2026-2-17 — Akasha

Benny:Thought I'd see you here, Craig.

Benny:Thought I'd see you here.

Benny:you

Arctos:Howdy.

Benny:Greetings.

Arctos:I got that really great red light.

Arctos:And it's amazing.

Benny:You got the what?

Arctos:The super strong red light thing.

Benny:Oh, the fucking brick.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:How are we doing on this fine... It's Monday.

Benny:Good.

Gamemaster:On this fine Monday eve.

Benny:Jorge, can you hear us?

Gamemaster:That's what they all say.

Gamemaster:If you're speaking, Jorge, we can't hear you either.

Gamemaster:No, he just hates us.

Benny:If he can hear us, I think he's using the wrong microphone.

Arctos:All right.

Gamemaster:Which I get.

Benny:What if he's like,

Benny:Just blending with the background for some reason.

Gamemaster:No, I mean, he could be.

Gamemaster:He was doing a good job of it.

Gamemaster:It looked like he just walked out of SNEC.

Arctos:So I was using the, I don't know why it decided to give me the output to my headset, but not put the input there.

Gamemaster:Uh, for fun?

Benny:I know why.

Benny:It hates him.

Arctos:Two things.

Gamemaster:What?

Arctos:I highly recommend getting a red light device for general like soreness or joint stuff.

Arctos:It's fantastic.

Gamemaster:Are you- are you doing pseudoscience?

Johnny:What is this?

Arctos:No, it's like actually there's a bunch of published papers on it.

Benny:Yeah, no, I think I'm shaking my head to Josh.

Arctos:Red light?

Benny:See, a good fake background is one that is obviously fake.

Arctos:Nice little touch-up, Noah.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Benny:One that is the uncanny valley of fake background is uncomfortable.

Gamemaster:Uh... I...

Johnny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:I had the old background, and then I needed to talk to somebody that wasn't video games related.

Gamemaster:It was for work.

Gamemaster:And I'm like, I can't have that.

Gamemaster:That's weird.

Gamemaster:So I just found random background.

Johnny:It's just got like a random grid.

Gamemaster:One second.

Gamemaster:I can switch it back to video games.

Gamemaster:It's just... Look, that's my initial.

Johnny:Thank you.

Benny:Is that AI generated?

Benny:Is that why it's not an actual grid?

Gamemaster:I don't think so.

Gamemaster:It could be AI generated, but I didn't generate it via AI.

Gamemaster:I generated it via going to Google search.

Benny:What... What the fuck is that cactus?

Benny:And what is the... There's three candles, I see that, but there is one that is a... What is the thing at the bottom?

Gamemaster:Cactus.

Gamemaster:Plant.

Gamemaster:It's warm.

Gamemaster:These two candles are the same.

Gamemaster:I don't know.

Arctos:Bath filter?

Arctos:Down for you guys.

Benny:I don't know.

Johnny:What is that?

Benny:I don't refresh.

Gamemaster:Let me see if I still have this image downloaded.

Benny:I can't imagine these are like compression artifacts that are deforming the grid behind you.

Gamemaster:I don't... Is the grid... The grid does look deformed over there, but it could just be because it's like a piece of metal and it got squished when they were setting the table.

Anzu:Okay.

Benny:That could be.

Gamemaster:Or it's AI.

Benny:But then I wonder, what is the hockey puck?

Gamemaster:I don't know.

Benny:candle like first off two of the candles appear to not have dishes and the third thing the third gray candle i i don't know if it's did they just burn a candle down really far so that the the varying heights were aesthetically pleasing how much do people get paid to set up fucking zoom can i make money setting up zoom backgrounds

Arctos:Well, you can make money setting up Roku backgrounds, Mike.

Benny:I feel like also Zoom backgrounds, one of the first jobs taken by AI.

Benny:What the fuck am I going to do?

Benny:Can you add a tomato to it?

Benny:And I'm like, that'll be $15 extra on the $50.

Anzu:you

Benny:They're going to be like, I'll just take yours to AI and add a tomato.

Gamemaster:Did that clear anything up?

Gamemaster:The thing on the bottom is another candle.

Johnny:Oh, it's a very melted candle.

Benny:It's real.

Gamemaster:It's like really melted.

Arctos:Thank you.

Benny:There's no extra thumb.

Gamemaster:This... This table has eight candles, a cactus, a fern, a bucket, the letter A, and a random metal grid.

Benny:It's real.

Johnny:There's no loose thumbs in there.

Benny:That's for the fern when it evolves to a creeping plant.

Benny:It has a place to climb.

Gamemaster:Sure.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:That does make sense.

Anzu:Now, I'm two or three minutes late to the party, so what I want to know is why is it here?

Benny:now you

Gamemaster:I was on a Zoom call from my personal computer for work, and I realized I still had the video game background that I've been using for D&D, and I didn't want to use that as, you know...

Anzu:Yes, yes.

Gamemaster:Did I lose it?

Gamemaster:This is not the correct background.

Gamemaster:We're in a library now while I find the image I was using.

Anzu:Is there a problem with path builder?

Johnny:Oh, stately.

Benny:I wouldn't know.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Arctos:Yeah, I have it too.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Benny:I don't refresh.

Arctos:Yet, also concerning that Mike just has hundreds of tabs and never refreshes them, but whatever.

Benny:Listen.

Arctos:So, since it was a long weekend, I did an extra gym session on Sunday, and I was like, I haven't done deadlifts in a while, let me do deadlifts.

Arctos:But then, I normally use straps once I get heavy enough.

Arctos:But Leo had taken one of them out of my bag.

Arctos:So I was like, that's fine.

Arctos:I'll just do mixed grip.

Arctos:It was not fine.

Arctos:Because I haven't been trimming my calluses as well as I should have been.

Arctos:And most of them just tore off my hand completely.

Arctos:So you could see the muscle in my hand.

Arctos:Right now I have these band-aids on top.

Arctos:But I just started bleeding.

Arctos:And I was like, wow, this is going great.

Arctos:Then I hit 315, and I was like, this is going great.

Arctos:Let me change grips to make sure the traps are equally engaged.

Arctos:And then I did the other hand on my left hand, and then it was just blood everywhere.

Benny:Does your gym have new bars?

Arctos:What do you mean?

Benny:Because normally shit gets in there and it's not sharp enough to do much.

Arctos:Oh, I hadn't trimmed them enough, the calluses, so they were going out a little bit too much.

Arctos:And then that just happens.

Arctos:Your calluses can get ripped off.

Gamemaster:But, like, the bar itself, normally the spiky bits of the knurls, like, get worn down over time, and it's not as dangerous to hold onto.

Benny:Yeah.

Arctos:It's pretty common.

Benny:Or gunk sticks in there so there's not as much Pertus.

Gamemaster:Is it like a new bar?

Gamemaster:They just sharpen the knurling every week.

Arctos:No, my gym just has good bars.

Johnny:Jorge Jim's right.

Benny:They're just new.

Arctos:Yeah, it actually switched from the...

Benny:Do you use chalk?

Arctos:No, no, I actually switched also from the Ollie bar, which is less knurling, to the deadlifting bar.

Arctos:Because I go, oh, this would be better grip because I don't have the straps.

Arctos:And it was better grip.

Johnny:It was better grip.

Johnny:It gripped your calluses right off.

Arctos:Right off.

Anzu:I didn't know you had to trim calluses.

Arctos:Yes, make sure you do it and be much better than I am.

Arctos:Make sure they're flat.

Arctos:and they're relatively smooth and moisturized.

Arctos:If not, they're a little bit too much, and then they go, and then they take off your healthy skin.

Benny:I haven't had them take off healthy skin and bleed, but I've had them come off.

Arctos:Well, it is very common when you go online, and everyone's like, oh, you idiot.

Benny:I googled it and everyone had the same issue.

Arctos:Yeah.

Benny:There's no confirmation bias going on.

Benny:This happens a lot.

Benny:No, I'm not doubting that it happens a lot.

Arctos:Yeah.

Benny:I've just never seen it ever.

Arctos:Yeah, because you don't lift heavy enough.

Arctos:Damn.

Benny:That's also probably part of the friction that's going on.

Arctos:No, actually, okay.

Arctos:But yeah, so I thought I was never too crazy about the callus care because I figured I'm not a climber.

Arctos:It's fine.

Arctos:No, it is not fine.

Arctos:So now I'm going to have an extra bottle of liquid shock in my bag in case one of my straps goes.

Arctos:And if I don't have either, I'm just not going to deadlift.

Arctos:Lesson learned.

Gamemaster:How much does a strap cost that it makes more sense to have something else instead of a spare strap in your bag?

Benny:I don't think the dog would like the bottle of liquid chalk.

Arctos:We'll be good if he has an upset tummy.

Johnny:I don't know.

Gamemaster:That's fair.

Johnny:Maybe Leo really likes chalky things.

Benny:It's like a decoy.

Gamemaster:I will say, I've gotten things that are supposedly repellents for my cats, like spray bottles filled with liquids that cats hate, and one of them bit into it and started drinking it.

Gamemaster:So, you never know.

Gamemaster:Maybe Leo likes the liquid chalk.

Johnny:You were spraying your cat and it was like, oh, there's water in there.

Gamemaster:He should have no symptoms.

Benny:And they're not smart enough.

Gamemaster:He, like, got through a good chunk of it.

Gamemaster:Yeah, no, he was fine.

Gamemaster:It's not poison.

Arctos:No, I meant for Leo.

Gamemaster:I didn't buy, like, oh, for Leo, he might have an upset stomach.

Arctos:Liquid shock might just be Pepto.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Arctos:I don't know.

Gamemaster:That's true.

Gamemaster:Maybe it would just help his upset stomach.

Benny:They're not smart enough to have cause and effect.

Benny:So if it drank half a bottle of cat repellent and it shat itself, it'd probably be like, just happens sometimes.

Benny:Do you have any more of that cat repellent?

Gamemaster:Mm-hmm.

Gamemaster:Who knows?

Benny:you

Gamemaster:So anyway, all I've taken from this is that lifting at the gym is dangerous because you could deglove your hand.

Gamemaster:So...

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:It was actually really funny because right before this, there was like a smaller Latina next to me that was deadlifting a lot less.

Arctos:And she's like, wow, you don't need straps.

Arctos:And I was like, I normally have them.

Arctos:It's going well so far.

Arctos:And then just...

Johnny:Did you say that and then immediately pull your hands off and there was just a cartoon gout of blood?

Arctos:No, it did go like that.

Arctos:So what happened was I did two more sets, and then on my final one, I put the safety bars low so I could drop it there so it's easier to unload the weights.

Arctos:And then as I was walking over, I just saw, like, blood.

Arctos:And I was like, oh, no.

Arctos:And then when I dropped it, it was... And then one of the gym staff, I was like, I had to go get one because, like, I don't have the stuff to disinfect this, and I don't have the stuff to, like...

Arctos:clean it all you have are like wet like you know the wet wipes at gym to like wipe things down like this doesn't absorb yeah i was like this doesn't absorb so like i just so then i went down to the desk so they sent someone up and then i was also just like do you have like first aid stuff and they're like and then she's like looking because it's a newer gym and then she didn't see it uh and i was like i'll just take some hand sanitizer bad mistake i've never felt so much pain in my life i thought it was gonna be painful

Johnny:Things that one, like, sort of wipes down the mats with where they're like...

Arctos:I didn't think it would be that painful.

Arctos:I'm going to be honest with you.

Arctos:And I was like, ah!

Arctos:I didn't scream, but I was like, ah!

Johnny:So, Josh, have you ever been to the Dead Sea?

Gamemaster:No, although I know what you're about to say.

Gamemaster:Well, we can go for free.

Arctos:Wow, so you only asked the Jewish person.

Arctos:That's fucked up.

Johnny:Yep.

Arctos:Yeah, BU was going to send me for free.

Johnny:Why?

Gamemaster:What?

Benny:But you had to convert.

Arctos:They really were trying to get me to go there.

Arctos:I was getting emailed by the Hillel or whatever it is.

Arctos:They're like, go birthrights and this and shit.

Arctos:I was like, I'm not Jewish.

Benny:They still email me.

Gamemaster:Did I tell you guys about the terrible Hillel debate that they had our freshman year?

Gamemaster:The one and only time I went to abuse Hillel?

Benny:I think you did, but I can't remember what happened.

Arctos:No?

Johnny:I have not heard this story.

Arctos:I have not heard it.

Gamemaster:This was, you know, back when there was a slight lull in the diplomatic issues happening between Palestinians and Israelis in Israel, our freshman year, like, October, so we had...

Benny:you

Gamemaster:I recently started going to BU and I was like, I'll just go to the Hillel because there will be Jews there and I will meet them.

Gamemaster:And, you know, that's a community built in all that kind of stuff.

Gamemaster:They were holding an event where you could, you know, light.

Gamemaster:You just went and then you would debate on issues in Israel affecting Jews.

Gamemaster:And they had people come up and debate for one-party solution versus two-state and all that kind of stuff.

Gamemaster:And they banned, at the end of the event, everybody who spoke in favor of Palestine.

Gamemaster:Like, fully.

Gamemaster:The president was like, and I'm happy to announce that now that we've done that, we've identified people that shouldn't be in Hillel because they're enemies of Israel and asked them not to return.

Gamemaster:It was crazy.

Arctos:Were you asked not to return?

Arctos:Or are you pro-genocide?

Gamemaster:I did not debate.

Arctos:I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Gamemaster:I did not debate.

Gamemaster:I didn't return anyway, so I guess I would have been asked not to return.

Gamemaster:But that was an absurd thing for what's supposed to just be like a, hey, you know, come do birthright, come visit Israel, and then, like, do a dance and go to have a last, not a last supper.

Arctos:Go to the wall, you know.

Gamemaster:You do go to the wall.

Johnny:Yep.

Johnny:One of the things.

Benny:That's the ultimate Freudian slip.

Gamemaster:They do Passover normally.

Gamemaster:It's supposed to be, like, generally friendly.

Gamemaster:And instead they were like, you're enemies of the state.

Gamemaster:Not this state, but a state.

Gamemaster:Get out of here.

Gamemaster:It was crazy.

Johnny:Sorry, two stories.

Johnny:That is crazy.

Gamemaster:It's because the Last Supper is Passover.

Benny:Have a last supper.

Benny:We're going to kill someone here.

Gamemaster:It's like, that's why it was in my head.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:You know?

Benny:The king.

Benny:Whoever the king is here.

Johnny:Josh is pulling out 30 pieces of silver.

Johnny:Oh, where did these come from?

Arctos:You told me about that.

Johnny:I have two stories.

Gamemaster:you you

Johnny:One, I almost joined a Jewish frat freshman year, also looking for Jewish friends.

Arctos:They kept giving you free food.

Johnny:They kept giving me free food and then they were like, you're in.

Johnny:And I was like, really?

Johnny:But the other story was that one of, same story.

Johnny:One of the events was like the other people who wanted to join and like every event they would invite less and less people.

Johnny:And there was like the final event before apparently we decided to got in.

Benny:Thank you.

Johnny:And they were like chatting with folks.

Johnny:And one of the kids was like, oh, yeah, I'm in this.

Johnny:I'm in like a lot of Jewish organizations.

Johnny:I'm also in J Street.

Johnny:And I was like, I don't know what that is.

Johnny:For those who don't know, J Street is like organizations like, hey, Palestine should exist.

Johnny:And he said it.

Johnny:And everyone in the room got so quiet.

Johnny:And I was like, what's happening?

Johnny:And then the next event, I was like, hey, where's blah, blah, blah.

Johnny:And they're like, yeah, we didn't invite him back.

Johnny:And I was like, hmm.

Johnny:And then I found out later why they didn't invite him back.

Johnny:And I was like, that's kind of, that's a lot.

Gamemaster:Amen.

Johnny:It was weird vibes.

Anzu:oh yeah

Johnny:And then the other story, when I was a junior in high school, the summer after it, I went on like a mini birthright.

Johnny:And we went to the Dead Sea.

Johnny:And the thing they tell you is, you know, if you have any open wounds, don't go in the Dead Sea.

Johnny:And also don't pee in the Dead Sea.

Johnny:And so we're all standing there and all of a sudden this girl just starts screaming.

Johnny:Like, just like banshee shrieking.

Johnny:And she's like trying to stumble out of the water and like can't make it.

Johnny:And so all these people basically pick her up and rush her to the showers.

Johnny:And apparently it was quite a scene in the showers.

Johnny:And she did pee in the Dead Sea.

Benny:It would have been a lot funnier if she was like, you guys didn't say anything about pooping.

Gamemaster:Nice.

Benny:Let's do one.

Anzu:That's tough.

Gamemaster:Which would be a fair point.

Arctos:Is there fiber in Israel?

Johnny:There was a girl on the same trip who got so constipated she had to go to the hospital.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Nice.

Johnny:Nope.

Gamemaster:You sweat out all the liquid.

Arctos:Or is she just avoiding it?

Gamemaster:It's too hot.

Arctos:She was just avoiding it?

Johnny:Oh, no.

Johnny:So it was all these, it was like a bunch of kids and many of them had not traveled for an extensive period of time.

Johnny:And we were not always in like the nicest spots.

Johnny:And so there was a bunch of folks who were like, I can't poop unless it's in my house.

Anzu:Yeah, yeah.

Arctos:Uh...

Gamemaster:You talk to your toilet?

Anzu:It does happen.

Benny:Not a great compliment to the house.

Benny:I only take shits here.

Anzu:No, Mike, it means that you feel comfortable and relaxed.

Benny:Yeah, I'll tell that to my toilet next.

Benny:No, no, I just feel comfortable.

Benny:That's why I'm doing this.

Gamemaster:Do we?

Gamemaster:I want to play some Pathfinder.

Arctos:Ten minutes early.

Gamemaster:On that note.

Gamemaster:On the secure toilet note.

Arctos:Good job, Mike.

Benny:Nice.

Gamemaster:We don't need to go to 8 before we start doing anything.

Arctos:Clearly.

Anzu:Yeah, I thought we just went until somebody brought up poop and that was when we would switch over.

Gamemaster:There are two mythic points though.

Gamemaster:That is usually how we switch over.

Gamemaster:I do want to say, since we're talking about poop, I appreciate people using the Yeenut emoji every once in a while.

Gamemaster:I wasn't sure if it would see any use, but it's not easy to crop something on your phone, but it worked out.

Gamemaster:And so, you know, that's good.

Gamemaster:If you guys have any other emojis you want to add, let me know, because what else do we have Nitro for, I guess?

Arctos:I also appreciate when people use the Voidsong Discord effect.

Gamemaster:What?

Gamemaster:Oh.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Because that happens often.

Arctos:Yeah, people besides me use it all the time.

Gamemaster:I could add it to my fun stream deck so that I could just spam it when it's necessary.

Arctos:Yeah, it sounds like something that'd be in a

Arctos:old 2010s video game every time you level up.

Gamemaster:You do need a cool sound effect.

Johnny:I mean, every time we play it, we love it.

Benny:Is that how Skyrim does it?

Gamemaster:If you guys leveled up more, I would have to come up with new sounds for leveling up.

Gamemaster:Maybe you should just level up like two to three times a session.

Anzu:It's too soon.

Benny:Maybe I should go to a voice gen model, or a multimodal model, and give it Yeenut Guy, and then ask what he would sound like, and then have him do the level up sound.

Gamemaster:I don't know if I want that much Yeenut.

Gamemaster:I don't know if Mr. Yeenut should be given more responsibility.

Benny:I'm so glad that I am snaking my way through creative ways to indicate that I am playing D&D.

Benny:It started with just all Ys at the capital of sentences.

Benny:Then it went to pictures of things that start with Y. And now it's just how many different scenarios can I get an AI to generate?

Benny:Ye nut guy.

Gamemaster:I dislike that you made yourself a mascot that just means yes when he's present.

Arctos:Are you going to have a no mascot?

Gamemaster:Like, it's the most contrived hieroglyphic I've ever heard of.

Anzu:Barnaby.

Benny:When you see this creature, it means yes.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Arctos:Why?

Gamemaster:That's exactly... Right.

Arctos:Because he's a Yeenut.

Arctos:And yee starts with a Y.

Benny:He gives a thumbs up, too.

Gamemaster:Why is he the He-Nut, you ask?

Gamemaster:Good question.

Benny:He literally morphs.

Gamemaster:That's it.

Gamemaster:There's no answer to that one.

Gamemaster:The last week was terrifying.

Benny:If he's grabbing stuff, he's got three fingers and one thumb.

Benny:If he's giving the thumbs up, he has four fingers and one thumb.

Benny:Which, by the way, again, I've not told Gemini any indication about the number of thumbs.

Johnny:What?

Benny:Gemini continues to add four when there's a thumbs up and leave three, except for last week where he fucked an entire hand.

Benny:Or two weeks ago.

Gamemaster:I did not enjoy that one.

Benny:Absolutely fucked an entire hand.

Benny:Yeah, I don't know what the fuck...

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Benny:But to be fair, it's consistent.

Anzu:I presumed that the hand fell off in the plane crash.

Benny:The hand that's fucked and put on the other arm has three fingers, and the same arm with the thumbs-up hand has four.

Gamemaster:Oh, of course.

Benny:I could ask Gemini why, and maybe Gemini would say the same thing.

Gamemaster:The Yeenut Man is built like a doll.

Benny:Oh, actually...

Anzu:But, uh...

Gamemaster:His, like, hands and stuff just pop out of their joints and he can pick them up.

Benny:I guess.

Gamemaster:Because there's no blood or anything.

Gamemaster:It just looks like it kind of popped out of its socket.

Johnny:110% yin.

Benny:I like the consistent amount of hands.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Benny:The AI could have easily been like, oops, well, I still have to put one on each of the arms.

Benny:It's like, no, no, no.

Benny:The higher principle here, it's not one hand per arm.

Benny:Or at least one hand per arm.

Benny:It is at most two hands per person.

Anzu:I am noticing that his feet have different numbers of digits in today's photo.

Benny:Or exactly two hands per person.

Benny:That I haven't even looked.

Benny:Why are you looking at his feet?

Gamemaster:I mean, that's a good point.

Anzu:Because they're there.

Benny:Oh, all right.

Benny:Why didn't he give him his shoes?

Gamemaster:I'm scrolling backwards, and most other pictures, you don't see his feet.

Anzu:Well...

Benny:That was by design to keep creeps away.

Gamemaster:Although in the original Yeenut one, he does have feet.

Johnny:Oh, last week when he had three extra fingers, he did have three toes on each foot.

Gamemaster:Generally he has three toes on each foot.

Gamemaster:As I go back, it looks like he always has three toes on each foot, except when he's doing business.

Johnny:He needs the extra toe.

Benny:He puts on a prosthetic toe so that he is more culturally aligned with the four-toed that he's doing business with.

Gamemaster:Well, only on one foot.

Benny:It's true.

Benny:He's in the boardroom and he puts his feet up on the desk and puts the one with the prosthetic toe.

Gamemaster:That makes sense.

Gamemaster:Okay, now Pathfinder.

Gamemaster:Now that we've gotten Yeenut Anatomy, or Mr. Yeenut Anatomy out of the way.

Gamemaster:There are two Mythic points up for grabs today.

Gamemaster:We could do a recap of last session, because there may or may not be campaign-relevant things in it.

Gamemaster:And then we could do a recap of the last session of this campaign, because it's been a little bit, and we need a refresher.

Gamemaster:Jorge's hand is up.

Arctos:I got the one shot.

Gamemaster:Hmm.

Arctos:So we started off with three characters.

Johnny:Thank you.

Arctos:Only three.

Arctos:We were investigating a little bit of a sabotage of one of the really tall, big striders' legs.

Benny:you

Arctos:Someone put a little bit of metal piece into the pipe.

Arctos:I also realized I already gave three quarters of this to Tanner.

Arctos:when he joined and then mike gave it backwards but anyway so we go to investigate there's some uh form in there we're like oh we'll we'll take it from here big guy and he's like you're not really like a boss or anything and we're like yeah but we're trying to go up to the surface and then um one of our friends turned to the foreman and said you know they're gonna fucking kill you so then he went and camille uh committed suicide by jumping out of the leg uh

Gamemaster:Technically not.

Gamemaster:He had a chance to live.

Arctos:He might be living.

Gamemaster:It's very slim.

Arctos:We did some investigation.

Arctos:One of us looked at this resident psychometrics, saw this deformed elf guy.

Arctos:Then my character, a dwarf, was immediately just like, obviously it was an elf.

Arctos:So we start talking to people.

Arctos:We're like, who could have done this?

Arctos:They're like, well, there's three fluid masters.

Arctos:And we're like, which one's an elf?

Arctos:And he's like, only this weirdo.

Arctos:So we went over to that weirdo's quarters.

Arctos:Turns out he doesn't really talk to people.

Arctos:But they saw him gambling or walking by a gambling area.

Gamemaster:Thank you.

Arctos:So we're like, let's go over there.

Arctos:Go over to the gambling area.

Arctos:There's a bookie.

Arctos:We're like, ah, we'll bribe him.

Arctos:Wait, first, we could do fisticuff with the guy in the arena.

Arctos:Then we looked at the guy in the arena again.

Arctos:And we're just like, we will not win that fight.

Arctos:So then we just bribed the guy.

Arctos:Our dwarf friend then asked him to go get a beer.

Arctos:And he's like, OK.

Arctos:So we went to this other building of this old forgotten part of the city that's overrun by mutant stuff.

Arctos:Walked over there, fought some rats, nearly died.

Arctos:Turns out most people in this party can't heal themselves.

Arctos:Doing some more investigating.

Arctos:Then this really cool guy runs over and is like, hey guys, I heard people are fighting and I'll take some money.

Arctos:So we're like, sure, come on in.

Arctos:And then we're like, wow, where did this guy go?

Arctos:And then we saw this like super old sealed door that he definitely no one's touched in like 300 years.

Arctos:And we're like, probably through that.

Arctos:So then we muscled it open, saw a really big bug thing, and then we killed it.

Arctos:And then we didn't find that guy.

Gamemaster:Yeah, that about covers it.

Gamemaster:Only relevant piece of information you left out that might pop up later is that when you went looking for the elf guy, you had investigated his bunk and had found a carving of an unfamiliar symbol to you, a horn, the instrument, in crude line drawing inside a circle.

Gamemaster:Noah dislikes that.

Gamemaster:Alright, you get a mythic point.

Gamemaster:Does anybody else want to do a recap of the last campaign session?

Anzu:Oh, that was still upset.

Gamemaster:I guess no, it doesn't.

Benny:I'll do it.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:I'll do it.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:I can't remember, but I'm going to read my notes.

Benny:So this will be new for all of us.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:Okay, so let's see.

Benny:This was immediately after the fight.

Benny:Some stalls closed.

Benny:We walked around to the remaining booths.

Benny:There is some colored liquids and prisms.

Benny:A lot of people were rooting for Anzu to get his hand eliminated.

Benny:So we wanted them to do that.

Benny:There was also a fortune teller.

Benny:A lot of stuff was happening.

Benny:There was a dice game.

Benny:We went to a fairy ring and got attacked by various things, but ultimately bested the fairy ring.

Benny:We met some people from Brithwyn.

Benny:I don't know, a gnome or whatever.

Benny:I think we schmoozed ourselves into getting their info.

Benny:Uh, and then, uh, right.

Benny:We go into the tarot thing.

Benny:We smell burning and make will saves.

Benny:Um, we get the fool, uh, the world tree inverted in the hooded man and the forest.

Benny:Um, according to our newfound religion, this is a bunch of who we, um, uh, we learned that the heart likes paintings, oil or acrylic on canvas.

Benny:Uh,

Benny:Then we do the Prism dice stuff.

Benny:There's a game played where they figure out how to keep Anzu's hand or whatever.

Benny:I didn't pay too much attention.

Benny:And then Benny absolutely cleans up at the dice bluffing table.

Benny:We get a key, which is important.

Benny:No one believes... A very odd key, which is important.

Benny:No one believes it belongs to... Or is from...

Benny:Except Mike.

Benny:Let's see.

Benny:What else?

Johnny:Thank you.

Benny:Oh, yeah.

Benny:We head back and then we're like, well, what do we do?

Benny:Some nerd really wanted to go to the library.

Benny:We said, fuck that.

Benny:But then we're like, well, let's go visit a senator's house.

Benny:Benny's like, that sounds sick.

Benny:We'll be able to run around and have a bunch of fun unrestricted.

Benny:We go to the house.

Benny:We can't even visit the library they have there.

Benny:So the nerd's pissed.

Benny:Benny's pissed because we're locked in a room.

Benny:One of us is just eating blocks of ice with salmon inside.

Benny:And none of the Heart in this room is famous, according to our thorough research.

Gamemaster:Uh, yes-ish.

Gamemaster:There was more to that session.

Benny:Josh, if there was more in the session, I would have wrote it down.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:So, first quick... Yes.

Benny:Oh, right, the senator wasn't there because emergency meeting and... There's Butter?

Benny:Oh, Butler.

Arctos:We went to the library.

Gamemaster:Mm-hmm.

Benny:Oh, right, right, right.

Benny:Yes, okay, that makes sense.

Benny:Yeah, we went to the Belvedere Library after being in a disappointing library that has superficial books.

Benny:uh we'll are looking for the Archmechanic one of us almost got in trouble trying to get in um and uh we find that this is someone that is like hooked up to trains and some sort of torture setup um and we get information on where train transport buildings are i wrote coordinates trains transport oh this is probably what the Archmechanic does

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:I don't think you did that last bit.

Gamemaster:Yes.

Gamemaster:Okay, so where we left off last session, you guys had gotten into the Belvedere Library inside Hallia.

Gamemaster:Each of the two people here...

Gamemaster:who are actually members of Belvedere, are apparently still in good standing at Belvedere, and were each able to bring in a guest.

Gamemaster:So the four of you entered.

Gamemaster:The way that this works is it's similar to Belvedere and research libraries back in Austrene.

Gamemaster:Basically, it's this huge warehouse of books, and then you request particular topics, and those are fetched for you.

Gamemaster:You can't take the books out of the library, but you can read them while you're here.

Gamemaster:The two things that you had researched while you were in the library was first, what's an Archmechanic, which as a refresher is a very high ranking member of Prime Meridian that manages, in modern times, they manage the hearts that manage movement of the logistics devices across the city.

Arctos:you

Gamemaster:So like trains coming in and out of stations, cars going into places that they need to go, scheduling, all of that kind of stuff.

Gamemaster:Um, there is an Archmechanic of Hallia, uh, that would manage all of that stuff, um, speak to the hearts that do all of those kinds of things.

Gamemaster:The other thing that you looked up was, uh, if you recall, the Heart pieces you saw in, um, uh, Minister Vane's home, uh, were include in the meeting area that you had first entered, there was that, uh,

Gamemaster:There was that large landscape that was the skyline of Hallia, which you had rolled a really good perception check and noted that the Pharos was painted in at some point and then painted over.

Gamemaster:And then you also looked at the paintings that Arctos had in his room, which were by two artists that your research in the library noted to you are like...

Gamemaster:pet artists of the Vane household, in that they are hired and patronized by Vane to make painting for their house and for other properties, which means that they're not necessarily particularly well-known outside of the Vane household right now.

Gamemaster:That doesn't mean that the Heart isn't necessarily good, it just means that the artists aren't particularly well-known.

Gamemaster:But you are still, as we start today's session, inside of the library.

Gamemaster:You are free to request books as you wish.

Gamemaster:Or if you had something else you'd like to do for the remainder of the day, it is now probably around like a little after noon, like 1230-ish.

Gamemaster:So you have much of today if you wanted to.

Gamemaster:Yes.

Johnny:Is there like a periodicals section in this library or like current events from around the Færrin?

Gamemaster:Yeah, I... The... Around Færrin might be a little hard.

Gamemaster:You might be, like, a week or two behind if you're trying to look at newspapers from other countries.

Arctos:Thank you.

Johnny:That's fine.

Gamemaster:But they would have, like, general historical periodicals and stuff, and up to current events in Calaria.

Johnny:Okay, cool.

Johnny:I would like to...

Johnny:track back to the furthest example of someone hearing the Embercall, and then using that timeframe, see if there's any other weird cults popping up in other parts of the world.

Gamemaster:Okay, absolutely.

Gamemaster:Okay, so this is really what we're doing here is some research.

Gamemaster:What role do I want you to make to be searching through this?

Gamemaster:There's definitely one that fits better than others.

Gamemaster:If you guys need your own stats, you can use Foundry to look at character information there if Pathbuilder isn't working right now.

Arctos:Yeah, they're getting DDoSed.

Gamemaster:Why?

Johnny:Oh, shit.

Johnny:Why would somebody do that to Pathbuilder?

Arctos:No idea, but I sent the Reddit post, which the owner responded to, and then also links to their Patreon.

Gamemaster:Who cares about Pathbuilder?

Arctos:They're getting DDoSed, and they tried fixing their DNS, but then the hosting service messed up apparently the IPs in the transfer.

Arctos:So...

Gamemaster:So I think the answer to this is it's probably going to be an arcana check unless you have something else you would want to do instead and can justify it.

Johnny:I would like to try and convince the librarian to help me in that sort of help where it just ends up with them doing all the work.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:That's a diplomacy check.

Johnny:That's much better.

Anzu:I have one thing, but it probably won't take too long.

Johnny:Josh, would you mind pulling up the Jonathan Skyfall?

Gamemaster:Oh, yeah, one second.

Benny:Okay.

Gamemaster:I'm just going to dump you guys to this map.

Arctos:I'm also going to ask Anzu or Benny if they're not researching to help me out with something.

Arctos:Are you researching, Benny?

Arctos:Wait, is Benny good at researching?

Arctos:Never mind.

Arctos:I'll wait for Arctos.

Arctos:No, for Anzu.

Johnny:Got an 18.

Gamemaster:Okay, so you're generally a pretty amiable person.

Gamemaster:The problem is that the librarians here, the people who work here, have their own jobs to do.

Gamemaster:They're not really a service.

Gamemaster:It's expected that if you're coming to this library, you know how to do your own research.

Gamemaster:So I think the best you're going to get with that role is they're going to be like, yeah, if you're looking, you want to look over in this section.

Gamemaster:So I'll give you a plus two to your check.

Gamemaster:But unfortunately, you're not going to be able to get anybody to come and do the search for you.

Johnny:okay i will he said arcana i got a 12.

Gamemaster:Yep.

Gamemaster:Because there isn't, like... In 5e, I would call it a history check, but...

Gamemaster:Okay, well, if you insult the librarians in the circumstance bonus, I don't know if I'm inclined to even give that to you.

Gamemaster:No, that's fine.

Gamemaster:Yeah, with 12, unfortunately, like...

Gamemaster:So they don't have anything that is just strictly keyword search here.

Gamemaster:You can't just control F library for cult or Embercall or anything like that.

Gamemaster:So, like, the best you can do with this role is you can pull up...

Gamemaster:all of the periodicals for a particular time range and then just try and quickly flip through them.

Benny:you

Gamemaster:It will take a long time to do it if you don't have anything to speed up that process.

Johnny:I'll just turn to the group and I'll say, all right, I'm doing this until we have something better to do.

Gamemaster:But if you're trying to brute force this information in particular, you can spend a few hours and just swipe through a bunch of magazines and newspapers and the like.

Arctos:I will flag down.

Arctos:I'll actually just turn to the librarian, the big fish.

Arctos:Sorry, not big fish.

Arctos:That Johnny Skyfall was talking to and go.

Gamemaster:Roll a diplomacy check?

Arctos:Can you help me with my search, please?

Arctos:And I hold out a gold piece.

Arctos:I'm not good at those.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Anzu:But the gold gets you a circumstance bonus.

Gamemaster:Uh, no.

Arctos:Or just lower the DC.

Gamemaster:Neither of those.

Arctos:Oh, very rude.

Anzu:Oh, you're rolling a check to not get ejected for bribing.

Arctos:OK.

Gamemaster:Yes.

Arctos:Why is this bribing?

Gamemaster:Not for bribing, just for being rude.

Gamemaster:Okay, you didn't critically fail.

Arctos:Not.

Gamemaster:So they're going to say, we don't do that here.

Gamemaster:Either look up the information you need or leave.

Anzu:Sir, this is a Wendy's.

Arctos:I thought, my bad, my bad.

Arctos:And when I turn, I'm like, my brains don't like to help people.

Arctos:That's messed up.

Anzu:Arctos, I will help you.

Anzu:I just need 10-15 minutes.

Arctos:All right.

Arctos:You guys are mean.

Arctos:I don't like it here.

Anzu:Well, they're very busy.

Anzu:They've got a lot to do.

Gamemaster:Yeah, I think library is probably a bit of a misnomer.

Arctos:What are they doing?

Arctos:They're not helping people.

Gamemaster:It is a research library.

Gamemaster:The librarians here are really either archivists, which are working to maintain the collection, or researchers doing active research.

Gamemaster:You're just kind of allowed to reference the same materials as them.

Anzu:Arctos, you know when you go traveling around the city to different public events and boosting morale and stuff like that?

Anzu:Imagine someone came up to you and was asking you to do something totally different and not nearly as fun or exciting.

Arctos:Yep.

Arctos:Like what?

Arctos:What's the event, and what do they ask me to do?

Anzu:Well, you are going in front of a crowd of newly training soldiers and members of the church.

Arctos:OK.

Anzu:As an example, no, no, because that might be part of the event, right?

Arctos:And then someone asked me how to fight with a sword.

Arctos:Oh, okay.

Arctos:You see the confusion, right?

Anzu:Uh-huh.

Anzu:Let's say someone asked you, while you were talking to these young folks and showing them about glory and whatnot, they asked you to cook them some porridge.

Arctos:Yeah.

Anzu:You'd be like, I can't do this right now.

Arctos:Am I... I guess, but I feel like that'd be more like...

Anzu:Look at all the glory there is to spread.

Anzu:I can't make porridge.

Arctos:If I was in a kitchen giving a pep talk to cooks and talking to them, and then someone asked me to help cook them something, and I was like, sure, here's a gold.

Arctos:Take it.

Anzu:That's pretty insightful.

Anzu:Maybe you came up with a better example than me.

Anzu:But I'll get back to you in a few minutes, okay?

Arctos:I am pretty wise.

Arctos:Okay.

Anzu:And Josh, what I want to look up is I want to figure out who this second among equals Thistle Monroe is.

Anzu:So I'm just going to see if I can pull articles on them.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:I don't know.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:I mean...

Anzu:There was a news article that came up last time, so I don't know if that's a thing.

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Anzu:But I can use my academia lore instead, right?

Gamemaster:So, same deal.

Gamemaster:I need an Arcana check here.

Gamemaster:And what's going to happen is you're going to be pulling up... Like, you know that this is a religious figure in some way.

Gamemaster:So...

Gamemaster:Correct, you can use your academia lore instead.

Anzu:I search good.

Anzu:28.

Gamemaster:I should probably pull up the tab so I can see where you guys roll.

Johnny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:28, OK.

Gamemaster:So I think the thing to latch onto there is more like in the same thing where you were looking at what an Archmechanic is.

Gamemaster:I think the thing to latch onto there is the title and not the person necessarily to try and figure out like what organization, all of that kind of stuff that is.

Gamemaster:And that does get you some information.

Gamemaster:The second among equal is a member of a conclave of laity, which is technically not part of the Iridescent Church.

Johnny:Okay.

Gamemaster:They are a secular organization.

Gamemaster:They are a... They don't really advertise themselves all that much, but they are...

Gamemaster:technically a private army.

Gamemaster:In practice, it is an open secret that laity reports to the Iridescent Church and is essentially a firm that is hired by the church to do things that the church wants, but doesn't necessarily want directly associated with the church name.

Gamemaster:They operate in conclaves of usually 10 to 12 people who are all supposedly equals, but then are given rankings of first among equals, second among equals, so on and so forth.

Gamemaster:So you gather that Mr. Monroe is a high-ranking member of a conclave of laity.

Gamemaster:Anything else?

Anzu:Arctos, what did you need help with?

Arctos:Can you see if there's any literature on awoken animals?

Johnny:Thank you.

Anzu:Yeah, sure.

Anzu:I think there is some spellcraft involved.

Anzu:It does happen, but let's see what we can find.

Arctos:Like divinely awoken animals or bears or, you know.

Anzu:Oh, yeah.

Gamemaster:I will note, I believe Aut did tell you about every instance of awakened bears, specifically, on Færrin.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:So are you, like, looking to broaden the horizon there, or are you looking to corroborate his story?

Arctos:Or also just see what info they had.

Gamemaster:Okay, sure.

Gamemaster:If... Sorry.

Johnny:you you

Anzu:You go ahead.

Gamemaster:I was just going to say, if Anzu is looking to look up information there, he can make a lore check, if he likes.

Arctos:Could you also look up some BBBs?

Arctos:Big Booty Bears?

Anzu:Okay.

Anzu:Uh... So... Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Gamemaster:so okay so you could just take the hero point and let

Anzu:We can't move forward yet, because... Oh, no.

Anzu:Uh... Do I want to use my hero point to help Arctos?

Anzu:That's the real question here.

Johnny:to find big booty bears.

Anzu:No, for the first thing.

Arctos:That's okay.

Anzu:Because I got a critical failure.

Gamemaster:Ark does wallow in never knowing about his brethren.

Gamemaster:A fate worse than death.

Anzu:no let's just why don't we just do it let's have a little fun right if we get something really high we could learn something cool did it just happen

Arctos:Arctos will not think you're very good at researching, but that's okay.

Arctos:You don't have to.

Arctos:It's okay if you don't want to.

Arctos:No.

Benny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:What?

Anzu:I clicked, but it didn't re-roll.

Anzu:No, you guys aren't seeing a new roll, are you?

Gamemaster:I am not.

Gamemaster:It shouldn't, um... Strange.

Anzu:Let's try it again.

Arctos:Do you have a hero point?

Anzu:I'm clicking to re-roll, and it is spending my mythic point, but it's not actually re-rolling.

Arctos:A mythic point, I mean.

Johnny:you you

Anzu:Let's refresh.

Anzu:Well, now I'm upset.

Anzu:I'm an expert, so it goes up by six.

Anzu:Is that right?

Gamemaster:I rerolled it on your... Oh my god, we don't have to count that.

Gamemaster:Because I forced the reroll, but I gave you my luck.

Gamemaster:So we're not doing that.

Gamemaster:You get a plus 15 instead of your normal expert bonus.

Anzu:Oh, I see.

Arctos:That's 19, right?

Anzu:Plus 19 total, yeah.

Anzu:What is happening?

Gamemaster:I don't know.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Gamemaster:That rolled something.

Arctos:Yay.

Arctos:Oh.

Arctos:Much better.

Johnny:Ooh, wow.

Anzu:I got a 38.

Gamemaster:Cool.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:With a 38, I'm not going to justify the second request.

Anzu:No, I wasn't looking for that.

Gamemaster:Okay, for the first request, one second, let me double check something.

Gamemaster:I have to go back a message I sent Jorge a long time ago to confirm the name of this thing.

Gamemaster:Why don't I just... I should just always have all of these things prepared.

Gamemaster:Literally any message I ever send to any of you.

Arctos:Is it in my Arctos stock?

Gamemaster:No.

Johnny:the Heart Doc.

Gamemaster:Um... It's not in your arc doc.

Gamemaster:It is.

Gamemaster:I can't find it.

Gamemaster:Oh, actually, I know where I can find it.

Gamemaster:Apologies.

Gamemaster:I don't have my awakened animal lore.

Gamemaster:That's what they're called.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:So tell me again specifically what you're looking for.

Gamemaster:What are you actually researching?

Anzu:If I may say something first, I think Anzu's first step would be to find a book on actual arcane means as opposed to divine means.

Benny:you

Arctos:Cool.

Gamemaster:Hmm.

Anzu:Is that a thing in Pathfinder?

Anzu:I know there's Awakening in 5e.

Anzu:Anyway, that would be the first step, just to see if there's history of mages doing it.

Gamemaster:Excuse me.

Anzu:And then I guess we'll go from there.

Gamemaster:Okay, well... Yeah, so we can start with that.

Gamemaster:So, first trying to look up arcane means of awakening an animal.

Gamemaster:There are ways to do it, assuming that somebody is attempting to do so.

Gamemaster:You don't have to be a mage, though.

Gamemaster:This would be... I don't say public knowledge is probably the wrong term, but it's not necessarily secret.

Gamemaster:It's known that there is a ritual that can be used to awaken an animal where you have to spend some amount of resources to grant intelligence to a beast.

Gamemaster:It is the awaken animal ritual.

Gamemaster:At the time, Arctos probably would have been a level... Actually, what level creature is a polar bear?

Gamemaster:Level five?

Gamemaster:Okay, so it would have been a fourth level ritual and cost 480 gold pieces worth of rare reagents.

Gamemaster:But it would have been possible.

Anzu:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Like, if a group of... Actually, how many people need to participate in this ritual?

Gamemaster:Four.

Gamemaster:If a group of four people really wanted to make a bear sentient, they could do so.

Gamemaster:Assuming they had researched the actual knowledge required to complete the ritual.

Gamemaster:But it's not a secret that the ritual exists.

Anzu:The next thing that I want to try to find is if there's any book on...

Anzu:miracles that are associated with the Iridescent Church?

Gamemaster:Hmm?

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:That's fine.

Gamemaster:We can go off the same roll there.

Gamemaster:Looking for miracles.

Gamemaster:So...

Gamemaster:There are a lot of miracles associated with the Iridescent Church.

Gamemaster:There are a lot of miracles associated with all of the outer gods.

Gamemaster:The Iridescent Church just is the loudest about recording every miracle that they've come across and then advertising it because it is good for the church to know that active miracles are happening.

Benny:you you

Gamemaster:So really the question is, are you looking for miracles like Arctos, like animals being awakened and the like?

Anzu:I mean, if it's there, I'd love it.

Gamemaster:Or...

Gamemaster:Well, so if you're just looking for miracles in general, you would find, if you look in recent years, Arctos is listed as a miracle of the Iridescent Church.

Gamemaster:Like, there would be records specifically of Arctos the polar bear being awakened by the host.

Gamemaster:I would note, because you scored really high on your roll, you would not be able to find...

Gamemaster:Another instance of an animal being awakened by the host.

Gamemaster:The closest you could get is if you're looking at specifically animals being awakened and miracles along those lines that aren't necessarily tied to the host, just in general, you would learn that there is a... Because you're in Belvedere, and Belvedere doesn't necessarily have a slant towards the host, and they're trying to keep a more objective view of the world, necessarily.

Gamemaster:There is an...

Gamemaster:active belief in Belvedere that it is possible for animals and objects to spontaneously become sentient.

Gamemaster:The mechanism by which this might happen is not particularly well understood.

Gamemaster:because it's very rare.

Gamemaster:Looking through records that you can find of awakened animals and the like in this library, there are only a handful of instances of it being confirmed to have happened.

Gamemaster:Notably, Arctos would be in some of Belvedere's research as to how animals and the like awaken, because the theory for a very long time

Gamemaster:was that when magic is stagnant, when mana is stagnant from the local weave in an area for a long enough period of time, it kind of layers over itself over and over and over again on an object.

Arctos:Thank you.

Gamemaster:And eventually those layers become complex enough that they spontaneously...

Gamemaster:give sentience to the thing that they've layered on.

Gamemaster:When that happens to an object, it's called a yaoguai.

Gamemaster:And the thought was that could possibly happen to an animal as well.

Gamemaster:The only problem being is that it's assumed that a yaoguai is awakened over the course of years of not moving and staying in this stagnant, layered magic.

Gamemaster:For Arctos' case, Arctos was not in the same space for an extended period of time.

Gamemaster:So it's kind of thrown that theory a little bit in disarray.

Gamemaster:Because the conclusion can't be if something stays in an area with powerful magic for an extended period of time and becomes sentient.

Gamemaster:Because as far as Belvedere is aware, Arctos, the story is that he was in an alley and awakened spontaneously to defend his master.

Gamemaster:But he had only just entered the alley when that happened.

Gamemaster:And other people had walked through that alley without issue.

Gamemaster:So there is an open question of how do animals awaken and is that different from our understanding of how objects awaken?

Gamemaster:And so the conclusion that was reached by the Belvederean document is the host awakened this bear because they don't have enough credible evidence for anything else to have naturally caused it to happen.

Benny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:And so then that particular line of investigation was closed.

Arctos:Hmm.

Anzu:Archdos, your existence currently represents the cutting edge of research in the field of created sentience.

Arctos:Hmm.

Anzu:Some of the best minds on this world don't understand how you came to be.

Arctos:You're saying I'm one of the best minds in this world?

Anzu:I'm saying that your mind is incredibly unique.

Arctos:And he puts his paws like this.

Arctos:Great.

Arctos:Thank you for proving this.

Arctos:Did you find the second thing I asked?

Anzu:You know what?

Anzu:I think that maybe someone else is working on that, and so the books weren't available.

Arctos:Oh, working on that.

Arctos:Okay.

Gamemaster:I would also note, Anzu, as you're looking through these research papers and you're getting to the cutting edge of this particular field, there are notes written by the active researcher to the effect of...

Gamemaster:If we could dissect Arctos and see the internals of how his brain has changed compared to a regular polar bear, you don't need to bring that up to Arctos necessarily, but there is definitely a line of question of get Arctos' corpse and then a small inquiry of average lifespan of polar bear.

Anzu:I don't mention that section.

Gamemaster:There's an open investigation there, but it's not being, you know... Correct!

Arctos:non-magical polar bear.

Arctos:They don't know how long magical polar bears last.

Arctos:Yes.

Arctos:Arctos adjusts his monocle.

Anzu:I think I've looked up most of what I want to look up for now.

Benny:Can Benny research?

Gamemaster:No, it's illegal.

Gamemaster:Oh, sorry, when you're saying that, is it because you want Anzu to help Benny research?

Benny:Oh.

Benny:No.

Benny:Benny is fine researching himself.

Gamemaster:Oh, okay, then yeah, absolutely.

Gamemaster:What does Benny want to research?

Benny:Benny would like to see if there is some sort of a directory of known hearts.

Gamemaster:So Benny, without researching anything, would know that the answer there is no.

Benny:Do we have an indication of which org rapid connection is part of?

Gamemaster:If you could be more specific, the answer might be maybe.

Gamemaster:Like, a particular organization's hearts, known hearts in an area, stuff of that, like... I mean, I think you guys have a pretty good idea.

Benny:Did we get anything more rock solid?

Gamemaster:You haven't gotten direct, uh...

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:connection but so you know specifically that an Archmechanic is an employee for prime meridian um you didn't you didn't necessarily learn that this particular part works with prime meridian um but you you learned that the guy that supposedly could lead you there does

Benny:But it's part of a transport org?

Arctos:We know the guy who works with him.

Benny:I don't know the names of... Right, okay.

Benny:That'd be really weird if there was... Well, actually, that's not... Never mind.

Benny:I was going to say, it'd be really weird if there was a guy that knew or had a heart somewhere that was not part of the powerful org he was part of.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:But if he is the Archmechanic, I don't know.

Benny:So the name indicates that it would be some sort of transport, like rapid connection, vaguely transport-related.

Arctos:And doesn't... Archmechanics... Yeah, didn't... But he also just... Isn't Archmechanics' job to deal with the hearts that deal with the stuff?

Benny:But this guy is also the Archmechanic, so he knows where everything is.

Benny:That's true.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:I think it's not a leap of faith to assume it's in that order.

Benny:It's part of Prime Meridian.

Arctos:Yeah.

Benny:The central heart repository not existing.

Benny:Because Benny wanted to look into rapid connection.

Benny:I guess the way of inquiry would have to go into Prime Meridian related materials and then attempt to find hearts that were part of the transport system.

Benny:And then what was the name of the heart that we found in the basement of the auto body basement, the fucking layer of the auto body?

Anzu:Oh.

Johnny:Oh.

Gamemaster:Iron gauntlet in a glass glove.

Benny:Yeah, yeah.

Benny:Looking into iron gauntlet and a glass glove, but we don't know if that's even known and there's no central place where they list what's known.

Benny:So we wouldn't know if it's known.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:So part of the issue with having a central repository or anything like that is you don't need to register a heart when it's created.

Gamemaster:You just make one, and then now you have one.

Gamemaster:So in order for Belvedere to have any information about which particular hearts are associated with

Gamemaster:a particular org or something like that, they would need to have learned about it through some other channel.

Gamemaster:So Belvedere knows about all of the Belvederean hearts because their internal logging system will have registered all of the hearts that are made as part of Belvedere's work.

Benny:I don't mean like a registry.

Gamemaster:But when you start talking about hearts that are internal to another org's operations, there isn't a lot of reason for them to just broadcast, hey, these are all of our hearts.

Benny:I just mean like a record.

Benny:Like if it was mentioned somewhere in a news thing, oh, so-and-so had this heart in their house that did this.

Benny:And then you would just have like, here is added to the list of known hearts that exist.

Gamemaster:Yeah, I don't believe there would be something like that.

Gamemaster:At the very least, not here.

Gamemaster:There might be something in Belvedere, like all the way back in Austrene, where they're trying to track that kind of stuff.

Gamemaster:But that wouldn't just be a resource available, necessarily.

Benny:I see.

Johnny:you

Benny:OK, yeah, we'll look at the hearts associated with Prime Meridian slash Rapid Connection themselves.

Gamemaster:You can try that.

Gamemaster:Your lore also fits here, so I'll allow you to make a lore check as well.

Gamemaster:You all have advanced lore, whatever the actual name of that feat is, so you should be an expert in your lore.

Benny:oh lower skills okay i was looking for it alphabetically did my role go through oh all right well

Gamemaster:Oh, actually, I can just make you guys experts in your lore.

Gamemaster:Excuse me.

Gamemaster:Yep, I see you got a 26.

Johnny:Hmm?

Gamemaster:Foundry's been weird.

Gamemaster:I don't know if it's like a recent update or something, but every once in a while it just seems like they've been dropping local rules.

Gamemaster:I don't know why it's been doing that.

Gamemaster:Refreshing might make it show up again.

Benny:It did.

Benny:I see the rule now, yeah.

Gamemaster:Oh, and you're also listed as Gage the Cunning.

Gamemaster:Change that.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:With the 26, looking around, I think even with the 26, unfortunately, you would not be able to find a reference specifically to rapid connection.

Gamemaster:I think the closest you'd get is there would be newspaper clippings and the like.

Gamemaster:from all the way back near Prime Meridian's founding, where they're first talking about, you're kind of overlapping with the Archmechanic information, talking about them setting up the initial transit nexus, nexi, around the city and where the hearts are being installed as they're being input.

Gamemaster:They're not naming the... They don't list the names of the hearts that are being installed, because this was really more of a fluff piece from Prime Meridian, being like, hey, look at all of this cool stuff we're doing.

Gamemaster:We're adding A, B, and C. So I think it would give you information that there are three major hearts that are being used to coordinate Hallia, at least of when they installed them, which is like...

Gamemaster:close to a century ago at this point so that might have expanded since then um but you would know that of the three there is one in Sableclutch um which might lie that like lines up with you had originally asked if for the keystone closest to the Sin and Tonic so you get that that's probably the best chance of where that particular part would be

Benny:Okay.

Gamemaster:Anything else?

Gamemaster:Or are we going to... How long are you leaving Johnny to flip through these periodicals to just collate every single cult reference he can find?

Arctos:Arctos will be helping too.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Arctos:Arctos... Give me one second.

Johnny:About an hour and a half in, I just look up at Arctos and I go, hey, look, this one's a little cult to you.

Johnny:It's like five guys here in Calaria.

Gamemaster:There is an Arctos fan club in Calaria.

Johnny:They have T-shirts.

Arctos:That's... We should go say hi to them.

Johnny:T-shirts.

Arctos:What do you think?

Gamemaster:So...

Arctos:Didn't they try to kill me?

Gamemaster:So the particular newspaper clipping that Johnny was looking at that talks about your fan club is actually talking about how this particular fan club is all incarcerated now because they attempted to break into Minister Vane's home to say hello to you.

Johnny:They're in jail.

Gamemaster:And that did not work out well for them.

Gamemaster:But as part of an interview that they were giving while they were being arrested, they said that they knew it wasn't your fault.

Gamemaster:So they still fervently are your fans.

Arctos:Amazing.

Arctos:I'll call upon them at some point.

Arctos:Arctos has a minus one to int, but he's still helping out.

Gamemaster:Okay, yeah, absolutely.

Arctos:Midway through, he's going to stop and go, I am one of the most special minds of modern magic.

Johnny:Immediately after he says this, you walk to pick up one of the papers that Johnny has just discarded and realize he's been pulling from Johnny's discard pile.

Arctos:Just to let you know.

Arctos:Arctos would not realize that.

Gamemaster:Do it.

Arctos:Johnny might.

Arctos:Arctos wouldn't.

Gamemaster:So all of the research that Benny and Anzu were doing kind of runs concurrently to Johnny and Arctos flipping through their periodicals, noting down cult stuff.

Gamemaster:I will say it takes about three hours for you, like the team of the two of you, going through and collating all of the information you can find.

Gamemaster:But if you're willing to spend the three hours, you do pick out some information that might be of interest.

Johnny:on the three hours.

Gamemaster:So... So...

Arctos:And then we'll head back to Minister Vane's house after this.

Benny:He's...

Gamemaster:flipping through the periodicals, the oldest reference you can find to the Embercall is a little under two years ago.

Gamemaster:It is, timeline-wise, about six months after the first reference to the Voidsong.

Gamemaster:And the name the Embercall is first used...

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:In the context of Teller's Run gets surrounded in flame, and part of the initial reports for Teller's Run being surrounded in flame is that when there was initially an attempt by the local government to breach through the flame to get to the people inside and rescue them from whatever this magical calamity was,

Gamemaster:the majority of the people who breached the flame never returned, but a small fraction of them were actually let back out and were mumbling about something called the Embercall and having heard it, but quickly expired after they had communicated that small fraction.

Arctos:Thank you.

Gamemaster:And so that's kind of just like part of a blurb from a quote from one of the responders talking about what they heard from people when they came back out.

Gamemaster:There is another reference a few months later to the Embercall, also related to Teller's Run.

Gamemaster:Apparently, the... So...

Gamemaster:Like for a little bit of context, Teller's Run itself is a generally poor neighborhood, but there was an ill-fated attempt to build effectively a skyscraper in the middle of Teller's Run by an aeronautics company where they were trying to move their headquarters out there.

Gamemaster:They figured it would be cheap and it would revitalize the area, and they thought Teller's Run would turn into this big new upscale area.

Gamemaster:They got like 80% of the way through building the skyscraper before the company folded.

Gamemaster:They effectively got pushed out of the market by...

Gamemaster:Shoot, what are they called?

Gamemaster:Hildebrandt, which had gone ahead with their commercial airlines and kind of just took over the market there.

Gamemaster:So the skyscraper itself sat unfinished in the middle of Teller's Run.

Gamemaster:It seems that about six months after the Wall of Fire was enacted around Teller's Run...

Gamemaster:Lights were seen from within the skyscraper as if people had moved in and started construction of some kind.

Gamemaster:And a few months after that, an emissary was let out of the fire cordon around Teller's Run to tell people that they would be allowed to enter Teller's Run specifically only to attend...

Gamemaster:a party being held by Pyre inside of that spire in the center of the city.

Gamemaster:The newspaper, the person reporting on it, the journalist notes that they were not able to get entry and they are unsure of who was available for who was made allowed to enter.

Gamemaster:But it is known that a week after the emissary emerged, there were sounds from people who were listening at the edge of Teller's Run.

Gamemaster:You could hear the sounds of music playing from the interior of the skyscraper.

Gamemaster:And...

Gamemaster:From then on, every two weeks or so, it sounds like some kind of event happens inside of the skyscraper.

Gamemaster:And that emissary made a reference to a celebration of the Embercall when referring to people being admitted to that party.

Johnny:you you

Gamemaster:Yes?

Arctos:Actually, continue.

Arctos:That was the question after.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:That's actually the last mention of Embercall specifically.

Gamemaster:as you're going through.

Gamemaster:You would also find references unrelated to the founding of a radio communications company called Embercall Incorporated.

Gamemaster:That, like, it shows up near, like, the end of the newspaper in, like, the listing section.

Gamemaster:It looks like they were hiring about a year ago.

Gamemaster:But other than that, you don't find any references there.

Gamemaster:Looking for cults or something related to that elsewhere on Færrin, in Færrin or Edan.

Gamemaster:The answer is yes.

Gamemaster:There have been a startling increase in the number of pseudo-religious groups that don't necessarily associate with any of the accepted six outer gods.

Gamemaster:um quite a few that happen to have a flame motif a fire motif um in various parts of the country they are generally speaking short-lived uh a lot of the news articles that you find are uh like veltharan police stamp out small fire cult cell uh in tor strand or something along those lines uh but there is a definite like marked increase in the number of cults uh referencing

Johnny:I call Anzu over and have him assist in this.

Gamemaster:non-outer god entities as what gives them power.

Gamemaster:I will allow you, as you're looking at this data, a very difficult arcana check to try and connect individual pieces of this to any greater whole.

Gamemaster:That is absolutely allowed if Anzu would like to.

Anzu:Well, you've laid some very strong groundwork here.

Johnny:Anzu, there's something here.

Johnny:Me and Arctos are just too dumb to figure it out.

Anzu:Well, let me take a look at your notes and some of the things you've gathered.

Arctos:That's what Arctos looks like when he's explaining it on this whiteboard that he rolled out.

Gamemaster:So the image had loaded for me.

Gamemaster:It was just gray and I knew exactly what you were talking about.

Gamemaster:And then it loaded and I'm like, oh yeah, that's what I thought it was.

Gamemaster:If you like to.

Anzu:I knew what it was by the name of the link that popped up in the corner of my screen.

Anzu:So am I allowed to make this check on their behalf, like jumping in at this point?

Gamemaster:Yeah, absolutely.

Gamemaster:If he brings you in and he's like, hey, I've been looking at this stuff.

Gamemaster:Can you help me put it together?

Anzu:And you'd like Arcana.

Gamemaster:I would.

Arctos:It's a shame he's your hero point.

Anzu:Actually, it's the same, so it doesn't matter.

Gamemaster:You can use your lore.

Johnny:you you

Gamemaster:I don't know if that's the same as the Arcana, but your lore fits.

Anzu:They are the same.

Anzu:Oh, no.

Gamemaster:All right.

Anzu:Well, I guess I probably should have said it.

Gamemaster:With a 19, unfortunately the only thing really you can put together from this data is that the...

Gamemaster:There's an interesting phenomenon of around six months or so after the Voidsong is first heard.

Gamemaster:That's when Teller's Run was enclosed.

Gamemaster:There is a burst of a bunch of these fire-based cults all around that six-month period that get caught and kind of stamped out.

Gamemaster:And then it kind of tapers off from there.

Gamemaster:If you look in the past handful of months, there isn't nearly as much news about these fire cults or anything like that.

Anzu:Mm hmm.

Arctos:So why don't the armies of the Iridescent Host just like stomp out Teller's Run?

Arctos:Is it that they can't or they won't?

Gamemaster:The official stance

Gamemaster:of the government of Calaria is that Teller's Run was already a slump and it's not worth the expenditure of resources to go in and try and take it back.

Johnny:That means that they don't think they can.

Johnny:That's bad.

Johnny:Josh, so that answers most of my questions.

Johnny:The other big thing I want to know, there's no, like, no one's out there hearing, like, Giant Song or Esoterica verse.

Gamemaster:Since you just spent three hours combing through periodicals talking about cults and the like, the only other thing I think you'd pick up is there is a small note about an Istrian strider.

Gamemaster:that reportedly the entire structure began humming some weird melody and then slipped somewhere and has not been seen nor heard of since.

Johnny:I don't even notice.

Gamemaster:That happened like two months ago.

Anzu:I have a... Hold on.

Johnny:Thanks.

Arctos:All right, should we go back to see if Vane came back?

Anzu:I just have a question that you guys made me think of.

Anzu:This may be stupid, but there are...

Anzu:Like, giants that exist.

Anzu:Like, Giant kind is a thing?

Anzu:Or no?

Gamemaster:Yeah, so giants are known in that it's believed that there is a Joker world somewhere on the horizon that is the home of the giants.

Johnny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Occasionally, giants are seen by people traveling across the horizon, having themselves moved away from their home.

Gamemaster:There aren't any known giants that live on Færrin Prime.

Anzu:Mm-hmm.

Anzu:Interesting.

Gamemaster:It's kind of... It's the same as, like, devils and fey and the like.

Gamemaster:They're creatures that are known to... Their home exists somewhere on the horizon, and sometimes they make their way towards the... towards the Prime Varan, but... Yeah.

Arctos:How about angels?

Anzu:Yeah.

Arctos:Do they live in their Joker Worlds?

Arctos:Are they in the Godhome?

Arctos:Do they even exist?

Gamemaster:Uh... So, angels...

Gamemaster:Well, angels as part of the religious structure are beings that are created by the Outer Gods to work as their emissaries on Færrin Prime, live on Færrin Prime.

Gamemaster:They're created by the Outer Gods to deal with everybody in this part of the Horizon.

Gamemaster:There isn't a known... It's thought that if they exist somewhere, it's within the Godhome.

Gamemaster:Um, but it's, there isn't like a city of angels supposedly on the horizon somewhere, if that's the question.

Johnny:This is sort of a lore question.

Johnny:This might be above Johnny's pay grade.

Johnny:Is the horizon completely separate from the world tree slash the wick?

Johnny:Is that like a totally different... Are those two totally different concepts or is there overlap there?

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Um, roll an occultism check.

Arctos:Thank you.

Gamemaster:to see how much Johnny would know about that.

Gamemaster:Even if you fail, there's like some base knowledge, but if you succeed, maybe there's more info.

Johnny:Ooh, 26.

Gamemaster:Good roll.

Gamemaster:There is a bunch of academic contention about the horizon and how it relates to the world tree and the wick and all that kind of stuff.

Gamemaster:The two prevailing theories are each time you move from one horizon to the next, you move to a completely new, unrelated world tree.

Gamemaster:And then the other view is there are different parts of, like, the trunk.

Gamemaster:Like, you're just moving to a different spot on the world tree at the same time.

Gamemaster:There is no way, really, to confirm either of those theories.

Gamemaster:Like, they don't have any way to empirically decide because the world tree is just a construct for understanding things.

Gamemaster:So it really depends on who you ask.

Johnny:Okay.

Johnny:That's all my questions.

Johnny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Anything else, Lord, don't be while you guys are in the library and have maybe access to it.

Anzu:No, but the reason I was asking about giants is because I would expect a powerful creature that hates the small folk would not be trying to reach the ears of small folk.

Arctos:Hmm.

Johnny:Yeah.

Benny:I thought that was discussed when we were in the room with Iron Fingers and Glass Wrist or whatever.

Anzu:But if there is a Joker world of giants somewhere, they could be becoming more empowered than they previously were.

Arctos:Great.

Johnny:That's a good call.

Johnny:Supergiant.

Benny:When we were talking about why they would want to talk to beings on the planet, it's like, well, they just want to burn everything down.

Gamemaster:Good stuff.

Benny:So they'll take control of some of them to kill a bunch of them.

Anzu:It is possible, yes.

Anzu:Unless there's... Unless this being has a layer of pride within their hatred.

Anzu:Could be that they don't... Like, that particular individual would not stoop to that level.

Arctos:What were all of them again?

Anzu:I don't know.

Anzu:That's just conjecture.

Arctos:There was Giant fire Pyre.

Benny:Level.

Arctos:There's... Regency?

Johnny:It was Giant, Pyre, Herald, Esoterica, the Dattler and Waldorf.

Gamemaster:Pyre.

Anzu:War?

Arctos:Regency?

Gamemaster:Regent.

Arctos:Was that one?

Gamemaster:Regent and War.

Arctos:Regent.

Benny:marriott regency double tree expect

Arctos:Did you guys look into those guys at all?

Gamemaster:Double tree.

Anzu:I haven't... I don't expect to see much from them.

Arctos:Did...

Arctos:Do you guys want to look into Aut?

Anzu:Definitely not.

Johnny:That seems like a bad route to go.

Gamemaster:Just reaching.

Johnny:I mean, we don't have any confirmation that they are reaching out, though.

Anzu:I keep forgetting where I... Carry on.

Arctos:Regency.

Arctos:Who do you think's reaching out to that?

Arctos:Who do you think Regency is reaching out to?

Benny:uh region Pyre is head of marketing region does do or or

Johnny:That's the thing.

Johnny:Because we only know that Pyre has definitively reached out.

Arctos:I think Grayson is talking to Regent.

Johnny:I think he's double-dipping.

Johnny:I think he's doing Voidsong and Regent Song.

Arctos:Well, do we have him confirmed listening to Embercall?

Anzu:Voidsong Nu Metal

Johnny:We haven't confirmed this into Voidsong.

Johnny:I'll confirm that one.

Arctos:Yeah, but...

Arctos:The Voidsong might just be a genre.

Benny:And.

Arctos:And then there's an Embercall, which is in there.

Arctos:There's Giants Call.

Arctos:It might be a genre coming from over there.

Johnny:It's like it's all metal music, but some of it's death metal, some of it's fire metal, some of it's new metal.

Arctos:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Arctos:Because there was a lot of people over at that demon party.

Anzu:Yeah, and not all of them were resonating with the Voidsong.

Anzu:A lot of them were.

Arctos:A lot were.

Arctos:That's why I think that they all might have been resonating.

Anzu:Many more than your average group of people.

Johnny:Yeah, which is odd.

Arctos:Because who would Voidsong correspondence in this?

Johnny:I think Boyd's a little bit different.

Anzu:I don't think it's any of them.

Johnny:Yeah.

Arctos:You think there's a seventh actor here?

Johnny:Because we've heard...

Arctos:Well, I guess a 13th actor?

Benny:a 13th of the six six inner six outer six way outer and then one odd man out it's a robot moon

Arctos:Yeah, 13.

Anzu:I think, and this is just my theory, that the vocalist... I don't know what that means.

Arctos:It's like the 13th realm, but the 13th song.

Anzu:My belief is that the vocalist has been here all along.

Johnny:So, here on Færrin.

Benny:You think the vocalist could be one of us?

Anzu:Yes.

Anzu:I don't have anything to back that up.

Anzu:That's just the hunch that I have.

Anzu:And that...

Anzu:The Voidsong is the vocalist reaching out to the people of Færrin because these existential threats are incoming.

Arctos:She thinks the Voidsong's good.

Johnny:I had a theory it was the opposite in that the vocalists reached out for a completely unrelated reason, and their reaching out somehow was like a beacon for the outer, outer six to be like, whoa, hey, look at that place.

Benny:I buy it.

Arctos:Yeah.

Anzu:Hmm.

Arctos:I also don't know if they're good, because their henchmen are devils.

Johnny:We don't know that.

Anzu:We don't know that.

Benny:What?

Anzu:I mean... Oh, yes.

Arctos:Well, the guy with the strider, we're going to go to the vocalist.

Anzu:They are devils.

Anzu:I agree.

Arctos:Yeah.

Johnny:Oh, I have a theory for that.

Johnny:I think that the vocalist is on the other side of that wall at the end of the void, and whoever's putting this whole journey together thinks they need a billion iconic lasts to break through and get to them or something.

Johnny:I don't really know who's doing it.

Arctos:So you think we're helping the bad guys get to the...

Arctos:Good guy, the vocalist?

Arctos:Or do you think the vocalist's a bad guy?

Arctos:We're helping bad guys go to the bad guy.

Anzu:I think that we're helping the bad guys get to the good guy.

Anzu:But I think that if we're along for the ride, then it's a worthy risk.

Benny:I mean, that whole thing seems very not... It doesn't seem like it was set up by people involved with the Void Zone.

Anzu:Unless these devils have been touched by the Voidsong and changed.

Arctos:I'm a little bit more concerned.

Anzu:That I find to be probably unlikely, but...

Arctos:I think the opposite.

Arctos:I think it means they were very involved.

Arctos:Because there were so many people that were touched by the Voidsong.

Johnny:What about those two that we met were part of...

Arctos:And they all said people.

Arctos:In fact, Iconoclasm are the only...

Arctos:Good people I've seen.

Arctos:Even Grayson.

Arctos:And then we went to a family reunion and they were all evil.

Arctos:We were watching people get killed.

Arctos:Other people were fighting demons.

Arctos:Bad vibe.

Anzu:But then why us?

Arctos:Aren't you the thinker?

Arctos:You want me to solve all of these things?

Anzu:I think that... Yes, I think that the vocalist has cast a wide net in desperation.

Arctos:I'm just pointing out observations, guys.

Arctos:99% of the people we met with the voice on were bad people.

Benny:Is this true?

Arctos:All right.

Benny:But is the... What?

Johnny:I don't know if 99% of the people we... I feel like we just run into a lot of bad people.

Johnny:Everyone at the Sin and Tonic's pretty cool.

Benny:Grayson?

Benny:And then who else?

Benny:At the... The Devils?

Arctos:I think like most people at that party.

Anzu:Well, the devils, I guess.

Arctos:Yeah, the devils, the party goers.

Johnny:We don't know that... We don't know that all the party goers were bad.

Benny:That's just a costume.

Gamemaster:For what it's worth, no role necessary here.

Gamemaster:For those of you that did the resonance, the Harlequins walking around would not have resonated.

Gamemaster:They were not in the group of people that resonated from that.

Arctos:I still say to do it.

Arctos:I'm just warning y'all.

Arctos:We're leading devils to who you think is a good person.

Arctos:Not normally a good idea.

Arctos:All right.

Benny:Yeah, I agree.

Arctos:Should we go back to the house?

Benny:What other useful lore questions could we ask here?

Benny:Nothing crazy is jumping out.

Gamemaster:I assume... There would have been, like, an article or two about, like, gang violence in Sableclutch and in Widdershins that might have mentioned the Roundhat Gang, but...

Benny:You look through the periodicals.

Benny:I hate to be like, well, he looked through all of them, so I can ask him anything.

Benny:But was there anything on Tywelwyn in the more recent ones?

Johnny:We're ending on 12.

Gamemaster:Like, nothing specifically about 12M, I don't think.

Johnny:All right.

Benny:Fair enough.

Arctos:To the palace.

Gamemaster:All right.

Benny:We can go hang out in the Senator's stuffy, plastic-covered living room.

Gamemaster:It's... It's... Absolutely.

Gamemaster:You guys can head back to Minister Vane's home.

Gamemaster:Excuse me.

Gamemaster:I apologize.

Gamemaster:I'm dying.

Gamemaster:It happens.

Gamemaster:You head back to Minister Vane's home.

Gamemaster:Those of you who have guest passes, you have to turn your guest passes back in.

Gamemaster:You don't get to keep those.

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:But the two of you part of Belvedere, you get to keep your passes.

Gamemaster:You have those printed.

Gamemaster:They're yours now.

Gamemaster:You make your way back to Minister Vane's home.

Gamemaster:It is now, by the time you re-arrive...

Gamemaster:re-arrive, by the time you arrive.

Gamemaster:It's probably around 4.30, all told, with the researching that you did.

Gamemaster:You spent a good chunk of time in the library.

Gamemaster:The Mayor Domo

Gamemaster:Crowley will let you know that Vane is not back, but he left this morning, so it's not even been a full workday.

Gamemaster:You're welcome to wait for him if you like.

Johnny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Crowley does not know how long it'll take before Vane comes back, because this was an emergency meeting, so it could resolve by this evening, or it could take multiple days.

Arctos:We're not allowed to go there and there's like we're allowed to go to like his office or anything, right?

Gamemaster:but you're welcome to hang out.

Benny:Tell me about ground priority and say.

Gamemaster:No.

Arctos:Alright, I imagine.

Gamemaster:You can go to the... What's it called?

Gamemaster:Templar Indictum?

Gamemaster:Effectively, the equivalent of the House of Representatives, kind of.

Arctos:And then we still have an appointment on the books for next week.

Gamemaster:You can go to the meeting room there, but you are not going to gain access to the interior of the building where his office would be and the like, especially not while all of the members of the council are present, because security would have been massively stepped up whenever that's the case.

Arctos:All right.

Gamemaster:For next week, yes.

Arctos:Well, what do you guys want to do?

Johnny:go i think benny suggested poke around she's at the prison uh i like benny's suggestion of poking around

Arctos:Do you guys want to visit the prison?

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:I got some fans.

Benny:We love you, Mr. Arctos, sir.

Benny:Mr. Arctos, if you could get us out, that would be great, Mr. Arctos.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Benny:So do we know where Prime Meridian is in Sableclutch?

Arctos:Did we try to talk to the, before we do that, should we try to talk to our two friends that also went to the... Yeah.

Gamemaster:So...

Benny:Oh yeah, let's make sure that, not make sure, but let's build our guilt for when they ultimately turn up missing.

Benny:So yeah, we should head back and see if they're there.

Gamemaster:absolutely you can do that okay you guys you leave a note and then you head back to the sin and tonic and Sableclutch um you

Arctos:And before we leave, I'll just leave a note with Crowley to just call at Iconoclasm if there's an earlier opening to chat.

Arctos:Let's drive over.

Gamemaster:Make it back.

Gamemaster:You pull your car into the... Yeah, there'd be room in the garage at this point.

Gamemaster:And you can make your way into the central area.

Gamemaster:Can I get a perception check?

Johnny:Perception.

Johnny:Maybe.

Benny:Who up perceiving their check?

Johnny:Ooh, I see everything.

Arctos:Sorry, I was grabbing it.

Benny:Jesus.

Arctos:You were.

Johnny:Yeah.

Arctos:Oh, yeah, you got it.

Arctos:You know what?

Arctos:I'm going to roll one.

Johnny:Bro, if you roll better than me, I'm going to be so mad if you roll better than me.

Arctos:Not because I think I can beat you, but because I can always get a one.

Arctos:I'm kidding.

Johnny:I gotta quit 32.

Arctos:Yes.

Gamemaster:32, not bad.

Gamemaster:Okay, so looking around the interior of the Senatonic, looking for anything that's out of place, anything that's changed, maybe.

Gamemaster:Ginny is still behind the bar.

Arctos:Nope.

Gamemaster:It is, it's like five now, so it's starting to get to the point there are some patrons in the bar.

Gamemaster:The suns haven't set yet, but, you know, some people are off work.

Gamemaster:But I think the only other thing notably that would draw your eye is it looks like Anouk and Anaïs are in one of the booths, sharing a drink, and looking over a map of what looks to be the city.

Gamemaster:Maybe you see the clutch.

Johnny:Oh, nice.

Johnny:Slide up next to them.

Benny:Hump.

Johnny:Oh, good.

Johnny:You guys are alive.

Johnny:We were worried.

Gamemaster:Anouk, the girl, will say, Oh, we did not... Did you just come back?

Gamemaster:We didn't see you when we got here.

Johnny:Oh, no.

Johnny:We got back earlier, but we're on the hunt.

Gamemaster:Oh, good.

Gamemaster:We are on the hunt as well.

Gamemaster:We were held up a little.

Gamemaster:We weren't able to get into the party immediately.

Gamemaster:So we had to...

Gamemaster:mug someone to take their invitations.

Gamemaster:But, you know, we got in a little late.

Gamemaster:We were able to do two things.

Gamemaster:We had our fortunes read and I beat someone at it.

Gamemaster:Were you able to get any clues?

Arctos:Of course they beat someone at dice.

Johnny:Yeah, we got several clues.

Johnny:We did five things?

Johnny:Six things?

Johnny:Five things, I think.

Benny:I think we got six.

Johnny:Fight ring, fairy ring, dice.

Gamemaster:You were very... I didn't even give you three clues, but it was one event.

Johnny:Anzu didn't get his hand cut off.

Benny:Fight ring was three or fight ring was two?

Arctos:Three.

Gamemaster:I don't know how you're counting.

Benny:Oh, we did four events for six.

Benny:It was three and then three ones.

Benny:Right, am I crazy?

Johnny:We got a lot.

Gamemaster:Either way, we got two clues.

Arctos:Which number are you looking for?

Arctos:Oh, same as us.

Gamemaster:Well, we just asked for whichever one would be in Sableclutch.

Gamemaster:So we are looking for number 14.

Benny:we we actually looked for the one furthest from Sableclutch no i'm joking we were looking for the same one

Johnny:Oh, yeah.

Johnny:That's what we're looking forward to.

Gamemaster:No.

Gamemaster:Which one was that?

Gamemaster:Well, unfortunately, we were only able, we had two clues.

Gamemaster:So the first one was to figure out the number.

Gamemaster:And the second one, we learned how many other people would be going for it.

Anzu:Oh, they told you about the groups.

Gamemaster:And there are apparently four groups in total, although I imagine we are considered two groups.

Gamemaster:So there are only two others besides us.

Gamemaster:They are, one second, I have their names in my little notebook.

Johnny:Oh, you guys have been busy.

Gamemaster:Yes, that is because we are asked.

Anzu:Uh-huh.

Gamemaster:Where is, I have this written down somewhere.

Gamemaster:Oh, there it is.

Gamemaster:The first group is a misnomer.

Gamemaster:It's Sbrtlby.

Gamemaster:That is hard to say with this accent.

Gamemaster:S-B-R-T-L-B-Y.

Gamemaster:Sbrtlby.

Gamemaster:It's Sbrtlby Jotes and his hired henchmen.

Johnny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Which is one of the groups that asked after it.

Gamemaster:And then the other group would be Crawford Reeves and Louis Maller of Concordia.

Anzu:I have.

Gamemaster:So we figured we had very limited questions, so we figured we would get to say, give us your names.

Arctos:Wait, what was the other one that they... What did they say about us?

Gamemaster:of Iconoclasm.

Arctos:Old names?

Gamemaster:Full names.

Gamemaster:Yes, we asked who else is hunting for 14 and you came up.

Gamemaster:Since we had a limited number of questions, we figured it was better to ask who hunts for it and then we would attempt to kill whoever took it.

Arctos:Uh-huh.

Gamemaster:Easier than trying to work with limited number of questions and then try and figure out where it was.

Johnny:Well, do you want to work with us and not kill us?

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:We weren't planning on killing you, but there are two other groups.

Anzu:Yeah, we're already there, I think.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:If you had six clues, did you figure out much about this particular keystone, or did you spread out?

Arctos:Well, our group wanted to ask two questions about another keystone, because they were scared we'd lose it.

Arctos:I said we should just kill whoever takes it, but... Wise bear.

Anzu:We did learn a decent bit about this keystone.

Gamemaster:Well, we know who they are.

Anzu:Yes.

Gamemaster:So is your plan to hunt it down by following the clues?

Anzu:We were thinking of following the legitimate pathways for the time being.

Gamemaster:We have nothing against that.

Anzu:We know who has it as well as what they might want in exchange for it.

Gamemaster:And?

Arctos:You could share it if you'd want.

Anzu:That of course being there's a heart

Anzu:That's part of Prime Meridian, called Rapid Connection.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:You don't like that.

Gamemaster:Prime Meridian is one of the more powerful works in this city.

Gamemaster:makes it a little more difficult to sneak in and out.

Anzu:Right.

Anzu:Well, this heart is a patron of the arts.

Anzu:if you will.

Arctos:I like this girl.

Anzu:And the clue led us to believe that if we get a proper painting that they would appreciate, it might be enough to get them to hand over the stone.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Gamemaster:So that's probably easier than attempting to kill the Heart and taking it from them.

Anzu:Right.

Anzu:Yeah, yeah.

Anzu:No, that...

Johnny:You can use diplomacy.

Johnny:You don't have to kill everybody in your path.

Arctos:No.

Johnny:Did you just say no?

Gamemaster:I understand, it's just... You have to understand, when...

Gamemaster:The person you follow likes to throw wrenches in as often as possible.

Gamemaster:Usually the most direct path is the easiest.

Gamemaster:If you wish to use diplomacy, that is totally fine.

Gamemaster:We have done it in the past.

Gamemaster:It is just generally the least amount of variables is go, kill the person with the thing, take the thing, you're done.

Arctos:They must have, when they were tasked to go to the television world, they're probably like, this will be fine.

Arctos:We'll just kill two of the judges, look like them, and just let them win.

Arctos:And they're like, wait, where did one of them go?

Arctos:One of them's not with the group anymore.

Arctos:He's someone else.

Arctos:Is he impersonating someone else?

Arctos:They're probably like, fucking narrative.

Arctos:They're like, our fucking narrative boss.

Gamemaster:It happens.

Arctos:Rue the Wretched.

Benny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Sometimes you follow the patron of all randomness, and they do random things.

Gamemaster:And sometimes they don't do anything, and people just throw wrenches in the plan anyway.

Gamemaster:It happens.

Gamemaster:By the way, did you have a particular art piece you were planning on stealing?

Arctos:Well, there's also the Archmechanic guy that we know who works with the hearts.

Arctos:We've got to get through him to get to the heart, to get to the Heart piece, or to bring the Heart piece.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:You see my point about convoluted steps now?

Arctos:I agree.

Johnny:Yes, but nobody dines this way.

Benny:well you

Anzu:Yes.

Anzu:Well, we asked about who might be able to lead us to the heart because we didn't know how easy or difficult it would be to find.

Anzu:And the answer we got is the Archmechanic of Prime Meridian, which might almost, in my opinion, be harder to get to than just finding the heart outright.

Gamemaster:It depends.

Anzu:I do have some plan, but...

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:What do you have?

Anzu:I don't know if it's a good plan, but I've been thinking about it for the last maybe hour or so.

Anzu:And what the plan hinges on is whether or not there are people in Prime Meridian that sometimes require the use of not so upstanding citizens to get jobs done for them.

Benny:Full hour.

Benny:Okay.

Gamemaster:I imagine they do.

Gamemaster:What is this not-so-savory job you would have them ask you for?

Gamemaster:Oh.

Anzu:No, I don't know.

Anzu:I'm trying to think of how we can get audience and get on the good side of the Archmechanic.

Gamemaster:As, like, an inn.

Anzu:We recently made acquaintances with some folks with a group called the Velvet Mark.

Gamemaster:Hmm.

Anzu:And my plan was to see if they have any association with Prime Meridian and if that was perhaps an in for us.

Anzu:That was my first step.

Gamemaster:That is interesting.

Arctos:I have another idea.

Anzu:Yeah, please.

Arctos:So I like your idea of villain, Mark.

Arctos:But I think our way in are prostitutes.

Arctos:We know this guy loves prostitutes, right?

Arctos:So we taunt him with some prostitutes and then we get in there and he'll lead us to this blackmail.

Anzu:Arctos, do you know something about the Archmechanic that you've not shared with us?

Johnny:Have you?

Arctos:I mean, come on.

Arctos:You don't think he does?

Anzu:I mean, I have no idea.

Anzu:I would have no way of knowing that.

Arctos:Have you ever been around an Archmechanic?

Arctos:They're horny.

Anzu:No!

Arctos:Honestly, guys, I just read a book like this and I figured it'd work.

Johnny:Is just.

Johnny:Is Dura around somewhere?

Johnny:Not this line of questioning.

Anzu:I don't think we should bother Dura with this line of questioning.

Johnny:Different line of questioning.

Arctos:Also, to answer your question about the Heart, I was hoping my friend could hook us up with some fine art.

Johnny:I'm back somewhere.

Arctos:If you have a better lead or you just want to steal some, by all means, go for it.

Gamemaster:Well, we know where art is kept.

Gamemaster:Generally speaking, we know of art exhibits and museums.

Gamemaster:If your friend can get it faster, then you can do that.

Benny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:It's really just a question of how much time do you think we have until someone else claims the gem?

Arctos:Should you guys go on the offensive and just start killing our competitors?

Anzu:Yeah, I don't know

Arctos:Or... Wasn't that your plan?

Gamemaster:Oh, you want us to just kill the Concordia folks and Mr. Sbrtlby just in advance while you work on worming your way up to the Archmechanic?

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:That's not a bad idea, honestly.

Johnny:I mean...

Gamemaster:It's an inverse of what we were doing.

Gamemaster:We were waiting for one of them to get the keystone, and then we would kill them and take it.

Arctos:They wouldn't expect the murder before they get the lodestone.

Gamemaster:But maybe we go... They don't know we're coming, I assume.

Gamemaster:So maybe we go out of our way to attack them first.

Gamemaster:Correct.

Gamemaster:I would be surprised if many other people asked specifically about the other teams instead of about the Keystone itself.

Arctos:Yeah, it's kind of sociopathic.

Johnny:It's too crazy.

Gamemaster:Yes, Tanner.

Anzu:I have a question for Josh.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Benny:Thank you.

Anzu:Has Anzu ever seen someone with a name as absurdly spelled as Sbrtlby Jones?

Gamemaster:Roll, it's not lore, but I'll let you roll a lore check.

Anzu:Like... Yeah.

Gamemaster:Are you trying to place where Sbrtlby Jones is from effectively to see if there's, you know... Okay, yeah.

Anzu:When you spelled it...

Anzu:Unless I heard you wrong.

Anzu:There were no vowels.

Anzu:Well, sometimes.

Gamemaster:There's a Y. Yeah.

Anzu:Why?

Anzu:Sometimes.

Gamemaster:There's a Y. One second.

Johnny:Bully!

Anzu:It's just a crazy name.

Anzu:I got a 20.

Benny:I think that's offensive.

Gamemaster:That's his name.

Gamemaster:Yeah, okay.

Gamemaster:With a 20... So, Sbrtlby is definitely a weird name.

Arctos:Is that just a devil?

Gamemaster:Sbrtlby is a weird name.

Gamemaster:I think with a 20...

Gamemaster:That would be... A 20 is good enough for you to think, like, I am not familiar with any major culture on Færrin that uses names like that.

Gamemaster:Which tells you that if this is truly Sbrtlby's given name... Um...

Gamemaster:which it probably is because that's what the Harlequin told them, then it is from some niche culture.

Gamemaster:He's from a group of people that aren't like the Calarians or something like that.

Arctos:Flintlock Toboggan it's giving it's giving devil

Gamemaster:It's not necessarily devil, but it is... Flintlock Toboggan is a name of a devil that none of you know.

Gamemaster:But...

Gamemaster:It's definitely, it's a strange name.

Gamemaster:It's from a niche culture.

Gamemaster:Unfortunately, with the 20, I don't think Anzu could recall specifically what culture that might come from.

Anzu:Very well.

Anzu:Carry on.

Gamemaster:So, and I will say, okay, so this is a good two-pronged approach.

Gamemaster:Just to confirm, when you eventually get the Keystone, we're coming with, yes.

Arctos:Oh, yeah.

Anzu:Yeah, I think we want to take as many of our people as we can slash are interested.

Johnny:Thank you.

Arctos:So we can.

Gamemaster:This is definitely interesting.

Gamemaster:What did you think of the party as a whole?

Gamemaster:We didn't really know how to place the master of ceremonies, his harlequins and the like.

Arctos:Oh, there were devils.

Gamemaster:Sure, but what is the motivation there?

Arctos:We are talking about this.

Arctos:I think they're going to try to kill the Voidsong.

Arctos:I don't know if that's true.

Anzu:I don't know if you felt this resonate.

Gamemaster:Is that something?

Arctos:Or they're working for the Voidsong.

Gamemaster:No, unfortunately, whenever you resonated, we were more than 30 feet away, I suppose.

Anzu:Well, there was a high concentration of Voidsong listeners at the event.

Gamemaster:It's not particularly surprising.

Gamemaster:I am curious why we did not get an invitation, if it is not focused.

Gamemaster:Because if nothing else, Iconoclasm is pretty famous for being the Voidsong people, you know?

Johnny:Well, did we get an invitation?

Gamemaster:That's why all of you joined up, I imagine.

Arctos:Thank you.

Johnny:Did Illmari get an invitation?

Johnny:Did we ask him?

Gamemaster:No, I suppose we didn't.

Gamemaster:They'll look around.

Johnny:Hey, Ginny.

Gamemaster:Illmari is not around right now.

Anzu:Illmari probably died in the fighting pit.

Johnny:Eh, tried to take him online.

Johnny:Ginny, have you seen Illmari?

Gamemaster:Yep.

Gamemaster:Uh... No.

Gamemaster:Not in, um... Not in a few hours at this point, at least.

Gamemaster:Not since yesterday.

Benny:Remember where he went?

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:No?

Gamemaster:He just said he was heading out.

Johnny:Hadn't.

Gamemaster:It's not the first time he's just kind of disappeared on me.

Gamemaster:He'll show up at some point.

Gamemaster:Why, did you need him for something?

Johnny:No, that's okay.

Anzu:More of a roll call kind of thing.

Johnny:Yeah, we're just checking everyone.

Gamemaster:Sure.

Gamemaster:Here.

Johnny:Here.

Gamemaster:I can't move, so... Would he have gone on his own?

Arctos:you

Johnny:Yeah, we don't know that Illmari, we never talked to him.

Johnny:He could have been there last night.

Johnny:I don't know.

Gamemaster:Like, why wouldn't he bring that up to the rest of us?

Johnny:You guys know him better than we do.

Gamemaster:I feel like he would have mentioned it.

Anzu:Yeah, I would think so too.

Johnny:I don't know anything about him.

Gamemaster:I mean, we've only been here like a few months longer than you have.

Johnny:Oh.

Gamemaster:I don't know if we know much more about him than you do.

Gamemaster:But usually he's relatively open about what he's doing, where he's going and the like.

Arctos:Well, I guess trust him.

Gamemaster:It's good to keep tabs on everybody so that if somebody goes missing, you can track them down and the like.

Johnny:Mm.

Arctos:Do you guys trust him?

Gamemaster:I don't see why not.

Anzu:Yeah, he's done good by us so far.

Gamemaster:He hasn't... Yeah.

Gamemaster:He's done nothing to make us suspect him of any wrongdoing, I suppose is the least optimistic way to put it.

Benny:Sure.

Gamemaster:Okay, so, right, we were talking about this earlier and I got sidetracked.

Gamemaster:Oh, right, because I guess if we kill the two other groups while you try and track down your art and the like, that kind of takes a lot of the time pressure off, doesn't it?

Benny:Well.

Arctos:Mm hmm.

Anzu:Correct.

Gamemaster:This is a good plan.

Johnny:Let us know if you need some backup for the takedown.

Gamemaster:Okay, so we will have to start hunting down Sbrtlby and the Concordia people.

Gamemaster:And you will work on getting your fine art?

Gamemaster:Sure.

Gamemaster:If you like fighting things, I'm sure we can arrange it so that they are in a good place to murder.

Benny:Yes.

Gamemaster:This is a good plan.

Gamemaster:We have to go looking.

Gamemaster:I don't know which.

Gamemaster:We are probably more worried about the Concordia people, because Concordia is another large org.

Gamemaster:Sbrtlby is not part of any large org.

Arctos:Where is he from?

Gamemaster:I don't know.

Gamemaster:I know his name is Sbrtlby.

Arctos:Well, you know, he's not part of an award.

Gamemaster:Correct.

Gamemaster:Well, the way that the...

Gamemaster:their little Harlequin devil pitched to us the way he told us was one of the groups is from Concordia, as they are, and then gave us the names.

Gamemaster:And then this other group is Spartle B. Jones and his henchmen.

Gamemaster:And so it's Spartle B. Jones and his hired henchmen.

Arctos:Definitely a devil.

Arctos:They're just like, oh, it's just Sbrtlby.

Arctos:It's right over there.

Gamemaster:That is what the Harlequin told us.

Benny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Although, I suppose, if Sbrtlby were a devil, why would he need to hunt down the Keystones?

Gamemaster:Because the Harlequins already have the Strider.

Arctos:He's a different devil.

Johnny:We're going to try and jump this dude and the wet is going to be there.

Gamemaster:I dare.

Arctos:Maybe he's a demon?

Johnny:They're the hired henchmen.

Johnny:We're the people that the little eyes wanted us to kill.

Gamemaster:Hmm.

Gamemaster:Who knows?

Gamemaster:Maybe.

Gamemaster:God, the West got hired by Spartle B. Jones.

Gamemaster:It happens.

Gamemaster:Okay, this is a good plan.

Gamemaster:Anything else you wanted to talk about?

Gamemaster:We are a bit tired.

Benny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:We just came back from like eight hours of driving, so we are going to call it an early night.

Arctos:What car did you take there?

Gamemaster:We took one.

Arctos:Oh, you just stole it.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Easiest way to make sure you are not being tracked is to take a different vehicle every time.

Gamemaster:It's the easiest way to take a different vehicle every time is to break into one and drive it to where you are going and back.

Arctos:That's fair.

Gamemaster:It is currently at the bottom of the river.

Arctos:Some guy tried to rob us.

Gamemaster:Oh, that's fun.

Gamemaster:How did that go?

Arctos:We show them the guns.

Johnny:They had crazy guns.

Benny:They had energy weapons and they died.

Gamemaster:Oh, that's very exciting.

Gamemaster:Do you have any of the energy weapons?

Gamemaster:I would like to take a look.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:Anouk will motion to take the firearm if you let her, because she needs to spend a little bit of time looking at it.

Arctos:How long do they have to take, like a short rest?

Gamemaster:Like a long rest.

Arctos:Oh, okay.

Anzu:I can hand mine over.

Arctos:Okay.

Gamemaster:Like they'll have... If it were a magical item, maybe.

Anzu:I have one of them.

Arctos:They don't need to attune or something over a short rest?

Arctos:Okay.

Gamemaster:But she was just planning on rolling... Oh, shoot.

Gamemaster:What is it?

Gamemaster:It's not a crafting check.

Gamemaster:What is the check?

Gamemaster:Is it crafting?

Gamemaster:I don't remember enough about 5e.

Arctos:Might just be Arcana.

Benny:Ugh.

Johnny:It's like tool proficiency?

Johnny:Tinker's tools?

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Arctos:No, Tinker's Tools was like, yeah, but it was like dex plus proficiency.

Gamemaster:It would be tickers.

Gamemaster:But it is Tinker's Tools would be the check that she has to make.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:So she has to make a Tinker's Tools check.

Gamemaster:So she'll have information ready for you tomorrow.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Is there anything else you guys would like to do for the rest of this evening and tomorrow?

Benny:uh we want to go poke around the prime meridian stuff i feel like the fine art i feel like we imagine if we show up with the wrong art piece i think we should make contact or at least attempt to make contact first with the heart but i don't know

Johnny:you

Anzu:Yeah, so is there a major station in Sableclutch?

Arctos:I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to show up with the wrong art.

Arctos:I think it's... We have a chance of having the right art, and if we show up with no art, we definitely don't have a chance of having the right art.

Arctos:But I do think the Heart thing is a backseat.

Arctos:I think we could find the heart and then try to get the Heart.

Benny:i'm just wondering like what we go there and then they're like no you can't come in and we don't want to fight them because we're attempting to bargain with the Heart so it's just like we have access to fine art tell the heart this and then hope the heart lets us in and then otherwise show up with a piece of art

Gamemaster:Rule?

Arctos:I mean, the counters, we also could show up and be like, why are you here?

Arctos:We're like, we have blank art piece for the heart.

Arctos:So I think both are fine, but I'm fine looking for the heart first.

Arctos:I just think once you have a general idea, we could still try to get the heart, the artwork, but...

Gamemaster:Tanner, your question is a society check.

Benny:Okay.

Anzu:Then I will make a society check.

Anzu:It's pretty crap.

Anzu:18.

Gamemaster:Within 18, there is no major...

Gamemaster:train station area in Sableclutch.

Gamemaster:Sableclutch has never really warranted that.

Gamemaster:Within 18, you would know that there's very similar to the Spire and Teller's Run, there was an attempt at building one a while back that kind of got abandoned because it was just deemed not worth, especially as more trade moved over just onto moving up and down the river.

Gamemaster:But no, there's no current operating large train nexus area in Sableclutch.

Anzu:So we really are going to have to... But the heart is here.

Gamemaster:So from the research that Benny did, you're pretty confident that if the heart is here, there is an auxiliary, like, logistics network that's hooked up to whatever Prime Meridian setup is in Sableclutch.

Gamemaster:That that's probably where the heart would be.

Gamemaster:But no, like, guarantees one way or the other.

Gamemaster:And you missed.

Gamemaster:I'm sorry.

Anzu:Sorry, I'm just kind of messing around.

Gamemaster:Yeah, no, I'm just letting you know you missed.

Johnny:Oh, no.

Gamemaster:Oh, you do have the pistol in your inventory.

Gamemaster:You can take that out.

Gamemaster:You handed it over to him.

Gamemaster:It's your face.

Anzu:Oh, I do.

Anzu:You're right.

Anzu:I will delete it.

Anzu:It can't be recovered.

Gamemaster:Yeah, I have a copy of it, so I can cover it.

Gamemaster:It's fine.

Gamemaster:Okay, anything else?

Johnny:Is Dura around?

Johnny:Is she hanging out?

Gamemaster:Yeah, you would have walked past her coming into the garage when you parked your car.

Gamemaster:She's currently working in her workshop.

Johnny:I'll peek in the garage.

Johnny:Hey Dura, quick question, un-car related.

Johnny:Do you have any contacts through your days as a run gunner in Prime Meridian?

Gamemaster:Oh.

Gamemaster:Ah, I might.

Gamemaster:I'd have to ask around.

Gamemaster:Every once in a while, the Rungunners would get contracts from Prime Meridian.

Gamemaster:Although less frequently, as I was starting to leave out, they were kind of building up their own internal teams to do the same stuff.

Gamemaster:I might know a guy or two that still works at Prime Meridian, I can ask.

Johnny:Yeah, that'd be great.

Johnny:We're trying to get in contact with the heart there.

Johnny:We're on a scavenger hunt.

Gamemaster:Oh, that's fun.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:I'll ask around.

Gamemaster:It might be a day or two until I get back to you with that info, though.

Johnny:No worries.

Johnny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Sure.

Johnny:I'll buy you a drink for this.

Gamemaster:We have free beer on tap from Ginny, but thanks.

Johnny:I'll buy you one that's not free.

Johnny:That's it.

Johnny:That's all I got.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:Alright.

Gamemaster:You guys have the rest of the evening to do whatever you like.

Gamemaster:If there's nothing you'd like to do, we can just skip forward.

Benny:What other options do we have in general for activities?

Benny:So we can go poke around Prime Meridian.

Benny:We can attempt to find an art piece prior to Prime Meridian.

Benny:Is there anything else that is, like, reasonably close?

Benny:Like, obviously we want to find the stone, but I'm wondering... I guess we could check out the... The autobody is probably cordoned off completely by Inquisitors.

Benny:Like, they're still probably guarding it, maybe.

Benny:um and then i guess what the next is just to go into uh Teller's Run or figure out what to do about removing Teller's Run but that's it's not anything immediate it's just like a general goal

Anzu:Yeah, I mean, if we wanted to switch gears to that, I do think that there are some sewers that might take us there.

Johnny:Yeah, that's... Yeah, should we game plan?

Anzu:Pretty dangerous prospect, but it is a thing we could do.

Benny:I just want to get a complete idea.

Benny:I feel like we need

Johnny:Should we discuss that a little bit more?

Johnny:I feel like we kind of got all that information and then we're like, okay, we'll figure that out later.

Johnny:And now it's kind of later.

Arctos:What's the game plan about what?

Johnny:what we wanna do about the Embercall.

Johnny:And that's sort of a big thing.

Arctos:Well, I believe in the divinity.

Benny:I feel like we need more info.

Arctos:I believe in the supreme divinity of the host, and I believe that the Inquisitors are going to take care of it for us.

Johnny:I heard about this party that happens every two weeks.

Johnny:Maybe we can get an invite to that?

Benny:Yes.

Benny:We need an invite.

Johnny:And it sort of seems like the only thing, I don't know how people get invited to that.

Benny:Is it even advertised when the parties happen?

Benny:Would we know when the next one is?

Gamemaster:According to the newspaper article you read, they happen every two weeks pretty regularly.

Gamemaster:It's like every other Saturday.

Arctos:Is Grayson... Do we know if he's directly involved with the Embercall or if he just works with them?

Arctos:Do we think he's in it or do we think he just contracts with them?

Benny:I don't think we know.

Arctos:Okay.

Anzu:He said that Tywelwyn was overstepping in some capacity.

Arctos:Because if he is...

Gamemaster:What do you know about Grayson and the Embercall?

Gamemaster:That might be easier.

Gamemaster:Like, what info do you have?

Johnny:I mean, when we read his diary, it mentioned Tywelwyn.

Johnny:I don't think it mentioned... It gave us some locations.

Arctos:Do you do any business with them or anything?

Johnny:I don't know if he did... I think he might have had another one.

Benny:This is what the radar dish is?

Gamemaster:He said Tywelwyn was... Yeah, he said Tywelwyn was overstepping and he had made a second deal and was installing the radar dishes.

Johnny:I've had another one.

Gamemaster:And then he mentioned that he was going to cut Tywelwyn loose.

Arctos:Oh, so.

Arctos:So it means Tywelwyn was working with Embercall, but he.

Arctos:Grayson doesn't work with Embercall.

Anzu:Right, I think maybe Tywelwyn and the Roundhats used to work for Grayson.

Anzu:And then the influence of Embercall.

Arctos:I see.

Anzu:Yeah.

Arctos:So Grayson... Grayson is with the Regent Voidsong.

Arctos:Okay.

Anzu:Major Leap.

Johnny:Big leap.

Gamemaster:That's fun though.

Arctos:Okay, so maybe we could play ball with the Embercall.

Johnny:We really have no leads on that one.

Arctos:I say we get the Lodestone, and then if we have time, we deal with the Embercall.

Arctos:Because I think our main thing with the Embercall was just to find out more about the Voidsong, but it seems like we might find more about it with the Southern People.

Johnny:No, no.

Johnny:Our thing with Embercall was that they want to destroy the planet.

Johnny:That's the thing with Embercall.

Gamemaster:Thank you.

Anzu:Arctos, what you said used to be the thing, and then their destructive nature... We've had to pivot a little bit.

Arctos:Maybe they are more important than these lodestones.

Benny:How long of an evening do we have?

Gamemaster:Traditionally, 12 hours.

Benny:Oh, that's quite a bit.

Benny:I feel like we should start doing that.

Gamemaster:From like 6 p.m.

Gamemaster:to 6 a.m.

Gamemaster:I mean, if you want to sleep in the middle there, that cuts down on some of that time.

Johnny:Do you have stuff you want to buy?

Gamemaster:You haven't before, so I don't know why you'd start now.

Benny:Do we want to visit Smilers?

Benny:to buy stuff i might have stuff i want to buy well i mean while we're thinking about what to do next

Arctos:To do what?

Anzu:I...

Arctos:Venture.

Gamemaster:All right, you guys are driving across town again.

Gamemaster:Absolutely, back in the car.

Gamemaster:Sure.

Gamemaster:You are also just allowed to say, no, I have nothing else, go to bed, and then do stuff the next day.

Gamemaster:But sure, if you want to go to Smiler's, it's only six, so Smiler's is still open.

Benny:Benny wants, yeah.

Gamemaster:You can go back to the under table.

Gamemaster:Smiler is as you expect him to be, hanging out behind the counter, doing his weird Siptari horsey sit.

Gamemaster:What can I do for you?

Benny:The poly tools, they've been very nice.

Benny:You think, do you have one of these?

Benny:And it'll place down another magazine clipping.

Benny:But this time of a Falcata.

Gamemaster:Um...

Gamemaster:Josh needs you to spell that for him.

Benny:F-A-L-C-A-T-A.

Gamemaster:Excuse me.

Gamemaster:Can you wield these?

Benny:Yeah.

Benny:Not a max proficiency.

Gamemaster:But you do have advanced weapon proficiency.

Benny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:You do advanced swords.

Gamemaster:Not bad.

Johnny:Wow.

Gamemaster:Oh, actually, you can... Oh, no, you don't have master, you have expert.

Benny:Oh, I'm actually trained.

Gamemaster:Yeah, I mean... Yeah, but you're expert in advanced swords.

Benny:Oh, right, right, yeah.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Yeah, there's nothing about this that would make it so that he doesn't have it.

Gamemaster:A fatal d12 is scary.

Johnny:Mmm.

Gamemaster:Um...

Benny:I didn't even realize.

Benny:I just like the name.

Gamemaster:You didn't?

Gamemaster:You just like the name?

Gamemaster:Okay.

Benny:I just like the name.

Gamemaster:The answer is yes.

Gamemaster:If you want to spend three gold pieces, you can get one of these.

Benny:Perfect.

Gamemaster:God damn.

Gamemaster:It's one-handed?

Gamemaster:You can wield two of these?

Benny:What?

Gamemaster:What's the point of calling it a heavy one-handed sword?

Gamemaster:Just call it a regular one-handed sword.

Arctos:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Don't call it a heavy if the heavy doesn't matter.

Benny:Well, you need to have the strength of at least a grown man to wield it.

Gamemaster:Right, of course.

Johnny:I'm going to turn to Anzu while we're doing this whole thing.

Johnny:Okay, Anzu, I like your idea about the sewers.

Johnny:What if we sneak into the party, we go down through the sewers one Saturday night, then we sneak into Teller's Run through the sewers, get up into there, go into the party that way?

Anzu:Yeah, probably if we're in the sewers, we'll be underground, so we'll end up in the wine cellar, and that'll be a great way to sneak into the party.

Arctos:Yeah.

Johnny:They've got to have a...

Johnny:Okay, a building that big probably has a pretty deep foundation.

Johnny:That's engineering.

Anzu:Yeah, or if not, we could hopefully...

Johnny:A building that big has a deep foundation.

Johnny:Doesn't matter.

Gamemaster:Foundations usually aren't hollow.

Johnny:We'll just chisel through.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Johnny:We'll Shawshank Redemption it.

Gamemaster:Sure.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Anzu:Yeah, we have to be careful, but I'm at least interested in seeing where these sewers lead and if we are able to get into the district or not through them.

Anzu:I would assume they probably have it guarded, but I don't know.

Johnny:Excellent.

Johnny:I have another question that is not related to my conversation with Anzu.

Johnny:Josh, I have a mechanical question.

Johnny:When Anzu unleashes his psyche, he becomes stupefied one for two rounds.

Johnny:Would this spell counteract the stupefied?

Johnny:Like, if it goes off successfully?

Gamemaster:So the interesting question there is specifically

Gamemaster:counteract the effect?

Gamemaster:Because I don't know what level I would place the Unleash Psyche effect at.

Gamemaster:Because the answer is that a spell that removes Stupified would, I think, work to remove Stupified from after Unleash Psyche, reading the rules of how Unleash Psyche works.

Johnny:Okay.

Gamemaster:So the question is, the answer is yes.

Gamemaster:I just have to come up with a level to count for the counteract check.

Johnny:Then at some point I would like to buy a copy of this and add it to my little bard spell book that I have.

Gamemaster:Sure.

Gamemaster:That is, how much is that?

Anzu:Nice.

Gamemaster:Just to buy the spell to copy it down is 70 gold pieces.

Johnny:Great.

Johnny:When path over comes back up, I will add that in.

Gamemaster:So I would note, it would make him no longer stupefied.

Gamemaster:He still won't be able to unleash Psyche again until the two-round counter has expired.

Gamemaster:Anything else while you guys are in a buying mood?

Johnny:Okay.

Johnny:It's good to know.

Arctos:How does staffs work again?

Gamemaster:Once again, you're allowed to say no.

Anzu:Thank you.

Gamemaster:You don't need to buy something right now.

Gamemaster:Yes, but you have to be able to cast the spells and a staff.

Arctos:So like with charges, I can just use the staff charges, not mine, right?

Benny:Yeah.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:There's a Staff of Healing?

Johnny:you

Arctos:Is that worth it for me to have extras?

Arctos:I probably wouldn't have it out.

Arctos:Oh, no.

Arctos:It just gives me one first-level heal.

Gamemaster:it um

Arctos:That's useless.

Arctos:Oh, it gives me a plus one to healing.

Arctos:It's all right.

Arctos:And then, is my shield sturdy?

Arctos:That's the only other last question.

Arctos:Can I make my shield sturdy?

Benny:you

Anzu:Excuse me.

Arctos:Yes, for 100 gold.

Gamemaster:Is that how that works?

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Oh, when you say make your shield sturdy, you mean purchase a sturdy shield.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Arctos:How much gold?

Arctos:Did we disperse any gold recently?

Gamemaster:It would be 90 gold for you as well, just FYI, because Smiler gives you a discount.

Benny:I think we did disperse gold recently, but we can do more if needed.

Arctos:I would like 60.

Arctos:Also, Benny, should you buy heavy plate?

Arctos:Like full plate?

Arctos:To not go down as much?

Benny:How much?

Benny:Let me check.

Arctos:Or is that detrimental?

Benny:i suspect it'll be detrimental but i can so i just have normal breast play right now actually should i be having a rune on this

Gamemaster:Jorge, I would also... Sorry, that's a bit of crosstalk.

Johnny:I think it is older.

Gamemaster:I would note that your Staff of Healing, if you get it, would give you three charges.

Gamemaster:Because you get a charge equal to the highest level spell slot you can prepare.

Arctos:Okay.

Gamemaster:So you get three charges, which would give you three uses of heal.

Gamemaster:I don't know if that applies into it, but that's what the rule for Staves is.

Arctos:Heal at what level?

Gamemaster:First.

Gamemaster:The staff of healing, like the regular staff of healing only has a first level heal in it, but you can cast that three times.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:Yeah, not worth it.

Arctos:All right.

Arctos:I'll just, if we can get 60, or just get 60 gold, he will upgrade his shield.

Benny:uh yeah go for it everyone give yourself 60 gold now we're at zero no no we're at 572.

Gamemaster:How much money do you have in the group pot right now, Mike?

Gamemaster:Oh.

Arctos:Josh, how do I just, is there a way to just update it to make it not minor reinforcing, make it sturdy?

Gamemaster:No.

Gamemaster:Let me just give you a sturdy shield.

Arctos:Okay.

Arctos:I do.

Gamemaster:It's technically a different item.

Gamemaster:It's not like you're reinforcing it to be sturdy.

Gamemaster:You are just... I don't know.

Arctos:I see, I see.

Gamemaster:You have a minor reinforcing... Oh, it's a fortress shield.

Arctos:Oh, I have the other shield too.

Gamemaster:You... Do you... Does Anzu have it in his... Oh, you give it to Benny?

Arctos:Oh, I gave the other shield to Tanner, remember?

Arctos:Or I gave it to them before.

Benny:to betty any should have it yeah

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:Okay, so let me check Benny's inventory.

Gamemaster:Are you giving that back, the steel shield?

Gamemaster:Actually, you don't need to, because he's buying a new shield outright, if you're just buying it.

Arctos:Can I sell the reinforcing shield also?

Arctos:How much is that?

Gamemaster:You want to sell the shield that you lent to Benny.

Arctos:Yes.

Gamemaster:You can do that if you want.

Gamemaster:Okay, so that's a steel shield.

Arctos:And I'll sell the Fortress Shield.

Gamemaster:So you steal the steel shield.

Gamemaster:I'll give you half price on it.

Gamemaster:So you get one gold piece for the steel shield from Betty's.

Arctos:And I'll sell the Fortress Shield, which is 20.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Arctos:And that's half 10.

Gamemaster:So I'll give you 10.

Arctos:And then, okay.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:So you get 11 gold pieces from the two shields that you're selling.

Arctos:Okay, cool.

Gamemaster:And then I'll put the sturdy shield in your inventory.

Arctos:Cool.

Arctos:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Anzu:Thank you.

Arctos:I am ready.

Arctos:We can go to sleep.

Gamemaster:Okay, is everybody good?

Benny:Yes.

Gamemaster:I don't want to move on, Tanner, if you're currently looking around at stuff.

Anzu:Oh, no, I'm good.

Anzu:Sorry.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:All right.

Gamemaster:Then the four of you can drive back after a little shopping trip.

Johnny:uh maybe there it is

Gamemaster:You know, do whatever you need to do before you go to bed for the evening.

Gamemaster:Can I have Johnny make a perception check?

Anzu:Thank you.

Johnny:30.

Gamemaster:30.

Gamemaster:30 is just enough.

Gamemaster:You hear Divex breathing.

Gamemaster:Besides that, you hear very faintly at the edge of your hearing the sound of... Actually, this is an assumption I made.

Gamemaster:Correct me if I'm wrong.

Gamemaster:Did you lock your bedroom door before you go to bed?

Gamemaster:Like, is that a thing you normally do when you go to bed?

Johnny:Uh, no.

Johnny:I think normally I do, but I'm expecting a visitor, so no.

Gamemaster:Okay, so then with the 30, you awake to the sound of your doorknob being turned very gently and being pushed in.

Gamemaster:And you can see, you don't have to move if you don't want to, but you can see out of like the very corner of your eye that you peek open a familiar human silhouette creeping into your room.

Gamemaster:Actually, familiar human silhouette is probably wrong.

Gamemaster:His silhouette is slightly see-through.

Gamemaster:Like, he's there, but he kind of almost mixes with the shadows around the bedroom.

Johnny:I'll reach over, grab my sunglasses in this pitch dark room, put them on, and then I'll just say, help, I'm being robbed by a ghost.

Gamemaster:He does not seem to have noticed that you've noticed him as he sneaks in and then quietly closes the door behind him.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Johnny:It's like very deadpan.

Gamemaster:He stands up a little rigid at the sound of you shifting around, and he pulls back his hood and at the time becomes corporeal again.

Gamemaster:You recognize this man.

Gamemaster:This is Donovan Hale, the head of the Ghosts of Raelion.

Gamemaster:Short-cropped black hair.

Gamemaster:He has a permanent scowl on his face.

Gamemaster:You've known him long enough that you've probably learned to identify when his scowl means he's happy versus when his scowl means he's actually angry.

Gamemaster:And, like, there's a bit of nuance to it.

Gamemaster:heavily scarred this man has seen many fights over over the uh years that he's been active both as a ghost and beforehand uh he was a mercenary before he started the ghosts so um he he definitely you've ruined a little bit of the magic by hearing him come in because he's used to just showing up in people's bedrooms and then being spooked and it's like oh shit it's it's donovan

Arctos:Mm hmm.

Gamemaster:Um, but since you've, you've ruined that entrance by noticing that he's come in, he's, he's, there's a split second of him, like, getting his footing again.

Gamemaster:Uh, where he, like, straightens up and he turns around and says, you ought to be less perceptive, uh, than that.

Gamemaster:It just kind of ruins this whole deal.

Johnny:It makes you feel better.

Johnny:You did get me the first like six dozen times you did that.

Johnny:So I feel like it's about time I got one on you.

Gamemaster:It doesn't.

Gamemaster:It means either you're getting better than me, or I'm getting old.

Gamemaster:And I'm pretty sure I know which of the two that is.

Johnny:Hey, man.

Johnny:Everyone but me gets old.

Gamemaster:Yes, that's kind of the problem.

Gamemaster:Anyway, it's good to see you.

Gamemaster:And he'll go in for a hug.

Gamemaster:He's not normally a touchy-feely guy, but he knows you enough.

Johnny:Oh.

Gamemaster:He will lower his guard around you.

Johnny:I'll give him a big hug.

Johnny:Oh, poor man.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Johnny:Oh, I missed you, Donnie.

Johnny:It's bad out here.

Johnny:It's worse.

Johnny:It's bad.

Gamemaster:I honestly, I thought it was bad when you first ended up taking your sabbatical from the organization, joining this one.

Gamemaster:It's worse now.

Gamemaster:How did you do that?

Johnny:Hey.

Johnny:You ever take a walk somewhere and you're like, wow, it's so beautiful and nice, and then you accidentally step in a hornet's nest and you're like, wow, there was nothing I could have done to prevent this one except not walk on this path.

Gamemaster:You know that I wouldn't step in a hornet's nest.

Gamemaster:I would see it before it happens.

Gamemaster:But I understand the analogy.

Johnny:Alright, well, you know me, I always step in the hornet's nest.

Gamemaster:That's true.

Gamemaster:But that's because if you get stung by a hornet, you can just choose to get unstung by the hornet later.

Gamemaster:Assuming the analogy at this point is all of us die.

Johnny:Yeah, uh, ugh, man, uh, you stay here.

Johnny:I'll get us drinks.

Johnny:We got a lot to catch up on.

Johnny:Okay.

Gamemaster:Yeah, I can come with.

Gamemaster:We don't need to actually have this conversation in your bedroom.

Gamemaster:I just thought it would be good for old times.

Johnny:A little spooky.

Gamemaster:But he will put the hood back on.

Johnny:It was fun.

Gamemaster:Sorry.

Johnny:Come on, you gotta try my friend Ginny's eggs.

Gamemaster:It's two in the morning.

Johnny:The worst thing you've ever tasted.

Gamemaster:Is now the time for eggs?

Johnny:Come on.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:No, that's fair.

Johnny:Always a small break.

Gamemaster:And he'll follow you back out to go harass Ginny for some eggs.

Johnny:Yeah.

Johnny:I'll get us a couple of drinks and some eggs, and then I'll just tell him everything, like, from the moment I left until right now.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Johnny:Not leaving anything out.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:Donnie will kind of take it in.

Gamemaster:He'll ask a question every once in a while, just to close, but for the most part, your deal is telling stories, and so he's just going to let you do that.

Gamemaster:He's not going to really interrupt all that much.

Gamemaster:Once you've finished spinning your yarn, he'll say...

Gamemaster:Shit.

Gamemaster:And I thought your life was hectic before you joined here.

Johnny:Yep.

Gamemaster:Okay, so distilling all that, there's a bunch of people trying to end the world.

Gamemaster:That's kind of it.

Gamemaster:That's the whole thing.

Gamemaster:You're going on this pilgrimage thing?

Gamemaster:That's the plan?

Johnny:Yeah, I'm sort of in that now.

Johnny:I gotta know where it ends up.

Gamemaster:I mean, since you've... Yeah, I figured this would keep you out of the way long enough for us to figure out, because I'm like 60% sure that, you know, we had a mole of some kind.

Johnny:Remember when we thought this would be a vacation for me?

Gamemaster:But I've gotten nowhere on that, and I figured you'd just lay long enough for us to figure something out.

Johnny:Yeah, going back to the other thing.

Gamemaster:Clearly that's not the case, because we found nothing yet, and you're already planning on...

Gamemaster:What?

Gamemaster:Traveling across many dimensions to track down this ethereal song on behalf of maybe some gods to fight some other gods?

Gamemaster:This is a step up.

Gamemaster:You've made your life substantially more complicated.

Johnny:How's everyone doing, by the way?

Johnny:I haven't reached out, but are you keeping tabs on them?

Johnny:Are they all right?

Gamemaster:Yeah, we have to split up.

Gamemaster:We didn't want to keep them together.

Gamemaster:Obviously, they don't know everything because we haven't been able to figure out which of them is the snitch, although I'm pretty sure one of them is.

Gamemaster:But until we figure out which one it is, I didn't want to alert them.

Gamemaster:So they've just been going on errands, so to speak, helping out in small things.

Gamemaster:And then hopefully we'll figure out which one it is.

Gamemaster:They're all doing fine.

Gamemaster:No one since then has met any particular issues, if that's the concern.

Gamemaster:Really, the one taking it hardest is Red, because it's not like we could reassign Red somewhere else.

Johnny:Yeah, you're trying to keep them in the loop, but it's kind of tough.

Gamemaster:I've kind of co-opted him.

Gamemaster:He's kind of helping me with my tasks for the time being, no reason to let him sit around.

Johnny:I appreciate that.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Johnny:Ugh, Donnie.

Gamemaster:No, listen.

Gamemaster:I'd help you.

Gamemaster:I don't know what would help you.

Gamemaster:I'd help.

Johnny:I don't either.

Johnny:Actually, I pull out the little Sable and Suns thing.

Johnny:Did Red or Smiler tell you about the guns?

Gamemaster:Yeah, he did.

Gamemaster:I did a little bit of digging beforehand.

Gamemaster:The guns are interesting.

Gamemaster:So rumor has it, and I couldn't confirm this because, uh, Sable and Suns aren't really talking to other people as of late.

Gamemaster:Rumor has it they brought on a consultant of some kind.

Gamemaster:Um, that's the reason why they, they've started developing these new, these new firearms.

Gamemaster:Um, we think that this consultant is, uh, from somewhere else, like somewhere further down the horizon.

Gamemaster:Um,

Johnny:That kind of tracks because, you know, everything's coming from somewhere these days.

Johnny:Donnie, you gotta meet this kid I'm working with.

Gamemaster:And he's like a normal kid?

Johnny:He's like nine.

Johnny:Grip, like a 25-year-old.

Johnny:Full-grown man.

Johnny:Crazy as motherfucker.

Johnny:No.

Arctos:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:What is he then?

Johnny:I have no idea.

Johnny:He's from Belvedere.

Johnny:I think he's some sort of super soldier.

Johnny:He's got a permission slip.

Johnny:But also, this might be even crazier.

Gamemaster:Right.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Johnny:You know who else I'm working with?

Johnny:Sir Arctos.

Gamemaster:You're working with the fucking teddy bear that the church prances around?

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Johnny:Yeah.

Johnny:He's never been outside his house.

Johnny:We were at a party earlier, and his conversation topic, his go-to conversation topic, was he asked what someone thought about the midnight sun.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:How'd they take that?

Johnny:I don't think they took it well.

Gamemaster:Understandably.

Gamemaster:Why are you working with him?

Johnny:Yeah.

Johnny:We really needed someone who could heal.

Gamemaster:Did he get kicked out of the church?

Gamemaster:The side hustle?

Gamemaster:The bear can heal.

Johnny:No.

Johnny:The bear can heal.

Johnny:Also, it's kind of... Listen.

Johnny:He got me into... No questions asked, really.

Johnny:I walked into... Is his name Vrain?

Gamemaster:Minister Vane.

Anzu:The Senator.

Johnny:No questions asked.

Gamemaster:The senator.

Johnny:I was in Senator Vane's house earlier.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Do you find anything good in there?

Johnny:No, I didn't want to start up too much trouble the first time.

Johnny:I'm going back.

Gamemaster:Well, maybe you get a chance when you go back another time.

Gamemaster:See if you can find anything useful.

Gamemaster:You know, don't burn any bridges or anything like that, but it would be helpful.

Johnny:Yeah.

Johnny:That's great.

Johnny:Also, there's a really cool bird guy.

Johnny:He's nice.

Gamemaster:That's good.

Gamemaster:So your three companions are...

Arctos:His grandma hates him.

Gamemaster:Child with the power of a grown adult.

Gamemaster:A famous puppet of the church.

Gamemaster:And just like a pretty nice bird guy.

Johnny:I mean, I've seen him kill more people than anyone I know with his mind, but yeah.

Gamemaster:I mean, you could kill people and be nice.

Gamemaster:It happens.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Interesting.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Johnny:Yeah, well.

Gamemaster:I don't...

Gamemaster:So, all of the stuff the ghosts are doing feels kind of petty if, like, it's in the face of a world-ending event.

Gamemaster:But similarly, you go to all of the ghosts and say, hey, forget what you're doing.

Gamemaster:The world's going to end.

Gamemaster:Let's stop that instead, because no one's going to take that well.

Gamemaster:So, listen, if there's something you need, I will help you to the best of my ability.

Gamemaster:I just, you know,

Gamemaster:This is crazy as shit.

Johnny:Yeah, it's crazy as shit.

Johnny:I mean, I think telling everyone the world's going to end is not helpful.

Johnny:And hopefully, I mean, unless you happen to know a way into Teller's Run or have an invite to the party that goes on every Saturday.

Gamemaster:No.

Johnny:That's kind of the problem I'm working on right now is getting in.

Gamemaster:I mean, I can ask around.

Gamemaster:I don't think they're friends of Calaria any more than we are, so...

Johnny:Could be common ground.

Gamemaster:I'll see.

Gamemaster:It's a long shot, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Johnny:That's kind of all we're working on these days, the long shots.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Gamemaster:And you haven't heard anything from the Watcher about any of this shit?

Johnny:No.

Johnny:Since everything went down, I haven't heard anything from them.

Johnny:I died once and it wasn't me, so I don't know what's happening.

Gamemaster:I don't know why you'd be silent on this.

Gamemaster:I don't know why any of you would be silent on this.

Gamemaster:I haven't heard anything from the Compelled in years at this point, but you'd think they'd say something.

Gamemaster:You know?

Johnny:I mean, I was never excited when I died, but I was kind of excited to see him again and that it was this guy.

Johnny:I don't know.

Gamemaster:Like that guy could be useful.

Johnny:I don't know, Donnie.

Gamemaster:the whole blowing up Rayleigh and thing if he did it I mean it wouldn't be the first time we played with fire I think in the poetic justice getting the guy that kind of ruined our lives all then ruined his own back

Johnny:Something... There's something bad about him.

Johnny:I would love that.

Arctos:you

Gamemaster:I don't know.

Gamemaster:It's something to think about.

Gamemaster:This was a good talk.

Gamemaster:I've kept you for some time now.

Gamemaster:Before I go, is there anything else you need?

Gamemaster:If not, I'll reach out when I have something you can use.

Johnny:It's good seeing you, Donnie.

Johnny:I appreciate you coming by.

Gamemaster:It's good to see that you're still at one piece.

Gamemaster:If you need me, I'm with Red, so talk to Red.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:I'll get something to you.

Johnny:Always a little chess piece.

Gamemaster:He will, uh... Yeah, I mean, it's good that you at least have a spot that I can leave messages and stuff.

Johnny:And you know, if you need me, I'm always here.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Although, when you head off, let me know before you go off on that pilgrimage thing.

Johnny:Hey, if you want to come, we get one vehicle, so if you can fit in a vehicle.

Gamemaster:I have to ask around to see if anybody I know got an invite of the ghosts and just didn't share it.

Gamemaster:It's entirely possible.

Johnny:Yeah, it's crazy working in an organization where everyone's just like, do-do-do-do, here's it all happening, and there's no dead drops or meetups, and everyone knows each other's faces all the time.

Johnny:It's wild.

Gamemaster:Well, I mean, we'll see if that sticks around when this organization grows past, like, what, you got eight people here?

Johnny:Us four, one of us is dead.

Gamemaster:That's one cell.

Johnny:Yeah, just about.

Johnny:Oh.

Gamemaster:By the way, nice to be in a high-trust environment.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Johnny:There is one thing you can do for me if you have the time.

Johnny:There's these two twins named Anaïs and Anouk.

Johnny:And they're the craziest motherfuckers I've ever seen.

Johnny:If you can find anything out about them, but also stay out of their way, because their first option is kill people.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:Okay, sure.

Gamemaster:I'll look into them.

Gamemaster:Are they, like, members of the Calarian government?

Johnny:nope they're just they're just like two people who are in iconoclasm and they're also very strong i there's something weird about them oh okay oh

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:I'll ask around.

Gamemaster:Also, I just killed your friend Donzu.

Gamemaster:He's dead now.

Gamemaster:He's back.

Gamemaster:Alright, that was grand.

Gamemaster:Stay safe.

Gamemaster:Or, you know, as safe as you can be doing whatever the hell it is you do.

Johnny:You too, Donnie.

Gamemaster:And he will flip up his hood, go semi-transparent, semi-translucent, that's the term, and, like, leave a few bucks on the table and walk out.

Johnny:I'll finish his eggs.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Arctos:Arctos comes over.

Gamemaster:They are dry.

Arctos:Arctos comes over.

Gamemaster:Arctos is asleep.

Arctos:That's a crazy guy.

Arctos:I'm kidding.

Arctos:Man, I heard everything.

Johnny:It's like...

Gamemaster:It's four in the morning.

Johnny:It's like four in the morning.

Arctos:He has a hood over his head.

Arctos:You didn't notice me.

Johnny:Pulls off his hood.

Gamemaster:I stood very still.

Johnny:Full armor.

Johnny:No.

Arctos:While your friend walks out, you ask, it's Arctos.

Arctos:Mission Impossible masks.

Benny:Johnny takes off his mask and it's Benny in like a big person suit.

Benny:We're like, what conversation did we just have?

Benny:In the other room, they never left the room to get drinks.

Benny:It's just Johnny and Donnie having the fucking conversation.

Gamemaster:And with all of you hanging up your masks for the night, you go back to bed and you finish up your rest.

Benny:Ginny takes their mask off and it's just fucking on Zoom.

Benny:Like, what's going on?

Benny:Where's Ginny?

Benny:Oh my god.

Gamemaster:And it is the morning of the next day.

Gamemaster:It's like Sunday now.

Gamemaster:What would you like to do on this fine Sunday morning?

Benny:We're going to go poke around Prime Meridian.

Anzu:Hard to say.

Arctos:Hey, guys.

Arctos:By the way, that guy that used to be in your group that died, did you guys ever hold a funeral service for him?

Johnny:There's sort of a lot going on when he died.

Arctos:Tell his company he died?

Arctos:Or do you just kind of keep going?

Benny:We had a heartfelt moment at the...

Johnny:Me and Benny had a nice moment at the docks.

Arctos:Okay.

Benny:We were really focused on Avenge before paperwork.

Arctos:Okay.

Johnny:We had a nice moment there.

Arctos:Okay.

Arctos:If any of you guys die and don't come back, do you want a funeral?

Johnny:Do you think we should?

Johnny:I'll come back.

Benny:If you could let my org know, please.

Arctos:Do you guys have wills?

Arctos:Okay.

Benny:I have a strong will.

Arctos:You'd like your org to know?

Benny:Yeah, please let them know.

Arctos:Okay.

Arctos:Is your will like a 14 or something?

Benny:speaker.

Johnny:That's funny.

Arctos:Okay.

Johnny:Do you think we should?

Arctos:Cool.

Arctos:Should we let his org know, or should we just go?

Johnny:I don't know, you're a holy man.

Johnny:You think for holy reasons we should let them know?

Arctos:What does the church do?

Arctos:I'm assuming they, like, if you're rich, they put you in, like, a big tool.

Arctos:Or do they cremate?

Gamemaster:So the host's burial rites are, you're right that there is a class divide there.

Arctos:Like, what does the host do?

Gamemaster:If you aren't of some import to the church, like the normal body proceedings is the body is cremated and then the urn is presented at the person's local church for the ashes to be absorbed by the prayer engine.

Gamemaster:if they are of a certain repute for the church, then instead the body is interred.

Arctos:Okay.

Gamemaster:If they're part of the church, the body is interred in the city's largest church.

Gamemaster:It usually has an area for that.

Gamemaster:Not everybody gets... Not everybody is buried that way.

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:Some people don't follow...

Gamemaster:Sorry, everything froze for me for a little bit.

Gamemaster:My internet's been a little bit wonky.

Arctos:No, it froze for me too, so I think it's Discord.

Benny:I think this is Discord, yeah.

Gamemaster:Some people... Oh, it's just Discord.

Gamemaster:Some people don't... Some people don't, like, follow those burial stuff.

Gamemaster:They have, like, their own things.

Gamemaster:There is the... Oh, shit, what's it called?

Gamemaster:There's a pretty famous thing that the, like, super-rich do with their bodies.

Gamemaster:I think it's a columbarium?

Benny:Is it the freezing or something?

Gamemaster:Yeah, it's not quite freezing.

Gamemaster:Their corpses are... Yeah, it is called a parham.

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:So the Pale Lantern Society, which follows the Pulse but accepts corpses of any religion, will arrange the corpses in these large artistic displays where the corpses are like parts of the display.

Gamemaster:Like they'll put on a beach where they pose all the corpses in a certain way or a park or they'll like stage a War between different people.

Gamemaster:And they'll be frozen in place as living art for an eventual time where the Pale Lantern Society figures out a way to revive them, at which point all of their columbariums will awaken with the many souls inside to return to the realm of the living.

Gamemaster:So that's like a fun pastime for some rich people to do, but it's pretty expensive to get interred in one of those.

Gamemaster:The average person gets cremated.

Gamemaster:That was all a very long-winded way to say the average person gets cremated.

Arctos:And no, no, I appreciate all that.

Arctos:And then finally, do I have any idea what the judge would do as Arctos?

Gamemaster:You can make a religion check to see what the Scale would do for the judge and all that kind of stuff.

Arctos:Sorry, I just, let me just, normally I pull up Foundry to see my stats, so I'll just roll instead.

Arctos:Skills.

Arctos:Where was the religion?

Arctos:Okay.

Arctos:Oh, it's a recall knowledge about religion.

Arctos:No!

Gamemaster:It is a recall knowledge about religion.

Arctos:Yes.

Arctos:30.

Gamemaster:30.

Gamemaster:Okay, so you would just know specifically the judge traditionally has people like followers of the judge get buried.

Arctos:Still on.

Gamemaster:They don't get cremated.

Gamemaster:But you would know from that check specifically, the Scale, all members of the Scale are interred in a massive mausoleum that's carved into the side of the mountain that the Citadel is based in.

Gamemaster:Like, every single one.

Gamemaster:They've reserved a peak, effectively, that's been carved out, and any time any member of the Scale passes away, they are interred within that tomb peak.

Arctos:you might want to tell this org yeah or maybe we could just fax it to them

Benny:Okay.

Anzu:I think they have offices.

Johnny:we've been to the opposite just send him a fax argyle is dead no i think the the fax is a better answer this one

Gamemaster:You can do either of those things.

Arctos:Yeah, what else are we going to do?

Arctos:Go into a random branch and be like, there's this guy named Argyle that worked for you.

Arctos:He's dead.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:Yeah, we'll just fax it and then go.

Gamemaster:Yeah, so there's a fax machine in the Sin and Tonic.

Gamemaster:You have sent, or Argyle sent a fax previously from that machine, so you can just, like, last call or repeat and then send a fax over.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:That's fine.

Gamemaster:Yeah, you can send a message, let the skill know that Argyle has passed and that his body is unfortunately unrecoverable because you don't have it.

Anzu:Should we note that the cause of death was gang violence?

Arctos:Yeah, gang violence, what river he was last seen, and just... We could say what gang and just be, like, terminated.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:You can do that.

Gamemaster:All right.

Arctos:That's good to do.

Gamemaster:Now what are you doing?

Arctos:I'm for...

Arctos:But that's because I like to steal things.

Arctos:And that's because I've never been able to steal anything.

Arctos:Because I've been given everything my entire life.

Arctos:But I think it'd be fun to steal something.

Benny:I think we should go talk to the heart.

Arctos:Or we can go for the heart.

Arctos:If I were to do the heart.

Arctos:Mike froze like... Alright.

Benny:Talk to the people that talk to the heart.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Arctos:I'm down with that.

Arctos:Alright.

Arctos:Benny.

Arctos:Benny and everyone lead the way.

Benny:That's what it's going to sound like when I start the car.

Gamemaster:Where are you going?

Benny:To the basement, to the wine cellar of the offices of Prime Meridian.

Benny:No, I guess we don't know where Prime Meridian is in Sableclutch.

Gamemaster:Where specifically are you trying to go?

Anzu:Correct.

Gamemaster:You're trying to go to the part of Prime Meridian where you think the heart is loaded.

Gamemaster:The sub-nexus area.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Arctos:I'm going to be honest with you guys.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Benny:Hmm.

Arctos:I'm going to be honest with you guys.

Gamemaster:Sorry?

Arctos:I kind of feel like we should just go... Oh, you know who we never talked to again?

Arctos:Side quest.

Arctos:We never talked to the very nice lady.

Arctos:Arctos wouldn't know, but Jorge would.

Arctos:We never talked to the very nice lady right above the sewage hole that we went in to go see.

Johnny:Let's go.

Gamemaster:That you bought the honey from?

Arctos:Yeah, and then she was walking...

Arctos:watching the top and then all of the people down there were brutally murdered oh that's true hopefully she never went down all right let's go let's go let's go do something else i'm okay

Anzu:They had already been brutally murdered by the time we went down.

Gamemaster:Uh...

Gamemaster:Okay, so I need either a survival or a society check to find this particular Prime Meridian building that you're trying to get to.

Arctos:I'm not going to know this.

Arctos:If you can make it a religion check, I can help out.

Johnny:I know exactly where it is.

Benny:Yeah, can you make it a religion check, Josh?

Anzu:I mean, I...

Gamemaster:A religion?

Gamemaster:No.

Anzu:I already failed a society check on this topic.

Johnny:I know exactly where it is.

Johnny:I got a crit 30.

Arctos:Yeah, I was going to say,

Gamemaster:Johnny critically succeeded in the survival check.

Gamemaster:Johnny knows where this one is.

Anzu:Okay.

Johnny:I know exactly...

Gamemaster:Frankly, Johnny probably knows where this is because it would have been a target that came up for the ghosts on multiple occasions.

Arctos:He was gonna vomit.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Johnny:Everyone's like, where is it?

Johnny:I'm like, I know exactly where it is.

Gamemaster:So...

Johnny:Why?

Johnny:I don't know.

Johnny:Don't worry about it.

Arctos:The guard changes happen at this time, and one of the guards' name is Phyllis, and his wife's sick, and he...

Gamemaster:You know what?

Gamemaster:I will actually give Johnny a circumstance bonus to checks involving stuff like security measures in this particular area, should they occur.

Gamemaster:Because I feel like that is something that the ghost would have interacted with on the script.

Arctos:Amazing.

Gamemaster:Yeah, Johnny knows where you're going.

Gamemaster:No additional fussing around needed.

Gamemaster:He will point Benny in the right direction, gives him exact directions to get from where you're trying to go to this particular building, which is a relatively unassuming-looking building built into kind of the middle of Sableclutch.

Benny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:you would know this, Johnny, that this building exists like 50 worlds up and down the horizon, both starward and voidward.

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:It's the exact same building built with the exact same floor plan up and down...

Gamemaster:The building itself is only one story tall plus a basement, but the way that it's constructed is effectively when you take an elevator, it instead just slips one direction, voidward or starward.

Gamemaster:So they've taken the skyscraper and dissected it into one-story increments and then moved it across the horizon.

Johnny:I look over at Benny and I say, talk about lateral integration.

Gamemaster:Anyway, you would know that there is a parking lot here.

Gamemaster:It is for employees only, so they won't let you in unless you're trying to convince them that you're employees.

Gamemaster:This is not like a building that is open to the public.

Gamemaster:This isn't like a come in and take a tour of the Prime Meridian Sub Transit Nexus 2A.

Gamemaster:It's our favorite one.

Gamemaster:It's where all of the machinery exists for operating the train systems in this third of Hallia.

Gamemaster:So it's really just like people come to work for...

Gamemaster:interacting with those systems.

Gamemaster:It's not like a public-facing area.

Gamemaster:But there's the building itself.

Gamemaster:There's the parking lot.

Gamemaster:There's a gate that kind of surrounds it.

Gamemaster:The gate doesn't reach all the way up to the roofs of the buildings that are directly outside the gate.

Gamemaster:So, like, in theory, one could climb up onto a roof and jump over it, but you'd be spotted pretty quickly because it's the middle of the day.

Gamemaster:And there are security guards both at booths at the entrances into the gate and at the front of the building itself.

Gamemaster:But what is the entry plan here?

Benny:So we could do this 100% by the book and attempt to just walk in the front door and be like, hey, we would like to speak to Rapid Connection or we could name the ARC technician, Archmechanic, and just say that we have ARC and we would like something of theirs to trade.

Anzu:mechanic.

Gamemaster:Archmechanic.

Anzu:Yeah.

Johnny:I mean, I feel like it's not a bad idea to just say, Hey, we have, we would like to talk to the heart and explain exactly, exactly more or less why and say, I mean, I think this, this answers that question.

Arctos:We should have asked if they were complying with this game or if we're trying to take something from them that they want.

Benny:is if they're guarding it?

Arctos:Yeah, like... Should we go in disguised?

Benny:We'll find out.

Johnny:Like if we lay it all out and they say, Nope, get out of here.

Johnny:Then we know we have to go for a different approach.

Arctos:What if we lay it all out and they're like, no!

Arctos:And then it goes missing.

Arctos:They're going to be like, what was that?

Arctos:Those people.

Johnny:Well, we'll just say we're Spartle B. Jones and his hired henchmen.

Arctos:I kind of stick out.

Anzu:you'd be a henchman.

Benny:You can be, you can be Spartan.

Johnny:Once a second, I remember you were a bear.

Gamemaster:you

Arctos:Yeah, I could put a big poncho on, I don't know.

Arctos:Is there a disguise?

Arctos:Could you disguise me?

Arctos:Don't we have a disguise kit?

Johnny:I can disguise you where you're still.

Anzu:It only can do so much.

Anzu:It can only do so much.

Benny:It's not a miracle kit.

Gamemaster:This small wooden box contains cosmetics, false facial hair, spirit gum, and a few simple wigs.

Johnny:Sorry.

Arctos:Give me a wig!

Benny:Put a wig on him.

Benny:Put a Justin Bieber haircut on him and no one's going to recognize him.

Benny:Or better yet, put some blush on his white cheeks.

Benny:give him a long blonde wig and some blue eyeshadow and it's just like, this is our grandmother.

Benny:Hello!

Arctos:Yes.

Benny:I was about to say, were you already sending the Scooby-Doo picture?

Arctos:Damn it, Mike.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Benny:I was thinking of Scooby-Doo when I was describing it.

Anzu:So we're just going to try to see if they'll entice with us just openly first.

Arctos:So, should we go in?

Johnny:Hmm.

Benny:I think it's worth a shot.

Benny:I mean, if not, we can always go to plan B, but maybe you won't have to get there.

Arctos:Okay.

Anzu:All right.

Arctos:Are we going to tell them that we got invited to this party and explain it?

Benny:I think we should only keep that with the heart if we mention it at all.

Anzu:I think... Well, okay, so here's one thing.

Anzu:We don't currently have any art in our possession.

Arctos:Yes.

Anzu:So are we going in saying... Well, our options are to obtain art first and then say we have a gift for the heart.

Arctos:Should we go get smart?

Anzu:The other option would be to say that we are...

Anzu:looking to obtain some art for the heart and want its opinions, you know, on what it might desire.

Arctos:Imagine we go in and we're just like, hey guys, this super secret part that's probably responsible for critical infrastructure inside of the city.

Arctos:We know its name, even though it doesn't know who we are.

Arctos:If we were to broaden it, what type of art does it want?

Anzu:Well, we would have to tell them that we are in the Heart world, you know.

Johnny:Well, maybe we just go in and we say, hey, we're here to talk with Rapid Connection regarding the competition that he is part of.

Arctos:I want to go talk to them.

Arctos:I do.

Arctos:I just don't know the angle that we could take.

Arctos:Because maybe we go, look, we know it has a lodestone.

Arctos:And then it's going to be like, what?

Benny:See, I'm not sure the heart knows what it has.

Johnny:He has something that we need and would like to discuss it with him.

Anzu:But then why would they tell us that it would take art in exchange?

Arctos:What do you mean?

Johnny:Yeah, it's got to know it has something of value.

Benny:Well, no, something of value, but exactly what it is, I don't think it knows.

Benny:We can't be sure.

Benny:Hey, we know part of a contest.

Benny:I found this fair and square.

Benny:This is my nice little gem.

Johnny:That would definitely change the contest.

Johnny:We have to fight this heart for the thing that it found.

Benny:Well, I mean, we have to...

Arctos:It might know about the context.

Arctos:But I'm down to 10 then if they tell us no.

Arctos:Yeah.

Benny:Yeah, I think we just mentioned that we have the capability of obtaining fine art, and we would like to do some business with the heart regarding some fine art.

Johnny:I mean, no harm in asking.

Johnny:mention the competition or no mention the competition okay

Arctos:So we're going to

Benny:No.

Benny:I don't think we mentioned... I mean, not to the people at the front, and maybe not even to the heart.

Arctos:Hey, if you guys want to try it, they might not even let us in, but let Bigfoot, no, let Johnny try talking to him.

Arctos:I'm going to pull up my poncho so it's not as, I want to immediately jump out.

Gamemaster:Is it a hooded poncho?

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:Why else would you have a poncho?

Benny:Yeah, I think these bunches were always hooded.

Gamemaster:That's fair.

Gamemaster:You know what?

Gamemaster:That's totally fair.

Gamemaster:I was thinking, well, the problem is I had the Clint Eastwood poncho in my head, which is like for warmth and not for rain.

Johnny:Thank you.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:But it's fine.

Anzu:Right.

Arctos:It's like a drug run.

Gamemaster:It can have a hooded poncho.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:All right.

Arctos:I'll be in the backseat.

Gamemaster:Okay, so who's... Benny's in the driver's seat, and then I guess navigating is Johnny, because Johnny was the one telling the directions because he knew where this place is.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Okay, so you're driving up to the front gate.

Gamemaster:You want to talk to the security guard in the little security booth?

Gamemaster:Okay, yeah, you can do that.

Gamemaster:You pull up.

Johnny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:The security guard at the front makes a little gesture for you to lower your window.

Gamemaster:You said that they are...

Gamemaster:They are an elf.

Gamemaster:Male.

Gamemaster:It's kind of hard to tell age here, but he's definitely on the older side.

Gamemaster:He's wearing the gray that is the uniform of Prime Meridian.

Gamemaster:You can see from he's sitting in his booth, he doesn't have a door.

Gamemaster:It's just kind of open, so you can see that there is a holster at his hip.

Gamemaster:The one interesting feature of him is that he has a number of

Gamemaster:dull gray metal rods that have been driven into various parts on his arm, all the way up into his throat, and then he has a series, like a cluster of three of them embedded in his skull.

Gamemaster:He looks over at you and says, what's your business?

Johnny:Sorry, one clarification question.

Johnny:Metal rod or like metal spikes?

Gamemaster:You don't see pointy bits of them, but they are embedded in the skin.

Gamemaster:From what you can see, they appear to be uniform in diameter before they enter the skin.

Arctos:I don't like this.

Arctos:This came from campaign one.

Johnny:That's already scary.

Arctos:I don't like this guy.

Johnny:That's already scary.

Johnny:Hi, a friend.

Johnny:My name is Salvado Van Warhol.

Benny:Thank you.

Johnny:I'm a... I'm something of an...

Johnny:art curator here in town, and I'd like to speak to the Heart Rapid Connection.

Johnny:I know he's a fan of art, and I believe I can offer him my services, but I need to know sort of his tastes, so I was hoping to speak with him.

Gamemaster:Roll a diplomacy check.

Anzu:We're going to learn a lot right now.

Johnny:That's going to be... I still have one hero point.

Benny:It's just like pulling up to a McDonald's.

Benny:I want to speak to the manager, Chris Kringle.

Benny:I have a large vehicle.

Johnny:Do you think a 24 is good enough?

Benny:I know he loves trucks.

Benny:I've got a car from Chris Kringle.

Benny:And they're like, what the fuck are you talking about?

Anzu:I think that it's probably risky to try again.

Johnny:Yeah, I'll keep the hero point.

Gamemaster:You have a 50% chance of doing better.

Johnny:We'll stick with the 24.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Arctos:No, it's more than 50 because Mythic will add plus six.

Gamemaster:If you want to keep it, you can keep it.

Arctos:So... Just keep in mind, if we don't do well in this check, we don't progress further.

Johnny:I'm going to reroll it.

Arctos:But if we do do well, we progress further to a more difficult person that you're going to want that for.

Johnny:I used it.

Gamemaster:Oh.

Arctos:So...

Gamemaster:Oh.

Johnny:I shouldn't have used it.

Johnny:I did one better.

Gamemaster:You got a 25.

Gamemaster:Okay, with a 25.

Gamemaster:He looks at you, and there's a very clear look of confusion on his face.

Johnny:Van Warhol.

Gamemaster:Before he says, sorry, your name was Salvado Von...

Gamemaster:Salvado van Warhol, of course.

Gamemaster:One moment, please.

Gamemaster:And you can see he starts moving his fingers on the arm that has the metal rods embedded into it.

Gamemaster:It almost looks like he's typing with or interacting with something, but they're just moving around in the air.

Gamemaster:And then after a second, he says... I'm sorry.

Gamemaster:I just had to confirm.

Gamemaster:This is a prime meridian transit nexus.

Gamemaster:We don't...

Gamemaster:do art dealing here.

Johnny:Sorry, not you, rapid.

Gamemaster:We don't do art dealing here.

Johnny:Okay, is there somewhere else?

Johnny:Where would I speak to him then?

Johnny:Okay, not you, rapid connection.

Gamemaster:You can't speak to our art.

Gamemaster:We're not in the market for art at this time.

Gamemaster:We're not in the market for art at this time You're speaking to a security guard We're not in the market for art at this time

Arctos:Oh, he might be speaking to that might be rapid connection.

Johnny:Are you, wait, I lean in close.

Johnny:Am I speaking to rapid connection at this moment?

Johnny:You're using we as though you and rapid connection is like a royal we, or we as in a collective, as in you, rapid connection.

Gamemaster:This building and its inhabitants are not in the market for art at this time.

Gamemaster:I'm going to have to ask you to leave.

Johnny:He's missing out.

Gamemaster:Sir, please turn the vehicle around and you watch as he, like, starts reaching towards the fire.

Johnny:Oh, whoa, whoa.

Johnny:I have some great up and coming artists.

Gamemaster:If you don't start pulling out, he is going to... Yeah, are you... Okay.

Anzu:And he backed the car up.

Benny:Benny will put it in reverse and start.

Anzu:And he...

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:Can I get a crafting check, please, from either of the two people at the front?

Johnny:the front.

Arctos:I think those might have been palladium spikes.

Gamemaster:I'm sorry.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Benny:Either or and.

Gamemaster:Either or and.

Gamemaster:You just have to radio.

Johnny:We got a 19.

Johnny:Where was that?

Benny:Crafting.

Benny:Oh, I got a 20.

Benny:Eagle eye buddy.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:20 crit brings a failure to a success.

Gamemaster:I didn't realize both of you had...

Gamemaster:Plus zero to your crafting checks.

Gamemaster:That's crazy.

Benny:Don't matter.

Gamemaster:Okay, so there is like an AM FM radio built into this car.

Johnny:you you

Gamemaster:It's fancy.

Gamemaster:It's got both.

Gamemaster:It's one of those older radio modules where you can actually see what frequency you're tuned into with this little red dial that you move back and forth along the indicator of the frequency.

Gamemaster:The radio is off.

Gamemaster:But Benny, as you're reversing, you just by chance happen to catch it.

Gamemaster:There is this...

Gamemaster:Almost imperceptible shift in that dial for the frequency.

Gamemaster:Like it's trying to move, but it can't because it's not under power.

Gamemaster:Excuse me.

Anzu:Thank you.

Gamemaster:That's all you get from that.

Benny:I turn it on.

Gamemaster:If you turn it on, there's a burst of static, and you watch as the dial itself moves over to one of the frequencies that I don't think you would immediately associate with any of the radio stations that play in Hallia.

Johnny:you

Gamemaster:And then you would hear...

Gamemaster:very staticky like such that you cannot really hear like you can't make out any qualities of the voice necessarily uh you hear a very staticky um make the next left okay uh your car will give you directions to uh effectively pull around back

Benny:Penny will follow the directions.

Gamemaster:to the back area of this sub-nexus and pull into one of the loading bays in the back area of this area, which the garage door for this particular loading bay is open and you're able to drive in.

Benny:Drive in.

Gamemaster:Absolutely.

Gamemaster:You drive in

Gamemaster:The garage door closes behind you as you pull into this garage.

Gamemaster:You have pulled into a relatively small part of the loading bay.

Gamemaster:It looks like it's been partitioned off.

Gamemaster:There are these movable walls that can move around.

Gamemaster:there's enough room for a car a little bit like a few feet of headroom in front and there is a figure standing on the other end of this partitioned loading bay wearing

Gamemaster:still the of the prime meridian uh clothing um but this is almost like a more styled version of it there's some ornamentation on the lapel uh but there's also large chunks of it uh have been cut out to make room for uh metal piping

Gamemaster:that look like have been directly placed into the upper chest and the back of this figure, made out of the same dull, dark metal as the rest.

Gamemaster:Besides the metal piping that leads out into what appears to be a backpack on their back, you can also see that both of their arms have metal cylinders that have been driven through

Gamemaster:the palms and the arms and the upper arm.

Gamemaster:They have metal spikes, not spikes, rods through the throat.

Gamemaster:They have a big cluster embedded in this part of their forehead.

Gamemaster:They are wearing what look to be some kind of green goggles over both eyes.

Gamemaster:And they are...

Gamemaster:manipulating what looks to be an articulated arm, like, come off of the same backpack that has the tubes in their body that is right in front of their face and looks almost like a walkie-talkie.

Gamemaster:They speak, and there's the hiss from your radio that says, get out.

Benny:But he'll get out.

Johnny:yeah you know

Arctos:Get out.

Anzu:Yeah, yeah.

Gamemaster:So you can't see their legs because the prime meridian robes extend down to the floor.

Gamemaster:As you get out, he'll walk around towards the passenger side because that's where Johnny was, and he was the one who spoke to the guard.

Gamemaster:There is an interesting cadence to the footsteps.

Gamemaster:It's like 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, instead of the normal 1, 2, 1, 2 that you'd expect from feet.

Gamemaster:He'll walk up to Johnny and say, how do you know about rapid connection?

Johnny:A little devil told me about him.

Gamemaster:Fine.

Gamemaster:I don't really care.

Gamemaster:What are you planning to sell?

Gamemaster:What do you have on offer?

Johnny:Well, that depends on... I don't really know what he likes.

Johnny:Someone said he was a big art collector, but that was kind of all the information I got, so I was trying to get a meeting.

Arctos:acrylic paints, what kind of era, what kind of stuff do you want?

Johnny:Is he a oil painting guy?

Johnny:I can get whatever he wants.

Johnny:I just need to know what he wants.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:So when you said you were here to sell art, you were lying.

Johnny:No, I just don't know what kind of art he wants to buy.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Gamemaster:He wants to buy all art.

Gamemaster:This was stupid of you.

Gamemaster:I... This was a mistake.

Johnny:What was the name of the artist, Josh?

Johnny:What was the name of the artist who did the painting in Vane's place?

Gamemaster:Oh, uh... The good one?

Arctos:Yeah, the good one with the Arctic.

Arctos:We'll first try the Arctic and then try the other one.

Gamemaster:Wait, sorry.

Gamemaster:Try the Heart... What do you mean?

Gamemaster:Oh, okay.

Arctos:First, the paintings in Arctos' room.

Johnny:I have a Kellum Quinn I think you may be interested in.

Gamemaster:So...

Gamemaster:I don't have names for the painters for the Heart in Arctos' room.

Arctos:And then... Yeah.

Gamemaster:I do have, it's Kellum Quinn is the name of the artist that drew that landscape.

Johnny:Painted over something very interesting in the center.

Gamemaster:There's a pause and you can see some kind of aperture inside of one of the goggles that this guy is wearing zooms in on your face.

Gamemaster:Roll a diplomacy check.

Gamemaster:Your first one was high enough to get you in the door here.

Gamemaster:Let's see if he actually believes you.

Anzu:Hmm.

Johnny:I got another one.

Johnny:I can't reroll it.

Arctos:Can I also try chatting with it and be like, pull down my hood and I go, I hope my name has some recognition here.

Gamemaster:Okay.

Arctos:I can get us a respectable painting.

Gamemaster:Um, he looks at the two of you and says, if you could get a respectable painting, you would have come here with it.

Johnny:Wait.

Johnny:Let's try that again.

Arctos:I wanted to do that.

Gamemaster:Oh, that works.

Johnny:I do have something.

Gamemaster:Reroll it.

Johnny:Damn it.

Gamemaster:It's worse.

Gamemaster:I'm sorry.

Arctos:Can I roll a check or no?

Johnny:It was worse.

Gamemaster:No.

Arctos:All right.

Gamemaster:No.

Arctos:We'll be back with one.

Gamemaster:Yeah, get out.

Gamemaster:And he will step out.

Gamemaster:Having not exchanged pleasantries or anything like that, he'll just leave out of a door in the partition.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:All right, so we'll just go.

Johnny:Bam.

Johnny:All right, well.

Benny:Do you know who that was?

Arctos:Yeah.

Johnny:Can I get your name if we come back with the Quinn?

Gamemaster:He's gone.

Anzu:Uh huh.

Benny:Alrighty.

Johnny:Are we still in here?

Benny:I think so.

Benny:We got to get in the car and drive out.

Benny:Then I'll get back in the car.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:I think we should have brought the painting.

Benny:All right, let's get some crowbars and

Benny:Pull it off the wall.

Johnny:Let's go in.

Gamemaster:okay sorry so you guys can get in the car you can back out of the the back lot of this area um

Johnny:I don't know.

Arctos:Do you even think he's going to be willing to talk to us again?

Johnny:I feel like I kind of blew that one.

Johnny:Sorry guys.

Arctos:No, I mean, I think we just should have came with a painting.

Arctos:We literally just walked up to a transit node and we're like, can we talk to your secret supercomputer for a painting?

Arctos:And then it's like, okay.

Arctos:And then we're like, we don't have a painting.

Arctos:And they're like, why?

Benny:No, I think this makes sense.

Johnny:Well.

Benny:We're not looking to donate a painting, though.

Arctos:I don't...

Arctos:I don't think we should have... Yeah, I still think we should have got... I think it makes sense that it won the painting.

Benny:It's not like we're dropping off art for fun.

Benny:We want something of value from them.

Benny:So if we bring a painting and we're like, we want that thing, it's like, well, you said you wanted to sell it.

Benny:You didn't say you wanted to sell it for something specific.

Benny:So I don't think it's that much of an issue.

Benny:I think we need something good in order to get...

Arctos:I mean, I think it kind of is.

Arctos:I don't think that was a good meeting, and I think it could have only been better if we had a painting, but that's fine.

Anzu:It definitely would have been better.

Anzu:The one thing that I will say is the read that I got from that is that the heart is perhaps desperate for art, or craves it in a way that this man was willing to entreat with a couple of shady strangers about it.

Arctos:Yeah.

Anzu:If we did come back with something, it could be...

Anzu:It depends on if the heart outranks the man.

Anzu:Because if the heart is like, okay, go talk to them and get me that painting.

Johnny:Now you're listening really good.

Anzu:The conversation did not go well, but I don't 100% think it's a dead end.

Arctos:Yeah, I mean we could.

Arctos:Yeah, we could try getting the painting.

Anzu:But we're going to have to get something good now.

Anzu:We might have been able to scrape by with something okay.

Arctos:Or we could just come back and go... Yeah, yeah.

Arctos:Alright.

Arctos:So now we need a good piece of painting.

Johnny:Where's the Mona Lisa?

Johnny:Let's go steal that.

Gamemaster:That's the plan.

Gamemaster:You guys have been bumped out into the streets of Sableclutch.

Benny:Didn't we just promise a Quinn?

Benny:So we bring a Quinn.

Arctos:I don't know if the Quinn test doesn't check anymore.

Arctos:I think we need something better than a Quinn.

Johnny:you could argue the question.

Benny:We don't know what's better.

Benny:We got no information.

Benny:This is why we went in the first place.

Arctos:I mean, the information we got was we should have brought a painting, but that's fine.

Arctos:But I mean, like, then we said, what about this?

Benny:No, but... Okay, so now we have to bring a better painting.

Arctos:And then he said, get the fuck out of here.

Arctos:So I don't know if we, the second meeting we should come in with, remember we came in with nothing and then we brought up one painting and then just to get the fuck out, we brought that painting.

Arctos:He's going to be like,

Arctos:Okay, so I think we should try to get the best painting we can, which might be better than a quid.

Benny:But he didn't tell us to fuck off because of the quality of painting.

Benny:He told us to fuck off because we didn't have it.

Arctos:Sure, sure.

Benny:I mean, it is.

Arctos:I mean, kind of.

Benny:I don't know what we bring besides.

Arctos:Kind of, right?

Benny:Do we just go to a random...

Arctos:Yeah, no, I don't know.

Anzu:Something that my grandma always said is, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

Arctos:That's why I was going to say we should look for the painting first.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:But we've also, yeah.

Arctos:I mean, I'm just like, we need to bring a good painting.

Arctos:I have no idea what a good painting is.

Arctos:We literally just looked at paintings for like 20 seconds and then we just left.

Arctos:So like, we should look.

Arctos:Maybe museum.

Arctos:Maybe we try to steal one.

Arctos:Maybe we try to buy one.

Arctos:I don't know.

Arctos:But I don't know if we should just immediately go, all right, Quinn, and then solve it now.

Anzu:Yeah, maybe we can find out about a gala that's going on in town and we could attend an art gala.

Arctos:Yeah, yeah.

Gamemaster:you could also just like go to a museum if your goal is just to look at art i don't know the point of the gala was to look at art or if it's to like steal art under the gala like as as a way to get it if you're just trying to look at art you can go to a museum to look at art

Anzu:That would be nice.

Johnny:Okay, step one, we go to a museum, we figure out what fine art is.

Arctos:Yeah, yeah.

Arctos:That's what I've been trying to do.

Anzu:Right, and who are the big artists?

Arctos:Like, maybe the Quinn's like a Rembrandt and then we should bring it.

Anzu:Okay, okay.

Arctos:Or maybe it's just like a crazy guy with a tinfoil hat that painted over that thing.

Johnny:Okay, to the Calarian Museum of Art.

Arctos:Alright.

Gamemaster:I think it's 10.55.

Gamemaster:I think maybe we leave it there for tonight's session.

Arctos:Yeah, that's fair.

Gamemaster:And then tomorrow we can open with you guys becoming cultured, I suppose.

Gamemaster:Sorry, not tomorrow.

Gamemaster:Next session.

Arctos:Yeah.

Anzu:Let's just do it tomorrow.

Benny:sure yeah

Gamemaster:We could do it tomorrow.

Johnny:Yeah.

Gamemaster:That's fine.

Gamemaster:Every day.

Gamemaster:Does next Monday work?

Anzu:I think so.

Gamemaster:That's good.

Anzu:Yeah.

Anzu:Man, I feel like we did not get a lot done today.

Johnny:um

Gamemaster:Let's see.

Gamemaster:The first hour of the session was you guys reading stuff in the library.

Anzu:That was good.

Gamemaster:Then you went to Vane's house.

Gamemaster:Then you left Vane's house to go to the Sin and Tonic.

Benny:Thank you.

Gamemaster:Then you left the Sin and the Tonic to go to the Undertable.

Gamemaster:Then you went back to the Sin and the Tonic.

Gamemaster:You had a conversation or two.

Gamemaster:Then you came here.

Gamemaster:You definitely did stuff.

Gamemaster:You just maybe didn't get as far along as you were planning on going into the session.

Gamemaster:Which is true of literally every session.

Gamemaster:I have never once managed to plan out, like, a session of what I expect you guys to do in, like, a full campaign and have you guys get all the way through it.

Gamemaster:Because things just take time.

Gamemaster:It's not an indictment on anything.

Arctos:yeah yeah yeah alright

Gamemaster:It's just, like, we're doing stuff.

Gamemaster:So we don't have time to, like, breakneck pace through stuff.

Gamemaster:Which is fine.

Gamemaster:I have...

Gamemaster:I have a question about those of you who care about the background music.

Gamemaster:Was it more or less annoying or completely ambivalent this session than previous ones?

Gamemaster:I tried a soundtrack from a different game, and I wasn't sure if it was impactful at all.

Benny:I might not have it loud enough.

Anzu:It didn't... It still fit to me.

Gamemaster:If it just straight up didn't register in your head, then that's totally fine.

Gamemaster:That means it did its job.

Gamemaster:It's just supposed to be background noise.

Anzu:I wasn't like, what the heck am I listening to?

Gamemaster:Right.

Gamemaster:I'm sure I have.

Gamemaster:Let's see if I have any music in my sound player that is like, what the heck am I listening to?

Gamemaster:Do I have anything particularly weird?

Gamemaster:Oh, I do have, where is this?

Gamemaster:It's somewhere.

Gamemaster:This one.

Gamemaster:Actually, I have two songs in Finnish.

Anzu:Yeah, if this started playing mid-session, I would be thinking to myself, what is about to happen?

Gamemaster:I don't know if that's particularly useful.

Benny:They're just for the end of sessions.

Johnny:It's.

Gamemaster:No, you've heard both of the... Oh, I get it.

Gamemaster:Finnish.

Gamemaster:Okay, I understand now.

Gamemaster:I understand.

Gamemaster:You have heard both of the Finnish songs previously, and you've met the guy who sings them.

Gamemaster:But I don't know if you ever, like, that never really came up, so you would have connected that.

Gamemaster:But it happened.

Gamemaster:It's there.

Gamemaster:The Finnish is important.

Anzu:That's a crazy thing to say.

Gamemaster:That the Finnish is important?

Johnny:Finish is important.

Gamemaster:It's not Finnish in-game.

Anzu:Now that we... That's so fascinating.

Gamemaster:You have.

Gamemaster:You have met the guy that's singing this tango.

Gamemaster:It happens.

Arctos:It's Arctos.

Gamemaster:It's Arctos.

Gamemaster:This is what Arctos actually sounds like.

Gamemaster:This is what Common sounds like on Færrin.

Gamemaster:It's actually just Finnish.

Arctos:Arctos is Duke Silver, if you guys get that reference.

Anzu:Whoa.

Gamemaster:From Parks and Rec.

Arctos:From Parks and Rec.

Arctos:Yeah.

Arctos:You go to a thing and he has a hat and he does jazz.

Gamemaster:So I think Mike died.

Gamemaster:At least he's frozen for me.

Anzu:Yeah, he's been just staring at me for a while.

Arctos:Agreed.

Johnny:Oh, I. Yep.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Arctos:It told me his camera failed, but yeah.

Anzu:But... Probably we'll see him next week.

Gamemaster:But... I don't... Either way.

Johnny:Oh, no.

Arctos:It's asking me to try again.

Arctos:How would that?

Johnny:Can he see us?

Arctos:All right.

Arctos:Oh, by the way, are we going to be moving off Discord?

Gamemaster:I'm not doing anything...

Arctos:I don't see any good alternatives.

Gamemaster:Yeah, part of the problem is that everything that would replace Discord sucks.

Gamemaster:So I think the current plan is to not do anything.

Gamemaster:None of the things in the server are marked as 18+.

Gamemaster:So in theory, we shouldn't have to do anything.

Johnny:Okay.

Gamemaster:We'll see if that changes.

Anzu:Yeah, I'm of the opinion that if we can just continue to operate as normal without having to input anything, then we might as well.

Gamemaster:I would like to stay on Discord for as long as we can, solely because, like, we have a bunch of stuff that's integrated with Discord that would be hard to replace if we moved somewhere else.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:Like the dice bot and the... Shoot, I have a... I mean, Craig I don't really care about, but that's a nice to have that doesn't exist on other stuff.

Gamemaster:And I have another one.

Gamemaster:Oh, the music bot that's currently playing music.

Arctos:Yeah.

Gamemaster:That's all for Discord, and I'd have to replace it with something else if we went elsewhere, which is a bit annoying.

Gamemaster:But also, I don't know if there's anything that covers Discord's video chat and voice chat, and then also its text stuff.

Gamemaster:I don't think there's any competitor that has the same features Discord has, which is part of the reason why we use Discord.

Arctos:Oh.

Anzu:Maybe they'll walk back their plan, guys.

Gamemaster:So, you know.

Gamemaster:They did walk back part of the plan in that they said originally that the plan was for there to be an on-device model that looks at your face to tell how old you are.

Anzu:Because...

Johnny:Even better.

Gamemaster:And they walked that back because now they're storing pictures of your ID on their servers.

Gamemaster:Sorry, not their servers.

Gamemaster:Palantir's servers.

Gamemaster:I don't know if that's better or worse for you.

Benny:you

Johnny:That's worse.

Johnny:That's so much worse.

Gamemaster:Yeah, they switched the identity provider they're using because too many people got past the one that used the on-device model.

Anzu:Thank you.

Gamemaster:So now they're just hiring one of... Technically, I don't think it's Palantir.

Gamemaster:I think it's just owned by the same guy that owns Palantir.

Gamemaster:But yeah.

Gamemaster:So, either way.

Gamemaster:We'll see if it becomes a problem for us.

Gamemaster:It's possible we just straight up don't need to do the ID generation, because I don't do anything that I think Discord would count as adult.

Gamemaster:So... Yeah.

Arctos:You have to actually make an adult server.

Arctos:And it's not.

Anzu:Right.

Benny:I think they probably also have content moderation bots that check servers to see if they're 18+.

Benny:And then we'll probably be like, you got to change your settings or we're going to kill you or something.

Benny:Or we're going to have a drone hit you now.

Arctos:Because like.

Arctos:There's.

Arctos:There's 18 plus discords.

Arctos:That you have to like specifically be able to opt in.

Arctos:To see.

Anzu:Hmm.

Anzu:Well, as long as Mike keeps the Yeenut guy within bounds, we should be fine.

Arctos:And.

Benny:Yeah, as long as he remains PG-13.

Gamemaster:Which I hope.

Johnny:Why are you talking about him like he's his own being?

Benny:Oh, I can't control him.

Benny:I ask for pictures of him, and he sends me pictures of himself, and I hope that they're appropriate.

Arctos:I don't know if I like him anymore.

Gamemaster:He's concerning.

Benny:We already discussed the content of the sandwiches.

Arctos:I gotta go.

Benny:He is a yin.

Benny:The sandwiches are a yin nut.

Johnny:Nope.

Johnny:See you guys.

Johnny:See you next week.

Gamemaster:See ya.

Benny:Cat.

Arctos:Cat.

Benny:Cat.

Gamemaster:Yeah.

Johnny:Oh, cat.