Hey there, Pants people. Steven here. Just want
to say real quick before the episode, thank you
for listening. Thank you for hanging out with
us. Thank you for being here. We love you. Enjoy
the episode. Superstar Jean Franklin here. Now,
the life of a luminary is terribly stressful.
You never know what dangers your face, what sorts
of atrocious filth you accumulate in the cracks
of your shell. Blech! That's why I'm always delighted
to relax and restore at the pale moonlight between
missions. A silverfish mud bath with a side of
succulent sushi? Yes, please. A complimentary
massage kept up with the most delightful pedicure.
I'm already in the chair. The menu selection
is just lovely with five -star rated amazing
dishes that will have your mouth watering for
days. Drink selection? Only the finest sakes
you could ask for. And of course, the finest
wines for those with alternative palates. And
the rooms, well, that's a reason I wake every
morning running like a fool and purring like
a tamed tiger. I'll tell you, the pale moonlight
is more than just an inn. It's my, well, it's
my home away from home. Fuck the pale moonlight.
How dare you? Or it was. Or it was. We'll get
to all that in a minute. Because we should probably
talk about level six. Level six. Level six. This
is exciting. We didn't really get into this before
because we had a lot of stuff happening last
episode. You kind of leveled up like two episodes
ago. But, you know, before we get into combat,
before anything crazy happens, you know, you
just had this week or 10 days actually of celebration,
you know, actual kind of downtime. So I want
to know what you got level six. I also want to
know how you think you got it. What were you
doing? We know Chester was with the Duergar.
He was hanging out with the Burnshadow Clan,
the Silent Bursts, and learning from them, getting
some sniper training. Jean was out there every
day training like a madman for this tournament.
And that's where their levels come from, their
new strength comes from. What about you? Who
wants to start? Steven, start. Steven, start.
So... I imagine Blanche, she stays up late into
the night partying, you know, that's what this
is all about. The 10 day. Yeah. Um, and then
in the morning she gets up super early to go
and help John. And it's like, she should be sleeping
in between, but she's bringing books home from
the local libraries or her own personal stash.
When she goes up to her room to catch some shut
-eye, before she does, she's reading, and she's
falling asleep on her scrolls. I love it. She's
pooped. She is pooped, but she's putting in the
work, and it's really paying off. Things got
dicey back there. I mean, it's a time to celebrate,
but I'm sure there's that feeling of, we need
to get stronger, you know? Yeah, exactly. Things
got close. Hell yeah, I love that. What's going
on at sixth level? What's happening for Blanche?
So there's a, you know, I think it was just one
more spell. So I picked a spell. You'll have
to wait and see what that is, I suppose. The
big notable thing is. Oh. Extra attack. That.
Oh, yes. Yeah. That is crazy. And one of those
attacks can be a. extra attack on a wizard. Nice.
Nice. So cool. It's so cool. It's going to be
crazy. You can just, we have a cantrip at the
end. That is. Or, or, or the cantrip first, you
know, like do, um, what do you call it? Yeah.
Right. Shut up. I'm trying. Like do true strike.
Oh, the cantrip. And then, you know, going for
a sword swing. Yeah, that is pretty damn cool.
All sorts of really cool combos. Wombo combo.
Yeah. So here's to second attack, extra attack.
Hell yeah. That is awesome. And then, yeah, are
you going to tell me your spells or are you going
to keep them secret? Yeah, I really kind of want
to keep a spell under wraps. That's fine. It's
fun. Yeah, I think it'll be fun when I decide
to pull it out. Same for the unzipped that we
released last week and we're going to record
after this. Yeah, we're recording in the opposite
order, but it makes sense. Yeah, unzips are second
episode energy, you know? Oh yeah, for sure.
There's a difference. I think everyone listening
knows it. Yeah. If you've gotten this far, you
know about second episode energy. Hey, you want
to roll for HP? Oh yes, HP. Let me pull up my
thing thing there. Roll for it. Okay, so Blanche
is at 38. No, wait, hold on. Yeah, I think so.
Yeah. I have a D20 in my hand. What am I doing?
No, that's not what I said. No, it's a D6 for
the wizard. Oh, D6, really? Oh, man. Oh, that's
sad. Okie doke. All right, here we go. Four.
One. Okay, I'll take four then. Taking a four.
I was so hoping you'd get a one. I want to wipe
that stupid grin off your face once and for all.
Nope. Instead, I ended up with 42 HP. Oh, and
he's grinning like a fool over there. No, I'm
happy with that. 42 HP for a level 6 wizard.
Is that good? It's not bad. I mean, the AC is
what really stands out with your wizard. Oh,
yeah, for sure. I mean... Outrageous. Yeah. What
you looking for, bucko? My D6. Oh, no. Are you
also a D6? You can borrow my D6. We got some
Blanche going. Now let's hear from our favorite
luminary, the Midnight Prince, Mr. Jules LaRoche
himself. What's going on, Jules? I didn't choose
that title. Dude, that title's awesome. I did
not choose that title. You didn't? You took too
long, so I gave you a David title. Midnight Prince
t -shirt, though, right? Dear Lord. Joan Franklin
loves his titles, you know? I like to think that
as the story goes on, Jules just naturally continues
to have this magic building up inside of him.
And he just keeps growing more and more powerful.
And as it keeps growing, it's more of a struggle
for him to contain it and control it in the ways
that he wants to control it. Huh. I like that.
It almost sounds like it's like a muscle. Like
it's like this weird other muscle to you because
you keep on, you're using it and you're stretching
it in strange ways. And it really is developing
and growing. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's just spilling
out. You're something that you can't fully understand.
Right. you were made to be a vessel for something.
And like magic kind of like a, you know, it just
fills you like a goblet spilling over here and
there and staining a world around you. It's cool.
Now you got this big fat magic muscle. Big fat
magic muscle. So I got a couple of fun things.
I got a counter charm. As an action, I can perform
until the end of my next turn. During that time,
you and any friendly creatures within 30 feet
that can hear you gain advantage on saving throws
against being frightened or charmed. That's really
cool. If we ever come across some baddie that's
doing that. Then I also have animating performance,
which as an action, you can animate one large
or small non -magical item that isn't being worn
or carried. The animate item uses the dancing
item stat block. Whoa. Uh -huh. Uh -huh. And
you can make things too. Yeah. You can make it
and animate it. I can make it and animate it.
I think it's got like 16 AC. Wow. Yeah. And it
lifts for one hour until it is reduced to zero
hit points. Huh. So, yeah. Yeah. That's going
to be fun. Find some creative ways. Maybe a little
protection if we need it. Yeah. Or at least something
to soften a blow. It sounds like there's a lot
of cool creative plays coming out. That's without
the spells that I don't know about that are sure
going to ruin my whole life very soon. You know
about my spell. We discussed it before we started
recording. I chose Healing Word. That's right.
Yeah. You know, sometimes the simple choice is...
A strategically excellent choice. Exactly. Well,
like you said, all of my healing right now is
based on touch. Yeah. And with healing word,
I get a 60 foot range. Bonus action too. Which
is fucking great. Bonus action. Yeah, bonus is
really. That's huge. Imagine a world where you
can drop that, take out the old Sturge sword
and get that crit extra heal on yourself. Like
now you have an even more tax. I will absolutely
take out that sword that Sturge man gave me.
Yes. Yes. It's a cool sword. Wait, why'd you
say it that way? Oh, to avoid saying Sturge Sword.
Gotcha, gotcha. Hey, hey. Yes. Say it. No. Say
its name. Sturge Sword, I don't mind too much.
Sturge Stone. Sending Sturge? No, I think Sturge
Stone is at least. No, I put it, it's already
in a sheet, Ascending Stone, or Ascending Sturge,
it's over. It literally is in the sheet. I made
sure to add it myself so I could title it myself.
Jules. Oh, God. You have not been winning the
HP roulette too often. No. You've been having
a bad time in this show. Maybe tonight will be
a little different. What do you think? What do
you think? Grab your D8. God, I hope so. Yeah,
do I have higher HP than you with a D6? Probably.
Where are you at? I started with 38. I'm starting
with 35. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you have the ammo
that gives you at least a little bit of con.
Right. Otherwise, it's just straight dice rolling
and that's it. It's brutal. All right. Okay.
God damn it. Mine didn't go all the way through.
All right. What'd you get? What'd you get? What'd
you get? Tell me first. What'd you get? We get
to know both numbers. Three. I'm really, really
sorry, Jeremy. I rolled an eight. I rolled an
eight. Oh, my God. Thank goodness. He rolled
max. Thank goodness. You know, halfway through
your little statement there, I was like, he rolled
high. He would never apologize. It's true. I
did feel terrible. I did feel terrible that I
rolled an eight. Damn. All right. Well, with
that out of the way, gentlemen. You ready to
start an episode of the old FP? Ooh, I almost
forgot to add my plus two for my constitution
modifier. So you're not ready? No, now I am.
Okay. Just building into something. Now I'm cold.
Hey, why don't you start over? Let's go into
a flashback. Let's go back to the Golden Bay.
Not as we left it, but as it stood some years
ago. I believe we touched on this, Blanche. I
can't remember exactly what we decided on, but
I think it was 10 to 12 years ago. I want to
say about 12 years that you had become the master
defense. Yeah, that sounds right. You had won
the tourney. And this scene we're opening up
on is actually the morning after our first Blanche
flashback. You have just won the tourney. Your
victory in the tide pool arena carrying you to
such heights. And now you stand in the Montelio
household, the castle that oversees the Golden
Bay. Now imagine, if you will, just like this
arcing slope heading down until it hits the white
beach where the water sort of meets and rushes
in. Constant sound of crashing waves. Now as
we move up the slope from there, we see a number
of stone -built homes. Many waving sort of banners
above them. There's a lot of smaller clustered
homes sort of around larger, more fortress -like
houses. These are where the more wealthy of the
Golden Bay, the ones that might form the King's
Circle, would reside. And as you go up and up
and up, the houses get loftier and larger. Strangely
enough, the higher properties are away from the
water. It's higher and it's cool until you hit
the top of the sloping hill where you see...
One house that stands apart from all others.
One structure that is entirely unique. This absolutely
beautiful castle. Not enormous. Not huge by any
right. The palace and Zinda were larger than
this. I mean, the Golden Bay does not have the
population that Zinda has. Not nearly. But there
is spectacle here. As you see these finely carved...
walls and towers of hardened sand. Magically
firmed sand. You see, quite literally, a giant
sandcastle. Hell yeah. With the Montelio banners
flapping behind. All over. Red and gold and a
black leaping fish. Somewhere high, high up in
a parapet of this castle. It would be like an
open sort of courtyard. High and overseeing all
of the Golden Bay. The sound of rushing waves
echoing faintly to your ears. You stand as you
are about to be introduced to the young lord.
Your new pupil. Now your job here is multifold,
right? You are... the sort of head of defense
here. You're the master defense. You control...
Well, first of all, here's a question for you.
So we're getting improv -y. What do you call
the military force here? What is the Golden Maze
military known as? We have the silent verse of
the sort of hidden police force of Zinda. Any
suggestions? My placeholder was Shellguard. Dude,
I actually was like, I was sitting here. I was
like, I was like, I was like, shell defense is
stupid, but shell guard is like my idea, but
better. No, it's better. Oh, you know, that's
yeah. The shell guard. I had the kind of in my
notes. I was like, I want to see what Steven
wants to do instead. So kind of like, I took
a couple seconds. I was thinking about it. I
was like, I can't come up with anything other
than, other than shell defense. It's stupid.
Shell defense is a thing you have on your sheet.
Oh yeah. It's the move. It's an ability. really
do on the like looking around look at your sheet
shell defense defense you look at the same thing
three times okay shell guard okay shell guard's
excellent you are the commander of the shell
guard um you oversee basically like they we should
actually do a quick quick history lesson uh we
talked about the nine pools in passing right
it's it's it's lord of the nine pools The nine
pools are sort of the wider territory that the
Golden Bay oversees, right? So as you kind of
branch out from the Golden Bay, you'll see this
number of small, almost like these grand tide
pools, right? They're almost lakes, but they're
lakes that are extremely shallow. You can walk
through them, and they kind of go deeper and
deeper inland via larger sort of river inlets
that feed between them all, almost like a network
of roads that bind these pools together. Whoever
takes the seat of the Golden Bay oversees the
nine pools as well. And they're all turtles.
Turtles live amongst these things. They're smaller
residents. The farther away you are from the
Golden Bay, the smaller the pool gets. The smaller
the population in the pool. So maybe they're
sort of like salt marshes? Yeah, yeah, basically,
yeah. Okay. Yeah, as they kind of go further
and further back. I mean, certain fish you're
only going to catch over there. Right. You know.
It all kind of feeds into the Golden Bay's economy,
the booming fishing market that allows them to
play with the big boys in Zinda. So, yeah, that's
the nine bulls. You oversee those as well. Your
shell guard are distributed all throughout patrolling,
monitoring, keeping back whatever dangers lurk
in the open sea and in the lush jungles on land.
Sure. So just for my curiosity. Yeah. What? What
size is that kingdom? Is it the size of a town,
a county, a state? Territory -wise, it is larger
than the territory Zinda actually occupies. Zinda
is a dense metropolitan city -state. And while
there's some control in the area around it, there's
not a lot. There's jelly farms, things like that.
But most of the actual activity in Zinda lingers
in Zinda. The Golden Bay has a more distributed,
like, you know, all over the place population,
but it controls a larger, like almost county
-wide, I guess I would say, territory. Okay,
gotcha. Yeah. It's expansive. Yeah, for sure.
It's strange that it's so unknown to the world,
to the larger world, you know, kind of hiding
in the shadow of the great towers of Zinda. You
have this huge, you know, thriving civilization
of turtles. So maybe in like a real world comparison,
The master defense would be equivalent to like
a sheriff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I liked it a lot.
In charge of like a county -wide area. I liked
it a lot. Okay, that's great. That helps me.
Yes. That is one of your objectives. You have
one other as well. And that is, of course, the
training of the young monarch. Not something
that the master defense is always made to do,
but something that has been specifically requested
of you. Maybe something that has... in recent
years been more of like a like an honorary sort
of i don't know like an like inactive like maybe
in days of old it was like yes you will train
this my air in you know martial combat and as
time has progressed on maybe it's gotten a little
less formal i like that a lot yeah i mean the
monarch is supposed to be the best fighter amongst
the golden bay but that was a belief that was
uh you know kind of Pushed to the side long ago.
DiPiero Montalho certainly is not the best fighter.
Although, he gave a couple good licks. Couple
good licks. Couple good licks in that fight.
You see DiPiero now. As the wind rustles your
weird little hair. As you're standing out in
the open air in this wider field. This wider
courtyard. He steps out in his long and regal
robes. At his side, kind of, he's almost, like,
pushing him along, you see the young Jean Franklin.
They look very similar, you can tell here. I
mean, same, like, you know, vibrant blue eyes,
same kind of green skin speckled with yellow
spots. Jean's is much more vibrant than DiPiero's.
DiPiero's is older, and his is definitely getting
shown signs of age and discoloration. Not to
the point of yours, but they come to approach
you. DePiro looks you in the eyes as they get
about ten feet away. Master of defense, tell
me, your lodgings, are they sufficient? Um, are
they sufficient? Yeah, they're awesome. Okay.
Imagine Blanche before this wasn't in such a
lofty place. You would spend some time on a muzu,
but you were born in the Golden Bay. You were
probably born in one of the pools. Okay, sure,
yeah, yeah, yeah. It would be like the home of
a fishing family that was not... not high so
the further out the pools go i mean i don't want
to go too far out on a tangent here but the further
out the pools go does it become like more and
more impoverished maybe yes okay sure yeah gotcha
so yeah pretty much anything that's here in the
golden bay is probably going to be above and
beyond whatever she found oh my gosh yes okay
and she probably comes from i mean especially
being with uh ozen you know You know, nice, clean
accommodations, but fairly Spartan, I would think.
Yeah, yeah, very, yeah. Yes, my lord, they will
do quite nicely. Very well. I spoke to some of
the guard. Your initial instructions were well
received. We are glad to have you. Thank you,
my lord. I shall not disappoint you. Kind of
smiles as for a wry smile. I certainly hope not.
Not in the defense of our good people. And not
in the training of my young son. Kind of like,
looks down sharply at Jean. His mother wished
him to train in the spear. And the heir to the
base should learn, I suppose. As long as he remembers
to prioritize his mind. Kind of gives him a firm
sort of glance. Then these lessons will be welcome.
Perhaps in time you can beat him with respect
for learning. Warm him up with the mental arts.
There are to come. There is time yet. I sought
to find him a tutor in numbers. Most promising
candidate I've found so far is a boy his own
age. Can you believe it? Well, I will tell you,
my lord, that training the body will help in
training the mind. It will center the boy, the
young lord. Good. Like it or not, someday he
will rule here. And he must be sharp. In all
things. Very well. Understood, my lord. Sort
of shuffles back, leaving a space between him
and Jaune. Go. You have one hour. Sort of spins
and begins to move away as Roe is fluttering
in the blurries as he returns to his duties as
lord, as king of coin. And you are left with
a young lord. This boy looks at you. Kind of
begins to move over towards a training spear,
perhaps already laid out. Picks it up, kind of
awkwardly sort of twirls it from hand to hand.
Hang on, let me see if I can get this in. I'm
John Franklin. I'm young John Franklin. Yes,
there it is. Excellent. So, you're going to show
me that move. Yesterday, last night, there was
a... And he kind of, like, steps in, and he starts,
like, a stab into a swirl. Your spear goes out
wide in this arc. Yes, and you took them right
in the head, knocked him, had him cleaned off.
He was, yes, that move. You're going to show
me that move now. You won't be learning the narwhal
approach for quite some time, young lord. The
narwhal approach? Fuck yes. In fact, we won't
be wielding spears for quite some time. No. You're
my spear tutor. That's what father brought you
here for. And when you sit down to learn your
numbers, where will you start? At the beginning?
Or will you learn to balance the books of the
kingdom on day one? I'm not going to learn my
numbers. I'm going to learn the spear from you.
I'm the prince. I'm your master. You need to
show me what I want to learn. She sweeps him
and he falls to the floor. He's on his shell.
He can't get off. Kind of rolling. She walks
over and puts her head above his. You need to
learn to defend yourself without the spear before
you can wield it. And she reaches a hand out.
Think. Hand reaches up to you. Takes yours. And
she pulls him up with her badass blanched strength.
He sort of groans, looks at the spear, kind of...
This is weird. He's not told no very much. You
could see that in him. He's not... This hasn't
happened. Drops the spear to the ground. Fine.
We'll do it your way. So what? Well, first we'll
do a little bit of stretching and warming up.
Stretching it? Fine. How's your mile? My what?
Your time on your mile. My... How often do you
do it? Oh, uh, what? Very well. Let's see. And
Blanche starts to jog off. Wait, come, wait,
come back here. And let's cut ahead. All these
years later, when the young prince has finally
been crowned. Imagine if you will. We pan out
from that sort of scene, that flashback, see
these two figures sort of running. We see the
great sort of sandcastle overlooking the Golden
Bay. We pan out and see the bay as a whole in
this dawn light. And we see time just shifting
ahead of us, years passing. We find ourselves.
Under the stars in the sky is night here. Torches
lit along the rising streets. Great sconce is
lit along the towers of the sandcastle. It's
called the sandcastle? I don't care. It's cool.
No, no, no. Is it called the sandcastle? Yeah.
All right. Fight me. It's kind of funny. No,
I'm not going to fight you. I like it. All right,
cool. I'm on board. Zoom in. Yeah. Through a
window at the top of the castle. Zoom in and
then towards the... Dwellings of DiPiero Montelio.
Now, just after the announcement was made, the
torment ended, DiPiero departed immediately.
Turned without a word, left the box that you
were all in, as you, I imagine, sat stunned at
his words, at this revelation. Jean, staring
up in what looked to be stark horror, DiPiero
made his way out. And... A guard sort of carrying
him, sort of a preset plan. What do they call
those things? Palanquin? Palanquin. Taking his
palanquin and leading it up towards the castle.
Blanche, perhaps you've just reached this place.
I imagine, for one thing, you've heard there's
Jaune following the tournament. You didn't see
him either. He immediately went off in pursuit
of his father, demanding answers. Would Blanche
want to also? find them and yeah absolutely okay
i mean that's yeah pretty critical part of her
job i think you know as you're kind of leaving
there's a lot of guard you know probably some
deliberation with the with the guard as you're
kind of going out and so you're just a little
bit slower to reach them as dipiero and jean
reach the castle ahead of you so as we pan into
this hallway leading to this room we pan towards
blanche approaching a closed great sort of door
at the end also made of sand with a shell this
is a knob i don't care it's cool That's pretty
cool. It's pretty cool. It's like a little conch
shell. You have to be really soft, though, or
rounded. Yeah. You don't want to cut yourself
on that. Conch or conch? It's conch. I think
it's conch. It's conch. You tell us, pants people.
It's conch. It's conch! No, it's conch! Hey.
Hey. Serious time. Serious. Tortles. This is
a big political moment. Oh, God. You just hear,
like, yelling. Muffles yelling behind the doors.
You get closer and closer down the hall, and
words begin to rise out. So this, this is why?
For this, you stepped down? I mean, damn it,
you should, but how? How could you? How could
you do this to her? I did what I did, Sean. I
did it for us, for our people. I did it! You
hear the sound of a fist crashing against flesh,
scales, whatever turtles have. You hear a sound
of someone falling, a clattering of glass breaking,
and steps towards the door. The door opens. Jean
stands before you. Tears in his eyes. Face furious.
Teeth gritted as he catches you. His face turns
to one of just such horror and sorrow and regret
and there's something in his hands, you see.
Sort of clenched up in his fist. A piece of paper.
Some parchment. A scroll or a letter. Something.
He catches your eyes for a second and then looks
away. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, sir. What's happening?
Damn it. Damn it. And he just starts moving away.
All right, I guess. Do you follow him? No, I
guess Blanche is going to watch him leave and
turn to the room, turn to DePiero. You kind of
push through the door. See DiPiero slowly kind
of rising up from the ground. There's a huge
sort of, I think I saw something bruised up yet,
but you can see where like a mark is lying the
side of the cheek. Blanche walks over to help
him up. He, you reach your hand out towards him?
Yeah, yeah, she goes to like. He stares at your
hand, does not take it. His eyes fall away from
you. He kind of just stands up. Master of defense.
If I'm being honest, I had hoped not to see you
this night. Stay. He kind of puts a hand up.
And then almost for a moment, like there's a
second where he realizes that he no longer has
any ability to command you. And he adds, please
stay. He finishes getting to his feet. There's
this powerful tension in the room. It's funny.
Most. Boys spend their lives hoping to earn the
pride and respect of their fathers. Many tales
are told of this. But we never talk about the
father's perspective. Seeing the boy become a
man and hoping. John Franklin is not ready. Still
too emotional, too hasty. But he is the future.
He will learn. Of course he will. But why now?
I suppose the truth must out. I have done something.
Not this murder he suspected me of, no. I was
a part of that, but as you've seen, it was no
sin. But I am not innocent. There may be blood
on my hands, and I have betrayed. Well, I've
betrayed you. You need to know, I did what I
did for my son's sake. He lost his mother too
young, and you are so much like her. He was a
brat of a child, but you, you changed him somehow.
You planted something, a seed of something within
him. I could not let you leave until I saw it
grow and bloom. I could not let you go. What
are you saying? When the letter came, I opened
it, I read it, and I replied in your stead. I
spent enough time with you to pose quite effectively.
This was not the first document I have had forged
in my time. What did it say? It would be best
if you read it yourself. You see, he's holding
back tears now. Jean took it with him. The burden
of this truth, all of my burdens are his now.
I am sorry, Blanche. I must do what I believe
is right for our people, even if it hurts the
ones I care about most. I believed in this principle,
but I couldn't have known what happened. I couldn't
have known about Tythos. Blanche goes into Bladesong
and just runs after Jaune. Holy shit. Not to
attack him, just for the movement. Yeah, no,
that's awesome. You just hear, I had to. I had
to. It's not... His voice lost in the sounds
of your singing metal blade as you rush down
the hall. Jules. Oh, I'm here too. Yeah, we're
doing fun. Let's cut. Let's cut for that scene
for a minute because it's fun to cut from things,
intense moments. The old David special. Jules,
you are... Far removed from this, I think. Perhaps
they ran out ahead, but I guess, where are you?
This is kind of a shock to your system, I imagine.
Is Jaune, is he leaving? Your luminary partner
already gone? I think Jules found a quiet beach,
a quiet shore. I love it because that's in my
notes. Get out. You called it. I was going to,
I was going to say, I was like, I should ask
him what he's doing. Kind of like with you. I
was like, I should ask if you go after them.
You guys did exactly what's on my notes. I was
like, cool. Awesome. Made my life really easy.
I think he's, you get a shot from behind. He's
just sitting kind of cross -legged on the ground,
looking out at the water. Chester next to him
as well. Hell yeah. And they go through phases
of, you know, complete silence for a long period
of time. And then random chit -chat or whatever
else, back to complete silence. Yeah, yeah. I
think, actually, I should note this, because
I haven't noted it yet, but you see Chester in
this sort of back image, but you see that, like,
his jacket's gone. The hungry moss would have
burned his sort of brown, like, leather kind
of long jacket, that patchy thing that he always
used to wear. It's like it was tattered by the
time that moss was removed. So I think... Now
you see him wearing, like, a colorful floral
pattern, like, sort of longer shirt instead,
with the same sort of worn, wide -brimmed hat
in his head, just kind of sitting there, looking
out to sea. I think you're in one of those silences
now, and then, sort of abruptly, he decides to
break it. So you, uh, you missing dance? I do.
Yeah. I'm sure Gene's won't be happy with how
long this trip has taken. I'll have to pick up
some good fried eggs on my way out. She was talking
about sewing round stuff a nice dress. Doubt
she'll wear it, but, uh, you know, thought's
nice. Eh, you guys are strong. You'll be able
to handle the time away. I know that. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it's, uh, I mean, it's good. It's, you
know, it's early, but it's good. Good. How you,
how you doing, Jules? I know all this, but also,
like, we've had some time to cool down, but that,
you know, that, the stuff in the palace, it was
a lot, right? It was a lot. To be honest, Chester,
I'm just kind of a little numb to it all at this
point. I'm not gone, though. Hey. We'll be back.
Yeah, hey, that's fine. You know, you get numb.
I hear you. I mean, yeah. He's like kind of far
off in his expression. I feel it, too. I'm good.
I'm better than ever. You know what? I get it
now, Jules. I really get it now, and I'm sorry
it took me so long. Just keep growing. Yeah.
It's all you need to do. Growing. And next time,
I won't bother you. I won't hesitate. I'll just
do it. Just be, Chester. Just be, Chester. Yeah,
yeah. Well, no. Hmm? You don't have to justify
your actions to me. No, I'm not. It's not. Just
be. Just be. Yeah. There's a smile there, and
he does seem easygoing. I'm sorry I made a big
thing about Diva Luma trying to save her. It's
stupid. She could have killed us all, but hey.
No. All works out, right? Just like God's breath.
Sometimes people gotta die. Sometimes we gotta
kill them. But it works out. We watch out for
each other, and we keep moving forward. Hey,
we keep growing. Chester? Yeah? We always do
what's right. I know. I get it. Okay. Though,
man, I still can't believe we're losing the royal
brat. The big king of the beach now, huh? I hated
the guy, remember? You know, because he almost
killed us? I said never talk to him, ever. You
know? Remember that? I do. I think I'm really
going to miss the fella. He's gone, right? He's
going to do this now. I don't know. I guess we'll
let him tell us that, and then we'll figure it
out from there. Yeah. I guess we'll... He suddenly
just looks up. You know Tester has shrewd, like,
marksman's eyes, and so as they hone in in the
distance, you know something must be there. Hey,
Jules, you see something out there? Something
rushing our way? Do I see it? To answer your
question, I have to ask Steven a question. Steven.
Oh. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. What are the chosen mounts
of the Shell Guard? What do they ride into battle
as they patrol and scout down the rivers, through
the pools, out in the sea? In the water? Yeah.
They have a water mount. They do a lot of fishing.
Some kind of trained, awesome thing. Manta rays.
That's really cool. Ooh, and they'd work so well
even in the more shallow pools, too. Yeah, for
sure. That's really cool. That's awesome. You
can, like, stand on that bad boy if you need
to. Yeah, these big sort of reef mantas. I think
there's a reef mantas. Yeah, big, giant reef
mantas. That's awesome. As you hone your eyes,
Jules, you see what looks like a rider sort of
pushing, rushing towards. Face sort of white.
You see this. Giant manta ray kind of cresting
the waves, rushing towards the beach where you
stand, rushing towards the harbor. And as this
figure gets closer, closer, under the light of
the stars and moon, you begin to make out the
blackness of blood against their shell. Blanche.
You son of a bitch. You run down the hall. Yeah,
I would think that Jean Franklin's room would
not be terribly far from here. And so as you
chase your pupil, you see in the short time he'd
already managed to reach his room, door is closed.
What do you do? I'm really torn because like
the Honorable Blanche would knock. But I think,
I think she's afraid. She doesn't, she doesn't
know what she's afraid of yet. This, something
feels so... wrong here. I think she just tries
to open the door. Door opens up into the room
and Jaune sort of looks up in some surprise.
You look around this sparse... You know what?
It's lavish. It's Jaune. You look in this absolutely
lavish bedroom. Does he have the letter? He does.
I'm gonna say maybe you see he was like tucking
it away. Yeah, okay. So you see like he's got
this... big sort of comfy looking bed. And he
started kind of open up the, Oh, you know, pulled
the mattress up and he started trying to stick
it beneath the mattress. I mean, as you open
the door and you could make out like, you know,
you know, John, you know, this is where he keeps
all of his, uh, luminary comics. Um, his father
was never a big fan of those. So like, he's sticking
in right next to mighty pig man, number five,
uh, his sort of crown is collection. A lot of
pig man comics, uh, some attach, but yeah, you
can see like this. It's like, you know, the room
itself is kingly princely, whatever you'd have
it. Uh, And all the kind of immaturity of that
sort of President Jean's soul is buried under
that bed. Man, I really want to, like, show restraint,
but I'm, like, panicking for Blanche. Oh, shit.
Give that to me, Jean. Sir. That is mine. It
is. I'm going to. I just, I need you to, I need
you to not hate me. Hate us. What he did is wrong.
He was right to step down, but damn it, sir.
She walks over to grab it. He, shaking fingers,
almost just like our scene from earlier, blanch
above and jawn below. His hand reaches out to
meet yours, this folded, sort of crumpled parchment
in it. You go to take it? Yeah. Yeah, she grabs
it. As your hand reaches the paper, you hear...
What? Sing la voix. What? Why? Why now? Why?
Okay, can Blanche read and run at the same time?
Oh, do you want to? Yeah. She's already in Bladesong.
Hell yeah. She's got the extra movement. Yeah.
Yeah, Jean. looks to you. You grab the letter
and start reading, but I think you know when
this goes off, you guys need to meet at a certain
sort of mutual point. I think down the bottom
floor of the sand castle, there's a sort of war
chamber. You'll gather there with your officer,
with Jaune, I guess with the king, but Jaune
is the king. With the hero show, who knows? I
don't think Blanche even says anything. She starts
to read and she's running towards the meeting
chamber. Jaune, swiftly. Falling behind. And
you're just gone. Running. You see this was.
There's like two papers actually I should say.
Because there would be an envelope as well. And
the first thing you note as you're going to move.
Is the envelope. Is the postmark. Dated for a
few months ago. A few weeks before the fall of
the sapphire. And the Tythos tragedy. And you
see it is from Umizu. It's a letter from the
Shrine of Storms. War on the horizon. Your family
here is in some ways falling apart around you.
You look at this paper and you read the words
that might break your heart. Asshole. My dearest
Blanche Trudeau, I once told you that I would
never push you down any set path. That once your
blade is honed, it is yours to wield as you will.
I feel stalwart in this. That, as your once master
of the blade, I hold no power above you. I make
no demands, and do not wish to appeal to any
sense of debt you might wrongly feel towards
me. Yet, with deep sorrow, I must tug upon your
chosen path, and impede it with my own. I do
so prostrate before you. I am begging you. Please
come to my aid. I must choose my words with great
precision here as this may fall into the hands
other than your own. I have been approached by
a representative of a larger collective. A powerful
representative with powerful allies. My position
as keeper of the Shrine of Storms and the talents
it affords me appeals greatly to their plot.
I have chosen to play along, to hear them out
and to gain what information I can. I have learned
much. Know this, Blanche. They are monsters,
and their will is evil itself, whatever they
pretend. I see the storm that is coming for us
all. The storm they will bring to our worlds.
I have pledged to stop them before their machinations
can bloom into tragedy. I must act swiftly and
without drawing suspicion. You are the only one
that I can trust. I ask that you join me at the
Shrine of Storms within the coming fortnight.
When we are alone and safe, I will tell you everything.
I will ask you to fight by my side. Borrowing
your assistance and your wisdom, I... I must
move to face the leader of this plot. Alone.
I am scared. For myself. For our worlds. I will
find strength in this fear. And I will pray that
it will be enough. I hope that I might find strength
in you as well. Your friend, always. Oh, Senor
Shikatsu. I love to imagine that she reads that
last line as she arrives and is just so torn
to be, I guess, lied to by the people that she
served. So faithfully, like, why should I stay?
Why should I fight? Why don't I go to my true
blademaster? And yet you know that your true
blademaster is gone. What happened, Blanche?
What turned Ozen to attack Tythos? You've heard
the stories. We never really dwelled on this.
Perhaps something that Blanche hasn't focused
on, but what? And would it have happened if you
were there? Okay. One more. Maybe just one more.
And we'll figure this all out. She breathes.
And she steps into the room. What's the situation?
Who knows what? You look into the room to see
Jules and Chester actually already there. You
were on the beach when Master of Offense... the
actual kind of like second in command, the master
of defense, and who oversees a lot of the outwards
patrolling of the nine pools. Galt Shavok. Say
that again? Galt Shavok. One more time. Galt
Shavok. All right. All right. I like this guy.
But you're focused mostly on the Golden Bay.
You are, of course, supersede him. You are above
him. But Galt Shavak, master of offense, oversees
the nine pools around. You see he, when Jules
and Chester kind of met him on the beach, he
led them, maybe recognizing the luminary, who
is John Franklin's partner, brings you along.
And so you guys have gotten a quick sort of recap
of what's happening as Blanche pushes into this
room. Right now, all you see in this room are
maybe like Galt Shavak, a couple of the head
guards here. Jules Chester and you. He looks
up to you at your words. You see this older,
kind of worn turtle. Lots of sort of training
battle scars down his face and arms and stuff.
He's not quite as old as you, but he's a sort
of trained veteran. Very weathered looking. What's
his voice? Try to find a voice. Master of Defense!
I am going more French than before. Pencil mustache
and all? Yeah. Okay, great. He does have one,
yeah. Of course he does. I know, I know. You
have your hair, I can have hair too. Hell yeah.
The Sohagin. They have launched a sudden offensive
on the end pool while our people were distracted
by the tourney. It has happened tonight. Much
blood has been spilled. We are fighting them
back, but we need reinforcements now to hold
them at bay. Blanche looks over to whoever is
her, you know, in charge of the guard here at
the bay. Who can we spare? Jean and DePiero,
I'll say, move into the room now, kind of pushing
in behind you. They kind of meet at the same
time. Awkward sort of stare between them, but
it's focus time now as they push in. How do you
react? You feel DePiero move up behind you? I
think she needs to figure out the situation first
before she can backtrack and update people. Hell
yeah. I think it's all business right now. One
of us just... We are having no issues here, sir.
We could... Whatever you need, we could send.
We will keep at least two divisions to make sure
the Sahagi do not make a break for our Golden
Bay. We must protect here utmost. Yes, send...
Will it be enough, Jean, beside you? Will it
be enough without those two divisions? Your Majesty,
now, will it be enough without those two divisions?
We cannot risk any lives. The 8th pool is far.
Only, if we require more reinforcements beyond
this, it might be too late. Sir. I'll see to
it myself, my lord. Yes, sir. There is more.
We have reports that one of the champions of
the Sahagin... managed to punch through our forces
on the Sendine River with a small squad. Five
Shelgar dead, and a group of five civilians taken
by force. They'll be on their way to the Maw.
On their way to the what? The Maw. Heavy silence
hits the room. You know of the Maw, where you,
turtles of the Golden Bay, worship Kondorala,
who is sort of the great spiraling coral reef
that responds to honor and to discipline. The
Maw of the Sahagin is this great, toothy, uh,
this bony mouth of fossil that lies at the bottom
of their, uh, the rift that they call their home.
It is the god of bloodlust and predatory instinct.
A dead god, but one that they believe. If they
capture enough innocent lives, particularly their
fond of tortle lives, they will sacrifice them,
feed their blood, their clouded blood into the
Maw. And when it feeds enough, it will awaken
and lead them to control over the Golden Bay,
over Nowari. It has always been, the Sahagin
have always been your foremost enemies here.
To attack like this, it's much like them. Perhaps
you even had units spread out, a higher guard,
preparing that they might go for something like
this when the tournament was happening. But the
Eighth Pool? That's so far back. What are they
doing that far back? So you said that they, they
punched through the defenses of the eight pool,
eighth pool to get to this. I think as we kind
of, so, so yes, they're, they're heading back
to their base with a group of civilians. Oh,
oh, okay. So they didn't punch through the defenses
and continue going. They hit the eighth pool
and now they're taking one champion. And a squad
punched through the defenses of the Sendine River,
which you would know is like a kind of looping
river that kind of goes around to the north.
It's more of a roundabout way back that kind
of bypasses a lot of your guard. As the shell
guard kind of came in to meet them, and they're
kind of explaining this to you. We'll do this
so I don't have to do a French accent the whole
time. As the shell guard came to meet them, one
group branched off with a bunch of civilians,
a bunch of sacrifices, punched through the defenses
that were kind of blocking the Sendine River,
one of the only back ways out. That's water based.
It's a longer sort of looping pathway, but it
will lead back to the ocean and it will lead
them eventually back to their territory out in
the deeper sea. Why didn't they just go back
the way they came? There was a heavier guard
moving in from there. The shell guard managed
to rally. Okay. There are a number of Sahagins
still kind of in combat or being driven back
into the jungle. Okay. They are disadvantaged.
Okay. So the Sahagin are encircled by the shell
guard, but some. Some Sahagin broke out and sort
of escaped. There's two issues being proposed
to you here. One is that they need more reinforcements
to ensure they can drive away the Sahagin without
any more bloodshed. The battle is still ongoing
and skirmishes, but they need more. On top of
that, one Sahagin champion, a master of the spear,
you would expect, has managed to sneak away with
a bunch of civilians. Based on Blanche's knowledge
of the area, If she were to immediately go after
this champion, would she catch up to him before
he got back to wherever he's going? You know
the area well. You know a few things about this.
The Sendine River is a longer looping path. It's
going to take a long time for them to get around
that to hit the open ocean again. They have prisoners,
five. That's going to slow them. You also know
that because the prisoners are turtles, they'll
need to keep... away from the sea caves that
might lead to the main rift. They'll need to
stay towards the surface. Turtles only can survive
for one hour without drowning underwater, which
means in order to keep their prisoners fresh
for the sacrifice, they'll need to take the open
ocean route. The area bordering their territory
is actually quite shallow and filled with these
large stone spires jutting up from the sea, which
means likely they'll need to take... They'll
stay close to the surface when they reach that
point. All this flashes through your mind. I
mean, you have a high intelligence. You're calculating
it, and you think, yes, if we're fast enough,
we could catch them. Okay. So she says to the
captain of the local watch, send whoever's ready
to reinforce the 8th pool. Rouse the rest. They'll
be on double duty securing the Golden Bay. Galt,
you're with me. We're going after the hostages.
Sacrifices. I think you see DePiero sort of jumps
up, just like, and you would take away most of
our guard here. What if they come to attack us
now? They're getting bolder. What if they come
for me and for my family? Master Vance, this
is... No, Father, she's right. We must rally
and drive them off. We... I think... You see
one other figure kind of moves into the room,
actually, kind of as it's going on. You see Ledoux,
kind of. awkwardly timidly kind of moves in.
Jean looks at him like, Ledoux, do you still
have it? And Ledoux sort of presents a sending
stone. Contact Harlan. It is time we call upon
the silent verse to back us up here. It'll take
them some time to reach us, but what troops we
have here can help to rally. We need to send
whoever we can. Nobody has to die. Unnecessarily.
But... Jean -Claude Bites' turtle beak, whatever.
Master of Offense Chevak, I am sorry to disagree
with you, Master Defense, but I believe he will
be needed to rally the troops. Instead, I think
it's best you take a small squad, one that can
make it into territory without being noted quickly
by the shock scouts. His eyes flashed to you,
Jules, to you, Chester. if you're willing. These
are not your people, Jules. You do not have to
accept this. It will be dangerous. Do you know
me at all, Sean? Just a big smile. I should not
have asked. Here, let's do it. And of course,
I will be going with you, too. And then just
immediately, under no circumstances will you
do so. Only a fool came to Pyrrho, just raging.
Then a fool I will be, father. I am not content
to stand on the sidelines when I can save lives.
Why else would I wield this? Hammers the golden
spear down. This is the same. The same foy that
led your mother to battle the Sahagin champions.
Her blood fed the maw along with those taken
in her time. Would you have it taste yours as
well? Then I can say, father, with confidence
that mother made the right choice. It killed
her, yes, but it was the right choice and I am
proud to make it too. Now I suggest you guard
your tongue from further argument, else you will
need to be removed from this war council immediately.
Do not forget who rules here now. Your coronation
is a formality. You publicly resigned. Or have
you changed your mind? Perhaps I should share
with everyone here the very depths of your dishonor.
DePiro's eyes flash to you again, Blanche. But
he is silent. Um, Blanche steps close to Jean.
They're like chest to chest, nose to nose. And
she says quietly just for him to hear, if you
ever speak contrary to my orders in front of
my soldiers again, it will be the last orders
I speak here. I do not have the time to argue
with you. So let's go. And she steps away. Now
everyone, move! You see, Shabak salutes. Everyone
starts to break off. Jaune's sort of frozen in
this moment. Hands. Fists. Wave. Carries the
stress away. Yes. Very well, sir. Jules. Chester.
Let's move. And we'll call it there.