Hey, Pants People. Just want to say thank you
for listening and thank you for your friendship.
Check out the Discord. We'll be talking about
the dynamic duo of the luminary legends known
as Sunshine and Moonbeam. Sunshine and Moonbeam.
I'm going to start with Miss Moonbeam herself.
Now I know how much we love a mystery in our
luminary origins. And there are a few more mysterious
than this enigmatic warriors. Moonbeam's first
known appearance was right here in the city,
within the preserve of the ancestors. She was
only a child at the time, wandering into a royal
town in primitive fur armor. And speaking of
her role as a princess, the thing is, she couldn't
remember well where she was a princess of. And
as for how she came to appear inside the Royal
Diamond with no recollection of how she traveled
here, well, even after years of studying, nobody
can say. What we do know about Moonbeam is that
she has grown to be both kind and reckless in
equal measure, and the people of the Concord
world love it. She's never outgrown her love
for light battlecraft, making use of her savage
speed and masterful maneuvers, and in battle,
she wields a black -boned battle -made battleaxe.
Damn it. Black bone made battle axe to bash on
baddies. I do this to myself. These days, Moonbeam
travels with Carcord Worlds with a luminary partner,
Sunshine, helping souls in distress, especially
those animal souls. She also seeks to explore
each and every one of our worlds, holding to
the hope that she can find her lost kingdom,
a place she barely remembers from her early childhood.
Holding on to those fading memories like gripping
hard to a slippery drain, Moonbeam ever pushes
onwards, seeking home. I, for one, wish her luck
in her quest. Thank you, Kevin! Oh my gosh. So
sorry I botched that eight times. I went too
hard. I went too far. This is actually the first
of two spotlights from Kevin that are fancy pants
-sized versions of the characters his kids play
in their family game of Raiden Citadel. Kevin
himself runs. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome. It's
so damn cool. It's always fun to compare our
campaigns, me and Kevin, and see where we differ
in our stories. eerily close to each other with
our insane little touches because there's been
a few times. It's pretty great. So yeah, not
only is Kevin a fantastic DM and Blades of the
Dark GM, he's also the coolest dad ever. Coolest
dad ever. Shout out to Kevin. Stay tuned next
week to hear about Sunshine. Oh no, do a slippery
dream. I actually have a lot of spotlights lined
up right now. There's even a luminary spotlight
out there. It's really cool. It's really cool.
And if you have one, you toss it away. I just
want to say, if it seems like there's a lot of
time going by and it hasn't come up yet, I promise,
I promise it's going to get on here. It's going
to get on here soon. There's just, there's a
lot. I will give a heads up that I plan on giving
priority to new fan spotlights before I do second
luminaries or gloominaries. But I will get them
all in here. I love being able to color this
world with all of our brushes. It makes it really
special. Yes. Yeah, it's a really cool way to
enrich the world. And it makes it easier for
you because you don't have to write all of it.
We can rely on our friends and our fans to say,
hey, what if this happened? It's amazing. We
talk about it all the time. Sometimes I'm worried
about that broken record here. Like, the other
day on the Discord, we had a new person just
join us, actually, on Discord. Check out the
Discord. I'll make sure I say this right. Scipio
Africanus joined Discord recently. You know,
just hop right in. He's a big fan of the show.
But it's really cool because immediately, very
soon after joining, in the Theories channel,
they were talking about tieflings. And saying
like, hey, you know, I have a weird theory about
tieflings. I think tieflings, we didn't come
to the world as tieflings, but instead we're
on a world that because of planar absorption
was very close to the demonic abyss or perhaps
the nine hells and were changed because of planar
absorption. And oh my gosh, that's so cool. I
was like, yeah, that's canon. That's the case.
There's a couple of worlds there that, you know.
had probably tiefling colonies, or human colonies
that became tieflings over time. So that's the
kind of stuff I just love when that comes out.
Plot points I hadn't really considered. I hadn't
considered the history of tieflings in the world
setting yet, but I'm so psyched that now I have.
Join the Discord and change the world. Join the
Discord or Steven will kill you. Whoa. He's done
it before. Help! Speaking of the Discord. Speaking
of stuff happening in Discord, yeah. We held
off on it last week. Actually, you know what?
Put it all aside. Put it all aside. There's something
else we've got to announce here. Something really
exciting happened here. In Behind the Scenes
of Fancy Pants Studios. What are we going to
talk about? We can't out Jeremy if he doesn't
want to share his important special. You can
out me. Go ahead. Mr. Wolf's engaged! Fireworks.
Fireworks. Mail time drop. Fire breath. Mealtime
drop. Just because it's fun. Mealtime. Mealtime.
Did somebody order a bride? I came out bad. Hang
on. Walk it back. Walk it back. Walk it back.
Cut that. Oh, congratulations, Jeremy. Thanks,
man. Holy cow. Thanks, man. Super excited. Oh,
my gosh. It's incredible. Yeah. It is incredible.
You're glowing. Now I'm blushing. Oh, gosh. Gosh.
It's been a good week. It's been a really good
week. Yeah. Sorry. Hold on to that feeling, man.
Oh, yeah. Forever. That wasn't creepy. Oh, my
gosh. But, yeah. Congratulations. Super incredible.
I'm so stoked. We got to go out, have drinks,
do some stuff. Pretty soon here. Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely. But, yeah. What was I saying before?
Oh, yeah. But. Sorry. So, we're back to the segue
that we segued. We had talked about doing theme
songs for our characters. What the theme would
be if they were to go out there doing something
cool, but take our actual theme songs and show,
but real life songs that we could apply to them.
Andrew brought this idea up and we were like,
let's do that. And then I didn't do it last week
because I was greedy and wanted all the time.
Do we have any theme songs in mind? Yeah. I have
a couple. I've got a couple. I might have sort
of misunderstood the assignment when I picked
one for. zebulon i feel like it fits him really
well i don't know if he would like zebulon wouldn't
play this song if he was like out because it's
kind of uh it talks about maybe some of the uh
some of the darker sides of zebulon that we really
only started to touch on you know like when he
kind of like strong -armed oran he he wanted
to be famous and and i don't know what he would
have done to get that fame we didn't really get
uh far enough to flesh it out but So I picked
a song by the band Rivals. The name of the song
is Fake Rich. Okay. All right. All right. Steven
played this in the brewery the other day and
it was awesome. I think it's a good one. Awesome.
Do you guys want to take like two or three minutes
and pause and listen to the song together? I'm
down. Sure. Pants people listen along. Hell yeah.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That is Zebulon. I mean,
you mentioned before we were watching, you mentioned
like you could imagine a movie sort of scene
moment of that playing if, you know, he hadn't
gone. Yeah, if he was doing something, you know,
maybe a little questionable. Yeah. Yeah, just
see that song playing in the background and part
of the chorus, the line, one of the lines is,
is it too late to die young? Oh my gosh, yeah.
Honestly, I got goosebumps during that line.
That's a good pick. Great song. I hate the following
that up. That's rough. So I'm not going to. Oh,
gosh. Do you have any Blanche -themed songs?
You know, I couldn't find a really good Blanche
-themed song, so I'm going to chew on it. Maybe
I'll bring it back at some point in a couple
of weeks or so. That's true. Yeah, I can drop
in when or if I find something, but for now,
I feel like I'm really happy with the Zebulon
song, so I'll leave it there. I do think I did
find a good one for dance, though, if we want
to drop that one. Oh, yeah. Well, because I was
thinking about... I had thought that this might
have been a decent one for Blanche because I
really liked one of the lines in it. But then
I was listening to it with Jeremy and I was like,
no, you know what? This song's perfect for dance.
Huh. It's by Lilith. I think it's just pronounced
Czar, C -Z -A -R. The song is called Anarchy.
Huh. So go ahead and listen to that if you're
a dance fan. Okay. Or you just like good music.
Okay. I'll actually segue off of that because
one of my songs is basically the opposite of
that. Mine are all really mainstream because
I don't listen to a lot of music. To be honest,
I listen mostly to podcasts and books, so I don't
hear a lot of songs that aren't very just out
there in the world. But I have, when I want to
get into the zone for writing for the character
of Atash, I do listen to Compliance by Muse.
You mentioned this the other day. I don't know
it specifically. Should we stop? Yeah, let's
stop. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Uh -huh. Kind of chilling.
Yeah. That's, that's a perfect song. It's a,
yeah, it's, it's inspiration. So yeah, that's,
that's one. I, that one I knew instantly. Yeah.
Uh, I have like three other ones. I was going
to say, they're just kind of stupid. You said
you had something in mind for Chester. What,
what was that? I want to know. Hang on. So it's
stupid. Uh, for Chester, all I can think of.
It's the Ed, Edd n Eddy theme song. Minus the
Ed, Edd n Eddy part. Just the good old sort of
schemey junkyard fun. It's just like a cartoon
opening. It's so goofy. It feels... What do the
kids say? It gives Chester. Did I do it right?
It gives Chester. Oh, I didn't know that. I don't
know. I can't keep up. I don't know what's going
on. I'm about to show my age. And only a few
people out there. Put that away. Only a few people
might get this. The Bobby's World theme song.
A few people will get this. Or a bunch of people
are going to Google this. Yeah, exactly. The
Bobby's World theme song. I'll take your word
for it. Yeah. You can be making that up. You
guys don't remember Bobby's World? Early 90s,
Howie Mandel. I was born in the early 90s. God
damn it, guys. Wait, Howie Mandel had hair? Yes.
He had full curly hair. Wow, wait. Oh, yeah.
Holy smokes. Look that shit up. So that's Chester.
Akio, I wanted to just say who let the dogs out
because it's the obvious one. That's not bad.
Honestly, I feel like you just have like a really
corny anime opening. I don't even know which
one. Driving West Island to Bokken's You're the
Bravest, maybe. I don't know. Just really corny.
Dude, I got to say, I heard this recently or
read this somewhere. Lohang Fruit. It's still
fruit. You know what? Who let the dogs out? It's
fine. It's fine. That dog is out. I like fruit.
He can open doors now. He let himself out. That's
who. That's the movie moment right there. Akio
learns to open the door and who let the dogs
out starts playing. I want that. I want that
movie moment. My last one is I'm too sexy but
right said Fred for Jean Franklin. Nice. That's
fine. That's fair. I stand behind that. Hell
yeah. That's all I got. Mr. Wolf! Ah, for Jules.
Ooh. I was having trouble, and then I thought
of something, and then I'm like, yeah. Yeah,
it was kind of too obvious. Yeah. What? Rage
Against the Machine, Bulls on Parade. Mm -hmm.
I think I've heard that one. Do you want to hear
this, David? I don't know. It sounds familiar.
Let's pause and we'll take a listen. Let's do
it. Yeah, but one of the main lines that pulls
it in is in the chorus. Okay. Rally around the
family with a pocket full of shells. Oh, I do
know this song. I do know this song. Okay. I'm
hyped now, so I want to listen to it. Let's listen
to it anyway. Let's listen to violent music.
See you later, nerds. What a jam. Dude. Yeah.
I love that. Just picking these themes for our
characters, we're also just diving into the themes
of the entire story. Yeah. Like compliance versus
anarchy and what's it called? Bulldog parade.
Holy shit. Like, ah. Yeah. Love it. Kind of laying
it all out there. Yeah. Debbie Long with this
sort of climbing. I really dig that Rivals song.
We didn't come here to talk about music. No,
we did not, did we? We came here to kill your
characters. And that's what I intend to do. Great.
So let's open. Let's open on desert dunes. Sand
swirling beneath the shine of a brutally hot
sun. The sky is a cloudless blue with hints of
dawn's pink creeping up at the edge of the horizon.
We see camels sort of traveling over dunes, pushing
in towards a bazaar in the middle of this desert.
The footprint of a city, but still in early adolescence.
There's a clamor of activity as vendors set up
shop, as travelers move down streets, eyeing
early morning wares. We just see all these people
gathered together. And as we kind of zoom up
over all this, kind of half our screen still
in the sky, and that blue, big, silvery title
card appears. Anchor in Sengar. And beneath that
in small letters, 257 years ago. Whoa. Oh. Holy
shit. And we move down into that bazaar, into
those faces, into the crowd. We see all of them
start to stop and react. Everyone kind of looks
up, sort of facing out one way towards us. Our
camera sort of spins around, and we can see some
sort of sandstorm is building up, moving towards
us, moving towards these people. They begin to
react, some screaming out, running away. As it
gets closer and closer, as the Braves stand and
watch, we can see... Something else in that storm,
the strange movements kind of coming off the
sides of it. Wings, it seems, beating out a great
dark shadow, endlessly vast inside. And as it
kind of comes to reach the town itself, the sand
disperses as these great wings fan out into this
form of a brass dragon. Not an ancient dragon,
but on the verge of becoming one. And we see
this dragon looks down upon these people, many
of whom are cowering, some of them just dropping
and bowing before this figure. And the dragon
begins to shrink down into the shape of a woman.
Xolay looks about 20 years younger now in this
inner human guise than she does in our time.
Though we know it is much longer than that. She
steps slowly in the bazaar, looking at the crowd,
what few people have still gathered there. Many
of those are cowering, just turn and run, diving
behind stalls or in sort of shops, hiding behind
crates and alleys. But there are some few that
do stay, some that meet her gaze. And she speaks
to these. Any of you who shrink before me may
leave. You are not who I seek. To the rest of
you, the brave or the stupid, I come to you with
an offer, one I intend to make at every settlement
and anchor in Sengar. I have just made contact
with a force from another plane. A voice from
a gemstone contacting me from the deep ethereal.
It is too much to speak of here and now, but
it is imperative that I seek out this force.
Incalculable lives can be saved if this quest
succeeds. I am quite powerful, but I believe
my odds will be greater yet in numbers. To even
find a pathway through to the deep ethereal,
I fear we will need to travel through an abyssal
rift. Just... A few people kind of like back
away at that. Some few that are still there just
go and hide in shadow. And we hear one figure
whistles. We... We pan our camera over to a man
sort of leaning up against an alley. A man in
his early 40s, thick curly gray beard and a mass
of black curls on his head. Dark eyes, tan skin,
very well built with a rectangular brick of a
face. He wears a simple gray tab with two fine
swords strapped to his belt. That's a dangerous
proposition there, Miss Dragon. I must imagine
the pay is unbelievable. I'm a dragon, Sholay
says, eyeing this. one stranger. I've melted
more gold with a single fart than you've spent
in your entire life. Rich and funny. I think
you might be an employer worthy of my talents.
And who are you exactly? Me. I'm a demon slayer
and a bit of a thrill seeker. Exactly the kind
of man you need for an abyssal run. I'm also
a fantastic lover, or so I've heard. She kind
of growls. You hear a almost draconic growl from
the human mouth. You may leave. You are not the
type I'd acquire for my quest. Not the type.
Whoa, whoa. Moves out in front of her. Not the
type. You asked for the brave and the stupid.
I am exactly your type. And besides, I don't
seem to be able to see your chomping at the bit
to join you. Can you really turn me down? And
calculate lives and all that? Just growls. He
sort of... rises up, gets a little taller, hands
come together, rubbing this mischievous smile
on his face. All right, I'll hit the pot and
grab my things, be ready in ten. And Xolay sighs
deeply, reaches out a hand towards this figure,
almost disdainfully as she kind of like holds
it before him. I am known as Xolay, Xolay the
Brass. And Zegar grabs her hand, goes in for
a dramatic sort of, like, kneels and goes in
for a dramatic sort of hand kiss. He gives her
a wink as she pulls her hand back and goes up,
big smile on his face as he reaches her eyes
again. Nice to meet you, Miss Shone Brass. You
can call me Zeb. It's short for Zebulon. You
son of a bitch. Holy shit. And we fade from this
scene. Goosebumps. Look at those. Look at those
goosebumps. Let us return to the future, to the
present, to a very strange situation. Our heroes
stand at the gates of the city -state of Ionido,
and you have just fought? You've just survived
a combat? You're not sure. You stand there, your
weapons raised, looking around, two guards dead,
two standing at alert. People behind you cowering,
but not even sure why. In this moment, the mist
around you dispersing and the city becoming clear
again as fast as it was obscured. What do you
do, gentlemen? I feel like we gotta get up there
ASAP. Can we just book it? I think so. Get up
towards the... The castle. The source of the
mist, the smoke, whatever. Yeah. Do you want
to move? Yeah, I think Blanche should start booking
it. I'll say as you look up, you're like, imagine
your eyes kind of catch each other. You kind
of do a silence or a nod or whatever. You start
to move towards the gate to do guards. Hey, hey,
wait, wait. You're going past them. People start
to like scream. They're not really sure. Some
people just kind of awkwardly almost get up and
start moving away, shuffling. Some just moving
past the bodies, almost ignoring them. It's strange.
You're moving past this though. You are running
and you hear something. a scream, a roar that
resounds all over the city. As you move, you
look up and you see Sholay and her massive ancient
brass dragon form is flying up over the palace
towards the top of the hilltop. You see her circling
the palace, letting out another one of these
screeching roars, and it sounds to you almost
like a mournful cry, a scream of pain. She's
so far that you think maybe she holds something
in each of her claws. And she drops back down
again, vanishing from sight. The crowd behind
you breaks into shock, sort of whisper and point
in awe, sort of drop to their knees in their
own sort of reverent bows. What's up? Where...
So if Blanche is trying to align the positioning
of where the smoke came from, or the mist came
from, and where Sholay came from, how does that
align in her vision? Like, did Sholay come from
a different direction? Or the same direction
that the smoke emanated from? I would say it's
the same direction. Yeah, up at the hilltop.
The palace, the woods beyond. You saw just like
fog almost pool up towards the top of the hill
and pour down. The palace and all that is very
close to the top of the hill. Where the sort
of rear wall of the city is and beyond that some
dense forest. I wish I had prepped haste, but
I didn't, so. You see this. You look up. You
begin to move. You look at the sky where Shelly
just vanished and then you see. Something else
hurtling down towards you, launching down into
the street in front of you as you move. You probably
imagine you stop as like a comet, this boom blast
down in the street in front of you, kicking up
dust, people screaming, jumping out of the way,
a large form. And as the sort of... Sand disperses.
You see a huge masculine body sort of toned like
crazy. Pale skin, bald head, eyes of blazing
white light. White wings are spread wide as this
form crashed down just before you. You see this
figure is lightly clothed, wearing only a long
waistcloth and braces of gold on his arms and
legs. He also has a golden mace strapped to his
waist. Looks deadly. It is, you know, a celestial.
With the religion check, you can see what kind.
Yeah, I'll take that. Mm -hmm. 23. Oh, no, four.
23. This is known as a diva. They are less powerful
than Pari, but they are sort of very powerful,
typically soldiers of Atash. This being must
have come from Ankara and Sengar. You look at
this diva. And you also see that he's wearing
an odd -looking harness on his chest. There's
a figure, very short and insanely skinny, just
strapped in facing outwards towards you. Deep
tan skin, very large and with dark fuzz for hair
and ears adorned with just way too many earrings.
A head that seems to be framed in gold, silver,
and rubies. An oversized black and yellow sun
-patterned tunic covers most of the body. You
see shrewd eyes take you in, surrounded by a
few wrinkles. The age of this... This smaller
figure in the harness is so hard to pin down,
like a real 14 or 40 type, you know what I mean?
Sure, okay. He stares at you, smiling coolly
from the harness strapped to the chest of an
angel, and it looks so insanely uncool. And the
man in the harness begins to speak. Atash once
said, Beware not the horned fiend who commits
acts so vile in open sight. demon, while atrocious,
is easily found and cut away. Fear! Instead,
the fiend who walks amongst us with smiling masks,
their poisonous ideologies drip from silvered
tongues and spread like fire throughout populace,
opening infernal gates within the hearts of men.
Sort of grandiose hand gestures. It's probably
just the weirdest fucking thing you've seen.
Uh, wait, start with you for a second. I thought
you'd be the latter, Jules LaRoche, Blanche Trudeau,
but it seems I've given you too much credit for
here. You have already shown your hand and your
horns. These poor guards harassed you, inconvenienced
you when you so brazenly cut them down. Points
to the bodies at the gates behind you. But I,
Ambassador Omid Pastar, am here now to see you
hauled away. I have it under authority there
are vacant cells waiting for you both in the
Sky Prison. For your sidekicks, too. This was
the guy we were warned about, right? This is
the guy you were warned about. Uh -huh. Wait,
were you not affected by the smoke, the mist
that rolled through? I was indeed affected by
your trick. I don't know what dark sorceries
you have done, but I will find the source of
this. He looks beyond like, tell me, good citizens,
who amongst you bore witness to this murder,
to these sorceries? Your bravery in speaking
out will see justice done and save lives. The
source is on the hill. We watched the smoke come
down. Lies, lies. You came from the hill. Beware
of who, you said? Kyle ignores, looks around,
and you see people around are, like, weird. They
are... Not looking any of you in the eye. They're
shuffling out. People are moving through the
gate like nothing happened. People are acting
like nothing happened. And he's kind of just
like, looks to you, kind of scoffs, looks everywhere
else like, none of you! Not one! What did you
do, Biles? What did you do to the populace here?
Your trickery is... And a voice just sort of
rings out from the street behind him. Good ambassador!
I must earnestly request that you speak no more
of this! A young man appears. You see... Small
framed, youthful features, short black hair tucked
into a red cap with a long yellow feather sticking
out from the top. Eager, mossy green eyes run
with red shadow stare up towards the ambassador.
This figure's clothes are fine. A short silken
robe of deep red over an undershirt and loose
pants of bright blue. A golden phoenix design
adorns the front of the robe at the waist. There's
also a hefty looking bag slung over his shoulder
with a number of thick scrolls attached. This
tragic accident weighs heavily upon all those
that stand here. Out of respect for them, and
for those that have passed, we should not give
way to heedless speculation. They were killed!
Murdered by, if I may ask, good ambassador. How
is it that you've come to believe these luminaries
were harassed by the guard here? You were not
here at the time of the incident. Isn't that
right? And the figure in the heart is kind of...
I, uh... It seemed to have jumped to some conclusions,
Magistrate Kanon June. I apologize for my haste
and lack of social grace. It is forgiven. This
incident will be investigated by full by the
magistrates of Yanito. We will act as the hand
of law here. You need not exhaust yourself with
this, good ambassador. You are an honored guest
of the royal clan. You need not stray from your
luxuries. You see, like, this lip bite, this
kind of... Deep breath in from the man in the
harness, from the ambassador of Anchor and Singar.
Nikai just sighs. Atash once said one must not
search the house of their host, for they know
well the lay and ways of their domain. I will
trust to your wisdom in this. Surely, justice
will be done to those behind this incident. Come,
we must away. And without a word, the angel's
wings... unfurl with one last sort of glare towards
you. The ambassador takes to the skies, swoots
back towards the palace. That is so creepy. And
you are left standing with this magistrate. It
was called Magistrate Conan June, as the ambassador
called him. He is, you see, very young for a
role of this import. You would probably know
going into this that the magistrates essentially
kind of do everything behind the scenes in the
city. They are the lifeblood of the bureaucracy
that makes Yanito what it is. So he's sort of
like a mayor? He's kind of like, almost like
a high -ranking law official, but so much more
than that, too. Like a sheriff sort of thing?
Kind of, yeah. The magistrates exist to basically
make sure laws are followed, but also just to
generally help people investigate any sort of
situations. Perhaps other duties as well that
aren't as out there and well -known. Right, but
we would know this guy's a big deal. You know.
Yeah. Allow us to introduce ourselves, Magistrate.
I'm Blanche Trudeau. And I'm Jules, and this
is Chester. And I am an Akita named Akio. We
are troubled by the recent happenings, and we
are anxious to get to the castle on the hill.
We're here to meet Sholay. Yeah, all right. So,
like, what's going on here? No one cares? I mean,
like, what just happened? What just happened?
Relax. How do I? Who's that fucking guy? We'll
figure it out. That's what we do. I feel like
all of our answers are going to be at Sho -Li.
Yes, yes. Another magistrate will be along shortly
to handle the investigation here. I've been tasked
personally with escorting you to the Seat of
Dragons. I am Magistrate Konon June. If you would
come with me. And do we know... Is the seat of
dragons where we want to go anyways? Yes, that
is the palace. That is the title of the palace.
Okay, great. Yeah. Very well. Lead the way. All
right. Let's go. He begins to move up the street.
Do you know, was there more blood shed during
the blackout? I don't know. What did you experience?
It would be inappropriate to speak of any...
Strangeness that may have occurred in the city.
There may have been accidents and incidents in
various places throughout the city. Coincidences,
of course, but that's neither here nor there.
So this has happened before? It would be inappropriate
to speak any more of this matter. At what frequency?
We deserve answers. I just kind of locked forward.
I apologize for the ambassador, by the way. He
was simply taken in by the situation. His zeal
for justice, though, it becomes him, I think.
Should we not tie our blades? Tie your blades?
Well, if you won't tell us the frequency that
these blackouts occur, how are we to keep ourselves
and everybody around us safe? He sort of licks
his lips and kind of stops. I would be remiss
in my duties if I were to allow you to continue
feeling discomfort. But it would be wildly inappropriate
to speak of matters that are not open to public.
To him? Yeah. Okay, hell yeah. And she'll say,
this is clearly incredibly troubling. There's
a huge breach in security. What can you tell
me? I can help you. Hey, your body here. It would
be very inappropriate to even psychically communicate
any... And you're like, go ahead and roll me
insight, actually. Go ahead and roll me insight.
You can both roll this. Oh, just an eight. Insight
gets to roll these rolls, too, if you want to
give it to him. Okay. Jules got a 14. 14's not
bad. Chester got a 15. 15's better. Hey. I'll
say this. Jules, anything good with Keo? No.
Okay. Keo's a dog. Four. A lot of people here.
I'm still confused. Me too, Akio. Why did that
guy have a harness? Jules, you see... It doesn't
seem there's any kind of, like, threat or nervousness.
Kunan Jun just looks uncomfortable talking about
anything that's going on here. Like, it just...
How should I put this? It feels more like a cultural
roadblock than any kind of inherent threat. And
Chester, as you're kind of noticing, you're looking
at him, Chester kind of nudges you with his little
eye, and he's like, Jules, hey, it ain't just
him. Look. And you see everyone on the street,
all these people are kind of like looking around
sort of weirdly, but then they might get nudged
by a neighbor, and they kind of shake their heads,
and they begin to move like nothing happened
at all. People move past the body, almost pretend
not to notice it. Like, everyone in the city
is pretending whatever just happened did not
happen. So are there other bodies just, like,
lying around? Like, is there chaos everywhere?
Do not see any other bodies. It seems like the
incident, you know, the gate looks like it was
one of the only places where something more violent
occurred. Maybe there are other ones, but in
the main thoroughfare you're looking at, you
see nothing else. Okay. I mean, we're going the
direction we want to go. Yeah. I'll try it one
more time. We've never been here before. Just
help us understand. We want to learn. I think
you just see like a long sort of breath, a sigh.
He stops, kind of turns around to face. He moves
in a little close. You are correct. I apologize.
I'm still pretty new to all of this. Look, here
in Yanito, we follow strict traditions. And those
traditions dictate that we put on a brave face,
regardless of any... Hardships we're facing.
And we do not pry into the business of our neighbors.
Whatever shames or tragedies occur, we push onwards.
We ignore them. And there is, you can see it's
holding something back. And it says, there may
be a great shame in all of this that we will
not look into. We will ignore it. We must. But
I am eager to see. I was on my way here when
nothing happened. Something nothing happened.
So I want to make sure everything's okay at the
Sea of Dragons. If that's okay with you, I'd
like to proceed as fast as possible. Sure. Yes,
that's our main objective as well. We saw Sholay
in the sky. At least we know she's okay. That
was strange. How's that? I'm surprised Shirley
would show herself in that form. That's what
concerns me greatly. The people here are... We
revere dragons, but we are also... There are
some fresh wounds in the memories of many of
those that reside here. We had an incident involving
a red dragon some nine years ago that still haunts
many of us. I'm surprised she would choose to
do something like that. It must have been drastic.
Speaker Shirley Brass of Anchor and Syngar is...
Generally, very careful in her dealings with
any of her allies, other speakers, other dignitaries.
We should press onwards. Yes, double time. If
that's unusual, let's go. And Casper's full of
jogging. You go jog. Again, people just kind
of look away as you move. They see your hurriedness,
and they do not look at you. They sort of keep
their heads away. is a strange place here. You're
starting to understand why some refer to this
city as the City of Secrets. I imagine as you're
moving, your mind might flash back to that sort
of confrontation you had with Omid Pastar. You
had a note warning you that this figure was going
to try to make you look bad, to prove you as
the monsters you were, and... I think Blanche,
with your intelligence, would put together the
pieces. He did call you out for essentially attacking
these guards who had harassed you. How would
he have known that? Right. Unless he planted
the bug himself. Do you remember? They acted
weird. They were coming at you, trying to search
you. It seemed needlessly aggressive. He also
either knew when it was going to happen or could
control when it happened. Possibly. Yeah. I mean,
because he... I mean, think about it. You just
say, oh, hey, city guard, just like hold these
guys up at the door. I mean, that means that
he at least knew that it was going to happen
around the time we're at the gates, right? You
know, if it happens, you know, every couple of
days, every couple of weeks, every couple of
months, then there's no way that he could have
known that holding us up there was going to cause
this. I will say the other thing you might flash
to is it's possible, I will say at least, that
his intention did not involve this, but rather
that you would do something foolish when confronted
by the guard and he'd be there to catch it. Such
as casting invisibility on the entire party and
running away. Yeah, I was definitely about to
do that. I was absolutely about to do that. With
that warning paired with that first sort of initial
thing, you would know, I need to be very wary
of this person because this is a person who will
set traps. This is a person who will do anything
to catch you. There is a, you could see that
zealous heat. That almost creepy. And you know,
like, Sholi is here. Sholi is the Speaker for
Anker and Sengar. But Sholi has been the Speaker
for Anker and Sengar for, you know, 250 years
almost. Since she founded the Speaker for the
Ancestors. Since she founded the Radiant Citadel.
She does not, she speaks for Anker and Sengar,
but she is a representative more or less of the
Citadel itself. Anker and Sengar sort of went
on without her. Ah, Tasha's taking control. And
while they both represent the same world, they
are entirely different sides of a coin. Can you
give me the guy's name again? Omid Pastar. Omid.
Omid Pastar. So, like, the people of Ionito are
super, like, uncomfortable not talking about
this blackout incident. But Omid's not from Ionito,
so he would have no problem talking about it.
He was trying to. He mentioned the sorcery you
committed over the city. Yeah, I just have such
a... Until I know more about this, I want to
connect the two so bad. Yeah. It just seems too
perfect that we were at the right place at the
right time. Yeah. It's strange. And you move
through these crowds of people, many looking
perplexed. You see no more bodies, no more scenes
of tragedy or combat until you're moving past
these winding streets, all these buildings close
together, a full metropolis. You finally reach
this great sort of red palace, red, blue, gold
flags fluttering off of it. There's a great ornate
serpentine dragon sort of carved in the walls
just above. It is immaculate and huge. And you
have no time to enjoy it as you are just rushed
jogging through the gate. And here as you get
into the palace, you see a little more activity.
People moving around a little more frantically,
people who seem like they're trying to keep their
minds sort of, you know, not lock eyes with anybody
else, but their faces look harried as they kind
of move forward. They don't look comfortable.
But the magistrate does not stop, does not, you
know, speak to anybody, just pushes past, past,
past, deeper into the palace itself, and you
find yourself moving through a grand sort of
room lined with pillars towards some large opening
at the end. Guards, a green dragonborn and a
human bearing, again, these long pole arms and
light sort of armor, pull open the door into
this throne room. Magistrate, were those people
uncomfortable because of Sholay's dragon form?
If Speaker Sholay Brass of Anchor and Syngar
made an error... That is not something we should
dwell upon. She is an honored guest of Queen
Jean Mee, and we will not do her the dishonor
and disrespect of considering her acts to be
any kind of mistake. But we could see their faces
were uncomfortable. Yeah, and he looks uncomfortable
too. It's like he's trying to, you can tell,
it's like he's lacing his words with an undertone
of like, hey, come on, don't ask. Gotcha. He
doesn't seem rude. He just seems focused, very
driven. You say that and he kind of pushes open
the door. He's like, we should, I should introduce
you to Queen Jinmi, to the clan of dragons. I
would advise that you don't speak of anything
embarrassing or shameful. Would it be? The answer
is probably yes. Small smile. My question is,
would it be wise, would we be able to find Sholay
before we meet the queen? I was advised to bring
you here first. I'd like to hear from Queen Jean
-Mi what has been happening. I think as like
you saying that you see people start rushing
out behind it, like another magistrate comes
moving out, a flood of sort of servants behind,
and they're rushing down the hallway, kind of
almost bowling him over. He kind of stops, looks.
I would really like to know what is happening.
When we're done with the queen, do you know where
we can find Sholay? I don't, but I will find
out. Okay. I guess we're being railroaded. This
figure, he wouldn't know. He wouldn't actually
know. I'm just kidding. Hot dog. Arbitrary intros
all to side characters episode. Here we go. Door
opens and you look into this. incredibly just
opulent throne room. A single great sort of throne
on the other end. Gold and red, blue tapestries
against all over the room. A lot of them bearing
that same sort of golden phoenix emblem. Again,
sort of dragon based sort of decor lining the
edges. You see along the right edge of this room,
there's an elderly dragonborn just sits holding
a steaming cup. You see his scales have faded
with age to a near brown. He's also a touch overweight,
covered with a very loose, light blue robe. Horns
adorn his head. A number of them bear golden
rings sort of in the horns. He seems to be staring
in concentration at a game board of some kind.
Fine, shining wood marked with a grid of tiny
squares. Small, smooth stones, black and white,
cover the board in an intricate pattern. Blanche,
you're a tactician. I wonder if you have any
interest in, like, games of strategy oh totally
yeah if blanche gets a look at the game board
yeah so you would recognize she's familiar with
the game at least you recognize baduk uh also
known as go okay sure sure so you're looking
at this and you see this this figure is uh staring
down like um kanan june just says i'll introduce
you to the heads of our royal clan this is uh
young g uncle of the queen who serves in an uh
uh advisory position in the city and Young Gi,
the old Dragonborn, gives us the slightest nod
of acknowledgement. His eye is never leaving
the board, but his clawed finger reaches out
to tap at a white stone. Kind of falls back,
and it's an old sort of puzzle. It's like he
has this all set up here, just trying to solve
for the right way to all the correct moves. It's
a master's gambit. Can I roll to see if Blanche
can come up with a move? I would love that. This
is going to be, I think, just a straight intelligence
check, unless you pitch something different.
No, I think intelligence works fine. I don't
know if any other skills necessarily would let
you. I don't know if anything specifically works
for games, but tell us in the Discord. 16. 16.
You can't tell exactly what the right move here
is, but you can see that he's about to fall into
a trap with the piece he's touching. So it's
like, you don't know the right move, but you
know he's about to make the wrong move. Yes,
yes, right, I should. Don't fall into the scout's
trap. Tricked as old as time. And he kind of
narrows his eyes and he looks up, kind of blinks
a little bit, and he kind of points to two more
pieces of the back. Quite right. Quite right.
You play? I have. Not for a while. Yes, yes.
Good. Good. We will have a game then. Later.
I think there are a lot more important things
happening right now, actually. Kind of wearily
turns his head back and looks down. And sort
of everyone sort of watching you as he kind of
goes down, almost sort of politely, but quivering
with like eager energy. Kunan Jun's like, okay,
all right, great. And of course, there is, and
of course, there is Her Majesty Queen Jin Mi
kind of points over to the throne itself. And
you see this incredibly. regal dragon mode woman
is sort of watching all this with amusement her
expression is but right now also, like, there
is definitely worry in her wide eyes. Her scales
are a vibrant red. These red, gold, and blue
makeup covers the features of her face, adding
to her air of majesty. A long robe of blue with
red and white trim, multiple golden phoenix designs,
runs down over her feet. Between her two horns
and her head, tendrils run like hair down her
back, painted with accents of blue and gold as
well. A fine golden chain adorned with tiny sapphires
wraps around her horn and dangles by her face.
It is difficult to tell her age. You've previously
heard from Arhalon that she is 60, yet she looks
shockingly young. And, uh, Kanan -June starts
forward. Your Majesty bows down almost to the
floor like, I have brought your honored guests,
the friends of Sholay Brass, Xena Brass, and
Arhalon Brass. Yeah, Blanche does, uh, mimics,
uh, the magistrate's bow. She looks to you, looks
to you, Blanche, looks to you, Jules. Do you
bow? Jules will give a, uh, Kind of a half bow.
More of like a nod with kind of moving his torso
forward a little bit. Chester does the same.
I think from underneath his bow, like under his
legs, you can see Jun kind of has a slightly
disapproving gaze towards you, both of you. Yeah,
I think Chester probably goes full eyes down,
but Jules doesn't break eye contact when he does
it. Akio fully lays down. Oh, I could use a rest.
Simply eyes turned towards Akio, curious eyes,
but she focuses on you. Blanche and Jules, who
kind of clearly come at the forefront here. And
that air of concern she shows grows, and she
stands slowly. There has been an incident here
at the palace. I... You were brought to my company
under Sholay's wing. On top of that, good Xena
and her son have said such wonderful things of
your company and friendship. It is only right
that you are informed. Just a short while ago,
we had a situation. Arhalon and Xena collapsed
suddenly, screaming. They are in a near catatonic
state, like they are suffering a horrible nightmare.
I have my physicians take them away immediately,
and they are being tended to by the very best
Yanito can offer, I assure you. Xole, she has
done something strange. She... Lost her mind.
Grabbed them, tried to run. Spun around, came
back. She... She's near gone mad. She's taken
over the rear ballroom of the palace. Sent everyone
else out. Sits solitary. No one can approach
her. She is in some kind of rage. I don't understand
it. And where is Ahuan? He is with his mother
in bed. They are unwell. May we see them? Of
course, yes. Of course, you are honored guests
here. I am so sorry to give you such news as
you arrive. I truly... Xena is a close friend
of mine, has been for many years. It troubles
me greatly that this should happen in my own
halls to a treasured friend. Blanche is going
to cast Message again into the magistrate's mind
and ask him, would it be a terrible... snafu
for me to ask the queen about the time skip it
might be considered inappropriate for someone
of your station to approach the queen with such
a query but i will approach the subject with
a sensitive prod i trust your discretion uh he
finally kind of he's still bowing kind of finally
sets up for his bow and uh your majesty By some
coincidence, there was an incident at the city
gate as well. Two guards have tragically fallen.
And there's the long pause. What? What? And she's
kind of like, looking sort of strangely. And
you hear a voice from the corner. You hear like
a clack as a stone moves on the board. And then,
right, right, right. What a coincidence indeed.
A dragon gone mad and two half -dragons in torment.
Could their plight have to do with Baraki, I
wonder? And a fall, sort of like something heavy
falls over this room. Queen nods. Magistrate
Kunanjun, once you have finished here, I'd like
you to look into any other accidents that have
occurred within the city. Outside of it as well,
there is a construction project, I remember,
happening in the Tiger District. Hwang Jong -soon's
company? I imagine you know of it. I would have
you check on them. Look into any other potential...
Accidents. Of course, your majesty. Kind of bows.
But first, I should attend to our guests. They
are concerned for their friends. Of course. Of
course. So we have a name for it, at least. Muraki,
that's what you heard. Right. I don't know. Obviously,
we don't know if that's the name of the happening
or whatever is causing the happening. There was
a correlation with dragons going on in the mind
of the... The uncle of the queen, Young Gi. I
also figured out I probably could have used investigation
instead of intelligence, and with my eyes of
my night seeing, I might have had advantage.
Ooh. Do it again. He moved that piece, and he
was looking at another piece, and he's like,
oh, right, right. No, that's 14. Tricky puzzle.
Tricky puzzle. Maybe it will play later. Oh,
perhaps. Perhaps. He's, like, saying it passively
like he doesn't know what you just said, fully
sort of staring down the board. So the magistrate's
going to take us to? Yes. Do you want to say
your abides to the queen or do you want to ask
a roach? It's tricky. Again, you are here as
diplomats, I guess. Right. And this entire mission,
remember, this is a critical mission that Shelly
has you on. And right now. Every other piece
in her puzzle, including Shelly herself, seems
to have already fallen away from this. Like,
obviously there's a lot going on. There is an
ambassador out to get you. There is a mist that
tried to kill you. You're not sure. It's weird.
A whole city ignoring some strange supernatural
happening. But on top of it all, you need this
woman, this Dragomore woman, to join Shelly's
side or greater tragedies are going to occur
without the help of the Conquered Worlds. Right.
So let me share, Jeremy, my sort of three -step
thought process. Sure. I kind of want to get
to Arhalon to see if what he's going through
is similar to what Blanche watched Jules go through
after the Salome interaction. Because he was
down for how long? That's a good, oh my gosh,
yeah. And this just happened. So it's fresh on
her mind. Then, you know, I'd like to try to
figure out maybe some way to bring Sholay back
to normality. And, you know, whether or not we
find a way to do that, I feel like Blanche now
has an in with this guy playing Go. And he seems
to be willing to talk about, what was the word?
Name? Buraki. Buraki. So I'm hoping that Blanche
can find a time to sit down. get more information
about Baraki. It's like you're seeing the one
person here that seems to have no consideration
for politeness in this culture. He just wants
to play his game and will just say whatever comes
to his mind. And it's like, okay, that's immediately
a potentially useful tool. You can speak his
language, and I think Blanche can. Yeah. So Blanche
wants to, in the best way that she can pick up,
find a way to excuse herself. from the queen's
presence. And the magistrate basically said,
like, I want to lead you, so you could just hold
him. If you don't say anything else, he gets
up, bows one more time, and begins to leave,
waiting for you to follow. Can you follow? Jules
really wants to go to Jolene. Are we splitting
up? Split the party? Split the party, bro? Split
the party, bro? I think so. What? Jules, aren't
you, aren't you coming? Leave me the sholey.
Well, I'm supposed to watch both of you and guide
you as your guide. Well, if I can... All right,
well, we'll do Blanche first and... Hold on,
hold on. My point's still, I'm sorry you're passing
by. It's like, our guests are troubled. Would
you please lead Blanche Trudeau to Arhalon and
Xenobress? What was the go guy's name? Oh, Young
Gi. Ooh. Perhaps Master Young Gi wouldn't mind
escorting me to see my friends. Two birds, one
stone. I like this a lot. Here, click. If you're
not too keen on finishing your game... Right,
right. A guide. Slowly stands up. It's kind of
like a slow... Stand, almost like it hurts. You're
creaking, and it's not the... No, I really wish
I had haste. Right, right. I will guide you,
but we will have our game later. Is that a promise
or a threat? I like just a jab as you slowly
come here. It's over. Way too late. Ha! Jabs
you in the arm. We like each other already. Yes,
you're fun. Now, where are we going? Western
Ring, room AB. Ah! Which direction is that? West!
Ah! Oh, no. Okay. He wanders. He begins to start
slowly down the hallway moving. He goes the wrong
way. He starts going east. No, no. Oh, western
west. Yes. All right. Spins and moves around.
And like you see as he's moving, his hands are
kind of like pretend moving pieces. Oh, cool.
He's just fully kind of zoned in. You're like,
okay, this guy is very single -minded. You begin
to follow down one hallway. towards Arhalon,
towards Xena, towards two friends in distress.
As you begin to move, the magistrate turns to
you, Jules, and Chester. Akiyo, I'll say, is
right on your heel. Should I carry him? He seems
like he's going to die. Why don't you stay close,
just in case he has a need for support. He just
stops dead in the hallway. Your dog talks. Right,
right. Begins to move again. And he's slowly
pawing behind. You go down one hallway. Meanwhile,
Jules, magistrate, turns to you, nods grimly.
I don't like this, Sholay. Sorry, I should nod.
It would be inappropriate for me to say anything
about Sholay Brass, Speaker of Anchor and Cengar,
but I do hope your conversation with her is helpful.
You are... He looks really kind of nervous saying
this. Sure you're safe? I'll be just fine. Okay.
He begins to move down the other hall. Chester,
by your side. You see his hands are itching to
reach for misdirection, but he pulls them forward.
No weapons, not yet. And so our party begins
to move to the east, to the west, and to answers
to this. troubling new mystery. And we'll call
it there.