[SPEAKER_08]: Hello and welcome to another episode of Mage Hand High Five.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm your dungeon master, Casey Pappas, and this week's ranking was submitted by Eggshell Eatercrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucrucru
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: You first.
[SPEAKER_08]: And least surprising.
[SPEAKER_08]: Max Weinberg.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hello, it is me, Max Weinberg, right where I belong at the bottom.
[SPEAKER_10]: And I am playing Wyatt Forsyth, and he also would not keep a venomous pet.
[SPEAKER_08]: The next two are a toss-up.
[SPEAKER_08]: And I think next is Robin Lange and Hobb.
[SPEAKER_12]: And you would be correct.
[SPEAKER_12]: This is Ron Langan-Huffling, Hayden-Kan-Kan.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I love the idea of a tiny hat.
[SPEAKER_12]: It don't get me wrong.
[SPEAKER_12]: But it does depend a little bit on the venomous creature.
[SPEAKER_12]: But mostly, I'm terrified that of all of them.
[SPEAKER_12]: Scorpion, especially, I used to work at a pet store.
[SPEAKER_12]: And if you tried to buy the scorpion, you would have to get out of the cage yourself.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I refused to feed it, because I wanted to watch it die.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, no.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, God.
[SPEAKER_12]: I don't like scorpions.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, that's understandable.
[SPEAKER_10]: That's an understandable.
[SPEAKER_12]: I don't want that anywhere that I could put my shoe on and die.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_10]: But you haven't heard of the famous Seattle scorpions?
[SPEAKER_08]: See, I thought it, I thought it'd be the venom that would trip you up.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's a blast.
[SPEAKER_08]: Last, Rowan McStay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, I'm Ron McStaypline.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love all the creatures of this world.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't like keeping them as pets unless they want to be there, which most venomous creatures don't.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I feel like if the venomous creature really needed a home, and this was a world where that creature wanted to live with me,
[SPEAKER_04]: a little hat on it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I did one time when I was a kid.
[SPEAKER_04]: I rested there.
[SPEAKER_10]: There it is.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's the kids story.
[SPEAKER_04]: I rescued a beetle from a science lab and I took it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, my mom was like, you can't keep that.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I gave it to my grandparents and they put it in a bowl with a stick and a cucumber and it stayed alive for two years longer than it was supposed to, which was about a week.
[SPEAKER_08]: Now, everyone, keep this in mind.
[SPEAKER_08]: Venomus creatures does extend to the platypus.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, little guy in my house, then.
[SPEAKER_10]: Perry, the platypus isn't a hat.
[SPEAKER_08]: Perry, the platypus is a venomous creature in a hat.
[SPEAKER_12]: There's something very gender about an animal that cannot be classified into any animal category.
[SPEAKER_06]: You don't end with that.
[SPEAKER_08]: Why don't we dive right in?
[SPEAKER_08]: Last time, on Mage Hand High Five.
[SPEAKER_08]: You met Facts, the true puppeteer behind Echo's stagnant government.
[SPEAKER_08]: He revealed this to be intentional, hoping to curry favor with the Jamesons by trading Echo to them in exchange for unlimited access to three's information.
[SPEAKER_08]: A fight broke out, and you escaped the casino unscathed.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hayden, you ran to the train station to find Winona, but were unable to discover where she went.
[SPEAKER_08]: On the way, you ran into Cordren's bodyguard Gore, briefing him quickly on the poker game Gone Fowl.
[SPEAKER_08]: Wyatt, you met up with Davy, who expressed his discomfort with the group's influence on you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Solomon, you met with Lysander, who revealed he'd been shown a map in a vision that he was afraid to put on canvas.
[SPEAKER_08]: But before he could clarify, however, he was suddenly abducted by facts.
[SPEAKER_08]: Where you are now, Hayden.
[SPEAKER_08]: You are running back.
[SPEAKER_08]: You have, I believe, long strider cast upon you.
[SPEAKER_08]: I do.
[SPEAKER_08]: So you are making it their twice as fast as you normally would.
[SPEAKER_08]: As you are running down the dark avenue.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see another person walking on the other side of the street coming up your way and you recognize this person.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's David.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh!
[SPEAKER_08]: David does not recognize you, however, because he never saw you in your true form.
[SPEAKER_10]: And now we'll think you have six foot long legs.
[SPEAKER_08]: He's not actually noticing much, because you see him walking his head is down.
[SPEAKER_08]: He seems disappointed even downtrodden.
[SPEAKER_08]: And as he walks, you see him stop before a small chapel.
[SPEAKER_08]: He goes to the doors, turns, and sits down in front of them.
[SPEAKER_12]: I skid to a halt, kicking dust up over my feet.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hey, that little one.
[SPEAKER_12]: Do you know what I're out there?
[SPEAKER_08]: He looks up.
[SPEAKER_08]: He says, oh, um, hello.
[SPEAKER_08]: Have you heard of the eternal flame?
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, buddy.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm gonna put a stop to this right here.
[SPEAKER_12]: Remember when you thought you were talking about Winona and then you discovered that it wasn't Winona?
[SPEAKER_12]: I was the not Winona.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, I'm hidden contained.
[SPEAKER_12]: Nice to meet you properly.
[SPEAKER_08]: He flinches.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hey, if you want me to step away, that's fine.
[SPEAKER_12]: I don't want to have any conversation.
[SPEAKER_12]: You don't feel comfortable with.
[SPEAKER_08]: He says, I just... Sorry.
[SPEAKER_08]: You're one of Wyatt's new friends.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_12]: We've been traveling together.
[SPEAKER_12]: Does that happen between you two?
[SPEAKER_12]: Can I ask you a question?
[SPEAKER_08]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_08]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_08]: Far away.
[SPEAKER_08]: If you see someone doing something wrong,
[SPEAKER_08]: Would you do something about it?
[SPEAKER_08]: Even if what you were going to do was also wrong.
[SPEAKER_12]: Ooh, well, that's a layered question.
[SPEAKER_12]: Here's the thing.
[SPEAKER_12]: I've had friends over the years that have done some moditarable things.
[SPEAKER_12]: And my gotten star has always been that they're still important to me even if they do bad things.
[SPEAKER_12]: So I'd want to take care of them.
[SPEAKER_12]: And sometimes getting someone in trouble doesn't really help them.
[SPEAKER_12]: Sometimes it's about talking to them and showing them you care more than retribution.
[SPEAKER_12]: I've had plenty of people who have wronged me directly, well beyond the telling of it.
[SPEAKER_12]: It feels better for my heart to forgive than to... ...rebuke.
[SPEAKER_08]: It seems a little surprised at what he's hearing.
[SPEAKER_12]: I had this... ...ment of sorts.
[SPEAKER_12]: He actually was a... ...memble of the church.
[SPEAKER_12]: His name was a... ...father-moldenant.
[SPEAKER_12]: And... Well, he showed me that... ...what you might expect from someone...
[SPEAKER_12]: It doesn't always match up with how they act.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I'm diverging a little bit.
[SPEAKER_12]: We were standing in front of a church and I just memories come up.
[SPEAKER_12]: But I was doing terrible things to the Father-Modern.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I was stealing.
[SPEAKER_12]: And well, rather than turning me in for it, he saw why I was doing it and understood it.
[SPEAKER_12]: gave me a kind ear when I really needed it.
[SPEAKER_12]: And that made more difference than benefit.
[SPEAKER_08]: So your teacher was of the eternal flame.
[SPEAKER_12]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_12]: There were the members of the church who did him dirty for helping me, but that's a whole another story.
[SPEAKER_08]: In wrong persuasion.
[SPEAKER_12]: What was that you for?
[SPEAKER_08]: He thinks over what you said.
[SPEAKER_08]: He says, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't believe in hurting people.
[SPEAKER_08]: If they hurt me, that's on them.
[SPEAKER_08]: But I don't want to hurt people.
[SPEAKER_12]: I think that's a good rule to stand by.
[SPEAKER_12]: There's a lot of people hurting people all around us and kind of got to pick your own God and star.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm glad I ran into you, David.
[SPEAKER_12]: I hope you have some time to think.
[SPEAKER_08]: Davey, Davey starts to say, May the flame guide any stops.
[SPEAKER_08]: He says, uh, May your guiding star lead you.
[SPEAKER_12]: I hope whatever path the choose feels right to you.
[SPEAKER_12]: You have a good night.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm kind of in the middle of a desperate run.
[SPEAKER_12]: So I'm going to get back to that.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, you were you were jogging pretty fast.
[SPEAKER_08]: It looked like so you're you're really good at that.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um, I hope you get to where you're gone.
[SPEAKER_12]: Uh, do a loop.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: You run off.
[SPEAKER_08]: Uh, Solomon.
[SPEAKER_04]: The bridge to bog.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_08]: You're in Lysander's bedroom.
[SPEAKER_08]: You are staring at a portrait of a man in Horton Rim to glasses with Tom sitting on his shoulder.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is it big enough to take with me?
[SPEAKER_04]: Or is it small enough to take with me?
[SPEAKER_04]: Is it small enough to take with me?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, it's wall art size.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, great.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll take it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm gonna take it with me.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think solidly realizes at this point.
[SPEAKER_04]: Shit, Barabas.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I sprint down the stairs.
[SPEAKER_04]: And say, but Barabas, hey, Hayden, why is anybody out there?
[SPEAKER_08]: uh, Barabas is standing at the, sort of, at the street, arms crossed.
[SPEAKER_08]: He looks up at you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Barabas, I'm so sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I promise this wasn't me, but last hand or, sorry, Theo got taken.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was, it was facts.
[SPEAKER_07]: Shit.
[SPEAKER_04]: A whole opened up and, and sucked him through it.
[SPEAKER_08]: A whole opened up and sucked him through it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't care what the Jameson's told you.
[SPEAKER_04]: You cannot possibly believe that I'm stupid enough to make the shit up.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I turn my back.
[SPEAKER_08]: You understand that I am here to protect him.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, I do, which is why I think that out of my gaze.
[SPEAKER_04]: To tell you, I didn't let him do anything.
[SPEAKER_04]: He got snatched out right from under me.
[SPEAKER_08]: If what you're saying is true, then we gotta go to facts now.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, we do.
[SPEAKER_04]: Where's Hayden?
[SPEAKER_04]: Where's Wyatt?
[SPEAKER_04]: Have you seen anybody?
[SPEAKER_08]: No.
[SPEAKER_08]: Wyatt.
[SPEAKER_08]: About this time, you are turning back from the alley that you were standing in.
[SPEAKER_08]: You walk out to the street, and there arguing are a Barabbas and Saltland.
[SPEAKER_08]: As you turn to them, without warning.
[SPEAKER_08]: A large hole runs the air behind Solene.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she is pulled through.
[SPEAKER_08]: As it closes, you see a gaping cavernous grin paired with a single burning slitted eye.
[SPEAKER_08]: Is there anything you do in the second before it closes?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_10]: You gotta be a second to see what spells I have.
[SPEAKER_10]: The rip closes.
[SPEAKER_08]: I tried the rip closes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, shit, at least for Abyssal believe me now.
[SPEAKER_08]: Bravis stairs at the tear and says, okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: Why it comes around the corner and sees this portal thing open, and he's just completely dejected from his conversation with Davy.
[SPEAKER_10]: And as Selma gets sucked away, he's just, what is that?
[SPEAKER_08]: Bravest looks at you and says, I think that was facts.
[SPEAKER_10]: What?
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know, kid.
[SPEAKER_08]: She just came out and told me that that just happened to Theo.
[SPEAKER_10]: Um, um, okay, uh, we gotta find Hayden.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hey, no!
[UNKNOWN]: Hey, no!
[SPEAKER_08]: Hey, you were actually turning the corner down this avenue in the distance you hear your name being called.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hey, no!
[SPEAKER_12]: Too many conversations.
[SPEAKER_12]: Why, yeah?
[SPEAKER_12]: Winona, hey, no!
[SPEAKER_12]: Hey, hey, hey, hey, get a wood, what's going on?
[SPEAKER_10]: What's going on?
[SPEAKER_10]: Facts are taller, salt.
[SPEAKER_10]: Facts are taller.
[SPEAKER_04]: Facts are taller.
[SPEAKER_10]: God damn it.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's the full of time.
[SPEAKER_10]: Factsuck's all the way through it.
[SPEAKER_10]: That's hard to say.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Factsuck's all the way through it.
[SPEAKER_10]: Keep trying to get him.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay, sorry.
[SPEAKER_10]: I got to take this a little slower.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's gonna be a little less urgent than it actually is.
[SPEAKER_10]: Factsuck's all the way through a portal and we really did go get her now.
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't really know what happened.
[SPEAKER_10]: That's what Barack has said.
[SPEAKER_10]: Apparently CEOs there too.
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_10]: Fucking what?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, I was just coming around all sad and then a portal opened up right behind Salaman just went, whoop.
[SPEAKER_10]: And she got
[SPEAKER_10]: Portaled off wonderful.
[SPEAKER_10]: All right.
[SPEAKER_12]: Do we have any way of calling the portal back?
[SPEAKER_12]: Portal?
[SPEAKER_12]: No.
[SPEAKER_12]: Damn it.
[SPEAKER_12]: Get out of it.
[SPEAKER_07]: Just.
[SPEAKER_07]: Even through this fucking last at that.
[SPEAKER_08]: Listen, can I am more quiet than please?
[SPEAKER_12]: You have any kind of magical capability whatsoever?
[SPEAKER_12]: I don't know what your skill said is.
[SPEAKER_08]: He says, I... I'm a bounty hunter.
[SPEAKER_08]: A soldier.
[SPEAKER_08]: I... Fuck it.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[SPEAKER_12]: What?
[SPEAKER_12]: Where was the portal exactly?
[SPEAKER_10]: Right here at he stands where the portal was.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[SPEAKER_12]: So funny.
[SPEAKER_12]: He didn't has no skill at this.
[SPEAKER_12]: No relevant spell to cast anything like that.
[SPEAKER_12]: He's just gonna
[SPEAKER_12]: Sit in the middle of the street, right where the portal was going to be, hold their hand out, and quiet their mind, and feel the air and the energy, and just see if they can pick up anything.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Roll in our connoch, check.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Portal!
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_08]: As Peyton is meditating.
[SPEAKER_04]: One of these is bound to work.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's an eleven.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: You're not sure if you could pick up the traces of a spell, but whether or not you could, you don't feel anything here.
[SPEAKER_08]: It just feels like normal air.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hayden holds this position for a minute and then just sighs.
[SPEAKER_12]: Jack, you listening?
[SPEAKER_08]: You call up to Jack.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you hear it, you hear it.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hey there, friend.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_12]: I have some business for you related to our shared primary objective.
[SPEAKER_06]: I didn't realize you're gonna be so needy.
[SPEAKER_12]: I think that's on you.
[SPEAKER_12]: It is on me.
[SPEAKER_12]: I feel like I give off an energy of extreme neediness.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's so true.
[SPEAKER_09]: Oh, a bad judge character.
[SPEAKER_09]: All right.
[SPEAKER_09]: You need my help.
[SPEAKER_09]: How bad do you need it?
[SPEAKER_12]: Will?
[SPEAKER_12]: The child of Briar and another target that we've been focused on have both been sucked into a portal, created by who I believe to be a high-ranking agent of Rota.
[SPEAKER_09]: Damn, I might not get that favor from her.
[SPEAKER_12]: Have you known help us?
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, fall.
[SPEAKER_12]: We know.
[SPEAKER_12]: She might be perfectly poised to give you that favor.
[SPEAKER_12]: Interesting.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[SPEAKER_12]: Who are you talking to?
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, my, my freaky rabbit friend.
[SPEAKER_10]: Don't worry about it.
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't, I don't think you're needy.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, this is going to be complicated.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[SPEAKER_08]: Jack says.
[SPEAKER_06]: All right.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll give you something for free.
[SPEAKER_06]: Take a big deep breath.
[SPEAKER_06]: Sniff.
[SPEAKER_08]: What are you doing at the same, at the same time, Jacksonus?
[SPEAKER_06]: You're looking for some sort of spell?
[SPEAKER_12]: I assumed it was a spell.
[SPEAKER_12]: Am I being ability?
[SPEAKER_06]: The space here has been disturbed, but not by a spell.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's as if, it's as if the space were always like that for a moment.
[SPEAKER_12]: As though time was being manipulated in some way?
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, the fabric of reality?
[SPEAKER_12]: Reality itself.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, I don't like it.
[SPEAKER_12]: For a moment.
[SPEAKER_12]: Does that limit the number of beings who can do that?
[SPEAKER_12]: I knew.
[SPEAKER_06]: of beings that could do just that.
[SPEAKER_06]: But they were wiped out.
[SPEAKER_06]: Wipe out in the same breath that wiped out the tellerings.
[SPEAKER_06]: The work of Roda.
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, sounds like they didn't quite finish the job.
[SPEAKER_12]: Seems not.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well,
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't remember much about them, but I'll tell you this.
[SPEAKER_06]: Don't catch them while they're sleeping.
[SPEAKER_12]: Don't catch them while they're sleeping?
[SPEAKER_12]: That seems like the perfect time.
[SPEAKER_06]: You'd think.
[SPEAKER_06]: But it ain't a weakness.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's an impenetrability.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, hope that helps.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then better than nothing, he's gone.
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, why I've got good news and bad news.
[SPEAKER_12]: Okay, yes and which you won first bad I guess I don't know good because I don't actually have any good news so there was an ancient being
[SPEAKER_12]: And that's what took Solomon.
[SPEAKER_12]: I don't really know anything about it, but might actually be not on the Red Out God side.
[SPEAKER_12]: So I'll suppose that's a slide positive or more just more things that hate us.
[SPEAKER_12]: But in any case, I think we're gonna need to find out where facts is hold up and go get him.
[SPEAKER_12]: I can send a message to Solomon with sending.
[SPEAKER_12]: No reason not to see if she at least responds.
[SPEAKER_12]: And if she doesn't respond, that's information in and of itself.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_10]: Uh, why it casts sending, targeting Solomon.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, you're like a regular poster worker.
[SPEAKER_08]: I will stop you before you think out of message.
[SPEAKER_08]: The spell.
[SPEAKER_08]: Fizzles immediately.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hey, we have a problem.
[SPEAKER_10]: We didn't go through.
[SPEAKER_12]: Mm, suck a duck.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm trying not to lose weight.
[SPEAKER_12]: I realize your kid and I don't, I shouldn't be.
[SPEAKER_12]: saying to me, actually it's around you.
[SPEAKER_12]: So I feel somehow more disturbing.
[SPEAKER_12]: So I'm going to keep workshopping it.
[SPEAKER_12]: I appreciate that.
[SPEAKER_10]: That one felt kind of weird.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: See, I've got a spell called Legend Lord that I could use to get a bunch of information about facts, but it's a fifth level spell.
[SPEAKER_10]: And I've already used my fifth level spell.
[SPEAKER_10]: any way.
[SPEAKER_10]: We can do some negotiating to get that.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's wild actually.
[SPEAKER_04]: If I could just do this thing, I can't do.
[SPEAKER_10]: I got twenty books.
[SPEAKER_10]: The thing is.
[SPEAKER_08]: It would be really cool for you to use this.
[SPEAKER_08]: So I'm kind, that's why I'm asking.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm kind of about, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think for something like that, you would need to find like a holy place or like a church of the eternal flame somewhere where you can like, you can put in this gen of sin.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, where you can, where you can like, petition for that spell slot.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, well, why, uh, this might be a little awkward.
[SPEAKER_12]: I actually ran into David on the way here.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_12]: But there's, there's a church nearby.
[SPEAKER_12]: It's just that,
[SPEAKER_12]: Dave is there.
[SPEAKER_12]: I don't know if that's.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, it seemed like the two of you had some sort of something happen.
[SPEAKER_12]: Um, so if you need to rest up, they'll pray to your fiery whatever the, but I'm trying.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm trying.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm trying.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm for solving me.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_12]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_12]: Let's go.
[SPEAKER_12]: Barabas, are you gonna burst into flames or anything?
[SPEAKER_08]: Bravis, uh, Bravis is, uh, I'll stand outside.
[SPEAKER_12]: Valid.
[SPEAKER_12]: Come on in.
[SPEAKER_08]: Come on in.
[SPEAKER_08]: You, add to the church.
[SPEAKER_08]: When you get there, Davey is not there.
[SPEAKER_10]: You're why it's like peeking around the corner.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, the church.
[SPEAKER_08]: There's nobody on the steps.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's a church at one o'clock in the morning.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, this is nice.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's a tiny little thing, but it seems well capped.
[SPEAKER_08]: And why it, as soon as you go inside, you feel like home.
[SPEAKER_08]: There are pews on either side, leading up to the pulpit at the front.
[SPEAKER_08]: There's a small lectern that looks pretty simple, except for the silver insignia of the flame set into the front.
[SPEAKER_08]: A large red and orange stained glass window hangs above your head as you walk in.
[SPEAKER_08]: And between the pulpit and the pews, on a pedestal, directly in the center of the church, is a small flame.
[SPEAKER_08]: Why you'd know that inside every church of the eternal flame, there is a small fire like this that is continuously kept lit.
[SPEAKER_08]: and Hayden, as you walk in, memories flood back to you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Of the times you would sneak into Father Multon in service.
[SPEAKER_12]: I will step up to the flame at the pulpit.
[SPEAKER_12]: Take a long stemmed match that's laying beside it, light it, and move towards a side table where there are a bunch of unlit candles and light one for Father Maldonan.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_12]: Bravis, come on.
[SPEAKER_08]: Bravis?
[SPEAKER_08]: Bravis says, you do what you gotta do.
[SPEAKER_08]: And he sits out on the steps.
[SPEAKER_10]: Why it walks in and...
[SPEAKER_10]: similar to Hayden, but because he can touch fire, like scoop some in his hand, and goes over and brings it to one of the candles, and then goes and sits in the pew closest to the fire.
[SPEAKER_10]: Is there anything you say?
[SPEAKER_10]: Why it looking into the flame says,
[SPEAKER_10]: Radiant are you eternal flame who cleanses the world?
[SPEAKER_10]: Please grant me a bit of your warmth to find my friend.
[SPEAKER_08]: Why it?
[SPEAKER_08]: Roll a religion check.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's a twenty-four.
[SPEAKER_08]: The flame grows brighter and brighter and brighter until it consumes your sight.
[SPEAKER_08]: Everything is in darkness.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then a light appears before you.
[SPEAKER_08]: One flame.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you feel it's warmth.
[SPEAKER_08]: And last time, it was almost unbearable.
[SPEAKER_08]: This time, it's a little more bearable.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you feel the warmth.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you feel a scent.
[SPEAKER_08]: as if your wish has been given to you.
[SPEAKER_08]: But before you leave, before the flame withdraws from your eyes, you see something.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see the flame.
[SPEAKER_08]: There's something behind it.
[SPEAKER_08]: You can't quite make out what it is.
[SPEAKER_08]: There's something behind it on it somehow.
[SPEAKER_08]: for a moment you have a weird weird idea one that you almost one that maybe you dismiss outright can the flame have a parasite and then you are back in the church as you sit there you feel your fifth level spell slot return to you you feel the ability to cast
[SPEAKER_08]: this one usage of legend lore right now.
[SPEAKER_10]: I think continuing to stare into the flame why it will cast with that fifth level spell will cast legend lore describing everything he knows about facts.
[SPEAKER_08]: Would you just read out what legend lore says?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, so Legend lore basically lets me describe a person place or object and it gives me a brief summary about Significant lore about the thing.
[SPEAKER_10]: It also has to be like a significant person.
[SPEAKER_10]: I can't just be like, hey, Timmy down the street.
[SPEAKER_10]: What's his deal?
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, it doesn't have to give me like specific rock hard information.
[SPEAKER_10]: It can give me kind of figurative language if it wants.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, in this case, Legend of War is actually going to act similarly to identify in this world in that it doesn't tell you.
[SPEAKER_08]: It shows you a series of images.
[SPEAKER_12]: Ooh, all right.
[SPEAKER_08]: The first image.
[SPEAKER_08]: is of facts.
[SPEAKER_08]: However, in these images, whenever you see facts, his form is blurred as if few have actually glimpsed him truly.
[SPEAKER_08]: The only thing that is in detail are his fangued mouth and burning amber cats eye.
[SPEAKER_08]: So in the first image, you see two eyes and two mouths.
[SPEAKER_08]: and you feel as if one has just given life to the other.
[SPEAKER_08]: But even so, they now fight to the death.
[SPEAKER_08]: In the next, you see the victor, facts, whispering in the ears of pioneers many, many years ago when gunslinger knights still scoured the badlands.
[SPEAKER_08]: Unknowingly,
[SPEAKER_08]: At his behest, they plant their fledgling camp deep in the mountains, guiding the end of the silver metal railway, directly to him.
[SPEAKER_08]: Solome.
[SPEAKER_08]: You wake up.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's weird.
[SPEAKER_08]: You don't remember following a sleep.
[SPEAKER_08]: Your seated legs clutched to your chest.
[SPEAKER_08]: The ground beneath you is metal, so cold it stings to touch.
[SPEAKER_08]: You go to stretch your legs to find, there's no room.
[SPEAKER_08]: Your eyes refocus, your held in a cage, big enough to sit down, but not so big as to move around.
[SPEAKER_08]: You stand up.
[SPEAKER_04]: Can I?
[SPEAKER_08]: You can sort of edge your way up.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, definitely.
[SPEAKER_04]: Can I see anything?
[SPEAKER_10]: You famously can't see in the dark.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, I can't see in the dark, so I better be with it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I can't see shit.
[SPEAKER_08]: As you stand the cage, jossles, and you suddenly realize that it is suspended by a chain over an abyss.
[SPEAKER_08]: The chain is hooked onto a bar, which spans into the darkness on either side of you.
[SPEAKER_08]: And as you come to terms with all of this, you hear deep laughter.
[SPEAKER_08]: Why it?
[SPEAKER_08]: In the next image, you see facts laughing mouth wide as walls, doors and streets, slowly obscure him from view.
[SPEAKER_08]: The city closing him in as armor encloses a night.
[SPEAKER_08]: The walls and doors become buildings, casinos, a university.
[SPEAKER_08]: The streets branching out like fingers, or feelers, or... In the next, you see a chess match, but the pieces are human, dwarves, elves, orks, over the board, a wicked grin.
[SPEAKER_08]: Solome.
[SPEAKER_08]: The room is lit by a series of lanterns hung along the bar your cage hangs from, but there is another light in the room as well.
[SPEAKER_08]: Outside of the reach of the lanterns a large, hot ember, cats eye floats, bobbing slightly in time with the laughter.
[SPEAKER_08]: And as you watch, ten more identical eyes open around it.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then he begins to approach, coming into the light.
[SPEAKER_08]: Why it?
[SPEAKER_08]: In the final image.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see him beneath a blood-red sun.
[SPEAKER_08]: Dark towers of ancient glass rise around him.
[SPEAKER_08]: He mouths words, and the red eye above responds to him.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, Bayes?
[SPEAKER_08]: Him?
[SPEAKER_08]: And then he turns, and as he does, his form finally becomes clear to you, because at this very moment, Solomon, you see him too.
[SPEAKER_08]: A massive monstrous head, devoid of body, floating, leathery skin of deep orange brown, a gaping grinning maw filled with rose of hooked teeth, above it a massive slidded eye, and sprouting
[SPEAKER_08]: From the sides, top and back of its head, body, ten long stalks, each capped with a smaller identical eye.
[SPEAKER_08]: Solomon.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see, facts truly, for the first time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to my
[SPEAKER_08]: And as he says this, torches light the room in a wave sweeping out from the center of the wall behind facts.
[SPEAKER_08]: This room impossibly huge consists entirely of bookshelves.
[SPEAKER_08]: There must be hundreds of thousands of books.
[SPEAKER_08]: It extends into the abyss below.
[SPEAKER_08]: So deep, you cannot see the bottom and his laughter echoes throughout the cavernous library.
[SPEAKER_08]: Of course, it is all for soul in the end.
[SPEAKER_08]: Every single book I hold here
[SPEAKER_08]: He points to his leathery temple with an eye stock.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am boundless a god unto myself and when I am
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell me, so shaky, goes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's nice you've been dreaming about me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I dream of all within my city.
[SPEAKER_04]: What are you?
[SPEAKER_08]: That question catches him off guard.
[SPEAKER_08]: Roll inside.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's very good.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is a twenty-four.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see his confidence falter.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, for a moment.
[SPEAKER_04]: As if he doesn't know,
[SPEAKER_08]: And then he continues.
[SPEAKER_08]: It matters not.
[SPEAKER_04]: Then why not tell me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well.
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess I'm no stranger to small men and their big egos.
[SPEAKER_02]: You talk of small, but I have seen more than your cockroach brain could possibly hold.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have been here before your grandfather's grandfather.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I will be here long after your children's children.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I actually don't know too much about my granddaddy.
[SPEAKER_04]: We mostly just had my name and Eve, but anyway.
[SPEAKER_08]: Is I rolls up or slightly?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, we did more of a matrilineal thing generally.
[SPEAKER_04]: My mom and my answer actually half sisters if you can believe it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just think you should see you collect information.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, you might want to know.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's all made just terrified and vamping right now.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like six of his ten eyes clueless over.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's all made explains how the briar women come by children.
[SPEAKER_08]: Two of the eyes look at each other.
[SPEAKER_08]: As if to be like, can you believe this?
[SPEAKER_10]: And one is super intensely following along.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, one, it, one's nodding.
[SPEAKER_10]: Anyway, yes, so that's a lot of him along, but... But bear me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
[SPEAKER_02]: tokens of good will such as yourself.
[SPEAKER_02]: For you see, I count among my many talents, my ability to increaseiate myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: When need be.
[SPEAKER_02]: Shall be a gift, a token of good faith, to the jamescence, as she will be one to the church.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, shit.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you have one over?
[SPEAKER_08]: to your right.
[SPEAKER_08]: Down the line of lanterns, you notice another cage hanging from the bar.
[SPEAKER_08]: In it, a redhead young woman sits seemingly unconscious.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, shit.
[SPEAKER_10]: Don't you dare.
[SPEAKER_10]: And facts as you dare.
[SPEAKER_02]: For once she will have a purpose.
[SPEAKER_04]: What did you do with last hander?
[SPEAKER_11]: He thinks.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, curious.
[SPEAKER_02]: I did not take him to ingratiate myself.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I don't think that would do you much good.
[SPEAKER_04]: What did you take him for?
[SPEAKER_08]: I took him.
[SPEAKER_08]: With your insight, you see another moment of doubt.
[SPEAKER_08]: As if he's thinking about it.
[SPEAKER_08]: He says, it is no matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Enough questions.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm coming to understand that the things you don't know the answer to seem to be the things that don't matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Time will prove what matters.
[SPEAKER_04]: I believe you're right.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will prove that all that matters is what I create.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am God and you are nothing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like I said, small men and their big egos.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nick would please me greatly to tear your limbs from your body, eat them one by one, and disintegrate your still screaming head.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I will not.
[SPEAKER_02]: You still have a purpose.
[SPEAKER_02]: I must go.
[SPEAKER_02]: For you see, I do have an upcoming trip across the continent for which to prepare.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, most you gotta pack your things.
[SPEAKER_08]: One more thing.
[SPEAKER_08]: Facts moves and I stalk behind him, reaching into a small, satchel secured upon another.
[SPEAKER_08]: He then extends it, I upturned, and floating above that eye is a small spherical object.
[SPEAKER_08]: It clicks open, and you see it as another eye, albeit an inorganic one.
[SPEAKER_08]: He floats it up to the bar, and it latches itself in place.
[SPEAKER_08]: I staring down at you.
[SPEAKER_08]: He says,
[SPEAKER_02]: a gift.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you do not try to hurt yourself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Scared animal that you are.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then he drops.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, into the abyss below.
[SPEAKER_08]: And he's gone.
[SPEAKER_04]: Solomon goes kind of weak at the knees, I think.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think she was really trying to keep it together and I think she just drops to the bottom of the cage and takes a couple of deep breaths.
[SPEAKER_04]: But this eye does it look like surveillance, does it look like it's watching?
[SPEAKER_08]: Uh, you don't know what it does.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's unmoving in its perch.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, this is a little grim, but if he, I mean, he said that this was something that was to prevent me from hurting myself.
[SPEAKER_04]: I look up at the eye and press the blade into my palm to see if it doesn't anything.
[SPEAKER_07]: You bleed.
[SPEAKER_04]: Great.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I cast lay on hands for a couple of age feed.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll give myself ten HP, actually, though, just because I wasn't actually, actually, you will not.
[SPEAKER_08]: Because the moment you cast way on hands, it fizzles out.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, shit.
[SPEAKER_04]: Damn.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, okay, well, then I tie a little bit of fabric around it, damn it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I try to cast any spell, a thorn whip out of the out of ironwood, anything.
[SPEAKER_08]: They fizzle one by one by one.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, hell, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do I see last enter here?
[SPEAKER_04]: Or is it just one owner?
[SPEAKER_08]: There are other cages.
[SPEAKER_08]: Strong along this beam.
[SPEAKER_08]: The closest one to you is one owner.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'd say about forty five feet away.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: The closest one on your other side contains a corpse.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, not anyone we recognize though.
[SPEAKER_08]: Not anyone you recognize.
[SPEAKER_08]: This corpse has been here for years.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just call over.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, no, no.
[SPEAKER_04]: New heart you awake.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're in a little bit too much trouble for you to be sleeping.
[SPEAKER_08]: There's a long silence.
[SPEAKER_08]: Long enough that worries starts to creep in.
[SPEAKER_08]: As she still lays unmoving.
[SPEAKER_08]: Then... She coughs and sputters.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she blinks slowly.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh no, no, no, hey, you alright?
[SPEAKER_04]: What happened to you?
[SPEAKER_08]: She holds her head.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she says, oh... What happened?
[SPEAKER_08]: Where am I?
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, do you know anything about Facts?
[SPEAKER_08]: She sort of shakes her head and looks over at you.
[SPEAKER_11]: She says, with, with, with the fuck is going on?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, there's a, there's a great question.
[SPEAKER_04]: Actually, that's a really good question.
[SPEAKER_04]: Does she sound drugged?
[SPEAKER_08]: Solomon, she's scunked.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, she's drunk.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my gosh, she went to go drink after the conversation.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, she is blasted.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, baby.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: She starts to struggle to her fate and her cage rocks.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she goes, oh, fuck.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, darling, you're going to sit down.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're going to sit down, honey.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I know what you need.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, no.
[SPEAKER_04]: One second.
[SPEAKER_01]: I take.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I'm good.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, all you are, lean off, lean off the thing, lean off the thing.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, please.
[SPEAKER_08]: She fully blows chunks.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, slowly with the bars of the cage.
[SPEAKER_04]: Your heart pull your hair up, is getting in your, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I wish I was there to do it for you.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm a little far away.
[SPEAKER_04]: Next time, next time I gotcha.
[SPEAKER_11]: Do you have any water?
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe, yeah, I'll bet I'd carry some, wouldn't I?
[SPEAKER_08]: You have a canteen.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: Forty-five feet away.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, hold on.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll take you to see if I have rope.
[SPEAKER_04]: One second.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I've got fifty feet of rope.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think everybody starts out with rope.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so all of my takes like some rope out of her bag that she hasn't really been using because she's been making roses and stuff and ties her canteen and a little bit of a little bark to it and I'll hold on to one end and then try to toss the other end toward Winona.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if I need to give it a couple tries, I'll give it a couple tries.
[SPEAKER_08]: I will say you you're
[SPEAKER_08]: You got nowhere else to go.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: You tried many, many times.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a day on the second one.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I tried twice.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right.
[SPEAKER_08]: You know what you tried twice.
[SPEAKER_08]: The second time.
[SPEAKER_08]: The first time you throw it, it goes through her hands as she tries to catch it, drunkenly.
[SPEAKER_08]: The second time she catches it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, okay, so let's go.
[SPEAKER_04]: Can't jeans got water.
[SPEAKER_04]: Willobark, you just want to chew on that free headache a little bit.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to taste bad, but it'll help with the headache.
[SPEAKER_11]: She says thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm, you know, I'm, I'm when I'm.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi, when I'm, I'm telling my friend of Hayden's.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't believe that we've had the pleasure meeting.
[SPEAKER_08]: She freezes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I know.
[SPEAKER_08]: Looks up at you and says, Solome, Janeerson.
[SPEAKER_04]: Once upon a time.
[SPEAKER_08]: As you say that, Hayden, you are in the church.
[SPEAKER_08]: You've been sitting as why it has been sitting here silently.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hayden, why have you been doing this whole time?
[SPEAKER_12]: I think after spending just a couple of minutes,
[SPEAKER_12]: with the flame for Father Mulden and Hayden Wood.
[SPEAKER_12]: I think Hayden's pacing.
[SPEAKER_12]: Just a fundamental discomfort in being here, settles in as more time passes, and so they're just pacing back and forth around the church.
[SPEAKER_08]: You are pacing, so maybe you don't notice when Wyatt snaps his eyes open.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, probably not.
[SPEAKER_08]: Wyatt, he's in the mountain.
[SPEAKER_10]: What?
[SPEAKER_10]: What mountain?
[SPEAKER_10]: The mountain that this echo is a mountain.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm assuming, because there's levels, right?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, it is cemented deep into a mountain side.
[SPEAKER_12]: I need, did you see anything in particular?
[SPEAKER_12]: Or should we just barge in guns blazing?
[SPEAKER_12]: I got this new gun.
[SPEAKER_10]: There was like this big creepy thing with a big eye and then a bunch of other low eyes.
[SPEAKER_10]: So you might be needing that.
[SPEAKER_10]: Ooh, all right.
[SPEAKER_10]: Brad is coming, I'll let you know what I learned.
[SPEAKER_10]: He's not coming in.
[SPEAKER_12]: Geto, he's just not coming in.
[SPEAKER_12]: Come out here.
[SPEAKER_08]: Don't you come in, it's great.
[SPEAKER_08]: No, I'm gonna go outside.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hey, didn't you step outside?
[SPEAKER_08]: Fine.
[SPEAKER_08]: And the temperature shifts.
[SPEAKER_08]: Perhaps without you noticing the air outside is so cold compared to the inside of the church.
[SPEAKER_10]: Are you not cold?
[SPEAKER_08]: Barabas sucks his jacket tighter around himself.
[SPEAKER_12]: God, you're stubborn.
[SPEAKER_12]: Alright Barabas, it sounds like we're going after some kind of giant many odd monster.
[SPEAKER_12]: You feel up for some hunting?
[SPEAKER_08]: He sighs and says, nothing's ever easy.
[SPEAKER_08]: Nope.
[SPEAKER_08]: Do you know how to get into the mountain?
[SPEAKER_08]: Do I know how to get into the mountain?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: No.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I do not.
[SPEAKER_10]: He says, okay, what mini-eyed beast, facts?
[SPEAKER_10]: I loop in, parabous to everything.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay, um, well, fuck.
[SPEAKER_10]: Indeed, language.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, right.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I'm trying this thing, uh, don't say shit in fuck and bitch in all those.
[SPEAKER_08]: This completely passes by, parabous as he's thinking.
[SPEAKER_08]: He says, all right.
[SPEAKER_08]: Y'all been here longer than I have.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, y'all know anything about facts.
[SPEAKER_10]: They're kind of in charge of university.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is that something?
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, I suppose we could go to the university and see if there's a way in through that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, it's a start.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, it's just, it's a start.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is there, is there anything?
[SPEAKER_05]: No bad.
[SPEAKER_08]: When you're front of him, he, he points at you Hayden and says, you would know this as a hunter, but you look for signs of your prey in particular, cause things that would give away only your thing.
[SPEAKER_08]: What does facts surround himself with?
[SPEAKER_08]: What does he want?
[SPEAKER_08]: Knowledge.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, a university would be a great place for that.
[SPEAKER_12]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know that it narrowed down any place in particular.
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, why not the library?
[SPEAKER_12]: The library suddenly an option.
[SPEAKER_08]: We can sneak on to the university grounds at night three strangers in a university.
[SPEAKER_10]: What about Dr. Bancroft?
[SPEAKER_10]: My new tutor.
[SPEAKER_10]: That's a damn fine idea, son.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, cuz she was supposed to meet with him.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, no, let's go talk with him.
[SPEAKER_10]: Let's go talk with Dr. Baker.
[SPEAKER_10]: And maybe it's no way out.
[SPEAKER_10]: I think you're a session back and you want to be able to beat up fast.
[SPEAKER_12]: Wait, wait.
[SPEAKER_12]: We have it on me and I'll just post it.
[SPEAKER_12]: Let's go to the university.
[SPEAKER_08]: We have so many people off mic.
[SPEAKER_08]: You remember that Dr. Bancroft was not able to catch the last train in to echo before the train line shut down.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sasha Bethany and Gerard work.
[SPEAKER_08]: They were able to make it back to the university safely.
[SPEAKER_12]: I got three best friends over that university.
[SPEAKER_10]: Why a cast legends lore on Sasha board dinner for she's as far.
[SPEAKER_12]: You only need a cast and on Bethany honestly.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sasha is a scissor.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sasha is going through a lot right now.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sasha!
[SPEAKER_12]: Bethany!
[SPEAKER_12]: Kid!
[SPEAKER_12]: Good work!
[SPEAKER_12]: No one near the university.
[SPEAKER_12]: We need to just stop walking.
[SPEAKER_12]: Jordan!
[SPEAKER_08]: And climb.
[SPEAKER_12]: You had to the university.
[SPEAKER_08]: As you go, you ducked down a couple of alleys because there are slotted metons walking around.
[SPEAKER_08]: You hear the, you hear the, of the wheels spinning in their chest.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, only ten gold, I believe it.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you head up to the University of Echo.
[SPEAKER_08]: The campus is on the third level, and is the only building not dedicated to the Echo government on this one.
[SPEAKER_08]: The campus sits deep into the inside of the level, nestled beneath the fourth above, with some of its buildings rising up to meet it.
[SPEAKER_08]: The gates are closed for the night, and there is a guard on duty outside.
[SPEAKER_08]: They sit arms crossed at their chair.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hi, I was hoping to meet with my tutor, Dr. Helena Bancroft.
[SPEAKER_08]: Kid, it's one-thirty.
[SPEAKER_10]: Knowledge never sleeps.
[SPEAKER_12]: What's your argument with that one, huh?
[SPEAKER_08]: I mean, why are you guys totally takes them aback?
[SPEAKER_10]: They're like, oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_10]: Even though it's one of the morning, why is Bright Eye to Bush today?
[SPEAKER_10]: He really just got refreshing for the church.
[SPEAKER_08]: Kid, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I listen, kid, why don't you come back tomorrow?
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm sure whatever professor you're looking for is going to be awake by then.
[SPEAKER_08]: Like I'm sure they're asleep, nestled tightly in their bed.
[SPEAKER_08]: I wish I were.
[SPEAKER_08]: So why don't you do the same?
[SPEAKER_10]: Daddy, you said they would let me in to learn.
[SPEAKER_08]: Barabas looks at you.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you see a, you see a look across his face that says, oh, I'm daddy.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm so glad that's on audio.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, brother.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hayden picks up what White is attempting to do and just goes, you're right honey.
[SPEAKER_12]: You're the one who thought this is a good idea.
[SPEAKER_12]: So you better help him out.
[SPEAKER_08]: Bravest looks at both of you and then says, yep, it's on me.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm, listen, I apologize for my son.
[SPEAKER_08]: Is there any way that we could, we missed his appointment.
[SPEAKER_08]: It was scheduled, it, listen.
[SPEAKER_08]: if he doesn't get tutor tonight tomorrow is the big exam and he's going to fail and if he does, he gets held back great.
[SPEAKER_08]: We're just trying to do our due diligence as parents.
[SPEAKER_12]: I am a member of the PTA.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I will make sure that the PTA knows that you denied my son access to his education.
[SPEAKER_08]: Bravices.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, here we go.
[SPEAKER_08]: You got, you got the started.
[SPEAKER_08]: Crying.
[SPEAKER_08]: The guard says, oh, my God.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'm never gonna be anybody.
[SPEAKER_10]: Oh, God.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm not gonna pass his test.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'm screaming so much in this episode.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: All right.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: All right.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Listen.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'll have somebody check on the, on the teacher who that you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_08]: If they're up, or if they have, you know, like a grad student or something.
[SPEAKER_04]: We will round.
[SPEAKER_12]: Actually, if you want to reach out specifically to one of her grad students, her name is Bethany, I'm sure she'll be able to help us out.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, I will do that.
[SPEAKER_08]: Bethany's the best of her grad students.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: Why it knows all this from Solomon's mind melt?
[SPEAKER_04]: It really stood out.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, it was very pertinent information.
[SPEAKER_08]: The guards, someone summons to someone to another guard station inside.
[SPEAKER_08]: They exchange words.
[SPEAKER_08]: The other guard seems really confused.
[SPEAKER_08]: But then turns and heads into the university.
[SPEAKER_08]: And this guard says, OK, it's going to be a minute.
[SPEAKER_08]: White sits.
[SPEAKER_08]: On the ground.
[SPEAKER_10]: Chris Cross Apple sauce.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: The guard says, oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: But while we're here, what questions do you have about the eternal flame?
[SPEAKER_08]: The guard looks at you Hayden as well as Barabas.
[SPEAKER_08]: And Barabas just gives like a tired parent shrug.
[SPEAKER_12]: He didn't search a tear up and goes, that's my special bond.
[SPEAKER_03]: God.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay, Casey, I will say that you were the one who took Solomon, the kind of grounding wire of our group away.
[SPEAKER_10]: So, this is not new.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: While y'all wait.
[SPEAKER_08]: Solomy.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: What's happening?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm here.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure it's real funny.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm sure.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um, when I want to shoot the dagger, it's at you.
[SPEAKER_08]: And says, you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_08]: You are killer.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is true.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, he has my own.
[SPEAKER_08]: You killed somebody.
[SPEAKER_11]: And you're, you're getting in trouble.
[SPEAKER_04]: I am not going to get Hayden in trouble.
[SPEAKER_04]: Look, I did kill somebody.
[SPEAKER_04]: In fact, I actually I've killed a couple people now, but the rest of them were all in battle.
[SPEAKER_04]: Listen, darling, sometimes it is just a little bit too easy to find yourself in a room with somebody standing between you and the door.
[SPEAKER_08]: She leans back and says, could have run.
[SPEAKER_04]: I tried.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know, but we need to get into all this right now, but I tried.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I did what I did.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I was a little too naive to leave a note.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hell, we'd been married ten years.
[SPEAKER_04]: I figured I would have a conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You kind of leave a note.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I know.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I just thought,
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know, I guess I thought he'd understand.
[SPEAKER_04]: I thought, I thought he cared a little bit, at least, you know?
[SPEAKER_04]: So I just, I don't, anyway, I was real naive and I thought that I just, I owed him an explanation in person because, you know, that's what you do.
[SPEAKER_04]: You end things and you try to end things well and obviously things did not end well.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I didn't set out to kill him.
[SPEAKER_04]: I promise.
[SPEAKER_04]: I loved him as much as he let me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Is this true?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it is.
[SPEAKER_08]: She holds her head.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she says, you take a break for a second.
[SPEAKER_04]: You don't.
[SPEAKER_04]: We don't have to.
[SPEAKER_04]: It seems like we got time.
[SPEAKER_04]: We don't have to play twenty questions about my life right now.
[SPEAKER_04]: We can take it easy if you like.
[SPEAKER_08]: She takes another sip of the water.
[SPEAKER_08]: Choose a little bit of the bark.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, listen, it ain't about my, I'll answer whatever questions you have about myself with that helps, but what I can say is that I promise you I have no desire other than to protect Hayden and make sure that they are okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: They have chosen to travel with me a very own accord and I don't think I could stop them if I tried.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, you know, I'll stubborn.
[SPEAKER_04]: They are better than I do.
[SPEAKER_08]: She nods slowly.
[SPEAKER_04]: There was a time all the way back in Providence when I tried to leave because I didn't want to get them.
[SPEAKER_04]: We involved.
[SPEAKER_04]: And they chose to get involved because.
[SPEAKER_08]: Is there an idiot?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, yeah, a little bit.
[SPEAKER_08]: The idiot likes to get involved.
[SPEAKER_04]: They are a little bit of an idiot who likes to get.
[SPEAKER_04]: Did I tell you one time they went after a wear bear by them damn self?
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, that sounds like them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, they did, and they ended up up shit's creek without a paddle, or up the rope trip without a rope, more like, but anyway.
[SPEAKER_08]: Of course, they're always getting themselves hurt.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, no, they are.
[SPEAKER_08]: And, um... You see, oneona's tearing up.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: As you guys, she says these things.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, honey, what's going on?
[SPEAKER_04]: What's going on?
[SPEAKER_04]: Talk to me.
[SPEAKER_08]: I... I thought I was protecting them.
[SPEAKER_08]: I thought I thought I was protecting them by running away.
[SPEAKER_08]: But you have you been, she starts to stumble over her words again.
[SPEAKER_08]: She says, I wonder if I ran that because to protect them, I ran because I run.
[SPEAKER_08]: Well,
[SPEAKER_04]: Under normal circumstances, this is when I would tell you what my amags always used to say, which is a good night's sleep and a drink of water can be good for the spirit in a situation like this.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I don't know, honey, sometimes when you feel like you've got your back to a wall, you run.
[SPEAKER_04]: And sometimes you freeze.
[SPEAKER_04]: And sometimes you have to fight your way out.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't know that you can fault yourself for running if that's what your body told you to do.
[SPEAKER_08]: But I can't.
[SPEAKER_08]: I tried.
[SPEAKER_08]: I went to the train station to run.
[SPEAKER_08]: And as she says this, the water, the bark, it's slowly starting to sober her up.
[SPEAKER_08]: She says, he's tried to run, and I couldn't.
[SPEAKER_08]: I waited for them, and they didn't show up.
[SPEAKER_08]: And I could have gotten on the train, but I didn't.
[SPEAKER_08]: All I've ever done is run, and now I can't even do that.
[SPEAKER_08]: Fuck am I good for?
[SPEAKER_04]: I need to be that sounds like growth.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you ain't proud of yourself for running, be proud of yourself for staying.
[SPEAKER_04]: You love somebody that you family, that you're simple and of course you didn't run.
[SPEAKER_04]: They've told me so much about you.
[SPEAKER_04]: That you kept the potpers together that you were their sister, that you were family to them.
[SPEAKER_04]: I would never expect you to run away from them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Of course you stayed.
[SPEAKER_04]: You said, because you love them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Not sure, good for anything.
[SPEAKER_08]: But what if I... What if I make the wrong choice again?
[SPEAKER_08]: What if I let the wrong people in?
[SPEAKER_04]: You probably will.
[SPEAKER_04]: Honestly, there will probably be a time in your life where you let the wrong people in again.
[SPEAKER_04]: There will probably be a time in my life where I do the same.
[SPEAKER_04]: At a certain point, you have to decide whether the cost of letting in the wrong people
[SPEAKER_04]: is worth the benefit of letting in the right ones.
[SPEAKER_04]: If you don't let anybody in, you're gonna be alone.
[SPEAKER_11]: I let in a Chamoson.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, then I could talk with you about that for years.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, hello, one take me away from home and keep me in three for ten years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I landed in his brother and I kind of took a little bit of a shine to him because he seems nice.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I regret that a little bit more by the second.
[SPEAKER_04]: But here we are.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sorry, there's four of them.
[SPEAKER_08]: I guess three of them now, which one?
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um, no.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, the other two haven't caught nestled their way into the inner circle of my heart, but Lasander seems, well, it seems a damn sad veteran that he has to tell you that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_04]: For what it's worth, he doesn't act like his brothers do.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's kind of quiet, but weird.
[SPEAKER_04]: It reminds me a little bit of my amags.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's a musician.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's an artist too though.
[SPEAKER_04]: She can't focus if she doesn't have her instrument in her hand.
[SPEAKER_04]: God forbid anybody trying to talk to her while she's not playing a little bit of music or doing something with her hands.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she always says that the trick is, give her an instrument to play, give her something to do with her hands if you have to have a serious conversation with her.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's saying, oh, be able to follow.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: A lot of time it seems
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I don't know if anything's going to help right now.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know where we are.
[SPEAKER_04]: Did the church catch us?
[SPEAKER_04]: No, this is
[SPEAKER_04]: something else and somebody else and I do not know how to describe what or who he is.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, it's facts.
[SPEAKER_04]: The leader of the university.
[SPEAKER_04]: He did say though.
[SPEAKER_04]: I guess pertinent information.
[SPEAKER_04]: He is planning to sell me out to the two Jameson brothers who aren't already here and you to the church as a token of goodwill because he plans on giving up the city of echo two three and accompanying them to their stores of knowledge and getting a place in whatever new government they are setting up which is by the way news to me.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's a lot.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: What do we do?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I think, first we got to get out of these little bird cages.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think we got to make up the rest from there.
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe we find less aander.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't have my lockpicks.
[SPEAKER_08]: They're in my bag.
[SPEAKER_04]: Would this work?
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, so it'll be pulls out, pull in this hairpin.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think it might.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: And as you say that,
[SPEAKER_08]: We cut back to Hayden and Wyatt and Barabas.
[SPEAKER_12]: Daddy, I'm bored.
[SPEAKER_12]: I know sweet a baby.
[SPEAKER_12]: We'll be in this room.
[SPEAKER_12]: Parent.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see the guard inside returning with not one, not two, but three exhausted grad students all in their families.
[SPEAKER_08]: Like it's wrapped around them.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hey, just hold their arms out.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hey!
[SPEAKER_08]: Hey, and why it to an extent, you also recognize Sasha, Bethany, and Gerard.
[SPEAKER_08]: They walk outside, and you can see all three of them go, oh.
[SPEAKER_12]: How's my favorite ass kickin' researches?
[SPEAKER_08]: The guard looks at them and the grad students say, yeah, yeah, we know them.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you are let onto campus grounds.
[SPEAKER_08]: You walk off to the side with the trio, the guards resume their posts.
[SPEAKER_08]: And Bethany says, okay, Hayden, great to see you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yep, we are seeing you.
[SPEAKER_08]: And there's also this guy, points at Barabas, and a, you, points at Wyatt, a child.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hi, I'm Wyatt Forsyth.
[SPEAKER_08]: Nice to meet you.
[SPEAKER_08]: Bethany says, okay, pleasure.
[SPEAKER_10]: What questions do you have about the church of the Eternal Flam?
[SPEAKER_10]: Not in Emma.
[SPEAKER_10]: No, nope, nope.
[SPEAKER_10]: Not none, none.
[SPEAKER_10]: Wow, you're good to go.
[SPEAKER_08]: Your art silently shakes his head.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sasha says, okay, um, so what are you here for?
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, this is gonna be possibly some very strange information for you to hear, but you remember Solomon, of course, right?
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, she has been kidnapped by
[SPEAKER_12]: the head of this institution.
[SPEAKER_12]: And we need help retrieving her.
[SPEAKER_08]: They look at each other for a second and they go, Dean Welton.
[SPEAKER_12]: Mr. Mr. Fag.
[SPEAKER_12]: Mr. Faggs happens to be a giant, very eyeballed Asian, eldritch monster thing.
[SPEAKER_08]: They sort of look at each other and they go,
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I mean, he's mysterious, but I don't think he's a monster.
[SPEAKER_12]: No literally, he is a giant monster.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, he's got one really big eye in a massive mouth and not in the like hyperbolic way, but in the literal way.
[SPEAKER_10]: Do you know how to get in the mountain?
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, so you're telling me that facts is a monster that abducted Solomon.
[SPEAKER_10]: Correct.
[SPEAKER_12]: And lives in the mountain.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, what are you gonna do?
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, we will retrieve Solomon and let's be honest and all likelihood we will kill this guy monster.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's really in his court.
[SPEAKER_08]: Susse, Sasha says you're going to kill the university benefactor?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yes, that is correct.
[SPEAKER_08]: We'll set up a trust.
[SPEAKER_08]: Don't worry about it.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see Sasha actually start to hyperventilate a little bit.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she says, oh my god, oh my god, if you do the University will lose its funding and what I've been getting last four years of my life, too, we'll go down the train and Dr. Bancroft will lose her job.
[SPEAKER_08]: You do know what a trust is, right?
[SPEAKER_08]: Bethany turns to her and says, shut up Sasha.
[SPEAKER_08]: She says there's bigger things going on and they saved us in that auditorium.
[SPEAKER_12]: You actually quite have full in all of that.
[SPEAKER_10]: Well Bethany was.
[SPEAKER_10]: You're in the middle.
[SPEAKER_10]: That's okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: You are on the positive side.
[SPEAKER_12]: You know, facts doesn't really strike me as the kind of person who's written up a well of any kind and I can confirm that he has no living relatives, so it's possible that his entire fortune will just go straight to the university.
[SPEAKER_08]: This gives all three of them pause.
[SPEAKER_12]: Or you.
[SPEAKER_08]: This gives them more pause.
[SPEAKER_12]: Or me.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, Brad, how are you with forgerid?
[SPEAKER_12]: Do you think that you can help us put together a fake will?
[SPEAKER_08]: Brad is sort of like shakes his hand.
[SPEAKER_08]: Like, no.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[SPEAKER_12]: We'll walk on it.
[SPEAKER_11]: Bethany says, is this going to help people enormously?
[SPEAKER_08]: I sit for a second and then, uh, Gerard, the quiet one pops up, pipes up and says, our degrees in Badlands preservation.
[SPEAKER_08]: So let's preserve it.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's my God.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really beautiful.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really, that's really beautiful.
[SPEAKER_04]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_08]: And the trio all nod in agreement and they start to lead you through the halls of the university.
[SPEAKER_08]: and Bethany says, okay, no one's ever seen him, envelopes from him arrive on people's desks.
[SPEAKER_08]: Nobody knows for sure where he lives, but they turn a corner and you see a massive pair of oak doors and above them a sign that says library.
[SPEAKER_08]: She says it's
[SPEAKER_08]: It is rumored he has a wing in the library.
[SPEAKER_08]: The forbidden section.
[SPEAKER_08]: Big scary doors completely sealed, no one is allowed in.
[SPEAKER_08]: But there is a book returned slot on the door and one night I got curious and I snuck into the library and I saw a career taking envelopes from it.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's kind of a joke amongst the students that he lives there.
[SPEAKER_08]: I guess he might actually live there?
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: You push your way into the library.
[SPEAKER_08]: The library is beautiful.
[SPEAKER_08]: It is a beautiful room.
[SPEAKER_08]: There are oak bookcases, rolling ladders that allow you to climb up to the second shelves of books, tables with books flipped open, stacks appearing on the library and desk, light from the moon streams in, but in the back wall.
[SPEAKER_08]: As you proceed forward,
[SPEAKER_08]: stands a pair of massive iron doors.
[SPEAKER_08]: They stand out of place with the rest of the library, with rooms and carvings etched into its surface.
[SPEAKER_08]: You come before these doors, and they feel cold.
[SPEAKER_08]: In fact, as you approach them, you feel the cold.
[SPEAKER_10]: Perhaps you touch it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: When Jonah begins guiding you through the act of lock picking.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, I love it.
[SPEAKER_08]: She says, OK, so you're going to want something to push the pins and something to rotate the lock.
[SPEAKER_04]: OK, I'm like a... So sorry to tell you, I am real clumsy.
[SPEAKER_04]: Matter of fact, you know what?
[SPEAKER_04]: Just to be safe, because I stole this off a friend.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to tie Belinda's hairpin to my wrist, like a little kid with a balloon just to make sure I don't lose it.
[SPEAKER_08]: Perfect.
[SPEAKER_08]: OK, you fashion it to your wrist.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just in case, no one me, I drop it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I used to think it was the pedicotes, but it's not.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's just me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, no, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: So you're, you're going to want to slide it into the lock and press up on the pins as you are turning the lock with another tool.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think I've got a dagger, maybe, or like.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: That should work like something flat that will turn the lock.
[SPEAKER_04]: Alright, sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I got this dagger.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's try it out.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Stick the flat thing in.
[SPEAKER_08]: Stick the pointy thing in.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you want to try and hit the tumblers to move.
[SPEAKER_08]: What?
[SPEAKER_08]: The tumbler.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, boy.
[SPEAKER_08]: Um.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: So inside the lock.
[SPEAKER_08]: She starts to put on the voice that she used with the younger pipers.
[SPEAKER_08]: and says, so you are going to use the long point to push up on a couple of things inside that are keeping the middle part from spinning.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I think I felt something.
[SPEAKER_08]: You feel one click into place.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, something moved.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's really exciting.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, do I just keep doing this?
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay, great, great.
[SPEAKER_08]: Depending on the lock, there may be another, you know, two to four more.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, okay, I'm just not going to be feeling around.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: uh... saw me roll a slide of handshake and roll it with advantage but then it's that is and eleven you feel the tumbler slide back in the place shit okay hell uh... i'm so sorry i can okay listen i'm gonna try to beat hell out of this lock if that doesn't work maybe i'll tie this little pin to a little rope and send it over to you so you can do which you know how to do um...
[SPEAKER_04]: One second, actually, can I, can I attack the eye?
[SPEAKER_07]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to try to get, no, I'm going to get the lock open first, and then I'm going to try to attack the eye.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Uh, roll attack.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is a, this is sixteen and a seventeen.
[SPEAKER_08]: Those both hit.
[SPEAKER_04]: Twenty-seven damage?
[SPEAKER_08]: You smash this lock open.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think all of it gets a little bit frustrated with the finesse of the lock picking thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then it's like, hold on just one second.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I put my hair back up with bull Indus hairpin and then just beat the shit out of the lock and tell us, clicks open.
[SPEAKER_08]: You just smash it open in one go and when on a goes up, yeah, dad also works.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, some people are a little more built for finesse, and I don't unfortunately think that I am one of them.
[SPEAKER_08]: The door swings open, and now you have an open door to the abyss.
[SPEAKER_04]: Alright, let's something.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hell, yeah, I'm gonna try to attack the eye too while I'm at it.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_10]: Nothing ominous about open door to the abyss.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's a twenty and a twenty-five.
[SPEAKER_08]: You hit roll damage.
[SPEAKER_04]: God, I'm scared.
[SPEAKER_04]: Twenty six.
[SPEAKER_08]: You hit the eye and it cracks.
[SPEAKER_08]: And as it cracks, you see the magic inside leaking out.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then it releases a small damaging everything around it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Get.
[SPEAKER_08]: Including the hook upon which your
[SPEAKER_08]: Cage.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hangs.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: When Ona says shit.
[SPEAKER_08]: Solomon.
[SPEAKER_08]: And as she says that you feel the hook begin to give way.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I have this rope in my hand.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm gonna throw the rope really quick around the pole that the hook is suspended from and grab the other end of it.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's like a little zipline situation.
[SPEAKER_08]: Make an athletics check.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now I am proficient in this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Believe it or not.
[SPEAKER_04]: That is a. Twenty-two.
[SPEAKER_08]: The rope goes over as it drops.
[SPEAKER_08]: to meet you and as you begin to reach out to grab it, the hook breaks.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you begin to plummet into the abyss as the cage begins to plummet.
[SPEAKER_08]: I need you to make a check to grab onto the other side of the rope.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, another one.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I thought that was the athletics check.
[SPEAKER_08]: The athletics check was to throw it over the ball.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's another twenty five.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: The cage begins to plummet and at the last second you grab onto the rope as the cage passes you and falls down, down, down.
[SPEAKER_08]: It disappears and you do not hear it hit the bottom.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I am worried that that would alert facts to our presence.
[SPEAKER_04]: So we might have to get a little bit of a move on.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm so sorry.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just wanted to see what that would do.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, my way to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I scoot with the rope over to Winona.
[SPEAKER_08]: You start to shimmy across the bar.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I just kind of perch on top of her cage and lower the hairpin into it and say,
[SPEAKER_04]: This is kind of fun.
[SPEAKER_04]: Show me how it's done.
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to see a master at work here.
[SPEAKER_08]: The lock clicks open.
[SPEAKER_08]: It just, she clicks it open.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's elegant.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hands you back the hairpin and then begins climbing up the cage.
[SPEAKER_04]: You taught Hayden how to do that, didn't you?
[SPEAKER_08]: Lady, I taught, I taught them everything they know.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_04]: They do that same kind of little hand floor.
[SPEAKER_04]: She just did it the end there.
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, hey, by the way, can I come in?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm still a little unstable out here.
[SPEAKER_08]: When owners like on the side of the cage.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, let's just get out of here then.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I think we'll both crawl out and start kind of shimming our way to wherever solid grounds used to be.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, you start shimming your way along the bar.
[SPEAKER_08]: When you make it to the edge, you see that the bar connects with one of the bookshelves.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you see up and to the left, a tunnel that leads into the bookshelf and away.
[SPEAKER_04]: Seems like the best place to go.
[SPEAKER_08]: Roll acrobatics.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm bad at this one.
[SPEAKER_08]: I know.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a six team.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: You both
[SPEAKER_08]: Climb the bookshelf.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, shimmy across and then climb your way up, pulling yourself up onto the ledge.
[SPEAKER_08]: You climb your way up, make it over.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you look back and Winona at the last second, her foot slips on a book.
[SPEAKER_08]: Shit.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she begins to tumble back.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I can't reach out of hand together.
[SPEAKER_08]: for all the dexterity safe.
[SPEAKER_04]: Dexterity safe.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, she has, if she's making any saving, though, she has got a plus five to them if she's within ten feet of me just so you know.
[SPEAKER_07]: Ooh, okay, let's do this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, that's really bad.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a nine on my end with a plus six.
[SPEAKER_08]: You reach out a hand.
[SPEAKER_08]: She sprawls back her hands grasping it anything they can.
[SPEAKER_08]: Your hand passes through them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Mm.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then she grabs onto your hand at the last second.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my God, you can't do this to me.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: You pull her back onto the lip.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_08]: And use both stand out of breath.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh Lord, that was scary.
[SPEAKER_04]: You okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: She looks at you and she says, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, no problem.
[SPEAKER_04]: We've been out doing this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Shit for months, I still haven't got used to it.
[SPEAKER_04]: This, this bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's, um, okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's keep going.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's see if we can find La Sander.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's see if we can get the hell out of here, yeah?
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: All right.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you both turn and head down the hall.
[SPEAKER_04]: As we're walking, I think I'm gonna take a little page out of Maggie's book and just like, hit checker a little bit and be like, we did pretty good back there, you me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Yeah, she doesn't quite know how to take that.
[SPEAKER_08]: And looks at you.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then her mouth quirk's up just a little bit.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she says, yeah, I guess we do.
[SPEAKER_08]: And then why it?
[SPEAKER_08]: you stand at the doors to fax his library.
[SPEAKER_08]: Bethany, Sasha, and Gerard, look at you and go, well, have a safe journey.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, make sense.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I'll get some sleep.
[SPEAKER_12]: Give us plenty of help.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm so sorry.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think we would slow you down.
[SPEAKER_12]: That's probably true.
[SPEAKER_12]: Don't be rude, Hayden.
[SPEAKER_12]: Their researches, they can just go sleep.
[SPEAKER_08]: You saw what Bethany did.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's all my combat experience.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's the first and only time I have seen the horrors of war.
[SPEAKER_08]: You didn't stay in practice?
[SPEAKER_10]: What?
[SPEAKER_10]: I know like mixed martial arts.
[SPEAKER_10]: Listen, in the quiet.
[SPEAKER_10]: Listen, I tried.
[SPEAKER_10]: It didn't stick.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I made a resolution to myself and I stopped after a month.
[SPEAKER_12]: You know what, kids?
[SPEAKER_12]: Y'all go on head back.
[SPEAKER_12]: You gave us what we needed.
[SPEAKER_12]: We appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, come by and see you when we're not actively in danger.
[SPEAKER_08]: Listen, if X turns out to be a monster and you kill him, don't die.
[SPEAKER_08]: Great, that's the plan.
[SPEAKER_08]: I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_08]: And they turn and head back to their dorms.
[SPEAKER_10]: Did you say that there was like a male slot?
[SPEAKER_10]: There is a male slot.
[SPEAKER_08]: I peek through it.
[SPEAKER_08]: You peek through it.
[SPEAKER_08]: Beyond the door.
[SPEAKER_08]: Roll a perception check.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's an eleventh.
[SPEAKER_08]: within eleven you look and beyond the door it is pitch black you can't make anything out in that case i would like to cast like sixty feet away from the doors far as i can cast it i would like to cast daylight you cast daylight sixty feet into the room beyond you see the light blossom in the air
[SPEAKER_08]: a small flame and it illuminates nothing.
[SPEAKER_08]: For there is nothing within its reach to illuminate.
[SPEAKER_12]: I test the handle on the door.
[SPEAKER_12]: Is it locked?
[SPEAKER_07]: It is unlocked.
[SPEAKER_07]: I just pushed the door open.
[SPEAKER_07]: You start to push it and it is heavy.
[SPEAKER_07]: I pushed you.
[SPEAKER_07]: You pushed you.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's the NBA.
[SPEAKER_08]: You push open these massive heavy doors to walk in and you have to catch yourself because beyond the threshold is nothing.
[SPEAKER_08]: a black abyss hangs below you, stretching up into the empty black above as if the entire mountain were hollowed out.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see why it's flame sitting there in the open space, sixty feet away.
[SPEAKER_08]: What do you do?
[SPEAKER_12]: I reach into my bag and grab the oldest hardest brand muffin I have.
[SPEAKER_10]: And drop it down to hear when it lands Jesus wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait before you'd let go I cast the light cantrip on it.
[SPEAKER_12]: It's my room.
[SPEAKER_08]: I'm lit muffin God you you drop this stone muffin God
[SPEAKER_08]: It illuminates its way down casting light on the wall as it travels down and you see that the wall that this doorway is built into is a bookshelf.
[SPEAKER_08]: The most massive bookshelf you've ever seen in your life.
[SPEAKER_08]: There must be thousands of thousands
[SPEAKER_08]: of books, the light passes and continues and continues and continues until it fades into a dot and blanks out.
[SPEAKER_08]: You do not hear it hit the bottom.
[SPEAKER_08]: You stand upon the abyss.
[SPEAKER_08]: Anyone who wants to roll roll a straight intelligence check.
[SPEAKER_12]: All right.
[SPEAKER_08]: This is not why.
[SPEAKER_12]: None of us are good at this.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's the second two in a row.
[SPEAKER_10]: I've rolled, which makes it a one.
[SPEAKER_10]: A dirty one.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I got a six.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, I got a six.
[SPEAKER_10]: God, we need stump back.
[SPEAKER_10]: You know what, is every episode, but we need stump back.
[SPEAKER_08]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_08]: The check was a five.
[SPEAKER_08]: This is very easy to perceive.
[SPEAKER_08]: You look, you look up.
[SPEAKER_08]: at the wall that continues above you as it stretches on into infinity.
[SPEAKER_08]: And you realize that it does not match up with the geography of the mountain that it is built into.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: You see that this space, it's wrong.
[SPEAKER_08]: It doesn't fit into the geography of the world that it is set into.
[SPEAKER_08]: It is set apart.
[SPEAKER_07]: It is... warped.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a big rope trick, Hayden.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why I'm whispering.
[SPEAKER_10]: I think that's pretty close to what it is, yeah.
[SPEAKER_10]: That would probably be why my spell couldn't get through.
[SPEAKER_08]: And as you notice this, you both hear from deep within the bowels of the library.
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome, guests of my domain.
[SPEAKER_08]: And with that, we'll pick up next time.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thanks so much for listening to another episode of Mage Hand High Five.
[SPEAKER_12]: The bad lands.
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