Previously on City of Glass. What the hell do
you want with me? We'll get to that. What I've
just learned confirms my earlier suspicions.
Do you all recall the friendly man you traveled
with briefly, yes? Of course. To put it simply,
I would like you to kill him and take that ribbon.
Great forward. He has to die. Who exactly am
I? Now that is a question with many, many answers.
Now, all right, Booker, this is a void glass,
Chris. You're going to want to be very careful
with this thing. It doesn't get more pure than
this. You've seen it too, haven't you? I have
seen a great many things. I believe you will
have to be more specific. The theater. Now, listen,
buddy, they're just going to send you down the
esophageum, and you're just going to have to
make do. I suppose it seems simple enough. There
was a guy who came here, real friendly fellow.
That's an interesting choice of words. How friendly?
It's funny, actually. His name, it was literally
friendly. Friendly man. Isn't that weird? Lodged
in the wall of the stone, there is an oil painting.
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. Halo and Booker
disappear. You seem to be backstage at a theater,
picking through the curtains at stage left. A
friendly man runs his fingernails up and down
the silken ribbon around his neck. It won't be
long now. Checker Graham. Have you seen Checker
Graham? I close my eyes and I put the key in
the lock. Inside, you see a town. 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. Everyone
here, whether they're with you or not, you see
this town momentarily. Bailey, you know that
in that cathedral, Checker Graham is waiting
for you. Ledger looks to his companions before
we go down the hall. Do you ever get the feeling
that we're just trapped and running on rails
and it doesn't matter what we do? I feel like
we're about to get where we needed to go. I'm
going down. Not before me. As you climb down
the hole, you see a silhouette above you, and
then the rope is cut, and you begin to fall down.
You fall, down into the darkness of the well,
the silhouette of the painter receding away from
you as quickly as a dream. Your fall seems endless,
pitch black, pungent, and warm. You might call
out, but your companions, if they are indeed
still here, do not respond. You might reach around
in the plummeting darkness of this narrow pit,
but there are no bodies to touch, only the saliva
-drenched teeth surrounding the walls of the
well. They pass you by so quickly that even the
briefest touch shears off your skin like a thousand
little scalpels. Whoever you are, you are alone.
Not even the rope you had been clinging onto
seems to be here anymore. You might look to your
own talents, your various magic means or deathly
companions, only to find that these two are absent.
You have found yourself in some in -between so
profound as to separate you from the very forces
you were entwined with. You might then look at
your equipment and find that no match can be
lit here, no gunpowder sparked to life. You might
hurl an empty bottle out into the dark and find
that somehow, impossibly, it vanishes. It simply
does not make contact with the walls around you.
To some, this may be a horrible surprise. To
others, just another terrible anomaly in the
City of Glass. But nevertheless, you continue
to fall. It is hard to tell if you sleep. Certainly,
it feels like enough time has passed that you
may need to rest. You think you remember eating
something during the fall, but it's hard to say.
With your efforts thwarted, and your senses seemingly
dulled, you arrive at a certain, inevitable conclusion.
Either you will fall forever, or you won't. And
if you do stop falling, you will die when you
hit the ground. Or you won't. And perhaps unsurprisingly,
you do stop falling eventually. A sudden burst
of light and then a stop, and then a return to
a more familiar darkness, which you will later
identify as unconsciousness. And then, after
this small sleep, you awaken. You are all in
a pile of melted corpses, sprawled out. The corpse
pile is perhaps six feet tall and ten feet wide.
A mound of mostly intact cadavers which seem
to be fused together. Cloth, metal, flesh, and
glass indiscriminately liquefy and adhere the
bodies as one. Sprinkled over the top like a
porcelain snow are countless teeth. As you each
separately get to your feet, there is a distinct
sticky peeling sensation. Parts of your clothing
and exposed skin ever so slightly tearing as
you start up from the corpses. As you get your
bearings, you realize the mound is only the beginning
of the corpses here. In fact, the ground itself
seems to be made of these bodies, a pitted, tacky
mass which you sink ever so slightly into. The
flesh floor extends as far as you can see, which
is to say about 20 feet, before a pink fog blocks
your vision entirely. The stench here is strange,
halfway between boiled meat and some harsh industrial
chemical you might smell in the demon cities.
And it is now, as you have taken in your surroundings,
that you notice an additional concern. There
are only three of you here. Halo is missing.
What do you do? I think the first thing Ledger
does is look over his shoulder to see if his
death has returned to him. She is here, but she
is indistinct. There is... It's like, um... It's
like she's faded. Not like fading actively, but
she has faded somewhat. She's more distant than
she's ever been. That's bad. I think this, probably
more than anything else, makes Ledger start to
panic a little bit. But I think he's going to
immediately scramble down on the ground and see
if he can find Halo amid the fused corpses, or
if even anything recognizable about the corpses
can be seen, or if they're just indistinct meat.
What are the rest of you doing? Booker looks
at himself. Does he look revved up from the fall?
Besides the parts of you that have slightly melted
into the ground, you look mostly fine. That sucks.
Thank God. He's not having a good time. He's
looking around panicked. Where's the fourth companion?
Yeah, I'll walk off the mound of corpses down
below and kind of look around in my surroundings.
Okay. Booker, I think first I'll talk to you,
which is that as you look around, you recognize
a piece of stark gray cloth on the ground. Last
you saw it was when it was wrapped around a void
glass dagger you were supposed to use to kill
the friendly man. And near it is a set of footsteps
leading out into the fog. And Ledger, um... There's
not going to be any consequences to this roll.
Well, that's not true. Maybe there will be. If
you really want to get into these corpses, I
would need a roll. I discern most likely. Sure.
Would this be cursed or desolate? This is cursed
desolate, so you can use your desolate domain.
Okay, I have both now. I do have curse now. I
don't have this burn, so let's see what happens.
But I would hear, since the hard part about going
through these corpses is actually like they are
slightly melting you as you ruffle through them,
I would take an endure as well. Okay, sure. Yeah,
I will endure desolate. All right, normal stakes.
Yeah, normal stakes, no extra dice. Let's see
what the fuck is up. Oh, success. Take no stress.
Okay, you take no stress. You go through this
pile of bodies. They're all, like, in pretty
bad shape. But eventually you come across something,
which is... Let me look at something real quick.
Hmm. Hmm. It is a bottle, a glass bottle, still
amazingly intact. Its label is, like, barely
recognizable. But you read... You called it,
buddy. Oh, fuck, yes. Peapaw's drinking mold
is what it says. Oh my god. You realize the scrap
of cloth that you move aside is actually your
own jacket. Is there anything in the bottle?
Or is it smashed? You know what? There's actually
a swig left in here. I think Ledger's going to
uncork the bottle and smell it. And if it doesn't
smell like obviously rancid poison, he's going
to drink it. Now the drinking mold's got good
shelf life. Goes down smooth and musty. I think
he stands up and he like runs his fingers through
his hair and knocks his top hat off onto the
ground. And then he kind of looks at Bailey and
Booker with a look of complete non -comprehension.
And then I think he's going to go. So do I also
see things identifiable as Bailey and Booker
in this pile? Now that you know what to look
for? Absolutely. A lot of it is misshapen, but
you see a little trinket that might have been
hanging from Bailey's hat, like discolored, rusty.
But you know what it is now. Do I see any halos
in there? You don't see any halos in there. That's
what I thought. oh okay i knew that i called
it i think yeah zach said in chat as i was describing
that they are going to be our bodies because
so let's just gonna turn around he's gonna pick
up his top hat and put it back on his head and
then he's gonna talk and his whistle his whistle
has been wet by this uh who knows how old mold
um this is there it's the pile from the theater
it's our bodies halo's not here he's not here
anywhere That's not good. Where the hell is it
at all? Yeah, I'm moving away from the pile.
I think Ledger's gonna turn and whip the empty
bottle into the pink fog as hard as he can. Um,
the bottle breaks? Actually, no, it probably
doesn't because it's skin. So you probably just
hear like a wet clunk. Oh, so it's not fog, it's
a solid wall? No, no, no. It hits the ground
eventually. The ground is all bodies, too, by
the way. It's just more solidified, less movable.
But there's a fog wall, right? There is fog.
It's not a wall. It's just fog. The footsteps,
which you presume to be Halo's footsteps, are
leading out into the fog. And actually, in that
direction, after you throw your bottle, you hear
a gunshot and then some yelling. I think Ledger's
going to look at the other two and then he's
going to start fucking running. Pull his gun
out. If he still has it, he pulls his gun out.
Yes, you have your things. Thank God. I think
as he runs, he's gonna say, Halo's got the fucking
knife. Don't let him touch you with it. Don't
let anyone touch you with it. You don't think
Halo would? Yeah, he's gonna take off running.
You follow the gunshots and footsteps through
the pink mist. You trudge over the squishy ground,
ahead of you another two gunshots sound off,
this time creating a corona of light in the pink
mist. The ground recedes here into a small slope,
which leads into a trench of sorts, where the
fleshy ground has been dug up and moved aside.
And ahead of you, you see the source of the gunshots,
a figure facing away from you, a rifle propped
up on the edge of the trench, looking out into
the mist. Well, I think for all of you now, um...
It is somewhat confusing as the figure comes
into light, as he is wearing an outfit eerily
similar to Ledger's. Is this what I looked like
in the painting? Nope, but it is what you look
like as viewed from behind. Shit. I think, so
he's facing away from us? Yes, he's like shooting,
he's shot into the mist away from you. Okay,
I think Ledger... is going to have his gun not
aimed at this guy, but very, very close. He doesn't
want to sneak up on him. He's going to say, you
with the rifle, turn around real easy now. He
kind of holds his rifle above his head and kind
of turns slowly. And while he is indeed wearing
Ledger's clothing, his face is another matter.
There is definitely a possibility of a Ledger
here, but the features have melted. His eyes
are nowhere to be seen. His nose has slid to
the bottom of his chin, where it seems to be
a mere jostle away from dropping off of him like
a drop of water off a dripping icicle. His mouth,
a gooey mess, calls out to you. Who goes there?
Bookie, is that you? I hear a voice. You look
a hell of a lot like me, don't you? Where'd you
get that rifle? I brought it. I brought it here.
Who are you? Are you with them? My name's Ledger
Gray. I suspect you already know that. Oh, no.
Bookie! Goddammit, Bookie, where are you? He
screams out into the mist. I'm here. Booker yells
out. The man, he seems quite confused. And he
seems to yell again. He says, Bookie, goddammit,
I need you here. We've got visitors again. And
you start hearing some shuffling from the fog.
I think Ledger's going to hold his gun up, like
aim it upwards in a sign of, I am not going to
shoot you. He doesn't have eyes. Oh, I guess.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, he doesn't have eyes. It's not
clear what senses he actually has available to
him right now. Should we just disarm him? I don't
think that's a good idea. I don't want to touch
him. The fucking goop man. After a small wait,
a form appears out of the pink fog. Even just
looking at his silhouette, it's clear what's
wrong here. He is far too wide. He has far too
many arms. He has three legs with a fourth dragging
behind him on a loose tendril of flesh. And as
he comes into focus and fixes you with a stare
from his four eyes and two heads, you get a clearer
picture of what's going on here. The more upright
head is clearly Bailey's, though it's missing
its hat. And jutting out of the Bailey head's
neck is perhaps a less clear visage, but you
can tell from the eyes and hair that it's Booker's.
It's half -submerged in the neck of the Bailey
head, like a turtle receding into the shell.
The Bailey head, which seems to be the speaking
one, greets you and says, Oh look, fresh ones!
Did you bring the, uh, weapon? Or did you idiots
forget too? I think you're gonna need to start
from the beginning. What in the Sam hell is this
place? This is the belly, buddy. You already
knew that, though. People seem to make a lot
of designs on what they believe I do or do not
know lately, and I tire of it. Well, you know,
I spent a long time with, uh, Ledger over there.
Not that he's much good company nowadays. Eh.
How long have - He seemed to know. How long have
you been here? I wish I could tell you, but I
didn't bring a watch when he taps his wrist.
Is the Booker aware or is the Booker head just
staring? He seems very aware, but his mouth is
in the neck. So it's not clear if he has aims
to communicate. So sorry. Yeah, this is definitely
a Booker amalgamation. I can tell. No, no. This
is a Bailey amalgamation. Well, it's kind of
a Booker Bailey amalgamation. He called you Bookie,
so that's Booker and Bailey. That's Ledger's
name for me. I'm Bailey. Booker is just here.
You're pretty Booker forward, though. I'm Bailey
and I'm talking. How do I not know your Booker's
brain is in Bailey's head? That doesn't make
any sense. You're not being scientific. We had
the weapon. It's gone. Halo stole it. Do you
know who that is? Halo? The glowing one with
the lantern. No, that's new. Oh, well, I mean,
the, the, the, the, yes, yes, yes. We saw some
freak running around here. What are they doing?
It's like kind of running across no man's land.
It's kind of crazy. It has the weapon. Oh. Well,
I should ask you, are you... What are your plans
for the weapon and the whole friendly man situation?
What side do you fall on in that regard? I am
on no side but my own. Yeah, we haven't decided
yet. Oh, fucking neutrals? You're the worst ones.
Oh, really? You believe Bailey? Yeah. Uh, guess
what? When, uh, artillery's flying, do you know
what happens to people who aren't in either trench?
What? They get blown up. Oh, okay. Alright, you're
one of the stupid ones, aren't ya? No. I can
kinda tell. Alright, whatever. Look, we gotta
go get this weapon. This is all no man's land.
Is that an in -character question? Yes. Uh, because
no man should be in that land. Booker. Is that
like a term in the common parlance in this world?
Is there trench warfare? Do we know what that
means? Artillery? That's an interesting word
to use. Artillery definitely exists. It's pretty
new in the world. It's up to you. You hear No
Man's Land, it's pretty evocative. Artillery,
in a lot of ways, existed before personal firearms
did, just because that's kind of what cannons
and field guns were. But I mean, obviously, this
isn't like a real -life technological advancement.
Yeah, in this world, actually, the AR -15 was
invented before the flintlock rifle. So let's
not be presumptuous here. But there's only one
AR -15, and you'll never see it. Implications
on history. are immeasurable yeah it's called
world building look it up um i think ledger says
so there's more of you more of us and some of
them are trying to stop the friendly man from
being killed yeah guess what side we're on you
want to kill friendly yes yes If we kill the
fucking friendly man, this will all be over.
We stop melting and all this bullshit. It's the
whole point of the whole story. I mean, that's
obvious, right? Like, everything kind of pushed
us there. I can't believe people come down here
and like, oh, we should stop the friendly man
from getting killed. He's so nice. Fucking idiots.
Yeah, I'm with him, you know. And the fact that
a Bailey could turn coat like that, it's sickening.
It's just sickening. Well, he didn't. Bailey
didn't. Other Baileys have. There's more Baileys?
Buddy, you're standing on Baileys right now.
Wake up. I only see one hat. There's a lot of
hats, buddy. No, it's on top of my head. They've
just been digested. I don't see any. Listen,
your ideological opponents, they simply want
to keep him alive because they think killing
him is an immoral thing to do, and they will...
persist in this purgatory of flesh to uphold
that ideal? They do. It's quite embarrassing,
really. Crazy. I mean, it's not a moral thing
as much as they think. It's like killing the
friendly man would bring an end to everything
and unleash horrors beyond our reckoning, which
I don't believe personally. I think a lot of
people would agree that the horrors in this place
right here are beyond the reckoning of some,
perhaps most. It's not nice. We don't like, I
mean, you know, look at Booker. He doesn't even
get to talk. He's just a look. He hates it. Trust
me. Does he look concerned or is he just blank
staring? Can he move his eyebrows? He can express.
When Bailey says that, he shows a look of sadness
on the top half of his face. Yeah, he's sad.
And he doesn't even get to control the arms or
the other bits, which sucks. He kind of got the
short end of the stick there. Which, again, is
why I'm a Bailey and not a Booker. This was in
character. Well, listen, I have no intention
of persisting in this purgatory. Great. Regardless
of the reasons, but the only way out just marched
off towards the other side's line. That's awesome.
So what's with this Halo thing? Is it like your
pet? Do you know what a demon is? Yes, you know
what a demon is. Yeah, of course, I'm a scientist.
He's like one of those, but not really. No other
ledger has ever mentioned him down here? No,
that's super weird. Ledgers, usually, they're
not big into pets. It was like a demon, but it
was born from some kind of magical lamp that
exploded, but it... Uh, has expressed many traits
atypical of demon kind. Oh. Like your, uh, like
your lamp. My lamp. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um,
Ledger. Ledger, show him your lamp. And Ledger
rustles around under his coat and he produces
a broken lamp. He's like, yeah, this, uh, this,
this, this blew up, uh, my, my group. I think
Ledger just stares. For a moment. And I think
he talks to his own Ledger, and he's like, Can
you see her down here? You're death. Oh, she's
long gone. Where? Those things get digested first.
I lost her before I lost my eyes. Uh... I think
Ledger's probably gonna take off running. I think
he's gonna start... I think, no, maybe not. He's
gonna say, Which way did it go? bookie points
with all four arms in the direction. He's like,
that's the way you're going to go. Hey, just
keep your head down. I haven't heard the artillery
go off for a few, I want to say hours, which
is good. But, you know, just be careful out there.
Is there any signal before it starts to drop?
A siren or something? There's a boom, kind of
a distant boom before the closer booms start.
Alright, I think Ledger's just gonna start fucking
taking off. Is there any features in this No
Man's Land, or is it just flat? It is flat. There
are craters. A lot of craters. There are, like,
some bodies that look fresher than others. Some
of them even have a Bailey hat. I hate to say
it. I hate to say it, but someone do have the
hat. Not the hat. It's not the hat. Bailey denies
it. It's real. It's all raw. It doesn't look
the same. Exactly. It's not the real hat, so
it doesn't count. But as you walk off, Bailey,
Bookie stops you and says, hey, you still going
after Checker? Yeah. Aren't you coming with us?
We got the same plan. Buddy, look at me. Yeah,
you're a freak. You got like 50 arms. You could
help us. Yeah, buddy. If I meet Checker Graham,
you know what he's going to say? That guy looks
like a freak. Get him out of here. No. It's just
not good. No, trust me. You know, I've read his
journals. He said some unkind things about people's
physical appearances. I mean, he's a scientist,
so it makes sense. That's true. You know, I just
don't want to go out there, really. I'm kind
of just, I just want it to be over. I just wanted
to be over. But hey, listen, you do me a big
favor. I know you got some fresh fruit on you.
Yeah, I do. I would just love to have a tangerine
right now. Yeah, that's kind of the thing, though.
You know, the crazy thing is every day that it
comes down here, they're different. Sometimes
they have different things. I see you have the
coach gun. Great, great stuff. But they always
got fruit. They always got the fruit on them.
But they never give it to you. Oh, no, they they
give it to me. Is this a matter of do they give
it to me with a smile or with a frown? I produce
the tangerine and I say, this is yours. I kind
of hold it out to him. And if he goes for it,
I kind of yank it back and I say, but you're
not Bailey, right? You're not doing this. Are
you seriously doing this right now? I mean, it's
just a word. What do you care, right? You get
your tangerine. Just say it. I suppose from a
certain point of view, I am bookie more than
I am Bailey. And then I take a second tangerine
out. That gets you double. I throw it to him.
He grabs it with a frown. He starts peeling it
greedily with all his forearms. How does Booker
look? You know, Booker, this is kind of crazy,
but like as all the tangerines get peeled, a
little piece of it gets pulled off by one of
the arms and held up to like the kind of where
your mouth should be. And a tiny little proboscis
comes up and sticks into it and sucks all the
juice out of it. Ew. That's not helpful. He gets
hungry. He shakes his head and he just dumps
out the rest of the tangerines on the floor.
And he says, make sure you feed both of you,
all right? I'm not mean. All right, get out.
You're going to have to catch up to your friend.
He's still running. Right. Booker, Ledger is
fucking running. All right, well, we're Baileys.
We're not mean, no matter what other people say.
We're just realistic. Exactly. I should probably
catch up. Yeah, as your runaway says, we're realistic.
We're realistic. That'd be a lot better. Okay,
take fresh fruits off your character sheet. Oh,
damn it. Yeah, you think I'm just going to forget
about that? I think I'm going to forget about
the fresh fruit. It's infinite, right? Probably
not even fresh anymore, really. He doesn't know
that. Fresh to him. Yeah, fresh to him. Anything's
fresh to him. Okay, you take off. You head off
in this direction across the war -torn flesh
scape filled with ever -smoldering skeletal craters,
abandoned trench lines, and heaps of body, which...
Some of them are growing into a facsimile of
a bunker out here. It's very strange. You're
not sure if someone assembled them this way or
if they just grow naturally into this shape.
You probably ledger you get here first. You're
probably not too far from your companions. You
eventually stumble upon a corpse that seems newer
than the others inside a particularly large crater.
This one is undoubtedly Booker Page. Clutching
a bolt -action rifle, he seems to have been shot
in the thigh, which was hastily bandaged. However,
the fatal blow is distinctly different, a black
-purple puncture around his left eyeball where
something terrible has been stabbed through.
From the wound, a horrible entropic mist seems
to seep out, and Ledger, even in her faded state,
your death seems to wince at this, recognizing
the work of void materials. I think he just says,
don't worry, baby, we're gonna get out of here.
I think he's really out of breath, actually.
Can he grab the rifle without, like, touching
the mist? Yeah. I think he's gonna, it wouldn't
be anything different than a D8 kill, probably,
right? A melted bolt rifle, D8, loud, unreliable,
extreme range, piercing. Nice. Okay. Your friends
catch up to you at this point. He points down.
There's a booker body here. Look. Look what killed
him. That was the fucking shard. We gotta go.
Let's get moving. I don't know what has gotten
into Halo's head. Something about the lamp he
stole. Maybe none of this makes any sense. But
all I know is that we need to get out. We need
to get out. I need to get her out. No matter
what. Let's keep moving. I'm with you there.
Gunshots ring out as you come up out of the crater.
A sudden panicked report, not in your direction.
It is the sound of a close quarters battle. Lots
of rapid fire. There is a distant hissing noise
and then a boom as something goes off in the
distance. I think we got to tear our ass towards
it. Yeah, there's a few booms. Artillery. Yeah.
Closer boom. Are you heading out? Yeah, I think
as soon as... Ledger hears the sound of another
fight. He assumes that it's somebody trying to
kill Halo, and so he's going to do his best to
get over there. Okay, I'm just going to have
you... This is going to be probably a Delve.
Okay. A Delve. I could take and evade Desolate
Cursed. Do we all have to make it? You all have
to make it, or you can... Yeah, I think you all
have to make it. Delve Desolate is my fucking
money, you know? Any risk or anything else to
be aware of? It's risky. Okay. Failure from Booker.
Success from... Failure from Bailey. Critical
failure! Oh, we're gonna eat that artillery.
We're gonna eat a shell. Yes, unfortunately...
That sucks. You guys... Probably aren't familiar
with trench warfare, but usually when the artillery
goes off, you want to stay in the hole. Which,
hey, I get it. You know, you haven't been in
World Wars. That's fine. The bomb could go in
the hole. Me, unfamiliar with trench warfare?
Come on. Yes, hit the deck. So, yes, the distant
booms go off, and then you get intimately familiar
with the close -up booms. And I'm going to deal
1d8. And I'll roll this separately because I'm
into separate rolling. First one is for Booker.
Yay. Second one is for Bailey. Yay. One and a
two. And the third one, which is going to be
doubled for you, Zach. Seven. Fourteen. Fourteen
stress. Fourteen blood stress to Ledger Gray.
Wow. My stress won't go over 10. It literally
will not. 1, 2, 14. After 12, it doesn't really
matter. You're going to have to take a fallout
anyways. I think what happens is that this is
one shell that lands near you all. Everyone's
going to have to make a fallout test if your
armor hasn't negated all of the stress. Everyone
make a... Fallout test, please. Once you've updated
your stress levels. Oh, I took major Fallout.
Major Fallout. Minor Fallout for Bailey. No Fallout
for Bricker Paige. Minor blood. Easy. Bailey,
you are bleeding. At the end of each situation
where you have this Fallout, you're going to
mark D4 blood stress. And I'm going to put this
in the chat so you can put it on your character
sheet. Done. Oh my god. What if I used collateral
to blow up Bailey? I'll do it to you. I'll do
it to you, motherfucker. No, you do it to Bailey.
You could do that. You could do that. I will
let you do that. I think at this point, Ledger
is so... laser -focused on trying to stop his
death from being digested, that he's gonna do
anything. Okay, I don't know. I don't know if
the bonds of brotherhood are strong enough that
he would avoid pushing Bailey in front of the
shell. I'm gonna flip a coin. On a one, he's
not going to do it. On a two, he is going to
do it. Blame the coin. Oh, there you go. Rip
by the coin, die by the coin. And now Bailey
is about to die by the coin. So I take no stress.
What does this actually look like? Well, we're
running away from the shell and it's about to
go off. It's whistling above you. Yeah, it's
whistling above you, I think. I don't know. You
have no way of knowing that pushing someone would
help you, right? I know. It's got to be something.
And the collateral ability is kind of vague.
Bullet time. Forced. You have a knack for getting
behind someone else when things kick off. Once
procession, allocate stress to the nearest friendly
target instead of marking it yourself. Do you
hit the deck? And the shrapnel that your body
would have absorbed goes into Bailey. I think
so. What are you doing on the floor? Hey, why
are you laying down? That's where the bomb's
going. Yeah, sure. I dig that. Okay, I'm just
going to give the... So you're not bleeding anymore,
Bailey. I'm going to just give you the bigger
injury here. Which is that... I'm going to give
you Broken Lake. Because we love a broken leg
on a battlefield. Your leg bones splinter and
crack. Any action involving the leg climbing,
moving above a crawl automatically fails. This
fallout can be downgraded or upgraded from limping.
So, the bomb goes off. Sorry, I have to issue
a correction here. Sure. Because he rolled a
two, he actually still only takes minor fallout.
Oh. Each time your character takes stress, the
GM will check for fallout to see if there's any
kind of ongoing serious effect at play. The GM
rolls a d12. I guess he did it though. Compares
the result to the current total stress. If the
result is equal or lower, you suffer fallout.
The level of fallout depends on the number rolled
on the d12. 1 to 6 means it's automatically a
minor. 7 to 12 means it's a major. With the GM,
work out what happens based on the type of stress
triggered in the fallout. Usually that's the
resistance type that has the most stress marked
against it. So Bailey is just bleeding. Back
to bleeding? you backed up you're just bleeding
that was that was you meant to do that huh why
is that that's actually pretty smart i honestly
didn't i was hoping you'd die because it'd be
really funny no i'm just kidding but that also
means that you don't clear all of your stress
you only clear your blood stress which is still
14 so a lot yeah so you're uh gonna just max
out your blood stress as high as it'll go we
really don't i clear it you clear your blood
stress sorry We really just spit in the eye of
fate on that one, huh? You did. Good luck. Some
soldiers are meant to come home. So do I know
that Ledger did that to me? I don't think so.
I kind of just dived down. Just because I can't
imagine any way of intentionally throwing someone
in front of an artillery shell. Even if I wanted
to, I couldn't have done that on purpose. So
like, narratively... Our characters don't know
what happened in a way. Ledger might have some
kind of awareness of it. He got down and he didn't
tell you to also get down. I see. He put his
mask on first, though. Could you blame him for
that, Bailey? It's true. The really bad part
is that I have no way to counter Booker doing
this to me for the rest of the session. Now you
put the idea in his head. It all comes around,
doesn't it? So you keep going. There is a whooshing
sound ahead of you as you make your way across
the battlefield. And then a flare lights into
the air off in the distance towards the where
you're heading. It is blooming into this corona
of blue light, which blends with the pink fog,
bathing the corpse field in this ethereal. purple
light. And under this light, the world seems
to take on a different appearance. Shadows seem
to become almost gaseous, diffusing towards the
flare. Visibility seems starkly improved, giving
you a clearer view of the trench lines and bunkers
ahead of you. Muzzle flashes continue to strobe
across those trench lines farther back, and it's
not entirely clear what they're shooting at,
but you have a pretty strong guess. Um, so we're
like approaching the front lines of the trenches
now? Yes. And I think you probably see some figures
that are farther afield, just running over the
top of the trenches. The lines are active. They
might see you at any moment. Okay, I think that
Ledger's going to run towards the nearest trench
and try and slide down into it just to avoid
sightlining himself and hopes that his companions
will follow him. Yeah. Bailey tumbles and falls
and smacks his head inside the trench and bleeds
all over the place. Sure. You're about one more
rush away from getting into the trenches, where
hopefully it'll be less chaotic. I'm going to
need something from you. Evade, sneak, delve.
From all of us again? To sneak into the trench
line? Or to sneak around once we're in there?
I would also hear an argument for doing it as
one, if that feels appropriate. Sure, like, I
could, like, lead the group and take the consequences
if I fuck it up. You'd all get consequences,
but yes. Okay, sure, but I can still roll. Because
I have Delve Desolate and I have Sneak Desolate,
so I'm rolling... I have Delve Evade and Sneak.
I'm fine to just do it ourselves to see what
happens. Booker can Evade. He has Evade and Desolate.
Okay. So it's... I'm going to sneak because that's
kind of my approach. I'm trying not to be seen.
Is this risky as well? Uh -oh. Yes, this is risky.
So that's a failure from... You would have failed
anyways, Adam, so it's okay. I just take normal
stress. Booker succeeds. And then stress from
our two boys. This is going to be only a D6.
You're out of artillery range. This one is for
Bailey. A five. And this one is for... This is
blood. For Ledger, a three. Blood as well. Fallout
test again, por favor. Beep. No Fallout. No Fallout
for Ledger Gray. So what do I do with my new
Fallout? Bleeding? Do something new with my Fallout
that I got before the bleeding? Yeah. No, you're
just going to add the stress and then make another
Fallout test. You can have multiple Fallouts.
Yes. How bleeding works is at the end of each
scene, you get D4 stress, and Colin will tell
you when that is. Okay, so I'm just going to
do a Fallout test. 3 versus 11. Take minor Fallout.
Let me look up at upgrading Fallouts. Super Mega
Hyper Omega Fallout. You have to combine two
of a certain level. Blood Fountain. Blood Fountain.
Check it out, guys. You run across this battlefield.
You know, bullets going all around you. And you
finally all manage to make it into a trench.
And Bailey, you kind of, as you go down into
the trench, something inside of you, you feel
a tear. I'm going to be upgrading your bleeding
to arterial wound. The bleeding is a lot worse
than you thought it was. You're now going to
be taking D6 stress at the end of every situation.
So do I do that now, since this was a situation?
Or now? The situation's not over yet. I'll tell
you when it is. Okay. Ow. To be fair, how they
define situation in the book is very fluid. Is
that a major or minor? That is a major. So just
replace bleeding, because I combined it with
the minor. Replace bleeding with arterial wound.
Major blood. Which can be combined with another
major blood to kill you. Epic. Or I think it's
any major, really. Okay. You are in the trench
line. Right beneath you are the bodies of two
Baileys. Each has been cut deeply by a void weapon
of some sort. A number of other corpses lay ahead
of you, leading towards the bunker complex. Just
ahead of you... Nelt over one of these bodies
is what appears to be a ledger of some sort with
a rudimentary medic art band tied around his
arm. He seems to be mostly unmelted and is performing
a desperate CPR on a cut up booker beneath him
and saying, just hold in there, son. We're going
to get you out of this. Hey, you, me. Oh, shit.
He falls back. Don't shoot. I'm a medic. Where
did the demon go? I don't give a shit about anyone
in this trench. That was no demon. What do you
think it was then? I do not have the vocabulary
for that, sir. Where did it go? Points behind
him. Trail of bodies leading inward. Went in
there. It didn't hit me. It wouldn't kill me.
Doesn't seem to have the same compunction about
the others. You still got your death, boy? My
death is long gone, buddy. Still got mine and
I intend to keep it that way. I think he turns
around and looks and sees Bailey bleeding really
badly and is like, could you spare a bandage
for Bailey here? He looks like he's cut up pretty
bad. The medic, who seems to be unarmed, kind
of approaches Bailey and looks at him. I think
it's in your gut somewhere. Yeah. And he looks
at it and says, I don't know how to tell you
this, friend, but there's a lethal wound. Oh,
great. I ain't a surgeon. I'm a medic. I don't
got no bandage that's going to heal that. Can
you just give me one for a placebo effect? Sure.
He pulls out some filthy gauze and hands it to
you. Bailey tears off a piece and then eats it.
What did he mean by this? Do your work, bandage.
I have a meta question. Could I use make do on
Bailey's wound? What does make do say? It says,
gain the men's skill once per session. You can
immediately fix something that's broken, but
it only works once after that. It's destroyed
beyond repair. I don't know if that's a great
idea to be honest. I feel like we have it in
our back pocket. You repair his heart, but it's
going to explode in 20 minutes. I mean, if you
need a little more time to check her, Bailey.
Say something that's broken. Can't Bailey heal
himself? Doesn't Bailey have a magical fixing
ability? I have Mark of the Weaver. Yeah, you
can fix something or something in a matter of
seconds, even if it would usually take hours
of careful work once per session. But that's
a minor mend skill. I don't know if I can do
that. In system, mending is mostly about fixing.
You can heal stress with mending. You have to
go to a haunt to do any fallout. I would say,
if you want to use Mark of the Weaver here and
roll it. I would say I'll let you skip a situation
of bleeding as you'd make like a make do. So
just like staunching it. Okay, let's do that.
Yeah. Yeah. Why don't you roll me a mend? A mend?
What's the second part? Mend, I guess. Desolate?
What is this? I mean, I guess you're in desolate.
Desolate first. Mend, desolate. Standard. Hey,
success. Nice. You managed to, using the filthy
gauze, the part of it you hadn't eaten, you...
Why did you eat it? Can you explain that to me?
Because there's a tear in my tummy, and for the
placebo effect, I imagined I was eating the bandage
that would go down there and fix it. Sealed up
from the inside. Yeah, it makes perfect sense.
He's a doctor, all right? Yeah, you're a scientist,
so I understand. He's a PhD candidate. Yeah,
you managed to sew up very quickly using your
magic ability to stop the bleeding. It's clear
these stitches will not hold, but it's going
to buy you some time, and that's all you need
right now. I think while he's doing that, Ledger
is going to look at the medic Ledger and be like,
what happens when you try to enter the gray in
this place? It's not here. It's just not here.
This isn't a place. It's an un -place. It's the
end. It's the cork in the hole. I think Ledger
is just going to take off after. I don't think
he's going to say anything else. I think he's
just going to leave again running. He's probably
out of breath. I imagine he lost his top hat
sometime around when the artillery explosion
went off. No. I know. Without his hat. This is
how you know we're in the end. No man at all.
And his trench coat is like full of like shrapnel
tears. And he just he just takes off running.
He's caught his breath slightly and now he's
running again. Still holding that bolt action
rifle. Yeah. Finally crafted. The ledger calls
after the three of you. I presume you all go
forward. Yeah. He continues his CPR on the booker,
although it doesn't seem good for him. He calls
after you and says, it's not worth killing him.
It's only going to make things worse. I think
ledger will stop and turn around and be like,
what do you think could be worse than this? I
can see the strings all around you, friend. You're
just marching on the path that's been set in
front of you. If you could have saved her, would
you have done it? Of course. But that just wasn't
an option for me. It was either choose her or
choose the world, and I chose the world. Ledger
is now going to leave. You leave. I assume you
all follow, unless you have something you'd like
to do. We follow. We follow. You follow. You
follow a continued trail of bodies down into
the bunker complex, a pseudo -building hewn out
of corpses. You go down at least 60 feet into
the ground on stairs made of polished bone until
you reach a larger room, a mess hall of sorts.
Here, too, a cluster of newer bodies have been
cut apart by a void weapon, though here the bodies
seem to surround a table at the center of the
room, and on that table is a page of a script.
And even from this distance, you know what they
look like by now. Off -white, stark black text,
typeset by a machine that you probably haven't
seen. Uh, I think I'll look at it. Yeah, Ledger
will go up just in case there's anything useful
on there. He picks it up and looks at it. Here's
what it says. Halo had not fallen unconscious
unlike the others. Some force had intervened,
drawing the light out of him to cushion his fall.
As he stepped gingerly off the corpse mound,
he saw his companions in a new light. He saw
Booker's willful naivety, his hunt for freedom
without recognizing the bliss that servitude
bought him. He saw Bailey's Ouroborian hunt for
a truth that would either be a circle or a spiral.
And he saw Ledger Gray, a man looking for a doorway
after he had fallen through a spillway in the
floor of an afterlife long out of reach. And
Halo had at one time felt grateful to Ledger.
But that had now faded. Ledger saw himself as
a mentor, as a protector. He saw Halo as naive
when it was in fact the reverse. Halo existed
as all of the forces of realities asked. While
the other three, they lived in a state of rejection,
paradox, and misery. And Halo now knew that it
was not that they needed to adapt to this world,
but rather that the world was sick, and that
he had a small but important role in cutting
out the rot which so ailed them all. He reached
into Booker's pack and withdrew the void glass
knife, hidden within it. Halo looked inside of
its windowed surface, and through it he saw the
path forward. He did not question his new state
of mind, did not think to interrogate its origin.
It felt natural to him, as if he'd always felt
it and had only been momentarily playing along
as to get to this point. Everything he had done,
no matter how contradictory it may be, seemed
rational. His search for his origin. His desire
to steal the lamp, the call of mother, they were
merely trappings of a character which no longer
served its purpose. He cast off the costume,
and with all of it, its attachments. He would
cut his way to the center of this place. He would
find the friendly man and slice him open, and
he wouldn't let him speak a single treacherous
word. Not that it would have stopped Halo in
his new clarity. His former companions would
follow after him. but they would arrive just
in time to see him gut the smiling vessel and
put its teeth to their ordained purpose. They'd
have no reason to be surprised. After all, they
had already read what was going to happen. And
as for Halo, he had no more purpose, and so with
this final act, he'd exit, stage right. I think
Ledger's gonna drop it. In case that anyone else
wants to grab it and he'll shake his head and
say to himself, if that's true, why didn't he
kill the other ledger? It doesn't make any damn
sense. It can't be true. Yeah, I look over too.
Yeah, it says that. I've put it in your journals
as well. We should get moving. I don't understand.
We came here to kill the friendly man. Why would
he? We have to go right now. If there is any
possibility for us to alter these things, they
have been written. We have to try. Let's do it.
I think Ledger's not gonna run, because I think
he thinks he doesn't have to run. Because I think
he thinks it doesn't make any difference. He's
gonna speedwalk. He's got the rifle in his hands.
Okay. How do you all feel about the page? You
two. Booker and Bailey. Um... I assume the goal
was to kill the friendly man at this point. That
was what we agreed to do. Yes. That was what
you agreed to do. Bailey kind of feels like it's
mission accomplished. He feels like a weight
has been lifted off his shoulders. He's like,
oh, this is actually going the right way. This
is how things should actually be going. Halo's
doing his part. This is good. Booker doesn't
pay much mind to it. He thinks it's another trick
of the place and wants to see. what's actually
at the end. Yeah, I think he's worried if Halo's
gonna hurt them. That's why he's a little nervous.
Sure. The bodies lead onward, and then suddenly
you are in a vast circular room. The walls, floor,
and ceiling are a different kind of flesh. Supple,
red and alive, a gummy wet mess that depresses
and pulses as you step into it, and hanging from
the walls and ceiling are innumerable, glimmering
void glass daggers. identical to the very one
that Booker was bestowed by Parkelion. The words
of warning given to you vaguely echo in the back
of your head. You try not to look at any of these
infinite, darkened teeth, but it's as if when
you try to look away, your head turns the wrong
direction. Your eyes refuse to listen to your
mind. How do you try to resist this? We're trying
not to look at the walls? Unless you really want
to. I mean, you can elect to fail this if you
would like to. Booker, evade looking at the law.
Perry's. I think... Yeah, I mean, you can choose
your... I could see a discern. I could see an
endure. This is cursed. 100%. Yeah, I think...
He is going to... Ledger is going to just try
to endure it. He's going to try and... He feels
like he's very set in his purpose. I think maybe
his confidence has been shaken a little bit,
but he still thinks he's going to try and save
his death from being digested. So I think he's
going to try and just, through an act of sheer
will, stop himself from looking at it and force
himself to look straight ahead. Bailey? I'm going
to try to discern it. See what's going on. You're
going to try to overcome it with knowledge. I
appreciate that. That's very Bailey. Booker,
what's your method? If he can't just evade his
eyes, then he'll... I'd have to hear a pitch
on how you use evade. I'm open to it. I just
need a good sell. I can't think of anything in
the moment, so... Okay, if you can't sell it,
then you don't get it. Let's endure. Okay, endure
cursed. This is dangerous. Dangerous. Oh, boy.
Oh, let's go. Oh, nice. Smooth sailing for Booker
today. Damn, yeah, that's wicked. Wow, failure
again, man. Oh, was that risky? It was dangerous,
so you would have failed even worse. Oh, okay.
Yeah, it would have actually been the same because
it would have taken away the 10 and the 5 and
I would have got the other 5. Nice. Wow. Jesus.
No beating the power of the brain. Booker and
Bailey got a success with pretty hard odds. And
Ledger got a failure. So I will tell Booker,
first of all, you look away. You just do not
look, bro. Straight up, you just look at the
ground. and you're fine you're fine um you noticed
something else but we'll get back to that um
bailey you kind of you you don't look away you
you look into it and maybe you just have your
scientific training um where you see you see
the rest of um what's about to happen here um
and i'll just put it in like More sterile words
than what I'm going to give Ledger, which is
that everything's about to end. This is the end
for Bailey, the Bailey that you are, essentially.
You see the future, and the future does not have
much left in it. Maybe a minute, maybe two at
most. It's unavoidable. Scientifically, it's
like falling. falling down a hole and then expecting
you'll survive with no reason to think you'll
survive. And whether you tie that back to the
fall you just survived or not, maybe that's why
you escape this with only some minor mind stress,
where you say, I just fell down a hole. I did
not die when I fell, even though every force
should have killed me. And Ledger, you are dazzled.
entirely by the sheer amount of these terrible
windowed blades. You look away from one, and
you look into another, and each one shows you
the same thing. It shows you everything that
lies ahead. It is an infinite array of moments,
every action of every cell of your body, every
sound from now until the end, from the tensing
of your muscles to the grinding of your teeth.
to the rushing ethereal sound of an endless moss
napping shut, and you become trapped in spiraling
microcosms. You are made smaller than the smallest
iota of reality, and you feel yourself slip through
the cracks, falling, falling, falling, falling,
deeper, and then looking up and seeing it all.
And all that you see is very little. It seems
that your entire reality... Everything that you've
experienced will come to an end in no more than
a minute, and there's nothing at all you can
do about it. And you also know that right now,
something really bad should happen to you. You
should come away from this with a fallout, with
pain. But for some reason, nothing happens, because
there'd be no point. Because this is the end,
and something is sparing you that injustice.
Booker and Bailey, you look away. And in front
of you, you see the friendly man. You see Halo,
his back turned, another dazzling black and purple
blade in his hand that somehow you had missed
until just now. The friendly man is backed up
against the far wall, hands outstretched but
not pleading, just frozen as Halo takes rapid,
jerky steps towards him as if animated by strings
pulling him into action. Ledger, you cannot act.
Booker and Bailey, what do you do? I mean, this
is the objective, right? Yeah, Bailey is going
to lower his gun, cross his arms, and let Halo
do what he needs to do. Same with Booker. Colin,
can I ask you something? Yes. I failed, and normally
I would be suffering for that, but I'm not. Yes.
Say, theoretically, is there any way that I can
project this consequence with Awaiting Cathedral?
Is there any way that I can use that to mitigate
it, or is it so... Is that beyond the bounds
of what is possible now? A weighted cathedral
is the move you got from the box that lets you
project stress onto the cathedral town. Should
you desire it, yes? Yes, but I didn't really
get stress. No, hey, you want to act? I'll let
you act. Roll 2d10, keep the highest one. Okay.
Oh boy. You're about to fuck up a town. I got
a six, which I think is... Yes, you put six somewhere
in the cathedral town in the back of Bailey's
mind. Someone screams. Ow. Let me... I don't
actually have a tracker for this. Let me do this.
I'll put it in chat. You feel that you can move,
Ledger. I think... I think that having seen or
at least captured a portion of the crushing inevitability
of all this, Ledger kind of instinctively tries
to lash out against it even though he knows that
it can't do anything. He knows that it can't
work. But he's going to do it anyways and I think
he's going to try and I think he's going to drop
the rifle and I think he's going to try and draw
his revolver, and then if enough of his death
remains to use any of his abilities, he's going
to try and use probably Invidia Spectre to, like,
power his gun and shoot, not Halo, but try and
shoot the thing out of his hand. Try and shoot
the void knife. Okay. And he's not even really
sure why he's doing it. He just needs, he just...
Some remaining rational part of his mind knows
that what he has seen as completely inevitable,
he can't stop it, but he has to try to stop it.
And this is the only thing he can think of. Kill.
Kill Cursed. Kill Cursed Dangerous. Okay, Kill
Cursed Dangerous, he's going to take... But,
here's what I'm going to tell you. Roll d6s instead
of d10s. Okay, does he still roll with Mastery?
Yes. Everything else applies. Okay, cool. So
he takes one Mind Stress. Beep. So he... Oh,
wait. What happens if you roll a six? Is that
still failure or is that success at a cost? I'll
show you. So you're going to roll 3d6. I mean,
was it 4d6 or 3d6? It's 4d6 because he has mastery
as well. All right, 4d6 and then you're going
to drop two because it's dangerous. Yes. Okay.
He got a three. So you drop the higher two, so
it's a three. Yep. Which is a failure. Fuck.
It would have been a partial success on a four.
Damn it. Something is wrong. Something is really
wrong. And perhaps unsurprisingly, in order to
aim at the knife, you have to look at it again.
And even the action of pulling the gun up and
shooting it, it feels like you're doing it based
on different rules. And maybe that's what is
so off about it. It's like suddenly your body
is a different body or like the gun is heavier
than it should be or your arm is too strong.
It's like. This is powered by the apocalypse
rules. You're a smart cookie, aren't you? Look
at you. Oh no, and I fucked it up too. God damn
it. You shoot. The bullet goes through the blade.
swallowed by it. You don't know where that bullet
is now. Somewhere else. Halo plunges the blade
into the friendly man's gut, ignoring you, cutting
him from top to bottom. The friendly man grabs
manically at his chest, pulling the wound open,
revealing what has always laid within. Rows and
rows of teeth. Beyond any hope of counting. An
infinite gnashing maw of insatiable and unknowable
hunger. It widens and widens and widens, spreading
across your field of vision, warping reality
itself as it spreads itself beyond the bounds
of your primitive dimensions. You can hear the
tension of this old, primordial, ravenous mouth.
You can feel the seconds before it snaps shut.
And it is at this time that Halo turns to you.
And in his hands is a silken ribbon that had
once been wrapped around... The friendly god's
neck. The object you require for some of your
missions. He holds it, his hands outstretched,
not even an offering, just fulfilling his role.
Who takes it? Booker's running for it. Not Ledger.
Ledger, I think, falls to his knees. You take
it. Nice. Halo says nothing to you at all. But
when you look at him, you know that he is no
longer there. He has been seized by some other
force, the machinations of some distant structure,
and he is simply gone. And with the ribbon in
your hands, and with that final realization,
the jaws snap shut, and you are plunged once
again into red -black darkness, into a thrumming
heartbeat, and into the gentle murmur of a train's
engine. And that's the end for now.