The Cost of Greed (Pt 1)

* Episode (must be logged into Patreon to view)

> Reviewed by Rebecca S.
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> My mom has this saying. She says that if you want to get something solved, you go to the detectives. If you want to get something sorted, you do it yourself. And she’s a detective so I spent a lot of time thinking that my options were one or the other but then our basement started getting haunted and I didn’t know what to do.   Mom didn’t believe me. No such thing as ghosts, she said, and then she went to work. And I tried to get it sorted by going down there myself but a voice said “WE HAVE MADE A NOTATION OF YOUR SINS, GIRL, AND LIKE AS NOT THERE WILL BE A RECKONING” and I didn’t fancy a reckoning so I looked up Graysand Paranormal and right away they sent somebody over.   First of all it was this woman, Alexa, she arrived with a clipboard and went down there and the voice said “MARK YE THE DAYS YOU HAVE SPENT IDLY FOR THEY SHALL BE RAINED LIKE LEAD UPON YOUR HOUSE” and she said “Well, we’ll see about that, won’t we,” and when she came up the stairs she told me that everything was going to be okay.   Her cellphone was broken so she called her colleague on mine and he arrived in like 10 minutes. He was built like a brick wall. They talked quietly for a moment and then he went downstairs and I stood at the top and watched him.   The voice called out and said “WE HAVE LIT THINE CANDLE AND BLOWN IT OUT, WE HAVE MADE FOR THEE A PLACE IN THE DARK,” and then I guess it got murdered by the huge guy because there was a terrible noise and then he came back up stairs and gave me the thumbs up. Four stars.
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### Cold Open

As read by Hector Hu.

> *Out in the holy halls and clandestine chapels of the Vatican, the church fathers say clearly; "There is no such thing as a ghost". But I have my doubts.*
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> *They have poured over the scripture and from it derived dogma, it's true. They are right to say that Hebrews 9:27 declares that man is destined to die once, and after that face judgement. And Luke does tell us that when the rich man looked up from Hell at the spirit of Abraham and begged him to visit the living and warn them of The Cost of Greed, Abraham said that a great chasm separated Heaven from everything else.*
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> *But. The church fathers say something else, too. When they are not assuring us that the dead are gone to live with the Father forever, when they are not gesturing towards veils and promising that graves dug deep cannot be undone, when they are not reducing every spiritual encounter to angels or demons with no room for anything in between, they say something else. Do not try to contact the dead.*
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> *Now, I find that peculiar, don't you? If there were no such thing as a ghost, if the wall between this wall and the next was so firm, so impermeable, that those that passed could never return, then there would be no harm in trying to make that connection. I know, I know, 2nd Corinthians 11, even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light; yes, there is a chance that those who wish to contact the dead would reach out to Hell instead. But, and I know I risk my collar for saying what I am about to say. Bluff City needs to be realistic. Instead of pretending that no one will attempt to reach across that dark chasm we need professionals ready for whatever happens when they inevitably do.*
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## Cast

* Austin Walker
* Alexa Baker (Ali Acampora)
* Jake the Jackal (Art Martinez-Tebbel)
* Syd Ruiz (Sylvia Clare)

## Plot

Syd, Alexa, and Jake meet with their mysterious investor to convince him to continue to fund Graysand Paranormal. They meet with him in the penthouse of The Black Millennium and discover that their investor is the reclusive Millennium Alexander Black.

Millennium and Alexa discuss Graysand, but although the numbers of the business are good, Millennium says that he is looking for something more valuable to him than that. Alexa says they’re providing an important service to the community and cites a woman in her 70s they helped recently with a goblin that was affecting her animals. Millennium knows the woman, Mrs Peterson, and he and Alexa chat briefly about the case.

Millennium says that Bluff City has some things in it that affect the city more broadly, and wants to know if they believe that they can work on that level, citing a current incident occurring in the Veranda-owned casino, the Menagerie. He has noticed that despite the next weekend being the Labour Day long weekend, the Menagerie has shut down one of their floors. As this casino connects to The Black Colossus via a skybridge, Millennium is concerned that it will affect his business over the Labour Day long weekend. Although footsteps can be heard, nothing shows up on the security camera footage, and the door handles to the skybridge are hot or cold to the touch. Millennium tells them that if they are able to fix the problem he will continue to invest in Graysand.

The team go to the Menagerie to talk to the head of security there. They speak to the security guard on duty, Luis Puma (“Puma, like the cat”). He asks if they have a permit to film inside the casino, and Syd says they do. Luis asks them to turn off the camera and Syd pretends to but keeps the camera on.

Luis says that he can help them with any questions they have. Alexa and Jake ask about the closed floor, and Luis says that it is closed for renovations. Jake says, very loudly, that he has heard it is closed because of an accident involved in a robbery, in an attempt to scare Luis into telling them more information. Luis tells them that all the machines on that level kept winning, even after they replaced the machines twice (Alexa takes out her notepad and writes “Winning!!”). The casino decided to close the floor down until they can determine the cause, as they do not want to lose the money over the holiday weekend. There was also a noticeable overly-sweet smell on that level, the cause of which could not be determined.

Luis says that he is not cut out for this level of strange happening, and tells them not to bother the people currently working on figuring it out. Jake asks if they hired the Trenton crew, and Luis says that is none of his business and doesn’t know anything about it. Alexa asks if he could let them up to the closed floor, and he agrees to do this.

Alexa tests the luck on the floor by playing a gatcha game on her phone and immediately scores a ultra-platinum item as soon as she arrives on the floor. As they arrive on the floor, they see the Trenton crew, who are discussing how they believe the cause of the issue could be leprechauns.

Jakob greets Alexa warmly and is surprised that she is on the case. Mint says that they do not have clearance and Alexa says that Luis gave them clearance. Jakob and Jake exchange barbs. There is a cut to confessional with Syd, who expresses surprise that Jake wears his wrestling tights underneath his clothes.

Jakob and Jake begin to fight, and Jake breaks Jakob’s nose. Syd twists her ankle trying to grab the camera to film the fight. John Paul St James attempts to calm down the situation, and Alex agrees but tells them to stay out of Graysand Paranormal’s way (“I’m sorry about this… don’t challenge us though, please”).

The Trenton crew leave. Alexa uses the ghost trap machine to scan for ghost activity, and inserts a piece of tiger’s eye crystal “to help”. The crystal begins to glow. It shows multiple hits, and the purple smoke that the machine uses to indicate ghost activity floods the floor, activating the skybridge’s sprinklers.

The team leave quickly and regroup back at the office. Jake gets a pizza. Alexa researches a local legend about a sea creature that affected the local town and reports of recent activity from the Bluff City Current column “This City Is Going To Hell”. Syd reviews the footage she shot while on the skybridge level. While looking at footage of Jakob and Jake’s fight, she sees a green non-human appendage slipping behind the door to the skybridge. She immediately shows the rest of the team the footage.

The last shot of the episode is a confessional from Jake (“If I’d known then what I know now I would have gone into the ocean, see if I could get washed up somewhere better than here”).