McAnally's Pubcast

4.2 Welcome to the Jungle: Lions and Tigers and Gorillas Oh My!

4.1 Welcome to the Jungle: Things are Getting Harry

McAnally's Pubcast - A Dresden Files Podcast This episode we discuss the short story Restoration of Faith Restoration of Faith Summary: 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

McAnally's Pubcast - A Dresden Files Podcast 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. A Fist Full Of Warlocks Summary: 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...

1.13 Storm Front: Conjure By It At your Own Risk

1.12 Storm Front: Sight Seeing

1.11 Storm Front: Elevator, Woosh, Smash, Ding

1.10 Storm Front: A Shocking Revelation

1.9 Storm Front: Double Cross

McAnally's Pubcast - A Dresden Files Podcast This Episode discusses Chapter 13 and 14 in which Dresden tackles Dating and Demons. Storm Front Chapter 13 Summary: 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! Storm Front Chapter 14 Summary: 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.

McAnally's Pubcast - A Dresden Files Podcast 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. Storm Front Chapter 10 Summary: 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. Storm Front Chapter 11 Summary: 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. Storm Front Chapter 12 Summary: 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...

McAnally's Pubcast - A Dresden Files Podcast Episode 6: Vampire Bat In this episode we have a guest speaker help us discuss Bianca the Vampiress in Chapter 9. Storm Front Chapter 9 Summary 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.

McAnally's Pubcast - A Dresden Files Podcast Episode 5: Are You Really Gonna Drink That? We are discussing Chapter 8 in which we meet Mister and Bob Storm Front Chapter 8 Summary Harry heads home from his lakeside adventure and decides to get his geek on. He’s basically a wizard nerd, lacking any other particular skills or interests, so he decides to whip up some potions to help settle his nerves and, y’know, maybe come up with something useful to have in the field. Much to our delight we discover that Harry has a sassy little lab assistant in the form of a talking skull, whom Harry has dubbed ‘Bob’. Like Harry, Bob uses sarcasm liberally, loves to crack wise, and bust Harry’s chops every chance he gets. He also doesn’t forget anything. Ever. This comes in handy for our tech-challenged hero, who can’t just hop onto the web and visit demonsdemonsdemons.com (source: Angel S1E16). Dresden would like to do up a simple escape draught, but, since “there’s always room to make two, if you’re making one” Bob berates Harry into agreeing to make a love potion as well. Once done with those, Harry is mentally and physically drained enough to hit the sack and pass out for a few hours of much-needed rest.

McAnally's Pubcast - A Dresden Files Podcast Episode 4 - An Accountant with a Gun In this episode we discuss Chapter 7 in which we are introduced to Morgan. Storm Front Chapter 7 Summary: We are introduced to Morgan - essentially Harry’s Probation Officer from the White Council. There isn’t a lot of love lost between these two, and we learn Morgan is a very ‘by-the-book’ type of guy and doesn't think much of Harry, personally or professionally. Seems Harry has a record regarding magical murder and even though he evaded the death penalty at the hands of the White Council with a self-defence plea, many (including Morgan) don’t have much faith in, or respect for, Harry Dresden. Morgan tries to trump up a charge against Harry regarding his recent interaction with Toot-Toot, but Harry manages to call his bluff and eventually Morgan backs down. Morgan is aware of the murders at the Madison, and Harry informs him that he’s consulting on the case, so if Morgan has any info to share that’d be great - Morgan basically just laughs in Harry’s face. Apparently Morgan, (therefore meaning the White Council in general), figures Harry is a heck of a prime suspect and they’re gonna prove it and bring him down. Harry slugs Morgan, Morgan slugs Harry back, and Harry slinks home to have a private little panic attack.

McAnally's Pubcast Namesake episode! Episode 3: Pizza and Sporting We've made it to the Dresden Files Podcast Episode 3: Pizza and Sporting, where we discuss Chapters 4-6 of Jim Butcher's Storm Front. Harry Dresden lands a job looking for an estranged husband, goes for a steak sandwich and gets a little help from a little friend. Storm Front Chapter 4 Summary Harry meets Monica, a well-to-do, timid housewife. She explains how her husband is not ‘mysteriously missing’ or anything, ‘just gone’. When asked why she doesn't go to the police or a private investigator, she explains that her husband’s recently gotten interested in ‘magic’. He has also recently lost a very good job at SilverCo Trading Company. Monica gives an obviously fake name for hubby and Dresden politely and patiently explains that he can’t help if she doesn’t give him some correct info to go on. They have a vacay house in Lake Providence, just inside Michigan, that Harry can look into, in case hubby has just run off to there. The husband doesn’t speak to anyone in his family, anymore, and he was only really friendly with people from work. Monica No-Last-Name gives Harry $500 up front, the address to the lake house, a pic of hubby (Victor Sells), and a creepy-ass little dried out scorpion talisman that wigs out Dresden a little (yeuch). Harry promises to call the moment he digs up anything, and Monica bolts. He quickly calls around to hospitals and morgues, as his first course of action, but there are no hits matching Victor. Storm Front Chapter 5 Summary Dresden heads to McAnally's pub. He discusses his doubts about a new street drug called ThreeEye that supposedly gives users second-sight. He is interrupted by Susan Rodriguez who is looking for a story for the Arcane. She convinces him to go on a date. Storm Front Chapter 6 Summary Dresden returns home to gather some supplies then drives to the lake house. He snoops around some, picks up a film canister, and then summons Toot-toot, trapping him in a circle, whom he asks if anyone had been around the lake house. Toot returns and informs Harry that there was a pizza delivery to mortals who had been 'sporting' and needed to recover their strength. We excitedly bring you the episode Pizza and Sporting! Pull up a chair to the bar and have a listen!