007 - Bounty Hunters - Shell of a Man

Content Warnings
- Missing People/Disappearances
- Corpse/Body Horror
- Death Threat

[Show intro plays]

ROVER

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Remains To Be Seen, the DnD show where one group's past could determine the other group's future. I am your host and dungeon master, Rover Elliott, and today I am here with...

ANNIE

Annie Ruby, she/her.

ELIZABETH

Elizabeth Simpson, she/her.

Jo Mendacium, any pronouns.

MIRA

And Mira G, she/her.

ROVER

And who are you guys playing today?

ANNIE

I'm playing Josie.

ELIZABETH

Corwin. Corwin Duvall.

Viktor Valthayne.

MIRA

And Una.

ROVER

And for us, it is a new recording session. Which means we're gonna have to kind of do a bit of a bigger recap, and see that we all still know our knowledge. So, let's see...Annie, would you like to give a little recap of the previous episodes?

ANNIE

So, I will start from the beginning of last session, after we had already met our entire group in the London underground, the bounty hunter sector. We received a mission that we needed to get to Oxford to look after Jonny de Rolo, the crown smith who has gone missing, who is also a friend of several people within the bounty hunter organization.

We hop on a train to get there. While we are in the train, weird shit starts to happen as we are trying to just chill. We hear some talking of people that sounds suspicious in a car near us, saying things like, "I refuse to take part in this." And things like this. We see someone suspicious passing the car, who's in business clothes with silver hair. And then there's some tapping on the roof that we hear. Train hits a tunnel, stops dead, power goes out. After arguing about it a bit, whether to go toward the front of the train where the dents in the roof were going, or to the back of the train where the person with the silver hair was going, we go toward the back, toward the exit of the tunnel, so that we can see what to do here. Josie wins out on that argument. Hehe.

Once we hop off the train, there is a dead man being...or what appears to be a dead man being puppeted along the top of the car by something invisible. Viktor shoots it with an arrow, and it turns around and looks angy and then disappears. As well as several of the other entities that we saw on the train are all vanishing and disappearing, causing people to hallucinate things, saying weird shit in their heads. And everyone's taking psychic damage except Josie, who's just standing here going, "Guys. C'mon."

[Laughter]

Okay! Okay!

ELIZABETH

Valid.

Okay, Josie! I hear you.

ANNIE

So...I'm not egging Ro on, I promise. I (laughs)...After we hop back onto the train from there, Una is hearing some whispers in her head, and has a private moment that you, dear listener, have heard, and we have not, with our dear DM. And look forward to the outtakes of Liz and Jo and I talking to ourselves for 15 minutes during that time.

I don't have to cut that anymore!

[Laughter]

ANNIE

Yeah exactly! But anyway, while we are trying to heal up there and figure out what is happening with everyone else, and figure out what just happened with the figure on the roof, we pull into Oxford and we see a poster for Jonny de Rolo's shop, Mechanics Incarnate, which says "temporarily closed."

Around 7, we go through the streets of Oxford, which is full to the brim of all kinds of religious folks, and Corwin is hiding from them, and tries to hide behind Josie and realizes Josie is also hiding from them.

[Laughter]

We get to Mechanics Incarnate. It is chained up. Una says, "no problem." Unchains it.

[Laughter]

We go inside and search the place. It's full of various automaton—I almost wanted to say animatronics, close enough—and...(laughs) we start to search for evidence—

MIRA

How considerate of you!

ANNIE

Yeah! (Laughs) We start to search for evidence of what happened to Jonny. We find an envelope addressed to him in a fancy script that seems suspicious, but there are no contents of that envelope. And we find some figurines of a bunch of people in the bounty hunters, and that shelf, it is discovered by Una, has a pressure plate underneath it. But while we are searching downstairs, while Josie and Una are searching downstairs, Corwin and Viktor go upstairs, hear into the apartment above the shop, that was Jonny's apartment, hear someone rustling around in the master bedroom. Poke their heads in, find a Halfling loading down his arms with what looks like stolen stuff. So they jumpscare this poor man, and it turns out to be the father of the missing individual, who had every right to be there when we didn't.

[Laughter]

Maybe?

ANNIE

We spent some time confronting him, getting some information about Jonny and what he was up to, and how we had recently visited Manchester to see an old professor of his and work on some research. And then, immediately before the session ended, Una saw, almost simultaneously, some suspicious pressure plate mechanics around the shelf that is in the shop, and also a suspicious-looking Tabaxi, the description of which I did not write down, out in the street watching all of us inside.

ROVER

The orange Tabaxi that was also on the train.

ANNIE

Oh, it's the same one! That's right. Yes.

ROVER

It's the same one, yes!

Damaged our paladin real good.

ROVER

Yeah, exactly!

ELIZABETH

Rude.

ROVER

I think everyone has, to clarify, I think everyone has seen the Tabaxi on the train. The only thing that happened extra with that is that Corwin took 11 psychic damage cause of this creature.

How? No idea. You know? We'll find out. That remains to be seen.

Oh, shut up now.

ROVER

No.

I mean, I'm sorry, what?

[Laughter]

ROVER

So, we are picking up from the exact moment: we have Una finding the pressure plate, and we have Una also seeing the orange Tabaxi waving from outside and then moving around a corner out of sight.

[Shop ambience begins: Mechanical clicks, whirs, and ticking]

ANNIE

And everyone else is upstairs.

ROVER

And everyone else is upstairs with Marcus.

MIRA

I think Una would just kind of kept on staring in the general direction where she's seen the Tabaxi, just to make sure. You know when you're like, just literally looking at something for a few moments without blinking. Kind of trying be like, "ah, did I actually see this. I think I did. Right." Without facing away from it, she would call out to upstairs, like,

MIRA [as UNA]

Are you guys coming down?

[Silence]

[Continued silence]

We died.

MIRA [as UNA]

I guess not!

[Laughter]

ELIZABETH

Silence.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Do you need us to?

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Everything okay?

Jump cut to—!

MIRA [as UNA]

Yeah, um...yeah, just when you're ready!

JO [as VIKTOR]

What…

[Rhythmic ticking and whirring of a clock]

ANNIE

I think Josie's gonna go and head back downstairs. We've basically finished talking to Marcus at this point.

ROVER

Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like Viktor is giving Josie...like, Viktor's not doing well. I just remembered that. We ended last episode where he was having a mild panic attack because Manchester was men....fuck me. Manchester was mentioned too many times.

ROVER

Mmhmm.

And he's still sort of leaning against Corwin and not necessarily very perceptive or present right now.

ROVER

While, when Marcus sees that you guys are gonna go downstairs, says quickly,

ROVER [as MARCUS]

(Stammering) Can, can one of you help me bring some stuff to the carriage? It, it should be out of the back. It's a bit of a walk, but...it would be nice. I don't know if I can carry everything...

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Can you guys assist him while I help Una? While I check in with Una?

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Yeah. Of course. Of course. Yeah, absolutely. Anything that you need, Marcus.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Yeah.

ANNIE

Okay, so Josie's going to head down and check in with Una.

ROVER

Alright. So Marcus will give you guys sets of clothes that he has from Jonny's closet. Kind of some stuff—portrait, not really a portrait, it's this photograph of Jonny together with Brian, Nyx, and Safra, on a picture. With Safra actually looking somewhat content with her life.

Sleight of hand. (Laughs) I wanna nick that picture.

MIRA

(Laughing) Oh my god.

ROVER

You can have it! Like, he puts it on the clothes that he gives you. So if you want to nick it...

I want to pocket it without Marcus noticing...so I feel like it's a roll.

ROVER

Okay, give me Sleight of Hand.

Yeah yeah yeah.

ROVER

Absolutely, give me Sleight of Hand.

Oh, it's not my best skill, actually.

ROVER

And then we'll move to downstairs.

Ahh...17.

ROVER

Gonna see if he notices that.

[Dice clacks]

Ha! No.

[Laughter]

That was a 2 on the dice. He's too busy grabbing other stuff, and he leads you guys through the side door down to the alley towards a carriage. So we have Corwin also going with that group? Or is Corwin staying with Josie and Una?

ELIZABETH

Corwin will be going with that group. She'll be wanting to help Marcus.

Don't leave me alone with the sad man, please.

[Laughter]

ELIZABETH

Corwin will be pointedly staying near Vik, just kind of, considering Vik's anxious, kind of, ness.

Did you see that I nicked the photo?

ELIZABETH

Actually, great—

ROVER

Roll me a Perception check.

ELIZABETH

(Laughs) Perception is not...

You have to beat a 17. Oh yeah, oh no, yeah Corwin...just doesn’t see shit.

[Laughter]

[Dice thunks]

ELIZABETH

Okay, so she didn't just bunk it, but it is only a 13.

ROVER

So probably not, no.

Yep. Nope. Amazing.

ELIZABETH

Nope.

[Fast mechanical ticking, whirs, and dings in the shop resume]

ROVER

Okay, so when Marcus passes Una, he does a quick nod of,

ROVER [as MARCUS]

(Stammering) You're, you're supposedly with this group. Don't really have the time for it. Thank you. Thank you so much.

ROVER

And he's just rambling, and walks.

MIRA [as UNA]

Pleasure.

ROVER

So with Corwin and Viktor going with that group, we have Josie and Una now downstairs.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Alright, see anything interesting while we were up there?

MIRA [as UNA]

Our friend from the train?

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Which one? Silver hair?

MIRA [as UNA]

Orange Tabaxi.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Mmm. Okay. Where?

MIRA [as UNA]

Right there.

MIRA

And points in that general direction. Like, the alleyway thingy, whatever that was.

ANNIE

Yeah, it was like out the front window, to the side, right, kind of thing?

ROVER

Yeah, out the front window, to the side. You can't see them at this point anymore, and they are, they are not in sight.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Okay, which way did they head? They stepped away?

MIRA [as UNA]

Just vanished, really. Waved. Smiled. And vanished. So...

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Don't like the sound of that.

MIRA [as UNA]

I'm kind of mad at myself I didn't notice them sooner.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

There might be a reason that you didn't. They might not have been there till you were looking. Do you know what I mean? Considering the way they made their exit previously, there might not have been anything to see till you saw them.

MIRA [as UNA]

Also...I've noticed this.

MIRA

And Una would lead Josie toward the shelf with the pressure plate and the figurines. And just like,

MIRA [as UNA]

I didn't touch it, cause I...something was telling me not to mess with it by myself. But I wanted to give you guys time upstairs in the meantime.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Probably a safe idea, but good eye here. This is definitely...if there's something in this place to be found, that might have information not previously available to us, it would be through something like this. So...we'll wait till the others get inside, and then we should try and puzzle this one out.

[Ticking and whirring stops. Evening ambience begins, with crickets chirping and sounds of a horse]

ROVER

Okay, so when you guys drop the stuff in the carriage with Marcus, and then he leaves with the carriage. He just takes off.

[Horse hooves clomping on stone]

So Corwin and Viktor can go back to the shop if that's immediately what they want?

ELIZABETH

I think as we kind of turn to go back to the shop, while we're outside, Corwin’s just gonna,

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Are...are you alright?

JO [as VIKTOR]

Evidently not. But...it's going to be alright. I'm not going to be a burden.

And he kind of...I come closer, more conspiratorial, I guess? Like,

JO [as VIKTOR]

(In a low voice) If you tell Josie about this, or anyone back at the Wanted Dead, I'm going to strangle you myself.

And then he heads back inside. They...I don't know if Corwin perceives this. No, actually, I'm not going to explain his actions.

[Laughter]

ELIZABETH

As you go back inside, Corwin's gonna kind of, like,

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

(Sharp sigh) I wasn't worried about you being a burden.

Ah!

ANNIE

Awww.

Wait, wait.

[Dice clunks]

I rolled a natural 1 on my Perception check. I have no idea that she said that.

[Laugher]

MIRA

Mmm, must have been the wind!

ANNIE

As far as you can tell, Corwin's talking shit about you.

No therapy for us today, guys!

ROVER

So...both of you guys get back into the shop.

Yeah.

ROVER

Everyone is now together again.

[Ticking and whirring, and occasional dings resume]

MIRA

Good. It's dangerous times to be separate.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Marcus has left. He seemed like he wanted to take a load of stuff back to his, his house I guess.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Alright, well Una says we were...we had another sighting of our Tabaxi friend from the train outside, but...

MIRA [as UNA]

Mmhmm.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Oh.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

But he stepped away immediately.

JO [as VIKTOR]

What, that little piece of shit that brain blasted Corwin over here?

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Great.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Yeah, with the fucking, the Mercy mask. Yeah, you know the one.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Yeah yeah yeah.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Just saw them for a second. They waved, so they're clearly, they clearly are aware of us, but they've gone now, so...something to keep an eye out for. But pursuit seems unnecessary at this point.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Right.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Great. Love that.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Same. I'm very uncomfortable about it, but, you know. (Sighs) It's someone like that who can pull a disappearing act like that twice, on a whim, is going to choose the time and place that we get to confront them, not the other way around, I have a feeling. Best we can do is be ready.

Actually...Ro.

ROVER

Hello.

Would Josie and/or Viktor, maybe, through knowing, you know, wanted posters, kind of—

ROVER

Mmhmm.

Have they seen that Tabaxi before?

ANNIE

Good call.

ROVER

Good call!

My brain is working today, guys! I'm happy to roll, by the way.

ANNIE

Yeah, roll for it?

ROVER

I will let you guys roll, I think, History?

ANNIE

Okay.

ROVER

I will have the DC be pretty high, though. We're looking at, at least a DC 20.

[Dice thunks]

I don't think we have...Viktor's definitely a no.

19.

ALL

Oooooooh!

Yeah, guys.

[Dice tower clacks]

ROVER

There's something that says most likely yes, however, no, not really. Not specifically.

ELIZABETH

The Tabaxi has a face fit for a wanted poster. You just don't know if it's ever been on one.

Yeah yeah, no for real. Guy looks sus enough to be on one of those posters!

ANNIE

Yeah!

ROVER

Yeah.

Okay. Okay.

ROVER

What did Josie roll?

ANNIE

A 6.

Fuck!

ROVER

Okay, so Josie has no idea at all. For Viktor, it's literally the point of, like, they were wearing a mask.

Ooh.

ROVER

You're so certain that if they were not wearing a mask...you just have that feeling that you would have.

Okay.

ROVER

So that's currently that.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Remind me, did we finish looking through all of these papers?

ELIZABETH

She kind of goes and walks and gestures, kind of, to his desk, and is kind of idly flipping through whatever papers are on the desk.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Well, I have a feeling if there's anything important, it's going to be behind secret number 2 that Una has discovered while we were having our chat.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Oh?

ANNIE

And kind of gestures to Una to show them.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Oh?

ROVER

I will also mention that, Corwin, when you're looking kind of through that, you will most likely also see the envelope there.

MIRA

Oh, that was empty, wasn't it?

ANNIE

Yeah.

ROVER

Yeah, the envelope was empty.

MIRA

Yeah, okay.

There was shit written on the envelope, right?

ANNIE

Just his name.

ROVER

His name was on the envelope, yes.

MIRA

Just the address.

ANNIE

No other information.

MIRA

Open mail. Yeah.

But, I mean, if it's in handwriting, we should maybe take it.

ANNIE

Yes. Yeah yeah. Well, we should take it. We're gonna take everything.

I'm a hoarder guys. I want all the loot and all the information.

ROVER

Okay.

ANNIE

Particularly for things that are written on paper.

MIRA

Oh! I have an idea.

ROVER

Oh? You have an idea?

ANNIE

Oh?

Okay!

MIRA

But, ah, it's about analyzing handwriting, which Una is able to do.

You are?

ANNIE

Oooh.

MIRA

But it needs to come up...I don't want to just be like, "we're totally taking the envelope and Una is doing this thing right now!"

No, no...I was assuming that you have a forgery kit, right? Or something like that?

MIRA

Yes. Well...

I mean you are a rogue.

MIRA

It’s easy...easy enough to make.

ELIZABETH

Well, and you also have the Scribe background, right?

MIRA

Yeah. That's why...

ANNIE

Well, we should, as Josie was saying,

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Well, Una, if you could show them what you were showing me about the shelf here...we have a little bit more to investigate, but we should pile everything up together and make sure that we're thorough before we move on from here. And then we really do need to think about where we're going to stay the night. There is an apartment upstairs, so maybe we don't need an inn.

MIRA [as UNA]

Mmm, that would be good. Although knowing that our other friend knows that we are here...would you think that's a safe place?

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

He's gonna know we're anywhere. I don't know if it's a safe place or not, but it depends on how we all feel about fortifying something like that. And it depends on what we find with this shelf.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Well I mean…also they followed us here. I feel like they might have means to follow us without us noticing.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

My thoughts exactly.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Yeah. Sorry.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

So wherever it is, I just...I don't know if this is the best spot or not, but wherever we choose needs to be somewhere defensible, no matter what. So we can make that call once we're done with this shelf, but, ah, what is this pressure plate?

Yeah, like, kind of points to the big ass front windows, like,

JO [as VIKTOR]

I'd rather see my enemies coming, you know?

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

We have the elevation upstairs, too.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Eh.

MIRA [as UNA]

Oh, that's fair enough. But, speaking of that other section I found—it may be leading somewhere, I guess? There is this pressure plate, and the figurines. One of them actually looks like...

MIRA

The Tiefling was Nyx, right?

MIRA [as UNA]

One of them actually looks like Nyx. If you actually look at it closely.

ROVER

It does. It does, yeah.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Yeah, there's a...

ROVER

You wanna take it?

MIRA

If Viktor is reaching out, I would slap that hand out of the way so quickly (laughs).

[Laughter]

Okay, what the fuck?

MIRA

I am not blowing up on your account (laughs).

Get 15 feet back then!

ROVER

Oh, to remind you, the pressure plate was under a Dwarven statue.

Yeah!

ANNIE

Yes, yeah, not under the Nyx one.

MIRA

Nevermind! Knock yourself out. (Laughs)

This has happened. This has happened now. (Laughs)

ANNIE

Yeah. I will also, I'm gonna mention while this is going on, I'm gonna point out to Vik, I have, oh in terms of the notes about the people that we recognize on the shelf here, the only one that I specifically have other than that there's Nyx there, is that there is a quote "middling attempt at a Safra figure."

ROVER

Yeah, there is.

ANNIE

I'm going to point, I'm going to point to the Safra and go,

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Vik, check this one out.

[Laughter]

MIRA [as UNA]

As long as there's no pressure plate underneath, you can do whatever you want with it.

ROVER

It isn't.

He pulls out the picture he just stole (laughs), and is like,

JO [as VIKTOR]

I'm having so much fucking blackmail on her by the end of this day. I thought this was the worst day of my life. It's getting fucking better.

And I'm going to nick the Safra statue as well.

ROVER

Okay. Add those to your inventory

Okay, question, cause it's important for me. Mira, did Una slap Viktor's hand or not?

MIRA

Well no, cause Una would know that the pressure plate was not under those figurines.

Okay.

MIRA

Where me from three weeks ago probably forgot. (Laughs)

ELIZABETH

Valid.

Good for you. (Laughs)

MIRA

If she sees the pressure plate and she knows what it is, then no she would not slap you.

ROVER

Are you guys doing anything with it?

MIRA

Well, if Viktor is actually showing, like holding the picture in clear view...

ROVER

Mmhmm.

MIRA

I would start looking if any of the other figurines resemble Brian and Jonny.

ROVER

Jonny, like a figurine of Jonny isn't there...let's see, actually.

I'm holding the picture in front of you.

ROVER

Let me roll a d4, and I'm gonna see...if it's a 4 or a 3, I will say Brian is also there.

[Dice clacks]

He is!

ELIZABETH

Aww.

ROVER

There's a figurine of Brian also there. Quality is better than the Safra one, but not as well as the one of Nyx looks. Like, it has some scratches and stuff.

MIRA

It was intimidating to look at Brian to take the...to take the likeness of. (Laughs)

ROVER

Yeah no, he...it is almost, you know, it's like even the statue doesn't want to look at you.

MIRA

(Laughing) That's what I mean. It's so much less intimidating.

ELIZABETH

My heart!

JO [as VIKTOR]

I mean, you all just arrived, but do you think the nose is slightly off?

Pointing at the Brian figurine.

JO [as VIKTOR]

It's almost there when I squint? But then, it's kind of not Brian?

ROVER

Basically that, yeah.

MIRA [as UNA]

Right, so that might be Brian. You just took Safra. Nyx is obviously over here, but who is this in that case? Do you recognize that Dwarf?

MIRA

And pointing at the one over the pressure plate.

[Ticking and whirring continues]

ELIZABETH

Yeah, I was gonna say, do any of us recognize the Dwarf, Ro?

ROVER

I will give...hold up. I'm gonna give Viktor the chance to roll, once again high DC, stuff. I will say...no, let me just, let's just do Viktor for this one. Cause it's not, it's not very knowledge...

Ah, History again? Or...?

ROVER

Yeah, let's do a History.

(Laughing) Natural 20.

ELIZABETH

Let's goooooo!

I feel like I am not going to roll a 20 when it matters. That brings me up to a 25.

MIRA

It will matter now. I promise you.

ROVER

It is...I will say you've maybe...cause Viktor speaks sign language, right?

Yeah, in Common. Yeah.

ROVER

Yeah. So when you've been to Nyx's shop in the Wanted Dead, she will have talked to you a bit about the works that are being done there, work with Jonny...

Yeah.

ROVER

And he has a Dwarven assistant in the shop that works there from Mondays to Fridays, whenever Jonny is not there. So his name is Krillis. And...yeah so, his name is Krillis, and he works in the shop from Monday to Friday.

Okay. Well, what fucking day of the week is it now?

ROVER

Tuesday.

But like, middle of the night, so...

ROVER

It's like evening, let's say 9pm ish.

ELIZABETH

Also, do you come into work when your boss is missing? I don't know.

MIRA

That's a good point.

JO [as VIKTOR]

I don't know. My boss is not missing because my boss is Safra. Good fucking luck kidnapping that girl.

[Laughter]

ELIZABETH

Vik do you…ah, does Vik share this information with the class?

Yeah!

ELIZABETH

Oh, cool cool cool.

MIRA

In the meantime, as a fluff, as a flavor thing.

ROVER

Yeah?

MIRA

Can...would it be alright with Vik if Una was to actually take the picture out of his hands, and just have a closer look at it?

Yeah, sure. He's not...it's not his most prized possession now. It's more like, Safra looks different than he knows her, and his plan was to annoy her, but it's not like, he's not going to be like, "No. Don't take it from me."

You know? You can take it.

MIRA

I have a question to DM. To be very specific...

ROVER

Mmhmm.

MIRA

Is it a photograph, or is it a painting?

ROVER

It is a photograph.

MIRA

Okay. So Una is gonna just take a very long time looking at it. Kind of like...

ROVER

Oh! Yeah, no! Yeah, no, you're correct!

[Laughter]

Woah, I completely forgot! Yeah, it's a photograph. Which is something you have never seen before. So yeah! If you're trying to spot the differences, you're going to find a lot of them. You're like, "why are there no brush strokes? Like, what is..."

MIRA [as UNA]

Yeah, like it's so extremely detailed, wow!

MIRA

I'm guessing it's the typical size of a photograph? Like, whatever...yeah. So it's small?

ROVER

Yeah, I think it's...I think A3 is the right term for it? I think A3. A3 or A5.

MIRA

Yeah.

ROVER

I don't know. Which is the smaller one?

A5.

MIRA

Yeah, A5.

ROVER

Okay, then it's an A5. Yeah. A5.

Do you say anything about that aloud?

MIRA

No, Una would not say anything. Once she takes the picture out of Vik's hands, she would probably be looking at it, and be like, proper to the—well, there's no light. We didn't turn the light on so she actually can see. Why! Yeah, just turning it, looking at it. But she wouldn't really make a comment. Maybe raise an eyebrow. Doing the motions of getting it closer to her face, at the angle, but she wouldn't say anything out loud.

But you're being weird about it! You gestured a lot just there. (Laughs)

MIRA

Yeah, but you were also busy.

Yeah, that's true, that's true.

[Mechanical ticking, whirring, and dings in the shop continue]

ROVER

Ah, Corwin?

ELIZABETH

Corwin is not busy. Oh, I was just gonna say, Corwin is not busy.

[Laughter]

Corwin's like,

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Una, notice…what are you looking at? Is there anything, anything weird?

MIRA [as UNA]

It’s just very detailed. I mean, it's weird to not see much color, because obviously, new thing to see in the dark for me. But...just a lot of details for such a small painting. Like, it's remarkable.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Well, photography’s come along, I mean, leaps and bounds in the last couple—wait, did you say painting? Oh, it's not a painting. It's just a photograph.

MIRA [as UNA]

Oh!

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

I mean, it's a pretty bog standard photograph, really.

MIRA [as UNA]

Is that like a...like a new way of taking on the likeness? Or…?

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Define "new."

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Yeah, I wouldn't really say "new." I mean, it's...I mean, looking this good is...

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Newer than painting.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Yeah, newer than painting, I guess.

MIRA [as UNA]

That's remarkable.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Have you never seen a photograph before? I guess they're not all that common, but...

MIRA [as UNA]

Well, in newspapers and such.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Okay, well...I mean…

MIRA [as UNA]

And wanted posters and stuff like that.

(Whispering, strained) Insight check!

[Laughter]

ROVER

Actually, yeah. Give me an Insight check everyone.

I'm fucking popping at the edges here.

[Dice clacks]

MIRA

She's not lying though! That's what she's seen!

[Dice thunks]

No, no no no. It's less about lying. It's more about...

ANNIE

Yeah, it's not to see through deception.

ROVER

Making the connections.

ANNIE

It's to understand...yeah.

MIRA

Yeah, sure sure sure sure.

ELIZABETH

That is a, that is a natural 1 for Corwin, who is trying...

Oh!

ELIZABETH

Corwin is trying so hard to bond with Una, that all she wants is to be like, "yeah, let's bond over how cool photography is." (Laughs) And she's not noticing anything.

Aww. Sweet baby.

ANNIE

19.

18.

ROVER

I would say the two professionals—

[Laughter]

—are kind of, you guys are getting to the point where you're like, "hold on, if it's been decades since this has been a slow thing. It's not as if this started five years ago and suddenly there's also color. Like, black and white photographs have existed for a while.

ANNIE

Yeah, this...photographs have existed for at least our whole lifetimes. Probably longer.

ROVER

Yeah.

ANNIE

So I'm definitely, Josie's definitely making eyes at Vik, like, "Uhhhhhhhh."

In my mind, it's Corwin and Una in the middle, in this dark room, and just Josie and Vik looking over them, making eye contact, being the math meme.

ANNIE

Like the Always Sunny meme. Of Mac and Megan and Charlie across the restaurant.

(Laughing) Yeah! And he's like,

JO [as VIKTOR]

(Silently) The fuck is she talking about?

Like, Viktor is mouthing these words, not saying them aloud. But like, "what the fuck, Josie!"

ANNIE

Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah.

MIRA

(Laughing) Instant Message to Josie. "What the fuck?!"

ROVER

Are there people also doing anything in the meantime?

I'm here. (Laughs)

ROVER

For real.

MIRA

I just would like to point out to anyone listening...yeah. To anyone listening, and wondering why did Una not make that question earlier: because in newspapers and wanted posters, they would have been done with an ink method, rather than a photography being taken because you need to print out the words as well.

ROVER

Yeah.

ANNIE

Yeah.

MIRA

So that's why it would not look the same.

ELIZABETH

Oh, okay, that makes sense.

ANNIE

Yeah yeah yeah. It would have looked like something more comprehensible.

That's delightfully nerdy that you just said that. (Laughs)

ELIZABETH

I love that.

I love this.

ANNIE

Anyway.

ROVER

Are people doing anything?

Investigation? Can we...I want to check whether the fucking pressure plate is going to fucking kill us with Disintegrate or something.

MIRA

Yeah.

ROVER

Okay, cool.

ANNIE

Specifically, yeah, what Josie's going to do, and I would recommend Una do this as well, as above the table, but is check the, without touching anything, or touching as little as possible, see if there's any wires or anything going into that pressure plate, and if so, where they lead.

Okay. Whoever's doing that, I would just help.

ROVER

Okay.

ANNIE

Like a Disable Device check or whatever, kind of thing.

MIRA

Yeah, I mean, I can just give—like, trying to take the attention off of that, like "that's interesting," give back the picture.

ROVER

I will say that, I will say, without even a roll, you can see that there are no wires or something connected to it.

ANNIE

Okay.

ROVER

It seems to be this rotating pressure plate, what the stand is in of the Krillis figurine. And it looks like, if you're able to rotate it, something will happen. What Una has also seen is that there is a slightly dented-in piece of the floor under the stairs that the others just went up, too.

MIRA

Mmhmm.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Do we just want to twist it?

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

I, um, should I cast Detect Magic on it? See if I can tell anything about what it might do...

MIRA [as UNA]

Or you all just back away, and I'll twist it. Saves you some of your magic.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

We can also just say "fuck it" and let them, let her do that. But that's, you know...

ROVER

(Whispering) Let it, let it just happen so that I won't have to look at my notes for magic...

ANNIE

Alright, fine. Yep. Yeah yeah yeah.

I don't trust you, Ro.

[Laughter]

ANNIE

Josie's gonna look over at Vik and be like,

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Ah (sighs). Okay, fine. Whatever. Whatever. Whatever.

ANNIE

And just back up.

Viktor is readying Spare the Dying.

[Laughter]

ROVER

Okay. Who twists it?

MIRA

I will twist it. I will sacrifice myself.

ROVER

Okay.

MIRA

Here we go, guys. Does it work in the way of actually pressing it only, or is it pressing and twisting?

ROVER

Pressing in and then twisting it. Yeah.

MIRA

Okay. So I would do it extremely slowly, extremely cautiously, extremely carefully, please, thank you.

[Laughter]

If I need to dodge out of the way, I want to have a chance to do that.

ROVER

So the entire shop blows up. You know, kaboom. Campaign over.

Oh, well.

ELIZABETH

End of campaign.

ANNIE

Woohoo!

ROVER

So, at the bottom of the stairs that they went up, there's this kind of da-dunk.

[Heavy thunk]

[Scraping of stone]

And a piece of the stone floor slides away into the wall, and it leads down into what looks to be stairs into a basement. You can see a couple of stone steps in a spiral going down.

ANNIE

And you said this is over by the stairs, to the upstairs apartment?

ROVER

Yeah. You could go upstairs, and then under those stairs, there was the pressure, ah...piece of floor, basically. Yeah.

It is dark down there as well?

ROVER

It is dark down there.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Guys I think, out of all of us, I can see farthest in the dark. I should go first.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

You're also pretty squishy.

MIRA [as UNA]

How about we just…

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

I don't know how far we're going.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Hey, how fucking dare you. (Laughs) Say that with your chest, Josie!

[Laughter]

Slaps you, friendly slaps you on the arm, and just goes downstairs. (Laughs)

[Shop ambience fades away]

MIRA

I was about to roll a pebble down it just in case!

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

We're already going! Aarghh!

ROVER

Okay, no, Viktor goes downstairs. Okay.

ELIZABETH

Yeah, Corwin is right behind him. Like right on his heels.

ANNIE

Yeah, we're stacked up on the stairs, yeah.

Yeah.

ROVER

Understood. Yeah, so…

MIRA

Can I be last?

ROVER

All good. Nothing will happen, I can assure you.

I don’t trust you.

[Laughter]

ANNIE

Okay! Okay. Okay. (Laughs)

ROVER

There is, once you follow the stairs down, you get into what looks to be this very small storage room with a door in the middle of it that is cracked open, and there's light coming from that room. The storage room is basically, just…there's cleaning supplies there and stuff. It’s nothing important, what is down there. However, the door that is open—there is light coming from that.

ANNIE

Can we hear anything past that door? If we hold still for a sec, can we hear movement or anything?

ROVER

You cannot hear movement or anything.

Viktor looks over his shoulder, and just fucking shrugs—

ANNIE

Yeah.

And opens the door. (Laughs)

ELIZABETH

Yeah.

ANNIE

Yeah, Josie's gesturing at the door with, like, an "After you."

MIRA

Yeah, I keep an eye at the back. That's all.

ROVER

Once you open the door, there is this...you're looking at a, like a 50x50 room. There is bookshelves along the walls with boxes of mail, accounting files in ring binders. And at the end of the room is a Halfling-sized table with books and letters all over the table and the floor, surrounding a chair with, on that chair, what looks to be a humanoid, gray creature sat looking down at the papers. Seems to be Halfling-sized.

ANNIE

Moving?

ROVER

Not moving.

Does it look like The Mummy? Is it, like...?

ROVER

It is like you're looking at a stone statue sitting on a chair.

Oh! Okay.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Um, hello? Hi?

I am standing in the doorway. I see that shit, standing in the fucking doorway, immediately hands on the doorway, and being like,

JO [as VIKTOR]

Whatever you read, don't read it aloud. Don't read it alone. Stone guy, not good.

ROVER

You only see the back of it, by the way.

Stone back? Not food. Very unhealthy.

[Laughter]

Like, I'm sorry if my acting is not there, but I'm trying to convey, Viktor's like, he knows about that shit, like exploding runes and shit like that.

ANNIE

Yeah.

He knows that power lies in words. He does not want you to read anything unsupervised.

ANNIE

It's very much Vik's domain.

In case it just hexes you.

ANNIE

Yeah. Josie is, instead of the morningstar and the shield, Josie's going with the quarterstaff out, the Druidic staff out.

ROVER

Mmhmm.

ANNIE

And sort of holds it in front before she enters the room so she can try to do something defensive or whatever…

ROVER

Nothing is happening.

ANNIE

If anything happens. But yes, we are now proceeding with caution to investigate the room, I would say.

Yeah.

ROVER

Okay.

MIRA

I'm not stepping in.

ROVER

Give…

ELIZABETH

Yeah, I would say…

ROVER

Mmhmm, no, continue.

ELIZABETH

I was gonna say, if we're going into the room, cause I know Vik was blocking the door, so as soon as Vik is not blocking the door, Corwin will go and probably kneel in front of the statue, and just kind of,

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Hello?

ROVER

So, when you're walking...are you walking to the side of it, where you can see their face, basically?

ELIZABETH

Yes.

[Low, resonant hum begins]

ROVER

What you see is, where there should be a face is just this broken, giant hole in the face—

Ahh!

ROVER

—that you can look into the statue. And the head seems to have been kind of tilted down, and there is nothing. It is just what seems to be a shell of what used to be a humanoid, looking down at something, what should have been in their hands.

ELIZABETH

And there's nothing in their hands?

ROVER

Yeah no.

How is this a horror podcast again?

ROVER

Welcome to Remains To Be Seen.

[Laughter]

You can clearly tell for now, from the picture you've all seen, this is Jonny.

ELIZABETH

(Squeaks)

Oooh, no.

ROVER

This is the definition of a shell of a man, sat looking down. Papers and books scattered across the table and on the floor, and it seems like maybe there was some kind of wind in this room that maybe strew the papers away.

ANNIE

Josie is immediately in business mode, and is gonna go,

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Alright, Corwin, step back from the statue, keep your distance a little bit. Don't read a single word on anything that is written in this room. That is Vik's job to tell us what we can and cannot look at. Una, stay out there, keep an eye on it. Vik, you've got the lead here. This is very much your type of thing.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Got it.

Can I, above table, Ro, ask a question.

ROVER

Yes.

How well did Viktor know Jonny? Because we have not established that. (Laughs)

ANNIE

Yeah.

MIRA

How much trauma do you want to give Vik? (Laughs)

Yes, exactly. What is his reaction?

ROVER

So, let's do a little bit of a background story. How long has Viktor worked at...how long has Viktor and Josie worked at the Wanted Dead?

Ah, one and a half years, for Viktor.

ANNIE

Josie's worked for about three, was the last that we settled on. And I'm gonna say that, specifically, Josie would have taken a very strong liking to Nyx, so Josie would have known Jonny.

So does Vik, yeah. He very much likes her.

ANNIE

Because, not just big cool lady, you know but also, fellow Tiefling and stuff, so Josie is in there like swimwear. So…

ROVER

Yeah, if you've spoken to Nyx a lot, you've also seen Jonny quite a lot around. Definitely for Josie, Jonny's been around for a while. A good while. Let's say, at least 20 years. You've only been there for three years, however, you know that Jonny has like...

ANNIE

Lifer.

ROVER

Jonny was always there.

ANNIE

Yeah.

ROVER

And Nyx was his best friend. Brian was, like, kind of this brother figure for him. Definitely Josie will have seen him a lot. Viktor will have seen him a couple times around, because he's only there on the weekends. And if you were either out on missions on weekends, then you will probably not have seen him. There's also some days where Nyx's shop was closed, where Nyx was working with him at his office in Darlington Palace. But yeah, you guys will have seen him around enough in the past years that you've been here.

I think it would be for your guys' characters own to decide if you would have talked to him. He's very much like his father, however his voice is a little bit more high pitched. He's very bubbly. He's very energetic. He is all over the place.

ANNIE

I think that Josie would…I think that Jonny…I want to make this a heavier scene for Josie. I think that Josie is, has specific memories of showing up, you know, when she joined the bounty hunters, she wasn't intending to stay, she was intending to use it to make some money to get out of...to get further and further away. And Brian was one of the people she befriended that convinced her to stay, that gave her something worth staying for, but the first people who brought her out of her shell would have been Nyx and specifically Jonny. Because she gravitated toward Nyx because Tiefling, who is also quiet and kind of not socializing that much and everything, but Jonny was there to bring Nyx out of her shell, so Josie was also kind of brought out in that way. And made to befriend the others by Jonny specifically, so...maybe didn't know him that well, but feels like she owes a lot to the guy.

ROVER

I will say that you will have known that, with—we did an improv question before we did this—you will have known that he would always get this specifically Halfling-made whiskey that he would always get at the Don't Go Inn, and he would always also be around Teresa and stuff.

ANNIE

Yeah.

[Low, resonant hum continues]

On the outside, Viktor is a very sociable person—yeah, socialized person, whatever. But he...it's less, it's less of him making deep connections, and more about him knowing who's important to who. So I don't think he was very close with Jonny. I don't think they've talked a lot. It was more on the surface level, kind of, whatever banter Viktor's doing at the Wanted Dead.

But I think he knows that Jonny meant something to Josie. And he sure as fuck knows how much Jonny meant to Nyx. And he just watches Josie's back for a moment, and then quietly...quietly starts to cast Detect Magic as a ritual to see if there's anything, any book, any scroll, any shit in here we have to be aware of that could hurt us. And also what type of magic has affected essentially the remains of Jonny de Rolo.

ROVER

Okay, so you're casting Detect Magic for that?

Yeah, as a ritual, so it takes 10 minutes.

ROVER

Okay. Explain to us how you cast Detect Magic.

Oh no, the light is—the light is on!

ROVER

There is one light, yeah, and it's a lantern on the table.

Oh. I'm very sorry about everything. Viktor raises his left hand, with the black ink-looking markings that reaches the first knuckle of his fingers, and it kind of seeps out into the air and pulls the shadows of the things around to him,

[Short, echoing, high-pitched sound]

so he can basically look at their imprint on their world, I guess? To determine whether they're magical, or what type of magic it is. It's very visual, though. Like, my guy is doing the thing where shadows are dancing around you. But ever-so-slightly. It's not like a big, flashy thing, but it's, I think, noticeable.

[Laughter]

ELIZABETH

That is so cool.

Thank you!

ELIZABETH

I love that so much. That's insane.

[Low, resonant hum continues]

ROVER

There is no magic around.

Not even on the body?

ROVER

No. Nothing. It seemed to have been a...the magical effects that would have been on this body will have faded at this point.

Oh.

ROVER

If there has been any in general.

Alright.

You're looking at something...you don't know what he was holding. It seemed to have been, if you're looking at the hands, it seems to have been small, paper-sized. Yeah, what Josie and Corwin, I think you two were the ones that saw the envelope? I'm unsure if Una did as well. Did Una also see the envelope?

MIRA

I know that she was looking through things at some point. Yeah. She didn't just take it.

I think we all talked about the envelope. Yeah.

ANNIE

Yeah yeah. I think I told Una about it, if not everyone else. So...

ROVER

Okay, yeah.

I think Corwin has it, but yeah, we talked about it. Yeah.

ROVER

It could have been something that was in there, that was small enough that at least fit in that envelope. And what has happened with it, you have no idea. Genuinely no idea. With no magic at all. There's no magic in the room, it's just papers and books and accountancy stuff.

He stops Detect Magic, looks at Josie, and is like,

JO [as VIKTOR]

I can detect no magic, no spell, nothing that has done that to him. Do you know any creature that could? Because I mean...basilisk and shit like that are a thing.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Well...what that tells me is that we were too late no matter what. So this happened a very long time ago, and whatever it was is not present to be a threat to us. So we need to figure out everything we can while we're in here, so that we never have to set food in this fucking room ever again.

JO [as VIKTOR]

Right, it's not about something that could happen...I'm sorry. It is not about my concern of getting hurt. It is my concern to fucking understand what happened.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Exactly. But as long as we know we can't get hurt, we can actually look to understand what happened. So let's do that.

ANNIE

What I'm saying—basically, what Josie's trying to get at is, whatever did this to him, ain't in the room with us now. It was either destroyed in the act, or removed from the room, hypothetically. If you're not seeing it on magic, she's trusting you with that, so she's saying, "now let's find out every other piece of information that is in this room. I want to know fucking everything, and then get out.

Yeah. Above table, Viktor is trying so hard to have the Druid roll nature on that motherfucking corpse.

[Laughter]

And he's here like, "Yes Josie, I understand."

ROVER

Before we get that, I want to know, Corwin—you were the first person that saw this.

ELIZABETH

Yes. I think that Corwin was going to...she's kneeling in front of the corpse. I would love to roll some sort of Investigation or Medicine. Something—

ROVER

Yes.

ELIZABETH

Yeah. Basically, she…her family are artists, so she's seen a lot of plaster casts, that sort of thing. So she's trying to figure out, is this a corpse, or is this something else, where Jonny might still be alive.

MIRA

A cocoon, maybe.

ROVER

Roll me…

[Dice thunks]

Is there a difference in modifiers for you for Investigation and Medicine?

ELIZABETH

Yes. I get a +3 to Investigation, a +2 to Medicine. I just rolled a 19 on the die, so it will be either a 21 or a 22.

ROVER

Oooh, okay. No, okay.

[Laughter]

MIRA

Pick one. (Laughs)

ANNIE

Good good good.

ROVER

You know what? It's fine.

Well done, Corwin.

MIRA

Good job.

ROVER

I will actually kind of combine those.

Ooh!

ROVER

This is...the sight of it are literally kind of the same as if it would be...it could be as thin as what just an eggshell could be. Like, this is a husk. It doesn't seem to be a corpse. You can see the entire body, you can see the details in it. You can see the details of the clothes that he was wearing. And there's nothing significant on it. And there's cracks from the face—yes?

ANNIE

Would you use the word chrysalis?

ROVER

Chrysalis? Remind—what is chrysalis?

ANNIE

Cocoon.

MIRA

A cocoon. For a butterfly, for example.

ROVER

Ah, sort of, yes. However, it has been very focused on almost the part of like...it’s…something has taken his being. It is not like this is a full-blown corpse or something. It's not like the corpse has turned to stone. It's not like when you crack the stone, there will be an actual body in it. You're looking into what could be the face of him, and the cracks...the one thing that you could see left from his face is the significance of just an eye open in this...instead of it being shock, it is intriguement that you can see. He was, in that moment, in the last moment that he was looking at it, intrigued with what he was looking at.

ELIZABETH

Interesting. Yeah so...

ROVER

But yeah, he's not...it's not a dead body, basically.

ELIZABETH

Okay. So Corwin is just going to be very still, kind of fists balled up,

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

He's not...this isn't Jonny. He's, he's not...this isn't a corpse. I don't know what it is, but this isn't a corpse. This isn't the end.

ELIZABETH

And then she's gonna stand up and kind of back away to give Josie and Vik some space to go closer if they want to. And Una.

ROVER

Mira, go for it.

MIRA

Right, I'm still standing outside of the room.

ROVER

Yep.

MIRA

You know, observing the shadowy fireworks that Viktor was doing. I'm guessing what Corwin said might have happened before the shadow thing? Cause Corwin was the first?

ROVER

I think so, maybe.

MIRA

Can I see a method of closing this space from the inside? Cause we got in here with a pressure plate. Is there a way to close this. Is there like a release button, or anything like that? Cause Jonny either got in there, closing himself in that space, or—

ANNIE

Or someone else was there.

MIRA

—or someone else was here. And got out.

ANNIE

And had to leave. Yeah.

MIRA

And locked him in here.

ELIZABETH

Smart.

Oh! Sherlock Holmes.

ANNIE

Yes.

ROVER

There is no pressure plate or lever from the inside.

ANNIE

Very smart.

MIRA

Okay, second thing! Can I look up on the ceiling? Can I have a look at the ceiling? Is that okay? (Laughs)

ROVER

You could, yeah! You could have a look at the ceiling? Sure?

MIRA

Literally just looking at the whole room because...if I'm hearing the body might have not been...he's now a bootiful butterfly, or probably a haunted spider, pick one.

[Laughter]

The way you said it? Mmm, fabulous. 10/10.

MIRA

You're welcome. A bootiful butterfly.

(At the same time) A bootiful butterfly.

ROVER

You can absolutely look at the ceiling, however, I don't think you'll find much in the ceiling.

MIRA

I mean, Una would just be looking…

ROVER

What are you looking for?

MIRA

Well, as she was looking for any way to lock this from inside out, no—is that how you say it? From inside in?

ANNIE

From inside, yeah.

MIRA

Yeah. She probably would have been looking literally everywhere, like ceiling, walls, before stepping into the room, in that corridor. Then, eventually, walking in and just proper looking around. Viktor did say out loud to everyone that there's no magic to be detected with what he's done? Okay.

ROVER

What I will say with you actually looking around with that, you don't have to roll for it—you can see that the door between the storage room and this office room could potentially be locked. However when you guys walked in, it wasn't. It was open.

MIRA

I'm confused with the architecture. We are downstairs.

ANNIE

Yeah. There was a storage room, then another door to the office where we found him.

ROVER

Yeah. Yeah.

It's like two rooms, essentially.

ANNIE

So there's stairs, and then a room, and then a door, and then the room that he's in.

Yeah.

MIRA

My apologies. Okay. So yeah, Una would have been walking through, looking at all of those rooms**,** looking for whatever. A release catch, or something like that. And then she would just say out loud,

MIRA [as UNA]

I don't...whatever either got out of Jonny or got him into this state, they left him here. They locked him in here, with whatever has done this to him. And the question is...

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Someone else was here, you're saying?

MIRA [as UNA]

Well, the question is, where is…whatever Jonny might be, what happened to him? If it's not a corpse, and it looks like something...how I'm putting this together: something got out of Jonny. Jonny might still be somewhere, in whatever shape or form. The door was locked.

ANNIE

Josie would like to roll Nature or whatever else you want, Ro, to see if she can determine anything about the cocoon nature of this stature, and also specifically—there was a roll that you had me do on the train, that got me to notice that the dents on the roof were giant spider footprints.

I am checking for the same thing here, having already been prepared for the idea of spiders.

ROVER

I think that was Nature. Yeah. Absolutely. Roll me a Nature check. Go for it.

Yeah, let the Druid roll Nature. That was, like, Viktor’s been waiting for this.

ANNIE

Yeah, I mean, you say that, but I put the...I put the part of the backstory where the Druid thing comes in into Survival, not Nature. I have a zero in Nature, so.

[Dice clacks!]

Oh! I have +3 on Nature. Should have known. Oh well.

ANNIE

17. So not bad.

ROVER

17. So if you're, with Nature, inspecting like, the, I'm gonna call it a body for now, because it's easiest.

ANNIE

Yeah.

ROVER

It's not...it doesn't look like, as you can see from the stone, maybe even the inside, nothing seems to have dented it in a way that it could have been something that crawled out of it. Nothing spiderlike in general.

ANNIE

Okay.

ROVER

It seemed to have been made and then cracked from the outside, not from the inside out.

ANNIE

That is one of the things I was going to check—

ELIZABETH

(At the same time) Oooh.

MIRA

(At the same time) Mmm.

ANNIE

—so very good to know. So it was punctured inward.

ROVER

Yeah. It is not like there's any kind of, like, the things that you've seen? It doesn't seem to be anything like that. However, with all the rolls that you guys have made throughout this thing, because I've just realized that...if Corwin told you anything about weird magic that was not like the others, you could kind of determine that, if there was any magic used, it might have been something like that.

ANNIE

Oh, with the Undead that we didn't recognize?

ROVER

Where it was like, Undead but Not Really.

ELIZABETH

Ooh.

ANNIE

Mmm.

ELIZABETH

Oooooh.

ROVER

It could have been something like that, however, it's an effect on something. And there's no explanation for it in whatever book that Viktor would have read, in whatever part Una came from, from whatever part of paladinhood Corwin came from, nor Nature, where Josie came from, or Survival, either.

JO [as VIKTOR]

What the fuck have we gotten ourselves into?

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

Has anyone seen anything like this before?

JO [as VIKTOR]

No.

ANNIE [as JOSIE]

Alright, look. I can't tell if anything was inside of this, but whatever happened to it, once this was created, it was punctured from the outside inward, and there's nothing natural about it whatsoever. So I'm suspecting that we're looking at the...whatever the mystery magic Corwin felt on the train? For that thing on top? We're looking at something similar here. But this one's not a spider. I don't know what else to say about it.

ANNIE

And, Ro, would…would now be a time that Josie is thinking back on Redacted, a bit? With mystery magic happening?

ROVER

It doesn't feel similar. It feels like something else. However...

ANNIE

Great.

ROVER

It's not...how am I going to explain this without saying too much? From the parts where you come from, where you grew up—

ANNIE

Yeah.

ROVER

With what people you interacted with, it is nothing from that side of it.

ANNIE

Okay.

ROVER

You can tell.

ANNIE

Great. That is very good to know. And Josie will keep that shit to herself, then.

MIRA

The last part? Okay.

ANNIE

Yeah, just the very last part.

Okay, that would just be the time where I said my piece about, after you explaining that—I am so sorry that I kind of jumped the gun there.

ANNIE

No, you're totally fine!

Where Viktor is just like, not afraid, but just on the verge of where...you know?

ANNIE

Mmhmm. Yeah.

Where you're kind of like...

ANNIE

On edge.

And he's like,

JO [as VIKTOR]

What the fuck have we gotten ourselves into?

Directly at Josie, because she just explained that shit. (Laughs)

ROVER

Can I open the floor for, is anyone checking whatever else is in this room? I just need to know.

MIRA

Well I was this whole time! That's why I was looking around!

ROVER

Okay! Una!

[Laughter]

ANNIE

Well, except Una, you were out of the room, though. You were specifically saying you were not in this room.

MIRA

No, I was walking in after the shadow stuff, I said.

ANNIE

Got it, right. So that's where you are now. Good.

ROVER

So, we're looking at, there seems to have been the accounting files that have been mentioned in the previous episode. There seems to have been papers, books—no one has looked at that yet. Feel free to do that. Feel free to take, like, what part do you want to investigate? There's papers on the floor, there's stuff on the table, there's stuff in the bookshelves.

MIRA

I would like to investigate the papers on the floor, cause I'm guessing they are scattered?

ROVER

They are scattered.

MIRA

But, why—?

ROVER

It seems to...

ELIZABETH

I was gonna say, just so Ro has like a map of what we're all gonna do, if you're looking at the stuff on the floor, I think Corwin will probably move over to look at the stuff on the table.

ANNIE

With those covered, Josie's gonna go over to Vik to have a conversation real quick, and the idea is: after we can have a talk, then we'll split and check the shelves.

MIRA

Perfect.

ROVER

Okay. I will do the investigating first, and then I will get back to your guys' conversation.

ANNIE

Yeah.

ROVER

So, on the floor: there seem to be a lot of sketches. You're looking at blueprints for mechanical body parts, you're looking at weaponry blueprints. There is even a...give me a Perception check.

[Dice clacks!]

[Low, resonant hum continues]

MIRA

That would be...is that a 9? That is a 9. That would be 15.

ROVER

Okay. There is, in between all of the papers that you can find, a very quick, rushed-made sketch of this mechanical heart...that you will have, like you've read the parts of the newspaper that was in the thing.

MIRA

Yeah. Mmhmm.

ROVER

And there is this...how to describe it? There is this drawing that he started and didn't finish. There is, like, pencil stripes on it that feels like he was writing it that moment, and then something happened, and then the paper fell.

MIRA

Ooh. (Gasps)

ROVER

He was drawing what looks to be half of a card. Like, rounded edges, it's not the same as the photograph, it looks to be like half, one half of a card. But there's nothing on it. It seems to just be empty for what it has been drawn, but he's drawn the side of it. And it's like this...it should have been colored, and he did not really have any colored pencils there. It's just like, if you would just a card diagonally in half, it's basically just one side of it. And the bottom part is not there. Because he wasn't finished drawing.

MIRA

Right. So it would have fallen to the floor, yeah?

ROVER

Yeah.

MIRA

Right, so that means he was doing it on the desk.

ROVER

Yeah.

MIRA

I know that Lizzie is looking at the desk, so I'll wrap it into that. I'll pick it up. So yeah, what's actually on it? Like I understand it's half of a drawing, but of what?

ROVER

Yeah, so it's half of a drawing of what seems to be a card in connection to what...I was going to say Lizzie...Corwin finds on the table, cause that will immediately connect the dots. There are books there. Books that are owned by the Solar Bastion. Books that are about tarot cards.

Oh!

ROVER

There are books there about the Deck of Many Things, that he has been interested in, and they are strained all across the table. There's pieces of paper that both of you can find, where he seems to have been tapping on it, and there is this one note where he's mentioning, like:

"He said something. What is the last thing that he said? Why can I not remember?"

Aaaah!

[Distressed noises]

MIRA

That's on the table? Oh god.

ROVER

And then there's one single...there's one single word, which was like,

"He mentioned someone named Alloric."

And that's all you can find on the piece of paper.

MIRA

On the one that I'm holding?

ROVER

Yes. And then the books are the ones that I just said that are on the table.

MIRA

Right. So, if that’s…

ROVER

With that connection, you can tell that it might have been, like, that he was drawing maybe a tarot card.

MIRA

Right. But it's not finished on that paper.

ROVER

It's not finished.

MIRA

Okay. Una would take it, like obviously investigating it, reading all of this...

ROVER

Yeah.

MIRA

Take it to the table where Corwin is, and straightaway look at any other clear stack of papers, and/or whatever would have been used for drawing, if there is a neat stack? Or would have been...what I'm trying to get at: can I find the stack on which he would have been drawing, so I can see the rest of the drawing as an impression?

ROVER

You will...ooh, that's a good one.

(Laughs) Ro's like, paper does not exist in this world! What are you talking—

[Laughter]

ROVER

No, buh-bye paper.

MIRA

Paper? What's that?

ROVER

Repeat what you're looking for again, cause there was a lot said.

MIRA

So you know how you would…I would just explain what I'm trying to get at.

ROVER

Yes.

MIRA

She has the piece of paper, or the card, I guess? Cause you were saying...

ROVER

Yeah yeah yeah yeah. It was, like, this A4 paper, and he's trying to draw what the card looked like on the paper.

MIRA

But then that drawing is not finished.

ROVER

It's not.

MIRA

And it's kind of like half of it's missing at the bottom. So is the piece of paper actually sliced, or is it actually just normal-sized...

ROVER

No. It's an unfinished drawing.

MIRA

Okay. Unfinished drawing. What I'm trying to get at is, if he had it resting on something else, there would have been an impression of whatever he was trying to draw in the thing below. And that's what I was trying to get at. Can I see, potentially, any stack of papers that would have the rest of that as an impression?

ROVER

It doesn't. There's nothing. There's nothing that finishes that.

MIRA

Fair enough. Does his handwriting look very hastened, on that piece of paper?

ROVER

It does. It very much does. It's like he’s, he might have been trying to do some research on this thing that he was holding, and he just, there's papers, and on the papers you can clearly see that he's trying to remember stuff. And there's even a copy, which Corwin will have found on the table, a copy of the newspaper again. And where he is just, he has tried to connect the dots somewhere, and he can't find the connection.

And he's been drawing, and he's been trying to figure it out, and probably what you're thinking is that he was drawing, something happened, the paper dropped, which caused the pencil lines on it, and then held on to what he was holding. And then this happened.

MIRA

Right. Very last question. Very, very last question.

ROVER

Yes.

MIRA

Cause you said the drawing of it, he started drawing potentially a tarot card.

ROVER

Mmhmm.

MIRA

What tarot card?

ROVER

You can't determine it. Cause it was un-finished.

MIRA

That's what happens when people start only drawing the borders!

ANNIE

Yeah, right?

ROVER

Yes, it is also blank.

Unfinished, unlike the art of our podcast, drawn by Kit. Yay!

ANNIE

Yay!

ROVER

It is totally, does not look like that, however, there's nothing on it. Where, in tarot cards where on the middle part of the paper there should be something on it? There's nothing on it. It's just the sides, and the inside seems to have been blank.

MIRA

Okay.

ROVER

And what the name of the certain card is, you cannot see it.

MIRA

Okay. So Una would, obviously, she picked it up, walking toward the desk, just put it on the empty space of the desk, if there is one. If there isn't, she would just hold it. And just present it to Corwin, and be like,

MIRA [as UNA]

Does that...tell you anything? I can't really say I make out much of that unfinished drawing. It looks like a card, potentially?

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

I'm not really familiar with tarot, but there's—

ELIZABETH

Ro, you had said there was, like, books on the Deck of Many Things and on tarot?

ROVER

Yeah. Yeah.

ELIZABETH

So she will probably kind of gather those books together and hand one of them, probably the tarot one, to Una.

ELIZABETH [as CORWIN]

There...there are these books? I mean, the Deck of Many Things and tarot could both be related to this drawing. Maybe he's left some notes in here?

ELIZABETH

And she'll kind of start flipping through, probably, the Deck of Many Things book, looking for any dog-eared pages, any notes, anything like that.

ROVER

Can I have a Perception check from everyone first?

Everyone? Oh.

MIRA

I swear to god if something is in the room.

[Dice clacks and clunks]

Ghosts. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

ANNIE

Yeah, exactly.

MIRA

I was looking! Ah, Perception? That is a 25.

[Laughter]

Get yourself a rogue in the party.

ELIZABETH

I love you, Una.

ANNIE

Yeah, really.

ELIZABETH

That's a 13 for Corwin.

ROVER

13?

That is a 12.

ANNIE

19.

ROVER

And I will say the 19 and the 25 can hear, from upstairs, glass breaking.

[Glass breaks]

And voices coming through. And the last thing that Una will have heard is, like,

ROVER [as INTRUDER]

Be quick. We need to get this. And then we leave. Understood?

ROVER

And that is where we're gonna end the episode for now.

ANNIE

Woohoo!

ELIZABETH

Ooh. Oof!

MIRA

Woah. Okay.

I cannot believe we are in a room full of books, and Vik didn't even get to look at them. I'm upset! I! I am upset!

MIRA

He's emotionally troubled right now! He's emotionally troubled.

ROVER

So what happens next, to continue finding out what Josie and Viktor wanted to say—

(Laughs) Before they die.

ROVER

—before we had, before the timer, find out in next week's episode, the Bounty Hunters of Remains To Be Seen. I'll see you then. Buy-bye!

ALL

Bye!

[Show outro plays]

ROVER

Remains To Be Seen is an original podcast created by Dyaflame Studios and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution non-commercial share-alike 4.0 international license.

Today’s episode was produced by Anusia Battersby and edited by Rover Elliott and Jo Mendacium. It starred:

Elizabeth Simpson as Corwin Duvall
Jo Mendacium as Viktor Valthayne
Annie Ruby as Josie
Mirah Fae as Una
and Rover Elliott as the Dungeon Master

The intro and outro was composed by We Talk of Dreams, and the transcript was written by Elizabeth Simpson.

To get in touch with us and keep up to date with our antics, follow us on Instagram, BlueSky and TikTok @ DyaflameStudios or view our website at www.dyaflame.com

Check our show notes for additional credits, links and transcripts.