Hey, Pants people. I just wanted to stop real
fast and say thank you so much for listening.
We love getting to know you guys and interacting
with you, whether it's on the Discord, social
media, anywhere. So this one's for you. Discovering
the city that vanishes in moments, in unexplained
deaths, at various points in the city. Mine is
all based on tips from concerned off -worlders.
We didn't receive any information at all from
the Palace of Ionido, or even from actual citizens
of Hauri. It's all very, very odd. But it is
worth noting that the city now's least favorite
troublemakers, Jules Laroche and Blanche Verdot,
traveled to Hauri early this morning, just before
the rumors of strangeness began. Funny how that
always seems to be the case. Well... I, for one,
hope this is just tall tales and little else
and that nobody has been hurt. Keep checking
back for updates. I'll let you know if we hear
any more. In brighter news, Salome the Sight
Weaver has just returned from her first mission
as an official luminary. Having saved a child
from the maze of Thelmira's most notorious minotaur,
I'm sure she has one hell of a story to tell.
Crack that beer. Yeah, crack it. That was a great
crack. It was pretty good. You want to have my
hand right here? Finally, I have a party in your
mouth. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Let's party. Best
beer brewed by our lovely sponsor, Reckless Brewing
Company. You know, when they feel like it. When
the season is right. Again, it's a summer beer.
It's always the season for a good beer, Stephen.
Maybe someday you'll learn that. Speaking of
reckless and good news coming from reckless,
Jules has... Oh, yeah. Right, right, right. Yes.
Yes. We are back immediately after the episode,
but you know what? That's okay, because I...
Well, Steven, you take it away. What's the news?
What's the update? Come on. I actually thought
it was fun that we were able to, like, say, oh,
yeah, we'll get to blah, blah, blah, blah, and
then end the episode without revealing. It builds
a little suspense, right? Suspense. Yeah. Suspense.
Suspense. What's going on? So... Jules thinks
it is fair that I get to keep my button. And?
And you get yours. Give it, give it, give it.
Mine. Oh, I do. Why do I have buttons? What's
your button there? Well, you have one. Well,
give me one because it feels... No, trade. What?
Fine. Give me yours better. Oh, look at that.
Oh boy, that won't... That won't turn horrible.
I already know. No, but now you've got three.
I know. I know when I'm using this. Sour grapes.
I know exactly when I'm using this. Sour grapes.
I'm not getting on that. Wait. Sour grapes, sour
beer. You guys ready for a sour episode of that
last cockamamie? Didn't he use his last button
to try and permanently kill John Franklin? Arguably
the closest thing David has to a PC in this campaign.
I have many masks I wear. I don't get the bad
guys. I close the thing to my PCs. And there
are some bad, bad guys out in these worlds. Arguably,
you just helped Cholet kill one of them. Yeah.
Although, very arguable. Because Hyronix was,
you know, literally a divine being of law just
wanting to get by and stop you murderers from
getting away. We're all just trying to get by.
Are you the good guys in the story? I don't know.
Hey, we didn't help kill anybody. She just did
that on her own. Motorcycle. Oh, I thought it
was in there. I was like, what music is this?
It's a real big bass going on. Nah, just some
guy thinks he's cool. Is there something wrong
with what I just said? What'd you say? Listen
to that bass. I said we didn't help kill anybody.
Sholi did that on her own. It's actually true.
No one did damage to anyone until Sholi. And
as far as anyone's concerned, Hyronix killed
Omen. Right. Yeah, I know. You guys must think
you're real clever. Blanch the secret dyes with
us. Think you're real smart. Maybe just real
lucky. Well, let's see if that luck holds out
as we keep going forward. We open on a ballroom
filled with smoke. crackling flames like the
air you see like flames ring around the uh this
massive hole blackened scorched hole where the
door and wall once was where an angel once stood
you're not just looking out into the hallway
uh those double doors fully gone turn to dust
flames are building we just see shoelace staring
coldly towards them just She raises a hand, means
to make some somatic sort of gestures. When you
see the flames begin to die down and fizzle out.
You don't get far as a dragon in the popular
societies if you don't have a way to control
flame, I would think. Damn, that was foolish
of me. Though I suppose any legal consequences
matter not at this point. It's over anyway. And
her eyes slowly turn towards you. What happened?
He mentioned murder. Do not tell me the victim
of this crime is his charge, Ambassador Pastor.
So I feel like if Blanche is trying to keep her
cool, would that be a performance or a deception
role? You know what? I think either of those
sounds pretty good to me. Okay. I just really
feel like, oh, actually, that's a pretty good
roll. 17. Pretty good. Blanche, you're staying
pretty cool. These eyes, this full -on ancient
brass dragon, absolutely massive. You just watch
this thing absolutely annihilate a being you
had to run from. She kind of swallows a little.
You can see the swallow in her throat. She stands
tall. When the fog came through, by the time
we came back around, yes, it was Omid Pastar
who was dead. And you had nothing to do with
this, correct? Jules, are you staying with everybody
else now? Yeah. Do you feel Chester tense up
hard beside you? You know damn well that we can't
remember anything. That's all he says. Give me
a deception check with advantage because you
did not say much. I think that means that it's
easier for you to hold back information without
a being. I think advantage fits very well there.
Can Blanche speak up a little bit maybe to try
and help? Yes, and there was nothing that we
could say that would appease Hyronix here. We
didn't want to have more bloodshed. We did what
we thought was the best to do. We ran. He went
crazy, I swear. He went nuts. I don't even know
why. No one knows why. Right? Go ahead and roll.
Cool. I get advantage? You get advantage and
a plus two. Fuck yeah. Those eyes are boring
into you. I don't need advantage. I just cry.
Oh my god. Thank goodness. And a plus two anyway,
so it's like, what, a 32? 32. That's the highest
anyone's rolled in this show yet. Holy shit.
Holy shit. Oh my god. I thought about giving
you a button for this. I was like, man. Well,
I mean, it's all downhill from here in this episode.
If I know David, it is going to come out that
we lied to Sholai somehow. Dude, she just kind
of fully nods, absolutely believing you. Almost
looks sorry for you. You can see in her eyes
just a tinge of sorrow, and she kind of turns
her head. A mess. Whatever the case, you will
lay the blame on me for this act. For Hyronix,
entirely on me. And do not worry about the D
.Va reporting to his master. It is a long story,
but the plane from which they came is sealed
off from our worlds entirely now. He will not
be able to contact Atash any longer. The original
god, Kameo, wants nothing to do with our world
or with the defectors that followed Atash into
it. When they are destroyed here, they return
to their original master far outside of our reach.
But even without testimony, and she's turning
away from you now, kind of, you see her like
looking down, thinking, there will still be some
trouble. Yes. I will speak to her majesty, but
you should stay here under my wing until I have
cleared your names. I have calmed somewhat. I
will not hurt you now. A little smile plays under
her draconic lips. You see, sharp, dagger -like
teeth. It was freeing. destroying the angel.
Felt good for once to show those celestials how
I've always felt about their presence here. Gosh,
do you think it might take her like eight hours
to clear her name or something? Want a long rest
over there? Yes, please. Yes, please. I am pretty
much out of everything. Yeah. So... Yeah. Hey,
you mentioned the other day, David, that potion.
Yeah. I don't have it in my inventory. Can you
give me a quick... I believe it's a 1d4 minus
1, and that's how many spell slot levels you
gain back. So if you roll a 4, you can get one
third level. Okay, that's... It's pretty cool,
but if you plan on resting, you might want to
hold off on it for now. Well, right, exactly.
I was thinking about could I use that instead
of a rest, but... Yeah, 1d4 minus one spell slot
levels. It's more just to give you one little
zing if you need it. Sure, yeah. That's all I
have left is one third level spell slot. Jesus
Christ. That's crazy. Yeah, best case scenario,
I could gain one third level spell slot back,
and that wouldn't be enough. So I feel like I'm
going to guess that we could actually full rest
here. But I think Dave is going to keep killing
people if we do. Absolutely, people will die.
I mean, this is not going to stop. But I also
feel like if we continue marching on like this,
well, an army runs off its belly. If you march
day and night and eat no food by the time you
get to a battlefield, you're... You're as good
as lost already. Yeah, Blanche is right. Sholi,
can you get us food? Yo, Sholi, food? She just
smoked, billowing. I would like some chow. Hey,
wasn't there supposed to be a dinner going on?
You hear like, beyond her growl, you hear another
sound down the hall, echoing sort of footsteps,
armor moving, people sort of shouting and talking
to each other. You hear guards approaching the
chaos. Smoke is still sort of billowing down
the halls. Before people get too close, I'm going
to guess, but I want to make sure there's no
like items of Hyronix left over. No, everything
that he was. He didn't have like adamantine something
that survived the fire or. Fully just returned
to the plane from once he came. Okay. Bummer.
At first I was like thinking to myself, oh, maybe
he's got something weird in his pocket, some
strange note that we could. And then I was like,
oh, maybe he's got something valuable, but all
gone. You see Sholay hearing this begins to sort
of shrink down to her human guise. And even as
she goes to her human guise, you see that like
braid that's on her hair is like messed up. Her
hair is sort of loose and long and she looks
older than you've ever seen her before. Her eyes
are red -rimmed. Like, her humanoid appearance
is affected by her state of mind. Wow. She looks,
in a way, half -crazed, or like she's coming
down from being half -crazed. As she looks to
you, stay here. She just gives this very forceful
glance. Yeah, and Blanche stands at rest. You're
not going to get an argument out of Blanche.
She doesn't really want to deal with these repercussions.
Sholay steps out into the smoke, and you can
hear her down the hall starting to speak to the
guards. After a moment, the combination is sort
of muffled and almost leading away. Now, I will
remind you that your jewels are holding a page
you did not get to fully read. But there's that.
There's many other things. What do you want to
do now? You have this place to yourself for a
moment. Sholay's ears have passed away. Oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh. Oh? What? What, what, what, what?
Blanche is going to summon Turbo. Oh, shit. Yeah,
and send Turbo stealthily behind to try to hear
what's going on. Damn. I like that a lot. Yeah.
That's awesome. There's a giant hole in the door.
Holy shit. And Turbo's also a bat, so it could
get out of. hell yeah doors anyway i think i'll
give you like brief sort of glint i imagine kind
of like are you phasing in and out sort of listening
coming back as they're kind of moving right now
when you first see turbo sort of following them
quietly and you see that the guards have gone
quiet they're just walking with shoelace she's
moving to the throne room um moving to meet with
queen jean may so we'll turbo follow the way
there yeah and i think there's more emphasis
on listening rather than seeing oh cool hell
yeah Yeah, so, Jules, that was crazy, huh? I
can't believe I got set up like that, right?
Don't know what happened, Chester. Yeah. The
only thing that we know is that we don't know
anything. And then Jules will kind of peel off
and maybe sit down against a wall and open up.
You can almost see, like, as you peel away, you'll
see Chester's hand out reach out a little bit
and then... Give me a second. Yeah, right, sure.
Yeah. And he moves off onto his own. You read
the page. You see everything Blanche had been
writing down underneath the top of the page where
I imagine she's been writing the sort of encounters.
I think it was like the four gargoyles and it
was like the ten tigers. No, sorry, you didn't
write four gargoyles. I just said that out loud,
but you hadn't written a note at that point.
Whoopsies. There were four. Anyway, you just
see on this page. Under all that, six gargoyles,
H fights. I'm not going to be roll sleight of
hand because of that fact. H, Hyronix, was doing
the fighting, which means you could freely write
everything. Oh, great. Oh, my gosh. Oh, oh, boy.
Okay. And so you look down and see you have a,
it looks like, finished statement at the bottom.
You had been writing him a few sentences each
time. It looks like there's a full one written
beneath it now, not cut off by any sort of sudden
notes to yourself or a sudden lapse of memory.
You have it all figured out, though, right? Daewon
Ha. It has to be her, because everything lines
up. You have the mystery solved, which is why,
Jules, when you read this sentence, something
closes hard in your gut. Because nothing makes
sense anymore when you read, I was a hero, celebrated
and loved. You forgot me. I did it all for fame.
I sacrificed all to be remembered. You forgot
me. I was a luminary, the best and brightest
of them all. You forgot me. Is that everyone's
father? Yeah. Daewon Ha was a magistrate, not
a luminary. Fuck. But... Dude, I've got goosebumps.
How does this... And we'll call it there. No.
20 minute episode, guys. But how does this make
any sense? Holy shit. How does this make any
sense at all? Because... Yo, because the coffin's
too big for one person. So there was someone
else here at the time? You realize as you read
this, Jules, this mystery is not solved yet.
Blanche, I think you're kind of like phasing
out. You're not hearing anything. You're like
hearing through turbo. So you're probably seeing
Jules read and kind of just like fully kind of
get headphones on. It doesn't work quite the
way I thought it does. I think I've made this
mistake before, but you can both see and hear
through your familiar, but you can't see or hear
through yourself. So Blanche can't see or hear
what's going on in the room. Yeah. I think you
choose one though, right? I thought so too. No,
I think it's both. Oh, wow. Interesting. Okay,
so you have no idea what's going on. Within 100
feet. I'm not going to go into the big detail
because it's going to be a lot of just like jibber
-jabbering, Sholay speaking with the queen. But
you do hear Sholay is asking Jin Mi, you know,
basically using her standing, what remains of
it, to push Jin Mi into backing off of you guys.
assuring her that you will be leaving in the
morning upon sunrise, but it is too dangerous
to send you out right now given everything that
has been happening. There's no one else in the
room. Guards are all gone. It's just Sholay and
Jeannie right now talking as you look around.
She asks for bedding, food, supplies and such
to be sent to the room post haste that you will
be under her guidance. For the night, you will
not leave. And that is a fact on her honor. You
will not be doing any more meddling. When Jin
Mi starts to put up a fight, Xio Lei quells her
very quickly. You know that I know Jin Mi does
not use her royal title. You see, the queen goes
rigid. I will trouble you no longer soon enough.
Neither will they. But you will acquiesce to
my demands tonight. Or else. And that's basically
the end of the conversation. Whoa. Okay, so my
immediate thought is that Jean Mee has a secret
to keep here and Sholay has a secret to keep
here. And you probably know Jean Mee's already.
My other immediate thought is we're about to
get a long rest. yeah but um shit part of me
is like blanche comes out of this and shares
everything with jewels it's like we don't want
to stop now right so it's like do we fucking
book it out of here or does someone book it out
of here to try to like i i don't know because
i think if shoelace gets back here i don't think
she's gonna let us leave no and if she says we're
leaving in the morning to to queen jean me I
feel like I believe her. I feel like she's not
going to let us leave this room. How can we...
If you go make a move now, if you try to get
somebody out of there, you know they can't be
seen. You've got to find a way to get them out
stealthily because the guards, given this, the
guards will be watching for you. What do you
think, Jeremy? I don't... The thing is, I don't
have anything. No, I don't either. Nothing that
would get us out. I have one... Oh, hold on.
So... All right, let's talk this out. I still
don't think this is the smartest idea. I think
I kind of feel like part of me almost feels like
we need information out of Sholay in order to
go forward. But I will say with my last third
level spell slot, I could cast invisibility at
level three, which would let me make two targets
invisible. Oh, oh. Oh, damn. Jeremy, is there
any, is there any, like, is there any intelligence
in Jules and Blanche getting invisible, getting
the fuck out of here, and trying to figure this
out by morning? What happens when Sholay gets
back to the room? I know. She's on her way. We're
gone. Right now. Fuck. Any goodwill she may have.
might be gone you heard her promise swearing
in me this is such an intense decision i love
this like i i love this you know i'm with you
i'm with you so so we we know we know that shoelay
has information to further this mystery the question
is whether or not we can get it out of her if
we leave we're not getting out of her if we stay
maybe we can talk our way out of it or into it
through it The only way out is through. I don't
know. And on top of that, maybe if you leave,
you can stop more deaths from happening and solve
this thing sooner, but it's going to be pretty
hard getting a long rest when you're running
away from the guards and whatever this thing
is, this entity that seems to want to kill you.
Okay, Blanche lets out a big sigh just like that
and just sits down. She's tired. It's time to
relax. I want to go. I do. Yeah. But... cost
benefit right now and yeah what i love so much
about this scene is earlier on we touched on
a scene where i insulted jewels i just want to
dance right in front of jewels and jewels learned
to be more pragmatic and let things go walked
it off understanding it was a trap And now we
see an influence Blanche has had on Jules. Blanche,
the very pragmatic strategist, slowly kind of
working her way. But I think we're seeing that
Jules has a similar effect on Blanche where Blanche
was like, what? My freedom shackles? I'm going
to run. I'm going to riot. And it's like, wait,
let's not. Let's take it down. It's just so cool.
You're both really bleeding into each other.
You're affecting each other. Oh, damn. I mean,
she might be going crazy right now, but she's
our closest ally here. Yeah. And she seems to
think she's not going to be violent for the next
eight hours or so. Maybe she is, and that's our
excuse to run. Yeah. And so you hear footsteps
down the hall, a single pair returning. The smoke
is basically fully cleared out by now, and Sholay
steps into the room. And when she looks into
the room, final answer, does she see Jules and
Blanche? Yeah, they're both there. Okay. Blanche
is sitting, leaning against the wall, trying
to decompress a little bit. Shirley sort of nods
towards you both approvingly. They will bring
food, drink, and bedding here. I have promised
them that you will not leave my sight and protection
for this evening. A promise that you will keep,
else I'll be taking my vigil over only your ashes.
Understood? The mist will continue, won't it?
While we rest here. We won't remember, but you're
strong enough to fight it off. Elsewhere in the
city, innocent people will die. They will die
regardless. The city cannot be saved, Blanche.
I tried to explain that to your partner. But
he does not listen. Perhaps you will. I will
listen. What do you know of the curse? She, like,
winces, puts fingers to her head, and you see
how much those fingers move back a little bit,
shaking towards the back of her neck, fingernails
wanting to reach in. Then, no. Tell me. Looks
to you, Jules. Have you learned of the Gwishin?
Yes. Do you now know of the Dragon Clan's lie?
Yes. We know. I'm impressed. But your efforts
have changed nothing. You will rest here through
the night. You will be safe, as you said. The
creatures in the mist have not even come before
me yet, have not deigned. I would vanquish them
without effort, and I believe... Our adversary
knows that fact quite well. When morning comes,
we will talk one last time. And then you will
leave this city and myself to fate. I don't think
now is the time to ask questions. Let's get our
rest in. Yeah. See what happens in the morning.
Maybe something has changed that we can take
advantage of. As you seem to. Reacting to the
affirmative, Shirley kind of just nods again.
Her eyes kind of lose focus, seem to blur, and
she just sort of walks towards the back of the
room. As she steps, her steps grow larger and
louder. And the full ancient dragon comes to
lie. In the rear of the room, in the shadows
again. Bedding is brought, as promised, as is
food. Quite the display, actually. It must have
been what was planned for the banquet. Yeah,
Blanche heads over to make herself a little plate.
And she sits crisscross applesauce, eating her
food, relaxing, trying to get some energy back.
He's going to look at some foods, but I honestly
don't know what the... I don't want to get it
wrong and be like, oh, yeah, it's cool. Are there
onions in this? As she points to Akio. There's
onions in everything. Everything. Can you bring
us something without onions for the dog? The
guards that are walking in this room are absolutely
horrified. It's like not even service, it's full
armored guards are delivering food to you and
they just keep looking to the back of the room
to like the seemingly slumbering dragon, though
you can feel her eyes on you as she quote unquote
sleeps. I believe Lady Sholay would like it if
her companion was well fed. Okay, yeah, yeah,
yeah. Fleas down the hall. No onions. No onions.
Or raisins. And raw meat, please. It's been so
long since I've had something really, truly juicy.
Chester doesn't eat much. Kind of. Seems totally
fine. Smiling. But he's more just playing with
his food. Chester. Stabbing down at it. Eat.
Oh, yeah, right. Sorry. Let's eat. So the message
on the page. Yeah. It was. Full sentences, uninterrupted,
blah, blah, blah. But the only thing that talks
about the murder killing of Omid was just the
one word, Chester. Yes, scribbled very quickly
in large hand as if something had just happened.
You were writing and then the page was gone.
You know, it was torn from the book. Perhaps
you were trying to write more before that happened.
So I'll say this. Let's pretend Chester killed
Omid. There's no way that Chester is going to
murder Omid and then get to Blanche in the time
that Blanche writes one word, Chester. Omid was
right in front of you when you came out of it.
He was walking towards you when the mist came.
So it would have been a, if that was the case,
it would have been a slasher reach. The master
of defense with 25 AC couldn't stop. Chester
meeps from ripping the page out of her book and
putting it in his pocket. Much less fucking going
and actually killing Omid. Right. I mean, who's
to say? Who's to say? I think Blanche is very
good at defending herself, but... She can't defend
books for shit. Against the potential... Worst
librarian. Let's DM here. Against the potential...
sleight of hand check, AC doesn't really matter.
Okay. Okay. Fair. I'm curious. I'm curious what,
like, your expressions are towards Chester as
he's just kind of doing his thing. Like, is Blanche
suspicious, or do you think more is going on?
Well, of course Blanche is suspicious, but Blanche
also recognizes that this isn't really her place.
You know, Blanche and Jules are partners. And...
Blanche is here to help and support Jules, not
parent for Jules. You know what I mean? Hell
yeah. Can Jules sort of investigate the patterns
of the blood on Chester? Hmm. Could I get any
information looking at that or his dagger? Yeah,
give me that. Oh, shit. Oh, fuck. Fucking hell.
Anyways. Let's go. Making us some new memories
in the new studio already. Jesus Christ. I don't
know where we were before Steven's drink exploded.
We may have to institute a rule of, hey, let's
pour beer in glasses. Dude, that was so wild.
Oh, God. Well, the thing is, unless I was in
a World War II bunker, a glass isn't going to
really, like, you know. It shouldn't have done
that. I've never seen. Yeah, that was insane.
Fuck, where were we? I don't remember. Blinch
doesn't trust Chester, but it's like, man. No,
and then Jules is going to see if there's anything
he can kind of blood splatter. Gleam off the
blood splatter. Do an investigation check or
a medicine check. I'll allow that, too. I'll
do an investigation because it's plus one versus
minus one. Oh, gosh. I mean, I'm not hoping for
anything crazy. Just something. leaning against
the wall, and his eyes look over, very keenly
analyzing Chester, who's just kind of standing
there. That's a 15. 15. With 15, all you know
is the obvious, which is that he was very, very
close when it happened. Okay. Although, it just
feels like there is a fair bit of blood on his
sleeve, as if it was held right out. You think
back to... With a 15. And you remember when you
came to, your arm was protectively kind of held
towards Chester. Blanche, you too. You were holding
your arms pretty well towards Jules and Chester.
This was noted as if both of you are reaching
for him. Is there any blood on either of our
arms? Jules had quite a lot of blood on him.
Blanche, very little on you. Omin's body was
right before Jules and Chester when whatever
happened happened. It seems. When you came to,
he was right there, five feet in front of you.
Or less than that. He was in the five -foot square
in front of you, so he was just in front of you.
Yeah. Okay. Jules, while we're on the topic of
you and what you're doing as you're getting ready
to, it seems, turn in for the night, take that
much -needed long rest. Do you wish to send a
report back to Dresden via your sending stone?
I know it's something you had talked about before.
You left him one. He's been holed up with the
kids of the coyote all day. I don't know if you
want to let him know what's been happening. I
think he'll just say, about to crack wide open,
be ready. Okay. Dresden has no context for what's
happening on this world. No, actually, he's a
little bit. He knows that there's been mysterious
stuff. He's probably been worried about you.
So you hear that. I love that. You, like, hold
this open. We just see, like, the stone come
towards your lips, Jules, as your eyes probably
still linger on Chester, linger on those blood
stains. You speak these words. He's going to
add, Sholay protecting for now. Hell yeah. You
know Dresden at least seemingly trusts Sholay.
Word for her. We follow the echo of those words.
We follow them into the open maw of your stone.
It reacts to being awakened. We follow those
words into the darkness. And we pull out from
the darkness into the ugly coyote on the radiant
citadel into the hands. Of Dresden. But before
Dresden can respond, I think we have to go back
and see exactly what he's been up to during this
long day. Oh boy. So let's take a break from
all the bleak and dark and bloody. And let's
see what happens via, I guess, kind of a... Shit,
what do you call it? Montage. Montage. Thank
you. Vignette. Is that the term? Yeah, that's
good. An apology for passing time. Montage. Let
us montage through Dresden's day as the babysitter,
I guess, of the Cherry Delights. I want to do
a scene for every character. Oh, my God. I just
want you to give me some quick things. All right.
What's new with the round stuff? As it goes,
we flashback this morning. Jewel's leaving. They
rouse him. He just runs up like, Dresden, come
on. Come on. Let's play. Her place is permanently
on his shoulders. Yep. This is where she's at
the entire time. She says that, but she's already
up there. She's pulling his hair. He has nice
long hair. It's really fun to, like, yank it
around. Ooh, yeah. Ooh, speaking of the Echo.
Ooh, yeah. I mean, I don't know if you had plans
for Miskin right now, but... I like to think
maybe he's got his Echo manifested in the corner
and he's training with... Hell yeah. ...with
Miskin. As you're, like, around stuff, just hanging
out, pulling, Miskin training with the Echo,
and you notice Miskin's eyes are always, when
they're not, like, they're almost like the Echo
will almost get him every once in a while because
Miskin's eyes will turn to you all, like, full
of awe. And you realize Miskin just thinks Dresden
is the coolest dude in the universe. Kind of,
oh, and then, ah, oh, yeah. Almost gets hit.
You know, blocks it barely with his little clubs
in his hands. He's kind of, boom, boom, boom.
You know, dual wielding just like you. Trying
to really get that feel. He's been trying to,
like, you see, like, fix things to the top of
his clubs, make them look like war picks. Not
really successfully yet, but, you know, he's
shopping for a war pick. Hell yeah. And we're
just like, come on, come on, be a horse. And
just kind of trying to, like, giddy up. Trying
to put your hand after us and run around the
place. We flash from that. I imagine Mulligan
at one point needs a little help in the kitchen.
I just want to imagine Dresden. What does Dresden
look like if he's in the kitchen? I think Dresden
comes in and immediately grabs an apron off the
wall. I was hoping so much for this. Like the
red and white checkered. Yes. Dude, he's fucking
Uncle Dresden now. He's Uncle Dresden. Yeah.
Could you quick mix that? It's boiling over.
Oh, shit. Oh, no. Dresden. Mulligan, what do
I do? What do I do? I got a splice splint right
next to it. Just dump that in. Dump that in.
Yep. Yep. All right. Keep stirring. Don't let
it overboil. All right. Lower the heat. Just
pull one of the woods out of the fire. All right.
Thank you. Oh, shit, shit. And he just kind of
runs over to the oven. He's pulling something
out of. Oh, it's burning. I'm sorry. I ruined
it. No, no. It's me. No, no. No, you're great.
I think this whole time round stuff's on his
head. Like fucking ratatouille. Ratatouille.
She pulls your hair and you throw the whole pot.
Oh, no! Oh, my God. We come back to Miskin, perhaps.
We see you're stepping out of the kitchen, covered
in stuff. Abram barely helped. And you step out.
You see out of the shadows, Miskin just kind
of appears in front of you. Just kind of like
shuffling around, looking at the floor. So you
were like a double agent, right? Rage between
the light and the dark, forsaking all companionship
and plunging yourself into your role as a LaRoche
loyalist, forced to work beneath the thumb of
the pick of the king, the witch queen, evil old
woman. That's just... Miskin. That's so cool.
It's not as glamorous as it seems. Don't get
sucked into that part. That makes it even cooler.
It kind of blushes a little bit. It looks down.
Sorry, I just... You know, I was raised by Ettens
once. For a little while. And my parents are
dead, so I'm pretty cool. I feel you. Are you
going to take on a luminary title? You could
probably have a really cool one like the Half
-Blind Butcher or the Killer Shadow, and I could
be your sidekick, you know, if you aren't too
much of a lone wolf type, so cool. We'll cross
that bridge when we come to it. I'm a train.
But I'll keep you in mind. Oh, yeah, okay, yeah.
I gotta go back to the shadows now. He takes
a seat, walks back into the corner. I love Dresden's
response, too. You know, I was kidnapped by ettins
once. Dresden's like, yeah, I getcha. Tale as
old as time. Dresden has, like, a number one
fan. Oh my god. As you're moving away from that,
perhaps, or a little while later, I think, you
find Jean suddenly kind of, like, pulling you
by the arm, just like, can I trouble you on your
opinion on something? A little secret? Yeah,
what do you need? Um, come with me. She leads
you upstairs, brings you up into, like, the attic,
and just, so, if I show you what I'm doing here,
you have to promise me you won't tell Jules until
it's ready, okay? I just thought maybe, with
your background, you might have some insight,
but, um, look, I found this just sitting in the
attic, and it was just filled with those fire
literature. And she pulls out a little bag. It's
a bag of holding, so honestly, there was a lot
more than it looks like. You wouldn't believe.
And I threw it all out. Thankfully, I think Hayden
must have forgot all about it all. But I've been
using it for something else, actually. Let me
show you. And she starts reaching into the bag
and pulling out, like, bundles of stuff. She's
putting it down, all kind of tightly wrapped
neatly. You see, like, bundles of, like, folded
-up clothing, various kinds of uniforms, wigs
and wax, and various kits of makeup. You just
see, like, this whole bunch of, I guess, outfits
and more. Just slowly filling the entire space,
she pulls out more and more, stepping back, almost
like a grid pattern of these little packages.
I didn't want to just stand still, just waiting
around here, so I've been busy with a little
surprise for Jules and Chester. I've, well, I've
been using my tailoring skills to make disguise
kits. I've got a bunch of them in here. Kiana
was helping me too before she left. We figured
we may need to move around again someday and
it would help to swap our looks on the fly, right?
So, yeah, I know you have some experience working
on a cover. Do you think these will work? Will
they help? When the time's right, these will
come in handy. And she just beams. And you do
look and they are. Immaculate. So neatly organized
and so many different personas. And don't worry.
I won't spoil the surprise. I knew it could count
on you. After all, you're the master of secrets,
aren't you? Always looked after us. So they say.
This guy just... Almost like very giddily kind
of... Anyway, I should put these back. Uh...
Maybe I should start sliding them back into the
bag. Maybe we pan a little forward from there.
Now, wait just a damn minute. What? What? Are
we going to glaze over that you just made a cannon
that the teenager stumbled across Ader's porn
stash? She threw it all away. She's right. Oh,
my God. You don't need to draw attention to weird
things. You invented it. Damn you. Oh, my God.
Probably open the bag up, and when you fold the
bag holding it out, it just, like, sprays everything
out. It's probably just right into the trash.
Right off the edge of the sand, all under the
Keenan glue, pages flapping. We just see rollouts,
goddesses of God's breath, sucked up into the
storm, going who knows where. Probably going
to Tythos. Mimisu, one of those. Speaking of
Aether, let's get to Aether. Let's cut a little
later on in the day, when we see most of the
cherry delights are kind of like moving into
sleep. Maybe the sun is beginning to set now,
or I guess in this case, the radiant Seydel,
the auroral diamond is beginning to dim from
its daylight yellow to like a soft nightly blue.
Dresden, you're probably after a long, exhausting
day of being Uncle Dresden, feeling a little
exhausted, and you just feel... of presence move
up beside you, the big form of Ader. Look over
to see his big ear patch. He has a, he has canonically
have an ear patch. I forgot the ear patch. Uh,
see a fancy little ball with a label and something
called a cloud breaker judgment. Ader just kind
of holds it in front of you. It's, uh, called
a TPA, Taib Paleo, whatever that means. It's
pretty strong stuff. And you see Ader's swaying
a little bit. He's a little drunk. You want to
share it with me? Yeah, why not? Got to take
a swig? Take a little swig. Ader kind of just
nods. Not a big one. He doesn't want to get drunk.
Hell yeah. I like that. Yeah, Dresden always
on duty. Ader has no reserve. You hit it back.
He's just, whoa, huge swig down. He's giving
it more of a show of camaraderie. You know. And
you're just kind of looking out over, and you
see, like, Jean's beginning to lie down. Everyone,
I believe you had them all camping out in the
main room, right? Is that still happening? Mm
-hmm. So Jean's just lying down, maybe just somewhere
near the bar, and I think round stuff, and Jamal
are beginning to, like, move in, to, like, snuggle
up to her as she goes to sleep. And you're just
kind of just watching them. You know, I don't
have much of a family. I guess I didn't by the
time I left God's Breath. chased them all off
right around the time the coyotes took the ear
you know i kind of hated folks in general back
then i did for a while the kids they changed
that it's still weird being a part of a family
again but it's also uh i guess it's kind of nice
you know not to be sappy but um i'm glad you're
part of this family now too we haven't talked
talked much which Makes me like you a whole lot,
actually. And you were friends with the good
old Crispin Dubois. Can't believe this son of
a bitch is really gone. I may not be sponsoring
him anymore, but I'll still send money his way.
To his people. At least I can do. Do you, uh...
Looks down almost sheepishly. Reminds me a little
of Miss Skinner earlier in the day. You want
to join me in a toast? Sure. Raise up the glass.
To Crispin. A long swig. To Crispin. One of the
best partners I ever had. Man. One of the best
God's breathians to ever leave world. And one
more. Raises it again. Looks around the whole
sort of main room of the pub. Every face settling
in for sleep. To our funny little family. To
our family. Ader cracks a rare Ader smile. Takes
one last swig. I didn't leave you any, I'm sorry.
It's fine, I didn't want any anyway. Shit's strong,
though. Anyway, it's been too much for me. Too
much emotion. I'm tired now. Turning in. I think
so. Keep an eye on the place for me. No, for
them. I wouldn't dream of being anywhere else.
And he moves away, closing the door to the kitchen
slash stable exit slash his living room, or his
sleeping room, because he already is very weird.
And perhaps time passes again. How does Dresden
handle sleeping? Do you just stay up through
the night? Do you sleep in patches through the
day? I think he's very regimented. I think he's
able to fall asleep for an hour, and then wake
up and check. Hell yeah. And then fall asleep
for another hour. And then wake up and check.
Let's say we're at one of those, like, periods
where you wake up and do a check. And you notice,
as you look around, you see Round 7 Jamal are
sleeping peacefully against Jean still, who groans
lightly in reaction to a dream. Mulligan has
a little cloth -covered fort under a table nearby,
and loud snores can be heard from within. You
know, he likes to stay beneath things. He likes
to feel like he's underground when he sleeps.
Miskin sits on top of the fort, having slid into
slumber during his own everlasting vigil. He
was trying to stay up with you, but he didn't
make it. You can see him snoring, head cocked
to the side. You know, Ader's still in his bedroom.
But you do see one cherry delight is still awake.
Fibro. Reading a brown, leather -bound book engraved
simply with the title, Brass. The letters are
sewn on, off -kilter, an amateur job. I think
it would be he. notices some movement and kind
of almost like in reverie and the book kind of
snaps out of it and looks over towards you. Oh,
uh, hey, uh, uh, Dresden. Uh, are you and Jewel
still planning on doing a check -in sometime
tonight? I think so, as far as I know. Good,
good, um. What do you got? I mean, it's not much,
but I haven't been reading the Sholay like you
asked. And, uh, well, it's not exactly credible.
Some paparazzi stalker that was fascinated with
Sholay wrote a... biography that pretty much
never went anywhere. Only a few copies exist
at all, Penny said. But there is some interesting
stuff here. Marcelli, the writer, has a lot of
insight into Shelley's personal life, though
much of it is essentially just stalker and guesswork.
I did find a neat little connection to Hallery,
though. Might be helpful for Jules to know her
history of the place. Apparently, while Shelley
used to be quite close with Queen Jean Mee and
her ancestral line, she hasn't personally visited
Hallery in... About nine years or so since her
last visit with her daughter -in -law. Back then,
she'd been called away early, and so she and
Xena left some hours before there was, I guess,
some kind of celebration in their honor in a
place called the Phoenix District? I don't know.
I guess there was some kind of draconic attack
there just hours after they left. A lot of citizens
died, and Shirley was real torn up about it all.
Was she fleeing into the preserve of the ancestors,
acting a bit crazy afterwards? She was real quiet,
too. Feeling guilty for leaving, I guess? There's
even a record mentioned saying that she had a
special package delivered. Something big and
expensive that was sent straight to the palace.
I mean, that's... The bar's running good tonight,
though. I am bushed, but... It's interesting,
right? Yeah. Good. Well, I hope it helps. Maybe
a little. I'm gonna turn in now. The little candle,
maybe just... blows out on the table, extinguishing
the light that is shining on the pages of the
open book. And it's right about this time that
your stone begins to activate. You hear Jewel's
message come through. Does Dresden want to say
anything back? Sholay. Not there. For Draconic
Attack. Nine years ago. Sent package to the world
following. Extreme guilt. Did not take it well.
Be careful. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. With that message
sent, Jules armed with maybe helpful information?
You know, fibro. I certainly hoped so. Does Dresden
go back to sleep? For one hour? Is that like
an hour on the dot? Yeah. Hell yeah. Dresden,
you wake up. You wake up. Give me a perception
check. Oh. Oh, shit. Let me get Dresden's sheet
open. Oh, my God. I haven't used this in a long
time. Oh, boy. You said a perception? Yes, please.
Then if it's lower than your passive perception,
we'll be here. Okay. 18 on the die plus one for
19. Damn. Okay. You wake up. And the first thing
that happens is your eyes shoot over to the sort
of clock. Maybe you sit in one of those old grandfather
clocks. Some way of telling time. You look over
and you realize something kind of strange. It
hasn't been an hour. It's been about 42 minutes.
Which isn't right. You have this regiment in
the schedule. It's like something woke you up.
But. I mean, as you're listening around, you
don't hear a thing. I mean, and then you realize
you don't hear a thing. Not the breathing and
snoring of the cherry delights, or the far -off
rumble of the keening gloom, not even the pumping
of your own alert heart. The entire world, it
seems, has gone fully, deathly silent. Perhaps
magically silent. And carrying over that perception
check as you, in a moment of, I imagine, panic,
look around the room. You see movement out of
the corner of your eye as a small object rolls
down the steps leading to the second floor. A
metal canister that, as it strikes the bottom
step, begins to release a jet of light blue smoke.
Fuck. And we'll call it there.