Title: City Council of Darkness
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Emily Axford (she/her) as Vesper Childers (she/her). Zac Oyama (he/him) as Zaeth Bondana (he/him). Siobhan Thompson (she/her) as La Contesse Madelaine (she/her). Lou Wilson (he/him) as LaVonte Worthy (he/him). Ally Beardsley (they/them) as HJ Wingstreet (he/him). Brian Murphy (he/him) as Mitch Frederick(he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

Our Intrepid Heroes begin this episode with an introduction to Nancy. Vesper and Mitch immediately fawn over her, rationalizing their previous actions and praising her. Her professionalism quickly wins over the rest of the group. She has already written an editorial on the disaster which led our group to their exile in Purpee to begin with.

They send her information on the mine, and she manages to find proof of explosive residue, digging into the deaths of the miners and the profits which paved the Whittaker family’s way to power as a result.

Mitch and Vesper pose as Aaron, hoping to cause the Whittakers to target the potential vampire hunter; however, their main aim is to distract Aaron and make it harder for the group to be targeted. They actually pass off Aaron’s break-ins as potentially responsible for Beth’s husband’s death.

Additionally, Mitch aims to protect Nancy. While she’s clearly an incredibly capable researcher, our investigative journalist is prepping to go toe-to-toe with unknown forces that will not hesitate to kill her.

Meanwhile, LaVonte and HJ set up a bus line. LaVonte also sorts out relocating the group to a new house, embedding them further into the town and hiding them from the forces who may be after them.

Tyler, LaVonte’s intern, gets everything sorted. It turns out that the house was potentially going to be one of Rachel Whittaker’s Airbnbs, but legal trouble stopped that. However, they discover an Evil Eye drawn under the map. That glyph was the only one on the house. This leads to uncovering the scam associated with the senior centers and the Airbnbs, which they of course share with Nancy.

In order to get further information on the senior centers, HJ and LaVonte move Tyler’s grandfather, also increasing their intern’s efficiency.

Zaeth goes in search of a horse. Unfortunately, he steals a horse from the Douglas’s farm. Luckily for him, the horse saves him. Of course, then Brennan sent them over a cliff, so Zaeth had to feed the animal his blood, making the horse a vampire.

Madelaine focuses on the university, keeping her influence there and with the youngest Whittaker to ensure power. Slowly, she builds up her influence, prepping to get closer to Purpee’s famous horror author.

On the Ana and Cal front, she convinces them to bring her as their third to Thanksgiving. There’s clear tension as a result. Barnaby immediately calls her a “French Whore.” Madelaine succeeds in causing strife within the family. Cal and Ana defend her, and Florian does as well. The rest are immediately furious at her existence alongside Barnaby. While there, Madelaine realizes that every member of the Whittakers has a supernatural protection caused by ghosts fighting each other to try to kill them, preventing any of them from taking revenge.

All this comes together as Vesper summons Wallace Whittaker, planning to unionize the ghosts against the family. At the same time, Big Foot claims Vesper as his protege and drowns Barnaby Whittaker.

Highlights

Siobhan tore apart the Whittakers. Her throuple move is the win that keeps on paying, and I’m excited to see how this shifts now that the patriarch has drowned.

Nancy Dangerhoof is absolutely fantastic. She’s the sort of journalist we need, research oriented and ethical. Her presence seems to motivate the crew, focusing the chaos into progress, which I think Lou was desperately attempting but wasn’t able to manage on his own. She’s just a bit ahead of Tyler in my NPC ranking, but if the group plays their cards right, she’ll be a gift that keeps on giving.

Final Score (4 out of 5 Stars)

After last week’s episode, it would’ve been easy for the pace to continue going off the rails in a comedically unsatisfying chaos. Luckily, five of the six players locked in. Ally shifted to support Lou’s actions as LaVonte. Vesper and Mitch seemed eager to impress Nancy, causing Emily and Murph to lock in too.

Siobhan’s plans for Madelaine have been a bit chaotic and single-focused, undermining the cohesiveness of the group at some points earlier in the season; however, she’s kept her personal focus, putting herself right where she needs to be to cause the most destruction to the Whittaker family.

Unfortunately, Zac is still spinning his wheels though Zaeth now claims he is. A horse doesn’t fix nearly as much. That horse is 100% coming back to haunt them, and that was the only section of the episode this week that dragged. Plus, at least one Douglas noticed the situation, so Zaeth is undoubtedly an enemy in their books who succeeded in stealing from them and getting away. That won’t end well.

I enjoyed getting to see more about the Whittakers, but the longer the Douglas family remains a mystery, the more curious I am. Hopefully, Zaeth’s blunder will drag them into the mix, but we’ll have to wait until next week to find out.

Let us know what you thought in comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

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