Transcriber: robotchangeling
Austin: Sangfielle is a series that draws on elements of dark fantasy, horror, and gothic fiction. As such, a list of content warnings will always be made available in the episode description.
Austin: As you get closer, in fact, to the Bell Metal Station, besides all of the tracks twisted in on themselves, there’s something else you notice, kind of just at the horizon line. You see three overturned train cars, which you cannot imagine that the Bell Metal Band has managed to do that themselves, because that’s a big task. And from looking, I guess maybe even at this distance, you can see that they’ve been impacted by something, and soon enough you find out what that something is.
[Music begins: Sangfielle by Jack de Quidt]
Austin: The moon comes up over the horizon. As its light hits the front of these tendrils, instead of wavering all over the place, instead of trying to feel out. They all come to a sharp arrow-like shape. And the front of this train takes on the shape and face of a wolf.
Jack: Shit.
Austin: And you can hear it slam on its own brakes and twist and turn to redirect itself. More like a cat about to pounce, you see that it begins to stalk closer and closer to the Bell Metal Station. And then finally, it lets out a howl like a wolf and slams headfirst through the western wall of Bell Metal Station. This is the Red Zephyr.
Austin (as Shape Knight): [shouting triumphantly] Whooo! You scared it away!
Keith (as Lyke): [shouting back] My friends are on there!
Austin (as Shape Knight): Huh? [Art and Jack laugh]
Keith (as Lyke): My friends! My friends are on that!
Austin (as Shape Knight): Come on up! Got a beer on me!
Keith (as Lyke): No, I said my friends are on there!
Austin (as Shape Knight): [pause] Your...one more time?
Keith (as Lyke): [slowly] My friends are on the train still!
Austin: As you turn to look back as the door opens, all of the viscera, all of the gore has vanished and we’re back into an engine room when you look back this way. And they say, now similarly aged to you, they say:
Austin (as Jolyon): Leo, you old devil. What are you doing here? Come on, let me fix you a drink.
Art (as Duvall): [bewildered] Okay.
Austin: Hey, Duvall? I need you to answer me one more question.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: How was it that Jolyon died?
Art: Oh. I would say came into a debt to some unsavory sorts, you know?
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Jack: Ooh.
Austin: Yeah.
Art: You know, they don't have contracts.
Austin: [chuckles] Right, yeah. Mm-hmm.
Art: So, you know.
Austin: Right. Things just break bad that way.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: So, you are taking the major echo stress, The Life Not Lived, upgrades Deja Vu: “You meet someone from your past who should, by all rights, be dead.” And they lead you back into the train car, which in their presence seems to stay the same. I'm guessing, Pickman, you go with.
[Music ends]
Jack: Yeah, if only out of fear for Duvall.
Austin: Oh, sure, yeah, uh huh.
Jack: I don't think I'm affected by the magical charm of this, right?
Austin: It’s not magical.
Jack: I don't think I'm affected by the charm. What I mean to say is: is it realistic to say that Pickman’s first reaction is “I'm not buying any of this fucking shit. I'm gonna just go keep an eye on my guy.”
Austin: Yeah, I think that’s fine. But like, the—
Art: Come on, what’s gonna happen? The train’s gonna have a horse? [Austin and Jack laugh]
Austin: To be clear, it is magical in the sense that the heartland is working here.
Jack: Oh yeah.
Austin: And something weird with the Shape or the Structure is happening, you suspect, or Red Zephyr directly, or with the bees, the bugs. Something weird is happening, but it is not an illusion. This is not a delusion of Duvall. You know, like the tie.
Keith: They are really here. Yeah.
Austin: They are really here.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Whether they are them, whether whatever, that’s all up for grabs. Especially—
Jack: In the same way that the tie was here.
Austin: Right. In the same way that the tie was here, here is a person from Duvall’s past who should not be here. You don't know that person, but Duvall’s reactions probably say a lot. Let’s go back to Lyke, who at this point, I'm gonna say you found your way back up into the facility, I'm guessing? Or did you...what did you do?
Keith: I'm gonna look towards...god, I keep forgetting her name. The…
Austin: Katonya.
Keith: Katonya.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I'm gonna look towards Katonya. I assume that this is what she’s doing.
Austin: Yeah, she has in fact waved down the Toll keepers to bring the rest of her stuff, which come down the train line now that the Red Zephyr has disappeared over the western horizon, which is scary, because your friends are there.
Keith: Right.
Austin: But as they do, I actually think that, you know, once you go inside of the big roundhouse, the tall towering roundhouse, which inside does not have the same twisting Shape train tracks that are surrounding it all around. Instead, inside in the middle of it—and I actually should have drawn this here—but on the ground floor is just a sort of Shape. The lines of the north-south and northwest-southeast train lines cut through it, but they cut through it in a way that makes them part of the Shape itself, if that makes sense. As a reminder, if you switch over to this main map, you can see where there is the Shape here, like the actual Shape is drawn on, which again is this long horizontal line and then multiple vertical and angled lines coming off of it from the top. Jack, I think, tweeted it a few months ago at this point. That’s happening on the ground with real train Shape tracks, and it’s as if that has protected the interior of it. But you’re able to make your way up a long ladder or maybe some stairs, and you make it to that tenth floor, where on the inside that is the only floor that has structures and stuff on it. I am, in fact, going to reveal it to you. Boom. There we go. So, the very middle here is hollow, and it goes all the way down ten floors, right? Then there is this interior...let me just say for the audience. What everyone is looking at is a series of concentric circles that you could think of as being like...imagine a missile silo, right? And the edge of the silo, there are rooms into the walls. Except instead of being a silo, it is a tall tower, right? So there’s a bunch of rooms in a circle around a hollow center. And you can move between those rooms, not through one room to another, but from an interior walkway that is a big metal walkway. Again, it’s like scaffolding or rafters or whatever up there. And then on the very outside of the building, outside of those rooms, is again a series of walkways that you can go out to. And there’s also a roof on top of all this that you can also get to via ladders and stuff.
Keith: Right. So three rings: walkway, rooms, walkway.
Austin: Yeah, exactly. And then in the interior circle is just nothing. It’s just hollow.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Going all the way up to a roof and all the way down to the floor where the train lines are crossing.
Keith: Got it.
Austin: There are a bunch of rooms here. The one you were led to immediately is this war room/lounge, where at this point, the three members of the Bell Metal Band are each drinking some drinks, are toasting to a job well done, [Jack laughs] having scared this thing off. I don't think Katonya’s made her way up yet, neither have the...they’re all still unloading stuff from the thing below, but Katyona sent you up to feel...I think she said:
Austin (as Katonya): Feel them out. Let me know if they are trustworthy.
Austin: And who you have here is a trio of folks. The clear leader, most of all because he’s wearing a full suit of Shape Knight armor, is Erm. E-R-M. He/him. He is just a little guy, but he’s the boss around here. He is a carpana, much like Marn is. Little guy, comes up to your waist maybe, let’s say. Is chompin’ a cigar. Has on the chestpiece—
Keith: Chomping or like…?
Austin: You know, chompin’ like the way you chomp.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: The way you like, aargh, you know?
Keith: Right. Not like a guinea pig man would.
Austin: Like J. Jonah Jameson. No, not eating it. Just, you know, but chewing it as he chews the scenery, as he chews the atmosphere, just soaking it all in.
Keith: Sure.
Austin: Big stamp of a bell on the chestpiece, the Bell Metal Band’s icon is there. Has white and brown fur like a guinea pig has, like that light brown, you know what I mean? Very light brown fur, white fur, but it’s all covered in soot and smoke, and so it’s kind of been...he looks very dingy, but very battered and weathered in a very charming way.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: And he is clearly the leader here, sitting up on a high...not a high chair like a baby has, but just a very high...chair to sit at.
Keith: A chair to equal eye line with the rest of, yeah.
[Timestamp: 0:09:58]
Austin: Exactly, with the rest of the trio. Also here is Omerra Celendi. O-M-E-R-R-A. Erm is E-R-M, Omerra is O-M-E-R-R-A. I said Kelendi, I meant Celendi. C-E-L-E-N-D-I. Who uses she/her or he/him pronouns.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Is genderfluid in that way. You recognize his style immediately, because it’s clearly from the Unschola Republica. Late 20s, light brown skin, wavy dark hair down to her shoulders. Big round glasses, playful grin, very high-waisted pants. They’re like dark green corduroy slacks. Sleeveless white button-up blouse. And then this powered—it seems as if electricity is coursing through it as it moves—Shape Knight gauntlet on his right hand and then a single pauldron and half-plate piece on the left side of the torso and then a golden half-cape. Extremely fashionable, extremely here to rule any room that she is in. And again, that is Omerra. I would say seems to be the second-in-command at this point, in this room. And then finally, also at this table, also holding a drink, holding a drink in the non-powered-gauntlet hand, though maybe as a party trick occasionally shows that he has the dexterity to pick up a very fragile glass with the huge monstrous weaponized gauntlet hand.
Jack: Ugh, she doesn’t have Battered. [Art chuckles]
Austin: Right, yeah.
Keith: Imagine making a french omelette in power gloves. What a feat.
Austin: Exactly. What a feat, exactly. Finally, and kind of the quietest, most moody of this trio, is Calen Fel Dynestia. Calen C-A-L-E-N, Fel F-E-L, Dynestia D-Y-N-E-S-T-I-A. He/him. A devil from Sapodilla. Well, you don't know that he’s from Sapodilla, though maybe there’s a certain accent from Sapodilla and that comes through, I'm not sure. This is Hugh Dancy playing Will Graham at his most eye sunken, [Jack laughs] his most stubble-covered, his most—
Keith: Who is this?
Art: Hmm.
Austin: Hugh Dancy who played in Hannibal as Will Graham, the lead. I'll link you to a photo. I'll see if I can find the most disheveled.
Jack: One where he looks absolutely wrecked.
Austin: Yeah, absolutely wrecked version of this character that we can— ah.
Art: Like, started off bad in that show, and just…
Austin: [laughs] It kept going down.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Just do an image search for Will Graham, G-R-A-H-A-M.
Keith: I bet it can get worse than that, but this is what stood out to me.
Austin: Let’s see here.
Art: I bet that’s in the first three episodes.
Austin: Almost certainly. It only goes down from there.
Keith: Well, there’s a lot— okay, maybe…
Jack: Oh, he looks great! He looks like he’s ready to go.
Austin: Yeah, that’s a pretty good Will Graham, honestly.
Keith: Maybe that? Maybe that’s one?
Art: I think they like kidnapped this actor, is what I think.
Austin: [laughs] And also is a devil, which means in this case has little horns poking up, little black horns, and I think a sort of pasty purple gray skin, which we haven't seen in devils yet. Elizabethan fashion here, kind of a black doublet and pants, and then a shiny silver Shape Knight jerkin. Again, it’s almost like sleeveless plate armor is what you can think of it as, but thinner than that. And a pair of glasses, I think. Eh, no glasses. Let’s say no glasses. We already have a glasses character in this trio. And the room that they’re in is just as—
Keith: So it’s Erm, Omerra, and Calen?
Austin: Erm, Omerra, and Calen, yes.
Keith: Got it.
Austin: Calen is the third one. I'll type them into the chat, just so we got ‘em here. [typing] Erm, Omerra, and Calen. And the room that you’re in here, this kind of lounge room...I mean, the whole thing has...have any of you played the newish Wolfenstein games at all?
Keith: Uh, yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: You know the interior of the submarine that is the base for that game?
Jack: Yes.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Where it’s kind of like, yes it’s metal and concrete and— probably no concrete in there, mostly metal in there, right?
Keith: Yeah. There’s wood.
Austin: But then— yeah, there’s wood. But that’s the thing is there’s lots of wood and carpeting—
Keith: Right, yeah.
Austin: And leather to make it very homey. That’s what this is, right?
Keith: Got it.
Austin: And this lounge specifically, I am drawing on a memory of going to a Battletech center, which was a place you could play Mech Warrior in pods, but it had this lounge that was in character. This whole front of the house was in character, where the people who operated it were in lab coats and flight suits pretending to be engineers and scientists.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And the regulars would go to this place, this very fancy...like you have to get a membership.
Keith: I have not been to one of these, but I know exactly what you’re talking about.
Austin: Yeah. They would just go there and hang out in the card room that’s in the front of the house and play cards in between Mech Warrior sessions.
Keith: Right.
Austin: I was very young and very impressionable. And that’s the vibe. It’s like the Wolfenstein submarine. A lot of hominess has been brought into a very sterile place, and you know, if this was a TV show or an anime or something, you would see all of the same set dressing that we saw in one of the flashes of the interior of the Red Zephyr, the green and gold wallpaper, that blend again of utilitarian but also with the hominess of the deep leather couches and chairs, all of that stuff is here, along with some other details. There are photographs here, kind of faded black and white or sepia toned photos here in frames on the walls, old rusty weapons that are clearly way past usability but hold some sentimental value mounted on the walls, parts of trains mounted on the walls. You know, it’s that sort of thing. You’re in the war room, so there’s a big war table, but there’s also a lounge. There’s lots of chairs and stuff like that. It’s next to the kitchen. People eat in here. Also, up on this— I'm not gonna go room by room, but there’s a lab up here. There’s an armory up here. Everyone has quarters, there’s storage, et cetera, right? in various parts of this upper place. But this trio is here in the war room. A bottle is opened. They’ve survived another night against the Red Zephyr with the moon high in its transformed form. And pour you a glass of wine here, or a beer. What did they say? They said beer before, so pour you a beer and slide it across the table. And I think Omerra says:
Austin (as Omerra): Omerra Celendi, pleased to meet you. I have to say, that trick with the fire and your hands was impeccable. I love to see it. What’s your name, friend?
Keith (as Lyke): I'm Lye. Lye Lychen.
Austin (as Omerra): Lye Lychen. Why do I know— [gasps] You! Ha! The fire trick. Unschola. The building?
Keith (as Lyke): Oh.
Austin (as Omerra): That’s you.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, that was me. Sorry if…
Austin: He waves his hand a little, very dismissively.
Keith: Okay.
Austin (as Omerra): No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You and me, we’re peas in a pod. We’re two of a kind.
Keith (as Lyke): Mmm.
Austin (as Omerra): That place was boring, backwards, slow.
Keith (as Lyke): You know, I didn't mean to blow it up.
Austin (as Omerra): No, of course not! No one means to blow it up until they mean to blow it up. You're experimenting. You’re finding new things.
Keith (as Lyke): Right, and you know, it works.
Austin (as Omerra): It works.
Austin: Erm says:
Austin (as Erm): [speaking quickly] Yeah, well, it’d be great if you’d blown up the train entirely, but eh, did your best. I'm happy to have you on our side.
Keith (as Lyke): It was the first time that it worked.
Austin (as Erm): Well, I'm glad the first time was for us, was on our side. I'd appreciate you don't blow up this building, this building here. [slaps wall or furniture] This is history you’re sitting in, and uh, do your best to keep the explosions outside, huh?
Keith (as Lyke): Sure. I do wanna mention that my friends got on the train.
Austin (as Calen): Oh, that’s no good.
Keith (as Lyke): Mm-hmm.
Austin: Says Calen.
Austin (as Calen): They’re on board?
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Calen): The Zephyr.
Keith (as Lyke): Right.
Austin (as Calen): Well, that is a problem, isn’t it? I'm sorry to hear for your loss, I suppose.
Keith (as Lyke): Well Pickman is a Shape Knight, and Duvall is…
Austin (as Erm): Pickman? Yeah, I've heard of Pickman.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh.
Austin (as Erm): Big uh…big, uh...
Keith (as Lyke): Big, yeah.
Austin (as Erm): Big caprak.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Erm): Round the way.
Keith (as Lyke): Yep.
Austin (as Erm): Eh, maybe she’ll get out.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Erm): You know, she spent, pff, decades on a train once, so. If ever there was someone to get stuck on a train, Pickman.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah. I don't know what they’re...it wasn’t a plan. There was not a plan, so I don't know what they’re doing.
Austin: [laughs] There truly was not a plan! [Jack laughs]
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: Board the train is step one.
Art: Fuckin’ rude, honestly. [chuckles] Yeah.
Jack: You know, step one. We can't do anything until we board the train. Again, I don't know what ranged weapons are. But I'm glad that they’ve got vote of confidence.
Austin: Truly a dog what caught the car.
Jack: [laughs] Yes. God. You know what this—
Art: Step one—
Keith: [laughs] Oh, and catching the car also deals an immense amount of mental stress. [Austin laughs]
Jack: One of my—
Art: No, step one: get on the train. Step two: meet an old friend.
Jack: Yeah, absolutely.
Austin: Oh, okay. Yeah, you’re right. It’s all going according to plan. Yeah, uh huh.
[Timestamp: 0:20:00]
Jack: What this is is it reminds me of my favorite bit of the Kerbal: Project BEAST let’s play.
Art: Uh huh.
Jack: Which I think about a lot, which is you, Austin, set up this immaculately planned mission to rendezvous with another spaceship to rescue a guy from it. [chuckles]
Austin: Uh huh!
Jack: And failed to account for the fact that the spaceship will be traveling at like 1,500 miles an hour when this happens.
Austin: [laughs] Yes, yes.
Jack: So your ship is in exactly the right spot for half of a second—
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Jack: And you just see it go: [makes fast whooshing sound]
Austin: Yep! Exactly.
Keith: [laughs] That’s really funny.
Jack: This is Pickman and Duvall boarding the train and just being like, well, goodbye! [Austin laughs] We’ll see you around!
Austin: Bye!
Keith: I guess I have—
Austin: [maybe imitating something??? 20:42] Thanks for stopping, bye!
Keith (as Lyke): I have a list of priorities. I need to—
Austin: Is this you speaking or is this you internally working through?
Keith: Speaking.
Austin: Okay, yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): I want to figure out what they’re doing on the train/get them off the train.
Austin (as Omerra): [sighs] Hmm, well.
Keith (as Lyke): I want to figure out what the train is doing/kill the train.
Jack: Oh my god, this is…
Austin (as Erm): Well, we agree on that one!
Keith (as Lyke): Three, make sure that you all are trustworthy.
Jack: [delighted] This is so great, 'cause Lye is now just a Shape Knight, right? These are all just Shape Knight objectives.
Austin: Uh huh! Yeah.
Keith: And so, I take out...I'm taking out Tombo.
Austin: Ah, of course.
Keith: Taking out Tombo.
Austin: Remind us about Tombo, please.
Keith: Tombo is my little fish, and we…
Austin: Yeah. Talks to you, right?
Keith: We have a good relationship, but we’re both slightly combative.
Austin: Right.
Keith: And—
Austin: Do other people hear the conversation with Tombo? I can't recall.
Keith: They hear me.
Austin: They hear you. They don't hear Tombo. It’s like a psychic thing.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Okay. Is it words or is it just emotions and ideas from Tombo?
Keith: I speak words out loud to the fish in the jar.
Austin: Right. Gotcha.
Keith: Which...and I tell them:
Keith (as Lyke): It is fine for him. He does not—
Austin: Tombo, you mean.
Keith: Tombo.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Normally he would be in a tank, but he is…
Austin: Right.
Keith (as Lyke): He is a magic fish, and he can be in the jar, and it’s fine.
Austin: As you take Tombo out, just as a note, I think you see Aterika’Kaal in that other jar, kind of peek up as if...at first it’s like, oh attention, but it’s also like looking at stop motion of a plant reaching for the sun, reaching for sunlight.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Aterika-Kaal’s been in your bag for so long.
Keith: Is that—
Austin: [pleading] Just wants a little sunlight. Just wants a little water.
Keith: Okay. [mumbles defensively]
Austin: Just needs to be taken care of. Just reminding you of…
Keith: I remember all about Aterika’Kaal.
Austin: Yeah, okay. Just, that’s what’s happening.
Keith: Got it.
Austin: So, you take Tombo out.
Keith: Take Tombo out, and I'm gonna do a discern.
Keith (as Lyke): Tombo, give me a read on—
Austin: To talk to Tombo?
Keith: No.
Austin: Oh, I see.
Keith: I need Tombo.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Tombo, give me a read on these guys.
Austin: This is a discern technology here on these folks.
Keith: And the last thing that I said to them was I need to make sure that you’re trustworthy.
Austin: Yes, determine if you're trustworthy. Yeah, uh huh. This is not risky, this is standard.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: What...I'm trying to think, is there anything else you get bonuses on here? I don't think so.
Keith: Just discern.
Austin: Yeah, just discern. So that’s two dice. Go ahead and give me your discern. No one here to help, unfortunately, and nothing that gives you mastery.
Keith: Nine.
Austin: Hey, that’s a nine. Look at you, nine and four. Tombo spins, and...it’s around when you're...you know, I think there’s a kind of conversation that happens when you bring Tombo out.
Keith: Right.
Austin: And you go over your priorities, and when you mention figure out how to kill the train, you notice Calen gulp in a sort of like, “that’s not a thing I like. I don't like the idea of killing this train,” sort of thing.
Keith: Out of fear? Or out of conflicting...
Austin: Out of conflicting, as if there’s something else there, you know?
Keith: Okay. Do I get anything off Erm, who I pegged as the leader?
Austin: Nothing. Erm is the leader, and Erm is like:
Austin (as Erm): Yeah, damn right. Kill that train. Absolutely.
Keith: Okay. I did get a sort of nervous energy off of Erm, but that’s just Erm.
Austin: That’s just how Erm is. And Erm isn't nervous, Erm is quick.
Keith: Erm is quick.
Austin: Erm is moving. Erm is always movin’. Erm’s got a lot of high metabolism.
Keith: Right, yeah.
Austin: You know, that sort of...I don't know if that actually means you're slower because of needing more energy. I don't know how metabolism works in relation to energy. That’s a fake thing, you know? That’s like Quicksilver in Marvel had a high metabolism because he runs fast, but I don't know that that’s true, you know?
Keith: Right. It would seem to me that if you had a high metabolism you would try to conserve energy by not moving, yeah.
Art: [overlapping] I have bad news about Quicksilver.
Austin: That’s exactly what I'm thinking. By not moving at all, exactly.
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Anyway. [chuckles] So yeah, that’s the vibe. You could push on this if you want to.
Keith: I want to do that.
Austin: It’s very clear to you even in this quick bit that Calen is hiding something about…
Keith: Okay.
Keith (as Lyke): What’s that?
Austin: Does not want to kill the train, ideally.
Keith (as Lyke): [feigned shock] Tombo, what are you saying? What? [Austin laugh]
Austin (as Tombo): Blurble blurble blurble.
Keith: A couple bubbles.
Austin: A couple bubbles pop up, yeah.
Keith: So what does pushing look like on this?
Austin: Pushing? There’s not a push.
Keith: “You can push on this” is what you said.
Austin: Oh, I just meant you could ask, you could talk.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: You could literally do the job of being like, what’s up? You know?
Keith (as Lyke): Tombo…
Keith: And I'm pointing at Erm.
Keith (as Lyke): Tombo says…
Keith: And then I point at Calen.
Keith (as Lyke): That one of you…
Keith: And then I point at, uh…
Austin: Omerra.
Keith: Omerra.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): ...is hiding something.
Austin: Omerra, at this point, is leaning forward on...you know the thing of making a little bridge with your hands, you know, and leaning forward on it?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: To look at Tombo, and is like:
Austin (as Omerra): [wistfully] Haven’t seen a familiar since I left home. [sighs]
Keith (as Lyke): No, Tombo’s just a fish.
Austin: Unconcerned.
Austin (as Omerra): A fish, a familiar, eh, you know, tomato, tomahto. Someone you can talk to, someone you can share ideas with. Someone you’re familiar with! That’s why we call ‘em familiars, after all.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay. Huh.
Austin: Anyway, Calen kind of shrinks at this, again giving it away, not hiding it as far as you can tell.
Keith: Oh, did I get it wrong? I meant to do the last one was the one that I thought was guilty.
Austin: Oh.
Keith: Did I get the name wrong?
Austin: You did.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: You went to Omerra instead of Calen, yeah.
Keith: Everyone, rerun that in your head as if the last person I pointed at was the one who seemed slightly guilty.
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah, put Calen at the end. Calen shrinks and then goes like:
Austin (as Calen): [stammers] It’s just, I've been working on something, and it could have big implications, and perhaps killing it isn't the only option.
Keith (as Lyke): What do you mean?
Austin (as Calen): Well…
Austin: And I think Omerra says:
Austin (as Omerra): Why haven’t we heard about this?
Austin: And Calen shrugs and says:
Austin (as Calen): Well, previously, it would be so dangerous to pursue with so little gain, but now that there is another Shape Knight on board plus the mage’s other friend, perhaps it’s desirable, rather than destroying it and risking their lives, no? Let me demonstrate.
Austin: And produces from...actually, I think says:
Austin (as Calen): Let’s finish our drinks, and then I can go show you, but in short, I think that I could...I believe I've developed a sort of...now, I don't know that this is widely...you have to understand, it’s experimental, but a sort of fetter for the train, a sort of magical manacle to lock it in place, to tie it to our will instead of its. We could direct it. We could give it shape. Again, it’s very experimental. I would need another trained mage to help apply it. A pair of them, really. But I could show you that it seems like it would work.
Austin (as Erm): I think we should destroy it. More to me dead than alive. Take it apart. The second train ever killed. Turn it into more armor, more shields, more weaponry.
Keith (as Lyke): And one less train.
Austin (as Erm): And we’d send a message. Whose Shape? Our Shape. I'll say it again. Whose Shape?
Keith (as Lyke): Your Shape.
Austin (as Erm): Our Sh— that’s— our Shape.
Keith (as Lyke): Your all’s Shape.
Austin: [chuckles] Not ours, we rent. I think Omerra is the one who’s the most like, stroking his chin at this, not super on board, but curious certainly. If you finish your meal, and at this point I think maybe Katonya has climbed the stairs very carefully. The entire structure shakes as she comes up top, along with the Toll Collectors, or the toll keepers, that’s what I was calling them? Toll takers? Toll keepers.
[Timestamp: 0:30:06]
Keith: Yeah, toll keepers. Toll…
Austin: Just in time to be led into the laboratory
Keith: Collectors.
Austin: Toll Collectors, yeah. And in the lab, in one corner of the lab, is a train set.
Jack: [dismayed] Oh.
Austin: Made of genuine Shape train parts.
Jack: Ah, fuck! That’s a fuckin’ Shape train! You can’t just say it’s a train set. You make a train set out of Shape train parts, you've made a Shape train.
Austin: It is in not just the corner of the room, but I think inside of a room inside the room. Right? This is the...if you had to keep kryptonite somewhere, you keep it in a lead-lined room so that Superman can’t see it with the X-ray vision, right? I guess, spoilers for how to beat up Superman.
Keith: Have some lead.
Austin: This is the equivalent of that. Yeah, it’s lead. X-ray vision can't see through lead, because that’s how X-rays work.
Keith: X-rays work, yeah.
Austin: And so I think it’s similarly, you know, there’s some sort of magical anti-Shape mark on each wall of this sub-room inside of the lab. All of this stuff is made from living wood, so that the Course runs through it. The table itself is a bunch of roots, a bunch of tree trunks twisted up around themselves and shaped as if magically into a tabletop. And all of that stuff resists the Shape in some way.
Keith: All nature stuff?
Austin: It’s like nature stuff, but it’s more that it’s living stuff, you know? You could probably do it with...if you did this with an animal. I guess that’s still naturey, but you know what I mean, right? You could do it with medical stuff and blood and guts, but Calen is not that person. Despite being inspired by a Hannibal character visually, [laughs] is not doing Hannibal art with living gross stuff, instead is using nature shit here as a way to gain a degree of protection from the...and it’s not permanent, and it’s not, you know, the line between the Shape and the Course is not as firm as anyone would like it to be, otherwise you’d have a firm solution to each. But on top is a train set made of the Shape. And demonstrates using a sort of...I mean, here’s where we’ll do the little thread game, right? There are literally manacles, right? There are literally that style of big, thick Medieval handcuff looking things that you can wear, and when you click them in place and, while they’re on you, draw an inverted Shape, a small thread, magical silk emerges from the chain between the two manacles and connects to the little miniature Shape train and allows you to leash it into place until finally it stands still and you can direct it with motions of your hands. And it requires two people to do this, not just one. I guess in this test, he can do it by himself, because…
Keith: It’s small.
Austin: Because it’s a tiny train, yeah, exactly. But with a real-sized train, you need at least two strong powerful mages to do it. And he* demonstrates it, and it does seem to work, and I'll let the discern carry forward that this part of it...this is what Calen desires, because I guess what he* says is: think about what we could do with a train under our control. This is that thing.
Keith (as Lyke): What? I don't know, what? What can you with it?
Austin (as Calen): Attack other trains, transport stuff according to more predictable timelines and more safely. And if we can do this to a bunch of trains, then we make things even more safe, because we end up controlling the tracks instead of just being on offense against trains that—
Keith (as Lyke): But if you can stop— if you can leash the train…
Austin (as Calen): Yeah?
Keith (as Lyke): Why don't you just kill it? And then killing the other trains won’t be a problem. You can just leash them and kill them. You don't need to make an army of trains. You just leash ‘em and kill ‘em.
Austin (as Calen): It’s… [sighs] The trains are useful for many people. The trains let you go from one side of the heartland to the next.
Keith (as Lyke): Why don't you just make a train that’s not evil?
Austin: No one knows...oh, you know that that’s not a thing that’s ever happened.
Keith: Oh, okay.
Austin: Or as far as you know could happen. The trains were not ever made by people. No one’s ever successfully made a train.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: We just don't have the technology, and we don’t have the...this is where that technology comes from, is from the trains that already exist, you know? So it’s sort of like saying why don't you make an ox? Why don't you make a dinosaur? you know?
Keith: Yeah, but why don't you?
Austin: ‘Cause it’s hard. And I think actually, maybe what he says to that is:
Austin (as Calen): This would be the first step in a real way, because we could actually slowly examine it. We’ve only ever killed one train, and in the doing, it ruined it.
Austin: And Omerra sighs, and is like:
Austin (as Omerra): Yeah, that’s true, I guess. Even just having one to look at would be a step up from where we are now. We could spend a lot of time with it, looking over all the parts, figuring out what makes it tick.
Keith (as Lyke): Well, how about the third one you can tinker with? This one, we just [clicks tongue] get it.
Austin (as Calen): But...the whole point was that your friends are on board, and let me tell you, the last time we killed a train, it wasn’t good for what was inside the train.
Keith (as Lyke): Mmm.
Keith: Am I getting a...I guess I just don't feel...I don't know these people, and I don't feel great about giving them a superweapon.
Austin: Mm-hmm. I think that’s a fair thing to fear.
Keith: What is my…
Austin: To anybody. I think it’s a fair thing. Like, you’re walking around with a god in your backpack, and you’re afraid of telling your friends about that, because of how dangerous it is.
Keith: Yeah. And the train’s way worse.
Austin: And this is not even a god. Yeah. Well, mmm. Mmm.
Keith: No? Mmm, alright.
Austin: Mmm, I'm not so sure about that. A train is a single...there are train gods. This is not one of the train gods. This is a train werewolf. That’s scary.
Keith: All I know is that I took the plant.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: Me and my friends took the plant. We could not take the train.
Austin: Not yet.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I mean, you're being taught how to do that.
Keith: Sure.
Austin: You're being taught how to make that happen, you know? They’re both dangerous. I'm not saying they’re not—
Keith: What does my cleaver friend think?
Austin: Katonya says:
Austin (as Katonya): Kill it. I'm sorry for your friends, but I was brought here to kill a train. Is simple. Kill the train.
Keith (as Lyke): What about using the leash thing to kill the train?
Austin (as Katonya): Eh, acceptable.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay.
Austin (as Katonya): Capture train, get your friends off.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Katonya): Eh, then we kill it.
Keith (as Lyke): I feel like that’s where I'm voting.
Austin (as Erm): It’s not a vote. This is my train station. I decide what we do.
Keith (as Lyke): But I'm the—
Austin (as Erm): And I'll decide what we do after we capture it with the manacles.
Keith (as Lyke): But I'm the mage that needs to use this stuff to get it to work anyway, so I guess it’s my magic, it’s your station. It’s his train lab. We all have a little bit of something. She’s got a cannon.
Austin (as Katonya): I do.
Austin (as Omerra): Well then, let’s start with capturing it, huh? And we’ll decide whether we kill it after we get your friends off? Also, we have a little time. It’s not gonna come back for a day.
Keith (as Lyke): Ooh, a whole day?
Austin (as Omerra): And with extra hands, there’s some stuff we can do. I don't know if y'all saw, but the cars out there, we did our best to pick over ‘em, but there’s only three of us now.
Austin: And I think at saying “three of us now,” Omerra, he gets kind of...there’s like a mmm beat, and then he says:
Austin (as Omerra): We haven’t been able to get some of the stuff that’s still out in those train cars. And we don't know when the Red Zephyr will come back, so, you know, it’s dangerous, but we could get out there and maybe find some stuff to help us take it down.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, that sounds...yeah, I would like to take a look at that stuff.
Austin (as Katonya): I can help move big things.
Austin: I think Erm cracks his knuckles and goes like:
Austin (as Erm): Wanna get going on that tonight or is that more of a morning thing? Everybody rest up, everybody relax a little bit?
Keith (as Lyke): I think it’s a tonight thing.
Austin (as Erm): [sighs] I'm...going out at night is just a little scary.
Austin: Calen, I think, says—
Keith (as Lyke): You’re covered in armor.
Austin: He says:
Austin (as Erm): So was Fezh.
Austin: And Omerra again looks down, and she says:
Austin (as Omerra): [softly] So was Fezh.
[Timestamp: 0:39:53]
Austin: F-E-Z-H, or Fezh, who...at this point, you know, the camera looks at one of the photos to show that there used to be a fourth member of the Bell Metal Band, a big ojantani Shape Knight, not quite as big as Katonya, but you would be like, that’s Katonya’s little brother, in terms of size, you know what I mean? Big. Big and just covered head to toe in a full suit of the Shape Knight armor, very much like Pickman has. Big grin, eyes closed, big toothy ox grin. And must’ve died at night, is what you gain here. Anything here before we jump back to the interior train?
Keith: Who was it that I saw up on the scaffolding while I was down?
Austin: Oh, all three of them were up on that scaffolding.
Keith: Oh, okay.
Austin: Oh, I think you were specifically talking to Omerra.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I was playing Omerra then, yelling down at you playfully.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Yes, that was Omerra.
Keith (as Lyke): I was saying...from before, I was saying that I was ambivalent.
Austin (as Omerra): [understanding] Ambivalent! Oh, I see.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah. So that’s all.
Austin (as Omerra): That makes way more sense.
Austin: So, I think you’re taken to a dining car, where Jolyon pours you a cup of…
Austin (as Jolyon): Tea or coffee? I can't remember, Leo. Apologies.
Art: [thoughtful sigh] I'm trying to think if I should snap out of it for this?
Austin: Oh. In terms of letting the bugs take over?
Art: No, like should I just—
Austin: The other way.
Art: Yeah, should it just be like...I know it’s not part of it.
Austin: Mm-hmm. But this is a...you were not this person for quite some time.
Art: Right.
Austin: And there can be that sort of slipping into. I was just telling...I was having a conversation with my mom about how...we were having a conversation that was very Duvall.
Art: That’s disturbing. [chuckles]
Austin: Yeah, I mean, you know, it was a heavy conversation in relation to a big fight that she got into with her mom, and the question of is there a self. Is there a self that is true? Can you change and is there a true self in that way? And I was talking about how, me, I think I kind of used to be a shitty person. Like, Art, when we were in college, I was kind of an asshole. I think I was fundamentally kind in some ways, but I was deeply overcompensating for a severe sort of self hate that made me very judgmental and made me very cruel to people who I didn’t vibe with. And that the experience of going to grad school, living by myself in Canada and all that stuff, really changed me for the better in a long term way. Obviously, I still have a ways to go, but I feel like I truly can draw a line between who I was through like 2010 and who I was from the mid-grad school period forward, because of the way my worldview changed and the way I've changed about myself and all of that stuff. And yet, if I was suddenly around a bunch of Hofstra people again, people from college, I think I could easily see myself slip in that direction. Or, I guess the alternative is, feel friction against the expectation to be that sort of person. We have a mutual friend who I think was key to that very...or, went along with me in that same judgmental personality, the sort of we’re better than everybody else, our taste is better in music, in games, and all of that stuff. And being around that person...I have been around that person in the last decade a couple of times, and at the beginning of this decade, it was me slipping into that mode again, and more recently it’s been filled with friction as it’s like, I don't want to be like this anymore. I don't want to just make fun of the people who are walking past us. That’s incredibly mean. I'm not so insecure in myself anymore that I need to default to that in order to feel comfortable in places. And so I think either of those is viable for Duvall, in my experience.
Art: If we’re talking about the same person from…
Austin: Yes, we are.
Art: ...gaming club…
Austin: Yeah.
Art: The last time I spent time with that person, I thought they were doing better in this specific area.
Austin: That’s good to hear. That’s good to hear.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: Good.
Art: I'm not saying you have to go be best friends again.
Austin: No, no, no. No.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Mm-hmm. [chuckles]
Art (as Duvall): Yeah, tea. I'm a tea person. Black tea, if you have it.
Austin (as Jolyon): Of course, of course, of course.
Austin: And they pour you a black tea. I don't know enough about tea to give it any distinguishing quality. Keith, what’s a good black tea distinguishing quality?
Keith: Camphor.
Austin: Are you a black tea— what’s that mean? Tell me what that means.
Keith: Oh, camphor is a, well, it’s a thing that is in pain relief, but when people describe tea flavor or aroma as camphorous, it usually does not have to do with Bengay or Icy Hot.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: It’s a slightly different thing that to me tastes kind of like spaghettios, a little bit. In a way that’s nice, like people also describe it…
Austin: Mmm.
Keith: You know, if your choice is Bengay or spaghettios for your tea to taste like, [Jack chuckles] those don't either seem like food that you want your tea to be like, but…
Austin: No, yeah.
Keith: Just a sort of slightly spicy umami sort of thing that, when it’s in a roasted tea like a black tea—
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Gives me sort of artificial tomato vibes. [Jack laughs] Yeah.
Austin: Interesting. Okay. Well, there you go. That’s how it tastes.
Art: Mmm. [laughs] That sounds bad.
Austin: It does sound bad, but maybe this is—
Keith: It’s good. If you tasted it, you’d just be like, this is like black tea. Unless I told you—
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Keith: “This is camphorous, and maybe you might taste some spaghettios on there.” [Art laughs]
Austin: To your well-trained tea palate, you're able to pick that out.
Keith: There’s a Taiwanese black tea called like Ruby and then a number. For me, that’s the one that every time I have it, no matter where it’s from, it tastes kind of like spaghettios.
Austin: Mmm. So, I think at that point, Jolyon looks over to you, Pickman, and says:
Austin (as Jolyon): Lady Shape Knight, how ‘bout you? Would you like a cup as well?
Jack: Just shakes her head, putting her hands in front of her to be like, nope, not having any of this.
Austin (as Jolyon): Water? Nothing? An egg?
Jack: [confused] An egg? [chuckles]
Art (as Duvall): You got an egg?
Austin (as Jolyon): We can make eggs.
Jack: Pickman’s just stonewalling him.
Austin (as Jolyon): It’s a dining car, friends. We’re gonna have a good time. What’s better than that? Being on a train, having a meal and some tea with some friends. No? Okay, well. [sighs] How have you been, Leo?
Art (as Duvall): Oh, it’s been a rough few years, I’ll tell you the truth. How ‘bout you?
Austin (as Jolyon): You know, little of this, little of that. Probably rough in different ways. I, uh...I get why we climbed out. Of hell, that is.
Art: [laughs] I don't know why that struck me as funny.
Austin: Eh.
Art: [laughs] I don't think it was a joke.
Austin: A little, you know.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: Gallows humor. Devil humor.
Art: Yeah.
Austin (as Jolyon): What are you doing on a venture like this? This seems a little...you know, when you and I were cutting the town up, it was smaller ordeals. Running game, maybe taking some things we shouldn’t, and taking some things less seriously than we should’ve, but.
Art (as Duvall): Well, see, that’s what it is now. I'm a person who takes things that maybe they shouldn’t, but…
Austin (as Jolyon): [chuckles]
Art (as Duvall): But maybe I should.
Austin (as Jolyon): Is that what happened to you? You took something you shouldn’t and now...I'm just saying, it seems like you have a lot of company, Leo.
Art (as Duvall): I went somewhere I wasn't supposed to go.
Austin (as Jolyon): Oh, we did that all the time in the day!
Art (as Duvall): Well, [chuckles] some places it’s a little worse than just being out of bounds.
Austin (as Jolyon): Yeah. Yeah. I get you. Well...is there anything I can—
Art (as Duvall): How are you on the...how’d you come to be...do you work here?
Austin (as Jolyon): Uh, I do now, and I have to say, it’s an upgrade.
Art (as Duvall): Mmm.
Austin (as Jolyon): Where I was before, not very many options for opportunities for upward mobility, y’see? Here...
Art (as Duvall): Mmm.
Austin (as Jolyon): If the Zephyr has a good day, maybe I have a good day, you know? It’s not something I considered, working in transportation, you know? Family business, of course, did do some import/export, of a sort. Uh, [chuckles nervously] of course, don’t we all. [Art laughs] But this...well, a little more hands-on than I suspected. In fact, wasn’t here until you were, old devil. So I guess I have to say I thank you for the recommendation, so to speak.
Art (as Duvall): Hmm.
Austin (as Jolyon): I don't think the Zephyr would have thought to hire me otherwise.
Art: This is a deeply disturbing cosmology you’re building here.
Austin (as Jolyon): Finding it as I go. [sighs]
[Timestamp: 0:50:00]
Jack: Oh god. I think Pickman puts her hand on Duvall’s shoulder and says...
Art (as Duvall): Hmm!
Jack: From, you know, Pickman’s been standing by the door and takes a step forward and puts her hand on Duvall’s shoulder and says:
Jack (as Pickman): Your friend is dead. The Zephyr speaks through their* voice.
Austin (as Jolyon): Hey, now!
Art (as Duvall): No.
Austin (as Jolyon): You’re jumping to conclusions, friend.
Art (as Duvall): Yeah!
Jack (as Pickman): I've made my conclusion quite happily Zephyr. Leave that body.
Austin (as Jolyon): You do whatever type of exorcism you want to do, my friend. I'm here now, really and truly. I know where I was before, and it was worse than this. And if you don't want to go there, I would say maybe slow down a little bit and consider your surroundings.
Art (as Duvall): That’s deep.
Jack (as Pickman): I don't play mind games with trains.
Austin (as Jolyon): I'm not sure your mind is playing at much of anything right now, dear Shape Knight. Uh, Duvall—
Austin: Or, sorry. Leo. Would not have called you Duvall. That was an Austin mistake.
Art: Yeah.
Austin (as Jolyon): Leo, can you check your friend here? I want what’s best for all of us.
Art (as Duvall): Come on. Pickman, you're being a little rude. We haven’t spent any time together in…
Austin (as Jolyon): A decade or more!
Art (as Duvall): Yeah, that must be right.
Jack: I think I'm gonna go to the door back towards the engine and peer back into the engine room again, to see if anything is…
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah, and then—
Austin: It seems to be a regular engine room as you look in. It seems to have stabilized.
Jack: Oh, just a regular train’s…
Austin: A hundred percent. Though, there are some windows in there, and you can see out those windows that you are inside...the train is inside something, you suspect a tunnel, now outside of the moon’s light.
Jack: Hmmm.
Austin: Also, it’s not moving at such a fast pace as it was before.
Jack: Okay. This is like...there’s like...yeah, I think Pickman goes back into the other room. There’s a haste here, as though Pickman is not moving at the pace of the conversation that…
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Jack: ...that the others are doing, as though… [sighs] It’s like when one person’s in a room talking to a ghost in Phasmophobia and everybody else is outside like going and fetching a thing [Austin laughs] and being like, alright, I just need to go bring that or whatever.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Jack: And I think Pickman says—
Austin: Sort of syncopation to the rhythm of you, right now.
Jack: Yeah.
Jack (as Pickman): We’re in a tunnel. The train is weak. We have to move, Duvall.
Austin (as Jolyon): I'd hate to see you go. It’s been so long. But I understand.
Art (as Duvall): [slowly] You get so few opportunities…
Austin (as Jolyon): To catch up.
Art (as Duvall): ...to see people who knew you before.
Jack: Just a heavy sigh. [chuckles]
Austin: Yeah. [chuckles]
Austin (as Jolyon): You ever miss those days, Leo?
Art (as Duvall): All the time. Yeah.
Jack: Okay, I would like to try and apply the brakes from the cab.
Austin: Oh, sure. Whoo. I think this is a compel technology roll.
Jack: Yeah, this is a different kind of compel right?
Austin: It is.
Jack: Because the first compel is that she was trying to talk to the train. The other is that she’s pulling the brakes.
Austin: There’s a...yeah, you were talking to the train in a Shape Knight’s way before.
Jack: Mmm.
Austin: Now you’re talking to the train the way a passenger does.
Jack: Well, hopefully not a passenger, a driver. [chuckles]
Austin: Well, you know what I'm saying. Someone on board.
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Drivers are passengers too. When it comes to Shape trains, drivers are passengers.
Jack: Yep. Uh huh. [chuckles]
Austin: So this is compel technology. This is standard, not risky.
Jack: ‘Cause of the tunnel.
Keith: I mean, in a way it’s reassuring that you have just as much authority as a real driver.
Austin: [chuckles] Uh huh.
Jack: Yeah, uh huh.
Austin: Not just because of the tunnel, also because you’re not threatening it and because it seems to be in a more peaceful state. So yeah, partly the tunnel, it’s not in weretrain mode, but really it is also about the means here.
Jack: In my rough mental map of this region of Sangfielle—
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Do I know that there are tunnels nearby?
Austin: You know for a fact...I'll pull you back over here. Your suspicion is that you are on the western...you’re like here. Oops, I didn't mean to move the map. That’s not good.
Jack: Oh, coming back towards Blackwick.
Austin: Yeah. Not as northerly. You’re to the east of Yellowfield, the northeast of Yellowfield.
Jack: Check in with Bucho.
Austin: Yeah. Bucho is, as we speak, perhaps on a train or in a field. One or the other. [laughs]
Jack: [laughs] Bucho’s two modes of being.
Austin: I don't know how this lines up. Yeah, uh huh. But the one that we saw, right? In the field of Yellowfield which we already saw in this season. Or has been rescued and is heading southeast towards Sapodilla. Though I think that’s probably not happened yet based on timing. I think that’s probably...I believe that they’re probably still on their way to Yellowfield at this point. But go ahead.
Jack: And this is muscle memory, right? This is just from riding trains—
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Jack: And just getting a sense of like, I think I've been on this for 25 minutes going north.
Austin: Yeah, totally. So you think you’re in that huge mountain range that cuts north-south.
Jack: Okay. So, I am rolling compel technology…
Austin: Compel, technology.
Jack: Standard?
Austin: Plus one. Yeah, standard, yeah.
Jack: So that is three die.
Austin: Yep. Three dice.
Jack: And I take the highest.
Austin: Three dice, three dice. You take the highest. Simply roll well. Eight! There you go! In fact, even if it had been risky, you would have gotten a seven here. Eight, seven, three.
Jack: My first successful roll.
Austin: The train begins to stop, slows to a stop. And Leo says:
Austin (as Jolyon): A cup of tea to go, Duvall? Shape Knight? We have these little to-go cups. They’re very fancy.
Austin: They’re made of paper. They’re paper cups.
Art (as Duvall): Clever.
Austin: [chuckles] They’re little burgundy cups with gold writing on them.
Keith: They’re fancy paper cups, but they’re just nicely colored?
Austin: Well like, who has paper cups, you know?
Jack: Oh, yeah.
Austin: They don’t have mass production.
Jack: Do they have Red Zephyr and a logo of like a…
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly that. Exactly that. Again, factory production doesn’t exist at this point.
Keith: Mmm.
Austin: There might be a factory. Like, we’ve seen one of the only factories, and it is where all of the candles are made. There aren’t big...industry hasn’t been developed yet, because it’s mostly self-propelling like these trains and strange and the future haunting the past, so. So this is kind of weird that there are stacks and stacks of these cups and, you know, I think they pull one of them from a cup dispenser and fill it with tea again and hand it over to Duvall to go.
Art (as Duvall): If you’re ever in Blackwick, do look me up.
Austin (as Jolyon): I hope we have a chance to meet again, Leo. I feel like we didn’t get a chance to really catch up here and...you know, get up to our old tricks, so to speak, hmm? Not much further for me to go, anyway, so perhaps I'll see you again soon.
Austin: And the doors open. I think Leo looks back to you and says:
Austin (as Jolyon): Ah, wait, before you go. Something to give you.
Austin: And hands you what we would know immediately as a flashlight or a torch, that has a filter on the front of it, a lens, that turns the light that it puts out red. And they say:
Austin (as Jolyon): You could take it off to use it as a regular flashlight, of course.
Austin: Or not a regular flashlight.
Austin (as Jolyon): As a sort of mobile torch. But if you ever want to get on board again, you just shoot us— shoot me the old signal, huh? And I'll see what I can do to get you on board.
Art (as Duvall): Alright, it was so good to see you. I'm so surprised.
Austin (as Jolyon): Oh, don't be surprised. You know how things have a way of working towards conclusions, hmm?
Art (as Duvall): Hmm.
Austin: Hand on your shoulder. [Art laughs] Hand on your shoulder and a bug crawls up onto their hand for a second, and they just let it, and we hold still on that for a second, as Pickman leaves the train. [chuckles]
Jack: Oh, wait, before I leave.
Austin: Oh, sure.
Jack: Is there anything that Shape Knights can do to like...you know when you tag a bird so you know where it’s gone or you put a ring around a bird’s foot?
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Jack: Is there some way that I could act on this train that would make my next interactions with it easier? I don't know what it is in the fiction, but [chuckles] take a plus one forward is what I'm kind of…
Austin: Yeah, take a...
Jack: You know, not necessarily take a plus one forward, but I'm in the engine of a Shape train.
Austin: Mmm.
Jack: Is there something that Shape Knights can do to prep or…
Austin: If that’s a roll you want to make, I'll say yes, but we have to figure out what that roll is. Are you leaving something behind? It would cost you something, right? [sighs] But you're the Shape Knight here.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: So I'm willing to let you tell me there’s a thing you can do here to get yourself mastery in your next interaction.
Jack: Yeah…
Austin: It will be risky. It won’t be capital-R risky, but you will be…
Jack: It will be a roll, yeah, a dice roll.
Austin: Yeah, you were ready to leave this train, so I'm just letting that be the stakes, so to speak.
[Timestamp: 0:59:57]
Jack: Oh, I know what it is. There’s a piece of machinery that is like pipes that fill a container with gas.
Austin: Mmm.
Jack: And once that container is filled with gas, it vents it out to another part of the train or whatever to power it.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Jack: And I think what Pickman does is punctures it in such a way that it can only fill up so far.
Austin: Right. I like this.
Jack: Where it’s like...you know, like poking a hole in a bottle so that the liquid can only go up to the height of the hole or whatever.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
Jack: Before it starts pouring out of the little hole. And it’s like, yeah, that still is powerful in some way, but it’s been weakened in some respect.
Austin: Yeah. Give me a...that to me reads like mend technology, or I guess it could be kill. You're doing damage, but you're not trying to kill it.
Jack: What if I frame it as a...I think it is a violent act. I think it is Pickman pulling a screwdriver from her belt and just jabbing it at…
Austin: Do you think it is “ending the life of people or things with weapons or your bare hands”?
Jack: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Austin: Okay.
Jack: You put a hole in a boat, that boat will sink eventually.
Austin: That boat will sink.
Jack: I mean—
Austin: Alright, yeah. I'll allow it.
Jack: Okay.
Austin: Kill technology. Well, again, the thing here is...what that means is the thing you are doing in the ontology of this world is trying to kill this train, which means it can be understood by the world in that way. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: You are not simply trying to get a leg up in the future. You are working towards killing this thing, which is a distinct action in some ways, right? Getting kryptonite for Superman is not necessarily trying to kill Superman. It might be trying to protect yourself from Superman. You know, if you were mending to disarm this thing or make it weaker, you might see that as a sort of defensive action. But if you’re rolling kill, the world knows you are rolling kill. And I'm fine with that! But Pickman—
Jack: Hmm, this is really interesting, because yeah. Yeah, it’s rough, because I'm putting together what has happened so far in this episode, and I'm like, hmm.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Hmm.
Keith: What’s your hesitation?
Jack: I think that this train...why was this train attacking the Bell Metal crew? What do we know about the Bell Metal crew? It’s that they want to harness trains for their own...you know, I think this thing...I think we got in the way of a train saying “I would prefer not to be…”
Keith: Well, to be fair, only one of the four—presumably the dead one didn’t know…
Jack: They got the tech. They got the stuff. I think that train is...and it was killing other trains around, or it was attacking other…
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Jack: There’s something weird happening here. Yeah.
Austin: There’s something here.
Jack: I think I'm gonna…
Austin: But, of course, Pickman doesn’t know any of this.
Jack: I know! Fucking Hadrian doesn’t know...
Austin: Pickman knows: there’s a train that I'm inside of. [laughs] Uh huh.
Jack: Hadrian doesn't know he rolled a one.
Austin: Uh huh. So it’s kill, then? And Pickman has been being played...it’s funny you didn't pick Furious before, you picked Battered, but I feel you've been playing Furious. In fact, wait a second, you cannot do fine motor skills!
Jack: Oh shit! [laughs]
Austin: You can’t...if you’re gonna attack it, it can’t be a slight thing, you know?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: It can’t be a careful twist of a wrench. It has to be a jab. It has to be a punch, so to speak.
Jack: Yeah. So I—
Austin: Unmistakeable. Again, that’s maybe why you're rolling kill and not mend.
Jack: Yeah. I wonder if it’s one of these things where...I think it is still...the thing Pickman had in mind was destroying this vacuum chamber that fills with I think a hydraulic liquid.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: And Pickman was like, I'll poke a little hole in it and then it won’t be able to fill fully.
Austin: [sighs] Yeah.
Jack: And she goes to grab the screwdriver, and her hand which she’s just...god, I think her hand got battered under the gauntlet so she just pulled the gauntlet off and hung it on her belt and wrapped her hand in…
Austin: Uh huh, yeah.
Jack: I mean, I think she’s wearing a binding underneath her gauntlet to give her hand strength.
Austin: Yeah, sure, sure. Well, now we see that your hand is very weak, and…
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: It’s hard to even hold that grip in a fine way.
Jack: God, is there a tiny mark of a bruise almost like the edge of a letter coming up from under my cuff? You described it earlier as though I'm being written on.
Austin: Yes, someone writing. Yeah, a hundred percent.
Jack: Where I can’t make out what the letter is, it’s like—
Austin: Yes. There is the turn of the top of an S or an F.
Jack: Huh.
Austin: You know? Or the bottom of a J, I guess.
Keith: Oh, I forgot about the letters that you couldn’t figure out.
Austin: Or a G. Yeah.
Keith: I totally forgot.
Jack: But it’s under the fabric of whatever she’s wearing under the armor and then under the metal cuff of the armor, so she can’t really…
Austin: Totally. And under your fur, presumably, also.
Jack: Yeah, I assume it’s thinner.
Austin: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, yeah, totally.
Jack: Me looking at my own wrist, imagining it, and forgetting that I don't have goat fur on my wrist. [laughs]
Austin: Uh huh. [laughs] Uh huh. Yeah.
Jack: Yeah, so she goes to pick a screwdriver off her belt and just fumbles it and drops it. And so I think what she does is she just lashes out with her armored elbow at the…
Austin: Ooh, yeah.
Jack: At the ampoule, at the thing.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Just like, crunch. Just gives out completely.
Austin: Alright, give me kill technology.
Jack: [sighs nervously] Okay.
Austin: Yeah, I don't think you have anything else that give you a big plus to that, right?
Jack: Are you off the train by now, Duvall? Did you get off before me? Or was I the one who was like, “you need to leave,” so I was leading the way?
Art: Mmm, I didn't really think about it.
Austin: I think you—
Art: I guess whatever...I guess, would you...you were the one that was pushing us to leave. If you're pushing someone to leave, do they go before you or after you?
Austin: Mmm, true.
Art: Probably before you.
Austin: Oh.
Art: Right? 'Cause you don't want to step off…
Jack: Oh, you’re right.
Art: You don't want to leave and then like, oh shit, he didn't come.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Right.
Jack: Yeah, it’s like, gently, firmly pushing you off the train. [chuckles]
Austin: Right, right, right. Yeah.
Jack: Yeah. Kill, technology, and we’re in standard right now? Because we applied the brakes.
Austin: You’re in standard right now, because we made peace. Yeah, uh huh.
Jack: Mm-hmm. Okay, kill technology, standard.
Austin: Is that three dice? Yeah.
Jack: Ooh!
Austin: Hey, that’s a seven.
Jack: Success at at cost.
Austin: Success at at cost. What’s your current stress level?
Jack: My current stress level is zero.
Austin: Alright.
Jack: Because of my incident with the bugs.
Austin: Right. With the bugs, yeah, sure. Well, now your current stress level is three. This is again going to echo, so go ahead and add three to that. You don't have echo protection still.
Jack: Nope.
Austin: Because of conduit. Give me that fallout test, and then also give me d4 as you damage this thing.
Jack: That is no fallout.
Austin: Nice, eight. And then give me your d4 as you...
Jack: One d4.
Austin: Oh, actually, sorry. You were just looking to make mastery. You're setting up a plus one later, right?
Jack: Yes, although, since I rolled kill, do you want me to do damage?
Austin: Yeah, give me the damage, yeah, yeah.
Keith: What if the train was a nice train?
Jack: See, this is what I'm wondering, but I don't think Pickman is up for thinking that. I rolled a three.
Austin: You did.
Jack: My guess is that the Red Zephyr has much more than three protection, so this does fucking shit.
Austin: It in fact has three protection, but that protection, again, is outside not inside.
Jack: Ooh, you're right!
Austin: So, it does damage. But what’s three damage? I mean, I've reduced its HP. I've reduced its total resistance. It has been reduced by four total so far, yeah. I will tell you that is not very many.
Jack: Does this—
Austin: You could keep doing this.
Jack: This has two digits of health.
Austin: Yes, absolutely.
Jack: Okay.
Austin: Easily.
Jack: I meant not three.
Austin: Yeah, correct, correct, correct. It’s not 100. Nothing is that high, for sure.
Jack: Duvall would have to hit them twice. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: Your elbow goes into it, and as you pull away, the metal of your armor has fused with the ampoule.
Jack: Ooh!
Austin: And it’s almost like slime or a sticky material, like liquid metal as you pull away until it snaps away, and the elbow joint on your armor is not as smooth and round anymore. It quickly dries to be this messy, jagged, angular version of it that makes opening and closing your left arm—you know, flexing it—a pain. Literally a pain, because it’s not a smooth joint anymore. It’s bent the armor itself. And so it’s working on you in that way. It’s reforming you. And I think...we get a sigh from Jolyon, who’s like:
Austin (as Jolyon): Well, you're leaving anyway, so I won’t ask for an apology, and neither will the Zephyr. Ta.
Jack: Pickman just growls.
Austin: Yeah. And you make your way out.
Jack: Jumps heavily off the train.
Austin: Yeah, okay, cool. Raah, grumpy, get off the train. You’re in a tunnel. Also, Duvall, you're gonna take a d6 delve...oh, you already have a delve— you know what, here’s what it is. You're gonna get a d6 good quality delve equipment called the Red Zephyr Torch that you can use to navigate on delves.
[Timestamp: 1:10:13]
Jack: This is the thing Pickman wants, right? This is the…
Austin: Totally.
Jack: This torch that you can use to flag down this train, that’s…
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Jack: What better dream could she have gotten from trying to sabotage the train?
Austin: This is ideal, yeah, uh huh. Let’s quickly, before we wrap up tonight, let’s hop over back to the tower, where tonight, it sounds like Lyke is gonna go out to these trains. I'll give you a note here, Lyke: you got some options on these trains. There’s three of ‘em.
Keith: Wow.
Austin: One of them is a freight train. That’s the blue one here. It’s a freight car. They’ve already gone through the freight car, but there is some stuff there that is too heavy to move by themselves. They need Katonya to help move it. So that’s one. Two is this green car. It’s a luggage car. They’ve been through it, but there’s so much stuff, it’s just like, how do you get anything out of there, you know what I mean? Like, how do you find the stuff that’s worth stuff when you're worried about trains and gandies and all that other shit? And then finally, the purple car is a dining car. They've not been in it at all. They haven’t had time to go to it yet.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: This happened pretty recently. They haven’t gotten out there to the dining car yet.
Keith: Tell me what the first one was again?
Austin: That is a freight car.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: They’ve already emptied it. They got stuff from it. But there’s just...I think they say outright. There’s some boxes of, you know, there’s some big crates in there still. There’s one big crate that they can't move. It’s too heavy. They haven't opened it yet. It’s locked. And then there is a big— they just say straight up. The door on the freight train is made of really good scrap metal, and you could turn that into a weapon. You could cut it down if you have the right tools and make more Shape Knight armor out of it. It’s the stuff. I'll say outright, it’s d12 train metal scrap door, technology, awkward.
Keith: Damn.
Austin: So it’s heavy, it’s hard to move, but that’s one of the resources that’s out there. They've already gone through the luggage, but there’s definitely more stuff in there for sure, and you can imagine luggage is stuff you’d find in people’s luggage, you know? And then the dining car is a dining car, but they have no idea what’s in it because they haven’t been there. Maybe just food, but maybe there’s people in there. Who knows, you know? [pause] I'm giving one of these to you for free. After that, we start making rolls.
Keith: Got it.
Austin: Because it’s time. Time is advancing.
Keith: Alright.
Austin: And the Red Zephyr could come back. Who knows what else is out there in the night, you know?
Keith: Let’s get that dining car. I will take the mystery box.
Austin: Alright. Taking the mystery box. The moon is low and full, and—
Keith: You already know what’s in there or are we doing a mystery box mystery roll?
Austin: Oh, I know what’s in there.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: I know what’s in here, for sure. It’s, in fact, a good one to wrap up on here. You go in, and it is a pretty nice, pretty fancy dining car. This is a train that runs southeast to northwest. It’s a train that often runs from Sapodilla up to the northern reaches of Sangfielle. God, I thought I had a name for it somewhere, but now I'm not seeing it. I might have to look at your name list, Jack. This is the Prince Alexander. I'll make a note here that it’s the overturned train in the Bell Metal Station. Okay. This is the dining car of the Prince Alexander, which is a pretty fancy passenger train. In fact, all three of these things— the freight car was attached at the end, along with the luggage train. Actually, maybe the freight was from a different...oh, no, it is. It’s all from the same train. I'm thinking about what’s on these things. And in the dining car, unfortunately, you see a few bodies when you go in. Without getting into grisly detail, this car caught fire and the folks inside could not get out. Katonya has to pry open the doors. The doors seem to have locked as if automatically when the train car fell off the track. Obviously, the engine itself survived this attack from the Red Zephyr, but this car got flipped over and something caused it to catch fire. In fact, you find what made it catch fire pretty quickly, because this whole place— and you’re walking through it on the windows. It’s been overturned, right? It’s on its side. It’s humid in here. It’s kind of oppressive in here. And you find quickly that in the little kitchen compartment of this dining car, there is an oven or a stove or something, and it’s powered by a furnace, and that furnace has a resource in it: an endless ember, a d10 volatile and harmful technology resource.
Keith: Wow.
Austin: It’s very dangerous. They have to put it inside of basically a Shape Knight helmet to keep it from burning. you know, they pick it up with long tongs basically and put it in there. And it can cook things, it can power things. Maybe—
Keith: You said it’s dangerous and what else?
Austin: It’s volatile and harmful.
Keith: Oh, so it’s volatile and not dangerous.
Austin: Which means it could just blow up. That means harmful which is dangerous in a way, right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: I've pasted it here if you can add that to your thing. I mean, you can— we should list everything here, and they’re gonna want some of this stuff, you know what I mean?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But it’s at disposal for the crew until this adventure ends. So that’s the first most basic thing that you find, because it’s the most obvious one, and once you get it out of the train car you’re able to breathe a deep sigh or open the windows and air it out a little bit. And in my mind it’s almost a big coal...not coal, but it’s like a charcoal...what do you call those? Like a piece of charcoal. There’s a word for that. Like a brick of charcoal, you know?
Keith: Briquette.
Austin: Briquette. It’s like a big briquette that’s just glowing, right? Unfortunately, again, there are many bodies in here, and most of them are unremarkable, unfortunately, and there’s nothing surviving. But there is one person who seems like their outfit somehow has maintained, or it’s been burned at this point, but they seem to have covered up with their bodies the stuff that they were traveling with. This is a drakkan woman who...you come to learn her name. You’ll learn her name in a moment. With her are two pieces of gear that I think you will like a lot or that someone in the crew will like a lot. The first is excellent magnifying glass, which is a piece of equipment that you could theoretically use to delve or discern. It doesn’t have any die associated with it, so I think it’s more of a discern than a...I guess I'll say it’s a d6 delve/discern. You mostly use delve on delves, not discern, but you know you could use it for mastery for instance, when you’re looking at paperwork or books. Think about Roseroot, looking through all that accounting stuff. Having this magnifying glass would have been great. And it’s excellent, which means that when you're doing something dangerous, it’s not dangerous, which is great. And also a good coach gun, which is kill d8, double-barrelled, and point blank. Double-barreled means every two shots you have to reload it. Point blank means if you’re very close it goes up from a d8 to a d10, but if your a little far away, it goes from a d8 down to a d6. Fun gun. I'm sure someone in this party could use it. Most importantly, hidden underneath her body are a pair of letters. It’s clear she was reading these letters or had them on her when this train car flipped over, and in her dying act protected these things. The first is signed with a name that you don’t know but Pickman does. Unfortunately, she is not here. It is signed Polyte. Or, it is— sorry. That is correct. It is signed Polyte. This is a letter from quote unquote “Janek” Polyte, the Kay’van secret agent who we saw in the “Hymn of the Mother-Beast” arc. And it is brief, and it is clearly written in a sort of loose code. You can make out that its excited, but I would need a discern roll here to read it.
Keith: You got it. Magnifying glass, you got it.
Austin: Discern...you got that magnifying. So give it mastery. You're looking for like, hey, is the code not just words but maybe little serifs on the letters, little curvature on the letters to give an additional thing?
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: I think it’s discern, probably haven.
Keith: Which I don't have.
Austin: Which I don't think you have, right?
Keith: No.
Austin: I think I could give it occult, in the sense that this is a...they’re part of an— not an occult group—
Keith: It’s a haven-y kind of guy writing about occult-y stuff?
Austin: No, it’s haven-y in the sense that it’s a letter from a person to another person. It’s occult-y in the sense that it is a letter from one secret agent to another, right?
Keith: Got it.
Austin: And occult is more magical, but I do think it’s close enough in the sense of...you know, it’s hidden knowledge and black magic. It’s not black magic, but it is hidden knowledge. So I'll give it that, yes. Hidden knowledge and black magic is what occult says on the domain, so I'm gonna say yeah, you can use occult on this.
[Timestamp: 1:20:10]
Keith: Got it.
Austin: So discern, occult, standard.
Keith: Ten!
Austin: Hey, there’s a ten. That’s a crit.
Jack: Beautiful.
Austin: So, you get the full story on this one. And I'm gonna let that ride and make you not...here’s what I'm gonna say. There’s another letter here that I'm not gonna make you roll on because you got a crit here. You’re really on it at this point.
Keith: Yeah. Even if that was dangerous I would have gotten it without the magnifying glass.
Austin: You would have gotten it, yes. A hundred percent, yeah. So what you understand here is this is a message of thanks. Polyte, who again, the audience knows is a Kay’van investigator, an agent who was sent originally to the Pale Magistratum to do some assassinations, no big deal. This is a letter from Polyte to this person, whose name is Mirlande, M-I-R-L-A-N-D-E, thanking her because she’s on her way to extract Polyte from Blackwick and bring him home to Kay’va.
Jack: Hmm.
Austin: The kind of seahorse proto-communist place. And he adds that while he is eager to go back home, he would also be happy to help her on, quote unquote, her final investigation in Sangfielle, and that she should come get him before dealing with the situation, and I think he even says the situation in Bell Metal, in the Bell Metal Station, right? So this is one secret agent, having finished his mission, thanking another one for doing the extraction. Unfortunately, that extraction has not happened. She has died on the way to do it, or she’s died on the way to Bell Metal to do this task. It’s not clear if she decided to do this task first or not, because she died before she even got to Bell Metal.
Keith: Rough.
Austin: The second letter elucidates a little about maybe what that task is. It is a letter that begins, “Calen,” which, that’s no good. It’s unsigned, but there are two marks at the bottom. The first one...I can't remember, have you been to Sapodilla?
Keith: Hmm.
Austin: I know some people here have been, and I can't remember if you have been. I'll say this is widely known enough at this point that you recognize one of the two symbols here. I will paste it in the chat for you. It is this sort of circle where the bottom—
Keith: Slumbous.
Austin: It’s not Slumbous, actually.
Keith: [chuckles] It’s not?
Austin: No, Slumbous’s would be out, right?
Jack: Oh, yeah.
Austin: The candle of Slumbous goes out. You blow out a candle of Slumbous. This is a—
Jack: Slumbous is not the god of having a candle.
Austin: Correct. This is the symbol of the Glim Macula—G-L-I-M and then M-A-C-U-L-A, two words—who are the leading faction of Sapodilla. They are sort of the police state that runs...they’re sort of witch hunters. They’re sort of witch hunters. Sapodilla is extremely civilized. Capital E, capital C. Extremely Civilized, and increasingly so. And they have the Glim Macula, a group of witch hunters and anti-occultists to thank for that, people who police those folks who fall out of the realm of normative life, let’s say. They’re a bunch of authoritarians, I guess is what I would say, and this is their symbol. It is a circle where at the bottom there is a slot that would be a candle and then there is a puncture mark. They have little coins of this, right? Imagine you have a quarter, right? And then you take something hot, hot enough to cut through a quarter, and you cut a line, a slot through to the middle, and then you puncture it with a candle flame in the middle, right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: You could put a string through this and wear it like a necklace, maybe. I'll post these on twitter, maybe, when this episode goes live. So it’s signed with that, so you know it’s tied to this weird authoritarian...I don't know that— I think you specifically, Lye Lychen, would know these are the weird anti-witch people. And I say witch hunter, not literally heratrix hunter, but there is a proper way to do magic in their town, and they police that. There is a proper way to study the self in their town, and they police that. This is the town that—
Keith: This is not the town for me. They’d kill me there.
Austin: And you’re on your way! That is your goal here, as a reminder, is to get to Sapodilla.
Keith: [??? 1:24:59]
Austin: You just have to keep your head down. Don't worry about it. This is the town that kicked Virtue— or chased Virtue and Es out of town from a—
Jack: Oh shit, that was Sapodilla?
Austin: That was Sapodilla, yeah, absolutely.
Jack: Oh, great.
Austin: Uh huh. So, you're headed there, and so are Es and Virtue on the other side of this game. The other symbol is one you don’t recognize literally at all. You have no idea what it is. I think you would say this is a Z with a line through it in a circle, probably?
Austin: But it could also be a pair of very fancy sevens with a line through it.
Keith: I'm pretty sure that’s the money in Dragon Ball Z. I’m pretty sure that’s the zeni symbol.
Austin: That is correct. That is the money in Dragon Ball Z zeni symbol.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: It is, isn’t it? [Art chuckles] Let’s see if that’s true. Let’s see. I believe that you might be right. It’s similar. The zeni has a diagonal line cutting through it—
Keith: Okay. [laughs]
Austin: Not a horizontal line through it, so I'm safe.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Also it comes in a little bit more. Let me read to you what’s on this letter, which again is coded, but you manage to bust through with that critical success you got. Nice work.
Keith: And this is addressed to Calen.
Austin: To Calen, yes. In fact, it’s probably addressed to Master Fel Dynestia, right? Master Calen Fel Dynestia, full name, no way it’s not this Calen. It praises his research. Sorry, I should describe this symbol for people— I guess you already said it’s like the zeni symbol from Dragon Ball Z. But it’s sort of like a Z in a circle where the top left and bottom right of the Z cross back down a little bit, and then there’s a horizontal line through the very middle. But it’s also like a very angular pair of sevens, which is important for reasons that we’ll get to at some point. I mean, you’ll get there very shortly, the reason why there’s sevens there. The letter praises Calen’s research about the trains. It says that it could help with, quote, “the labor problem,” and it ends with what feels like a commonly used valediction or farewell. It says, “And remember, Calen: courage under the six, peace above the seven.” No idea what that means.
Jack: This seems to be a letter that our dead spy has acquired from somewhere, right? This is like a…
Austin: Oh yeah, big time.
Jack: This is not a letter that she was like, “I've got a letter from my employers, and I'm off to go bring it to Calen,” or whatever.
Austin: Absolutely not. Oh, this is proof that that motherfucker is into some shit—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: —with whatever this group, courage under the six, peace above the seventh.
Keith: Tombo knew right away.
Austin: Right away!
Keith: Right away Tombo knew.
Austin: Saw right through that motherfucker. I'll say this: a fun thing I realized— a fun GM tip for people out there is you're allowed to let your NPCs lie to players, just outright. Just let them lie, right? [Jack laughs] If they call you on it and make a roll and succeed, then they make a roll and succeed. In this case, your roll was, hey what’s this person want with this train? And it’s true, you got the primary thing, which is they don't want to kill the train. They want to keep the train alive. They want to shackle the train.
Keith: Right.
Austin: That doesn't mean that you instantly get why they want to shackle the train.
Keith: Yeah, I mean I almost—
Austin: They’re not gonna break down. If you— yeah.
Keith: I almost rolled to see if that was true, and then I didn’t.
Austin: And if at that point you had rolled and succeeded, I would have been like, ah, there’s something else here that he’s hiding even from his compatriots. So it goes.
Keith: I was so close to, when he gave his explanation, to being like, “Tombo, is that everything?”
Austin: But listen, you got the...you’re better than ever here, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Because now you have evidence that he doesn't know you have.
Keith: Right.
Austin: And you can put a little pressure on.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: If you’d like to.
Jack: Every single one of these motherfuckers keeps trying fancy business with the trains. Leave them be or kill them. [Austin laughs] That’s it!
Keith: No more fancy business!
Jack: We’re all out here— no more fancy business with the trains. We’re all out here, “ooh, let me have a train!” [Keith laughs]
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: “Ooh, I want a train.”
Keith: “Think about what I could do with a train.”
Jack: “Think about what I could do—” no.
Keith: “Make people work.” [Austin laughs]
Jack: No. You kill them. You leave them alone. That’s it. You have two options.
Austin: Do you want to press this before we wrap up? Do you want to try to get an answer out of Calen?
Jack: Oh shit, he’s right there!
Keith: Yeah, sure, I mean this is part—
Austin: Yeah, he’s right there with you.
Keith: I mean, I knew—
Austin: Yeah. You know what, let me just—
Keith: Here’s the thing. I had a little bit of a sneak peak into what happened with trains in the real world. [Jack and Keith laugh]
Austin: Wait, what do you mean?
Keith: Well—
Jack: Keith knows what happens when we make trains.
Austin: Oh.
Keith: I know what happens when you go from not having trains to having trains.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh, yes. Fair. Oh, I was rolling a die to determine something. I think Katonya’s still out here with you and, let’s say...I would say also still out here, it’s Katonya, Calen, and Omerra. Omerra’s still here too. I rolled a die, just luck, to see: hey, are you out here alone with Calen? [chuckles]
[Timestamp: 1:30:18]
Keith: Right.
Austin: But the four of you are here. They’re picking through stuff. I think Omerra and Katonya are looking at the...I guess maybe all three of them are gathered around the ember outside, and I think Omerra calls in and is like:
Austin (as Omerra): You almost done in there, Lyke?
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, I think I'm all done with this one.
Austin (as Omerra): Alright, let’s get heading back, then.
Keith (as Lyke): Hey, I was thinking. I, you know, I was thinking, we were discussing do we kill the train, do we not do that, do we capture it, and I think I've landed on definitely we should kill the train, so we don’t have to worry about that anymore. I'm not gonna…
Austin (as Calen): Oh, we do have to— we should go back and talk to Erm perhaps, who’s again, the leader of this band, and therefore—
Keith (as Lyke): No, it’s fine, because Erm can’t do the magic. I have to do the magic, so. Erm’s not my leader, so.
Austin (as Calen): Ah—
Keith (as Lyke): I've just decided that I don't want to do the train capture thing, so we’re not gonna do it.
Austin (as Calen): We could wait, then you could go on your way, and we’ll let you know if we rescue your friends.
Keith (as Lyke): What?
Austin (as Calen): Well, the Zephyr isn’t even here right now. We could...we’ve put out a call for Katonya. Katonya’s here and can help us continue to defend the station.
Keith (as Lyke): Right.
Austin (as Calen): And we can put out a second call.
Keith (as Lyke): Well Katonya said we should kill the train, so.
Austin (as Katonya): We should kill the train, yes.
Keith (as Lyke): Right.
Austin (as Katonya): But I am employed, you see. Is...if my employers say defend the train and pay, or defend the station until a mage shows up, I will do as I'm paid.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, well, it’s fine, 'cause I'm the mage, and I'm gonna kill the train. It just doesn’t seem worth it.
Austin (as Calen): Ah— [sighs] Fine. Fine.
Austin: Grumble grumble.
Austin (as Omerra): [uncomfortable] Alright.
Austin: Says Omerra.
Austin (as Omerra): Let’s head back. I don't know what all the fireworks were about. Seemed like a little much to me.
Keith: I trust Katonya more than anybody else here, so I'm gonna show her the letter that I found.
Austin: Ooh, interesting. Ooh, interesting. I'm rolling a d10.
Keith: Gonna give the backstory.
Austin: Another five, interesting. Okay.
Keith: I have no idea why a five is interesting, but love it.
Austin: ‘Cause I rolled a five a second ago also.
Keith: Oh, okay. Okay.
Austin: My previous “does this situation break in your favor?” roll was also a five. [sighs]
Keith: Which means it does, because it did before, right?
Austin: No. No, it did not break in your favor before.
Keith: Oh, it was not in my favor to have everyone out here?
Austin: No, I think in my mind it would be more in your favor to be able to confront this person without anyone to back them up. You know?
Keith: Oh, I was thinking the reverse. They would back me up.
Austin: Ah. Oh, no, there’s no reason for them to do that. Katonya likes you well enough but is being paid by these people.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Right?
Keith: Even if Calen is not really a train knight and working—
Austin: Roll the dice. You would have to make a compel check against a cleaver who is employed, who is under an agreed upon task with these Shape Knights, to break that, right? I'm not saying you couldn’t do it, but you know. If you could spin that in your favor, it would be good. You didn’t roll a one here.
Keith: Oh, is Katonya not also a Shape Knight?
Austin: Katonya is not a Shape Knight. Katonya’s a cleaver.
Keith: Okay. I mean, I thought maybe it was both.
Austin: Mm-mmm, no.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: No, just a cleaver. Just under employ.
Keith: Well, I guess I [??? 1:34:19] slightly.
Austin: Yeah. In any case, I think that she looks over the letter and is like:
Austin (as Katonya): Hmm. This is worrying. We should show to Erm.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, you trust Erm?
Austin (as Katonya): Erm is commander of Calen. Erm should make the call. I am not worried about Erm.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay.
Austin: I mean, that’s the other thing here, right? If they betray you all, Katonya is Katonya.
Keith: Right.
Austin: In a combat situation, Katonya’s pretty confident that she could kill anyone who is alive. [Keith laughs] That train got away, but you know.
Keith: Well, because you called the train a legendary enemy.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: But you also called Katonya maybe the first legendary person we’ve met.
Austin: Very close to up there.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Which is...cleavers are scary, is all I'll say. [chuckles]
Keith: I mean, her weapons are like a giant scythe and the cannon from a boat, right? Yeah.
Austin: From a boat, yeah, uh huh.
Keith: Like, carrying...that’s gotta be like 800 pounds.
Austin: Oh yeah, uh huh.
Keith: And then not to mention when it fires it’s probably like…
Austin: How does it not tear her arm off? A hundred percent.
Keith: Yeah, that’s like a ton of force or more.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I don't know cannon physics. Don’t… [Jack and Austin chuckle]
Austin: So—
Art: I know what the unit for force is.
Austin: [laughs] So do you go back or do you try to...what is the play here?
Keith: Yeah, I'm gonna take it to Erm.
Austin: Okay. Y'all make it back. You bring everything upstairs. You put it in the armory. I think the ember goes under special protection to make sure it doesn’t set anything on fire. It is able to be contained inside of Shape train metal, at least. And we get Erm in the office. I think half of Erm’s room is an office and the back half is a little bed, you know, very simple. But Erm being lit by candlelight, looking over this letter that you've given to him. I think you need to make a compel check here.
Keith: I sure don't have that. [Jack chuckles]
Austin: Ooh, buddy. You could not make a roll here, and what’s going to happen is Erm is going to say, you know, basically...I guess I'll play Erm to begin with here without you compelling. Erm reads it and says:
Austin (as Erm): Uh, I don't know what...this is obviously Glim Macula stuff. I know that Calen is from Sapodilla. Must have some connection to the cops there.
Keith (as Lyke): Mm-hmm.
Austin (as Erm): That’s fine. I don't know what the labor problem is, obviously, but who can say what it is? It’s not my job. And if they’re sharing their research, obviously I prefer it to stay in house with the Shape Knights, but we’re not an organization in that way. We don't have a hierarchy so to speak. You know, we don’t have a reporting structure. So if he’s gonna share that research, he’s gonna share the research.
Keith: Okay. I'm gonna roll. I'll do my roll.
Austin (as Erm): What am I supposed to do with this? What am I supposed to do with this?
Austin: Alright, this is compel which you don't have and technology.
Keith: Oh, it’s not occult still?
Austin: No. Occult was for the secret...
Keith: Oh, then I don't have anything, just one die.
Austin: There’s one die. You sure you’re rolling it?
Keith: Um...let’s see…
Austin: It’s risky— it’s not Risky. But it’s lowercase R risky.
Keith: Right, it is in reality, not in the game.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Let’s see.
Austin: You know, I'll give you mastery, because you have the letter.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Right? You’re not just like, “I heard blah blah blah.”
Keith: Okay.
Austin: But you don't have enough to explain what the situation is yet either.
Keith (as Lyke): But what I do know, Erm, and I'm telling you, Erm—
Keith: Okay, okay.
Austin: I just want to make sure you think of this, which is maybe there’s more to learn. Because what’s the thing you’re saying? What I'll say is: what do you think Calen is doing or has done?
Keith: I think…
Austin: What is the crime that you think Erm should get upset about?
Keith: Well, I...so...their job as Shape Knights is to fight—parentheticals, kill—the trains.
Austin: Yeah, mm-hmm.
Keith: And the letter is evidence that Calen not only wants to not kill the trains but wants to use the train for non-Shape Knight purposes. His pitch was—
Austin: It does not say that. It says that the research could help with the labor problem.
Keith: Mmm.
Austin: But also, that’s not a heterodox position among the Shape Knights. It might be not every Shape Knight agrees with it, but many Shape Knights agree it would be cool to have a train of our own.
Keith: Okay, yeah, fair.
Austin: We said that at the top of this recording session. So I’m just, before you...part of why this is a hard roll isn't just that you don’t have compel and don’t have technology, it’s because right now you don’t have...what are you accusing him of that isn’t already on the table? You have enough to know that there’s something else going on here, for sure.
Jack: And they don't know you from a hole in the wall.
Austin: Correct. You rolled in today.
Keith: But then the flip side is that Erm already wants to kill the train. I've got that on record. So, as evidenced—
[Timestamp: 1:40:06]
Austin: Totally— well, no, you have Erm saying “I think we should kill it,” and then saying, “Well, let’s capture it. I'll go along with capture it first, and we’ll see.”
Keith: Okay.
Austin: So, you know. And again, you don’t know Erm like that.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Erm knows Calen. Erm’s in pictures with Calen. Where they got the camera, who could say?
Jack: Ah, I bet there are cameras. I bet they suck. [chuckles]
Austin: Yeah, they have…
Jack: And the flash is just awful.
Austin: They dug them out of Blackwick caves, you know? [laughs] And tried to reverse engineer them, and the new ones just aren’t as good. The reverse engineered ones just not as good as the ones you dug out of the caves.
Jack: Out of the mud.
Austin: Out of the mud, yeah, of the mines.
Keith: Mm-hmm. Well, maybe I won’t make the roll, then.
Austin: You could peek around. You could try to confront Calen, get more information. You could check to see if there’s more information somewhere. Yeah, uh huh. [Keith sighs]
Keith (as Lyke): Alright. Just keep it on ice, Erm. Just keep it on ice. Keep it at the front of your mind. [Jack laughs]
Austin (as Erm): Eh, I'll think about it. I'll think about it. Thanks for showing it, though.
Keith (as Lyke): Just don’t, you know.
Austin (as Erm): I'll think about it. I'm thinking about it.
Keith (as Lyke): Loose lips, though. Okay.
Austin (as Erm): Zip!
Austin: You gonna follow it up or we gonna call it here, you’ll sleep on it?
Keith: Um...you know, I wanna do one more quick roll.
Austin: Yeah, what do you wanna roll?
Keith: I wanna go back out— 'cause you were like, I'll give you one train for free, and then the rest you gotta roll against time, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Everyone else is inside.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Everyone else was like, ah, let’s go inside. I wanna go out there and get some solo train scavenging time.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Just quick.
Austin: You know that the big thing on the freight train you will need help moving.
Keith: Right.
Austin: So you probably shouldn’t do that one.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Or the freight car.
Keith: But I can do the box.
Austin: You can do the box.
Jack: [chuckles] He’s gonna find…
Austin: Or the luggage. You can do the luggage.
Jack: He’s gonna find two more letters.
Austin: Are you doing the freight car or are you doing the…
Keith: Well, there was the big piece of scrap metal on the outside, and you said there was a box that they haven’t opened, right?
Austin: Yeah. There’s a crate inside that they haven’t opened, correct.
Keith: Yeah, that’s what…
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the other car is a luggage car.
Keith: Ah…
Austin: Which they’ve been in, but there might still be stuff there. You tell me which one, and you’ll have to roll.
Keith: No, forget about the luggage car.
Austin: Okay, you want to try to open this crate.
Keith: I'm going mystery box again. Two for two.
Austin: Give me a...I think it’s delve to do this one.
Keith: Delve, okay. Anything else?
Austin: Technology.
Keith: Don’t have it. But I do have my magnifying glass.
Austin: It’s not discern, so it doesn’t…
Keith: Oh, you said discern and delve.
Austin: Oh! It is, yeah, you’re right. I did say delve. But it’s not...oh, sorry. It has to be useful in that way. You cannot use a magnifying glass to locate and open a locked crate.
Keith: Oh, but there’s nothing that needs looking at real close in there? Okay.
Austin: No.
Keith: Okay. Gotcha.
Austin: It’s just a locked crate. It’s a locked crate with a bunch of pear logos on it.
Keith: Pear logos?
Austin: Like pears stenciled on— or well, they’re not pears, they are in fact...what are they actually called? I mean, they’re Sapodilla fruit. There’s another word for that fruit, though.
Keith: [thoughtfully] Sapodilla fruit.
Austin: Sapota or chico.
Keith: Okay. Suspicious. Sapodilla letters, sapodilla fruit.
Austin: Pear tasting. Sapodilla the town.
Keith: Sapodilla the town.
Austin: It’s right there. It’s named that because of the fruit and the trees. So yeah, so yeah. You can give me a delve to try to bust it open, basically.
Keith: Delve, bust it open. Boom. Seven.
Austin: That is a seven. You do take stress here. Without that train here, it’s only d6. Hey, look at that. Look at that. That’s only one stress.
Keith: Only one stress. Nothing.
Austin: I think that this goes into mind, as it’s just you’re out here alone, it’s scary, so give yourself that one mind. You rolled a seven. That’s fine. You’re good. No fallout. And inside— [chuckles] So, you get your hands under there. Maybe you loosen it up a little bit. You pry it open. And inside the pear crate is stick after stick after stick of dynamite. This is kill d12, limited one, dangerous explosives.
Keith: Dynamite. Great, love that.
Austin: Mining explosives hidden inside of a fruit crate.
Jack: It’s really disappointing if what you want is pears.
Keith: Yeah, if I was hungry and I was wanting a sweet fruit snack.
Austin: Uh huh, yeah.
Keith: Limited one. What does limited one mean?
Jack: [laughing] You can only use it once.
Austin: You can only use it once.
Keith: Oh. [laughs]
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Keith: It’s kind of true for a lot of this stuff, though.
Austin: Yeah. And I think that there must be some shared mark between this...on the underside of this, there’s the—
Jack: Oh shit.
Austin: Just the personal mark, or there’s something that ties it to the Kay’van agent who you saw earlier, right? Maybe you recognize that the latch is the same type of metal or something as the belt buckle or the magnifying glass. It’s the same...she put those explosives on this train undercover.
Keith: Right. Well.
Austin: So. They’re yours now.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: They’re very heavy. You have to drag...it takes you a long time to drag these back.
Keith: Okay. Where do I bring it? Do I bring it to the wagon? To the…
Austin: Yeah, maybe.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That makes sense. Cover it with some of the cloth.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Whatever the stuff that Katonya’s stuff was under.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, mm-hmm. So yeah, you’re there looking at that. We get a final shot. Are y'all walking back east from the caves?
Jack: Oh, I think we found a...there’s a lean-to by the side of one of the tracks that just has a handcar in.
Austin: Sure.
Jack: Left by Shape Knights.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Presumably left by Bell Metal crew or something.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Jack: Climb onto it.
Austin: And begin to make your way back east as the suns begin to rise.
Jack: Is Duvall kind of just quiet?
Art: Yeah, I think that’s right. Thinking about some stuff, you know?
Austin: Yeah. You make your way back. You know, we see the rest of the Bell Metal Band hanging out in their various spaces. You know, I think Omerra’s looking at photos of the whole crew when they were all still together. Calen is doing some experiments in the lab. Erm is sipping the good stuff, kicking back. Katonya is sharpening a weapon. And I think the Toll Collectors are all down on the cart, and I think that they’re arguing over why they should stay. And Agdeline said:
Austin (as Agdeline): Well there might be a bigger paycheck if we stick around. Who knows what we can get up to?
[Music plays: Sangfielle by Jack de Quidt]