A Friendly Face

A trial turns to teleportation, but a misfired spell throws the party into a city on the brink. Will they uncover the truth before Outset burns?

Website: https://www.narrativedeclaration.com
System: Pathfinder 2nd Edition

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What is Rotgrind - Narrative Declaration?

Five adventurers try to survive in this comedy filled Pathfinder Second Edition TTRPG campaign within the grim dark world of Tyne. Follow the show, get custom TTRPG content, and more at https://narrativedeclaration.com

[00:00] Globtalk is in the middle of character creation. We can leave him be. Baldrick's secretly a crazy party boy? Question mark? You're going to have to endure all of the horrible, wretched cruelties of childhood. So this is all like, so Rahua can join the Illuminati, right? I can't believe we got Veena before WoW forever. Globtalk will return. Ah, crap. We're on campus.

[00:29] Who's ready to play some Rotgrind? Whee! Yay!

[00:42] We're going to torture and kill him this session, right?

[00:46] My mic's flashed a really angry red color at that one. You can turn your thing down just a smidge more. Just a little smidge, because you are peeking out your stuff. Oh, am I loud? Yeah, just a little bit more. So welcome back, everyone, to another exciting episode of Rotgrind. We had a lot of interesting stuff happen yesterday, which actually meant nothing. We didn't even go forward, barely at all.

[01:07] We made some tentative plans, and then we magicked back Globtalk. And due to that, there had to be some ramifications of this. And so what I decided to do is dig out from my library is The Magical Code of Regulations by Christopher Frigo. So we need to audit Speaker and his spellcasting. Oh, wait, it's an audit. Wait, what? Was I like just chosen to just throw a dart at like a wheel?

[01:37] No, you're the wizard. And land it on my big fat head? Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, you are the wizard. Okay, I forgot about that. Oh, yeah. So I have here on the Magical Ethicacies and Oversight section. And long as I kind of go down here, I could report the investigation of ethical violation. So chat and everyone here in the room is bringing Globtalk or keeping Globtalk in a pet cash spell for days and weeks and months on end without food, water, or attention in any way, shape, or form.

[02:07] Or he can't see or feel anything in the endless void. Is that ethical or not? Yay or nay?

[02:14] Wait. Is it important to consider? The pet cash does not work like that. They're perfectly okay. Yeah. Anything inside there is okay. Yeah, they're alive. It should be noted. It should be noted that I had nothing to do with pet cash. That was Rahula. That is an excellent point. That means Rahula is also on the hook. So this will also apply to Rahula. Okay, thank God. He's also on the hook.

[02:33] You're still on the hook, Speaker, but now Rahula's there. Yeah, let me see. That's fine. So long as Rahula's on the hook. There we go. He's down with me. I like the hook, too. On section 701. Sorry, go ahead, Rahula. No, go ahead. No, no, you first, because I've got to find this page. Let him make his case. I'm sorry. This is that fucking Rick and Morty skit where they took the court case and just did Rick and Morty over top of it. That's what this fucking is.

[02:56] That's exactly what it fucking is. No, I wasn't going to fucking chime in with anything. I was going to be like, oh, yeah, I'm here with a Debbie Daylight meat hook through my fucking sternum. I'm like, oh, hi, I'm here, too. I'm definitely on the hook at the moment. So. So. The letter of the law in Petcash says you open your cloak or create a gap with your hands, drawing your target into the dimension just large enough for its basic comfort.

[03:16] Nobody else can get in there and the target can bring objects along only if they were designed to be worn by a creature of its kind. It has enough air, food and water to sustain the target for the duration. It is also worth mentioning the Petcash normally functions on a time limit of eight hours. So something happened. Yeah. Something malfunctioned after the eight hours. So this is why I now read on page 157 of the Magical Code of Regulations from the Department of Magical Affairs and the equity through enforcement.

[03:53] I don't subscribe to that, buddy. Yeah, you are anarchy. I don't believe in that. I don't believe in that. That's counterintuitive to my beliefs. I don't believe. I couldn't heal you. I don't believe with this force. So that's Zoran. That's anathema. I think this is a you're clearly operating this court with bias. I'm not being offered a fair trial here. I mean, we're not doing anything on a trial yet.

[04:12] I'm just telling you what you potentially broke. And now we're going to read the charges. You're just being audited. This isn't a legality problem. It's an ethics problem. Yeah, it's both in a weird way. We don't have very much of either. So page 157, section 701.1 ethical standards and magical practice. And we shall now turn this over because there's also the malpractice. Of familiars, which will be section 701.7 as I flip through this legal documents.

[04:46] You know, because fucking wizardry and shit. There we go. Ethical regulations governing familiars and other protected creatures. In general, no person shall bind, summon, control, employer, otherwise utilize a familiar or other protected creatures except in compliance with the ethical standards and requirements set forth in this section. All interactions with such creatures shall be governed by principles of care, necessity, proportionality, and respect for the creature's nature and well-being.

[05:13] Rahul, do you think you applied that at all?

[05:17] I would argue for the sake of this body, for this audit, that I did provide those services as best I could. The true culprit is not on me. I am not at fault here. While Club Talk is certainly the victim, I would argue thus that the real victim is the narrative. Because we simply forgot to remove him from my inventory for four years. Oh, negligence.

[05:49] That's not my part. Sir Barrister, as the, uh, Council of the Representative, I would like to bring forth a character witness on behalf of the, uh, treatment of familiars by the, uh, likes of my client here, Rahua. You want me to do this bit, or do you want to do this bit, Thurston? Yeah. Oh, you keep going. You, you run it. You run it. What? You open this.

[06:09] You open this door. You run this door. Oh, well, I'll bring in the first witness soon. C-c-calling in the character witness, uh, former companion, uh, well, former, uh, familiar of Rahua, uh, uh, Veena! Please speak as to, uh, the character of Rahua so that he does not go to magic jail. That's fucking smart. Hey, Tannhauser, come here for a second. I won't lie. That's a fucking smart move.

[06:36] Tannhauser, can you come here for a second? Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course I would tell you. Yeah. Quick off the record. Yeah, he blew me the fuck up. Yeah, shut the fuck up. Shut the fuck up. Oh, there's another section about that, actually. I can find that, too. Walter's scaring your shit, by the way, while this is happening. I'm gonna try and help you, asshole.

[06:59] Gonna be pouring. He's gonna be making, goddammit. Let me, let me read, uh, quickly through the rest of this. So the general rule. No person shall bind a familiar. Other protected creatures without lawful authorization and where applicable valid consent. Now. Okay. He did give me a worm. Mm-hmm.

[07:21] Uh, don't know what bearing that has on anything. Oh, we're on your case now. Let's find that out. No, no, no, no, we're making this take longer. We can't do it over the year. I'm gonna see.

[07:34] Mersey measures for public magical exposure. High-risk spellcasting environment. High-risk spellcasting. Medical regulations, anti-tampering protocols, regulation of dungeons and medical constructs. Uh, it'd probably take me a while. Let's go one case at a time. Anyway. Uh, did, did Globetot consent for who?

[07:59] Yeah. Chat, did Globetot consent? Ask him. Pull up the record. Yeah. Pull up the record. Chat, you remember, right? You watched everything, huh? Uh, anyway. We like our shows, right? Yeah. Yeah. You know everything, right? Right. Anyway. Yeah. Um, so basically, consent requirement on section two, section eight, section A, where a creature is capable of informed consent, such as consent shall be obtained and documented. Consent shall be the obligated limitations.

[08:31] No binding shall exceed the scope of consent provided and impose indefinite or irrevocable obligations absent express authorization. Under this code. Cool. That's nice to know. Standards of care. General duty. A person shall provide care consistent with the creature's needs, including sustenance. You did provide food. Rest. Do you think it provides rest? Do you think he was restful when he left? Yeah. I mean, when he left, probably he just watched his creator get mulched by a chainsaw car.

[09:04] I think anything's better than that. Okay. And environmental conditions appropriate to its nature. Was it provided an appropriate containment? Yes. They get a nice little space inside that's just built for them. Define space inside built for them. It's a little lush glade with just enough sun and just enough shade. And there's food, there's food and amenities. There's a little stream you can play in with no leeches.

[09:35] I am imagining that because of how short glub talk is, the food and sustenance you think is actually a... Is fruit in a tree, but it's too tall for him to get. He had one popcorn. Yeah. That's why he's jacked now. It's because he had to climb the tree. That was enrichment. I also like the idea that Rahua is asserting that this is the case when he has not been in the pet cache.

[10:00] Yeah. Have you been there? I think that's...

[10:03] I think it's only fair. Read the spell, asshole. I can't go into it.

[10:10] Here's just a... You're all aware of what the pet cache is like. Go watch very old Simpsons and then find the episode where they get a bunch of pro baseball players on the team. And when Ozzie Smith falls into some weird hell dimension, that's what it looks like. That's... Oh my gosh. So the next point is protection from unnecessary harm or stress. So with that definition from Jon Paizo himself of what pet...

[10:41] Yeah....cache is involved with, do you think that also meets that, Rahua? Sure. I would argue that I was unaware that it was actually super death hell inside the pet cache. I thought I was doing a good service to him. Clearly, I did not know that the pet cache was simply a layer of the abyss. I didn't know that. I didn't know. Yeah. Fine excuse. Maintenance of physical and magical well-being.

[11:04] Did you do any of that? No. It's magic. I don't have to explain that. I don't have to do anything. My assistant, the cat, disagrees. Okay. Neglect. Failure to meet the requirements of this subsection shall constitute a violation, regardless of intent.

[11:23] I'm sorry, Rahua. Hey, Zoran. Yeah? Quick question for you. What's your... If you had to just, you know, a non sequitur, just out of curiosity, because I feel a little bit of prejudice, what's your home plane?

[11:40] He's like, does it receive pipe bombs, actually?

[11:45] I'm curious, what's your security situation like, Zoran? You know, a bunch of magical wards up the legal standards and everything else. What's your name? No, no, no, no. What's your name? Where are you from? What's up with you prolonging the life of your fucking dragon, mister? Fucker. Oh, no. Anyway. Nice audit we had. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.

[12:12] Welcome back. Oh, shit. The camera's on. Zoran's turned to Zoran. He's on the stand now. Life prolonging care in the same vein of cruel and unusual punishment. I wasn't asked any questions. This was my audit. I know. It was gonna get to you. This was because you got the subpoena, but it was for Rahua, so you decided to be the lawyer for him. All of the magic...

[12:35] Tannhäuser's committed a lot of crimes. He's committed very few magic crimes, especially when compared with Rahua. Well, that is true. I do have section 718. This is the one dash or 0.8 of mage misconduct in arcane review, but this bit has gone on for a bit. Let's play some rock and roll. I want to point out, you got me into a false sense of security because you were like, guys, we have to be on point.

[13:03] We have to be really like, no more fun stuff. We have to get the episode started. You fucking planned this. You knew. You knew you were gonna do this. Oh, yeah. I was flipping through this book like an hour. Before session, like art, beautiful. That's called preparation. Speaking of my notes, because last time on Rock Grind, we had a whole bunch of flashbacks with Rahua when he was just a young boy in his definition, along with his basically his creator.

[13:32] I would assume the definition would be of the King of Maws, who, what kind of voice did he had? Speaker? Every kind of voice. Yes. Every kind of voice. But a slightly Matt Berry. Yeah. Yeah. As well. And as they were having the flashback, who also met with a very kind man who gave him a lot to think about. And in addition to that, we also were planning, how are we going to get the airship close to outset?

[13:59] There is a rising storm over the city. There could be people looking out for us with any inbound airships. It's like they're bound to be like just question. Of course, they identify what this thing is. They it should have been reported stolen and suction. Marlene will know. They know that it's going to be us. So how can we get in safely? And I do believe that we agreed to go and scout it out.

[14:21] Get a get a magnifying glass or pretty much a spyglass, stuff like that. Do a bit of a bypass. Check everything out. See the situation that's going on, which I believe we did and saw that the city has been slowly but surely expanding bit by bit as the more free real estate is now being acquired. And I do believe we're on our way to Zapples apps to go to the ricketts.

[14:44] Which is the, which is the air dock for us. And then deploy down, maybe ask some agents around, maybe try to contact people that are inside and figure things out, but then also teleport ourselves into the cackling jackass where we think no one would expect us to be there. Like, so anybody who's looking at Baldrick's house, anybody looking at any other commonplace, the guy in the big floaty tower stuff, everything else, very common places that they might think we're going to be.

[15:16] But the cackling jackass, we haven't been there for a while since we put a hole in it. And our good friend to Hawkins is home. It's still there. So do Hawkins may have just gone home, may have gone there, the shutdown. We don't know. So I do believe that was the plan. If I got everything there, Thurston and with that, what adventure do you have for us today?

[15:37] Yeah. So where we'd last left off was you'd presented that plan. But, but before we could dive into whether the party was going to go with that or you wanted to go somewhere else, then the club talk situation came up. So I think there was just a bit of like locking in on where you wanted to teleport to. And then once we sorted that out, that was the plan to go to Zapples apps and then have our good friend.

[16:00] Tan has a performance of good old fashioned magic. Yeah. I believe that our destinations were either the cackling jackass or much to Vena and Oren's consternation. The hegemon's crib.

[16:18] Yes. That one you'd pick because you know, that one is pretty, pretty scribe proof.

[16:26] Biggers cannot be choosers. Yes. And we got to hope any magical defenses he has doesn't shred us to bits. Yeah. That, that is what I'm looking forward to doing. Yeah. Basically, I'm going to just have you teleport there and kill the whole party. It's my plan. That would be a great end. That would be a great end to this multi-year campaign. Yeah. Yeah. I think everyone in the audience is really hegemon twins.

[16:50] Oh my God. Get club talk off the screen. Get them out of here. I'll remove. You can click the X button. I did. I'm looking at the stream. Yeah, I got over the stream stairs into your soul. He's off to be his own character. Now, by the way, did you do your homework bit over?

[17:13] Yeah. Thurston did you roll up your character? Yeah. They did. Cool. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah. I'm ready. Odd word. Okay.

[17:26] All right. So with this, I guess it is sort of a, a deciding point for you. So just kind of lock in where exactly you want to go. And then, yeah, you were going off to examples. I, so I'll pull that up here.

[17:46] Yeah, I think, I think, uh, I think, Zabblezaps is the place. I don't think there's any reason for us to, uh, deviate off of that. And I think that, uh, are we all good for the, uh, cackling jackass? I would personally prefer. Oh, oh, you know what I could do? Hold on. I'll, uh, I'll mention this. I could make contact with one of our, uh, allies still in the city.

[18:11] See what it might be safe to set up. I do have access to ascending spell.

[18:19] Uh, well, yeah, that actually probably would have been a great starting place just to kind of get a, get a lay of the land, uh, as to what's happening on the ground. Uh, like a vault. But you know what, Tani? I'm really glad you came up with that idea. Or he crosses his arms. Oh, shit. You know what? Fuck you guys. You guys, you guys are the worst.

[18:47] No, no, I'm, I'm very earnestly, I'm very, very earnestly glad you came up with that because I didn't know you had that spell. What do you mean? I used it.

[18:57] You know, nobody pays attention nowadays. I don't remember.

[19:01] Wow. Just don't think we're going to be expecting trouble when we get in. Holy fuck. Do I, you know, I got to balance that out because it's a high level spell slot. You know, it could be, could be saved for, you know, uh, corrosive muck or a howling blizzard or, or to stagnate time or create a wall of stone. So, you know, you got to make sure that's what we want to do.

[19:23] Your error was not being a one trick pony that throws explosives all day. So people don't expect more from you. That is true. All I really do is back flip and swing my sword around. And I'm a bird. Nobody really asked me to do anything else. That's, he's a bird. I'm Rahua. Hi Rahua. I used to live that life, but then I gave it away. I gave it away for the betterment of proletarians everywhere.

[19:48] Now shut up while I talk to you. You used to be Rahua?

[19:53] I thought he used to be a wolf. I'm not, I'm not. Oh, oh, demons, demons are speaking.

[20:01] I wanted to, I wanted to, so bad.

[20:06] As we, uh, filter down into the swamp, I am going to cast sending on Doohakus.

[20:15] Okay. What are you saying? Hi. Doohakus. Hi. Myself. Shut up! Sorry. I just.

[20:33] It's the most Tannhauser fucking thing. Like, all right. Sending is a spell that gives you 25 words or less to send an important message. And it's like the first word, Doohakus. Well, you know that I guess, but okay, let's, oh no. I'm sorry.

[20:57] Myself and the rest of our coterie are now approaching outset that's one word not to outset okay I think I'm imagining your fingers are out in front of you right now doing that all 20 all 20 all 20 fingers chat back backstopping you too so keep going speaker keep going 25 words

[21:34] Where can we teleport to how bears the revolution heart and that should be uh that should be all of my heart emoji okay one sec I have to ready my my my hands oh is that really you tan hauser glad you are alive I have been at the university I have been researching into what marlene has been cut off

[22:37] God damn it how many more spell slots you got yeah that's it you don't get any one no I've got I've got four more deep rank spells but I you know what you've got a good enough idea I know where she is she's at the university uh and uh while she may not have mentioned a specific university can I utilize my society mastery to perhaps get an idea of where you don't even now have to, because Outset has one university. That's great, the University of Outset.

[23:11] And the University of Outset downtown, which is in the Ponce Blast. Yeah, that's true. Hero point. U of O. It's not the Ponce Blast, but you know. Yeah, okay. That's where the poor people are.

[23:24] I just made up the idea. It's just shitty. Yeah, whatever.

[23:30] Like a joke did not land. Joke did not land. Continue.

[23:37] Eject, eject. Where is the university? I believe it's in the Prince's Blast, but you know, how I find things like this out is I remind myself with the amazing PDF that we made for the City of Outset that I am totally pulling up right now. Wow. Yippee. Would you get a near the big boys dot com? That's right, Prospector Zoran. Oh, my bad. I'm a fool. It's in the it's in the Squire's Blaster. That's right.

[24:22] Yeah, it's in the Squire's Blaster, Mr. Tannhauser. Yes, the Squire's Blaster. Why didn't I think of that? Because you don't live here. I do live here.

[24:36] Where? You live in the desert. I used to live in the Wait, how long do you think I've been a robot? And yes, chat, that is the University of Baltraquit. Wait, Mr. Tannhauser. Yes. If you lived here the entire time, why do we, you know, take over Mr. Baldrick's house? You know, because of you know, it was a good house. A good place to be. And besides, the house I used to live at got blown up.

[25:07] Why? You blew your house up. The people that kidnapped Lady Zale and then built her into an airship, presumably.

[25:16] Oh. I'm sorry. That's rough, buddy. Anyway. Yes, it is. Sorry that's not funny. Sorry that doesn't make you guys giggle. But it is my backstory, you know. I think I've already mentioned it a couple of hundred times, you know. Tannhauser, I would never laugh at your trauma. That's what shapes each and every one of us. What the fuck is your problem?

[25:37] I suppose I'm just high cortisol at the moment. What with the situation with Lady Zale and returning back to Outset. I could synthesize you some peptides if that would help you.

[25:52] Sure. Why not? Thurston, can I get a crafting check to synthesize peptides to cool Tannhauser's nerves? Yeah, the last time this happened, we, you know, had fucking Baldrick invent like an agronic bomb. So what could possibly go wrong? All right. I'll give you a crafting check. It's plus 16.

[26:17] You know, it's a 28. Yeah, sure. Sure. You can make a little peptide. Cool. Just a little one. Just a little one. Yeah. Rehua, I'll take this little vial of very dubious peptide and give it to Tannhauser. Here you go. It should take the edge off for you a little bit. I see. Thank you, Rehua. As always, you are a valued companion when you're not being a mischievous little rascal.

[26:46] Oh, I am what I am. It's fine. It's good. All right. So then I pour that shit down my horrible gas mask throat. But what wonderful things happen to me as a consequence?

[27:04] Nothing. Could I flip a coin to see if I at least get a placebo effect? Yeah, sure. On a two. On a two it works. Okay. What are we doing?

[27:18] Drugs? I forgot. Not the story. Wow, Rehua, this really works. See, that's why I'm here, Tannhauser. You know I'm your plug. I'm the best plug at outset, baby. Orrin raises a hand. Yes, Orrin? Yeah. If they're at the university, we should probably go somewhere that's nearby. And maybe at the university, we could also try to find a solution to help out your, or Miss Lady Zale, see what we could do to get her out the airship.

[27:50] Yes. That's true. If anything's going to have knowledge about that, it would be Outset. I see. All right, very good. If it is something fucked up and horrendously evil and inhumane, it is probably something the scholars of Outset or the upper classes have learned and implemented in the past, as we have come to see over the last few years.

[28:17] That and... Yeah. Mr. Rehua, if your dad's a learned person, he'd probably read a lot of books over there, too. So... Most certainly. You know. The King of Moths was... Stone one dinosaur with two rocks.

[28:33] I... What? Did I do it wrong? Yep. Oh. I believe it's kill two birds with one stone. What?

[28:45] Because he's a bird. Don't say that he's sensitive. I know he's sensitive. I could kill him with one stone. I wouldn't even use two birds. What's the point? For who?

[28:57] So... I wouldn't... I wouldn't kill you with a rock in your sleep, Oryn. Thank you. You've not given me reason to. Yeah, stop adding details.

[29:06] All right. It's in... Context is important, Veena. Everyone calm down. Rehua will kill whoever he wants, and we basically just have to react to it. But until that time comes,

[29:20] We need to figure out where the hell we're teleporting. Now, how far is the Squire's pilaster from the cackling jackass?

[29:28] Quite far ahead. Quite far ahead. Probably pretty far. A couple miles, yeah. Hmm, I see. All right.

[29:35] Um, here's a question. Um, I didn't actually attend the university, so Tannhauser is going to take a look at Baldrick.

[29:50] Baldrick, I assume you went to school at the Outset University.

[29:56] Yes, I have, in fact, done that. Do you know of any large areas? That might be, uh, uh, you know, a group of us miscreants might suddenly appear in without immediately drawing eyes, a rarely used sports area, a particularly voluminous closet, something along those lines. You mean like a college bar, a bar that serves exclusively college students, and people are therefore only going to be looking for the college students?

[30:29] Sure. I'm going to roll, uh, what would, what should I use, Thirst in a Society? You don't even have to, you'd know it.

[30:39] There's a, uh, there was a bar that I believe operated and it catered exclusively to the students of the Outset University, however, I don't know if it's still in business or not. If it is, then we can hide there, and if it's not, that's probably even better. Hmm. Agreed. All right, here's my question then, can you draw an approximate outline of it from memory? Oh, easy. I've been there plenty of times.

[31:11] Excellent. Please do so and then let me review what you've got. That might be a best bet. Uh, now I'm gonna have to craft for drawing, that I will require, yes.

[31:25] Baldrick's secretly a crazy party boy? Question mark? Gene? He's a green lantern. He's good at drawing. He's a green lantern. He's good at flying planes. That's right. Oh my god, I see where they got a bowl cut under there. Ah, right. Anyway, crafting. Here we go. This is not alchemy. I can't put alchemy to that. That would make no sense.

[31:49] Rolling. Twelve for a thirty-seven thirst. And how detailed is the sketch that Baldrick quickly drafts up on a spare scrawl of paper? It's fine architectural rendering of the structure.

[32:09] You're really good at that, Mr. Baldrick. Well,

[32:14] To demolish things, you kind of have to have an appreciation for architecture in the first place.

[32:20] Anyway, this is, from what I recall, provided it is still in business, the Hook, Book, Crook, and Rook. And it will hopefully be a good enough place for it.

[32:33] Excellent. Very good. Thank you, Rahua. Thank you, Rahua! You're welcome, Tannhäuser. I'm so happy I could participate in this scene and not Baldrick at all. Thank you, Rahua. You did a good job. I need to thank him every so often when we go berserk and try to explode one of us. No, only him one time.

[32:55] Thank you, Baldrick. It's an excellent drawing. Alright. Here's what I'm thinking. We'll land this damn airship. Make sure that we're not disturbed for some time.

[33:08] Then, I can cast a disguise upon us that should last for about an hour that should hopefully be able to have us pass as simple students. Hopefully take some of the age off of our appearances. From then, we can teleport to the Hook, Book, Crook, and Rook. And then continue about to meet with Juhakis. But before we go, I am reminded of something. Someone.

[33:42] That, uh, dreadful woman, do you remember? The warrior

[33:51] Who was left behind in the sweeping tides nearby this swamp before we met. Through Victrix. Yes.

[34:03] We wound up Remind me again, Thurston. We did wind up gathering that elemental essence, or did we not? Did we agree to come back later?

[34:14] Um, which which one? Sorry. Wasn't there a water essence here with the with, uh, uh, Papa Papa Storm or Papa Toad or something along those lines? Anti-Draft? Rubeus.

[34:27] Rubeus! That was the one. And, um, no, the the Rubeus's Grotto, as far as you can tell, is one of those, like, elemental places that you are collecting the keys to access. Okay, alright, alright, alright. I just wanted to make sure we weren't, like, arriving here. With this very important thing just completely forgotten by all of us. Okay, cool. Alright, excellent.

[34:53] Alrighty then. Sir, if we're all pleased as punch with the plan, let's continue our descent.

[35:03] Yeah, let's do it! Orn puts in a hand in the middle of the group. Let's get right to it.

[35:11] Alright. Who will put his hand in? I'll put my hand into the Orn beams. For fuck's sake. Come on, Mr. Baldrick. Come on, Baldrick. He does it very quickly so we can get started. He does a little tap like, Heh.

[35:27] Alright, we're in. Let's go. Wait for me! Wait for me! Ah, crunch! Shake it in here, man. You can take my spot, Crunch. I've got things to do. Gauntlet comes down. He breaks all their hands, yeah.

[35:44] Oh, wait. Who's flying the airship? Oh, Brun's back.

[35:50] Just suddenly nosedive.

[35:58] Um, are we blurring in Globtalk? Well, remember, he's still in the room. He's gone through his transformation.

[36:08] Globtalk, you're here too. Well, he's in the room. The door's closed. No one has seen what's happened since the transformation. He's in that room. Globtalk is in the middle of character creation. We can leave him be. Honestly, I don't know if that's responsible. I don't care. I think we've crossed the point of responsibility, Tampos. Oh, yeah, we've fucked up big time. Did you hear the audit? Yeah, I was bad, but I'm saying...

[36:42] You fucked me up. It was a fucking mistrial, dude. You're lucky it was a mistrial, because then they would have had you. You've done a lot of bad things.

[36:53] You've done worse. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's kind of, you know, but do I really, you know, think about it? I don't. No, I don't think you think about it. You'd regret it if you did.

[37:11] I don't understand. Well, anyway. So do we not want to open this door and interact with Neo Globtalk?

[37:23] I think we should keep moving and make the best use of our time.

[37:29] We've got to hurry. All right. Especially for ladies. I'm a little curious. Ruhua's going to knock on the door. He's like... Globtalk, when you're done becoming God in there, we're heading out. Just letting you know, we're going to the college.

[37:48] Globtalk. Hmm.

[37:58] What does that mean in Globtalkese? Oh, you have the language. Fucking question. Yeah, I do. Is that the Gangnam Style? No, it means... It means... It means he is mming in the middle of his speech. He's starting to get a crunch. I'm sorry. This is too concerning. I'm going to open up the door. Okay. There is a tiny homunculus sized entity encased in fine plate armor with a tiny shield who looks up as you enter.

[38:39] Hmm. Globtalk. You picked a new dad. It's his choice.

[38:49] I'm allowed to not think it's a good one, but it is his choice. Hmm. I see. You've become Crunch's apprentice. Hmm. Globtalk of Legibet. Globtalk, go to Legibet now. Hmm.

[39:06] Globtalk is apprenticing Legibet. He taught him words. And he bought him a passport. Globtalk. Globtalk will return. Globtalk. He hops off the table. In Avengers Endgame. Yeah. Yeah.

[39:21] Before you go, Globtalk. There's something that I need you to have.

[39:29] I'm going to hand him a pamphlet of my literature.

[39:33] Hmm. Spread the revolution to Legibet, Globtalk. That is all. Globtalk can't read. He drops the pamphlet and keeps walking. Ha ha ha. Crunch has only had, like, maybe a couple of books. A couple hours. I don't think he would have taught him how to read. I don't know if Crunch knows how to read. I don't know if you guys know how to read.

[39:56] Whatever. I don't know how to read. And Globtalk begins a journey that will take him far to the east, where he will eventually reach the lands of Legibet and eventually return one day. And by return, what I mean is, is now, if you back our Patreon on patreon.com. Ha ha ha. You can submit your complication. You two can add the return of Globtalk. As a complication in the future.

[40:20] The end. Ha ha ha. Wow. For the measly price of a four year long bit that went nowhere and one hero point, you two can move a homunculus out of the story. Ha ha ha. It's been a hero point, so Globtalk does not make it home. Ha ha ha. What the fuck? Oh my god. What the fuck? What the fuck? I allow it. Yeah. Mark yourself down the hero point.

[40:45] No, no, no. No, no, no. Much fucking time. We waited three hours to make that man evolve. He went from glub talk to glub tinker and by god, that boy's gonna fucking come back. I'll spend a hero point so he doesn't die if that's what it takes. I respect the grind, Hulki. You would love to make us immediately invalidate all that time. I know you want to do that.

[41:10] Well, you should know, Ergo. I'm an expert at wasting time. He's gripping his chair right now. There's a vein popping up on his forehead like, I want to waste our time. I want to do it. I want to waste it so bad. I'm rocking back and forth in my chair. Please let me waste more fucking time.

[41:31] Anyway. So we were going to Zappelzaps. We're going to Zappelzaps. We're doing some story content now, I think. Can our intrepid captain fly us to Zappelzaps because this is her ship? Yeah, I'll do that. I'll stop doing donuts while we waste time talking to Glub Talk. We were all downstairs for this. Oh, yeah. He was walking to the east. I guess he walks off the deck and just we'll survive.

[41:58] We'll give a shit. Fucking PUBG lands in the solitude. Oh, my God. Can Glub Talk find all those people we flew over in Veena's Ark about their revolution and helps them with their adventures? Yeah, of course. Excellent. Anyway, Ori gets up top deck and begins to look around to do a lookout and do some weather watching to make sure the ship doesn't explode in lightning. The ship doesn't explode.

[42:27] Veena doesn't have to make a check to pilot the ship because Veena's a badass and knows how to pilot the ship. You make your way to Zappelzaps

[42:38] Outpost. As a reminder, the outpost is on the back of a large

[42:45] Creature that slowly moves this, you know, rickety wooden bridge that's somehow supports the magical lift of the airship as it docks as you come to enter the proprietor Zappelzap, the insectid approaches. Greetings. I saw your vessel come from the sky.

[43:12] Have you been successful in your journey so far? So far, things have gone surprisingly well. We're all here. We're all most of us. Mostly intact.

[43:27] Yeah, could be worse. Knowing us, it could be a lot worse.

[43:32] You guys hanging in there? Anything crazy happen while we were gone? We have been dealing with interesting times. Many people have come and gone since the events. Many, many foreigners have been coming.

[43:53] Many have come from Torort. The city continues to expand in that that area. Well, not city. I would say the settlement becomes a bit more permanent lately.

[44:08] Ooh. Yikes. Also, I realize my door is wide open. Veena opened it.

[44:19] Veena closes the door to the airship. Do I smell bad? I guess I do. I mean, you know, I'm not sure. I mean, you know, you do live in a swamp. You know, nothing against you happens, you know, but it is good to see you again, Zapplezap.

[44:39] Thank you. If we were to park our airship here for a time, would it be safe under your care?

[44:48] Yes, you have done well by my trading outpost and brought much economy here. Also, I had received a request from Plotus to do so, should you ask, and I do not wish to mess with him.

[45:04] Excellent. Good, very good. Alrighty then. Well, with that in mind, I suppose we shan't linger here for long unless there's anything that requires our immediate attention. We shall return, perhaps in a few days' time, perhaps longer. Will you be traveling through the swamp? Do you require a carriage of some sort? No, nothing of the sort. Thank you, Saperza. So, walking is for plebs, but all right. Indeed.

[45:41] I will take the group further and hopefully try to find some place with some privacy.

[45:52] Yeah, like you go back onto the ship, perhaps? Yeah, perhaps back onto the ship. Excellent, excellent.

[46:00] And I'm going to cast, as a fourth,

[46:08] Illusionary Disguise. Ooh, do you want to tell the class what that does? Yes, I create an illusion that causes the target to appear as another creature of the same body shape with roughly similar height and weight. The disguise is typically good enough to hide their identity, but not to impersonate a specific individual, changing their appearance and voice, but not mannerisms. You can change the appearance of its clothing and worn items, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[46:32] Here's the thing, is at fourth level, I can target up to ten willing creatures. I will target all of us, and I can choose a different disguise for each target. So, I am going to have us be disguised as university students, of whom I assume I broadly know, like, the university uniform and what have you.

[46:59] I'm somewhat disappointed, but I'll take it, because the other way you could have gone would have been better. Oh, no. Yeah. Would have been better. I would have been the one to pose for your image. Oh, my God.

[47:15] That would be funny. We would be extra fugitives in that case, though. Like, the people know us by those faces. Our bounty is only a hundred gold. God, they don't take us seriously. Not even a fucking little bit. Because Baldrick still wears his helmet, because could his then turn into the triangle or prism? That's true. Is he just the student with the triangle? Yeah. He should turn into a student with a big, circular head.

[47:46] Like, a big, circular... Helmet. What do you think? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you think, Baldrick? I mean, I'm letting you guys choose the details of your disguises. Yes. Just... You can just dress... Baldrick will take on the shape of a guy similar in his shape, but he looks more like a knight, because they won't be looking for an alchemist in a knight's costume. That wouldn't make any sense.

[48:08] Is that fine, Thurston? Yeah, but what's the helmet? That's what everyone really wants to know. It's similar to Baldrick's normal helmet. However, the visor is one inch lower.

[48:25] That'll throw him off. Risky. That'll get him. Risky. Okay. Whoa.

[48:32] Anyone else having any choices for their disguise? Tannhauser would probably just... Look like Tannhauser, but with no horned farts and no facial scarring.

[48:52] Excellent. It's just Veena without blue skin. Yeah, it's just... It's just pink skin Veena. Yeah, get out of here, cloud elf. Veena is not real. She can't hurt you. Ah, shit, that's right. Yeah. Fuck, she is a cloud elf. I can't believe we got Veena before WoW forever. Fuck. I'm gonna have to reserve that fucking name, yeah. Blue elf. Blue elf time.

[49:27] Excellent, excellent. Camera pans to Rahua.

[49:33] Rahua's gonna look like just a regular guy, regular arms, holding a big fucking potted tree. I was gonna say, you could turn into a potted plant. I don't think the chameleon spell is gonna work this time. I don't think it's gonna work that well.

[49:53] What if it was like a different Ent, but still coming out of a potted plant? But you don't see it ever move. He's just kind of like jogging with his arms at his side, but the pot just moves along the ground.

[50:09] That's horrifying. Yeah, that is a little horrifying. I think the new... I think one of the new Star Trek episodes had like a fucking weird creepy potted plant thing like that. If you know, you know. Anyways, alright, alright. Yep, you all assume your various disguised shapes.

[50:29] What does Auron look like? No, I gotta skip. We gotta keep going. No, no, Auron.

[50:37] Only thing I can think for him is that he looks like a regular boy. No wings and no fucking bird feet. Yeah, pretty much that, but just all dressed up, really. Definitely. More leaning on the nerd side of a university student, but just, you know, flowing type robes. His hair is all done up more like a bun sort of thing to get it out of his... Big glasses.

[51:02] Yeah. Big glasses. Oh, beautiful. He's got like, got the like the kind of cute nerd glasses going on and... Retainer? No, we're not going that far.

[51:15] He's like, he's a precious bean is the best way I can describe him. A precious bean. He's got his like school scarf on that like shows the university symbol on it instead of his normal one, all that stuff.

[51:29] All right. I've got one more casting of this, but keep in mind it only lasts an hour. So now we have to move with alacrity. Everyone, get ready. And I am going to take a close look at the picture that Baldrick has drawn. I'm going to commit it to memory. And then I am going to emanating out from me. There is going to be a wide green sigil that will then completely vaporize the party and teleport them 100 miles away.

[52:06] Hopefully to this area. Killing us on impact. Killing us all on impact, but then replacing us all with identical clones that all share all those memories. No, this is not Star Trek. Okay. It doesn't work that way. Barkley was right. Yeah. You and the targets are instantly transported to any location within range. As long as you can identify the location precisely, both by its position relative to your starting position and by its appearance or other identifying features.

[52:41] Incorrect knowledge of the location's appearance usually causes the spell to fail, but could instead lead to teleporting to an unwanted location or some other location. Another unusual mishap determined by the GM. Teleport. Teleport is not precise over great distances. The targets appear at a distance from the intended destination equal to roughly 1% of the total distance traveled in a direction determined by the GM.

[53:14] That's correct. Oh, boy.

[53:22] Sorry, fellas. I got nothing in this code of regulations against Game Masters, so we're fucked. Thurston, about how far... Let me help with some math here. About how far are we from this college student bar between there and Zabal Zap's outpost in the air?

[53:40] Triangulate for me. Hey, give me a sec here. Give me a sec. We have some cool maps that can help us with this thing. Give me one sec. Very good. It's been a while. It's been a while. I have to pull up... It's been a while. It's been a while. It's been a long time. Best case scenario is we're 100 miles away, and it moves us one mile away from where we're supposed to be teleporting to.

[54:05] Yeah. It's not going to be that bad. It's right in the tyrant's guild size.

[54:09] Yay. Like, from the beginning. Don't give him ideas. Don't give him ideas. Perfect.

[54:16] Oh, cool. Let me check here. Okay. So... It sends us the opposite way. Actually, it's not going to be that. It's not going to be that bad, you guys. It's... You know what? Zappelzapps is pretty close to the city walls.

[54:35] It's about, give or take, 15 miles away. So it's not that bad. All right. What's 1% of 15 miles?

[54:50] That was not very helpful, Google. I want to tell you something real quick, Thurston. Uh-huh. I searched, what is 1% of 15 miles? And Google's calculator gave me... 0%. 0.15 miles. That's right.

[55:06] Right. All right. So... It will transport you roughly 800 feet. 800 feet. Good. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Are you going to be nice and have that be horizontally away? No, vertically. You all fucking fall like pants. No, of course. You are... You are going to... That's fine. I got to fly. We're good. You all appear...

[55:30] In a large... In a... In a large open area. There are several... There's a lot of greenery, lots of plants that are building up the sides of walls here. You're in some kind of courtyard.

[55:52] There don't appear to be people here, though this could easily hold maybe 100 plus individuals. There are arches that connect and head out. Baldrick, you would recognize... You would recognize this as one of the learning pavilions within the university. We're on campus. We're not at the bar. Oh, I mean, how bad could that possibly be? We don't look like students is the first problem. Wait. Well, part of our disguise was that we were going to make ourselves look younger, right?

[56:32] I mean, I figured that I already have an ageless allure to me, so...

[56:39] Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Chief. Wow. Damn.

[56:45] Bro, you're really gonna hurt my feelings. I don't know why I'm feeling so aggressive today. Has anyone else noticed that? Have I been a bit too mean? Yeah. You've been pretty brutal lately. Yeah. You've been very violent for the past few months that I've known you. I don't know why. I don't know. Yeah, weird. Perhaps you're agitated. Perhaps you're evil. I'm not evil. Perhaps you're evil. You have too many bugs in your way.

[57:14] No, I dig them out regularly. The ones that are supposed to be there are supposed to be there. What about the fungus guy on your back?

[57:23] Oh, that's true. I forgot about the talking fungus.

[57:28] Or it looks at Baldrick looking around.

[57:34] Because Baldrick knows this area, where is this campus park area that we are at in relation to the Foroogs? The arches here start to go off into different portions of the university. Since Outset has one university, it has quite a few different structures dedicated to it. But much like most buildings in Outset, the term structure is kind of loose because it's like things that have grown on top of each other and shift around.

[58:03] Naturally. Yeah. So there's just a lot of like moving off passages. The area here is unique in that it is, it's exposed to the sky. So that's kind of why this area is sort of gets a lot of traction. It's strange that there is no one else here.

[58:22] He will try to contend with that as it is relevant because that could mean anything. Can I see the Prince's Polaster from where I'm at? Yes. So if you were to like look up, you could see to give you a better idea. Let me pull up the other map. The big map. It's to the east, to the east.

[58:51] Right. Good. So we are in the right place at least. Yes. Here.

[59:00] All right. With that as his marker and considering he knows where the campus is, he could probably, can I do, do I need to do anything to kind of triangulate a general direction to go in to get to the forums?

[59:18] You kind of, it's sort of like a, a strangely curving pattern because you do know that the, the university is Jets out from the rising Polaster. So it's actually like on the Polaster itself that is growing out. So you're kind of just doing these curve passages along with the reason you can see sky from here and see up is because you are on these Jets that are more open than the rest of the buildings.

[59:46] Oh, so we are on the Polaster itself. Exactly. You can kind of see here in the cart. Yeah. Well, we don't, we don't necessarily need to go to the oops. The oops was just our lake. Oh, here's a place we can show up without being in front of everybody. It's weird that there's nobody around, but the fact there's nobody around is actually to our advantage. Yeah. Very true.

[1:00:08] It works out one way or the other, but now we have to figure out where we're going from here. And where the hell everybody is. I mean, it's not a school holiday, is it? No. I think our first major, to get to the university, fine to hawkish link up with her. And then from there we can figure out the situation on the ground here. Sure. Uh, I can peek my head out, look around, see if I spot anything suspicious before I come back for you guys.

[1:00:39] Sure. I'm pretty quiet. That sounds like a fine plan. Go for it. Sure thing. And, uh, Vina is going to do her best to sneak out. Uh, and essentially try to see if there's anybody anywhere.

[1:00:58] Yeah. Um, give me a stealth check. Sure. I will give you stealth. I'm pretty okay at that.

[1:01:11] Not great. That's a 29. You're still pretty good at stealth for the average common citizen. Um,

[1:01:23] I love, I love this level of the game. Fucking 29. Ah, terrible. No, you're awful roll. Terrible. Heaven's full fan. No, uh, you're, you're able to make your way. Um, you do see that there are people, but they're usually in groups of one or two. They're very, very rushed. You're seeing lots of people moving about with like heaps of scrolls, um, or like you see some drafting equipment on occasion.

[1:01:53] Um, as you start, to, to maneuver around, you can, you can start peering into some buildings and you see that there are massive work groups in some of the structures here. Like there's dozens of people sort of over tables looking at things.

[1:02:10] Um, but, and then there's hushed whispers and everyone's keeping a very hushed tone. Huh? And these look like students, not faculty. Uh, yes, Gently.

[1:02:25] There's some faculty members. But he's in a rush. Bunch of study groups. Okay. Shit.

[1:02:36] Uh, Vena's got to go ahead and putter back to the crew.

[1:02:42] Um, we should be good to try to find Duhakis. It looks like the reason why this place is pretty quiet is because all of the students are holed up in different buildings. The people who I saw moving from place to place were all hurrying scrolls under their arms, looking like they needed to be somewhere right now, right now. And then those that I did see inside were in study groups.

[1:03:08] That doesn't sound too unusual. Students rushing to class. Yeah. If you'd like, I can spend 10 minutes or so preparing another sending spell. Perhaps I can make contact with Duhakis and have us meet her at, uh, at the Three Oaks or whatever.

[1:03:30] Sounds good. Excellent. Very good. Get your fingers ready, everybody. Yep.

[1:03:41] Sorry about that. I just scroll all the way up trying to find the name. Okay. The Oak Book Crooked Rock. Very good. Something nice and easy. All right. Going to cast sending. That's why I've been calling it the Four Oaks after that point.

[1:03:56] We are in the university. More specifically, the Squire's Palaster. Our exact location is unknown. We can make our way to the Four Oaks. The Hawk Book Crooked Rock. And then the spell ends. Hmm. Perfect. You see, it was the perfect name. I did have to. I did have to get rid of the and.

[1:04:26] It's all right. She should know about it if she drinks and is a student.

[1:04:33] Why? Why would you give me such, such an ability here, Dil? I don't know. Thurston, you, Thurston, you can have Duhakis be a wild, like, firebrand in her youth, going to the same bar day in and day out, getting absolutely shwasted. You can write this. You can make it a reality. I am giving you the ammunition. You can shoot me with it if you want. I hope they serve whiskey there.

[1:05:01] We're going to get there. We're going to find the same guy there. You must drink whiskey. Ahem. There is a response. Excellent.

[1:05:12] Oh, they closed that place down. Why don't I just meet you in the common area? No one's been using it. All right. I can't respond to her, but it seems like it might be best if we just wait here in the common area. We can certainly just wait around. All right. Waste a little time. Uh, I am going to use my sixth high-level spell slot of the day.

[1:05:53] Uh-huh. And just while we wait here, I am going to have us find a nice area, a common area, and then I'm going to cast clairvoyance, and I'm going to put invisible floating eye at my location, and I'm going to have it hover over, let's say, 300 or so feet over my head, and keep a bird's-eye view of the area, so that hopefully at the first sign of Duhakis, I will know before she stumbles on us, in case she just happens to not be able to fight us because we're all discussed.

[1:06:26] Yeah, for sure. So really quick, um, you, you managed to cast this, and, and it doesn't take quite as long because what ends up happening is someone else, um, someone else stumbles it first. You start seeing people coming through the common area a bit infrequently. Um, they are, they are maneuvering, um, again, with, with paperwork, with different objects, like drafting boards. Um, someone, someone comes through, looks, looks incredibly haggard.

[1:07:04] Um, she kind of takes a moment to take a breather, catches herself, looks up, and she sees your, um, and like, she, she kind of like, hustles over to you. Um, she's probably in her, in her twenties, human woman, um, wearing sort of, sort of common, like common student attire, regular clothing. Um, her hair is, is kept, but not well kept. Like she hasn't had time to do a lot of work on it.

[1:07:37] Um, she rushes up her eyes, kind of going over each of you, um, pausing in the semi visible plant that, uh, who is holding.

[1:07:48] Uh, hi, uh, uh, have you been picked yet?

[1:07:56] Uh, picked? Picked, yeah. It's just, if you're staying around here, I just, uh, are you on break from your, from, from, from your, from your hire? Uh,

[1:08:11] I'm going to, uh, push Veena forward. I was about to say. Stumble. Stumble. Yeah.

[1:08:20] Oh, uh, yeah, we're on a quick break right now. You all good? Who's your hire?

[1:08:28] Uh, oh, um, well, I, I'm, I'm on Southeast. Uh, they, they, they wanna, they wanna see about farms there. So, so they, they, they brought me and, and, and some of the agriculture students on it, on it, but they're, they're looking for everything down there now. Oh, well, that's good. Any, uh, progress?

[1:08:50] Oh, just, just more plants, more plants, more plants. Um, they're, they're gonna open up another, another, um, they're, they're opening up, uh, another, another, another tract of land to, they, they want a development to start happening immediately.

[1:09:06] Whew. What? That would explain, uh, the big rush, huh? Yeah, um, well, okay, if you're, if you're all, if you're all claimed up, that's okay. I just wanted to make sure. It's not like, it's not like the last few months, everyone's been snatched up.

[1:09:23] Yeah, it's, it's, it's been chaos, I'm sure. Yeah, okay. But we're, we're taking it one day at a time. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, I just, just to, So where, where's your group at? Oh, uh, we're, we're down two levels, uh, we're holding up in the, uh, the, the insect, uh, wing. It's not a lot of use for that right now, so they've kind of put everything in storage, and we've set up tables for, for more plans.

[1:09:54] Oh, well, I won't hold you guys up any longer. Okay, bye. And she, she kind of just, like, meanders off. You have a good one. Well, shit, I guess that would explain the bustle. She just raises her hand, almost exasperated.

[1:10:08] That would explain all the bustle. Sounds like we're gonna need a story. Um, maybe if we find out what happened to the alchemy department, because we at least have one person who could talk very authoritatively on any alchemical questions. They're taking everyone and bringing them to the expansion efforts I can see. Yeah. That's what it seems like. And I guess if we need to talk to the students, we know where that particular group is.

[1:10:35] I will point out that although I could speak authoritatively on the alchemy that was being taught when I was going to college here, I have no idea what advances have necessarily transpired since Marlene took over, or indeed anything after I was removed.

[1:10:53] Surely the fundamentals can't have been altered too terribly. Baldrick will kind of tilt his head to the side, giving a kind of rare moment of deep unsureness. Well, you never know. Alchemy moves fast. It's a constantly growing field.

[1:11:12] Well, it seemed to work well enough for you. I blow things up. There's not a lot of nuance to that. Eh, you've done more than blow things up. You made that sauce.

[1:11:28] Maybe there's a future for you in home economics.

[1:11:33] A grim thought. Well, cooking is a form of... Cooking is a form of... Oh.

[1:11:42] Something's coming. Coming around the corner is the rushed form of Duhacus, the gargoyle. It's hard to suss out, you know, how a gargoyle is looking, but Duhacus definitely looks worn. She carries a telltale centerpiece, a set of books with her, and sort of maneuvers looking around, kind of spotting your group and then looking away as though, oh, that's not them.

[1:12:15] Duhacus, 10 o'clock. Beena, do you mind grabbing her? Duhacus.

[1:12:22] Uh, eh, yes, uh... Uh, who, uh, aren't you with the group? It's us. Uh, what, us? Yeah, we're with our, uh, I wink, group. Oh! Magic. Hmm. Okay, yeah, maybe say it a little louder.

[1:12:41] There's no one here! Look, and she waves around the empty area. I love the intonation on that one. There's no one here!

[1:12:53] Um, right, yeah, let's find somewhere, uh, out of a common area, though it seems like they're keeping everybody pretty busy here.

[1:13:03] It's all the students, most of the faculty.

[1:13:06] Yeesh. Really, uh, kicking that project into high gear.

[1:13:13] So much construction. It's a shame it'll all come down sooner rather than later.

[1:13:24] That'll be its own problem when it happens, with all the influx from outside, all the foreigners. Jeez. Yes.

[1:13:36] They'll have to be spread out to other settlements, or otherwise find their own place within the Pond's baluster.

[1:13:45] Yeah, that's right. I mean, doing everything so quick can't be good for anyone.

[1:13:52] No. No, no, it's, it's most certainly not, but,

[1:13:58] Well, uh, um, so you found all of the keys? I, I take it you found all four of them?

[1:14:09] We found three of them. You got three. What are you doing here? I'm back here. We have reason to believe one of them is here.

[1:14:19] Oh, isn't that something? We're going to need them. We're going to go and undo whatever's been done here. I've been looking into it, and it's, it's a lot.

[1:14:36] Tell us, friend, if you think this is a safe place to do so.

[1:14:43] Actually, I know of a safe place to do so. Auron covers his mouth. Oh, no. Well, anyway, do you know of a good place to go?

[1:14:53] What? I don't mind, but do you know of a safe place that's not filled with little Tannhausers or anything?

[1:15:04] Sorry, he's making a lot of noise. He has every disease. He puts more mud over your mouth.

[1:15:12] I have a bond.

[1:15:19] Well, this is as good a place as any. Well, we just want to make sure there's, you know, no one listening from far away, you know, with all the oobly-boops. To solve that, you'd need some kind of extra-dimensional plan of place to go. Oh, he just drops the fucking bar and gives up. He's like,

[1:15:47] You guys suck so much! But anyways, no one has that kind of power. Nobody does. I cast Later Palace.

[1:16:01] You just like, fucking like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. The beginning of just the fucking Hell March sound. Fucking... Sound effect starts as just, BOOM! Two big metal doors just on the side of the common area. Yeah, and then there's like, from inside, there's like a I hate that. I hate that. Fucking titillates. What? You hear a distant, ghostly, Tighter.

[1:16:39] You're brought tighter. I systematically pick up each of the ten. And throw them into the river. No! No! They get stuck in the fire. They just map enemies. They'll come back off the side of the fucking fire. Excuse me, this is Dr. Breen's private reserve.

[1:17:00] One of the tenlings comes up to Ori and just says, Don't drink the water. He puts a big dip in your breath.

[1:17:13] Oh my god, half-life references, Jesus. It's specifically, the stupid thing that I'm remembering and recalling is a stupid video titled, Excuse me, sir, this is Dr. Breen's private reserve. And it's in Garry's mod. And a guy's on an island. And he turns around to witness a guy holding a coconut with a gravity gun. And he shoots it at him and it explodes.

[1:17:36] That's what happened to the tenlings. You know, if you don't want to go to his... Planar palace so bad, I could stop that. I just cast it! Oh, this looks great! Duhakis goes inside. That's crazy. I cast Planar Seal.

[1:17:54] You just sealed Duhakis away! Yes! Now we're going to... Hulky dog. Hulky. Hulky.

[1:18:05] Hulky, we're going to have to wait a day to get to speak to her again.

[1:18:14] Fellas, Why did the fuck back? We gotta get through today. Just I haven't done anything. I wanna point out, We had a meeting the other day, And I made a direct comment. When I started Rock Ride, One of the things I told Hulky Was like, "Alright, you are a being Of pure anarchy. Bring the chaos. Hulky, I believe in you," And he was so tepid about it. Like in the beginning there wasn't as much of this. Now it's like, "Fucking like I'll just be running like," You go into the coffee shop, And Hulky will be like, "I end this person's family line, And all of their lineage. Also, I'll take an espresso." Hulky, I'm going to make you Relearn shame. I'm going to crowbar it back into your skull. No thanks, Serendelle. I already came out of the closet once. I'm not doing it again.

[1:19:10] There is a synapse in your brain That is missing a component, And that is shame. I must reinsert it. Can I delay consequences? Delay consequences. So wait, you delay consequences. We're going to walk inside, And then we're going to be stuck in there. We're creating a fucking Rube Goldberg Of magical effect. I summon the planar palace. I cast planar destruction. I cast delay consequences. I cast greater bone break. I cast I play Exodia. I cast aortic dissection. Can I do a back flip? You can. I'm just not doing it. I'm just not going to lock her in. It's okay. Why did you say that? It was really funny. I just wanted to have a chance. Content bell. Content bell. I knew it. I fucking knew that bell would get you. Content bell. Alright, we're back into it. We open up the thing.

[1:20:09] We all go into the elevator and we're like, It's an interdimensional thing. Yes. We go in. We go into Tannhauser's crazy bone ride, And we enter inside. And I see the door shuts behind us. So no one else can come in, And go like, "Oh watch this," And we're now in Seeing Thurston.

[1:20:26] Yeah, you are inside Tannhauser's planar palace, Where there is an. There is an area for you to sit down, For you to converse with one another. You are fairly confident. You are not Having any kind of Scrying or other effects Overtaking you.

[1:20:46] Duhak's like, "Wow, This is really good. Thank you so much. It means so much to me." You say that.

[1:20:55] This is a seven level spell, And no one likes it. No one likes my cool tannings.

[1:21:04] Duhak is, It's a sin to tell a lie. Just so you know. Oh, I said I like the place. Those things are creepy.

[1:21:13] You don't need those. You just made them. What do you do With me commie for You? Sorry that's in my head.

[1:21:22] I can't get it out. I'm so sorry.

[1:21:28] They're great. They do everything. You know it's a 24 service. They cook And they. They don't mind. They have enough food. They Here. Well, You know what I'm gonna make you guys all love the tannings. Okay, Fuck you guys. I'm gonna clap twice. Tannings Serve a nine course banquet.

[1:21:48] And the mansion is stocked with enough food to serve a nine course banquet. This food is free. Please tell them to stop singing. Okay, I know this is gonna sound crazy, But are you sure you didn't want me to seal us out of the planar palace?

[1:22:11] Orin begins to warm up to them as he kinda. I assume there's a large table for all the food and stuff. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And he'll kinda sit down at it. He'll go like, "Wow, It's like I don't think we actually got to just sit down And Do you Have a nice meal together That wasn't. Do you know? You know How in airports they have those escalators that you walk across? Yeah, There's like Those like you know horizontal ones. There is one of those on the table that the tannlings use to go back and forth To move the food. Yeah, I thought you were. I thought you were. That's actually Gonna say it's an escalator but it only goes in one direction. So if nobody eats something it falls off the end of the table.

[1:22:50] Are you meaning it's a rotating thing on the table like those sushi restaurants Where you just pick it? Yes. You mean those? Yes. Oh fuck yeah. Conveyor belt sushi. That's fine. The conveyor belt. Yeah. Automat diner. Orin gets like a bowl of seeds and starts smashing his face into it. He starts eating. Oh.

[1:23:11] It's for Orin specifically. It's just nine courses of Yeah Bowls of seeds Of seeds. It's whatever anyone wants. It's what their favorite food would be is what is going to be prepared for them In nine courses. Yes.

[1:23:27] Worms and seeds. Worms and seeds. Worms and plastic minnows. So Dohaquish. He keeps eating the worms. Now that we're not potentially gonna get spied on. Uh. What else? What else have you found out? About all the keys that we need to find. Especially. You know. Ones that we're kinda looking around here. We need to get as much information as we can. And we don't know what's really happened with the city so far. I. I don't. I. My studies have been mostly about. All of the. All of the. The

[1:24:06] You get into them. Finding the keys was your problem.

[1:24:10] I was hoping you could help out, but I don't mean to eat a lot. A lot happens as you've been gone. Now, I thought you read a lot of books while we were going out. The city is very different. She did, and I'm sure she'll tell us about it. And I'm sure the pathway to this other elemental key will reveal itself, as did all of the others.

[1:24:35] Duarchus, please share what it is that you have discovered.

[1:24:39] Well, it's kind of what some people expected. I mean, the assembly has just been in closed session ever since. All of them are working with power bases and groups and brokers in the city. They're all expanding outwards. They're all getting in on the land development. Every one of them.

[1:25:00] Even the Chamberlain's. No one's seeing. Them anymore because they're closed off because of the state of emergency. That's no good. Marlene, no one's heard from her. Not a poo. I think she just vanished. That's right. Hasn't been spotted in any of the settlements. Hasn't visited the college. Nothing. Oh, well, you know who was ready for this? The Tyrants Guild.

[1:25:31] Yeesh. Okay. I think before you left, you saw that they were elementally infusing. Their people. Yes, I remember. There's more of them. Oh, that was really fucked up. And now there are more. Yeah, they're replacing the legionnaires. All of the legionnaires have just been put on standby.

[1:25:54] In favor of these elementally enhanced people. Exactly. Are they even people anymore? I mean, I remember those fire guys seemed pretty out of it. I don't think so. And then they're all busy expanding out the crime.

[1:26:16] So much crime now. I love crime. He does love crime. We may have to do a B and E for his indignation. Remember the children of the blaze? There's like eight of them now. I thought we killed all of them. No, like eight different gangs or just eight people in the children of the blaze. No, no, no, no. Eight different gangs. Let's see. There's the wall crawlers, the people of the pond, the blazing revolutionaries, the card family, the cult of the underwave.

[1:26:52] There's tons of them now. Huh? These gangs, some of them seem like they could be potentially utilized in the year chaos to come. The blazing revolutionaries, are they perhaps descended from my own movement?

[1:27:11] Yes. Maybe. I mean, the only problem is, is their leader. Who's their leader? Mr. Allort. He's... He's not dead? He should be really dead.

[1:27:28] Like turbo dead. I just know they're, they're, they're, they're out of the, the pond's plaster and it's, there's some kind of group there and... Okay. No, no, no, no. So level with me because before everything went tits up and we got kicked out of outset because we damned the world. Who did that? Yeah. We fought. We fought Mr. Allort. Okay. Which was actually, he was already dead.

[1:28:04] And that was just uncle blaze manifesting him as an avatar. And then he really manifested. Okay. And then he got sealed away. So how the fuck is Allort back?

[1:28:16] I'm just, I'm hearing the word that I hear from the street. You know, you sometimes get words from the street.

[1:28:27] I know this very well. The street talks and this is what it says.

[1:28:35] So Allort's back. What of the revolution? Is there anything that could be salvaged from our ancestors? I had to abandon it all. I don't know what happened to anyone.

[1:28:50] Marlene was so involved. She turned all the people and basically bled them out and Tyrant's Guild picked up a lot of the ones who were left in the revolution when you went to the smoldering city. I think, and like, Dukakis looks down at the floor like they don't want to save us.

[1:29:17] I think a lot of them got used to make those Tyrant's Guild things. For that.

[1:29:35] I hope so. I sure hope so. Because the best thing I could guess, I don't know, with all these different groups, I don't know, maybe one of them is of interest to you. I mean, we definitely want to look into this supposed illort, because I mean, there's just no way, right? There's no way.

[1:30:09] He is sludge right now. He's gotta be. Could be someone utilizing his name, or a facsimile crafted by your friend and mine, Marlene, to draw us out.

[1:30:24] Oh, true.

[1:30:29] Duacus, could you list those out? I'm gonna look into those gangs again, perhaps in such a way that I can type them out.

[1:30:41] Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god, bro. Oh, is the last act of this campaign gonna be playing Necromunda in Outset?

[1:30:54] Holy shit! I knew it was gonna make us play Necromunda at some point. That motherfucker's been playing it for way too long. It's time for me to play. I get to play as the Goliaths, hooray. Oh, damn it all. We're about to fucking play Saints Row goddamn 2 in Outset. Holy shit. The good one. I'm excited. That fucking rocks.

[1:31:22] Tasty water I just had.

[1:31:31] If you could find a way to organize a meeting with this illort, maybe. I don't know.

[1:31:39] True enough. But actually, could you give me that list of gangs?

[1:31:45] Of course, of course. The Blazing Revolutionaries. Just write them down. The card family. Duacus, you can just write them down. The card family? Card. Let me just write them down for you, okay? That's just gonna be way easier. Okay. I'm trying to be good about notes. Just like so easy here for me to write them down for you. Baldrick passes her a notepad and a piece of charcoal from his inventory.

[1:32:16] Oh my gosh, look at that. Oh wow. Every time you've said the names, I try to rapidly write them down here and I'm like, oh fuck. He's doing that teacher shit where he talks way too fast and just escapes. Damn right. I hate you. Damn right.

[1:32:31] Don't worry, I got you. I got you.

[1:32:36] And the one headed by illort you said was the People of the Pawn or the Blazing Revolutionaries? Oh no, the Blazing Revolutionaries. The card family is, I think they're on the outside of the walls. People of the Pawn, well, they're in the Pawn's Blaster too, as far as I'm aware. Then there's the wall crawlers. They say that they're in the walls. And then there's that new cult, Cult of the Underwave.

[1:32:59] Rahua, you fall over. Oh God. Am I catatonic? No, you just fall over and feel like you've fallen into the ocean for a moment. Before you realize you did not fall into the ocean. You fell into the ground.

[1:33:19] Rahua? Bud? Right? Orn starts walking over.

[1:33:29] Am I buried in the earth? No. No, it's just like I felt. You just felt as though you fell, yeah.

[1:33:37] Okay. Fell over. Oh, yes. Sorry, I, uh, maybe I'm getting a little bit boozy. I haven't had anything to eat in. Ever. Because I, I don't really eat. Tanlings, get this man a steak and some peptides.

[1:33:59] Well, you ate some of the sun when we were at the cube.

[1:34:04] I remember in the air. Yeah, that's true. I can synthesize some nutrients from, you know, the unfettered chaos and raw power of the sun. So unless your Tanlings have some metastable neural of anarchic energy, I don't think you can sustain me with that. All right, get him some of that anarchic energy.

[1:34:30] Can Orn do it? Yippee, yippee, yippee. Tanlings get to work. Can Orn do a medicine check? The check on Rahua. Yeah.

[1:34:43] That's fantastic. Roll eight for a total of 33.

[1:34:47] Um, physically Rahua's all right, but there's something, like, mentally distracting. Rahua is very distracted right now.

[1:35:00] And as Rahua's distracted, Rahua's mind wanders to another time and another place.

[1:35:14] Rahua and the King of Moths. The two of them are making their way to the Prince's Palastra.

[1:35:30] And as we cut into this memory, they've reached a location. And there is, there's cheering.

[1:35:47] As there are shouts. Dozens of children celebrating one of their fellows' birthdays.

[1:36:01] The King of Moths is leading you here, Rahua. You may, you may go, Speaker. Now you remember what I told you, Rahua. You're a bonsai tree. At least right now. You've got to make sure that this young little kid's dream comes true. He's always wanted a bonsai tree of his own. And here, you are not to hit or kill any of these children. That's rule number one.

[1:36:29] Okay. You're not to injure them in any way. I can do that, yes. I can do that. And here's the tricky part. You're going to have to endure all of the horrible, wretched cruelties of childhood. But in so doing, maybe your beautiful eye can observe the true and wonderful power of children. The miracle of life. The juvenile state which mankind gestates. Not to be confused with you, Comras.

[1:37:05] You know, something for you to learn from here on this land of plenty.

[1:37:14] And remember, you're a bonsai tree. Okay. All right, Kid Alpha.

[1:37:27] What is a birthday? A birthday is what happens when you've managed to survive for one entire year. You get a little celebration. And if people love you, occasionally you'll get showered with presents and joy and the common courtesy and currency of wherever it is that you happen to dwell.

[1:37:52] But, you know, that's for these guys. It's not your birthday. It's theirs. Your birthday will do something else. You know, pizza party.

[1:38:04] Okay. The first child approaches. His descriptor is round. He looks up at you.

[1:38:15] You're a funny tree. I'm not. He starts picking at your bark.

[1:38:23] Rahua looks back at the King of Moss. I'm not.

[1:38:27] Just. Go ahead. Thumbs up. Child holds up a hand.

[1:38:37] Trees don't talk, silly. That's right. Trees don't talk. But I'm a bonsai. He rips off a piece of bark.

[1:38:52] Huh. Kind of a wishy tree. Sorry. I'm not used to that. Quite yet. Oh. But I will be. You should get used to that. Okay.

[1:39:10] Is that that's what bonsai are supposed to do, right? You're boring. Bye. He leaves. Is that a bonsai supposed to be ripped apart?

[1:39:26] King of Moss, your contact is waving you. Sorry. I got to go and take this. But, you know, just view it as a learning experience. Lonzi. And I'm going to go talk to my contact.

[1:39:46] The next child approaches. Their descriptor is sad.

[1:40:00] What's the matter, little one? Why don't I get presents?

[1:40:09] Well, is it your birthday today? No. Well, that's probably why you don't get any presents. That's stupid.

[1:40:20] Well. I should get presents, too. Everyone should get presents.

[1:40:26] I agree. Everybody should get presents. Presents are wonderful. Give me a present.

[1:40:32] Oh, I could try and make you one. I don't get any presents either. But perhaps I could give you one. What presents do you have for me? I'll feel better if I have a present.

[1:40:44] I wouldn't want you to feel bad. Can I attempt to produce a small, vibrant, multicolored flower? Because kids don't fucking appreciate regular flowers. Make it like a weird flower. It's an RGB flower. Yeah. It's a fidget flower. 100%. You, like, concentrate really hard. It actually even saps a little bit of your vitality to do this. But there's this beautiful flower that, like, spawns right from the palm of your hand.

[1:41:17] There's only one like this in all of the world. And it's yours. It's very pretty. Take it. It's yours. Really? I get a present? Yes. A present. They reach out and take it. But as they grasp it and stare into its depths. Auto chainsaw cars! And the kid immediately drops the flower and turns and runs, one foot trampling it as he runs to the chainsaw car race.

[1:41:53] Oh. That's too bad. But that's the way things go, I guess. The third child arrives. Their descriptor is anxious. Hello.

[1:42:12] They approach. I'm a bonsai. You're a tree. Okay, you're a tree.

[1:42:19] Rahuwah nods his head. Okay. I have to tinkle. Don't talk.

[1:42:34] Child. So this is all like, so Rahuwah can join the Illuminati, right? This is my humiliation ritual. No. This is, this is literally, this is like how the King of Mods taught you about childhood. Childhood look good thing he didn't good thing Thurston didn't get any inspiration from Disco Elysium from the first part like thank god that kid would have taught you about adulthood yeah he would have sped run your childhood yeah exactly oh um there are eight more children with varying stories that approach Rahua throughout the time the King of Mods is away by the time we come back to him Rahua has graffiti um on him there are chunks missing um it appears as though one of his feet has been nailed into the floor the King of Mods returns

[1:43:42] Oh dear what did they do to you oh

[1:43:51] They celebrated their birthday yes yes so it seems they did the King of Moths will uh gently approach Rahua and uh caress him protectively and as you do so um and and and begin caressing out from the shadows by the King of Moths emerges King of Moths contact a woman in a um beat up black leather costume like a partial bandana with cut in it of white above a hair that's unkempt but but held up in a bit of a loose bun uh she shiftly looks around looking at Rahua then at the King of Moths okay so this is the muscle

[1:44:45] Indeed this is my let's call him muscle for now this should be 돼요 sufficient to your purposes, wouldn't you say? Okay.

[1:44:58] You can, uh, you can hold the crate.

[1:45:03] Char. Thanks a ton. She turns and, like, points to, it's kind of like a milk crate, but it's so tightly constructed that the slits inside don't really give you much insight into what's in the box. And I'm just supposed to hold this thing? Your, uh, your boss is gonna take you somewhere and then you're gonna deliver it. It's a delivery.

[1:45:39] Okay. I can do that. I can do a delivery. It's not with more children, is it? No, no, no, no, no. These people really need these supplies.

[1:45:55] Okay. Yeah, we're helping people. That's good. Okay. That. That's the spirit crew. Ah! Ah, well, madame, do you need anything more from me and my charming bonsai compare? Nah, I'll, uh, come meet you later. Most excellent. Oh, but first, of course, the down payment for your troubles. And she pulls out several coins that she passes to the King of Moths. Ah, thank you kindly. The King of Moths will, uh, rub them together greedily before putting them into his pocketbook.

[1:46:30] And then, uh, rolling his shoulders as if he's done some great labor.

[1:46:38] All right. Let's get the hell out of here.

[1:46:43] So, uh, when Rahua was a young boy, his father took him to the city, is what I'm gathering. When he was young, he was four!

[1:46:57] Four years old! Four years old!

[1:47:04] Oh, sorry. Sorry, sorry. Hey, can I have my fucking brain cell back? Nope. No, it's gone. You said it was fucking gone. It's gone. You spent it. You're not getting it back. You gotta come back next session. Yeah, it's like a hero point. Oh, shit. Yeah, I'm sorry, man. So we, we jump back

[1:47:28] To our regularly scheduled part, party. King of Moths has now disappeared.

[1:47:36] And at this point, you're still in the Planner Palace talking to Duke Hawkins. And you've learned about these different groups, these different criminal organizations. Certainly one of them, the Cult of the Underwave, caused some kind of reaction in Rahula. But there's also the Blazing Revolutionaries led by Mr. Allort.

[1:48:02] You've learned that Marlene has gone into seclusion or is taking an active part in what's going on. The government, the Assembly has essentially locked themselves up and is divvying up all of the new developments that are going on. There's construction outside of the city. It's up to you to decide what your next move is, who you want to reach out to.

[1:48:27] Or to continue probing Duke Hawkins for information. All right. Well, we are looking for Anti-Drown as the only deity that we have left. So this Cult of the Underwave sounds like it might be a place to start. And it did immediately cause Rahula to trip and fall. Are you okay?

[1:48:50] I think so. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. I'm fine. Are you positive? Do you need help?

[1:49:07] He kind of has his jaw gaped as if he wants to respond, but he's taking a moment to actually consider that.

[1:49:14] No, I'm good. I'm good. Thank you, though. All right. You know that we're here for you, right? Yeah. I don't know what happened. It's like it felt like falling and drowning. Maybe that was Anti-Drown? Have you decided to take up narcolepsy at all? No, I don't even sleep. I've decided to take it up recreationally. No, but I think I will next arc. Hmm.

[1:49:51] Well, Rahula, if I know anything from my own experiences, it's that sudden shifts like that indicate a trail. This Cult of the Underwave, that would also add up. Well, if you recall that when we were being chased about by that dreadful amalgamation, that was when we first learned that we had to do something about it. And I remember quite a breadth of water and all powers dwelling beneath the Pond's baluster.

[1:50:23] Yeah, I mean, that's where we got sponsored by Anti-Drown that first time around. Indeed, the people of the Pond. That sounds like a populist movement, if ever I've heard it.

[1:50:36] Possibly. And the wall crawlers. That could be anything. They could be Spider-Men. I don't know what's going on with that. Wait, aren't that, aren't that creatures named wall crawlers? Yes. Did they just unionize?

[1:50:58] There's like a boogeyman style creature in Outset called wall crawlers. Yeah.

[1:51:05] They just all unionized. Yeah, that's kind of. You have been reading my literature. So, I mean, somebody has to and makes their way to a toilet and figures it's a wall crawler. Come on man damn you know you sure do have a way of making me want to turn you into wood chips

[1:51:25] I think I'm going through what my father described as teenage angst eat your damn steak okay

[1:51:35] Because he has no digestive system he gets sucked into the horrible vortex oh cool love talk oh wait my son's fucking gone he went off to war oh my god this guy's fucking pissed off because his son moved out like fucking grow up he's an empty nester he is rahula has had an empty nest for like a day I'm not an empty nester I'm an empty chester that's true

[1:52:02] You're about to be Uncle Fester if if you can't try me I'm gonna make you bald oh I can make a bomb in the basement of the palace that's right just like Uncle Fester did and Adam's Family goes to hell all right all right what are we doing next all right well okay so I think our strongest leads are probably the Blazing Revolutionaries and the Cult of the Underwave I would wager we start as much as I want to get to the bottom of the whole Allort thing we are looking for anti-drown essence so I think we should start with the Cult of the Underwave yeah but you might want to start with the Blazing Revolutionaries because people at least know where they are the Cult of the Underwave just kind of grabs people that's a fair point

[1:52:47] We probably don't want to get kidnapped immediately and if we go looking for the Children of the Blaze then we might just end up getting kidnapped anyway so we can see what's up and well we'll either end up fighting a bunch of them because we beat the piss out of Allort and if he's back then I guess we'll figure out why the fuck he's still alive and if we get kidnapped I guess we get kidnapped that just brings us one step closer to finding anti-drown same shit different day same shit different day there is another option

[1:53:18] Yeah there is a certain anxiety I have with this Blazing Revolutionary you know I for one I'm quite an eager and perhaps one might even say predictable in my predilections I tend to talk about revolution quite a lot

[1:53:45] But, yeah, thanks. Thank you. And I can't help but think that Mr. Allort, suddenly being back from the dead, leading an organization that now calls itself Revolutionaries, it's possible that it could be taking up on the revolutionary impasse and spirit of the period that we left behind. Or it could be a honey trap left by Marlene to alert her in the event that we ever return. By making contact with the Blazing Revolutionaries, we could be revealing ourselves.

[1:54:23] I'm nervous about that, though I only wonder how much one, how much we could even, excuse me, do on that subject. Hmm. I mean, maybe in that case, we don't directly reveal ourselves to them. We can investigate them without making direct contact. That's true. There's also the people, the pawn that has interest to me. And I admit by being an obvious populist organization, it could also be a trap, but this one is not being led by a man linked to the powers that are currently being manipulated by Marlene that we know for certain is, or at least was at one point dismissed.

[1:55:08] But the people of the pawn, they might be able to show us, should we make allies of them, ways into the underwave where this cult resides. And they might be a more furtive first ally to make. I'm not certain. I simply wanted to air out these concerns to the group. Hmm. That is a good point.

[1:55:37] Baldrick, what do you think? I think that these different groups may in fact play to some of our specialities, depending on how we choose to go about it. And if we want to investigate one quietly without actually engaging with it directly, I'm certain that I could probably, I could try to make that happen. I have the ability to go around places without getting noticed. If you want me to keep tabs on the, well,

[1:56:06] Allort's team, as it were, his gang. I could certainly take a look into it and see what they're about. If you want to try and tackle some of the other ones more directly. Yes, that might make sense. Good. And in addition, I do have some channels that not even Marlene knew about. They aren't exactly a revolutionary army, but I've got something of an underground network here. I can quickly reestablish old contacts, bring the eyes of the city upon whoever it is that we need to find, and give it a day or so, we might be able to begin rebuilding our seat of power here.

[1:56:51] Or at least what remains of it in the aftermath of everything.

[1:56:58] I had contacts once. I think most of them are gone by now. I don't actually know what, I don't actually know if Kilburn's even still in the Tyrant's Guild at this point. But I'm certain I could look into it, get something.

[1:57:18] Yes. Perhaps that would be for the best. Even better, did Marlene know about your Tyrant's Guild contact?

[1:57:27] Well, considering I haven't mentioned it, even to this point, prior to now, probably not. Good. Depends on if he got culled or not in the sweeps. He was always uneasy about actually doing his job half the time. He might not have kept that up too well, too long. Right.

[1:57:53] Though, Duhakus did say that most of the, I mean, you said that most of the Tyrant's Guild were mostly kind of just being put on standby while they're deploying these weird elemental puppets. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The Legionnaires, they're not the Tyrant's Guild. They're the city's normal military.

[1:58:11] Yeah. There's a bit of a difference between the Guild and the Legion. Those are, and you'd remember this from the follow-up to the Cackling Jackass, when those, those skeletons showed up. Those are not Tyrant's Guild. That's like the city sort of defense network. Yeah. The Tyrant's Guild is kind of like weird private security cops in a way that have now gained some sort of greater authority. They're the guys that put a human face on things, because if I remember correctly, from what I recall of the book, a lot of the guys coming out of the Rook's Balaster, if I'm correct, Thurston, were undead given sapiency, but also like, like that's kind of scary to talk to.

[1:58:52] Somewhat. Yeah. They're also like the Tyrant's Guild kind of went too far. And so they were, they were made not the city's like full official police force, though they've often kind of held that, that sort of role for themselves. It seems they have reacquired that with their recent enhancements. Now, when you mention this to Tahakas, Tahakas then kind of goes on. But. All right.

[1:59:20] Nothing, nothing, nothing solid yet, but I'd also heard things that that the assembly has been trying to reach the magnanimity, but haven't been able to. That, by the way, they're the people who run the Tyrant's Guild.

[1:59:39] And they haven't heard anything? No, but no one's going into the Baron's Balaster to check on them, because that place got scary fast. Scary how overpoliced? You know how they used to do hunts there? Well aware, Tahakas, very, very well aware. It's eternal now. Oh, so that's where others have been sent to. And that's why I think people there have been turned into those things, those elemental things, which, by the way, I did research into those.

[2:00:22] I should have mentioned this. Yeah. It. There's some kind of funnel. Obviously, the old powers aren't as active and they can still grant spells, but but but their direct ability to influence things is highly limited. Someone could could do this sort of thing, but they would need some kind of direct connection with those powers to to enable it.

[2:00:49] Hmm. Might be worse. That makes me think it might be Marlene.

[2:00:57] Yeah. Well, she had the thing you told me about the the many parts thing.

[2:01:10] Yeah, the amalgam. That's it. Yes.

[2:01:20] That was a big word for me to remember.

[2:01:23] I'm proud of you, Miss Veena. Yeah. Or just pats your arm. Thank you, Oren. Thank you. I'm really doing my best. You're doing great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[2:01:38] Well, okay. The baron's pilaster, that is a good lead, and I would say that we probably save that one for later. That seems like it'll be the most dangerous territory, but there is going to be shit there that we're going to need to do.

[2:01:54] I can see about going through what channels I remember, provided they haven't all been stopped. But there was a reason I didn't talk too openly about them, nor respectfully. You can kind of hear him. It is one of those moments where, like, you're you're admitting something. Here is a reason I let most of the revolution and back channel talk that you guys were doing be handled on your front.

[2:02:22] I didn't exactly want to expose any contact I had to any of this nonsense. They may still be in effect, they may not. I don't know. That's the whole point. Good to know. So, let's boil down our starting point. What do you think is the best place that we get the ball rolling?

[2:02:48] Investigating the revolutionaries, maybe trying to talk to the people at the Pawn, if they're a little less conspicuous. Where are the revolutionaries based out of? That's the question. They're in the Pawn's Palaster, mostly.

[2:03:04] So we might run into both of them there. There we are.

[2:03:09] Most rebellion tends to ferment in the Pawn's Palaster.

[2:03:15] I say we should set up a, either temporary or perhaps semi-permanent base of operations here, tonight. We rest, this palace can serve as such, for now especially, but we want to have somewhere where we can take others, somewhere where we can hide out, and somewhere, perhaps less conspicuously, we can put a giant... And towering metal doors.

[2:03:45] I'm not opposed to that, just, can you tell the tanlings not to sing? It's really, it's really disturbing.

[2:03:54] Wait, okay, fine. It's like, it's, it's, you know, like them doing a little jingle while they're doing manual labor. I don't know, something about it. Tanlings, you're not allowed to sing for the moment. Keep it to instrument.

[2:04:12] That's all right, just keep it. Oh, fuck, now they look sad. Songs for the people, revolution!

[2:04:26] The proletariats. This is up to you, Speaker, bye. Proletarian, your proletarian cries have warmed the corkwoods of my heart. We shall hold a general assembly to discuss the future of songs. For now, the people's representatives requests a momentary moratorium. In lieu of singing, instrumental music will be allowed. Government manipulation to keep us silent? Revolution? I think it's a good idea, though, fuck you! What do you meant?

[2:05:00] Political promises! I disagree, I agree with that, I'm a proletariat!

[2:05:09] See, it's a perfect system. Well, it's not a perfect system, but it's the only one that works. They seem pretty divided. No, they're in complete consensus. Why don't we get to eat? But you know, you need discourse. We have provided a representative! We all voted, democratically! I'm gonna kill your representative, I hate him! Ah! That one's antisocial, that one's antisocial! I'm not the antisocialist! I'm an anarchist, leave me alone!

[2:05:40] For crimes against the United Republic of Dead House Nation! For crimes against the United Republic of Dead House Nation! He said it to you to be shot. You shall form the first tanning empire.

[2:05:53] As a monarch, you shall improve society somewhat. Imperialist, kill his ass. Get that fucking reactionary. I am an anarchist. You see, you guys have been so mean to these guys. They've become reactionaries. Look at this.

[2:06:09] Wow, Tanhazard. It's almost like we shouldn't be... We should not be introduced into your ecosystem here. It's almost like we should go somewhere else, I think. No, it's because you guys have been so mean and rude to them. You hurt people's feelings when you're mean and rude. Like, for instance, Veena, you look like a bucket of shit. Does that make you feel good?

[2:06:31] No. That's a really fucked up thing to say, Tanhazard. Exactly! I was really hoping you would try really hard and go like... No!

[2:06:43] Like, burst into tears. Yeah, yeah. Just completely ungrateful. You think I look like shit? Wait, wait, wait! You can't say things like that!

[2:06:54] Dan, you can't fucking say that to me! You're fucking ACDC. You ruined me on it! I wonder what drink Thurston's getting right now.

[2:07:03] Probably a very stiff one. Large water. He's in the kitchen, pouring some scotch. And old-fashioned. I think Thurston is getting himself a... Nice glass of water.

[2:07:17] Erndil's the winner. I'm going to save the Japanese whiskey for after the episode. That makes sense. There we go, there we go. Well. But all right, so, yeah, we set up a base here.

[2:07:29] We'll crash for the evening. And then we'll go to the Pawn's Polaster and get a lay of the land. See if we run into the people of the Pawn or any of the Blazing Revolutionaries. There is one place that I think might be worth checking out, though. You remember where we first fell into the Undercity?

[2:07:50] Yes. Where we died? Yes. I think we should go back to the place where we fell. And die? No, not die. But, you know, look. See if we can't find this cult or follow the threads of connection with Anti-Drown. That is what we're looking for. First issue with that. Predominantly, is we didn't take a note of the path we took to get down there in the first place, or the path we took getting up from there in the first place, and the way we got down from there killed us.

[2:08:24] I don't think that's a wise choice. Well, I don't mean we go back to the Undercity. I more mean we go to the place where we fell into the Undercity. You mean the building that collapsed? Yes. You know, whatever is closest to what remains of the site. Uh, that's probably asking for trouble. If this. If the hole is expanding. I mean, what about this operation isn't asking for trouble, bud?

[2:08:50] It's about mitigating risk rather than doing risky things, necessarily.

[2:08:57] We're kind of putting our necks out there already. I don't think we get this done without a risk or two. I can hide from people. I can't hide from gravity.

[2:09:08] Well, then we don't fall in the hole. Simple as. If we fall into that hole again, we're not exactly here. Fresh faced adventurers, I think we can handle the drop. You can't, and I can handle it for you. I mean, most of us can fly.

[2:09:28] If I end up dying anyway, I guess it's not my problem to begin with. So sure, I guess.

[2:09:34] I mean, I think you might be on to something. Still, I'd like some time to at least be able to develop these contacts. You know, we're going to be spending a little bit of time here. We want to make sure that we can put this. City back together.

[2:09:48] I can't help but feel some responsibility for how things have gone here. I don't want to repeat. I don't want more revolutionaries thrown into the fires of a tyrant's guild.

[2:10:02] Fair enough. I don't think I don't have a stomach anymore, or else I'd be getting ulcers.

[2:10:15] All right. Is there such thing as like a mechanical ulcer? You get like a loose bolt in there? I'm really hoping there isn't.

[2:10:23] So concerning. It sounds to me like our plan going forward is that you are going to begin contacting uses. Both Dan Houser and Baldrick are going to use their skills to start seeing what they can rustle up information wise. Some of these groups, correct? Yep.

[2:10:45] As we start to give a night of rest. Everyone in the, in the, in the, in the planner palace, we once again go back to a different time and outset where who, uh, the king of mods and as we cut to this, this, this new time, this old time, I should say, um, who is no longer carrying the crate. In fact, Rahula has done exactly what Rahula needed to do.

[2:11:27] Went into the, into the building. Per the king of mods requests, put the crate down for the individuals who are going to come back to the building, the supplies they needed. And now the king of moths is guided Rahula a little bit away, maybe a block or so, but still in invisible distance structure. In fact, not even a block, far, far less than that. Maybe just a few buildings over, king of moths is making Rahula stay in this area.

[2:12:00] How, what's he, what's, what's the king saying to Rahula as, as they wait after their delivery?

[2:12:11] Oh, Rahula, how those children must have startled you. You know, kids can be quite cruel creatures, cretinous.

[2:12:26] Uh, what was your take of them, eh? What did you learn? Well, there are a lot of them. They're certainly chaotic. They definitely have the spirit of chaos within them.

[2:12:43] I don't quite understand them though. Am I, maybe I'm the odd one out. Am I supposed to act like them?

[2:12:55] No, that is. You called me your child before.

[2:12:59] Ah, no, Rahula, no. You are my child. That is true. But your adolescence is through a different path. I wanted you to observe them, to understand them, to know what the face of adolescence is. Those foolish children, always thinking only of themselves. So thoughtless with the gifts that you bestow upon them. So willing to smash and bludgeon and crush without a thought to what's around them. Why, that's adolescence.

[2:13:32] That's adolescence. That's learning. That's learning. But that's not what I want for you. For we all, at least us mortal beings, grow. And when we grow, we grow wiser, we grow stronger, we grow more resolute, and we begin forging a path through the chaos. I'm sorry. Yes, I want you to forge one such man, and to help me forge my own.

[2:14:17] Ruhua, as these words are spoken, and your young mind takes them in, your eye catches something. A window, several buildings down to the building you just delivered the crate to, opens. And from the window, a man emerges looking down out onto the street. He seems to be checking over everything, checking over their neighborhood.

[2:14:45] Suddenly, the man pauses, seeing you in their line of sight.

[2:14:53] And they, in fact, see you and wave.

[2:14:57] You recognize the kind man from earlier who you encounter.

[2:15:05] Though it's too far away for you to carry on any conversation, there's a telltale wave.

[2:15:13] Ruhua will see this kind person who he met previously. And, though it may not be human in how he expresses himself visually, one could say that he smiles as he waves back to this person from the window.

[2:15:34] And as you do so, the building explodes. Fire bursts out from the window. A sudden rocking of the area. The stone of the building contains it, but the flame gushes out the man. Having turned and......moved towards it in the moments before.

[2:15:57] And you and the King of Moths stare at this building.

[2:16:05] It blazes. The city of Outset. And we'll come back to more next time, everybody. Yippee!

[2:16:20] Blowing him the fuck up. Yay, we blew him up. Destroy the child. Corrupting them all. Get him. Thank you all so much for being here, watching us here live. And, of course, if you're listening to us on podcasts and or on video and stuff like that, thank you so much for your lovely time. And, of course, if you really like the shows and stuff like that, please tell people we exist or visit us at narrativedeclaration.com.

[2:16:44] We can find all the things about us and how you can support it so we can support all the artists in this new scary world. So thank you all so very much for your support. And also, check it out so you can find everybody here in their socials and see all the amazing projects that they work on. And we will see you next time. Thank you all so much and farewell.

[2:17:02] Goodbye. Goodbye. Bye-bye. Goodbye, everybody. Goodbye, everybody. The dog's eating.