Transcript - Episode 3: The Obverse of the Mirror (Part 1)
Audio for The Obverse of the Mirror Part 1
The Obverse of the Mirror Part 1
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.
Ross Bryant 00:00
Wow, live and direct in the booth with Virginia, Scott, Paula, Cup. We're about to play some Call of Cthulhu. What is more Lovecraftian than a fear of the unknown? The unknown, the unexpected. Well, what could be more unknown than what is about to happen now? [laughter] We know nothing about the session that we are about to do. We're gonna come up with a scenario on the fly and improvise through it. So I'm excited and a little bit terrified. Let's see what happens. Cup, let it rip. What is the title for today's improvised game?
cuppycup 00:34
Alright, so what we've done is we've taken the Patreon backer suggestions and loaded them all into a random table and rolled against that to select the title, trying to like live up to the show name where we talk about rolling dice. So today's Push the Roll title comes from Dusty D on patreon.com/aintslayed, and it is The Obverse of the Mirror.
Ross Bryant 00:57
Ooh.
Paula Deming 00:58
The Obverse of the Mirror.
Ross Bryant 01:08
[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 01:58
Yeah, obverse, reverse, that's like, back and forth. I feel like coin collectors are the ones who are always talking about reverse-obverse. That's like the highfalutin way of saying heads and tails.
cuppycup 02:10
Yes, exactly.
Ross Bryant 02:11
Y'all know me. Obverse is this sort of like oldie timey sort of way of describing things. The mirror makes me think of reflections. Makes me think of something, someone who is always looking at themselves in the mirror. Obverse is always evocative of olden times. Cthulhu is usually set in the '20s. But let's go back even further. A vain sort. The mirror. This is making me think of someone who is obsessed with beauty. Let's imagine that the obverse of the mirror is an untold tale by a writer like Oscar Wilde.
Paula Deming 02:45
Yes!
cuppycup 02:47
Nice.
Ross Bryant 02:47
This is one that never made it into the collections that you maybe read in high school or middle school.
Paula Deming 02:54
Maybe for a good reason.
Ross Bryant 02:55
Perhaps. [mischievous laugh by Paula] So we're in Victorian England. Let's start to come up with some characters. We've got our players here all have sort of pre-gen sheets just ready to be kind of colored in and tweaked to accommodate the setting. So let's think of that world of Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, especially. A world of aesthetes, louche aristocrats, class obsessed dowagers, young women on the make, or perhaps ready to have their virtue stripped from them and to fall from the heights of their perch in society. Maybe there's a little dash of Arthur Conan Doyle in this, in these people as well, to give them some oomph to their investigatory spirit.
cuppycup 03:51
Our sheets are very non-Victorian, but hopefully they're generic enough that we can make these adaptations.
Paula Deming 03:57
I think mine will work.
cuppycup 04:00
Good.
Ross Bryant 04:00
Especially in terms of, like, the aesthetic sense that we're kind of conjuring up. I'll just throw this out there. One of my favorite little things in history that I ever read about was this French group of artist occultists called The Society of the Rose and Cross.
Paula Deming 04:17
Yeah!
Ross Bryant 04:18
They were a group of artists that were meeting sort of under the mentorship of this guy whose last name was Péladan. And like modernist musicians were involved in this group, like early symbolists were involved in this group, sort of people who maybe would have been in line with a sort of Wildean vibe. But these are people for whom beauty and the sublime is allowing you to sort of commune with supernatural forces. Perhaps you're these sorts of folks. You like Wagner a lot, a little too much.
Paula Deming 04:54
Well, I have a thought about my character, if I can, if it's alright to dive in here.
Ross Bryant 04:58
Yes, please.
Paula Deming 04:59
So I have this pre-gen that is an athlete, and so I think perhaps Anna, perhaps is my name, and you know,
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 05:09
I'm very good at croquet. [laughter] I've just found that I'm quite talented and very rich people often gather to play croquet, and so going and being a part of these competitions, I win often, so I get invited to the next one. But while I'm there, there's always something strange that seems to happen, and I have a knack for figuring out what it is and discovering that it wasn't the maid who stole that silverware. It was actually Lord Joseph, who took it because, you know, rich people get bored, and sometimes they become kleptomaniacs.
Ross Bryant 05:51
Great. Do you have a last name, Anna, do you think?
Paula Deming 05:54
I was trying to think of one. So the first one I thought of was St. Clair, and I was like, that is literally the last name I use for, like, every Call of Cthulhu game so I can't be St. Clair.
Ross Bryant 06:04
Perhaps she's related to your other characters. Who knows?
Paula Deming 06:06
Oh, she's a previous generation. [laughter] You know what? Fine. That's it. Anna St. Clair.
Ross Bryant 06:13
Love it. So Anna St. Clair is a croquet prodigy come...
Virginia Lee 06:17
I love that. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 06:18
Detective.
Paula Deming 06:19
She's got real good guns, you know?
Ross Bryant 06:22
This is the most BritBox-esque character I've ever heard of. [laughter] Like a woman who goes to wealthy country houses to play croquet and solves a mystery at every one. Fantastic.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 06:34
Yes, call me Miss Marple.
Ross Bryant 06:36
How old do you think Anna St. Clair is roughly?
Paula Deming 06:39
Oh, she's getting to the age where she probably should have gotten married, but she hasn't yet. So, you know, like 24.
Ross Bryant 06:47
Right. She's nearly a spinster.
Paula Deming 06:50
She's about to be an old maid. Yeah, I think. Yeah.
Ross Bryant 06:53
Okay. I'd like everybody with your characters, just since we're, like, evoking these ideas, pay attention to that stat at the top of your sheet, APP, Appearance. What is your Appearance, Anna St. Clair?
Paula Deming 07:08
So the actual stat is a 60 so it's not like incredible, but it's not like bad
Ross Bryant 07:14
Yeah, yes, a thoroughly presentable lady of a certain age.
Paula Deming 07:19
Because of her athleticism, perhaps her build is a little less femme than would have been expected of this time period for an eligible match. She's a bit more muscular and flat maybe than would be considered desirable, and maybe just like kind of weirdly tall. Her long arms help her with the croquet, you know?
Ross Bryant 07:47
Yes, her height, her brawn, unobscured by the rather architectural clothing of the era, still makes people double take every now and then. Although there are some people who find such androgyny rather alluring. Someone else have a character that's coming into focus for them? We've got Anna St. Clair, croquet detective. [laughter]
Virginia Lee 08:10
I'm starting to get some ideas looking at this. So of the sheets that I got, the one that's popping at me now is the occult shop owner, because I feel like that'll be really fun. Her name is Claire Windby, and she is 45. She's a widow with no intention of remarrying. Her Appearance is 75 so I'm picturing that she's quite attractive. In the traits, it says she's very tall. She runs the shop, but she also goes on like adventures to procure items for the shop, and so that means a little bit of adventuring. So maybe she's a little bit buff, she's a little bit strong, not quite athletic, not like Anna St. Clair, but she's tough!
Ross Bryant 08:58
Excellent. I love it. Claire Windby occult shop owner, a place where one can go to buy all manner of curious things. I think of this same general era, there's a Théophile Gautier story called The Mummy's Foot about an aesthete who purchases a mummy's foot at a store, rather like Claire Windby's and with creepy consequences. Okay, awesome. We've got Claire Windby, an occult shop owner. I'd love you to think of what the name of that shop might be. She's 45, a widow, alas, but she's, yeah, rather stunningly attractive, turning heads on the high street.
cuppycup 09:39
It was Claire Windby, is that right?
Virginia Lee 09:41
Windby, yes.
cuppycup 09:42
How would I spell Windby if I was to not know?
Virginia Lee 09:45
W-I-N-D-B-Y.
cuppycup 09:47
Okay, that's what I guessed. Wonderful.
Paula Deming 09:51
You did know.
Scott Dorward 09:52
Nice.
cuppycup 09:53
Good, I think that Scott is going to identify this cop-out immediately, but I am picturing an American Pinkerton agent gone rogue. [laughter]
Scott Dorward 10:04
Nice.
Ross Bryant 10:06
Great.
cuppycup 10:07
Maybe chased a lead overseas. He was working with a widow back home, and her husband was last seen in London, maybe at Oscar Wilde's salon, depending on what year we're in, specifically. So he's following that lead. Archetypal. He's wearing a trench coat. He has kind of a subtle southern drawl, and maybe he's carrying a copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass with him everywhere he goes. [laughter] Everything he does just screams American in London.
Ross Bryant 10:37
Great. But he's a fan of Whitman. He's an aesthete of his own sort.
cuppycup 10:40
That's true.
Ross Bryant 10:42
A new world aesthetic. Love it.
cuppycup 10:44
Exactly.
Ross Bryant 10:45
And it also gives... you don't have to be night of a thousand accents like the rest of us.
Paula Deming 10:49
Yeah, I already feel like I need to apologize to Scott and any other...
cuppycup 10:54
He's heard the worst, don't worry.
Paula Deming 10:55
Listeners for...
Scott Dorward 10:57
I've been playing with Cup for long enough that, yeah, the bar has been set. [laughter]
cuppycup 11:02
It's so low you actually can't go below it, even if you try. And most importantly, I didn't mention this, but I have a gun. [laughter]
Paula Deming 11:08
Oh, that is important.
Ross Bryant 11:11
Oh, great, cool. What is your character's name, would you say?
cuppycup 11:15
I was thinking Silas Watson.
Paula Deming 11:18
That is a perfect Call of Cthulhu name.
Ross Bryant 11:20
Great, a Mr. Watson. What is your Appearance?
cuppycup 11:24
He's kind of tall and austere, graying at the temples. I'm looking at myself. Graying at the temples. And he's not terribly imposing, but a little above average in height. My App score’s 70, so I guess he's pretty stunningly handsome.
Ross Bryant 11:41
Wow, a silver fox, or a silvering fox.
cuppycup 11:44
He's an angular fellow. Let's say that.
Ross Bryant 11:46
Striking, striking contours. Okay, angular fella.
cuppycup 11:50
Oh, and I think he's about, he's probably about 38 years old. Or precisely 38 years old, why not?
Ross Bryant 11:55
Okay, cool. Scott, anything coming into focus for you now that we have Anna St. Clair, croquet mallet slung over her shoulder. Dusting some odd totem from who knows where, Claire Windby. And packing heat into society gatherings, Silas Watson.
Scott Dorward 12:14
Well, with all this talk of louche aesthetes, I was thinking of an Aubrey Beardsley type. A young man, would-be artist with an interest in the decadent movement, who is trying to move into publishing, who is trying to start up his own publication, and is seeking out the outre in both the written word and in the artistic world, so that he can put it on the page and shock the British establishment to its foundations.
Ross Bryant 12:47
Wonderful. I love that. An Aubrey Beardsley type, fantastic.
cuppycup 12:53
What's the name, Scott, so I can update it? Sorry.
Scott Dorward 12:54
Oh, sorry, uh, Jasper Bastian.
Ross Bryant 12:57
Oh, love that.
Paula Deming 12:58
Everyone's got great names.
Ross Bryant 12:59
These names rock.
Paula Deming 13:01
I have just googled Aubrey Beardsley. I'm in. I'm buckled up. I'm there for it.
Ross Bryant 13:06
The artwork is some of the best, some of my favorite. Just like instantly identifiable, could have come from no one else's hand. And if you can find a picture of Aubrey Beardsley himself, he has a look.
Virginia Lee 13:17
Yes he does! [laughter]
Paula Deming 13:19
First thing that popped up was his face. And I was like, I'm in for this. Yes, okay, that's exactly how I'm picturing Jasper now.
Scott Dorward 13:26
Speaking of which, my Appearance is... I grabbed a pre-gen that I had for a different game, and my Appearance is 70. So we are a good looking bunch.
Virginia Lee 13:35
We are!
Paula Deming 13:36
My goodness.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 13:38
Oh! It's so strange to be, I mean, I'm the least attractive of the group, but that's alright. I guess I'm good looking, but used to being not as beautiful as everyone else in the room.
cuppycup 13:49
We're built for television.
Virginia Lee 13:50
We are. Too bad it's a radio play. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 13:57
Yes, this just means you have to auditorily evoke how stunning you all are. Fantastic.
Paula Deming 14:06
So we are all in a group. We all already know each other.
Ross Bryant 14:10
I think this is an interesting place to go, and where I was thinking also. Think of the reason that you four know each other, and perhaps have collaborated in the past.
cuppycup 14:23
Perhaps with at least one of you. I've kind of gone freelance. I like it in London, and I want to stay here, so I'm looking for little jobs to pursue, either working with Claire the occult bookshop owner on a case, or maybe there was a big incident at the croquet field and we had to investigate, right? Something like that. Some kind of investigation brought us together. I like to think, just because I think it'll annoy Scott that Jasper was the only Londoner who took to Silas, so he kind of likes him, right? And so now he's latched on.
Scott Dorward 14:55
Sure. [laughter]
Virginia Lee 14:58
I feel like I too would have a connection with Jasper, just because he's a writer, correct?
Scott Dorward 15:04
An artist and publisher. I mean, he dabbles in writing, but his main love is art.
Virginia Lee 15:09
So an artist probably does research into things, and might...
Scott Dorward 15:15
Oh, yes.
Virginia Lee 15:15
Hear about things, and I might want a lead on something, and, oh, I hear you've done some research for a project or something, you know? Reach out to you time and time again.
Scott Dorward 15:27
And also, it sounds like you've all been involved with unsavory matters to some extent. And this appeals greatly to Jasper. You have all delved into the darker corners of London, and he's here for that. He's here for that.
Ross Bryant 15:43
Yes. Love that, love that. You're all sort of intrigued by darkness, by the strange, by the unsavory, that the perfect porcelain sheen of Victorian culture hides just beneath its thin surface. [MUSIC: flowing, majestic piano] Let's throw you all into it. You're all in a sitting room lit by large candelabras, silver candelabras that taper off into like beautiful cupids, dancing, clutching big handfuls of grapes and seashells on shining lacquered tables. Overstuffed couches burst at the seams. Oriental carpets on the floor. The air is heavy with incense from some unseen source. People mill about in the rather dark room. Ladies hold fans in front of their faces so that you can just see their eyes blinking at you over the tip. Gentlemen in extremely manicured mustaches move around the room smoking perfumed cigarettes. The Pilgrims Chorus from Tannhäuser is being played on a piano nearby. For such a sublime and reverent piece of music, there is something rather obscenely decadent in how it is being played and filigreed on the piano. As you sit there, the four of you, you can see light shimmering on the ceiling, and you realize that that's because the host of this evening, Lord Alfred Bierbaum...
Paula Deming 17:23
Yes! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 17:24
Is sort of holding court with a few ladies at the other end of the room, and waddling across the floor is his pet, a big tortoise with a bunch of jewels set into its shell. [laughter] There are like rubies and sapphires adhered to the shell of the tortoise, and as it waddles across the room, it throws light on the ceiling like a disco ball.
Virginia Lee 17:48
Yes. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 17:48
Do you ever wonder how he got those jewels in the shell? It seems wildly impractical. [SFX: small crowd applauds when music ends]
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 17:55
Maybe it was born that way.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 17:57
Oh Jasper, I don't think he was born that way.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 18:02
I sort of wonder how difficult it might be to get them out.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 18:06
Well, I've got a pair of pliers right here. I can try. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 18:11
Oh my. I could create a distraction, spill something, knock something over with my clumsy, long arms, and then you can try and get one of them out. Why not?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 18:21
And would you really leave the world with that little bit of beauty taken away from it?
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 18:27
Oh, well, that's a good point.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 18:31
Maybe on the way out, then.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 18:34
Yeah, on the way out, that sounds like a great idea.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 18:36
The end of the party, yes.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 18:38
When everybody's leaving, somebody will cause a distraction, and then we'll just leave.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 18:42
Perfect.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 18:43
Excellent.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 18:43
You just, you give me a wink, and I'll knock something over.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 18:48
Did I hear you discussing the impracticality of my friend, Proteus?
Ross Bryant 18:52
This is Lord Alfred Bierbaum, who has walked across the floor to you, has wafted over to you. He is holding a black cigarillo that he takes long drags from every now and then.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 19:05
Yes, Miss St. Clair, I confess that it is most impractical to bejewel the tortoise in such a fashion, but I find that only impracticalities are that which we should put our endeavors to pursuing. It is only the impractical in which one can truly find one's calling. What?
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 19:21
Oh, I mean, yes, it certainly makes life more interesting, doesn't it, especially, you know, for those such as us who have everything and find ourselves bored so often.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 19:31
Quite. Boredom is ugly, and ugliness should be repelled with all one's faculties. I myself try to do seven impractical things before luncheon.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 19:41
Oh, my!
Scott Dorward 19:43
Jasper is busily writing all of this down in a notebook so he can use it in his next editorial. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 19:51
He flings himself down on the couch like between you, perfume wafting off him, a huge Parma violet in his lapel. [laughter] He kind of takes your hand, Jasper and is like,
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 20:05
I'm looking ever so much to seeing the illustrations that you were telling me of the last time you were here.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 20:11
Oh yes, yes, they're coming along... well, they're coming along painfully, as all great art does. But I think you'll be satisfied with the outcome.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 20:23
Yes, one always,
Ross Bryant 20:25
He says, like stroking your finger,
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 20:26
Pursues in all things, satisfaction.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 20:30
Always.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 20:30
What is the theme, Mr. Bastian, what is the theme?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 20:35
The theme, my dear man, is memento mori.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 20:41
Ah, yes, exquisite. A meditation on death then?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 20:48
Yes, well, more an appreciation of life. Because what greater appreciation can one have for life than the knowledge that it must someday end, and that we must wring every last drop of satisfaction we can out of the few precious moments we have.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 21:11
Ah, Mr. Bastian, I knew you were an artist, but I did not know you are so accomplished a philosopher. Yes, yes. Ah, to suck the juice out of the fruit of life. It is this that the meditation upon death always encourages one to, and the grotesqueries of death only throw the beauties of life into starker relief, like a fine jewel set in a base metal.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 21:38
Or in a tortoise shell! [laughter]
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 21:42
Just so, just so.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 21:45
This actually reminds me of that thing you were saying about boredom, Lord Bierbaum. Why is it you gathered us here, other than the fact that we're wildly attractive? [laughter]
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 21:55
I can always count on my American friend to slice through pleasantries with a knife. [laughter] Knife of his continental tact.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 22:05
He often just gets right to it, you know, just says what he's thinking.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 22:11
Yes, well, I've gathered you here, of course, for an evening of exquisite music.
Ross Bryant 22:17
[MUSIC: piano resumes] He gestures across the room to the young man playing piano, his hair tumbling into his face as he vibes out on the keys.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 22:27
And, of course, such pleasant and ravishing company. I only converse with beautiful people because I find beauty to be ever so much more intriguing than the conversation itself. The communion of two beautiful people is always more striking than the communion of two wits or two intellects. Not, of course, to say that any of you are anything less than wise and delightful in your conversation. But also because I have an acquisition. I have recently made a purchase that I think all of you should be rather intrigued with. You, perhaps especially Miss Windby. This purchase I made, I only wonder if it hasn't gone through your hands, if you've not heard of it...
Claire Windby (Virginia) 23:11
My hands?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 23:12
Yes, I know that you trade in grotesque antiquities from around the world.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 23:18
I do.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross 23:19
This would find, I think, pleasant company within the confines of your shop.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 23:24
Ah, yes, The Ebon Looking Glass, yes.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 23:26
The Ebon Looking Glass, quite.
Ross Bryant 23:29
He draws on his cigarillo.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 23:31
[blows smoke] Ah, most poetic. Sometimes life itself takes on the quality of poetry and begins to rhyme, because it is indeed a looking glass that I greatly wish to show you.
Ross Bryant 23:42
And he rises and beckons you all to follow him. You move through the sort of perfumed room with its heavy curtains and elegant young men and women.
Paula Deming 23:54
And are they all quite beautiful? Is everyone here very attractive?
Ross Bryant 23:59
They are either quite beautiful. Or, if I can put this somewhat kindly, remarkably grotesque. [laughter]
Paula Deming 24:06
Very unique and interesting to look at.
Ross Bryant 24:09
Yes, unique. [laughter]
Paula Deming 24:11
Okay.
Ross Bryant 24:12
Yes, so like on your right, you pass a young woman with raven hair and piercing violet eyes that kind of regards you as you walk by, her cheekbones standing out. Her hair lacquered to her head, she is, she's stunning. To your left, an older man with one of those mustaches and beards that has like 20 curls coming out of it, like just a work of hirsute sculpture glued to the front of his face. And both of these sort of nod at you as you go by. Lord Bierbaum takes you into a sort of anteroom, through it, down a hallway and into a room with sort of oriental wallpaper covering all the walls. There are gold filigree accents, a fine chest of drawers from perhaps China, antiques sitting on it, and there's a broad circular table and a little patch of velvet in the center covering up something. He draws a chair out for Claire and invites everybody to be seated.
Virginia Lee 25:18
I sit. [laughter]
cuppycup 25:20
I'll nudge Bastian in the ribs and ask,
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 25:23
Say, is this gaudy or tasteful, would you say? I'm still trying to figure things out.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 25:29
That is one of the most delightfully American things I have ever heard you say, my dear Watson. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 25:38
Yeah, you look up at the wall, as you're like, is this tasteless or not? There's a gilded frame, and the frame is worked with metal flowers all around the frame. And in it is a painting. It's a classical theme, but it looks as though it was painted relatively recently, and it is of a beautiful young, like, ivory pale, nude young man peering into a body of water, and there's some ripples forming as he touches his own reflection.
Virginia Lee 26:08
I pipe up and I say,
Claire Windby (Virginia) 26:10
Oh, this is a very fine painting here. Is this Narcissus?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 26:14
Ah, Miss Windby. You have a keen, keen eye. Yes, I should think you know your theogony well, and perhaps you have spent your time burning the midnight oil, laboring over your Ovid. Yes, I can see that I'm in the presence of fellow travelers.
Ross Bryant 26:34
He looks at you Bastian.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 26:36
Fellow lovers of beauty. Lovers of Wagner, if I can put it that way. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 26:41
He kind of just continues to stare you up and down. [laughter]
Paula Deming 26:44
I think Anna, just to point out that she does have her like croquet mallet with her. [laughter] She kind of carries it around like a walking stick of sorts. You know, she always has it. You never know when someone's gonna want to play a game. And so she's kind of like as she's like, cataloging everything in the room and that, like, okay, that's where that is, and that's where that's located, and that's where that's placed, so that later, if something goes missing, she'll be able to notice it. She's also kind of just like, always, sort of fidgeting with her croquet mallet a little bit. [laughter]
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 27:22
I should tell you that you should be rid of that beastly thing if I didn't find it so charmingly incongruous to everything else in my house.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 27:29
Well, you know, I'm always afraid, if I could be vulnerable for a moment, as uncouth as that might be, people might not remember who I am if I don't have this with me. And they're like, oh yes, that's the young woman who's very good at croquet. And if I don't have it with me, they might forget they invited me here.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 27:51
Wonderful, simply charming, Miss St. Clair. I never aspire to be virtuous. I only aspire to be memorable. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 27:59
You're certainly succeeding Lord Bierbaum!
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 28:04
Maybe Miss St. Clair, you could take some inspiration from Proteus and bejewel your croquet mallet.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 28:11
Oh, you know, perhaps I should have a decorative one for events and then one that is actually more useful for actually playing.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 28:20
Utility is such a dreary thing.
cuppycup 28:25
And Watson looks at Bastian and just mouths,
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 28:27
Tasteful. [laughter]
Paula Deming 28:31
You're getting it now! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 28:32
[MUSIC: ominous drone] When you say that, he reaches across the table and sweeps the little velvet sash off of it, [SFX: cloth movement] and there is a circular ingot of gold there on the table. It just looks like a golden disc. And he reaches forward and kind of strokes the back of it.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 28:51
Yes, yes. This is my recent acquisition. I wonder, Miss Windby, if you wouldn't mind appraising my little treasure.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 29:03
Oh, it would be my pleasure.
Virginia Lee 29:05
And I've got, like a little sachet that I've got, and I pull out, like one of those jeweler lenses so that I could take a look at it. And also, because I work in the occult and I'm not an idiot, I also pull out some calfskin gloves, because I'm not about to touch this with bare hands. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 29:22
Okay.
Virginia Lee 29:22
And then I pick it up and well, I'm gonna look at it first before I touch it. And then once I'm satisfied...
Paula Deming 29:28
What do you mean you haven't played Call of Cthulhu before? I read it, but I don't say the words out loud. [laughter]
Virginia Lee 29:38
When I'm satisfied that nothing strange is likely to happen, I'm going to pick it up and start examining it.
Ross Bryant 29:44
Great, yeah. Yeah you touch it with your calfskin gloves. When you put your gloves on, Bierbaum is just like,
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 29:51
Mmm. Charming. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 29:53
And if you pull it towards you, you can see that what looked like a featureless golden disc about, let's say, like, nine inches in diameter, does have little decorative engravings all across the back. That, of course, is its reverse side. Would you like to turn it over onto its obverse side?
Virginia Lee 30:16
Yes, I would.
Ross Bryant 30:17
You turn this thing that looks rather like an old coin over and you see that the gold on the back is a setting, as it were, the setting of a jewel. But instead of a large, what would be like a nine inch across, like agate or ruby or something, is a flat, slick, shimmering, dark, obsidian black stone. It is a golden ring with this, like circular black gemstone in it. And as you turn it over, it's so dark that it is, like extremely reflective. As you turn it over, you can see kind of bulging out from it, somewhat distorted by the curvature of its surface, the room that you're in with all five of your faces, sort of looking over into it as if you were looking into a limpid pool of darkness.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 31:11
It's almost like looking into an eye.
Virginia Lee 31:14
And I sort of lean in closer. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 31:16
Great. Would you like to make, do you have Appraise or some other, or History, or some skill on your sheet there that you might be able to tell us more about what this is. Because, of course, Bierbaum is like,
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 31:30
Yes, I wonder if your rather educated eye, Miss Windby, could tell me exactly where this came from. I find it to be a very beautiful thing, and often to know too much about things is to find it tiresome, but it does pique one's curiosity.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 31:47
Well, let me see what I can see.
Virginia Lee 31:50
I lean in and you said Appraise or History?
Ross Bryant 31:54
Yeah, but I play kind of fast and loose with this stuff. If there's another skill that you're good at that you could conceivably use to learn something about this object.
Virginia Lee 32:03
Occult?
Ross Bryant 32:05
Occult? Yeah certainly.
Virginia Lee 32:07
Okay. My Occult is 65 so I'm going to roll the d100, and I got 56.
Paula Deming 32:15
Ooh!
Ross Bryant 32:16
So that is a regular success. You look at this, at the surface of this, and you didn't roll History. You didn't roll Appraise. [MUSIC: ethereal drone] You don't really have a sense of where this is from or when. You don't have a keen sense of its value, except that it must be quite expensive, considering the workmanship and the craftsmanship of it. The Occult success tells you, as you kind of stoop over it, that it would be rather difficult to kind of like do one's toilette in this mirror. But this has a purpose. This isn't a mirror to just see yourself. What you realize as you're stooping over, as you look closer is what occultists like yourself might call a scrying mirror. A scrying mirror is something rather like a crystal ball or anything that you kind of peer into to enter into a spiritual communion with whatever it is that's kind of communicating with you through the mirror.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 33:17
What do you think of it, Claire? Is it worth quite a lot of money?
Claire Windby (Virginia) 33:21
Well, in certain circles, this is worth an absolute fortune,
Virginia Lee 33:27
I say, setting the mirror down and taking off my little bejeweled eye thing. [laughter]
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 33:31
Certain circles? Hmm. Well, I should hope. Discussing prices is very, very tiresome. It was indeed a very, very expensive thing.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 33:46
Can I ask you where you procured this item?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 33:51
Oh, yes, I procured it from the house of Jessop and Coke.
Ross Bryant 33:56
You know them to be merchants, traders, importers of fine goods. A place where you might go to get a Chinese vase, a tintinnabulum from old Greco Roman times. But if someone wants to give me a roll, you might know more.
Virginia Lee 34:14
I feel like I would, just because I deal in these sorts of things.
Ross Bryant 34:19
Right, these are people in your same line of work, roughly.
Virginia Lee 34:22
Exactly.
cuppycup 34:27
While the skilled investigators suss this out, I'll just kind of lean into Lord Bierbaum and say,
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 34:31
I don't think it's American, if that helps. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 34:36
Wow.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 34:37
Yes, cracking, cracking work, Watson. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 34:39
Intelligence, I think would be the way to go.
Virginia Lee 34:41
Right on, my Intelligence is 90. I'm rolling now.
Ross Bryant 34:44
Whoa!
Paula Deming 34:45
You're smart.
Ross Bryant 34:47
You're one of the smartest people in the world.
Virginia Lee 34:50
I got a 79.
Ross Bryant 34:51
That is a success, okay, yes. Jessop and Coke are rivals of yours. They are also bringing in things from around the world from different eras, appraising and moving these things. But you know, with your Intelligence roll, that they perhaps are a little less savory than you in your dealings. You've got your people bringing things in, but you know that Jessop and Coke might be amenable to acting as a fence for stolen things. That they have a leg in underworld activity, and that they trade in goods both licit and illicit.
Paula Deming 35:28
Could I take a look at it? Could I do like a Spot Hidden and see if it's got any, like, markings or etchings on it? Is it just purely like gold?
Ross Bryant 35:38
Yeah, please. Spot Hidden. You're gonna have to, of course, like, look into it, give it a good inspection.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 35:44
Do you mind? Could I touch it?
Paula Deming 35:47
And I'll just, without waiting to be given permission, [laughter] pick it up and, like, kind of flip it over and just, like, examine it.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 35:54
You might not… okay, alright.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 35:57
Oh, I should have put gloves on.
Paula Deming 35:59
So that's a hard success at a 21 under 75.
Ross Bryant 36:04
A hard success. Great. For a Spot Hidden. Yeah.
Paula Deming 36:09
For something you've made up just now.
Ross Bryant 36:11
No, no, this is all, this is the story. I'm just recalling it.
Paula Deming 36:14
Yeah, uh huh.
Ross Bryant 36:15
Yeah. You look at it, both sides. Spot Hidden.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 36:18
Just seems so curious. Maybe there's a marking of who made it, or where it's from, or something.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 36:24
Or a secret compartment.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 36:27
A secret compartment, Jasper, I love that idea.
Ross Bryant 36:30
Oh yeah, the back swings open. [laughter] No.
Virginia Lee 36:34
There's a little man inside.
Paula Deming 36:35
Smoke comes out.
Ross Bryant 36:37
It’s like, (cartoonish voice) Oh no!
Ross Bryant 36:40
[MUSIC: ominous drone] You look it over. And as I said, yeah, big black disc on one side set in this gold on the other, a slick surface of beautiful red gold, you might say, worked with all kinds of little delicate, ornamental inscriptions on the back sort of cut into the rear surface of the gold. As you look at it, your Spot Hidden shows you that what at first appeared to be just like little decorative markings, it looks like it could be writing. As you look at it, you're like, what is that? It's not quite...
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 37:17
Doesn't seem quite like English letters, I don't think, but it...
Ross Bryant 37:21
Sure doesn't.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 37:23
Almost like something's written on the back of this.
Paula Deming 37:26
And I'll kind of run my finger like along the etchings.
Ross Bryant 37:30
That was a hard success, yeah?
Paula Deming 37:32
Yes, it was a hard success.
Ross Bryant 37:33
Okay, it's not English. The alphabet is entirely different. As you trace it with your finger, it's distorted and kind of strangely distended in places to create this ornamental effect. But you realize that you're looking at what might be Ancient Greek letters. Your hand traces over what might be a sigma, a bulbous and flowery theta underneath your digit as you probe, and if you turn it around, yeah, you look into that black disc, and you see yourself sort of warped on its surface. But of course, you're Spotting Hidden, so you also see the thing that's right behind you. [SFX: metallic shriek]
Paula Deming 38:16
(gasp) I turn and look. Is anything behind me?
Ross Bryant 38:18
No, of course not.
Paula Deming 38:20
I look back. I look back, look back into the reflection. Is there something there?
Ross Bryant 38:23
What are you talking about? Of course not.
Paula Deming 38:26
When I look away and I look back, is it still there?
Ross Bryant 38:30
No.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 38:32
I don’t… Strange.
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 38:34
Are you okay?
Claire Windby (Virginia) 38:37
What's strange about it?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 38:38
My dear, Miss St. Clair, you look like you saw something you didn't like in that mirror. Not an experience I can say I've ever had, but uh... [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 38:50
I often judge my own appearance when I look into a mirror. I just thought I saw... I thought I saw someone else in the room with us, just here, behind me, behind my shoulder.
Paula Deming 39:01
And I'll gesture.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 39:02
Just over my shoulder. But, of course, there's nothing there. That's so silly.
Ross Bryant 39:06
Do you want to keep looking into it?
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 39:08
Oh, um, I don't know. Do I?
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 39:11
Oh, I think, I think we absolutely should, yes. This mirror is clearly meant to be used. We could try to determine what it is by reading all that tedious writing on the back. Or we could use it the way that it is clearly intended to be used, by gazing into it and seeing what secrets it wants to share with us. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 39:35
Yes.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 39:37
Oh, boy.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 39:38
Ooh. Secrets. Yes, delightful. Miss St. Clair, you look rather pale. Don't tell me that I've spent an exorbitant amount of money on a forgery.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 39:49
Oh, no, no, I don't... I would not know. That would be a Miss Windby's area of expertise. I don't think so. I just, what do you see when you look into it, Lord Bierbaum?
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 40:01
Well, I've only had it for a day or two. I find it to be an agreeably beautiful thing, rather transfixing thing.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 40:10
You know, I will look into it again.
Ross Bryant 40:13
Yeah, peer deep into it why don't you?
Paula Deming 40:17
Yeah, my mind goes,
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 40:18
There's a mystery here. I must solve it. Look into it. Look into it deeply.
Ross Bryant 40:23
Awesome. Make a Power roll. [laughter]
Paula Deming 40:25
Oh no. I realized we didn't roll our Luck either, and at some point I'm probably gonna want some so maybe...
Ross Bryant 40:32
Yeah, why don't we at this interval, why don't we all roll our Luck? It's 3d6 times five.
Paula Deming 40:38
Oh, geez Louise. Oh no. Well, I rolled five on the dice, so I guess I have 25 Luck points.
cuppycup 40:48
Wow. I rolled 70.
Scott Dorward 40:50
I got 65. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 40:54
Nice.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 40:57
Well, when you're an athlete, you can't rely on luck. You must rely on skill and training. [laughter]
Silas Watson (cuppycup) 41:02
Yeah. On the other hand, union busting is all Luck. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 41:09
God, yeah, we see a 20-year-old Silas Watson in a West Virginia coal mine cracking the skull of some labor organizer. [laughter]
cuppycup 41:22
Taking playing characters I hate to the next level. [laughter]
Virginia Lee 41:26
Mine was 75, just announcing it.
Ross Bryant 41:29
Wow. Everybody's quite lucky, except for Anna St. Clair. But let's see how lucky your Power roll was.
Paula Deming 41:35
Yeah, I was just gonna say, is this one of those times where you want to fail or you want to succeed? [laughter] You know, sometimes you want to fail.
Ross Bryant 41:42
Well, it seems like you want to know the future. That seems like the kind of thing that a scrying mirror might be able to tell you.
Paula Deming 41:48
You know what? So I rolled a 12 under 50, which is two points away from an extreme success. I'm kind of like, do I just spend the two Luck points and get an extreme success? Everyone says, yes, yeah. So we're doing it. I now have 23 Luck points and an extreme success on my Power roll.
Ross Bryant 42:07
Wonderful. Okay, yeah. Bierbaum is like,
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 42:11
Someone behind you? How grotesque. I certainly have never seen anything of that sort. Perhaps I would, I could do with a bit of company.
Ross Bryant 42:07
But as he's saying all that, you're looking into the mirror, and yes, you were Spotting Hidden. You saw that, you know you saw that thing over your shoulder.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 42:29
There's something there.
Ross Bryant 42:30
This inchoate figure that was just over your shoulder, but when you looked there, wasn't there. And then you look back, and it's still not there. You look back over your shoulder, it's not there. And this exertion of your will to find out what was there, this exertion of your will to know, to see, follows your gaze into the mirror. And that desire and that will sees yourself, and you feel yourself almost fall into it, but you see your face. You see your face. Anna St. Clair, you are somewhat, to be brutally honest, you're a woman of many accomplishments, but your beauty is a, shall we say, acquired taste.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 43:12
Yes.
Ross Bryant 43:13
And this is your own insecurity talking in your ear right now.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 43:17
Yes, most people don't like to look at me. They like to look at what I do.
Ross Bryant 43:23
Never made a suitable marriage match.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 43:25
No.
Ross Bryant 43:26
In a crowd like the one tonight, you can feel the gaze of the elegant bachelors move over you as over a frictionless surface to light on more attractive beauties near you.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 43:39
Yes.
Ross Bryant 43:39
Perhaps all the achievements that you've made on the cricket ground are just jewels on the shell of yourself. And you see your face in the mirror and you see yourself becoming more beautiful. You can see the luster in your eyes grow. You're no longer a haggard 28. [laughter]
Paula Deming 44:07
24! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 44:11
You're, it's like two years ago, you're in your prime. [laughter] You see the beautiful face of a young and charming version of Anna St. Clair. [MUSIC: mysterious synth] It's everything that you could be, everything that you perhaps have desired to be in your most insecure moments alone, when perhaps the loves and desires that the youthful Anna St. Clair had that were never reciprocated in the way that she wanted, wished she could have looked. And she looks just like that, and she's looking back at you with the most radiant smile, this gorgeous, gorgeous smile, her perfect porcelain teeth looking at you. And so it's almost too much to bear the beauty of this face. And almost distracting that you almost didn't see the croquet mallet in your hand, covered in blood and teeth and the smile on your face as you see the body laid out at your feet, its skull caved in and crushed. Its eye like a burst jelly overflowing obscenely from a cracked and ruined eye socket that you have battered into pulp and you are still beating into jelly. But your eyes are not looking at your work. They're looking back at you, smiling, smiling.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 45:37
Oh!
Paula Deming 45:38
And I try and pull away from the mirror. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 45:42
Yes, go ahead and roll Sanity for me.
Paula Deming 45:45
Yeah, I knew that was coming. Oh, well, I failed that one. That's an 83 over 50. I think that's appropriate.
Ross Bryant 45:55
Oh, what a shame. [laughter] Yeah, that's two points of Sanity loss for you, Anna St. Clair.
Paula Deming 46:02
Okay.
Ross Bryant 46:03
And the one last thing I'll tell you as you recoil from the mirror, is that throughout all that the joy on your face as you crushed this person into powder beneath you, your croquet mallet made crimson with their blood and brain, that there was palpably a figure behind you, approving, encouraging.
Paula Deming 46:27
As I pull away from the mirror, my hand is red from gripping my croquet mallet so tightly, tears silently coming out of my eyes but a smile on my face as I pull away. [crying]
Virginia Lee 46:45
Can I do a Psychology check?
Ross Bryant 46:48
Yeah, absolutely.
Virginia Lee 46:49
Cool. Cool. My Psychology is 55. Rolling. I got a 68, she looks fine. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 47:01
You notice something else, though, when you look at Anna, you kind of do a little double take, because, like, God, there's something about her. Anna St. Clair, lose one point of Constitution, gain one point in Appearance.
Paula Deming 47:14
Whoa. Oh, no, interesting.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 47:21
I must say, Miss St. Clair, the dim lighting in this room does wonders for your complexion. [laughter]
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 47:27
Oh, thank you.
Claire Windby (Virginia) 47:31
Yes, how your tears sparkle beautifully on your glistening cheeks. [laughter]
Paula Deming 47:36
I wipe them off.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 47:37
You seem quite moved, Miss St. Clair.
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 47:40
I think we should cover the mirror back up.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 47:44
Cover it?
Anna St. Clair (Paula) 47:44
Yes.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 47:46
If you wish, of course.
Ross Bryant 47:47
And he throws the velvet over the mirror on the table.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 47:51
Although I'm looking about my house here. I think I might put it out there in the main hall.
Jasper Bastian (Scott) 48:01
[MUSIC: ominous drone] Ah, well, I think before you even go as far as trying to work out where to mount it, we've seen the effect that it's had here on Miss St. Clair just gazing into it. I think what your little soiree needs, perhaps, is I believe what the Americans refer to as a séance.
Lord Alfred Bierbaum (Ross) 48:26
Oh, Mr. Bastian, you are wicked. Yes, I think that that's precisely what we need. How deliciously theatrical. Yes, yes.