Chapter Two: Parlor Tricks | Sagas of Sundry: Darkling Gate | Call of Cthulhu

Greetings Adventurers! Gaming today isn't one thing. It moves between cozy, chaotic, and everything in between. One minute you're exploring something slow and immersive, the next you're in a fast-paced match, and somewhere in there you might be creating, streaming, or just seeing where the session goes. That's why Alienware systems are built with the performance to handle all of it. With NVIDIA GeForce RTX, it delivers powerful graphics that bring every world to life while optimizing battery life. So whether you're playing, creating, or jumping between both, everything runs the way it should. No interruptions, no slowing down, you don't have to adjust how you play, you just keep gaming your way, however that looks in the moment. Be more Alien at Alienware.com/Gaming. Game your way. Kitty Lark knows a thing or two about acquiring and recovering antiquities of dubious origin. A chance encounter in the woods leads to our party, saving the life of the young Charlotte Dartmoor. Her moody uncle, Jonathan, and his close friend, Horatio Whitby, have invited our party back to Longford House to spend the night and escape the oncoming storm. But perhaps they shall soon realize that some houses should not be entered, and some doors should remain shut. Oh, no. Welcome back to Sagas of Sundry, Darkling Gate. When last we left our party, Augustus was off. Deeper in the house, attending to an attack of coughing. We don't know what's going on with him at the moment. He's deeper in the house, deeper in darkness. But I believe that as night progresses, as the darkness of the evening fully, fully overtakes the already dark darkness of the day, Miss Kitty Lark was offering to move about the chambers of Longford House and take a look at the antiquities of the house. and take a look at the antiquities of the house. And take a look at the antiquities on display, some of which she and her father had a hand in acquiring for the former head of Longford House, Cornelius Longford. Yes, we did. So let's pick up there. Almost no time has passed since the last time that we met. No time at all, really. Just enough time to move us out of the. We said we were kind of sitting in a parlor, but it sounded as though, since there was a lot of kicking under tables, it sounds like we may be worried in a dining room. So perhaps we're crossing the hall into a parlor now, and on various little plinths and tables and mantelpieces, you can see lots of objects and artwork nailed to the walls. Please, feel free to take a turn about the room. The three of you are walking in along with Horatio Whitby and Jonathan Dartmoor, bringing up the rear. Perhaps you. You also see in the shadows his servant. They're kind of like moving around in the shadows. Gadsen is also here. Gadsen, Gadsen. The hottest guy. Sleeper hotties. Sleeper hottie Gadsen. He's kind of slumped forward. Did you say Dadson? Dadson? Dadson? But you move into this room. Yes, there's a lot on display here. Yes. And yeah, you're free. Take a look about. Dartmoor kind of moves in behind you. Suppose you had a hand in quite a bit of this then, Miss Locke. Well, yes, we traded this from an antiquity that had just come from the eastern continent. This is a vase from the. Ninth Dynasty? We traded it for something of equal value, but between you and me, we just used that to hold the rice. My, my. Think of the great leagues of distance this has traversed in order to make its way here. Yes, it really, it, it says something about, oh, something about man's quest for knowledge, quest for ownership, or imperialism. Hmm. What have you? I suppose you and your father were the questing sort, or at least the instruments. On the behalf of others. Yes, the instruments. Well, yes. Set out by questing minds, perhaps confined more so than your own. I'm not enough to just set my, my eyes on it all for myself. Indeed. Where is it that one comes across such a piece as this? Did you have this in Cyprus? Turkey? Well, this vase was from the eastern continents, but speaking of Cyprus, this painting on the far wall here, we had actually taken from an old dilapidated church. It had been rolled up and just sort of tucked away in the corner. Oh, my. Oh, really? I really don't, I don't think they knew what it was worth. Hmm. Really? And you look at the painting. The painting that was recovered from, let's say, an Italian church. Yeah. A ruin somewhere in Italy. It shows the signs of its, of its storage. And you can tell why a church might have crammed this into a unseen place. It does not look to be a conventionally religious theme. The picture appears to be of a man holding a harp, moving through this miasma of purplish-black darkness. And right behind him is a shimmering woman in a gaseous, intensely-described diaphanous gown. And she is kind of following him at a distance. The two of them seem to be traversing some, some strange dark cavern. Well, you see, and the interesting thing here is, typically, with most paintings of this era, the halo would be reserved for divine figures, saints, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, the Virgin, the Mother. But with the woman here, we see the mark of divinity. It was almost blasphemous. Um, to, to suggest that, that, that someone such as herself would have been on that ladle of. I was wondering if I should be rid of it. It, I confess, it rather unsettles me, Miss Locke. Can you roll history for me? Yes, I can. Oh. As all good art does. And you can as well. Oh, oh, I see. If you're, if you're tempted to, if you've got a. Oh no, mine is a five. I might know a little. Oh, 98 over 65. Ooh, okay. Not a fumble. But rather a failure. Oh, wait. I have a 30 in history, and I rolled a 33. Perhaps I get a little lucky and happen to know something about this painting. Wonderful. I love what you said, and I think that is precisely true. This is interesting. You're, you're able to kind of appraise these qualities about it, and you definitely have a sense of its value. Uh, it, it's, it's kind of hard to trace when exactly this, this was painted. And I think that's where maybe the failure of this, of this history, role comes into place. It's kind of hard to locate it in terms of when it was painted. That's why it was so interesting. We couldn't place it, raised so many questions. It looks like it probably is the work of some sort of renaissance master, but this, this, this seems like, uh, like a little bit, um, there's something kind of erotically charged about it, to the point where it seems almost scandalous that it would be on display in a gentleman's parlor. Um, are you going to spend your luck? I would like to spend three points of luck to make this a regular success. Ooh. Great. Uh, the regular success, you are able to identify the figures in the portrait. Oh. Um, just based on the, the symbolism of the scene that you're seeing. This, actually, um, Ms. Lark, I think I read a book that, if I'm honest, I don't think I was supposed to be reading that I found in my father's study once. And these figures remind me of some of the characters, uh, people in the book. Yes, this man with a lyre, this dusky-hued scene, this, this shining woman reaching out to him from behind. It looks like it, you'd think it's Orpheus and Eurydice. I think this might be a depiction of Orpheus and Eurydice. What do you think? Well, y-y-you know, I think that could be one, um, interpretation. But with, with art, it, it always remains so subjective. It always, uh, yes, you said Sorelle is, like, Orpheus and Eurydice, yes, yes, yes. Well, you, you know, scholars go back and forth on, on this. On this, like, completely, like, it's just, ahem, ahem, ahem. Because that's the story, right, if I'm remembering correctly, where Orpheus went down into Hades to be reunited or bring back Eurydice. But is this one of those stories where you don't look back, something bad will happen to you, you turn into a pillow of salt? I'm mixing my religions now, but. Just so, just so, just so. So, says, uh, Whitby, um, yes, I do believe that is the way. You are indeed well-read. There's not much else to do, really. Yes, I-- I suppose so. Yes, a rather-- rather peculiar scene indeed. I suppose this may be just the moment before he gives in to temptation and turns around, sending her back. What a strange thing to imagine that one could find some sort of cavern leading to such a place as that, where one could-- one could hold court with Prosopene and Hades himself. Yes, one would need quite the imagination to picture such a thing, I think. And as you kind of look at this kind of odd picture, perhaps you can cast your eyes around, and I don't want to hold you back. You've got this-- this eastern vase. Yes. Anything else? Anything else you recognize in here? I think a jeweled chalice taken from a mausoleum, perhaps in Turkey? Oh, love it. Yes, you see this beautifully bejeweled vessel, and since-- since you brought up Eurydice and all, you notice that there is a lot of Greek statuary in here, too. Little figures broken and eroded by-- by time set up on-- on display. And in fact, even the chalice that Kitty brought back, if you look closely at its gems, some of them have been carven with intaglio or cameo, little figures inside, little Byzantine figures. They're the same sort of classic postures. Um, wonderful. As you-- as you look around, um, I'll just tell you some of the other things in here, unless you have-- please. No, I'm just wondering, wouldn't, uh, Argi be enjoying this? Should we-- Who? Oh! Augustus? Of course. Oh, damn. Yeah. Sorry, I always thought of that. Cold-blooded. Who? Um, I don't know. What? Should we be-- should we go look for him? Should-- should we send Gadson after him, or do we think he's all right? Well, wasn't Gadson? Wasn't you looking after him? Gadson is, like, right behind you. Oh, oh, Snoop, oh. Gadson. Something I can help you with, miss? Where do you accompany Mr. Montgomery? Down the hallway, miss. Yes. Shall-- shall I conduct you thither? Yes, I'll be right back. I-- I'm just going to go check on him. Check on him? Unless-- Right this way, miss. He kind of, like, turns on his heel and goes back into darkness. God, he's so hot. Yeah, sorry. He turns around-- He wasn't breathing at all. He turns around, and I, like, turn to the two of you, and I'm like-- I've described him many times now as holding all these candles, and he rather looks like a candle that's sort of halfway knocked to himself. He's creepy hot. Drooping. Uh, again, little periwig off on an angle. Smack that ass, Mom. Yeah, and he turns around, and you're like, "Dang." Hate to see him go. Love to see him walk away. This house is never silent with the way those clap. Yeah, he's-- he is giving a round of applause on the way-- on the way back down the chambered passage. So, yes. See you later. Sorry, Mr. Dartmoor. This way, miss. Right this way. Take your time. Quack, quack, quack, quack. He goes down. Uh, yes. You recede into darkness. Oh, wonderful. But you, of course, are-- are in a forest. Oh. Of course. You're leaning against the, uh, the trunk of a tree, and, uh, you hear, like, the tint and abulations of-- of bells murmuring around, almost like-- like an Aeolian harp or chimes of metal strung up and melodiously swinging in the wind. It's beautiful. It's seductive, almost. Mm-hmm. Where's it coming from? All around? It seems to be coming from all around you, as the air is sort of charged with a floral aroma, as if an unseen setting. An unseen censer is sort of swinging the heavy incense of flowers through the forest. And as you stand, you see sort of the leaves cascading off of the trees. They seem to float not through air, but through water, as they descend with a motion slower than they do normally. And then you see the knight in armor. He's walking across from you, just kind of leaning up against a tree, his helmet tilted off to one side. Do you approach? No. I approach. That ass girl. I approach in the way that the leaves are moving. I feel like I am also walking through water. You walk through-- as if through water, walking for a long time, but getting no closer, and suddenly, right there, you see your hands kind of reaching down towards the helm, lifting it off the head. If you wish to do this. I do. Is the helm heavy, or does it feel light? Of burnished steel. It has an ethereal lightness to it. What troubles this knight at arms, alone in paley loitering, where the sedge has withered from the lake and no birds sing? As he looks up at you, and it is the face of Cornelius Longfellow, his hair kind of strung over the gorget and the breastplate of his armor. Find. Find. Find the key. Shut the door. One is ivory, and one is horn. They will not allow me to stay long. He seems to age in front of your eyes. I recoil. Blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, shut the door. And then you feel her presence behind you, cracking through the underbrush. Almost floating through it. And as you turn around, you see the pallor of her flesh and the darkness of her eyes that shine with darkness visible. And then your sister is shaking you awake. Augie. Augie. Augie. Shut the door. Shut the door. What? Key. Augustus. Are you all right? Really? Where am I? You're right here. Where he left you? No, this is not where I was. What is this place? The bathroom. You had fainted on the floor. Um. Yes. I'm starting to remember. She feels his forehead. His face. I look at my hands to see if the helm that I held. Ooh. It's as though you still feel the weight of it, but it is absent from your hands. And, yes. A dream. A dream. You just passed out for a moment. The dark eyes, the pale, pale flesh. But, yes, a dream. None of the real. Do you have fever? No, I'm. I'm all right, sister. Thank you. I seem to have, um. Fallen. Uh. Oh. But I'm all right now. Thank you. Help me up, please. Oh, thank goodness. Oh, thank goodness. Yes, of course, yes. It's so dark. Yes, the candle, uh. Gave out to. No one. This is just you. No one. No, I'm all too here. Oh. Oh. No. Katrin. Would you care for some sheris or brandy, sir? Yes, sir. I'd be. That's a lovely idea, yes. Brandy would be. Hit your blood, sir. Thank you. One for me as well, please. Yes, quite. Kitty produces a flask. As you wish, miss. Oh. Yes. You're here as well, I see. Did everyone follow me down the hallway? No. Very well. Followed at it. Yeah, who's. Who's here? Is it. Is it y'all? I think I stayed. I stayed behind. Yeah. Okay, so it's. You two. But no one else and Gadsden, yeah? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Uh. Apologies. I did not mean to give you fright. Did you hurt yourself? Did you hurt your head? Oh, uh. I don't think I did, no. Perhaps it's best if I make up guest rooms for all of you, since apparently we're having company. We don't sound too thrilled. No, very thrilled. We've not had company for such a long time. Gadsden? Mm-hmm? Have you been working for, um, Mr. Dartmoor? Or did you work for the man who used to own this house previously? I'm attached to the house, sir. So you've been in Longford Manor? Mm, quite. And you live here on the property? Yes. And that's going. well? As well as can be expected in this line of work. Every day follows the next in an unbroken succession. Did you have a fondness for your past past? I don't know. I don't know. I had a familiar, it is, Master Longfur was not one in which an abundance of fondness was enkindled, but I have said too much about the Lord. Excuse me, I shall make up your rooms. I'll leave you a candle or two, try not to drop them. All right. The house is made of wood, you know. Ooh. Ooh! I faint again. So we all three clink our heads together as we go down. He lights some nearby candlesticks with his own and sort of shambles back the hallway, clapping. Wait, so I would have met him probably before, too, then, if he was serving with Cornelius. You probably saw him, but servants are seen and not heard. It's nice to be served brandy with that candle. Cake! Good! You can imagine, I'm imagining a scene maybe where you and George Longfur were maybe presenting one of your finds like, Eosa, hope you find this to your liking, Master Longfur. And Longfur taking a look at it, yes, this will do quite well. Gadson, as soon as you enter the room, like as you do with all company, moved back and like faced the wall. Oh, wow. And giving you an eyeful of his backside. Ooh! Daddy! Daddy! I want cake! And, yes, this memory is perhaps kindled in your memory. Yeah, Dartmoor is now kind of looking down the hallway, I suppose Gadson will be about his business. Yes, I'm sure they'll be back soon, August, my brother, Mr. Montgomery, is in much better health than he used to be, so I'm sure there's nothing to worry about and everything's fine, they'll all come back. Is he quite well? Yes. I mean, he wasn't, obviously, but he's much changed. Almost miraculously so. I've heard that the airs on the heath have a rather salubrious property. Yes, quite good for the lungs, they say. They say? Well, I cannot speak of the drafts of this place, but hopefully you shall not pass too uncomfortable an evening under my roof. I'm sure we shall not. Thank you again for your hospitality. It is appreciated. It is the contingencies of nature that has thrust it upon me, Miss Montgomery, but I should not, I should not wish to seem unkind. No, you're, your family is welcome here. You see his eyes kind of darting back down the hallway. It is nice sometimes to not feel alone. Uh, Whitby is there as well. Yes, I dare say she's right. Well, I'm not alone, Miss Montgomery. I have my lottee. Of course, but one person and a child is not perhaps, well, you have Mr. Whitby here, of course. I'm speaking out of turn, I think, but all I'm saying is we can, I suppose, be friends and work toward the same, um, outcome. Of prosperity together. That's all. Sneaking up in the door, I'm just standing there going. And my sister is, um, loves children. What? Excuse me? I don't know, I just suddenly thought of her while we were speaking out of turn. I back out and then, like, come back in again. I must admit, the way that, um, yes, the way that she behaved with her. It was very kind. Yes. I can tell that lottee appreciates her very much. Well, I can tell that you care for lottee very much as well, which is, uh, uh, a quality that speaks quite to your quality of character. Thank you, Miss Montgomery. I, I have enough in her. I am not in need of your flattery. Flattery was not my intention, to be clear. I do not wish to insult you, Miss Montgomery. I, I'd rather wish to provide you an evening's berth if I can, and hopefully to make up, with this grace, the great kindness that you have shown my niece. I, I am sorry that my, I have fallen so short of my duties as to let her slip. Um, if I do not see your brother and your sister before I retire, um, let them leave. Let them know I wish them well. She'll see them in the morning. Augustus, this is the room I was telling you about. As she's like, she's like, "This is my cue to come back in the room." Oh, and there's Miss Lark as well. I did, I had not noticed you slipping out of the room. She'd just taken a. Um, before, as, as we're kind of winding down, I just want maybe, like, uh, you're, you're, you, you focused on kind of individual objects here. Is there anything else you'd like to explore? I, I don't want to hold you back, but if not, you can retire. Just seeing as how, like, Aurelia loves shiny, pretty things, she sees that chalice and just want, want to take a little closer look at it. Great. Um, yeah, you, you take a look at this chalice, and as I said, it looks, it looks, um, Greco-Byzantine in its make. When looking at it, and I think, uh, Kitty, you probably would have noted this, that the chalice looks as though it was made to accommodate the gems. The gems look older than the craftsmanship of the gold. And all of these are suggestive of the same, uh, features of the people in the painting. Mm. You have a sense that you're seeing similar scenes playing out. Uh, these Orphic scenes. And I'll just mention some other things that you see as you cast your eyes about the room. Um, there's a case where you see a lot of, like, little stone, uh, chipped, they look like arrowheads. Ah. Under glass. There are also just some very smooth stones bored through with holes here and there. Like, some of them look like, like, not precious gems, but fine, very beautiful, uh, stones. And, and more of these kind of Roman intaglios here and there. Stones with a hole in them, does it seem like big enough that someone could perhaps look through? Yeah. Some of them do look big enough to look through. Could you give me an appraise roll? What a surprise, I would love to give you an appraise roll. These look like kind of valuable treasures, some of them. But some of them look kind of like, don't look maybe as valuable, but to the, to the uneducated eye. On the topic of these stones, did any look like the runes that we saw outside? I've never rolled this high in my life. Oh. Um, that is a 74 over. 50. Okay. That's a failure. Um, you have a couple-- I'm really good at my job. You have a couple options here. You're absolutely, you're still absolutely just reeling from your exposure to Gadsden's raw animal magnetism. But, um, you, um, you, uh, you, this is a failure. Your first glance, you can't quite get a bead on them. I'll say this, there are ways that failures don't have to stand. You can just let this pass, we'll continue on with the fiction. That's fine, the dice are telling a story. But, there's ways that you can turn this around. There's ways that you can turn this around. You can spend luck. That's a lot of luck to spend. That's a lot of luck. To bring it down to a success. Or, your play skill's pretty high. You could push the roll, which is to say you try a little bit harder, and, um, you roll again. I'll try a little bit harder. Um, let's open up the cabinet. Let's take, let's pick 'em up. Let's turn 'em over in our hand. Okay. No one's-- We pushed the roll episode two, let's go. No one's looking. No one's-- You also mentioned looking through them. Let's, you know, I, I, I can't get a good look. Let me. Get closer. Steady on, Miss Log. Well, I suppose, if you're-- Please, I'm a professional. Of course, if you're a professional in these matters-- Please! By all means. By all means. That's a 91. Wait a second. You guys, I did worse. Wait a second. Oh no. Oh no. I mean, something bad is gonna happen. Oh dear. I just, I pick it up and I just break it. With my manly hands. Well, here's, here's what I'll offer. Uh, so you failed your push. Uh, so you failed your pushed roll. Mm. Oops. Now, that's the glee in Ross's voice. He loves it. He loves it. So, it's on, it's unlike you. Yeah. But, and here, and something that I, I like to say in moments like this is sometimes when you fail a pushed roll, you succeed, but more so. Mm. I've always said that. So, yes. You grasp one of these stones. Mm. And you succeed, but more so. You're looking at the, uh, arrowheads, and you've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what these are. Mm-hmm. And you've spent time in this area. Mm-hmm. And you know that, that these are, there are arrowheads that you find in England dating back to, like, the Battle of Shrewsbury and stuff, like, dating back to, like, the 1300s. Mm-hmm. And old, like, Viking weaponry you can find dating back to, like, the year 900, but these are stone. Mm-hmm. These are Neolithic. Mm-hmm. These are very old, and the folkloric name for these is fairy darts. Oh. Wow. That's so cool. So, yeah. Fairy darts. And, and you're looking at these, like, knife-sharp, bone-chipped stone blades laid out in ranks under this, in this little glass case in the parlor, but your hand dips in and plucks out maybe the shiniest part. one of these smooth stones. It's like porphyry. It's like purple-hued. It's like slick, like a stone that's been sitting at the bottom of a riverbed for years and years. It just feels so good in your hand, and it feels especially nice because it's got that hole right through the center of it. You slip a whole finger through, and it's just so smooth, and it has this uncanny quality, and just like those are called fairy darts, you know that these are called adder stones, and the farmers will just hit them with their plow and hang on to them, and you know because you would find them in people's collections and bring them back that Longford was a collector of these, and you're looking at it. Maybe even your father procured this one for him, and yeah, you look through it, and your eye kind of moves around the room kind of looking through it, and you rose past the fireplace, and you look at that painting, and for a moment, the Eurydice's face is sort of framed in the hole of this, and when you do, you have a sense of like aperture, hole, portal, that Orpheus had to descend into the gate, which is just like, just like Aeneas, just like anyone who goes into a hollow space of reverberant hollowness, an underworld, another world, and you're looking through, as it were, one of these little portals as you pass by Eurydice, and you see the face of Arabella looking back at you, and then it frames Dartmoor of impassively watching you, kind of moves around the room, and you see the eight-year-old boy, and you see Aurelia, and then back to the eight-year-old boy, the pale eight-year-old boy with reddish hair looking back at you, as the gout of blood pours out of his mouth. And then the stone falls out of your hand. Roll sanity for me. Wow. These are rolling too high. I'm not gonna do these ones anymore. These are. Yeah, try new ones. These are running out. Try new babies. Baby. A one. Baby. There you go. Amazing. That's great. I love that. He blood pours out of his mouth. I go. Broken. It's giving. Anyways. But look, that was the result of a failed push. So even though you've critically succeeded on your sanity roll, that means that you're avoiding immediately going into a bout of madness. Brilliant. You're still taking sanity loss. It's creeping in. And in fact, even though you succeeded, you were still going to take two points of sanity loss here as it chips slowly away. And as we said, this always comes with an involuntary reaction. How do you think this hits Kitty Lark when she sees a person who's not in this room? This pale little boy looks up at you and just a blood pours I think she drops the stone and kind of staggers back into something. Yeah. I think you stagger back into Whitby and it kind of catches you. Like, I say, are you quite all right, Miss Lark? Fine. Have some more brandy. Yes, I think that's the answer. Quite right. What's happened? Dartmoor has lifted the stone and is kind of looking at it. Is it sharp? No, it's quite the opposite, Miss Lark. I mean, it's quite smooth. Miss Lark, what seemed to be the matter? Nothing. Nothing is the matter. I'm exhausted. The day's catching up with me. The events of the day. Yes. What is this? Nothing more. An adderstone. You've. Supposedly looked through it to see things unseen. To see things unseen? Folklore, myth, legend, wives' tales. The folklore words that they're. They're not naturally occurring. Fairies make them. Would we know this because of Archibald's. Yeah, is Archibald ever. Story. That's a good question. I think. Did he ever have. Yeah. Yes. Do you know what's funny is our brother used to talk about these things and I always thought he was kind of making them up. You're her brother? Yeah. Yeah. He. Yes, our brother. Another brother. Archibald, yes, who died when we were all quite young. Of consumption, actually. He used to speak about fairies a lot. Yes, he loved them. Quite often. So he did. In fact. I wonder if he knew about them. Arabella, just quickly, as you as a little kid, as Archibald presses one of these that he found in the woods into your hand, he's like, keep it safe. Oh, yes, of course. Archie, of course I will. And what is right if you look through it? You can see other home. I can see other home? Yes. You can see other home if the stars are just right. What about now? Can I see it? Maybe. Look at me. Do I look quite different? Well, I suppose it's just not the correct stars. Wait, let me look again. Yes. Yes, you look quite different. You have bunny ears now. Yes, yes I do. Yes, I was feeling rather rabbit-y today. When the stars are right, you can see into other home. Maybe into other people's homes. You can see into other people's eyes in the other home. Into other people's eyes? Yes. Archie, well, how do you know about other home? You're always telling us about it, but how do you know about it? I just know it. Just know it? Did you make it up? You cannot lie to me. I'll never tell. Oh. I mean, we, you know just as much about it as we all do. And you all play together with other home. There it is in your hand, another one of these stones. Do you know? Yes. Archie used to say to me, did he tell you this? That when the stars are just right, you look through it and you can see other home. That's the silly name he had for it. That's enough about Archie. Make a spot hidden. Everyone? Yeah. 29 under? Just tell me if you succeed. Oh, success. Three. Hard success. Great. 47 under 50. I rolled a three. Under 65. Ooh. Extreme. Okay. Actually, I think this is so small a thing to spot that you're maybe the only one who sees it with your extreme success. Because this is, a lot of commotion has just happened. You can see that Whitby is kind of like steadying Miss Lark. I'm quite all right. Yes, of course. Ted, I'm sorry, I did not mean to. Yeah, come here. You there. How's that, then? Not gonna do no harm. Liam. He's laid out flat. No, no, no. I think steady's you. There's all this commotion. You get this little brief anecdote about other home. Right as you said, let us not speak about Archibald. But when she says this little anecdote about talking about other home, when she says that name, you're the only one with your eyes on Dartmoor. When she says that word, you just see his jaw tense for a moment as he looks at her in the way. Of course. We don't talk about that. Of course. We don't have to speak of anything that you don't wish us to, Augustus. I think we are all of us rather, um, oppressed by the anxieties of the day. We've all seen much and had a series of rather terrible shocks. Yes. I think it's best if we-- if we retire. I think morning will bring the clarity that only mornings can. Yes, quite. But did-- did these things have any of those rune markings from the things outside? As you cast your eye over them, uh, yes. One or two of them you see have not only this sort of bored through quality, but a couple of them look like they've been hand-carved with-- with these sort of, like, a symbol akin to what you saw on the stone in the forest. OK. I'm going to mark that for later. I am going to put this one, this adder stone, back where we got it from, and I think it-- this moment is when, uh, she goes, Arabella goes, and sort of, like, fingers a little chain that's around her neck that goes into her dress, where she actually keeps the one that, uh, Archibald gave her when they were children that she wears that no one can see. It's-- it's just long enough to be under her-- her bodice, but that she wears and keeps with her. I wear it because he gave it to me, but I hadn't really remembered until this moment that exact moment where he explained it. Yeah. Would I be able to just, like, kind of stealthily just walk by the-- I was going to do it. --the stone that had the rune markings? Yeah. Yeah. Just take a closer look. Sure. Um-- Oh, yeah. Oh, my god. Yeah, you can take a closer look. You can tell that Darmor's kind of trying to break up the party at this point. Yes, yes. I'm not-- I'm trying not to make a show of it, but-- What is it that you're trying to do? I want to take a closer look at these. I-- I noticed the runes outside before, but now that I see it on this one and every-- this whole conversation that's happened, I want to take a closer look at these markings. OK, great. You do so. And, um, you see a couple of the markings, one that you recognize from the stone that you saw, and it's a spiral. You know, just a spiral carving. The other one is a little odder. It's just, like, two upward-facing strokes and then a lateral stroke that sort of sits atop them. Ah. - Ah, oh. - Oh. - Wow. But I don't know that. - That's the painting that you were looking at. - Yeah, okay. Um, I might pick up one of the stone I was looking at and I might try to slip it into my pocket. - Yeah, and I'll just kind of point to the markings on it. - All right. Give me a stealth to see if you can do that without being noticed by Dartmoor. - Can I do a sleight of hand? - Sleight of hand is perfect. - Sleight of hand is higher. - That's much better. - 34 under 40. - She's back into your-- - She's back, baby. - She's back. You spirited away as if it never existed. - I'll make eye contact with Aurelie. - Wink. - Oh my god. - We should all retire for the night. - I do not have time to procure a great number of linens, sir. I think it will be enough for everyone to rest relatively comfortably. I'll strip my own bed so that everyone can have linens for their own. - Strip his-- - What is wrong with you three? He's a weird old man. - You're immune to it. - I suddenly am not in control of my faculties. - Thank you, Guts. - Thank you, Guts. - And pray tell, who shall be keeping you warm tonight? - Do you really say that? - No. - If you just look at him, you can see him just kind of look back at you briefly and then kind of look back with this quizzical, like, "Huh?" And then he just kind of gives a little, like, bow and he sort of shuffles backwards out of the room. - And Augustus and I are like-- - Wonderful. - Greetings, adventurers. We interrupt this potentially life-changing podcast to bring you a message from our sponsor, Brooklyn Bedding. Now, Adam, of the two of us, you're actually the one who received a brand new mattress from these folks. - Correct. 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Welcome to Murder, She Watched, the podcast where we recap, dissect, and slightly overanalyze some of the best and craziest True Crime documentaries on our favorite streamers. Did the spouse do it? Why is the shady neighbor wearing leather gloves in July? Why did this guy agree to be interviewed in this documentary? We ask the tough questions that you're often just screaming at your TV, so every week we break down the twists, red herrings, and absurd documentaries that have kept you up all night. It's high drama, cozy vibes, and absolute couch detective energy. Grab your throw blanket and hit subscribe. Search Murder, She Watched wherever you listen to podcasts, and let's solve this thing together. Hi, I'm Whitney. And I'm Katie. And we're the hosts of True Crime, She Watched. We set out to make a true crime podcast we'd want to listen to. We get right to the story. We don't do a lot of extra talking, and when we do, it's usually to roast the short hairs off of some loser, murderer, or scammer. You'll laugh, but only at the people who deserve it. Like which serial killer would you most like to shove into a locker? BTK and his awful poetry. Dude got caught because he didn't understand what a floppy disk was. We look for the stranger than fiction stories, like the case of Patty James, a killer catfish, before the internet was even a thing. Or Howard Walmsley, a sentient wad of damp laundry who convinced his town he'd won the lottery, fleeced local businesses out of thousands, and then became a romance scammer. We've covered tons of cases you've never heard of: cults, scammers, killers. So come find your next great binge. Listen to True Crime Campfire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Friday. Yes, I dare say that tomorrow we'll probably find us all better. I, uh, I'm terribly sorry to, to have laid hands on you, Miss Lark. I, I, I, it seemed as though you'd fallen into some manner of swoon. I'm, I'm quite all right. Your day must be rather oppressive upon you. Let's all of us get to bed. Yes. Yes, the events of the day. Yes. Saving heroics and -- Yes, just so. You have, you have proven yourself a hero and have made yourself worthy of a good night's slumber, I dare say. Yes, that's what I said. Forgive me. Thank you, Mr. Whitby. Oh, uh, yes, thank you. You can tell he's just, like, trying to find footing with Lark. He's like, uh, he's trying to -- You won't get it. Oh, very well. Keep trying. Yes, um -- Quick feet. Just so. Uh, I shall, I shall retire then. Good evening to you both, ladies. Yes, we will see you in the morning, though. Good night. At breakfast, I'm sure. Good night. Indeed. Good evening to you, sir. Good evening. Nonsense. And then he retreats. Uh, Dartmoor kind of lingers there, watching his friend go. It's like, "Guys, we'll lead you upstairs." You can set everything back where you found it. Oh, yes, of course. But of course, um, my house for the evening is yours. Just. Do not go prying into places where. Good evening to you both. Good evening, Miss Lark. He kind of, uh, turns and leaves. Oh, my, Aurelia, he gave you a very long, angry knock. No, did you see? Yes, I did. I was hoping Mr. Whitby would give me one like that, too, but he didn't. That's fine. That's fine. Um. He's been talking to you this whole evening. Oh, just some of the time. What's more interesting is, why did you want us to not talk about Archie? Well, just. Don't you feel it? Don't you feel it? Something is not right. Well, sure, of course the house is haunted. Of course it is. What do you mean, "Of course it is"? Of course you think it's haunted. Spirits and things linger, don't you think? Yes, of course. Well, I'm sure you're not going to be able to see Archie. I'm sure you're not going to be able to see him. Well, spirits and things linger, don't you think? I mean, I have experienced such things before. If someone died in this home, then I'm sure his spirit is not around. Oh, did a parlor trick particularly stick with you? It was not a parlor trick, I assure you. It was not. Arabella, I saw a vision. You did? What did you see? He was in the forest. A spirit? Oh, a night. A spherical forest? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. When you had fainted, and I found you-- When she mentions that, you have a sense you have just flatly seen to your dream the way that the ground seemed to slope. As if you had a sense if you kept going in one direction, you would return to the place where you-- Isn't it strange how everything here seems very much like what Archibald used to speak of? Yes. Tell us more about the vision. I always thought he was making it up. Passageways and-- Doorways, something he rattled on incessantly as children. I'm seeing it now. - I mean, we all saw it when we were children. - Yes. - We all thought it was a big pretend. - Yes. - Miss Locke, this must be so comical to you. - Yes. Well, it is. - Yes, well, we don't expect you to believe us. Just mad ramblings of triplets talking about. - Of course, don't you think you're all a bit old for childhood ghost stories? - Yes, you've never seen anything like that. - Never. - Why did you drop the stone? - As I said, the events of the day must have taken it all on me. - It's very unlike you. - Yeah, what's a roll? I'm gonna roll something. - First PVP. - We have psychology, but I only have the base in it. - You same. - I mean, you could get lucky. - Yeah, why not? - Oh, are you serious? - Try. - Yeah, why not? Hey, listen, as long as I don't, like, crit fail. - Nope. - It's not gonna be bad. - Yeah, as long as that doesn't happen. - Nope, 65, no, but I still want. - So, at this point, you're just gonna, you're getting a vibe, of course, but I'm just gonna take Lark's word for it. - If you say so. What you haven't seen, surely, in all your travels, in all the items you've acquired, nothing strange or unusual has ever happened to you, Kitty. - Because, well, of course, so many of the things that my father and I acquired are unusual, but their mysterious origins are what make for conversation starters at cocktail parties. - But nothing unusual. - Nothing unusual. - Nothing that you experienced. - Of course not. - But look at the events of today. You see a spot of strange nude man in the woods. - Yes, Riley is right. You did mention-- - It was a birch tree. - Miss Lark, I saw the same figure, I believe, earlier, right before I must have fainted. - Oh, I saw an image. It's blurry in my mind, but it was of a nude form. I can't quite place the gender, but it was threatening. - Oh. - Not a welcome massage. Did you feel that, too? - Most assuredly not. - You had a fainting spell and saw something, and then you saw something. - Well, the thing I saw was not tonight, but-- - Yes, we've seen things before, and now we find this stone. It turns out that Archie, we thought that we had made these stories up this entire time. - Yes. - It must not be real. There is no possibility in the realm of human understanding where this could happen. - Thank you. - Exactly. - But I just-- - Your rooms are-- - The easiest, the most simple-- - I'm ready. - Oh, my gosh. - He's right behind you. - Oh, no. - No, no, no, no, no. - Thank you. - No, no, no, no. I've taken great pains to make you as comfortable as possible. Yes. - Is there a room for each one of us particularly, or do we go to an empty room? - Oh, it's to be each room for each person, is it? - No. - Oh, no. - You're just wondering what the situation was. - There are three rooms. You may dispose of them as decency provides. - Of course. - There's four of us. - Well, sisters, we share one room. - We share rooms all the time. - I suppose I could give up my bed in the servants' quarters. - No, no, no, no, please, Gadson, no. - Sleep in the well. - No, no, no, please, don't do that. - No. - What are you doing? - Gadson. - Gadson. - Gadson returns to the dirt from whence he came. - Gadson. - That would be Gadson all over. Oh, yes. Don't sleep in the bed, Gadson. - Don't you do this, boy. - Why don't you sleep in a bucket? - Returns to the dirt. - I have a question for you, and forgive the impertinence. Um, I just don't understand why my family, in particular, were mentioned in Mr. Longford's will. - It is a mystery to me as well, miss. - He never spoke of the Montgomery branch or our brother Archibald or anything. - I do not like such questions, this, uh, miss. I, uh, they are not of my ken, none of my business. - Oh, please, Gadson, we wouldn't tell anyone that you have been speaking about former employers or anything. We, we truly appreciate everything you do. - A servant is only as valuable as his discretion is. - Of course, yes, yes, and, and so are the, the people the servant interacts with. And believe me, we know discretion. - It looks all right, doesn't it? Uh, interesting. - I could persuade. - That's all persuading. - Sure, give me a, give me a persuade. - I'm scared I don't know what dice to roll. I'm gonna roll these. - Oh. - Oh. - I have a 60 in persuade. - Okay. - Nice. - That's good. - That is good. - A 57. - Whoa! - Regular success. - Master Longfoot did not speak to me. He is not a man of great conversation, certainly, not to his inferiors. But I, um, I know that the entailment for your family was late in coming, miss, very late. In his last days, I think. Perhaps his conscience pricked him. Perhaps he had some portent of the final moments. Wanting one gesture of kindness. Perhaps. Or perhaps his wits were so addled that he was doing anything he set his mind to, no matter how strange as to bring a little cadet branch of the family to live in such close proximity. It is not for me to know. - Of course not. - Well, thank you for the information. - Edson, thank you so much. You've helped us all, and we appreciate your services. - It's the kindest thing almost anyone's ever said to me. - Huh? - No one ever thanks me for anything. - Certainly, there's been kinder words. - You're not making fun of me, are you? - No, of course not. - No, of course not. - No, we don't, as of now, we don't have much of staff. There's only two. - Yes. - And we've learned to show appreciation for the people that work for us. - Does no one, does no one speak to you? - Oh, you've seen Mr. Dartmoor. - Mr. Dartmoor is not a long-winded fellow. A few speak to him. It is rare for me to have a conversation of this length with anyone who lives in the household. - Well, I hope it doesn't make you uncomfortable in any way. I'm positively crawling out of my skin. Well, I suppose I'll show you to your rooms. As I said, there are three of them and four of you, so if it has to be the well for me, you just let me know. - No, no, no, no, no, no. - Yes, I suppose, I suppose, right this way. - And he kind of creeps out of the room backwards and then ascends the stairs. And yes, you're left with this thing of, yeah, a change in behavior of Longford, where he, like, is in the protection of your family. - The very last minute. - The last minute. You have three rooms on the upper floor in the westerly side. And yeah, how do you wish to arrange your sleeping? - I think probably just what you said, the sisters and the one and one, yeah. - I think that makes sense. - And you'll be all right, Augustus? - I, yes, I think so. - If you need anything, our door's just right here. Just knock. - Thank you. - And will you be all right, Miss Dogg? - I will be quite all right, thank you. - Well, it's not boring, is it? - No, I don't know. - I can't believe we're here, to be honest. - I know. - And maybe we can get you married to Mr. Dogg more. You can fix him. - On that lovely note. - I can fix him, can't I? - Yes, I think you can. - This is toxic. - Kitty's going in her room and she's posing. We're not doing, it's too late for this. We're, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. All right, I'll see you in the morning, I'll see you in the morning, I'll see you in the morning. - You go into-- - I can just hear Kitty be like, "If he wanted to, he would." - And off to your various rooms you go. A large bed to accommodate the sisters, and there are, they are rather sumptuously appointed rooms with armoires in bizarre locations in on their, in them. - You can tell a man decorated. The mattress is just on the floor. - God, why do they-- - Classic boy. - Portraits with no-- - No frames? - Just empty bottles-- - Just canvas. - For some reason, among the, lining the ceiling. - She's got a mattress on the floor and a bass guitar. - I don't understand. - A tapestry handy. - Some lady sitting next to a carriage and there's like a little ankle. - Cover that up for my sake! - Oh my. - No, no, no. Yes, you get more of these sort of like family portraits. You see places on the walls that are sort of lighter than the others, where it seems, pictures have been taken down probably by a dark one. And yeah, as you walk up, you see across the hall on the upper story, light behind a couple of doors where you imagine there must be a guest bedroom for Whitby and the master bedroom for Dartmoor. And you also see a door down there where probably Lottie is probably sleeping right now. Also, there's a bunch of other doors. There's a door down at the end of your hall. There's a door at the end of their hall. These are of course shut. And you move into your rooms, into the linens. so graciously provided by Gadsden, and there in the candlelight, you make ready for bed. And are we just going to sleep? - No. - No. - Master Girl Talk. - No. - I have things to speak of. What are you? - I'm sort of shanky. - Bounces, like, on the mattress. - Can you believe that we're here? - I cannot. - First of all, I cannot believe that we were supposed to get a tour of the house, and we only got one tour of the parlor. - Yes, but that's all right, because that can happen tomorrow in the light of day. It will be much better. - We've got little Dixie Cubs going from here to my room. - I did wish I got to see a little more of the curios that are inside. I saw one that had runes on the stone that looked very peculiar, ones much like ones that we found outside. I don't know if you noticed. - You know, honestly, I did not like being in the trees until I wasn't looking around too closely, so I did not, but that sounds very odd. - It was on one of the addlestones, I was wondering. If maybe you'd seen anything like that before, maybe Archie had shown you something like that before. - And I'll pull my necklace, my chain out to reveal the adder stone that I can keep and look at it. Does it have anything carved on it? - I don't think so. - It's just smooth, I don't think so. - Peculiar. - Yeah, the resonances that you're describing are from the time that you have kind of walked into that forest, you're just constantly being reminded of this childhood play, the evocations of these imaginative worlds that you dreamt up with your brother, and it's bizarre to sort of see them evoked in the statuary and hinted at by the speech of the people here. Very odd. - I know I can't prove it, but I know Kitty's fibbing about not being able to see or something without some peace. - She fell back. - That is so out of character. - That is not Brandy. That woman can handle her liquor. - Yes, she is much stronger stuff than she was acting like she was tonight. - Sisters! - Oh, someone's knocking at the door. - Yes, Rana. - Yes, who is it? - Let me in. - Oh, of course. Yes, come in. - I couldn't sleep. - No, we hadn't even tried yet. - We must talk. - Yes, yes. - Something is amiss. Something dreadfully dangerous is amiss. - Dangerous? - Yes, Arabella, do you not sense--? - Yes. - Something? I know that you dabble a bit in otherworldly things. - Well, no one has spoken with a different voice coming out of their body yet, so it's not too bad. - But you do sense something strange here. - Perhaps you could help us. - How so? - What are you insinuating, sister? - We could have a seance. - Yes, of course. - Here and now. - Why not? - Well, maybe not right now. - What? - A seance, you say? - Why not? - I don't know. I'm not gonna yuck your yum. - How big of you? - Maybe we don't have all the accoutrements. - We need more information first. - What do you need? - What are the accoutrements you need for a seance? - I think we need some personal items. Personal information about Mr. Longford before we can truly begin. Maybe we can find some items tomorrow or something that will help us. - I like that idea. - Yes. - I think we should get Mr. Longford. I think we should get Mr. Locke to believe in this. - The only way to get-- - Miss Locke is the perfect person to help us find which items. - Yes. - Important ones, yes. I think she does believe. She doesn't want to admit to us. - Feels like she does, doesn't she? She's been acting quite strange, different even. - Quite strange, yes. - Since being in this house. - Yes. - Speaking of strange, Mr. Dartmoor, he cleansed his jaw with a mention of Other Home. - He did. - And this name is resonant to you because Other Home is the sort of, fantasy world of your childhood play. - Only us and Archie know about Other Home. - It's Archie's world. - Why would he have a reaction to Other Home? - I don't know. I find it quite strange. - He must know something. Do you want to hear something silly? - Yes. - Did you notice, when we were looking in the parlor, all of the references to Orpheus and Eurydice? And we know Mr. Longford has a dead wife. What if he's obsessed with that story because he always wanted to get his wife back somehow? - Really? - I seem to not be very fond of her. - Right. - It's just rumors. - Yeah. - I mean, we know there are all kinds of rumors about everyone that may not be true. There are ones about you, Augustus, those aren't true. - What rumors are they saying? - Well, you know, that had to-- - Oh, you know. - What? - That's important. - That I'm-- - Oh, I wasn't even thinking of that. - Oh. - Of course not. No, no, no. - Oh, no! - They are rumors. They are rumors. - No, no, no. - Whatever you heard, it's not true. - Oh, dear. - Oh, dear. - I meant about you, why you left the surface. - Oh, yes. - You left because you were sick, and that's all. Of course that's what's true. - Yes. - You believe me, don't you? - Yes. - Of course I do. - Of course we do, and that's why I'm sane. That's why I'm calling it out right now as an example. Because-- - You know that I was sick, really? - Yes. - Well, yes, of course you were. - Of course you were. - I mean, I mean. - Jesus Christ. - I mean. I mean. - It drags to hell. - I mean, if you weren't sick, then we need to have a conversation. - Sanction. - I mean, Robert, you look like. - Damn. Dinner is served. Roast tonight. Holy moly. - Damn. - Roast audience. - What? - Presented. - Hi. - All I'm saying is that people say all sorts of things that aren't true. - Right. But this is true. Or is it? - I feel like I'm unraveling. - It feels like there's so many secrets in this house. - But we believed when we were younger Archie's stories. - He always promised to show us. - And we stopped suddenly. - He told me he was not lying. I told him he could not fib, and he said he would not, and that they were true. But then he did agree with me that he had bunny ears, and obviously he didn't want to crib bunny ears. - Well, I never believed him as a child. - I did, but I think just after losing him, we just couldn't focus on those things anymore. It just hurt so much. - After losing him is when I started to believe. - He always promised he would show me where they lived and how to see them. - I think he's showing us now. - He's doing that now. - I think we need to talk to him. - Oh, I don't know, the last time. - The last time? - Well, I think he tried to speak to me once before. But it was not pleasant. - What do you mean? You tried to conjure him in your seance? - No, I was trying to conjure Henry Wilcox's grandmother. - Why her? - What? - Well, because I was the only dead person I could think of who I wasn't related to. - What a stupid thing to do. - In front of him? - Yes, he was there. - His own grandmother? Did he request that? - Through the wall? - Stop whispering and go to sleep! - Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. She has a point, all right. - Yes, you're right. - So, okay, first thing. I figure out if I feel like I can try and speak to Archie again. Second thing, we definitely try and find the things we need to try to speak to Mr. Longfoot. - Right. Thirdly, we must convince Kitty of joining our cause. - Yes. - Yes. - Oh, she will. - I hope so, I hope she will. - I love this, and yes, what a lovely set of plans. If you could attempt to reach out to Archie, but I love like gathering things that might allow you to contact Longfoot himself. Which might mean snooping behind some of these doors and finding personal effects. - Yes, which Kitty will. - Which you can do now or later. - Absolutely will. - I mean, nighttime might be the time. - The right time. - Nighttime might be the right time. - I can't sleep. - But Miss Log is certainly not asleep yet. We could ask her to help us. - Because you won't shut up! - Come in here and help us. - Go to sleep! - Kitty, Kitty, come into our room. - No, no, no! - Shh! - I bet you can't help us if she tried. - you, I'm coming in! - The sound of boots getting put on. - And the four of you are now in this guest room. And it is perhaps now the first time that you're gathered in here, which was given to you because it's the largest of the guest rooms, it seems. As you're kind of like looking at each other there and kind of devising this plan. It probably strikes you that if Eleanor Longford, the invalid wife of Cornelius, was sequestered somewhere, it was probably here. - No. - Mm-mm. - We could start snooping in this very room. - Yes! - Well? - I start feeling all the walls of our hidden panels. - Oh. - Okay. - Uh. - First time. - You start with the floorboards. - What, why? - What paintings are on the walls here? - Paintings, okay, great. - Yay! - Um, yes. You, uh, you see, of course, one of those patches where there was like, was one, but now no longer. But there is a painting on the, on the far wall. Um, and it's, and it looks like a little woodland scene. - Mm. - A beautiful, rustic scene. Um, would you, would you feel free to check it out? It's like a lovely landscape. - Yeah, I get closer. I wanna kind of see, uh, the signature of the painter. Kinda also wanna check behind it, uh, just to see, to see how long it's been up there, because if it's very considerably faded, has been up there for a long time. If it hasn't, it's just been put up there. - It is faded and old. It has been here a while. It itself looks quite old. It looks as though it's like a Dutch master, like a van Eyck or something. A beautiful rolling hilly scene. It looks rather like the moor that you could see through this window if it weren't so dark. And you're drawing closer to it? - Yes. You look into the picture, and yeah, and you can see that there's like a little frayed edge. It was mentioned that there was a painting that Kitty had brought by, it was found rolled up. And you get the sense that this might have been rolled up at some point too, because there seem to be creases on it. The edge is a little bit like lifted. And as you look at it, you can see as you get closer that there's like a little ruin in the trees, a little archway. And then as you draw very close, you can see that leaning against a tree in the little forest that wraps itself around the ruin arch is a knight in armor. Looks as though he's been struck down. - Oh, come here, come here. Why do you suppose in this big grand painting, you put such a small, small detail? What knight? - A knight slumped against a tree? What do you suppose it means? - What do you mean? And I look at the picture of the knight and he like immediately, I start rambling. Door, door, door, key, key, black, white, key, door, door, key. - What? - Close the door, close the, ah! - Augustus, calm down, it's all right. - I should have stayed in bed. - What happened? - He was saying something about shutting a door. - And keys. - Did I? - Yes, you were right. - I think you're very strange lately. On the topic of pity, saying that oh, she didn't, oh, she's lying about something. You're covering something up as well. - I'm not covering up. I'm trying to tell you everything I know. I was in a forest and I saw this. - Perhaps you'd seen the painting somewhere before and you forgot about it? - No, no, no. The face was Longford's face. - As a matter of fact, you're seeing a scene that you dreamed a few hours ago on a canvas. You've never seen before. Roll sanity. - No. - Okay, 32 on your 47. - All right, you can, no sanity loss. You can kind of compartmentalize this and put it away. The theory of Kitty Lark seems pretty plausible. Maybe you saw this painting or one like it or a copy of it or an engraving of it and you just, it's all it was. - So many painters have motifs and themes that are recurrent in their works. - So is this Longford? Or is it not Longford? - I dreamt that it was and he warned me about a door being opened and to close the door, to find the key, but it was a dream. - Find the key, shut the door, one is ivory, one is horn. Out of, out of-- - Yeah, that's what I say, literally, to y'all. - What do you say? - What is it? - Find the key, shut the door. Sorry, my handwriting. - I say it verbatim and I quote and not reading 'cause I memorized it, find the key, shut the door. - Shut the door, one is ivory, one is horn. That's what he was saying. - One is ivory, one is horn, what does that mean? - Well, it means one key is made of ivory and the other is made of antler or some other type of-- - When you saw this night, was this exactly what you saw? - I remember as if it was, I was trapped in water. Everything was slow, including myself. - Is this water paint? - By the way, like a watercolor. - A watercolor? - I think it's, this wouldn't precisely be like exactly a watercolor, it's an oil paint, but you get this-- - In the style, stylistically. - There is a sort of smearing kind of fluid quality to it, but you are somewhere else. Your memory is not a one-to-one copy of this painting. It's more so the fact that this armored figure is the one you interacted with somehow. You're seeing the little, just the way that these images keep like kind of recurring and resonating. And-- - It feels like an overlap of memory folding in on itself. - Indeed. - Interesting. - It felt, before I fainted, I felt like I was experiencing everything at the same time. Maybe this is a case of deja vu or something. - Can you make an intelligence roll for me? - Yes, I can. - Just roll your intelligence. - Dang it, 88 over 80. - Oh. - You can spend luck. - If you want to spend eight points of luck. - You don't have to. - Yeah, no pressure. - Or push the roll. - I get smarter. - Push the roll, I get smarter. - I'll leave it for now. - Okay. - That's a lot of luck to spend. - I will say that when the image of one of ivory, one of horn comes out, this resonates with a memory of yours. And-- - I can't quite place it. - I can't quite place it. - Oh, I'll ruminate on it though. It'll come to me. - It may well in y'all's as well, I don't know. - Hmm. - Um, while they're looking at the painting, would there be chests or a desk or drawers or anything around that might contain papers or journal entry, journals or something that maybe have been left behind by the former Mrs. Longford? - You get the sense of this space being cleared out. - Mm-hmm. - This being a space that was and in fact, for nothing. The resonant feelings that you sometimes have, something bad happened here. And you get the sense that Dartmoor has moved in new things and tried to cover up to the best of his ability, a bad scene. So you get the sense there probably were papers here. You saw those closed doors and you saw that painting's little like, little edge. - I wanna do something very bad. - Peel it, peel it back. - Yes. - You're gonna do it? - Yes, I'm gonna do it. - Yes, you have to. - Yes, I'm gonna peel it. I was gonna get to that and then I was like, mm. - Yeah, you have the sense of so many things being moved out of this room, even pictures on the wall. But maybe the only thing original to this space is this painting that you've been looking at. 'Cause maybe simply because it looks so harmless. So it's gentle, if anything. There's nothing, there's nothing-- - Furious, slightly feels like that. - As you peel it back, the painting itself is separating from the backboard. It was rolled up at one point, you can tell. And the creases of it give in their pattern as it pulls away from the frame and something slips out and hits the floor. - Oh, what's this? - Something was trapped behind the painting, between the painting and the frame. - I pick it up. - What did you find, Aria? I think it's always in behind canvases. - What is this? - What is it? What are you seeing? - This fell right behind the painting. - What is it, what is it? - Look at it, read it. - I'm picking it up right now. - Oh my god. - Yeah, you-- - I'll just start pushing her. - Look at him! - It just slick cracks under the ground. And what you're looking at is like a little slim, almost like pamphlet-y sheaf of papers, which as you pick it up, reveals itself to be a book of about that size. - Oh my. - It's-- - What is it? - Yeah, with a little leather binding and you open it up and it's all movable type that has been like set and printed on the frontispiece there. And it just says, Prosopon Paracosmos by Rhys Cade. - Paracosmos, like the stars. - What does it say, sister? - It says, Prosopon Paracosmos by Rhys Cade. Does it have like a year, can I tell maybe, like even from context how old, or what era? - It doesn't look that old. This volume looks like a, what you'd call like a monograph. Almost like a vanity printing. Like a small press printing. - Yeah. - But it looks no more than 30 years old. - Does that ring any bells for Kitty? - Yeah, do you have Greek? - I do. - Oh. - It's not that high. - Can I get lucky? - Ooh. - I'm gonna push, that's a 22 over 20. I am gonna spend two luck points. - Yeah. - Nice. - You have Greek skill. And I just catch a glimpse of young Kitty Lark, like looking at her. Looking at old Greek statuary. Like on the coast of Piraeus. And then right back here, looking at this. Prosopon, mask, Paracosmos. It's one of those kind of like smooshes of like, like para, like parallel. Like on, overlapping, beside. Cosmos, the cosmos. So it's like the mask of the other cosmos. The Paracosmic mask. The mask of the other world. - So it's talking about extra dimensions and other worlds beyond this one. - Yes. - Naked to the human eye. - Peculiar that we should find this. As we were talking about the other home. Yes. - I try to put the painting back. - Oh. - Back in its place. - Very good. - That's it. - Is it all written in Greek? - It is not. It is written in English. - Well, let's read right through this. - It seems to be written by someone from the United Kingdom. - Rhys Cade, yes. - I would like to, yeah, let's read it. - You would like to read it? - Read it to us, all right. - And I lay down like this with my legs kicked in back. - I do all right. - Okay, great. Rhys Cade, in the little introduction, proclaims that he is a merchant who has made wondrous discoveries, pericosmic discoveries. And as you kind of read into it, the rest of your ears sort of like, wait, what? Because as soon as you get into reading it, this sounds like the ramblings of a-- - Madman. - To be kind, eccentric. As the ancients did, imagine concentricity governing the nature of the spheres. With a hollowness wrapped round with a crust of earth, wrapped round with an Empyrean surface, above and further concentric circles beyond. - Oh, one of these. - So too may there be different intersecting concentricities that create between them peculiar resonance. - What if we just scan it for words that mean something to us, like other home, or wrong side out, or fairies, fairies, or portals? - Wrong side out? I haven't heard that in decades. - While they do that, I'm gonna start looking at floorboards and see if there's anything loose. - Okay, yeah, yeah. - I suppose just all the things Artebord used to say are fresh on my mind. - Yes. - I haven't heard that. - Wrong side out. - Wrong side out, then. - The wrong side out, then. - I never liked when he spoke of them. I always thought that one sounded a bit creepy. - As you're reading, scanning, for particularly apropos phrases, through these blocks of punctuation-free text, it is a rant. - It's just one long sentence. - It's one long sentence. - And she's reading it aloud. She's losing her breath. - Yeah. - I wanna say that the siblings are in a huddle right now around this book. Aurelia is reading with Arabella sort of looking over her shoulder, and Augustus has his feet kicked out. All in a cluster. - We're on the bed. - Yeah. - And as you kind of glance up at them, Lark, I think you may just have an image of them as children. They seem to have fallen into the same attitudes as a group of children might, looking over a storybook. As you find, like, oh, yes, yes, oh my. And you see in there, like, as the gate traversed by Orpheus to achieve Eurydice is a hole into a strange other place, so too are there apertures in space wherein the cosmic planes find intersection points of their concentricity. This, it goes on and on and on. - I knew Orpheus and Eurydice had something to do with it. - Apertures in space? - You're tugging at the floorboards, and while all this is happening, their voices kind of fade away, and while you're down there by the floor, you hear, like,. Outside. - Uh, what? - Shh. - Shh, shh, shh, shh. - What? - Shh. - What is it? What is it, kitty? - Do you hear it? - No. - No, just in the hallway. It sounded like a creak, like a, would it be safe to say a footstep? - Mm-hmm. - I'm going to go check. - What? - The hallway. - By yourself? - It's just a hallway. I'm just going to put my head out the door. It's probably that caked-up butler. - We'd hear his ass, not his face. - Oh my god, I mean, we're so stupid, and you're right. We'd hear the ass before we heard his footstep. - Yes. Um. - Is there a candle? Do I take my candle? - There are candles hereby. - Yes, I'll just take a candle, and I'm just gonna open the door, and, you know. - Okay, great. - Could just be a host, you know. No need to panic. - No, just don't be by yourself. - Drum up ghost stories. - These three are sort of clustered around your book, kind of looking after you. - Anyway. - And your candle guides you out into the hall, and you look out, and you don't see anybody, and further text, like, "As the Cumaean Sybil led the way into Averna, "so too do I believe that there are planes "within planes within planes, "wherein to go down is to go up, "and to go in is to go out." - Yes. You go out. - I do go out. - Which is to say, you go in. - Which is to say, I go in. - To the house. The candle burns. - The candle burning in front of you as you look down the hallway. It's further towards the staircase. - How heavy do the footsteps sound? - They do not sound heavy. - Charlotte? Charlotte, are you out of bed? - Do you move into the hall? - Yes, I do. - Your feet pad out into the hall. - You can't be out in the hallway this late You'll strip and hurt yourself down the stairs. You come-- you still don't see her. The little light of your candle creates such a small glow. You can hear the patter of the rain from outside and the chatter of the siblings behind you. You kind of come around the corner. You see nothing. It's just down the hallway there. Charlotte, it's late. I don't have time for games. As you move, your candle casts just a feeble glow against the immense darkness of this old house. The house where Eleanor Longford was poisoned? Axe murdered? And then you see her smiling face. Charlotte's? Yes. She's there in her little diaphanous nightgown, her little feet there just by the stairs. Why didn't you come when I called? I'm sorry. What are you doing out of bed? I don't think I'm well. You feel unwell, do you? It was the rain and the mist. I'm gonna walk confidently. You saw her in the wood. I was too frightened to say earlier. Do you know who she was? Do you want to know what she taught me? Oh, no. What did she tell you? Her smile grows broad. What? She's going to take me home. Are you not home already? I'm going to take her home. Oh, the kitty's up. And blood starts to come out of her mouth. Charlotte! We'll see you next time. Ah! Ah! Thank you. Do you ever watch a TV show set in a historical time period and think, how accurate is this really? But also, does it matter if it's accurate or not? Nefer TV is a new podcast about shows set in ancient times. This season, we're recapping every episode of the show Spartacus, Blood and Sand. I'm Anne Foster, and I have never seen this show before. And I'm Gina Barry, and I have watched this show maybe 10 times. Too many times. Join us every other Monday on the Nefer TV podcast as we discuss the real history behind Spartacus, Blood and Sand. Follow Nefer TV, that's N-E-F-E-R TV, wherever you get your podcasts. Steve Kubine and Nan McNamara's podcast from Beneath the Hollywood Sun. Mary Astor has been keeping a diary. Mary writes everything down. And so this torrid affair with Georges Kaufman is chronicled on a daily basis. In great detail. And I pulls out a box and gives McAllister a ring saying, here's something to remember me by. This article caused Daryl Zanuck to hit the roof. Actress Ruth Roman followed that up with playing a foil to Betty Davis in Beyond the Forest. I mean, if you can stand toe to toe with her. And she does because she plays the daughter of the man that Betty Davis kills out on the hunting trip. And it's directed by King Vidor, so he's no slouch. How do you go? Speaking of the Oscars, talking about what I call beginner's luck. The actors and actresses who won an Oscar on their very first film. Get your fix of old Hollywood from Steve and Nan on the podcast from Beneath the Hollywood Sun. Grace? Grace, thank God. Operator. Tell Dr. B that Grace is awake. I. Don't talk yet. That doctor thinks you had a seizure while Iris and I were out. With something like your pituitary tumor, it's quite possible that the peripheral vision loss is permanent. But we may be able to slow or even reverse it. It's getting worse. Maybe. maybe I got too close to the car, or maybe someone snuck some technology into the town. We have to find it, or report it, and get rid of it, or something. Please don't go looking for anything else that will hurt you. Who's there? Raze. I'm coming for you, Raze. Get scared with How I Died, The Carrington Event. How I Died, The Carrington Event is available now on all podcast apps.