Sangfielle 43: Two Kinds of Quarry Pt. 2
Transcriber: robotchangeling
Austin: Sangfielle is a series that draws on elements of dark fantasy, horror, and gothic fiction. As such, a list of content warnings will always be made available in the episode description.
When we last left y'all, you were moving down the river. You were trying to find a way back towards Blackwick. There is a kind of perilous hill upwards. This particular hill is kind of marked among many, in that it does not seem to have much living on it. It doesn't seem to have as much greenery as most of the other area around you. You're not sure why. This feels like something has tilted the way the Residuum works here. Something is wrong about how the Residuum works here. It's as if it has sucked the life out of already living things instead of letting them die naturally.
[Music begins: “Sangfielle” by Jack de Quidt]
Keith: Oh no. [Sylvia laughs]
Austin: You see the eyes glow from inside of the cave. The bright red eyes of the Ravening Beast.
Sylvia (as Hazard): You've gotta be fucking kidding me.
Dre (as Chine): [sighs] It's always this shit with you, huh? [Sylvia laughs]
Keith (as Lyke): [defensive] I didn't haunt me!
Austin: [laughs softly] That's not what that doctor told you. And between the four of you, you bring it down. It is lapping away at the Ravening Beast’s blood. The beast itself, all of its fur, all of the individual hairs of its fur turn to pine needles, blackened pine needles.
Dre: Yeah, like what's going on as it eats this?
Austin: It is becoming Ravening Beastlike. You know, the follicles of these needles beginning to grow on Its flesh. Do you pull— do you pull it away? Do you…?
Dre: Yeah. Yeah, I think I just, I reach out for It and just kind of like tug at it.
Austin: It snaps at you, but then you're able to tug it away, and it gives up on the pine needles.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: But it does snap at you.
Dre: I think I go:
Dre (as Chine): Ah! [scolding] Uh uh uh uh!
Austin: You come back out of Aterika'Kaal's domain and continue your journey. And from the top, you actually do see a little campfire down below with three people at it, and then beyond the trees and this kind of edge of the forest, you can see your destination from here too. And that destination is a…it looks like, from this distance, a quarry of some sort? It's a hole in the ground where people are, you know, have dug up a lot of stone. You see big piles of giant stone bricks that are being hauled, you know, up the kind of the side of that quarry. By the time you get there, the campfire is starting to go a little harder as the suns begin to set. And here, as you near it, you see three humanoid figures and then also four larger animals. The three people, um…who's met these people before? Lyke, at the very least, you've met…you've met these people before. Except now they're wearing new clothes.
Keith: Wait, but they're in the—
Austin: You know them—
Keith: They're already at the other side!
Austin: [laughs softly] The Toll Collectors.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Uh huh. The Toll Collectors who are the, um…
[song ends]
Adeline. Or Ad— was it Agdeline? What— let me look at these names again.
Sylvia: Yeah, Agdeline.
Austin: It's Agdeline, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Ettel and Larch, who are a devil, a drakkan, and a big ole human is Larch.
Dre: [intrigued] Mm.
Austin: And they're seated around this campfire. Y'all introduce yourselves? Do you just ignore them? What do you do?
Keith: Um, I think I yell out to them, like, uh…like:
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, what are you all doing out here?
Austin: I think two of them look to Agdeline, and she kind of stands up and wipes herself off and says:
Austin (as Agdeline): All right, who's that there? Come on out.
Keith (as Lyke): It's me! It's Lyke!
Sylvia (as Hazard): This guy just knows everybody, huh?
Austin: [laughs softly] I think Larch, at that point, stands up and says:
Austin (as Larch): Lyke! Uh, from Katonya and… [voice drops] Bell Metal.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, and from the mugging.
Austin: Kind of squints at you, [Keith laughs] as if he doesn't remember the mugging.
Dre (as Chine): Wait, like a…like a good, like you helped them mug somebody? Or you mugged them?
Keith (as Lyke): No, they tried to mug me.
Dre (as Chine): Oh!
Sylvia (as Hazard): And you’re friends now.
Keith (as Lyke): I know— hey, these are— I would— these are almost friends of mine.
Dre (as Chine): Yeah, sure.
Austin: Yeah, so, Chine, have you met them?
Dre: I don't think so.
Keith: Really?
Austin: Didn’t you— oh, you met them on the way down to, um…
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: To Yellowfield, you met some of them.
Dre: Oh.
Keith: Yeah, because they were at Yellowfield at the same time as we were…
Austin: They were—
Keith: We also were hanging out with them on our way to Bell Metal Station
Austin: To Bell Metal. You met them on the way to Bell Metal, Lyke, and then Chine, you met them at the weather, at the Weather Room at the top of—
Dre: That’s right.
Austin: The Weather Room at the top of the hill, where they were…they helped steal the egg.
Dre: Yes.
Austin: Remember?
Dre: Yes.
Austin: And gave it to Al— or gave it to Alaway’s weird wax caprak in exchange for money that then they spent on, like, roast chicken or whatever. [Dre laughs] And vinyl records to listen to. So yeah, what do you do?
Keith: Can I get their names again?
Austin: Yes. Agdeline, who's the devil, and who is currently wielding a rapier and a pistol. Larch, who has a big halberd quite like Chine's, who's a human. And Ettel, who's a drakkan, who is currently leaning a sort of rifle with a bayonet attached to it up against his shoulder. Ettel says, uh…
Austin (as Ettel): [hesitates for a moment] No hard feelings, of course. Come on in. Do you need a drink or a…a snack?
Keith (as Lyke): Hmm. Do I need a drink or a snack? I could eat.
Austin: And they have a little campfire going, and you know, there's some, some food to nibble at, and they pour you some…something to drink. You know, they have a couple things on offer. And I think Larch, who has not been the most talkative of them thus far, is the one who takes the lead here though, and is like:
Austin (as Larch): So, where are you going? Surprised to see you out here. Last time I saw you, you were heading down to Sapodilla.
Sylvia (as Hazard): You guys have been to Sapodilla?
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, Sapodilla was a mess.
Dre (as Chine): Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, that's where we—
Dre (as Chine): That sucked.
Keith (as Lyke): We got on the boat from Sapodilla. That's…then we met Hazard.
Sylvia (as Hazard): [remembering] Right.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Look, it’s be a— I… [deep breath] a lot of stuff going on.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I can't keep track of everywhere you guys have been.
Keith (as Lyke): So, Sapodilla’s a shit show. Don't go there. [laughs]
Dre (as Chine): No.
Keith (as Lyke): Maybe ever again.
Austin: I think Agdeline—
Sylvia (as Hazard): I mean, I’d try— look, I don't think they'd let me in anyway, but thank you for the heads up.
Austin: Agdeline is like:
Austin (as Agdeline): Well, now now. Let's not jump to conclusions. Uh, you are obviously, um…haven't been there in a little while. We've done quite well for ourselves down Sapodilla way.
Keith (as Lyke): When—
Sylvia (as Hazard): Oh, yeah? They still got those jerks at the gates keeping everyone out?
Austin (as Agdeline): The Macula? No, no, no.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Oh.
Austin (as Agdeline): Our liege got rid of those.
Keith (as Lyke): Excuse you?
Sylvia (as Hazard): Your what?
Austin (as Agdeline): Oh, well. [chuckles] We had a favor to call in, and it turned out we could be, uh, quite highly appointed with the new liege of Sapodilla. [Sylvia laughs softly]
Keith (as Lyke): [hushed] Oh my god. That’s…
Dre (as Chine): Who's that?
Keith (as Lyke): This is really bad.
Austin (as Agdeline): You could call us the Knights of Virtue.
Keith (as Lyke): [pained] No, god.
Austin (as Agdeline): Maybe you've heard our tale already.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Cool name.
Austin (as Agdeline): Thank you.
Keith (as Lyke): Well, then I guess I don't need to warn you not to go there. You know exactly what's going on.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I had no idea that Sapodilla had a royal family. That's so cool.
Austin (as Larch): Newly appointed.
Austin: Says Larch.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Huh.
Austin: Uh, I should—
Keith: I can’t decide whether to ask you a hundred questions about this [Austin laughs] or to just move on. [Sylvia laughs]
Austin: Let me just say that this is paying something off, which is that Virtue did have a Fallout that had not been completed—
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Had not been cleared, which is Debtor to Agdeline's crew. [Sylvia laughs softly] “During the next session or later in this one, an NPC who lent you money will call in a favor.” And they've called in this favorite to become highly-appointed knights in the new court of Sapodilla.
Keith (as Lyke): So, are you here on…Knights of Virtue business?
Austin: Ye— um, Ettel says, like:
Austin (as Ettel): Yeah, that's about right. We’d actually heard some things out your way, Blackwick, seem to be going bad, and we're bringing some supplies up there. But then we got word—
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, that's where we’re headed.
Austin (as Ettel): Oh, great. Well then, you know, if you, um…if you want, if you can help us deal with our problem here, we'd be happy to see you the rest of the way up and maybe give you a ride.
Dre (as Chine): Wait, what's going on in Blackwick?
Austin (as Ettel): I'm not really sure. We were just appointed to bring these supplies up there.
Keith (as Lyke): Then what's the problem here?
Austin (as Ettel): Well, on the way, we got word that a couple of rookies in the Knights, half dozen of ‘em, went missing. They were sent up here as a sort of preliminary investigation team.
Keith (as Lyke): What—
Austin (as Ettel): Something happening here at Bluestone, the quarry nearby. And, uh…I don't know, they haven't reported back in, and—
Keith (as Lyke): How can there be rookies and not rookies already?
Austin (as Ettel): Well, you know. There's the…we were the ones who…
Austin: Er, you know…how does Ettel explain this? [Keith laughs softly] I think he just says: [laughs softly]
Austin (as Ettel): You know, the first people to sign up were the first people to sign up.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, so some people got hired on Tuesday, and some people got hired on Thursday, and they're the rookies.
Austin (as Ettel): Yeah. [Keith laughs]
[0:10:00]
Dre (as Chine): Mm. Have a really important training on Wednesday?
Austin (as Ettel): Well, and some of us have had more experience in general, you know? As you referenced, some of us have been doing the sort of work out here in the field that we needed to do.
Austin: Larch then adds in, like:
Austin (as Larch): You know, you remember, we went with, uh, with you and Katonya down to Bell Metal. That was some…some real action.
Keith (as Lyke): I don't remember seeing you in any of the real action.
Austin (as Larch): Oh, well, you must have been away for some of it. Let me tell you, uh, after you left, that Calen guy. He's a real piece of work.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, wait, what happened?
Austin (as Larch): Oh. Well, he got away, and then, uh, one thing led to another. There was a big confrontation. The Shape Knights who were there, the other ones, they got driven away. And now there's some other people there. I don't know. Calen brought them in, I guess.
Keith: To refresh my memory, Calen's the one that sucked, right?
Austin (as Larch): Calen's the one that sucked, yeah.
Keith: Okay. Oof.
Sylvia: Out of character, Calen was the guy working at the beginning of the last arc with the other group?
Austin: Calen…
Sylvia: Or am I getting him mixed up with a different character?
Austin: You've not seen Calen. No, no, no, yeah.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: Calen…the last time Calen was here was at the Bell Metal Station arc. Calen was the one who was secretly trying to like get into the Wrights of the Seventh Sun—
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: And had turned Fezh into a big train.
Sylvia: Right.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: Yeah, turned his boyfriend into a train.
Austin: Yeah, turned his boyfriend into a train, like you do.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: Don't do that, please.
Keith: Yeah, no one do that. [Sylvia laughs softly] I don't even know how you would. It won't work.
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh.
Dre: Unless you're that Francis guy on TikTok. [Keith chuckles]
Sylvia: We've got, um…we've got the plot for the serious reboot of Thomas the Tank Engine ready to go.
Austin: Oh my god. Nightmare.
Sylvia: Sorry. [laughs]
Austin: So, Agdeline then, I think, jumps in and says:
Austin (as Agdeline): So what do you think? You help us find our people somewhere in Bluestone, and, uh, we give you a ride the rest of the way up to Blackwick.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Gotta be honest, I am tired of walking, and that sounds kind of great. But you two, I guess, are the ones with, you know, experience with this crew. So if you don't think it's a good idea, I'll go along with what you say.
Dre (as Chine): [sighs] I'm gonna…Lye, it's your call. I…I don't really remember. I mean, I remember stuff before Sapodilla, but I don't…it's kind of hazy.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, I guess we'll help. I think it's probably worth it. Although I'm not really sure how to feel about the…Virtue thing. Well, I guess it's also exactly what I expected. [Sylvia laughs]
Dre (as Chine): Oh! That's who their liege is.
Austin (as Agdeline): Yes, the Knights of Virtue. Yes.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I feel like I'm missing something.
Austin (as Agdeline): Right in the name.
Dre (as Chine): See, I thought that was like…but, you know, like you are virtuous, not like Virtue.
Austin (as Agdeline): Well, it is a double entendre in a sense, isn't it?
Dre (as Chine): No, I get it. Yeah. No, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Agdeline): In any case, here.
Austin: And Agdeline places a sort of single use flare into your hand, Chine. It's like a…it's like a tube that if you twist it— I think she actually just explains it.
Austin (as Agdeline): If you twist this and point it upwards, it'll send a light, a beacon into the sky. And we'll know to come in.
Dre (as Chine): Okay.
Austin (as Agdeline): We have to keep to the edges, because…
Austin: Kind of points at their clothing, as if to say they would…they know who we are and will…they’ll potentially clamp down on us, whoever got our people, you know?
Dre: Mm. Mm-hmm.
Keith (as Lyke): When you say “whoever,” do you know who?
Austin (as Agdeline): [sighs] We don't. Um…I will say that the group that was here was investigating a sort of secret society. Uh, that's all I can say. And if they're active here, they could be very dangerous.
Keith (as Lyke): You don't know what kind of society?
Austin: Larch says:
Austin (as Larch): The Seventh Sun. The Wrights of the Seventh Suns? You…
Keith (as Lyke): Okay.
Austin (as Larch): The Calen…
Dre (as Chine): Oh.
Austin: And Agdeline like slaps him in the belly.
Keith (as Lyke): No, that's good that you t— I mean, this is prime enemy of my enemy shit, I think.
Austin: Yeah, Larch shrugs, is like:
Austin (as Larch): See? Enemy of my enemy. [Keith laughs]
Dre (as Chine): Yeah, I mean, if we’re gonna…we can't—
Austin (as Larch): Wait, are we enemies?
Keith (as Lyke): No.
Austin (as Larch): I thought that we— you said cool, a second ago.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, yeah, no, we're cool. Enemy—
Austin (as Larch): Well, then where’s the enemy?
Keith (as Lyke): The Seventh Sun. We don't like the Seventh Sun people. You don't like the Seventh Sun people.
Austin (as Larch): But we're cool.
Keith (as Lyke): And so we’re cool.
Austin (as Larch): This is the enemy of my cool.
Dre (as Chine): Well, no, it's that [Keith laughs] you're the enemy of our enemies, so we are cool.
Austin (as Larch): [realizing] Oh.
Dre (as Chine): But it—
Sylvia: I actually realized that— oh, no, go ahead.
Dre: No, you go ahead.
Sylvia: We can contin— I don't want to interrupt the in-character thing going on.
Dre: No. [laughs] Chine just start drawing it on the ground with a stick.
Austin: Okay, yeah.
Dre: It's a diagram and (??? 15:33)
Austin (as Ettel): Yeah, yeah, I follow.
Austin: Says Ettel.
Austin (as Ettel): We both hate those fucks. So hey, we're cool.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Ettel): I get it.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Sylvia: They mentioned the Wrights of the Seventh Sun. I guess I don't know if I'd know for sure what the…
Austin: I don't that you actually know.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Do you?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: That that's who Uno Riscano is part of, right?
Sylvia: Yeah. ‘Cause otherwise I'd—
Austin: I don't think that he came out and said that, certainly.
Sylvia: Yeah. Otherwise I would’ve pressed on that, but…
Keith: If we gave Hazard clues, would he know, like, based off of our description of what they're about?
Sylvia: [sighs] Uh…
Keith: Or is it just like you don't know what…what, um… Sorry, what's the, uh…?
Sylvia: Uno?
Keith: Uno. You don't know what Uno’s got going on at all?
Sylvia: I think…it's tough. Like, I feel like the stuff we've put on screen is that Hazard knows that Uno really wanted the coin, but I don't know to what ends.
Austin: I think you know that Uno is the Count of Cards based on the calling card he left behind, right?
Sylvia: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Um, and so the rest of your— if you'd shared that with the rest of the crew, they would have told you that they'd fought the self-proclaimed Queen of Puppets, and you know that puppets and cards are both suits.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: So maybe you could start to put that together a little bit? The rest of the crew being, I guess, Chine, you were the one who fought Mabriella du Feza—
Dre: Mm.
Austin: —who is the Queen of Puppets, the head of one of these other suits.
Sylvia: I guess I'll ask them that. Like, do you— do we want to say that we've had that conversation, Dre? Are you cool with that?
Dre: Um… [sighs]
Sylvia: ‘Cause like, I imagine they talked while we were traveling.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: But I also don't know how much, like, Chine’s been talkative.
Dre: I think Chine probably gave you very loose details.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Chine is pretty talkative about everything except for that.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: That's the thing, right? And Lyke was not there for that part of the Sapodillan adventure, so.
Sylvia: All right. Well, let's say I haven't necessarily put it together yet.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, let’s roll with that.
Sylvia: And I'll move the, uh…I’ll move past the Phoenix Wright presenting evidence phase. [Austin chuckles]
Keith: So let's just say they're a cult.
Keith (as Lyke): They're a cult that wants to do some weird stuff with another dimension.
Austin (as Larch): Yeah, that’s about right.
Keith (as Lyke): And they've been big jerks in the past.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Sounds like something big jerks would do.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, it does. So. And, you know.
Dre (as Chine): So is there any other, uh…any other information that you all are not telling us that would be useful?
Austin: Um, give me a…give me a Compel, Chine. Or Discern to see if they feel like they're holding back on anything. This’ll be Wild or Warren, ‘cause that's still where we are.
Dre: Mm. Yeah, I don’t got either of those, but let's do it.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: You have— you don't have Discern Wild?
Dre: I don't have Compel or Discern.
Keith: Oh, sorry, okay.
Austin: Chine is not a talky or a noticey type.
Dre: Nope.
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: No, no.
Austin: Outside of hunting. You could Hunt, but you're not hunting information out of people. That’s not really a thing.
Dre: I’m hunting for clues, Austin! [laughs]
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dre: Boom. Don't care.
Austin: Ooh, look at that.
Dre: Don't care. I'm gonna roll terrible with actual things on the line, but… [laughs]
Austin: Look at that! Look at that. And you still got a ten! Unbelievable.
Keith: Lot of tens today, huh?
Austin: Lot of tens today. I think Ettel just says…or no, I guess it would be Agdeline, says:
Austin (as Agdeline): [sighs] Well, I would just hope that you, uh…you might see some surprising things when you find our recruits, and I would appreciate your calmness if and when you find them.
Keith (as Lyke): [whispering] Are they made of bugs?
Austin (as Agdeline): And understand that there is of course a— bugs, yes, uh, they're bugs.
Dre (as Chine): Oh!
Austin: That's a lie. That's clearly a lie, Chine. You see right through this.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: That was Agdeline catching something and hoping that it would be— and this is your crit, is that like, yeah, no, this is…she is hiding something about what the— who these recruits are.
Keith: So it’s worse, it's so much worse than that they’re bugs, that “Yes, oh yeah, it's just that they’re bugs” is the lie.
Austin: Uh huh. Yeah. [Dre laughs quietly]
Keith: Okay.
Dre: Oh man, this person telling Chine, “just don't overreact when something weird happens.” Cut to It like sniffing around the shrimp horse. Cut back to our conversation. [laughs]
Austin: Uh huh. Uh huh. [laughs softly]
Dre: Yeah, this crew, definitely shaken by weird stuff. [laughs]
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: Okay. I don't think Chine presses.
Austin: Do you push on this lie?
Dre: No, no.
Austin: You don't. Okay.
[0:20:00]
Dre: Chine just goes, “Mm, okay. You're lying.” And just kind of like tucks away. Mentally does that, doesn't say it, but…
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, doesn't say it. Yeah, gotcha. All right. To be clear, this isn't like a…I think you do get the vibe that this is not about “we're gonna pull one over on you.” That is not what the lie is about.
Dre: Oh, yeah.
Austin: The lie truly is about, like, I don't know how to breach this topic with you.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Because it's weird. So.
Dre: And I think that's part of also why Chine doesn’t push on it.
Austin: Yeah. The group then does also tell you that they've kind of already carved a path to Bluestone, the name of this haven you're headed towards, this quarry. And that is…or, I said it's a haven, but it's a landmark actually. It's not— it's explicitly not a haven. It is Technology and Warren. It is not Haven and Warren or Haven and Technology. They've already carved a path there. You can take that path the rest of the way safely. So the delve is effectively complete, and you can move at your will into Bluestone.
Sylvia: I need to do a move.
Austin: Ooh, what's your move?
Sylvia: This is The Frog’s Due.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: Members of the Caravan of the Coin are cursed to have their goods shift and change when not under observation.
Austin: Right.
Sylvia: When you end a Delve, roll one D10. And I don't think I have either my strange berry or my Ravening Beast needles stored under my tongue right now or in my—
Austin: Tongue, yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. You’ve been talking.
Sylvia: I don't know if it— is it under the tongue or is it in the mouth?
Austin: It's in the mouth. It's in the mouth.
Sylvia: Okay. Yeah.
Austin: You could keep that berry in the mouth. That seems hard, though. Given you've been talking and stuff.
Sylvia: I'm too used to taking stuff under the tongue to dissolve, like, in prescriptions, so like…
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: Like, yeah, no, that's what you do. That's how the frog works.
Austin: That's what you do. That’s how the frog works. Yes. [laughs]
Sylvia: Okay. So, I roll one D10, basically, and…
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: I'll just read…there's like five different (??? 21:44) here.
Austin: Yeah, roll the D10, and we'll see what you get, right?
Sylvia: Seven. So, shift the domain of every resource on your sheet by one is the result on that.
Austin: Mm-hmm. So that means that Occult things become Religion.
Sylvia: Religion. Okay.
Austin: How— what do— how do they change? Let's think. What's the— is it a blessed berry now? And…
Sylvia: Yeah, I thought the needles turning into like small candles kind of just popped into my head.
Austin: Ooh. That's fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Like, uh…
Austin: Like the little thin ones, right?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Love it. They're still black, though.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Love it. All right. Um, and that does not touch your equi— I mean, I guess it should touch your equipment, huh? Technically.
Sylvia: Does it? I don't know, like…the way we’ve written is it’s—
Austin: But they don't have domains in that way.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: So.
Sylvia: And it's all written as resource, in the move itself.
Austin: Yeah, it does. It is.
Sylvia: So.
Austin: Yep. All right. That works.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Cool.
Sylvia: Yeah. And, yeah, there's like results where the die’s value can change.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: But it didn’t happen on this one, so that's everything.
Keith: Austin, did you mark off one of my Beats, or did I do that by accident?
Austin: I did. I did that.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: You absolutely made a dramatic entrance as a Risky action.
Keith: I sure did.
Dre: Oh.
Keith: I wasn't sure if it was gonna count, but…
Austin: I think that counts.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: For me, that counts. So if you want to take a minor, you can do that.
Keith: Okay. And I can also refresh, um, D6.
Austin: Yes. You should do that. Yes, a hundred percent. Yeah, sorry. I did that during the break, and I forgot to say.
Keith: It’s okay.
Austin: We took a break, for people listening and who didn’t hear it.
Keith: And I’m gonna…
Austin: We took a break.
Keith: Three.
Austin: There you go. Boom. Where are you gonna put that? You putting that on Blood?
Keith: I'm taking three from Blood, and I'm keeping my nine.
Austin: Yeah, that’s a good idea. All right. Y'all head into this town?
Sylvia: I don’t like…
Austin: Under cover of dark? Do you wait till the next day? What do you do?
Keith: Eh, dark is dark. I don't mind that.
Austin: Dark is dark.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: I mean, I'm good with dark.
Sylvia: We need to— yeah, if we're trying to really be careful, I can Sneak, if we're really trying to not be seen. But I'm also just like good to go at night. I guess we're just going at night, if no one's like interested in being super sneaky.
Austin: Seems like it.
Dre: I mean, going at night is super sneaky.
Sylvia: Yeah, but I'm like, should— do we want to like actively be trying to hide?
Austin: Yeah, do you want to keep your heads down?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, what do you want to do?
Dre: Mm…
Keith: Um, I don't know. Is it…I want to— is it dangerous?
Keith (as Lyke): Should we sneak in? Is it dangerous? I don't really know what this place is.
Austin: They kind of look at each other, and they say:
Austin (as Ettel): Well, it's a…it's a quarry. They dig up stone and, um…it's kind of a company town.
Austin: Says Ettel.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay. But it's not like full of, like, murderers.
Austin (as Ettel): Well, no, but we did lose our people here, we think. So…
Keith (as Lyke): Okay.
Austin (as Ettel): Just keep your eyes open, maybe.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay.
Keith: So yeah, maybe not Sneak but be careful?
Austin: Yeah, I'll give you the lowdown as you get closer to it.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: You know, you do see, uh…there's a sign as you get close that does say straight up, you know, Bluestone Laberge Quarries, L-A-B-E-R-G-E, is the— seems to be the company that owns this quarry and this little company town. It is, you know, a few dozen houses or shacks. A small main street that has, you know, a general store. Um, a kind of a doctor's, like a small clinic, that says Dr. Gerty on it. There is a bar and cabaret called the Mourning Melody. And there is, you know, a sort of a mess, an open air mess where you could get food. But that's kind of…that's kind of all there is to this place, besides this deep kind of quarry, where lots of different types of blue stones are being dug out. This name is not creative. This is a place sort of like Blackwick, except instead of a bunch of random shit coming out, this is a place where you can get a bunch of different types of blue stone. Limestone and granite and slate, different layers just produce different parts of it. And sometimes you just randomly hit other stuff. You don't necessarily know without investigating, you know, what the prize, so to speak, is besides this stone, but you're able to see that they've pulled out big chunks of all these different types. And it seems like this place has been touched in such a way that if a stone can be blue, it can be dug up here. [laughs softly] Which is— which is a weird, weird thing, but not that weird for Sangfielle, you know? I think that there's probably also a big company office and, as always, a sort of exchange and pawn shop where you can, you know, move stuff in and out of company scrip. Obviously it's more advantageous to you in terms of buying stuff locally to use company scrip, because they don't want you to have real money, because that would help you leave this place, because that's how company scrip works, you know? Really want you to be tied in. It's a small town. 150 people, maybe?
Keith: Right.
Austin: Something like that.
Keith: [sighs] Okay, so it’s—
Austin: And so, yeah. And, you know, a company office. That's kind of the other biggest building here, which serves as effectively the kind of government center of the town also. What were you gonna say?
Keith: I was— you know, it kind of just seems like a town, like we could just go walk up to like…
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: The, you know, the tavern or something.
Austin: Yeah, there is, yeah, you can go to—
Keith: Or into the doctor's office. [laughs]
Austin: I mean, those are— those are haunts in the traditional sense. This place is Warren and Technology. It's Warren because all the kind of cave systems continue underground here, and there are all of these different ways to get down into the quarry and mines. [enunciating] The quarry and mines.
Keith: Quarry and mines, right.
Austin: Not the Quarian mines, [Sylvia and Keith laugh] which is of course a Mass Effect location.
Sylvia: What a reveal!
Austin: Uh huh. [Austin and Keith laugh] Ahh. A lot of people were wondering. We bought Electronic Arts.
Keith: Yeah. [Sylvia laughs] Yeah. If you were wondering if there's gonna be a new Mass Effect game, yes, and it's this. [Austin laughs] It's…this season of Heart. Of, uh…
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Of Friends at the Table using Heart.
Austin: [laughs softly] Uh, so yeah, what do you get up to here?
Keith: I would kind of like to go…
Austin: Are you looking around? Are you trying to attend to some haunts? You trying to heal up? What are you trying to do?
Keith: I'm trying to heal up, I think.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I would really quick like to find somewhere to…I know that I should have done this earlier, obviously, but get rid of the— downgrade my Ravening Beast to Ravening Call and then also get rid of that last two Blood Stress.
Austin: Oh, did you not do that in the place?
Keith: Um, did I?
Austin: You should have done that there, because there is no Echo Fallout place here.
Keith: Okay. Yeah, I just like didn't mention it. I was like, “I should do that,” and then I kind of just forgot.
Austin: I have no problem with you— yeah, you did mention wanting to do it. So yeah, if you want to burn one of your resources, a D6 resource—or D8 resource, 'cause it’s major—you can drop that down back to Ravening Call.
Keith: Okay. Oh, I can burn those roses.
Austin: Yes. Yes, there you go. Perfect. That works out ideally.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So yeah, go and drop that back down.
Keith: And then I just— I just want to get rid of the last couple two Blood Fallouts also.
Austin: Yeah, so there is a doctor, Dr. Gerty, who is a middle aged, uh…I'm gonna say it's one of our, uh…god, can you tell it's been a minute since we've played? One of the ojantani, the kind of big, big ox-like people, who— or not ox-like, more buffalo-like, more, more, you know, hairy in that way. Except starting to bald, the hair is getting a little slim up top. Has a classic like bolo tie situation on. Gives you an odd look as you come in, and is like:
[0:29:58]
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Well, I ain’t seen you around the mines before. Are you a visitor?
Keith (as Lyke): Uh, yeah. We're just passing through.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): [deep breath] Well, you know I'm only supposed to take company scrip.
Keith (as Lyke): I've got a…you know, I got a bag full of stuff. Not quite scrip, but it's…you know, it's good.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Mm, let me take a peek in there. Let me start looking around, see if you got anything I particularly would like to have. Hmm. Hmm…hmm. Well, what's wrong with you? What do you— you just got a little scrapes and bruises and whatnot?
Keith (as Lyke): [sighs] Yeah, some bleeding, some light bleeding.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Some light bleeding. I see, I see.
Keith (as Lyke): Need to get bandaged up. You know, maybe…
Austin: Reaches into your bag and grabs out this Course Smoke, which I guess is held in some sort of vial.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Is like:
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Now, this, this I could work with.
Keith (as Lyke): Uhhh, I would prefer not that.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Not that, not that.
Keith (as Lyke): Something…yeah.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Okay, okay, okay.
Keith (as Lyke): Maybe could be…
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Hmm, let me take a look here. [clicks tongue thoughtfully] Mm, what are— what are these?
Austin: Lifts up these stone fruit stones.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): What are these? Tell me about these.
Keith (as Lyke): Uh, this is…this is a fruit. This is an exotic fruit.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Is it tasty?
Keith (as Lyke): I have not had one.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Hmm, nah.
Austin: Puts it back away.
Keith (as Lyke): But they’re good for other stuff.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Yeah, what type of other stuff? [suddenly interested] Oh, who is this?
Austin: And goes to reach for Tombo.
Keith (as Lyke): That's my good friend Tombo.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): I will take Tombo off your hands.
Keith (as Lyke): What does Tombo have to say about that?
at; Abso-fucking-lutely not.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, there you go, Doc. Sorry.
at; Don't trust this guy. This guy seems like no good to me.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, he's got a mouth on him, but. [Keith laughs] But either way, either way, I think it's a no from the two of us.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. [clicks tongue, uncertain inhale] Well, I'm really not sure, then. How about these, uh…what do you got here? Is this a big…this rock smells of candy.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah. I'll give you— how about half the rock? Half of the rocks.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Half the rock. You break it— the big rock or the little rocks? I'm not interested in them little rocks unless you can tell me they're tasty, which you can't do, ‘cause you said you’d never ate them. But this big one smells of candy.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): I'll take three fourths of it.
Keith (as Lyke): Three fourths of it. So how does that split up, into a six and a four?
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Yeah, that's right.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay, and you'll take the six, and I'll keep the four?
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): I'll take the six. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay. Yeah, that's fine.
Austin: [laughs softly] All right, give me— roll D6.
Keith: Part of licorice rock.
Austin: [laughs softly] Yes. Just write licorice pebble.
Keith: Licorice pebble, okay. [Austin laughs softly] And then a D6 is what I’m rolling.
Austin: A D6. Yeah.
Keith: Three.
Austin: All right.
Keith: Boom.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Now, you know I have to report you to the company, let them know that we have some new visitors in town. That's just company policy.
Keith (as Lyke): Come— how come? Why is that?
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): 'Cause it's company policy. Make sure people who are here are, uh, get listed in the registrar.
Keith (as Lyke): Eh, we're just passing through. You know, can't you make an exception? Uh, doctor to doctor?
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Oh, are you a doctor?
Keith (as Lyke): I'm a doctor. Look, I…look at my coat.
Austin: Squints. [Keith laughs] Pushes glasses up on big buffalo face.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Hmm. I could be convinced.
Keith (as Lyke): Convinced that I'm a doctor?
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Convinced not to put y'all on the registrar.
Keith (as Lyke): I thought I was convincing you by being like, “Doctor to doctor.” Doctor…doctor-doctor confidentiality.
Dre: Oh, are we…
Austin: Give me a…
Dre: Are all of us inside this doctor’s office?
Austin: I guess, yeah, I guess you don’t know if the rest of you are not.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, yeah. Chine and— it sounds like Chine and Hazard maybe not. So just you.
Sylvia: I was gonna go see the doctor.
Austin: Oh, I see.
Sylvia: ‘Cause I have Blood Fallout too.
Austin: Well, there you go. There you go.
Sylvia: So I can be there.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then the two of you. Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Sylvia (as Hazard): [sighs] What— so what's it gonna take to keep us from getting marked down?
Austin: Uh, out of character, this is, um…let me put it this way. He would like a bribe. [Dre laughs]
Sylvia: Okay, yeah, for sure.
Keith: I could— I was getting the sense that he wanted a bribe.
Austin: He would like a bribe tip. Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: But I'm trying to give him the sense that I want him to do what I want without a bribe.
Austin: That'd be a Compel roll, Lyke.
Keith: Don't have that.
Sylvia: I can— I have that.
Austin: You could roll to help.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Listen, I just think it's in everybody's best interest if you just kept this between the two— the three of us, and just sorta, you know… [sighs] For everybody's safety, just keep things a little quieter, you know?
Austin: Ooh. All right, give me a…this sounds like a— between the two of you, that sounds like you're helping each other at the very least, so.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: I have— think I have to take the lead, just ‘cause I haven't technically gotten rid of Furious yet.
Austin: Oh, you're right. You do have to take the lead.
Sylvia: So I have to— that's fine. I'm the one with Compel.
Austin: You're the one with Compel.
Sylvia: This is…what are the domains, again?
Austin: This is either Technology or Warren.
Sylvia: Okay, so I don't have the domain here.
Austin: Yeah. So, Lye is helping.
Sylvia: Uh, so—
Austin: This is not Risky. This is Standard.
Sylvia: So that gives me an extra die for Lye, right?
Austin: Yep, plus one.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: Yep.
Sylvia: I'll just mark Mastery on that.
Austin: Yeah, that's fine. Ooh, a critical success.
Sylvia: That’s a ten.
Keith: Ten!
Dre: Damn.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): [backing down] Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. You don't need to put— give me the hard sell. What's wrong with you, buddy? You seem a little, uh, anxious. A little…a little angry. Little quick, little snappy.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Yeah. Been a little on edge. It's fine.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Okay, okay, okay.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I just…
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Well, what do you got? [mumbles] You got anything on you? 'Cause I'll happily take a look and see if we can, you know, clean you up a little bit, calm you down.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I got a berry, and I got some candles. Which would you prefer?
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): I would love the berries.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Here you go.
Austin (as Dr. Gerty): Those smell delicious.
Keith (as Lyke): Candles? Where’d you get candles?
Sylvia (as Hazard): Uh…I'll explain later. It's fine. [Austin and Sylvia laugh softly] You were technically there.
Keith (as Lyke): That’s so weird.
Austin: [laughs] And gives you, uh…basically what you're gonna get is just some painkillers that keep you, uh…
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: That kind of lowers the aches and pains and lets your mind kind of calm down as your body naturally heals the rest of the way.
Sylvia: Sounds good. All right. I am gonna get rid of Furious, then.
Austin: There you go. All right. What’ve you been up to, Chine?
Dre: Um, I mean, I don't think I've gone far. I think Chine is just kind of like skulking outside of this doctor's office building. [Keith laughs softly]
Austin: Yeah?
Dre: Just kind of like trying to stay off to the side in the shadows.
Austin: That to me sounds like a Sneak check. If you're trying to— if you're trying to not be seen, you know?
Keith: Chine went to the registrar to sign us all in.
Dre: Yeah. [Austin, Keith, and Dre laugh] Uh, they told me it's just— it's policy! I had to. [laughs]
Keith: It’s company policy. What are you gonna do?
Sylvia: Oh, god.
Austin: But yeah, no, you are…you are being…people will be looking for you, if you are— if you are not, you know, taking measures to stay, keep your head down.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: So I would say give me, uh…I mean, I guess it could be— it could be Sneak or Evade? Evade is so active feeling to me that it's hard to— let me reread Evade. What's Evade say? Evade says, “Get away from someone or something that try to track you down.” I'd say you could use Evade here.
Dre: Could I pitch the difference here? I think that—
Austin: Yeah, yeah, please.
Dre: To me, the difference is that like Sneak is like I hide and I can stay close by, whereas Evade is I have to move.
Austin: You're moving. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're, yes, absolutely. You're moving through this town in that way, for sure.
Dre: Yeah. I'll do Evade, ‘cause I think it also…I think Chine would also be okay with like scoping this place out.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Dre: Jesus.
Austin: My god, the tens will not stop coming.
Keith: Wow.
Sylvia: [laughs softly] Don’t tell Art.
Austin: You rolled two—
Dre: [laughs] Two tens!
Austin: You rolled two tens. You rolled ten, two, ten. [Sylvia laughs] What the fuck?
Sylvia: We got the luck pizza this time.
Austin: [awed] You got the luck pizza.
Keith: Delicious luck pizza.
Austin: Oh. Um, all right, well. I'm gonna give you a little something extra here. Though, you won't know that you're getting it, I guess. [laughs softly] Um, no, you know what? I'm gonna give you the extra thing that you will understand that you've gotten, instead of the thing that you wouldn't understand. Where are you— what do you— tell me about the places you're going to hide. Are you hiding on rooftops? Are you hiding in alleyways? Are you hiding behind wagon cars? What are you doing?
Dre: Uh, I think since I rolled Warren, it makes sense to be like—
Austin: Mm.
Dre: Alleyways, under things, like smaller cramped spaces as opposed to…
Austin: I mean, even into the caves, right?
Dre: Yeah, probably.
Austin: Maybe even, right? Or not the caves, but the tunnels that go down into the quarries, right?
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Keith: You're getting a real layout of this place.
Austin: Yeah, you totally are. So, you manage not only to not be seen, but you manage to find…um, you know, maybe you pick it up, right? There's a— there's a type of tunnel that clearly leads down to the quarry. And then there's another type that has been, uh…it's a small difference, but the versions that lead down to the quarry are…have kind of, wait, one, two, three, four, five, six sides, right? It's like a…it's almost like a…it's a flat bottom, but then it kind of goes up into almost like a pentagon shape, except the top goes to an extra kind of horizontal line so that it's a hexagonal shape instead. You get that nice six sided thing, but again, it's not exactly hexagonal. It's not exactly a hexagon, ‘cause it doesn't go out first, it just kind of goes up the way it does in a pentagon. Anyway, you find one that has seven instead, that’s kind of a seven sided tunnel instead.
Dre: Ooh.
[0:40:00]
Austin: And you're like, that’s a weird difference. They're called the what? The Wrights of the Seventh Sun? Huh. And you go down into that, into that place, and you can hear the sounds of people behind a door that has been carved into one of these little side tunnels, like making noise. Someone's going like:
Austin (as unknown person): [muffled] Mm! Mm! Mm!
Austin: When they hear your footsteps echoing through this tunnel. And they're on the other side of this door. What do you do?
Dre: Can I— Is it open?
Austin: No, it's a locked door.
Dre: Oh, okay. Um…I'll break this door down. [Keith laughs]
Austin: Hell yeah. Give me…that to me sounds like Delve Warren. Breaking down a door you could do with Delve. You get it with Endure. You just kind of slam your fucking shoulder against it. That's a success at a cost. Take Stress. Okay. [typing] Make you roll that Stress first here. Uh, this place does D6 Stress. Whoops, I misspelled roll. There we go. Ooh.
Dre: Oof.
Austin: Give me, uh…give me six, uh, Fortune Stress. Also, this is a Tier One place, Chine.
Dre: Okay. Whoof.
Austin: So take five, and give me your Fallout test. You did succeed, so I'll give you that success obviously, and I'll let you know what you find. But I do want to see if it's colored by Fallout.
Dre: Nope.
Austin: No Fallout. Love it. But, you know, that Stress, that Fortune Stress is you walking in places you shouldn't be, you know? [laughs softly]
Dre: Sure, yeah.
Austin: Increasingly, the chance of being caught raises. Inside, you immediately see people who have been bound and, you know, with kind of rope gags around their mouths. It's six people, I'd say? A half dozen, just as you expected, just as the trio, the Toll Collectors told you outside. And you see that on a table nearby, their uniforms have been taken and kind of folded up and put into like a little— maybe even a table. It's like a…it's like a little thing of little cubby system, a little cubby shelf, and their uniforms have all been put in there. Their weapons are nowhere to be seen. And they are all, you know, in their undergarments effectively, tied up, stripped of all of their gear. And it takes you a second, but as the— as your light kind of flickers— I assume you have some sort of…
Dre: Oh, I can see in the dark.
Austin: [overlapping] Or you can see in the dark.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Right. You can see in the dark, so you don't even need this. In the dark, as your eyes adjust to this, this new space, you recognize all six of them. Can you tell me who they are?
Dre: Me?
Austin: Yeah, can you guess who they are?
Dre: [thinking sound] Well, they're not bugs.
Austin: They're not bugs. [Dre laughs] It's the Toll Collectors.
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: Six of them. It's Agdeline, Ettel, and Larch again.
Dre: Oh! Okay. So like, two sets of three?
Austin: It's two of each, yes.
Dre: Yeah. Okay.
Austin: Correct.
Sylvia: Damn, they got doubles.
Austin: They got triples.
Sylvia: Yeah, that’s true.
Austin: They got question mark, question mark, question mark.
Sylvia: I mean, I meant the town has doubles.
Austin: Oh, yes.
Sylvia: ‘Cause they’re separated from the…anyways.
Austin: Yes. Uh huh.
Keith: But this isn't even…this isn't even a Sapodilla thing, ‘cause we knew that they'd been in multiple places at once, predating that.
Austin: You'd known. Keith knew that. Lyke didn't know that.
Keith: Lyke didn't, right.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: But that— I guess that's a “we” out of character knew.
Austin: Totally.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: So then why— so then, what the fuck? [laughs]
Dre: I don't know. We’ll find out.
Austin: Sangfielle in a season, yeah. Or in a phrase. “So then, what the fuck?”
Dre: Well, I mean, I knew something weird was gonna be here, so.
Austin: You did, yeah.
Dre: I go— who's closest to me?
Austin: Eh, whichever one you want.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: They're all closest. They're all, they're just tied in this room, you know?
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who was the— who was the big one with the…
Austin: Larch.
Dre: Okay. I'll go up to the nearest Larch.
Austin: Yeah. Oh! Neither of these Larches seeme to know you, but an Agdeline does.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: So this is part of what was happening before, is Larch was the one who'd met Lyke.
Dre: Ohh.
Austin: That Larch had met Lyke before. That Agdeline had never met either of you, and that Ettel had been one of the ones who had…had met you, Chine, when you went up thing— or, no, I think that Ettel, I think I was playing that Ettel as having been the one who had robbed, had tried to mug Lyke.
Keith: Right. [Dre laughs]
Austin: And was kind of like trying to play it down. So you're—
Keith: And I saved one of their lives, too.
Austin: You did. You did. So that's true. That's true. Here, the Agdeline up top, or the Agdeline that you meet, is one who you met, Chine, at the top of the weather…the weather station.
Dre: Gotcha.
Austin: The weather house, weather room, whatever it is.
Dre: Okay. Well, I’ll go over to that Agdeline, then. I assume like, as I go to the other Larch, that—
Austin (as Agdeline): [gagged] Mm!
Dre: Yeah, Agdeline starts going [muffled] “rmm, mm, mm.”
Austin: Yeah, he's like:
Austin (as Larch): [wary] I, mm…
Austin: He kind of pulls away, 'cause he thinks that you might be someone who works in the company, right?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: But this Agdeline like makes, you know, kind of like gestures at you. And she's like:
Austin (as Agdeline): [relieved, ungagged breath] I met you on top of the hill, in Blackwick!
Dre (as Chine): Yeah, and then I met another you by the hill that's outside of here. Any, uh…
Austin (as Agdeline): Did they—
Dre (as Chine): We’re here to get you out.
Austin (as Agdeline): [relieved sigh] Thank Virtue. [Sylvia chuckles]
Dre (as Chine): Here, uh, take…use this knife. You untie everybody else, and I'll get to work on the rest of them.
Austin: Yeah. Everyone begins to get untied. Let's go back to Hazard and, uh, and Lyke coming out of the…you come out of the doctor's office. Chine is nowhere to be seen.
Sylvia (as Hazard): [sighs] Do you know where Chine went?
Keith (as Lyke): No. I do not, absolutely do not.
Sylvia (as Hazard): This happen often with you guys? [Austin laughs]
Keith (as Lyke): [sighs]
Dre: You know, I don't know if I've done enough things [Sylvia laughs] with Lyke for Lyke to really say if this happens a lot. [laughs]
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I'll say this. I'll say this. Chine very recently went missing, and it was a big deal.
Dre: That's fair. [Dre and Keith laugh]
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith (as Lyke): Um, let's check around, I guess.
Austin: Yeah. Where do you go to check?
Keith: Rooftops.
Austin: Rooftops.
Sylvia: Yeah…
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: [laughs softly] I mean, that makes the most sense, right?
Austin: Give me a uh…
Sylvia: You know?
Dre: Like…
Austin: Yeah. Give me a Discern, Lyke.
Sylvia: Also— okay.
Austin: Or, what were you gonna say, Hazard?
Sylvia: I was gonna say like, maybe also being like:
Sylvia (as Hazard): Is there some…did they take…like, did Chine take the weird dog to get food somewhere? [laughs softly] Like, is that what he's off doing?
Sylvia: Chine’s they/he, right?
Dre: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yes. Yes.
Sylvia: I looked at the Roll20 and immediately saw that I did that right.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Okay. Yeah, I'm fine with going up, just going up to the rooftops to look around.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, I’d say give me a—
Sylvia: I don't think I can help here, ‘cause I don't have either of the things.
Keith: This is Discern Technology, you said, right?
Sylvia: Yeah, I have neither.
Austin: Or Warren, yeah.
Keith: Okay. I have Technology but not Warren.
Austin: Um…Hazard, I’d say you could help with Sneak, making sure you don't get picked up here.
Sylvia: Okay. Yeah.
Austin: You know, planning out routes and whatnot.
Keith: I also have Evade if you wanted me to also roll Evade Technology instead of Discern Technology.
Austin: I think Discern is the core thing here, ‘cause you're looking to find where Chine went off to.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: Gotcha. And…
Sylvia: But I'll help then, if that’s cool.
Keith: Okay. Sure. Ten.
Austin: Oh my fucking god.
Keith: Non stop! The luck is back, baby! [Dre laughs softly]
Austin: The luck is back. The luck is— the luck— ten ten, ten ten, ten, ten, ten. Ten? I— that's how many tens there have been tonight.
Keith: And then I rolled a…then I rolled a, uh, a no Fallout on a nine.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. This is unbelievable.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: RIP Duvall. Duvall’s not dead, just to be clear. [Keith laughs] I mean…but.
Sylvia: Yeah, no spoilers. That arc’s not finished for us yet.
Austin: That's fair. That's fair.
Keith: Is there a sixth part coming out? That's so long.
Austin: No, no, no, no, no. This comes out this week.
Sylvia: Oh, no, wait, no, there isn't. Yeah, it did wrap up.
Austin: Yeah, it wrapped. It wrapped. It wrapped.
Keith: I was like, oh my god. [laughs softly] I was catching up—
Sylvia: It was like the— it was like a cliffhangery wrap up, so.
Austin: It is a cliffhangery wrap up.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: It is.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Um, all right. You spot a…you spot It in the little— popping its head out of the tunnel, so you're able to quickly pick up exactly where Chine must be, in that seven sided tunnel. Seven sided, like, carved tunnel.
Keith: Sure.
Austin: You a hundred percent figure out where Chine is very quickly. You also, with a crit, you pick up something else. Dipping into the company headquarters, Lye, you see Calen Fel Dynestia. Kind of coat up, you know, head down in that sort of slouched posture that that motherfucker always takes. Slipping in and carrying a bundle of books and notes, presumably about some—
Keith: He's not being surreptitious. He just walks like that. He just walks like a little sneak.
Austin: Yeah, this is just how he is. Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. You also see, as, you know, maybe a moment or two after he goes in, a number of the, the kind of workers, the miners take up spots around the house, or the kind of— it's basically just a converted house, right? It's like a big house that the— whoever the foreman of this mine is or the owner of this mine lives in and also operates business out of. And these miners take up sort of defensive positions around the house, as if to make sure no one comes and interrupts whatever is happening inside.
Keith: Don't like it.
Austin: Mm.
Keith: But I think it's better to check out the cave, the mine.
Sylvia: [sighs] Yeah.
Austin: I think by the time you get there, Chine has freed everybody, and everyone is dressed back up. And you see Chine, Chine's little creature, and, uh, six more of the Toll Collectors.
Keith (as Lyke): Aw, what the fuck?
Sylvia (as Hazard): You got…
Dre (as Chine): Hey.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Three pairs of triplets. Wow.
Dre (as Chine): Yeah, uh huh. Still haven’t really asked, you know, didn't really ask details. [Sylvia laughs softly]
[0:50:00]
Austin (as Agdeline): Oh, honey, we are not triplets. We're, um…uh…
Sylvia (as Hazard): Quadruplets?
Dre (as Chine): Oh, are there more?
Keith (as Lyke): Quintuplets.
Austin: A big grin, you know, spreads across the Agdeline who knows this Chine’s face. [Sylvia laughs]
Austin (as Agdeline): Well, we haven't stopped coming out of the hills of Blackwick yet, so the number will increase until we stop increasing, I suppose.
Dre (as Chine): Oh.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Oh.
Keith (as Lyke): Wait, you same three keep coming out of the mine?
Austin (as Agdeline): Uh, we all went in, and…
Keith (as Lyke): Who here knows me? [Sylvia laughs]
Austin: Uh, I think one of the Ettels, uh, says— I guess, no, we already accounted for that Ettel.
Keith: Yeah. One of the Larches knows you. [laughs softly]
Austin (as Larch): You helped, um...you helped after the Ag— after Agdeline, the face soul…
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Larch): You helped.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Larch): I know you, uh, Lye.
Keith (as Lyke): And any— and no one here…no one here was from, uh, on the way to Bell Metal?
Austin: They all look at each other. No.
Keith (as Lyke): Why do you— why are you like this?
Dre (as Chine): You all, like…yeah, you don’t share notes?
Austin (as Larch): Sometimes.
Dre (as Chine): Yeah, okay, fair. [Keith laughs] You're probably spread out, huh?
Austin: They all nod.
Keith (as Lyke): How many sets?
Austin (as Larch): Uh…ten, eleven? So far.
Dre (as Chine): Wow.
Keith (as Lyke): Wow.
Austin (as Larch): It's about one a month.
Keith (as Lyke): One set a month or one individual a month?
Austin (as Agdeline): One set.
Austin: Says Agdeline, proudly. [Keith laughs]
Dre (as Chine): Um, can I ask a quick question? Why are you…why were you…why did they take you prisoner?
Austin (as Agdeline): Okay. We think that this—
Keith (as Lyke): And after that, I want you to tell me: do you come out knowing anything?
Austin (as Agdeline): We come out knowing what we knew when we went in.
Dre (as Chine): Aw, I asked first.
Austin (as Agdeline): It's an easier question.
Dre (as Chine): Okay, fair.
Austin (as Agdeline): Mm…we shouldn't share this with you, but…
Dre (as Chine): I mean, I can go tie you back up.
Austin (as Agdeline): You did save us. No, no, no! I…please. [Keith laughs] Also, there's six of us now, and though we're not armed, we are pretty capable.
Keith (as Lyke): Medium.
Austin (as Agdeline): Medium?
Keith (as Lyke): Medium capable.
Austin (as Agdeline): Pretty capable.
Dre (as Chine): You did get captured and tied up, so…
Austin (as Agdeline): Well, the people here are not normal.
Dre (as Chine): [intrigued] Oh.
Austin (as Agdeline): There's something wrong with them, the miners.
Dre (as Chine): How often do sets of them come out of these mines?
Austin (as Agdeline): You know, [laughs softly] it's not quite like that.
Dre (as Chine): Oh, okay.
Austin (as Agdeline): But it's not entirely dissimilar either.
Keith (as Lyke): What did you know going in?
Sylvia (as Hazard): Do people come out of the—
Sylvia: Go ahead.
Austin (as Agdeline): Just that we were in search of riches.
Austin: You mean into the Bl— into the mines in Blackwick.
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Austin (as Agdeline): We were in search of riches like any other miner.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay.
Austin (as Agdeline): Things to pull out. We didn't realize we'd be pulling out ourselves, I suppose.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Now, you two…
Sylvia: Hazard's turning to Chine and Lyke.
Sylvia (as Hazard): You guys are obviously a lot more familiar with the area, but is this sort of a common…people come out of this thing a lot? Or…
Keith (as Lyke): Mm…
Dre (as Chine): I mean, not that I knew of.
Keith (as Lyke): Sometimes, but like, not the same people usually.
Sylvia (as Hazard): [quietly] Okay...
Keith (as Lyke): And it's not that…I didn't know that it was anywhere near one set of three a month. I mean, that's in addition to the ones that you know that come out.
Austin (as Ettel): We’re sort of a new development.
Austin: Says Ettel.
Austin (as Ettel): New historically speaking, as far as I know, anyway. We went in there about a year ago, and, uh, we found ourselves, and we thought, “Let's keep digging, and see if we can find some more.”
Keith (as Lyke): You all remember…you all remember having like, you have your own…you all have the same childhood memories and stuff?
Austin (as Ettel): Oh, yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay.
Austin: Says a different one. And then a different Ettel says:
Austin (as Ettel): Yeah, oh, yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, yeah. Okay, great. Okay, so.
Austin (as Ettel): Anyway, it's all secondary to the point, which is [lowers voice] there’s sort of a secret society cult type thing here.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Ettel): A bunch of absolute pricks.
Keith (as Lyke): They’re called the Seventh Sun.
Austin (as Ettel): Yeah, the Seventh Sun. And, uh, well, I think they've converted this place or built this place to be a sort of resource gathering hub for them, you know? They're building something. And, uh, we were sent to kind of figure out what and what they were looking for here. And we think we know that—
Austin: And another Ettel picks it up and is like:
Austin (as Ettel): It's called welkin. It's a type of stone. It's blue like the rest of the stones, but it's, it's light, light as air, but real solid stuff like metal. And they're using it to build some sort of tower, we think. Anyway, the people here are weird, stronger than regular folks should be. Reinforced somehow.
Austin (as Agdeline): They overpowered us and outnumbered us and…captured us.
Austin: Says one of the Agdelines.
Keith (as Lyke): [sighs] All right, well, we should get all of us out of here.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Really quick, I'm just gonna ask, ‘cause there's a lot a…lot of people here at once. Uh, none of you…
Sylvia: Sort of like pointing just sort of like at the entire group of the debt collectors.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia (as Hazard): None of you’s seen a devil with one horn, uh, other than me around, have you?
Austin: Give me a…give me a D10. Just one D10.
Sylvia: Yeah, no worries. Uh…an eight.
Austin: That's a success. Um, I think one of them says, uh…I think one of the Larches says, um…
Austin (as Larch): The Count. The Count of Cards.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Yes!
Austin: And Agdeline, one of the Agdelines slaps his belly the same way the other one did, as just [hushed] “Shut up!”
Sylvia (as Hazard): Hey, no, let him talk. What do you know about him?
Austin (as Larch): Well, it’s the Wrights, the Seventh Sun. They have, uh, I don't know, sort of a leadership that is built into, uh…it's like a deck of cards, you know? You got your traveler, you got your knight, you got your wizard and your noble, one for each suit.
Keith (as Lyke): Huh.
Austin (as Larch): And, uh, the one you're talking about is the Count of Cards.
Keith (as Lyke): Hey, so I guess you know and hate these people like we do.
Sylvia (as Hazard): [sighs] [Keith laughs]
Sylvia: [laughs softly] Just like, kind of like slumped shoulders, realizing there's like an entire organization working with this guy.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Okay. Good to know. You know—
Sylvia: And then turn back to the group.
Sylvia (as Hazard): You know about these fucking guys?
Keith (as Lyke): Like, kinda.
Dre (as Chine): Yeah, kinda.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Okay. Well…I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna be asking some questions later.
Dre (as Chine): Do we need to stick around here, then?
Sylvia (as Hazard): Wait. Hey, big guy. Was he around here?
Austin (as Larch): No.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Okay.
Austin (as Larch): I just know him from, you know, stuff. Stuff we've been learning about.
Keith (as Lyke): Okay.
Dre (as Chine): I thought maybe you'd want to like, you know, break his stuff or…I don't know.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I mean, if he has any shit around here, I'm happy to, but I’m just—
Dre (as Chine): They’re building a tower.
Sylvia (as Hazard): They are building a tower.
Austin (as Larch): This whole place is bad news.
Austin: Says says one of the Larches.
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, let's get back to the camp.
Dre (as Chine): Yeah.
Austin (as Larch): There’s kind of a lot of us. Should we go in turns? Or should we all just try to rush out of here?
Keith (as Lyke): So I guess we can go in sets of three.
Austin: Sure. [laughs softly]
Keith: Do you need…do you need…do you need one of us?
Austin: I think we get one big Sneak roll here for the group, you know? [Dre chuckles]
Sylvia: Oh, like…
Austin: I think everybody should help here, but, and everyone should be open to consequences. You know what I mean? But we can do it in one roll.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: I can…unless—yeah, I guess like I have Sneak, and…
Austin: You have Sneak.
Sylvia: I don't have any of the domains.
Austin: Yeah, but you've Sneak, and that helps.
Sylvia: Does someone have Sneak and one of the domains?
Dre: I don't.
Keith: Psh…I could.
Sylvia: Okay, should I take the…
Austin: Lyke, you don't have Sneak, do you? You have Evade, which I think works here.
Keith: But I could have Sneak, ‘cause I just got a thing.
Austin: Oh, 'cause you just took this thing.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do have a level to spend, don't you?
Keith: And it's not a bad move. I…
Austin: What is it? Oh, yeah, is this Mark of Shadow?
Keith: I had the book open, but it kind of got an error. Yeah, Mark of the Shadow, yeah. It basically just lets me Sneak.
Austin: Oh, “Hiding from someone or something is always a Standard action for you, never Risky or Dangerous.” That's great.
Keith: Yeah. It's a good move.
Austin: Yeah. It’s not a bad move.
Keith: Um, yeah.
Austin: You want to take it?
Keith: Yeah, I'll take it. Why not? It wasn't on my radar, but…
Austin: I think it’s fair to say: this would have been Risky because of moving, uh, nine people—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Through a town that's on the lookout for them all.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Or that knows that they're no good. And also, I talked about guards being just deployed earlier, so. So yeah, take that move. And uh, and yeah, let’s…
Keith: I have a real collection of skills here.
Austin: You really do.
Sylvia: So I'm supporting now.
Austin: You're supporting.
Sylvia: And Keith is rolling.
Austin: And Chine is…Chine, you're also helping here?
Dre: Sure, yeah.
Keith: All right.
Austin: Yeah, so go ahead and take plus two. I think that that's fair.
Keith: Okay. Sneak, Technology.
Austin: Plus two.
Keith: That's not a spell.
Austin: It's not a spell, I’m sorry.
Keith: It’s just a skill.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Okay. Nine.
Austin: That is a nine. Eight, nine, five, nine, one. Success, no Stress.
Sylvia: An area code. [Keith, Austin, and Sylvia laugh]
Austin: Um, you manage to sneak out of Bluestone. Knowing a little bit about it, you pick up the…you know, or rather, you know, you've picked up a lot of information about what this place is. It seems to be a resource center for the Wrights of the Seventh Sun. You can assume that they're building the tower that you've read about here or there. Maybe not this particular group, but the wider group certainly knows that they're interested in building Zevunzolia or building a connection to it or something. But you get the group out to the other, to the other Toll Collectors, the other Knights of Virtue, who seem surprised that you didn't even need to use their flare.
[1:00:03]
Keith: Oh, yeah.
Sylvia: Oh, right.
Austin: But seem overjoyed at seeing— at seeing their people brought back. Everyone embraces, everyone shakes hands. There's clearly some sort of like mentorship program here. [Dre laughs]
Sylvia: That’s so funny.
Austin: Also, this helps explain the rookie thing a little bit, right?
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: Is that like, the earlier you were out, the earlier you were…the kind of more experience you have in post, post coming out of the cave life, you know? Maybe there's an adjustment period. You're not sure of the specifics.
Austin (as Agdeline): Well, that was fast.
Keith: Yeah, must be rough learning you're the twelfth you.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Keith (as Lyke): Hey, what was the good of the flare gonna do? It was gonna like, get us into trouble.
Austin (as Agdeline): Well, it was gonna let us know that if you needed help, we would come in to help.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, okay.
Dre (as Chine): Nah, we're good.
Austin (as Agdeline): I have to say I'm impressed.
Keith (as Lyke): That must be one of the ones that doesn't know me. [Keith laughs]
Austin (as Agdeline): [exasperated/amused sound] That's right. Lye Lychen. That's your name?
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Agdeline): I’ll remember. Well, I suppose our task here is complete.
Keith (as Lyke): So weird.
Austin (as Agdeline): I trust the six…the six of, uh…the six of you—
Austin: Says one Agdeline to the other part of the group.
Austin (as Agdeline): —can get back to Sapodilla safely?
Austin: And they, you know, say yes basically.
Dre (as Chine): Wait, so that's it?
Austin: And the group begins to get their stuff together. I mean…
Dre (as Chine): There’s a base held by an organization that we all hate, and we're just gonna leave it?
Austin (as Agdeline): Well, this group was sent for reconnaissance, not for demolition. And we were sent to rescue them.
Keith (as Lyke): And we weren’t sent. We just got here.
Austin (as Agdeline): You just got here.
Austin (as Ettel): I know what you're sayin’, Chine.
Austin: Adds Ettel.
Austin (as Ettel): Uh…it doesn't make me feel good to leave it here. And, you know, there's 12 of us. But it is kind of a big, a big task. And if we can't…if we can't be sure that those miners are, uh, regular folks, that could be a little overwhelming.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Do we want to try and come back when we have the rest of your friends?
Sylvia: And that's directed at the two player characters, not the…
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Not saying that we should wait for more Agdelines and the sets. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: For more toll people? Yeah, uh huh.
Sylvia: Yeah, yeah. Just want to be clear.
Dre: Do you…do you think Chine puts it together that this tower is like a Zevunzolia thing?
Austin: Oh, undeniably.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: Undeniably. I guess, I guess you don't necessarily have the exact— you don't have the…you don't know that, um…I mean, unless someone's told you this, that Calen…as a reminder to listeners and to this group, Calen was researching a way to get cheap labor to build the tower of Zevunzolia and the city of Zevunzolia. The way that Calen was researching was about turning people into machines and particularly into trains. That's why they…or why he turned Fezh, his partner, into a train. That's something that Lyke knows because of the research that you found in Calen's place. Then, Chine, you saw the model of Zevunzolia and saw a portal into Zevunzolia itself. You know that it stands on top of a sort of big pedestal tower. So maybe you could put that together, you could start to put that together based on the model you saw, but you don't know that Calen— unless Lyke has raised this to you off screen, “Hey, that motherfucker, that guy, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.”
Keith: Yeah, I would say that this conversation, I would realistically be like, Calen is here. Like, the…
Austin: Right.
Keith: The dickhead Shape Knight who started the whole Bell Metal thing.
Austin: And at this point, you know, Larch is here to be like, the Larch who was there at Bell Metal is here to be like:
Austin (as Larch): Oh, this is where he came. He must be gathering stone for their project.
Keith (as Lyke): That looks like what it is.
Dre (as Chine): Pickman would want to know about this.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, yeah, for sure.
Austin (as Larch): Big time. [Keith and Sylvia laugh]
Keith (as Lyke): Thanks, Larch. [Austin laughs]
Sylvia (as Hazard): Wait, so…you all have like beef with these Wrights of the Seventh Sun people?
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah.
Austin (as Larch): Sort of.
Sylvia (as Hazard): [quietly] I was mostly— sorry, Larch. I don't want to be rude. I'm mostly talking about the Blackwick Group. [Keith laughs] I really appreciate having just met you.
Austin (as Larch): I thought we were—
Sylvia (as Hazard): And like, I feel like we're like becoming friends, but I just—
Austin (as Larch): [dejected] I thought we were— I thought we were cool.
Sylvia (as Hazard): We are cool, bud. I just like, we're not really like, we don't really have a working relationship like that yet. [Austin laughs] Um, listen, I have a lot of motivation to get in there. So if we're planning on, um, not dealing with it right now, I want to…I don't know.
Austin (as Agdeline): I mean, listen.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Could I hire you guys to come with?
Austin: Agdeline— I think the Agdeline who's in charge, the Agdeline who was at the fire earlier, says straight up. She says:
Austin (as Agdeline): I would like to bloody their noses as much as anyone, but we have a choice to make. We could commit ourselves here and potentially lose ourselves in this effort. Or we could come back stronger later and see how it goes then, with the forces of Sapodilla and the forces of Blackwick together. Now, there is also the matter of the supplies, which we've heard Blackwick needs. Do we want to risk not delivering these supplies in order to hit them now?
Sylvia (as Hazard): I'm fine with doing the supply run. I just want some sort of assurance that I'm gonna have some backup when I come back here, from, uh…again, mostly talking to the guys I already know. But really do appreciate the help. It seems like things are a little weird between Sapodilla and their crew, but I'm not like a hundred percent sure. I just don't wanna make things awkward, so. I appreciate the like teamup idea, but, um…yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): I think that a place like this would be, you know, fairly interesting to the Blackwick Group as a whole.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Okay.
Keith (as Lyke): So yeah, I mean…
Sylvia (as Hazard): Okay.
Austin: Chine, do you…
Sylvia (as Hazard): Well, guess I’m sticking with you guys a little longer, then, huh?
Keith: I want to tell the six that are going back…
Austin: Oh, this is the Six. Okay, now I understand.
Dre: Mm. [Sylvia laughs]
Keith: Um, I want to tell— I want to tell them to tell…to like, not leave us out of the report, when they report back.
Keith (as Lyke): Be like, “Yeah, the people from the Blackwick Group saved us and sent us back.”
Austin: Mm.
Austin (as Ettel): Will do. Uh, you know, uh…
Austin: This is one of the Ettels talking.
Austin (as Ettel): Eh. I get that there might be some beef between you and the queen, uh…but we’re good.
Keith (as Lyke): Cool.
Austin (as Ettel): All right. Let's get moving.
Keith (as Lyke): Do you have a name for…do you have a name for one set of three of you? Like…
Austin (as Ettel): Nah, ‘cause we get all mixed up different times. But, you know, we take up nicknames and whatnot.
Keith (as Lyke): No, but I mean, if there's, if there's one of each in a group—
Austin (as Ettel): Yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Does that have a unit name?
Austin (as Ettel): No, because we mix up the units all the time.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, so sometimes it's like three Larches.
Austin (as Ettel): Yeah.
Dre: Oh.
Austin (as Ettel): Or it’s like a different Larch in the group, or it's, uh…
Sylvia (as Hazard): Okay.
Austin (as Ettel): We're experimenting. They call me Scales.
Keith (as Lyke): Scales?
Austin (as Ettel): Yeah.
Keith (as Lyke): Why do they call you Scales?
Austin (as Ettel): Like the scales of justice, you know?
Keith (as Lyke): Oh.
Dre (as Chine): Oh, okay.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Oh.
Austin: Larch says:
Austin (as Larch): No one calls him that.
Dre (as Chine): Yeah, that makes sense.
Austin (as Ettel): I'm trying to get some people to— it's cool. Scales. [Keith laughs]
Keith (as Lyke): Scales.
Austin (as Ettel): That's right.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Kind of makes it sound like you have a skin condition.
Keith (as Lyke): Kind of makes you sound like a lizard.
Austin (as Ettel): Well, I’m a seahorse guy, so I mean, there's that part of it also.
Keith (as Lyke): Seahorses don't have scales.
Austin (as Ettel): [dejected] Yeah, I know. [Keith laughs] That's why it's a justice thing.
Dre (as Chine): Wait, they don’t?
Keith (as Lyke): No. They have, like, skin.
Dre (as Chine): Hmm.
Keith (as Lyke): I think so, anyway.
Austin: Anyway. [laughs] They have fins. They do have fins, and they have like armor. They have like a weird skin with their armor situation, with the spines and whatnot.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: It's cool. It's cool, but it's not— I don't think it’s scales. Anyway.
Keith: They’re fucked up.
Austin: Does this sound like the plan here? The plan here is to leave them be for now?
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: All right.
Sylvia: I do…part of me like kinda wants to like…now that the Wrights of the Seventh Sun thing is a little out there.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: I do want Hazard to be sort of pushing for more information. Like, how many times have you guys met them? What happened when you met them? ‘Cause we established that Chine has been pretty cagey about it.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Sylvia: Like, what— what— like, I think if you guys are cool with it, this is probably like getting filled in on what happened at Bell Metal and stuff too.
Keith: Yeah, that was my real— my only real encounter with them, right, was Bell Metal?
Austin: I think that that's right for you. Yeah.
Keith: I don’t think I have a second one.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: So I'll tell Hazard all about that.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: And then, Chine, do you share the stuff with the puppet…the Puppet Queen and seeing Zevunzolia? [Dre sighs] Or do you hold back still?
[1:10:04]
Dre: Um, I think like anything that doesn't have to do with like Chine being basically tortured gets shared.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: As you're telling that story, Chine, and I’m imagining this is on the journey, right? This is kind of a slow roll thing. The creature…there are moments when the creature seems like it wants to comfort you, kind of walking closer to you. But as you hold back, it also moves into this other maneuver where it moves up in front of you in the group, as if to put distance between…between it and the rest of the group. Now, it could be helping to scout and make sure that the group is safe. But there is a sort of defensiveness or protectiveness that's happening that's about…about the safety of distance. It continues to look at you in very complex ways when it comes to modeling behavior. And that's not to chide— that's me, Austin, saying that's not me chiding the idea of like, this is not a way to share, you shouldn't be sharing trauma or something like— [Dre chuckles] or that you should be sharing trauma or something. Like, I think Chine is well within their rights to not share their torture story. But these are the— this is still the lessons that are being learned by this, by this creature, is that like, hey, there are times to be close to a group and there are times to be distant. And that like, it's reflecting that back in the way it's…this is who it's learning to be, if that makes sense. And also, by the way, oh, it's growing those— it's growing the Ravening Beast’s hair at this point, its needles. And as they grow out, they become more hairlike and almost swimmy. You know, they kind of move on delay from the rest of it.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: So that when it dodges, like, when it moves over to the right, it takes a second for them to catch up. And there's this sense of it almost being underwater as it moves.
Keith: Hmm.
Austin: Just a couple of brief images on the way north.
Sylvia: Um…
Austin: First— oh, yeah, go ahead.
Sylvia: I was gonna have Hazard relay some info about what happened to them.
Austin: Please. Oh, what are you gonna— is this a…
Sylvia: Um, learning stuff.
Austin: Yeah, go ahead.
Sylvia: Yeah. Well, so this, I think…I'm gonna do this in character, just like…
Sylvia (as Hazard): Okay, so before, I just thought Uno was kind of a, um…what’s a nice way to put this? A greedy prick for what he did to me. But knowing what he's involved in now, I think it's worth mentioning that the Wrights of the Seventh Sun got their hands on Ribbadon's coin. And I don't know if that's necessarily tied in to all this Zevunzolia stuff that I'm finding out about, but, uh…worth mentioning that that's what I'm trying to get— mostly what I'm trying to get back. Um… [sighs] Okay. Uh…I’m trying to figure out how to explain this without you guys like freaking out. So just like, don't…
Sylvia: And then Hazard, like, takes their mask and their hood off. [laughs softly] And there is nothing there, except like…the way I've thought about this is I looked up what the specific name for this is, photopsia. They're like the things that…you know when you get like a flash of light and you have little afterimages in your eyes?
Austin: Mmmm.
Sylvia: You can't quite focus on them.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Dre: Yep.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: That's what happens when you try and look at where Hazard's face and head would be. [Austin laughs softly] You just can't focus on it. Like, you— there's— it's not like there's an absence there. It's like…there is so…like, there's nothing in a way that like, you can't even like comprehend it a little bit. It's not just like you look past it. And, very quickly after doing that, puts it back, like the hood and stuff back on. It's not entirely clear how the horn is staying up in place, but it is.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Yeah, so the only thing I really know is that this guy cut my head off and has the coin in it, and I'd like that back.
Keith (as Lyke): Where—
Sylvia (as Hazard): And I was hoping you guys would, um…again, if the Blackwick Group is taking jobs right now, I'd love to get, um…to sort of get some backup.
Dre (as Chine): So like, is it just empty?
Keith (as Lyke): Where do you breathe from?
Dre (as Chine): Don’t worry about that part.
Sylvia (as Hazard): You know what, these are questions that I don't have the answer to.
Dre (as Chine): Can I touch?
Keith (as Lyke): Yeah, is it solid?
Sylvia (as Hazard): I would not recommend that.
Dre (as Chine): Oh.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Things just kinda— so, like, I eat, right? And like, when I'm doing it, I feel like I'm just doing it like normal, but I mean, I don't…I can't see what's going on down there, but the food disappears. And so I don't…I wouldn't touch, just to be…also, it’s kind of rude, you know?
Dre (as Chine): Well…okay, yeah, sorry. No, I'm sorry.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I'm a little sensitive about it. Yeah, just really wanted to let you know what the stakes were here with this thing, before we go back there. So yeah, if you— if for some reason you guys find him and I'm not there, um, save him for me? That would be great. Thank you so much.
Keith (as Lyke): Um…I mean, yeah, sure. I know…
Sylvia (as Hazard): Thank you.
Keith (as Lyke): I know what he looks like. You've described him.
Dre (as Chine): Mm-hmm.
Sylvia (as Hazard): Yeah. Real…real big guy. It's annoying. [Austin and Sylvia laugh softly]
Keith: Do…I'll say this. Personally, out of character, I don't know…I have no idea what…what the..what Ribbadon’s coin would help the Seventh Sun people.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, the…
Sylvia: I just—
Austin: Go ahead.
Sylvia: I was saying I just think of it as like a powerful religious artifact. It's like, what if this group had some faith’s like holy grail type thing?
Austin: Yeah. What could you— what sort of leverage might that give you over a huge organization?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: The— one of the best organizations for moving stuff across Sangfielle.
Keith (as Lyke): How did you get the coin?
Austin: And also just wealthy.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I don't remember. I remember waking up and seeing a man walking off with a very bloody bag.
Keith (as Lyke): Oh, so you don't even remember having the coin.
Sylvia (as Hazard): I only remember what happened after I lost it.
Austin: But this is why…this is why he cut your head off, probably.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: ‘Cause it was in your mouth, so that's one way to get something out of someone's mouth.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah. I don't think Hazard goes into the—
Austin: No.
Sylvia: We played a game, and I might have lost and refused to live up to my end of the deal.
Austin: Sure.
Sylvia: ‘Cause that's not really…that doesn't engender as much sympathy as the…
Austin: Hmm.
Sylvia: This guy…hey, can you help me— [laughs softly]
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: —deal with this guy that cut my head off?
Austin: But God, yeah, you could also probably trade the coin back to Ribbadon and be—
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Like, what do you get— what do you get for that? That's fun. There's all sorts of things they could do with that coin, you know?
Sylvia: Well, 'cause that was like the purpose of like the followers finding it.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Was they were trying to bring that coin back to Ribbadon.
Austin: To clear their debt, yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Totally.
Sylvia: Anyway, yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: I wanted…I wanted Hazard to have those cards out on the table with at least part of the group.
Austin: Totally.
Sylvia: Very badly. So figured while we were doing the…
Keith: Careful, because having cards on the table has not worked out well for you in the past. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: Aw…
Sylvia: Yeah, I know! Look, we don't know…hey, we don't know what would have happened if I entered the false war tournament, all right?
Austin: True, true.
Sylvia: Also, actually, do you want to say that Lyke and Hazard have been playing some false war on the trip back?
Keith: Oh, sure.
Sylvia: Because Lyke wants to practice.
Austin: That’s really fun.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, that's extremely good. Ettel, great card player. Larch, terrible card player. Agdeline, above playing cards, secretly wishes she was good at playing cards.
Keith: Damn. [Sylvia laughs] That’s like me with bowling.
Austin: Uh huh. Here are our images as we wrap this up, then. One, as you move north towards Blackwick, one of the first things that you see is Bell Metal Station out on the horizon. Lyke, your first impression is that it's taller than it used to be, as it has begun to be turned into a tower, reinforced by some of the stone that's been pulled out of the quarry. It's blue like the color of the sky, and in some places white. You recognize that the parts of it that are white very clearly do invoke seeing the tower of Zevunzolia, the kind of the tower that leads up to the city, Chine. That does feel right to you. As you get closer to…as you kind of move further north, you do see a train pass you by heading south. It is not— it is not Fezh, but you do recognize that it is the…it is the train that visited Blackwick, I guess at this point, [laughs softly] months ago, the, uh…Ms. Chantilly Scath’s Shackled Engine moves past you on the way south, not towards Bell Metal, but toward some other destination. Or perhaps looping around to go somewhere else. Perhaps you'll see her again sometime soon. To the west, close to the mountains, which will eventually become the mountains where Blackwick is further north, you see the early brewings of a sandstorm, one of these dust storms that, you know, I think maybe one of the Toll Collectors says something like, uh…
Austin (as Ettel): I hope that's heading east and not north.
Austin: And then, and then as you near Blackwick, the first thing you note is just this sort of dispersed red in the sky. By the time you get here, I think the lightning bolt itself has gone away, the lightning bolt which previously had been drilling its way supernaturally towards the Abbey of the Mother-Beast and the Hymn of the Mother-Beast. But, but its, the…its light remains in the sky above Blackwick, and in fact, it kind of…it's almost like looking at heat lightning, where it kind of pulses in the sky, these kind of deep reds. And as you near the town, you smell smoke and overwhelmingly the smell of wax candles, Yellowfield candles. What you find here is a town in shambles. You're very close, coming from the south, to the Blackwick, Blackwick Group's headquarters. And it's a good thing, because the town itself seems to be overrun with violence, with screaming, with terror. And when you head inside, you see a few of your compatriots, you know, exhausted, sleeping up against the corners, up against the walls, trying to recover from their trials. You see Es here. You see Duvall here. And you quickly realize that you have no idea where Marn or Pickman might be, let alone the other people you were traveling with, like Bucho or the other Shape Knight Alekest.
[Music plays: “Sangfielle”]