I fear these letters will make little sense to
you, but let us at least begin with hope. I have
established a foothold in Calamity, a barely
populated village a few miles from the edge of
this city of glass. In some years, if I have
not yet succeeded at my task, the machinery and
order of the Cathari Orchard will run through
here. This small village will expand to be a
prosperous township, growing bloated on the cursed
artifacts they extract from this terrible place.
With the logistics of that foreign empire, countless
souls will be provided to us, each serving a
crucial component in my redemption. Despite the
recent cloudiness of my prescience, so far all
is as I have predicted. I will shackle this city,
bend it to my will, and correct the failures
of my other lives. What was undone shall be remade.
What has died shall be reborn. And yet, still,
despite my optimism, these nightmares continue
to haunt me. In them, all is consumed by this
city of glass. Vast rivers of the void crack
our world apart in an unending catabolic procedure
which leaves the light of civilization dim and
smothered. The last of our kin are forced to
wander under those dark and hungry stars. But
you must not worry about that. About me. I will
be successful. I will not fail again. I can feel
it, even now. In some time. A short time. All
of this will be over. And we will be free at
last. Welcome back to All That You Know. Today,
we will be continuing our campaign of Heart the
City Beneath. We're calling this one the City
of Glass. You can see it in the title. Joining
me on this lovely Saturday morning are Adam.
Hi, I'm Adam. I'm playing Bailey Cormick, the
Junk Mage. Brian. Hi, I'm Brian. I'm playing
Booker Page, the Incarnadine. Ewan. Hello, I'm
Ewan. I'm playing Halo, the Witch. And Zach.
I'm Zach and I am playing Ledger Gray the Deadwalker.
Let's talk a bit about where your characters
are right now. Not like physically. We'll get
to that in a second. But I want you to each tell
me what fallout your character has so we can
get an idea of how messed up you all are. And
then also what your current beats are so that
we know what you and your characters are working
towards or what you are doomed to encounter.
So we'll go in that same order starting with
Bailey. Yeah, so my fallout. I have two currently.
One is My Gun Don't Work. It's a broken gun,
ongoing, and there's question marks. Should I
say, like, what kind of Fallout it is? It's a
fortune miner. Oh, yeah, sure. Should we mention
that, too? Okay. It's a fortune miner, and I
believe the problem is that it doesn't work,
but I don't know what's wrong with it. Is that
correct? Yes. I have a theory on this, but...
We'll get to you, all right? I'm excited. The
other Fallout is Fractured Arms Splinted. I can't
use the arm until it heals, which makes some
tasks risky. It's a blood major. So those are
my two fallouts. And then my active beats right
now. One is a minor, and that is meet someone
from your old life who's trying to get you to
give up on your quest. And the other is a major.
Destroy a haunt to learn more about your task.
Great. Thank you, sir. You know, you'd think
I would have stayed on the page with the next
person. Booker, you're next. Hi. So my fallouts
are foreboding, fortune miner. This one is kind
of long. Beyond the dark sky, darkling stars
dance eternal. Can be upgraded to crisis. So
that one's scary. Dark cravings for teeth. This
one's an echo major. And you may remember this
because Booker and Ledger have been having little
snacks on the side. And the last one is limping,
a blood miner. And I'll always go last. So, fun.
You got three. You got three fallouts. Yeah,
you got fucked up, man. You know, Booker had
a rough day. Not great. In terms of active beats,
I got one major. Learn or possess something that
lessens the control your masters have over you.
And one minor. Perform a seemingly unconnected
action for your masters that has grim consequences.
Thank you. Halo. I don't think Halo has any fallout.
I think I'm fine. I'm just dandy. Ah, wow, look
at you. Just stay out of trouble. It's that easy.
My current minor beat is following a long ritual
named the City of Glass and only refer to it
by this name from now on. And then my major beat
is to destroy a haven returning the land to the
city. Oh, fuck. Jesus Christ. I hope that doesn't
happen today. Ledger would not be good. Ledger,
you're shopping quick, everybody. Can you give
us a heads up? And Ledger. Yeah, so Ledger has
just one Fallout. It is an Echo Major Fallout.
Also, Dark Craving. He wants to eat some teeth.
And as we covered before, he started this. It's
just a thing that Deadwalkers get is a bag of
interesting teeth. But he also picked up some
cursed puppet teeth, so I think he's just waiting
for a chance to gobble those babies down to clear
it. But yeah, that's the only one that I have.
My beats are a major one, which is perform a
truly reprehensible act on behalf of your masters,
which I'm sure will be very fun. And my minor
is forge a friendship or romantic relationship
with an NPC. Hmm. I have a quick question, Wyzak.
Is your bag of teeth, is that like sacred, the
one that you have? I know you're like worried
to dig into it, or you could just eat those.
No, it's just, so it's just a resource. I started
off with bag of interesting teeth, which has
the desolate domain slash tag, and it's D6 size.
And then I think we each got, or maybe it was
me and Bailey. We got two bags of cursed puppet
teeth, which are, their domain is cursed. Okay,
so the one you started with, you have no problem
digging into. no no because i think normally
i'm sure we're about to get to it but you like
spend resources in havens to like clear fallout
and do other useful things um so we might as
aside from just eating them to sate our craving
to eat teeth which is really gross we might be
able to do other stuff with them i fucking love
corn nuts man honestly i didn't mean to make
you hungry like there's a lot of things about
teeth that they could be kind of a good snack
if they were just like a little bit if they were
softer slightly than my own teeth then i can
definitely see it as is it's kind of a draw when
it comes to crunching one yeah which i think
i need the ones in my mouth to stay there you
know it's it's just a matter of figuring out
the correct way of eating you got this fallout
in real life yeah for real yeah i'm sorry it's
starting to become real um so last time The four
of you on your way to the town of Calamity by
train were waylaid when the train was dragged
beneath a wandering sea into a strange, burned
-down town. In there, you found a theater in
which you found actors portraying yourselves,
some scary puppets, and a friendly man who the
train had come for. Now, after dealing with that
crisis, you have finally arrived at the town
of Calamity, where you are to meet with your
benefactor. Booker, you have been instructed
by your masters to assist Ledger in his master's
goals while continuing to look for the string
that consumes an artifact that your master Parkalian
believes to be in the City of Glass. Ledger,
you must drop off the stolen control rod you
took from the train at a courier, which will
be delivered to your masters back at the Institute.
Any questions about last time before I get into
the introduction part three? I think... Anybody
who completed a minor beat last time has to take
a new minor ability or can. I just didn't want
people to forget that if they hadn't done it.
Should we go over? No, no, no. It'll be a surprise.
It'll be a surprise when we come up. You all,
you depart the train, stepping onto the platform
in the town of Calamity. The landscape is cast
in the golden hues of dusk. You immediately notice
a few nearby features on a sketchy map posted
near the train station. Just south of you is
the Cathari compound, where the military stages
their own operations in the City of Glass. Near
that camp is the Golden Matchstick Company's
factory. North of you is the Courier's Guild,
where Ledger has to go at some point. This part
of the settlement, like near the train station,
is kind of in the midst of expansion. We'll call
it New Town. in various stages of construction.
There are, like, actual hotels, nice big provision
stores, even a hat shop, though that one isn't
open yet, so don't even bother. I know, I'm sorry.
I know, I'm an awful person, and if you see me,
you should kill me. I should probably cut that
out, just in case. Just beyond the edge of this
part of town is a quarter -mile stretch of emptiness,
which eventually gives way to the original town,
where wooden buildings where wooden buildings
radiate out from a large stone jutting out of
the ground, pointing eastward. At the top of
it is a large manor, which you know to be the
home of founder Albright, your benefactor, who
paid for your nice train ticket to get here.
And beyond that manor, at the top of that stony
hill, is the City of Glass. From here, just on
the periphery, you can see the vague impressions
of a vast refractory spike of bending light.
which erupts from the center of the City of Glass
far, far in the distance. This thing, called
the spine, is said to be the one indication to
tell whether you are near or within the city
itself. And I will leave you on this platform
to do as you wish. All right, I think Ledger's
gonna walk slowly out of the platform and look
in the distance and give a wistful sigh, and
then look to his comrades and be like, well...
Seems we've arrived. So, this is where our benefactor
is? Yep. Alright. That's a friendly name. I don't
know. We'll find out. It's more to a person than
their name. Interesting. We should probably head
there right now, huh? Maybe, maybe not. Thing
is, Calamity's the last place. You can really
properly resupply before we end up in the city,
so everybody better make sure they're nice and
ready before we go in. You know, supplies, provisions,
and whatnot. Sure, but he might give us some
money, right? We could spend around here. Yeah,
that's true. That is true. Bailey has a point.
That'd be wise. Bailey kind of eyes you up and
down, Ledger. I think we should all stick together
for now. I think he's right. Ledger thinks about
this for a minute, and he's like, yeah, what
the hell, let's go see him first, I guess. Alright.
Okay. I think Bailey starts walking, but he doesn't
know where he's going. He just wants to look
in charge. What I wanted to say before was that,
um, there's like, for the view, the listeners,
there's like a very, like, lovely little crude,
not even that crude, but it's kind of like a
stylized, simplistic drawing of like a few buildings
on our Roll20 page, and in the middle there's
a well. that looks like it's ringed with teeth
or something on the inside, and it has quite
a greater amount of detail than any of the buildings
drawn around it, and I really don't like the
toothy well. It looks good. It's a good well.
The teeth have two colors, so there's shading
as it goes down into darkness. It's really well
done. You have to put this on the Tumblr. I don't
like it. I don't like this well. I don't want
to go there. That's up to you. I'm jumping. I
mean, there are teeth. I guess maybe Ledger's
going to dive down to find something to eat.
But we're heading towards the manor, I believe,
right? Yeah. Do you know what's right in between
you and the manor? What? The giant well of teeth.
Oh, no! Incredible. I'm so hungry. You guys have
to slow down a little bit or be really rude because
Booker is limping behind you. Yeah, what the
fuck? I can do both. I can start walking but
loudly complain. Halo notices this and is like,
Wait, before we go to our benefactor, I should
fix Booker's leg. And he pulls out Physiker's
bag from the backpack on his back. Thank you.
So, can you do fallouts? Can Halo do fallouts?
Or is it just stress? Healing specifically only
targets stress, which is just like HP. Whereas
fallouts, typically you have to go to a haunt.
You cannot clear it unless you have a special
ability. Is it a super bag? uh like not even
the super bag like especially some classes you
can actually do it so unless he's losing some
hp or he has lost some hp mend yeah i think that
only can remove does he have any hp i can mend
uh no i think no he would have lost all of his
stress when he got the fallout okay yeah he'll
just like pulls out a roll of gauze and is like
this will help you right I think it's a bit more
serious than that. Can you keep up, or are we
going to have to take a break? I'll do my best.
You know, if you want, there's definitely some
kind of physical here in town. Take a look at
that for you. I think that's a good idea. Let's
say we do that right after we see our benefactor.
Then we've got to deal with you limping the whole
way there. Well, giddy up, I guess. We'll get
there. At least you don't have puppets chasing
us this time. Fair point. Ledger like hooks his
thumbs into his belt loops and is like whistling
loudly as we all walk. Great. Great, great, great.
Bailey will help you. He's going to go back and
kind of like prop you up and just help you along.
Let's not waste any more time, OK? He's going
to help you as much as he can. Thank you, Bailey.
Bailey, a good guy. So traveling takes you. out
of the industry and neatness of Newtown into
this big empty expanse, which lies between here
and the old town where Albright's Manor is. In
the center of this empty space, you see a single
landmark, which appears to be a well of some
sort, about two meters in diameter. Three people
stand around it. The first is a father holding
his daughter, and as you approach, you see that
the father leans over the edge of the well, while
the daughter carefully pours a small pouch of...
tiny teeth into it. On the other side of the
well, looking inside of it with a wistful smile,
is the friendly man, who somehow got here before
you, and hardly notices your approach. Do I...
So Ledger's been here before. Was the well there
before? Yes, the well is a... It's the pride
of the town. The Tooth Well. As a man with the
religion domain, do I know anything about the...
Well, or why people are dumping teeth into it.
Uh, it's just like, uh, I mean, did you, did
you operate out of, so if you were a guy, a hashtag
city of glass guy, you probably operated out
of one of two towns, either calamity, which is
kind of a newer town or a new yellow rock, which
is kind of like the bustling frontier town, uh,
that you would normally expect. Um, would it
make, I mean, I feel like maybe it makes more
sense for him to have been out of the other town
so he doesn't have a lot more information than
everybody else. Yeah. Then I would say as a man
of religion, a religious man, it's probably some
– it's like folk tradition stuff. It's not a
formal religion or otherwise you would have heard
of it. Sure. It's probably appeasing old gods
or some bullshit like that or good luck, usual
stuff. Ledger salivates as he sees the teeth
fall from beyond his grasp into the depths of
the well. Don't be greedy. You have your own
teeth. Bailey, you feel Booker's stomach rumble.
Bailey's like, not this shit again. Are you kidding
me? Let's just keep going, okay? Then you can
jump right in. Booker looks away shamefully.
As you come closer to the well and pass by it,
if you do pass by it, you notice, as you notice
from the big picture, that the inside of the
well, from the rim and leading into the distant
darkness beneath, is lined with countless teeth
in various stages of blackening. The darkness
of the well swallows the late afternoon sunlight
unnaturally well. Unnaturally well. You can barely
see ten feet into it before it is pitch black,
and a hot draft of air emanates from the well,
bringing with it the smell of rotten meat and
the coppery smell of blood. Hey, Liz sticks his
head down right over it and looks straight down.
Can you smell? Sure. It smells really bad. Well,
I'm not going to make that judgment for you.
It smells like rotten meat and blood. Strongly.
I don't... I think Halo reacts to it. I think
the father, or maybe the daughter, says, careful.
I think Ledger's going to reach out one of his
gangly arms and grab the back of Halo. Halo's
wearing, like, clothes, right? No, just a backpack.
Okay, then he's just going to grab the backpack
and pull him back and just be like, careful now,
Halo. You know, some things with teeth, they
bite. He smiles, throwing his own teeth. I think
the friendly man notices you at this point. And
he says, oh, hey, hey, I didn't notice you there.
What's up? Just, you know, moving along for work.
I see you're admiring the tooth well. Yeah, it's
kind of great, isn't it? Looks delicious, but
the smell leaves something to be desired. I don't
know. It's just really immersive. Sure. I suppose
that's true in the sense that you could probably
very easily immerse yourself in it if you. Climbed
on down. He lets out a big laugh. Ledger, you
are so funny. That is great. Hey, can I write
that down and tell it to someone else later?
Is that okay? Please be my guest. He takes out
a little notebook and writes that down. He like
giggles to himself. He said, you know, it's the
craziest thing. I like, after we talked down,
you know, in that place, it took me like two
hours to stop talking in your accent. It was,
it was. How about that? Seems you've managed
it now. I think you just have an infectious personality
and an even more infectious smile, Ledger. Ledger
smiles. And you have great friends. Well, that,
I suppose, has yet to be seen. They do seem stalwart
enough thus far. Oh, they won't let you down.
Maybe grunts. Booker gives a thumbs up. What
are your plans here in this city of calamity?
Will you be... Going to the spire out yonder,
and he kind of gestures towards the spine. Oh,
I don't know. I'm going to go to the library,
see if I can read. I think I can. I mean, I've
been able to read the words I've seen so far,
so I think more will be good. I'm going to go
to the inn. There's a big inn in Old Town, which
apparently is Poppin'. Do you know that word?
I mean, when you do a small jump. Perhaps as
a rabbit might... I said popping, not hopping.
But I think they can be used. They can be used
interchangeably. Isn't that crazy? They have
like 90 % of the same letters, but you can use
them for the same thing. God, this place is great.
Language is fascinating. Oh my God, is Booker
sick? Uh... Booker looks over his shoulder. Looks
a bit surprised. No more than usual, I suspect,
other than his bum leg. There's just... It looks
like you haven't slept well. I... I haven't.
I was puzzled. That's awful. Hey, you're going
to sleep great tonight. Thanks. Booker feels
a sense of foreboding. Yeah, you feel very aware
of the Darkling stars which dance above you endlessly
over the world. But you also, honestly, honestly,
you kind of believe him when he says you're going
to sleep great tonight. But he looks at Halo
and he makes a little sad face momentarily. But
he doesn't make any comments other than that.
He says, and then, yeah, I don't know. Where
are you going? Are you going into the old city
of glass? It's likely we are here to speak with
a benefactor who I believe wishes us to do a
job for him. That is kind of the circumstance
that has brought us together. Should I get a
job? I guess that depends on if you require money
or other material items. I feel like I usually
don't, but honestly, it seems like it's kind
of important. Some would say. Myself, I am of
mixed mind on the matter. Yeah, yeah. I'm going
to figure it out. I'm sure we'll see each other
around, though, right? Oh, undoubtedly. You know,
friends stick together. He interlocks his fingers
in a very genuine gesture. Who is this guy? This
is the friendly man. Yeah, he's very friendly.
I know that. I think Ledger legitimately doesn't,
because Ledger's kind of a weird guy. I think
he doesn't even see any of the insane red flags
that this man is entirely composed of. I only
see green flags. Green for friendship. Green's
good. Yeah, I think Ledger tips his hat, and
he's like, well, I wish you the best in your
search and your readings and whatever other endeavors
you choose to occupy yourself. Sorry, sorry,
sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry,
sorry. Like, super sorry in advance. Could I
borrow a tooth? Well, I mean, could you give
me a tooth? I think. Ledger thinks about this
and he rummages around in his pocket and takes
one of the cursed doll's teeth and he flicks
it to him like you might a coin. He fails to
pick it up, to catch it, and it bonks off his
arm and goes onto the dirt. He says, oh, man.
And he picks it up, dusts it off, gives it a
look. He says, yep, that'll do it. And he tosses
it down the well. And he says, I think that does
something. And he smiles. Well, perhaps I will
indulge myself before leaving this town. Yeah,
indulgence is good. I've learned that. That one
seems easy, though. Yeah. I've taken up enough
of your time. You know, all of you have a good
night. And he kind of grimaces a halo again and
then says, Rude. Yeah, I mean, I'll be around.
We should hang out. We should absolutely, absolutely
hang out. Absolutely. Totally. We'll make it
happen. Yes. Yes, Bailey. Don't even worry about
it. Yes. And he walks around the well to you,
Bailey, and indicates for you to give him a high
five. Bailey nods at his hand. All right. Yes.
The five of us. Get it? He counts the fingers
on his hand. One, two, three, four, five. Yep.
You get it, man. You're the best. I mean, you're
all the best. Okay, later. Sorry, sorry. I just
don't want to shut up. God. I know. See ya. Bailey
turns to rest him. God, what an asshole. Yeah,
as he walks away, Halo looks at Ledger and says,
What are friends? Friends are people you enjoy
spending time with. So we are friends. Well,
that has yet to be seen. I enjoyed my time with
all of you. That's good. And I suppose we're
friends. Don't be his friend. He kind of gestures
to the friendly man. And he's like, what are
you talking about? He's so friendly. He's getting
like in unison. Incredible. Let me tell you,
compared to many of the types of people you might
meet out around the City of Glass, he is, well,
he's one of the good ones, I think. Hasn't tried
to kill me yet. Haven't tried to rob us. It's
true. He's been very nice, but, you know, he
probably has some ulterior motive. He's going
to screw us over later. We have to watch our
back around him, okay? Ledger shrugs, but doesn't
disagree. He's nice. I'm sure he's nice. Let's
just keep our guard up, okay? Never a dull moment
with this lot. All right, let's get moving on
to that manor. Agreed. Okay. You continue moving
on. You enter Old Town after crossing this gap
and leaving the tooth wall behind you. They,
as the name suggests, the buildings here are
a lot older. A lot of them are made out of kind
of wood. A lot of them are in various stages
of disrepair. There's a lot of heart here, I
would say. The people seem less busy. They seem
generally friendly. A lot more people sitting
on their porches, you know, kind of looking out.
You get a couple waves. As you head towards the
manor, um, road kind of leads right there. Um,
and as you approach the manor, you do see it
is at the top of this big stony hill, um, which
juts out at a jagged angle. Um, and the, it's
kind of cast in a red glow. in the fading sunlight
of dusk. The light plays oddly against the manor,
as if we're kind of coming from two directions
at once. And I guess more pressingly, the slope
up to the manor is unusually steep. It is steeper
than it has any right to be. To a degree that
it seems ridiculous there aren't any stairs here
at all. Hmm. This is going to be hard on Booker's
leg. Is he just scrambling up scree over here,
or is it all big rocks? It's, um... There is
a path. As you can see on my lovingly rendered
map, like with some like minor switchbacks, but
even that is very steep. It is stone. It seems
like someone has like took a pickaxe to the stone
to make a rudimentary path, but it's like, it's
bad. This is not a good hike by any means. I'm
not going to make you roll, even though I should
probably, you're helping Booker, so I'm not going
to make you roll for going up a steep hill because
you can just take breaks when needed. But it's
very uncomfortable, especially when you have
a fractured leg. I feel like Ledger's going to
go up first, and then, like, Booker can kind
of, or, sorry, Bailey can kind of, like, push
Booker up, and, like, between the two of us,
we can, like, push and pull to get him up there.
Sure, that works. He might even be trying to
climb this. Wow. All trails got us fucked up.
Have him stay at the bottom. Well, are there
any guards nearby for this manor? No. No. Okay.
No one we can really talk to about this. There
are houses behind you with people in front of
them that you could talk to. You should ask them.
How do people typically get up here? Is Halo
walking off and doing that? I'm not going to
stop him. He's concerned. He starts to walk off.
He's like, I'm going to ask those nice people
over there. There's an easier way up. How do
you know they're nice? I think we can just handle
it, Halo. Well, he's walking over and he's waving
towards people so if they notice them. One of
them comes up to you and says, hey there. Hello.
My friend here, he points at Booker, is hurt.
No. You need to get up there. How do people usually
get up there? It seems difficult. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
yeah. It's really hard. It's a hard slope. Real
technical. But, you know, you just kind of walk
up it. Then you're up there. Oh. That doesn't
work very well for us. In the background of this
scene, the three others, like, were trying to
haul Booker up there and, like, cursing and yelling
at each other. You just see this in the background
of the shot. Twist him! Twist him! No, pull him
up! Clockwise. Clockwise. Okay. Thanks, though.
Bye. Yeah, no problem. No problem. Have a good
one. Hey, Halo, we need your help over here.
Push his other leg, the good one. Well, just
hold on a second, okay? Is his foot stuck in
something? You're getting really friendly with
these crabs. Oh, come on. Eventually, after an
arduous hike that leaves you sweaty and tired,
you reach the top of the... I don't even want
to call it a cliff protrusion. There is a cliff
on the other side. Whatever this is. You can
call it a hill. I don't care. You reach Albright
Manor. The clay bricks of the manor are modeled
with deep red veins? Vines. Whoops. Deep red
vines. Thick and wet and red creeping up from
beneath the manor. They almost seem to plunge
into the bricks themselves, kind of connecting
these streaks in the masonry to the vines. Two
dark metal doors stand ahead of you, and knockers
in the shape of tongues protrude from the doorway.
Not the doorway. The door. I think Ledger's,
like, leaning, like, down on his knees and kind
of trying to catch his breath. Do you want to
make the entrance here? Thank you for the help.
Yeah, no problem. Maybe we can get you a sled
when we go down. You can put your laps at that.
I think Ledger wipes his forehead on the back
of his arm, and then I think he'll grab one of
the tongue knockers and... Or whatever noise,
maybe it makes a squish sound, I don't know.
That makes a normal knocking noise. After Ledger
does that, Halo is seen, like, I think more unfazed
than the others by the climb. He's touching the
vines, looking real close at them. Don't touch
that. They look familiar. Yeah, they look really
familiar. Halo really likes them. Oh, God. One
of them kind of like pulses underneath your touch.
It purrs. James was definitely a Freudian slip.
After a few minutes, a couple of minutes, not
a few, that would be rude, the doors open up.
There are two servants dressed in fine but outdated
pink uniforms who usher you in without a word
and direct you towards the main foyer. Implying
pink would ever get outdated. It's not the color
that's outdated, it's the style, just so you
know. I think Bailey shouts to one of them as
they leave. Can we get a quetch for this guy?
Points at Booker. They nod and they scurry off
somewhere, but they do not return promptly. The
inside of the manor is in a certain state of
disrepair. Tattered banners hang from the upper
floor balcony, the coat of arms of House Albright
and its motto, which is barely recognizable.
The very last word of the motto is completely
illegible. But you can see the first three, which
is shall not be along the bottom of. this coat
of arms. The kind of ivory -colored wood floors
are scuffed and yellowed. There is a half -lit
bloodlight chandelier hanging above the foyer,
casting a flickering red light onto you. And
around the room, on the floors, walls, ceiling,
there are more of these red vines, which kind
of emerge from beneath some of the floorboards
and climb upwards. There is a distinct unpleasant
stink here, a subtle rotten meat smell which
has been masked with mint and vinegar, creating
a fresh but sour scent which flares your nostrils.
For those of you who have nostrils. Ahead of
you, just beneath the chandelier, is a hunched
figure dressed in that same off -pink uniform
as the others. From his back, there is a large
mound -like protrusion, which rises at least
equal to the top of his head, which is covered
with a saggy pink hood, which kind of drops loosely
down over him, covering his face completely.
And one of his pink -gloved hands beckons you
towards him, just beneath the chandelier. I think...
Yeah, I think Ledger probably pauses for a moment,
but then when Halo starts stepping, so does he.
Yeah. He waits for you to get close to him. He
looks over you all. And then, Halo, something
in your bag starts to vibrate violently. Ah!
That's kind of a surprise. Proper reaction. The
hunched figure looks over you for just a moment
and then indicates for you all to follow him
further into a side room. And as he kind of proceeds
forward, it seems like he's actually more sliding
instead of stepping. He's kind of gliding across
the ground very unnaturally. The thing's still
vibrating, violating my pack as I'm following
him? No, it stops after a few seconds. Okay.
I think as we, Ledger's going to follow him,
but he's going to be like, you all bright? You're
led into a dining room. This is like a large
wooden table atop which a number of fresh fruits,
cheese, and cured meats have been laid out. And
he says, no, and then indicates for you to take
a seat. I think Ledger will sit and he'll lean
like way back in his chair, like irresponsibly
far, like he might fall backwards at any moment.
You're scaring me. Oh, God. I'll put you down,
Booker, on the chair. Sorry, go ahead. Thank
you. Halo sits down in the chair and tries to
imitate Ledger and does fall over. You hit your
head and die. I'm sorry. Head wounds are not
a joke. You gave a fallout die. You thought it
died. But you're fine. You get back up and sit
down normal. The hunched figure stands on the
opposite side of the table from you. As you sit
down, the servants close the door behind you.
And he says, your train was delayed, I take it.
Yeah, wandering sea wandered a little bit farther
than I think they're supposed to go. He was missing
a passenger, and we went and found him, but it's
okay now. He looks at Halo, looks at Ledger,
looks at Bailey, looks at Booker, and then says,
My name is Downfall. I represent House Albright's
interests. The head of the house is a very busy
man, and I will serve as his will. in our communications.
Your delay is unexpected. I will need to know
more about this thing. Oh, well, we were riding
on that Cathari train, and we stopped unexpectedly.
A bunch of soldiers got out, and then the train
started moving again, plunged right down into
a... What I believe was a wandering sea, but
it was very far from the City of Glass. Very
far. Halo's bag, as you were describing this,
vibrates very loudly and very suddenly again.
Uh, guys, something weird is happening. What's
the matter, Halo? What is making that racket?
It's just like his backpack is shaking and he's
not really doing anything about it. He's just
confused. Downfall moves his head. You can't
really see where he's looking. To Halo. Then
he extends an arm, one of those gloved arms,
and then something you feel is wriggling in your
backpack, Halo, and those of you next to Halo
soon see that iridescent bug that you found on
the sealer's body crawls out of your bag and
flies, suddenly animate, over onto Downfall's
arm and crawls into his robe. He shudders for
a moment and then braces himself on the table
and is still for a longer than socially acceptable
time. Hey, that was my bug. Did we get paid for
that? That was yours, right? We brought it back.
Halo is concerned for Mr. Downfall and taps him
on the shoulder. It's like, are you OK? Wait,
so you stand up, go around the table, and then
tap him on the shoulder? You said he's still
for a really long time, so if no one else does,
yeah. Yeah, okay. You touch him, Halo? How do
I describe this? You're poking him on the shoulder?
Yeah. Just a light tap. I'm Ginger. His shoulder's
kind of hard, and when you poke it, you feel
something wriggle underneath it, as if his skin
is moving. Bug? Is that you? He moves away from
you. It looks like he's about to strike you for
a moment, but then he comes to his senses. And
he says, this was one of the first. Where did
you find this? Where did you find this insect?
Was there a man there? A man in red robes, a
sealer. Yeah, he was dead. Downfall is silent
for a longer than socially acceptable amount
of time. Dead for like a long time dead. Hold
on a second. Ledger's gonna rummage around in
his pack and pull out the... I guess somebody
else must have taken the mask because I just
have the staff and the supplies. So I think he'll
just like dump the sealer's supplies out on the
table and be like, you know, he has some stuff
on him. We took it because it seemed like a waste
to, you know, leave it there. He runs his hands
over the the robes um i think he even like raises
one to his not his face but to his like chest
and kind of cradles it for a moment um and says
i i'm afraid i must confer with the master this
is this is unexpected very unexpected may i and
then he kind of catches himself asking permission
and then stops and says i will be taking these
robes Um, excuse me now, we salvaged those robes
fairly and squarely. He reaches into... It looks
like he's reaching into his chest, not like a
pocket. His hand goes a little too far in, but
he pulls out a big stack of stamped metal sheets
and tosses them onto the table. And you recognize
these as Cathari tallies, which are the primary
currency used by Cathar and its colonies. Someone
can take that if they wish. It is a... Let's
call it two stacks of D8 Haven tallies. You can
split that among yourself as you wish. That's
big fucking money. Now, did he take all of our
sealer stuff or just the robes? What did you
present to him? The robes and the staff? I, so
I know, I just took out the sealing supplies.
Oh. I don't know exactly what that entails. He
would have definitely wanted the robe more than
anything. Okay, I mean, we can give him the robe.
Yeah, he wants the robe. Does somebody else want
to take one of the tallies? I assume we're splitting
them. Yeah, for sure, but we just need them on
one person's sheet. Sure, you guys can take them.
Ledger won't make any attempt to take the currency,
although he will appraise it with his eyes. I'll
take my share of it. They're called tallies.
Haven, D8. God, did he already say I must confer
with the master? Yes. Okay, good. I'm glad I'm
not going crazy. And I guess he says, since there
is some light left in the day, you may wish to
attend to matters in town. I see that your friend
is unwell. Yeah, John Puppet broke his leg. I
see. So, let me... In like brief, you don't have
to do it all in character. What do you tell Downfall
in total about what happened? I don't know. Do
we want to tell him about the friendly man that
we let free? I don't care to. I mean, we can
if we want, but I don't think if you started,
I don't think Bailey would stop you. But if anything,
he's probably just looking to you. Yeah. You
see if you want to make the decision. He's like,
listen, you can tell him whatever you want. I
think it'll be fine, but it's up to you. We'll
live. Kind of look. I think Ledger will. I think
Ledger likes the friendly man, but he's not going
to go out of his way to protect him. Sure. Fair
enough. So he'll tell him about meeting the friendly
man, about how the friendly man was the guy who
was supposed to get the... Like he was the one
we were told to find when we got waylaid. That
kind of thing. And I'm assuming you tell him
about the script page you found, referring to
him getting locked in the green room. Yeah. That
one kind of makes us look bad, but maybe. Yeah,
no, Ledger doesn't give a shit. He'll do it.
Great. How could we know? God, what does he say
to that? Love that guy. He... He says... Does
this friendly man trust you? It is impossible
to know what secrets lurk in the heart of man,
but he seems cordial enough, I suppose. You want
me to shoot him? No, no. Absolutely do not shoot
him. You must, um... Could you contain him? Could
you get him to stay here? Oh, he seemed... To
indicate that he was interested in staying here.
So, I mean, maybe. You wanted a job? Maybe you
can offer him something like that. Yes, that's...
This is good. This is good. I will tell him,
convince him, non -suspiciously, to visit the
manor. That we will have work for him. I've never
been suspicious of him in my life. Ain't that
right, baby? And he looks over his shoulder at
something that's not there. I think it might
be helpful if we offer him money to show him
what we have up, you know, at the mansion. He
didn't seem particularly interested in money
per se, but I mean, we can show him some of these
tallies and I think it would definitely help.
We might need some more. He looks at downfall.
How else will he come here? He needs to be entertained
by something. Bailey, you dog. It sounds like
you're trying to scam him, which I think is a
compel. It's not a discern people? Is this even
a people? I mean, if you were trying to figure
out things about Danifal, absolutely it would
be, but you are trying to compel him to give
you money. Yeah. Which you may roll. Yeah, you
know what? Let's have a little fun. Do you want
help? Does anyone else here have compel? Not
me. I think Booker does. If you would like to.
If you're in on the plan. Compel Haven. Compel
Haven. Plus one standard roll. Good luck. That's
a success. How are you helping, Booker? Booker
is just chiming in. With Bailey, he won't be
swayed without this. Downfall sees some wisdom
in your words. Either that or he just wants to
be done with this conversation. And produces
not another stack of tallies, but instead a bag
of enriched bloodsand, which is a far more common
currency in the world. It's like the more universal
currency. It is a D6 haven resource just called,
you can call it bloodsand. I'll take that. Hell
yeah. When you are done in the town, you are
invited to stay the night here. The master wishes
this greatly. The servants will lead you to the
rooms when it's time, but I encourage you not
to wander unattended. Around the mansion. Wouldn't
dream of it. Ledger smiles a very suspicious
smile. And he glides off through another door,
cradling the robes. Wait, so are we waiting for
Albright now? Or was that finished? I think Albright's
coming. I think we've just been dismissed. You're
dismissed. I guess you would say, you may talk
to me in the morning after I've conferred with
the master. Understood. Before we get up and
leave, I'm going to take one of the oranges from
the table, I think. It's like a fruit bowl, right?
I'm going to take it and roll it over to Halo.
Be like, Halo, take a bite of that. Yeah, I'm
thinking about what Halo's rate of hunger would
be, because he still has to eat. I don't know
if we've gone over this before, but demons get
nourishment from a specific aspect. Halo doesn't
know his yet. Maybe he has to eat less often
than the average person, but I think he would
be feeling hungry. So he looks at this, and it
looks appetizing. And he feels a hollowness in
his stomach. he remembers watching other people
eat on the train and he picks it up and looks
at it really hard and then suddenly you see his
face unfurl and i'm gonna reference a wonderful
image on the internet it's the one of elmo being
torn apart by a jet engine It looks like that,
except instead of the inside of Elmo's innards
being plastic and stuff being melted away, you
just see this like a natural amount of teeth
in there and a dark hole. And the hole has kind
of a glow coming from the center of it that you
can't really tell what it is. So anyways, Halo's
face peels back. He throws the entire orange
in his mouth and then his face goes back to normal.
And he swallows. And he says, Thanks, Booker.
That was good. Bailey. Bailey. Damn it, it happened.
He says, Thanks, Bailey. That was good. Bailey's
eye twitches. Dear God. I just want to know if
it was poison. He looks at the others. I didn't
mean to do that. And then he just kind of is.
Does Halo look OK, though, after eating? Yeah,
he's fine. OK. I think Bailey's going to turn
the bowl over and take all the fruit and put
it in his bag. If you need to do that again,
don't do it in front of me, okay? Oh, okay. Bailey,
you gain the D4 Haven resource, fresh fruits.
Fresh fruits! I need to feed Halo later. You
never know. I think Ledger's just watching this
and he's like rolling one of his like awful smelling
cigarettes while he like leans way back in his
chair. And then I think he stands up and sticks
it in his mouth and he's like, well, I suppose
we got a little bit of time to kill. I'm going
to go, you know, hit the town, take the lay of
the land. Booker, you should probably get that
leg looked at. Yeah. Is there anyone I could
ask around where we are? Maybe they know. Hey,
the servants come back? Yeah, the servants. What
the fuck? Yeah, I think they came back with a...
It is... It looks like it has maybe just been
assembled. Oh, that's nice of them. Booker thanks
them for it and also asks if they know where
a healer could be. I just gotta tell you, it's
really shitty. They tried. They fucking tried,
alright? They're not carpenters. The servants,
I guess they point towards the door, the front
door of the manor, like towards the city. They
seem averse to speaking. I gotta think of something
to write it down. All right. I guess we're going
to the city. Yeah, well, it's the town. Sorry.
I should have said the town. Not city. Not city.
That's something else. Not capital C city. Not
the city. No. Bailey kind of still stands around
the table, though, and looks at Ledger. Does
that mean we're splitting up? I mean, cover more
ground that way. If you really enjoy my company
so much, you can feel free to remain stuck to
my elbow. Well, if you have work to do, maybe
we should figure out a place to reconvene later.
Wouldn't you say? Is there any like when we walked
through the new town, is there like a like a
major like watering hole or like, you know, like
a bar or establishment of some kind? I think
Bailey smiles before you think it says. How about
the well? You don't mind hanging out there? The
well vexes me, but I suppose it is central enough.
We will need to find the friendly man and tell
him about the job offer as well, I believe. That's
true. Booker is the one with the gift of gab.
Why don't you make the offer? I'm sure he'd love
to hear what you have to say. I can do that.
Let's see to my leg first. I'll get Booker to
a doctor. You go do whatever you have to do.
Remember, the well. Yep. Halo, who are you going
with? Halo looks at Booker. Oh, Booker, sorry.
Halo looks at Ledger and says, I'm going with
Ledger. Good. Oh. Well then, I suppose maybe
that is for the best. I think you probably made
out on your way over here that there was like
an inn in Old Town. called The Divine's Respite
if you are wanting to go somewhere and ask about
things. Okay, maybe Booker, that's where we try
to head to see if we can find you a doctor. Maybe
the friendly man will even be there. Who knows?
Yeah. Remind me who's going where? We're going
to the Ambulos. Following Ledger. Ledger's going
to the Courier's Guild. Ledger's going to the
Courier's. Okay, so I'll start with... Old Bailey
and Booker going to the inn, correct? Yes. All
right, Bailey and Booker, you quickly arrive
at the inn, splitting off from Ledger and Halo.
It is a homey little place, a popular place for
people to unwind after an expedition. It is kind
of lit with the warm pinkish red of low -burning
bloodlights. The place has a warm fatty smell,
fried food. There are plates of food and drinks.
being brought to tables by a pair of demons who
seem to be twins, with deep ochre skin and verdant
hair that writhes like worms. You immediately
notice a rich and tantalizing laughter from a
table near the center of the room, where the
friendly man seems to have drawn a crowd, and
everyone's having a very good time with him.
Oh no. This fucking guy. But maybe he knows where
we can get help. Yeah, maybe someone around him
does. Let's go. Alright. We're gonna move our
way into the center of the circle. Yeah. The
friendly man, like, everyone's laughing. He must
have said something funny. Maybe something about
a well. A really funny joke about a well. But,
hey, could you remind me, Adam, what the uniform
of the Eschaton Academy looks like? Yeah, it's
like a... I would say that it looks kind of like
a big green robe. Pretty bright green. Typically,
the sleeves would have, like, a bunch of adornments
to show, like... what classes you took or what
your specialties are. It kind of looks like big
pajamas in a way. Is the hat part of the uniform,
or is that just a you thing? I think that's probably
a me thing. If other people have hats, they're
much more smaller. As you kind of push into this
crowd, it's a lot of people, you make eye contact
with someone who's wearing robes very similar
to the ones you're wearing. And he says, as he
makes eye contact with you, Bailey Cormick, is
that you? What? Hey, what's up? He kind of pushes
through the crowd, gets close to you and kind
of pulls you away from the crowd so that you
can talk more effectively. Sure. He his uniform
is in much better condition than yours. And is
marked with a number of hanging baubles that
designate him as a successful graduate and a
field researcher. A number of medals that you
do not have on your uniform. His face is somewhat
familiar to you, but you would really struggle
to recall his name. And he says, what are you
doing here? Ah, just enjoying myself. What are
you doing here? Oh, well, I got a research grant
doing some stuff about the places that spring
up around the City of Glass. Hey! That's great.
Yeah, it is great. Hey, I heard you had some
struggles with your thesis project. Who told
you that? Rumors. Rumors. You're not still trying
to prove that the big machine thing, right? That's
not still happening? You mean the truth? Oh,
no. Is this one of those things? Bailey, listen,
you probably don't remember me that well. We
had advanced neo -noetics together. My name is
Newt. Listen, I think that there was just like
a big misunderstanding about things. Maybe you
fell in with the wrong crowd. You know, if you
if you come back to the academy like now. And
recant the things you said. Maybe tell them the
stress got to you, I think. They would let you
back in to finish your degree. You were a better
student than me, and I finished mine. It seems
kind of like a shame to let that go to waste
for this. Booker steps in. Hey, we're kind of
busy. Give me a second, Booker. Okay? I shove
him away. Oh, no. It doesn't sound like anyone's
changed their minds over there. They haven't
understood. They didn't figure it out yet. Bailey,
please. Did you change your mind? Did you figure
it out? Have you done any research? He kind of
looks at you with a sad look. Kind of piteous.
And he says, oh, I guess it's all a matter of
perspective. I think Bailey grabs him a little
bit by the collar, and he grabs his sleeves,
not Bailey's, but this other guy's sleeves, and
shakes it around, and you're like, look at all
these distractions, huh? None of this means anything,
okay? All right? They got you thinking a different
way. There's a truth out there, and I'm going
to find it, okay? Maybe you should realize that
you should leave those idiots behind and go the
correct way, okay? Don't you understand? Yeah,
totally. Totally. You're right. You're right.
You're right. I got to go. What? Oh, fine. Just
tell them. Tell them. Tell them I'm not coming
back. He leaves in a hurry and it is dead silent
in the end now. What's the friendly man doing?
He's kind of looking at Bailey like everyone
is. Bailey looks towards the friendly man and
everyone around him and he looks back at the
friendly man. Go on. Be friendly. A round of
drinks for everyone. Everyone cheers. It's that
easy. I'm kind of sad Ledger wasn't there because
I feel like Ledger would have tried to just beat
this guy up as a matter of course. That was fun.
I think Bailey slinks back over to Booker. Let's
forget about that guy. He doesn't know what he's
talking about. I'm going to have a lot to explain
later. Booker just starts making his way to the
friendly man. Yeah. You manage to push your way
in this time, and the friendly man says, well,
how are you two doing? I'm just as you last saw
me, Bailey. I'm doing all right. He needs help.
Can you help us? In what sense? I'm not a doctor.
Well, you've been talking around. Maybe you know
where a doctor could be. The friendly man, like,
thinks for a moment, and then someone in the
crowd. Some no -name schmuck fucking bastard
says, oh, you're going to want to see the doctor.
He's in the matchstick factory. Works for him,
buddy. He takes contract work. Oh, that's great.
Hey, friendly man, you think you could walk us
over there? We might need your help, and you're
really good with talking to people. Oh, me? You
really think so? Plus, speaking of work. You
said you wanted a job, right? business proposition
for you yeah oh yeah yeah that that you did that
for me yeah we got it sorted we'll tell you on
the way over you guys you guys are the best you
know that you're real friends and he clasps you
both on the shoulder as he stands up and he says
hey you don't happen to know how to pay a bill
do you tell them you'll handle it later all right
put it on your tab and you'll be fine put it
on my tab oh that's a good one that's good barkeep
why don't you put it on my tab? And he gives
a wink, and the barkeep says, for you, friendly,
anything. Who the fuck is this guy? He's the
best. And he heads out and walks with you towards
where he presumes the factory to be, which is,
he helps Booker walk as well. Oh, thank you.
Booker's warming up to him. He's strong. Like,
he holds you much better than Bailey. No offense,
Bailey. That's okay. Hey, do you want to ride
on my back, Booker? Let's not get too friendly.
You know, I just remembered something. As you
leave, Booker, as you're kind of escorted out
by the friendly man, you see in the rafters above
the front door, corresponding to a little burning
on your wrist, you see a rat. standing unnaturally
tall staring at you um and that that burning
on your wrist where your master's brand is kind
of uh increases a little bit urging you to receive
this rat's message and it seems poised to to
drop down onto you um once you pass underneath
all right booker kind of i guess it's a good
thing he didn't go on the piggyback ride then
uh kind of Tries to steer him and the friendly
man in such a way that the rat can drop on him.
Drops right onto your shoulder. Does the friendly
man notice? He doesn't seem to. Okay, cool. The
rat climbs up to your ear, kind of covering itself
with your collar, and speaks with an impossibly
human voice, and it says, Pay a visit to the
Glow Foundation library here in town. Go about
your business, borrow a book, then slip a piece
of paper with the mark of Parkelion inside of
it and return it to the librarian, the one with
the graying hair and thin nose. Continue to accompany
your group on their mission. Anticipate seeking
out information on the string that consumes further
into the City of Glass. Regards, Visco Small.
Asset Communications. Booker memorizes the instructions
and just gives a nod that hopefully only the
rat can recognize. The rat slips into your coat,
down your leg, and out somewhere else. Question.
Would Booker know what the Glow Foundation library
is or where it is, or is this just all unknown?
Luckily, it was on the big map you saw. It is
actually pretty close to the Courier's Guild.
Oddly enough. Oh, boy. I should move you back
to the town map just so you can see things. Yes,
thank you. You'll never – it's actually – it's
an old town. It's the other side of old town
from where you are now. Right behind the couriers.
Okay. Yeah, it's actually – there's like a quarter
mile in between them, but I'm just not very good
at drawing things to scale. So you can take it
as you will. It is. You know, it's so hard drawing.
How does anyone do it? And you start heading
towards the factory where the doctor allegedly
is. And we'll cut to Halo and Ledger walking
across the big gap in between Old Town and New
Town, passing the well. Do you talk about anything
on your little walk? I actually have a question
for you, Colin, and I don't know if you want
this on the record or not. Back when the afterlife
was still working properly, did demons go there?
No. Okay. They had their own place. Okay, good.
Good, good, good, good. yeah so i i feel like
when they leave the place and they split up uh
ledger's smoking his foul smelling hand -rolled
cigarette and he has the control how big is the
control rod uh i imagine it is like about the
size of a pen okay cool he's like twirling it
between his fingers you know like kind of like
the coin trick thing so he's very deaf so he's
kind of just like walking along smoking twirling
it between his fingers um Would Halo say anything
if they were just like walking in silence for
a little while? Yeah, Halo's got something on
his mind when he looks at the control rod. He's
impressed, by the way, with your twirling skills.
He says, what are you going to do with that?
I'm going to send it in the mail. Oh. To who?
To somebody that I work for who told me that
they wanted it. I thought we were going to work
for... Mr. Albright, do you work for more than
one person? Let me tell you something, Halo.
Ultimately, the only person that I work for is
myself. Now, I do jobs for other people. I work
for these people because they have given me no
choice in the matter. I'm working for Mr. Albright
because I believe it will further my own goals.
It's complicated. Oh, right. I remember. You
said that you were working for yourself when
we met. After I... How did you describe it? How
would have Ledger said what Halo did to the party
of people he was trying to guide through the
city? Probably that he blew the fuck up out of
a lamp would probably be the exact words that
he would use. And killed everybody. Yes, they
all died horribly. So after I blew the fuck up
out of a lamp and killed everybody, we're close
to there. I feel it. Halo says this. And, Halo,
you are right. You feel it very close. Ledger,
that is hundreds of miles away. Hmm. Even taking
into account the city of glass warping, that
would be weird. It would be weird a lot like
the way the ocean moved. Yeah. You say it feels
close to here. Yeah, it's really nearby. Do you
know what direction it is? I do know which direction
it is, and I will tell you it is hundreds of
miles that -a -way, and he gestures in whatever
direction he believes it to be. I don't know
if it is close. Hmm. It looks that -a -way. And
he's silent. He just follows along unless Ledger
tries to make a small talk. I think they walk
and he like, he cocks his head to the side a
little bit as if he's listening. And then he
looks to Halo and says, you know, she finds you
absolutely fascinating. All of your kind. Is
that who you talk to? Who's not there? Oh, she's
there. And he smiles. Halo would smile if he
could. I'm glad. I'm sure. You'll see her someday.
Sometimes she can pierce the veil. And he kind
of like wiggles his hands a little bit as he
says that, not really with any intent. He wiggles
his hands too. He nods along. You know, I don't
know how some folk do it. I'm never lonely. Even
by myself. That sounds like a good thing. I hope
I get to see her too. Okay, you reach the Careers
Guild. It is a bustling facility on the edge
of Newtown. There are a number of wagons departing.
It kind of is the end day shipments go out. All
of them are well guarded and no doubt laden with
all manner of artifacts from the City of Glass.
Inside, even at this kind of later hour, there's
a small line forming at a counter. After a few
minutes of waiting, you reach the counter where
a man sits behind a metal grate. Was I given
instructions on how exactly to send it, or do
I just send it to the Institute? I'm sure you
have instructions. Nothing that is particularly
exciting. Yeah, Ledger will plop his elbows down
on the counter and be like, I would like to purchase
some packaging in order to send an article. Sure
thing, sir. After exchanging some information,
she looks at some piece of paper, some documentation
behind. desk and says, oh, that will be free
of charge. Yes, I am not surprised. She takes
the control rod, packs it up, and then says,
will there be anything else? Uh, no, I believe
that is all. We thank you for your continued
business, as always. He kind of tips his hat.
How big is this building? Pretty big. Probably
one of the biggest buildings here besides the
factory. Okay, continue. Do you leave? Yeah,
I think we're leaving. When Ledger turns around,
Halo's gone. Bye, Halo. Oh, what the hell? As
you look for Halo, Ledger, to make matters worse,
a woman bumps into you and presses a small parcel
into your hand before walking off. Son of a bitch.
I think Ledger will look at it. He'll stuff it
into his coat and try and find a place to open
it. He's just going to let Halo run buck wild
for a little bit. Halo, where are you? I'm going
in the direction that Ledger pointed to. Okay.
You get the distinct impression you're moving
away from it. Hmm. This isn't right. Scratching
his chin. He wants to go whatever direction he
feels correct. Where am I going to discern? Okay.
This is going to be discern cursed. We love to
discern a curse. But I'll give you mastery for
this. Nine, success. Take no stress. Lucky you.
You don't want to take stress on this. You kind
of look around, trying to suss out why you feel
this. Why heading towards where this event happened
isn't actually where the pull is taking you.
And you find yourself looking. back towards the
manor, that there is something, maybe not in
it, but beneath the manor. You think about those
vines, those familiar vines, and it kind of clicks
to you, that those vines, you swear you saw them
when you were born. It was all kind of a blur
then, but that must be where you saw them. It
did. They were there. I would have been looking
at them on the way up and on the way down. They
seem to come from below the manor. Yeah. I guess
I head back that way. You start heading towards
the manor. Great. Ledger, you open your parcel.
Your special package. It is a featureless cardboard
box. We have cardboard now. I love the advancement
of technology. Yay! There is a letter. I fold
it up, and just beneath the letter is an 8 -inch
spike. of deep black purple metal. Within it,
stars swirl and wait patiently. You become aware
of a distinct coldness in this parcel, and it
seems to leech the heat away from the hand holding
it. Your death, who always lurks just beside
you, seems to recoil at the sight of this thing.
Ugh. I'm sorry, baby. It's for work. He's going
to try tucking it away into a pouch on his belt
or something. I just love that sentence. You
read the letter, presumably. Yes, oh yeah. As
usual, it is coded. This one is veiled as a grocery
list, but after a moment of decrypting it, you
get its full meaning, which is that either right
now or very soon. Someone by the name of Ticker
will be in calamity. You are to capture them,
drive the void nail into the back of their neck,
where their subjugation shard is, and then display
their body somewhere public. Oh. Oh no. I think...
Work, man. Ledger will... On the weekend? And
he will... Look around as if... You know, is
this man right here right now? Obviously he's
not. And then he's gonna, I think, kind of walk
out of the Courier's Guild and try and see if
he can find where Halo went. Halo's walking towards
the manor. You are there. Do you have a track?
Is there a tracking skill? I think there is.
Right? Is it... I guess hunt, hunt, hunt. Yes,
it would be Hunt. I do not have Hunt or Haven,
so I'm kind of very bad at this. Yeah, I won't
make you roll. I'll just leave you in stasis
for a little bit. Sure, sounds good. And we'll
get to jump to Booker and Bailey. You are heading
towards the factory. When you see a familiar
shape walking across the wilderness, you see
Halo. Hey! Oh, God. Hey, Halo! How far away are
they from me? I think this is shouting distance.
Yeah, they are shouting. Halo eventually turns
to them and just like waves and keeps walking.
Hey, come over here. He starts walking a little
faster. Away? What's going on? It looks like
Ledger shook him off. That's not good. They're
up to something. I don't think we're going to
catch them. You know what? Screw them. Let's
fix your damn leg. Did they just assume that
Ledger's there out of sight? I think he, Bailey
thinks that, like, you screwed Halo over somehow,
and now he's just running somewhere. Yeah, you
see, you keep heading towards the factory, wisely,
and you see Ledger wandering around somewhat
aimlessly. Yeah. What the hell's going on here?
What are you doing? Why'd you piss Halo? Ledger
puts his hands out wide, and he's like, I do
not know what you're talking about. We were,
Over at the post office, and he just damn well
vanished. He's still running off that way, I
point over there. Son of a... He's your responsibility,
so just don't lose him, okay? I already lost
him, dammit! I think Ledger's gonna just kind
of start jogging in that direction. Great. So
much for dealing with your fallouts. You gotta
go find your lost child. You have a friendly
man with you, don't you? Yeah, we're trying to
talk to that doctor. Oh yeah, he's here. Oh,
you guys brought him with us. Yeah, I forgot.
To help with the talking. Yeah, he's quiet. Yeah,
I think the friendly man probably when you first
saw Halo and Halo started walking off just said,
now that is someone who knows where they're going.
It's not even night yet. And he kind of chuckles
to himself. Oh, definitely. I think we got places
to be. Yeah. And I think when you encounter Ledger,
he similarly gives a very cheery greeting to
Ledger and says, yeah, good luck. You're going
to need to be hoofing it to catch up. I think
that makes Ledger run a little bit faster. He'll
be fine, the friendly man yells after you. He
knows, he knows. You reach the factory. It's
getting kind of late. People are like starting
to leave the factory. You see, like, outside
of it, there are... Where's my factory thing?
Can someone tell me where my fucking factory
thing is? I love factory. You're right. It was
right there. Situated in Newtown. It's a very
large brick building. Another brick building.
Belching a peppery scent, which permeates the
entire area. As you approach it, there's a big
wagon pulling out of it. And you see there are,
like, a couple of these little wrinkly black
fruits. on the ground near like this intake area
that some people are picking up and putting into
bags and moving into the factory. There are some
guards around who like stop you at like an outer
fence. And I think, are you letting the friendly
man talk you in? Do you have your own move here?
Yeah, I think I'm just kind of whispering to
the friendly man being like, we got to get this
guy's leg fixed up. Can you help us get in there?
We got to get to the doctor. Sure thing, sure
thing. The friendly man approaches the guards.
Um, well, it gives a brief exchange says like
my friends hurt bad. He's, I think he's in a
lot of trouble. We need to get, we need to get
him some help. I heard there's a doctor in here
and, uh, the guards like kind of nod. Um, but
they do, they do say that they need to take your
weapons. Uh, okay. I give him my broken blender
bus. Are you trying to conceal any weapons? I
have to ask. No, I'm not. No, Booker's not in
a place to do that. Smart. Uh, okay. You do this.
You go in. You're led down this hallway. The
factory floor isn't really visible to you. There's
a lot of, like, staff -only signs. But you travel
down to the office of Dr. Bloodgor. Oh, okay.
That's a great name. Pediatric surgeon. As you
approach, someone comes stumbling out, brandishing
a bloody bandaged stump of an arm in the air
and says, I feel so much better without that
thing growing on me, Doc. Thanks a ton. And he
hurries off as you go in. Are we sure we can
trust this guy? Booker's asking the friendly
man. I don't know. I mean, that man seemed happy.
Oh, okay. Let's at least try. Dr. Bloodgore is
clad in what you might imagine. Kind of a white
smock that is bloodstained. Doesn't have a mask
on. I don't think they're at that point in medical
technology. And he's cleaning a bone saw. And
he says, so what's up with you? Broken leg? Looks
like a broken leg. You just about described it.
All right. You need to stay on, though. Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No,
I don't need any more lace. We're going to be
great. We are going to be great. Pulls out a
little, like, file of something, and he lays
you down on one of the little reclining chairs,
Booker, and tells you to take a swig of it. Okay.
Booker does that. It makes you feel good. It's
good. It's a good little painkiller, whatever
he gave you. And he takes a swig of it, too.
He's like, oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, this is going
to be easy. He's got to set this baby. How are
you paying, he says, kind of, like, leaning on
you. How much will it cost? Oh, what's going
to cost you? Is this a major fallout? This is
a minor fallout, sir. That's good. Oh, yeah,
Bailey's is the major, isn't it? Mm -hmm. Mm
-hmm. Mm -hmm. Uh -huh. Okay. Let me look at
my handy -dandy thing of how this works. I believe
it costs you a D6 resource. I was just looking
at it. Yeah, D6 resource. Does it have to have
a matching tag? It does not. Tags only affect
certain abilities. But if it says, like, niche,
that means it's going to be harder to sell. Can
I give them one of the puppet teeth? Is it a
D6 resource? Yes. Yeah, it is. I think it's all
the puppet teeth are the D6 resource. Yeah. Oh,
okay. Well, they don't even taste that good.
They don't even taste that good. I'm probably
trying to get my arm fixed here, too. That's
probably a good idea. So yours is a major, right?
Yeah. Okay, so you're going to need a D8 to downgrade
it to a minor, and then it'll take a D6 to downgrade
it again. Okay, I have the Tally's Haven for
a D8 and the Blood Sand Haven for a D6. Okay,
and then you're doing the teeth, Booker. Yes.
You enter with the teeth. He looks over the teeth
and says, these are nice teeth. Where'd you get
these? Does that matter? I guess not, but whatever.
He takes another swig of the painkiller. He sets
your leg. He does a good job. Just a numb tingling
now with all the good good in you. So I can delete
that? Yes, you may delete that. Fall out. Let's
go. I believe your weird craving only affects
if you're healing stress, right? An attempt to
refresh blood? Yes. Okay. That's good. Because
that will not trigger in this case. And then
Bailey, you're curing your... Can I talk to the
friendly man while the other dude's getting fixed?
I was thinking of maybe bringing him aside and
just having a quick chat with the friendly man
as Booker screams in pain in the background.
No, that painkiller was good. He's silent. That
was very nice. I want some too. Yeah, I think
Bailey ushers the friendly man kind of into a
corner. He's like, hey, listen, I want to talk
to you for a second. Is that okay? Of course,
Bailey. We're friends, right? Hey, listen, listen,
listen. I... was able to procure you a job. No
way. Doing what? I don't know. That's the thing.
But it pays well. All right? This is exactly
what you wanted. Remember? I put in a good word
at that mansion or that manor that we went to
earlier. Oh, Albright Manor? Oh, yeah. They want
to talk to you. The interview is already set
to go. The friendly man's face turns very, very
grim. Uncharacteristically. And he says, Virgil
Albright cannot be trusted. And why is that?
He looks at you sad and just says, he's a failure.
He won't be a good employer. I'm sorry. I don't
think I can take that position. I really am sorry.
Really? In what way is he a failure? I don't
know. He looks disturbed. He kind of like clutches
at his own shirt on his chest. He says, it just
feels... It feels wrong, Bailey. You just feel
something's... something's really wrong. I think
Bailey puts an arm on his shoulder. Are you scared
of him? No, I... I don't know. Bailey, I don't...
I can't... I can't remember. Well, they were
very interested in you. The offer is still there.
Are they... are they gonna come after me, Bailey?
Well, they know that you're here, but I don't
know if they're that interested. It was just
an interview. Listen, I know we just met, but
if you can throw them off my trail, I'm going
to book it to go a little deeper, a little deeper
this time into the city. Just throw them off
my trail. I promise I'll make it worth your while.
We'll meet again. I promise you. Bailey kind
of waits a bit. And he gets closer. Do you think
you can get this doctor to fix this for free
for me? Bailey, you're smart. You know, there
are these things called bonds. There are these
things called bonds. You can use another NPC's
shit and apply stress to them. Yeah. I think...
Do you want to put stress on the friendly man?
Yeah. Okay. Roll me a... So you need a D8 and
a D6. Are you going to do both? So if I have
this happen, are these not guarantees if I do
it through the friendly man? Oh, it's a guarantee.
It depends on how the friendly man will react.
Okay. Okay. Say again. What did you ask before?
So if you downgrade a major fallout, it'll put
D8 stress on the friendly man. If you do a minor
fallout, it'll be a D6. I think you are limited
to only being able to transfer up to D8. He can
get us to downgrade for free, but you're still
going to have to pay that D6 for the minor, if
that makes sense. Yeah, we'll do that. Roll me
1D8. That's going to be how much you put on Friendly
Man. Slash R1D8. You got this. Great. I'm going
to roll a Fallout test for him because you just
rolled a seven. That's big. That is big. Okay.
Luckily, the friendly man does not take Fallout.
I'm going to make a note. Thank God. We didn't
nuke the city. Take the city. Okay. And then
get rid of your D6 resource and your arm will
be set and healed. Yay. Is the friendly man heading
out now? Yeah, unless you have something for
him. He talks to the doctor. He still seems a
lot more glum than he was before after your conversation.
It seems like something's up with him. But I
think the doctor understands that he's a good
man. And so you get a nice cheap arm set. You're
both on the mend now. And I lost my D8, you said?
D6. My D6. Shit. Okay. What was that? Your D6?
Do you have a D6? That was a bloodsand. That
was a bloodsand. Yeah, you lose your bloods.
Yeah. Okay. That was the money you were supposed
to pay to the friendly man. If I see the friendly
man heading out, is he leaving now? Yeah, unless
you... He seems like he wants to go. I'm going
to catch him right before he leaves the door.
And I say, hey, buddy. Yeah? I reach into my
pack. And I pull out an orange and I toss him
one for the road. He says he looks at it and
he says, I'm not hungry. And it looks like that's
painful for him to say. Oh, why don't you hold
on for it for me? Hold on to it for me. OK, I'll
I'll see you. I will see you. I will see you,
Bailey. Bailey winks later. He slinks off. Where
do you head now? Now that you are two are mended.
It's probably took like 30 minutes. I I'm the
only last thing I'm like interested in doing
is maybe seeing if I can fix my gun. But if you
want to go anywhere, Booker, now that you're
all he's got to go to the actually, maybe we
should go to the library then. But I don't want
to split up again. I mean, I'll go with you.
I guess I don't know your motives, but you can
either tell me or just want to go to the library.
I'm sure Bailey will hang out no matter what
you tell him. Bailey, while we have some time,
I think I want to go look at the library. Is
it still close to where we are? Well, you have
to go to Old Town. So it's a bit of a walk. You
can come with me if you want. I'll meet you back
at the well otherwise. I got to get this gun
fixed. It's the last thing I got to do. Maybe
we'll split up and meet at the well then? Yeah.
I don't think anything too crazy can happen,
right? Yeah. I guess enjoy your reading. And
you enjoy your gun. I'll try to. All right. Okay,
so you've split up. Okay. I'll do Bailey first.
Bailey. You get pointed to a place called Gulch
Provisions, a supply shop, which should be able
to help you with your gun. It's like a converted
wagon, which is kind of spilling out, turning
into like a temporary building. The person manning
it is like a bored -looking teenager, looks over
your gun, and says, I'll take your money, but
there's nothing wrong with this gun. I just need
it fixed, okay? Look, and he like... Actually,
no. No, what he says is, oh, you know, I see
the problem. I see the problem right here. Yeah,
yeah, I can do this. Is this a major fallout
or a minor? This is a minor. D6. Give me a D6
resource. If you don't have one, you can break
down resources into smaller pieces, and I can
tell you about that. I have the tallies. Could
I do that as a D8? Yeah, so what happens is that,
so for each step, it's a D4. I think. So you
will have D4 tallies left. So you can change
that to a D4 and you'll be giving D6 to him.
All right, I'll change the DH to a D4. Thank
you. And then, yeah, he takes it. He like takes
it behind the counter, like obscuring it with
his body. Rustles around and he says, oh, yeah,
all better. And he hands it to you. All right,
fire it. It goes off without a hitch. Perfect.
Slaps him on the shoulder. Thank you. And yeah,
as you walk away with your newly fixed gun, the
guy says, what a sucker. Okay. How fun. Ledger
and Halo. I am taking away the minor, right?
Fallout? Yes, yes, yes. You are convinced it
has been fixed. Okay, cool. Even though it was,
yeah, you had the, as you may have suspected,
it was a mine fallout that convinces you you
have a different fallout. You're just feeling
a little funny about it. It's okay. I guess we'll
do Ledger and Halo. Ledger, you catch up to Halo.
I think Halo's probably at the bottom of the
big stone hike. Yup. Now where the hell are you
going? I think that you gave me the wrong directions.
I'm going to the place where I blew the fuck
up. And you think it's here in this house? It
really feels like it's underneath there, and
I point up. Okay, alright, listen, listen, Halob.
We're gonna be staying the night in that place,
alright? When we're there later, you can poke
around all you want. Right now, I need your help.
Out here. We're coming back here. We're staying
the night in this house. He stops, hesitantly.
Looks longingly up at the top of the hill. How
strong does the pull feel to this place? It's
like an itch. It's not directly compelling you.
But it's there. I look back at Ledger. You need
my help? What for? I need to find a man. What
was his name again? Ticker. Sorry? Ticker. Like
a clock. I'm looking for a man named... Ticker,
and when I find him, I need to give him something
in private, and I may need assistance to arrange
this. Well, I guess if we are coming back here,
I'll have plenty of time to look later. Yes,
of course, you have my word. Now, I have another
question. Does this settlement have a haunt that
I can use to remove my major echo fallout? Um,
have you... spoken to anyone who would tell you?
Have you spoken to anyone? I guess you talk to
the couriers people. Yeah, just in the post office.
It's hard because like how do you describe what
Echo Fallout is and how do you describe wanting
help for it? You know what I mean? Well now Ledger,
that's just a malady of the soul. I guess it'd
be a church probably, wouldn't it? I think if
you asked around, describing that you have a
A city -oriented condition, perhaps. Yeah, yeah.
I don't have the words to describe it, but I
feel like Ledger might. I think those words exist,
for sure. I think that someone at the courier,
if you asked there, would be like, oh, you just
want to talk to Banisher Stern. He's a Kithari
soul ward. He's down in the compound. Okay. He
does work. Good, perfect. So I think... Yeah,
Ledger will be like, now I have to go run an
errand, but I need eyes and ears around. We need
to look for this ticker guy, all right? Halo
takes one last look up at the top of the hill
and says, all right. And then he starts stepping
down gingerly. Cool. So I want to go get my thing
treated, but I want to just keep an eye out for
any trace of this guy and maybe go look for him
after if we still have time to do stuff. Sure.
Sure. I mean, it's... It's not that big of a
town. I think you should be able to complete
everything before nightfall. It might be a little
late night, but, you know, whatever. Yeah, I'm
down with it. So, Halo, what direction are you
heading? I'm following that. Oh, okay. Got it.
We can split up later, maybe. Cool. So you head
back again to the other side of town. And you
pass the hungry man. The friendly man. He seems
to be in a hurry. He's got a pack, and he's just
kind of marching in the opposite direction. I
guess Ledger would look at him and be like, Oh,
friend, where are you off to now in such a hurry?
Oh, I, uh... I gotta go. I gotta go. I gotta
go, Ledger. Oh, you were with Booker and Bailey.
Did they tell you about a job offer that was
offered to you specifically? Yes. Very terse.
Very unfriendly. I see. Well, good luck on your
journeys, friend. Well, I'll be seeing you. I'll
be seeing you and Bailey, I promised. I think
he just kind of tips his head. Yes. Have a good
night. And he starts marching hurriedly eastward.
I think as we walk away, Ledger to Halo would
be like, I don't think those other boys did a
very good job. He seemed less friendly than usual.
I noticed that myself. Oh, well. You pass a pristine
orange on the dirt. I think Ledger will pick
it up, throw it up in the air and catch it. It's
in good condition. It has a bite mark on it.
Like just like teeth marks or like a bite out
of it. Like a tepid bite of just the peel of
the orange. Huh. I think he'll shine it on his
kind of dirty jacket and put it in one of his
pockets. Fuck yeah, brother. You got a bit orange.
Riches. Okay. God. Ledger. And not Ledger. Booker
and Bailey. You are at the library. But we're
separate. Yeah, I don't think I'm with Booker
here. Oh, fuck. Where were you going? Booker
finished, I mean, Bailey finished everything,
so I assume he's heading back to the well. Okay,
you run into Ledger and Halo. Oh. Hey there,
friends. On their way to the camp. The gang's
getting together. By the way, who ran into them?
You did, Bailey. Me, Bailey. Okay, okay. Looks
like you found him. Motion towards Halo. Yeah.
We was, uh, we were just... Working on some stuff.
Where are you going? Well, I'm heading back to
the well. Finished everything I needed. Ah. Well,
I'm going to talk to a man about this insatiable
craving for teeth that I've been having. And
almost subconsciously, he pops another one in
his mouth. Well, do you need a little help? I
could come with you, you know. I think he shrugs
and nods and he's like, yeah, say, you've been
around town these past few hours, right? Yeah,
I've been talking. Met a man named Ticker by
any chance? I didn't hear that. Huh. Well, let
me know if you find him. I got something for
him. Hey, the friendly man was leaving in a hurry.
He seemed like he was not going to take ups up
on that job offer. Yeah, he wasn't really interested.
Seems like he got a little scared. Hmm. Well,
that may cause us some difficulties with our
benefactor, but... Well, I mean, what do they
know, right? We'll just say that he should be
heading there soon. Now that is smart thinking,
friend. And I think Ledger claps a hand on his
shoulder. Bailey smiles. I have had enough of
eating these teeth. Let's go do something about
it. What did he say he's had enough? I just can't
get enough. It was a lie. Bailey nods. He reaches
into his bag, pulls out an apple and throws it
back to Halo. Yeah, as you three walk. Bailey,
something kind of clicks in your mind. And during
all that celebrating, when you're having that
argument, you remember someone saying, oh man,
Tick, we should get out of here. The vibe's gone.
Really? Oh, you mean like in the inn, right?
In the inn. Yeah. Hold on a second. Ledger, wait.
Listen, when we ran into someone at the tavern,
I remember them mentioning someone about Ticker
and that they had to leave, that the vibes were
off. Oh, wait. So was Ticker the other guy from
the Academy? Nope. Oh, OK. That is just something
I heard, right? This is just like I heard in
the crowd. OK. Hmm. Maybe they would be somewhere
exiting town, possibly the train station. Perhaps
or perhaps they were simply looking for their
entertainment elsewhere. Uh, I'm sure that that's
not the only source of intoxicating libations
in this lovely little town. Um... They're with
someone. At least we know that. Alright, well,
it is a clue. Uh, we'll make that our next priority,
or I shall. Takes a bite of his apple. Uh, okay,
now we'll get to Booker. Booker, you arrived
at the library? It's getting late. There's not
a lot of people around the library right now.
Alright. Well, he's going to do as instructed.
Just walk in. I mean, okay, is there anything
barring him from just walking in and going to
a shelf? No. All right, then he's going to do
just that. Are you a... You're a people's person.
You seem somewhat refined. Yeah. A couple guys
walk up to you when you're outside the library.
And they say, hey, friend, can I bend your ear
for a moment? I'm in a bit of a hurry. Oh, okay,
I'll walk with you. It'll be quick. Do you know
any good places to hang out around here? I just
came from the inn and it was bad. Yeah, you were
there, weren't you? What? I don't know what you're
talking about. Your friend, he was arguing with
somebody. Really loudly. I hesitate to call him
my friend. Why do you ask? I'm just looking for
a place to party, man. Celebrating. What are
you celebrating? My freedom. He smiles at you.
From? Oh, this is the cruelties of the world,
I guess. Good for you. He starts walking back
to the library. Well, fuck you too, friend. And
then you need a shotgun to walk off. Booker flips
him off. You are in the library. Some people.
It is a very big library. Let me get my description
of the library up right now. It's a wooden building.
It says Glow Foundation Library on it. It is
very large. There's a little placard describing
the donations and philanthropy of its founder,
a certain Derry Glow. The interior of the library
is extremely vast. Like, it goes far further
than you would think it would from outside. There's
a little front desk there. There's a little map
of the shelves. There's a reminder saying, always
know what number you're at! Remind me, per Booker's
orders, was it a specific book he had to slip
the paper with the margin or any? Nope, it was
just act casual, get a book, check it out, then
slip it in and then return it. Then Booker's
going to pay no heed to weird number message
and act like he knows what book he wants and
is looking for it. He's going to pull one off
a shelf and stick a paper with the mark of Perkelian
in it. Sure. Yeah. Anything happen then? Before
he walks off to the librarian? I guess, is there
any, this is a very good library. It probably
rivals the library of Parkelly and your master,
who you served. Are there any books you want
to look for? Out of curiosity, is there anything
that could help us on this journey? Anything
about the string or the city of glass? Maybe
he actually asked that to the librarian when
he goes there, since this doesn't seem approachable
otherwise. Sure, you see the The librarian, you
see actually your quarry, the librarian that
you're supposed to get with the thin nose and
the graying hair. And they say, oh, well, we
have just about everything here, sir. We got
books on the city of glass. We have books on
the depths, the precursor to the city of glass.
We've got books on demons. We've got books on
people. What are you looking for? Booker, thanks
for a moment. First, I'd like to check this out.
He hands him the book with the paper in it first.
And second, do you have anything on the string
that unravels? Is that it? String that consumes.
Consumes, yes. I don't think, what is that? Some
sort of, some artifacts, I presume? Yes, something
like that. Do you have any clue to its origin?
Demonic, arcane, other? Would Booker know this?
No, you've gotten very little information from
your master. Honestly, I don't. Not helpful.
Yeah, you can check out that book. You can read
it as long as you want, but I do have to say,
I know it seems unintuitive, you can't leave
with the book. Please just stay here while you
read it. Okay. We'll re -inventory it. Okay,
I guess was something supposed to happen in it?
No. Did you put the slip back in the book? Yeah,
the slip's in the book, and he checked it out.
Oh, well, you're supposed to check it in with
the slip. That's your order. Oh. Yeah, you're
like slipping this guy the symbol in the book.
Okay, no. He's going to blow his head up or something.
All right, Booker's going to go read it for a
while first then, or at least fake to. Sure.
Yeah. Brian, I'm just going to unveil my hand
here for you. This large repository of knowledge
may have something to do with one of your major
beats. Ah, hmm. Okay. You know, Booker has a
flash of inspiration as he's reading, you know,
took him a bit and goes back to the librarian.
Thanks again for checking this out for me. Say,
do you have anything on R. Kelly? Guy freezes.
What? Did I say something? It's a name I heard.
The great demon of exchange. The master of debt.
The father. Of course. Of ownership. Yes. I'd
like to learn more. I don't know. Are you seeking
to be helped with something? I don't think anyone
can help if I understand him correctly, but...
I would like to learn more. He didn't send you,
right? Just a... I don't know the man. If I knew
him, I wouldn't need knowledge on him, would
I? Of course. Of course. You're right. You're
right. You should... There's a book. It's on
this aisle right here. It's got a red spine,
a gold inlay. The title of it has been covered
up intentionally. You should read that. I've
been reading it. It's been very helpful. Got
it. That's... You deal with Parkeleon? No. No.
No, you must never deal with him. Noted. Well,
you've been a great help. What's your name? I
don't have a name. That's... Okay. Booker gives
him a nod, returns the book, and goes off in
search of this thing. In your time working for
Parkeleon, this isn't the first nameless person
you've met. It's actually quite common for Parkeleon
to take people's names as part of their debts.
Stylish. So he's just a librarian. You go to
this book. So have you slipped in the thing yet,
is the question, or are you waiting? Yes, the
thing is slipped in, and he was using that kind
of as distraction to do that. Okay. Okay. You
find the book. It's very hard to get to this
book. It is totally buried in the stacks. And
the book is where it's said to be. You pull it
out. It's pretty featureless, kind of beat up.
But you turn to the interior page and see the
title, which is Rats, colon, the first demons
by Galen Cade. Fascinating. I like this a lot.
Cool guy. What are you doing with this book?
Are you reading it now? Booker is going to, yeah,
just start reading it. Like he's going to go
to a nearby table and go for it. I mean, he can't
leave with the book yet. Okay. How long would
you read this book? Just give me a ballpark.
Just to see like what the gist of it is and if
it's even worth taking. Sure. This book published
nearly 200 years ago. It's an exhaustive document
made by a rat catcher turned demonologist. Within
it, it claims that rats are not animals at all,
but rather an entire subspecies of demon with
their own hierarchies. It would take time to
parse the information in this book, but it seems
like it may contain promising information about
avoiding the ever watchful eye of your master
Parkelion's rats. Okay, Booker's going to try
to steal this thing. Okay. You leave. The librarian
is missing. Well, that makes leaving easier.
Booker's not going to look for him. He silently
knows something may have happened. Yeah, you
notice that no one else is in the library at
this point. All right. And as you leave, you
see on the outside door, it says closed. And
the door latches behind you. I hope I didn't
overstay my welcome. You can add this book. It
is a D10 niche resource. And it's called Rats
the First Demons. I like this one. Great. Okay.
Great. So, that took you a while. Go to our other
three. You're going to the Cathari camp. We're
all over the town. Yeah, Booker's heading back
to the well now that he's done with his stuff.
I'll just blow up the haven now and then we can
end. We gotta end on that. Okay, this is the
point of the downtime episodes. You are at the
Kithari camp. Let me get my thing for that. Let
me stop myself on the face. Reinvigorate myself.
Get some coffee. Coffee? I had some coffee already.
I'm going to be wired. It's under haunts. Of
course it is. So the Kithari camp is bustling
with military officers even late in the night.
It seems lots of them are coming back from like
a meal hall. They've just finished their dinners,
so to speak, the early dinners. Very common in
Cathar, the early dinner. But the officers are
far outnumbered by their servants, which are
these dead -eyed humans with plain gray robes,
which end just before their ankles. These are
a pretty common sight wherever the Cathari operate.
Most of the younger population of Cathar is made
up of these servants, whose minds have kind of
been like suppressed to make them better servants.
You don't know really much more about them, but
you find the guy you're looking for. He's in
a medium -sized purple tent. The inside is full
of acrid smoke coming from the dozens of piles
of burning leaves around the room. The man himself
is half -dressed in the purple and silver of
his military uniform, and he is presiding over
a woman who is laying on a small cot, painting
on her face with this gray paint. And he says,
see, all better, and shows her a mirror. Um,
before sitting her up and ushering out the door,
uh, as she passes you, you notice that there
are these gray streaks painted from her eyes
to her ears, to her nose, to her mouth. Uh, she
seems somewhat satisfied, uh, having paid banisher
before rushing out of the tent. Um, uh, saying
giddy, uh, very giddy and saying, I'm free. I'm
free. Yahoo. Exactly. But I'm, that's what I'm
saying. It turns to you. Yeah. He says, It is
very late, my friends. Yes, I do apologize for
intruding. I have a particular malady with which
I require assistance. I assure you that I can
make it worth your while. And he smiles. Okay,
well, he kind of looks... Actually, he does have
a watch. This guy does have a watch. He looks
at his watch and he says, Fine. Take a seat.
Are you... Where's your uniform, soldier? He
says, noting your accent. Oh, I am not a member
of the Cathari military. I am simply a traveling
man. And he smiles. Exile? Treasoner? In a manner
of speaking. Not the treason part, of course.
I have no quarrel nor outstanding warrants with
the Cathari army. He smiles again. You're brave
walking in here, friend. I can respect that.
All right, take a seat. Tell me what you're feeling.
Tell me your maladies. I'm feeling like I gotta
eat teeth. Now, I know it is peculiar. I have
been... No, that's par for the course, especially
here in Calamity. I know just the thing. Oh!
Well... But I do take payment up front. Of course.
Well, I'm... I do not have currency as such,
but I have some items that I believe may be of
interest to you. I would like to give him the
sealer's staff, which is a D8, and then the sealing
supplies, which are a D6. Great. He looks over
the sealer's staff. And he says, well, I'll be.
Where'd you get this? Fascinating little thing,
isn't it? I found it in a theater. A theater?
Yes, not a normal theater, the kind you might
find within the city itself. Only it was a little
farther afield than it was supposed to be. Hmm.
This wasn't on a man, was it? Not a living one.
Damn. That's too bad. World needs more sealers.
Yeah, to be clear, he seemed as if he had been
dead for some time. That would make sense. Now,
since you are my countryman, and I do, and I
appreciate this gift you've given me, just the
staff will do. You can keep the supplies, friend.
All right. And he looks over the staff, quite
pleased, and stores it away. And he tells you
to lean back, and he looks at... I think he looks
at Halo. Um, Bailey's here too, right? Yeah.
Now, I'm gonna have to ask your demon to leave.
Uh, Halo, what, Bailey, why don't you keep an
eye on him? Yeah. Halo, let's go outside. I'll
give you more apple. Have I heard the word demon
before? That's up to you. Yeah, I don't, I don't
know. Ledger might have, because, I mean, Ledger
knows what demons are. Yeah, would Ledger have
called me that? He maybe would have told him
at some point that that's what he is, but he
finds it to be a distasteful word. He wouldn't
be calling him that. Would he have said anything
about demons or how they're viewed in culture
or anything like that? You did mention it in
the conductor's compartment. The word demon.
Oh yeah, there we go. That is what Halo is perceived
to be. That's just like a species. There are
a lot of demons in the world. Yeah, okay. I know
that's what I am. And I say, wait, why do I have
to leave and no one else has to? I'll go with
you. Don't worry. I just nod before the guy starts
talking. Bailey cuts off what was sure to be
a very hateful sentence. Okay, I'll go with Bailey.
You're presided over. I think Banisher says,
how can you stand? To travel with one of them.
Oh, you know, he's not so bad once you get to
know him. It's... He's a new one. It's almost
like a fully sentient child. I find his sense
of wonder and all things to be refreshing. Yeah.
I bet a dumb dog can still bite just as hard,
though. Oh, I'll make sure that I'm not the one
who gets bit. He starts painting on your face
and on your chest and your throat specifically
with this gray paint. It tingles. Do you have
the parcel with you? Yeah, it's in my belt. I
don't think he does anything about it. He's minding
his own business. He paints on you. The paint
seems to kind of leech away the craving as it
goes on. It's like a soothing. cooling uh feeling
uh you even feel like this that lingering coldness
that was in your hand from the parcel um you
feel even that start to recede it was beginning
to be concerning how long it stayed uh but whatever
he's doing it seems to be doing the trick yay
uh and you're all better wonderful um i think
after it all uh ledger will stand up he'll leave
the paint on his face and he'll um say well this
has been a wonderful experience I have a question.
It may seem peculiar. Do you know anyone by the
name of Ticker? Ticker? Yeah. Yeah, you know,
I do. Ticker Gray. Ticker Gray. Now that is a
fascinating name. Where? Do you know where I
could find the man? I think he was staying at
the inn. He came back here a couple times after
he came back from the city. Oh, he's an adventurer,
a delver, or what have you. A dead man, if you
ask me. Aren't we all, friend? But he had maladies.
He had plenty of maladies. I cured him. Got to
know the man. He's a good sort. He's leaving
town soon. Well, I know of him obviously only
by his first name. Maybe I'll go see if I can
find him around. You have a wonderful evening.
You too, friend. Ledger tips his hat and strolls
out. He zips up his tent. Clothes for business.
Okay. Where do you three want to go now? What
do you want to do? Where do you want to go? I
guess probably to the well. Passing ships in
the night with Ticker, I'm just never in the
right place at the right time, but maybe we'll
run into him. Sure. I want to go back to the
well. You meet up. Your friend is here. Because
I'm going to make the time frames work up. You've
reunited. Perfect. Um... I assume everybody got
all of their business sorted. Yep. Get your reading
done, Booker? Yes, I did. Good. Well, um... We
should be retiring for the evening soon, but
I'm... I can't help but think I've got to find
this man. Now, I spoke to the, not the sealer,
what was he? A binder? Banisher. Banisher, that
was it, the banisher. All Kothari people, their
first name is their job. Oh, okay, well, that's
really convenient. So I spoke with the banisher
who said that a man named Ticker's staying in
the inn. I believe you said that he left that
area. That's what I overheard, yeah. Seemed like
it. Damn, that puts me in a bit of a predicament.
Maybe I'll go wander over that way, have a drink.
You ever have a drink, Halo? Do you even know
what that is? Nope. That'd be enlightening. Should
we really be putting alcohol into this thing?
Is it gonna open its face again? It probably
will, to drink, I assume. No business but his
own. I'm just wondering maybe if for the lack
of anything else, they might have found their
way back to the only drinking establishment in
town, the only one that we know of. And if nothing
comes of it, nothing comes of it. I simply wish
to speak with the man. I think I eye the rest
of the group and I say, should this be a group
effort? Well, I would love the company. Good.
I can keep up. Got nothing better to do. I think.
As we go, Ledger's just like looking for people.
He's like keeping an eye out as we walk over
there because he's really hoping to find this
guy. Sure. Just for anybody partying, anybody
seeming like they're having a good time. Did
you tell Booker that that's what we're looking
for? He did just say that he was looking for
a guy named Ticker. No, but the party part specifically.
I don't know if Ledger actually knows that in
character. I might have accidentally injected
that. He did say the vibe was off. Okay, yeah.
They said that they left because the vibe was
bad because of the little tiff you all had. Is
that who you're looking for? Who's that? I think
I ran into this person. Booker's player doesn't
know where, but GM, where was he headed? I know
he said... He headed... It seemed like he was
heading back into town, like where you guys are
heading. I think we're on the right track. He
was heading back into town. He just wants to
party. Well, if you see him, do point him out
to me. Will do. Great. Yeah, I think as you're
heading back to the inn, you spot two people.
in front of this... See this wagon I've crudely
drawn? That's where you went to get your gun
fixed, actually. And from the back, you think
that this is the guy you ran into, Booker. He's
wearing a very distinctive coat. It's kind of
like lined with little pieces of metal, like
a sort of pseudo -armor. There's your guy. Booker
points him out. Well, I will... I think Ledgerill...
Kind of just swagger over to them. So this is
like a store, right? Yeah, it's like a little
provisioner's shack in this wagon. And it looks
like it's in the process of closing up, and one
of the people, the guy with the coat, who you
believe to be Tick, is kind of arguing with the
teenager manning it and being like, listen, we're
closing up. I closed the account. I can't sell
you any booze. Ugh. Come on. So Ledger winds
up and he's like, you're telling me that I just,
I mean, I just came here to purchase some libations
as well. You're closed for the night. I can pay.
I'm not supposed to take any payments from the
time of 633 to 701. And it's 633 and 45 seconds
right now. You just hit the cutoff, friend. Sorry.
45. Seconds? Come on now, you're telling me that
your employer would want to lose out on the patronage
of paying customers over 45 seconds. That's ridiculous.
He looks at you, and he says, the next few minutes
is a cursed time. Cursed in what way? The only
way. That's what my boss says, at least. The
teenager says, and kind of shrugs. Okay, so what
about like five minutes from now? Like I said,
it's going to be 30 -odd minutes until after
7 .01. Exactly. There's a clock probably somewhere.
Maybe you have a watch. I don't know. I have
a watch. Oh, I see. I thought you were talking
about in the a .m. sense. No, no, no, no. That'd
be ridiculous. Why would I? That's the best business
hours after 7. All right. Now you're speaking
my language. Goddamn, I'm slipping into your
accent again. I can't get out of it. That's a
good accent. I think Ledger, he slaps Tick on
the shoulder and he's like, well, I don't mean
to presume, but I suppose that we could find
a way to entertain ourselves for 30 short minutes
for the wagon to open again, wouldn't you say?
You're being awfully friendly, Tick says. Yes,
I suppose it is my way. Name's Ledger. These
are my companions. He tries, he offers a handshake.
Oh, no, Booker's going to try to shrink him back.
He doesn't want to talk to this guy. Yeah, he
says, oh, Booker, Ledger, you're a friend of
the friendly man. You gave him that great joke.
Yes, that is correct. He smiles and snaps his
fingers. Yeah, we are acquainted. He happens
to be a friend of mine. That's excellent. He's
a good guy. He's so friendly. No doubt. He just
knows how to have a good time, and he does it
every day of his life. That's great. Yeah, sure.
We can go back to the bars. I think it's unlikely
those two freaks who got in the argument will
be back. Yeah, I should hope not. It really,
you know, nothing kills a room like a bunch of
drunk assholes. Is that Big Hat guy with you?
Points behind you. In a manner of speaking, yes.
Hey, why'd you have to ruin the vibe in the bar?
Oh, that was you, Booker. Are you talking to
me? Yeah, you got you. I was having a good time.
I was having a great I was having a great time
in the bar and you had to get all feisty. Sorry.
Yeah, you know what? Yeah. What are you crying
about? You got your drinks paid for. All right.
And you should be thanking me. Bailey, if you
would, please. Now, my. compatriots are occasionally
of a prickly sort, and I would consider it myself
to be one of my chief duties to ensure that not
only do they have a good time, that they do not
cause a drag upon those around them, and it is
a duty I take very seriously, and I would love
to accompany you for a drink. Alright, but you're
paying. Ah, fair enough. Alright, you go to the
inn. Bailey flips this guy off as he walks off.
Keep your hands to yourself. It's really weird.
He flips you off back, even though his back's
turned. Oh, shit. Bailey stomps the floor. Yeah,
and the... Who's next to him? Who's next to who?
Ticker or Bailey? Who's next to Ticker? Probably
Ledger. I imagine Ledger's walking next to him.
I assume we're not going with him. Yeah, he smirks.
And he says, thanks, darling. And then he flips
off behind him towards Bailey. Oh, shit. Can
my death see his death? I don't know. Can she?
I don't, I mean, I assume she might be able to.
Yeah, it's up to you. Your world. Okay. I think,
well, I guess that means that his death would
be able to see mine as well. Mm -hmm. Cuts both
ways. Yeah, up to you. It'll certainly change
the vibe. Bad vibe. I think... Hmm. Oh, I don't
know. This is hard. You know what? I'm going
to flip a coin. I'm going to flip a coin. On
a one, they can see each other. On a two, they
can't. I like it. They can see each other. Yeah.
Then he says, I think we might have a lot in
common, Mr. Gray. He looks at you. Gives you
like a steely gaze and says, I think so too.
How about that? Let's chat. Yeah, let's get to
the inn. I hope we gotta kill that guy. You go
into the inn. Ticker heads for the bar. Sure,
ledger follows. Got a couple rounds. Are you
all going in? Presumably? Yeah. Yeah, I'm taking
off my hat, though. Yeah, Ticker's friend goes
in, too. Sits behind Ticker. You all go pull
up to the bar. I think Ticker gets a drink. Starts
drinking it, sipping, and he says, you know,
I have to go use the restroom. And he gets up,
and he starts heading for the restroom. Be my
guest. Hmm. I think... Is it like an outhouse
outside, or is there plumbing with toilets in
here? I think it's probably an outhouse for this
part of town. Okay. Has anybody here read Blood
Meridian? No, but I know that book. No, I have
not. Is anything fucked up about it happen? Oh,
the whole book is very fucked up, but particularly
the ending. No spoilers. I think Ledger might...
If Ledger's got his own drink, I think he might...
down it and be like, would you believe it? Nature
does call. Excuse me, gentlemen. Sure. Ticker's
friend grabs your arm. Not like aggressively.
And says, you know, he found his freedom, friend.
Ledger tilts his head and says, I don't know
how true that is. He's still here. He... He looks
at you, and he gives you a big shit -eating grin
and says, Now is he? Ledger scowls, maybe for
the first time ever, and says, I wouldn't expect
you to understand. He lets you go. Cool. Ledger's
going to walk outside. He reassembles his composure
and starts whistling to himself, as if a man
about to go have a piss on the side of a bar.
Excellent. We love that. Ledger's signature move
is pissing, it seems, so far. It is, yeah. How
long did you wait to go after this guy? Maybe
like 20 seconds. Sure, sure. Are you going to
the outhouse? Yeah. The outhouse is empty. And
I'll give you this. I think your death communicates
to you that Someone's... He left, is what she
says. He's in the gray. I don't know how, but
he's there. I think Ledger walks into the outhouse
and goes inside of it and closes the door. I
think he thinks he's being watched, maybe. And
so he just keeps his cover. He doesn't... actually
take a piss, or maybe he does. I'll leave that
one up to the imagination of the viewer. Totally
does. And then I think he walks out, and he's
gonna whistle to himself, and he's gonna go back
inside. You are inside. Again. Ticker's friend
seems to have excused himself. The rest of you
would have seen him. He just, like, he goes up
to a room upstairs. Nothing unusual about that.
Ledger goes back to the bar. Are you all drinking?
He seems stumped. He seems pensive. I am not,
but I probably have a drink in front of me. I
want to relieve mind stress, actually. I can
do that here, right? Yes, you can, specifically.
Perfect. Can I pay some teeth? Yes. This will
take time. I will sell you. Okay. I think...
I don't know. I don't know if Ledger thinks he
can accomplish his little goal today if he doesn't
know where the hell he went. I think Bailey goes
up to Ledger and is like, what the fuck's going
on here, huh? Why are we following these assholes?
I wanted to have a word alone with Ticker. Well...
I think he left. I know where his friend went.
Emotion's upstairs. Maybe we can talk to him.
Maybe. I was hoping to avoid things getting too
ugly. Why avoid it? Because we are in a civilized
place, and... I don't know. Seemed like the thing
to do. We can keep the doors closed, okay? That's
all I'm saying. Whatever you gotta do, Ledger.
People are getting drunk around here, though.
Any kind of emotion source booker. Right, well...
Maybe... Maybe I will. I think... Yeah, let's
go upstairs. Let's play hard. I think Ledger
is something... Ledger has steeled himself. And
he's gonna go upstairs and I think he's gonna
maybe ask if anybody is gonna back him up. Bailey
immediately stands up. Right behind you. I was
trying to help you. Well then. I'm glad we can
all work together on this now. I need to talk
to Ticker. I need to give him something. Is Halo
drinking? If someone bought him a drink. Ledger
probably would have when we first sat down. I
want to know what he does with it. Does the bartender
give him a straw? I don't know that straws are
a thing. Can they be? Yeah, sure. You can ask
for like a tube. Urgency induction port. I want
the bartender to see Halo pick up this drink
and then like look at it quizzically. Like trying
to figure out how he's gonna do the thing with
the orange with this considerably larger glass
and I want the bartender to give him a tube.
You receive a tube. A long strand of pasta. Does
it get soft? Halo... Puts it where his mouth
would be, which now kind of looks like the mouth
of a snail. Kind of looks like he tasted something
sour. Like he doesn't unfurl all the way, but
you just like see this little crack open up and
he's sucking on it. The bartender looks disgusted.
Actually, no, I take that back. The bartender
employs demons. He's a cool guy. He gives you
a look that is. Neither prejudiced or unprejudiced.
It's completely level. Bailey's like, hey, he
bought it, didn't he? Yeah, if everyone is like
getting up to go, he was like, but I just started
drinking. We'll get you another one, OK? Let's
go. OK. He just keeps getting torn away from
things he's doing. OK. It's getting late. You
go up. There are a number of rooms. Yeah, I was
going to say, is there any way to find out which
room he went into? Do we even know what the friend's
name is? No. Could we use a delve skill? You
want to use delve. This would probably be hunt.
This would be hunt specifically. Or discern?
I have discern. I don't have hunt, guys. Do you
have haven? I don't have haven. This is a discern
haven if you want to try to figure out what Dory's
in through observation. No. You have haven, don't
you? Well, Booker has haven, but not discern.
Can he assist? Right? That's how it works? He
can assist if he has something to contribute?
Okay, then yeah. Because I think Ledge will be
like, I need to know which room he went into.
Yeah, me too. Maybe me and Booker can work on
that then? Yeah, I mean, yeah. Yeah, okay. Do
it. Do it. Roll me Discern. Discern Haven. Plus
one die. Failure. Oh, failure. Take stress. Shit.
Both you and Booker take one fortune stress.
Oh, but I have fortune protection. Does that
do anything? You take zero. Yay. Can I do...
Where is it? The one... Oh, did I not take that
ability? That sucks. Oh, collateral. Yeah, I
do. Can I transfer that? to bailey wait would
that could we would that work with that bunch
of numbers if i have plus two fortune so like
protection would i be able to take both the ones
if you moved it to me yeah i think so all right
no one gets hurt right uh yeah no one gets hurt
okay find where we're going which is the worst
uh you get some weird looks as you kind of prowl
around trying to to find where this guy went
uh a little too much time has passed and your
your hopes of finding this guy are getting a
slimmer and slimmer uh as you know he is probably
in ledger another dimension right now getting
farther and farther away from you what the fuck
yeah all right um i'm gonna do something okay
i'm gonna go is there like a corner up here where
i can like sit for a minute and be relatively
For ten minutes? Yeah. Uh, I'd say there's an
unoccupied room. The door's open. Sure. Yeah,
yeah, I'll just walk in here. I'll be like, uh,
hold on for a second. And Booker starts, like,
pulling shit out of, like, his, um, his coat.
Like, he, um, he grabs a piece of charcoal and
starts drawing stuff on the ground, and every
now and then he stops and, like, mutters a few
things, like, what do you think it should be?
Like, this, or it depends on the... Well, yeah,
maybe, maybe a little bit. I think you're right.
I think you're right. Um, and then he, like,
lights incense and sticks it into a glob of wax
in the center, and then he, like, grabs, like,
one of the holy symbols that he has around his
neck, and then gives this kind of shaking. Hey,
whoa, whoa, Ledger, what are you doing? What
are you doing? What's going on? Would you settle
down, please? This is fairly routine. I've done,
I do this all the time. Okay. It's not a spell.
Not really. It's more like a ritual now. It's
very religious, and it requires focus, so if
you will excuse me, please. I slam the door shut,
kind of like get scared. Is he outside of the
room? No, he's inside the room, but he slams
it behind him so no one can see you. All right,
now everybody take deep breaths. So I need to
roll religion and delve. Let's go to the gray,
y 'all. Ouch. What? Failure. That's three dice.
Four, three, four, one, four, four. Nothing higher
than a fucking four. Jesus. The true horror was
the dice along the way. Here's what I'll give
you. Because I want you to be able to complete
this beat. And I know Ticker's a little too clever
for you, wasn't he? Yeah. The old bathroom trick.
So, you're all joining hands? Yeah. Okay. Here's
what happens. Ledger, what does it look like
when you go into the gray? I imagine that he...
So it's like everything kind of like anybody
who's taking part in the ritual kind of sees
that things kind of start to flicker and then
color kind of washes out in this ripply swell
and then everybody kind of translocates. But
I imagine in the gray, Ledger appears how he
truly is, which is as a desiccated skeleton with...
Scraps of rotten flesh hanging off of his bones.
What I'm going to describe next is what everyone
else sees, which is Booker is doing this. Not
Booker. God. Ledger. Our dear friend Ledger is
doing this ritual. It's very spooky. At a certain
point, you start to see his face is his real
face, which looks kind of like a corpse. It's
very pallid. Little pieces of flesh coming off
at certain parts. Kind of zombie -ish. And behind
him, what does her death look like when it's,
like, fully realized? She looks like, it's like,
it really is just, like, something out of, like,
a Japanese horror movie. Like, black, very straight
hair, pale face, but, like, a monstrous pale
face, not, like, a human pale face. Maybe, like,
extremely, like, jagged teeth or, like, it doesn't
look... Like, Ledger looks like a rotten human.
She does not look human at all. She looks like
a specter of death that vaguely resembles a woman.
But I imagine she has, like, no legs. She literally,
like, floats. She's very much like a classic
ghost in that sense. And I think that the more
real she is, the more solid she looks. And her
hands have, like... I imagine they're kind of,
like, hunched and have very sharp claws at the
ends of their fingers. Excellent. Does she talk?
Nice. Only to me. You see this in my gun you
see this for a brief moment and then ledger disappears
entirely There you go you all all of you are
going to take to mind stress except for ledger
Okay, thanks ledger Okay lecture is gone are
you all don't make a follow -up test for this
one Thank you. I don't want to have to deal with
too many fallouts right now. I have two mind
protection. Oh, you're fine then. Yep. Ledger,
you take four blood stress as you appear in the
gray and someone smacks you very hard across
the face, sending you sprawling into the ground.
Oh, no fallout. No fallout. That's good. Now
you can describe what the gray looks like to
our dear listeners. i i mean so i imagine that
like the geography of the gray is different depending
on where you are like where you pass over because
it is like a place that you can traverse but
i kind of imagine it being like a like a dull
mirror of the real world so it's like color is
all completely washed out i imagine that you
can't see there's like almost like a silvery
miasma that makes uh like vision outside of maybe
like don't know like 20 -30 feet difficult like
it's not like a thick Silent Hill style fog but
it's it's like that but more distant and maybe
a little bit more ethereal and sometimes you
can see like the shadows of the dead like you
know lost spirits not at rest or let you know
like when people die and they you know the thing
that happens when you die maybe you can see impressions
of them around but I imagine it's just like you
know that's it's like it's like the dead version
of the real world so it's like if we're like
in this room in the inn it's like everything's
shattered and broken uh or decayed like everything's
kind of like furniture's rotted away curtains
are moth eaten and shredded up stuff like that
sure um you see that um standing across from
you is ticker as you might expect he's just clocked
you with some brass knuckles of some sort which
has left a big indent on your face but you're
not in really bad shape quite yet um Behind him,
in clear view now, is this ephemeral figure with
long flowing blonde hair and empty black eyes
staring at you. And he says, you just had to
push it, didn't you? Oh, I never know when to
quit. You don't have to do this. I'm going to
be gone. You can tell them whatever you want.
Tell them you threw me in the well or something.
You tried to skate, didn't you? How'd you get
it out of your neck? He smiles and says, now
why would I tell you that when you're going to
kill me? I think Ledger just kind of like, well,
fair point, and then I'm going to shoot him.
Hell yeah. Okay. I believe this is a desolate
place. This is a kill desolate. I love to be
killing in a desolate place. Okay. So it's kind
of like, I mean, it's not really like, it's probably
not, he's probably expecting it, but it's just
like he kind of like stops moment to like kind
of like tilt his head in a sense. Like, yeah,
I guess that's right. But then like in a flash,
quick draw, fans the hammer, tries to pop one
into him. I don't think I'm going to activate
NVIDIA Spectre yet because I will definitely
follow it if I do that. Let's see what happens.
Success. Take no stress. Take no stress. Yes.
Roll me that damage. Damn, that sucks. Three.
Okay. You are up close. I mean, he's up close
to you. You didn't give you space. Yeah. You
very quickly, faster than he thought you would
be able to, pull out your pistol. You blast him.
It seems to kind of just like barely skim him.
Like parts of that metal from his jacket seems
to deflect some of this. And he... Takes that
much damage. And he has that much left. And he's
produced this, like, knife. This weird -looking
knife. And he kind of pushes you back after he
takes the shot. And he's going to come at you
with this knife and just says, just stop it.
I think. So this is going to be also a delve
kill, but I think I'm going to kind of try and
keep his attention and then see if I can get
my death to kill him using my special ability
Grim Reaper. My death's attention. It's just
basically a D8 attack, but it's like my death
that does it instead of me. I mean, I'm sure
his death might try to intercede too, but we'll
see if he has the skills that I have. So it's
kind of just like, it looks like he's trying
to line up another shot and then the idea is
that his death is going to try and like rake
at this guy from behind. Sure. And I think he
might say something along the lines of, I can't
stop. Success again. Success again. What does
that look like? I imagine that she's just like
getting up behind him trying to rake at him with
her claws. I was going to say that they sprout
from through his chest but with two damage that
definitely is not the case. Yeah, your death
is not into this. It is a rare hesitation. She
has her doubts about doing this. especially about
driving that little nail of black metal into
his back. He doesn't want to do it. She's she's
working. She works for you. You work together,
but she she's she's not enjoying this. So he
only hits me when I does. Is this like Blades
in the Dark where he doesn't take attacks against
me? Yes, he's not. He's attacking you. You have
successfully dodged. I think your death and his
death clash momentarily, but they. They really
don't want to fight. The two deaths are kind
of like unsure about this. It feels very wrong.
PvP. And I think the two clash. I think he grabs
you and like holds the knife to your throat as
you kind of push him back and you're both kind
of on the ground clashing. Your two deaths are
kind of kind of just off to the side at this
point. Trying to... It doesn't look like they're
talking, but it's like they don't know what to
do. Um, they've stopped attacking each other
and I think he's just like, you can let me go.
You can let me go. I know you won't stop coming,
but I can help you. I can send you in the right
direction. You just gotta just let me go. I'm
free. Damn it. Don't you want to be free? I think
he's just going to roll back. He's going to level
the gun, but he's not going to fire it. He's
going to be like, they, whenever they want, they
can take. Everything from me. I only have one
way back. What can you do? What freedom is there
in this fucking place? Huh? We gonna live a normal
life? Get drunk and then one day what? Turn into
a pile of fucking... You've seen what happens
to people who die here now. What's your name?
My name's Ledger. Ledger Gray. He laughs. Gray.
Guess we all choose the same last name. Listen,
they're not going to give you that freedom you
want. They're not going to let you go back to
where we came from. You know that. You know that
deep down, don't you? I'm going to find a way
to take it. You need time. That's what I bought
myself. I turned that sliver off. They can't
control me anymore. The only way they can control
me is by sending a dog like you after me. That's
the only way. I think Ledger pulls the spike.
Out of his little pouch with one skeletal hand
in his left hand. He looks at the spike and his
eyes go wide. And he charges you immediately
upon seeing the spike. And he says, no, no, not
that. Not that. Can I, like, just, like, try
and get some space? I wasn't going to use it
on him. I don't think I could. I know. I think
it's going to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa. Easy, easy. Uh, you can buy yourself some
time, but you have to throw the spike on the
ground. That's what my bargain I'll give you
without making you roll. Sure. I was actually
thinking of doing that anyways. Is there, like,
um... Is there... Ooh, okay. I think so. He's
running at me. Can I throw it in the air and
then shoot it with my gun? Yeah. Sure. Um, you
wanna break it? I wanna break it. Maybe I should...
You know what? No, I don't want to break it.
I think... I think I'll... He'll drop it and
then step a boot on it so that he can't take
it. But he's got his hand up, palm open. He gets
close to you again. He says, Okay. You'll back
off? I got your attention? What is that thing
going to do to you? They wanted me to stab it
in your neck. What does it do? You said that
people who die here, they... They don't get the
good death that we got back when death still
worked. Right? Yeah. But that death that they
get, it's still a death. That thing. That void
metal. You drive that into me. Me. My death.
We just go. We're gone. And we're at the mercy
of God knows what. But look at that thing. Look
at that piece of metal. Look into it. And tell
me that there's anything good in there. No. No.
No, no, no. You wouldn't. You can't take that
from me. You wouldn't. That'd be unforgivable.
Right? There ain't nothing good left in me anymore.
Get the hell out of here. Can I wait for you
to lower your gun? Yeah, he'll lower it. In fact,
he'll put it away. He backs up from you. Then
he puffs out of the gray. I'm going to do the
same. You're letting him go? Yeah, I'm going
to let him go. I'm going to look at my death.
And the ledger's gonna say, Maybe I hope you're
right. I think I just got us in a whole mess
of trouble. Your death lays a hand on your shoulder
and, like, kind of nods. That's the right thing
to do. Do you reclaim the void thing, or are
you leaving it in the dust -lit zone, the gray?
I think I'm gonna keep it. Okay. For a rainy
day. A cursed, dangerous void nail is what it
is. I'll give you that. yay cursed and dangerous
where do i sign uh let me let me tell you what
it actually is called it is a a d8 cursed comma
dangerous void nail uh okay and that's a that's
a weapon right because if it's cursed as a weapon
tag no curse is the domain oh no sorry i'm dangerous
yes dangerous is the resource tag which is that
it can cause problems for you it can definitely
cause problems for you Maybe I should get rid
of it. I just want to have the option to fuck
somebody up with it if I ever feel like it. You'll
have that option, but that option comes with
costs. Hey everyone, Ledger's suddenly back and
he looks normal again. Thank God. I think when
Ledger comes back, he is once again hit in the
face by Bailey's palm as he slaps you and then
he grabs your collar and says, what the fuck
was that? Ledger looks unusually somber. Maybe
the most somber you've ever seen him. And he...
Looks at you and says, I was trying to pursue
that man. He beat me up. He got away. I think
Bailey takes a couple puffs of anger out of him
and then he like lets you go. And then he stands
up and he kind of gestures to the rest of the
group. That hurt us. I'm sorry. What I was trying
to do was go to the grave, the realm of the dead,
or it was. Once. Now it's kind of empty. We may
have to go there again. I didn't do the rich
job. Good question. Would we know any of this?
This is what I was really curious about. Would
any of our characters know what's up with...
Is this crazy that we're seeing? Or is it, oh,
this guy's a dead walker. We know what this is.
You're a scholar. Do you have a cult? I do have
a cult. You have a cult and technology, right?
Yeah. That makes you uniquely. Yes, you actually
do know to a certain extent. So there is a place.
There's a place. Some people call it the gray.
It's kind of an old remnant of an in -between
place people used to go when they were dying.
They'd eventually go somewhere else, like a quote
-unquote classic afterlife. But then like a while
ago, someone killed the god of death, and now
that doesn't work anymore. So when you die, your
soul just kind of gets loose. Um, and the grades
is kind of like an empty place with very little
in it now. So, you know, of this, you know, people
allegedly, you probably heard people can go in
there. Um, but that's, that's speculative. So
what he did right now is like speculative occult
stuff. So whoever, okay. Either, either he's
very good at it or someone has enabled him to
do it in a way. But at this current moment, we're
learning that ledger is a dead Walker, right?
Yes. You didn't tell us this before. No. I do
not think so. Okay. And this is something that
we know vaguely what a dead walker is. You do.
I don't think Booker does. Halo vaguely does
because they met, but Booker's not. Okay. Okay.
I think Bailey outstretches his hand to help
lift Ledger up if he takes it. I think he will.
I think he says, look, the reason I'm telling
you this is because... For the duration of our
association, it may be necessary for us to go
there again together. And I want you to trust
me if that becomes necessary. I will not mess
it up again. I was trying to take you all with
me. It didn't work. You're a deadwalker, right?
Suppose you could say that. He kind of, like,
gestures around your shoulder. Does she have
a name? No. She don't need one. Well, I suppose
we all got our secrets. Halo's confused, but
he pulls the gauze out of his backpack again
and says, you're hurt. Do we need this now? You
could actually, you could technically mend his
face. You could mend Ledger's face. Yay, mend
Ledger. Yeah, Ledger, I think he got like hit
in the back of the head or something. Probably
like a trickle of blood. Yeah, you got punched
in the cheek. It's kind of ruptured by the brass
knuckles. So you could use this. Does that mean
I take it out of my inventory? No, it's just
a quick way to use it. You can use it forever.
So that's a d6 mend blood. Yeah, you have to
roll, I think. I have to roll my item around
my hand. Let me see what this is. It's probably
mend haven. I pressed a button. Oh, well that
just rolls the dice number. You need to roll
a skill check first. Let me make sure I'm getting
it right. Using skills to heal. Blood. Mend plus
domain to patch it up. Yeah. So roll me a mend.
Mend plus haven. Success at a cost. Okay. So
I'm going to let that first roll keep. So, Ledger,
you take. You regain five blood stress. Halo,
you're going to take two echo stress. As you
are mending your friend, something falls out
of his bag. This little purple nail. Um, and
it touches you just a little bit. Just bumps
against you as you move around, and you feel
it sap the light from you. Ew. Yucky. Make a
fallout test. I have my one echo protection,
so that is one stress, right? Yes. Take one stress.
I think as he sees that fall, Ledger fucking
snaps it up, like, real fast, and he's like,
yeah, both fingers, that was my fault. Snaps
it up and tries to stuff it back into a pouch.
Fallout test? Hello? No fallout. You're good.
Your stress is getting up there, though. Yes,
it is. Okay. Would you all like to now head back
to the manor? I think we're ready. Yeah, we've
been through a lot. I think Bailey says one last
thing. He's like, did you at least hurt him?
Yeah, I shot him once. I think he'll be all right.
All right, good. That's good. It's like a dad
with his kid coming home from school. Just get
one good shot in there. I think you repaired
Bailey's reputation a bit. Okay. You head back
to the manor. It is late. You have passed. You
know, you thought you had a lot of time, but
the night really has passed, hasn't it? The servants
let you in after a very long hike up. Still as
unpleasant as it was before. The moon is cast
down from above. Kind of a red tint to the land.
Got a good leg now, then. Yeah, you got a good
leg. It's a lot better for you this time, Booker,
coming up. Yay. And the servants lead you from
the foyer and then to a stairwell. And you kind
of climb up the stairwell. And as you do, Halo,
you pass by this thick wooden door at the bottom
of the stairs, lined with these wet red vines,
which kind of creep from beneath it. And you
feel that pull from this door. I will stand there
for a second and look at it, but overcome the
urge to immediately go wander in there. I get
a feeling that someone will grab my shoulders
and turn me back around. Absolutely. You go to
your rooms. You each get your own room. Unless
for some reason you need to bunk together. They
are dusty and worn. They are in a state that
suggests that one time they were frequently used.
But they're like scratches on the floor. They're
pages torn from like a pad of paper on one of
the desks. Someone has carved the initials K
.A. onto the windowsill in one of your rooms.
But otherwise, they're pretty nice. Okay. Who
did the friendly man say was going to sleep really
well tonight? Booker. Booker, you fall asleep
instantly and you have the best sleep of your
life. You are not waking up. Yay. Hell yeah.
Something about everything that has just gone
on. God. That tuckers you out. Good times in
the Booker room. Do the rest of you go to sleep?
Oh. I think Bailey tries to. Yeah, Ledger does
eventually. He like lays in smokes for a little
while. Yeah, you probably hear pacing in Bailey's
room and then eventually sleep and then maybe
some more pacing and then sleep. Great. Halo,
let's talk about you. I'll wait a while. You
wait a while. And when it gets quiet, I go to
the door. You hear hushed voices from outside
the door. Beneath the door, some red vines have
begun to climb in. Climbing up to your doorknob,
even. My doorknob? Mm -hmm. From inside. As if
trying to open it for you. That's nice. Yeah.
I want to stay out of sight of the hushed voices,
but I want to listen in on them. The voices say...
Actually, make me discern. There's no consequences
to failing this. I just want to see discern haven.
Actually, no. This is discern occult. I take
it back. Roll me another d10. There you go. Success.
That would have been a... Yeah. The voices say,
he follows the vines down to the basement. I
follow the vines down to the basement. As you
exit your room, you see a gentle red light pulsing
at the end of the hall, at the stairwell. The
vines mark the floor in such a way as to guide
you in the direction of the hushed voices which
have receded to the stairwell. I'm feeling great.
These vines are my friends. They're helping me.
I'm going. As you follow them, the vines down,
you hear another voice. And it says, inexplicably,
the door is open. You reach the bottom of the
stairs and the door that was closed before is
open. A red light shining from down the stairs
with more voices. Ayla walks through. You go
down. The red light seems to get brighter as
you go down these stairs into the basement. Ahead,
these hushed voices start to quiet and they kind
of bleed into the sound of dripping water. The
stone of the stairway is sticky and almost soft
as these vines have completely overgrown them
in this tangled web as your feet press into them.
They seem to caress you slightly as you walk
down, growing up you slightly, but then letting
go of you. And you reach the bottom of the stairs.
What did you say? I said pets them. There is
a long hallway at the bottom of the stairs, at
the end of which is a pinkish door. Cool. So
Halo has his lamp while he's doing this journey.
He doesn't have his backpack. I think he's carrying
it with both hands in front of him, gingerly.
Just kind of holding it from the bottom, cradling
it. And he looks a little more iridescent than
usual. Usually the sheen is only on his head.
But right now the red glow is kind of playing
off his whole body. And he's continuing down
the hallway. You arrive at the door. Do I hear
anything else? It's just dripping water now.
Open the door. You open the door. A light seems
to explode outwards, blinding you momentarily.
Your sight goes black for some time, and oddly,
when your sight goes, that sound of dripping
water seems to go as well, as if all your senses
are dulled. But eventually, it recedes, and beyond
the door, in this basement, you see a strange
sight, impossibly, but... Not unexpectedly, in
this stone room, hundreds of miles away from
where it's supposed to, lined with pulsing red
vines, is your birthplace. Describe it to us,
Halo. It is in a small clearing, surrounded by
leafless trees. The ground is dry. There are
rocks jutting up here and there. Some of them
look a little bit more like teeth than they should.
And in a divot in this clearing, there is a crater
that is surrounded by a circle of these rocks,
all looking like sharp teeth, canine in nature.
And the center of this crater is where Halo originally
exploded from his lamp. And he looks excited.
He does an excited little jump. And he scrambles
down into the clearing and into the crater. He
sits there, cross -legged, with the lamp in his
hands. Does he hear anything else? No. But the
vines start growing towards you. Slowly. He lets
them. Yeah, the vines grow towards him. And he
places the lantern in his lap and then puts his
hands down flat against the earth, on either
side of him. And the vines kind of grow. into
him. And the glow that happened underneath his
skin, the glowing veins from when he last used
Extinguish, or attempted to use it on the puppet,
happens again. Kind of yellow. Kind of red. Maybe
red and pulsing yellow. And he begins to meditate
on his dreams and the images from his dream journal.
And as this is happening, His face starts to
open up again, but more this time. And it just
keeps unfurling. It keeps unfurling like a rose,
but with an impossible amount of petals. And
as it's doing so, it glows brighter and brighter
until he is this strange, unfurled, glowing light
atop his featureless black body. And... He feels
like in order to find out where he came from,
where he really came from, he needs to give her
a name. And this unfurling takes a long time.
It's been maybe an hour in the making as he's
connected to these vines and meditating and receiving
these images. And he feels this warm, comforting
embrace around his shoulders. And he realizes
he needs to go to Mother. Mother is the city.
The city is Mother. And as soon as he realizes
this, all of the images, all of the glow, suddenly
goes away. And he awakens again from his meditation,
and he's in the fetal position, sitting in the
middle of the crater. And the vines are gone.
And I don't know if he's still in the crater
or not, or if he wakes up just maybe in a storeroom.
Maybe he wakes up just in the basement. He gets
this afterimage of the crater, but it fades away
really rapidly. And then he's just curled up
in the basement floor around some, I don't know,
sacks of potatoes or something. But he's happy.
He's elated. He got what he wanted. The broken
lantern is still... tucked in between his limbs.
He picks it up off the floor and goes back to
bed and goes to sleep. As you complete your ritual
and you wake up on this floor, you hear the door
creak when you came through. And turning towards
it, you see a big, oily, black smear and a greasy,
inhuman handprint on the door. The red vines,
which have receded for the most part, are drinking
hungrily of this black fluid, which is on the
door and pooling beneath it, like a bunch of
thirsty animals. They become engorged as the
fluid is absorbed, and they kind of recede just
a little bit, as if sated by it. What seemed
like an hour was far more than that. Above you,
you hear the servants beginning to stir as the
morning has arrived. Someone has tampered with
your lantern in your sleep. What does it look
like now? It looks like someone has cleaned it.
It's in much better shape. It's still broken.
But you see inscribed on the inside of it, there
are some numbers. Three numbers, starting with
a zero. You can choose what those numbers are.
I'll give you time to think on it. But it says
number, period, zero, then the three numbers
that you're looking for. Okay. Back in the bedrooms,
the morning sun creeps through the western windows
to your quarters. Outside of those windows, the
town awakens. People pass by the displayed body
of the former deadwalker, Ticker Grey. Creeping
black tendrils of entropy radiate from his neck,
where he is hung above the Divine's Respite Inn.
There will be an investigation, but it will turn
up no leads. And those who serve the Institute,
Ledger's masters, will know there is no escape.
And those who do try, or assist those who would
run, will be punished. Elsewhere in town, black
smoke seeps from the cracks beneath the doors
of the Glow Foundation Library. Within... The
librarian spends his last moments looking on
as hungry flames consume the countless books
in front of him. He allows himself a despairing
smile as he sees the corpse of a charred rat
fall from the rafter above. And finally, within
Albright Manor, in the highest room, looking
eastwards towards the spine, a gnarled, oily
hand begins to write a letter. And we'll end
there. Nice. Somebody else killed old Ticker.
Why'd you do it, Ledger? Why'd you do it? Unforgettable.
I thought you tried doing a good thing.