The Danwich Horror - Part 1

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. Welcome back to Daniel's Dread Tails. I'm your host, Daniel Fernandez. This week we return to one of my favorites, Trail of Cthulhu.

0:42 So sit back and relax for a fiendish tale of science, murder and madness with special guests Chris Lackey. Enjoy. Welcome everyone to another exciting episode of Daniel's Dread Tales. Today we're going to be playing some Trail of Cthulhu. So let's go around and introduce our guests. I guess I should introduce myself first. I'm Daniel Fernandez. He him and I'll be playing as the Game Master today. Or the Keeper, I guess what we call it in Cthulhu games. I'm Chris Lackey. I'm the cohost of the Strange Studies of Strange Stories podcast. Where we cover bits of weird fiction, science fiction, horror, fantasy stuff, and we talk about it. We've been going for many, many years. Previously the HP Lovecraft literary podcast. I'm also a game writer.

1:34 You might have picked up my last book, Cults of Cthulhu from Chaosyum came out last year. It's awesome. If you haven't, I suggest picking it up. I suggest picking it up as well, it's very good. Thank you. And Chris, what character are you playing this morning? I'm playing Charles Chip Stone. He is a short, stocky, sweaty man full of enthusiasm, and he is a journalist. I'm Russell. He, they and I would be playing Harold Serling. He's the professor of archaeology and Jim at UCLA. Anything else you want to tell us about him? No, he's a very mysterious character. OK, sure. Hi, I'm Nathan Pronouns. He him podcast regular and I will be playing an artist named Helen Long Pronouns she her who's here for some artistic inspiration. Any Any similarities to previous Trail of Cthulhu characters I have played is purely coincidental. All right.

2:26 Our game begins in 1934. Los Angeles in a little laboratory. Well, not a little laboratory. Right now you're sitting in a. The lovely home of Professor Poulton Williams. All of you have been invited for various reasons, and Mr. Williams is about to demonstrate a brand new exciting invention and you've all been called to check it out. But at the moment you are sort of having some drinks upstairs. There are the three of you, of course, as well as four other people here, three men and one woman. I'll give you a moment to sort of tell me, what is your character doing here?

3:08 And just get get the get the vibe of what's going on here. Forget the dark characters. Well, Chip is just hanging out, having a drink, talking to everybody, trying to figure out who everybody is, what's going on, what they've heard about this, this event. If they know anything, he's trying to get the scoop because that's what Chip does. Of course you got to get the scoop. Yeah, well, you know this about Williams, that he is a brilliant thinker, but he recently left his tenured position at the University of California at Los Angeles to. To do his own thing, which was very sort of controversial, like why would you give up your nice tenured position? And he sort of disappeared and has been working on something in secret and it's called you in actually as a reporter to report on what is being shown tonight to get it out into the press.

3:55 And that's what I'm here to do. Yeah. All right, let's see, let's see what somebody else doing here. I believe I'm boring people by either talking about sports as other archaeology or archaeology as though it's sports. OK, just completely wrong. Energy you. You do find yourself in a little bit of a conversation with Doctor Robert Stebber who is a physicist. He he studies radiation. He actually is one of the earlier discover early discoverers of what he calls cosmic radiation. And he is sort of trying to regale you with stories about the recent fishing trip that he went on while you were telling him stories about football. How he totally dumped those bones.

4:35 OK, Sir and. About you, Helen. At the moment, Helen is enjoying her drink and people watching, you know, looking at everybody, looking around the room, you know, just trying to get the inspiration, which probably isn't working. It's gonna be probably pretty dull until everything goes horribly wrong. You recognize the you sort of are standing out a little bit as a woman here. This is a very dude dominated room, tracks and decade. But there is the professor's wife is coming around. Serving some stuff and her name is an important name that I didn't forget. Well, that's good. Mrs. Williams. Yeah, Mrs. Williams. Good say.

5:17 Ellen Williams But Mrs. Williams and the other woman there is Ulali Finch, who is, you know, is a sort of wealthy woman who is a big investor into the Arts and Sciences. So you have a you've in the past, you've had some friends who have, you know, done some work for her, which has been very handy for their bank accounts. Anyway, so you recognize her. There's a couple other scientists here as well. And then you see Professor Williams finally make a scene in his he comes down the stairs of his bright, sort of homey, Tudor revival style house.

5:58 And he's and he is just mingling saying hey, how's it going everybody? Oh, thank God you you've made it. He seems a little bit nervous. His hair is snowy white got dark circles under his eyes. His age considerably since the last time any of you have seen him. Actually, have any of you, do you think you've met Professor Williams before? I don't think ship has. OK, probably not, Helen. I think I made it pass him in the hall and discounted him as just another nude. So the small talk continues. You do identify a couple other people here. There's Doctor Harold Binder, who's a biologist, and Dr. Alfred Sykes, who is being his name's being tossed around for the Nobel Prize due to his synthesis, his ability to synthesize. Radioactive materials high minded knowledgeable group after some time, Williams says.

6:52 All right ladies the gentlemen, it's time for the the grand events gestures towards a door leading down into his basement and inside the basement. I mean, I assume if you would like I suppose you don't have to go down into the basement if you wouldn't like, but this is sort of the grand event. We're here for a reason. Going down, Mrs. Williams doesn't seem like she wants. Go down but besides. Chip is going to get his camber out. Of course, Helen's got a sketch pad. You take some circular stairs that go down into the basement. Do any of you have architecture skill? Architecture don't think so. Nope, I believe I do. For those of you who have not played Trail of Cthulhu before in our audience, or haven't heard it, the general idea is that if you have knowledge in things, you discover clues about them. And if you want to learn a lot about it, you can spend one of your points to learn even more about it. But generally, just having the skill we'll learn you some stuff.

7:45 This is more of a trial run. I can confirm I do have architecture. Great. Honestly, it's not that exciting. I was going to tell you that this this basement has recently been expanded out and it lacks any sort of amenities. The walls are unadorned concrete. It's pretty chilly down here, and at one end stands a whole slew of electrical equipment, the central piece being a large. Bulky device that sort of looks like a film projector. And you see there is an assistant toiling at the machine, calibrating the gears, oiling Pistons, as he's getting it already for the big show. Pistons. Eh, Pistons. This thing is, it's wild.

8:28 It it almost looks like nothing you've ever seen before. Do any of you have mechanical repair? I've got one. I do no. OK, a mechanical repair would tell you that this seems like this is definitely a prototype of some sort, and it seems like it's got many parts from different machines, sort of taken out of them and put into this sort of all sorts of different devices that it's scavenged. And put together to make this almost monstrosity of mechanical parts. And not appreciatively. As everyone is getting settled, Williams sort of stands in front of the device. And, you know, notice that he has a series of note cards that he's pulled out and he's going to, if I could have your attention, please.

9:15 But you notice that he's reading almost directly from the note cards. He's not much of A speaker, friends. Colleagues, benefactors, I thank you wholeheartedly for the support you extend to me with your presence here tonight. I trust that what I am about to demonstrate rewards your decision to venture far from the comfort of your homes to my distant laboratory. Ever since the dawn of mankind, we have wondered what lies on the other side, even before there was the written word to record the thought mankind. Has man. Man has believed in the existence of additional worlds beyond our own. Our names for these have been many. The imagination of man has been mapped on uncountable heavens and Hells limbos purgatories.

10:03 And dream realms at Dreamlands tonight you are about to peer into another world. Except this will be no mere folly of the imagination. I'm about to show you to mention why, by building on the fine work of Doctor Sykes, Binder and Stebbin. He gestures towards each of them. The other doctors here, I've measured the radiation output of the human brain, which I've called the Y ray, more ever. I've discovered that the Y rays we emit persist around us, forming an energy field, which I've called a Y field, if you will. Like the ripples that result when a Pebble is dropped into a pond. Our thoughts, our dreams, our hopes and memories live on within the heretofore invisible substances. Of the Y field.

10:53 Together these things comprise, after the three spatial dimensions and time, the 4th dimension, 1/5 dimension, dimension Y dimension Y is what I would call 1/2 reality, because although it is concretely exists concretely and with the aid of this device can be measured and observed, it is a mere reflection of what occurs in this our work and in our minds it is the ripples. Our minds are the stone. This device, the wise scope, any gestures at the mechanical monstrosity holds incalculable promise With it. Aliens can behold their patients dreams. Police forces can see into the memories of their victims.

11:35 A scientist can go to bed at night conceptualizing the solution to a physics problem. And wake up the next morning and see his thoughts coalesce through the Y scope. He's getting more and more excited as he's saying this. Historians can locate the memories of the long dead peering into a reflection of the world as seen by Napoleon, Joan of Arc, or the disciples of Christ himself. He says. It's gesturing to you, Professor Sterling. Of course, these practical applications will all require considerable refinement of the Y scopes mechanism, a task requiring many years of effort with the funding implied. Thereby look meaningfully at Mrs. Fitch. Excuse me. No. Anyway, until then, we cannot predict what we will see when we peer into this half reality tonight, only that we will behold dimension.

12:22 Why? Williams gestures towards his assistant, who pulls a huge lever to activate the machine she turns on. I am on the edge of my seat. I mean, who isn't right now? Chip is dubious of all of this, but he's got his camera at the ready. Of course, with a metallic. Shutter the device groans to life. Gear spin Pistons, chug arcs, event electricity inchworm their way between the exposed antenna. Then a spectral like shoots forth from its cyclopian central lens, blinding light strobes through the damp basement. And then you see some coalesce into the air. Before you. It's like a movie projection, but it appears to have depth, if not substance.

13:08 At first you see biological forms, almost like bacteria wiggling on a microscope slide, but in threedimensional space. Then a shape begins to form a glowing, beautiful cube of shifting colors. But there's Then you realize. Maybe, Helen, you realize first. Due to your artistic sensitivities, but it's not too hard to notice. This cube has only five sides. The geometry is impossible, and on a deep and intrinsic level it feels kind of destabilizing. And our first major role of a game is you are now going to face a four point stability loss.

13:49 So here's what you're going to do. If you need to be reminded, or if you haven't played this before, what you're going to do is you. If you fail this role, you are going to lose 4 points of Stability as you see this thing, and it really sort of freaks you out. You will simply roll a die and if you get a four or higher you will succeed. You may, if you would like spend points of your stability before you make the role, to add the points to the role. So you could spend two points of Stability to gain a + 2 to the role. However, if you spend the points of Stability, you are also. Losing those points of stability, I should note that you can go into negative stability, but once you reach -, 7 stability, you really your mind. Really starts to.

14:35 I believe the technical term is blasted in this system in times, so if you would like to make a roll and then we can move on from there. I don't know if anybody wants to spend the points, but let's see how it goes. I'm not gonna spend any points. I'm gonna trust fate and I've. Rolled A5. OK, so you're good. I rolled 3. OK, so you're going to lose 4 points of stability. Which puts me at zero immediately. What? Sure, OK. Sure. You didn't put a lot in stability, huh? No, I did not. Clearly OK, I roll the. Floor. OK, so we're all good, except for, well, one of us. All right. A few moments later, the machine overloads A belching forth black smoke. The stench of burning rubber fills the room. The mechanism dies, shutting down the spectral light, bringing the demonstration to a premature end. How do you react to both?

15:26 I suppose I didn't give you a chance to react to the cube. Just had you roll. How do you react to these little forms that you see in this bizarre queue? Helen is scribbling like mad. Chips taking photos as best he can, yes. I am clapping. We'll need to get those developed. I am clapping excitedly in a completely undignified way. OK, but as the thing sort of stops working. Williams appears distraught. This is everything that it was lurking towards, and it seems like it has all gone to crap, he shouts at his assistant, Fern. What happened? Fern? And they both have sort of crunching over the machine, moving some pieces around. The doctor actually sort of burns himself a little bit on the machine and pulls his hand back size.

16:08 This is going to take weeks to repair, months even on. Oh, you want me to take a look at it? The assistant sort of steps forward and just sort of raises his hand up, shakes his head. No, I, ladies and and gentlemen, I I do apologize for for what you've seen here today. Scientific progress doesn't come without its occasional speed bumps, but I assure you that the the Y scope. Will, well, I Good evening. He seems very, very disappointed and distracted by what is going on. The other four guests are sort of disappointed as well and but they seem to be like, well, that's that's what you get and most of them seem to be going upstairs.

16:55 You do see that professor. Professor Sykes tries to pat Professor. Williams on the back a little bit and then goes upstairs. What do all of you do? I'll talk to the perpetrator of this experiment. Professor Williams Yeah, Okay. That was a thrilling experiment and I really look forward to seeing more of this. Thank you. Yes, I'm sorry, I must ask you to be going. I need to. Fix this. He seems really uninterested in talking, though perhaps a social skill might be able to convince him to talk. Do I have any social skills? All right. Interpersonal.

17:36 Nope. Intimidation. I went with intimidation. OK. I don't think intimidation is going to. I mean, I don't think intimidation is what he needs right now. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for being here. But I I must ask. Excuse me, I got a few questions about this. Has there been any peer reviewed reports, documentation, anything like that? Or you I'm not? Not exactly sure what I've just seen here. I'm sorry, Charles Steele, I'm with the Los Angeles Times. I'm just not sure. You know, I know my audience is going to. They want to know what I've seen here, and I've got to tell them what I've seen. But I'm not sure what I've seen. So if you can explain to me what's going on and and how I can tell my readership that this isn't just some elaborate hoax.

18:20 Mr. Steele, I I do know who you are. Thank you. I know nothing has been peer. Viewed or anything, if this was the first full-fledged test of the Y scope, we had a smaller prototype device but we cannibalized it to make this I. So let me get this straight, Sir. You're telling me that your first Test of this device is in front of a bunch of people? Yes, it's not. It's it's not dangerous. Nothing about this should be. Nobody said it was dangerous. That's interesting that you say that. Let me write that down. No, that's not what I that's that's not what I mean at all. I I I thought it would be dramatic for you all to to see it for the the first time to to impress my my, my colleagues and and the the press about what was happening. Well, I don't know exactly what's happened here. You've got this Y ray thing, supposedly. I can't corroborate anything that you've said because you're just said it.

19:29 And I, you know, as a reporter, I got to check my sources. So is there anybody? I mean, you, you mentioned Doctor Pinder. Dr. Sykes. Gentlemen, you're here as well. Is what the professor, Professor Williams talking about here? Is this possible? Well, anything is possible. There's so many things we don't know. We're covering new information every day. I We can measure the brain waves coming from people's minds. I've done this before. I have a. Sure, sure. I I I understand the principle, but how can one prove this?

20:09 They, you know, dowsing rods have been used for for many years to to detect water, but there's no scientific backing that it actually detects any kind of water. There's no principles behind it. You're saying that your Y rays are able to be detected by this machine? Well, we've never, we have no evidence that Y rays exist or that your machine can actually detect these things. So is there some other? This device. We can already measure the Y rays. I I've detected them with a device I have. It's it's it's upstairs. I can maybe demonstrate it another time, but the idea of the Y scope was that we would be able to peer into another realm, and apparently it's all trash.

20:54 I I'm. I'm sorry. I must ask you to leave. I must ask you to leave. I. On her way up the stairs and she has not looked up from her sketch pad, Helen says. If it's any consolation, we did see a 5 sided cube, so I'm pretty sure you're on to something here. I We're not looking for cubes, but thank you, Helen. I love a cube all. Right. Just trying to be helpful. Whatever. Asshole. Yeah, I'm not sure what I saw here. And yeah, look, I mean, you read about it tomorrow in the Times. Thank you for your time, Professor. And he's going to leave. And you as you leave, you see Williams chatting with his assistant there and sort of looking at it, but that's all there is, All right. I guess, you know, I guess that's that it's probably time to to head home for the evening and be on your merry way. What do you guys think you do?

21:46 After this, this was in the evening. If there were appetizers, I have hoarded A inordinate number of them. There were, there were drinks upstairs. That that's all they were. They were not appetizers. Oh, those are harder to carry home. OK. Anybody else? Oh, you're just gonna leave? He's just gonna leave. Yeah. Just gonna go home. Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah, well, I mean, go right up, go right up. This article, you know, this, this sham of an event. Exactly right. My painting supplies are at home, so you know. All right. Now, do you write it? Do you think you go like to the office? It's pretty late. You probably go home to write up your story then. Yeah, yeah. He's got a personal typewriter that he uses at home. You each get home and Helen, Do you live alone? Do you live with anyone? Helen's alone. Helen's alone.

22:28 All right, you do get a call from your mother that evening. She asks you to come visit her at the nursing home and says that the staff there are being too cruel to her. But this is sort of things that she complaints about all the time. All right. Well, guess that's what I'm doing with my evening. Well, I don't know. If you do you want to go. Visitor right now. I mean it's kind of late my. Tomorrow, I suppose. Your tomorrow? OK, yeah, just sort of giving you a perspective on everyone's lives. How about you, Professor? I will go home to my husband, Renee, and, you know, play some part easy or whatever they did for fun in the 30s. Great. Do you have any kids? No. OK, Renee, does remind you that you need to remember their cousin's upcoming birthday that's gonna be coming up, Dave. Yeah.

23:11 Dave, do we, do we have to go? Yes, we do have to go and. You know, a little little minor conversation there. And finally, Chip, what do you think you do when you get home? He's going to get home and just type up, you know, while everything's fresh in his mind what went on? He's going to, he's a good reporter, so he's going to kind of keep it to the facts and present, you know, his take on it that he did see something that was really strange this, this five sided cube that doesn't quite make sense. But you know, when pressed for any further information done was provided. You know, do you, Do you live alone? Do you live with anyone? He lives alone. He's got a sweetheart, Lucy Donner, that that's his, he's he's a court in her right now, but they're not living together yet.

23:57 All right, I need you to all make a difficulty for stability test. Again, this will not make you lose anything though. This is just to see how your mind has been handling what you've seen so far. I rolled A1. I also rolled the one. Nice. I also rolled the one. OK, Great man. OK. Getting mixed messages with that response. Yeah, that didn't go great. OK, at night you all endure restless, dream plagued sleeps and because you all failed, you don't really remember the dreams. You see some of your loved ones in them, but it's hard to remember. The only thing you really remember are seeing that five sided cube and those bacteria like shapes floating around it, almost dancing around it.

24:48 But none of besides that. You don't really remember your dreams because you failed your roles and you wake up and it was an unpleasant night's sleep. But that's just that. And in the morning. What's What's everybody sort of morning routine? Chip is going to get up, make himself a cup of coffee, have a piece of toast jam, and then he's on his way to the office with his, with the article that he wrote that he's going to give to his editor. Professor definitely has a rigorous workout routine, Got to stay in shape for the archaeology and also Jim. Painting first, getting up in the morning second. She only will. She will only put herself together if she is just if she is going outside today and she has no plans for the moment. Well Chip, when you arrive at the office, your editor calls you into the room and says Chip, what the hell happened last night?

25:37 I was a bit of a bus, Sir. Well yeah, the professor did. He has got machine. He's got. Well, I mean, it's all in the article, but he says he's discovered these things called why Why raise? And he's got a Y scope that can detect them. They emanate from the human mind. Blah, blah blah. He projected some crazy stuff up on the wall that it couldn't quite make sense of, but then his machine just went out and he didn't really give any exponents. OK. I don't. I I is. In fact, I don't. I don't care about that. Look, Williams, did he have an assistant, Was there an assistant there? Oh yeah, he did. Did you catch this guy's name? No, no, no, he didn't say.

26:18 Because we just got reports last night off the police blotter. An assistant of Mr. Williams murdered someone. Oh. Huh. Who did? Wait, wait, who did? Hoodie murder. He sort of throws out. He doesn't throw it out, but he's pointing at, like an early draft of one of the articles that's going to be written. Tragedy struck the prestigious Brent Town neighborhood last night when Lucille Lucy Voch, heir to the Alper textile fortune, was slain at her dinner tape. Police shortly thereafter arrested David Quinton Fern, 36, who remained on the scene after bludgeting. Miss Vok, with a silver Candelabra Fern, was described by witnesses as having undergone a sudden breakdown, shifting in moments from the quiet calmness of a sophisticated dinner party to raging mania. The dinner took place at the home of Doctor and Missus Vok. Dr. Otto Vok is a renowned alienist, administrator of the Spring Haven Sanitorium and author of the popular book Limits of the Human Mind Police described Fern as cooperative. Witnesses suggested that Fern.

27:22 Became immediately remorseful after the brutal slaying, calmed in large part by the efforts of a courageously forbearing Dr. Voch. Fern will be arraigned later today. Sources familiar with the thinking of the District Attorney's office deemed as premature speculation that Fern would be spared a criminal trial in exchange for a swift admittance to psychiatric incarceration. That's what Tennyson wrote for us. He was up all night writing about this, getting, getting this down. But you were. There. Wait, wait, So it's. I'm sorry, did this happen after This must have happened after the What time of day was this demonstration? The demonstration was at six.

28:03 In the OK, so this must have happened. What was the time that the article says about? It doesn't say, but talking to him it says it was around 7:30. 7:30, OK, so this was immediately after there. Yeah. What? You know what we were seeing, What we all saw, made, made us all feel. Little bit uncomfortable. It was this weird. The only way to describe it is A5 sided cube, which you know doesn't work quite. A5 sided. Cube. Yeah, yeah. He was able to project it with a film projector or whatever he called his his Y scope, his Y ray scope. It maybe feel a little off, so maybe it pushed this Fern right over the edge. Tell you what, maybe we can do a shared article here.

28:44 I can add what I know into this and we could, you know, pile it all together. That's that sounds good. We could we could put that together. I also maybe maybe we can have you investigate a little bit more about this you you've been on the criminal beat before, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Go talk to Fix downtown. Got it. He at at the LAPD. He's the one in charge of this case. He might be able to, yeah. Figure this out for me. Yeah, he owes me a favor. He owes me a favor. Yeah. You got it, Chief. Meanwhile, the other two receive your phone rings before you head out in the morning. I answer it. On the other end is. Mrs. Finch, the woman who was at the demonstration last night.

29:26 Hello. Hello, Professor. I I know we didn't get a chance to speak much last evening. How are you feeling? And not too bad. Just finished my workout so you know, got the juices bumping. Ready to do some archaeology? Well, I have a little bit of a question for you. I I don't know if you've heard about this. I suppose you wouldn't have heard about this yet. There was a horrible murder last night. Oh, bye. And I won't. I won't overly explain the things again, but. I've heard that one of my dear friends, Lucy Vok, was killed last night, and in fact was killed by that standoffish assistant who was working on that device last night. Oh, that's terrible.

30:08 My condolences. Yes, yes indeed. Look, I I know this is a bit of an odd question, but do you think that device could have driven this man to do it? They say that he acted out of madness. Well, people do get very attached to the work on occasion. Maybe he just got frustrated when the thing broke down. I suppose Look, I I know this is an odd request, but honestly, we need to get this adventure going. The my name might be attached to this why scope now that I was one of the few people present at the first time it was displayed and one of those people then went and murdered someone later that night. You're you're a learned man. Is there any way you could help me look into this to to figure out if this device is what caused all of this trouble because I don't want my name attached to it. I I could reward you handsomely for for your help in this. Absolutely.

31:02 I see no reason that I wouldn't. Do this. All right. Excellent. Yes. Maybe you could speak to some other whatever. Let's just. I don't want to waste too much time on this. I know it's sort of an odd thing to set up, but yeah. Hand wave and then Helen's there too. Hand wave. Helen, you were given a similar call. Cool. Time to cancel my plans with my mom, cuz this is more interesting. She'll be fine. I'm sure I'll see her again. I don't know where the two of you would go because at this point I don't know if you would go to the police station, ask about it. You could, and then all three of you could end up sure. Sounds like his plan as any. If not, we could have you split up for a little bit and then have you get together, but that. Police station I'm doing investigating.

31:42 Well, I think Chip probably gets there first, yeah. Like, what's his name, Officer? Fix Detective Alan Fix. Fix. You've worked with him before. He's jaded and unflappable. Hey Fix, how's it going? It's me, Chip. Well, I should note you do have to wait about 3 hours to see. To see fixed he is busy doing some other stuff. I know if you would like you could spend maybe a point of cop talk to see him sooner, but if you just want to wait a few hours you. Can Yeah, let's do that. I'll spend a point of cop doc. You could see him within an hour. It's probably around 10:00 AM early day still. Yes. Yeah. Hey, Chip, fancy beating you here. Hey, well, you know, look, remember.

32:25 That that a little bit that article that I conveniently lost a couple months back. Which one? He says, winking. Well, look, you know, I'm, I was at the, you know, this David Fern case, you know this guy that murdered this this lady here. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty open and shut case what you were there? Well no I well I earlier I was but Professor Williams you know he was doing this this experiment and Fern was his assistant during the and they had some kind of. If altercation, I mean, is there anything you can tell me about the case? Some kind of weird thing? I mean, it was pretty weird we saw this. Anyway, just what do you know I mean? Like I said, it's a pretty open to Chuck case.

33:07 Fir definitely did it. He had the bent bloody Candlestick in his hand when I arrived. He was like cradling it, rock it back and forth. He was givering madness. And of course all the other people at the party saw him do it. It he did it. It's it's that clear, I mean. They'll testify it in court. I mean, yeah, he he did it. But why? Why? Why? Why? What happened? The guy? It's no no record. Um, they said it was during the dessert course of Bach. Lucy spilled the sugar, the Sugar Bowl knocked a bunch of sugar cubes into Fern's lap and then he started screaming and he started yelling the cube, the cube and smashed her. This guy's got no priors.

33:54 No, You know, he served in, looks like he's a veteran. Maybe a bit of shell shock? No. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Admittedly, I wasn't there. The husband was there. And also a Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Agu and a Miss June Kenyon. They're all still pretty shaken up. Honestly, the thing that's bothering me the most about this stuff is the insanity. OKI don't want this guy to get off. This guy's a cold blooded murderer. But the DA is going to pull some strings, OK? He's going to send this guy. To Vox Sanatorium. Then that job kills this guy's wife, and then he's going to end up at the guy's sanatorium.

34:40 So I think he's going to get what's coming to him, if you know what I'm saying. Yeah, no, I think this guy's. I think he's legit off his nut. I don't think that this is a he's a faker, you know that. Why would he kill somebody in the middle of a dinner party If you're not off? You're not. You know, like that's that's crazy. Doesn't mean by definition, that's crazy. Yeah, well, I well, even if he is crazy. He should probably be getting the chair, but maybe he'll get something worse. All right, boy, this guy sure is a cop from the 20s. It's 1934, but yes. It's 30. Yeah. He's much more progressive. He's more progressive. I'm sorry, the 30s. That's so much better. And as you are leaving, I think maybe you run into the other two of our investigators in the lobby. Oh, fancy meeting you here.

35:28 Oh, hey. You were from the party last night? Yeah, yeah, I was just talking to yeah, I was just talking to the officer who, you know was on the the case of when when Fern, did you hear Fern murdered. Yeah, I got a phone call earlier. As did I. How gruesome. Yeah, it's real gruesome. Look, you know, he was talking about the cube, the cube and the cube set him off and he just went ballistic and killed the woman built, beat her to death with the candle, sticky, obviously out of his mind and I think. What he saw, you know, affected him worse than it affected us. I mean, I I don't know about you, but I had some kind of had some rough sleep in last night.

36:12 As did I. Me too. I wasn't sure about what Williams was doing but now now I'm really not sure. I I don't know what to do. It's a pretty much it's an open shut case. The guy went nuts because of this thing. I I think we need to find out more about this. Why Ray Scope. Well, we could try talking to Fern himself. Fern, I don't do. And he's gonna go to the sanatorium. Do you have any? I don't know anybody down there? Do you guys have any connections? Get us in. That's an interesting. Question. You could go to the sanatorium. I don't know if any of you know the people there, but you could try to visit. I have academic credentials.

36:54 And I have access to closed library stacks, research laboratories, and even private government archives, but I'm not sure a sanatorium would be covered by that. Yeah, you could probably go to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, one of the nicest libraries on the West Coast, but I don't know how that's gonna help you with this moral. Support. I will say you can try to go to the the sanatorium. It might take some time to set up an appointment or anything like that. Actually he might still be getting admitted. I don't know if today he would be available. Yeah, that's unfortunate. Well. Professor Williams is who I really want to talk to. Where's for me? Let's go. We got access to it. And you, you all both. Do you know Williams? Do you know him? Yeah, he's a colleague. Sorta. And Helen? I'm friends enough with his wife.

37:36 Well, I was. Well, if you'd like to go see Williams, that seems like something that you could go do. OK, yeah, let's do that. Overwhelmed music plays. By the way, it's not that important, but do you guys all have cars? Are you taking the public transit that still exists in Los Angeles at this point? What? We what are we doing? It's. Great, Great public transit, 1930s. I'm an artist. Do I look like I can afford a car? I'm a tenured professor. I absolutely have a car. Did you take it to the station or did you take public transit? I took it to the station. OK. So I suppose you could drive the other two just to get a perspective of how we're getting around the city. I think I was halfway there and then I thought to ask them, but it was too late. You just drove.

38:17 Wow. OK, sure, Whatever. You when you go knock on Williams's door, he's willing to beat with you about right away. It's around noon at this point. And do you have a Does anybody have Streetwise skill? Not I I do. All right, you can definitely smell a lot of alcohol on Williams breath. Wow, you really went on a Bender. How you doing, Williams? I Please come in and take a seat in the study. You look like you should take a seat yourself. Yes, I suppose so. Can I Can I help you all? Is there? Is there something you wish to know? He sort of got his. His fingers to his nose and he's sort of rubbing his eyes a little bit.

39:01 Well, we're looking into your assistant and how he flipped his lid because there's definitely nobody better for, you know, investigating that. Yes, I heard about Fern. I I don't know what happened. He he seemed like a good kid. He actually is. Truly the the the project would not be possible without him. Look, when he committed the murder, he was talking about the cube, the five sided cube, the thing that we all saw. Oh, right, the cube. I remember that cube. What's going on with with these Y rays? What in the Y scope? And it What are you really showing us here? What's happening? I don't know what to tell you. It it it is a vision of. The the thoughts and and memories of the human mind. It is you could I I don't know what else to tell you besides that.

39:56 A thought just occurred to me. How is it that something born of the human mind created an image of something that the human mind literally can't fathom? Are you sure that's all we're seeing? The human mind can fathom a lot. I don't. I don't really know what to tell you. I I I truly feel sorry for Fern. But he was. He was a brilliant mind. Unschooled but but brilliant. You know, I. I found him in a tool and die shop where I was ordering some supplies and and Fern seemed to know what I was doing. Already figured out that it was some sort of viewing device that I was making. Half of all of my other assistants that I've had did not understand my my vision and this Fern who was just working there at the shop understood exactly what I was trying to do almost intuitively.

40:50 So you know after firing the 1st 3 assistants I. I took him on. He is unconventional. Thinking helped me create, well, I was going to say my masterpiece, but I suppose maybe we were thinking too unconventionally. And he I don't. I don't know. I can't. I I truly can't speak to why he would do that. I I trust him with pretty much everything. He he handled the finances and the ordering and and a lot of the the building of the device. Well, it almost sounds like you were his assistant. Well, I did. I did give him the the basic ideas and and my Y scope which originally allows us to see these Y rays coming out of people's heads was was of my creation.

41:34 But the actual viewing device I worked with him to to help create it and I believe just a few more things we could we could make it work. So you're saying that he didn't? He didn't. Graduate from any university. No, no, He was unschooled, but he was an autodidact. He he had a truly brilliant mind. So where did he get all of this knowledge, all this information? I mean he worked in a in a tool shop. I believe he he fixed up most of the things around the apartments that he lived in that his. Mother was the landlord of If you'd like to speak with her. Whoa, whoa, whoa. So you're telling me that a handyman built some kind of device that's able to see X-rays, Y rays?

42:24 Yes, I mean. Doesn't that sound kind of crazy? Doesn't that sound kind of, like, really improbable? No, he was. He had an intuitive sense for the work. He he, I I can't. You know the human mind has many things in it. I mean here let's we could take a look at the the schematics and he you know sort of lay he goes upstairs to grab some blueprints that he he brings back down to you and is showing you his grand sort of. Structure that he made, or at least the blueprints for it. Yeah, it doesn't make a lick of sense to me. I don't understand any of this. I've got a sense Assess honesty.

43:04 How much bullshit has this guy been feeding us? He has been telling you the whole truth. Wow. Gotcha. So. In his in this lab. Do we have can we get access to the lab, look around, see, see if there's anything in his notes? I mean, I suppose you could go downstairs and and see the the device it is, it is, you know, not functioning at the moment. But he worked down there. He also, I mean believe he kept the books about the supplies that were ordered and what not. All down there. He doesn't have another office or a library or anything like that anywhere else. I mean, he has a home that he he lives in. He he lives with his mother. Well, he he lives an apartment owned by his mother either then she's the landlord.

43:48 Sounds convenient. You know you have that address. So feel free to come downstairs and look at the why scope again if we're trying to figure this out. I don't. I truly don't understand what happened here. I personally would love another look at that thing. Yeah, go go right ahead and he sort of gestures you down there and he just is mostly going to stay upstairs. He you feel like at one point maybe he would have pushed back, but he just feels so confused and defeated about all of this. OK, well have a nosey down there and trying to see. You know, to see if there's anything that gives us any leads. Any clues? Perhaps Fern himself was influenced by the Why so, or whatever it was called. But tell me what kind of investigative abilities, academic or technical, that you would like to use to investigate down here to look for stuff? I have evidence collection that seems relevant. Evidence collection.

44:39 As you're looking around, it seems things have mostly been, you know, cleared out of here. It doesn't look like there's anything in particular. There is a desk in the back that has a bunch of notes that were kept by both the professor and Fern. He seems to have kept all the financial records, so you could take a look at that. A cult. You don't see anything in particular unless you want to. I mean, well. Huh. I got a cold of two, so I'll spend a point on this. Face. Yeah. If I if it's if it's useful. Yeah, I'll give that to you. There's something as you open up the device, are you willing to sort of open up the device and take a look at it? Yeah, it's the gears are organized in a way that almost seems to create a sigil or a ruin of some sort. And you recognize seeing something like that spoken about in a scene.

45:35 Like a cave in the Appalachians. Yeah, there's definitely something bizarre here. And also, who has repaired? Did you have repair as well? No, I don't would repair or mechanical repair. Her own Sterling has that. If you'd like, if you're as you're comparing the blueprints to what's inside this thing, they don't match. The blueprints that Professor Williams made are not what is in the the why a scope that was created. OK, so Williams definitely didn't. Design this thing. I mean, there are lots of elements incorporated into blueprints that are similar. Well, it looks like Fern, you know, messed around with the inside. It's compared to this blueprint.

46:16 And yeah. Yeah, look at this. This is a sigil. This is a an old Appalachian mystical sigil, like a symbol right here, this thing. And it looks like it doesn't really have any mechanical function within this device. So that's really weird that that would be there. That is weird. Look, I maybe we should go talk, guys. Mom. I was thinking that maybe it might not be a bad idea to also check out his repair shop where he worked. Might find something there too. Is there anything else we want to look at before we head out? Oh, I can. I guess I could check out those financial records. And Helen makes a quick sketch of the sigil. Do you have a counting skill?

46:57 No. Oh, I do. Oh yeah, follow the money. Follow the money. Always follow the money. For every part that seems to have been bought to make this thing, he bought like six other copies of what was being made. He seems to be sort of covering that up and and sort of like talking about like bulk orders and whatnot. But it seems like Fern bought way more with spending money on something outside of what was needed for this. It looks like he was making orders from. Mechanical machine shops and stuff like that, but it's spending way more money than he should have. Looks like I might get another demonstration after all. Yeah, so he was building multiple devices. Why?

47:42 Look, let's. Check with Williams and make sure he doesn't know anything about this right? On our way out, we'll confront him. About it and and I would suggest we definitely go check out his apartment afterward. Yeah, Williams says. Did you find everything that you were looking for? All that and more. Look, you know we're looking over his purchasing papers here. It seems like he bought enough parts for five, maybe 6 devices. What? No, that can't be right. Did you know about that? No. No, not here. Look. Look here look says right there like and then there times 6 * 6 * 6. No, that seems perhaps he was making spares.

48:23 I don't. Why? There's no evidence of any spares around here, is there? I mean, we salvaged a prototype to make this, but no, you're right, this does seem like. I think he might have been building some of these on the side. That doesn't seem likely. Perhaps I did not realize how much this project. Depended on this. Poor boys, rude, untutored genius. You must have been using more parts than we needed. But we actually needed them. I don't. I don't know. Yeah, that's definitely what it is. All right. Well, yeah. Well, you know, we're, we're going to keep looking into this. Thank you for your help. And if we come up with anything, we'll let you know. Thanks again. One quick thing before we go, Does this sigil mean anything to you?

49:05 And Helen holds up the the sketch of the sigil that she got from the inside of that thing. I Is that some sort of a cult nonsense? Perhaps you ought to check the internal mechanisms of your device. Perhaps you need not worry yourself with primitive superstitions. OK? The 20th century is going to prove through pure reason that all of these ancient superstitions are nothing but that superstition. Oh, you really need to check the internal mechanisms of your device. My only regret is that I won't be there to see your face when you do. We should go. Get you later. All right. While this conversation is going on in this sort of confrontation, a Helen, you sort of actually get a little bit distracted. You hear a nagging sort of tuneless sound. Maybe you hear this a little bit as you were driving to the next location.

49:56 By the way, where are you planning to go next? I believe it was to his apartment. Works for me. So at first maybe you think it's just the the wind or something, but it's like a Tooting made by a like a flute. Like it unearthly flutes that you're hearing. It seems to just be random, chaotic noise. But as you listen, there's sort of an A tonal pattern that you start picking up on. I need you to make a role for a loss of two stability. All right. Is that everyone or just Helen? Just Helen. Anyone else hear that? Oh, I definitely lose 2. Stability. I roll the one again. Does anyone else hear that?

50:36 Hear what? That that, that, that whistle that that flute sound? Does anyone What is that? Jazz. Do we hear it? You don't hear anything. No, sorry. No, I don't hear it. Yeah, that's just nothing. You continue your way towards his house. He lives a little further on in town. Say it's now around 3:00. O'clock after your investigations here. And at at Williams and then going over to the house, the when you reach the home, it's a a rooming house owned and operated by an EDA firm. And as you sort of knock on the door, a heavyset jowly woman in a cheap illfitting floral print dress and an obvious wig.

51:21 Sort of glares at you and says no vacancies. That's not true anymore, is it? I don't say that in character. OK, I was gonna say she's gonna be very upset about. That yeah, I Chip, Chip stalled with the LA Times. I got some questions about your son. I don't want it to. I don't want to talk to the police or the press or anything. I've shut enough. Well, I look, we get some questions that maybe nobody's asked. About before. Is there an Interpersonal skill you would like to use to try to get her on her set? I'm looking. I'm looking here. Shoot. Intimidation. I I feel like now would be a time for Helen to step in with reassurance.

52:07 Reassurance. OK. Oh. How are you going to reassure her? Yeah, Helen just kind of steps forward and says now hold on, I understand why you are upset. Anyone would be in your circumstances. I personally am not with the. I just want to know the truth. You think anyone in your position would be upset? Don't you think that the truth deserves to be out to give you some peace on this? We just want to talk. Will you hear us out? Sure. I I guess look, I just, I just want my David to be OK. We'll see what we can do about that as well. So what do you want? I think it would be beneficial for us to take a look at his apartment if there's.

52:47 Some numbers that don't add up as far as the research and the the financing ordering. I I I guess so, yeah. You could look at his room. He he sort of puttered around all over the place. He he fixed things up. He he worked he fixed the the radiator down in the basement and not the radiator. He fixed the furnace down in the basement. He he he did everything around this place. He he was a good boy. It's it's those rich people. They must have drugged him or something to make him. Go mad like that. He's he's not crazy. Madam, I will not hear the slander for the rich, I say, twirling my monocle. Ignore him, OK? Well, if you want to go up to his room, you could do that. Yeah, let's, let's go up there.

53:29 I'm not going to belabor the fact with her. Miss Fern is sort of standing in the doorway. This room is immaculately clean, it seems like. Maybe he wasn't home a lot in terms of how clean this place is. It's very Spartan, a bed, a military footlocker and a closet. The walls are relatively unadorned. Is there any skills you would like to use? I'm going to look for more occult. I want to see if there's any occult traces around here. Not in particular. This might be a little bit of a push for a cult, but. You do see that there is the shape of a cross where the drab wallpaper shows less fading than the area around it. It seems like at one point he was had a cross hanging up on the wall and he has taken it down, but besides that, nothing particularly a cult.

54:34 All right, evidence collection. I would have given you the same thing with that. Honestly, just looking around, he has a foot locker that has like just some small things like a a toothbrush and like some things like that. His closet, as you look around has, you know, interchangeable work clothes. It's if you're looking to to get the thing that's going to break this cakes wide open, you're really not finding it here. Thanks for listening.

55:22 Ghost schools and all who lay beyond our cast this week featured special guests Chris Lackey. He wrote the excellent and any awardwinning Colts of Cthulhu. And host the top notch Strange Studies of Strange Stories podcast, where they look at all sorts of classic genre fiction. It's become one of my favorites, and they have an extensive back catalog going back to like 2009. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts, and let's not forget our podcast regulars from the Dread Tails crew, Russell and Nathan.

56:06 Russell remains more or less an enigma to us all, but Nathan has the Kingdom Hearts of Forgotten Era podcast at KH under score a Fe on Twitter. Oh, and me, of course I'm on Twitter at LOTR. under score Dan. Special thanks to our editor Dominic. I realized I hadn't been crediting him or our other editor, Russell, for the editing of her episode so far, but they are awesome. I'll make sure they get credit in the future because you don't get a show without an editor. Just a friendly reminder. We want you to join us on our Daniels Dread Tails Discord. I'm on there. Come on by, say hi. You could find a link to it in our episode description or on Twitter at Dansdreadtails.

56:51 All one word. The two best way you could help this podcast girl is to review us on your podcast platform of choice and to tell a friend. We'll see you all in two weeks on the 28th for the stunning conclusion to the Dimension Y arc. Thanks for listening and I hope you have a day free of non Euclidean images and horrors. Bye.