McAnally's Pubcast

This episode we discuss the short story Restoration of Faith

We open on a scene of Dresden desperately trying to corral a wriggly kicking child while crammed into a phone booth, making a call to the licensed Private Investigator under whom Harry is apprenticing.

It seems Harry and his partner, Nick Christian, have been hired to find the runaway little girl, Faith Astor, but they’ve hit a couple of snags. 

Firstly, Faith is adamant about not wanting to return home, as Harry’s bruised shins will attest to. Secondly, it seems the ‘more-money-than-brains’ Astors have decided that admitting their daughter ran away is too mediocre and embarrassing, not to mention damaging to their country club street cred, so they’ve publicly announced Faith’s kidnapping and now Harry’s and Nick’s descriptions are out there circulating as the prime suspects.

Nick promptly advises Harry to ditch the kid where he’s at and let the cops find her.

Harry argues that he can’t do that because he couldn’t just leave a kid out here on her own in Chicago in general, and especially not in the sketchy part of town that they’re in now.

Faith makes another valiant attempt to flee from Dresden, but he manages to snag her again. Harry tries to distract and engage Faith by explaining his wizardy-ness and how he used a tracking spell to locate her, and she expresses some mild interest between the snark and insults.

They approach the bridge and Miss Astor makes one last-ditch bid for freedom. Harry is privy to some intel that poor Faith isn’t, and while he tries to shout a warning, Faith barrels on unheeding and discovers her mistake too late. A large unpleasant troll lives under this bridge, and a tasty little morsel has just come dashing right up to him. Free home delivery, no tip required.

Harry tries reasoning with the ugly bugger to release Faith, but the troll isn’t having it, so Harry resorts to a bluff to get Faith and himself out safely. It works, but unfortunately leaves the unlikely duo stranded on the opposite side of the bridge from their ride.

While checking to see if she is ok from the encounter, conversation turns to Faith’s parents and their total lack of regard for her, beyond what she can contribute to their (perceived) financial and social standing. Harry notices some flashing lights and they closely evade being spotted by some local beat cops checking out a scene as they pass by.

He tells Faith to keep close and to not let go of his hand, and they attempt to skirt around the beast’s lair, keeping as much distance as they can. Apparently the troll is savvier than Dresden was willing to give him credit for, because the child-chomper has repositioned himself and once again makes a grab for poor Faith. Harry yells at her to make a run for it as the troll knocks the wizard off his feet and attempts to lunge after the girl.

Harry grapples unsuccessfully with the fairytale beastie, but as Gogoth aims a deadly blow at Harry he is distracted by a scream from Faith and a blast of pink light. Harry ducks around and runs toward Faith, spotting Nick approaching with the car. Dresden tries to evade the pursuing monster, but stumbles and feels the troll on him again, raising its cleaver.

Another yell, and this time Harry is saved by the female cop who had tried to intercept them earlier, and she leaps onto the troll’s back, choking it with her nightstick. Harry gets his hands on the thing’s cleaver and buries it in its side, where the skin splits and releases a torrent of teeny, tiny mini-trolls, that go scampering off into the night, leaving Gogoth the Troll to deflate into near-nothingness in the semi-darkness.

The young officer is revealed to be Murphy and while trying to digest the events that just occurred, identifies Harry as one of the alleged kidnappers. Faith soundly scoffs at the very notion of such absurdity, implying that Harry is in no way clever or cunning, or even competent enough to pull off such a thing (Umm….thanks??) She is firmly adamant that she ran away of her own volition, but in light of all the evening’s shenanigans she is willing to concede the fight and be returned home by the police.

Murphy is still somewhat suspect of the whole situation, but recognizes Nick as the PI who works primarily on finding lost children and seems inclined to believe in his good reputation. With Faith’s assurances that she is fine and that Harry was trying to help her all along, Murphy decides to turn a blind eye for now, and tells the two gumshoes to vanish before her partner arrives.

The fellows take her advice, leaving Faith in her competent care, and, feeling a little better about having done something good in the world tonight, Harry and Nick head for home. 

Or, more likely, a beer…

This episode we discuss the short story A Fist Full of Warlocks, which has very little to do with Dresden and a whole lot to do with his Universe.

Warden Anastasia Luccio is making her way through the wild west.

It seems she has made her way to Kansas in search of a wayward warlock, and is making the trek in style. To the outside observer, Luccio is riding a magnificent all-white steed, seventeen hands tall and more than up to the task of ferrying her around the American landscape. To those in the know, she is actually riding atop an immortal fey-beast known as a näcken, dubbed Karl.

Luccio has pressed him into service by outwitting the beast at his own deadly game, and now he is bound to serve her for the duration of her mission here.

Their final destination is none other than the famed Dodge City.

Being a bad sort of dude, Warden Luccio can count on her bounty being holed up in a bad part of town. Luccio heads for the wrong side of the tracks (literally in this instance) and stops at the first sizable building she comes across - a brothel and bathhouse.

After a job offer, a bath, and directions to the local dens of iniquity, Anastasia heads off in search of her quarry.

Apparently “third time’s a charm” holds just as true for wizard cops as the rest of us, and Luccio is fairly certain she’s found her target at the Long Branch Dance Hall and Saloon. She enters a fairly typical old west bar and is almost immediately stopped by a tall, moustachioed deputy keeping tabs on the door, and is asked to surrender her firearms in accordance with public ordinance.

After a brief exchange concerning the rules, some mild flirting and a friendly wager, Luccio hands over her gun, keeps her warden’s blade and moves to the centre of the room to survey the surroundings for her prey. She dons some nifty, steampunk-esque wizard specs to better view the mystical energies in the saloon without having to resort to opening her full wizard Sight, and quickly zeroes in on four gentlemen playing cards in a little balcony on the upper level.

Realizing her villain has teamed up with three more dastardly dudes, Luccio decides she doesn’t really fancy her odds against all of them at once and figures she will retreat, observe and wait for reinforcements.

Her mind made up thusly, Anastasia turns to leave and collides with a handsome, middle-aged German fellow whose demeanour is at odds with his jovial appearance. He has a small pistol jammed into Luccio’s ribs. Excuse much; rude or anything? 

He instantly calls her out as a warden of the White Council and while Luccio initially tries to play dumb, the man ain’t buying it. He instructs her to come quietly since he harbours no compunction over killing her here and now, and nods an acknowledgment to his card-playing compatriots. 

Luccio tries to talk her way out by stating that she is only here for Alexander Page and all the others are free to go at this time. Her captor isn’t interested, though, and attempts to coerce Luccio’s compliance by way of a few more not-so-veiled threats. Luccio allows some of her natural anxiety to show through in the hopes of distracting him.

It world, and the deputy from the door gets the drop on the gun-wielding German sorcerer.

The three of them have a quick, quiet exchange, (wherein Luccio gets back some of her own by turning the ruthless rogue’s words back on himself - HA!), and when he gnashes his teeth and snarls and sputters demanding to know just who this up-start deputy thinks he is, we are formally introduced to Warden Luccio’s new ally.

“My name is Wyatt Earp…. And I think I'm the law.”  

Well damn if that don’t beat all!

…

The German warlock is taken to the local jail at the Marshal’s office, and Luccio tries to impress upon Earp that this arrest may be more complicated than he anticipates; however, Earp surprises her. Initially by divesting their guest not only of his regular, mundane weaponry, but also some subtler, magical items, and then by calmly asking if she’s referring to the fact that the prisoner is a sorcerer.

Earp identifies a charm taken from the German as coming from the Thule Society and guesses Luccio must be White Council.

She confirms that she’s a warden, and inquires as to how it is that he is so well-versed in such matters. Wyatt reveals himself to be a member of the Venatori Umbrorum, a secret society working against supernatural threats.

Anastasia considers it could be a ruse on Earp’s part, but discards that possibility as unlikely and decides to trust him.

The German is deposited in a warded cell, and Earp and Luccio get busy concocting a plan to defend themselves when the German’s friends inevitably show up to bust him out of prison.

During this period of planning, Luccio reveals the reason she is after Page (for gruesomely murdering the girl on whom he had an unrequited crush, along with her parents. Ugh. Toxic masculinity, anyone?), and Earp pitches some more woo, suggesting the possibility of him taking her out to dinner once this is all over, circumstances permitting.

The remaining thugs keep them waiting long into the night, one fella finally approaching not too long before dawn. They attempt to barter for their friend’s release with the generous offer of leaving town quickly if he is returned to them immediately, in lieu of their committing great bodily harm to Earp and Luccio if he is not. As an added bonus, they are even willing to solve the small problem that has brought Earp to Dodge City in the first place.

Unsurprisingly, Earp and Luccio decline this ridiculous offer, and the Briton spokesperson scampers back to his buddies.

Shortly after the conclusion of this brief discourse, Earp and Luccio hear a beating drum, the German sorcerer in the cell looks entirely too pleased with himself, and Anastasia suddenly realizes that the stakes are much higher than previously thought. 

…

About 15 minutes later, our 2 heroes are peeking out from their defensive position in the Marshal’s office at roughly 45 zombies making their slow, shambling way towards them.

Luccio figures it would only take a dozen or so to do them some real harm, so the odds aren’t ever in their favour, but at least the undead aren’t at full killing capacity for what they could be.

Anastasia informs Wyatt that they need to take out the drummer and then it won’t matter how many there are as they’ll all cease to be if that happens, and instructs him to aim for the head in the meantime.

Luccio takes a moment to confer mentally with Karl via a spell she set up ahead of time, and asks if he has located the German’s comrades. He confirms that he has and that they are on a rooftop a little ways over.  

With that the duo walk out to meet the amassing army of undead, and Earp starts calmly and efficiently putting bullets in zombies.

Anastasia takes out a few and then leaps up onto Karl’s back as he comes thundering into the fray, squashing a few constructs underfoot as he does. Luccio and her näcken steed go dashing off to the aforementioned rooftop and the magical beast runs her up to the top, leaping from street to balcony to roof. She finds Page seated in a magic circle, beating a steady rhythm on a drum, while the Briton who had tried to strike a deal with them and the other two unnamed warlocks guard him and turn to face Luccio as she arrives.

A brief battle ensues and Page takes a bullet to the arm causing him to drop a drumstick, but the Briton screams at him to keep drumming. Luccio dispatches one lackey with her gun, then engages the other one with her magical warden’s sword, while the Briton takes on Karl and manages to send the not-horse flying off the rooftop.

Luccio kills the 2nd anonymous thug and turns to face off with the Briton, who we now learn is named Grevane. Outnumbered and alone, Luccio hears zombies beginning to scale the outside of the building they’re on, and is so not cool with the idea. Even less so when it hits her that the power that Grevane is throwing around is strong and serious. Trained-in-the-White-Council-level serious.

Luccio’s fear is pushed out by her anger at the realization that this douchebag should know better and she levels a spell at the necromancer. The two trade a few magical blows and as the undead terrors start to close in, Luccio manages to evade Grevane and cross the boundary of the summoning circle, driving her blade into Page. Page gasps, unable to continue drumming, and the sound of re-unanimated bones hitting the street below echoes up around them.

Anastasia prepares to defend herself against Grevane again, but instead he merely tilts his head at her and drops backward off the roof.

Luccio rushes to look over the edge after him, but he is completely out of sight and gone already. Distracted by her disappearing prey, Luccio is not prepared for Page to come at her back, catching her off guard with a debilitating magical attack. As she struggles against the pain, she finds herself backed up to the edge of the roof with her own blade pushed up against her throat.

Page is about to deliver the final thrust when his head erupts in a gory blast and Luccio slowly turns to find Earp looking up from the street below and lowering his last remaining firearm.

…

The next morning we wrap things up with Anastasia sadly unable to keep her dinner date with Wyatt Earp, as she must get on the trail of the German warlock, now revealed to be a dude named Kemmler (who is on the Council’s serious shit-list), and his apprentice Grevane.

Luccio and Karl break with traditional Western tropes and ride off away from the sunrise, with Karl griping and moaning about Luccio finding Kemmler just to spite him, and Anastasia resigning herself to carrying out her extended duty in the dry, dusty American wild, wild west.

This Episode discusses Chapter 26 and 27 in which Dresden battles Victor and manages to win!

The Beckitts leave to bring the car sound and Victor calls up the toad demon and Harry hides behind a kitchen counter for cover.

Harry intercedes and cuts Vic’s control over the demon, leaving it free to go after the Shadowman, but also effectively trapping both humans in the burning, beastie-infested house. The two men grapple again, overbalancing over the railing into the sunken living room-turned-scorpion-pit below. Harry remembers that Murphy’s cuffs are still on him and snaps the free end around one of the railing spindles to prevent him falling all the way, but Victor isn’t so lucky.

Exhausted and injured, Harry dangles there figuring that the end is nigh and that if demons and giant bugs don’t devour him, then the raging fire surely will.

Defeated and hungry, he wonders if he isn’t hallucinating when he sees Morgan approaching, sword drawn, and figures it won’t be death by fire or flaying after all. Just great.

So… turns out Morgan wasn’t bringing his sword down on Harry’s neck, but rather the chain linking the bracelets of the handcuffs. Go figure.

After blacking out in the smoke-filled house, Harry awakens to Morgan performing CPR on him and realizes that Morgan has saved his life. Harry is more than a little surprised by this, but Morgan had seen how things had played out and that Harry was ultimately not responsible for the rash of mystical murders, and, despite still not particularly liking or trusting Harry, Morgan’s personal code of conduct would not allow him to stand by and let Harry die for the actions of another.

Although grateful for the rescue, Harry still doesn’t harbour a lot of affection for Morgan, either, and takes some pleasure in knowing that Morgan will have to defend Harry and his actions at the council meeting that Morgan originally convened for the purpose of doing the exact opposite.

Harry himself misses the conclave, as he is busy recuperating in the hospital, as is Murphy, who has survived her scorpion poison overdose. 

The police find the remains of the ThirdEye stash at the burned-out lake house, Victor is deemed the bad guy, Monica and her family disappear into witness protection and Marcone makes it known that Dresden was working at his behest to deal with the rival drug lord wanna-be.

Bob returns from his shore leave, Susan prints an article about the events of her hijacked date with Dresden, Harry keeps his word to send pizza to Toot-Toot and Co., and makes some peace with himself about power and temptation.

For the moment things are quiet again, and as they should be...

But if not….Harry Dresden is in the book.

This Episode discusses Chapter 24 and 25 in which Harry uses his sight on the lake house and confronts Victor and the Beckitts in a windy flourish.

Harry drives hell-bent for leather and makes it out to the lake house in decent time, managing to arrive ahead of the worst of the storm.

Not having time to waste on doing a slow careful examination of the surroundings to check for magical boobytraps and wards, Harry gathers himself and opens his Third Eye.

Harry sees terrible and horrible things surrounding Victor’s Palace of Putrid Power, but no waiting traps, as such. For a moment he wrestles with the idea of just unleashing his power and destroying the house and everything in it, but that would be using magic to kill and Harry won’t let himself cross that line, no matter that the cost may ultimately be his own life.

So Harry takes a deep breath, steel his nerves and strides forward into the unknown danger awaiting him.

Dresden encounters no resistance on his approach to the front door and enters unhindered and apparently unnoticed.

There are several boxes and crates of the ThreeEye drug and its potion-making ingredients. Harry can hear the same CD from the Madison playing, the thunder of the storm building, and Victor chanting in another room. Becoming overwhelmed by the sensations of the Sight in general, and all the dark and negative energy in particular, Harry shuts off the arcane-assisted vision and makes a flashy entrance to finally confront Victor Sells face to face.

Victor’s surprise at being interrupted only lasts a moment and he moves to finish the spell to kill Dresden. Harry reacts by chucking the empty film canister at Vic, and while it’s not much, it’s sufficient to break the magic circle around the wicked warlock.

A fast and furious exchange takes place wherein Victor hurls fire and scorpions, the Beckitts (there to assist in the ritual against Harry) hurl bullets and Harry hurls himself in order to dodge the incoming missiles

Today we have a guest speaker - Andreas. We cover Chapters 21, 22, and 23. Dresden confronts Monica Sells, battles a scorpion using an elevator, and heads to McAnallys for a car to borrow.

Monica allows Harry into her inner sanctum.

This is obviously Monica’s revered retreat, her personal haven. She has a bright, cheerful kitchen full of cartoon cows, and kept meticulously clean.

As she sinks into a chair and relaxes a little, Harry gives her a couple of minutes to collect herself, but the tension (for him, at least) is palpable and he can feel the storm closing in on him and his doom drawing nearer.

To expedite matters, Monica simply invites Harry to ask questions to which she will provide what answers she can.

Harry begins by confirming his realization that Monica and Jennifer Stanton are related. Harry wonders why Monica sought him out instead of going to the police, but she maintains that they would have thought she was insane going on about magic and spells.

When pressed as to why she wasn’t just direct with Dresden from the start, Monica breaks down a little and admits that her husband is responsible for it all.

He didn’t start out as a maniac, he once was a good husband and family man - a protector and provider for his family. But personal anxiety about never being able to be enough eventually ate away at Victor. A few years back he found magic and began to change. More recently he discovered how to forcefully open the Third Eye in other people and began mass-producing the ThreeEye drug. Victor couldn’t produce enough on his own until he stumbled across the discovery that he could use other people’s feelings and emotions to fuel his workings.

Thus the Shadowman began his ‘orgies of the occult’. He found the Beckitts and brought them in as ‘investors’, but it still wasn’t quite enough. Victor knew his sister-in-law worked as an escort and she brought in Linda Randall, who convinced Tommy Tomm. With his corporate structure now in place, Victor began to make money, but, as is usual with dark magic (and probably drug overlords), enough was never enough.

Papa Sells grew even darker and started eyeballing the kidlets. To exactly what purpose Monica wasn’t sure, but she damn sure wasn’t gonna wait to find out! With growing concerns, Mrs. Sells first talked to her sister, Jennifer, and when Jenny interceded with Victor on Monica’s behalf, Victor viciously murdered her in short order.

In a last-ditch attempt to escape the madness that her life had become, Monica had approached Dresden and tried to subtly tip him off so as not to further arouse Victor’s suspicions and ire.

Unfortunately Harry doesn’t always do subtle so well, and now Linda had been killed as well, and Harry was facing a literal deadline. 

Monica beseeches him to leave as she fears for her children’s safety, and can’t bear to witness Harry’s inevitable, and violent, demise first hand.

On his way out, Dresden is approached by young Jenny Sells and she questions his integrity in the way that children can, and implores him to be one of the “good guys” and to help her family; though she fears it may be too late for her father.

With limited options available to him, Harry formulates a plan to save his ass and remembers he has a scorpion talisman of Victor’s back at his office that he can use to direct Victor’s spell back against himself.

Harry decides to give Murphy a head’s up regarding Victor’s illegal doings, just in case he fails to stop him magically, and learns that Murphy has gone to Dresden’s office to serve warrant on him.

Concerned for Karrin’s safety and well-being, Dresden hightails it over there, but Murph is already in hot water.

Dresden rushes to his office building as fast as he can and sprints up five stories’ worth of stairs, not trusting the elevator to stay working.

Panting and paranoid, he slowly creeps up to the door of his own office and tries to scope out the scene from a covered position, while he calls out to Murphy.

Harry hears a faint moan and the scuttling sound of creepy-crawly feet, and can smell gunpowder on the air. Reacting with sudden anger, rather than fear, over Victor and wiggins-inducing bling Dresden bursts into the room ready to blast the scorpion thingy.

It’s slightly anti-climactic as the thing stays hidden in the shadows somewhere, but Harry stays alert for it and cautiously approaches Murphy. Murphy is barely conscious and Harry crouches down to tend to her.

There’s blood and swelling on her left shoulder where the scorpion has stung her and Harry reaches for the phone to call 911. Once the ambulance is en route, Harry hangs up and goes to carry Murph out of there, but Karrin has revived enough to slap her cuffs on one of Harry’s hands, tethering him to her, and goes on deliriously about how he set her up.

Harry gapes in disbelief for a moment and, of course, the scorpion chooses that moment to get the drop on Dresden.

Harry narrowly escapes a major injury but gets nicked by the scorpion’s stinger and flails to get away, knocking his staff and rod out of reach. He takes a pincer to the leg and manages to interject a desk drawer between himself and the now dog-sized scorpion.

Murphy continues to ramble, somewhat crazily, to Harry about how it’s no good to resist her now, before announcing that she can no longer see anything. Harry’s concern over her poisoning increases and he attempts to escape from the office while shackled awkwardly to Murph.

Dresden manages to get them both down the hallway, but decides he won’t be able to get himself and Murphy downstairs quickly enough using the stairs, so he chances the elevator. The scorpion bursts out of the office behind them and just barely misses catching them before the elevator doors close.

Without his rod or staff to help him focus, Harry attempts to perform some dangerous magic that kills the scorpion, but almost kills them, too! With a drunken warble, the elevator dings open and Harry and Karrin are met by very surprised paramedics.

Giddy over his triumph, Harry’s glee is short-lived as he feels the rain start to fall and realizes the storm has arrived and the clock is ticking....

As the falling rain helps clear Dresden’s head a little, he uses the ectoplasm from the squashed scorpion to slide one end of the cuffs over Murphy’s hand with as little damage as he can manage, and before the EMT’s notice that they’re shackled together to start.

As both paramedics bend over Murphy and start to tend to her, Dresden, wracked by guilt for having to ditch Murph at a time like this, slips away into the burgeoning storm and starts to formulate his plan of attack (or mere survival, as the case may be!).

Under the immediate circumstances he cannot retrieve his rod and staff, but his office building is close to McAnally’s Pub (shoutout!! :-D), so he heads there. The place is fairly packed with the lesser talents of the magical/supernatural community who, whole not knowing exactly what’s up, can sense trouble on the air and have gathered in a sort of ‘safety in numbers/group herd’ mentality.

Harry beseeches Mac for help in the form of borrowing some wheels and Mac complies without query or protest.

Harry turns to leave and is immediately confronted by an irate Morgan who has come to essentially arrest and detain Harry awaiting the council gathering in the morning. Morgan still firmly believes that Harry is the magical murderer, and thinks he (Morgan) has it all figured out with the storms and such, and is going to make sure Harry can’t pull off any more shenanigans before back-up arrives.

Harry, naturally, has no patience for Morgan, and - literally - no time for this nonsense, so under the guise of admitting defeat and submitting to Morgan’s wishes, Dresden blindsides the warden, incapacitates him with a large heavy piece of bar furniture, and makes his escape.

This episode covers Chapters 18, 19, and 20. Dresden revisits Linda's to make a discovery, and reacquaints himself with his former Client Monica Sells.

Feeling just a tad overwhelmed, and despairing about just how long he has before some mysterious warlock punches his ticket, Harry once again finds himself wandering the lonely, quiet, dangerous streets of Chicago in the wee hours. He contemplates some of his personal backstory, which provides some nice insight for the readers, and eventually finds himself back at Linda Randall’s apartment. Ignoring the police tape, he enters and takes another look around. Eventually, and mostly by chance, he comes across another film canister, identical to the one he found at the Sells’ lakehouse, only this one has a used roll of film still inside. Pumped over his find, Harry is filled with a renewed sense of purpose and pulls up his bootstraps in anticipation of getting some forward momentum going again on this case, when he hears a key in the door.

Excited at the potential of getting a break in the case, Harry gathers himself to leave Linda’s apartment with the roll of film he just discovered, but instead surprises none other than the photographer of said film, himself, hoping to sneak in and recover his pictures. Harry bluffs the guy into thinking he’s with the cops in some official investigating capacity, and gets Donny Wise to spill the beans about what’s on the film. Seems Linda hired Donny to take some pics out at Victor Sells’ place on the lake. Live-action sports pics, as Toot would put it! Once Harry has gotten what he can out of Mr. Wise, he torches the film to prevent Donny from getting into, or causing, any more trouble with it, and sends him on his way - spooked, but none the worse for wear. Harry starts to think there may have been an ulterior motive behind why he was pointed at the lakehouse at the beginning of this whole mess, and decides he needs to revisit Monica Sells and have a little chat about her missing husband.

Harry rolls up to Monica Sells’ place, a cute little house with a cute little yard in what was probably a cute little neighbourhood. Now it is a rather deserted-looking wasteland with little birdsong on the tree-lined street, no dogs barking anywhere, and ‘For Sale’ signs looming everywhere. Harry pounds persistently on the door until Monica finally, begrudgingly, appears. The woman is dressed plainly, without makeup, and blanches further when she sees Dresden. She tries to shut the door on him, but he blocks her and pushes in anyway, surprising them both a little. Monica grabs a taser, but Dresden hexes it down and Monica deflates a little in panic and astonishment. Before he can avoid it, Dresden finds himself engaging in a Soulgaze with Monica and he learns more than he wanted to about the poor woman. With the storm growing in the heavens, and yet another sword hanging over his head, Harry begs for some help, and when Monica’s two kids poke their heads out to check if their mom is ok, Monica shoos them away and finally relents and agrees to tell Harry everything she knows. Even though, in her words, “there’s nothing anyone can do, now.”.

In Today's episode we discuss Chapters 15, 16 and 17. Harry loses his lead to murder, gets a really bad haircut, and crashes a Varsity Party.

Turns out that the cops coming across Harry and Susan was not completely random, as Murph had dispatched the officers to collect the wayward wizard, anyway. Seems Linda Randall’s night was rescheduled without her consent, and Harry is treated to another spectacularly gruesome crime scene. Murphy seems out of sorts (separate for the tableau surrounding them), and after a perfunctory update Murph hauls Dresden off to the side and asks him if he knows the victim’s employers, the Beckitt’s? Apparently the Beckitt’s have some beef with Marcone concerning the untimely death of their little girl some years back. Dresden evades giving any direct answers, and Murphy eventually produces the business card that Harry gave to Linda. Harry tries to dance quickly to avoid having to admit that he defied Murphy's explicit demand that he stay away from Bianca and muck up the waters of SI’s investigation, but Murph ain’t buying tickets to that show, and eventually dismisses Dresden with disgust, telling him to show up at the station tomorrow to answer some questions, and logs Harry’s business card into evidence.

With his thoughts and feeling in turmoil, Dresden departs Linda Randall’s place and begins to aimlessly wander the city in an attempt to think through the issues at hand and start coming up with some damn solutions. Preoccupied as he is, Harry is caught completely unawares when a thug slams into him, knocks the wind out of him, and proceeds to snip off a chunk of Harry’s hair before running off again. Harry immediately panics knowing that a fresh lock of hair could be used directly against him in any number of spells, not the least of which might rip out his heart. Harry grapples futilely with the man in an attempt to retrieve the cutting, but is foiled and the goon escapes to a waiting car. Desperate, Dresden realizes that he has some of the assailant’s skin under his fingernails from the fight, and quickly performs a little spell of his own to track down the ruffian, whom he has since recognised as one of Marcone’s men from their encounter at the Madison.

Harry’s cab arrives, and by virtue of sniffing out his cologne, Dresden tracks Gimpy Lawrence to the Varsity, a popular hangout for the college crowd. Done with being pushed around and intimidated, Dresden blows the doors off of the place and storms in with raised staff and dramatically swirling coat. Unamused, Marcone empties the club and addresses Harry’s concerns. Gimpy freaks the fuck out, fails to talk his way clear, draws a gun and is promptly dispatched by Mr. Hendrick’s, Marcone’s personal enforcer. The conclusion is reached that Gimpy Lawrence was ‘double-dipping’ and had since passed off the hair he had swiped from Dresden to an unknown third party. Harry beseeches Marcone for some help, since they now share a common enemy, but Marcone is rather displeased by Harry’s very public defiance, and explains how Harry has, therefore, made himself known as a very public enemy. Marcone does condescend to give him the slightest tidbit of information, then politely tells Dresden to get lost, and that it would be wise for Harry to never again darken his door. Or blast it off its hinges. Whatever.

This Episode discusses Chapter 13 and 14 in which Dresden tackles Dating and Demons.

Harry wakes up later in the evening not really sure what time it is, other than ‘very dark’, and with a wild spring storm raging about outside the old boarding house. He has barely had time to get up and get mobile - and take in Mister acting a little off - when there comes a knock at his door. Linda Randall, riiight - info-gathering date. He opens the door to find Susan Rodriguez gracing his doorstep and suddenly Harry remembers that he also had an actual ‘date’ date tonight! Well crap. Susan clocks his distress, despite Harry’s (admittedly weak) attempt to hide it, and he shambles off to shower and dress. Mid-shampoo he catches a shadow passing his bathroom window, hears Susan heading to answer the door, and frantically scrambles to vacate the shower and don a towel in the vain hope of inserting himself between the two women and thus offsetting the inevitable cat fight about to erupt. Harry arrives just in time to spot a toad demon in the doorway, and shoves a stunned and speechless Susan out of the way. The demon is momentarily delayed by the threshold of Harry's small apartment, but Dresden isn’t prepared for the sudden invasion, and the most useful weapon for the immediate situation, his .38, is inconveniently stored in the sub-basement at this time. Harry does his best to distract and delay the demon while directing Susan down the stairs to said sub-basement, and the meager safety offered therein. Harry eventually remembers the escape potion he brewed up the night before and instructs Susan to drink it and then concentrate hard on being somewhere that is other! Susan does as requested, but the potion appears to have no effect, and in desperation she emerges with Harry’s ridiculously large gun and proceeds to unload it in the direction of the advancing toad dude. That has virtually no effect, either, and Harry drags both himself and Susan back down to his lab and to the protective brass circle he has embedded there in the concrete floor. Susan starts getting flirty, and handsy, and while admonishing Bob for his failure of an escape potion, Bob reveals that the potion didn’t, in fact, fail; Susan merely drank the wrong one!

With dawning horror and regret, Harry realizes that Susan has consumed the stupid love potion and is now oblivious to anything else but bedding Harry right here, right now! This proves to be a little inconvenient, under the circumstances, and Harry is hard-pressed (ba dum ching!) to get his hands on the correct potion and flee the lab before the violent, acid-spitting toad demon can figure out where they went. Splitting the potion doesn’t take them very far from the apartment, but Harry immediately tries to get them moving in the direction of a source of running water a couple blocks away, which should disrupt the demon’s energy enough to dispel him for the time-being. The double-whammy of mixing the potions does her in, and Susan and is unable to keep up with Harry, or move at all, really, for that matter. At that moment a shadowy figure makes an immaterial appearance to taunt and ridicule Harry, but things don’t go quite as planned for the new arrival .The Shadowman redirects the demon toward Harry and Susan, but Harry magically feels out the creep’s credentials, finds him wanting, and bitch slaps him out of the picture. Harry has some sudden inspiration regarding the natural power contained within the storm and channels it to dispatch the toad demon as it catches up to them. Tired, frazzled, and smoking slightly, Harry, and a rather sickly Susan, are thus found by a pair of patrol cops, and rounded up.

Today's podcast will be covering Chapters 10, 11 and 12. We discuss Linda Randal, learn a bit more about Murphy and see how Dresden handles a concussion.

Harry stops at a payphone and dials the number he got at the Velvet Room. Linda Randall is all fun and flirty until Dresden drops Jennifer Stanton’s name, and then she clams up and ends the call. With the aid of the background noises from the call, Harry tracks her down in a pick-up/drop-off zone at O’Hare Airport and corners her in order to continue questioning her about Jennifer and Tommy Tomm. Linda tries to distract him by being overtly sexual, and does succeed momentarily, but Harry gets back on track and learns that the girls worked together under Bianca, were one-time roommates, and still friends, but nothing of terribly great importance to the investigation, thus far. Linda quickly shifts gears again and blows him off when her employers exit the terminal, claiming Harry is ”just a guy [she] used to see”. Harry slips her his card and requests she let him know if she thinks of anything else that will help with solving the double-murder.

Harry heads home and spends the rest of the night immersed in working out the near-impossible spell needed to blow up the hearts of a couple of human beings. Looking like 10 miles of bad road, he grabs his trademark duster and makes his way to SI to give Murphy his findings. Dresden has to cool his heels in the waiting area for a few minutes while Murphy finishes a call in private, and he is passed by a couple of cops half holding up half dragging between them a rough-looking, but otherwise completely compliant, junkie. During this interlude the junkie breaks from his escorts and charges down the hall toward Harry, shrieking “I see you, wizard! I see the things that follow...and He Who Walks Behind!...”.Mostly on instinct, Harry intervenes to stop the young man (who is hampered by his cuffs), and when the officers mention that the kid is tripping on ThreeEye Harry starts to re-evaluate his initial impression of the supposedly-supernatural drug, and starts to take it more seriously. Apparently it *can* open the third eye for any ol’ schmuck and Harry is not down with the implications therein. Murph ushers him into her slap-shod office - which speaks to the very high esteem in which SI officers are held - and Harry lays the good news on her: They still don’t have any real answers to suggest a suspect, and this spell is beyond the skills of anyone local that harry knows of. Most likely multiple people would’ve needed to conspire and pool their talents to pull this off; but that also doesn’t really gel, as the deed comes across as more personal and passionate than you would usually get from a larger collective of folks. (Especially since evidence is starting to suggest that these murders might be more drug-related, rather than motivated by jealousy.)Murphy is annoyed that her suspect pool is only growing instead of shrinking. By way of apology, Harry succumbs to his fatigue and injuries and promptly faints dead away.

Dresden comes to, achy and nauseous, on Murphy’s office floor. After a brief discussion (wherein Harry claims he’s fine as Karrin calls bullshit), and a round of vomit (courtesy of the worse off of the two), Karrin bundles Harry into her car and drives him home. Shortly after arriving, Harry receives a phone call from Linda Randall, who has decided to confide in Harry. They make arrangements to meet later that night and disconnect. Harry feel he should update Monica Sells, but is rather taken aback when Monica seems uncomfortable, and tells Harry not to worry about continuing the investigation into her supposedly missing husband, and tells the forget the whole thing; $500 retainer included. Harry finds this more than a little odd, but isn’t up to the mental exertion required to suss it out just now. Murphy gets him tucked into bed and Harry, despite a nagging sense of having forgotten something at least somewhat important, eventually falls asleep to Mister’s comforting, rumbling purring.

In this episode we have a guest speaker help us discuss Bianca the Vampiress in Chapter 9.

Dresden wakes up to a phone call from a miffed Murph who is itching for answers, as the higher-ups are leaning on her hard. Harry puts off Murphy, fuels up on a hearty breakfast of Spaghetti-O’s and Coke, and gears up to pay a visit to the local brothel. Harry is patted down at the entrance to the Velvet Room and divested of some important defenses he’d brought with him, but none-the-less manages to survive his encounter with Mistress Bianca. She is one vexed vampiress, though, and Harry realizes the cost of the information he obtained was paid with a young girl’s life. With that weighing heavily on his conscience, Harry heads off to track down the lead Bianca grudgingly provided: Linda Randall.