Transcriber: Cole
Austin: Lem King, you are currently holding a book in your hands. It is one of the only ones here on the trading isles of the Isles of Flight, the island known as Deya, that is not written in the local language of the mistral. And this is useful to you because you told a small lie which was that you were bringing a book as a gift or a trade or something like that to the islands that needed, of course, to not be written in the native tongue of those who live here. And so, you went searching for one.
And finally after being referred from store to store, from shop to shop, you found an oddities shop, an import store, something that would have the sort rarity that would be a book not written in the local tongue. And then, after you found it, they found you. Two large, bird creatures. Two large mistral, named Curram and Raphoa, though they do not introduce themselves with their names, instead with their razor blades. Which kind of swim in the air as they… as they shake them around. They call you the one who vouched for the vouchless and demand that you come with them. What do you do?
Jack: Oh god. Um…. I mean, I suppose I go with them. I think… I don’t… I think… I think I look down at the book in my hand, and I look… What is the reaction of the other patrons in this shop when this happens? Is it similar to…?
Austin: I think it’s just the shop owner who is like, ‘I gotta get out of the import business.’
Jack: Oh really. So, this is like, cause when I encountered the body earlier, there was this like, very calculated unseeing happening.
Austin: Yes.
Jack: Um, and when…. There is a… there is shock in the face of the owner? Or is it resignation? Or is there just no recognition of what’s happening.
Austin: No, there’s… there is… It’s not shock. It’s just like, he’s not gonna defend you. He’s just….
Jack: Right. It’s just-
Austin: ...You’re gonna go with them and that’s the way it goes here. You know?
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s just like…
Austin: I think what he actually asks is, um, have you paid for the book yet?
Jack: Um… I don’t thi…. Oh, let’s… it’s more interesting to say that I haven’t.
Austin: Yeah. Um, well then-
Jack: I think that’s what I say. I think I say, I need to… to the guards I say,
Jack (as Lem): I need to pay for this.
Austin: Um, he looks at them and then at you. And then back at them. This sounds like you’re making a… some sort of roll. It sounds like you’re… I think he says like… No, I think you're gonna make me a roll. I think this is a Defy Danger charisma for whether or not you get this book.
Jack: Oh, yeah. Right. Cause I was worried that you were thinking that I was setting up some kind of escape.
Austin: No.
Jack: Like I was gonna go into my wallet and then run out.
Austin: No, no, no. This is just-
Jack: No, I just wanted the book.
Austin: Yeah, this is just do you get the book or do they like, knock it out of your hands like high school bullies.
Jack: Oh, like no. Right. I had forgotten that these guys were sinister jerks, but they’re also just jerks.
Austin: They’re just jerks. Yeah, so give me a charis-
Jack: Defy…
Austin: Yeah, Defy Danger charisma or just charisma.
Jack: Ok. I’m still-
Austin: Charisma is +1. You should do great here.
Jack: I’m still remembering… phew… I don’t know. I wouldn’t say stuff like that, Austin, before I make a roll.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Defy Danger. Charisma? And I just push the charisma 2. Right.
Austin: And that’s a 6.
Jack: See? See? See that’s a 6, Austin. [Austin laughs hard] Now… [laughs] Now what happened there was a little curse.
Keith: Less than-
Jack: That’s less than I want or I need.
Keith: Yeah, it’s less than 7 by 1.
Austin: Ugh, right.
Keith: Do you… now, here’s something that got me last… last recording session.
[Jack de Quidt’s “Something” begins playing in the background]
Keith (cont.): Do you have a secret plus 1 forward that you’re forgetting about?
Austin: Nope, not that I can think of.
Jack: Well, I”m gonna take XP.
Austin: Alright.
Jack: Oh no, Austin. Austin, I do. It says that I do have a plus 1 forward.
Austin: You do have a plus 1 forward.
Keith: Ah, there we go.
Austin: Where did you get that from? Where did you get that from?
Jack: I don’t remember where I got that plus 1 from.
Austin: Who even knows? Alright.
Jack: Keith... Keith, you have a special place in my heart. You know, just like urban dictionary says. [Keith laughs]
[Music plays out to end]
Austin: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast, focused on critical world-building, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. I am your host, Austin Walker. And joining me today, Jack de Quidt.
Jack: Hi there. You can find me on Twitter @notquitereal, and buy any of the music featured on the show at notquitereal.bandcamp.com.
Austin: Keith J. Carberry.
Keith: My name is Keith J Carberry. You can find me on Twitter @keithjcarberry. You can find the Let’s Plays that I do at youtube.com/runbutton.
Austin: And-
Keith: Oh, you can go to contentburger.biz to vote in the runbutton pilot season thing for our next patreon Let’s Play.
Austin: Also, joining us, Alicia Acampora.
Ali: Um, hi. You can find me on @ali_west on Twitter, and you find the show over @friends_table.
Austin: You can find me @austin_walker, and you can support the show by going to friendsatthetable.cash. You know, maybe you just got some holiday cash, you know? Maybe you want to spread that around. Spread the joy. Spread the love. Festivities and whatnot. [small laugh] Um, we are continuing our game today of Dungeon World by Adam Koebel and Sage LaTorra. Before we go further, let’s go quickly over alignment and bonds before hop in. Lem, what is your alignment and what are your bonds?
Jack: My alignment is neutral. ‘I want to ‘avoid conflict or diffuse a tense situation’ by paying for a book or something.
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh.
Jack: Um, my bonds… I have a bond with Hella which is ‘Aubade changed Hella. I will look to her to find the ways that it changed me.’ And with Ephrim, ‘I draw strength from the fact that Ephrim has built something.’ Um, I don’t-
Austin: Did you have one with Fero that you resolved last time and that we have not yet replaced?
Jack: Uh, I had one with Fero… I had one with Fero at the end of winter.
Austin: Ok. But you’ve not written a new one yet.
Jack: Which was about…. No, I don’t have new one with Fero yet. I think because-
Austin: You should write a new one by the end of this session.
Jack: Yeah. That’s a good idea.
Austin: Cause otherwise you’re burning the possibility of getting XP.
Jack: Yeah, 100%. I could call Ephrim. [Ali laughs] Just be like, ‘How’s it going back there?’
Austin: ‘How’s it going back there? I’m tryin’ to draw strength from you. That you built that thing.’
Jack: Yeah. Um, yeah.
Austin: Alright. Um, Hella, how about you?
Ali: So, my alignment is neutral. ‘Increase your reputation while working to fulfill death’s task to you.’ And my… the task that death gave me was to… where is this? Oh, it is ‘help the dead or the dying pass on.’ It is in dark blade.
Austin: Yes.
Ali: I have a dark blade now. [laughs]
Austin: You do have a dark blade. Uh huh.
Ali: And then my bond-
Austin: So, help the dead or the dying pass on.
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: I’m gonna just add that to your alignment.
Ali: Cool. Um, and then my alignment are… I have an alignment with Adaire which is ‘I feel bad that Adaire feels ineffective when she’s the most talented person that I know. Now that we’re home, I want her to feel supported and involved.’ And then Lem is ‘I’ve seen Lem lost, but I know that his instincts to learn are good. I hope we learn something about the Isles with him.’ And then Fero is ‘Fero was difficult when I traveled with him and he still is, but I’m different now. This journey could be different.’
Austin: Hell yeah. Alright, Fero. How about you?
Keith: Um, my alignment is chaotic. ‘Favor your instincts over fear of consequence.’ My bonds are with Ephrim, ‘Lord Ephrim thinks helping means being in charge.’ Thron-
Jack: [laughs] Is ‘lord’ in… Is ‘lord’ in scare quotes?
Keith: It’s in scare quotes, yeah.
Jack: Great.
Keith: Throndir…. That’s actually why I pushed for ‘lord’ over ‘king’ is cause I thought it sounded better in the scare quotes in my bond. [Ali and Jack laugh]
Austin: Uh huh. The truth comes out. [Keith laughs]
Jack: It’s as good a reason as any.
Keith: Throndir… you can’t.. It’s hard to say ‘king’ sarcastically because it seems so official.
Austin: King. Yeah, it kind of like…
Keith: But like, anyone can call themself a lord.
Austin: It kind of reiterates the fact that that motherfucker’s a king if you say king, right?
Jack: [laughs] Yeah, exactly.
Keith: Right. Yeah, exactly. Reminding everyone like, ‘Oh. Well, he’s king. So, he should be in charge.’
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Throndir, uh, my bond with Throndir is ‘Throndir is a fool who will get us in trouble.’ Lem is uh, ‘Lem King is as clueless now as he was when I last saw him.’
Jack: Feel like that’s an improvement.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: Uh, I mean, as clueless as you were when I said I hated you? I don’t know.
Jack: Yeah, it’s…. [laughs] We’ll see.
Keith: Um, and with Hella, it’s ‘I hope Hella will realize how wrong we’ve all been.’
Ali: Oh.
Austin: Interesting.
Ali: That’s new.
Keith: That was.. That’s changed from last time. Yeah, I resolved that one.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: Right, good.
Keith: ...last time.
Austin: It’s how you get XP. So, remember to be willing to do that stuff and write some new stuff that is… you know, that’s one of those ones where Fero, you should be looking to engage with that. ‘I hope Hella will realize how wrong we’ve all been,’ At the end of this session, that could resolve whether she has or hasn’t done that...
Keith: Right, exactly.
Austin: ...if you think Fero has changed his perspective on it. It’s one of those things we’ve been really bad it in this entire campaign, and I’m trying to get better at because it is good for us.
Keith: Yeah, gets us those levels.
Austin: Lem, here’s the thing that happens. Uh, so here’s a question. Is this a… is this a… Hmm… is this a peasant gift that you’re buying? A fine gift, a noble, a ring or cameo, finery, a fine tapestry or a crown fit for a king? Where on that list…
Jack: Is that a- oh my god...
Austin: ...of gifts and finery do you think this would be?
Jack: How do I… Oh, I’ll search gifts and finery.
Austin: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You tell me whether it was a peasant gift, a fine gift, a noble gift-
Jack: A peasant gift, a fine gift, a noble gift-
Austin: A ring or cameo, which is... which is...
Jack: [quietly] a ring or cameo...
Austin: I will tell you a ring or cameo is lower than a noble gift. A finery… finery is in... is above a fine gift, but below a noble gift. A fine tapestry or a crown fit for a king.
Jack: This I think is a [pauses and laughs] Didn’t we talk about it as being like a children’s book or something? No, did we describe what book it was?
Keith: No, you said that the children’s book was how you learned about the Isles.
Jack: Oh, how I learned about the island.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, uh huh.
Jack: That’s where I got my +1 forward.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Um, I think it is a fine gift.
Austin: Ok.
Jack: I think there’s lots of ways you can define fine. It’s better than a peasant gift. Um…
Austin: Give me a… So, here’s what I’m gonna say. A fine gift is 55 coins, right? So, it’s already kind of expensive. But here’s the thing that happened is, you didn’t have exact change. So, you are like, plopping down a handful of money on the counter. And you are not getting back that change. So, you roll me a 1d50, and that is how much more you’ve given.
Jack: How much money do I have?
Austin: You have so much money.
Jack: Oh, for real?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: How much money do I have? Where does my money?
Austin: It’s on the second… it’s on the sub-screen. [Jack laughs] You don’t have any money, Fero.
Keith: I don’t have any money?
Jack: Hey.
Austin: You have zero money, apparently.
Keith: Well, it’s never been important to me.
Austin: I don’t know that’s true though. Did you give up all your money at some point?
Keith: No. I don’t think that’s true at all.
Austin: Hmm.
Keith: Someone out-
Jack: Guess how much money Ali has? [Ali laughs]
Keith: Someone out there who’s been relistening to old episodes and knows how much money I have…
Austin: We… You could just check the old… the old sheets. You know?
Keith: Oh, how do I do that?
Austin: Uh, I can do it because I just have it right here. Um…
Jack: Oh, I have 263 money.
Austin: You had… you had 195 gold. Or coin.
Keith: Got it. Thanks.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Still not important to me.
Austin: Uh huh. [Keith laughs] Yeah, but you really needed it. Uh, Hella, how much gold do you have?
Ali: I have -11, which seems not true.
Austin: How do you have that? Well, no y’all were broke last season.
Ali: I was broke, but I had like… I had ok… So, I had 21 gold… and then I didn’t I have like, a different sort of gold that was like, available more places?
Austin: Those coins are worth shit up here.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: No, that’s just regular gold coin… Yeah, you had 21 gold at the end of last season.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: Is what I have you down as. I don’t know where the rest of that went. I don’t know why that came through as -11. I don’t know if that was a problem or if you spent thirty something gold.
Ali: I didn’t spend anything.
Austin: Hm…
Ali: I’ve been working this whole time since I’ve been home. [Jack laughs]
Austin: Uh huh. Go back up to 20. We’ll call it even.
Ali: Yeah, also Adaire ga- Ok, yeah. I just changed it again, and it changed to -11 again. So...
Austin: That’s very funny. No, it says 20.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: It says 20.
Jack: [laughing] You have a wallet [Austin and Ali laugh hard] You know that...
Austin: You secretly picked up the-
Jack: ...smart fridge we have in Los Angeles
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: And the smart fridge was like, ‘You got no milk.’ This is like, your wallet is like, ‘You got -11.’
Austin: It’s just broken.
Jack: Ok, so I’m gonna roll 1d50, and this is Lem just like…
[crosstalk begins]
Austin: Just.. yeah, cause like,
Jack: ...fumbling inside his pouch...
Austin: ...you know there’s this money …
Jack: … and just be like-
Austin: You’re not even using a local money, so you’d have to get back, you know, extra coins or whatever. Or bigger… whoever knows. So, you’re just gonna lose an extra… 18 coin. So, it was 55, you plop down uh…
Jack: Uh…
Austin: ... 70… you know, er 73 or something. And, but before you could get the change… Or in fact, I think this guy just doesn’t make the change. He does just like, slip it into the register and then turned away as these…
Jack: Yeah, that’s great.
Austin: ...two large, bird guards like, grab you by the shoulders.
Jack: So, I lose 73.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Let’s make is a round 75, just narratively…
Austin: Perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack: ...feels like a nicer number.
Austin: You basically just dropped an extra 25 quarter or whatever.
Jack: Yeah. Um-
Austin: You like, it wasn’t 50 exactly. It wasn’t... but it wasn’t... you know, so…
Jack: 188.
Austin: Perfect.
Jack: And ok. Cool.
Austin: [sighs] Finally money means something in this game. Um, and so they just… They drag you out and here is, I think, where you get the bit that you were just suggesting which is, no one makes eye contact with you. You know, you can occasionally sense someone’s eyes on you, but they are looking at you from behind after you’ve walked by, you know?
Jack: Right.
Austin: No one is...
Jack: Right.
Austin: No one is strong. Um, you do see a couple of… literally a couple… Literally two young birds… Two young mistral who scatter away as the guards approach. And you recognize them as the two who had previously been at that body that you were checking out.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: It’s the same two who are now basically following you. Um, and who’ve spotted you, and then they like, run out and like, hop off the… Remember this is like a multi-level mall basically. Like a shopping building that has um…
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: ...that, remember. I don’t know if you remember this. It has like, open walls on the edges, basically. So that you… so that the mistral can just like, fly up or fly out or whatever.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: And so they just like, glide away. Um, and so when you step out, the other thing is like, I just want to give you… You kind of get a view looking out west from the second or third or fourth floor of this, I guess fourth floor of this tower. And you can kind of see, there’s a line of people waiting to get on one of those big, jeweled serpents that flies between the big, flying islands. And the thing you notice now, cause you’re close enough to is, they’re all wearing the same… It’s almost like, I mean, for us, I would describe them almost like scrubs. They’re kind of like, dark green, but like, you don’t know if it’s linen. You don’t know what it’s made of. But they’re all wearing exactly the same clothes, and they all have like, back… er they all have packs that are all wrapped in a similar material.
They’re different shapes. So, like, you know, a super obvious way for me to explain this is like, ‘Oh, there’s a… there’s one person who clearly has like a big, a giant oboe or something, but it’s… it’s wrapped in what looks like, almost like a seaweed wrap. And so is… so is someone else’s backpack. And so like, it’s a bunch of their luggage, and they’re waiting to get like… to board onto this um, this jeweled serpent bus thing that [laughs] comes between these various floating islands. Um, but before your eyes can like, stay there, the guards kind of shove you and bring you over to... Like, they find the stairwell which they hate having to use for someone like you, but they’re doing it because you don’t have wings.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: And you know, they’re being very rough. Um, Hella and Fero, you’re still in that waiting room. How is it going with y’all? Waiting room slash interrogation room, but no one’s interrogating you, so…
Keith: Not being interrogated is the easy… is easy. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: Um, so, I guess I’m glad I’m not being interrogated.
Austin: Have y’all talked about anything? Do we get any… any Fero slash Hella convos here? Or are you just sitting in silence for like, the hour this takes?
Keith: [sighs] I have been trying to have Fero be trying to be more patient.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: But you know, we all have bad days, and I’m bored.
Keith (as Fero): It’s boring here now.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah.
Austin: Is that a thing you say in character?
Keith: We just- Uh huh. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, ok.
Keith (as Fero): I mean, we just got through waiting out there. And that was fine, and I was waiting for a while in here. And that was fine. And I have decided that it’s not fine anymore to be waiting. And I don’t like it.
Ali (as Hella): Um, alright. What do you want to do? Do you want to talk about something? What’s up? I mean, we’re gonna be stuck here.
Keith (as Fero): [sighs] How long do you think he’s gonna be?
Ali (as Hella): I don’t know. Um…. Lem’s smart. He’ll be fine. He’ll be fine. He wanders off, he comes back. It’ll be fine.
Keith (as Fero): Can’t he just one time do the thing we were supposed to do at the place we went to? [Ali and Jack laugh quietly] Can’t we one time do just the thing we meant to do?
Ali (as Hella): Ok, but… I… I’m kind of interested in what happen… like, I’m doing this favor for somebody, so I’m like kind of interested in that. And also…
Keith (as Fero): What do you mean?
Ali (as Hella): Oh. [laughs] Oh my god, Fero. [laughs] Remember Adelaide?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Ali (as Hella): So, she was in the sword with us. And we kind of…
Keith: Do I know… do I know about how your… do I know about how… I assume that I know the details of Hella’s sword.
Austin: What do you mean by the details?
Keith: Nobody ever talks about it. Like, how if…
Austin: Like, what it is?
Keith: ...she kills someone with it, they go into it. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause you know that they came out of it. You know the Marielda story at this point.
Keith: Yeah. Right.
Austin: You know that it killed Samothes, etcetera.
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith (as Fero): I guess I didn’t do… I guess I just didn’t consider that she would be in there. I… you know?
Ali (as Hella): Oh, she would like…
Keith (as Fero): Right?
Ali (as Hella): Oh my god. This… Fero, this is such a long story. I’m gonna give you the short part of it. Uh, so like, basically since we came back, she was like, haunting me. It wasn’t great. I thought that I was like, sick with that disease that people thought that we had. It was pretty awful. I wasn’t.
Keith (as Fero): Was haunting you? Like a ghost?
Ali (as Hella): Kinda. It wasn’t chill. But anyway, we met in the sword. We were both in the sword and we talked it out. And it’s fine now. We’re like, close. It’s fine. Um, and…
Keith (as Fero): Wait.
Ali (as Hella): Hm?
Keith (as Fero): Why are you close with the lady you killed that was haunting you from a sword?
Ali (as Hella): Well, like… we had the time to hang out.
Keith (as Fero): I would have said, ‘No.’
Ali (as Hella): I mean, but she’s like, trying to… like, make an afterlife, I guess. And that’s chill. Like, she’s just doing what her dad did, but like… I don’t know. Not being shitty about it. And not being shitty about it the way that she was, you know during all…
Keith (as Fero): And so you’re helping….
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, I mean, like, people are dying here. And it would be like, good if like, they weren’t…
Keith (as Fero): What do you do to help?
Ali (as Hella): I’m not positive yet.
Keith (as Fero): I thought you were gonna say, I’m not popular yet, which yeah. Good. I hope not.
Ali (as Hella): I… I mean, I’m also trying not to do that. But you know… you know, anyway. Um, but yeah, I mean…
Keith (as Fero): So, because you’re… the ghost that’s haunting you…
Ali (as Hella): She’s like…
Keith (as Fero): ...enlisted you to help with her new afterlife, you’re interested in this shitty place’s weird street dead people.
Ali (as Hella): Well, that guard had a really fucked up tone.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, I know. These people suck. I just don’t… I just don’t want to… I just don’t want to add… I just don’t want to leave here and go back, and they’re like, ‘How did it go?’ And we have to be like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t exist anymore.’ again.
Ali (as Hella): Oh.
Keith (as Fero): And I know that Jack-
Keith: Jack. [Ali and Keith laugh hard]
Austin: Wow.
Keith: Is that- I don’t think I’ve ever done that!
Austin: No.
Jack: Now, hold on.
Keith: Wow.
Keith (as Fero): I know that, you know, Lem wandering off once is probably not going to doom this city. [Jack laughs] But we have a bad track record. And I just want to do the job.
Ali (as Hella): We’re gonna do it, ok? I understand that today has been a very bad day. And I… I… I also sort of understand that if we had just listened to you, it would’ve been less worse. So, I’m gonna make an attempt to do that more. But also, like, I mean, like, these people are dying in the streets. Like, if we can do something about that, like why…?
Keith (as Fero): We live somewhere where people were dying in the streets until like a month ago.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, but we’re helping them, too.
Keith (as Fero): I jus… I… I just...
Ali (as Hella): We’re not gonna fix it overnight. We’re not like… we’re not… I mean, it’s just… Like, it’s just the three of us, you’re right. It is just the three of us. But like, why come all the way here… Oh, they’re going to the moon.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Ali (as Hella): We’re just gonna go home and be like, ‘Oh, we saw them. They went to the moon. That’s it.’
Keith (as Fero): Well, there’s something about that we… something about the moon. Right? [Ali and Keith laugh] It’s just… We’re not just here to confirm that they’re going to the moon. There’s som… you know. Maybe they have something figured out.
Ali (as Hella): We’re all smart and talented people. And we can do two things.
Keith (as Fero): It’s so-
Ali (as Hella): Wouldn’t you want to go back and be like, ‘Yeah, we also know the secret. And also, we… found out about this like…
Keith (as Fero): What if we just barely… what if we just barely don’t do a good enough job? And it’s because we thought we could do two things. And it turns out, again, for like, the ninth time that we couldn’t do two things.
Ali (as Hella): Nine time. Nine, what wa… where were there nine? Ok, Nacre was a bad one. But we’ve already covered that, and also, I made amends with Adelaide, so it’s like… That’s even as far as I’m concerned.
Keith (as Fero): Oh yeah, you’re right. It’s almost like… it’s almost like we didn’t spread a curse over the world. [Ali and Keith laugh] And destroyed the secret hidden city.
Ali (as Hella): Ok, but that’s the whole thing. That’s what we talk- like, that was a combined effort. That wasn’t just us, that was her. And we’re all working through it. We’re all making amends. It’s fine. So, there was Nacre. Where are the other ones?
Keith (as Fero): Nacre, Rosemerrow.
Ali (as Hella): That wasn’t me.
Keith (as Fero): You were there.
Ali (as Hella): I was there, but we were just like, investigating that murder. I didn’t do anything. I saved them when I killed that star, who was kind of cool actually… But… [Austin laughs]
Keith (as Fero): And then, what did that star end up doing?
Ali (as Hella): Actually, you know what, Fero?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah?
Ali (as Hella): They…
Ali: I know. Ugh, my god. What’s the star’s name?
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: Chapter?
Austin: Chapter.
Ali: Chapter. Hella knows. I don’t know.
Ali (as Hella): Actually, Chapter went into the sword, and is like, helping them there now. So, again, win-win.
Keith (as Fero): Helping them there by sealing away Samothes.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, that was fucked up. But that was Samothes’ choice. And then when I spoke to Chapter about it, they were like, ‘Oh, well, me and Samothes came to this choice.’ Which is… that’s suspicious to me for like… [overlapped by Keith] just would have be like, ‘Oh, I’m sacrificing myself, and we both made this decision.’
Keith (as Fero): Ok, so now this win-win, you’re like, ‘Oh, well, it was shitty and also it sounds suspicious.’
Ali (as Hella): I just… well…
Keith (as Fero): Is it… It doesn’t sound so much like a winwin, it sounds like you’re not really convinced.
Ali (as Hella): Well, you kno-
Keith (as Fero): You came out of that sword, and you said like… You basically said ‘Fuck Samothes.’
Austin: At the moment that you said that, the door opens, and the two large birds push Lem King in. Lem, all you just heard was, ‘duh duh duh duh, Fuck Samothes.’ from Fero, and then the door closes behind you.
Jack (as Lem): Hi. Sorry about that.
Ali (as Hella): Hey. How’d it go?
Jack (as Lem): Good news. I got the book. Uh, sorry. Hang on. I did that wrong. Wait a second. Do you want the good news or the bad news?
Ali (as Hella): Oh boy.
Keith (as Fero): Bad news.
Jack (as Lem): Ok.
Keith (as Fero): I… Actually, I already heard the good news, so… there’s only one left.
Jack (as Lem): [laughs] Ok, sure. Um…. so, they…. I got kind of caught, I was… I didn’t come here on my own. My ideal situation would be that I got the book, which I have.
Keith (as Fero): Oh, so this is… The situation is less than ideal, you mean?
Jack (as Lem): Well, I mean, I think we should focus on the bright spot, which is that I got the book, and now we’re all in the same place. Also, no we can talk about that in a bit. Don’t worry about it.
Austin: The door opens again, and Sah-ver, who was the patrol guard who brought you in here to begin with…
Keith: The original cop.
Austin: The original one shows up…
Jack: [laughs] The original cop.
Austin: ...shows up with a larger bird again. And this one has very like, bald eagle coloring going on. Is like, white feathers up, like from the head down to the neck. Big, broad shoulders, broad head. Just like, a big, hulking fucking bird. Um, and Sah-ver says like,
Austin (as Sah-ver): I’m glad everyone arrived. This is Hershon. Hershon has some questions for you.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, well, who vouches?
Ali (as Hella): Fero.
Austin (as Sah-ver): I vouch for Hershon. And so does Zogia.
Austin: And Hershon nods quietly, and like, big yellow-gold beak. You know. It’s like, impressive looking. Um, says,
Austin (as Hershon): A number of questions.
Keith (as Fero): What number?
Austin (as Hershon): We will find out. Sah-ver, the room, please.
Keith (as Fero): We’re not allowed to answer more than 4 questions. [Jack laughs]
Austin: Give me a… give me a roll.
Jack: This is an incredible negotiating tactic.
Austin: Give me a… a… uh, yeah, give me a- you know? I think he says like,
Austin (as Hershon): That detail of the treaty was not listed. And unfortunately we will not be recognizing it.
Keith (as Fero): Listen, you’ve got your rules, we’ve got our rules. We can only answer 4 questions.
Austin (as Hershon): Very well. Then choose which 4 you answer wisely because a failure to answer will be read as an answer. We can have this conversation here or in brighter environs, you’re choice. Which would it be?
Ali (as Hella): I’ll pick up the extra questions. It’s fine.
Austin (as Hershon): Thank you. So, in this room or in my office? The choice is yours.
Keith (as Fero): Office.
Austin (as Hershon): Good.
Austin: And he turns and says,
Austin (as Hershon): Sah-ver? Lead them there. I’ll have the room prepared.
Austin: And he leaves. And she like, sighs and says like,
Austin (as Sah-ver): The sta… the stairs are a little creaky, but trust me, they are ok.
Austin: And leads you down the hallways of this… of this, what is effectively a police station, until you reach a stairwell which leads you up. It’s like, 10 flights. [laughs] Um, it’s not… you know, y’all are adventurers. It’s not the end of the world. But boy. [laughs] It’s still 10 flights of stairs. And eventually-
Keith: Are they… are all the floors like, occupied? Or is just like...
[crosstalking]
Austin: Oh yeah.
Keith: Oh, ok. So it’s not just like-
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: ‘Well, we can’t fly, so it didn’t matter that we...’
Austin: Oh, you know what? I think you’re right. There are probably like… you climb 10 floors, but there are only 5 floors worth of… floors in there. Or like, every… it’s 5 floors, but each one has the height of 2 floors, you know?
Keith: Right.
Austin: So, it’s really high ceilings on each floor. So, eventually you come out onto the top floor of this building. And it is, uh, it is like the market that Lem was in.
Which is this big, open-aired… space where you can kind of… It’s almost like a rooftop garden, but with a… like, a pagoda on top. Like a pagoda… like a roof on top with open air um, but open… um, walls and sides. Um, and you can see that there is like... this big eagle guard has a large stone desk in the middle of the room. And there is a… God, I bet there is some sort of… Lem, you definitely recognize there is some sort of mechanical music device. I’m imagining it almost like, like a… what are the little cylinders called that go into a piano, like a player piano? Whatever those are called.
Jack: Oh, like a piano roll?
Austin: Like a piano roll that is like… that is being hit on like, little pins and needles that like, strum out certain sounds. And it is-
Jack: Oh, like a music box.
Austin: It’s like a… it’s basically… Yeah, it’s basically a music box. Yeah, exactly. That is playing something very low. It’s almost like it’s… It’s almost like blues or like, like very slow tempo… low tempo jazz [laughs] basically playing. Um, and there is the desk that he is at, but then he’s also prepared a group of like, chairs that are around a little pond that he has installed on this floor. And you can just like, look out to the west and see the other big, floating islands. And you can look in every direction. Right? As far as you can tell, like, if you wanted to run and jump out of here, you could do that. You’d just be 5… or 10 floors up. I know, Fero, that doesn’t matter so much for you, but for everybody else, you would just be 10 floors up.
Jack: Can we… There’s been a lot of talk about this sort of like, like moon project, for want of a better word.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: From Sah-ver. If we look out towards the big island, can we see any... You know, in the same way that when you’re looking at Cape Canaveral…
Austin: When you were… yes.
Jack: …you can be like, ‘That’s Apollo 11.’
Austin: You can see, um, you can see there are some giant stone structures all the way out there. You know, it’s far, right? Like, I want to be clear.
Jack: Sure.
Austin: Like, if we look at the general map of Hieron really quick, just to give people some sort of…
Jack: Oh damn. Yeah.
Austin: Like, you’re at the far eastern island here, right? The one that’s all the way here. And it is all the way to the west there. For us, you know, for the purposes of us, that’s like the distance between the New Warchives and Rosemerrow, right?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Or maybe a little tighter than that. Maybe the distance between Velas and Rosemerrow or something. Or Velas and the Mark of the Erasure. Like, it’s a… meaningful travel. And you know, maybe that’s part of why they use those serpents to fly the kind of, winged, jeweled serpents to fly from place to place. But the… but the... you know, it is… and each one is big. Like, this island is the smallest island by far, and it’s still you know, very [laughs] large. Um, they’re middle sized islands are probably as big as Velas.
And they’re largest island is kind of like, the interior of Rosemerrow big. But it’s also one that you… and you can see this from here. Even though it’s definitely above you, you can tell that it’s also still like… It’s clearly the one where there’s like the least traffic going to and from. And because of that, you’re guessing it’s probably the least like, settled. If that makes sense. Or the least developed in terms of architecture and buildings and cities and stuff.
Jack: Right.
Austin: You can see up to the next one, you can see pretty clearly there is like, one center struc- set of structures. Though I can just tell you is like, a school of some sort. And then you can… you can see there’s a lot of traffic around the kind of, middle island. Or the kind of middle, center island here. The one that’s kind of… um, the second biggest one. And again, like, I’m just gonna tell you, that is like, the biggest residential… That is like, where people live on this island. The… or on this… in this country. Um, the… Hershon, the big, eagle mistral leads you over to the pond. And he says,
Austin (as Hershon): Something warm to drink? Cold?
Ali (as Hella): I’d love some water.
Austin: He looks down to the pond and gestures. And sees what you do. [Austin and Ali laugh]
Ali: I… I have adventuring gear which like…
Austin: You do.
Ali: ...has to include like, a cup, right?
Austin: You do. So, you just like, take a cup out and get that… get that little pond water out?
Ali: Yeah, just a little….
Austin: Alright. He like, he holds up his hand and is like,
Ali: I can get you colder. Give.. give me a moment.
Austin: And goes over and… God, how does he even make it? You know, I think he probably just has like, an iced pitcher somewhere behind his desk. And so, he comes back with that.
Austin (as Hershon): Does anyone else want anything?
Ali: I think… sorry. I think Hella like, winks at Fero. Like a, I passed the test kind of thing. [Austin, Keith, and Jack laugh] Like, we’ll be fine.
Keith: Those uh, no. Nevermind. [Ali laughs]
Jack (as Lem): I’ll take a glass of water.
Austin: He comes back over with water. I think he has a cup of something hot probably. Some sort of… some sort of you know, tea drink. And sits down with the four of you. You’re all facing the same direction. You’re all like… it’s four chairs around this pond, but like, around in a semicircle, not as a… not as the you know, if this is an interrogation this is not set up like one.
Austin (as Hershon): So, where do you come from? I know you say that the Golden Lance vouches. We have record of such an agreement. But where do you hail from? Each of you.
Keith (as Fero): Where did you get record of that agreement?
Austin (as Hershon): Downstairs. Sah-ver called in your…
Austin: Or didn’t call in…
Austin (as Hershon): Sah-ver came and checked through all of the old records. It is not bullshit. Whoever… whoever it was that signed the initial agreement with the Golden Lance vouched for their authority and for their ability to come and advise in matters of justice here.
Keith (as Fero): Oh, you have record of the Golden Lance being… Ok. I thought you were saying you had a record of the Golden Lance saying that we should come here.
Austin (as Hershon): Oh, is that part bullshit?
Ali (as Hella): It isn’t. Nope. No.
Keith (as Fero): No, no.
Ali (as Hella): Um, I…
Keith (as Fero): Listen, bud.
Austin: He like, stirs his tea a little bit.
Austin (as Hershon): Hmm.
Keith (as Fero): It’s bullshit that you would have a record of that.
Ali (as Hella): I was born on Ordenna, but we are coming from the Last University. **We call it something different now, still don’t know what, but… I forget [inaudible]
Austin: I don’t think you do call it anything different yet. I feel like, yeah.
Ali: [laughs] Ok.
Austin: No one’s come up with an idea yet. [sighs] He says, um,
Austin (as Hershon): And what is your purpose?
Keith (as Fero): We heard you were going to the moon.
Austin (as Hershon): And we are. Were you here to see a trip?
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, we’re pretty interested.
Ali (as Hella): I mean, to find a society with a solution is exciting for the people back at home.
Austin (as Hershon): A solution?
Ali (as Hella): Well, uh… um, I mean, things are pretty rough. Uh… I mean, and, you know, just kind of like, you know, see what other people are up to. What they’re getting up to.
Austin (as Hershon): Uh huh.
Ali: I think Hella’s looking at Lem now, just being like…
Jack (as Lem): My name is Lem King. I was born in the New Archives... which as you may have heard… do not exist now in the same way that they did when I was a child. And yet, I remain an archivist. And it is the…
Jack: And Lem is like, glancing at Fero.
Jack (as Lem): It is the nature of my work… both personally and at the Last University, um, to… to come to understand as best as I can the circumstances that others find themselves in in this difficult time.
Jack: Takes a big sip of… just a big gulp of water. [Ali laughs]
Austin (as Hershon): And that is it?
Austin: He’s like probing. He’s giving you like… he’s like, steely eagle eyes. And you… I don’t know that you can… I mean,
Keith: Is there something that we know that we can tell him?
[major crosstalking]
Austin: I don’t know. Are.. are...
Jack: I think there is, right? There is like…
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: There’s a thing we’re not… I suppose Hella did kind of say it, right? Which is like, Lem isn’t just saying this, this is me voicing it. It’s like we… we want to know whether or not this is…
Keith: A tenable solution?
Jack: ...real, right? Yeah. Whether or not this is a… whether or not this works. And I think we gave him a bit of that, right? When Hella…
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: When Hella called it a solution, and he just like, narrowed his eyes. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: But like, I don’t think… I think any particular play for honesty of us being like, ‘Will this be good for us?’ is like, I don’t know if that’s like, a particularly good negotiate…. I prefer four questions to that style of negotiating.
Austin: You don’t get the sense that he is negotiating or interrogating. There is… I mean, this is… this is… someone should be trying to figure out what his deal is. Is what I will say.
Jack: Right. Yes. I suppose Lem is also… Lem has this extra um, experience that Fero and Hella don’t, right? In sense of encountering the body.
Austin: Uh huh. Though everyone saw what was happening with that body in the sense that like, there was a person who died and no one was helping them.
Jack: Right.
Austin: And people ran away from it scared.
Jack: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: Right, but you just double… double, addition thing, for sure.
Jack: Yeah, I think Lem… I think Lem looks to Fero and Hella.
Keith (as Fero): What’s your deal, man?
Ali (as Hella): Hmmm.
Austin (as Hershon): My deal… my deal…
Austin: He like, does a yawn with a big, bird beak. It’s very good. It’s just like, [foley] ‘hhhhaaaa’.
Austin (as Hershon): My deal is that I keep order in the isles, especially here in Deya, as best I can. And that one day, I hope to join the ritual. The launch. The trip out on Varee. The large island where you can see the stone arches. The moon trip.
Jack (as Lem): You say one day?
Austin (as Hershon): It is a long list.
Jack (as Lem): Ah, but the… something is being planned very soon. I… we heard….
Austin: So, I will remind you all that you saw a launch when you arrived happening off in the distance.
Jack: Yeah, everyone just like, just went screaming up there.
Jack (as Lem): Oh, so it’s like… so this is happening?
Keith: Oh, were they screaming? [laughs]
Jack: Put me in a space rocket, and I would absolutely be screaming.
Austin: Uh huh, I would scream a lot.
Jack: I would scream so much. You put me on Big Thunder MOuntain, and I scream. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Honestly, even astronauts should… like, you don’t get a chance to scream into space very often.
Austin: True, true. Agreed.
Keith: Like play… there’s no reason to play it cool.
Jack: No. Um, so I think Lem… I think Lem says,
Jack (as Lem): So many people want to make the journey?
Austin (as Hershon): Oh, you were not briefed before your trip?
Jack (as Lem): We were briefed… uh, things are difficult on the continent.
Austin (as Hershon): I see. Well, uh, if you vow not to make any trouble and to check in regularly with members of the guard, I have no reason to keep you.
Austin: And like, I just need- I’m giving you the vibe that like… there is a vibe here.
Jack: Sure.
Ali: Yeah, I think [laughs]
Keith: I’m getting the vibe.
Austin: Hella?
Ali: I think that the point at which Hella is like,
Ali (as Hella): Oh, well, I mean, we came here to get the briefing. That’s why the Golden Lance sent us.
Austin: You’re gonna… there needs… [sighs] Ok, um, he’s like,
Austin (as Hershon): I’ve briefed you. There are… there is a ritual. It launches a number of the selected to the moon.
Keith (as Fero): What makes someone selected?
Jack (as Lem): How are you selected? Yes.
Austin (as Hershon): I... [sighs] This is not my department. You would have to speak to someone on the isle of Varee.
Keith (as Fero): What makes someone clipped?
Austin (as Hershon): [sighs] I do not know you. You are asking very sharp questions.
Austin: And his wings like, do a quick shake when he says that.
Ali (as Hella): Well, we just fear... I mean, while we’ve been here, there’s been some confusion about uh...
Keith: Jargon.
Ali: And she’s doing her best to be her Hadrian. Um.. [Austin, Jack, and Ali laugh]
Ali (as Hella): There’s been some confusion around um, customs. So, it… you know, you took us up here to talk about it. We thought that we could just, you know… get on the same page a little?
Austin: Someone’s gonna have to do a roll of some sort here. He is not… He is like, deeply held back. He is like, so repressed in this moment.
Ali: Hmm..
Austin: Which I shouldn’t be telling you cause no one has actually made any rolls to study him in any way.
Jack: Sure, I mean, it comes through in his speak.
Austin: Sure, sure.
Jack: Um…
Ali: Is….
Jack: Yeah. Oh, go ahead, Ali.
Ali: I’m trying to look cause it’s not like a parley. What’s the one where it’s like… when you’re open and honest? Or is that like a class roll?
Austin: That is a…
Jack: I have a move…
Austin: Lem has that move.
Jack: ...called Charming and Open. Yeah.
Keith: We could… I mean, it’s… I have-
Austin: You could also be Discerning Realities here.
Keith: Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say.
Austin: You could also be… you could parley, right? You could… it is clear that he respects your Golden Lance relationship in some way.
Jack: Yeah, which is like…
Austin: Which you could leverage with him.
Jack: ...cops love cops.
Austin: Yeah, exactly. There are things that you could leverage here. But yeah, let’s talk about Lem King’s Open and… Open and.. Charming and Open.
Jack: Yeah, so the Charming and Open… Actually, I don’t want to do it this way. I don’t want to describe the move before talking about…
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: ...what I want to do. Um, so I suppose… it requires me to speak frankly.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Um, ok. I think… I think this is what Lem does. Uh, I think Lem sort of just like, takes a step backwards and sort of summons…
Austin: Like stands from the chair and… or just leans back?
Jack: Oh, oh, oh. Are we seating in a-
Austin: Yeah, yeah. You’re in that semicircle of...
Jack: I thought we were standing around this pond. In a semicircle.
Austin: … semicircle of chairs.
Jack: Oh ok.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack: Yeah, so I think Lem kind of leans forward and puts his arms on the things, and he says,
Jack (as Lem): We’re scared. We’re all scared on the continent. And we’re scared in different kinds of ways. But whatever’s coming is gonna burn us. And… and… and we have come here… We have come here to try and find some… some way to move with that fear. Whether or not that’s to move through it or to move along side it or to simply find that someone in another place feels differently about what is coming. Cause Lord knows they do on the continent. But things are real bad back home.
Austin (as Hershon): I do not know what is coming, but I will tell you that if you hoped you would find the Isles a place without fear, well perhaps you were looking for different isles.
Austin: What is your Charming and Open questions.
Jack: Haha… hmmm.
Austin: Cause you have a list, right?
Jack: My list is, ‘whom do you serve? What do you wish I would do? How can I get you to blank? What are you really feeling right now? And what do you most desire?’ And I’m happy to take suggestions here.
Keith: Hmm…
Ali: I mean… yeah.
Keith: Well, you already know what he most desires, I think.
Austin: Do we?
Ali: Which is…
Keith: Well...
Austin: What do you think he most desires?
Keith: He… he… I mean, he seemed pretty open about wanting to be able to join the ritual.
Austin: Hm.
Keith: That seemed like…
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: Maybe not most, but it seems like, at least we know that that’s something that’s important.
Ali: And desires for us to end this line of questioning, which we will not do. [laughs]
Jack: Sure.
Austin: I don’t know that… I’m gonna shut up.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: I’m trying to play the character as someone who wants to speak even more openly, but who cannot do it himself.
Ali: Ah.
Jack: Yes.
Austin: Which if you made a… if you were like, making rolls to figure out who is really in control here or something like that, those are the answers you would getting.
Jack: I mean, so in that sense, it feels like the most interesting or perhaps the most fruitful line to go down would be ‘What are you feeling right now?’ Um… I… my concern is that his answer will be… will be couched in this… in this kind of very careful word… very careful… I mean, the… [sighs] It feels like the logical question from-
Austin: They must answer it truthfully is the key here, right? Like, I’m not… this is not a…
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: I can’t be pedantic in my answer here.
Jack: No, no, no, no.
Austin: Unless you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Jack: Right, I suppose when he said, you know, if you're looking for isles without fear, you will not find them here, the logical follow up question to that is, ‘What are you afraid of?’
Austin: Hm.
Jack: And I suppose the closest thing to that is, ‘What are you really feeling right now?’
Austin: Uh huh. So, you ask him that, and… or you’re asking the player, right? So, you’re asking me what he’s really feeling right now. I think he stands up and walks over to the music box and looks down at it. And like, with a little foot talon, cause it’s just like, on the ground… I think it’s like a big like, record player sized thing that’s just on the ground. I think he turns a dial, and it gets louder. And comes back over towards you, and he clicks another little tile on the stonework ground, and the water fountain in the pond grows louder. And he asks you a question before he gives you the ‘what are you really feeling right now?’ which is, he says,
Austin (as Hershon): Do you really serve the Golden Lance?
Jack: Uh, just like, this like, shared glance between Hella and Fero.
Austin: You must answer truthfully is the part of the rule.
Jack: Oh.
Austin: It says, then they may ask you a question from the list which you must answer truthfully.
Jack (as Lem): We do not.
Ali (as Hella): I mean they really sent us here, but like…
Keith (as Fero): They… Yeah, they did really tell us about this place.
Jack (as Lem): In name only.
Austin (as Hershon): If something is coming, we need to know. The isles are built on false, or at least long, promises. You wish to know what the clipped are. The clipped are fuel. We are what powers the ritual. We fly a little less high. We speak with less clarity and purpose. We love a little weaker. We fear a little more. And for that, some go up. And one day, we, too, will join them. One day. One day. One day… One day, we will join them.
Keith (as Fero): [whispered] This place sucks.
Jack: Has this dude told us what his… Do we know what this man’s job is?
Austin: I mean, he’s like the top of the police department, literally, right? He’s like, the top of border control slash the guards um…
Keith: He’s like, chief of police from this island?
Austin: For this island is the fair assumption to make.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack (as Lem): Are you sa… Are you safe here?
Austin (as Hershon): I am very safe. Or if you say something is coming, maybe I am not safe at all.
Keith (as Fero): The whole world is falling apart.
Jack (as Lem): The world is ending.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Jack (as Lem): Have you not heard?
Austin (as Hershon): We have done our best to isolate those things.
Austin: And he like, points… or I guess, you can’t see it from here.
Jack: Oh my goodness.
Austin: But he says, um,
Austin (as Hershon): You’ve seen those who arrive and try to leave this island for the others. They are wrapped in material, and they travel by the bus.
Austin: He doesn’t say the…. Oh, he does. By the bus. You know, the big, jeweled serpent? The bus.
Jack: Yeah, I love the jeweled serpent bus.
Austin (as Hershon): It’s a cleansing ritual to ensure that no flora of the new type arrives on the other islands.
Keith (as Fero):Oh, so you know about the… you know about that stuff.
Austin (as Hershon): We have a great view of the continent, yes. We’ve seen the growth. Perhaps better than any of you have. And we’ve seen the arches of light. And we’ve seen the flames from below. And we have thankfully, been isolated. And so, we go higher up still, but… there has been no word from Zogia or anyone else that anything larger is coming than this.
Keith (as Fero): Who’s Zogia?
Austin (as Hershon): Zogia is… What is Zogia? Zogia is the most important man in the Isles. Zogia is a… inventor, a mage, a leader. Zogia is an entrepreneur. And a con-artist. Zogia developed the ritual. Zogia’s the one who has been clipping us for decades.
Ali (as Hella): So, it’s not like, an optional thing or…?
Austin (as Hershon): What is optional? Do you have birthday parties where you are from?
Ali (as Hella): Well, yeah.
Austin (as Hershon): Are they optional?
Ali (as Hella): I mean…
Keith (as Fero): Depends how old you are.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah…
Austin (as Hershon): Right.
Ali (as Hella): ...you can kind of stop throwing yourself them.
Austin (as Hershon): But at a young age? When your parents say this is what is best? School is mandatory. Clipping is optional. But encouraged. It is an investment in one’s future. If you are truly talented and truly dedicated, a little clipping will not stop you from success. Nevermind the fact that the vast many who take the trip are not clipped. I wish I had better news for you and your friends in the Lance. And I wish more than that that you truly were with them. Because if you were, then you could consult on matters of justice. And I would be obliged to listen.
Ali (as Hella): I mean, we… we still could.
Austin (as Hershon): No. There are costs.
Keith (as Fero): What are the costs?
Austin (as Hershon): Death.
Keith (as Fero): That’s a big one.
Austin (as Hershon): And not just for me. I have done what I… There are those I care for who resist in the ways they can. And I’ve done what I can for them. But there are limits to even someone in my position.
Keith: I want to… I want to make a Discern Realities roll still.
Austin: Sure, go ahead. What’s that look like? What’s Fero doing to discern realities here?
Keith: Umm…
Austin: Is it just… what’s the camera show Fero as Fero is like, you know what I mean?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: How does the camera show the audience that Fero is discerning realities?
Keith: Um, I think that I’ve stopped listening.
Austin: Hm.
Keith: And I’m sort of taking his earlier cue of like, the view from this place.
Austin: Yeah, yeah. Cool.
Keith: And I’m looking out.
Austin: Go ahead and give me-
Keith: I’m looking at him, and I’m looking out at the sea.
Austin: Oh, like, trying to piece together like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now that you know this stuff.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Go ahead and give me a discern realities. That is a 9.
Keith: 9.
Austin: Do you have a plus 1 forward anywhere?
Keith: I do because I didn’t use that one from earlier.
Austin: There you go. There you go.
Keith: So, that’s a 10.
Austin: So, that’s a 10. Um, so, go ahead and ask me three of the following questions.
Keith: Uh, you got it. I… oop, I rolled again.
That’s… not that one. That’s a burn of the 12. You should have saved that 12.
Keith: Bummer. Ok, so, um… What happened here recently?
Austin: So, um, I mean, I think you can… You can get this through… I think maybe in this specific case, we get the like… you looking at things and piecing it together with what he specifically has said a little bit.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And as he’s talking about… he’s like, ‘I protected I can’, the… when you arrived, remember they were cleaning up that paint? That was like, the sky paint?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Was like skywriting, basically. The group named the Quill, which is some sort of resistance movement, was um, was… doing some sort of um, sky art protest against today’s launch. And was… was basically… I’m trying to think how much you could decipher from what’s here now. I think you can basically… you know, you see a number of armed guards kind of looking down at… there’s like a…. There’s like the edge of this island, northwestern edge. They are like, moving across the um… like, a coast.
Like an almost like a lower level cave… not cave, but like, coast. Like, imagine you look out the edge of the island, and then you keep looking, and there’s like, ‘Oh, there’s another level under it that goes out to be like, a sky beach.’ And you can see that there’s like, a patrol that’s out looking for whoever was out that way before who must have lifted off to do some of the skywriting. So, the Quill had done this big protest to try to say something about this um, this past launch. Um, I trying to think if there’s anything else specific. In the process, someone got killed. And that was… and I think he says… I think at the moment that you kind of put it together, um, he says,
Austin (as Hershon): I’ve already lost a nephew. Aarn.
Austin: Who, Lem, you know that is the name of the dead Quill member. And he says,
Austin (as Hershon): And I have others. Small ones who are devoted. Cousins. Niblings. The youth… There are things you cannot clip. Thankfully.
Austin: So, use 2… you have 2 more questions.
Keith: Um… my second question is…. Hmm, what do you two think about ‘who’s really in control here?’ Cause it sounds like...it sounds like Zogia to me. I don’t know if we’re gonna get…
Jack: Yeah, I mean, it… we might get a broader answer about why the chief of the police feels or believes that he can’t do anything. I mean, we might get an answer about control and about that.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: But the um…
Keith: If we’re gonna get a broader answer about something that we already sort of heard about, the thing that I want to know is ‘what here is not what it appears to be?’
Austin: One of the… so, you know, there’s the buses filled with… there’s the sky serpent buses, the jeweled, giant serpents, which in the book, by the way, are uh [laughs] are coatls which presumably are like, like the word quetzalcoatl right?
Jack: Oh, sure.
Austin: They are like holy serpents, for sure. And they have an impulse which is to cleanse, which I suspect they were not meant to cleanse sky paint. [Keith laughs] Or cleanse… or cleanse the seeds from people’s boots, but that is how Zogia is using them. You know. They seek to cleanse and purge… Cleanse and to purge, and to make this dark world a better one. It’s a shame. It’s a shame that that’s… that that is what they’re supposed to be doing, but Zogia has them just like, as buses that clean people as they go from island to island or to clean up gra… you know, sky graffiti. And it’s while looking at one of them… and they’re magnificent, right?
Like, they truly, truly are. They are like… they are like, beautiful, jeweled, twisting like, clouds almost, right? Um, one of them has broken off from any of the other paths. They all travel the same basic pathways. Like, there is something very geometric in the way that they move from island to island, and one of them has left behind the patter- er like, the pathway. And you can… it’s like, pretty far off. Um, and you have like… Do you have like… you don’t have like, druid senses or anything, right? Um…
Keith: Uh, I mean…
Austin: No, you don’t.
Keith: Depends on what you mean.
Austin: I don’t think you do. Well, you got a 12… er no, you got a 10 on this roll. Um, ya know? What I will say is… you see like, a little sprit from… as if from a spray can.
Keith: Uh huh.
Austin: Um, and what is basically happening… I think maybe we at home just get like the cut to that… that uh… to that bus. And it is straight up someone who starts to do a little… a little air graffiti, and then someone slaps their hand and be like, ‘No. It’s not what this mission is about.’ Like, [laughs] ‘Don’t get us in trouble. We have to like, lay low.’ So there is some sort of-
Keith: Wait, so what were they doing?
Austin: They were like about to do some more air graffiti, and then someone else on the bus like, stopped them from doing it. Like, slapped their hand and was like, ‘No. Like, we got to keep a low profile. This isn’t about more air graffiti shit. We’re doing some real shit now.’ Um, and so you can tell that there is like, some sort of Quill operation happening, using one of these sky serpent buses. That is going past the… the next island, and it looks like it’s on a long path to Varee, which is that last… the launch ritual island. Which I will put the name out on the map so you all can see that now. Boop. Um, you still have one more.
Keith: Um…
Austin: There we go.
Keith: Um, ugh. What should I be on the lookout for?
Austin: Um… I’ve given you the other big thing I know… Um, ok. Actually, let me look at my notes really quick to see if there’s a specific thing here. Um…. you see that they are… Ok, so you see… you’re like, just about done giving the… you’re kind of done giving the wide view a look, and you’re about to turn back around when you see um… you see them bringing in someone in cuffs. Or you know, it’s not even just cuffs for like, their arms. Like, their wings have been pinned back to their… to like, their shoulders basically. And there are two guards coming in. But you also, again, see those two siblings who were at the body. Um, and it looks like they’re prepped to interfere and try to save this person.
Keith: The… At the body, you mean, Aarn?
Austin: Uh, so yeah. So, Aarn is the one who is dead. Aarn had two sibling names Oorn and Urrn. And those two are about to try to rescue this other Quill member who is about to come in to jail, basically.
Keith: Oh, the one with the… with the pinned back wings.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: Ok.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: You said body, and I thought you meant the dead one.
Austin: No. Oh, well, I’m saying that they… you had seen… you had seen Oorn and-
Keith: Oh, I saw them at the body. Got it.
Austin: You saw Oorn and Urrn a the body before.
Keith: Ok.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, those are your three things. Um, and I think he’s kind of done his little speech about this.
Austin (as Hershon): If there is anyway you can send the Golden Lance or… Something may be coming. I don’t know if it is large or if it is local or if it is all of Hieron. Or all three.
Keith: Could um…
Austin (as Hershon): But if there can be justice here, then...
Keith: Could Lem get us deputized via um… his message box?
Austin: He might be able to. He might be able to. I had this idea like, 10 minutes ago.
Jack: Oh my god.
Austin: And then I was like, ‘oh shit, this is really good and funny.’
Jack: I mean, so like, [laugh] do you just ask that?
Keith: Yeah, sure.
Keith (as Fero): We could get deputized maybe.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, we’ve been before.
Jack (as Lem): Well…
Keith (as Fero): You see? We’re so close to ac- officially being here on Golden Lance business.
Austin: You have.
Jack (as Lem): Yeah. Totally. I think...
Keith (as Fero): We’ve been deputized before. They did send us here.
Austin (as Hershon): How long would it take you to return and become deputized and come back?
Keith (as Fero): I…. We just have… we have a message box.
Jack (as Lem): I can try and…
Austin (as Hershon): Excuse me?
Keith (as Fero): We have a message box.
Jack (as Lem): For orcs…
Keith (as Fero): What is it called?
Jack (as Lem): It’s a message box, right? Like a… communications box?
Jack: What’s it written down in my inventory as? It’s called uh, orcish… where is my… There it is.
Austin: Orcish communication box.
Jack: Yeah, I like message... just a message box.
Austin: You can change it.
Jack: And I take it out and I say,
Jack (as Lem): We make these boxes. They… we use them to send messages. And… perhaps I could contact… It’s hard to know. It’s not like, speaking to someone directly. There’s… sometimes a slight delay. It depends really… it depends on who is carrying it.
Jack: Austin, are you ok there?
Austin: I’m just laughing at the circumstance.
Jack (as Lem): It depends on who is carrying the box, but um… you know.
Austin (as Hershon): How does it work?
Jack (as Lem): Well, it’s the pattern-
Austin (as Hershon): Because you could simply… No, I mean, how will I know… You could simply say, ‘Oh yes, it tells me I am a deputy of the Golden Lance. And also Zogia vouches for me, and I am the chief now.’ And I would suppose to take you at your word?
Keith (as Fero): Well, you… were supposed to take us at our word before.
Ali (as Hella): Well… well, I mean, it’s the Golden Lance. Can’t they send a signal?
Jack: I think Lem just takes it out. And it’s like, you know, it’s… it’s what… it’s tiny, and he sets it in the center of his palm.
Keith: Size of a fidget cube.
Austin: He says,
Austin (as Hershon): Alright. How will I know what it says?
Ali (as Hella): I… [exhales]
Jack (as Lem): Hmm….
Austin (as Hershon): This is what I mean. If you have this communication box, I need to know how to read it. [Jack breathes deep and exhaled loudly] I have paper. You… come with me to my desk.
Austin: He is like, very excited about this. He’s just also a big…
Jack: Has he never seen one of these before?
Austin: Who has? You’re weird orcs.
Keith: Yeah, you made it up like, last week.
Jack: So, I mean I suppose. [laughs]
Austin: This didn’t exist more than two years ago in our game.
Jack: I suppose…
Austin: Like I… we invented it during the Rosemerrow investigation.
Jack: Yeah, no. Like I think-
Austin: Like only-
Keith: Did we? I forgot about that.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think only the archivists…
Jack: I suppose that was-
Austin: I think only archivists, only field archivists have these. Like, these are super rare.
Jack: Yeah, and like, even when they carry them, it… it makes as much sense to them as like, uh, you know those like, custom iphones that certain retail… like there’s iphones that are in boxes.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Those locked boxes like, in the Apple store and stuff like?
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack: I can probably understand what they’re doing, but I have no idea how they work.
Austin: Right.
Keith: This is, so for me, so, I was actually thinking about these boxes while I’ve been playing Yakuza 0 cause he… cause Kiryu’s got a pager, and he’ll get like, a string of numbers.
Jack: Oh, it’s so good. I had forgotten about that.
Austin: It’s so good.
Keith: Yeah, like a string of numbers is like 7-9-48-twen-... It’s like, 7-9 means to come right away, and this place it says… like, go to this specific place. Like…
Austin: I wish they fucking did more with that pager. That pager is so good.
Keith: It’s so good. I’ve only gotten four messages. I put like 30 out over the game.
Austin: I want… I wish there was… I wish there were 40.
Keith: Yeah, yeah. Totally. It’s so… every time it’s like, I… Is like… I’m ju- cause I remember pagers when I was a kid, but I never really knew anybody that used one. My uncle had one. But Keith: I was like, ‘is that what pager life was like?’ Just memorizing codes? Is that what people did? Cause that’s kinda sick.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: OK. So-
Keith: Forget about carrying dumb phones to get away from smartphones.
Jack: Yeah, just want a small, little screen that says numbers on it, please.
Keith: Start carrying pagers. I would like that.
Austin: Alright. So… so… so...
Jack: I think-
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: I’m like, hesitant to give the ability to read a communications box to just like, a foreign power.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Um… But I wonder-
Austin: This is the… this is the par- So, this is gonna be a parley then. Is what this is, right? Because I think that this actually works really well. Parley says, when you have leverage on a GM character and manipulate them, roll + charisma. Leverage is something that they need or want. On a 10, they do what you ask, if you first promise what they ask of you.
Jack: Hmm.
Austin: On a 7 to 9, they will do what you ask, but need some concrete assurance of your promise right now. That concrete assurance would be for you to basically, write out some sort of guide to this box so that when the message comes in, they could… he could read it and be like, ‘Oh, this says you’re deputized.’ And also see what you’re sending out. Do you know what I mean?
Jack: Yeah. Totally.
Austin: Cause otherwise, you could be sending out… you know...
Jack: Like, ‘Help. We’re trapped. Please send the army.’
Austin: Help, right. Or just like, or just you could be sending out, ‘Hey, send me back a message that says you’re deputized now.’
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah, exactly.
Austin: You know what I mean?
Jack: Yeah. Ok. Sure. I’ll parley.
Austin: So give me Parley, which is charisma.
Jack: And I think Lem is… I think there’s a degree of openness. This man seems like a… some kind of a bureaucrat, and I think Lem is… I think the vibe coming off Lem is, ‘I am hesitant to show you fully how this works.’
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Oh my god.
Austin: That was a 5.
Jack: How did I do that? What did I roll?
Austin: That was a 5. What did you roll?
Jack: How?
Austin: You rolled a 2 and 1.
Jack: Hey, anybody want to help?
Ali: I would like-
Austin: You’re too far off.
Keith: We… if...
Austin: Right? Can you...
Keith: We can’t both help. I don’t…
Austin: No.
Keith: I don’t know if that’s a thing.
Austin: I don’t think you can both help. I think it’s one person can aid, right? Let’s see.
Jack: Added XP for that failed roll.
Austin: Oh, do that. For suresies. I’m just double checkin’.
Keith: Oh, that’s 2 XP for you so far. That’s nice.
Jack: No, the first one didn’t count cause it was a plus 1 forward, so…
Austin: Yeah, you got that success before.
Jack: ...that was a success.
Austin: Yeah, it’s plus 1 or minus 2 to their rolls. That’s not gonna do it. So, I mean, I think we know what happens. I think you send a message, and you know, where the matched one is, right?
Jack: It’s… Emmanuel has it, right?
Austin: And it’s on his desk. He didn’t bring it with him. He doesn’t know how to read it. You left.
Jack: We just see this shot of like...
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: ...a box on a desk like, clicking. Like…
Austin: Yeah.
Jack (as Lem): It’ll… it’ll… just give it a second. Sometimes it takes a while.
Austin: And he just sighs.
Austin (as Hershon): Perhaps they don’t honor the treaty?
Jack (as Lem): No, no. I don’t know… well, I don’t know about that. I mean, just give it a second. Ok, the pattern’s…
Keith (as Fero): I mean, it was never gonna happen right away.
Ali (as Hella): Thi-
Keith (as Fero): Lem, your boyfriend has the other one. It’s not like…
Ali (as Hella): Well… shh. Shh, shh, shh. [Ali laughs]
Keith (as Fero): He’s not like, with the Golden Lance or anything.
Austin (as Hershon): But certainly you would have received a… a ‘Hi, how are you doing? I’ll… yeah, I’ll go talk to the Golden Lance’ message.
Jack (as Lem): This mark here… this mark here means that it’s been delivered. I know that the… I know that the corresponding box has... [Austin and Ali laugh]
Austin: And these three dots mean… [Keith, Jack, and Ali laugh] God.
Keith: Oh, this new check says it’s been read. [Austin laughs] It looks no new messages are coming in, but it’s been read.
Austin: But I don’t know. Maybe just… he must be very busy. And he just… he is very… he works in the field all day, you know, so… it just…
Keith: Check it, and you know, ‘Oh, I’ll get to it later.’ And then you forget.
Austin: He says,
Austin (as Hershon): I will do what I do for mine and look the other way if you wish to intercede, but I cannot be part of this. Not… Not if… If I am replaced, they will replace me with someone who does not have my ease. Yes, Zogia vouches for me, but so do the people of Deya. Do you see? And if they put someone in place for whom that second vouching does not matter, there are worse fates than being clipped.
Ali (as Hella): Well, we’re good at working outside the lines, so to speak. Um…
Jack: [laughing] We… sorry. Carry on.
Keith (as Fero): I… Can we get a moment alone?
Austin (as Hershon): You and I?
Keith (as Fero): No, sorry. Uh, me and my friends.
Austin (as Hershon): We don’t know you each other that well… I…
Jack: We’re in his office. [laughs]
Austin (as Hershon): Oh… to confer?
Keith (as Fero): To confer.
Austin (as Hershon): As friends.
Keith (as Fero): Can we have a… can we have a moment to conference?
Austin (as Hershon): Of course. I will stare at this cube on my desk. [Keith, Ali, and Jack laugh]
Keith: Boy, being clipped is rough.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): What.. Ok. I get like, the helping thing.
Jack (as Lem): Uh huh.
Keith (as Fero): Do we have… more business here? I guess, we want to see the thing and make sure it’s… you know. I don’t know. This place doesn’t seem like the place.
Jack (as Lem): I want to know what’s up there.
Ali (as Hella): Wait.
Keith (as Fero): On the moon?
Jack (as Lem): Yeah. I mean, everyone’s going. Everyone wants to go. Seems to have been wanting to go forever.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, but they also want to be vouched for each other.
Ali (as Hella): They don’t want that. Didn’t you hear him?
Keith (as Fero): We have met people that certainly seem like they like the vouching system.
Ali (as Hella): A lot of people like a lot of things.
Keith (as Fero): That’s what I’m saying.
Austin: I think a key thing for me to underscore for everyone here is like, there are a lot of people for whom there was not a world before vouching and clipped-ness and all of that.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Right? Like, he just told you Zogia has been doing this for decades.
Keith: Decades, yeah.
Austin: Right?
Jack: It’s like the birthday thing. It’s like how compulsory is a birthday.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack: Um, yeah. It’s… it’s...
Austin: Like, how compulsory is bad public school? Right? Like, how compulsory is like, not having access to health care? [laughs]
Jack: Right. Yeah. Absolutely. Um,
Jack (as Lem): And I’m not saying… I’m not saying we need to go. And I’m not saying we should go. I’m not saying that this is the solution. This doesn’t feel like the solution, you’re right. But I want to know… I want to know what’s up there.
Ali (as Hella): Wo… wo, woah back it up. We’re all talking about like, what’s going on in the city, and you just want to go onto the moon?
Jack (as Lem): No, no, no. I… I… I do not want to go to the moon.
Ali (as Hella): Ok.
Jack (as Lem): I want to know what is on the moon. I.. I want to know why they… why they go.
Ali (as Hella): That part’s obvious.
Keith (as Fero): [shouting] Why do you guys go to the moon? [Ali laughs]
Austin (as Hershon): [sighs] It is… Are you still… that was for me?
Keith (as Fero): That was for you. Yeah, sorry.
Austin (as Hershon): Can I confer with you?
Keith (as Fero): You may.
Austin (as Hershon): [shouting] From here? Or should i?
Keith (as Fero): [shouting] From there. Yeah, from there.
Austin (as Hershon): [shouting] We… This is em… I’m going… May I approach so I’m not yelling?
Keith (as Fero): [sighs] Yes, fine.
Austin: This is all a wide shot, and it’s like, the music is still playing as loud as he could make it. And the fountain is still on. So, he comes over and he goes,
Austin (as Hershon): I’m trying to… make sure noone is listening in. We go to the moon because it is the moon. It is… it is a gift.
[crosstalk]
Keith (as Fero): The moon is… the moon…
Austin (as Hershon): It was a world- It was a long story.
Jack (as Lem): Have you built something up there?
Austin (as Hershon): My understanding is, of course. Zogia has sent decades building a utopia for those who arrive.
Jack (as Lem): Ok. Ok. Ok.
Austin (as Hershon): Del… Del…
Keith (as Fero): Utopia sounds good.
Ali (as Hella): Well, yeah but-
Austin (as Hershon): Del, the moon that we… that we are colonizing is a… was a gift to us from Severea ages ago.
Keith (as Fero): But honestly, what kind of utopia lives on a bunch of people that aren’t allowed to go?
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, this person’s running around…
Austin (as Hershon): No, I understand. I… we don’t disagree.
Keith (as Fero): Ok. Ok. Well, you said you wanted to go. You told me you wanted to go.
Austin (as Hershon): Of course, I want to go. I want to leave this behind, and I want all of us to. But that…
Jack (as Lem): Have you-
Keith: This Elysium motherfucker.
Jack: Did the box do anything?
Austin: [using Hershon’s voice] I’ve not seen that one. [Keith and Ali laugh] I don’t like Matt Damon very much. [Jack laughs]
Keith: I haven’t either I know the general idea.
Austin: [using Hershon’s voice] It’s weird. They cast him a Latino. He is very white. [laughs]
Jack: Oh, did they really?
Austin: Oh my god, dude.
Jack: Oh, I did not know that.
Keith: Wait, who stars in that?
Jack: Matt Damon.
Austin: Matt Damon.
Keith: Oh, he’s… Yeah, that’s the whitest guy.
Austin: He’s the whitest guy, and his character’s name is Max Da Costa.
Keith: That’s the guy-
Ali: Hm.
Jack: Oh my god.
Keith: Matt Damon is so white that he’s on a commercial for a bank talking about clean water.
Austin: Oh my god. It’s the whitest you can get.
Keith: He’s sup- he’s super… it’s like a Wells Fargo commercial.
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh.
Keith: Being like, banks help get people water.
Austin: Ok.
Keith: It’s so bad.
Austin: Fuck you.
Keith: It’s yeah. Fuck you, Matt Damon.
Austin: Anyway…
Keith: You know that guy was like, best friends with like, Howard Zinn growing up or something?
Austin: Of course. That makes perfect sense.
Keith: They were like, neighbors.
Austin: That make perfect sense. Alright, so, um he’s…
Jack: What do you?
Austin: Go ahead.
Jack (as Lem): Ok, have you… I understand that this is… this is gonna sound like a wild question. How do you know what’s up there?
Austin (as Hershon): I should be clear, the people come and go. Once you have approve… once you have approval… Once you are chosen, it is… it is fine for you to return. It not necessarily smiled upon after all. Each launch requires the clipping of ten, but… the… there are some for whom, that travel is approved and is even approved of. My understanding is there is a great deal of space and there are new efforts to beautify the blank surface of that world everyday. And that people live whole and easy lives. If you had a great deal of wealth, perhaps… ah, well, maybe not you. You do not have them. Wings. But this is the thing. We all save away, and if… It is actually trade coin. Money, that makes it easiest to assure yourself a place among those who travel.
Ali (as Hella): This is just getting better and better.
Keith (as Fero): Money, huh? That’s wild. [Ali and Jack laugh]
Jack (as Lem): Do you think there is a chance that Zogia has been less than honest about the circumstances on the moon?
Keith (as Fero): Well, he called him a conman.
Austin (as Hershon): Yes, of course. I… yes and no. There are small lies constantly. Of course. And I think he has… but I think at the core, he has convinced us of something with an honest line of argument. That is to say... that is to say that we all know what it is to be clipped. And yet very few raise up arms. There is no hiding the cost of the ritual. It is simply... He is very convincing, you see. And it is the moon. It hangs there every night. Even when the sun was gone. Del and Brie were there. They have been there since the beginning of us, before us. It is a very convincing bargaining chip to have on your side.I simply cannot be asked to tell people not to want to go to the moon. And it is not as if… it is not as if some did not try. I am… I was a little hatchling when Zogia came into power, but even then I remember there were debates and arguments. And factionalization and elections and soon less elections. And there are still factions now, but the debate is not whether or not to go, it is whether to go in groups of 100 or 1,000.
Ali (as Hella): We’re… we’re not here to stop people from wanting to go. But like, in your opinion, if you can’t help us, then where should we push that needs pushing?
Austin (as Hershon): I do not know. I…
Ali (as Hella): We can’t… we can do our best to make people… [sighs] Well, we can do our best to make people's lives easier or more fair, and we’re trying to-
Austin (as Hershon): You would stay and… ?
Keith: I’m making a face.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: As soon as Hella starting saying that, I’m making a fa- the face that you’d think I’d be making. [Ali laughs]
Austin: The…
Keith: I move to the other side of the conversation so that I can make the face at Hella. [Ali laughs]
Austin: He says, um,
Ali (as Hella): I’m just saying there’s compromises and… the-
Austin (as Hershon): Yes, there certainly are compromises. I know it well.
Keith (as Fero): We should go talk to the Quill.
Austin (as Hershon): It is dangerous to do that. Especially today. [overlapping] They had an action already-
Keith (as Fero): I feel like everything I can remember ever doing has been dangerous.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah.
Austin (as Hershon): This entire island is crawling with patrols today. After they took action, we called in additional guards from the islands. To look for them right now would be… I just give you this warning.
Keith (as Fero): Are you writing it down? What is the warning?
Austin (as Hershon): That there are lots of guards…
Keith (as Fero): Oh, oh. Sorry. I thought that-
Austin (as Hershon): ...looking for the Quill. And that any association… They are traitors.
Keith (as Fero): I thought there was more coming after that. Got it.
Austin (as Hershon): No. I wish your little box would have made a noise.
Keith: [jokingly as Fero] I would have said, I give you ‘that’ warning. [Keith laughs hard] I don’t say that. I’m kidding.
Austin: Oh my god.
Jack (as Lem): Me, too.
Austin (as Hershon): When they clip us, they take… you don’t know this. There are 8 flights for every Mistral. There is compassion and knowledge and ambition and creativity and restraint and intuition and strength, and above them all, there is mastery.
Keith (as Fero): Those are flights?
Austin (as Hershon): It is a religious term originally.
Keith (as Fero): Got it.
Austin (as Hershon): Severea told us… taught us 8 ways to fly.
Keith (as Fero): [whispered] Gosh.
Austin (as Hershon): And above them all was mastery because one could fly with knowledge, but without mastery of that knowledge, you would fly poorly. One could fly with creativity, but without mastery of creativity, one would flail. When they clip us, they take our mastery. Many who you will face will be clipped, but some will not be. And they will be more dangerous than any.
Keith (as Fero): If… I just… if you guys like Severea so much, which you know, moving past that… um, why would… how did anybody convince people to let… to let Severea’s number one thing be taken away?
Austin (as Hershon): Taken away? The moon, you mean? Or mastery?
Keith (as Fero): Mastery.
Austin (as Hershon): It wasn’t taken away. This is the way Zogia works. It was gifted. Donated. Collaborated. We brought it together. We… we’re all building something together.
Ali (as Hella): Oh, I hate this scam.
Austin (as Hershon): One brick in the wall at once. To travel to her second greatest gift. This is why I say a conman.
Keith (as Fero): Can I tell you that I hated my home so much that I left it to live in a cave? And this is my least favorite place I’ve ever been.
Austin (as Hershon): There are things to love here.
Keith (as Fero): Sure.
Austin (as Hershon): You don’t know.
Keith (as Fero): I’m sure there are.
Austin (as Hershon): I like this pond.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, it’s a nice pond.
Austin (as Hershon): You should try our food. Listen to our music. There is life here.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah.
Austin (as Hershon): It is restrained. It is not ideal. But I do not need to be judged by a halfling from Rosemerrow. You want to talk about con men…
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, no. I’m with you. I left to go live in a cave, remember?
Austin (as Hershon): Yeah, I do.
Keith (as Fero): Why don’t you leave? Go live in a cave. It was really nice while it lasted.
Austin (as Hershon): I explained because I have people who are trying to make things better. And I am being a shield for them.
Keith (as Fero): Yeah, fine. Still a cop.
Austin (as Hershon): I am. I am. Is there anything else? I can move patrol away from the northwestern beach. My suspicion is you may find them there.
Ali (as Hella): Ok.
Keith (as Fero): Is this a beach with floors?
Austin (as Hershon): You will be fine.
Keith (as Fero): I mean, I’ll be fine. I’m worried about them.
Austin: He like, gives you a weird look. Because he doesn't know what the fuck you are. He doesn’t know you’re the druid.
Keith (as Fero): I can turn into a… birds or whatever.
Austin (as Hershon): Hella?
Ali (as Hella): I know that I literally just said that you shouldn’t… don’t have to be involved with that. We’re on the same page in that aspect, but um, if there was like a way that we could get in touch with you if we had to…
Austin (as Hershon): You could send a message, and again, my name is Hershon.
Ali (as Hella): Hershon. Cool.
Austin (as Hershon): I am chief of guard at Deya. Tell them… If you need to send a message, um, tell them that you spoke at my pond. They will know that that gives you clearance.
Ali (as Hella): Hm.
Austin (as Hershon): I hope this has been enlightening for you.
Ali (as Hella): Yeah, I mean, for what it’s worth, we’ve all… been lied to by people in power, so… you know. We’ll get through it.
Austin (as Hershon): I appreciate it. I do.
Jack (as Lem): Is it possible… is Zogia someone that we can like… or that one can meet? Or is he so separated from this that for people like us, that’s just not possible?
Austin (as Hershon): You could theoretically meet him. I… He meets with investors. He meets with dignitaries.
Jack: [quietly] Fucking… [inaudible]
Austin (as Hershon): In fact, I… Yes, I believe with the right amount of wealth, anyone could meet Zogia.
Keith (as Fero): Well, we represent a small kingdom.
Jack (as Lem): A lorddom, if you will.
Austin (as Hershon): I am truly not the person to set this up, unfortunately. If I could put word in to you… er word in to Dog- to Zogia for you, I would be in a much different position, yes?
Jack (as Lem): Oh. I guess I have one more question before we go.
Austin (as Hershon): Yes.
Jack: And Lem like, looks at the music box and the water turned up, um, and he’s like,
Jack (as Lem): Who specifically do you not want to hear us?
Austin (as Hershon): I am chief, but Zogia is the one who vouches. Yes?
Jack (as Lem): Ok.
Austin: And he like, walks back to his desk. And he like, I think he probably like, hits a button and a bells rings below. And Sah-ver shows back up to lead you back down the stairs and out.
Austin (as Sah-ver): I hope it was a good meeting for you. You still have the book. I thought it was…
Jack (as Lem): [sighs] Yes. Yes. A gift. A gift. Uh, from the Last University, given with…
Jack: Like, Lem glances at Fero.
Jack (as Lem): Given with… A gift from the Last University to the Isles of Flight.
Jack: And just like, kind of awkward;y hands this book over. Just sort of like, [laughs] like, ‘Here it is.’
Austin: [laughs] ‘Here, Sah-ver.’ Yeah, great. She goes,
Austin (as Sah-ver): Oh… oh. I see.
Keith: [laughing] I thought… Hold on. Hold on. Out of character now…
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I thought you were going to use this as a like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna go… We’re gonna give this to Zogia.’ I thought that that’s what you were going to do it.
Jack: I considered it… I mean, I thought… I mean, maybe… I feel like that would be a bit like… that would be a bit like uh… you know, being like, ‘Here’s this small box of chocolates. And I would like to give it to the Queen of England.’ And it’s just like, ‘Ok, I’m sure the Queen will love it.’
Keith: Well, they’re very isolated. There’s no, you know… I feel like, ‘Oh, this is a very important thing that we’re doing.’
Jack: [laughing] That I bought at his own fucking gift shop. [Ali and Keith laugh] Um, this just like…
Keith: It took you a really long time to find a book written in, you know whatever.
Jack: That’s true. Uh, perhaps Zogia will… Perhaps Zogia will value the gift?
Keith: I don’t think it will get us like, in. Like, ‘Oh, you have a gift, so you get an audience.’ But at least it’s something.
Jack: This book.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: At least it’s, you know, we’re making some sort of intention that we’re trying to do that.
Jack: Oh god. I… This reminds me of um… If I remember right, when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited Barack Obama, Obama gave him a gift of some uh, pens carved from like, wood that was used in the construction of the Resolute Desk or something. And I think that Gordon Brown gave Obama a box set of The Wire. [Ali and Austin laugh] That’s just like…Gordon Brown-
Austin: That’s the second best. Do you remember the other thing that… that uh, Obama got as a gift once?
Jack: What was it?
Austin: He went to Poland, uh, and…
Jack: Oh. Yeah.
Austin: ...the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, gave Obama a copy of The Witcher 2.
Jack: Yep.
Ali: Great.
Keith; Wow.
Ali: Uh huh.
Keith: That’s a better gift.
Jack: So, here’s… here’s the actual...
Keith: No, I haven’t seen The Wire. That’s not fair. Everybody loves it.
Jack: In return… in return…
Keith: Everybody loves one of the seasons, at least.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: In return for pen holder carved from the timbers of the sister ship of the one the White House desk is made from and a first edition of a seven volume biography of Winston Churchill…
Austin: Ok.
Jack: …Uh, oh wait. No, hang on. Wait. Maybe it was the other way around. Maybe [laughs] Maybe Obama gave the British a box set of 25 DVDs selected by the American Film Institute.
Austin: [laughing] Oh my god.
Jack: Oh god. Well, I guess I’m Obama in this situation, being like, ‘Book. Book for Zogia. Yep. He’ll love it.’
Austin: That’s extremely funny.
Jack: It included Raging Bull, Casablanca, Psycho, and the Graduate. Which is like, sure, but like, Netflix existed in 2009.
Austin: Yeah. It’s very funny. Alright.
Keith: The Wire’s never been on Netflix though.
Ali: Really?
Austin: We got to keep moving. We’re gonna keep moving cause we only have fifteen… thirteen minutes. Um, where do you go? So, here’s my question. It sounds like you have 2 paths in front of you. One is to try to look into the Quill stuff. And one is to try to get a… some sort of… some sort of relat- some sort of meeting with Zogia.
Jack: Yeah. Or-
Keith: I don’t… I don’t… Which of these… I’m… Hi, I’m Fero.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith (as Fero): I don’t know which of these helps us bring something useful back to… I’m going say ‘your’ home.
Austin: Oh my god.
Ali (as Hella): You live… alright. We’re… Moving on. Um…
Keith (as Fero): I live outside of it.
Austin: You live in the bubble.
Ali (as Hella): I mean, ok…
Keith (as Fero): The Last University does not get the whole bubble! We can talk about that later.
Ali (as Hella): We can. And ok, Fero, compromise. I said that I would listen to you more. I think that if we see this Zogia guy first, we can kind of… complete your task. And all of our tasks, and then we can do the other thing as kind of like, an afterwards, if we have time. Like… like a dessert.
Keith (as Fero): See now, it’s so telling… It’s so telling that you called it ‘my’ task. We’re not on a problem solving vacation.
Austin: As you’re walking down the street having this conversation, there is shouting and yelling, and you kind of like, come to a little… a little like, um, it’s like a low wall and some like, palm trees and ferns and stuff. But you can like, look out into the ocean again to the west and you see that the… that the two other… LIke the nephew and niece of Hershon, the two ones who were looking at the body before, Urrn and Aarn… or sorry, Oorn and Aarn… Sorry, there’s three of them. And it’s Oorn, Urrn, and Aarn. So, uh, the two that are alive…
Keith: Or, Oorn and Urrn.
Austin: Oorn and Urrn, not Aarn. Oorn and Urrn, um, like toss a ball of colored smoke, of like, of this colored like, air paint stuff. And it just like… it hangs in the air like it’s paint, right? Um, and then they burst through it with the rescue… Rescue… having rescued this third person who is another member of the Quill. Who is taller than Oorn and Urrn. Who I’m imagining as like, very small. Like, almost like… like three foot, ten, you know? Um, they’re like, kids. They’re like actually children.
Um, and like, rescuing… Odell who is the other member of the Quill who was here before. Who you saw with her wings pinned back. Um, and the three of them just like, lift off into the air, and you follow them through the air as you’re having this… as you are having this conversation. Up past the trees. And they are heading to the northwest to the part of the beach that Hershon told you about. But they are not the thing that keeps your attention for long. Because as guards run past you after them then lift off into the sky to try to chase them down, and they start doing cool tricks and stuff. Um, we just get a… we get a wide shot of them flying through the air with the other islands behind them.
And then, from Varee, the largest of the islands, where the launch ritual happens, there is a glowing… a glowing aura of energy again. Just like when there was the launch. And you can see the wind start to pick up. But… and you’re not… you’re not, you know, regulars here, but you don’t imagine they would be doing a second launch just a few hours after the first one. Um, and they’re not. Because the kind of cyclonic force is not shooting up. It is pulling down. Um, there is a loud, distance explosion from the bottom of this floating island. Varee, the large ritual one. And you can hear people…
Keith: Like underneath? Or the actual...
Austin: Yeah, like under… like under and to the side. Do you know what I mean?
Keith: Uh huh.
Austin: You know, like off and… There is like… you can just see like, energy swelling inside. Blue-green energy. And that large blast of cyclonic force just like, spins up. And it… it really does not… It’s not… I don’t think you notice it at first. Because it’s… your eyes don’t go there.Why would they go there? I guess eventually one of the guards who is following the trio of Quill members stops, and you just… his baton drops… er his like, razor sword, you know? Drops and lands at your feet. And he stops and points up in the air. And then you look up. And you see that Del, one of the twin moons of Hieron, is falling.
Ali: [quietly] Oh my god.
Keith (as Fero): I fucking told you guys.
Ali (as Hella): That’s not our fault.
Jack (as Lem): Oh my...
Keith (as Fero): I know it’s not our fault...
Jack (as Lem): Yeah, no. This is…
Keith (as Fero): ...but it’s everywhere we go.
Jack: I have to… Austin, did we do this?
Austin: No.
Jack: Is this a ‘we screwed up somewhere down the line’?
Keith: No.
Austin: Well, you know…
Keith: There’s… We couldn't have, right?
Austin: Clocks… clocks tick, Jack.
Jack: Look…
Austin: You would have gotten…
Jack: ... you can’t just say that. [Austin and Ali laugh]
Austin: You could have gotten here earlier. I… you know? You could have gotten here earlier. Before that first launch.
Jack: Uh huh. But… but…
Austin: And maybe gotten yourselves in with the Quill. The Quill are off doing shit, you know what I mean?
Jack: Sure.
Austin: You’re adventurers. You’re heroes. But the world… and the world revolves more around you more here than let’s say, in The Sprawl. But like…
Jack: We didn’t make the moon come down.
Austin: ...you spent the last couple of hours talking to the chief of police. The chief of the police isn’t gonna… People who speak with the chief of police are not the people who are going to change things in this… in this community.
Jack: No.
Austin: This community is going to change things in this community.
Jack: Sure.
Austin: And they’ve decided to do it…
Jack: Right.
Austin: ...by bringing the moon down.
Jack: Let’s sink the moon.
Austin: And it’s coming this way.
Jack: Oh christ. Fero’s gonna be fucking insufferable. [Ali laughs]
Austin: You did not do this. But… [Jack laughs] Uh, this would have happened if you hadn’t...
Keith (as Fero): [overlapping] It’s part of a larger pattern.
Austin: You wouldn’t have… This would have happened if you hadn’t come here is what I will say.
Jack: God, you tell Fero about the pattern once, and then… [Ali and Austin laugh]
Austin: Um, so what do you do?
Ali: Oh.
Keith: I’m sa- All of this was in character. I’m saying this.
Austin: Yeah, no. I… listen, we still have 6 minutes left. Like… I… I want to know.
Jack: Cover. Take cover. Try and find some-
Austin: This is gonna take a little while. I mean like, this is gonna be… you know, not a minute… er sorry, not a… you know, not five days. Maybe not even a day. But this is a slow, long… This is a thing that's happening.
Jack: We’ve got like 8 hours or something.
Austin: Sure. You have 8 hours, let’s say.
Keith (as Fero): Fine. I’m gonna go fly to the moon. I want to fly up there.
Austin: You know… Fero, you know that you probably can’t fly to the moon. Unless you invent-
Keith: It’s falling. It’s getting closer.
Austin: It is getting closer. It is gonna take you a while to get to the moon. Maybe sprangaroo can get up there pretty close, but in… in like 6 hours? But right now, it is… like, they have this whole big ritual to get up there. They’re a species that can fly naturally. Really, really, really well.
Keith: I thought that they… I thought that they… I guess like, when you’re not clipped you can fly real good.
Austin: When you’re not clipped you can fly however you fucking want…
Jack: Ugh, god.
Austin: ...but they still needed the ritual, and the magical flight energies of the other…
Keith: They just steal the…
Austin: 10 people.
Keith: ...poor people’s…
Austin: They needed to ste- they needed to create an underclass for whom they stripped away 1 of their 8 magical methods of flight for the rest of their lives, to send 1 person up once.
Jack: Apparently. Apparently.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Apparently it requires that.
Austin: Yeah. It does. And it requires more magic than one person could do. They could not get up there without… The method that Zogia figured out is that. Is what I will say.
Jack: Sure.
Austin: Um, you know, Severea could probably have made them capable of getting to the moon if she had wanted to. You know?
Jack: I’m going to send a message. Right [laugh]
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: I feel that the message that I send is… Oh god. Moon falling. [Keith laughs] Uh...
Austin: You get a message back.
Jack: Oh, oh. Before I even finish my moon falling message?
Austin: Yeah, you’re like, ‘Moon…’ and you get a message back. Um, and it’s, it’s spelled out. You know how like, you’ve taken Japanese, right, Jack? YOu know how in your first like, year of Japanese, you learn hiragana and then like, but very early on they’re like, ‘No one writes with hiragana.’
Jack: Sure.
Austin: Like, adult use kanji because that’s how this language works. Children use hiragana because they’re children. Emmanuel is basically typing back to you in hiragana, right?
Jack: Oh, it’s like, it’s fine to read. It just feels very weird.
Austin: It’s just long, do you know what I mean?
Jack: Yeah,
Austin: It’s just long to read is really what it is. It’s just like, you get letters, right? Instead of getting like, ‘Oh, that quick message you know means birds.’ Or whatever. You just get this hurried,
「S-A-M-O-L-I-S-H-E-R-E-S-A-M-O-T-I-S-D-Y-I-N-G-C-O-M-E-H-O-M-E」
[Jack de Quidt’s “Something” begins playing in the background]
Keith (as Fero): What’d it say?
Jack (as Lem): Samol is here. Samot is dying. Come home.
[Music plays out to end]