Eternal Lies 13: Eldritch in Ethiopia

0:00 Daniel's Dread Tails is a show for grown-ups. It may contain adult language and adult themes. Please check the episode description for content warnings. Last time on eternal lies, after being fully armed by a friendly Knight of Malta, the investigators set up through the catacombs to save JB Faulk from his cultish captors. As they made their way into the horrid warehouse where he was being held, our brave companions came across the body of Montgomery Donovan in a letter suggesting A conspiracy among the cult ranks. Possibly a potential ally in a mysterious correspondent of Donovan's, our three sleuths made their way deeper into the basement to come across another obscene mouth dribbling nectar from its perch on the ceiling. The mouth grabbed Doctor Morgan, who selflessly sacrificed herself to blow the thing back to the fetid pit that spawned it.

0:52 Roused from a nectar induced stupor by the explosion, JB followed the chaos to his comrades and the four, now three, made good their escape, putting another city and another night of horrors in their rear view. The die is cast, the pact is sealed. May God have mercy on our souls. It's Daniel's dread tails. Hello everyone, and welcome to Eternal Lies. I think it's time for us to maybe check in with all of our characters. I want each of you to tell me who you are and tell me about your character and tell me what's your character doing. I think we're going back to New York probably to check in with the boss and also maybe recover a little bit. So what are you planning on doing when you go to New York? I'm Russell.

1:54 They've been, I'll be playing Colin Kane, soft boiled detective back in New York. He's sort of just never sleep, fidgeting with one of his pockets. Overall just looking not OK. Not OK anything in particular he's doing we go a little bit deeper outside of the the introductory part here. What is? What's something do you think he gets up to besides fiddling with something in his pocket a lot, which is concerning. I hope it's not his penis. Oh my God, you really went there. I mean, there are things other than that. It could be like the flask of nectar I picked up in the last episode. There you go. Yes, you do have that flask of nectar. Don't show it to JB.

2:38 Yeah, now that he's back in New York, his morning exercise routine has taken a surprising turn for the better. No. Is is getting in a little better shape now it is reflected itself in a reasonable number of athletics points. Oh, OK, got it. Yeah, you can also explain why you got a couple more points when you levelled up at the end of the scenario. He's also been doing some research in regular people libraries about some of the stuff that they've been dealing with, like biology, geology, not mythos. Yes, try to become more knowledgeable about the world so you could deal with it. Love it.

3:18 Self improvement in the face of death, all right. Reginald has also been doing some some self improvement. He finally got got around to finishing learning a couple of languages, specifically Hungarian and Arabic. Other than that, he did a little studying in regards to astronomy and he's been, you know, doing his other self improvement of reading terrible, scary books. OK, great. How about you, JB? How are you doing? For no reason in particular, JB has learned some first. Aid that's. No reason in particular.

4:00 Yeah, we don't want people to die. Mm. Hmm. There was also some other studying in a couple other subjects, a bit of chemistry and the like, maybe a bit of St. wise because, you know, how's the death of a close friend for a wake up call. Yeah, yeah, right. Other than that, he's been doing a lot of writing and will probably read a horrible book next chance he gets. Yes, OK. And I guess one more character we want to check in with the one being played by Renee. Who are you playing, Renee? Hi, I'm Renee, pronounced Chide, and I will be playing Frank Kearns, the pilot.

4:42 Frank Kearns is very much not an academic kind of guy. I only have a couple points of languages in any of my academic skills, which probably means like I studied Latin or something and now I can possibly read French and Italian or something like that. I well, on our way to New York, I will be flying the plane. And First things first, I will be talking to Miss Winston Rogers about what she wants done with the kids, I imagine. Oh yes, the kids you got out of there. Anything else that you're planning on doing? I would like to have a nice long chat with the rest of the party. Yeah, we'll we'll chat with the rest of the party and then maybe give you a chance to do maybe one more thing to maybe stabilize yourselves and relax a little bit about saying it's a spa day.

5:39 Definitely not saying it's a spa day. OK, before you head out on your next adventure. I'd argue spa days are kind of a poisoned well now. Yes, we're going to see the four of you meeting with Miss Winston Rogers, who's meeting you in her office in in a skyscraper downtown and. The new. New location. Not in the airplane hangar anymore. As you are coming in, you see that there are a few more security guards that you would expect to be at a place like this. She's been reading the book, hasn't she?

6:21 You are let into her office. There are several chairs around when you arrive. I don't know who the first one to arrive is. You come together what not. She's looking out a big window out on the city and has you could tell she has been faced. No, this is villainship. Coming together is always the ideal, but who knows? Yeah, Reg is probably gonna arrive with. JB's movements are of course mysterious, so nobody knows when he arrives. Mm hmm, I'll park the plane and. Follow. Yeah, I assumed you've played at the. Yeah, but you, you meet up with this Winston Rogers, who asks you to sit down.

7:07 I'm now just assuming that Frank drives him playing around like it's a car. Hey, I can drive anything. Please have a seat. I got your message about what happened in Malta, though I'm a little sparse on the details. Doctor Morgan didn't make it. No, ma'am, she did not. I look at my feet. Colin shivers perceptively. Are there? I suppose this is anything to ask? Do you have any of her remains? No, ma'am, there was an explosion. I. Could check my pockets I guess.

7:51 OK, you are banned from talking. I will see if I could find any of her next of kin. I know her husband already passed, but did she? Maybe she has some family left. I don't know what I'll tell them. Ma'am, she mentioned her father, who lived in in Montreal somewhere. He was retired. Right. Thank you, Mr. Kurtz. Yes, but please tell me you have good news. Some, some OK. We discovered a rather large operation down in Malta. They were supplying the rest of the continent from the sounds of it.

8:39 Needless to say, they will not be supplying anything now. Did you kill all of them? Did you get them all arrested? The warehouse that they used to store all of it as well as gather it does not exist on local maps anymore. And were you able to identify any of the ringleaders? Sounded like Trammell's The Ringleader. It was a Diana someone a Doctor Selasio. We have some names, we have some weeds, OK. And we have some more locations. Yes, yes, I understand that. I am concerned if many of these cult members are still out there though. Have they seen you?

9:22 Do they know who you are? Any of the ones that had seen us in Malta are most likely no longer considering the scale of. Well, I hope that's the case. If not, I would advise your loved ones to be on high alert. I. Think they got a pretty good look at JP's face but with the kidnapping. Do you? How do I ask this, Mr. Fall? Do you have any loved ones? Not really. Never married, don't have any kids, Technically my parents are dead.

10:04 Technically. Long story. I would love to hear what technically dead means at some point, but if they say that. Well, you see, they were real rich and there was this submarine. Oh God. It said that I was reading some of the things and in trammels library that you're able to bring something about. I've been looking into to more of this. So I'm maybe becoming more and more skeptical about the finality of death. I suppose even death may die, but that's that's neither here nor there. Nothing unsettling about this at all. Could I assess honesty on her right now? Yes.

10:50 What exactly is going on in her head? She is paranoid, but I might not be an unjust paranoia, if that makes sense. I mean, I could tell as much by the increased security there, but like I'd imagine I, I have a little bit of advantage. I know her a little bit as a person. Yes. You have not seen her like this before. She is she is very concerned about what is going on. I'm glad that you were able to cripple their efforts in Europe. Without that thing around it should be harder for them to make nectar, but I wonder how easy it is for them to make another one. That was the most productive mouth on the planet from the sounds of it, so I'd hope that sets them back a while. Good, good.

11:43 Because nectar has been spreading across North America. At this point, it's there's some of it is even made it here to New York City, which makes me fear that the cultist is spreading its tentacles across the continent. More than just the tentacles. Yes, I use tentacles metaphorically, but I I worry that it may become literal. I must do my best to manage my business during these difficult times with the difficulties of the stock market and the economy in general. There are many desperate people out there and desperate people are drawn to things like drugs and cults. They prey on the vulnerable.

12:28 We have to stop this. They're going to destroy the world. Maybe not physically, but this drug, I've seen what it can do to people that they're, they're driven mad. It's bad news. So you 3-4 suppose, Mr. Kearns, are people that I can trust, and you've struck A decisive blow against this cult so far. I think what needs to be done though, is my father thought that he was going to be able to seal away this this thing with its mouths, but instead they summoned it into the world that night. Although that doesn't make sense. We need to figure out how to send it back or kill it or something.

13:24 We may have a way to accomplish that. Good. Where? Where is it? Let's go right now. We need to figure out where exactly it is, which is why I think our next stop should be Ethiopia. I don't. From what I looked at, it doesn't seem like the cult has a strong base activity in Ethiopia. One of the members of the leadership, at least from when your father was investigating things, the last place they were known to have gone was to Ethiopia on some sort of archaeological day. Now, I'm sure Miss Winston Rogers, you realize, based on what you've read, the roots of this cult go a lot further back than what most people would realize.

14:16 OK, I am just concerned that do try to be quick in Ethiopia then to try to discover this information. For every moment that you spend trying to find out how to stop this, the cult makes progress. Wait, I'm sorry, Ethiopia, where the war is going on right now? Yep, that's the one. Yeah, I guess so. Well, I would advise you to be careful around the Italians there. They're, let's not talk around it.

14:56 They're fascists, they're scum. But they are being rather successful in stomping Selassie's forces at the moment, so be careful when you visit. Try not to get involved into any wars. It wouldn't be my first time in a war zone. Would be my first. Thankfully I do speak a little Italian, so. That's good. You're going to you're going to be the one negotiating with the black shirts then. No fucking pressure. I took a point in languages as well. I think I learned German with it. Got a score to settle for a friend. That is so sweet.

15:41 I don't know if I follow what. Oh, don't worry about it. There's just this artist and we need to paint his walls red. I think this cult is more dangerous than any Nazi, although perhaps the cult is elide with them. It's entirely. Everything we're seeing says that this cult is larger and older than we ever thought. Well, I know the fascists hate disorder. Maybe I could reach out to some people. The cult is. No, do not do that. Do not do that. Do not. Do not. I am an American businessman in the 30s. I am sympathetic to the fascists. No, no, I already said that, she said. Fuck the fascists.

16:22 We're not. We're not playing that. We're not going to do that. Well, I guess if you're going to Ethiopia, be careful. We'll need to get the plane fueled up again. Kearns, I'm sorry to keep sending you on these transatlantic flights. You folks should consider yourself lucky. These are some of the only transatlantic flights that have happened so far, to be perfectly honest. Truly the miracle of the modern world. Yes, and every time it happens I imagine a red line going across a map with a. Wait, you do same song and everything? And now, especially because you're gonna be like giving up archaeology and dealing with fascists. Oh yeah.

17:06 Oh yeah. Try not to dig in the wrong place. OK, so. Do any of us have archaeology? Yes. OK, Good. Good, good, good. Not much, but I do have archaeology. Currents pipes up and goes, yeah, I'll make sure the plane's ready for the flight. Before that, though, is Winston Rogers. We do have these two children that we rescued. From yes, you mentioned that we'll I'll try to get them into foster care. I'm I know an orphanage where they can be safe. Good. We'll we'll put them under different names. Probably the smartest possible thing we could do there all. Right.

17:54 I must please. You need to act quickly, but take your time I suppose in the city to recover. I know you have faced some horrors, but as soon as you. Can yes, one could say. That as soon as you can please, you have to stop this thing, whatever it is. And she waves you out and you are led to sort of AI didn't mention this before, but she has sort of there's her main room and that there's like her reception area, though she does not have a receptionist in today. So you folks can now talk free of Winston Rogers if you would like. Kearns looks at Colin and Reggie and goes. So mind telling me what the hell happened there in that warehouse?

18:48 There was a mouth in the ceiling. A mouth in the ceiling. The last one was on the ground. We were sort of expecting the same thing. This one was in the ceiling and it picked Kay up. I look at them in disbelief and I go, look, I don't know about any mouse, but there is something I don't understand. You're grown ass men with guns and grenades and magics for God's sake. And you you couldn't protect her, and not for the first time either. It. Was her call that grabbed her and it was before I could start chewing.

19:37 And Kearns, you weren't there. You didn't have to see her explode in front of me and you didn't hear her say to throw the grenade that blew her up. So what's what's the stability check for? Just a oh I would rather not be talking about this. Yeah, I've been trying to figure that that out for this conversation, to be honest. Actually I'm I'm leaving through my book and looking at the stability table. This is the first time JB is hearing all of this too. He's just kind of standing in the background looking more or less shell shocked. And let me ask you this how many people have you watched die in front of? Kearns sort of gets a look on his eye too many. By the way, gang, this whole conversation, that's going to be a stability loss of four, potential loss of four. Actually, you know what?

20:36 4 for the people who weren't there. 2 for the people who were there difficulty 4. Oh, I. Failed 6. I succeed. I succeed. So it looks like everybody exceeded except for Kurds. Who's going to lose 4 stability? Nice. That makes sense. Yeah, JB probably had an inkling. Yeah. I I look at Reg and by my body language, soldier to soldier, you can tell that I am itching for a fight. I look in the eye and I go look. I've seen a lot of people die in my life and I know this. We don't leave our team behind. So from where I'm standing, as far as teammates go, you people are shit.

21:23 If you think we're shit, why are you still here? You weren't even there in the 1st place. You weren't there fighting against this thing, you were hiding away because you had some bad fucking dreams. I grab you by the collar, draw my arm back, and I punch you in the face. Would that be an opposed scuffling? Role, I guess. I guess we're doing an opposed scuffling role, yes. Interesting. So for the listeners, what's happened here is that Renee has spent two points, whereas Damien has spent three. However, Renee has rolled A6 whereas Damien has rolled A5. Kearns, I need you to roll AD 6 - 2. Shit.

22:03 Or just roll D6 and subtract 2 OK? 1. OK, Reginald, you take one damage. Meanwhile, Cullen let's out a low whistle, having seen someone actually land a hit on Reg. Yeah, it doesn't happen often. No it doesn't. So first of all, what do the other two do who are not in this fight? J BS just kind of looking on like impassively and says both of you, this is fucking embarrassing. I'm exhausted. A friend is dead, we do not have time for this shit. And he just kind of walks away, doesn't even stick around to see how the fight goes. OK, currents, you done much gooning? What the fuck?

22:47 What? You know it couldn't work. I understand that you can say that in 1930, whatever the fuck, but please understand that in the year of our Lord 2025, please never say that again. We're. Taking it back. So what about Reggie and Kearns here? Or Frank I guess I keep saying your last name, but I guess your first name is Frank. I refer to most people by their first name. What happens now, Frank? I guess my bigger question is, Frank, do you keep fighting or is one punch enough for you? And then we'll see if Reginald is fine with one punch big enough 'cause he he may have different ideas about that.

23:29 I think J BS words sobered me a little bit. I only swung because I want to not feel whatever it is I'm currently feeling. But fighting isn't the answer either. So I I draw my arm back for a second punch and then I let go of Reg Fuck. I storm out and I. If Reggie lets you, storm. Out, yeah. Yeah, I was just about to say Reggie in retaliation is going to head butt turn. There you go. Rich pulls out his gun 2 to the head. Roll the new character, not.

24:12 Like. Run out of characters. No, Reggie wouldn't do that. But yeah, Reggie is going to head butt turn. OK, I need you to make a scuffling roll. You know what? I'm going to spend 1. OK, you're gonna have all the fight be mad at you before you even get to Ethiopia. It's scuffling. Reggie doesn't use scuffling when it comes to the bad guys. Will. You use a shotgun. Aha, that's four which is the hit. OK, roll D6. Zero. No. OK. Like, it's not gonna do damage, but it's enough that it's like, yeah. This is selling curds. It's like a real tough guy. I punch you in the face, you give me a bloody nose back and then I I like my arm is in the air, it's shaking, just ready to fucking punch again. And Colin catches it.

24:55 I drop Colin, I drop Reggie, and I'm just fuck, just storm out, kick over a trash can on the way. We'll meet you at the plane. We can talk about gooning later. Stop it. After Frank storms out, Reggie's gonna look over at Colin next time he does that. The knuckles are coming out. And I get it, Rich. Hopefully next time he does it, it'll be somebody else. We should probably look at getting out of here. We have a day. I have some reading to do. Well, I owe you a flask. Where'd you get this one? It's got a sword on it that says Damocles. Oh boy. That was a one-of-a-kind. Yeah, that's. It just find a nice one. You know what I like? All right, I was gonna see if anybody else is doing a thing before they leave, but there's one more thing that we have to do, which is JBI need you to make a stability test at difficulty 5 to not try to get nectar. Yeah, I'm spending on this one.

25:51 OK. I don't like it, but I'm spending, yeah. Make it rain. Gonna spend 2. You know what? It's only three. If there was nectar like right next to you, it's a difficulty 5. What? There's probably nectar in the city somewhere. It's a difficulty 3. OK, I'm gonna spend one. OK? It was a very unnecessary spend. Good to six? Well, your stability went down a little bit, but you don't feel the immediate need to go get Nectar. JB, outside of not going to find Nectar in the city because Nectar has spread to New York at this point, what are you planning on doing? Write shit down, you know, and just sit in front of a typewriter and knows to grindstone some fiction. And it's getting increasingly weird and twisted, I assume. Yeah, big time.

26:45 OK. Great. People are gonna look back on my work in the future and be like, assuming there is a future and they're gonna be like, So yeah, he definitely got syphilis around now. Got it. But joke's on them, it wasn't syphilis, it was worse. Now Colin's gonna pick up a new flask for Reg to replace the one that's now full of nectar. OK. He's also going to take that nectar flask to somebody and give a sample so they can figure out what the Hell's going on with it. Some sort of science guy? Do you know a science guy? Yes, Bell, Bell. Bell, Bell. I was about to say William Nye. We haven't established everybody you've known in your life. You're a Private Eye.

27:27 You've probably met a science person at one point on a case maybe. Yeah. So what's their name? Tell me about it. Make it up. We're making stuff up right now. The laugh there was because I was thinking JKL. What's the name that starts with L Elmo? He does. So you're gonna go to Sesame Street. You are in New York. I'm sorry, sometimes my brain is strange. Well, thanks, but. Would you tell me how to get how to get to Sesame Street? Yeah, GM, how do I get to Sesame Street? You know what, you got to play a different game. If we're going to Sesame Street, You know, right now Sesame Street is Elmo doesn't live there yet. He he moves there in like the the 70s. No, that's right.

28:15 Yeah, New York, there's, there's a well known post secondary institution there as I recall, right. There are several, yes. You're going to go to NYU. Nah, what's another one? OK, I don't know which ones are open or not yet. God, you fucker. Well, I can go to NYU, although I think with Collins level of expertise, more of a State College makes sense. But just to keep it easy, yeah. You Go to NYUNYU is founded in 1832, so it's definitely still around. The science guy? No, they're Lawrence. There you go. Lawrence. All right, Well, Colin, I've checked stuff out for you before, so I'll I'll look at this.

29:01 What exactly am I looking? For I have no earthly idea, my friend. Could you even tell me what it is? It's probably better for your sanity if I don't actually. OK. That might sound like a joke, but I really, truly mean that. OK, he starts. He puts another microscope. Cool. And after looking at it for a time, he says this is like nothing I've I've ever seen before. It's possible this is alive. But it's. No known pattern. Animal, plant, fungus or maybe something else? I don't, I don't. He steps back and he needs to make a one point methos stability test.

29:49 Yes. Now this only works if people looking at it have biology or chemistry. If you don't have biology or chemistry and you look at the vector like, oh, that looks weird, but he has biology and chemistry and he's like, I don't know what the fuck that is. So theoretically, if someone was swimming in it, that would be good or bad. I If this is alive, there's a good chance this is like infectious. You were swimming in this. Music smells. Got to call him taking a very hot shower. Yeah, but you have pores. Scum, scum, scum scum scum scum scum scum. Scum scum. And he looks sunburnt. Even scrubbing yourself with steel wool. Not quite that bad.

30:32 Hey Colin, what's your drive? Oh, bad luck. OK, you're good. Anybody who has a curiosity can be really fucked up by after they look at this. They're going to keep wanting to look at this and figure it out, so hopefully your friend can get over it. Anyway, so we figured out what Colin's doing, what JB is doing. What about Frank and Reggie are two combatants? Reggie is planning on reading a horrible book. OK. So by the way, how are you getting your stability back? Is that how you get your stability back? I'm going to tell you it's not how you get your stability back, no. How? How? Reggie actually was getting his stability back was he's going to go to the shooting range, he's going to go to a shooting range in New York somewhere and decompress by shooting a target full of a whole bunch of bullets, OK.

31:27 That's one way to do it. And then you said you were going to read some books. Yep, I've been letting you read these books very fast, probably faster than I should. But which book do you want to read the? Gaze of Azathoth. The gaze of Azathoth, that's a Did we look at that one already? That's the one that K, right? Yeah, that's the teleporting one, right? Yeah. Yeah, please, please. Hyperspace gate. Hyperspace Gate. Yeah. So you just want to learn that You look over this book and it is again. The thing that it keeps talking about is this idea of an eye looking for someone, and that person keeps teleporting through this hyperspace gate to try to escape the eye.

32:09 But it doesn't matter. Whatever they do, the Eye keeps gazing at them and everything around them begins to die and turn to dust as the gaze is fixed upon. They realize there is truly no escape from the Eye, and eventually they have to surrender to it to keep the rest of the reality around them from being destroyed. Also you learn the magic spell. Yay, what spell? Hyperspace gate. Yeah, what's that do? Don't worry about it, it kidnaps people poorly. I would say the kidnapping was the easiest, most effective part of the plan. You're right, you're right, It kidnaps people. Effectively.

32:53 It's just up to the people who did the kidnapping whether the kidnapping ends up being effective or not. And what about you, Frank? I think Frank spends some time making sure the plane is like ready for another big flight, you know, oiling, tightening, fixing some stuff. But like I did just lose some stability though. Yeah. Could I try to gain it back by calling my person of solace? You know what for actually incorporating your person of solace. Sure. I have this friend who used to be a chaplain in my squad. His name is Leslie. He is, I want to say, in like Tennessee somewhere, living on a farm. Big accent.

33:36 I dial him up. Hey, hey, Les. How's it going? Oh, I'm doing OK. It's so good of you to call. Right. Things haven't been going too well, Les, to be perfectly honest. It that does seem to be the way of the world these days. Yeah, but you know, there's like there's this somebody died less someone special. And the last time I saw her, I heard her and I don't know what to do with myself. I'm sorry to hear that. You know, I'm not a priest. I don't offer confession and forgiveness. That's not really how I believe the world works. You could only ask the Lord for forgiveness. Know that we still have to make do in this fallen world. I know.

34:33 What? How did she suppose I don't need to know that? No, but she came to me and I turned her away because I was a bloody coward. I've been having these dreams, these nightmares, and she was in them. This half woman have some abominable monster. She was chasing me, killing me, dragging me to hell. You know dreams aren't real, right? Dreams can't hurt you, can they? I know. Punch it through the phone, yeah. Well, I think maybe, you know, you know, he doesn't believe that there's horrible things that you see in your dreams, but there are horrible things that you could see in your dreams. But I think talking to him, even if he doesn't necessarily have answers, does help you.

35:33 I'll give you a stability point. Thank you. And with that I think we will cut to oh wait real quick, I need you to make a stability test at difficulty 4 to learn that spell Reg. Technically, you do need to do that. I'm going to spend 2. I didn't need to spend it, but I. Succeeded in it. Cool. You understand how Kay did it? Be careful, the last person who cast the spell ended up dead. Well, it was unrelated. It was. They didn't die because of the spell though. Are you sure? Yeah, she died because the GM kept picking on her. OK, OK, she said. Blink.

36:15 Through really well. I was gonna say it was because of the grenade exploding right behind the tank of fuel that was strapped. So the flight to Ethiopia. Is this a bully Dan today, huh? Yes, is uneventful. As you're flying, you do maybe look over the notes of Ayers, his agenda when he was going to Ethiopia. Unfortunately, you don't really have a lot of info, you know what I mean? Because he didn't actually like this was his plan for when he arrived, not like what he was actually going to, you know what he actually did? He said the thing was that he was going to meet up with a Bortolo Acuna, who was a Spanish archaeologist, and they were going to look at an ancient site in Dalol.

37:06 The largest sort of actual city nearby is the city of Massua, which is technically in the land that is now called, at least the Italians called it Eritrea, which is the land that they say we completely own this, this is our own country that we control. And they're working on conquering the rest of the land that is called Eden, although Ethiopians would tell you that all this whole land is Ethiopia, although they might use different names to describe it. We're not going to get too deep into that. One question before we go too much further relating to me reading the scary book, do I also gain the plus one in Cthulhu mythos for pouring over? Sure, get plus one to Cthulhu Mythos and lose 1 sanity.

37:48 So you're going to Masua because it is sort of the largest port city on the eastern coast of Africa, which is sort of near where you're going. There were some earthquakes of the 20s. It is now run by the Italians. Architecture here is mixed. Mostly it is Ottoman style buildings, but there are more and more Western style buildings being added as well. And it currently is a massive military staging ground for the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The port is filled to capacity with large vessels and smaller Daos, which are like smaller ships. You are able to land at a a landing port, right at landing port, like an airport right outside the city, a landing strip. Again, a little bit odd that you're making these transatlantic flights.

38:40 But as you land, you are greeted by several armed Italian soldiers who tell you to wait inside the plane until you have the inspector arrive. Yeah. What? Some sort of airport security? An odd idea. Also, by the way, you're probably going to be wanting to be wearing desert appropriate attire. Do you have desert appropriate attire, gang? Probably. But you know, what sort of things do you think you're going to be wearing? Give me give me just a quick, I don't, we don't get too deep into describing our wardrobes on the show, but like, what do you think?

39:21 Give me like a quick view of like, what do you think your character's wearing? What does your character look like for this section of the the show, the movie, The whatever? Reg is probably wearing beige colored linen type material, like fairly light pants. He's foregone his normal suit jacket for a similarly colored safari style jacket and a light cotton button up shirt. OK, he doesn't have a pith helmet because that would just be. A little too much, but you've got everything. Just be a little. You have everything but the pith helmet though. Yes. So you're going white man into the the Dark Continent sort of look. We also could Nathan, you're asking, you know, we could go with like flowing robes and sandals. That's sort of like what the people wear around here, sort of a Lawrence of Arabia look.

40:15 Yeah, that works. OK, you're dressed essentially like Lawrence of Arabia. I feel like I would be wearing this a similar kind of outfit. Like I I was literally also thinking linen OK and cargo pants, combat boots. Combat boots OK. Yeah, I have my knife hidden in one of my boots. OK, we'll see how those do when the desert sands. Probably. Also, I don't think we necessarily established with Kearns look like, looks like. No, I guess we haven't. Kearns was sort of vague before. I'll let you define Kearns a little bit more. Tell me about Kearns. Sure. One of the defining features that you described was that he his nose had been previously broken. Yes.

41:04 I kind of imagine him looking a little bit like Nicholas Costellando, I believe is his name, the guy who played Jamie Lannister. A little bit of that tall guy Broad. Shoulders cool, Yeah. I love just casting somebody as you look. That's totally a great way to do it. And I almost hesitate to ask due to sometimes Russells responses, but what's Colin wearing? Colin does not have desert appropriate attire. He is dressed the same as always and looks like an idiot. OK, cool. When we hit the heat checks later, you're gonna have some negatives on it. OK, fair as you are maybe getting dressed to go outside or whatnot.

41:45 Eventually, a small man approaches the airplane and demands that you come out. Demands, eh? Yes. Is he speaking Italian? First, he speaks English 'cause he it says your flight came from the United States, although his English is not very good. Papers. Papers. Oh, I smoke tailor maids, my friend. Wait, do we have papers? No, the the papers that he is asking for is like Italian travel papers. You don't have Italian travel papers. You didn't go to Italy? Huh. Enjoys. Reds. You get papers for the man. You know the kind. The green ones. Yeah, I was about to suggest that, yeah. I our best option is just to buy them off, isn't it? Mm, hmm.

42:32 I mean, it's your call. You could use your skills. You're gonna need to use your interpersonal skills here to figure out what's going on. Credit rating is an interpersonal skill. Can I just put points in credit rating when we progress? You would need to explain why you have more money now, but I guess so, yeah. Interesting. I wonder if I can make bureaucracy work. Bureaucracy is a good shot, yeah. Do you speak Italian? I speak Arabic. OK, he speaks Arabic as bad as well as he speaks English, but OK, so what's going to happen? By the way, this is how this will work. If you're ever speaking to somebody and you do not share a language with them, you will need to spend a point to just even do a normal conversation with them.

43:15 You'll need to spend a point of the respective skill. OK, so can I spend 2 points of bureaucracy for that? Sure. Yeah, you could spend 2 points of bureaucracy. Yeah, OK. One to get through to him and the other to, like, actually get through to him, yeah. Exactly. I mean, money is a universal language. Yeah. So. As we get off the plane and start speaking to this person, Reg puts on his best. I'm talking to a bureaucrat base. I'm pretty sure that our our papers must have been sent over. I mean, we were given clearance to land by your air traffic control and well, as you can see, we are merely here for educational and archaeological purposes. Archaeological Purposes?

44:11 What are you looking at? I can also roll preparedness for this forged papers saying that we are here for an archaeological dig. You could just have had papers saying that you can. Here's the thing. You spent two points, which is more of a one point spend. But the fact that you did not try to bribe him, by the way, if any of you had tried to bribe him, he would have called the authority he would have liked. It would have been bad. Good thing I'm broke. Yeah, I think your knowledge of bureaucracy, like you're getting the vibe this is a minor functionary who thinks he's more important than he is and wants to seem like he's powerful. You just need to suck up to this guy a little bit, make it seem like he's the one in charge, and he will probably do whatever you need.

44:56 Yeah, yeah, the whole. Brown nosing bureaucratic bullshit. But yeah, I just try and communicate with him that we're here on an archaeological expedition. We're here to check out some ruins that are in the desert somewhere. I give him a knot, Galal. Just somewhere else that corroborates with what the quote UN quote papers say, Yeah. OK, well, if you're trying to go to Axom, I'll have you know we're already moving the pillar out of there already. Italian archaeologists are some of the best in the world. We know about ancient history. We are from Rome, after all of. Course, of course. Yes, well. Such a great rich history you're.

45:37 Yes, yes. But you know, the all of this was once part of Rome. Not quite right, but, you know, he could say whatever he wants. So we're merely taking back what belongs to us. It seems like things might have gotten confused in terms of the paperwork. Don't worry. Let let me let me sign this. And he gets out some papers and he signs some official travel papers to you, which should allow you unimpeded travel and access as far as the Italian government is concerned in Ethiopia. Thank you very much, Sir, and I must say it's been a pleasure speaking with you and I hope you have a great rest of your day. Of. You should take some time out of this heat. It's rather warm out, don't you say?

46:18 It is, it is. It's, it's horribly hot out here, but we do what needs to be done. If you need anything else or you need anyone to vouch for you, just look me up. Oh, my card. And he presents you his card. It says Carlo Salvatore, by the way, he was not quite that eloquent, but I I don't want to do a guy doesn't speak the language that well thing so. Yeah, you've got me for that. Shot in the dark if you had talked to a man named Ayers anytime recently. Ayers. He squints a little bit. He's compulsively folding and unfolding a piece of paper in his hands. No, I can't.

47:01 I don't know a name, Ayers. I could go check my records. And he gives a big smile, although he never quite opens his mouth. He gives a big smile, but his his lips cover his teeth. I could check my records, but off the top of my head I don't know an Ayers. No, I have not heard that name. You see an archaeologist. Didn't expect to have. Yeah, he's an archaeologist. He lost contact with him a little while ago. Oh well I I don't know a lot. I know there are some Italian archaeologists doing some work or I believe their expedition is leaving soon, but I don't remember an Ayers in their company. Yeah, this guy would have been American Big Bat. Can't stop him talking, you know? That smile was weird.

47:55 Can I assess honesty? What's that all about? I don't know man, I'm just describing him. Oh, OK. Well, I'm trying to give him like a distinctive characteristic. Tiny guy, weird smile. Yeah, tiny guy with a weird smile. He gives you a Roman salute as you leave and you are now free to, which is not really what he should be doing, but he's showing. He's like, oh, maybe these guys are going to be like important. Like if they discover some archaeology stuff, like maybe I could get in on that. Welcome to Massasau. It is, as I described, A bustling port city full of both Italians and Ethiopians. The most of The Ethiopians here are working for the Italians because many people are getting jobs that the Italians are offering them, hauling supplies and things like that. You know, you got to get money to survive somehow. How do you intend to find this man? Well.

48:54 We know we went on an archaeological date about a decade ago. Well over a year ago, anyway. We have a name Bortola Hakuna and the dig was on the side in Della. These are both true, yes. I think they may be unrelated though. I don't think those are unrelated. Oh, are you thinking that? I was going to say he was the guy at conducting the dig, but you're thinking that Ayers was doing. Completely separate dig he. Was looking for something else. OK, I see what you're saying. What does the itinerary say? Did we retrieve that from case belongings? The itinerary ended when he was going to meet the Spanish archaeologist and that it said they were going to head to to the dowel site.

49:36 And that was Bartolo Cubilado. Akuna. That was close. Akuna, yes. Bartolo Akuna, Madonna. We we should probably head to the wall. You do not know where Dalal is all. Right, time to find some local maps. Tell me what each of you is going to do. You could be together, or you could split up. How are you intending to find information about what you're doing? It's library time, baby. They have they have libraries in an area that's under war in like past steel fashion. No library library use is not going to help you in this situation. Well, I'm out of ideas.

50:19 I guess I'll just go die. Can I? You can also just do what is called a simple search. Just ask around. Yeah, I was about to suggest Can I do Streetwise Ask around. What languages do you speak? While I was creating this character, I gave myself 2 points in languages. So let's see, do Methodists study Latin? Less so than a Catholic, but you might it might have learned Latin. OK, if I know Latin I can. Cool, you can learn to everybody who speaks Latin. Great use of the language. Let me finish good start. If I know Latin, I I can find my way around in pretty much any Romance language, including Italian. Yes, sort of.

51:08 You could just know Italian. You can also just know Italian if you would like. Nah, I like to leave myself as many options as I can, especially when it comes to languages. I will say, knowing Latin is not going to be enough. You'll still need to spend a bonus point to make a spend. I will let you make like just sort of normal conversations could be like really frustrating, but you could make it work. But if you're trying to make any spends, Latin is not going to be specific enough. I have I I speak Italian so. OK, you speak Italian and I have Streetwise, so yeah. Yeah. And if you go with people who speak the languages, they could serve as translators for you. So. Alright, guess I'll follow JB around. Yeah, you could keep Latin, though, because knowing Latin's not a horrible thing to have.

51:56 Just it's not going to necessarily help you talk to everybody. What is your goal? Are you just going to like, what are you going to ask about? What are you going to try to do? I look at JB and I go, sounds like we just need, we just need to get to Dell for starters. Maybe asking around for directions or a map would be the way to start. Asking around, you are able to eventually find a map that will show you sort of the way to get to dowel, though the people here don't super know much about dowel. It's not like a major place anybody goes, but the people you were talking to say that the best way to get there is to go to MRSA Fatma, which is a small port further down the coast. That is a town that's run by the CMC, the Campania Minerare Calinale, which is an Italian company, and they mined salt in the Dalo area and they have a railway that should run from the coast to Dalo.

53:08 That sounds like a start. Well, it will actually get you to Iron Point which is at the end of the line and then you will need to walk to dowel. But that is, that is sort of what you are figuring out. Can we fly there? Could you fly there? No, you could not fly there. Could we drive a plane? Think it's a. That's you'd run out of fuel. Dang, I think we should just take the train. Well, you'll need to take a boat and then take a train, but. Yeah, well, yes. OK, the other thing, this is a big one. If anybody would like to make a 2 point oral history spend, I could give you some information, but that's a big spend and it might be a three-point if you don't speak Italian or I guess the three languages spoken here are Italian, Arabic and the native language. No, not German.

54:00 I don't remember the native language of Ethiopia at this time, but I'll. I have two points of oral history to spend, and I know Italian. Nice. So I could just do that. OK, You find out kind of by extreme happenstance as you are asking about archaeology of dowel and whatever, that there is a Spanish academic named Bartolo Acuna who recently passed through Masal and was most recently seen at the Hotel Internaz, the main hotel for foreigners in the city. You don't say yes. Well, usually by this point we had Woodhead Kerns don't get us a hotel room anyway.

54:45 Yeah, but Kerns is taking a more active effort this time. Finding a place to stay is actually going to be a little tricky. If you're planning to stay here overnight, which is probably going to be necessary to get your expedition figured out, you're going to need to bargain to secure beds under a permanent roof. Looks like that's where we're headed. You could go to that hotel, unfortunately it is completely booked at the moment. Yeah, we'll bunk with Hakuna. How are you going to find Hakuna? Yeah, I seem to have forgot my room key. Name's Hakuna. Shit. Do you speak the language? Fuck.

55:28 No. OK, so you just speak English loudly at them? No, what's happening is that I'm, I'm coaching JB through this. Just be, really. Convincing. OK, tell him that you're. Hakuna and you're you lost your room key. Even if he's not there, eventually he will be and until then he's got a mini bar. OK, I guess I do that. The haggard desk clerk says, Sir, I don't know what you're trying to do right now. This is Italian, by the way. Sir, I don't know what you're trying to pull, but Hakuna checked out already.

56:09 He's not here and you are not Hakuna. Great, don't JP? Now we know that he's not here anymore. I just look at the desk and I'm like, I'm sorry. My friend thought it would be hilarious to pull this prank. Have a good day. We'll never talk again and we're never going to talk again now because that was totally embarrassing. I'm going to kill Colin. At the very least you should ask him where he went. Yeah, I should ask him where Hakuna went. OK, Did Hakuna say where he was going? He's an old friend and I just want to catch up with him. You know, I'm having trouble remembering. Sorry. He wants some bureaucracy. Colin, don't you have a bargain? I'm not sure Bargain really helps us here.

56:50 Streetwise could help you here. I have Streetwise. This shit goes over all languages. This guy's asking for a little bit of money to grease the wheels. Yeah, I thought so. Yes. Reg is just gonna put his hand on the counter with a few bills folded underneath, but just peeking out enough that can be seen by the the desk clerk. Can I spend one credit rating to help out in the? You don't need to spend a credit rating for this. You know, this is not a big bribe situation. This is, yeah, this is easy. This is fine. It's a small B bribe. Yeah, yeah, he says.

57:32 I don't know, but Grigory does. Eddie, He calls a guy over, says tell these guys about the archaeologist you were working with, Ohio Hakuna. He was an ass, he spits on the ground. He was working with the cultural ministry to, he was transporting spoils of war out of the country and he was telling everybody about how important he was. If he was, if he was so important, why isn't he back in his own country? Fucking Spaniard. But that was a few weeks ago. He checked out of the hotel he was going with a large column of soldiers leaving the city.

58:19 So what do you say to me? I explained what he just said. OK, he was leaving with some soldiers. Going where again? He was involved in archaeology and he was moving archaeology, archaeological spoils of war probably back here and then back to Italy. Shit, did we just miss him? You did just miss him. Yeah, we're after airs anyway. You could still try to track him down though. Hey JB, mind asking if Akuna mentioned an airs? Did he mention anything about a guy named Ayers? Can't say he did no.

59:01 Well, dead end. Back to New York we go. Yeah, so there's a couple of things you could do here. I mean, a big column of soldiers leaving the city is probably both remembered by people. And also there's probably if you talk to the military, they might be able to tell you what was going on. You do have high level papers to talk to the Italian folks here. Well, what do you think, JB? It looks like you're going to be doing a lot of the talking this summer. That's unfortunate. I'm burning to death in and out of character. It is very hot right now. You are sweating more than you have probably ever in your life. Yes, I am also JB is too.

59:44 It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes. No. How are you, gentlemen? Wait until you're in a more private setting. So I would say there are about 3 things you probably need to deal with, at least that I can think of right now. 1, you could try to figure out what's going on with a Cuna, figure out where he went. You might be able to catch him. Maybe he's going to be back in the city soon, You could meet him before you leave, something like that. Two, you're going to need a place to stay for the night. And three, you're going to need native guide of some sort to help you get to where you need to go. All right. Hey, JB. Yeah. Here and I'm going to hand the papers that the little Italian man handed to me over to JB because JB speaks Italian. You'll probably be better at talking to the Italian military and these will help you out.

1:00:32 Why don't you and Kearns run that down? Maybe you can find where Hakuna went. Colin and I can see about talking to some of the locals and maybe find something out that way. Well, it's a plan that work for you, Kearns. Sure. All right. You approach the sort of major Garrison here and you can just sort of show your travel papers. You are let in by a curious functionary who says, I'm sorry, you're are you with the archaeological expedition. You are bypassing the need to make a lot of other things because you have these papers.

1:01:15 There might have been more skill checks, but you have these papers so they're willing to talk to you. Yes, I am. I simply need to find my colleague. Akuna. It is. We were separated. It's such a hassle. You know how it is dealing with the locals. Maybe I can play off the racism. Fascist or racist? Yeah. Oh, no, Absolutely. Yes, I believe he is right outside the Adua site. It's about a half a day's trip outside of the city. They're setting up an archaeologic. If you need to speak with him, we can. I mean, we could drive you out, I suppose. Split the party.

1:01:58 And I mean, we could drive out, you could speak with him and then we could drive you back if that's what you need, unless you were going to be staying there. I think we can make our own way. I will be spending some time there so thank you though. All right, I could give you a ride, but but OK. Hey JB, can you ask them if they could maybe give us a vehicle instead? Yeah. That's, that's a good call. Would you be willing to lend us a buggy or such to deal with it? All motorized transport is nationalized. It all belongs to the military. But I suppose you are working for the military with these papers. I you're going to need to do something to make him be willing to let you have a ride, give you a car for a bit. And it was the intimidation.

1:02:49 JB. I don't, you know, I don't have that. I do. It's also not the thing you should do. Yeah, probably not. How about reassurance instead? I don't have reassurance, but I do have flattery. I have reassurance. You can use reassurance. This is going to need. You can make a reassurance spend that you're going to take care of the car and stuff. I'll let you do that. You'll need to spend a point though. Yeah, JB, can you let them know that I will take care of the vehicle and such? Yeah, yeah, I relay that. Okay, if this if this big fella will be guarding the vehicle, that's fine. You be careful. There's been some guerrilla attacks. Oh, we will be so careful.

1:03:32 Guerrilla attacks. Shit, thank you very much. And for the record, I'd want to clarify Gorilla not beating the animal. Oh, thank God, I knew that. OK, come on. It also you wouldn't get that confused in Italian. I don't think so. Wait, but is it an electric gorilla or a propane gorilla? What? I don't get that. Oh, oh, like a grill. Oh God. Oh, OK. All right. You have been lent more or less a Jeep and it's not really called a a Jeep because that's more of a specific brand. But you have a car that you could take to. I mean, it's supposed to only go here and back.

1:04:16 I guess you could try. Yeah, we are not. They're not getting this thing back. Take off the license plates right now. We should at least wait until we're a safe distance away to do that. All right. Meanwhile, Reggie and Colin, what are you doing? Dicking around. Reggie is going to start looking for somewhere that seems to have more of the locals than the Italians. That's easy enough to do. Cafes, eating establishments, anything like that? Oh actually, are there any bars or anything of the like?

1:04:57 Yes, there are. I will say that not a lot of people, but there is a sizeable Muslim population here. So they're not really going to the bar, but there are bars that you could go to, yes. I will wait outside column is DRY. All righty, if there aren't too many Muslims going into the bars, Arabic probably not going to help. I mean, people, there's probably people who speak Arabic around here, but yeah. All right, yeah. So I'll go in and go up to the person working at the bar speaking Arabic, essentially start doing some light inquiries about the local area. I'm here looking for a guide out to a site in the law.

1:05:41 Would you happen to know of anybody who might be able to help out? And as I'm like ordering a drink Passover double what I would expect the drink to cost, I feel. Perfect. Yes. And this is, I don't know if we need to play all of this out. This is exactly what you need to do. You need to find a local person who could direct you to guides because Europeans are probably not going to be able to help you. They're involved in the war effort and you just wandering up to people saying like, hey, show me how to get to a place that's not going to work. But this man could sort of serve as a go between. The thing is though, you're going to need Bargain skill. Do you have Bargain? I do not have bargain. Colin does. Well, I mean, so The thing is he's going to direct you to another place to go. So if Colin comes with you, Colin could could make the bargains I suppose.

1:06:30 I don't want to get too deep into this, but we can be waving my hand a little bit as we are going to get you a native guide. I wanted to put in there as well. This might be the first time that Reds discovers that Colin is dry. Yeah, that is sort of a unique one. Because up till now he's being a bit of a booze help and Reg and Cullen have worked together so he would know that. So you are able to meet a African translator and guide who is going by the name of Conrad. That's probably not his birth name, but that is the name that he goes by. What's his last name? What? What's his last name? His name's Conrad. His name's Conrad. Conrad Kers. Sure, and he says with passable Italian. You know what, fuck it.

1:07:19 Make things a little easier for everybody. He speaks English. Thank you. He speaks English, yay. And he says, yes, I could help you get, I don't know if I could get you all the way to Dalo, but I can help you get to MRSA Fatima and then take you to Kaluli at the border. I don't know if I could get you all the way to the village of Dalo. I don't really want to cross the border these days, but I could get you most of the way there. Why? Not. Well, if you can get us all the way there, I could probably put a bit more of a tip in it for you. This will be bargaining. No bargaining is getting it to do this for you at all.

1:07:59 Oh, you don't need to make a spend, you just need to have bargain. Skill. I have bargain skill. I will see what it's like when I get out there. To be perfectly honest, friend, you're going through a very dangerous area. I can help you survive the perils of the desert. But dowels across the border in Ethiopia proper, there's a lot of fighting going on there. If it looks safe, maybe I could keep coming with you. But. Well, that's fair enough. Does not only is there fighting, I don't know about the people out there, they, many of them follow much older ways. They're not seeing the future like I do Wait. What? I think we got a guy who can see the future, right?

1:08:44 Interesting, Conrad. Yes. Do you happen to know if you are unable to take us past Kaluli, do you think you might be able to point us in the direction of somebody who could take us on the last leg of this journey? There there are people in Kaluli who could help you. Well, that's good. We're kind of clueless otherwise. No, there is a village at Kaluli. The people there honestly would know the land a lot better than I would. Very well, we definitely would appreciate your help in getting at the very least that far. Excellent. And what's your? Price A price that doesn't quite matter with a bargain. You will not need to spend a credit rating on this. Cool.

1:09:26 Nice. Yes. All right. I I do have one last question. Of course, ask away. We're going to be traveling together for a little while, so. The the hotel in the city seems to be full up. Do you know of any places to stay with a roof? I'd rather not camp out in the desert if at all possible. I could see what I could do. It might be a little expensive, but I have a few few leads. You might need to bargain with the people there. But sure. And I think again, we will hand wave this a little bit and you're able to find AI guess kind of a hotel near the waterfront that is renting out beds, not separate rooms, but beds.

1:10:09 So like a hostile situation. Yeah, kind of like a hostile. OK. Beds are better than no beds. Yeah, I could have the expedition ready to go tomorrow, maybe the day after. It's going to depend on what I, the people I can get together for this. I can handle getting the supplies together, unless you want to figure that out yourself. I'm completely clueless. That's why you pay me the money, my friend. That's why you pay me the money. Absolutely, yes. All right. I wouldn't want to undervalue your expertise. I will be in touch when I'm ready to go, should hopefully be sometime tomorrow, maybe the next day, it depends. Thank you very much, Sir of. Course. Pleasure speaking. Yes, yes, yes.

1:10:51 Now you've got Conrad, your native guy who speaks English, and I guess the four of you could meet up again. What's the plan now? Thanks for listening. Reginald Kiltworth was Damian, JB Faulk was Nathan, Frank Kearns was Renee Daniel was our GM Colin Kane was Russell who also mixed mastered in music. This episode. Our album art is by Trinity the Tea Time Witch. Our main theme is by Claire LW on SoundCloud and we have a website and discord. You're more than welcome to check out if you dare. You may also be interested in checking out Renee's Deviant Art page, where they're posting all the paintings they're doing inspired by the show.

1:11:37 We'll have some medium news for the next episode, so keep your ears peeled. And if you're guessing we're going to start a Patreon, you're right, but let's keep it a surprise for anyone who doesn't know you. Again, thanks for listening. And until next time, that might be a decent time to wrap it because that's two hours. That is 2 hours OK. And that's actually a really good stopping point, too, yeah. I guess so, yeah. Thank God. Okay. Cool. Yes, before Nathan burns to death under a laptop. You're doing it's. Also like 90�� in right now. We're doing method acting for you, Nathan. You. Just got to really experience the heat.