Hey everyone, it's Colin. Just a quick heads
up, we're gonna go on a bit of a hiatus after
this episode. There's some real -life stuff going
on that is going on. And until it's not going
on, uh, yeah. We'll definitely be returning to
finish the show, but I think this episode is
a pretty good cliffhanger for what I would call
the first half. Thank you all for your continued
support, and I am sorry about the delay. Bye!
Alright, so last time you all arrived at the
Cathari Camp Rascal, after being checked in and
given some colored ponchos, you immediately went
to the camp's demonologist. There, Halo discovered
that there was a lamp identical to the one that
he came out of, and he became very interested
in that lamp. Perhaps more importantly, Ledger
and Booker were dragged into an audience with
the great demon Parkelion. Parkelion instructed
Ledger to turn his back on the Institute and
work with Booker to find the friendly man, kill
him, and steal a ribbon from him. Ledger asked
Parkelion about where he might find his real
body, to which Parkelion told him that his real
body was on its way and his fake body would be
found shortly. After getting that rather elusive
clue, you were all intercepted and brought to
the Expedition Marshal's office, where you found
that the ex -Mar looked just like Ledger, a convincing
doppelganger with perhaps 15 more years of age
on him. And we will resume there. I think Ledger
walks in and looks at him and blinks and says,
Well, I'll be a son of a bitch. Uh, he stares
at Ledger for a few moments, and his face kind
of contorts in confusion, and then he gestures
for the other soldiers in the tent to leave,
and once they do, he says, Well, now, isn't this
a surprise? Yes, it is. I hope you're not expecting
me to explain this to you. I have no understanding.
Yes, this is quite unusual. Uh... I had figured
necromancy was well suppressed, especially of
this kind. But, you know, sometimes you get thrown
a curveball. Necromancy. Yes. Magic of the dead.
Yes. But you're not dead. You're alive. In a
matter of speaking, yes. Oh, now that is a surprise.
Are you familiar with... The Institute. By rumor
alone, are they the ones who have done this little
trick? Let's say that I owe them a great deal
and I wish that I did not. Could you do me a
favor, son? Could you take off your shirt and
just show me your belly? I ain't just supposed
to buy me dinner first or something. But Ledger
kind of pulls the poncho over his head, knocking
his top hat off of his head in the process, and
then probably shucks off his his coat, which
is very heavy. It like clanks as it hits the
ground because there's like a million different
things in all of the dozens of little pockets.
And then he kind of unbuckles his like. crossed
gun holsters that like to hold all of his bullets
and his tobacco pouch. And then he's got like
a, like a white button up underneath. That's
like really kind of, uh, shabby and frayed and
maybe sweat stained at the armpits. And he unbuttons
it and pulls it open. Uh, the, the X -Mar walks
up to you and he, uh, points to a scar, uh, kind
of underneath your rib cage, uh, going down across
your belly button down kind of towards your pelvis.
So, yep, that's where I did it right there. Did
what? Have you been ritualistically disemboweling
yourself, perchance? No, see, I killed you. I
killed me. And yet here we both are. Yes, I figured
when I dumped my body in the ocean, it wouldn't
really turn up again. But I suppose I did it
a little too close to shore. Yes, you see, I've
replaced... You, me. I am a shape -changer of
sorts. Isn't that funny? And yet you went through
all the trouble of discarding your body so that
you could wear the exact same face. Yes, well,
this man is me, well -positioned to advance in
the Cathari ladder. Ah, see, now that is fascinating.
In not so long a time, I'll be retiring back
to the continent of Cathar, where I will live
my life in luxury. But this is all just very
funny. This is a truly... I wish I could tell
this story to my soldiers, but unfortunately,
I don't think they'd understand. No, I don't
think anybody would. I think the real question,
then, is where does that leave us now? Well...
And strange as it is to say, I don't believe
it really changes anything. I brought y 'all
in here because I wanted to extort you. And that's
what I'm going to do now. And if you try to tell
anyone that I'm a devious shapeshifter, well,
then I'm going to say, no, that man right there
is the shapeshifter. Y 'all know me. I've been
your commander for 15 odd years. The old shapeshifter
trick. The old shapeshifter trick. This one's
been studying his books. That I have. That is
refreshingly candid of you. Yes, well, I am a
candid man. That's why I'm so popular. So I'll
just go with my original script, which is that
I know about what you did with the fungus and
the sphere and all that back in Micah, and that
constitutes a crime in civilized society. Usually
that's a death sentence, but since I have a soft
spot for a do -what -has -to -be -done type,
I'll cut you a deal. You do a favor and I'll
let you move on. Sounds good? How is that a crime?
How is condemning a town to be overrun by fungal
monstrosities and killing the foreman with a
large sphere a crime? Literally, what did I do?
The foreman was bad. The town's still alive.
They're just moving. And the fungus is not moving
anywhere else. They're just taking the place.
The fungus is not moving anywhere else. They're
just taking the place. Yeah, I told the sphere
to hold on to that place. Look, I think that
what my associate here means to say is that I
would hope that he would understand that the
truth of the matter actually doesn't matter in
the slightest. And I would beg you, sir, to consider
what it is that we have done when you attempt
to, I guess, lever this favor onto us because
we are horribly violent men and we have done
horribly violent things. And I would just take
care as to what you believe the path of least
resistance for us to be. And he smiles. Naturally.
Well, I don't really care. I'm in a camp full
of horribly armed soldiers, and I think you'll
find that I'm very difficult to put down for
good, given that I am made of a sort of goo.
Well, then, man, with all of our cards on the
table, why don't you tell us what this favor
is? We've been digging a big hole. I don't know
what came over me. That phrase just triggered
something in me. We've been digging a big hole
underneath that big dome for reasons that I don't
believe you really need to know. But we've run
into some trouble in that hole and our teams
haven't been coming back from there. And I can't
spare any more men and I don't have any more
prisoners to send down there. Now, if I thought
this was a suicide, I wouldn't be telling you
any of this. It is the professional opinion of
our researchers, as well as the folks back home,
that the City of Glass just don't like Cathar.
Ever since we did that big invasion back in the
day of the city and that went bad, it's kind
of held a grudge. That's what we think. So I
like to rely on contractors such as yourself.
To probe the unknown corners of this place. The
job is simple. You're just going to go down the
hole. You're going to see how far it goes. When
you get down there, you're going to find our
mining foreman, whatever happened to him, find
his logbook, verify that our tap route is there,
and then we'll give you all the instructions.
The eggheads will tell you what to do. And after
that, you can just waltz right back up, and I'll
send you on your way off to wherever the hell
you want to go. Well, it is just that simple,
isn't it? Do we know what our next destination
is? You have no clue where you are. But you know
where deeper is, and that's your next destination.
I guess, yeah, we're just looking to head deeper.
You have to hit last candle. That's where you're
trying to get to, and that is really good. Okay.
Well, I suppose it seems simple enough. Can you
tell me absolutely anything about what is down
there? Anything that might have killed your previous
teams? Well, we ran into some trouble. There's
some critters down there, but... We drove most
of those out. It was a few months back that,
not months, a few weeks back that our team just
kind of stopped responding. And then the people
we sent down, they stopped responding too. And
it's just a mess. I don't know. I don't know
what's at the end of it. But folks like you,
you'll be fine. You'll be fine. I think Ledger
smiles the gold -toothed smile right back at
his doppelganger and says, I don't suppose you
could get this red poncho off of me in the meantime,
seeing as I am obviously not of any sort of danger
to the fine people of this camp. Well, no. I
can do that when you get back up, though. Can
I get a blue one? Do you want a blue one? Yeah,
not a yellow. Like him. Point to Booker. Why
is it so important? You know what? Yes, you can
have a blue one. Awesome. Yellow and blue are
basically the same. Yeah, sure. Hey, if y 'all
do this for me, you can all have green ponchos.
They need green? Oh, yes, they do, and they're
only reserved for special occasions. Alright,
buddy, points to the hole. I believe we have
an accord then. Yeah, here's, he writes something
down, gives you a little folded piece of paper.
It says, let these guys into the hole, signed
Expedition Marshal. Yeah, he gives you that.
Cool. Let's hole it up. Yep. Alright, well. See
you in a bit. I think the Exmar probably would
have told you that there's not really any, like,
urgent rush to go in the hole, because you're
not going to be able to leave the camp anyways,
so, you know. Whatever. He's very... He's kind
of chill about it for someone who's, like, kind
of exploiting you. Yeah. Have we left yet? Yeah,
you're gone. I mean, you can go back in if you
want. I'm just wondering... Is it nighttime?
It's your underground. May it be nighttime? Sleeping
time? Sleeping time? Yeah, what, do they have,
like, work shifts or something? When does the
demonologist sleep? Killer. When will she wear
wigs? I mean, whenever you want, really. Unless
you have any business to do during quote -unquote
daytime. Yeah, I don't care. But Zach seems like
he wanted to do something. Oh, I was just wondering,
because we're on such candid terms with him,
we could literally just be like, hey, do you
got a dead body we can have? Like a fresh one?
Yeah. But I don't know. We can find one. Maybe
we can go to the... There's a blood haunt here
somewhere, right? Mm -hmm. I'm kind of light
on cash. I spent almost everything I had. All
I have is this sap -covered kukri and some of
Peapaw's drinking mold. Oh, wait, no, that's
a lie. I have my bag of interesting teeth still,
and those sealing supplies have never gone anywhere.
I'm just thinking that we're probably not going
to get a corpse for free unless we steal it.
Or you're very charming. That is true. I mean...
Do people care about the red shirts? What's the
bad color that we have? Red poncho. Just saying.
We are allowed to do things. Let's say we're
leaving his tent. We've been escorted out or
whatever. I think we have a number of priorities
with which to attend, but we should see if we
can't find a corpse and start our downfall contact
procedure sooner rather than later. Unless y
'all disagree. You're saying that to the group,
right? Yes, everybody. Okay. Yeah. And we're
leaving the tent, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think
we're out. Oh, okay. Okay. Just curious where
we were. I see nothing wrong with that course
of action. Do you think he would know where that
body is? I point into the tent. He might, but
we did already make our exit. And to be frank,
I don't like him very much. I think he liked
me. I mean, I can go in there real quick. Sure,
why don't you be my guest? Why don't you go with
him, just in case? I'm walking into the tent.
You're back in the tent. Hey, real quickly, we
need a dead body. Do you think you can help us
out with that? He looks up at you from his desk.
Any dead body. Any dead body. It doesn't need
to be anything special. Now, why would you need
that? Hi, look at Booker. Question how we intend
on doing so. Do you have it or not? We'll get
it elsewhere. I do need to know because now that
you've come in here and asked for a dead body,
I'm incredibly suspicious of you and your group's
intentions. And frankly, it sounds like some
blood magic shit. We're not going to have sex
with it or anything. That's not going to happen.
Why would you say that? Why would you say that?
It's not going to happen at all. Are you familiar
with medicine? Can you not think of reasons?
Wait, is Halo here? Did Halo follow them in?
Ledger's outside. It's okay. He just leans over
to Ledger. What is sex? I'll tell you when you're
older. Listen. This is all very strange. Can
you just come clean with me? I mean, we have
bodies. Doesn't need to be a human body, I presume.
No, I don't think so. No, it doesn't have to
be. Okay. Huh. I mean, could we just do the thing
for you and then we can tell you after? We just
need the body now. No. How badly do you want
this done? Listen, I may be what I am, but this
camp is my responsibility and I'm not just going
to let you do some necromancy or blood magic
or necrophilia or whatever it is you intend.
What if we do it in a tent? No one would have
to see. Why are you being so evasive about this?
Listen, I'm a reasonable man. Maybe. Get Ledger
in here. We're very reasonable as well. I think
Ledger's going to push his way in and he's going
to say, oh, for the love of... Alright, listen.
I believe we told you that part of our purpose
here is charting a path down. Now that was all
perfectly true. Our benefactor, Virgil Albrecht,
communicates by way of these strange beetles,
and the ritual with which the communication is
sent involves putting them into a body. It is
how we have charted our progress and our route.
It has nothing to do with... Well, I guess I
supposed it was not blood magic, but I didn't
think of it very hard, and I promise you that
I will not let Mr. Bailey Cormac have sex with
it either. Yeah, see, it's not weird. That is
a great comfort. I do not know why he felt the
need to be so evasive. I was just trying to protect
ourselves, okay? And the group. I was thinking
of the group. Whatever. I find that the hidden
psychology of people does often come up under
pressure. Well, if you are indeed telling the
truth, then you wouldn't mind if I send one of
my representatives to oversee this ritual of
yours, would you? I don't see why not. The procedure
itself involves a setup and then a period of
time passing after which we are able to converse
directly, but I have no difficulty accepting
that. Not a problem. And he takes out a little
sheet of paper. He writes down on it and says,
give this to the quartermaster and he'll provide
you with a body of one of our deceased livestock.
Excellent. Do you think he could provide us with
a place to leave it where it will not be disturbed?
Oh, no issue. We have plenty of dormitories that
are spare at this time. Excellent. Well, I'm
glad we could do business, and sorry again for
the, uh, and he gives Bailey a glance, uh, unpleasantness,
if you might regard it as such. Oh, why deal
with all sorts of colorful personalities, my
brother of the flesh? Go, Bailey. I didn't do
anything. One thing I meant to ask you that I
neglected to and I feel rather stupid for it.
Do you really not remember anything? Not a damn
thing. My understanding is that my situation
is not uncommon as for people in my situation.
Did I already say that? Look, I don't remember
anything about the body that I am in nor the
soul that now inhabits it. I am a blank slate
placed upon this earth as a slave. Oh. Well,
that sucks. Yeah. That thought had occurred to
me once or twice. Well, good luck. I'm excited
to see what you do in this big hole of ours.
Yeah, I'm sure it will be a thrill. Yeah, Ledger's
gonna leave. We're out. Great. Great. You're
out of the tent. You've acquired a body with
your expert swift negotiation. Good work. Good
work. I liked your it's not for necrophilia negotiation
tactic. I think it really brought down his defenses.
Kind of like a good cop, bad cop kind of thing.
Kind of like a good cop, weird cop. I'm receiving
a lot of questions about my I'm not a necrophile
shirt that I feel like are already answered by
the shirt. That's what he's got on under his
robes. It's Institute Standard. Alright, let's
go to the quartermaster then, I guess. You have
arrived at the... That's the fallouts. That's
not where we are. This temporary storehouse made
out of metal caging and tent canvas. There are
a bunch of piles of crates that are threatening
to spill out of it, and there are a group of
gray -robed slaves milling about, moving cargo
in and out. In front is a barrel -chested man
with his uniform half -folded down, repairing
a strange -looking contraption that looks like
a backpack with a number of tubes and vials attached
to it. And you presume this is the quartermaster,
because he looks like one. Oh, sick. That is
a fascinating device you have there. Now, what
is that? Oh, ooh, red poncho. Ooh. Oh, well,
imagine the question came from my compatriot
here. He gestures his head towards Booker. Oh,
blue poncho, I do like that. Oh, this here device
is a caustic. We've been using it to spray acid
on the fungus that passed on the way here. Yeah.
Uh, well, maybe Mr. Blue Poncho should also hand
you the note. Booker produces it and hands it
to him. Uh, dead corpse of cattle? Preferably
not useful one. Mm -hmm. Gotta be kind of fresh,
though, within a day or two. Yeah, we actually
just got this one we beheaded. You wanna see
it? Uh, yeah. Not many people... I appreciate
you, folk. Come with me. Finally, somebody gets
it. He takes you into a back room where sitting
on top of some empty weapons crates is a cow.
There's just a cow. Alive? No, it has its head
cut off. Is it okay? It has some mushrooms growing
out of its neck hole. That are kind of crawling
towards its head, which is a few feet away. And
there's some, like, fungus, mycelium growing
from the head going towards the body. Like, they're
trying to reconnect. And he says, now isn't this
fascinating? Halo leans towards whoever's closest
and says, is he okay? Now, I'm thinking when
they touch, something might happen. But I guess
I'm giving this to you. I suppose you might try
to stretch it back up. Yeah. Isn't that weird?
Because the body's dead. But the mushroom's alive.
But that head doesn't match that animal. What?
What? Didn't you come here with a human head?
No, that's the cow's head. Oh, okay, sorry. Sorry,
never mind. That'd be way cooler, though. Do
we have a con? Are there any other instructions
on that there? No, we're supposed to take this
to some place perhaps secluded and I believe
under the watchful eye of... Somebody. Oh. If
they got the time. He reads the note again. I
think I got a little too excited about my corpse,
if I'm being honest here. Yes, I need to get
one of my boys to go with you and oversee your
ritual. Make sure nothing funny is up. Shoot
them if they're being weird about it. Well, now
that one is really up to interpretation. You
would be surprised how many times we see that
message. You can watch the ritual if you want.
No, no, no. That's below my pay grade. I'm busy
with my own matters. And he looks to the cow
corpse. I wouldn't want to interrupt. Don't you
want to see the meat of your beloved cow? Can
I keep the head? Oh, actually, hold on. Oh, yeah.
The last time we did this, did it speak? It was
just a mass of beetles, right? It didn't speak
with the corpses. No, you just need enough biomass
equal to a human body. So the body should be
enough. Great. I am curious. If I take that head
and put it with a human body, you think it would
try to connect? Perhaps maybe if there was some
fungus also in the human body. Please do. Oh,
yeah, we got those. We got those for sure. I
mean, who's stopping you, right? You should try.
Nobody's stopping us. Is that a good idea? Exactly.
No one can see you in this tent. You do whatever
you want. He kind of scratches the back of his
head a little bit. Hey, I might be back later.
You tell me what you find out. Okay. Yeah. Of
course. I think I will. Mm -hmm. All right. This
guy's all right. Yo. He would not say yo. He
would not say yo. He would not say yo, guys.
Can we be honest here? What's up, yo? He wouldn't
say yo. He calls over one of his boys, who's
not like a servant, who has his mind about him.
He says, go with these folks, and they're going
to do a weird ritual, and here are the instructions.
Just keep an eye on it. Here's a couple bottles
of beer to keep you occupied. And you now have
your escort. Perfect. Yeah, we're just going
to go to whatever dormitory and I think Ledger
will pop down Falls Beetle out of his pocket
and let it get to work. Oh wait, hold on. There's
a process, right? Yeah, you put some sand in
the hole. We put it in the neck hole. You play
a little wooden flute. And then you let the beetle
on it and it starts going in there and just chomping,
chomping. You have to wait like 27 hours, I think.
Yes. Really? Yeah. Yeah. So you got you got a
day. So you go in the hole now. You go in the
hole later. I mean, there's there's the rush.
Take your time. You go to sleep. I know. Wait,
is this to attack? Is the watch guy is just going
to sit around and watch the cow? He's just going
to sit around and watch the cow. For 27 hours?
Yeah, I think he probably says, like, I'm going
to need to get, like, a second watch guy to help
me out here. Yeah, probably. Do let me know what
happens. We didn't watch the process last time,
and I admit a curiosity in the matter. I've seen
worse, trust me. That quartermaster, he's a freak.
It seems like he has particular interest. Yeah,
but, you know, you can't question it. He's your
boss, right? I love your corpses, boss. They're
very interesting. I'm sure he loves his corpses.
I think he loves them a little too much. I think
you're right. You wouldn't know anything about
that, would you, Bailey? Only a freak would think
something like that. The note says PS to one
in the big hat wants to fuck the cow. Watch out
for him. Watch out. Two thumbs up from Bailey.
All right. So I think, I guess we can do this
in character. We find ourselves with a little
bit of time to kill. We could either rest and
recuperate, wait for this to go up before we
undertake our particular errand, given that we
are not in any sort of necessary rush, or try
and get it out of the way and hope that we survive
to send this message out when we are done. I
mean, I got nothing going on right now, so I'm
good to just get to action. But, I mean, we have
the time. If anyone needs to feel a little bit
better about themselves, we can, you know, fix
things. Is everyone okay right now? Halo says,
I feel sleepy. Okay, nap time for Halo. What
about you, Booker? You have this craving for
teeth that I'd like to be rid of. Well, we could
probably fit some time in with that. What do
you think, Ledger? Well, if he wanted to go see
the soul world, we would need to drum up something
in the way of payment. I believe I've got something
around here. He starts rummaging through his
coat pockets. I have a d4 tallies as well. I
think we need, what is it, d8 to remove a minor?
Or is it d6? d6 for minor, d8 to downgrade a
major. I also have... Is your craving for teeth
a major or a minor? Oh, no, it's major. I'm broke.
Well, we can do two D6s to make a D8. You guys
have two D4 tallies, right? So you combine those
into a D6, and then Ledger, I think, rummages
through his coat, and he pulls out a bag. Sorry,
go ahead. Just to clarify, so how it works is
that a... A d4 and a d6 is equal to d8. One d4
moves everything up by one step. Oh, okay. So
that's even better. But rules as written, you
need an actual d8 object. You can't combine to
go higher. So a d4 and a d6 is equal in value
to a d8, but someone will not take it as a d8
resource for a fallout. Something I've discovered
recently. fuck so how do we so if you don't already
have a d8 you're just shit out of luck then basically
yes um but booker does have a d10 i'm not selling
my book my super book never mind i'll keep the
hunger all right i will always need more teeth
if i'm for to be totally honest removing stress
seems much less useful than removing fallout
and so you can just keep your tooth craving Actually,
how much is it to reduce stress at a haunt? You
get a stress equal to the value of what you give
them. So if you give them a D4, you reduce D4
stress. Okay, because I have seven echo stress
after that horrible meeting with Parkelion, so
maybe Ledger could go to the stalwart. Also,
if you have blood stress, you can get mended
by a friend. I think mind as well. Yeah, that's
what I bought the drinking mold for. I still
got that, by the way. If anybody ever needs to
recuperate mind, they can. Anyone's thirsty.
I think maybe Ledger will think about it for
a minute. And he's like, you know what? I might
go see that soul board myself. I'm feeling out
of sorts ever since that. Well, I suppose you
might call it an ambush. And he shoots a look
at Booker. But I think some gray paint and chanting
will set my soul right. I'll catch up with y
'all later. All right. I think we're just going
to wander off with his hands in his pockets.
Just to remind you, you have a red poncho, which
means you are not allowed to move around unescorted.
I mean, you can do it, but it might cause a problem.
Oh, fuck. What color of poncho can escort me?
Any? Probably blue or yellow, I think. Hi, I'm
yellow. He's blue. I think he'll stop, look down
at his poncho and be like, on second thought,
maybe one of y 'all should come with me. Alright,
you get to pick. Fine, Bailey, come on, let's
go. Yeah! I still have to contact the Institute,
too. Maybe I'll do that. How do I even do that?
I can't remember. We just need to do it with
letters, right? Like normal post office shit?
In this case, you have to go to the Scions office.
That's right. Oh, fuck. I need money for so much
shit. Right? Yeah. I'm going to go to the...
Unless you want to stretch it out, I can just
do the soul ward real fast. Sure. What are you
trying to get rid of the soul ward? Yeah. Just
stress. I'm going to get a d6 to gain d6. Sure.
This is... Roll a d6 and remove your stress by
that much. Yeah. I will part with my bag of teeth.
Goodbye, teeth. Love those teeth. Goodbye, teeth.
You've served me well. Six! That's what I'm fucking
talking about. Baby, you overindulge. No, I don't.
I have one. There isn't overindulging in this
system. Ledger is missing. He's turned off that
paint. Yeah, so if you want to swap back to the
other two, or we can go to the Scion. Halo, you're
not going to sleep, are you? No. Booker, what
are you doing? Are you keeping an eye on Halo?
Booker's hanging out with Halo, not really keeping
an eye on them, but... Are they in their quarters?
You're in your quarters with the random lookout
guy who's playing on his phone. How small are
the quarters? Where are we sitting? What's the
layout? I'm imagining like a very boring dormitory.
So you have like some cots and like a table and
a tent. And a smelly dead cow. There's a dead
cow there that has some like fungus. Is there
like a window? Like a vent and a tent? Well,
you know, there might be a panel that opens up
or something. Yeah, sure. You have a Velcro panel
you can roll up if you're feeling like you need
some breeze. Okay. For some reason. You guys
aren't trapped there. You're allowed to leave.
Halo's not really paying attention to Booker.
He says, thank you for coming with me. And then
he goes and sits on his cot and he starts taking
off his poncho in the corner of the room. Does
the guard see him? Does he try to stop him? The
guard sees you take off your poncho. Oh, come
on. And just, like, assumes you're going to sleep
and just looks back down and it's... His cell
phone. Halo lays down in like a weird flat dead
man's pose atop the covers for a little bit.
And is there a light source in the tent? Yeah,
probably. Probably like a bloodlight lantern.
Yeah. Okay, Halo turns to Booker and says, You
didn't see anything. And then he raises a hand
out and extinguishes the lantern. Okay, it's
dark now. Okay, Booker. He gets up suddenly,
tries to take advantage of the guard's eyes not
adjusting yet because he's still looking at his
bright -ass phone. He kind of just sneaks around
the perimeter and goes to walk out of the tent.
Just to be clear, he doesn't actually have a
phone. I know... I probably don't need to say
that, but that's just what I'm going to say whenever
someone's doing it. He's looking at a crystal.
He's got a crystal. Yeah, he's scrolling crystal
Instagram. And he's like, fuck, dude, these crystals
are looking good. And he holds it up to Booker
and be like, would you? That's a rock. That means
I escaped. So you're trying to sneak. I'm trying
to sneak. I don't have sneak, but can Booker
aid me in sneaking? I forget. Sure. Yeah. Oh,
well, Booker needs to have, I think Booker needs
to have Haven or sneak, which he does have. That's
cool. How is Booker helping? Okay, how does Booker
choose to help me? Does he agree to... Booker
goes and pulls up next to the guard and just
starts talking to him. So he has more bodies
than this? Yeah, man. Dude, you don't even want
to get started with it. It's nasty. Okay. Wait,
so are you turning off the light like probably
in the middle of this conversation? Yeah, sure.
Okay. Good. Cool. All right. Sneak. Okay. What
am I rolling? I'm just going to assume the guard
is like, oh, you're going to sleep. No biggie.
Sneak Haven. Do I roll? Yeah. Sneak Haven. With
an extra die, because you're being helped. Standard.
Uh, yeah. Standard. Success. Take no stress.
Success. Six and an eight. Yay! Uh, yeah, you
sneak out of the tent. You're out of the tent.
It is... Uh, let's call it sleepy time. You're
in a cave, so there's still people milling about,
because it's kind of like a weird situation.
Uh, you are a demon without a poncho. I'm also
all black. And I'm skirting just around the edges
of the tents. And anytime I get within, like,
five, ten meters of a lamp, I suck the light
out of it. Great. You see little lights going
out as you proceed towards the demonologist's
tent. Let's just say you are there. You've gotten
to the demonologist's tent. Mostly unmolested.
Mostly. Is there beetles? I... Lean outside the
entrance, and I listen. Me, me, me, me, me, me,
me, me. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Sleep.
This is too perfect. Halo gingerly opens the
tent flaps and lets himself inside. You're inside
the tent. Demon is at her desk, sleeping. Sleeping
at her desk? Yeah, I know. On that grind? On
that grind. Got her lamp nearby. Still. Just
kind of face down. Indiana Jones. You're going
to have to switch it with a bag of sand. So be
careful. Is there a teddy bear in the room? Anyone?
She's not actually creating it, is she? It is
nearby her. She likes her lamp. We've established
that she really likes her lamp. Okay. He's just...
He looks around for a little bit, and then he
just kind of does some silent steps up and goes
to grab it. Okay. Let's get another Sneak Haven
roll. This will just encompass this whole process.
Do I lose my plus one? Oh, yes, you do. Booker
ain't here no more. No longer being helped. I'm
on my own. Oh, it's a critical failure. Oh, that's
bad. Oh, no. Holy fuck, dude. I should have done
better. I don't have time for that to happen.
Wait, um... Can I use an ability first? Ability?
Well, what is your ability? Crucible. You bring
the energy of the city inside yourself and transmute
it into power. At any time, roll a d6. If it's
equal to or under your current echo stress, clear
that much stress from echo and roll with mastery
on your next action. If it's over, add that stress
to echo. And I have... Never mind. Two echo stress,
so this wouldn't work. You just need to roll
a one, right? I know. I just rolled a one. Nah,
well. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, probably not after
the fact. Okay, roll a d6. If it is a 1, I will
let it happen, because I'm nice. I'm nice. I'm
literally nice. You're such a nice guy. You can
just rearrange the order of the editing. No,
everyone's going to know, but they're going to
know I'm nice. Come on. Come in again. Don't
worry, this is going to actually work, though.
You ain't no Bailey Gormick, okay? Nah, I don't
have the horn. Yeah, so I'm going to hurt you.
Yes, you are. I have a system question. I know
what you're going to ask, but ask it. Okay, if
Halo gets stress but doesn't get Fallout, does
something bad still happen? Yeah, so that's exactly
the thing about this system that I kind of have
issue with, is that I don't know. It's not really
clear. Because you failed to sneak. So that kind
of implies this person did notice you. Notices
me. Should narrative consequences be separate
from stress and fallout? I guess. If not, then
you have such a narrow range of consequences.
Right. So I think you just get both. Yeah, that's
my... I'm kind of... I don't think the maker
of this game is listening. But if you are, hey.
But yeah, I'm kind of just going to ignore the
rules a lot more from now on. Something I just
decided. We love that. But first, you're going
to take 6 times 2. You're going to take 8 fortune
stress. Gold coin. It just explodes into rings.
Alright, I got total stress. 10, man. Okay, roll
a fallout test. Minor fallout. Not the worst
thing in the world. It's pretty good. I thought
your thing was minor echo fallout. Oh. It's a
specific type of fallout. What fallout am I taking?
Fortune? I was going to give you fortune. But
you could give me echo if you were nice. Literally
nice. Double nice, right? The guilt trip is here.
Okay. I could. I could. I could, couldn't I?
The thing that's kind of funny about all this
is that basically regardless of anything else,
unless somebody intervenes, Halo's going to be
captured and executed for being like a mutant.
Not a mutant, a demon on the loose. I'm a little
sweet baby boy. Okay, okay, I'll put my red poncho
back on. Sorry. I mean, there's literally a minor
fortune follow -up which says, in trouble, you
upset an important figure in this or a nearby
haven. Oh, fuck. Time out. You're in trouble.
Yeah, I honestly, honestly, Halo, I have to get
you in trouble here. You reach out. You reach
out to grab this thing. So you take the minor
fallout in trouble. That is called in trouble.
Ooh, Halo's in trouble. Oh, fuck. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, you're in trouble. The demoner wakes up.
As you reach out for this lantern, you feel,
like, so close to it. You feel like you're about
to become one with it, like it wants to. Um,
and the demon, like, shouts and says, Hey! What
the hell are you doing? Where's your poncho?
Ah! I move my hand suddenly and knock the lantern
over and jump back. Um, hmm. I don't think the
lantern breaks. I think it takes more force to
break it. Otherwise, these would be really shitty.
Too strong. Yeah, I think she cast a spell. I
think she cast a fucking spell. Oh, no. She reaches
into her pocket, takes out another piece of weird
coral that you saw her grab before. She snaps
it in her hands and then throws it out at you
and kind of makes like a claw shape with her
hand and the carpet. turns back into rats, and
grabs you. It freaking grabs you. The rats grab
you. They are not nice, and they are biting you.
And then, you are held there. And she says, now
you've fucking done it. Well, now you've fucking
done it, haven't you? He's struggling against
the rats, being like, no. Hey, I need a guard
in here. And some guards come in. Some armed
guards. And she says, this demon, and she kind
of narrows her eyes, just tried to steal something
from me. And it looks like it's walking around
without a poncho or an escort. And I think we
all know what that means. Halo puts his hands
up to his heart and then he points at the lamp
and he says, this lamp, it doesn't want to be
here. It wants to be with me. It's right. This
is wrong. Rats. You're trying to brush off the
rats. These rats are wrong. The lamp is right.
I just need it. What are you doing, Halo? Are
you aiming for a swarm here? I have compel. I'm
trying to compel. What is your angle? Is that
you need this lamp? I'm just trying to get them
to understand that this lamp is in the wrong
place. And so are these rats. I'm in the right
place. And all we have to understand is that
if the lamp was with me, two things would be
in the right place. And if the rats were gone,
nothing would be in a wrong place. You see? Yeah,
can't argue with that. It's not very compelling
after you've already thought. I'm going to be
honest. Do you have any move that could help
with this? Let's look. Explosion. I mean. This
could be the time. He hasn't done it yet. Uh
-oh. I was joking. You did just take a fallout.
Isn't that a trigger for it? Oh. I was joking
about explosion. It's when you suffer major fallout.
But you can just do it at will also, can't you?
Yeah, I think he's getting... more agitated than
he ever has in his life. And as he's trying to
explain this extremely reasonable, rationalable
argument, he starts to have his heart where his
hands are held over glow pretty bright. And you
see all these like thrumming golden liquid veins
kind of spreading out from it and entering into
his extremities. So he's getting a little bit
intimidating as he's also doing this plea um
and you're trying to compel them by scaring them
then in this case yes it's a little bit of an
unintentional scaring but it's what's happening
okay compel haven and i'm gonna say this is risky
yeah failure take stress oh halo my brave baby
boy you're going to die I have a tripe. One echo
stress. I remember you clear all your fortune
stress when you took that miner. Okay. Take one
echo. I don't know if you have any armor for
it. I do have echo. Wait. If I had the protection
and I take the timer up, do I have to take the
timer up or no? If you have armor, you subtract
your armor from any damage you take in that resistance.
If you have one echo armor or more, You would
take no stress. No stress. Okay. You do not take
any stress, but you are now, like, you have failed
to convince these people, and the rats have started
growing around you in a very serious way, and
they're starting to pull you into the ground.
Uh -oh. And she says, I think we're going to
put you away for later. And with a clap of her
hand, you disappear. What? Where'd I go? We'll
get back to you later. Oh, Lord. Ledger. Ledger
is strolling along. He's whistling to himself.
I guess he maybe has some gray paint on him,
depending on how things went on the Soul Ward.
He's probably just kind of leaving it there.
He's whistling. He's smoking a nasty cigarette.
Bailey is following him along. I think he's going
to say, Bailey, I got to go to the Scion to send
a message. Sounds like I'm coming with you. Yeah,
it does sound like. I don't think I have any
more secrets to keep from you. I am an open book.
This is a situation that I have to deal with.
Listen, it's fine. All right? This shit is just
going all haywire at this point. We do all have
our own secrets. I don't care. Let's just go.
All right. That is... wonderfully candid. Let
us move along. I'm going to go to the Scion.
Great. Scion's tent is a tent. You've seen it
before. Say what you will. They got some good
tents here. Nice tent. You're provided pretty
much immediately with a form to fill out, designating
the location you need the message transmitted
to, as well as the contents of the message you
need transmitted. As usual, you have a code where
you can write it all in. They'll be expecting
updates on your mission to find the Maw Apparatus
and in all likelihood they'll want to know why
you're transmitting from Camp Rascal and why
you weren't making contact with them sooner.
So they know that I'm doing the Albright thing
as part of my cover, right? They're aware of
that. So I think that Ledger in code is basically
going to say Moving deeper in the city. Landscape
is changing. Think I have a good lead on it.
Will hopefully be moving to secure in the next.
What's kind of the, just to refresh my memory,
what's kind of like the timeline with which we
move between havens? It's like a few days usually,
right? Of travel? Yes. There are usually a few
days of travel, but sometimes it gets weird with
how it works inside and outside. Yeah, so I guess
maybe he would just say... Honestly, just saying
soon would be enough because it's so weird. Yeah,
that's like hoping to move to obtain it soon.
Yeah. I think that's going to be it. It's basically
truthful because we know that the hungry man...
God, I hope that's not his name. The friendly
man, we know that he's moving into the city,
right? Or we have reason to believe it even though
he's probably behind us. Yes. So it's not none
of it is really a lie. He's just omitting what
he agreed to get Parkelian to do. I need to revisit
the audio on that because I've I was very careful
with my wording and I need to go over what exactly
I agreed to. But you agreed to kill him and take
his scarf and give it to Parkelian. Yeah, but
I recall. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, anyways, that's what
he does. It's basically mostly truthful. He's
not letting on that the friendly man is behind
us and we're moving away from him because they
don't need to know that. Yeah. But yeah, that's
basically it. Great. You hand your message to
the haunted -looking man at the desk, who you
presume to be the Scion responsible for broadcasting
this message. He looks at your face very intently.
Here it comes. Are you going to tell me that
I look familiar now? You've seen it too, haven't
you? Oh, I have seen a great many things. I believe
you will have to be more specific. The theater.
Now, what do you know about a place like that?
I don't know anything about it, but I know that
you have a special role to play. One familiar
to you, I think. Though, maybe you've forgotten
it. Are Scions always weird like this or is this
guy being weird? They are weird people. This
is particularly weird. Yeah, yeah. But like them
being a little kind of spacey and ethereal is
not like completely. They're wacky as part of
their job description. That is really interesting.
Now, where do you think you got all of this information?
Did it just drift into your little brain through
the ether then? He stares at you again and his
eyes like boring through you. And then it's like
he's looking far away and then his kind of mouth
open slackly. And he says, that'll be one tally
mark, please. Is one tally mark like a negligible
amount of money? Yes, it is not. It is not very
much. OK, let's assume. OK, you don't need to
give anything up. Yeah, OK. So he flicks one
at him. A fun thing about the Kithari people
is that they don't. have any currency that is
worth less than $20. Wow. That is fun. Yeah.
Just FYI. For any purchases in the future. Yeah,
I think you should just keep this in mind. Alright,
sure. I flick it at him. Yeah. I think you receive...
I mean, do you wait for a response, I guess?
I guess, yeah, if I would probably know this,
if they're like, if they generally get back to
me right away, yeah, I'll wait around for it.
Yeah, I think like within 20 minutes, you get
a response back from your employer telling you
that they have reason to believe that the friendly
man does in fact have the item that they are
looking for. It would explain some things they
know and that you should track it down and get
it from him and return immediately with it. And
you can wrap things up. Love to wrap things up.
Love to wrap up my last job before retirement.
One last ride. Cool, yeah, that's fine. Great.
Yeah. Booker, at some point, the guard goes to
turn the light back on. Booker says, do you want
to wake him up? Oh, I just need to check on the
corpse. He kind of told me to keep an eye on
it, and I can't really see it right now. All
right, let me get the light. Booker goes so he
can just do it over there without noticing. If
you turn the light back on, he will notice that
the demon is gone. It's not working. Really?
Yeah. Are these things fragile? Like if Booker
drops it, will it break? Yeah. Booker's gonna,
like, try to feign handing it to him, then drop
it. Oh, he falls on the ground and breaks and
spills the sand everywhere. Shut up! Damn it!
Damn it! Oh, man, that's... I'm sorry. I'm so
sorry. That's coming out of my paycheck, man.
Come on. Dude, I'm... Butterfingers, they call
me that. I don't know what to say. Oh, they call
you Butterfingers, do they? And he becomes a
very tough and gork guy really quick. Wow. Can
we see the cow though? It's like here, right?
Can you go to the Chordmaster and get a new fucking
lantern, please? Yeah, yeah. Let me get my poncho.
Great. I'll just take out my flashlight. Alright.
Booker goes. I need to get back to my crystal.
Okay. Where did that demon run off to? Halo,
you are in the infinite carpet dimension. Oh,
man. A carpet stretches infinitely in every direction,
and it also seems to be the horizon and the sky.
Is it a nice carpet? Is it soft and plush, or
is it made of rats? It's made of rats, but it
is also nice. Aren't they being nice to him now?
There are some items in here. Yeah, they're just
jostling you a little. You're not really sure
what's going on, exactly. He's glowing really
brightly, but then he glows a little less because
it's calm all of a sudden. What's the items?
There's, like, some, like, empty bottles in here.
There's, like, probably some bones. Like, a bucket
full of blood. There's some, like... Honestly,
there's probably a dead body in here. There's
probably at least one dead body in here. Oh,
wow. No shortage of bones. We just had to go
to the carpet dimension to get a dead body. Damn
it. Maybe, you know, like a box of those rocks
that you got tested on with earlier, but these
ones are all, like, broken and old. You're not
really sure where you are. You're not really
sure where you are, what's going on, but it's
not good. He wanders around and kind of touches
the items, looks at the carpet ceiling, looks
at the carpet floor, just kind of... poking around
the rats being like excuse me sorry excuse me
do you know the way out of here and he's doing
this for a little bit does anything change in
his surroundings anyone else come in no not yet
um i'm just kind of updating you on your situation
i don't have any like particular way out of this
in mind for you just fyi i do okay great let's
hear it um This would be a really cool time.
Maybe. We'll see what the GM thinks. To summon
my lair. Brian should read that move for me.
The building in question is no larger than a
small shop or study. Inside, the shadows crawl
and scurry. The walls creak and whisper in a
maddening heartbeat. Thuds at the back of your
consciousness. Perfect for you, but unsettling
for anyone else. Any non -witch who enters your
lair must roll resist plus occult and mark d6
stress to echo on a failure or d4 stress to echo
on a partial success. When you are in a landmark,
roll mend plus occult to summon your lair. On
a success, it's always been here, as far as anyone
knows. Your lair acts as a bond. If it suffers
fallout, it's either eaten someone who'll be
missed or been damaged by suspicious locals.
Okay, sounds like you need to roll Mend Cult,
right? Yes, I do. He's unknowingly whispering
some sort of ritual to these rats and being polite
to them. And we'll see what happens. Failure!
Oh my god! That was four dice, too. Holy fuck,
man. I know. Oh, it's risky, that's why. Oh.
Was it supposed to be risky? No, but... Could
have been standard. Then it would be a nine.
Then you get a nine. Yeah, it's standard. So
you succeed. Oh, thank fuck. Okay. What does
this mean? I honestly kind of know what it means,
just using general fantasy logic, which is that
when you summon a pocket dimension inside of
a pocket dimension, it's a bad idea. yes you
violated some rules here um okay um i think your
lair starts to appear it kind of like flickers
a little bit very indistinct um you know trying
to take the form of its surroundings because
it's kind of like a chameleon right it's it's
not it doesn't stick out immediately from the
outside right yeah its natural form is very tooth
-based like imagine a kind of tooth -based cave
structure or hut structure that somewhat blends
in with the surroundings. So it's maybe like
shifting in and out between being like these
bloody teeth that are trying to open into a aperture
and also being made of rats. I don't know. Makes
sense. Makes sense to me. Yeah, you keep flickering
in and out. You see the carpet start to kind
of bend a little bit. You hear like a tearing
noise that also sounds like the chittering of
rats. And... I think you start falling. You fall
through the ground. Oh, no. And, like, you see
beneath you, it's like you're falling from the
sky all of a sudden, and you see a big black
ocean below you, which you kind of recognize
as the Wandering Sea. Oh, fuck. This is good,
right? And you start falling towards it. Yeah,
I mean, surface tension who? As they say. What
is your instinct here? How quickly am I falling?
Is this just air? You are approaching 9 .8 meters
per second. Who knows the number? Yeah, I know
thermal velocity. Don't come at me. No, no, you
know the number. Trampoline. Summon trampoline.
Glad I remembered this spell. Is 2 plus... Blood
protection enough to survive an intermittent
velocity fall. I mean, just, like, what's your
instinct? What is Halo's instinct? You are falling
from a very great height suddenly after being
pushed out between two pocket dimensions. Immediate
screaming. You just hear this, like, funny scream
effect of, Ah! And he gets really bright. He
gets really fucking bright. Okay? Okay. Yeah,
you are rapidly approaching the water. What's
your instinct here as the end comes into sight?
What's useful here? So true form gives me mastery
against hunt and kill. I don't think I'm trying
to hunt or kill the surface of the water. No,
probably not. Oh, yeah, hey, maybe you are. Who
knows? You could go into a pencil dive and not
suffer damages. Yeah, I mean, I'm not looking
for any particular answer here. I'm just trying
to frame the scene. What if, like, the brightness
increases, increases, increases, all these flickering
lights start shining out from him like he's some
sort of disco ball made of the sun? The moment
where he's one inch away from the water, he stops
midair, just hovers for a second. It's like where
his eyes are supposed to be, they're covered
with his hands. And he like moves his fingers
just a little to look around him and goes, what?
And then immediately just falls into the ocean.
Plop, splash. Make this a roll. I'm killing the
water surface. I'll tell you the domain. The
domain here is cursed. If you want to kill, do
it. I'm killing the water tension. Kill in true
form. With this nice soft cannonball. Roll with
mastery. Okay, let's see what happens. Critical
success. Easy. This was great. Yeah, you kill
the water's surface. You lash out with it with
your hand? Light hand? I guess he instinctively
hovers for half a second and then falls and he
probably reaches his hands out just on instinct
to break the fall. Yeah, because you are killing.
You're striking something. Yeah, I think for
a moment you see on the other side of the water
a reflection of yourself that looks a little
different. Before it's kind of too late. And
you strike it and you feel the breaking of glass
in your hands. And some part of you knows that
you just broke the lantern. No. Well, no, I don't
think so. I changed my mind. You didn't break
the lantern. It could be. Because if you break
the lantern, I'm going to hit you with something
that might cause stress. I don't want to punish
you for rolling a good roll. So I'll just say
you got the lantern. You managed to grab the
lantern as you feel your hand moving towards
this glassy thing. Yes, perfect. This works for
me better. Up here, very suddenly, I think you're
back in bed. You're back in bed with your lantern.
And hey, Booker, you know everything that just
happened? Yeah. That didn't happen. That just
didn't happen. I want the last thing. I want
the very last thing that he heard from Halo was
Halo was on top of the covers. He looked over.
He said, you saw nothing. And the next time Booker
looks back, Halo's under the covers and there's
a weird lump that's vaguely lantern shaped. Booker,
you look over to the guard. And he's he's like,
oh, man, I got to I got to check on that cow.
You mind? Booker looks to the lantern and hands
it to him. He feels like something's off. Yeah,
something feels really off. I think the scion
also in this moment on the other side of camp
is like shutters and says it's starting to happen.
Fuck. But yeah. Everything's back to normal,
guys. No worries. I love that. What have you
done? He fixed the problem. Oh, okay. Don't hate.
You can add to your inventory D12. And you can
just call it number. Where's the number for this?
I had the number. Oh, 347. 347. And number 347
was the domain. It doesn't have a domain. Or
I guess you could say it has all domains. Wow.
That's special. Yeah. Everything's cool, guys.
Sweet. That's nothing. There will be no existential
consequences for this action, and I think Ledger
and Bailey are probably walking back, unless
Bailey wants to go anywhere. Nope, feels good.
Feels good, guys. Does Ledger's death feel anything
strange? I don't think she does. Cool. Then we're
just chilling out. Maybe like a weird shiver,
but that's it. I'm a little concerned that we
can move between timelines and that's just a
thing that happens, but we're back and we're
going to regroup. How much time has passed? Has
it just been like a few hours? Yeah, no big time
difference. Okay, cool. I think Ledger's going
to walk back into the tent. and uh look suspiciously
between the two of his compatriots and be like
well uh i kind of did everything i wanted to
do and unless y 'all really want to rest i'm
thinking hey look you have your little your little
nap yeah is everyone like kitted up and gearing
out to go i mean that's what ledger's asking
if we should he's not in bed anymore he's getting
his poncho back on he's got Two lamps, but I
don't think anyone notices it yet. He's got his
big backpack. Ledger might notice. Maybe not
now. I don't think he's aware that anything strange
happened while he was gone. So he's like, why
don't I mean, I don't want to waste time. I would
like to leave this place as soon as the message
is done. So what do you say we go down, get this
errand over with? Let's go. Hey, Mr. God, do
we still got to wear this damn poncho when I'm
down there in the. the pit? Well, technically
not. You're not going to be escorted, so you
could take it off in order to know. I might leave
it by the entrance and redawn it upon my leaving.
You gotta go in the dome first. Yeah, that's
what I mean, but presumably there'll be some
kind of point where I can just leave it and pick
it up later. I've never been in the dome, if
I'm being honest with you. Oh, do people not
go in there? I guess it's... No, no, we don't
even know what the fuck's in there. So, hey,
if you figure it out, I'll pay you. I'll pay
you. You'll pay us? You, Mr... Okay, I guess.
I like gossip. What, I can't be human? I got
a uniform on and I can't be human? What you got,
Mr. Human, huh? What you gonna pay with? I'll
give you 1D4 tallies if you come back with some
good information. 1D4 tallies, okay. Yeah, that's
like, that could buy you more than a hot dog,
that's what I'm saying. Oh, yeah. Sure, you've
got yourself a deal. Let's check on it. I don't
want to do that. I think Ledger's just going
to leave. What the hell? Hey, that's why you
got a red poncho, buddy. You're rude. Hooker
nods his head. I'm so sorry. I'm going to shake
on it. I shake and I say, I want a blue one,
though. Okay. Hey, buddy, I'll get you a green
one. Okay. Oh, yeah. Okay. You guys going to
the dome? Mm -hmm. The fucking dome, bro. Let's
get the fuck on in. Okay. You made a save, right?
Mm -mm. You saved before things got weird, right?
Oh, fuck. A lot of ink ribbons, baby. Oh, shit.
Okay, so the dome is nearly 20 feet high at its
highest point. So not really that high, all things
considered. It does loom over you, though, as
you draw close to it. You note that its surface
is not smooth, but rather consists of countless
tessellated triangles made out of this dull gray
material. Its main entrance extends out from
the dome. There's an arched tunnel with a pair
of heavy metal doors at the front, guarded by
two very heavily armed guards wearing these heavy
silver cloaks over their uniforms. And there's
a gentle vibration you can feel in the air here,
resonating from within the dome, creating a slight
hum in the air. I think Ledger's gonna... They
never took our weapons away, right? They gave
me a red poncho, but they didn't take my revolver.
No, they just let you carry. Sure, I think...
You know, Cathar is big on their rights. Yeah,
yeah, for sure. I think Ledger's gonna, like,
have his revolver out, and he's, like, rolling
the chamber along his... like checking to make
sure that all six cartridges are loaded, and
he kind of walks up to the door and he's like,
Gentlemen, we ought to be entering this place,
but I am curious. I presume you spend a lot of
time sitting out here. Best guess, what do you
think is inside? We can't talk about that, sir.
What do you know? You can't tell me. I'm going
in. I'm going to find out. Yes, but we can't
talk about it. It's part of the rules. Oh. You
ain't supposed to talk about it either. Well,
what am I supposed to say? Can you excuse me
and let me go into nothing behind you so I can
do nothing in a place that doesn't exist? We've
been told to await you. We know you're coming.
Look out for the two red ponchos. Let them in.
They're going to go down. They're going to go
down. That's what they told me. And you're going
to go down. So that's cool. Oh, so they said
we were going down. That sounds awful lot like
they're talking about it to me. Are you sure
that's not against the rules? He's got you there.
Why are you trying to cause trouble right now?
What have I done to you? I just think this whole
pomp and circumstance is a little bit ridiculous
over a dome, all right? Oh, maybe that's why
you got a red poncho on, friend. I have been
told. It's all about the red poncho, okay? Can
I leave it here with you? You ain't even a demon.
You ain't even a demon. No, that is true. But
you're acting like one. You're acting like one,
friend. Now that is an ignorant comment. Go inside.
Go inside. I don't want to talk to you anymore.
I think Ledger's gonna take his poncho off and
be like, I'm gonna leave this here. You can make
sure I put it back on when I come out. No, you
take it off in the airlock, okay? Airlock? I'll
be damned. I'm fine. He goes inside and then
he takes his poncho off and throws it on the
ground. I hate this place. I hate high school.
Ledger looks over. Hey, any tips for a friend?
What? Like, for the hole? Yeah. Listen, buddy,
they're just going to send you down the esophageum,
and you're just going to have to make do. You
said the name. I guess my tip is follow the taproot,
I guess. Thanks. Yeah, this all makes sense to
you, doesn't it? I don't know shit, all right?
Get your ass in there, buddy. All right. Sorry,
the door guards are not nice, guys. They're not
nice. Bailey looks at the crumpled red poncho
on the floor. He's like, you sure showed them.
Good job. Ah, you know what? They say that I
am cathartic, but I cannot stand these goddamn
bureaucrats and their stupid rules. Hey, I'm
with you. I pull out my gun. Let's get this shit
done. Okay, so you were in the airlock. The big
door is closed behind you. There's another set
of doors in front of you. Off to the side, there
are a bunch of these silver cloaks on a rack.
They are labeled as Resonance Protection. I suppose
we should each don one of those. Yep. Zip. Zip.
You put on your cool silver cloaks. They're like
space blankets. It's nice. Kind of loud, though.
Kind of crinkly. Ledger probably thinks for a
moment. He's like, baby, you try to stay underneath
this thing just in case it matters. Can she overlap
with you? I mean, she's a ghost. I assume so.
But if not, then she could just kind of like
float underneath. I don't know. It's your choice.
I think so. I think she's like literally like
ghost rules. When I imagine her attacking people,
I imagine that like. Like a stand. She's your
stand. You know what? I'll admit it. I've never
watched JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I'm aware of
the concept. That's always what I thought. Wow.
That's good. That's actually a good thing. It's
shameful for you to force me to admit this on
air, but yeah, it's true. I'm not going to describe
to you what a stand is, but if you're listening,
it's like a stand. Look it up. Okay. So you go
inside. You go inside the dome. Pass the second
airlock. There is a catwalk which surrounds the
outside of the dome. with spokes bridging over
into the center of this area, at the center of
which there are these five bony spikes, which
kind of look like a skeletonized hand, reaching
up out of a metal bowl. Hovering at the terminus
of these five digits is a pitch black sphere,
and as your eyes catch it, you hear a cacophony
of screaming voices bursting into your head,
which you quickly look away from because it's
unpleasant. I assume. Ow. uh yeah the guy on
the inside here at the door is like oh yeah yeah
don't look at that thing oh there's a guy inside
oh yeah there's like there's a bunch of people
in here there's like um some like people off
to the side of the bowl uh some people using
some devices are they researchers do they look
like researchers there are a couple of guys who
look like eggheads for sure you know eggheads
you're an expert at eggheads these guys are eggheads
yeah um Look, are you allowed to talk about the
thing in here, or is it still against the rules?
I mean, I'm not going to tell you what it is.
Is that what you're asking? Well, you can't tell
me, or you won't tell me. Both, I suppose. I
mean, I can tell you what you need to do. I'm
going to lead you to the researchers up by the
entrance down there, and they're going to talk
to you about everything, but I'm just kind of
your escort. Yeah, maybe they understand. You
know, I see you put on the cloaks. That was kind
of smart of you. Last guy was sitting here. He
didn't even take one. What happened to him? Well,
I don't know. He just went down. He didn't come
back. Was he the foreman? Is that the guy we're
looking for? You are looking for the foreman,
but I was like, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, that's
our team, but we sent, there was a guy who came
here, real friendly fellow. We sent him after
the foreman because he got caught up in some
bureaucracy and he volunteered going down. That's
an interesting choice of words. How friendly?
It's funny, actually. His name, it was literally
Friendly Man. Isn't that weird? That is weird.
How long ago was that? Oh, I don't know. Days
kind of blend together here, but four, five week?
Something like that. Wow. Oh, fuck. It's all
coming together. Let's just go. Let's just go.
I think we should just go. Yeah, I mean, for
sure. Let me get you to the researchers. He leads
you down some stairs, which leads below the bowl
and the weird bone hand. The earth has been kind
of mined away, revealing a tunnel which kind
of ends in what looks to be an elevator, from
what you've seen. Off to the side of it are a
number of these horse -sized mechanical crustaceans
with a number of drills attached to them and
shovels and scoops, and they all seem to be in
really bad condition. Um, and near the, the hole
in the elevator are a couple of the eggheads
wearing the silver cloaks with these big tinted
goggles. And they're kind of all speaking to
each other and, um, look over to you all as you
approach and say, uh, you are the next volunteers,
I take it. In a manner of speaking, I suppose.
Uh, good, good. Uh, so how much do you know?
How much did they tell you? Not anything. We're
looking to you to actually say fucking something
about this damn thing. Okay, well, basically,
so you see this green and brown fleshy appendage
right here, which is going in the hole, and it
kind of points at it and it squishes a little
bit? This right here is the taproot, and you're
going to want to just follow this all the way
down, and if you get to the bottom and it stops
before you find the formin or anything like that,
you're just going to want to kind of massage
and pull the taproot until it starts growing
again. It's going to point you in the direction
of the power source. And then, you know, if you
follow that, you should find the foreman because
that's what he was looking for, too. He should
probably, he has a journal. He should have a
journal. Just find the journal. Bring it back
up. Fill us in. There was another volunteer we
sent down earlier. He won't be wearing a uniform.
That's how you'll know it's him. And whatever
happened to him, too, we'd be interested in.
All really basic stuff. Sound basic? If it sounds
basic, you gotta say it back to me so I know
you understand. All basic stuff. Not that part.
We had to go down the hole, follow the taproot.
If it ends, we have to massage it. Yeah, I got
that. Stroking the old root. Sorry. So you're
looking for a power source then? In a matter
of speaking, yes. We're not supposed to do anything
to it. Just look at it. No, the taproot will
find its way to the power source on its own.
And it'll attach to it or something? Yeah, something
like that. Hmm. The foreman's somewhere in there
too, right? He should be. If we can find him.
Yes, if there's like a cave -in, then, you know,
try to move the cave -in or something. There
should be tools. Anything we got to, okay. Tools,
good. Yeah, there's like shovels and stuff down
there. you know is there anything down there
killing folk by any chance well we don't know
but we don't think so we didn't run into anything
like that um and yeah well it it we don't but
you know we don't know we don't know any theories
people just aren't coming back uh well our theory
is like some sort of gas leak but uh we haven't
we haven't had no proof of that all right Well,
this has truly been an enlightening conversation.
I was told that your last volunteer was something
of a friendly man. Did he seem to be in good
spirits going down there? Yeah, he seemed, well,
he seemed determined, but friendly. And also
his name was friendly, isn't that weird? That
is so funny. That is so strange. Well, I suppose
it's time we go. Well, you know, he got a green
poncho. That does not surprise me. You know why.
He's a friendly guy. Whatever. Exmoor really
liked him. Yeah, I bet he did. Elevator's right
there. Just hit the lever, it'll take you down.
And it'll take you back up, too. One final question.
What happens to us if we don't got the poncho
on? What do you mean? Like, why is it necessary?
What danger will befall someone who takes it
off or does not wear one in the first place?
Like, outside here or here? Down there, up here.
Oh, you mean the cloak? Yeah. Not the poncho,
sorry. Yeah, that's different. Oh, well, the
device, and he points up at the thing above you,
it gives off a sort of energy, which is not good
for long -term exposure. You'd probably be fine
without it because you're in and out, but we
work here all day, so, you know. I see, well.
You won't need it down there, so if it annoys
you, you can take it off. Well, I suppose we
will leave you then. Do enjoy the proximity of
your screaming orb of the damned, or whatever
the hell. Yeah, that's what the goggles are for,
and he tapped his goggles. Farewell. I think
Ledger just walks over onto the elevator. He
doesn't seem... Ever since the friendly man got
mentioned, Ledger's got kind of like a scowl
on his face. He's not his usual cheerful self.
He's not been very cheerful lately. No. Are we
good? Get on the damn elevator. Do I even know?
Do I have that word? Is that a word that Ledger
knows? Yeah. They're big on elevators. Machines.
Okay, cool. They're like very old -fashioned
elevators. We don't got like electricity. We're
getting there. Actually, that's not true. They
do have electricity, but that's not what is here.
Um, okay. Uh, the elevator starts going down
really slow. You may all now talk amongst yourselves
while I take a sip of water. Alright. Um, I think
everybody gets in. Ledger flips the switch and
he looks around and he's like, a friendly man
is down there. Isn't that interesting? I deeply
distrust the synchronicities that have been plaguing
us. I do not like them. I deeply distrust the
friendly man. So we're correct there. And I don't
think we should trust him if we meet him. What
did you have to do again? Do you have to kill
that guy? I start reloading my gun. Allegedly.
If he is indeed alive. Yeah, I don't think that
thing is a man. Okay, so if we start going into
attack mode, we just gotta be ready. Maybe we
need to surprise him too. You know? You're also
given a special knife to kill him with. Oh, that's
right. I do not think that you would go through
all the trouble of sealing a normal man the way
that the friendly man was sealed, nor would you
go through such lengths to kill him. This is
what I'm saying. Something up with that guy.
I said it from the beginning. We all know that,
right? Yes, you did. For the record, I do not
want to have to do this. Well... You want to
talk to the god again? Maybe you can ask him
nicely. We can get a meeting. It'll go great.
Perhaps not. Halo, do you have your lamp out?
He's got his pack. He's got the lamp that was
his original, clipped on the bottom of the pack.
And also, just the other one, honestly. Kind
of maybe, like, on the same clip. So he bangs
around a lot when he walks, but he's banging
a little bit more. There's two lanterns there
now. So are we going to talk about that now?
Yeah, wait, what the hell? Where'd you get that
second one? Do they duplicate? Oh, this one here?
You stole it from the demonologist, didn't you?
It's not stealing if it chooses to go with you.
I gotta use that one next time. Yes, it's quite
good. They can't argue with it, but they will
try. Yeah. Wait, you argued with somebody? What?
Well, not really so much with people. Mostly
with rats, but they were helpful. I like the
booker. Weren't you watching him? He's the rat
guy, you should know. He just slept. Really?
He slept? I just had a really good dream. I don't
know. Look, we can talk about this another time.
There's a part of me that believes that it is
going to cease being important very soon. A distant
bell rings. Okay. Let's go. You go down this
very slow elevator. You see the taproot on the
wall opposite you going straight down into this
brownish red stone that gets more and more red
the deeper you go. And you eventually arrive
at the bottom where the tunnel twists and turns
in front of you, lit by the occasional blood
-light lantern set into the floor. And the taproot
kind of crawls along the floor and the ceiling
of this tunnel and leads the way forward. There's
some, like, tools on the wall, like the occasional
crate of, like, supplies, maybe some, like, old...
that have been left down here. But no, like,
sign of a struggle that you can see so far or
anything that really rings a warning bell in
your head. May I do something? Possibly use an
ability here? Yeah. I would like to use my newfound
ebony horn ability, Machine Interface. And I
would like to touch the taproot and see if I
can understand it and roll mastery on that. Huh.
Huh. Is it a machine? I guess is the big question
I'm asking here. Because I'm feeling similar
things to the alien spaceship underground. And
that's why I want to try to interface with something
like this. I think Bailey would try to make that
connection. Yeah, roll me a discern as you touch
your forehead to the ground. Discern occult.
All right. Discern occult mastery standard. Standard.
All right. I think Bailey says, give me a second,
guys. I just want to see if this works. And I
think he puts his hand on. He like puts his gun
down, puts his hand on. He's going to put his
hand on Taproot. And then he stops, thinks for
a bit. He starts lowering his horn to touch the
taproot. There you go. Success. Take no stress.
Look at that. It's a good roll. What do you want
to know? What are you interested in here? I want
to know. if this is part of a larger, it is like,
what is a taproot a part of? Uh, like, is it
part of a larger machine similar to what I encountered
before? Like, is the tapper just a tapper? You
know what? Actually, this is, um, this would
have been a dangerous role, but you actually
would be fine because you rolled really well.
Um, I, cause I just remembered something about
the taproot that I didn't write down. Um, uh,
yeah. Um, fuck, we've got to go into cyberspace
here. Okay. So basically the taproot is kind
of what it sounds like. It is like a, it is a,
basically a wire, a biomechanical cable, which
is, it creeps towards this power source of some
occult energy, which is deeper in the tunnel.
You can sense that it goes deeper in. There is
a point where the power seems to jump. I guess
you would call it like there's a, The length
of the taproot and how long it says it is is
off. There's some nonlinear space stuff going
on, I guess I would call it, just laid on the
table farther down the tunnel. Going back up
the elevator, the big thing up there, the weird
screaming ball and the fingers, it connects somewhere
else. in that connection there is there is something
big in there there's something big in that connection
which is extremely loud and sounds like a million
voices uh overlapping um which is blocking your
path going through that orb like there's something
on the other end of that orb and you're being
blocked by a firewall i guess you could just
call it like basically a mental firewall there
that you could try to penetrate but it would
be a very dangerous thing to do Okay, so we should
try to find a way around this firewall. You don't
need to, because you're going the opposite direction.
But if you wanted to know more about what's above
you, instead of what's deeper in the tunnel,
then yes, you could. Okay. I explain all that
to my comrades. That don't make sense, right,
guys? That don't make a damn lick of sense. Basically,
I think this is part of a much larger thing.
I don't think it's just the dome and the taproot.
But if we want to understand more, we could follow
the tap route backwards or we can keep going
forwards. But something seems off about the power
here. I don't think it's connecting right now.
Is this is this a Cathari thing or is it something
they found? Do you think? Hold on, let me ask
the root again for my heart. No, wait, I can't
do that again. This seems otherworldly. I don't
know. It doesn't seem part of anything that was
Cathari. Yeah, that was my assumption as well.
I suppose it doesn't matter much. We should move
on. Yeah, listen, I got a dangerous vibe from
this thing, so just tread lightly, okay? Well,
isn't that just a change of pace? Something dangerous.
Yeah, wouldn't you know. I think Ledger's got
his revolver out and probably like a normal style
lamp, as we have described having in the past.
And he's I guess he's leading the way. That's
technically his job. Yeah. I'm behind you with
my demon wood coach gun. Oh, yeah. I forgot you
got a totally fucking swag shotgun now. Mm hmm.
Jealous, aren't you? Yeah. Well, I gave it to
him. I picked it up and put it in his hands.
You'll never admit that. OK, you proceeded down
the tunnel. Nothing of interest happens for a
while. until you reach the end of the tunnel.
And lodged in the wall of the stone, there is
an oil painting. It is a painting of an open
blue sky with a valley filled with lush green
fields. The whole area is lit in the shadowless
daylight of midday with no sun in the sky. In
the center of the valley is a large town filled
with intricate stark white buildings. From the
middle of the town's largest building, there
is a gray pillar which stretches into the sky.
The painting itself seems to be emitting some
of the sunlight from within, and you can feel
the warm beams of light touch your skin. The
taproot that you've been following seems to have
crawled up towards the painting and actually
seems to have gone inside of it, with a distortion
present at the bottom of the painting where it
seems to be going in. I think Ledger's going
to turn around, look at everybody, and then I
think he's going to just reach one hand through.
Nope, okay. Your hand goes through and it's very
warm. Oh. Nothing weird happens to my hand? No,
it feels really nice. And actually, I think you
can see, you see your hand in the painting when
you do that. Cool. It gets oil painting arised
as it goes through. Is it a normal hand or is
it a skeleton hand? Oh, you know what? You know
what I think? I think it's a hand, but it is
wearing different clothes than you are. And it
looks vaguely familiar, but you don't know why.
Bailey stops him. Ledger's going to like put
his upper body through and step through. Well,
Bailey's, I think maybe they does maybe stop
you. And then just kind of like puts his hand
up and then now he's going to start putting his
gun, like the tip of his gun through to see if
it does anything. Like, what does it look like
on the other side? It looks like your gun. It
looks like your gun, but in an oil painting style.
Oh, well, that didn't change. No. Are we going
through? Yes, we have no choice. There's no point
bandying about if you ask me. Well, let's get
to it. You want to go first? Yeah, Ledger didn't
even respond to that comment. He just steps through.
Oh, okay. All is the oil painting. Oh, it's tall
enough. It's tall enough. It's not that big,
but it's big enough. Okay. Yeah, Ledger passes
through, and you all see him on the other side.
He goes in. He looks around. He gives a thumbs
up, and he waves for you all to come through.
Who wants to destroy the painting? Nah, I'm just
kidding. Let's go. Yeah, Ledger, you don't do
that, by the way, I presume. I don't give a thumbs
up? I mean, here's what I'll say. No matter what
you say, that is what you did. Okay. He wouldn't,
assuming what he would probably just like maybe
like do like a come here gesture, but he wouldn't
thumbs up. That's not like him at all. No, not
really. You know, now I think about it. When
you go through, you look like a different person
to everyone else. Really? Yeah, you genuinely
do not look like yourself to everyone else. I
do not have the description in front of me of
what you look like. But suffice to say, it is
not Ledger. He looks different through that painting.
He looks absolutely different. He's dressed in
different clothes. He has a different face. There
are some similar mannerisms, but it is not Ledger
Gray. New world, new me. I'll go next. Sling
the coach gun around my shoulder and I step in.
Bailey goes in. He looks normal. He looks the
same. Actually, no. Bailey wouldn't look the
same. Horn. Bailey does not have a horn and he
looks like a different guy in like a research
outfit. Okay. Booker walks through. To Halo,
Booker looks... Booker actually looks normal.
Maybe he looks a little happier. Or maybe a little
sadder. You choose, Booker. It's ambiguous. You
can't tell with that smile. It's happy or sad
based on the angle. Like a prism. Oh, shit. I
knew that would make you laugh. And that's what
Halo is saying, looking at Booker. Oh, yes. You're
like a prism. And then Ledger's like, how the
fuck did you learn that work? Great. He's still
saying this to himself. Playing hand puppets.
He's breaking the fourth wall. He's got his second
lantern, and he's hot, man. Yeah, that lantern
wants to be with you. It wants to be open. It's
with me. It's not time yet. Wait. Okay. You are
all stepped through, I suppose, now that Halo
is done with his shadow puppets. Yeah. Yes. On
the other side of the painting, it is pleasantly
warm. You kind of see everything you see here.
Ledger looks like himself again, as does Bailey,
on this side of the painting. Behind you, there
is no painting, but there is a mirror. And on
the mirror, there is a page of a script, which
has been stuck to it. And the script says...
They called this place Cardia, a digestive error
containing a chunk of what was once known as
the City of Wishes. It would not be appropriate
to call it a place, but a misplace. The City
of Wishes was meant to be the final destination
of those entering these terrible lands. But something
else had taken its place, and as such, what was
once a destination of finality was vomitously
expelled. Here lies one such extranium. No doubt
some traces of the old power might be found here.
But this place will not have you. You are awaited
in the temple. The show must go on. That sounds
fun. Oh, shit. I think Ledger's eyes widen a
little bit. And he looks at his death, who is
presumably floated out from underneath the radiation
poncho. Mm -hmm. Is this it? Would she know?
I don't know how much will or understanding she
really has over anything. Is this what? Is this
the afterlife that he was expelled from? It doesn't
feel like it. That's for sure. Okay. Would she
say that or communicate it non -verbally to him,
perhaps? In the afterlife, you and your death
are not separate. She does not seem any recognition.
She is an uneasiness, if anything. Okay. Do I
still look weird to them in here? You look completely
normal. You look back like your old self. Like
my ledger self? Yes, you are a ledger. Yeah.
You're a ledger. You're no longer being viewed
through the canvas. Okay, I see, I see. All right,
I don't like anything about this. Yeah. The taproot
continues through the grassy field ahead of you
towards the town below. In the grassy field,
like kind of in the distance, but just enough
you can see it, there's like a little red lump
off to the side of the taproot. Hmm. Let's inspect
that lump. Let's get on over there. I suspect
that may be our foreman. Yeah, we go over to
the lump. As you proceed through the field, there's
like this gentle breeze that feels very nice.
Very idyllic. You all can all see the picture,
right? Yes. Okay, cool. We don't see any people
in the city, do we? Yeah. The distant buildings
beyond? Not a soul? Okay. Not a soul, brother.
You tell me a scary white city has no people
in it. What? Yeah, I don't know if I can believe
that. Yeah, you approach the... You go along
the taproot. You can't tell if this red lump
is moving or if it's the wind, but it does seem
to be a little bit animated. And... approaching
it you get a better look at it and you if you
had to guess if you really had to guess it is
some sort of mulched up human being uh you see
a half destroyed eyeball in there some tattered
pieces of a kathari servant's uniform as well
as might be the haft of some tool and it seems
to like undulate slightly as you approach is
this our foreman you said it had a servant's
uniform on yes so most likely not the foreman
No, you see the scraps of cloth in there. That's
one of them brainwiped fools they got shambling
around. Poor bastard. Hey, you got any understanding
in that horrible quivering lump of meat? The
meat quivers. Like an intelligent quiver or it
just keeps doing what it's doing? It is quivering.
Okay, don't quiver for like one second. Stop
quivering. Maybe you can't help it. I think it's
quivering. It is not corresponding to your prompts.
I believe that the fate of this poor creature
is none of our business beyond doing our best
to make sure that we do not befall the same fate.
Yeah. Wait a minute. It has an eye. Can the eye
blink? I think it's an eyeball. It's half of
a ruined eyeball. I don't think it has a lid.
We'll get you a lid, buddy. We'll get you a lid,
alright? Just hang on. This is revolting, but
it's not what we are here for. Let's move on.
Yeah. No idea what the source of the light is,
eh? No. There's no sun. Do we cast a shadow?
No. There are no shadows. Now that is peculiar.
If I hold my lantern up, can I make it cast?
Cause my hand to cast a shadow? Your lantern
doesn't cast any light. Oh. You see fire within.
You feel its warmth, but there's no light. Halo,
how's your lantern doing? Mine doesn't seem to
make any light in this place. I think he shuts
it off to save the oil. Yeah, is mine just still
glowing? The broken one's not. Use works. Cast
shadows. Does it want to be used as a lantern
right now? No, it wants you to break it open.
Classic lantern. Always saying that. Always saying
that shit. He picks it up. He unlatches it from
his bag and he's like, we need some light right
now? No, I was curious more than anything else.
This place seems well lit despite it having absolutely
no source. Guy holding a pipe bomb. You want
some fucking light? You want some fucking light?
Okay. He puts it back. Let's keep moving away
from this wretched meat pile. Let's follow the
taproot. Well, ain't that just a familiar sight?
More doors that ain't doors at all. Makes you
think of the theater, don't it? Yeah, I'm getting
a lot of theater vibes here. Very on my guard.
Bailey, here in the street, looking up at the
biggest building you saw with that weird gray
tube coming out of the top of it that stretches
infinitely into the sky, you realize that this
place you've seen in your journal before, in
Checker Graham's journal. Oh, hey, wait a second.
I have the journal. I flip it open, maybe. I
get to the page. What do I see? You see this.
There is a note on it that says, have to find
the painter. I think he'll clear things up for
me. That gives me a lot of relief. Good news,
guys. This is as artificial as anything else.
I think we're very deep inside the machine. It's
creating the city of glass. You and your damn
machines. Trust me, that's how it did all this,
okay? What do you think's been pulping these
folks? We got another pile up ahead. Maybe we
ought to poke at it some. Hey, you all take 1D4
echo stress. The entire city of, which you know
to be called Cardia, seems to shake. You're not
sure if it's shaking physically, but there is
a sensation of intense vibration that rattles
through you. It is almost pleasant, like a vigorous
massage, but it is doing something to you. Flash
R, 24. Two echo. It's kind of funny. This hasn't
really come up, but the abilities that I have
been taking for Ledger indicate that his soul
has continued to deteriorate and he's getting
more and more fucked up. And the last one I took
was Tattered Soul, which gives me plus one echo
protection. So I actually take zero stress from
this. Okay, everyone who did take stress and
didn't get it all negated, roll me your fallout
test, please. That is perfect. Mind the fallout
for our favorite boys. Yay! Not me! That's really
unlucky for Booker, actually. Yeah, Booker and
Halo both took fallout, which is actually very
cool, because I had a very particular fallout
in mind here. Yes, love this. You become a massive
pulp. It's actually funny. Yes, Bailey and Ledger.
Halo and Booker disappear. Not again. What? They
are gone. Oh, son of a bitch. Great. Ready my
shotgun. Where are we? I'm not telling you. We
should move more quickly. Let's go. Come on,
follow the... You don't think they're around
here, do you? Let's just go. Let's just go. I'd
hate to leave Halo behind. Fine. Fine. Damn it.
Let's go. Yeah, we start running. Great. Are
you running down along the taproot? Yeah. Yeah,
I think Ledger assumes that's the way out. I
assume Bailey thinks the same. Sure. You start
running through these very large white streets.
It seems very difficult to run through them.
Then the tapper keeps just going straight towards
this building with the big tube coming out of
it, which you know to be called the temple. And
we'll just have you running. And we're going
to cut to our friends. Our friends. Carpet dimension
again. Come on. Halo. And Booker. You find yourself
suddenly somewhere else. You seem to be backstage
at a theater, picking through the curtains at
stage left. In front of you on stage, you hear
familiar voices. Ledger and Bailey are looking
around and discussing the sudden disappearance
of their two friends, Halo and Booker. And they
begin to run, almost running in place on this
stage with this weird backdrop of a white city
behind them. And in your hand is a script. A
halo, a single page of typed instructions which
reads, Halo looks on at his friends, unsure whether
to join them on stage or not, but before he can
choose, he hears the creaking of wood behind
him. He turns and comes face to face with the
friendly man, but something is wrong. The usually
jovial face is filled with something else, a
deep and unquenchable hunger. Thick streams of
saliva run down his face and drop off his chin
onto the ground. His teeth grind and gnash against
each other and his body is tight with apprehension
and intent. The friendly man runs his fingernails
up and down the silken ribbon around his neck.
Then he speaks. It won't be long now. It's almost
time for my introduction, he says, his mouth
wet and sticky with saliva. Then Booker asks
the question that's on everyone's mind. What
are you? The friendly man gives him a malicious
laugh. You'll find out when the script says you
do. But let's be honest, friend. I think we all
know how this is going to end. A stage light
comes on with a loud kachunk, illuminating the
stage behind Booker and Halo. Booker and Halo
turn their back on the friendly man, and then,
possessed by some odd intent, re -enter the scene.
Uh, hey guys, Booker and Halo are back. Where
do they show up when we're running? Uh, they're
just right in front of you. I think Ledger, yeah,
Ledger's been sprinting and he, like, does, like,
the most, like, Looney Tunes -esque, like, breaking
on his heels and, like, sliding. Yeah, probably
barrel through Halo and smash into him. They
fall apart into the most cacophonous sound of
Junk Mage and Lantern. A lot of jangling. There's
like squeaking rubber ducky falls. I think Ledger
takes a couple steps back and he's got his revolver
pointed at both of them and he's like, what in
the hell? Where did you go? Where did you come
from? Why are you pointing gun at us? We're back.
I'm putting the coach gun in your face. You're
Halo, right? We saw the friendly man. What? He
wasn't so friendly. He was hungry. He was so
hungry. Oh my god, my Freudian slip earlier of
saying hungry man was prophetic. I've made that
Freudian slip myself. He just needs a frozen
dinner. Ledger looks around and he probably reaches
down and tries to get you guys up and he's like,
go. We just need to go. There's nothing else.
We have to run right now. This way. Bailey's
going to grab you by the hand, Halo. He's not
going to let you go. He's dragging you along.
Yeah, we're going. And it's worth noting that
everywhere in that script where the friendly
man's name was written, it's written by hand
with the type name having been scratched out.
Okay, you're running. As you run, you hear this
voice humming from down one of the pale white
streets. And Ledger and Halo... The humming seems
so familiar to you. Is it nice? It's very nice.
It's like an old friend. I think Ledger's going
to stop and almost fall over because he's running
so fast. He's probably heaving breaths and he's
like, y 'all hear that? Humming? Yeah. I do.
Ledger, Halo, that's the painter. Ooh. And I
don't know how I know that, right? I just know
that. You just know. Is there a direction? Let's
go. It's just a trick. It's just a trick. Halo
is redirected by Bailey quickly and starts running
again. Damn it. Wait. Why? What? The painter.
Your journal. What did it say? What did it say?
Didn't it mention that name? I flipped to the
page. What does it say? The painter. You'll know.
He'll be able to help you. I slam the book closed.
Go. Go there now. Fuck. Yeah, Ledger not really
understanding why looks over his shoulder to
make sure his death is following him, and he's
going to start running towards the sound. Yeah,
I push. I let go of your hand now, Halo, and
I'm pushing you forward. Like, directly. Now
you go. This is so slapdash, yeah. You turn.
You weave through the terrible white streets,
and you find the painter. A gaunt -looking man
with an easel in front of him with dried chips
of red paint intermixed with the wet pigment
still dripping off onto the ground. His chair
sits in this ever -growing puddle. And that's
all I have to say for now. I think Ledger's going
to walk up, not, he's not going to, did you say
that he's in the middle of a puddle? Yes, of
red paint. I'm not going to step in the puddle.
I might go up to its edge and be like, you're
the, Painter. He looks up to you and says, Yes,
that is me. I am the painter. What is happening
to this place? You all take 1d4 Echo Stress.
Oh my god. Are you gonna roll it or should we?
You guys can roll it. I like it more that way.
Slash R, 1d4. I took one that time. Ugh. One.
Damn. Everybody's rattling apart. Yeah, you guys
are welcome to use collateral if you want, for
those of you with it. Just heads up. Collateral?
Don't point it at me. Don't point that fucking
thing at me. Oh, to reallocate stress elsewhere.
Yeah. I'll save that for later. Yeah, I think
I'm gonna do the same. No problem with me. Fallout
test? Yeah. Fallout test. No Fallout. Wow, that
was close. I rolled a three against a two. Another
minor. Wow. Anyone who took Fallout last time,
remember you had to clear all your echo stress.
Yeah. Oh, fuck. I didn't do that. What was my
minor fault? It was glitched, which is that you
vanished from reality temporarily. But it's temporary,
so you don't have to write it down. It resolved
itself. Okay, that's my new Fallout test. No
one got Fallout except for no one. No one got
Fallout. Yeah, the painter, as another rumble
goes through your body, the painter says, You
know what it is. I don't, goddammit, that's why
I'm asking you. I think I run forward too, and
I say, Checker Graham, have you seen Checker
Graham? Yes. Yes, he's been here before. I ready
my gun at him. Where is he? Where is he? Now,
or later? Right now. I can't tell you. But he
went deeper. Which way? Down. In the temple.
Something has occurred to me just now. Can I...
Share it with you. If you do it fast. I believe
that in this moment, that two of you have spoken
to me before, and it occurs to me that in some
part three of you have stood in this place before,
and it occurs to me that all of you have forgotten
something vitally important, and it occurs to
me that none of you shall attain satisfaction,
and it occurs to me that I should not be here,
and it occurs to me that I was given true peace.
I was given true peace, and something precise
and terrible has dragged me back from that peace.
And it is your fault, just as much as it is my
fault. And lastly, it occurs to me that I am
sorry. I am sorry for all of this. Are you me?
No. You are you. I think Ledger's gonna take
a step into the blood. Makes a wet, sticky noise.
And he goes back to painting. That's it. Nothing
terrible happened. What's his painting look like?
You wanna look at his painting? Yeah. Halo isn't
saying anything while everyone else is interrogating
the painter. He's just admiring the painting.
And he reaches out to put a hand on the painter's
shoulder. Hopefully he doesn't flinch. And Halo
says, this, this work is also beautiful. I once
thought this was the truth, but you showed me
that it was not. It's okay. It's both. It can
be both. Maybe. I think Ledger takes a step and
another step, and he probably shoves Halo out
of the way and grabs this guy by both of his
shoulders and starts fucking shaking him. He's
like, tell me, you son of a bitch! Tell me who
I am! Tell me what I forgot! Tell me! Painter's
just like, blah, blah, blah. I think maybe in
this agitated state, his skeletal hands show
through, but they're, like, rotted and corroded
compared to the white. It seems wrong. More wrong
than the rotting flesh that it was before. You
know I can't tell you. You know. I think Ledger's
gonna... If Ledger throws him to the side, does
he fall off of his chair? Yeah. I think he throws
him off of his chair to the side. He draws his
gun. He aims it down at his head. And then I
think he looks at his death. And then he turns
away. And I think he starts running back to where
the taproot is. He just fucking takes off. Sure.
I think during this, you knock over the easel.
I think that'd be cool. And I think, Bailey,
you do see in this painting. there's a key in
here for you, should you so desire it. Oh, a
key! Yeah, I'm going to rush forward, but I'm
going to go talk to the painter on the ground,
maybe help him up. Yeah, you help him up. He
says, I don't think we've met before, but I appreciate
it nonetheless. Checker Graham, where is he later?
Down. Down deep. Buried. In the temple? Yes.
He was. He is. I kind of grab him by the shoulder
and point at the painting. Why do I see a key
in there? I... You drew that, right? I didn't
make this painting. Then what are you doing to
it? I'm painting it. I'm going to reach my hand
out and try to grab the key in the painting.
Don't do that. It's still wet. Halo's trying
to stop you. Halo's trying to stop you. I'm going
for it. What do we have to roll for him to try
to stop me? I would say Halo is interfering,
so you're going to get minus 1d on this roll.
Thank you. Delve. What is it? Cursed. Delve,
cursed. And then it's a minus 1, right? Alright.
Wow, Jesus, that's a success. Wow. Bailey, the
luck is stored in the unicorn horn. When Bailey
wants something, Bailey gets Graham Checker.
Graham Checker is in my heart. How do you fight
Halo off? Yeah, I think it might be... unfortunately
a little violent i think i give you like a very
harsh kick in the stomach so you fall to the
floor oh and then i kind of go i kind of go back
to the painting like i'm in a trance it's like
my eyes are not blinking i am like my mouth is
hung open and i'm like putting my hands and you
never seen bailey like this before i hate that
the idea the idea of someone being violently
unkind to halo is very upsetting to me it's it's
very fucked up bailey seems to be in a very fucked
up situation right now yeah i get it hey i get
it we're all this is hey guys this is fucked
up Anyone else feel like this is really messed
up? Have you noticed? What does it really mean?
Yeah, Bailey, you grab the painting, you put
your hand in it, your hand gets covered in red
paint, it goes through the painting, deep into
it, and you feel your hand clutch on something
metallic in there. And you know the box can be
opened now. You just know. You pull your hand
out, it's just covered in red paint all the way
up to the shoulder. Is there a key in there?
No, the key's in your head, man. How do I open
a box? No one else saw a key, dude. How do I
open the box, Colin? You just put the key in
the lock, man. All right. I close my eyes and
I put the key in the lock. Great. Inside, you
see a town, a small hamlet with all basic features
you might expect. What sets it apart from other
towns is that at the center of it is a building
which feels out of time, an intricate cathedral.
And Bailey, you almost immediately realize you've
seen this cathedral before. There was a scaled
model of it built on the stage where you saw
your doppelgangers performing beneath the Wandering
Sea. There's something about this cathedral,
about this town, that calls to you. And not just
you, either. All of everyone here, whether they're
with you or not, because Ledger's taken off,
you see this imprint of the cathedral, you see
this town momentarily, and it calls to you. It's
an expansion of yourself. And... Bailey, you
know that in that cathedral, Checker Graham is
waiting for you. Good. You all have gained a
new move. It is called Awaiting Cathedral. Once
per session, you may project any stress onto
the cathedral town, should you desire it. Whoa.
That's awesome. I immediately get the impression
that doing so will have awful consequences. What
are you talking about? It's the same thing. It'll
be okay. I'm immediately like, yeah, can't do
that. Dude, I live there. Why would I walk away?
Fuck. Okay. You should probably get running.
I don't think I am. I asked the painter, I say,
how do I get to the cathedral? Down. Always down.
Then back up, but then back down. I point at
the temple. I say, down? The temple awaits. The
show must go on. I'm going to reach a hand towards
Halo to help him back up again. Does he take
it? He does. Is the painting fine? Yeah, the
painting's great. Okay. He holds no malice in
his heart. I dust him off and I say, sorry, Halo.
Sometimes I really need to get what I want. You
just can't come between that, okay? This has
to happen. Halo pats his lamp and he's like,
that's okay. I understand. His new lamp, by the
way. We get it. It's okay. It's fine. You saw
it too, right? I look at Booker. Sure, man. That's
where we need to go. We just need to go there.
Everything's going to be answered. Okay. Great.
Come on, let's go. So Ledger, you had a head
start. Yeah. I think as you run, you see that
like we pass one of those chunks of flesh and
you notice that it is no longer wiggling. It
seems to have. crystallized a little bit with
these white chunks coming out of it, which you
once thought were bones, but you actually think
it might be part of the buildings around you.
Oh. I think Ledger's kind of distraught. He's
not in his right mind. I think he might shoot
at it. Yeah, you shoot it. It takes a bullet.
Does, like, some of the white stuff break? Oh,
yeah, yeah. Like, does it chip and shatter? Yeah,
it just chips a little bit, like a shot stone,
basically. So you guys all in the back here are
fucking gunshot from ahead. I think you get to
the temple first ledger. The center most building
with the tap rooms going up these big white stairs.
There's this massive roamed roof where that big
gray column extends into the sagai. And inside
you find a circular chamber stark white just
like everything else at the center of this chamber.
is a massive column that extends down into the
floor, that same gray column that comes from
above. And there's an opening in the column here.
And around that opening, you see a couple of
things. The first is that someone has put down
a rope and an anchor leading down into the interior
of that column. Around it, you see some piles
of red flesh as what looks like a backpack, which
has been bleached white and seems to be getting
absorbed into the floor of the temple. Beyond
the column on the walls of the temple, there's
a massive engraved work of art. It depicts a
humongous city filled to the brim with people
and animals. The people are so densely packed
that some are forced to the edge of the city
where they fall off in a constant stream like
a waterfall. It's not clear if the city is floating
as the edge isn't depicted. The people just seem
to fall once they're outside the bounds of it.
Beneath the city is a massive toothed maw which
the people fall into. And on the outer edges
of the engraving, there's almost like a frame.
as if the engraving itself was inside of a painting
or something. And outside of that frame, there
is an extremely intricate carved hand wielding
a chisel. Does the hand bear any resemblance
to the skeletal hand with the screaming orb in
it upstairs? No. Or is it a normal hand? It just
looks like a normal hand. An important normal
hand. And your friends catch up with you, and
they also see all of this. I think Ledger's...
Kind of like standing there. He's got his gun
at his side. He's looking up at it. And there's
probably like tears streaming down the sides
of his face. And as they walk up, he turns to
look at them and he's like, it's not a painting
at all. It's a sculpture. What? Look. The hand,
the chisel. Okay. Bailey looks in the hole with
the rope. Hey. Fun thing about that hole, Bailey,
now that you're looking at it, you catch a glimpse
of the inside of it, and you see that it is lined
completely with teeth. And you realize that this
is the well. The same well from the town. It
looks to be that way. Huh. This is the same well,
the one we saw in the town. See, look, I pointed
the teeth. Wait, under the town? Ledger looks
up. I look up at the pillar, yeah. I mean, it
stretches infinitely into the sky. What did the
lady say about the pillar when we were next to
it? Not the pillar, the well. Didn't she say
something? Do you remember? Probably. I mean,
there was a girl. Yeah, did she say something?
Was there something that we should have remembered
from that? Let me look at my notes. Okay. I honestly
do not know. Okay, okay, okay. I do all sorts
of shit, guys. Oh, wait, I called it. I think.
I think Ledger's going to walk over and he's
going to reach his hand in to see if he can catch
a tooth falling from above. Yeah, you do. Like
perfectly right when you put your hand in, one
falls into your hand. And you know that this
is the tooth you threw into the well. He looks
at it curiously and he laughs, but it's a humorless
laugh. I think he pops it in his mouth and swallows
it. Yeah. You could have given me that tooth.
You're not even hungry. I do not have any notes
for what the person said. That's okay. That's
okay. I was just curious. I think Ledger looks
to his companions before we go down the hole.
He's like, do you ever get the feeling that we're
just trapped and running on rails and it doesn't
matter what we do? Not at all. I feel like we're
about to get where we needed to go. Ledger takes
his revolver and he spins the chamber. And then
I think he puts it up to his own head. But I
think his death stopped the chamber with the
dead one in and he pulls the trigger and it just
clicks. And he kind of tilts his head to the
side and then holsters it and he's like, I'm
going down. Not before me. I sling the gun behind
my shoulder. Fine. Cool. The rope here is the
same enamel rope that Booker has, which seems
unaffected by whatever is happening in this fucked
up little place. Booker looks at it curiously.
And you start climbing down, right? There's no
safety light or anything, right? It's just straight
up a rope. Straight up a rope, brother. But you
guys, you're buff boys, you know? Whatever. How
wide is the tunnel? It's pretty tight, but it's
climbable. Okay, so if you started to fall, you
could theoretically just put your arms out into
the teeth and you'd be able to slow yourself
down. They're a little wet. I'm going to be honest,
they're a little slippery. Feel the teeth in
your mouth right now. It's not great. Also, there's
some saliva in this well. Oh, there's absolutely
saliva in this well. Are you kidding? It's dripping.
Sorry, go ahead. No, no, I was just going to
say, if you're going down a rope, it's easy.
I like the image of... Bailey rushing, getting
on a rope and then going down into this well
with no light. He just descends into the into
the darkness. Excited is the creepiest thing
in the world. But I'm going down. What's it go?
I'm just going to string his lantern to his hip
and he's going to start going down, too. He's
got his trademark fingerless gloves on, so he
can kind of just like get his palms on the rope.
He's just kind of sliding down, which is the
most expedient way. It's good rope. Yeah. Uh,
is anyone not going down? Okay, good. Um, as
you climb down the rope, who's on top? Who went
down last? Maybe Booker or Halo? Yeah, probably
Booker or Halo. Uh, Booker, as you climb down,
you feel a wet splat on your head, and maybe
from, like, the residual light from Halo's lantern,
you see this red paint drop. It smells just like
that paint, like, where you just were, uh, smeared
across your face. Is the source visible? No.
I mean, you probably do see some light from up
there. You know, maybe you do see a little silhouette
up there. And then that's when the rope is cut
and you begin to fall down. And that's where
we'll end.