[UNKNOWN]: Okay. [SPEAKER_07]: Welcome back to Dark Nexus. [SPEAKER_07]: Tonight, it's after three chapter one, forty four. [SPEAKER_07]: So we're picking up in die-lathaline in the CD Smoke-filled drug den Shuzu. [SPEAKER_07]: Old faded cracked wood panelings covering the basalt walls, weird squishy paintings everywhere. [SPEAKER_07]: All of them, no matter the scene.
[SPEAKER_07]: Depicting a black mass of something hovering at the center, [SPEAKER_07]: cats on the corners, and on the cushions, oppressive people all around you, most of them shades of blue and purple. [SPEAKER_07]: We met one of those blue and purple people last time, Roni's daughter, Katarina, and we're about to meet another. [SPEAKER_07]: Ambassador Quavyandra lounges on a sofa at the center of it all.
[SPEAKER_07]: wrinkle, saggy, sore-covered skin, black teeth and claws, curled ram's horns, and, elaborately, clothed up-do. [SPEAKER_07]: Elegan to nearly transparent gown and an aura of regal imperiousness. [SPEAKER_07]: and Vic just walked right up to her. [SPEAKER_07]: So we'll pick up right there, but just as a reminder, Vic has let go of his illusionary false appearance.
[SPEAKER_07]: But the rest of the team is still in their particular dream avatar skins that blend them right into the vibe of this place. [SPEAKER_07]: And Doris Telepathic Bond is still going everyone. [SPEAKER_07]: So we're all still in mental communication. [SPEAKER_07]: So, Johnny, you approach Quaveyandra? [SPEAKER_06]: He walks over directly over and plops down on a thing of cushions right across from her. [SPEAKER_07]: And what name are you using today?
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, the one I've been going by for a couple days is a... Vic. [SPEAKER_07]: Vic. [SPEAKER_07]: It's good to see you again. [SPEAKER_07]: I heard you laughed. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, that's what I heard too. [SPEAKER_07]: What can I do for you? [SPEAKER_06]: Vic. [SPEAKER_06]: I'm sure it's not going to matter much, but I wanted to come to apologize. [SPEAKER_06]: Apologies for what? [UNKNOWN]: Think. [SPEAKER_06]: Come on. [UNKNOWN]: Are you telling me? [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, it was me.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know how. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know exactly what I did, but it was me. [SPEAKER_06]: You don't know exactly how. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, my mind got wiped. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't remember anything. [SPEAKER_07]: This is delicious. [SPEAKER_07]: I came here today specifically to find out who's been trying to kill me. [SPEAKER_06]: Oh, now, I've not been trying to kill you. [SPEAKER_06]: I just took your heartstone. [SPEAKER_06]: Is somebody trying to kill you, too?
[SPEAKER_06]: Perhaps this isn't happening, Vic. [SPEAKER_06]: What are you doing? [SPEAKER_06]: Young man. [SPEAKER_06]: Oh, I don't even know. [SPEAKER_06]: I'm all messed up. [SPEAKER_06]: You got a minute. [SPEAKER_07]: I do, of course, do you need a drink? [SPEAKER_07]: Sure, yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: She gets you some... What's the one from his mask? [SPEAKER_07]: Orx blood. [SPEAKER_07]: For mentid orx blood. [SPEAKER_07]: What? [SPEAKER_03]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_03]: It's not really.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_03]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_03]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_03]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_03]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_03]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_07]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_07]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_07]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_07]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_07]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_07]: It's not really. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, so I, I just found out I have a daughter, which I didn't know. [SPEAKER_06]: Can I do that?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: And you just found out. [SPEAKER_06]: You look at me. [SPEAKER_06]: You're, you're an expert diplomat, right? [SPEAKER_06]: Little old me. [SPEAKER_06]: Shucks. [SPEAKER_06]: Am I lying to you? [SPEAKER_06]: Come on. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, so just found out that evidently, my past self came here for a couple of decades. [SPEAKER_06]: Got married, had a kid, lived here, and then evidently stole your heart still.
[SPEAKER_06]: And mine had gotten you involved in something else as it means it's stealing it, I don't know. [SPEAKER_07]: And the food. [SPEAKER_06]: The robe. [SPEAKER_06]: The robe. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know what you're talking about. [SPEAKER_06]: Fascinating. [SPEAKER_07]: You aren't the one who's been trying to kill me. [SPEAKER_07]: Nope. [SPEAKER_07]: Well, as you can see, my heart's tone is right here. [SPEAKER_07]: I do see that.
[SPEAKER_07]: And you seem like you're trying to atone for something. [SPEAKER_06]: Oh, I don't know that there's enough ink to scratch all the things I'm trying to tone for out. [SPEAKER_07]: Then what is it you want from me, perhaps we can make a deal? [SPEAKER_06]: You know, this has been pretty fucked up, but I gotta say that that's a small ray of hope in my otherwise pretty dismal life right now. [SPEAKER_07]: No, this could be a diplomatic encounter.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm absolutely willing to make a deal. [SPEAKER_06]: So I need another heartstone. [SPEAKER_06]: And it has to be hers. [SPEAKER_06]: Oh. [SPEAKER_06]: That's what I'm looking for. [SPEAKER_06]: What do you need? [SPEAKER_07]: I need to find out who's trying to kill me. [SPEAKER_07]: One of my retinure has been leaking information about my whereabouts to somebody. [SPEAKER_07]: First step here is to figure out which one of them it is.
[SPEAKER_07]: And she casts her eye around the room at about twelve different people. [SPEAKER_07]: I'll obviously part of her retinue. [SPEAKER_02]: It's a murder Mr. Dinnerpad. [SPEAKER_02]: It is. [SPEAKER_07]: It is. [SPEAKER_07]: You figure out which one of them has been selling me out. [SPEAKER_07]: Give me a day to make a new art stone and I can give this to you tomorrow. [SPEAKER_07]: You gotta do. [SPEAKER_07]: My food has been poisoned.
[SPEAKER_07]: A robe of powerlessness was delivered to my house. [SPEAKER_07]: There have been other incidents, including last week. [SPEAKER_06]: This is the weirdest day for life or what. [SPEAKER_08]: I don't know, that's gonna be a shot. [SPEAKER_03]: She lives in the dreamlet. [SPEAKER_03]: I know. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just gonna say it. [SPEAKER_02]: It's pretty weird. [SPEAKER_07]: But it's like the sense mode of checks. [SPEAKER_07]: Combined with the absolute honesty.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: Combined with the like lingering effects of the incense of truthfulness or whatever the fuck. [SPEAKER_07]: It's just like he's just reading like an open book at this moment. [SPEAKER_06]: Here's an idea. [SPEAKER_06]: Yes. [SPEAKER_06]: You jacked me up and you said, oh, I've got you now. [SPEAKER_06]: And now, we sort of see who's going to try to like, off me first, because if I worked with them, then they know that I worked with them.
[SPEAKER_06]: We make me the target. [SPEAKER_06]: And do you think they would tip their hand from these many people? [SPEAKER_06]: I mean, is there anybody here that's going to notice anything if something goes wrong? [SPEAKER_06]: They go up in your eyes. [SPEAKER_07]: Some people here are only pretending.
[SPEAKER_07]: people here only pretending for sure there are some yeah okay this we stop to resolve my second attack thoughts too yes yes yes thank you which will be a higher level than the last let's say you've been catching the edges of this conversation as you're getting yourself into position to to do that alright what's the DC on that one twenty [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, that's an interesting sound. [SPEAKER_07]: I love it when sometimes the day say, no, this is what's happening now.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, I'm gonna acknowledge that. [SPEAKER_07]: All right, so I think it's having this conversation.
[SPEAKER_07]: Dora has opened herself up, soaking in all of the the stale air and the smoke and the vibes and the people and the incense and the thoughts and in this soup she's starting to she can pick out from you know various like narrowing down like pulling people away from the yes, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, when a wing down to [SPEAKER_07]: So the first layer is people who don't even really know who she is, who passed them aside.
[SPEAKER_07]: Down to like, people who know exactly who she is and are here a lot. [SPEAKER_07]: Okay, yes, she'll go through those. [SPEAKER_07]: Down to people who saw what happened last week. [SPEAKER_07]: You can get out an image of there were these three folks, three very well-known public figures, Gerardia, Kashli Kuri and Quickskin deathnell that literally just [SPEAKER_07]: flat out, attacked her.
[SPEAKER_07]: Right where she's sitting right now, on the sofa, it was the craziest thing they stepped up, called her out, started attacking, then a fireball went off from no source anybody could see. [SPEAKER_07]: Bunch of shit started flying around, again from no visible source, and in the mayhem, Kwaviander was knocked to the ground, and then just as suddenly as it all started, it was over.
[SPEAKER_07]: Kwaviyanja roared to her feet and cut through Gerardia, Kuri, and Death Nell with her teeth. [SPEAKER_07]: And as they were being slaughtered, those three seemed completely off guard looking around like, where is my backup? [SPEAKER_07]: Essentially, is how people had processed it? [SPEAKER_07]: Like, they thought they had been manipulated into attacking cars so that somebody could steal her. [SPEAKER_07]: Exactly, exactly.
[SPEAKER_07]: And then as you swim deeper into that, you start getting into members of her retinue, including [SPEAKER_07]: A woman named Aminetta, who seems to be a steward, a blow-hard named Dolpheth, her professional prognosticator. [SPEAKER_07]: And then this natural one happens. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh no! [SPEAKER_07]: Which is, a woman named Cavrikey. [SPEAKER_07]: So she's this live pale blue skinned woman with orange eyes, dark blue hair bound back in a loose ponytail.
[SPEAKER_07]: She's wearing layers of flowing pale silk fabrics. [SPEAKER_07]: She looks and moves like a dancer, and she has all about her person, tambourines, little finger symbols, all sorts of like, cost of elements. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, she seems real barred, or you know, like a musician of some sort of musician dancer type. [SPEAKER_07]: She holds a natural one on this detect thoughts spell.
[SPEAKER_07]: So as you're narrowing in on her, so she's standing across the way by an entrance to a different one of these private rooms behind her, a red curtain. [SPEAKER_07]: Very diligently, watching Kwaviyandra, watching this conversation happen with Vic, and she's thinking to herself come on. [SPEAKER_07]: This is my chance, this is my chance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dora really is that, through the telepathic bond to Vic, to grip to dabs, make no moves upon her, but keep your eyes on her, do not give away that we know what she's thinking and she keeps concentrating. [SPEAKER_06]: So Vic is gonna lean in and go. [SPEAKER_06]: All right, so I have a compatriot here with me, and she's detecting thoughts. [SPEAKER_06]: And she says someone named Kavriki. [SPEAKER_06]: She treats her. [SPEAKER_06]: No, don't look.
[SPEAKER_06]: Is thinking something along lines of taking back to the room, taking back to the room. [SPEAKER_06]: That'll be my chance. [SPEAKER_06]: That'll be my chance. [SPEAKER_06]: And she, someone that's on your list, strangely enough, [SPEAKER_07]: She says through her terrifying teeth. [SPEAKER_06]: All right. [SPEAKER_06]: Well, my friends and I would be happy to help. [SPEAKER_06]: Take her. [SPEAKER_06]: If you want to say something to me, I can relay it to them in my mind.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's my private room back there. [SPEAKER_07]: Take her back there, do away with her, and my heart's stoned as yours. [SPEAKER_06]: Do you wanna, like, start to shuffle me that way? [SPEAKER_07]: Of course. [SPEAKER_07]: And she stands up and makes a big show of, oh, it's right over there, right over there, feel free if you need a moment to lie down. [SPEAKER_07]: That's my private room back there, and you, Kevrie, he's like, wait, no, what the fuck's going on?
[SPEAKER_03]: What is this? [SPEAKER_03]: Move in. [SPEAKER_07]: All right. [SPEAKER_05]: What are just going on? [SPEAKER_05]: Are we going? [SPEAKER_05]: Let's start to move back towards that rock close to that room. [SPEAKER_03]: It's around. [SPEAKER_03]: Make sure she has no means of egress. [SPEAKER_07]: Easy to do. [SPEAKER_07]: And she has literally no idea that you three are involved in anyway.
[SPEAKER_05]: She's standing in front of that room and she had a place where she could be bull rushed into the room. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, you know, she could be. [SPEAKER_07]: I mean, she's standing kind of like next to it. [SPEAKER_07]: But if you wanted to, yes, swoop in and push her into the room. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: Fuck, let's do it. [SPEAKER_07]: So, oh, you're gonna try to get her into the room first or let Vic go into the room and then push her in.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think I would, so if she might be watching him go in. [SPEAKER_05]: Uh-huh. [SPEAKER_05]: Like, that's when I would, I would move, like if she's watching Vic move into the room, I would take that moment. [SPEAKER_07]: Okay, okay. [SPEAKER_07]: So, Kwavi Andra is making up a story about like, oh, he's not feeling great. [SPEAKER_07]: He needs to lie down. [SPEAKER_07]: Feel free to use my private room. [SPEAKER_07]: That's totally great, great.
[SPEAKER_07]: And just kind of like sending you on your way. [SPEAKER_07]: Like, you were just another one of, an interesting lackey that she's, [SPEAKER_07]: you know, dating to make give a gift to you. [SPEAKER_07]: Then she sits back down on the sofa, appearing to be utterly unconcerned. [SPEAKER_07]: Kavriki is watching you, you head into the room. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: All right. [SPEAKER_07]: And three of you are unobtrusively moving that way.
[SPEAKER_03]: You were looking at an aerial. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: Of this room, it would be clear what's going on. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: But because there's just bodies. [SPEAKER_03]: I can't tell that it's coordinated as it is. [SPEAKER_07]: I love it. [SPEAKER_07]: Let me take you to a murder. [SPEAKER_07]: I'm going to really enjoy this time of passing by. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's just fine.
[SPEAKER_06]: As we're doing this, am I able to on the move using Slide of Hand, like pull out vanity and the oil of silence? [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, sure, sure. [SPEAKER_07]: Awesome. [SPEAKER_07]: Give me a Slide of Hand check. [SPEAKER_07]: I think you can manage that while you're on the cushions, talking to her before she gets out like you're just, you know, you're must, you're mucking around your stuff.
[SPEAKER_07]: that is a twenty three and I'm gonna spend a point of inspiration twenty nine well spent twenty seven perception check over here right let's say this right here is the door of the curtain to that private room that had been the room that thick was talking to uh... catering in [SPEAKER_07]: Okay, but the room that Fick is heading to is right there. [SPEAKER_07]: Are you still detecting thoughts? [SPEAKER_03]: Awesome. [SPEAKER_03]: I've got nine minutes of it.
[SPEAKER_07]: So Fick is heading this way. [SPEAKER_07]: It's going to basically pass right by Cavryke to go into this private room there. [SPEAKER_07]: But where do you think you all would be as as grip is closing in on Cavryke? [SPEAKER_03]: I would have been here. [SPEAKER_07]: coming from that direction. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I would kind of come from down there in the side because in that in that line like try to get her that way.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I think so maybe if you and Deb's have been still hanging sort of by by the room where you had been near Vic. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, you've seen enough to do that. [SPEAKER_07]: So maybe Paulie you're down here is sure by the plant trying to get out of the way of people trying to pet you. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: So basically here, Vick is heading on a B-line towards this private room towards the Red Curtain.
[SPEAKER_07]: Dora had been on the other side of this Vick and Kawaviyondro conversation. [SPEAKER_07]: It's now essentially following in Vick's wake behind him, as he makes it that way. [SPEAKER_07]: Coming perpendicularly, our devicant grip, on step from the south on this map, who are closing in on Cavriki, who is watching Vick go into the door. [SPEAKER_07]: As you're about to step past her, Vic. [SPEAKER_07]: She reaches a handout and touches your shoulder.
[SPEAKER_07]: Looks new in the eyes and shakes her head. [SPEAKER_06]: I act as if like I didn't even notice and just keep going. [SPEAKER_03]: What is what is she thinking that he's going to trip the poison trap? [SPEAKER_03]: Stop, Vic. [SPEAKER_01]: This poison trap in there. [SPEAKER_01]: That goes, coffee under a set I could go in. [SPEAKER_07]: If you know what's good for you, keep walking. [SPEAKER_07]: I'm satisfied.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think during that exchange is when I would you do it try to go and push her in all right So I don't know is that it is that a bolt is borax the best thing to do that has the thing to do as he's doing that. [SPEAKER_06]: Can I do the thing of like I see him eyeing up for the bull rush? [SPEAKER_06]: Can I take a five foot step out of the way and I'll do the eight another action yeah [SPEAKER_03]: Great. [SPEAKER_03]: Nice. [SPEAKER_03]: Hundred percent.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, this is like basic rule stuff, guys. [SPEAKER_03]: Nice. [SPEAKER_07]: It's adorable, that nice level. [SPEAKER_03]: I love it. [SPEAKER_07]: All right. [SPEAKER_07]: You would certainly Robert have the opportunity here. [SPEAKER_07]: You know, she doesn't know she's in combat before this hits her. [SPEAKER_07]: So if you want to, if you want to take a feet, you certainly could. [SPEAKER_07]: That's your, that's your charge enough honor. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, gosh.
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, yeah, then, then, then, then, then, then, I'm, I'm about a little combat advice. [SPEAKER_07]: Telepathically, some move action, right? [SPEAKER_07]: You could still maintain your concentration. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, sure. [SPEAKER_07]: For sure. [SPEAKER_05]: I think I only want to use a Swifty, so I'm only going to take improved bull rush. [SPEAKER_05]: Okay. [SPEAKER_05]: Just to prevent any, does that give me an actual plus on the roll or is that sure?
[SPEAKER_05]: No, sure does. [SPEAKER_05]: I think it's plus two. [SPEAKER_03]: Sorry, this is don't into the room yourself. [SPEAKER_05]: Don't, that's the plan. [SPEAKER_03]: That's the carpet advice. [SPEAKER_03]: You know, after going up against bow crewing to get the last thing, I kind of just feel like this is nice. [SPEAKER_03]: It's nice. [SPEAKER_07]: It's a lot chiller. [SPEAKER_07]: I like it. [SPEAKER_07]: So little of the stuff here is driving you mad. [SPEAKER_02]: I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's for once, for once. [SPEAKER_07]: It's so nice. [SPEAKER_07]: Do you have any friend of your journey? [SPEAKER_07]: What do you need to do? [SPEAKER_07]: I think you need to make an attack roll against DC ten or something. [SPEAKER_07]: Is that right? [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: I figured I'd just use my pistol whip. [SPEAKER_06]: Yep, that sounds perfect. [SPEAKER_06]: Great. [SPEAKER_06]: It's a plus twelve. [SPEAKER_06]: All right.
[SPEAKER_07]: You, well, you can roll a natural one. [SPEAKER_07]: Okay. [SPEAKER_07]: It was not. [SPEAKER_03]: All right. [SPEAKER_03]: So let's do from even other plus two from combat advice. [SPEAKER_05]: Nice. [SPEAKER_05]: And one plus two from Improved Bull Rush. [SPEAKER_05]: Fantastic. [SPEAKER_06]: I figured what my, my eight another is. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: He's literally, like, as I'm talking to her, I just literally do the classic thing of, like, stick my foot out.
[SPEAKER_07]: You see the form of green, green, like, bearing down in her, who's, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who [SPEAKER_05]: Wow, look at that.
[SPEAKER_06]: Does it look like you're like barrel and down or does it look like you can actually bump her? [SPEAKER_05]: I think I think he will, he, I mean, in my soul expert, you can, unless you look like whatever you want. [SPEAKER_05]: I think he would see your foot go down and he would just walk by and give her his big old shoulder right in the back to push her into the, into the across the threshold of the door.
[SPEAKER_07]: And as nobody notices this woman, you know, well, let's see, what's your total? [SPEAKER_07]: Thirty eight. [SPEAKER_07]: Do you want to action point it? [SPEAKER_07]: You don't have to.
[SPEAKER_07]: Do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not do not [SPEAKER_07]: Okay, so the natural twenty is an automatic success, but the reason why I asked for the totals is because that does determine how far you can push her. [SPEAKER_07]: So, I mean, and of course, like barely anybody notices, as she goes flying, you would guess about fifteen feet.
[SPEAKER_02]: This curtain, and into the room. [SPEAKER_02]: No, I'd like to narrate what she's thinking to the others, and I tell her like bond. [SPEAKER_07]: And as this woman goes flying through the curtain, [SPEAKER_07]: And the curtain is momentarily parted. [SPEAKER_07]: You see another fifteen by fifteen foot room filled with cushions and a sofa and some more couple of tables with beakers and bottles on them. [SPEAKER_07]: And she crosses the threshold. [SPEAKER_07]: You hear up.
[SPEAKER_07]: And suddenly, the room starts to fill with a thick, orangey kind of smoke. [SPEAKER_07]: And she has essentially, for the moment, vanished inside this. [SPEAKER_07]: This is super fun. [SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to close the curtain, I'll try to close the curtain. [SPEAKER_07]: All right, everybody feel free to take a move if you want to get somewhere. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just going to take a step up to Kwavayandra. [SPEAKER_07]: My path would have taken me to there.
[SPEAKER_07]: All right, so group is by the curtain. [SPEAKER_07]: He's closing it because taking a step back. [SPEAKER_03]: Actually, Dora is she's still concentrating because she wants to hear this, but she's also keeping an eye on the other two advisors. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, the ones that are flanking. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, they are totally shocked.
[SPEAKER_07]: I mean, they, out of anybody in the room, they were aware that this was happening because they're standing right near KWANGER while KWANGER is like, goes going my private room. [SPEAKER_03]: But are they totally shocked because, oh, our ally just got pushed into our pose and trapper, are they like, what the fuck is going on? [SPEAKER_07]: No, they're like, what the fuck is going on? [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: They seem... Not in on it. [SPEAKER_07]: Not in on it.
[SPEAKER_07]: Great, at all. [SPEAKER_06]: Nick is, as this is happening, he's now like flashing, looking around the crowd to see if anybody's like, oh shit. [SPEAKER_06]: My ally. [SPEAKER_07]: Hmm, give it a perception check, everybody give it one. [SPEAKER_03]: Ooh, natural twenty, thirty five. [SPEAKER_07]: Twenty five, twenty two. [SPEAKER_07]: Wow, yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: Deadwick, thirty. [SPEAKER_07]: Hey there they are. [SPEAKER_07]: Who says you all aren't good at diplomatic seasons?
[SPEAKER_07]: social encounters. [SPEAKER_07]: If you want someone pushed into a poison room, we're just being a different person. [SPEAKER_03]: And I was really like, what if she didn't really do it? [SPEAKER_03]: What if I'm misinterpreting this? [SPEAKER_03]: But it's like, no, she got a poison trap. [SPEAKER_03]: So like, there's no moral quandary. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't feel that about this. [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, other than a night egg is surviving this encounter, but whatever.
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe she had a good reason to want a killer. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh God, no, I'm losing at the end. [SPEAKER_03]: and the snake eats its own team. [SPEAKER_03]: We gotta get out of the fucking dream one. [SPEAKER_07]: No sign of anybody in the room paying particular attention or showing any particular concern to this having happened other than, you know, a couple of folks in Kwavi Andres retinue, but again, you're really just getting like, what the fuck's going on?
[SPEAKER_07]: I got, you know, holy, holy crap, that's unexpected. [SPEAKER_07]: What you're getting from Kevriki, Dora, is, [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my, I mean, I'm really looking for like, information. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_07]: I'm trying to think of what, like, what would she be thinking? [SPEAKER_07]: She'd be thinking, oh my god. [SPEAKER_07]: She's coming to get away with it. [SPEAKER_07]: She's coming to get away with it. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, what's that?
[SPEAKER_07]: All right, all right, all right, all right. [SPEAKER_07]: Well, she's not gonna leave this place alive. [SPEAKER_01]: She's not dead. [SPEAKER_01]: She blames Kwabby Andre for something and she thinks Kwabby Andre is getting away with it. [SPEAKER_06]: Vic has, uh, vanity. [SPEAKER_06]: Ready to be leveled on the door. [SPEAKER_06]: Yep. [SPEAKER_07]: Cover he's mine goes quiet. [SPEAKER_07]: You feel like she's hiding. [SPEAKER_07]: She's trying to still her body in her mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_01]: She's hiding. [SPEAKER_07]: You are not detecting any evidence of harm to her. [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I did anything to her.
[SPEAKER_07]: as if the poison like she was like oh I can breathe this or like I'm holding my breath or like I dove out of the way or as if like whatever is going on in there has no effect on her she's just not even paying attention to it like perhaps she's immune to the poison she was gonna use right some like that she goes through the secret door into the next room [SPEAKER_05]: Is it the one that Vic was in before or the one to the north?
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know that you know because you don't see her eyes well. [SPEAKER_03]: What is the secret door from that room lead? [SPEAKER_03]: She says out loud. [SPEAKER_03]: What secret door? [SPEAKER_05]: Well, then I will, I will. [SPEAKER_03]: She doesn't send them to the, uh, joining rooms. [SPEAKER_03]: Great. [SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to go, I'm going to look, well, I'll go. [SPEAKER_06]: Well, we know, is it to the left to the right to the head? [SPEAKER_03]: She would know.
[SPEAKER_06]: She would, she would be thinking like, I'm going to the door. [SPEAKER_07]: I'm turning, like, no, she's not thinking. [SPEAKER_07]: I will now turn right and go through the, yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: She's thinking, all right, I'll use a secret door and get out of here. [SPEAKER_07]: But she doesn't, door is not seeing through her eyes and is not feeling her emotions. [SPEAKER_07]: She's just getting very surface thoughts. [SPEAKER_07]: It's a pick-a-doer.
[SPEAKER_07]: Dabs is by one of them. [SPEAKER_07]: Alright, I will move to the other one. [SPEAKER_07]: So, Dabok has gone to the room directly to the right of Quaveyander's room. [SPEAKER_07]: Group has gone to the room directly to the left of Quaveyander's room, and Vick has gone to the room just past the one on the left. [SPEAKER_03]: Dora will gesture to quavey under to move to the space like just to the southwest of her.
[SPEAKER_07]: Quavey under will clear out of the way join her the rest of her right now. [SPEAKER_03]: Dora will be the guy in the chair. [UNKNOWN]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: Fantastic. [SPEAKER_07]: So all of you push in through those curtains. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: All right. [SPEAKER_02]: No way you're going to see. [SPEAKER_07]: So step in poly and stay there. [SPEAKER_07]: Step in Johnny and stay there. [SPEAKER_07]: Step in Robert and stay there. [SPEAKER_03]: Amazing.
[SPEAKER_07]: Hello. [SPEAKER_07]: Grip steps into the room immediately to the left of Kowavriander's room. [SPEAKER_07]: Another fifteen by fifteen foot space. [SPEAKER_07]: And Kavriki is emerging from a hidden panel in the wall. [SPEAKER_07]: Ten feet away from him. [SPEAKER_07]: Everybody roll initiative. [SPEAKER_03]: Ten feet away from which one? [SPEAKER_07]: From Grip. [SPEAKER_07]: Awesome. [SPEAKER_01]: It was hoping it would be you. [SPEAKER_07]: Alright, gripper.
[SPEAKER_07]: Seventeen. [SPEAKER_07]: And, let's see, next closest is Vick. [SPEAKER_07]: Fourteen. [SPEAKER_07]: Dadwick. [SPEAKER_07]: Ten. [SPEAKER_07]: And Dora. [SPEAKER_07]: Twenty-one. [SPEAKER_07]: All right. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, around lunch, Kevrik is, she seems lightning fast. [SPEAKER_07]: She looks you right in the eyes with her orange eyes in this dead center of her porcelain-like pale blue face. [SPEAKER_07]: grip. [SPEAKER_07]: And as one hand is reaching down, she's taking up.
[SPEAKER_07]: She takes one of her tambourines and runs her hand through what looked like they're all the little, you know, metal, metal, metal, jingley, jingley, simply things. [SPEAKER_07]: And she comes out with the turns out that they were all shuriken. [SPEAKER_07]: And she's holding them, just holding a pile of shuriken in her hands.
[SPEAKER_07]: and she looks at you when the eye and she says down with tyrants she will not sell those souls in my city any longer and she hurls a sure can at you i don't know your town i'm just here for a job
[SPEAKER_05]: twenty eight miss because my armor classes thirty now all the what all we put it up yeah oh flat put it yeah flat put it um maybe still what did you say twenty eight no okay I get it's a twenty five for flat put it all right only two points of damage however it is poison was waiting for the sneak attack damage no sneak attack damage [SPEAKER_07]: Alright, you take one more point of damage on the poison and give me a fortitude save.
[SPEAKER_07]: All right, whatever it is that's poisoning this blade seems to not have any effect on you. [SPEAKER_07]: You can see what looks to be like she basically stepped through like a little five foot wide tiny corner hallway between these two rooms and there is some of that orangey smoke from the other rooms starting to slowly billow in. [SPEAKER_07]: It doesn't look like it's gonna fill this space, but you can tell that it's still going for the moment.
[SPEAKER_07]: Alright, she'll use the move action, she'll use the standard action. [SPEAKER_07]: Dora, you wanna wear out of fights going on, you see grip in that open curtain doorway there, taken off, sure can shot you are up. [SPEAKER_03]: I can't see her. [SPEAKER_07]: Correct. [SPEAKER_03]: So you take a five-foot step. [SPEAKER_01]: lost.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think Dora would be able to tell from where grip is looking that she will she would have to get all the way up kind of by where Vic is to even get a bead on. [SPEAKER_07]: This is a big curved room and the angles are bad. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, okay. [SPEAKER_03]: So instead of doing anything about that, oh cost haste on herself grip and Vic. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh [SPEAKER_07]: tasty, tasty, nice and tasty.
[SPEAKER_03]: She does that by, um, by thinking about a fox, starting between people's feet. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, she's casting out for the first time. [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if not from the scroll. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm feeling it a sense of impatience. [SPEAKER_03]: just kill kill. [SPEAKER_03]: It's very team alike. [SPEAKER_03]: It's very um they the four of them Ray or the five of them Ray, Kulliver. [SPEAKER_03]: Uh uh uh this Gull.
[SPEAKER_03]: Rony. [SPEAKER_03]: Rony. [SPEAKER_03]: Gryptuskin her are walking and Reinhard is darting around and she feels annoyed impatient. [SPEAKER_07]: Gryptor as you uh you feel this sudden burst of speed rush into you as you are up. [SPEAKER_05]: Fantastic. [SPEAKER_05]: So, Griff's gonna know what's about to hit her. [SPEAKER_05]: She's gonna take, he's gonna take a five foot step. [SPEAKER_05]: Yes. [SPEAKER_05]: I'm gonna use his new Dan Bond. [SPEAKER_05]: There we go.
[SPEAKER_05]: For, I think the first time. [SPEAKER_05]: Ooh. [SPEAKER_05]: Nice. [SPEAKER_05]: But we're gonna flurry that shit. [SPEAKER_05]: I've got power attack on. [SPEAKER_05]: Yep. [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, he was gonna do a Swiftie to switch his feet to, does he know what she is in terms of a dedicated adversary? [SPEAKER_05]: She's human.
[SPEAKER_07]: so he'll take dedicated adversary human blue human so we're looking at how many attacks does he have five five oh my gosh so two two at your highest two at your lowest than an additional one at your highest from the east so where we're going so full I love all right great attack number one here we go twenty eight keeping it looks learn things [SPEAKER_07]: That is a hit. [SPEAKER_07]: She seems incredibly fast moving and live, but that does land.
[SPEAKER_07]: She's not wearing any armor. [SPEAKER_07]: And as you are, as you're clocking more and more of her, as your fists, or as your dad ball starts to smash into her, you're guessing maybe a little more monkey than perhaps Ninja or Rogi. [SPEAKER_05]: So that's ten for the first attack. [SPEAKER_05]: Yep. [SPEAKER_05]: Second attack. [SPEAKER_05]: That's a of fourteen plus nine. [SPEAKER_05]: That's a twenty three. [SPEAKER_05]: Keep it up. [SPEAKER_05]: Um, yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't feel like spending an action point. [SPEAKER_05]: You do have your stamina points that you haven't spent any of so you could spend, like, good call. [SPEAKER_05]: Yes. [SPEAKER_05]: I will get up to whatever I rolled the first time. [SPEAKER_05]: So twenty eight. [SPEAKER_05]: Twenty eight. [SPEAKER_05]: Yep. [SPEAKER_05]: That's a hit. [SPEAKER_05]: So seventeen points of damage on the second attack. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_05]: What do you sound?
[SPEAKER_05]: Third attack. [SPEAKER_05]: Back to full bonus. [SPEAKER_05]: Uh, that's a nine on the dive for another, uh, for a twenty three. [SPEAKER_05]: I don't know, I can't keep spending mong on the same round, can I? [SPEAKER_05]: Stamina, yes. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, then fuck, I'll spend another five. [SPEAKER_05]: Hit. [SPEAKER_05]: For eleven points of damage. [SPEAKER_05]: She's blooded. [SPEAKER_05]: Fourth attack. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh my god. [SPEAKER_07]: What's up dice?
[SPEAKER_07]: Everywhere. [SPEAKER_07]: Floor die. [SPEAKER_07]: Floor die. [SPEAKER_07]: Twenty. [SPEAKER_07]: Keep in that. [SPEAKER_07]: I'm a stamina you got left. [SPEAKER_07]: Uh, three. [SPEAKER_05]: When he was a. Um, yeah, we'll spend it spent it to learn for twenty three hit. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, shit. [SPEAKER_02]: Just that. [SPEAKER_05]: Uh, a eleven another eleven. [SPEAKER_05]: Uh-huh. [SPEAKER_05]: Final attack. [SPEAKER_05]: Uh-huh. [SPEAKER_05]: Twenty one.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't have anything else to spend. [SPEAKER_05]: I'm not going to spend an action point. [SPEAKER_07]: She looks like this could, this hit could drop her. [SPEAKER_06]: Do you want to spend the point to drop her in one single round? [SPEAKER_05]: Dam you all. [SPEAKER_05]: Yes! [SPEAKER_07]: Yes, through the way! [SPEAKER_05]: Uh, for a four, for a twenty-five, huh? [SPEAKER_05]: And... Fifteen points of damage.
[SPEAKER_07]: And flattened against the back wall of the secret passage as she crumbles to the ground, beginning to die. [SPEAKER_07]: She stirs up at you. [SPEAKER_07]: She sounds... so... how could you... [SPEAKER_07]: How could you? [SPEAKER_05]: It's a wrong fucking story. [SPEAKER_05]: You're probably chaotic good or some damn thing. [SPEAKER_05]: Something like, but... Nice try. [SPEAKER_05]: Had to be done. [SPEAKER_05]: Alright, you'll let her bleed out and die.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll put her in a half orc Nelson. [SPEAKER_05]: Yes. [SPEAKER_05]: And I'll tell you in a minute. [SPEAKER_06]: You know if you give her to Kwavi Andra. [SPEAKER_06]: She might then torture her. [SPEAKER_06]: She might do things to get more information. [SPEAKER_06]: And you know that the deal that was made was. [SPEAKER_05]: You give her to her. [SPEAKER_06]: And yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: She might take her soul.
[SPEAKER_06]: If you let her take her, she's going to take her soul. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, you do know that. [SPEAKER_07]: I will speed it along. [SPEAKER_07]: Snap or neck. [SPEAKER_05]: That seems... That was over. [SPEAKER_07]: So quickly. [SPEAKER_07]: Alright, so her body is lying in a crumpled heap in the secret passage between coffee on just room and the adjacent room where the rest of you all do it. [SPEAKER_06]: Vic is gonna move back out of the room and move over to Kwavi Andre and go.
[SPEAKER_06]: I believe we take care of our end of the deal. [SPEAKER_06]: She's finished. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: Were you able to determine why? [SPEAKER_06]: It's just said you wanted to finish. [SPEAKER_07]: Fair enough. [SPEAKER_07]: I'll be here tomorrow. [SPEAKER_07]: See you tomorrow. [SPEAKER_07]: And she fucking strolls out like she owns the place. [SPEAKER_07]: Just leaving you all to deal with the corpse in the secret room. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, man. [SPEAKER_07]: Not gonna.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just gonna walk away from that shit. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: But just close the scene. [SPEAKER_05]: They got people further than that. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm assuming close the curtain. [SPEAKER_02]: Don't do. [SPEAKER_07]: How do you spend your day? [SPEAKER_06]: I am going to go back to Katarina. [SPEAKER_07]: Are you going to find Katarina? [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I'm going to find Katarina. [SPEAKER_07]: What now, Dad?
[SPEAKER_06]: You said that your mom was missing? [SPEAKER_07]: She hasn't been home, yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: Do you have any idea where she might be? [SPEAKER_07]: I've checked all the places I could think of, Dad. [SPEAKER_06]: I'm just trying to help. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know her. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know her. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know her name. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know what she looks like. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know anything about her. [SPEAKER_06]: But I'm trying to help.
[SPEAKER_07]: In theory. [SPEAKER_07]: Is her name? [SPEAKER_06]: In theory. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: Well, if you want to help, tell you what. [SPEAKER_07]: Hang around to my shifts off and now we can walk around the neighborhood a bit. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yeah, I can do that. [SPEAKER_07]: All right. [SPEAKER_07]: So Vic's gonna spend the evening helping her look for a neary. [SPEAKER_07]: What about the rest of the three of you?
[SPEAKER_06]: And he would say to the rest of me, he's like, you know, you all, you don't have to help if you don't want to. [SPEAKER_05]: I got nothing to do in this town if you want some company. [SPEAKER_05]: I'll come along. [SPEAKER_06]: Thanks, brother. [SPEAKER_05]: Dubuque's very interested in seeing the sights of the city. [SPEAKER_05]: If possible. [SPEAKER_06]: I have a feeling we're probably going to see some sights. [SPEAKER_01]: We have some time before the shift is over.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: She just she just she just started so good could probably six hours. [SPEAKER_07]: That's just seven hours still. [SPEAKER_03]: Is it daylight? [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: It's like ten in the morning. [SPEAKER_03]: Like I'm just going outside and you're head outside. [SPEAKER_03]: It's like we could. [SPEAKER_07]: Well, I got it. [SPEAKER_07]: It's actually day. [SPEAKER_03]: Could go sightseeing. [SPEAKER_05]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_05]: kind of shopping is there in dilapidate. [SPEAKER_05]: Do they have one of those double-decker buses? [SPEAKER_05]: Or like those buses that are a bus, but then it goes in the water as well. [SPEAKER_05]: Like in the last night. [SPEAKER_07]: They just might. [SPEAKER_06]: So, we leave this body crumpled in the secret passage between these rooms. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, and you can actually close the two secret doors. [SPEAKER_07]: So, it'll just rot in there and tell somebody smells it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, perfect. [SPEAKER_05]: And if that's her, if it's, if it's quaveyander's room, then she'll do it. [SPEAKER_05]: She'll do it. [SPEAKER_05]: She'll do it. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_05]: as it should be. [SPEAKER_07]: Amazing. [SPEAKER_07]: So you spend the afternoon investigating this gigantic basalt metropolis that is operating on a technology level somewhere between what you know of as the real world and what you saw of in Arventon.
[SPEAKER_07]: So this is like, there is almost a, it's a little steam punky in the, but steam punky with electricity. [SPEAKER_07]: Like they, they have electronic power. [SPEAKER_07]: So there are, there are neon lights. [SPEAKER_07]: There are electric trains. [SPEAKER_07]: But all of it still feels like it's made by magic or operating in a kind of renaissance.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's like, it's like, if Da Vinci's, [SPEAKER_07]: imagination came to life in this brooding dark city of black stones skyscrapers. [SPEAKER_06]: Is this the sort of thing where things are mass produced or are things still like individually handcrafted? [SPEAKER_07]: I think they'd have to be mass produced in a city this big. [SPEAKER_07]: with this many people. [SPEAKER_07]: And this is the riot of people. [SPEAKER_07]: And it's a riot of danger.
[SPEAKER_07]: It is a city roaming with gangs and with sightseers and with travelers and with downtrodden people and wildly wealthy people. [SPEAKER_07]: And weird activities, nothing seems to be illegal. [SPEAKER_07]: It is a wild afternoon of chaos and you can eventually make your way down and get a sight of the dilatling harbor. [SPEAKER_07]: Now not on a dream ship out in the middle of the harbor, but actually at the harbor side.
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't think the blood blood is there right now. [SPEAKER_07]: No blood blood is not there right now, but it's just it is a it is an ocean of sales out there ships of all styles and makes and there would be some of the ships from whatever the city is to the north that's floating so there are you would see some ships flying out of the sky to come land in this harbor or just like floating directly up out of the water and then [SPEAKER_07]: taking off into the air.
[SPEAKER_07]: It is a it is a truly wild, truly dangerous place, but you know, you're all knife-level now. [SPEAKER_07]: Some good food. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes, absolutely great, great food. [SPEAKER_05]: Grips eating some sort of meat on a stick.
[SPEAKER_07]: and then in the evening spending some time with your daughter wandering through the neighborhood you know stopping in at various friends houses stopping in at another drugden stopping in at a couple of different restaurants and this is this is just how this world is like this is not good or bad [SPEAKER_06]: This is how this world is, this is how everybody in this world is living. [SPEAKER_07]: This is the story of this city, yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_07]: You don't come up with any information about a neary, but I think the time spent with Katarina is enough time for her to sort of settle in on an understanding of [SPEAKER_07]: that I'm different. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh yeah, and what's coming off of you? [SPEAKER_07]: Because of course, it all felt like a lie to her first. [SPEAKER_07]: Even though she knew you weren't lying, it felt like the behavior of somebody who she's also used to lying for living.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: And I think she settles into who this person is and it's profoundly weird for her to have her dad be like ten years older than her. [SPEAKER_07]: Absolutely. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: right yeah cuz she's she's almost twenty and you would have been like thirty one or something when you landed here thirty one thirty two yeah very strange so you're almost you're not quite but almost peers in a way especially since you don't have memories of your time yeah zero memories of of being her father and um over and you could you could you could you could you could crash at your apartment with katarina yeah if that's what you wish to do she would make the offer
[SPEAKER_07]: We sleep in Vix House, where he spent nineteen years. [SPEAKER_07]: It's like a for room apartment on like the eighty of floor of a stone skyscraper. [SPEAKER_01]: Amazing. [SPEAKER_07]: So is there elevators and stuff? [SPEAKER_07]: I mean, it can't be walk up. [SPEAKER_07]: Right. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: They would have to be elevators. [SPEAKER_07]: So powered by electricity elementals or something, fueling wires in the basement.
[SPEAKER_07]: They shoot these elevators up to very specific floors at shocking speeds. [SPEAKER_07]: Sleep overnight, and you have another night of sleep free from jamming door. [SPEAKER_06]: Are there pictures of Inuri? [SPEAKER_06]: Are there pictures of our family? [SPEAKER_07]: Hmm. [SPEAKER_07]: You would certainly be able to find a picture of her, but I don't picture this as a space where either you or her would have kept stuff like that out.
[SPEAKER_07]: There's a little, there was a certain degree, if you know how every space you've entered that had previously been inhabited by this character had always been, there's always been a layer to avoid of stuff. [SPEAKER_07]: An animity, right? [SPEAKER_07]: Like, no one will know who I am, no one will know if you walk into the space you won't know anything. [SPEAKER_06]: So this is almost twenty years of that.
[SPEAKER_06]: And it feels like, it feels like from the memory of the skin, it feels like he was forgetting that part. [SPEAKER_06]: Yes. [SPEAKER_06]: And so that's why I'm like, normally I would think that there wasn't anything like that, but I feel like [SPEAKER_07]: But he also so he specifically avoided mirrors that entire time, and I think he wouldn't be looking at... But there might be a secret. [SPEAKER_07]: It's two of them. [SPEAKER_07]: Sure. [SPEAKER_06]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like his wife and daughter. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: And she, uh, so mom and area is purple. [SPEAKER_07]: And she is in her, like, late forties, maybe. [SPEAKER_07]: You know, she looks like she has lived a pretty hard life. [SPEAKER_03]: So it's a nude. [SPEAKER_03]: It oh my gosh. [SPEAKER_03]: It's a new day. [SPEAKER_03]: It is a new day. [SPEAKER_03]: I want to read the scalpel before we go. [SPEAKER_07]: Okay. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's a great idea. [SPEAKER_07]: I just can't waste it because when when can you do it again? [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I could do it at the caravancer. [SPEAKER_03]: I when we go back there. [SPEAKER_02]: But we can have a lot of other stuff going on. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_05]: At some point in the dream, we need to identify that staff in case it has uses that may be useful at the end of this, you know, while we're just coming to the dream.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, we all just leveled up. [SPEAKER_06]: Oh, yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: Let's make some checks. [SPEAKER_06]: I mean, I could do an identify. [SPEAKER_06]: All right. [SPEAKER_07]: Wait, what is your bonus when you do that? [SPEAKER_07]: Plus, twenty five plus one D six. [SPEAKER_07]: Okay. [SPEAKER_07]: So we have the rod from igu's guys. [SPEAKER_07]: Anything else unidentified? [SPEAKER_07]: The doom idle of air, but if you wish to attempt it. [SPEAKER_07]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay. [SPEAKER_03]: It's an artifact. [SPEAKER_03]: Be careful. [SPEAKER_03]: Let me tell you about the rod actually. [SPEAKER_06]: Actually wait a minute. [SPEAKER_06]: I don't think I don't think that I can with let's see identify specifically said something about. [SPEAKER_03]: You can't do that artifacts. [SPEAKER_06]: This spell does not allow you to identify artifacts. [SPEAKER_06]: Okay. [SPEAKER_06]: So good to know. [SPEAKER_07]: I don't want to touch it.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's so weird that they wet. [SPEAKER_07]: All right, Rodov Dordi might prepare for the most old school thing that is ever old schooled. [SPEAKER_07]: The rod of zoddy might is metal, thicker than other rods with a flanged ball at one end and six stud-like buttons along its length. [SPEAKER_07]: Pushing any of the rod's buttons is an action equivalent to drawing a weapon and the rod weighs ten pounds.
[SPEAKER_07]: The following spell-like functions of the rod can each be used once per day. [SPEAKER_07]: Hold person upon a touched creature. [SPEAKER_07]: fear upon all enemies viewing it. [SPEAKER_07]: Two D-four points of damage to an opponent with a successful touch attack, which also cures the weelder of the same amount of damage. [SPEAKER_07]: The following functions have no limit to the amount of times they can be employed.
[SPEAKER_07]: In its normal form, the rod is a plus two light maze. [SPEAKER_07]: When button one is pushed, [SPEAKER_07]: A blade shoots out and the rod becomes a plus one flaming long sword. [SPEAKER_07]: When button two is pushed, the rod becomes a plus four battle axe, a wide blade springs from the ball and the whole weapon lengthens to four feet. [SPEAKER_07]: When button three is pushed, the rod becomes a plus three short spear or a plus three long spear.
[SPEAKER_07]: A spear blade springs forth and the handle can be lengthened up to twelve feet. [SPEAKER_07]: And oh actually I'll go to this fifteen feet at which point the rod is suitable for use as a lance. [SPEAKER_07]: When button four is pushed, a spike that can anchor in stone is extruded from the ball, while the other end sprouts three sharp hooks. [SPEAKER_07]: The rod then lengthens to anywhere between five and fifty feet in a single round, stopping when you push button four again.
[SPEAKER_07]: Horizontal bars, three inches long, fold out from the sides one foot apart in a staggered progression, so it becomes a ladder. [SPEAKER_06]: So an immediate fifty foot ladder that you can climb down. [SPEAKER_04]: Forty five feet, probably right. [SPEAKER_07]: And our campaign, it only goes forty five feet. [SPEAKER_07]: You can hold up to four thousand pounds. [SPEAKER_07]: The ladder function can also be used essentially as a battering ramp to force open doors.
[SPEAKER_07]: You plant the base thirty feet or less from the portal. [SPEAKER_07]: You go boom. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, exactly. [SPEAKER_07]: Wow. [SPEAKER_07]: and it has a strength modifier of plus twelve on that on the open door check. [SPEAKER_07]: Wow. [SPEAKER_07]: And when button six is pushed, the rod indicates magnetic north. [SPEAKER_07]: And gives the wheelchair knowledge of its approximate depth beneath the surface or the height above it. [SPEAKER_07]: It's so fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just want to say, had you been wielding your borpole sword at the beginning of that fight? [SPEAKER_08]: That's so close. [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, well. [SPEAKER_05]: Sorry, she probably didn't deserve to have her head cut off. [SPEAKER_07]: No, she probably didn't. [SPEAKER_07]: That's what she was fighting for the side of good. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_05]: I don't want to talk about it.
[SPEAKER_07]: And then we're not going to attempt to, we're not going to give the do-mitle of Ibb to Dabwick and have them attempt to now. [SPEAKER_07]: Okay, great. [SPEAKER_07]: All right. [SPEAKER_07]: And then Doris is done with the razor, the scalpel, sorry. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, we forgot. [SPEAKER_07]: I didn't even make the roll last time. [SPEAKER_07]: Can you even fail it anymore? [SPEAKER_03]: I have a plus a fifteen.
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, no. [SPEAKER_07]: It's DC fifteen. [SPEAKER_07]: All right. [SPEAKER_03]: And I got a thirty for this one. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, perfect. [SPEAKER_07]: Sit down and sink into the pool of time. [SPEAKER_07]: Of dream time. [SPEAKER_07]: The pool of dream time. [SPEAKER_07]: You see a young man walking through the streets of his adopted home.
[SPEAKER_07]: There's something a little weird about his body, his wrists are so skinny, his arms are so long, his heads a bit big, he can't quite keep his hair out of his eyes. [SPEAKER_07]: Though he only answers to Rey, now, and soon, soon he will be known as Father Rey. [SPEAKER_07]: He still thinks of himself as Brayden, even though the hateful old witch gave him that name. [SPEAKER_07]: and left her mark on his soul.
[SPEAKER_07]: But he's no longer a child, he's an adolescent now, physically developed, but emotionally stunted, yet, trying to grow. [SPEAKER_07]: He's in a period of transition. [SPEAKER_07]: He walks the streets of Egorion, the capital of Chelyax. [SPEAKER_07]: His hands are deep in his pockets where he grips his favorite, scalpel, tightly, no one can see it. [UNKNOWN]: It's a secret. [SPEAKER_07]: Braden leaves dice end and cheap side. [SPEAKER_07]: He strolls through the triumph.
[SPEAKER_07]: He makes his way to Hellhound Hill barely noting the world around him, all the gothic buildings with her barbed minorettes and sharply pointed roofs passing by. [SPEAKER_07]: The Hell Knights, looking outside the long market, the slaves in whip crack, the prostitutes outside the tall tail brothel, all of it, all of it. [SPEAKER_07]: Passes in by, none of it matters. [SPEAKER_07]: Because he has a secret. [SPEAKER_07]: Today is the most important day of his life.
[SPEAKER_07]: Brighton had never been a person of faith, not until recently. [SPEAKER_07]: The family traditions held no interest to him. [SPEAKER_07]: He tried out asmodious, that's how he ended up here, of course. [SPEAKER_07]: And he tried. [SPEAKER_07]: He really did. [SPEAKER_07]: He attended services regularly. [SPEAKER_07]: He made all the motions.
[SPEAKER_07]: But here at the heart of asmodious worship on the continent where it's also open in public, even the human sacrifices, none of it grabbed his imagination. [SPEAKER_07]: Because Braden needs a secret. [SPEAKER_07]: It loves secrets, that feeling of holding something important in your heart or in your hand. [SPEAKER_07]: Well, nobody in the world knows, but you, it's intoxicating, and he missed that feeling until the Church of Zonko-thon found him.
[SPEAKER_07]: At the first time he laid eyes on a painting of his Lord, he saw a kindred spirit. [SPEAKER_07]: A brother to a beautiful sister, broken by the machinations of a darkness beyond comprehension, and a top his scalp, a crown of spikes pulling his skin open into a disturbing sunburst. [SPEAKER_07]: The back of his skull completely gone. [SPEAKER_07]: His brain naked, open, exposed. [SPEAKER_07]: In all of its pain to the world, this was a kindred spirit.
[SPEAKER_07]: Agony made flesh, suffering without end. [SPEAKER_07]: And from that day, the church of Zankothan became his life. [SPEAKER_07]: It gave him purpose, it gave him meaning. [SPEAKER_07]: It allowed him to put the horrors of his childhood behind him to stop the cutting, to let the sleeping ghosts lie. [SPEAKER_07]: The church became everything to him.
[SPEAKER_07]: And even though his superiors insist he lacks the wisdom and understanding to rise in the ranks, he is determined to prove them wrong. [SPEAKER_07]: And today is the day. [SPEAKER_07]: He walks into the finest of the most exclusive club in the city and takes his seat. [SPEAKER_07]: Soon the man arrives, handsome, fit, Patricia, perfect hair, infectious smile, his clothing is the finest of the fine, and there's a package tucked under his arm obviously too heavy for him.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: Gift for the celebrant. [SPEAKER_07]: It turns out to be a weapon, a Van Horton family heirloom. [SPEAKER_07]: It's a good gift. [SPEAKER_07]: Braden is pleased. [SPEAKER_07]: They feast to build up their strength, and then later that night, the celebrations begin.
[SPEAKER_07]: In the crossroads of a series of murky, sewer tunnels, gray stone walls covered in oily black fungus, a smooth obsidian table with restraints, a cluster of accolades preparing the needles and saws, but, Braden brought his own scalp. [SPEAKER_07]: We rely, had always hounded him mercilessly about how weak he was, and weak willed. [SPEAKER_07]: She climbed up into his head, and convinced him he was worthless. [SPEAKER_07]: He wouldn't amount to anything.
[SPEAKER_07]: He couldn't do anything. [SPEAKER_07]: He couldn't withstand anything. [SPEAKER_07]: He couldn't survive anything. [SPEAKER_07]: Wiping away a tear. [SPEAKER_07]: Ray begins. [SPEAKER_07]: With painstaking care and slowness, he saws Van Horton's right hand off. [SPEAKER_07]: The accolades stop the bleeding. [SPEAKER_07]: Then the left, this goes on for days, right foot, left foot, right forearm, left forearm.
[SPEAKER_07]: Sometimes he stops, so the acclides can pour the protein paste down his throat. [SPEAKER_07]: The nutrients keep him alive and joyous. [SPEAKER_07]: After all, his suffering must be prolonged. [SPEAKER_07]: This is not sacrifice. [SPEAKER_07]: This is torture. [SPEAKER_07]: on and on and on it goes until it's almost all ray nose. [SPEAKER_07]: Almost all he can remember. [SPEAKER_07]: And hurting someone else is even better than hurting himself.
[SPEAKER_07]: He never wants it to end. [SPEAKER_07]: When we were alive, finds him on the street one morning, three months into the celebration. [SPEAKER_07]: She simply eyes him up and down. [SPEAKER_07]: He's been ordained. [SPEAKER_07]: By this point, he is father-rae. [SPEAKER_07]: Now, he has proven his strength. [SPEAKER_07]: He has proven it upon the joyful thing. [SPEAKER_07]: He has proven his strength, hasn't he? [SPEAKER_07]: Why does he feel so weak at the sight of her?
[SPEAKER_07]: I thought you should know. [SPEAKER_07]: There has been a development. [SPEAKER_07]: And Braden, the child, the eternal child, feels the bottom drop out from under him. [SPEAKER_07]: He will never be allowed to grow up. [SPEAKER_07]: Will he? [SPEAKER_07]: He will never be free. [SPEAKER_07]: She walks now. [SPEAKER_07]: Braden weeps, sobbing and choking. [SPEAKER_07]: You just can't finish anything.
[SPEAKER_07]: And the next thing great and remembers is standing over the joyful thing. [SPEAKER_07]: The holy vessel once called Christoph. [SPEAKER_07]: And he holds his favorite scalpel in his hand. [SPEAKER_07]: And those words ring in his skull. [SPEAKER_07]: You can't finish anything. [SPEAKER_07]: And he leans down and he kisses the joyful thing. [SPEAKER_07]: It has no lips and no teeth anymore, but still he forces his tongue into it tasting deeply.
[SPEAKER_07]: You can't finish anything. [SPEAKER_07]: Bring raises the scalpel. [SPEAKER_07]: And even though it is a nathamon. [SPEAKER_07]: to end someone else's suffering, even though it will surely result in his ex-communication from the church, and might even mean the Prince of Pain will no longer answer his prayers, he finishes something. [SPEAKER_07]: And this time it's easy, killing. [SPEAKER_07]: And this time, only his second time, believe it or not, it's a choice.
[SPEAKER_07]: But choice, he makes to prove the strength of his will. [SPEAKER_07]: He didn't ask for this life, but he will take control of it. [SPEAKER_07]: All he wanted for years was to die, but he was too weak to kill himself or anyone else. [SPEAKER_07]: And now all he wants is to live, to survive this, and to bring as much darkness and pain into the world as he humanly can. [SPEAKER_07]: Kill his fucking mother. [SPEAKER_07]: Screaming and weeping.
[SPEAKER_07]: Braiden stabs the scalpel into the joyful things heart over and over and over and over. [SPEAKER_07]: Until the vision fades. [SPEAKER_07]: So, is Dora going to hang onto that scalpel for now? [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: Man, Van Horn, that guy is... [SPEAKER_07]: And then before we leave, Roni and Katarina and Aniris apart meant, I'm guessing. [SPEAKER_07]: Vic wants to say goodbye to Katarina. [SPEAKER_07]: What's going on there this morning?
[SPEAKER_06]: He is looking at the picture of his former wife and daughter in this past life. [SPEAKER_07]: How old do you think Katarina is in that picture? [SPEAKER_06]: Oh, she'll little girl. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's got to be like before this particular world would have gotten it's sort of grimy hooks and anything and I And to her and also into his wife Works were always in his wife, but there was easily there could easily have been a moment of you know a stretch of time that as you look at this picture you can almost imagine
[SPEAKER_07]: of feeling of family and if not quiet contentments that the closest maybe that person ever knew to it and is this is this like a painting or is it actually like a photograph it's a painting okay so they knew some artists and you sat your wife and eight-year-old daughter down for a little portrait yeah he's looking at it and just feeling again the weight of all the things that
[SPEAKER_06]: they have done and that he, he and his past self have done here in the dreamlands and like this was he he lived here for decades and how messed up that is and to have and he's still not sure he's like did Roni do this to try to escape from this whole thing or was it just a way in? [SPEAKER_06]: And he's kind of wrestling with that and trying to figure that out. [SPEAKER_06]: And doesn't have an answer. [SPEAKER_06]: There's no answers here. [SPEAKER_04]: And no answers to be found.
[SPEAKER_04]: After that long, what made him decide to go back? [SPEAKER_04]: to return to the real world. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I guess that would be a thought that he had, like, maybe he showed up there in Kwafiander, wasn't there yet? [SPEAKER_06]: Or was she always there? [SPEAKER_06]: Like, maybe she hadn't been. [SPEAKER_07]: Doro would be able to tell you from all of the time spent reading the journals. [SPEAKER_07]: Kwafiander was always the target.
[SPEAKER_07]: So when he came here the first time, Kwafiander was the target at that time, just as Kwafiander was the target when you all came here now. [SPEAKER_03]: This was the plan. [SPEAKER_07]: This was the plan from the jump. [SPEAKER_07]: And then he's thinking, that's maybe that's even more fucked up. [SPEAKER_02]: That's completely fucked up. [SPEAKER_02]: She started a family as a cover.
[SPEAKER_06]: But imagine imagine the amount of debilitating mental illness and madnesses that we've all been saddled with and that it's very likely that he Roni had something like that coming in here. [SPEAKER_06]: And then there's nobody to talk to. [SPEAKER_07]: And even if he didn't, it's very likely he left with one.
[SPEAKER_07]: Because as we've been talking about again, like the only reason why the four of you are able to keep pressing on, even with these little breaks that we're taking for two or three episodes, you will take care of your various madnesses. [SPEAKER_07]: Those people were fucking monsters who did not take care of each other, did not take care of themselves.
[SPEAKER_07]: They either wallowed [SPEAKER_07]: in these madnesses, you can picture, or simply just, you know, why they're strong along or left it or rather than them. [SPEAKER_07]: Exactly, right. [SPEAKER_07]: Like it was just a mess all around. [SPEAKER_07]: Nobody caring for you. [SPEAKER_06]: Yes, so he's gonna go over to his daughter. [SPEAKER_06]: God, this is, I hate everything about this. [SPEAKER_06]: Hey, how are you doing? [SPEAKER_06]: You get a little sleep?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, Dad. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I did. [SPEAKER_07]: It was nice to have nice to have people around the place. [SPEAKER_06]: Look, I have to go, but I want to come back. [SPEAKER_07]: What is, what does that mean? [SPEAKER_07]: Um, when? [SPEAKER_06]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_06]: time operates differently here than where I'm from. [SPEAKER_07]: Is this my fault?
[SPEAKER_06]: No, no. [SPEAKER_06]: I mean, I asked you about the tattoo and then you're the reason you're the reason you're the reason I want to come back. [SPEAKER_06]: You're the only reason I want to come back. [SPEAKER_06]: Make sure to tell that to mom next to me. [SPEAKER_07]: I'm giving you shit, Dad. [SPEAKER_07]: Okay, okay. [SPEAKER_06]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_06]: Do you think your mom's okay as she done anything like this before where she just disappeared?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes. [UNKNOWN]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: She has. [SPEAKER_07]: I don't know that she's okay, but we probably will see her again. [SPEAKER_06]: Is there anything that I could, uh, hey, uh, grip? [SPEAKER_06]: Right. [SPEAKER_06]: We still have those, uh, those rubies? [SPEAKER_04]: We still got them, they're just taking up space in this fucking bag, aren't they? [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, um, look, uh, this isn't a bribe, it's not a payout, it's, it's just a little security for you.
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh shit, those are leg rubies, Dad. [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: Is that, is that helpful or, or no? [SPEAKER_07]: Potentially dangerous, but, I mean, [SPEAKER_07]: I think I know one of your freaky friends I can I can talk to. [SPEAKER_07]: I mean I could this will this will do me well for a long time thanks dad. [SPEAKER_07]: I just I don't get killed for possessing them. [SPEAKER_07]: Which I don't think I will dad. [SPEAKER_07]: It's okay.
[UNKNOWN]: Fuck. [SPEAKER_07]: Fuck. [SPEAKER_07]: Fuck. [SPEAKER_06]: Fuck. [UNKNOWN]: Fuck. [SPEAKER_06]: Fuck. [SPEAKER_06]: Okay. [SPEAKER_06]: I love you. [SPEAKER_07]: I gotta go. [SPEAKER_07]: You are different. [SPEAKER_06]: Well, that's good to know that I'm not completely like that fucking sociopath. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_06]: And I'm sorry. [SPEAKER_06]: I'm sorry, too. [SPEAKER_07]: All right, go get your thing. [SPEAKER_07]: I'll see you. [SPEAKER_07]: We'll see.
[SPEAKER_07]: You make your way back. [SPEAKER_07]: to Shuzu. [SPEAKER_03]: Before we go, I will cast the telepathic bond on all of us. [SPEAKER_03]: Okay. [SPEAKER_03]: Just as a precaution. [SPEAKER_06]: Vic absolutely would have like a total creeper in the bathroom of his apartment. [SPEAKER_06]: Got in some hair of Catarina's. [SPEAKER_06]: And like, like, just tucked it away. [SPEAKER_07]: Some of Catarina's neon blue hair. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_07]: Dream hair. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: We're collecting so many body parts. [SPEAKER_03]: It won't come back with you, right? [SPEAKER_03]: It won't come back with to the real world. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: No, but it will be with them every time you manifest in the dream last night. [SPEAKER_03]: I was thinking you're just taking it so we could survive on her. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, because I have no heart whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think that's my good scribe on her in the dream last night. [SPEAKER_07]: You could. [SPEAKER_07]: So mid-late morning back down into the smoke and the press and the haze and the goggles and the squishy pictures and the crappy wood on the walls and the floor and the fabric everywhere and
[SPEAKER_07]: lounging empiriously on her, what appears to be at this point now, her sofa is quaviandran she's wearing what looks like a new hard stone this one made of ruby kind of looks a lot like the one that you all dealt with back in thrash more actually and she is holding in her hand kind of rolling it around [SPEAKER_07]: In her fingers, the orangey Jason that she had had around her throat. [SPEAKER_06]: Yes, she made me do that, that finger dance thing that people use.
[SPEAKER_07]: She would always be good at that kind of shit. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes, she's actually making it dance around her knuckles absolutely. [SPEAKER_07]: As promised, she reaches out, holding the stone in her hand. [SPEAKER_06]: Deals a deal. [SPEAKER_07]: It is indeed. [SPEAKER_07]: He takes it. [SPEAKER_07]: And you all feel it. [SPEAKER_07]: all in a little version of it. [SPEAKER_07]: The ticking clock just started.
[SPEAKER_07]: It has left her possession, you know, have thirty days, thirty dream days, to get that thing to the mad poets, Oasis. [SPEAKER_03]: Doorcast's message. [SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_01]: May we speak privately for a moment. [SPEAKER_03]: Go on. [SPEAKER_03]: Doorcast telepathic bond on herself and quave under it. [SPEAKER_03]: I only want to know [SPEAKER_03]: If you have already taken the soul of a neary? [SPEAKER_07]: What is your name, young lady?
[SPEAKER_07]: Dora. [SPEAKER_07]: Dora. [SPEAKER_07]: Why would you think I would care about a server at a drug death? [SPEAKER_07]: What possible interest could she have to me? [SPEAKER_03]: I only wondered if she was taken as punishment. [SPEAKER_01]: or to hold over the head of the person who took your last heartstone. [SPEAKER_07]: You're very bold in asking me young woman. [SPEAKER_03]: I like it. [SPEAKER_03]: Thorous miles. [SPEAKER_07]: I did not waste my time on a soul that petty.
[SPEAKER_07]: I would not soil myself on it. [SPEAKER_07]: Does that answer your question, young lady? [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_07]: You think quite highly of yourself, don't you? [SPEAKER_03]: I think no more highly of myself than you think of yourself. [SPEAKER_07]: I'm sure. [SPEAKER_07]: Come back, please. [SPEAKER_07]: Come back. [SPEAKER_07]: Or visit me at the embassy. [SPEAKER_07]: She slips you a little card with an address on it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't touch it into her scarves. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna call her. [SPEAKER_07]: I don't know where she pulls it from. [SPEAKER_07]: She's somehow got a little little place in her translucent gown. [SPEAKER_03]: Dora nods and releases the bond. [SPEAKER_06]: All right. [SPEAKER_06]: We cool. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. [SPEAKER_06]: All right. [SPEAKER_07]: We waking up. [SPEAKER_06]: Yep. [SPEAKER_07]: Yep. [SPEAKER_06]: You don't want me to cast Mad Monkeys? [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys!
[SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_04]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_04]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_04]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_04]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_04]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys!
[SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_03]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_03]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_03]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_05]: Mad Monkeys!
[SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad Monkeys! [SPEAKER_07]: Mad [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so the clock is gonna stop when we wake up.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yep, and then it'll resume again. [SPEAKER_07]: The time has passed in the intervening space of wherever you go. [SPEAKER_07]: Great, I couldn't imagine you wanted to track something like that. [SPEAKER_07]: No, no, no, no. [SPEAKER_03]: So, but that means that if we get it. [SPEAKER_03]: Probably we could stop the clock by waking up. [SPEAKER_03]: True. [SPEAKER_08]: We just always with you. [SPEAKER_03]: We cause a ton of other problems for ourselves down the line.
[SPEAKER_03]: But if we were to say travel is certain distance in the dreamlands, discover somehow a password to a place. [SPEAKER_07]: Yes. [SPEAKER_07]: Like a safe spot. [SPEAKER_07]: I'll save point. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: Yes. [SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely. [SPEAKER_03]: Okay. [SPEAKER_07]: Some people keep an eye out for it. [SPEAKER_07]: For sure. [SPEAKER_05]: Just gonna look for that glowing yellow sign that we know is the safe point.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_07]: You now have all seven gifts for the Mad Poet in hand. [SPEAKER_07]: Chapter one hundred forty four. [SPEAKER_07]: You first found the books in Lowell's Footlocker in chapter sixty nine. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god. [SPEAKER_07]: Not knowing what they were or how central they would become to your lives at the time. [SPEAKER_07]: And we by the way, we recorded that episode in October of twenty twenty three. [SPEAKER_07]: I think they're not.
[SPEAKER_07]: Wow. [SPEAKER_07]: You skimmed through the books in chapter ninety. [SPEAKER_07]: You explored the dreamlands for the first time in chapter ninety five where Deb would immediately die. [SPEAKER_07]: You uncovered the list of gifts itself back in chapter ninety nine and you began this epic seven part dream quest when you first bumped into Brellen's ballroom back in chapter one hundred three and now forty one chapters and forty two episodes after that.
[SPEAKER_07]: you have them all. [SPEAKER_07]: Viscounts signalling. [SPEAKER_07]: The feline tail, the quest that killed the gripper. [SPEAKER_07]: The captain's trycorn, the quest that took place on two planes of existence, the red-webbed foot. [SPEAKER_07]: Remember that one? [SPEAKER_07]: The skull of gold royalty, the quest that killed Vic. [SPEAKER_07]: The green stone idol of a water lizard, where Dora looked a great old one in the face.
[SPEAKER_07]: And now, the ambassadors, heart stone. [SPEAKER_07]: end of the dream quest. [SPEAKER_07]: This little piece of the larger story that we started in twenty twenty three will be hitting our listeners in July of twenty twenty five. [SPEAKER_07]: The time scale here is crazy. [SPEAKER_07]: So well it's it's obviously a super fun challenge to be telling such a long form story here.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's all also a lot to keep in your head, so I just wanted to take a moment to extend my appreciation to you as players for keeping up with it all as best as you can. [SPEAKER_07]: And of course, to our listeners, all of you, whether you are a nitty-gritty deep in the weeds, multiple re-listened or type, or a casual listener who just like popping in for the latest weirdness of the week, bless you, and thank you all.
[SPEAKER_05]: And how about all the different art styles from our illustrator, Dad? [SPEAKER_07]: As we record this, we don't even know what two of the art styles are going to be. [SPEAKER_07]: It's so exciting. [SPEAKER_07]: So next up, the mad poet question mark. [SPEAKER_07]: That's the end of chapter one, forty four. [SPEAKER_07]: We pick up in the real world next time. [SPEAKER_07]: Dark Nexus is produced by plug-in home productions.
[SPEAKER_07]: This podcast uses trademarks and or copyrights owned by PISO Incorporated used under PISO's fan content policy. [SPEAKER_07]: This podcast is not published endorsed or specifically approved by PISO. [SPEAKER_07]: For more information about PISO Inc. [SPEAKER_07]: and PISO products, please visit PISO.com. [SPEAKER_07]: That's P-A-I-Z-O.com. [SPEAKER_07]: Dark Nexus uses music and soundscapes by CyrenScape. [SPEAKER_07]: Check them out at CyrenScape.com.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's S-Y-R-I-N-S-C-A-P-E.com. [SPEAKER_07]: Opening and closing themes along with additional music composed by Rob Coslaric, artwork for Dark Nexus is by Matt Wallquist. [SPEAKER_07]: The thanks to DMCP, Richard and R.I. [SPEAKER_07]: Paul and Shen in Scotty, Jason Jess, Joe, Chelsea, Matt, Dave, Derek, Darren, Michaela J.A. [SPEAKER_07]: to the biscuit buddies, and everyone we've gained with over the years for all the memories and inspiration.
[SPEAKER_07]: I can take a... knowledge... Shhh! [SPEAKER_03]: I can take a knowledge of what? [SPEAKER_07]: That plans? [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, let's know in a second. [SPEAKER_03]: No, I want to know now. [SPEAKER_07]: Oh, my fucking God. [SPEAKER_03]: I can't have history of plans. [SPEAKER_06]: for Dungeon Eurym, religion, local, nature. [SPEAKER_06]: Engineering. [SPEAKER_00]: Tell us what it is. [SPEAKER_00]: This is so helpful, you guys.