Highway of Blood 02: A Biscuit a Day...

### Players

Dan Wheeler as Quincey J. Lafitte, Dominic Allen as Edward "Ed" Mooney, Joseph Chance as Beverly "Jack" Carstairs

### Podcast Link

https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-xfvd2-1438e6c

## Synopsis (Spoiler Warning)

The episode begins with a flashback featuring Ed and a man named Fergal who asks him to look out for a contractor, Henry Miller, and his family during his trip up to the Texan uranium mines. The Miller family disappeared about a week ago while camping and is comprised of the father, Henry, his wife Kelly, and their children Rebecca and James: it's possible the disappearance might be deliberate but it's still requested of Ed to keep his eyes and ears open. An old mentor of Ed's, Jacob Blackwood, is also mentioned; the intro plays.

Back in The Last Stop, Quincey has just injured his ear, which he manages to bandage, and Ed formulates some theories about the license plates on the wall and scrapyard in the town. While doing his crossword, Ed also examines the newspaper he's picked up and reads an article regarding the Millers, after which the food arrives; the characters inspect it but don't find anything too suspicious. Robert then returns and is interrogated by Ed on the town's history; it turns out Abattoir started out as an actual abattoir, was then turned into a mining town, and once the uranium mining stopped in '56 it became a lot more isolated. There is some confusion about dates which results in both Robert and Ed getting offended while Quincey tries to keep the peace and Beverly eats, things then escalate when Ed flips the table and takes out his gun to point it at Quincey, and subsequently also deescalate as he puts the gun away and goes back to reading the paper. Robert then pulls out his own shotgun and confronts the characters but he's interrupted by the arrival of another man whom he calls the Doc; the flipped table is cleaned up and conversation is made, particularly between Beverly and the Doc, who agree to have a smoke outside together. Ed apologizes to Quincey while the Doc introduces himself as Robert Brenner; he seems to have some peculiar feelings about the side effects of uranium, and inexplicably already knows that the character's van is getting fixed as well as telling Beverly about the shifting sands surrounding The Devil's Backbone. He offers up a dinner invitation, and after he leaves Ed and Quincey also exit the bar so that the whole trio are now able to walk down the high street and make a plan, but not before Ed quickly runs back in and identifies one of the license plates as that of the Miller family. The trio then walk up to Thunderbird Gifts, Abattoir's local bookshop, and as Dan and Joseph both fumble their spot hidden, seeing several insectoid figures shuffling away from The Last Stop, Ed notices a book titled *De Vermis Misterius* in the shop's window.

## Important NPCs

* Robert Taylor
* Carlos
* Robert Brenner

## Places

* The Last Stop
* Thunderbird Gifts

## Quotes

* "Let me know of you want any condiments or anything of the sort!" (Danann as Robert) "This character already stinks like a Danann NPC." (Dom)
* "I was not expecting to have two different shotguns pointed at me when I woke up this morning..." (Dan as Quincey)
* "Jack...Beverly- Jack. John Carstairs." (Danann)
* "If you end up here for the night, you're always welcome up at the homestead, I'd happily have you as guests for dinner." (Danann as the Doc) "Oh, no..." (Dom)

## Trivia

* In a slightly meta moment, Beverly mentions visiting a town by the name of Castronegro and its local bookshop: this is a reference to The Secret of Castronegro, ran by Andy Goodman and written by Sandy Petersen and Mark Pettigrew, which the players, accompanied by Scott Dorward, played on the Grizzly Peaks Radio podcast