Hey, Pants People. Have you checked out the Discord
yet? We'd love to see you there. So if you find
us on social media, you can link to the... That
was my, like, Simspeak. I don't know. It's pretty
good. It's pretty good. The power to travel freely
between worlds and enter a rural town. The power
to charge and arrest anybody they suspect of
a criminal act. This also extends to the legal
authority to take lives when they deem it necessary,
though such events can be investigated and the
Luminary held accountable if they were not well
justified in their choice. Psychics, if you can
believe it, hold pretty much the same powers.
The main Calliopean, they are granted through
the Luminary they sign on with. It is in many
ways a demonstration of trust. The trust we place
in our heroes. And our trust, that they trust,
the most trustworthy of folk. Does that make
any sense? A sidekick exists, more or less, as
an extension of the luminary they serve. That's
all. That's the main bit. Given this, we should
hold sidekicks accountable for the acts of their
luminaries, just as we should hold to the vice
versa. And this brings me to Fisher King. You
know, I've made clear my perspective on the short
and vile luminary careers that belong black.
I wonder what kind of ambitious, greedy soul
lingers within Sean Franklin's own heart, having
been chosen by the corrupt half -dragon. I tell
you, I wait for the turtles of Noiri. You guys
are getting smashed on that. You son of a bitch.
You fucking, you guys suck. I can't believe how
much you suck. Ken. What? Can we take half a
step back or like a step and a half back and
do like. Now I'm far from my mic though. Bird's
eye view, 360 degree. I kind of want to break
down the Ariat standoff in the Ugly Coyote. Oh,
the Ariat standoff. Because I'm having a tough
time really kind of understanding. all of the
politics and everything that goes into this.
Okay. Yeah. What do you want to know? Give me
some questions. Honestly, there is, there's a
lot. I get that. When I had to recap like story
elements during the, during the last time Zip'd,
I was like, oh, I see. This is that complex.
It does feel like a Kingdom Hearts situation
now. The problem I'm having is you're so much
smarter than I am. And you expect. more out of
me than i'm capable of well the problem is i'm
i i started juggling with one ball and now i'm
juggling 35 balls and i'm just making sure as
i go and you're and you're like looking at me
you're like are you keeping up and i'm like no
i don't know what you're doing or how you're
doing it so so okay ariat walks in the other
coyote yeah we know that ariat was responsible
for piloting the pearl into the Keening Glen.
At the very least, you strongly suspected it.
You had a very good reason to believe after looking
at him, after seeing that the room was cleared
out, that the piloting room, when he should have
had more space in there, he had everyone evacuate
so he could do something alone in there? That
seemed really weird. And from there, it all pieces
fell into place. It just makes sense, right?
Yeah, so we're operating under that assumption.
So, yes, yeah. And... So... The fall of... the
planets, I'm calling them planets, I know they're
not planets, whatever, the gemstones, is what
the Sapphire Wyvern, formerly known as Ozen,
wants. Yeah, and so the gemstones are the connecting
points between the worlds, right? The worlds
are worlds. They are fragments of one great world,
right? Imagine if it were like a puzzle. It's
a puzzle. A full puzzle put together in the middle
of a table. When the Ray and Sail was formed,
when the pact was made that kind of bound these
worlds together through the Citadel, the Sunweaver
who gave their life to do this, they are now
the spiraling sort of fossil shape the whole
city is built on. Imagine that. A big hand slapped
that puzzle. Their big hand slapped the puzzle.
The pieces went flying off. They went flying
off into other planes nearby. And now those planes
are eating them because they're in the wrong
spot. They're not where they should be. They're
somewhere else because they were knocked from
their original spot. Now, what you've gathered
from seeking to the incarnate, when you were
talking to the Bastide Caiman, the idea is the
Keening Gloom through there is sort of unification.
Their plan was to eventually bring the worlds
back. So what you might consider from that, what
Fibro would probably corroborate, what he thinks
his theory would be, is that when... A world
is pulled when a gemstone, the connecting point
for between the Radiant Seydel and a world, Radiant
Seydel being what holds the worlds in their current
wrong location. When that connection is broken
because the gemstones are pulled into the Keening
Gloom, the soul of the Sunweaver, that connection
is broken, which means that puzzle piece would
then be moved back to the table where it should
be, right? But it's not where the other ones
are. It's no longer connected through the gemstone.
So here's at least part of the problem that I
was. at least was having. So like you talk about,
okay, yeah, slap the puzzle, blah, blah, blah,
all the pieces go flying. And what I imagine
is the piece that is under your hand when you
actually physically slap a puzzle and all the
pieces around it go flying is that the center,
the auroral diamond, stays in the same place.
So it's like then when you take a world like...
umizu and it falls into the keen and gloom and
you say it goes back to the place where it's
supposed to be what i'm picturing is it being
reunited with the radiant citadel the the the
auroral diamond where that sits i see so when
these worlds fall away and go back to where they're
quote -unquote supposed to be, my brain thinks,
oh, they're going to be attached to the heart
of this world, which is the auroral diamond.
We don't see those, so they're going somewhere
else. I see, I see. No, that makes sense. But
in fact, it's essentially the entire opposite.
The auroral diamond is what broke these worlds.
It's what binds them away from where they're
supposed to be. The auroral diamond's in the
ethereal plane, which is kind of like a sort
of... intermediary plane between other planes,
where what the worlds are going to is what would
be called the material plane, the central location
that all planes feed into creating life. So rather
than taking a tabletop with a puzzle on it and
slapping the puzzle, you just fucking flip the
table. Essentially, yeah. The table has been
flipped. The puzzle is all over the floor. Somebody
has righted the table and is starting to pick
the pieces up, which is gemstones falling into
the Keening Gloom. And the weird thing is, as
they're doing that, These people who are bringing
these things back together are making it out
purposefully to look like a very bad thing. They're
creating the storms. Ocean was used to create
the storm over each world to kind of convert
this connection to the King of Gloom to make
it look like the worlds are being destroyed when
this happened. Atash is investigating and saying,
you know, this is happening. People are dying.
Maybe there's something to that. Maybe they are.
Or maybe he's lying like everyone else says because
Zebulon says they're not dying. In which case,
why are they making it sound so bad? Why are
they trying to make people scared? Let's play
another game of Explain to Me Like I'm Five.
Yeah, let's do it. I'm ready. The Sapphire Wyvern
and Atash want two separate things, right? They
both want reunification, but they want it in
different ways. Am I understanding that correctly?
Do they? Okay. The information that we have currently,
right, doesn't Atash... Atash wants the worlds
together, but he wants to do it by force, by
making people play nice. Let me tell you what.
All you know about Atash is this. A few things.
One, he, on his own world, holds these very draconian
laws where everyone must behave perfectly or
they'll be going to the Sky Prison. Two, he wants
to extend that to other worlds, and he wants
to protect other worlds and bring his forces
around wherever he can. He wants more control
because he wants to bring order and bring peace.
And three, and this is the most important part,
when he first arrived in the Concord Worlds,
he was fascinated by the Sunweaver. He had no
connection to the Sunweaver. He's from a different
plane, a celestial plane. Sunweaver, one of the
Dracon who's wrapped around the Aurel Diamond.
Yes. So he went to the Incarnates, who were the
Sunweaver's allies, also Dracon, now bound to
these gemstone forms. And he went to all of them
and was saying, hey, guys. I want to help. I'm
with you. We're together. What are we doing?
And they're like, nah, Atash, we got this. We're
going to wait, you know, a couple more eons and
we'll get this figured out. They're not ready
yet. And Atash is like, no, they're ready. We're
going to make this happen. I will make sure it
happens. And they all were upset with him. But
what's interesting about that and what you probably
in hindsight realize and think about is, well,
one of them wouldn't be upset about that. One
of the Dracon, one of the incarnates. would probably
have really, really liked what Atash was putting
down. Gotcha. The Sapphire Wyvern and Atash would
have met if the Bastai came in to be believed.
Okay, yeah. All right, so all of the posturing
that Blanche did last episode was because I,
Stephen, thought that the Sapphire Wyvern and
Atash wanted different things, or at least wanted
the same thing through different means. So Blanche
was talking to... Ariat like hey I know you did
a bad thing something that the Sapphire Wyvern
wants I'm gonna tell your daddy who is Atash
that you did a bad thing unless you give me what
I want and now I'm sort of learning slash realizing
that and Jeremy mentioned this earlier he was
like well yeah I mean don't you think that It
was just a cover. Like, Ariat did a thing so
that Atash could react the way he did and gain
power. I can't say yes or no, but Atash definitely
made good off of what happened there. It gave
him a legitimate reason to do what he's doing.
Yeah. The pieces are fitting together. You see
that the storms are created, which causes the
shield bears to have to react in an emergency
situation. In an emergency situation, Arya takes
control of the gemstone. That's shield bear policy.
And if he's somehow using that to pull them in,
then that's also part of the puzzle. It's like
everything's coming together. And Atash might
be using this whole thing, maybe, from what you
say, to cause fear to gain power. Because when
people are scared, they look to Atash. Here is
another part of my... My problem and maybe where
I'm getting some misunderstanding is the terminology
gemstone. Like I have been sort of seeing them
as meaning both the quote unquote world, like
the world of Tithos. Oh, because I always call
it the gemstone world. Yeah. Yeah. I see. And
the like ship. that goes back and forth. That
makes sense. I will often say, like, oh, it's
the pearl world, Umizu. Right. It's not that
the world is based on the world. They're each
represented by a... They're represented by pearls.
So not only is there a pearl gemstone that connects
them, the incarnate made of pearls... The pearl
gemstone that connects them is the ship that
travels back and forth. Yes, as well as the incarnate
is made of pearls, so that's kind of part of
that, too. Right. So I kind of just assumed that,
like, the physical makeup of the world of Tythos
was of that gemstone. No, no, no, no, no. Like,
if you dug down... 10 feet to hit bedrock and
be like, oh, look at this fucking sapphire. Now,
it's worth noting that... Oh, dude, I thought
that same thing. See? Yeah, I thought that same
thing. No, that's not true. I mean, whenever
you referred to the gemstone, I still always
assumed that you were referring to the ships,
the transports. I figured that the gemstone ship
that goes back and forth was like a piece of
the world. I'm glad we talked about this. Where
did the gemstones come from? Who knows? They
came from... Imagine the Citadel. The ethereal
plane. Now, here's the thing that I should note,
though, too. Part of why I call it the gemstone
world is because on every world, the gemstone
that connects them to their incarnate, the gemstone
type, and to their actual conquered jewel that
moves between the worlds, that wholly binds the
world to the citadel. The jet. We're going to
call it the jet. The jet. I like it. Also, any
gemstone of that type on that world, even a mundane
gemstone, a sapphire on Tythos, will be used
to see the transmissions coming from the diamond.
So that's how you see the actual... network.
And there are just as many naturally occurring
sapphires on the world of Tythos as there are
on the world of God's breath because geology.
Yeah. Huh. So, like, remember I mentioned way
back when, the turquoise gemstone is that of
Anker and Sengar. Right. Sholi first heard about
the Citadel through a message through a turquoise
gemstone. This is because that is the turquoise
world, and turquoise gemstones, all turquoise
gemstones on that world will receive a broadcast
through the Citadel. But there's still just as
much turquoise on any other quote -unquote world.
This is actually why Tithos was so prosperous,
because Tithos had gemstone mines that did really
well, and they were able to sell gemstones of
all types to all worlds, and gemstones are very
valuable. To all the worlds because they transmit
the crystal network. I thought it was just because
of an abundance of sapphire. No, it's all of
them. Tythos was the main gemstone and porter
of all the worlds. It was huge because it allowed
people to actually view the network, which is
a major part of the industry of all the worlds.
I love that we're just finding this out now.
115 episodes in. I'm glad we're doing this. Holy
shit. I actually have been thinking a lot about
having episode intros where I just go over something.
In the Discord, I've had times where people were
like, hey, break down the entire Zomate Shab,
Fractured Horn, LaRoche. and I'll just do a whole
thing on it. And I'm like, I should really say
this on the show. Or the Zebulon's whole family
line, the Sholay Brass family line. Really important
stuff that I drop breadcrumbs of over 200 episodes
or 100 episodes, whatever. You said in the what?
Where do you hear all this? The disco. No. No.
Hell yeah, Jeremy. Take a button. No. Give me
a button. But yes, okay. A lot of stuff. I hope
people are still listening. Yeah. I think I have
a slightly better understanding. But always do
that. Be able to do this because I realize, as
I said, this is a very wildly complicated thing.
It makes a lot of sense to me, but I realize
when I say it out loud, I'm like, wait, this
is a lot. Yeah, but so I realized that I just
walked into a sword fight in the Ugly Coyote.
With like one of those, you know, when you go
to a Chinese restaurant, you order a Mai Tai
and the cherries come on that little plastic
sword. Yeah. I was brandishing that like it was
a freaking 10 foot long claymore. I was like,
I'm going to tell Atash on you. Well, what I
saw that as is you were making a feint, right?
Making a strike to see how Aria would react because
you don't know this. You could have surmised
that Atash might be working, but like through
your conversation, through his confidence, maybe
you're getting a little more sure that like,
okay. This might be a full connection. This is
worse than I could have possibly imagined. Like
this could be just Blanche trying to gather information
because right now that's what you guys need to
do. Gather information. The world's turned against
you. A lot of shit has gone really, really bad.
Forces are moving and gaining power faster than
you can stop them. Yeah, faster than we can comprehend
because I feel like I know less now than I did
two episodes ago. Well, maybe this episode can
change that. Okay. Okay. Wait, we're going to
play? We're going to play. Oh, yeah, we've got
a game to play. We've got 10 more minutes here.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, literally, what are we at?
Actually, yeah, this is the longest actual banter
we've had in a little while. We're at 16 minutes.
Woo! Damn. We'll call it. Actually, it might
not be exactly 16 minutes after I cut things
and edit down. It also might not exactly be banter
either. I think it's a pretty relevant show.
So hopefully... It's lore. As banter. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. Exactly. Lore in the, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you want more of this, more lore recaps and
question answering and all that for banter, hit
us up on the Instagram. Join our Patreon. There
we go. Guess what? We don't have one. It's for
free. Yeah. Just don't go on our Discord. We
don't want you. Hey. Hey. That's free too. The
door is still. Closing behind Arya. We're picking
up right where he left off. Dude, I wanted to
cast Hold Person so bad. Would have been a scary
move. He wanders out into the night and you are
left in this sort of silence. You had this very
intense conversation last time. You had this,
I guess, a true stalemate. You basically said,
hey, I'll destroy you if you destroy me. I know
things about you. You can make things up about
me. You have some power here. And the end. After
a rousing speech from Jules, that was phenomenal,
he just walked away silently. But there are still
questions lingering behind him in his shadow.
Dance still being held at the barracks. That
invitation still opened Jules. Are you going
to go visit her? And if you do, what are you
going to say? Are you going to let her go away
for what she did? Or will you try to talk her
into playing ball? With the shield there is with
Atash. It's a tough choice, I imagine, because,
I mean. I haven't decided yet. You know? Nope.
I guess we'll see what happens. Beyond that,
you know you have a meeting with Sholay tomorrow
night at 11 p .m. in Oraltown at her lair, which
is her home, her manor. But she's a dragon. It's
her lair. What would you want to do in the meantime?
You can look into other things, too. Orin definitely
was a weird thing that happened. Maybe you can
find a way to get to Orin, figure out what's
going on there. I don't know. You know what the
worst part is? I haven't taken the time to prepare
my spells for the day. We can all just go to
the beach, do a beach episode. A beach episode!
Wouldn't that be so nice? I'll pack a picnic.
Relax, open a picnic basket, catch some... rays
and some waves and not worry about any of this.
Oh my God. I just had this image of Blanche sunbathing.
Yeah, dude. You know, the Blanche Baywatch again.
Um, has Jules checked in with Fibro yet? Uh,
Fibro has been around. He was there talking to
Arhalon the other day. He's been here just kind
of researching, but. Yeah, I mean, the Jerry
Lights are all here. They've been, you know,
kind of present. They're happy to have you back.
They're delighted to have Dresden around. He'd
never like, I think he only ever met Miskin and...
um round stuff on sansatyan as well as chester
before sansatyan so the others haven't really
known their their secret protector their guardian
angel within the tower way back when you know
so i think they've been thrilled to finally meet
dresden round stuff when she's awake is climbing
all over dude i was just gonna say i imagine
that round stuff is generally always like on
dresden like on his shoulders but he's going
around his normal business just not even acknowledging
that she's there she doesn't realize her be there
she's Going down his arms and up his shoulders.
Got like a little monkey or something you got
going around. Little bird on your shoulder. And
occasionally when he needs a break, he just puts
an echo in place. And she jumps on that and he
walks out of the room. Just standing there. Yeah.
I should note one thing. Ader sort of comes out
from the back room after. Oh, how are you already
gone? Oh, it's for me. And kind of grabs the
money greedily. Stuff's in a bag. Well, there's
something I want to talk to you about real quick
while I got you here. This place has probably
just had a huge target painted on it, right?
I mean, everyone knows y 'all are staying here.
Everyone kind of sort of hates y 'all. Sooner
or later, there's going to be trouble. I have
to imagine there's going to be trouble. So we
need someone around to take care of. I can fight.
I can rumble a bit, but I'm not. I'm no armed
luminary. And he just kind of looks at the three
of you, Blanche, Jules, and Dresden like, oh,
is there anyone willing to, I guess, stick around
next time y 'all are out on whatever crazy quest
you're on and keep an eye on the kids. I'm in
front of the kids. Do you study real estate much,
David? No, what? So what I'm getting at is like
in world, what does a place like the ugly coyote
cost? This is a piece of property. Okay. The
building itself, not going to cost a whole lot.
It's, it's, you know, it's somewhat ramshackle.
It's older. The kind of property that someone
new coming in and probably like level and build
something new. That's better. But this is property,
even if it's at the end of the trade discount,
the tail end, the cheapest area you can find
on the Radiant Citadel. This is property on the
Radiant Citadel. Any business owner worth anything
wants property here. How Ader managed to afford
a place in the Radiant Citadel is already kind
of crazy and a little suspicious. You have to
imagine, at least like the property, costs a
ton. I can't put a number on it right now, but
more than you have, more than you're going to
have for a long time. Okay, sure. All right.
Very limited space on this giant fossil. Yeah.
Okay. Should I be worried about that money that
Aedir just took? No, it was just the money. Okay.
You saw my money twice. I should bring out money.
Payout, guys. After that last arc, obviously,
time to make some money, right? You get nothing.
I was going to say. Everyone hates you. There's
no payout. You got sword and a cool new loot.
Peppers, Peppers is bankrupt. Okay, yeah, Jules
is going to reach across the bar then and take
that money out of Vader's pocket. No, no, please.
That's mine. Yeah, I mean, honestly, your sponsors
are not doing well. No money came to you this
last week after everything that's going on. It's
just like, it's kind of a standstill right now.
This is a weird system. Come at me, pants people.
They're not getting rewarded. They got some cool
shit. I will say, though. One of you did get
a substantial reward. 2 ,000 gold to the post
-mortem. Post -mortem. Post -mortem. Almost.
Post? After? The very, very dead -killed Crispin
Dubois, all to be sent, and sent probably with
Arhalon, through Arhalon, to his Warren. they
will be very prosperous. One last huge, I mean,
all like donations coming in. Crispin's still
being heralded as the hero who tried, who tried
to stop what happened and fell. People believe
he died fighting Ozen. So he's not even getting
that from Sholay. He's just getting that from
like crowdfunded. Probably some from Sholay,
some are crowdfunded. It's a bit of everything.
Yeah. But I'll say 2 ,000 gold. Would it be more
like going to his pocket? Maybe Sholay will give
more. 2 ,000 gold that you know of publicly.
Yeah. His pockets are. Dead and not breathing,
though. Yeah. But I'm just saying, money went
to the Warren. Okay. That's very nice of you.
I didn't do anything. Glad to see you still have
those muscles. I tried to stop them, honestly.
Nice ones. Tried to stop them. Well, Ada, like
I said last episode, we don't want to burden
you or put you out. Would it be best if we were
to leave? Let you resume business as usual? No,
people know you go here. I'm still gonna... Look,
I think it's best you stay here. But that one
of you maybe kind of always stays here, if you
catch my drift. We need security here. This shouldn't
be your worry, Ada. I'm humbled and apologetic.
This is not your problem. There are enough of
us that... We can see the children are safe.
If you want or need to leave... Oh, no! I don't
want to leave my... You see he kind of looks
a little nervous in the words, almost like he's
a little affronted, and he looks and his eyes
fall on round stuff climbing on Dresden and on
Miskin hiding behind a chair and on... Maybe
he leans back towards the door where Mulligan's
humming to himself while he's cooking and he's...
I, um, I ain't leaving the kids. I know that
you care about them. Is there a safer place where
you can take them? They're a target here just
as much as we are. If someone's coming after
us, I'm afraid they're going to find them. It's
all public knowledge. Jules has people here.
Dresden has people here. But I think it's okay.
I don't expect a lot to come after us. Just maybe
some folk are going to cause some trouble. My
alarm's going off. Hang on. Speaking of trouble.
No, it needs a little more time in the oven.
What are you doing? Get out of my kitchen. Sorry,
sorry. It's my alarm for the... Anyway. I hope
that catches on the mic. Okay, so Ader's not
going anywhere. Ader's not going anywhere. He
wants someone to stay here. This is DM David
zipping open the story and pointing to Dresden
and saying, get out. Get out of here. I don't
want you hanging out with Jules. There's three
of you. I can't have Jules. Wait, why would Dresden
leave if someone needs to be here all the time?
No, what I mean is get out of the party. I don't
want Jeremy to have two characters walking around.
Oh, okay. This is DM David creating an excuse
to push gently Dresden to stay. Or Jules, one
of the two. I mean, no, Dresden is already locked
in. Okay. Yeah. All right, hell yeah. He's staying.
Okay, cool. Steven's like, we get all the arguments
from like, Steven, I just want... Please. Okay,
I understand now. We will chain Dresden to the
door. Thank you, I really appreciate that. What
the fuck is this? What are you doing? I like
the way you talk, says Miskin. Oh, my God. This
is my thing. What? No. What? Damn. Oh, I shouldn't
swear. Sorry. I'm a child. Oh, we need to have
an entire conversation with Dresden and Fiskin.
Wait, are we talking like this now? Who's who?
Who are you? Ader's got a cold now. You know
that Spider -Man comic where everybody's pointing
at each other? Second episode, guys. Just...
Be aware. Why did we do this? Second episode,
folks. All right. Refocus. Yeah. We're here.
Dresden is staying at the Coyote. Yeah. To protect
the babies. Keep everyone safe. Someone needs
to stay here. If you guys, everyone's going to
wander out, say, to go to meet Sholay, go do
whatever you're going to do. Someone should stay
here is what he's saying. Right. So we're going
to meet Sholay, but in like 24 hours. We have
three luminaries and one of them should stay
behind if things happen. That's all. So what
do we do between now and the 24 hours? What other
allies do we have? Where is Sturgeman? Is he
on Noiri? Probably. Last you saw on the network,
he was on Noiri. He'd been investigating Amos
Nier's very sudden death, which Jules would rightfully
know was... Killed him. Yeah. Sturgeman killed
him, put Larissa in charge. Larissa brought Atash
in. They're trying to make Noiri better. But
in doing so, they handed it over to someone who...
I guess you guys don't fully trust. Right. Another
ally you have, I don't know if there's a way
you can get a hold of them. For one thing, you
do have the Sturge Stone. Say it. Say it. Oh,
I forgot. No way, is it sending Sturge? Sending
Sturge. I forgot about that. No. Damn it. So
you can call upon him. That's kind of what I'm
trying to dig up is like, who are our allies?
Who can we contact? We have Sturge Man as an
ally. We have the Sturge Stone. We have... Never
Eyes as a... You know Never Lies? Never Lies,
sorry. How do you know Never Lies? When did you
read Never Lies? Yeah, I wonder. But do we have
any idea where Never Lies lies or how to get
a hold of them? You do not. Okay. Maybe you can
find a way. It's a hard thing. You can investigate
anything here, but we'll put it on here what
you know so far. You can go visit dance. You
can, I mean, I don't know. That's the thing,
is it's really, like, the moves that we have
are Jules' moves. We have go visit dance or talk
to our arguably most powerful ally, Sturgeman.
Yeah. The other option is you could try to figure
out what's really going on with Orn and Jules.
Well, I was just about to bring up, Stephen,
I don't remember if you had said this on mic
or off mic. Who's mic? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No,
I think that was the beginning of last episode.
We were like, yeah, Kiana is probably being held.
It was my guess. I based off of the insight check
that we did off of the TV Orin. Yes. Right now,
I am leaning towards one of those two. Either
looking into this Orin thing and Kiana or Sturgeman.
And I kind of want to... check in with Sturgeman.
That's a great idea. Because that seems like
the safest of the options. Yeah. I think if we
were to try to go meet up with Orin, I would
need to prepare spells. Yeah. That's a difficult,
if not impossible, task to get counsel with him
right now. Okay. So what is the plan then? You
have all these leads out there lingering. What
do you want to do? Now, you know that Sholay
can't be a thing until tomorrow. Dance could
be any time if you're interested in talking to
her. Sturge Man, again, any time. You have the
Sending Sturge. Yes. Jules is going to pull out
the Sending Stone that's connected to Sturge
Man. No, don't you fucking take this from me.
I need this. At least call it the Sturge Stone.
No. The Sturge Stone is so much better than the
Sending Sturge. Say it. Sturge Stone. What's
that? You don't have one of those. The sending
stone that's connected to Sturge, man. You don't
have one of those either. Come on, give me this.
Come on, please. Please, Jules, please. I'll
give you this if you give me a button. No. No
way. That's a fair trade. Damn it. Sturge stone.
It's a better name for the item. Butthole's a
better name for you. Anyway. Hey, serious show.
I don't know if there's much to say. Through
the stone. Right. So he's just going to pull
it out. What out? The stir stone. You up? It
is late, too. It's like, at this point, it's
probably, I don't know, like 10 o 'clock. Yeah.
Wait, it's Jules that has it, right? Yep. Oh,
yeah, yeah, yeah. I got really confused for a
second. Need information. Can we talk? It goes
silent. Then. opening up a line, and not in the
usual Sturge Man voice you expect, but in that
sort of almost chipper, you just hear, the pale
moonlight, two hours, and it goes dead. Oh, baby.
Oh, awesome. Hell yeah. Awesome. The pale moonlight
you know has been closed down currently, so perhaps
a very private place to talk. That's great. I
guess two hours gives us enough time to drink.
Speaking of, I'm dry. Oh, my goodness. Look at
that. My pan's empty. Gives us enough time to
secure the location. Is that a pertinent thing,
a smart thing to do right now? Yeah. Yeah, I
think so. Keep the place safe. Yeah, I love how,
like, there's just this whole shadows cast over
the entire story now. Like, you just feel unsafe
all the time. Yeah, for real. I knew following
the events of... umizu things are gonna get a
lot darker in the show and i'm i'm i'm i'm digging
it you know you have that as a last hail mary
you have the um the memorial zebulon cross blades
right uh i think actually i forgot to mention
i think even just like blazing on the bottom
of it uh like on a plaque just says justice undying
um yeah and i think i think at this point dresden
has brought down most of like the bedding and
blankets From the kids' rooms. Hey, those are
my blankets. And set them up, like, in the booths
and stuff. Are we... Oh, my gosh. Are we doing
a campout, but in the downstairs inside? Yeah,
we're having a sleepover. Oh, my gosh. I've never
had a sleepover before. Well, except every night
for my whole life. But this is exciting still,
too. Yeah, from here on out, they're all sleeping
in the same room. In the main room. Hell, yeah.
Chester's, uh... I think he was kind of coming
around for all of this, and you kind of, you
just feel, like, up against you, like, just very
close, like, so, uh, big old secret meeting,
huh? I wasn't there for the first one, right?
So I'm in, right? I'm in? I'm in? I'm in. Sidekick,
right? Yeah, you're in. And then you feel a pressure,
like, up against you. Master Blanche, I would
also like to be in her of. Well, then I guess
I won't be casting invisibility before Sturgeman
gets there since there are now four of us. Big
puppy dog eyes looking at you. I should tell
you, Akio, he's been sleeping a lot. I think
he's been really down and depressed. He's been
a lot of times sleeping. But whenever he is awake,
he is two feet behind you at all times. The clattering
of dog paws just follows you everywhere you go.
You'll like go sit in the privy and just outside.
Oh, Master Blanche, it's been quite some time.
Are you okay? Do you need help? We have got to
trim those nails. Do you need help in there,
Master Blanche? David, you sound like Danny when
I go into the bathroom. Like Akio made one choice
for himself, and that choice was to dedicate
his life to a new master. We got to work on him
still, but he is essentially just your shadow
now. So I kind of see a little bit of time passing,
and the four of us, hanging out waiting in the
pale moonlight. Fuck that place. So you guys
show up, I will say it's like totally abandoned.
You kind of maybe sneak around the back. You
know, I'm not going to, we won't go the whole
thing, but you can break in, go in, keep it nice
and quiet. You have spells, you have magic. I'm
sure you have a way of doing it that it doesn't
need to take up more time. I'm imagining Blanche
looking through Turbo's eyes, Bird's eye, around
the... the perimeter of the pale moonlight. I
forgot about turbo. Give me, you guys are sitting
at a table. I bet it's one of those like, like
full on stove top tables. Like hibachi chef style
tables. Oh, yeah. Pimlin's got hibachi chef stuff.
It's great. We were sitting down around one of
those in this sort of wide area. The room is
mostly dark, but I think there's some glowing
stone in the bottom of some aquariums that line
up inside the room. See these bluish glow and
fish kind of swirling around. And that's all
you're kind of seeing, the only light on the
sides. Turbo's above, flying, watching the streets.
Give me a perception check from Turbo. Dude,
this is giving me serious Jurassic Park vibes.
the scene where they're sitting and eating ice
cream. I hope Baragod's all right. Somebody's
going to know what I mean out there. I hope he's
keeping those magic fingers safe. You said perception?
Yeah. 11. Okay. Turbo does not see anyone coming.
Yeah, of course he doesn't. You hit that two
-hour mark, you don't see it. You're just floating,
flying. Again, like, you know, nothing really
stands out out there. What I love about the stealth
role I just rolled is it was a crit with a character
with incredibly high stealth. So as you're all
just sitting there, almost like out of nowhere,
he's just sitting in the middle of all of you.
You asked for me. Helmet fully off, just the
red leather suit. Again, this very clean -shaven,
almost boyish face, dark skin, wide eyes, and
this kind of pearly, bright smile. Just suddenly
right in the middle of all of you. Hello. Jules.
Ah, Jesus. Whoever. I don't think he's in this
pantheon. The name of a famous luminary. Oh,
no. Ah, Blanche Trudeau and Chester, of course.
I never did thank you, Blanche, personally, for
what you did for me and my family. Well, we're
hoping that thanks can come now in the form of
some information or some advice. Why is there
a dog? Allow me to introduce Akio, the last student
of Ozen Yoshikatsu. Ah, Ozen Yoshikatsu, I am
sorry. It must be hard for you both, having such
a monster as a master. Well, allow me to explain.
And she'll kind of fill Sturgeman in about the
true identity behind... You lay it all out. Right,
Jeremy? Are you doing this? This guy is one of
our most powerful allies. Yes. He's one of the
top luminaries. I don't... I mean, like... Him
and Sholay, I feel like they need to know the
truth. Yes. Should we listen first? That's a
good point. I would like Jules to ask first.
Okay. What are you seeing out there? What are
you hearing? Oh, such wonderful things. I should
thank you again for your work with Larissa. I
don't know if you heard, but Jules, I did it.
I did it. Killed him with my own hands. The bastard
finally died. And I made sure it hurt, too. I
promise it hurt. We'll talk about Ozen later.
But now, Noari is safe. The bastard kings of
coin with their merchant monarchy. Making people
into prophets. They'll be unseated soon enough.
Atash will make sure everyone is fed. Everyone
is happy. He'll take care of them all. Holy shit,
dude. That was so close. My God. To spilling
the beans. Oh, my God. I mean, he was the one
that he got Larissa in. Larissa got Atash in.
But he doesn't seem to see you as bad as enemies.
He seems like, from what you're getting from
this, he isn't to make he's in on anything. He's
just an Atash fanboy. That's kind of the vibe
you're getting. Because he didn't, if he was,
I mean, maybe he's. playing you, but if he was
a part of whatever this is, would he show up
here so amiable? Right. Yes, I, I'm seriously
so close. Yes, I, I, I am so thrilled. The worlds
are, they're evolving, following the tragedy
of Umizu. But very soon, we'll see no more tragedies,
no more corrupt systems of rule, just justice.
Isn't it wonderful? Remember that time where
David was like, hey, I'm going to do you guys
a favor, and I know how I'm always giving you
enemies. I'm going to give you this really powerful
ally. Guess what's happened to this really powerful
ally? He's drinking the Kool -Aid and falling
in line. Oh, my God. Maybe you can change that.
I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, that doesn't
feel like it's worth the risk. No. Oh, yeah,
yeah. That's great. I kind of just want to say
fuck this and go. Well, okay. What can we get
out of this? I was so sorry to hear what happened
to you, though. That is unbelievable that would
happen to you. The... Which part? I know for
a fact. I have reported on it that you had nothing
to do with Diva Luma's murders. I cannot believe
that bastard Oren would dirt you up like that.
Do you believe Kedja Kamal put him up to it?
Kedja Kamal? He founded the Crystal Network,
didn't he? Yes, he might have some power there,
perhaps. Perhaps. We... Do you think Auron could
be in trouble? Perhaps he was coerced to say
these things? Surely the greatest detective in
the Concord worlds will have some opinions on
the matter. I could certainly look into it, if
that is your request. A favor for a favor. He's
talking about repaying us the favor? Okay. He
owes you one. He could look into this, tell you
what's going on. I think so. That seems agreeable.
The children, they said they haven't seen Kiana
in some time now. We'd like to know that she's
safe. Kiana. That's, yes, the niece. I'll look
into it. This is... Thank you for bringing this
to my attention. If there was some injustice
going on, I will see to it that it is resolved.
I'll return in two hours. That's very fast. He's
already gone. Empty your room. What? Do you guys
wait two hours? Do you want to play some Mancala
or something? I am hungry. Yeah, can you teach
me? I must use the bathroom. Master Blanche,
I need a walk. So, point of order. Can Akio open
doors and let himself out? No. Are you for real?
Yeah. The doors of the Shrine of Storms are automatic.
He's never opened a door before. He has to know
how. He can quick draw a sword. He can quick
draw a sword. It doesn't cost him an action.
You can spend the next two hours showing him
how to open a door. Okay. Honestly, honestly
worth it. A high level martial artist at least
needs to know how to open a door. You're teaching
him how to open doors. I just figured out what
we're going to do. It's so easy. Our lives are
at stake. Blanche is going to spend two hours
teaching her sidekick how to open a door. You
think it's that pretty quick? It takes about
15 minutes. Oh, I see. I've never opened one
of these before. The ugly coyote has those saloon
doors. Everyone should have saloon doors. Oh,
they're so cool. Well, now it'll take me about
15 minutes to explain the rules of Mancala, and
we'll have like an hour and a half to play at
least a couple of games. Perfect. Perhaps we
cut to... Some time later. No, no. We got to
go through. Oh, we're doing this. Okay. No, no,
no. All right, Steven. Explain all the rules.
I haven't played Mon Cala since I was in like
sixth grade. All right, I'll tell you. We cut
to an hour later. Hour and a half later. Two
hours. Two hours. Whatever. Two hours. No, no,
no. Fifteen minutes to train the dog. Fifteen
minutes to train everybody else in the game.
Stop it. Hour and a half of playing the game.
He's actually late. Fifteen minutes later than
that. Oh, my God. Yeah. Cards all over the table.
Not a card game. Not a card game. What? Shit.
Wait, what am I playing? Ah, shit. Well, I win.
Fork it over. Chester's gathering up his cards.
Playing his own game for like... So stupid. For
like two hours. And suddenly... Out of nowhere,
just right in between you all again. I rolled
over that crit stealth check because I love that
so much. I think honestly, you just got to hear
like, I'm back from the ceiling. You look up
and he's hanging from the ceiling like a bat.
What world changing information did you possibly
gather while we played Mancala? He flips and
lands down. Well, I didn't dig too deep, but
I can tell you a few things that may be of interest
to you. Firstly, Kiana is fine. I saw her personally.
She's staying in Oren's apartment. I spotted
her through the window. She seems to be under
no duress or any form of stress at all. There
goes that theory. But there is an interesting
thing to note. It seems Oren was visited just
two days ago by an old friend of mine and yours,
Jules. Who? Get the fuck out. My old partner,
Rune Rusong. Now, I have broken ties with Rune
as of late. My own ambitions have taken my full
focus away from whatever devious little plots
the little gnome has. But yes, it seems he has
found himself in a very interesting position.
But I have learned something else as well. Something
that does cause me some confusion. I have to
imagine Rune's acting on his own, but there's
been a serious lack of wisdom in a recent decision
made by someone I greatly respect. You see, Rune's
song has very secretly been signed on as a sidekick.
Atash's sidekick. Whoa. So when we were at the
party on Sanctian... Rune fled when he knew that
Atash was coming. This had to have happened afterwards.
Yeah. So at that point, Rune and Atash were at
least not on the same side. Yeah. So what happened
to bring them together? You could ask. What happened
to bring them together? That I cannot say, though
I do have one working theory. You remember the
whole incident of Sansatyan, I imagine? Now,
I will tell you true. I was working with Arthash
quite closely in that assault. I was there, actually.
I helped bring down the foul pigman, the bastard
creature. And I was there when Arthash used connections
he had within the Crystal Network to bring down
the Crystal Network to get the surprise jump.
on the cult members of the party. You see, Atash
used, well, burned all the resources he had on
the network. After that happened, Speaker Sholay
Brass was quick to fire anyone who was deemed
potentially responsible for the network going
down, and so Atash did not have anyone serving
him within the network's organizations, right?
But Rune has all sorts of connections. Perhaps
Atash sought him out, needing someone who can
help the Pulsam Strings move things along behind
the scenes. But why? Why would Atash ever want
to disparage your names? Well, they stopped.
Well, there was the incident of the morning jewel.
That was... I can understand your reservations
on Tantitian, but that was foolish, Jules. You
shouldn't have done that, but... I should have,
but continue. The eyes go wide for a second,
and he kind of just shrugs like, to each his
own. I will not hold your politics against you.
Yes, I could see, potentially, Atash wanting
to make sure such an incident does not occur
again. If he was to disparage your reputations,
absolutely bury you in rumors and lies. Auron
would be a good way to do that in Rune. Whatever
dirt he has on Auron, perhaps he made that happen.
So Sholay has some pull as to who works at the
network. Artash has no love there. Went around
Sholay, connected with Rune Rusong to find some
connection and leverage at the network. Once
he burned all of his... hard -won loyalist within
the network, he would have to find a cheap and
easy way to regain it. I do not care for the
insinuation, the possibility that Atash would
work with Rune and engage in blackmail. I'm sure
he must not know Rune's methods. He must not
know. Perhaps I will find a way to tell him.
But yes, Rune does have connections all throughout
the Crystal Network. After an hour and a half
of Mancala, I believe that leaves us 22 hours
to find and kill Rune. Oh, shit. No, seriously,
though. Should we follow this lead to Rune? Is
that foolish? When has pursuing Rune or having
contact with Rune ever... Done us good. Done
us any good. Yeah, literally never. Also, we
don't really have any leverage over Rune other
than just killing him. There is one possibility,
though. I mean, we can't kill a luminary sidekick
now. He has all the... He's an extension of Autos'
own power, which means he wields the power, whatever
Autos would have to, to charge and arrest. If
he was still just Rune, I'd be down to kill the
fucker. What about... What about... What's his
name? Not... Not Pepper. Who was the other runes
goon? Trace. The goblin. The last you saw of
Trace, you freed him. Yes. You told him. Oh,
dude. Trace owes us. Dude. Trace owes us. Dude.
That's pretty cool. There's one other one, too.
Another puzzle piece that you now kind of hit.
While you don't know where she is, how to find
her. Never lies. Mesmerize. Did you just? Did
you just reveal the identity of Never Lies? Oh
my god, I messed up. David, I had no idea. Spoilers!
On the network, she said outwardly that she is
hunting both Atash the liar and he who works
for him, basically pulling strings behind the
network. She was referring, you realize in this
moment, to Rune. She is after Rune. She's disguising
herself in this Very, very well done, well thought
out persona. But she is on the same trail you
are. Perhaps if you follow that trail, you'll
find her too. Statchman, who does Rune keep close
to him these days? Well, I mean, he has more
power than he ever had before. I wouldn't know.
He always had that goblin, the curious fellow
around. And there are a few luminaries he still
holds some sway over. A shame Mesmerize had to
go. I still don't know what happened to her.
Kind of curious a little. But I imagine now he
may have some celestial allies as well. Can we
tease any other names out of you? Interesting.
Does the greatest detective in the world have
the ability to turn up names of known associates
of Rune Roussan? I don't know all of them. I
do know one, though. One other. And, to his credit,
it's another one of the big ones. Tell me, he
kind of like cocks it to the side, have you ever
heard of the name Handsome Jai? And we'll call
it there.