(dramatic instrumental music)
(thunder crackling)
(air hissing)
(mouse squeaking)
- Hello one and all and welcome
to the penultimate episode
of "Mice & m*rder."
I am your humble dungeon
master Brennan Lee Mulligan.
With me as always are our Sylvan Sleuths.
Say hi, Sylvan Sleuths.
- [All] Hi, Sylvan Sleuths.
- Last we left our animal investigators
they put their heads together
in the darkened Seance Room
in the leisure wing of Loam
Hall as Sylvester Cross,
the m*rder*r rotted in the
oubliette of Loam Hall,
but perhaps we were a
little bit quick on the draw
for as our friends and allies of Sylvester
put their heads together,
they began to question
whether the world's greatest detective
would so clumsily implicate himself
in this string of horrific murders.
And indeed, as Sylvester
was kept below the kitchen
in the wine cellar of Loam Hall,
the body of the Lady
Lucretia was discovered
with the words, I do not
need my hands to m*rder.
And indeed, screams of the occult rang out
throughout the assembled party guests
because it seemed that
Sylvester was using powers
from beyond the grave to
control the spirits of the dead
and k*ll the Lady
Lucretia where she stood.
I will also saw at this point
that Gangie Green revealed
that the constables who
took so long in arriving
are old criminal accomplices from London,
servants of the Cottonbottom family.
Mysteries abound.
Fletcher Cottonbottom's
ghost seen at the beginning
of the night, was that the
same as Daisy's appearance
through the mirrored hologram,
and if so does that mean
that Fletcher Cottonbottom is somewhere
here in Tufting Meadows?
The mysterious figure
that fought our companions
at the top of the
elevator when they went up
to see where the elevator went
to see if they could find the hidden
and mysterious third floor of the house,
was that Simon Shellcrest?
Was that Ambrose Harding, a
man we know to be a criminal?
Or was it Armond Armadillo
who of those three
is the only one who appeared injured
as he would have been
if Gangie Green's shovel
and Lars Vandenchomp's powerful fists
had connected with him?
And finally, as they all
assembled they realized
that three o'clock, the
time when they believed
that the elevator would be able to go
to that mysterious third
unexplored floor of the house,
Buckster Boyd looking
at his father's watch,
"time is money, here's
both," put it together.
It's not a time, it's a position.
And with the skillfully pickpocketed key
by way of Mr. Gangie Green,
the companions zoomed
into the kitchen wing.
With a mighty blow, Lars
Vandenchomp laid low
the crooked constable and
with a bolt of electricity
from a well-placed jab underneath
from this electro-cyanotoxic fungus
the cop was taken care
of and Sylvester Cross
sprung from where he was being kept
to join his companions in the elevator.
With a twist counterclockwise,
the elevator descends
into the third and
final wing of Loam Hall.
And thus, we return to "Mice & m*rder."
(Brennan mimics elevator clanking)
Stone moves past slowly as
the freight elevator descends.
The flickering, warm light of gas lamps
and the tungsten bulbs
of Loam Hall give way
to the sickly blue ghostly
light of cyanotoxin
as the mushroom smell
increases and increases.
As you all descend, I
would ask all of you,
are you looking straight ahead
or are any of you looking at each other
as you descend in the elevator?
- I'm looking behind me.
- [Brennan] Looking behind.
- I think Buckster's looking all around
because he doesn't have a sense
of where this entrance is,
whether it's gonna be in
front of him or behind him.
- Absolutely, the freight
elevator has two doors.
You already know that the door that opens
into the kitchen wing
is on the opposite side
from the door that
opened onto the hillside
where you all were attacked.
So you have two possible entrances.
- Oh, I think I'm looking
at one of the doors
and I'm making side eyes at Sylvester
because you know, there's tension.
- Sylvester, oh sorry,
so looking being side-eye looking around.
Vicar and Lars, where
are your eyes pointed?
- Buckster who just moved
the key and made it work.
- I think I'm watching Gangie.
- I've changed my mind.
- Where's Gangie looking?
(Sam laughing)
- (laughs) I believe
that Gangie is so preparing, perhaps,
for another surprise figure to fight.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah.
- So maybe looking looking at the shovel,
getting the shovel all
screwed on correctly and...
- Fixing your-
- Yeah, you have
to re-screw it together each time.
It's really inconvenient.
- Maybe I'm like, sharpening the shovel.
You know what I mean.
- Yes, I love it.
- That's a great point.
Can I change my answer and maybe
Gangie and I made eyes like
okay, here we go again.
And I want to prepare for the door
that opens to the outside.
- Cool-
- And then I'm preparing
for the opposite door.
- Oh, very nice.
- Awesome.
Gangie and Lars who, of the people,
no offense to our more refined guests,
but the Vicar, the
businessman, the corporate spy,
and the detective, the two people
who actually really,
really know how to fight
sort of square up at either
side of the elevator.
- And only after they do that do I say,
"Uh, yeah, secure the
perimeter, that's right."
(group laughing)
- You know, mental fights
are still a big deal, too
so you know, I'm pretty strong.
- Where is Sylvester
looking in this moment?
- Sylvester has his back
up against the side wall
of the elevator 'cause he
knows it could be either door
and he is pretty sure that he's about
to see Fletcher Cottonbottom
so he's steeling himself for that.
- I think Daisy, as you make side-eye,
you look at Sylvester and can see
that Sylvester is in his head
thinking of his arch-nemesis
who you revealed earlier
tonight is still alive.
- [Rekha] Mm-hmm.
- Somewhere in the world.
Here I am going to pause for
a minute as a dungeon master.
You all look suspiciously at each other
and it's a long elevator ride down.
And you know that once you get there
there is going to be
plenty of things to find.
As people often do in moments
where the future is rushing towards them,
your minds flicker to the past,
specifically the recent
past of this evening
trying to put together
the mystery ahead of you.
We enter into the final
chapter of "Mice & m*rder,"
and I want to turn it over
to you not only as characters
but as players to tell
me, your dungeon master,
where the biggest question
marks still remain for you.
You have gotten troves
upon troves of information,
but I think all of your minds are racing.
The biggest thing that got answered today
was that Sylvester was the whodunnit
and now Sylvester is not
the whodunnit anymore.
So all of a sudden your
mind races of, you know,
I think even for Daisy
who's the most suspicious,
questions whether she's even
seen a m*rder take place tonight or not.
And there's an element of
this mystery going on here
of what do your characters
feel that they can be certain,
if anything, and then
what if anything else
remains as like a big
question mark to you?
(dramatic instrumental music)
Yes, Gangie.
- I think that Gangie is really curious
what happened with those bodies exactly
that I had been digging
up for Ambrose Harding
and just like, something
weird happened with that.
Gangie did not investigate beforehand
and now it seems that those
are gonna be kind of important.
- And I think Gangie in that moment, too,
alights back on the fact
that earlier this evening
he was supposed to meet Mr. Harding
on the second floor
landing for one final body.
- Yes.
- Awesome, Buckster.
- A few things Buckster feels aware of.
The moment that Sylvester
went down into the oubliette
he was like, this is too simple.
And knowing that Fletcher,
at least has been an appearance
of Fletcher Cottonbottom
and that he's still alive,
it seems more than likely
that Fletcher's the big bad.
We also know that there
was electrical work done
on the house recently and when
Squire Badger was in London.
It's gotta be that Fletcher and team
or Fletcher and his accomplices
potentially were responsible
for rewiring the house
in such a way as to
assassinate Squire Badger.
Putting a few pieces together,
knowing from the paperwork that I received
that Squire Badger was horribly in debt
and knowing that Fletcher
and Squire Badger
probably had history together
and had done dealings together before
I can't help but wonder
if this is a case of like,
debt having not been paid.
At the same time, as
it seems like Fletcher
maybe setting up Sylvester Cross.
So maybe this is all like some
sort of like, revenge tack.
And the piece that I can't put
together for the life of me
is what the dead bodies
have to do with it,
why neither child but
particularly Jez seems confident
that it was their father
who was actually k*lled.
- Incredible, go ahead
and give me an insight check, Buckster.
- Dirty 20.
- Dirty 20.
- What?
Oh, no, nevermind.
- Hell yeah, dirty 20.
Buckster, the word assassinate
comes to mind to you.
Loam Hall is very old,
made of ancient stonework.
A lot of electrical work went in here.
You're thinking a lot about all the Daisy
and Sylvester's ability to like, forensics
and look at clues and understand wiring,
which is not ever your forte.
Yeah, being able to run
around secretly in the house
is all well and good, but
I think you're also aware
partially that if you were just
doing what Gangie Green does
and running around in the vents,
you would have access to rooms,
but you wouldn't have access to people.
That's one thing you recognize.
So whatever secrecy has
been going on tonight
and whoever's responsible,
the ghost of Fletcher Cottonbottom,
a living Fletcher
Cottonbottom, or whomever,
one of the other dozens of
people who are here in the home,
I think you realize that like,
being able to move in secrecy
in Loam Hall, definitely critical.
Being able to move through Loam Hall
in the open, also critical, yes.
- Right, and Harding, I mean,
we know that Hawkins feels,
my insight check on Hawkins
was that he feels guilty.
- Yes, and he didn't know.
- For some reason,
but doesn't know if
Fletcher is still alive.
- [Rekha] Yes.
- On the other hand, was
it Harding or Gilfoyle?
- Harding knows that Fletcher's alive.
- Harding.
- Harding knows.
- Yeah, Harding's definitely bad.
- Yeah.
- Well, but the question is,
who's on what side of this?
- Right, like, yeah, sorry.
- Sorry, no, Rekha, I want you to say
what you were gonna say.
- Oh, I was gonna say,
Sam and I were talking
about this of like, okay,
if Harding is, Harding is
confirmed doing something stupid
and bad, but is it on
the side of Squire Badger
or is it against Squire Badger?
And is Squire Badger-
- Lots-
- That's why that insight check was so,
it f*cked me up so much
because I was like,
oh, there are these decoy bodies,
and it was Harding who
was working with Gangie
to get the bodies so
it sounds like someone
who's sparing Badger,
but then it turns out
he knew Cottonbottom was alive.
- Which suggests that Cottonbottom's-
- So he's on Cottonbottom's...
- And Squire Badger are working together.
- Yes.
- Yes.
- So maybe Squire Badger
is behind all of it.
- Which I will say, to confirm
what you guys just said,
Squire Badger's address
book had an address,
Gangie Green's London address written
in Fletcher Cottonbottom's handwriting.
- Working together.
- So are Squire Badger
and Cottonbottom teaming up
against Sylvester Cross specifically?
- Well, why do all of this?
- Is he k*lling his own kid?
- Before we get to the
bottom of the elevator,
I'd just like to say to
everyone so everyone understands
what we're about to face,
Fletcher Cottonbottom
is the greatest villain I have ever known.
I'm absolutely certain,
as I've been told that he's alive,
that he is the one pulling the strings.
Squire Badger was merely in his employ.
Is he still alive?
We may find him at the bottom.
- Buckster, as Sylvester says that,
that employ that Sylvester says there
makes you hungry to revisit those ledgers
'cause I just gave you a skimming of that.
If you got to actually sit down with that
and put some real insight into it,
you think there's plenty of
story to be told in those books.
Also-
- But now is probably
not the time. (laughs)
- Now is probably not the time.
- (chuckles) Cool.
- Absolutely.
- Well, can we see if
there's a secret office
in this elevator?
Maybe you can go.
(Sylvan Sleuths laughing)
- But the other thing I will
say, Buckster, to you is this,
is that word assassinate.
Again, lots of questions.
You have lots of information
with lots of questions.
The other thing I'll say is this.
There is one thing that when
you think of assassinate
on that 20 insight and
Sylvester says he is certain
that Fletcher Cottonbottom is behind it.
And you and Daisy are thinking about like,
were Squire Badger and Fletcher
possibly working together?
I think you realize, there
is one assassination attempt
that you can be certain
was happening tonight.
It is the character
assassination of Sylvester.
- Character assassination.
I just texted it to Rekha.
- He literally just texted that to me!
- I just texted.
- Really? (clapping)
- And I also texted him a
really smart idea which was,
a*s a*s - two donkeys.
(all laughing)
- Both equally lucid, cogent,
and prescient observations.
(Sam laughing and clapping)
- I'm gonna, for the viewer at home,
I'm gonna pull back the
curtain just a little bit.
There is not one person who likes to talk
when the cameras aren't rolling
about what's happening
more than Sam Reich.
A number of times our
director Michael Schaubach
has had to say, "Hey, can we
do this on camera, please?"
- Yep. (clears throat)
(Brennan laughs)
- Wait, whose character is assassinated?
- Sylvester's.
- Sylvester.
- Sylvester's been set up-
- Character assassination.
- Character assassination.
- Right.
- Not physical assassination.
- A bit too slippery,
even in my advancing age.
- Before we get to the bottom
of the elevator I just want to say-
- Long ride.
- (laughs) Yeah, this
elevator is really slow.
- It's 1905.
- It seems only appropriate, in honor
of the now late Miss Lucretia
that we are about to determine
what is real and what is not,
for everything cannot be real.
- f*ck yeah, cool.
We are definitely good.
I don't want to keep you guys trapped
in an eternal elevator ride.
- (laughs) Yeah, are we done yet?
- So we're good, yeah, we're fully good
to go do the next thing,
but I just want to make sure
that because I'm letting you know, again,
as sort of us penning this
m*rder mystery together,
once the doors of this elevator open.
- Uh-oh.
- The tempo of this story is
going to pick up a little bit.
- Okay, in that case-
- Oh boy.
- So are there any other
questions hanging in your air
either as players or characters about all?
And this is also helpful for our audience
who's also trying to put all
the clues together of like,
'cause I have to split my brain
between the things that really happened
and what I remember
you guys know happened.
- Hm.
- Yes.
- So I might miss huge holes
that you guys are like,
what the f*ck was that about?
So before the elevator doors open
is there anything else that you guys
have big question marks about?
- Yes, okay.
(Grant laughing)
Sorry, (laughs) okay.
All of this electromagnetism, like,
I just want a solid answer on like,
the gyroscope was needed because of X,
because of Y, because of
Z so like generally that.
- [Katie] Yeah.
- The medal of honor I have,
like what Sam was saying,
whose side are these bad guys on?
Regardless, these letters I stole
that are in Squire Badger's
handwriting or whatever,
who could this creature
we got attacked by be?
The letter says, you know,
I have no arms or whatever.
It said something more artful than that.
So I'm like, okay, a snake
is what I think of, or-
- But how are you?
- Huh?
- I'm making fun of how
you paraphrased the letter.
I'm making fun of you.
- Oh, okay.
So that's all good and well.
Yep, good, good, good.
(Brennan laughing)
But okay, so this thing doesn't
have arms so I think snake.
Okay, but I also think,
hello, and this is-
- Which letter was that, Rekha?
- That was the second letter
with the fox head written in blood.
Sorry, it's not a letter.
- On the wall.
- Not a letter.
- A message on the wall.
- On the wall, yeah.
- Not a letter, sorry.
- And can we even trust that literally
because it was like trying
some weird occult statement.
- But it said it had no arms so I think-
- Yeah, he does deal in arms anymore.
- It said, I don't need arms.
- I don't need arms.
- Yeah, it's k*lling from afar.
That magnet, you didn't have to need arms.
- But Rekha's right, I
mean, that could be a clue
that it's some kind of
animal without arms.
- Only because we're
talking about creatures.
- Yeah.
- Sam mentioned
a Frankenstein thing, I just
wanted to bring that up.
Also, armadillos do cause leprosy,
and that's all I'll say, and
that's all I have to say.
(Brennan laughing)
Donkey plus donkey
assassinate, and that's all I have to say.
- So Rekha, the medal of
honor, my interpretation
of the medal of honor was
that the body who we think of
as Squire Badger-
- Yes.
- Is some sort of w*r vet.
They had to hide that
body's medal of honor.
- Yes, I agree, I agree with that.
- Wait, wait, let Sam
finish, what was that?
- I kind of just don't want
to forget that I have that
because that is a literal piece of metal
in an electromagnified house.
- Cool.
- Okay.
- I love it.
The only thing I'll say is this.
Daisy, give me an insight check.
- Okay, and I think I
interrupted Katie as well.
- Oh, I was just gonna ask for Sam
to finish what he was saying
'cause I didn't hear it.
- [Rekha] I got a 10.
- Oh, well, remember how
Squire Badger's body,
it has the piece of shrapnel in it, right?
- [Katie] Yes.
- But the kids don't remember the father
speaking of any w*r wounds like that
which is some sort of clue that we have
that the body that we
think of as Squire Badger
is not Squire Badger in which case
maybe Hawkins was hiding.
- Yes.
- The Medal of Valor in
the secret office because-
- Maybe Hawkins died with this person
and he's guilty about
digging up this person's body
and he kept the medal of honor...
- Suggesting that he-
- 'Cause he cares about w*r.
- Hawkins.
- I don't know, yeah.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- You think Hawkins is using a decoy body?
So maybe the badger, a different
badger that was in the w*r
that has this thing in his heart was used?
- Yes.
- Okay, yeah.
- Exactly.
- That's for sure, yeah.
- If that makes sense.
- What did you roll on your insight check?
- 10.
- 10, okay, cool.
- It's 'cause I'm in a
big elevator of people
that are all watching me.
- So the only question there
that I think Daisy could make progress on
before we enter into this next chapter,
when you're thinking about
like, okay, yeah, magnets,
electrified, most of the
electronics in the house
seem pretty standard and
just what a rich person
would want to have to make
their home look modern
and nice or whatever.
The only thing that seems
bizarre to you is, like,
the electrified, like these
weird electrified areas
where something could be put down.
The fact that the breaker for the desk
was hidden in the bathroom
rather than the room.
Like, if that was an appliance,
why wouldn't you want the little breaker,
why would you want the breaker to control
this secret charged area on
the desk in the bathroom?
- Because bathrooms, you go alone.
- Bathrooms you go alone.
- Unless you're me and Ms. McCabbage.
(cast laughing)
- The other thing I'll say is this.
On a 10, you don't know for sure,
but I will remind you, I think
something rings in your ear
that the wonderful Ms.
Rosalind Crumb told you.
- Wow, I'm surprised I remember
what she told me, but go on.
- When you guys came in, when
you and the Vicar came in
and the Vicar was horrified that the bust
of Barkus Aurelius was
gone, Rosalind mentioned
that they often had to
return it back to the library
where it was supposed to go.
- Yes.
- [Raphael] Huh.
- [Brennan] And that's
all I'll say on that.
- Terrific.
- Before...
- Like multiple assassination attempts?
- sh*t, maybe it's a key to
different places in the house
and we'll need it.
- Well, as Lars offers
that up, I will remind you,
there is no maybe to it being a key.
- It's a treasure key.
- Right, it absolutely is a key, yeah.
- Awesome, unless there's anything else.
- The theory of, Cottonbottom
is somehow using Squire Badger
to try to assassinate
Sylvester Cross's character.
- [Ally] For sure.
- Given debt.
- Yes.
- A tremendous about of debt
seems like a good theory.
- Yes.
- Yes.
- And then also I'll say,
rain storms, lightning,
electromagnetism, dead bodies,
people we think are dead
who are not actually dead
just reeks of like, mad
science Frankenstein to me.
- Yes.
- Sam, is this a-
- Yeah, it has to be.
- Okay.
- Because they were also,
they're really good at science,
but they're terrible at history.
- [Rekha] Yes.
- Or not terrible at
history, but they're not,
they don't know history that well.
- So Fletcher found out...
- Sorry, Raph, so what? (laughs)
They don't know history that well so what?
- So wait, yeah, so it's
a science, just I'm saying
that most people that are into science,
they specialize in that, not necessarily
the history portion of it.
- Sure.
- So somebody with a
strong science background.
- Before this elevator goes down,
Daisy tries to sum this
up the best she can.
Fletcher found out that
the Squire had debt
and had a bone to pick
with Sylvester Cross.
Certainly Fletcher has a bone
to pick with Sylvester Cross as well.
Cottonbottom offers Squire an opportunity
to assassinate Sylvester Cross's character
through an elaborate system of magnets
that can be installed in his home, yes?
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Great, just catching up.
- And I think what this was
was supposed to look like another mystery
that Sylvester doesn't solve.
- That he didn't solve.
- And then he goes crazy and
kills everybody in the house.
- Yes, yes.
- So now I wonder if Connor McCabbage
was even a setup way back then.
- Yes, because in June
Gangie had to get these bodies, in June!
- Hmm.
- Whoa.
- Connor McCabbage.
- Can I do an insight check
on these kind of projections?
- [Brennan] Sorry, sorry, sorry-
- We've gotta end the elevator.
- Should we, wait, should we?
- No, no, no, no.
- Everybody else got to do one!
- Yeah, Ally didn't get to do it.
- Everyone did like two.
- Yeah, Ally gets to do-
- I didn't.
- Okay, yes, sorry.
This is a long elevator
ride, but that's fine
because this is f*cking great.
We literally haven't had a scene
where you guys do the m*rder mystery thing
of talking about what
you think is happening.
- No.
- So wait,
I have a bunch to say about
what you all just said,
but Lars, go for it really quickly.
- No, no, no, no, that's
okay, I bet you'll cover it.
- No, no, I wanna hear from your,
I would rather hear it from
your mouth than from mine.
- Mm, yeah, just my insight
was more about the projections
and the ghosts, like
Lucretia being so into ghosts
and them having these
elaborate projection things
at their disposal, I'm wondering
how that was being used.
- I think, so a couple things
got said all in order, right?
Of like, about the, Lars
points out very astutely
this thing of like, Sylvester,
like a bunch of people saw
Sylvester and Squire Badger
have this extremely aggressive interaction
at the very beginning which
was the real Sylvester
having a bone to pick with
the Squire Brockhollow.
And when Lars says this thing of like,
Sylvester failing his
first ever m*rder case,
starting that as the
motive for Sylvester's,
like, descent into madness
and then this birthday party.
And I think even Sylvester and Lars,
there's an element of
like, yeah, wait a minute.
Like, how much did the Squire
want to even save face?
Why did he invite us to
his 60th birthday party?
Yeah, there was gonna be press here,
but like, look at this thing.
And Lars thinking of
like, Sylvester's hatred
of his own failure to solve the case
as being a plausible motive for m*rder.
And Sylvester, as you say, like,
"I wonder even if even Connor McCabbage
was a real m*rder or not,"
given that we've seen
the ghost of Connor McCabbage today,
I think you go back to the
insight you had privately
when you saw the bodies
of Constance and Corbin,
of Lady Brockhollow and Dr. Magpie,
do you remember what I told you?
Because you saw that and
everything you saw was like,
this is a perfect match of my handwriting.
The letters that you found
in Squire Brockhollow's desk,
Daisy, you know Sylvester's handwriting.
Those letters are perfectly
in Sylvester's handwriting.
And you, Sylvester,
looked at that crime scene
and were like, "It's a perfect match.
It looks like I did it."
There was one detail I
gave you about Constance
and Corbin's eyes, do
you remember what it was?
- I do, they were fixed straight ahead,
just like the eyes on the
body of Connor McCabbage
- There is a similarity between the eyes
of Connor, Corbin, and Connor.
The elevator descends.
(mimics motor powering down)
The doors open. (mimics
doors sweeping open)
And I am going to need everybody here-
- Oh good God.
- To go to Roll20.
- Oh, cool.
- Cool.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah, you are in
the secret basement wing of Loam Hall.
You step out of the elevator.
There's wheelbarrow, junk,
other stuff like that.
So a secret wall moves out of the way
as the elevator comes down here.
You look down the hall.
Gangie, you smell (sniffs)
all manner of mushrooms down there,
a wonderful secret mushroom garden.
- [Katie] Mm-hmm.
- Gangie, you recognize
all of these mushrooms
as being filled with cyanotoxin.
And you see deep in their little rotting,
moist fungal beds thick cables
going up to a copper cable high above.
And you see these mushrooms
humming and glowing
with vibrant electricity,
the secret storeroom
of Loam Hall's power.
And you see, indeed, that though this is
an incredible fungal power
source for the manor house,
you also see that, hey,
mushrooms tend to spread
in a place this cold and damp.
And you see the little network
of wild fungus going off.
As you hear a roll of thunder overhead,
(thunder rumbling)
you see that the fungus
in the wall kind of
lights up a little bit.
(mimics electrical buzzing)
That sort of ghostly glow
and realize the ghostly lights that lit up
in The Seance Room are in fact
not the tremors of the undead
but they got a mildew problem
in The Seance Room it looks like.
And the ghostly lights that appear there
were reacting to a lightning strike above.
Incredible, you also
see a door ahead of you
that whoever goes to open
it first finds it locked
with a large padlock
with a series of numerical rollers on it.
There is an eight-digit padlock sequence
underneath the padlock.
- Are the wrong years of that bust?
I don't know, I don't know.
- Barkus?
- But that would have been four.
- Those were in four
digits, they were in, hmm.
- Eight numbers, was
that what we just heard?
- Eight numbers.
- Eight numbers.
- But we can't have
Lars just break it open?
- Eight numbers, I will say,
the reason I thought that
is because years, dates, obviously,
a four-digit year to a four-digit
year is what came to me.
- But I think those-
- Most of those digits were three numbers.
- Those were three numbers, yeah.
- Yeah, those were three numbers, yeah.
- But I bet that still could be it.
That could still be some sequence of those
that are the eight numbers.
I'm gonna roll an investigation check.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah.
- For what's going on
in the room if I may.
- I will let all of you know
that in this secret wing
these checks are extremely important.
And in fact, for most of the
things that you encounter here
there will often be clues that
are only findable on a 25.
Sylvester, go ahead and roll.
- No sweat, watch this.
- I give you the help action.
- Hm?
- Can I give him the help action?
- Okay, Lars is gonna
give you a help action
so you have advantage, yes, absolutely.
- Okay, 18 and...
(adventurous music)
28.
- Ooh!
- Yes!
- Hell yes.
- That help action, that help action.
(Ally rubs hands)
(Katie clapping)
- Yes, yes, yes.
- Yes.
- You, Sylvester, come across
a little thing written in stone.
First of all, on a 28, good gravy.
You find this little picnic bench here
and you see that there
are immediately just like,
scanning the room you
see footprints in here
of a large badger man.
You also see old footprints
and very recent footprints
of Mr. Harding and Mr. Gilfoyle.
Mr. Gilfoyle's tracks only
go to the mushroom area
and approach the door.
The badger's and Harding's
both go through the door,
but Mr. Gilfoyle's do not.
You also see other tracks here.
You see the tracks, there
are some that are very,
very recent, some that
are very, very recent
and kind of muddy and kind of mucking up
the rest of your ability
to find other tracks
which are cats and dogs
within the past hour.
- Police.
- Ooh.
- The police.
- The police.
- Police.
- Yeah.
- And finally-
- It would appear it's been raining.
- Cats and dogs.
Daisy will not let him
finish the quip. (laughs)
- (laughs) You also find fresh
from within the last hour
and also some going back months
and months, rabbit tracks.
- Rabbits!
- Wow.
- Sylvester, you find
something written on the lock
very simply which is just part of,
it's like sort of a fine-made
lock, little gilded thing.
Hold on one second.
(dramatic instrumental music)
Let me just-
- My jeweler's loupe, have a look here.
- [Brennan] Yes, yes,
yes, hold on one second.
- Something written.
Can't make it out.
- The words written on this
in this strange fungal room
on the lock are written in Latin
with two little olive
branches around the words.
And it says, morte et in gloria.
Does Sylvester speak Latin?
- No, but-
- Does the Vicar?
- A member of our party does.
- Oh, I can,
yeah, I can interpret languages.
- This is definitely
some Roman emperor sh*t.
- So yes, you see morte et in gloria.
And Raph, I've just sent you
the translation for that.
- Vicar, this lock says
morte et in gloria.
Now, I understand that you're
not a Papist and neither am I-
- Glory in death.
- Glory in death.
- That's what it means.
- Glory in death.
- You don't even have
to finish the sentence.
- I had a whole speech
about the Catholics, but-
- No, time is of the essence
God, uh, gosh darn it!
- We still won't say that!
(Brennan laughing)
(Sam laughing)
- My goodness.
- Gosh darn it!
- Your faith has been shaken
to the core this evening.
- Okay, would it be two dates,
like when the Schnauzer
w*r started or when...
- [Raphael] I believe the eight digits-
- Glory in death, it's
probably the death date
of a number of these emperors.
- Yes.
- Maybe Barkus Aurelius.
- Or it could be the
death date of Fletcher
because that is a four-digit date
if we're doing more modern dates.
- It is a date.
- It's gotta be.
- It's gotta be.
Should we just try some things?
- Yeah, is it-
- Yeah, I wanna try 1885-1905.
- Cool, you try it, 1885-1905.
Click, nothing, it doesn't
open with those dates in there.
- Can I roll insight, Brennan?
- Yeah, give me an
insight check, Buckster.
- 22.
- 22.
Buckster, you're looking at
all these f*cking academics
blather on about these f*cking dates.
Whatever this was needed
to be communicable
to a bunch of common criminals
so it needs to be
something that either was,
like, either they could
have written down somewhere
or it needs to be something
that would be obvious
or simple for them to remember.
- 12345678.
(Sam laughing boisterously)
- I don't think it works.
- Maybe we're overcomplicating this.
Maybe Daisy's right.
- Do you think?
Listen, my momma's passcode, passcode,
my momma's lock key for her
whole life has been 12345678.
- Yes, well-
- She said-
- I'm trying it and...
- You try, okay, so you try 12345678?
No, it does not open.
- It didn't work.
- It was worth a try.
- Something to 1901.
- The inscription is glory
and death and it's one date.
- [Grant] So invisible, where is-
- Does Loam Hall have an address?
- It's a date, it's a date.
What would be visible to-
- That's what I think,
that's why I asked if there are dates
written above Loam Hall?
Like, is there something
written in signage?
- Are there?
- I don't know.
- The crest of arms or something.
- No, I'm asking Brennan. (laughs)
- I'm gonna pause real quick.
Rekha guessed right in .5 seconds
and then said that it was wrong
and you've been moving
away from it since then.
Rekha, you-
- What did you say, Rekha?
- The only date that's
been in the entire mystery!
- What was the first thing you said?
- Which is the wrong date
written on Barkus Aurelius!
And yes, it's a three-digit year,
but you just, like when
you write 01 for January-
- Yeah, f*cking b*tches!
- You just put a zero!
- I was like, am I a dumbass?
- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
- So what is that, though?
- Rekha, you deserve blame
for this as well!
- Is zero, if it's 100
write 0100!
- Rekha... (laughs)
- One, two, three, four-
- No!
Five, six, worth another try.
- I rip, I rip-
- I'm not an academic.
- I rip this-
- You guys tried 12345678
before you tried the only date
I've given you in nine episodes!
- Okay, I push Sylvester to the side.
I say, "This is why we
can never work together,
Sylvester, two big egos."
- This is why, this is why?
- Two big egos do not a pair make.
I type in-
- You don't think it's because
you lied about my arch-nemesis being dead
for all those years?
- Sylvester, I swear to God-
- That's not the reason
we don't work together?
- I will throw you into the ocean.
- It's because of our ego.
No, you're right, it's because
of our emotional difficulties.
- I will f*cking end yours!
- Enter the date, enter the
date, after you, sweetheart.
- I enter the date and I
spit in Sylvester's mouth.
(Brennan laughing)
- Hot. (laughs)
- Yeah, that's pretty hot.
- You guys just start hooking up.
(Grant laughing)
(Rekha clapping)
- Incredible, cool.
So you put in the date
that Barkus Aurelius died,
jiggle the lock for a second.
It doesn't open and then change the year
to the incorrect year that was on the bust
which any criminals working in this house
would have been able to
refer back to to see.
Click, the lock opens and the
door to the next room opens.
All of you can move through.
- [Ally] Whoa.
- After you, Sarge.
- All of you enter the next chamber here.
- [Ally] Whoa.
- [Brennan] Anyone who wants
to can make either a perception
or an investigation check.
- I'll do an investigation check.
- Ooh, I got an 18 perception up to a 25.
- [Brennan] Mm-hmm.
- I did a 28 perception.
- You said perception or investigation?
- Perception or investigation.
We got a 25 and a 28, incredible.
- Nat 20, baby.
- Oh, my God.
(Ally gasps)
(Grant gasps)
- Wow, hell yeah.
- Within this room, incredible.
- Can't see it at all.
- I know. (laughs)
- Within this room are countless
treasures and artifacts
from Bavaria seized
during the Schnauzer w*r.
Munitions, secret schematics,
plans, smuggling routes,
all manner of incredible criminality.
With a natural 20, Daisy,
you have a network here
connecting Squire Badger and
these belongings to years
of work with the Cottonbottom
criminal organization.
For anyone else that got over a 20,
feel free to add a priceless artifact,
priceless art object to your inventory
if you want to just pocket
something while you're in here.
- Now, I think we can all agree
that this looks very bad
for the late Squire Badger,
but assuming that the actual
police don't find this,
I call dibs.
- (laughs) On everything?
- Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't
know we were doing dibs rules.
I thought we were all above
the age of 10, Buckster.
(Sylvan Sleuths laughing)
- We look over and Buckster
is licking his hands
and touching everything.
- Buckster,
if there's something you want
we'll just let you have it.
- (laughs) Well, now
that my butt is clear,
I'll put something in there.
(Brennan laughing)
- Yeah, I will also
take something for sure.
- Yes, I will also.
- Can I do an insight check on
this painting in the corner?
- Oh, good call.
- I'm gonna say on Daisy's
nat 20 investigation
you see the painting in
the corner is the original
badger painting that is part of Loam Hall.
So this is one of the few
things that is not like, stolen,
like Schnauzer w*r contraband.
This is like, Squire
Badger was gonna install
the trick portrait and didn't want
to ruin his old family portrait,
is up in the corner of the room.
An open archway extends
into pitch darkness
with a very different smell of decay
than that of the mushroom hall next door.
This room is dark, and there
are no lights within it.
Do any of you do anything
to produce light?
(Rekha sneezes)
- I light my pipe.
- Bless you.
(Rekha chuckles)
- You light your pipe.
Go ahead, in the dim light of this match
you see the true base of Loam Hall,
the ancient Roman ruins that
were built here long, long ago
by the Imperial Army, by legionaries
who had come all the way to Great Britain
long, long before it had such a name.
As you move inside the next hall you see
this ancient fortress turned
into something of a medical bay
and upon closer investigation-
- [Ally] Ooh, I knew it.
- You see it's less a medical
bay and much more of a morgue.
And underneath one of the beds herein
under a full white sheet you see the shape
of a large dead body.
As all of you enter the room,
does anyone approach the large
dead body gathered herein?
- Yes!
(Sam chuckling)
- This is Gangie's bread and butter.
- I was about to nominate you, Gangie.
I'm gonna go cleanse something.
- I just, I would do it,
I just think you'd be so good at it.
- I don't have a problem with it.
I'm not all worried about it.
- So do your thing.
- Hell yeah, Gangie, you walk up
and I presume you see the
white sheet hanging over there.
I bite it off so I don't
get my hands dirty.
(all laughing)
- Good call.
- You whip the sheet off-
- Wait, that's also so sensual.
(Brennan laughing)
- Yeah, it's very hot.
- Oh g*ng, oh boy, here it is.
Gangie, you whip the sheet off of the bed
and behold the dead body
of Squire William Thornwall Brockhollow.
- Curious.
- Can we check for a scar where shrapnel
would have gone into his body?
- You look for, so I'm going
to need some skill checks
from the people gathered herein.
- [Raphael] Okay, I have-
- And let me know if you're
doing a skill check to the body
or if you're not gathered around the body
and are doing a skill check in the room.
I will say, again, here
there are clues in this room
that only a 25 will be able to yield.
And there also may be clues here
that I will only give you on a
natural 20 so roll carefully.
- Everybody just roll the thing
they're absolutely best at.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Yeah.
- Father, I hate to impose
upon a man of the cloth,
but I believe we could all
use a blessing on our...
- Can I bless the group?
- Oh.
- Yes, bless can affect multiple people.
You can absolutely bless the group.
- Okay, great.
(warm tone resounds)
- So do we all get advantage?
- Not advantage.
- No.
- But everyone can add a d4
to their skill checks for
the rest of this scene.
- Okay.
- And I can help the detective?
- You may absolutely give the help action
to Detective Cross, yes.
- Ooh, that's a-
- Lars, oh yeah, sorry,
what are you doing?
- With bless that was a 27 insight,
and I want to see if
this Squire Badger's body
has the w*r wounds that we now think
only made that cadaver not
him, if that makes sense.
- Yes.
- Hell yeah, hell yeah.
Cool, so we'll go around.
That's a 27 insight from Lars
looking for the wound specifically.
We have a help action from
Buckster to Detective Cross.
Gangie, what are you rolling?
- I rolled a 26 but you said
to add four to it so I got 30,
is that-
- Roll a four-sided die
and add that, also what
skill are you rolling?
- I'm rolling perception.
So I had.
- (whistles) k*lling it.
- I will also-
- What is a four-sided die?
I don't have one of those.
- The little triangle.
- It's in the left.
- I will also point out that
I have to give you information
based on the skill you are using.
So Lars, your insight
check will provide you
emotional personal
information about the body.
It will not provide medical information.
Anyone who wants medical information
has got to do a medicine check.
- Got it.
- So a 26 perception from Gangie.
What did you roll on that four-sided die?
- I got three, so a 29.
- 29, incredible.
- Perception.
- Any other rolls from the
Vicar, Sylvester, or Daisy?
- Yes, sorry.
- So just to clarify,
I can also bless myself
so I also roll a d4?
- You also roll with a d4, absolutely.
- Okay, dope, go ahead, Daisy.
- I'm gonna roll investigation,
and I'll just assume
everybody's closing their eyes,
right, and not paying attention to me.
Okay, 16 and then I roll a d4.
16 plus three, 19.
- 19 investigation.
And Sylvester, what
skill are you using here?
- Well, I'm going to use
investigation, but I don't know
if I should investigate
the body or the room.
What do people think?
- I can do whatever you didn't
unless your number's like,
enormous or whatever,
but I just got a 19 so I can
use that wherever we think.
- Okay.
- If there are other bodies
in the room, I think
we should have someone-
- [Rekha] Split.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Yeah, I'll investigate the room.
- Yeah.
- And I have rolled, let's see
no, I rolled an eight, but I get
with advantage from the help action?
- Yes, that's correct.
- Six, so I'll take the eight.
So plus my, so that's 17 plus my blessing.
That's not gonna be very good.
- Yes.
- A 19 investigation.
- That's kind of interesting.
We both do the same amount of
investigation, interesting.
- Well, we're-
- I think, yeah...
There you go.
- Equally-matched pair.
- There you go.
- Daisy and Sylvester, there's
a lot of tension in the air.
- We're perfect together,
don't you see? (sighs)
(Brennan laughing)
- What did you say?
- We're perfect together, don't you see?
- Huh?
(Grant sighs in exasperation)
(Sylvan Sleuths laughing)
- I think both of you
are a little bit off your game right now.
- Gee, I wonder why.
- Yeah, I wonder why, too.
- Sylvester, you look around the room.
On a 19 investigation Sylvester,
you're looking around the room
and basically coming to the conclusion
that the dead bodies in here
are gruesomely carved up.
You see there is, and there's like scraps
of like ram's fur and crow
feathers on the ground.
I think on a 19 you are
able to answer a question
that Daisy had raised earlier
about the amount of people.
And you were like, how many murders
are they planning to commit tonight?
It's not about the amount.
Daisy, go for it, what are you gonna say?
- Because, here's my postulation.
I take out my second
cigarette of the evening
and I also smoke it in
the wrong direction.
(coughs) Because my postulation is,
we saw on Squire Badger's fake body
little tufts of other animals' fur,
all these things that
are supposed to indicate
that that was really him.
What if the amount of bodies isn't here
to replace people on a one-to-one basis,
but it is to add to any
of the possible people
they encounter to accumulate clues
from species all across this land?
- Grisly.
- As Daisy speaks up,
you all look around and see that you
are in the world's most
gruesome Build-A-Bear Workshop.
This place has been a chop shop
for bodies because, listen,
badgers, you know, there are
all these animals in the world,
but even with that you can
recognize the difference
between two different badgers.
The corpses that were coming here
we're not one-to-one
replacements as Daisy has said.
They were raw materials.
- Frankenstein, that's Sam.
- And I would like
to point out that Buckster did say this,
and that is all I will do to credit him.
- That's right, that's right. (laughs)
- Do I notice the eyes?
- On your 19 investigation looking around,
you're looking around the room.
I'm gonna say, Lars, on your
27 insight you notice the eyes.
You notice the eyes.
And by the way, I want
to remind everybody here,
you all ran past Squire
Badger's body upstairs
on your way to the elevator.
Lars, you got a 27 insight.
Ally, I'm gonna send something to you.
- Yes!
- And it's just for Lars.
And I'm actually gonna ask you to go last.
So I want to handle everybody else.
- The question is, if upstairs
is a fake Squire Badger
and down here is the real
Squire Badger, then why?
If he wasn't faking his death,
what's the point of all
these staged murders?
- Unless, oh-
- If they needed something
from him before knocking him out.
Maybe he didn't do what
they wanted him to do
and then they knocked the real one out.
- This could, hm...
- [Sam] But in that case, why
not take the man, m*rder him,
then put his body back upstairs?
Why the switcheroo?
- So I just sent a bunch of stuff.
Sorry, so I just sent a
bunch of stuff to Lars.
(Ally gasps excitedly)
Daisy, you do an investigation.
(chuckles) Ally's reaction!
Gangie, you got like
a 29 perception check.
- 29, yes.
(Brennan hums)
Well, I think I figured,
like I think these are
obviously the bodies
that I've been digging up and delivering.
- On a 29 perception, all of your bodies
have been coming here.
- Yes.
- Mr. Harding's tracks come into the room.
And I think, and Katie,
I'm gonna send something
to you in a moment, but I do want to know
what Raph is doing as well.
- Okay, okay, so I'm
gonna roll investigation.
- And I have a question after this.
- Do you have good, oh.
- That's a 22.
- Does someone have good medicine?
- Plus a d4.
- I was just gonna ask.
- I don't.
- Someone needs to do a medicine.
I have +2, can anyone beat that?
- I have three.
- I have +5.
- I have five as well.
- Hey, Gangie.
- I have six.
- Yeah, Gangie should totally
do a medicine check, oh.
- Well, and here's, my question is,
I have investigation as a bonus action
so do I get another action on this turn?
- Yeah, you guys are not in combat
so you can be doing
tons and tons of stuff,
and multiple people can be
doing medicine checks as well.
- Gangie-
- Katie, I'm gonna send you
something real quick.
- Okay, what'd you say, Ally?
- You gotta do a medicine check, baby.
- Well no, Grant's is higher.
- Yeah.
- Oh, really?
- Yeah.
- Grant's is +6.
- +6.
- Oh.
- Oh, yeah, cool.
- I mean, both of you could do it.
There's plenty of bodies.
- Yeah, true, we should have two going
in case we can get a nat 20.
- Yeah.
- [Raphael] I just want to say,
I think Squire was m*rder*d
way earlier and this was done now
for the purposes of framing Sylvester,
you see what I'm saying?
- But we were interacting
with him tonight.
- That's true.
- Yeah.
- He gruffed up Buckster.
- Oh, okay.
See, my thought that that, it
was somebody, it was another-
- That was a decoy.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I feel like that was, I
think that's too hard to fake.
Like, the kids would know.
- 'Cause all they had were bodies.
- Yeah.
- Yes.
- Okay, okay, okay.
- I roll-
- Okay, cool.
Katie, I just sent something to you.
What did you get on your investigation?
- I got 25.
- Nice.
- 25 on your investigation check?
- Yes, sir.
- Incredible.
You smell incense coming from somewhere.
And I think on these investigation,
on a 25 investigation check, (hums)
on a 25 investigation
check you are looking
through some of the surgical equipment.
Hold on one moment.
Raph, I'm gonna send you something.
- Okay.
- I've just rolled a 21 medicine.
- Great.
- But did you add your d4 to it?
- Yep, I rolled a 20 plus 1d4.
- Should we all just-
- Oh sh*t, oh sh*t! (laughs)
- Okay, so guys, a bunch
of stuff is happening.
The main revelation, so Sylvester's
looking around the room.
You find the stuff that
we talked about there.
Daisy, you're investigating the body.
The big rolls, the big 20-plus
rolls that had happened
are the Vicar, Gangie, and Lars.
I'm gonna go in dexterity order.
So Gangie, I think you go first.
Gangie is snooping around by the entrance.
Gangie, you find your clue over there.
- The one that you just texted me?
- The one I just texted to you, yeah.
- [Katie] Okay.
- Yeah, you're scooting
around and you look down
and find a little patch of
fur in here that you recognize
as you look up and look
at your companions.
- Everyone, I have found mouse fur.
- Mouse fur.
- Connor McCabbage.
- And also the smell of pond scum.
- The filthy Gangie
Green over in the corner,
you pick up a little bit of pond scum
like the kind you would
find at the water's edge.
Also, off in another corner of the room
the Vicar turns around
overturning a scrap of fabric
over in another corner, Vicar, go for it.
- It's a bag.
Look, clothes, makeup, a disguise kit!
- The Vicar has found a disguise kit
over in the corner of the room.
Lars, you look at Squire
Badger's dead body on the table.
And you look-
- I have some questions.
- Yes, go for it.
- Does this one have the
tufts of fur from Buckster,
like as though he had thrown,
does it have all the specifics
like the one upstairs had?
The spilled wine from dinner.
- You look and see that it doesn't.
- The real dead badger is upstairs.
This was a fake that was, this is a fake.
- Or the opposite?
- As you say that, Sylvester,
you look at the eyes and Lars, you nod
because you recognize it as well.
The eyes of the Squire
Badger here with you
stare straight ahead as blankly of those
of Connor McCabbage, as blankly as those
of Constance and Corbin.
And Gangie, as you hold that mouse fur,
you smell the age on this
mouse fur and you remember
'cause you've touched this fur before.
This was the fur of Connor McCabbage.
You all look and see a fake body.
You all look and see a fake body.
However, on investigation
you do see, Lars,
that this one does have that little scar.
It has a little scar
like that kind of little
like shrapnel scar.
- Whoa.
- Now, when you say a fake body,
these are not real dead bodies?
- This is where we're gonna
start to need medicine checks.
- f*ck.
- You got a 21, right?
- 21.
- Oh, good.
- Cool, do you want to
operate on these or no?
- Yeah, I think I pull a small
pen knife out and make a-
- Is it dumb for everybody
to roll medicine checks
just to see if someone gets a nat 20?
- No, let's do it.
- Yeah, let's go.
- Yeah, go for it, go for it.
- So we're still rolling with d4s, right?
- Yes.
- I didn't.
- Ooh, I got a 21 as well.
(Ally whistling)
- Hell yeah.
- All right.
- (laughs) So I-
- You coulda had all this!
- I take out the same medical
tools to look in the body.
(Brennan laughing)
- And you guys are fighting over.
- We both make Y incisions.
- This might take a woman's touch, honey.
- I got a 25.
- Or it might take a man's strength.
- Ooh!
- Gangie got a 25.
I'm gonna say that Daisy and
Sylvester start bickering.
Gangie walks over, no pen knife needed.
You just rip open the body
and jam your f*cking hand in there.
(bones crunching)
(Sam retching)
- Yes, and I use my teeth so it's cleaner.
- So you keep your hands clean?
- Yeah, keeping my hands clean.
- I rolled a 20.
- It's for sanitary reasons, yeah.
- Yeah, I wanna, you
know, you gotta be clean.
- Incredible.
So you reach your hand all the way through
on that 25 medicine check.
These corpses are amalgamations.
Gangie, you look through.
You were bringing bodies here
for these people to chop up
to create decoy corpses.
However, the corpse you are looking at
right now is the decoy.
And Gangie, you pull a tiny, little shard
of shrapnel out as well
which I'm going to text you right now.
- What, everyone just has shrapnel?
- Could that be he was shot
like, tonight or something
and they took the body out or build it out
and he has a little shrapnel or something?
- Or are these-
- Shrapnel is...
- So you see, you pull the shrapnel out.
Yeah, you pull the shrapnel
out of the Squire Badger's chest.
Cool, and I think that all
of you guys are looking
at Gangie's blood-soaked arm,
this f*cking gruesome weasel
holding this little chunk of-
- I thought it was their teeth. (laugh)
- Oh, did, oh, I think, wait.
- At this point I'm all the way in.
- You're like squirling.
- He said he used his teeth.
- Gangie's swimming around in there.
- I'm a weasel so I can
easily get around the organs.
- I think Buckster's
taken like five steps back
because he doesn't want to
get blood on his cream suit.
- Yeah.
(all laughing)
- So okay, yes, so the big
question before all of you is,
well, I think first of
all, so Gangie holds up
this piece of metal.
- So, this means basically
(dramatic instrumental music)
that the shrapnel, the
person who did this knew
about the shrapnel in the
badgers' chests for this decoy.
- [Grant] But why go to the trouble?
- [Ally] So would that be Hawks?
- But why-
- Why go to the trouble
of reassembling the bodies here?
Why not just leave them in chunks?
- [Rekha] Yeah.
- Well, I guess that means
that this could be taken off
to the morgue and verified as him?
- But then...
- I guess my question
is, out of character,
is this a decoy and the
body upstairs a decoy?
- That's what I'm, I don't know.
- [Ally] Mm-mm.
- Or do we think the body upstairs is real
and this one is the decoy, in which case-
- The body upstairs is real.
- Ally, is that-
- I found out on my insight check.
- Okay, okay.
- And then this is the decoy,
but has a matching stock.
- If that's the case,
then why create the decoy?
- So I think there was a plan in motion
that someone flipped on and
k*lled the real Squire Badger.
(Rekha gasps)
- And I think that's why-
- Right, because his son, Jeremy-
- The Valet knew about it
and the hawk had no idea.
- Yeah.
- Why his son Jeremy
didn't know for sure if
he was dead or alive.
- Yeah.
- Jeremy was in on the plan
to switch and he didn't know
whether or not the switch-
- Yeah.
- But didn't, (gasps) yeah!
Wait, so then who's on whose side
and who's working for who?
- We don't know!
(Brennan laughs exuberantly)
- I think Hawk, Colonel Hawk, (chuckles)
whatever his name is.
- Hawkins, yeah.
- Hawkins. (laughs)
- Yeah, right.
I knew I was close, but it just felt off.
Yeah, Colonel Hawkins was in on the plan
that kept Squire Badger alive.
- Are you sure
because he was very guilty.
He felt he had blood on his hands.
I guess blood on his
hands could mean a switch.
- Oh, but he didn't, I guess in my mind
I'm thinking that the rabbit is the reason
for the actual m*rder so if
people were aware of Cotton,
then they would know that the
m*rder was supposed to happen,
actually k*lling him and not the decoy.
- Hawkins was in on it so far
as Squire Badger did not die,
but then the fact that he did
die was not a part of the plan
for Hawkins, that's why he was so-
- So are all the bodies real?
- In which case Harding
and Gilfoyle who knew
that Fletcher was alive.
- Was alive.
- Probably were in on the plan-
- To k*ll him.
- Not to actually k*ll.
- And whose tracks have we seen down here?
Rabbit.
- It was Hawkins.
- Harding, and Harding.
- Harding.
- Wait, did we Hawkins' tracks in here?
I don't think so.
- I didn't.
- You did not see Hawkins' tracks in here.
- Oh, okay.
- We did see Harding's.
- And you also, Gilfoyle's tracks stopped
at the first locked door.
- We need to check the
rest of these bodies
to see if some of these other ones-
- Let's do it.
- Are the other-
- Oh.
- Decoys.
- If Squire Badger is the
only real body upstairs.
- Yes, yes.
- Or all of these are.
- Yeah, 'cause we might
find Constance and Magpie.
- Right.
- Yes.
Okay, so we all just
rolled medicine checks?
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
- Oh sorry, what is it you're
all trying to do right now?
- We want to uncover
the rest of the bodies.
- We're trying to find out if
all of the bodies down here
are, if Squire Badger
upstairs is the only real body
and all of the other ones
upstairs are fake bodies
or if all the bodies upstairs are real.
- Okay, so here's what I'm going to say.
Gangie already rolled an
incredible perception check.
Gangie, I think you
look around and can tell
that as the night has been going on,
you see all these muddy
cat and dog boot prints.
A lot of the scraps and
bones that were in here
have already been moved out
back towards the elevator.
You think these cops
were the clean-up crew.
You think they've been
in here trying to get rid
of the horrifying morgue where
all this sh*t had to happen.
- f*ck.
- And you realize the reason
it had to happen so close
is bodies start decaying.
The coolness and dampness of this room
was working like a refrigerator
and so it was like,
once the bodies get placed
they start decaying again.
So they needed to have this
prep room for these prop bodies
ready to go within the house
but then needed to get rid of it
in order for these
apparent murders to happen.
There's still a ton of
questions about this decoy body.
You look at the other things.
So Gangie points out that thing about,
they've already been
cleaning the place up.
- [Katie] Mm-hmm.
- You're looking around, you
look at the other bodies.
There are no other decoy bodies in here.
There are just scraps
of all of Gangie's
things that he's dug up.
Like, everything else
in here is spare parts.
This is like, the sh*t they
were, because again, it's like,
okay, we need to make a
perfect decoy of Lucretia.
Well, we can't just replace her
with some other old badger lady,
but if we get two or
three old badger ladies
we can stuff this in here
and put this together here
and do this here, yes, Sylvester.
- If they were going to
k*ll Lucretia anyway,
why make a decoy at all?
- Mm-hmm.
- Unless it was Lucretia
and the family's plan
to fake their own deaths.
- Ah!
- Only specifically in
the case of Squire Badger
something went wrong.
Either that or it all went wrong
and they're all really dead.
- Yeah.
- I'm having a hard time following, yeah.
- I still don't understand why the son
didn't know about the w*r
wound on his own father.
Maybe people don't see their dad shirtless
as much as I think they do.
(all laughing)
I'm just not, I'm not close.
- Wait, can we do
an insight check on how much
Jeremy sees his dad shirtless?
(Sam laughing)
- Yeah.
- I'm gonna roll an insight
on how much Ally thinks
other people see their dads shirtless.
And I've rolled a nat 20
- I'm picturing a lot.
- Did you roll a nat 20?
- No, I rolled a five.
- And I think there's
two other things here.
So Gangie, you are seeing
a lot of these tracks
leading back to the elevator.
- Right.
- Of people having
cleared stuff out of here.
And then I think one thing that, Vicar,
you haven't mentioned this
weird smell of incense.
- Oh yeah, there's incense,
guys, I can smell it.
- Well, is it trying to
just disguise the smell
of all these dead bodies and body parts?
- I wonder.
- Perhaps.
- Well, is the incense here in
the room or is it elsewhere?
- Where is it coming from?
- 'Cause there's also a room to the right.
Do we know what that is?
- So here's the thing.
So unfortunately the investigation checks
have already been made here in the room.
- [Rekha] Gotcha.
- [Katie] Okay.
- However, we do have two characters here
who have an ability to re-roll
failed investigation checks,
I will remind you.
- Oh yeah.
- But it's after a short rest.
So I think what needs to happen is
some things are in order.
Gangie, you see some tracks
going back to the elevator
having cleared bodies out of here.
Vicar, you smell that incense.
Lars, you sort of cracked it wide open
with this revelation about like,
which of the badgers is
real and which is fake.
So couple things on the table here
is there's some tracks
going back to the elevator.
I think that our characters
that can re-roll investigation
checks probably should,
but there will be a little bit of downtime
as you are making these
long, it's like, okay,
like in other words, the genius detectives
didn't get anything at first glance.
Now they'll actually have
to crack their kits open
and really look around for sh*t.
- [Rekha] Right.
- In the meanwhile, I can
pour over these documents.
- Hey.
- Hell yeah.
- Yes.
- Buckster, you park it
over in that little bit
well-lit treasure room
looking over, getting your specs out.
And I think we know what
Daisy and Sylvester are doing.
Vicar, Gangie, Lars, are you helping?
Are you investigating some
other part of the secret wing?
Gangie, what are you up to?
- I'd-
- [Brennan] Oh, sorry.
- I am curious where, if we can
find the living bodies then.
Like, where are they hiding?
If all the badgers were in on this,
like where are the living ones?
Where are they hiding?
- Hell yeah.
Gangie, go ahead and give me investigation
and then also give me perception.
And Lars, what are you up to
while Gangie's doing that?
- Help action to Buckster.
- [Brennan] Cool, help action to Buckster.
Vicar, what are you up to?
- Thank you.
- I'm trying to track down the incense.
Where's the incense coming from?
- Okay, I think in that case
you're probably giving a help
action to the detectives.
- [Raphael] Okay.
- Who are actually looking
around the space right now.
- Okay.
- Mice, by the way,
did we talk about that?
Fur from mice, does that mean mice maids?
- I think it means Connor McCabbage.
- Yeah.
- Oh, okay.
- I think we already were told that.
- Yeah.
- Oh, I'm sorry.
I'm just catching up.
- Yeah, cool, cool.
- No problem.
- So let's go ahead
and we're gonna start with Gangie.
Gangie, go, yeah, tell me what you rolled.
- I did pretty badly, I
got a 12 investigation
and an 11 perception only.
- Copy.
You look all around for hidden bodies.
You look around for anything like that.
You don't find anything.
You go back to the elevator.
First of all, even with
that low of a perception
you hear shouting upstairs.
You also hear the ringing
of the call button on the elevator.
They know you're gone and
they know the elevator
isn't where they can get to it anymore.
So you hear shouting from upstairs.
So time is of the essence,
they know that you're gone,
but they don't have a way
to get the elevator back up.
- That's a fire hazard.
- (laughs) Yeah, he'll fix down a fire
while we're down here.
- Is there a fire? (sniffs)
- Gangie, you notice
more pond scum in the elevator.
And I think that's about it.
It's like a little question mark for later
for Gangie about the elevator.
For Buckster and Lars,
Lars is giving the help
action to Buckster.
Let's go ahead and roll this
insight check with advantage
adding a d4 from bless.
- That's a new d4, correct?
It's not my same roll as before.
- Yes, a new d4, correct.
- Cool, that is a 27.
(person whistling)
- Nice.
(Brennan laughing)
- Hell yeah.
- Hold on, Sam.
I am going to send you
quite a text message so take a second.
- You can just send me
the season Bible, Brennan.
That's probably-
(group laughing)
gonna send as an attachment.
- Probably for all of us, right?
- I'd think.
- Sure.
- Katie, this might be nothing,
but one question about that elevator
is whether or not is has
a nine o'clock position
as well as a three o'clock position.
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
- And did you leave the key in there?
- Oh, no, I would have taken it with me.
- Yeah, that's why they're
not able to get, yes.
- [Rekha] Yes, that's
what I was saying, okay.
- [Brennan] Incredible.
Sam, I've just sent you a ton of stuff.
- (chuckles) Holy.
(Raphael laughing)
- And I'm gonna narrate.
So Buckster sits down in the
treasure room along with Lars.
Lars, you're looking at Buckster.
Buckster is staring at
pages and pages and pages
of accounts, decimals,
company names, ledgers.
You see this tycoon like,
putting a mark in one page,
going to consult something else,
coming back to the same page,
doubling back on a different account.
Buckster's eyes scanning the page quickly,
quickly, quickly over again.
A few of the revelations
that come up to Buckster,
and Buckster, you're reading that.
I won't spoil the biggest
one at the end there.
But years of debt from Squire Badger.
Debts all over, debts to institutions.
And you see his debts come
from keeping up his household,
keeping a large staff,
all kinds of expenses.
You see donations to his alma mater,
all these high society things
that as an American businessman
you're a little bit,
like, what tremendous wastes of money
all for the purposes of
keeping up appearances.
You see that, yeah, you find
renovations to Loam Hall
in the past couple of years.
(dramatic instrumental music)
The important thing, though,
you find is this, of course,
which you already know,
is for someone engaged
in grave robbing, you never
see any money coming in
for selling these bodies
to medical institutions.
Those bodies just never show
up anywhere on the books.
You see the main picture that
becomes clear to you over time
is that Squire Badger was deeply in debt
as he reentered the military
as sort of like a commander
back during the Schnauzer
w*r a couple years ago.
He became incredibly
wealthy during the w*r.
Became incredibly wealthy during the w*r
and then that wealth got frittered away
as the Squire is sort of wont to do.
A few short years ago
when you realize there are
letters in these ledger books
of creditors coming after him,
things that would have made him
maybe have to declare bankruptcy.
And that's of course what you can see
the hair trigger thing of all this is
is that any sane person would
have declared bankruptcy.
And of course the Squire
would never do that.
So about two-ish years ago,
maybe a little bit less
debts just start getting cleared.
Letters showing that Squire Badger's debts
were paid in full just start coming in.
But there's no money
coming in on the books
to explain how those debts
would have been paid.
You see a number of acquisitions
and you begin to see sort
of the shape of institutions
that the Squire was working with.
You look up in the room
and see all this paraphernalia of the w*r.
You think about that thing
you heard Jeremy say,
"I've never heard Father get a w*r wound."
You look at these stolen
art pieces up on the wall
and you think about Reichenbunny Falls.
You think about, why would a
noble, venerated military man,
a Squire, not have told his
children about this w*r wound?
And then you find the real
sh*t buried deeply in there,
all the money incoming to settle debts.
You realize that just like
someone paying off debt
with a credit card, you're
just moving your debt
from one place to another.
And you think you know
as Squire Badger was settling his debts
with all of these respected institutions
where his debt was really going to.
And then you find the
final biggest secret.
And you realize the full
story of what happened
to Squire Badger, and
that's that last section
that I sent to you.
- What is it?
- I don't know because I've
been listening to Brennan.
- Yeah, go for it.
- Now I'm gonna read it.
- Yeah, take a second to read it.
And I think right as
you're reading that, Sam,
(dramatic instrumental music)
(hums) Daisy and Sylvester,
you're getting advantage
and bless from the Vicar.
Go ahead and give me those
investigation checks.
- I turned around.
- Yeah, is everyone turned around?
Okay.
- What?
- Sylvester, don't look this way.
- Please, don't look at me, either, okay.
(Raphael laughing)
My first is, well, a 16 'cause
that's as low as I can get.
- I rolled an 18 on both.
- Whoa.
- Okay, 23 plus my d4 will be...
- There it is.
- 24.
(Brennan and Rekha laughing)
- Okay.
24 from Sylvester Cross, awesome.
Both of you are snooping around.
Sylvester, you follow the scent of incense
back towards the elevator.
- There's not a floor below this
at the other angle of the dial.
The last angle we haven't explored.
(thunder crashes)
- Incense wafts up
from the elevator shaft.
- Ah.
- I think it's about time.
- What the f*ck.
- Can I follow Sylvester?
- To go, nine o'clock.
- Cool.
- Incredible.
Sam is finishing to give that.
So you guys all find that there.
I think with that 18,
so Sylvester smells the
incense by the elevator.
Daisy, as you come over with that 18
you see Gangie f*cking
around with the pond scum.
(Rekha laughing)
And you see something
scratched into the floor of the elevator.
To you, it looks like a
hastily scrawled letter,
but it looks like it wasn't
scratched with a knife.
- Probably will a talon or
like some part of an animal.
- You see it is the letter
D scratched into the,
not the floor, but like the
baseboard of the elevator
right near the floor with
what looks like a beak.
- D20?
(Sylvan Sleuths laughing)
- D, downstairs?
Could it correspond to the same way
all those circuit breakers
had letters for rooms?
- D for Daisy?
- Honey, I wish.
D, D, D, D, D, D, downstairs cellar.
- Holy sh*t.
- As you guys are both
thinking about the D,
like D, D, D scratched
into the baseboard there,
Buckster looks up holding a
number of military receipts.
And Buckster, you look
and see your companions
have maybe discovered the
secret of the elevator,
but you've just discovered something
pretty intense of your own.
- (sighs) Firstly, (clears throat)
a little basic lesson in economics.
You know, profits and losses.
Money comes in, money goes out.
And we all understand this, right?
We don't need business degrees
to be able to wrap our
heads around this concept.
Now, what's most-
- I also have a business degree.
(Sylvan Sleuths laughing)
- Is that a fact?
- You do?
- Yeah.
- What?
- You were in the military
and you-
- Lars, I misjudged you.
- And I'm 18.
(Sylvan Sleuths laughing)
- That's right, Lars is 18.
- Mm-hmm.
- I'm gonna do some brief
stuff in character, Brennan,
then you can feel free
to capture everybody up
in case I missed anything.
- [Brennan] Cool, cool, cool.
- Yay.
- Deeply in debt.
Debts being paid off.
The products being sold in
order to forgive such debts
nowhere on the books.
Clearly this man was being fronted.
It would stand to reason if
our suspicions are correct,
fronted by a bunny.
Here's what's perhaps more concerning.
(soft instrumental music)
The art, the art all
around this manor walls,
this is art that has all been
reported as stolen in the w*r.
This art should be in the
hands of Bavarians, not here.
The fact that it's here
means Squire Badger was
a military art thief
and more than likely led his own troops,
his own men into harm's
way to capture this artwork
back from the Bavarians.
We're talking treason here.
(Raphael whistles)
- This art belongs in a museum!
(all laughing)
- More than likely,
given what I'm reading,
more than likely Squire Badger
not only led his own
troops into harm's way
to collect this artwork,
but he took that artwork
right back to Reichenbunny Castle
where after his own men were k*lled
that bunny had him patched up
which is why his son knows
nothing of his wound.
That wound, that wound was something
that Squire Badger received in
the m*ssacre of his own men.
- Reichenbunny Falls.
I think Sylvester's hip starts to hurt.
- Hm.
- Aw.
- Buckster, as you explain
that, it all comes together.
Jeremy, not ever having
heard of a w*r wound,
a wound received on a mission
that maybe was never ordered
by a superior officer
because the mission itself was ill*gal.
If you take your men on an ill*gal mission
and they all get k*lled, that
tends to be the type of injury
that doesn't get...
- Reported.
- Reported.
- Reported, and if it doesn't get reported
it means you never get a medal
for injuries received in the w*r.
- I was just gonna say, oh, whoa.
- Buckster, you have a full
picture of the relationship
between Fletcher Cottonbottom
and Squire Badger at this point.
Why Cottonbottom would have been able
to call any shots and pull any triggers,
why he would have been
able to push Badger around.
Him settling all these debts
would have been the thing to
salvage the Squire's good name
which is a pretty good carrot.
And the stick on the other hand
is knowing the secret
of this act of treason.
Moreover, it explains on a medical level
why Fletcher Cottonbottom would know
that even in the dummy body
there would need to be a piece of shrapnel
buried near the heart.
- So we know all of this,
oodles of information
that he had on Squire Badger.
We know that the two of them
have been in cahoots for a long time,
and we know exactly why Fletcher
would've wanted to pull the
strings on Squire Badger
in order to assassinate the character
of one Sylvester Cross.
But why k*ll him?
- You all pile into the elevator
as that question hangs in your head.
Why k*ll the Squire?
This was someone that Fletcher
had fully under his thumb.
Why k*ll him?
Why is this decoy here in the basement
rather than being in the study?
It doesn't make any sense.
You all pile-
- Do you guys?
- Sorry, go for it, Ally, yeah.
- Do you guys think that Squire Badger
had a change of heart for Sylvester?
Like maybe that letter was going to say,
Sylvester, I'm afraid-
- I love you.
- I've set up a whole
weekend to frame you.
I'm afraid I-
- Love you.
- Right, or, or...
- Owe you an apology.
- Love you.
- A confession or-
- Yeah, a confession letter.
- I think so.
I think that's definitely possible.
- So he had a change of heart
and then they k*lled him.
- Yes.
- And they k*lled his daughter
who was about to-
- Who said "You're crazy!"
- Who said, "You're crazy
for trying to get out" maybe.
- Yes, yes.
- And in my confrontation
with him he said, "I
won't be pushed around."
- Yes.
- And if that had more to do
with-
- Fletcher.
- Fletcher than anyone else it means
that maybe these dead bodies
were some sort of attempt
of his to get out of his predicament.
Maybe the dead bodies have
nothing to do with Fletcher.
Maybe they're his plan.
- Right.
And that's why it's so freaking messy.
- Did someone-
- As you guys say that
you're realizing every
m*rder that's happened
has had a huge, gaudy element
of Sylvester's hand in it
except the m*rder of Squire Badger.
- Oh, right.
- At the beginning of the night, which-
- Yeah, there's been a bloody mess and...
- Which you all fell for hook, line,
and sinker, by the way, you
gullible bunch of dupes,
but go on.
(Rekha sighs)
- Incredible.
- Do you think it happened on accident?
Did someone flip one of those switches?
- Well, if Squire Badger had attempted
to fake his own death and failed,
did Fletcher use that as an opportunity-
- To make it.
- To try to frame Sylvester?
- I don't believe that the attempt was-
- It seems too premeditated.
There were the letters in
Sylvester's handwriting.
It seems like there was
already a plan in motion.
- A plan in place, yeah, you're right.
- And it wasn't improvised.
- So do we know for sure
that Fletcher, then,
was the one who k*lled Squire Badger?
'Cause he had to have
been in that bathroom
and done the thing when he-
- I think so
because when the lightning struck
that's when they saw him,
and he was in the bathroom
where the same thing through the desk.
- Where the circuit breaker
is to the, yeah, what, Sam?
(Ally gasps)
- Oh, I hadn't made
that connection at all.
That was the exact moment that-
- Yeah, it was the moment
that the Squire Badger died
was, yeah, Fletcher.
- In other words,
he wasn't even trying to appear.
- So it was from that bathroom.
- Yes.
- Yes.
- He wasn't even trying
to appear as a ghost
to Detective Cross, it just happened.
- Yes.
- Because he flipped the switch.
- You realize the
possibility that Fletcher
was just flipping the wrong switch
or that the lightning just
overpowered the system
while he was standing in
front of the bathroom mirror
to turn on the switch
that would charge the desk
with the bust of Barkus Aurelius on it.
- Mm-hmm.
- Right.
- But the questions remains,
the party was filled
in the entrance wing at that time.
How the f*ck was Fletcher Cottonbottom
in the downstairs bathroom?
- He's been in disguise the whole time.
- That's what the-
- Someone at the party
is Fletcher.
(Sam gasps)
- Who's, who's, who's, who? (laughs)
(Brennan laughing)
- What?
- Are you broken?
- Who indeed?
- Someone is disguised as Fletcher?
(all laughing)
- No, no, no.
- I would k*ll you.
Has there been anybody that's been like,
matryoshka doll wrapped
up in a little scarf?
- Oh, those f*cking sheep
that came out of nowhere.
- Oh, Bristlebrush, Bristlebrush!
- Bristlebrush?
- Who?
- Ms. Bristlebrush who keeps saying,
"I'm gonna k*ll all of you!"
(Brennan laughing)
- Oh, no!
(Raphael scoffing)
- I hope it's her, that'd be funny.
- No way!
- You hear behind you... (slow-clapping)
(Sam laughing)
- (laughs) f*ck off, f*ck off.
- No, I'm kidding, I'm
kidding, I'm kidding,
I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
- And we just cut an episode.
- Well, the way you could hide yourself,
a very good disguise,
(screams) get her out of here!
- (laughs) Carlos!
- That was horrifying, Carlos!
- What, oh.
- Carlos made a giant
Ms. Bristlebrush appear-
(group members laughing)
(Sam clapping)
- Wait, I want to see, I want to see.
- Incredible, incredible.
- Oh my God.
- f*ck, you can hide in a shell.
You can hide in big overt disguise.
(Ally gasps)
- Oh!
Oh, Ambrose Harding. (gasps)
- Now, all of you are in the
elevator having put this-
- We couldn't...
- Sorry, go for it.
- We crunched the fake
shell of Ambrose's disguise.
- Exactly because he scarfed up his head
so you can see-
- Let Ally talk.
(Brennan scoffs)
- Right?
- What was that?
- Thank you, Katie.
No, I'm kidding, I'm
kidding, no but exactly.
- You keep getting shouted
over, it's bothering me.
- (sighs) Thank you, Katie,
I appreciate that. (laughs)
No, but yeah, I think it was a fake shell.
We crunched a fake, a Party
City 1801 shell. (laughs)
- (laughs) Incredible.
All of you are in the elevator now.
You have made some incredible connections.
Fletcher Cottonbottom, the
Vicar found the disguise kit.
Fletcher Cottonbottom has been somebody
able to move throughout
the party the entire time.
(Ally shivers)
There is still the issue
of the D inscribed into
the base of the elevator.
And you smell incense
wafting up from below.
- So I've been texting,
I've been conversing
with Sylvester about what this D could be.
Few things, D is a roman numeral for 500.
D for dungeon.
D as in an incomplete sentence or thought
being scrawled somewhere.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
- These are the thoughts.
- D as in death.
- Okay.
- As in, certain death
if we go down there.
- D, D, D.
- Anyone, you guys can make
a skill check if you want
to look at the, I would say
investigation or insight
would work on that D.
- Here we go.
- And do we still get that
d4 thing or is that done?
- D4, this would be the last thing
you guys get that d4 on.
- Couple things, Brennan, that is a 22.
- 26.
- Ooh.
- 26.
- 26 from Daisy.
- Sorry.
- Hell yeah.
Daisy, you look at a D
scratched on the floor hastily by a beak.
There have been three people
at this party with beaks.
- Yep.
- Colonel Hawkins,
Vicar Prescott.
- Yep.
- Dr. Magpie.
- (gasps) Dr. Magpie was just
trying to write Dr. Magpie!
(all laughing)
- That's it!
- Describing his own work.
- My signature.
- He's tagging.
- The D is oriented 90,
it's rotated 90 degrees so it looks
like it was written by someone lying down
on the ground on their side.
If someone was writing with their beak,
they would have to be
almost in the fetal position
scratching something into the wall.
- And we're positive this is a D
and not part of a circle for
something occulty or whatever?
- You believe it's a D.
Daisy, you not only have
correctly deciphered
another series of letters
earlier in the evening,
you have correctly deciphered this letter
earlier in the evening.
- 500?
Oh, no.
- Earlier in this evening
when you were up at the master switchboard
in Squire Badger's bedroom.
- Oh!
- D for, oh my God, what did I say?
- For room of the house.
- Yeah, for docks, docks.
- Docks.
- Docks.
Gangie holds up the pond scum in his hand.
- Yeah.
- Oh, this...
Oh my God.
- You guys smell the incense.
Do you guys descend
further into Loam Hall?
- Absolutely.
- Yes, definitely.
- Can you imagine us saying no?
- Stopping now.
- I'm scared!
- I'm scared!
- Hold on a second.
- Wait, but I don't get this docks...
- Does this level lead to
the docks in some creepy way?
Because there's pond scum,
Gangie's found all this pond scum
which means there's either water
or a water-bound person like Harding
or a rabbit in a turtle
shell walking around.
- Or the mirror image deal happens
and that appears at the docks.
- Yes.
- Incredible.
The elevator descends to a
candlelit ritual chamber,
an altar in front of it.
Scrawled in blood everywhere,
I am the servant of the serpent.
I am the hunter.
I am the one who wields the souls
of those who I have slain.
I slew Ignatius Cottonbottom
and captured his soul.
I've laid a curse on
the Cottonbottom family,
and I will not be satiated
until all of England is under
my dark dominion, fox symbol.
The dead bodies of Jeremy Brockhollow
and Osmond Sheffield lie
on the altar in front.
- Oh my God, this-
- You know, I don't think
it's you, detective,
but the best clue that it is
is how long-winded that is.
- Honestly, Buckster, if
ever you were correct,
if ever you were correct.
- I think that...
- Lars, are you smoking a carrot? (laughs)
(Brennan laughing)
- I'll point out to everyone,
the penmanship is a perfect match.
- I think I'll do a quick
insight for the room.
- Yeah, go for it.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- Do I still have bless now?
- No, no more bless now.
- No more bless.
- Can I do an insight?
- It's only 14.
- As like a perimeter check
to see if we're alone,
or perception?
- Yeah, absolutely, go for it.
- Can I do a check to
see if these are actual,
like not the decoy
bodies, the real bodies?
- Go ahead and give me a medicine check.
- That's a great call, Katie.
- 22.
- I've done an insight check, nat 20 baby.
(Sam slams table)
(all cheering)
- Oh my f*cking God!
- [Grant] The world's greatest detective.
- [Brennan] (scoffs) Incredible.
- I said insight, investigation.
- (gasps) I did an investigation check
and I got a nat 20
- Oh my f*cking God.
- Baby, this could have been yours!
This could have been yours!
- What are you saying, huh?
- Incredible, incredible,
incredible, incredible.
Okay, so wait, so Sylvester you
got a nat 20 insight, right?
- Investigation.
- Oh, you both got nat 20
investigations at the same time!
- Holy sh*t, that's really weird.
- That is awesome.
- Mm-hmm.
- Did anyone else beat anything
of a 20 on their check?
- I got a 23 investigation.
- 22 on my perimeter check.
- 23 investigation, 22 perimeter check.
Jesus, these are incredible f*cking rolls.
- Mine was perception
to see if we were alone.
- I'm gonna say with all of
these 20-plus rolls here,
wait, what did Gangie get for medicine?
- 16.
- 16, what did Buckster get?
- I got a 14 for insight.
- 14, okay.
Gangie, a 16 is not 20-plus,
but it's quick enough
for you to see that this
Osmond and this Jeremy,
their eyes are fixed straight ahead
like the other fake
bodies that you've seen.
- Decoy.
- Decoys.
- Okay.
- Lars, you checked he perimeter.
Over in a perimeter under a
little one thing that is very,
oh sorry, you're doing insight
check for the perimeter.
You hear noises up the elevator shaft.
You hear shouting from the
police up the elevator shaft
going, "All right, all right, listen up!
We heard the elevator moving again!
Someone here is helping
that villain Cross,
and we're gonna start taking prisoners
and getting the information out of you
the hard way if we need to!"
It looks like the police are
now threatening the guests
of Loam Hall to find out
who's working with Sylvester.
With that investigation,
Vicar, you find something
that is not a part or parcel of the room.
You find a painter's cloth
draped over a series of small containers.
As you open the containers,
you smell the smell of blood.
These containers are near a
small, little Bunsen burner.
These are some set dressing elements.
Whoever's been staging these murders
had a little bit of final touches.
They weren't ready for anyone
to find Jeremy or Osmond yet.
(Rekha gasps)
And you see a little bit
of their work down here.
- That means they're mid-
- Work that would absolutely be evidence
that these murders had all been staged.
- That means they're also mid-job
and they're probably very close to us.
- Nearby.
- Yes.
- Mm-hmm, definitely.
- For our two nat twenties
from the star-crossed Daisy
D'umpstaire and Sylvester Cross,
we're nearing the end
of our little tale here
so I'm gonna let you guys tell me
what you want to do on a nat 20.
I can either give you,
you can either ask me
any question that you have
right now about the setting,
about the mystery, about any of it
and I will do my best
to answer it honestly.
Caveat, unless it fully
f*ck the game to death.
But I will answer it honestly.
Or you can pick the mystery door.
The mystery door is
something about this scene.
So either ask a question
or choose mystery door.
- Well, we have two nat twenties.
- Wait, we have two nat twenties.
- You have two nat twenties.
- So can we do one of each?
- You can do one of each, absolutely.
- Yeah.
Oh!
I think I want the mystery door.
- Great, go for it.
- Yeah.
- Rekha, ask me a question.
- Anyone gonna, who did
it, why, who did it?
- I was gonna, my thought
for the question is, who has,
this might be two questions,
I don't know the rules.
But has Fletcher
Cottonbottom been a person
at the party the whole
time, and if so, who?
- [Ally] That would be
my question as well.
- Who is the Fletcher
Cottonbottom in disguise?
- Yes.
- Or like, yeah, which person?
- Yes.
- Is that what everyone wants?
Sam also pitched, is
this staged death attempt
from the people themselves
or somebody else?
(Grant gasps)
- [Brennan] Uh, uh... (hums)
- [Ally] What, what?
- [Brennan] Cool, Grant is-
- Do we have a preference of question?
- Grant just got...
- Wait, what's happening?
(Sam laughing)
- Oh!
- Grant, you're frozen,
and I don't think it's the connection.
- Grant just got his mystery door.
- [Katie] You gotta share it.
- Wow.
- Share it.
- I'm gonna have a Pavlovian response
to Brennan texts for the rest of my life.
- I know.
- Yes.
- Absolutely.
- Oh!
- Oh my God!
- Grant, Sylvester, you would do well to-
- Incredible, so he's not
a nat 20 investigation.
I need the question that Daisy wants.
- First?
- Yeah.
What is the question that
Daisy would really want
with this investigation check here?
- Do we have a preference of question?
- I think the Fletcher question, just,
I would like to know that mostly.
- Yeah, I wanna know who Fletcher is.
- Okay.
- I don't think we're gonna get,
I don't think we're gonna hear
it, straight up who it is.
- That's possible, too.
- I don't think it's gonna be that simple
'cause it's too fun a reveal.
It's not gonna happen here and now.
- I will not answer.
I'm going to say it has to
be a yes or no question.
- Ah.
- Ooh, I guess it's the snail.
Or I guess we're leaning more
towards the turtle, though.
That makes makes more sense
'cause he has had the key.
He's been walking around everywhere.
- Yeah, the valet has access
to everything which is strange.
That person has a lot of power.
- Yeah, so should I ask, is it the,
who, the turtle?
- Harding?
- Yeah, Ambrose Harding.
- Is Fletcher Cottonbottom
posing as Ambrose Harding?
- Ambrose Harding.
- At the party all night?
Has he been?
- What are we gonna do
with that information
if we get it, though?
- I think that-
- That's a great question.
- I'm just gonna dance.
I don't know, what do you want from me?
- Sam, what was your thing?
- Sam's thing was-
- The thing is like,
we know that Fletcher's
someone in disguise.
- Yes, that's what I thought.
- And the best way for us to find that out
is to interact with people at the party.
In terms of the mystery, what's
still unclear to me is like,
(epic instrumental music)
is this staged death attempt
coming from the family themselves?
Is it about like, getting away
from Fletcher Cottonbottom?
Or is this like-
- Okay.
- Well, I guess a simpler way
of putting it would be like,
is it Jez and who's
the second victim here?
- Jez and Constance.
- Constance.
- Are they actually dead?
Are they working with Fletcher?
- Is the Brockhollow
family on Fletcher's side?
Like, what is the yes or no?
- Are they behind the murders?
- Can I?
- Yeah, go.
- Can I pitch something
that might be a waste of a nat 20
but that now I'm suddenly
very curious about?
- What?
- Is Fletcher Cottonbottom in the room?
- Ooh.
- Should I?
- I'm gonna say this, Rekha.
- Yeah.
- It's your nat 20.
- Yes.
- And I know
that you're being a wonderful team player.
(Rekha laughing)
- That's true.
- You're being a wonderful team player,
but I think Daisy should use this nat 20
for what Daisy would want to use it for.
- Okay.
- You have a lot of great questions.
Go for it and ask me
what you want to ask me.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- I think Daisy knows Fletcher
Cottonbottom is in this room.
(Sam chuckles)
- Jesus Christ.
- I think Daisy knows
Fletcher Cottonbottom
has been posing as somebody with a shell.
I don't think she knows
if these staged deaths
are from the people themselves
or from Fletcher's cronies.
- [Brennan] Copy-
- But...
- But what, Ally, what?
- But it sounds like this was
a plan already set in motion
and then Badger was k*lled and
everyone's kind of confused
about whether or not the plan
is going accordingly or not,
if they're still putting up
these fake Sylvester deaths that are fake.
It sounds like the family
would have to be involved
because this was the original plan.
So I don't know if we get anything there.
We just know that Badger
was k*lled on accident.
Should we say, was Badger k*lled-
- By accident.
- Because he knew too much.
- Or sorry, yeah.
- Or yeah, by accident.
I mean, it sounds like he was
for sure k*lled by accident.
- By accident.
- Or by who,
make a guess about who.
I don't know, now I'm
just like making it more-
- [Katie] Well, Fletcher
could have k*lled him.
I think Fletcher might
have done it on purpose.
- In the bathroom.
- Well, yeah, like I said,
in the bathroom.
- Yeah, we know that.
- But that would have
been on purpose, I think.
- [Ally] You're completely right.
- Can-
- Daisy, oh sorry, yes, Katie.
- I was gonna say, can
Grant reveal what he knows?
- He can.
Rekha, we're gonna have to
pull the trigger right now.
Give me your question.
(Rekha sighs)
♪ Listen to your heart ♪
- Oh my God.
♪ When he's calling for you ♪
- No guys
'cause I'm too confused
to ask a good question.
Okay, curve ball.
(Sylvan Sleuth gasps)
Is Fletcher Cottonbottom
Mr. Harding?
- You look around the room, Daisy.
Fake shell, disguise kit, Mr. Harding,
the footprints going back into the room.
You look down here for footprints.
- Oh.
- Harding footprints.
Rabbit footprints down here as well.
Both pairs of footprints down here.
Both pairs of footprints
down here at the same time.
Two different sets of footprints.
Ambrose Harding can't be
Fletcher Cottonbottom.
And you remember Buckster
Boyd, Gangie Green,
Lars Vandenchomp fighting a masked figure
and then coming down
and seeing Mr. Harding
in the kitchen wing.
It's possible that there
was a secret passageway
that led from the top of the
hill down to the kitchen wing,
but was there a secret passage way
that a person could sprint
down faster than an elevator
in order to get down there
and be a completely dry turtle
with no signs of injury in the face
where Lars Vandenchomp had
just punched them twice?
Unlikely.
- Okay.
- You do not think Ambrose
Harding is Fletcher Cottonbottom.
- [Ally] It was worth a try, now we know.
- But there's-
- But that removes
a tremendous suspect from
your list of suspects.
- [Katie] Yes.
- Don't make me feel
better, Brennan. (laughs)
- No, you did, I would have
hated to have that pressure.
You handled it well.
- But that means there's two
other shelled people here
and that's Armond and the snail.
- Has Armond been Cottonbottom
the entire time that you've known him?
- Armond is a sniveling little pipsqueak.
- Yeah.
- But he has an injury.
- The performance of a lifetime.
- I've been saying Armond since day one.
- Armond has never even existed before.
Where did you meet Armond?
- Yeah.
- When did you bring him onto your team?
- I don't know.
(Katie laughing)
- I am going to turn-
- You all have to shut the f*ck up
so I can do my thing now.
- Yes.
(Brennan laughing)
- My goodness, we're
so far below the Earth,
but there's a bit of
light coming from a...
A secret door.
I dare say we should investigate.
I believe one of us knows
it better than anyone.
Mr. Green, after you.
(Sam chuckling)
- Sylvester, you push a stone brick,
(mimics brick rubbing ground) door opens
and you guys see a spiral staircase
trailing up, up, up, up, up.
As you surge up the spiral staircase,
it turns into a passageway,
another long vault,
moving through the darkness
and you all pop up in the
most unexpected of places.
In a little copse of trees
at the base of Loam Hall
with the storm raging outside,
the lights of Loam Hall
and down the river bank the
docks and the small boathouse
next to them, you're in
Gangie Green's cottage.
(people laughing)
Gangie, you pop up in
the base of your chimney
completely mystified by Sylvester Cross
having found a secret
passage leading to your home.
You have bypassed the
need for the elevator.
You have appeared at the base of the hill,
and you look up, see lightning striking
and terrified guests
being backed into a corner
of the ballroom by a shouting Constable.
- Well g*ng-
- You are all-
- Oh, sorry.
- Yep.
- No, no, no.
- Go for it, Sam.
Yeah, yeah, go for it.
- Well g*ng, I think
here's where we wrap it up.
We are free from the police,
free from the bad guys,
and this little piggy's
going wee, wee, wee, wee,
wee, wee all the way home.
- And you remember
immediately the contract
on Colonel Hawkins' body
and the knife still with the mouses.
- So as soon as I said that...
(Brennan laughing)
Two thoughts occurred to me
and I'm sticking this out
because it's the right thing to do.
Justice is at hand!
- You see the constables
terrorizing the guests.
You hear a shouting even over the rain
of one of them saying, "One of you knows
where Sylvester Cross is.
One of you knows where that fox
and his blasted companions are!
How do you get downstairs
without the elevator?"
You hear someone say,
"I believe she knows the house best,"
and points to Mrs. Molesly.
You see one of them runs
over, grabs Mrs. Molesly
by the neck, lifts her up and says,
"You're gonna tell us everything."
She cries out.
In this moment, you know the how-dun-it.
You know that there was a plot
that stretches months or years back.
You know the motives of Squire Badger
to help Fletcher Cottonbottom,
who he was so deeply indebted to.
You know Fletcher Cottonbottom
is somewhere in this house in disguise.
The problems you face are
many because right now
you seem to be the murderers.
And all of you are suspect
because you are all missing.
And the guests will not help you
if there are constables present.
So your job is to somehow
thwart, get around,
or defeat these constables.
You have to find some way
to clear Sylvester's name
and your names by association.
And probably the only way to do that
is to prove who the
actual m*rder*r really is.
And you have to do it in a way
that the m*rder*r doesn't
just run off into the night.
You have to find some way to get them
while actually getting them
from this short list of people.
And finally, you also know
that D stands for docks
and that T stands for something else
as the top of the tower
is framed in light.
- We haven't been to the tower yet.
- Mm-hmm.
- No.
- To solve the m*rder, find
and capture the m*rder*r
without getting k*lled by
these crooked constables.
What do you all do in this moment?
- What is the way to the tower from here?
- You're at the bottom of the hill
so you can slink out
through the dark woods.
You can try to get into the house
and find stairs up through the house.
You could also try to climb
up the outside of the tower.
- [Rekha] Can Vicar fly?
- No, birds in this world cannot fly.
(Rekha sighs)
- So the entrance to the
tower is where, do we know?
Is it on the third floor somewhere?
- It is up in the leisure wing floor, yes.
That's where the entrance to the tower is.
- It's up on the leisure
on the third floor.
- Oh, we were so close.
- Is there a way to communicate?
'Cause where is Mrs. McCabbage at?
- She's still in the house
with the other guests.
Although you see that some
guests are being dragged off
and being locked up in various rooms
by the constables right now.
- Yeah.
- Okay, what if we did
something where a few of us
went to the front door?
We show up drenched saying,
we have some wacky new clue.
And the constables talk to us
and then the other three
move through the house
to get to the tower entrance?
- Yeah, I was gonna suggest a distraction.
- Yeah.
- You're really good at
persuasion, right, Buckster?
- Yeah.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- Do we know?
I'm gonna run an
investigation check real quick
into Gangie Green.
- Oh, I agree.
I think that's good.
- [Brennan] Yeah, cool,
cool, cool, go for it.
- [Sam] Yeah, you're right.
We haven't dealt with that at all.
- Yeah, there's literally a
passage from your house, Gangie.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
And Katie put a big smile up
when Grant said this clue.
- So I got 22.
- Cool.
- Can I also roll one?
- Yes, go for it.
- I got a 19.
- I just got a 15.
- Okay, 22.
- 22, cool.
You do not see anything
within Gangie's cottage
that would suggest to you that Gangie
had ever used that passage before.
- Okay, so what do you say?
We should send someone
on the distraction team
that's gonna be able to suss
out if someone is Cottonbottom
so some sort of high investigation
that you can be doing from
afar on each of the guests
that we're corralled
with by the constable.
- Sylvester.
- And then someone who's
persuasive so that's you, Buckster.
- Buckster.
- But maybe it's Daisy.
- I have a completely miserable other idea
which Brennan should tell
me is bullshit immediately
in order so that we don't do it.
We're at the docks, that's D.
There's a T, too.
Is there any way that these two
places connect to each other
like through the technology in the house?
- That's what I was thinking
'cause there's like an armoire
and there's stuff in here.
- They weren't connected
on the switchboard
in Squire Badger's bedroom.
- Okay, got it, got it.
- But they could be if you
went into the switchboard
and switched them around.
But you see that the docks,
you look down the bank
from Gangie's cottage and do
see the boathouse by the docks.
Actually, anybody who wants to
go ahead and make a perception check.
♪ Perception ♪
- Ooh, that's 26.
- Nice!
- 26, Buckster,
you look down and see that there is
a guard posted, one of
the constables is posted
at the doors of the
boathouse by the docks.
- [Ally] Whoa.
- And Gangie, I'll put it to you, Gangie.
You see these constables kind
of roughing up Mrs. Molesly
and dragging her off into the house.
- I'll kick their asses.
- Further into Loam Hall.
What's that?
- I'll kick their asses.
(Sam chuckles)
- Well, hell yeah.
So yes, time is of the essence.
There are a lot of
objectives for all of you
and a lot of places that
you have reason to believe
that there will be clues leading to.
- So I have the highest persuasion
slash deception of us all.
I think if any of us
should go to the front door
and create a distraction, it's me.
- Yes, definitely.
- Yes.
- Hell yeah, awesome.
Buckster will go to the front door.
What are other people doing?
- Does anyone want someone
to go to the boathouse
and try to knock that guard
out and take over that post,
see what's in there?
Maybe communicate with you in the tower.
- Should someone beefy, maybe strong.
- Yeah, maybe.
- Huge maybe do that.
- Yeah.
- I'm doing that.
- Cool, Lars is gonna
go to the dock, awesome.
What are other people doing?
- I would like to try to
get to the tower, but...
- Through the house with the
distraction that we're making.
- I wonder.
- [Ally] So you guys can get in there.
- Yeah, I think Fletcher
Cottonbottom is in the tower
so I gotta get up there.
- I do, too.
- But the way to get there...
- 'Cause you're under way more
suspicion than me, Sylvester.
- Right.
- I can't hide Sylvester
under my dress, right?
Now, I'm going for crazy
Rekha solutions here.
I've got a big, fat dress. (laughs)
- What if-
- Oh yes, what about Raph?
- Oh, I was just gonna say, what if I go,
'cause I can still help her, right?
- Yeah, absolutely.
- And I feel like I'd be less suspicious
than maybe anybody else going.
- I don't know.
You've had quite a few...
- (laughs) But maybe I could
help you as you go up there.
- Yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah, I wanna try to get to the tower
because I think Daisy and Sylvester
are always trying to one-up
each other on the same missions.
- Cool, I think Daisy would realize,
if Buckster's going through the front door
I think Daisy realizes
she could go through
the front door as well.
- Okay.
- Like, in the wake of Buckster's story.
What is the Vicar considering doing?
- Okay, yeah, if I'm not
going with Daisy, I mean,
I also kind of feel like I
should tend to Mrs. Molesly.
- Cool.
- If, yeah.
- So you're coming with me.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Hell yeah.
Awesome, so you want to go
through a sneaky back way
with Gangie or do you want
to go through the front door
with Buckster and Daisy.
- I want to go through the front.
- Okay, cool.
- Okay, very cool.
- Awesome.
And Sylvester, go ahead and
make a perception check for me.
(dramatic instrumental music)
- Can I give him the help action?
- Yes, you can.
- 21.
- 21, awesome.
The squad of the people
that probably have the most deniability,
Buckster, Daisy, and Vicar
Prescott rush to the front door.
Gangie, you dart off into the night
to go find a back way into Loam Hall
to try and rescue Mrs. Molesly.
Lars, you turn to look at
your friend Sylvester who,
Sylvester, you're the
person they're looking for.
There's no way for you to
go through the front door.
Lars, before you rush off to the dock,
is there anything that
you say in this moment
to your friend Sylvester?
(dramatic instrumental music)
- I think I just say, good
luck, I'll see you in the tower.
- And Lars rushes to the dock.
Sylvester, left behind because
you're the biggest liability,
and if anything the
safest thing for you to do
would be to just remain
here and hide in the cottage
to let your friends that
have less heat on them
go and take care of this,
you look up at the tower
and see from a tall, tall window
illuminated in a stroke of lightning
(lightning crashes)
a knotted rope
hanging from the tallest window.
And that's all for this
episode of "Mice & m*rder."
Tune in next week for
the thrilling finale!
Ta-ta!
- Oh God.
Ladies, gentlemen, and
otherwise, follow me
into the drawing room for
I have solved this mystery.
- This is the loudest thing
that has ever happened in this house.
(Sam laughing)
You see the three individuals
that are up here in this room
that all look like the constables
have kicked the sh*t out of them.
- How long are they gonna talk to me for?
Is it gonna be like a long thing?
(Grant laughing)
- Rain pelting down
(mimics rain crashing down)
freezing wet, you can
feel the power of nature
against your hide, but
there is a mystery to solve,
and there is a mouse to save.
(thunder rumbling)
(Grant groans)
I've got to quit smoking.
(all laughing)
- It's me, I'm a ghost.
Please let me in, I have
so many answers for you.
- b*stard!
- (gasps) Vicar!
- Mrs. Molesly, mum, can you
tell me what really happened?
(Ally gasping)
- Are you...
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09x09 - The Belly of the Beast
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A tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master.
A tabletop role-playing game show produced by and broadcast on Dropout and created and generally hosted by Brennan Lee Mulligan as the show's regular Dungeon Master.