Roll for initiative. All right, Pants People,
you're up. So here's your options. You can either
dodge action like a chump, like a coward, and
not engage with our social media, our Discord,
all that stuff at all. Or you can commit full
assault. Get in there. Get on our Instagram,
our Facebook, our Discord. What else we got?
Instagram? I said that one already. We got TikTok.
I don't know. Go do that stuff. It's cool. We're
doing things all the time. We're working on a
YouTube eventually. We'll get there. But yeah,
check us out, Pants People. And thank you so
much for listening. See you guys the best. Uh,
your turn's over. We've been asked to keep all
names and no guests out of the show, but I can
say it is an impressive crowd. Now, as an agent
of the Crystal Network, I should reiterate that
Papalazzi on Hill is off limits to anybody. without
an invite. Seriously, folks, don't get any ideas
or party crashing. Marfa's Guardian Armors patrol
the area heavily to protect the homes and properties
of the Tressina and their allies. We've seen
tragedy after tragedy every year. Someone caught
up in the atmosphere getting mistaken for a criminal
element and killed as a result. Now, I'm sure
the idea of a secret high society party is tantalizing.
I get it. I do. But getting in just ain't worth
your life. The night I remembered may be a celebration
of death. But I think we'd all prefer to see
Santa Claus revelers live. To see the morning
light. All right, gentlemen. You're on the streets.
It's raining. Gross. Tip -tapping down the sidewalk.
And would you know it? A gentleman comes up an
alley. Says, hey, kid, come here. To you. And
you come here because that's what happens. Because
that's the story. No. He opens his jacket up.
What's he got in there? It's watches? No. It's
tickets. You see tickets lining his pocket. Tickets
to anywhere in the world. Round trip. That day.
Where do you go? Any feasible location in the
world that this man could take you on his magical
little jacket journey. Where do you go? Probably
South Korea. That was a really fast answer and
a really interesting one. Elaborate, sir. Yeah.
South Korea looks really cool. I mean, yeah.
It's super expensive to go there. Really? Is
it? Huh. I did not know that. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty
sure it's a pretty expensive place. Damn, that's
awesome. That's it? I mean, it looks beautiful.
It looks beautiful. I'd like to see, you know,
a different culture. You gotta sell this man,
okay? He's got the tickets, but if you don't
fucking sell your desire to him, he's going to
take them to someone who cares more than your
melancholy, half -baked reasoning. Yeah, I couldn't
do that on a good day. He scoffs at you and goes,
you, Jeremy. Hey, you, kid. Hey, you, kid. I
got tickets to anywhere in the world, and this
guy doesn't get one. First off, I'm not a kid,
bitch. Okay, well. That was the first thing that
turned me on. I thought about saying something
about that. That was a little rude. Hey, hey,
you're out of the scene. Your ponytail's gone.
Your ponytail whipping around the corner. You
left. You ran away. You. First choice would be
New Zealand. That's a cool one. Yeah. That's
a cool one. Give me your reasoning. Some people
don't like to give good reasons when they, yeah.
Yeah. The Shire? That's a pretty good reason.
Yeah. It's a good reason. Okay. All right. I
like that. Second choice would be Tokyo. I like
that one a lot. I like that one a lot too. That
one, that's after my own heart. I want to go
there and feel the electricity. That sounds awesome.
That sounds awesome. Yeah. I mean, really anywhere
in Asia would be super cool. Oh yeah. I mean,
different culture, different food, different,
you know, the cherry blossoms, like I'm into
it. So, all right. Connecting to this, I'll tell
you mine. I can't remember exactly where it is.
I want to say it's in the Kyoto area. But, like,
there is a theme park in Japan called, I believe,
Dragon Quest World. Oh, sure. I guess Dragon
Quest Land. Okay, so I am a massive, massive
fanboy of the Dragon Quest series of games. Love
them to a million, billion pieces. Love that
series so much. There's a park. Where you can
just go through and like the park itself is playing
an RPG. You go to different spots and you run
a turn -based encounter and you go on a whole
adventure. But it's like an adventure where you
walk from place to place. It sounds like the
best thing that could ever happen to a person
in the entirety of the world. I want that so
badly. So is that your answer? If this man approached
me, which he can't because I am the man. So it's
a metaphor. What if I am the man? Holy shit.
Power move. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'd tell
you. That's what I'd tell you, Mr. Sir. Hey,
kid, where you want to go? I want to go to Dragon
Quest Park, please, sir. Please. Tell me why.
Can you say that again? Yeah. It'll help me get
in. It's a childlike experience of wonder. You
must be this short to ride the ride. I want to
fight dragons and... So how about we all go to
Japan together someday? Dude, that would be...
I would take you all to Dragon Quest Park. We
have the best time in the world. I swear, it's
going to be such a good time. We would paint
that town. We'd paint that town red with the
blood of dragons. That's all I got. That's all
I got. Well, it's currently November 2023. Let's
try for the next, what, four or five years? Dude,
I'm in. I'm in. I've been wanting to go for my
whole life. I would be absolutely down. Yeah.
Yeah, totally. Serious podcaster. All right,
guys. We're Serious Podcast with a serious story.
You want to talk about a serious story? Yeah,
let's get serious. Got any fucking mail for us?
No, no mail right now. How lame. Get better,
pants people. Oh, my God. What is that? What
was that? Why do you have to... You got the Dresden
laugh. The Dresden laugh. All keyed up, ready
to go. All right. I did that, but I also did...
I also did just an out of the blue. Meeps. Oh,
God, yeah. Meeps? Oh, no. Oh, heart to point,
we're taking quotes and putting them on the thing,
and that is so dangerous and funny. Oh, no. Bit
by bit, we're going to get a little more zany.
We're going to be serious podcasts here pretty
soon. Serious podcasters. We are serious podcasters.
It's time for a serious flashback. It's not that
serious, actually, but hey, we've had serious
-er. I didn't plug in Sirenscape because I'm
a serious. Hang on. Well, there's two serious
podcasters in this room. This is a mess. Hold
on. This is a mess. No, hold on. We've got to
do two tonight. We've got to do that. We'll tell
you why next episode. Maybe pause the recording
for like half a jiffy second. You know, give
me a. Give me a second. Half a jiffy second.
You're sweating bullets over there. It's not.
Everybody's going wrong. Give me your button
back. Do you have any buttons? Why? Because it
wasn't even me. It was you. It was Jeremy. You
had a slider on. The whole time. I turned up
the wrong fader. Professional podcasters. You
guys are pooping all over me. Think anybody's
still listening? No, no. Let's do a flashback.
I want to open up now on a familiar site. I want
to open up on the harsh, crowded streets of Cerule's
low city. I know we've been here before, but
let's go back real quick. Maybe even a couple
more times. We see night has swiftly overtaken
the sky, the stars beginning to shine and twinkle
over the great shadows of towers that stand to
the east of this portion of the city. But despite
the bleak atmosphere, we can hear the muted sounds
of celebration emanating from a large, nondescript
structure tucked deep into the city's bowels.
A building of crumbling brick, single story,
but longer and wider than most around. Now, low
city pubs have a habit of hiding in plain sight.
They look like any other old warehouse or enclosed
tenement that dot the city slums, but there's
no sign of visible advertisement. Advertisement
can bring bad crowds, wrong crowds, you know,
corrupt high city guard, criminal gangs, people
eager to bully and steal from any place that
seems to be holding its own. But the good people,
the ones that can be trusted. And the ones that
still try to seek out joy at the end of a long,
exhausting day of labor. They know where to go.
And among these many small bastions of meager
joy hidden throughout this low city, Mickens
Pub is one of the most well -respected. So we
move in towards this building, towards the sounds
of revelry. We push through the grain of the
wooden door and we are among the people. Drinking
and chatting. One woman awkwardly attempting
to lead the crowd into a folk song. Nobody joins,
but many turn their attention towards her, their
creased and weary eyes carrying the shadow of
a smile. And beyond all of this, beyond the makeshift
bar built on cloth -covered crates, we see a
copper -skinned dwarven child sitting over a
trapdoor set into the floor. He sighs, his eyelids
drooping, closed, and faint snores rolling out
from his nose before his eyes flutter open and
he shakes himself awake again. This child is,
of course, A younger Mulligan Svulligan, around
eight years old. And we hear him whisper to himself,
just, no sleep, no sleep, no sleep. Jules, Jules
is counting on me to hold this door. Now, before
we continue, we should address the Jules, sort
of lore, Jules timeline really quick. See, I,
as a longtime television fanatic, absolutely
love flashback scenes that resonate with the
events of an episode but are told out of chronological
order. I have a blast piecing these sort of timelines
together, but that is a lot easier in a visual
medium. And we've had a number of Jules flashbacks
at this point, as well as Dresden flashbacks
that sort of intertwine with them. And I really
want to start setting the record straight about
when and where they go down in the timeline,
because there's more to come. So up to this point,
I'll say it looks like this. We had our first
flashback of Jules early in his 13th year in
the darkness. The single candle, this dark ritual,
something trying to invite itself into him, screaming
at him to open his eyes. Then, very shortly after
that, we have Jules meeting Dresden. About two
years after this time, sort of late in his 15th
year, we have the scene with the black candle
where Jules gains his abilities, which we've
labeled as a shadow -touched feat. where his
hand is sliced open, the wax poured in, some
dark ritual giving him power. And not long after
that, at age 16, I think we said 14 in the episode,
that was my mistake, I realize, age 16, Jules
meets Chester after a few days in the Low City.
What we're going to pick up now is four years
later than that. Jules is 20 years old. This
is four years before the sapphires fall and this
adventure begins. At this point, Chester, Fibrosis,
and Mulligan have all joined his ranks. And currently,
Jules and the gang are dealing with a peculiar
little problem. So, Jeremy, I imagine at this
point Jules is sort of in your gang almost like
the Robin Hoods of the lower city. Yeah. Scoundrel
kids that go around stealing from the high city
folk, conning them, getting what you can, hoarding
it, giving it to the people that need it the
most. Yeah, we've definitely already established
our shenanigans at this point. Yeah. I love it.
And I think you are, in that way, sort of revered
as heroes by so many people in need. And in holding
these items and being these heroes, you will,
of course, need to store your scores between
jobs. Because you need to give them to the people
who need them most. And sometimes you have a
good haul. I imagine you have stores of money,
of food, of clothing, various basic comforts
that can help the people. So you need safe houses.
We talked about one before when you met Roundstuff.
We talked about, like, you had these various
sort of safe houses you could store your things
at where you'd kind of camp out. And I imagine
you're having to move pretty consistently. So
you've got a lot of allies here amongst the people.
And a number of them have given you sort of safe
houses. And amongst them, you have, of course,
Micken and his pup. You've managed to store your
stuff down in the basement below. The revelers
up top, they don't know about this. But down
here in the dark, You are free. But there's been
a problem. At the last couple of safe houses
you had, the one before this and this one here,
things have been going missing in the night.
Fibro has been avid about recording your inventory,
mostly to make sure Mulligan doesn't eat too
much of it. And he has noticed a pattern of things
disappearing, mostly food, but some money and
some clothing as well. And now in the safe houses,
you're starting to feel this again. You realize
that it's a continuing problem. Something is
wrong. And the time has come to take action against
this threat. What action do you think Jules would
take? Jules and the rest of the guys are pretty
street savvy. So I think they kind of have an
idea of what's going on. So they're going to
do a stakeout. Hell yeah. They're going to stake
out the joint. All right. Even in what seems
like the most private of places, shit's still
going missing. So we pan down beneath Mulligan
where he sits on this trap door. One of the two
exits to this sort of basement layer. As we move
down, we see this dimly lit basement just loaded
with all sorts of crates and barrels and things.
Some of them belonging to Micken, but many of
them belonging to you guys. There is one more
exit, a staircase towards the back that leads
to sort of cellar entrance behind the structure.
This is closed up, locked. Do you have a guard
on this door? Chester's there. Okay. So Chester
is waiting outside. sort of poised to go, but
I don't think he's too concerned. Not that someone's
going to break in here, because I think you've
noticed that these entrances haven't been bothered.
No. So where is Jules? Jules is hiding in the
shadows behind a crate. Probably been here. Invisible.
Oh, shoot. Yes, you have it by now. Actually,
you know what? You know what? No, no, no. No?
I'm going to alter this. He's not sitting behind
a crate. He's just sitting on top of the crate,
but he's invisible. That's amazing. He went invisible
before they came down this time. That is clever.
Oh, devious. So you guys go down, store your
items, and everyone kind of makes out like they're
leaving. Things are all closed up. One door watched
by Chester. One door sat on by Mulligan. Fibro
is who knows where. He's in his books. Yeah,
he's reading. He's in his books. He did his part.
But Jules is here, invisible, waiting. And waiting.
And as the night goes on, everything goes silent.
As the sounds of revelry above begin to fade.
People going home. The bar closing. You hear
a soft scrape. Something moving towards the back.
And you realize the perpetrator has been here.
You knew the perpetrator had been here. Hiding
amongst all of this. Waiting for his chance.
You watch. As slowly, a small figure, maybe a
five -year -old child, begins to move across
the floor carefully. Eyes falling on the exact
crate you're sitting on, because I imagine some
good stuff in it. Oh, yeah. As he grows closer,
you can see green skin, pointed ears, the features
of a half -orc child. And very quietly, he moves
over to open the lid of the crate. What do you
do? What you doing there? He just reaches behind
his belt, tries to pull out like a tiny little
like dagger, like comically small and just, where,
where are you? I'm, I'm dangerous. You don't
want to, you better give me your stuff. He's
just like looking around all over, trying to
spot you. It sounds so close. You can put that
down. You're among friends here. It's okay. And
then Jules reveals himself. Uh, he, Almost drops
the weapon, like flailing hands, and he kind
of like leaps backwards and then sort of poisons
it towards you again. You see his eyes look towards
the cellar door that Chester's manning, and he
makes a move like he's going to run towards it.
Put the knife down. You're safe. No one's safe
anywhere. He's safe here. Trust me. And he kind
of look over at Chester. Yeah, Chester's kind
of like steps in, sits down in front of the stairs,
kind of like. nodding, waiting. Looks towards
the trapdoor and realizes they're two. It's like,
one door's manned. I'm Jules, and this is Chester.
What's your name? He drops the weapon, puts his
hands behind his head, and just in a very adult
manner just says, You can torture me all you
want. I won't tell you anything. He's five. Do
your worst. Nah, nah, nah. There's going to be
none of that here. He's just glaring. He doesn't
trust you. He's like scared. What are you after?
Things. We got things. We can share these things.
You don't got to take them in the shadows. What's
it cost? Everything costs something here in the
streets. All it costs is friendship, man. You
got our back, we got yours. I think he almost
bewildered looks towards Chester, who just kind
of shrugs and says, Hey, he's telling the truth,
man. I know it's crazy, but that's Jules. You're
going to like him. And hey, you got skills. Honestly,
it took us a while to catch you. And even just
now, you were quiet. We could use someone like
that. Right, Jules? Yeah, and we take from people
that deserve to be taken from. Deserve. Justice,
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if I protect you, I can
have some stuff. We all get some stuff. But the
most important part is we get a family. There's
this moment, hearing that word of just longing
in his eyes. Family. And he reaches out, small,
shaking, to a rough little hand. I'm Miskin.
Miskin Muddlehopper. And Jules reaches out a
hand, shakes it. It's really good to meet you,
Miskin. Welcome. So, Jules, you're just from
the corner. We did it. Caught the guy, got a
new member. What do you say? You want to celebrate?
Hell yeah. Let's do it. Mickey may have closed
up, but his stuff's still up there. Oh, yeah.
You thinking the usual? Oh, man, we got to get
Miskin in on this. Miskin, Miskin. What are you
doing? Have you ever heard of a cherry delight?
Cherry what? Come on, come on. We'll make you
one. Come on. Come on up. And I think like with
that, you see Jules and Chester begin to move
towards the ladder by banging on to wake up Mulligan,
who definitely fell asleep, snoring to their
side. Oh no, we're trapped. As you move away,
I think we just kind of pan over to little Miskin,
eyes wide and watching a cherry delight. And
we pan away from this scene. Fade to black. Jules,
as we return to the present, to the borderlands
of Saint -Étienne, and to this nice little pukeria?
Pukeria? Don't look at me. This little bar. I
can't help you. In the town of Mupazul. We cut
to you. Now we're in this cool, sleek, dark,
plus one studded leather armor. And I imagine
just like sort of packing the last of what you
need into your handy... your gift from Coley
Sr., is 5 a .m. on the second day. We're on the
second day, guys. Day two. Took a while. We're
here. Oh, man. Wait, no. Wait, the whole time
we've been on Sansa Tian? Wait, seriously? Yep.
Holy shit. Zebulon and Jules arrived on Santa
Town at, I believe it was 9 o 'clock p .m. on
day zero. So we don't believe you. We did not
give enough character death processing time.
Dude, I think we have like, I think we have like
literally, it must be like 24 hours of content.
Yeah. I mean, it's just a lot of numbness because
like that's, I think what you're dealing with,
like you're pushing, it's a lot of denial and
pushing through. Yeah, it's coping mechanisms.
And everyone's been doubling down on these missions.
Jean, I mean, his whole thing is like, I want
to save Jules. I want to save Jules because he
knows that like this just happened. It's so fresh.
Well, there's also a point where we have to sort
of like, you know, suspend our reality and understand
we're playing a game. Oh, I know. You know? Yeah.
No. Hey, no. It's all genius. Instead of like
my best friend died yesterday, but okay, I'm
going to continue on this adventure right now.
That's fair. This is just a very short while
after the previous scene. Crispin, I imagine
you're still sitting out behind the Picaria,
still smoking your smoke rings. We're going to
get to you. We're going to get to you. We've
got a lot to say to you. Crispin. Uh -oh. And
we know Dance and Arhalon have not returned quite
yet from wherever they had gone. Right now, Jules,
you still feel the exhaustion of Serenno. You'll
feel it until around 6 o 'clock a .m. when it
will vanish. How many points am I at? I believe
you're at three. Okay. Wowee. Okay. They could
have been a lot worse. You passed your last save.
That was good. I mean, honestly, I'm not overly
concerned just yet because it's 10, right? I
think so. It's 10, right? 10 is death. Okay.
Okay. Yeah. So if you can resolve things fast,
no matter what failure you could have tonight,
potentially, you might be okay. Oh, look, there's
Miskin. Let's go. Okay. Only 30 % of the way
to death. I ignore that fact most days. Oh, no.
Don't. Don't do this. Don't you math me. Oh,
no. I don't know what kind of day you're having
out there, but I hope you didn't need that. Oh,
no. Jules, what do you do? You know it's about
time. You know, light's going to hit the sky
pretty soon. You guys want to leave pretty soon.
Kind of still waiting on people. Where are we
at again? We're in... You are in the Bukiori.
You're downstairs. You just packed all your stuff.
You're ready to go. And it's a bar. Yes. Jules
is drinking an ale. At 5 a .m. Yes. I love that.
Yes. I mean, we do it. Not exactly. You're paid
to do it. Not exactly. Yeah, I think he's just
sitting at the bar alone. Okay, fine. Drinking
a water. No, no, no. Tell your truth, my man.
Don't let my surprise change Jules' story. Yeah,
he's just sitting silently at the bar by himself.
Okay. So your bag's slumpin' easy. You're just
kind of drinking at the bar and you hear the
saloon door open behind you. He doesn't even
turn around. Welcome back. You just hear a, hmm,
drinking already? Seems like an appropriate time.
Pull me something. You're not gonna like it,
but okay. And he pours what he's got, which is
just your standard ale. She sort of glides over
to the bar, kind of leans up next to you, picks
up the glass and... This will not do. I told
you. Yes, you did. She passes it over to you.
Drink this one too. All right. And I think she
kind of goes behind the bar and starts fishing
around and picks up this bottle of the more standard
pulque. Sniffs it. This is good. This will be
good. I've been, uh, speaking with the owner
of this tavern. I paid them off for the damages
for the night. Whatever we've taken. Everything
is cleared. They were terrified of that monster
we travel with. As you should be. I can see right
through Arhalon. He's not a monster. He's just
got some, uh, he's got some walls to break down.
Then he'll get there. If he's anything like Zebulon,
he'll get there. She gets this kind of far -off
look, kind of staring at the back wall, and then
nods slowly. Zebulon, your grief must be fresh
still. But perhaps I can help. Will you come
with me? We have some time before we have to
go. And this is important. It may save our lives
later. I'll explain. Let me get outside. Yeah,
sure. You lead the way. And I think she moves
out, leading out the front door, around sort
of like towards the side of the book area with
this kind of an open wall. And you notice something
there. Looks like a number of small stone altars
and a path leading over to them. You see as Dancer
approaches them, she fishes a sort of satchel
that she didn't have before. sort of down from
around her arm, and begins to, like, open it
up, and starts on two of these altars, decorating
them with a number of things. You see a number
of, like, candles, a sort of inscription running
down, the wax, as well as a number of marigolds,
starts decorating the altars with around the
bottom. Tonight, Jules, the celebrated dead of
Sansation will return to their loved ones. This
works only if you build what's called an ofrenda.
These are small personal altars that work as
invitations into the feud plane and beyond. I...
I must build an ofrenda for Matteo before the
night comes. And if all should work, he will
come to us. Tonight. He will help us tonight.
And I invite you to do the same. I... And she
kind of puts her hand up. I... I don't want to
get your hopes up. Zebulon... He cannot come
back. Not like Matteo can. There is... A spark
in those raised on Saint -Étienne, born here.
Those with my blood. Like Katrina, she left it
to my people many, many, many years ago, generations
ago. And every year we have been able to come
back, but those from off -world, they don't have
this spark. Even so, though, I find it is comforting
to create an altar to those lost. And she gestures
towards the second one she's decorated. I will
walk you through it. Yeah, sure, I'll give it
a try. Here, and she hands you a number of marigolds.
Decorate as you will, around the base. And you
just kind of start following her lead and decorating
them? Yes. So two of you are leaning side by
side in front of these stone altars, decorating.
I think it was like a moment of silence, and
then... Jules, do you... Do you know what happens
after you die? Are you aware of Zebulon's journey?
No, I mean... That is dead. It's not so true
here. Or anywhere, I found. Whether or not you
have the spark, the passing is peaceful. It is
a good thing. He will have found himself in the
fugue plane. A vast gray landscape. Those who
come back, they remember the fugue plane well.
Nothing beyond it, but they remember feeling
this warmth and this calm. As a pillar of light,
a beacon on the horizon called to them. They
remember... Walking in a trance. Letting the
warmth of the light envelop them and take them.
And they remember joy. They don't remember where
from. They don't remember what happens beyond
the light. I don't think anyone really remembers.
But there is joy. For those who have lived good
lives, there is joy. And Zebulon was good. How
do you know that? We can speak with the dead.
Well, I got a question for you then. Please.
When they come back... Is that even really them?
She kind of smiles and looks down. My mother
and father. Mateo and I lost both of them years
ago. The first year they came back, I had the
same thought. Will it be them? Will they remember
everything? Their form has changed. They are
skeletal. I don't have seen the Olvidatos around,
those who death forgets to reclaim at the night's
end, but... I'm not talking about their body,
what they look like. I'm talking about their
soul. It was them, Jules. When they spoke. When
she held me. It was after that that Matteo and
I decided to take on the monikers of Dance Macabre
and Demilich. To honor the dead in the arena.
To honor La Catrina and her gift. I would bring
them back too, but I do not have all the tools.
But Matteo. I can bring back Matteo. First things
first. You need something Jebion would love.
Something... He would treasure in life a gift
to invite him. Do you have anything like this?
Jules would go back into the bar, grab as much
food as he can. Oh, food, yes. And then he's
going to come out with the tray of food. This
is like nondescript food because Zebulon wasn't
that guy. He'd just eat until he puked. That's
a lot to put on. Nope, do it. So much food for
the altar. Dance, if you knew Zeb, this is not
enough. How is he so small? So Jules comes with
the food and kneels down at the altar. And he's
got this, he initially has this expression like,
this is so fucking stupid. Like, what the hell
am I doing? But he's doing it because, you know,
it's dance and he would do anything for dance.
Let's just put that out in the open. And he puts
the food down and kind of stares down at it for
a second. You're just loading this altar with
food. I think you can feel Danza's eyes on you
and this kind of soft smile playing in her lips
as she sees. Maybe just watching her expression
and knowing that you're not overly enjoying this,
but knowing that in her way that this might still
help. And once you're done, she just sort of
nods, and then you see she takes that bottle
of poke that she took from the bar and places
it on hers. Mateo loved Miposo's poke. Now, the
next part, an image. Something that looks like
them. It isn't overly necessary, but it helps
a lot. Jules pauses to think for a second, then
reaches around. There's a moment of realization.
And then he reaches around to his back pocket
and pulls out the doll of Zebulon. That's so
cute. It's probably so cute. Yeah. Yeah, it is.
And Jules will kneel down in front of the altar
and hold the doll out in front of him. Love you,
Zeb. And he'll put the doll. On top of the food.
Yes. I love how crude this altar must look, but
it's also just so Zebulon. It's excellent. Just
an action figure and a pile of nondescript food.
All right, now there. I got everything on there.
He's supposed to come back now, right? She just
looks at you sadly, puts a hand on your shoulder.
I'm sorry, Joss. But just because they're not
going to come back does not mean we should not
honor them and remember them. And this, this
is a great honor to Zebulon. It's so Zebulon.
I did not know him well, but I can see it. He
was the best person I knew. I think there's a
moment, a long moment between you. And then she
finally just slowly pulls her hand away and looks
back towards her own altar. I have no image of
Mateo. But they have something else that might
just work just as well. And Dance reaches up
and unties the back of her mask and pulls her
mask off her face, gently lowering it down onto
the altar. And for the first time, you look at
Dance Macabre and you truly see Gabriela Cortez.
Her youth was apparent even without the mask,
but now you can clearly see the face of a woman
in her early twenties. You see smooth, girlish
features betrayed by such intense eyes, so dark
brown they border on black. With those eyes closed,
she just whispers a soft prayer. Please, hear
me, Mateo. Your people need you. Your sister
needs you. And she rises to her feet. It's done.
They are very good to friend us. Player Jeremy
forgot that she was actually wearing a mask the
whole time. She's a luchadora. Yeah, I think
as she's doing this, Jules is no longer like
paying attention to the ritual that she's actually
doing. And he is just wide -eyed. As she gets
to her feet and kind of like dusts off her choreo
dress, just kind of looks over to you and just
kind of smiles. He does like a little, like the
corner of the mouth, like half -cocked smirk.
You like what you see? Keep going, keep going.
Roll your tongue back in, Jules. Her eyes are
like still locked on you, still smiling. Do you
know what I saw in you, Jules Roche? Back on
Susanko? In the market? Couldn't have been anything
good, but go on. Oh, no, nothing good at all.
You pushed me into helping with your distraction.
You sang to me on the spot in public. Do you
have any idea how mad that made me? Such infuriating
boldness. The sheer audacity of your words. Men
have made advances on me for years. Sarabia,
for instance, has tried hundreds of times to
impress me, but nobody has annoyed me nearly
as much as you. In that, there's courage in that.
I could break you. Right now, even. That's why
I like you. And she just kind of smiles. If Thrapio
heard any of this, you know he'd have you assassinated
in a day, right? Does it frighten you? Some things
are worth the risk. I thought you'd say that.
I think she moves a little closer to you. I'm
flushing. Are my friends going to kiss? I don't
know. Does she want me to kiss her? I don't know.
What do you want to do? She kind of just moves
a little closer, almost like... She's got something.
I don't know if you want to roll an insight check.
You can do what you want here. Yeah, let me roll
an insight. Roll an insight check. Let me roll
an insight. Let's see what we're working with.
Hell yeah. 19. There's humor in her eyes. She's
playing with you. Now, there is definitely feelings
there. Well, she's also having fun with you.
Okay, so Jules will give a playful nudge with
his shoulder. I think she cocks her a little
bit. Not going to make the first move, Jules
Roche. Good. I am a luchadora of Saint -Étienne.
I will be making the first move. And she spins
around, starts stepping playfully away, and gestures
back to you, too. Come along. Jules gets up,
doesn't say anything, and follows. As dance reaches
the edge of the alley, kind of moving onto the
street, she stops, just halting in her step.
raises a palm towards you and you see her head
sort of snaps towards the sky and she gets sort
of glower in her eyes and you immediately read
the moon is fully killed and a moment later you
see a very glum looking Arhalon flying overhead
and coming down to land just in front of the
Valkyria. You give me a dance scene? And an Arhalon?
What the fuck? I think he actually more just,
he more looks towards you guys. Day is almost
upon us. Are you ready? I'm always ready. And
he just sort of nods and storms away. And we're
going to follow Arhalon. We're going to follow
Arhalon as he moves through the building, looks
around. Let me sniff the air. Smelling smoke.
And while they're bursting out the back door.
Where Crispin Dubois sits. Crispin, let's talk
about you. Let's talk about Crispin. We left
off last session, you had this development in
your powers. Your augury spell essentially like
gaining a second feature. It's doing something
it doesn't normally do. The sort of surge of
power you normally feel when you cast it echoed
that you saw this second symbol appear after
your first wheel and woe, traditional symbols,
family. You don't understand the symbol, what
it means. You don't understand where the power,
where it came from. Why the change? There were
set rules, you thought. Why are they changing
now? And perhaps you're lost in this sort of
thought as the door behind you slams open and
this just enormous half -dragon just steps out
behind you, sort of stomping out onto the porch.
Good morning, our horn. Breathes out a little
bit of flame and smoke. I gather we'll be leaving
soon. We will. Soon. The others are about ready
to go. But... He just, like, seems different,
off. Like, he's been away, sort of fuming and
cooling down, and there's nothing more thoughtful
about him now as he's come back. I kind of just
assumed he was away killing somebody. No fresh
blood on him, it seems. Tell me, Crispin, I have
seen you change your form. Become a monstrous
beast. From where do you derive your power, your
magic? Well, the spirits and the sprites all
around us. I believe I get my powers from them.
From nature, if you will. You believe? You don't
know your source of power? I haven't entirely
figured it out, but I am grateful. I used to
wield some magic as well. And I knew my source.
An oath sworn when I was a younger man. Not an
oath to the shield -bearers, but an oath to myself.
To my brother. To devote myself to the protection
of the innocent. I wanted to stand for those
who could not stand for themselves. I wanted
to stand for Zebulon. And this gave me power.
Magic from the gods. and from my resolve, my
heart. But in my duties as a shieldbearer, I
served an evil purpose. I gave children over
to the LaRoche family. Even after I learned what
they really are, I could have defied orders.
But I didn't. I had thought at the time that
sacrificing my role in the shieldbearers would
lead to a path of greater loss. And I was a fool.
I lost my powers soon after. On the last day,
I spoke to my brother. Have you ever lost someone,
Crispin? Have you ever lost someone you cared
about? Crispin's head sort of tilts away as he's
seeing flashes of just these horrible things.
Monsters in the fog. I have known loss. Yes,
of course. Tell me, did they hate you when they
died? Did they die believing you hated them?
No, I surely hope not. But Ahalan, I don't believe...
I don't believe Zebulon ever hated you. Ever
could hate you. Maybe he should have. Because...
Smile cracked in his lips. Because maybe I do
hate him. Even now. I hate him. Because I needed
him. That doesn't matter. That doesn't matter,
Ahalan. He was your brother, and he loved you.
Always. I know it. You don't know us. You don't
know things I said to him. I think I could pick
up a little on his character. That's why I speak
with such confidence. You could see it in the
way he carried himself. There was honor there.
Honor and love and devotion to his friends and
to his family. I suppose I'm glad. that he did
not forget everything I taught him. Now come,
the sun begins to light the sky. We must make
haste. Crispin grabs his little satchel bag,
whatever he carries, and heads in through the
back door to meet up with the rest of the crew.
I tried to say crew and group at the same time.
I heard that, I heard it. We're the crew now,
baby. Okay. I'll ask you guys now, is there any
last business you want to do? You still have
this guy tied up in here. Dance will explain.
She told the town about him. She told, like,
because she met with the actual owners. Yeah,
I think we established that we're just going
to leave him. Okay. And leave him to the town's
vote. Wash our hands of it. Yeah. So he just
kind of watches on, tied to his chair as you
grab all your belongings. I think as we start
to leave, Jules looks at him and says, stay.
To just kind of be fair, I think. I think they're
giving him water and food and things as they
see fit. You know, we're not like, we're not
just like hog tying this guy and torturing him
and letting him sit there. I think they're doing
their best to treat him humanely. Yes. All right.
With that, he watches you. All move out the door.
The saloon doors. I love doing that. Just close
behind you. The more you do it, the more I have
to make a sound effect for it. He's got the hand
motion too. I love it. I love saloon doors. They're
so cool. There's going to be so many saloon doors
in this podcast. There already have been a lot.
You know what people love? Like when I throw
up like reels or stories on whatever is your
hand motions. I can't. I just do weird hand things.
It's great. It's fantastic. Yeah. It really pulls
me into the scene. Cool. I tell you guys, hit
the road. Yeah, I think so. Off to the Luis Senor
Peaks. Oh, yeah. Right? Yes. Yeah. So first things
first, the first place you were thinking of going
was there's a farmhouse at the base of them where
Arhalon believes Miskin was last sighted, where
the entire family was killed. That little yellow
dot at the base of the peaks. That is approximately
10 miles away. So around 3 .5 hours of travel,
we'll say. You're leaving here around maybe 5
.30, 6 o 'clock, so you'd probably get there
around, we'll just call it 9 .30. I think I'm
going to keep my wild shape. Okay. Yeah, I mean,
emergency use, you know? Yeah. I feel like we're
on life two right now. And Arlon can't ride you.
He can fly, but he can't ride you. Sure, sure.
That would be a lot. Great. So, I mean, like,
we're just heading out? Yeah, heading out. So
you press out into the desert. Into the borderlands
again. Leaving the town behind you. And I think
as we move away, the last thing we see is the
camera sort of pans back down slowly to the pokey
area. Down the roof, down the wall, down towards
these two structures. These two ofrendas. And
we're out in the borderlands. You guys are moving.
Passing wastelands of cacti, mountains off in
the distance. It's a hot day. It's a long day.
You travel for three and a half hours, and they
are not irremarkable three and a half hours.
And towards the end of your travel, you start
to see there's farmlands growing. Right at the
base of the mountain peaks, you get closer and
closer to the dominating mountain spine that
just sort of juts up and travels far to the north.
You can see it's intimidating. You start to see
greenery. Perhaps a good sort of groundwater
source coming off the mountains and feeding the
lands around. The soil here is good. Not arid
and dry like the rest. You can see, like, A number
of large farms. Arhalon leads you past the first
few. I have spoken with them already. If you
have something to ask, we can stop. I suggest
we reach the farmhouse in question, the first
one. The first one coming from the other direction
from Hollow. Yeah, I think Crispin's okay to
keep going to... Yeah, I think at this point,
too, Jules is following Arhalon. Yeah, I think
Arhalon's the leader right now. Okay. He's sort
of in the air flying above you, kind of keeping
an eye. You can see people sort of cowering in
homes, peeking out and watching as you guys are
moving as Arhalon's scowl is dominating the sky
as you press from home, farmland, to the next,
to the next, and to the last. Jules, I don't
know what we're going to find here. I don't know
this boy, not the way you do. I had this feeling,
this premonition. Is it impossible that Miskin's
with family? Have we established if Jules knows
Miskin's entire history? After torturing him
for a good while, you did... Great. Great start
to a friendship. He actually would have opened
up at some point and told you. All you know about
Miskin is he did have parents. They were miners.
One orc, one human. The father was a human, mother
was the orc. They worked together in the mines.
They died. Mining accident. Whole shaft sort
of caved in on them. They are most definitely
dead. That's all the family he has. It's not
impossible that he would be with his kind. But
he'd let me know. I don't want to upset you.
I just... Maybe it's nothing. I don't know. I
can't quite figure it out yet. He'll show me
the way. Arlan is flying up, circling around
the back of this house in the sky and guiding
you all towards it. You've seen this farmhouse
looks like any of the other ones. It doesn't
look destroyed. It doesn't look harmed. Livestock
are... It looks like there's actually some livestock
in the field still, like, munching. On grass,
haven't really been claimed by anybody quite
yet. It should hopefully happen soon. But from
a distance, it looks like nothing's wrong. Just
beautiful fields, bounty vegetation. Right at
the foot of these mountains, which you can see
are also covered in such vegetation, various
spots and places, trees growing, vines hanging
as they snake away from the deserts. Can Jules
roll investigation? This is a roleplay episode.
Actually, if you guys want to investigate the
whole scene, please. Yeah, I'll roll. And we'll
say this investigation just kind of on the whole.
So I'll say this is like you guys follow Arlan's
lead. You can move and investigate whatever you
want to investigate here because Arlan might
have missed stuff. Yeah. Instead of investigation,
Crispin's going to look more for like a presence,
like to see if there are people here or if he
can hear anything. I'd rather roll with perception.
Okay. I also allow survival if you have it. 14
perception. Okay. All right. Would it be better
for Jules to do perception or an investigation?
I guess it depends on what you're looking for.
You also might get different things based on
what you roll. Can I roll both? Yes. Okay. In
fact, I actually recommend Crispin, you roll
survival as well. Okay. All right. So investigation.
Okay. There's a 13. Okay. This guy's hard to
read, but it's a 13. For survival. And perception
is an 8. Damn. Not great. So while I'm going
through all this is your perception will let
you see things like tracks, signs, things like
that. Your survival would let you glean more
information from them. Your survival was not
huge, so I'm not going to give you a whole lot.
So let's resolve your investigation was what
now? Shit. 13? 13? Yeah. 13, okay. All right,
with a 13, as you move through the farmhouse,
you notice things in Arhalon. Notice there's
an eighth plate. Okay, there's one thing you
would not see, regardless. But I want you to
roll the die one more time for something else,
because you're going to have advantage on a certain
thing. Okay. Okay. 16. With a 16, you're moving
through the house, and it's very faint. It's
tucked down into a corner of one of the rooms.
But you see, like, low down a wall, there's a
small carving. Looks like two sort of circles
connected with a little triangle sort of connecting
stem. A cherry with a stem. It's a sign that
Miskin has left you before, as we said, in the
streets when he was taken. And you know it's
a sign from Miskin. He was here. He was here.
If there's a sign here, there may be more signs
leading away. Guys, he was here. Come here. So
you all kind of see that. Arhalon kind of notes
it, nods. Very well. Let me show you the back,
where I found the bodies. Maybe more to find
there. And that's where your perceptions are
coming, Crispin. Okay. Arhalon takes you all
out back, and you see, like, there are seven
fresh graves, and somewhere, like, in the middle
of all of them, there's, like, in the middle
of this little circle of graves, there is a spot
of, it looks like... Sort of darker brown on
the grass and dirt. Just a lot of blood. A pool
of it that has kind of been sucked mostly into
the earth, but some still lingering, remaining.
So, anything. I can't make much out on it. And
I will say that with your perception, Crispin,
you notice that there are tracks leading away
from this spot. Looks like... larger tracks,
and maybe even a set of smaller footprints. This
thing is a little off about them, but that survival
doesn't give you any more information on what's
going on with those small tracks. Can we, like,
can Crispin, like, take 20? On this, I'll say
no. Okay. It's more of a logic, sort of deducing
what the person means. But you see this trail
does go northwards into the mountains. And again,
with that survival, you don't know how old this
is, but based on what Arhalon had said, it may
have been at least, Two days now that this has
happened. You also see, with your perception,
another kind of weird, interesting thing. These
tracks lead sort of... They're close to the bloodstain,
but they're not directly on the bloodstain. They're
almost like, if you move up like 10, 15 feet
away from it, that's where the tracks sort of
come in, like something moved in from here and
then moved out from there. But there are no tracks
around the bloodstains. No indents of these large,
giant feet. So they... So they didn't bleed.
That or somehow when they died, there was no
tracks left around their bodies. And I will say,
Jules, if you sort of follow Crispin's sort of,
you know, he points these out and you're following
them up, you do see, as you're kind of honing
to this now, a small cherry sort of carved into
the dirt on the ground. Or there's like some
handprints where like someone fell and very quickly
scribbled a cherry into the ground. before they
stood up and kept walking. He was with them.
He went this way. I see. So he's in the mountains
then. As I feared, the Etans have taken him.
Well, I guess we better give chase. I am not
stopping until we find him. Then let's go. Naralan
just with one mighty flap takes the skies and
begins to shoot over you, over the trees. and
sort of up the mountainside. Can I take you guys
to follow? Absolutely. Yep. Let's go to the mountains.
Here we see Crispin, Dance, and Jules all together,
pushing away from this solitary farmhouse, the
stains of blood and tragedy behind, into the
mountains where perhaps more tragedy awaits.
And we'll call it there.