Marielda 13: The Killing of the King-God Samothes By The Traitor Prince Maelgwyn Pt. 3
Transcriber: Fesha (@oziads)
AUSTIN AS SAMOL: There’s a phrase you might hear, ‘round academia way. “Wherever you find two scholars, you’ll find a schism.” Now, most folks might think that’s incorrect. And they’re right. But for the wrong reason. See, a lot of people think the scribes and intellectuals at the University are all the same type: a buncha ivory tower elitists, who believe the same thing. Couldn’t be more wrong. See, the University tower is made of old concrete, not ivory. [THEME MUSIC - “MARIELDA” - BEGINS] And the members of the twelve academies, well, they have as many cracks in them as the walls do.
The truth is, every scholar is a schism. It’s been that way since the first student: His Most Honorable Contradiction, Samot. Hell, he couldn’t even make up his mind whether or not to found the school. Sure, it was clear he wanted to teach and to learn with mortals, but Samothes had not only forbidden regular folk to learn, he had woven knowledge such that it made learnin’ an incomprehensible thing. So, Samot’s loyalty kept him from pursuin’ that particular cerebral desire.
But, Samot had garnered the Iron God’s affection with his reflective and elusive charm. And Samothes, well, that boy don’t miss a beat. He saw what Samot wanted, felt it, knew that there is nothin’ that will stifle the love of an inquirin’ mind more than to stand in the way of its study. So he took Samot’s hand in his and taught him how to make a brick. And then a wall. And then a school. It was sacred ground, the one place where folks could learn under the blessin’ of the gods. And bit by bit, it creeped out. Samothes hadn’t realized it, he hadn’t taught Samot to build walls, he’d taught him to build doors. And now they’re openin’ all over Hieron.
[Theme continues to play until 3:18]
AUSTIN: Castille and Maelgwyn, the door opens. And you are in Samothes’s room. And there he is. A step away from you. What do you do?
ALI: [exhales nervously] I… put my hand on Maelgwyn’s back?
AUSTIN: Samothes reaches his hand out and puts it on Maelgwyn’s shoulder. And he looks his son in the eye and says:
AUSTIN AS SAMOTHES: Not yet.
AUSTIN: And then he looks at you and from an inside pocket that cat comes alive and hops out and climbs up on his shoulder and yawns. And he steps into the elevator with both of you. Maelgwyn is frozen.
ALI (whispering): Yikes. Um…
AUSTIN: And the elevator starts moving. You can feel Maelgwyn, like. Fingering at the knife. Which, you catch it out of the side of your eye, and it’s like… what’s bigger than a knife but smaller than a sword?
ALI: Uh… a dagger? Like a cleaver?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Is it like a… is a dagger…? Cleaver’s too… utilitarian.
SYLVIA: I’m thinkin’ like a… do you know what a kukri looks like?
AUSTIN: I—yeah, a kukri is probably right.
SYLVIA: I don’t know if the shape that you’re going for, but there’s something in between sides…
AUSTIN: Yeah, that shape, or a machete size something like that. Not a full sword, but it is the same grip, but it’s a little bit bigger now. But he… can’t quite bring himself to unsheathe it. And like, Samothes keeps his eyes locked with Maelgwyn’s the whole time. Your cat is like, scritching itself behind the ear on Samothes’s shoulder. [ALI laughs quietly] And the doors open and he strolls out into the throne room and takes his place. What do you do?
ALI: Um… remember how to breathe, probably?
AUSTIN: I should say, the thing with being in Samothes’s presence, to everyone else who is now here, is… Samaantine, or Samaantine, depending on how you wanna pronounce that, their presence is still the most dominant? Like, they still feel the most in-control of the space? But in front of Samothes, it feels like everyone would just do whatever it is he wanted. Like, if Samaantine raised their shield to protect you, nothing would ever hurt you. But they would wait for the order to come first. And that’s terrifying. There’s also just this feeling of like… a different sort of protection or safety. With Samaantine it’s that, no matter what comes to hurt you, you’ll be protected physically—and emotionally and spiritually and all that. With Samothes, the feeling is that nothing would ever dare. Not in his presence. And I think the rest of the Six at that moment, feeling that see Maelgwyn and Castille in the elevator next to this line of thrones! [ALI giggles] What’re you doing?
JACK: What’s the rest of the crowd doing at this point, are we like taking seats, or lining up?
AUSTIN: No, everyone’s just kind of lined up around the red carpet, basically. Everyone’s kind of standing and waiting. A procession approaches, a procession of the—I think the mages are second actually—so first that giant, big, grey ogre-looking thing, along with an elf, one of the halflings, and Hedy, they move down the middle of the carpet and approach Samol’s throne, and they put a little sapling on the throne. And they nod to the other gods and step back. And then, the group of mages walks down the line, and Maelgwyn—Castille, you can feel—Maelgwyn just grabs your hand at seeing them. And like, squeezes tightly. Like, again, completely involuntarily.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: And they bring a bottle and a book and place it on Samot’s throne. And then return to the crowd. Are you planning on just hanging out in this elevator, or you gonna sneak out?
ALI: Um, I think she like, squeezes his hand? And is trying to be really reassuring.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
ALI: And whispering, being like:
ALI AS CASTILLE: I guess we dance now. But, it’s fine. It’s… we can still do this. It’s fine.
AUSTIN AS MAELGWYN: Alright. [sighs] Alright, alright, alright.
AUSTIN: And then he like, sneakily kind of waits until the people are talking and then finds his way out into the crowd with you. After a few more moments, the elevator opens up again and Primo walks out and walks to the front of the thrones and he goes:
AUSTIN AS PRIMO: Thank you all for coming here, I apologize for the holdup—the elevator was not, it was supposed to come and get me, but it seemed to be held up for some reason. I will take a look at it, I assure you everything is going according to plan. Thank you all for coming here on this, the most holy of days. It is again our honor to be hosting this year’s festivities. We will have, uh, afternoon lunch, a couple of hours of socializing, you’ll have some activities if you would like to do those, we will gladly give you a tour of the facilities—show you were the greatest things, the greatest inventions that my lord, Ingenuity Alive… uh, the God-King himself, the Lord of the Eternal Order of Princes, Samothes, is working on, would like to show you, is just an exposition of all the things that we’ve been doing. And then we’ll settle in the dining room for dinner and dancing. And then we will finish with, of course, the ritual prayer, and that will be the festivities. You will be able to take the train back to the mainland and to your, uh… habitats and villages and whatnot. Thank you again for joining me, and, uh… all glory to he and them. Eh?
[ALI, JACK chuckle in the background]
AUSTIN: He’s really good. I like this character a lot. [ALI, DRE laugh]
JACK: Primo arrived so late!
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. And… everyone just kind of like, holds still for a bit, and Primo walks down the carpet and then like, turns past—he like, walks down the red carpet, makes a right, and then goes through a little door that’s past the stairwell back up to the train station and disappears down a long hallway.
[TIMESTAMP 0:10:02]
AUSTIN (CONT): And then there’s music. And it’s coming from nowhere. It’s like not—there’s no band here. There’s a sort of like, metallic sound to it. And like, it spins up almost. And it’s coming from little boxes in the corners and throughout the room, and the gods are like, talking amongst themselves. And everyone else slowly begins to talk and chatter, and then like, bit by bit some people go upstairs and go into their guest rooms, which are then spirited away somewhere deeper into the mountain, and there are drink bars in the corners of these rooms, and some people start to have a drink—and it’s just like, socialization hour time! As people like, get settled in guest rooms and whatnot. What’s everyone doing?
JACK: Can I try and follow Primo?
AUSTIN: Sure. Which one. Both of you?
JACK: I think both. I think Ethan grabs Edmund sort of by the collar—not by the collar, the cuff.
AUSTIN (amused): Yes.
JACK: They’re two very different things.
AUSTIN: They are.
JACK: One’s near where the face goes!
AUSTIN: Yes. Yeah, you’re able to walk down that hallway.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: And you find, again—a little hallway that leads into a little bedroom. It’s smaller than the guest rooms—
JACK: Oh no…
AUSTIN: Actually, no, it’s bigger than the guest rooms. It’s just, Primo’s bedroom. And it’s… again, it’s a little living room area, it’s like a studio apartment basically. And he has, instead of a mirror, everyone else has a mirror in their room, he has like a long corkboard where he has like, a bunch of different designs of things he’s working on, you know, pinned up. It’s also some of like, some old designs that are clearly things he’s proud of? ‘Cause he’s raised them really high—he’s raised them really high up on the corkboard? And you have to imagine for him to do that would require him to climb up on something or to have a device that he like, hands stuff with or something? Uh, and among them are… like, you can see, uh… what are things that we’ve—you can see the sketches of reconfiguration, you can see, um—
JACK: What do they look like?
AUSTIN: It’s like, a sketch of a building, and then it’s like, “One” and then there’s another panel that says “Two” and the building has folded upwards. [AUSTIN and JACK laugh] But that’s like the first page, and then like, below that are probably—you shouldn’t be able to pin as many pages, it’s like a book pinned to the wall. And you pick it up, it’s like a heavy book. [chuckles] And you see there’s another thing up there, and it’s a sketch of the pin that’s pinned all of these things up to the wall. Good pin!
JACK (laughing): The first image of a pin, the second pin is a pin but folded up…
AUSTIN (laughing): Yes, holding a book on the wall!
JACK: Is he in here?
AUSTIN: No. There’s another door to the south. There’s a little bed, it’s made up really nicely, it’s like—it looks warm? And in some way you don’t wanna be warm because you’re in a volcano, but it looks cozy. There’s lots of blankets. He’s an old man, you know, he wants to be warm.
JACK: It’s probably like, it’s like a tiny bed right?
AUSTIN: No. It’s a big bed. [ALI giggles fondly]
JACK: Oh, it’s like a bed for a human.
AUSTIN: It’s like a bed for a big human. Sige could sleep in this bed comfortably. [DRE laughs]
ALI: He’s like a queen size?
AUSTIN: He’s like a California king. [ALI cackles]
JACK: I bet Primo wakes up every morning every morning when his alarm goes, ready to get to work—
AUSTIN: He invented that alarm, by the way.
JACK: Oh, he absolutely invented that alarm. [DRE laughs] I bet he’s just, like in this weird nest of pillows and blankets and things.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. Mm-hm.
JACK: Aw, Primo’s the best! Anyway, what can I steal from this man?
AUSTIN: Jesus Christ. I don’t know what—somethin’ probably.
JACK: Well, I have zero Survey, but I’m gonna take oh, no, ‘cause if this goes badly… [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah, rolling dice is always good.
JACK: Um… I kinda wanna take a—I never miss the opportunity to part a fool from their money. Primo’s not a fool, but also there’s this amazing room.
AUSTIN: Yeah. What do you wanna find? What’re you looking for?
JACK: I think that, uh, Ethan is looking for something valuable and Edmund is looking for something useful.
AUSTIN: Hm. Yeah you’re gonna need to roll.
JACK: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, this is Survey right?
AUSTIN: I guess?
JACK: Could we maybe make a case that it’s Sway?
AUSTIN (amused): No. We could never ever make a—it could be Study. It could be Study or Survey.
JACK: I’ve got a zero in that.
AUSTIN: Well it’s one of the two.
SYLVIA: He can’t read well, remember?
ALI: You could be like, really stressed about having to steal from this kinda man…
AUSTIN: What’s your stress at right now, Hitchcock?
JACK: Seveeeen.
AUSTIN: Oh! So you don’t do that!
ALI (overlapping): Oh, same as me!
JACK: Um, I’ll just roll. I’ll just roll!
AUSTIN: Y’know what, everybody lose one stress.
ALI: Oh. Okay.
JACK: Okay.
DRE: Oh, okay.
JACK: Oh, ‘cause we were near one of the gods…
ALI: Even me?
AUSTIN: Everybody loses stress.
ALI (amused): Okay.
AUSTIN: This is a safe place. And like, it—listen, you might get that stress back! [ALI laughs] You just saw three gods, and then they started chattering with each other. There is not a safer place in Hieron, probably. And you’re seeing something—like, I could also make the case—I think this is a situation in which you gained one stress and lost two. [ALI and JACK laugh] Do you know what I mean?
JACK: Yeah.
ALI: Yeah, that’s fair.
JACK: Hey, am I missing something, or is this the debut of bird people?
AUSTIN: Oh, this is definitely the debut of bird people.
SYLVIA: It’s also the debut of weird big gray man, I think.
AUSTIN: Nope, that’s not true. He has a name and everything.
SYLVIA: Oh. Okay. Well…
AUSTIN: Someone should talk to him. About how his life is.
JACK: Yeah, we should definitely talk to them, we should definitely talk to one of the bird people, we should talk to both the dwarves and the sinewy dwarves.
AUSTIN: Oh, those are halflings. [SYLVIA cackles]
JACK: Oh, those are halfings. That’s how I always think of halfings.
AUSTIN: The one who walked up was Rosalind Marrow-Eater. [ALI snorts]
JACK: What.
AUSTIN: Her friends call her Rose?
JACK: Ohhhhh no.
ALI: Oh, boy.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. Different time for the halflings, let’s say!
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Less jovial, more like they eat marrow a lot. And not like fancy, good marrow. Anyway.
JACK: Is this Controlled?
AUSTIN: ....No, this is Risky. You’re sneaking around a god’s house. In the chat Jack s—
JACK: Oh my god.
DRE: [noises of dismay]
AUSTIN: First of all, Jack rolled a one. Jack also said “I swear to god if we learn that Primo paints.” It has that vibe, and I thought about doing that, but I’m sticking to my guns which is that those were dwarf bones, I said they were dwarf bones in season one. There was—for new listeners, there was a skeleton of a dwarf—
ALI: Oh, everyone knows this story. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Okay. Well some people don’t! Some people just started listening!
JACK (under everyone talking): Referred to in the court documentation as “the contentious dwarf.”
SYLVIA: I’m not familiar, can you tell me again what happened to the…?
AUSTIN: Oh, Jesus Christ. [JACK laughs]
JACK: Well. Yeah.
AUSTIN: So who fails, who rolls that one? Is that someone looking for something valuable or someone looking for something useful?
JACK: I think that’s absolutely someone looking for something valuable, right? Because… well, no, actually, ‘cause Primo did say he was all about style. Who’s most interesting to fail here? I think it’s most interesting if Ethan fails.
AUSTIN: Okay. This was Risky, right? Okay. “Things go badly; you suffer harm, a complication occurs, you end up in a desperate position, or you lose this opportunity.” Yeah, I think you just lose this opportunity. I think you’re looking through his stuff and then the door to the south opens up and Primo walks in. And he’s wearing a very nice pinstripe suit?
JACK: Oh, wow. Does Primo have other names?
AUSTIN: No.
JACK: Or is it just Primo?
AUSTIN: It’s just Primo, he’s the first.
AUSTIN AS PRIMO: What—what’re you doin’? What—this is my stuff! Listen! Y’know, I expected this from you, Edward Edmund. But Ethan Hitchcock, ah… you look like a good boy, and now I’m disappointed.
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: We thought this was the way to the, uh…
PRIMO: What, the bathroom? ‘Cause I noticed, no one’s asked me about where the bathrooms are yet.
HITCHCOCK: Yeah, where is the bathroom? And is it here—it’s not here.
PRIMO: Check this out.
HITCHCOCK: Oh, no.
PRIMO: Ready? You notice this? You don’t need to pee, do ya?
[ALI snorts, DRE laughs loudly in the background]
PRIMO: Eh?
HITCHCOCK: You know, you know, I don’t!
[SYLVIA makes incredulous noises, ALI and DRE laugh more]
HITCHCOCK: How did you do that?
PRIMO: That’s a trade secret, isn’t it?
ALI: I’m cutting this out. [DRE laughs]
HITCHCOCK: Primo, that’s really unsettling.
PRIMO: Genius often is. It’s true.
HITCHCOCK: Um, okay… okay.
PRIMO: But I would appreciate it if you uh, you know, got the fuck out of my bedroom!
[ALI giggles]
HITCHCOCK: Okay. Point taken. Um, what’s through there?
PRIMO (increasingly frustrated): Wh—it’s my—Leave, is what’s through there!
HITCHCOCK: Is that your bathroom?
PRIMO: No! No one needs to use the bathroom while they’re in the Lord’s manor! I figured that out!
JACK (amused): It’s like the famous saying!
HITCHCOCK: Um… okay, uh… look. Primo, can I talk to you a second?
PRIMO (exasperated): Oh, jeez—
HITCHCOCK: Ethan—Ethan, go back to the party.
JACK: And I guess he does. ‘Cause. Twins look out for each other, I suppose! [laughs]
AUSTIN: I think he probably nods at you and winks and is like “It’s all part of the plan!” And Ethan walks away.
PRIMO: What’re you trying to rob me for?
HITCHCOCK: It’s old habits, I—and he’s such a bad influence on me. He always has been. He was the one who got me into your army in the first place. Y’know? I hate horses!
[TIMESTAMP 0:20:03]
PRIMO: I dunno what that has to do with anything. But I hate them too, they’re big and they make noises. [grumbles]
HITCHCOCK: Yeah. I don’t think I can do it, Primo.
PRIMO: I mean what—
HITCHCOCK: You know? [sighs] He said to me that as time goes on, he wonders whether or not Samot and Maelgwyn are right. He said that to me. He said that he wonders that. But if he isn’t sure, if a god isn’t sure—
PRIMO: Ah. Y’know, he’s not the god of sure-ness. That’s someone else. It’s been a rough couple of—ever since Samol got sick, y’know?
HITCHCOCK: How long ago was that?
PRIMO: Oh—a lotta you, back to back to back. But for them… it’s still pretty recent. I don’t think that they’ve come to terms with the fact that they’re losin’ their father. You know.
HITCHCOCK: Is killing one of them gonna help? Help that?
PRIMO: Listen, kid, I’m not here to tell you what’s right or wrong. I’m basically just a witness. Alright?
HITCHCOCK: What’s gonna happen to you?
PRIMO: I mean I’m gonna die. Eventually. Like everything else.
HITCHCOCK: But not tonight.
PRIMO: [laughs] Probably not tonight. But who knows? That’s the thing. The thing is, eventually all of this is gonna go away. I’m just tryin’ to have a decent time until then. Eh?
HITCHCOCK (quietly): Okay. Thanks, Primo.
PRIMO: Now get the fuck outta my bedroom!
[ALI and DRE laugh]
HITCHCOCK: Okay. Yeah, I’m. Okay.
JACK: Right, I’m gonna go back out, and I’m gonna give Ethan a thumbs-up.
AUSTIN: [laughs] All according to plan! There’s people in the chat, who I will not name, but who are really having a field day with this whole pee thing!
SYLVIA: You say that and people are gonna think it’s me! [AUSTIN laughs]
ALI (sarcastic): Why would they think that? Why would they think that, Sylvia[1]?
SYLVIA: Well, I mean, track records, y’know…
[AUSTIN and DRE laughing in the background]
AUSTIN: Speaking of you, Aubrey.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: There’s something pulling at you towards the elevator.
SYLVIA: I think she like, follows the urge and goes to the elevator.
AUSTIN: Sige, you see Aubrey going to the elevator. Everybody does. Actually, maybe you don’t, it’s so packed in here. No one sees Aubrey going to the elevator, I’m completely wrong. Aubrey’s so tiny. And everyone else is so… there are naked bird people, it’s hard to—you know? You make it to the elevator, and you press the button—it’s a really cool button, by the way.
SYLVIA: Oh, yeah, she’s in complete awe of all of this.
AUSTIN: It feels so good to press. Here’s what you can tell, as someone who makes stuff. She can tell that like, the function was designed, but even more attention was paid to the feeling of pushing the button, and like, depressing it. Like, it just feels really good.
SYLVIA: She is just like, trying to take notes about this—she wishes she could take notes, but she doesn’t have anything to take notes with.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. The elevator closes as you’re like, looking at all of the buttons—or there aren’t buttons inside, but as you’re looking at all the mechanisms the elevator closes and vibrates and moves, and then it spits you out into the Samot room. And it’s weird, actually on this throne you can see the same bottle and book that were placed on the one up top by the mages. And then, again, you see there’s the crown and the mask on the bed, and there are so many bookshelves in here, they’re just filled with books. It’s like a little mini-library, but packed to the brim. And of all of the bars, this is the best one in the entire place. But there’s something about that mask.
SYLVIA: I think she’s drawn to the mask and the crown, and she kind of like, looks at them both, and she wants to put the mask on, but she doesn’t know if it’ll fit.
AUSTIN: That’s fair.
SYLVIA: So she puts the crown on instead.
AUSTIN: Okay. When you do… you hear kind of like, a strange noise? Like a strange—not rumbling, but a commotion? And then it takes a second, and then it kind of comes into focus. And it’s Samot’s voice. And it says:
AUSTIN AS SAMOT: Is everything going okay?
SYLVIA AS AUBREY: Oh, this is weird. [laughs] Okay. Are you—
SYLVIA: She like looks around.
AUBREY: Okay, okay, um…
SAMOT: Wait—
AUBREY: Hello!
AUSTIN: Castille, Maelgwyn has lead you back up to the station, and he’s like, ducked out of this throne room area, and he’s gone back to his guest room. And he’s like, trying to prep himself, and looking in the mirror. [ALI chuckles] And like:
AUSTIN AS MAELGWYN: [exhales] I need a drink.
ALI AS CASTILLE: Yeah… yeah, I— [sighs] Listen, Maelgwyn, I’ll help you any way that you need, but when it comes to it you have to be the one to do this.
MAELGWYN: I know. I know. I know. [sighs] Samot says that if I just—he agrees with you that the knife is the way to go. He says that it has like a, some sort of blessing or something that’ll make sure everything works. And it has to be me who does it, because otherwise I won’t feel the regret when it’s all done. You know?
CASTILLE: Right, that’s, that’s the whole point.
MAELGWYN: So I’m just going through it in my head, you know, I’m just trying to lay it all out there.
CASTILLE: Right. [exhales] Here, I’ll… let me make you a drink.
ALI: She walks over to like, the refrigerator in his room, I guess? [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah. There’s—everyone—yep! Totally!
ALI: And like, grabs some ice? I guess?
AUSTIN: There’s ice, there’s totally ice.
ALI: Which is super weird for her.
AUSTIN: There’s like, cubes of ice. It’s cold, Castille. Like it hurts a little?
ALI: [sighs] Man.
AUSTIN: It’s a lot. There’s a lot happening right now.
ALI: Yeah. There’s a lot happening. But, um, she still prepares two drinks. [laughs]
AUSTIN: But also like, she holds the ice close enough, and eventually, again, it… it’s just stone under there still.
ALI: [sighs] Man. What a weird day she’s having.
AUSTIN: She’s having a weird day! What sort of drink is it?
ALI: Hm! Man. Oh, man. Okay, so, probably something really strong?
AUSTIN: Okay. That’s fair.
ALI: Like the most expensive—no, there’s like, labels on the bottles, they’re not like—
AUSTIN: Yeah. Totally.
ALI: She definitely finds whatever has the highest alcohol content. [laughs]
AUSTIN (amused): Good! Like, doin’ moonshine. [ALI laughs] Shots of moonshine with Maelgwyn! Moonshine with Maelgwyn! Great!
ALI: Maybe something fancier. Like a really strong whiskey?
AUSTIN: Sure.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, neat, or…
ALI: With ice. Because you might as well.
AUSTIN: Right. You mentioned ice, of course. He raises it to you and drinks it without a toast. He can’t find a toast.
MAELGWYN: I’m feeling—[laughs] Very mortal today.
AUSTIN: He laughs.
CASTILLE: Yeah. Yeah, me too.
MAELGWYN: Weird.
CASTILLE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And he puts the glass down and reaches out for your face. Aubrey. Something is wrong. Samot doesn’t sound right.
SAMOT: Who is—who is this?
AUBREY: It’s Aubrey. You should—we’ve talked a few times now.
SAMOT: Of… course. Aubrey. Where is Maelgwyn?
AUBREY: I lost sight of him in the commotion. In the business of the party. Commotion—it’s not done yet.
SAMOT: So… you’re h—you’re at the party, I mean.
AUBREY: Yes…?
AUSTIN: That person definitely almost just said “You’re here, then.”
AUBREY: Are you here?
SAMOT(?): In spirit.
SYLVIA: Uh… what roll would it be to tell if someone’s bullshitting?
AUSTIN: That’s a good question. That would be, probably Study. Uh, yeah. “Study a person with close scrutiny to gather information.”
SYLVIA: Yeah, I definitely want to see what is up with this.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. Controlled Standard.
SYLVIA: Well, I rolled a three.
AUSTIN: You hear the elevator moving and you lose connection. It’s like the other side has shut off its communication with you. And then the elevator dings, and there’s one of those people in the mage robes. He has a—
SYLVIA: Can I try and hide before the elevator gets there?
AUSTIN: Totally. So instead of that happening, what happens is give me a Prowl. Where are you hiding?
SYLVIA: I think she’s gonna try and hide under the—there’s a bed in here, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: I’m gonna hide under the bed, Risky Standard?
AUSTIN: Yeah, Risky definitely this time. That’s definitely part of this, you’ve moved into a risky position.
SYLVIA: [makes a raspberry in reaction to her roll] I do not hide anywhere. I got a one.
AUSTIN: Cobbins have tails, right?
SYLVIA: Oh, definitely.
AUSTIN: Your little tail is just stickin’ right out from under the bed!
SYLVIA: Uh-oh.
AUSTIN: As two mages step out of the elevator door. Both of which have on robes featuring the sort of like, symbol which is again, three straight vertical lines, I think the middle one is the tallest, if I remember correctly. And there are… one of them is kind of a thinner human with silver-gray hair that’s pulled back in a ponytail, who has kind of gaunt features, and the other one is an elf who is… he’s like not like the snow elves from nearby, he’s from a different subculture of elves to the north, and has pretty tan skin, very full features, full lips, big cheeks, and is like, very kind of a rosy complexion? But very dark eyes. And close-cut hair. And his robes are a dark black whereas the other one’s robes are kind of a shimmery blue.
[TIMESTAMP 0:30:35]
AUSTIN AS ONE OF THE MAGES: Where is she.
AUSTIN: Says one. And the bookcases start being pushed over, there’s a closet, the door is ripped off of a closet. The mirror is broken. And then finally, they look where most normal people would’ve looked immediately. And the bed is lifted from the ground. And there you are. Face to face with Fester Finlay and Bewilder San-Beckett. Two of the mages. The self-declared Disciples of Samot.
ONE OF THE MAGES: What do we have here?
AUSTIN: What’re you doing as they’re pulling you out?
SYLVIA: Oh, well, it’s time for me to make use of my venomous skill.
AUSTIN: Oh, boy, what’s that do?
SYLVIA: It lets me secrete poison or a drug from my skin. [DRE giggles, AUSTIN groans] Or exhale it as a vapor. And I can exhale choke dust as a vapor.
AUSTIN: Wait, what dust?
SYLVIA: Choke dust?
AUSTIN: Oh, choke dust, right. I thought you said chip dust, and I was like, is that—did you eat a bunch of... chips?
SYLVIA: I love Doritos, man! [AUSTIN and DRE laugh]
AUSTIN (laughing): Aubrey loves—her top two character traits—
SYLVIA: Once she started getting into the dream essence she started eating Doritos way too much. [ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: Oh, boy. God. Doritos and Dew, hit it.
ALI (whispering): God.
AUSTIN: Alright, so how does this work?
SYLVIA: So, I always thought, as her being able to sort of… we described it, I believe you described it as Tajiri-ing somebody, so she spits it out—
AUSTIN: So that’s what she’s doing here, she’s spitting it, not secreting it?
SYLVIA: I think… [stammers] The way I’ve described it, and the way I’ve thought about it being part of her physiology, she has to?
AUSTIN: Okay, totally. That sounds like a Skirmish to me.
SYLVIA: And I have to take one stress for that, just to use the skill. It takes one stress.
AUSTIN: Oh, is that how it works? Just take one stress? Okay. I gotcha.
SYLVIA: And I’m trying to… I guess, spray it in the face of the one that isn’t holding me?
AUSTIN: Okay, so I’ll give you their names, the one that’s holding you right now is Fester Finlay. And then the other one is Bewilder San-Beckett.
SYLVIA: Okay, well… get ready to live up to your name, buddy. [ALI snorts, DRE giggles] Um, Risky Standard, or is this Desperate?
AUSTIN: This is Desperate. They have you by the tail. Do you have anything that would give it more than Standard? Also, I’ll reveal their clock, one second.
SYLVIA: I don’t think so, honestly. I don’t have any… skills that would point to that, and I don’t have any items that could really help.
AUSTIN: Do you have… yeah. You could push yourself for a higher… thing.
SYLVIA: Yeah, that’s two stress, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah, to push yourself, so maybe it’s not worth it here. It’s up to you.
SYLVIA: You know what, might as well.
AUSTIN: Mmm.
SYLVIA: You know what, not this early. I’ve done this before, and it didn’t go well! I’m gonna go with the one and hope this works. I got a three.
AUSTIN: Christ! [groans] Oh, boy.
JACK: So we’re keeping up the streak, huh?
AUSTIN: Yeah, we’re keepin’ up the fails! All of the fails. And this is bad because this was Desperate.
SYLVIA: Yep.
AUSTIN: Yes, take XP. Go ahead and do that, for sure.
SYLVIA: Ooh, I’m one away!
AUSTIN: Hey, listen. Every little bit, right?
SYLVIA: Yeah! [JACK chuckles]
AUSTIN: Alright, I was gonna mark a success on this mages clock, but instead I will not do that because you rolled a three. “When you fail a Desperate roll it is the worst outcome. You suffer severe harm, a serious complication occurs, you lose this opportunity for action.” Um… as you… how’s the dust work again?
SYLVIA: The dust, it’s an incapacitating dust, it’s not like, lethal or anything. It just basically causes them to choke and cough for a little while to disorient and disable them.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. So as you breathe it at the other one, the one that’s not dragging you away, the one that is dragging you away, like—in fact, I think the one who you spit it at lifts a hand and a wave of blue-ish energy protects him and the dust hovers in the air, and then the, um, the other one, the one that is dragging you, literally sucks in that dust. And then squeezes your tail and you can feel it passing through his system back into you.
SYLVIA: Oof.
AUSTIN: And like, from the outside that looks like a strange glow moving through—like from his face through you.
SYLVIA: So does the glow do something?
AUSTIN: The glow is—you’re gonna take damage.
SYLVIA: Okay. I’m just making sure it’s not just the choke dust reflecting back on me because another part of this is I’m immune to it.
AUSTIN: Oh, you’re immune to it? That’s good. Then yeah, you… Then the damage that you take is going to be more psychological, I think? ‘Cause it’s not—you’re right, you’re not gonna get knocked out from it, which is useful.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: But I do think this is a, we need an adjective here for like… feeling out of, feeling like you’re out of control or that you’ve lost control, maybe. Like, this could just be “terrified.”
SYLVIA: Or “helpless.”
AUSTIN: “Helpless” is really good. “Helpless” is really good.
SYLVIA: Would this be two or three?
AUSTIN: Um, I’ll say it’s, it should be severe harm, but the fact that they didn’t physically hurt you…
SYLVIA: Okay, so—
AUSTIN: I think it’s a level two severe harm. Or a level two “helpless.”
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: Which gives you -1d.
SYLVIA: Yeah, that’s fine!
AUSTIN: What do you—So at this point they just have you by the tail… God, where do they—I think that they just walk back into the elevator with you.
SYLVIA: Yeah, I don’t think there’s much I can do to scramble out of it right now.
AUSTIN: No. And when you do, when you enter the elevator, the one who is wearing all blue everything does like, says a few words under his breath and then snaps, and then you lose sight of them and yourself. And then the elevator dings, and they begin walking out into the open where all these people are, but no one seems to see any of you.
SYLVIA (quietly): Okay…
AUSTIN: Um, let’s go to Sige. What’re you up to?
DRE: Um…
AUSTIN: The elevator dings. No one leaves. Also, a thing I realized that I should point out by the way, is that a lot of you have been in the presence of Castille at this point, but I’m not sure any of you recognize her! [ALI laughs]
SYLVIA: Yeah, I think we—
DRE: Oh, right, she has flesh, right?
AUSTIN: She’s an elf person, now, yeah?
ALI: Yeah. And like, a different outfit? [DRE laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah!
DRE: Um… I don’t—I think I’m gonna go look at this elevator that just opened up that’s totally empty. Also, ‘cause I see people coming in and out of that elevator…
AUSTIN: Totally. You definitely saw Maelgwyn come out of it a while ago, and like, no big deal, with some elf woman who you don’t recognize, again. Give me a—you know what, this feels like a good old-fashioned fate die. Whether or not you like, notice—I guess it’s either that or it’s a perception check of some sort? Like it’s a Survey or a Study? But I kinda want the fate die to see if you notice it quickly enough.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: So just give me 1d6. And we can see if you get there before… alright, no, so I think you probably get there—
DRE: I rolled a three.
AUSTIN (overlapping): You rolled a three. [laughs] Lots of threes. Nothing bad happens here, right, this was just a fate die, quick check to see how timing worked out. But by the time you passed through all of the people who are eating and talking—again, as a reminder, there are like a couple hundred people here, and they’re from, like, cultures and races that you are completely unfamiliar with. There are naked bird-people. There are dwarves who have sorta like, rocks as hair. There are elves from elven cultures you don’t know. Little half people—in size, not in value. [laughs] They are full people in value. There’s all sorts of people here that you just don’t—and you kind of like, they’re all eating, and you know, gossiping and bickering and you’re kind of trying to pass through but you’re very big! And it’s very crowded! And by the time you get to the elevator it just closes in front of you. And you can’t seem to open it.
DRE (disappointed): Aww.
AUSTIN: Not like—it doesn’t respond to you, I guess is what I’m saying. Also, to be clear, I don’t know that you’ve seen another elevator before.
DRE: Right. Yeah. I think part of it is just also “What is this thing that keeps opening?”
AUSTIN: Oh, that’s not true. That’s not true. You’ve been on an elevator—Memoriam College had an elevator.
DRE: Ohh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: But like a weird magic elevator—
DRE (overlapping): Yeah, that was like, a floating platform more than an elevator...
AUSTIN: Not that this one isn’t magic, but… mm-hm.
DRE: Which—you mentioned a couple of the gods that like, had physical form in this room. Can you run down who’s here again?
AUSTIN: Yes. Totally. Samaantine is here, and they are the one that is like—Samaantine [pronounced as Sam-an-TEEN] is like, or Samaantine [SAM-an-tyne], I need to decide pronunciations on some of these, I think Samaantine [Sam-an-TEEN] sounds better—they have like, almost cubic rock and mineral facial structure? They look like galena, which is a type of mineral. And then these like, sunset opal eyes. And they have like, armor that seems to almost be built into or out of their body. Almost like, chiseled into their body.
[TIMESTAMP 0:40:15]
AUSTIN (CONT): Severea is here, who’s a bald woman with like, fin-like ears and a blue dress and as she moves, it’s as if she’s underwater. Like, all of her clothing and her whole form just like, it’s as if she’s swimming deep under the sea as she moves. Um, and… Samol is not here, Samot is not here, Samothes is here sitting in his throne, attending to guests who are coming up to like, give him well-wishes. I suspect he—there’s nowhere in this room that it doesn’t feel like you’re being watched by Samothes.
DRE: Well, yeah.
AUSTIN: But that’s just the way he is.
DRE: Mm-hm. Um, okay, if this elevator doesn’t work, I guess Sige will loop back to the Hitchcocks to kinda figure out what to do next. ‘Cause we’ve already been split up enough.
JACK: Mmm. Okay. So do you just come over through the crowd? Just this gigantic man walks towards a pair of twins on the other side of the room? [laughs]
DRE (laughing): He’s not a subtle guy, Jack. Yes.
JACK: Okay! Okay. Um, well.
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: Where’s Aubrey?
DRE AS SIGE: I was hoping you knew that. You don’t know where she is?
HITCHCOCK: No, uh, we didn’t see her.
SIGE: Okay… Where’s Castille?
HITCHCOCK: Uh… that’s, the same answer there as well. She’s also… also…
SIGE: We’re doin’ about as good as always, huh?
AUSTIN: Is this Edmund or Ethan?
JACK: I think they’re interchangeable, they’re finishing each other’s sentences. [DRE laughs]
AUSTIN: Okay. Good. So they’re just openly together. Good. Um, really quick, I don’t mean to… Aubrey, you have a chance to resist this, though. Do you wanna resist that “helpless”
SYLVIA: Sure.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: What would I roll to resist this with?
AUSTIN: I would say that this is Resolve. ‘Cause this isn’t about physical resistance, this is about mental resistance?
SYLVIA: Oh, Austin, you picked the one I didn’t want! [laughs]
AUSTIN: I—y’know! [stammers]
SYLVIA: That’s fine, that’s fine, I’ll do Resolve.
AUSTIN: I think that you could make a case for Insight, but… or Prowess—you could make a case for any of them, it’s just a matter of what you think you’re resisting here, right?
SYLVIA: So what I was thinking of doing is somehow… finding a way to get the attention of them despite the obvious like, invisibility spell that’s been cast?
AUSTIN: Mmm. That would make you—well, the thing is that you got helpless while you were still in the other room.
SYLVIA: Okay. Then I guess I will just have to do Resolve here.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVIA: What’s the downside of resisting again?
AUSTIN: It costs stress. When you resist you—like, resist means you don’t get the thing, but instead you roll your… thing?
SYLVIA: And you want lower to get…
AUSTIN: You want a high roll, because it’s 6 minus whatever…
SYLVIA: Okay, I accidentally clicked ‘cause I thought it was gonna give me a to type it out, but okay.
AUSTIN: Uh-uh. You got, that’s—you got five stress. That’s a lot of stress.
SYLVIA: I fuckin’ maxed out again!
JACK: Oh no!
AUSTIN: Oh boy. Well, Aubrey, let’s look at what happens when you max out your stress again! Aubrey hits nine stress! Oh boy.
SYLVIA: I fucked up. I didn’t mean to—
AUSTIN: Well you were gonna hit that button anyway! That is what you were gonna do!
SYLVIA: I usually click on the thing, but it’s fine, I’m not gonna cheese this.
AUSTIN: Alright.
SYLVIA: So. I’m temporarily disabled, right?
AUSTIN: Let’s go over exactly what happens, and what your options are here. “When the PC marks their final stress box, they suffer a level of Trauma. When you take Trauma circle one of your Trauma conditions like cold, reckless, unstable, etcetera. They are all described on this page.” Right now you have haunted. Which I think is probably why you got pulled down there to begin with, right? Like, that was your haunting—that was like, the voice of Samot, the feeling of Samot dragging you down there.
AUSITN (CONT): “When you suffer Trauma you’re taken out of action. You’re left for dead or otherwise dropped out of the current conflict, only to come back later, shaken and drained. When you return you have zero stress, and your Vice has been satisfied for the next downtime. Trauma conditions are permanent. When you mark your fifth Trauma condition your character cannot continue as a daring scoundrel.” You only have one right now, which is haunted, so. Which of the other ones do you want?
SYLVIA: I was thinking reckless.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Is that like, she’s—at this point it’s all or nothing?
SYLVIA: Basically, yeah.
AUSTIN: That’s awesome. Alright, so, you’re taken out of action. They get away with you.
SYLVIA: That’s fine.
AUSTIN: But hey, you’re not “helpless” at least. [ALI chuckles] You’re just “singed” still.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
ALI (sighing): God…
DRE (whispering): Oh, boy.
AUSTIN: And I think on the… Maelgwyn and Castille hear a nearby door slam, and then something like, gets slammed against the wall? And then they hear the next room get carried away deeper into the mountain. And that is the last anyone hears of Aubrey for a little while. Hitchcock and Sige, were you gonna do something?
JACK AS EDMUND HITCHCOCK: I’m sure Aubrey’s doing fine. [DRE laughs] She’s capable. Um… she’s capable-ish. [SYLVIA laughs] Everybody’s… they’re saying hello to him. Do you think we ought to, y’know? Pay our respects?
DRE AS SIGE (doubtfully): Sssssssssure… I mean it’s kinda risky, y’know, with—with the plan, although I guess if he… since he knows… yeah, sure.
AUSTIN AS ETHAN HITCHCOCK: What plan?
AUSTIN: Ethan asks.
ETHAN H.C. (knowingly): Oh, do you mean the—the robbing him? Eh?
EDMUND H.C.: Yeah, yeah, yeah—we’re, yeah. It’s—but, I mean, he, he probably also knows about that as well. But what can we do, you know? He’s a, he’s a god.
DRE (laughing): Sige gets really big eyes.
EDMUND H.C.: Uh—Sige, let’s, uh—I tell you what. Um, Ethan, you—would you get me another drink?
AUSTIN: I think he gives you an eye, and like… nods slowly? It’s like you’re setting him up for a play that he doesn’t what his role is yet.
JACK: Mmm.
AUSTIN: But he trusts you, because… you’re his twin brother! You’re—you know, you’ve done everything together before, and you have to take those risks sometimes.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And so he leaves to go get—
ETHAN H.C.: What would you like?
EDMUND H.C.: Uh, is there—is there champagne?
ETHAN H.C.: Yes, the best! I’ve had three cups already.
EDMUND H.C.: Okay, give me two cups of champagne.
AUSTIN: Glasses, three glasses. Three flutes. Flutes.
EDMUND H.C.: Okay, give me three glasses of champagne.
AUSTIN (overlapping): He would not say “cups.” [ALI and DRE giggle] We have to catch up, I understand. And he leaves to go get you some champagne. It’s probably a mimosa actually, it’s brunch.
JACK: Oh, yeah, it’s god brunch!
AUSTIN: It’s god brunch. [DRE laughs] Alright. Edmund and Sige are alone.
JACK: Let’s go see Samothes.
EDMUND H.C.: Sige…
SIGE: He doesn’t know?!
EDMUND H.C.: Sige, we’ve been through this.
ALI (overlapping): Sige… Sige knows that…
EDMUND H.C.: Yeah, Sige? Sige. Look, I know it’s been a long day for you. But he, he doesn’t know, and he can’t know. And we’ve got to… I, look. When he was in that room, I let him out of the room. I let him come back and join us, and I think that was a mistake? But also, ah… y’know, we can’t get him to go back in the room, can’t we?
SIGE: Isn’t… Isn’t your all’s whole thing that you know whenever people are lying? Does that not work on each other?
EDMUND H.C.: Of course it doesn’t. Why would it work on each o—no!
SIGE: Okay! You have to tell him!
EDMUND H.C. (overlapping): He was the first one that lied to me!
SIGE: We have to tell him!
EDMUND H.C.: [laughs incredulously] No, we’re not telling him! You know what he’d do!
SIGE (incredulous): We’re gonna kill a god on his birthday and you’re not gonna tell your brother about it?! [AUSTIN laughs]
EDMUND H.C.: I thought the whole plan, Sige, was that that wasn’t going to happen.
AUSTIN: Yeah, Sige, was that a lie?
DRE: [sighs]
AUSTIN: Like is Sige playing along? What’s the—is it murky in Sige’s own mind?
JACK (overlapping): Yeah, ‘cause Sige knows…
DRE: Sige doesn’t know what he’s going to do.
AUSTIN: Okay.
EDMUND H.C.: Sige, what’re you going to do? [EVERYONE laughs]
AUSTIN: Good question.
SIGE: Listen, I’ve got… I’ve got you all on one hand, and I have, like, the earth telling me another thing… [sighs]
EDMUND H.C.: Great, well, that cleared everything up, I’m gonna go ahead and say hello to Samothes now, you can come along if you want, um… you’re more than welcome to.
SIGE: Okay, yeah. Let’s do that.
AUSTIN: There’s a line, but it feels short. Like it’s not a short line, you wait for twenty or thirty minutes to approach. But there’s a pleasant quality to the wait. It’s… I’m trying to think of a good analogy, because waiting in real life is so rarely pleasant. But this is. This is like you’re passing time on a day when you have nothing else to do. Sitting in the sun. And I say that because his presence is warm. And as you approach him, it feels like a nice late spring day where you could feel the summer just around the corner, but it’s not yet too hot to just feel comfortable.
[TIMESTAMP 0:50:01]
AUSTIN (CONT): And though you may have seen images of him, or been in the presence of, you know, representations of him. Even supernatural or spiritual representations of him. And though you have encountered his avatars, and his relatives, and his priests, and his soldiers, nothing could prepare you for being feet away from him. Nothing does him justice. And to be fair, that’s also true for Samaantine and for Severea. Or Samonta. Also. Each of them has this dominating presence that is not like… it’s like, do you know when people talk about going to the ocean for the first time?
JACK: Mm.
AUSTIN: That they spend their entire lives in like, the landlocked plains, and then they see an ocean, and they’re like “Oh.” It’s like that. Or the way astronauts talk in the sort of like… it’s almost corny when they talk about how beautiful the earth is from above. Or what space looks like. Because it seems so put-on? But you know they’re not lying, or playing anything up, it’s just so diff—that experience is just nothing you’ve ever had before. That’s what it’s like to be in the presence of these people, of these gods. And making eye contact with him is the most… it’s the most vulnerable any of you have ever felt. He’s wearing a humble robe, also. It’s kind of a maroon, and I imagine he has sandals on? Kind of like, leather like, thong sandals. And seems very relaxed, given everything.
JACK: What’re the people in front of us in the line, what do people tend to do when they get to the front of the line?
AUSTIN: They kneel, and then they present him something. And then they have a few words that you can’t quite make out. And some of them aren’t devotees. Like it’s clear that—everyone has reverence for these three, but there are people who are treating it less like a religious event, and more like a political one.
JACK: Hm.
JACK AS EDMUND HITCHCOCK: We should’ve brought a gift.
SIGE: Yeah… do we—can we get out of line? Is it too late for that?
EDMUND H.C.: Uh… I think that would—it would—we can’t—he’s right there. And he’ll see us leave. And it would be rude… not to, you know. Um.
SIGE: Do you have anything? Like, in your pocket?
EDMUND H.C.: Um… let me just check my inventory! [DRE laughs]
AUSTIN (laughing): Oh, boy! Lord. [ALI sighs]
JACK: Oh, my Notes app has been updated. Wait a second. [ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: Says Hitchcock!
DRE: “Lord Samothes, I brought you these tinkering tools! For your birthday!”
SYLVIA: “Here Samothes, have my iPhone.” [AUSTIN and DRE laugh]
JACK: Um, I mean… is it at this point that Ethan Hitchcock shows up carrying three flutes of—
AUSTIN: Three. Of mimosas? Yeah. I think he comes with four.
JACK: And so… Sige, do you want one?
DRE: Sure.
JACK: And I’ll take one, and I guess this is Ethan’s what, fourth now?
AUSTIN: Fourth, yeah.
JACK: And, yeah—
DRE (amused): One for Samothes?
JACK: And we’re gonna kneel and offer Samothes a—something from his own brunch table.
DRE: He’s probably pretty parched, he’s been talking for a while. [AUSTIN laughs]
JACK: I don’t think Hitchcock is under any apprehension that this is a good gift? And I think that Ethan absolutely thinks that this is the play that he was sent off to make. [DRE laughs]
AUSTIN: Right. A hundred percent. He even gives you a little wink at that moment.
JACK: Like “Yeah, I got it!”
AUSTIN: “I got it! Don’t worry about it!” Who—who gives it to him?
JACK: I guess—I guess? Let’s say Ethan gives it to him.
AUSTIN: He’s up a throne like, a body’s—like a height, a human height above him on a pedestal, like a platform. All the other gifts are like, at his feet. Does Ethan just place it there, or does he hold it out, like waiting for…
JACK: I think that it’s… I think he kneels and he sort of holds it up as though—I don’t think he really knows. So I think he holds it up and then he puts it down.
AUSTIN: Samothes kneels and takes it and like, raises it to you all.
JACK: I guess we should probably toast with him, right?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN AS SAMOTHES: What do men like you toast to?
AUSTIN: He asks, on one knee.
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: Satisfaction.
AUSTIN: He nods slowly. Sips from it. Downs it. [chuckles] Places it back on the ground and then like, demands your attention with his eyes.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: And then he sits back down and when you look back it’s been replaced with a candlestick.
JACK (vaguely amused): Hm.
SAMOTHES: [exhales] Thank you for coming. I hope you have a memorable time today.
HITCHCOCK (a little weakly): Thank you.
JACK: I think that… this is our commander as well, right? Like—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah.
JACK: —at the highest level? As military men?
AUSTIN: Yep. Mm-hm.
JACK: And I don’t think we’ve ever—we probably saw him—does Samothes ever address the troops?
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah. Definitely. You’ve definitely had, like—
JACK (overlapping): Like, seen him at a really far distance, or…
AUSTIN: Well, like, at shouting like his voice was thunder, right? You’ve seen him in armor, you’ve seen him with cape and sword and rallying the troops. You know, you went to war as a lie but like, there was this day that he told you you were fighting to save the sun and skies themselves. And you believed it. Because people believe him. Because he is god.
JACK: Yeah. Yeah. So I think that both the brothers find themselves saluting, and then probably as they turn and walk away they make eye contact with each other like “You saluted to him, didn’t you?” They don’t quite know why they found themselves doing it. But I think faced with their commander, it’s probably what happens if your commander is also a god?
AUSTIN: Mm. Sige, before you walk away, he—what’s Sige’s full name? Colburn.
DRE (overlapping): Colburn.
AUSTIN: Sige Colburn. I think he says:
SAMOTHES: Colburn. It’s a strong name. You’re the only one here armed. That’s interesting. Who do you serve?
DRE AS SIGE: That’s a… that’s a good question that I’m trying to figure out for myself right now.
AUSTIN: He nods.
SAMOTHES: We’ll both be blessed if you figure it out soon.
AUSTIN: And then some other group walks past you. Probably a group of the halflings, who are wearing kind of like, animal skins. They walk up with a collection of flowers and herbs set in a vase and wait for you to walk away before they present their gift. [pause] Castille.
ALI: Hi.
AUSTIN: There’s been kind of a time-jump here, there’s been like twenty minutes. [ALI laughs] How’s it goin’ with Maelgwyn?
ALI: Well, probably.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: I dunno, we’re just gettin’ toasted I guess?
AUSTIN: Yeah, you know, just gettin’ drunk and spendin’ some time together, like you do!
SYLVIA (overlapping): Yeah, sounds fun!
ALI (amused): Uh-huh!
AUSTIN: [laughs loudly] Oh, it’s so bad! Oh, buddy! [ALI, SYLVIA laugh]
ALI: Yeah, I—
AUSTIN: There is like a—[laughs] So here’s a thing: On top of having his like, mask and crown situation—which he doesn’t have here, they’re both in the Samot guestroom—there’s also the cape with the clasp that he has, and I think we definitely open on a shot of the clasp glowing as if a communication is trying to come through, but like, he doesn’t see it, he’s been very distracted. [ALI giggles] But then I think we get just the two of you sitting with like, bottles and empty glasses, empty bottles and empty glasses. And then I think the door, there’s like a scratching at the door.
ALI: I guess we answer the door—I guess I look at Maelgwyn and like, expect him to answer it. [laughs]
AUSTIN: He like, gets up and goes to get his cape and like, dress himself again, get more dressed appropriately.
ALI (amused): Mm-hm?
AUSTIN: And kind of like, nods at the door as if to let you do it.
ALI: Okay. Yeah, I guess I very hesitantly approach it and like, fix my hair I guess?
AUSTIN: Right, ‘cause you have hair now.
ALI: Right. [laughs] And then open it up.
AUSTIN: And there’s no one there. And then you look down and see that your cat is there. [ALI laughs] And it just walks in past you and hops up on Maelgwyn’s bed and then like, curls up and starts snoozing.
[TIMESTAMP 1:00:00]
AUSTIN: You also notice that you opened the door and it’s just in the hallway, like you’re not deep in the mountain the way other people have been being taken into the mountain.
ALI: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: Maelgwyn’s room seems to be solidified and like, stuck here. He puts his cape back on and is like, looking, and he’s like:
AUSTIN AS MAELGWYN (frustrated): Where did I put my mask?
ALI AS CASTILLE: Oh, you left it upstairs, didn’t you?
MAELGWYN: [makes a frustrated sound] Alright, I—I’ll be right back. I need to go… get that.
CASTILLE: Will you… be okay?
MAELGWYN: ...Yeah.
CASTILLE: Okay.
AUSTIN: And he sheathes his knife, which... gets ever longer as he kills with it.
ALI (laughing in surprise): Oh! Cool!
AUSTIN: And I think he probably runs into Sige, Ethan, and Edmund on his way back across the—like, you see him coming down in his normal dress with the cape, down the stairway from the station.
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: Maelgwyn!
MAELGWYN: Hitchcock.
HITCHCOCK: Where’s Castille?
MAELGWYN: Uh, she’s, she’s, uh, back—she’s in the guestrooms? She’s in the guestrooms. She’s in the guestrooms.
HITCHCOCK: You okay, Maelgwyn?
MAELGWYN: Yeah. I just need—I left something in my—ah, I left something. I need to go—
HITCHCOCK: What have you lost? [no response] We can help you find it.
MAELGWYN (overlapping): Don’t worry about it. I know where it is, I just have to go pick it up. It’s fine.
HITCHCOCK: ...okay. Have you seen Aubrey?
AUSTIN: He like, realizes something.
MAELGWYN: Shit.
HITCHCOCK: Uh…
MAELGWYN: I can’t go pick it up. I can’t—it’s in—it’s in Samot’s room, but I can’t get there… without the mask... [laughs] and the crown.
HITCHCOCK: Maelgwyn, have you locked yourself out of Samot’s room?
MAELGWYN: [groans and laughs] What a day.
HITCHCOCK: Do you want us to get it?
MAELGWYN: You can’t—
HITCHCOCK: Why do you need it?
MAELGWYN: That’s how I can talk to him. To Samot. I—it’s okay. It’s okay.
HITCHCOCK: No, no, no, wait. No. You’ve been talking—
MAELGWYN (overlapping): I can do this.
HITCHCOCK: You’ve been talking to him?
MAELGWYN: Of course.
HITCHCOCK: He’s here?
MAELGWYN: No, it’s—he’s leading the troops at the front. He doesn’t have time for this.
HITCHCOCK: I don’t like this.
MAELGWYN: It’s fine. Today is the day.
HITCHCOCK: O-kay.
MAELGWYN (wearily): I need a drink. [ALI laughs]
HITCHCOCK: No, you don’t! No, you don’t. [DRE laughs] You need to…
AUSTIN (amused): You can smell it on him. [pause] The music here comes to a halt, and then Primo’s voice comes over the loudspeakers. Um… I need to get Primo’s voice back. Fuck. What was my one note that helped me understand Primo’s voice, it was a really important note. [ALI laughs] Oh, I got it, we’re good, we’re good.
ALI: I had it written down as “Aziz Ansari’s Italian dad” but I don’t know if that’s it. [EVERYONE laughs]
AUSTIN (in a gravelly voice): Hey, uh… I think it’s, uh… he’s around here, [ALI giggles] he’s, uh… My note is “low, gravelly, and then ‘Hey, uh… how’s it goin’?” [ALI & JACK laugh] And then also “almost Canadian Beetlejuice” I also have written down here. [SYLVIA laughs]
AUSTIN AS PRIMO (still having trouble with the voice): Would everybody please return…
JACK (amused): Oh my god, no, sorry—Primo—!
PRIMO: ...return to the guestrooms in preparation for the feat and rituals. Thank you.
JACK (holding back laughter): His voice has got a lot deeper.
PRIMO: It’s deeper now. [EVERYONE giggles] It’s down here. I’m tryin’ out a new formula. [EVERYONE is losing it] Give myself a little more presence so to speak.
SYLVIA (muffled): Oh my god.
PRIMO: As a way of… helping to organize the situation and festivities.
JACK: What did the gods do when this message comes through?
AUSTIN: They wait in their thrones. I think Severea is probably like, she’s not filing her nails, she doesn’t need to do that? But she has that sort of disinterest in everything that’s happening here. Samantine is like, so much not like you that it’s hard to read them. Like, they’re just not—they don’t have human—they don’t have a facial structure that you can read, you know? But their—it’s as if a few of their adherents stick by near their thrones and then most people start heading back up to the guestrooms. Um, as the crowd thins out you come to realize that there have been a couple of pala-din—not a couple, there have been ten to twenty pala-din throughout this room in the corners, who are just kind of blending into the background. Because they are cut from the same stone that the kind of like, pinkish-red that the walls are here. And you see that they are all standing in attention. And the ones closer to the thrones are slowly walking forward, kind of pushing people—not aggressively, just like, naturally shepherding people back to the stairs. What are you doing?
JACK: So, neither of the Hitchcocks know anything about how the elevator operates, right? They haven’t used that at all.
AUSTIN: No.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: I don’t think so.
JACK: No, I don’t think I’ve been down there at all.
AUSTIN: No. Sige just tried it, though, and it didn’t work for him.
JACK: Okay. Can I split up?
AUSTIN: Of course.
JACK: I’m gonna send Ethan back to the guestroom with the same sort of, um—”Hey, you know what we’re doing! It’s the plan! You know, the plan that we have, that we know.” That I think Ethan is also confused about but sort of goes. And I’m gonna go in the direction Maelgwyn went.
AUSTIN: I mean, Maelgwyn is still here. Maelgwyn is still with you.
JACK: Oh, oh right, sorry.
AUSTIN: He hasn’t left because—
JACK (overlapping): So is Maelgwyn just pacing and drinking now?
AUSTIN: Yes.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: Yes. I think he’s gone over to get another drink, but there’s nothing on the table.
JACK: God. Okay. I’m gonna go for the elevator. I’m—both me and Hitchcock are now worried about Maelgwyn. [ALI, AUSTIN, DRE laugh]
ALI: He’s fine!
JACK: Not that I wasn’t before, but it’s sort of developing.
AUSTIN: Yeah. There are pala-din to the kind of south—towards the elevator, blocking it off.
JACK: Yeah…
AUSTIN: And also, the other gods are still in this room.
JACK: Yeah, um… hmm… It’s, it’s hard, right, ‘cause there’s no way I can Sway my way through this situation, ‘cause… that’s a…
AUSTIN: That’s not really how the pala-din work, no.
JACK: No, you can’t—they’re sort of—they can be swayed even less than Thackeray can.
AUSTIN: There might be a way to Sway them that isn’t about swaying them?
JACK: That’s, uh, about…
AUSTIN: Um… there are a lot of—the adherents of these gods are like, a group of like, you know, ten to twenty each, right? Their closest advisors or whatever. You might be able to Sway your way into those groups? And do the sort of “Ah, no, I’m supposed to be with—” like, wave at—you know what I mean, kind of sneak your way into a social group as if you’re supposed to be on the other side of the pala-din.
JACK: Yeah. I think I’ll give that a shot. Um…
AUSTIN: Which group are you trying to get with here?
JACK: Um…
AUSTIN: So there are five—Just like there are five thrones—
JACK (overlapping): Give me the groups.
AUSTIN: —there are five groups. So, from left to right, Samantine’s group is, uh, a kind of short, stout dwarf that has—so, they range in age, and you can see not only in their faces what their ages look like, but the ones that look a little older have hair and features that are more stone-like. So like, their hair is set in, literally set in stone, and one of them, her eyes are like, um, red rubies. Nowhere near the brilliance of Samantine’s, but similar in the fact that it’s very striking that this person has gems as eyes. So I think there are like, four or five dwarves with her—or sorry, with that dwarf, it’s like that dwarf and three or four other dwarves and they’re both with Samantine. And then there’s also an orc duchess, and the duchess’s soldiers, or like, personal guard. And those—there are probably like, all said, fifteen dwarves and orcs standing around with Samantine.
AUSTIN (CONT): At Severea there are the strange, naked bird people. [laughs] Who are completely nude, and who move very… um, slowly. Like, not like Elcor from Mass Effect slow necessarily, but very precise, very, um, determined in every action that they take. And there’s also a sort of like, group of people that are constantly drinking water and who have gills and are like, dressed very finely. Like very—lots of silks, lots of like, golden collars, what’s the, like—a puffy shirt is not a thing.
JACK: Like a ruff?
SYLVIA: Like a cravat?
AUSTIN: Yeah, like ruff—yes, yes. Yes.
[TIMESTAMP 1:09:56]
AUSTIN (CONT): Then there is a group of people near Samol’s throne, but they are not with Samol, obviously. But a few of them are standing near where his throne would be, and that includes an elf, that big grey-skinned ogre guy, and Hedy, and the halfling, Rosalind. Rose Marrow. And then at Samothes’s throne, there are, um, I guess Primo is probably there. Along with the two Lance Nobles, um, Lance Noble Orchid and Lance Noble Iris are both there. And… there are, like, again a couple of pala-din who have like, slightly more ornamental-looking armor on them? Or like, cut into them? And then a priest. Brother Silas is there. [unidentifiable laughter]
JACK: Well, we should rule that group out.
AUSTIN: And then there are two mages at Samot’s throne.
JACK: Huh.
AUSTIN: And that is it from Samot.
JACK: Okay, based on the fact—
AUSTIN: Despite the rumors that he has gathered armies from all of these different races at this point. And cultures. The only ones at his chair, representing him here, are these mages.
JACK: I really—I think that… [sighs] Iris and Orchid would probably give me an edge in that conversation, ‘cause we’ve like, seen each other around before and we’re not trying to murder each other right now?
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JACK: But I’m very afraid of Silas in that group. Because I don’t that Hitchcock can do that, right? You can’t just walk directly up to the man in the operating theatre and say “Hello, I’m somebody else.” I tried that!
AUSTIN: You did try that. It didn’t go great.
JACK: No, it didn’t. Um… yeah, I’m going for them. [AUSTIN, DRE laugh]
AUSTIN: Alright. How about this? I will give you a +1d if, as part of your Sway roll, you directly, actually talk to Brother Silas. This is a Devil’s Bargain.
JACK: [laughs] Uh, yeah! Absolutely!
AUSTIN: Alright. That makes it Risky, for sure.
JACK: Sure, yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. So you get a bonus die.
JACK: Okay. (quietly) Uh… Sway… Oh! I pressed it!
AUSTIN (overlapping): Uh, it’s just you? Sige isn’t coming with you?
JACK: Well—
DRE: Um… yeah—
AUSTIN: We can retroactively do that, it just means Sige also has to roll. And then we’ll compare.
DRE: Is this the group that also includes Primo?
AUSTIN: Yes.
DRE: Then yeah, Sige would come with.
AUSTIN: Okay. So give me a roll, Sige.
DRE: What am I rolling? Sway?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: Oh, boy.
AUSTIN: If you fail it just means Hitchcock gets a stress. That’s also a success! Alright. Um, by the way, Jack, you rolled—[JACK laughs]—a one, a two, a three, and a six! [ALI laughs] So, success!
JACK: Yeahhh.
AUSTIN: Good job! Good thing you took that—so how are you doing this?
JACK: Um, so, I think that—I think what I’m doing is I am beginning the conversation by talking openly to Iris and Orchid. Almost with an attempt to—so that Silas is like “Hang on, this scoundrel is just talking to the Lance Nobles.”
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JACK: Because—I might be misremembering, but we kind of had a moment in the corridor, right? Kind of?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Totally. Absolutely. Remember that you have to include him, here.
JACK: Oh, I’m working my way up to it.
AUSTIN: Okay. So yeah, I think they make eye contact with you and you know, it’s one of those situations where you say their names and they turn to look at you and Rebecca nods, and you kind of like, squeeze yourselves past the pala-din who turn and look almost for confirmation that you’re allowed to be back there, and then seeing Iris and Orchid giving you the wave-over lets that happen.
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: Brother Silas, isn’t it?
AUSTIN AS SILAS: Hectare, right?
HITCHCOCK: We met before.
SILAS: Yeah. Yes. We did… How have you been?
HITCHCOCK: Well, I’m a changed man.
SILAS: I can see. I can see it in your eyes. It seems like you’ve gone through a… a heavy ordeal. Young man.
AUSTIN: He leans forward on a golden scepter. Almost like a very long cane, that ends in an orb.
HITCHCOCK: It’s such a shame what happened to the college.
SILAS: Oh, terrible thing. Terrible thing. So much knowledge lost! That must’ve been a real blow to you.
JACK (overlapping): Is he lying?
AUSTIN: Uh, no, he’s just being sarcastic.
JACK: Okay. [ALI laughs quietly]
HITCHCOCK: Well, you know, after the fire, and then the other fire, I was pinned to the floor by a living candlestick. Uh, I had a crisis of faith. You fought me in an operating theatre and ran away.
SILAS: Oh, no, I don’t remember anything as drastic as that!
HITCHCOCK: You hit me over the head in an operating theatre and ran away.
SILAS: Well, that doesn’t sound much like a fight.
AUSTIN: And he gives you a little smile.
HITCHCOCK: You know, it’s people like you.
SILAS: Yes?
HITCHCOCK: Uh… you know? Uh…
SILAS: That’s what I thought.
AUSTIN: And he turns from you. To speak to Samothes.
HITCHCOCK (humiliated): Ah… okay. Iris, Orchid, uh…
AUSTIN AS REBECCA: It sounds like you have history.
AUSTIN: Says Rebecca.
HITCHCOCK: Ah… it was a different time. Um.
REBECCA (skeptical): Mm. If you say so. [pause] Everything feels wrong.
HITCHCOCK: I don’t think we should be here.
REBECCA (unsettled): I’m glad we’re here? Because it feels like if we weren’t, we couldn’t… we couldn’t stop—I don’t, it’s very confusing, I don’t know. Anyway. Let’s go, it’s… it’s time to have the drinks.
HITCHCOCK: Okay.
AUSTIN: And the other—to your left, you’ve noticed—or I guess, to your right, you’ve noticed that Severea and Samantine have led their respective groups into the elevator and down away into their private chambers.
JACK: Okay, let’s go!
AUSTIN: And then Samothes does the same with you to his.
JACK: Okay, that went well, that was only traumatic and humiliating. [DRE laughs] I want you to know that I have a power that means whenever I succeed in a Sway roll I can make people forget we have this conversation.
AUSTIN: Ooh, that’s good! So who are you making forget?
JACK: Yeah but it’s—I don’t know if I want to use it! [AUSTIN, DRE laugh] I don’t think I want to use it.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s fair. I just realized, is Maelgwyn coming with you? I think so.
JACK: Oh, no… So I think Hitchcock sees Maelgwyn approaching and his heart sinks.
AUSTIN: Yeah. He just walks in with you.
JACK: Is this one of these sort of like, killing the frog by degrees thing where the knife is essentially becoming a sword and we haven’t noticed?
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah. Yes. Absolutely. One hundred percent.
JACK: Great. So he’s now just carrying this sword.
AUSTIN: Ah—God, I need to decide if he’s actually going to come in with you, actually. That might be wrong. What is his goal, here? He wants that mask, he can’t get that mask. Oh, no. I think he slips in—he doesn’t come in with you. He slips in with the mages. He like—you all make eye contact with him when you, um, when you start to leave, and he’s done the same trick you have except with the mages, who are aligned to Samot, so he’s in with them.
JACK (overlapping): So they’re going to the, yeah.
AUSTIN: So they end up going to, so yes. He does not come with you.
JACK: Iris and Orchid have got to be staring daggers at him as well, right? ‘Cause they really got it in for him in particular.
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, Orchid especially. Did I call her Iris before, because Iris sounds like a name? But it’s just—her name, she’s Orchid, he’s Iris. Need to get that in my head. Um, yeah. So I think they stare each other daggers a little bit. He’s like, really thrown off, actually. So I don’t know that he can actually stare those daggers back.
JACK: Is he carrying another champagne flute?
AUSTIN: Nnnno—he was, and one of the mages took it from him. And you can tell as you start walking away that they’re giving him a bit of a pep talk, they’re almost like—there’s the sort of cadence that they have, that is about cheering him up and warming him up. You can see that he’s having the same conversation that he had with you about losing the mask. And they’re—”Oh, we can, we’ll just go back in and get it! It’s fine!”
JACK: Yeah. God, I’m—[sighs] I’m so, um—Samot’s got other people in the building, other than the people who’ve been explicitly tasked by Samot to do things.
AUSTIN: It is the mages.
JACK: Yeah, no. The fact that Samot has got these people as well is very unsettling.
AUSTIN: Mhm. Speaking of them. Aubrey.
SYLVIA: Yes.
AUSTIN: You wake up in a familiar place. You’re in the house.
SYLVIA: Oh. Okay. Is it—what does it look like in terms of like—does it look like any of the past visions?
AUSTIN: Yeah, it looks like the most real—it looks like the vision where Samot gave you the final goal, basically.
SYLVIA: Okay. Do I still have all my belongings with me?
AUSTIN: [sighs] No. You are… you have like a very nice, clean apron on. As if it hasn’t been—as if you’ve never worked a day in your life. Like, you’re dressed the way you were dressed your first day of apprenticeship.
[TIMESTAMP 1:20:05]
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: But you don’t have any of your stuff. And you’re in the living room, which is cluttered with from things from all over the continent. And you can hear someone drawing or writing in the other room. And children playing in the yard nextdoor. What do you do?
SYLVIA: I’m gonna go to the room where the drawing or writing is coming from. I’m not attempting to sneak or anything, I’m just going—’cause there’s nothing in my past that’s led me to be worried about Samot or Samothes?
AUSTIN: Sure. Sure.
SYLVIA: When I’ve had these experiences, I mean.
AUSTIN: Right. So, you see Samot writing, and then like, looking at a map, and kind of penciling things in on the map, and then like, wiping it away with his hand, and then doing it again, and then going over and writing something down to the side again. He doesn’t notice you there. Or at least, he doesn’t make eye contact with—he’s focused on the thing he’s doing, at the very least.
SYLVIA: Okay. I’m gonna keep approaching and see what he’s working on.
AUSTIN: Totally. Alright, you can see that he is writing out a… [exhales] a treatise of some sort, in the old tongue? It looks like a timeline done vertically. And then he’s like, penciling in things on a map.
AUSTIN AS SAMOT: Aubrey. What is it?
SYLVIA AS AUBREY: I… The last thing I remember is being grabbed by two men, and I woke up here. And I was hoping you might have some answers.
SYLVIA: But she’s still like, looking at the thing he’s working on while she’s speaking, clearly kinda preoccupied by it.
AUSTIN: He nods.
SAMOT: You’ll be fine.
AUSTIN: He, like, finally looks up from his work and gives you a look.
SAMOT: I’ve interceded. You’ll be fine. You’ll wake up, and you’ll be alone, and you’ll have a moment to escape.
AUBREY: E-escape, as in from them, or from...?
SAMOT: Them. That’s correct.
AUBREY: Okay. Okay. What are you… working on?
SAMOT: Oh. [chuckles]
AUSTIN: He puts the pen down.
SAMOT: Another intercession, I suppose. Do you know how…
AUSTIN: He smiles.
SAMOT: I don’t get to share this often. But, do you know how I told you that time works differently for things like me?
AUBREY: Yes.
SAMOT: Mm. I’m working on a backup plan.
AUBREY: In case… we fail… today… or…?
SAMOT: That’s correct.
AUBREY: Okay.
SAMOT: Not just today. Tomorrow, if the war goes wrong, if… the mages betray me, if any number of potential scenarios happen [he laughs wearily as he says this]. Do you know how things like you are created? Mortal things.
AUBREY: In… a biological sense, sure. But… I feel like you’re talking on a different level than even I know.
SAMOT: Even in a biological sense, I suppose. You see—here. Take a look at this.
AUSTIN: And he like, puts a hand on your back and pulls you closer. And shows you a map, and shows you this timeline that he’s written. And it’s like—it’s like a timeline, it’s like—[laughs] he’s written out a short summary of a game of Civilization. Where he’s like “Okay, well, this is the year that this culture founded their writing, this is the year that they put judges into being for the first time, here, they learned pottery!” And he says:
SAMOT: You know, when… we create things like you, we have goals in mind. Or at least, um. Instincts. We want… We want something. And… there is a limit to our power in this sense. You can’t just snap your finger and have a culture fully formed. You need a history. We aren’t writers, we’re editors. And so if I finish this, then there will be something new at play. A new group shuffled in with all the rest, with the cobbins and the elves and the orcs and all of that. And they’ll be there. Waiting to pick up sword and fight for me.
AUBREY: And they’ll have always been there? Is that what you’re…? Or will appear to be?
SAMOT: If we finish this conversation and you know about them. It will be as if you’ve always known about them. Time works differently for us. And that’s part of why it’s so terrifying. What’s happening. To Samol.
AUBREY: What exactly is happening to Samol?
SAMOT: He’s dying, Aubrey. (quietly) Our father is dying.
AUBREY (struggling): But—how—I understand with Samothes, the way we plan on him, his life ending. But how does a god just… die like that?
SAMOT: He’s very, very old. And there’s something sick in him. Something broken. I don’t know if the Nothingness reached out to him, or… I don’t… There are diseases we cannot cure. We can edit time, but we can’t stop it. Lord… I hope Maelgwyn has the confidence that Samothes and I do not.
AUBREY: I’ll make sure he does what needs to happen.
SAMOT: Promise me.
AUSTIN: And he like, straightens back up, and starts writing again, and takes a sip of water.
SYLVIA: Aubrey just sort of nods a little, and she says:
AUBREY: I promise. You get to your work, and I’ll get to mine.
SYLVIA: And she cracks her knuckles a little.
SAMOT: My very own Primo.
AUBREY: Hopefully I get a cooler title than “Artificer Mundane.”
AUSTIN: [chuckles] He laughs.
SAMOT: We’ll see to it. Just wait.
AUBREY: Alright, well. I guess I better get back to it, then, huh?
SAMOT: Hm.
AUSTIN: And as you walk out the door, you hear the children playing again outside, but as you turn to look, Maelgwyn isn’t there. It’s just the little girl. Real quick—[laughs] Castille, what’re you doing as you just wait around in Maelgwyn’s room?
ALI: Um, I was gonna—so when Primo made that announcement, I was—Castille, I think, goes into the hallway? To kinda see if she sees her like, crew—[laughs]—going back into the rooms?
AUSTIN: No. Nope.
ALI: Well, she sees at least one Hitchcock, right?
AUSTIN: Right. Yeah, she does. She does see Ethan, right? That’s right, right, Jack?
JACK: Yeah, I think Ethan is just going back to his room, I guess?
ALI (laughing): So this stranger like, her eyes light up when she sees him and wait—oh, this is Ethan?
JACK: Yeah.
ALI: I guess she doesn’t know.
ALI AS CASTILLE: Hitchcock! Hey!
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: Hi!
CASTILLE: Hey! Um—where—
HITCHCOCK: Who—who’re you?
CASTILLE: Oh! I—[laughs] I’m Castille!
HITCHCOCK: [silence]
AUSTIN: She’s not lying!
HITCHCOCK: Um…
[ALI and AUSTIN laugh]
CASTILLE: I—Oh, um… this is awkward. I guess I—yeah, I—you know. We’re in God’s house! We can dress up however we wanted, so. Hi!
HITCHCOCK: Yeah, but you—okay. [ALI laughs] Right, you’ve got a sort of a flesh situation happening now, Castille.
CASTILLE: Yeah, I do! Yeah!
HITCHCOCK: So what’ve you been up to?
CASTILLE: [laughs nervously] Um. Preparing, uh, for the… very... important mission that we’re on.
HITCHCOCK: [pause] Absolutely.
CASTILLE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: She is lying. [ALI laughs a little hysterically]
HITCHCOCK: Ah. [laughs uncertainly] Mm-hm! We, uh, well we met Samothes.
CASTILLE: Oh!
HITCHCOCK: We gave him a gift.
CASTILLE: Oh! Um.
HITCHCOCK: He seemed pleased to see us. I… y’know. I… I think he knows, but.
CASTILLE: Yeah. Well… it’s fine. It’ll be fine! Have you… seen anyone else?
HITCHCOCK: Um… uh, uh—
JACK: Is Sige coming down to the room with me?
AUSTIN: Sige is with you in the room, Hitchcock.
JACK: In the… yeah. Okay.
HITCHCOCK: Sige and my brother went, uh, into the elevator. I haven’t seen Aubrey anywhere. Maelgwyn is, uh… he looks really bad. Has he been drinking?
CASTILLE: Uh—just a little bit, he’s just nervous, you know.
HITCHCOCK: Yeah, he looks nervous! He looks haunted!
CASTILLE: Mm… I… it’s a tough thing, having to do this, all of it…
HITCHCOCK: Well, you know, we’ve got practice. [ALI laughs]
AUSTIN (laughing): Oh, right, ‘cause he doesn’t know! Christ! He still doesn’t know!
ALI: Oh my—
HITCHCOCK: My brother sent me back here to, uh… um… I think he wanted me to prepare something? I… I was told to go and wait in my room. But, uh...
[TIMESTAMP 1:30:00]
CASTILLE: Oh—your broth—which…? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but which… one are you?
HITCHCOCK (amused): We get this all the time. I’m Ethan.
CASTILLE: Okay. Right, Ethan! Yes. And you—Ethan. Yes. Right. Okay. Yeah. Mm! [AUSTIN & ALI laugh]
HITCHCOCK: Is everything okay?
CASTILLE: Yeah! I—so much treasure today, right? [JACK laughs]
AUSTIN: Lie.
HITCHCOCK: Yeah, you don’t sound very confident.
CASTILLE: I—[exhales] I guess, I, I’ve been spending time with Maelgwyn, so I guess it rubbed off on me, I don’t know.
HITCHCOCK: He looks bad.
CASTILLE: No! That’s—[AUSTIN laughs in the background] He’s fine.
HITCHCOCK: He looks like he’s been having a bad time!
AUSTIN (laughing): Judgy! [ALI and DRE laugh] Goddamn!
ALI (laughing): She looks so upset!
AUSTIN: Can she blush?
ALI: Prob—
AUSTIN: Is she capable?
ALI: Probably! I mean, she’s like—
AUSTIN (overlapping) Yeah. Or is she angry?
ALI: —her face is probably already a little bit red, but, um. [JACK laughs]
AUSTIN: Fair.
ALI: Um, I think she likes, glares a little bit.
HITCHCOCK: Okay. Um… so what’re you doing?
CASTILLE: [sighs] W—I—like I said, I’ve been with Maelgwyn, and then I, you know, I heard that announcement and I thought everyone would come back here.
AUSTIN: People are moving like, past you by the dozen. Like, in and out of these guestrooms that are being whisked away deeper into the mountain, like. It’s a lot of activity, by the way. I almost imagine you’re like, yell-whispering? [ALI and JACK chuckle] Do you know what I mean? Like, you’re yelling in each others’ ear like you’re in an airport or a subway station and the subway is rolling by. Like, no one can hear you—people can pick up bits of the conversation when there’s a half of a moment of, um, of silence as no rooms are taken deeper into the mountain, but like, for now it’s just loud noise and you shouting back and forth.
HITCHCOCK: Do you think we should go wait in our rooms? I don’t know how that’s gonna be useful to us, but Edmund seemed to have a plan.
CASTILLE: Mm. Yeah, I—hm. They were going in the elevator?
HITCHCOCK: That’s—yeah. They’re with—oh! ‘Cause Maelgwyn had to go back… okay, yeah. Um.
AUSTIN: Oh, she thinks—okay. Good.
ALI (giggling): Of course she does!
AUSTIN: She thinks they’re with Maelgwyn. Okay.
ALI: Uh-huh! Mhm.
CASTILLE: Yeah, I guess it’s probably fine. We can just wait for them.
AUSTIN: Cut to: them. In Samothes’s room. Along with Iris and Orchid and Silas. And Samothes like, steps to—Samothes’s room is, again, like, fairly humble. It’s not that different than your own guestrooms except a little bit bigger. It has, again, I mentioned this last week, but like, the furnishing of the room that you’ve seen in your visions, the same sorts of dark wooden, um, desks and chairs. And I think probably like Primo’s room, Samothes’s room has sketches of things pinned to the walls. And there’s even a sketch or two on the wall itself, that looks almost carved into the wall. But is sloppy in a way that carving into walls can’t be? Like, it looks handwritten into the wall. And Samothes just kind of gestures to the, like, a collection of drinks, and he says:
AUSTIN AS SAMOTHES: According to the ritual, you’ll drink now with close kin and confidantes. But I have work to do, so. Please enjoy anything my chamber offers. I will be in my forge.
AUSTIN: And he walks to his closet—he has like, a screen and a closet behind the screen. And in a flash of light reappears like, out of his robe and into sort of like, a very regal-looking blacksmith outfit. It’s… all done-up. I think it’s probably the deep red of the mountain, is the color of the apron, and then, um… he has a hammer—eh, he probably doesn’t have any of his gear, his gear is at the forge, but he has gloves, and kind of a dark shirt, um, that’s buttoned almost all of the way up, you def see some holy chest hair goin’ on. And he just kind of walks past you all to a small stairwell that is in the southeast corner of the room, or of his kind of, suite. And he goes—there’s like, the floor pulls back and reveals the staircase, and when he walks through the floor closes behind him. It’s a hardwood floor. And each slat kind of like, opens up individually, or kind of pulls inwards to open up, almost like a zipper or something. Orchid is like:
AUSTIN AS REBECCA: O-kay. This is my first one of these, so.
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: I was hoping you would be able to—you know. Tell us what we’re s’posed to do?
AUSTIN: Iris is, he’s buttering a bagel? [laughs] He’s like:
AUSTIN AS IRIS: Oh, we just say, y’know, “Happy High Sun Day” and, uh, “All blessed he under Samothes,” etcetera. Y’know. The usual stuff.
HITCHCOCK: You don’t seem too invested.
IRIS: Eh. You go through one High Sun Day—listen. I’ve been through a lot of this stuff. And, uh… it doesn’t impress me so much anymore. Good guy, don’t get me wrong! Y’know.
JACK: Okay, I’ll take a bagel.
AUSTIN: [laughs] Good! He’s like:
IRIS: I walk through the, the Iris Parish, those people don’t know what this man looks like! [pause] I don’t know. We all do our best, that’s why I’m here. Like, I’m his justice on the ground, so to speak, so. What can ya do?
AUSTIN: And he starts—[eating sounds]—just like, shovin’ that—he probably has an egg bagel. Shovin’ it in his mouth.
JACK: What does Orchid think of her colleague like, talking like this? As a Lance Noble?
AUSTIN: She’s like, very—not distraught—there’s a Maelgwyn-esque quality to her, right now? Of just like, being deeply overwhelmed?
JACK: Mhm.
AUSTIN: Silas is pacing back and forth.
JACK: How big is this room? Have I just, essentially—
AUSTIN: It’s like a suite, it’s like a big hotel suite.
JACK: Oh, okay.
AUSTIN: But it’s—or it’s like a really big studio apartment, basically. So like, there’s a bed—the bed that Samothes sleeps in, and it’s a bed. It’s not like, a special bed. It’s a nice bed, it’s like a, again, a California King bed, but it’s not like it’s… a magic bed, y’know? It probably has the softest sheets you’ve ever felt, but like, okay. That’s not—they’re not gonna give you eternal life or anything, y’know? It’s all very mundane, in a strange way. His presence is overwhelming, but like, he’s… The fact that he’s not the god of extravagance really shows.
JACK: Mm.
AUSTIN: Silas is like, studying the stuff that’s been scrawled into the walls, and you keep catching him looking at the floor where Samothes walked down.
JACK: Hmm. And Sige is here with me too?
AUSTIN: Yeah. What’re you two doing?
DRE: I came with to try and talk to Primo. ‘Cause I wanted to talk to Primo and see if—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Oh right, Primo’s here too. Yeah. Primo’s here—go ahead.
DRE: I wanna see if Primo can tell us where Aubrey is.
AUSTIN: Okay. Primo is also looking at some of the sketches that Samothes has done, and is like, taking notes. So you just walk up to him and ask?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN AS PRIMO: One second, one second, kid, one second, let me… okay. This stuff is good! This guy, I gotta tell you. I learn somethin’ new everyday. Um, so what is it? What d’you need?
AUSTIN: He’s wearing a suit, by the way. He has decided, I guess, to dress really formally? Um, he’s probably actually still really excited about that. He’s like, when he turns to you he kind of straightens out his suit and makes sure it looks really good.
DRE AS SIGE: Well, first of all, you look great.
PRIMO: I know, I look incredible! Here’s the thing, I wasn’t supposed to be part of this, but Samothes said that today, for a special occasion, y’know. I could be there. Normally I stay down in the forge during the dinner and festivities, but today he wanted me to be there.
SIGE: That’s, that’s nice of him.
PRIMO: I don’t get to wear this suit often! So.
SIGE: You should wear it more. It looks great. Um. I’m lookin’ for Aubrey. She’s disappeared, and I’m a little worried. And I didn’t know if maybe you had a, you know, little trick up your sleeve that you could maybe help me find her.
PRIMO: Uh, let me think. Uh, y’know, back in my… Okay, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll be right back.
SIGE: Do you want me to—I can—[stammers] I can come with? Do you want me just to wait here?
PRIMO: Sure—yeah, you should come with me.
SIGE: Okay, yeah. Sure.
AUSTIN: Okay, so Sige and Primo leave. Leaving the, uh, the remaining Golden Lance members, Silas, and Edmund.
[TIMESTAMP 1:40:07]
JACK: Thanks. Thanks for that.
DRE (laughing): You’re welcome!
JACK: Um, so they leave down towards the forge…? Down the—
AUSTIN: No, they go back through the elevator.
JACK: Oh, okay.
AUSTIN: And then walk towards, past the—this hall is now empty, Sige. This like, throne room. Then he leads you into his suite, basically? I think he probably leads you past his suite. There’s like, another door. And he says:
PRIMO: It’s very special. Not many people get to see this, so. Count your blessin’s.
AUSTIN: And he leads you into his forge. Which is above… You can probably see this as you walk in. So it’s above the fire, first of all. But it’s pretty high above the fire, you’re not at risk of falling in or anything. But below you is another forge, and you can hear Samothes at work there. You can’t see him, you can see the edge of his kind of—it’s sort of like a, um, a circular disc that Samothes is—that you’re standing on, and then a bigger circular disc is cut into the wall of the side of the mountain below you. I’ve revealed the entire mountain at this point, so I’ll just reveal everything—oh, I guess you don’t—you didn’t know about this storage chamber that’s down here, but it just says “Storage,” so, you know. So that’s kind of the layout at this point.
AUSTIN (CONT): And he walks over to—he has like, you know, an anvil, and a bunch of tools, and there’s a sort of a, uh, a device that’s sort of like a… um, almost like a big tube? That runs—it’s not really a tube, it’s like conical, it comes up out of the ground and there’s like, a little, like a little gutter that is, that leads from a door down into a, kind of a pit that’s towards the side of the big disc that you’re standing on. And you can hear and feel the like, bubbling of the lava that’s in there. That’s like, I don’t know if you remember this from like, the creation myth, but the lava is iron. It’s iron, it is iron. It’s just super hot iron all the time. And he takes you to a kind of, back wall of this place, um, and opens up—there’s like, a bunch of drawers, and all of the drawers are made of this iron. And he starts going through it and looking through a bunch of tchotchkes and other little things. And he finds one of those little gems. One of those little prisms that you’ve seen holographic stuff in before. And he goes:
PRIMO: ‘Kay, give me a second.
AUSTIN: And he like, pulls a lever, and a little like, um, chain drops from above. Or kind of like, probably on a little crane that’s attached to the side of the wall, and the crane swings out and then drops this little chain, and then he hooks up the—it drops really low, because remember he’s like, way shorter than you, and he attaches this crystal to the chain-thing, and then hoists it up so that it’s catching the reflection of the lava’s light. And there’s a map, there’s like, a big 3D map of this place being projected from it. And he like, um, he starts pulling some other switches and like, moving it just so—like, he’s moving the thing up in the air so that the light catches it differently. And it’s as if he’s browsing a live map of this place. And he sees her—he like, points to an “A,” or, probably not an “A,” it’s actually probably just a little… like he’s able to just zoom in until you can just see Aubrey tied to a chair in a room.
AUSTIN (CONT): Aubrey. You’re tied to a chair in a room. What do you do?
SYLVIA: Uh, okay. So what are my surroundings right now? Other than just being in a guestroom.
AUSTIN: It’s a lot like the guestroom you were staying in before.
SYLVIA: So it’s like a bed and some snacks…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: And you’re just kind of wrapped in leather belts, basically. But not wrapped, but tied down with the belts.
SYLVIA (overlapping): Yeah, I know what you mean. Um… Is there anyone in there with me?
AUSTIN: No, you’re alone.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: As Samot said, he would intercede.
SYLVIA: Yes. Is there a… how close am I to the food? Like, the table with the food on it? Because I remember in the past we mentioned there being cutlery on that table.
AUSTIN: Yeah, we could totally be a little too close for that than they should’ve fuckin’ noticed. Yeah. Are you trying to like, grab something and cut yourself free with—
SYLVIA (overlapping): I’m trying to grab a knife…
AUSTIN: With what? With like, your hands?
SYLVIA: Uh, I was gonna say with my tail.
AUSTIN (amused): Okay.
SYLVIA: Or knock it off the table with my tail, or something, into my hand.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Because the way I’m picturing her tied is her hands tied behind her back…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, you can just, you can just… yeah. It’s more interesting if this just happens. So yeah, I think you’re totally able—it’s a matter of, actually, here’s what it is, it’s a matter of time, it’s a matter of how long this takes you.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Give me a, a, um… hm. I think that this unfortunately for you is probably a Finesse.
SYLVIA: Okay. That’s fine.
AUSTIN: Um. Controlled Standard.
SYLVIA: Yeah. Um… [muttering as they use Roll20]
AUSTIN: Yeah, so it’s just—you rolled a two. So, it’s a situation where you—you’re doing this, and as it’s happening you can hear people coming in and out of the guestrooms, and then eventually you can hear music begin to play as everyone has moved into the dining hall. And you’re running a little late for dinner. So then, let’s jump back to Edmund. Edmund, above, people are starting to go into this dinner, but here in Samothes’s room it’s still—everyone’s just kind of passing time. I think Orchid, she’s probably just talking really nervously? And Silas has been like, praying under his breath. At least that’s what it sounds like he’s been doing.
JACK: Hmm. Is he still interested in the, in the entrance?
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah, he’s like, studying all of the inventions while praying under his breath. And you can hear the hammering again and again of Samothes in the distance.
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: You trying to get down there?
AUSTIN: He ignores you.
HITCHCOCK: I said, are you trying to get down there?
AUSTIN: He’s ignoring you.
JACK: Hm, okay.
AUSTIN AS REBECCA/ORCHID: You know that guy?
HITCHCOCK: Yeah… He… [stammers, laughs]
JACK: I’m realizing now that I did cut off this woman’s hand, so I’m not in the best position to talk about, uh… bad histories.
HITCHCOCK: Remember Memoriam College?
REBECCA/ORCHID: Yes.
AUSTIN: She raises an eyebrow.
HITCHCOCK: Well. I was there that night, and so was he. And he… tricked me, and then he, he fought me, and fled. And he is… he’s up to something.
AUSTIN: Are you saying this all quietly?
JACK: Yeah—no! No, no, oh, no, God no.
AUSTIN (amused): Okay. He goes:
AUSTIN AS SILAS: It wasn’t a fight. You were deceiving me as much as I was deceiving you. And when I saw an opportunity, I hit you on the head. And you passed out. And I got what I needed.
JACK: Yeah, what did he steal from me?
AUSTIN: He didn’t steal anything directly from you.
HITCHCOCK: What did you need?
AUSTIN: You might—you might just know based on what you put together based on previous rolls from previous games. The found—the rumor is he has the other half of that map.
JACK: Oh, yes, he does have the other half of that map.
AUSTIN: Yeah. So do you ask him what he needed to steal?
JACK: No.
AUSTIN: Or do you just put that together?
JACK: Yeah. But… I have, I have the map, still. I mean, I guess he looked at it, or…
AUSTIN: I mean, you have your half of that map, right?
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: He has the other half of the map that you’ve been looking for.
JACK: Yeah, but he didn’t steal it from me in the operating theatre.
AUSTIN: No, no, no, but he stole it from Memoriam.
JACK: Oh, he was getting it from there. Okay.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
HITCHCOCK: You’ve got something to mine. (to ORCHID/REBECCA) He’s got something of mine.
SILAS: That’s not true.
HITCHCOCK: Well, he’s saying that because he… Do you know what it is?
SILAS: Yes.
JACK: Is he lying?
SILAS: Ah—there it is.
AUSTIN: No, he, he knows what it is. And he presses a hand to a bit of the writing, and then like, runs his fingers down three um, three lines, and the floor opens up where Samothes went.
JACK: Uh, can I try and roll to incapacitate him?
AUSTIN (amused): Sure. How are you doing it?
JACK: I am… uh, well, what’s my sort of, what’s the situation in terms of positioning?
AUSTIN: You—he has his back to you.
JACK: Can I try and choke him out?
[TIMESTAMP 1:50:00]
AUSTIN: ...Jesus Christ.
JACK: I mean, not fatally!
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: I don’t wanna kill him.
AUSTIN: Sure. That’s a Skirmish.
JACK: Okay. Um… can I—
AUSTIN: You can give me a Prowl if you’re trying to knock him on the head.
JACK: No, this is—Skirmish is wrestle and brawl, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so if you’re choking him it’s definitely Skirmish.
JACK: Risky? Risky.
AUSTIN: Maybe—maybe not, it could be Prowl. It depends on how secretive you’re being.
JACK: I think I’m doing it in view of two Lance Nobles.
AUSTIN: True. You are doing that.
JACK: Um… Risky?
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah.
JACK: Standard.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: O...kay. Okay!
AUSTIN: Alright! Yeah, it’s a five. Yeah, so you—[laughs]—You begin choking him, and he’s like, clearly losing consciousness, and Iris sighs and puts down his bagel and is like:
AUSTIN AS IRIS: Oh, Jesus.
AUSTIN: He doesn’t say “Jesus,” there’s no Jesus. [AUSTIN & JACK laugh] He says like—
IRIS: Oh—
AUSTIN: I almost said “Oh, Christ” instead. [ALI snorts] That was my—[DRE laughs]—Listen, like, doing like, “agitated cop” it’s easy to jump to “Jesus” and “Christ.” Um…
JACK: The two agitated cops!
AUSTIN (amused): That’s the two, Jesus and Christ!
IRIS: Oh, come on!
AUSTIN: He says, and then he like, stands up and Rebecca kind of follows suit. And he like, he starts to take his gun out, and she has her like, Fontmen spear. And is like:
IRIS: Stop doin’ it right now!
AUSTIN: And at this point Silas is already unconscious in your arms.
JACK: Okay, I’m gonna drop him. Clearly not into the hatch. I’m not dropping him that way. I’m gonna put him down on the floor.
ORCHID/REBECCA: Why did you—attack him? What’re you here for?
AUSTIN: And she like, clenches up on the spear. And like, there’s something in her eyes that is suddenly very—like, it’s as if she’s not had a goal, and she’s been very confused by that since she’s been here. And seeing you do violence in front of her has like, snapped her into a behavior she’s comfortable in? And she like, marches towards you, spear out, and then like, sets it to fire—she like, clicks it in, and the flame comes out. And she like, points it very close to you.
HITCHCOCK: What do you think he was doing?
ORCHID/REBECCA: I don’t know, but you knocked him out. That is illegal.
HITCHCOCK: And wandering around the room of Samothes, trying to find the secret passage to get into his forge isn’t?
ORCHID/REBECCA: I don’t—I don’t know! He’s a priest!
HITCHCOCK (overlapping): I seriously doubt that—
ORCHID/REBECCA: Maybe he’s allowed to do that!
IRIS: Alright kid, c’mon, take a seat. We’re gonna take you upstairs, and and then once all the festivities we’ll—
HITCHCOCK: Please don’t arrest me.
IRIS: We have to arrest you, it’s the law. You assaulted a priest.
JACK: I think I—I think…
AUSTIN: You’re standing right near those stairs.
JACK: Yeah. Um… oh, man. Um. I’m gonna try and roll Sway here so I can mesmerize these people.
AUSTIN: [laughs] Okay. Is that that an ability you have, or are you just trying to roll Sway—
JACK: I’m trying to roll Sway but with the motive of trying to be able to uh—
AUSTIN: But like, you have an ability which is, which is mesmerism—
JACK (overlapping): Yeah, it—is when you roll Sway.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: Okay… okay. Okay.
AUSTIN: [laughs] You keep saying “okay.”
JACK: Yeah, it’s not. [ALI & DRE laugh] Uh… Risky? No, this is not Risky. This is Desperate, right?
AUSTIN: This is Desperate. Someone has a fuckin’ fire-spear to your chest.
JACK (overlapping): Okay. I’m chancing it because I’d like another dice, please. So I’m gonna take stress.
AUSTIN: You’re gonna take stress. Okay.
JACK: Uh… playbook… uh…
AUSTIN: “When you Sway someone you may cause them to forget that it’s happened until they next interact with you.” That is what you’re doing.
JACK: Yep.
AUSTIN: Gotcha. That’s “Mesmerism.”
JACK: Standard effect, fingers crossed…
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
JACK: One extra die… [gasps]
AUSTIN: Oh, look at that six! You did it! What’s this look like?
JACK: Okay, so I think what happens is that Hitchcock—I think I tell them.
AUSTIN: What do you tell them?
JACK: I think I tell them that Samothes is gonna die. Um. And that Maelgwyn is—I think I tell them what’s going on. And then they don’t remember it.
AUSTIN: And they won’t remember it until the next time—it’s not that they don’t remember it forever, it’s that the next time, until the next time they interact with you they don’t remember it. So they’re just like “What…?” Deeply confused. I think she lowers the spear, Iris puts his gun away, and like, takes out another cigarette and lights it on a nearby candle, and just takes a seat. And then like, before he evens starts smoking that one, he’s already like, grabbing a second cigarette from the pack. [laughs] He’s like, again, very confused and they’re both… they’re both completely in their thoughts.
JACK: I think that what this—
AUSTIN: Sylvia in the chat says “This is what happens when you hang out with a guy named ‘Snitch’.” [ALI & JACK laugh]
JACK: Ah… he’d be proud of me.
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah.
JACK: I think that what this mesmerism power looks like, is that I think it’s a… oh, they absolutely, the New Archives has like, hundreds of these in like, a big crate in the distant future, and they’ve got no idea what to do with them. But I think it’s a box, and I think that set in the sides of the box are prisms that catch the light in a certain way?
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JACK: And I think that there’s something, um, fascinating about the pattern of light inside the prisms in this box that causes this temporary amnesia.
AUSTIN: Mm.
JACK: So I think as he’s describing it, and he’s backing towards the stairs, and beginning to walk down the stairs, Hitchcock just takes the box out and turns it over in his hands, and that’s enough.
AUSTIN: Nice. I also like that because there’s a nice cut between that and Sige’s version of the prism light seeing where Aubrey is.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And presumably heading in that direction, Sige?
DRE: Yeah, towards Aubrey, absolutely.
AUSTIN: Um, alright, I think at this point everybody except for Edmund Hitchcock gets to be—and Aubrey, who’s just waking up, and so’s—so I guess it’s Ethan and Castille, you’re being called into the dining room. Into the dining hall.
ALI: [exhales] Okay!
JACK AS HITCHCOCK: Let’s eat!
ALI AS CASTILLE: Yeah! [pause] Do you really think Maelgwyn, like, looked upset? [ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: You’re saying this as you walk into the next room.
[THEME MUSIC - “Marielda” BEGINS TO PLAY]
ALI (laughing): Yeah.
AUSTIN: ‘Kay.
JACK (amused): In like, a crowd of people.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah.
ALI: But like, quietly! It’s the two of them, like, whispering together.
HITCHCOCK: He looked kind of… he looked kind of desperate.
CASTILLE: Mm.
HITCHCOCK: And he was carrying that sword…
AUSTIN: Sure was.
CASTILLE: Don’t… don’t… don’t talk about the sword.
HITCHCOCK: Really?
AUSTIN AS MAELGWYN: What sword?
AUSTIN: Says Maelgwyn, behind the mask, flanked by mages.
[TIMESTAMP 1:57:50]
[Theme music plays through to the end]
[1] The name in the audio recording is no longer in use, hence the audio/transcript discrepancy.