The Adventure Zone: Dust - Episode 2/Transcript

Transcript by the lovely volunteers at TAZscripts.

Travis: Previously on The Adventure Zone:





Travis: Like Wolverine’s claws have been pulled across his gut.



Griffin: Okay, hold on.

Travis: There’s some trace of, like, dust. Some kind of— it looks to be a mixture of silver and copper.















[Theme music (The Adventure Zone: Dust Theme by Griffin McElroy) plays]









[Clint and Travis laugh]



Griffin: I check my watch. Is it one?

Travis: It’s getting close. This is like the end of this first beat.











Travis: She just stares at you.





[Clint and Travis laugh]



Travis: I will remind you, there is another person here, another woman at the bar.





Travis: You do have a faction move called Name to a Face, that maybe you might want to use instead of addressing them as “other woman at the bar.”

Justin: Okay, I’ll roll against— wow, what a weird move, okay yes. But yes, why not? I love a good faction move.

Griffin: This is how we level up, too, with these faction moves.

Justin: How do I level up with a faction move?

Griffin: When you take four faction moves with each of the four factions you level up.

Justin: Oh, okay, cool. Uh, what’s their—

Travis: She is Night. Night, specifically Fur, but because— because Gus is neither Fur nor Fang it’s just Night for him.

Justin: Uh, well, I’ve already done a faction move with a Night. Uh, anywho. I rolled a [laughs] I rolled a five and I have plus two with Night— uh no, sorry— yeah, plus two with Night, so it’s a seven.

Travis: Okay, uh, it’s Marie Jacobs. You know that she is is a Fur, you know that she runs the depot, which is, you know, the shop in town, you know that she stays pretty neutral as far as things go because she trying to do business with everybody, and that’s about all you know about her.













Griffin: How come we gotta give evocation reviews to every spoken word in this—

Justin: I thought that was fairly evocative.

Griffin: That was fucking evocative as hell!

Travis: But when I said “silent as the grave” last week, Justin gave me a hard time!

Justin: Yeah, but like...I’m a ghost, so it’s like—

Clint: [laughs] It resonates!

Justin: So it’s hysterical.

Griffin: Those were his words.

Travis: J-man, give me a persuasion roll or something along those lines. Something you want to do.

Clint: Mm, persuasion rolls. Mmm…

Justin: Do we have persuasion rolls?

Griffin: Yeah, to persuade an NPC you roll with heart. On a hit they do what you ask, on a seven to nine, they modify the terms and/or demand a debt.

Justin: That is a— oh shit, a 10! Oh hell yeah! Nice.

Travis: Sick.

Griffin: Plus heart?

Justin: Zero. Heart zero.

Clint: He’s a ghost, he doesn’t have a heart, he’s dead.

Travis: Oh no, you gotta go talk to The Wizard.

[Clint giggles]



















Griffin: Mission accomplished! Goodbye guys! I’ve finished.

Clint: Ladies and Gentlemen, this has been Dust!

Griffin: Errol Ryehouse’s weeks-long quest.

Travis: Now Griffin, Wilder slides it down the bar, I’m going to need to you to roll to see if you catch it.

Griffin: That’s a… four? That’s a four.

Travis: You catch it but all the root beer sloshes out of the glass.

[Clint laughs]

Griffin: No! God! Please!

Justin: The show continues.

Griffin: I kind of embarrassed, like, mime drinking the root beer out of the empty cup. Okay.

Travis: And Wilder just kind of, you know, massages the bridge of his nose.





















Griffin: Do we hear a clock bell— clock tower bell or something?

Travis: BONG.

Griffin: I don’t know if they do that at night, that would be very annoying I feel like.

Travis: They don’t, that is not how that works, but let’s say Augustus has a spectral timepiece.

Griffin: A Yo-Kai Watch, if you will.

Travis: [beat] Sure.

Griffin: God, that was a good joke that was wasted on you fucking plebs.

[Justin & Clint laugh]

Travis: All right, so that brings us to 1-3 [a.m.]

Griffin: Wait, we’re doing two hours in this one?

Travis: Yeah, so you’re gonna get to pick more beats— two to three— same amount of beats, really.

Griffin: We— yeah, we trust you. Can you— can we take a second, because we kind of jumped into the episode, run through the clues real quick for the folks at home? I have ’em all written down here [crosstalk] just sort of the salient stuff.

Travis: [crosstalk] Sure! Go for it.

Griffin: Some “her” didn’t want Dylan to talk, we’re assuming it’s Ann, his twin sister who is not a Fur.

Travis: Yes, they are fraternal twins, and a reminder, genetics-wise they’re codominant genes, so she just isn’t [a Fur]— I actually did research to make sure fraternal twins did not share DNA.

Griffin: Fantastic.

Clint: And that’s Ann?

Travis: That is Ann.

Griffin: Yes. The blood on Dylan’s clothes was Jeremiah’s, led to The Church. According to the ghost in the graveyard, Jeremiah was confused and betrayed when he was killed. He had claw marks across his gut that had silver dust from the local silver mine around it. We’re going to succeed in some way in this thing, that’s less a clue and more just sort of a little reminder, a little “Hang in There” kitty poster I have up on the wall. There’s a deal that was— okay, the rest of this stuff was from five minutes ago, so you don’t need to hear that again. Can you give us a list of where we can go now? ‘Cause we have the option, right, of sticking together or splitting up again I imagine.

Travis: Yes, so there is the Mathis home, where Ann and Liam are. There is the Sterling, which was the last place that Jeremiah was seen. You could head over to Silver’s Linings. You always have the option to head back to the sheriff’s station to check in with Connors and Rosa. The Church with Father Dante, but you were just there, so I mean, do you really wanna walk all the way back there? No, I think for now those are the kind of ones you’ve been pointed at.

Griffin: Mmkay.

Travis: There’s other areas, but you don’t have any, to use a technical term, leads that would point you towards them, so unless you just pick one—

Griffin: Sure.

Justin: So where’s—

Travis: Hm?

Justin: Where’s Ann?

Travis: Ann is at the Mathis home, Ann and Liam.

Griffin: In the Mathis house, which we have— which we have a key to. I—

Justin: I feel like—

Griffin: I was of a mind that we should wait until we had more clues before we went there, but I think we have enough time that we could maybe take two trips, and it seems like—

Justin: Well, that was when you thought that Abigail was gonna be there. You wanted to—

Griffin: Yeah.

Justin: But we sort of ran into her organically.

Griffin: Good point.

Justin: So maybe we should just go.

Griffin: We should head up there. I also think maybe we should split up, ‘cause I think the Sterling last known location is something we should also pursue.

Clint: At this point Gandy has rejoined the party, right? We’re all together making this decision?

Travis: Yes. In this— you remember, this is the center of town, right? So I assume, ’cause you’re staying at the Sterling, you’re working— so the Black Mariah is probably parked right there. I mean, you’re all within 10 yards of each other.

Griffin: I would like to go to the Mathis household just because I am a werewolf kind of, and I— I don’t know, there might be something that I can use there to find something out. That’s kind of, my inclination.

Justin: I was thinking I’d like to go to the Sterling, which is the last sort of place that Jeremiah was seen.

Clint: That’s where Gandy— Gandy would like to go there, too.

Travis: If you split up in any way, one and two or one and one and one, you only get two beats. So you do get the added bonus, Gandy, of being there and contributing, but if you want to cover more ground in the 1-3 range, you might want to completely split up, but it’s completely up to you. I am just reminding you how the mechanic works.

Clint: I mean, Gandy just had a scene by herself and I—

Travis: Super cool, absolutely.

Clint: I’d like her to interact with one of her partners—

Travis: You don’t have to explain yourself to me, you’re doing great. Who wants to go first? Errol, or Gandy and Gus?

Griffin: How about Gandy and Gus, since Gandy hasn’t done anything this episode yet.

Justin: Sure.

Travis: Excellent.

Justin: I’m gonna go invisible again.

Travis: When you walk into the Sterling, it has a completely different feel from the Full Moon Saloon. Where the Full Moon Saloon was, to use a modern terminology, more of a, you know, well-polished and very clean dive bar, the Sterling is sparkling. There’s metal accents everywhere, the gambling tables are clean and well-kept. And it has the smell, and if you’ve never been to a casino it’s hard to describe, but the smell of a well-oiled and clean table and clean machines and just smells like money. And you can tell that the focus, whereas in the Full Moon Saloon the focus was “have a drink and forget,” here it’s “take a risk,” you know, “feel alive.” And so when you enter, a couple of things immediately draw your attention.

One, is the woman who isn’t really working the bar so much as she’s just at the bar, on the customer’s side, but clearly in control of the whole building. And you know from your intel that that is Isabella Slate, the owner of the Sterling. She has owned it for the last two years after the previous owner, Marcus, mysteriously disappeared. And when Isabella took over, she turned the whole thing around, it didn’t used to be this house of chance and, you know, risk. It used to be incredibly poorly run, I would say, and bad. Nobody went there, but now the Sterling is the destination in Dry River.

The other thing you notice is there’s only, with it being such a late hour, there’s only one kind of table that’s actively being used. And there’s two people that, you know, just regular humans, but the one that draws your attention is the spectral gambler, who you know to be Em. She has quite a reputation in the area as being a card shark. And her stack is about five times the size of anyone else’s at the table, so you can tell she’s kind of been running the table all night.

Griffin: Please interact with the ghost gambler.



[Griffin laughs]









Travis: Why would Gandy say “the bomb”?





Griffin: She can say it’s dynamite.





Justin: Hey, I did want to clarify something. To what extent are people of this world hip to ghosts? Something I should have clarified before I tried my Ghost Dad stunt in the last one. People like— I’m not gonna be able to run many ghost scams on people of this world, yeah? Like they kind of know what’s up?

Travis: Well, yeah, I don’t think you’re gonna surpri— like it’s not gonna be like, “What?! A ghost?!” But I think that not everybody can perceive you. Had you not moved the mug, then they probably wouldn’t have put two and two together. Um… yeah.

Justin: Okay, that’s all I needed to know, thank you.





Clint: So she walks over to the table— what game is being played at the table?

Travis: It’s poker.

Justin: How… crazy would you say this particular game of poker is?

Travis: Thank you for asking, Justin. I would say that it didn’t begin as crazy but it has become a crazy game of poker.

Justin: Now if you could repeat that for about eight minutes.

Travis: Well right now it is a crazy game of poker but when we talk about it later we’ll say it was a crazy game of poker. We’ll get there, you know.

Clint: So many references. Okay!

Griffin: Sorry, should we talk about Steely Dan— is there a Steely Dan poker song?

Clint: I’m sure there is… Um, actually there is.

Griffin: Okay, okay, okay, I didn’t mean to send you down a fucking rabbit hole.

Justin: We’re going blackjack, do it again…

Griffin: Okay, fine. Fair.

Clint: Okay, so Gandy sits down at the table, and, um—



Travis: Em points over to Isabella and says:





Clint: She runs over and gets a bunch of chips.

Griffin: I love the idea— the visual of Gandy being very very rich and so she doesn’t know how much is a good amount of chips and so she gets way too many chips.



Travis: Isabella smiles.



Travis: And slides 100 dollars in chips over to her and takes her money.

Griffin: Is this a lot of chips? This seems like a lot of chips.

Travis: [crosstalk] Yes it is. Yes. For this time period, 100 dollars? Yes. That’s quite good.

Clint: Well, Gandy has a great per diem, so it’s all right.

Travis: When you sit— when you sit back down at the table, Em’s spectral eyes just light up! She sees in you... quite the mark, and she turns to the two people playing with her, and says:



Travis: And they kind of grumble and stand up and they go get a drink at the bar.













Travis: She smiles even bigger.





Travis: [In Em’s voice] Well, Clinton, you’re going to do a straight up-and-down roll with no bonuses. [Normally] No, she doesn’t say that. I’ll say that.

Clint: I was going to say, that was a little meta there for me.

Justin: Here’s the thing, though, I was going to help him cheat.

Griffin: Ooh.

Justin: Because I can see the cards, so I was going to poke Gandy with some hints. So, if you’re going to do a straight up-and-down roll, I’d like to be able to lend advantage somehow.

Travis: Okay, we’ll do a plus two. Well, okay, here’s what we’re going to do. So, Justin, you roll first, and your roll will determine how much you’re able to help.

Justin: Uh, I got a nine.

Travis: Okay cool, so let’s say you add a plus one to whatever Dad rolls.

Clint: And I rolled a 14 and a nine, so that’s 23.

Griffin: What?

Justin: [simultaneously] Whoa.

Travis: Two d6s, and you got a 14 and a 9?

Clint: D6s.

Travis: Yeah.

Griffin: Come on.

Clint: It was a joke! It was a hilarious joke! Good God.

Travis: I wish I could believe that was true, but…

Griffin: I don’t know what to believe anymore.

Clint: All right, here we go! All right, she’s rolling. It’s a four and a four, so straight up roll that’s an eight, and then plus one with what Augustus added to it.

Travis: So I’m gonna say, you push. You tie, basically. So you don’t lose your money… you’re going to go double or nothing.











Griffin: That’s so many questions.





Travis: Uh, Justin, do you want to cheat again?

Justin: Yeah! And that’s an eight, this time.

Travis: Okay so once again we’ll say plus one.

Clint: ’Kay. It is a six and a four, 10.

Travis: Great! So that puts you at 11. So, you win! Uh, Royal Flush, I dunno, fuck it.

Clint: So they all have crowns. Look, they all have crowns and they’re all the same color. That is…

Griffin: Well, the 10 wouldn’t have crowns but it’s good.

Clint: Oh, that’s good. Okay, got you.









Griffin: For ten questions! [cracks up]



Travis: No, I think—



Travis: Gus, do you want to say anything here?

Justin: I, uh, I mean, I don’t want to blow up my spot. All right. Okay, I’ll, I’ll, yeah, I’ll manifest.

















Clint: She adjusts her pince nez [pronounced ponce nay]— By the way, that’s how you pronounce it, because she looked it up in the book of faces. It’s an information outlet—

Travis: Ah. I assume it’s a book made out of face skin.

Clint: Yes, and everyone has a little picture of their face, it’s very—

Griffin: So many questions.























Griffin: [disappointed] Oh my god, you guys.





Travis: She turns back to her game, the two gamblers— she sort of motions back and the game begins. Now, Gandy, you feel a tap on your shoulder. You turn around to see the redhead sitting at the bar that you know is Isabella Slate.

















Travis: You get it. She gives you a sippy-cup of whisky or whatever.



Travis: And you go next door— Gus, if you agree, we’re going to go next door. And it’s not going to count as another beat, this is all going to be tied into the same beat, but first! Let’s go check in with Errol.

Griffin: Can I establish something? This is a house that people live in, and we’ve talked about Carrion Street as being like, the residential neighborhood? Is it possible that this is in— I really haven’t done anything with the neighborhood stuff, and so I’m wondering if—

Travis: This is the Fur neighborhood, and we’ll say that they live on Carrion.

Griffin: That’s Carrion like C-A-R-R-I-O-N. Which is not like—

Travis: Yeah, it’s not like “carrying,” yes, I got that.

Griffin: Which is not like, it’s not like, I don’t think it’s a bad place, as much as the name suggests, I think it was called that before Errol got here and tried to turn things around.

Travis: Yeah, so the way I’m kind of envisioning Errol’s territory, and tell me if I’m off-base here, is like within the Crescent Territory in each town there is a Fur territory, and that then kind of fits into Errol’s purview, so here—

Griffin: See, I almost like it better if it’s almost not exclusively one— one— And it’s your game, your world, but like, I almost like it better if just like, if it’s actually some folks crossing the— crossing the boundaries a little bit? Maybe it’s primarily a Fur territory, or maybe that’s how it started out. But like, I like the idea that this is a nice neighborhood because of Errol’s, like, stewardship, and so maybe—

Travis: Absolutely.

Griffin: Maybe that makes it so it’s not exclusively one type of people living here.

Travis: And I should say, it didn’t come up in the conversation but, in my kind of head-fiction, Abigail specifically requested Errol’s team because she knows the work Errol has done for kind of like Furs and the neighborhoods. And so like, your reputation kind of precedes yourself a bit.

Griffin: Yeah, like, I like the— like, my vision board for Errol is that he has a house on Carrion Street that is a, you know, cute little house, and I think he’s like, turned his front yard into a community garden where like folks come and sort of- folks of all sorts come and you know.

Travis: Improved for the people who are already living there.

Griffin: Yeah, sure.

Travis: Um, great, so you head to the Mathis home. On the way you are stopped by Deputy Rosa.











Clint: These are vampires, right? Wouldn’t they be— they wouldn’t sleep at night, would they?

Travis: These are not vampires in the Bram Stoker kind of thing.

Griffin: Yeah sure.

Travis: These are real vampires, Dad.

Clint: Okay, okay all right.

Justin: Ah, real vampires.



Travis: It did not.

{35:57-42:05} [advertisements and announcements]

Travis: Um, so Errol heads over to the Mathis home. When he gets there… um, what do you do?

Griffin: I mean, I have a key, but that seems wild, right? Like, I’m not just going— if I’m doing an investigation I need to talk to people— I think breaking and entering is not the—

Travis: Well, it’s not really breaking if you have a key, but I understand what you’re saying.

Griffin: Sure. I’m gonna knock on the door. Can I like… What’s this house look like? I imagine it’s one of the bigger houses in the territory.

Travis: Well no, actually, it’s— it’s fairly regular sized. The thing about the Mathises and kind of the way about this family is, this is another thing you know from your intel, is that what they have is kind of a cluster of houses. So you’ve got uh, Abigail’s house, where Ann still lives with her, because she’s fairly young. And then next door is Dylan’s house. And then on the other side of Abigail’s house is her brother Julian’s house. And you know, they kind of spread out as they grow? So they don’t all live in a house together. It’s more kind of a-

Clint: It’s like a compound! It’s more of a compound.

Griffin: Okay. I knock on the door.

Travis: You hear kind of a snuffle-snoring kind of reaction but nothing immediately happens.

Griffin: All right. I put the key in the lock and I very slightly open the door and say,



Travis: Immediately there is a figure in the door. He is a barrel-chested, kind of scruffy-looking fella who you assume to be Liam. Um, he… he’s has sleepy eyes but he is up and ready for whatever’s happening.



















Griffin: And I show the key just to prove that like I am not lying?









Griffin: I come in.

Travis: He opens the door and he, you know, lights a lantern or two. You can see a blanket and pillow on the couch. He was clearly sleeping there, keeping, you know, keeping watch, as it were.











Griffin: Do I have a badge?

Travis: Yes you do.



Travis: It’s simple. It’s a circle with just “Graysons” across it.

Griffin: Okay.























Travis: So Liam head upstairs. When you sit down at the table and he sets down one of the lanterns on the table with you, you see a pair of gloves on the table. They’re very large, so they’re clearly not Ann’s, so you can figure that they’re Liam’s. They’re workman’s gloves, um, and at the tips of the fingers, they’re kind of claws. Very razor sharp at the ends of the fingers. And the gloves are covered in dirt and what appears to be silver dust.

Griffin: Uh, is it— it is silver dust, then?

Travis: Yep. Liam heads upstairs.

Griffin: Is there any blood, is there any blood on the gloves?

Travis: No.

Griffin: Hm.

Travis: You hear some knocking, kind of quiet, mumbled conversation, and Liam returns with Ann in tow, and she looks, sort of to be the spitting image of her mom but younger, you know. Kind eyes, sleepy. Sleepy.













Travis: He just looks at you.









Travis: And he just keeps standing there.













Griffin: I reach down and just like gently graze one of the claws and—



Griffin: And there’s a slight sizzle and I’m like:





Justin: Okay, And then Augustus bursts through the doors like:



Clint: J’accuse!











Griffin: I gently place them in an evidence bag? No, I probably just have a, uh—

Travis: Like a messenger bag or something.

Griffin: I probably just have like a messenger bag, I tuck them in kind of—

Clint: Saddle bag! A saddle bag.

Griffin: For what? Okay, yes.





Travis: And he steps out of the door.

Justin: Wait, did he just say “Abigail?”

Travis: Oh, sorry. I meant— I meant Ann.

Justin: Ann. Okay.

Travis: Why did I make— I made all these names that started with J’s and A’s! I don’t know what I was thinking.

Griffin: Yeah, it’s tough.

Travis: And everybody has the same voice, and this is real tough! Anyways.























Travis: Her brows suddenly kind of furrow.







Travis: She kind of smiles.



Clint: [Imitating Errol] No.





















Griffin: I’m trying to figure out where the moment is where Errol kind of— and I don’t know if this is— I don’t know if Errol even knows that they’re in this territory, but there is one person that Errol probably knows about that would be a sort of fan of chaos? And be really against incorporation—

Travis: We’re gonna get to that in a second, but first! Let’s cut back to Isabella Slate’s house. She leads you in— so, a little intel, here’s what you know about Slate. She is a Fang, but she is not from Dry River. She showed up here about two years ago, and on that night Marcus was not seen again after that, and suddenly Isabella Slate had a signed deed and contract to own the Sterling. She leads you into her home.



Travis: And she leads you down into her cellar. And you find a cage, a prison cell, containing Marcus!

Griffin: The previous owner of the Sterling?

Travis: Correct!











Clint: [laughing] The late Augustus Parsons.













Clint: Okay, wait, wait, hold on one second. I realize that we’re not lawmen in the Grayson agency, but this is obviously—

Griffin: It’s not great.

Clint: It’s an unlawful imprisoning. Are we just gonna blow right past that and just question this poor schmoe?

Travis: [cheerfully] That’s up to you! This is a moral quandary you’ve found yourselves in!















Travis: And he looks at Gandy.























Travis: Now Justin, I do want you to know, Gus, that this I think is going to fall under “witness a scene of victimization and do nothing,” mark corruption.





Justin: Also I would push back against that.

[Travis laughs]

Justin: For what it’s worth, as much as I would love that big big juicy corruption point, I don’t necessarily think that Gandy submitting to this would be a victimization.

Griffin: No, he’s talking about the guy in the cell.

Justin: Oh, dunk, yeah cool. All right, I’ll witness that, I’m doing fuck all about it, I am defo getting that point for sure. Lemme just mark that, lest I forget.









Griffin: Once you pop Gandy, the feeding won’t stop.













Travis: So before that happens, he— Marcus says:







[Music fades in]



Travis: And then we cut to Errol Ryehouse walking back from the Mathis home, when he’s confronted by two… uh, I was gonna say thugs, but they’re too well-dressed for that. They smile, and it’s actually a fairly warm smile.











[Theme music (The Adventure Zone: Dust Theme by Griffin McElroy) plays]