Hello, beautiful humans. Editor Jeremy here to
start this one off. This episode was our first
session back after two weeks, and during that
downtime, I got some new stuff for the studio.
And I did some rearranging and moving some things
here and there. Well, that kinda led to a slew
of technical difficulties during this session,
so please, bear with me if you hear anything
weird. Who knows? You may not hear anything,
and it may just be my little editing brain that
hears every single difficulty that we had. In
any case, this is still an incredible episode.
We got pretty damn goofy and had a whole bunch
of laughs, and I know you'll love it too. With
that being said, thanks so much for being here
with us, and enjoy! and potential for the rich,
gemstone mines of the mountains of Tithos. Their
efforts truthfully made them one of the richest
families among all worlds, giving them more power
over the politics of Cerule and eventually established
themselves as the green family of the whole world.
Their influence has only grown since then, especially
after hearing it between Crown Prince Samuel
and his loving wife Cerise. Following the death
of the current royals, the two took naturally
the throne. To be continued... Now the family
survives with only a fraction of their support.
The tower, the city, their people. Nobody lost
more to the fall of the Sapphire than the Roaches.
Yet they carry on. Cirilla still holds her place
within the speakers for the ancestors. And Samuel
and Cerise hold many allies and assets from the
top of the tongue. The future may be uncertain,
but I am sure of one thing. The Roach family
is far from finished. Hey everybody, welcome
back. I'm Antsy, I'm Pansy, I'm David Monroe.
his fancy pants and these guys are fucking...
What's your name? Yeah! Steven! Yeah! And your
name? What's your name? Jeremy. Alright, new
listeners on episode... What fucking episode
is this right now? Sixty... Sixty fucking two.
If you're picking up sixty -two... Really? No,
yeah. It's not sixty -two. It's sixty -fucking
-two. Sixty -fucking -two! Enthusiasm. Sorry,
it's here. I have an enthusiastic sense this
morning. Okay. Since this afternoon. You really
weren't. I was not. I came in and saw you sitting
in your little booth cubicle there. I'm like,
hey, David. And you go, hey. Look. It was 8 o
'clock. That's too early. Look, these guys get
up at like 4 o 'clock in the morning or whatever
shit you do. It's insane. People think you're
crazy. Occasionally 4 or 5 at the latest. Okay.
That's insane. That's crazy. I mean, but. What
time do you get done with work? If I'm up before
10, I want to die. 10? Jesus Christ. 10 is my
biological time. The day is half over. What time
are you done with work? I know we're at 5 o 'clock.
Okay. 4 o 'clock recording days. We're done what?
Probably hard average 3? Yeah. Depending on the
day. Wow, that's so worth getting up at 2 o 'clock
or 4 o 'clock in the morning. What is your point?
My alarm goes off at 5, and then I usually do
prospect, and then I get to work. Yeah, I don't
know. Okay. That's right. I forgot. We're omitting
a very important detail, which is that Jeremy
Wolf takes two hours to poop in the morning.
Jeremy, prove me wrong. No. I'd say it's a solid
40 minutes of pooping. Twice. I mean, twice.
40 minutes combined. Why are we talking about
this on the show? No, we're doing this here.
We're here now. I'm driving this shit. No, I
have a whole morning routine because I'm not
fucking like you. I cannot just wake up, throw
my clothes on, and be out the door in 10 minutes.
Hell no. I wake up. I take Danny out. I do my
business. Yep. Then I take a shower. Yep. Then
I get out of the shower. All this time I've also
made coffee and I have my cup of coffee with
me. Which helps with the, you know. Yeah. Yep.
Then I take a shower. I get out. I make breakfast.
I feed Danny. I go in for another, you know,
business trip. Pack your bags for their business
trip first class. And then I come out and I take
Danny out a second time. And then I get dressed
and go. I love it. I love it. Stephen, how do
you poop in the morning? I'm fully awake by the
time I walk out the door. And that's how I like
it. Just you wait until we are sponsored by Tushy.
Just you wait. You hear that, pants people? Help
us make this happen. Or manscaped. We're a manscaped
crowd here. This is officially my most uncomfortable
banter yet. Steven, tell me about your poop!
In the morning. We don't care about night poops
here. We're no longer fantasy pants. We're just
poopy pants. Poopy pants. Or babies and broadswords
in real life. Let's do it! Yeah, I like to poop
in the morning. Right after I wake up, before
the first cup of coffee. Then I'm making breakfast
out the door, do my morning walk, and then I
hit to work. See, thank you. You have a routine
that helps you to wake up and greet the day.
Yeah. Yeah. You're a vampire. I crawl out of
bed. I splash water on my face, deodorize, crawl
into my car, drive to work, get to work, go right
in the bathroom and shotgun to the toilet, crack
the bowl. That's my morning. I might be lactose
intolerant. I love dairy. Dude, I'm the same.
Seriously. If I have cheese or any dairy the
night before, That morning. All right, guys.
I bought eggnog earlier this week. No, you don't
want to hear my egg? Okay. Guys, I'm going to
have so much. I'm going to have a lot of fun
editing this one. Steven, take the wheel. This
is terrible. Steven, please save us from this
conversation that David had started. I just finished
it. I think we did an appropriate amount of toilet
talk. That's fair. I think we can leave lactose
intolerance for... Next episode. You know what?
For the Discord. If you want to hear lactose
intolerance talk. This is where you're going.
You just give it to Steve and he's going to show
the discord again. Go to our Instagram page.
We've got the link to our link tree there. You
can find discord. Yes. On there. And if you have
Steven chills for discord on your bingo card,
make sure to market now. Oh, I'm talking. I'm
talking. Here we are. I had to stop it. Thank
you, Steven. Yeah. Let me, let me apologize to
all you pants people. All right. Yeah. See, the
bummer now is that we talked about poop for so
long that we don't have really enough time to
be like, hey, let's talk about this some other
fun thing. Yeah. Do you want to just tell us
another fun thing? Get go. We're warming up.
We don't need to have warm up be our banter.
We can have banter be our warm up or fucking
warm up before our banter. Wait just a minute.
Doesn't that mean the same thing? I'm warming
up like a shit in the rain. What? So here we
are. You guys want to do a flashback? Wait, hold
on, hold on. You guys want to do a flashback?
Yeah, I do. But first, we got to talk about the
shit in the rain thing. No, we're past that.
Did you make that up? Is that a thing? Give me
the sirenscape. I mean, this is the guy that
just last week said suck on your ponytail. Or
two weeks ago. He was, you know what? He was
in Florida where the rain's really warm. What
did you do in Florida, David? Yeah, what did
you do in Florida? What was in that hot tub,
David? What did you do in Florida? What was in
that hot tub? Let's do a flashback. This picture's
gone too long already. Everyone hates us. Let's
go. This is going to be a fun one. I've been
waiting on this one for quite a while, and I
only recently found time to really put it together.
But I've been wanting to drop this little bit
of lore about a cherished character of our show
for some time. Let's learn a little more. How
about Dresden Kellig? Now, establish this point
in time. Now, early in his 13th year, we've established
in our flashbacks that Jules met Dresden on the
same day that Dresden lost his eye. Then, late
in his 15th year, Jules is forced into the Black
Candle ritual where he gains his shadow -touched
abilities. This little escapade that we're going
into today happens somewhere between these moments.
during years of a close secret friendship between
a rebellious prince and a soldier in training.
Jeremy, how far into this relationship are we
now on this night? How old are our heroes during
this fateful encounter? We are both 15. Okay,
so you've known each other for a couple years
now. A couple years, yeah. Hell yeah. All right,
this relationship's really been developing. I
love it. I love it. So let's get into it. We
hear a click of a lock, followed by the creaking
of old wood, as a thick, iron -banded oak door
swings open into a dimly lit space. Stone walls
line the hallway outside this room, serving as
a background to two young figures. Now, Jeremy,
do these figures require a description, or are
they exactly what we have come to expect from
a young Dresden in jewels? Any updates on their
last appearances? Nope. Dresden now has his eye
patch. Yes. Having lost it two years before.
Although I don't know if it's necessarily a real
eye patch. Oh, okay. I think it's probably just
maybe like a strip of burlap. Hell yeah. Or something
just tied around his head. Hell yeah. And over
his eye. I imagine he's dressed in some sort
of a bear uniform, probably sort of the blue
of the LaRoche colors. Jules' usual torn up,
sort of defiant outfit. Right. Hell yeah, I love
it. We see Jules pockets a key that he stole
from Zavar earlier on in the day whilst the man
was lighting up candles for the usual rituals.
And the two of you just stare into the cult magician's
personal study. Let me ask you, Dresden, was
this little break -in your idea, or was it Jules's?
I think it was Jules's initial idea, but both
Dresden and Jules. have each other's back in
everything that they do. And so while it was
Jules' idea, Dresden's there for it. Hell yeah.
No questions asked. And I hate to put you on
the spot like this. I know it's a weird place
to be as a DM. So don't. As you stand here staring
into the room, are there any words exchanged
between these two? No. No. At least not from
Dresden. Okay. At this point, for the most part,
He's mute. Interesting. He does speak with Jules.
Oh, okay. But more so when they're in total privacy.
Gotcha. Yeah. Hell yeah. All right. The two boys
stare. They see a chamber that is quite large
for a servant, a real showcase in a special place.
Zavar holds in Jules' house beneath his mother.
though it is also extremely cluttered, making
the space feel so very enclosed, claustrophobic.
A true mess of books and papers piles across
one side of the room, the shelf they might belong
on nearly empty where it stands against the wall.
A number of tables holding jars and vials is
overhung by a great number of crow corpses dangling
off a line. Skeletons hang through the space,
most of them humanoid and carved with deep, intricate
patterns. Some, you can see, have the growth
of horns sprouting from their skulls, unnatural,
twisted things, uneven. In one case, the horns
loop around, digging deep into the head from
which it sprouts. You see all of this. You see
how it is all pushed off towards the edges of
this space, as if positioned with reverence away
from a central desk. And here we see the room's
single source of light, a magic. emanates from
the surface of this desk. An array of light shines
up from the wood, illuminating a small, pointed
object that hovers in place, slowly turning round
and round in its magical suspension. Jules sees
this, and he is drawn towards it, carefully,
quietly, crossing the room. I imagine Dresden
stands at the door, which he... holds nearly
closed, his eye keenly watching for any coming
guard ever watchful for danger. Is this accurate?
Yep. Jules is always the one that goes in to
do the deeds. Dresden's the lookout. That makes
so much sense. Hell yeah. So as Jules moves towards
this central desk crossing the room, we can make
out more of it. Firstly, we can see that the
small object looks to be a break or a fragment
taken from something larger. At first glance,
it almost looks to be a dark stone, but Dresden,
you've lived in this tower for some time now,
and you've seen the great black fossils embedded
in the masonry. You've seen where they break
from the stone throughout the floors of this
tower. You recognize their sheen here. This is
a piece, the tiniest little piece of one of these
fossils. You can't imagine what Zavar would want
with something like this. why it might be placed
in a so reverent a spot in his study, but there's
more on the table surrounding it. Old, withered
pages scribbled with a strange, looping script.
Now one of these pages, a faded image of some
great serpentine dragon. Minimalist depictions
of mountains and trees in the foreground reveal
the creature to be of truly immense scale. There
are notes from Zavar, too, written in his fevered,
manic script. Notes that Jules can almost read.
And he moves closer. And here we change perspectives
in this scene. We move from the curious Jules
to the very wary Dresden, who turns from the
doorway to look towards his friend. And he sees
the pattern on the floor. It is almost invisible
against the gray floor, running like a natural
groove in the stone. But it is perfect. It's
too perfect. In an instant, Dresden sees where
this line connects to others, forming a glyph
in the stone. And as Jules steps down, as the
glyph begins to glow and hum with power, as the
air rushes from the room and all fades into a
deep and deadly silence, Dresden is already charging,
shoulder forward, crashing into Jules with all
the force in his body. The two go sprawling deeper
into the chamber as the space behind them erupts
into flames and the silence is shattered by a
BOOM! The blast is small, contained to the glyph
at the room's center. The force of it is strong,
though. Jules, where he lies pushed against a
stone floor, is mostly untouched by this force.
Dresden, though, closer to the blast and positioned
above his friend, is thrown into the air. He
crashes hard against the central desk. Papers
are sent flying. Wood shatters. As the desk collapses
beneath his weight, Dresden rolls from the splintered
wood. The light of the spell fades and dark splashes
of blood on stone are the last images we see
as it flickers out. And Dresden, you feel pain.
A deep pain buried beneath your right arm. Something
driven far into flesh and muscle. You think of
that fossil fragment suspended above the desk
as your mind drifts off. For a moment, there
is movement as you come to. Grogly, you realize
you're being carried. Your body draped over a
struggling Jules' back. Your awareness is swimming,
drifting in and out in pulses of darkness. You
are moving across the study. Darkness. Pushing
through the door. Darkness. Moving down the darkened
hallway in darkness again. You feel something
soft moving over your head. A cloth? A curtain?
You feel your body finally lowered back against
a wall. Your eyes open. Flicker, become focused.
You sit beside Jules. The two of you hide beneath
a small table covered in a red cloth. Where these
two cloths meet, a crack between curtains, you
can peer into the hall beyond. You can see men
in armor move through the darkness, lighting
sconces as they go. They move from the direction
of Zavar's study. They move towards you. You
realize through the haze and the pain that they
are looking for you. Looking for the intruders
into Zavar's chambers. They will find you, and
there will be severe punishment for you, Dresden,
probably death, and for Jules. You look to Jules
beside you, and you can see his mind working,
scrambling for a way out. You can see the heat
of defiance in his eyes, desperately trying to
bury a spark of primal fear. You can't move your
body, Dresden. You want to reach out, you want
to save him, but you can't move. Your eyes flicker
to the curtain, to the armored boots stepping
up. Just in front of you. Your mind wants to
fade away again. Drawn in by the stabbing agony
behind your arm. That thing wedged deep into
your flesh. Impossible. Is it moving? It's burning.
In this moment. In this moment. What do you wish
for most, Dresden? What thought burns in your
mind? Distraction. Drawing their eyes away. Armored
boots stop before the table. And you hear a voice
ring out. The intruder! The boots turn. The figure
poised, facing down the hallway, facing away
from you to where his fellow guard points. And
you see something in the dark. Something moving,
vanishing around a corner. The men go charging
after it, boots thundering against stone, running
away, their steps echoing, fading, shouts drowning
out until they are gone. Until you are safe.
And as that darkness moves in for you again,
your mind is locked in the features of that thing
that drew them away from you. It was you, Dresden.
A phantom, an echo of you. The face was obscured,
but you know it. You felt it. You feel it still,
buried deep within your body, deep behind your
arm. You survived that night. Your wounds healed
and life became as normal. But the fragment was
never removed from you. It couldn't be without
some suspicion. In the years that followed, you
honed this new ability of yours. You learned
to call upon this echo. To control it. To fight
with it. You did this in secret, knowing that
someday it might come in handy. Someday, when
the time came for the prince to finally escape
his tower prison. And you were right. But that's
a story for a different episode. All right. A
lot of flashbacks lately. That's how Dresden
became an Echo Knight. That's how Dresden...
We didn't really answer this. But in this setting,
the Echo Knight's a very rare thing. In fact,
there's only one. Just like Tiggers. Yeah. That
was hilarious, David. Thank you. All right. All
right. A lot of flashbacks. A lot of flashbacks.
And speaking of flashbacks, I want to talk to
you guys about a mechanic I would be interested
in trying out during this next segment. We talked
about this last episode, actually. I mentioned
I was going to bring it up here, and now is the
perfect time because we just started this party.
So I have a weird thing I want to try out because
I do that. It's fun. And this will be a segue,
but hang on. So Blades in the Dark is another
game system. It's really cool. It's all about,
like, you sort of... performing these like elaborate
heists as part of a gang and like a crazy fictional
city. It's a really cool system and I want to
steal from it. I want to utilize the flashback
system from Blades in the Dark. Hell yes. If
you're aware of the game at all, you know that
basically during these heists that the players
are on, during certain jobs, they are able to
use a limited resource to essentially flash back
to earlier on when they're planning this thing,
where they acquired a certain item or some information
or something basically in their downtime before
it, and were like, hey, I have this now because
it was part of my plan the whole time. Right.
It sounds a little weird, but it's a really fun
roleplay ability. It's like how sometimes we'll
be like, oh, well, can we just retcon that, you
know, I bought a potion back in town sort of
thing? It's like that, but a little more elaborate.
It's literally retconning as a mechanic, but
it's cool as hell. So what we're going to do,
it's really fun. It's really fun. So what we're
going to do is you're going to flashback during
this party. Maybe we'll keep it afterwards. Who
knows? But at least during this party, during
this little investigation of yours, I'm going
to allow you to flashback at the cost of one
button. Cool. Use these flashbacks to retroactively
game items or information that can help you accomplish
your objectives here. Ask for something that
you could have reasonably planned or obtained
earlier in this day. Roles might also be involved
to determine the success or the degree of success
of this flashback, depending on what you're asking
for, right? It's not automatic if it's something
that would require an actual role or work in
the moment before. So that's all going. We'll
play it out as though we just opened up the scene
earlier in the day. It's going to be a good time.
Because you guys are walking into this with no
real plan, but you did realistically have time
to plan to get more information. So it just turns
into a that was your plan the whole time sort
of thing. You know, let's do it. I'm excited
to play. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's see what
happens. Let's see what happens. So we once again
return to the manor. of Itzmin del Prado. Enormous
and immaculate. Yeah, mixed in with the beauty
and spectacle of this building, there's an almost
industrial element. The building's walls are
formed of wide white stones, tightened uniform,
and near impossibility to climb. We see a number
of chimneys sit on the flat roof. Two tall, standard
pillars of masonry jut out above the east wing.
Trails of smoke rise from these. Then one, a
short wide thing gleaming with the make of steel,
stands on its own over the building's west wing.
And here we see a party in full swing. We move
down to the terrace, down to the crowds of people.
We move towards like sort of back of the building.
And by the way, I've drawn a little map for you
guys of this party. You guys can check out. It's
really rough, but it showcases at least where
you stand in accordance with each other. and
sort of potential highlight guests you might
want to talk to or various things. We'll add
to it as we go. And it is very little. It's very
little. Do you have that on you, actually, so
we can pass it around? I believe it's on the
table beneath a bunch of crap. Yes, it's under
all that crap. Move that crap. That is the ugly
coyote zine on top of that, David. And a plate,
and a server pad from work, and Steven posted
a bunch of stuff, and also one whole sweet roll.
I'm not lying. This is all stuff that was on
top of the map. Take that off. This is a disaster.
Yeah, take the page out. Pants people, we have
not played in two weeks. Yeah, it feels like
two years. And we have like a little bit of a
new setup. So like my headphone cord like lets
me move like 10 inches away from my laptop. And
other... To be fair, you routed it under a whole
bunch of other cords right here. I tried to pass
it right under the table to you, and you told
me to put it that way. Hey, look at that. Now
I got, like, 18 inches. I'm fine. I really...
It doesn't... It's cool. It's cool. You'll also
notice on the paper at the very top, I put two
different leads. Just so you keep those in mind,
these are the two things that you're aware of
at this party that might be worth investigating.
One is... Itzman's son? You've been told that
Itzman has a son who apparently has been transformed.
Something to look into. Another thing is you've
been told that Itzman may have a private office
or workshop somewhere in the manor. This is most
likely where he's going to keep any sort of information.
You could also assume this is also going to be
very heavily guarded or protected in some ways.
So that's what you know of right now. You might
be able to get more leads as you go, as you move
around. You have time here. The party has just
started. It's about 5 .30 right now. You traveled
up here. Things got a little started going on.
It was about 4 o 'clock when we got Pigman, a
little after that. So 5 .30 now. And this thing
goes late. The Night of the Rembrandt really
starts in earnest at about 8 o 'clock when night
falls and when the dead return. In a crazy sort
of magical experience. It's magic. It's magic.
But right now, things are heating up at this
party because both of you found yourselves in
heated situations. I said heated already. Ultra
heated. Ultra heated. I'm new at this. Would
you like a thesaurus? Let's pan down to the actual
party. Let's pan down to Dresden and Jeanne.
And another figure that stands before them, large,
ruddy -cheeked, sweaty Samuel LaRoche, dressed
in his finest garb, sort of fur -lined, and just
cheerily, cheerily laughing, his voice booming
through the party. He sought out Jean Franklin.
And now his eyes have just flickered to you,
Dresden. They look at your helm for a moment
and flicker down. And he says, Oh! War pick,
eh? A fine one, too. Marvel magical steel, if
I'm not mistaken. You're no basic bodyguard,
are you? Dresden just shakes his head. You keep
him quiet. Very nice. I wish I could trade my
own half as well. He turns back to Jean. Jean,
you can see his shoulders. You know, lose some
tension at this. He's, oh, yes, well, a grunt
here, as I call him. He is a grunt, so he is
grunt to me. Oh, he's marvelous. Marvelous, Montelio.
Yes, well, he grunts very well trained. And anyways,
you've sought me out, sir. Yes, yes, I have not
done business with your father yet. I have been
meaning to move in with the merchant kings of
Zinda. Would you by chance be able to book some
time with me? There's many... private meeting
chambers here. We could talk. We should talk.
His arm, like, kind of aggressively moves around
Jean's shell and almost starts pushing him towards
one of these chambers. Jean's kind of, like,
moving with him. Please, sir, please. There's
so much to talk about, so much to do. I have
some money left over, some means. I know Samuel
Roche, poor Samuel Roche lost it all in the fall,
but it's not so true, I think you'll find. Of
course, give me just... One moment, sir. One
moment. He kind of breaks away from Samuel and
takes a few steps back towards you, grunt. What?
What do I do? What do we do? I mean, this could
be good, right? You know him. Is he smart? I
can see he's, well, he's underestimating me.
People tend to underestimate us tortles. I can
see it in his eyes. He thinks I'm an easy mark.
I might learn something. Is he smart? Dresden
is going to lean down really close to Jean's
ear and whisper to ensure that nobody in their
vicinity could possibly hear his voice. There's
a space around you. You feel safe. So he leans
down and he says, He's dumb as a pile of bricks.
Jean just like smiles. You should be able to
get whatever you want out of him. Oh, hell yes.
Just do your thing. All right. Do what you do
best. You can stand at guard about the door.
And you actually do see, like, Samuels sort of
moving towards it and, like, inlaid into the
sort of back wall of the building. On the terrace,
there are a number of rooms. Each one has a little
number next to it, and it looks like they are,
as I said, private meeting rooms in case people
at the party want to get together and have little,
you know, meetups and discuss business. I'm going
to follow you. Yes. But you order me to stay
outside. All right. I'm going to try to defy
your orders. Oh. But put me in my place. Very
well. He needs to see you're powerful. Very well.
Yes. Grant, come. He just turns away and starts
moving. He nods his head and follows. And Samuel
is just beaming. His hands are sort of sweaty
hands sort of wiping against each other as he's
like taking this in like a man about to enjoy
a Big Mac. I don't know. It's tasty. It's a tasty
business proposition. That's scary accurate.
Like me about to enjoy a Big Mac. You wander
over to like a room labeled four, not far from
where you stand now, and he props the door open.
Please, Montelio. Yes, very well. Grant, stay
outside the door. I don't require your services
here. And he begins to move in. As he starts
walking in, Dresden starts walking behind him.
Grant, I'm serious, sir. Very robotic, Dresden
still moves forward and kind of presses up against
John Franklin. For the last time, I know you're
my father's man, but I command you now. Do you
hear me, you imbecile? Is there any brains in
that helmet of yours, hmm? Anything at all? I
swear, I'm so sorry, sir. These fucking ingrates.
Look, you stay. Out here. I go in there, where
smart people go to do smart people business.
Do you understand me, sir? Nod your fucking head.
Dresden nods. Farewell. And then snaps up at
attention and turns around in front of the door
with his back to the door. As you turn away,
where Jean's facing away from Samuel, he does
mouth sorry. He just turns back with this coy
expression. Well, sir, I'm very excited for this
opportunity to meet with you, Mr. LaRoche, please.
And Samuel just, ho, ho, ho, just booming laugh,
just appearing as the door closes. And you just
kind of, all you saw there was like a small room
with a couple little couches and like chairs
and a little meeting table and just very sparse
place of business. But now you stand outside.
Samuel has no men of his own. And actually, I
will say. Well, that's weird, isn't it? Well,
it's actually kind of interesting. Wait, say
that again? Since Samuel has no men of his own
there. Okay. One thing you find very interesting,
though, Dresden, you were told by Paloma that
there are likely people, a Laroche guard up on
the hill. You haven't seen anyone you recognize.
Now, out of character, you guys, players, might
know or would probably understand that the Laroche
guard that were supposed to come to the world
never came to the city. They went to Hollow.
Yeah. Right, right. So you're not the group that's
going to encounter them. But it's probably strange
to Dresden here in this moment. Like, hey, why
are they, you know? Yeah, so that makes us wonder
what security does he have? Unseen. I mean, the
armored guard. Sure, yeah, if he's that in with
Eatsman, yeah. Right. I'd like you to do a perception
check real quick. Oh, shit. On this note that
we're talking about now, it's kind of interesting.
Eh, it's only a 10. Okay. Shit. Yeah. Yeah, you
see the armored guard are moving around here
and there, and you assume, like, Hitzman, Marfil,
the Tresna, everyone is so confident in these
guards, in this product. I mean, most people
here are showing up with a guard because this
is essentially their show of force. Hell, you
were able to come in with your weapons. That
normally wouldn't really be allowed at a sort
of major party like this, but... They're so confident
that there will be no dangers that guests are
coming in fully armed if they so desire. It's
quite interesting. You stand there outside the
door thinking over Samuel LaRoche. It's interesting.
I mean, the fall was a terrible disaster. You'd
think it would have destroyed the LaRoche family,
but you know from your time with Cirilla that
the family had many assets protected off -world.
And you know their real strength. Or the allies
they hold in the Fractured Horn, the cult of
Zomateshab. Which I think begs the question,
why is Samularosh here? As an investor looking
for new opportunities with whatever assets he
has still in his pocket? Or how much? How much
does the man really know about the cult? He's
always seemed entirely ignorant of the family's
darker dealings to you, Cerise being the real
power and cunning behind the throne. Yet... Maybe
he still plays a role as an unwitting servant
to the great horned demon. I think as thoughts
of your time with La Roches, a time only broken
by mere days, a coldness strikes you, Dresden,
as you stand surrounded by these high and mighty
people all around you. You don't know any members
of the Fraction Horn outside of the La Roches.
You don't know names. You don't know positions.
You only know that there are many powerful people
throughout the worlds that are a part of it.
They trade favors. They elevate each other. And
your eyes, sorry, your eye might flicker to the
dancers on the floor, the swimmers in the pool,
the chatting crowds on the dining tables. Could
any of them be members of the Fractured Horn?
Could they all be? As far as Dresden is concerned,
particularly since he doesn't know these people,
unless he has proven otherwise, he assumes everybody
has some part in everything. Holy shit. I mean,
yeah. And you have to be paranoid to have spent
so much time within the family. Right, right.
You're used to a life where every single person
around you is an enemy. A known enemy. Yep. I
mean, at the very least, he knows that none of
these people are good people. Damn. You're looking
at all this, taking it in, waiting back against
the door. And suddenly you hear a whisper. As
if right beside you. You're with the resistance,
right? I need help. Meet me just after eight
o 'clock. Meeting chamber two. This should be
the moment when they're distracted by the start
of the Night of the Remembered. Dresden cocks
his head. There's no one there. Ooh, some magic.
To nobody, he says, you better be careful who
you're talking to. You better be sure that you're
talking to the right one. I'm sure about you.
What's your passive perception? Only 11. Okay,
at least a 10 will be fine. I just want to make
sure you're below 10. You peer up, I think, because
you're already looking. You know to look for
something. You're kind of like looking around.
Someone is... And then you see people moving
past you. Until there's sort of this open line
for just a moment between you and sort of the
far edge of the terrace, the edge of the balcony.
Where once two figures stood, only one stands
now. Kejo Kamal has wandered off to talk to somebody
else. And Itzmin Del Prado is looking straight
at you. The dying light of day catching the sheen
of his glasses as he stares towards you. Fuck,
David. The moment your eyes catch his, he turns
away. Pushing his glasses up and, like, looking
back towards the great, expansive view behind
him, down, looking towards the city. The man
on top. Of all the twists. Yeah. Unless this
is, like, a distraction, but... I mean, could
be. Trying to pull one over on us, David. Wow,
okay. Let's pay it away from this for now. So
he's not in control after all. Let's... Panda's
somebody else who's not in control, seemingly.
Oh, God. I still have no idea what I'm going
to do. Blanche, this is a little gnome guy talking
to you. Seems friendly enough. Yeah. What was
the last thing he said? He said, first of all,
you asked about where the bathroom was, the little
turtle's room. He said, I can help you with that.
He said, Blanche Trudeau, right? I'm a fan of
your work. I know your pupil. He does you much
honor. You see, me and him have worked together.
Right. The name's Rudner Sog. It's a pleasure
to meet you. Now, here's the thing. We talked
about this a little earlier on. Jean Franklin,
in the episode where Blanche first joins a party
and is talking with him, did mention. He confessed,
sort of, yeah. He confessed that he had worked
with a criminal for a little time. I wonder if
Blanche would connect these dots. Do you think
that she would? Obviously, I want to say yes.
Rune definitely seems skeevy. Okay. Do you think
it's obvious enough that it's a gimme, or is
it a dice roll? I think it's what you want it
to be. Blanche is high intelligence. If you want
to make a dice roll, it's a DC 10 intelligence
check. Oh, okay. Let's do that. Let's just do
that. I mean, that's what we're here for. I think
you'll at least be suspicious with a DC 10. Let's
do that. It's fun. Okay. Oh, mama. Come on, baby.
Two on the die. Plus six. There's a lot going
on. There's a lot going on, and you don't connect
it. Oh, my God. He just seems friendly. I thought
that was a gimme. Amazing. Amazing. Oh, I'm so
excited. You, Steve, have to play this out like
this guy is just some friendly partygoer. Yeah.
You're fully allowed to think he's Stevie. to
a point, you know? Sure. But you just don't connect
that he's probably the criminal from Jaune's
past. Right, right, yeah. Holy shit. Blanche
is savvy enough that she knows what she's here
for. She's here to collect information. Oh, you
know Jaune. Well, that's a pleasure to, I don't
know if they introduced each other last, you
know, the pleasure to meet you thing. Ah, pleasure
to meet you again, maybe. I don't remember. You
didn't say that yet. No, no. Okay. Yep. Thoroughly
awkward way to introduce somebody, but hey. It's
your style. It's fine. And how do you find yourself
here at such a lavish party? Do you know Eatsman?
I know a lot of people. Well, I'm kind of a luminary
agent. You know what? We'll talk about this as
we go. You need the little turtle's room, right?
I mean, it sounds like a real emergency. You
need to go right now. Well, sir, I am a lady.
Emergency. I wouldn't pry. I'm so sorry. Now,
he kind of looks at the armor sort of guard beside
you like, all hallways are locked up and guarded
tight, unfortunately, but there are some exterior
doors out on the terrace that lead into public
restrooms. I can't show you the way. He looks
at your face for a moment, and then he kind of
gets this little smile. But I suppose they are
probably swarmed at this point. And you turtles,
I'm sure, have certain special needs when it
comes to your toiletries. Surely our friends
in armor here would not be opposed to us moving
towards the private bathrooms in the western
wing? Huh. And he looks at the armor, which kind
of just like, its head sort of tilting towards
him. Can I, can Blanche roll insight on this
guy? Go ahead, roll insight. That's fishy, right?
Roll insight. Now we're talking. 21. 21. Okay.
Something about the fact that you're here with
Jean Franklin. He thinks that you're up to no
good. He thinks that you're doing something.
And you can see the curiosity burning in him.
It's just pure suspicion and curiosity when you
look into his eyes. Okay. Yeah. She's going to
roll with this. To the suits. She'll start to
do like a little sort of potty dance. If you
don't mind. Roll a persuasion with a help action.
Oh, excellent. Just 11. 11. The guard does not
move. Huh. And I'm assuming the guard is like
standing in front of the bathroom or the door
to the hall. You know, if you're moving through
the place and you saw a guard, that's, yeah,
I would say he's probably like. Close to that
spot. He's kind of braced up sort of against
it. Okay. Blanche is going to move to open the
door. He puts his arm out in the way. Or it,
I should say. Oh, boy. Well, I'm surprised at
such lack of hospitality on Itzman's part. The
red light behind the mask gets a little brighter,
a little warmer. You feel ruined, just tug on
you. Hey, let's step away for a moment, huh?
Huh? Come on. She leans down, sort of to whisper
to him. Do you know a different way to these
lavish bathrooms? I'm sure we can think of something.
I think we're going to get along. Come now. I'll
escort you to the terrace. And he starts walking,
like, ahead of you. He has, like, puts, like,
an arm around your arm as you begin to move.
Okay. Yeah, she's going to follow him. You begin
to move away, and Rune looks up to you. The Mark
V really are something else, right? They're,
uh, yes, quite intimidating. I just wish they
could take me to a decent bathroom. Honestly,
they're smarter than I gave them credit for.
I heard they're tough, too. But it does make
one wonder, and he looks at you with a very sort
of conspiring sort of expression. Have you noticed
all the staff moving through with weapons? Well,
yes, they didn't take mine either. Well, not
just that. I mean, of course, they're not going
to take weapons from guests. They want to show
off the shiny new product. But the staff, they're
built, they're trained, and they're armed. Why?
Why would the staff be armed if the guard are
such a show of confidence, if the guard are as
invincible as they're supposed to be? Hmm. Unless...
He kind of, like, winks at you. Unless they have
a weakness? Unless they're all buck. What's your
angle here, man? I'll be straight with you, Blanche
Trudeau. You're conspiring, right? I love conspiring.
I'm a bit of a conspirator myself. Now, I've
told you before, I've worked with your young
pupils. John Franklin and I go way, way back.
Well, a few weeks back. And I know the sort of
people he's working with. Real conspirators like
me. People who really fuck things up. And when
things get fucked up, little guys like me find
paths, opportunities. I want in. I don't know
what you're doing, but I want in. Hi, Mr. Rusong.
I'm conspiring to comfortably relieve myself.
What paths or opportunities? Could you offer
me to such an end? And then after that, maybe
I'll see what I can offer you in return. Hmm.
Well, there is another entrance into the Western
Wing, where the finer bathrooms are located.
Of course, it will also be guarded. Oh, boy.
I don't really want to start pulling my tricks
out, but... Well, um, what else could we try
to get by these, uh, these magic suits of armor?
You seem to know a lot about them. I guess I
know they're tough. They're trained to respond
to any sort of threat. Hard to distract unless
you have a very good distraction. But I think
you might have a very good distraction. See,
I know luminaries. It's kind of my business.
And you came. With a big one. Done with a sack
of rocks, from what I've heard. Easy to manipulate.
Maybe Pigman can be your way around. Does Blanche...
Have they moved out to the terrace yet? You said
he grabbed my arm? Yeah, let's say you're moving
through the door right now. Okay, can I see Pigman
around? As you look out, you see towards the
eastern side of the party, by the dance floor,
Pigman is currently picking up three people.
And like kind of doing a sort of waltz dance
with them. They're sort of laughing. One person
looks terrified. And then Mary is, you can't
see her in the crowd, but she's somewhere sort
of, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Put him down.
Big man, big man, put him down, put him down.
Hey, where's Blanche? Blanche! Where's my sidekick?
You guys got to meet my sidekick. Okay. All right.
Who, who is within? Is there anybody within,
like, hearing distance? If I said something to
Rune, would anybody be able to hear me if I said
it under my breath sort of thing? The only person
that's of interest is, as you kind of move out
and you look around, this old dwarven woman,
very sort of finely dressed in, say it last time,
a fantasy pants suit. Danya Estella is somewhat
close by. Every guest that steps out, her eyes
sort of keenly shoot to. Gotcha. And you see
she's watching you with... a dark sort of scowl.
Fuck. I think Rune will even just say like, Donya
Estella, watch out. She's a big one. And you
recognize the name as one of the Tresna Mary
warned you of. Okay. Blanche is going to push
Rune towards Donya Estella. Like, not like to
knock into her, but to like stand in front of
her and distract her, hopefully. Interesting.
Do you, like, just shove him? Do you, like, I
guess give him any kind of sign that you're doing,
like, there's a reason for this? Yeah, she'll
under, she'll sort of, like, through gritted
teeth, talk to her. Hey, Donya! She steps forward.
She looks horribly disgusted by him. And you
have a moment. And then Blanche is going to cast
Message on Pigman. Oh, interesting. And she's
going to say, I'll be right over, pig man. The
three people you're lifting are quite impressive,
but could you... It would be really impressive,
pig man, if you could lift up... If you could
lift up those suits of armor instead... Oh, yeah,
which one do you want me to lift up? Invisible
Blanche, which one? I mean, she'll... He's yelling
this at a lot of people, and you can hear it
really loud in your ear, too, because the message
opens up a communication. This is so fantastic.
Interestingly, message is the exact cantrip that
was just used on Dresden. Sure, yeah, so you
know all about it. Know all about it. Yeah, so
she quickly tries to get this message out that,
hey, I'm impressed that you can lift those three
people. But how many armored guard can you lift?
Oh, my God. How many? Okay. You just kind of
hear like, is this a bet? Are you doing a bet
on me? I bet you can't lift them all. Oh, man.
You're going to regret that bet. You're going
to. Holy shit. The people in the studio, they
went, what are you? He's just dropping people.
What are you doing, big man? All right, guys,
everybody, everybody, look around. I'm going
to do something that's going to blow all your
minds, all right? The AG -5, they're pretty great,
right? We're here to celebrate them. Look at
these guys, they're crazy. But are they heavy?
I bet they're pretty heavy. They look pretty
heavy, right? So how many? How many AG -5s can
the big man lift? Let's find out. One. He runs
over and picks one up. And Mary is screaming.
The guard looks shocked. He just snatches one
underarm and lifts it up. Oh, look at that. He's
struggling. This thing is like fighting against
it. I didn't expect this. Neither did I. It's
just so wild. He's just pushing through the crowd.
This thing's sort of flailing. I think it's almost
at first going to act out, and then it realizes
there's guests everywhere. It cannot really resist.
And just the whole scene is being created. People
are kind of freaking out. There's those armed
staff are sort of like panicking, looking around.
Mary is about to faint and he starts moving across
the party towards you. So he's on the eastern
side. You want to move to the left with the sort
of western side. Yeah. If Blanche sees any sort
of opening, she wants to slip away into the door.
So, yeah, basically, he's on the other side,
so he has to move past you, where he stands,
and he picks one up, and just kind of over his
shoulder, and the metal sort of clings together.
It's kind of just awkwardly sort of fumbling
against him. Oh, they're fighters. They're fighters.
Oh, hey, Blanche, there you are. How are you?
You were out here. You were over there a second
ago. I followed you over. That's crazy, and you're
visible again. And he keeps moving on, pushes
through more of the crowd, past the pool, past
the dancers. western side where you see the one
in front of the door um rune is looking at you
with just some astonishment like how the fuck
As Pigman lifts up the last of these metal sword
clay. Oh, yeah! He picks them up. There's a moment
as he picks these guys up. He kind of lifts them
all above his head. Oh, my God. There's one sort
of movement. You can tell it's about to all fall
apart here. People are, like, rushing around
him. So this is her chance. This is your only
chance. Okay. And it will be guarded again in,
like, five seconds. Sure, yeah. She wants to
swoop in. Dumbest. I love it so much, though.
It's like it's Pigman. You don't need to roll
for it. He's an idiot. He's going to do it. It's
like the one person you can just convince without
a check. Anyone else, it's like, okay, I need
the most outrageous persuasion check in the world.
It just seems like something fun that the pig
man would want to do. He's having a blast. You
slip around past him, and there's so much chaos
around him, it's easy for you to move around
the crowd, move through, and you are in. You're
back there. Uh, you find yourself in a hallway
that you need to tuck around very quickly before
the guard reestablishes place, but you find yourself
in a hallway moving deeper into the room. It
sort of hooks off to the, uh, whatever direction
would make the most sense from West to back towards
the center. Sure. Uh, do you want to mark it
out on the map or is it not that important? It's
not that important. Okay. Uh, what is important
is you hear a voice, but you go, Oh, holy, how
the hell did you do that? Oh, he kept up shit.
Whoa. Wow. Sure, she was a little startled. I'm
a little guy. Easy to sneak around. How did you
break away from Tanya Stella? Did she see you?
She was a little distracted by the pig man holding
up the Marfle armored guard. Somebody of them?
Mm -hmm. He's a very strong man. I mean, what
an incredible security lapse you created. And
all the pig men. I mean, that's good. That's
good. Have you ever thought about being a luminary?
Because I think I could use you. Stick around,
Rune. Maybe I'll teach you a thing or two. I
like you, Lance Trudeau. Let's find those lavatories,
shall we? Let's go. He just pushes around the
corner. You can see the hallway here shoots straight
down towards the grand foyer. And you can see
the armored guard is kind of way down at the
end of the hallway, standing in place, facing
away from you. And there's a doorway, sort of
opulent doorway off to your right, that Rune.
Sort of gestures you with his thumb. Bathroom.
Now, do I get to know a little more about what's
going on here? Blanche is going to crack the
door just to see what's in there. It is a bathroom.
You look in and see, like, gold -plated sink,
white walls, absolutely pristine, shining, sparkly.
You can see your reflection in every tile. Magical
light sort of inlaid around everywhere. If your
foot steps down the floor, it is fully warm.
Just heated floors. I was a mason. Those are
a big deal. Well, Rune, I was looking for a lovely
place and possibly someone to help me procure
some, she points to her nose, some fey dust.
If you carry any. Smooth. Give me a second. Damn.
I pre -gamed too hard. It's gone. All before
the party. Well, I'll have to make do with whatever
it is I have. And she slips in and shuts the
door behind her. Wait, I... Door closes. Smooth.
All right, I'm assuming there's a lock on this
door? Yeah, yeah. Okay. She locks the door and
she says through it, give me five minutes. And
summons her familiar. Old Night Scream. What's
that? Old Night Scream the Bat. Is that what
we're going with? Night Scream? It's the Transformer
from Beast Machines. Oh. Yeah, sure. Night Scream.
Give me another one. Give me a name. This is
an actual character now. This is your Bat familiar.
This is a second time. Second time a character
shows up, they're like a part of the canon. Okay.
Then his name is Turbo. It's Turbo the Bat. Oh,
my God. So, yeah. Well, shit. I guess I should
have asked before I got in here. Are there other
doors within 100 feet of this door? Huh. 100
feet's a pretty long ways, David. Even if a room's
20 feet wide. Talking about a door every 20 feet?
I mean, yeah, of course there'll be other doors.
You mean, like, but not inside this room? No,
not inside this room. Out in the hallway, yeah,
of course. Yeah, bats can slip through. The smallest
of spaces. Is that true? I believe it is. Do
you want me to look it up? No, that's fine. My
assumption was that I could squeeze either under
or over the door as a bat. Okay. I'm into that.
You're into that? I'll say under it. Okay. Under
the door. Room will 100 % see. Huh. If that's
okay with you. I mean, it's not, but I don't
really see how I can change that. Okay. He's
still out there. You haven't gotten rid of him.
You just closed the door for him. Okay. Yep.
All right. Things are about to get pretty crazy
up in here. I've seen a lot of shit. I'm not
squeamish. He's right outside the door. And like
you were all the 21 earlier. And I think like
with that, I mean, he's being helpful, but you
definitely feel something wrong. Like you don't
feel wholly okay with this. Okay. Okay. Blanche
is going to summon her familiar from... Turbo?
Turbo, yes, the bat, from his pocket dimension
and start seeing through Turbo's eyes. Okay.
With the door locked, she'll sit her back up
against the door and squeeze under with Turbo.
You squeeze beneath the door? You're out in the
hallway and immediately you see through his eyes
as you're just like yanked up from the ground.
Holding the face of a gnome who's just smiling
at you with big white teeth. Just familiar. I
had a feeling. So I take it you're looking, right?
Can you hear me? Nod your little head if you
can hear me. That noise. Now, I know you want
to keep to yourself all that, but I really think
it's best that you tell me exactly what's happening.
Because I haven't decided yet if I'm going to
fuck you. Because what I didn't tell you was
that you're - I believe the missing word you're
looking for is up. What I didn't tell you is
that your little protege, he had a falling out
with me. He betrayed me. And, I mean, sending
you off to the armored guard right here and now,
that could be a pretty sweet little revenge,
couldn't it? So, here's what's gonna happen.
You're gonna tell me every little thing, or I'm
going to squeeze every little bat bone in your
body until... The sound of a sending stone. Rune
looks a little surprised for a moment, and you're
like facing right into his face, and he's...
He almost pulls the bat form away as he lifts
the stone up to his ear. Close. You hear a whispered
sound. And as his words are pouring into his
ear, Rune's eyes grow wider and wider. There's
a moment of just like sheer astonished fear.
Mouth drops. And it's such a curve into this
like wide grin. And as he lowers the stone with
trembling fingers back into his pocket, his eyes
fall to you meeting the bat's eyes perfectly.
And he says, what the fuck have you done? And
we'll call it there. Happy birthday, dear David.
Happy birthday to you. It's just a fundamentally
too long song is how I feel about the happy birthday
song. But I appreciate that you sang it. Happy
birthday, motherfucker. Happy birthday, David.
All this talk of coffee. I should have known.
I should have known.