Note: Ain't Slayed Nobody is produced for the ear and includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. FAIRYLAND, EPISODE 2: INTO THE TOWN cuppycup (Keeper): Ain’t Slayed Nobody is a produced actual play podcast intended for adults and may contain material that some people find disturbing. Please see the episode notes for content warnings and listen with care. ('LAST GOODBYE' BY ERIC KINNEY FT. DANICA DORA PLAYS) ♪ WOLVES HIDING NEARBY ♪ WHISPERIN' "DO OR DIE" ♪ AROUND ME ♪ NOT ONE SINGLE CRY ♪ CAN SAVE THIS SOUL OF MINE ♪ FROM DROWNIN' ♪ DRIPPIN' FROM MY EYES ♪ SEEIN' RED TONIGHT ♪ AS I WAIT ♪ TO SAY MY LAST GOODBYE Scott (GM): You see darkness there against the night sky and the stars and the moon, you see the outline of the trees. Apart from that, it just looks like woodland. Ol': Zeke, did you see these fairies? Zeke: What are you talking about, Ollie? We've got more important things going on here. Ol': *skeptical* Alright. cuppycup (Bill): Before we all retire for the night, can Bill dress those puncture wounds? Scott (GM): Absolutely. cuppycup (Bill): And he'll also fetch some blankets to make sure Maggie stays warm. Scott (GM): And yeah, you probably want to give her some sweet tea or something. Perhaps something to eat. cuppycup (Bill): *chuckles* I think I have some of those sweets leftover. Scott (GM): Oh god yeah, Tablet, that's enough sugar to kill her. But yeah, I mean, you can put Maggie to bed and she falls asleep almost immediately; she seems exhausted but otherwise okay, particularly once you got the wounds bandaged up. Ol': Zeke, Mary, what type of nonsense are y'all fillin' this girl's head with? Zeke: Listen, Ollie, I don't know what what your problem is, but we are going to get this figured out. Mary: Ollie, don't talk that way about Maggie. She's your blood, too. Ol': Alright. Will (Ol'): Ollie walks up to his room and he looks out the window one more time and goes to sleep. Chuck (Zeke): This is a very functional family, we've established. cuppycup (Bill): Can I roll to have Ollie fail at looking out the window? Chuck (Zeke): He stares for two hours before realizing it's just a painting. Everyone: *laughs* cuppycup (Bill): Bill goes to bed with the intention of checking on Maggie's wounds in the morning, but he's pretty restless, trying to figure out how she got them. Scott (GM): OK. Then, yeah, the following morning comes. I don't know what your plans are for the following day, because obviously, you know, there's a couple of you who perhaps want to at least start trying to get the shape of your new jobs in the village. If that's what you want to do the following day. But certainly, you know, if you sleep in for a bit and then check on Maggie - barring the now scabbing wounds on her stomach, which are fairly small, like pinpricks, she seems fine. She is up and about, probably earlier than most of you and poking around the kitchen looking for something to eat, and she seems fine. cuppycup (Bill): Is there any way for me to to track down Dr. Boswell to see if he's seen anything like this? Will (Ol'): If Bill is going into town, I'm going to go ahead and go with him. One, because I don't trust the old man to tie his shoes correctly and two, I need to find a person to start buying livestock from and where to do business around here. Scott (GM): Sure. OK. And how about Mary? Because depending on what you want to do, there is the school and you haven't necessarily arranged a firm start date because obviously, these things are tenuous with the move and so on. But certainly you had a letter suggesting that as soon as you were available to work, you should make your way to the Cullingstone primary school and introduce yourself to Mrs. Alexander there. Alex (Mary): OK, Mary will go into town with her dad and brother to find the school. Scott (GM): OK. Are you taking Maggie with you or are you leaving her at home with her father? cuppycup (Bill): Send her into the woods. Everyone: *laughs* Chuck (Zeke): See if you can find Maeve. Alex (Mary): Well, since the three men in this house are offering nothing to care for this child, I guess I'll take Maggie with me on my first day of work in a new country. Chuck (Zeke): I'm the only one who is definitely staying at home doing nothing, because I have decided I'm going to become a farmer. But the thing is that I am generally incompetent in most things. So I am really just sleeping in and not getting started on anything. Scott (GM): Yeah, well, after all your adventures yesterday, you clearly need some of your tonic in order to help get you through the day. Chuck (Zeke): That's what I kept telling myself as I chugged it. Alex (Mary): I'm also worried about Maggie after yesterday, so I want to bring her along to take care of her. Scott (GM): OK. Alex (Mary): I don't like the idea of her staying at the house. Scott (GM): Yeah. So, the group of you go into town, I mean, it's 10 minutes walk into the center of the village itself from your house. This is not a big village. And, you know, when you get there, it is pretty much just one road. There's a side road, there's a few residential houses that are spread out, it's not like terraces or anything. They're all detached houses spread out with a bit of ground around them. There is a village shop-cum-post office that you can see there. On the far side, you can see that there's what looks like the village church, and not far away from that, you can see down at the end of the road, there's a pub down there with a sign hanging outside, seems to have some kind of wizened figure drawn on it. Down one of the side streets, you can see a playground in a building that is almost certainly the primary school, and not too far away, just opposite the village shop, you can see one of these gray stone buildings with a sign outside that says "Surgery." Will (Ol'): All right. So we'll go drop off Mary at the primary school, Mary and Maggie, and then I'll take Bill over to Bob's House. Scott (GM): So let's go with Mary for the moment and we'll come back to the two of you. Yeah, Mary, as you find yourself at the school, and this is a small school and it may not be any smaller than the ones who are used to, but I mean, this is a small village and it's obviously not just catering to the village, but also to the farms around. But even then, you know, it's a fairly small stone building with a couple of rooms in it and there's a fairly basic playground outside with swings on it and a little seesaw. And from the window, you can see that there is a room with a number of children who are sitting there writing stuff with chalk on slates, and you can just about hear a woman's voice talking inside. Alex (Mary): I'm going to walk into the building through the front door. Scott (GM): So, yeah, you go in and, you know, there's a little sort of vestibule area and you can see there are a few doors. There's what looks like a second classroom there, and there's another door that doesn't have a sign or anything, but the door is just shut. Alex (Mary): Is there any activity going on inside? Scott (GM): Yeah, you can hear there is a woman's voice, Scots accent, who is basically teaching the kids some simple arithmetic. She is running through times tables at the moment. Will (Ol'): So you hear the Scottish accent; make an INSIGHT check. cuppycup (Bill): It sounds just like my Bill McDonald. Scott (GM): *laughs* Oh, can I just point out that even though I am half-Scottish and I spent a long time living in Scotland, I am not going to attempt to Scots accent for this because my Scots accent fucking sucks. cuppycup (Bill): Oh, meanwhile, I'm leaning into Bill McDonald. Alex (Mary): Can I go to the classroom where I heard the voices? Scott (GM): Yeah, if Mary goes to the doorway, there is this woman. She's dressed in a fairly stiff-looking black dress, she's got gray hair tied back in a bun, and she's got fairly severe-looking wire-frame glasses on. She's holding a book, and you can see the title on the spine is Basic Arithmetic. She's writing stuff up on a chalkboard and there are only a dozen kids in the class, if that, sitting there at these desks, copying down their times tables on these slates as she's running through:. Mrs. Alexander: And what's 8 times 9? Scott (GM): She looks around. Mrs. Alexander: Who are you, then? Are you that Mulesworth woman? Mary: Yes, Mary Mulesworth. And this is my daughter Maggie. Are you Mrs. Alexander? Mrs. Alexander: Ah! Children, just carry on with the times tables and, yes, I must talk with Mrs Mulesworth here. Scott (GM): And she walks out into the corridor with you. Can you give me a d6 roll just to see whether you notice something? Alex (Mary): I rolled a 6. Scott (GM): Oh God. OK, right, one thing that you notice very strongly is even though it's not even 11:00 in the morning yet, is that this woman stinks of booze. It's not just booze, I mean, you can, on a 6, you can tell that she smells of gin, she smells like she's been marinated in the stuff. Her eyes are red and bloodshot. And yeah, there is this...on a 6, you pick up on the fact that she is not just drunk, but she seems to be really kind of frightened or ill at ease, and even as she's speaking to you, she's looking back, these nervous unconscious glances back to the classroom. And on that, you see that she's not just looking into the classroom, but she seems to be looking at one particular girl; there's a girl sitting in the back corner while everyone else is sitting there writing these times tables out their slates. She's sitting there and she's got this book in her hand, so you can't see what it is, and she's just basically turning over the pages, just *sound of rapid page-flipping* as if skimming through the book. Mrs. Alexander: I wasn't sure when you were starting. Are you ready to start now? Do you know what you're teaching? Are you ready to take some of the children? Mary: I suppose I could start, but I don't know exactly what kind of help you need. There aren't many children here. Mrs. Alexander: *panicked* You're a teacher, aren't you? You're a teacher. You can teach them. If I split the class in half, you can take half. Maybe if you take the older girls, take the older girls, and then I'll take the younger ones, they need more work anyway. Yeah, I'll give the older ones to you. You can take them to the other classroom, there's chalk and the slates in there and yes, teach them whatever you want. You're American, aren't you? So don't teach them spelling. Everyone: *laughs* Chuck (Zeke): Get your digs in wherever you can. Mrs. Alexander: But yes, teach them anything else. So, are you ready to start, then? This one [Maggie]'s yours, then. Yes, I suppose she can be with the old ones. Are you alright having her in your class? I can teach you if you want, with the younger ones, if she's a bit slow. Scott (GM): She leans down for a moment and with this boozy breath looks in Maggie's face and says, Mrs. Alexander: Are you slow, child? Are you slow? Mary: I'm fine with taking the older girls, Mrs. Alexander, and Maggie can stay with me. She's not slow. Mrs. Alexander: If you say so, you know best. Probably. cuppycup (Bill): Mary's gonna teach Mythos to the students. Scott (GM): *laughs* Mrs. Alexander goes back into the room and says, Mrs. Alexander: Listen, boys and girls, all of you who are, oh, I don't know, shall we say 8 or older, come with me. This is Mrs. Mulesworth. She'll be teaching you now. Scott (GM): She points at the girl in the back, it looks like she's probably about Maggie's age, just points at her and says, Mrs. Alexander: That that means you too, Lizzie Erskine, come on. Scott (GM): And about five of the kids, including this one with the book in the back, get up. They're looking a bit confused, they're shuffling around. With that, they they file into the other room, and Mrs. Alexander looks at you and says Mrs. Alexander: I'll leave you to it, then. Scott (GM): And she goes into the other classroom and shuts the door. Alex (Mary): OK... Chuck (Zeke): I'm really looking forward to Alex giving an entire children's class on the spot. Everyone: *laughs* Will (Ol'): Yeah, Alex, what's the lesson plan for today? Chuck (Zeke): We will now play 4 of the children that are in this class, just screaming at you and punching each other. Alex (Mary): How many students are in here in my class? Scott (GM): There's 5 plus Maggie, so 6 total. Alex (Mary): And the strange girl with a book is in here? Scott (GM): Oh, yes. The one you heard referred to as Lizzie Erskine has gone straight to the back of the class - with 6 kids in there and there's 20 seats in here - so she's gone straight to the back, a few rows behind all the others, she's just sitting in the back corner. She gets her book out again and just starts going through it. The other kids all kind of scatter around the rest of the classroom a bit, but sit down, but almost immediately, one of them, a little boy, is putting his hand up. Billy: Miss, you sound funny. Where do you come from? Mary: I come from America. What's your name? Billy: Billy. Billy. Alex (Mary): Why don't we go around the class and ask everybody's names? Scott (GM): OK, this is revenge on the GM, ask him to come up with a half dozen NPC names. Alex (Mary): Yep! Everyone: *laughs* Alex (Mary): I'll also need a backstory and a physical description for each of you. Everyone: *laughs* Alex (Mary): If we assume they all said their names, I want to know how Lizzie responds to me. Scott (GM): Yeah. I mean, they all go round, they all introduce themselves. Lizzie doesn't say anything to you, she's just there, just flicking through the pages of her book. She doesn't look up. cuppycup (Bill): She's Goth. Alex (Mary): She's emo. Scott (GM): Yeah, like I say, I mean, she looks like she's about 8 years old. She's fairly smartly dressed in a well-starched dress. Her hair is kind of sandy brown, neat, tied in a ponytail. And she seems completely oblivious to everything that's going on around her. Alex (Mary): Mary's going to walk to the back of the classroom so that she doesn't embarrass her. Mary: Excuse me, little girl? Scott (GM): She just looks up at you. Her face is fairly expressionless and she just looks at you with uninterested eyes. Chuck (Zeke): Like a doll's eyes. Scott (GM): And she says, Lizzie: What is it that you want? Mary: What's your name? Lizzie: I'm Lizzie. Lizzie Erskine. Mary: Hi, Lizzie, I'm Mrs. Mulesworth. Why are you sitting all the way back here? Lizzie: Do you want me to sit somewhere else? Mary: I think you might like it better if you were sitting toward the front of the classroom. Lizzie: Do I have to? Mary: No, you don't. Scott (GM): And as soon as you say that, she looks back down at her book and starts flicking through the pages again. Mary: Can I get a good look at that book now? Scott (GM): Yeah. You can see now that you're talking to her, I mean, you can't see the spine of the book, but the pages, what's on the pages...This isn't a primary school book. This looks like some kind of advanced mathematics textbook. Mary: Hm, I'm not sure what I want to do. cuppycup (Bill): Walk back to the front of the class and get hit with that spitball that you've earned. Chuck (Zeke): *laughs* "You earned." Scott (GM): The kids, they're not kind of overtly watching you, obviously, with the exception of Maggie, who's watching with interest. But it's more like they're casting nervous glances back at you and Lizzie. Well, the nervous glances seemed to be reserved for Lizzie. Alex (Mary): Is there a way for Mary to talk to Lizzie without embarrassing her in front of the whole class? Scott (GM): Yeah, I mean, it's up to you. You could talk to her now, you can wait until, well, it's probably only going to be about an hour until everyone breaks for lunch. So you might be able to talk to her privately then, if that's what you prefer. It's up to you, you're the teacher. Alex (Mary): I think I'll wait for lunchtime. Let's do that. Scott (GM): OK. Well, you are a teacher, so I'm assuming at least for an hour, particularly with you making introductions to the rest of the class, and, you know, just learning a bit about where they're up to, you can probably bullshit your way through an hour and just stall for time. Alex (Mary): Yeah, let's kill some time. Chuck (Zeke): Now we'll just do that for the rest of the semester. cuppycup (Bill): She brings up a TV on a cart and they watch "Sword in the Stone". Scott (GM): But it comes to about noon, and then you hear from the other classroom, Mrs. Alexander just ringing some kind of handheld bell, and certainly the kids in the other class, particularly as they're younger ones, with a yell deciding to run outside and start running out to the playground. cuppycup (Bill): The bell was a gin bottle with a coin in it. Everyone: *laughs* Alex (Mary): Does Lizzie leave with them? Scott (GM): I mean, the kids are all looking at you, waiting to be dismissed. Alex (Mary): Ah, OK. Mary: Alright, class, you're dismissed for lunch. Scott (GM): And with that, they get up, with the exception of Maggie, and Lizzie gets up more slowly than everyone else. The others just run out and Maggie's sort of hovering around. Mary: Lizzie, may I speak to you for a moment? Lizzie: If you want to. Mary: Well, we just moved here to Cullingstone, Lizzie, and this is my little girl, Maggie. I'd like to learn more about you and your family. Scott (GM): She looks at Maggie and just sort of looks her up and down and looks back at you. Mary: Can you tell me about your family? Lizzie: I have a family. What do you want to know about my family? Mary: What do your parents do while you're at school? Lizzie: My father runs the village shop and my mother...my mother is an invalid. Mary: Oh, I'm so sorry. Scott (GM): She doesn't react. Alex (Mary): Can I see anything else going on with her? Scott (GM): You can see now that she's holding the book half-tucked under her arm. And you can see from the spine that the title of it is Intermediate Integral Calculus. Alex (Mary): Mary points at the book and says, Mary: That seems like an advanced book for someone your age. Lizzie: Why do you say that? Mary: I don't know any eight-year-olds who understand intermediate calculus. Maggie certainly doesn't. Not because she's slow, for the record. cuppycup (Bill): Lizzie is not going to Ole Miss, by the way. Alex (Mary): OK, calm down. Scott (GM): Lizzie looks at you and says, Lizzie: Do you have more questions for me? Mary: Not if you don't want me to ask any more questions. Scott (GM): And she doesn't respond to that and just starts walking outside. Maggie sort of tugs on your sleeve and says, Maggie: Mommy, can I go out and play with the other kids? Mary: That's fine, sweetie. Go ahead. Scott (GM): Okay. And with that, she runs outside. You can see Mrs. Alexander sort of half-watching all of this, and then she goes over to the other door, yhe one that was shut, and she pulls a key out of her pocket and she unlocks it and she goes inside. Then you hear the sound of the door locking again. Alex (Mary): Mary walks over to that door and lightly knocks on it a few times. Scott (GM): You hear the sound of a desk drawer hurriedly being shut. And then she says, Mrs. Alexander: Oh, one minute! Scott (GM): She goes up and she unlocks the door again. And, yeah, she opens it up and you you smell a fresh blast of gin breath. Everyone: *laughs*. cuppycup (Bill): So she did go to Ole Miss. Alex (Mary): Yeah, see? Chuck (Zeke): This woman is a delight. Mary: Mrs. Alexander, I'm sorry to bother you on a break. I just have some questions about one of my students. Mrs. Alexander: Come in, I suppose. Scott (GM): And she goes in and she sits fairly heavily down in a chair at a desk there. There are actually two desks in here; the other one doesn't have anything on it. And there's a chair, a wooden chair there, you can sit on. She doesn't invite you to do so, but she doesn't seem particularly interested. Will (Ol'): As a good American, you're going to do it anyway. Alex (Mary): *laughs* I'm just going to take a seat. Mary: This girl in my class, Lizzie. She was reading a calculus book and she doesn't really seem to fit in with the other children. How well do you know her? Mrs. Alexander: Oh, that's not as easy a question as you might think, Mrs. Mulesworth. I don't know. I don't know if anyone really knows Lizzie. I have tried speaking to her parents about her, and I...she's a strange one. She is definitely a strange one. Mary: But she must be smart if she's reading advanced mathematics, right? Mrs. Alexander: *weary* Yes. And she always has a new book. She gets them sent over from the university. I really don't know why she comes here and...I think she's too old for all this, isn't she? Mary: But she's 8 years old, right? Mrs. Alexander: *hysterical* Yes. Yes, of course. Of course she's 8, of course she's 8, of course she's 8. Chuck (Zeke): When she said she's too old for this, was old capitalized? Everyone: *laughs* Chuck (Zeke): Like she's an...Elder? Mary: Why do I feel like there's something you're not telling me, Mrs. Alexander? Mrs. Alexander: There are some things you may learn for yourself, there are some things that that when you learn, you may wish that you'd never learned them. God knows there are things I wish I'd never learned. Look, it's probably a bad idea for the children to be out there unsupervised; why don't you go out there and look at them and just leave me here, please. And if there are any questions that that you have, maybe we can, we can talk about them later. Mary: That's fine. I can tell you're in the middle of something. I'll go check on the children. Scott (GM): OK. And just as you stand up, you hear the sound of a girl screaming from outside in pain. And actually, it's not just a girl: you can hear it's Maggie, screaming in pain. And that sounds like a very good point to cut over to what Ollie and Bill are doing. Am I right in thinking that you were heading to the surgery first? Is that right? Or were you going somewhere else? Will (Ol'): I'll let Bill decide here. cuppycup (Bill): Yeah, Ol' was going to take Bill to see Dr. Boswell, but while we're here, we may as well check out the surgery. And Boswell's directions to his house were vague, so maybe we can find his address inside. Scott (GM): Then yeah, you go over to the surgery and it is basically just like a house, but obviously one that's been adapted to a doctor's surgery. You fish through the keys that Dr. Boswell gave you, and after a few tries and a few keys that don't seem to fit any kind of lock you've ever seen... Will (Ol'): Make a roll for that. I'm going to see if you can fail that one. Scott (GM): *laughs* No, no. You do eventually get in. cuppycup (Bill): *laughs* The key breaks off in the lock. Scott (GM): *laughs* The office is divided up into a little reception area, and there is the doctor's surgery itself. And it's fairly old-fashioned, fairly basic. There is also a records room. It doesn't seem like this place has been used for a while; there is a thin patina of dust over everything, and again, it smells musty. Ol': Doesn't seem like old Bob has been here for a while. Bill: It seems like he's been making house calls. Ol': I'll go ahead and take a look around here and see what we can see. I'm going to go actually go flip through some of the waiting room magazines. Scott (GM): *laughs* Yeah, there are some Farmer's Almanacs and stuff like that, but that's pretty much it. Ol': Well, then I'm actually going to, if that's the case, I'm actually going to dip out and go see if I can....is there anything around the surgery? I forget what you said, is there like a bar around here? Like a place where farmers do farmer stuff? Scott (GM): Yeah, well, the closest is going to go be the two, or rather the three buildings that stand out that you can see from here. I mean, there's plenty of buildings that just look like people's homes, but across the road there is a village shop that has a sign in the window saying "Post Office". Will (Ol'): If it's anything like the American Post Office, you can buy stuff from there. I think that's right, back in the 1890s, I think you could go buy like... cuppycup (Bill): *sarcastic* Cattle. Will (Ol'): Cattle and whatnot. I don't know, but I'm gonna go ahead and assume that's the case and assume that, oh, this is just like America, like an American. And go head over to the post shop, because, I mean, it's not that far away.. Ol': Oh, hey, Bill. I'm heading over to the post office; if you need me, come find me. Bill: Okay, lad. I'm going to have a look around and see what Dr. Boswell left about. Scott (GM): *laughs* That sounded almost Indian. cuppycup (Bill): *laughs* Bill's INSIGHT is 4, Scott, so he's going to be speaking in tongues soon. Scott (GM): *laughs* He has learned the true secrets of Aklo. So, yeah, then Ollie heads across to the village shop, and yeah, you go inside and it's not like a general store in America; this is smaller, the selection of stuff...it's not the kind of place where you'd go to buy feed and cloth and stuff like that. There's a counter, they've got basic foodstuffs on sale, there is a post office counter, there's some household goods. But yeah, it's not like a full-blown American-style general store that you'd see out west. Will (Ol'): Well, like an American, I'm going to go in there, be loud and assume it's American. Ol': Well, hi there. Is there a place around...where around here can I get some feed and buy some cattle? Scott (GM): The man behind the counter, he's a man who's probably in his mid 50s or so. He's slightly balding, he's got gray hair, he's dressed in a tweed suit and he just looks at you and blinks. Erskine: Sorry. You what now, laddie? Ol': I'm going to need some cattle around here and, oh, where in this post office can I sign up to get some feed? Erskine: Oh, we, we could find, you know, we could send over to Galashiels and get some feed sent over to you. Ol': Gala what? Erskine: Galashiels. It's the next town over. Ol': Hmm. Alright. Uh, is there nowhere even in this town that I can get something like that? Erskine: No, we'll get it in from Gala, it's not far away. Ol': Oh, alright. Is there a way I can sign up for that? Erskine: Yes. Yes, I can make the arrangements for you. Yes. Just tell me what you want, laddie. Ol': Then let's go ahead and do that. And also, while we're at it, do you have, like, a book on time in Scotland? Stuff around here is weird. Scott (GM): He just looks at you in complete incomprehension. Will (Ol'): I'm at 3 [INSIGHT], so I mean, I'm talking nonsense here. Ol': Yeah, no, I mean, when you when you walk into that forest, man, time just seems to slip through your fingers. Erskine: Oh, you've been out to Hobb's Wood, have you? Ol': Hobb what? Erskine: Hobb's Wood, the old woodland on the outskirts of town. You've been there, have you? Ol': Yes, sir. Erskine: Oh, you must be from, yes, that family that's moved into Linty farm. Ol': Yeah,we just moved on out here. Erskine: Ah. Ol': Gonna try farmin'. I mean, I have a farm; my name is Ol' McDonald, and I have a farm. Alex (Mary): He's been waiting this entire time for that. cuppycup (Bill): Scott, add 1 INSIGHT to that. Everyone: *laughs* Ol': On that farm, I was hoping to have some cow. SOUND EFFECT: *crickets* Everyone: *laughs* cuppycup (Bill): He earned it. Scott (GM): Suddenly, the man behind the counter is just standing there, patiently waiting for the punchline. Ol': E-i-e-i-o. Scott (GM): So yes, just let me know what you want and I can make the orders and get it delivered for you. And yes, we can arrange the bill. Will (Ol'): Well, thumbing through it, Ol' Ollie goes and starts thumbing through the Farmer's Almanac and is kind of like, Ol': Alright, this looks good. I can get some of these. Will (Ol'): Not really knowing what it takes to be a farmer at all. Just:. Ol': Can I...Yeah, OK, corn sounds nice in in Scotland. Will (Ol'): Not knowing if I can get corn there, just seeing in the Farmer's Almanac it says corn. Yeah, that sounds like something I'd know. Ol': Let's go ahead and grab some... Will (Ol'): He's scratchin' under his chin. Ol': ...um, got some sheep around here. I bet I could raise some sheep. Erskine: Well, for livestock, you'd be best off talking to some of the other farmers. I can make some introductions and maybe they can sell you some livestock, but I can arrange for feed and seeds and any other supplies you might need. But I just don't do livestock, laddie. Ol': And hey, is there anybody around here who could help me clear some of the Hobb's Woods? Scott (GM): And he pales a little bit there, and... Erskine: You don't want to be doing that, laddie. Ol': Well, why not? Erskine: You'll think me a silly old man, but you're best off staying out of those woods. And you certainly don't want to go around chopping down any of those trees. You see, well, we have some old beliefs around here. You'll think them silly and superstitious, but, uh... Ol': Try me. Erskine: They're...uh, I don't know...How much do you know about the fairies? Ol': *surprised* Well, fairies, uh... cuppycup (Bill): Would Americans in this era know about fairies, Scott? Scott (GM): I don't know how many of them would've made it over to the U.S., but there was a real kind of surge in fairy tales. Erskine: There are things that live in the woods that you really don't want to make angry. Ol': Alright, well, noted. You know, where I'm from, we don't really...well, expansion is sort of what we do. These fairies can, pardon my French, right fuck off. Scott (GM): He looks affronted at that. Erskine: Well, we'll be having none of that language here, sir. Ol': Apologies for my French. I will take your notice into mind next time we go into that forest. Will (Ol'): I hope he realizes I said "next time." Ol': Who else should I talk to around here about, you know, farmin' stuff? Erskine: What you'd probably best do, laddie, is go down to the Wee Man, perhaps tonight, and... Ol': The wee man? Erskine: The pub. The pub down the road. Ol': The pub. Oh, OK. Erskine: Go down to the Wee Man, and then some of the local farmers will be there, and, you know, if you introduce yourself and perhaps if you're a bit nicer to them than you were to me, they might want to sell you some livestock. Ol': Well, sir, I did not mean to offend you in any way, but sounds good. Well, thank you so much for the help here. When should I be expecting the supplies that I ordered? Erskine: Well, I'll send to send a boy over to Galashiels to place the order for you, and it shouldn't be more than a day or two. Ol': Sounds great. Will (Ol'): I'll go ahead and wait, go outside of Bill's and see if Bill's ready to go. Scott (GM): Well, before you go, the man raises his hand. Erskine: Just one last question, sir, if you'll humor me. Ol': Oh, of course. Scott (GM): He says, Erskine: Do you have any children? Ol': Myself, no. Erskine: Good, good, good. Ol': Why is that good, sir? I didn't catch your name, by the way. I'm sorry. Scott (GM): He says, Erskine: Oh yes, of course, I'm sorry. I'm Mr. Erskine. Scott (GM): He says, Erskine: Sir, it's just... Ol': These fairies take a special interest in these children? Erskine: Well, let's just say that Linty Farm is no place for children, but it's good that you don't have any. Ol': I'll keep that in mind. Good day. Chuck (Zeke): Not going to mention the one we do have, huh? Everyone: *laughs* cuppycup (Bill): What a shit uncle you are. Will (Ol'): Well, I mean, like, what am I supposed to say? What am I supposed to say? Chuck (Zeke): Well, you could say, "We do have a kid living there, it's just not mine." Alex (Mary): Unless he said that because you don't trust this guy, then you're just being a good uncle. cuppycup (Bill): *skeptical* Sure. Will (Ol'): Let's go with that, Alex. Let's go with that. Everyone: *laughs* Will (Ol'): Alright, well, you know what? Yes, since y'all have brought such clarity: Ol': The voices in my mind... Chuck (Zeke): Have reminded me that I do live with a child. Everyone: *laughs* cuppycup (Bill): A child that was traumatized in the woods. Ol': Mr. Everleigh, was it? Everleigh? Erskine: Erskine. Ol': Erskine. I do...we do live with a child. I don't have one myself, but we do live with a child. My niece. Is there a reason? Is it dangerous? Scott (GM): As you say that, he closes his eyes, and he sighs and he looks pained for a moment, and then he opens up his eyes and he gives you what seems like a pretty empty smile and says, Erskine: Oh, don't pay any attention to me, laddie. I'm sorry, I do blather on sometimes. Will (Ol'): Do I trust him saying "don't trust me"? Scott (GM): Give me a roll. Will (Ol'): 3, so. Scott (GM): Actually, I think it'd be interesting if you failed this one, so I'm going to roll against you. I rolled a 3 as well, so you still succeed. Yeah, I mean, you definitely don't trust his change of heart. Will (Ol'): Yeah, it was that sudden change of "hope you don't have a child" to "no, it's pretty awesome you have a child." Ol': Alright, well, thank you, Mr... *awkward pause* Erskine: Erskine. Ol': Erskine. We'll keep that in mind. Will (Ol'): And I again, Ol': Good day. Will (Ol'): And I walk out and I go see if Bill is ready to go. Scott (GM): As you walk out, just in the corner of your eye, you see him sitting down fairly heavily on the stool behind the counter and just burying his face in his hands. But, yeah, let's cut back to Bill. So Bill was poking around the office that he has taken over from Dr. Boswell. The surgical side of things or, you know, the actual doctor's office, the surgery itself, seems to be okay. Like I say, it's a bit old-fashioned, the instruments and equipment that he's left there, they're not exactly cutting edge and some of them could do with replacing. But yeah, it's not terrible. When you poke around the records, just to see what you've inherited there, in the little office and the records office, well, there's a few shelves of these ledger books. Give me a roll to see whether you notice something. cuppycup (Bill): Well, I rolled a 6. Scott (GM): *ominous* Oh, OK. cuppycup (Bill): I mean a 5! Everyone: *laughs* cuppycup (Bill): At least maybe the information will help them after I'm insane. Scott (GM): Well, so you go through the ledgers, and I mean, there are patient records. They're written in this very neat handwriting, you know, particularly neat for a doctor, fairly meticulous records, broken down by patient. As you're going through, you notice there are a number of pages that have been ripped out; they've been ripped out quite neatly, he's obviously gone through with a ruler or something like that and carefully torn them out. And yeah, maybe, maybe you think at first they're just pages that had mistakes on them and he was tidying up. But, you become convinced that actually what's happened is he has removed a number of patient records and from the way they're laid out, they seem to be family records, or at least part of family records. So, for example, you see the records there for Calum and Moira Erskine, and there is a further set of pages that seems to have been removed there. You see a set of records for Alec Thorburn and again, some pages seem to have been removed there as well. You see some records for a man called Ian Wayne, and some pages have been removed there. And from the pages that have been removed behind Ian Wayne's records, he's obviously slipped up slightly there, and there's been just a little bit of one of the pages that's been ripped out has been left there. And there's just one word that you can make out written there, and that word is Maeve. cuppycup (Bill): And I'm just trying to remember who knows what here. Bill has heard that name, correct? Scott (GM): Yes. I mean, certainly afterwards, when Maggie was talking about the new friend she made in the woods, she talked about Maeve. cuppycup (Bill): OK, and knowing that Maeve is a child, from the way the ledgers are organized, can Bill tell if all the missing pages belong to children or if there are any other obvious commonalities? Scott (GM): From the layout of them and the way the other family records are put together, you would assume that every one of the records that has been excised refers to a child. cuppycup (Bill): Is this all in one ledger? Is this something Bill can take with him? Scott (GM): I mean, it's not a single ledger, they're spread across a few ledgers. But by the time you identify them, you pick out about a half dozen ledgers where this is the case. cuppycup (Bill): With the altered ledgers in hand, Bill wants to see if he can look around and find Dr. Boswell's home address. Maybe on some old letters? Scott (GM): Yes, certainly, I mean, it's there and you get a street name and a street number and you don't recognize it. But on the other hand, there really aren't that many streets in Cullingstone, so you reckon it'd probably take you about five minutes to find it. cuppycup (Bill): Bill's going to see if he can track down Ol' now, so they can pay Dr. Boswell that visit and ask about these missing pages. Scott (GM): Well, first of all, let's cut back to Zeke, because he hasn't been getting enough love lately. Chuck (Zeke): He's really just now rolling out of bed. Scott (GM): So, you get out of bed and things are really quite quiet around Linty Farm. It's a nicer day today; the sun's out, there isn't any drizzle. You can hear the sound of sheep bleating off in the distance. There's a warm, well, what passes for a warm breeze in Scotland, blowing in over the fields with a smell of grass and flowers. And yeah, it is really quite lovely and pastoral. Chuck (Zeke): Zeke has put on just the barest minimum of acceptable clothing to walk around outside on this property. He's got a cup of tea; it's not really his thing, but they have not located any coffee yet in Scotland. cuppycup (Bill): So a cup of tea is not his cup of tea? Scott (GM): *chuckles* Yeah. Chuck (Zeke): He is going to wander around to the various outbuildings and he's looking to see what sort of farm implements or things that may help their farming may exist, not that he would have the faintest idea what to do with any of them. Scott (GM): Yeah, there are some implements out here. It's less the kind of equipment that you'd find on a working farm and more the kind of equipment you'd find to manage a large garden. So, you reckon if you're going to scale up to proper farming, then, in your inexpert opinion, you're gonna have to go shopping. Chuck (Zeke): Still, he pulls out an old rusted garden hoe and sort of hefts it. Zeke: Yes, this will do the trick. Scott (GM): Yes. Yes, you can hoe the bloody hell out of something with that. So, yeah. Chuck (Zeke): And then he's, still carrying his garden hoe, he's just going to sort of wander the grounds. He's trying to get the lay of the land; he didn't get a good eye on the entire property, since he was sort of frantically looking for Maggie and then sort of going insane later in the day yesterday. He's not avoiding the woods, but he is giving them an eye, like he doesn't know about that. Scott (GM): Actually, this would be a very good opportunity for you to give me a d6 roll. Chuck (Zeke): *wary* OK. Scott (GM): Just to see whether you notice something. Chuck (Zeke): That's a 1, so I doubt it. Scott (GM): There is something nagging away at the back of your mind. I mean, it's not just the woods, but there is something about this place that just seems off and you can't quite put your finger on it. You just have this feeling that there's something missing and you can't quite work out what it is. Chuck (Zeke): I would like to add my INSIGHT die to that. Scott (GM): Fantastic. This is what we want to hear. Chuck (Zeke): And that is a 5. And the other one is still a 1. Scott (GM): OK, so give me an INSIGHT roll as well, because your INSIGHT die did come up high. Chuck (Zeke): 3, which ties my current INSIGHT. Scott (GM): In which case your INSIGHT stays the same. Chuck (Zeke): OK. Scott (GM): But yeah. So 5, that tells you everything you need to know. On your way here, this is spring and the world is very much coming alive here. Certainly in the fields further on, you see butterflies flitting around, and the occasional dragonfly. On your trip here, you certainly heard lots of birdsong, but here, here in the farm, even just on the edge of the woods, it occurs to you that, yeah. This is all very quiet, very silent. Chuck (Zeke): Huh. Scott (GM): Almost dead. Chuck (Zeke): And I have walked up to the edge of the woods again, correct? Scott (GM): Yes, but it's not just there. It occurs to you that even just around the farm, you haven't heard any birdsong there. You know, just even on the grounds, you barely see any butterflies or flies or anything like that flitting around. Chuck (Zeke): Um, OK, I'm actually going to temporarily retreat from the woods, not feeling great about that alone, but I've got that nagging feeling that something is wrong with this place and I need to investigate this house in a way of "I'm looking for things that are not right." Scott (GM): Okay, yeah, you poke around the house itself and, honestly, there isn't too much weird, but I guess if you're poking around the out buildings and...yeah, give me give me a roll. Chuck (Zeke): That's another 5. Scott (GM): *ominous* Oh, OK. There, in one of the patches of ground that you thought might be a vegetable patch, you can see that there is a bit of ground that's raised. I mean, it's probably nothing too unusual, but there's just something about the size and shape of it and the way the earth is raised that just gives you that little itch between your shoulder blades. Chuck (Zeke): And in order to scratch that itch, I am going to do a little bit of exploration with that garden hoe that I've been carrying around. Scott (GM): OK. And with that, you start digging and digging and digging. And eventually, it probably occurs to you that you'd probably be better off getting a spade, because a hoe is a terrible impediment for digging a deep hole. Chuck (Zeke): *laughs* I'll walk back to the shed and see if I can find something a little more appropriate. Will (Ol'): He gets a spoon out of the kitchen and just goes to town. cuppycup (Bill): These are the shittiest farmers that you'll ever encounter. Everyone: *laughs* Chuck (Zeke): Six days later... Scott (GM): And you dig down and eventually, yeah, you hit something solid. Well, you hit something solid a few times, but it's stones. But eventually you hit something solid, and it's not a stone. And there, underneath it, you can see a fairly long yellowish bone. Chuck (Zeke): Huh. I would like to excavate enough of this bone to hopefully convince myself that it is some sort of livestock. Scott (GM): You excavate enough of it that, yeah, I mean, it could be an animal bone. It's not necessarily a human bone. But in the process of doing that, you partially excavate another bone, and this time there's no getting away from it: this is a human pelvis. SOUND EFFECT: *creepy music* Scott (GM): And not a big one. Chuck (Zeke): OK, um... cuppycup (Bill): It's a wee man. Scott (GM): I think that's a good point to cut away from Zeke and come back to Mary. Chuck (Zeke): I think so, yeah. cuppycup (Bill): Yeah, let's get some other action in before Zeke dies. Chuck (Zeke): Before he goes crazy and kills everyone. Scott (GM): So Mary had heard the sound of Maggie screaming outside and I assume was running out to see what was what was happening. Mary: *panicked* What happened? Maggie? Scott (GM): Yeah, you go out into the playground and the tableau that faces you is the kids are all quiet now; they're in a semicircle on the edge of the playground. They've all stepped back and they're close to the school building itself. There are only two figures there: there's Maggie, who's lying on the ground, her arm at a funny angle, and there's Lizzie Erskin standing beside her. Lizzie looks up at you as you kind of run over to see what's going on, and she just looks at you without any real expression and says, Lizzie: I think I broke her. Scott (GM): And then she walks off. Mary: Maggie, honey, what's wrong? Maggie? Scott (GM): Yeah, Maggie's lying there on the ground, like I say, her right arm is at a funny angle and she's clutching her shoulder and she's just crying, almost screaming in pain. Alex (Mary): Mary looks around at the other children and asks, Mary: Did anyone see what happened to Maggie? Scott (GM): The other kids look at you and they look 'round at Lizzie, and they look at the ground and they shuffle their feet. cuppycup (Bill): That's fine, Lizzie was just testing something she read about angles and radians in her book. Everyone: *laughs* Alex (Mary): Mary is going to pick up Maggie and try to run her over to the surgery to find her dad. Scott (GM): OK. It takes a couple of attempts to do so in a way that doesn't seem to make the problem worse. And yeah, you carry her across the road. And just as Bill is stepping out of the house to go looking for Dr. Boswell, you can see Mary running over towards you, looking quite pale and anxious, carrying the screaming form of Maggie in her arms. Bill: Mary, what happened? What is it, lass? Mary: *panicked* I don't know. I was teaching a class and there was a strange girl and Maggie started screaming from the playground, and I don't know what happened, but I think she did it. Bill: Maggie? Maggie? Here, Mary, let me take a look at her. Bill: Can Bill then intercept Maggie from Mary and lay her down on the ground to examine her? Scott (GM): Sure. Well, I mean, you are literally just outside the doctor's surgery. So there are some more comfortable places you could lay her. cuppycup (Bill): So dirt isn't necessarily the best surface is what you're saying. Will (Ol'): Again, 1890s, sanitation is optional. Scott (GM): *laughs* Yes. cuppycup (Bill): Then Bill's going to take Maggie from Mary's arms and run with her inside the surgery. Scott (GM): OK. cuppycup (Bill): And then he sets her down on an examination table. Scott (GM): OK. Yeah, and you take a look. Give me a 2d6 roll. cuppycup (Bill): OK, different kind of result this time. I have a 4 on my regular and a 1 on my occupation. Scott (GM): I mean, 4 is more than good enough. You reckon that her right arm is dislocated; it's been pulled right out of the shoulder socket. cuppycup (Bill): Yeah, Bill's gonna slowly pull on Maggie's wrist and forearm until that shoulder relocates. Bill: This is gonna hurt a little, Maggie. cuppycup (Bill): Wait, maybe we can find something to dull the pain a bit. Scott (GM): There is some ether. cuppycup (Bill): OK. Will (Ol'): Some of Zeke's tonic. cuppycup (Bill): I'd like to let Maggie huff some of that ether. Scott (GM): You can numb the pain with the ether, knock her out, and then I won't make you roll again. I will just treat this as part of the same roll. And yeah, with a bit of manipulation, you managed to pop the arm back in its socket without clamping on any blood vessels in the process. cuppycup (Bill): And Bill turns to everyone with a beaming look of pride, having done that successfully. Bill: Mary, what the hell happened? Mary: I told you, there's something wrong at the school. There's something wrong with the girl there, I don't know. Bill: What do you mean? Scott (GM): Actually, that might be a very good time for Ollie to come back, as he was walking across the road as well, wasn't he? cuppycup (Bill): *sarcastic* Just what we need. Will (Ol'): I was just waiting for him to leave and then...but I guess I see him come out. Scott (GM): I mean, you've seen Mary carrying Maggie into the surgery and obviously, things are fraught. Will (Ol'): I'll just assume I was there, and as I see him put her arm back in, I throw up. Scott (GM): OK, cool. Will (Ol'): *gagging* And then... Scott (GM): There is a nice chamber pot in the corner you can puke your guts into. Bill: *disgusted* Clean that up. Grow a spine lad. cuppycup (Bill): And we should assume Maggie's gonna be out for a little while. Scott (GM): She's probably only got to be out for another ten minutes or so, but she'll probably be groggy and out of it for a while. cuppycup (Bill): OK. Then Bill is going to press Mary for more information. Bill: Tell me more about this girl. Mary: I don't know much about her. Her name's Lizzie Erskine and she was moved into my class. The other teacher seemed scared of her. This girl was reading a calculus book. She's only 8 years old; at least, she looks 8 years old. And it doesn't make any sense. Her father works around here at the village shop, but something's not right, dad. Ol': Dad, you said you grew up here. You heard anything about stuff like this going on when you grew up here? Is this usual for Scotland? Is this what they do? Bill: Git yer head out of your arse, lad. Mary: I said Lizzie Erskine and her dad work at the village shop, Ollie. cuppycup (Bill): Yeah, drag your puking body over there and get that guy. Alex (Mary): I'm just saying you can tell us what you know about her dad. Will (Ol'): Wait, was that Mr. Eversleigh? Alex (Mary): Erskine. Will (Ol'): Erskine. God, I cannot remember the guy's name. Erskine. Wait, it's the post office. No, hold up. Scott (GM): Which one of you has been huffing ether? Will (Ol'): Me. Everyone: *laughs* Ol': Ok, well, I mean, Mr. Erskine... Will (Ol'): I'm guessing you said Lizzie Erskin. Yeah. Ol': Mr. Erskine? Erskine, Erskine, were have I heard that? You mean Everleigh? OK. Yeah, I just talked with him. He was saying stuff about, nonsense about fairies and saying that if we have a child, that's not good for the farm. He's... Well, I don't know. Bill: Get your wits about you, son. Ol': Well, I just got done puking, so. He was mentioning stuff about fairies in the forest. He talked about the forest. He was talking about fairies and fairy tales, and you know what? The more I stay here, the more I start to believe him. Maggie: How old is Mr. Erskine, would you say? Will (Ol'): How old did he look? He was an old man, right? Scott (GM): Yeah. You reckon probably mid-50s, maybe older. Ol': Mid-50s, maybe older, says the voice in my head. Mary: The teacher, the drunk teacher said Lizzie's 8. But she seemed so much older to me. She was standing next to Maggie after she screamed and said, "I think I broke her." There's something very wrong here, not just with Lizzie, but with this entire town. We need to figure it out, and we need to go. cuppycup (Bill): And Bill, just to give you a peek inside his head, he's familiar with fairies, having grown up here in Scotland, and he's even a little frightened of them. But he's not connecting that in any way to the dislocated shoulder. Scott (GM): No, actually, I mean, that's a good point, as Bill did at least spend his childhood here, this is late Victorian period. And when people think of Victorian fairies and this kind of stuff, the rest of you might have heard the kind of fairy tales that propagated out of Victorian England particularly portray fairies as being very nice. They're little sprites, they're flower fairies, they're Tinker Bell, they're cute things. Scottish fairy tales, not so much. The fairy tales you grew up with, you know, are things like the Redcaps, which will cut you open and use your blood to dye their caps red and monstrosities that lurk under the bed like Rawhead and Bloody Bones. You know, the Tattie Bogles, which would lurk out in the field looking like scarecrows and then just drag you down beneath the earth to devour you; the cruel little creatures like the Boggarts, which will just torment you; Fairies, they take you off to elf land and they make you their prisoner if you're lucky, those are the good ones. The bad ones, they just eat you. Those are the fairy tales you grew up with. cuppycup (Bill): Being a child in Scotland, what a joy. Ol': Dad, no wonder you turn out the way you are. Bill: Boy, go fetch this man from the shop straight away. Bring him here. Ol': Yes sir. Will (Ol'): I'll head on out. I'm happy to get away from from that. And I go back over to the post office. Knock, knock, and open up. Scott (GM): Mr. Erskine is back there and, Erskine: You're back again, then. I... Ol': Mr. Erskine, your daughter has... Scott (GM): Just as soon as you say "your daughter," you can just see this look of "Oh, fuck" cross his face. Ol': Your daughter and my niece had a bit of a disagreement on the playground. Would you mind comin' with me? Scott (GM): Yeah. Erskine nods and he shouts upstairs and says, Erskine: Moira dear, Lizzie's in trouble. Don't worry yourself, I'll be back soon. I'll lock up the shop now, I'll take care of everything. Just you rest. You rest. Scott (GM): And yeah, I mean, as as he opens the door, you can smell the smell of kind of stale, sweating sickness, drifting down. And then he closes the door to the upstairs part and says, Erskine: Alright, let's get going. Will (Ol'): While we're walking over there, I say, Ol': Mr. Erskine, do you know what in the world is coming over your daughter? Pullin' kids' arms out like that? Scott (GM): So when you ask about his daughter, his shoulders slump, and he says, Erskine: She can be...she can be a difficult girl. Ol': Sure... Will (Ol'): I'm going to go ahead and just walk, and I'm just gonna watch him. Scott (GM): OK, and you're, what, leading him across to the surgery, are you? Will (Ol'): Yes. Just across the street, isn't it? Scott (GM): Yeah. And he walks with the solemn gait of the condemned man over to the surgery and follows you in. Ol': Sir, you said the farm wasn't safe. Did you also mean the town? Erskine: I don't know what to tell you, laddie. Scott (GM): And, yeah, he goes inside and looks around and sees the unconscious form of Maggie lying on the table, and, the other two standing there, I assume looking quite concerned. And he says, Erskine: I hear my girl has been causing trouble, I am so, so very sorry, I don't know what I can do to make it up to you. Please just accept my apologies. Bill: Your daughter, I wouldn't mind having a word with her. Erskine: Well, what do you hope to gain by that? Bill: Well, I'd like to know why she's running around, ripping out her friend's arms. Erskine: I don't think you'll get an answer from her that you'd like. I can tell you this in all honesty, I cannot imagine that Lizzie wanted to hurt your daughter. It was an accident, she has accidents. Bill: This is no accident. Do you know how much strength it takes to dislocate shoulder? Erskine: I do. Chuck (Zeke): *laughs* I do. She pulled my arms out, too. cuppycup (Bill): That's why his shoulders were slumping. Everyone: *laughs* Bill: Mary, you're the girl's teacher now. What should we do? Should we bring her over here? Mary: I don't think she's going to talk to you. But I do need to know more about her, if I'm going to be her teacher. She doesn't talk; she just flips through a calculus book. I mean, how can she even do calculus at her age? Erskine: She's a very clever lass. Mary: Clever is an understatement. Scott (GM): He just nods. Mary: If she can do calculus, if she's that advanced, there's nothing I can teach her. Erskine: She likes the school. She likes to be around the other children. She finds it interesting. Mary: She doesn't even talk to the other children. She didn't interact even a little until she broke my daughter's arm. Erskine: I think...I think the other children are afraid of her. Ol': Ya think? Erskine: As I said, she is a difficult wee thing. Bill: Mary, Mary. Your boss over there at school... cuppycup (Bill): I started to get New Jersey there. Everyone: *laughs* Chuck (Zeke): *exaggerated New Jersey accent* Hey, your boss. Bill: Should we speak with the other teacher over there? See what she knows? Mary: You can try. But I'd guess she's passed out drunk at her office. Bill: Ah, how I've missed Scotland. Scott (GM): *laughs* As you mention that, Mr. Erskine just shakes his head, sadly. But he doesn't look very surprised. Bill: Has anything like this happened before, Mr. Erskine? Erskine: Oh, well, why do you think the village elders wanted to invite another teacher to Cullingstone? Mrs. Alexander has become a bit of a problem lately. Ol': *sarcastic* Mrs. Alexander's the problem? Mary: Is it just the drinking or is there something else? She doesn't seem quite right. Erskine: She's been troubled recently. It's just been in the last month or so, maybe a little bit longer. But she wasn't like this before; she's only been here for two years or so. But recently, yes, she's become a troubled old soul. Ol': All this sounds mighty interesting. I do want to meet your daughter and see what... cuppycup (Bill): Ask her to the dance? Ol': See what this girl knows about the fairies. Scott (GM): Yeah, he doesn't look very happy about this, but he reluctantly nods. cuppycup (Bill): What is this obsession with fairies? Ol': Well, Mr. Erskine, you want to tell us what this is all about? The fairies? Erskine: Oh, your lad here was saying about getting some men and chopping down the trees in Hobb's Wood, and we, you know, we don't do that. I mean, there are there are things out there. The things that we talk about when we talk about fairies, our old stories, whether you believe it or not, they live out there in those woods and you really do not want to make them angry. Bill: Does the name Maeve mean anything to you? Erskine: She is one of the girls in the village, though I think now she lives out in the woods. Bill: She lives in the woods? What the hell's going on around here? We need somebody sane to talk to! Scott (GM): *laughs* Oh, you're in the wrong fucking town. cuppycup (Keeper): You are listening to Ain’t Slayed Nobody. For ad-free episodes, heaps of bonus content, and special programming please join our posse at patreon.com/aintslayed or subscribe to Ain’t Slayed Nobody+ at Apple Podcasts. See the show notes for full credits, and help us grow by posting friendly reviews and spreading the word to your friends and followers. Thank you and good luck out there!