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Find exclusive new episodes from shows like Where the Stars Fell, The Call of Cthulhu Mystery Program, and Civilized. Plus early access to new episodes of Midnight Burger. All still entirely ad-free. Previously on our Mask of the Red Death one-shot. You four have been invited to the secluded manor of Prince Prospero on the winter solstice for a grand Yule masquerade.
This region has also recently been haunted by a mysterious illness known only as the Red Death. But then you see too, with the angle of how the door is open, that it extends inward, that there is more illusions, more hidden things just beyond. And then I dance into the door. Do the three of you follow? Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. I can't resist. A secret closed or left ajar door, which is... With no handle. No handle. This secret room is a library. And this library...
is dimly lit until, you know, Madeline walks in. And you see towering shelves filled with books bound in cracked leather and aged vellum, their spines green, orange, white. Violet, gleam faintly in the flickering candlelight. I invite the four of you to roll Perception. Eight. Eight. Twelve. Seventeen. You gotta keep with the dance. And Annabelle, what did Annabelle roll? Seventeen.
Okay, 17. Great. And then Lenore, you rolled? Eight. Okay. I got three eights? I was 12. But still bad, so it doesn't matter. Well, William. This is what you notice. I will say, at this point, Madeline is just so ensconced in making sure that this is well lit and maybe humming a tune to herself. showing as if it were a swinging sensor of incense she's just like swaying the canapé back and forth as if that would like please the shadows dispel the roots
And Lenore, you're hearing just the excited whisperings of, I like these friends that we have. Look at what she's doing. That you're just completely... annoyed and distracted by that. William, though, you notice that Despite the added light, despite all of Madeline's efforts, you still see sun shadows that stretch across the floor. And in such a way that it casts a single window shrouded in black velvet tapestries that lets in.
from that only a pale sliver of moonlight. The panes there, as you kind of push it to the side, you see the panes of glass are scarlet, a deep blood color. And you smell behind you the scent of old parchment and dust filling the air, mingling with something sharper. Perhaps faint traces of dried herbs or medicinal tinctures. And above all that, a heavy silence hangs over the room. The sounds of the gaiety that is happening to the main party are muffled.
And you don't often rely on your imagination, William. It's logic. It's reasoning. And yet you can't help but almost believe as if the books themselves are holding their breath. Annabelle. As you flit about the room, you see here and there strange tomes that seem to be pulled halfway off the shelves, as if recently disturbed by unseen hands. And in one of them... you see a few notes jammed into the center of the pages, as if holding a part of the book to be read for later. Ugh.
This is a party. Someone has been spending their time in here reading. That's what makes me so sad. They should be dancing and canapaying. I take the book off the shelf and hold it out to William. Yeah, you see, this book on itself delineates strange medical practices. It's a journal of past plague outbreaks. And then... Next to it, almost falling off the floor, as you pull this one out, you see this book on immortality. But still, as makeshift bookmarks, you see these sheaves of paper.
ripped off pieces of parchment, honestly, peeking out from on top of the closed book. Oh, well, I'm definitely going to open the book, but I'm also going to gesture to that window that has turned red to point it out to Annabelle and ask, is this something that you sensed? Oh, I'm going to turn and look at the red window. You see the window and you kind of walk up to it and...
How would you examine it? Like, what would you do? What gestures would you make? What basically are you just standing there kind of squinting your eyes looking or do you want to do anything else? No, I think I approach it and. Like lay a hand on the medallion on my chest and then the other hand about an inch from the surface of the glass and just trying to see if I feel anything off of it.
You don't feel those same tendrils. You don't feel that red death in the immediacy of this window. You feel it far beyond from the reaches of the countryside where you're coming from. But as you kind of put your hand a little bit out forward, you kind of pick at it with your finely manicured finger and you notice it's paint.
It's been painted red. I think this is purely decorative. This is not the red to fear. I think it's just an aesthetic choice. Oh. How embarrassing. I should have realized that myself. But I was too distracted by this book. And I opened the book. Here's the reason. I promise. This would normally never happen. This never happens. So would anybody like to look at these scraps of paper? Or do we want to burn them? Too curious. Maybe I'm just picturing, you know.
I'm in the Beast's library for Beauty and the Beast because obviously that's the dream library of all people. Is there like a settee or something that I could or a desk where I could lay it open and we could all. Or anybody who wants to can come take a look. There's a small table with four mahogany chairs, highly tufted and a little bit wider than usual, gathered around it.
And then you see also a fainting couch near the red painted window. Yeah, I would love to put the book on the table and then maybe pull out. maybe one of my daggers or something to flip the pages carefully. So I'm not like, you know, flipping through it, grabbing paper. I want to make sure I see exactly where these pieces of paper are and what they're, what they're marketing.
Definitely. As you do that, your honed dagger gently opens the page that had been stuffed with these notes. And you see it is a page of... detailing a specific outbreak of a plague that sounds very similar to what's going on now. And you see parts of the page have been scribbled with... An elegant script, though, but still scribbled with notes underlining and circling. images of the blood on the face and you see the hours until death and you note how he has been keeping track of
versus the one that's going on right now. And it seems that it's a faster acting one than the one detailed in these pages. But then looking at the notes that have been shoved in, you see three of them. They are scribbled. The first one, let's say, I'll say Madeline, you pick this one up, and Madeline, you read. Yours says, you know you're getting older when he starts looking younger. Let's see. Lenore, the one you pick up, just says three.
Weird words. Seeing is believing. And then finally, Annabelle, the one that you pick up says, I think like reading those words. Annabelle just stares out of that little scratch that she made in the red window like through the actual clear glass. Can you imagine anything as tedious as immortality? Everybody thinks they want it, but they don't think about what it would be like to outlive everyone you love and have to start fresh again. Oh yes, exciting the first 10 or 12 times, but...
20, 30, 40. What a curse. Well, it depends if you are living in service of yourself or in service of others. Perhaps. And you see Madeline has gone over to the window and maybe like the bit of paint that was scratched off, she wants to like rub that between her fingers and see if there's anything... Interesting or noteworthy about the pigment itself or the substance. You can roll investigation or survival.
They're both the same. But that's an 18. Oh, lovely. You know that this is just paint, but the way it... seems to crumble. There's almost these flecks of more of rust colored things in the paint. Perhaps blood. Things that perhaps you more than anyone would recognize. And as you lift it to your nose and smell, you feel a faint hunger there. It almost like it lights a little bit of your thirst.
Yeah, and you see as she grabs it between her forefinger and her thumb, smells it, and just from that smell, you see the canines almost, like, elongate a little bit. Would you try to hide that? Would she try to hide that? I'm assuming that this party is perhaps aware of her dampier vampire cursed ass lineage and so she'll just turn around kind of try and get it under control and go.
This is not ordinary paint. How not ordinary is the paint? On a scale of one to ten. I could enjoy a glass or two. Okay. Vintage? Can I determine what vintage? There are certain things I just want to give you. I don't want you to have to run more. The little bit that you tasted isn't really vintage at all. It's a little fresh. Fresh. Free range. Herbie. And she'll go, I suspect the people in this house may not be as safe.
As the finest man would like us to believe. Hmm. I suppose safe is a relative term. Safe for whom? Do we know anything about these guests? Roll history if any of you want it. So if you ever want to like recall, it's like, would I know something about this? I encourage it. Roll history. Ten. The worst of the rolls. Yeah. Perfectly in the middle. Fifteen. Nine for me. Oh, God. One. Ooh. Feed us false information. Your raven is just so distracting. Who am I?
Where am I? I have just landed on the planet. It's fine. In fact, I would say Lenore wasn't even really invited. The raven picked up the... It was actually meant for someone else and got excited. It was the raven. We just kept tapping on something. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. This whole time Lenore's been the familiar, really. Everyone loves the raven. Annabelle.
You would know that the people here are the nobility, the ones who have been so far... rather separated from the worst of the red death that is gathering. you do know that they are all from within, like underneath Prince Prospero. So if he is like the main ruler of this area, that they are lords and ladies. knights, people of renown that are all from within the area. But you did note, kind of with a ryaness in your mind, that
None of these people would have really felt the true effects of the Red Death before now. Well, we could be present at some kind of a... Balancing. All the guests here, they wouldn't have been exposed. They've been putting people between them and the sickness. But that's not how it works. Death takes its toll from whoever it pleases. Maybe it brought them here to collect its due. Only when it has access to them.
And Madeline will peer out the window. Like, what's on the other side of the window? Is there anything odd about it? Or is it just the outside? No, it's rather pastoral. Snow is falling very merrily. A breeze whips by so that you can see the snowflakes almost dance as they go by. And as that breeze flows by outside, you, Madeline, you also feel a breeze on your ankles. Something that kind of...
Lifts up the skirts a little bit. Some air that is running along more, running along closer to the floor. I look down to see if I can ascertain where it's coming from. You see your skirts kind of flowing in one way. And so if your eyes follow the direction that this breeze seems to come from. you see a tiny crack in the wall between two shelves and as your eyes continue to follow that line of the crack it starts to look rather rectangular
There, there, look. And she'll point the crack out to everyone else and she'll go, is this perhaps a doorway of sorts? Another secret door. Secret doors within secret doors. A secret door within a door? This house is just lousy with secret doors. I love it. My raven will find out if it's a door. Just give him a second. He'll do it. I mean, I can see it from here. That looks just like a door. It's okay, Lenore. It's a door.
Nora, would you like to open the door? And before you do, Madeline will again, minor illusion, like a little ball of light and start dancing with the canopy and humming. Through this door you see a chapel. It's small and dim. bathed in the cold blue light that filters through the narrow stained glass windows and now starting to grow in light as you step through Madeline.
And these stained glass windows you see are depicting saints with hollow eyes and sorrowful faces. Saints that you may or may not recognize. Holly. and mistletoe bedeck the wooden furnishings as if the party is extending tentative fingers to a quieter part of the castle. Now before closing this door, if you choose to, you do spy. another door but william since you had already been looking for this you see that it's one way it is gossamer and clear to look through
And through it you see the party. But you know for a fact in clocking how many feet you were walking before that that is merely a wall. It is a one-way door. And through that, William, you spy the prince with a group of pale courtiers by his side. He's speaking in a muffled way. You cannot tell what he's saying, but you do see the group rushing to keep up with his deliberate and stately steps toward the far end of the room as he's gesturing to a pedestal with a thick...
velvet damask covering something in a globular figure. Now I invite all of you to roll investigation or religion. We're in a chapel. Why not? A solid like 75% of my skills are the same plus one. I got a 25. 17. I was very embarrassed by that paint blood on the window. I'm really going to try and step it up for now. Also 17. So for William, that was investigation? Yes. Did anybody do religion? I did.
Madeline will do religion. I'd do religion. Okay. Here's what William will notice. You see, William, an altar at the far end holding a silvered mirror fogged with age. its frame inscribed with cryptic symbols that are almost hidden beneath holly and mistletoe the air is thick with incense barely masking a lingering scent of what you notice as decay
Flickering candles do line the walls on this side, casting wavering shadows that dance in unnatural shapes. Now, for the other three of you, what the three of you all note with your religion. is that you start to sense in different ways that this space, though dedicated to light, has witnessed rites hidden from the world outside, rites that you're sensing a bit of darkness to it. Lenore, you are able to decipher painted on one of the walls very freshly.
In that same red paint that was on the windowpaints, you see, painted on there, the red death isn't just a sickness, it's a frame of mind. Madeline. You see, not something to read, but you notice a belt of bells teetering just on the edge of the altar. And as William is looking more closely at this altar, it starts to jingle in an eerie off-kilter tingling sound that seems to bounce around this small alcove. Hmm. Annabelle.
On the wall opposite of the red painted writing that Lenore noticed, you see this on the wall. Just because you can't see something. doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Sorry, just because you can't see something, where was that, like, written? If this were a rectangular alcove, they would be... As you walked in, they would be one to the right and one to the left with the altar dead center. And then...
That one-way doorway that goes to the wall where you can see through but hear only muffled things is the opposite end of this altar. When those bells started... To make sound, can I tell if the bells spread around the room in the ballroom? React to that in some way? Nothing seems to react to it in the ballroom. No, you don't notice. You do notice though looking down at these that they are the same exact bells that were lining the ballroom. Everyone step out for a moment. And I'm...
If we all step out, I want to see if the bells continue jingling. They stop. I'm going to cast Minor Illusion to create the illusion of a person in the room. No. Nothing. And then I step in. How closely do you get to them? About where we were before. You get as close as you were before, and they start to tweak. that tinkle just a little bit. Annabelle, do you... Can you sense the roots or anything here? Definitely something...
is wrong here. The magic, the rituals that were done there have been perverted in some way. Is there anything unusual coming from the bells? Oh yes, you do notice something unusual. This is where the frost of these tendrils strikes heaviest. But what really... catches your attention is that as they tinkle that frost not only grows but a line of red shoots out towards it from a what you can see now across
the room through that one-way door across the hall to another door you see. So it's almost as if every time these tinkle, there is some kind of red root, this tendril shoots out and tries to touch this frosty ball but cannot and is pushed back. But it is originating from some room on the opposite side. of the hallway does it almost seem like i want to make sure i'm picturing this right so it almost seems like that these these uh strikes of cold are knocking away the red tendrils like they're
They're kind of what's maybe keeping something out of the house or out of at least this room. Yes, they're almost like a... They're defending the home, but they're also letting us know that it's close. Yes, every time the red gets close, the bell, it rings.
The coldness emanates from them and pushes it back. And where do you see the roots emanating from here? I'll point in the direction. As you... point Annabelle your hand I would say like brushes one of the like brushes the belts of the of the silver bells kind of making it like ting ting a little bit and as it in almost an answering way, you hear the main clock out in the ballroom chime. And it chimes 10. And as it chimes 10, in an answering silver tinkling bell, a blood-curdling scream muffled.
Still reaching you, pierces the air. And through that one-way door, you see panic. Hi, I'm Kate, and I am the Dungeon Master here, the adventure that you're listening to. I'm the one that wrote it. If you like what you're hearing, you should actually check out my show. It's called Of Mice and Men and Monsters, where we combine classic literature like Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and many more with Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition and...
of course, a lot of homebrew. So come on down and check Omamam out. And once again, that is Of Mice and Men and Monsters. Hey, I'm Carla and I am playing William Dupin. If you like what you're hearing, you should check out my show. It is called Dungeons and Dragons. We're just big dumb idiots that make dick jokes and play D&D, but it's really fun. So if you like that, you should go to dumbdragoncast.com. You can find all the links there, and we would love it if you came and joined us.
Hi, I'm Giancarlo, and I'm playing Madeline Usher. You should check out my show, Dungeons & Drimbus, where a group of actors get together and play tabletop games and try to make each other's lives more difficult. It's a fun time, and if you want to check out our Our most recent season, Yes Chef, just wrapped up where we did a John Wick meets Hell's Kitchen style adventure, and we typically publish every Friday.
Hey, I'm Rev, and I am playing Annabelle Shore. And if you like what you hear, you should check out our show, The Crit Show, which is an actual play podcast where we play Monster of the Week and other Powered by the Apocalypse games, all within the same dimension-hopping story. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Hi, I'm Emily Inkpen, and I'm playing Lenore Ravenshadow. You should check out my show, The Deck's Legacy, a dark political sci-fi adventure set on a far future planet where a weapons manufacturer uses his genetically enhanced adopted children to terrorize them. planet while they find inventive ways to fight him at every turn you can find seasons one and two on all platforms and we'll be releasing season three in 2025.
Part 3 can be found on The Deck's Legacy. Check the show notes for our complete one-shot lineup. where fiction producers flourish. I'm Carlotta Botox, actress, thinktress, and influencer-ess, and I'm spilling all the tea on Hollywood. Name. Carlotta Botox. B-O-T-O-X. Spell the first name. It's actually Botox. B-E-A-U-T-O-X.
Of course it is. First name? Botox is actually my last name. My first name... Okay there, who's on first? I know it's your last name. Now I want you to spell your first name. Oh. Carlotta. It's C-A-R, as in the automobile. L-O-T-T-A. Like, lot of talent. Wow. Just, wow. There's also an umlaut. The f*** is an umlaut? It's two dots and it goes over the... Okay, Carlotta, two dots. Just take a seat over there and we'll call you...
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