Eternal Lies 26: A Crony in the Hand

0:00 Daniel's Dread Tales 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 Lives, Reeling from the events of the night before, Smalls and Kinds dug deeper into later psyche to discover what exactly happened while Kane and Falk checked back in with Mexico City PD and Detective Gomez. While the detective and his pursued partner handed out a plan to apprehend Kronelov and track down Brooks and De la Luz once and for all, the others got a glimpse into just what awaits them at the end of that search.

0:47 Waiting outside of Kronorov's lair for the right moment, the investigators sprang into action, catching the Colt tough and nearly losing their own in the process. With Kronorov at last in hand, the investigators prepared to extract whatever foundation remained yet hidden from them. The die is cast. The pact is sealed. May God have mercy on our souls. It's Daniel's dovetails. What's our plan for meeting Senora Adila Maus over there? Come up with a plan, get it blown to shit, panic.

1:27 Didn't we get some wax for like earplugs? I I feel like we got earplugs. There were cutting balls from the hotel. That was it. That was it. Also, Kearns got hypnotized to not kill me next time, so we'll see how that goes. Not great. No, I don't. It's probably going to work right? I mean the attempt was made. Yeah, and like, failing the check doesn't mean that it's not going to work, right? You know what, life's full of surprises. We'll, we'll see what happens. I have some ideas, but no plan.

2:10 You know, you act like I'm the God who's like trying to fuck you over with. To an extent I kind of am, but I am often surprised at the directions that we go. Yay. So where are we? Somebody reminded me we were recording last year. Indeed, we were in a secret basement warehouse sort of deal that Cronalov and some goons were occupying and we it just beat the crap out of Cronalov. I thought he had a townhouse with the neighboring buildings torn down. Yeah, and we're in his secret basement under. The tree, yeah. Yeah. And there a tree and there a tree.

2:53 OK, that could get us sued, no? It's different than now. Anyway, also Kearns got shot to shit, straight up Swiss cheesed. But then there was some there was some teamwork to heal Kearns. And then him and JB, you know, had a moment. So I do want to comment. We ended last episode mostly seeing our lovely little moment of these two men comforting each other. But we also handcuffed Krona Law. I will note his feet are ready and good to go. I mean, not really because you you was punched quite a bit, but he is not like completely unable to move. However, the threat of more beating has made him stop for now. But he's also not saying anything. He is clammed up.

3:43 Yeah, that that makes sense. We're I think we're just going to straight up have have call and torture him. Was was the vibe I got from the way it ended. Oh, really? So I may have some other option. You're going to make Ronaldo talk about his childhood and ponies, huh? Actually, I distinctly remember I made a preparedness role last session for a a sedative Kearns. Yeah. Hold him down, please. Can I for sure and? JB, however, still says Can you? Yeah, I get up, limp over to the commie motherfucker and grab him in a chokehold. Oh my God, it's OK, You can say the C word. We can't.

4:34 He is going to fight back like he is not, you know? Oh, just give me an excuse, buddy. Just give me a reason. If we're going to start making scuffling checks again, we can start making scuffling checks again. Isn't he at like at zero health? He's at One Health and I don't know if you want to spend your scuffling points on. I still have 7 points left. OK. God. Well, you know what's great is that he is the final boss of Mexico. He is the final thing you're going to encounter. So you should spend all of your points on. Perfect. You're full of shit, Daniel. I I'm just cautioning could be a good use of scuffling points. You might want to save your, that's all. I'm.

5:16 Saying what skills are people trying to use here anyway? What's the plan? What's anyone's plan Plan? So before I get into the plan that I actually had in the wide shot, you see Smalls just kind of facepalm a little bit and then look at Kronalov. It would be in your best interests right now not to struggle and inject say 1/4 of the syringe into chronolog. OK, so this was designed to knock him out. The intent is only to use a small amount. The desired effect would be making him drop his guard. OK, I'm going to say this.

6:02 That tends to not be how these things work. However, if you give me a medicine span of two points, I will let that work. Done. OK. Now we can freely intimidate him as we need or. You know he he snarls a little bit as that is put into and he swears in Russian. Did You Know? Once he starts to seem a little groggy, Smalls is just going to look at JB and Colin. He's all yours. Presumably he speaks English, right? I'm trying to figure out how to say this word here. Blast blast is that?

6:50 Is that a Russian swear word? Yes, it is. I mean, not the way you're saying it, but yes, it is. Oh, I. Suspect it's the way I was saying. Blad is the word you're looking for. OK, got it. It means. When we've reached Klingon, we've gone too far. Moving on. But to answer the initial question, I am pretty sure it's been established that Kronalov does indeed speak English. Well, that's good. And maybe a bit of Klingon. Yeah, and. Maybe a bit of Klingon. He's a a fortune teller. He he knows Klingon from the future. Well, they're they're brother languages, right? OK, so he's a little bit loopy, but still resistant, just sort of sitting here.

7:34 You notice that he sort of like cracked his neck. He's just giving you a cold flat stand. Did you mean he is hanging in my arms? I mean, he's not knocked out. No, but I still have him. Well, he's not giving you a stare because you're like the way you're holding it. That probably doesn't work, but. Yeah, I'm like gently breathing in his hair. Oh. He has a. Shake all right. OK, I'm looking at my reflection in his head. Oh my God, He. Has a. Little So Jesus Christ, I we've got a lot of information about our target. Let's start with where a coronal law fits into all this, right?

8:16 Because there's a lot of information and I don't remember most of it. So first of all, what do we know? So what can we ask him? What's happening on Corkery Island? That is a great question to start with. That's the first thing to say to him. Yeah. His eyes go wider than they probably should. He's surprised by that, that bet you to get that. And then he says never heard. Oh, I wonder if assess honesty pings here. I don't. Feel like I need to point it out. Yes, assess honesty. He's clearly lying. Buddy, we, we drugged you specifically so you'd be worse at lying to us.

8:58 You're gonna have to be at least a little honest with us, man. Yeah, I'm playing good cop out of character. I'm I'm playing good cop. That way everybody else who drugged him has a gun to shoot him and is choking him. Kind of triple bad cop. You work for Trammell, you know what goes on there. Well, it's been a while since Trammell heard from Brooks. He's wondering exactly what he's getting up to without this oversight. Things seem to have gone off the rails down here. Brooks has not been to that I. But he sent someone else to go.

9:39 Coronelot sort of tilts his head to the side. I don't think you know what the. Shit, he's on to us. I mean, unfortunately he's right. We have no fucking idea what he's what, what's going on here so. So how's about you explain it to us then? And they gently crack his neck for him. Oh, that sounded odd. You worked for Trammell, I worked for Brooks. We are go on the same side. Misunderstand happened. Look, look at the truck. And he sort of gestures with his cuffed hands towards the truck. I look at the truck.

10:25 I yeah, I I take a look at the truck. That is our entire nectar supply. Oh shit. We're in a secret warehouse. Did you not see this coming? I really should have seen this coming. Hey, Dan. Difficulty 5 as I recall. Yes, difficulty 5. And I I have the stability of -4 right now, so. Oh no. Fun. Hail Mary, it's a four. Not bad. You got to check that shit out. It's been a while since Offensive goddamn Decker. JB Hey, JB, you Are you sure you want to do this? That is what the role has established. I want to do this, yeah.

11:16 If somebody else wants to stop me, feel free to go ahead Smalls, but everybody else is a little busy. Smalls. Fuck it, we. Ball as the person playing the character, you have my full permission. OK, so Smalls is going to rush up behind JB, grab him and give him a little poke. OK, So do you want to just give him a little poke or would you like to spend the point of medicine to make sure that this poke is not too dangerous? Well.

12:01 Obviously. Yeah, you're not going to kill him, but. Yeah, I'll spend the, I'll spend the point of medicine that that's, that's not a problem. That's one of the skills that I got that I never get to use anyway. So. OK, how many points do you have? You spent three now. I have 6. Jesus Christ, we need to talk about this. Spreading out your points, baby. But hell, I guess it works OK. Yeah, I. Was gonna say maybe if you had some. Points of a cold it would have been handy or architect, no? She's a she's a doctor. Come on. Yeah. All right, so J PS out cold. What's in the syringe? Colin looks at Colonel of and says, I feel like things may have gotten a little out of control here. Yeah.

12:50 So now that J VS Unconscious, I'm going to spend the rest of the recording writing this. Revolutionary girl. Attain a fan fiction night girl. If the interview with Cronal off should not take the entire episode. I don't know, we're all pretty sleepy. That's. What you think? Too. I mean, it shouldn't. It's. Going to get edited down to like 10 minutes of this right? We drugged you specifically so you'd be worse at lying to us. You can say the C word. That's the first thing to say to him. What's the plan? What's anyone's plan? I'm just intimidating Colonel Law. I don't think you know what you're talking about.

13:31 Shit, he's on to us. I gently crack his neck and I. Don't know if you want to spend your scuffling points on that. Done to answer your question. Just decide it, trust me, I'm a doctor. Sure. No, no. I mean, yeah, OK, yes, I'm just a little bit concerned. Now somebody else got to play good cop. He'll be fine. OK. Now, Mr. Kronelov, you said this is yours and Brooks's full supply of nectar. I did not say it was Brooks. Regardless, I work for myself. Out of character, Did he not say that he worked for Brooks earlier or am I just? He did say.

14:16 OK, Brooks, I'm not crazy. OK, right. Simple solution, no one else is here. You take as much nectar as you need and I drive away. And where do you drive to? Los Angeles to bring to Trammel, Yeah. Besides honesty, I. Mean he's seeing the way things are going. He definitely was going to bring some of it to Trammel as a peace offering. Interesting, I just want to fuck with Trammel so much. Our nectar is different than what they get from Malta. Oh, you haven't heard the news?

15:08 What? They had some issues with production. Whole thing got blown to hell. Blown to hell? Now Mr. Trammell's taking stock of his holdings, and having not heard from Mr. Brooks for so long, he's going to take a firmer hand than things. I've sampled some of the shit from Malta and some of it from Bangkok and it's a different high each time, but this stuff, it's a loose mellow. Huh. Turning into Watto, it's a Lewis, it's a mellow, makes you want to listen to music. It's just part.

15:48 Damn it. Yes, he's talking about it. And JB's unconscious body is slowly inching towards the supply. Oh. Boy. I don't think that's how that works. Do what you need to do. Well, do you know where Brooks is? He's been looking for him for a while now. Brooks has his birds everywhere, and Brooks is no longer in shock. You may think he is, but it's that wife of his that rugs I don't like. How come? She's a fucking monster. Well, I guess we'll take a couple cases and send you on your way. The police are looking for you though, so you better drive fast.

16:32 We can just take him to the cops. I will tell them that you're working for the colt. Which who? Trammell. Yes. Well, Trammell knows. Who do you think did this waves non hand round? Yes, but the police do not. You bring me to the police. I tell them that you are working for the Colt. That doesn't help any of them. No, of course not. I have a lot of reason for you not to kill, but it would help you too. You don't even know about Savitri and the island. You didn't even know what was going on. You don't know shit. Well, the left hand doesn't know where the right hand is at all times. Are you just going to do hand funds? But no, that's the thing, people say no. No.

17:17 No, it's. Not it is. How about this? How about this? Give me $1000. I'll tell you what. Well, Del Toro did say that kind of have an answer to money. I think maybe we should haggle though. I'll give you 80 bucks. No that. That is $80 American. I have powerful friends. Not Brooks. Brooks is not my friend. I need more than that. All right, Colin goes through his wallet, counts out all the money he has. All right, I'll give you everything. I have $28.00. Mr. Cronulla, how are you liking how you feel, right? The man I sent away so I could sneak out with the drugs. We'll be coming back soon and they will kill you. Give me $1000.

18:11 I drop him on the ground, put my foot on his throat, grab my shotgun and point it at his groin. I'm going to give you to the count of three. Intimidation does not work. 1. On a man like me, I'm not afraid of you. I cock my shotgun cock 2. Not for long. I can tell you what you need to know, but I cannot do it safely unless you give me the money to flee the country. I should within half an inch of the inseam of his pants. That was 2 1/2.

18:52 How about $500 in your testicles? Deal. OK. How much of A credit credit rating spend is 500? I think that's a three credit. Well I have credit rating 4. Brooks's studio is underneath the ruined Hacienda and a large house, and he gives you an address. Beautiful. It's over an Aztec temple. Don't know how you'll kill Brooks. A bullet. His wife is the thing that you need to worry about. She gets into people's heads.

19:36 Well, we have our ways. Cracks knuckle somehow. I have been paid by Savitry in Bangkok to keep an eye on Brooks. She does not trust him and she knows he has found a ruin of great power on the Yucatan Peninsula. I have been trying to find the location of that ruin and seeing if I can take it for her. She believes that she should run the cult, not Trammell. And what do you believe? I believe that I like drugs and money. Quite a sticky situation with the cult right now. I believe that Montgomery in Malta doesn't have the stones for it.

20:25 Not anymore. Oh, right, he said he was. Did you kill him? The things we did definitely got him killed. His second in command might be more dangerous than he was. That seems to be going around. Yes it does actually. It's all a bunch of lies. It's all built on lies. Well, gentlemen, I, I'm going to collect our associate here and go get some fresh air. I will see you too in a few moments. Yes, OK. Sounds good. But yeah, take JB out of there and leave ferns and call into their own devices for a few minutes.

21:11 Russell, what do you think? Well, I think we'd take a couple crates off this truck, leave them around so the police find something, and we send Mr. Kronelov on his way. Oh here, take this as a consolation prize, Tommy Gun. Fine, I'll take the gun. Please let me go now. I kick him in the balls no harder than that. Get your wife in there. You're supposed to be method Colin Takes a couple of crates of nectar off the truck, puts them in a corner somewhere, absolutely drops at least one. Yeah, all right, fuck off you cummy bastard.

21:52 Another gun. Come on. And he hops in the car and drives off. His house is built on a hill of sorts. This opens up sort of a secret wall related to actually just into the street of another St. And he sort of drives out. I hope he goes to talk to Trammell and thoroughly confuses him. Might as well introduce our own license to this whole thing, Matt. Oh, can I flashback real quick? Maybe I would like to give him that letter from Brooks to Trammell. Oh, the one that says I hate you used to. Yeah, yes. We're just stirring this shit.

22:35 Absolutely. I love it here. OK, I'm going to go check on JB. How is he doing? JB he's, he's coming too slowly. Difficulty freeze on trouble checks. Oh. Come fuck on. You know what? Fuck it, I'm spending two. OK, the goons are coming back. That makes sense. OK, time to go. Time to leave. Time to leave. Time to leave. Yeah, I cradle JB, lift them like a feather and book it towards the car. They're like between Is it the thing if you recall? Wait, what? All right, this is how we die.

23:17 How much ammo does the Tommy gun have? I will say you will run out of ammo for the Tommy gun because you only have the drum. Like you don't have any more ammo now there's 100 rounds of the drum bag but that also he fired some. Yes, yeah, part of that magazine is in me right now. Yes, exactly. Should I open fire? What do you think? Well, we could try diplomacy. For real. It's always an option. I will note the secret garage that Ronalov drove out of does not meet up with the sort of upper level gate it goes out of back.

23:58 Gotcha. Yeah. We could try some bullshit or like he, he's not here. He got in that way. Or we could go out through the carport. Fine. We could just leave the back way. Yeah, we, we could. Yeah, let's go out the back way. Yeah, I pick up JB like a feather. I head towards the gate. I see the goon. I turn on my heel and. Go back down the stairs. Down to the. Base I I'm doing like hand blinders on JB so he doesn't see the nectar. OK, see this. I can't think I was going to talk. About no see, I OK, yeah and. It's like what the fuck? Because you have established that you left two crates of nectar out.

24:40 Yeah. You cover my eyes and I'm like, Oh my God, what's happening? Where is what happened? Is the nectar gone? The nectar's all gone. It's just a ghost that I'm not letting you see. What? J BS. Too confused 3 stability check. Oh fuck you, because. You're a little drugged, but you're not that. I succeed at that time. Yay. Maybe you are that stupid. You were on a random St. in Mexico City. All right, I guess we got to find our car. Or how far away was the?

25:22 It's about half a mile to the compound that's walkable. You mean the address that Cromwell gave us? Yes. Well, shall we? I say let's. Sure, I'd start walking down the street still carrying JB. You can set me down, you know. I'm. I'm OK now, I promise. Oh, I know. I don't know why I thought life would ever afford me dignity. It's never done it before, probably never going to do it again. So. Tullen Dodd, Sagely. I turn like beet red in the face and put you down. Thank you. As you approach, you see that there are a trio of police cars parked outside.

26:11 Do not see anyone in. Oh, unfortunate. Yeah. All right. Is there a donut shop nearby? No, they must be in there then. Oh wait, we're in Mexico. Churros. See, I considered making that comment, but then thought better of it. And I didn't. The one thing we can be sure of is that one of us will always say the dumb thing. It's usually either me or you. Yeah, try not to name names. That's OK, we all already knew. Yeah. Anyway.

26:55 Well, I charge in guns blazing. Oh God, but down we go. Usually implies a little slower than that, but OK, I guess this is happening. They are pulled up in front of the ruins of a old Mexican estate, Hacienda. The door is open a crack. All right, here we go. Who goes in first? How we doing? I I will actually go in first are. You sure I. Was going to say Colin did say I'm going in guns blazing. Today is a good day to die. No, if you die, JB will be the only remaining member of the original team. Yeah, Yep.

27:39 Arguably the original team mostly got wiped out when they went after a cavalry. You're already kind of the second. Wow, yeah, good point. You know what I meant. Besides, we all know that JB is next. What? Yeah, probably. No, no, we want JB to survive this saying. Just dramatized. And filled with regret. Yeah. Well, I'm already one of those things. OK, so. Colin goes in first. What do his Colin eyes see? As you push the door open, you see evidence of a gunfight. One shot Mexican police officer and four dead, presumably cultist goops.

28:31 OK, he's not Gomez, is it? He's got big, soft, strong hands. He does, yes. You don't recognize this one, OK. Different hands. But not Blanco. But he is dead. Yes, they're dead. All right. That's just about what I expected. I don't have it on my sheet that I have a firearm. It's not being established. I did want to obtain one at some point. I will take the officer's weapon. Yeah. I have no skill in firearms, so I'm just going to stand behind you guys. It's a light revolver, like, plus zero damage, yeah. While we're on the subject, what kind of damage does a Tommy gun do? Plus one OK, However I am holding the fact that you're not going to be able to fire it forever. Hopefully long enough.

29:16 I mean, hopefully I can always get more ammo. We descend the 5000 steps down into the depths of madness. Yeah, I mean, I didn't say there were 5000 steps leading into Vadnais, but. I assumed. I mean, yeah. What else is there? You see there is a staircase leading downwards. It seems to have been carved by hand after it goes down a little ways. While initially it looks like carved, you know, looking old, tiny or whatever, as you get further down you see that it opens up in a underground hallway that is much more modern looking.

29:57 It has electric lights and the floor is no longer made of stone. He has put tile floor on the ground. Fancy. Yes. Yeah, that Brooks is his fancy boy. Now, is there anything else you want to do before we continue on? This is your last chance to there's anything you want to say, anything you want to prep, anything like that. I go back to town and do all the side quests. OK any anything else? Any other ideas? OK. I don't like how excited you are. I've given you the chance to put in the earplugs. You will not put in the earplugs. Oh, right, fine. Yeah. Well, the earplugs definitely are going in, yeah. No, no, they did not go in.

30:40 I explicitly asked you, is there anything that you want to do before you go in. I waited an extra long time. I said is there anything else you want to do? And there were no earplugs. We were doing bits. God, I do respect a bit. We're putting in earplugs. Yeah, I asked Smalls for some of his balls. Everybody's taken aback for a moment. I clarify. Cotton balls. Unfortunately, it is too late because you start hearing. You're too late. You start hearing. We don't need earplugs if we keep interrupting him.

31:21 That's how you cause rocks fall. Perhaps it's a different song this time. Again, they all kind of sound the same. Honestly, I'm not sure this is a great record that they're making down here. It seems like the songs all sound really similar. They're all just a little bit different. The lyrics change kind of a little bit. I need everybody to make stability tests. Difficulty 3. Unless you've previously succumbed, you need to make it a difficulty 4. No loss. No loss, but something else can happen. Yeah. I have one stability so I can't really spend points here. OK I rolled A2 and now Nathan in real life is having a panic attack so just give me a second. I rolled A5 color.

32:06 Most stable dude ever. I'm a spend a point. Me too. Ha ha, I'm glad I spent a point. What's happening to JB? JB is the only one who failed, yeah. Yeah, I am Daniel. I sure AM. So JB, I got two things for you. Uh huh. 1 you now have received a post hypnotic suggestion to immediately take if you have it, or seek out another dose of Nectar. So the next time you see Nectar, you're going to need to make a crazy high check to resist it. Of course. Second, you have a memory. Uh oh. What?

32:48 You remember something that you did last night. You woke up in the middle of the night. Was it in the middle of the night? You're not quite sure. When you did it and you drew a charcoal image of a mountain. You started drawing an incredibly detailed image of a mountain in charcoal, and you drew a huge gash, a rift in the side of it. I need you to make a difficulty 2 stability test. OK well I got the 2 so. OK, so you do not start compulsively drawing this thing, and as you think about it, you realize, no, you didn't do this, but you're remembering it as if you did it. The rest of you is a little bit of you that feels like you're trying to remember something that happened. If you'd like, you could give yourself up and just remember the thing that it's telling you, but I suspect you may not want to do that.

33:48 How about instead we actually do put in earplugs this time? Yeah, now we're putting in earplugs. I look at JB. Are you all right? You. You don't look so good. I don't feel so good. I saw a vision of me drawing a mountain with a mouth. Fuck, it didn't happen. It didn't happen. It did not happen. You feel like you could describe this perfectly if somebody wanted to draw the thing that you were just drawing in your memory. Yeah, Oh well, that can wait. It might not be the time for it. Yeah. Could you draw it? Hey, Russell. Hello. I'm going to kill you in real life one of these days. You'll have to beat Renee to it.

34:30 You have put in these cotton balls to stop yourself from hearing. I am going to say that that first of all is going to make some it's going to make it more difficult to make sense trouble checks and to communicate with one another. Obviously. OK, you see a hallway leading forward. You also see that there are speakers all over the walls here. It seems like this might have been the thing he was spending the most money on is just getting speakers in here. Well, I'll disconnect those as I go if there's exposed wires. Yeah, I was about to say the same. You continue down this path with the flickering lights above you. The music is theoretically playing. You can't hear it though.

35:18 Maybe the song, maybe it's changed to a different song now, even you're not quite sure. As you continue, you see that the hallway continues further forward, but you also see a large metal door on your. Left I'll motion that I'm going to check this door. I'll motion that I cover. Smalls gives 2 thumbs up. I look confused, I personally. JB also gives 2 thumbs up. You open the door and it is the control room of a recording booth. As you go inside you look to the left and you look to the right and you see two glass windows showing 2 studios with microphones and stuff set up. On the right you just see a microphone and you also see that there is a black curtain that could be pulled to cover the window.

36:17 And on the left you see a drum set, a guitar, you know, instruments and stuff. But I suppose I shouldn't mention all of that, because the thing you probably noticed first is the dead bodies on the floor. Oh yeah, no, that would be the first thing. That's probably the first thing you notice. The smell of gunpowder is something you notice, maybe more so now that you can't hear anything and you see that there are 5 Mexican police officers, all dead. Any of them familiar do? You want to start turning over bodies. Is there a red shirt amongst them? Soft hands. Pig soft, strong, lovely smelling hands. I know you were worried that you were going to see Detective Gomez.

36:57 You could not appear to be here, however, Officer Blanco. Unfortunate. Does it look like they all shot each other? It absolutely does. Yeah, that makes sense. Wonderful. Let's get out of here. There is a door that leads deeper into this area, past the sort of board where you would be checking the levels and such. Or you could go back out to the hallway. I would like to take a look at the board for a minute. Does it look like it's connected to the speakers outside? It does not, at least not immediately. I don't know what you know about fucking recording equipment and speakers, but just sort of a glance at it, it doesn't look like it's connected, but you don't really know much. And it's not like you could listen to it or like change the levels to see if it changes anything about the music that's playing or anything.

37:48 I mean, you could take out, you know, what are your cotton balls and listen to what's. Going well, I mean now the labels on the the board, are they in English or they are they in Spanish? They are in Spanish and somebody has put tape over the Spanish and written what it means in English on most of it. And there's nothing like connect to auxiliary speakers or anything like that. Not that you can see. OK, I would like to take this opportunity before shit has entirely hit the fan for us at least to turn the 2 bottles of tequila I have into molotovs. Probably a good idea. I'll offer around if someone wants to take a swig because I got to get a little out of there to put the rag in. I'm good, thanks.

38:33 I'll take a drink, sure. Over these bodies. Yeah, pour one out for the for the cops. Yeah, there you go. OK, you've prepped 2 molotovs. All right. I opened the door. Oh, why would you say it like that? It is just another hallway. There's a door on your left and your right, I guess maybe leading into the studio rooms. There's a little opening to the left with sort of a beaded curtain and a door going forward. This place is a maze. I look expectantly at Colin. Yeah, beaded curtain it is. It appears to be a small kitchen. Molotov, Molotov.

39:14 No, don't Molotov the kitchen. Hold on, are there any bottles of tequila in the kitchen? They have been drunk. Damn, what sort of stove is it? This is not just a stupid question to trip you up. No, no, I see what you're saying. You know what? It seems like it's a really old stove. It's a wood burning. Wow, sadly we cannot use this stove to blow this place up. Love where your head's at though. OK. Oh. Oh I know this might be getting a little repetitive and old, but JB, you notice that there is definitely some nectar on a side table.

40:02 Other people can make sense trouble checks to notice it before JB does. Yep. But JB, you notice it. And also, with people's ears plugged up, you know it's going to be harder to immediately notice what's going on. What's the difficulty? If you were not doing something else. I was checking out the stove. Difficulty for sense trouble. Bucket we ball. And. I failed. What's the stability check for me? Or do I just lose? Difficulty 6. 6. OK, so you see it before me. Or do I notice that he notices? You notice that he notices. OK, before anything happens, Hail Mary.

40:45 No. So. That's a two that is very much A2. Yeah. I make a dive for the nectar. OK. I I I need a Xanax? I need both of you to make athletics checks to see who gets there first. Opposed athletics checks. All right, we hit enter at the same time. Yeah. OK on 3123. Hey everyone, we here at Daniels Dread Tails have a Patreon now. It's got multiple tiers in everything. Even our lowest tier, Resident of the Forbidden Zone, gets you access to GM notes and unreleased content.

41:25 It's good stuff. The next one up, Resident of New Hell Mouth adds shout outs on the show, the ability to name characters, raw mixes of the new episodes, and our behind the scenes Discord channel. And finally, the highest tier Angry Clockwork Wife lets you join in on our monthly streams and be introduced as an Angry Clockwork Wife if that's what you're into. So please, if any of that sounds appealing to you, then join up. We'd love to have you and your money too much. Fair enough. All the same, do consider. Thanks for listening and back to the show free. Wow.

42:05 That was close. Closer than it should have been, Yeah. Oh my. God, So what? Happened was 3. Yeah, Nathan rolled the two and Renee rolled the one, but Renee also spent two points, so it's a 3. Yeah. So I, I kind of imagine what these roles like, we, we like fight for it, kinda like fumble with it. It it's not graceful at all. Nobody really wins, it just falls out of their hands and shatters on the ground. Please don't lick it off the floor. You're going to lick some of it off more. Nope, Grapple you'll. Probably find a sound effect for that.

42:50 Got to drag me out of the room. Yeah, I, yeah, I, yeah, I absolutely do that. While those two are busy, I need the other two of you to make sense. Trouble checks difficulty 4 because your ears are plugged up. This is so stressful. Yeah, you've entered into the Colt Stronghold, and while you haven't seen any living people yet, you know it's bad. OK, I'm a spend 2 points. I did as well and rolled in eight. I rolled A4. OK, all right. A trio of goons have come up some stairs outside and you realize moments before they kick down the door you see the door moving as they are sort of checking around. So you 2 have moments to react as the door leading further into the whatever is kicked down.

43:41 Well, the obvious move is to thread all small so it looks like we are all raptured in the fight song. OK, before that. A facet. I mean, that's an interesting idea because the other two of you were also fighting. Yeah, before that, is there like a piece of light furniture within arm's reach of smalls if. You're more in the kitchen and further away from the door, yes. OK, Smalls is going to grab a chair and take a couple of steps and launch it at these guys that are coming through the door. I know it's not gonna do much other than be a distraction and probably confuse the piss out of them, but it's at least something. OK, so you're not going along with the well, I guess you wouldn't really be able to communicate with each other, so Nope.

44:32 Athletics. Sure. What would my difficulty be, Sir? For. I should. Have. Pissed. Oh, no. OK. And then I throttle him. So I throw a chair. It doesn't really do anything but. And then you get fake choked. Yeah, Oh my God. OK, two of you are fake fighting, 2 of you are real fighting, and the guards have pulled out their guns and they're looking at you a little bit confused. One of them shout something you're not sure what they say. Unfortunate. How many are there, You said?

45:14 Three. One of them yells at you again. Shit. I mean, if nobody's gonna act, I'm gonna shoot. I mean, I already did something so. And I'm in no position to do anything as per usual so. Can I have JB in one arm and Tommy gun in the other? You did not make the sense trouble check. You were busy with the with the thing. So if you like, pull up your gun and aim it at them. They already have the drop on you and all three of them will shoot it. I just want you to know that. What kind of weapons do they have? Pistols. Revolvers, actually. Oh. My gosh. As I imagine that we're closer to them so a little more danger. So I'm waiting for an opening.

46:01 Yeah, somebody needs to make a decision or they're going to open fire on all of. You. Yeah, OK. I think I'm going to give you that opening. And so back to my original question, can I have JB in one arm and my tummy gun in the other? It is going to raise the hit threshold of the targets that you are shooting at. Fine I I turn so I'm covering JB with my body and aim the gun at them. OK. They are going to shoot at you first if you are still standing. Well, you know what, I think you could probably open fire. We'll deal with that in a moment. You mean like we're we're shooting at each other at the same time? More or less, but they're shooting just a little bit faster than you.

46:45 So three shots against you, each one's going to spend 2 points. OK. What's your hit threshold? 4. OK. That's a hit. I'm going to roll all their attacks. That is a super hit. There are no such thing as super hits, so. Super that is also hit. I'm just going to roll 3D6 for all of their damage here. Ouch, you take 9 damage as you are shot 3 times. I am still standing. I'm at 1. Nice. I'm sure you're also in a lot of pain. Oh hell yeah, I'm in a lot of pain.

47:26 You keep getting shot today. Yep, just keep making holes in me. Smalls, they shot all his bones out. You may now shoot at them. OK, so they would normally have a hit threshold of three. They are going to have a hit threshold of four because you established that you are both holding and covering JB. Now to shoot multiple people. Let me pull up the fucking rules for this. Give me a second. OK, Before you do that, how many firearms points do you have, Renee? 8. You know what? OK, if you would like you can spend your entire clip to fire at Full Auto.

48:14 If you fire at Full Auto with your large drum magazine, you get 3 bonus points to spend on your attack. Oh. That is how Full Auto works, yes. That sounds worth it. Now you will be out of ammunition. There's three of them. I'm at one health. I need to protect my boyfriend. I'm going Full Auto. OK, so their hit threshold is 4 and you're trying to hit more than one. Yeah, OK. Yeah. So the difficulty to hit them will be 6. OK. And they roll once. You roll once for all of them, and you have an additional bonus three points that you just get to spend automatically. And you said you have 8 firearms points. Yes, Kearns may be brave and all, but Renee is a coward, so I'm not going to make it interesting. I'm going to spend the three points and then two of my points and automatically succeed on the auto. So in my head I'm imagining like them just bullets landing in me. Hold on, hold on.

49:23 There is one special rule about Full Auto that I need to tell you what If you roll A1, you're gun jams. But I'm automatically succeeding. You still need to roll. If you roll A1 you're gun jams. They just roll AD 6 and don't roll A1. Fuck, I'm absolutely going to roll the one. Just fucking watch me roll the one. Don't. No, it's fine. I this has to go well or I will scream. OK, hang on. Yeah, roll ethics. Fuck off. Forgot how to type again.

50:04 No, no, fuck me. That's a one. When used on Full Auto, if you roll a natural one, your gun jams even if you hit your target. So. So we die. We die. Colin, hello. Do you have anything you're doing? I am going to tackle someone. Yeah, I gave you an opening. So fucking go. Cool, we both had the same plan. There you go. We both had the same plan. I mean, they're right in front of stairs. You know what I'm going to say? You could hit one of them before your gun jams. Rule the damage for one of them.

50:48 You're like a charity case plus one. You said damage. Yeah. Yes. 3. Three damage is enough to kill these guys. They are pretty not healthy. OK. Because they're not the big threat. So you start firing madly with the gun, but either jams or there was less ammo in it than you initially thought and you're only able to shoot one of them. Now that person is shot dead. I did something. And you were going to try to tackle people. Tackle time. OK, hit threshold is 3. Nice. And are you OK? I've been better. Yeah, I'm.

51:32 I'm all right. I spent two points because I have a -1 from being one armed or one handed. Gotcha. Roll your damage. Oh, that's three The brass knuckles. There came a clutch. Yeah. Do you kill this man? Do you beat him to death? You know what? Sure, someone had to do it. All right, And then we have Doctor Smalls, so. Doctor Smalls in like high school and university played a little bit of football, so he's going to try and like bowl him over. Bowl a buffer OK? So will you allow athletics for that? No, this is scuffling. Check. You're fighting a person head to head.

52:13 I'll spend my last scuffling point. It hits OK roll your damage. -1 or -2. -2 for unarmed I've got -1 because of the brass knuckles. Yeah, I do no damage you. Do one damage. You do, you always do one damage. I've decided that they're not dead, but you have sort of. You have tackled them and you're on them. They're not going to easily be able to shoot with their gun. JB snap out of it. We're getting shot at. I'm out of line of suck with the nectar, right? Yeah, I guess so, yeah. I'm probably acutely aware of the blood that just hit my face from Kearns's body, so I'm going to run up to this last guy and stab him to death while Smalls hasn't pinned. OK.

53:01 I'll spend 2. OK, I succeed. 7. OK. Two damage. That combined with the punch before you've killed this man. That does things to my stability, doesn't it? Well, yeah, that all happened so fast. We didn't make GET to make our stability checks, but now we're going to make our stability checks. Oh boy. Thankfully, a human opponent attacks you with intent to kill and kill somebody in a fight are the same. Stability loss of three, so difficulty 3 potential loss of three. Columnist now shaken. Oh. I'm fine. I'm good.

53:42 Rolled the fucking one again. Jesus. Yeah, I I collapse more from blood loss than anything I'm. Still, I don't have any points of first aid left. I'm in the positives still, so that's good. Is this a situation where I can apply first aid? Yes, you are not under fire at the moment. OK, so you can apply. I'm going to spend my last three points to give Kern's six health back. OK. I'm at 7. Thank you. I can spend 2 unless I can't because I'm shaking. No, you can still do it. Oh, OK. Yeah. So that'll bring you back to 10/10. Back to 10. I am so glad that First Aid is the skill we've all decided to get.

54:29 There was a reason I think you're all out of first aid skill now, I believe, yeah. Oh no, I'm still doing fine. From here on out, we have to. How do you still have some Cullen? I still have 5 points. I'm stingy with what I actually use it, so I've still got five points. Yeah, OK. So do I all right? OK, so yeah, cool. How does it, how do you guys patch me up? But there's bullets in me. JB is sitting to the side crying. Like openly weeping. Cullen's shaking, so he gets a Band-Aid out. He's like Poke. Anybody got any players poop?

55:13 I've got a knife I just killed somebody with. That might hurt him though. Poke, yeah. Yeah, I punch. Fucking throw hands. Yeah, also this conversation is going to be difficult to have because I believe your ears. Are still. Yeah, we all. Yeah, obviously, we're all. You know, I mean, it'd be easier if you just take them out is all I'm going to say. Shut up. I've been disabling the speakers as we go. We can have a conversation once in a while. I'm not even making that up. I said that up top. Yeah, so did I. You see past these dead thugs, this sort of modern recording studio was built inside of a much older building. And it definitely goes along with the fact that you were told that this is built on Aztec ruins. And you see a staircase leading deeper into the complex. And you also see a tunnel to to your left that looks like it also went like through the temple, but it has collapsed. It baby has always been collapsed or has been collapsed for a very long time.

56:26 Take the only way forward possible. Yeah. All right. What time is it? I think it's still a good day to die. Thanks for listening. Donovan Smalls was Damien. JB Faulk was Nathan. Frank Kerns was Renee. Daniel was our GM and 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. We have a website, Discord and Patreon if you're so inclined. Daniel and Nathan have old podcasts you can check out Wrath and Story and Forgotten. There is a Kingdom Hearts podcast respectively. Damien has a Twitch channel at twitch.tv/magical Hack and Renee does so much art stuff I can't even keep track of it. I think she's learning sewing right now. OK thanks for listening and until next time, the raw episode of this one is nearly twice as long and half as good. We were sleeping y'all.

57:33 By the future I mean Star Trek shows, not the the Super future where the Federation, you know, maybe that's what happens in the future. If you could save the world, we'll eventually get to Star Trek Times. If the world has to be saved by morons like us, we're definitely heading for 40K. That's fair.