SPRING IN HIERON 02: WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Transcriber: Cole (@TheMostMagiCole)
(Recap)
Austin: The game that you two will be playing, Ephrim and Throndir… ugh, it is “Do Not Let Us Die in the Dark Night of This Cold Winter”. Lem, Hella, Adaire, and Hadrian are all inside of the Blade in the Dark, um, as of the end of the last season. And Fero has left the, uh, left from the New Archives and walked west to go to the mark of the Erasure.
[fire crackling in the background]
Austin (as Samol): Galenica, Severea, they push a little hard. They, uh, ask a lot. They... I think they were hurt. They gave you a gift. At least that’s what they saw it as, and… [breathes deeply and sighs] hoped you would use it to what they couldn’t and bring new things into the world.
Keith (as Fero): Wait, hold on! Says who?
Austin (as Samol): Says what? Says me!
[Jack de Quidt’s “Something” begins playing in background]
Keith (as Fero): Not says what I’ve ever been able to do. I, I can do like, birds and big cats.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, they’re birds and big cats. You can do big cats; you can do cats that are bigger than regular cats. That’s new.
Austin: Here’s part of it. Like, so, Ephrim, you’re not the tracker. You’re not the ranger, obviously, right? So, that’s already a tricky thing. Umm, but when you go to rely on, on Throndir for this, Throndir, you find a new plant.
Dre: Aw, hell yeah.
Austin: Uh, you don’t know what it is. You find what you think is an animal trail because there are dead, like, flowers and dead, ugh, like ferns have been, it looks like ferns have been stepped on. It looks like all that. And you follow the trail for a while, and then you see that there is this, like, creeping vine that’s covering a tree, and you see that it is just actually draining the life from all of the plants around, in a way that makes them look like they’ve been stepped on. As if they’ve been crushed under foot. And it’s just like their life is being drained out by this new type of plant. Welcome to spring.
Dre: Seems bad.
Austin: Ain’t good.
Sylvia: Yeah, nah. I think I like the idea of them finding and starting to cultivate some of these new plants in that garden.
Austin: Ok. Sounds good. Yeah, it’s gonna go great. It’s gonna go good. Uh, so yeah, you show up. You just like bring them back, like you bring cuttings back of some new herbs and stuff and spend the year figuring out which of them are safe.
Austin (as Samothes): Being here you have to understand there are two types of distance. I hope I can make the transition here as easy as possible for you all. Everyone finds their place in Aubade eventually.
Art (as Hadrian): Oh, are we not gonna go back?
Austin (as Samothes): It is not as simple as that, I’m afraid, Hadrian.
Art (as Hadrian): Oh?
Austin (as Samothes): I will say the possibility is there. You were not killed by the blade. Which means, unlike everyone else here, this need not be your home forever.
[Music finishes playing as the recap is finished.]
Austin: Alright, Fero! Fero, I think that goes on for like, months or a year? What do you think? Where it’s just like, Fero learns about the world, but also just kind of like, banters with Samol.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Umm, do you open up? Do you like..?
Keith: Yeah. I don’t think that Fero has any reservations about opening up.
Austin: Ok.
Keith: I mean, like, what is he gonna, like, what’s the point in hiding from the ground?
Austin: Uh huh, that’s a good point. Umm, so then maybe I think it’s the opposite thing, which is the thing just happened in our previous conversation was he was trying to get at something, but then he pulled back because he maybe wasn’t ready to have that part of the conversation with you, right?
Keith: Uh huh.
Austin: Umm, so I’ll describe what happens. Uh, I do think, I think it’s a long time. I think you spend like, a year here. Umm, he spends a lot of time flying around, looking at stuff. He’s super interested in the Heat and the Dark and the Starstuff. More in the Starstuff than in the Heat and the Dark. Like, he does a lot of like, examining it, but not a lot of like, he doesn’t get close to the Heat and the Dark. He knows better. [soft laugh] Umm..
Keith: Yeah, it seems like it’s not the… both, neither thing seems to be good for him.
Austin: No. 100% no. Umm, and he gets, he’s getting iller, also. Like, the time that you see him over the course of this year is like, he’s weaker every time you see him, Or every third time or fourth time, you know? Umm, he is not… oh especially when you see him before he sees you, right? He puts it on when he’s around you. He kind of like, brings out a little bit more energy. Umm, and you see him every now and then work on Hieron’s Breath. He’s working on this ball of energy to try to keep it going but like, it ain’t, it ain’t doing great. Umm, so yeah, I think it’s been… let’s say it’s been a year, and umm, [sighs] I think he’s, he’s prepared a special meal. Umm, and he’s called you to like, the throne room. [soft laugh] Umm, and uh, he makes like, he makes a bunch of like, clay figures out of, out of the sand. Or out of the dirt here to, to like, put on like, a nice meal, basically. Like have like… there’s like a live band. [laughs]
Keith: He made some ground cooks and a band?
Austin: Yeah, basically. Exactly. Umm, and uh, and it’s actually real food. He actually like, had them grow stuff over the course of the year, and maybe like, get like, some pheasant or something. Umm, not that the food he was producing wasn’t real food; it was real food, but it was from like, another dimension or like the echo of a different timeline.
Keith: Right. It was someone else’s effort.
Austin: Right. Exactly. And this was like, sort of his, you know? He’s kind of a monastic, err, not a monastic, umm, uh… not a modal, a monast view of god? A kind of umm, like everything is him, and so he’s all powerful in the sense that everything that happens, happens through him.
Keith: Right. He is…
Austin: He’s omnipotent because there’s no such thing as action that isn’t his action.
Keith: Right.
Austin: So, uh, But yeah…
Keith: He’s like a bush and everything that happens on it are his [somewhat inaudible due to Austin speaking] (nuts and berries perhaps?)
Austin: Are his, exactly. 100% that. Yeah, exactly. So, it’s like, yeah, sure, you know, I didn’t necessarily choose to have these berries, but they’re still my berries, god damnit. [chuckles]
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Umm, but yeah, he calls you; he says like, hey come through, uh, the throne room later tonight. Umm, just it’s been a year, you know? And whatever. You show up, and uh, it is the kind of southern half of the throne room. It is the part of the throne room… there was, there were kind of two parts of the throne room. For people who don’t remember, four years ago, when we first started this show or whatever, umm there was the part where the throne was, and there was the part which just like, where the carpet and big windows and stuff were. And you’re kind of in that part that’s been converted into a dining area. Umm, and uh, and I think he’s like…
Austin (as Samol): You know all this time, I feel like I’ve been assuming a lot about you, Fero.
Keith (as Fero): Oh yeah?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, like…
Keith (as Fero): Like what?
Austin (as Samol): Like I know your story. I know where you come from. I know who you knew. But I ain’t heard you tell me your story. What’s… who is Fero Feritas?
Keith (as Fero): Oh boy. What does that mean?
Austin (as Samol): Well, like, where did you come from? What do you think… when you tell your story to yourself… [pauses] So, like, when I tell my story, right? There are things I pull out. And things I leave behind.
[mostly overlapping one another]
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, I was the first thing… and I was, you know…
Austin (as Samol): Right.
Keith (as Fero): Oh man, I’m the first thing.
Austin (as Samol): That’s the part I focus on cause it’s, it’s unique. That’s the thing I always say is…
Keith (as Fero): No one else has that.
Austin (as Samol): When you tell a story about yourself, find the part that makes it unique. So that’s mine. Also, I turn into a big, purple monster sometimes, but I don’t really give an answer to that one. I just kind of bring it up cause it’s like, [soft laugh] ‘and then I turn into a big, purple monster’ and people go like, ‘what?’ Uh, I find…
Keith (as Fero): Wait, what?!
Austin (as Samol): Don’t worry about it. It’s, it’s…
Keith (as Fero): Is it like a part of the dragon?
Austin (as Samol): It’s a different type… it’s like a sea dragon.
Keith (as Fero): Sea dragon…
Austin (as Samol): ‘Run.’ That’s how the end of that sentence goes.
Keith (as Fero): [laughing]
Austin (as Samol): Umm, but no. You know what I’m saying, right? Where I say, I do… [sighs and pauses] If I’m tellin’ my story, my gonna talk about my boys. I’m gonna talk about [sighs] the way the world changed after… Samothes died. I’m gonna talk about you know, how I feel these days. But I’m not gonna talk about [sighs and pauses] you know, what I had for dinner 700 years ago. I’m gonna talk about you know…
Keith (as Fero): Do you remember though?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, yeah, of course. Of course.
Keith (as Fero): What was it?
Austin (as Samol): It was like, a salad. I was like, but like real rough greens.
Keith (as Fero): Like a salad?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, it was like salad adjacent.
Keith (as Fero): Ok. What makes it, what made it to you not a salad?
Austin (as Samol): It was more bark than leaf.
Keith (as Fero): More bark. [pauses] Wow. That does sound tough to eat.
Austin (as Samol): [soft laugh] It was.
Keith (as Fero): That’s… Hey, uh, that’s a hard one to swallow!
Austin (as Samol): Even for me!
Keith (as Fero): [laughing]
Austin (as Samol): Uh, [laughs], but like, you know what I’m saying, right? You pick things out and you say, ‘this is, this is the thing’.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, this is the bark that I don’t want on my salad.
Austin (as Samol): [overlapping] Exactly. And you only talk about the greens; you don’t talk about the bark. Someone made… even I can’t say no… you know?
Keith (as Fero): Green bark, maybe?
Austin (as Samol): Like, I met these people, and they were like, ‘Oh, you’re Samol. You’re so important. Here’s our salad.’
Keith (as Fero): Bark. Our almost salad bark meal.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah. So, I ate it. It was, it’s fine. [takes a deep breath] Let me tell you, it’s weird to eat things in this world.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, let me… yeah, I get it.
Austin (as Samol): It’s weird. Umm…
Keith (as Fero): Well, I guess you’re kind of eating you.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah. Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): Do you need… you don’t need to eat, right?
Austin (as Samol): No.
Keith (as Fero): Right.
Austin (as Samol): No.
Keith (as Fero): But it’s fun.
Austin (as Samol): It can be. [said while laughing] When it’s not bark.
Keith (as Fero): Right.
Austin (as Samol): So, tell me your story. Fero Feritas.
Keith (as Fero): Umm, I guess tech… I guess technically I’m from Rosemerrow.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, sure. You said ‘technically’.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, well, I left to not, I chose to not be from there anymore.
Austin (as Samol): To not be there. Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): Umm, and then I chose to be from the mountains.
Austin (as Samol): What brought you to the mountains? Or what drew you to the mountains?
Keith (as Fero): Uh… I guess you think of like, a hermit, and you’re like, hermits go and they live in the mountains, so I guess that’s just where I thought I’d go.
Austin (as Samol): See, I thought, I thought forest. I went to the forest to be a hermit.
Keith (as Fero): Specifically, to be a hermit?
Austin (as Samol): You know, yeah. I, uh, yeah. Little place. I guess hermit, hmm, yeah. To get away from it all, and uh, spend some time coming to terms, you know.
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh. Yeah, built, I built a hut. I built a little hut in the side of a mountain.
Austin (as Samol): There you go.
Keith (as Fero): And I said, and I wasn’t, I don’t know, I just, you know, I was in Rosemerrow and then having a good time mostly. It was not, you know, nothing really wrong, and then all of a sudden, I was like, what if I just was umm, in the hills? That’s what it was, cause you go like, I’m gonna go to the hills.
Austin (as Samol): That’s what you…
Keith (as Fero): And you go, what’s the hills? The hills is a mountain.
Austin (as Samol): [at the same time] It’s a mountain. Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Austin (as Samol): Was this before or after you had the whole, animal thing?
Keith (as Fero): Before.
Austin (as Samol): And then while there, is when…
Keith (as Fero): While in the mountain, I was like, oh boy, I guess I really did it, huh?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): I guess I really did be from the mountains.
Austin (as Samol): You got that rock in you.
Keith (as Fero): Cause now I’m … right. Cause it’s on… it’s literal… it’s on me.
Austin (as Samol): Literally.
Keith (as Fero): Right.
Austin (as Samol): And then you left.
Keith (as Fero): I guess that’s who I am, right? I’m just, you know, the mountains. But a guy. But you’re the mountains, too, so I shouldn’t take credit for that.
Austin (as Samol): No, you can be the mountains, but a guy.
Keith (as Fero): Ok. But a guy.
Austin (as Samol): I guess the thing there is then, you were a hermit in the mountains and then you left.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah. Well, I think that’s part of being a hermit, right? Cause you’re, you know, you can’t ever… the going back part’s very important to it. Because you’ve gotta, you gotta go, ‘ Yeah, I used to be in the mountains, but now I’m back.’ That’s part of it.
Austin (as Samol): [soft laugh] You know, I’m not so sure about that part. I’m kinda, I kinda at the part now where maybe I went back too many times. And now I’m just in the mountains, except I’m in the…
Keith (as Fero): You’re all of, all of the rest of it, too.
Austin (as Samol): And I’m also in the tower, not a mountain, so…
Keith (as Fero): And the forest, specifically.
Austin (as Samol): Right. Specifically the forest. [sigh] Here’s the part I don’t get. You leave. You go to the mountains. You leave the mountains. You come back. Society. Adventure.
Keith (as Fero): You skipped a whole bunch where I mostly sat around.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, 100%. Studied animals, presumably. Umm…
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh. Thought, thought a lot, thought about ‘em a lot.
Austin (as Samol): Absolutely. Got on a boat eventually.
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh.
Austin (as Samol): Got on another boat eventually.
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh. Didn’t like that part so much.
Austin (as Samol): There was a whole court sequence where you were all arguing. And then, one thing leads to another.
Keith (as Fero): It sounds like you know all this.
Austin (as Samol): I do, but I want you to tell me, but you’re not telling me. I’m tryin’ [pauses]
Keith (as Fero): What do you want from me?
Austin (as Samol): Why are you here? And not there? Why’d you come back to being… why’d you come back to the mountain?
Keith (as Fero): I went, I went back. I mean, you said it. You, sometimes, you go back, back.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, but like, I know why I did it.
Keith (as Fero): Stay for an hour, and you gotta go back. Hour, back. Get it?
[same timing as Fero]
Austin (as Samol): Get it?
Keith: Cut that out.
Austin: [laughing loudly]
Keith: [laughing loudly throughout the background]
Austin: God damn it! Ohhh, yeah. We can not have a dice bit. We cannot! [laughing] Ugh.
Austin and Keith: [continued laughing, trailing off]
Austin: Alright, let me find him again.
Austin (as Samol): I know why you left and came back and left and came back. [sighs] I, but I don’t know [soft laugh], I don’t know why you’re here now instead of back there where… You’re not like me. Alright? I’m, I’m blood and bones. And nothing else.
Keith (as Fero): I’m blood and bones!
Austin (as Samol): No, you’re, you gotta a rock in your back. And you got…
Keith (as Fero): Alright.
Austin (as Samol): You got…
Keith (as Fero): Well, what’s the difference?
Austin (as Samol): The difference is I used to be more than blood and bones. And when I was, I thought, you know, there are things I got done. [sighs] And people, and [sighs again] these days, I sit in the woods and I have, you know, some pheasant with Fero in the collapsed tower of my [pauses] my son. But you could be out there helping people or figuring out the Heat and the Dark or seeing new sights. Becoming new animals and such. But you’re not. You’re here.
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh. I tried to help. I tried, I did, I did, I did everything that I thought I was supposed to do to help, and it didn’t… it only ever didn’t work. So, I was like, well, you know, we’re not…
Austin (as Samol): That’s that. You thought, you thought, ‘Ok’.
Keith (as Fero): Ok, I guess it’s, I guess it doesn’t work to try as hard as you can.
Austin (as Samol): Do you know why Severea and Galenica got so mad at you? Like really...
Keith (as Fero): Cause they’re ruuude. Cause they’re rude.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, but do you know why they’re rude? Do you know why they’re rude?
Keith (as Fero): No. Well, they’re, no offense, they’re old.
Austin (as Samol): They’re old. Which, you get old like me, you get rude. You start to feel like you earned it. You start to feel like you, you been through enough. That people should listen to you. And, in their specific case, [sighs] you say you tried. Let me tell you what they’ve been doin’ for years and years and years. Out east, past the last university, they moved as the Grand Tour. And for ions, stitched me shut. [pauses] They ran with all their people over and over the land closing wounds in me, where the Heat and the Dark threatened to take me. The land out there, it’s like, ribbons. Dangling in nothing. And they rode horses. Hundreds, thousands of years. I lost count. We didn’t have time for a minute there.
And they never won. All they ever did was try. You don’t do things in this world. It doesn’t, nothing’s done. You try stuff. And sometimes, something works, but then there’s another thing. There’s always another hole. And now there’s more than ever. Now they’re over here tryin’ to do the same thing because there’s more people over here, and if they stop movin’, those people are dead. And so, if you’re one of those people, if you’re Galenica, if you’re Severea, if you’re someone else in the Grand Tour, and they hear you go, someone they give their powers to goes, ‘I tried. I tried and it didn’t work’, maybe you’d get rude, too.
Keith (as Fero): I’m already kinda rude.
Austin (as Samol): I know. That’s why I like you.
Keith (as Fero): [soft laugh]
Austin (as Samol): [sighs] What would it take for you to go back?
Keith (as Fero): I don’t know. I can’t ride for thousands of years. I can’t stitch ribbons. I can’t, I don’t have, I don’t have another person to, to do it, to stitch with.
Austin (as Samol): What do you mean you don’t have? You have all those people you worked with. You weren’t in that courtroom alone. You didn’t get on a boat by yourself. If you were by yourself, you would not have gotten on a boat, twice.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, and would have been better off for it.
Austin (as Samol): [sighs] Well, you know, there’s no harm in being mad at somebody. I’ll say that much. I ain’t takin’ that from you. I’ve been plenty mad. But anger isn’t [sighs] anger isn’t just a, a thing you are. It’s a thing you are doing. Which is to say, you gave up trying to help. You can give up this, too. You don’t get to just be the thing forever. [pauses] Also, don’t tell me what you can and can’t do. You don’t know what you can’t do.
Keith (as Fero): I can’t hold my breath for more than… oh geez. I never really tried.
Austin (as Samol): You never really tried. You could become a fish! You can literally become a fish.
Austin: Have you become? This is Austin, have you done transformation in the last year?
Keith: No. Zero.
Austin: None. I think again he starts to go. He’s like, he says like,
Austin (as Samol): Well, at least you, you used [pauses with a sigh]
Austin: And he pulls back.
Keith (as Fero): The only thing I can do to help did a real big bad one on, on the whole world.
Austin (as Samol): [pauses] Yeah, I, I, you’re talking to someone who helped… you go down from here. You start digging a tunnel from here straight down? All you will find is our mistakes. We didn’t stop. If we’d stopped, you and I wouldn’t be talking here. This would all already be the Heat and the Dark. [sighs] And also, you gotta get at why you made a mistake to begin with. [pauses] I am a terrible cook.
Keith (as Fero): This is fine.
Austin (as Samol): I didn't cook it. That's my point. I learned a long time ago that there a lot of things I cannot do by myself.
Austin: Also, I can't remember if during winter, I said Samol was a good or a bad cook, because there’s a whole dinner scene, but it was a years ago, and I haven't gotten that far my relisten. So, maybe he was a good cook, but right now, he’s saying that he’s a bad cook.
Keith: Maybe he’s a good cook that says he’s a bad cook.
Austin: Could be.
Keith: Because he has tough… [talking at same time as Austin] expectations of himself.
Austin: [talking at same time as Keith] Yeah, because he has high standards. Right, yeah, totally.
Austin: In fact, maybe that’s it. He says, umm,
Austin (as Samol): You know, other people seem to like my cooking just fine. They say, ‘Oh, Samol, thank you so much for this bread I eat. It comes from you which is like, true, but also, that’s not a compliment, that’s just the truth. Uh, they say, uh, you know, ‘Bless you, Samol, you used the right amount of salt. When I eat that food, it just tastes the same as everything else. It’s not new. It’s not surprising. It’s not … and that’s just what I value, and that’s what I had to learn. That’s, that’s… your rudeness is just part of why I like you, but the other part I like is, every now and then, you surprise me. I don’t get a lot of that. And, I’m getting’ any of that now because right now what you do is walk around the woods and mope.
Keith (as Fero): I don’t do that much active moping.
Austin (as Samol): This is moping! When you used to turn into a bird…
Keith (as Fero): [talking mockingly over Austin] I don’t do that much…
Austin & Keith: [laughing]
[Austin groans]
Austin (as Samol): So, what I’m saying is maybe you’re like me, and you gotta stop tryin’ to make the same meals.
Keith (as Fero): Make new meals.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, like, what is this? We got pheasant and a salad.
Austin: What else did I say this was?
Keith: You didn’t say anything about this besides that it was pheasant.
Austin: Pheasant and also some sort of, it’s a bark salad. [soft laugh]
Keith: It’s a bark [trails off laughing]
Keith (as Fero): This is, bark salad is good by the way.
Austin (as Samol): See you’re sayin’ that; I think it’s terrible! I’ve tasted the salad before.
Keith (as Fero): I haven’t. I haven’t had it.
Austin (as Samol): [pauses briefly] Well, glad I could give you somethin’ new.
Keith (as Fero): It’s cause you kept the bark thin.
Austin (as Samol): I get it, I try to get it like, just little chips. I help, I had the help of the clay cooks, so…
Austin: And one of the clay cooks gives you a little nod. [laughs] And he does a little finger point, like ‘Yeah, that’s right. Clay cook number 3.’ Shout outs.
Keith: For ‘Stoneware Chef’.
Austin: [laughing] Cut that bark real thin.
Keith: [laughing]
Austin: They definitely use one of those like, youtube “the sharpest knife made out of clay, you know, in the world” Umm…
Keith: [laughs again]
Austin (as Samol): You gonna stick around, right? Sounds like you’re not going back yet.
Keith (as Fero): No.
Austin (as Samol): How ‘bout this?
Keith (as Fero): It’s fine here. Noth… It has… It seemed [pauses] A year ago it seemed like everything was done. It seemed like it was over, but I’m still here.
Austin (as Samol): What’s a year? You know?
Keith (as Fero): I don’t know. But like, last year, it felt like we were doomed. Like it was over tomorrow.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, but it’s today. It could still be over tomorrow. Everyday.
Keith (as Fero): But it, but it, a year, like… it felt like it was gonna be over a year ago, but it wasn’t.
Austin (as Samol): That’s how it felt back then. And we’re still here. But we might also still be doomed.
Keith (as Fero): Right.
Austin (as Samol): Fero, I’m dying.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Austin (as Samol): And that’s it.
Keith (as Fero): [long pause] What do you mean by it?
Austin (as Samol): That’s it. For everybody.
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh.
Austin (as Samol): [pauses and exhales] There isn’t without me.
Keith (as Fero): [long pause] Bad design.
Austin (as Samol): It shouldn’t have blinked.
Keith (as Fero): What blinked? Who blinked?
Austin (as Samol): [exhaled soft laugh] The Heat and the Dark. When they made me. Maybe if, maybe it the forces of entropy and nothingness had been paying a little bit more attention, would have been a better design. The point is [pauses] there is a timeline. And I can poke at that ball of energy all I want, but I, I don’t see a way of making it live without me. But, to the south, to the east, and even Arrell to the west, people are workin’ on it.
Keith (as Fero): On the ball?
Austin (as Samol): On life without Hieron. [long pause] On a world without me. And we are eating pheasant. [deep sigh and pause] Let’s spend some time on new things. Forget about saving the day. Forget about being a hero. Let’s just spend some time figuring out some new stuff to do. There ain’t that many people. Especially not on this strata. There’s a lot of things never been done before.
Keith (as Fero): That’s like what? What’s never been done?
Austin (as Samol): No one has ever jumped off of this building. Ever.
Keith (as Fero): You sayin’ I should jump off the building?
Austin (as Samol): I don’t know. Maybe? I’m here, like I’ll …
Keith (as Fero): That’s a real dangerous first one to pick.
Austin (as Samol): You could turn into a bird whenever you want. Or like something that lands, and then it lands just fine because it can jump from high up. Like a, spring baby.
Keith (as Fero): [same time as Austin says baby] Bug? … What’s a spring baby?
Austin (as Samol): Don’t. You know, well it’s new. I don’t know. You tell me.
Keith (as Fero): Spring baby…
Austin (as Samol): What’s a spring baby?
Keith (as Fero): I don’t know. You said it.
Austin (as Samol): I was thinking about things that are new.
Keith (as Fero): Like a newborn baby.
Austin (as Samol): Like a spring baby.
Keith (as Fero): Not like a, jumping baby?
Austin (as Samol): Nah, I was thinking like, the latter. Like a jumping baby.
Keith (as Fero): Like a jumping baby.
Austin (as Samol): Like a baby what jumps.
Keith (as Fero): [long pause] Why does it have to be a baby?
Austin (as Samol): I was just doing baby, you know, colloquially.
Keith (as Fero): Like a metaphorical baby?
Austin (as Samol): A metaphorical baby.
Keith (as Fero): Oh.
Austin (as Samol): Literal spring. [pauses] Let’s just work on this. And no promises. I’m not asking for a promise, but what I am saying is maybe one day, what you realize is, it’s fun to be new things, and you can be even more new things out there than in here. That’s, that’s my plan. That’s, I’m laying it out for you. Because I…
Keith (as Fero): [interrupting Austin] No one ever told me I could be a new thing.
Austin (as Samol): But you’ve been new things!
Keith (as Fero): I didn’t, it didn’t… occur to me that that’s what was happening.
Austin (as Samol): [overlapping] You turned into a little sand man! No one’s been a sand man before.
Keith (as Fero): But sand is already a thing.
Austin (as Samol): But sand man who can walk around and be rude to people or whatever it is that you do. That’s, that’s new. [pause] Poisonous, giant vole. New.
Keith (as Fero): I didn’t know that that was new.
Austin (as Samol): You came up with it.
Keith (as Fero): I didn’t know that it was…. I didn’t realize that it was a new… that it was new.
Austin (as Samol): Where did you think it came from?
Keith (as Fero): I just thought I was doing it. [Austin laughs softly] If I’m doing it, then it had to have been.
Austin (as Samol): No. That’s the thing they gave you. That’s the thing.
Keith (as Fero): Why weren’t they more clear about that? I didn’t know they did that until they told me they did it.
Austin (as Samol): Because they were busy. They were busy stitching the world shut.
Keith (as Fero): Then send a single messenger.
Austin (as Samol): I’m not saying their perfect. None of us are. My kind.
Keith (as Fero): None of us are saying they’re perfect. True.
Austin (as Samol): [same time] True. [sighs] I can tell you why they didn’t tell you. You know, you know the Marielda story. I know…
Keith (as Fero): I heard it.
Austin (as Samol): [soft laugh] Sometimes bad things happen when people from birth know the power they wield. They get it in their head that [exhaled sigh] what they want, what they see in the world is more important than what other people do. And, uh, I think Severea and Galenica saw stories like that, [pause] saw people who thought they were blessed, who thought they were holy, who thought they were gods. Who were gods. And said, ‘Nah. Let’s put the power in the world. Let’s put it in someone who we know has a good heart.’ And, uh, they rolled the dice.
Keith (as Fero): I thought I just figured out some trick. It’s a little disappointing.
Austin (as Samol): You thought you just like, ‘Boom. I figured it out. Anybody could figure this out.’
Keith (as Fero): I just thought anybody could figure it out. Yeah. I just you know…
Austin (as Samol): Even the rock in your back? The weird…
Keith (as Fero): Side effect?
Austin (as Samol): Side effect. Yeah, and you turn to sand.
Keith (as Fero): I thought, I thought really long about where I was, and so I thought, you know…
Austin (as Samol): But that’s part of it. That’s not not it. That’s it, too. They could’ve given it to someone who just was a person who lived in Rosemerrow their whole lives. They could have given it to somebody who would have voted for Lenny Lenova.
Keith (as Fero): That guy’s a fucking shitbag.
Austin (as Samol): That guy’s the worst. That guys makes me mad that I exist. You what? Burn it all down, honestly. [soft laugh]
Keith (as Fero): Start with the sand?
Austin (as Samol): [soft laughing] I’m saying. What do you think? Spend a year, come up with some new stuff with me. It’s fun. One time, one time Samot killed my sister Severea. [laughing] And when she came back out, she was so excited that she just made like, you heard of centaurs?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Austin (as Samol): Her! Minotaurs? All the -taurs. Her.
Keith (as Fero): All the -taurs?
Austin (as Samol): Uh, you heard of, umm, I, this dragon thing. That was her. She figured that out. And she was like, ‘Yo, I got you. Boom.’
Keith (as Fero): This one’s for you?
Austin (as Samol): This one’s for you. Dragons.
Keith (as Fero): Dragons.
Austin (as Samol): Uh, basilisks? Severea. Uh, umm… what’s the other one that’s like a chicken?
Keith (as Fero): Uhhh…
Austin (as Samol): Cockatris? [different pronunciation] Cockatris?
Keith (as Fero): Cockatris.
Austin (as Samol): That’s Severea. That didn’t exist before Severea. Severea figured that out. She was like, ‘I’m gonna make a little dude with a beak who could do… I don’t, like, some of them…
Keith (as Fero): But I guess if it’s you, If we’re talking about you and we’re talking about them, then nothing, all of it was new when they did it.
Austin (as Samol): But there’s as much time to go…
Keith (as Fero): [talking over Austin] Coconuts?
Austin (as Samol): … if someone figures it out and can separate life from me, as there’s already been.
Keith (as Fero): Wait, what? Say it again. What are you talking about?
Austin (as Samol): If, if Arrell or Samot or if your friends in the university figure out how to separate life from me and figure out how to make the world separate from my dying ass, there’s gonna be as much time in the forward as there was in the behind. [pauses] Someday someone will look back and be like, ‘Yeah, but Fero, when Fero figured out how to become a giant, poisonous vole, things were new. No one had figured that out yet.’ [pause] There didn’t use to be stars, Fero.
Keith (as Fero): Who did that one?
Austin (as Samol): Samot. [pause] Samot.
Keith (as Fero): That’s nuts. Do people know that?
Austin (as Samol): No. [soft exhaled laugh] You do.
Keith (as Fero): People don’t know? Well, I do now because I asked, but is, you know, everything had someone that did it.
Austin (as Samol): Mostly. I mean, mostly the thing is…
Keith (as Fero): [interrupting Austin] Did anything do itself?
Austin (as Samol): Everything also did itself. So, the cobbins, right? The cobbins, those little lizard people? The ones who like built stuff?
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh.
Austin (as Samol): Samothes didn’t say, ‘Here is a cobbin. Boom. Made a cobbin.’ He made history such that cobbins would start to happen, but cobbins had to take it from there. You know, he made sure they had the right, uh, resources nearby…
Keith (as Fero): Cobbins are perennial, you’re saying. You’re saying cobbins are perennials?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, they’re those, yes, they are perennials. Exactly. They have to keep coming back year after year.
Keith (as Fero): Did anyone ever make an annual?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah… of course. Just not on this level. You dig down. You go into the past? The old worlds we created? There are some real throw-away ones. There are things we should not have built. There is a, a level below us, deep below, from a time that has thankfully been written over where all magic and life except for Severea’s and Galenica’s was eradicated. That was almost it then. People then said, ‘Well, there’s no way forward, I guess.’ And there was. They rewrote history again. [pause] I don’t think I’m here for the future, but I keep suspecting there still might be one. And I want you to be there because being like, ‘Boom. Now there’s a… like a wolf with… wings who…
Keith (as Fero): That’s not a good one.
Austin (as Samol): See? I don’t do animals.
Keith (as Fero): [laughing] You can do a plant if it’s easier for you. You can do a plant example.
Austin (as Samol): I’m old. I used to be able to do plants, but I can’t… I can barely do, ok, let me do a plant. Ok. It is a vine that you can chew on and it makes you feel good. Like in your back. In your wings. It makes your wings feel better.
Keith (as Fero): [talking simultaneously with Austin] Makes your, it stretches your wing out. Stretches out your wings.
Austin (as Samol): Stretches the wings right, you can chew it inside when you’re going shopping and there’s not enough wing room.
Keith (as Fero): [talking simultaneously with Austin] That’s a good one, but most of us don’t have wings.
Austin (as Samol): Yet!
Keith (as Fero): I do, but I can’t feel ‘em till I have ‘em.
Austin (as Samol): Yet! See?
Keith (as Fero): You saying I feel them?
Austin (as Samol): [talking simultaneously with Keith] There might be more people with wings who could say? I don’t know.
Keith (as Fero): Ok.
Austin (as Samol): I’m gonna make this plant, and then maybe the world can be such that people who have wings …
Keith (as Fero): [talking simultaneously with Austin] Now all the people with wings…
Austin (as Samol): They’re gonna start moving to where that plant is because it’s good for their wings.
Keith (as Fero): [talking simultaneously with Austin] Yeah, ‘hey, we heard about the good wing-plant.’
Austin (as Samol): [talking simultaneously with Keith] Also, there are, I wanna be clear, one second, there are people with wings.
Keith (as Fero): I just said most people.
Austin (as Samol): Eh, there’s a lot of them. There’s like, bird people.
Keith (as Fero): Alright.
Austin (as Samol): They’re up north.
Keith (as Fero): Do I know about them?
Keith: Out of character, do I know them?
Austin: Ugh, they showed up in Marielda, so you would have heard about the nude, bird people in Marielda. But that’s it.
Keith: Oh yeah, now I, Keith, remember them.
Austin: They were like, in the finale of Marielda. Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Umm, but they exist still.
Austin (as Samol): You know, umm, there’s all sorts of people in the world. Boom. Ah, it didn’t work. Ok, one second. [pauses] Boom.
Keith (as Fero): Are you turning you into, are you tryin’ to do you into this?
Austin (as Samol): [talking simultaneously with Keith] I’m tryin’ to make some of this.
Keith (as Fero): [talking simultaneously with Austin] Or are you just tryin’ to make it in front of you?
Austin (as Samol): [sighs] And he focuses.
Austin: And…
Keith (as Fero): When you focus, what do you think on? [Austin, as Samol sighs] Like, what are thinking on when you’re trying to concentrate?
Austin (as Samol): I’m tryin’ to like, pull it together from [pauses] I’m trying’ to…
Keith (as Fero): Ribbon? You said ribbon before.
Austin (as Samol): Well it’s like a [sighs] It’s like…
Keith (as Fero): Different context, but…
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, it was a different context, but like, there’s the air right now, and I can feel the breeze. And what I have to do is try to feel how the breeze would change if it was passing through vines that when you chewed on them, they made your wings not hurt so much.
Austin: And like, you can feel the breeze as he’s saying this. And then just like, down in front of you, [laughs lightly] from the ceiling, vines begin to unfurl. And they’re blowing in this little breeze.
Keith: I take one, and I put it in mouth. And I’m chewin’ on it.
Austin: Take +1 forward.
Keith: [laughing]
Austin: You didn’t…
Keith: It’s makin’ me feel something!
Austin: Like, you didn’t know you felt wings. But you do.
Keith: I feel my wings?
Austin: You feel like, you know?
Keith: I feel like if I had wings, I’d feel good?
Austin: Yeah, there’s like part of your back, part of your musculature that like, you don’t think about ever cause it doesn’t, cause it’s just always there. Do you know what I mean?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Like, you ever get like, a foot pain or something, where you’re like, ‘Aw, I’m just gonna have this pain for 6 months.’?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Or whatever it is. Like you, you fuck up your knee…
Keith: Yeah, I hurt my wrist a year and a half ago, and I still sometimes feel it.
Austin: [overlapping] And it still sometimes feels like that? But there like, there are days where you know the pain is there, but you don’t think about the pain because it’s just part of who you are as a person now?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: It’s one of those, and you’re like, ‘Oh wow!’ [laughs] Like…
Keith: Yeah. I probably, it probably reminded me of that I had to learn how to fly even after I was a bird.
Austin: That’s exactly it. Yes, I think that’s a really good way of thinking about it. And it feels looser. And so, he looks at you. He, he like takes, uh, he snaps off one of the pieces of this, of this vine, and umm, it also tastes like licorice, I think. Umm, and, and he’s like…
Austin (as Samol): New things.
Austin: And he like, shakes the vine at you as he says it, he goes...
Austin (as Samol): New things!
Austin: And then starts chewing on the vine.
Keith: [laughing]
Austin: I think we cut there.
[Jack de Quidt’s “Still Winter” Begins playing in background]
Austin: Year three. Umm, back to the top. [laugh-sighs] Oh lordy.
Dre: Hey, Austin? You forgot to do something really important.
Austin: What did we do?
Dre: We gotta get rid of 1 food and 1 medicine.
Austin: Oh, fuck. We did.
Dre: Uh huh.
Austin: Shit. Alright, well… that means you get 4 food and 2 medicine. Actually, wait, I have to leave it there, the right way, and then actually, I’ll need the storehouse. I’ll change it. 4 food. [mouse clicking] 2 medicine. 0 fuel. 2 animals. And 10 people alive. Right?
Dre: Oh, that’s about to be no animals, my friend. [soft laugh]
Austin: Oh, is it? Ah, alright. Let’s go to the top of turn… uh, step 0-1. Umm, [soft laugh] I just want to remind people that I made this game easier than it was by default. So…
Sylvia: Jesus….
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: Wait. In which way?
Austin: Uh, it should be 12 turns cause it’s 10 plus the number of players.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: Uh, and then I’ve given you this extra thing where NPCs can sacrifice themselves to keep the population unit alive.
Dre: You know, the easy way. [laughing]
Austin: Yeah, but like compared to, ‘…and they’re dead. All of them.’
Dre: Yeah. Yeah. Fair.
Austin: ‘All of those people are dead.’ is worse, you know?
Dre: Fair.
Austin: Umm, it has, again, been made harder by the fact that there’s maybe only 2 of you. Uh, which means you don’t get a full spread of classes. Umm, though I, honestly, if Fero was here, Fero’s probably not a fighter. I don’t know. Maybe being a big animal makes him a fighter. Who could say? Umm, step 1. [reading] Count the dead. Forecast the weather. Death is dealt as preamble to action. Umm, so we know that right now, one villager in each of these things is going to die, right? [pauses] Or no, wait! Is that not true? That’s not true. Uh… ok. So, no one has died yet.
Dre: Yay.
Austin: Enough fuel stuff. Umm, but, if the fuel is bad this turn, it’s gonna be rough. Umm, because the fuel doesn’t have to get spent until, uh, this next…
Dre: Step 2?
Austin: Or like, it doesn’t get spent at step 2, it gets, it gets spent… it gets spent at the turn 1 of the next turn, basically. I think?
Dre: Ok.
Austin: I’m gonna read this again. [reading] For example, if there’s only enough fuel for 3 of the 4 buildings at the start of turn 2, then during step 1 of turn 3, a villager in the building without fuel will have died. [pause] Hmm… I’m gonna play it light here, which is that yes, so like, basically we are going to count who has died here based on the needs of the turn previous. Does that make sense? Outside of… yeah, yeah. Because like right now, like, hey, no one has 3 sicks or whatever, which means no one is going to… is it 3 again? I’ve now forgotten again. Is it… it’s 2 hunger and 3 sick? Or 3 hunger and 2 sick?
Dre: It’s 2 hunger, 3 sick. Yeah.
Austin: Ok. [typing] Uh, [mumbling to himself] equals dead. There we go. Perfect. Uh, ok. Umm, so yeah, so that means that no one is, no one has gotten hungry enough to be dead yet. Umm, and, and they won’t this turn, but the beginning of next turn, they might. Uh, in fact, I think now, what we can say clearly is if no one eats this turn… so if… wait, I’m missing an ‘h’ here, oops, cause Balion didn’t eat, right? Yeah. So, yeah, everybody who doesn’t eat this turn will die next turn. And by die, I’m being metaphorical, I’m being broad here, you know.
Dre: Right.
Austin: They’re, they’re… they will leave. Umm. Uh.. or, or maybe they will die, if it makes sense narratively. Umm, how much food do you have? Cause now it’s rationing time.
Dre: We have 4. And we still have 2 animals.
Austin: So that means you can get to 8 food.
Dre: Uh huh.
Austin: Which is not enough.
Dre: And how many people do we have to feed?
Austin: 10.
Dre: Uff.
Austin: Right? Cause y’all didn’t feed anybody yet. Did you?
Dre: No. Uh un.
Austin: [loud exhale] Yikes.
Sylvia: Ok. [clears throat]
Austin: What are your thoughts?
Dre: Hmmmm… [long pause]
Austin: Uh huh. This is on you, you know? It’s not on, but it’s up to you all to make some decisions.
Dre: Aww, man. Uh I just had a thought that makes me very sad.
Austin: Oh yeah?
Dre: If anybody volunteers to leave first, it’s probably Mee Kosh.
Austin: You think so?
Dre: Just, well, I guess we haven’t seen Mee Kosh in a long time. Right?
Austin: No, we haven’t. No.
Dre: I don’t know how Mee Kosh has changed with the way that the goblins and the snow elves have had like… their
Austin: Yeah. Some semblance of…
Dre: Yeah. But also like, conflict as well.
Austin: Yeah. I, I…
Dre: So, I could…
Austin: Yeah, go ahead.
Dre: I could… If like, I mean, I barely remember Mee Kosh at this point, but I could see Mee Kosh kind of being like, ‘Eh, I’ve lived in this crap before like, whatever.’
Austin: Right.
Dre: Like ‘I’ll do some extra wandering off to get some extra supplies’ and just…
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: …doesn’t come back, and it’s not really sure if he just decided to leave…
Austin: Right.
Dre: …or if he died or… what. I don’t…
Austin: Umm, yeah, that’s definitely possible. Umm, I could imagine it being, so I could imagine it being Carrot and the wild animals who are like, ‘We’re gonna take our chances out there.’
Dre: Yeah, that’s true.
Austin: Umm, and then, I mean, and then the thing that happens that’s kind of sad is like, you start hunting wild animals more. That are, you know what I mean?
Dre: [quietly] Yeah.
Austin: Umm, like where do those 2 food units come from? Well, you didn’t eat Carrot the squirrel, but…
Dre: [laughing]
Austin: But…
Sylvia: [sighs]
Dre: I already, I already posted this like, horrible ethical nightmare of Throndir being able to talk to creatures.
Austin: Yes.
Dre: And having to slaughter animals to feed other animals. [laughing]
Austin: Uh huh. Yep. Umm, any thoughts, Ephrim?
Sylvia (as Ephrim): Umm, [soft laugh] if you need someone to do that instead of you, I’ll do it. Like, the slaughtering. If you don’t want to hear them.
Austin: [laughing]
Sylvia (as Ephrim): I don’t know what else I can offer here. We’re in a rock and a hard place, right? It’s either…
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia (as Ephrim)I: ...we let them ago and we live with knowing that, yes we will probably have to hunt some of these, and, or like, people start dying.
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah. I don’t know.
Austin: [sighing]
Dre: Oh boy. Ok, what if this happens?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: So, Carrot and the animals say they’re gonna leave.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And I think Throndir probably…
Austin (as Carrot): [interrupting Dre] We’re gonna get out of here.
Dre (as Throndir): Yeah.
Austin: Is what Carrot says. Yeah. Uh huh.
Dre (as Throndir): [sighs] Ok, you know I’m the only person who can tell [pauses] You guys are going to get hunted and killed.
Austin (as Carrot): You’ve already been hunting us and killing us. [pauses] We’ve just decided to live nearby instead of out where the Heat and the Dark and everything else is.
Austin: I don’t think this thing knows what the Heat and the Dark is…
Austin (as Carrot): Out, out where it’s dangerous. More dangerous. The thing we’ve realized is this place isn’t less dangerous. We’re gonna take our chances.
Dre (as Throndir): [pauses] Ok.
Austin (as Carrot): Also, I don’t think that the rest of the animals really trust me much anymore, as like, a council leader. So, yeah, good luck.
Dre (as Throndir): You, too.
Austin (as Carrot): Nice seeing you.
Austin: Umm, ok. So that’s, so what are using? You using that for food?
Dre: [softly] Yeah.
Austin: Alright, so…
Dre: Umm…
Austin: Uh huh?
Dre: Throndir hangs up his bow.
Austin: Aww, ok…. Interesting.
Dre: He doesn’t go hunting for animals anymore.
Austin: Ok. That’s cool. Like period?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Huh. Ok. [typing] Uh, so we start with that 2, umm, from Carrot. Umm, so that is, so the thing that’s happening here is basically is Carrot is effectively… the animals are staying, like there are still a supply of animals in the area, but like, and you can still talk to them if you’d like to, Throndir, umm, but Carrot specifically and Carrot’s like, counsel of animals has kind of just broken, you know? Umm, and Carrot leaves with some, and they all go to a different place. Umm, but a lot in that process stay and the other people will be hunting them. You know? And that is kind of where that food comes from.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, let me strike this through really quick. [click] Boom. Alright, so you get +2 food from Carrot which brings you up to 6 food, and then you’re going to slaughter the 2 animals that are still there, right?
Dre: I guess so, cause like, that feeds everybody.
Austin: Plus 4 from slaughtered animals. Plus 4…
Dre: Are you… ok with that Ephrim?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Ok.
Austin: 10 and then at 0. Ok, so everyone eats which means you get to clear all of this.
Dre: Ah, all these letters going away.
Austin: All these letters go away.
Dre: Uh, do we want to spend our, what medicine we have?
Sylvia: Umm…
Austin: Right, sorry wait. Did people who were already sick get sicker? Is that true? Or do they only get sick when the sick gets hit again.
Dre: I was about to ask you that.
Sylvia: Oh no.
Austin: I don’t think using medicine will clear it no matter what, you know? Umm, this game is really cool, but the book is not super… there, there’s some layout things that like, I wish there was a, I wish it was a little quicker to be like, ‘oh hey, is this? Does this advance?’ You know?
Sylvia: Yeah. Umm…
Dre: Uh, it says [reading] Any ill villager who passes 3 turns without medicine welcomes a somber death.
Austin: Ok, yeah, once you’re ill, you’re just. I’m gonna tick that up then.
Dre: Yeah, you’re ticking up.
Austin: Yes, there it is! Likewise, sick villagers who remain as such must have another check added. So, that means, we’re actually at 2 for, for who? For Balion and for Chatterchin.
Dre: Chatterchin, yeah.
Austin: Yeah. And 1 for… [typing] Jerod. Or are they at 3 now?
Dre: No.
Sylvia: No.
Austin: This is turn 3. They got sick at the end of the 1st turn, right?
Sylvia: Wouldn’t they get sicker at the end of turn 3 then?
Austin: No, it happens during the rations stage.
Sylvia: Ok.
Austin: So, each turn… right which makes sense because they don’t die immediately. They die at the beginning of the next turn. That’s the thing, right?
Dre: Ok.
Austin: So, they’re at 3, Chatterchin and Balion are at 3. Jerod is at 2. Which means that at the beginning of the next turn, Balion and Chatterchin will both die if not given…
Dre: Ok.
Austin: …or not die, but again, you know. Umm, so and you have the medicine, right?
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: I have 1 each? So, do you want to spend that on them?
Sylvia: I would like to.
Dre: Yeah. Agreed.
Sylvia: Umm, ok.
Austin: Umm, I think there’s like, a little bit of, I don’t know. What is the attitude here? What is the, what is the vibe from this happening? Given the history of these 2 groups?
Sylvia: Oh yeah. I didn’t think about that.
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: Specifically. Umm, I don’t know cause it’s been a few years, so I hope that they are starting to at least be civil, but like…
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: …that’s more on the halfings to be like…
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: …chill with the gnolls, right? Umm.
Austin: Yeah, I think Balion… So, so we kind of setup Lutz as being someone who wanted to unify these groups, and I think Balion continues that work. Umm, and does her best to try to keep this as like, ‘Hey look. We’re all suffering here. Everyone has suffered here.’ Umm, and so as long as she’s around, she’s able to keep the halfings in order around that shit. But there are definitely people in the halfings who are like, ‘Fuck that. We should get more medicine.’ Or like, ‘Give medicine to the Ordennans before you give it to the, to the gnolls.’ And she stops that shit in its place, but it does mean that she needs to stop that shit, you know?
Umm, or her people. The people who she is kind of put into, into kind of more leadership positions have to step in and stop that shit. Umm, and I think for Chatterchin and the gnolls, it’s kind of like, ‘Yeah, of course we’re gonna be second best.’ You know? There’s a degree of defeatism, uh in the, in the gnolls these days. Um, they used to say, ‘We used to be wolves’ as a battle-cry and now they kind of say it as just like, a whimper. So, it ain’t great. [deep inhale and exhale] Alright, umm, there’s a thing I’m gonna do. I’m gonna move the storehouse up above the turns it is, that way it’s just like, right there next to people.
Dre: [overlapping] Good call.
Austin: Alright, so medicine’s spent. Alright! Storehouse current: 0 animals, 0 food, 0 medicine, and 0 fuel.
Dre: Fuck me. Ok.
Austin: So, here’s one nice thing. You’re gonna get a medicine no matter what. You’re gonna get 1 medicine no matter what. Right?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Umm, because you’ll always roll that for Ephrim. Which mean, Jerod will be fine next turn, and that’s the only person who’s sick. So, that at least helps a little bit. [laughs when Dre grunts] That’s not a good sound.
Dre: And since we don’t have fuel, even if we get fuel on this turn…
Austin: No, you spent a fuel. You spent fuel for this turn. No one is going to…
Dre: Ok.
Austin: …At the beginning of next turn, I think… We’re gonna check it at the beginning of next turn, right?
Dre: I think so.
Austin: You spent… or did you not spend…. You don’t have any, you didn’t have any fuel?
Dre: We spent it in turn 2.
Austin: Right. Right. Jesus. Uh, you spent it in turn 2.
Sylvia: Wait, didn’t we lose it in turn because of the occurrence I rolled? I think we… [inaudible when Austin begins]
Austin: [interrupting] Yeah, the occurrence removed 1d6 of fuel which Sylvia[1] rolled for an got 2.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: So we lost, we lost that 2, right?
Dre: Yeah, that’s how we dropped down to 0.
Austin: [overlapping] Which means we were down to 0.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Which now means that, right which now means that at the beginning of this turn, if you have no fuel, yes, there… one person in each of these, in each of these leaves. You group.
Dre: Jesus.
Austin: So maybe that’s, ok so maybe that is Carrot’s group. Maybe that group just straight up leaves altogether.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, in which case, in which case, in which case, you still have 1 food.
Dre: Yeahhhh.
Austin: Right?
Dre: Opa!
Austin, Uh…. [light laugh]
Sylvia: [soft laugh] Jesus.
Austin: Um, in fact, you’re gonna end up with 2 food because the other group is gonna leave also, right? Who’s the other group that leaves? Or person? Or do we, is there another group person here who’s like, ‘No, I’m gonna sacrifice myself to keep these people here’? And provide the 2 fuel you need?
Sylvia: I could see [exhales sigh] I don’t know maybe Morbash leaving? I don’t know.
Austin: That’s interesting.
Sylvia: It’s just one of things where like, I don’t know. My immediate thing was just like, knowing what I know of Morbash, uh, is he gonna stick around for like, leaders who aren’t able to provide? [said at same time as Austin] You know?
Austin: [overlapping] Right, he’s like this, ‘Fuck this’ basically? Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: So, yeah, there’s 2 ways, again, there’s 2 things on the table for each, each thing on the stage, or on the, on the list. A character could leave. A character could sacrifice themselves in the story, and say, ‘hey…’ There’s a world in which Morbash is like, ‘No, I’m gonna get us the fuel we need’ and he does it and dies doing it. There’s also separately Morbash being like, ‘You know what? We’re leaving. All of us. All of the orcs are leaving. Fuck off.’ Umm, I can go either way with that. It’s up to y’all.
Sylvia: Hmm…
Austin: I mean, obviously, it’s up to you. You’re playing the game, umm, but… but I’m curious which one that is.
Sylvia: I do kind of like the idea… [soft laugh] I like the idea of Morbash dying. Is a really fun sentence to say.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: But I, I do like the idea of Morbash being someone who puts like…
Austin: [overlapping] the community in front?
Sylvia: … his people ahead of himself. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: And because of that the tragedy happens.
Austin: What’s that look like? How does Morbash die getting the fuel you need? And again, fuel is understood broadly. It isn’t just heat. It is, it is building materials. It is, uh, everything that isn’t food or medicine, you know?
Sylvia: It could be…
Austin: It could be, it could be…
Sylvia: We got caught in that storm, right?
Austin: You did.
Sylvia: How long were we gone for?
Austin: Oh yeah. Maybe a while.
Sylvia: Cause we have a year to play with.
Austin: Yeah, you tell me. How long were you caught in that storm for?
Sylvia: Cause like, we could’ve been… we could’ve got really turned around and been gone for a few weeks or something. And Morbash…
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: …, stepped in, but also, maybe… I mean, I don’t want to play too much with the rule here, but he could have gotten sick and not told anybody or anything.
Austin: 100%
Sylvia: Like while fulfilling the role we were supposed to.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: He kind of just like, withered away.
Austin: Powered through?
Sylvia: Yeah. Like he never let it show.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: And then one day he just didn’t get up.
Austin: Yeah. I think it’s interesting because he’s someone who we’ve always seen as this very intimidating physical figure.
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Austin: And we just see him slowly wither, you know? Um, and he keeps it hidden under his armor. He wears his armor all the time, you know? Umm, and then, just yeah, one day he doesn’t show up for roll call. Um, like he was there the day before. He was there. He was there and like, you know, he wasn’t just there. He was there being like, making sure other people showed up on time.
Sylvia: He was being Morbash.
Austin: He was being Morbash. Maybe that’s where the fuel comes from? He spent the year just like, getting more out of people. And inspiring people and scaring people [light laugh] into doing more. Into turning, you know, turning one pile of wood into two, you know? Getting more out of every little bit. But, you know, he was the person, he was your shop teacher? [Dre laughs] who gets it through your head that you have to measure, measure twice and cut once. You know?
Um, so yeah, Morbash just, one day doesn’t make it. [inhales and exhales] Shout outs to Morbash. I’m gonna strike Morbash’s name out but the orcs remain. Umm, I’m gonna write that also. [typing] I’m just gonna write, ‘Orcs’, wait nope, that’s strikeout. I don’t want that. Uh, bop bop… Nope. That’s still gonna do that. ‘Orcs’ there we go. [pauses and stops typing] But the animals are totally gone. Right? Yeah. Ok. Whoops! I wrote that way wrong still. There we go. There we go. Now we’re good. [big exhaled sigh] Alright, which means that there’s enough fuel to keep the orcs alive and then to keep Ephrim’s buildings alright. Umm, where do you bury Morbash?
Sylvia: I’m putting that on the map right now!
Austin: Sick! I’m glad! Oh, there’s a cemetery up there! Nice!
Sylvia: Yeah, I thought….
Austin: So, it’s between the outside wall, the star-stuff wall and the, the campus wall?
Sylvia: Yeah, I was thinking it would be… I don’t know. I thought it would be nice if it was on like, a hill or something.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Overlooking the settlement.
Austin: I like that. You wanna draw a little hill? I’ll draw a little hill.
Sylvia: Yeah, also, I can’t get the actual word to stay in the box.
Austin: Uh, hold down ALT while you’re moving stuff.
Sylvia: Ohhh, ok. There we go.
Austin: There you go. And, there. That’s a hill. I’m gonna add the word hill. That way… [typing] This is a hill.
Sylvia: [laughs] That way we know it’s not just a weird line?
Austin: Not just a weird line. Weird. Weird green cemetery line. Um, alright. Um, count the dead, ration the supplies, oi… ok. Um, uh, alright. Next step is, so again we’re rationing now. Who is going to get food? We have no food. So, everyone’s going to go hungry this turn, right?
Sylvia: Wait.
Dre: Wait, we just fed everyone.
Austin: Did we just? Oh, you just fed everyone.
Sylvia: Yeah, we just fed them. Fuel was the last thing we needed to do.
Austin: [talking over Sylvia] Yeah, yeah, yeah, ok, sorry. I was just looking at this, right yeah, so that was the last thing. That’s fine. That part’s fine. Sickness is addressed. Um, ok, it’s time to go get stuff.
Dre: [sighs] Ok.
Austin: Throndir, what are you going to get?
Dre: Do we get food or fuel?
Austin: I don’t know. Food, food is kind of… you need it, here, oh, it’s tough. It’s so tough. It’s so tough.
Sylvia: We can last one turn without food, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Cause doesn’t it, hunger has to stack?
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: We need the fuel right now.
Austin: The thing that’s so tough… you’re not wrong. I think you’re probably right. The thing that’s so tough is, you’re in this cycle where Throndir is really good at getting food. Throndir could theoretically get up to 18 food in a single turn.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: But it means giving some… not getting fuel is what it means. Because you do not have a fighter.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: If only someone could turn into a bear and cut down trees.
Sylvia: Jesus. If only we had somebody to…
Dre: [talking over Sylvia] Is that what bears do? What the fuck? [laughing]
Sylvia: If only we had somebody who could turn into a giant, poisonous vole. [laugh sighs]
Austin: [laughing]
Sylvia: Where’s our little buddy?
Austin: Where’s your little buddy? Um, but you’re not wrong in that like, you could get… I mean everybody gets hungry next turn, but no one is hungry now.
Dre: [big exhaled sigh]
Austin: I, maybe… yeah, maybe next turn Ephrim could do the leading on the food, and that would still let Throndir do a roll, the extra roll?
Sylvia: Yeah. [inaudible when Dre begins speaking]
Dre: Yeah, I mean that’s what we did last time.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, that is what you did last time. It’s such a weird, it’s such a weird situation.
Dre: Because ok, we only...
Austin: [interrupting] Or! Like maybe you’ll get a good occurrence.
Dre: We only have to feed 9 people now, right?
Austin: Oh, that’s true. That’s true.
Dre: And on average, if, if we’re rolling 3d6, like the odds are in our favor that we’ll get at least 9.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: It’s a coin flip that we get at least 9. Which would feed everyone.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Alright, I guess, yeah, let’s go get fuel.
Austin: Ok, give me a 2d6. Roll good, please. [deep inhale] It’s a 6. Speaking of…
Dre: [interrupting] This is the exact same roll that I rolled the first fucking time.
Austin: It is, but look, there’s enough fuel for the next turn, right?
Sylvia: Do I do 1d3 for the, uh…
Austin: [interrupting] 1d3 for medicine.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Nice!
Sylvia: Ok. That’s good at least. I got a 3 on that.
Austin: [interrupting] 3 on medicine? Hell yeah. Uh, alright, so 6 fuel and 3 medicine. Uh, you still have 1 food left which is nice.
Dre: Fuck. No we don’t.
Austin: Wait why don’t, oh, you don’t because we have to delete ‘em. That’s good. So, that’s still 0 food. Because you never…
Dre: [interrupting] I can’t believe we broke this fucking storeroom in the very first turn.
Austin: [laughing] It’s like the maximum bad it could be.
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: We could have fixed it, too.
Dre: Yeah, but then we would have lost somebody like right off the bat.
Austin: [talking at same time] You would have lost somebody already. Yeah, yeah. Totally.
Sylvia: [talking at same time] Yeah, we would have. We would have been in this situation earlier.
Austin: God. God. [Sylvia sighs] I’m gonna add these minus 1s so that we remember that there are the minus 1s.
Dre: [laughing]
Sylvia: It’s like we moved into a place and immediately found out we had rats. We didn’t even get a week without rats.
Austin: Oh, yeah. No, you should have gotten that, that lemon laws here, just not that good, you know? You can’t just flip that shit back. Um, it’s occurrence time! Actually, no wait. Tell me about getting this stuff before we, before we advance. We shouldn’t just roll dice and keep moving. Put cameras on things.
Dre: Right.
Austin: So, uh, you don’t hunt anymore. What, what, how do you get… or wait no, this is fuel. You did fuel, not food.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: So, this is more, what is, what is fuel here in the broadest sense? What is it that people needed that Throndir provided this year?
Dre: I wonder if, so like, in the underground garden there was all that like, um, like the plants that had gone bad and everything?
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: That we like, couldn’t use as medicine.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Um, I think Throndir like, found out a way to like, dry all that stuff out to use as kindling.
Austin: Oh, that’s a cool idea. I like that a lot. Um, when you light it, it like, it takes on a different color flame. What color flame is it?
Dre: Hmm… purple.
Austin: Ok. Ominous.
Dre: Uh huh.
Austin: How’s your hand doing, uh, Ephrim? Is the hole continuing to expand?
Sylvia: Uh, it’s a little hard to tell. Uh, when it like, on a day to day basis if it is or not.
Austin: Sure.
Sylvia: But at this point, Ephrim is pretty sure that since it’s come, like since he’s gotten it, it has grown and it’s starting to take up like…
Austin: Some speed?
Sylvia: … majority of his palm, I’d say.
Austin: Yeah. Oh! Um, Ephrim?
Sylvia: Uh huh?
Austin: You, there is a day that you have that same rash that they Ordennans do. And you don’t use anything made of Ordennan steel, so that’s weird. You don’t know why that is.
Sylvia: Hmm, weird.
Austin: Yeah. Um, occurrence time! Or no, wait. Wait do you get your medicine from? Is this just continuing to work the garden? Or is it, is there a new source of medicine that you found?
Sylvia: Man, I wonder if this is maybe not like medicine specifically, but would help with the overall health of the settlements, and maybe we could work into counting as that.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Just mechanically. Maybe after we clean up all that like, stuff that just died. The water flow in…
Austin: Oh, that’s a good!
Sylvia: …the underground garden just kind of becomes cleaner and can be used as drinking water now.
Austin: Totally. Instead of just like, melting snow or going out and trying to find gross water, or surface water or whatever.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I love it. That’s great. Could you draw a little like, stream in there maybe?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Freehand and start doing some good drawing. Ok. Hey Throndir, give me a roll.
Dre: [small voice] I don’t wanna…
Austin: [laughing] Alright, 1-6. Oh my god.
Sylvia: Oh no, what happened this time?
Dre: Well, good news. We have food now.
Austin: Do not!
Dre: [laughing throughout]
Austin: [reading] Madness in this cold hell has driven a villager screaming and naked into the forest. The villager will die of exposure and if wanted, the corpse can be converted into 5 units of fuel. Or food.
Dre: [same time] Food.
Austin: Food, food food, food, ahhhh.
Sylvia: We’re not eating somebody.
Dre: No.
Austin: You should have saved the animals. The animals could have become 5 units of food. Are you kidding me?
Dre: [laughing hysterically]
Sylvia: What a big squirrel.
Dre: Should have sent Mee Kosh.
Austin: So, who is this?
Dre: Oh god. Does it have to be someone from mine? I imagine.
Austin: Oh yeah. You’re the active. Yeah. Uh huh.
Dre: Gah, Jesus. [groaning]
Sylvia: Does it have to be one of these, it has to be one of these named people, right? Or?
Austin: I will let you… I will let you do the sacrifice before their group leaves, but yes, their group is leaving.
Sylvia: Ok.
Austin: And it doesn’t have to be naked and mad into the woods. I mean, it could be mad in a different way. I think it could be, like this could be Mee Kosh. Right? This could be the elves. The snow elves and the goblins just never. The snow elves, one day, try to like, fuck up a goblin or something, and it just explodes, and I think Corsica Neue draws a line in the sand and is like,
Austin (as Corsica Neue): ‘No, get out. Do not come back.’
Austin: Like…
Dre: Yeah.
Austin (as Corsica Neue): ‘You do not fight inside of the university.’
Dre: Yeah, I think that makes the most sense.
Austin: Do you like that?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Um, but if you want to sacrifice Mee Kosh… so there’s… I’m giving you an option here. Mee Kosh could go back, go back into the woods and maybe become an NPC again later this year. Um, or Mee Kosh could sacrifice themselves at some point during this year for 2 food, medicine, or fuel.
Dre: [sighs] I just want the nice, old goblin-man to live a, to live a nice happy life.
Austin: Yeah. Well, he’ll be going back into the woods. It’s fine.
Dre: Ok.
Austin: Just let him go back into the woods.
Dre: Ok.
Austin: Still alive. I’m gonna write this. [typing] Still alive. But the group has been removed. Um, and I think they suffer casualties. Like I don’t think, like we are not gonna see a vibrant Auniq. Umm, we’re going to see like, this answers like, um, goblins and snow elves scattered to the corners of Hieron. Living in small numbers, never big communities. Throndir, how does that feel? As someone who came from this place? As someone who is half-goblin, half-snow elf?
Dre: Bad, really bad.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: I think…
Austin: Like, yeah.
Dre: I think, like, you know how like, we, like, I think everybody goes through life having like, something that they want to like, take care of?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And unfortunately, like sometimes we like, never get the chance to do it.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And I think Throndir really wanted to like, reconcile a lot about himself and where he came from.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And that’s just, that’s just not going to happen.
Austin: Yeah. I think before he goes, Mee Kosh tells you where you can find him, which will not be that far away. He tells you, um, I think he says, uh, he calls you a name. Um, [sighs] it’s like a… actually, do you know what Throndir means? Is it too clever for Throndir to already have meant a thing? Or for it to have meant a thing in goblin?
Dre: It probably did. And it’s one of the words that was taken.
Austin: Oh yeah, totally. And he knows that word. And he tells you that what it means is ‘many thing’. Like a thing that is many. It can mean many things or it can mean a many thing. Like a many-ed thing. A thing that has been many-ed. A thing that has like a bunch of different… like multifaceted is basically what it means. Um, and he calls you that. He says, uh, you know…. Uh, let me look at the actual map real quick and found out where we should put Mee Kosh at. Um, I think Mee Kosh is like, um…
Austin (as Mee Kosh): Find me near the woods south, Many Thing. If you ever have questions about where you come from.
Austin: And he leaves you a recipe for soup… or tea? It’s not particularly clear. [Dre laughs] Um, ok, well. Yikes. Uh, so, that’s the end of turn 3, right? Or no, who do you want to meet with?
Dre: God, I was gonna say Mee Kosh.
Austin: Or we could, we could still do Mee Kosh. We could do the Mee Kosh bigger conversation, if you want to. I don’t want to take that from you.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: When we got a 4, he leaves. I can’t believe you FUCKING rolled that. That was the worst one.
Dre: Uh huh. Uh huh.
Austin: I’ll bet there’s a good one in there.
Sylvia: Sure doesn’t feel like it.
Dre: Uh… Yeah there is. 1-1 is a good one.
Sylvia: Oh, ok. Oh, 2 ones. Hmm, we have been rolling a lot of those. [Austin laughs]
Dre: Yeah, right? Just can’t put them together.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Um, yeah, I wanted… Throndir wants to have a conversation with Mee Kosh.
Austin: Ok
Dre: And it’s in the cemetery
Austin: Oh, ok.
Dre: And it’s next to the uh, it’s next to a headstone that Throndir made for the Great Fantasmo.
Austin: Oh, interesting. Ok cool.
Dre: And I think he wants to basically like, give Mee Kosh, like,
Dre (as Throndir): This is what happened in winter. What happened in Auniq.
Austin: And he says um…
Austin (as Mee Kosh): You can put 2 seeds next to one another in the ground, and they will grow. But they may not grow together. Or they may. Sometimes one plant eats the other. Sometimes one grows too fast. Shades the other and prevents the sunlight from feeding it. Sometimes they grow together. You. Gnik. Gnik with a g. The goblin, Gnik. You helped. You helped grow together, but more seeds drop. Grow apart again. Hm? Never…
Austin: And he like, puts his hands together.
Austin (as Mee Kosh): Never one thing. But never many thing, like you either. Always a mix.
Dre: Man, what… Is Throndir’s dad here with everybody?
Austin: Yeah probably. I don’t think he ever talks to you.
Dre: Woof.
Austin: He’s like… That whole like old, Auniq council is… I mean, I guess like, Mee Kosh explains this to you that like, they… The goblins won that set of negotiations and skirmishes and kind of took over. Um, and attempted to integrate the 2 groups again, but the Auniq snow elves just like, never got over their bullshit.
Dre: Huh.
Austin: Um, and consistently refused to say that there had ever been any united group and refused to take advice and like, drag their fucking feet down here. And now they ruin this, too. Not all of them. But you know, the ones in charge. I don’t think Mitta Parr ever came with this group. Mitta Parr was just kind of in the wind, on her own, you know? She was in Rosemerrow at the time, but I don’t think that she… She spent a lot of time in and out of communities. She’s good at living in the wilderness and kind of popping up as need be. She may pop up later, you know?
Dre: Was she? That’s not the snow elf that Throndir bust out of jail in the…
Austin: Yes.
Dre: …fall holiday special?
Austin: In the fall holiday special and then she popped back up as a like a Robin Hood in Rosemerrow..
Dre: That’s right. Yeah. Yes.
Austin: …in the second detective story, so yeah.
Dre: Man, there’s a, there’s a timeline where if Throndir was not so sad about all these animals losing that he gets the Golden Lance to just fucking smoke the whole Auniq council. But…
Austin: Oh true.
Dre: [laughing] He’s too sad right now.
Austin: You know sometimes that happens. I’ll note that the Golden Lance like, also does a check in every now and then but they have not… Um I think, I suspect that they show up and check in on your every year to be like, how’s your progress going? Have you built your gun yet? And it seems like the answer is no right?
Dre: Yeah
Austin: I don’t think you’ve had the supplies to do that.
Dre: Yeah
Austin: Um… Ok. [reading a text in chat] Have you charged your crystal? [laughs] Fuck off.
Dre: [laughing]
Sylvia: God.
Austin: Ugh. Um, Ephrim, do you have any questions for Mee Kosh? I know you never met this goblin sage but…
Dre: Ah, he’s so cool.
Austin: He’s dope.
Sylvia: Um. I don’t think so. I think Ephrim tagged along though, but he’s like, like making sure that everybody… everybody in the cemetery is like, cleaned, like everything is cleaned up and everybody has got like, a plot of land. Looking after them when they’re gone.
Austin: Yeah. Ok, uh, that’s… oh! At the end of this turn, this is turn three, right?
Sylvia: Uh yes.
Austin: Umm, maybe something good finally happens. Umm, yeah. Something good finally happens. 2 people show up. Um, and to represent that I will roll 1d6, and whatever shows up you can split across supplies. Why did that actually roll… I rolled a 6!
Dre: Oh, thank god!
Austin: Alright, so you break that up however you want and you tell me what Sunder Havelton, the mage, and Stornras Glasseye of the Ordennan, uh formerly of the… of all parts of Ordennan military, um, what they, what they bring with them for you.
Dre: Oh god, can we take 3 fuel so we then can fucking fix this storeroom?
Sylvia: I was gonna say, do they bring a fixed shed?
[All 3 laugh]
Austin: Oh my god. Um, no, but here’s the thing. I think Sunder Havelton is like,
Austin (as Sunder): Why are you using the old store room?
[Dre laughing]
Austin: Because she taught here when she was younger, right? Um, and like, there must be some other building or some like… or no, like, why are you only using the top floor of the storeroom? Um, and like, shows you to a magical elevator like, there’s just like straight up a thing that’s like, she just puts a little magical charge into it and it lowers. There’s like, you know there was a whole weird alcove where you could lower huge pallets of stuff, but you couldn’t use it because it wasn’t magically charged. It just looked like the weird alcove in the corner. And she just, zip-zaps it, and it turns on, and you’re able to lower stuff to a lower… I mean, this is how your spending this, the fuel, right?
Sylvia: Uh, presumably yeah.
Austin: To repair this thing, yeah? So then, yeah, that’s what that is. Um, and so yeah, you can repair that which means that you don’t lose that, the medicine or the fuel this turn, right?
Dre: Or the food. Yeah.
Austin: Or the food. What did you lose each turn? Food and medicine, right?
Dre: Yeah yeah yeah.
Austin: Ok, ok. Then yeah, so um, so that means… wait. You got three fuel from them which means…
Dre: Well, so cause I was thinking, what if we just did all fuel? Cause that seems to be what’s hardest for us to get.
Austin: True
Sylvia: Yeah, cause we can get a lot of food next turn.
Austin: True.
Sylvia: And then we’ll get some medicine… Oh no, we won’t get medicine with that, right? Cause we only do the one bonus roll, right?
Austin: No, you always, you always will get medicine
Sylvia: Ok, yeah. Then yeah, I am fully on board with us just getting this fuel and fixing this…
Austin: Totally. I’m pretty sure you’ll always get medicine. Wait.
Dre: No, I think …
Austin: Yeah
Dre: I think if because I didn’t roll extra food when I searched for…
Austin: Maybe you should have.
Dre: Cause I think if Ephrim is the person that is searching for something that is not medicine…
Austin: Ohhhh Right.
Dre: …it doesn’t get the 1d3.
Austin: It’s only if you’re not the active looker. Right? Is that what it is?
Dre: Yeah, I think so.
Sylvia: How are we doing for medicine right now though?
Austin: I’m just gonna double check on this. One second
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: I think regardless we’re probably ok this turn to go with it just being fuel and getting food this turn.
Austin: No, no, no look. [reading] Any adventurer who did not roll for additional units may roll plus 1d3 in gratuity units that matches the class’s supply. We should just double check that you’ve done this these three turns.
Dre: I definitely have not on the 2 turns that I was the primary person.
Austin: But that’s because you did. So, the first turn, ok, so yeah, so the first turn, you did food right away, right? Wasn’t that the first turn?
Dre: No, we did fuel.
Austin: You did fuel. And so, you didn’t ever roll for…
Dre: I didn’t roll a 1d3 for food.
Austin: Fuck. So yeah, you should have another 2… 3d6 food? Er, 3d3, not 6, not 6.
Dre: Well, I’m pretty sure we rolled it on…
Austin: When? On Sylvia’s turn?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: On turn 2? I’ll double check. Oh, in fact, you rolled 2d6 that turn because…
Dre: Right. Yeah cause Sylvia searched for… Ephrim searched for food. So, I rolled a 1d6.
Austin: Ephrim searches for food. Why did you roll two 1d6’s there? Er, I might be looking at the wrong one. Oh, hold on. Let’s go to the very top. Let’s work through it. Alright, so that’s initiative. Then turn one is Throndir rolls for fuel. Gets 5. Sylvia rolls…er, Ephrim rolls for medicine. Gets 1. You there should have rolled 1d3. Roll a 1d3 now.
Dre: OK
Austin: Then you…
Sylvia: Oh and these… oh, go ahead
Austin: Huh?
Sylvia: I was just gonna say those separate 1d6’s that we couldn’t… those were just the occurrences.
Austin: Those are the occurences. Exactly.
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah, those were the occurrences. Yeah.
Austin: Then I rolled for sickness. Then I roll again for si…. What’s this other? That’s for temperature. Then d3 for temperature. Um, then second round, Sylvia rolled.
Dre: This is food.
Austin: That’s food. Rolls the 2d6, and then you get the additional thing for food. So, that’s that. Then Sylvia rolls… So, that one’s fine.
Dre: Yeah
Austin: That one’s fine. Um, then this past turn, that’s… what is that? That’s other stuff… other stuff.
Dre: That’s… that’s for fuel
Austin: That’s fuel 1; the 1+5 is fuel. So yes, you should have rolled another 1d3 there
Sylvia: Ok
Austin: So, go ahead and do that.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: That’s 5.
Dre: 5 more food.
Austin: 5 more food. I don’t think… I don’t think that changes…
Dre: No, no.
Austin: No one starved
Dre: [overlapping] Nobody starved, yeah
Austin: I guess, oh, here’s the thing. Maybe you get an animal back here? That’s my question. My question is like, didn’t somebody… Did somebody leave and give you food? Yeah. Carrot did. Right?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: I’ve no problem doing a pick-up so we can fix this. So, carrot is still here.
Dre: Yeah. I mean it’s either carrot is still here, or we have animals in the storehouse again.
Austin: Right, but it feels like… if I’m in the audience, I’m like why would you let Carrot go instead of slaughtering those animals?
Dre: Yeah, no true.
Austin: You know?
Dre: Yeah, 100%.
Austin: Though here’s the other side of this is, then we lose Throndir hanging up the bow which is interesting.
Dre: Yeah, I don’t want to lose that. Um…
Austin: Um, we leave all of this in and be like, ‘hey, actual play’?
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah, I mean…
Dre: I think that’s fine.
Austin: Ephrim, how do you feel about this?
Sylvia: No, I like… I really like where we’ve been going fictionally
Austin: Me too
Dre: [in background] Oh… oh buddy.
Sylvia: And we have some breathing room mechanically.
Dre: What if, umm…. Ok, what if this extra 5 food comes from somebody else picking up Throndir’s bow?
Austin: That’s pretty good. Yeah. Do you know who it is?
Dre: [sighs]
Austin: Wait, who do you think it is?
Dre: I mean, listen. Listen. If I just want to be mean to Art, it’s probably Benjamin.
Austin: Yeah, it’s… it’s Benjamin
Sylvia: Yeah, I was gonna say that, too [laughs]
Austin: Or I actually think it’s… I actually have something else in mind for Benjamin. I think maybe this like, we figure out… So…
Dre: Alright, what if it’s Blue J? I don’t know.
Austin: It’s Blue J. It’s Blue J. Um, what is… the thing is like, that extra food that shows up? It’s Blue J and Benjamin show up with a bunch of food. Um, and the wild thing is, some of it’s already… looks like it’s been cooked. And you realize that it’s not cooked by regular fire. Benjamin like, fire-balled one of them.
Dre: Hell yeah!
Austin: Benjamin has been st… has been… Benjamin reveals to you. I think, actually, Sunder Havelton notices this… is like,
Austin (as Sunder): Who’s been teaching that boy magic?
Austin: And Rosana is like,
Austin (as Rosana): What are you talking about?
Dre: [laughing]
Austin: Umm, uh, and I think we learn that there is a secret… like, somewhere like, maybe just off of the garden? I’m just gonna draw a new little… a new little thing there. Um, Benjamin has like, built a little secret like, magic… like magic room. [typing] Benjamin and Blue J… I’m just gonna write Blue J like the word bluejay, Um, Blue J’s hangout space. Boom. Clubroom. Boom. Um…
Dre: [laughing] Fucking ‘Little Rascals’ in here.
Austin: It seriously is. Um, maybe the camera sees this, and maybe we… I think Sunder does identify Benjamin’s magical aptitude. Um, and we do get Blue J as like, the new ranger. Um… but we don’t necessarily get, uh… we don’t see their hangouts. The camera sees out their hangout space. Their secret clubhouse that’s like attached… It’s like you have to climb up a vine in the underground garden and go through a little hole and it pops out in to be like, this little second grotto that they’ve started to fill with like, books and like, trophies and stuff. Um, they definitely get high in there, and it’s ok because there’s a hole going up to outside. [Dre laughs] And there’s definitely just part of the, of the ground you walk by and like… ‘who’s smoking halfling pipe leaf? We can’t ever find it.’ [Sylvia and Dre laughing in the background] Cause it’s underground. It’s coming up from underground. It’s great. Alright, this is better than if Carrot stayed. Sorry to Carrot.
Dre: Yeah
Austin: Um, so you don’t get those animals back then either, right? You just have 5 fue… 5 extra food.
Dre: Yeah, I’m good with that.
Sylvia: Yeah, that’s fine.
Austin: Ok, cool. Cool. Um, I forget what…
Sylvia: Did we do occurrence for that yet?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: We did occurrence. That’s how everything bad happened. But we…
Sylvia: [overlapping] Yeah, yeah. That was the… yes.
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: Right.
Austin: Did we not do sickness though?
Dre: You’ve not done sickness.
Austin: Roll 1d3, right?
Dre: Yeah. And we need to take away 5 fuel to fix the storeroom. [laughing]
Austin: Oh right. Well, and also 3 people get sick. Yikes.
Dre: Ok.
Austin: What happened?
Sylvia: Um, that storeroom is kind of old. And…
Austin: OK.
Sylvia: People haven’t cleaned it out in a while.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: So, some of the food just didn’t keep properly
Austin: Ok. So, who gets sick?
Sylvia: Umm… the Unstill maybe?
Austin: Yeah, let’s start there. Oh, you know what part of that is, too? Is they don’t just need… like, food to live. They need food to live, I mean, actually they don’t need food to live because they’re undead. But what they do need is like herbs and balms and stuff to keep them… sociable? Right? We’ve talked about this that like, the thing that made Corsica Neue’s Unstill… there was a point at which y’all met that, that town of people who had kind of gone into shock because of becoming undead. Um, and part of that was like, they didn’t have the psychological or cultural history to know how to deal with that.
Corsica Neue did because she had visited Nacre and had learned what it meant to be undead and how to like, keep yourself smelling nice and stuff like that. And so, I think that like, some of those supplies have started to go, and that means that like, ‘uh oh’, like that is giving them a kind of social stigma. Um, it’s not enough to where they want to leave yet. Um, but then, and also like, you do need to keep your old wounds cleaned and prevent diseases from spreading on you. So, like, that is important. So that is one. Two more.
Sylvia: Um…
Austin: Uh, what if it’s the orcs?
Sylvia: Yeah?
Austin: Because we…
Sylvia: [overlapping Austin] Oh right, the orcs are still on the table.
Austin: The orcs are still on the table. 100% So, maybe it’s the orcs and…
Sylvia: [overlapping] Yeah, Morbash just doesn’t…
Austin: Yeah. And it’s like, without Morbash, they’re definitely like, losing a little bit of their um… Their kind of like, militant… effectiveness in terms of like… They’re… maybe this is one of those things that’s like, actually they also have been sick in a sense? Um, but he has kept them running clean enough to where, uh and running like, uh… not efficient. Efficient is the wrong word, but like, focused enough that it didn’t hit them hard. You know? Umm… so, so now they’re like, their supplies are running a little thinner, so we need one more.
Dre: [pauses] Rosana.
Austin: Yeah. From what?
Dre: I… I mean, yeah.
Austin: It’s just actual sickness?
Dre: Uh, probably. She’s working too hard.
Austin: Yeah. Alright. 3 sicknesses out. Cool.
Dre: Chasin’ this kid around who is sneaking away… and smoking weed in his tree fort.
Austin: [overlapping] Sneaking away and casting… [laughing] He’s like 13, too. He shouldn’t be smoking weed yet.
Dre: Nah, that’s young
Austin: Is he 12? Is he 15? Who can say? It’s been 3 years.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: And I asked Art recently how old Benjamin was, and he said 8? 10? Who could say? [laughing]
Dre: [laughing]
Sylvia: He answered in character. That’s good.
Austin: Uh huh, good.
Dre: [laughing loudly]
Austin: Thanks. 10. He was 10 as of Winter which means he’s 13 now.
Dre: Ok.
Austin: Oh my god.
Dre: Little fire-ball rapscallion.
Austin: I swear it. I swear it.
Sylvia: Learned how to make fire and now he’s lightin’ up doobs all the time.
Dre: [laughing]
Sylvia: Ugh. These kids.
Austin: What am I gonna do with these kids? Hey! Alright.
Sylvia: [laughing]
Austin: I don’t know who that character is… It was just…
Dre: You better not be.. If you’re hittin’ them one handed, you better be hitting them books at least twice.
Austin: Hey!
Dre: I don’t know. I… that’s not good.
Sylvia: [laughing]
Austin: It’s fine. It’s fine. Alright. Back to… back around to the top?
Sylvia: [sighs] Yeah.
Austin: Don’t do drugs kids.
[Dre and Austin laugh]
Austin: Uh, but they come back with something else important which is 2 pieces of a sword. Um, they have the sword. They have the Blade in the Dark.
Dre: What the fuck?!
Austin: They have Hella’s sword. Um, and they um… I think they have like a small meeting with the two of you and with Corsica Neue and Red Jack and Rosana, especially Rosana.
And they explain, I mean, I want to be clear. It’s been… this is year 4, right? Up until this moment, what did you think happened to them all?
Sylvia: I kind of just assumed the Heat and the Dark got them, right? Like I didn’t know where they went.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: And everything that happened, so like, so much happened.
Austin: Yeah. Um… I think Sunder explains it. Um, oh, oh wait, no. No, um, [clears throat] it’s uh, it’s Jerod Shiraz because she’s there, too. She has to be there because um, I mean I think she’s the one who… her history with the blade, um and I think like she and Rosana are both there despite being sick. Though I think it probably shows on them anyway. Um, but Jerod probably begins to explain it to you before Sunder and Stornras are even all the way into the campus, and the university. I think she just senses it on them, and her eyes light up. And she says like,
Austin (as Jerod): Thank the sea and smoke. They have the blade. The Blade in the Dark. We had it together years ago now. They brought it to me. They retrieved it from a strange place. It was given to them by someone incredibly old. Incredibly powerful. The 3 of us, we began the Ordennan descent together. We began… we began building the foundation for our palace of revolt. We wanted to strike Fela Malle and his Ordennan Impetus before it could cause any more harm.
Before his own void could strike innocent flesh, but one night, while we were studying the blade, Malle sent a force to kill us. He found out about our treachery and he moved the bulk of his Velasian occupation force to strike us in the night. And in the fight, Sunder and Stornras and I, we were all separated and I took our civilians and our soldiers and I came here to you. And I apologize if that’s marked us as kindling for Malle’s fire. But they, Stornas and Sunder, they kept the blade and I was never sure if they escaped or if the Impetus had killed them and had taken the weapon from them.
Austin: But before she can continue, I think that’s when Sunder and Stornras get shown in, and Sunder explain what it is. She says, um,
Austin (as Sunder): This is a very powerful artifact. Your friend Hella has had it for years, and I don't think she ever really knew what it was. We found out. [sighs]
Austin: She does not get into who Samol. I guess y’all…. The 2 of you have heard Marielda by now, right? I think Uklan Tel even has explained Marielda to you.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: The story of Marielda. Um, so I think Uklan Tel is also here and is like, takes off his glasses and rubs them on a rag and puts them back on and says,
Austin (as Uklan): That really is it. That is the… that is the blade
Austin: Uh, and like, rushes over to it. And Sunder’s like,
Austin (as Sunder): Hey, calm down.
Austin: And Rosana is super confused and is like,
Austin (as Rosana): What’s this have to… what does this have to do with my husband?
Austin: And Sunder explains that inside of this blade are Hadrian and Hella and Lem and Adaire, and everyone ever killed by this blade. And Rosana says,
Austin (as Rosana): Killed?
Austin: And Sunder says,
Austin (as Sunder): Hadrian wasn’t… no one you knew… Well, Hadrian and Lem and Hella and Adaire at least were not killed by this thing. They… it’s hard to explain. There was a lot of water. They fell into it, is my understanding. They fell into the sword. We just need to figure out how to get them out.
Austin: Umm, and… but first of all, do either of you have any questions at this point?
Sylvia: [sighs] Umm… I don’t know. There’s something I’m curious about, but I don’t know if I’m gonna do it in a room full of people.
Austin: What are you curious about?
Sylvia: I wanna see… because the last time that Ephrim and the Blade in the Dark were near each other, I only had the blade of my sword.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: I didn’t have the whole thing, and I was wondering if there was any like, one: similarities in their designs that is obvious to us. Or two: if there’s any reaction there when they get close. I don’t want…
Austin: [overlapping No reaction. You don’t have to… You, you know. Umm… I’ll give you the first part which is just like, they’re clearly from the same time period basically. Like, they’re similar… they’re similar in material, umm, but they’re not the same… they’re not the same maker or anything like that.
Sylvia: Ok.
Austin: Umm, they’re distinct. They’re distinct enough. Umm, The… I think the blade that you have is actually fairly simple in design. There’s not like, all this ornamentation or jewels and blah blah blah. Right? Umm, it’s like, a Samothes… there’s a bit of like, the carpenter’s cup with your blade. With the sword that Samothes made. The kind of sliver of sun. Umm, and the Blade in the Dark is kind of gaudy and has all these jewels that it gets whenever it kills somebody. Umm… so it’s very… it’s deeply jeweled. Uh, and then yeah later there’s just… there can totally be a sequence of you sneaking into this room and seeing it, and like, no, there is no reaction. They’re different things. Um, especially cause it’s broken. That’s the other thing. This blade has been broken.
Sylvia: Ah, yeah.
Austin: It’s... it is… the hilt plus some of the, some of the bottom half of the blade and then the top half. Throndir, do you have any questions about this thing?
Dre: No, besides how do we fix it and get them out. But I think that’s a bigger question than this conversation.
Austin: [overlapping Dre] I think Uklan Tel is like… Yeah, I think Uklan Tel is like,
Austin (as Uklan): There’s no record of anyone ever getting out and besides, I suspect if they did, they’d be a ghost or a specter.
Austin: And Red Jack says,
Austin (as Red Jack): Oh, I’ve been inside. You can get out. As long as you haven’t been killed.
Austin: [small laugh] And I think it’s fair to say that everyone in the room just looks at him like, ‘Shut up. Like, what are you…?’ Um, I think Corsica Neue just like,
Austin (as Corsica): What do you mean you’ve been inside?
Austin: And he says,
Austin (as Red Jack): I’ve been inside. I visited a number of times. You simply break the blade and then you. You go for a swim… What?
Sylvia (as Ephrim): How do you get…. You…
Dre (as Throndir): [overlapping] Yeah, how did you get out?
Sylvia (Ephrim): [overlapping] How do you get out?
Austin (as Red Jack): You wait until the blade is whole and swim back. Or take a boat.
Dre (as Throndir): Wait.
Austin (as Red Jack): Yes? It’s a … it’s a village. It’s a… it’s a world of green hills…
Austin (mimicking Red Jack’s voice): …and fast hedgehogs. No, that’s not… It’s not green hills and [trails off]
Sylvia: [laughing] I was gonna say…
Dre: [softly] You mother-fucker.
Austin (as Red Jack): It is a, it is a land. An island with green hills and lush environs, and a wise king. Frankly I…
Austin: And he says this without thinking,
Austin (as Red Jack): If I were them, I may not return at all. It is paradise there.
Austin: And Rosana just like, quietly makes a fist.
[everyone snickering quietly]
Austin (mimicking Red Jack’s voice): It’s is a zone with chemical plants. [everyone laughing] I can’t even do it. It’s good. [sighs] Dre wrote that in the chat.
Dre (as Throndir): This… this all sounds… when I went into the… where Arrell had kept Benjamin, you had to swim. And he was in a boat.
Austin: Umm, I think Uklan Tel is probably like… er Sunder probably says it, [sigh] I’m trying to remember, did Sunder ever… did anyone ever tell Sunder about the whole Fantasmo thing?
Dre: Yes.
Austin: Yeah, you did. Right? Ok.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Ok. She’s like, umm,
Austin (as Sunder): I suspect there is some similarity at work there. The disciples of Samot were the ones who first crafted this blade. And um, the disciples of Fantasmo, of course, so to speak, Arrell and the rest devised the study. The solipsistic cell in another dimension or another plane. I don’t know the specifics, but I suspect there is some direct magically lineage at work here. There’s big differences, obviously. Arrell’s method does not allow cohabitation, whereas everyone in the blade lives together. At least that’s what we’ve been told.
Dre (as Throndir): So, there’s… there’s no chance that he could have… I didn’t take Benjamin away from seeing his dad for the first time in like, months, did I?
Austin (as Sunder): No, not his actual dad. I mean, not…
Dre (as Throndir): Well yeah
Austin (as Sunder): No.
Austin: And Rosana shakes her head and says, um,
Austin (as Rosana): No. No. I’m… [breathes deeply] I’m glad now that Benjamin is not in, in that prison, even if at the time, when everything was on fire… [pauses] Yeah… Whoever was in there. That wasn’t Hadrian. And it wasn’t me. But if Hadrian is really in this blade, then we need to start fixing it. Uklan? How long?
Austin: And he’s,
Austin (as Uklan): Well, I’m not much of a smith.
Austin: And Stornras Glasseye says,
Austin (as Stornras): I’ve done some glass. Er, I’ve done some blade forging in my days, and this is unlike anything I’ve seen. It will take a little while. [pauses]
Austin (presumably as Rosana): Months?
Dre (as Throndir): I…
Austin: [continuing] And he says,
Austin (as Stornras): Years.
Dre (as Throndir): Ok, I have something… I don’t know if it’ll help, but I… I can’t get anything out of it.
Austin: What is it?
Dre: The book.
Austin: [acknowledging noise] Ok. Yeah. I think Uklan Tel’s eyes light up and he says,
Austin (as Uklan): You’d give this up? This was not part of the original design of the blade, but perhaps, perhaps this could…. There could be something here. I’ll begin reading at once.
Dre (as Throndir): Let Benjamin help.
Austin (as Uklan): Uh… Benjamin? The boy?
Austin: And Sunder says like,
Austin (as Sunder): Yes, he has some aptitudes that could come in handy.
Austin Um, and he says
Austin (as Uklan): Of course. He always was bright.
Austin: Um, and yeah. I think they begin working. I think if you give them the book, it will speed up the process. This was going to open up on year 10; I think it’ll open up on year 8 now. I guess…
Dre: [overlapping] Yeah, the book is theirs.
Austin: Yeah, ok. Cool. I’ll have to make a note of this real quick.
[Jack de Quidt’s “(Welcome to) Aubade” begins playing in background]
Austin: Time is strange in Aubade because there’s no calendar. There are two seasons, and you come to learn that in time, there’s high tide and there’s low tide. Those are the seasons. Um, tides are very slow here. And there isn’t such a thing as a year… you know, you kind of count like, ‘Oh, I guess it’s been a year because it’s been a high tide and a low tide’, but it doesn’t actually even out in the same way. If you’re counting days, and I suspect someone like Lem maybe, or Adaire maybe, you know… you have been there for, I would say close to a year. And I’m curious what this year’s been like, and if you’d like to zoom in on anything.
And we’ll continue doing this for as long as you’re here in Aubade. There’s also a place where you can ask questions, and also, I just want to be clear, I don’t expect anyone to have to roll dice to do anything here because it’s been a year. So, like, imagine there’s a door you want to lift, and it’s really heavy, right? For instance. So, you don’t do it. Well, just like, come back after you’ve lifted some weights, right? Like, come back with help, and you’ll open it. You know? If you have questions about this, like… Ok, yes. “Yes, and…” here. Or if it’s outlandish, it’s, well how do you get to the point where you can do that. And we’ll talk through it. But I don’t think there are dice in Aubade. So…
Ali: Is it high or low tide right now?
Austin: Ah, it’s a year, so you tell me.
Ali: [laughing] Ok.
Austin: Would you want this to be high tide or low tide? I think the difference is about fishing ships or something, right? Like, I think the bigger fishing ships probably go out during high tide. It’s like, easier to get them out there or something. I don’t… you know, I don’t know.
Ali: Oh, I thought it had something to do with this… this dune being inaccessible or whatever.
Austin: Um, no you could go out there.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: Whatever. You could take the little boat out to the… out the like, the um, the tall, the reef whenever you want.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: Or swim in the lagoon. Or, you know, if you want a beach episode, this is the place for A beach episode. [Ali laughs in the background.] Like straight up, like, it’s beautiful here all the time.
Jack: Umm, I think I would like to impress myself on Samothes.
Austin: Ok. How and where do you do that?
Jack: Um, I think… I think probably in a library?
Austin: Ok. So, you’re probably somewhere near the Cartwright House.
Jack: Um, yeah, I think it’s like a public library. Um, I mean, presumably that exists, right?
Austin: Yeah. Totally. Absolutely.
Jack: Um, and I think that Lem has asked Samothes to meet him at the library.
Austin: Ok. [exhaled laugh] He shows up in like… um, he’s wearing… He’s not wearing his robe. It’s not in his home, so he isn’t just wearing his robe and no shirt. So, I think he’s dressed fairly smartly here. Um, I think he has on like, a white shirt, um, with like a really tall collar and like a half cape. Like a blue and silver half cape on. He’s really filling that shirt out, let me tell you. Uh, it is… it is like, a little tight, but in a way that he intends, you know? Um, he big. Uh… what are you trying to show off? How are you trying to show off? [exhaled laugh]
Jack: I think I’m trying to…
Austin: Do you call him there? Like, do you send word? Do you like, ‘Samothes, I need you to meet me at the library’?
Jack: I think I… [sighs] Yeah, I don’t know. I think what… I think what Lem has done is, and I don’t know whether this is… I don’t if this is a scene, is you know when you meet someone who you respect a great deal or you respect their work a great deal? The like, good thing to do is not be extra about it? [laughs]
Austin: Oh yeah. I do. I’ve been on…
[Art laughs]
Jack: Right, yeah.
Austin: I’ve been on both sides of this.
Jack: Um, and I think Lem… I think Lem has, is not that. Um, so I think Lem is just surrounded by the sort of like, local history section of, of the isle Aubade
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: And is just sort of sitting down with Samoth… uh, sort of summoned Samothes to be like,
Jack (as Lem): I want to tell you about all the stuff I know about this place. All the stuff I’ve found out about this place.
Austin: Jack, I love you so much. I need you to know this is being extra.
Jack: No, what I’m saying [long exhaled laugh] No, exactly.
Austin: Oh, ok.
Jack: This is exactly what I’m saying.
Austin: You were saying that Lem was doing it the bad way?
Jack: Yeah, no, 100%.
Austin: Ok, ok ok. I misunderstood. I was very confused.
[Ali laughing]
Jack: No, that would be… that would be terrible.
Austin: ‘Austin, meet me at the Game Stop.’
[everyone laughs]
Jack: So, did you see what they announced at E3 this year?
Austin: Oh, god.
[Austin laughing throughout]
Jack: The Last of Us 2. Now I know how much you like the Last of Us 1. Um, and I’m telling this one’s gonna be really something special.
Austin: [overlapping Jack] I need to be extremely clear that I’ve had so many good fan interactions. [Jack laughs] I 100% have. I’ve also had people literally take me out of… as soon as I get off of a panel be like, can we get coffee? And like, we’ve never spoken before. I have another panel to go to, and that is a different situation. That is a lot.
Jack: No, this is… this is absolutely that. Uh…
Austin: Ok. Here’s the difference. In a world in which I have literally all the time in the world? Sure, let’s go get coffee, you know?
Jack: Right. Yes.
Austin: And so Samothes is like,
Austin (as Samothes): Yeah sure. I’ll come get coffee with you. I’ll come to the… Tell me all about the isle Aubode which I… er Aubade which I helped make.
Jack (as Lem): So, it says here that you… that you helped… that you helped make… make this place?
Austin (as Samothes): Yes, yeah. Um, when I… I wasn’t the first…
Jack (as Lem): [interrupting] I guess that means you know it, kind of inside out, right?
Austin (as Samothes): Yeah. You know…
Austin: And he gets like, he actually gets dark for a second, and then he says,
Austin (as Samothes): Samol. You know how Samol knows everything about Hieron?
Jack (as Lem): Well, he’s kind of reluctant to talk about it
Austin (as Samothes): But he does. He knows everything because he is everything, right?
Jack (as Lem): Right.
Austin (as Samothes): I’m not quite everything here, but it’s similar. There’s not much that happens here on the isle that I do not know about.
Jack (as Lem): So, I found this… do you remember when all those painters arrived? I found this book. It just breaks down all the painters, and the styles that they brought.
Austin (as Samothes): That was a real sad day. I mean it was like, that year ended up being ok because it was just… We didn’t really didn’t understand at that point how all the colors that we could make with the things that could grow here, and now we do. And that was fantastic, but it was a massacre. And none of them could tell me who killed 37 painters in 2 weeks. But…
Jack (as Lem): They killed… they killed them all?
Austin (as Samothes): Yes, Lem, that’s how people arrive here.
Jack (as Lem): Oh, I see. Right, I thought you meant they killed them once they arrived… Sorry, I was so confused. I’m sorry.
Austin (as Samothes): No, no, no.
Jack (as Lem): I thought there was been a massacre… [excitedly] Has there been a massacre in the, in the town?
Austin (as Samothes): No. There have been violent acts, but nothing we can’t heal.
Jack (as Lem): Ok. You don’t have to answer this. It’s ok. You don’t have to answer. What happens if I die here?
Austin (as Samothes): We heal you.
Jack (as Lem): Well, but what happens if I like… what happens if I like, if there’s a big explosion or something?
Austin (as Samothes): We heal you. Unless…
Jack (as Lem): Ok, but what happens if I’m just like…
Austin (as Samothes): [continuing]…you decide you don’t want to.
Jack (as Lem): No, but what happens if I’m just like, just like everywhere?
Austin (as Samothes): Lem, when I arrived it was blackness here. People were floating through nothing. I made the land. You would be healed.
Jack (as Lem): Ok. Ok. Well, do you want to go see a play or something?
[Ali laughing]
Austin (as Samothes): Sure, Lem. Do you have something in mind?
Jack (as Lem): Ah, no. Let’s just… I mean, [laugh] the theater is… I went down there last week. It’s always so… They’re always showing new stuff.
Austin (as Samothes): I’d be… I’d be pleased to see anything. You should ask the others if they want to come.
Jack (as Lem): I…
Austin: He says trying to… [laughs though words] trying to condense his social schedule for the week into one hangout.
[Ali laughing]
Jack (as Lem): I… look I just… I just… I really appreciate the opportunity to talk in the intermission.
Austin (as Samothes): Make sense of things.
Jack (as Lem): Right, to make sense of things.
Austin (as Samothes): Right. Sounds good. Let me take care of some things. I’ll see you there. Sound good?
Jack (as Lem): Yeah, that sounds… that sounds fantastic. That’s… that’s great.
Austin: And he, you know, he shows up, and you see whatever this play is. [Jack laughs] And it’s weird like, cause it’s a combination of like, a culture that is totally isolated in some ways or largely isolated. And then an injection of new things every… you know, every time someone gets [laughs] killed by this sword. But largely an injection of things that are like, well, this person showed up and they kind of remember how this play went. They sort of remember how to bake this bread, right? Like they don’t have notes most of the time. Um, in fact, I suspect that there’s been like, uh, a sort of renaissance of stuff because the things inside of Samol’s house are in here.
Jack: Oh, it just…
Austin: And so, it’s like, ‘Omg we have all of these books now about new stuff.’
Jack: This is incredible.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: It’d be like… it’s a play about… it’s like, Danish kings, I think. I think it’s about Danish kings.
Austin: That’s it.
Jack: You drip some poison in someone’s ear.
Austin: But the, but the breakfast Danish. Very strange costumes.
Jack: Oh, but the breakfast Danish.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: It’s like, it’s a croissant.
Austin: Right. That’s what I meant. Yeah. Art in the chat says what happens if you want to make a burrito so big even you can’t eat it. It’s infinite time in here so, like…
[Austin laughing throughout]
Jack: [laughing while talking] Art, I want you to know, I saw that message, and I had to like, restrain myself so hard.
Austin: Ugh. What else happens this year?
Janine: Uh, I think the thing that Adaire does in her, in her year is that she um… she… So, like in small fantasy towns, you know, the supply chain is really short. It is very direct. It is like, the person who makes the thing sells the thing. And if you want to get the thing you go to… if you want to get blacksmith related things you go to the blacksmith. If you want to get bread related things, you go to the baker. If you want to get, you know, meat you go to the butcher. It’s all like, separated.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Um, so I think the… cause people don’t need maps here. It’s one place, and they live here.
Austin: [exhaled laugh] They know it.
Janine: And Adaire is the newest person. She doesn’t, she doesn’t need to be making them maps. Um, likewise, she doesn’t need to be brewing them poison. So, I think the thing… the niche that Adaire sees for herself in this is that like, it’s kind of shitty to go to the butcher and then to go to the baker and then to go to the dairy or whatever and whatever. So, I think the thing she does is like, starts what is ostensibly a department store.
Austin: Ok.
Janine: Like a Selfridges styles like…
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: …what if you want to get your dress, but also your shoes and also a book?
Austin: Sure.
Janine: Um, that kind of thing.
Austin: Where do you set it up? Is this like in the merchant area?
Janine: Um…
Austin: [interrupting] Like is it in the middle of Cunningham street which is like the, the big like, place people go to buy stuff?
Janine: I think… ye… yes. I’m torn between like, is it better to put it somewhere where there aren’t a lot of shops because people could just buy stuff in the place anyway. But um, I think that it would be Cunningham street, but it would be like, probably closer… as close to the middle as possible so that people in other areas could like…
Austin: [overlapping] Right, can get to it. Totally.
Janine: …get in without having to go to the outer fringes kind of thing.
Austin: Cool. Um, is there anything that particular, or special that happens there? Is there a grand opening? Is there a customer that you want to talk to? Or a… is there somebody else in the party who wants to be there on the grand opening, or something like that?
Ali: I could hang out. [Ali and Janine laughing]
Austin: Are you… Hella, do you work there? Or do you just kind of step… like check it out sometimes?
Ali: No, but I think that like, I don’t know. Like, this isn’t Hella’s scene or whatever, but I think that like, through this year there’s like, still an unease, right?
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: And like, a tension. And like, I think that she has a lot of weird energy that like, she doesn’t know what to do with cause like, there’s not conflict for her to like, expend it on.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: So, she’s just like, going to places and like, trying to find a hobby, and like, I don’t know. Um, but also it seems good to not just hang around, I guess.
Austin: So, what’s this look like? Like, what’s the department store look like? What’s the grand opening look like? How’s the turnout? What the two… what do the two of you do? This is like, really in your court. Yeah.
Janine: [overlapping a bit] So, I think, yeah. I think um, it is like, you know obviously we’re not like… this is not peak… peak um, department store time. This is like you’re making your first shot. It’s probably like, relatively small floor space, but 2 levels of a building. Um, it’s probably one of those things where Adaire got one of those places that like, the ground level is supposed to be a shop and the top level is supposed to be your house, but then she just made it the whole thing. And then tried to kind of like, partition it, um, in such a way where people can get a little bit of, of the stuff they want. And there’s also like, you know, there’s like nice window displays. Um, Adaire probably is decent at window-dressing. Decent at being like, ‘hey, look at this stuff’. I’ve got a skill that’s like, ‘hey look at my valuable things’.
Austin: Right.
Janine: So, let’s just say that that applies here. Um, uh… and I think it’s probably… there’s probably a lot of like, she’s also probably hip to the appeal of a free sample.
Austin: Yeah. [laughs] Sure.
Janine: There’s probably like, some good fudge cube things for people, and like, um, you know, people with like, nice little, uh, flowers? I don’t know. Like little, like a little flower to put in your buttonhole. That’d be nice.
Austin: Oh, yeah.
Janine: Yeah. It’s like extre… It’s like extremely pleasant, and like, ‘Oh, look at this person contributing to the community.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: [sighs] Hella, how do you, what do you do on this opening night?
Ali: It’s tough… I think she’s like, obviously like, psyched and like, proud for Adaire obviously. But there’s still that like, that like… wanting to just be the security guard. And like, [laughing] but like, needing to be reminded not to be like, ‘You’re like really tense. Stop glaring at people.’ [laughing] But like, um…
[Austin laughs]
Janine: What if it’s like… what if it’s like Hella like, wants to help, but Adaire offers her a task, but she’s being really severe, so Adaire diplomatically moves her to another task. And then just kind of keeps moving her to different task trying to find the thing where it’s not so off-putting that she’s like, really uncomfortable.
Austin: Right.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: I love it. [overlapping] Is it…
Ali: [overlapping] Is the ta…
Austin: No, no, no, go ahead.
Ali: Um, I was gonna say I think the task that she settles on is like, some sort of like… I mean, it depends on what this stuff is, but like, like there must be like, a wrapping service or whatever.
Janine: I was like… I was just going to suggest, is she the person who curls the ribbon with the scissors?
[everyone laughing]
Ali: But not just that, but like, she can like, very finely like, cut a piece of parchment paper. And like, wrap it up, and like…
Janine: [overlapping] Oh yeah.
Ali: Like, the first couple times, it has to be like, ‘Stop just like slamming the sweater’ or whatever. [Austin and Janine laugh] ‘These grapes are going break on the way home. Like you can’t slap them onto this thing and then wrap them up.’ Then eventually it’s just like, ok. Um, I like… this is a thing I can do with my hands that like… I like, am not expending too much force on, right? Um…
Austin: Do y’all close the shop? Also, what’s the name of the shop? Is it just ‘Adaire’s’?
Janine: Um…
Austin: Is it… do you have something fancier?
Janine: It’s Ducarte’s. It has to be Ducarte’s, right?
Austin: [overlapping] Oh, right. Yeah. Sure. Of course. Um, what’s it feel like to shut down for the first night?
Janine: Uh… Probably weird? It probably… it, that… like that whole…. When it’s really busy, it’s easy to just kind of get caught up in it, but I bet the opening and the closing points feel very weird. Because Adaire has… has had hussles, but she had never had like, a legit like, ‘Here are your opening and closing hours,’ you know? ‘Count out your till.’ Like, she’s never had a legit business operation. It has always been like a fly by night, show up in the street…
Austin: Right.
Janine: And like… with a weird cart and like…
Austin: [laughing] Yeah.
Janine: And get some money and then fucking leave.
Austin: And then the magistrates show up and chase her away. Yeah.
Janine: [overlapping] Yeah.
Austin: No one chases you away here, right? And like, there is something… you run this for the rest of the year, right? And like, I want to be clear. I suspect if you did this at Velas or you know, before everything went to shit. If you did this in Rosemerrow… er Rosemerrow probably had departments stores already, actually. Like that was definitely… the sort of cutting edge of Rosemerrow. There was definitely like, ‘Oh, yeah. Competing department store chains’ There were definitely general stores at least, right? Um, and uh, I would be talking to you about the like… Alright well, how does this disrupt the rest of the businesses here? Who are you… who are you starving effectively, right? Like, who are you cutting out? It doesn’t happen here.
Um, and it might be something Adaire figures out, but like, Samothes doesn’t just talk a good game. Samothes is a god, right? Uh, is a god. And has power here which means that if you know, for whatever reason you intercept, you know, the… you make it so that the… you’ve taken too much of the, the silver from whoever the silver smith is and flipped it at a higher market… who cares? Like, there’s going to be enough silver to go around no matter what. And there’s going to be food. Food prices are going to drop. That guy’s gonna get a deal one day. Like, he’s effectively playing… not playing the… he’s like playing Dwarf Fortress. You know how in the Sims you direct specific characters, and you’re like, ‘Oh, fuck. I’m gonna… I gonna tell Adaire to go walk over there and do this.’
And in Dwarf Fortress, uh maybe people don’t know this… Dwarf Fortress, you never actually control a dwarf. When you pick a… when you say like… you could just say a task. You get to be like, ‘Alright. Go fucking dig a ditch’, and the game is like, alright, well, someone’s gonna to assign someone else to dig a ditch. And then the ditch is gonna get built. Um, he’s more in that sense where it’s like, ‘Alright. I’m gonna… I’m gonna build the world, and I’m gonna adjust things such that people get what they need.’ Um, and he’s doing that in the background the whole time. Um, and I don’t know if that’s something Adaire like, intuits or like, it’s just a thought she has. Because she’s smart enough to know that like, this should be disrupting things, you know? And it isn’t.
Janine: I mean, she’s also smart enough to know that like, she wouldn’t be able to do this in Rosemerrow or Velas.
Austin: Right.
Janine: She’d never be able to get this off the ground in Rosemerrow or Velas.
Austin: [overlapping] Totally. Totally.
Janine: Like, if it… if she could just snap her fingers and be legit, she would have done that like, 15 years ago.
Austin: Totally. Yeah? In here, she can. I need scenes still from Hadrian and Hella.
Art: I can go.
Austin: Ok. Why do you sound so resigned?
Art: Oh, you know.
[Ali laughing]
Austin: Buddy.
Art: You know what’s weird?
Austin: What’s that?
Art: It’s like, having a religion where the head of it is a guy you can go talk to.
Austin: Yeah.
Art: Because like, in modern parlance, that seems to be what cults are.
Austin: Sometimes, right? But like, I don’t know. You… I mean, I guess, most people probably can’t talk to like, the Dalai Lama or the Pope, right? But…
Art: And even they aren’t like…
Austin: [interrupting] …gods.
Janine: [overlapping] They’re like subheads.
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah, yeah. They’re pretty up there, right?
Art: Yeah, I really… I don’t know what talking to the Pope is like…
Austin: [overlapping] Right.
Art: …or the Dalai Lama.
Austin: [overlapping]: It’s probably like if you’re a deeply devout Catholic, right?
Art: Right. [overlapping] Um…
Austin: But, but yes. I do get what you’re saying.
Art: So, but like, I don’t think that like…. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just not giving Hadrian enough credit? Or credit in the right way. Like, I don’t know how to… I don’t know how to practice a religion with… of the person just there, right? Like…
Austin: Right. The absence has been so definitive, right?
Art: Right. And I guess that like, step one is you know, I don’t wanna like montage this too much, but like, you know, Hadrian starts like, by looking around for the church, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Art: And probably finds out they’re… we’ve got… do we have a church in here?
Austin: There’s the shrine of Sabinia. That is the central religious hub here. Which is out in the fields.
Art: But that’s not…
Austin: [overlapping]: Well…
Art: That’s different.
Austin: Uh… I’m guessing you go there, right?
Art: Yeah, probably. Yeah.
Austin: Um, it is… it is [sighs] It’s hard to explain. It is like, the… one: the word kind of preached there is as close to the truth as you’ve heard. Um, in terms of it matching up with Samol’s story about Marielda. And the things that you’ve learned about there being multiple gods. And the Heat and the Dark are said. And in fact, are key to this because the kind of, the shrine of Sabinia and the kind of school of Sabinia, er the church of Sabinia is about this… um, this servant of the Creed from the age of Marielda when Samothes controlled Marielda still who worked for Samothes and who Samothes ordered to investigate this thing called the Heat and the Dark which was killing Samol and which everything was born from.
And in doing so, sent her to her doom. Um, she got very close to the Heat and the Dark, and it kind of interpolated it into herself. Um, drew so close that there were times at which, she became a vessel for it. Or it shaped her as much as anything else. And one day she was killed by the Blade in the Dark and came here. Um, she was killed just before a number of other people were killed with it. And just after some other people were. This place was largely, um, determined by Sabinia at that point. Because of all the powers here… And there were a number of powerful mages. Many of which have had their names carried on here.
Um, Sam Beckett Theater is named for one of the early mages here. Cunningham Street. Thackery Court is named for not a mage, but a Lance Noble. Um, one of the kind of crime fighters of Marielda, as it is taught. Um, uh, and um… She and her darkness kind of consumed everything here until Samothes was killed with the blade and was brought inside. And the 2 of them clashed, and he felt… I mean, the first thing he did was… and you know, I’m guessing you learn this over the course of the year basically, right? You kind of fall into studying all of this at the shrine and listening to lectures and stuff like, er not lectures, but uh, what’s the word I’m looking for? Masses? No. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sermons. Um, and reading whatever the scripture is here. Um, the first thing he did was kind of [sighs] seek out revenge on the mages, um, and act in great anger, um, which is… He badly hurt a lot of mages. A lot of the mages who had manipulated his child.
Um, and eventually he came upon Sabinia, and in seeing Sabinia, and in seeing what his task had done to her, um… realized the error of not just his original… not just his ways in terms of getting revenge on the mages, but also in terms of everything he’d done with the Heat and the Dark, and his inaction to try to take… to try to take care of people, but also his… Or not his inaction to try to take care of people, his inaction around his father Samol, but also the degree to which he held the leash on regular people and demanded things from them in the way he did. Um, he used his power to purify her, and she and Samothes are the 2 who kind of built this place into what it became. Um, it was Samothes can make a mountain, but Samothes, at that point especially, was not particularly good at leading people. Um, [exhaled laugh] he was very good at making or giving orders, right?
Um, but he was not a particularly adept, um… you know, kind of social figure. And so… and also frankly, like, he was very good at building things and designing things, but he was not particularly good at teaching people how to use things. Um, or frankly sometimes even using them himself, right? Whereas like, Sabinia was able to… He could build a farming implementation or farming instrument, right? Some sort of special rake or hoe or something, and she could use it in the field, and then could also teach people how to use it. Um, he could help someone understand how to build a boat, er he could build a boat; she could teach people how to build boats and work with them on building the boats and figuring out where the best places to fish are. Um, and all that stuff, right?
Uh, and so the 2 of them are who built Aubade to begin with. Um, and so, she is enshrined here as the kind of center of faith. Um, so in some senses it’s like… I guess again, we’ve tried our best to avoid purely Christian, um, analogies here, uh, but I do think you can think about this as being… feeling like, um, a sort of… for me, a New Testament to the Creed of Samothes? Um, though again, I’m certain many faiths have similar sorts of divisions in terms of like, um, eras of what the… what works were central to what the faith was, right? But here, the Samothes who was taught, there was the old Samothes who was selfish and who guarded knowledge carefully, um, and who was kind of interventionist, but kind of disinterestedly interventionist, and who as often acted in rage as in love. Um, and here we have Sabinia as a sort of figure who righted him in some ways, but not even just righted him.
Like, her… she is loved because of what she did for people here specifically. Like, it is not just that she sacrificed herself and then that was it. Like, he’s good now. Um, she specifically like, worked with people hand in glove for her entire life. For many lives because she chose not to die for quite some time. And then once things were really stable, once things felt good here, she passed on. She let herself die.
Art: Ok. I guess, yeah. Hadrian is comfortable being here and starts trying to like, help out.
Austin: So, the person you work with the most is actually the one remaining mage from Marielda which is Fester Finlay. Um, who is a, um, you know… outside Fester was a wizard, er was a mage. Not a wizard. Was a mage from the University, though, who was a necromancy. Um, he had tan skin, and he had like, really big cheeks and very rosy features. Um, he had like, at the time, I think he had like, a very close-cut hair style, but I think he’s kind of grown it out here. Um, and it’s um, kind of like loose curls. Um, and he’s grown a beard. Um, and he’s replaced his black robes, um, with I think, kind of wheat-colored like, tans and golds here. Um, and he is like, the official head of the church. Um, and he is the person you go to to get counseling if you believe you want to move on. You want to die. Um, and so he can be, you know… sometimes you want to talk to Samothes directly. Fester knows just about as much about the faith side of this stuff.
Art: Sure.
Austin: But yeah, you can totally spend the year helping there. There’s always things to do. It’s a lot of physical labor. It’s a lot of helping people with chores and you know, doing field work. And um, helping the sick and wounded to recover, you know?
Art: Sure.
Austin: Is there anything else you want to zoom in on here?
Art: I don’t think yet.
Austin: Ok. Hella.
Ali: Hi.
Austin: Hi.
Ali: Um, ok. I think that it’s tough for Hella in like, a lot of different ways.
Austin: Sure.
Ali: I think that like… I think that she like, tries to manage it by like, getting a boat? And it’s like, one of those things where it’s like not… it doesn’t like, it doesn’t provide the ease that like, she thinks that it would. Um, where it’s like, ‘I don’t know if this behavior is great,’ but like… and she gets a boat and then just like, kind of circles the island every so often.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Um, and like sometimes it’s this relaxing thing, but like, as someone who’s like, traveled on the ocean a bunch or like, been on shores a bunch. I think that she… you know, you get susceptible to like, that it’s weird that the waves don’t act the way that you expect them to.
Austin: Right.
Ali: Or it’s like, someone who’s able to like, look at the horizon and hold two fingers up to like, see what time it is like, that the horizons and shit like that doesn’t work. [laughs]
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah. Yeah.
Ali: It’s so fully a different place. It’s not just like, a different island or a different neighborhood or like whatever. But like, in terms of scene, I don’t know if it should be like, like someone like, Samothes or Adelaide like, approaching her to be like, ‘I don’t know what you think’… not like that or whatever, but like…
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah. If it’s that, it’s an Adelaide thing for sure, right?
Ali: [laughing] Just being like…
Austin: [interrupting] Are you on… how big is the boat? Is this like a… is this like a ship? What is this?
Ali: No, it’s like person-size. It’s not like, a ship-ship.
Austin: Ok
Ali: But I think it’s like something that like, especially for other people in the community to be like, ‘Ok, there’s this lady who like, we already are on edge about a little bit, I guess.’ Um, just…
Austin: [interrupting] But you’re not the only person. I wanna clear… like, that’s the thing, is like, I bet you there’s a whole boating community here.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Like who go out because it’s fun to be on a boat, [Ali laughing] you know?
Ali: Yeah. Fair.
Austin: Um, like, it is. It’s fun to be on a boat. And like, you have eight hours or whatever plus of your day to do whatever the fuck you want. This is a fairly sizeable town, city. Someone wants to be out on a boat, you know?
Ali: Yeah, that’s fair.
Austin: Um, but I still do think Adelaide is definitely going to show up at some point. I think she’s just gonna be in your boat already.
Ali: Cool.
Austin: Like when you show up to it, I think she’s like eating an apple. Um, and like, spitting seeds out into the water. Um, and is in like, a mockery of sailor gear. You know? She absolutely has on like, a big captain’s hat and like, a… I don’t know what the phrase ‘naval corset’ brings to mind, but…. [snort laugh] absolutely. And like… someone’s googling it. I hear it. Um… [laughing] Uh, and is just like,
Austin (as Adelaide): [sighs] Oh, going out on the waves again, Hella.
Ali (as Hella): Wha? What are you doing here?
Austin (as Adelaide): I just wanted to go for a boat ride.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, but this isn’t like, for fun or for whatever you’re dressed for.
Austin (as Adelaide): It’s not for fun? What’s is for? It’s for work? Are you working?
Ali (as Hella): [exasperated laugh] I’m just… keeping an eye on things.
Austin (as Adelaide): You’re kee… [laughs] guard duty. It’s very important.
Ali (as Hella): [long sigh] Do you need something?
Austin (as Adelaide): I’d like to go on a boat ride.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, but this is my boat.
Austin (as Adelaide): And I’d like to go on a boat ride with you.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, but there’s other boats.
Austin (as Adelaide): You’re not on those.
Ali (as Hella): [sigh, then whispered] What the fuck.
Austin (as Adelaide): Let’s go. Show me how important it is that you guard this noble land.
Ali: [wheezed laugh] Hella just… angry. Just fuming, um, but like, having nothing to do…
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: …and like, taking no action. [laughing] Just like… [laughing] growling. She like… [laughing] She is so mean to me. Um, [laughing] there’s an image in chat of a very romantic boat ride.
Austin: Uh huh. [laughs]
Ali: Um, god. Um, but yeah. Just like grumbling under her breath as she’s like, pulling on ropes or like, bringing up sails…
Austin: [overlapping] Uh huh.
Ali: …or whatever it is that you do, and then just being like,
Ali (as Hella): Just sit over there, and just stay quiet for once in your life.
Austin: Um, she does. She sits down as you like, start to leave. You know, you start to, to push off, and once you break through… so it’s like there’s a lagoon. There’s a... there’s this reef is kind of like almost a closed circle, but there is an exit, right? Um, and I do think your boat is small enough to get out across the lagoon and out past all the sandbars and stuff without, you know, beaching itself basically. Even if it’s… it could be high tide right now, so who cares, I guess, Um, but once you do get out there, um, still quiet. She’s completely silent. She’s listening to exactly what you say. She like, produces a bottle of champagne from nowhere and just like, pops it and pours herself a glass, and then slides you one. Um, actually she just gives you the bottle. She just like, tosses you the bottle, and then rolls an apple to you. Still quiet. Just basking.
Ali (as Hella): [sigh] How long were you in here? How is this still cold?
Austin: She like gives you eyes as if to say… as if to ask for permission to speak.
Ali (as Hella): Ok, sure. Then don’t. Fine.
Ali: And then she like, being angry, just bites out of an apple.
Austin: [laughing] Janine in our group chat is just dropping amazing images. [Ali laughing] Just going through Getty images, I guess, and looking at gon-, romantic gondola images of extremely extra women just… just doing what Adelaide is doing. It’s perfect honestly. Um…
Janine: They’re all white, which sucks. I can’t find any… [inaudible]
Austin: [overlapping] It does. Yeah. Unfortunately. Unfortunately. So, it goes. This is… but this is big mood. This 100% the same energy. [Ali laughing] Um… does that women have a snake around her head? Is that what that is? Jack, don’t look.
Jack: No, I thought it might be a snake, and so I looked cause I don’t know what’s good for me. And it’s not. But I
Austin: Ok.
Jack: Janine… I trust Janine wouldn’t put a picture of a woman with a snake wrapped around her head in our chat.
Austin: Uh huh. Perfect.
Jack: It’d be a real [laughs] real dick move.
Austin: Um…
Jack: Oh god. That last boat though… that last boat.
Austin: That’s great.
Jack: That’s a fancy boat.
Austin: That has little horses on it.
Ali: Ohhh.
Jack: They’re like…
Austin: [overlapping] Look at that. What’s your boat like? Do your boat have horses on it? Or is your boat very like, spartan. Very utilitarian?
Ali: [laughs] I think…
Austin: [overlapping] Speaking of Spartans, I’m just now realizing I think the lead character of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is just Hella. I think Kassandra is maybe… if you want to play a game as Hella…? I think I like that game more now that I can just play it as Hella.
Ali: [laughing] I just googled ‘Hella’ instead of…
Austin: Great.
Ali: … what I meant to.
Austin: Uh, you know, uh… Kassandra is Greek which means not a… I just… I googled ‘Kassandra Hella’ which is also not right. Um, is not a… not a woman of color in the same way that we portray Hella, for sure, but is absolutely um, just a powerful, just a powerful gay energy. Honestly, the best. Uh, I think Alex Navarro today, in a stream described her as…. God, what was the exact phrase? Um, ‘You can be as much of a bisexual love god as you want’ which is extremely good.
[Ali laughing]
Janine: Sold.
Ali: Well, it’s year one, so…
Austin: [laughing] Right, exactly! [Ali laughing] Um, yeah…
Ali: Anyway…
Austin: Yeah, go ahead.
Ali: [laughs] I think my boat…. It’s not like, quite a sailboat, right? But it’s like…
Austin: [interrupting] It has a sail.
Ali: Right. Yeah. It’s not like…
Austin: [interrupting] You’re not rowing.
Ali: I’m looking at wooden boats, and they’re all like canoes, but it’s a little more substantial than that, right? Like, it would you know…
Austin: Yeah. I get you.
Ali: [overlapping] It takes… yeah.
Austin: [overlapping] It’s like a small sailboat.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Like a… like a, like a small one. I googled tiny sailboats and one of them, the webpage… it’s over at shortypen.com, which I think is some sort of boat thing. And there’s just an article here, and the name of the article is ‘gunkholing with the oldies’, and I hate it.
Janine: Eww.
Jack: I’m sorry?
Austin: ‘Gunkholing with the Oldies’.
Jack: How’s their… it’s really the verb that I’m… that I have most questions about.
Austin: Gunkholing?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: [reading] “She was visiting from out in the country somebody said! "Yes mam!" I politely stated in a smooth even voice directed right at her! I said it again, "YES mam!.... We are gonna do it in the gunkhole, YOU wanna join in?" and I let out a whoopla like a Rebel yell! "Yeah boy!...The more the merrier!", I ended with that, as she quickly turned red and stomped off…” Um, this is about like, taking a sailboat into like, gunky, difficult to navigate terrain. It is not as gross as you suspect.
Jack: The land.
Austin: [laughing] The land. Yeah, that’s actually what it means. Like, the image is just of a boat on a dirty, mud beach. So…
Ali: Ok, I think I have like, a… it’s not like big enough that there’s like, a downstairs area…
Austin: Yeah
Ali: …but it is big enough that there’s like, a part in the floor that you can open, and like there’s storage space.
Austin: Ok. What’s in there? What do you keep in there?
Ali: Just boat stuff, you might need.
Austin: Ok.
Ali: An extra sail. Some rope. You know.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: It’s a moderate size boat for one person.
Austin: So, when you get… I think when you get like, halfway around, she does finally speak. She breaks the rule finally. And she says,
Austin (as Adelaide): It’s so strange to see you without the sword.
Ali (as Hella): [deep sigh]
Austin: And she chomps into another apple. [Ali laughing]
Austin (as Adelaide): I’m just saying. It’s… I… Iconic.
Ali: I think it’s like, the one thing that Hella’s willing to open up about, since she’s like, had a bunch of champagne at this point probably. [laughing]
Austin: Oh, have you? Did you absolutely? Ok, good.
Ali: The thing about champagne is once you have 2 sips of it, you’re like…
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah. I’m here, I guess.
Ali: … three beers [inaudible], right?
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. Here I am.
Ali: But she’s just like, looking at the half of that apple that she has left, and is just like,
Ali (as Hella): [sigh] I’ve been thinking of getting a new one, but it just doesn’t seem appropriate.
Austin (as Adelaide): [sigh] I’ve been thinking about that with a crown so, I understand.
Ali (as Hella): What is wro… what?
Austin (as Adelaide): I’m not… what am I? You know? If I walked around here with a crown on, people would look at me funny.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah.
Austin (as Adelaide): And if you walked around here with a big sword, I’m saying it’s the same thing.
Ali (as Hella): Well, swords serve a different purpose than a crown.
Austin (as Adelaide): Sometimes.
Ali (as Hella): [sigh] Ah, god. [under breath] You’re so [inaudibly trails off] I… This isn’t… this isn’t another one of those situations for you.
Austin (as Adelaide): Another one of which situations, Hella?
Ali (as Hella): One of those where you do this, and you talk to people like that, and then you end up on top.
Austin (as Adelaide): Hmm…. [sigh] I think you assume too much about what I want.
Ali (as Hella): You want to walk around with a crown.
Austin (as Adelaide): I’m saying it’s strange not to have one. I’m saying it’s strange to, for once, look around and not feel like I need to be on top.
Ali (as Hella): [sigh] It just… Hmm…
Austin (as Adelaide): I thought about it. Overturning the status quo and turning that castle into mine. I spoke with those Ordennans you sent in here, thinking perhaps we could cause some trouble together. They were game at first, but bit by bit… the old man just wanted to be out fishing. And even the witch-hunter… [sigh] There’s nothing like meeting a god to convince you there’s no such thing as witches. [sigh]
Ali (as Hella): I haven’t even spoken to them. [exhaled ‘ugh’]
Austin (as Adelaide): Don’t bother. They’re not that interesting.
Ali (as Hella): Well, it’s weird. I thought I’d be here, and like, it would be a problem, but there’s like, enough people that it isn’t.
Austin (as Adelaide): The second trial of Hella Varal.
Ali (as Hella): Fuck off.
Austin: Bite. [Ali laughs] She like, punctuates all of her everything with apple bites. It’s very good.
Austin (as Adelaide): What’s your plan?
Ali (as Hella): I mean, we can leave. We’ll be able to leave. And until then, I don’t know. The friends I have here seem happy. Or trying. It just seems wrong not to try if…
Austin (as Adelaide): If?
Ali (as Hella): [sigh]
Austin (as Adelaide): The way things are going, Hella, I don’t know what will be left by the time we leave here.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, but that’s not like... That’s not like… we’re not supposed to be here. [laughing] You’re not supposed to be here.
Austin (as Adelaide): You brought me here.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, but that’s like… I was falling.
Austin (as Adelaide): [overlapping] I was the one who was trying to keep you.
Ali (as Hella): Don’t. Ugh… god. I was following…
Austin (as Adelaide): [overlapping] Anyway, there’s not a place anyone it supposed to be. There’s just where you are. Isn’t that the mistake I made? That I thought I knew where people should be. The only place… the only person I know where they should be is me. And it’s in this boat.
Austin: Bite.
Ali: [laughing, the whispered] Shit. I can’t. Umm…
Ali (as Hella): I mean, no. It’s not like that. Like, you can be at the wrong place at the wrong time. But also, I just… There’s a particular skill set.
Austin (as Adelaide): You’re speaking to a queen. [Ali laughs] I know. I thought I might learn some new things. I’d be a fantastic actress. That’s right. A god of the stage.
Ali (as Hella): Well, you know, you should get a hobby cause this isn’t gonna continue. And you seemed pretty bored when I still had the sword, so…
Austin (as Adelaide): I am incredibly bored. You’re entertaining though.
Ali: Bites into apple. [Austin laughs loudly] I think this is fucked up cause this is like, this is what she did with Calhoun.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Right? I just…
Austin: [overlapping] Oh yeah. Yep. Boat party.
Ali: … say that out loud. Umm…
Austin: Uh huh. Do these trips continue? Like, if she just shows up once a week on your boat?
Ali: I don’t think that if she like… she didn’t kick her out the first time, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: And then… [laughing]
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Hella’s fine with being drunk on a boat. [laughing]
Austin: Yeah… Alright. I think for now that is where that is at. Is there anything else? That’s the first year, right? Everyone got their scene. Um, so yeah, let’s… I think close on this then. From the… from the boat as you’re coming back in with Adelaide, Hella, you know, there’s the loud crack of thunder again. And the boat rocks. And you know how you said that you’ve been on ships, and one of the things about being on ships is like, you can hold up your fingers and count, and you figure out what time of the day it is. And like, you know something about the horizon. You know the way ships work. And you know the way naval, you know, navigation works, and here none of that’s true, right?
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: For a brief moment, when the thunder cracks and when the lightning strikes the ocean out in the distance and you look out and see the storm? The boat rocks in a way, and you straighten yourself out. You find your footing in a way that is right for the sea at home. It’s as if… When that thunder cracked, it tied you back to that place for just a moment. And it’s almost nauseating, right? Because you spent the whole night out on this other ocean.
[Jack de Quidt’s “The Druid and the Old Man” begins playing in background]
Austin: Alright, Fero, did you spend the year making new things?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Let’s…
Keith: I did. I have the… I have the first thing that I made. I think it’s pretty funny. Should I do it?
Austin: [overlapping somewhat] Alright, what is it? What’s the first that you made?
Keith: Ok, I’m running up to…. I run up to wherever Samot is.
Austin: Samol.
Keith: Not Samot. Samol.
Austin: Uh, I think he’s by the Hieron’s breath section of the tower again. Um, he’s like working on it, and he sees you coming. And he’s like,
Austin (as Samol): Slow down, slow down, slow down. Give me a second. Let me catch… let me catch my breath. [exhaled breath] What’s up?
Keith (as Fero): Check it out!
Keith: And I do it.
Austin: What do you…
Keith: [interrupting] Do I have to roll for this? Or do I just do it?
Austin: Yeah, let’s roll for it. Let’s roll for it.
Keith: Alright.
Austin: What’s the roll?
Keith: What do I… I guess it’s wisdom, right?
Austin: I think that’s your…
Keith: [overlapping] I mean, I know that it’s wisdom, but…
Austin: What’s the… Yeah, I mean, if it’s wisdom then yeah… What’s the actual… what’s the move as it was? Shapeshifter? Roll + WIS.
Keith: Shapeshifter.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Roll… Roll plus wisdom. On a 10+, hold three, blah, blah, blah. That’s a 6, but you got that +1, remember? From chewing.
Keith: I have… yeah, you’re right. I do, so that’s a 7.
Austin: That is a 7.
Keith: And it’s funny cause I actually… the penalty is just that I only have 1 hold, so even if I failed, I mean.
Austin: You could only do that thing once, which actually makes sense, in a sense, right?
Keith: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: So, what did you make? What do you become?
Keith: Uh, I’m a wolf with wings. [Both laugh hard]
Keith (as Fero): I did your dumbass thing man!
Austin (as Samol): That’s just a wolf with wings!
Keith (as Fero): [laughing throughout] I know. It’s sucks! It’s so boring!
Austin (as Samol): Right, but you did it! See! This is what I’m saying. I didn’t make it. I said it. That didn’t mean I made it. That’s what I’m talkin’ about. I can say whatever, but you have to do the damn thing.
Keith (as Fero): I did it. I did the damn thing.
Austin (as Samol): Show me. Can you fly?
Keith (as Fero): Uh…. yeah.
Austin (as Samol): Or do you just have wings?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess, um, this is fun. This is fun.
Keith: I go, and I fly off of the edge of the tower. I do that other thing.
Austin: Wait, so yeah, you jump off. You do it.
Keith: I jump off. Yeah.
Austin: And you begin to fly.
Keith: Yeah. Maybe I goof off for a second. And I’m like, ‘Oh no’.
Austin: But then you start flying. I think he becomes…
Keith: [interrupting] And I can… you can tell like, ‘Oh, he never even… he never had a problem.’
Austin: Yeah. He becomes a dragon and starts flying after you. And I like we maybe just get a montage of these things, right? Um, here’s the one that I want you to…. I need to know as Austin Walker, what is the one that you get right the most? Cause I’m guessing you come up with a bunch of them, right?
Keith: Yeah. A bunch.
Austin: Over the course of the year.
Keith: A kangaroo that bounces on its arms.
Austin: That one’s bad.
Keith: That one’s bad but it’s…
Austin: [interrupting] But it’s new!
Keith: …fun to do.
Austin: It’s fun to do.
Keith: It’s new.
Austin: And it’s new.
Keith: And it works cause it can probably pick up stuff with its feet then.
Austin: Yeah. exactly. It’s like a…
Keith: Or it can do one arm really well. So, it could just grab stuff with its hand.
Austin: Right. With its other hand or with its tail or something.
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: What else?
Keith: Um, I’ve gotta do… Um, uh, there’s a crab, but it’s… it’s a land crab, and all of its legs move sort of like a snake, so it sort of, slithers with 8 legs.
[transition from Austin/Keith to Samol/Fero is unclear here]
Austin (as Samol): That’s good. That’s… see, look. If something’s coming for you, you can just go like, ‘slither, slither, slither.’
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, yeah. That’s the weakest on a crab is that it’s gotta scuttle. And it’s not very good at it.
Austin (as Samol): Right. Exactly. Plus, it’s a land-crab, and I think even though there are land crabs already in the world, people already go like, ‘Oh no! Wha’? I’m not near the ocean. Why is there such a being here?’
Keith (as Fero): I have… Ok, you said… you said land crab. I don’t… I said land crab first, but when you said land crab, I thought… you know about squirrels? Do you know about squirrels?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, I heard. I heard of squirrels.
Keith (as Fero): You know how most squirrels are tree squirrels and then there’s also ground squirrels?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, of course.
Keith (as Fero): Sea-squirrels.
Austin (as Samol): What’s a sea-squirrel?
Keith (as Fero): It’s this.
Austin (as Samol): Hold up. Wait. Come with me.
Austin: He has to take you to the sea.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So, I think he takes you back into the temp… the 5 temples. And goes back to Severea, and like, there’s part of the Severean temple area district where there is just like, a tide pool basically.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin (as Samol): Alright. Sea squirrel.
Keith (as Fero): Sea squirrel.
Austin (as Samol): Show it to me.
Keith: 12.
Austin: That is the roll you needed. So, there’s a new rule, Fero. Do you remember last year when… whenever you rolled a failure on this move? Uh…
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: An animal…
Keith: [interrupting] Sorry, I think you need to fig… I think you need to remember exactly how long ago this was.
Austin: I know.
Keith: Cause it was not last year.
Austin: Oh, did I really say… well, it was last year. It was just… early… It was, it was partly last year. It’s still 2018.
Keith: Right. You’re right. It was for a little bit in 2018.
Austin: But it started in 2017… er, started in 2016. Jesus Christ. Um…
Keith: Yeah, isn’t that awful?
Austin: It’s the worst. Time is wild.
Keith: [overlapping] Do you know that we’re almos... We’re like more than halfway to October.
Austin: I know. Believe me, I know.
Keith: There’s 12… there’s like 12 days left of September.
Austin: It’s the worst. Um, you um… So, last season of winter, er of Hieron. Winter in Hieron. There was a rule in the background that only came up 2 or 3 times. Um, I told you about it.
Keith: Just 2.
Austin: Well, but I told you about it before… I told you about it during your love letter in the very first episode. In which…
Keith: [overlapping] Yeah, I forgot about it…
Austin: Yeah because…
Keith: [overlapping] …like, legitimately.
Austin: Yeah. 100%. The first time it was… I forget what it was the fir… Oh, it was um… It was some sort of insect. Insects had started disappearing. You’d noticed this. Um, as like just, oh, an insect that you had become once stopped existing in the world. Then you noticed wolves had stopped existing in the world when you failed a roll trying to become a wolf. And then you tried to become sand later, and it failed. And it erased it from the world. Whenever you become a new thing and you roll a 12 or above, it enters the world. So, you become a sea-squirrel. What’s that look like?
Keith: Um, so, I think it looks like… Um, do you know flying squirrels, like sugar glider kind of things?
Austin: Yeah, sugar gliders. Here, or like…
Keith: I think it’s… it has…. it looks sort of like that, but it has the bushy tail of a tree squirrel.
Austin: Ok.
Keith: But the size of a ground squirrel.
Austin: Ok.
Keith: So, it’s like… it’s got… it’s got these wings that it can use to like, to um… to steer.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And then a tail that it can use to like, flap almost like an eel. Like go side to side.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: And then it’s… it’s big.
Austin: [overlapping] And then also it is big.
Keith: It’s like the size of… it’s like a gr…. it’s like the size of like, a groundhog, which isn’t… it’s not…
Austin: [overlapping] It’s not huge. Yeah.
Keith: …huge, but it’s bigger. It’s, you know, bigger than you’d think a squirrel is…
Austin: Yes, yes.
Keith: … by two or three times.
Austin: I got ya. So, you start swimming, right? In the tidepool. Inside of this like ruined temple district that’s lit by like, magic lights. And um, you notice you’re not the only sea squirrel. There are a dozen other ones in this pool with you. Um…
Keith: I… I pop up. Can I… can I…
Austin: Yeah?
Keith: Can Samol understand me as animals?
Austin: Oh yeah.
Keith: Ok.
Keith (as Fero): You said this was new! This wasn’t… there’s ones down here already. You brought me to where these things live?
Austin (as Samol): [laughing] I wish. That would be…
Keith (as Fero): [laughing] Is this some form of fucking rude joke?
Austin (as Samol): That would hilarious, I admit, but that is not what happened. Fero, you made them.
Keith (as Fero): What are talkin’… what are you talkin’ about?
Austin (as Samol): Don’t you… do… [sighs a few times]
Austin: I think he becomes a smaller version of his purple leviathan self, so he can swim out there.
Keith: Ok.
Austin: Uh, and he gets closer, and he’s talkin’ to you in weird leviathan language, but you can understand him.
Keith: This thing is scary.
Austin: His thing is a little scarier.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: He might eat one… [Keith laughs hard] I think he eats one.
Keith: That would be really funny.
Austin: Um…
Keith: What if he eats two? [Austin makes 2 eating noises] In two like… two big…
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah 100%. Yeah, we had the exact same head motion. Like, just like a snap almost, right? Like…
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: His purple mon… his purple leviathan thing is almost like a purple Loch Ness Monster, right? But like…
Keith: I’m thinking… You know what I’m thinking of like, in terms in motion of it?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I mean, obviously only one head, but do you remember the Disney hydra?
Austin: Yeah, 100%.
Keith: That Disney cartoon hydra from the Hercules movie.
Austin: Yes, the like… [makes a noise] Yeah, uh huh. Perfect.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Um, so yeah, it’s that. Um…
Keith: Those things are fuckin’ sc… I think that’s scary.
Austin: Yeah, it was. Um, and he pops back up and he’s like…
Austin (as Samol): These are good. I told you I was hungry. I told you I wanted to eat new things.
Keith (as Fero): Is this what this is about?
Austin (as Samol): No, it’s not what it’s about.
Keith (as Fero): Did you try to make me make snacks for you?
Austin (as Samol): It’s not just that. But…
Keith (as Fero): Percentage-wise, how big a part?
Austin (as Samol): 49.
Keith (as Fero): 49?! [laughing while talking] That’s so big! That’s such a big number!
Austin (as Samol): It’s not even half!
Keith (as Fero): It’s like the… it’s the most you could have said without it being half.
Austin (as Samol): Only in integers.
Keith (as Fero): Shit. You got me. Only in integers.
Austin (as Samol): There’s an infinite amount of numbers between 49 and 50.
Keith: Fero… I take it back. No, sorry. Fero doesn’t know what the fuck an integer is.
Keith (as Fero): What are you tal… Only in integers? Is that god for number?
Austin: [laughing hard, overlapping speech] Is that magic?
Keith (as Fero): Is that some weird like… that means not only in numbers. Yeah, only in numbers.
Austin (as Samol): Alright. So, you know there’s… Let’s say you have an apple, right? And you cut it right down the… apples don’t have cores. You cut it down the middle, right?
Keith (as Fero): Uh huh. Yeah.
Austin (as Samol): Then let’s say you want… that’s… that’s… what do you have? You have…
Keith (as Fero): That’s a… by the way, that’s a god saying that apples don’t have core.
Austin (as Samol): That’s me. I’m god. I made apples, no cores.
Keith (as Fero): That’s important. He did plants.
Austin (as Samol): I did plants. I did apples.
Keith (as Fero): Eat an apple from the bottom. Very surprised.
Austin (as Samol): Shocking. They just disappear.
Keith (as Fero): They disappear.
Austin (as Samol): Um… you cut it in half and then you have two halves of an apple.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Austin (as Samol): You keeping cutting those. That’s an in… An integer is you got one apple. You cut it, you don’t have an integer. You only have two halves. You have two point five… You have zero point five… you have two… hm...
Keith (as Fero): Maybe you don’t understand integers.
Austin (as Samol): Maybe I don’t understand math. The point is these are new.
Keith (as Fero): You cut an apple in half, you have two.
Austin (as Samol): No, you have one apple. You have two half apples.
Keith (as Fero): Right.
Austin (as Samol): You can keep cutting them down. Bit by bit forever.
Keith (as Fero): No… my knife… knives… eventually you can’t cut it cause the knife’s just gonna… it’s just gonna be like, no, there’s nothing there to grab onto.
Austin (as Samol): You should talk to Galenica. Galenica makes a very sharp knife. Remember when I said there was that level where there was nothing?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Austin (as Samol): That’s cause Galenica took a knife and kept cuttin’ until there was nothing left. They uh, they cut the very smallest thing. And that cut everything else. Anyway, these are new. Legitimately.
Keith (as Fero): You said there was no smallest thing. You said you could go down forever.
Austin (as Samol): You can go down until that point. These exist in the world now, Fero. For real. Go in the warm water, you’ll find them. You did that. And you know, you ask me five years ago, ten years ago, I’d be mad at you for it maybe. Because I’d be like, ‘Wait a second. You can’t just make a sea squirrel. What happens to the porpoises? What happens to the sea turtles?’
Keith (as Fero): I bet some… I bet porpoises and sea turtles would maybe want to eat the sea squirrels.
Austin (as Samol): Oh, they’d eat ‘em right up probably, but you know what I’m sayin’. Like, there would be a… [deep breath] But you look outside right now, and uh… porpoises and sea turtles have a lot to deal with already. I’m a little more concerned about what the future holds than past. So, uh, congrats. You did the damn thing. You made something genuinely new in the world. Not just for yourself. Tonight, porpoises and sea turtles, they eat on you. And the sea squirrels eat, too. Presumably some sort of sea nut.
Keith (as Fero): Do you need to make a sea nut for them?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, I should probably. I should prob… [sigh] [Fero laughs] I should probably get to workin’ actually. Figure out a dang sea nut. [laughs]
Keith (as Fero): Tide corn.
Austin (as Samol): There you go. Boom. Tide corn. Yum.
Keith (as Fero): [laughing] Tide corn, bark salad tonight.
Austin (as Samol): Oh delicious. Only it’s served in mason jars. It’s the worst.
Keith (as Fero): Mason. And it’s full of sea water, too.
Austin (as Samol): Ugh, delicious. Love it. Can’t wait.
Keith (as Fero): Drift wood and… driftwood and sea corn… what did I call it?
Austin (as Samol): Tide corn.
Keith (as Fero): [overlapping] Tide corn. Driftwood, tide corn, sea water salad.
Austin: Technicality. No down. Boo over.
Keith: [laughs] Technicality? No down. Boo Over?
Austin: [laughs] So, I think you… you guys like… y’all dry off and like, come back out of the tide pool. And he’s like,
Austin (as Samol): So, what do you think? You wanna stay here? Keep making new stuff? Cause you could do that. Or you could go where people need new stuff.
Keith (as Fero): I’ll… I’m gonna stay for a little… for a bit. For a little bit.
Austin (as Samol): Just wanna keep workin’ on stuff?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, this is fun. I can do… I can do this for a bit.
Austin: It looks like he might want to push you, but then he’s like, proud that you figured this stuff out. And he’s like,
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, you know what? I’m not gonna complain.
Keith (as Fero): Good.
Austin (as Samol): Be good to have you around for a little bit. Keep surp…
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, it is! I’m fun. What are you talkin’ about?
Austin (as Samol): I’m saying… it’s fun.
Keith (as Fero): I just realized it’s been 3 years. I just realized it’s fun.
Austin (as Samol): You know, sometimes you live on my timeline. 3 years? That’s like 3 days. It’s not. It’s still like 3 years.
Keith (as Fero): [overlapping] Yeah, it’s 3 years.
Austin (as Samol): Stick around.
Keith (as Fero): 3 years is a measurable amount of my whole life.
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, I know. I know. I know. It’s funny. You get to be old like me, and you think you get to a point where you go, ‘Oh, yeah. 1 year, that’s nothing.’ No, I feel every day. And some days, some years still matter. You know a lot of them go by, and it’s like, ‘Oh, what did you do that year?’ And my answer is I sat on a log, and I learned some new songs on guitar. But um, other years. Like, ‘Phew. That was a wild one.’ In any case, I’ma go work on the… the project, and you keep experimenting. I’ll be around. If you have any questions, you ask. Not right now, I’m…
Keith (as Fero): Can I make stuff out of anything? Does it have to be like, animals?
Austin (as Samol): Let’s stay with animals for now because I don’t want to wake up and not have the ground under me yet. And like, that’s like, a fundamental differe… You know, or like, what if you tried to make an air being and it went real bad? And then we couldn’t breathe? I’d be fine.
Keith (as Fero): I would… I mean…
Austin (as Samol): You’d be fine.
Keith (as Fero): [laughing] That would solve… that would solve a whole lot of that ‘what should we do’ stuff?
Austin (as Samol): That’d be it. That’d be… It’d be over.
Keith (as Fero): It would be done.
Austin (as Samol): Summer? Who cares about summer? It’s dead. It would dead… Some of… Come all you want. That’d be the worst. Don’t make… Ok, promise me, Fero.
Keith (as Fero): Don’t make an air guy.
Austin (as Samol): Unless it’s the most important thing in your life. Do not become just the air.
Keith (as Fero): Ok. If I become an air guy, and I fuck it up, does that get rid of the air, too? Or is there a possibly of air guys?
Austin (as Samol): You know, I’m not sure. My suspicion is it could get rid of air. If it goes real bad?
Keith (as Fero): Can I be honest with you? I… I’m not like 100% into testing that out.
Austin (as Samol): Me either, so, careful with the fundamental stuff. That’s the other nice thing about trying to do new stuff, right? ‘Oh no, I became a sea squirrel, and I fucked it up. No more sea squi… Oh, there weren’t any? Ok.’ [Fero laughs] There’s a lesson here somewhere, I think, Fero. You spent a lot of time tearing things down. I’m not a fan of Rosemerrow. I’m alright with Nacre, or I was. Tristero loved it, so I visited. Good mixed drinks, but I get it. Has problems. [sighs] But there was all this time that you could have spent building new stuff. But I don’t just mean sea squirrels, but I also mean sea squirrels. Let’s start thinkin’ big.
Keith (as Fero): You know, I didn’t go there tryin’ to wreck shit.
Austin (as Samol): No, but you went through life that way. I’m not sayin’ you came to…
Keith (as Fero): Tryin’ to wreck shit?
Austin (as Samol): Yeah, trying’ to wreck shit.
Keith (as Fero): I just wanted to live in the hills.
Austin (as Samol): No, the hills was fine. The hills I get. You left the hills with a sledge hammer. Which again, sometimes you gotta break things. I’m not saying you don’t. But there are times when… I watched, and I just wanted to know, what would you build in the place of the things you wanted to tear down. And I couldn’t tell you.
[Jack de Quidt’s “Something” begins playing in background]
Austin (as Samol): Something to think about. I’m not saying I have an answer. Lord knows I’ve seen a lot of things be built up that shouldn’t been, but still more interested in that than another world where there’s nothing. Project. I’m gonna go work on. I will see you around, sea squirrel.
Keith (as Fero): What’s the project?
Austin (as Samol): The breath. The Hieron breath. It’s the same thing…
Keith (as Fero): Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin (as Samol): The whole like, I do the hands. I turn into a dragon.
Keith (as Fero): Well, you… sorry, you just kept talking about new stuff, new stuff, and then you’re…
Austin (as Samol): I know.
Keith (as Fero): But I get it. That one seems big.
Austin (as Samol): It’s an old project, I know. Alright.
Austin: And uh, he leaves.
[Music plays out to the end]
[1] The name in the audio recording is no longer in use, hence the audio/transcript discrepancy.