Hey folks, it's me, Colin. Before we get into
this episode's recap, I just wanted to give you
all a heartfelt thanks for the warm reception
to this second season of ours. I am really happy
that people are enjoying it, and it's been a
real fun to make. Now, I'm going to come to you,
hat in hand, to say that if you are enjoying
the show, it would mean the world to me if you'd
leave a review for it on YouTube, Spotify, or
wherever you've been listening to it. different
with about every platform, but you know what
I mean. It really helps the show propagate, and
I really appreciate it. Also, I wanted to say
thank you to those of you who have written questions
into our show blog. Just with how this series
is formatted, a lot of those questions will get
answered in time, but I will absolutely get to
those that I can answer now when I have a free
moment. That's all I had to say. Thanks again,
and on to the show. Okay, recap. So last time,
you arrived at the wrong town. You were deeper
and underground in the City of Glass. You began
to make contact with your employer via a bug
ritual that'll take about 27 hours to complete.
But in the process of finding a body for that
ritual, Booker sustained a fallout which is suddenly
calling him deep below the town, towards some
distant beckoning point. And we're gonna zoom
right where we were at having discovered that
corpse. Well, I'll be a son of a bitch. Ain't
that some fantastic luck? Told ya. Ooh, I'm actually
going to, because we have specified that it is
a fresh corpse, I'm gonna go, and Ledger's gonna,
I think, close his eyes with his fingers and
say a little prayer and ask him, uh, did the
mushrooms make you kill yourself? Because he
has them growing out of him, right? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, I mean, I guess, well... In what sense
do you mean that question? As in, did the mushrooms
force him to kill himself or did he kill themselves
because of the mushrooms? Did the mushrooms force
him to kill? Well, you know what? No. You can
ask a more general question as well. I don't
think it has to be specific. Why did you kill
yourself? Why did you kill yourself? The corpse
kind of like, they're like rasps, right? Like
whispers. Yeah, it's like their last gasp, I
think, is what the... Yeah, I think the head,
like, turns. It's missing, like, the top half
of its head. And it says she was taking me, all
of me, and I was going to take the kids and my
wife and my grandmother, and I was going to bring
them to her. I could feel it. I needed to do
it. But I stopped myself. The only way I knew
how. Well, that's very brave of you, son. Thank
you. What kind of gun does he have? An old -fashioned,
like, flintlock pistol. Cool. I think... I think
Ledger's gonna pick... He's gonna go to grab
the gun, and as he grabs it, he picks the gun
up, and then I think that, like, the flesh on
his hand kind of starts to fade away, revealing
his true form, and the pistol starts to rust
in his hand. He kind of jumps back and drops
it. Oh, look at that. What the hell? Wait, did
we see this? I don't know. You probably would
have, yeah. He looked over his shoulder at his
death and then back at his hand, which is now
returned to normal, and then back at the pistol,
which has like the parts of it that are metal.
I think it can also decay. Yeah, I assume that
this pistol counts as a machine construct or
mechanism. I agree. It's like rusted decay in
the shape of his bony handprint. He looks down
at it and he's like, damn. You okay there, Ledger?
Never done that before. You can't do that to
any of us, right? Want me to try? That's alright.
We got our corpse, right? He's gonna start walking
towards the tunnel. Hey buddy, corpse over here!
Where the hell are you going? I... to do something.
Can you just wait one damn second? We got a hole.
What was it? 27 hours? Yeah, let's just get this
thing set up, huh, Booker? Just take a second.
Then we can go do things. I think what we need
is this way. Are you pointing, like, down into
a hole? Like, down off into the distance? Like,
Colin, is there a nearby hole, like, where the
tunnel would be, or no? Uh, I think you are...
I like the image of you are pointing, like, down
and to the left, kind of towards the floor. Like,
you're pointing, like, like a, like a magnet.
Like, you're pointing in a nonsensical direction.
Yeah, he's doing that. But also, like, you're
clearly pointing and out. Halo, make sure he
doesn't go anywhere for just a damn minute, please.
Halo's investigating the corner floor piece that
Hooker's pointing to. How do we, how do we get,
how do we get down there? Do we gotta get smaller?
Just don't do anything foolish for about five
minutes to... Bailey, where's that instructions?
Yeah, here you go. We're gonna do, I don't remember
precisely what the thing is, but we're gonna
do it. You have to stuff blood sand into one
of the corpse's orifices. Oh, that's right. Alright,
ass. Yeah, I think Ledger grabs the head and
like pulls the, pour it into the hole in the
top of his head. Oh my god. A real creative ledger.
It wouldn't stay in there. I think he's going
to grab the top of the rim where his skull has
exploded and use that to tilt his head back and
then put his other hand on the corpse's jaw and
just kind of pull the mouth open after he set
the corpse to rest and now he's kind of desecrating
it. He's like, alright, right around the mouth
there should suffice. Oddly charged in a very
intimate way. Yeah, there's real sexual energy
to this corpse interaction. You pour the blood
sand into his mouth. The next step is you have
to put the beetle, whoever has the beetle, on
top of it. I think we decided that Halo had the
beetle. No, it was like Booker. No, Bailey. I
think Bailey took the beetle. Bailey, stop my
beetle. I don't think I took the beetle. I remember
I yelled at someone's beetle and walked away.
We left the beetle in Calamity. I have it in
my inventory, but I thought that I took it, and
then I thought that I gave it because Halo wanted
the beetle. No, he just made a comment. He's
like, I don't have a beetle anymore, but he didn't
do anything about it. I have Downfall's beetle,
and then in brackets beside it, Albright may
be very strong. Could he fix a lamp? I'll call
it Leash D6. You are the beetle custodian right
now. I'll rummage around in one of the pouches
of my trench coat and realize that he's not there
and he moved to a different pocket and I'll kind
of pull him out and set him down. Awesome. And
then the third thing is that you have to play
the small melody listed on the slip of paper
with this wooden flute and then wait 27 hours.
I don't suppose any of y 'all's a flautist by
trade? Perhaps in a past life? I can always try
if you need me to. All right, let's see it then.
Play us a little ditty. I'm going to grab this
flute and play a ditty. How's it going? What
does the song sound like, Colin? It sounds exactly
like Horizon by Nujabez. Bailey, what a tune.
Bailey, this is somehow ripped like the whole
entirety of Dragula by Rob Zombie on a wooden
flute. It's really good. That was great. Upon
completion of the melody, your beetle begins
to burrow into the corpse, making a nasty wet
noise as it disappears into the viscera. You
hear crunching and squishing. I guess we'll let
him have some fun in there. Seems like he's having
a good time. Yeah. Let's come back later. Do
you think we should set anything up around here?
I guess the corpse will be fine. No one's going
to be looking for it, right? Yeah. I don't know.
You got any charcoal or something? No, I don't.
You can have charcoal if you want. Yeah, I actually
got one right under my shoe. Here you go. You
are the junk mage. You would always have to have
little pieces of junk. You guys have miscellaneous
supplies. It's not too hard. Yeah, I'll put an
X on the door. Just make sure no one goes in.
Ledger is going to write on the wall above the
body. Mine. Please do not disturb my corpse.
And then like a little smiley face. That should
take care of it, I think. Can we go? We need
to look. We'll go. We'll go now. All right. Let's
deal with this new thing now. What in the hell?
Sounds like Booker is leading the way. Booker
is following a scent like a dog. You can't quite
explain where... Hold on, Booker. Hold on. Where
are you going? What do you need? It's down there.
Something valuable. I don't know. Which direction
was the farm? Do we know? Maybe the farm is in
the similar direction as your destination? It's
worth noting. That, so like, the direction you're
being pulled is vaguely similar to the direction
of the valuable thing, but it is, it's not directly
towards it. It's like something else. Like, if
you think about, if the valuable thing is directly
beneath you, the thing you are being pulled towards
is like down and to the right, if you think about
it like that. I see. Just so you know. Well,
in Booker's mind, he just needs to go down. Yes.
Is this a mind fallout? Do you feel like you
deserve to know that? Do you feel like you deserve
to know that? I feel like it was said and I just
wasn't listening. That's why I was asking. I
think it might be adapted from a major mindfuck.
I don't actually know. Because I was like, maybe
he just needs a drink is what I was going to
propose to try to help him here. I think it might
be a modified version of a minor echo. I made
it more severe. Okay. That's going to be harder
to fix. But luckily, this one goes away once
you get there. So it's fine. Nice. That's sick.
We have nothing but time at the moment. I do
not see the harm in indulging this little curiosity
so long as it does not get us all killed. Yeah,
Booker, you have a really good sense of how to
get there, too. Alright. You're following the
fucking pie smell. You're floating. So you find...
away to the farms, which are typically accessed
by a rudimentary elevator, but that is not currently
operational, so you use the stairs. After a brief
descent, you come out into an exceptionally warm
and humid cave, which is dimly lit by lichen
growing on the stone ceiling. The cave has been
carefully excavated, expanding what no doubt
was once a small natural formation into a wide
open area. The air is filled with an earthy smell
from the variety of mushrooms and fungi which
grow in patches. Around the cave. There are only
two workers in the mushroom fields, cutting up
these fruiting bodies and putting them into sorting
bins near a small office built into the cave
wall with a large sign proclaiming quartermaster
over the top. And around this room, you notice
that there are these. Especially where the mushrooms
are growing, there are these large, thick, metallic
conduits which seem to come out of the ground.
And they occasionally throb and make this distinctive
swishing noise, followed by the expulsion of
some steam. And a lot of these conduits terminate
in clusters of like pistons, which are like sputtering
and pulsing in time with these tubes. And these
are likely responsible for the heat and humidity
here. That's fucking sick. Two fucks. The domain
here is technology. I mean, I assume Booker's
not trying to lead us to the quartermaster's
office. No, no, yeah. So where's Booker drawn
to here? So at the back of the cave, it goes
deeper. Like, there's a downward slope. I think
they mentioned something about there being multiple
levels to the farms. And that's where you're
kind of getting pulled right now. I think you
would also notice at this point that the extremely
valuable thing is... kind of towards the quartermaster
and down. Okay. Booker's gonna say we need to
go thereafter. But he's not gonna be going in
that direction. Is anyone trying to stop him
from going? Because otherwise he's just gonna
keep trying to navigate. Uh... I'll just jog
alongside, I guess. See where this leads. I figured
we should probably talk to the quartermaster
before anything, but... Why? We need to go now.
See, the more insistent you are about us going
down that way, the more suspicious it makes me.
Booker's just gonna go. Well, he's gone. Should
one of us go with him? I suppose so. Who wants
to volunteer? I'll go if somebody else wants
to talk to the Quorum Master. I kind of just
wanted to get some information on the nature
of this peculiar threat. I think a guy at the
quartermaster's desk starts like yelling like,
hey, hey, where are you going? I guess we're
going all together. He's going to rush over.
I think we should learn about dangers before
we wander off anywhere. He looks very proud of
himself. See, I have taught you something. Exactly.
I agree. Bailey, can you make sure Booker doesn't
go get himself killed? I'm already running after
him. Don't worry. Wrangle him back here, perhaps.
Drag him back by his rat tail. So we don't have
to split the party because I know Colin doesn't
want us to do that. I mean, you'll see. You'll
see. Okay. You'll see. You'll see. So you go,
as Bailey goes off to wrangle Booker, you go
to the Quartermaster desk. It's in front of like
a cavern wall. There's a bunch of tools and supplies
on the shelves behind the desk. And then there's
this, like, big boarded -up passage in which
a lot of these tubes seem to originate from behind
him. And as you approach the office... Oh, fuck,
wait, no, you don't have it. Never mind. Never
mind. That's all. That's all I have to say. The
beetle, no! There's a guy here. You guys know
where my beetle is? Hello to you. Like, hey,
uh... You, you know, reinforcements, right? Well,
I suppose that depends on how you look at things.
We're actually looking to pass through your farm
to Camp Rascal, but I'm told that there is some
kind of situation that is driving folk out of
town. Yes, that is accurate. I do not think you
will be able to pass through the farms at this
current juncture. Sir. Would you care to elaborate,
perhaps? Well, there's a bad parasitic macrofungal
organism, which we've taken to call the Pale
Mother, which seems to be eating our farms and
our people. And we've lost three of our farm
levels already, but we managed to set up a fire
break down there, and that's where the foreman
is. Well, I mean, it's only a matter of time
till we see what happens, but I ain't optimistic,
sir. So you're just... Why don't y 'all leave
then? Well, I mean, if you're not supporting...
We used to have a bigger population. You probably
saw them leaving when you got here. Yeah. These
mushrooms are very valuable, and we've made a
good bit of money. So if we can hold the fire
break or figure something out, then we get a
stay. And if not, then we want to milk these
farms for as much as we can get before we head
out. I see. Well, that makes some sense to me.
And so the way to Camp Rascal is down right through
and past the horrible. Yeah, and that was a big
part of our income, too, was just charging taxes
on everyone, passing through the farms, going
to Camp Rascal, and that used to be all good,
but then it stopped being good. Yeah, well, um,
what exactly happens to the people down there?
Because knowing my stubborn and headstrong compatriots,
I suspect we may end up trying to make a go of
it anyways, peril be damned. Uh, you might want
to talk to the foreman. Because he's looking
for helping hands. And he's got schemes. You
know, demons and their schemes. Not that there's
anything wrong with being a demon. He looks at
Halo. Demons. Halo will remember this. Well,
thank you very much for your time. I believe
we may go see the foreman. In fact, I believe
one of my companions is already on his way down.
Cool. Bro, he gives you a sick high five. He
says, see you on the hang side, brother, and
gets on a big skateboard and needs a kickflip
on the desk. All right, let's go see what Booker's
doing. Meanwhile in hell. Booker and Bailey,
what are you up to? The fires, they burn. Power
walking. Buddy, do you know where you're going?
Yes, this way. Okay, you're pointing at the ground
right now. But you seem to know your way? A path?
Why haven't you told us this before? Don't you
feel it? I don't feel... Okay, wait. He's gonna
stand in front of you. You got a yearning, don't
you? You got a feeling for something you can't
explain and it's bringing you somewhere, right?
You do get it. Come on, let's go. And he's trying
to get around you. Wait, listen, buddy, I've
been there. I've been there before, okay? You
just gotta let me know if we're, you know, and
he hefts his blunderbuss up. Are we walking into
something here? Whatever it is, I don't think
you'll need that. And he lowers the blunderbuss.
All right. Lead the way. I'll follow you. Great.
I think you probably regroup at this point. Yeah,
we're catching up. And you go down to another
sub -level, sub -level two. It's just more mushrooms.
Interestingly, though, here are the conduits
kind of like... There's like a column of them
almost where they kind of like spiral together,
making this kind of like a almost looks like
a spool of of twine or something. And Bailey,
you recognize this place. This is this was sketched
in the journal of one checker, Graham, who your
entire research history is based on. What the
fuck is this? I'm going to pull out my notes,
which I assume I have, and quickly, like, ruffle
through them and hold up the notebook. This is
the place. Oh, my God. Oh, you genius. Oh, my
God. Oh, my God. We got to follow his sense more
often. Oh, my God. Can I discern this place?
Would that work? Sure. I want to, like, see if
I could, like, just learn as much as I can. Is
this discern? To technology. Which you're very
good at. Discern technology. Let's see what I
can give you. Oh, yeah. Really in his element.
All right. I think I'm just doing this without
help because I'm so excited. Critical success.
That's impressive. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You have...
You know where this place is. It's described...
It's not clear. I don't think anything is dated
in this journal you have, because we kind of
talked about how it's kind of shitty. It's not
very scientific, but it talks about on this researcher's
journey, who you kind of based all of your educational
decisions on, on this very fringe theory about
the city of glass actually being a machine. The
researcher, Checker Graham. arrived at this town.
He called it an unnamed town where there were
negotiations going on between the local flora
slash fauna slash question mark and the settlers.
And then he has this sketch of this column of
these conduits, and he says, the conduits go
deeper into the city. I'm going to find their
origin. This may be a big break for my theory.
Damn. But that's all he wrote about this place.
Like, there's more entries later, but he doesn't
write anything more about it. I think Bailey
stuffs his notebook into his pocket and then
he rushes over to Booker. He's like, you want
to go lower, right? You want to go lower? Yes.
That's accurate. Perfect. That is accurate. Hey,
we're going to go lower real quick. All right?
What in the hell? Okay, Booker, just take me
there. Okay? Follow your nose. Do whatever. Let's
go. Great. I'm rushing off now. You arrive, all
of you, at sub -level 3. It is noticeably cooler
here than it is in the hotter, more moist upper
levels. All the mushrooms here are kind of shriveled
and dying. Even like the glowing lichen on the
ceiling seems to be doing very poorly. They're
like supplementary lanterns which have been put
around. At the far end of the room, you see a
big spout of blue flames erupt, followed by a
very harsh acrid smell. Where the flames originated
from, there is a group of about six people standing
behind a makeshift barricade made out of wheelbarrows,
fencing, and farm equipment. Five of those figures
are human, and one kind of looks like a demon.
And the five humans are all dressed in the garb
of the Church of the Holy Bruce. They're kind
of turned away from you. They're not really paying
attention to you at this point. Am I drawn to
the fire? Yeah, where that fire is, that's where
you gotta go. How am I gonna get past that? I
don't know. Is that where you need to go? Find
the fire. Yeah, the fire has subsided. It was
one big spout. Okay. I guess let's go make our
introductions. Maybe we can get past them. You
think they can get us past it? Maybe we gotta
ask. I don't know. They're probably gonna ask
us questions regardless. Maybe we just walk into
this. Alright. I'm trusting you. I'm with you.
I'm trusting you. Let's go. Booker starts walking
towards them then. I am too. Unless no one's
gonna stop us. Why stop? So you approach them.
The demon who is apparently the foreman. Turns
to you. He is a humanoid demon whose skin is
composed of thousands of tessellated lips spiraling
out from his mouth. The lips occasionally move,
but they never open except for the ones where
the mouth is. Those ones do open. That's nice.
And he says, who are you? We're travelers. We
need to go there. Travelers. Go where? Booker's
pointing again. Just real quick. You look like
capable folk. Yeah, I'm capable. I feel like
you guys really fucked up this guy's whole strategy
by being really eager to go do the thing he thought
he was going to have to convince you to do. It's
his pitch. He's worked on it so hard. You want
to go that way? Yeah. Do you mind doing me a
favor? And I'll let you, I'll just let you go?
Sure. Do that? What is it? What do you need?
We need to go soon, though. When you say go,
do you mean like, well, it's fine. So we don't
like, we're kind of low on personnel. Do you
mean you have guests? And do you know the situation?
You can just come straight here, right? Listen,
can this wait any longer? Like, what's your favorite?
We need to go. Okay. In short, There's a bad
white fungus down there. And the only thing that
seems to get it to stop is when we take the fluid
from the conduits here in the farms and we set
it on fire. It's called lymph. We call it lymph,
okay? When it's set on fire, it seems to really
upset the fungus. It kills it really quickly.
It makes it retreat. It makes its soldiers retreat.
And its mycelium retreat. And so we've sent a
couple people in with these bombs. filled with
the stuff and they didn't come back but they
were just farmers but you look capable and you're
also you're also extremely enthusiastic about
going there right now so um i would like to give
this to you and he gives you this giant metal
canister that's swishing with fluid and has like
a crude wick at the top he says just go find
like if you could find like the the heart of
this mycelium or just like You know, like, the
core of it or whatever. And just, like, blow
this up. And you want this, right? Yeah, so,
like, we have our mushrooms, and we're cool with
those. But these mushrooms are new, and they've
kind of been eating our farms. So we want to
probably stop it. Listen, it sounds dangerous
there. I think Booker's going to try casting
Crave on him. Okay. What are you trying to make
him Crave? You should come with us. Oh, God.
You know the part of Crave where it says if you
try to make someone do something that they usually
would not want to do, it's risky? Yeah. That
applies here. I feel like he wants to destroy
the fungus, though. He wants to destroy the fungus,
but he does not want to go into the fungus. Or
else he would have done it already. This seems
like a suicidal thing you're asking him to do.
Also, why do you want him to come with? I don't
know how dangerous it is there. Just an extra
hand. He described it as really scary. I mean,
it doesn't seem scary to you. It seems like it's
home. You know what? You're right. Never mind.
We don't have to crave. Yeah. If you want him,
you can have him. It's up to you. You can have
him, but like... No, I didn't think it would
be risky. I think even Bailey is just like...
He's like, you know, this seems like a really
hard thing. Some rewards. Yeah, it's fine. Actually,
we'll do it for free. Don't worry. Like jogging
in place. The demon kind of looks to Halo and
is like, hey, we've caught up. I imagine at this
point. Yeah, you're all here. Hey. What's up?
You know what you're getting into here, cousin?
My name's Halo. That's good. Are you cool? Are
you with these people of your own free will?
Oh my god. He looks back at them and is like,
yes, these are my friends. Cool. Cool. We're
a wandering group of heroes and Halo here is
a valuable member. Halo's the mascot. Yeah, I
think Everyone here seems very uncomfortable
with your mannerisms. Mine are Halos. Can I possibly
be intriguing or unsettling an NPC? I think it's
not even you, Halo. It's Booker and then that
you're all kind of cool with it. We're an unsettling
group, aren't we? There's a very manic energy
to how you're reacting to the situation. We're
totally normal. You guys are the ones who are
freaks. So yeah, I guess you can mark off that
beat just by virtue of being done with this.
You've been given this big canister. I guess
if you want to add it to your inventory, it is
a... I'll just post it in a weird order. Have
we only gotten one or two? It's big. So it's
a D8 volatile awkward technology lymph bomb.
I'll take that. Bailey's going to take it. You
can't really put it in your backpack. You have
to hold this with two hands. Who's holding it?
I'll hold it because I want him to point us forward.
Great. So yeah, I think the guy begins to give
you instructions on how to get down there, but
Booker's already leading the way. And then I
think like... People start whispering to each
other as you walk away, pointing at you a little
bit. The foreman, the demon kind of like doesn't
have a normal face. It doesn't really make an
expression, but there's kind of like a blankness
to the look. Like, hope this works. Hope these
freaks can do it. Did they just gamble it on
some randos who walked by? I wouldn't you? Who
else are they going to get? Like, wouldn't you?
I would. There are some fresh bodies at this
thing. Yeah, fuck it. So the lower three sublevels
of which you're in now have these little white
tendrils of mycelium, which are kind of wrapping
around the conduit cables and other technological
devices. There's evidence of some fighting here.
There's dried bloodstains, a lot of burnt rock
and melted farming equipment. There's no corpses,
though. Eventually, you reach the sixth sublevel,
which is the end of the farm's proper. And the
mycelium is a lot denser. The floors and walls
are all covered in this white, squishy matter.
And the air is really hazy and extremely moist
and filled with a musty smell. And then at the
end of the sublevel is a small passageway, which
you presume is where you need to go. And next
to it is a body. A body of indeterminate gender.
that has been partially subsumed by the mycelium.
There are creeping white tendrils weaving through
its skin. The top half of its head has been destroyed
by what appears to have been a self -inflicted
gunshot wound from the overgrown blunderbuss
that lies between its legs. Half of its brain
is overgrown with fruiting bodies and mycelium,
and the mushrooms seem to be reconstructing the
brain out of mycelium. One half -connected eyeball
droops from its cheeks on a thin hair of fungal
threads, and the body seems to be still breathing,
its chest heaving as if being compelled by some
external force instead of its own volition. Ooh.
Annihilation or what? That's gross. I think that's
really gross. I think as we've been walking down,
Ledger's been, like, whistling to himself. But
he has his gun out. He's had it out the whole
time, but he's kind of just like... It seems
like he's not taking the situation very seriously,
and then when they see this corpse, he kind of
cocks his head off to the side. I think he says
something quietly to his death, and then he looks
back at the rest of the group, and he's like,
I can't tell if that man is alive or dead. It
seems to be something in between. How would you
like to proceed? Yeah, Halo's very confused by
this, because this dichotomy of whether something's
alive or not is if it's moving, and it's like,
that doesn't look like it should be alive, but...
Moving. You can like see gears cracking apart
in his brain. Moving. Bailey looks at Booker.
What do we do? Where's Booker drawn to here?
Deeper in? We have to go deeper. But then it
says, wait. Booker, you feel compelled to wait.
Actually, Booker just looks deep in thought.
I think we have to wait here. What? Now hold
on just a damn second. You're telling me you
dragged us all this way in an awful hurry so
that we could wait? Yeah, you were onto something.
You knew where you were going. Just take us there.
The corpse said wait, by the way. Everyone could
hear that. Oh. You're listening to him? What
else does the corpse have to say? Come closer.
Uh, yeah. We walk over, I assume. Throw like
a rock near it first. Yeah, sure. You throw a
rock near it, it squishes on the mycelium on
the ground. It's not going to puff out spores
and colonize me. Do you know what spores are,
Halo? No. Halo's not afraid of this at all. He
has no concept of danger. That's good. He's not
from fungus. The corpse says, We do not need
to be enemies, outsiders. I do not seek violence.
Will you parlay with me in my den? Well... I
guess that depends if you're going to put a mushroom
inside me that's going to make me want to put
a bullet in my own head. I have matters yet to
attend. No. No, I only did that to those who
attacked me, who betrayed my trust. I will send
you one of my princes to guide you to me, and
we will speak. Do you know who Checker Graham
is? What? Checker Graham. I'm not even looking
at you. This vessel is unfit. It is impolite
to negotiate through such faulty proxies. I know
a great deal. Come deeper. We will speak. We
have to go. All right, send your prints. Good.
Just a moment. And then the body becomes a little
less animate and continues just taking weird
heaving breaths. After... So yeah, let's call
it like 20 minutes, right? I don't know if you
want to have like a, what are you doing when
you wait 20 minutes in this really bizarre fungal
area? Ledger definitely rolls a smoke and then
starts smoking it, careful to keep his matches
away from the big ass canister that Bailey's
hauling around. And then I think he's just like,
so you want to negotiate with this thing? If
it knows something, that's good. Something about
what? About Graham Checker, you know? No, I don't
know, do I? No. Does he? No. Okay. I absolutely
do not know. This is my first time hearing that
name, and I do not understand its pertinence
to our current place. That's okay. That's okay.
Everyone's going to hear his name in a bit. He's
the guy who realized, you know, what's going
on, that we're living in a machine, and this
was a place that he was. And he knew that things
went deeper and we need to figure that out. And
a mushroom grows deep. That means a mushroom
would know, right? I love the logic. Exactly.
I suppose so. Booker's with me. He's reading
his rat book, Colin. Good. I've got you to crack
that thing open. You're getting good. You know,
you spend a little more time with it. When you
have somewhere proper downtime, you think you
really, really cling on to the words of this
wise man who wrote this book. This could be a
huge lead for us. Okay. It'd be perfect. I'll
take your word for it. Sorry. No, it's okay.
I think that's a good ending point. A figure
emerges from the darkness of the deeper caves
wielding a... It's not a jar, but it is shaped
like a jar made of glowing mushrooms as a lantern.
It is fundamentally humanoid, but its skin is
a pale white mycelial flesh with frilled protrusions
that occasionally emit spores. Its head is a
ribbed mask of white flesh and black gills, atop
which is a ring of yellow fungal horns creating
a crown of sorts. Thin layers of mycelium create
flowing garments and a cloak, and at its side
is a stark white rapier. This is, I think, you
believe the prince that she referred to. Um,
and it... quietly gestures for you to follow
it into the cave. Y 'all mind if I smoke in here?
He says while following. The prince bows cordially
as if to indicate that's chill, dog. Nice. Nice.
Didn't know mushrooms were chill like that. They
are, dude. They're super chill. Nice. You get
a feeling they're extremely chill, Booker. You
especially. Booker smiles. The cave... Are you...
You're following his light. You're not producing
any of your own, I assume. But you can if you
want. This isn't important. I'm just asking.
I'm following. Great. Just following. The cave
narrows. and the mycelial tendrils on the wall
become thicker and thicker, creating a fleshy
white artery which springs underneath your feet.
You pass other fungal creatures, much like the
Pale Prince. Some of them are very animals, some
are people, some are undergoing the metamorphosis
like that corpse, kind of plugged into the wall.
The cave kind of splits, and you let off of the
main path deeper and deeper, and the air becomes
thicker and mustier. About 20 minutes into this
trek, You come across what looks to be a Qatari
soldier wearing a full face glass and leather
gas mask. And he's kind of stuck to his wall
or stuck to the wall. But he seems to have his
faculties about him more than the others. And
he says, hey, give me a hand here. We got to
get out of here. Well, actually, I think Ledger's
going to let Bailey take the tiller on this one.
This seems like it's kind of his parade now.
Bailey turns to Booker. What do we do? What do
you mean, what do you do? Help, help me. Doesn't
Booker just want to comply and keep going? Anything
else is dangerous to you. Yeah, I don't. We need
to keep going. Okay, we'll get you on the way
back. All right, don't worry. What? I don't,
I might not be me on the way back. It'll be okay.
We'll tell them. Settle, just relax for a moment.
I don't think struggling will help you out much.
Now, we are here to have words with this creature.
If you already have something inside of your
brain, I don't think leaving is going to avail
you much based on what I have seen. So perhaps
we can put in a good word for you with the big
mushroom downstairs, as it were. Are you kidding
me? I don't think so. I've already seen two people
who have shot themselves in the head after exposure
to this thing. I don't think running will do
you any good. So it's already got you then. I
see you're not wearing a mask, so... Ledger shrugs.
Is the escort still walking? Like, are we walking
away? The prince is patiently waiting for you
to catch up. Okay, that's nice. While watching
you. Bookers by the prince. Look, let me put
it this way. I have no interest in allowing a
fellow countryman to die an agonizing, murder
-based death. If it can at all be avoided, I
will do what I can, one way or another. And he
smiles. He, like, looks at you. Have I seen you
somewhere? People keep saying that to me, and
I never have a good answer for it. Other than
to say, it is possible I am a bit of a rambling
man, as it were. Okay. Fine. I'll be right back.
He seems unhappy. Just don't let it eat me. Don't
let it eat me. Please. Please don't let it eat
me. Please. I don't think it eats people. You
know. I think he's just going to walk away. You'll
be okay. You'll be okay. He was eaten. See, it's
going to be totally fine, bro. Don't even worry
about it. Eventually, your guide deposits you
in a few more minutes in a very large chamber.
The walls are almost entirely coated with various
animals and people who are undergoing this fungal
change. Some of them groan ambivalently, but
most of them are silent. Large luminous mushrooms
sprout out of the ground, casting a blue glow.
At the very center of the room, suspended by
thick mycelial webbing, is a bulging white polyp
nearly the size of an elephant. It is a large,
lumpy organ, writhing and pulsing as if a thousand
unborn children were kicking within its confines.
Above, some of the strange blue conduits from
the farm are connected to the organ, pulsing
rhythmically in time with it. Off to the side,
you see a couple of those canisters of lymph,
similar to the ones you were given. and they
have been emptied of the fluid within them. Here,
the Pale Prince, which is the one guiding you,
approaches the large mass and then falls to its
knees and collapses, becoming inanimate. That's
gross. How does Booker feel here? You're home.
Dude, you're home. You feel better. That urge
is gone. You can get rid of that fallout. Oh,
hell yeah. Does he still feel happy after the
fallout's gone, though? No. What the fuck are
you doing here? Guys, what are we doing here?
Booker went pale. This is a horrible idea. You
all have made a horrible mistake. A voice surrounds
you, and the air itself kind of seems to chafe
together to bring sound into being, and this
large, pale organ thrums in time with the voice,
and it says, Welcome, humans and cousin. I am
the Pale Mother.