyes.
Scott Dorward 20:19
I give his hand a squeeze.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 20:24
You know, but some things are just evil. Some things are just bad, you know, like hell, bad place.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 20:33
So what, how should we proceed? I know, as I said, I've done seances, but I've never run one.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 20:41
Hmm. Well, if we are to be perfectly honest, every medium I have met has been a flagrant charlatan. So why should we not throw ourselves into this endeavor with the same lack of care and wanton abandon as they do?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 20:59
Yes, I find that paradox is often more truthful than plain veracity. Often when one aims at pantomime, one lands at opera. So let us begin our seance ironical. And who knows what we shall touch.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 21:17
Marvelous.
Ross Bryant 21:17
[MUSIC: eerie piano] So he takes the cover off of the mirror, [SFX: cloth movement] and, I guess, turns it over so that it's in the center of the table with its mirrored surface facing upright. If everyone kind of cranes over the table, you can see yourselves as if on the rim of a pool looking down into the dark surface of the glass. And he takes hands. All around you the candles burn in the dim light of the room. You're now kind of enclosed in it. You can smell the smoke of these fumigating candles all around. How will you proceed with your ad hoc ritual?
Scott Dorward 21:55
Yes, I'll just look into the mirror and say,
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 21:58
Dark Mother, mother of night, show us what you have hidden in your depths of beautiful darkness.
Ross Bryant 22:07
Awesome.
cuppycup 22:09
I think, trying to mimic Mr. Bastian, Watson will say,
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 22:13
Hey, there evil things, uhh. [laughter]
cuppycup 22:20
And he's also wondering,
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 22:20
How did I get here?
Ross Bryant 22:22
[thinking as Silas] What the hell?
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 22:24
Why? Why am I here? [laughter]
Scott Dorward 22:27
Took a wrong turn in Albuquerque. [laughter]
cuppycup 22:29
Exactly.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 22:31
[clears throat] Hey, there evil things. Reckon it's time we, uh, snipped your strings?
Ross Bryant 22:39
Great. I would love to hear intonations from everybody at the table,
Virginia Lee 22:43
Alright, I sort of sit up straight and I go,
Claire Windby (Virginia) 22:48
Lady Nyx, if you are here, give us words of wisdom, dear, or else we'll have to leave. I don't know. And then she just sort of looks around like, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't believe in this shite. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 23:05
[MUSIC: ominous drone] Hypnos, Moros, Nemesis, Eris and all the others, reveal yourselves. Show us the way to Nyx your mother of night. And perhaps we shall see what shan't be seen when there is light. [laughter] I don't even know where that came from.
Ross Bryant 23:30
The candles seem to like gutter and waver. It was probably just a breeze, just a draft. You clutch one another's palms, you see your own reflections dimly there in the glass surface. Let's have you all roll Power, that Power roll.
Paula Deming 23:50
Oh boy, oh boy.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 23:51
If this works, we'll never know which intonation it was that made it work.
cuppycup 23:56
Oh, wow. I rolled a 100.
Paula Deming 23:59
Oh, no, you fumbled!
Ross Bryant 24:01
Silas Watson rolled a 100? Okay, so that means something bad is going to happen.
Scott Dorward 24:06
Oh, excellent.
Paula Deming 24:07
Oh no, I have a regular success.
Ross Bryant 24:10
A regular success from Anna.
Virginia Lee 24:12
I have a 30 out of 60. So I guess hard success.
Paula Deming 24:17
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 24:17
Hard success for Claire.
Scott Dorward 24:19
And I failed, though I am perfectly willing to push if that's appropriate.
Paula Deming 24:26
Ooh!
Ross Bryant 24:26
Yeah, dog, this feels like a pivotal moment. I feel like you may. Yeah, yeah.
Scott Dorward 24:31
Yes. I think Jasper, feeling that he is perhaps not as receptive to the darkness as he might be, is going to reach into his pocket and pull out a little vial and drip a few drops of tincture of hashish into his mouth. [laughter]
Paula Deming 24:51
Yeah, open that mind.
Ross Bryant 24:53
Wonderful. Um, yes. Make that pushed roll. And let's see if your Popeye-like use of hashish gives you super occult power.
Scott Dorward 25:04
It does not. It really does not. [laughter]
cuppycup 25:09
I think we must be holding hands at this moment. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 25:13
It's so early and you're already fumbling with your interactions with cryptic artifacts. Who knows how long this session will be? Okay.
cuppycup 25:21
You know, fumbles don't always have to be that bad, Ross. [laughter]
Paula Deming 25:24
We don't have to die yet. We don't have to lose our minds quite yet.
Ross Bryant 25:29
Okay. Just see here, the nature of the misfortune or bad luck of a fumble is at the Keeper's discretion. So, just so we all know who to blame, let's deal with the successes. [MUSIC: ominous drone] First, the room is dark, deeper into the dark reflective surface of that mirror. It feels as though you're moving towards this sort of meniscus of a pool of water that sort of bulges up, its surface tension keeping it with a dome-like shape. You pierce that surface and are inside looking at your reflection. You see your reflection again, Anna, and once again, you see yourself, perhaps as you have wished to see yourself at your moments of deepest uncertainty and self-recrimination when your crush, Mr. Lindmore, came to you and took your hand and looked into your eyes and told you that he was going to propose marriage to someone else.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 26:33
Oh, of course, I'm so happy for you.
Ross Bryant 26:36
Perhaps that night just after seeing her, seeing the banality of her conversation, but seeing the radiance of her beauty.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 26:45
She doesn't even know anything about ancient Greek. She's so beautiful.
Ross Bryant 26:50
How you wished you could have been just had some small part of that physical allurement that some people are blessed with by the hand of chance, and how perhaps a part of you that you barely even know is there that just whispers down in the basement of your consciousness telling you that you would smash her face to pieces to have some part of her beauty.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 27:18
Perhaps I realize in this moment, that the person who I saw before, who I had smashed to bits, her face in, was her.
Ross Bryant 27:29
Yes.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 27:30
And that's alright, because now I have a little bit of her beauty.
Ross Bryant 27:34
Yes, yes, and you deserve it. You're the one who deserves it. This isn't just the way it should be. This is a settling of accounts, a pushing the hand of chance. This is retribution. This is Nemesis. We'll leave it there. You got a hard success, Claire Windby, you're already a rather statuesque beauty. 45, a widow. Do you think you get a lot of suitors these days?
Virginia Lee 28:06
There are certainly a lot of men who try. But ever since Roger passed away in that unfortunate canoe accident in Canada, my heart simply doesn't have space for another. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 28:20
Excellent, I love it. Yes, your heart doesn't have space for another. There are certainly those who try, though. So you maybe pour yourself more into your work, into the delights and affections of the mind and your sort of occult travels, decadent places like this. But you're aware that because of your delvings into occult lore, and also your love of beautiful things, that glamor is, in itself, a form of magical potency. And how enticing it would be to have even more of that glamor for yourself, how much more powerful, how much more influence you could have, how much more you could overtake such rivals as Jessop and Coke.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 29:08
I could add a whole second level to my shop and fill it with items far as the eye can see.
Ross Bryant 29:15
[MUSIC: ethereal drone] Yes, as far as the eye can see. You see yourself, beautiful, radiant, perhaps 20 or so years younger as you were when Roger was still alive in the first flush of your romance. And there you are fulfilled in that wonderful way. It could be yours again. You see the the blush in your cheek, the radiant sheen of your hair in the sunlight, and you see the magic circle that you've drawn on the floor. You see the blood in a small silver dish that you have placed there, the offering that you have made to Nyx, which allows you to kill people at a distance, that you have the experience of growing younger, because you know that both Jessop and Coke are at this very moment, withering, choking, dying in agony as their blood turns to foam in their bodies, while yours pumps like the pounding of the heart of a lover inside you, as you intone the ancient Greek spells of Nyx, as you overwhelm them with the power of Thanatos. [laughter]
Virginia Lee 30:28
Very cool.
Ross Bryant 30:29
Let's have you both roll Sanity based on these little experiences.
Virginia Lee 30:32
Okay.
cuppycup 30:34
The good outcomes are scary. I'm so scared, Ross.
Scott Dorward 30:37
Yeah.
Virginia Lee 30:39
I got a 67.
Ross Bryant 30:41
Is that a failure?
Virginia Lee 30:42
Out of 60.
Ross Bryant 30:44
Yeah.
Virginia Lee 30:44
Yep.
Paula Deming 30:46
Can you use Luck on Sanity rolls or no?
Ross Bryant 30:48
No.
Paula Deming 30:49
No, I didn't think so. I have a 37 under 48 so I'm a regular success.
Ross Bryant 30:55
A 37 under, you're a regular success.
Paula Deming 30:58
Yes.
Ross Bryant 30:58
And you're a failure, Claire?
Virginia Lee 30:59
I am a failure. Yes.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 31:01
I'm a failure! [laughter]
Paula Deming 31:03
Uh, let's rephrase.
Ross Bryant 31:04
I'm sorry, let me rephrase. You failed just this once. You're thriving. Every day is a journey. [laughter]
Virginia Lee 31:12
Thank you. I feel so seen.
Ross Bryant 31:16
It's the journey, not the destination. And yeah. Okay, great. So you just take two more points of Sanity loss, Anna, for that.
Paula Deming 31:25
Okay.
Ross Bryant 31:25
You take, I'm sorry to say, four points of Sanity loss, Claire.
Virginia Lee 31:30
Oh no.
Ross Bryant 31:33
As you feel the enticements to delve deeper into these occult communications with forces beyond the ken of mortals, because they have such gifts to impart on those that pay them homage. Now, Silas and Jasper, you both fumbled. Which, you rolled, did you say you rolled a 100 Jasper?
cuppycup 31:55
I rolled the 100 and Scott failed a push.
Ross Bryant 31:59
Yeah. Oh. Failed a push.
Scott Dorward 32:00
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 32:00
These are both real bad. Let's do, God wow. They're awful. [laughter]
Paula Deming 32:05
He says with a grin.
Virginia Lee 32:06
[singing] Oh no. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 32:08
I'll do the fumble first. Silas, you go into the mirror, into the mirror. In, in. See yourself staring back at you. You're a strong, graying-at-the-temples picture of rugged 19th century manhood. [MUSIC: ominous drone] Yeah, just see the angles of your face standing out all the more, the planes of your face all the more gorgeous. And see yourself there admiring your own beauty in the water. You were a youth looking at your beauty in the water, looking back at you. God, you, it's so beautiful you would almost like to kiss yourself. It's a tragedy that you can't enfold yourself in your arms as you gaze at yourself in the water. What is this water? Is it the mirrored surface of the mirror itself? Because you look up and you realize that you're on a boat. Is it a canoe on the surface of Lake Huron? [SFX: water lapping against boat]
cuppycup 33:04
Oh God.
Ross Bryant 33:06
No, no, it is not. It is a boat, though, on a surface of water. And there is a figure at the stern, as you turn around, pulling the depths of this water. Its face is utter darkness. Darkness incarnate. The cloak it wears hangs on it with the weight of stone. It pulls the water on the surface of this body of water that seems to go off in every direction, and you are suddenly struck with the maddening realization that you are somehow both inside and outside. That the expanse that extends above you in every direction is impossibly large and yet enclosed. It is as though you are underground, experiencing agoraphobia and claustrophobia at the same moment. The cyclopean size of this cavern that you are in, just like shocks your senses as you realize you are being rowed, rowed, inexorably onward towards a consummation that must come. It is coming. You are on a river, alright. You are on a river that only flows one way. Death is coming. Charon is rowing. Yeah, roll Sanity. [laughter]
cuppycup 34:23
Yeah.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 34:25
Oh, I don't have anything to pay the toll. [laughter]
cuppycup 34:28
Let's see. Let me roll here. Oh, boy, I failed.
Ross Bryant 34:33
Oh, you failed, did ya?
cuppycup 34:35
71 over 65.
Ross Bryant 34:38
Okay.
Virginia Lee 34:39
Oh, no, we're all mad here.
Ross Bryant 34:41
God, you got lucky. That's four points of Sanity loss. But I will say that you are not... Unlike Anna and Claire, there's not a part of your consciousness that's still in the room of Lord Alfred Bierbaum. You are on the boat.
cuppycup 34:56
Yeah, that's fair.
Paula Deming 34:57
Oh, no.
Ross Bryant 34:59
Jasper Bastian.
Scott Dorward 35:00
Yes.
Ross Bryant 35:01
The hashish is hitting your bloodstream, and you tumble into the surface of a mirror. [MUSIC: whimsical strings] You realize that you are suddenly, your hands are standing out in stark relief as you look at yourself, and you're not dressed in your kind of Victorian top coat. You're dressed in a flowing, gaudy Grecian tunic that flows in sinuous lines off of your wrist. As you realize you are in one of your own illustrations, the curlicues of your hair extend off like little filigrees. There are tiny, little bulbous putti and cupids frolicking around you. A little nymph scampers by, pursued by a lustful satyr, and you were there in this sort of like art nouveau, animated world of black and white. And the black stands out distinctly, the darkness of your ink, a palpable darkness as in this Sylvan grove that you have illustrated and somehow found yourself in. You are aware of the presence, as you said, of death, of memento mori, that "et en Arcadia ego," here I am as well. And even the little satyr is pointing, leering at you, pointing into the wood, into the grove, the magical grove, where the genius of the place waits for you. There is something in here waiting for you as you are lost in your own dream. Oneiros is taking over your mind. The darkness is beginning to move out of the wood towards you. It is darkness incarnate, dream and nightmare reaching towards you. And you are maybe the only one who sees, as the hand that is reaching towards you is now reaching out of the mirror in front of you. As all of you now are aware of, an ebon black hand, as if coming out of a surface of a body of water, coming up out of the mirror, and it's long, jagged nails carving into the wood on the lacquered surface of the table. Please make a Sanity roll, Jasper.
Scott Dorward 37:19
Oh, well, just to make things worse...
Ross Bryant 37:21
Please.
Scott Dorward 37:23
Well, I think, given the inspiration I've been seeking, and seeing this hand of pure darkness and nightmare coming out of the mirror as I'm descending into madness, I'm reaching out and grabbing the hand. [laughter and a gasp]
Ross Bryant 37:39
It interlaces with your fingers, and it is pulling you back.
Scott Dorward 37:42
Oh, and I'm trying to pull it out.
Ross Bryant 37:44
Yeah, pulling.
Paula Deming 37:44
Oh, my God.
Ross Bryant 37:46
The rest of you see, suddenly Jasper, except you, Silas, still awash on waters.
cuppycup 37:51
Of course. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 37:53
Okay, Anna, Claire and Lord Alfred Bierbaum actually, let's see. Let's see his roll here. [laughter]
Scott Dorward 38:00
I did actually pass my San roll, sadly.
Paula Deming 38:03
Oh, nice.
Ross Bryant 38:04
Okay, great. You just lose two points of Sanity.
Scott Dorward 38:08
Okay.
Ross Bryant 38:09
And Anna and Claire, you can shake this off for a moment, but you still feel that compulsion. Both of you, please exchange a point of Constitution for a point of Appearance.
Virginia Lee 38:18
Oh.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 38:20
I'm getting so beautiful yet so weak. Yeesh, my Con is down to 38.
Ross Bryant 38:25
Uh oh, you turn and see one Silas Watson is staring into the middle distance. His pupils unfocused and dilated as he's... What do you think you're muttering to yourself, audible to the others?
cuppycup 38:41
I think he's probably like,
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 38:42
I don't pay no ferryman unless I know where I'm going. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 38:48
You turn to your perhaps, right, and you see Lord Alfred Bierbaum holding his own hand like it's the the hand of of someone beloved. And just like kissing it, he's almost like making out with himself. [laughter] But of course, you maybe clocked that only for a second because there is a hand made of corporeal darkness trying to pull Jasper Bastian into the mirror. Make a Strength roll, Jasper.
Scott Dorward 39:15
No, appropriately enough, I failed that one. I think I'd like to try to find a way of pushing this, however, because Jasper isn't the strongest of people and is perhaps succumbing to just the inevitability of this, but at the same time, this, to him, is the inspiration he's been seeking. This is the culmination of his, admittedly at this stage, rather short life's work, and he wants to see this manifest. So, oh, I've got a terrible idea for...
Paula Deming 39:52
Oh no.
Scott Dorward 39:53
For pushing this for roll, which is feeling myself losing this battle, I'm going to reach behind and grab one of the candlesticks and use it to smash the mirror and release this thing.
Ross Bryant 40:07
Great. You are able to grab it because this thing is incredibly strong, and I won't even tell you its level of success, but you're feel... the rest of you see the hand closed around Jasper's wrist, and suddenly his hand and part of his forearm are disappearing into the mirror as it continues to kind of work its way up his arm, as if he's being plunged into dark water. But now the candlestick is in his hand ready to smash. Yeah, other people have agency, but yeah, go ahead and make your I guess you could call this a Fighting/Brawl, I suppose.
Scott Dorward 40:41
[MUSIC: eerie drone] Yeah, let's push for something that I'm even worse at than I am at Strength. Fantastic.
Ross Bryant 40:49
Great. Yeah, you because you're not just using Strength now, this is a maneuver, so go ahead and crack that mirror with that candlestick.
Scott Dorward 40:56
And you know, if that had been a Strength roll, it would have been a success, but as a Fighting/Brawl roll, not so much.
Ross Bryant 41:07
Oh, the hubris, the hubris of those in the thrall of extra-dimensional entities, sometimes comes back to haunt them.
Paula Deming 41:15
Well, that's alright, because I'm an athlete, and what am I good at but swinging at things? And I see this, and I go, huh? And I grab my croquet mallet, and I will also try and smash at the hand, try and get it with my croquet mallet to try and get it to let go of Jasper.
Ross Bryant 41:33
Okay, but we got to get the consequences of this failed push first.
Paula Deming 41:37
Got it.
Scott Dorward 41:38
Oh, yeah.
Ross Bryant 41:39
The candlestick comes down on the obverse of the mirror, the surface of that dark stone. Boom and it cracks. A spider web of shivers runs across it, and you hear, now all of you hear like a (raspy gasping) as suddenly the room gets like 30 degrees colder.
Paula Deming 42:00
Oh no.
Ross Bryant 42:02
The arm is still on yours, but now you get the sense that it is not pulling you in. It is using your body as leverage and purchase to come out. I think you're gonna take some damage here.
Scott Dorward 42:17
Oh yeah, yeah.
Ross Bryant 42:19
I think that that's three points of damage. As you feel, oh God, to do this to an illustrator, terrible irony, as you feel your hand and wrist start to get crushed under the grip of this thing.
Scott Dorward 42:33
Oh, dear.
Ross Bryant 42:34
Yeah, now you're gonna swing your your croquet mallet at the hand, you said?
Paula Deming 42:39
At the hand, trying to get it to let go, Jasper.
Ross Bryant 42:42
Please do make a Fighting/Brawl roll with your mallet. Roll your mallet skill.
Paula Deming 42:51
Let's go. No, it's a fail. It's just 63 over 55.
Ross Bryant 42:59
Cool. I like that. [laughter]
Paula Deming 43:01
I don't Ross, I don't like it. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 43:07
Here's how I'll judge that. You swing at the hand. You are sure that you're about to connect, but it seems to kind of move without you even perceiving it, just a little to the right, and your hammer comes down and thwacks the table.
Paula Deming 43:23
I never miss.
Ross Bryant 43:25
Bierbaum is like,
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 43:26
Steady on.
Ross Bryant 43:27
He's continuing to, like, suckle at his own finger and Silas, you hear a voice behind you in the boat, in this space that makes your whole inner ear kind of reel. [SFX: water lapping]
Charon (Ross) 43:46
Not yet, but soon.
Ross Bryant 43:56
Two skeletal dark fingers point at you and just like towards where its eyes would be.
Charon (Ross) 44:05
Remember your payment.
Ross Bryant 44:10
And you're back in the room. [laughter]
cuppycup 44:16
Oh man. He'll be gripping his revolver with white knuckles without even realizing it, in the holster. His coat might even be a little bit damp, and he has like a slightly brackish smell. Is that another Sanity check, Ross?
Ross Bryant 44:32
Yeah, I like that idea. [laughter]
cuppycup 44:35
And I'll pass this one. I think Silas realizing he's back in the room, is going to light a cigarette. (puffs and exhales)
Ross Bryant 44:44
The calming power of tobacco means that there's no Sanity loss from this little interaction with Charon. [laughter]
cuppycup 44:52
We have Mr. Bastian playing out an old version of Reefer Madness while I'm kind of building up the powers of smoking tobacco. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 45:00
Yes, so suddenly there's a little extra light in the room as a lighter flares, or perhaps you just light it off a candle. Claire, is there anything you'd like to be doing?
Virginia Lee 45:08
Can I do like, an Occult check? Like, have I seen anything like this before, where the like, temperature drops and spider webs and like hands coming out? Like, to maybe know what to do in this kind of situation?
Ross Bryant 45:20
Yes, make an Occult roll.
Virginia Lee 45:21
Absolutely, alright. Oh, that's a fail. I got an 85 out of 65.
Ross Bryant 45:28
You could always push.
Paula Deming 45:29
Or spend Luck. Spend lots of Luck.
Virginia Lee 45:31
Yes, yes, yes, yes. 100 percent. So I'm gonna spend... math, math! 25 of my Luck. That brings me down to 50.
Paula Deming 45:40
Wow, must be nice.
Ross Bryant 45:42
Ooh, that's a lot of Luck.
Virginia Lee 45:43
That is a lot of Luck. But this looks like a bad situation.
Ross Bryant 45:47
Okay, so that just gets you down to a regular success. Okay, over the course of your time dealing with strange and curious, spiritually infused objects in reading up on them, and indeed, of like, what you've learned of like scrying mirrors. Scrying mirrors were, especially in like the Renaissance and later used as a way to communicate with spirits, especially angels. Like, it's a way of of trying to make contact with the angelic court and get some advice about the future or the shape of things to come. But of course, this always comes with dangers, because there are eliders, maybe other spiritual forces that may pose as angels, that can communicate with you as well. But what you know of scrying mirrors is that it's rare that you use them on your own. You often have to prepare a pretty elaborate ritual space for them to be potent. And you get the sense that the candles in this room, the fumigating fire around this mirror, are, in a way, making it more powerful. They are, in a way, inscribing a ritual circle around it.
Virginia Lee 46:57
Oh!
Ross Bryant 46:58
And you may be able to disempower it somewhat by snuffing out the candles. But whatever is coming out of this thing, that might stop other things from coming out of it, but the door has been opened by breaking the glass.
Virginia Lee 47:11
Oh, no.
Ross Bryant 47:14
That realization comes to you in a flash. And yeah, how do you want to, how do you want to snuff the candles?
Virginia Lee 47:21
So they're in a circle around us, or, like, on the table, or...
Ross Bryant 47:26
Yeah, let's say there are like six candles in this little room all around you.
Virginia Lee 47:31
Okay, I assume I'm still holding people's hands. I'm gonna drop their hands and, like, jump out of the chair, like, backwards, knocking it back, and I'm gonna be like, the candles, get rid of the candles, and I'm just gonna, like, fucking, pardon my French, I'm gonna run over there and, like, knock it to the ground and stamp on it, because I can't think of anything else to do in the panic. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 47:50
Yeah, I don't think you need to roll anything to actually put out candles. I will make you roll Luck to see if you set the house on fire. [laughter]
Paula Deming 48:01
Yeah.
Scott Dorward 48:03
Fantastic.
Virginia Lee 48:04
Fair. Okay, alright.
cuppycup 48:07
Virginia, you're getting the full Call of Cthulhu experience now.
Virginia Lee 48:11
Amazing! That's fair. Well, question, so it's from my current or from my starting point.
Ross Bryant 48:19
Very much for your current.
Virginia Lee 48:21
Current, yep, that's a fail. It's a 73 out of 50.
Ross Bryant 48:25
That's one of my favorite rounds of all time. You spend a lot of Luck to know how that works. But then, of course, Luck comes in handy in these situations. So yes, the candles are, you sweep them off of their candlesticks, the heavy silver of their ornamental stands goes rattling to the floor. [SFX: metal crashes] One of the candles rolls over to a little patch on the floor where the wallpaper is sort of peeling up. And suddenly...
Virginia Lee 48:52
The arsenic wallpaper. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 48:53
And suddenly the candle is out, but the wall is beginning to go up in flames. [SFX: metal rolling and flame igniting]
Paula Deming 49:00
Oh, no. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 49:01
[MUSIC: eerie synth] So this thing pulling on you, Jasper is now pulling up, and there's another hand coming out of the mirror, and what you're looking at is this, just this little black circle set in gold in the center of the table. But now it looks for all the world, like just a hole in space and two large, dark arms are coming out of it. One of them has Jasper Bastian's arm pinned beneath it as it seems to be attempting to lift its bulk up out of the mirror. The wall's on fire. [laughter]
Scott Dorward 49:39
Jasper is largely oblivious to all of this. He is looking at his hand that's been crushed by this, this monstrosity, and just wailing, wailing.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 49:50
I'm ruined. I'm ruined, I tell you.
Ross Bryant 49:53
[MUSIC: ominous and ethereal] It comes out. Shoulders seem to balloon up out of the mirror. When I say shoulders, when I say head, please see these very much in scare quotes, because this is humanoid, but it is not human. To use a Lovecraftian turn of phrase, this is a blasphemy. This large, three times the size of a human, skull rises out of this thing, and now suddenly you're looking at just the obsidian black torso and arms and head lifting up out of the table itself, it seems. [SFX: monster growl and movement] And I want to say Jasper Bastian, as you're weeping and wailing, the head turns to you and you hear something in a language you don't understand. It's just like [unintelligible creature speech ending in "Hypnos"] and where eyes would be begin to burn with the light of stars, transfixing you in a hypnotic or oneiric gaze. Why don't you roll Power?
Scott Dorward 50:59
Yeah, that seems like good idea. Ooh, that is a hard success.
Ross Bryant 51:04
Cool. It also gets a hard success. So it is, the only light in this room is now coming from a wall that is increasingly becoming consumed in flames as highly toxic vapor is billowing up out of it. [laughter] But the only other source of light is Jasper Bastian's face, which seems to be caught in like high beam headlights as the star eyes of this thing are just burning out at it, and the two gazes just kind of regarding each other across a span of dimensions. What would the rest of you like to do?
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 51:39
Anna is thinking about that woman she's imagined bashing to bits, and James Lindmore and something's coming out of the mirror, because we said a phrase, and what if I could make it go backwards if I said the poetry backwards? I don't know. Am I even capable of doing that? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 51:59
That's an amazing idea. I love that.
Paula Deming 52:01
So Anna's gonna try to remember again the bit of basically poetry that her tutor had said to her that was also inscribed on the back of this mirror, and see if she can figure out how to pronounce it backwards, in the hopes it will get this creature to go back into the mirror.
Ross Bryant 52:23
I absolutely love that. That rocks. I mean, that seems you're almost doing a spell. You're doing...
Paula Deming 52:31
Yeah, I guess. Yeah, it kind of is.
Ross Bryant 52:32
You're surrendering to the ritual logic of this scenario.
Paula Deming 52:36
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 52:37
And I say, give it a shot. Let's roll Intelligence.
Paula Deming 52:40
Okay.
Ross Bryant 52:41
That will be your ability to both recall and reverse recite the Greek that was told to you years ago. So this will necessitate an extreme success.
Paula Deming 52:54
Oh, gosh. Okay, so I have to roll a 14 or lower.
Ross Bryant 52:58
I'm sorry, it's hard, but that's a hard thing to do.
Paula Deming 53:06
Rolled a 78, so...
Ross Bryant 53:08
You can, of course, push.
Paula Deming 53:10
I'm gonna try and push this. So instead,
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 53:13
I can't, I can't think of it. And so I just close my eyes very tightly, and I picture James Lindmore's face and how I was looking actually at his mouth the whole time, because it was so nice.
Ross Bryant 53:28
Yes, just imagine, like an off-brand Hugh Grant looking at you and chatting with you.
Paula Deming 53:34
So if I can picture the movements of his mouth and play it, which I was focusing on, and play it backwards, maybe that'll help me. So I try and redouble my focus thinking about the shape of his mouth.
Ross Bryant 53:44
Yes, yes.
Paula Deming 53:45
You know, I get accused of always trying to have a crush on someone in every game I play. And I'm realizing it's obviously a pattern. Come on. No! 67. Why? I failed. I can't do it. It's a regular success.
Ross Bryant 54:05
A failure on a push.
Paula Deming 54:06
Oh, Anna St. Clair, what will become of you? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 54:10
[MUSIC: ethereal synth] So you were trying, trying your best, to sort of do a very difficult thing, to remember a snatch of ancient Greek you were told and recite it backwards. And you are. You're trying. You're doing your level best. It's not quite right, but something has heard you.
Paula Deming 54:29
Oh, no.
Ross Bryant 54:29
I think what has happened here is not that you have managed to compel this thing that is currently attempting to do something to Jasper Bastian that has Jasper and this thing have each other in a mesmeric standoff. But something else has heard you, Anna St. Clair. The glass, the stone, the dark obsidian surface of this mirror suddenly, just like explodes, shards of it scatter. And skittering across the room that is now mostly smoke. The wall is very much on fire. The other wall is probably catching as well. This thing that has Jasper Bastian in its gaze, its torso, rises up out of its little prison, wherever it was, this little gate that you have cracked open. [SFX: creature growls] It rises up out of it and is now standing up on the table, just the floodlights of its gaze, like bearing down on Jasper Bastian and something else now floats up out of the mirror. [laughter] It is unrestrained because your push has burst it with your reverse spell. What has come out of the mirror is you, Anna St. Clair. It's a gorgeous, sublimely beautiful version of you. You know how, like when you go to the county fair and you get your caricature done, it's always a distortion of all the things you're most insecure about? This Anna St. Clair is that in reverse. Every insecurity that you have is filed off and perfected in the absolute, gorgeous visage that you see stepping out of the mirror. This version of you is not dressed in a plunging neckline and a fine Victorian skirt. It is dressed like a Greco Roman sorceress. A dark cloak billows diaphanously around her, as she seems to, like, levitate out of the mirror and loom over you. Everybody needs to roll Sanity. There are, like, two enormous things in this room now.
Scott Dorward 56:32
Fair.
Paula Deming 56:33
I'm changing dice, by the way. [laughter]
Scott Dorward 56:37
Ah, I failed that one.
cuppycup 56:39
Extreme success. Let me tell you about cigarettes, folks. [laughter]
Virginia Lee 56:45
I failed.
Paula Deming 56:47
I got a regular success. Thank goodness.
Ross Bryant 56:49
Oy vey, that's four points of Sanity loss for everybody who failed, including our friend Lord Alfred Bierbaum. Those of you who succeeded, the stoic Silas Watson with the psychologically affirming power of rich Virginia tobacco only loses two points of Sanity.
Paula Deming 57:06
Just so, you know, I am four points away from being just insane. I've lost six total points, and a fifth of my starting Sanity is 10. So yeah.
Ross Bryant 57:19
Oh dear.
Paula Deming 57:19
I might lose it.
Scott Dorward 57:22
I'm two points away from Indefinite Insanity.
Ross Bryant 57:25
Somebody give me group Luck roll to see if the door is locked.
Virginia Lee 57:28
Oh, no, okay.
Paula Deming 57:30
I only have 23 points of Luck, and I haven't been rolling well. Oh no, I'm getting so upset. I rolled a 100. I fumbled. [laughter]
Virginia Lee 57:53
We're done for.
Scott Dorward 57:56
The dice have a story they want to tell.
Scott Dorward 57:58
[SFX: flames intensify] The fire has spread.
Paula Deming 58:03
I'm sorry, everyone.
Ross Bryant 58:06
You are suddenly perhaps all aware of the blinding heat in this room as the walls are just consumed in flame, the extremely flammable wallpaper has caught. Acrid, poisonous smoke is filling up this room. For a moment, you hear hands pounding on the door like,
Partygoers (Ross) 58:25
Lord Alfred, Lord Alfred! [SFX: banging on door]
Ross Bryant 58:26
And suddenly you hear like some structural element from outside gives way and breaks. And I think that terrible Luck roll means that not only is the door locked, there's something holding it closed, like a support beam has like, crushed itself against... this is an interior room, but maybe there, I will say there is a window if you throw open a huge, heavy curtain, which is, the curtain's on fire as well. Let's be real. But this room is definitely on an upper story, and you're... This is the situation. The room is on fire. You are pinned inside. The only way out is through a window, or perhaps there are other gates and doors in this room as well.
Scott Dorward 59:08
Yes.
cuppycup 59:08
Oh, my.
Paula Deming 59:10
Oh, boy.