Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos - The Big Sleep 04

[00:00:16] The Rancors Brothel presents The Big Sleep, Umi Thels 5e Adventure

[00:01:24] You see an inn that's like almost barren. I mean there's very few people in here. Somebody behind the counter who looks very sleepy. I jump up on the counter. We have a routine. I start kicking open doors. Pushes you off.

[00:01:43] I dodge his push. Acrobatics? What one is it? He needs to roll push me. Opposed rolls. 25. You win. He's a cat, of course he wins. Who's fucking cat is this?

[00:02:06] I like the idea that like, so you go to push and you like casually step over and he like turns his hand to push again and then you like backflip over his hand. He just keeps pushing and you just somehow are never where his hand is.

[00:02:20] What the hell? Who's fucking cat is this? Who would? I point to the ghoul. What do you want? Who are we here to talk to? Dominic. We're looking for Dominic. Yeah, we're looking for Dominic's room. Dominic. Dominic. I don't know what Dominic isn't any patron here.

[00:02:48] He has a room. Try the bunkhouse, skinnypats. What? The fuck is that? I stand closer and look down at him. Yeah, you go out the fucking door. You turn left, turn left again. I just kind of stand here like this to see what the ghoul does.

[00:03:13] I put both hands on the desk. Explain. He opens up his ledger and goes, no fucking Dominic is there. I snagged. I snag his ledger. You see no Dominic listed. I don't even bother looking at it. I throw it to somebody else. I don't break eye contact.

[00:03:39] Someone who can read does not see the word, the name Dominic. I bet 10 to 1 if he's a commoner, I'm fucking smarter than him on every single step. By a wide margin. How many patrons do we have in this room? No, in the fucking book. Like four.

[00:03:59] I'm not being flippant. We now can look at his book as I was going to say evidence, but we're taking shit because that's what cops do. You don't see the name Dominic in the ledger anywhere. But there's four people logged in currently.

[00:04:14] And there's two people, at least two people sitting down here with him. I'll read off the first name. Okay. Did someone answer? No. I read off the second name. Some guy kind of goes, yeah. I read off the third name. Yeah. I read off the fourth name.

[00:04:32] No one else. All right. Show him the kings. The kings are it. I'd like to check out these two rooms please. Okay. He brings you up to the rooms. Like even more basic than the previous place. Like literally just a fucking cot. That's it.

[00:04:53] No, not really any any personal possessions in there are like tattered trousers and maybe a shirt. I'll look down a Flynn. Look. I'll go and start. I assume we're finding nothing. You might as well find nothing. We would be thorough. Yeah.

[00:05:12] No, no green robes, no cultish pendants, nothing. I will encourage strongly, strong armedly the person who has told me about going to this other place to explain himself in a little more detail why he is saying this place. Because they know fucking Dominic here. Right. But he's not.

[00:05:37] I'm curious as to why he told me to fuck off to that exact place. He could have just told me there's no Dominic here. I don't know what's the next place down the road man. Who are you? There's James. I.D. Sure.

[00:05:52] License and registration produces an I.D. that says James. We got to pay a fucking bait and tackle fee to gas magic. His name is James Hetfield and he owns this den. I want to check the other two rooms of the people who are staying here too.

[00:06:12] You find no cultish stuff. Well, there's people are clearly staying there but nothing strange. Are there empty rooms as well? No. So therefore rooms total everyone is in the rooms. Get it. Very very small place. Is there a basement access in here?

[00:06:32] Because you said not that I could see. I'm going to look and see if there's like a basement. Okay. Why are there so many chimneys? Suspicious amount of chimneys. I'd be getting punching holes in the wall to find the base of the chimney.

[00:06:45] There's a fireplace in the common area and the fire where the stove is. We were told by two separate chimneys. Sheriff Poopyface. Is that Mrs. Sheriff Poopyface? The two Poopyfaces. He was staying here right? Yeah. They were told. By Dominic. Cultists lied? Fucking lied to you, yes.

[00:07:12] What the fuck dude. I quit. Who do we even trust? Skinny Pats. Trust a Toe Cultist. Check out the fucking bunkhouse. Is that two different places? Skinny Pats is the bunkhouse. Oh well again when I said explain this was kind of

[00:07:28] the context that I was hoping he was going to do so I don't have to rip his arm off. Seems like a nice guy. We've not yet gotten to Rip and Tear. We're just at level one of Rip and Tear. Fucking itching for it.

[00:07:43] I know we're at level one of Rip and Tear. I will encourage him if you'd like to stay in this inn to give me precise directions to the bunkhouse. Go down the street turn left and turn left. Is that a tone I just heard?

[00:08:08] A bit of sass maybe James? Are you disrespecting my authority? Is it the first left? At this point we're going to the bunkhouse. Yeah it's a place that doesn't sell comics. It's like two blocks down. Turn left and turn left.

[00:08:28] The more precise information he was trying to hint at. We gots it. He gave you two lefts. Take his left arm. Now we have three lefts. Way to the penis. To the bunkhouse. Bunkhouse is not hard to find. Pat himself is a very twitchy man.

[00:08:45] The thin beard and a floppy velvet cap. Is he skinny? He is. I think it would be funny if he was like 450 pounds. When you ask about Dominic he says I've already written out his room. He didn't pay.

[00:08:59] He didn't pay for last night so it's already been written up. I was going to pull off his stuff actually. And he kind of brings up a burlap sack and sets it on the counter. I snatch it. And says is everything that was in there?

[00:09:13] I snatch it and toss it to the artificer. Uh you see like three shirts, a belt, an empty glass vial marked with an X, a green wax candle, a green robe, a set of thieves tools. I want that. Pendant? Hmm? Pendant?

[00:09:37] You do not find a pendant in the burlap sack. Son of a bitch. Boo. Losing money. Okay. Are you showing him the writ from the pendant? Yeah oh yeah. Every time. Have you not got it yet? He jumps on the counter. He says they like cats.

[00:09:52] I am bad cop. He's good cop. He reaches down underneath the counter and he pulls out the silver emblem of Sethogway. He says I was going to pull it off you know. The guy from the A team.

[00:10:05] Says I was holding it for safekeeping in case I needed it. So he does hand you the emblem. Is that what you're trying to say? We take the emblem forcibly. Write it down. Now we're down to pull up to ten emblems. So you're Mr. T.

[00:10:21] He's uh what's his face? Hannibal? Is he our cat? From the A team. Pat kind of chuggles and he says to be honest it's a bit surprise he even rented a room for me at all since he spent so many nights in Slumberville. I'm sorry what?

[00:10:45] You've never been to Slumberville? Meow. I'm sorry meow. Probably for the best. What is Slumberville? It's one of those uh door houses here in the area. Something about a drug Xothy sleeping in their lives away. Wait what? What? Drug den. A who house? It's like a drug house.

[00:11:08] Okay. I believe that Lucas is trying to get across a uh opium den. Okay. Stylistically speaking the next thing we're looking for is an opium den. Says it's he says it's nothing but a but drugged Xothies sleeping their lives away. D-R-A-U-G drug? No drug D-R-U-G-G-E-D drugged Xothies.

[00:11:35] No but you called it a something house earlier. A dross a dos house D-O-S-S-H-O-U-S-E dos house. No that's a it's a drug that's a house dos house. It's a drug den. It's one word. It's German dos house. Perhaps. It's a drug den full of what he calls Xothies.

[00:12:01] Getting a little uh sleeping their lives. Yeah no shit. I mean literally a cool literally a Dreamlands cat like huh it's like I just presume we were already in the Dreamland so like hey you I don't know. Shit. So you're not from around here are you?

[00:12:21] Well I just clicked. Yeah really? I've just been staring at that poster. I mean it's fucking yeah. Yeah that's what I said the opium den is next. That's how I knew there were sleepers in every fucking room because the cult

[00:12:33] to Sathogwa is probably going to the Dreamlands to commune with him. That's why they can't find the fucking bodies and shit because they're transporting them to the goddamn Dreamlands or that's why they're popping up in random places

[00:12:44] because they're murdering them and the bodies are coming back from the Dreamlands whatever the fuck. But much like in census light a hand man probably a drug house so they can go down and enter the Dreamlands which is probably what they're drinking.

[00:12:57] The candle probably helps maybe the the marbles probably help in some way. So yeah I've been waiting to get to the opium den. Which apparently is called. Well fuck. Lucas started talking like fucking Sutherland and Clockwork Orange all of a sudden with

[00:13:12] his droogs in there and the dos houses and the. Their ultraviolence. Splitting with me Rooksies and the ultraviolence. No that's a hundred percent what you just did which is why they looked at you like you were a goddamn fool.

[00:13:25] Reading that book I got halfway through it before I realized Rooksies was fists. God that book is hard to read. It really fucking is. Yeah. Like this dude literally created his own language along the way. Anyway. Yeah you've never been to Slummoville. Have you? Oh yeah. No.

[00:13:47] Did you just talk. Ah fuck. Wait I licked my ass. It's my only defense. You know what there's another t-shirt. There's another t-shirt idea there with a cat spread eagle looking at you with his butthole puckered saying I lick my ass. Simical and it's my only defense.

[00:14:25] Says it's primarily homeless folk really. All right who wants to go smash up an opium dead now. We're just gonna be fighting hopeless. Says go west a bit follow the music you'll find it. I pick him up. I feel like we should maybe go to the Abbey first.

[00:14:51] You don't want to go to the Dreamlands without talking to the main character he told us to talk to first. Correct. Coward. I go to the Dreamlands all the time it's pretty cool. I got friends there. Yeah you can always come back.

[00:15:04] They just get it on in the evening like it's been it's the same day you guys left the fucking. I'm gonna go to the Dreamlands I'll see what's going on up there. It's all good. You're welcome to go to the Abbey if you want.

[00:15:18] Whichever way I don't care whatever way the group wants to go. That'd be probably make sense I feel like. Yeah it's getting late we should I think sleep Abbey and then hit the dead. Head back to our new house.

[00:15:34] Yeah yep bunch of guards just siphoning through everything it's probably not a place to sleep at this point that's how'd they get in where they don't have a key. Knocked to the room that we're on you called the guard you think they're not going to

[00:15:46] knock the door open. Wow. Rude. We still unlock the door and go in and. Flop down on our beds. Excuse me. Let me just let me just. No that's fine you guys sleep for the night no problem.

[00:16:01] Because now I see that we don't have to pay for rooms. You have a weird dream of like a ship on a sea weird stars weird shit going on. Okay. What happens when I dream because I can go straight the fuck into the dream.

[00:16:16] It's my you can do whatever the fuck you want in the dreamland. I can jump to the moon. Sure you're hanging out on the moon knocking cheese off. Like a fucking cat would bring you anything out of dream. You should be really careful jumping over the moon.

[00:16:31] There's it was the cow it was the cow that jumped. That's true I can jump to the moon. Okay well do you know do you know what's on the moon. On the other side. Uh yeah yeah okay yeah I'll stay on the good side.

[00:16:44] Something about a spoon I don't know ships. Oh yeah yeah is that the men of lang. No no no no okay it's the moonbeasts. That's right yeah and I'd rather deal with the men of lang.

[00:16:58] You wake up it's you know sun's up early in the morning no problems out. Let's all go to the abbey. To the abbey no problem. I talk when I have something to contribute. Just asking you to play the game no big deal. I've killed things.

[00:17:20] I kill things let him kill things. I investigated stuff. Go to the abbey. Father Yokeim welcomes you in. What's up that's a common name right. I'm pretty sure it's Joaquin. Yeah like I love him and Napoleon. I'm going with Yokeim because I've already said it.

[00:17:41] Like you spelled it and I'm like lucky. I don't fucking know they don't give me a pronunciation list. It's a common name. J-O-A-C-H-I-M is a common name. What's the fucking what's the fucking bit. It's not a common name to me sorry. What's the fucking bit.

[00:18:02] Oh god it's a key and peel bit. Oh A-A-Ron. A-A-Ron. You done fucked up A-A-Ron. Father Yokeim because I'm sticking with it. Dwight Yokem. Ah it's Joaquin look at that. It's in French. Has tonsured black hair clean shaven angular face and as you all enter

[00:18:31] he sort of bows to you and says ah a single flame turns back the darkness. Welcome what can I do for you all? Uh again show them the king's writ we're um investigating the cult trying to root him out.

[00:18:53] Ah please come in come in he kind of brings you into like a drawing room you all sit down relax for a moment. He says 400 years ago when the empire was young members of this secret cult revolted against the crown.

[00:19:07] No one really knew where they came from they had infiltrated every level of society. They fought bloody battles all over the empire murdered whole villages and their profane rights. The erected foul altars to their monstrous deity took a decade to wipe them out.

[00:19:26] They wore um green robes so people at the time called them the green monks and they worshiped the thing they called the sleeper. No one living today knows what the sleeper is but the legend says that it was some sort

[00:19:43] of toad demon. Me I have my own theories there are worse things than demons lurking in the dark corners of the world. What's your theory on what the sleeper is? Hmm my theories are strange and in fairness I've only shared them with a select few.

[00:20:03] You are a select few. Very select. He kind of looks around the room and says the four of you don't seem to fit that criteria but you could. Should I just tell him that I know what the demon is? Meow meow just screaming it's Sathagua you asshole.

[00:20:27] It's Sathagua. That is feasible? Yes it is. He says um I could give you more but in order for me to do so I feel you must pass a test. Prove your loyalty your trustworthiness. I kick his door down. You go back outside it's like where's he going?

[00:20:57] Yeah I go back out closing the door very softly you're like what the boom blows off its hinges. Pick him up and take him to that house of corpses that we made. He says uh if you wish to learn more you may do this thing you

[00:21:16] hunt you find cultists. We've been doing that. You remove their right hand you take their holy symbol or their profane amulet whichever they are wearing you press it into that palm of said right hand and you bind it in place

[00:21:34] with bandages you bring me five of these hands and then we can talk further. It's a fucking fetch quest. Duh. Very much so. As long as we can have the pendants back to get paid again because this is good business. You return to me with five right hands

[00:21:55] bound with their holy symbols inside and we will talk further. What did they do with the bodies at the at our house? They would have already taken them somewhere probably to be burned at this point. There's still time quickly. And you already sold the emblems so they're gone.

[00:22:14] Except for one. We could get around that like there's a new lead in the case we need five symbols just to make sure of something we're testing a theory. Bring me these hands and we will talk further.

[00:22:30] I mean that's actually pretty feasible we could go we could go to the um sheriff and be like hey like we went to talk to father poopy pants and he said this is what he needs for us to get more information.

[00:22:46] Father Eloheim's got uh they've already been melted down can we get I think he's gonna be a fucking asshole about it. It sounds like we're gonna be killing our way through a lot of cultists so I'm sure we have it as an option.

[00:22:58] This might be why she said to go here first. Well there's still a drug den full of cultists to murder. That's fine. It's an optional fetch quest is not part of the main quest. Sure it's true it is optional.

[00:23:13] And besides he's going to be boring and religious and do we want to play that kind of game. He's probably gonna have rules about not hurting the innocent or not playing with your food. I don't feel like he's real I'm really trying to

[00:23:32] trying to channel my inner doom guy and I feel like this guy's a big downer to that goal. He is not punk rock. No it's a little punk rock. He is not on the rip and tear. Uh what do you want to go? Smoke crack duh.

[00:23:50] You wanna try find slumberville? Chase the dragon. Yeah buddy some of that big nip. Are you going to slumberville then? Yeah what else we gonna do? I don't know leave the city. You must head west. We leave the city. What's that what's in that forest?

[00:24:05] Let's go find some zoogs. One of the largest buildings in the area you find primarily reserved for homeless folk as you were informed. For the moment. It was known as slumberville. It's a simple task to find any resident of the area will tell you to follow the music.

[00:24:25] Where's Garmin? Where's Garmin? You hear faint atonal chords echo through the structures corridor. It's not difficult to follow them through their source. A whitewashed door covered with strange etchings and the name slumberville scrawled in red paint across it. What kind of etchings? Strange according to the book.

[00:24:47] Do I get my weird spidey sense at this place? My eldritch sensitivity? Feasibly. A little tangle? It's probably a little mythos-y but. It's tingling in his dingle. When you open the door and you walk in you see one or two people in the hallway

[00:25:07] strung out begging for coins. The room is dimly lit. The air is thick with incense. And as you continue through the corridors you see scores of comatose people lie half naked on rough cots and rat-eating pillows. There are rats here.

[00:25:24] They are twitching and they are muttering in delirious slumber. And as you continue to walk a few of them kind of- Do you want to buy some? Do you want to buy some?

[00:25:40] As they're kind of pulling on your shirts and they're holding up vials labeled with an X. Do you want to join us in sleep? Do you want to buy some? This beautiful slumber is preparing us for the big sleep. Come join us.

[00:26:02] He said the name of the thing guys. It's probably the name of this episode, the big sleep. Hear music in the background still. I'm really getting itchy to cast firebolt on everything in this place. You're not quite to a fireball level yet but that's definitely an option.

[00:26:18] I did say bolt but I think I might actually have access to that. You don't need a fireball yet. No they're trying to- Hock off these vials. Who is the owner of this place? No but I do get the access to fly. And they all kind of-

[00:26:42] They look a little sad that you don't want to buy what they're selling. Follow that way you'll find- You'll find Ganberry Zyrose. God damn it. Zyrose. Z-E-I-R-O-S. Zyrose. Zyrose. Ganberry's G-A-N-B-U-R-Y. Ganberry Zynos. University of Vermont. The U. The Ohio State.

[00:27:19] As you continue to wander the corridor you find a room where a gaunt man wearing purple and yellow party colored clothing sits cross-legged in the center. He is sort of absent mindedly strumming a lute very lightly. I pick him up. May I help you?

[00:27:42] He continues to strum his lute no matter what. I throw back his cloak because I'm looking for the symbol of the cult. He is not wearing one. Didn't you say he was wearing a hood? Of purple and yellow, yes.

[00:28:01] So your answer is he's not wearing a symbol, not that he's not wearing a hood. He wasn't wearing a hood, no. He was wearing a purple and yellow party colored clothing. Okay. I guess I heard hood. No.

[00:28:15] Alright, I rip his shirt open and look for that holy symbol. He kind of goes- I kill him. He says, attacking illegal scoundrels is forbidden in these parts. They'll find you, you know. He just continues. This song makes no sense. It's just completely random.

[00:28:41] I'm going to switch him to one hand and then take his lute and smash it on the table. Listen, addict. That's uncool, man. He begins to hum the tune. Take his tongue. The harm you do to me will be ten times over yourself, you know.

[00:29:04] You're not from here, are you? What do you want? Alright, I'm going to kill our witness soon so somebody better come up with some actual questions because I already hate this Lucas character with a deep,

[00:29:17] deep passion and if I kill him we don't have to talk to him anymore. Meow. If any motherfucker understands you immediately, this asshole does. Yes. Meow? He stands up and points a finger to his own chest. It's called the Elixir of Zoth. You wish to partake?

[00:29:38] And he kind of pulls out a vial. No thank you. Does he seem to understand? He does. Ah yeah, this is my guy. It's a divine gift. Sleep, the sleep of angels until the big sleep takes us all. The big sleep. He kind of twirls almost imperformantly.

[00:29:57] You can't twirl very much from holding him up in the air. Well, twirls is my thing. I like the idea that he sacks shakes. He sacks shakes as if he's twirling. He's like shaking his hips to move and his feet are dead.

[00:30:07] I completely forgot you hold him up. This whole situation is ridiculous. It is. Okay, so we're here because Dominic spent a lot of time here. And they're clearly selling the drugs here. Yeah. Clearly everyone here is completely strung out by it.

[00:30:30] Which means they probably won't escape the fire we can start. It's true. I mean, there are sort of two options. We take the drugs and go see what's going on. Or we burn this place down. Those are kind of the two options I have.

[00:30:48] I mean, there are other options but... He kind of even does this like a hand under his shoulder as if he's leaning on something. He leans on your shoulder. He's leaning on thin air. What is it you wish to ask? Who's your biggest buyer?

[00:31:07] Who's buying the stuff in large quantities? Buyer? Who buys? Well, I was... Those guys were selling. Yeah, they were selling so I assumed... Everyone needs a coin now and then. I fucking hate this guy so much already. I have a request. Can you talk in any other way?

[00:31:27] How would you like me to talk? Pig Latin. I don't know that language. Just comment in cat. He understands cat. It's very weird that he understood what you're saying. I'll pull out the cult of symbol. Have you seen this before? God damn it. It's very pretty.

[00:32:02] If he gets an erection, I'm taking it off. That's probably worth some coin. Yeah, a little bit. Any person lying here could probably give you 10 vials for that. How much is a vial worth? Depends on who's selling.

[00:32:20] He sort of gestures with his hand awkwardly as no one at home can see me do. Lucas is being very wispy. This is the Dalton Castle version of this character. I'm very confused about the economics of this place.

[00:32:33] Some of these guys are selling this stuff for coin to buy the stuff. They just want you to join. How do you make this stuff? I don't make any of this. That's a great question. Excellent to know. Where do you get this stuff?

[00:32:55] Comes from any alchemist on any corner. Roll me history. That's not going to be great. It's always good to hear. Eight. I was going to say, I probably can't do any better. I bet I can do better than eight.

[00:33:13] History might not be the only thing you can roll. Hang on. Arcana? Actually let me see your sheet. Just let me see one of your sheets. Arcana? Religion? Keep going. It's more location. It's either history or it's the big... Survival? Rolling because of the city that you're in.

[00:33:34] I want to say like... That was like a 3-0. Wasn't it like local? Yeah, streetwise. Streetwise, yeah. Yeah, which isn't helping me. Streetwise, dope skill. It was great. There are a few of those skills that I really like and streetwise is a solid one.

[00:33:53] I feel like history or survival would be the closest. What's your survival roll? My survival roll would be 10 then. I'll give you the 10. 10. Did anybody else roll? No, because we didn't know if we should. No, yeah. You're all standing in the room. That's a 20 on survival.

[00:34:16] Survival or history? Either one. 19 on survival. 14 on history. There is literally a place that you have walked by at some point called The Alchemist on the Corner. That's the name of the shop. Perfect. Since we have the next clue, can we burn this place now?

[00:34:32] I really look forward to making enemies of the League of Scoundrels. He says, they make it, we take it. I start walking out of the room. No, no, no. I need you to burn this place. I can from outside.

[00:34:52] I'd prefer we not burn this place since we're being representatives. Right. I am the law. I am the law. I am the law. The law. So yeah. Perhaps you'd wish to visit the cathedral. Run that one back. The largest building in the city, you can't miss it.

[00:35:19] The largest what? Building in the city. Everything you say is kind of like this. We can say the whole world together. There's a cathedral in the city. It's quite large. In the city. Visit Horst. Go talk to Horst, the groundskeeper.

[00:35:38] Perhaps he'll lead you the way you want to go. He picks up his broken loot and tries to figure out how to strum it and can't and just continues to hum. Like because the thing is ultimately like right there they're all performing a ritual.

[00:35:51] So I feel like maybe just been playing a lot of Delta Green, but killing off anybody involved in the ritual probably isn't a terrible idea. And if you want right hands, I know where we can find a lot of easy right hands in the next 30 seconds.

[00:36:07] These people don't appear to be wearing more than like rucksacks for clothing. Like these are vagabonds, homeless people who have nothing but drugs. Right. But if they're- No one's wearing green robes if that's what you're asking. No.

[00:36:21] But I feel like if they were looking for people to sacrifice to their cult to bring their god to this plane, this might be a good place to find vagabonds who are already tripping in the dreamlands.

[00:36:34] Or perhaps they're, you know, maybe there are 10 vagabonds and then only nine come back that morning. You know what I mean? Like I feel like this place continuing to operate is a bad idea. Maybe we shouldn't burn it down, but like health and safety needs to inspect it.

[00:36:50] I mean, we won't have to listen to Luke's Dwarven Castle version anymore. You can report it to the Arbiter if that's what you want him to do. That's not very chaotic of me. Not punk rock. It's not very good of me though either. That's true.

[00:37:06] Well, you need to make a decision, sir. Well, if you want chaos, there is an- Maybe this is not burning this place down. There is an alchemist shop we can visit if you want chaos. I also want to burn that place down. That might happen.

[00:37:20] It's ironic because I saved the last building from burning down, but now I'm ready to commit arson. It's time. I'm not even going to put this guy down. I'm literally going to drag him with me to the nearest person and ask to speak to the Arbiter.

[00:37:33] You can drag him outside and find a guard and they will cuff him and they will send the word along to find the Arbiter. Justice. Close this place down. He doesn't like the sunlight and he's very squinty and hates the- He's sitting basically in the dark.

[00:37:50] Yes, we understand. It's your bizarre Johnny Depp. I got it. Fucking strung out 21 grams shit. Cathedral or alchemist shop next? Yeah, where you going? Alchemist shop. Okay. Sure. You navigate through the city to the alchemist on the corner. Doors open. You see a man behind the counter.

[00:38:12] He's jumping on the counter. Welcome, welcome. What can I help you with? I'm on the counter. What does he do? He kind of strokes you with the back of his fingers across the back. I size him up. What sense do I get of this man?

[00:38:27] Sense do you get of this man? Yes. Is he a pervert? No. Kind of maybe middle-aged human man. He's like classic pervert material. Is this your cat? He kind of looks around. His. I'm going to point to the ghoul. What's his name?

[00:38:47] Cody tries to remember your character's name. I couldn't remember if it was whipples or wimples. Wimples. Wimples. Interesting, interesting. What can I help you with? Stop dealing drugs. I'm sorry?

[00:39:04] I pull out the vial that I currently have that's full and ask about are you the producer of this? I've never seen that before in my life. I have no idea what that is. Insight. 14. Yeah, he's lying for sure. Wow. Flynn sprays him. May I?

[00:39:32] He asks for the vial. Why? I can test the vial and tell you what's in it. I step in between him and the guy. But we have like how many full vials left? I lean up on the counter over him. You lie. And I begin to growl.

[00:39:59] Why would I lie? I set the vial on the counter. Are you human? I knock the vial off the counter. Ask that sarcastically. He asks why would I lie. Are you human? Have you met people? Don't do that, cat. Kind of drugs. That's like tapping nitroglycerin.

[00:40:18] Why would I create drugs? I'm an apothecary. I create medicines, things that help people. You know what medicines are also known as? Drugs. Sure. You're accusing me as if I'm creating some sort of addictive substance. We're not. The guy at the crack tin at the-

[00:40:35] He needs to be carried down to the crack tin. Down the way he is. So, you know. And you're clearly lying. So. Roll me either a persuasion or intimidation. Oh, da, da, da, da. Excuse me. Fuck you, I can roll too.

[00:40:51] Cat, do you want to be all sneaky? That doesn't- He kind of just slumps a little and says fine. Fine. I brew the drug. Yank him over the counter. But I don't sell it. And every couple of nights, a couple of people come by,

[00:41:08] they pick it up and they leave. I don't know who they are. When? So you don't sell it, you give it away. Yeah, that's not how capitalism works. That's not better. I don't sell the drugs, I just give it away to people.

[00:41:22] Nobody is shoving high quality drugs in your kid's candy at Halloween, okay? That's not how capitalism works at all. What do you get for the drugs I meow and hope someone conveys? I get peace and quiet. No one bothers me. Who would bother you?

[00:41:39] Why would they be bothering you? Yeah. The cult does not bother me. Getting somewhere. Okay. What does this cult you speak of? What? What, what, what? Here I thought maybe he was just intentionally trying to eliminate hobos by pacifying them with drugs.

[00:42:00] And why would they be bothering you? And he goes on to tell you that the drug is meant to basically put you into a semi-sleeping state that it is a way for the followers, or also just addicts in general who don't

[00:42:23] even necessarily follow the cult, who are generally just addicts, to manipulate what they believe is called the big sleep, which is something that will occur when their god comes back to earth. That's why I wanted to bring down the crackdown. I know. We sent the SWAT team in.

[00:42:44] We need to trogdor that motherfucker. If it's still standing after we're done with the kiddie drill, I'll help you. Excellent. When? When what? When's the drop? You got it. Yeah. When's the next visit? Not for another few days. Takes time. Tell them you have some now!

[00:43:06] I don't make contact with them. They show up. None of us are gonna be really good at impersonating this guy though. I can. I'll give it a try. I love the idea that you sit there and like- Cats got it.

[00:43:19] His robes are like over your entire body and you're just like filling him as best you can. I can cast Disguise Self. If I redo my spells, I can cast Disguise Self. Has to be at the beginning of the next day.

[00:43:33] Well, it's like three days before they're gonna drop, so. You also have another lead you can follow. Arrest this motherfucker first! I kind of want to see his lab, see what's going into this stuff.

[00:43:44] I don't want to arrest him if we've got a chance to get a connection to the cult. Well, we can still arrest him. No, you can absolutely still arrest him. Well, yeah but- We just come back here in two nights or whatever and fucking

[00:43:58] Polyjuice ourselves into connecting ourselves to the cult. Until the cult who notices he's not there the day before or whatever and they don't come. I'm not saying we can't arrest him, I'm just saying- But this is definitely the source of the drug so like we stop him,

[00:44:15] we stop the source of the drug. What do you want to do? If you want to arrest him, you can arrest him. Lock him up. That's fine. You bring him to a guard and they will call the order. I don't think we do that yet.

[00:44:35] I mean, can we wait until we- Until we make the next contact and then we do it. We have enough drugs to pose as him. Are you- He's a human, right? This guy's a human? This guy's self. Yeah, that's- Good luck. A foolproof plan.

[00:44:54] You just gotta get him in the fucking door. He gets them in the door, we envelope it, no problem. Should we check the cathedral before we make a decision about this guy? Would that work better for you? I mean, I feel like we just keep around.

[00:45:14] I mean, I feel like we just keep arresting people left and right because it's our God given right is the law. It's convenient. I mean, homie could just up and disappear. Correct. He's the source of the drug. We should not leave him alone. Yeah.

[00:45:29] If we want to take him into temporary holding and then bring him back out to be our patsy maybe? I don't know. Fifth party member. So is it a definitive date that he has? He just says a few days. They show up when they show up.

[00:45:43] He doesn't have- he literally does not make contact with them. They just show up. What if he doesn't have stuff ready? Basically all he's instructed to do is to open the door. They take it, they leave. That's it. Is he actually making it or is he providing ingredients?

[00:46:04] He's making it. Okay. I mean, he's the source of our drug. Yeah. At least a source, yes. Yeah. Well, is this a chain? Is it a chain? We gotta go to every fucking McDonald's. Every alchemist on the corner? No, this is the only shop.

[00:46:18] The only shop called the Alchemist on the Corner. Just busted down every fucking door. It's worked so far. I mean if we arrest him and then the shop is closed, someone in the cult's gonna notice. The cult, we can assume that they're pretty widespread. So...

[00:46:39] Given that, they might already know that we've made contact. That's true. Yeah. So... At the very least, they'll have to find another alchemist. So we might delay some drugs for a few days. That's true. And then we just set to ambush him.

[00:46:55] So you said you don't want to arrest them, what would you want us to do instead? If we had an alternate option? I mean essentially, stake out till they show up. It's a few days. Till they show up. It's a few days. We have a couple of days.

[00:47:10] Yeah, okay. You know what a stake out is? That's fine. Do you want to go to the cathedral in that time? In the interim? No, but someone else made a point that the guy could. Skadoodle, so... We just live under his counter for the next three days.

[00:47:26] I mean I could, but that's not really fun. Guys are all having hijinks and I'm just lurking. And you're fucking cat. That's true. We can tell the authorities, like hey, can we get someone to keep an eye on him so he doesn't scram? Seizable. Sure.

[00:47:46] Like we got a long con plan here. The more information you give to the arbiter, the more things she can do. Well, we can always inform her and she could post a guard to keep an eye on the shop. And they can rotate in our place. Right.

[00:48:06] At least for the day so we can go to the cathedral and chase down that lead. Because that's kind of the last lead that we currently have. Well, every time we pull in a string it goes a little bit farther. I'm sure we'll get two more.

[00:48:19] So will that sound like a plan? Yeah, we'll do that. Inform her about this is the place where they're providing drugs, doing the cult, etc., etc. We would have set up a sting, put a bunch of plain clothes officers around this, do not allow this man to pee.

[00:48:34] And off to the cathedral. By the time you do that it's getting on evening. Again? We just started. It's been like a whole day. You guys have gone to all kinds of places. We went to a drug den. We went to the drug den.

[00:48:50] We went to the Abbey and the drug den. You had to deal with the guard which took time to get there. You then went to this place which you had to deal with the guard which then took time to get there.

[00:49:00] It's probably about three o'clock in the afternoon at this point. That's not evening. That's early afternoon. It's getting closer to evening. Oh. You go to the cathedral you were told to speak to the groundskeeper. Horst. Horst Grinnell. Thank you all for listening.

[00:49:30] The Big Sleep was written by Sandy Peterson and Jonah Baumgarters. Music by Ian Shannon. You can find us online at RainCoresBrawl.com or join in the conversation on Facebook at Fans of the Raincores Broughel.