Hey, Pants People. Just want to say thank you
for listening and thank you for your friendship.
Check out the Discord. Poor witnesses are reporting
some kind of battle at the early Coyote in the
Lower Trade Discal. It seems that Salome, the
sight weaver, and Dresden Kellick have just fought
together against a number of masked assailants.
They've proclaimed that the head of the assailants
is known as the shield -bearer Captain Commander
Ariad. But that's just nonsense. Lies, of course.
Law and medical personnel are just responding
to the situation now, so more information to
come. Only one casualty has been reported by
Salome herself, and that would be the proprietor.
No, no, no! Fuck this! I've been lying to y 'all!
I'm being blackmailed to lie! But I am... Done.
Damn the consequences. It is time for truth.
Don't trust anything you see on the network.
Don't trust the shield bearers. And don't trust
us. Well. Yep. Okay. Things are happening. We
all knew that that was, or we all suspected that's
what was happening. I thought we were going to
have to like do a lot of work into dragging that
out of Orin. I mean, there were other consequences
here. I think, honestly, after last week, I did
not think things were going in that direction.
I thought they'd be totally different. I had
a whole different idea in mind of what was going
to come down. And I went home. I've been thinking
about it all week and honestly all day today.
And it just hit me. I'm like, no, I mean, for
one thing, Salome Strips told everyone Ader died.
You know, one of Orrin's only friends died. And
there's so much more than that that's coming
out in this episode. Things have changed. massively
based on your actions last week the last few
weeks and i am so excited to see where this goes
but before we get into all that i just want to
say that was a great great fight i mean holy
shit yeah maybe a little too great i didn't even
get the chance to use my button for a killing
blow i mean i mean it definitely wasn't as satisfying
as it would have been to like kill justin yeah
Jess and there he goes again. God damn it. I
love it. The bastard. No, it's just your NPCs
are not memorable. How dare you? Oh, shots fired.
No. Yeah. I mean, I was, I was going for blood,
you know? Yeah. We wanted to get there. I think,
I think it probably does make sense that I think
it's, I think it's better for us. Yeah. he didn't
die. Cause then, you know, the, the shield bearers
could come up and attach code, be like, look,
these bad guys killed the commander. That was
my initial thing that I thought was going to
happen. Don't be crazy. That's not at all. But
I had sort of halfway planned, but now, but now
it was an act of terror against us. You know
what I mean? Like maybe we're, we're back in
the public's good graces a little bit. Hmm. I
gotta say, I must have the most skilled tactical
players in the world. The kind of players who
would absolutely. in a D &D PvP situation, right,
Steven? Dude, shut up. Because your darling wife,
Rachel, told me you had a humbling experience
in Krippin's game the other night. I whiffed
it. I whiffed it. I haven't heard the story yet.
Tell me all this. I mean, I thought I had a pretty
fun character, Bill. Like, I had a... tiefling
sorcerer you know i had like fireball prepped
all these fun fire spells i was just gonna like
go and be a dragon about it you know it was gonna
be fun and real rory king yeah join the power
rangers and so we're on this map and there's
you know there's obstacles and stuff in between
us and i we spent our first two moves trying
to like set up and get position and then i got
paralyzed and i stayed paralyzed and i was dead
two turns later i didn't get to do damage or
anything Uh, yeah. I mean, it was, it was, it
was a good time. Um, but it was a fast time.
Hell yeah. Yeah. So my, uh, my PVP debut was
not great. And yet your character in this campaign
is still alive. Clearly I need to go harder.
This character is. I, you know, I got a bat for
you three for three. So we're going to, we're
going to see what we can do. Uh, we're going
to see what you can do tonight. What? Let's see
what you can do tonight. So let's get to tonight.
You're out of control. Somebody's got to stop
you. Chaos outside of the Ugly Coyote. Again,
a crowd has gathered all around. Many of them,
after the assailants moved into the shadows,
come swarming in. Come to you, Salome. Many are
putting hands on you, trying to, like, see if
they can help you in some way. You look, I mean,
halfway to death. Dresden, people are wary of
you, and yet, despite the... sludge thrown your
way in the network there are many who seem to
sympathize with you now see you in a more heroic
light so i'll ask as people are sort of closing
in on you as you imagine there are shield bearers
officers on the way as probably medical personnel
from the house of convalescence on the way to
respond to this critical situation i mean this
kind of stuff never really happens on the radiant
citadel what uh what are you guys doing what
are your first steps Salome weaves her way through
the crowd, gently pushing people out of her way,
and she flies. Holding your robes, trying to,
like, your fingers, like, prying off your robes.
They just want to touch your light. She flies
into the back room of the ugly coyote, whispering
a prayer, and once she gets there, she gets down
on her knee, both hands. Well, she doesn't need
to touch because it's a ranged spell, but casts
Healing Word on Aether. Hell yeah. Wounds close
up. The paralyzed condition does not go away.
So you see the shallow sort of gash that goes
right around his shoulder closes. But he still
just stares up, breathing hard as if even his
breath is coming out. So there's this tight,
tight chest. She rolls him over into a recovery
position and rubs his back a couple of times
before. getting up and going back out to the
crowd. Dresden, what are you doing this time?
What's your first instinct? The second that everything
stopped and cleared, he ran back into the coyote.
As you push in. He's taking stock of all the
kids. The fog would still be in the way, I guess,
for now, so you kind of push through the fog.
I think I can end it. Can you end it? I think.
I think. Finish Dresden's stuff first, but when
Salome comes out of the... Ugly coyote. She actually
has Ader with him because she cast Lester Restoration
as well. Oh, shit! That's so cool! Oh, that's
amazing. He just, the second you cast it, his
eyes... The kids! The kids! Are they okay? Are
they alright? Everyone's fine. Damn him. Damn
him! He, like, sweeps a hand out and full of
them just snaps a part of his bedpost off and,
like, with a fist, goes pinging off the wall
just like, It was Aria. Can you tell me everything
that happened? Or do you want to resolve Dresden
first? We can get to Dresden because it wasn't
much on my side. Putting the out of character
aside, he'd just look at you and be like, I don't
know. I was sleeping and I heard something in
the room. I woke up. I could tell by his form
it was him. Mask and all, but I knew it was him.
I tried to fight and he just... stabbed me. I
felt my body go limp. I couldn't move. I just
heard stuff happening. People screaming. Fighting.
Damn him. Is he dead? Is the bastard dead? He
drank my beer. Sat in my pub. Is he fucking dead?
He fled. Go to rest then. I cannot disperse the
fog on my own. However, can I just like... Take
my shield and, like, fan it away. Everybody help!
Yeah. He hasn't filled the whole carriage, so
you're probably taking some. You're filling up
what's written for the entrance. That one sort
of corner is still kind of filled, but you actually
see Five Row comes crawling out. He's got little
scratch marks from a pangolin on his arm. He
was woken up by Jamal, it seems, as well. And
as you go in, you actually see that Jeans also
seems to have been woken up, and she's actually
helping Fish, Mulligan, and Miskin out of the
sort of mesh nets, trying to fiddle with the
shackles they have on. Oh, okay. I was going
to say, can Miskin just grab a knife and... It's
hard from his side. He probably gets his off
first, and he just very quickly takes it out
and starts going at Mulligan's, gets him free.
But they're all kind of working together. Everyone
looks kind of in shock. Roundstuff just looks
a little tired and confused. She slept the whole
thing, didn't even know that something happened.
But Jeans looks absolutely horrified as you come
in. Her eyes meet you. And I think she just mouths,
like, what now? She doesn't want to cause a scene,
but clearly this was. Way too damn close. Dresden's
response is just shaking his head with the sense
of, I don't know. The door to Ader's room bursts
open. Ader comes charging into the room, kind
of sees the fog light. Whoa! Kind of looks at
everybody, sees everyone's accountable, and just,
oh, thank goodness. Oh, thank goodness. He just
runs over and scoops Jean's up in a hug that
she reciprocates. Like, all the lights sort of,
like, kind of come around, and round sort of
grabs you, Dresden sort of pulling you in, like,
come on, come on, I guess we're doing a hug,
I don't know why. Yeah, Dresden will lift her
up onto his shoulders. Oh, nuts. There's a tick
on me. Huh. You go get this guy off. Are you
going to let her pull you into the hug? Is Uncle
Dresden getting in there? Yeah, but didn't I
just say he pulled her up onto his shoulders?
I don't remember because I had a tick on me.
I'm pretty sure I did. Well, now I got to leave
that in. Damn it. Ticked out. I'm pretty sure
that as that was happening, I was saying that
he lifts her up onto his shoulders. She's sliding
and she's just like over your shoulders, like
legs around you, reaches an arm around Ader's
head. And she's just like, this is nice. Everyone's
very quiet and solemn. She doesn't know what
the hell happened. She doesn't know there's a
dead body upstairs on the roof across the street.
Salome. Ader, when he woke up, went into that
room. He had no interest in going outside, doesn't
like people, doesn't like crowds. He wanted to
see his family. Did you follow him there or just
step out of the crowd? Yeah, I'm going to fix
what I said and not have her go back outside.
She'll slowly walk behind Ader, and she's scanning
the room for anything unusual, any clues. Joining
the hug? Huh? Getting on that hug? Salome just
awkwardly walks. Salome probably hasn't quite
caught up yet. I think she's going slow and trying
to see if she can find any evidence to Ader and
the other shield bearers being here. You just
hear like a, wow, as round stuff looks up and
sees you. And slowly everyone kind of breaks
apart, turning to look to you, Salome. Your being
here has not been explained. to dresden to aid
or to anybody you are a mystery last time dresden
saw you as mentioned you essentially put jewels
into a coma to show him a future you are desperately
afraid of which if salome can learn how to do
that will be super useful to me as a player so
it only works on jewels because he's hyper aware
of magic and whatnot yeah product of experimentation
i don't know salome walks up to round stuff and
Holds out a hand and grabs her little hand between
two of Salome's, I'm guessing, larger fingers.
I'm so glad you're safe, little one. What's your
name? She leaps off of Dresden's shoulders to,
like, jump onto yours. Are those real wings?
Can they actually fly? Can we go flying on round
stuff? You know, named for the round stuff that's
sweet? Because I'm really sweet. Salome hovers
a foot or two off the floor and she says, It's
wonderful to meet you, round stuff. Have I seen
you on TV? What's your name? I'm... It's called
TV now, I guess. I'm called Salome. What's that
mean? Well, it's my name. I don't believe there's
a foodstuff named Salome. We should make one.
Mulligan's really good at cooking. He can make
a foodstuff called salame. What would that taste
like? Probably a salad with mayonnaise. This
one's inventive. Mulligan, you see Mulligan kind
of shake his head, looking kind of disgusted
at the sound of this. There are lots of mayo
-based salads. He's not a fan, and neither am
I. Miskin's kind of like moving up beside you.
Dresden kind of hanging out in your shadow. As
cool as you were before, you're somehow even
cooler now. Yeah. He saw me in action. Your eyes
still glowing a little bit. Holy shit. I swear
now. It's cool. Dresden's going to look over
at Salome. Thank you. But start talking. What
are you doing here? It wouldn't be right to let
these children come to harm. When I saw that
possibility, it moved me to act. But how did
you know? Doesn't explain why you're here. Talk.
I'm known by another name, beyond just Salome.
They call me the Sight Weaver. I am... gifted
with foresight. You begin to hear sounds outside.
Dog barking. Yeah, dog barking. Marching sort
of boots, shouting commands on the shield bearers.
Stay down, calm down. And like, it sounds like
hooves, very loud hooves moving down the street,
but, because anyway, sorry, background. If the
shield bearers are interested in, Covering up
this story, you might be wise to get Ader here
in front of the paparazzi. Also, don't let the
children go upstairs for a little while. Why?
Well, now I wanna. It's very dangerous. Oh, now
I double wanna. So who's on cleanup duty? I'm...
Going to leave that to the shield bearers themselves.
I'll deal with it. That jeans kind of says, kind
of shakes the head, like thinks you kind of caught
on to what's going on. I don't think that's necessary.
I really just like, I don't want to piss off
the shield bearers, at least the ones who didn't
participate in this. I also don't want to send
another teenager to clean up a dead body. I think
while all of this is happening, Dresden will
take the words from Salome and he's going to
grab Aedir by the shoulder and bring him outside.
Hell yeah. And kind of push him forward, look
around and say, look what Ariat just did. You
see a bunch of diamonds rising up, flashing of
like the sort of camera function on the recording
diamond. You all saw his face, did you not? I
didn't see it was covered in it. No, I saw the
dots, the dots on this floor. That was Arianne.
Are you sure? I'm sure of it. It was Arianne.
I know it was. I knew the man personally, and
he betrayed me here. It was Arianne. And you're
just bellowing out. Everyone goes very quiet,
and you see, like, shieldbearer officers, and
they stop what they're doing, kind of moving
the crowd back and looking, like, horror -struck,
and begin to move in. Salome bends down to pick
up Aedir's swords off the ground. Ariat's swords.
That's what I meant. Jessen's swords. Here, these
are yours now. Aedir, holy shit. I just got Jessen's
swords. It's fucking good. It's good. All right.
The swords come out, and you see more cameras
flashing. There's a sword. There's a sword. I
know those swords. The shieldbearer officer's
eyes go very wide when he sees the swords, and
they very quickly rush in like, when you step
inside, questions. We have questions now. You
say they look very surprised. Like, they clearly
didn't know what was going on here. You would
think Arya's not telling every single shieldbearer
under his command that he's doing shady shit.
They look like officers who are truly perplexed
and terrified at the ramifications of what you
are saying and what they are seeing. But they're
trying to usher aid or trying to usher everyone
inside to like stop this scene from getting way
out of hand and causing chaos. Salome puts a
hand up in front of the crowd of all the shield
bearers. Who is in command amongst you? One may
enter. Uh, you see. Oh. What was her name? There
was Lieutenant in Aarakocra. I remember the Aarakocra.
I do not remember the name. I don't remember
the name. Well, she doesn't give her name. She
has four. You see like a mixing of white and
purple feathers kind of sticking out under the
brass helm. Firm sort of wing salute. And moves
up like, please, let's talk. I will go in. I
have questions. The rest... All of you, hold
the line here. Keep the crowd calm. And make
sure to let the House of Compliances members
through. We need to make sure... Is there anyone
injured? Salome whispers in her ear that there
are two dead and where they are. Damn. Okay.
Uh... She moves in with you. As we're going in,
Dresden is turning around, just kind of scanning
the crowd, scanning the area. Can I roll a perception
check on that? Didn't you say there was a wagon
or a cart or something? You heard hooves. Actually,
you don't need to because it's very, very clear
what's coming. Okay. As she's sort of moving
in, leading you in, you look over and you see,
shining bright against this sort of dim blue
light, a full unicorn is charging down the road.
Yeah. Fuck. you know unicorns they are celestials
they are intelligent and they are often used
by the house of convalescence to respond to emergencies
and bring people back and they're needed so you
see a unicorn this massive white horse a single
shining spiral horn comes charging up uh the
crowd sort of parts before as it slides in between
uh the the shibboleth kind of like steps to the
side this unicorn just looks over give me your
injured now a couple of like figures and like
hooded white robes kind of dropping off the back
that start moving towards the like Respond, see
what's going on. Salome will help. She'll fly
up to the roof across the street as Dresden and
the shield bearer go inside, and she helps load
the dead shield bearer on, and then she flies
up into the window and pulls the second one out.
At this point, she's like, I'm just going to
deal with this myself. As you fly down with the
second one. I've told so many people where they
are. You see, like, the first one comes on. People
are sort of strapping the body onto the unicorn
back. You see three figures. Two of them are
tall humanoids. One's a very short humanoid,
all in, like, sort of robes covered, you know,
hoods covering their faces. You bring the second
one down. You're like, there's two of them. The
two tall ones are taking the body, working with
it. And you feel a tug on your robe from the
short figure. That just says, Salome Sightweaver,
you need to come with me right now. The hood
falls back, and you see a smiling gnome with
a classic coma. Oh, no. God. Oh, no. Oh, no.
Does Salome... Gold -rimmed sunglasses, bright
purple lenses. Holy shit. Salome must know who
this is, though, right? You don't. What? Yeah,
but isn't he, like, in cahoots with Atash publicly?
Not publicly. Oh, really? It's not well known.
It's generally pretty unknown that he is an official
psychic vatash. He's been working purely through
the shadows. The network's never done any kind
of update on it. Those in higher circles are
aware of this, but it's been weirdly toned down
in the network. Okay, sure. I mean, if Salome
doesn't know who this guy is and this guy's just
like, hey, come with me, she's kind of just going
to pay him no mind. Hey, hey, hey, hey. The name's
Rune. Rune Rusong. Look, look, look, look. Rune
Rusong. He pulls out a little sort of certification.
Thank you for your service, Rune. I am quite
busy here. Glanced down, you do see what looks
to be an official sidekick's license. And even
at a glance, you can see it is registered to
Atash. Okay. Now that's interesting. Doesn't
Dresden know all about Rune? You wouldn't be
seeing this because you were just going inside.
This is happening very subtly, trying to, like,
happen away from the crowd. Very quiet conversation.
Judgment wouldn't notice as he was looking backwards,
scanning the crowd. You might see. Give me a
perception check. I'm going to say disadvantage.
He did specifically say he was scanning the crowd
to see what. Yeah. Yes. You look to see the figures.
Seeing a halfling isn't. It's probably a tough.
Okay. Let's see that nat 20 and then we'll talk
about it. Nat 20 on the first roll. Get the fuck
out. It's a disadvantage. Let's see. Maybe you'll
get one. It's going to be a 16. 16. You look
back as the doors about to close behind you as
you're being led in for questioning and I think
you do see the figure like just as people are
still moving the way the hood comes off you see
a face. I don't know if you've ever seen Ruden
Rusong personally as Dresden, but he's definitely
been described to you. And that, the comb over,
the big sort of over -the -top glasses, no one
looks quite like him in the Concord worlds. I
didn't see him at the, way back when. I don't
know if you saw him at the party, because I'm
pretty sure he only stuck with Blanche. So I
think you never actually saw him personally,
but I think with 16, you at least have a hint,
like, is that who I think it is? So I don't know
for sure. You wouldn't know for sure. Not enough
to call anything out. You wouldn't like, yeah,
I don't think you'd go in for a kill or anything
on this gnome. Could just be like, you know,
Sam the accountant. Okay. All right. Fair. But
definitely suspicious. The figure, the lieutenant
sort of leading you in. Do you want to do anything?
Do you want to like push past again and stop
this or? No, because if there's no real indicator
that. He knows exactly who he is. He doesn't
want to fuck around and, you know. You at least
are suspicious that something is happening. Maybe
something to talk to Salome about later. Yeah.
I mean, Dresden is very much like, I need hard
evidence. And I just don't have that. Hell yeah.
Especially with the shield bearers all around.
Yeah. Hell yeah. Salome, let me address some
of the shock you are probably feeling because
you are a soldier of Atash. You have served his
agenda for over 50 years. And again, you did
not know he had a sidekick. It seems there are
some secrets that Atash has not shared with even
his own Celestials. Out of fear, out of shame,
you don't know, but you'd already suspected he
had more planned than he has revealed. You've
seen the end goals as machinations in a vision,
one that you shared with Jules LaRoche, the one
man that Atash seems to fear. Your fellow Pari
have seen this too. The united Shadrakhan, the
coming Utopia. But it seems that only you were
wise enough to look deeper and to be terrified
of this coming peaceful world. And Rin speaks
again. Salome, with me, right now. She shakes
her head out of, you know, her thoughts. Brings
herself back to being present. And I suspect
that being surprised doesn't happen to Salome
often. But it's almost... It's almost enjoyable.
You know, it's sort of a very human thing to
be surprised. Oh, I love that. So she smiles
a little and says, I did not see this. I'm sorry.
Could you repeat yourself? I said, come with
me. All right, you know what? How about we just
head right now to the House of Convalescence,
all right? You want to give me a ride there?
You want to fly? I, she looks around. Leave this
here now? Atash wills it? He kind of like, his
eyes almost bulging, frustrated. He like reaches
up and almost tries to pull you down to his level.
Puts a hand up, very secretive, and just says,
the big boss wants to speak with you, Salome.
You've, well, you've royally fucked up, but it's
not really your fault that useless fucking moron
Arya went against our every order in his idiocy
tonight. It just looks like you happened into
a situation that you could not understand. Unfortunately,
you're going to have to run damage control on
this thing. And for that, you need to be in the
know. And for that, you need to speak to the
boss. Can I roll insight? I want to figure out
if it's actually... If I believe that it's Atash
that wants me to come, Salome to come, or if
it's just Rune. Roll insight. It's hard. Because
you're looking into a lie. Oh, right. Because
you're looking, yeah. 18. He seems like he's
following orders. Okay. Salome will just grab
him and fly straight up and off to the House
of Convalescence. Oh, God. All right. All right.
You are sailing out over the citadel, over the
fossil. Dresden. Just looked it up. We never
actually gave a name to this lieutenant. I'm
going to call her Lieutenant Shalash. Lieutenant
Shalash sort of takes you inside, gathers everyone
together. She's actually super kindly about it
all. You know, just does not, nobody else comes
in, just her. She's clearly, you know, you guys
have faced some kind of horrible situation. Her
eyes following Ariadne's blades as we heard people
move them. Looks super uncomfortable. Whoa, whoa,
whoa. The party's keeping the swords, right?
Did the shield bearers take them from us? I mean,
they're probably going to want to. They're evidence.
They're definitely evidence. I'll say that Salome
left them with Dresden, and I'll let Dresden
handle it. They want to take the swords. If you
give them the swords, she's watching them as
you go in. She's looking at them. I don't think
she makes a move for them yet. First, she just
wants to ask some questions. I'm not going to
go deep into it, but I want to know this. Do
you tell her everything? Anything that happened
that you saw Ariat's face even? Is there anything
you want to hold back? Do you want to hold everything
back? How hard do you want to play ball? How
about you start and we'll see where it goes.
All right. I don't want to go too deep in the
weeds and just like this thing. It's not going
to have a huge impact. Okay. Okay. Well, I'll
say this then. At the very least, he explains
exactly what happened. Okay. Yeah. All right.
We'll just say bare details. If there's anything
specific you want to let me know about, you want
the shield bearers to know about, you can tell
me. We'll say that they just know assault happened
in the middle of the night. It was clearly Ariat.
He spoke to you. Maybe you don't say exactly
everything he talked about, but... And you chased
him off. Okay. So are we just blowing through?
I think so. Okay, so then in that case... Unless
you want to go deep in. Near the end, before
they split off, Dresden will say, Investigate
Ariat to the fullest. It's much bigger than just
tonight. Believe me, I am going to. She kind
of, like, looks down and rubs, like, some of
the feathers on her forehead and just says, I...
Wish Ar -Halan was here, he would thrive in this.
This conspiracy thing is not... Not my forte.
I wish he was here too. Do not leave a single
stone unturned. I will do everything in my power.
I just don't know, if this is as big as you say,
how far those powers will go. Am I... Going to
be allowed to take those swords. They are crucial
evidence against the Captain Commander. I think
Dresden looks at them, holds them up, and there's
a brief pause where he's seriously... You see
him start to bring them closer to himself, like
he's going to keep them. But then he resigns
himself to giving them up and hands them over.
She takes them very gingerly. I actually fall
on, like, probably pulls, like, some kind of
bag, you know, some kind of, like, wrap around
her. Evidence bag. Yeah, like, full evidence
sort of wrap, kind of wrap the swords up, tie
it down. She throws them over her back and gives
you a nod. We will be in touch, but please rest
and recover. We won't trouble you tonight for
more answers. You know where to find me. She
zips outside, and you're kind of rounding up
the shield bearers, dispersing the crowd. Leaving
you in peace. For now. What are the mechanics
of those swords? I just want to know. Uh, they're...
They're actually, honestly, basic swords. I didn't
actually up any of them. I should have upped
them and had a higher to hit, honestly, but I
didn't. So I'm a goofball. Just regular -ass
swords with a little bit of poison on them. The
more exciting thing were the sheaths. They each
were coated with poison. There were poisons that
he could use. Yeah, the sword's not too exciting.
The sheaths? Yeah, those are cool. He kept those.
He'll have those later. Oops. Yeah, don't worry.
That was not a secret. I know who I'm dealing
with here. I'll take him off his dead body. And
we travel back to the house of convalescence.
You are flying above the citadel, flying around
the fossil, and somewhere around the, like, three
-quarters way down the length of the fossil,
actually not that far from the other coyote,
say maybe, like, Right at the end of sort of
populace, your populated district of the trade
discal, where it kind of, you know, right afterwards
just kind of fall off and you have the kind of
slummy area where the other coyote like exists
at the very tail end, you see the House of Convalescence.
We've mentioned this before in the show. We never
really got into it, but this is sort of like
the central hospital of the Radiant Citadel used
to, you know, in search and rescue efforts, they'll
take a lot of people in. They can utilize the
auroral diamonds of magic to heal the wounded
without... you know, item cost, things like that,
is also where a number of celestials sort of
hole up here to, you know, to do their healing,
curse removing, sickness, ailment removing. And
you see it ahead. It's almost like a five -tiered,
white -frosted wedding cake, the topper of which
is a statue of a celestial with wings outstretched,
a swaddled baby nestled in its arms. Very, like,
it looks more palace than... hospital as you're
moving towards it as you fly down to like the
entranceway of its grand sort of wide entranceway
with gold sort of pillars you can see uh you
know spreading out ahead of you be a glass uh
doorway that sort of opens automatically as you
get close and just white marble tiles are stretching
out before you into this grand like waiting room
uh and again just as you step in just more akin
to a palace than a hospital, grand and ornate,
although nothing can really staunch the sort
of heavy smell of alchemical medicines in the
air all around. Just medicine and incense burning
everywhere. Is it like a foul smell, the medicine?
It's a mix. Some rough, some bad smell, but I
think it's being combated by, like, an overly
sterile sort of incense smell that almost makes
it worse, I guess. Okay. But manageable. As you're
stepping in, I think you see, like, more of another
unicorn blast out the door, sliding past you.
You're moving to see, like, a number of figures
are standing on benches. Again, just, like, marble
benches with cushions sort of waiting for, you
know, to be treated. There's sort of a desk where
a diva, celestial, very similar looking to Hyronix
is kind of behind there with charts and kind
of reading things off, calling out names. A number
of white -robed people moving around. And as
you move in, you do see one figure sort of storming
through, kind of looking around everything, maybe
responding to the chaos happening just down the
road. You see a green -skinned planetar, very,
very large, almost as tall as Atash. Well -muscled,
feminine form in a long, loose white coat, tight
ponytail of golden hair runs down her back. And
you know this planetar, you know this is Felindora,
one of the few that joined Atash when he left
Kameo. You know that she is near as strict as
he is when it comes to rules and law, though
she channels her stubbornness and the management
of the House of Convalescence. She is, in a sense,
the director of this hospital. Oh, no. The worst
bad guy of all. An administrator. We're taking
them all on. Here we go. Her eyes lock onto you,
Salome. And I'll ask, do you know of her? Do
you know her personally? What is your connection
with other Celestials? Do you have a lot of friends
amongst them? Are you known amongst them very
well? I mean, I guess as much as Celestials would
have a personal life, right? And I think, I mean,
correct me if I'm wrong, but as the first Celestial,
or the second, aside from Atash, Celestial Luminary,
she's, you know, reached that sort of upper social
echelon. clearly very true so so if if this if
this angel is is important you know in the hospital
they probably have worked together before salome
bringing people here to be healed or something
like that hell yeah so they at least have a professional
working relationship usually like above radiant
pools uh eyes this golden eyebrow just raises
and she moves over to you kind of glides across
the floor to you and just... Salome Sightweaver.
I've heard you were involved in some very recent
incident. Um... Are you hurt? Sorry, can you
just remind me of her name one more time? Felindora.
I took some small damage, Felin, but I'm afraid
my deepest wounds are condolences for those who
were killed today. The attackers at the Ugly
Coyote, they would not back down from me. Not
until the commander ran. And you were forced
to kill them. The wound we cannot close. How
disappointing. There is a connotation. Maybe
lost to ruin. Maybe something he's aware of.
You're not sure. that drops between the two of
you because you know something else salome something
that the conquered worlds at large don't know
the greatest secret amongst you celestials it's
well known that atash will only revive and resurrect
those who have committed acts so they can hold
trial and go to the sky prison to live out their
overly long sentences i mean arguably these guys
did true but you know why that is the case why
that is the only case Because Kameo's magic did
not follow you here fully. And the magic of the
Drakon, especially the Sunweaver, on whom you
stand right now, interferes with some of this
magic. You know, Atash's resurrections, like
anyone else's, are only temporary. In fact, not
known for the only ones to be revived are criminals
who will die in prison. Typically. Almost always.
Well, shit. The only exception would be Ramin
Rasool, who was part Celestial himself, and so
the magic did hold. Yeah. A secret you're aware
of. But she kind of looks down at you in some
disappointment and Rune kind of, we have to get
moving. We are going to the top floor. And she,
like, raises another eyebrow towards him and
looks to you. And there's something in the air.
Between them, something unspoken, something unspeakable.
As they move by, Salome looks to Felon almost
pleadingly, and she says, I gave them every opportunity.
It seems I am not the one you need to explain
this to. Good luck. I'm so fucked. And she begins
to move away. As Rune moves, I think he stops
for a second, almost like hesitant, looks to
you and, well, shall we? Moves over to a, it's
like a magical kind of elevator, sort of a stone.
There's like a tower deposit on the far wall,
a number of them, where this stone platform sits
in the middle. As they're standing, waiting for
this. magical elevator. She's just staring straight
ahead. Without looking to Rune, she asks him,
Did I do something bad, Rune Ruzan? Yes, you
did. But again, we don't blame you. It... It
wasn't your fault. Atash made sure the boss knows
it was not your fault. And yet we have... A request
for you. Does Salome know who he's talking about
when he says the boss? I think when he says the
boss separately from Atash, your stomach drops
through the floor. You feel, I mean, there must
be a weight of fear of unknown so deep, so profound.
And yet maybe the answer to a question you've
been wondering about. Who is it really that's
going to create that future? Um, yeah. Yeah,
who's Antosh's boss? The elevator settles. Rune
steps on. He rolls buttons on the side. He hits
the top floor. I think there's, like, a full
-on, like, a little crystal there. He presses
it, and he has to reach up, and you see he whispers
a word into it. And almost like a light leaves
his throat into the crystal as he does. Did I
see his lips moving? Let's say you did. Okay,
because I have the observant feet, so I can read
his lips. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
What would be a cool password? Yeah, let's go
with something simple. See, weirdly enough, he
had whispered the will. Of the sapphire. Oh,
creepy. That's amazing that you know the path
to this. That's amazing. Yeah, very cool. All
right. I'm still terrified, but I feel a little
bit better. I feel like I found something cool.
That's fun. Hell yeah. But it's a little lost
in me right now because I'm nervous. You should
be. Stop. In the elevator. Moves. Up. Don't like
it. Change the music. I don't like it. I don't
want it. No, it's getting creepier. As the door
slides open with a grinding of stone, you look
out and see only a gray thickness akin to the
very fog you just bowed within. Rune just frowns
towards it and just says, Ugh. I hate getting
wet. You see he's like shut off his like robes
and underneath him he has this really kind of
ridiculously white suit on. A very modern day
looking suit, which in this setting is weird.
Kind of gold trimmed in all the right places.
Gold tie. He's so tacky. Glasses are kind of,
you know, pushes open his nose a little bit.
You see his reflection in the purple. Maybe you
see a little bit of that nervousness in your
eyes. Well, let's do it. He steps into the fog.
Do you follow? Are Salome's wings big enough
to wrap around her, like, her abdomen to keep
her from getting wet as she walks through the
fog? Hell yeah. Yeah, okay. We're gonna do that.
Just because I think it's fun. You step through
as well. Do one last cool thing before I get
killed by Atash. You feel this around, this fog
so thick, fog so thick that you realize this
is more akin to a cloud than you would know intimately.
You feel this light wetness all around you on
the edges of your feathers of your wings. A sensation
that maybe is quite at home. You are standing
within, moving through a storm cloud. You feel
a heavy wind pulls at you and greeting the sound
of rumbling thunder. An old friend. And you step
out of the cloud cover and find yourself in an
impossible place. Because you know that you were
moving to the very top floor of this house convalescence.
The very top of the wedding cake. What you see
is so much larger than that would explain. Now
you know that many of the rooms of the Fane Sky
Prison are actually pocket dimension, much larger
on the inside than out. So that must be the case
here as well. Because you find yourself standing
on a platform of marble amidst an open sky. A
sky filled with a churning, storming cyclone.
And there's almost nothing but storm here. The
platform you stand on is a... Just a bare circle,
only 50 feet wide or so. It vanishes into the
clouds, adds borders, and you can't make out
much beyond. Just hints at dark skies and stars.
The door behind you is gone. I'm scared. All
that stands before you is the platform and three
figures upon it. One is the gnome, Rimsang, who
dances casually over to the side of Atash, who
glares down at him with arms crossed, and there's
a fury. In the eyes of the angel king that you
have never seen before, blazing hot. But somehow
he does not hold your attention. Somehow he is
not the thing that inspires your fear. For just
beyond the two of them, standing at the center
of this platform, is a pedestal holding a fist
-sized, pulsing blue gemstone. Holy shit. Fuck.
You hear notes of music, a deep, manic rush amidst
the crackling thunder and howling wind around.
Despite being in the seeming sky, the air is
heavy, like gravity is pushing down on you, a
gentle but threatening press, as though it's
just waiting to smash you against the floor below.
One wrong step. Salome, at least a little bit,
gives in to that pressure, and she goes down
to one knee and bows her head in front of Atash.
You, like, bow your head, and you're surprised
that you're not immediately acknowledged. You
hear, like, voices. In discussion, kind of beyond
the music, the crackling, everything. One Salome
Sightweaver, delivered as requested. Just a rumble.
Ah, I see our Angel King is still in a bad mood.
I told you that we did not need this worm. We
granted this creature. authority as a sidekick.
And for what? His vile, lawless antics have stained
our righteous cause. And still, his network puppet
has slipped off its own strings. Have you seen?
Hey, hey, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, we cut
the broadcast before it went too far. Just be
some damage control, but I will deal with the
Orin situation personally. Very, very personally.
Just make sure to open up a spot in that sky
for some yours. All right, big guy? You kind
of glance up to see Atash's glare down on Rune,
like the seething, burning, fiery glare, like
the sun is beaming down on him. What? Were you
doing just so well without me? Remember Free
Sansatyan? Because I remember. I imagine everyone
remembers deep down. Come on, Atash. You are
a lot of things. You're powerful, charismatic,
perfect, luminary. But we all know you are the
opposite of subtle. Then you hear like a crack
of thunder. Enough. A light just pulses out so
bright from that stone. I have no interest in
hearing your arguments. You each have your roles
and will continue to act in them under my divine
strategy. We are in a critical situation. Ariat
has foolishly revealed himself as more than he
appeared. Our adversaries will investigate him,
and the populace will be watching. If it is discovered,
even rumored, that he piloted the gemstones into
the Uniting Plane using new commands, then our
plans will be endangered. We need them to fear.
They will not fear a man like Ariat, not like
they will a legend like Ozen. or an unstoppable,
knowable force like the Keening Gloom. When you
are the head of the speakers, Atash, we will
need to use that fear to make our final push
for peace. Can't hear Rune speak up a little
bit. Head of the speakers. I still have no idea
how you think that's going to happen. Surely,
surely we'll never... crack of lightning, a bolt
striking very near to Rune. You feel the static
in the air, Salome, like almost coursing through
you. And you see Rune diving off into the ground
with a rat -like squeak of tears, rolling. As
I have told you, Sholay has already been dealt
with. A tree grows from a seed I planted 250
years ago. By tomorrow's end, I believe Sholay
will hand the conquered worlds to us. Else she
will be dead. There is no other resolution. Do
not be distracted. Our focus is on Ariat and
on our new conspirator. Like a spotlight. That
blue falls on you. You are sure she can be trusted?
Salome hasn't moved a muscle. You've never felt
a storm that's fully turned against you before,
Salome. The rumbling of the clouds like a predator
raid who pounce on you to throw every effort
into your destruction. For you, an aspect of
the storm is a truly sickening feeling. Atashurv
turns away from Rune finally. I am sure I will
speak with her. That rumbling above seems to
fade, but not entirely. Rune slowly picks himself
off the floor, scowling and dusting off his suit.
Azatosh makes his way over to you. You have seen
it, haven't you? Many of the Pari have. A coming
utopia. A perfect future. That is our work. That
is the Sapphire's will. You will have the honor
of building this world with us. Come, meet the
immortal mind that will see the Sunweaver's will
finally done. The remnant of the Sapphire Wyvern.
Wow, so much is happening. So much is happening.
Yup. Okay. So Azhash knows that I know. He knows
that you've seen the future. He doesn't know
that you know he's in on it. A lot of the Pahri
have spoken of the coming future. It's hard not
to see this grand coming future, this grand peace
that's coming. No one knows how it's going to
happen, but they know it's going to happen. Time
is strange like that. Yeah, so if he just said
that the remnants of the sapphire are going to
make it come about, and Atash is an agent of
that sapphire, so how does Atash not think that
I think he's involved? At this point, he's telling
you he's involved. Okay. He's basically saying,
hey, welcome to the conspiracy. That future you've
been seeing, you're going to help us make that
happen. A lot of the party have come before Atash
saying they've seen this. It's not a secret that
there's a future. It wouldn't be a secret. There's
a future of like this perfect utopia. The Celestials
don't speak often of the futures they see. Only
amongst themselves. So Atash would be aware that
you've seen that much. But many of the party
believe this to be a wonderful thing. Oh, shit.
Only you have the insight to look deeper and
say, this is terrifying. Okay. Okay. All right.
I'm not overwhelmed. It's going to get worse.
Okay, great. I mean, Salome is going to follow
directions. I mean, there's not really any desire
for her to speak up here. I feel bad just going
through this, through the motions. No, this is
perfect. The light is like. beaming down on you
again like a spotlight you're getting closer
and closer to it feeling that weight that gravity
pressed harder and harder down on you atash is
standing except behind you to hear his steps
as you move closer and closer and then you hear
the gemstone speak again cast the spell atash
oh no i will have my test oh no i don't like
it i don't like it you hear atash speak Some
words in magic and incantation wave his hands
and a magic circle spreads out beneath you. Oh,
cool. Zone of truth. And you recognize zone of
truth. Sure. Okay. Do not resist this spell.
I will know if you do, Salome. Do you want to
try to resist the spell? You can make a save.
No. It says in the spell that they will know
if you pass the save. No, no way. No, daddy.
Then you feel a magic take hold in your mind,
and you can no longer lie. Cool, fun, cool. Now,
Stephen, I know you're a fan of the Wheel of
Time series. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you ever
wondered what it would be like to be an Aes Sedai,
to have to speak secret truth? Yeah, kind of
all the time. You're about to experience that.
Sure, cool. You cannot speak a lie, but you can
cleverly use truth to mask lies. You can hold
back truth. Sure, yeah. I'm going to put you
in it. As this match is cast before you, as you
stand tall before the sapphire, as the light
beams down on you, it's almost like the gravity
is threatening now to push you to your knees
again. Do you want to stand against it, or do
you want to fall? She'll stand against it. The
storm around gets very eerily quiet. What caused
you to interfere with events at the Ugly Coyote?
How did you know its attack would be occurring?
I had a vision. I saw it. Were you aware of Ariatron's
attack before you involved yourself? And that's
up to you. Maybe you didn't know. Maybe you did.
How much do you think Salamis are? I mean, I
guess it depends on if those... It seemed like
those uniforms weren't recognizable to anybody.
They were masked. I couldn't have known. Far
off thunder. Good. Take your time. Yeah, I'm
going to need to. Will you take action to see
that vision fulfilled? Yeah. Will you make any
efforts essentially to reach that goal? The same
goal they want to see. The world's connected
in this perfect utopia. Just one seemingly lacking
free will. But, you know, that's just a pesky
little thing that causes wars, right? You look
so nervous. Yeah, I'm very nervous. I will continue
the mission we came here for when we looked out
on that field. I will. I wish to continue to
prove myself. I'm hoping that's noncommittal
enough. I think it is. That it's kind of like,
I'm going to do what I think is right. I'm going
to keep doing what I think is right. Yeah. I
like that a lot because to Atash, this is the
mission he had declared when he saw this, is
to protect everybody, to stop wars. But to you,
it's a very different, like you took that differently.
Yeah. Our definitions of what is the right thing
to do is different now. But she's declaring that
she wants to keep doing what she thinks is the
right thing to do. I like that a lot, take a
button. Nice. Oh, fuck yeah. That's really good.
Yeah, now let's see how much harder I can make
this for you. Yeah, cool, great. Will you follow
my every order, acting wholly in the pursuit
of the greatest good? I am humbled and tremble
in the presence. of one greater than Atash himself.
I think you hear almost like Atash takes a slight
shuffle. He shoves it, he steps back, something.
Like, with your perception, that made Atash uncomfortable.
Okay, I don't think that's necessarily a bad
thing. But you hear a thunderous sort of, almost
the thunder itself, the clouds roaring. Sure,
flattery. Okay, okay. Flattery worked. All right.
Yeah, it worked very well. And will you look
to me as your deity in lieu of the one you rightfully
abandoned? Huh. Um... Show me the love that I
was given by Kameo, and I shall be yours. I hold
love for every mortal being. I suppose. I could
spread that love to the immortal as well. Salome
doesn't think this guy's capable of love. And
finally, do you fear me? True fear. She just,
she bows her head. She lowers her head completely.
Yes. Good. Rune. You will schedule a press conference.
Our new initiate has a speech to make. And we'll
call it there.