Live at the Table: Fall of Magic Pt. 2
0:00 - 38:15 lune @daffodilian#8872
38:15 - 1:29:00 - @BedWords#4572
1:29:00 - 2:57:20 thedreadbiter
[Music - Bright Morning, Cool Evening by Jack de Quidt begins, wistful guitar plays]
Austin: So I guess we get, I really want that like, crane shot that starts from the inside of a train, and like slowly pans outward, and kind of zooms away so we get the shot of the train going along the coastline, basically. Um, and we just see from kind of a distance, we see Piccolo running, arms outstretched, like, from place to place, and like pokin his head into things and we get a nice shot of Fawn sitting at a [laughs] sitting at a booth. All dressed up.
[Music - guitar slows, whistling starts]
Austin: Um. And…Caspian trying to put the fucking kite away. What does—what are our last shots of Harp?
Jack: Uh, I think that we get a…like a reverse point of view shot of Harp’s face seen through the glass of the [Austin: Mm.] of the train. And then we get the point of view shot of like, what they see as we go down the coast. [Austin: Yeah.]
[Music - vocals begin to harmonize with whistling]
Jack: And I don’t think this is framed as like a revelation or anything, I think this is just scenery. But I think like standing with their backs to the railroad, facing out to sea, are, you know, during one section, like a line of three hundred golems standing on the cliffside, facing out to sea, holding weapons, [stammers] guarding the coast up towards Istallia.
[Music - whistling and singing fade; piano, gentle drums come in]
Austin: What's the last shot of the Magus?
[Music - wind instrument comes in]
Austin: [mag-us] Magus, [may-gus] Magus? Maggie? Maybe we just don’t actually see her. The last time we see her is—we see her go into the train, and then that is the last time—I almost said in the movie. That’s the last shot of her in the movie. [Jack: [laughs] Yeah.] In the—we don’t see her inside. [Jack: Yeah.]
[Music - singing and whistling resume]
Austin: It’s as if she isn’t there, like we see Piccolo run through the whole thing, and she’s just not. In fact, like, when the DVD comes out, you can see her go in, and then there’s like a shot change where like instead of looking head on to the train you’re looking into it, and by the time the shot shifts, she’s already gone, and there’s no way she should be gone already.
Jack: Mm. Yeah.
[“Bright Morning, Cool Evening” ends]
Austin: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. Uh, today we are picking up our game of Fall of Magic, a game by… Ross Cowman, with— it was illustrated by Doug Keith and Taylor Dow. I'm Austin Walker, joining me today, Jack de Quidt.
Jack: Hi, I'm Jack de Quidt, uh, [laughs] we just did this for amusement. [Austin: Uh-huh.] Um, you can find me on Twitter at notquitereal, you can buy any of the music featured on the show at notquitereal.bandcamp.com, except what you just heard, because we haven't got any of the [laughs] Live music on Bandcamp yet.
Austin: [laugh] Oh, do we not, still?
Jack: No, no.
Austin: I hadn't thought about that.
Jack: But we'll get it up— we'll get it up sometime.
Austin: You should, people will buy it, probably, 'cause it's so good.
Jack: Thank you. Thank you. I'm—
Austin: Also, d— Go ahead.
Jack: I'm a little tired? 'Cause I wrote that today. [Austin: Fair, fair, fair.] [Janine: Oh my god.] So I'm going to try my best.
Austin: [laughing a little] Same. Uh, also joining us, Janine Hawkins.
Janine: I'm Janine Hawkins, I'm at bleatingheart on Twitter.
Austin: And Andrew Lee Swan.
Dre: Hey, you can find me on Twitter at swandre3000.
Austin: Okay, so, I'm just going to briefly just read these top four, uh, rules one more time for this game, the kind of principles. It's like a conversation; think small; social fantasy— which is to say that play centers around characters' relationships and exploration of culture— and safety first: our emotional safety is more important than any game, so if something comes up, in the story or at the table, that makes you feel uncomfortable or is ruining your fun, we should, uh — well, you know, everyone should talk about it, and we can take a break, we can fade to black, we can get rid of that detail or change it, no big deal.
So, where were we? Um, I believe the— the Magus — did we ever decide on a name? [may-jus] Magus?
Jack: It’s [may-gus] Magus.
Austin: Okay.
Dre: I think [may-gus] Magus, yeah.
Austin: I’ve definitely had a tweet from someone, saw a tweet from someone who was like, “this Live at the Table spends ten minutes talking about whether or not it’s ‘may-gus’ or ‘may-jus’ and they definitely chose the wrong one” [Jack and Janine laugh] which was very funny, but, we’ll continue with ‘may-gus,’ gotta stay consistent.
And uh, and the Magus, she just got onto the ice rail, which was revealed to be some sort of strange living train. In retrospect, I’ve done a lot of games with living trains lately, [laughs] which is, weird. A lot of, I guess, trains on the mind, who can say. Um, and then everyone else got on. But we didn’t actually do the team’s — the kind of companion scenes, we only did the introductory Magus's scene. Um, does anybody remember order, play order?
[Dre laughs]
Janine: I mean, who did the dice—or sorry, who did the — [baffled] the dice? Who did the, um—
Austin: The Magus?
Janine: Debt Magus thing.
Austin: Me, definitely me, because I definitely talked about— I was the one who described that train, I was very much in charge of that sequence.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Does that mean it is…
Janine: So it's not you.
Austin: [laughs] Okay. Were we going clockwise or counterclockwise, 'cause if you scroll up to the very top of the screen, you can see all of our cards, and I'm the last one. So that might mean it loops back around to Dre?
Dre: Maybe?
Austin: Oh, that actually makes perfect sense, [Janine: Yeah… yeah?] because… Janine was the last one to go at Castle Stormguard, because we ended with the beautiful dancer, [Janine: Oh, yeah.] and then I went as the Magus.
Janine: Also, I was the one who set Castle Stormguard as a thing, so—
Austin: Yes, that makes perfect sense. [Janine: Yeah.] Yeah. So, we wrap back around to Dre! So, I'm just going to read from the book. Each turn, [reading] on your turn, move your character token and describe the scene from their perspective. Before your scene ends, be sure to use the story prompt to add an additional element to your scene.
So you pick your character token, who is this tree, and you move it to one of the available options here. At the ice rail, there are A Train Station, The Engine, Passenger Car, Dining Car, Freight Car. So the first thing you do is you move your token, and then we'll go from there. So where are you going?
Dre: Oh, boy. Hm… does anyone else have strong feelings about any of these?
Austin: No—
Janine: You can double up, like.
Dre: Oh, that's true, we can, can’t we? Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: You're allowed.
Dre: Um… Let's do… the freight car.
Austin: Okay. So you've moved your character token. Next, [reading] describe the scene from that perspective, from the perspective of your character. What is this place like, what are they seeing here, what is going on right now, and what is your character thinking and feeling? Uh, how you do this is up to you. And then in the middle of that scene, make sure to use the story prompt. Under each scene is a story prompt, and before your turn ends, you must use your story prompt to add an additional element into your description of the scene. When you are done, pass the turn. Uh, your prompt is, "What is precious?"
Dre: So I think the scene opens with um, Piccolo basically making his way up and down this train, and [Austin: Mm-hm.] poking his nose into everything he can find, and getting to the very like, the last car of the train, which is this freight car. And I think instead of like, a traditional, when I think of a freight car, I think of like, a bunch of wooden boxes that are nailed shut and stuff like that. I think there's just a bunch of kinda open, loose bags everywhere?
Austin: Mm-hm.
Dre: Um, and I don't think, as kind of uncouth socially as Piccolo is, he's not like, somebody who's gonna like, you know, open a bag that's already open, [Austin laughs quietly] but I think there's one that's already like, tipped over, and, stuff is spilled out on the floor, and I'm trying to figure out, what it would be interesting as to what is spilled out on the floor of this freight car.
Austin: Hmm.
Dre: 'Cause I'm thinking like, maybe it's something that Istallia doesn't have, like Istallia can't get by itself so it gets shipped from Castle Stormguard, or another place that we've been, or it's just something that's in general pretty valuable, you know, no matter where you are on this continent.
Austin: Right. Um, any suggestions? [pauses] Is this something that's always been valuable, or is it something that's valuable because of the moment we're in? Like, is it something to do with magic leaving the world, and that's why it's valuable, or is it just like, this is old and pretty and important, or connected to something, or, you know.
Dre: Yeah, I like the idea of it being old, 'cause I think that— that just kinda help us fill in, just another blank as to what has happened before in this world? Um, I mean, I don't know. It could be just jewels or something, but that doesn't seem… interesting?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: I don’t know.
Austin: ...What if it's something to do with this train line, or with our destination? Um, which is Istallia, which seems to be, based on this sketch, a kind of a beautiful kind of city, or castle? It’s maybe the first big city we've been to since we left the starting area. Maybe it's something about that place, like, a map or a key, or um…
Jack: What if it's, ah, what if it's an anchor?
Austin: Mm.
Dre: Mm!
Jack: Because Istallia has those, that port in the distance. [Austin: Yeah.] And there's this gigantic ship to the right of it. [Austin: Uh-huh.] And I love the idea that, maybe in this world, anchors have different properties, you know, sinking one anchor will do something different than sinking another anchor.
Austin: Ooh. I like that a lot.
Dre: Ooh, yeah.
Jack: And maybe they're bringing an anchor to Istallia because they're trying to outfit a ship for a specific purpose? I'm not sure what that is.
Austin: Can you tell that the anchor does something— Is that a quality of anchors, period, in this world?
Jack: Are you asking me or Dre?
Austin: Both of you.
Dre: Mm.
Jack: I think it's probably— I mean, I like the idea that it's a quality of anchors, period. You know, if you're making a tiny wooden boat to put out on the lake [Austin: Mm-hm], you better think really hard about whether or not you're gonna use a stone, or like a, [Austin: Right.] little chunk of metal or something, 'cause when that anchor sinks, it's gonna do something.
Dre: Right.
Austin: Right, I like that a lot. Is it noticeable, can you know what the anchor will do based on what it looks like, or is there something special in its design—I almost imagine this like, a, not twisted in the negative sense, but a very um, ornate and intricate piece of big heavy metal that almost like, tilts, that bends in on itself in interesting ways. Um, almost like — what if you heated up and bent together in strange shapes a bunch of dentistry tools, do you know what I mean? [Dre and Jack laugh] A bunch of just like, metal— like not wire, it's thicker than wire, and also bigger, right.
Or I’m imagining lots of like, weird desk toys, that — you know how like, the desk toys that balance in interesting ways or whatever and it’s just two pieces of metal. [Jack: Yeah yeah yeah yeah.] Like that, except an anchor, basically, and heavier, and thicker.
Um, and that like, makes it hard to know on quick sight what it does, because you’d have to— I uh, we’re nearing pattern magic here, but I don’t think this is a pattern, I think it’s actually closer to—
Jack: Oh yeah, no, you could make these in a factory.
Austin: Right, exactly, and it’s like, make sure you bend this at this angle, with this curve, et cetera, and it will always do the same thing, you know?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Um. Yeah, I like that a lot. So can you — like, does — I guess the more important question is, does Piccolo know what this does?
Dre: Oh hell no.
[Jack laughs]
Dre: And I think the way he finds it is that he basically trips over it, lands on his face, [Austin: Mm.] and then looks behind him and is like,
Dre [as Piccolo]: Aawww boy, did I break something expensive!
[Austin and Jack laugh]
Austin: But it didn’t break, or did it break? Did you break it?
Dre: No, no.
Austin: Oh, okay. Okay.
Dre: Yeah, no. It’s big and heavy, and I don’t think Piccolo could break this thing if he tried.
Austin: Gotcha.
Dre: The only thing broken here is his pride.
Austin: Does anyone notice this, like are there any other— I’m curious if anybody else comes in. Is like, is there a freight manager, or like a, I don’t know what train names are, train things are. [laughs]
Dre: Yeah, I mean, either a freight manager, or maybe even Harp? I don’t know if Piccolo and Harp have like, done much together.
Austin: Ooh, that’d be good.
Jack: [quietly] Yeah!
Austin: Oh— Harp, which hand did you lose?
Jack: I didn’t lose a hand, I lost— oh, did I lose a hand and a... Did I really lose a hand?
Austin: I don’t remember… well ‘cause—
Jack: Janine, you listened to this more recently.
Janine: I—did, I don’t remember if the train just ate your sword or also the hand. I do remember which hands you held each thing in. If it ate your hand, it would’ve eaten the left hand, that was the hand that Harp carried their sword in.
Austin: Could they drop the sword?
Jack: Yeah. Oh yeah, they put it on their back or whatever.
Austin: Okay. For some reason I always imagined that they couldn’t put them away. So yeah, if they can put it on their back then— yeah, just feed the sword, I think. We don’t have to lose a hand in this game too.
[Jack and Janine laughs]
Dre: ‘Cause what did they elect to keep?
Jack: The rake.
Austin: The rake.
Dre: That’s right, okay.
Austin: It was the rake or the sword. Um, good to know.
Jack: Why’d you ask?
Austin: I just wanted to make sure that was a thing that was clear. For the listener. ‘Cause it’s been like a month and a half.
Jack: Ah, true. Yeah. So how does, ah, how does Harp end up here, Dre?
Dre: Hmm. I mean, could it be that Harp and Fawn are sitting there and then Fawn is just like, “[sighs] Where’d Piccolo go?” And Harp was just like, “I’ll go find— I’ll go find him.”
Jack: [laughs] And just sets off down the train.
Dre: Yep. [laughs]
Jack [as Harp]: I have found you beside an anchor.
[Austin laughs]
Dre [as Piccolo]: You have found me on my butt.
[Austin laughs more]
Harp: Did the anchor… contribute?
Piccolo: Uhh… you know, I don’t feel right placing blame, per se, on the anchor. My foot found it, and then my face found the floor.
Harp: It is a magnificent creation.
Piccolo: It’s very nice, and I’m glad I didn’t break it, ‘cause I don’t —
Piccolo: I don’t think I got the money to fix something like this.
Harp: I’ve heard they are very rare.
Piccolo: You— you’re not making me feel better, Harp.
Harp: I’m sorry. Be thankful that it is not broken. But also neither is your foot, as I understand it.
[Austin laughs]
Piccolo: That’s, uh, that’s a good way of looking at the situation.
Harp: Wh— why are you in the freight car?
Piccolo: Um… why shouldn’t I be in the freight car?
Harp: No, no, I am just curious about your placement on the train that we ride.
[Austin laughs]
Piccolo: Um. I’ve never been? on a train? So I just wanted to see…what was what.
Harp: This room has an anchor in.
Piccolo: It does. Yes. I’m familiar with that part. Um, there are other things in here, I don’t think, y’know, I’m gonna find out what else is in here ‘cause that seems. Rude. Was it rude for me to be here? Is that what you’re kinda, intimating?
Harp: Not at all. This is a space for goods, and it is unusual to see a human in the space for goods, especially in the space for goods that is currently occupied by the anchor. That you tripped over.
Piccolo: Aw man.
Harp: But I am pleased to find you.
Piccolo: I guess I should, I could put some goods in here.
Dre: And Piccolo just pulls some chalk out of his pocket and puts it on a shelf.
Harp: Excellent. An improvement to the space.
[Austin laughs]
Dre: [laughs] I think that’s the scene.
Austin: Yeah. Sold. Good. God. Um, cool.
Jack: Someone in the chat points out that, ah, I think I might’ve given the rake to the Magus?
Austin: So you— did you give it— So I actually pulled the podcast up in my other ear, currently, [Jack: Oh, thank you.] [Dre laughs, Janine giggles] and I’m trying to catch up and find out what exactly happened there, so I’ll figure that out by the time...
Jack: It’s cool! This is the first —
Austin: Oh wait, it’s your scene now, isn’t it.
Janine: I want to say it’s like fifteen to twenty minutes before the end of the episode.
Austin: Yeah, that’s where I am. That’s about where I am. I’m listening. If I listen— oh, here it is! A train, behind it, a train car, behind it, I’m talking, it slides into the station.
Janine: Beetlejuice tongue, Beetlejuice tongue.
Jack: Oh yeah, it has a Beetlejuice tongue.
Janine: It has a Beetlejuice tongue.
Jack: We're counterprogramming our own podcast right now.
Austin: All right. [pause] I don't hear the Magus having the rake at any point. So. I think we play like either you have the rake again, or you got a different rake. One or the other, for sure, but you have this rake.
Jack: [cross] No, I think I have the rake.
Austin: [cross] And if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you have the rake.
Jack: Yeah, I'm happy to go ahead, y'know, given the fact [quietly] that we have the rake. Look—
Austin: Okay. So, what are you doing? What's Harp up to? What's beautiful Harp up to?
Jack: Um, I think I'm— uh, I just switched what screen Roll20 is on, so I‘m just trying to find the thing again. [Austin: Oh.] Um, I decided to do that during [Austin laughs] the podcast, rather than before. Um, let's see. All right. I am... okay—
Austin: Again, your options are Freight Car, Dining Car, Passenger Car, The Engine, and A Train Station.
Jack: Okay, so. I think that the train stops. [Austin: Okay.] It comes, it comes— what actually happens is the train is barreling towards a snowdrift.
Austin: Mm.
Jack: It's just in the middle of the, in the middle of the tracks. Huge, huge drift of snow. Uh, and you can tell some of the passengers are a bit, y'know, a bit concerned about the fact that the train is going to crash into this snowdrift.
Um, but it smashes into it and it bursts into a gigantic icy cavern, the outside of which was covered by snow. [Austin: Mm.] And there's a train station here, inside this ice cavern, and boarding the train are, maybe it's a party, I'd say it's a party of four or five, of ice trolls.
Austin: How— what do they look like, how big are they?
Jack: So, ice trolls are, um, [laughing] I mean, they're ice trolls, but I will— I'll bring us all up to speed. Just in case.
Austin: Thank you. I appreciate it.
Jack: Um, they are about six and a half feet tall, uh, they walk with a bit of a stoop, uh, they're large, large creatures covered in fur but also wrapped in, like, scarves and snow goggles, and uh [Austin laughs], they're wearing like, snowshoes, they— one of them takes a little chapstick out of their, their purse and puts some chapstick on a big troll mouth. [Austin: Mm.] Um, and they show their tickets to the inspector, and these ice trolls board the train.
Austin: Um, how many of them are there?
Jack: There are four.
Austin: Okay. Um. The... what are they up to? What are they— I'll gladly play one of these ice trolls, if you need me to.
Jack: [smiling] Austin, you can play as many ice trolls as you want.
Austin: I appreciate it, always.
Jack: [laughs] They— they board the train, uh, and they shake the snow off their boots, and they hang coats up on the thing, and they kind of— they head down into the main carriage, and they sit down at the table next to a radiator, and they warm their— warm their hands on the radiator.
Austin: One of them takes a [pitches voice deeper] big pipe from the inside coat jacket [voice goes back to normal] [Jack: Mm-hm! [almost laughing]] and lights it? and then, uh, as everyone else is getting warm, uh, they begin to open the window, and then three of the four ice trolls look at, look at them, and they're like,
Austin [as Ice Troll with gruffer, deeper voice]: Grr. Fine.
Austin: And they close the window back. [amused]
Ice Troll: Urgh. You all like it too warm.
Austin: And, and lights the pipe and begins puffing away. You can see there's like a conductor, who is like, going to correct it— there's clearly a no smoking sign [Jack laughs] that is being ignored. And the conductor just kind of meekly steps back, and is like, ah, I’ll let them smoke this pipe.
Um. Do they know you in any way? Do they know, do they— what is the relationship between ice trolls and golems?
Jack: Um, I think ice trolls, ice trolls have… Hmm. Didn't we decide that— I'm trying to remember where golems come from, is the thing. I was brought to life by one of the Magus's kind of like seconds, the Magus wrote an order to bring me to life, but I'm pretty sure [Austin: Mm-hm] that in like, in a pub somewhere—
Austin: Yeah, there was the pub.
Jack: I think in Barley Town, we met some more golems [Austin: Mhm] who told like—
Janine: Axe and Fiddle.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: —told like a legend about, about old golems. But I can't remember what it is. And I, I'm trying to remember so that that can inform my, what, uh—
Austin: Your troll relationship.
Jack: What's ice trolls' relationship with golems.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: I think the answer is, uh, there are golems in their communities, they are ice golems, [Austin: Oh, of course.] which are, uh, golems made of ice [laughs]. Um, not snowmen, they are carved from ice.
Austin: Oh, I see. I see.
Jack: But I think that the, the ice trolls and the golems sort of... Golems like me can't really go out into the cold too often, so I've probably never encountered ice trolls before, but ice trolls have met ice golems before.
Austin: Mm-hm. Um, I honestly think they're not like, going to—they're going to keep to themselves, at this point. I think maybe one of them orders a drink, or one of them goes to the dining car to get them all, like, drinks, [Jack: Yeah.] basically, and is like, carrying them back very awkwardly, with four drinks, with two of them pressed to chest to keep them from spilling. But they are—they are not causing a fuss, they're not looking to— they're not going to talk to Harp if Harp isn't going to come talk to them, y'know.
Jack: Yeah. Ah, I think, I think I'll... Yeah, no, I'm happy to just [Austin: Yeah.], I'm happy to just go, I think.
Austin: All right. Cool. Well, good to know there's some ice trolls on this train. Uh... Faaawn?
Janine: Heeyy. Um.
Austin: What's up?
Janine: Uhhh, I think that, um. Hmm... there's some tough choices here.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: There’s a lot of really tempting ideas to choose from. But I think... uh... Sorry, I think I'm going to go with the passenger car. The engine's really tempting but I can't think of anything to actually do with it. Uh.
So I think Fawn, for this trip, is very much, just in like, in general I think she's kind of an along-for-the-ride character, um, she... has a thing she wants to see through but she's not necessarily... embellishing along the way? Like, this is, this is like a, this is a duty more than an adventure, for her.
Austin: Right.
Janine: Um, but, I think in the passenger car, she's kind of allowing herself to see the adventuring a little more than she usually does? [Austin makes a kind of "aww" noise] Um, because she normally, she normally would not take the ice rail.
Austin: Like at all.
Janine: Because she normally would not want to give something up [Austin: Gotcha. Right.] to it. Um. She takes her possessions, like, her possessions are pretty much all things she’s made. Um, and that's a really like, personal thing for her, that's not just something… It's very different for her to give up something she's found or received compared to something that she has made herself. [Austin: Mm-hm.]
So, this is like, a really rare occasion for her. So it's, she's, I think— sitting in one of the passenger cars, and she's like, looking out the window, and she's probably like, back paws on the seat, front paws on the sort of, the edge of the window. Um, I think her nose is not up against the glass, but close enough that there's two distinct little fog sort of clouds [Austin: Mm-hm], circles, on the window.
Um, as she's sort of like, doing the thing animals do where they can't seem to quite decide if they want to just like take the whole thing in or focus on specific things that are passing. So there's like, weird head movements every now and then where it’s like something catches her interest but she can't quite follow it.
Austin: Right.
Janine: And I think part of that is because, uh, the actual, what they're passing in that moment is a very disorienting sight. Um, it's still very wintery, still very icy, but it's sort of like, the air is that kind of wintery fog where it's either a very fine snow [Austin: Mm-hm.] or mist, or fog, so it kind of makes the horizon blur? So you kind of can't really tell where the horizon actually is?
But on top of that, the landscape itself is… is like, ice that is very thick on top of something else. Like, very clear ice. And there's something solid and opaque well below it. But it's hard to tell how far below, so it almost looks like very clear water, like in a pond, or something. [Austin: Mm.] It's all very like, blurry and weird. You kind of can't tell where the sky is, and where the horizon is, and where the ground is, and where the actual surface you would walk on is. Um. It's all like, a very... disorienting kind of... landscape?
Austin: Mm-hm.
Janine: Um, but there are still those little things to focus on, like there are still, um, y'know, little like, clumps of sort of weirdly-shapen ice, or a weird bird nest or something in the middle of it, or, little— little features that she's picking out as the train goes.
Austin: Yeah. Cool. That’s the scene?
Janine: Yeah. I think that's a scene.
Austin: Caspian, Crab Singer of Istallia, kind Crab Singer of Istallia is going to the dining car. Um, my prompt is, “an honest conversation”. So I think we see the dining car, with the four ice trolls in it, who else is in— I think it's like, nighttime, I think we get the, the scene that Janine just described out the window, and it slowly getting darker and darker, and then like, the candle lights of like a dinner service snapping on.
Almost snapping on as if it's an electric light, but it's live flame, uh, hovering above—like, loose live flame, hovering above a bunch of dinner tables in the dining car. And the trolls are there, and some other passengers are there, there was a band— no, the band was leaving when we got to the ice rail, uh, so they're not here, but other passengers—
And we haven't seen the Magus. I want to be, clear about that. The Magus still is just not on this train [laughs] as far as we can tell? Um, and, [laughs] we see… I really would love Piccolo to be the one, maybe, who catches Caspian here? We see Caspian like, very poorly, doing his best to nonchalantly carry his kite through the dining car and towards the rear of the train without being seen. Um, but I can't imagine Piccolo doesn't see him.
Um. He's, em— the pouches are not emptied, but there are less things in the pouches than there normally are in his giant like, kite. I keep saying kite, and really what I mean is, kite. Like, it is just a big kite that he uses, and has like a little surfboard, like, foot situation? Sort of like a... I guess a windsail, is that what that's called? Um, yeah, sort of like a windsail, but way more just traditional diamond kite-shaped.
Um, and yeah, he's passing through, and I would really love to have an honest conversation with Piccolo, as he's trying to sneak by.
Austin: So Piccolo, how do you see Caspian?
Dre [as Piccolo]: Woah, hey, you're uh, you're about to tump over that grape tray!
Austin [as Caspian, whispering]: Shhhh, I'm not gonna— tump over? What's that?
Piccolo: Yeah, dog, tump, it's when you tip something over, and everything dumps out, you tump it.
Caspian: Oh, dump, I thought you said tump.
Piccolo: No, I did say tump, it's tip and dump put together. It's tumping.
Caspian: Oh, it's—
[Austin laughs]
Piccolo: You tip it over and everything dumps out.
Caspian: Gets dumped, okay. Well, I've had a few tumpsy nights, you know what I mean? Uh.
Piccolo: That sounds unhealthy.
Caspian: It's not good. Y'know, I go too hard sometimes. Uh, anyway, have a great, have a great, um, um—
Piccolo: Where are you going?
Caspian: I, just, have to go take care of a thing. [lowering voice] Don't worry about it, you don't have to raise your voice.
Piccolo [quieter]: Are you—you’re not—y'know, are you leavin'?
Caspian: No, no, no no no no no, I'm just goin', um, I just have to… all right. Let me— put—
Austin: And he like, sl— tries to sl— fold the kite in two, and like, it bends just barely enough, and slides it into a booth and sits down. Um, and almost instantly a server comes to pour water. Um.
Caspian: No, I'm good, I'm good—
Austin: And— the water is already there so Caspian takes it and sips it. And, is like,
Caspian: All right, Piccolo, just, I have to go ahead to Istallia before, before everybody else gets there. [Piccolo: Oh, um—] I have to take care of some stuff, it's home, y'know? It's like, going home... you wouldn't want us to just like, come in and meet your aunt without you being like, "Hey—"
Piccolo: I don't think I'll — I don't think I want you to ever meet my aunt. [Austin laughs] Do you have an aunt? Back...?
Caspian: Mm, um— y'know, the city is sort of my aunt.
Piccolo: Is she— Oh. I don't… Okay, I'm not sure how that works, but—
Caspian: I, it's like a metaphor, it's like, [Piccolo: Oh.] y'know, like, in one of my songs, you know that when I say that like, his sadness was like the sea, I don't mean actually.
Piccolo: Oh—okay.
Caspian: It's like, his sadness has the qualities of the sea. It rises and falls like the tide, its depths know no ends, it's like, I'm kind of referencing—
Piccolo: You're skirting around the fact that you're in trouble.
Caspian: I'm not in any trouble.
Piccolo: You sure?
[pause]
Caspian: I'm in a little trouble.
Piccolo: You're doing a little sneakin', and a little hedgin'. Why don't you just tump out your heart in front of me here, buddy, let's figure this out.
Caspian: [breathes, pauses] All right, Piccolo. Crab singers... don't get to come back to Istallia, once they leave. Not if they want to keep being crab singers. And, this journey means a lot to me, which means I have to go... stop being a crab singer.
Piccolo: Uh—can't you just like—I mean, do you wanna like... we could camp outside.
Caspian: ...No. The kite's not gonna do me any good over the water anyway, we're gonna have to take a boat soon. [Piccolo: Man—] Think about how exciting the boat's going to be, though, that's, it's like a train, except like, squatter, and it does water stuff.
Piccolo: I mean, I'm—listen, I'm excited, it just, I don't know, it doesn't seem fair to you.
Caspian: It's a thing I've been thinking about a long time anyway. It'll be nice to go see my aunt, y'know? I've grown up a lot, and, um. I've sung a lot of songs.
Piccolo: D'you have to turn in the kite?
Caspian: [pause] Yeah. I have to turn in the kite.
Piccolo: I mean... you could... lose it.
Caspian: There are things you can't cheat, Piccolo.
Piccolo: What if— but you could put it in the freight car, that's like, where things go. I learned that yesterday.
Caspian: [breathes] Yeah…
Austin: And Caspian stands up and he says like,
Caspian: The kite is... the kite is like the sea. Like the guy's sadness? It's like, a metaphor for... Don't worry about it. I'll see you in Istallia, I pro—
Piccolo: Wait. Wait wait wait wait. I mean, you're gonna take the kite there, right, you're gonna—
Caspian: Yeah, it's gonna be fun. I'm, there's this whole little passageway through the valleys where, y'know, crab singers set up these like, incredible loops that you can fly through, they crafted them out of stone, they made these like, rings, and you just do all these tricks—it's great. I'm actually really excited about it.
Austin: And he like, manages a smile.
Piccolo [quietly]: Can you... can you take me with you?
Caspian: I—
Piccolo: Look, I don't—I don't wanna like, I know this is important for you, and I don't—It's selfish, okay, but all I've known, up until like two months ago, was a farm, the same farm, with the same pigs, and then... I just hiked up to the city, and I thought, man, ain't nothin' I see gon' be any bigger than everything in this city, right here... And then I met you, and you took me up, and I saw— man, I saw everything that I didn't know that I didn't know.
[Caspian laughs]
Piccolo: I'm not— listen, I'm not the smartest— I'm not the best with words, but, I don't know. That was the first time where I felt like maybe I could be somebody? On this thing?
Austin: [breathes in] And I think Caspian like, puts his hand on Piccolo's shoulder, and says um,
Caspian: A thing that comes up in a lot of the songs they teach us, is that you don't need the kite to fly. Y—[exhales] You don't need the sword to win a fight. You, you don't need the boat to cross the sea. And, until you let those things go, [exhales] you're still just a little kid. Like us.
Austin: And he grins.
Piccolo: Okay. I'm pretty sure that that was more metaphors, right? [Caspian exhales] You can't actually—you can't really fly without your kite, but like, I mean, I get the metaphor, but I wanna—
Caspian: You know, in some of the songs it's literal? Beause it's about learning spells to help you fly, and like, you can't do that with a kite. The kites aren't involved. You have to use a reverse anchor, so.
Piccolo: Hmm.
Caspian: I'll see you in Istallia. This is something I have to do alone.
Piccolo: That's fine. Have a good flight.
Caspian: You take care of everybody, okay? I left a lot of the supplies in the freight car. So.
Piccolo: I won't waste the chalk.
Caspian: Never waste the chalk.
Austin: And then he slips through the dining car and for a minute you hear that like, terrible sound of a door being opened on a train when it's moving, where it's just super loud and the wind blows through, and you see the ice trolls getting upset at the noise and the wind sweeping through the dining car, and then, the kite and Caspian slip away into the night. And that's my scene.
Um... all right. So. We've all done our sequences here, so it wraps back to you, Dre. Um, "on your turn, if your character is already on the map, you may opt to move the Magus instead, advancing us along the dashed path to a new location. Remember to roll up the canvas to hide previous places," blah blah blah.
You can also stay here, I guess. That is a thing that we did not do at all last time, [Dre laughs] but we could. It's like, you can just do another train scene if you'd like, and pass on being the Magus. Again, it's not something we've done, but.
Dre: And so… I’m trying to remember how, let me look at how the Magus turn works.
Austin: Oh, mm-hm. So, after moving the Magus, you move to the new location, so you follow the dotted line. In this case you would end up in, um, I guess Istallia? [Janine: Mm-hm.] Right, yeah, Istallia, that’s the only dotted line that goes anywhere. In which you would have to then do a scene. You describe the location, and you kind of have that scene with the story prompt, in this case, “the hospitality of the Gilded One.”
Dre: Oh man. Okay.
Austin: When you play the Magus, show us who they are, what they are thinking, and how we travel together just as you would your own character.
Dre: Okay, I think I’m gonna move the Magus, which is the raven, right?
Austin: Uh, yeah, correct.
Dre: Or crow? I don’t know what animal it is.
Austin: It’s one or the other, for sure. [Dre: Yeah yeah yeah.] [laughs]
Janine: Could be a magpie.
Dre: It could be.
Austin: [cross] Is that why you say [maggus] Magus and not [may-jus] Magus?
Janine: [cross] Or some kind of gull?
Dre: Oh, yep, nailed it, there it is.
Austin: Okay, I wasn’t sure. I’m glad that we’ve clarified.
Dre: Lore justification. [laughs]
Austin: Hell yeah.
Dre: Ummm [sighs] Jack, what was it that made Harp so beautiful?
Jack: I think I’m made of a really beautiful stone, is that the case, Janine?
Janine: Yeah.
Jack: Janine gave me a —
Janine: They’re made of, um, I still don’t remember what it’s called —
Austin: Rose quartz, is what you said last time, someone said rose quartz last time.
Janine: I don’t think that’s, that might be what I meant, I don’t know that that’s what I meant, but it is like a sparkly pink stone that’s kind of veined with black and white.
Austin: Oh, interesting. But you got the trait “Beautiful”, do you remember what that was from? Was that just from Fawn seeing Harp?
Janine: That’s from Fawn seeing a statue made of the same material, [Austin: Okay.] and remarking on how beautiful that was.
Austin: Gotcha. Love it.
Dre: Oh okay, I know what the Gilded One is. Um, the Gilded One is a giant, enormous golem that’s made out of those anchors we talked about. [Austin: [approving noise]] It’s just like, just tons of anchors, formed together to make this giant, like at least twenty foot tall golem…that I think rules over Istallia.
Jack: Damn.
Austin: That’s cool.
Janine: It’s my favorite JRPG boss.
Dre: Yep.
Austin: Are they like, in a throne room? Are they—where does the Magus receive their hospitality?
Dre: Um. [thoughtful inhale]
Austin: And how, what’s that look like?
Dre: Yeah, no, I think it is, I think they just have like, a huge throne room, with, I can’t decide if they have a huge—yeah, they’ll have a huge throne. Because I think this golem has probably been around for a really really long time. Because originally I was toying with the idea of like, what if it was, like, the former ruler, whose consciousness was passed into a golem, but instead I much more like the idea of, nobody really remembers where this golem came from because it’s just been around for so long. And it’s just always ruled Istallia.
Austin: Hm.
Dre: Oh, you know what it is? Here’s what it is. This is the hospitality of the Gilded One. It remembers the last time that magic started going away.
Austin: Oooh, that’s good.
Jack: Ohhh, wow.
Dre: And so that’s why the Magus is here. Because the Magus is asking the golem, like, basically, are we going the right way? Is this the path that people have gone on before to bring the magic back?
Austin: Huh. Does anyone want to play the Gilded One? Does anyone have the Gilded One in them?
Jack: I could be a second golem. [Dre and Austin laugh]
Austin: I could also play the Gilded One if no one has like a…
Jack: Do you have a Gilded One in mind, Austin?
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: You should be the golem. [Austin: Okay.] You should be your first golem.
Austin: I have been a golem before, but that’s fine. Um. I was Fiddle or Axe, for sure. [all laugh]
Jack: That’s true.
Austin: So, the first time the Magus saw the Gilded One — who is also just called Istallia, um, no one knows which name came first. And also the city is just called the Gilded One, they’re both interchangeable. One, there are more anchors than there used to be. Istallia, the Gilded One, used to be twenty feet tall. It is, uh, they are now twenty-five feet tall, um, and their throne has not been adjusted to fit that.
Dre: Ooh, can I throw in something?
Austin: Please, this is not, uh, I’m not a GM here, so.
Dre: What if every time that a new anchor is made, it’s customary to make a second one to put on Istallia?
Austin: Oh that’s good, mine was way darker [Dre: laughs loudly], which was, every time a boat sinks, you have to recover the anchor, and add it. [Dre: [sighing] Oh boy.] But yours is good and light, so let’s use yours. [Dre giggling] And there have been more boats lately, I like that. That’s good. There have been an influx of boats very quickly. And it speaks by like rubbing anchors together, um, that like vibrate and create a sort of, um, harmonious, almost like a string instrument, that just kind of echoes through the hall. And it’s a very light — I guess it has a pretty broad range, depending on which anchors it’s using. And it says, um. I mean, I guess we don’t know, was the Magus here the last time magic fell? Does Istallia… I guess so, right? Or no?
Dre: I was about to say, have we, I know like the Magus is like, like I think in the rules it says that the Magus is like, older-ish, right?
Austin: No, I think the Magus is pretty broadly defined. We defined the Magus as like, very competent, uh, older in appearance, like, we did a lot of drawing our own Magus, you know? Um, in the very beginning.
Dre: I — maybe not, and maybe that’s why the Magus was like, missing, this whole time that everyone was on the train [Austin: mmmm], because, um. Was our Magus female, I can’t remember what — ?
Austin: Yeah, we used she/her with the Magus. [Janine: Mm-hm.]
Dre: Okay. Maybe she was contemplating, or like steeling herself, no pun intended [Austin chuckles], for like the answer to this really big question of… yeah, am I doing the right thing? What questions should I ask this person, who is maybe one of…
Dre: A handful of people in this world who know more than I do?
Austin: Right, right. So it kind of vibrates out, and, and, it runs one anchor along another, and, then another along another, until it kind of just says like… [car horn sound in background] [laughs] It makes that horn from outside, sorry, there was a horn outside. Uh.
Austin [as The Gilded One]: [haltingly] Magus, you seek — to cross — the sea. Do you — intend — to bring it back?
Dre [as The Magus]: Yeah, that’s my duty.
The Gilded One: Are you prepared — for the cost?
The Magus: [long pause] Yes? I don’t know what the cost is, though.
The Gilded One: I have seen magic at peak twice. Each — was a world of difference. Today, all that remains of the last age, are but echoes. Will you be an echo of the next age?
The Magus: I mean, magic is not about maintaining what always has been, it’s about helping to create something new.
The Gilded One: You speak as a Magus, not as a city. If you maintain, you do so so that the world does not fall. Constancy has virtue.
The Magus: It also has dilapidation, and people dying from things that they don’t have to die from.
The Gilded One: You speak as a Magus. Death is inevitable — its causes innumerable. It will not be stopped. But the city will stand. I will prepare a ship for you. Prevent the fall.
The Magus: I will.
Austin: And it just like settles back in the throne. And you can see like, bits of its, of the various anchors like move up inside of it in a weird way as it moves. And it seems to go to rest. Like, it seems to, without standing, without saying anything else… you can kind of see, I imagine there are bits of the anchors inside that are always moving, again, like desk toys. Like, like magnetic or like gravity-driven desk toys. Or physics-driven desk toys. And they all come to a halt all at once. No one in the hall seems to like — this isn’t, it didn’t just die, you know? [Dre chuckles] Istallia does this. Is that scene?
Dre: Yeah, I think so.
Austin: Cool. Harp.
Jack: Hmm [long sigh] I’m not going to go and see the frightening anchor golem. [Austin and Dre laugh] I mean I know I can’t, but I just want to make it clear that I wouldn’t.
Austin: Right, of course.
Jack: So my options here are Marketplace of Magic, A Strange Price — what is that little icon next to A Strange Price?
Austin: So that is a symbol that means something has to change. [reading from manual] A leaf symbol indicates a change. Before you end your turn, change or remove something from your notecard. This could be your name, your title, or a trait. Then describe why your character thinks this is true.
Jack: [interested] Hm! Dang. [long pause followed by laughter] Okay, I’m not gonna go there either. [Janine chuckles] I have the Gilded District: “What you cannot afford,” I have Starfall Academy: “How you fix what is broken.” Uh, I have Badwater District: “What they think of magic,” and Na’zahd Station: “An unexpected reunion.” And then The Wharf, I think? There’s lots in Istallia. [Austin: Mm.] [Dre: Yeah.] But I think I’m gonna go to Starfall Academy.
I think that, um… [pause] I think that as I’m walking beside a very tall building, sort of with a spire, with a telescope out of the top, someone comes rushing out of the building. And is like, “A golem! We need a golem really quickly!” It’s the equivalent of like, is there a doctor in the house? [all laugh] But for someone who’s like, extremely strong and made of stone. This isn’t like, the person isn’t saying “Ah, brilliant, I’ve found a screwdriver,” they’re saying “A doctor has shown up.”
So, I go stomping into the Starfall Academy, and it’s, it’s beautiful, inside this massive building is a, um [deep inhale], is ah, ah, a beautiful painted ceiling, with constellations painted on the ceiling, and the stars in the constellations glimmer, um, because they are… stars! These are stars that have fallen, and have been picked up by the students of Starfall Academy, and the students of Starfall Academy, the golems that work at the academy, and been brought in, uh, and been placed in the, fixed in the firmament of this beautiful ceiling painting. And there are a bunch of students kind of clustered around, because on the floor, is a star. It’s fallen from this — as it once fell from the sky, it has now fallen from the ceiling. [Austin chuckles] And the students are like, “This is, this is,” Uh, does anybody want to be a student from the Starfall Academy? Does anybody want to be a concerned astronomy student?
Dre: [confidently] Oh I, yeah! I’m into that. [Janine and Jack giggle]
Jack: Okay, there’s multiple slots for concerned astronomy students, so anybody is —
Austin: I think we should all probably be very concerned students.
Janine: [giggling] Mm-hm.
Austin: Okay.
Jack [as Harp]: What has happened?
Dre [as Worried Student]: [stammering nervously] Oh, oh, oh, oh god — oh, oh, oh. I can’t — ah [sighs] I can’t, uh, somebody’s gotta tell them. What happened.
Austin: I’m just crying, just sobbing tears. [all laugh]
Worried Student: [consolingly] Oh, okay, uh.
Austin: There’s just a girl with blonde hair and big, like, Coke-bottle glasses, who is just in, just complete mess status. And is just like looking straight up, and you can just see the wet tear marks running down her face.
Jack: Is she like, looking up at the hole, in —
Austin: Oh yeah, hundred percent, and like moving her head as if, “what if I line it up right, will it become what it was once supposed to be?” [Jack laughs] If I just, like a lentric — uh, lentricu — I always get this word wrong — lentric — [frustrated] hmm.
Jack: Lenticular?
Janine: Lenticular.
Austin: Lenticular. Lenticular. Ah, as if I can just make the ceiling whole again.
Worried Student: Oh, okay, here, I have a handkerchief, just… [sighs] Okay, I said it was important, in the bylaws of Rocketry Club, the first rule is that you don’t have Rocketry Club inside. [increasingly upset] And this, this is why we have rules that are meant to be followed — [defeated] oh, we’re gonna get expelled.
Crying Student: [softly] I thought because the star was inside, the rocket could be inside too.
Worried Student: Nooo, it’s, [sighing] oh gosh.
Harp: How may I be of service?
Worried Student: Ohh.
Crying Student: [softly] Can you fix the sky?
Harp: Well, it is very far up.
Worried Student: That’s true.
Harp: Is the star heavy?
Worried Student: It’s very, it’s very heavy.
Harp: I see. This is why you required a golem.
Worried Student: Yes. Oh, y —
Harp: Did you bring a ladder?
Worried Student: [sighs] Oh, where’s the, okay hold on!
Dre: And my person goes running down a hallway.
Crying Student: You’re very pretty, are you a star?
Austin: Just sobbing, just like, the tears keep coming as she speaks.
Harp: Perhaps, perhaps. Are the stars not supposed to be fixed in the ceiling?
Crying Student: [solemn] They’re supposed to orbit sometimes. But not this way, just the other way.
Worried Student: [out of breath] Ha, okay, I’m back, okay I could only find this footstool, but I’m, I’m gonna go check somewhere else, and I’m gonna — here, I’m gonna pull this table over, and I’ll put the footstool on it, and then — [under breath] that’s not tall — Okay I’m gonna go, I’m gonna go find a real ladder.
Harp: [wearied sigh] Fear not —
Crying Student: Have you ever fallen from somewhere?
Harp: Never, though [sighs] my density suggests that, were I to fall, you know what they say about when an elephant falls, versus when a mouse falls? I suppose I would be the elephant. It is for this reason that I must be very careful now.
Jack: I say, and I clamber onto the table.
Dre: [giggling loudly]
Crying Student: I thought they said an elephant never falls.
Harp: Are you okay? [all laugh]
Janine: It’s “forgets.” There’s like a third student who’s just been like sitting, who’s just been standing sort of against a side wall, arms crossed [Austin and Jack chuckle], just like mad that they’re there, but also knowing it’s a really dick thing to do to just leave at this point. [Austin: [laughing] Uh huh. Right.] So they’re kind of like, stuck here until this gets sorted out.
Annoyed Student: [sounding flat and tired] It’s “elephants don’t forget.” Elephants fall, I mean, anything will fall if you push it. Or trip it,
Crying Student: [wailing] I knoooow!
Annoyed Student: Or like, hit it in the knee, or…
Austin: And just like looks at the star, as if to say “I learned that.”
[Janine laughs heartily]
[Jack sighs]
Worried Student: [muffled] Can somebody get the door?
Harp: [cross] You, the rude one.
Annoyed Student: [cross] Use your foot.
[Austin laughs]
Harp: Open the door.
Worried Student: [muffled, as if through door] I can’t use my foot! I’m pushing something and —
Annoyed Student: She’s not rude, she’s crying. She’s just upset.
Worried Student: [very muffled] Can somebody get the door?
Crying Student: I think they meant you but I can get it.
Annoyed Student: No, I’ll — [sighs heavily]
Janine: And then they like, they go get the door. But they’re like, really stompy about it, they’re very like 80’s teen about it.
Austin: Uh huh. [Jack chuckles]
Dre: Okay, I push through a giant bookshelf on wheels.
Harp: Sufficient. Sufficient.
Worried Student: Yeah there wasn’t a ladder, but I thought this might work.
Austin: Are the books still on it?
Dre: A hundred percent!
Austin: [laughing] All right, good, great. [Dre bursts out laughing]
Harp: Roll it beside the table.
Worried Student: Okay!
Crying Student: [quavering voice] Oh no.
Jack: And I clamber off the table and pick up the —
Worried Student: Oh, hold on, let me put the, let me put the brakes on! Okay, all right. Okay.
Jack: I pick up the star with one hand, and it’s just, so heavy. I mean, it’s not as heavy as a star is, because not even a golem could pick up a star.
Austin: Of course.
Jack: But it’s extremely, extremely heavy. And I clamber first up onto the footstool, and then up onto the table, and then —
Austin: Sobbing student immediately begins to look at the books on the bookshelf. [Dre laughs] And she’s like.
Crying Student: Ohh, I’ve been looking for this volume.
Austin: And begins to reach out to grab one of the books.
Harp: [losing patience] Do not disturb the bookshelf, or I will fall.
Worried Student: I’ll brace it, I’m gonna brace it for you.
Harp: [exhaustedly] Do not disturb the bookshelf.
[Austin cackles]
Dre [as Worried Student]: [meekly] Okay.
Jack: And I, it’s like, you know, it’s like, it’s like shotput almost, I’m trying to like lift this star in one hand [Austin: [laughing] Uh huh.] to put it into the ceiling, and it’s just extremely heavy. And I think I probably manage it? But I just have to like, push it into the ceiling, and I can feel the magic in the ceiling take it, but I can feel that the magic is weaker than, you know... It’s… The rocket ship had some help in this star becoming unfixed from the ceiling.
Austin: Mm-hm.
Harp: The star is returned. Hold steady and I will climb down the bookshelf.
Worried Student: [nervously] O-Okay.
Crying Student: Does that mean we should touch the bookshelf now?
Worried Student: Yeah, we gotta hold it in place.
Harp: Thank you for your help.
Worried Student: [relieved] Oh, thank you. You’ve, you’ve saved our academic careers, I, I’m gonna put you in the acknowledgements of my thesis.
Harp: My name is —
Crying Student: What’s your name?
Harp: My name is Harp. I’m extremely beautiful.
Worried Student: Yes, you are.
[Austin laughs]
Jack: I think that’s probably—
Crying Student: Just like an elephant. [Dre laughs]
Jack: [laughing] And that’s definitely scene.
Austin: [laughing] Good. Ahhh, all right. Oh, do you wanna move your—
Jack: Yeah, I should move me — [surprised] oh my god, I just like —
Austin: Uh-huh.
Jack: I didn’t know that I could drag Roll 20 by right clicking.
Austin: Mm-hm!
Jack: But I’m up here now.
Austin: Fawwwwn?
Janine: Ummm, I need… someone who likes shopping, [Austin: Uh huh], and someone who likes being shopped from? [laughs] Like a shopkeeper. I need a companion character and I need a shopkeeper. [smugly] Because I’m going to the Gilded District for something I can’t afford.
Austin: Oh no.
Jack: Oh no. Uh, I will be, uhh, I will be a shopkeeper.
Austin: Uh, Caspian is not going to show up until I can do my turn.
Jack: No.
Dre: Okay. All right, well —
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Apologies.
Dre: Looks like Piccolo is livin’ the high life.
Janine: [laughs] Okay, this is good. Um, so… As sort of part of their time in Istallia, um, you know, Fawn likes seeing the local wares. Um.
Janine: It’s a thing that I think she often makes a habit of, because it’s a good way to, like, you know in the same way if you craft and whatever, sometimes you wanna like save stuff to a pinboard of like “I could make this,” and you probably never will, but like, it’s nice to have the option [laughs] if you wanna.
Austin: Mm-hm.
Janine: Um, I think, so she’s sort of in the habit of like going to shops, but generally doesn’t buy stuff, is generally like making stuff. Um, but there’s this one shop that she passes by that has these really beautiful um, like silk blouses, with really voluminous like neck ruffs, and the silk is like, it’s weird because it’s kind of like in 3D modeling when you get kind of like a specular layer over something, so it makes it look a little bit luminous. It’s a technique that gets used with like skin a lot, to make the skin not look flat. It makes it look basically like there’s a layer of something, and then the light is reflecting on something beneath that layer. So it makes things seem like, bright and alive? And, the silk has that quality, of like being bright and alive, and having like a weird sort of, ah, depth to it.
And so Fawn is walking along with Piccolo, sort of scoping this area out. And she stops in front of this shop window. And then kinda, I think she like calls Piccolo back like,
Janine [as Fawn]: Hey. Uh, let’s, can we go in here? Let’s go in here.
Dre [as Piccolo]: [in awe] Daaaaang.
[Austin chuckles]
Fawn: It’s nice, right?
Piccolo: Yeah!
Fawn: Listen, uh, can you do me a favor?
Piccolo: Mm-hm.
Fawn: I wanna try that shirt on?
Piccolo: Okay.
Fawn: Um… I’m a dog, though?
Austin and Jack: [laughter]
Fawn: [laughing] So they might not like that? So can you pretend that you want to try the shirt on, and then we can go into the changing room —
Piccolo: It’s gon—It’s gonna be pretty big, on you.
Fawn: It’s okay.
Piccolo: Okay.
Fawn: I just wanna see, I just kinda wanna see what it would look like if it wasn’t too big. Like if I could wear it.
Piccolo: Yeah, yeah okay. Um [pause] [relenting] Okay!
Fawn: I’m gonna act like a dog.
Piccolo: [confused] O-okay, well, then, we should—you should help me—what, okay. Um.
[Jack chuckles]
Piccolo: How does this work? …Do I just go—
Fawn: Trying on clothes? In a store?
Piccolo: [hesitating] Ah…
Fawn: Okay. No, it’s okay. I get it. Um, you just kinda like, go and… and you like say “Hey, I wanna try this on.”
Piccolo: Okay, is there like a special name for this shirt? That I need to say, so that they buy it?
Fawn: Um, we don’t want them to buy it, we want to try it on.
Piccolo: Well, I mean, like that they believe that I’m a person who, one, would be interested in trying this shirt on, and two, could buy it.
Fawn: Oh. [slowly, thinking] Um, just say that you are… Mmmm… [clicks teeth] Say that your... mother is getting married and you have to find an outfit, and you want to try the shirt in the window on.
Piccolo: Ohhh, that’s great.
Fawn: [confident] Yeah.
Piccolo: [determined] All right, let’s do it!
Dre: And Piccolo just swings the door open.
Austin: [laughing, snorting] I — just want to make sure I understand this plan. “My mother is having a birthday, and I just want to try on—”
Jack: Wedding.
Dre: No, she’s getting married.
Austin: “—and I just wanna try on this shirt. In the window.” [Janine laughs]
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: [laughing doubtfully] Okay.
Janine: We’re testin’ out outfits.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Uh, teacabbage—
Jack [as Shopkeep]: [crosstalk] Welcome, welcome, welcome—
Janine: Sorry, sorry, sorry, I just wanted to point out —
Jack: Oh, no, sorry, go on —
Janine: teacabbage in the chat pointed out that the thing I was trying to name is subsurface scattering. That’s uh, it’s… [Austin: Okay.] Just, yes.
Austin: Good to know, honestly.
Janine: [laughing] Sorry.
Jack [as Shopkeep]: Welcome, come on in, uh, please come in, please come in. Hello?
Piccolo: Hello!
Shopkeep: Oh my, what a beautiful dog you have. Beautiful dog.
Piccolo: Oh thank you, she is a great… she is very smart, and she’s just, she’s just great.
Shopkeep: What sort of a breed is she?
Piccolo: Uh, it’s ah, it’s a Vinegar Fox.
Shopkeep: [long pause] So a fox.
Piccolo: [hesitantly] Yeah. [Austin laughs]
Shopkeep: [annoyed] Fantastic, fantastic, I had an aunt who owned a fox once, uh, it ate voraciously. Voracious animals, voracious animals.
Piccolo: [laughing nervously] Oh so you know. So you know. I try to tell people, and they don’t believe me.
Shopkeep: No no no—
Piccolo: This one, this one here, you should see when she gets a hold of the groceries before we can unpack ‘em, woo!
[Janine laughs]
Shopkeep: Oh, tell me about it. Tell me about it, tell me about it. Now what can I do for you today?
Piccolo: [nervously] Ah, well, um, my mother, she’s uh, she’s getting remarried—
Shopkeep: Oh, congratulations!
Piccolo: Thank you, thank you, we’re all very excited. Um, and I would love to try on that shirt that was in the window.
Shopkeep: Oh, is she getting married in Istallia?
Piccolo: Uh, you know they’re still, they’re still planning, I think we might do Stormguard because, see [stammering] my — I guess my new father, her new husband, is from Istallia, we’re from, actually… we’re from Barley Town. Um, so we might do like—
Shopkeep: [sharp breath in, then stammering] From, from, from… From Barley Town?
Piccolo: Yeah.
Shopkeep: [rapid customer service voice] Well, I will be happy to help you. If you just come down and sit down here, we can talk a little about our wedding service that we offer.
[Austin chuckles in background]
Piccolo: Okay, now, I mean I can’t… I can’t really negotiate for anything besides what I will be wearing, that’s why I was just interested in trying on the shirt.
Shopkeep: [interrupting] Well, but we have to make sure everything matches, you know, we have to make sure everything matches. [Piccolo groans]. Whether or not it’s Stormguard, or Istallia, or uh… or Barley Town.
Piccolo: Oh, okay. Okay, I see, all right, well, yeah! Let’s uh, let’s go ahead on!
Shopkeep: So if you just, uh, uh,
Jack: And I take it down from the rack.
Shopkeep: Feel free to just slip it on, uh, just for the moment, and I can get you measured up. [Austin laughs]. These are custom, this is bespoke, so I would need to do a little tailoring, you know?
Piccolo: Um… Do you, okay, this is… oh, this is embarrassing. Would it be okay if I changed, like in a separate changing room or something? I had a—
Shopkeep: And then came out, and I did some tailoring?
Piccolo: Yeah, it’s, I had an accident when I was, when I was a child [someone laughs] and I have, I have some scars on my back that I’m, I’m real self-conscious about.
Shopkeep: Of course, I’m very sorry to hear that.
Piccolo: Oh no no no, it’s okay!
Shopkeep: Please let me look after your uh… your fox.
[Austin laughs]
Piccolo: [stammering] Oh, well, I was gonna, I was— she… she likes to like, carry things for me, so I was gonna have her like, carry my — carry the shirt I’m wearing now, while—
Shopkeep: It’s a beautiful shirt, I couldn’t let it go in the — I mean you don’t know what she’s — on the way here she’s probably eaten — oh, she’s probably eaten many pies—
Piccolo: [interrupting] Oh no, no, she’s not gonna hold this, the shirt I’m trying on, she’s gonna hold the shirt that I’m wearing right now, while you’re measuring.
Shopkeep: Sir, I am a tailor. I do not stand to see any clothes being mouthed by a fox.
Piccolo: Oh, it’s not so much a mouth as I just kinda fold it. I fold it well! And [Austin fails to hold back laughter] uhhh, it kinda just goes on her back.
Shopkeep: Look, fox, come here, fox, uhh, fox, come here. Fox, come here. Please go ahead, sir. [Dre laughs] Take as much time as you want. Fox, come here! Fox!
Piccolo: [nervous] Oh, listen, um. You shouldn’t, she’s, she’s, she’s not a mean fox, but she’s not the friendliest either. I think it’ll just be easiest for all parties involved if she just comes with me. She gets, she gets real anxious when I’m not here.
Shopkeep: [weary sigh] So you would like to take… your fox into… the changing room…
Piccolo: [offended] I mean if this is going to be a problem, I can take my business elsewhere!
Shopkeep: [quietly] I’m sure that would be fine.
Piccolo: [deflated] Oh.
Janine: Fawn is already in the changing room now. [all laugh]. She’s gone.
Piccolo: See, ah, see, I’ve heard my new dad say that, like when he’s trying to like [trails off]… and I always thought it was rude, but I thought maybe it worked, but I, it doesn’t, does it? Not for me…
Shopkeep: Take as much time as you need. I’ll wait here.
Piccolo: [humbly] Okay, thank you.
Dre: I think Piccolo sneaks off to the dressing room as quick as he can [chuckling] before the guy notices that Fawn is gone.
Janine: Uh, Fawn looks very impatient. And grumpy.
Piccolo: [whispering] Why are you give me that look? I got you the shirt! Just put it on!
Fawn: [whispering] Well, you have to put it on, I can’t put it on.
Piccolo: [whispering] What are you — uh, okay, but you could make—
Fawn: [whispering] I need you to, just, you can, don’t touch my cloak. Put it on over the cloak.
Piccolo: [whispering] Okay, how can you not put this on but you can make shoes?
[Jack laughs]
Dre: Sure, yeah, I slide the fuckin’ shirt onto this fox. [laughter in background]
Fawn: [laughing] Lift me up! Lift me up.
Austin: [laughing] Oh my god.
Piccolo: Okay fine, yep, all right, uh-huh.
Fawn: I wanna see in the mirror.
Piccolo: O-okay.
[wheezing laughter in background]
Fawn: The mirror doesn’t reach the ground!
Piccolo: I-I know, I’m pickin’ you up right now.
[pause]
Janine: I think Fawn like — sorry, what?
Piccolo: You know what, I’m gonna say it. This was all worth it. You look great, this was all worth it.
Fawn: It does look really good, doesn’t it?
Janine: I’m imagining Fawn like, kind of, um, not T-posed, but kind of like [snickering in background] I think Piccolo’s like, holding her under the arm, the dog armpits? Whatever?
Dre: [laughing] Uh huh, yep, uh huh.
Janine: The arm joints? So her front legs are kind of like out to the side, and her lower half is just like, hanging very long, because bush dogs, as we have established, are quite long. And she’s got her jaunty hat and then this, like, person-sized beautiful silk shirt with subsurface scattering. [general giggling in background]. Bunched up and kind of like, she can’t, like, this isn’t a thing for her. But it’s very nice to look at for the moment.
Austin: Awww.
Janine: I think she’s very happy with that moment, but the moment does pass.
Piccolo: So are you gonna buy it?
Fawn: [disappointed] What would I — it would just drag on the ground.
Piccolo: I mean you heard him, he’s a tailor, he can fix it up for you.
Fawn: I — That doesn’t really make sense.
Piccolo: Well, neither does you makin’ shoes but you do it.
Fawn: Yeah, but I make the shoes for me, like. This, tailoring the shirt to fit me would be like tailoring a circus tent to fit you. [Austin laughs]
Piccolo: I can’t tell if that’s a metaphor or an insult. I wish Caspian was here. [laughter in background]. Look, do you want the shirt or not?
Fawn: [pause] No, I just wanted to try it.
Piccolo: [pause] Okay.
Fawn: [pause] ...Can you help me out of this shirt?
Piccolo: Yep.
Fawn: Again, don’t touch my cloak.
Piccolo: Okay, yeah I won’t.
Fawn: …My arms hurt.
Piccolo: I’m sorry.
Fawn: [chuckling] No, it’s okay.
Austin: Is that scene?
Dre: Yep.
Janine: I think that’s scene.
Austin: Okay. It’s very good. Oh my god. All right. Uh, I am up! Uh, I think I’m up. Wait, is that right?
Dre: Yeah, you’re up.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yes, I’m up. Okay. And I am going to go to the Marketplace of Magic, where my prompt is “A strange price.”
Jack: Uh-oh.
Austin: The Marketplace of Magic is a [draws this out, searching], um, it is like a little, so, so, there’s a large beach, and there are docks, and there are, you know, kind of craggy cliffs on the eastern shore of Istallia. The eastern and northern shore, it’s a big city. And on the eastern shore — actually, I think this is on the northern shore, because I think that the water laps here up against the shoreline, more than rolls, more than crashes. And there is a little bit of a, um, it’s almost as if someone has built a barricade for this one little section of the shoreline, so it goes like a beach for a long time, and then there’s a huge concrete, or-or-or brick wall, I think it’s a brick wall, and the mortar is very, very old, and it’s kind of a greyish-brown brick, and there’s a huge wall.
On the other side of that wall, is, for a hundred feet or so, maybe two hundred feet, just sand again. Another beach, and then there’s another brick wall, and then beyond that the beach continues, and eventually turns to docks, and then to jetties, and crags, and kind of leaves Istallia. But between those two walls, on certain days, when the sun is just so, and the tide comes in, it washes in the Marketplace of Magic.
And the Marketplace of Magic is operated by the seafolk. You have kind of sea slugs, who kind of slimily climb onto shore and set up their booths, and you have, you know, mer-people of various sorts, setting up tents. They dig out little, little holes into the beach itself and fill them with water so that they can kind of set up shop inside, and they do everything from make food — magical food — to telling fortunes. Um, you have, ah, ah, the coral people, who are incredible craftspeople, you can bring them anything that has been broken and they’ll fix it, using coral. They actually break off little bits of themselves and fill in any broken hole, whether it is a ripped pair of pants, or a broken axle on a wagon, and they’ll repair it with themselves. Um, and there are of course the crab singers, who build kites and write songs. And in the Marketplace of Magic, they put on a little stage show, even, to show off whatever the latest songs are.
And we don’t get much here. We see Caspian enter.
Austin: He enters from above, taking down a rope ladder that he’s, ah, set up for himself. And I imagine we see the Magus in the background, here or there, maybe watching Caspian, but perhaps not interacting, I’m not sure. If someone wants to play the Magus here, they can. But, um. And we see Caspian disappear into one of these larger tents, where the crab singers operate. And he brings in the kite with him, and he leaves without it. And we get kind of a close-up shot. And we see that this boy, you know he was 22 or something like that, 23 I think maybe is what I said when we first started playing, is a little bit older now. Late 30s, wisps of grey in his hair.
And he, like, spends the day in the Marketplace of Magic, and is clearly checking in with people. And maybe we actually get a couple of shots here, and we see that, oh, his beard grows in during this period too. And is… having a good day, but is no longer a Crab Singer of Istallia. [aside] Actually, I’ll just cross it off, that’s better than deleting it.
And that’s my scene!
Dre: All right, I think I’m gonna do something also kind of short for my scene. And I’m gonna go to the Wharf. The first time that Piccolo sees the sea.
Austin: Aww.
Dre: And I think like, if this was like a TV show, this is like the last, like, minute of the show, [Austin: Right.] and it’s just like, Piccolo kind of wanders to the wharf and like kinda takes in all the people bustling about, but then kinda walks down the shore, and finds just a quieter, less bustly-er actual part on the coast, and just kind of like walks far enough down the beach and into the water to where when the waves roll, and it can like roll over his feet. And I think like the last shot is him kind of standing there with the water rolling over his bare feet, and you kinda hear him humming, a little bit, and then you kinda can hear him softly singing like,
Piccolo: [singing] “I can swim without a boa— no, it’s, that’s, hmm.”
Austin: [laughing softly] Aww.
Dre: And it just kinda, the last shot of the TV show fades to black with him basically trying to make this song out of the words that Caspian told him.
Austin: Aww. Aww! That’s very good. All right, Harp.
Jack: I think I’m going to move the Magus.
Austin: [intrigued] Okay! To the Sea Wing?
Jack: To the Sea Wing! Which I think is my only option, but I’m —
Austin: I think so too.
Jack: I wanna go on that boat.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: I mean I guess we can go back— uh, I don’t know that we’re allowed to go backwards, but there is a line to the west, so.
Jack: Yeah, it feels like it would be weird if we went back.
Austin: Agreed.
Jack: Um, so the Magus is the… candle?
Austin: [drawn out, searching] Is the candllllle, yes, yes, no! Is the raven, I’m the candle.
Jack: Oh, cool. All right, so! Um. [deep breath] Where is everyone staying?
Austin: Um, I’m not sure. [long pause] Like on the boat?
Jack: Janine or Dre… No, like in Istallia.
Austin: Oh! Um. Yeah!
Dre: Hmm.
[long pause]
Austin: Caspian had a home here once, a long long time ago, and I think we get a shot of him, I think the next episode opens or whatever, we see the water, and blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. And you definitely see him visit an orphanage, or what used to be, I think you see him visit a place that is, you get a shot of him looking at it, and it’s not the place from his memory, we don’t see what the place is, and then we just get him checking in to an inn or something. You know what I mean? Or maybe we get him checking out of an inn? And walking past the place that used to be his home when he was a little kid a long long long time ago.
Janine: Um, I think after that we get Fawn coming out of the back door of a, uh, cobbler, like a haberdasher, or, you know, a shop of that nature. Definitely the back door, out into an alley kind of thing, trotting along, and there’s like a little coin pouch fastened to the clasp of her cloak.
Austin: Hmm.
Dre: And I think Piccolo stayed at an inn or something that was just very very close to the docks and the wharf.
Jack: And then I think that we cut to everybody sort of sitting in front of or standing next to the Magus on the wharf. Probably, you could probably see it from, from where Piccolo was. And the Magus says,
Jack [as The Magus]: We’re going to board the Sea Wing. Once it was a bird, now it is a boat. It flew into the water many centuries ago, and the water transformed it. Thus may we all be transformed. The Sea Wing is captained by a woman named Grandmother Black. I’m going to be honest with you, she is a pirate.
[Austin laughs]
The Magus: Trust me aboard this boat, and no harm shall come to you. I do not expect we will be doing any piracy, but if we are, think of it as an opportunity. Follow me.
Jack: [starting to narrate] And she strides down the wharf to— [interrupts self]
The Magus: Oh, uh, any questions?
Austin [as Caspian]: What sort of pirate is she?
The Magus: Well, she robs ships.
Caspian: Which sort of ships, is she going after a certain type of quarry? Is she, ah, a gold pirate? Or is she more of a wine pirate?
The Magus: Caspian, you had better not be trying to work out whether or not this is one of the “good pirates.”
Caspian: I’m trying to work out whether this is one of the “bad pirates.”
The Magus: [sharp breath]
Janine [as Fawn]: I’ll look at her hat and I’ll tell you what I think when I see her.
Dre [as Piccolo]: [whispers] Fawn, what’s the difference between a good pirate and a bad pirate?
Fawn: [matter of factly] The hat, I’ll tell ya.
[Austin laughs]
Piccolo: Ohhh.
The Magus: Here is what I can tell you. We will be greeted with hospitality. No one will make this crossing. Now, if I could have boarded another boat without a pirate as our captain, I would have done. Grandmother Black is known in these parts, and this is the journey that has to be taken.
Caspian: [weary sigh]
Piccolo: You got it, boss.
The Magus: Caspian?
Caspian: No complaints.
Jack: And then she turns on her heel and walks down the wharf where there’s this huge black ship. The shading on the map that we can see is not to just color the ship, that is the color of the ship. [Austin: Ooh.] It’s not clear how it was a bird? This isn’t like the train, [Austin: Right.] where, you know, you’re able to see that this is a living thing. This just looks like a boat. And as you approach it, you’re not quite sure whether or not the Magus was telling the truth about the fact that it used to be a big bird.
Austin: [laughing] Mm-hm.
Jack: But it’s a massive, massive boat. And you’re welcomed aboard, and shown to a shared cabin.
Austin: Do we see Grandmother Black?
Jack: Yes, the ship begins to, ah… [searching for right word] Is it “weigh anchor” when the anchor goes up as well as down?
Austin: Good question. I have no idea.
Janine: It’s just “raise anchor.”
Jack: [laughing] Raise anchor.
Janine: Yeah.
Jack: The anchor is raised before we’re able to — we’re down in the hull as we feel the ship begin to sort of lurch and move and the wind fill the sails. And we come up, or at least the Magus comes up and I think probably eventually we come up to the deck to see a woman with a black pirate’s hat, and long, or shoulder-length… grey hair. Like, big, big hair. And she’s behind the wheel, and she takes her hat off and waves it, and the hair kind of flows out behind her like a pirate. You know, like a pirate’s hair. [all laugh]
Austin: [slightly sarcastic] Like a pirate’s hair. Yeah. Uh-huh.
Jack: [still laughing] She looks like a pirate, is what I’m telling you.
Austin: [humoring Jack] Okay. Uh huh. With like a tricorn hat? Or...
Janine: She waves pirately at us. [background laughter]
Jack: Yeah, it’s like a tricorn hat and she waves, she waves pirately from the helm. [beat] Ah, she doesn’t say anything, she’s steering the boat.
Austin: I think… Yeah, no. Caspian doesn’t do anything special here. Caspian takes one look at her, then looks down at Piccolo and Fawn, and then just like doesn’t wait for a response about the hat, and just picks up everyone’s bags as best he can and drags them under deck.
Piccolo: [whispering] What’s the word on the hat?
Janine: Hang on, is it just like black with like — is it like a black kinda like leather? Just like the standard—
Jack: It’s like a black tricorn hat, yeah.
Austin: What’s it made of?
Janine: Is there like a feather in it?
Jack: Leather, leather I think. [Austin: Okay] I think it does have a feather in it, yeah.
Janine: Just like, one feather?
Jack: Ummm.
Austin: What color feather?
Jack: It has, it’s a white feather. White sails, black wood of the ship. Black coat. Black hat. White feather.
Janine: [skeptically] Hmmm… I don’t think Fawn looks impressed? I don’t think she looks like, she’s not like extremely unimpressed either, but like, if she had a hand, she would sort of raise it and then do that thing where you sort of tip your hand back and forth, like “Mehhh”. [Austin chuckles]. I don’t know how to describe that gesture.
[Austin and Jack both try to make the sound of that gesture — “Mehhhh”]
Austin: Yeah, that’s it, you got it.
[Janine laughs]
[pause]
Jack: And yeah, I think that’s it, I think we’re on board the Sea Wing, and I think it’s going.
Austin: Exciting.
Jack: Yeah. We’ve found our way onto a pirate ship. We’ve not even smuggled our way onto a pirate ship [Austin: No.] Our group leader has boarded a pirate ship.
Austin: Well, Istallia the Gilded One said that they would arrange for travel, so they set up Grandmother Black and the Sea Wing. Great.
[pause]
[all chuckle]
Austin: Um, I think Janine, you’re up next. Right? Wrong?
Janine: Yeah. [drawn out, thoughtful] Sooo, let’s see here. Umm. I thiiiink… how bout… Cabin: “The sound of the ship.” Um, I think like, Fawn goes below deck pretty quickly to kind of like scope things out, and sort of, you know, see what the amenities are. [laughs] Not the amenities, but like—
Austin: No, I gotcha.
Janine: You know, she wants to get the lay of the ship. And she ends up kind of like thinking, “Oh, you know, ‘d be a nice time for a nap in the cabin,” and like there’s little hammocks, I imagine, hanging all over the place. And I think she opts for like, there’s a hammock that has not been set up, and is just like bunched up on the floor. [Austin: Mm.] So she kinda, um, does a few circular, like, you know when a little animal walks in a circle to kind of hollow out a little space to lay down in. I think she does that, but as she’s trying to like take her nap, she starts hearing this like — at first it just sounds like a ship creaking, like it’s a wooden ship, it is in the water, there are a lot of forces being exerted upon it. It is going to creak, and groan. But the more she hears the creaking, the more it sounds like gulls?
Austin: [uneasy] Mm.
Janine: Like, just gulls ceaselessly crying. And the more she hears that, the more she hears it, the more it sounds like gulls, and the more she recognizes the sounds of gulls the less restful it is. Until she is eventually just running up and down the lower deck barking? Because it just sounds like there’s fucking birds everywhere. And I think eventually she, like, comes back to herself. Or maybe someone gets her attention and she has to go back above deck. Cause it’s like, incredibly overwhelming down there.
Austin: Right. [pause] Um, cool. All right. Um, my turn? I think we’re going to the Galley. “What have we been eating” is my prompt. So I think the galley is at the… I think that there is, on this ship, where the captain’s quarters normally are, towards the back of — sorry, the aft of the vessel, there is instead a galley. And do you know how sometimes there is like, on the captain’s quarters or like up and back behind the hull of the ship, and kind of there’s like separation between the very back rear of the captain’s quarters and like the lower decks? And so there’s just like empty air below the captain’s quarters? There is a…
Austin: Door in the bottom of the galley, which is now, again in where you might traditionally think of — like underneath where the wheel is, basically, is where the captain’s quarters normally are, and now it’s a galley, and there’s a door in there on the ground.
And if you open the door, and in fact the door is open currently, there is a constantly trawling series of nets and hooks and other fishing devices, but whenever they pull anything up, it's never a fish, it’s never a crab, it’s never an animal of any kind, it’s always just various… sea flora? So it’s seaweed, and it is kind of deep sea flora of various kinds that I am not knowledgeable enough about, and also fantasy versions of those things, that they pull up and then cook into kind of hot dishes — I guess a mix of hot and cold, some of them are cooled out and you get like a nice seaweed salad, basically. But it’s lots of very spiced various green based meals are being cooked here.
And there isn’t a lot of space, and so what you get is you get these meals of like everyone on the ship has mealtimes associated to them every day, for the entire journey. And you have that time with your group, and that is it, and then you have to leave, and someone else gets shuffled in. And you have like forty-five minutes to come in, get a dinner prepared for you and eaten or a meal prepared for you and you can eat it. And I suspect mornings are — you have less time than evenings. And there is no lunch service, they go right from — because some people have very late breakfast and very, very early dinners. And so you kind of have to shuffle through this weird system of like all right, I’m here, I’m gonna eat my seaweed salad, and then move on. There are no substitutions, but there is a spice rack that is like one entire wall is the spice rack, and you can pick from whatever you want to kind of add different flavors to whatever your meal is.
And I think we see Caspian just like running a finger, without touching it, just along the various spices and reading what they’re marked as. And anybody can be in this scene. Please, anyone who wants to have dinner with Caspian can be here looking at these spices. [pauses] I guess that one’s primarily Piccolo, ‘cause Piccolo’s a person.
Dre: I mean, yeah, yeah, I can be there.
Austin: But Fawn, you have to eat too, so.
Janine: Yeah. Also, Fawn’s pretty restless, so she’s probably in the mood to look at some spices.
Austin: Yeah, yeah. Uh, pep—
Jack: I’ll come and look at some spices.
Austin [as Caspian]: [musing] Paprika. Salt. This one just says cylinder, does anyone know what cylinder is?
Dre [as Piccolo]: Nope. You want me to try it?
Caspian: Oh, just a little bit.
Piccolo: Okay.
Janine [as Fawn]: Are you sure it’s not coriander?
Caspian: No, that’s next to it, that’s coriander there.
Fawn: Uh, celery seed?
Caspian: That’s also, they have that one.
Piccolo: [mouth smacking noises] Um. Hm! It’s like kinda sweet?
Caspian: Okay. [sighs, tired] Peppermint. I don’t — this doesn’t feel like a peppermint sorta cruise to me.
Piccolo: That — I don’t know, some people like mint!
Fawn: What’s a peppermint cruise?
Caspian: It’s like a—… Like, festive? This doesn’t feel very festive.
Piccolo: I dunno. They sing.
Caspian: They do sing. I —
Fawn: I think the train would have been a peppermint cruise.
Caspian: The train would have been a peppermint cruise, that’s exactly right.
Fawn: Yeah.
Caspian: I think I’m gonna go with… This one just says “It’s a volcano.” Which sounds spicy to me, so I think I’m gonna —
Piccolo: I wanna try that, I love spicy food.
Caspian: All right, here, let me — let’s put that on just one piece of — all right, how ‘bout this. It sounds like it’s very spicy, it has a high ranking of spice. Let’s take this back, we’ll split one piece of seaweed.
Piccolo: [very dismayed] Oh no!
Caspian: What?
Piccolo: I tumped it on my salad.
Caspian: Ohh no, it’s gonna be a very spicy salad, let’s — we’ll split the salad, let’s split the salad, that way — I bet we can get some sort of ice crystal spice or something to counter it?
Piccolo: I mean, I’ll eat it.
Caspian: I don’t…
Piccolo: I bet you a dollar I can eat it.
Caspian: I don’t wanna bet you any money because you’re gonna get sick later!
Piccolo: Pshh, I’ll be fine!
Caspian: I bet you — all right. I bet you ten dollars that you won’t eat it. Wait! No! Other way, I bet you ten dollars — yes! I bet you ten dollars that you won’t eat it.
Piccolo: Okay, so I win if I do eat it.
Caspian: No, the other way around.
Piccolo: Wait, hold. That’s not a good —
Caspian: I’m saying, I’ll give you ten dollars if you don’t eat that thing that’s gonna ruin your stomach.
Piccolo: That — okay. I don’t think that’s how bets work.
Caspian: It’s like a counterbet?
Piccolo: Um.
Fawn: It’s a bribe.
Caspian: It’s a br — wait.
Piccolo: Naw —
Fawn: An incentive.
Piccolo: — I think Fawn’s got the right of it.
Caspian: No, Fawn got — it’s an incentive. You’re a growing boy, I wanna make sure you don’t…
Piccolo: I’m just gonna try it.
Caspian: [breathes in sharply] How is it?
Piccolo: It’s not spicy at all.
Caspian: Oh. Okay.
Piccolo: It’s like kinda like, chalky? [pauses] This is a weird spice.
Fawn: Oh, it’s ash.
Caspian: Oh! It’s a volcano! [laughs]
Fawn: Yeah.
Caspian: Oh! Don’t eat that! [laughing] I’m gonna go back and get us the peppermint, we’re gonna eat the peppermint, we’re gonna have a good day. Don’t eat the ash.
Fawn: Could you pass me the musk?
Caspian: Eugh.
Austin: And he slides you over the musk spice.
Piccolo: [whispering] Hey, Fawn? Fawn?
Fawn: [laughing] Yes?
Piccolo: I lied, it’s actually spicy, but it’s pretty good.
Austin: [laughs] Ah… I think that’s scene. Um. Dre!
Dre: Uh, I’m gonna do the Helm, “how we find our way.” And I think this scene is… Piccolo’s definitely been kind of like a goober so far, but I think that is more a result of him being like, just way out of his element, like either in these like high society shirt shops or having very important and deep conversations or riding a living train, whereas I think at some point like once the novelty of like being on the ocean wears off, Piccolo just realizes that like doing things on a ship is just a lot of hard manual labor, and that’s just what he’s done for his whole life.
Austin: Right.
Dre: And so he just starts — I think he starts tentatively, asking like how can I help, what can I do. But then just kind of throws himself like full force into learning how to tie up and raise and lower the sails, and like, mess with the rigging, and all of the other just hard manual labor stuff that comes with a ship of this size. So I think maybe this scene is Piccolo and if other people just wanna play like a handful of crewmembers or something?
Janine: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Dre: If we even wanna play this scene, I mean, it could just be like the montage scene of him, you know, scrambling up to the crow’s nest and… climbing all over rigging [Austin: Climbing stuff!] and stuff like that, yeah.
Austin: Up to y’all. I guess unless maybe the one thing here is do you end up working with Grandmother Black at all?
Dre: Yeah, I think that could be interesting!
Austin: ‘Cause then I’d love to see Grandmother Black.
Dre: Yeah, yeah yeah.
Jack: I could be the — I could be the captain.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack [as Grandmother Black]: Boy!
Dre [as Piccolo]: Uh, yes — yes, Captain!
Grandmother Black: Is this your first time on a ship?
Piccolo: Yes, yes it is.
Jack: Grandmother Black like cocks her head and like closes one eye and peers at you out of one eye.
Grandmother Black: You’re doing very well, very well.
Piccolo: Oh, oh, whew, thank you, okay.
Grandmother Black: Very well on the ship. Very well. I wouldn’t know, I wouldn’t know. Have you seen my first mate?
Piccolo: Uh, no! No, I have not. What’s your first mate’s name? I’m bad with names.
Grandmother Black: Ah, he drowned.
Piccolo: [disturbed] Oh!
Grandmother Black: Drowned, years ago, drowned, sunk to the bottom, to the bottom of the ocean. To the bottom of the ocean.
Piccolo: So, were you looking for like his ghost?
Grandmother Black: Trying to haul him, trying to haul him up every day.
Piccolo: Oh. Oh… Uh, well, I mean, I’ll help with that if you want, Captain!
Grandmother Black: He’ll be fine, he’s just — he’s just — he’s just stuck down there. Stuck down there. He’s stuck down there. I need to get him back up, get him back up so he can work. You can work!
Piccolo: [dutiful] Yes, I can! I’m happy to work in any capacity, Captain!
Grandmother Black: You’d make a good first mate, has anyone told you that?
Piccolo: Uh. No, but that is — that is a gr —
Grandmother Black: Is this your first time on a ship, boy?
Piccolo: [dutiful] It is, I saw the ocean for the first time a week ago, Captain!
Grandmother Black: Please take the helm.
[Austin laughs]
Piccolo: Oh — okay!
Grandmother Black: Now it is important to keep one eye on the horizon.
Piccolo: Okay.
Grandmother Black: Keep an eye on the horizon, child.
Piccolo: Yes, okay, what about the other eye?
Jack: She like stops and considers as though she hasn’t really thought of this.
Austin: [laughs] Not in a long time, probably.
Grandmother Black: Free, free to rest, free to rest. Free to roam, free to rest and roam. Do you see the line? The line where the sky meets the sea?
Piccolo: Yes.
Grandmother Black: Very important. Very important line, very important. Lets us know where we’re going. You mustn’t cross the line.
Piccolo: …Okay.
Grandmother Black: Never, never. Don’t cross the line down, don’t cross the line up. Mustn’t be done.
Piccolo: Okay. No, that makes sense.
[pause]
Grandmother Black: Well, good. Good. Have you seen my first mate?
[Austin laughs]
Piccolo: [dutiful] I believe you told me he was on the bottom of the ocean, Captain!
Grandmother Black: Right you are, right you are, a smart boy, a smart boy.
Piccolo: Wait, hold on, nope, I have seen your first — wait. Hold on, you said I’d make a good first mate, was that an actual promotion or was that just a compliment? Captain.
Grandmother Black: I said that?
Piccolo: You did… Captain.
Grandmother Black: Well, then, I have forgotten him. You may join, you may join. Welcome aboard, welcome aboard. Welcome aboard the crew.
Piccolo: Wow — okay, thank you, Captain.
[Austin laughs]
Grandmother Black: You will find a hat.
[Austin laughs more]
Piccolo: [excited whisper] Yes!
Austin: That’s why they call it the helm.
Jack: [laughs] ‘Cause if you’re there for long enough…
Austin: You find a hat.
Jack: Someone gives you a hat.
Austin: Jack, I really appreciate that you’ve taken the crows from Dark Souls and turned them into a ship captain.
[all laugh]
Austin: You did say this boat used to be a bird, so. Um.
Dre: Ah…
Jack: Maybe that’s not the only thing that used to be a bird!
Austin: Yeah! Who could say!
Dre: Oh, my only regret of this is that I’m not sure I’m not sure we can now have the scene of PIccolo busting into wherever Fawn is and being like, look at my hat!!!
Austin: [laughing] I mean, we could just have that exact shot and then cut to… Harp. Or wait, was that — yeah yeah yeah, that’s right. Yes. So cut to Harp.
Jack: Okay, let’s see. [long breath] Oh wow, wait, does everybody here have like one job? That’s really cool.
Austin: What?
Jack: ‘Cause the only spot left for me to go onto is the Crow’s Nest.
Austin: Oh, you could, again, you could double up. You could also have the sound of the ship.
Janine: Mm-hm.
Austin: Or the cabin, you know.
Jack: I do kind of like that’s it’s like all hands on deck, [cross] everyone goes to one place. That’s pretty cool.
Austin: [cross] Yeah, me too. Yeah. Yeah.
Jack: Um. Yes, I’m gonna climb the crow’s nest. Um. Which is… I think that I’m not afraid of falling. I think that I’m both very aware that falling would be extremely bad news for me — and probably, at this height, also the ship? But that’s not something I’m afraid of. I don’t think Harp has those sorts of fears. I think there’s someone up in the crow’s nest, like a crew member, like, I guess, the watchperson. I don’t know who that is.
Austin: I can be the watchperson. Um, the watchperson is Carol Ann, and she is asleep in the crow’s nest.
[Janine and Jack laugh quietly]
Austin [as Carol Ann]: [snoring, sighing]
Jack [as Harp]: A good watch.
Carol Ann: Ahh!
Harp: A good sleep.
Carol Ann: [in a rough voice] Fff… Golem. Golem, uh. Shit. Ah, you gotta promise me you didn’t see that, golem.
Harp: I promise.
Carol Ann: Always trust a golem’s word. You made it up the ladder! You seem pr —
Harp: It was a long climb.
Carol Ann: You seem — you’re pretty heavy, glad to know that the ladder stood up.
Harp: It is fixed well to the mast.
Carol Ann: I did that nailin’ myself.
Harp: You are a better carpenter than you are a watchperson.
Carol Ann: That’s what I always say, but I keep getting assigned to the crow’s nest!
Harp: Why do you keep gettin assigned to the crow’s nest?
Carol Ann: Because I tell them I like it, I can get a good nap up here.
Harp: …I have a question. Suppose the ship were to run afoul of an obstacle, while you were asleep.
Carol Ann: Ach… yeah?
Harp: My question is… How do you square this with your sleeping?
[Dre laughs quietly]
Carol Ann: Mm. Ah, suppose I didn’t sleep, and then I thought I saw a thing ‘cause I was really tired, and I said ah, turn the wheel, and then they did, and we went off course, and hit a rock. Now that would be a dilemma.
Harp: It would. It would, it would be a dilemma. But that is what the sleeping hour is for. Not the watching hour —
Carol Ann: Ah, I use that to eat.
Harp: …It seems that your day is all messed up, but mostly messed up around the part of your job that is most crucial.
Carol Ann: Ahhh… It’s been workin out so far.
Harp: What is that?
Jack: And Harp points at this kind of like dark shape under the water.
Carol Ann: Ohh… well, that’s the old… heh… that’s the captain’s wife.
[pause]
Harp: Pardon?
Carol Ann: That’s Grandfather Gray.
Harp: What is Grandfather Gray?
Austin: And then like, a waterspout just pops out from the dark spot under the water.
Carol Ann: Oh, just a big fish. Like a fish… lord. He’s like an underwater pirate? Except he —
Harp: And he is married to the captain.
Carol Ann: Yeah. She — hm. It’s not my place to say, but she used to be a… she’s been a captain a long time. She’s been a pirate. And I think he’s kind of — she used to be a sky pirate, and now she’s like a topsea pirate, and he… [uncomfortable sigh]
Harp: Is there something that is hard to say?
Carol Ann: [sighs] There are lots of things that are hard to say. The w—… And I’m gonna go back to sleep.
Harp: I will keep your watch. I will keep my promise.
Carol Ann: Wait, what was your promise?
Harp: That I will not tell that you were sleeping.
Carol Ann: Ha ha! Oh, thanks. That means a lot. Mmh, can you scoot over a little?
Jack: Like, Harp just like takes a step to one side, and the crow’s nest shifts slightly.
Austin: And Carol Ann kind of like curls up on the ground. Or on the floor of the crow’s nest.
Carol Ann: That’s actually a little more comfortable, this is a better position.
Jack: And I think that’s scene, but I think that the scene ends as we see… We are sailing — at this point we’re still in fairly home waters?
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: We’ve been going for a while, but we’re in home waters. And we are passing over the… The farms and the sort of suburbs of the seafolk who live here. We can see down, crystalline through the water, we can see big, glass ceilings and minarets and seafolk moving down under the water around the ship.
Austin: Awesome. All right, I’m gonna move this map a little bit. I think just to here, though. Just so we can see more of the Sightless Sea.
Jack: Oh yeah, ‘cause we go one island at a time, don’t we?
Austin: I… believe so. So… We’re in the Sightless Sea, and on the map currently there are three little island points. According to the book, ‘cause this is a whole other side ruleset here… [reading] When you enter the Sightless Sea, shuffle the Lost Island Cards and place the deck face down below the scroll. When you move the Magus to an Island, draw two cards. Place one on the map and the other on the bottom of the deck. Then describe the newly revealed Location and its Story Prompt from the perspective of the Magus like usual.
So, who is up? Fawn, Janine, you are the Magus.
Janine: It’s… yeah. Okay…
Austin: I’m gonna shuffle these real quick.
Janine: Mm-hm.
Austin: And then I’m gonna deal out two…cards. To you. Uh, do you see those cards?
Janine: I do! So one of these I’m chucking, and one of them I’m keeping, right?
Austin: Correct, yeah.
Janine: Without looking, I think, is the spirit of it.
Austin: Oh, is it? I thought it was the other way. But sure.
Janine: Well, it says you turn one face up and then put the other under the deck.
Austin: Yeah, I guess so. I guess so, that makes sense. Yeah.
Janine: But these are minimized, so I’m not like looking at them.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I don’t know how to put one of them back, though.
Austin: I can do that. Do you pick the left one or the right one? There you go.
Janine: This is the one I want.
Austin: That’s the one you want?
Janine: I believe so.
Austin: Okay, so I’m gonna steal this card, and then… And then I’m going to… That’s not — whoa! — that’s not what I wanted to do, I wanna — how do I put this fuckin back?
Janine: I also don’t know if these are… I guess those are three little islands, huh.
Austin: Yeah, that’s the thing I’m not sure about, is I don’t —
Janine: Like there’s three islands on the back of the card, so it’s like…
Austin: Are there?
Janine: Yeah, the card design is that set of three islands.
Austin: Oh, is the islands, I see.
Jack: I think it has to be three islands because we’re just coming up on Umbra.
Austin: I mean, that might be the game, is the thing. I’m honestly not sure. I guess it does say when you move the Magus to an island, right?
Jack: Yeah.
Janine: Yeah, and there are three.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Right there, so okay. Uh. Anyway.
Austin: I don’t know how to put the — I’m gonna just draw this one really quick so I can put it away. Really quick. Uh, flip card. I’m gonna put them in a pile over here, the ones we got rid of.
[Jack laughs]
Janine: Okay.
Austin: They exist right here now. All right, so. Describe the newly revealed location and its story prompt from the perspective of the Magus like normal.
Janine: So, we have our first island is the Mirror. And the prompt is “the faith of the Twin Sister.”
Austin: Okay!
Janine: Um. [pause] So. God. There’s a lot of options here. Where’s the Magus, here’s the Magus. Lemme move the Magus. Oh, they’re under the card, that’s not…
Austin: Oh, I gotcha, I gotcha. I’ll move this to ma… To the map layer. There we go.
Janine: Um… So. The faith of the Twin Sister. I think… ohh! Okay. I think we get to… We stop at this island, and it is a stop very much for like, you know, you need to… Sometimes you just need to stop. You need to stretch your legs, you need to refresh your fresh water supply. You know, they’re pulling most of their food out of the sea, but like, sometimes you gotta restock your weird spices and stuff, and the islands along the way, each one, I imagine, they also have like stores on them, stores as in like stockpiles of stuff for their journeys, so they can refresh the supplies there. So I think there is a period where we are sort of on this island, kind of killing time, and we… there’s like, there are very few, it’s a very small, very small population on this island. There are probably more buildings than there are people. Because it used to be a little bit busier, but for whatever reason, the population has dwindled. And the most prominent of these people — or at least the most noticeable to us — is there is a beautiful stone golem out in one of the few fields. It’s not really a field, it’s more like an herb garden. There’s not a lot of space here for big fields, but. This is a golem that is, for all intents and purposes, identical to Harp, except they have the rake in the left hand, and in the right hand they have a spade.
Jack: Hm.
Austin: Huh.
Jack: Do I see this… Do I see this golem?
Janine: I imagine the island is small enough that like, it would be hard to miss this. Especially like a lot of the population I think are inside at the moment. So it’s sort of like we disembark, we’re on this beach, you can probably see clear to the other side when you are on that hill.
Jack: Wow…
Janine: So we can almost certainly see them, and they’re just — they are very diligently working in this garden.
Jack: Hm. [sighs] Is this the Magus’s scene?
Janine: Yeah. Um. [pause] Mm. Okay, so I think… Right. I don’t know that the Magus is like… I don’t know that the Magus finds this remarkable. I think the Magus kind of leads the group as we sort of disembark, to, you know, spend a nice afternoon slash evening in this little island that we wouldn’t normally get to see. I think she approaches the golem first just because they are like the closest… I was gonna say attraction, that’s not right.
Austin: [laughs] No.
Janine: The closest, like, point of interest isn’t right either. But like the first like thing, or the first remarkable… element on the road into civilization, or what passes for civilization on the island. And I think her interest in the golem is kind of… like an at-arm’s-length thing. She looks at them in a way where it’s like she wants to make sure that everything is… is in order! That, you know, everything’s going as planned, and she seems pretty like content with this? In a way where like she’s not even remarking on it to Harp, or anything. It’s just like, everything is as it should be, kind of.
[pause]
Jack [as Harp]: Who is that?
Janine [as The Magus]: Ah, that’s Lyre.
Harp: What are they?
The Magus: Well, they’re a golem, and they keep the physic garden.
Harp: They look just like me.
The Magus: They’re made of the very same stuff.
Harp: [breathes in] I am disturbed by them.
The Magus: Why is that, Harp?
Harp: Do you see what they carry?
The Magus: They carry a rake in their left hand, and a spade in their right.
Harp: I was not built to carry a rake and a spade.
The Magus: Well, where you were built, you were needed to carry a rake and a sword.
Harp: I was a gardener.
The Magus: Gardeners do a lot of different things in different… places.
Harp: Why were two of us built?
The Magus: Because you were built rather far apart.
Harp: If you were to order us to be built the same… why is there a difference? Why do they get to carry a spade?
The Magus: Do you want a spade, Harp?
Harp: I did not know why I carried a sword. … I only used that sword —
The Magus: Would you rather have the spade?
Harp: [starts to speak repeatedly] Would my use of the spade take it from them?
The Magus: No.
Harp: Would it become less useful with a spade?
The Magus: What do you mean? Would you become less useful with a spade?
Harp: Yes.
The Magus: Well, no, because your left hand is empty already.
Harp: …Magus, I feel like I am on the edge of a ritual.
The Magus: Ah…
Harp: I do not —
Janine: I don’t know that the Magus has an answer, sorry.
Harp: I do not expect an answer from you. You ask me if I would prefer to carry the spade. I did not want to carry the sword, but the first time I used was when it was taken to fuel the train. I cannot make decisions about what it is that I want, Magus. Because I do not know where we are going, and I do not know the ways in which we are to be used.
The Magus: When you’re built in one place, it’s very easy to build to purpose. When you move, though, when you move from that place, purpose is… always going to be a more flexible concept. If we build you in one location where you need a sword, and you walk fifty steps west from that location, you may never need that sword again. If you want a spade, we’ll get you a spade.
Harp: Thank you for talking to me.
The Magus: Thank you for talking to me.
Austin: Is that scene?
Janine: I think that’s scene.
Austin: Okay! So. I think Caspian — let me make sure my order is right, yeah. So I think Caspian heads into the Village of Lights — our options here are Village of Lights, Glass Cathedral, Guarded Tower, and the Holy Prism. Prompt here is “Kindness to a stranger.” And… would again appreciate accompaniment from Fawn or Piccolo or both, and would really love someone to play the mayor of this town, of this village? The village is all but abandoned. There are still [sighs] shops and facades, and kind of a main street and what it was once maybe a bustling marketplace. And it is midday, and there is an image of the mayor, I don’t know what the mayor looks like… But they’re older. I’d say they’re probably in their sixties or seventies or maybe even older than that. And maybe one or two other people, who are stringing lanterns up all around this town, because tonight or tomorrow or this weekend is the Festival of Lights. It is why this city or this town is called the Village of Lights. And… on paper, all of those people who left this island, once, are supposed to come back for a celebration, for a religious ritual for a kind of civic duty, almost, to the Mirror. And the mayor is setting all of this up. And Caspian and whoever is with him kind of walks in, looking for a shop to buy some supplies, and maybe some meat, so that they can eat something that is not just seaweed. Honestly, even a different type of salad would be great. And is just kind of walking into this open square, where lines are being hung and lanterns hung from those lines. And Caspian like looks, calls over to the mayor and is like…
Austin [as Caspian]: Hey, do you need help?
Austin: Who is up for being the mayor?
[pause]
Janine: Uh, I can be the mayor.
Austin: Okay. Uh, Piccolo or — uh, so Fawn’s not with me. Piccolo or Harp, do you wanna be here?
Dre: I can be here.
Austin: Okay.
Caspian: Ah, do you need any help?
Janine [as The Mayor]: Oh, no no no no, you just enjoy the sights!
Caspian: Um. Y… I appreciate it, I’m just — it seems like you gotta hang a lotta lanterns.
The Mayor: We do it every year, it’s — you know, we have… we have a routine, and it works great, and every year.
Austin: Caspian like looks down to Piccolo and then looks back up.
Caspian: Wh… Are you — is this everybody? The three of you?
The Mayor: Mary’s inside, taking a nap. Um. And I think… I think… The, you know, the cat’s probably in the barn.
Caspian: Sounds like a barn cat.
Austin: Caspian like runs his hands through his beard and then he says, um.
Caspian: Wh… What sort of festivities are you preparing for? Maybe I could help somewhere else. Do you need like any food moved around, do you need someone to hand out flyers?
The Mayor: No, no, no, no. No. Guests should just relax, they should just, y’know, just find a place to settle down, and then when the sun sets, it’s very beautiful… There’ll be lots of people to talk to. Um. [laughing a little] You know, just take the time while you can to beat the lines! There’s a fudge shop. And it gets very crowded, so you’re going to want to get there very early, it’s very good fudge. They do a fudge — this is going to sound weird, and we only do it for this festival, because, you know, it’s a tradition and everyone expects it. Everyone expects it when they come — it’s like a fudge but like you get a little bit of meat in there?
Caspian: Oh, like a meat fudge.
The Mayor: It’s like ground up, and, you know, it gives it a good texture, it gives it a good — it makes it heartier. Cuts the sweetness. So it’s quite, uh, it’s not overbearing. You know. When — you eat a lot of rich foods, when you make the journey, and you don’t want anything too overbearing when you finally come home!
Caspian: Oh, I gotcha. [not sure about all this] Piccolo, does that sound good? Line up for some meat fudge?
Dre [as Piccolo]: Yeah. I guess… why all the lights? I mean, it’s very pretty. It’s very nice.
The Mayor: Thank you! We try very hard. We take our traditions very seriously! It’s a lot of work, but it’s something that gives us a lot of personal pride, and accomplishment, to do.
Piccolo: I guess, when did it start, like does it — is it a symbol?
The Mayor: Well, everything’s a symbol, really. I mean, the meat in the fudge represents, um, you know, it represents like the power and the sweetness of life. Um. And the lamps, they represent the brightness of the spirits of our people in this place, when they come home, and the way they light up, is like the lights.
Caspian: Okay.
Piccolo: Uh-huh.
Caspian: Hey, do you have, like, I don’t mean to interrupt, I just —
Austin: And I think like Caspian like walks over to like a nearby hay bale or like a chair — maybe not even a chair, maybe just like…cracks his knees and sits cross-legged on the ground, and says, um.
Caspian: Can you tell me what your favorite memory of all of the festivals? Like, a long time ago, like what was it like when you were younger? I’m just curious.
The Mayor: Well...
Janine: I think the mayor has like been on a ladder for most of this conversation?
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I imagined too.
Janine: And I imagine that this like — I don’t think they come down, but they like lower their arms and rest the lantern sort of on the top step of that ladder, as if they’re like specifically not going to immediately go back to work. But are taking a moment. And I think the mayor like considers for a minute, and then is like.
The Mayor: Well. When I was like, oh, eight, eight or nine? Gotta be nine. Gotta be nine, because Wendy was still around, and Wendy always wore her hair in these amazing braids. Like, just perfect, sleek, dozens and dozens of em, and then sometimes she’d wind em up in little spirals, so it would look like, kinda look like waves to me. It looked like the cresting of a wave, but it was on the back of her head, and it was all this hair. And she’d do that every year, but when I was… was it eight? No, it was nine.
Caspian: Had to be nine.
The Mayor: Had to be nine. She grew her hair out extra long that year. I don’t know why she did it, she never told me. But she’d been growing her hair out extra long. And she didn’t curl it, she didn’t do the waves that time. She just let it all hang sorta straight in this — like she braided the braids or something, it just looked like one of those real big ropes that you tied a boat with. And I just thought it was the most amazing thing.
Caspian: That sounds like good, that sounds like a good day.
The Mayor: I always wanted to do my hair like that, couldn’t get it past the shoulders! Couldn’t get past the shoulders.
Caspian: That sounds great. I think we’re gonna go wait in line for some of that meat fudge.
The Mayor: Be sure to get the fudge. It’s wonderful fudge.
Caspian: Definitely. Definitely gonna get the fudge.
The Mayor: I know it sounds weird, but trust me, it’s —
Caspian: It sounds great. It sounds like a thing to be, um…
The Mayor: Glad you’re openminded.
Caspian: [slight laugh] I’m openmouthed, I’m hungry! Is what I am, I could go for some meat fudge.
[Janine laughs]
[Dre laughs]
Caspian: I’ll see you tonight. I hope the festival goes fantastic…ly. Beautifully?
The Mayor: Enjoy the town.
Caspian: Brightly.
The Mayor: Beautifully, fantastically, brightly. All of it. Like every year.
Austin: And then, um… Caspian turns to leave with Piccolo to go stand near the empty building where theoretically someone is gonna set up a fudge shop. [snorts]
Janine: Beef fudge is real, by the way.
Austin: Is it?
Janine: Oh, yeah.
Austin: Eugh…
Dre: Augh, wait, hold on.
Austin: Beef fudge?
Janine: Yeah.
Jack: [doubtful noise]
Janine: [cross] It’s real! I promise!
Dre: [cross] Well. This is not something I expected to google, but.
Janine: Google beef fudge, [laughing] everyone stop and google beef…
Austin: Oh. [muttering] Cooked with butter…
Dre: Beef fudge, 1967, a vintage recipe test.
Janine: Mm-hm.
Austin: [exhausted] I’m okayyy.
Jack: Oh no.
Dre: [cross] Ugh.
Austin: [cross] Oh my god.
Janine: I think it’s a recipe that was invented by the wife of a cattle farmer or something for like the cattle bureau of some state or some fuckin…
Dre: [doubtful noise]
Austin: This guy says it’s delicious!
Dre: [even more doubtful noise]
Janine: I have — here’s the thing! [Jack laughs in the distance] I kinda like vintage recipes, it’s a thing of mine.
Austin: Yeah, uh-huh.
Janine: I’ve seen at least three people test it, and every single person has said it is the best fudge they’ve ever had.
Austin: I’d try it. I’d try a piece of it.
Jack: Huh. Yeah, I mean I’d try it. I love this recipe so much. The recipe takes a left turn real fast. [all laugh] A pound of butter or margarine. One large can of evaporated milk. [laughs] Four somethings of sugar. One to twelve ounces of packaged chocolate chips.
Austin: Uh-huh!
Jack: One part of marshmallow cream. Two teaspoons of vanilla. [laughs]
Austin: Uh-huh!
Jack: One cup of ground roast beef.
Janine: [laughs] Has to be ground roast beef.
Austin: Crusty… what —
Janine: Not just ground beef. You want the good stuff.
Austin: Uh-huh. You skipped, and then in parentheses: “crusty, dry parts removed [lowers voice seriously] and only seasoned with salt.”
Jack: And then it gets right back on the train again! One cup chopped walnuts. [all laugh] I feel great about this town…
Austin: This is from the actual printed thing, it says “walnuts can be added for extra taste, but this is luscious — this is luscious fudge, with only the ground beef for crunchiness.” [laughs]
Janine: [laughs] Love that beef crunch!
Austin: Yum. Uh, “an elegant way to use up leftover roast beef. Try it today!” [pause] God. “This fudge keeps real well and the beef takes away some of the sweetness, and yet adds nutrition.” [all laugh quietly] Different time, 1967. All right.
Dre: I’m gonna make this. I’m gonna make this. I have to try.
Austin: Yeah! Tell me how it is! I’m really curious.
Dre: I’m bookmarking this right now.
Austin: Good. All right. It is your turn, Dre.
Dre: [laughs] Oh, good!
Austin: Mm-hm.
Dre: Ahhhhh… I will do… The Holy Prism, which is “what comes into view.”
Austin: Mm.
Dre: [sighs] And Jack, I think I’m gonna need your help on this one, because I think what comes into view is that while Piccolo is like just tending to some first mate duties around the ship, um, Grandmother Black’s husband comes up for air. And I didn’t know if you had any idea of what… he looks like.
Jack: [sighs] Uh. I mean! Let’s just, let’s do it! We’re in it. He’s a kraken.
Dre: Okay!
Austin: Mm.
Jack: He is about the size of an island. He has like tentacles and tendrils, he has buildings on his back. He has one big, staring… one big, staring, blinking eye. [pause] Yeah, I think, he’s a kraken.
Dre: K…
Jack: You know, you know! He’s a kraken!
Dre: Yeah yeah, yeah!
Austin: Right right, with the buildings on their backs, of course!
Dre: Yeah. Can he talk?
Jack: [searching] Uh — [laughs] yes, he can. He says…
Jack [as Grandfather Gray]: [in a deep voice] Child.
Dre [as Piccolo]: [startled] Ohhh. [louder] Yes!
Grandfather Gray: You have been aboard --
Jack: You’re on the boat right now, aren’t you, sorry. [laughs] [Dre laughs]
Grandfather Gray: You are at the helm.
Piccolo: Uh. Yes!
Grandfather Gray: It is a place of great responsibility. I followed the ship from beneath the waves and I saw that you steered true most of the time.
Piccolo: Thank you, I followed the captain’s instructions, one eye on the horizon, never go under or over.
Grandfather Gray: [ominously] Is that what she said.
Piccolo: That is, word for word…
Grandfather Gray: Well how ‘bout that. …I cannot leave the water. Only the tower on my back.
Piccolo: Ha — have you seen the first mate?
Grandfather Gray: [sighs] The first mate captains a ship in my fleet.
Piccolo: Oh. Does the captain know that?
Grandfather Gray: She probably does.
Piccolo: Okay. She misses him, I think, or at least she talks about him a lot.
Grandfather Gray: We have our own ways to sail, she and I. There are times when I wish that was not the case, but… We have our crews, and we have our flagships.
Piccolo: Do you — do you want me to go get her, so that y’all can talk?
Grandfather Gray: [breathes in] It is not time. [exhales]
Piccolo: Do you — I’ll — do you want me to pass on a message, or…?
Grandfather Gray: Yes.
[pause]
Piccolo: …Okay—
Grandfather Gray: Tell her that I love her with all my heart.
Piccolo: Okay, hold on.
Dre: Piccolo is writing that with chalk on the deck.
Grandfather Gray: Do you need to write that down?
Piccolo: I, uh. You know, a lot has happened today, and I just wanna make sure I get the wording right ‘cause it’s important.
Grandfather Gray: I understand. I will be going now, I will follow the ship from beneath and my fleet will follow yours.
Piccolo: Thank you.
[Austin laughs]
Grandfather Gray: Maybe we will meet again, child.
Piccolo: I hope so! You — you seem nice.
Grandfather Gray: …Good.
Jack: And there’s just this like, just this huge sound of like, you know when like a whale blows air, there’s just this massive like expulsion of air and water and the kraken sinks down beneath the waves. The tower disappears until all you can see is the weather vane on the top, and on top of the weather vane is a little model of the Sea Wing.
Dre: I think Piccolo like takes a beat, and then turns around and runs off and goes
Piccolo: [yelling] Caspiaaan!
[Austin and Jack laugh]
Austin: Oh, god. Great. Um. I think it’s… Harp?
Jack: Mm-hm. Yeah. Uh, I’m gonna go… I’m gonna go to the Glass Cathedral, um, for “a ritual union.”
Austin: Mm. You did say a ritual was coming.
Jack: Yeah. Well, I felt like I was on the edge of a ritual. [laughs]
Austin: Uh-huh. Yeah.
Jack: Look, we all feel like we’re on the edge of a ritual. Um. I’m reluctant to… I think that my twin is probably here, but I don’t think that the ritual — I don’t think that the union is between us in some way.
Austin: Mm-hm.
Jack: I think that we’re involved, and I think I’d be like more than happy to see the twin in this scene, but I don’t know whether or not th… Once you’ve got two things, you can’t have one thing. You can’t un-twin.
Austin: Mm-hm. It is just the return of all these people, is the union something to do with the…
Jack: Hm…
Austin: Or does that not happen? Or, like, are we casting the most tragic version of that mayor who is setting up a town for an empty festival?
Jack: Oh! No! I know exactly what it is. [laughs] I know what it is.
Austin: Mm-hm!
Jack: The light — it gets dark, and the light changes, and, you know, we’ve seen the sea being pretty weird in Istallia, and we saw the lake and the miserable weather along the way, with the kind of snow, but the light on the ocean and the light of this festival is impossibly beautiful. And not in a sort of magical way. I’ve seen seas that are just beautiful, of an evening. And in the light… of the bay, you can see seafolk moving underneath the island.
Austin: Mm.
Jack: And the villagers gather on the beach. Some of them have brought bottles of wine. Some of them have packed picnic baskets or whatever. And they walk down into the ocean, and they walk around to the underside of the island. What we’re seeing in this picture is not a reflection, it’s just down there.
Austin: Mm. Mm-hm.
Jack: They walk, I guess, upside down, but it doesn’t feel upside down to them. And down there, the seafolk that live on the south of the island have prepared similar lights and have prepared a feast. And they have a feast together. Later in the evening, when it becomes nighttime, the seafolk will come and will enjoy the feast that was laid out on the top of the island, the festival. But these two communities are the twin sisters.
Austin: Mm.
Jack: There’s multiple twins. So I think what we get is a scene of Harp [laughs] stepping into the water and just sinking, just —
Austin: [laughs] instantly.
Jack: Just, just instantly. But finding themselves, finding themselves under the water with the seafolk. And I think we just — this is the shot in the TV show, as, you know, the episode of this island begins to end, where we see the people under the water celebrating and we see the mayor celebrating. And we see sunken ships crewed by drowned men and women moving around the waters where the seafolk are, and we see Grandmother Black’s husband out in the distance.
Austin: Love it. Uh, Fawn.
Janine: Ooookay. Um.
Jack: Oh I see, yes, sorry, I was confused by the number that there is. Fawn still has to —
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Mm-hm!
Jack: Fawn can join in with one of these places.
Austin: Mm-hm! Totally.
Janine: Fawn is actually going to go to the Guarded Tower.
Austin: Ooh.
Janine: ‘Cause Fawn needs some like workin time, some relaxing time, and it’s an island where on the one hand, there are lots of places to go that aren’t like crowded or whatever [laughs] there’s not much of a crowd here. But on the other, it’s a little unpredictable to tell where people will go, because there are so many — there are so many unoccupied places that in a sense every one of them belongs to everyone, now. There’s like a communal occupation of these places, so it’s hard, especially as an outsider, to know where people will and will not go. So I think Fawn notices that like the one place on the island that isn’t lit is the top of this tower. I think it’s like also one of the few towers on the sort of upper… upper sister? [laughs] I don’t know how to say what I mean.
Austin: That sounds — that sounds right.
Janine: One of the like above-land towers, ‘cause if you look at the picture, most of the towers are actually the reflection.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: And the upper surface is a little more barren, but I think there is sort of a low tower on the upper one. So i think Fawn makes her way up there kind of expecting, because there’s no light there, that no one is going to be there, or that whoever would normally be there is elsewhere.
Austin: Right.
Janine: What she finds at the top of the tower, though, is… [slight laugh] It’s uncovered, so it’s sort of like — it’s more like a battlement, or you know what I mean, like a tower sort of attached to a wall, where there are kind of like parapets or whatever around it, and then it’s sort of just like a flat area and there’s a chair set up there, and there is — it’s not quite a person, it’s like if a person was melted like a candle.
Austin: Ooh.
Janine: So they’re kind of like spread out on this chair, but also blending into the chair, blending into the floor, and just kind of like, yeah, very much like if a person melted like a candle, into this place. And there is still — they are still like just barely recognizable as an individual. [slight laugh] Does anyone want to play them?
Austin: I’d love — Dre, I’d love to see you play an NPC, ‘cause I don’t think we’ve gotten that today.
Dre: Sure, yeah.
Austin: I don’t think. Maybe I’m wrong about that though.
Dre: I was a student, but yeah.
Austin: Oh yeah, you were that good student, that’s true. But I’d love to see you play this character.
Janine [as Fawn]: Oh, sorry, I didn’t know, um… There wasn’t a light, so I assumed… Uh, the tower was empty…
Dre [as Candle Person]: Oh, no, it’s fine. I mean, I, it’s fine. I just, um. Come in!
Fawn: [nervous] Oh, okay. Uh.
Janine: Fawn is normally relatively confident. In this moment, I don’t think she is particularly confident. Um. If nothing else, because this person is unphased that she is a talking dog in a hat! [Dre laughs] And that is maybe the first time that has come up in this entire adventure, someone just being like, oh, okay. Hi.
Austin: [laughs] Yeah.
Candle Person: That’s a nice hat.
Fawn: Thanks, I made it. Um. What do you do, here?
Candle Person: Oh, I, uh… I stay.
Fawn: Why? …Did you fuck up?
Candle Person: You know, it’s funny, there was [laughs] there was probably a reason once, but I think I’ve just been here so long? That it just seems easiest just to stay.
Fawn: Yeah, that does make sense. Um. Does it like bug you that everyone’s having a party down there?
Candle Person: Um. No. It used to. But… there’s something nice about having this view. It’s almost like… Have you ever been in love?
Fawn: Yes.
Candle Person: So you know how love is this horrifying combination of unrivaled happiness and just potential for disaster.
Fawn: [sympathetically] Yeah.
Candle Person: Well, up here I don’t have to touch disaster. I just see the people, happy. It’s nice.
Fawn: There don’t seem to be that many of them.
Candle Person: Well. Maybe. Doesn’t matter how many, though. Just matters that… They have their lights, and they’re happy.
Fawn: Do you want a light? I could get you a light.
Candle Person: Hmm. You know, I actually am kinda used to it, I can see just fine.
Fawn: All right.
Candle Person: At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I first saw you, but… I appreciate you coming up here, I haven’t had a visitor in a long time.
Fawn: Uh, would it be okay if I… hung out here a bit?
Candle Person: Please!
Janine: I think Fawn like waddles next to them and then like sits on her back legs. She cannot see over the edge of the wall.
Austin: Aww.
Janine: She can’t see the stuff, that this person likes seeing. Uh. But that’s fine.
Candle Person: Would it — I don’t wanna be presumptuous, but do you wanna — do you wanna climb up here? Like on my shoulder or something?
Fawn: I don’t love heights, actually.
Candle Person: Okay.
Fawn: Um. I just like the open air.
Janine: I think maybe that’s scene.
Austin: Okay. Um. I’m gonna move the Magus. Which means I have to draw two cards, right? Okay, so, my options, and the chat is gonna get to see these. Ooh. [Dre and Janine laugh]
Austin: Hm. [laughs evilly] Ah. [laughs] Oh boy! I was gonna do this one, chat, this one right here, look at that. That’s great, these are all really good, look at this — aw, boy, that’s so much! But. Come on. Let me look at chat and see — all right. Yeah. Let’s do it. All right.
[Dre and Janine laugh]
All right, so we are going to Sleeping Cinder Cone. Ah. [slight laugh] I’m gonna also put this one away, it’s also very good. Uh, flip that card and slide that up here with the rest of the, the one I’m discarding, and put it on the bottom… Okay, so. [sighs] Everyone goes back to the ship, to the Sea Wing. [laughs] And I need to move this card to the back again. To map layer, there we go. To Sleeping Cinder Cone. You know, we say goodbye to the Mirror. I think even before we say goodbye to the Mirror, we see “the form of smoke” in the reflection. It kind of drifts — it kind fo drifts almost like, um, a GPS line or like a… a swarm, across the ocean sea, towards where we are, and it’s as if Grandmother Black catches its scent, and like in the middle of the festival, rings the bell that calls everyone back. And the Magus seems to take great attention to the — kind of stands at the helm of the ship and watches the smoke very, very carefully.
And the ship pulls into not even port, there’s no port here. There is, you know, an island community here, but there is not an actual dock, and so the Sea Wing drops anchor, drops a special sort of anchor that — actually, you know what? I think as it nears, we get the water starts to boil, and so we see the Sea Wing, the crew changes the anchor, like you’re ordered to help everybody change the anchor, Piccolo, to the one that will cool the nearby sea so that the ship does not catch fire. And that the people inside don’t overheat, basically. Um. And so that the kraken can come as well, because otherwise this is not the sort of sea that the kraken likes to move through. And so the steam — you see the — not steam — the sea begin to cool off, and maybe you do see it steam, like as the anchor hits, steam pops up very quickly all around the ship, and makes a pathway to where smaller rowboats can go.
And the Magus stands at the front of one of them and walks forward into this smoke, that is like running down the side of this mountain, this volcano, down through the trees, as if it were a lava stream, but it’s — it’s running down the side of the mountain as if it is lava. And she steps into it, and you can kind of see — people — the crew can kind of see her, once she steps into it, floating into the woods on the smoke. And I don’t know that we see what she goes to do at the top of the volcano, but she is kind of pulled there by the smoke. It doesn’t look like she’s moving on her own accord — she’s not resisting, she’s not upset, she’s not struggling, she isn’t looking for help — but it’s as if she’s being lifted and kind of taken up to the top of this volcano, you know. Maybe to meet someone, maybe to recover an artifact or something she’s left there. I’m not sure. But that is what we see. Um. This wraps back around to you, Dre.
Dre: Yeah! Hmmm. I’m going to do Cascading Water.
Austin: Ooh.
Dre: Which is “washed and made new.”
Austin: It is! And that has the leaf symbol next to it, in fact.
Dre: Yeah. Um. Man, I know what I want outta this scene and I’m just trying to figure out like how to start it, and how to get it there [laughs].
Austin: Mm-hm.
Dre: Um… But I think that cascading water, I think I almost like the — i like this image of there being like a little like cove or inlet where there’s just this big waterfall that’s like crashing down like into the sea. And I think Piccolo has taken just a little rowboat from the Sea Wing and like rowed over there just to like have some alone time?
Austin: Mm.
Dre: Um. And he’s writing a letter home. I don’t think there’s a way for him to actually send this letter. At all. But he’s writing a letter home basically telling them about everything that’s happened and how much that he, you know, loves being on this boat and like loves the sea, and just is kinda like going on and on in a way that is very not Piccolo? And then he just kinda folds that letter up and puts it back into his pocket and then very firmly affixes his first mate hat to his head.
Austin: [sympathetic] Mm!
Dre: And I don’t think that Piccolo is the Swineherd of Barley Town anymore.
Austin: Mm. I like that a lot.
Dre: I think that Piccolo is the First Mate of the Sea Wing.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: [sighs] Ah!
Austin: Okay! Harp!
Jack: Okay! I am going to go to… [laughs] Oh! I’m going to the Hot Springs.
Austin: [laughs] Okay. What is your prompt?
Jack: Ah, “what we wish we were.”
Austin: Mm.
Jack: And I’m just gonna sit in the warm water. And sitting in the warm water opposite, smoking a big pipe, is the ice troll from earlier.
Austin: Oh, yeah, of course.
Jack: Enjoying one of the hot springs. Does anybody want to be an ice troll?
Austin: …I’ll pick up that role as the ice troll what smokes a pipe.
[Dre laughs]
Jack: [laughs] Is that the same ice troll what opens the window?
Austin: Uh-huh! Yeah. Same one.
Jack: [laughs] Okay. Okay.
Austin [as Ice Troll]: [snorts] Rr.
Austin: Is smoking a pipe in this hot spring.
[Jack laughs]
Jack [as Harp]: Are you not too warm?
Ice Troll: Hrrm. Not a fan of the… heat of this spring, I wish it were a cool spring.
Harp: And yet you choose to sit in it.
Ice Troll: It’s good for my muscles.
Harp: I do not have muscles.
Austin: Um. The troll like, squints at you, and then like takes out a pair of — reaches off the, like to his belongings and pulls out a pair of glasses. They’re goggles, is what they are. And slowly affixes them to his face so that he can see you more cleanly. And takes a big puff of the pipe.
Ice Troll: No. Suppose you don’t.
Harp: I am very strong.
Ice Troll: Mm. And beautiful. [sighs] Why do you sit in the hot spring, if you’re so strong?
Harp: [sighs] I cannot feel the warm water directly, but it warms the stone, and remains warm during the day. I only feel heat or cold when I get very warm or very cold. So I am making myself very warm.
Ice Troll: Ain’t afraid it’ll get in your pores and break ya? On the inside?
Harp: Can that happen.
Ice Troll: Yes.
[pause]
Harp: No.
Ice Troll: Yes.
Harp: No, I am telling you that I am not afraid.
Ice Troll: Oh. Hm.
Harp: I am extremely brave. And I love to be warm when I can.
Ice Troll: What’s the bravest thing you did?
Harp: I have embarked upon a journey and I do not know the destination.
Austin: It like chitter-laughs suddenly, it’s like
Ice Troll: [nasal laugh]! Heh! Lots of people do that, that’s not brave. Much harder to set on a journey you know the ending is bad to.
Harp: Oh, it’s also that. I know the ending is bad. I do not know where it will be. I am on a pilgrimage.
Ice Troll: What’s that?
Harp: It is a journey that one is bound to take.
Ice Troll: If you’re bound to it, then it’s not brave at all. You’re just falling down a hill.
Harp: Yes, but I am continuing to fall.
Ice Troll: You wanna fall?
Harp: I am bound to it.
Ice Troll: You wanna?
Harp: I want to finish the journey.
Ice Troll: You wanna hit the rocks. At the bottom.
Harp: I want to hit the rocks. [sighs] They may be rocks at the bottom. They probably will be rocks at the bottom. You are very nihilistic for an ice troll.
Ice Troll: You don’t know anything about ice trolls. Why do you leave the hot springs? Just stay here, feel warm.
Harp: I can’t do that —
Ice Troll: Or come with me, I know where it’s cold. Very cold! Even this volcano has some good cold spots.
Harp: [contemptuous] What makes you think I want to go on a journey with you?
Ice Troll: You could be cold. Or is warm better than cold?
Harp: Warm is better than cold.
Ice Troll: Why?
Harp: I was built to be a gardener, and I spent much of my time standing on a plinth and watching the seasons turn, and out of the cold season and the warm season, I can tell you that I much preferred the warm.
Ice Troll: Hm. No one likes my preference.
Harp: Okay.
Ice Troll: I like to be cold.
Harp: Have you considered leaving the hot spring?
Ice Troll: Once my muscles are better I can leave. And I can go back.
Harp: Fair enough.
Jack: And I think that Harp just kind of sits there in silence with this smoking ice troll, and it’s like extremely awkward!
Austin: [laughs] Yeah! Yep.
Jack: [laughs] Um. Like they just sort of sit there in this hot spring. Neither of them wants to be the first one to leave.
Austin: [laughs] Nope!
Jack: And I don’t think we see them leave, I think the scene just ends.
Austin: Yeah, good. Great! Perfect. Okay! Fawn.
Janine: Uh.
Austin: [amused] Hm!
Janine: Well.
[Jack laughs]
Austin: Hm, what are your options? Do you wanna go over your options?
Janine: I’m gonna go to this crater. Um.
Austin: Uh-huh! [laughs] [Jack laughs]
Janine: Nah, fuck that. Statue of Fawn: “a meaningful expression.” [Dre laughs] Um. I have something [laughs] I have an idea for this, it… I don’t know if anyone else would be there for this, or what would happen if they were. Um. Because the idea that I have is for the statue itself. So maybe I will describe that, and if someone thinks their character would have something to say, then fine, but if not, um. Fawn might have thoughts on it. So there is a statue on this island. It is not a statue of a long, potato-like dog with webbed feet.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: It is a statue… well, the first thing that someone would notice about this statue. It’s made of obsidian, of course, ‘cause it’s, you know, we’re talking about a volcanic area. So it’s made basically volcanic glass, it is pitch black, it is incredibly glossy, and even though you normally see obsidian like cut in a very angular way, this is — you can still see the angles of it, it’s not perfectly smooth, but it’s very close. And the first thing you would notice about it is there is a bird. It’s hard to tell what kind of bird, it is just a kind of smallish bird, a fairly realistic looking carving. And this bird is standing on top of one hand that is sort of held out palm facing the sky.
So this bird is standing on this hand, and above the bird is a second hand, and this second is in the position like, you see it in a lot of Renaissance paintings where someone is pointing, but it’s not like they’re really like —
Janine: — we imagine a pointing hand as like very rigid. But in paintings it’s often very like soft and like the fingers that are closed aren’t fully closed, and the finger that’s pointing is not perfectly straight, there’s like a bit — everything has a bit of a curve to it still. So the hand in this position is over the bird, with sort of the curve of the index finger following the curve of their head, but, you know, some distance above. And tied to this finger there is a real piece of thread, that sort of hangs down. There’s nothing at the end of the piece of thread, but it is just sort of a piece of thread that has been tied in a knot on this finger and hangs down, the end probably just short of where the bird’s beak is.
Um. And… This statue is like prominently placed. it is not like hidden, it is not overgrown. It’s like… it is a landmark for someone, if not several someones. And sort of in the course of… Actually, I think Fawn seeks it out directly. I think Fawn knows where it is, and it is her destination on this island, is she goes to see this statue. And to inspect the things that are around it, like it’s…
Austin: Mm-hm.
Janine: Like I said, it’s well-kept, there’s no weeds or anything that have grown around where it was placed. I think it’s embedded in a tree, but the tree is very groomed. It’s all a very well manicured and very like deliberately kept thing. Um. And… I think she sort of walks the perimeter of this, like, making sure everything is, um — as it should — not as it should be, but like just, she’s inspecting it, and she’s…pleased in some ways and disappointed in others.
Austin: [slight laugh] I would love for Caspian to have followed you, if you took off in that sort of like — with purpose in that way, you know?
Janine: Mm-hm.
Austin: I think as you’re checking it out, Caspian kind of says like…
Austin [as Caspian]: Is this, uh… Who’s the statue of?
Janine [as Fawn]: Uh, it seems to be a bird.
Caspian: Yeah… You know this place?
Fawn: Mm. No… uh… It’s… You know, you don’t know every school, but you know what a school looks like.
Caspian: I get it, I guess, I… [amused] You came right to this statue, Fawn. I’m not trying to put you in a spot, if you don’t wanna talk about the statue, you don’t have to talk about the statue. I can head back to the boat. Ship?
Fawn: It’s a nice bird.
Caspian: It’s a nice bird.
Fawn: It’s in good shape.
Caspian: Yeah… Have you seen them not in — is this like a category of statue you’ve seen?
Fawn: Uh, people make a lot of statues! People love statues, you know, people love statues so much sometimes they bring em to life. So. You see em in all kinds of states.
Caspian: Yeah.
Austin: Are there any stories that have to do with this bird? This is Austin asking.
Janine: Um.
Austin: Like would Caspian, who knows the songs of the last century, know this bird from a thing?
Janine: I think probably yes.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: I think… Probably not like in detail, but there is probably — it’s probably like a side thing in a song that he knows, it’s probably like a sort of — one of those things that like originally is put in as like an allusion to a thing that everyone knows, and then like 200 years pass and no one knows what that first thing is anymore, but the reference is still in there.
Austin: Right. Hm. I think he just like… I think he can tell that there’s more here than there seems to be, but also is not gonna push it. He is still kind, so, that’s not his role. And he says, um.
Caspian: If you find any more cool statues, just let me know. I like statues.
Austin: And like kind of shrugs his shoulders and like walks back through the woods.
Janine: I think after a few minutes Fawn follows, but that’s the end of the scene.
Austin: All right. I think then the — I think maybe this scene blends with the next one, right? A few minutes, Fawn follows, and when Fawn like walks through the woods back towards where the ship is, they come to a little village which is like near the ship’s, like the smaller boat’s made landfall. And I am going to the Crater. Um, the crater is actually this shoreline, it’s like — it looks like something hit here, a long time ago, and it just like, the shore here is hard. It’s like rocky. It’s like, imagine a moon crater, except then like half of it is underwater, right? And so we’re up against that, and there are some like homes and stuff built on stilts here. And you know like a village center at the top of the kind of ridge of the crater.
And there is just a well here, and there are, when Fawn arrives, through the woods, she sees Caspian, helping people pull bucket after bucket after bucket from these wells. And the camera just kind of like pans over, and inside of the buckets there’s only smoke. And they keep dumping more — like putting different buckets on the rope and lowering it down and pulling it up, and each bucker just comes up with like heavy smoke that’s resting inside of it. And for a moment… Like, Caspian doesn’t know that that’s what he’s doing. And there’s just like a dozen buckets, two dozen buckets! Like, it’s him and like two or three other people, I think it’s like two children, and Caspian, just keep pulling bucket after bucket of smoke, and putting them down on the ground. You can see the smoke begins to like kind of lift up out of the bucket and like go up into the air and dissipate, and then I think Fawn makes eye contact with Caspian, or Caspian makes eye contact with Fawn, and then sort of like shakes it off, and then like looks around him, and it’s just forty buckets filled with smoke. And then like the kids who were helping him like run off. And then that’s… scene. And my prompt was “a foreboding omen.”
Um, we should wrap up, but I’d love to see what this next map is. Dre, do you wanna draw two cards and pick one of these two and we can go out, we can set the scene with the… with the mage arriving one more time? All right, so I’ve dealt you two cards.
Dre: Oh, okay.
Austin: Yeah, it’s weird. You can take a look at them.
Dre: Ooh, okay.
Austin: Uh, so just play the first one down and I’ll move the other one off to the side and hide it.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: Not the first one, whichever one you want, to be clear.
Dre: Oh, man, these are…
Austin: Good choices?
Dre: All of these are good. One is definitely more self indulgent than the other. [laughs]
Austin: Mm-hm. That’s allowed.
Janine: Look, we just did Statue of Fawn, so, we’re in it, like [laughs]
Austin: We truly are in it.
Dre: I’m gonna pick this one. Do I just drag and drop it?
Austin: Yeah, just drag and drop it. Ooh! Look at that.
Jack: Ooh!
Austin: All right, let me grab this, let me steal this card.
Dre: Oh. Yeah. I have to click “let it go.”
Austin: Oh, sorry, thank you.
Dre: [laughs] That’s fine!
Austin: Let me drag this one over here… Flip it… All right, so you drew, what?
Dre: The Isle of Dreams, and the prompt is “the clothes of the Painter.”
Austin: Mm-hm!
Dre: There.
Austin: Oh, I’ll move it to the back again. [laughs] Map layer, there we go. So do you ant to paint a picture of us arriving, of the Magus arriving, and then we’ll wrap?
Dre: Yeah, um…
[Music - Bright Morning, Cool Evening starts, wistful guitar plays]
Dre: I think for me like the interesting part here is that the Painter is a capital P?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: So I think that the arrival is like the, you know. The ship kind of puts anchor down…outside this island, and I don’t think the island has like a proper dock or anything. And so they have to take like a couple of like rowboats up to the island, and I think you see…
[Music - whistling starts]
Dre: …the Magus and Piccolo and Harp and Fawn and Caspian kind of like come over this hill, and almost in this picture that’s depicted here, there’s like a painter, just kind of on the coastline. Just painting something, and they’re wearing, you know, old—not tattered, but like very old painting clothes that are just covered in, you know, millions of different pigments that all…run together, and you know.
[Music - vocals begin to harmonize with whistling]
Dre: This person has been painting in these clothes for a very long time. Because they don’t care about wearing a smock or anything else…
Austin: What’s the Magus do?
Dre: I think the Magus goes to the Painter.
Austin: Are they familiar?
Dre: No. But I think…
[Music - whistling and singing fade; piano, gentle drums come in]
Dre: There is something… [sighs]
[Music - wind instrument comes in]
Dre: I think that this is like the first feeling—‘cause I’ve tried—was it like the mountain pass, it was the end of the mountain pass, wasn’t it, where I had said that like the magic started to feel like very different or very wrong.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Dre: And I think that the Magus kinda gets in this weird trance state…
[Music - singing and whistling resume]
Dre: And she can’t quite put her finger on it. But then she realizes that like…the Painter is painting her?
Austin: Mm.
Dre: As this picture fills in, the feeling of the way magic used to feel, the way it’s supposed to feel, starts creeping back.
[pause]
[“Bright Morning, Cool Evening” ends]