The Gentleman From Hell |S1| Ep. 50

Rusty Quill presents

Good evening, gentlemen and gentle ladies of hell.

First and foremost, thank you for tuning in.

Your support keeps the flames of the gentleman from hell burning bright.

If you're enjoying your descent into the infernal depths of our world and want to dive even deeper, consider supporting us on Patreon.

There, you'll unlock exclusive content, including original art from Mark Angelon, housed in the legendary Gallery of the Damned, deep lore and world-building treasures within the memorabilia of the House of Sparrows, and coming soon, the Testimonies of the Damned, a Patreon-exclusive audio series that expands the twisted mythology of the gentleman from hell.

Plus, fans of the wider Meltopia universe will uncover a trove of exclusive lore, audio dramas, artwork, behind-the-scenes videos, and much more.

Ready to explore the deeper circles of horror?

Join us at www.patreon.com forward slash Meltopia And embrace the darkness.

It's third down.

Did you see the game last night?

Of course you did, because you used Instacart to do your grocery restock.

Plus, you got snacks for the game, all without missing a single play.

And that's on multitasking.

So we're not saying that Instacart is a hack for game day, but it might be the ultimate play this football season.

Enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders.

Service fees apply.

For three orders in 14 days.

Excludes restaurants.

Instacart, we're here.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new Game Day Scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly.

Must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

Think of it.

Endless resources for your work, wealth for your private comforts, and peace, true peace in the knowledge that you've chosen wisely.

The alternative, I assure you, is not something either of you is prepared to endure.

Choose carefully.

Choose soon.

H.R.

Hughes.

Goddamn bastard.

Utter monsters.

From the sounds of it, they intend to mass-produce the Resonator, just like they did with that wretched machine they use for contacting the damned.

Not to mention, with their kind of resources, there's no telling what they might be able to modify her to do.

I don't know about the rest of you,

but all I got out of that was they know how to reverse the effects of that fucking tape.

Which means we've still got a chance to beat this.

You've got a point.

You two can't be working for them and circle the drain at the same time.

That's why we figured you should take a crack at the letter.

They don't know the resonator boosted your clairvoyance, which means you might uncover more than they intended.

You just might be right.

Let's see that awful thing.

Patricia, could you please activate the resonator and turn it all the way up?

You got got it.

She's maxed out.

Ready when you are.

All right, let's see what you've been up to, Mr.

Hughes.

Take this to them, let them ponder their options

and have you brought from your bustling city

that which must be combined to see the deed done

everything that is required is there in those boxes

hope you be right

for these are heavy ones

Their marks sit like boulders upon their souls.

They be down deep.

It'll be no easy task to draw them up.

I wonder, do you suppose a solder weighs more than a sparrow?

When your time comes, you'll be drawn up with a spoon of thread and a slight breeze.

Now, back to that city of yours, Mr.

Hughes.

There's real work to be done.

We need to prepare for the ritual immediately, so we'll need to enter the mansion the moment they're gone.

And

they may be coming to check on our progress tonight.

All of you know what will happen if they're...

disappointed.

Oh, I think you're right.

I saw far more than they likely suspect.

The letter was written somewhere that was incredibly dense,

hard for me to see through.

I don't think I would have gotten much at all if it weren't for, well,

recent developments.

Did you see anything about what they did to us?

I think so.

They're planning for some kind of ritual to.

What is it, Phil?

What are they planning to do?

They're trying to

bring the solders up from hell.

What did you say?

Like how the sparrows were brought back?

Hughes brought something to the sparrows in a box.

Whatever's in it is vital to the ritual they plan to carry out.

More importantly, I know where they're keeping it.

Where?

The church here in Cold Sparrow.

There are five of them inside.

Cultists.

Or at least there were.

Then we need to get our asses over there and get whatever is in that box the fuck away from them.

It'll be noon in less than an hour.

Then we best be at it.

All right, let's.

Not this time.

We don't split up, remember?

I know, I know.

We've stuck together since the beginning.

But this one's on Leon and me.

We'll have to slip out and move through the woods quiet.

Like

this kind of thing takes training, and you three don't have it.

Besides, if someone's watching the place, we need you here to make everything look like business as usual here at the Via's Mansion.

This is the best shot we're ever gonna have.

It's broad daylight, and they have no idea we're coming.

We can't let those fuckers go through with whatever they got planned.

Or the next time it hits 3 a.m.,

we may not be topside to C4.

When,

if it's got to be done, it's got to be done.

I'll keep the resonator and the rest of the speakers on, just in case.

I don't like this one bit, but I understand.

You just keep each other safe out there.

You hear me?

You know we will.

And you three do the same.

Got it?

We've got the rest of Fen's tape to listen to, so we'll be plenty busy.

Come on, let's grab our gear and get going.

We need all the daylight we we can get.

Don't worry, Phil.

We'll be okay.

Promise me.

I promise.

I'll set up the tape recorder in here.

I'll brew us some coffee and tea.

I'm going to grab my purse.

Your purse?

It's where I keep my gun.

I've reached the lobby, and everything is as above

slick with putrescence and stink

and ruin.

I'm going to open the door that leads out of the building.

I can barely see for all the fog.

But I can see the outlines of the city all around me.

It's the same, yet twisted.

The sky is but a shiftless mass of darkest grey.

The air is heavy and acrid.

The stillness is palpable,

like a like a vast grave.

My car is covered in dust and seems as if it's been sitting here for years, abandoned.

I guess I have no choice but to walk back to the mansion.

Or perhaps I.

Perhaps I ought find a place to hide and try to wait all of this out.

I

don't know.

I just don't know if.

I do know that my heart can't bear another encounter with those

things.

Whatever they were.

The things that inhabit this place.

That's not a very nice thing to say about people you don't even know.

Who's there?

Please.

Please stay away.

I just...

I just...

You've nothing to fear from me.

So,

I'm barely even here anymore.

Come out.

Come out and show yourself.

After referring to me as a thing,

I'd rather not.

If you want to see me, you can come over here yourself.

I'm sitting here on the steps.

I'm making my way across the street to a large, crooked brick house.

Who are you talking to?

No one.

Just

myself.

I see now

you likely belong here and have merely reached that point at which you've been merely forgotten.

What

do you mean?

Oh my god,

oh

I can see that you are not in fact from here.

Oh,

You're far too

intact.

What?

What happened to you?

Your face?

I suspect,

though I'm by no means certain,

that I'm in the process of being forgotten.

Are you even...

I mean...

Are you even human?

I was

months.

Now I don't know what I've become.

That's not quite right, he said.

I'm not

becoming anything.

I'm simply

disappearing.

Why?

I was

meaningless.

A meaningless pattern built from dust and silence.

My life produced nothing worthy of the soul it was etched upon.

And now,

I'm here,

slowly fading,

a small stain being scrubbed from an otherwise perfectly good soul.

Then you're

dead?

Nothing dies.

Uh...

What's your name?

Benjamin.

Nothing truly dies, Benjamin.

We're all in some phase of a process, whether we know it or not.

And the city, why does it look so

ruined?

I'm sure I don't know.

I suspect it doesn't warrant any exploration or engagements.

Just a dreary backdrop for things slowly vanishing.

So what are you doing, just sitting here, all alone?

Trying to

remember.

No one wants to die, Benjamin.

Do you remember your name?

Uh

hmm.

Milton.

I think.

It's nice to meet you, Milton.

Well, how nice of you to say.

It's a pleasure to meet you, too.

Would you like company on your walk to

wherever it is you're going?

I've been sitting here for quite some time,

I think.

Perhaps too long.

Um, certainly.

I'm headed back to my home.

A mansion at the end of the city.

Or some bizarre approximation of it.

Come, let us take the alleyways.

We'll get there faster.

A man of means, then?

Only very recently, and much to my chagrin.

Militin, that tower over there, what is it?

It's hard to say.

There are so many shapes in the mist.

Some feel like memories, ghosts of thoughts that refuse to fade, lingering after the minds that once held them disappeared.

For a moment, they drift into view, then vanish again.

Are there other things here that

don't fade away?

Some of us have grown mad,

which apparently presents the forces of forgetting with some difficulty.

There are also those who have found some meaning here.

A calling.

Though I find that they're merely a different flavor of the previous type.

And yet, there are others still.

Those from below.

They come and go as they please.

Their sins making monsters of them all.

Below?

You mean

hell?

Yes, I suppose I do.

Or, at the very least, it's another process.

One that calls upon those caught within it to remember

forever.

What is this place?

Where are we?

This door leads to a tunnel that stretches beneath the city.

It's better to avoid open spaces.

I see.

And why is that?

I may not recall the exact reasons,

but I do remember they were quite compelling.

I suppose that's reason enough.

It shouldn't be too much

farther.

What?

Why are the knives hanging all over the place in here?

Milton?

I suppose I should

tell you, Ben.

My name

isn't Milton.

I don't actually remember what it was.

Milton was just the name of the last shade I killed

and devoured.

His memories, his face.

All mine now.

And soon,

yours will be too.

I think I'll wear Benjamin rather nicely.

No, stay back.

Stay back, I said.

why, why are you doing this to me?

It's like I told you before, Ben.

No one wants to die.

According to the FBI canvassing photos, the church has a broken out cellar entrance.

Should be an easy in.

How do you want to handle anyone we might run into?

Well, since they want us where we are, they ain't calling in any cops, so we can pretty much handle things however we want.

If we can, I'd like to grab one, set him down for a little chat, like we did with Gaffney.

That went down at night, and these ass holes are near unstoppable.

I'm thinking we hold court in broad daylight, things might go our way.

And if they don't, and things go sideways again, then there sides down one cultist.

It's a win-win, if you ask me.

I think that's the church over there on that hill.

That's it, all right.

Lucky us, its back is pressed right against the woods.

I'm not seeing a car, and it's too far to see anything through the windows.

Try the binos.

Windows are all boarded up.

Can't see a thing.

You wanna wait a while?

See what happens?

Normally, I'd like to case it out, but we ain't got the daylight to spare.

I agree.

Let's make our way around the back.

There's the basement door.

Still busted out.

No guards?

Cameras?

Not even a string with some some empty cans on it.

Cultas generally aren't all that bright.

Don't we know it?

Yeah,

the hard way.

All right, you head in.

I'll cover you from here.

I'm in.

No sign of anyone

on my way.

There's another door down here.

They got your back.

Aw clear.

Well, can't say I'm not surprised by the decorations.

Yeah, same shit as before.

Bunch of occult junks sitting under a lot of severed left arms dangling from the ceiling.

Let's take a look at the uh occult junk.

What is all this?

Uh, from the looks of it, I'd say some of this stuff once belonged to the solder's.

To take this, for instance, looks an awful lot like Luke's eye patch.

Though it's a bit singed.

These are all bones.

Think the sparrows had the fuckers dug up?

Wouldn't put it past them.

I'm guessing this ritual needs the solder's personal items to work.

Doesn't get much more personal than using their bones.

No, there's another pile over here.

Let's check it out.

You gotta be fucking kidding me.

How the hell did they get a hold of my neurodisciplinary records?

My own Facebook love?

Or pictures of my dad.

Wait a fucking minute.

This is Emily's necklace, The one I gave her after Marlene and split up.

She's always got it on.

This.

Let's dry blood on it.

I swear, To

fuck!

If they hurt her!

Mis, be quiet.

You're gonna.

Fuck, we gotta get out of here.

I'm not going anywhere until I find out what they did to my little girl and my goddamn family.

Put down the the gun, Mr.

Rhodes.

We don't want to have to hurt you.

The ones with the guns call the shots, asshole.

Now, all of you, get down here.

You know who we serve.

We cannot let you.

You either.

Tell me what you did to my boy.

I'm sending you to hell ahead of schedule.

Tell your buddies to get down here now.

They have guns too, Mr.

Oates.

Did Did you fucking hear what I said?

Tell me!

We're not afraid to die, especially for them.

Get your hand away from your pocket, pal.

You give us no choice but to use force, mister

I just turned your buddy's head into a canoe.

So

you gotta tell me what I wanna know?

Or do you want the same haircut?

They've killed Crispin.

Fire only to incapacitate.

We can't endanger the ritual.

Mace, we gotta go.

Fuck that.

Mace, don't.

You motherfuckers wanna dance!

And let's fucking dance.

We're outnumbered, come on.

You go if you want.

I'm staying.

I'm staying till every last one of these fucks.

Mace, ah, you sons of bitches.

I see him.

You want some two asshole?

Jesus,

they're dead,

all of them

Fuck them

You're hit

Just wing me.

I'll be fine.

What about you?

Grazed a couple of times.

What the fuck did we just do?

To a bunch who wanted to send us straight to hell?

Who hurt my daughter?

Those fuckers got off way.

It's hard to imagine them letting this slide.

I couldn't give a rat's ass much.

Quiet.

Listen.

I gotta get the fuck out of here.

I'm going anywhere.

Try to find out what they did for Emily.

The necklace?

What?

Emily's necklace.

We'll bring it to Phil.

She should be able to tell you what happened.

Yeah, that could work.

What are you doing?

What we came to do.

Grab in the shit they intended to use for the ritual.

It's gonna have to be enough.

Sounds like two vehicles.

Maybe more.

Alright, let's go.

The Gentleman from Hell is a Maltopia production.

Today's episode was written by Mark Anzalone and voiced by Stephen Zivick, Sam Stark, Aubrey Akers, Jesse Van Hove, Kelly Baer, Mark Anselone, Trenton Butt, and Harper Taysom.

Consider this your sign to skip the what's for dinner debate tonight.

Outback Steakhouse has a three-course meal starting at just $14.99.

Start with soup or salad, then take your pick of down-under entrees, like our juicy towering burger or flame-grilled shrimp.

And for dessert, New York-style cheesecake, plus $8 cocktails all day, every day.

Three courses, starting at $14.99.

Tell the group chat you'll see them at Outback.

Price and participation may vary.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Please play responsibly, must be 18 years or older to purchase play or claim.