Transcript - Episode 12: The 1931 Miskatonic University Reunion Disaster (Part 2)
Audio for The 1931 Miskatonic University Reunion Disaster Part 2
The 1931 Miskatonic University Reunion Disaster Part 2
Wed, Oct 29, 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.
Ross Bryant 00:02
You fail your pushed roll. But when you fail, sometimes you succeed, but more so.
Paula Deming 00:08
Oh no.
Ross Bryant 00:09
[MUSIC: ominous drone] The light of that match dancing in its surface. As you look at it, you're suddenly captivated by its beauty, Angel. You're a farmer. You work out in the fields, cultivating your crops, and probably get a beautiful view of the nighttime stars if you walk your property in the evening, away from the light pollution of a town even as small as Arkham. And the light of this match suddenly resolves in the dark surface as the night sky. You see the dancing lights of a thousand stars on the surface of this piece of stone. As you hold it up to your face, it is as though you are falling into it, into the space that it seems to represent. A cosmic space. And for a moment, you have the impression that you are not holding a piece of stone, but you are rather holding a hole in space, that this is an aperture through which your consciousness could fall, that this is not an object. This is a gate. This is a door. You see the light reflected in a thousand stars, constellations that are unfamiliar to you and you see your reflection as well, but your reflection is 20 years younger. Would you please roll Sanity for me? [laughter]
Ashly Burch 01:42
Sure. Seems like I should. [laughter] Three zeros is 100 ain't it? (gasp)
Ross Bryant 01:50
That's right, that's a fumble.
cuppycup 01:52
Wow.
Rashawn Scott 01:53
Oh, my word.
Paula Deming 01:55
Angel, no, we've only just begun.
Ashly Burch 01:58
Well, it was nice playing with you guys. I feel like I'm getting sucked into a black hole.
Rashawn Scott 02:02
Well, Angel's going to become an angel very soon. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 02:06
Okay. Question about the rules, Cup, if you fumble a Sanity roll, do you take max damage?
cuppycup 02:12
Max San loss, yeah.
Paula Deming 02:16
It's just the beginning of the scenario, it might be a light amount of San loss.
cuppycup 02:21
Could be.
Paula Deming 02:22
Knowing Ross, he'll be gentle.
Ross Bryant 02:25
Six points of Sanity damage.
Paula Deming 02:26
Oh, no.
Ashly Burch 02:27
Okay. Yeah.
Ross Bryant 02:29
You would be taking d6 which means you could be taking as little as one, but you fumbled that roll, so you're taking the whole six. Now, Angel...
Ashly Burch 02:38
Okay.
Ross Bryant 02:39
What this means is you've taken so much damage to your Sanity that this sets in motion some mechanics of the game. Roll Intelligence, right now.
Ashly Burch 02:50
Okay.
Ross Bryant 02:50
After subtracting those six points, roll Intelligence. This is to see if you understand something about what you're experiencing. This is a roll you want to fail.
Ashly Burch 03:02
Oh. Oh boy. Okay. I hard succeeded. [laughter]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 03:15
That's three for three. That's a lovely hat trick of failure.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 03:19
Alright, this is too good for Ross.
Ashly Burch 03:22
Am I... Guys, am I winning?
Rashawn Scott 03:23
Yes.
Ross Bryant 03:25
Oh yes.
Ashly Burch 03:25
Yeah? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 03:26
You're winning the game.
Paula Deming 03:27
Yeah, I love that.
Rashawn Scott 03:27
We could have been dancing. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 03:30
Okay, yeah.
Ashly Burch 03:31
Honestly, it makes sense, though, because that means that I saw the version of myself that I hate in that stone.
Ashly Burch 03:40
So narratively, this does make sense.
cuppycup 03:40
Oh yeah.
Ross Bryant 03:41
Yes.
Rashawn Scott 03:41
Okay.
Ross Bryant 03:42
[MUSIC: ominous drone] The reflection that you see in the surface of the tablet of Khonsu, is not the robust and masculine mustachioed Angel Coffield. It's the version of yourself that you have lived your life to escape from, the version of you that is still trembling inside you, dictating these choices, and it is staring back at you with fearful eyes. And what you are realizing here is that what you were accessing through this tablet, the sort of gateway I described is into a liminal space where the river of time flows in all directions. If you continue to expose yourself to this thing, time itself will become unstuck in you and what I'll also tell you is that you got so much Sanity loss that you see your reflection. You see these stars, but that's not all you see. In the darkness behind you.
Ross Bryant 05:00
Reflected in the room behind you, there is a figure. [panicked reactions] It's humanoid, but it's got to be at least 10 feet tall, and it is facing away from you, and as it turns towards you, as it becomes aware of you gazing into its realm. You are looking not into the eyes of a person, but into the eyes of a hawk. Its raptor's beak opens as it regards you from behind you. [SFX: hawk screech]
Ashly Burch 05:10
No.
Ross Bryant 05:36
[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.
Ross Bryant 06:33
I'm sorry to say that when you lose this much Sanity, it causes something to happen. And I...
Ashly Burch 06:39
Sure!
Ross Bryant 06:40
How do you think this manifests in you involuntarily? How do you react to this?
Ashly Burch 06:46
[MUSIC: ominous drone] I absolutely drop the stone [SFX: rock impact with wood] and stumble back to the extent that I probably fall. [SFX: stumbling footsteps and body fall] I just fall on the ground, shocked and like... I'm too shocked to even scream.
Ross Bryant 06:57
Your mouth opens as if in a scream, but nothing comes out. Judy, you hear the crack of the tablet striking the floor, [SFX: stone cracking on wood floor] and a little fissure opens in it when it hits the floor, just a little crack, and you see Angel, like scuttling backwards, having fallen down. [SFX: cracking sound and clothing movement]
Judy Brown (Paula) 07:18
Angel, are you okay? What happened? What happened?
Paula Deming 07:19
And I'll drop down to my knees.
Judy Brown (Paula) 07:20
Are you okay? What's going on?
Ross Bryant 07:22
Angel, per the rules of this game, you are now in what is called a Bout of Madness.
Ashly Burch 07:26
Okay.
Ross Bryant 07:27
This is manifesting in you for the next little bit of the game. This isn't a permanent condition. I just rolled a number that tells me how long that this stays on top of you. Based on the exposure that you have had, how do you think this Bout of Madness affects you? What kind of phobia, obsession or compulsion does this give you?
Ashly Burch 07:48
Can I ask, is the hawk saying anything or doing anything, or is it just looking at me?
Ross Bryant 07:54
When you saw it reflected in the stone you just heard for a moment, as its beak opened [unintelligible resonant speech].
cuppycup 08:05
Never ask Ross clarifying questions. [laughter]
Ashly Burch 08:10
I'm learning that. I'm learning that. I think that Angel wants to be a brave man, but the old version of him, that still very much is who he is, is a coward. So I think he books it. He just starts running, running toward light, running toward a place where there's lots of light, without even telling Judy what's going on. [SFX: running on wood floor]
Ross Bryant 08:34
Great. So Judy, you've bent down to see what is the matter. And Angel is scrambling away from you, desperately pushing desks and chairs out of the way and hightailing it out of there. [SFX: furniture movement] This priceless artifact has just hit the ground and appears to be somewhat broken.
Judy Brown (Paula) 08:52
I will grab it, put it in my apron pocket.
Judy Brown (Paula) 08:56
We're going to need this for the... he just got spooked, right?
Paula Deming 08:59
And close the cabinet, and then chase after him. [SFX: cabinet door closes]
Ross Bryant 09:08
He's already disappearing down the stairwell, and as you pursue you hear something. What you hear is (singing with hi-fi player SFX) "One more kiss dear, one more sigh. Only this, dear is goodbye." It seems to be crackling on a hi-fi player. Certainly wasn't happening when you came up here.
Judy Brown (Paula) 09:45
Why would mine and Thomas's song be playing?
Ross Bryant 09:56
Yes, Thomas. The professor, no?
Judy Brown (Paula) 10:01
Yes, Professor Winston. I mean...
Ross Bryant 10:04
Why it seems to be coming from his old office.
Judy Brown (Paula) 10:09
I'll be right there, Angel.
Paula Deming 10:11
And I'll go toward it.
Ross Bryant 10:14
Yeah. So as Judy slowly walks towards the music coming from the office of a dead man, let's go over to Diana and Hal. [laughter and clapping]
cuppycup 10:27
Come on, I was just getting into that. Wow, what a scene.
Rashawn Scott 10:33
Oh my god.
Ashly Burch 10:35
So good.
cuppycup 10:37
Let's go swimming! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 10:39
Let's go swimming. Diana and Hal you're walking, and you see the natatorium. This is one of the more recent buildings here at Miskatonic. It's shaped rather like a Quonset hut, if you know what that is, almost like one of those buildings that's like an accordion meets an archway.
cuppycup 10:58
Okay.
Ross Bryant 11:00
It's a building shaped like an upside down U, and the pool is in there. Keeping pace with you, of course, is Will Bingham, smoking and chattering all the while.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 11:11
See, I forgot about that guy again. [laughter]
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 11:14
Completely forgot about Will Bingham.
Rashawn Scott 11:16
You can't forget someone wearing a pharaoh's costume. He kind of made a statement coming in.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 11:23
I'm making a statement now.
cuppycup 11:24
He's waddling as the moon trying to keep pace with Diana. And he's gonna say,
Hal Meddler (Cup) 11:30
You know, Diana, back at university, I was on the swim team. Miskatonic River back then, not a fancy indoor, natatorium. It was cold enough to make your heart stop.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 11:41
Yes, I imagine swimming upstream at what five, six in the morning?
Hal Meddler (Cup) 11:45
Five in the morning, thick fog, guessing which way the water goes, really. But I did win a few meets. They called one "the miracle sprint." Maybe you read about it.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 11:56
Yes, I remember. I remember that! [laughter] Of course I do.
cuppycup 12:01
I have the base in Swim. I should probably move some points.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 12:05
Me, I got sick every season, sinuses, lungs, the whole works. Coach said I had spirit, but doctor said I had bronchitis. [laughter] So even though it was the only time I felt like I was keeping up with something, you know, I had to stop. And it's sort of sappy, but you know, life's kind of like that river. As soon as you quit kicking, you find out which way's down real fast.
Will Bingham (Ross) 12:31
Well, maybe you can take a dip in the natatorium once we go inside there, Meddler. Relive some of the glory days.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 12:36
Ahh!
Will Bingham (Ross) 12:38
Yes, I'm here too. I went out for swimming, but I never really went in for it. I didn't really feel as though I could be competitive. Those kids from Innsmouth always swam the best. [laughter]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 12:48
They always seemed so long and lean.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 12:50
Say, what clubs were you in, Bingham? I don't remember hearing your name very much back then.
Will Bingham (Ross) 12:55
Oh, I was in Foreign Languages Club, Civics Club.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 13:02
Maybe any family? Maybe I knew a sister or cousin of yours.
Will Bingham (Ross) 13:07
Only child, I confess. Not a very extended family, us Binghams. Despite my father's best efforts. [groan]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 13:16
Maybe you dated somebody we remember?
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 13:19
You had to have gone with someone. Look, you're handsome. You were handsome then, I presume.
Will Bingham (Ross) 13:24
Well, I suppose that's subjective, isn't it?
Hal Meddler (Cup) 13:26
Oh, I also find you handsome. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 13:30
He just kind of stares at you for a little while. It's like,
Hal Meddler (Cup) 13:34
Well, alright, I suppose we're all appealing in our own way.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 13:40
Well, it's just gnawing at me that I don't recall you very much.
Will Bingham (Ross) 13:45
I suppose I didn't cut a very memorable figure, Patter, certainly not like yourself. A maven of the social scene around Miskatonic, don't you know? But tell me more about your friend Brown. I know when I was here, sometimes these academics were a little bit pink, for my taste.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 14:05
I believe that she just was dying to be an academic and found a beau in an old professor, and found her calling and stayed here to educate. As far as I know.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 14:17
She never really talks about politics, Bingham.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 14:21
She's keen to historical accuracy.
Will Bingham (Ross) 14:24
Well, that's good to hear. And if one does speak about politics, it's important that they speak about the right kind, I dare say. We send our youths to these universities, and then they come out ready to tear the flag to shreds and join Trotsky on the front lines.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 14:43
You know what, Bingham, not to be rude, but you're really harshing the vibes. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 14:49
Jeez, we're trying to have fun here.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 14:51
This is a party. We're supposed to, you know, cut a rug, have a good time, and you're bringing us all down with this Uncle Sam nonsense.
cuppycup 15:00
Can't you pretend it's 1931 when you didn't care about this stuff?
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 15:04
Right? Come on, loosen that collar. Have a good time.
cuppycup 15:09
Let's live a little, you know? Take off your costumes. We'll go for a swim. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 15:13
Okay.
Rashawn Scott 15:15
Patter pulls out a flask.
Ross Bryant 15:16
You're already in the natatorium. This little conversation took place as you made your way inside.
cuppycup 15:21
Squeezing through the door in the moon costume.
Ross Bryant 15:24
Squeezing through the door in your moon outfit. [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 15:27
And now he's waning. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 15:28
[MUSIC: ominous drone] Now this, also dark. This is kind of the point of this nighttime scavenger hunt, even when you were a student back in the 30s. This was the vibe that it's a little bit spooky in a thrilling way, and now you're in this indoor pool after dark. The sound in here reverberates. The sloshing and the movement of the water. The humidity of it invades your pores and the smell of the chemicals in the pool as well. And here you are, and you can see on the far end of the pool there's a trophy case and a whole bunch of pennants strung up. Miskatonic has an amazing swim team, [laughter] especially due to the ringers they bring in from the local community, especially the coastal town of Innsmouth.
cuppycup 16:13
Oh yes.
Ross Bryant 16:14
Who seem to be born to it.
cuppycup 16:16
They don't even need flippers. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 16:17
Crack! [SFX: loud stone crack] There's a ringing in your ears, like tinnitus. [SFX: high-pitched screech] And looking around the room, it's not as though something is... You don't see anything that broke in here. It's wild. It's as though something has broken nearby, that a crack or a fissure has opened, but you don't... There's nothing here.
Paula Deming 16:40
Oh no.
Ross Bryant 16:42
The tinnitus and the ringing in your ear fades out.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 16:49
Fuck was that?
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 16:51
Could have been a car backfiring or something.
Will Bingham (Ross) 16:54
Perhaps. Maybe just a change in pressure due to all this moisture in the air,
Ross Bryant 16:58
Says Bingham, kind of wiggling his finger in his ear.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 17:01
(makes water sound)
cuppycup 17:01
[MUSIC: whimsical] No, yeah that's smart. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of like when you, you know, when you drop a Jell-o mold and it just kind of (makes squish sound) gets squished down on the floor.
Will Bingham (Ross) 17:18
This happen a lot to you in your line of work, Meddler?
Hal Meddler (Cup) 17:20
Well, yeah, it's, I have an experimental kitchen in my home, Bingham.
Will Bingham (Ross) 17:26
Now tell me true. I hear that gelatin is made mostly of hooves and bones. Is that the case?
Hal Meddler (Cup) 17:32
Yeah, of course. Everybody knows that. [laughter]
Will Bingham (Ross) 17:36
Wonderful. See, that's post war ingenuity for you. Spam is a wonderful encased meat, a delightful processed product, so that we use every part of the beefsteak and the animal, and likewise, gelatin, which takes account of the cartilage, bones and so forth.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 17:54
Now listen, Bingham, you ever come home after a long day, you're so hungry, but you're tired of your own company. [SFX: rustling pages] Page 89 "celery surprise," it'll take you 10 minutes, and the surprise is you can actually eat it.
Will Bingham (Ross) 18:10
I live a rather peripatetic existence, Mr. Meddler. I don't have much need of a cookbook.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 18:16
Gee, Bingham, I wasn't in the Languages Club.
Will Bingham (Ross) 18:19
I move around a lot.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 18:21
Oh, so you can't be tied down. That's too bad, Bingham.
cuppycup 18:25
Oh.
Will Bingham (Ross) 18:27
Oh, I suppose the right person could tie me down for a while if they had a strong enough rope for it. [laughter]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 18:38
Well, let's see what we can drum up in the back of the gymnasium.
Paula Deming 18:42
Paula is blushing. [laughter]
cuppycup 18:46
We see nothing from the fissure?
Ross Bryant 18:49
Why don't you make a Spot Hidden, Hal?
Hal Meddler (Cup) 18:51
See, I just told Ashly not to ask you clarifying questions and then I jumped right into it. [laughter] Oh, I'm the base. So 30 over 25 is a fail. I do think I'll spend five Luck to get lucky and see something.
Ross Bryant 19:08
Yeah, spend that Luck and lucky you. You do see something. There's something in the pool. It's a dark shape. It's so dark in here, it's kind of hard to tell what it is. It's probably just some buoyant piece of fabric or something that's bobbing around there in the water, something a swimmer left in a lane.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 19:31
Oh, it might be a pennant.
Ross Bryant 19:33
Why it might be. This could be what you came in here for.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 19:37
I'm just gonna take a look.
Ross Bryant 19:40
Yeah, you go up to the edge of the pool. The moonlight reflects off your lunar surface, Hal, and gives you a little glimpse. There's something in the water there. Kind of bobbing close to the surface. You think it's like a pile of towels maybe.
Paula Deming 20:00
No, no, I don't like it.
cuppycup 20:02
Is it within arm's reach?
Ross Bryant 20:04
It looks like it's about six feet away from the edge of the pool.
cuppycup 20:08
Oh, do they have a skimmer or something?
Ross Bryant 20:10
Yeah, there's a skimmer nearby.
cuppycup 20:12
Okay, yeah, I'll grab the skimmer. I'm picturing this in the moon costume, which makes it all so ridiculous. [laughter] I'll grab the skimmer and try to fish it out of there. [SFX: water movement]
Will Bingham (Ross) 20:23
Say, Meddler, what are you doing there?
Hal Meddler (Cup) 20:26
Yeah, there's something in the pool. I think it might be part of the game.
Ross Bryant 20:31
Your skimmer touches it and it's hard. [SFX: water sloshing]
cuppycup 20:34
Oh, okay.
Ross Bryant 20:39
It floats after you probe it. It bobs gently into a moonbeam, enough so that you can definitely see the back of the drowned boy that you have just touched. [gasp]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 20:54
What's... What's that over there, Meddler? (uncomfortable laugh)
Hal Meddler (Cup) 20:58
Let me ask you this, Ross, you said it's a drowned boy. But is it 100% clear to Hal that this person's already dead, or would he possibly want to jump in?
Ross Bryant 21:06
When the moonlight hits it, the skin is pallid. You can see veins on his back.
cuppycup 21:12
Oh.
Ross Bryant 21:13
Looks not just drowned, but bloated and waterlogged.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 21:20
Well, first I'll probably roll Sanity.
Ross Bryant 21:23
Yes.
cuppycup 21:24
Okay. [laughter] Which I failed. I'm rolling even numbers. I rolled an 80 over 60. [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 21:31
Oh, my God.
Paula Deming 21:33
Oh no.
Ross Bryant 21:34
Only three points of Sanity.
cuppycup 21:36
Okay.
Ross Bryant 21:37
There's nothing supernatural about this. It's just an incredibly shocking thing.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 21:40
Right, we used to swim in the river. I've seen this before. Yeah.
Ross Bryant 21:43
Um, yeah. You swam the Miskatonic River, not your first go-round.
Paula Deming 21:46
Oh no.
Ross Bryant 21:47
Are you trying to... Did you say you were jumping in?
cuppycup 21:50
Well, you said, like, I could see veins. So I think it's clear that the person's dead, but I do think he's going to try to pull the body toward the edge of the pool to kind of pull it out.
Ross Bryant 22:00
With the skimmer?
cuppycup 22:01
Since Diana's, what, like, probably, like, 10 feet behind him, I think he's gonna say,
Hal Meddler (Cup) 22:05
Diana, you gotta get help. There's somebody dead in the pool. It's a corpse.
Rashawn Scott 22:11
And I just start to... You hear the (makes heels clicking sound) as I run out to a hallway, yell for anyone.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 22:17
Bingham!
Ross Bryant 22:18
Well, you tell me if you continue, because as you're making your way to the exit, as Bingham is standing uselessly there, like,
Will Bingham (Ross) 22:27
Good god, man. Meddler, what is that?
Ross Bryant 22:29
What you see as you turn around just to get one final glimpse at Meddler, pulling the body towards the edge of the pool, is Meddler being pulled in. (Meddler yelps)
Rashawn Scott 22:41
What? No, I turn around. I run towards him and just grab the edge of the costume if I can to stop him. [SFX: cloth grab]
cuppycup 22:50
The craters give you like a real good grip. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 22:54
Yeah, Diana's got a dangler. Virginia Slim dangling out of her lip.
Ashly Burch 22:58
Priorities, man.
Ross Bryant 23:00
Her hand snags one of your craters, Hal. But Hal, what you are looking at is the bloated arm of this lad that you are towing to the edge has reached up out of the pool and grabbed the skimmer and is pulling you into the water by it. His head lifts up out of the water and with utterly white and cloudy eyes, looks up at you out of the water. Can you roll Sanity for me again, please? [SFX: scraping skimmer handle]
cuppycup 23:27
I was just gonna say, do I have to roll again?
Paula Deming 23:30
Oh no.
cuppycup 23:33
Oh, I passed that time. This was fine. This one was fine.
Ashly Burch 23:36
I love that Hal Meddler is canonically so much braver than Angel Coffield. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 23:44
Only two points of sanity lost because you succeeded.
cuppycup 23:47
Oh, wow, that would have been bad. Okay, so 55 out of 60. I do think the involuntary reaction, though, so it's not like a bout or anything like that, but on two points of San. Three and then stacking two on top of that. I think the involuntary reaction at this point is going to be, well, he's going to let go of the skimmer, right? [SFX: water splash] And I think he's probably going to lose his balance and fall face first into the water.
Paula Deming 24:13
Oh, why would you do this to yourself? [laughter]
Ashly Burch 24:17
I love it. But no.
cuppycup 24:19
Because he's a wobbly moon. You know, it's like...
Ross Bryant 24:22
The lunar bulk of Hal Meddler slips and falls [SFX: body splash in water] into the water.
Rashawn Scott 24:28
Can I Dodge to let go? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 24:31
You don't have to.
Rashawn Scott 24:32
Okay.
Ross Bryant 24:33
He probably slips out of your grasp as well. So Diana, Bingham is behind you by the wall of pennants and trophies, seemingly agog and aghast.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 24:42
Help man! He's in the... pull him out. Use your... Come on, you, dude, get in the game. Do something. [laughter]
24:50
(yelling) I thought this would be more buoyant. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 24:57
He is pressed to the glass of the trophy case, and his hands are on his face. His cigarette has fallen out of his grip and is sizzling out in a puddle of water on the floor, and you get the sense that he just failed his Sanity roll. [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 25:17
Does this pool have one of those covers, like, if I run one side, like run it across the pool, it would cover the top?
Ross Bryant 25:25
Diana, have you ever seen the movie "It's a Wonderful Life?"
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 25:29
Didn't that just come out or something? I haven't been to every new picture. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 25:34
I want to say that there's a button you can push here where this entire pool, like a floor, closes by machine works over the top of it, so that this can double as like a volleyball court when it's not being used as a pool. So there is a way of shutting it off. But of course, if you hit that now, you stand a very good chance of sealing Hal Meddler into a pool. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 25:59
I could use a little help here. [SFX: splashing water]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 26:02
I need you to work with me, Meddler. Swim to the side, and I'll pull you out before this thing shuts over this body.
Paula Deming 26:08
Oh my gosh. [SFX: mechanical closing]
cuppycup 26:10
I don't even know if he would hear you, but yes.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 26:12
Come on, Meddler! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 26:17
Diana, give me an Intelligence roll, please.
cuppycup 26:20
Ooh.
Rashawn Scott 26:21
Oh my god.
Ross Bryant 26:24
This is a way of describing how good your memory is in this moment.
Rashawn Scott 26:29
Okay, I rolled a 14 versus 60.
Ross Bryant 26:33
Very good, because now you're, for the first time, getting a good look at what's happening to Hal. And you see that he is being towed into the water by this waterlogged corpse that is rising up out of the water. [MUSIC: ominous drone] It's bloated and soggy bulk looking at you through lifeless eyes, and you got a great success on your Intelligence roll. So you remember back when you were a student, the young Diana Patter, the tragedy that gripped the school for several weeks when a poor student dove a little too hard into the pool during a meet, breaking his neck and drowning in the pool. The school was in mourning, wearing crepe for weeks. You remember Doug Braxton, who showed so much promise, and you know... That story comes into your memory now, because that's whose lifeless eyes you're looking into.
cuppycup 27:28
Oh man.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 27:30
Doug? Doug, I don't... it's probably not the top of your mind. But do you? Do you remember me? Diana. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 27:43
That sounds like the kind of thing that you might say once you give me a Sanity roll. [laughter]
Ashly Burch 27:50
I was wondering when that was gonna happen.
Paula Deming 27:52
Oh no! [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 27:55
I rolled a 99.
Ashly Burch 27:56
(singing) Oh, baby, baby. That's a bad roll.
Ross Bryant 28:04
What's your Sanity?
Rashawn Scott 28:06
My Sanity is 50.
Paula Deming 28:08
We might die fast here.
Ross Bryant 28:10
So, that's not a fumble. That's not a fumble by one. I rolled a d6 and I got a four. You have escaped Bout of Madness territory by the thinnest of margins. [MUSIC: haunting orchestra] The head of this boy rises up out of the water. His skin pallid and pale as a fish's belly. He rises up out of the water too far, almost as if he could walk on the water if he chose to. [SFX: water splash then dripping] His hand, still gripping the skimmer, as Hal thrashes impotently in his moon costume. [laughter]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 28:48
Come on, Hal.
cuppycup 28:49
Could I make a Swim roll to see if I can do something in this moment?
Rashawn Scott 28:54
Please!
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 28:55
I mean, you got the stats.
cuppycup 28:57
Yeah, exactly. Just to see if I can maybe get to the edge or get out of the costume.
Rashawn Scott 29:05
Can you turtle shell out of this costume?
Ross Bryant 29:08
Sure. But before you do that, Diana, part of the reason that you're taking this blow to your Sanity is he looks up at you, and the boy's voice gurgles out of his mouth, along with a cascade of greenish water.
Drowned Student (Ross) 29:24
(speaks unintelligible resonant words) Would you help me, Diana? Diana.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 29:32
Okay, what do you need?
Drowned Student (Ross) 29:35
I came back. There is no back or forth. The laps go on forever. His sword is sharp. His sword is the moon.
Rashawn Scott 29:53
Whose sword?
Ross Bryant 29:54
He smiles at you, looking down at Hal.
Drowned Student (Ross) 29:58
He is the moon. And this is a pretender.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 30:02
No, no, no, no, no, no. No, Doug. This is a... that's Meddler, and that is a costume. He is not the sword. No, no.
Drowned Student (Ross) 30:16
Yes, but his ancient sickle sword is sharp.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 30:21
Whose?
Drowned Student (Ross) 30:21
Riding his chariot through the sky.
Ross Bryant 30:24
He raises up the skimmer, not like a skimmer, but with a practiced motion, as if he is holding a spear.
Paula Deming 30:31
Oh no.
Rashawn Scott 30:33
Oh my god.
Ross Bryant 30:35
Angel and Judy, what are you guys up to? [laughter]
Ashly Burch 30:37
Oh, Christ.
cuppycup 30:40
Wow.
Ashly Burch 30:41
Angel has run all the way back to his farm. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 30:45
You're strumming on the old banjo on your porch right now. Yes, I want to put you just outside of Herbert West Hall. And when you notice that Judy is no longer with you, I want to say your Bout of Madness is still cooking away there. This can't be happening. You saw something up there. It was up there. But also, you know that Judy is back up there.
Ashly Burch 31:11
This is so unlikely, but can I look to see if there are any antique firearms that are hanging up as if for like decoration of some kind?
Ross Bryant 31:26
Roll Luck for me.
Ashly Burch 31:28
Son of a bitch. [laughter] Okay, should I push again, or should I spend Luck? I can't spend Luck for a Luck roll, can I?
Ross Bryant 31:34
You can't spend Luck on a Luck roll. You failed. So there's not a pistol, there's not like a musket, there's not like an antique firearm.
Ashly Burch 31:42
Okay.
Ross Bryant 31:42
What you do see is a saber.
Ashly Burch 31:47
Fuck. All of my stats are in firearms. [laughter] Son of a bitch. Okay.
Paula Deming 31:57
I mean, is your cop gun... Surely, that's real in this day and age. Maybe you just had one as part of your costume.
Ross Bryant 32:04
You can add real gun to your inventory.
Ashly Burch 32:08
In weapon, I have shotgun, but I assumed I wouldn't bring that to a reunion party, unless we would justify that I like drove my car and I have a shotgun in my car, but I feel like that's too convenient maybe.
Ross Bryant 32:20
Okay, there's a saber on the wall. You're on the ground floor.
Ashly Burch 32:23
Okay.
Ross Bryant 32:23
But Angel does have a sense that you passed other knickknacks, tchotchkes, bric-a-brac, when you were upstairs, by the tablet. And you have a sense that you think you remember that there were some crossed dueling pistols up there on the wall so you could, you can get a firearm. You just got to go back upstairs.
Ashly Burch 32:43
Son of a bitch. Okay.
Judy Brown (Paula) 32:45
Save me, Angel. I'm following ghost music. [laughter]
Ashly Burch 32:52
Because I ran farther away from the scavenger hunt area. Are there any sources of light that I could grab to take with me, a candle, a flashlight, anything like that?
Ross Bryant 33:01
Oh, that's a cool idea. I don't want to put you in double jeopardy with all these Luck rolls.
Ashly Burch 33:06
Do it, baby. Hit me.
Ross Bryant 33:08
Make a Luck roll and see if there's a light source nearby.
Ashly Burch 33:11
Sure ain't. Okay, so... [laughter]
Ross Bryant 33:14
If you're gonna go upstairs, you're gonna go upstairs in relative darkness. I mean, there are probably switches you could throw. This is a building with electric lights. It's the '50s.
Ashly Burch 33:22
Okay.
Ross Bryant 33:23
You could try to turn on the lights, of course.
Ashly Burch 33:25
Okay. Because I'm still in my Bout of Madness, I think, I am fighting with my own young self. So it's almost like I'm having a Gollum-Smeagol moment, where I'm like,
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 33:36
Go up, go back to Judy, go back up there. Like, no, I can't, I can't, I can't go back. I can't go back.
Ashly Burch 33:41
And I'm doing that for a minute.
Graham Rangel (Ross) 33:43
You don't have the guts to do it, Coffield.
Ross Bryant 33:48
[MUSIC: ominous drone] You look across the quad, but as you walk through to get here, and underneath a tree, there's a shadowy figure of an 18-year-old it looks like. It's the reedy voice of an 18-year-old. You remember the voice immediately. People have middle school bullies. People have high school bullies. It's rare that they have collegiate bullies. But this guy made your life a living hell. It's Graham Rangel.
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 34:17
Fucking Graham Rangel.
Ross Bryant 34:19
You've kind of had your eye out for him this whole time at the reunion, and you haven't seen him yet. And so it's weird when he steps out from under the tree and he's the same age you remember him.
Rashawn Scott 34:30
Oh shit.
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 34:33
Rangel?
Graham Rangel (Ross) 34:35
You don't have the guts to do it, Coffield.
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 34:41
I... What are you doing here?
Graham Rangel (Ross) 34:46
What are you doing, Coffield, trying to act the hero? You think your little lip decoration is tricking anyone that you're a real man. Coffield?
Ashly Burch 34:57
I involuntarily go up to touch my handlebar mustache, almost protectively. [laughter] I almost want to see, I don't know if this is fair or anything. If there's like, a roll I can try to do, to get control of myself a little bit to try to, I don't know, have a little bit of my swagger come back.
cuppycup 35:18
In the rules, there's something called a Reality Check. It's just a San roll.
Ross Bryant 35:23
Yeah, so you just have to roll your current Sanity. If you succeed, then you get a quote, unquote, Reality Check and see if this is a delusion.
Ashly Burch 35:31
Okay.
Ross Bryant 35:31
See if you're totally delu-lu.
Paula Deming 35:35
Oh.
Ashly Burch 35:35
I am totally delu-lu. [laughter] My shoulders shrink, and I back up a step, and I go,
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 35:45
Come on. Come on, Rangel, just leave me alone okay? I got a lot of... I got a test I got to study for, and you don't have to do this, man, come on.
Graham Rangel (Ross) 35:56
What are you talking about, Coffield? I am leaving you alone. If you get hurt, it's only going to be because you're hitting yourself.
Ross Bryant 36:04
He's walking closer and closer to you.
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 36:08
Rangel, please.
Ashly Burch 36:10
And, man, I think I just keep failing. So I think I'm just in... I think I've reverted. I think I've fully regressed to college Angel.
Ross Bryant 36:18
Yes, you're regressing. And your bully, this tormentor is slowly walking towards you. Fire burning in his eyes.
Graham Rangel (Ross) 36:27
You're gonna be hitting yourself, Coffield. His lunar sword is out. His blade is the moon. It's gonna take your head, Coffield, and then your heart will be weighed and found wanting. (music from hi-fi plays) "Only this dear is goodbye."
Ross Bryant 36:53
You're right outside the door. [laughter]
Judy Brown (Paula) 36:57
I will slowly go into what was Thomas's office that has been functioning as my... it's not really my office. They never changed it over. But I do get to, I sit in a chair. I actually, I don't sit at the desk. I sit at a chair and do my work there.
Judy Brown (Paula) 37:16
Thomas?
Ross Bryant 37:18
You open the door and it's bathed in warm light, [SFX: door creaks] the hi-fi crackles in the corner. Every bit of decoration that you've done vanished. It is the room you remember when your mentor took on another role in your life.
Paula Deming 37:37
Is he... I look around? Is he in there? Is anyone in there?
Ross Bryant 37:42
His large leatherbacked, swiveling desk chair is facing away from you behind its desk.
Judy Brown (Paula) 37:50
Thomas, stop this. How can this be happening? You're... you died.
Paula Deming 37:53
And I'll go over and I will grab the chair and turn it around. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 37:58
Great.
Paula Deming 38:03
Love when the Keeper laughs like that when you say what you're gonna do.
Ross Bryant 38:07
[MUSIC: creepy piano; SFX: leather chair creaks] It turns and you're looking into the eyes of Tom just as he was in life, just as he was when this rather unethical relationship was taking place.
Judy Brown (Paula) 38:26
How is this possible?
Paula Deming 38:27
And I'll put my hand on his face. Does he feel real?
Ross Bryant 38:31
As real as he did when you did this years ago.
Paula Deming 38:37
Where did you come from?
Professor Winston (Ross) 38:39
You know, we shouldn't, Judy. You know we shouldn't.
Ross Bryant 38:41
He takes your wrist.
Paula Deming 38:44
And I think I'm like, immediately back to being 19. We've just finished up play rehearsal, and [laughter]
Judy Brown (Paula) 38:53
I know we shouldn't, but what if we didn't tell anyone? If we didn't tell anyone, it would be okay.
Professor Winston (Ross) 39:00
The tongues around here would wag. You're friends with that Patter girl, aren't you?
Judy Brown (Paula) 39:05
Well, yes, but she knows when to keep the secret. She'll never find out. Don't you feel something? Don't you feel like, there's... I've never had anyone treat me the way you do. Like I mean something, like I'm worth something, like my ideas are good.
Professor Winston (Ross) 39:23
You're worth so much more than you give yourself credit for. You deserve better than me, that's for sure.
Judy Brown (Paula) 39:30
Well, no matter what I deserve, I think what's more important right now is what I want.
Paula Deming 39:35
And I will kiss him. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 39:39
You kiss him. And yes, you kiss him. It's beautiful, it's lovely. [laughter]
Judy Brown (Paula) 39:51
It's everything I always thought a good kiss should be, but I've never felt. [MUSIC: ominous orchestra]
Ross Bryant 39:59
(singing on hi-fi) For our pain and our joy and such sorrow. Until tomorrow. [unintelligible speech]
Judy Brown (Paula) 40:18
That's not the words.
Paula Deming 40:19
I try to pull away.
Ross Bryant 40:21
It's very hard to pull away from the carrion fowl's beak that is snapped shut over your lips.
Paula Deming 40:31
Oh no!
cuppycup 40:31
Wow.
Ross Bryant 40:34
And if you open your eyes, you are not looking into the eyes of your beloved but rather into the eyes of an enormous humanoid bird. Roll Sanity for me. [laughter]
Paula Deming 40:47
Yeah, that sounds right. Oh, man, I have been killing it on Sanity checks lately. That's an eight.
cuppycup 40:56
Whoa.
Paula Deming 40:56
For some reason, under 60.
Judy Brown (Paula) 40:59
This is not real. This is one of those bad dreams you've had since he's died. This is not real. This is a bad dream. I can wake up.
Ross Bryant 41:08
Three points of Sanity loss.
Paula Deming 41:11
Oh boy.
Ross Bryant 41:13
How do you think this manifests in you as an involuntary reaction?
Judy Brown (Paula) 41:18
I really think that I'm in a dream. I've had really strange dreams since he died... of the beginning of our relationship, so I'm trying to wake myself up. So I think my involuntary reaction is, I kind of without even realize I'm doing it, slap myself in the face.
Ross Bryant 41:34
Great. That's... I love that. Smack! You pull away it sounds like. Smacking yourself in the face.
Paula Deming 41:43
If I can pull away, I think I will try to run away and realize I need to find Angel. This is wrong. Everything about this is wrong. It was always wrong. And try and run to find where Angel is. If I can do it.
Ross Bryant 41:55
[MUSIC: ominous drone] Cool. As you turn this thing that is seated in the chair wearing a tweed jacket, but with an enormous hawk's head coming out of it, standing up from behind the desk. Growing, growing, growing by the moment when you smack yourself and your head whips to the side. You see yourself, yourself standing next to you, but as the teenage girl that you were back then. To your right, you can see yourself at age 70. There's a baby mewling on the floor. [SFX: baby crying] There's a toddler tugging at your ankle. There's a woman like (strained breathing) on the verge of death. You're seeing yourself refracted much like the light of a candle in the surface of a warped mirror at different phases in time. You're seeing yourself all across time as the river of time dilates and turns back on itself, and this hawk thing is growing and growing and growing.
Judy Brown (Paula) 42:56
It's all one and yet all separate, but all one, but all separate. [SFX: mutating organism and hawk screeching]
Ross Bryant 43:01
But yes, please run away. [laughter] I want to see how well you do this with a Power roll. The rules of this room are a little bit different, suddenly, and it's not as if just athletics or running will get you out of here.
Judy Brown (Paula) 43:14
Okay, that's a 42 under 60, so regular success.
Ross Bryant 43:19
That's amazing. You turn to run, and when you whip around, you don't see the walls of your office. You see columns, massive columns, stretching out in front of you.
Paula Deming 43:28
I rolled a success, Ross! No. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 43:33
As you run, run past columns, past guards wielding spears with giant headdresses with beads covering their faces. One of them is holding a severed leg and staring at you as you walk by. One of them speaks [unintelligible speech] that language seems to suddenly resolve into "his lunar sword is sharp," and you burst out of the colonnade, out of the building and crash, bang into Angel. [SFX: bodies collide]
Judy Brown (Paula) 44:03
Angel!
Paula Deming 44:03
And I just cling to him.
Judy Brown (Paula) 44:05
(crying) Angel, are you okay? What's happening? Everything's gone so wrong. I mean is it some kind of prank? What's going on? Are you okay?
Ashly Burch 44:13
What has happened to me? I imagine that I have crumpled onto the ground and I'm holding my own head.
Ross Bryant 44:18
But suddenly Judy Brown is tripping over your fetal form. I want to say that Graham Rangel, his voice ringing in your head, speaking to you about how your head will be claimed is no longer in your ears. But could you make a Power roll for me really quick as well?
Ashly Burch 44:36
Sure. I am rolling like such dog shit. I fail.
Ross Bryant 44:41
Great, you failed. I like that. [laughter]
Ashly Burch 44:44
I'm sure you do.
Paula Deming 44:46
No, I don't.
Ross Bryant 44:47
There's a terrible, terrible burning feeling on your neck, Angel. Burning. God, it burns. It burns.
Ashly Burch 44:55
Okay. I'm screaming. I won't... I'll save your ears. But I'm screaming bloody murder. And begging Graham Rangel, a person that is not there, to stop, please stop. Please, please stop.
Paula Deming 45:06
Okay, smacking myself helped me. [laughter] So I'm going to smack Angel in the face. See if I can break him out of this. Because we have to get out of here. We have to find Diana. We have to find Hal and that other guy. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 45:22
Great.
Ashly Burch 45:22
What does smacking do? Does it help me at all?
Ross Bryant 45:25
This is how I'm ruling it. The smack brings your Bout of Madness to an end. We have we've reached the end of your Bout of Madness.
Ashly Burch 45:31
Okay.
Paula Deming 45:31
Yes, we did it!
Ross Bryant 45:34
So whap. Judy, you smack Angel. Angel seems to come to his senses. You look back at the building, at the immense complex that you just ran through, has resolved back into what it was, the building that you entered. And you perhaps because you're facing Angel, looking at his hands, groping at his neck see that burned onto his neck is a hieroglyphic symbol.
Ashly Burch 46:05
Can you read it?
Paula Deming 46:06
Is it the same as the one on the little thing? The little tablet?
Ross Bryant 46:11
There was a lot of writing on that thing. Why don't you give me an Occult roll or a History roll?
Paula Deming 46:16
I have a 65 in History that's pretty good, and only a 25 in Occult. So I'm going to use History to try and read this. Okay, that's a 73 over 65. I'm gonna spend eight Luck points, I think, to get it down to a regular success.
Ross Bryant 46:36
You got a regular success. So you can see that what you're looking at is a moon disc, is a circle above a little wavy line, a crooked little what looks like a threshing flail, and rather disturbingly, from what you just experienced, a hawk. [laughter]
Judy Brown (Paula) 47:03
Oh, no.