Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. It's me. It's a podcast. Woah. What's this?
Speaker 2: Is this a podcast that we're on right now? Yes. It
Speaker 3: is. Say
Speaker 2: hello to all the fans at home, everybody.
Speaker 3: Hi, family. Hello, fans
Speaker 2: at home. Wave. We're waving out the window as our house careens upwards because we attached 30,000,000 balloons to it. And the only way we can get down is if we shoot a a b b gun at it, and I'm not the one in charge of the gun. In fact, the one in charge of the gun is one, Holly Baker.
Speaker 4: I actually forgot all the ammo though.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's not good. That's not good. And sitting at the opposite window with another device attempting to bring us down from the tall house is Rachel Baker.
Speaker 4: Blow darts. Oh. They work better than the BB gun. Like, ask me how I know.
Speaker 2: It's like balloons.
Speaker 3: How do you know?
Speaker 2: We all know that game, balloons?
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: Nice. And finally, somewhere else in the house, what are you doing right now, Roman?
Speaker 3: I'm corralling the cat and the dog to keep them inside from that because they're both freaking out.
Speaker 2: Uh-oh. Everyone's freaking out. And what's this? Is there another person here at the table? What?
Nope. It's just the four of us.
Speaker 4: That's right. Yep. Yep.
Speaker 2: Well, in the future, maybe we'll have someone else. But right now, it's definitely just the four of us sitting here.
Speaker 3: Just us. Yes.
Speaker 2: Anyways, cue the music. You have the music?
Speaker 1: But I didn't do that yet.
Speaker 2: Well, gang. What a mystery it has been. Within the vaunted halls of Polaris, our party has been perusing certain mysteries. Last we met y'all, y'all were investigating a little secret stash that one Ilya, a friend, question mark, enemy, question mark, of our good friend Vivi, had left behind. Contents inside included a couple of notes detailing professor Costello's movements and a note to Foswald basically saying, I'm done with this, as well as professor Foswald's missing badge, all but confirming that the individual that was there at the scene of the crime was indeed our good friend, Ilya.
After a couple more shenanigans, you went to speak to doctor Thomez, and instead, you found an investigator who was investigating our good friend, doctor Thomez, as she had reportedly been traveling outside of the country to Volvain. While you were in there, you searched her office somewhat surreptitiously and found a note that she had written. Seems like it was very difficult to write for the poor woman. However, the name on there suggested Alanna, perhaps a daughter, which clued you in to the note that was there. In the original package, they got you all in trouble so long ago.
The message inside was not as fun as y'all were expecting and instead gave you a sense of foreboding as a potential attack on Armada was imminent as well as labeling professor Bell or Lysander as a seeker. Oh, suddenly feeling the weight of your actions, you all decided to go outside of the university to a little place, like a restaurant that all the professors go to. Fresco's. Everyone's favorite little dive bar that sells really big eggs. A hooded figure was in there seemingly watching you and left as almost soon as you came in.
You chased this individual down, and after a successful chase sequence that used countdown mechanics. That's right. I finally got one. You had just captured this individual and you were about to unmask them. Rainey, can I get a agility reaction role?
Speaker 4: Oh, sure. Certainly. That's a 12 with hope.
Speaker 2: 12 with hope. Incredible. Go ahead and give yourself a hope. As this individual is around you, the three of you are sort of crowded around, avoiding being sent off of the bridge that was just in front of Polaris. As you are standing there, you see two twins just on the other side of the bridge looking at the three of you with mischief in their eyes.
One of them throws a big bomb. It looks like a stereotypical bomb with a little wick at the end. What? As it gets thrown, hear, suckers. Meet our newest our newest sneeze bomb.
Unfortunately, Randy, it went right for you and the toe was not good enough. So because you rolled with hope, you'll take no damage. However, this sneeze bomb does interrupt on you. And, Rady, now you're very sniffling, unfortunately.
Speaker 4: Devastating. Devastating.
Speaker 2: The two twins laugh maniacally and then run off. Oh, no.
Speaker 4: Seems unwarranted. It's You
Speaker 2: know those shenanigans that those college kids are always getting up to.
Speaker 3: No. I
Speaker 2: know. Anyways, this person that's below you is struggling right now.
Speaker 4: As I drip snot onto them. Yeah. Ah. I hear, ugh, gross. Sorry.
Take the mask off.
Speaker 2: I can't move my arms right now. You wrapped me up. I You wrapped me up in ropes or whatever.
Speaker 3: It's a lasso, but I've got it. And Vivi will take the mask off, Scooby Doo style, to unmask this person.
Speaker 2: Vivi, would you like to describe the face of Ilya?
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. I would. So Ilya is a another type of Seymia. She has dark purple fur combed over on one side in that, like, cool hip goth way that all of us would love in the early two thousands. Mhmm.
She has, like, thick black eyeliner, black lipstick. Yeah. She she she hot. She's a goth baddie is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: That's right. Somehow her hair is covering one of her eyes Yeah. Almost at all times.
Speaker 3: At all times.
Speaker 2: You see that she looks up at you and says, get off of me. No. Did Costello send you two? Are you also trying to off me? Just like those nasty slimy things?
Speaker 3: No, Ilya. Your dumbass just left all of the clues for us to come and find you.
Speaker 2: I didn't leave any clues. I only left something in my own personal stash, which no one knows about.
Speaker 4: There are slimy things?
Speaker 2: Yes. Been following me ever since I took this job with Boswald.
Speaker 3: Uh-huh. Cool. Well, you didn't ever change your personal spat stash from when we knew each other, so it's kinda really easy to find all the stuff that you left behind.
Speaker 2: Well, great. Well, good for you. Now can you let me go, please? I'm trying to stay I'm just trying to stay under the radar right now.
Speaker 3: Okay. But give me one moment.
Speaker 4: In black and running around outside.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what she normally
Speaker 4: does.
Speaker 2: You see that all the time. That's what all the students do. They're always running around doing shenanigans.
Speaker 4: Not with a hood covering your face.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, it's hot outside. Okay? I didn't want people knowing it was me. I'm trying to say incognito.
Speaker 3: Well, you did a very bad job
Speaker 2: of Alright. Well, I it would have been fine had you not lassoed me in the middle of the street.
Speaker 3: Well, maybe if you didn't run away the first time, I could have helped you with this originally.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. You were gonna help me.
Speaker 3: Yeah. If you didn't run away from our first big break and then cause all this wreckage to begin with, I would have been a person you could have asked to help.
Speaker 2: Alright. I was trying to do something different than what you were trying to do with that first big break, and I realized it real quick after you kissed me.
Speaker 4: I don't I don't like where this is going. What? I No. Shut up, Britney.
Speaker 3: I think Vivi, like,
Speaker 4: slaps her.
Speaker 2: There's a loud slapping nose. Oh, okay. Alright. She just she looks at you with angry eyes.
Speaker 4: Hickory's gonna stand in the way. Us Get your ass
Speaker 2: out of the way.
Speaker 4: No. No. No. Now. Not here.
Rainey's just gonna like inch closer to Vivi a little bit and just kind of like tap her arm gently.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Vivi will take your hand as if to hold it to like keep her steady.
Speaker 2: Alright. Well, what is this? What do you want? Why did you lasso me in the street?
Speaker 4: We need an explanation from you about what's going on with Oswald. And according to you Costello. And ooze. And ooze.
Speaker 2: Look, okay. I just happen to be the first one that Oswald saw when he walked into the journalism club asking if someone could help him with a big scoop. I think it would be anything. But next thing I know, I'm tailing Costello across the school. First, he was just in his office, but then I started noticing him going into the restricted section.
Sometimes he'd have this weird little purple crystal with him. Sometimes he'd take other materials. I didn't really think anything of it, but then one day he came out with something, like weird little orb. So I nicked it from his desk and took it to Foswald to see what he thought of it, and then he freaked out on me, which I thought things were going pretty good. I was telling him about the weird shadow things I saw.
He kept being like, don't tell this to Tomas. Yeah. I'm working on something. Don't tell it. I think it was a trap because I am in the lab talking to him.
Next thing I know, Costello busts in, kills Foswald with this insane lightning attack, burns my shoulder. I get out of there as fast as I can thinking that he's gonna chase me. Now I'm seeing those shadow things more and more. I was done with it. I was just gonna stay to the side.
Speaker 4: Show us the burn on your shoulder.
Speaker 2: She looks down at her arms, which are still tied up with a lasso.
Speaker 3: Don't worry. I'll get it for you. And, like, Phoebe will, like, lift over and just, like, yank her shoulder, like, the cloth off of her shoulder.
Speaker 2: She grimaces and you see a much smaller burn mark than what you saw in Foswell, but still very much the same thing.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 2: I didn't was afraid to go to the nurse. So this did only happen yesterday. Yeah. It's been one day.
Speaker 4: So you think Foswell died?
Speaker 2: Well, that's what I that's what I saw. He got hit pretty hard with that magic attack and then fell right over.
Speaker 4: You thought he died and you just left.
Speaker 2: I didn't wanna die too.
Speaker 4: What was this orb?
Speaker 3: I mean, this tracks with her character.
Speaker 4: Does it? Okay. No. She's actually talking to us. And it You were brain squeezes Wheezy's hand a
Speaker 2: little bit. You would say that.
Speaker 3: We would. Say that. Yes. Would. Because again, if anything didn't go your way, you'd run away.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's I know when to leave when I'm in danger of being embarrassed. Yeah. And like, I was gonna become just another one of your tabloid features.
Speaker 3: Tabloid features. Yeah. I have never. Anyway, Phoebe squeezes onto Rainy's hand and just, like, goes, whatever. Just ask her.
Get this done.
Speaker 4: What was this orb?
Speaker 2: It was this weird purple, like, you know, those Gamatachis. It looked a lot like that, but he didn't have it in his hand at one point when he went into the restricted section, and then he did when he came out. So I thought he must have either taken it from there or something, and I wanna see what Fazewell thought of it. So I took it from his desk. He just put it out there.
At first, thought he was just being lazy, and now I think he was just trying to bait me, which I guess it worked.
Speaker 4: Did you ever get in the restricted section of the library?
Speaker 2: No. I can't get in the restricted section. That front desk person doesn't like me, and I didn't have a badge.
Speaker 4: Don't you work there, Rainey? Well, I work everywhere. Yeah. Exactly. But the front desk person doesn't really like me very much.
Oh, that's the shift I've blown off more. I was supposed to work there this morning. Never mind. I can still show up late for my shift and see if that works.
Speaker 2: Well, even if you did, it would still record that someone went in there and I didn't want it to get traced back to me. So I just would hang out in the stacks. I had to move around because I started seeing those shadow things.
Speaker 3: Okay. What are these shadow things that you keep describing?
Speaker 2: They're weird ooze like creatures. Mhmm. As far as I can tell, they have, like, two arms, two legs, and a head, but they're just covered in this inky blackness. Like, ooze, like ink.
Speaker 3: Like
Speaker 2: But yeah. But they they seem to sometimes they come out of shadows. Sometimes they see them vanish. And it's weird because you would think that some of it would just leave tracks or something, but it all just seems to melt into the ground no matter what the ground looks like.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: Alright. Well, Ilya, do you have anywhere safe that you can hide out?
Speaker 2: No. Ilya should come with us. What? You
Speaker 3: want her to come with us.
Speaker 2: Isn't it safer with us?
Speaker 1: I got lost
Speaker 2: in the middle of a bridge. Besides, just gonna hear something I say and then put it in a little gossip rag.
Speaker 3: I never put anything you said in the gossip rag. Okay.
Speaker 4: What a misunderstanding. Yeah. Bibi has incredible journalistic integrity.
Speaker 2: You see, Ilya opens her mouth to say something and then just closes it.
Speaker 4: Okay. We we've got places to go.
Speaker 2: Are you seriously gonna drag me with all of you? Yeah, totally.
Speaker 4: Do you feel safer somewhere else?
Speaker 3: That's what
Speaker 2: I I gonna hide in my fourth hiding spot.
Speaker 3: Oh. Oh. Oh. Let me guess. The one on top of the bell tower under the floorboards.
Speaker 2: No. On top of
Speaker 3: no. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No. I have a different one.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: Is that a pretty good hiding make out spot?
Speaker 3: It is a pretty good hiding make out spot. Not that anybody would know. Anyway, bring her. We'll keep going. We'll untie you because it's awkward to have you tied up.
Speaker 4: Unless you'd rather stay tied up.
Speaker 3: Oh, that would be
Speaker 2: tied up, are you gonna drag me into these things?
Speaker 4: You could write on my longboard.
Speaker 1: If you stay
Speaker 3: tied up, you're going to be dragged. And that'll make one hell of a headline that I don't have to write.
Speaker 2: Fine. Just untie me. So, gang, where are you headed?
Speaker 3: I've got an idea. So as we're walking, we're walking to the library. Mhmm.
Speaker 2: Indeed.
Speaker 3: Vivi is going, okay. Plan, guys. So we have Oswald's old little beeping key. We can go into the restricted section if maybe Rainey plays a point and tries to distract the lady at the front desk. I can do that.
Hickory, you are gonna play point so that if anybody comes in, you can charm your way out. And I'll look around and see what we can find in the restricted section.
Speaker 4: Well, I could also just cause a scene. I have my longboard in the library.
Speaker 2: I've done it before.
Speaker 3: That is true. And anything you wanna do, Ilya, besides look bitchy?
Speaker 2: Really don't wanna go into the restricted section.
Speaker 3: You wanna stand outside and be comfortable?
Speaker 2: I prefer to just go hide, but I'll stand outside the restricted section and let you know if anyone is coming.
Speaker 4: Why don't
Speaker 2: you just come with us? Come on. I when I was out there sort of staking out restricted section, I would just hear weird noises in there. Like, sometimes there would be a we or just you ever you ever feel like, you know, right before lightning strikes, how your hairs stand up on end as though, like, the air feels electrified? I would feel that sometimes coming out of there.
And then one the one night where it was really powerful, swear I almost heard screams of something in there is when he came out with that thing, that weird orb thing. Screams? Like not a screams of a person, but like a wild animal. Except it was much deeper.
Speaker 3: So
Speaker 4: we do have one other option we haven't discussed. Okay. And it's in relation to information about Professor Bellor.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I also wonder if this is a little out of our depth, and if we should get his help.
Speaker 3: I think we should tell him what we found. Yes. Considering that he is an adult here adult. Now, do we tell him that we know all of the things or just ignore the fact that we read his mail.
Speaker 4: We could start with just apologizing and then because we did see him in Foswold's office. Yeah. We could just start there
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: And try to clue him in and try to get help with Foswold.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 4: What do we do if he asks us about if we know what his mail says? We say no.
Speaker 3: We indicate that we have not found what he is seeking.
Speaker 4: Vivi, I cannot get in trouble again.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying that you don't know what it means. How about that? You don't know what it means.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Ilya looks really confused and says, what was in his mail? It was so.
Speaker 3: Ilya, that's a great question. You are learning so much about journalism. Let's keep going.
Speaker 2: Damn. She just rolls her eyes at you and says nothing.
Speaker 3: Alright. Let's go find.
Speaker 4: Let's start with Belhor.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You head off to the office of an individual who you've seen multiple times throughout
Speaker 4: this adventure. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Who is Belhor Lysander. You see him lounging on his desk, His feet On
Speaker 4: his desk?
Speaker 2: Yeah. He's laying on his desk. His feet are crossed as he's just kinda laying across it. His arms are kind he's kind of weaves his fingers together and are just placed on his stomach, and his eyes are closed. And he see he seems at peace.
And as the door opens, he says, hello, you three. What do I owe the pleasure? And he opens his eyes to see four of you there, and he says, oh. Oh, that's curious. Okay.
Well, what can I do for you? You're to drop me off some coffee?
Speaker 3: No. Actually, I have some advice I need from you. Me and Rainey will have some further, you know, advice that we need. It's kind of a closed door conversation. Would you mind?
Speaker 2: Sure. By all means.
Speaker 3: I Wait. Hickory, I know you and Ilya were just walking, but you guys wanna stay outside for this?
Speaker 4: Sure. Cool. You can chill with Ilya and make sure Ilya hangs out with us still when we're done.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Since we're all go getting going to get a coffee after. Yeah. We'll get you one too Yeah. Yeah.
Professor.
Speaker 4: Sounds good. We left the room. Okay. The door closes.
Speaker 2: Lysander kinda pulls his feet up and he kinda moves his body around. So now he's sitting at the edge of the desk like a youth group pastor. So what advice can I possibly offer you?
Speaker 3: Well, professor, first, we wanted to give you back what we stole And apologize. Because we had no idea what we were doing.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. My little letter that was from doctor Thomez?
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: I can only assume with the contrition that I'm receiving from this that you read the contents of this letter.
Speaker 4: We can neither confirm nor deny that. We did. Do have a we have a more important item on this agenda that we've brought to you, though.
Speaker 3: Yes. We we found what we were seeking, but we because of what we found, we are, in fact, perhaps seeking advice on something that's a little bit higher than we, feel comfortable pursuing, any further. And we figure you might, as a professor of great renown, might be able to help us out with a little bit better.
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. You'll have to help me because I feel like I've mixed up some of the metaphors here. Are you referring to the letter or something beyond?
Speaker 3: We are referring to Rainy.
Speaker 4: Rainy will pull out the orb and hit a button so that Boswell's face comes up on the screen.
Speaker 2: You see that his eyes go wide, and he kinda holds out his hands as if to suggest, may I see that?
Speaker 4: Yeah. And Rainey will pass it over to him.
Speaker 2: He holds it in his hand, and you see that he investigates it. He turns it over in his hand. He's really looking at it. He pulls out the nine pointed star of the Inliad, kinda whispers something to himself. And then there's a loud crack as he takes this object and hurls it against the wall
Speaker 4: as soon as
Speaker 2: he possibly can. Oh. You see that the Gamatachi just clanks against the wall and just hits the ground and I
Speaker 4: think Rainey will run over and grab the Gamatachi again and, like, make sure it's okay. And then maybe click the feed button again just to make sure Fazwald's okay.
Speaker 2: You see, you pull it up Fazwald, his eyes are kinda like spirals.
Speaker 1: Oh. And
Speaker 4: I got you, buddy. How loud was that?
Speaker 2: You know, loud. Know someone taking, like, a snow globe and throwing it against the wall, but it doesn't break. It's like that noise. So you hear kinda like a thunk. It's against the stone wall.
So
Speaker 3: We're good. We're good. We're good. We're fine.
Speaker 4: I think Hickory would stick his head in the door.
Speaker 2: We're
Speaker 3: good. I'll give Hickory four thumbs up.
Speaker 4: He's gonna ease back out of
Speaker 3: the door and close
Speaker 4: it up. We Hickory knows all this, but Ilya doesn't. So I got it. But if you need to talk to Ilya, we can certainly you. We brought Ilya because we think she might know some things too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I heard Ilya had missed some classes. I was worried about her.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Was looking for Foswold apparently, and we found her. So that's the information.
Speaker 2: So here's normally what I would say to students is focus on your classes. Don't get involved in this. Don't worry about this kind of thing. You know, this is too dangerous for you to pursue, blah blah blah. You are third years at a university that was founded upon magical mishaps and shenanigans.
Yeah. So I can only assume that that would fall on deaf ears,
Speaker 1: which
Speaker 4: He just really wanted to do something important. And this felt important, and then it started feeling scary.
Speaker 2: You see, he kinda lightly smiles and says, good to see you asking the right questions.
Speaker 3: Thanks.
Speaker 2: That device over there is made of something that I personally have only ever heard of, something that I'd rather not divulge too much. But just know that the making of such a thing requires a powerful amount of energy.
Speaker 3: Something like the Palatinate wand.
Speaker 2: He sighs really heavily and says, man, people are just finding out words for things they really shouldn't know.
Speaker 3: Well good. Yeah. I'm I'm good at my job.
Speaker 4: Baby's good
Speaker 2: at what
Speaker 3: she does. We had copies of the letters that were behind the booklet case. I think Vivi took them.
Speaker 4: Mhmm.
Speaker 3: Mhmm. So she's just gonna hand them to him.
Speaker 2: He kinda holds it for two seconds and then hands it back and says, I don't need I would like plausible deniability for having taken other people's mail and it didn't die. I mean,
Speaker 3: I can take it back. But
Speaker 2: Yeah. Here, you you can take I have a feeling there's nothing in there that I don't already know.
Speaker 4: K. Whatever
Speaker 2: is going on with that want is bad. And if this is Costello doing what I think he's doing, and the man is as much of a genius as he is a fool, we certainly do need to stop whatever he's doing. Mhmm. Mhmm. Is something I can handle, but I feel like if I said for you not to join me or not to handle, I fear that you might just wind up doing it and getting in the way.
So we may as well just do this together, shouldn't we?
Speaker 4: I don't know how we could sit by and not do anything at this point.
Speaker 3: I'm in agreement. We can provide backup at least.
Speaker 2: He pulls out his nine pointed star and it begins to glow, and he puts his hand kind of in the center where you see on the back of his hand. And behind him, you see the sigil of Arcana begin to glow, this sort of light pink glow, almost like a hologram that's behind him. Just for shortly just, like, right behind him and just above his hand. And he says, I, Belhor Lysander, will make a note to assist you in stopping whatever the plans of Costello is. If the two of you will swear an oath to not reiterate or speak of anything that was in that letter.
If you agree to this health, place your hand to top mine.
Speaker 3: Oh god. Oh, okay.
Speaker 4: Rainey will place her hand on top of it.
Speaker 3: Does it have to be one hand, two hands?
Speaker 2: Any of your hands.
Speaker 3: I will show you how exceptionally truthful I am by putting off
Speaker 2: Just do one. Just one. Just do one.
Speaker 4: Just do one.
Speaker 2: It's easier. It's simpler and
Speaker 4: easier that way.
Speaker 3: She does just one.
Speaker 4: Don't overthink it.
Speaker 3: As She already overthought it.
Speaker 2: As you place your hands, you see that this symbol of Arcana kinda rises up as though almost like if you put your hand in water, how the water level rises up. It's sort of similar to that. But as you place your hands in and your intent is there, the symbol sort of caresses down like that cup of water is leaking out. It goes through your hands. You feel a warm tingling sensation.
And you know that if you were to say what this guy is to anyone else, it would not be good.
Speaker 3: Going forward.
Speaker 2: So Until his side of the bargain is complete.
Speaker 3: Okay. Great. Fantastic.
Speaker 2: You see he nods, and we cut over to Hickory. Hickory, you've just pulled your head back
Speaker 1: from outside and closed the door.
Speaker 2: That's it
Speaker 4: for that.
Speaker 2: There are a couple of chairs outside, and Ilya is sitting there just kinda looking kinda all around a little paranoid, but otherwise, she's kinda looking thousand yard stare. But she looks at you in this moment and says, what was that? That was loud.
Speaker 4: I don't know. They're throwing stuff in there.
Speaker 2: Why are they
Speaker 4: That's absurd.
Speaker 2: Vivi can get animated. Was she the one who threw something?
Speaker 4: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: Okay. She's kinda sits there. Not really saying
Speaker 4: Have you really just been running since yesterday? Just moving constantly?
Speaker 2: Yes. Okay. I was scared. I've not ever been in danger before with one of these.
Speaker 4: Well, are you worried?
Speaker 2: Yes. I'm worried.
Speaker 4: You've been here three years. It's fine.
Speaker 2: Well, I've worked hard to be here for three years, but now if someone Costello is I I thought he was just like, I just thought Boswell was just mad that, you know, a professor of Novocite research was being more successful than he was. People don't really care about Magitech anymore now that Novocite is the big thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I've heard.
Speaker 2: So I just figured I would look watch him for a while, and he'd, like, I don't know, say something. I figured he just wanted some kind of scoop for one of his papers or, like, a way to discredit something that Costello wrote. Didn't know there'd be shadow things jumping out.
Speaker 4: This is a lot for one person to take on. I do know that Vivi talks about you way too much. And I also know that Vivi works better on a team as well. And I know a thing or two about teams.
Speaker 3: Let's go, captain.
Speaker 4: This is a good coaching moment. Yeah. He's good for something. I
Speaker 2: know you're right. It's just hard.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Here, kick this. You're gonna kick the head. She
Speaker 2: kicks it or like across the room. Oh,
Speaker 4: yeah. Good job. That was great.
Speaker 2: I don't think that was Beller says, okay. Admittedly, I can't get super involved, but I can make it so that the worst possible consequences won't come to pass. If you go inside the restricted section, if he is using the platinum wand like the fool he is, there's a couple things that mean that I unfortunately cannot tell you because I am both bound to not reveal certain things. But what I can tell you is that the ground that the Palatinate one is placed upon has been absured from being a sacred ground, which is very important because that means that there are certain entities that will not know it's there, that cannot know that it's there, but can find it if something happens to that. And that's the thing we need to make sure it doesn't happen.
Speaker 3: Okay. So we don't want the ground to be messed up?
Speaker 2: Essentially. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay. Got it.
Speaker 2: Well, shall we gather their troops as it were?
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Let's go.
Speaker 2: You leave the office and you see that Lysander says, hey, Hickory. Can you come in here for a second?
Speaker 3: Should one of us stay with Ilya? Do you need all three of us or can one of us stay out?
Speaker 2: Only need Hickory, but if you want one of your Why?
Speaker 3: Okay. Great. I will stay out here then.
Speaker 2: I think you're right, Rainey. You should stay in here too. Why don't you stay in here?
Speaker 3: No. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Rainey, you No. I actually have to ask you a question, Rainey. Why don't you Come on, Rainey. To the office real quick
Speaker 4: for you. Rainey, please don't leave me alone.
Speaker 3: Don't don't leave me alone. Hello.
Speaker 4: You're not alone. Rainey is very torn between Vivi who she's very enamored with and a professor who she's already been really apologetic to and she's just frozen. I'll be the deciding factor.
Speaker 2: No, no, no.
Speaker 4: She's gonna scoop me up?
Speaker 3: Yeah. No.
Speaker 2: Very good. The two of you get dragged into the office and
Speaker 3: Hello.
Speaker 2: Lysander looks at you, Hickory, and says, okay. Yeah. And he holds out his hand, and then we cut to we cut to Ilya and Vivi. She's just kinda like kicking her feet. So so, you know, Lysander about all your scoops.
Speaker 3: Yep. Vivi is just like back to the wall, looking at her.
Speaker 2: Ilya is also just kinda looking away.
Speaker 3: So how have you been?
Speaker 2: Well, it's been trying to not get expelled, which I think isn't gonna go so well anymore.
Speaker 3: Why do you say that?
Speaker 2: Well, Costello was like, I knew he I figured he was a little loose, but I didn't know how crazy he was.
Speaker 3: I mean Once he
Speaker 2: started going in the restricted section, I should've known, but now I'm afraid he's gonna get me kicked out.
Speaker 3: You know that you won't get kicked out. Right?
Speaker 2: I mean, I probably will.
Speaker 3: Not if my grandma has anything to say about it.
Speaker 2: Does your grandma even like me anymore?
Speaker 3: She never stopped.
Speaker 2: She was really nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah. You are the only one of us who liked her banana pudding.
Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of people really want vanilla wafers in there, but I'm just not a fan of the vanilla wafers, and she never made it with vanilla wafers.
Speaker 3: So Yeah. She always uses marshmallow fluff. Ugh. Why do you have fluff on fluff?
Speaker 2: Ugh. Right? She says awkwardly. Were you really not gonna write anything about it?
Speaker 3: I only do the gossip scoops because I've got nothing better. No better scoops. I only mostly do it to people that are assholes. Would never do it to someone I cared about.
Speaker 2: You were right about the mayor thing. He wasn't actually embezzling any money, but he was having an affair. And I know that was the part of it that you seemed really excited about, which I thought was just because that was all you cared about, but I think you I think you knew that there wasn't anything being embezzled. Just he was just a rich loser.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And rich losers are and should be shown off as incompetent, albeit complete and utter rakes.
Speaker 4: What is that supposed
Speaker 2: to mean?
Speaker 3: You're not in here.
Speaker 4: Go away.
Speaker 3: Hickory's got, like, itchy. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Your your ears are burning. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No. I wouldn't have put anything in there, and I still won't, Ilya.
Speaker 2: It's really hard doing this by myself.
Speaker 3: Oh, you wanna team up again?
Speaker 2: If you'll have me.
Speaker 3: Well, maybe if we don't die, we can bring it back up and maybe see if it works out.
Speaker 2: Die?
Speaker 3: Oh, you know.
Speaker 2: The office door opens up and you walk out.
Speaker 4: Rainey bursts out
Speaker 3: and is like,
Speaker 4: is everyone okay? Phoebe, you alright?
Speaker 3: No, I I'm fine. Rainy. Thanks.
Speaker 4: Did you say anything mean to her?
Speaker 2: No. What?
Speaker 4: No. Okay. Alright.
Speaker 3: V is just like, like, playing it up a little bit with her antenna like, oh. Right along the radio.
Speaker 2: And radio
Speaker 4: pulls out her wand. Oh my god.
Speaker 2: And then She throws
Speaker 4: her hands up.
Speaker 2: Ilya throws something at you. Ilya throws like a pencil at you.
Speaker 3: Sorry. No. She's fine. She's good. We're good.
Speaker 2: Lysander says, alright. Well, I need to go talk to someone real fast. You four go on ahead to the restricted section, try and get in. And I'll be right behind you.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: Alright.
Speaker 4: I hate magic.
Speaker 2: Do you head to the restricted section?
Speaker 4: Well, and do we bring Ilya?
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You bring Ilya with you? Okay.
Speaker 4: Well, Ilya's nervous about Costello going after her. But Ilya also doesn't know everything.
Speaker 3: I call my grandma real quick.
Speaker 1: Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring.
Speaker 3: Grandma.
Speaker 4: Wait, I'll
Speaker 3: call. Okay.
Speaker 4: Let me call.
Speaker 2: Do you
Speaker 1: hang up?
Speaker 4: Yeah. Hickory calls.
Speaker 1: Ring ring ring ring.
Speaker 4: You both have these little communication Ring
Speaker 1: ring ring.
Speaker 4: It's a rich person thing.
Speaker 1: Ring ring
Speaker 2: ring Hold on.
Speaker 1: Ring ring ring ring. Hello? Grandma.
Speaker 2: Hickory is there. Oh, hello.
Speaker 3: Hey, grandma.
Speaker 2: Oh, hi, Vivi.
Speaker 3: Hey. Why'd you ignore my call?
Speaker 2: Oh, I just didn't get to my crystal in time.
Speaker 3: Oh, you should
Speaker 2: You should be patient. Patience is a virtue.
Speaker 3: Alright. Hey.
Speaker 2: You're calling me so quickly. Y'all you called me earlier today.
Speaker 3: Yes. What do I found out a scoop where Costello here is kind of an asshole, and he's threatening Ilya, to potentially get her expelled. Would you mind, working a little bit of your magic to make sure that nothing happens to Ilya if, we, you know, expose a teacher for being a nasty little man.
Speaker 2: Well, Vivi, I gotta tell you that you said that this was a scoop, but this is certainly in no way as big of a scoop as what you said to me earlier today. So I just feel like I need to let you know that if you say I've got a big scoop and you've already given me a huge scoop, I feel like you gotta be a little you got you can't bury the lead like that. Okay, sweetie? Oh.
Speaker 3: Okay. Bye, grandma.
Speaker 2: Alright. Bye.
Speaker 1: I'll work on
Speaker 4: that. Click. She answered me.
Speaker 3: I know. She likes you more than anybody else.
Speaker 2: I rolled a d six expecting it to roll low just and that's how many rings I was gonna do. And then I rolled a six for you. And I was gonna see
Speaker 1: if you'd let me go through all
Speaker 2: six Nope.
Speaker 3: Do is just my grandma that you have in that? Do you have anybody else from my family that I should know about?
Speaker 4: I have Brad's grandma.
Speaker 3: Brad's grandma is not my family.
Speaker 4: Oh. What are you fishing for?
Speaker 3: You or do you not have Cerulean's number?
Speaker 4: I don't. He's gonna go in his phone and delete.
Speaker 3: You got big hands. I really, really like you to try and see if you're accidentally clicking.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Make a finesse check for make a finesse reaction roll for me.
Speaker 4: This is my first roll. First roll of the night. It's under cc's
Speaker 1: default. Sneakily delete.
Speaker 4: Oh. That's a 12 with fear.
Speaker 2: Oh, please. There's a reaction roll, so I hope the fear don't matter here. But a 12, I'm gonna say, does not succeed. I'm gonna say the DC was well, the DC was higher than a 12.
Speaker 4: What if he throws his Oh.
Speaker 3: Wait. Does it pick up? Do you call him? Throw your
Speaker 1: no. Throw.
Speaker 2: You know, if throwing.
Speaker 4: After you pull up the contact, which could accidentally butt dial him. Yes.
Speaker 2: You yeah. You can do you wanna throw your phone?
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: Actually, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna go back in time. Joe, edit this in. Oh, it's a normal role, and then you said with fear. So I'm gonna I'm actually gonna take that fear.
I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna take that fear and say that you throw the phone and then it calls.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. Vivi walks over.
Speaker 1: Ring ring No.
Speaker 4: No. No.
Speaker 3: Vivi walks over and picks up the phone and looks at the contact. What does the contact say?
Speaker 1: What does it say?
Speaker 4: It'll probably say CeCe with a little heart after that. Oh my god. And then a a broken heart after that.
Speaker 2: Oh. Hi, Hickory.
Speaker 4: Hello. Hang up the phone.
Speaker 2: What's that? Hey. You're so far away.
Speaker 3: Hey, Cece.
Speaker 4: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: Well, Phoebe.
Speaker 3: What are you doing?
Speaker 4: Getting back the phone,
Speaker 2: I'm a little busy right now.
Speaker 3: What are you doing that's so important?
Speaker 2: I actually if you must know, I'm on a very important mission and it's going really, really well.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: And I'm definitely not messing it up and I'm definitely not having my heart broken.
Speaker 4: Oh, wow. Well Wait. What? What was that?
Speaker 2: Why is Hickory so far away from the phone?
Speaker 4: Oh. Give me my phone. Hickory is such a good friend.
Speaker 3: Did you know, Cece, that he has a your phone number in his contact Oh my goodness.
Speaker 4: With a little Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Heart next to it.
Speaker 2: With a what?
Speaker 3: Oh. Oh, it's time for me to go. I hope you're confused.
Speaker 2: Give me
Speaker 4: my fucking phone. Jesus.
Speaker 2: Is this another one of your pranks?
Speaker 3: No. I'm gonna take a Who's pranking I'm gonna take a picture of it right now.
Speaker 4: No. No. No. No. No.
No.
Speaker 3: Do. It's just it's just a cheap crystal. Who are you with by the I'm raising
Speaker 4: my hand.
Speaker 2: I'm with Are you raising your
Speaker 4: Rachel's raising her hand or Hickory's raising his hand. He's gonna slap the phone down. Okay. And then use his arcane kicks.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 4: Oh, to step on it. As hard as he possibly an attack rolling. Yeah. Of course, course, really,
Speaker 2: you can give any other details potentially supplanting in the timeline when this happened. But before
Speaker 4: he does, he'll be like, I'll call you later. Imagine Rainey just sitting next to Ilya and, like, describing all these things because Ilya doesn't know what's going on.
Speaker 2: Why would you do that?
Speaker 3: How long have you had feelings for my
Speaker 4: You put that in my phone.
Speaker 2: I didn't put that in
Speaker 1: my I
Speaker 3: have never touched your phone in my life.
Speaker 4: Yes, you did.
Speaker 3: No. I have except for right now.
Speaker 4: I'm busy and can't talk about this now.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. We're gonna talk about it later. Okay? No.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Oh my god. I hate this for me.
Speaker 2: Very good. Well gang, where to next?
Speaker 3: To the library.
Speaker 2: To the library. Need go
Speaker 4: get my backup phone. Oh my god. It's too late. We're
Speaker 3: we're right.
Speaker 4: We've set enough time. You got the backup phone?
Speaker 3: Hickory, I have it for you
Speaker 4: here. Thanks.
Speaker 2: Vivi had your backup phone the whole time.
Speaker 4: Yep. Okay. I'll gotta put a contact in real quick.
Speaker 3: We're walking.
Speaker 2: You walk to the library and find yourselves near the restricted section. The library is large and impressive, and you're in a space that's kind of in the center of it. You see the stacks are surrounding on all sides. And right in front of this big vault looking door that is cracked open and never closes, you see that there's a little desk and a little guy in the front. Rainey, what is, what does this little guy look like?
The front desk person for the restricted section.
Speaker 4: The front desk attendant is a twenty four hour attendant. That's why he's always so grumpy. He is a very small fun girl man with a little blue cap and very sleepy looking eyes, but really small. Like, I mean, goblin size, like two and a half feet tall and and doesn't need to sleep very much. And we happen to walk in, like, as he's kind of taken a micro snooze and he's really upset that we've walked in while he's like having a little bit of a snooze.
Speaker 2: He kind of startles awake and says, hello. Hi. To what reason do the four of you have to be here in the of the section?
Speaker 4: Well, I actually was here. I I'm checking in for my shift. So I but I needed some help because I lost my check-in badge. So I was hoping for some help with that.
Speaker 2: You lost your check-in badge? Mhmm.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Because I work here with you.
Speaker 2: This isn't the first time that you've not come to a shift. You're supposed to come to a shift this morning.
Speaker 4: Well, I have like six jobs. So it sometimes, you know, schedules don't line up.
Speaker 2: Well, whose choice was it to take on six jobs?
Speaker 4: We both know and rainy like hops over the desk to like pull his attention back to the back of the desk and like kind of suddenly moves on everybody else. We both know there's extra badges back here.
Speaker 2: So You're not supposed to take extra badges.
Speaker 4: Well, I know. But I'm just checking in for my shift.
Speaker 2: So And then, yeah, the three
Speaker 1: of you just sneak on.
Speaker 3: Yep. We just sneak on in.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm fine. You could take your brag, but when are you gonna come and do all your shift? You have to make up your shift because you've been busy this morning.
Speaker 4: I know. I picked up a shift from Cecilia for tomorrow.
Speaker 2: So Fine. Whatever. Yeah.
Speaker 4: It's alright. I mean, it happens. Right? That's why you've got us you've got us locked down here. You always keep things flowing even when we can't check-in.
Speaker 2: So That's right. I always have it locked in. Yeah. And I give professors who come in too much a hard time.
Speaker 4: Yeah. You do a really good job.
Speaker 2: Who's large and in charge.
Speaker 4: And that's why they hired you.
Speaker 2: Well, that's right.
Speaker 3: Yeah. You do a good job. I feel like you don't get enough compliments.
Speaker 2: That's very sweet of you.
Speaker 4: Yeah. You can go back to sleeping if you want to.
Speaker 2: You know what? I think I will.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I'll I'll watch the I'll watch the desk. Desk.
Speaker 2: You see that his head kinda lowers a little bit, like a helmet kind of getting lower on a person's head, and you see z's come above his head. Alright.
Speaker 3: That's gonna be easy. We go up to the restricted section, and I'll take out Foswald's path.
Speaker 2: Indeed, you do. You take the badge in, and you see the light that was red before. There was a red light inside of it, and now it's green. And as the four of you step in, the restricted section of Polaris University's library is a much rumored place. Some people will tell you that there are actually ancient monsters trapped within.
Some even say they have a dragon. Others say that there are tomes of fel knowledge that even reading it would melt your mind. Most of the professors know that this isn't true. It's really just full of artifacts and things that are very powerful but are very tough to, shall we say, log in to a system or account for things that are very powerful, but it's not exactly clear what their purpose is, so they can't exactly categorize it. Most of them are, of course, relics, some minor relics, some major relics.
And, of course, these things are protected so that the church doesn't just waltz in and take all of them back. However, deep, deep, deep inside towards the back of the restricted section, however, is a deific relic placed on a pedestal, this beautiful deep purple colored wand covered in amethysts. This wand is, of course, not exactly locked down because the university doesn't exactly mind if anyone comes through and uses these as long as they do so with the intent to make discoveries or further research. Some professors are even allowed to remove them from the vault, though that's not exactly encouraged because it would, of course, take it outside of some of the protections that are in place. Protection's not meant to protect the wielder, but rather protect the artifact from being discovered.
Deep, deep, deep inside of this vault, we currently find an individual. Hi, Joe. Hey, it's a podcast.