Marielda 08: The Valentine Affair Pt. 3
Transcribed by @KatieDiek [0:00-11:00], @chawleeknight [11:00-1:24:30], thedreadbiter [1:24:31-1:57:14]
Austin [as the Narrator]: [slight drawl] I am not an academic sort, but, as far as I can tell, there are two types of dreams. The first is the sort you hear about most often: folks working through the quiet thoughts of the day arriving at images and ideas their woken mind couldn't consider, and of course, a little splash of this or that added in by any nearby spirits or sprites or imps. The second kind of dream, though, that's the sort I send.
[Music - “Marielda” begins, with strummed guitar]
And I know, I know what you’re thinkin'. "Old friend, dreams are ethereal and spiritual, but ain't you physicality made alive?" Well, first of all, physicality is me made boring. And secondly, the dreams I send are physicalities that might have been, or that might yet come to pass. Now, just as there are two types of dreams, there are two types of dreamers. The first dismisses the idea that dreams are meaningful as supernatural superstition.
[Music - the rumble of a storm plays]
And then there are the other dreamers, the ones who realize that there ain't no supernatural.
[Music - piano and percussion join]
There's just the things in the dark. And the heat. Those terrible, natural things that most folks would prefer not to think about.
[Music - jaunty clarinets kick in, “Marielda” continues]
Austin: Hey everybody, welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization and fun interaction between good friends. I am Austin Walker, and we are continuing our game of Blades in the Dark. Joining me today, Ali Acampora.
Ali: Hi! You can find me @ali_west or you can find the show’s twitter @friends_table.
Austin: Andrew Lee Swan.
Dre: Hey! You can find me on twitter @Swandre3000.
Austin: Sylvia[1] Claire.
Sylvia: Hi! You can find me on twitter @captaintrash.
Austin: and Jack de Quidt.
Jack: Hey there! You can find me on twitter @notquitereal, and all of the music featured in the show at notquitereal.bandcamp.com.
Austin: Jack, how does it feel to be the only person without an A name on this entire recording?
[Dre laughs]
Jack: Well, I feel like I’m letting you down really, to be — oh my god.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
[Ali & Dre laughs]
Austin: It’s all of us, and then you.
Ali: Where’s Art? Jack, you have to leave, I’m sorry.
Sylvia: Sorry Jack, you’re out.
Jack: We need to break into the records office somewhere in Oxfordshire and change my birth certificate.
[everyone laughs]
Austin: For what it’s worth, Ajack is such a Friends at the Table name—
Ali: Oh, boy
Austin: “Did you say Ajax?” “No, no, just Ajack.”
[Ali, Sylvia & Dre laugh]
Austin: We are continuing our Blades in the Dark game — first, real quick, shoutout to — remembering there are things I wanted to mention? Two things: one, there is now a Friends at the Table forum —
Ali: Yeah! Started by —
Jack: It’s great.
Ali: It’s great. Started by WeedLordVegeta and friends.
[Dre & Ali laugh]
Austin: Yup, started by WeedLordVegeta. That’s at FaTT.Proboards.com
Ali: Yeah
Austin: Which feels like it’s from a different era of the internet.
[Dre & Ali laugh]
Jack: My favorite surfing website.
Sylvia: I love it, it’s so perfect
Austin: It’s so good. The other thing I wanted to shout out, even though it’s getting to be a little too late for it, I guess? Is that there is a Counter/WEIGHT fanzine that is available from Quinn Milton? Is that right?
Ali: Quinn Milton.
Austin: And you can find them on twitter at twitter.com/QuinnHPM and there’s a link there for the Counter/WEIGHT zine. I think it’s too late to buy the physical copy? But you can still get the PDF and it’s really good.
Dre: It’s super good.
Jack: We were in space once.
Austin: We were in space once. Now we are not. Now we are in libraries and, ya know, churches.
Ali: Well, what’s the difference, really?
Austin: Yeah, just loneliness and stars, so…
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Let’s get back to Blades in the Dark where our goals — my goals as a GM anyway, are to bring Marielda to life, to convey the fictional world honestly, and to play to find out what happens. So, let’s pick up where we left off, which...
[Sylvia & Dre laugh]
Sylvia: Wooo…
Austin: Let me look at this map, alright. It’s been a couple weeks since we played, so it’s going to be one of those episodes where it might take us a little bit to get back into the swing. So let’s see… most of the party — Castille, Audrey and Sige are in the Special Collections Archive in the basement — or in the giant library basement of the Memoriam college inside of the Winsley Cartwright Living Library. Speaking of Winsley Cartwright, he is a ghost who has been kind of brought in to heel by Castille’s ghost charm/bottle. Is that correct? I think that’s correct?
Ali: Yes.
Austin: Meanwhile, Sige is holding Miss Salary, one of the members of the Yellow House school of magic, holding her hostage with an evil knife that he stole.
[Ali giggles]
Dre: Mmhmm.
Austin: He stole that from Mr. Calendar, who was Winsley’s son — and I say was because he was then stabbed Mr. Calendar with that evil knife, sending him to the ground — evil’s a strong word. It’s at most a nihilistic knife.
[Jack laughs]
Austin: Mrs. Manufactory is on one side of this room, and kind of being intimidated by Castille — or was being intimidated until —
Ali: There was an attempt [laughs]
Austin: There was an attempt. Until Castille dropped a ghost flask, it broke, and now Bolster Valentine — who is the author of the book they came here to find — he broke free from that flask and is now threatening everyone. And then there is Audrey, who’s pinned to the ground by Master Latitude, who is a wolfboy. Master Latitude, the Wolf Boy.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: And then there’s Carolyn Fairplay —
Sylvia: Oh God. I forgot about her!
Dre: I forgot about her.
Austin: Who is on the other side — who one of the Hitchcocks sent down here to make sure his friends were okay. She is wandering in through the special collection reception area. There is also the vault that you opened up, which is where the most impressive stuff is — but you haven’t gone in there yet. The door just clanked down and opened up, and you also found a library card that said that the book you are here to steal, which was called Mortal Liminality: On the Space Between Life and Death — that has been withdrawn by the order of the Rector — Rector Sabinia. Who — let’s zip back over to that other map real quick —
[Ali and Jack giggle]
Ali: This is a lot.
Austin: Has currently talked the beaten-up Edmund Hitchcock — which Hitchcock is it?
Jack: This is Edmund.
Austin: Edmund Hitchcock, into taking a nap on a very comfortable couch, but only after showing him what she told him was the Heat and the Dark, which was a force that seems like it is going to tear Marielda and maybe all of Hieron apart. Good times. Good times all around. There is also the question of where Silas, the priest who hurt Edmund, has gone off to, after knocking him out. I think that’s all — And then, also, outside [Ali giggles]
The Black Slacks have begun a — and maybe this is where we can open up — the opening shot, besides setting up all these different characters and what’s happening — outside I think Hitchcock, from this third floor, can hear that the protests are starting to get a little out of control. Out of control is wrong — because like, the Black Slacks are very in control, but they’re getting to be an overwhelming force. The limited number of campus Pala-din are wildly outnumbered and the Black Slacks have taken control of this opportunity to get their voices heard — and their voices are incredibly loud. But I kind of like the image of Hitchcock on the couch trying to recover and sleep. And when you do that, Hitchcock, you can feel something nipping at the corners of your consciousness, [Jack: Oh dear.] drawing you into something else.
[Ali and Jack laugh]
Austin: Can you give me —
Jack: We’re just getting right into it, huh?
Austin: Oh, yeah. Can you give me — we gotta jump right in, we’ve got limited time here, in life, we gotta be good about everything.
[Dre laughs]
Jack: Heat and the Dark is coming.
Austin: [laughs] Yeah. What do I actually want here — maybe it’s not a roll at all, actually, maybe you’re just in it. Maybe you just drift to sleep. And then, you dream. And you’re dreaming very close to whatever that room, the observatory, is. And you kind of slip into this space where you wake up in a version of Marielda. You are in Quince parish, which a lot of people just call Quinceton. Um, it’s the kind of area where the kind of snow elves live. Um, outside of the western wall. It has kind of a, like, for lack of a better word, I’ve kind of imagined it as kind of like a combination of like, deadwood-era, deadwood-style kind of western town, very—lots of dirt roads and wooden buildings, with like a little bit of like rural, medieval-era Japan? Lots of people like, lots of like, drums and lots of like, hanging lanterns, kind of a mix of those two frontier visuals. So you’re there and you’re walking through those streets. And it is, um, noon. And it is incredibly hot. And you realize that there aren’t any people on the streets. What do you do?
Jack: Um… am I armed?
Austin: No. I think you’re probably in… you’re in your cavalry uniform.
Jack: Hm. Aw, man, do I have a horse?
Austin: Yeah, you’re riding a horse. You’re riding a horse.
Jack: Oh wow. Okay.
Austin: What’s your horse’s name?
Jack: Uh, my horse’s name is, um, Layabout.
Austin: Alright. Are you alone or is your brother with you?
Jack: I think in a dream it’s hard to tell which brother I am.
Austin: Yeah. Um, Layabout wants to cut through a little alley and head towards where the bridge used to be, the one that connected Quince to the western kind of side of the continent. Um, do you let Layabout lead you there?
Jack: I think I’m so stunned to be in uniform and on horseback again… do I know I’m dreaming?
Austin: I dunno. You can make a roll to find out.
Jack: Uh, no, I think I’m happy to leave that ambiguous.
Austin: Okay.
Jack: Um, I think I’m so surprised to be wearing the shoes that Thackeray wore and stuff like that, um, that my instincts are gonna kick in and I’m gonna let my horse lead me.
Austin: Okay. You step towards the—or Layabout leads you towards the edge of the river, which is of course still a river of lava, even on this side. But on the western side because of all the snow that’s on this side of the island, it’s like this weird mix of like, weird lava-water but also ice floes. And it bubbles up in certain places and in other places it’s cool enough to where it solidifies, but you can still see the amber glow coming up from beneath the ice. And Layabout kind of marches back and forth in front of the broken bridge, and is like, you imagine, looking for a place to cross. What do you do?
Jack: Is it far enough to jump?
Austin: To the bridge? No. There’s no way.
Jack: We’re talking like, the bridge to Drangelic—or no, the one in Dark Souls 3. Massive bridge.
Austin: Yes. Um, exactly. Um, this is like a huge architectural—would’ve been a huge architectural achievement if it wasn’t broken.
Jack: So I’m gonna get off Layabout and pick up a stone, kick up a stone from the floor and throw it to try and judge the distance.
Austin: Into the water, or?
Jack: I guess over the bridge, yeah.
Austin: You toss the rock, and it like… gets about I’d say… what’s your like, strength-style stat here? Um…
Jack: Oh, um, I guess I’m not very good at throwing things…
Austin: Eh—prowess is—your prowess is 2. I’d see— you toss it a fair distance. You know, you’re a—
—soldier. You’ve got some musculature.
Jack: I’ve been to throwing things training.
Austin: [amused] Yeah, you’ve been through throwing academy. Um, and it goes a decent distance and then it hits the water in an—at a trajectory where it should not skip, but it skips. And it ripples out, and the ripples move way further than they should given the size of the rock that you tossed. And when they reach the ground, the snow starts to melt.
Jack: [dismayed] Oh—
Austin: And then, you see that the ground is uh, or you feel that the ground is becoming hot. And not in like a ‘you’re at a barbecue’ way. At like a ‘you’re in the middle of the desert’ and like, this heat is not—it’s like, so hot that it becomes a different sort of heat. Not like a bad summer day, like a… ‘oh, this entire environment is wildly different.’
Jack: There’s no way I can cross on the ice, right?
Austin: You could try.
Jack: How stable does the ice look?
Austin: There are parts, I mean— that sounds like you’re looking for a way across. That sounds like you wanna give me either a Study or a Survey.
Jack: Mm… Let me look at my character sheet right here. I have a horrible feeling that I’m not very good at Surveying things.
Austin: [dismayed] You’re not super good at Surveying things… Because you have no—
Jack: No, I’m not super good at Surveying things! So I think thinking about it, does a cavalry officer desert the city in its time of need?
Austin: Good question. What are your beliefs?
Jack: Uh, my beliefs are… uh, Aubrey should be protected.
Austin: Mm-hm.
Jack: I have the long con. About the half map.
Austin: The map you’re looking for, right.
Jack: Nowhere in the city is truly inaccessible and no one will tell me where I can or can’t go.
Austin: Interesting.
Jack: Which would suggest that I could desert Marielda.
Austin: Sure. Though, is outside of Marielda ‘somewhere in the city’? There’s kind of an implicit thing there, right? Which is, when you say nowhere in the city is inaccessible, that doesn’t mean that places outside of the city are. Are accessible.
Jack: I’ll tell you, the thing… is that this decision—I don’t get to make this decision, because I look around and my horse is gone.
Austin: Mm.
Jack: And as I turn to look where it is, I can see, riding back towards the city on the back of my horse is my brother. And then suddenly I’m riding the horse, and I’m heading back towards Marielda.
Austin: And it’s on fire.
Jack: Great!
Austin: It’s that fire that you saw from before, the fire that you saw in the observatory. And it is painful. In a way that is hard to describe. And you just wish it would get cooler. You’re desperate for it to get cooler. And then finally, while the Heat is still on, something begins to block out the sun. And the Dark rolls in. And you’re like ‘finally, it’s gonna get dark and cool,’ and then you realize that the heat isn’t coming from the dark at all. And now it’s hot, and you can’t see where you’re going. People in the library, what are you doing? Who wants to start? [Ali laughs] Let’s see. I feel like… I feel like lots of things are happening. Last time—
Sylvia: That’s cause they are.
Austin: Yeah. Bolster had finally pointed at Castille and said, ‘you let them kill me.’
Ali: That happens.
Austin: Is that— is that what Castille says?
Ali: [laughing] No! [Jack laughs] No. Um.
Austin: Oh. ‘Cause that does happen.
Ali: God…
Sylvia: Life sucks and then you die, man, like…
Austin: Oh, quick correction from last episode, we confused— I confused, not just we, I confused how Winsley and Bolster died. Bolster is the one who was, I think this is right, was the one who was killed by lava.
Ali: Yes.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Whereas Winsley was killed outside of the city gates, and I said that Winsley had been—but whatever, Winsley was a weird alchemist, he still gets fire powers as a ghost. I dunno. Okay. Some ghosts get fire powers. I don’t— you know.
Dre: It’s not an exact science. It’s ghosts.
Austin: It’s fine. Right. Right. He’s been in this room with like, magic books for a long time. He’s the librarian. He saw Sige hurt his son real bad.
[Ali laughs]
Sylvia: That’s kind of an understatement…
Austin: Yeah. Yep. So what are you doing, Castille.
Ali: Uh… I think I’m confused. Um, I certainly don’t remember that happening.
Austin: Mm-mm.
Ali: No… Um…
Austin: Trying to think if there’s something you could do to try to remember that happening. I think that might be— hm. Do you — does Castille try to understand what he’s talking about, or is she just not even— does she not even care?
Ali: That’s a really big statement to make without her trying to be like wait, what? So I feel like she— like— she doesn’t even think about it. She must, right?
Austin: She must want to try to remember.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Okay. I can imagine characters who are like ‘you’re just fucking with me, shut up.’ I just don’t know if that’s her or if she’s like, trying to think about what he means. Um, but if you are, I think that’s probably Study.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Which is like, trying to recall— maybe not trying to recall some memories. Let’s think. Um, maybe—hm. Yeah. You could try to examine events to understand a present situation. That sounds a bit like Study to me.
Ali: Okay, yeah.
Austin: Also, Study, here’s a good — I should note that there’s a new version of Blades in the Dark that came out — cause it’s still in beta, so we went to .67 to .71 or something. Uh, and so part of this new version, there’s a much better— not better, but more in depth set of examples and descriptions of what all of the actions do. So here’s from Studying. Um, when you Study something, you concentrate on small details, microexpressions, tone of voice, cryptic writing, subtle innuendo, tiny clues, to find what’s hidden, determine facts, corroborate evidence, and guide your decisions. Studying is often used to read a person. This is a gather information roll to judge whether or not they’re lying, what they really want, what their intentions are. Studying is also the action for research of all kinds. Um, and I think that that lines up with this.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Any fact can be discovered through Study, I think this is that.
Ali: Yeah. I think that this lines up cause it’s not even just— like, I think that she’s trying to remember, but she’s also trying to determine how genuine he’s being.
Austin: Sure. Totally. I think this is risky because like, stopping to think in the middle of such a charged situation is— difficult, let’s say.
Ali: Yeah. Um… risky… standard?
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, in fact let me make a clock real quick. Cause I think this is like, Castille understanding what this is is going to take more than just a single roll. Which is why I need a clock.
Ali: Yeah, that’s fair.
Austin: Um, so I’m gonna make that a complicated clock. You got a 5. Standard effect. Alright. So I think you… hm. You know that he is telling the truth. Like, there is something in the way he talks that—or maybe not that he’s telling the truth, but that he believes what he is saying. Um, and the reason you realize that is not that you can corroborate it with information you have, or even just that you believe him because he seems trustworthy, but because the way he snaps at you feels familiar. Like, you feel like he’s snapped at you like this before. Like you almost have a gut reaction that’s like, rolling your eyes at him or something. Whatever Castille’s gut reaction is to being snapped at like that. It’s a practiced, familiar reaction. But there is a problem, which is that in the moment when you— you kind of like, look into his face and like are focused on him for that moment, and in that second, Mrs. Manufactory manages to like, get the drop on you and reaches at your leg with her cane and pulls it out from under you, pushing you to the ground. You are now in a desperate position.
Ali: That makes sense. That was a good call on her part.
Austin: Um, she then slams the cane down next to your face. It has like a hard metal tip, and makes a really loud clank. What are you all doing? What’s everyone else doing in this room? Also I’m gonna mark that you made three dots on this.
Sylvia: Uh… so I’m screaming. Because I’ve got a werewolf boy on me.
Austin: You do have a werewolf boy on you! That did happen!
Sylvia: Yeah, that happened! And it’s not good!
Dre: I could uh, I could try to help you with that.
Austin: Does that mean letting go of Ms. Salary?
Dre: Probably.
Sylvia: She is unconscious.
Austin: Oh, she is unconscious, you’re right. You’re right.
Sylvia: Yes.
Austin: So what do you do to help?
Dre: Um, I’m gonna just throw Ms. Salary into the vault.
Austin: Oh, I thought you were gonna— okay.
Sylvia: I thought you were gonna say ‘at him!’
Dre: No, no. And then I just wanna like, football punt Master Latitude.
Austin: Oh my god. Good. Give me a… that sounds like a Skirmish.
Jack: Please don’t kick the dog!
Dre: It’s a person-dog.
Austin: It is a person-dog.
Jack: That’s worse.
Dre: This is risky desperate?
Austin: This is… risky.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: Definitely risky… and again, standard. Oof! 6!
Dre: 6. The other two were both 1s, so…
Austin: Yep.
Dre: Thanks, 6.
Sylvia: Jesus.
Austin: So yeah, you punt Master Latitude off of Audrey. Um…
Sylvia: Aubrey. Audrey’s the fake name.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: Goddammit. Every single time.
Sylvia: That is such a bad bit!
Austin: It’s such a bad bit! Um, Master Latitude ends up like, still in a wolf boy form, um, kind of like goes and stands in front of the body of Mister Calendar and is like, growling and clutching at his chest. And Ms. Salary is now in the vault no one else has been into yet. Just to give a layout again, for people, to the north is like a huge towering set of stacks that have a weird rising and falling platforms that you can stand on to kind of move around the library. You’re in a special collection archive, which is where some of the best stuff is kept. There’s a vault, which has the very best stuff in there. There is the special collection reception which is where Carolyn Fair-Play is, and also connected to the room you’re in is a reading room no one has gone into yet. And then there’s some other stuff down here, but that’s not important. So let’s go to Aubrey. What are you doing?
Sylvia: Uh, I think since — the second that that thing is kicked off of me I’m just gonna move so I’m like, hidden behind Sige, basically.
[Austin laughs sympathetically]
Austin: You can’t— no one can see it, but — Sylvia—
[various people laughing]
Sylvia: I literally put it right behind the thing…
Austin: Sylvia literally slid Aubrey’s character token behind Sige’s. That’s really good. Alright, so that’s your action, just kind of getting to a safer place.
Sylvia: Yeah, just kind of retreating, because I am not supposed to be that close to people.
Austin: No. No. Um, Mrs. Manufactory like… what is she…
Sylvia: Could I also try and keep an eye on the unconscious Ms Salary while I’m behind Sige there?
Austin: Sure. Totally. She is knocked out for now, at least.
Sylvia: Yeah. Just in case she is not anymore.
Austin: Um, Bolster I think is gonna go to pick you up, Castille, with his ghost magic. He’s reaching down, like you can feel the telekinetic yank, and again when he does it you can feel it on flesh. That’s part of the thing that’s weird about him.
Ali: Right.
Austin: What do you do as you can feel him begin to like, yank you up off the ground?
Ali: Um… it feels like flesh but does it feel… violent?
Austin: Yes. Sorry, I should be— He is lifting you by the choke— by the neck. Again, he’s choking you and lifting you, or trying to.
Ali: Okay. So this is not him helping.
Austin: N… No…
[everyone laughing]
Jack: It’s always worth checking!
Austin: That’s fair!
Dre: You gotta ask!
Ali: You gotta ask…
Jack: What here is helping?
[more, very loud laughter]
Ali: Cool. I, um… let me take a look at what I can do super quickly. God… uh, we have established where the cat is?
Austin: We have not done that. Do you wanna— we could establish that in a flashback, or… in a number of different ways.
Ali: We absolutely can. We also never said how much hull we had, or are we all light?
Austin: Oh, you mean how much stuff you’re carrying?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: I think everyone said light.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Because you were trying to— I think—
Sylvia: Oh. Mine was set as normal.
Austin: That’s fine. Normal’s fine.
Ali: I think I probably am carrying it with me.
Austin: Okay. Like in a pouch, or like just in— okay.
Ali: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, when it’s like a statue it’s like, condensed. It’s like, sitting. Um, so yeah, I’d like to change into my cat form.
Austin: Okay. So that, um, Bolster’s literally just lifting up the like… limp statue.
Ali: [cross] Yeah, exactly. Kind of to take the heat off me a little bit. Like—
Austin: Yeah, totally. Totally. How do you transfer— there’s no roll to that, right? It’s just… um, you know what, give me an Attune, because the fact that there are two of these ghosts plus a pretty powerful character in Mrs. Manufactory here makes this a little more risky than…
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: In fact, remember you’re in a desperate position because of the previous roll.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: So give me an Attune, desperate.
Ali: [laughing] Okay. Okay, that’s a 5.
Austin: Not bad. That’s a 5. You’re pretty good at Attuning. That’s the thing. Um, alright, so— you do it but there’s a consequence. You suffer severe harm, a serious complication occurs or you have reduced effect. Um, you are— you— heh. So… have we talked about what happens when you— what you see mid-transition between your statue and cat form? I know we talked about that you kind of move through some sort of space, you don’t… you haven't ever seen… you haven’t spent enough time there to be able to like, take it in.
Ali: Yeah, the way that we spoke about it was that like, either it’s instantaneous but like, every one time out of like, ten times, sometimes there’s like… a feeling of being in between the two bodies. But not… it’s always like half a second or two seconds or something, so not enough for her to like Study it, or…
Austin: Right.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: So… this time. You…
Ali: [laughing] In the ghost library…
Austin: In the ghost library. Where— this is the first time you’ve tried this in the ghost library. [Ali laughing more] You leave the Castille statue form?
Ali: Mm-hm.
Austin: Um, and then can see the cat form on the ground, waiting to be inhabited, but you can’t like, will yourself in. Um, and you look around and there are— I— you know. This is… ten floors high, is that what we talked about this— this library being, something like that?
Ali: Somewhere in that, yeah.
Austin: Um, and each floor is just filled with ghosts. Just like, hundreds of ghosts here, flipping through ghostly books, turning pages. Chattering with each other. There are— ‘cause like, on the outside of this room, there are a bunch of little reading rooms, like that are facing outwards into the rest of the library, but here it’s all weird blue ghost walls, so you’re just seeing through ghost walls and looking at people like, studying for ghost finals. And a bunch of them turn and look at you as you appear. [Ali makes awkward noises in-character] And you have like, fingers, and like, a body, and you’re just here in like, the ghost realm. The spirit realm. Caught between forms.
Ali: O...kay.
Austin: And you can feel— the same way that when Bolster was choking you, you could feel flesh, you can— you touch, you know, finger to thumb and it depresses, like it’s flesh.
Ali: There’s like… I can feel the air, like—
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: You know, there’s like… like a waftiness.
Austin: Yeah. And it’s kind of like… you’re ten floors deep underground, so I’m guessing it’s probably… I dunno, I guess, is that humid or is it dry in here? I guess actually in the special collections it’s probably kept dry somehow. To keep stuff good.
Ali: But it’s also like, probably a little cold, and then like, coldness is a thing that she probably hasn’t felt… ever…
Austin: Yeah. In a long time.
Ali: Um, when everyone looks at me does it feel like… is it like… because they’re startled, or like… does it feel like a threat, I guess?
Austin: No, it’s— it’s a startle. It’s like, euhh! It’s like, who’s that? Um, she’s not supposed to be here.
Right.
Not threatening ‘she’s not supposed to be here’. Just like ‘oh, boy.’ [Ali laughs] ‘Who— where did she come from?’ Everyone else in the special collections archive, uh… Bolster has lifted Castille up in the sky. Up in the air. And— Castille’s cat is on the ground but is not moving. Um… I think actually, I think this moment is when Carolyn enters the room.
Dre: Oh, good.
Sylvia: Oh, christ…
Austin: Sword out— sword out, sword in her sheath but like, hand on her sword, and like she just like scans everybody and then like steps—very skillfully to the right to where there is some empty room in this room. To where she can actually like, have her back to the wall safely.
Jack: Maybe I shouldn’t have given this child a sword.
Austin: You did! You gave her your sword. PS, that means you—
Jack: But maybe I shouldn’t have, is what I’m saying.
Austin: —don’t have your sword. Oh.
Jack: No I, yeah, I also just realized that bit as well.
Austin: Yeah, you don’t have your sword. [Dre chuckles] She’s good with a sword.
Jack: Right, that’s true.
Austin: We established that she’s a better duelist than a dancer.
Jack: That’s… yeah. Some comfort.
Austin: She holds the sword up, uh, and says,
[as Carolyn]: Alright. Which one of you are Hitchcock’s friends?
[Ali LAUGHS]
Sylvia: Aubrey raises her hand. A little hand just comes out from between— from behind Sige’s leg and waves.
Austin: Good. Let’s hop back up to Hitchcock.
Jack: Hello.
Austin: You’ve left that first part of the dream now. The—the world of fire and dark has been taken over with a different image of Marielda. This time, you are in the middle of Iris Parish. You’re kind of at the part where it hits Emberboro, naturally, so it’s a combination of cobbin architecture, like the weird angular kind of like, naturally thrown together stuff, and the factories where smoke is rising. And the factories are just like, churning things out, heavy clanks, very rhythmic. It’s very rhythmic but there are a bunch of competing rhythms that don’t mesh well. It’s not cacophonous but it is like, offbeat. There is something like—there’s something just a little bit off about the way it’s all hitting. And at first—actually I think again you’re here—do you have your horse this time?
Jack: Ah, no, I think my horse is gone.
Austin: Okay.
Jack: I’m not sure where.
Austin: Are you wearing your cavalry uniform again [Jack: Yeah.] or something else?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Okay. And… at first you think that the— I think the thing you notice is that you’re having trouble breathing. That the smoke and smog of Iris parish is low today. Normally it’s high enough up in the sky that you don’t have too much trouble breathing while you’re here. You don’t come here that often, I guess, Castille lives in the district. Uh, but other than that it’s not much for… you’re just not here that often. Um, so you notice at first that you’re having trouble breathing. What do you do?
Jack: I think I’m probably gonna try and— and sort of, probably just like try and take out a pocket handkerchief and hold it over my mouth or something.
Austin: Totally. You do that and you can breathe a little bit easier. Or not that you’re breathing easier, it’s just that less smoke is getting in.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Um and you see—you can hear the sound of children playing in the distance, and you see that there is that old church that was also kind of a medical facility. Where uh, where Christopher used to hang out. Where he used to run his church before he was kind of run out. And you can hear where there are children, and as you get closer to it, the children are replaced with a low chanting. You can hear that there are, um, there’s a group of men and women inside of the hospital there. And they are chanting a name again and again and again.
Jack: Do I recognize the name?
Austin: I think so. I don’t know. How much does—how much does Hitchcock know about like, world religions?
Jack: [laughs] I think—I think probably it’s like the Dunning-Kruger effect. [Austin laughs] I think they both probably think they know quite a lot because they traveled and they— y’know, heard people talking—
Austin: They are from Nacre. Right.
Jack: Right. Yeah.
Austin: Then they know. They recognize the name. These are the Hospitallers du Tristero. They worship the god of the dead, and they’re chanting his name.
Jack: Oh, dear. Have they seen me?
Austin: No. They don’t seem to see anyone. They are standing in the windows of the hospital looking out, and chanting the name Tristero. Um, you see a little girl. With tight curls. And she runs into the church that’s next to the hospital. You recognize her as someone familiar but you can’t place her.
Jack: I’m gonna follow her in.
Austin: The church is dilapidated. Anything but well-kept. But you recognize it as being a church of the— of Maelgwyn’s Faithful. It has the kind of slightly more austere like, decoration than traditional Samothes churches do. And you see the little girl running up a spiral staircase that’s right in the middle of the main kind of congregation area. And you can hear her like— she’s having trouble climbing the stairs, you can hear like in her rhythm. It matches the kind of offset rhythm of the machines in Iris Parish.
Jack: Hm. I think I’m probably pushed aside by Ethan Hitchcock, [Austin laughs] who starts running up the stairs after the girl. And I follow him.
Austin: Okay. Do you switch into his perspective again?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Okay. You get to the top of the building and you’re in like a bell tower. And you can hear this bell and another ringing, and it is deafening. And outside, from the top of the— the church, from the bell tower, you can look out. And to the east, in the water, there’s that old gap in the sea. You remember that one? Where there’s just kind of a hole into nothingness?
Jack: Mm-hm.
Austin: That’s growing.
[Jack makes worried noises]
Austin: It’s getting wider and wider and soon the bay—all of it—is the dark. And then Emberboro. And then Iris parish. And bit by bit, all of Marielda is consumed by this dark. And in the last moments, you feel something else. It’s actually comforting this time. It’s not an unbearable heat so much as it is a familiar warmth. Library. [pause] How’s it goin?
[Dre laughs]
Sylvia: Uhh…
Dre: Could be worse, could be better.
Sylvia: [sighs] It’s a whole thing.
Austin: Mrs. Manufactory says,
[as Manufactory]: Enough is enough. We’re here for a book. You let us have this book, and we’ll all be on our way. No more ghosts, no more violence.
Austin: And she like slams her cane down again.
Sylvia: It’s not here!
Austin: Wait, what are you—
Sylvia: The book’s not here, remember? Sorry, this out of character. The book’s not here.
Dre: We don’t know what book they’re looking for.
Austin: The book you’re looking for is not here.
Sylvia: The book we’re looking for is not here, is it the same book they’re looking for?
Dre: [cross] We don’t know what book they’re looking for.
Austin: No one has asked what book they’re looking for.
Dre: We’ve never asked— [laughs]
Sylvia: I totally just assumed.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Sylvia: What are you— I’m gonna ask.
[as Aubrey]: What book are you looking for?
Manufactory: That’s none of your business. It’s just—very important. It’s an old tome. Now step aside and let me enter the vault.
Dre: I mean, if we know it’s not here...
Sylvia: Yeah, but we need to help Castille.
Ali: I’ll figure it out.
Sylvia: So we can’t leave.
Ali: [amused] My whole situation is… probably something I have to deal with.
Austin: She like, steps between Bolster and Castille who’s floating in the air, just like as if it’s no big deal at all. And just like, marches past— through them. And Master Latitude, the wolf boy, steps like right behind her. And they’re just walking right towards you with the assumption that you’ll move out of the way.
Sylvia: I’m fine with letting them go through if Sige is, and we regroup outside the room. And we take Castille’s cat form with us at the least ‘cause we can carry— [Austin and Ali laugh quietly] We can carry that! Or we try and deal with this ghost guy. But either way I’m fine with letting these guys pass for now.
Austin: Okay. They pass through..
Sylvia: Well, Sige is—
Austin: Okay, yeah.
Sylvia: Dre, are you cool with that?
Dre: Uhhh… yeah. I guess.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: You sure?
Dre: I just wanna know what they’re looking for.
Austin: You could— how does Sige wanna get that information?
Dre: Ali also brings up a good point in the chat. [Ali laughs] But then we can’t get the other good stuff out of the vault!
Austin: There’s good stuff in that vault. I can see it.
Ali: [laughing] Austin!
Sylvia: Austin.
Austin: What’s up?
Dre: I want that stuff!
Jack: Austin.
Sylvia: That’s really rude.
Dre: I want that stuff.
Jack: Extremely rude!
Austin: I— it’s written right in front of me.
Jack: You’re being more rude!
Sylvia: Well, I was looking in there…
Austin: That’s my question. You tossed Miss Salary in there but you didn’t like, give it a good once-over.
Sylvia: Yeah. But what can we see peeking in?
Austin: So what I mentioned before in the last session is that there are tomes in the old tongue, which again, Aubrey, you know you can read a little bit, that was like the card that the Yellow House had that mentioned the dark and the heat. This is an old tongue that you know is— it predates modern society. Um, but the cobbin culture has kind of kept it alive. Because you have old roots. So you know there’s a bunch of books and stuff in there. There are also just like weird boxes of glass, kind of like reliquaries, and then there are some shining things, there is a bunch of stuff. Like, it’s a big vault. And everything is carefully placed, but like you would need to actually go in there and investigate it a little bit.
Dre: And her terms were just— let her in to get to the vault to get her book.
Austin: That’s all she wants. Enough violence. She’s already lost someone.
Dre: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Sylvia: Okay. Yeah.
Austin: Okay. They walk in. Also remember sadly, Ali in the chat says “lock ‘em in.” That’s not…
Dre: Yeah, cause we blew the door open.
Austin: You burned the door off.
Sylvia: Yeah, I burned that door.
Ali: Ohh… Yeah.
Austin: That’s not just opened. Alright. Carolyn looks over at you two and just like,
Austin [as Carolyn]: [whispering] Why did you let them in?
Aubrey: [also whispering] We didn’t really have an option!
Carolyn: Is that your ghost?
Dre [as Sige]: ...Nope.
Carolyn: What about that other one?
Sige: Nope.
Aubrey: I mean—
Sige: And that’s why we let them in.
Austin: Bolster is like— at that moment, Bolster tosses the limp form— or I guess maybe not limp, I guess the completely stone, like, heavy form—of Castille against the wall. And it breaks through into this other, like, this kind of like reading room. It like smashes through that whole wall.
Ali [quietly] Oh my god…
Austin: And then he like, turns and he has like cool mage robes and shit on, and he turns and looks at the rest of you and goes,
Austin [as Bolster]: [threateningly] Where is she?
[Aubrey and Sige make clueless noises]
Austin: Castille, where are— what’s goin’ on? What are you doing in ghost world?
Ali: Um— I don’t have any awareness of what everyone else is doing?
Austin: No, you can’t see into the living world here.
Ali: Right. And Bolster and Winsley were both pulled by…
Austin: You two… yes. Into that realm. You can kind of feel where they’re at, like I feel like there’s probably a disturbance in the same way that like, you know in the real world sometimes there’s a physical disturbance where there are ghosts on the other side.
Ali: Right. Okay. But I can’t like— knock over a bookshelf to help my friends.
Austin: Um, you could do that with an Attune check.
Ali: Alright. I’ll— that’s good to know for later. [laughs]
Austin: And you could like, see in with a check. Like, there are ways to pierce this veil, but it requires you to like, take a risk.
Ali: How do I get a sense of like, moving through this environment?
Austin: Just try it out, right? Like, it’s… it’s like you—
—knew how to swim all along, but you’ve never been in the ocean or a pool. Like, you’ve been tossed in and you know how to swim, but it’s not a thing you’re familiar with doing, like, mentally. Even though your body knows how to do it. You’re floating in the air. I think maybe you take steps at first and then you realize you don’t need it. You take steps and then you realize you wanna be in a different place, and then maybe you hear the wall crumble from the other side and you like, turn and look at it and automatically start floating over in that direction.
Ali: Okay. Um, trying to think of what the best option here is. ‘Cause I feel like…
Austin: There… there is an incredible light coming from the vault. I just realized you’re in the ghost realm.
Ali: Yep. See, there you go. [laughs]
Austin: Yeah. There is a— just like, bright—everything here is tinted blues and purples, except this one golden shape coming from the vault.
Ali: Okay. Can I go over… there?
Austin: Totally.
Ali: Okay. Um, is it still just a light?
Austin: It is— it is, in fact, harder to see the closer you get to it, because it’s so bright. It’s a lot like the brightness that was inside of the church of Iris that was hard to get like, a complete visual of. Because it’s so bright. But you can make out—you can give me a check to make something out.
Ali: Yeah. Would that be a Study or an Attune, or?
Austin: That would be… how are you doing it? It could be a bunch of different things. It could be a Study or a Survey or an Attune, I would say. Depending on how she’s going about it. With Attune you’d be kind of reaching out with these nascent ghost-like senses and like, understanding it in a way that’s beyond sight and feeling. With Study, you would be like, doing the thing where you maybe cover up bits of it at once and slowly kind of piece together what the shape is. And with Survey you just kind of squint and bear it and put together what is happening there. I would say with Study you know what it is, with Survey you know what it’s doing. I think that’s maybe the difference.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Or like another weird thing about it is, with Survey you’re going off of evidence. With Study, you are kind of deducing something.
Ali: Right. Um, I feel like she’s in this sort of like… it’s like when you hear something and it’s really far away, but you try to like, turn off the rest of your senses so you can feel what that is.
Austin: Totally.
Ali: So I think it’s an Attune, ‘cause she like has these…
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: That’s totally it.
Ali: But like, she’s moving towards it and holding her hands up like she’s going to Study it, but she can feel that she can like… get information in a different way. Like, what’s happening.
Austin: Yeah, totally. This is… risky standard. The result will add to your general understanding of the situation here.
Ali: [laughing] Okay. Cool. That’s a 6.
Austin: That is a 6! A 6 and a 5. Good roll. Um, so… you make out that it is a figure. It is like a humanoid figure. Um, and it feels like… like with Bolster, there is something in this body that gives you familiar pause. Your gut reaction is to reach for a weapon.
Ali: [dismayed] Oh!
Austin: And you are… hm. When you step into the vault and like, realize that it’s a being, like another living or undead or whatever this thing is, a spirit, another spirit, the vault closes behind you. And the room’s walls become solid. And this figure like, it loses some of its brightness and you can now look at it straight on. It’s still glowing, but it’s glowing like a lamp and not like a sun. Um, and it looks as if it’s like, jumping out at you with one hand, but the other hand is like, locked in place on something— something that’s on the wall in the vault. Almost as if it’s like, chained by the wrist to the far end of the wall.
Ali: Huh. And I’m just like— I don’t have a weapon, obviously.
Austin: Uh— yeah, I guess not. I dunno. Or maybe you do. Hm. I’m gonna look at your sheet really quick, because maybe actually you do have something still.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah. If you wanna use one of your things, you have an unusual weapon. You wanna save what— you have an unusual, weird weapon in this ghost world.
Ali: O… kay.
Austin: Or you can just not have one. And that’s fine.
Ali: Right. Yeah. Do I get the sense that I can communicate with it at all?
Austin: Totall— you haven’t tried yet.
Ali: Okay. Yeah.
Austin: It’s definitely a living, sapient thing,
Ali: Okay. But I feel in danger. Or…
Austin: You feel threatened.
Ali: Okay. Okay.
Austin: Yes. But maybe not in danger. It is locked up, from what you can tell.
Ali: But it’s humanoid like, no features?
Austin: It is— in my mind, it has almost a polygonal look to it. It’s like, hard sharp edges, all angular. Almost like the way— there’s this mode in the new Deus Ex called breach mode, which is like— or like a, there’s another game that came out last year called Volume, but actually I think these guys are— I’ll link you to an image. It’s similar in nature to this. Kind of like, hard angular, triangular, but instead of being just golden, that’s all made of light.
Ali: Ohhh. Okay.
Austin: Instead of facial features, you can see where there might be a nose, but it’s just like a hard polygonal triangle.
Ali: Okay. This helps. Okay.
Austin: Yeah. But again, it’s not just like golden, it is a light. It’s lit.
Ali: [laughing] I’m gonna, hang up, is what I’m gonna do.
Austin: Okay. That’s fair. See you later.
[Sylvia laughing]
Ali: Bye everyone!
Austin: Good talking to you.
Ali: Um, could I like hold my hands up and try to get it to almost like, relax a little bit?
Austin: Sure. That sounds like Sway, maybe?
Ali: Yeah. Risky standard?
Austin: Um… what are you doing? Tell me how you’re doing it. Cause that can change things like scale and like effect, and some other stuff.
Ali: Yeah, I think that she’s like— first she was approaching it really quickly to kind of see what’s going on, but then she kind of stops and holds her hands up, almost, and just like— ‘relax’.
Austin: I don’t think you need to roll for that.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: I think— I think that this being does like— there’s almost a resigned feeling. There’s almost like a… [blows out breath]. Like… there’s nothing to be done. Um, and it takes like a more passive posture. Almost the way Winsley looked once you locked him up with the ghost bottle. Locked him down with the ghost bottle. Let’s go to Sige and Aubrey. [laughing slightly] What are you doing now?
Sylvia: Ugh… okay. So… ghostie boy’s still holding…
Austin: No, ghostie boy threw Castille through a wall.
Sylvia: Okay. [laughs] Okay. Okay. Uh… I’m gonna… what’s he doing right now?
Austin: Bolster?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Is moving towards Castille’s body. Limp body. Not limp body. Uninhabited body.
Sylvia: Okay.
Dre [as Sige]: Aubrey, how do we fight a ghost?
Sylvia [as Aubrey]: That’s exactly what I’m trying to figure out!
Dre: Um… I think Sige looks over at Carolyn and says,
[as Sige]: New kid, you got any ideas?
[Sylvia laughs]
Austin [as Carolyn]: Can I— can I stab it?
Austin: And like she takes a step forward and draws the saber.
[Sylvia laughs more]
Sige: I’m— I like you. You can try.
Sylvia: God— oh, boy.
Austin: Alright. She runs forward with the sword and like— Jack is that sword magic or anything? It’s fine.
Jack: Oh my god, it’s not magic at all, no!
[Austin laughing, mild ruckus]
Sylvia: Wait, um—
Ali: Jack, are you sure? ‘Cause I know someone who can put magic into swords.
Aubrey: Sige, USE YOUR GUN!
[multiple people laughing, someone clapping]
Sige: Oh, yeah.
Austin: Sige does have a gun! I like that Aubrey just said that.
[Ali laughing]
Aubrey: It’s a magic gun!
Austin [amused]: Give me a Hunt!
Dre: Yeah, alright! Oh boy, I only got 1 in this, so we’ll see how this goes.
Austin: Hey, remember you could push yourself for a bonus. You could do a lot of things. Other people can help you. I’ll give you plus 1 from Carolyn. But like, she’s not—
Jack: It’s not a magic sword!
Austin: Well, she learns that as it slashes through Bolster’s body and nothing happens, and then she says,
[as Carolyn]: [sucks in breath] It’s not a magic sword.
[everyone laughing]
Dre: Ah… is it 2 stress to push yourself?
Austin: 2 stress to push yourself.
Dre: Alright, I’ll do that.
Austin: You’re up to 6 now?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Um, so I would take— so I think this is risky great.
Dre: And… I get one extra die from pushing myself?
Austin: You get one extra die from pushing yourself, and then it is… let me see if she’s helping you in any… I think it’s just— it’s great effect.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: Cause the weapon is of great quality.
Dre: 6!
Austin: Yo, 6! Alright!
Dre: I’m glad I pushed myself. [laughing]
Austin: Yeah. Me too. You would’ve gotten a 3 otherwise. The second die was the 6.
Jack: Wow.
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Austin: Yeah. That’s— that’s really good. So great effect for risky, uh, is, three dots. I’m gonna update his clock. Also gonna debut his clock. Um, what’s this weapon— so this is the sawed-off… right?
Dre: Yeah. What do these guns normally look like when they fire at someone.
Austin: Normally they’re like a sharp, thin beam.
Dre: Okay. I think this is like…
Austin: Here’s what— normally, I think here’s what happens. It draws a line from the— from the barrel to the target and then when it hits the back end from the barrel like, zips forward. Like, it’s almost like a two-step. Where like, it zips out— and this all happens very quickly, but like over long distances, where they’re normally used, you can literally see a line being drawn across the sky, or through the air. And then it like, almost like a slinky or something, the other side moves across that space to catch up with the front line when it hits something finally.
Dre: Gotcha.
Austin: So that’s normally what happens.
Dre: I think this really jacked-up one that I’ve tinkered with looks like— basically like a proton pack from GhostBusters.
Austin: Uh-huh. Good.
Dre: Just like a big beam shoots out, but then there’s like, just little like— it’s not a very clean line, it’s just wavy and bending, and there’s little forks of lightning that pulse off the sides of it.
Austin: Nice. Nice. Alright. We can delete this, and Bolster will be the clock I made. Awesome. Uh, so I think those go through Bolster and you can actually see them like, bounce around inside of him for a while. And one of his uh, half of him is just gone. But the rest of him is still here. Um, you hear this in the vault, Castille. Like, you can feel that shot going out, and everyone that like— I guess you can’t see them anymore ‘cause you’re in the vault. The thing that’s with you in the vault does a jump when that sound happens.
Ali: Yikes! Um, but I’m locked in here.
Austin: Yes.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Yep.
Ali: [apprehensive] Uh, cool. Um, I’m trying to talk to this thing.
Austin: What do you say?
Ali: Well I d— Hm. I just told it to relax and it didn’t respond in any way, right? It’s just kind of calmed down.
Austin: Yeah, it didn’t respond, it calmed down.
Ali [as Castille]: Mm. Uh, so… what are you doing here? Hi. Hey.
Austin: It like, shrugs. And then points to— with its right hand it points to its left hand, which is like, locked into the wall. Like, yanks at it, not actually yanking, just like “Look, see! Idiot! I’m fucking trapped in the wall. That’s what I’m doing here.” [Ali laughs]
Castille: Mm. So you can’t talk with words?
Austin: Shakes its head.
Castille: Okay. Alright, well, okay. Um, why did you close the— no, you can’t. Um, can you open the door again?
Austin: Uh, it points at like— it does like a point and a shrug, like “Yeah, but didn’t you just hear that sound?” Like it does like a big— opens its hand rapidly as if to like, make a sound gesture. You know what I mean.
Castille: Oh. Yeah. Okay. That’s a good point. But I have some pals who… could have been that sound. Um. So I’m a little worried.
Austin: There’s like— you can hear it— you can hear it trying to talk when you say you have some pals. But like, it’s— you can’t hear it speaking, but you can almost hear echoes in the distance. As if like, you were in a big cave and somewhere further away, someone said something— something like “I know all about your pals.”
Ali: [dismayed] Oh…
Austin: In a really dismissive and sarcastic way. But it’s just kind of echoing around, it doesn’t… And it seems, not angry, but really… just kind of mean.
[Ali laughing]
Austin: And then it like… it deflates a little bit as if that took a lot of energy to do.
Castille: Oh. Um, yeah, so if you know about them, then… you know, I gotta get out there. Uh, I could help you?
Austin: It points to the arm.
Ali: Hm… okay. Can I… I feel like… Just letting him go is such a risk. Without knowing why.
Dre: Do it!
Ali: Um… [laughing] You guys are all like, in this building, is the thing.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Ali: [laughing] Oh my…
Dre: Yeah, but we’re not in the vault. It’s fine!
Sylvia: It’s fine.
Ali: [still laughing]
Austin: Aubrey. There is like a weird clanking noise coming from in the vault. Like something is like—not clanking. Clanking is wrong. Like rattling. Like— [loud rattling foley] something is rattling in the vault.
Sylvia: C—can I look in and see? Cause we’re still by the door, I think.
Austin: Yes. Um, give me a… Survey to see what you see in that room.
Sylvia: O—kay. Uh, risky standard?
Austin: Risky standard.
Sylvia: [in response to roll] This is why we got our name.
Austin: Yo! Y’all are rolling 6s a lot today! Um, alright, so…
Sylvia: [cross] I only had one dice!
Austin: I’m gonna tell you what you see in this room. So. Mrs. Manufactory and um, and Master Latitude— Master Latitude is like, pawing at Ms. Salary to try to wake her up, cause he’s still a wolfboy. While Mrs. Manufactory is like, moving through books at a rapid pace. Is like, looking at them, tossing them on the ground. Looking at them, tossing them on the ground. Um, and she finds the one that she’s looking for, which is uh, you see that that is a book that says something— it’s a very old character on the front that you can’t quite make out, but it’s something like ‘bring to life’ or something like that. But not like, give birth. Like— it’s like, I guess like the grammar for it was like if there was a word that was like, not about… like, bringing an inanimate object to life.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: Um, and she’s like, “Ah! Here it is.” So that’s one of the things you see. You also see a crystal that’s similar to the one that you saw on the train, the one that looks kind of like a plumbob from the Sims that is like, golden. And that is up in a case right up in the far side of the— of the room.
Sylvia: Remind me, what was the context of that crystal for the train?
Austin: I think that last time, in the train, it was— it was projecting the vision of Samothes on the chair.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: And then there is a reliquary, a kind of glass box. And there is like a gauntlet inside of that. Um, and that is underneath the plumbob. The like, crystal. On another, lower shelf. And that, you see, is starting to shake back and forth.
Sylvia: Have the, um… have the other people in there…
Austin: They have not noticed it quite yet, no.
Sylvia: Okay. [sighs] Well… how far away from it am I?
Austin: This is a matter of like, twenty feet. Like, this isn’t— there isn’t a huge distance. Um, while you focus in on that, let’s switch back one more time to Hitchcock.
Jack: Hi.
Austin: Mm. Hi. How you doin?
Jack: Uhh… It’s not great, is it.
Austin: N—no. No, it’s not. You’re in, uh— you’re in the top floor of Chrysanthemum parish’s hanging gardens of Maelgwyn. Except now, instead of just being the hanging gardens, which is again, kind of like an arcade. Like a walking arcade, kind of like a mall. Um, on the top of it now, there is a tower. It’s massive. And it’s built in a similar style, which is to say like, lots of columns, lots of different sorts of stone to create almost like, a mosaic effect that— in the tower you can kind of feel all the different parts of Marielda. Like, it has some of the construction of Quince, and Orchid parish in it, but it also has the kind of like, beautiful buildings of Chrysanthemum in it, and some of the more naturalistic stuff in Emberboro. So, you’re at the bottom of this tower, that is… I guess if you were a child at the time, it kind of reminds you of the mage tower that was here when Marielda was first kind of created. But is much bigger than that. So you’re in front of it. You’re on the top of the hanging gardens, and then in front of you, kind of surrounded by plant life, is this tower.
Jack: Is the door open?
Austin: There are no doors on the bottom floor. It’s open. There’s kind of like a bunch of arches you can walk through to be inside the tower, so to speak.
Jack: I guess I’m going to try and— try and go into the tower.
Austin: Okay. Um, there are people everywhere here. Unlike the previous visions. And they’re just going about their day, and just kind of like— living life as people do. Actually, maybe there’s a kind of moment when you realize that it’s… you realize that they’re like, going through the day the way people in stories go through their day in the background? You know what I mean? Like—
Jack: Yeah. This person’s carrying the crate.
Austin: Right. Exactly. Um, and like, if you pay enough attention for long enough, the person carrying the crate loops back again and again. And people are talking, but like, you can’t make out words. It’s just background. It’s just like someone’s hit play on noise. Y’know?
Jack: It’s like trying to listen to a conversation in a dream, right?
Austin: Yes, exactly.
Jack: You can’t actually place any of it.
Austin: In the middle of the tower on the bottom floor, there is a seal on the ground. It is— it is— at first you think the seal of Samothes, the kind of circular— kind of like, broad circle. But in the middle of it, there is a book and in front of the book is a goblet.
Jack: Do I recognize this symbol?
Austin: Yeah. This is the symbol of Samot. But normally it doesn’t have the circle around it.
Jack: Okay. So if—if followers of Samothes are— based in Marielda, where are followers of Samot based?
Austin: Well, let’s go to… let me find a map. [pause] Go to friends at the table dot net and then click on the maps button, and then find a map of Hieron from a different era. But it will serve our purposes here. So… Marielda is this sizable chunk of the continent of Hieron. Separated by water. Um, the followers of Samothes are primarily located at this point in Marielda, but also throughout much of the western half— the southwestern half of this continent. Um, up towards the northeast, is kind of like a J running down Hieron, right?
Jack: Right.
Austin: With most of the focus you know being in Marielda. Things get complicated in the north because there are a bunch of like… weird things that aren’t human or elf. Or dwarf, even. There are orcs and goblins and other creatures that you don’t really— halflings, like little half people, that’s weird. And then the followers of Samothes are like, mostly the northwest.
Jack: Sorry, Samot.
Austin: Sorry, yes, Samot. Mostly the northwest. Uh, where Velas is on this map, where um, there is obviously— there is no Ordenna on this map, for people who— again have been listening since season one, there’s just— yep. Not there. And it includes the university, which is kind of right in the middle of the map. That was a recent… not that recent acquisition, I would say, by Samot? Samot has had a long relationship with the university, but has not been officially aligned until fairly recently. In fact, it had spent some time as kind of a go-between between Samothes and Samot. Kind of like, a neutral middle party. But Samot is certainly not in Marielda in any meaningful way. You know. A cult here, a traitor there, but not a church.
Jack: If I look out of the arch doors of the tower, do I still see Marielda outside?
Austin: Well, at first you do. And then you lift off the ground, as the seal reveals itself to be some sort of device that carries you high through the center of the tower. And as you pass through from level to level, looking out you see different places in Hieron. At first you see Marielda, the next floor up you see a little seaside town that is like—kind of a fishing metropolis, very coastal, driven by the trade— naval trade and fishing. You go up another level and you see out onto hills and valleys, um, where people are kind of like—there’s vineyards lining the hills. You go up another level and there’s craggy mountains outside. You go up another level and it’s harsh waves crashing against kind of a— almost like a coastal mountain region. And then you go up to the top level. And you look out and you can see with stunning clarity, off in the distance, that little girl with the curly hair heading towards a mansion. It’s— even at this distance— it’s sort of like… do you ever see that art that people do that’s incredibly miniscule, but incredibly detailed? And it takes you a little bit of focus, but you can see the detail even at a distance. Like, ‘wow, someone has put a lot of work into this. Even though I don’t have a magnifying glass, I can tell that this is not just scritches on a page.’ And you can see her skipping towards the mansion.
Jack: Is there anything else up here with me?
Austin: Is there?
Jack: Um… well, I suppose my brother, obviously.
Austin: Right. Of course.
Jack: Because I can’t seem to get rid of him at this point.
Austin: No. When you turn from her, you’re back in Marielda. On the roof of this tower. And… the sound of the city, again kind of plays in twelve second chunks. And then it resets to that first of the twelve seconds. Like a skipping record. To the south, out in the sea, something moves. Something large and strange. And then, all at once, the heat and the dark arrive. There’s no separation this time. It’s not one and then the other. It’s both. And they don’t come from outside, they come from inside. Your brother points at you, and he goes, “Huh.” And you look down, and your chest is dissolving into void. And it burns.
Jack: Is there anything I can do about it?
Austin: You hear a familiar voice.
Jack: Whose is it?
Austin [as Caroline]: Hitchcock! Hitchcock! Hitchcock?
Jack [as Hitchcock]: [weakly] Yes? Yes.
Austin: And you shake yourself awake. And there’s Caroline Fair-Play.
Jack: Oh, no.
Austin: Slapping you on the face.
Hitchcock: Ohh— I’m, I’m awake. I’m awake. What are you doing here?
Caroline: I… I was worried about you!
Hitchcock: I sent you to… I sent you to the library.
Caroline: What? No, I’ve been looking all over for you.
Sylvia: Oh, god.
Hitchcock: No, I… I gave you my sword.
Caroline: I don’t… why would you ever give me your sword?
Hitchcock: [laughs slightly] Uh… well, first let’s just get this… just absolutely straight. I’m here to take the test. Just… everything’s… Carolyn, um, I’m just going to, uh…
Caroline: It’s Caroline.
Austin: She says.
Hitchcock: Caro…
Austin: Meanwhile, in the library…
[Ali wheezing quietly]
Austin: As everyone is distracted with the ghost—
Jack: It’s a fake twin! Kill the twin!
Austin: Carolyn Fair-Play— sorry, that’s not... that’s not her full name. Her full name is Carolyn Fair-Play-Is-A-Fool’s-Game— steps past Sige and Aubrey and into the vault. Now that you’re all adequately distracted. And slowly runs her saber through the back of Mrs Manufactory. And catches the book as she drops it. And then—
Sylvia: To be fair... one problem solved another.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Totally! Totally.
Jack: I think we’ve just upgraded our problems.
Austin: A little bit. [continuing previous monologue] And then turns and slashes the throat of Master Latitude. She turns and then faces you, Aubrey, as now you are kind of in between her and the way out the vault.
Sylvia: Aw, Jesus.
Austin: And from behind her, that like— the gauntlet in the glass shakes louder and louder. More and more. And there’s a certain sort of light coming from the crystal.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin [as Carolyn]: Alright now, Aubrey. Just step aside and I’ll be on my way. I have what I need.
Sylvia: Wha— mm… [unsure noises] I don’t know what to do! Um…
Austin: Uh… Castille?
Sylvia [as Aubrey]: Uh… Why are you doing this?
Austin: Castille, there are two new ghosts in this room.
Ali: Oh my god…
Austin: Uh, Carolyn says…
[as Carolyn]: Ah, just a good payday. Same as you.
And she like, does a little wink.
Aubrey: Okay? Can I ask one more thing.
Carolyn: Sure.
Aubrey: What’s that book?
Carolyn: Ah, I’m not a scholar. I’m a thief.
Aubrey: True.
Austin: She like— she like, flicks the blood off of the saber, off of Edmund’s saber, and puts it back in the sheath. Uh, back— in the meanwhile, in the kind of background, Sige and Bolster just like, shooting at each other and dodging each other’s attacks…
[Ali and Dre losing it]
Austin: And just like… having a good ol’ time.
Sylvia: Ohh… shit. Yeah. I think Aubrey is sufficiently scared, and stressed out enough to just let her pass right now.
Austin: Okay.
Sylvia: ‘Cause there’s so much going on, and she’s so confused, and she doesn’t know where Castille is, and Sige is fighting a ghost… and where is Hitchcock… and this is a whole thing… and…
Austin: That is honest. But I do wanna remind you that you’re playing daring scoundrels.
Sylvia: True.
Austin: You’re not Zaktrak. You’re Aubrey.
Sylvia: So… so she’s gonna let her pass for a second.
[Austin laughing]
Sylvia: And… so… the um, we talked a little bit about updates to Blades in the Dark. There’s a couple new alchemy things I have access to. Um.. one of them is a smoke bomb.
Austin: Ooh!
Sylvia: That is described as ‘creates a cloud of acrid smoke that’s difficult to breathe and stings the eyes.’ So…
Austin: So you have a new sort of sand to throw at people’s eyes.
Sylvia: Yeah! A new pocket sand.
Austin: Good!
Sylvia: So… The second she is facing away from me, I’m gonna throw a smoke bomb.
Austin: Okay.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Great!
Sylvia: Uh, what would I roll for that.
Austin: That’s… what’s the effect you’re going for? What do you want from this?
Sylvia: I’m trying to sort of… well, so the main purpose here is to both sort of slightly debilitate and like, obscure her vision.
Austin: Tell me what the followup you want to do from that is. Cause maybe what I’ll do is I’ll give you a bonus to whatever comes next based on this. But I need to know what the— Imagine she gets obscured. Then what do you do?
Sylvia: My followup was to go in and grab that weird gauntlet and see what that can do.
Austin: Okay. Um, I think this just happens. Like, that’s…
Sylvia: It’s also just to slow her down a little.
Austin: Totally. You blast the smoke bomb. Uh… Sige..
Sylvia: Pocket sand!
Austin: Yep! Sige… everything in this room is now covered in smoke. Um… there are people… you can hear coughing coming from Carolyn, you can see Bolster kind of moving in and out of the smoke, like little… it’s almost like lightning in the clouds, you know what I mean?
Dre: Mm-hm.
Austin: And then yeah. Aubrey, you can totally… um, I think you, because you… isn’t the way that this works that you now have to resist the alchemical effect? Isn’t that the new thing? You get a bonus to resisting alchemical effects?
Sylvia: I think so. Let me check.
Austin: I think that’s what it says on page… seventy.
Sylvia: [cross] Let me scroll up to my… yeah let me scroll up—
Austin: Side effects. Yeah, here it is. Alchemicals are volatile and dangerous, requiring precise handling. When you use an alchemical, you suffer a side effect based on its type. See examples below. You may resist this consequence with a resistance roll as usual. PCs with the alchemist special ability, which you have, get a plus 1 to resist a side effect. So you’re doing a smoke bomb?
Sylvia: Yes.
Austin: Ah… Yeah, collateral damage and/or heat is the side effect. Give me a… how are you resisting it? I’d wager that’s… I’d wager that that’s prowess. Or resolve.
Sylvia: I think… part of it is she’s used to this sort of smoke, so she knows how to like, cover up the way to like…
Austin: Yeah. Alright, so yeah, I think that’s resolve.
Sylvia: Have it affect her much. So resolve. Okay
Austin: Resolve. Yeah. So that’s 2D6. You get a bonus one because of the uh…
Sylvia: I take another one—
Austin: Oh, wait! You’re good! You rolled a 6! You rolled a perfect—actually, roll one more to see if you reduce stress.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: So maybe you’ll get two 6s. There were so many 6s this time.
Sylvia: So just do roll 1D6?
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: No, I got a 2. Okay.
Austin: Yeah, so you take no stress. Nice work.
Sylvia: Thank god, ‘cause I’m at 8.
Austin: Phew! Alright. So you pass through the—you pass over the bodies of Mrs Manufactory and Master Latitude. Miss Salary’s still alive, she’s just knocked out.
Sylvia: She’s still alive?
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: Alright, so there’s this crystal, and there’s this gauntlet. Which do you—what do you do? Do you take the gauntlet?
Sylvia: Yes.
Austin: It’s the one that’s like, vibrating all over the place.
Sylvia: Yes.
Austin: It’s in a glass case, so what do you do with the—how do you take it?
Sylvia: I break that glass!
Austin: This is like, while it’s on the shelf, or do you…
Sylvia: Yeah, pretty much just try and push it over and like, grab it.
Austin: Alright, so… the glass shatters.
Sylvia: I’ll try and catch it while it’s falling.
Austin: I’m gonna like… I think there’s like, this very strange moment. Castille…
Ali: Hi.
Austin: You see… you see the hand that’s shackled to the wall break free for a moment. At the exact same time—or like I guess actually let’s rewind. The first thing you see is Mrs Manufactory and Master Latitude show up here. Um, Master Latitude is now, like, a ghost-boy caught between boy and wolf-boy shapes? Where he just has straight up like, wolf ears and a tail. He’s just… he’s just a full-on furry at this point. Uh, it’s a good look. He pulls it off. He looks very devious. Mrs Manufactory is like, instantly unimpressed. Just like, touching the part of her chest where there’s just like blood now, running down her chest. Or was blood when she was killed, and just kind of like [sighs] very disappointed. And then they both turn to look at you, and both look— they kind of go through a spectrum of feelings, through like ‘was this your fault?’ to just confused about why you’re here, to a realization of who you are, and then to like, ‘oh, well I guess we get to fight you now.’
[Ali laughing]
Austin: Uh, and then… in that moment, the figure, the golden like, glowing figure breaks free as Aubrey breaks the glass. Grabs you with one hand, and then like, you vanish. Aubrey, in front of you, there is a, um, again like, the figure has this, in the ghost realm had this weird polygonal kind of visual styling. And here, each of these little polygons, each of the little triangle shapes that made it up comes into being, like, one after another, to almost like—it’s almost like it’s compiling itself bit by bit, until finally it’s a figure. And it like, it does that coming out of the gauntlet, like as if the gauntlet is the first bit of its physical form, and the rest of it kind of recompiles itself. And there is a stunningly handsome man who appears before you, with short blond hair, tan skin, and a dress uniform on. And he looks just like, really tired. And then, there is a, uh, another figure that appears at the— he’s holding another figure’s hand, and it’s a ghost. It’s a weird ghost lady who you’ve never seen before.
Sylvia: He’s holding her hand, you said?
Austin: Yeah, they come together. It’s almost like he’s pulled her through from the ghost realm, basically.
Sylvia: I must’ve misheard that in a real weird way
Austin: Uh-huh?
Sylvia: I thought she was holding—just holding a decapitated head.
Austin No! Nope. Nope. It’s the whole body, is there. And in that moment, when she appears, uh, Bolster like thunder and lightning bursts through the smoke and into the vault. Ah, and like, rushes for Castille. And he says,
Austin [as Bolster]: Charter. You betrayed me.
Austin And slams you against the back wall.
Sylvia: I’m sorry, Castille.
[Ali laughs]
Ali: He was slamming me against the back wall?
Austin: Oh, yeah.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah. Then he caught you—
Ali: That guy’s not Charter.
Austin: No, you’re Charter.
Ali: O...kay. [laughter]
Austin: Um, but hey, you’re back in this realm now, and could probably get into one of your ghost—your body, if you could get out of his ghost hand.
Ali: So much is happening… [laughs more]
Austin: So much is happening! A very busy couple of rooms.
Dre: Yeah! [laughs]
Ali: Okay… alright. Okay. Am I still being held by the guy?
Austin: No, he pushes you straight out of that, like—he just like, there’s no—you lose that grip instantly.
Ali: Okay. Um, and we’re both ghosts and I’m against the wall.
Austin: Yeah. And like, slipping between this world and the ghost world.
Ali: Okay. [sighs] Where in the ghost world… There’s two people who just arrived who wanna fight me.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Even though they have so many other things to worry about, they’re still mad!
Austin: Yeah… but like, being a ghost sucks.
Ali: Yeah—well…
Austin: Also they… yeah. They probably still blame you for getting them there to begin with.
Ali: Yeah, that’s probably…
Austin: If she just hadn’t been there, they would’ve gotten their fuckin’ book and gotten out.
Ali: Listen, no ghosts, no violence. [laughs] But now there’s a ghost.
Austin: Mm-hm.
Ali: But there’s still like a physicality — can i just try to like deck this guy?
Austin: Yeah!
Ali: [laughing] Okay!
Austin: Fucking just hit this dude!
[Jack laughs]
Ali: I’m — I don't like him at all, im so mad. [Austin: Yeah.] That’s not my name!
Austin: Uh, Skirmish.
Ali: Okay. Uh, what’s the rules with being better at that? [Austin: Uh.] How much stress do I have?
Austin: You have 3 stress. No, you don’t, [Ali: Okay.] that’s playbook advancement. You have 5 stress.
Ali: I have 5 stress.
Austin: You can spend 2 stress to get 1 in Skirmish. Other people can help you here, too.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Like Sige, who has that gun, or that knife. Both magical.
Ali: Right. And I don’t have access to any of my stuff, ‘cause I’m a ghost.
Austin: You are a ghost.
Ali: Right.
Austin: You could Attune, but like that’s…
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Or you could have your ghost weapon, that I mentioned. [Ali: Right.] If you wanna spend a slot of that. The weird thing that carries between the two.
Ali: Um. I have one slot left and we don’t have any idea where that book is. Um. [laughs]
Austin: No, you know — oh — well yeah, I guess you don’t know where the book is, but.
Ali: We have no idea. [slight laugh]
Austin: You know it’s been signed out.
Ali: [laughing] Okay. No, but I feel like this is — when you’re sort of overwhelmed, and you’re mad at a person, you just punch them, you don’t [cross] pull out your weird… knife that you’ve never used before.
Austin: [cross] Yeah! Go for it. yeah, I’m with you. Just fuckin hit this guy.
Ali: Okay. So that’s — I’m just gonna roll D6 there, right?
Austin: Yeah! Unless someone wants to help.
Dre: I can help. I’ll help.
[Ali sighs]
Austin: How are you helping?
Dre: Uh, I think it’s like you said, I'm just gonna keep blasting at him.
Austin: Okay. Try not to hit… Castille.
[Ali slowly begins to laugh]
Dre: Or any of this really expensive stuff in here, but yeah.
Austin: Yeah, that too.
Ali: God.
Austin: Yeah. Give me…. So i think… How’s teamwork work again? Someone remind me how teamwork works in this game, it’s been a minute.
Dre: Oh, it has been a while.
Austin: Uh, here it is, I got it. Uh, so you can take 1 stress to give Castille 1D. And you’ll also be… you’ll take consequences from her roll. Or you could do a Set Up, which would… give her +1 effect or an improved position.
Dre: Okay. Um, and if I gave her a set up would that just mean me making a Hunt roll or…?
Austin: I think no, it would be… I don't think you need to do either. Um. Yes, you’re — yeah, you’re right, yes. A Set Up would be a Hunt roll. [Dre: Okay.] ‘Cause you’d actually have to make the action. Correct.
Dre: Oh, boy.
Austin: Um, but at that point you may as well just take the shot, right?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Where are you at on stress?
Dre: I’m at 6.
Austin: Okay.
Dre: [long irritated noise] Okay, it’s 1 stress to get her a die?
Austin: yes.
Dre: All right, I’ll take the stress.
Austin: Which is interesting, ‘cause it’s cheaper to give someone else a die than to give yourself one, which I like.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: All right, so that’s two dice.
Ali: That’s a — 5!
Austin: Yeah, that’s a 5. [cross] That’s not bad. Again, good help.
Ali: [cross] [distress] That’s a 1 and a 5, oh my god…
Austin: Because that 1 would have hurt you a whole bunch.
Ali: oh…
Austin: So that 5 hits. Uh. All right. You… let’s think. Um. All right, so let’s hurt Bolster some more. Uh. You like d… I think he… Remember, he’s only like half of a thing right now?
Ali: Right.
Austin: You might recall, because of the weird shotgun, the kind of laser shotgun. Uh. And… Sige fires again at him, an he has to move out of the way of the incoming blast, and right into your fucking fist. Uh. But… he is able to like give you a… Actually, I think maybe you just get caught by some of Sige’s blast, in the exchange. Take… Hm. What’s the — take Erased.
Ali: [laughing] Erased —
Austin: Level 1. Level 1 Harm.
Dre: Oof. Woof.
Ali: [squeaking] Okay! [laughs]
Austin: Part of your shoulder is just gone, now.
Sylvia: Jesus.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Would that be anything that she could an Armor ping for?
Austin: If she had Armor.
Ali: I’m a ghost, bro. [laughs]
Austin: [laughs] God…
Dre: Yeah, that’s a good point.
Austin: Good.
Ali: [amused] I have Armor when I’m like a metal statue. [Austin: Mm-hm!] But right now it’s just like, I’m just matter.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Yikes. Okay. But, I got one off on this guy. And that’s…
Austin: Yeah, totally! he’s gettin there, one more hit’ll knock him out.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Um. of any kind. or like not even knock him out, but like will overcome this challenge. um. ah… And in fact maybe that’s the moment where Maelgwyn just comes to, and like gets his bearings, and then just like… with the left hand that had been in the glass case, that has like the gauntlet on it, he like reaches to the top of Bolster, and then just like closes him. He just like reaches to the top of the head of Bolster, and pushes down, until the ghost is gone. There’s like a bright light coming from his gauntlet as he just kind of like, again, erases this ghost from existence. It looks almost as if he’s like pushing him into the ground. [Ali laughs quietly] But then like — Bolster is gone! And with it, any knowledge about who the fuck you are, Castille.
Ali: [quietly] Yikes.
Austin: At least from him, I guess. [Ali laughs] Maelgwyn might know some things. Also, hey, yeah, this is Maelgwyn.
Jack: This is Maelgwyn, I guess!
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: [tired] Okay.
Austin: I… Add him to the map.
Ali: You said a blonde guy and I was so scared.
Jack: [dejected] Oh no…
Austin: Well, y’know. [Ali laughs quietly] One of the —
Jack: God, Maelgwyn’s a nasty piece of work, though, isn’t he?
Ali: [cross] No!
Austin: [cross] He’s a confusing piece of work. No one really knows about Maelgwyn. He was — for people who maybe don’t remember this.
He was one of the like Secret Service style agents of Samothes during the Quiet Year, and then, right before Samot attacked, he vanished. No one knows where he went. Weird.
Jack: Hm.
Sylvia: Well, apparently he died.
[Ali and Jack laugh]
Austin: One of the…beams that came from… Oh, by the way, Carolyn is just gone. In the smoke. She bounced.
Sylvia: Shit.
[Ali snorts]
Austin: Uh. [Ali laughs quietly]
Dre: [cross] It’s fine.
Jack: [cross] Well.
Austin: You got the thing you wanted. [Jack laughs] Which was the…
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: So.
Sylvia: I got… Yeah.
Jack: So this is like a technical success, right?
Sylvia: [cross] Yeah, no...
Austin: [cross] Well, we’re not — well, I mean, you didn’t get the thing you’re here to get yet.
Dre: Still don’t have the book, yeah.
Jack: Hm.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: That’s the real thing.
Jack: Right, yeah, no, so we haven’t managed that.
Austin: Move her up here. Um. [amused] No. Not so much.
Ali: Also there are just bodies everywhere.
Austin: There are just so many bodies in this — you —
Sylvia: [cross] Not our fault!
Jack: [cross] We’re in the library.
Austin: Yep.
Jack: We’re in a school!
Austin: You are in a school! You’re in a school filled with — you’re in a ghost school. Um. One of the beams that came out of Sige’s gun caught that crystal.
Dre: Oh no!
Austin: It’s fine, in fact it is now also glowing a bit. And you — and making sound. Like it’s…similar to the vision that Hitchcock was having, is repeating about 20 seconds of sound over and over again. And there’s like a little bit of light coming from it, projecting onto — into like this tiny little shelf that it’s at. Almost like shadow puppet style, like there’s a light hitting that wall now, or hitting the interior of that shelf, and there’s figures moving around. But you can’t really make anything out. Also, Castille, you’re a ghost. What are you doing, before we do anything else?
Ali: I… [snorts] Such a ghost! Um. I feel like the first thing that I do is jump back so I don’t get smacked into… [laughs] obliterated. But after that.
Austin: Yeah, once Bolster is dealt with.
Ali: God.
Austin: Castille has like weird ears. Castille’s like at least partially an elf, you guys.
Ali: [clicks tongue] Man.
Sylvia: Dang.
Ali: Um.
Austin: As a ghost, anyway.
Ali: Right. I feel like I wanna talk to this guy, but I feel like I’m so freaked out right now that she doesn’t like wanna be? She wants to have a physicality again.
Austin: Sure.
Ali: Like so bad. [slight laugh]
Austin: Yeah. The smoke is clearing and you can see your cat form, [Ali: Right.] and you can see a hole into a different room, [someone snorts] where your body is like… not doing great?
Dre: Awkwardly arranged.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Oh man. if I [sighs]. Is it like damaged?
Austin: yeah. I think I’ll just translate your Erased to another Level 1…
Ali: Okay. Fine.
Austin: To like, Smashed?
Ali: Um. Yeah, can I scoot back into the Pala-din form now? [Austin: Totally.] Okay.
Austin: Totally.
Ali: Um. Okay. And that’s gonna a Level 1…
Austin: Mm-hm.
Ali: Shattered, I’ll say… Smashed is probably better, Smashed…
Austin: Shattered— yeah, Shattered feels higher than level 1, [Ali: Yeah.] so yeah, Smashed or…
Ali: Um. Okay.
Austin: Cracked.
Ali: [amused] Okay. So that weird half-elf thing that you guys I guess just saw just kinda zooms into Pala-din form, and I like stand up and dust myself off.
Austin: [chuckles] Fix your hat.
Ali: [laughs] She had —
[Dre laughs]
Ali: just kinda.
Austin: Mm-hm.
Ali: Roll my wrists and pretend like nothing happened.
Austin: Mm-hm!
Ali: And then the [laughs] think I look at Maelgwyn and say, like I put my hand on my hip and I’m like,
Ali [as Castille]: Can you talk now?
Austin [as Maelgwyn]: I can talk.
Castille: Okay! Hi!
Maelgwyn: Thank you. I didn’t expect help from you, ever.
Castille: That’s rude. [laughing] Why do other people think I’m a mean person?
[Maelgwyn laughs slightly]
Austin: He is also like dusting himself off, and is just like, looking around the room. I think he’s probably just as confused as everybody else.
Ali: Yeah, that’s fair.
[as Castille]: yeah, I mean, I was gonna help you, but you were being kind of a dick to me the whole time? Are you like… Mm. This is a weird question, but are you like dangerous?
Maelgwyn: I’m pretty dangerous. They wouldn’t have locked me up otherwise.
Castille: Yeah.
Maelgwyn: Where is this?
Castille: We’re — in a library? In the basement of a school.
Maelgwyn: Ugh.
Castille: Have you heard of Memoriam College?
Maelgwyn: No.
Castille: Yeah…
Maelgwyn: All right, well. [sighs] How’s the war?
Castille: Um. That’s not really something we worry about anymore.
[Austin laughs, then Jack]
Austin: Let’s — speak — yeah. That’s not something we worry about anymore. Jump! Cut!
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Up in the top floor… Hitchcock and Caroline. Outside, you can hear the sounds of violence. As.
Jack [as Hitchcock]: [weakly] Caroline.
Austin [as Caroline]: Yeah?
Hitchcock: Ah, I can hear the sounds of violence.
[Austin laughs loudly]
[Ali laughs]
Sylvia: God damn it!
Austin: [amused] She like. She nods, and like points out the window, and you can see as the Pala-din and the Black Slacks have come to blows.
Hitchcock: Oh, Jesus Christ! Ohh… We probably did that.
[Sylvia laughs quietly]
Caroline: What?!
Hitchcock: Oh my… um. [stammers] You’re not — you don’t have a sister, do you?
Caroline: [awkward laugh] Wha — yeah. Yeah. Have you met her?
Sylvia: [very quiet] Oh my god.
Hitchcock: Um. [loud exhale] Ah — look. There’s no — really — there’s really no easy way to ask this, Caroline. Um. Is your sister a villain?
[Austin and Sylvia laugh]
Caroline: Well, she’s a little rough around the edges.
Hitchcock: Right. It must be really hard being twins, right? Could you — do you think each other — do you like, can you think each other’s thoughts? Do you know what the other one’s thinking?
[amused noise from someone]
Caroline: No, that’s superstition. What are you talking about?
Hitchcock: Oh, I’m just — I just — I always wondered, you know. Um. I think your friend double — I think your sister double crossed me.
Caroline: Wha — [scoffs] — what — you know my sister?
Hitchcock: Well, I got punched by this priest, right. Um. In the —
Jack: Hang on, where am I?
Austin: You’re in the rectory, you’re on that couch that Sabinia put you down on.
Hitchcock: Wait, why are you here? Where’s Rector Sabinia?
Caroline: I don’t know — I have no idea.
Hitchcock: What are you doing here?
Caroline: I was looking for you! [laughs]
Hitchcock: And you just came up to the rectory?
Caroline: Well, I checked the dorms.
Hitchcock: Okay.
Caroline: And then i checked the reception hall.
Hitchcock: Did you check the library?
Caroline: And then I checked the refr — … No, the library is locked!
Hitchcock: Mm. Yeah, that probably — that tracks.
Caroline: I was gonna check the operating theater next, but I thought, why would you be in the operating theater?
Hitchcock: [laughs dryly] Why indeed. Well, I got punched by a priest in the operating theater. And I was sort of rescued by someone who I thought was you. Right?
Caroline: But was my sister.
Hitchcock: But was your sister Carolyn, right?
Caroline: I see!
Hitchcock: Funny that you have very similar names. Um.
Caroline: We’re twins!
Austin: She says, as if that explains why her parents would have named them both the same name.
Hitchcock: Right, yes. Um. So I gave her my sword, and told her to go t — uh. Right. Well, so I’ve got some friends visiting the library, and I told —
Caroline: Are they taking the test too?
Hitchcock: To — yes. They are. Yes, they are.
Jack: [laughs] Smash cut to [laughs] they’re just —
[Dre laughs]
Sylvia: God.
[Jack laughs]
Hitchcock: So I sent her down — just, I sent her down there. Um. But I’m really frankly spooked by the fact that I wasn't — that this wasn’t made clear to me that you’re actually two people.
Caroline: Well, it didn’t come up! When would it have come up? I —
Hitchcock: When you enlisted in my school. Really.
Caroline: Do you want me to tell — do you think just because I’m a twin I’m supposed to announce to the world that I have a twin?
Hitchcock: No, but I think you should probably pay two tuitions — two sets of tuition fees.
Caroline: She doesn’t come to your school! … Wait — does she?
[Jack laughs]
Hitchcock: Um.
Austin: You get a — we just get a cut of like all of the dozens of times that you’ve called her Carolyn, and then she corrects you and says Caroline, or you call her Caroline and she corrects you and says Carolyn, which is why this has never triggered your lie sensor?
[Jack laughs]
Sylvia: [amused] god.
Austin: Because every time you’ve done that, [Ali: God.] I’ve corrected you when — [Jack laughs] to use the right name, so that they haven’t been lying to you.
Jack: Ah… you bastard.
Sylvia: [whispering] Fuck.
[Dre laughs]
Hitchcock: Ah, twins are just such a — um — you’re taking the test here, right?
Caroline: Yeah!
Hitchcock: Okay. Um. [cross] You should probably —
Caroline: [cross] I hope I get in.
Hitchcock: Oh. Uh, me too. Um.
[Austin laughs]
Hitchcock: Do you have a sword with you?
Caroline: No, it’s a… it’s a university! Why would I bring a weapon?
Hitchcock: [sighs] Well, it’s the second rule I teach you in — you know, always carry a weapon. After the one about priests.
Caroline: Well, I remember the priest one, and then I remember the third rule. But I don’t — I wasn’t — [amused] I must have missed the class that day.
Hitchcock: Oh — ha, I know what you mean. Okay, well, you sit tight. I’m gonna go and try and find the library.
Jack: And I get up and fall over, ‘cause I’m [Austin snorts] just — like, I just got beaten up by the priest.
Austin: Right.
Hitchcock: Okay, right. I’m gonna go find the library more slowly.
Caroline: No, you should — we should both sit, where is — is there — do you need food, or a drink, or…?
Hitchcock: Can I have a glass of water?
Caroline: Yes?
Austin: And then she like begins to walk around the rectory looking for where there is water up here. Um. And she comes to a desk in the corner, and picks up a pitcher, and pours you a glass of water, but you can tell that her eyes are on something else. [Jack: uh.] And then she comes back and gives you the water.
Hitchcock: Caroline?
Caroline: Mm-hm?
Hitchcock: Um, uh, what did you notice over there with the water?
Caroline: Ah, just the rector’s — just some notes from the rector, I guess. I… I don’t know.
Hitchcock: Do you think it might be prudent if I also went and got a glass of water?
Caroline: No, you should rest.
Hitchcock: I’m going to go and get a glass of water.
Caroline: Don’t — no…
Austin: And you step over to the desk, and you look down at the table, the desk, and there is a book open with… like, it takes you a second to recognize it as characters being writ — as like language? But it’s like vibrating on the page.
Jack: Oh, wow.
Austin: And pulling you in a little closer every second. Give me a Resolve check.
Jack: Okey-dokey.
Austin: Or — yeah, Resolve.
Jack: Right. Um… Oh my gosh.
Austin: All right, so you take — no no, it’s fine. [Jack: No— wait — ] You take 1 stress. that’s not so bad. The alternative would have been something very bad. [slight laugh]
Jack: Okay.
Austin: You — and it’s still not great. You see that the characters on the book like begin to form a sort of… not like a proper window, but they form like a frame. And inside of that frame, there is a vision of Sabinia in the void. Or it looks like Sabinia, it’s her figure, but her face is also replaced by the void. And then she turns and looks at you, and like starts to drag you in.
Jack: Oh no.
Austin: With her gaze.
Jack: Can i close the book?
Austin: Yeah. As you close the book, the book — er, as you close the book, the door to the observatory opens up, like simultaneously, and Sabinia steps out.
[Jack laughs quietly]
Austin [as Sabinia]: Oh! More guests.
Hitchcock: Um.
Austin: Next to that book, when you close that book, underneath the cover of the — underneath the like left cover, the kind of —
Jack: [laughing] Oh no!
Austin: Is another book, and underneath that book is Mortal Liminality: On The Space Between Life and Death.
[Ali sighs loud and long]
Hitchcock: Rector Sabinia. Um. Several things have gotten worse, simultaneously.
Sabinia: Yes?
Hitchcock: I had a dream, and it was sort of one of those dreams that — I saw Marielda destroyed.
Sabinia: Hm.
Hitchcock: Like three times. Um. And then I was in a tower, with the seal of Samot, [stammers] but it was wrong, and it was an elevator — it was a — look, I’m very bad at describing my dreams to somebody else. [cross] I know it’s frustrating…
Sabinia: [cross] Dreams… Dreams like that are why I don’t sleep.
Hitchcock: Right.
Austin: And the walls… begin to take on new character.
Hitchcock: Okay, the second thing is that, um, while i was getting a — firstly, I think that some of the Black Slacks are trying to break into the university. And then also, I was trying to get some water, and I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve got some sort of a cursed book on your desk? Um. It’s like you’re in it, but a sort of bad version. And it tried to suck me in, and — but I closed it. And then you showed up.
Sabinia: Why do you think that’s the bad version?
Jack: Okay, can I open the book, please?
Austin: Which one?
[Jack tries to speak then laughs quietly]
Austin: [amused] Are you — I'm asking you, Austin is asking you.
Jack: [laughing] Um. Oh no.
Austin: The windows — sorry, the walls around this room have now become like the windows of the observatory.
Jack: Is Caroline still here?
Austin: Which is to say — yes. Which is to say that they are… they are visions out into… the Marielda being attacked by the Heat and the Dark. Except also the window — the real windows are still here, too, and so like the vis — you can like move your vision between Marielda burning and Marielda where the — burning in a different way. [laughs] Burning in a much more literal way, as the Black Slacks begin to set fire to the university.
Jack: Can I try and wake up?
Austin: Sure. You’re awake.
Jack: You know like when you’re in a nightmare and you’re trying to will yourself awake?
Austin: You know when you’re having a really bad day? [Jack laughs] And you go, I fuckin wish this was a nightmare?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Okay. Right. [cross] I have no sw…
Austin: [cross] Caroline like grips your wrist, and is like,
[as Caroline]: We should go.
Hitchcock: I — that — is that option still on the table?
Caroline: Remember rule number 3?
Hitchcock: Yes? Yes, I do. Just give me one second.
Jack: And I run over and pick up [laughing] Mortal Liminality from the desk.
Austin: Mortal — good!
[Dre laughs]
Austin: [laughing] I like— there’s just this void nun approaching you, and you’re like — oh — mm — one s — mm. One second. Let me just.
[Jack laughs]
Austin: Go grab the non-evil book.
Dre: Yoink!
Sylvia: Jesus.
Jack: Okay, and then I guess I’m gonna try and run.
Austin: All right, give me a… This is definitely a — maybe this is… Fin… Oh, no, Prowl, I think, is the one that is athletics. Um. [Jack laughs] So you’re trying to like quickly flee, right?
Jack: Yeah. Can I take a bonus dice [cross] for that, please?
Austin: [cross] Maybe Fin— maybe it is Finesse. Let me look at the book really quick and see which one lines up better for — you’re just trying to like speed away, right?
Jack: Yeah. Well, but I’ve gotta go down a set of spiral stairs.
Austin: That’s true. I’ll let you do Finesse here. Because it is a matter of like keeping your footing.
Jack: Oh my god, is it also like single file, so Caroline and I [Austin: Oh yeah.] have to go down a set of [slight laugh] spiral stairs pursued by a void nun?
Austin: Yes. [Jack: Single file?] Pursued by — right. Exactly. Yes.
Jack: Oh god. Okay. Right, I’m gonna roll Finesse.
Austin: Mm-hm! Uh, risky… standard? I’m gonna need a new clock. [pause] Oh, good news, I have all these clocks here. [Dre laughs] I could just name this one something else.
Sylvia: [quiet laugh] God!
Jack: Okay, fingers crossed, everybody. Well…
Austin: Yeah! That’s not a bad — 4’s not bad. Um.
Sylvia: Could be worse.
Jack: [???] [1:46:34] worse.
Austin: Yeah, I — we’ve seen worse tonight. Uh. Eh, maybe not. We’ve had a good night.
Jack: [amused] [lowers voice] Marielda is burning!
Austin: Well! Y’know. Uh, so you chase — you get out of the rectory, at least, and down into the chapel, with all of its pews, but even here, the walls of the observatory have seemed to extend. And in place of the giant glass — the kind of like stained glass wall of — or kind of like symbol of Samothes, there is, again, this vision out onto the Heat and the Dark. Um. [Jack sighs] On this floor — I’m guessing maybe Hitchcock has put this together. Sometimes it seems as if the Dark comes first, sometimes it seems as if the Heat comes first, and sometimes they come together. On the top floor, they were arriving together. On this floor, you look out and see the Dark, but there’s no fire yet. But things are dark, again, in a way that’s not just like, oh, it’s midnight. It’s like…
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: They’re dark in the way that there are buildings vanished.
Jack: Trying to barricade the door to the rectory’s gonna do absolutely fucking nothing to the void nun, right?
Austin: I — have you ever fought a void nun before?
Jack: I assume they eat barricades.
[Austin, Dre and Sylvia laugh]
Austin: You could assume a lot of things. It is just the spiral staircase and one door. Right?
Jack: Oh no. [cross] I’ve just gotta —
Austin: [cross] Caroline says,
[as Caroline]: What if we pray?
Hitchcock: I tried that! Um. Actually, I mean, uh… Does it still count as a prayer if you’re doing it while you’re running away?
[Austin laughs]
Caroline: I think that’s where prayer was invented!
Austin: She says.
Hitchcock: Great. Okay. Okay, great. Caroline, are you planning to double cross me at some point?
Caroline: Uh? Probably not?
Austin: She says [laughs].
Jack: Is she lying?
Austin: No, she’s probably not going to double cross you.
Hitchcock: Okay. Right. We should probably make for the library.
Caroline: Okay?
Jack: Oh, no, wait a second, is there anywhere I can get a sword in this university?
Austin: [clicks tongue] Um, probably…
Jack: [excited] Oh! Austin!
Austin: Uh-huh?
Jack: How big is the candlestick?
Austin: [snorts] It’s very big, it’s a very ostentatious candlestick. it’s like —
Jack: I mean, is it big enough to whack somebody with?
Austin: Oh, it’s bigger than that. [Jack: Oh, it’s— ] It’s big enough to like spear somebody with.
Jack: But is it too big to hold?
Austin: No, you could hold it!
Jack: Okay.
Austin: You’re a cavalryman. You know how to use like a lance!
Jack: Oh, right. Well, I’m gonna —
Austin: It’s like spear-sized.
Hitchcock: [nobly] I’m gonna take it, but it’s for the sake of Marielda.
Austin: Oh, I see. That’s a — you’re a noble sir.
Jack: [tiny laugh] And then off to the library.
Austin: As you run towards the chapel door, you find it closed and locked.
Jack: Oh no… um. Are there any other exits? What’s the void nun doing?
Austin: Um. She’s not here yet. She is still climb — you can hear her coming down the stairs.
Hitchcock: Caroline, do you have a lock pick?
Caroline: That’s rule 4!
Austin: And she like reaches into her hair and pulls out a lock pick.
Hitchcock: Okay. You pick this lock, I’ll guard you.
Caroline: Okay.
Hitchcock: But do it very quickly, otherwise we’ll get killed by the nun.
Caroline: [nervous] Okay! [nervous little noise]
Austin: And she starts picking the lock. Um. The door blows open, the like, the one to the staircase — blows open as if Sabinia expected you to have barricaded it.
[Jack laughs]
Austin: Um.
[Jack laughs again]
Austin [as Sabinia]: I told you. You can’t leave.
Hitchcock: [annoyed] Do you know how many people have said that to me over the course of my life?
Sabinia: How many?
Hitchcock: Like maybe four! Maybe four people! Um. And, I mean… Every time, I’ve left. I left the cavalry. Oh, and that was ‘cause I was fired. But also, I chose to. And I’m gonna leave here too, just as soon as my fr — [aside] uh, how are you doing?
Austin [as Caroline]: I [panicked sound] — gettin there!
Hitchcock: Okay. Do I need to keep stalling?
Caroline: Yes.
Austin: Give me a [Jack: Okay.]... How are you stalling? This sounds like a Sway.
Jack: Yes. But I mean, it’s not really working, because she’s a void nun, but.
Austin: That — well, y’know. If you can get her talking. Give me a Sway.
Jack: Okay.
Austin: With the… Give me a Sway that’s Controlled. Eh! Risky.
Jack: It sounds risky to me!
Austin: Risky standard.
Jack: Okay, do I have any moves for Sway? I don’t think I do, do I…
Austin: Nn, uh? Uh. Not just Sway, I think you have like disguise-y moves, but not like.
Jack: No, okay, great. Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: All right. I will. Um…
Dre: Nice!
Austin: [cross] 6!
Jack: [cross] That’s a 6!
Austin: Two 6s, you lose stress!
Jack: Aw, yes!
Hitchcock: Okay. If you come any closer, I’m gonna hit —
Austin: You lose stress — wait — you lose stress, and it was a critical which means you have increased effect.
Jack: Oh my god! Okay!
Austin: Uh…
Jack: Right. If —
Austin: You — so, yeah, what were you saying before?
Jack: If y — um.
Hitchcock: Do you know what I got here? What I’m holding?
Austin [as Sabinia]: It’s a candlestick, it’s the candlestick you said you weren’t going to steal.
Hitchcock: You know where it comes from?
Sabinia: Ah — Iris Parish, probably.
[Jack laughs quietly]
Hitchcock: I know where it comes from. [struggling] I employed the man — who — made it, and he made it — so that it’s. So that. He made it so that it’s — very bad for things like you. You come any closer, I’ll hit you about the head.
[Sabinia sighs]
Austin: She sighs, like not because she believes what you’re saying?
[Jack laughs]
Austin: But because you’re so determined. [sighs] And then she like… does like a little swat with her hand, and the pews in front of you all clear out. They all like lift up and fold across the… chapel, and like land on the other side, smashing against the floor.
[as Sabinia]: Hitchcock, you can’t… You can’t leave. And besides. It’s coming for us, there’s nowhere to run from the Heat and the Dark. Stay here. This is the safest it gets.
Austin: And she floats toward you, across the ground.
Hitchcock: That does sound very tempting. [sing song] How are we doing with the door, Caroline?
Austin [as Caroline]: Almost there, almost there! Just about!
Hitchcock: Okay. Right. So. I would very much like to, um, thinking about it, survive whatever this is, or as close to, you know, survive — uh — as we can get. But uh I’m also very afraid that you’re going to kill and eat me? And I don’t think that that’s very good either, so if you don't mind, I’m gonna sort of run from this situation, uh, and then maybe stop running, later — how’s the door, Caroline?
Uh, the door opens. She’s like,
Caroline: Got it!
Austin: Click! And it opens up, um and you’re able to go out into the hallway.
Hitchcock: Great, okay, bye!
[Dre laughs]
Austin: Are — the two of you leave the hallway. Where do you go from there?
Jack: Oh no… Um.
Austin: Or you’re — leave the chapel and are now in the hallway.
Hitchcock: Where do we go, Caroline?
Caroline: I — you tell me!
Hitchcock: I’ve had such a bad day!
Dre: You did see a map earlier, though.
Austin: Yeah, you have —
Jack: I’ve got the map.
Austin: You have the map in your head. This is — you see it all.
Jack: Okay.
Austin: I guess, except that your friends aren’t where they are on this map.
Jack: No.
Austin: They’re all deep in the library.
Jack: Yeah. Um. Is there anybody else around?
Austin: There are all of the professors asleep in the invigilator dorm.
Jack: Oh, it’s still nighttime?
Austin: Yeah! Yeah.
Jack: I can’t tell whether or not waking people up is [cross] going to result in more or less deaths.
Austin: You — there is one person awake who you hear yelling from the bottom floor. You hear Lance Noble Orchid yelling from the bottom floor. From the lobby.
Jack: What’s he yelling?
Austin: Shit that like would make me uncomfortable to say. [Jack: Okay.] He’s yelling at the Black Pants outside.
Jack: Oh, wow, so he is not at all aware of what could be described as the other situation.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: No. [stammers] You can hear him discharging his weapon. Out into the streets.
Jack: Okay. Oh my god, I cannot believe I’m about to do this.
Hitchcock: Caroline.
Caroline: Yeah?
Hitchcock: Don’t do this, in future. Promise me.
Caroline: Mm! I — promise?
Austin: She’s lying.
Jack: And I’m gonna shout,
Hitchcock: Fire.
Austin: Wh — ah — good. Great! Good.
[loud sighs]
Jack: Ah, and I reckon people start pouring out of the doors, right?
[Music - “Marielda” begins, with strummed guitar]
Austin: Uh-huh!
Jack: [laughs] Okay.
Austin: Uh, the remaining students, the teachers, everyone starts yelling, and like running out. And the thing that’s confusing is that like as soon as they come out, like they do hear shouting and yelling outside, so it like corroborates your lie that there’s fire? And then the second bit of this is, of course, there is fire.
[Music - the rumble of a storm plays]
Jack: [amused] Right.
Austin: Because now…the fighting on the ground floor has smashed into Memoriam College.
[Music - piano and percussion join]
And there is fighting in the hallway on the first floor…and you can feel the ground warm as fire spreads through the classrooms, and the lobby.
[Music - jaunty clarinets kick in, “Marielda” continues]
[1] The name in the audio recording is no longer in use, hence the audio/transcript discrepancy.