Today, I was struck by terrible clarity. A rare
moment of understanding amidst the writhing pains
of my twisted, undying flesh. I saw clearly the
failures of my expeditions into the City of Glass.
I saw my ailing mind buckling under the inevitable
realization of futility. This thing that I try
to control, it slips from my grasp. It defies
manipulation. All I have done, all I have sacrificed,
will be for nothing. Every person that I feed
to this doomed script will further condemn me.
It will undo any of the good that I have accomplished.
I must stop. You must stop. You have already
stolen the most vital part of yourself away,
and you have no right to manipulate it further.
This plan will not succeed. There is no loophole
to exploit here. You double your own suffering,
and for what? Please, listen to me. It is never
too late to stop this cruelty. You do not need
to send this group into the city. You can spare
them. You can spare yourself. It doesn't have
to be... It doesn't have to be... There is always
a way always We are so close Hello. Welcome back
to All That You Know. Today, we're going to be
returning to the City of Glass. I am Colin. I
am the Game Master. Joining me today are Brian.
Hi, I'm Brian, and I'm playing Booker Page, the
Incarnadine. Ewan. Hello, I'm Ewan. I am playing
Halo, the Witch. Zach. I'm Zach, and I'm playing
Ledger Grey, the Deadwalker. And Adam. Hi, I'm
Adam. I'm playing Bailey Cormac, the Junk Mage.
Yeah, of course you are. Let's talk about beats
and fallouts. What are you having your character
pursue? What are they suffering from? Booker,
tell me everything. So, my current beats are
Major, learner possess something that lessens
the control your masters have over you, and Minor,
forge a friendship, a romantic relationship with
an NPC. Booker has the fallouts foreboding. Basically,
he's worried. Something's about to go bad, and
this can be upgraded to crisis. And also dark
cravings for teeth. So next time he tries to
visit a haunt and refresh his blood or mind stress,
he needs to eat. Mmm, yummy. Halo. Crunchy. My
active beats, Halo's active beats, are the minor
beat of terrifying or intriguing an NPC with
my obsession, and the little ol' major beat of
destroying an entire haven, returning the land.
To mother. And I got the fallout of half rations.
Running a little low on food. When you remove
stress, I have to roll two dice and pick the
lowest of the two, so I remove more stress than
usual. But another party can save me from half
rations by marking D6 stress to supplies. So
our group supplies. Great. Bailey. Hi, I'm Bailey,
the Junk Mage. I have two active beats. Both
are major. Both are the same ones from last time
since I didn't actually do them. They are take
major supplies fallout and destroy a haunt to
learn more about your task. And then I have one
fallout used up. That's the name of it. You cannot
use any healing items you own ongoing. That's
a supplies minor. And ledger. Ledger's beats
are firstly the major beat of learn slash possess
something that lessens your master's control
over you. and the minor beat of betray someone
because of your true nature and he has only one
fallout but it's a very nice one echo minor the
ravening call somewhere nearby something very
very hungry awaits to pounce i don't think this
one actually has any mechanical effects other
than if it gets upgraded to a major something
very bad will happen yes and just to remind you
all i can at any time combine two minor fallouts
to make a major oh my god that's why would you
do that one man You wouldn't do that to us, would
you? Two of our own minors? Yes. To make a major?
Yeah. It'd be funny if I could combine between
players. That'd be an interesting little idea.
And also two majors can be combined into a lethal
fallout. Super major. As well. I'm not going
to do that to you out of the blue, but it's worth
considering that that could happen. Okay. Last
time you guys made your way through the desolate
burnt forest. There was a lot of trouble at the
end there, and you kind of barely squeezed out
without getting very hurt. Along the way, you
acquired an extremely valuable box. Ledger's
skin began to grow teeth from within, and when
you finally emerged, you found that you were
not where you were supposed to be at all. You
are in a completely different settlement than
you intended to arrive. If you are to follow
your employer's instructions, you should make
contact with Downfall. using the instructions
he gave you once you have a chance to get settled
in. So you've come out into this humid, moonless
night, which seems to have come on very fast
from the almost pale daylight of the forest.
Ahead of you is a veritable caravan of wagons
and creatures loaded with goods. Each is kind
of aglow with light from people's personal lanterns.
Many of them do not seem to be the type that
are typically meant for travel. chests and like
furniture, keepsakes that kind of indicate that
these may be permanent residents moving instead
of, you know, like a traders. About 200 feet
down the road is the beginning of a small hamlet
with big wooden walls and a sign that is naming
it as Micah, which is not the town of Dirt Hole
or Flitchburg that you had expected. The closest
wagon ahead of you. is packed full of large pieces
of weird -looking dried fungus, and it is pulled
by a giant isopod, which you recognize to be
a common beast of burden here in the City of
Glass. The locals call them Rolands. They're
prized for their sturdiness and their ability
to navigate the city's treacherous landscape.
Roland Poland. And there are four... armed personnel
manning this wagon who kind of look on edge as
you come out of the forest, but they do give
you a little unsure wave. I have a quick question
before we start, and I'm really sorry about this.
When you mentioned it, I remembered that I had
teeth growing beneath my skin. I didn't write
that down as a fallout. I think that might have
just been negligence on my part. I thought it
was on there. Booker Page. I only have the ravening
call. Oh. I remember it happening. That was major,
wasn't it? You got a major echo of blooded. That's
right. It is ongoing. I'll paste it in the chat.
It has some mechanical effects as well. It makes
it harder to... You take more damage in blood
stress, basically. Because your teeth break against
the skin. Your skin teeth break against your
skin. Yeah, they're rupturing. They're rupturing.
I hate it. I hate the word rupture. It's a bad
word, but it's really, really police. They are
just giant, really police. I am not a creative
man. All right. But they are very cute. I think
I think that ever since he's had this kind of
teeth issue begin, he's kind of been like absolutely
rubbing the back of his neck where he can feel
some of them next to his spine. Um, but he kind
of raises a hand as these kind of, as these guys
wave at us and he's like, uh, greetings there.
I don't know if we're in the place we're supposed
to be. This don't look like dirt hole to me.
If I had a guess. What, what do you like? One
of the guys in the wagon is holding like a big
coach gun says, no, um, that that's, that's back
the way you came. Where are you? Where'd you
come from? We came from Calamity, and only a
few days of that, I might add. There's no path
from Calamity to Micah. You'd have to have gone
into the hole in Dirt Hole to get here, and then
pass through the Underhive. Did we do that? No.
You don't have any, like, lost time, memory issues?
No, sir, not as far as I know, and I think Ledger
turns back to look. at the rest of his companions.
Shake my head. Nope. Halo shrugs. The guy kind
of talks to his companions and says, Oh, shit.
That's not good. That's really just not good.
I hope the city didn't move because we have to
get to Dirt Hole with our cargo and everyone
here is trying to evacuate to the Ender Hive
or Dirt Hole and we don't really know the way
to Calamity. Why are y 'all leaving? Yeah, I
want Halo to stay. What is evacuating? We are,
if I understand your question. Why? There's the
farms here. We lost the farms, so we can't really
feed anyone or sell anything. And things are
kind of crawling up from the farms. And I don't
really trust the church. Or the foreman to really
handle it. So kind of everyone's kind of just
leaving this place. Well, this town's finished.
Instead of leaving, can't you just look for the
farms if you lost them? Is this is your demon?
Is he feeding on me right now? Is he feeding
on me right now? I feel like he is. No, he just
he's new. to this whole concept of existence.
You'll have to forgive his impurity. Uh -huh.
What's coming out of the ground? Uh, well, if
the farmers are to be believed, it's like, um,
sort of a parasitic, sentient fungus. Is it active?
Y 'all got a cart full of mushrooms. Well, yeah,
these are the good ones. These are the ones we
grow. They're really valuable. They only grow
here. It was pretty great. It was pretty great.
If I was a fungus and I was mind controlling
someone with a cart, that might be exactly the
kind of thing I would put into this. Who said
anything about mind control? I don't know. I
guess I came up with that one on my own. Just
something to consider, friend. Well, yeah. You
should probably turn around. I think this is
not the place you want to be. Nonsense. I believe
this is just a shortcut of sorts. We're simply
passing through after all. Yeah, the issue, the
issue. So you, let me get this straight. So you
came from Calamity and now you're here, right?
Yes. Do you know you're like three miles underground?
If Bailey looks up, does he see anything above
him? It is a dark and moonless and starless night
above you. I don't see any stars. I might explain
it. It works. You're in a cave. You're in a big
cave. It's very humid. Oh, shit. Yeah, so your
only real options are If you are passing through,
you would have to go back. You have to go back
and then go to the corpse fields. But you don't
want to do that, though. You are not set to do
that. Or you'd have to go through the fungus
problem in the farms. And I don't think you want
to do that either. The city move. Corpse field
sounds bad. Yeah, it's really bad. You really
do not want to go to the corpse fields. Not without
like a big suit. Don't make us go back to the
corpse fields, please. Okay, calm down. We can
go through. I met a fungus or two in my time.
And I think I will perhaps converse with these
farmers before we decide to pass through or not
pass through as the case may be. But I appreciate
your advice. Yeah, anytime. We're going to leave
now. Good luck. The trees explode, so just watch
your ass. Have fun evacuating. Thanks, little
buddy. It feels like I almost got choked out
of him a little bit. Bailey gives him a thumbs
up. It still did. Okay, you're in Micah. It is
a tiny town. You now realize you're in a cave,
which is good. I was kind of worried when I wrote
this that I was burying the lead a little bit,
and I'm glad that came up. It's a big cave town.
There's a lot of buildings around you. Most of
them seem to be abandoned at this point. You
do see a big church building kind of farther
up in the cave, but there's not... The signage
here is very poor. It's not very clear where
things are. Hmm. Well, let's pause for one second
and think of what we need to do. I would love.
Do we have resources? I would love to get this.
These teeth like this major fallout I have is
not. Good. I'm effectively taking double damage.
It's gross, but mechanically it's also very bad.
Does anybody else want to see you? Because I
don't know what haunts are even going to be here,
but I'm going to go to the church maybe and see
if I can get my tooth situation done. Always
dealing with teeth situations here. Yeah, Booker
will come. In the City of Glass. He's tired of
being hungry. Yeah, I think maybe Ledger might
look to his compatriots and say, Now, I know
we have some things to do before we move on.
We will need to contact Downfall. I might like
to see if I can't talk to a preacher about some
unusual growth beneath my skin. It's getting
a little uncomfortable to walk around. Hmm. You
think that's the church that the lady was talking
about in the forest? Could be. Could she give
us something? Do us a favor. I don't have it
written down. I don't know if somebody else does.
Did we get something from her? Yeah, it's a note.
Do you a favor? Okay. Oh, wait, do we know about
that note? Yes. You're all there. Well, they
do owe us a favor, so we can use that. One thing
to note is that the church that she referred
to specifically was not in this town. It was
in one of the towns you're supposed to arrive
at. What was the religion called? Holy, that
was the Holy Bruise guys. Yeah, but Holy Bruise.
As to not cause suspense for no reason, you are
in luck as that is also the church here. Church
of the Holy Bruise. Okay, I'm going to just,
I'm going to zip you over there. Before we get
zipped over there, Halo is looking through his
bag and he pulls out this like kind of small
orange with a moldy spot, and he's like, Ew.
My problem is that I don't have any good oranges
left. Do you think they'll have any at the church?
Oh, possibly, but you could also run along to...
I mean, if anybody's still selling things here,
just go buy some supplies. Yeah, have you ever
eaten one of those? When it's like that? I don't
really know what this is, he points at the moldy
spot. It's fuzzy flavor. You know, you can give
it a shot. We don't know what could happen. He's
a demon, right? This is the worst thing Bailey
has ever done. Booker looks at Bailey. What's
wrong with you? You don't know anything about
him. You don't know anything about him. Halo's
mouth starts to open up in the creepy way that
it does. If anyone stops him, he might eat it.
Booker's trying to grab your hand. Do I have
to roll for this? No, you stop him. He puts the
orange back in the bag, though. He doesn't get
rid of it. So, to loop back to our conversation
we had before we started recording, if you...
Because Bailey wants to get his supplies fall
out. I mean, not Bailey himself, but that's his
beat. So Adam wants Bailey to get his supplies
fall out. Sure do. And Halo's... fallout of half
rations which is why his orange is moldy can
be fixed if a party member takes d6 supplies
to like show that you are giving halo supplies
to fix that oh shit there you go so if you're
hungry for supply stress you could just do that
i can i can just fix his moldy orange possibly
by giving him some of my own oranges yes Bogarting
this whole time. Bogarting the orange, bro. I
rip the orange, mold the orange from your hand
and I dropkick it just like into the cave. And
then I open up my own fucking backpack. Since
everyone's angry, fine, fine! Get one of my own
oranges. It hits the ceiling with the sound like
a kickball, a dodgeball. And you hear someone
moan in the background. Oh, God. Okay, roll me
D6, Adam. Just slash R, D6? Yeah, you're going
to take that much supply stress. Slash R, slash
R, D6. Four. Oh, it's big. So that takes you
up to however much that is. I just have, I was
at zero before now. Okay, now you have to make
a fallout test. Please. Oh, okay. I'm going to
hit a fallout test right now. Okay. There you
go. So, Adam, you got a minor fallout. You rolled
a five versus an eight. But I know we've been
struggling to get you this major fallout. So
a stalactite falls on my back back. So here's,
I'll make a proposition for you. A devil's bargain.
A devil's bargain, which is I will let you just
keep your stress and not take this fallout. And
then the next time you take a Fallout test, it'll
be a guaranteed major Fallout. This is not a
good thing for most people, but since you have
that beat, I'm willing to set that up for you.
Okay, so I'd be taking no stress right now, and
then next time it's a guaranteed major? Yeah,
just leave it as it is, keep all your stress
the way it is, and then next time I'm just going
to give you a major, if it's appropriate. I'll
take that bargain, my devil. You're welcome,
my angel. What happens then, narratively? You
give Halo some oranges, right? Yeah, I guess
so. It works out, right? I think maybe you're
just handing these oranges, and you know how
in The Godfather, when an orange shows up, someone's
about to die? You have like a... Narratively
similar foreboding about that, I guess. You're
like, wow, I'm giving you these oranges and it
feels really weird, but it'd be weird to take
them back. Be careful with this one. And I put
it in your hand, Halo. It's a special orange.
And then he puts that one in the backpack and
then he takes the other ones and his mouth does
the really crazy peeling back thing where it's
full of teeth and he puts an orange in there.
It's like, thank you. Yum. Yeah. No problem.
Okay. Good. That all has happened. You are at
the Church of the Holy Bruise. It's a big stone
building, which is... It's not clear if it's
been painted or if some of the stones are just
purple, blue, and green. They look bruised. The
interior is weird for a church. There are some,
like, curved pews, but they're sitting around
a bloodied arena in which there are two completely
nude figures which are beating each other with
notched wooden sticks. Off to the side, there's
a small medical area where a robed man is tending
to, like, a couple other bruised and bloodied
figures. BDSM Church. Sick. Maybe you ought to
do a couple rounds in the ring before they fix
you up. What do they do when they see us saunter
in here? Well, two of them are fighting. It's
kind of sparse in here. So there's the two fighting
there, and then there's two, I guess, people
in the medical area laying down with this one
robe figure looking over them. I guess the robe
figure would look over to you and just, like,
acknowledge you. Kind of too busy to walk over
to you and welcome you, but you've been acknowledged.
You may approach. I think, yeah, they're just
going to walk in, and he's going to have his
arms, his lanky arms wide, and he's going to
be like, gentlemen! Oh. It is a pleasure to make
all of your acquaintance. I'm looking for some
assistance in a quasi -spiritual matter that
has been troubling me as of late. Are you saying
this to anyone in particular? Probably the robed
guy who acknowledged we were there. Sure. But
also kind of just to the room. Yeah, the two
fighters kind of look at you briefly and then
continue smacking each other bloody. Maybe a
little bit of blood spurts out in your direction
and you narrowly dodge it. Um, the, the robed
man kind of, he's like looking very intently
at the various wounds of these, these nude people
who are not the, not the ones fighting, but the
ones who are like laid out in front of him. Um,
and he's like kind of muttering to himself like,
no, that's not it. That's not it. You two can
go. And then, you know, give them some, some
poultices and unjuice, you know, as people do
and send them on their way. And he walks over
to you and says, What is the nature of your illness?
I have what I believe to be teeth or other sort
of hard protrusions growing underneath my skin
and inside of my joints and muscles. And I think
he probably grabs the front of his shirt and
pulls it down to reveal some weird protruding
ridges coming out from underneath his collarbone.
The rope guy says, I believe introductions are
in order first. Of course. My name is Ledger
Gray, traveler, adventurer, a man of many hats,
and he tips his own shabby little short top hat
as he says that. He only has one hat. What the
fuck? The rest are in my bag. And these are my
traveling companions whom I will allow to make
their own introductions. Hailey tips his bigger
hat. Oh my God. Showmanship. Show -upmanship.
Exactly. My name is High Cudgel Mint. I am the
ranking church official here. Do you have any
bruises? Cuts? Anything of that like? I do not
believe so. It's been some time since we've had
a physical altercation. Well, philosophical altercations
are the focus of this church, Mr. Gray. We do
not tend to the soul. Well, we tend to the soul
in the way that the bruise tends to the soul.
Hence the name, Church of the Holy Bruise. Hello,
says, kind of whispers to Leisure. Should we
mention the lady? I suppose we could. If you
cannot help me, then you cannot help me, and
for that I will obviously not begrudge you, but
perhaps it would do to let you know we did rescue
a person who claimed to be a member of your organization
in good standing. Booker pulls out the paper
and brings it over. The High Cudgel takes the
paper and kind of looks it over and says, hmm,
Midknuckle Jowl, is it? You know it. Yes. She
does have a habit of writing favors that she
isn't quite owed, but I will not place that on
you. She is a member of one of our sister churches
in Dirt Hall or Flitchburg, whichever one I said
last session. Edit it in and keep that tone of
voice. But what are you looking for? Do you want
us to exchange this for currency? Is that what
you're asking? Well, I was hoping you could help
me with your little tooth problem, to be perfectly
honest, but it seems that that is not the case.
We don't have any... We are a very remote settlement.
The nearest soul ward would have to be in Camp
Rascal or way back in Dirt Hole. Yeah. Camp Rascal.
Now, I am interested in that. That wouldn't happen
to be past your presently afflicted farmland
now, would it? It would be. That's the next one
down. I would assume you'd be familiar with it,
judging by your accent, that is. Hmm. I can't
say that I am. This is my first time coming around
this way. I see. Well, there is a... One of your
countrymen is in the mildew brewery down the
way. She maintains the place. She might be able
to help you with... I don't know. I don't want
to be insensitive, but you Cathari often congregate
together, and seeing as how you are a Cathari
not wearing uniform, which is unusual, and she's
a Cathari not wearing usual uniform, then maybe
that... I basically just look at bruises here
and help with that stuff. I see. Well, it has
been a pleasure. I think he turns around. If
any of you all wish to make use of this IOU here,
if you have a bruise -related matter, you can
feel free, but I believe what I seek is not in
this location. I think we have to go to the Milduri.
I think I need something similar. So is soul
ward like a commonly known term for person who
heals echo problems? A soul ward is specifically
a Cathari echo healer. It's not. That's what
they call them, which is I think he was using
that parlance because of your accent. Yeah. You're
being racially profiled. Oh my god. I'm not even
a real Cathari. That's so fucked up. Does he
not like us? So like, your... I don't even know
if we really talked about your situation on mic
or really gestured to it. Your body is Cathari.
Is there like some kind of distinction between
Cathari and normal humans? He bears like the
physical characteristics of a Cathari. What are
the ethical traits of the Cathari? Ethical? Ethnic
traits? I think they're a little tan. They're
islanders. Maybe like a... I don't know. This
is up to you, Zach. What does a Cathari look
like? They live on a big island to the south.
I always imagine them as kind of like tan. Maybe
a little stout. I don't know. I wonder, because
Ledger himself is very lanky. I've made reference
to that several times. He's lanky and thin. Yeah,
maybe they're lanky. Or maybe, you know, not
everyone looks the same in a country. You could
be a particularly lanky Kithari. I don't know.
Sure. I mean, yeah, I never considered that people
might also profile him as a Kithari because of
his vague physical characteristics rather than
just his voice, but that is... Good to know.
The Qatari accent is very distinctive in the
setting. Yes, I know. Very infectious, too. Infectious.
But most Qatari are in the military and have
a uniform. That's where you're set apart. If
no one has any blood stuff to do, I think the
high cudgel will be a doll and will just exchange
your debt for a equally valuable pouch of blood
sand. Let's call it D6 blood sand. Yeah. Okay.
Or it's technology. It's technology domain. What
a doll. Okay. Okay. He bids you adieu. I mean,
he would offer. He would offer. He is religiously
obligated to say, if you happen to want any extra
cash, we always offer money for fights. Oh. Ooh.
Well, I have to, well, normally a good bout of
fisticuffs is of some interest to me. This tooth
situation makes it a little painful to throw
a punch. I want to fight. Can you, can you, can
you bruise? I don't know. I think he might just
crack. We can find out. I haven't been hit yet,
so this is a new thing that could happen. Can
Ledger cock back and punch Halo in the head?
Only in the ring. I only counted the ring. I
was going to say it. I don't mean to be improper.
I believe demons can be as industrious as men.
But the purpose of the Church of the Holy Bruise
is to, if you're not familiar, find the Holy
Bruise. And your skin is... It is the color of
the night. I don't imagine it could bruise. This
guy's fucking sweating, trying not to get canceled.
What if it bruises lighter? Do you have... I
can't guarantee you payment unless you bruise.
There's another demon in town. who runs the farm,
and that one doesn't bruise, really. But I know
you're not all alike. That would be very rude
of me to say. Has he bruised a little? You said
he doesn't bruise, really. It's complicated,
given... What is a bruise, really? A bruise is
a physical response to trauma on the skin, typically
blunt trauma more than cutting trauma. Uh -huh.
can i can i actually punch halo like in the shoulder
or something not in the face but just like on
the arm i want you to just bite him i don't want
to break my fucking teeth he's not like solid
glass i think he has like made of obsidian so
it was probably all conceived of him to even
punch him that's funny no he's he's warm flesh
I'm gonna do it. Ledger, while this conversation
back and forth is happening, Ledger's just gonna
punch him on the arm. Yeah, roll to see how much
damage he does. Do I need to make an attack?
Do we need to exchange some stress here to even
see if this is possible? I mean, I wouldn't...
Getting, like, socked in the arm, I don't think
I would represent as stress. Like, I think that's
not serious enough to do it. So, Halo, what happens?
You get even socked in the arm. It kinda hurt.
Yeah, I guess the last thing he's looking for
is a bruise, and then Ledger just suddenly does
this out of nowhere, and he jumps and says, ow,
that hurt. Oh, uncalled for. No, what the hell?
I'm trying to answer a question here. Now, that
is a light punch, firstly. If you went in the
ring, it would be a lot more pain like that,
but worse. Now, let's take a look at what's going
to happen. I don't think a light punch would.
bruise that easily. It's hard to bruise someone.
It takes a little bit more effort. Let's assume
it was hard enough that it would bruise a normal
person. Okay. I guess if a bruise shows up in
a couple minutes, what you notice is that the
point where his fist made contact around the
knuckle area, it starts to faintly glow. And
Halo's rubbing at it. Hey, look at that. Super
bruise. Check that out. Now, that ain't exactly
the right color. Forgive me. Actually, no. Ledger
has the religion domain, so he probably gets
that. I imagine this is not what they're looking
for, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Does
a bruise have to be dark in their scripture?
Is the color stated? It's glowing. It's holy.
I think... I'll tell you this, Ledger. You're
familiar with religions. You probably know that
the church, they're very common in the City of
Glass. The actual bruise they're looking for
is not something that is common knowledge. It
is a secret. It is like the Coca -Cola formula,
which, as we know, is the greatest secret that
modern man is aware of. So I think the high cudgel
would look at this and say, I am... Glad that
you are discovering new things about yourself.
But I don't believe you would be a good specimen
for my offer. I see three good specimens among
you, though. Well, maybe two, really. What? He
looks at Bailey and Booker. Let's start punching
them. Oh. It's up to you. What are we doing now?
Taylor readies a fist. Don't punch me, okay?
I don't think we need the money. We're fine.
If we need to get money, we can come back here
and wail upon each other. It's nothing new. We're
going our way, huh? In the future, lead with
that. Yes. Okay. Goodbye. Goodbye. I saw a mud
crab the other day. I want to use Lost It All,
Colin. You want to use Lost It All now? Yes.
I want to see if there's anything valuable. What's
the range of Lost It All? It just is the nearest
source of wealth. And not things on. I'm going
to discount the box. I'm always going to tell
you how valuable that box is. The box is incredibly
valuable. Can we adjust that out? Oh, let me.
I actually have a thing I wrote about this place.
Let me talk about it really quick. I'm going
to give you I'm going to give you a more like
vague answer. um, with like a higher breadth
to it. So the high cudgel here is holding a,
has his own staff. This one's metal. It has these
little nodules on it. Um, which looks quite valuable.
It's definitely got the shine to it. Um, and
then there's like a little, some money stashed
in the corner of this church too, that you probably
detect that they use for paying people. And then
like, Value. What is value? What is value, Brian?
Booker, specifically. What is value, Booker?
A cookie. A really good one. An orange. In this
case, anything the church wouldn't necessarily
want to see go. So, like, think about it this
way. Let's talk about capital. This church is
getting crazy. City of glass economy. Like a
fat, like a really nice TV is valuable, but a
factory that makes TVs in Booker's recollection.
Is that also very valuable? Yes. Show up. Yes.
Beneath the town of Micah, there is something
extremely valuable, but extremely foreign. Oh
shit. Huh. Booker just kind of stares at his
feet. You see some sick ass boots. What do they
look like? No. He doesn't think about that. But
thank you. That's a fun answer. And I'll take
that. Booker confirmed barefoot. Let's go. You
want to go to the brewery? Is that what we were
doing before we got on this tangent? We are a
big fan of mold -based drinking products, as
has already been said. Mold -do -ery. We're not
calling it a brewery. It's a mold -do -ery. It's
the mildew brewery. The mildew brewery. Before
we leave, I do want to walk over to the ring,
and then Bailey's going to watch the fighters
go at it, and then he's going to say out loud,
he's going to kind of look at them and be like,
is that? No. It couldn't be. No way. And then
he's going to walk away. Do you want to elaborate?
No. Do not. Do not elaborate. Maybe Bailey says,
that can't be the right shape. There's no way.
And then he walks away. Fucking rude. One of
the fighters looks at his bruise insecurely.
Glad they heard. Okay. You go out of the church,
down into the town. I think the guy gave you
instructions. There's like a hatch. There's a
hatch in the ground with like a wooden stairwell
which takes you into a cellar -like room. It
is a musty, humid hole with an earthy smell.
There's a number of barrels which have been cut
into a makeshift bar at the other end of the
room. It is dimly lit by some glowing slime mold
on the ceiling. The only person in here is presumably
the bartender and purveyor who is kind of scraping
some sort of lichen off of a rock and into a
glass. Um, she is... I guess she has a Cathari
complexion. Um, and she probably calls out and
says, Oh, come on in, folks. Um, but she is not
wearing, like, a uniform or anything like that.
Welcomes you up to the bar. I can't help but
notice that you're not skipping town with basically
everyone else who lives here. Well, those people
who are here are extremely stressed, and they
love to drink. I see. You got the market cornered,
as it were. Yeah, and these barrels are heavy,
so I want to pour them down someone's gullet
as much as I can before I hop out. I see. The
name is Ledger Gray. These are my traveling companions.
Now, we're hoping to shuffle on a little way
to the next settlement, something or other camp,
I believe it was called. Camp Rascal. Yeah, that
was it. He said you might know something, but
I think he might have just assumed that I would
want to talk to you because we share the same
vocal inflection, as it were. She kind of like
looks at you. Do I know you from somewhere? Where'd
you serve? Would you believe me if I told you
I never served anywhere? And everywhere. But
not who you think. Ain't that right, baby? He
looks over his shoulder. What the fuck? That's
right. Way to creep her out. Well, I wouldn't...
Well, what's your story, then? I don't mean to
pry, but were you born here? Were you born on
the island? I don't think we have enough time
to get into it, and I trust you wouldn't believe
me if I told you. And he smiles, and maybe just
a little something flickers through. Ew. All
right. Were you going to buy some drinks then?
Friends? Can we just have a drink without working
on an exchange of resources? But if anyone has
any mind stress, now would be a time to dump
it out. I don't. Booker does. Booker, do you
want to get rid of some of that? I see you don't
have any D4 items, but you can get rid of D6.
Stress. You hand over some of them. I could break
down... I have some Cathari tallies. You can
break them down. I could break it down to a d4.
Well, Booker has tallies. Oh, sure. We also get
Bloodsand we can use. Am I crazy? Yeah, you can...
Any of your resources you can exchange here,
and you'll get a recovery of that much stress
according to its dice. Take this cursed puppet,
ma 'am, for one cold drink. Okay, can I break
down my d6 tallies then? Yeah, I think you can
break down a d6 into 2d4, I think. Okay. So,
yeah, roll a d4 and then get rid of one of those
d4s. Done. You recover one mind stress. Hell
yeah. You get served up an... This sucks. Well,
maybe it's not to your taste, fancy pants, but
that's my most affordable swill. What are you
giving these people? Mold. Oh, my. Master downs
it gratefully, his own little tiny glass, and
he's like, I don't know what you're on about.
It tastes moldy. It tastes like sunshine. That's
my 24 -hour mildew right there. I can break out
the 48, but it's going to cost you extra. Oh,
God. I give my drink to Halo. Can I have a straw?
No. Straw, straw, straw, straw. No, we don't
got those. It's like a tube or a small pot, perhaps.
You have to forgive the lady. He has trouble
consuming liquids. Don't ask how he knows what
a straw is. No one asked that. He was born with
a straw. Yeah, we don't got any straws here.
We're kind of a remote settlement. No kidding.
No straws. So, you folks are trying to go to
Camp Rascal. That is the plan. We were told that
there's some kind of situation with the farms
that make that difficult and inadvisable, but...
Yeah, yeah. The Pale Mother. What a name, right?
A mother? Yeah. The pale mother. That's what
they're calling her. It. That doesn't seem like
the right mother. What is it? Well, it seems
to be some sort of parasitic micro -fungal organism.
Macro -fungal. Not micro. I suppose you would
be a bit of an authority on such matters. Well,
not in this... Case, particularly. Listen, friend,
your whole mysterious shtick, I appreciate it.
We know I never really served anywhere. If you
catch my drift, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It's
very cute. I like it. Trust me. I'm a deserter.
My name is literally Deserter Slim. But if you're
going to be going to Camp Rascal and you show
up looking the way you do with your voice, they're
going to... They might ask you some questions
about your credentials. Ugh, they are. Well,
how's this? The name's Ledger. I don't know how
long I can keep that up. Yeah. I work online.
My name's Ledger. Maybe you just let someone
else do the talking. But, I mean, I don't even
know how you're going to get to the camp. What
exactly? So we can't just walk on through, say?
Wouldn't work? Well, by my understanding, they've
sent a few people through and they didn't come
back. Yeah, the foreman, he's kind of in charge
of that thing, the problems, trying to deal with
that. I see. well i'm we can go on visit him
after i've had my fill of this delightful tincture
and i think he has another little sip of his
i like to imagine that she like poured him a
shot like a tall shot he's just like sipping
at it tall shot of mold taste of mold yeah yeah
it's the good stuff he loves the moldy flavor
well this has been most enlightening do you The
Cathari have a war camp all the way here in the
city? How many of those they got dotted around?
Doesn't seem like a great place for, you know,
logistics and all that stuff they seem to care
about quite a great deal. Well, I wouldn't call
it a war camp. It's more like an outpost that's
their farthest outpost in here. It's where they're
doing all their city glass operations. I used
to work with a fellow from there before I deserted,
of course, because it sucked. Oh, I see. Yeah,
that is what I hear. Yeah. I think he's going
to slam the rest of his drink and be like, this
was a lovely and most enlightening conversation.
She squints at you. She says, take off your hat.
She says, take off your hat. I think Ledger will
do it. Revealing his greasy hair on top of his
head? I don't know. Maybe it's the city. Plays
tricks sometimes. You really think I look familiar?
I really do. I can't put my finger on it, though.
Well, next time we meet, I certainly will. Well,
I won't be here, but who knows? Fair enough.
Well, good luck with your eventual evacuation.
I hope you are able to get market value for your...
Delightful mold. Oh, thank you. Good luck with
your task. Yeah, I think we can leave. Unless
anybody else wants some more mold or anything.
I'm good. No. I'm sure the audience loves it
when we talk about drinking mold. I think it's
their favorite thing in my head, I guess. Great
mold. I think it's fucking great. And if you
don't like that, then log off. Get the fuck out
of here. You heard it here first. If you don't
like drinking mold... Then this isn't your show.
Please stay. Don't leave. We don't need them.
We don't need them. This is a drinker's only
podcast. I don't like mold. Alright. Then we
don't need you either. We've drank our mold.
Let's get out of the mold zone. What do you want
to do? I'll lay out some options for you because
I'm generous like that. If you want to make contact
with your employer. Yeah, I was going to say,
we need to do that, don't we? That was like number
one thing on our pregame checklist. It was just
a mention. It wasn't like a checklist. Well,
I saw it in there. It was in there. Am I correct
in remembering that he gave us a bug that can
do that, or how does this work? He gave you a
little box that he said contained information
on contacting him. You never opened the box.
We should go somewhere private, then. I was thinking
that, but Colin, please continue. You said there
was other options. Oh, either that. Either make
contact or go to the farm, or option three, whatever,
you know? A third. Okay. Well, I think Bailey
turns and says, well, that was delicious, guys,
but I think maybe we should make contact with
Downfall. Open up that box. What do you think?
Seems like a wise idea. Booker agrees. All right,
let's get somewhere quiet. Where is somewhere
quiet? Maybe in an alleyway somewhere, although
maybe behind some rocks. Why don't we just go
into a fucking house? There's tons of them. You
can just take them. I mean, there's no one here,
right? It's just empty. The houses here are free.
They're literally free, bro. There's a family
of four in here. What are we going to do? Don't
worry about them. You find an abandoned house.
It is... Completely unremarkable, and I refuse
to describe it. What's the architecture like?
What color is the band? It's fine. It's mid -century
modern. There's a sofa. It's great. It's made
of bug fur, and it fucking chews you when you
sit on it. Are you happy now, you pervert? Yes.
You open your box. You open your special box.
And it contains, one, a pouch of blood sand,
two, a small wooden flute, and three, a slip
of paper with instructions on making contact
that specifies that you must produce a fresh
corpse weighing at least 112 pounds, pour the
blood sand into one of the corpse's orifices,
which one you use does not matter. Then place
his beetle on top of it and play a small melody
on the wooden flute, which is demonstrated on
this slip of paper. Then you have to wait 27
hours and return to the corpse. Damn. Wow. Complicated.
Yeah. Yeah. Not what I was expecting. Where are
we going to get a corpse? It's a lot of work.
Where are we going to get a corpse? Well, you
know. People are leaving, right? A guard might
know. We could stroll on down to the farm. They
might have a corpse. We could also, I suppose,
make one, although that is not always the most
savory option. Hey, don't look at me. I'm not
doing that. Maybe this fight has to be a person
also, just so you know. Oh, that's true. Find
a fresh bug corpse. Bug corpse. I would sooner
murder a person than one of these giant isopod.
I'd sooner kill you, Bailey, before I touch a
bug. I want a soundbite of Bailey saying bug
corpse in that intonation. I would kill this
whole town before I allowed harm to fall to a
single giant isopod. You can quote me on that.
We will. I guess. This is good because we can
set our message up and then go maybe see what's
going on with this farm situation while we wait
for it to percolate. My first thought is, were
there any livestock pens, bug or otherwise? They
probably would have taken any livestock with
them. Yeah, so nobody's sticking around. Is there
a cemetery? Although sometimes when people need
to evacuate and they can't bring an animal, they
will kill it there. But it does say it has to
be a fresh corpse. Is there, like, a... I guess
I could just have you make, like, a discern roll
or a hunt roll to try to find something. Hunt
an animal down, yeah. Like, I don't have anything...
Let me find a child. I don't have, like, a list
of all the corpses here that I'm like, here are
the great corpses. This is kind of just like
a I make a problem and see what happens situation.
Yeah, yeah, I know. I dig that. So... Roll the
look for livestock, I guess. Livestock, drifters.
Drifters. No one's going to miss this drifter.
We are the drifters. Hey, Booker, why don't you
lay down? Open your mouth. Does Booker have hunt?
I feel like, no, I don't know. I don't think
anybody on our school has hunt. I do not. I got
killed. I have delve. Does anybody have discern?
I do have discern people. I'm very good at discerning
people. Would it be appropriate to have to send
our two favorites, Booker and Bailey, on a combo
mission to discern Haven and try and find a body?
Sure. I'd prefer you didn't split up the party
at this point. I mean, we can all go, but I just
mean they have the appropriate skills. Sure.
Yeah, you know, I have some ideas. Roll it. Haven,
is Booker aiding you? Yes, Booker helps. Okay,
you get an extra die. So discern, haven, plus
one? Yeah, standard. What the fuck? Check this
one out. We're just looking at the city. Success
at a cost. Take stress. Okay. Well, you're in
the upper part of Micah, so you're only going
to take D4 stress here. Maybe I was discerning
with my backpack. We both take one supply stress.
Can I employ my major supplies fallout in this
scenario? Yeah, roll a fallout test, both of
you. For supplies? I think, as while you guys
are walking around, Booker's like, or sorry,
not Booker, Ledger is kind of like looking at
his hand and whispering over his shoulder at
his death, and he looks kind of concerned. Wow.
You know who did get major fallout? Booker did.
Why do you so much stress, Booker? What the fuck?
He's a stressful man. Okay, hold on. I just want
to make sure of something. Did Booker take major
fallout last time? Because it might be... I don't
think so. No way. He doesn't have any new fallouts.
Yeah, I don't. That's because he has a rat tail,
which is inherently stressful. Inherently stressful
hairstyle. Oh, boy. So the guy who needed major
supplies fallout got no fallout, and his friend
got major fallout. He did. No, no, there's nothing
I can do. Tricky here. Okay. What do we find,
Colin? Booker, booker, booker, booker. Well,
you succeeded. So what do you want? Do you want
the bad first or the good first? Give him the
bad first. Oh, okay. Booker, Booker, Booker.
There is, you don't know what it is, right? But
there's, something's calling to you. You had
some of the mold, right? Yep. Cool. Yeah, you
need to go home. You need to go home, and home
is down there through the tunnels. This is a
modified version of the... I forget what it's
called. This one's called Siren Song. You cannot
shake the thought of a particular place or person
from your mind. The GM will pick a nearby landmark
or NPC, which is something at the end of the
farm tunnels. If you do anything other than move
towards it or remove obstacles in your path,
your actions become dangerous. Once you reach
it, this will dissipate. Nice. Love it. So, you...
It's strange. Something comes over you stronger
than anything you've ever felt before, which
is that we need to be going another direction.
Why are we even talking to our boss? I got to
go home. Maybe this coincides with you finding.
Oh, you know what? I know a perfect way to tie
this together. You see a guy in one of these
houses that you're searching through who has
shot himself in the head. And there is these
little mushrooms that are growing out of the.
what remains of his head. When you see that,
there's something that clicks in your head. And
then you get this fallout. But it is a fresh
corpse.