Autumn in Hieron 23: Spinning Straw Out Of Gold
ART (as Hadrian): Hella,
I hope the sacred light of the Sun, Samothes’ greatest labor, shines brightly upon you and your path and that this letter reaches you in good health. May divine wisdom guide your feet and may your sword swing to punish the wicked and liberate the oppressed.
I write you today because the journey south has been a dark one. I did not think the trip to the accursed mark would be a simple or an easy one, but I was totally not prepared for the things we have seen. There have been unspeakable horrors, often quite literally. We have even seen the bones of a divine creature. It has been most upsetting.
As I compose this letter, I have hastily bandaged some grievous wounds I suffered escaping from the bondage of the snow elves. I have seen things that make me doubt if I will return from this journey. I have always known that I am the tool of Samothes once and future king of this realm, but I begin to wonder what kind of tool I am. I imagine myself as the sturdy fishing vessel which provide for the safety of my flock, and my work would endure for generations. Perhaps instead I am the net, useful, but doomed to be stabbed on the rocks and undone in a season or two. I do not lament my role for I am truly overjoyed to serve in whatever capacity my lord requires me and I hope that I will be able to serve him long after I am culled from the mortal world. To guide you to the cleansing light is the only task presented to me by his eternal majesty that I have failed.
There is a darkness inside you Hella, but I believe with all of my being that that darkness is only visible because of the incredible light that emanates from within you. You have a gift and I hope that one day you appreciate that all of our gifts are given to us so that we may use them to give to others. They say the world rests on the edge of a blade and you should be prepared for the moment when that blade is in your hand. Make the world a better place. Make the world a place where if my son Benjamin has to become a man without his father, he has a chance to live a good life. I believe in you Hella. Believe in yourself.
Sincerely yours,
Hadrian Sword of Samothes, defender of the undying fire, officer of the order of eternal princes.
[Music begins - “Autumn Not Winter“]
ALI: *wailing* *laughing*
AUSTIN: It’s a good letter.
KEITH: It’s a good letter.
ALI: I, umm, had to mute myself so I didn’t wail over it?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh
KEITH and JACK: *laughing*
ALI: *wailing*
JACK: It’s okay, you can do all your wailing now.
ALI: Yeah
AUSTIN: Yeah
KEITH: Oh can she start wailing now?
AUSTIN: Yeah
*ALI, AUSTIN, JACK, and KEITH laugh*
ALI: So… [voices fade out, music continues]
{2:52}
AUSTIN: Hey internet, welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interactions between good friends. We are as always presented by streamfriends.tv and runbutton.net. We are continuing our game of Dungeon World a game by Sage Latorra and Adam Koebel, which is a hack of a game called Apocalypse World by D. Vincent Baker. My name is Austin Walker. Joining me today are Ali—
ALI: Hey
AUSTIN: Jack
JACK: Hi
AUSTIN: And Keith
KEITH: Hey
AUSTIN: You can find them on the internet places. Umm… I- I want to get going. You can tell like I’m antsy I’m ready, like, there’s a whole bunch of stuff we have today—
JACK: Mmhmm
AUSTIN: And so I wanna, I wanna, I wanna get us there—
JACK: It’s gonna be a big show.
AUSTIN: It’s gonna be something.
[Music ends]
{3:45}
AUSTIN: I think Hella gets this letter. I haven’t figured out how yet. We’ll fi- like, who cares. She gets this letter.
KEITH: [Ali overlaps] She gets it, yeah it happens. There’s pigeons.
ALI: [overlapping] Mmhmm
AUSTIN: There are pigeons. There are, there’s pattern magic—
KEITH: Mmhmm
AUSTIN: There’s... there’s all sorts of stuff.
ALI: Does she get this before the trial?
AUSTIN: Yeah I think so, I think [Ali overlaps] the note [indistinct] before the trial
ALI: [overlapping] *stressfully* Argghhh
AUSTIN: It slipped into her room.
ALI: Awww, oh my precious Hella. [Austin overlaps] She’s in such a bad place.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] *laughing* yep, yep.
JACK: Oh dear.
AUSTIN: Things are rough, things are rough. So, there are a couple things that happen before the day of the trial. The first is that, Fero gets a note on it that says, “tomorrow’s proceedings.” And then it’s just a list of words and phrases and it’s all you get for preparation—
KEITH: Okay—
AUSTIN: To help you prepare. It says, “Formation, commencement, the world of objects and ideas, a voice of flesh, the tired bones, our pearlescent curiosity, life celebration, public consideration, a just record.” And that’s all that you have to go on.
KEITH: All chapters from Chicken Soup for the Teen Soul.
*ALI, AUSTIN, JACK, and KEITH laugh*
AUSTIN: True, that’s how their court system is set up.
JACK: They’ve done their research.
AUSTIN: Yeah it’s true. So that’s one thing that happens that night. Another thing that happens that night is Lem, you were visited by Ventaro Doce, the archivist who works in the— I guess he’s not a capital “a” archivist, he’s a librarian who works at the Library of Nacre— who’s the guy who caught Fero coming to talk to you last night.
KEITH: Caught— well— I made, well, [Austin overlapping] I made myself known—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You failed that roll.
KEITH: I did.
AUSTIN: You did. And he, he goes over what’s going to happen tomorrow a little bit more directly than what poor Fero had access to. He gives you a little more information, he explains that… First of all he comes to you with a warm meal and a drink that you’ve never had before but that has a sort of rejuvenating property. You’ve been up studying late all through the day, you might remember, trying to understand what this court system is about and trying to understand what the... what sort of loophole you can find to not be held in contempt of court but also hopefully lose the case—
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah
AUSTIN: so that Hella goes free. And he brings you this and when you eat and drink of it you find yourself at ease. I’ve removed the scarred debility that you had.
JACK: Oh great!
AUSTIN: I don’t know if the scar has healed, but we talked before about how debilities are not simple physical manifestations of things, like to be scarred and lose that one charisma does not mean that everyone who has scars is less charismatic but it means that, like, that has slipped from your mind at this point, that is not a thing you care about right now, it is not holding you up, it is not like making you any less charismatic, so why should it be there at this point?
JACK: Yeah
AUSTIN: And over dinner, which I think is like a nice duck, some sort of duck something.
JACK: Ah, great.
AUSTIN: I don’t know, I haven’t… I see a plate with roast duck on it. I don’t know what else is there. Some sort of vegetable dish.
JACK: So a little ratatouille or something.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. He says, and he says this with a slight, it’s clear he isn’t sure he should be telling you any of this or explaining this to you, but there is still warmth in him. The same warmth that he’s kind of showed you all, for the most part. He says that—
AUSTIN (as Ventaro Doce): Since a case seen before the court in Nacre can so dramatically change the life of one of its citizens, the case itself is seen as sort of a life into and of itself. First, the case is formed in the mind of the barristers, and like a sentient life, whatever shape it has at this stage of formation at once determines the future of the case’s life and also at the same time can’t ever really fully predict what life that case will take.
Next, you move to the stage of commencement, where both you and the defense will introduce the case to the world, each providing your perspectives on the acts that have occurred that led us here, and providing the basic shape of the case to come. *sighs* But of course, in Nacre it is a relationship with life and with the lives of others that defines us. So, while we do have a moment for you to talk about the world of objects and ideas, to talk about the facts and figures that surround a life, to talk about the ideologies and arguments and culture that may have influenced the crime, the focus will be on the testimony of those of Nacre.
First you as the prosecutor will address a voice of flesh, a witness whose testimony will hopefully serve to represent your position to the court and to provide an initial assessment from a citizen of this empire. Who that voice of flesh is, is your choice. Next, that foolish boy Fero will be asked to call his witness, the tired bones, to the stand, where they will intend to produce an account more sympathetic for Hella. In Nacre, sympathy is wide like our lives, and appeals to these, our emotional retrospective, massive. This moment of a court case, for us, is a time of consideration like that at a center of a life, looking back at what has been said already and wondering what might come next. And our good queen will be wondering as well, and so she speaks as our pearlescent curiosity, calling a third and final witness to the stand of her choosing. A third life is a strange thing, Lem, and it is the first step towards finality.
And then it will be the time for the life of the case to end, and like all lives in Nacre ends in a life’s celebration, where both you and your opposition will revisit the highs and the lows of your case and make any final statements that you wish. But when a life ends, the lives it touches must live on, and so the final voice in a case here, is not yours nor your oppositions, it is a citizen of Nacre who gives a public consideration. They are elected by the attendants, and they plead the case of Nacre itself, and you must watch, as Tristero once did and hope. And then the life ends and the voices of these streets disperse, and there is only what enters the book, a just record of these proceedings and the verdict. Prepare well, get some rest. You know that you have to do well. The consequences are fatal for more than just Hella Varal.
{11:38}
JACK: Thank you. Thank you very much. Cool.
AUSTIN: He steps away
KEITH: Uh… Austin, can I look up any of these terms in Grumman’s Retroactive?
AUSTIN: You don’t have access because all that stuff is in... is where Lem is.
KEITH: No I took Grumman’s with me.
AUSTIN: Oh did you, okay.
KEITH: Yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh yeah, you can… here’s the thing, the first actual phase here-- [Jack and Keith overlap]
JACK: [overlapping] such a good day.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah
AUSTIN: the formation stage… right now, so this is going to be a really weird mini game that I’ve cooked up, um… right now we’re in the preparation stage, the formation stage, and you both have to do a little preparation. It’s very simple, you’re rolling plus INT. If you don’t have any reference materials, and you do, Keith, which is good, you would just be rolling two D6, but since you both have reference materials of some sort you can roll plus INT. So two D6 plus INT.
KEITH: Yeah, oh note that I do also have the appendices.
AUSTIN: Oh, okay, well if you have the appendices then yes, you at the very least understand that you’re going to have to call a witness so you can start thinking through who that might be.
*Ali, Jack, and Keith giggle during Austin’s reply*
AUSTIN: So yeah—
JACK: I love the idea that Fero is just like, so completely lost here, [Austin overlaps] other than just sort of being handed Wikipedia in Portuguese or something—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, right, right, yeah.
*Ali laughs*
JACK: and trying to understand how a court case works—
KEITH: Well I took a semester!
AUSTIN: *laughing* Yeah, great.
*Ali laughs*
JACK: *laughing* Yeah well, sure.
AUSTIN: Um, so the way this is going to work is, for this move, it’s… when you spend time preparing for a case using reference materials, roll plus INT. If you do not have reference materials you just roll two D6. On a 10+ you’re going to take three hold that you can use during the courtroom phase. If you roll a 7-9 you can take one hold to be used during the courtroom phase, and this will become clear once you understand what the rest of those moves are. On a 6 or minus, 6 or lower, you’ve misprepared something—
JACK: Oh god.
AUSTIN: give your opposition one hold to be used during the court phase. If they use that, you gain an additional XP, on top of the one that you get from failing.
KEITH: Now Austin, imagine that our INT is minus 1…
AUSTIN: Yeah, sure.
KEITH: Should I just do… if I… since I have reference materials, should I use just the base two D6. [Austin overlaps] Or can I pick another maybe associated thing like wisdom, where I don’t have minus.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No... I think… wisdom is a different thing, wisdom is like your eyesight, wisdom is like you know—
JACK: You done goofed.
AUSTIN: You done goofed, you… yeah…
KEITH: I didn’t take Grummen’s Retroactive.
*Keith, Jack, and Austin laugh*
JACK: [overlapping] You took what you thought was Grummen’s Retroactive.
KEITH: [overlapping] Base d6 right?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Here’s the thing. I’ll let you say, you’re able to look at it and say no, this is a lost cause, toss it over your shoulder, and just play it by—
KEITH: Think shit out?
AUSTIN: Think shit out, yeah. So just give me the two D6.
KEITH: Alright… uh… are we rolling now?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Alright…
AUSTIN: Okay, so you take one hold.
KEITH: Yeah
JACK: Okay… ummmm….
AUSTIN: And you get three!
JACK: cool!
KEITH: [overlapping] My roll could not have been fucking worse.
JACK: Do you want me to write that down, Austin?
AUSTIN: Yeah, you need to keep count, you need to keep track of this stuff, I have a lot to keep track of. Related, I just showed Hella something—
ALI: Oh!
AUSTIN: That she can, you can just hold on to that thing that I linked you to.
JACK: I have three hold right?
ALI: Okay
AUSTIN: Umm… yes you have three hold.
KEITH: God, I rolled a six plus one.
AUSTIN: I know.
KEITH: One
AUSTIN: Alright. I also want everyone to know, I previously sent Hella, sent Ali some texts with information she could not, she doesn’t understand yet—
ALI: Mmhmm
AUSTIN: Umm… but it’s important it’s there.
ALI: I have it open in front of me, so…
KEITH: *mystically* All will become clear in time. [Austin overlaps]
AUSTIN: *laughing* [overlapping] yeah *laughing* okay. So… it’s the next morning. I don’t know how much sleep anyone here got, I can’t imagine much, but… everyone is more or less prepared—
KEITH: I got a full ten.
AUSTIN: *laughing* okay you haven’t really given much thought. You’re like “ehhh… she’s probably, she’s innocent right, like…”
KEITH: She’s inno— well, yeah, well… you know.
AUSTIN: “Well I know she’s guilty, but…”
KEITH: She’s guilt— well, here’s the thing, I’m still… like… I don’t want these people to convict Hella, but I’m still mad at Hella—
AUSTIN: Right, right.
KEITH: Like I’m still so mad--
ALI: Like afterwards we’ll have an argument about this, [Keith overlaps] but for now…
KEITH: I’m not doing... I’m not doing... I don’t think that I’m... I’m not giving her, I’m not… I’m not not putting time in, but also like that book didn’t fucking help [Austin overlaps], like I got this, right?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, yeah
KEITH: I was in Rosemarrow mock trial.
AUSTIN: Oh boy…
*ALI makes an uncomfortable sound*
{16:03}
KEITH: It’s probably the same, no, the court’s probably the same thing
*Ali laughs*
AUSTIN: SO… you’re led the next morning into the courtroom. Which is a chamber in the kind of general palace quarter of Nacre, and it is a strange setup. There is a huge area for a crowd to gather and watch that’s kind of like… it’s kind of raised—
JACK: Oh, nice crowd Austin.
AUSTIN: Yeah it’s an alright crowd of a mix of pirates and zombies and ghosts and skeletons.
*Ali laughs*
KEITH: Can I ask if Jack and I got any fancy formal clothes to wear for the proceedings?
AUSTIN: Yeah!
ALI: Yes
AUSTIN: Uhh… Jack did.
ALI and KEITH: Awww…
JACK: Yeah, take that Fero!
KEITH: I didn’t get a lil’ suit?!
AUSTIN: You got like a badge. You got like a lil’… officer of the court badge. You know, that lets you backstage to get some water if you need it.
KEITH: They’re being so unfair to me!
*Ali laughs*
AUSTIN: Yeah… Yeah—
KEITH: It’s really shitty.
AUSTIN: Your client murdered like… a prince.
ALI: Ehhhh…
KEITH: Yeah but that’s still not fair—
ALI: Their prince murdered a guy.
KEITH: This shit should get thrown out just based on I didn’t get any of the right… [Austin overlaps] stuff. Like this is all not pro— kosher. This is bad.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uh-huh… yeah, that’s… This is not “pro kosher” court. Yeah.
KEITH: Yeah.
*Ali laughs*
JACK: What have I got?
AUSTIN: Um… I don’t know, what could you have. What sort of great outfit do you have?
JACK: I don’t know… maybe… what do people in Nacre wear [Keith overlaps] that’s like ceremonial stuff?
KEITH: [overlapping] Graphic tees
*Ali laughs*
JACK: *laughing* Yes, great.
AUSTIN: *laughing* It’s a graphic…. Umm… It just says “Prosecutie,” is what the graphic tee says. Umm…
*Ali, Jack, and Keith laugh*
JACK: Ah, it’s so good! We’ll have one of those up on Redbubble *indistinguishable*
*Ali, Austin, and Keith laugh*
AUSTIN: Um, I’ve been describing the people here in kind of Romanesque, or Roman “hyphen” -esque, um… mix of…
KEITH: Roman-y
AUSTIN: Roman-y, not Romani. That’s different, that’s different. Umm… so I think—
JACK: What about like a good old fashion toga, huh?
AUSTIN: I think like a toga, I think it’s just like a rad toga, yeah. [Jack overlaps] You’re just an orc in a toga.
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah, cool.
KEITH: Mmhmm
JACK: Yeah, it’s great
AUSTIN: With a nice… it’s a very, very clean white toga—
JACK: Yeah...
AUSTIN: [overlapping] With some gold embellishment.
JACK: [overlapping] I had to have someone help me put it on.
AUSTIN: And…Yeah.
KEITH: A sash?
AUSTIN: A sash, a nice sash. What color is your sash?
JACK: Uh, it’s turquoise.
ALI: [overlapping] Ooooh!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay, a nice turquoise, it’s good, it brings out your skin.
KEITH: Are we talking more of a [Jack overlaps] green turquoise or a blue turquoise?
JACK: *overlapping indistinguishable*
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Like a turquoise or a teal?
JACK: More like a blue turquoise…
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: Like uh, you know, ‘cause Nacre’s the kingdom of pearls, and pair of pearls, so it’s got some sort of aquatic feel to it I think.
AUSTIN: Okay so the room you’re in at this point, you’re all led to, has a kind of a low stage where Fero and Lem are set up behind podiums, and there is a single chair kind of in the middle of the room which is where witnesses will be brought to testify. Hella, you’re up on a kind of raised platform of marble, and across from you, making fucking— eying you daggers— is queen Adelaide.
JACK: Who’s in that—
AUSTIN: Who’s in that throne I could not find a fucking— I could not find anything that I was happy with in that token list in Roll20; for the life of me, I looked for a long time.
*Ali laughs*
JACK: So instead we’re using our imaginations.
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: I want to give a shoutout to @silverskinned [Austin overlaps] whose art we’re using for the characters.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yes, yes
JACK: Oh yeah!
KEITH: Oh yeah that was great.
ALI: They were wonderful.
AUSTIN: This art is sooo good, and if you haven’t seen @silverskinned’s animation of a brief moment in an Ice Party episode from a few episodes ago [Keith overlaps], you should, [Jack overlaps] it’s the best. It’s amazing, it’s like magic to see a thing we’ve done turn into a thing that moves. It’s weird.
KEITH: [overlapping] That was good.
JACK: [overlapping] I haven’t seen that.
JACK: We’re fundamentally stationary.
AUSTIN: Right... So what I’m going to do is paste in the moves that you can do into our Skype chat. One second, I have to add one more thing, umm.. uh…
*Keith sighs*
*typing sounds*
AUSTIN: Sorry…
*typing sounds*
ALI: *giggling* Podcasting!
AUSTIN: I know, I’m building a weird mini-game is the other thing, right?
*Ali and Jack giggle*
KEITH: Don’t worry, this’ll be— It’ll be fucking seamless.
AUSTIN: It’s gonna be perfect, right?
KEITH: It’s gonna be perfect.
AUSTIN: Okay, so… here are the… oh, oh, oh, oh… fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
*typing sounds*
AUSTIN: I’m just going to tell you the thing I want to add to all of these. It’s okay.
Alright, so you have a set of moves that you can do. So the way this is going to work is that it’s going to be vaguely turn-based. You’re going to give introductory arguments, then we’re gonna move into the evidence phase, the phase I previously called “a world of objects and ideas,” and then “the voice of flesh, tired bones, our pearlescent curiosity” will be witness testimony and like examination, and like talking. And then a kind of closing arguments thing with life’s celebration, and then we’ll see where it goes with where the crowd decides to go after that. And so on each turn you kind of get to choose one of these moves to do. And then we also do role-play, right, like this isn’t just like, “oh we’re gonna make you roll,” we need to explain what the fuck you’re doing.
So, your options are, you can “Lay Out the Case,” which says “when you rely on precedent, evidence or logic to make your argument, roll plus INT. You may spend one hold—” one court hold, one of these special holds that you got before to— Oh actually, cut that bit out! That’s the bit that I changed. Okay. “You can spend one court hold to add your INT modifier an additional time.” So if you have a +2 INT, you can spend a court hold to add a +4. Does that make sense?
JACK: [overlapping] Okay.
KEITH: [overlapping] Mmm.
AUSTIN: Um… I’m just going to edit this in here so that it’s… not confusing when you actually look at these later… [Keith overlaps] I tested this other thing that’s not working…
KEITH: [overlapping] So that’s useless to me with a negative one INT.
AUSTIN: Yes, that is useless to you. In fact that whole move is probably not great for you. Well. Okay, so if you get a 10+, you get… um… where’d it go. “On a 10+ you can, you advance the case as you want to. Assign three verdict points. On a 7-9 you advance your case, but your reliance on evidence puts off the crowd. You assign two verdict points as you want, but the crowd gains one verdict point of the opposing position.” So… so Lem, if you do this and get a 7-9, the crowd would get an innocence point and Fero if you did it they would get a guilty point. “A six or under, the crowd rolls its eyes at your reliance on things like facts, logic, and material evidence. The opposing crowd position gains 2 VP—” two verdict points.
You can “Spin Gold from Straw: when you lean on your charms, good looks, your skill at rhetoric and bullshit to make a case, role plus charisma (plus CHA), you can spend one court hold to add your CHA modifier an additional time,” You make those choices before you roll by the way. You decide if you want to spend your hold before you roll. “On a 10+ the court is swayed by your force of personality, assign 2 VP and then take one court hold to spend on any future roll… You’re no big city lawyer, but you’ve picked up a few things here and there… on a 7-9, you assign 1 VP, and on a 6 or under, neither queen or crowd are impressed by your antics, each takes one VP in opposition to your side and you lose two court hold—”
KEITH: God, I don’t even have a charisma modifier which seems like such a misstep for Fero.
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It does, it super does. You’ve been playing him as very charismatic, so…
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Keep that in mind, I guess. You can—
KEITH: Yeah, that was exactly what I was thinking when you said that was… I gotta fix that.
AUSTIN: Yeah. You can read that… Also on the other hand, no one buys his bullshit! *Ali laughs* So maybe you don’t.
KEITH: Well the only time no one bought his bullshit was apparently Ventaro didn’t. [Austin overlaps] That was like the one time.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No. No one has ever bought his bullshit.
KEITH: That’s not true, remember the bird? Remember that bird that he was? Where he [Jack overlaps] tricks the dude—
JACK: [overlapping] That’s transforming into a bird!
ALI: [overlapping] That’s different.
KEITH: I guess that wasn’t charisma, [Austin overlaps] that was a nice trick.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You were also a bird.
*Ali laughs*
KEITH: I feel like… I feel like everybody buys his bullshit [Austin overlaps] except for Ventaro.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, no one’s ever bought his bullshit. *laughing*
KEITH: I can’t think of anything to prove me right or you right [Jack overlaps] except the Ventaro thing—
JACK: [overlapping] We are trapped in a tower doing a big court case.
ALI: Yeah, William didn’t let you [Keith overlaps] save Calhoun for another hour
KEITH: [overlapping] That is… that is… none of this is my fault. This is all on Hella and Lem none of this is [Jack overlaps] because of me.
JACK: [overlapping] Hey, how is it my fault?!
KEITH: … Jack…
AUSTIN: That’s okay—
ALI: Jack…
JACK: How… how is it my fault? I haven’t done anything in this town at all.
KEITH: *mockingly* “Hey Emmanuel, do you wanna go in this tower, hmm?” “If you go up in that tower you’ll be stuck here forever.” “That’s fine I won’t tell anybody about it, let’s just go up in that tower.”
JACK: Nooo! I didn’t tell anybody about it!
*Ali, Austin, and Keith laugh*
KEITH: Yeah, that’s why Fero can’t act on being very mad at you about that, but I still know you did it.
AUSTIN: Okay, you can “read the crowd,” which is “once per case—” so once through this session— “before choosing your tactic for the round, you can spend some time examining the state of things, when you do you roll plus WIS.” So you can just do that for free but you can only do it once. “On a 10 or higher, you get inside their heads. You gain one court hold and you choose three of the following to learn secretly—”
JACK: Oh jeez, this is such an Austin system.
AUSTIN: You can learn, it’s all hidden information. The thing that’s interesting here is, the thing that makes this extra interesting, is that I had to design a thing that was… I couldn’t just design a court case system because you don’t… you both want the same fucking thing.
{26:06}
*Ali giggles*
KEITH: Yeah…
AUSTIN: Neither of you want… so I need it to be interesting and make it tricky for you to succeed at that without just… yeah… [Jack and Keith overlap] it’s weird.
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah
KEITH: [overlapping] Without succeeding in a court
JACK: [overlapping] This must have been a nightmare.
AUSTIN: This was a nightmare. So, “on a 10+ when you read the crowd, you get inside their heads. You gain one court hold and you can learn three of the following things secretly: Crowd guilt VP total, crowd innocence VP total,” so those are two different things, how many points they have in those two directions, “The queen’s guilt total, the queen’s innocence total, what she things about things.” And you can learn how much, how… how far into contempt you’re being held currently, Lem.
JACK: *laughing* how close I am to contempt of court
*Ali mewls*
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right.
KEITH: Oh! I read “Lem contempt total” and just thought that it was how much the crowd contempted Lem. *laughing*
*Austin laughs loudly*
*Ali laughs*
AUSTIN: Ah… no.
KEITH: Like just how much they generally disliked… [Austin overlaps] “Ugh, this fucking guy’s irritating me.”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No… you could actually read that as the queen’s contempt total for Lem, then. [Keith overlaps] Like, that is what that is.
KEITH: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
JACK: “He’s got a stupid toga…”
*Austin and Keith laugh*
AUSTIN: Umm… “On a 7-9 you think you have some good idea of what folks think anyway. You learn 2 of the following things in secret,” and you don’t get a bonus, you don’t get any court hold. “On a 6 or minus, Oh you understand them all right. You take a minus 1 forward which you can optionally choose to use before a future roll. And if you do use it you take an additional 1 XP.” So you can hamstring yourself for a future roll and if you do I’ll give you another bonus XP. ‘Cause you’re like, ah, I think this crowd loves doves and I’m gonna use a dove metaphor, and they fucking hate doves.
*Ali laughs*
KEITH: Or I’m gonna transform into a dove.
*Ali, Austin, and Jack laugh*
AUSTIN: Right, exactly.
KEITH: I [Jack overlaps]… this is Fero’s move right here
JACK: [overlapping] Wait a second… ah, god.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: This is super interesting Austin because I can essentially calculatedly shoot myself in the foot?
AUSTIN: Yes, yes, you can try to do that.
JACK: This is super cool.
AUSTIN: “Filibuster: when you draw out any court procedure in order to weaken the momentum of your opposition, roll plus CON.” So you’re just like, spending time droning the fuck on. “On a 10 or higher, your long, breathless litany drives the last point your opponent made from the minds of the crowd and queen. Remove the VP placed by your opponent in the last round. On a 7-9 you can’t fully distract the court from your opposition’s argument, but you do manage to persuade either the queen or crowd, your choice. On a six or minus, where’d that other lawyer go? They were very entertaining, you on the other hand were not. Double the VP placed by your opponent in the last round.
“Objection: when you interfere in your opposition’s proceedings, roll plus bond. On a 10 or higher, end the opposition’s turn immediately and assign one justifiable VP.” So you can’t, you know, Lem, you can’t object to him trying to make Hella innocent, end his turn, and then also she gets a bonus innocence point. Like that doesn’t… unless you can justify that somehow *laughing* in which case, awesome.
JACK: Right
AUSTIN: “On a 7-9, force the opposition to choose another different tactic this turn.” They get to keep their turn, but they can’t use “Spin gold from straw,” right, if that’s what you’ve interrupted. And, “On a 6 or lower, the opposition can continue their turn and may assign an additional VP at the end of the [indistinguishable]”
JACK: Ah god.
AUSTIN: So that’s a bunch of stuff. I know that’s like a bunch to keep in your heads.
JACK: I have a question—
AUSTIN: Sure
JACK: So when you say… Sorry I’m just finding the thing…
AUSTIN: Yep
JACK: When you say assign two verdict points when you want [Austin overlaps], when you say assign verdict point [Austin overlaps], does that mean you can assign them to guilty or innocent?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Mmhmm. Yep.
AUSTIN: Absolutely.
JACK: Oh wait so if I get a verdict point, if any of us get a verdict point, we can just choose which side it falls on?
AUSTIN: Yep
JACK: Oh! Great.
KEITH: And is that going to hold Lem in contempt?
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: Like are people gonna—
AUSTIN: Lem—
KEITH: Ah okay, so you’ve gotta balance that with being held in contempt.
AUSTIN: Hella, from your high pedestal, you can see things… you have a vision on the crowd and the court that… that… it feels informed in some way. It might just be because you’re higher up and kind of see like the bird’s-eye view of everything, get kind of a feel of what the vibe of the space is like, or because you know there are some other things happening, where maybe you have *Ali laughs* another pair of eyes seeing the stage in front of you so to speak. Informing you. But you can… you’re going to be able to see how things play out as they play out.
ALI: Okay…
AUSTIN: That’s the other link I sent you, which you should have open currently.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Which is currently empty.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: At the bottom of that page, you can see the ways in which Lem can get more contempt points. I’m not telling Lem how he can do that.
JACK: [overlapping] Ah damn.
ALI: Ooookay…
JACK: Hella can you, can we just make a system of hand signals right now? A really complicated system of hand signals?
ALI: Just like a *makes repetitive tapping sound*
JACK: Okay, I’ve got a plan. If it starts with the letter “A,” make the shape of an “A” with your hands. And a “B,” make the shape… *laughs* Just go down the list.
AUSTIN: So yeah, there are four things you can do, there’s sort of four things... It’s complicated. There are three things you can do to get more contempt points, and there’s a thing you can do to reduce contempt points.
JACK: And I don’t know what these are.
AUSTIN: You know, try to make Hella guilty. Don’t try to make her innocent. You know, that’s the…
JACK: Mmhmm
ALI: Yeah, just don’t try. *laughing*
AUSTIN: Yep.
KEITH: You’re really going to want to bounce back and forth between trying and not trying.
AUSTIN: It’s an interesting thing.
KEITH: Yeah.
JACK: Oh! Does the court know where I’m assigning verdict points to? So for example if I keep assigning verdict points towards innocence does that look suspicious towards that—
AUSTIN: Yes. Because the court… I mean what you’re doing is narrating the way in which you’re arguing. Those point allotments, one, should follow from the fiction which is to say if you get up and give me a rousing speech about how guilty Hella is without any explanation for why you then want to assign innocence points, I’m just not going to let you do that. You have to say… you have to show me where the loopholes are and explain the effect that you want to achieve to slip that idea of innocence in.
JACK: But those loopholes are not…
AUSTIN: They’re not invisible, you know what I mean.
JACK: So they can see my loopholes?
AUSTIN: It depends on what the totals end up looking like. Let’s just say that the queen has her own ways of seeing things, right?
JACK: *deep inhale* okay.
AUSTIN: She’ll know, she’ll know if you’re throwing the case.
JACK: Mmhmm
AUSTIN: There are ways to lose that case on purpose without completely obviously throwing everything into the trash. But you cannot be, you cannot be headstrong in the way that you wanna throw the case. And the way that you assign those points. If you assign every verdict point to innocence that will be very noticeable. It’s like when a real case ends and everyone says like, “Man, didn’t it feel like the defense, or like the prosecution wasn’t even trying.” That happens a lot, you’re familiar with when that happens. Unlike our court systems, the queen has the desire to punish that.
JACK: Yeah
AUSTIN: So—
JACK: ’S okay, orcs have several registers of sarcasm in their language, so…
*Ali laughs*
AUSTIN: Okay, that’s useful. I need to take a quick break, and I think that’s good so you can like think through what’s going to happen going forward.
JACK: Yeah, it’s enough time to put the kettle on.
AUSTIN: Yeah absolutely, so let’s take a short little break and let’s prepare opening statements.
*Ali mewls*
JACK: Oh lord, alright.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: It’ll be fine. It’s great, you’ll be fine.*voices fade out*
{33:41}
[Music - “Autumn Not Winter“]
JACK: Does your blood feel particularly hot at the moment?
AUSTIN: Always
KEITH: I feel really rowdy but I just drank some coffee.
AUSTIN: Okay…
JACK: Aw Keith!
KEITH: I’m fucking…
JACK: Why do you always get so rowdy?!
KEITH: Uuuurgghhhh!
*Ali laughs*
JACK: He got rowdy!
KEITH: UuuuUUUrrgghh
JACK: He got increasingly rowdy.
KEITH: AhAAhAAAAAaaah
*Ali laughs*
JACK: This would be the point where if we had the cameras on, you would just do a pratfall.
KEITH: I got a new chair that’s probably a lot more difficult to do a pratfall in.
JACK: Oh no!
KEITH: But—
ALI: Don’t—
KEITH: It’s very nice on my back.
ALI: Okay, I thought you were going to try.
KEITH: No, no, no.
JACK: “I got a new chair and I put all these spikes behind it.”
*Ali and Keith laugh*
JACK: That is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
KEITH: The pratfall? [Jack overlaps] Or the chair.
JACK: Yeah, you doing… you doing… *laughs* the chair.
KEITH: That chair was hilarious.
JACK: You doing three successive pratfalls as me and Ali were telling you not to was very funny
*Ali laughs*
KEITH: That’s the thing—
JACK: And then Austin came back.
KEITH: I feel like so much of my comedy is physical and almost no one that—
AUSTIN: Sees it, ever.
JACK: *laughing* Maybe you need to go into business as one of the like, the dude on… Prairie Home Companion who does all the funny sound effects, except you’d actually be good.
KEITH: Oh yeah, I have to do some mouth Foley.
AUSTIN: My favorite wrestler.
*Keith laughs*
JACK: Ah, he’s so good.
AUSTIN: Umm… okay—
KEITH: Rickey “the Mouth” Foley.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: His entrance music is just some, some like, really wet sounds into a microphone.
*Keith makes some wet mouth sounds*
AUSTIN: Ughhh god.
*Jack laughs*
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You can’t use that as our entrance bit, people hate our mouth sounds.
JACK: [overlapping] He’s a real heel.
KEITH: *with reverb, in an announcer voice* RICKY “THE MOUTH” FOLEY *wet mouth sounds*
*Ali, Austin, and Jack laugh*
ALI: No… no
AUSTIN: Gross. The… Ventaro Doce is sort of like the master of ceremonies. That’s what court cases have right? Masters of ceremonies? He’s like—
KEITH: Emcee Ventaro.
AUSTIN: Right, right. He’s basically the bailiff? And like the… Adelaide is already seated when everyone comes in, like this is not a “please rise for” situation. But when he takes the center, when he goes to the center of the stage and says—
AUSTIN (as Ventaro): Here in the light of Adelaide Tristé, The Queen of Death, Empress of Pearls, The Reluctant Savior of the Longest Light, Blessed by the Far Sea, we begin the trial of Hella Varal, charged with the murder of Prince Angelo Tristé, The… The Abdicated Prince—
AUSTIN: I don’t have his whole list of titles in front of me. Shit! I want his whole list, the whole list is really good.
KEITH: It’s okay if you want to find the list, there’s some weird noises [Austin overlaps] coming from the next room over, okay—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I found it! I found it. Okay
KEITH: Hold on, let me check out these weird noises, one second.
AUSTIN: Yep
JACK: *quietly* It’s gonna be bats.
ALI: He’s not coming back.
JACK: No… He went out and he may be some time. He just went out onto the ice shelf.
*Ali giggles*
AUSTIN: There’s an ice shelf outside?
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah the old Massachusetts ice—*laughing*
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah, outside Keith’s house.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: Okay, I don’t know what the noises were, they’re gone, nothing’s left on, I was worried I left something on, I don’t know.
JACK: Oh, then it was definitely ghosts.
AUSTIN (as Ventaro): This is the trial of Hella Verel… Varal for the killing of Angelo Tristé, Lord Tristan the Ninth, The Ivory Crown, Our Brother, The Prince of Pearls, The Emir of Alabaster, The Reluctant, The Betrayer, The Coward, The Wretched, The
Abdicator of Hope. Begin proceedings.
AUSTIN: And he turns and gestures towards you, Lem.
JACK: *inhales and pauses*
AUSTIN: The crowd is all mumbly and like “muhhhhmuhh” and when he motions they quiet down.
JACK: So do I make a turn here or do I begin with an opening statement?
AUSTIN: You… Give me your opening statement and then… so again in Dungeon World, when you do it, do it. So you start with the action that you do, like you start with the description of what you’re doing and once you’re done, once you do that thing, we figure out what move it sounds like.
JACK: Okay. Alright. Okay.
JACK (as Lem): People of the court of Nacre, I stand before you today with great sadness in my heart because the person that I am sitting opposite is a great friend of mine and someone that I traveled with. However, I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with Grumman’s Retroactive, with the Confiscated Siegmeir, with the whole collection of legal textbooks provided to me by my dear friend Ventaro Doce, and I’ve come to the understanding that the system of justice in your beautiful town is incredibly powerful and effective and it is my duty to carry it out regardless of my personal feelings. Umm… hang on…
*Jack laughs*
AUSTIN: Is this a Lem pause or a Jack pause?
JACK: It’s actually, it is a Lem pause but it is a Jack pause as well
JACK (as Lem): Back where I come from we have grown up with the belief taught to us that if something is written in a book, it is true, and I feel no reason to doubt that belief today. And having studied the textbooks, I feel that I am about to perform as best I can regardless of the circumstances, and I only ask that citizens of Nacre and Fero and Hella will forgive me for the actions I am about to do [Austin overlaps]
JACK: And I sit down
*Austin clears throat pointedly*
AUSTIN: Okay, I think that that’s, you know—
JACK: [indistinguishable overlapping]
AUSTIN: Go ahead.
JACK: In my eyes that’s “Spinning Gold from Straw” because I’m making an emotional appeal towards them.
AUSTIN: Yeah you’re not doing any sort of like… argument there about what happened or what the situation is.
JACK: Nope. I essentially don’t want them to think I’m gonna sway this… I’m gonna throw this case, which I’m about to do, but…
AUSTIN: Yeah you-you did do a lot of like... books are good, but you didn’t actually talk about what was in any books, so—
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So you’re good. Go ahead and give me a charisma roll.
JACK: Straight two D6 plus charisma?
AUSTIN: Yep. Again you can spend one of your court hold to add your charisma modifier an additional time if you like.
JACK: Nah, I’m chill, I’ve got oodles of charisma.
AUSTIN: *laughing* ‘Kay.
JACK: Aw…
*Austin and Keith laugh*
AUSTIN: Jack uh… Lem rolled a 7.
JACK: I rolled a 12.
*Ali laughs*
AUSTIN: … No… that didn’t happen. You can assign one VP. Where would you like to assign it?
JACK: Umm, I’d like to assign—
AUSTIN: Again your categories here are crowd guilt, crowd innocence, queen guilt, queen innocence. You don’t get to add directly to contempt.
JACK: *laughing* Aw boo…
*Austin and Keith laugh*
JACK: I’m gonna assign to um… to crowd guilt.
ART (as Hadrian): *over the next two lines of text, and unacknowledged by the group* If I’m about to be called from this world, I want to reach out to you.
AUSTIN: You can check this.
ALI: Mmhmm.
JACK: *whispering* I’m sorry Hella.
ALI: It’s okay.
JACK: But you can tell Lem is trying really hard not to give Hella like… winks across the thing but like he knows like he should be doing that.
AUSTIN: Fero?
KEITH (as Fero): *clears throat* I stand before you today with my good friend, Hella, who murdered my other good friend—
*Austin and Jack laugh loudly*
ALI: Yeah?! Wait a minute… *laughing*
*Austin cackles*
JACK: Lem just like… Lem just like *laughing*… Lem just like folds his hands in his lap [Ali overlaps], sits back in his chair.
ALI: [overlapping] Hella’s eyes like slowly widen.
AUSTIN (as crowd): Mumble mumble mumble mumble
*Ali and Keith laugh*
KEITH (as Fero): Murdered my other good friend, Calhoun! Who you know as Angelo, but we don’t know him as Angelo even a little bit, really. He was prince here or something. But I know him *laughing* and Hella knows him and Lem knows him as Calhoun... uh… and there’s very good reasons why she did what she did and why we’re all not mad at her—
*Ali laughs*
KEITH (as Fero): *pauses* And… and a lot of it… is weird and magical. And I think that you’ll come to find that the person that Hella killed is not the person… that you think that she killed. Thank you.
AUSTIN: This is… this is a line of argument… okay…
ALI: What?! What?!
AUSTIN: *laughing* Definitely give me a charisma roll! That’s… I don’t think there’s any use of evidence or argument…
KEITH: Well… here we go…
AUSTIN: I think that’s bullshit. I think you’re bullshitting. Okay. Umm…
JACK: Keith also rolled a seven.
AUSTIN: I see that.
KEITH: I did.
ALI: Hella’s so upset! *laughing*
AUSTIN: Yeah?! Weird! Why? Why would she be— why would she be upset?
Ali: ehhhh… *laughing*
AUSTIN: Huh.
KEITH: I get to assign one VP [Austin overlaps] and I’m gonna assign it to uh… towards innocence.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You do. Okay, sorry I should have been clear. The crowd’s innocence or the queen’s innocence. Who are you trying to sway here?
KEITH: Oh! Okay. I’m trying to sway… the queen.
AUSTIN: And to be clear, Lem, you were- it was the crowd you were swaying with your one.
JACK: Mmhmm
AUSTIN: Okay! It is… it is the next phase. It is… the phase of… the world of objects and ideas, where you can present evidence and argument. Lem goes first, Lem’s going to go first every turn. Prosecution leads.
JACK (as Lem): People of Nacre, I was witness to a terrible thing in that tower, and in fact it was a terrible thing several degrees more severe than I could even begin to convey to you at first. While I was present in the tower I learned about a horrible event: an army is coming our way.
AUSTIN (as crowd): Mumble mumble mumble mumble
JACK (as Lem): In terrifying metal ships, strange contraptions bolted to the decks… And as we learnt of this news in the tower, the prince Angelo begged with our party, begged with Hella to leave immediately and work to turn these ships around. Since I’ve arrived in Nacre I’ve been told over and over again that I’m not able to leave. And had we been able to follow Angelo’s orders, we would have been able to turn back this army, but as it stands I’m afraid that it might be the case that none of us are going to be able to leave Nacre. And as such, Hella’s actions in the tower were not just murder of an innocent man, but also the potential destruction of the last hope that Nacre has facing this horrifying mechanical army.
JACK: And I sit down.
{44:41} [end of prev. Transcriber]
AUSTIN: So what are you saying that is?
JACK: Im saying that is [Indistinguishable]
AUSTIN: Hmm?
JACK: I thought that was lay on the case
AUSTIN: Yeah okay it can be, that was like the presentation of information for sure so yeah go ahead and give me Lay on the Case roll.
JACK: Which is um
AUSTIN: Intelligence yeah, And again you can spend on of your court hold, you have 3, to double your intelligence modifier for this roll.
JACK: I’m going to spend one court hold.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: So I’m marking that down as 2 [pause] Oh jesus.
AUSTIN: That’s okay remember you get to add- Ah wait, what is your intelligence?
JACK: My intelligence is...
AUSTIN: Is it plus one? So you're still rolling only a five here?
ALI: Oh no, that four includes the one
AUSTIN: Nonono, He gets, because he spent his court hold he get to add it again.
ALI: Oh okay.
AUSTIN: But that’s a bad roll, *laughs*
ALI: That seems fitting.
AUSTIN: Hmm? Yeah it’s very, it’s very fitting
KEITH: Oh they don’t like that there's an army coming?
AUSTIN: No but they don’t like that there an army coming, and this is uh, and they don't like that he like, he hid that fact from them. Do you know what I mean?
JACK[overlapping]: Hmm in retrospect.
AUSTIN: That neither, that yeah, that in retrospect that should have come up earlier, one, two: Why is it that- the thing that is tough here, is that at this, your opposing position is supposed to get victory points, and I’m trying to figure out how to justify that. Why- I guess you kinda you kinda like bumbled the, you’ve kinda made this like such a small thing, like who the fuck cares if this women goes to jail at this point? Yeah sure let her go we have to focus on this war.
JACK: Also yeah there's, yeah another thing there.
AUSTIN [overlapping]: Right, which is, go ahead
JACK: Yeah I don’t know, It seems to me that it’s actually in the queens best interest to be invaded, and she knows that, or at least I as Lem believe she knows that, based on the whole, bringing Nacre with you. So in essence, Hella killing the man who was advocating to go and take down those ships is actually a good thing? Maybe? In the eyes of the- But I’ve only read-
AUSTIN: Yeah and you only- And you’re not sure, here's a thing I’ll say, the queen has already thought of that.
JACK [overlapping]: yeah
AUSTIN: So you’re not- this is not a bad strategy you’re taking, this specific tactic did not sway the queen in one direction or the other.
JACK: Oh, yeah yeah yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright, Fero?
KEITH: Uh-
JACK: Oh wait, sorry. Where did those points go? They just did nothing.
AUSTIN: No, they go to crowd innocence.
KEITH: They go to… Yeah.
JACK: Crowd Innocence, okay.
AUSTIN: Again, I think that their position is just like: Who cares about this woman? He just said that there are weird metal ships coming with, with gadgets on their decks like what? Like-
JACK: Yeah also like, We don’t like, We haven’t seen these ships, right? Only Fero has.
AUSTIN: Mmhmm
JACK: So I’m just playing up the horrifying bits.
KEITH: Yeah, the mechanical army.
AUSTIN: Right. Yeah
KEITH: *Laughs* Oh, I have a- I have a-
JACK: I’m sort of winking at Fero at this point, but like really subtly.
KEITH: And I’m like, what?
*Jack and Keith Laugh*
KEITH: I (clears throat) I have, as Keith, as me I have a question about the-
AUSTIN: [Overlapping]: Sure.
KEITH: … the order of the stuff. It’s this section, and then the next section is like, witnesses?
AUSTIN: [Overlapping]: Sure. Yes, yes. Yes
KEITH: Okay. Alright, because, I had prepared for the witnesses thing, but not the second round of these-
AUSTIN: Well that will- That will be here in a second
KEITH: Yeah yeah yeah. Yeah. I just, I'm just trying to think of how to follow up on the shit that I just said a second ago.
AUSTIN: Well, and the shit that, fucking Lem just said too.
KEITH: Right right yeah, yeah. [Pause] Yeah I guess I'm gonna try to, I guess think of a way to make that seem even more dire.
{48:42}
AUSTIN: Yeah and if you feel like at any point, that you can’t like get the words right for what you want to do or say that's totally fine.
KEITH: Yeah
AUSTIN: And we can talk about it in a more abstract sense like you know, a full court case would take a full day at the very least even in their weird system.
JACK: And to be clear we’ve been recording since six o’clock this morning.
*Austin Ali and Keith Laugh*
AUSTIN: Right
KEITH: Oh yeah. This is real time I’m just like, I’ve a very dedicated producer [laughs]
AUSTIN: So yeah especially when you get to things like the questioning...
KEITH: Yeah
AUSTIN: ...you can give me like a general idea of like of what you want to be getting out of the witnesses before you roll. And then that will help you know.
KEITH: Right
AUSTIN: So here give me an idea of what kind of argument you’re trying to make at the very least
KEITH: I guess im want to find a way to- To talk about how, the thing that is dangerous to someone from Nacre is a magic weapon. [Pause] Or yeah, and that there's something about the things that Ordenans are doing that make- I can’t figure out how- That are doing that makes them a threat to people.
AUSTIN: Hmm
KEITH: And, no I don’t, I don’t want to say this, ‘cause that, ‘cause that's what Hella can do.
AUSTIN: Right right.
KEITH: She can murder people
AUSTIN: Yes. She in fact literally wanted to do that.
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah, please be careful.
KEITH: [overlapping] She just did that.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.
KEITH: I- yeah, I can’t think of a way to make the- I guess I can, I guess I can very quickly just say like: Yeah I saw these ships, there really close!
*Austin and Jack laughing*
AUSTIN: I mean, yeah if you want to that and then-
JACK: Actually, that might be pretty useful.
KEITH: Yeah
AUSTIN: Yeah and then build on this notion of like, what are we doing wasting our time with this?
KEITH: (As Fero)They’re- they’re really close, like thats- yeah, they’re like really close and the- all of the fish in water hate being near their boats. Like they can’t handle it.
AUSTIN: I don’t think- That hasn’t happened yet for you
KEITH: No, I saw. You told me about that
AUSTIN: Oh did I? Okay, okay.
KEITH: Yeah you did. Yeah. [Pause] Right? You did? I’m almost positive you said something like that
AUSTIN: You might be right, you might be right.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That’s totally conceivable
KEITH: I guess thats- I guess that's the case that I want to make, I don’t know where that fits in-
AUSTIN: So, you don’t want to build off the “He wasn’t the person you think he is” thing?
KEITH: Well I do- I do want to build of that, but I-
AUSTIN: Not yet.
KEITH: I don’t think that there’s a- a way to spin that of what Lem just said.
JACK: We are the worst lawyers in the world.
ALI: I-
AUSTIN: You’re both terrible. Hella? What’s going on in Hella’s mind right now?
ALI: [High pitched] Hmm. I don’t know!
AUSTIN: Just give me a picture.
ALI: [hissing/wheezing inhale]
KEITH: I’ve got the- I feel- I still feel like I’ve got this shit on lock.
*Ali huffing laugher*
AUSTIN: Hella what’s your level of contempt for these people?
*Chuckles/laughter*
ALI: I-
JACK: Come on, Hella knows I’m like, doing my best here. Don’t you Hella? [With emphasis] Don’t you Hella?
*Keith and Ali laugh*
AUSTIN: Alright-
JACK: Don’t you?
ALI: She’s just like quitely like,
ALI: (As Hella) “What are you guys talking about?”
AUSTIN: So it sounds like- it sounds like, Fero is-
KEITH: I think this is- I think this is Read the Crowd.
AUSTIN: Oh you do you think you’re- Okay so you can do that first. It’s not its own separate move. It’s like- Or it is its-
KEITH: Oh okay.
AUSTIN: You can do that, just to like, get a feel for what’s happening, and then also do another move.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: Umm..
KEITH: Okay-
ALI: But you only get to you only get to do that once.
AUSTIN: You only get to do that once, so like you won’t get to do that again.
KEITH: Yeah- I think its a waste to do that now. I feel like that’s something to do later.
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: um [pause] That’s also the one that I think that it fits the most. Can I just do like a- Can I just not do- Can I just do like a regular roll. Like do I have to- [Austin overlaps] I guess- I guess it-
AUSTIN: No you have to. It’s like- I think that’s this is. Go ahead. What were you going to say?
KEITH: I guess it would be Spin Gold from Straw. Is what I-
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think you’re basically still trying to, you know, use rhetoric to...
KEITH: Yeah
AUSTIN: ...get them distracted from the fact that she murdered- that she murdered someone. And also you said that she murdered someone.
KEITH: Yeah
*jack chuckles*
KEITH: I don’t think- I don’t think that we’re debating that she murdered someone.
AUSTIN: Apparently not!!
KEITH: I decided that that was not the core like, [in a mocking tone] “Yeah, she was just in like- She doesn’t know how it happened” [Austin laughs] Like that’s just-
AUSTIN: Yeah that’s fine. Alright. So you roll-
ALI: (overlapping) Someone told me to kill him! [Laughing] Can someone please mention that!
AUSTIN: Alright.
KEITH: I have- I have 2 parts to my argument. And the second part- the second part (Austin overlaps) isn’t going to come until later.
AUSTIN: (Overlapping) I’m ready. I’m so excited.
KEITH: That was an eight. I got an eight on that
AUSTIN: Yeah that means assign one VP where you-
KEITH: I’m gon- I’m gonna assign, an innocence point to the court
[softly] An innocence point to the court. Okay.
JACK: I feel that we’re neglecting the queen.
AUSTIN: Oh wait you mean the, yeah the crowd.
KEITH: Oh no I- I just did- I just did the queen last time.
JACK: Oh.
AUSTIN: Yeah what did you- you did queen innocence last time right?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And you did- It was also did charisma? It was also-
KEITH: Yeah it was also “Spin straw from gold”. Ah- “Spin gold from straw”. [laughing while speaking] Although it felt more like spin straw from gold!!
*All laughing*
AUSTIN: It did. It really did. [Softly] So crowd innocence here now..
KEITH: Trust me. I’m going some with this. You guys have no fucking clue.
AUSTIN: Ok, this looks right.
ALI: I was really nervous before this. [laughs]
AUSTIN: And now what? And now you’re totally chill?
ALI: No
KEITH: I was really nervous immediately before it. Like I was totally cool, and then right as we were starting I was like “Oh fuck”, but now I’m like totally cool again.
AUSTIN: Right, right. Alright
JACK: I am consistently panicking. And in the game.
AUSTIN: (overlaps) Well, good news. Right yeah. Good news it’s your turn to call a witness.
{54:09}
JACK: Oh Jesus
AUSTIN: Yup!
JACK: Wait hang on
AUSTIN: Because it is now the voice of flesh. Which is your turn to call a witness.
JACK: Wait a second.
AUSTIN: Yeah?
JACK: I can call anybody?
AUSTIN: Yeah! (jack overlaps) Anyone who’s- Yes.
JACK: I can call anybody
ALI: Don’t-
*Ali and Jack laugh*
JACK: I literally hadn’t thought of that until you said don’t.
ALI: [laughing]
JACK: Also I, like, that would not go well.
ALI: Hmm
JACK: Is he here?
KEITH: Who are- Who are you guys thinking of calling?
[Jack and Ali simultaneously]
JACK: You know who it is.
ALI: You know [laugh]
KEITH: Cause I think that’s who I’m thinking of calling. So-
JACK: [Laughs] Is he probably right now, finishing a choux pastry base of some nice blueberry thing?
ALI: No he’s- He’s here.
KEITH: Oh okay. Nevermind.
AUSTIN: Yeah Emmanuel's here. Yeah yeah yeah. Anyone you’ve dealt with is here, in the crowd. Anyone who’s been in this game, since you’ve left Velas, is here.
KEITH: (overlapping) They have to be. That’s the whole- that’s their whole thing.
JACK: Okay, I’m going to call Ventaro Doce.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: Who, in my mind, looks like an even cooler version of Dumbledore.
[Ali Laughs]
JACK: Perhaps a little more angural. Perhaps Dumbledore played by Peter Capaldi
KEITH: Original Dumble- Yeah okay. Yeah
JACK: Is that cool?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Ok.
KEITH: [Sarcastically] That’s who I think of, when I think of cool. Is Capaldi.
[Ali and Jack laugh] Who’s that cool guy? Oh yeah! Capaldi.
JACK: Who’s that cool, mild mannered man?
[Keith chuckles]
AUSTIN: Alright
JACK: Okay. So.
AUSTIN: So. you can either give me a very broad picture of what this testimony looks like...
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: ...or you can zoom in to like- like a microscope game.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You know you can like focus in on a specific moment in the- in the conversation or- Whatever you like.
JACK: I’m just trying to put it together in my head. [Pause] So, I would like to talk to Ventaro about the history of nacre from the perspective of two- essentially two librarians, two historians...
AUSTIN: Sure.
JACK: ...talking to each other.
AUSTIN: Sure.
JACK: And I think in my argument- Well like, it’s implied that even though we’re essentially on opposite sides, Ventaro and I get on okay-ish?
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.
JACK: And we’re both being professional here
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: But at least on my end, I’m trying to bring out of him a particularly colourful, scholarly, delivery. Right?
AUSTIN: Okay
JACK: We’re shooting, we’re shooting for the- I don’t know any American TV stations. We’re shooting for the television history documentary rather than the-
AUSTIN: Right right right
JACK: The history documentary. And the things that I’m focusing on is that Nacre has its- has a rich and storied history. That’s based on- based on great events and great people doing great things. And including manifestations of deities and-
AUSTIN: Sure.
JACK: And, how that in the land that I come from, this place is a fiction. It doesn’t exist. It exists in stories and textbooks and things, you know, it’s long long forgotten and we have none of the majesty or wonder, or kind of power that Nacre has.
AUSTIN: Mmhmm
JACK: And the person that I am prosecuting is squandering that. Is directly squandering that.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: Not only by killing the prince, but by leaving the docks open. And I look around at the court, and I point out who is here now, all the nobles, Ventaro and the Queen themselves. And I make it very clear, to this scholar of Nacre’s rich history, that there are warships bearing down on their docks, right now.
AUSTIN: Okay. Give me… Again that definitely-
JACK: Oh also the warships- the warships, they don’t have sails. They have braziers of- on the tops of their masts that are just burning. And they’re moving somehow.
AUSTIN: Is this a thing-
KEITH: You’re talking about giant bras.
[Austin laughs]
JACK: Yeah exactly
AUSTIN: [Laughing] Instead of sails! They ran out of sails but they had just big-
JACK: Just Enormous bras
{58:14}
KEITH: Cause they spent too much money on shit that can hurt you!!! [Austin, Jack, and Keith laugh] They had to use fucking-
AUSTIN: [laughing kind of uhhhh sigh]
ALI: Hella’s so mad
AUSTIN: So, What’s the- What are you- What- What’s this sound like to me? This sounds like- [sighs] You’re appealing to like a history and a precedent, and that to me sounds like “Laying out the Case”
JACK: Mmhmm
AUSTIN: Does that-
JACK: Yup, yeah I think so.
AUSTIN: So go ahead and give me a roll with intelligence.
JACK: Yeah. And I’d like to spend another hold
AUSTIN: Sure. You’ve one left after this right?
JACK: Yup.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: [absently while rolling] Okay, and… Bingo
AUSTIN: Hey!
JACK: Oh yes!
AUSTIN: Look at that!
JACK: So, I get a perfect 12.
AUSTIN: You do, you get- you nailed it.
ALI: [appreciatively] Oh!
JACK: These are my lucky e-dice.
AUSTIN: And on a 10+, you get to- you get to advance the case the way you’d like to, you get to assign three Verdict Points.
JACK: Three Verdict Points?
AUSTIN: Yup.
JACK: Okay. Hmm. Right. I would like to assign-
KEITH: Oh! I know the way that I would do this, but I’m not going to say because that’s not how games are!
[Austin and Jack chuckle]
JACK: I’m going to assign [Pause. Laughs] One guilty point to the crowd.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: Because of the enormous… bras. And also the fact that like, I don’t know. I think that as an archivist I’m able to speak well, if not necessarily morally, about cultural history being destroyed.
AUSTIN: Yeah yeah, it sounds like the thing- Yeah that’s the thing that it sounds like. That you’re really advancing is like: Hey you have something really special here, and Hella destroyed it.
JACK: Yeah. Which is kind of ironic coming from an archivist whose job is kind of to steal.
AUSTIN: (overlapping) Mmhmm. Right. Yeah. Yes. Yup!
JACK: But um. I mean. We’re keeping it safe.
AUSTIN: Mmhmm
ALI: Hmm.
JACK: But I’d like one innocence point to the crowd, represented by Ventaro Doce.
AUSTIN: How’s that work?
JACK: He, I assume...
AUSTIN: I see what your saying. Right.
JACK: ...knows that an invasion is good. I assume Ventaro Doce knows that an invasion is good.
AUSTIN: And you think that that reveals itself in the back and forth to some decree?
JACK: Yup.
AUSTIN: That like, he isn’t so worried about the invasion as...
JACK: Yeah
AUSTIN: ...like, he thinks that that’s a distraction. He basically says like: We shouldn’t be bogging ourselves down with this theoretical invasion. That’s not what’s important here. And that’s what gets the crowd...
JACK: Yeah
AUSTIN: ...to say like “Excuse me? Yeah no it super does. It super is important”
JACK: Yeah to the crowd that looks like, just like, bureaucracy, looks like-
KEITH: It’s only. It’s not only good for like the hidden objective of the Queen...
AUSTIN: Yes, yes.
KEITH: ...not for- like the people are just like: ah an invasion that’s bad. Invasion is bad no matter what
AUSTIN: Right. Yeah.
JACK: Yeah. And I think I’m going to put one innocent point towards the Queen.
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: Because, and I know you say she knows about this...
AUSTIN: No no no, this is- yeah.
JACK: ...but I think that the Queen is a patriot, fundamentally. And I think that she is at least partially...
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s fine.
JACK: ...appalled by the knowledge of the hotel crumbling. Oh I forgot to make mention of the hotel crumbling.
AUSTIN: Wait wait wait, wait. How is that innocent instead of guilt, to the Queen? You said Queen innocence, just now.
JACK: Oh! Oh yeah, no. Sorry,
AUSTIN: You mean?
JACK: I just completely tangled myself up. Yeah no, Queen innocence.
AUSTIN: Because of the-
JACK: She knows that Nacre is going to leave on those boats.
AUSTIN: Right. Yeah. Okay. That’s where I thought you were going with it, I just wasn’t. I was kinda surprised. Okay.
JACK: No, it’s fine.
AUSTIN: Alright. Fero gets to cross examine Ventaro Doce.
KEITH: Oh, cross examining?
AUSTIN: Yeah first.
KEITH: Alright, let’s do it.
{1:02:00}
AUSTIN: And then you get to call a second witness.
KEITH: Yeah yeah yeah. Um...
JACK: This is so good. [Quietly] Sorry Ali
KEITH: I- ohh. Okay. I guess I want- I want to poke the hole that Jack kind of started with like Ventaro not being worried about the invasion
AUSTIN: Mmhmm
KEITH: I want to add- just like,
KEITH: (as Fero) Ventaro you don’t seem- I saw the ships, you don’t really seem worried about this whole thing?
AUSTIN: (as Ventaro Doce) [Stammering]
[laughing]
ALI: That’s not how games work
AUSTIN: [amused] Wait, why is that not how games work?
ALI: Hmm- don’t know, I can’t tell Keith not to do that.
AUSTIN: No, you can’t. He… I think he doubles down on his like, dismissal of that as an important thing. Well. Give me a roll and we’ll see.
KEITH: Okay. Just a regular roll?
AUSTIN: This is a charisma, right? Like, because you’re just kind of-
KEITH: Charisma? Yeah.
AUSTIN: You’re just kind of like.
KEITH: (overlapping) That’s a nine.
AUSTIN: You’re trying to seem like hot shit. You know? Playing off this part of the crowd.
KEITH: Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah
AUSTIN: So yeah on a charisma, on “Spin Gold” you get an assign one VP.
KEITH: Okay. I’m going to go, crowd innocence.
AUSTIN: Crowd innocence.
KEITH: Yeah. Because I feel like that would just irritate the Queen.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: I feel like the Queen’s like: [mocking] Uh god, like we get it you don’t- you figured it out!
[All laugh]
AUSTIN: Alright yeah and I think again he kind of just stumbles on that and can’t get around- Can’t get it around-
KEITH: Can’t explain why it’s not a big deal. Yeah
AUSTIN: Right. Yup. Exactly. (Quietly) One second. I just need to double check something. [various ‘looking for something’ noises] Okay. So now, it is in fact, Fero’s turn to call a witness.
KEITH: I’m going to call Brandish.
AUSTIN: Oh, good call!
ALI: [uncomfortably] Hmm
JACK: Oh boy.
AUSTIN: (Quietly) Here he is.
KEITH: And I can ask like several questions to paint a picture that is one roll?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yes. Absolutely, absolutely
KEITH: Ok. So I’m going to have a conversation with Brandish. I want to kind of delve into his relationship with Hella and Calhoun over the years, like making I guess, specific point to always just call him Calhoun.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: And just be like,
KEITH: (as Fero) So you- you’ve like, you and Hella have a thing right? Like you guys kind of have a thing? You guys have been kind of fighting each for-
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) What mean you this thing!!
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: (as Fero) Ah like you’re like, you’ve met her before, several times, She almost killed you once.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Aye.
KEITH: (as Fero) Cause you’re like a pirate, and you’re taking stuff.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Aye.
KEITH: (as Fero) Yeah, and you know Hella hangs out with Calhoun.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Ah, they be buddies. It’s true.
KEITH: (as Fero) They’re buddies, right. I just- I can’t- I can’t get it past me why Hella would want to kill her buddy. She’s known you- You’ve known that they’ve known each other for a long time unless there was an incredibly good reason.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Ah well. You know sometime friends have a little fight.
KEITH: (as Fero) I don’t think there was a little fight. I was with them up until the end. We were here- We were here to help Calhoun out of his whole situation.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) [Accusingly] I knew it!
[Ali and Jack laugh]
KEITH: (as Fero) Yeah! Yes! Of course you knew it! Everybody knew it! That’s not why we’re here. We’re here because- because of the m- death of Calhoun, not because we were trying to get Calhorn out of his sitch.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Then why did she kill him?!
KEITH: (as Fero) That’s what we’re here to figure out. You know that they’re friends. We know that he’s dead.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) [incredulous] Aye? I am very confused.
[Ali laughs]
**JACK: (as Lem) Keith- Fero
KEITH: (as Fero) Yeah yeah yeah
JACK: (as Lem) [whispering] Do you know what cross examining is?
[Ali and Austin laugh loudly]
KEITH: This isn’t a cross examination.
AUSTIN: This is a regular examination. This is his-
KEITH: Yeah.
JACK: [Whispering] Oh, cool cool cool okay
KEITH: Ok, yeah, yeah, yeah. You get to cross examine him afterwards. I had- I had- Shit I had one more point that I wanted to make.
AUSTIN: Yeah?
KEITH: I had one question that I wanted to ask Brandish that slipped my mind, somewhere in there. Because of your fucking voice! That I totally forgot!
AUSTIN: Uh huh
KEITH: [laughing] I totally forgot that was how this guy talked!
[Ali Jack and Keith laugh]
KEITH: I think that- Are we doing- are we doing more witnesses or is this the one witness that we’re doing?
AUSTIN: This is your one witness.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: You each get one witness and then the Queen gets one witness.
KEITH: And the Queen gets a witness. Okay.
AUSTIN: She doesn’t talk, you talk to her, but the Queen calls a witness for you to interrogate.
KEITH: Right, okay. I think that that is what I need from Brandish.
AUSTIN: Yeah, what’s uh- so, what are we going for here?
KEITH: Um-
AUSTIN: This sound to me like an argument.
KEITH: Hmm?
AUSTIN: This sounds like logic to me. You're basically saying, and this seems like you're trying to tie it back to the “that’s not really the guy you think it is”. Because you’re doing like this whole like-
KEITH: It’s- Well it’s two things. It’s partially that and partially the idea that-that Hella’s not someone that’s coming in here and is killing because she's a murderer. There some- there's some reason why she did it.
AUSTIN: Right
KEITH: There’s some like, important reason why she did it.
AUSTIN: Mmhmm
KEITH: And also, the person that she killed, to her, is not a prince.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: So, she killed her friend, for a very good reason. Not she killed a Prince for no reason, or for political reason. Like, there’s not-
AUSTIN: Right right, I see what you’re saying. So, yeah, um, I think that that’s an argument that you’re making based off present evidence or logic. I’m going to let you spend you’re hold to remove your intelligence modifier instead of double it, does that make sense?
KEITH: Yes
AUSTIN: I think that’s fair. I hadn’t thought about- I hadn’t thought about the fact that ‘Oh yeah they probably have negatives on some of these’. So yeah like, you can- you can do that.
KEITH: Yeah. So I'm going to spend- Yeah I’m going to spend my hold- and yeah.
AUSTIN: Also just a reminder that at any point that you can interject with an objection on either side, to prevent a line of argumentation.
KEITH: Alright.
AUSTIN: I’m not saying to do that right now, but that’s a thing that can come into consideration.
KEITH: [Yelling] OH GOD DAMNIT! [Laughing]
ALI: Oh what happened?
AUSTIN: He rolled a four.
KEITH: Oh I got a four.
ALI: (sadly) Oh..
AUSTIN: He got a big old four.
{1:08:15}
ALI: That was- aw
KEITH: That was really good too, I thought.
AUSTIN: It was a good bit, it was a good bit.
ALI: It was really good.
AUSTIN: I- enjoyed that bit, certainly [sounds of typing while speaking] Oh, did you-? Oh, you just just rolled straight. Ok. I wanted to make sure that didn’t- So, there’s that.
KEITH: [mocking voice] Uh no I think there's something wrong with that, I think the dice- the dice bounced weird, and it fell off the table.
AUSTIN: Alright. They- I think that you just totally, you’re like- this argument that you’re making is just falling flat on its face.
KEITH: Yeah?Uh huh.
AUSTIN: And - And like on top of that, you keep dancing around this make of like, no she killed him. Like at the end of the day, she killed him.
KEITH: Right
AUSTIN: And whatever weird logical loops- loops [laughs] logical leaps you’re making about: they’re friends, and like, she doesn’t- that’s not why- why would she kill him? It’s not a political- Like no no no, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. Just she killed him. So crowd gets two VP. On guilt, crowd guilt goes up by 2
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: Lem, you can cross examine Brandish now.
JACK: Okay, trying to think this through. Lem is visibly, blanched by Brandish.
AUSTIN: Mmhmm
JACK: I’m trying to think about like- if I’m pushing this, if I’m pushing the war- the oncoming war...
AUSTIN: Mmhmm
JACK: ...and I’m pushing the war as a justification for why Hella, why murderer was... [with emphasis] bad.
AUSTIN: [laughs] Yeah?
JACK: [laughs] Oh!
JACK: (As Lem) Captain Brandish?
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Aye?
JACK: (As Lem) Where were you on the night of Calhoun’s murder?
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Uhh.. Well [Stammers]
KEITH: (as Fero) Guilty obviously!
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) A- A boat- p-proba- A boat.
JACK: [laughs] (as Lem) You- you were probably on a boat. Probably.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Probably.
JACK: (As Lem) or you were on a boat?
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Ah, you know I live a very busy life.
JACK: (as Lem) Busyness is not an excuse here, Captain Brandish.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) I- I was. I was on a boat
JACK: (as Lem) For how long had you been hunting Prince Angelo?
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) [Sighs]
JACK: (as Lem) Prior to-
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Well. Ever since he- ever since he betrayed us.
JACK: (as Lem) And how long ago was that? It wasn’t in the textbooks and uncollected text books.
[Austin and Keith laugh]
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) About a good century now.
JACK: (as Lem) So you’ve been hunting Prince for one hundred years?
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Aye.
JACK: (as Lem) And presumably you’ve encountered this Hella character before?
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Aye. She took my first life
JACK: (as Lem) Right. So you know that she’s a threat?
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Well, I wouldn’t say that. We beat her eventually.
ALI: [Laughs] Fuck you.
JACK: (as Lem) But why after a century of hunting, on the night where Hella and your target were in the same building, were you, and I quote “Probably on a boat”?
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) Now you listen, I see what you’re trying to do, but there is, I think, a fundamental misunderstanding. I wasn’t hunting the boy to kill him, I was hunting the boy to get him back.
JACK: (as Lem) That is beside the point, the fact of the matter is that you failed to protect him.
AUSTIN: (as Brandish) You don’t think I know that?
JACK: (as Lem) Well, I’m sure you know it, and I’m just making sure that the court knows it as well.
[Music begins - “Autumn Not Winter“]
JACK: I’m essentially trying to erode his position as one of Keith’s, Keith’s boys.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
JACK: (as Lem) A century- a century. And he was in the same building as the women who cut your head off, and you were on a boat. That is despicable, Captain Brandish.
JACK: Lem’s warming to it now.
AUSTIN: [laughs] Ah yeah!! I can tell! He’s getting into it.
[music continues]