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.

NIGHT BUS, EPISODE 2: TOWERING

Scott (Keeper): The first thing I want is a SAN roll for Freddy.

cuppycup (Freddy): And I'm going to FAIL with 83.

Scott (Keeper): Ok. No, I'm just trying to work out how to do this, because really, you're taking SAN for two different things at the same time: for having abandoned this woman to her death and also for the sight of the weird alien landscape. And I think I'll just roll 2d6 because each one of them is a decent SAN loss. So let's see how that goes.

cuppycup (Freddy): Are you sure Freddy cares about the woman?

Kat (Gracie): Can we also clarify that cup just said that Freddy doesn't care about the woman? And also that Scott has confirmed that it was Freddy's fault that she's dead?

cuppycup (Freddy): It's been noted.

Kat (Gracie): It's been noted by God.

Scott (Keeper): So I didn't roll that high, but it still totaled up to 5.

cuppycup (Freddy): He can't be intelligent. Oh, he is kind of intelligent. I have 60. I've PASSED.

Scott (Keeper): Well, the good news is you get 5 points of CTHULHU MYTHOS.

cuppycup (Freddy): Great.

Scott (Keeper): The bad news is, the other two can see Freddy just sit down very heavily on the side of the bus as he's seeing this strange landscape in front of you. The color's drained out of his face, and at least for the moment, he looks completely non-responsive, as if just something has hit the off switch in his head. This is overwhelmed him, which might not be too pressing of a problem if the bus weren't on fire.

Gracie: Shit. Freddy, we need to get off.

Jack: Get up now! No time for rest.

Scott (Keeper): He is not getting up.

Kat (Gracie): I walk up to him and slap his face.

Scott (Keeper): There's a little bit of blood from the corner of his mouth. But you still got that vacant look in his eyes. You can smell burning and smoke growing around you.

Jack: I think we're going to have to carry him.

Gracie: Yeah. We haven't got time for this shit. Come on, Freddy.

Kat (Gracie): I'm going to grab Freddy's arm and try and lift him up.

Scott (Keeper): One of you could make a STRENGTH roll to see how well you can maneuver the rather limp form of Freddie.

Kat (Gracie): Yeah. I'll try. *laughs* I don't sound very confident.

cuppycup (Freddy): It's fitting for Kat to get Freddy killed at this point.

Kat (Gracie): I think that it would be deserving. Oh. 82. I FAIL.

cuppycup (Freddy): Oh no.

Scott (Keeper): Well, as you've mentioned, he is a large man. And the fact that he's limp is making it all the more difficult, even with two of you. You're on a fairly precarious place anyway, because, right, you're on the side of the bus, but there's broken windows around, and if you don't watch your step, you could end up falling back down through one of them. And there is a lot of smoke around.

Kat (Gracie): Is he rollable?

Danny (Jack): Hmm.

Scott (Keeper): If you want to try that as a way of PUSHING the roll, I am open to it.

Kat (Gracie): *laughs* Yeah, I would like to try and roll him towards the rock.

Scott (Keeper): So you're not only PUSHING the roll, but you're rolling the push.

Kat (Gracie): His size is 80. I'm hoping he's spherical.

cuppycup (Freddy): Oh God.

Kat (Gracie): I got 58. I'm going to spend 8 points of LUCK.

Scott (Keeper): You can't spend LUCK on PUSHED rolls.

Kat (Gracie): No, I FAILED.

Danny (Jack): *laughs* RIP, Freddy.

Scott (Keeper): So I think what happens is you push Freddy, trying to roll him off, and he rolls in roughly the direction you want, but he's not really entirely cylindrical. He doesn't roll in a uniform manner. And at some point, he just almost seems to start coming out of his fugue. And that's the point at which you just lose control a bit and push him off the edge of the bus. You could give me a LUCK roll for Freddy if you want, cup.

cuppycup (Freddy): I don't.

Kat (Gracie): I would just say that this is probably karma.

Danny (Jack): Hmm. Absolutely.

cuppycup (Freddy): I'm sure that's a FAIL. Yes, I FAILED.

Scott (Keeper): So, yeah, your clothing doesn't catch on the underside of the bus holding you up there. So you are tumbling down into this pool of burning diesel. You could, if you want, give me a JUMP roll now that you're coming out of your fugue state in a big hurry to see whether you can break your fall, or at least not land face down in the diesel or something like that.

cuppycup (Freddy): I guess trying that is better than trying nothing. I have a little JUMP. I have 40%.

Scott (Keeper): Oh, you'll be fine then.

cuppycup (Freddy): Oh, I did PASS.

Scott (Keeper): The good news is that you've landed on your feet. And this obviously has been enough to snap you out of the vacant condition you were in. The bad news is, yeah, you are now standing in this pool of burning diesel. You're going to have to get out of there pretty damn quickly before your clothes catch fire.

Danny (Jack): Is it close enough that I could reach my arm down and, like, kind of offer him a hand back up?

Scott (Keeper): He's possibly just too far. It's about, I think, about 14 feet down. And also, by the time you drag him up, he'll probably have caught fire.

cuppycup (Freddy): I would like to embrace Kat and Gracie's idea and try to roll out of the diesel.

Kat (Gracie): Stop, drop, roll.

Scott (Keeper): *disbelief* Why?!

cuppycup (Freddy): A forward roll, like a gymnastics roll! Oh, you're saying because my clothes will be covered in diesel it's a bad idea.

Scott (Keeper): I mean, it's up to you. I think it'd be a funny way to die.

cuppycup (Freddy): But can I just try to, like, leap and dive forward out of the pool?

Scott (Keeper): Yeah, you absolutely can. Then I'd say, just give me a straight DEX roll to see whether you can get out of there before anything catches fire.

cuppycup (Freddy): Oh, I've PASSED. 34 over 40.

Scott (Keeper): Nice. So you've managed to run to the edge of the burning diesel. It's only about 10 yards, and it hasn't entirely caught fire yet. So you're there on the far side. Your clothes are a bit singed, your hair's a bit singed, but you've managed to avoid actually catching fire yourself.

Freddy: Shit. What are you waiting for?

Jack: Yeah. Let's get off this thing.

Danny (Jack): I'll hop off.

Kat (Gracie): Yeah, I'll agree. And I think we'll run for it across the bus to the rock.

Freddy: That spot looked safe.

cuppycup (Freddy): He points to the diesel pool.

Kat (Gracie): Yeah. I was thinking of trying to climb down the big rock that the bus had smashed into.

Scott (Keeper): That is probably a much safer approach, yes.

Danny (Jack): I'll follow Gracie's lead.

Scott (Keeper): You can go over there and at least clamber down to the top of the rock. Getting from the rock down to the edge of the diesel pool is going to be a bit trickier. This is slick volcanic rock, and it is a bit moist, so I'd say both of you give me DEX roll, just to see whether you can do this without hurting yourselves in the process.

Danny (Jack): That's 92. I needed 70. So that's a FAIL.

Kat (Gracie): 67 and my DEX is 40.

Scott (Keeper): Ok, so you're both in a similar kind of position where you're on this rock now and you're both scrambling around trying to find a safe way down. But the few places you've put your feet have been slippery, perhaps a bit steeper than you thought, or that way that you thought you'd be able to clamber down, no, that's got to take you straight into the fire. And so you do seem to be stuck there for the moment.

Danny (Jack): Could just spend that LUCK. I have a lot of LUCK left. I'm going to spend 22 LUCK.

Scott (Keeper): Fantastic. So you can clamber down and leave Gracie stuck up there.

Kat (Gracie): How close is Freddy and Jack now that they're down? If I jumped onto one of them and used them to soften the blow?

Jack: I'll catch you!

Scott (Keeper): Yeah. If one of them wanted to try to help you and break your fall, then I'd allow you to PUSH that roll with a BONUS die.

Danny (Jack): Jack's got his arms out. He's like,

Jack: Come on, Gracie, do it.

Kat (Gracie): Oh, I rolled 14.

Scott (Keeper): Yes. Jack catches you as you make your way off the rock and just about tumble down. He manages to break your fall and get you clear of the burning diesel.

Gracie: Oh, my hero.

Jack: Say that again.

Freddy: It's no trouble.

Scott (Keeper): And there you are on the edge of this pool of burning diesel. The bus itself is beginning to go up now, and you can hear the pops and breaking glass and so on from the inside. You can also hear the mad scrambling of this thing, whatever it was, inside. It now seems to be try to get out of the burning bus, or at least you think that's what it's doing. There certainly seems to be something that sounds like the inside of the bus is getting pebble dashed or something.

Jack: Oh, we've got to get away from that thing. We've got to get away from this bus. Let's... I don't know where to go, but let's move.

Gracie: I'm not being funny, but maybe we should go towards the big 'and.

Jack: Anyone got a better idea?

Freddy: You ever been here before?

Gracie: Where even is here?!

Freddy: Didn't we see a monster go into the hand?

Danny (Jack): What does the sky look like?

Kat (Gracie): Yeah.

Scott (Keeper): The sky overhead is cloudy and black. It looks like it's probably nighttime. There is lightning that is dancing between the clouds, but you don't actually hear any thunder. There's also a bit of light because the ground that you're on glows at times, not evenly. There appear to be carvings in the volcanic rock, a whole network of really complex carvings. And every now and then you see what looks like, yeah, some kind of light, some kind of energy, dancing along the grooves, moving away from you.

Freddy: Are you two religious?

Gracie: Not really. I'm findin' this is some kind of Wizard of Oz shit, to be honest.

Jack: I just thought we were in Scotland, maybe.

Freddy: I thought maybe we were in heaven. But being as you two are here, maybe this is hell.

Gracie: Speak for yourself, Freddy.

Freddy: No offense, but I saw what happened back on the bus, Miss.

Gracie: Oh, you mean when you killed that lady by leaving her?

Freddy: Yeah. This is hell. This is hell. You're right. This is hell.

Danny (Jack): I'm staying out of that argument.

Kat (Gracie): I can just start trudging towards that hand whilst arguing with Freddy.

cuppycup (Freddy): It's Freddy or the giant monster fist.

Scott (Keeper): There is one last thing you can see before you leave the bus, which is from the broken window that you clambered up through, there is another one of these glowing blue balls of light that is rising out of there now. But the bus at this stage is on fire. And you can see that there are flames that are engulfing it and the whole thing just catches fire. You can see bits of it dribbling and falling off. And just for a moment, just for a moment, you're fairly certain you can hear a woman's scream and then it's gone.

Kat (Gracie): I'm uncomfortable.

Freddy: Oh, maybe she made it.

Gracie: No!

Freddy: Go back in there. See if you can rescue that woman.

Jack: I think it's... I think it's probably too late, mate. That ship sailed.

Gracie: I admire the optimism.

Freddy: So we know fire doesn't kill the monsters. Maybe we should just run.

Jack: Yeah, let's.

Danny (Jack): I'm going to run after Gracie. I want to get as far as I can from this bus and that thing.

Kat (Gracie): Is it bad that I'm more scared of Freddy and what Freddy is going to do to me than I am of the monster? *laughs*

cuppycup (Freddy): Freddy's fine. *laughs* Freddy is going to use his slow running to his advantage to see what happens to these two first when they get wherever they're going.

Scott (Keeper): Well, you can lick it across this rocky, whatever it is, towards this white fist that's poking out of the ground. As you so, you get a bit more of an idea of the landscape around you. You can see that to your left, there's pretty much a vertical black cliff face or something and it certainly seems to be going up to another one of these huge mountains that you can see all around. Over to your right. However, it does look like there's perhaps a ledge. It certainly seems like whatever you're on, whatever this rocky structure is, that it does end maybe about 20, 30 yards to your right up in front of you. You can see there are rocks scattered over the ground. And there does seem to be perhaps some kind of ruins or demolished structure in front of you.

Kat (Gracie): Maybe that will help us find out where we are.

Danny (Jack): As we head toward it, I want to kind of take a peek toward whatever's on the right, just to see if I can get any more info.

Scott (Keeper): As you do so, every now and then, there's more of this light that just flickers across the ground, and there's something about it that looks like, I don't know, maybe writing or certainly very complex patterns. You make your way over to the edge of this cliff or whatever, and you can see, yeah, this does seem to be a plateau that you're on and you look down and there is a precipitous drop that goes down into a dark valley down below. You can't see too many details. The mountains around you are lit up every now and then by the lightning. But down below you can just make out fires down there and, maybe in the fires, hints of some stone structures. But it's too far away and too dark for you to really make out details.

Freddy: What do you see, Jack? Is this hell?

Jack: I don't know. I don't think it's Scotland anymore.

Freddy: Thank God for that.

Scott (Keeper): I know who's dying first.

cuppycup (Freddy): Didn't you already know?

Gracie: This certainly doesn't feel like a holiday destination. It's not exactly Butlin's.

Freddy: Can either of you read the words that are written in the lightning on the floor?

Jack: Words in lightning?

Kat (Gracie): Can I have a closer look? See if I can make them out?

Scott (Keeper): You know, it's certainly not any writing you recognize. I suppose now that Freddy's got 5 points of CTHULHU MYTHOS, you could try making a CTHULHU MYTHOS roll.

cuppycup (Freddy): Alright, everybody, stand back. I read "The Hobbit". I'm going to try to give this a go. Here we go. Not sure what it is at all.

Scott (Keeper): Maybe it's Elvish. Who knows?

cuppycup (Freddy): *laughs* Yeah, exactly.

Freddy: So maybe one of you goes and checks out the fist tower, and I'll watch the bus.

Jack: You're going to watch the bus?

Gracie: The bus that's on fire.

Freddy: Well, there's magic here. I mean, it might come back to life.

Gracie: I don't think the bus is going to get up and start having a chat with you, Freddy, not going to lie.

Scott (Keeper): The bus is well and truly on fire at this stage. There's not really that much beyond a smoking husk now.

Freddy: Yeah, maybe another bus is going to come through the Twilight Zone thing, and then I'll flag it down.

Jack: Yeah, maybe.

Freddy: Ah, fuck it. I'll go with you to the fist tower. Come on.

Kat (Gracie): I want to have a look at these ruins. Can I see anything around them? Like anything that might eat us?

Scott (Keeper): The ruins are on the way to the fist anyway. First of all, I'll just say as you're getting close to the the fist, you can see just how big it is. I mean, this thing is probably the best part of 100 feet tall, just sticking out of the ground. And it is fairly obvious by the time you get closer that it's made out of some kind of white stone. It's almost like a statue. But you can see the outline of a door down to the bottom of it. But as far as the ruins are concerned, you can give me a SPOT HIDDEN roll to see whether you notice something.

Kat (Gracie): Ooh, I got a 7.

Scott (Keeper): On an EXTREME, I'll tell you a couple of things. One is the ruins do seem to be the remains of a black stone structure made out of the same kind of black stone as the plateau itself. There's still some of it standing, or at least partially standing. And there's lots of stone that's been scattered all over the place, from what you realize are tire prints that are running through all this stone. It does look an awful lot like it was demolished by having a bus run through it.

Gracie: You don't reckon that was us?

Scott (Keeper): The other thing is you can see that there's little bits of debris or, you know, all sorts of odd things in amongst the ruins. There appear to be maybe books and scraps of paper, some of which are blowing around free, some of which are weighed down by the rubble. But you can make out just in the distance as well. There is maybe what appears to be a person buried underneath a lot of the rubble as well.

Kat (Gracie): I think we ran someone over.

Freddy: What we? We didn't drive the bus.

Gracie: I think the bus ran someone over then?

Freddy: Yeah. Yeah, that's ok. We don't need the rap sheet in hell to get any longer.

Gracie: I'm not going for semantics here.

Kat (Gracie): I'm going to run over.

Freddy: You're a nurse. Save them.

Gracie: That's what I'm hoping.

Kat (Gracie): Are they still alive, or is Freddy going to kill this one, too?

cuppycup (Freddy): I will eventually.

Danny (Jack): What are the ruins themselves? Do they look like they were some sort of bridge? Anything like that?

Scott (Keeper): Looks like it was probably a stone hut.

Jack: I think they lived here.

Gracie: We smashed someone's house.

Freddy: Yeah, some kind of wizard.

Scott (Keeper): You can see that as you get closer, it is a man. He is largely buried under the rubble. But you reckon you could get it off and fairly quickly. He looks like he's a middle-aged man, possibly of South Asian descent. Once you get some of the rubble clear, you can see he's wearing what appears to be a fairly thick robe that's made out of a material a bit like velvet and has yellow stitching with all sorts of strange designs and sigils in it.

Gracie: I think we definitely killed a wizard.

Jack: Definitely.

Scott (Keeper): He's not dead.

Kat (Gracie): Oh, FIRST AID! FIRST AID?

Scott (Keeper): Yeah, he is definitely breathing. He looks quite badly injured.

Kat (Gracie): Ok.

Scott (Keeper):  But you could try to stabilize his condition.

Kat (Gracie): I shall try FIRST AID. I got a 3! Yeah, that's definitely an EXTREME.

Danny (Jack): Nice.

cuppycup (Freddy): Nice.

Scott (Keeper): As you're staunching the bleeding, he's babbling. His eyes are flickering open and closed; it's almost like he's seeing you sometimes. And there's delirium, and he's trying to communicate something. But you can't quite make out what he's saying. You give me an EDUCATION roll if you want.

Kat (Gracie): Rolling really well today. 31, and my EDUCATION is 60.. So can I spend the 1 point of LUCK to make it a HARD? Is it HARD?

Scott (Keeper): You absolutely can, yeah. You do recognize that he's speaking in Hindi.

Gracie: Oy, loves, do either of you speak Hindi?

Freddy: Let me check.

Jack: I only speak English. Sorry, love.

Freddy: Yeah. Could you ask him to speak English?

Gracie: Ok... Could you speak English? I'm so sorry.

Scott (Keeper): He takes a few deep breaths.

Wizard: *struggling* Yes. Yes. Is she... Has she escaped?

Gracie: I... What do you mean by she?

Wizard: She escaped. She. She can't. She can't be allowed to get out. She didn't escape it, did she?

Freddy: Oh God.

Scott (Keeper): Then his eyes goes wide and he reaches up with one bloodied hand and grabs hold of your shirt for a moment and says,

Wizard: Don't let me die here. Don't let me die here.

Gracie: I won't. We'll take you with us. It's alright. It's alright. I'm a nurse.

Freddy: I'm a security guard. I'll protect you.

Jack: I'm a barman.

Scott (Keeper): As you say that, you can see him relax a bit, and he just nods and then drifts back into unconsciousness.

Jack: What did he mean, escape? Who is he talking about?

Freddy: Well, hopefully he's talking about that girl on the bus.

Gracie: I don't think he's talking about your murder victim.

Freddy: We've done a service here today.

Gracie: Maybe he was talking about the big swirly death vacuum.

Jack: Well, she's definitely escaped, then.

Freddy: Didn't feel gendered to me.

Jack: Maybe whatever he's talking about is in the 'and. The big fist.

cuppycup (Freddy): Are the books in Hindi? Scott, can we look at those?

Scott (Keeper): You can see in the ruins there's the remains of some furniture, maybe a desk and a chair and a few other bits and pieces, maybe some bookshelves, and lots of books. I mean, the books that you pick up and look at, some of them are bound in maybe leather and cloths, some of them are scrolls, they're on a variety of materials. They don't look like paper, or at least not paper that you're used to. The books are perhaps a bit closer, but they're thicker, rougher paper than the books you're used to.

cuppycup (Freddy): The human skin pages. We get it.

Scott (Keeper): *laughs* They're generally handwritten, the books, almost like illuminated manuscripts, and they are not in any language you recognize. Again, I think because Gracie got that SPOT HIDDEN roll before, an EXTREME, you do find one book that stands out from the others in that it does seem to be a bit more modern in its design. Gracie finds it pretty much underneath this man's unconscious form. This one does look like it's bound in cloth, but it's, the weave and so on, looks a bit more, well, normal. The pages look like machine pages you'd see in a normal book.

Freddy: I didn't do too well in school. I think maybe we should just go to the fist.

Kat (Gracie): Can I flip it open?

Scott (Keeper): Yeah, sure. You take a look, and it does look like it's manufactured paper. It looks like it's perhaps some kind of journal. It's all handwritten in what appears to be ink. You can't really read it because looking at it, it does look like it's maybe written in Hindi or something, but you can't really make any sense of it. One thing you do notice, however, as you're flicking through it, looking at it, I mean, for a start there were a number of illustrations and diagrams and so on, none of which really make any sense to you. But the weird thing is that the more you flick through it, you don't actually seem to be getting any further into the book. There always seem to be the same number of pages at the end.

Kat (Gracie): That's weird.

Scott (Keeper): Ok, give me a SAN roll, then.

Kat (Gracie): *groans* Ok.

cuppycup (Freddy): Don't ever say that with Scott.

Kat (Gracie): That's weird?

cuppycup (Freddy): "Oh, that's fine" is what you say.

Kat (Gracie): I go 46 and my SAN is 46.

Scott (Keeper): Oh, ok. You're fine, then. Yeah, it's a bit unnerving, but it doesn't have any negative effect on you.

Jack: Can you understand it, Gracie?

Gracie: I can't read it, but I think this place is really wigging me out.

Kat (Gracie): And I'll give the book to Jack.

Freddy: Are there any pictures in that book, Gracie?

Kat (Gracie): Not that I'm aware of. Maybe we should get him onto something. Like, I'm guessing there's probably fabric and wood, and maybe we can fashion a stretcher and pull him along with us.

cuppycup (Freddy): Out of his Willy Wonka coat?

Kat (Gracie):  I mean, yeah.

Scott (Keeper): There's enough of the desk leftover that you could probably make some kind of bier out of it.

Gracie: Mm hmm. I don't like the idea of leaving him to get vacuumed.

Freddy: Yeah, I don't want to be grim, but if they are looking for a sacrifice wherever we go next, we might have to add him to my inventory, is what I'm saying.

Kat (Gracie): Can I just slap him upside the head?

Gracie: Freddy!

cuppycup (Freddy):  Is that Freddy or me?

Gracie: We don't go around murdering random people just because you did it once.

Freddy: But it's like a trolley car problem. It's not actual murder. It's for the greater good, Miss.

Jack: We're definitely in hell.

Freddy: You got me for eternity, Jack.

Jack: What 'ave I done to deserve this? Alright, let's get him on the cot.

Kat (Gracie): Yeah.

Scott (Keeper): Ok. Well, you are, at the moment, you're only about 20 or 30 yards from the fist. There is, you can see, a little black stone staircase carved into the rock that leads up towards it. And you can definitely make out the outline of this door now, in the base of it.

cuppycup (Freddy): In the sheet lightning, can we tell if the fingers are moving or anything that makes this fist look part of something alive?

Kat (Gracie): Ooh.

Scott (Keeper): It's a bit difficult to tell because all the light sources you have between the flickering on the ground and the lightning overhead are, well, flickering. So the way the shadows are moving, the way the light is dancing, yeah, it absolutely looks like the fingers are moving.

cuppycup (Freddy): But they're not, like, extending?

Scott (Keeper): Not that you can tell.

cuppycup (Freddy): *laughs* Oh god, that pause.

Freddy: Looks good.

Gracie: Well, Freddy, as you're so eager to get to the hand. Why don't you go first?

Jack: Yeah, we'll be right behind you.

Freddy: I think because I'm so strong, I got to carry this fella. I got to help with the stretcher.

Jack: Well, maybe we should leave him, like, right outside this door.

Freddy: Oh, like an offering?

Jack: No, no. Just so we can see what's inside, and we don't have to carry him upstairs or something.

Freddy: Yeah, that was a test. Thank you. That was my idea, too.

Gracie: Look, he asked us not to die, so we're not going to let him die. Ok?

Freddy: Yeah. Let's knock on the door. Maybe,maybe somebody's home.

cuppycup (Freddy):  I'll knock on the door.

Freddy: Gracie, you seem upset with me.

Scott (Keeper): There is this white stone door that is slightly open. It seems to be made out of the same material as everything else. You're not really sure how it's hinged, but that's probably not your top priority at the moment.

cuppycup (Freddy): Can Freddy knock on the door even though it's slightly open? I don't want to walk in on anybody.

Scott (Keeper): As I say, it is fairly thick stone. You can try rapping on it and it doesn't really conduct sound that well.

cuppycup (Freddy): That makes sense. Alright. I did my best. I'm assuming nobody answered.

Scott (Keeper): No.

cuppycup (Freddy): Ok. I'm going to yell in the opening.

Freddy: Hello? It's Freddy.

Scott (Keeper): There's no answer.

Freddy: Alright. I think it's empty.

Jack: Yeah. Go on, mate. We're right behind you.

Freddy: Maybe Jack, I think this door is big enough for us to walk in simultaneously.

Jack: Side by side?

Freddy: Yes.

Jack: Like dwarves?

Freddy: Like back to back. We'll scooch in.

Jack: Fine.

cuppycup (Freddy): I want to walk in with Jack.

Danny (Jack): Working side by side.

Kat (Gracie): I'll follow with the guy on the stretcher.

Jack: You want to hold hands or something? That make you feel better?

cuppycup (Freddy): We're going to leave that other guy outside. Is that right?

Kat (Gracie): Are we not pulling him in with us?

cuppycup (Freddy): I'm assuming there are stairs in here because it's a tower. I don't want to carry that guy up the stairs, out of character.

Kat (Gracie): Oh, I see. It's pure laziness.

Scott (Keeper): It is fairly cold outside.

cuppycup (Freddy): Oh fuck.

Gracie: I think we should bring him with us.

Freddy: Alright, let's leave him in the lobby.

Kat (Gracie): Yeah, we'll bring him inside.

Scott (Keeper): So you take him inside, and the door opens up into this circular room that looks like it takes up the whole of what you realize is probably the ground floor, because you can see there is a spiral staircase towards the back that is going up through a hole in the ceiling. The room that you're in at the moment, you can't tell where it's illuminated from, but there seems to be just light. Maybe it's coming from the stone itself, but it's fairly evenly distributed. The room itself is empty. There's just the door. There's the staircase. A few scuff marks on the ground. Everything is made of the same white stone as you saw outside, including the staircase heading up.

Danny (Jack): Does the staircase also head down, or is it just up?

Scott (Keeper): Just up.

Kat (Gracie):  The scuff marks, are they going in any particular direction or is it more just general wear and tear?

Scott (Keeper): Give me a SPOT HIDDEN roll.

Kat (Gracie): 66. No, I did not. I could spend 6 points of LUCK... Yeah. I'll spend 6 points of LUCK to make that a SUCCESS. I am just going to have no LUCK by the end of this.

cuppycup (Freddy): It's fine.

Scott (Keeper): Well, I entirely approve of this. So, looking at it, yeah, you think that the scuff marks were caused by someone dragging something across the ground, probably from the staircase over to the doorway, and looking at the type of scuff marks, it looks like they may be dragging some of that furniture you saw outside in the ruined shack.

Gracie: Looks like someone was redecorating.

Jack: It looks like it.

Freddy: Maybe if we get stuck here, we could bring the furniture back and kind of make a home for ourselves. Start a family.

Gracie: What, you and Jack?

Freddy: Exactly.

Jack: Because we've got two choices, really. We can live in a fist or we can live in the hut.

Gracie: Alternatively, if we're going to be living here forever, right, I'll wait until the bus is, like, completely not on fire and go live in there. I'll be like a distant neighbor.

Freddy: Listen, we got to find a food source. I don't want to be presumptive, but...

Jack: Don't even continue that. I don't want to talk about what we're eating. Please, Freddy.

Kat (Gracie): I'm going to lean sideways to Jack.

Gracie: He's already murdered someone. He's going to turn cannibal on us, isn't it? Is he like, Freddy Lecter?

Freddy: Listen, if you put the pieces together, it's simple. With that guy we found,

cuppycup (Freddy): He points down to him.

Freddy: And the stairs going up, I think this is purgatory, and the stairs go up to heaven. So if we can make it to the top, then we have eternal bliss.

Jack: You should definitely not go first then.

Gracie: Alternatively, if it is purgatory, maybe this is a test and we should stop killing random people.

Freddy: I'm done killing, miss.

Gracie: The guy in the robe!

cuppycup (Freddy): Are there scuff marks on the stairs or just on the floor?

Scott (Keeper): There are on the stairs as well.

Freddy: So there must be rooms up there if they brought the furniture down.

Jack: Must be.

Freddy: We can each have our own bedroom.

Gracie: Should we go up before we start checking out the real estate?

cuppycup (Freddy): Oh, probably. Alright, Jack. I have a bad back, so I don't do well on the stairs.

Jack: Alright, I'll lead.

Scott (Keeper): Are you leaving your patient downstairs, or are you taking him with you?

Kat (Gracie): I think, because he's on a stretcher, we'll leave him in the lobby. But I'm going to close the door.

Scott (Keeper): Ok. Yep.

cuppycup (Freddy): That's smart.

Scott (Keeper): Ok. It's a spiral staircase. It's going up through this hole in the ceiling. It does seem to be freestanding; it's not attached to the edges, the hole. It's going up quite a way. There seem to be other holes up above. The first floor you come to is again a single room occupying the whole space. This is covered in or at least the walls have what you assume fairly quickly to be bookshelves in them. There aren't actually that many books there.

Danny (Jack): Do they all look similar to the one I guess I'm holding that Gracie read earlier?

Scott (Keeper): The one you picked up looks like maybe some kind of anatomical textbook. It's got drawings of dissected subjects, but you're not really sure what any of them are. They look almost 3D. Some of the drawings that you're looking at and one of them, actually, you can see layers of skin and muscle tissue being pulled back as an animation almost.

Jack: *disgusted* It's like a twisted pop-up book.

Danny (Jack): I'm going to close that one.

Scott (Keeper): Ok.

Freddy: Can I take a look at that book, Jack? Something happened to me back there on top of the bus.

Jack: Have at it.

cuppycup (Freddy): Is there any 5% chance that I might have an idea what's happening with this book, Scott?

Scott (Keeper): Give me a CTHULHU MYTHOS roll.

cuppycup (Freddy): Yeah, I think I'm just going to not spend 34 LUCK.

Scott (Keeper): Ok. You look at it, but you can't really make any sense. There are a couple of other books. As I mentioned, there's what appears to be a fairly big scroll that's been left there, and it's on some kind of vellum.

cuppycup (Freddy): Can I roll an individual 5% on each book?

Scott (Keeper): You can try.

cuppycup (Freddy): Yeah. I think Freddy's already fed up with the library.

Scott (Keeper): Ok.

cuppycup (Freddy): Does it look like anything's in Hindi here? Maybe one of the smarter investigators might realize that.

Scott (Keeper): No, the closest you get as you're looking through is there is a book that's handwritten that isn't a language you recognize and doesn't look like it's in Hindi, but there's some of the illustrations in there. That looks like they're illustrating a cookbook. Some of the things that are being prepared maybe would look a bit like Indian food that you've encountered there. Certainly something that looks a bit like making naan.

Freddy: Oh, Jack, hold on to this one in case we live here.

Jack: Oh, ok. Yeah. No, Put that in the good pile.

Freddy: There might be a kitchen upstairs.

cuppycup (Freddy): I have no idea. *laughs* I'm, like, from New York now.

Kat (Gracie): I was going to say, it sounded like Boston.

cuppycup (Freddy): Yeah, Boston. *laughs* Yeah. Get me to the hospital.

Scott (Keeper): You're having this conversation about the cookbook. You can hear from the floor above, there's a man's voice that says,

Stranger: Hello. Hello? Is someone there?

Gracie: Yeah, hello?

Kat (Gracie): *laughs* I don't know why I'm Australian.

cuppycup (Freddy): Perfect.

Gracie: 'ello, love? 'ello?

Stranger: Who's there?

Gracie: My name is Gracie.

Freddy: We're the new recruits.

Stranger: Can you do me a favor? Can you find a light switch and put the lights on, please? I don't know where I am, and I can't seem to find a light switch.

cuppycup (Freddy): Activate the walls.

Danny (Jack): Is there a light switch?

Scott (Keeper): No. It all seems to be fairly well lit.

Kat (Gracie): Do the clap, like clap on.

Freddy: Which floor are you on? We're on floor two.

Stranger: What do you mean?

cuppycup (Freddy): Or one? It depends if you start with ground floor as 1 or 0.

Stranger: What fucking floor are... I don't know. I don't know. Last thing I remember, I was, I was on the bus, and I think there was a crash and the bus...

Gracie: Take a deep breath, love. I'm a nurse. I'll come and help.

Stranger: I'm in hospital, right? I'm in the hospital. Yeah. Right. That makes sense. They've got me bandaged up. That's why I can't see anything. That's why I can't move, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Freddy: I think you're saying that wrong, mate.

Kat (Gracie): I'm going to look at the other two and I'm going to nod, and then I'm going to head on up.

cuppycup (Freddy): Yeah, we'll Scooby Doo, if Jack wants to go up there.

Danny (Jack): Yeah, we'll do it.

Scott (Keeper): You go to the next floor and you can see, yeah, this is another big circular room, again lit by light sources you can't quite make out. The walls are incredibly colorful in this room after the plane of white that you've seen elsewhere; they seem to be embedded with all sorts of gemstones, maybe of varying sizes, some of them quite large, strange shapes. There's some of them inset into the wall, some of them protruding. And there do seem to be flickering flashes of energy moving between them and lighting some of them up. And in the center of the room, about three feet off the ground, there is this glowing blue ball of energy or of something just hanging there in the center of the room. And you hear this man's voice coming from it, saying,

Stranger: I hear the nurse. And can you tell me, can you... Is it safe to get the bandages off my eyes? I mean, I can't see anything. And it's, I mean, honestly, it's freaking me out a bit.

Gracie: *chokes*

Scott (Keeper): That sounds like a SAN roll. 

Freddy: Are you two familiar with Sauron?

Jack: We got Elves, Dwarves and now Sauron. We're in Moria, aren't we?

Freddy: This is the Two Towers. But there's just one tower.

Kat (Gracie): Was the hand white? Because it could be the white hand of Sauron?

cuppycup (Freddy): Exactly.

Kat (Gracie): I got 58, so I FAILED my SAN roll.

cuppycup (Freddy): I got a 20. I PASSED, believe it or not.

Danny (Jack): 5.

cuppycup (Freddy): What?!

Scott (Keeper): Ok, so it's only Gracie who loses any SAN here and she only loses 2.

Kat (Gracie): Ok.

Scott (Keeper):  But I think you do perhaps involuntarily give out a bit of a whimper. And you hear the man's voice again.

Stranger: So what is it? Is it that bad? How badly hurt am I? You can tell me, can't you?

Gracie: I. Well, love. It's not you. I just stubbed my toe. It's fine. Sorry. I was moving the medical tray and dropped it on my foot. You're fine. You're fine. Take a deep breath.

Stranger: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Freddy: You have a very bright future, sir.

Gracie: Now's not the time for jokes, Freddy.

Jack: We do have to leave the bandages on for now, though, so. Oh, I'm the doctor, by the way. Hello.

Stranger: Alright. Oh, yeah, Yeah.

Freddy: I'm the orderly, Freddy.

Gracie: How long have you been awake, sir?

Stranger: I don't know. I don't know what happened. I was... I was there in the bus, and I think I tried to get out, and then... I don't know, something happened, so I hit by a car or something like that. I just get out of the bus just to get hit by a car.

Gracie: But you certainly got out of the bus.

Freddy: Yeah. You're in the medical tower now.

Freddy: We aren't quite sure what the damage is just yet.

Freddy: Oh, don't say that.

Gracie: But you're stable.

Stranger: Good.

cuppycup (Freddy): Stable ball of energy. *laughs*

Jack: Have you talked to anyone else in here?

Stranger: No, no, no, no. You're the first people who have come to see me, and I don't know what's wrong. I mean, my head's, my head's all messed up. I,  I, don't take this wrong, doctor, but I think I want to kill you.

Freddy: ...What?

Jack: Why?

Stranger: I don't know. I don't know. But, you know how it is.

Freddy: I kind of know. Yeah.

Jack: Freddy knows.

Freddy: Say, do any of these gems come off the wall, sir?

Stranger: Why, wha- what -. I don't know. This is a hospital?

Freddy: An upscale hospital.

Jack: Very gaudy.

Gracie: We're using a new method with healing crystals. It's, you know, holistic as well as medical.

Jack: Very effective.

Freddy: Do you think there's like a station 9 and 1/2 thing happening here where a bus terminal is coming through to the Magic Castle platform?

Jack: 9 3/4.

Freddy: Whatever the hell it's called. I don't read that shit.

Jack: What did you call it? Station 9 1/2?

Freddy:  My kid made me watch the movie.

Stranger: Doctor, can you can you at least tell me when I can get out of here?

Jack: Oh, not yet. You know how these diagnoses go. It takes a bit of time. So if you just stay put, don't try to get up. Don't try to kill anyone.

Stranger: Well, no, sir. I'm beginning to feel better. I think I need to get my strength back and... Yeah. Yeah, It's alright, doc. Here. I'll be up to kill you soon.

Jack: Ok... Not yet, though.

Freddy: Say, do you know any Indian folks who've come through here recently?

Stranger: Don't think so. I don't know who anyone is. I can't see.

Freddy: Fine. Did you hear any furniture moving in your room?

Stranger: No. No. You're the first thing I've heard.

Kat (Gracie): Are these crystals powering this energy or keeping it contained, or is it just all random?

Scott (Keeper): You're not really sure. They are a bunch of crystals. Like I say, it looks like they are designed perhaps to be pushed in and pulled out of the wall. Some of them definitely seem to be flickering with more energy. There seem to be pulses of energy going through them. You could make an INTELLIGENCE roll to work something out.

cuppycup (Freddy): Find the pattern, Gracie.

Kat (Gracie): I mean, 85. I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm still going to push one in.

Scott (Keeper): Sure.

Kat (Gracie): Pick one at random.

cuppycup (Freddy): Haven't you seen Goonies?

Scott (Keeper): If you want, give me a d6 roll.

cuppycup (Freddy): Oh.

Kat (Gracie): 4.

cuppycup (Freddy): That was the bad one.

Danny (Jack): It's always 4.

cuppycup (Freddy): It's always whatever you roll.

Scott (Keeper): Oh God.

Kat (Gracie): Oh, no. What did it do? Whenever Scott says "Oh God," that's not a good thing.

Danny (Jack): You got too much joy out of that, Scott.

Kat (Gracie): It's the eyebrow raise that's even worse.

Scott (Keeper): So yeah, you go up and you start messing around with these crystals at random. And then there is just this blast of energy that goes through you. The other two of you see Gracie drop to the ground.

Danny (Jack): No, she's the nurse!

Scott (Keeper): Gracie, you are somewhere dark. You can almost kind of feel some sense of yourself, some sense of your body, but you feel a bit disconnected from it.

Gracie: *tremulous* Freddy?

Scott (Keeper): You feel stiff. It's difficult to move. You're beginning to get your senses back a little bit and you can see that you're standing in a circular room, but it's not the circular room you were in before. This one has no gems on the walls. In fact, looking across the room, you can see that this seems to be where the spiral staircase ends.

Kat (Gracie): I teleported?

Scott (Keeper): Yeah. Like I say, everything's stiff. You're having trouble moving. You could give me a POWER roll to see whether you can...

cuppycup (Freddy): *mutters* Survive for 5 minutes?

Scott (Keeper): ...You can move.

Kat (Gracie): 21. And my POWER is 50, so under half.

Scott (Keeper): Ok. Yeah. It was a HARD SUCCESS you needed. So there is this crunching, groaning sound as you start trying to get yourself moving. And yeah, you managed to bring your hand up and your hand just made of white marble.

Kat (Gracie): Oooh.

Scott (Keeper): Can you give me a SAN roll?

Kat (Gracie): Got some Medusa shit going on here. I rolled a 01.

Scott (Keeper): Fucking hell!

Danny (Jack):  Bravo!

Scott (Keeper): Yeah, then you don't lose any SAN, I guess, on the 01. Despite the absolute weirdness of the situation.

Kat (Gracie): I'm like one with the stone now.

cuppycup (Freddy): You're so happy to be away from Freddy.

Scott (Keeper): The other two downstairs there with the unconscious form of Gracie can hear the sound of something heavy and something that sounds like stone dragging coming from directly above you. And Gracie stirs on the ground. And her eyes open and she looks at you and smiles and says,

Other Gracie: Oh, what do we have here, then?

Jack: I'm glad you're alright.

Freddy: Thank God for that.

Other Gracie: Oh, I think I'm better than alright. What have you done? Was someone playing with the crystals? That was unexpected.

Jack: You....you were...

Freddy: Have you been here before, Gracie?

Other Gracie: Gracie...Gracie...Hmm.

Jack: That's you. If you're Gracie.

Scott (Keeper): And she gets up and starts looking at herself and smiling.

Other Gracie: Yes, Yes. This, this may do.

Kat (Gracie): Oh no. I let her out. I did the thing he told me not to do.

Freddy: I'm going to ask her something that only Gracie would know, Jack.

Jack: Ok. You go for it.

Freddy: Gracie. Who would you say killed the woman back on the bus?

Scott (Keeper): You can actually hear this, Gracie, coming up from the stairs, from down below.

Gracie: *yells* You did, you twat.

Scott (Keeper): You hear from up above as Gracie just ignores you, going round. She seems very interested in the ball of glowing matter or energy or whatever it is in the center of the room and says,

Other Gracie: Ah, yes, this one is almost ripe.

Freddy: Oh, shit. Have you ever seen Freaky Friday, Jack?

Jack: I think I know what you're getting at.

Freddy: Yeah. With Lindsay Lohan. Terrible movie. Really, I mean, she was like a shooting star, and then it just all fell apart.

Jack: I think we've got more pertinent things to talk about, Freddy.

Kat (Gracie): For once, I agree with you, and I'm going to try and shift my way towards the stairs.

cuppycup (Freddy): Oh, don't roll down! You're stone.

Scott (Keeper): So, yeah, you can hear this clump, clump, clump from upstairs, and then you just find yourself, Gracie, unable to move any further. And looking down, you can see that there is a circle carved on the ground around you. And it does seem like as soon as you got up to the edge of this circle, you can't actually make it any further.

Kat (Gracie): Huh? Shit. I'm in prison.

Danny (Jack): The thing that Gracie touched on the wall, that crystal. Is it possible to pull it back out? Because she pushed it in, right?

Kat (Gracie): *laughs* Yeah. Go for it.

cuppycup (Freddy): I love what you're looking to do there, Jack.

Kat (Gracie): Go for it. Do it!

Scott (Keeper): So you go to mess around with this... Well, first of all, do you want to give me an INTELLIGENCE roll just to see whether you can identify exactly the right crystal? Because there are a lot of them.

Danny (Jack): Ok, So I need to get a 65, and I got a 52.

Scott (Keeper): You're pretty sure that you can identify which one.

Danny (Jack): Yeah. So I'll reach my fingers in there and just *crunching sound*

cuppycup (Freddy): I'm going to distract the Gracie woman while he does that.

Scott (Keeper): How are you distracting her?

cuppycup (Freddy): I'm going to ask about her.

Freddy: So where are you from, Miss? How did you get here to this beautiful tower?

Other Gracie: I was about to ask you just the same thing.

Freddy: We were on a bus, a night bus, actually. And there was an accident. And I think we were chosen.

Other Gracie: A bus.

Freddy: A bus. A red one. Yeah. It's outside. If you. If you have any windows in here, you could take a take a peek. It's on fire right now.

Other Gracie: No, we have no windows here.

Scott (Keeper): She looks at you brightly for a moment and smiles and says,

Other Gracie: But I suppose I could go out and take a look. How wonderful.

Freddy: Wait a minute.

cuppycup (Freddy): He is going to have the sudden realization that this is the woman that that guy said not to let out. I don't know, hopefully Jack has already undone this because I don't think Freddy has the wits to stop her.

Scott (Keeper): Then I'd say, if you're trying to do this, undo it, I'd want a HARD POWER roll from Jack.

Danny (Jack): I have 50, so I need a 25. And I got a 60.

Scott (Keeper): Then I think follow that up with a LUCK roll.

Danny (Jack): Ok.

Kat (Gracie): Don't kill me, man. *laughs*

Danny (Jack): 10 out of 50, I SUCCEEDED on LUCK.

Scott (Keeper): Ok. So just as he is doing that, there is a crackling of energy that comes from the crystal. But you managed to snatch your hand away just in time before you get burnt or electrocuted by it. Gracie looks around. She smiles and says,

Other Gracie: Oh, I wouldn't play with those unless you know exactly what you're doing. Well, I suppose you could. It might be quite entertaining, but maybe wait until this one has finished processing.

Scott (Keeper): She says, pointing at the glowing sphere.

Other Gracie:  Before you kill yourself. It'd be a waste, otherwise.

Jack: Waste? Processing? What are you talking about?

Gracie: Can you let me out? I'm stuck in a big circle.

Freddy: Yeah. Could you possibly put yourself in the body of the man in the lobby and bring our friend back?

Other Gracie: Who's in the lobby?

Freddy: Somebody who was very interested in you, I think.

Other Gracie: Oh, is my beloved downstairs? Is he alright?

Freddy: What's your beloved's name?

Other Gracie: Oh, you'd probably call him Dr. Pratten.

Freddy: Yeah, I think that's who it is.

Gracie: I saved him with medicine.

Freddy: Yeah, actually, the woman whose body you took over without permission, she saved your beloved and a bunch of other people, too.

Other Gracie: I think you'll find that she took my form. Not that I'm complaining. I must check that he's alright. I'm sorry. Forgive me,

Scott (Keeper): She says, and she starts heading to over towards the stairs and going down.

Jack: Well, she's incredibly polite for a body snatcher.

Freddy: Jack, we can't let her out of the tower. Remember what the guy said.

Jack: I know, but what about Gracie?

Freddy: You saw how she was with the people on the bus.

Jack: She saved most of us.

Freddy: Would she save us?

Jack: Yes.

Gracie: I can hear you.

Freddy: Alright, listen, we'll save Gracie first, and then the three of us will... Maybe we'll find a crystal console upstairs and we can lock the door or something.

Jack: Ok.

Kat (Gracie): Can I look down at my body? What do I look like down there?

Scott (Keeper): Like a marble statue of a woman in white robes.

Freddy: Jack, you go stop the sorceress from leaving, and I'm going to go check on Gracie.

Jack: How about we switch roles?

Freddy: Do you think you can handle that by yourself? Because I'll follow the sorceress just to make sure that nothing bad happens.

Jack: Yeah. Yeah. No, I think you're better off with the sorceress, and I'm better off saving Gracie.

Freddy: Ok.

Jack: You're good at distracting her and, and that.

Freddy: I think the new Gracie liked me a little bit better. What do you think?

Jack: Yeah, go with that.

cuppycup (Freddy): All the smiling. *laughs* I'm going to try to sneak down the stairs behind Gracie's physical form.

Danny (Jack): I'm going to run upstairs.

Scott (Keeper): So Jack sees as he makes his way up onto the top floor that this is a larger room than all the others. It looks like it's maybe about twice the size, and you realize that's because you're in the inside of the fist. There's this great domed roof overhead and it's wider. And there in the center of it all is this stone statue that is shuffling around. It looks like a stone carving, about eight feet tall, of a woman with fairly pretty but static features, two empty black holes where her eyes should be. She's standing in a circle that has been engraved, slightly raised in the white stone floor, and you can see that there's a bit of blood and meat as well, on the ground just by her feet.

Jack: *uncertain* Gracie?

Gracie:  Yeah, I'm feeling a little bit taller.

Jack: Yeah...

Scott (Keeper): It's disconcerting, because her face doesn't move, her lips don't move. The voice is just coming from somewhere.

Jack: Well, yeah, you're a statue. I don't know if you know this.

Gracie: No, I noticed. Yeah, a bit obvious. I'm not quite sure what to do about it.

Jack: And there's someone downstairs who's pretending to be you.

Gracie: Well, tell her to stop it. It's not very nice. It's very rude.

Jack: Freddy tried that. She's going to go meet up with her old husband or something, but... Look, can you come downstairs?

Gracie: I can't. Look.

Kat (Gracie): And I look down, but I can't really gesture because I can't really move. But I'll try to gesture.

Scott (Keeper): Now that you're getting the hang of it, you're actually able to move really quite fluidly now, now that you've got the hang of the fact that you're made of stone. It's pretty much as responsive as your flesh was.

Kat (Gracie): Oh, can I lift my leg and step up?

Scott (Keeper): You can try, but you still can't step over this barrier. It's like just this energy that's surrounding it and you can't even put your hand through it.

Kat (Gracie): I feel like there's some kind of forcefield. I feel like we've gone from Lord of the Rings to Star Trek.

Gracie: If there's a button that you can press, that'd be great.

Danny (Jack): Is there a button?

Scott (Keeper): There is not a button. And as you're looking around for a button, you can hear a voice from the floor downstairs saying,

Stranger: Doc, I think I'm almost ready to kill you now.

Jack: Bollocks.

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!