Transcript - Episode 13: The 1931 Miskatonic University Reunion Disaster (Part 3)
Audio for The 1931 Miskatonic University Reunion Disaster Part 3
The 1931 Miskatonic University Reunion Disaster Part 3
Wed, Nov 5, 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 00:00
[MUSIC: ominous synth] 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) 00:24
Oh, no. Okay. We have to... Angel, we have to find Diana. We have to find Hal. We have to go.
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 00:31
Judy are you alright? Are you okay?
Judy Brown (Paula) 00:34
I'm not hurt, but you look hurt. I don't know what happened, but we can talk about it later. We have to find our friends.
Ashly Burch 00:41
I feel that there's a brand on my neck, right?
Ross Bryant 00:44
Oh, yeah.
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 00:44
Fuck that. We should just get out of here.
Ross Bryant 00:48
That's probably what's going through the mind of Hal Meddler, as an enormous pool skimmer is being raised up above him by a corpse who is now walking on the water.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 00:57
Meddler, I'm doing everything I can. You gotta... Come on. Come on, man.
Ross Bryant 01:05
The dead swimmer raises his spear-like skimmer as if to pierce you, Hal Meddler. [SFX: water moves and drips] And it is this climactic moment that I would like to push the roll, so to speak. And can I get a secondary title to inspire the back end of our story?
Ashly Burch 01:23
Oh! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 01:25
So this might be all too apropos, or it might be a total wrench in the works. We'll see if we can find a way to make it work.
cuppycup 01:32
You've gotten pretty lucky so far, so I think you're due for one that makes no sense at all.
Ross Bryant 01:36
Yeah. Like if this title had come midway through another story, this would be a pretty hard one to integrate. [laughter]
cuppycup 01:43
That's true. Rashawn, do you want to roll this one?
Rashawn Scott 01:47
I do.
cuppycup 01:49
d100.
Rashawn Scott 01:51
Certainly. 100.
cuppycup 01:55
Oh, wow. You fumbled.
Paula Deming 01:57
Wow.
Rashawn Scott 01:58
I fumbled the story?
Paula Deming 02:00
That's the time to fumble.
cuppycup 02:02
We should come up with a new rule for that, I feel. Alright, 100. (laughs) Okay. So this title comes from Lewis Adams from patreon.com/pushtheroll, and the title is "Ghosts of Pompeii."
Ross Bryant 02:22
Interesting.
Ashly Burch 02:23
I mean...
Ross Bryant 02:25
Man, I'm bummed that this isn't the jumping off point for a whole thing. I love the Ancient Rome of it all. [laughter]
Paula Deming 02:30
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 02:36
[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.
Rashawn Scott 03:25
There's hawks in Pompeii, right?
Ross Bryant 03:28
Yeah, let's bring down the hammer. So Hal, unless you do something, or, I guess, unless you do something, Diana, looks as though Hal is about to get, maybe not speared, but wounded by this skimmer.
Rashawn Scott 03:41
If I Bobby Knight, if there's a chair or something I could just fling at this guy. [laughter]
cuppycup 03:46
Bobby Knight!
Rashawn Scott 03:49
I literally just am in a bumblebee costume, holding a cigarette. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 03:56
We can kind of simultaneously try to get out of this, right? So...
Rashawn Scott 03:59
Sure, oh, you know what? I'll take one of the rings, the safety, floaty sort of rings.
Ross Bryant 04:07
Hmm, lifesavers.
Rashawn Scott 04:08
I didn't do much sport, but the discus, you know, is pretty fun. I could just (make whoosh flying sound) try to take out the legs of Douglas.
Ross Bryant 04:17
Okay, you're gonna try to whip that at Doug?
cuppycup 04:20
Describe it in a way that doesn't make it sound like you're throwing it.
Rashawn Scott 04:23
Okay. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 04:25
Cup is saying that because the Throw skill in this game is one that you almost always neglect to put points into, and almost no character can ever throw things well.
Rashawn Scott 04:36
Well, I've got a 70 in Survival, if that means anything in this moment.
Ross Bryant 04:41
Okay, you know what? I'm gonna be so generous and say that... [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 04:47
You can say no, Ross. I'm okay with being told no.
Ross Bryant 04:50
Oh, no, no. I do like this idea that, Hal has been yammering up a storm about how he was on the swim team. But I'm gonna take this Survival skill that you've got as proof that you perhaps did some rudimentary form of CPR or lifeguard training, so that you know how to throw a life preserver.
Paula Deming 05:07
Yes.
cuppycup 05:08
Perfect.
Paula Deming 05:10
(singing) I'll be ready.
Ross Bryant 05:12
Go ahead and throw that life preserver and see if you can give Hal a means to escape here. What would you like to do, Hal?
cuppycup 05:19
So while this is happening, Hal is... Assuming, like, he can get any kind of balance or control over his body. He wants to take one of the lane dividers in the pool and wrap it around the monster.
Ashly Burch 05:33
Oh!
cuppycup 05:35
Like, try to tie him up so that he can't attack anymore.
Ross Bryant 05:38
Okay, so this sounds like kind of a one-two punch. If he goes down from the life preserver, you're going to snare him when he's off balance.
cuppycup 05:46
Yeah, that would help a lot with what he's trying to do, exactly.
Ross Bryant 05:50
Okay. Here's how this will work. Here's how I'll rule this. Diana, make your Throw. If you succeed, you'll get advantage on your snaring roll.
cuppycup 05:58
Okay.
Ross Bryant 05:59
If you fail, you're gonna have to go without.
cuppycup 06:03
Nice.
Rashawn Scott 06:05
I rolled a 63 out of 70.
cuppycup 06:08
Ooh.
Paula Deming 06:08
Hey!
Ross Bryant 06:09
[MUSIC: ominous drone] The life preserver hits the leg of Doug Braxton, and he sort of falls to one side. [SFX: water splashes] His knee connects with the surface of the water, and his elbow connects to the surface of the water, and rather disturbingly, it is as though he's fallen on an uneven floor. He is on the water, not in the water. He's kind of risen up on it, but he is off balance now and now Hal, you can attempt to snare him with the lane divider and you can roll with advantage.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 06:41
Is this Fighting/Brawl you think or Swim or...?
Ross Bryant 06:45
This is tough, like doing this kind of very articulate maneuver when you're halfway in the water yourself and in a moon suit. [laughter] I think whichever one of those is worse for you.
cuppycup 06:57
Worse, yeah okay. So that's gonna be Fighting/Brawl, but he actually has points in this that I'm gonna say, in story the reason is that maybe he was bullied as well by that collegiate bully. What was his name? Graham?
Paula Deming 07:09
Graham Rangel.
cuppycup 07:11
He was bullied by Graham Rangel too. So he signed up for the boxing club at Miskatonic University and learned how to fight a little bit. So he did that for a couple semesters. He has a 45 in Fighting.
Paula Deming 07:23
Ooh.
Ross Bryant 07:24
Great. So you can roll twice and take the lower of the 2 tens dice.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 07:28
Come on, Meddler, shoot the moon. [laughter]
cuppycup 07:31
Wow, the first one's a 14. I'm not gonna do much better than that unless I roll a zero here.
Ross Bryant 07:36
Alright.
cuppycup 07:37
Okay, yeah, 14. That's a hard success.
Ross Bryant 07:41
Hard success, super. Tell me what this looks like as you lift the lane divider up and sort of wrap it around the corpse.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 07:50
I'm actually going to do something before that happens. I'd like to spend five points of Luck to get that to an extreme success.
Ashly Burch 07:57
Oh.
Ross Bryant 07:57
Great.
cuppycup 07:58
That way I will get... I don't know how damage is going to work, because this is more of a maneuver, so maybe it's just the effectiveness of it. But typically that would be max damage, if there is any damage involved.
Ross Bryant 08:07
Yeah.
cuppycup 08:07
[SFX: water movement, swimming, diving] But I think what this looks like is almost in one fluid motion, he slips out of the moon costume and kind of like swans under the water and then pops up with the lane divider and just starts to like... He's coming at me with the skimmer. I'm gonna kind of do one circle around his body and then also kind of tie up the skimmer so that basically his arm is immobile at that moment. Yeah, so just make it a couple laps around him.
Ross Bryant 08:33
Super. I think because you're combining your swimming athleticism with your boxing prowess.
cuppycup 08:40
The Swim is just a given, no roll required, Ross. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 08:44
Just in fiction, you've described your swimming background, and you've also been super duper helped out with the Survival skills of Diana Patter.
cuppycup 08:53
Oh yeah.
Ross Bryant 08:53
And you now well and truly have this guy snared.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 08:56
[SFX: corpse groans, water moves] Nice and snug, like bundling up leftovers. Come on, you slippery son of a casserole. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 09:05
How much damage does he take? Well, I'll tell you, as you do this and sort of begin to, I assume, swim back towards the edge of the pool to get away.
cuppycup 09:14
I'm not gonna just stay and fight him to death. Yeah, I want to get out of here.
Rashawn Scott 09:17
The skimmer is still coming. It's slow.
cuppycup 09:20
(laughing) It's been slowed down.
Ross Bryant 09:22
As the lane divider tightens over his arm, as you're kind of tugging on it, his water logged body gives way and the arm comes off. [SFX: tightening, gore, splash]
Ashly Burch 09:35
Oh good.
Ross Bryant 09:36
[MUSIC: ominous piano and chorus] Sickly, dark blood pours into the water in a dark cloud, and as you back away, his head looks up at you again with those lifeless, milky eyes and just says,
Drowned Student (Ross) 09:51
He is the eater of hearts. The moon is his, not yours.
Ross Bryant 10:03
The head falls off into the pool. [SFX: splash] Every limb detaches. It's as though your ensnarement has acted as a dismemberment, and as you tug it taut, he just falls apart. [SFX: tightening and body parts falling in water]
cuppycup 10:20
Wow. That's how I meant to describe it. [laughter] Amazing.
Paula Deming 10:28
So gross.
Ross Bryant 10:30
I'll take Sanity rolls off of both of you though.
cuppycup 10:33
Okay, don't forget to roll for Will.
Ross Bryant 10:36
Yep.
cuppycup 10:38
51 under 55, yeah.
Rashawn Scott 10:43
96.
Ashly Burch 10:44
Oof.
Ross Bryant 10:46
Will rolled a 99.
Ashly Burch 10:48
Ooh!
Ross Bryant 10:50
You just hear a peal of laughter come off of Bingham, as he's just like, (maniacal laughter).
cuppycup 10:58
Oh, Will, you're gonna be a problem.
Ross Bryant 11:01
And then he rolled a 17 on his Intelligence roll.
Ashly Burch 11:06
Oh. [groans]
Ross Bryant 11:07
How did y'all two do?
Rashawn Scott 11:08
I rolled a 96 and I had a 46 Sanity.
Ross Bryant 11:12
That's a fumble.
Rashawn Scott 11:14
Yes,
Ross Bryant 11:14
Alright. Okay, well, I'm sorry, but this is the psychic impact of seeing a dead body fall apart in front of you while making esoteric threats. [laughter] I'm afraid you're taking a lot of Sanity damage right now, Diana. It's the max for both of them. You're taking eight points of Sanity damage, Diana. Please roll Intelligence for me. You're only taking half that, four points of damage, Hal.
cuppycup 11:41
Oh, wow.
Ross Bryant 11:42
Is that getting you down?
cuppycup 11:43
It's getting me close.
Ross Bryant 11:45
Close, but not all the way there. I know that's a lot.
cuppycup 11:47
I'm three away from indefinite.
Rashawn Scott 11:50
Oh, my God.
Ross Bryant 11:52
I will tell you that like the body is, it's as though you're watching it, in a turn of phrase that would mean nothing to someone in the '50s, in fast forward. To put this in '50s terms, it's as though you're watching a film strip that's running a little bit too fast. As the detached arm and head and trunk of the body in this cloud of dark blood just seem to liquefy themselves and turn into pools of oil on the surface of the water. That is all but a single leg that stays intact, bobbing on the surface. [SFX: water moves]
cuppycup 12:30
Maybe, in character, the reason Hal passed his San check is because he knew so many of those kids from Innsmouth, and he just assumes this is somehow related to all of their blood magic and everything that they brought to the table.
Ross Bryant 12:44
Will Bingham, on the other hand, is not doing so well. Yes, he's sort of on all fours, but not forward. Like crab style, walking backwards on his hands and feet away from the pool with a look of thrilled terror on his face. It's kind of a smile.
Will Bingham (Ross) 13:02
(laughing maniacally) It's, it's rather... it's rather funny, isn't it? It's all, it's all rather funny.
Ross Bryant 13:12
How did you do on your Intelligence roll, Diana Patter?
Rashawn Scott 13:16
I rolled an 80, and my Intelligence is 60.
Speaker 2 13:20
A failure?
Rashawn Scott 13:21
Yes.
Ross Bryant 13:22
Great... for you. That means that you do not have a Bout of Madness right now. You take all that Sanity damage. So keep an eye on how close you're getting to losing a fifth of your total.
Rashawn Scott 13:33
Oh. I started at 50. I lost four, and then I've lost eight.
cuppycup 13:39
Yeah, so you're there.
Rashawn Scott 13:41
Oh.
Ross Bryant 13:41
That's right, you've gone over 10, which is a fifth of your total Sanity.
Paula Deming 13:46
Oh.
Ross Bryant 13:47
You are Indefinitely Insane, Diana.
Ashly Burch 13:50
Oh. R.I.P. Diana.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 13:54
It was going to be a lovely party, and everyone was gonna have a good time and just reminisce like it was the old times, but the old times were not as good as they were. Maybe I was fine. Maybe I was. Oh.
Ross Bryant 14:10
You were the social queen, the queen bee, as it were. [laughter; Rashawn makes buzzing noise] All the wagging tongues that you've orchestrated, that you have lorded it over. But what have you just seen? You've seen this body just fall apart, the leg there in the water in front of you. The fabric of reality is kind of coming apart for you here. I'll just pose to you, how do you think this Indefinite Insanity manifests for Diana Patter, based upon what she's seen?
Rashawn Scott 14:48
I think the dismantling of the body, it falling apart like one of those wooden toys that just snap together with string and just separate. That she sees it all as whimsical in a way, like,
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 15:07
Oh, I didn't know it could be so beautiful. These things that I thought were so disgusting and rank are all so natural. We will all fall apart one day. You can only press your pinafore for so long before the starch just decays.
Ross Bryant 15:30
That's right. That's right, Diana. These reunions are really a way of dwelling on the passage of time, how the ravages of age come to us all. And no matter how much the power, the limited power of social superiority of a gossip might feel, all these things turn to dust and ash as time sweeps them all away, for they shall all decay and fall apart, as this body did right in front of you. And yet maybe not. [SFX: growth mutation, stretching] Because as you watch, the leg seems to bulge and shift and the toes of it grow. Knuckles seem to be added to each and every digit. It's looking less and less like a human foot, and more like a baboon's. It flexes and shakes in the water, causing ripples to pool out from it, and then the leg seems to sprout, a hip, and then a joint, and I'm sorry to say, genitals. I'm not sorry to say. [laughter]
Ashly Burch 16:44
Are you sorry? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 16:45
[SFX: mutation continues] Another leg, a body is resolving out of this leg. And it's not Doug Braxton's body, because it's growing and growing and growing to titanic dimensions. As now this thing that is kind of knitting itself together up to the chest stands up in the pool, in the deep end, and it's looming up out of it. And arms are beginning to knit together here. This is what you're seeing, Diana. You're not seeing this, Hal.
Rashawn Scott 17:22
Are you? Are you the one with the sword?
Ross Bryant 17:26
All you hear is a gargling, like (makes gargling sound) as the head begins to form. [MUSIC: tense percussive orchestra] The color of the flesh as it grows and bulges and looms up out of the water is inhuman. It's... how to describe? It's a dark umber color, looking more like metal than flesh. But the head that begins to sort of bulge and sprout out of the neck is not human in the least degree, as a cascade of feathers bursts out of the neck and a giant, rapacious beak looms out of the head and two small avian eyes burn out of their sockets. An enormous crown-like headdress, a giant, sickle shaped moon with an orb levitating above it in defiance of the laws of physics. This thing is now resolved in its totality as it stands there in the water, sprouted up from the leg. This is what you see, Diana. [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 18:46
I think Diana is just like craning her neck up to, like, take in this whole thing, to the point where I think she falls over herself, just like trying to take it all in, and maybe just falls straight back onto her back, overwhelmed by the size of this thing. I feel like it could crush me.
Ross Bryant 19:07
What are you doing, Hal?
cuppycup 19:09
So, Hal just saw the body fall apart, right? That was the last thing?
Ross Bryant 19:13
That's right.
cuppycup 19:13
I think he'll see Diana fall back and say,
Hal Meddler (Cup) 19:16
Yeah, Diana, kind of looked like taking a trussed-up chicken out of the oven, and, you know, you clip one string, and bam, there it goes. [laughter]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 19:25
This is... No, no, no. It's, it's massive. It's huge. It's, it's taking up this entire room. It's this, this beast, this hawk, this unhuman... It re-birthed itself. It, it manifested out of nothing. This is... We need to go.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 19:46
We did it. It's over.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 19:47
It's not. It's not over!
Rashawn Scott 19:50
I make for the door.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 19:52
You can stay if you want. I will never return to this place.
Ross Bryant 19:57
Before you do that, as you make your way out, the beak opens and just speaks. (unintelligible speech) Like resonates in this Quonset hut, and you feel on your neck a burning. (Patter screams). Yeah, that shout comes to your ears, Angel and Judy, across the quad, the natatorium. It's right over there. It seems as though there's some sort of commotion over there.
Judy Brown (Paula) 20:21
Our friends, they were going, they were going to the natatorium. Should we? We should go help them, shouldn't we? We should go find them and all get out of here together.
Ashly Burch 20:29
Why do I love playing cowards so much?
Rashawn Scott 20:33
We should all go home.
Ashly Burch 20:35
I feel like Angel, he's been branded, and I've failed so many Sanity checks that I feel like his energy is like,
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 20:45
Oh, look, it's just the two of us. We can, we could go now, we can get... There's got to be a way to get out of here now. We don't want to get closer to whatever that is. Let's just go.
Judy Brown (Paula) 20:56
Well, if we went, we could find someone to help. We could go get help, and help could come back?
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 21:02
Yeah, sure. Sure, yeah, whatever. We could call someone, but we have to go now.
Judy Brown (Paula) 21:10
Okay.
Ross Bryant 21:12
I'll ask you this. You could try to leave through the forest that forms the perimeter of the north end of the campus. This would take you by Gauldren Cemetery. You can walk away through the west side of campus. This would take you by the Tillinghast Library. Or you could try to go out past the Student Union where you began your social evening.
Ashly Burch 21:38
I know I'm not supposed to ask clarifying questions, but what is the shortest route? (sings) Watch him say, cemetery. [laughter] What's the shortest route to civilization that is not the school?
Ross Bryant 21:50
Wouldn't you know it? It's the cemetery. [laughter]
Judy Brown (Paula) 21:54
If we go through the cemetery, I think we could get out of here more quickly, Angel.
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 21:58
Alright, let's move.
Ashly Burch 22:00
And I just start booking it toward the cemetery. [SFX: running on dirt]
Ross Bryant 22:05
Hal, you see through the foggy windows of the natatorium, if you can wrench your eyes away from Diana breaking down in front of you, and the ichor that the body of Doug Braxton has turned into, the figures of Judy and Angel running across the quad towards the forest. Will Bingham has crab walked out of the door. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 22:31
Well, at least one good thing happened. [laughter]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 22:34
I won't be giving him my address.
Paula Deming 22:37
Everyone regains one point of Sanity. [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 22:40
Oh, fun.
Ross Bryant 22:41
Yeah, Bingham sucks. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 22:44
Look, Diana, it's Judy and Angel. We got to catch up to them.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 22:48
Okay, whatever you say.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 22:50
Alright, alright, there's something weird going on here, I admit it. You know, it's more than just a prank. Diana, we got to find Dr. Rathbone. He's the kind of guy who who might know Psychoanalysis. He can explain this.
Ross Bryant 23:03
Excuse me? [laughter] Yes, yes, of course. Maybe you could hit up the psychology department if Dr. Rathbone is burning the midnight oil. [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 23:12
Dr. Rathbone?
Ross Bryant 23:14
He's here. Yeah, he's here. [laughter]
Ashly Burch 23:20
He's like, writing a paper, and hears screams and all sorts of viscera and he's like, "hmm" and then just goes back to writing. [laughter]
Dr. Rathbone (Ross) 23:26
Huh? Classic neuroses. [laughter]
cuppycup 23:31
Could Diana be coaxed out? Like,
Hal Meddler (Cup) 23:33
Come on, Diana.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 23:35
Vinny is going to be so disappointed. Beautiful party ruined.
Ross Bryant 23:40
I think, yes, you could be coaxed out, Diana. But you do have this sense that you have been marked, that you have been chosen.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 23:48
Can I see the mark?
Ross Bryant 23:50
Oh, yeah, it's right there on her neck. It's a moon disc, a threshing flail and a falcon.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 23:57
What the... When did you?
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 23:58
Don't you just love it, Meddler? I thought it would be the perfect thing to round out the outfit, or round out the evening. I could get you one to match.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 24:06
Oh, my god, is this makeup? It looks so realistic.
Ross Bryant 24:11
Meddler, can you roll History or Occult for me, whichever is better? Or maybe just Education.
cuppycup 24:16
Oh, okay, I definitely don't have any of those, [laughter] but I do have Education. I do have Education.
Rashawn Scott 24:22
We all went to this school.
Paula Deming 24:24
Yeah. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 24:26
Give me an Education.
cuppycup 24:28
I failed with 77 over 70. I could spend seven points of Luck.
Ross Bryant 24:36
Unless?
cuppycup 24:38
I'm trying to think there's an interesting way to push Education. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 24:42
Yeah, you try to remember super hard. [laughter]
cuppycup 24:45
Yeah, I think it makes sense to spend Luck here. So I'm gonna spend seven points of Luck to bring that to a regular success.
Ross Bryant 24:51
This mark, which it seems like you are even now kind of attempting to rationalize as a tattoo or as makeup or something. It's familiar to you from your History classes here at Miskatonic.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 25:08
That's right. Dr. Rathbone, he taught psychology and history. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 25:15
Yeah, the '30s, there was a skeleton crew working here. [laughter]
Ashly Burch 25:21
I like imagining that Meddler is having the exact same relationship as Judy is having with Professor Winston, but with Rathbone. [laughter]
cuppycup 25:28
Absolutely.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 25:30
Dr. Rathbone, he's got a real presence, huh? The way he smokes that pipe. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 25:37
Yeah. Rathbone is there very inappropriately hanging out with you after hours. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 25:44
Skinny dipping in the river. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 25:47
History and psychology.
Dr. Rathbone (Ross) 25:49
This might be a Jungian analysis. Jungian archetypes, you understand, these things recur, Meddler, these things recur. There's a finite well of archetypal forms that the human imagination reaches to, that provide a framework and a structure for our culture, the way that we live our lives. We are ourselves, dramatis personae, containing many, many people. We contain multitudes. The ancients had this. The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians had their heroes and their maguses, Gilgamesh and Enkidu. And of course, we had other dyads, like Amon Ra, the sun being one part of a dyad with Khonsu, the moon, the burner of hearts. And these, of course, travel up through the civilized world, up into ancient Rome, even, where you have such dyads like Apollo and Diana in the wreckage and ruin of Pompeii.
Paula Deming 26:57
Yes, he did it. [laughter]
Dr. Rathbone (Ross) 27:02
These exist and recur, yes. Very strange Pantheon indeed, this Khonsu, born from the severed leg of Osiris, the judger of the dead, the burner of hearts, the possessor of the sickle sword of the moon.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 27:23
And he's remembering this now, because in the moment he didn't catch the words, he just was kind of daydreaming and saying,
Hal Meddler (Cup) 27:29
Oh, you have such a beautiful voice. You ought to be on the radio instead of in a classroom. Anybody ever told you that?
Dr. Rathbone (Ross) 27:38
Oh, do you really think so? [laughter] I mean, do you know somebody I've been trying to... Voiceover is such a hard...
Ashly Burch 27:49
[MUSIC: 50s ballad instrumental] (singing) Crazy. Crazy for feeling so lonely.
Ross Bryant 27:59
Put something on the Hi-Fi.
Rashawn Scott 28:01
(singing) Someday I'll find you, moonlight behind you.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 28:06
Oh, there's something on your lip there. Just let me, let me get it for you.
Ross Bryant 28:13
And as we draw a discreet veil over this scene between Meddler and Rathbone, [laughter] these are the words that swim back into your mind because of your Education roll?
cuppycup 28:22
Yes, amazing. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 28:26
Oh, come on.
cuppycup 28:29
He's not gonna try to explain it to Diana in this moment, but I think just kind of trying to pull Diana. [laughter]
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 28:34
So you were in a relationship with a professor? This is pulling me back to myself. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 28:42
Oh, my God, did I say some of that out loud? [laughter]
Ashly Burch 28:45
Oh, the gossip. The gossip is bringing you back to yourself.
Paula Deming 28:48
Yes.
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 28:50
Ah, I didn't know that.
Ross Bryant 28:54
The gossip is giving you power. [laughter] If I may, it sounds like we're on a... our two groups are on a collision course.
cuppycup 29:03
Oh yeah.
Paula Deming 29:04
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 29:04
Let's accelerate our film strip. Let's let the film strip chatter a little faster as now the autumnal branches of the forest around Miskatonic are looming above you. [SFX: walking through woods] The little branches are scratching at your shoulders and your faces as you move quickly through the woods, out, out and away from the campus of Miskatonic University. Why on earth did you come here? You're nearly off of the grounds. You can put this whole nightmare behind you. And yes, you are moving through the moonlight, that big harvest moon plump in the sky above.
Ashly Burch 29:42
Oh, here's a question, do I have any sense because I've been branded that this big bad is tied to the moon?
cuppycup 29:51
Oh, could I just interject real quickly here, Ross. Anyone who's suffered a Bout of Madness has five points of Cthulhu Mythos.
Ashly Burch 29:59
Ah, that's right.
Ross Bryant 30:00
Yeah, you could try to roll that Cthulhu Mythos now to see if you know a lot of things.
Ashly Burch 30:07
I could. I bet I won't get it, but we'll see.
cuppycup 30:10
And sometimes, if you spend a heaping of Luck, you can get there.
Ross Bryant 30:14
You never know.
Ashly Burch 30:16
Oh, I got a four.
Ross Bryant 30:18
Oh, my God. Oh my god, this never happens. I'm truly so excited by that. [laughter]
cuppycup 30:24
Ross never gets to tell any lore.
Ashly Burch 30:26
(singing) It was meant to be.
Ross Bryant 30:30
Lore! Lore. Yes.
cuppycup 30:34
I'm psyched.
Ross Bryant 30:36
You know, somehow you know, because your consciousness has pierced the veil. You have been touched. You have been touched by Khonsu, the moon god, the possessor of the ancient sickle sword, his instrument of justice. He is known as Khonsu the Sharp. The Egyptian pantheon went through so much retelling and phases. The various kingdoms have so many different takes on the various gods, but you recall that not only is he the God of the Moon, he is a God of Time, the keeper of time. Khonsu's name means "the traveler," and he therefore reflects the fact that the moon travels through the sky, but also the travel through time, travel through that starry sky, that starscape that perhaps you gazed into. This gives you a sense that probably, that what you're telling are human legends related to mystical experience with something real, something that you have encountered, something that you have touched. This thing that legendarily sprouted from a severed leg and built itself, helped to create the world that is, in a way, the moon itself. That this is a cosmic force that humans have given a name "the traveler," but it probably has a much more ancient name that human mouths were not meant to utter.
Ashly Burch 32:01
Okay, and I am not aware that Judy still has the artifact?
Ross Bryant 32:07
I want to say that with this Mythos, that amazing roll, you feel its presence. You feel that crack. You feel what was felt when you first held it, that it's not just an artifact, that it's a hole in space, that it is a passageway into its realm. And you have allowed with this break, the veil is now thin because of your interaction with the tablet.
Ashly Burch 32:36
And I have no sense from that roll of how I might fix what I have broken?
Ross Bryant 32:44
Here's what I'll offer you, that whatever this thing that Khonsu is has a sense of justice, it seems. That its tablet being here, having been stolen and placed in this unnatural environment is an offense to it. That it is now drawing time backwards. It is rewriting time, in a way, to return. And you can atone by giving it what it wants. Khonsu is the eater of hearts. [laughter]
Judy Brown (Paula) 33:21
Let's go find Will Bingham and cut out his heart. [laughter]
Ashly Burch 33:28
Okay, okay. This is crazy. Okay, so when I looked in the stone, I saw the reflection of my younger self. If I were to take the stone and, like, present it and say,
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 33:41
Take him. Take him!
Ashly Burch 33:43
Thinking that, I don't know, that, like, somehow that won't kill me, but that maybe it'll be a two birds with one stone thing, where I'll be rid of him finally.
cuppycup 33:53
Oh.
Ross Bryant 33:54
Oh, interesting. It's almost as if you're trying to exorcise your wounded inner child.
Ashly Burch 34:00
Yes. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 34:00
[SFX: windy ambience] As that thought comes to you, you enter a clearing and almost trip over a headstone as the jagged marble of the Gauldren Cemetery comes out of the darkness. The moon is overhead. These old 18th century headstones perch at tented angles here, partially overgrown with ivy and moss. The language on them barely legible, and that is when you have the thought that you want to make this offering. You are in a place of the dead. Khonsu is a judge of the dead. It seems all too apropos that you would attempt to make an offering to him. I will say, if you want to try this, go for it. It would be a Power roll.
Ashly Burch 34:52
Okay.
Paula Deming 34:53
And I think as we were probably entering this area, we've been like, running. I'm like,
Judy Brown (Paula) 34:58
Oh, this thing that I put in my pocket keeps kind of like hitting against me.
Paula Deming 35:02
So I'm gonna be like,
Judy Brown (Paula) 35:02
Oh, it's so... it's bothering me.
Paula Deming 35:04
And I'll pull it out and then you'll see it in my hand, and then you can do whatever you want with it, yeah.
Ashly Burch 35:12
Okay. I snatch it without saying anything.
Judy Brown (Paula) 35:17
Oh!
Ashly Burch 35:17
And I hold it aloft. And I'll scream,
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 35:19
Take him, take him.
Ross Bryant 35:23
Okay, great.
Ashly Burch 35:24
And I will fail, and I'm gonna push.
cuppycup 35:26
Ooh!
Paula Deming 35:29
Yes!
Ashly Burch 35:29
(singing) I'm gonna push the roll.
Ross Bryant 35:33
Push it. Push it real good.
Ashly Burch 35:36
I got a hard success.
cuppycup 35:37
Oh.
Ross Bryant 35:38
Amazing. All around you... What do the rest of you think when Angel, like, suddenly does this in front of you?
Paula Deming 35:45
I look at Hal, I think he's offering up, Hal. "Take him?" I'm like... [laughter]
cuppycup 35:50
I was gonna say, Hal walks into the cemetery, hears that, and turns on his heel. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 35:56
I'm gonna go find Dr. Rathbone. [laughter]
Rashawn Scott 36:00
Having been branded and connected to this thing, I think I drop to my knees and like, try to assist in this offering. If there's anything that we can do to honor this being, anything I can do.
Ross Bryant 36:15
You lend your voice to the prayer as well. And I'll tell you what you see Diana, still under its sway. When you look up into the night sky, the moon blinks as it stares back at you. Suddenly, hands are crawling out of their graves all around you as the sepulchral dust of this 18th century graveyard lurches and shifts. You hear the breaking of coffin lids as half a dozen skeletal, emaciated and utterly decomposed bodies kind of raise up out of the soil, and all of them suddenly speak in unison. [SFX: wood breaking and zombies groaning] (unintelligible speech) Their bony fingers pointing at you, Angel Coffield.
Judy Brown (Paula) 37:15
Are we all seeing this? Or just Diana?
Ross Bryant 37:18
This is happening.
Paula Deming 37:19
Okay, okay, we're all... this is happening. This is not just a Diana Insanity illusion.
Rashawn Scott 37:25
Everything you've seen on Rashawn's face is what Diana is staring up and being like in awe of this thing, terrified.
Ross Bryant 37:33
So please, yeah, Sanity rolls from all.
Ashly Burch 37:37
I fail.
Paula Deming 37:38
I fail.
cuppycup 37:38
(laughing) I fail too. 78 over 51.
Rashawn Scott 37:46
I succeed. I guess... (laughing)
Ross Bryant 37:48
Wow, (singing) doing fine.
Paula Deming 37:52
You're like, "of course, of course this is it. This is reality."
Diana Patter (Rashawn) 37:57
This is the after party I planned. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 38:01
I rolled a big bad die, but I only rolled a three. So that's three points of Sanity from everybody.
Paula Deming 38:06
Okay, okay.
cuppycup 38:08
Guess what, Ross? That takes me to 12. And I started with 60.
Rashawn Scott 38:12
Damn.
Ross Bryant 38:14
Wonderful. You are now also insane, quite mad, quite, quite mad. So I think you also... You're dressed as the moon. [laughter]
Hal Meddler (Cup) 38:25
Kind of. Let's say he shed part of the suit.
Rashawn Scott 38:28
Crescent.
cuppycup 38:29
Yeah, yeah.
Ross Bryant 38:30
It's probably pretty soggy too. [laughter] So you maybe feel particularly self conscious since the moon itself is looking at you from the sky.
cuppycup 38:41
I think he's just obsessed with Dr. Rathbone.
Hal Meddler (Cup) 38:43
[MUSIC: ominous drone] Do you ever notice the way he talks? That steady, warm hug of a voice like the radio after dark, you know? You could just fall asleep in it forever. And if you listen close, you know, it's like he's tuning you like a dial. Everything he says lines up with your heartbeat. And, you know, I thought he was just impressive, but, but he knows things. He knows things he shouldn't. He looks at you, and suddenly you're confessing stuff you've never said out loud, and that pipe, my God, the smell of his pipe like burnt sugar. You know? I'd follow that voice anywhere. You know, I think maybe I already did. Maybe, maybe I did follow it. I followed his voice here! His voice is here. It's in my head.
Ross Bryant 39:31
But no one more so than you, Angel, feels this voice just echoing through your very bones.
Khonsu (Ross) 39:39
(unintelligible speech) You wish to give me... him? To burn his heart away.
Angel Coffield (Ashly) 39:53
Yes, burn it. I'm giving him to you. Burn it!
Khonsu (Ross) 39:59
One heart is not enough for the injustice I have suffered at your hands. You are my priest.
Ross Bryant 40:15
And you feel that burning on your neck.
Ashly Burch 40:18
Oh, no.
Ross Bryant 40:20
As do you, Diana.
Khonsu (Ross) 40:23
The dyad, the moon.
Ross Bryant 40:25
It burns on you, Angel.
Khonsu (Ross) 40:28
The sun.
Ross Bryant 40:29
It burns on you, Diana.
Khonsu (Ross) 40:33
Join me and I will go, after rendering my judgment.
Ashly Burch 40:46
Do we have a sense? Is this like we become his soldiers, or we die, or he takes our hearts?
Ross Bryant 40:54
What I think you're getting the sense of here is you can save yourselves right now, but there will be a price elsewhere. Like you're letting others take the fall for you, or you can save yourselves right now. You can either sacrifice yourselves or others.
Ashly Burch 41:11
(laughing) Fuck, I think...
Paula Deming 41:15
(laughing) Watching Rashawn roll dice, I think to decide what to do.
Ashly Burch 41:22
Khonsu (Ross) 41:38
Very well. Continue to serve me in the river, outside of time. Your hearts are not burned, but I have written my name upon you, and you are mine. So I can reveal to you...
Ross Bryant 42:06
The rest of you don't hear this. You just hear, like the (unintelligible speech) coming from all the corpses around you.
Paula Deming 42:12
Yeah, like,
Judy Brown (Paula) 42:14
Angel? Diana?
Ross Bryant 42:16
But you two hear,
Khonsu (Ross) 42:17
The world is mine, and now it shall be ours, as you do my work. They shall be the sacrifice, and you shall know me by my true name. I am the traveler, Khonsu. Nyarlathotep.
Ross Bryant 42:39
[MUSIC: ominous drone] Meddler, your chest suddenly heaves. Judy Brown, your chest like, (straining sound) feels agony. You two are awash in potency and power. Angel Coffield, as you see suddenly your companions clutching their chests and gouts of flame bursting and exploding from their chests as their hearts, their very hearts, catch on fire. [SFX: fire bursts] All across Miskatonic University, as like two glasses are clinking. [SFX: glasses clink] (as partygoers) "What a swell time. Really puts me in mind of a previous generation. Boy, kids today don't know how bad the depression was... (pained noises)." [SFX: fire and shouts] See the entire Student Union suddenly consumed in flames, in burning flames, bodies writhing in agony. Some, the heat so intense that their bodies themselves turn to ashen rock. [SFX: cracking rock]
Ross Bryant 43:43
As happened when a similar bargain was struck hundreds and hundreds of years ago in a certain Roman state. As the two of you are the only survivors of what is later known as the 1931 Miskatonic University Reunion Disaster, when a fire broke out at the Student Union claiming the entire class of 1931. [laughter] No one, of course, knows what really happened, except for Angel Coffield and Diana Patter, whose bodies were never recovered, never ever recovered. They seem to have disappeared entirely because, of course, they know that they have stepped outside of the river of time, dwelling now in the realm of what some call Khonsu. You know him by another name. Now you are there in his colonnades, in his palace that seems to stretch off in every direction, and you watch as Judy Brown runs past you. You are holding a severed leg, Diana Patter. The lapidary beadwork covers your face, Angel Coffield. You are, of course, the priests that do him homage. Time is meaningless to you because it moves in all directions and no directions at once. Just asking the two of you, this dyad that have saved yourselves at the expense of Miskatonic University, can I get a coda from of you interacting with the world, with the living world? [MUSIC: haunting piano] How does someone in the living world feel your presence now that you are endowed with the supernatural power of Khonsu?
Paula Deming 43:44
Yes. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 44:51
Well, the thought that I had was that as FKA Angel Coffield moves around the world, when he takes human form, this is not his choice, but when he takes human form, he takes it as himself when he attended Miskatonic University. So he tried so hard to run away from that version of himself, and now he is encased in him for the rest of eternity.
Ross Bryant 46:02
Wonderful, yes. An uncanny young lad, occasionally seen in old photographs and old engravings thousands of years ago, seems to be all times. How does Diana Patter move? How does she exert her will across the time stream as a priestess of Khonsu?
Rashawn Scott 46:21
Being that she was that pesky, nosy neighbor deep in her core. I think anytime in the back of someone's mind as they're... they've put on their costume for the day, they're about to step out that they catch their reflection, and they aren't quite sure. It takes them a moment to kind of, maybe it takes something off, something is off, and they're kind of living with that unsettled, overly knowing themselves. Having such a like a fine-tooth comb about every action. That antsy, annoying thing in the back, that's me drifting along, tapping your shoulder.
Paula Deming 47:02
Ooh!
Ross Bryant 47:04
Yes, the voice in your head, the anxiety that you feel every now and then, that you maybe forgot something, that time is somehow out of your control. That perhaps is Diana Patter just moving through the stream. And that is where we'll leave it. [MUSIC: "A Little Bird" upbeat 50s ballad]
cuppycup 47:27
[clapping] Very nice.
Paula Deming 47:27
Wow, I got like... my chest is tight.
Ashly Burch 47:34
So good.
Outro Song 47:35
("A Little Bird" song lyrics) A little bird on a wire told me yesterday, that it's time to travel miles away, on the mountain top and through the land. A little bird on my shoulder whistled sweet and low, well it's time to pack your things and go. Learn to fly, follow me like a dove. A little bird in the sky sang in a magic key how you need to let your life be free. (fade out)