Thank you. Now I know what you're thinking, pants
people. What are them pants boys up to this time,
this year, this coming season? Well, I'll tell
you what's up. Actually, I won't tell you because
I don't know. But what you can find out is by
joining our Discord, hanging out on our Instagram,
checking out our YouTube. We have one of those,
I think. We have a lot of cool stuff out there.
And as you know, every year we're doing something
else wild and crazy. SciFly coming back? Probably.
Are we doing some more collabs? For sure, maybe.
I don't know. Get on there. Check our stuff.
stuff out, keep your eyes open, and get ready
to unzip. 50 years ago, when High Tides came
charging from the heavens over Angra and Sengar.
Since then, all sorts of largely life heroes
have sprung up from our worlds and taken our
collective breath away. But, this isn't to say
that those heroes weren't always there, working
on our worlds to protect the innocent and see
justice done to wrongdoers. They've existed long
before the Crystal Networks founded by Kedger
Kamal. Hell, some few of our heroes today existed
even before the reconnecting of our conquered
worlds via the Radiant City of Hell and Platinum
Knight Ari. It's one such figure. A Sun Elf,
born and raised on Tithos. She lived to see Shonen
connect all worlds together 250 years ago. Hell,
she even helped out in the Dragon's Grand Quest.
Little is known of her life before that event,
and after, to be honest. Following the Radiant
Zell's awakening, she kind of just vanished from
popular culture. Up until the Luminary Boom began,
and Diamond Recorders were everywhere. So what
do we know about Arya? Well, not much. We know
she's a strict uphold - of justice. Her focus
as a luminary is defense of the defenseless.
And she does that by putting her five -foot self
and her great sword, Judgment, directly in the
path of trouble. We also know that she follows
certain teachings that some historians have attributed
to ancient dragonkind. Though the exact source
of her vows and her power is, ugh, up in the
air. Perhaps her namesake armor can shine a light
on these mysteries. Her time -worn mithril blade
is edged in blue enamel and emblazoned with a
a platinum star over a milky galaxy, a symbol
my investigators have not seen anywhere in our
worlds. Well, whatever our story may be, these
days power can be found on the citadel occasionally,
enjoying a vulgar hopper and chatting with a
good old demented cloudbreaker. The two enigmatic
knights seem to have a lot in common, honestly.
A mysterious background, powers of righteousness,
and some kind of connection to both platinum
and dragons. Now thinking about it, there might
be something to that. Thank you, Zila, for being
a luminary to grace our collective conquered
worlds. And speaking of Zila, let's talk about
what happened last time. I've been burning to
talk about this because, to me, this is like
the coolest thing about this story, this particular
campaign. We've run a lot of games. I've run
a lot of games with you guys. And this one has
something that no other game can have because,
seriously. Let's put it down there. Stephen,
as Salome, was made to give a certain speech
by me as the bad guys. And Stephen, as Salome,
snuck a coded message into said speech that me
and the bad guys both did not catch. But Stephen,
as Salome's allies, the pants person community
did. We're playing D &D in like four dimensions
here, people. It is insane. Like, thanks to Scribble
to Play, Stephen S. Salome has been contacted
by Zila as Shrike, is now going to be able to
connect with the rest of the main party, though
I'm going to do a wee little retcon on the sequence
of events that led to it at the very end of the
last episode. I just want to lean hard into the
super spy thriller feel of this thing. All right,
so I'm doing it. Retconning. You can't stop me.
I've got a button. Let's hear it. All right,
we'll get there. It's not a real button. Actually,
it is. I believe I got a button. when I said
the thing that Andrew had us say about the...
Oh, yeah. I thought he said that I said it better.
He said... No, he did. Didn't we all agree? No,
I'm pretty sure it was Steven. I said you up.
Andrew, you're going to be hearing this... Andrew
would not betray me like that. Andrew, let us
know. Yeah, let's put the button on the back
burner for this episode. Yeah. Well, the mage
smith just lost a button. But yeah, I mean, isn't
that wild? Isn't that just absolutely wild that
not only this isn't a gameplay dice roll situation,
this is you snuck a message past the DM. I didn't
think I was going to sneak it past you. And the
fanbase found it, and they were able to help
you out now because I missed it. And that's wild.
I wanted to get a message out. I thought I was
going to have to make a roll for it. no i'm stupid
i don't know i was excited but like you said
it yourself the bad guys hear what they want
to hear yeah i heard what i wanted to hear that's
what i'm saying i i remember the next day i was
saying i was shocked that you didn't catch it
because you fucking wrote it i heard you wrote
it i he it was close enough i just i changed
like um You did. You changed... Many things.
Like, almost every sentence, I changed a couple
of words. So it got a little hidden. Right. And
you were writing it. You opened that that night.
You didn't pre -write this. You were reading
it and changing it on the fly. I saw you. Like,
I saw you looking at my message. Yeah. Well,
I would, like, look at the sentence and, like,
because I couldn't... If I read the whole thing
verbatim and I changed, like, one or two words,
that would have been a huge red flag. So... I
kind of like, I said the sentences in like, I
mean, you know, it was the same words just in
my words instead of David's words. So it was
just enough of a change. I was hoping that wouldn't
be picked up on immediately. It's wild. You were
correct. It's wild. Yeah. Very clever. Thank
you. Very clever. Thank you. Let's see if that
cleverness can keep on rolling because tonight,
gentlemen, it's time to bring this full party
together. You have a contact now. You have someone
that can send messages between our two groups,
but that's not going to be enough for me. I want
to see the whole group come together so we can
start planning out what's coming next. And even
more so, I want to see it happen in five gameplay
minutes because Dragon Quest 1 and 2 or HC2 came
out today. Oh, my God. And I have to go. Oh,
my God. You're going to do this, go home, and
play that tonight? I'm just saying, those sentences
you just said. That was part of your five minutes.
How are you going to get to bed at 830? Well,
David, and we'll call it there. Thank you. Perfect.
You guys want to play some games? Yeah, let's
play some games. Hell yeah. I'm pumped. I'm pumped.
I got the fader up, so if the music doesn't go
on, it's on you. Let's get some spy music going.
Hey, it worked. We got it. We got it. First time.
High five. Only took, what, 150 episodes? Oh,
yeah. Eighth episode energy. No, we're fine.
Uh -huh. That was off mic. Know what that means?
No, it's going in. I think everybody understands
what eighth episode energy means. Uh -huh. Uh
-huh. So I'm going to do a quick retcon on the
events of last time. I'm going to start us off
with Salome as she was leaving the house of convalescence.
Now, before, I had a voice ring into Sally's
mind very suddenly, very conveniently. But spy
thrillers are rarely that convenient. They're
way cooler. So what instead happens is you hear
a voice. an actual voice ringing out behind you
from just inside the door. Hey, Lady Sightweaver,
hang on. Lady Sightweaver, hey, oi. And you see
this sort of burly figure in the acolyte's robes,
the House of Convalescence, comes charging towards
you, kind of big, bulbous nose and chin, bald
head, very sweaty. You see he's holding, like,
a parcel bag over one shoulder. He's got a number
of envelopes in his hand. And you recognize...
Duggins. I wrote that two weeks ago. Duggins?
Duggins. How's it spelled? How's it spelled?
It's the way you think it's spelled. The dumbest
possible way. You forget it's Duggins. He is
the mailroom manager of the House of Convalescents.
Okay. And Salome, we never talked about this,
but... Where do you live? A lot of the Celestials
here live in the House of Convalescence. I don't
know if we've ever discussed this, where you
actually live. No, I don't think so. I didn't
know that most of the Celestials lived in the
House of Convalescence. It's kind of like a...
It's basically before Atash really brought the
Celestials into the world in a major way, right?
Before the first Celestial Luminary, apart from
him, came along, you, they weren't really freely
allowed to roam between them because people were
worried that Atash having this sort of... massive
force of these very powerful Celestials would
throw off the balance of power throughout the
world, which, silly, right? That didn't happen.
Now they're freely moving around. But before
that happened, the only place they were really
allowed to go on the Radiant Sid and allowed
to stay freely was the House of Convalescence
because they were gifted in healing magics, and
this is a grand magical hospital, essentially.
So there's always places for Celestials to stay
in this building. You might have a place to live
here. you might, now that you're a luminary,
live somewhere else. You could have an apartment
in a rural town. It's really your call. Yeah,
I think as that power push progresses, you know,
Atash got another celestial luminary in Salome,
and to try and keep grabbing and grabbing and
grabbing, I think she has an apartment in a rural
town. Yeah, there's an apartment in a rural town.
So that's where, generally, you get basically
all of your fan mail. but it's been known to
happen that your old address here does get a
few letters. Some people just didn't get the
update. Some letters sneak by and end up in the
house. And so as this guy comes towards you,
this is a ritual that's happened before. You
come by, fan letters go to you. You get a ton
of these things. He only has a small stack. This
is just like your alt address, essentially. Do
you reach out? Do you take the letters? Yeah,
she'll turn around. Oh, looks like a light. Piled
today, huh, Diggs? Duggins. Diggins? Duggins?
Oh, Diggs, though. It's not bad. You've got a
nickname now. Wow. I'll never wash this hand
again. He hands you the letters. He leaves. Yeah.
He leaves the show forever. Yeah, cordially.
Fan -beloved character digs. That was me. I just
literally forgot his name was Duggins. Maybe
this is eighth episode of Heritage. You're looking
down this small, and there's probably like five
letters here. You're looking down mostly just
kind of basic blank envelopes. Some of them look
like they have kids writing on them. But one
of them really catches your eye. It's just a
little bit more ornate than the others. You see
a silvery gray envelope. With a blue winged seal.
There's something about it that looks special.
It's different than, you know, like you said,
the children's drawings. Like it's made to stand
out just a little bit. There's nothing about
it that looks, I guess, suspicious necessarily,
but it just looks like it stands out. After receiving,
even if it was, you know, a hundred of these,
if one is that different, then Salome would open
that one first. As she walks away from the House
of Convalescence. You walk away. You open the
letter and you read these words. Lady Sightweaver,
I found myself captivated by your recent speech
and your call to arms against the unrighteous.
Your dedication to justice has earned my undying
loyalty. Like a lark singing out against the
unworldly screeches of the unworthy, your silver
steps echo in the minds of those who would follow
your light. If you seek to reach the like -minded,
show your wings on the northern balcony of the
House of Condolescence this night so that words
of your admirers can reach your mind. A secret
admirer. Wait. Stop it. What are you doing? He
records himself all the time doing this. That
was an episode! That is so cool. That's really
cool. Thank you again, Zila, for playing Shrike
in our episode here. Jeez, so that's tonight.
What time is it now? We'll kind of keep things
close to where the other group was. The other
group wasn't sort of... Evening time as well,
when we last saw them on Teletopex, we'll say
it's actually getting late now, probably about
7 .30 p .m. Salome will spin on her heels, you
know. Oh, you know, must have forgot something,
you know. Was busy with visions and whatnot and
just slipped my mind. I mean, you have a negative,
what do you have, a six intelligence stat? You
know, things slip. Exactly, yeah. Dumber than
Zebulon. Wait, really? Yeah. Really? Actually.
Yeah. No shit. That was a really bad roll. Okay.
We just kind of played off as ditzy. Yeah. Yeah.
You spin around and you move back towards the
building. That cloud of prophecy is one message
sort of breaking through. One thing you must
do. You felt so alone just a short while ago
and now a spark of hope. You make your way onto
that balcony that night, and that is when, as
you stand in this place as requested, you feel
that voice in your mind that brings us to the
end of our last episode. You are told that a
message can be sent wherever you need, and you
send a message out to Blanche and Jules. Man,
I gotta say, this way of getting the message
out... The way the message was received and everything
requires so much more trust. You know, I didn't
really think about it in the last episode when
it was just someone popped in my mind and said,
hey, say a message if you want. But yeah, now
that I've had a little time to think about it,
I'm realizing just how scared Salome probably
is thinking that, you know, is this a trap? Am
I being tested again? She's got pretty high passive
insight, so that's how I'm going to play it off.
You know, Steven, the player, knows that, or
I'm pretty sure that Shrek's a good guy. Pretty
sure. Who can say? Who can say? But yeah, so
she goes up and opens her wings on the north
balcony, right? Yeah, northwest. That's the message.
Yeah. That's a really cool image. And we'll fade
out on that image. Wings outstretched, we pan
away from the house of convalescence, Salome
standing tall like a decoration on the edge of
a wedding cake. And we move back to Tletepec.
I told you there would be a time cost to you
being here. That time cost will be one week.
I want to open up one week later when you receive
this message. Does that sound reasonable? I think
so, yeah. I think Blanche was training people
in that week, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Jules was...
No, he was helping with training, too. Yeah,
yeah. He did some magical training. It's cool.
See, this is kind of going multiple ways. Like,
you have the magical know -how, Blanche. Even
though this is more wild, you know, druidic magic,
it's a little different than your cup of tea.
There's still some crossover. But another thing
I think that's really helpful is... I've been
thinking about this. you're probably doing a
lot of running drills and working on mobilizing
forces quickly and efficiently, the kind of stuff
you would do in the Golden Bay. Because this
is also like, it's not just about knowing what
you have to do. It's about having scouts in better
places, knowing when these are going to happen
ahead of time. They wanted to rely on Pari's
prophecy so that if one of the volcanoes that's
far outside of their general range is about to
go off and release another surge to set off another
ash rise, don't. If there's enough scouts in
place, if you have a strategic kind of formation
built on this map, and if you can mobilize forces
as fast as possible, get messages through as
fast as possible, there will be no problems,
right? I mean, hopefully. That's the plan, at
least. So yeah, Blanche would have the military
know -how and would help the people here set
up a network like that. Hell yeah. I can only
imagine just... A week passes and we just see
a montage of training. Perhaps we see some, the
days are filled with just like these sweaty drills
and reading over books and Zopa's showing you
like various sort of gestures and moves and words
of power as she's using her magic. You're kind
of taking that and teaching other people, instructing
them. There's classes built in the middle of
these tents, just makeshift sort of classrooms
outside of it. We maybe, we see nighttimes where
you're once again enjoying like these love. I
don't know if he's playing. You don't get anything
going on right now. Getting married. Well, getting
the actual, we didn't talk about this. The, uh,
in two days? Three days? Three days. You're having
your actual full ceremony for your wedding, Mr.
Wolf. Yeah. On top of new job and all the madness
in the world. And you're DJing a Halloween party
tomorrow. Yeah. But you couldn't do a song for
the pants people? No. I'm ashamed. But at least
we gave them a little mid -ep band. Yeah. Hey,
that's true. No, I don't think. Join the Discord.
Join the Discord, though, for real. Hey, you
guys in the Discord? All right, you're good.
You passed Stephen's test. So just so the fans
people fucking know what just happened, I got
my two friends from Michigan in the room here.
And they're on the Discord. We got winning guests
tonight. No, I don't think Jules is playing.
you know, this loot in a, in a fun kind of showy
way. I think there's a couple of nights where
he kind of sits to himself, like next to a fire
or something and just, you know, gives a little
soft lament, you know, of his sadness and his
stress and his anxiety and his despair of what's
coming. I think you like, we see that you're
playing this out. We just, sadly, we see the,
your fingers moving the strings, Jules, the eyes
closed, lost to it. And by the time you like
come to realize. There's a bunch of watchers
around you, and they're all, like, openly weeping.
Oh, God. That's beautiful. A week passes. There
will be a roll. It won't happen yet, but there
will be a roll to see if anything goes down on
Tletepec without celestial reinforcement. But
I will, as I promised, drop the difficulty of
that roll, drop the percentage. You have helped
in a major way. And you feel that. You feel a
surge of confidence in the Watchers. Maybe it
will help. Can I just point out really fast,
because you were just talking about rules, and
you're fiddling with a button. The button economy
is really broken right now. We have no buttons,
and we have not had a button in, like, weeks.
Oh, really? Oh, that's hilarious. I should do
something cool with some boy. Yeah, right. Fucking
try harder. Yeah. I have a button from Andrew
right here for me, so... I still don't think
you do. I think I speak for Andrew now. I think
you feel your time here is nearly at an end.
Perhaps it's one evening, just after one of your
very somber performances, Jules, Blanche, perhaps
you are sitting nearby. On this evening, the
watchers are... I think you pushed them extra
hard that day. Most people are asleep earlier
than you. They just like ran them through it
and they're just passed out. I think it's just
the two of you and Akio all sitting by the fire
at this point. Zopa's moved on to check into
something or other. And as the fire before you
is beginning to die down to just smoldering embers,
and you know that your path is calling you elsewhere,
the two of you very suddenly hear a voice in
your minds. Luminaries LaRoche and Trudeau. I
have a message from the Sightweaver. With your
regards, Shrike. The voice continues on and speaks
the exact message Salome spoke last time, essentially
revealing herself as an ally to you and asking
for you to set a place to meet. The next step
of your journey has become apparent. So what
are you going to do about it? Do you think we
can trust her, Jules? I think at this point we
gotta look into anything. We'll give it a chance.
But if I smell anything fishy, we're getting
the fuck out of there. Well, we can choose the
meeting place. Just don't choose the fish docks.
There's no ocean. Lance, let's go to the fish
docks. Just don't choose the pale moonlight.
So wait, so we're... If we go off of Tlalepic...
Once you get back to the Radiant Citadel, your
passports will be revoked. At this point, you
know that. The announcement came. Basically,
it doesn't matter. They're not going to take
anything from you, but if you were to go... Like,
everyone has free passage from their world to
the Citadel. The Citadel does not require a passport.
Anyone and everyone can be there. It is open.
The gates are always open. But leaving your home
world to a different one, that's where it gets
dicey. And right now, your home world is Tythos
Duels. You have not been officially placed anywhere
else. So you will be stuck there. Blanche, I
mean, you have a home to go back to, kind of.
But you know that Noari has essentially been
overtaken by Atash's forces. No need for a master
defense, especially now. Isn't our way into...
Handsome Jai's place, doesn't that happen on
the Radiant Citadel? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. The way it works, yes. The stone, the multicolored
stone that brings you, essentially a key that
brings you into his, what's it like, jinn? His
lamp? Yeah, his lamp, his sort of little pocket
dimension he has, his meeting grounds, his lair
of looves. Not a place you... Pretty gross in
there, but you can enter it. whenever you want,
as long as you're on the same plane. So you cannot
do it if you're on a different world from him.
But if you're on the Citadel, where you know
Handsome Jai's probably partying, then you can,
from anywhere on the Citadel, activate that stone
and appear there. Yeah, so for Jules, he can
either stay here on Toledopec, which would not
be super good, or go back to the Radiant Citadel,
because that's the only place that he can really
travel to. So it doesn't make sense for Blanche
to try to go home to Noiri because she wouldn't
be able to go with Jules. So it's pretty obvious.
The only place we can go is the Citadel. Right.
And while we're on the Citadel, we have enough
allies that we can find a place to meet with
Salome. And Blanche is thinking, handsome Jai's.
Yeah. This is a subtle place. That's it, right?
You'll be inside a lamp on a table. Probably
entirely unseen. I mean, we worked fucking hard
to get that spot, so... We could go to Handsome
Jai's secret love room. Are you ready for round
two? No! No, Roof! Please! Please, Roof! I can't
dance again! We won't be... I still haven't recovered!
No, no, no. That was worse than the fire dragon
thing! Akio, not this time around. It's okay.
We'll be in the lamp, Akio. Don't worry. Okay.
Yeah. Roof. He just rolls over. And so we know
that we can now pass that message on to Shrike,
and Shrike will... You feel that connection is
still essentially open, like waiting for any
kind of response. This is a ability called Psychic
Whispers. It can be open for up to a few hours,
essentially, with whoever she chooses. And then
she can go back and deliver that message to Salome.
So if you have a meeting ground and a time, Salome
will have to figure it out, but... Sure. Very
well. Blanche is going to look to Jules as she
often does. What's the thing called? How would
I describe it to Salome? I mean, I guess it's
Handsome Jai's lamp, right? She'd have to go
to Handsome Jai. Right. If we just say, yeah,
we'll just send her to Handsome Jai and he'll
set up the rest, I guess. Yeah. Hell yeah. What
time do we want to do? I don't know that it matters,
right? It doesn't? Not to me. Do it in a month.
Do it one month from now. No. Fuck off. Tonight.
Let's do it tonight. Yeah, let's do it tonight.
Okay. Nothing pressing coming up in two months.
Oh, sorry. One month and three weeks. Tonight.
On the Citadel. Find Handsome Jai. He'll point
you in the right direction. Hell yeah. And that
presence. retreats from your minds. Do you want
to cut to that meeting, then? Any other things
you want to do here on Thought Effect before
you leave? I want to shop. Go back to the map
shop! Zopa taught me a bunch of new fire spells,
right? Yeah, no. Yeah, I mean, Jules doesn't
have anything that he'd want to do here. If Blanche
does, Jules will hang behind. You just have to
play the sound effect for the travel. Oh yeah,
yeah, you gotta do that. And the, the, whatever
it is. What's it? It's the cool one. It's the
black one. Black. Onyx? Is it Onyx? I don't know.
It might be Onyx. I'm listing Black Rocks. Obsidian
Conquer Jewel rises up. And you're on it. I'm
waiting for your cue. And... Vanishes. Just a
short while later, in the dimly lit Ugly Coyote,
surrounded by the Cherry Delights, Dresden, Jean,
Gabriela, Arhalon, all your sidekicks. Not officially,
but, you know. All watching on, you draw out
the stone, this multicolored stone that feels
like this throbbing warmth. Why did you look
at me and laugh? Because it was funny. Handsome
Gize, love stone. Handsome Gize, throbbing warm.
Is that the title of the episode? There it is.
There it is. Oh, no. And in this sort of prismatic
array of light, almost like a mist over, oh,
you're just enveloping you. You vanish again.
We cut to Salome. Let's not, let me go through
the whole. Shimadurong. You are a luminary. You
are persuasive. Shimadurong. It's a word. Look
it up. I think it's Dutch. I think all we need
to do to establish Salome's involvement is one
very quick scene as she stands in a room full
of raving people just standing in a place surrounded
by just pink cloud that smells of cinnamon. And
as this plump fairy dragon reaches out a finger,
it says... Oh, come on. Oh, my God. Fuck. It's
a con save, right? We don't need to go there.
We just need to make sure. I just need to understand
that Salome went through all that, too, because
it's funny for me. I want to check it out. That
should do. 18. You are... That's pretty good.
No, it wasn't a DC 20? I don't remember the DC.
Damn it. It's 20 now. You're seeing things. You're
going on a journey. Salome's going to be late
to the appointment. Jules and Blanche, you've
been waiting for two hours. When Salome materializes
within the room as well. I think you saw her
approaching Handsome Jai. I think there wasn't
nearly as much hub -a -loo. There was no mimic
fight. Chairs, musical chairs. She probably got
pranked. It was kind of serious business. She
got pranked once and they got serious. And Handsome
Jai, when he realized you were here to meet with
the two figures inside the lamp, lets you in.
For the first time. Let me ask. Is Dresden coming
too? Fuck. He knew Salome. He knew Salome, but...
That leaves the coyote well exposed. Which I
think we as people know probably nothing's going
to happen. Right. No, yeah. I mean, in the game.
You have Arhalon, Jaune, and Gabriela. That's
true. Oh, fuck. Yeah, yeah. Okay, that changes
things. That changes things. Okay. Yeah, you
know, we disgusted the coyote and we took Dresden.
Hell yeah. And in this moment, Jules is going
to look over to Blanche and say, Hey, Jules,
why don't you... Wait, how did that happen? He's
going to... He's going to turn to Blanche, look
over at Salome, and say, Hey, Blanche, why don't
you take this one? Steven's the only one who
has not talked to himself in this whole fucking
campaign. Is that true? Yes. That can't be true.
You have not talked to yourself. Jeremy, turn
off our mics. So Salome will nod to Dresden.
Greetings, Blanche and Jules. I am still a little
high, but... I was drinking. I almost lost my
laptop. It's wonderful to finally meet you all.
Well, no, she met Jules before. Yeah, but she
kind of met him. She slapped a prophecy and put
him in a coma. Right, yeah, that was awesome.
It was a really good meeting. Did Jules know
who she was before that? No. Okay, so then Jules
has this really dumbfounded look on his face
like, That's you? Maybe, like, because you've
seen her probably on the network, but... Okay,
okay. But, like, at the same time, it's probably
different seeing her in person and realizing,
oh, that's the power of that. Yeah. I am sorry
about the first time we met. Yeah, that was pretty
fucked up. I... It was unintentional. My message
was, as it is now, one of grave importance. Well,
you... mention something about... It's not the...
Ah, shit. It's not the speakers for the... It's
not the ancestors. It's the... Is this Blanche
talking or Salome talking right now? No, this
is Stephen talking. Oh, shit. So I got lost in
it. Hold on. Why can't I think of the name? Like
the Jasper tree and stuff? Oh, the Incarnates.
Incarnates. The Don Incarnates. I will never...
I will never ever remember Don Incarnates for
some reason. Do Incarnates then. Okay. You mentioned
something about the Incarnates. Being in danger?
Yes. Arthash is assembling an army. Well, the
sapphire is assembling an army to destroy the
other incarnates and take complete control over
the diamond and our worlds. An army of... An
army of who? An army of... Celestials, the Shieldbearers,
and definitely two others. Come on. Look at this
button. Stop. You can do it. No, wait. You're
one of them. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The
Luminaries at Lodge? You don't know the last
one. I don't think I remember the last one. The
last one is a secret, something that Kejo Kamala
is working on. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, didn't
you mention robots? Or not robots? Didn't you
mention something like that? No. I mentioned
that there are parts being sent from metalwork
parts being sent. So maybe you could surmise
something, but it could be weapons, armor, you
don't know. And a secret fourth army being, I'm
assuming, assembled by... Kejo Kamal? Well, uh,
how are the few of us in this room going to fight
a four -sided army? Yeah, this is all stuff we
know. You bringing something to the table here?
Gonna give us an idea of what to do? My hope
is that with your help, your popularity, perhaps
we could turn some factions of each group. Haven't
you heard the news, though? Our popularity has
turned into notoriety. Ooh. I like that line.
Button? I like that. You know what? He should
take a button. Fuck yeah. Button on his back.
Fuck yeah. I'll just grab one. You guys are killing
it. In this case, being notorious, as you put
it, is your strength. There are those who seek
rebellion. Against the powers that be, your justice
undying movement being chief amongst them. There
are others who will flock to your cause. That
is just the tipping point. So how do we mobilize?
Well, I was hoping we could all come up with
a strategy. I may be able to convince some, at
least few. Celestials, that Atash is traveling
down a dark path. As for the luminaries, you're
somewhat of a popular figure amongst them. It's
true, Jules. We have many friends among the luminaries,
some of the highest ranking. They're all scared
to come out. Well... Aren't you scared? Dresden's
been really quiet. I'm always fucking scared.
Yeah, I know. I'm just listening. I don't think
that our type, luminaries, are dispersuaded by
being scared. The right thing to do is often
scary. Super random, but... What if we sent out
an invite to... Handsome Jai's on our side, right?
Well, we don't necessarily... Is he? Do we know?
He's helping you. Okay. But he's... He probably
doesn't know what's going on in this room right
now unless he's listening. Right. You see he's
out there. He looks down occasionally, but his
eyes are totally fucked up. He's on something
heavy. Ah, fuck. Handsome Jai, he's on your side,
but he's not someone you can rely on at all.
Because my first thought was maybe let's make
this headquarters. Because God forbid that we
have a stable ally. Yeah. It's never going to
happen. They're either in jail or... Well, yeah,
that's the thing is like, you know, obviously
Sholay's gone. Handsome Jai is Handsome Jai.
And we can't put out a public call. No. Because
that's just going to be... We're going to have
to... Yeah. The way I'm seeing it is it's grassroots,
right? You go to one person, you talk to them,
they talk to two people, they talk to two people,
they talk to two people sort of thing. I think
something else that might also be kind of going
through your minds right now, not Salome, but
the other three, is Sholay's message. There is
that too. She has allies, right? She has allies
and she has made you essentially a promise. If
you lay low and await further instruction, she
may have something. To offer you. I'm not saying
you have to do that. I'm not saying you should
do that. But... I mean, asking around and, like,
feeling people out can still be sort of laying
low. We can. Yeah, we can. We're not raising
banners yet. Jules, correct me if I'm wrong.
Don't you have a way to call on Sturge men? Oh,
shit. I do. With the Sturge stone? No, it's Ascending
Sturge. That's awful. They're the Handsome Jack's
throbbing form. Both luminaries give you the
weirdest tones. So Sturge Man is, just to recap,
because it's been a while. He was 100 % in our
corner. He's a really complicated one. He likes
you because you helped him. He is an Atash fanatic.
He believes in seeing law upheld. Yeah, he's
like lawful good. He's between you both. He's
kind of like the way I look at Sturgeman is he's
like the middle brother who hates it when little
brother and big brother are fighting. Yeah. Well,
so that's the thing is like if we can make Sturgeman
see that what Atash is doing is... um not lawful
you know what i mean maybe in some fucked up
sense it's good but if i call out to him could
he get here like now not here because here's
a place yeah yeah that's very hard to get to
sure well but even if we like even if we come
up with like a i don't know a list a plan whatever
yeah of people that we can talk to like let's
go over who who else are our big allies um aside
from our sidekicks you know and the big man is
gone You know, a number of like fan luminaries,
we call them other luminaries that are part of
the Justin Dine movement would be, are around.
They will help in the ways they can. But as you
were warned long ago, if you are seen mobilized,
and that's why they're very subtle with their
touch, Atash might take a more direct approach
to squashing you. Do we have any way of contacting
Zopa? You could have set that up. Because as
far as like active luminaries, is it really just
Sturgeman and Zopa? You know, Zopa, the one thing
is, She's not going to leave to let it back while
there's a chance the ash rise could come. How
are we going to fight for, like, the end of all
battles? Like, the battle to end all battles.
How are we going to convince these people, hey,
I know that your thing matters, but we're fighting
the war to end all wars right now. Maybe there's
a way. What's a... You just don't know it yet.
Whatever happened to, I mean... Forgive me if
I'm being fucking stupid and just completely
forgot what happened. Whatever happened to Xena?
You don't know. She disappeared. She just vanished.
No one knows. Arholon has been looking into it.
A new conspiracy board. It is a decidedly empty
board. Okay. Even Arholon is starting to realize
he doesn't know much about Xena. She's long lived.
He's known her as a mother for these last...
30 -some -odd years of her life. Like, you know,
before him, she was with his father for some
time. He remembers all that now, but he doesn't
know anything about her, really. Okay. Salome,
Jules told me about the vision you shared with
him. Is there any way to share your vision further,
either on an individual level or perhaps to a
recording diamond? You would know it would not
work on a recording diamond. Okay. That needs
to be very much a physical capturing of light
and sound. But there could be more to what you're
saying there. It is a thing with the party stat
block. I never gave you this because it's crazy.
But they actually, in their stat block, can share
visions with people to disorient them and put
almost a negative effect on them. So that's kind
of what I was working off of with that. Maybe
we'll add that to your sheet on this next level.
I think it's a lot to ask. I really was just
curious to know if there was a way to do something
with the network. I'm not asking that. I'm just
saying the only reason that I went down that
conversational pathway was because I was super
curious and wanted to know. But if I get something
out of it, that's fantastic. Roll me an Arcana
check. Okay, great. For Salome? Salome or Blanche.
Or and. Or and? Okay, I'll do and. Blue, my treasured
ground die will be for Salome, who actually has
a really lousy arcana because her intelligence
is low. And then my gray duck die will be my
Blanche. Oh my god, it's awful. There's both
so bad. 11 for Salome and 12 for Blanche. I can't
give you a lot. All I can tell you is this. You
know for a fact recording diamonds wouldn't be
able to record any kind of memory. That's just
not a thing they can do. Memory, vision. But
there might be something you can do. You just
know that the auroral diamond is a transmitter.
Right. But what it transmits, what it's transmitting
to is minds. But you don't know how it works.
You don't know the deeper way to make anything
happen with that. But maybe, maybe there's a
way to send a prophecy, a Pahri prophecy, to
everyone. We have seen what Sholay was capable
of doing with the auroral diamond. I can't claim
to understand the diamond. Intricately, but I
suppose there's not an impossibility that it
could be done. Given the type of magics that
Jules is connected to. Yeah. Could he figure
out a way to tap into this? I think we'd need
to get approval from the incarnates. Is that
how it works? Okay. So I'll tell you this. If
you want to cast a spell from the master node,
which is how Sholi erased memory itself. And
potentially how Atash plans to dominate all the
peoples of all the worlds or the Sapphire through
Atash. That would require all the incarnates.
Like every incarnate needs to approve on that.
Every living incarnate needs to approve on that.
And then that includes the Sapphire. But. Or
does it? Or does it? Or does it? That's a good
question. That's a good question. Oh, shit. But
the network itself just transmits. sounds and
images to people's minds. You know that it's
to the minds now. What you're seeing when you
see the light array on the wall, you only hear
it when you look at it because what's really
happening is this image is happening inside your
head. Perhaps there's a lesser way to just send
prophecy images through. You know it wouldn't
be controlling anyone's minds. It wouldn't be
wiping anyone's memories. It wouldn't be that
powerful, but there could be a way. The problem
is, Jules, I'll give you this. Your power likely
wouldn't do that. Your power seems to be that
of connecting to people, connecting to alternate
planes. You know that the power of the auroral
diamond is essentially just like the soul of
the Drakon, once known as the Sunweaver, dead
and having imbued this great thing with all of
his most mighty magic. This was essentially the
closest thing the Conqueror Worlds have had to
a one true, absolute god. And you know... The
only people who seem to be able to touch the
power of the Dracon are those known as Mazir
Dracon. Crispin maybe could have done something,
but Crispin is a corpse. Sorry, Steven. You're
an asshole. But there's another Mazir Dracon
out there, Jules. Yep. Yeah. And Sholay knows
where he is. Who we haven't been able to find
for like 100 episodes. Yeah. So wait, if we lay
low, she's going to give us his location, though.
We don't know that. Yeah. I mean, she knows it,
though. She knows where he is. You know she had
people looking into it, but it's a hard thing.
You have two different, like, potential ways
of moving forward, and it seems like any way
you look at it, you're missing some pieces of
the puzzle. You can keep pushing. You can try
to get Sturgeon on your team. There's things
you can do, for sure. You also can try to improve
yourself, gather more equipment, gain more power,
train yourselves, because obviously a fight to
end all fights is coming. Fuck. Jaws, the Incarnates,
could we go to them? Could we bring Salome to
them and see if they would let us? Probably be
a little suspicious. Hasn't been widely known
on the network, but at least not in our intros.
But I think you would know that by this point,
after the whole event with Sholay and obviously
the Incarnates having helped her do what she
did. Oh, they're like on lockdown. Access outside
of Rural Town in the Preserve of the Ancestors
is on lockdown. You would be noted if you tried
to get out, probably. Maybe you could do it,
but I'm just saying it'll be a little harder.
Is it something where we could, like, send somebody
in there that wouldn't raise suspicion and then
let them know that we want to come in? The problem
is the Incarnate are the ones keeping you out.
It's the Celestials and the Shieldbearers. Fuck.
Oh, I was going to say, maybe somebody who wants
to become a Luminary, but all of our sidekicks
are also... Wait a second. Could they activate
it out to us and then we send it back to them?
No, what? They can't direct? Like through the
node? No. The way it works is they have to essentially,
in the center of a rural town, there's this great
crystal amphitheater. The master node is there.
A person, I called it once a mortal. Technically,
I should say, immortals could be the ones to
activate this too, as long as they're not one
of the incarnates, one of the Drakon. They have
to activate it. The incarnates cannot make any
powerful moves like that. It is one last step
of the Sunweaver. Mortals and incarnates alike,
Dracon and humanoids alike, must agree on the
big next course forward. So he's given us a million
reasons why we can't go and do that. No, no,
that's stupid. What the fuck is that thinking?
Maybe, though, perhaps the network itself, if
we could get Salome to the network. Do you think
you might be able to try to broadcast something?
I was going to say, where's Oren? Oren is in
the House of Convalescence. Okay, okay. I could
try. I don't know the inner workings of the network.
Perhaps someone who does could help us? Are you
suggesting a jailbreak? It's merely one of many
options on the table. Like, I don't know. I don't
know what we would do if we snuck into the network
and we'd all be looking around with all these
crystals and stuff and be like, I don't know.
What do we do? We get caught at Sky Prison immediately.
Right. Yeah. But Salome has ways in and out of
the House of Convalescence. Yeah, you have options.
You have listed a few of them. Sturge Man, you
want to talk to him. You want to get the word
out to more luminaries. You want to look into
freeing Orin, see what might be involved in such
a feat. It's actually around this time, I think
I put it in a loose place, sort of in the canon
of time. It's actually right around this time
that our message from earlier, if you haven't
seen the second, unzipped, recent unzipped. Check
it out. Listen to the very first start. Because
Beauregard, our old friend, is now taking different
luminaries associated with justice and dying
aside and telling them, tasking them with freeing
Orin, amongst other things. Many agents working
towards one goal. Perhaps we will see these paths
come together. You have things to look into.
You have... My brain died. It's happened a lot
to me tonight. You have matters to attend to.
So I want to be straight with you on something.
I need one month to pass for certain things to
happen. I have my reasoning. So I'm going to
make you guys a pretty sweet deal. While you're
looking into these matters. You're going to find,
Salome, as you dig deeper into the House of Convalescence,
you find there is heavy security around Oren.
Perhaps someone that knows too much, perhaps
someone that has too many fans, too many people.
Someone like that is dangerous. And you're seeing
this is not a one -person job, but as you gather
intel, as you come closer and closer, you may
yet find a way to help in freeing him. Jules,
you get a hold of Sturge, man, and he is willing
to meet. He's currently locked in some very difficult
situations in Rotham. It'll be some time before
he can get back to you. Say about a month. About
a month, weirdly, as the crow flies. Weird. As
the Sturge flies. I'm sorry, I missed that. Just
four and a half weeks. It's a big thing. It's
a whole big matter. buried alive um if you give
me a month if you spend some time training and
preparing as surely requested and if you've been
asked time reaching out we can flash back to
other goals i'll give you each a free flashback
as part of the deal oh all right flashback yeah
hell yeah i'll give you that flashback and i'll
give you something else really nice in return
i will give you And they're going to call me
crazy. They're going to call me generous. They're
going to call me the humblest soul this side
of Mississippi. But I don't care what they say.
I'm going to give you a full party level up.
Ninth level for everyone. And I'll just spend
all of your money on magic items. No restrictions,
but price. All right? You can have it all. All
the power in the world. Because I made you kind
of underleveled for what's going to happen at
the end of this thing. And it's a bold story
decision going up. We're running two arcs at
the same time, essentially. It's a weird thing
I'm doing. And because of that, you're going
to be underleveled. So I want to give you something.
I'm a nice guy. I'm a nice guy. You're already
going to be too weak for it. So I'm going to
make you a little less too weak for it. And cards
on the table, right? We already leveled up your
sheets. You already signed my devil's contract.
It's over. Give me the souls. Give me the souls.
We didn't know what you were doing. You said
level up. Right. Go ahead. Level up. That's the
thing. What if we say no? What happens if we
say no? I kill you. I accept your deal. God damn
it. Very wise. Are you sure? Give me a week to
think about it. No, a month. Yeah, give me about
a month to think about it. Give me that button
and I'll accept your deal. All right. Not a month.
How about we'll go with your earlier offer? I'll
give you a week to think about it. Exactly one
week. So tune in on Monday to find out what they
say. Because we'll call it there!