Vigil: Playtime, Act 1

The arrival of an unexpected traveller and a bloody disappearance at the local primary school spell trouble for the residents of the sleepy town of Sherrydown.Programme notesThis episode contains implied offstage child endangerment.Vote for Merely Roleplayers in the Audio Verse Awards before 31 October. We’re currently through to the penultimate round of the awards. Voters choose their top ten podcasts in each award category, to narrow each category down to ten finalists for the final round. The form might take 10-15 minutes to complete, so we super appreciate anyone who takes the time! You can find us under Improvised Production.The town of Sherrydown is twinned with Whispering Pines, the not-so-ordinary summer camp for those hazy days and chilled summer nights. Campers laughing, fireflies glowing, campfires crackling long into the night, and a gaunt, cruel monstrosity forever hiding just out of sight, always asking, “What do you do next?” You can find out more about Whispering Pines and meet some of its eccentric camp counselors in the upcoming Sleepaway Oneshot on What Am I Rolling?: a twice monthly RPG one-shot podcast.Dramatis personae and other definitionsRenko: A DoOm agent assigned to Sherrydown, furloughed since the office closed.Persephone ‘Percy’ Byron: A Victorian monster hunter and half-sister of Ada Lovelace. Percy tried to time travel from 1852 to 1666 to stop the summoning of an apocalyptic demon, but something went wrong, and she landed in present-day Sherrydown instead.Mick: Sherrydown’s favourite builder and bricklayer. His life has been getting weirder since he dug too deep and hit a leyline.Graham: The demon equivalent of an accountant, summoned to Earth in error and now trying to make the best of it. He is destined to bring about the Apocalypse.Department of Omissions (DO, DoOm): The UK government department tasked with preventing harm to citizens from supernatural phenomena. Severely defunded under Tory austerity policies and currently prioritising major urban population centres.Sherrydown, Brackshire: A historic English market town. One of the first towns to lose its DoOm office.Omission effect: The rejection of certain beings and phenomena by long-term memory. Can be suppressed by concentration, mnemonic techniques, hypnosis, trauma, or the light of the full moon.CreditsCOMPERE: Matt BoothmanSTARRING:Ellie Pitkin as Persephone ‘Percy’ Byron, the ExileAlexander Pankhurst as Graham, the SummonedVikki as Renko, the FlakeDave as Mick, the MundaneROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael SandsMUSIC BY: Alexander PankhurstSOUND DESIGN BY: Natalie WinterSFX INCLUDES: rain and final thunder clap by reinsamba; night rain on car by Relax Sleep ASMR; Ford Transit boulevard by LG; van on gravel by Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama; stop engine by Henrique Moreira; lightning crash by NoiseNoir; pistols/handguns manipulated and toyed with by IlDucci; interior - small moden office atmosphere by BBC Acropolis; mechanical keyboard typing by GeorgeHopkins; subdued classroom atmosphere with children reading (rec. London) by BBC Acropolis; electric school bell - 1980 (3C9, reprocessed) by BBC Acropolis; and various others covered by the Creative Commons 0 attribution licenceEDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt BoothmanFind usOn Twitter @MerelyRoleplayOn Facebook at Merely Roleplayerswww.MerelyRoleplayers.com