[SPEAKER_00]: Hey friends, it's Rob here.
[SPEAKER_00]: The investigations continue in Kazumir.
[SPEAKER_00]: And over the course of this week and next to the scale and the impact of what's going on here in DaWik's hometown will begin to unfold.
[SPEAKER_00]: All leading to some really difficult decisions for our pals here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us on this journey and thank you as always to our supporters on Patreon, including Katherine and Crook 14.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for hopping on board y'all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Links to our merch store and the Patreon page are at our website at darknexuspodcast.com, along with our incredibly robust wiki and all of Matt's gorgeous art.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please rate, review, and subscribe wherever you can, and infect a friend today.
[UNKNOWN]: You
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to Dark Nexus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight, it's Act 4, Chapter 154.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the evening of the 23rd of Frost still, or well into the evening, but people who are out at restaurants and clubs and taverns and so forth are still very much out and about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Casimir is a city with nightlife, so there's still plenty going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: After Dab's finished their meditation, we took a hike down the hill, down to a little cove on the harbor that Dab would know as well, where we attempted and failed to scribe Stanhope and Stazzy, their either dead or warded against remote viewing somehow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Coming to terms with the fact that you may have a little bit of shoe leather investigation on your hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to put some more context around the little nuggets of information, the little clues you currently have about Stasi and company and their whereabouts and roles and fun and company and their whereabouts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dabs took you to their pal, Glenn Bourne, have her asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: A second shift permits an admin type for the shipyard district.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Glenn Bourne actually had a couple of leads for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, he wasn't the person to have kept the records of the destination of the ship roles and monleft on the Jeroboam, but he did recall hearing there being something odd about their travel plans that they kept changing maybe, but that the new Harbourmaster, Julius Kane, would be the person who would know about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And number two, he did mention an unexpected decrease in the rodent population in the district in recent days.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if this were act three, we'd probably say, cool, we did one thing today, I'm tired.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go to bed and do one thing tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, we're back in the real world now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have any idea what sort of clock we may be on, and we have a whole city spread out before us that is still open for business for many more hours.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it sounds like from last time, like Katie has some plan to help y'all check out the sunken Aurora maybe tomorrow morning, so that wouldn't be an activity for tonight, but let's let's figure out what our next steps are.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could certainly attempt to hunt down a specific person or two, whether that's this Julius Kane or someone else on Polly's nice long list of people that Dabwick knows, or if we want to begin to lay the ground work of getting our ears to the ground here in this big and bustling city, we could also spend some time tonight
[SPEAKER_00]: making diplomacy or knowledge local checks to say pick up rumors on specific topics of interest and then depending along those checks take to make either follow up on them tonight or in the morning, but what do you think?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the plan, friends?
[SPEAKER_00]: With the harbor master, you said it's eight?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it clock out with the harbor master still be working at this time.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would not be working at this time But you could probably with a quick check around find out maybe where if he if he if he tends to have dinner someplace Yeah, if he's got a club where he's got a tavern he free quents.
[SPEAKER_03]: He for quents as our friends across the pond would say you might be able to dig that up and I guess somewhat related would there be anything grip could gather
[SPEAKER_03]: with a profession sailor check just by sort of like see if there's any local type of information you could gather.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think so if anybody did not listen to our recap episode we talked a little bit in that about how I've come up with a system to allow Pauli to make some profession ratter checks on dabs as behalf based on their experience here in Kazimire and I think Robert
[SPEAKER_00]: like if if if the rest of the group decides they want to take a block of time to do one of their checks and you were like yeah I will I will dedicate a significant amount of time as well I think I can come up with something pretty quick to you make you use those checks in a way that could possibly result in some clues since I don't really have diplomacy in my bag of tricks
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think for the same reasons that DABS would use their ability to be a professional in a working environment to get some information.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could see the same being the case for a group.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dora is happy to speak with the locals, do some diplomacy, but to what end?
[SPEAKER_01]: What do we think is the most fruitful lead?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm looking to Dabwick, frankly, as this is your home base.
[SPEAKER_02]: What hits close to home is the absence of rats.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a network of tunnels and gangways that exist beneath the docks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Casimir's locker, it's called.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, most of my work was down there.
[SPEAKER_02]: If there's no more rats, that's a curious thing indeed.
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be a new predator, or it could be a new rat catcher.
[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps you and I worked together?
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're willing to join me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Certainly.
[SPEAKER_05]: If that's the case, if we're all gonna kind of split and go away, then it feels like bash would have a, this would be a good time for bash to kind of just be wandering the city to sort of familiarize it's turns and curves so that he can actually make knowledge local checks and just kind of be walking around listening and figuring out where things are and stuff at that, that works for everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's starting to get some hours clocked on your little 10 hour clock list there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can split the party.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's split the party.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a grease!
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm where we'll meet when.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ah yeah, that's a good idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: You literally have been on just my side so long.
[SPEAKER_05]: How far away does your telepathic bond work?
[SPEAKER_01]: All I think once it's established, it's just... How long does it last?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, check out the specifics on that, Katie.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might be golden.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did I already cast it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably like two hours ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three or so at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think I'd have to recast it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a ten minutes per level.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so you'd have to recast it And I think as if I remember right, as long as you're on the same plane, is that right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Once the bond is formed it works over any distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: There we go.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're able to from one plane to another.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that's how we kept the touch with bond.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, great.
[SPEAKER_00]: However
[SPEAKER_00]: No one leave the plane, but it lasts 100 minutes, is that right?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, well, we'll see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, maybe a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, before she puts this into effect, this is a little bit of head tilting.
[SPEAKER_05]: Care of the one.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's...
[SPEAKER_00]: Nathaniel will be so proud.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will last for 110 minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you could easily just before that time passed if your activities were lasting longer at least check in before it ran out for sure.
[SPEAKER_05]: And say this is where we're gonna meet in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, or this is where I think I'm gonna be a while longer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why don't you all meet me here?
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody might say depending on how old those one de force.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a question.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you got a question.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is based on something I have recently re-listened to.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, any vision, any psychometry reading, we, everyone has access to memory of that, correct?
[SPEAKER_00]: You have anything that I have said on the air is something Dora has said out loud, so your character has basically heard what you, then you want to listen or have heard.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, so I just recently listened, it was the, I think it was, it was one of the psychometry
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it was the spell book where Tima is subconsciously playing with the finger bones and a very specific way So grip saw that grip has now seen you do this twice.
[SPEAKER_03]: I would not even recognize any similarities between those motion.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what it all is.
[SPEAKER_03]: There was a similar mathematical precision kind of at play.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I think I have an answer, Katie, you tell me if any of this does not feel right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the answer is the rapidity and meticulousness and the kind of kind of way her face twists up while she's doing it is certainly reminiscent of how that person at that time team is face looked.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this does not look like the same activity.
[SPEAKER_00]: And
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a certain blankness to team as aspect while doing that because it was like an unconscious almost autonomous, shove this emotion aside and channel it here kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: This seems like the front of the brain is working hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, she's present.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's very, very present.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that the right Katie?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the plan for the remainder of the evening late night
[SPEAKER_00]: In the night life of Kazimire, we're going to split up a little bit, dabs and Pandora are going to do some mutual poking around and visiting, talking to the locals, maybe following dabs lead on locations to check out, and then Pandora will do some talking on her own while they're scoping stuff out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sounds like gripper is going to spend the evening making his way up and down the shipyard district.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think specifically trying, I mean, if he finds any word of the harbor master, if harbor master's around or if he can pick up any scuddle but about anyone's talking about, um, remind me the ship name.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sorry, uh, the Aurora, the Aurora, the Aurora, yeah, any of those oddities.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, yep, yep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Demon is hunting you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would I use the opportunity of a split party to force a solo demon fight on your bare right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'll let myself out.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I guess I would then ask, do I, is it possible for me to just sort of like hang with grip?
[SPEAKER_05]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_05]: And be picking up information about the city or do other places too.
[SPEAKER_03]: We go pick a pass through the docks and then we can go wherever you want now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and honestly, I would say, since anything that you currently know about, whether it's Lulls of the rival, Lulls and Mons departure, Stasi's activities, anything with the Aurora, what's going on with this is it all somehow spreads out from or narrows in on the shipyard's district.
[SPEAKER_00]: This seems like a totally fine place to start.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pauli, do you want to have Dab's and Pandora's Evening of Information Gathering be focused on the Shipyard District as well?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to head up somewhere else?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm interested in Where the rats are supposed to be and why don't they dare?
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, so as far as you know, this situation is A shipyards Only at the moment so we'll say you're starting there as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as you picture this district, you know, it's a couple mile stretch
[SPEAKER_00]: of peers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we're roughly where you are at with dry dock, then up sort of into the main area of commerce and then construction at the north end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all right along that the front of the harbor right there is just as long endless boardwalk and line of
[SPEAKER_00]: of public facing businesses.
[SPEAKER_00]: This would be the taverns in restaurants, hotels, brothels, all that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there are blocks and blocks and blocks, stretching backwards, deeper and deeper towards the marsh of
[SPEAKER_00]: everything else that would be associated with an industrial district.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as you're looking back through, you're seeing factories wear houses like supply depots, a lot of a lot of businesses that
[SPEAKER_00]: do close down for the night and seem to be, you know, for the large part, you know, doors are locked and sealed, areas are fenced off.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, a lot of tight security around these businesses, because there's probably goods stored.
[SPEAKER_00]: Secret, you know, mechanical construction, alchemical processes being done is all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: to the west of this river that I know it's not to scale but like is there is there this river with a canal running to the east is that accurate that that does exist there so just picture more like half a mile between the boardwalk and that of warehouses and factories and depots and supply houses and stuff okay a very tangled looming dark industrial feeling area probably not a convenient grid system
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know what I would say because this is like the the hub of of the industry here
[SPEAKER_00]: The closer you are to the boardwalk, yeah, neat, orderly, organized, and then the closer you get back to the river and the fan and things get a little bit older or things get a little bit cheaper, maybe some of that orderly falls apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: There starts to look a little bit darker, a little more, abandoned in some places, maybe there's some more rundown.
[SPEAKER_00]: Run down, bankrupt abandoned businesses that haven't survived particular calamities.
[SPEAKER_05]: It feels very piggy blenders.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh sure, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's kind of a good in terms of the feel of the kind of bustle of this city.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's a good that's a good reference.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with Dab's and Pandora.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're working together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why don't I have one of you make a default role for the both of you to see how long this takes the two of you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Looks like Paul is going to make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is here to my town?
[SPEAKER_00]: How about that?
[SPEAKER_01]: How about it?
[SPEAKER_03]: And the the link will wear off then at like nine, what nine?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I'm pulling up my little sheet here of
[SPEAKER_00]: the bonuses that I'm going to give Polly on his profession check based on how he distributed bonuses on what to have with nose okay so we're in the shipyards district Polly that'll give you a plus four okay and in terms of industries you're dealing with
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm going to give you the plus one bonus from what you seem to know about the fishing, navy construction, shipbuilding, and transport industries.
[SPEAKER_00]: So total plus five to your profession, ratter check when you make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Katie Pandora will just be making a straight up, which is a check list you want to modify it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, that was going to make this
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's an adjusted 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so, all right, you keeping that 20?
[SPEAKER_02]: Keeping that 20, I think that wakes out of practice a bit and is a little baffled by what they see.
[SPEAKER_00]: All righty, and what you get on your Diplomacy check there, Katie.
[SPEAKER_01]: 27.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Paulie, that 20, it sounds like that was a low number on your die, but it's actually in terms of digging up information and rumors in a district, that's actually a very good role.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is sufficient to get information that is far beyond just commonly known and to, and into some curiosities, and the same is the case with Pandora's role as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in terms of your,
[SPEAKER_00]: You're stated interest in your leading interest in this rat situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do dig up.
[SPEAKER_00]: this absence of rodents or a marked decrease in rodentia activity seems to be centered mostly around the north and of the district sort of up in the construction area or thereabouts that there is still, you know, rodent life to be found in other parts of the district.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, less, less than usual, but where the where the absence has been particularly noted.
[SPEAKER_00]: is up north and that this as far as a timeline for this as far where it went seems like people started noticing about it and when you ask follow up questions about you know how long has this been going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer seems to be generally be a few weeks and you dig into that and it seems like maybe around a month or so.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, didn't seem to be something that started immediately after you all arrived here, but something that has maybe been progressing and hit a point of public notice about a month ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then once people started noticing it, they're just no rats up in the north part of this district.
[SPEAKER_00]: would there be sign of traps or poison or fair mones or other tricks of the trade that dabble could normally use seen if there's any remnants of that lane around that would be something we could decide to do after having received this information okay and then what eventually catches pandora's year is
[SPEAKER_00]: Like some prominent people in the district have suddenly died or committed suicide.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a, um, these two friends, EV Taru and Ioblose.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are both names that fabric recognizes.
[SPEAKER_00]: My guess is maybe doesn't know them personally, but they are prominent enough names.
[SPEAKER_00]: Evitaru is an alchemist, the lot of work in the ship building industry.
[SPEAKER_00]: An Iobulos was actually an engineer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I ship building engineer, one of the head engineers for multiple government contracts on the same day Iobulos, the engineer,
[SPEAKER_00]: died in a fall at work, and it struck everybody as a little odd, especially given that her best friend Evie Taro died in a lab fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: The exact same day, maybe at the exact same time?
[SPEAKER_00]: That was, oh my goodness, that was last week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, yeah, so that, that would explain why this is on people's lips, and then there's another prominent member of this community here, named as Thummel Huburn.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's an engineer and a contractor.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is somebody that, Dabwick, did know, is that right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, human male, 50s member of the City Surveyors Guild and a general contractor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_00]: He seems to have drowned himself a couple of days ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: at the work site where I last left him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the crew came in that morning and found him drown under the structure.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were working to pull out of the swamp in a way that just struck everybody as number one why was he here after we all left for the day and number two.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just too good and his job like why would he be in here alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: This doesn't make any sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: So so far we've got a fall which could be centered either wind or earth, fire and water.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we got so far.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think that's the bulk of what the two of you pick up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's turn over to our pal's grouper and bash.
[SPEAKER_00]: What if you roll to a foresighter for me?
[SPEAKER_05]: I will say for this, it should be gripped because Bash has drank several different extracts and is just sort of like shadowing you so that nobody even knows that he's with you to just kind of be like walking around the edges and also to keep an eye on you in case all of a sudden our demonic friend pops in and stuff and that they wouldn't know that you have someone.
[SPEAKER_06]: Can a tale?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know that I have it that you have a tale, but nobody else does.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, so defore you say I don't this is the first time I've rolled this super oddly sized shaped defore Three three hours and I will also say the three extracts that I've drank art dark vision Bloodhound and false face.
[SPEAKER_05]: What's bloodhound bloodhound is hours per level and it gives me scent Just great by the water
[SPEAKER_05]: But also seems like a useful thing, in case we run into anybody, if there are people that we're interacting with, I'll be able to check their set regardless of what they look like.
[SPEAKER_00]: As is fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so Robert, give me your profession, sailor, check, and I think based on the way I did this for, Pauli, let's have you just out of plus one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Johnny, you can go ahead and roll your knowledge local.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's just a 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: That it's good enough to pick up more uncommon than just commonly known stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a 34.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good God.
[SPEAKER_05]: He smells trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does smell trouble.
[SPEAKER_05]: This has to feel the most sort of at home in terms of like thinking of dilatveline as a port city and thinking of Casamira as this port city where it has to just keep having the overlap yeah yeah of memory yeah I love that
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, so the two of you so gripper you are able to dig up it's fairly commonly known information where Julius King, the new harbour master hangs out of an evening, he can often be found at a place called the third peacock tavern.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of an upscale expensive pub trying to maintain a dive bar feel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, um, opinion on him is not super positive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is generally regarded as, uh, somebody's cousin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody's uncle who knows kind of a kind of a piece of work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe completely corrupt.
[SPEAKER_00]: That seems to be the general feel about that guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Johnny, dash.
[SPEAKER_00]: grippers thrown around a lot of questions about you know we're to sell and so hang out where where does the average sailor go to get a drink you know hear anything about this or that or boy that Aurora huh crazy crazy shit and as grippers moving on from one conversation bash sticks around just a little bit longer and catches with of the response to those questions yeah
[SPEAKER_00]: Remarking back on, yeah, they hadn't really thought about Man for a while since he left town and He was such a common sight at the sepiddered house and not seeing him around there anymore has been a real It's been a real change in fact, you know a lot of the regulars there
[SPEAKER_00]: Things really changed at the Sceptre House since mon left.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little tidbit that you pick up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you would also pick up because you've now got sent for this whole chunk of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Johnny.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would pick up a very curious odor in the air as you made your way further and further north in the district.
[SPEAKER_00]: It starts to smell a little bit like, does this part of town smell like the hold of the cellan starling?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, that's not quite it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does it smell like?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, gripper, come over here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey.
[SPEAKER_00]: This smell a little bit like grit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does it smell a little bit like me?
[SPEAKER_00]: There is this particular sweet and foul tang in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: That just pops to your supernaturally heightened senses and smells a little like YouTube to you.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you absolutely do not stop.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's some street meat or something like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: And Kiosk.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we know they're out a little bit longer than the Dabs and Pandora cluster at the point that you would check in with your bond.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you were kind of done for the evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I do want to set up a cod up with them, meet up with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so why don't we, why don't we assume it's around 11 PM now?
[SPEAKER_00]: So at this point, most reputable businesses would be closing up for the evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, a lot of disreputable or more.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, alcohol serving leaning businesses are still, uh, of course, open for the night.
[SPEAKER_00]: But things are starting to quiet down now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you've made your way to the north end of the district.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as, dab-wick and Pandora approach, and you've still got this going, it's just like, there's something, kind of,
[SPEAKER_00]: weirdly sweet and foul that they smell like, too, that is just how this area smells.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it smells like Shaman Dore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, maybe it's maybe one of those times where you were taking really close care of one of the four of you all and Barnabes in the hole down on a particularly soft wedding day and like the way the way you're sort of extrusions and the body fluids would smell a little fungal
[SPEAKER_00]: in those periods where the seed board consumption was flaring up, you smell a little bit of that in the air up there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it in the air or is it in his nostrils?
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems to be in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, I think that's probably a question that Gripper would be seriously asking because you are not smelling this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's only because he's got these supernaturally heightened senses.
[SPEAKER_05]: We smell a certain way.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we interacting with anybody else that smells like this?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you have not noticed that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just kind of be in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it smells like the hold of the Starling on one of those days at the end of a month where you're all really sick and sweating and coughing, and there's just fungal wreak in the air.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's gross, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is gross.
[SPEAKER_00]: As part of the city is, in fact, it is sweet.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, something up here smells in fact when you said the significantly sweet it reminded me back when we're in Briarstone yeah cake the cake smell.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is so it doesn't that specific smell, but it's it's a smell you've come to now pan on the thing that's growing in your head.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah
[SPEAKER_01]: And where is the sepdard?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: The sepdard house.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's close by.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a name that Dabwick would know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a fairly prominent... What to even call it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like a club?
[SPEAKER_00]: club slash reading room slash bar slash opium den slash house of mystery and fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of a a cornerstone of the It's just for the rich and elites though.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh
[SPEAKER_00]: It is kind of a cornerstone of this one prominent corner in the Abbey Green District right at the base of the hill where a quick fall Abby is and you know it's been a hot second but Paul talked in one of Debuk's visions a thousand years ago about the history of quick fall Abby which was it was you know the the major temple in town.
[SPEAKER_00]: to Arridon and then when Arridon died this whole thing collapsed and it's been left.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's now it's an abandoned, completely abandoned ruin up there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Abbey Green District itself, which is very lively, it's kind of an artsy district.
[SPEAKER_00]: A broad mix of social classes, lower middle and upper classes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a lot of artists and artisans and interesting businesses.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, subject house is probably 30 minute walk away.
[SPEAKER_05]: does the smell like it's stronger in that direction?
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say, at the heart of the construction, district is where it smelled the strongest, two- is there anything a particular note in that area?
[SPEAKER_00]: More of the same.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of high security warehouses and factories within easy eye shot of all the lights of the boardwalk, but then as you look back, deeper and deeper into the district,
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of abandoned buildings, a lot of old warehouses, or a lot of just sealed up places where secrets are held.
[SPEAKER_00]: Secrets and clues.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is where all three of those people died.
[SPEAKER_01]: this district.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fall off the ship would have happened way in the north.
[SPEAKER_00]: So up in this area, which is roughly where you are, the lab fire would have happened down here, and then the drowning would have happened down in Admirals.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, the thing to really note about the fall and the fire are nearly simultaneous.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they were friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: Best of friends.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is if one found out something and probably told the other and they're like, well, we can't have that leak.
[SPEAKER_05]: Can't imagine.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_05]: Sounds like someone's close enough leaks.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's get more clues.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there any connection between the rumors that were heard about the septerd house and any of those three people as in they frequented there and there among the people who no longer hang out there?
[SPEAKER_00]: To do honored to that role in the 30s that Johnny got when Pandora brings her information into the circle here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: All three of them were known to frequent the septerd house.
[SPEAKER_00]: All three of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Along with Mun.
[SPEAKER_01]: Great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess we're going to the center now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And dabs would guess they'd probably be open until at least one.
[SPEAKER_03]: Where's the fauna clock bars?
[SPEAKER_03]: What can you go make really bad decisions at fauna in the morning and girls' fan?
[SPEAKER_03]: Admiral's fan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Damn, I would say that immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know a place.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, so the confabulation plates.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: It doesn't have anything that specifically says how long before the corpses had been dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is 100% true.
[SPEAKER_00]: And part of the reason is that it does not follow the rules.
[SPEAKER_00]: It works on a body, not on the soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: It works on psychic residue, not on anything that speak with dead normally operates on.
[SPEAKER_04]: Daps.
[SPEAKER_04]: Wait.
[SPEAKER_04]: Where would these bodies be?
[SPEAKER_02]: that would be what a cemetery there would be a morgue but these beasts suspicious deaths mean this was only last week cities in a swamp so they enter or cremate or cremate but it has only been a week I would say for EV and Ia
[SPEAKER_00]: Dabs just wouldn't know where to even, like over a week, no clue.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if, if Thummel Hubern died just a couple of days ago, yeah, they're probably in the morgue.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Dabs would know where that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be up in the old, just, the old Kazimire district, the Wald, Fancy Pans, governmental and rich folks district on the top of the opposite hill from the hill that Daphick lives on.
[SPEAKER_02]: But Bash.
[SPEAKER_02]: Please, we didn't just arrive in Cassamia to begin mutilating bodies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give it a take.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know any of Thummel's friends?
[SPEAKER_01]: I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Other acquaintances we might talk to about his activities.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know his team, I know his co-workers.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know everyone who was on that project.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, what are the personal friends with him?
[SPEAKER_02]: They might know.
[SPEAKER_01]: or was he married or had a partner or children or any one who would know another side of him other than professional.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would know that his assistant Jacob Gross mantle was...
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean basically best buds with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob goes, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's on for Jacob ugly club.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good old Jake ugly club.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, now when we meet him, he's gonna have this, oh, oh, check, ugly cloaks the name, assisting, thermal heal burns, my game, can I tell you how, do I have any clues for you?
[SPEAKER_04]: Who's, please, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's, who's,
[SPEAKER_01]: Take a mind already know, we should talk to him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's begin with Jacob.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll put the skull crush in under on the be-list for a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but would you like to investigate the areas where there might be poison or other signs of?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm very curious about how these rats were.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're dispersed, I mean, they have my methods, of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we could investigate if any methods like that have been used, certainly you would be able to tell and you would know what to look.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'd like to do a little bit more researching on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're at around 11 o'clock tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd say we can do that at the sector house tonight Each could probably you know take about half hour to get to the sector house.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna close in hour and a half This particular project walking around a whole district looking for signs take a couple of hours.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's your pick?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd rather talk to Jacob before we go to the Scepter House.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just in case there's anything we need to know before we just barge in.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do we think we're gonna be able to find him to talk at 11 o'clock?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no, I'm saying whenever we do that, we might want to do something we have a little bit more control over, which is Deb's looking for signs of rat catching.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you would know where to find dabs would certainly know where to find Jacob in the morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll we'll we'll talk to Jacob tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then say this up there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Tomorrow does seem like some winds are pointing us that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so damn, it's gonna be a profession rather check.
[SPEAKER_01]: If there's any aid to be saying, I don't think.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, actually don't even make a world.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, you are very skilled at what you do and you know what to look for.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think this, as a sign of your competence and experience, you know, you spend hour and a half couple hours up until you all are exhausted.
[SPEAKER_00]: and this place is closed and down even in this very large city, looking for any signs of conventional or unconventional, extermination, equipment, gear, supplies, remnants, leftovers, zero.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, no sign of dead rats.
[SPEAKER_00]: no rat dropings no sign of anything being chewed up no bones no bones and I would say you know you would know where to you know which particular sewer entrances probably lead down to Kazemir's locker and there's just no sign of activity around those at all like things are not coming up from below right now in this part of town
[SPEAKER_05]: Normally in a city like this, there's going to be scavenger animals like cats and stuff like that that are also walking around.
[SPEAKER_05]: Do we see any of those animals?
[SPEAKER_05]: And if we do, do they look particularly hungry?
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, they have not been eating rats.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just a question I hadn't thought that far.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you would notice many of those either.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, the ones that you do see, the ones that have stayed around here, probably do look like they're on their last legs.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe part of what Dab's caught earlier in the evening was, it seems to be more, you know, more cats down here in the south that I'm used to seeing, like maybe those types of predators are moving away for lack of, there's no food.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's the ecosystemist.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's starting to change somehow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then heading back to Dab's place.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's quite a march up the hill.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we want to get into an engine door a couple of three times.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was part of the way there.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would actually save you a considerable amount of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think about the kind of travel you have to do here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can skip the densest, terniest, windiest parts.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can skip the fenniest parts a couple of times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do a few little jumps.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: And back up to Dab's house.
[SPEAKER_00]: for some rest finally, our first rest in the waking world after waking up from sleeping for two months.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first time, like, my God, you're exhausted.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're exhausted.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been a long day and your bodies are, I let you uncheck that fatigue to condition, but you're feeling, you're feeling creaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel great, it says Mr.
[SPEAKER_00]: Muscle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your first night back with Jean-Mendor, and one of the real world was two months, but what two basically affective of your mind was an eternity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's incredibly shocking and oppressive and, you know, you say, you forget pain because your body just won't let you actually remember certain types of pain because they're too difficult to experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this experience of having this alien thing in your head,
[SPEAKER_00]: probing at and directing pieces of your subconscious, the specific pain and impregnation and violation of it, being re-dumped back into that is hard, and it's shocking tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: And over the course of this night, you once again share dreams with Jean-Mendor, and this particular night, bash, Pandora and grip, feel this alien consciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: greedily slurping up an entire lifetime's worth of memories that weren't in there the last time he was in there and it's just poke, poke, poke at the worst pieces of the memories you just recovered.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take a moment for yourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about the life that you, your character's lead, that you knew nothing about until Chapter 150 Part 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: Find for yourself just in your head, a piece of it that I never explained, a piece of it we haven't talked about, create something for yourself, a question or a blank hole a moment find an image, some haunting image of a scene that these people are left with as they wake in the morning, let it serve as a jumping off point for, some story that is dragged
[SPEAKER_00]: by an alien fungal god.
[SPEAKER_00]: The equivalent for dad work is.
[SPEAKER_00]: These lost memories, from 11 years ago, when you lost your best friends, those were not in there the last time you were in this town and all that stuff is coming back to life in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I bet dad we can't help but think about it, so it bubbles to the front and Shaman Doris eagerly pressing at that period of time of desolation following this loss.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't really know what it is yet, but it has to do with her having born two children against her.
[SPEAKER_01]: That will, but yeah, like one very much against her will.
[SPEAKER_01]: One very much against her will, but like it's the feeling of things happening to her that she couldn't control, and then having to live with the consequences of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: that feeling of there was something that was expected of her, there was forced upon her that was unwelcome and took over her and threatened her obsessions.
[SPEAKER_01]: like all she wanted to do was learn and find out more and dig deeper in all these tasks that wolves had for her like that was satisfying that made being under their control okay and then suddenly there was this other layer to it that was for their amusement that turned her into something she had never wanted to be
[SPEAKER_01]: And on top of that, these complicated feelings for Pandora, who will never be able to have that now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was her chance.
[SPEAKER_01]: These two dead children.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I got right now.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Bash is remembering the time when the triangle man's paranoia was at its absolute worst and he and the constable had had their falling out.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so he was sure that the constable was going to try to kill him.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so he's like literally following the constable trying to plan like when can I hit him before he hits
[SPEAKER_05]: And also, who's watching me, who's that, is that someone that's watching me?
[SPEAKER_05]: And like, probably several people that were just going around living their lives, who's like, oh no, that guy's eyeballing me.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that guy just disappearing.
[SPEAKER_05]: Nobody found, no nothing found.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that going on for weeks.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think grip is, there was some time, some a job he got sent on when triangle man was not around, so it was just him and it was, I don't know, probably some bookseller or other and it was, it was the first time he truly coupled the drugs with the murder and he decided he could just live there for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, boy.
[SPEAKER_02]: That week, new...
[SPEAKER_02]: The kids were too young.
[SPEAKER_00]: To take them there?
[SPEAKER_02]: That week should have known better.
[SPEAKER_02]: Than to take the kids there.
[SPEAKER_02]: It fell on that week to make sure they were okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they dropped the ball.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you should have known better.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was a late night, and a hard sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: We make around 10 o'clock in the morning on the 24th of frost.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great day in Kazimire.
[SPEAKER_00]: All that jaman door shit is just ringing in your brains.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you gather around for breakfast and dabs is flat.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the plan for this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's first?
[SPEAKER_02]: We find Jacob.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need some time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not low.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she goes up to meditate again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what I'm going to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought we were going to do one thing today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we're going to do that.
[SPEAKER_05]: You sure?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we planning on going to see Julius Kane, the new harbour master today as well?
[SPEAKER_02]: To ask what they know about the Aurora.
[SPEAKER_00]: The irregularities with the chair of Bowen and its final destination.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd certainly be at work by this time of day, so if you wanted to head down and find Jacob, you could certainly head in back into the shipyards after that and find his office.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, or if the plan is to try to get out to the wreck of the Aurora, that would be a simple matter of renting a boat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Getting someone to take you out there, or just running one, we got a sailor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep, we have a sailor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did the sailor wake up before everyone else?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, thanks for all right, I forgot about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Grip did wake up first, today, and as the rest of you find him,
[SPEAKER_03]: He's trying to get the hair off his tongue, he's looking for a watery, and he's running his tongue over his mouth, and he feels those tusk caps that have been on there.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's like, he's just don't fucking feel it, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Anymore, prize them off.
[SPEAKER_03]: Shops him into a pouch, and then he looks like there's a mirror somewhere in Daveluk's house.
[SPEAKER_03]: puts his hand up on his head, feels his fucking dreadlocks.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's like, these don't fucking feel like me anymore.
[SPEAKER_03]: He finds a knife, and he shaves his fucking head down to the scalp.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, when you go to do that, it was probably some song first and then some shaving.
[SPEAKER_05]: Bash will hand you to steal mirror and all the sort of surgical tools that he's used to like shave his face and do all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_03]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ah, that's fucking great.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then as he finishes up, he's looking down at his arms and he says, well, we may have to do something about these one day too.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's get on with the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could use some advice, friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we are going to try to go out to the Aurora, then I think I know what I need to do, but if not, there are host of other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could protect us all for a time with non-detection, meaning you don't demon wouldn't be able to find you with neither would anyone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: and who made you trying to context you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're there, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess that's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that is a risky proposition, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Until you know more.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the risk?
[SPEAKER_00]: If say Stasi gets out of whatever situation or she's unable to be detected and she's trying to reach you somehow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, right, right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then she can't.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right now we haven't kicked over enough Hornets Nest to have made any, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just one demon.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just one demon.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that nest was already kicked.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: I say save it for later.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm inclined to agree.
[SPEAKER_04]: Dabs?
[SPEAKER_03]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, then.
[SPEAKER_03]: Appreciate it, though.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am all set then.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have money to claim.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ooh, all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the castle's right above you.
[SPEAKER_00]: While Pandora is doing her last little bit of meditation, that would be something that dabs, bash, and grip could just pop up and check into the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So popping up the hill, making a way into the castle, which is open to the public during the days because there are multiple temples inside the grounds of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: structure, which contains the gubernatorial castle, which is also where the emperor stays when they visit here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then there's also just sort of regional and naval administrative offices, so it's a fairly...
[SPEAKER_00]: bustling like civil location.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of religious pilgrims coming in and out.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of government workers.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of engineers and aristocrats milling about.
[SPEAKER_00]: And making a way to the vault of Abadar
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see a little bit of that watch that scene at the end of I think it's back to the future to Where the guys like we had a bet in the office that you know that this was never gonna like that you'd never be here Like there's a little bit of wonder behind the counter as you step up and say your names and a bunch of the tellers who were all these really sort of
[SPEAKER_00]: Fusty severe kind of stoic banker types were like, oh, oh, they actually gave her a bite.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it were, it's been, all these months didn't go on, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a whole bunch of hobo behind there and then they- That's Stasi and Stanob didn't claim it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they go back to the vault and they come out with a case, which is filled with 1500 platinum pieces.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the value of 15,000 gold in cash.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're eating meat tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it did to you with some very impressed and curious looking banker types watching you head out like, what is the story here?
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you, so Pandora by the time you're done with your meditation, the rest of the game comes in.
[SPEAKER_00]: With a small fortune in money.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is there any chance bash you could keep an eye out on the walk and see if anyone's walking watching us Oh, I'm frost, I caught it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I believe me.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's a fucking gold piece.
[SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I got her six.
[SPEAKER_04]: Excellent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm sure tucking that away in the, uh, one of your extra dimensional places.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, please.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, I feel like that has to go into the bag, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Cause there's not enough room.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think in the handy haversack to carry that much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if it in the bag.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's not weight left in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty empty right now.
[SPEAKER_05]: We kind of We cleared out a lot of our stuff.
[SPEAKER_05]: We don't have very much stuff right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, then yeah, let's talk about the end of act three.
[SPEAKER_00]: We cleared pretty much everything out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, you can give the you can take that case inside the vault and then dump it into your into grandma's sack.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is a really random question, but for the grand day of exaltation for Taldor, what commoner was has been ascended to the rank of nobility.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the day the Emperor killed a hundred senators and tried to murder his daughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was nobody.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the beginning of the Civil War that tore Teldor apart for an entire A.P.
[SPEAKER_00]: length of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody ascended.
[SPEAKER_00]: shit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't realize that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was that day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh gosh.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I love that you brought that up for Stan Hopeless book.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, what is a piece of kicks off on that day?
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I was probably for this, I was like, oh, that's that AP actually takes place in 4718.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it starts on the grand day of exaltation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not realize that the last time around that that was, oh.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was the beginning of chaos in this country for a whole, you know, half a year, basically.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where are two?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jacob?
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's find Jacob.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we go in, Dora will use the telepathic bond.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Dab's takes you down the hill, down to the work site at the edge of Admirals fan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what was this project you're trying to raise some building out of the fan, is that what it was Paul?
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a new set of offices being built over a sinking construction.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the construction was sinking into the fan and Dabwick was supposed to help.
[SPEAKER_02]: But they didn't understand how to make and shape stone walls yet.
[SPEAKER_02]: and they felt a little like they didn't understand quite how to help, and it was right before they left for their trip with the Silent Starling.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they arrive on this site and find it in absolute disarray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it has gotten noticeably worse over the last 8 months.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been only it's been a long time since you were last here.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's just like the crew, you know most
[SPEAKER_00]: Standing around looks like waiting for orders.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody just seems in how you to imagine a really close knit crew of guys whose boss just killed himself would be behaving like they're just they seems a little at ends and Jacob let's say Jacob Grossman okay let's say he's a half elf reads about 40 very tall
[SPEAKER_00]: Great to see you, I'm home.
[SPEAKER_00]: My friend, it's all just going to share it as.
[SPEAKER_02]: Drake, I'm so sorry to hear her about Donald.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was such a shock, I was the one that found him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, I couldn't believe my eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: What a sight of.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen him, you know, we've also seen him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Things around here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, nothing like you, you're best made.
[SPEAKER_00]: In that case,
[SPEAKER_00]: Condition is bloated and trapped and he seemed to have suffered Debson.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just don't know what to make of it all.
[SPEAKER_02]: He faced a hardship before a web was he particularly disappointed in this project?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no, Debson, I think I had anything to do with this project.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd been, he'd been in a decline from, for several months now.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'd been,
[SPEAKER_00]: so depressed, several of his friends had died.
[SPEAKER_00]: He seemed to find no enjoyment in the work anymore and you know that was one.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was what sort of gave him life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loved the problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loved to dig into solutions and research things and find out new ways to take care of an issue.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he just went grey and sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Several months before it passed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like, ask if he has anything of those.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there anything you have of Donald's that you'd be willing to share?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like an interview, you mean?
[SPEAKER_02]: Something that was close to him, important to him, we might.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those tools, sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he used these every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: It gets one of the fellows to bring around her.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dark cast detects psychic significance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they would absolutely be radiating psychic significance.
[SPEAKER_00]: for sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure that it was in other heads.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure this is the kind of thing that will tell us anything we want to know but it's worth a try.
[SPEAKER_05]: He hands him over.
[SPEAKER_05]: Fascist is listening to the description of this gentleman in his last couple months as he was getting as he was described grayer and satter and more just sort of not
[SPEAKER_05]: himself and think about how this this infestation slowly saps the you yes of anybody out of them yes and he's going he's trying to again like sort of think about the angles because we haven't actually seen what happens to someone when they pass away from this where if they do or if like ultimately they succumb to being controlled by Jaman Doran forced to kill himself or what we don't know
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, you know, you really haven't seen it's effect on a non superhero protagonist of a story like this for roles, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's leveled and he's a whole other, that's simply like a whole other ball of wax there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But seeing somebody fight it without your mental reserves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you now know, you're history with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: for somebody just like a normal person to be inundated with jaman door if that's what's happening here it sounds like it's devastating although again of course as you know it it's a slow it's like a month by month getting worse and it sounds like in his case it took a couple of months to
[SPEAKER_00]: We're him down to wear him down to the point where he apparently It sounds like killed himself, maybe before something terrible could happen to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I Tass, such and potentially insensitive question As he been in third yet Not that I know of know there's there's been no there's been no service yet, and there's been no No, very little internment.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, not that I know of I don't think he would be
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it was these wishes to be cremated so something would be done with his body.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we haven't heard you out from the family yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I think it's like, I think two days ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is... You're super recent for these guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll ask Jacob about the... ...septa house.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know what was... ...tommal frequenting the septa house during this time?
[SPEAKER_00]: All that was always his favorite place to go, but, as far as I know, he stopped going, they are back in a radius.
[SPEAKER_00]: which was how long, too, that's good.
[SPEAKER_03]: So around the time you all the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: You all the time.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I guess there's that, there's that too.
[SPEAKER_03]: That is when we kid.
[SPEAKER_05]: Ask if that was the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you kid down, everything went to shit.
[SPEAKER_05]: Ask if that was also the time that his, he's changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you can fairly with just a few follow-up questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems like,
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything started then started then.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, the last time he went to the separate house was sometime near the end of Abadius January That's when his depression began.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when it began got worse and worse and worse and by now near the end of March Farast is when he committed suicide right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I keep thinking this is February Yeah, no, there's a whole lost month in the middle of that at least in
[SPEAKER_05]: So two to three checks and like having possibly gone from a regular 10 down to a four.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, keep in mind it's it's charisma that's being drained.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's like personal will expressions, selfhood and to that point, Johnny.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, if he started low, it would be a it could be a very rapid decline decline.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So anything else we
[SPEAKER_01]: We asked him about the subject house and he just stopped going.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was the place where he was known to frequent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he loved it there and stopped going.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did he mention why he stopped going to the subject house?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I just, I barely put it with his general lack of interest in everything, but I guess he was pretty sudden, he was going then he was not going.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess it was a sudden stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that I think they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what I would have thought about that way, but yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And does that all line with when man and laws left?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did Toml ever ask about my acne and man speak of man?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they were friends, I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were close.
[SPEAKER_00]: So each other all the time at the separate house?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: Part of the little club of some sort.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a silly name, the nights of something.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: They call themselves that, I don't know that, it's a satiric nights of something, the esoteric order.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had some sort of silly name they won't call.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a group of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't assault in that myth, myth, they'receptors have us all the time, including an EV Taru and I,
[SPEAKER_01]: Bullos?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, uh, I... yeah, it's far as I know, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any others who's names you can think of, perhaps any who are still with us?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what stuck really my circle.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you just, you're asked, you can ask Molly there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Molly runs the place.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure she'd be happy to tell you.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll check in with Molly then.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's Molly at the separate house then.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, she wants it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, thank you, Jacob, and again, if there's anything I can do, you know where to find me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm glad you're back in town, you're allowed to know what we know anything about services of some sort.
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe, given some time, I could help back get this project back on its feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we'd be honored to have you back with us, Dubs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did we establish the, did the rat oddity start a couple of months ago, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to,
[SPEAKER_00]: then the next day, some people slithered into the city, and then a ship went out and sank or scuttled itself, which is a, and then Monday at the lowest left town.
[SPEAKER_05]: and people were dying.
[SPEAKER_00]: And people have started to kill themselves.
[SPEAKER_05]: And normally, I hope the same time.
[SPEAKER_05]: Normally.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm trying to remember this.
[SPEAKER_05]: When we were seated with Jaman Door, where we aware of what was happening only because we like made these knowledge checks and stuff, or were we just like, I don't feel so good.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you were physically and mentally staggered with the knowledge of your own insignificance in the face of full and complete knowledge of Jaman Dor who was now your god.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were able to push past that with some of you making 42 saves above DC-25.
[SPEAKER_00]: The average person?
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not so much, but you do know that this other worldly knowledge of what has taken over your mind is part and parcel with understanding the name, jaman door, like this all just boom you suddenly understand what is inside your head and how insignificant you are in the face of it.
[SPEAKER_05]: And has someone that has no knowledge of anything might just be like, what do I even do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the bleakness might be enough to move you to come as soon as I drop the building on yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Leap off a tile ship burn yourself alive in a lab fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why such horrible ways?
[SPEAKER_01]: The only way I can think of is to set myself on fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not drink poison or
[SPEAKER_00]: kill each other like you know there's about a dozen of them so maybe there are other deaths you don't even know about yeah
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, we haven't actually tried to figure out how many of these people is the subject house to place to find that out.
[SPEAKER_05]: And also if it's spread past that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So next step, subject house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we make our way across town here, we'll be walking up to the subject house, the top of next episode that's the end of chapter 154.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you next week.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scepter House, you become.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dark Nexus uses music and soundscapes by CyrenScape.
[SPEAKER_00]: Check them out at CyrenScape.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's S-Y-R-I-N-S-C-A-P-E.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Opening and closing themes along with additional music composed by Rob Coslarric, artwork for Dark Nexus is by Matt Wallquist.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thanks to DMCP Richard and R-I-Pall and Shen in Scotty, Jason Jess, Joe, Chelsea, Matt, Dave, Derek, Darren, McKayla J. H, the Biscuit Buddies, and everyone we've gained with over the years for all the memories and inspiration.
[SPEAKER_05]: You are a big part of our story telling, as well, and we love it when you know this.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are, in fact, the antagonist.
[SPEAKER_05]: And also, often, I protect you now.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story pal.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you're a story pal.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story buddy.
[SPEAKER_03]: My name is Rob.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm the story pal tonight.
[SPEAKER_03]: Protagonist antagonist and lover.