2025-2-3 — Akasha

Jorge:Right.

Tanner:I think that he just missed that he didn't get to hear it, so he had to replicate it.

Mike:Now recording.

Jorge:No, I was here before.

Jorge:Bitch ass.

Mike:Oh, I saw.

Jorge:Yeah.

Mike:No, no, I'm just letting Craig know what's up.

Jorge:So, Mike Ewell, have you booked your hotel yet?

Mike:No.

Jorge:Okay.

Jorge:Have you booked your, have you got your tux yet?

Mike:I do have my talks.

Jorge:So the reason I asked about the hotel is because I didn't book it until this weekend.

Jorge:And the rate from the block is gone.

Jorge:They still have rooms.

Tanner:The rate from the block is gone?

Tanner:Right.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:It said there was no more rooms for that.

Jorge:And then it wouldn't show me any more.

Jorge:And then I just had to search the hotel outside of the website.

Jorge:And I got it.

Jorge:It was fine.

Jorge:But... Oh.

Tanner:I don't think that was supposed to happen.

Tanner:Interesting.

Jorge:Well, yeah, I don't know if there's an – there might have been only a certain number of hotel rooms in the block.

Tanner:Very interesting.

Jorge:I don't know.

Jorge:But, Mike, just – I don't know how many rooms they got left.

Jorge:The block's gone.

Jorge:I don't know how many others.

Mike:I'll figure it out.

Tanner:Well, now I feel all right.

Jorge:Yeah.

Mike:But it is good to know.

Tanner:Yeah, give me a day to try to contact them and make sure that that's legit.

Jorge:It's fine.

Jorge:Well, you could find it for the other ones, or if you paid any money for this or anything, but I don't mind.

Jorge:What's annoying about travel cards is I don't know if anyone... Does anyone here have a travel card?

Mike:Technically.

Tanner:What do you mean by travel card?

Jorge:Like, cards that do extra wealth, like you get extra points for travel stuff, like Platinums or Sapphires.

Tanner:Oh, oh.

Tanner:Yeah, I just do cash back.

Jorge:Ah.

Jorge:I have one card.

Jorge:I have the Amex Gold, which I do for all the groceries, food, because it gives me a bunch of points.

Jorge:And I have a travel card.

Jorge:But the problem with the travel card is that through Amex Platinum, there's really good booking rates.

Jorge:And in addition to that, I get access to special hotel rooms.

Jorge:It's easy to find.

Jorge:If I book with certain hotels, they'll automatically upgrade me if there's space, all that other stuff.

Jorge:The problem is I also get a shit ton of points for travel stuff, like tickets and hotels.

Jorge:So I always, like, I have points, but then I'm like, do I get, do I pay this to get extra points?

Jorge:Because this is giving me so many points.

Jorge:Or do I use my points?

Jorge:And I, I don't know.

Jorge:It's silly because I feel like I don't want to use my points to travel because I could get so many points by paying for it.

Jorge:But then I'm like, no, this is why I have a car.

Jorge:I don't know.

Tanner:Hey, I guess you would just have to kind of decide to go to Japan.

Mike:I thought it was like travel, especially like international flights are like the best bang for buck points wise.

Jorge:It's a catch-22.

Jorge:Yeah, yeah, but then I tell myself, like, I'm in a gambling casino.

Jorge:I'm like, well, if I just pay for this flight to Iceland when I go to Japan, you know, if I go to Japan, I can get a first-class ticket.

Jorge:And it's like, am I going to fucking go to Japan?

Noah:All you have to do is go to Japan.

Noah:I don't see the issue.

Jorge:Yeah, yeah.

Jorge:Yeah.

Tanner:That's just a choice to make.

Noah:Seems pretty simple.

Jorge:yeah i i just i don't really want to go japan right now just because i know too many people that went to japan that now i'm just like i don't want this you know yeah yeah and like i feel like before japan it was i knew a good amount of people that went to like antarctic like there's a lot of people going down but now i'm like i don't want to do this now um

Tanner:It's supposed to be very beautiful there.

Noah:I also know a lot of people who went to Japan.

Noah:Seems like the hot spot to go recently.

Jorge:So, yeah.

Mike:To Antarctica?

Noah:Hmm.

Tanner:You're feeling like it's too mainstream.

Jorge:Yeah.

Mike:Don't you need like a government approval to go to Antarctica?

Jorge:You used to, but now there's a lot of, like, tours that can do it with cruises.

Jorge:And then, like, it got so bad that I started seeing memes about, like, going through the Drake Passage on the... Like, oh, you went through the Drake Passage for those couple days.

Jorge:Yeah, yeah.

Mike:It like sucks.

Mike:It's like, it's like going to the moon for a vacation.

Mike:It's like, here's the most desolate place near you.

Mike:There is no life.

Mike:It all sucks.

Mike:It's very cold.

Jorge:But it's like if you could go to the moon, but knowing the moon is a finite resource, and then you're bringing stuff that actively decay the moon.

Jorge:That's what it's like.

Jorge:Oh, let's take a trip to Antarctica and warm it up a bit.

Noah:it's way too cold there everyone agrees that is a lot of ants there and it's an arctic

Tanner:The penguins seem to do okay.

Mike:Those research stations are crazy.

Jorge:Do you know why it's called Antarctica?

Mike:It's on the opposite side of the Arctic.

Jorge:I heard... Yeah, so I heard Arctic in Greek or something like that is like bear, and there were... Greek from trading knew... Either some Greek person traveled there, they knew people that were on the Antarctic, and they're like, oh, there's bears up there.

Jorge:That means there can't be bears below.

Jorge:And they were fucking right, but it's annoying how they got it.

Jorge:So I heard that.

Jorge:Other people claim it has to do with the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor constellations, but I think the Polar Bear theory is way funnier.

Noah:No, it's... The name Antarctica is the Romanized version of the Greek compound Antarktike, feminine of Antarktikos, meaning opposite of the Arctic, or opposite of the North.

Tanner:But what does Arctic mean?

Noah:Uh... Probably means bears.

Mike:Arctic.

Noah:Uh... Let's see.

Mike:Is it Greek roots or is it Latin?

Noah:I have related... Let's see, what does... Really?

Mike:Near the bear, northern.

Mike:Arctos, meaning bear, yeah.

Noah:It's from Bear, okay.

Jorge:Yeah, it means opposite bear or without bear.

Tanner:antarctic certainly there can't be bears down south

Jorge:Yeah.

Noah:Yeah, Arctic from Greek Arctos Bear.

Noah:All right, Jorge was right.

Noah:I'm sorry.

Noah:Sorry for doubting him.

Jorge:No, it's OK.

Jorge:But yeah.

Mike:That's so funny how they're just like, I don't know, guys.

Mike:There's bears here.

Mike:We'll call it fucking bear place.

Mike:Oh, what?

Mike:Are we going to call some other place not bear place?

Mike:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mike:How about the other direction?

Mike:How about if we go south?

Mike:It's not bear's place.

Mike:Or...

Noah:everyone always thinks that when you're naming stuff people are like really clever and cool about naming things but like the rocky mountains a mesa these are not clever names nothing I mean that is fair but did you know there's no bear in the arctic in Antarctica

Tanner:Now, to be fair, I've seen the Rocky Mountains, and I have seen rocks on them.

Mike:Well, I don't think they said that they're... I don't think... I don't think they named these places the opposite of what they should have been named.

Tanner:Well, I knew that there were bears up, so certainly there couldn't be bears down, because they're already up.

Noah:I'll be there.

Jorge:That's true.

Mike:It's just not incredibly creative.

Mike:But you'd also know that playing GeoGuessr... Like, I'll play GeoGuessr, and it's just like...

Jorge:Yeah.

Mike:Paris and it's like well it's clearly not Paris France because there's like a fucking pickup truck or whatever there's like US license plates and then like I was playing with a bunch of people and three of them like we each picked three different cities because there's three different Paris's that we knew within the US and we just couldn't tell where which Paris in the Midwest of the US it was so it's like we made a new town I don't know I think it was it was like a Paris Texas there was I think someone picked a Paris Florida

Jorge:Was it Ohio?

Jorge:Maybe there's one in Florida.

Jorge:Yeah, there's one in Florida, I think.

Mike:And I don't think it was either of those.

Noah:bye Jorge dang we lost him oh no

Jorge:I will be gone for a couple of minutes.

Jorge:You guys can do the recap.

Jorge:I can hear if you do it.

Tanner:Very well.

Josh:Bye, Jorge.

Josh:Bye, folks.

Tanner:Oh!

Tanner:Josh, tell us about your cat.

Josh:My sweet darling cat does not know how to use the litter box.

Tanner:Oh.

Josh:Yeah.

Tanner:He went elsewhere.

Josh:So... No, actually, he was very good, and he stood in the litter box, but he did not aim for the litter box.

Josh:So instead, what he did was get his legs and the floor outside of the litter box.

Jorge:Oh, no.

Josh:which was very sweet of him.

Noah:Oh no.

Josh:Yeah, so I got to play a little bit of clean-up.

Josh:But, you know, he got a bath, which he was very excited about, and now we're all okay.

Jorge:I saw a meme like 30 minutes ago that was just like, they're like, what do you mean you don't want to have a cat?

Jorge:My life's so great while having a cat.

Jorge:Crime in my apartment is up 40,000%.

Jorge:But other than that, it's so great with this little guy.

Josh:He's awesome, sometimes.

Josh:You know.

Josh:I think cats can be very much like... You know how it's more fun to be the uncle than it is to be the parent?

Josh:Because you get to hang out with the kid for a little bit and play with them, and then you give them back when any actual problems happen?

Josh:Like, my family loves my cats.

Josh:They will not take care of them.

Josh:They don't want to do that.

Josh:And I get it.

Josh:I understand.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:But it's fine.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:What'd I miss?

Josh:I feel like I missed 15 minutes of pre-session chatter.

Noah:Jorge said something about the Arctic, and I was like, that can't be true.

Tanner:We were talking about Antarctica.

Noah:And then I looked it up, read the first thing, and I was like, that's wrong.

Noah:And then he was like, read further, and I was like, dang, he's right.

Josh:What was the thing?

Noah:There's no bears in the Arctic, and that's why they named it that.

Tanner:No, no, there's no bears in the Antarctic.

Josh:Yeah.

Jorge:antarctic

Noah:I was like, that can't be it.

Josh:In the Antarctic.

Josh:Right, because one is bear place and the other is not bear place.

Mike:All right.

Tanner:See, Josh already knew.

Josh:Yeah, I know about the bears, or lack thereof.

Mike:All right.

Mike:Tanner, Tanner, let's not give him too much credit.

Noah:There's no way.

Mike:He literally has a spy present in the call before he joins it.

Mike:Okay.

Tanner:And he kind of looks like a bear, actually.

Josh:Okay, but that's not how it works.

Josh:I don't get access to the audio recording until it's finished.

Josh:How dare you?

Tanner:Craig looks like a bear.

Josh:Craig is a beaver, I think.

Jorge:Hmm.

Tanner:Ain't no way that's a beaver.

Jorge:That's a beaver.

Josh:I think it's a beaver.

Josh:Is that why it's that?

Mike:No, he records conversations.

Mike:He's a nosy beaver.

Josh:Is a nosy beaver a thing?

Noah:It is now.

Mike:There's one on the call.

Jorge:Well, it's not a nosy bear.

Mike:I don't know.

Mike:Are you asking if I'm stereotyping beavers?

Mike:No, Josh.

Mike:I'm just characterizing Craig.

Jorge:Or is Craig a trap to entrap us, and it's a honeypot, and bears love honeypots.

Josh:You're thinking of badgers.

Mike:Honestly, I can't tell the difference if Craig is lying about his beaver ancestry and he's really a badger.

Tanner:Well, he doesn't have a body.

Tanner:That makes it really tough to tell.

Tanner:That's crazy.

Jorge:Well, what is a badger if not the mixing of a beaver and a bear?

Josh:A completely different thing?

Noah:No, I don't.

Jorge:Look at a honey badger and then look at a beaver and a bear.

Jorge:Makes a lot of sense.

Mike:What is a badger if not an aggressive and nosy beaver?

Mike:Sound familiar?

Mike:I would have preferred... I would have preferred an AI image that is just a cracked out... that looks like a beaver that listens to all your conversations.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:I was not the one that made this.

Jorge:That's a bear.

Jorge:I'm sorry, Josh.

Jorge:I was trying to help you out.

Jorge:That's a bear.

Josh:So, like, fine, I guess.

Jorge:If it's a beaver, it has to have two buck teeth.

Jorge:I don't make the rules.

Josh:I'm sorry to disappoint.

Josh:I just sent the actual logo that it's using.

Mike:No, no, I know.

Mike:I'm not saying it's your fault.

Mike:I'm saying it's the creator of Greg's fault that this guy is just sitting in our fucking call staring at us.

Josh:It's just hanging out.

Josh:I'll join their support Discord and then ask them what it is.

Josh:Then we'll really know.

Josh:Someone's got it.

Jorge:Speaking of AI voice stuff, that's been some of the new work I've been doing.

Jorge:It is funny how many privacy stuff we follow.

Jorge:Because it's a thing in browser, and you can ask it questions.

Jorge:But what if someone brings up their medical history, and then you ask it to summarize it?

Jorge:And it's like, I really shouldn't be doing this, guys.

Jorge:It's like, please look at my screen.

Jorge:What do you see?

Jorge:And it's like, I don't feel comfortable, man.

Noah:Nothing.

Josh:I take it from that that it remembers things across chats.

Josh:Because ChatGPT has started doing that, and it annoys me.

Josh:Sometimes I ask it for help coming up with names for things, where I just want it to print out a bunch of names.

Josh:And then in a new chat, it'll say, as per our previous chat, here are, and I hate it so much.

Tanner:And it just gives you the same list of names.

Jorge:Yeah, it has memories.

Josh:I don't want it to do that.

Josh:It's not the same list of names, but it's like, you know, you were talking about these kind of vibes before, and I assume you want more of the same.

Noah:you

Josh:And it's just, I want it to be idempotent.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:It's a memory function.

Jorge:And it's also creepy because if you tell it the names of your kids, it'll reference.

Jorge:Like, hey, my kid wants to go to Monster Truck.

Jorge:And it'll be like, do you mean Dylan?

Jorge:Is Dylan the one into Monster Trucks?

Jorge:Not Alice?

Jorge:And you're like, why?

Jorge:So we had something working before ChachiPetit launched that did something similar, and then the leads were like, yeah, this is creepy.

Josh:I feel like, do you have a feedback form?

Jorge:But yeah, ChachiPetit launched it, so we're probably going to launch it.

Jorge:That's how GemNet works.

Noah:Was that Bailey delivering the feedback for him?

Josh:I'd fill out a feedback form.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Wow.

Jorge:Gemini does a really cool thing.

Josh:You're gonna... It just looks like you're gonna use my feedback to, like, wipe your hands.

Jorge:Oh, sorry, go.

Jorge:Well, that's what the executives do with everyone's feedback.

Jorge:It's funny because at Gemini, when there was that issue where Gemini refused to generate a white Nazi,

Jorge:The CEO got, no, the head of Gemini, she basically was told by the Google CEO, hey, this was your one get out of jail free pass.

Jorge:We like you.

Jorge:You did great stuff with us for 15 years.

Jorge:That's why you got one.

Jorge:So now she's super scared to launch anything new.

Josh:Nice.

Jorge:So now we basically just play, always try to be number two.

Jorge:So we'll build something and then like kind of hope that ChatGPT launches it.

Jorge:And then if they do, all right, I guess we can launch it.

Josh:That's good.

Josh:That's what people want.

Josh:I guess.

Josh:Well, do we want to play some Pathfinder instead?

Noah:yes um after a brilliant plan that no one ever saw coming where we used the transgalactic teleporter

Josh:I don't even know if this recap is worth a hero point.

Mike:Thank you.

Josh:I'll let somebody do it, and then we'll see if it's worth it.

Josh:Yeah.

Noah:to go inside the most secure spot in the entire building in an unprecedented move where we then proceeded to hang out for a day and a half and just kind of recoup followed by using the skeleton of the guy we killed to

Tanner:Thank you.

Noah:melt this lock.

Noah:Also, while we were doing that, uh, Kharkov, the other guy we came in here to ostensibly kill, put out an alert to the entire country telling them to lynch us on site.

Noah:Uh, we burned through this vault door, got all the cool stuff in it, which I fully think that Josh meant for us to get after this fight.

Noah:Uh, but what are you gonna do?

Noah:We then snuck around, really quickly looked down a hallway, saw a bunch of coral and two people, and were like, that's probably not where we want to be right now.

Noah:Went to just some very sparse bunks, where we learned that Kharkov, Rampart, and the Slips here are kind of a cute little family, and everyone has their own story, and that's important to know.

Noah:Following that, we then...

Noah:all went invisible.

Noah:We got the orb, Dawn went invisible, we then snuck over and immediately tried to kill Kharkov's adopted daughter, which he didn't like.

Noah:But after a full round where we all almost died, we did kill her.

Noah:Turned out she was a dragon, so that was crazy.

Noah:In another series of life or death impressive moves, Divex kept everyone alive.

Noah:Henrik

Noah:shielded everyone uh lev took way too many reactions and then dawn ultimately stole the leech or the divinity leech which was the gun that was pretty cool uh and shot kharkov with it hopefully hopefully saving us we're also all semi-bloodied

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Yeah, everybody's semi-bloodied.

Josh:I am annoyed at you guys for burning down the dragon before it got to do any dragon-like things.

Josh:But that's fine.

Josh:It's my fault.

Josh:Yeah, no, I mean, that's a pretty good summary.

Josh:I think I will give you the heroic point for that.

Mike:There was one other thing.

Mike:We could see Kharkov shudder at the sight of Henrik's Giant neck and his previous threats fell flat.

Noah:We did learn.

Josh:We could have left that in the previous session.

Noah:But we learned there's not enough rope in a rat.

Josh:Doomed to be Forgotten.

Mike:There's not enough rope in a risk!

Tanner:Kharkov has the rest of the first house desperately searching for all the rope they can find.

Mike:You just, like, before the fight starts, get us all the rope you can find.

Josh:I hate it so much.

Josh:It's terrible.

Noah:There are so many status effects on every single person in this fight.

Josh:Yeah, everyone's got a status effect or 12.

Josh:I don't know what's giving the, like, effects that are happening, all of that kind of stuff.

Josh:Because, for instance, so Jorge has an effect that I made.

Josh:that just replicates something that was present on his character sheet that I couldn't find an effect for.

Josh:I did not assign it in animation.

Josh:I did not describe it in any way to any system.

Josh:And somehow, whatever module it is decided, oh yeah, harmful malice?

Josh:Clearly that means he should have five weird pink cube things orbiting him at all times.

Josh:That's what that means.

Josh:I don't know how it selected that.

Josh:I don't get it.

Josh:But it's fine.

Noah:oh josh i had a technical question before we dove in um the luck blade or the wishing blade was called the luck blade wishing um it has the spell wish but in the wish is a pre-remaster spell but now there's the ritual wish but also the spell manifestation i just wanted to for clarity to know which of those three things it was

Josh:Uh-huh.

Josh:Yep.

Josh:Yes.

Josh:That's a good, good question.

Josh:One second.

Josh:That's ridiculous.

Josh:Oh, okay.

Josh:So manifestation, the level 10 spell, takes the place of the four level 10 spells that used to exist in the original rulebook.

Josh:One for each tradition, which lets you cast any spell of that tradition effectively.

Josh:That was not... So I'm fairly confident that the intent of that particular item was the 10th level spell Wish from the arcane, like the non-remastered thing.

Josh:But my interpretation of it... Well, actually, there's an easy way to double check.

Josh:Let me just... What does the actual thing do?

Josh:If you click on the wish link, it goes to, oh, the legacy wish.

Josh:You know what?

Josh:That's fair.

Josh:We'll say that it gives you one use of manifestation.

Noah:Okay, so just manifestation, not the... Okay, that's... Okay, so I get one manifestation and the ritual wish.

Josh:Correct, not the ritual.

Josh:You know, for fun, I'll say you also learn, you know the ritual wish while holding the sword.

Josh:You can get both if you like.

Noah:Okay, cool.

Josh:Crypt.

Josh:Just all of it.

Josh:And you are absolutely correct.

Josh:The intent was for you to break into the vault after you killed these people, but if you guys want to jump straight to where they keep the treasure, that's on me.

Josh:So you get the treasure.

Josh:That's how that works.

Josh:Yeah?

Josh:Okay, so you get a hero point.

Josh:That works.

Josh:What was I doing?

Josh:Oh, right.

Josh:I had the singing man.

Josh:That was the new.

Josh:This one.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:OK, so we're going to just jump right in.

Josh:Whoever isn't currently in vtl.arudi.cc, I'd love it if you could go, although it looks like you're all here.

Josh:We start.

Josh:at the top of the initiative order with Kharkov.

Josh:If you recall, Kharkov was just shot with the weapon, the Divinity Leech, which bloodied him.

Josh:But you noted that he attempted to cast some sort of spell, and that was, in fact, prevented by the leech.

Josh:He is clearly being affected by this leech in a negative way for him, and I suppose in a positive way for you.

Josh:It is his turn.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:He doesn't really, I mean, he doesn't have much he can do here, except, like, most of his regular spells and stuff have been taken away from him, so he's just going to continue trying to Reaper Karate Chopping whoever's in front of him, which in this particular case is Lev.

Josh:Oh, sorry.

Josh:One other thing.

Josh:Lev, I, or Jorge, I spent some time this past week and I got exploit vulnerability working for you.

Jorge:Oh.

Josh:So in the future, when you want to exploit vulnerability, what you do is you select your character, you target the person you want to exploit vulnerability, and there's like a macro bar on the bottom.

Josh:You click one of the sorts that says exploit vulnerability.

Josh:and it'll do the roll, it'll apply the thing, it automatically applies damage for you.

Josh:There's another button to empower your implement, and that'll add the damage for that as well.

Josh:Your regalia is active, so everybody in your regalia will get their damage buff automatically, that gets inserted, all that fun stuff.

Josh:So you shouldn't need to remember the 40 different numbers that you add on to every roll you make.

Jorge:Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Josh:Yeah.

Josh:And now I'm going to try and kill you.

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:That's fair.

Jorge:I'm going to hear.

Jorge:I just got to bring this plate to the kitchen.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:Well, while you're doing that, Kharkov is going to roll a two.

Josh:I'm going to try again.

Josh:This has been atrocious.

Josh:So I missed three times.

Josh:Once because I rolled really poorly.

Josh:Sorry, twice because I rolled really poorly.

Josh:And once because of the Shield of the Unified Legion that raised your AC.

Josh:Oh, and because he's frightened combined.

Josh:Great.

Noah:Okay, so here we go.

Josh:So literally ineffective turn.

Josh:Henrik, it's your turn.

Tanner:Okay.

Josh:Henrik, if you recall, you are currently being affected by the Codex of Destruction and Renewal.

Josh:You may heal 20 hit points at the beginning of your turn.

Tanner:Oh, I gotta click it.

Tanner:Okay.

Tanner:Very good.

Tanner:I understand.

Tanner:Um... I need to fight this guy.

Tanner:It's gonna hurt.

Josh:You don't have to.

Mike:You get a plus one in my aura.

Josh:I don't have the Bless Aura done.

Noah:I think that's a good question.

Josh:I wonder if I could.

Tanner:I feel like I want to make him off-guard.

Noah:I think that's a good question.

Tanner:So I move to here.

Tanner:I stride.

Noah:I think that's a good question.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:He is going to take a reactive strike against you.

Tanner:Right.

Josh:As is his right.

Noah:Well, I think that's a good question.

Josh:God's given.

Tanner:Wow.

Josh:Terrible.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:He misses.

Tanner:That's crazy.

Josh:He is really shaken up by the fact that he has lost a lot of his divine powers.

Tanner:That is great.

Tanner:Hit him with Warp Glass.

Noah:I think that's a good question.

Josh:Because he is off-guard, he shouldn't be frightened.

Noah:Wow.

Tanner:Wow.

Mike:Three.

Josh:But that would still hit, so... Yeah.

Mike:And stuff.

Tanner:That's crazy.

Jorge:I love it.

Mike:An actual three.

Tanner:Take 38 points of damage.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:He takes the full damage now, because his global shielding is gone.

Tanner:And I raise my shield.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:It is Lev's turn.

Noah:Thank you.

Tanner:And protect my legion.

Josh:Lev, you may heal 20 hit points if you like.

Jorge:Yes, that'll be great.

Jorge:Lives in full vampire poke mode.

Josh:Of course.

Jorge:Can I just do the exploit vulnerability to get added?

Josh:What?

Josh:It's already happened this night.

Jorge:Oh, cool, cool.

Jorge:Okay, so I will attempt... I did, I did.

Mike:And apply your healing too.

Noah:All right.

Josh:Divex, I have added your Bless.

Jorge:Okay.

Mike:Yay.

Jorge:I will now...

Jorge:Oh, you know what?

Jorge:I'm going to subtract the 20 so I can hit that button on the side because that looks cooler.

Josh:What?

Tanner:He wants to .

Jorge:I added it manually, but now I can do it.

Mike:Yeah.

Josh:Oh, it's... Okay, it's the same, but short.

Jorge:No, now it's cooler.

Josh:Okay.

Mike:Yeah.

Jorge:I'm going to demoralize him.

Josh:Yeah, go for it.

Jorge:Against his will, DC.

Josh:Yeah, he is fatigued, so it is decreased.

Noah:Um, there is a specific model printer that we've been working on.

Josh:The 54 is just barely not a crit.

Josh:It is a success, though.

Jorge:OK, then I will then slash for.

Josh:He is still frightened.

Josh:He was not frightened for a whole... Just Henrik's turn.

Josh:This entire fight.

Noah:I don't know.

Jorge:Yeah, I'll run it back.

Jorge:Fear of god.

Josh:You don't need to.

Josh:Okay?

Jorge:I do.

Noah:Oh.

Jorge:I didn't need to.

Josh:A 45, because he is fatigued, is still a success.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:So he's frightened two now.

Jorge:Now I'll strike it.

Josh:Okay.

Mike:Oh.

Josh:That's a crit, my guy.

Noah:We have to stay.

Tanner:Sweet.

Mike:But you remove his eyeballs on a crit or something?

Josh:He's off guard until the start of his next turn, so for everybody he's off guard now.

Jorge:Well, he's off guard.

Jorge:He takes persistent fire damage.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:Yeah.

Jorge:And so this isn't adding his, is there the vulnerability damage here?

Josh:Oof.

Jorge:Is that what's in the 21?

Josh:So, vulnerability is not damage rolled, it's calculated on applying it.

Josh:He did take the damage.

Josh:I promise.

Josh:It's just not present in the... Yeah.

Jorge:Oh, it's just something in the back end or something?

Josh:Because of the way that Foundry calculates vulnerabilities, it doesn't show up as part of your damage.

Jorge:Oh.

Jorge:Because it's an actual vulnerability that he's doing it.

Josh:Correct.

Jorge:That's sick, Josh.

Jorge:All right.

Josh:Yeah, I mean, it is a...

Jorge:Well, you went the extra effort there.

Josh:It is a little annoying that it doesn't show up.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:I don't know why it doesn't, but there are some effects that expect different vulnerabilities to be present and all that stuff.

Josh:So he did take the damage.

Jorge:So I will use my quickened action to do another strike.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:Oh, actually, I can, one second, just prove it.

Josh:I'm going to reveal this to everybody.

Josh:Peel back the curtain a little bit.

Josh:If you see the damage thing, this pop-up, if you hover over the eye, exclamation point, it tells you, like, modifiers that happen on the background when he takes the damage.

Noah:Hello.

Jorge:Cool.

Josh:So it gave him weak to slashing, because that was the damage done.

Jorge:38 doesn't hit, right?

Josh:A 38 does not hit, even with all of the debuffs you guys have stacked on him.

Noah:Hello.

Jorge:Yeah, I figured.

Josh:Don't worry, he's looking bad.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:Egotistically, I want to use my hero point, but I'm not going to do it.

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:Egotistically, I want to do it so bad.

Jorge:I want to do it so bad.

Jorge:But I'm not going to do it.

Jorge:And I'm going to give the chance to other people.

Josh:Alright, so then that brings us to Dawn.

Jorge:Wait, wait.

Jorge:No, I still do damage.

Jorge:I still hit him, though.

Jorge:Was it a critical miss?

Josh:Oh, right, no, that's just a regular hit.

Josh:So you still do 11 points of... Well, okay, so... One second.

Jorge:Well, plus the status bonus damage.

Josh:What gives you that?

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:Because there should have been... Oh, you know what it is?

Jorge:Galia.

Josh:Were you targeting him when you did the attack?

Josh:You weren't.

Jorge:No.

Josh:Do the attack again, targeting him.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:And just give yourself, like, a minus 20.

Josh:I want you to miss this one, just because I want to see if it pops up.

Jorge:But I don't want it to be a critical miss.

Jorge:Because then it doesn't apply.

Josh:Okay, fine.

Jorge:Alright, let me try one more time.

Josh:Just do it, and we'll hope that you miss them.

Josh:Okay, well, yeah.

Tanner:Yeah.

Jorge:Let me try one more time.

Josh:That hits.

Jorge:Damn it.

Noah:Okay, roll in between those two.

Josh:Stop!

Josh:Mans can't fail.

Josh:No, that was higher.

Jorge:Alright, alright, alright.

Josh:Maybe this experiment isn't worth it.

Jorge:One more time, one more time, then you can just... Um... I'm trying to do that, okay?

Josh:That was... You rolled an 18.

Josh:I just need you to regular miss.

Jorge:There we go.

Jorge:Miss.

Josh:Okay, that was a miss.

Josh:Do you have a button present on the UI that lets you still do the one damage in that chat thing?

Jorge:It says damage.

Jorge:I don't know what... It just says damage or critical.

Josh:No, there should have been a separate check mark, like a little box that you can hit that just does the I missed, but it does stuff.

Josh:It's supposed to.

Josh:That's fine.

Jorge:Well, I know on my damage, when I do a regular hit, there's an extra thing on my side.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:What?

Jorge:When I do a regular hit, there's a little bullseye, and then there's a little cursor.

Jorge:We can figure this out later.

Josh:Oh, that's only if you use implements interruption.

Josh:That's why.

Jorge:Oh, OK.

Josh:It's not always, it's specifically if you do your and you miss, you still do some damage.

Josh:That was a lot.

Josh:Those are your four actions, right?

Jorge:Yeah, so it's a 15.

Jorge:15 damage.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:No, it's no damage.

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:No, because it missed, so then I still hit with my rip.

Josh:Right.

Josh:The miss doing one point of damage, doing the vulnerabilities and stuff, is only when your implements interruption attack.

Josh:It's not all attacks.

Jorge:Oh.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:Which is why it didn't pop up there.

Jorge:Oh, that's what you were saying.

Jorge:I thought you meant that it was only loaded for a gap.

Josh:Yes.

Josh:No, no, no, no.

Josh:That do one damage even if you miss thing is specifically on your attack of opportunity.

Jorge:Ah.

Josh:Don, it's your turn.

Noah:Yeah.

Noah:I'm gonna use my unbound heart, because I'm just a little shy of how close I need to get, to teleport up to right here, next to my good friend Lev, and make a... A lot of stuff just happened.

Josh:Sorry, like 12 auras just applied to you all at the same time.

Noah:Wow.

Noah:Wow, that's so many things.

Noah:And I will make a technomantic punch against Kharkov.

Josh:Yeah.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:I have no idea how you would play this game without a computer keeping track of you.

Noah:What did we do before technology?

Josh:This game didn't exist before technology.

Noah:Exactly.

Mike:That's a great point, actually.

Jorge:But there's another really complicated game when you're like... It's not Warhammer, but it's a different one where your weapons do different damage, and then there's different tiers of armor, like your outer shell, inner shell, and you have to do all of this, and there's tangents if it's on an angle.

Noah:That was...

Jorge:It's crazy.

Josh:That kind of sounds like GURPS.

Josh:Which is... That's a crit.

Jorge:Maybe... What did you... He rolled two 18s.

Josh:That's crazy.

Josh:Man, those Frightens, really.

Josh:You rolled two 18s.

Josh:You had disadvantage and you still crit.

Josh:That's wild.

Josh:Are your attack damages wrong?

Noah:Yeah, the overdrive doesn't apply to... Overdrive and offensive boost don't apply to Technomatic Punch.

Josh:Is that why you have to type things in?

Josh:Because I'll fix your crap next.

Josh:Okay, so that's my homework for next time.

Josh:I'll figure that out.

Josh:Because I don't want you guys to have to sit around and manually type in numbers.

Josh:That defeats the point of the whole computer.

Jorge:Thank you, Josh.

Noah:I think whatever this is, I don't think I hit it.

Noah:That should be doubled.

Josh:Okay, absolutely.

Josh:Well... How do I want to do this?

Noah:Dawn has been splitting the timeline a whole bunch recently, and as I slip through the weave, there's a ripple effect, and two Dawns appear on either side.

Noah:almost like Lev, except one is Don, and one is a very familiar-looking man with a very large sword, and as Don goes to punch at the exact same moment, Big Fish from another world slams the sword through him, and there is a large explosion of light, and Kharkov is on the ground with the sword of Big Fish driven through him.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:Big ol' cloned finish, stabbing him right through.

Josh:Sword goes through and he gets stuck where the sword is kind of pinning him up a little bit off of the ground.

Josh:And you watch as the light leaves his eyes.

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:Lev attempts to catch Kharkov so he doesn't land on the ground.

Josh:Roll a...

Josh:Roll a reflex save for me, please.

Jorge:Can I do athletics?

Josh:Yeah, I'll allow athletics.

Jorge:OK, cool.

Josh:Actually, since you wanted it, I won't allow it.

Jorge:What's a reflex?

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:Oh, you said, or reflex save?

Josh:Reflex save or athletics check.

Josh:Both are fine here.

Jorge:Oh, I'll actually do a reflex save.

Jorge:I forgot I specced out athletics to spec into religion.

Josh:I get it.

Josh:You start reading the Bible and then all of a sudden you lose all your muscles.

Noah:you you

Jorge:34.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:You go to stop him from hitting the ground and the sword is kind of propping him up.

Josh:I can say that you can get a hand underneath so he doesn't actually... I mean, his feet are making contact with the ground.

Josh:He's not floating.

Jorge:I try to pick him up a little bit.

Josh:But...

Jorge:I want to collect stuff.

Jorge:We should put him in the orb.

Jorge:What do you guys think?

Josh:Well, so that's the thing.

Jorge:I don't want him hanging out here.

Josh:You put your hand underneath and you stop him from hitting the ground.

Josh:It's gotten very dark.

Josh:I'm sorry.

Tanner:Bye.

Josh:Where are my lights?

Josh:This is what you get for trying to be fancy.

Josh:There we go.

Mike:Mine will do that at 8.30 and then 9.30.

Noah:I'm sorry.

Josh:So.

Josh:You catch him, stop him from hitting the ground.

Josh:You watch the light leave his eyes.

Josh:You're talking about where to put him.

Josh:I think Dawn would probably notice it first because he's the one standing right over him.

Josh:You watch as his eyes start to glow.

Josh:You watch life come back into them for a second.

Noah:You are not the same person.

Noah:I'm sorry.

Josh:It almost looks like you regain

Josh:for a second, but no perception check necessary.

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:There is a distinctly yellow glow to them.

Josh:And just as you notice that, there is, directly in front of you, this open portal to what you can only imagine, I assume, is the deep on Ilkain.

Josh:And you watch as...

Josh:Flicking out of the portal are these fungal tendrils, almost similar to that of the mycelium that you had seen in Vyre.

Josh:Eight or so of them all shoot out of the portal, grab onto Kharkov's corpse-ish, and pull him through.

Jorge:Can I get any attack of opportunities?

Josh:You can get an attack of opportunity.

Jorge:All right.

Josh:Actually, do you have Attack of Opportunity?

Jorge:Oh, no, I don't have exploit vulnerability on that guy.

Jorge:All right.

Josh:Yeah?

Josh:No?

Noah:Thank you.

Tanner:Uh, I do.

Tanner:It's going to be hard to hit all eight with one attack.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:You can absolutely try it.

Josh:There are eight tendrils all grabbed onto him and pulling him in.

Mike:I believe.

Noah:Thank you.

Tanner:Uh, oh, I was targeting him.

Tanner:I don't know if that... I got a 43.

Josh:A 43 hits.

Josh:It's not a crit.

Josh:So you do absolutely do damage.

Noah:No.

Josh:Roll damage.

Josh:36 points.

Tanner:Okay.

Tanner:36 points.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:36 points is unfortunately not enough.

Josh:I cut out there, didn't I?

Mike:You've been.

Tanner:You said it's not enough.

Mike:You just cut out those last three words we didn't hear.

Josh:Oh, you heard?

Josh:Okay.

Josh:Discord has made me paranoid.

Josh:I can never tell if you... I'm going to cry.

Jorge:I mean, you've been cutting up a little bit right there, but you...

Noah:Yep.

Josh:I might cry.

Tanner:No.

Josh:You can't stop me.

Josh:I just changed some audio settings.

Josh:We'll see if that helps.

Josh:Yeah, so that is unfortunately, it's not a crit, so it doesn't stop the action, and it's not enough to kill the tendril outright.

Josh:These things are moving quickly.

Josh:Unless you guys have some way of stopping all of them in one go in, like, the next action, they are going to successfully pull him.

Jorge:Uh, Spellboy.

Jorge:I will start it by casting Howling Blizzard at 6th level.

Mike:Action?

Josh:I'll give you two actions.

Noah:What do you think?

Mike:Okay, two actions.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:What do I have to do with the Howling Blizzard?

Jorge:Uh, let me read.

Jorge:I will do it the three action ones to make it a flourish for two.

Jorge:And I will try to put the burst right at the portal.

Jorge:In the middle 30 feet, I don't know where these are.

Josh:So the tendrils have just gone and...

Josh:reached out here.

Josh:And at this point, they would have probably pulled them about half of the way back.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:Yeah, so I'll put the burst behind it.

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:And I want to just try to freeze and char off any things I can.

Josh:OK, absolutely.

Jorge:So it's Howling Blizzard at sixth level.

Jorge:I have that scroll for that.

Josh:OK.

Jorge:I don't know how to cat.

Jorge:Can I just roll the die?

Jorge:Each creature in the area takes 10d6 cold with a basic reflex, making it difficult terrain.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:Okay, then... Yeah, just... I will roll reflexes for each of them first.

Jorge:And then what's a 2d6?

Jorge:So it's 12d6 because it's 6th level.

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:25.

Jorge:You know what, Divex?

Jorge:If you can, just disintegrate Kharkov.

Jorge:Fuck stopping it.

Jorge:Disintegrate Kharkov.

Jorge:You can.

Josh:Okay, so the tendrils rolled somewhere between 44 and 55.

Mike:Yeah.

Josh:I don't know what the DC is for this.

Jorge:Well, I know those passed.

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:The question is, did it

Jorge:It's 41 DC, so send them .

Josh:41.

Josh:Okay, so three of them crit, so we just won't do it, but the first five will take damage.

Josh:45 points of damage.

Josh:That is enough to kill the one that Henrik hit.

Josh:So you watch as one of them, like, the cut already made in it freezes over and shatters.

Josh:There are still seven that are pulling Karkava.

Jorge:It disintegrate the body for the deep to create a host.

Mike:I thought about disintegrate.

Josh:What are you doing?

Mike:All right, all right, I'll disintegrate.

Jorge:Or were you going to do something?

Mike:I was going to target the tendrils because, OK, I don't know if disintegrate is going to work on his body, but we can try.

Jorge:Did you bring him to us?

Jorge:Oh, no, no, no, no.

Jorge:Oh.

Mike:This is quicken.

Mike:Actually, no, flourish makes it one action anyways.

Mike:So I'll use true target, which is a single action, and then disintegrate on the body.

Josh:Okay.

Mike:So I roll two of these.

Josh:I got a 1 on its save.

Noah:Thank you.

Mike:oh that's what is that yeah can i re-roll one with a mythic point sure uh

Jorge:Excellent.

Josh:I was just assuming that you would hit, although I probably shouldn't have assumed that.

Jorge:Mythic point.

Josh:Hm?

Josh:A mythic point lets you reroll, I guess, the 34, the lower of the two, if you like.

Josh:And then you may add an additional four.

Mike:So I'm just going to go for.

Noah:Thank you.

Mike:That's better.

Josh:Okay, 53 does hit.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:A 53 actually crits because his AC is low because he's dead and being dragged by a bunch of tendrils.

Noah:Thank you.

Mike:So.

Josh:Well, so he already critically failed on the fourth save, so I don't think a crit actually does anything else.

Josh:He's just going to take... So before you roll, I'm letting you know now, you need to get...

Mike:Yeah, he's just going to take a bunch of... Sure.

Noah:I think we got to go after him.

Josh:to 240 hit points in order to disintegrate him outright.

Jorge:not possible huh yeah

Mike:Probably not.

Noah:Do we go after him?

Tanner:Probably.

Mike:168.

Josh:Unfortunately, 168 isn't quite enough.

Josh:You do disintegrate.

Josh:You watch the bottom half of his body gets completely vaporized.

Josh:But there is protective magic being put in place here.

Josh:The Deep does not want to let go of Kharkov's body.

Josh:And he just gets pulled the rest of the way in.

Josh:Half the man that he was before.

Josh:And the portal closes.

Jorge:Ah, closes?

Jorge:Fuck.

Jorge:All right.

Josh:The deep does not want you guys walking up to it.

Noah:You.

Mike:Why?

Mike:All of our stuff, that was everything we had, we just used in that fight.

Josh:I apologize.

Josh:You should have been able to see through the portal onto the other side when it opens up for the tendrils to go through.

Josh:So just for the split second before any of that happens, the portal does open up and you see through to see this...

Josh:a hill stacked high with buildings with yellow roofs.

Noah:you

Josh:It's actually similar to the city that you had seen by the Beast, but much larger and more mobile, if that makes sense.

Josh:The buildings themselves are taller and have a clearer...

Josh:living aspect to them.

Josh:You can see them moving in the distance.

Josh:You only get a split second, so you don't really get to see what the method of locomotion is there, but they don't give off the impression of like concrete edifices.

Josh:It's really more...

Josh:large creatures in the shapes of buildings.

Josh:It is off in such a way that that immediately strikes some chord there.

Josh:The only real significant detail that you can get in the middle of it is at the very peak of the city there is waterfalls coming off of a plateau, some kind of pool at the top of the city, and standing tall in the middle of that

Josh:Lake is a lighthouse.

Noah:We got to go after it.

Josh:And then the whole thing shuts.

Jorge:We go after him.

Mike:like go after like we're gonna go back to the the whatever beacon room and set the coordinates to the city in yellow

Tanner:Sigh...

Jorge:Yeah, we also have that piece of yellow cloth to go find it.

Noah:Yeah.

Noah:We have the needle.

Noah:I was hoping to save it for something else, but I mean, the deep has gotten a body.

Noah:We can't.

Jorge:You know, but what is the Deep going to do?

Jorge:Is the Deep going to stop us from destroying the Feep?

Jorge:I don't think so.

Noah:No, it's going to destroy all things.

Jorge:Why would it destroy our thing?

Noah:It hates all things.

Noah:It doesn't like stuff.

Tanner:It kind of wants to destroy... Well, I guess it also wants to build to a degree, but...

Jorge:Yeah, I think this is a problem after the Feep, personally.

Mike:Half of his body.

Noah:In Schism, uh, no, in Saran, uh, I'll contact the broker.

Josh:The broker, after like a minute of the connection actually taking place, will say, is it an issue?

Noah:Hey, broker, uh, good news and bad news.

Noah:Good news, we killed Kharkov and got the gun.

Noah:Bad news, uh, the Deep took his body.

Noah:Half of his body.

Noah:We disintegrated his life.

Jorge:The top half.

Noah:Uh, so, is that, is that an issue?

Noah:I don't know.

Jorge:I think it's a problem for later, you know.

Josh:If you have some vendetta against Kharkov specifically, and you just really, really want to make sure it's dead, which I get, then I imagine it's weaker now than it will be whenever the Deep does whatever the Deep will to Kharkov's corpse.

Josh:I don't think it's meaningful on a planetary Scale, if that's your worry.

Noah:So it's not going to... Other question.

Josh:If the Deep is planning on invading Althane from Ilkhan, it will be able to do that without Kharkov.

Jorge:What?

Noah:If the lighthouse is on Ilkain, what are the ramifications of that?

Josh:Mm-hmm.

Josh:Functionally, nothing, I think.

Josh:Unless you're planning on visiting the center of the lighthouse, you know where it is.

Noah:Okay.

Josh:If you don't have an interest in visiting the center of the lighthouse, then I don't think it matters to you.

Jorge:Oh, maybe it's trying to watch for an Ascension site.

Josh:We can talk about this, and you hear an edge of a little bit of impatience.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:eek into his voice.

Josh:We can talk about this at any length you like once you return.

Jorge:Yeah, where do you want us to meet you?

Josh:Come back to Oxus's office.

Jorge:Oh, I thought you ran from there.

Josh:Yeah, and once you were finished murdering Ashmont, I went back.

Jorge:Okay.

Noah:Oh.

Jorge:Oh, cool.

Mike:Listen, anything could have happened to him.

Jorge:I thought after, you know, they put your name on last.

Josh:It wasn't me, it was you.

Jorge:Yeah, but then didn't you get scryed on or something?

Josh:If you recall... No, you got... Oh, sorry, if you're talking specifically about the dossier and all that stuff.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Yeah, the person who scryed on me, I believe you just killed.

Jorge:Cool.

Jorge:Do you want the body of the second-in-command girl?

Jorge:The seer?

Josh:Yeah.

Jorge:Cool.

Noah:Yeah.

Mike:We'll bring that then I guess.

Jorge:We'll bring that.

Jorge:Oh, there's a vault of stuff.

Jorge:Do you want anything else from there?

Jorge:We picked what we wanted to.

Josh:I've already been in the vault.

Josh:I had taken what I thought was interesting the first time.

Josh:And then I got shot.

Jorge:Fucking asshole.

Tanner:And then you got shot by the gun.

Josh:Yes.

Jorge:Alright, well.

Jorge:Let's go.

Tanner:All right.

Tanner:We have to escape this place, but I think we'll be fine.

Jorge:Oh, that's not going to be that bad.

Jorge:Quick question, Josh.

Jorge:I know I grabbed, there was some, I think, animantide.

Jorge:There's an animantide ingot or two in the vault.

Josh:You guys haven't really looked around for the medals.

Jorge:Was there, do I recall like an orichalcum ingot or no?

Josh:The adamantine specifically was because you were busy desecrating Victor's body.

Jorge:I asked you.

Noah:Weird.

Josh:The vault is open right now.

Josh:If you'd like to go back and look for other precious medals, you may do so.

Josh:It's not at all on your way back.

Jorge:Do you want to go?

Mike:Yeah.

Mike:I mean, it's on our way back to the kind of on our way back to the It's on the way.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:Can you just find metal?

Jorge:Can you just find metal, Diverx?

Mike:Yeah.

Josh:Don't do it.

Jorge:Cool.

Mike:Can I also get another Arcana to find stuff in that because I think I rolled like a fucking 41, which for me is rolling like a negative 3.

Josh:No.

Mike:Okay.

Mike:We'll just go to text metal then.

Josh:Yeah, roll a perception check.

Josh:With detect metal, the DC is severely decreased.

Jorge:Hey, can I, before sheathing my sword, take the blood off my sword and store it in a vial?

Mike:Oh, I love the dinky middle.

Josh:Yeah, all of that.

Jorge:Cool.

Josh:You've recovered a little bit of Kharkov's blood in whatever mixture that might be.

Josh:What'd you get?

Mike:48.

Josh:48.

Josh:Okay, so besides the ingots of Sovereign Steel that you have recovered, which I believe you have five now, all told, after taking some bones and also picking up separate whatever...

Jorge:All right.

Jorge:Adamantide, not Sovereign Steel, right?

Mike:Thank you.

Josh:Yes, what did I say?

Jorge:Okay.

Jorge:You said Sovereign Steel.

Josh:I apologize.

Josh:Adamantine.

Josh:Besides that, you will find two Inubrix ingots, one Jezzet alloy, one Sicatite ingot, one Ora-Calcum ingot, and one Sovereign Steel ingot.

Noah:That's all pretty good.

Jorge:Hell yeah.

Jorge:OK.

Josh:All high quality, if that's important to your book.

Jorge:Great.

Jorge:They have the silk, whatever that type is.

Jorge:Great.

Josh:Are you looking for psychotite?

Jorge:All right.

Jorge:Is that the one that stupefies Spellcasters?

Josh:No.

Josh:You are thinking of, I think, noquel.

Jorge:Is that Sovereign Steel?

Jorge:No, no.

Jorge:One's an alloy with noquel.

Josh:Oh, that might be sovereign steel.

Josh:Yeah, sovereign steel is cold iron and no coal alloyed together.

Jorge:OK.

Jorge:Okay, yeah, Sovereign Steel stupefies one on a critical hit.

Josh:Of course.

Josh:Because you need more effects that happen when you hit something.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:Um...

Noah:This is also just a quick thing while we're bopping around doing nothing.

Noah:We have a wish if we want to try and cast it.

Noah:I don't know.

Noah:We don't know what we're going into once we get back to the broker.

Noah:I don't know if that's something we want to mess around with right now.

Jorge:How long does it take to cast?

Noah:One day.

Jorge:Oh, it's so far from now.

Noah:Yeah, but the three checks required are a primary arcane and then crafting and diplomacy.

Noah:Those are kind of our bag.

Josh:Yeah.

Tanner:And I'll clap along.

Noah:Yeah.

Mike:Oh, I thought you were the arcane.

Tanner:So we just spent a little bit of time looking for metal in the vault.

Tanner:Would it have been ten minutes to do some treat wounds on everybody?

Jorge:Yes.

Jorge:So, you know, I say this while drinking some of my vodka.

Noah:you

Jorge:So, you know, I think I see two plans of exit.

Jorge:One, we take the elevator up.

Jorge:We hit the other floors we miss.

Jorge:We kill everyone in this compound.

Jorge:They wanted to hang us.

Jorge:We hang them first.

Jorge:Option two, a bit more pacifistic.

Jorge:I don't know.

Jorge:We go to the teleporter.

Jorge:We route it to Oxide's office.

Mike:I won't say no to magic item discovery.

Jorge:Even better, I can impersonate Garkov.

Jorge:And I can walk around and be like, hello, guys.

Jorge:Hello.

Tanner:Oh my gosh.

Jorge:You're ugly.

Jorge:Do five push-ups and then stab, stab.

Jorge:So that could work.

Noah:I honestly kind of want to see Lev make people do push-ups.

Tanner:I'm curious how many strong they are currently in this complex.

Jorge:I don't know if they can reroute the elevators, though.

Jorge:If we get in the elevator, who knows if we can get back down.

Mike:I heard... Yeah, that's true.

Mike:I heard a lot of them are actually out on some sort of a scavenging mission.

Tanner:Oh, yes, they are.

Tanner:That's right.

Tanner:They're turning over every general store.

Tanner:They're looking... Anywhere where there are general adventure supplies, they are clearing it out.

Josh:Ah, of course.

Noah:Well, every level 1 adventurer has at least 50 feet of hempen rope.

Noah:So...

Mike:I hate how useful rope is in this stupid fucking game.

Mike:You're like a level one in 5e and it's just like you have to descend 100 feet.

Mike:It's like each person's got 30 at least.

Mike:We can tie it together.

Mike:We'll have the strong guy at the top make an athletics check.

Jorge:So quick question.

Jorge:We've been on this floor.

Jorge:We've got a lot of place on this floor.

Jorge:Is there any intercom system that we see where Kharkov could have sent that message from?

Josh:You can roll a perception check just to see what's around.

Jorge:I'd signal this to the Russians.

Tanner:You want me to look around?

Mike:You wanna... Need healing.

Jorge:Yeah, because I would love to tell them some things to do before we go.

Tanner:Yeah.

Tanner:I want everybody to apply this healing that's in Foundry.

Noah:I'll just lay on hands myself.

Jorge:Wow, I'm untouched.

Mike:I'm touched.

Tanner:Do you have any that I could have given to Divex?

Tanner:Do you know?

Jorge:I was at 195.

Jorge:Let me see.

Jorge:Oh, wait, no, I would have been a 210, because I would have had 20 points of healing.

Mike:19.

Noah:Hey, am I still... Am I still disappeared?

Mike:Spare 53.

Tanner:uh yeah uh it's for divex

Mike:3 days.

Josh:How long does disappearance last?

Noah:Okay.

Jorge:58 points.

Mike:No, 10 minutes.

Jorge:58 points of healing.

Jorge:You have extra, Hendrik.

Josh:Don't do that.

Josh:Don't make those sounds.

Tanner:Okay, I need to perceive.

Mike:I hear the healing sound.

Tanner:Sorry, I'm getting right on that.

Jorge:All of the rest of the tunnel still have all this life once the deep left?

Jorge:Or... No.

Josh:Yeah, no, the fungal growth is still present.

Josh:It's just the portal itself that was the passageway to Ilkain is closed.

Tanner:Oh my god, what a stupid... I made a private role, like a big dummy.

Josh:You good?

Josh:Uh-huh-huh, you idiot.

Tanner:How'd I do?

Josh:Um, with a...

Tanner:Not very good.

Tanner:Ugh.

Josh:4D.

Josh:Looking around, you don't see... You kind of have to pull back the fungus if you want to get to the wall to see if there's anything on the walls themselves.

Noah:Hmm.

Josh:You will find a speaker that is part of a loudspeaker system.

Josh:You know that there's an intercom system here because you heard it earlier.

Josh:You do not see any...

Josh:phone here by which you might be able to use it.

Tanner:Thank you.

Josh:I will say two things.

Josh:One, it was probably some kind of either handheld device or magical built-in device that Kharkov had.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:And two, I think you guys rolled really well looking around the private quarters in the dormitory.

Josh:You know that there would be one in Kharkov's dormitory.

Jorge:Oh, let's go back to Karkov's Corp before we go.

Mike:on the way.

Jorge:What do you guys want to say?

Jorge:I'm thinking I pretend to be Karkov and be like, they got me.

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:The deeps got me.

Jorge:It's cold red.

Jorge:This is falling.

Jorge:Get to the second house.

Jorge:What do you guys think?

Tanner:oh, you want to put out an evacuation order.

Jorge:So one thing, one evacuation, get them out of the sparrows here.

Jorge:Two, I do think it's good to let everyone know that Kharkov is taken by the deep, because they're still actively expanding down here, so that the Ruskins can start handling this.

Mike:Sure.

Tanner:I think that's fair.

Noah:Yeah.

Jorge:So I don't have to pretend to be Kharkov.

Jorge:just tell everyone, hey guys, we killed him, but also, the deep's still here, so come take care of that.

Jorge:Or I can pretend to be Karkov and lost in battle.

Jorge:And, if you want, I can throw in that we killed those people, so they stop looking for us.

Tanner:mmm they can pause their rope searching operation

Mike:Ooh, I do like that.

Mike:I think if we're gonna go Kharkov, we throw in... We throw in, uh, I have been mortally wounded in battle, and the deep is grabbing a hold of me.

Mike:But I was able to kill the guys with the friend with the big neck.

Noah:I like that.

Josh:Okay, so

Jorge:Do you guys want to write something for me to read, or do you want me to freeball it?

Mike:Oh, God.

Jorge:Because I'm a little scared of my freeball.

Jorge:I'm going to be honest with you, but I could do it.

Jorge:All right, all right.

Noah:I feel like you should just say what's in your heart.

Noah:I feel like it always turns...

Mike:Yeah.

Jorge:All right, all right.

Josh:You are making your way over to Kharkov's dormitory to find the phone, and then you've just got, you've got a message for the people.

Jorge:We're going to bring the phone over to the teleporter room, I think.

Josh:Okay, sure, so you could, like, make a quick exit in case somebody immediately tries to head down?

Jorge:Yeah, I don't want those doors or something.

Josh:That's fair.

Jorge:I want the course already plotted for that.

Josh:So you can give Hallie and Tenno a moment to get all of that stuff hooked up.

Noah:you you

Jorge:Hey, does it make sense that...

Josh:If you want, you can roll... I guess we'll make this an Arcana check.

Jorge:They needed highly intelligent plotting because humans couldn't do it.

Jorge:And that's why they just couldn't figure out where to get where we went.

Jorge:Nah, never mind.

Jorge:I just have my own conspiracy theories.

Jorge:All right.

Josh:Okay, that's fine.

Josh:All right, so they plug it in.

Noah:you you

Josh:You guys are set up.

Josh:The portal is active, and then they can set it up to shut off statements they did when you jumped into the vault.

Jorge:OK.

Josh:So it'll transport you through, and then...

Jorge:Give me one second.

Jorge:Yeah, I will guess honeyed words.

Jorge:OK.

Jorge:I'm going to activate my ring of lies, which gives me honeyed words.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:I get a plus four status bonus to deception checks to lie.

Jorge:And then if the plausibility of your lie prompts a circumstance penalty, you reduce the penalty by half.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:And then I will also be activating my special effect.

Jorge:So I will have a, sorry, just calculating this out.

Josh:Hmm.

Jorge:37 plus two, 39, plus four for my activated.

Jorge:which is going to be 33, plus another 4 for the ring.

Jorge:Oh, wait, wait.

Jorge:Is my heart, is that status or item?

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:I think it's both.

Jorge:Give me a second.

Mike:item

Jorge:Sorry.

Jorge:So when I activate it, it's the status.

Josh:Maybe.

Josh:I mean, I can double-check for you if you don't know.

Jorge:I have it up.

Jorge:Once we die.

Jorge:I don't even need to do that.

Jorge:Yeah, I'll still do the last thing anyway.

Jorge:So it's still 34, 33, 36.

Jorge:OK.

Jorge:This is going to be Lev's impersonation of Kharkov's accent, but I'm just going to do Lev's.

Josh:Sure.

Jorge:He's not going to say it's coughing, but I'm doing coughing motions.

Jorge:And he's going to go, greetings, comrades.

Jorge:I've been mortally wounded in a fight with these ruffians.

Jorge:I've managed to slay them in honor of Rampart, but the seer has fallen and so shall I. Send word to the other locations.

Jorge:The deep will see this place.

Jorge:You shall evacuate.

Jorge:Live on for the first house.

Jorge:Goodbye.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:And then I do a scream.

Jorge:And this guy cuts it off.

Josh:Like a death rattle type deal.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Sure.

Josh:I would love a deception check, please.

Jorge:All right.

Tanner:This is going to be awesome.

Jorge:Here we go.

Jorge:55.

Josh:Stupid.

Noah:Crazy.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:For those of you who are in the room with him doing the call, if your eyes were closed, you would think it was Kharkov on the phone.

Josh:It's the best impression you've ever heard to the point that you assume that he has some magical device that lets him impersonate someone.

Josh:He doesn't.

Josh:He's just really good at doing voices.

Josh:Um... Uh...

Jorge:When I turn this off, I go, I do stand-up in my free time.

Jorge:I do impersonations.

Jorge:And then I jump into the teleporter.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:And you jump through.

Noah:I like the idea that Lev has a whole separate life he's never told us about doing stand-up and it's all impressions.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:Yeah.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:Do the rest of you follow?

Mike:Mm-hmm.

Tanner:Yeah.

Josh:It would be funny if you stayed.

Josh:Like, finally.

Josh:Lev's out of the picture.

Jorge:And then Lev's just hanging out with the broker.

Jorge:I swear, I thought they were coming.

Jorge:I don't know what happened.

Jorge:No, I don't have the gun.

Jorge:Give me the gun.

Josh:Wow.

Noah:like, hey, you want to hear my impression of a Solorin?

Noah:Waka waka!

Mike:This is my impression of an aspect of Immix at the first Thanksgiving.

Josh:What?

Mike:There's a really dumb family guy trope.

Mike:It's like, this is John Wayne at the first Thanksgiving, and he's like, hello, pilgrims.

Noah:even better that Lev master impressionist gets up on stage and he can't make a single voice and it's all oh yes I am John Wayne pilgrim

Mike:I am... We're having lots of

Mike:Food today, pilgrims.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:The rest of you follow through the portal.

Josh:Which...

Josh:fully think was the correct decision there.

Josh:You said that you were going to go up to another floor and I got scared.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:I... That seemed like just asking for trouble.

Mike:Mm hmm.

Jorge:But it would also still be really funny if we just started... If Lev does impressions of really specific people that no one at the comedy shows know.

Noah:Oh, this is terrible.

Jorge:This is an impression of this one guard who's over there, you know, in the upper reaches of Serengrad.

Tanner:What the hell is this?

Josh:Why, it's the... it's the cafeteria that you guys didn't go to.

Jorge:Oh.

Noah:What is... Who's Ubi?

Tanner:Ooby!

Josh:You'll never know!

Josh:Nobody knows who Ubi is.

Tanner:Ooby!

Tanner:Where was the cafeteria?

Tanner:I don't even know where that was.

Jorge:Yes.

Tanner:Oh.

Josh:I was on the fifth floor, which I assume would have been the floor that you guys went to because that's where the best stuff was.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Except, once again, you guys went to the vault!

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:I don't know why there was discussion if we could get more magic items if we go up to a floor that was less protected and has less good stuff.

Noah:But what if Lev walked up to another floor and did his impression of D. Hanak from At Recursive Entities and he was like, why can't you solve this problem?

Mike:Yeah.

Josh:He probably could have, and you would have talked your way through it, and he would have gotten like a rapier that nobody can use that has less damage bonuses than what you currently have.

Noah:Are you saying if you're the wasn't as cool as Lev's literal scythe of death?

Jorge:Yeah.

Tanner:I feel like we had a good chance of recruiting Ubi if we had went to the cafeteria.

Josh:Maybe.

Mike:Ubi's like some duplicate of Beast or something?

Mike:How horrifying.

Josh:Ubi can show up in every combat you guys can have for Noa, if you like.

Noah:Ashmont?

Mike:Ubi's the new... Fuck, what was that guy's name that blew up?

Josh:If you just want Ubi to be present.

Jorge:Oh, in the first campaign?

Mike:Ash?

Mike:The fact that no one else knows this guy's name means that I am correct in not being able to remember.

Mike:The guy that blew up at the night market.

Josh:Oh!

Tanner:Oh.

Noah:Oh, what is that you're saying, Rowan?

Josh:Rowan!

Mike:Rowan.

Jorge:Rowan.

Josh:Who is still around?

Noah:Also, I like on this map... Worth it.

Mike:I know he's going to show up at all of our contests.

Tanner:Hmm.

Jorge:But we do know we met the oldest Rowan.

Jorge:So far.

Jorge:So younger Rowan might be easier to kill.

Josh:You're gonna meet, like, a level two Rowan, and then one of you is just going to, like, flick him and his hand's going to explode.

Noah:I like on this map, now all of us just vibing with a bunch of different...

Josh:You... Yeah, she's hanging out.

Noah:Things happening.

Jorge:Oh, are the pink stuff my Aeon Stones?

Jorge:Aeon Stones?

Josh:Oh yeah, was it your harmful malice?

Josh:I have no idea what they are.

Josh:Oh, well, so as you guys jump through the portal, you are no longer...

Jorge:Yeah, maybe they're my Eon Stones.

Tanner:Do you have five Aeon Stones?

Jorge:I have three.

Jorge:I have a pink Romanoid, a preserving one, and then a... I don't even remember what this other one does.

Josh:Are they all attuned?

Josh:Do you actually... No, only one of them is.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Oh, is it just the pink rhomboid?

Jorge:Oh, the other one's not tuned?

Josh:No, they're not invested.

Jorge:Oh, well, I have the slots for them.

Josh:But you are wearing them.

Josh:I just uninvested and then reinvested and it didn't do anything.

Jorge:I have this.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:I don't know what that is.

Josh:I don't know.

Josh:You just have rocks floating around your head.

Josh:It happens.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:All right.

Josh:Oh, there we go.

Josh:Okay, you're right.

Josh:It is the Aeon Stone.

Josh:I don't know, or the Aeon Stone or whatever.

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

Jorge:Oh, maybe it's one of those ones that are worn and you can't have multiple.

Jorge:I thought I checked to see if you could have multiple Eon stones.

Josh:No, you definitely can have multiple Aeon Stones, but you don't have the effect applied to you like you should.

Josh:It's fine.

Josh:Regardless, you make your way through the portal.

Josh:You end up in a very familiar looking at this point.

Josh:You've been here a few times.

Josh:The office of Oxus, Oxide, Professor Lady.

Josh:Stack time with books on one side, window that overlooks into the interior of Illyara.

Josh:You have jumped cross-continentally as part of this, which is...

Josh:Like, way further than the first time you jumped with this teleporty thing, but you are aware that it is by no means the furthest point you could have teleported with that structure.

Josh:Regardless, you made it into Iliara.

Josh:You do startle Oxus, who did not expect for people to jump into her well-shielded-against-teleportation office, but you just pop up into existence.

Jorge:And one looks like the Babadook.

Josh:Yeah, and one's a vampire pope.

Noah:Hey, Archers.

Jorge:Greetings.

Jorge:Geoxis.

Josh:Hi.

Josh:I would have appreciated a warning.

Josh:I don't know how you would have warned me.

Josh:The broker should have warned me.

Jorge:Yeah, broker said to come back.

Jorge:I probably didn't think, you know, probably said I wasn't going to be back so quickly.

Jorge:Can you just let them know that we're here?

Josh:Uh, yeah.

Josh:One sec.

Josh:And she reaches down into her drawer and interacts with something out of view.

Josh:And a second later, you watch as one of the bookshelves behind her shimmers a little bit, and the broker walks out of it.

Jorge:I pull out trays of pierogies.

Jorge:Do any of you guys want pierogies?

Jorge:There may or may not be divine corpse blood in it.

Jorge:We were not able to suss it out.

Josh:Oxus will go and eat one and be like, tastes like a pierogi.

Josh:The broker will hold it up by the very edge of one of the crimps.

Josh:There's an oxblood in this.

Noah:Hmm.

Josh:Sorry, there's an oxblood in this.

Mike:That's good.

Josh:I'll set it back down.

Josh:It shouldn't affect the taste.

Jorge:Take another.

Noah:Grace, we got your gun.

Jorge:Cool.

Noah:I will do a cool spin that I saw.

Noah:What was his first name?

Josh:Desmond?

Noah:Desmond.

Noah:There it is.

Noah:Jorge has gone through a lot of characters.

Josh:He's played too many characters.

Josh:He will, like, once again, generally very good at holding back his inner emotions.

Noah:I was like, I saw Zugg do once, and I was like, that's not

Noah:As he goes forward, I'm going to pull back and I'm going to say, so divinity leech, huh?

Josh:Definitely a bit of restlessness here to get his hands on the gun, if you're offering it.

Noah:Who's the divinity?

Noah:And just kind of keep spinning it.

Josh:Roll?

Josh:What do I want you to roll here?

Noah:Roll antagonize.

Josh:Yeah, you're being antagonistic here.

Josh:I think I need you to roll an intimidation check for me, please.

Tanner:Ooh.

Jorge:While he's doing this, I'm going to shamelessly request.

Jorge:So, are you destroying it?

Jorge:Because if you're not destroying it, I would love it if you could cauterize this wound when we're all done.

Noah:I'm going to use once per hour, and as I do this, I'll use the once per hour crafting thing, and as I do it, you see all the little bits and bobs on the metal arm start to reach for it, like it's about to absorb it into the arm or something.

Noah:Just to scare him, I'll use crafting for this intimidation check.

Noah:58.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:58?

Josh:Um... He'll say, What do you mean?

Josh:Me!

Josh:He shot me!

Josh:I have a hole in me!

Noah:So are you a god with a big G or a little G?

Noah:Because when we shot him, didn't it... I'm just going to keep spinning it on one finger now.

Josh:No!

Josh:It would work on you, too!

Jorge:I thought we were the little Gs.

Josh:You see him start to reach towards something at a side.

Josh:Okay.

Noah:I'll toss it to him.

Josh:We'll catch it out of the air.

Noah:I'll toss it and catch it.

Noah:Didn't you say you were borrowing someone's portfolio?

Tanner:you

Josh:I am.

Josh:That's actually unrelated.

Noah:Oh, that's crazy.

Noah:You've got a lot going on, man.

Josh:You also have a lot going on.

Josh:Can I say, in the time since I first met you to now, you have a lot going on.

Jorge:Lev is just being like, oh.

Jorge:He's now taking the power stances more.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:Oh.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:That's the power stance.

Josh:Cool.

Jorge:No, I'm not trying to be intimidating.

Josh:You're very intimidating.

Jorge:Okay, so.

Josh:Imposing.

Jorge:Yes, so.

Josh:And he'll say, no, I'm not destroying it.

Josh:I need it so that I can undo the wound that it's caused to me.

Jorge:OK.

Jorge:Will that wound, if you undo it, is it going to undo the wound we just caused to Kharkov?

Noah:Oh, I did shoot Karkov with it.

Josh:It might, but you said he's dead, right?

Jorge:Yeah.

Tanner:Yeah he's dead.

Mike:That's assuring.

Josh:So... Then it doesn't matter one way or the other.

Jorge:It's getting reanimated, though.

Jorge:OK.

Josh:Whatever the Deep is going to do to him will override any bit of what he used to be before.

Noah:Okay.

Josh:So... I don't...

Jorge:We should have shot his head, you know?

Noah:I feel kind of bad.

Noah:It seems like he might have actually been sort of a good dude in a weird...

Jorge:No, he wasn't.

Jorge:No, no, no.

Noah:In, like, a weird, twisted, backwards way.

Noah:It was one of those, like, everyone's... Everyone's, like, the... I'm not saying I regret killing him.

Jorge:Do you know how many sparrows he killed?

Jorge:Don't all those are... I don't know what you're doing.

Josh:The broker will do a once-over of the vampire pope that you are right now, but he won't say anything.

Noah:I feel like it was one of those... You know, I feel like...

Jorge:You remember every single first house person we met?

Jorge:Sorry, Divex, besides you.

Jorge:Everyone that we met was, like, gross and an abomination.

Jorge:They had, like, weird arms.

Jorge:They were, like, disgusting.

Jorge:He operated on his own kids.

Tanner:Dawn, we're talking about a man.

Mike:Thank you.

Jorge:Yes.

Jorge:This is for the greater good, and then I'm going to get rid of this.

Noah:I'm not saying that I regret killing him or that we should have killed him.

Jorge:What guy?

Jorge:And I wink at him.

Noah:I'm just saying, I feel like everyone's a hero of their own story sort of thing.

Noah:I feel like killing him was definitely the right move and he did a lot of bad things.

Tanner:I mean, this is a man that was purposely giving people a magical blood disease and turning them away from the hospitals.

Noah:Okay, well, when you put it like that, I feel like I forgot about that bit.

Jorge:Also, he was a jerk to you guys.

Mike:No, he's a jerk.

Jorge:Do you not remember that part?

Jorge:Marzo's still fired up about it.

Josh:Right.

Jorge:I mean, all we needed to know is that he got a dossier on us and wasn't even scared.

Noah:I never met him, really.

Noah:Okay.

Mike:Believe me.

Josh:That's the most important bit.

Noah:Well.

Josh:The biggest transgression.

Noah:Well, then I... He was mean to us.

Jorge:What a dumbass.

Jorge:What a cocky dumbass.

Noah:What?

Jorge:Also, Rampart himself sucks.

Jorge:Of course his dad sucks.

Jorge:Anyway.

Noah:Oh yeah, that was crazy.

Noah:They were like a whole family.

Noah:I feel like at this point, we're all like huddled up chatting while the broker is doing something else.

Josh:At this point, the broker has taken the gun halfway apart and is reaching around on the interior glowing chamber bit of it while you are all chatting.

Mike:So what, he's a good guy because he was trying to save a place for him to rule it?

Jorge:OK so.

Tanner:Thank you.

Jorge:Yeah, he's a good guy because of this locket and Lev took the locket for some reason.

Jorge:Why would this make him a good guy?

Jorge:We didn't take good care of them.

Noah:Man, why'd you take that?

Mike:Oh, yeah.

Josh:As the broker is doing what he's doing, he will say, you know, conquering an area and then taking good care of the people is not an inherently evil act, I will say.

Mike:Good care?

Jorge:He did bad care of them.

Josh:Did he take care of his people?

Jorge:Not really.

Mike:Divex will look at Henrik.

Mike:Did he?

Mike:No.

Tanner:uh... he did not really take care of his people

Josh:Oh, um... The broker will say... Yeah, no, I would like that.

Noah:Well, he was a bad guy.

Noah:There you go.

Jorge:That's where the bats are to be formed.

Noah:Okay.

Mike:Also, we have this.

Mike:I don't know where we put this, but we have the Slipsier's body.

Mike:It's going to throw...

Jorge:No, no, actually, I think we should keep it.

Jorge:We can keep it.

Jorge:There's a heart of a dragon in it.

Noah:No.

Jorge:Are you going to give it to Terran Centis, make him another dragon?

Mike:A third.

Josh:No, Taric Sotheby's is already a dragon.

Jorge:What are you going to do with the dragon heart?

Josh:Tarxethes is already two dragons.

Josh:I don't know what they would do with a corpse of another dragon.

Josh:Yeah, they didn't become that way because they ate another dragon.

Noah:I thought it was over there.

Jorge:So what do you want to do with this out of curiosity?

Josh:I was going to pop it open and see what they're working with on the inside.

Jorge:Oh, and then Lev's also like, we also have another one.

Josh:The rampart one I'm familiar with.

Josh:You guys, I can tell, have already desecrated that one.

Josh:You can keep that if you like.

Josh:I mean, aside from the internal damage, it's mostly intact, right?

Josh:The spell seer?

Josh:Slip seer?

Josh:Whatever it is.

Mike:Yeah, that's pretty fair to say.

Josh:Alright.

Noah:Oh.

Josh:At this point, he has pulled a...

Josh:an actual leech out of the center chamber of the gun.

Josh:It's about this big.

Josh:It starts squealing as it's removed from the chamber.

Josh:It is glowing orange.

Josh:And he will... Yeah, I think he'd squeeze it.

Josh:You watch as he just kind of squeezes down on it, and it extrudes this orange liquid that falls into his other hand, which then goes underneath his robe where you know the hole is.

Josh:And then after a second, he puts the leech back into the gun, refits it back together, and says, If I give this back to you, are you going to shoot me with it?

Noah:Nah, we're cool, man.

Josh:Do I need you to roll either a diplomacy or a deception check?

Jorge:I can, I can, I try to get in the way.

Noah:I have no plans to shoot him with the gun.

Jorge:I can take the gun.

Josh:Okay, then you don't need to roll a check there.

Noah:Well, because I don't think I can hit the broker.

Josh:He'll hand it back to you.

Noah:Cool.

Noah:I'm blocking it.

Jorge:Wait, does this still work?

Jorge:This still does that leech thing?

Josh:Yeah, you have to give it a data recharge, but...

Jorge:Oh, and then if you crush the leech in the middle, all of the old leeches,

Jorge:all the other stuff dies and it creates a new one.

Josh:Yeah, I didn't kill the leech.

Josh:I just temporarily exsanguinated it so it lost its connection to the things that it was actively disrupting.

Josh:It'll regrow all of the blood and then you can make new connections.

Noah:That's crazy.

Josh:And if you decide at some point you want to disconnect those, pop it out, give it a little squeeze, put it back in.

Noah:There's an actual leash in this thing.

Jorge:Who made this thing?

Josh:That's why it's called what it is.

Josh:It's a good question.

Josh:It's, um...

Josh:I will have one of you, if you like, roll an arcana or a cult check here.

Mike:Arcana.

Josh:Why are you making that?

Mike:54 for the Arcana.

Josh:Why'd you make that sound, Tanner?

Tanner:I'm just... The fact that the gun is called the Divinity Leech and there's an actual leech in it is bringing me back to our Antarctica conversation.

Jorge:Okay.

Tanner:Sometimes things just have simple names.

Josh:It's the not-there gun.

Josh:Yeah.

Tanner:Sometimes they have simple names.

Josh:Okay, with a 54, I will say that it... The exterior doesn't really remind you of anything you've interacted with.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:Um...

Josh:Throughout your adventures, it doesn't strike you architecturally, so to speak, or have the same design language as other things you've interacted with.

Josh:But with a ridiculous arcana roll... Sorry, arcana or occult.

Mike:Arcana.

Josh:With a ridiculous arcana roll, there is a twinge to the magical signature that would remind Divex of...

Noah:you you

Josh:the... of Damien, I think is the closest thing there.

Josh:Related in a third cousin's twice-removed kind of way, but that's what it strikes you most closely as.

Jorge:Oh, do you know this thing?

Josh:It's definitely not a rescue, I think.

Jorge:And I try to describe the place where we found the other heart, where we found Damien Hart.

Jorge:Do you know who made that?

Josh:Um...

Jorge:And I say the name of the wizard.

Josh:Uh, no.

Josh:Should I?

Josh:I'll keep... I'll keep note of the name, in case I see it going forward, but it doesn't ring any bells currently.

Jorge:They made something that was very powerful.

Jorge:And it seems like a civilization, different.

Jorge:okay so do you short rest yeah is this to the other sphere okay

Mike:Huh.

Tanner:you

Josh:You have to give me, like, two minutes to finish healing up.

Josh:And then I do have an errand I need to make.

Josh:I'd like all of you to come with, if you're not doing anything.

Noah:We're going out of spheres.

Josh:It's not decided.

Josh:Not yet.

Josh:I need a little bit of preparation first.

Josh:It is out of this sphere, though, if that matters to you.

Tanner:Can you give us a little bit of background, kind of prepare us for the mission?

Josh:It's not a mission.

Josh:It's like a grocery run closer to.

Josh:It is an autonomous external outpost.

Jorge:Yeah, let's go.

Mike:I thought so.

Josh:It is not part of any particular sphere.

Josh:It's kind of a ways out there.

Noah:Are we going to the fucking Zod Citadel?

Josh:It's friendly.

Josh:Okay, I'm healed.

Mike:Sure.

Josh:That's it.

Josh:And you watch as he pulls back his cloak and just fully solidified.

Josh:It did not take much time for the thing to heal over until I'm buttoned back up.

Josh:I'll say, okay, you all ready for a little bit of a trip?

Mike:is there is there like an energy change divex is very in tune with magical energies and rooms is there like a is there a vibe shift no jesus

Josh:Sorry.

Josh:No.

Josh:No, I mean, I think we've been over, like, we've touched on this before with Big Fish.

Josh:Their broker doesn't have vibes.

Josh:He's not part of the local weave, so he does not interact with the weave in the same way that, like, a powerful being would.

Josh:No change.

Mike:Mildly more terrifying.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:Lev is going to less vampire pope it up.

Jorge:His wings are going to detract.

Jorge:He's going to swap over to his, get the hat off, put on this crown thing.

Jorge:Just look normal, resting garb, black.

Jorge:That's it.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:It's okay if you look weird.

Josh:You won't be the only one, but sure.

Josh:Okay, you all need to stand within 30 feet of me, so just pick whatever's comfortable.

Jorge:Huh.

Jorge:I turn back to the Pope.

Jorge:Please go.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:If you did, I could be weird.

Jorge:I wouldn't be weird.

Josh:There is a very, very, like, minor shift.

Josh:Like, you feel your center of gravity move ever so slightly backwards, and you're in a completely new location.

Josh:You are standing on a steel platform, about 20 feet in radius, you're all kind of in the middle of it, that is jutting out of the side of a...

Josh:massive steel castle, by the looks of it.

Josh:If you look around you, behind you, and to the sides, not in the direction of the castle itself, there is just open, empty space.

Josh:Blackness with little pinpricks of light.

Josh:that the broker will point out and say, those are different spheres.

Josh:If you look, and then he points in a direction towards a closer cluster of where it looks like it starts to get brighter, that's where we just came from.

Josh:And then he will point closer towards the center of the cluster and say, that's where we will be going.

Josh:Although I will give you guys a little bit of time to prepare a few days if you need before we get there.

Josh:Although the sooner, the better.

Josh:And as he turns around and looks at the castle itself, there are people here.

Josh:There are plenty of people here, all in blue robes, moving any which way.

Josh:There are these...

Tanner:you

Josh:beams, like bridges of light that connect different towers to each other.

Josh:There is like a moat by the looks of it, but this is floating in space, so it's just water that's been shifted around this large castle in space, just as best you can tell a decorative element.

Jorge:Hardly.

Noah:How do you look for it?

Josh:He'll say, welcome to Elysium.

Josh:If you follow me, we'll get you set up for a little bit.

Josh:I have some things I need to grab.

Josh:And I thought it might do well for all of you to get used to not being in your current sphere because there will be a few hours of sickness where you get used to the fact that you have been ripped completely from your weave wholesale.

Josh:So we'll let you ride that out in relative comfort instead of dumping you in Syrin.

Josh:And he'll start walking into the castle proper.

Jorge:Can I come with you?

Josh:I would like all of you.

Josh:I mean, you can stand out here if you like, but it's more comfortable inside.

Jorge:All right, let's go.

Mike:Thank you.

Jorge:All right, go on, Seth.

Josh:he will continue walking into the castle.

Josh:There is a large, open archway as you pass through into what looks to be the central promenade, I guess, of this what you realize as you walk in isn't one castle.

Josh:It's closer to 16 different castles all connected by various bridges as they go from one area to the next.

Jorge:Thank you.

Josh:You're in the central-most

Josh:Castle the central most structure which you can see here in this central Lobby

Josh:ornately designed.

Josh:Very small tiles arranged in extremely intricate fashion on the floor, such that you gather if a person did it manually, it looks like it would have taken 100 years.

Josh:It's ridiculously complex.

Josh:You see more of those people walking back and forth.

Josh:There are a few like no insight or society checks necessary.

Josh:Actually, no, it would be insight here.

Josh:No insight checks necessary.

Josh:There are a few people as they walk by who see the broker do a double take, do a triple take, and then just keep walking.

Josh:Like, there's a little bit of surprise for him to be present here, but then they're like, oh yeah, it's that guy.

Josh:And then they keep walking.

Josh:The U exit past an archway that you can see is banked on both sides by these 50-foot tall statues carved out of the wall itself.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:The one to the left is of a tall...

Josh:very well-dressed, kind of like a hydrant, like a merfolk person.

Josh:Large staff in one hand, open spellbook by the looks of it in the other.

Josh:And then to the right of that on the other side of the archway is the broker.

Josh:metal and wood detailing holding a stack of books and it looks like half of them is shimmering as if mid-shift into another area.

Josh:On the other side of the hallway is two more statues.

Josh:One of them of a stalwart...

Josh:perhaps a little older-looking, very well-armored, like, cleric paladin knight of some kind, holding out what you assume is a holy symbol, although to what religion you would not be familiar.

Josh:And on the other side of the archway is...

Josh:Like a cow person, kind of?

Josh:Very tall, wrapped in what looks to be vines that explode into flame, or into a wreath around their neck.

Josh:But of a species that you have not seen before and would not be familiar with.

Josh:Um...

Josh:All of them with the same symbology of what you can see a few people walking around here have.

Josh:And you end up walking through the door closest to that paladin knight old guy thing.

Josh:And the broker will stop by what looks to be an elevator.

Josh:It's similar in make to what you would use in...

Josh:in RC3, but it's not enclosed, it's just a platform that moves up and down.

Josh:You hop on it, it brings you up two floors, and then to the side, like four floors, and then stops again, and you end up in...

Josh:A hallway very cushy here, even more so than other areas of this citadel.

Josh:And you all walk into a room that says Keymaster Tech.

Josh:Tech is spelled weird.

Josh:They've used a three instead of an E. It's T3C, which is strange, but I mean, the fact that you can even read what you assume is another language is in itself a wonder.

Tanner:Looks like it might have been a mistake.

Josh:So the fact that they spell things with numbers isn't all that strange.

Josh:Yeah.

Josh:The door pops open as you approach.

Josh:Nobody actually needs to turn the knob.

Josh:The interior is well-furnished, filled to the brim with books and scrolls and maps and, like, canvases that have been rolled up and the like.

Josh:It is dusty in here.

Josh:No one has been in here for years.

Josh:But the broker will wave his hand.

Josh:There's a gust of wind and all of the dust just cleans itself.

Josh:Five cubic feet at a time, but rapidly around the room.

Josh:I'll say, okay, this is probably a lot.

Josh:You all can hang out here.

Josh:We can chat because I imagine you have questions.

Josh:I do want to say you all passed the test.

Josh:I don't think of you as contractors anymore.

Josh:I'd like to actually invite you to be partners.

Jorge:Oh.

Josh:I think you're competent.

Jorge:I accept.

Mike:Sure.

Tanner:Is this your home?

Josh:Kind of.

Josh:Yeah.

Mike:Divex will extend his hand and say, welcome to the web.

Josh:He'll look at the hand to look at you.

Josh:And there's a moment of like, I would have said yes to this in the past.

Noah:So do we just keep calling you the broker or should we call you looks at the door?

Josh:Am I too old and curmudgeonly now to say yes to it?

Josh:And then he's just like, yeah, sure, fine.

Josh:And he'll take your hand.

Mike:Thanks.

Josh:Oh, actually, yes, you.

Noah:It's a three.

Josh:No.

Josh:Tech is okay.

Josh:The broker is fine.

Jorge:OK.

Jorge:Where is this place?

Jorge:What is this?

Josh:Nowhere.

Josh:We're not in any sphere.

Josh:We are drifting through the Astra, untethered.

Josh:The organization that runs it is called Sedecium.

Josh:I am a founding member and not at all involved.

Jorge:Are the others?

Josh:Oh, I should give you badges so you don't get kicked out.

Josh:Because as soon as I leave... Yeah.

Jorge:That'd be good.

Jorge:What happens when you leave, if you were to leave?

Josh:One moment.

Josh:Well, if I leave and you're all not identified as members of Sedecium, you would all be teleported into a holding cell, which is some combination of Invincible Sphere and Force Cage, where you would be interrogated on how you discovered the location and how you actually physically entered the premises.

Josh:And then...

Josh:you know assuming you answer incorrectly because there's no way to answer that correctly uh you you'd get all of the magic forcibly siphoned out of your body and then your desiccated corpse would be ground down and released somewhere very far away from here so that you can be traced back to this location

Tanner:Pretty effective.

Jorge:He covered their bases.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:And he'll go rummaging through different piles of stuff and eventually finds a small jewelry box of some kind.

Josh:And he pops it open and inside there are a number of small badges.

Josh:Not made out of a material that any of you would be familiar with.

Josh:It's almost like it has the same general quality of jade in that it's almost marble-like with intense colorations.

Josh:But it's not jade.

Josh:One of them is of an orange stone.

Josh:One of them is red.

Tanner:Thank you.

Josh:One of them is blue.

Josh:One of them is purple.

Josh:None of them look like materials that you're familiar with.

Josh:And he will just kind of dump out the box of the four of them onto the desk and say, pick your favorite.

Josh:One moment.

Jorge:What were the colors again?

Jorge:Oh.

Mike:Green, red, blue, and purple?

Josh:Orange.

Josh:Orange, blue,

Josh:purple, and... I think that's red?

Josh:I don't remember.

Tanner:Well.

Josh:It's been a while.

Jorge:I think the blue one.

Noah:Whoa.

Jorge:Oh, wait, never mind.

Josh:Yeah, no, there are four specific badges.

Jorge:There's stuff.

Josh:Um...

Jorge:Oh, the exotic school stuff.

Josh:That still exists as a mechanic, just not in Pathfinder.

Josh:And I'll say, okay, you all hang out with these badgers and stuff, get acclimated, and you are all currently sickened three and doomed three, just by virtue of it is your first time being ripped away from the weave, so you're feeling a little queasy.

Noah:Okay.

Josh:I'll say...

Josh:You'll get over it in a little bit.

Josh:Happens to everybody on their first time.

Josh:I need to go grab some stuff.

Josh:I'll be back.

Josh:Don't leave this room.

Josh:And he will, in a flash of blue light, disappear.

Jorge:Do you guys have any picks?

Mike:Lenara.

Jorge:I kind of like the Cosmeturgy, but I will also concede that to Henrik if you'd like it.

Noah:I was looking at the Curomancy or Antallergy.

Jorge:So, Mercuromancy... Ideally, you don't get found.

Jorge:You know?

Noah:Yeah.

Jorge:So that's why I think it might be good for Henrik, because he gets targeted a lot.

Tanner:Hmm.

Noah:There.

Tanner:Yeah.

Jorge:And I'm already, you know, I show up and I just try to kill the spellcaster.

Jorge:So that's why I want to extra teleport the deck.

Josh:I will say, I am now realizing as I look at these, these should have the invested tag as well.

Noah:you you

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:They will take an investment slot.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Technically they'd have the attunement tag, but you guys can't do that.

Josh:So we'll do invested instead.

Jorge:Why can't we do that?

Mike:We're not from this weave.

Josh:Because that's a mechanic from 5e.

Josh:Yeah, that's a different... Yeah.

Jorge:Oh, attunement.

Jorge:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh:Although it would be funny if you can invest in ten things and then also separately, unrelatedly attune into three other things.

Josh:But no.

Mike:I'd actually like to cast Detect Magic and Detect Metal and just do a little bit of exploring in this room.

Jorge:Just raw magic, these badges.

Josh:Hmm?

Josh:Hmm.

Noah:Great.

Josh:Yeah, well, so the badges are literally magic.

Jorge:They're level 22.

Josh:Like, they're magical constructs.

Josh:Like, detect metal, no rule necessary.

Josh:There wouldn't be any particularly interesting metals in this room.

Josh:I think you might find, like, some... You would find one weird...

Josh:bent-out-of-place piece of palladium, like a sheet of palladium that had been weirdly hit.

Josh:But other than that, I don't think you would find anything of particular interest in the metal department.

Josh:Magically, this room is filled with crap.

Josh:I mean, in that... Well, first of all, I think from a detect magic, the first thing you would note is that the building you're in right now is actually magically manifested...

Josh:like structure it was not built out of materials it was summoned whole cloth into existence

Josh:But beyond that, when I said that there were scrolls here, I meant that literally.

Josh:There are scrolls here.

Josh:There are a ton of scrolls of magic spells throughout the room.

Josh:There are quite a few books here that are tinged of magic energy as well.

Josh:Some of them feel to be also similarly constructed out of mana, and some of them just seem to have some kind of enchantments on them.

Mike:Are the books organized in any sort of way?

Josh:Roll an Arcana check.

Jorge:If text based off mic, no.

Tanner:Thank you.

Josh:Hmm.

Mike:Jesus Christ.

Mike:That's so stupid.

Josh:What'd you get?

Mike:41.

Josh:They're definitely organized in that if you remove a book and you place it somewhere else, they will rearrange themselves into the pattern that they're currently in.

Josh:You do not know what that pattern is.

Josh:It's not by title.

Mike:uh of course i'm trying to find books on history and secrets of the universe and it seems absolutely impossible i have so many questions and the person that can answer them is not in this room

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:It's not by author.

Josh:It doesn't look like it's by subject matter, but there is an ordering.

Jorge:This is fucking crazy, guys.

Jorge:I feel like you guys aren't acknowledging how fucking crazy this place is.

Jorge:Well, he said he was going to go... Did he say he was going to be right back?

Jorge:Well, we're all sick, so maybe we should just chill out, drink some vodka...

Mike:I think.

Josh:You literally can't.

Jorge:thing out.

Josh:The sickened condition prevents you from drinking vodka.

Tanner:Josh, we're on a different plane now.

Tanner:We can do whatever we want.

Tanner:We're not beholden to your rules anymore.

Jorge:I heard some Oreskian mottles sometimes soak their underwear in vodka, and then you'll know it gets them drunk.

Tanner:I've not heard those stories about the underwear and the models.

Jorge:But that couldn't get me drunk, so I'd be only doing it for the burn.

Jorge:So I don't think I'm going to do that.

Mike:Is the door unlocked?

Josh:The door's unlocked.

Tanner:I don't know where you got that from.

Mike:I was trying to change the subject.

Josh:I mean, it would get you drunk.

Jorge:It was actually a story that Russian models used to do that to not get calories.

Jorge:I don't know if it's true.

Jorge:It's probably an old folk tale, but I don't know.

Josh:People have died from that.

Josh:Like there's a mucous membrane down there.

Josh:It will work.

Josh:Either way, as you guys are just kind of figuring out the space, the broker, Tech, will pop back in and say, okay, I've set things up.

Jorge:Yeah.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:I'm waiting for something to finish being built.

Josh:So that'll be a little bit of time.

Josh:So we have time to kill.

Jorge:Is he building a spaceship?

Tanner:How does this place exist?

Jorge:I don't know.

Mike:So yeah, this is out.

Jorge:Oh, he doesn't need spaceships.

Jorge:He just teleports everywhere.

Josh:You teleported here.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:It would be so cool, though.

Tanner:I'm out in the astra.

Mike:Spheres have weaves, which help the magic inside them.

Mike:This is not inside of a sphere.

Noah:How...

Josh:It does have a weave.

Josh:It's just not inside of a sphere.

Jorge:Who created this weave?

Josh:It was a joint effort.

Josh:It's an artificial weave.

Josh:We did need to borrow a little bit of help from a higher kind, from what you would call Laguna, to get it fully set up.

Jorge:OK.

Josh:But you don't need the sphere to maintain the weave.

Josh:It's just helpful.

Jorge:You said joint effort.

Jorge:Who is in this effort?

Josh:Me and, like, a wizard.

Noah:Like, diverts?

Josh:In the same Fane.

Josh:No.

Jorge:Were they the cow thing?

Noah:Was it the cow thing?

Josh:No, the cow thing was the higher kind.

Josh:Was the god.

Noah:That doesn't sound... Dawn's gonna lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling for a little bit and contemplate life.

Jorge:Okay, was it the old man?

Jorge:Was that the wizard?

Jorge:Or was it the woman person?

Josh:No, the old man died.

Josh:We tried really hard to get him to stop doing that.

Jorge:Oh.

Josh:Like, against his will.

Josh:He was not happy with us.

Mike:Was there a point to him continuing... Do you guys adventure as a party or was it just to not have him die?

Mike:I'll do it.

Josh:No, so that was separately.

Josh:Like, we had adventured.

Josh:We did the whole thing.

Josh:We closed the door on that.

Josh:We kind of, you know, we finished one chapter, so to speak.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:Actually, can somebody do me a favor and roll a d100, please?

Noah:as this is happening Don's laying on the floor and is like so did he adventure as an old man were you guys just dragging an old man on adventures

Josh:What did you get for the D100?

Tanner:No.

Mike:6d6.

Josh:Okay, he says, we closed, like, one chapter.

Josh:He pauses.

Josh:He looks around for a second.

Josh:And then he says, um, but, yeah, no, he was, he was old.

Josh:He wasn't infirm.

Jorge:Oh narrative stuff.

Josh:He was accomplished.

Josh:He was very good at murder.

Josh:I don't know if I'm desecrating his memory, given that he was a bringer of peace and good, but he was very good at murder.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:That was after the third time we forcibly de-aged him by 20 years.

Tanner:And to be fair, the statue didn't look that old.

Tanner:I mean, you know.

Mike:Thank you.

Noah:I couldn't help noticing that in the statue, two of its fingers were pinched together with, like, a small copper piece.

Josh:That is absolutely something Zugg would have done if that memorialized him as cheap.

Josh:But I don't think it would have stuck, unfortunately.

Jorge:So who is this Zugg man?

Josh:A wizard.

Jorge:Oh, it's that guy.

Jorge:Seems cool.

Jorge:Okay, okay.

Noah:You were an adventuring party, and you were... Your adventuring party was a robot, a fish wizard, a really old dude, and ostensibly a god cow.

Josh:That's hurtful, but okay.

Josh:He wasn't a god cow at the time.

Josh:He was just a cow cow.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:He was a plant cow, I guess.

Jorge:Okay.

Mike:what was that'll get you so wait so

Jorge:Just four of you accomplished all of that?

Jorge:There wasn't even like a fifth one that you lost that got murdered or something?

Jorge:Or two other guys that kind of cycled in?

Noah:Oh, I had a friend once that got like a like blink disease and then one day just blinked out and never came back.

Josh:We had somebody earlier on in the party, but she left to run a casino, so it just kind of wasn't, you know, relevant to the later bits, but... Mm-hmm.

Jorge:Oh.

Tanner:This can be lucrative.

Mike:It's the four of you.

Mike:Pardon me.

Mike:I mean, I get that we're an unassuming group, but your group also seems a bit unassuming.

Josh:Yeah.

Mike:I mean, this creation is a very large feat.

Mike:I guess becoming a higher kind, I don't know how easy that is to do where you're from.

Josh:Oh, the...

Mike:What did you guys do?

Mike:And who did it?

Josh:It's... It would take, like... It would probably take something close to, you know... I want to say... Gosh.

Mike:I mean, there was a wizard.

Mike:I guess you teleport, and then there was a cow that became a god, and then an old man that could kill well.

Mike:I mean, help me out with the dynamics.

Josh:I'm just doing some math in my head right now.

Josh:I think it'd take probably close to 1,200 hours to tell the story completely.

Josh:A very abridged version, you know.

Noah:Do you have, like, a book?

Noah:Do you have, like, a book or something on you guys?

Josh:I wish, honestly.

Josh:That would be awesome if I had a book fully detailing it.

Tanner:you

Noah:Did you have, like, a really... Did you have, like, a really cool adventuring name?

Josh:I have books on most everything else, but not that, because nobody wrote it down.

Noah:Something that, like, struck fear into the hearts of people?

Noah:Like, The Weft?

Josh:We had a name like the Weft.

Josh:We didn't have a name that struck fear into the hearts of any.

Noah:That was a backhanded compliment.

Noah:I heard that one.

Josh:That wasn't a compliment.

Mike:Well, I guess the point of the name is to not sound scary before you do stuff.

Noah:I'll take it.

Josh:I actually think the point of the name is to advertise a tavern.

Mike:It's to sound scary and add to the name.

Josh:That's what a name would be for.

Noah:Oh, what's...

Jorge:oh you guys were businessmen that's how you okay

Josh:Yeah, that's how we started, kind of.

Mike:A name or your group's name?

Mike:Because we're not advertising a tavern.

Josh:Clearly, you're missing out then, because this could all be free advertising for a tavern.

Noah:Wait, so you're telling me that everything that's going on here is all advertising for a tavern?

Mike:Thank you.

Josh:No, we dropped the name...

Josh:Uh, although we did throw around the floating citadel as a name for, for this place, which would have, uh, been advertising for the tavern.

Josh:Um, but, uh, yeah, close enough.

Noah:Oh, the tavern is the Floating Citadel?

Noah:That's a pretty cool name.

Josh:Um, yeah, no, uh, this isn't advertising a tavern anymore, which is for the best, really.

Jorge:OK.

Josh:The last time I went to the tavern was, I want to say close to a century ago.

Josh:Like it's been some time.

Jorge:Oh.

Noah:Oh, that is...

Jorge:So I guess, what's the goal of this place?

Josh:Oh, in so many words.

Josh:Gosh, I'm going to sound like one of those Sundom fanatics.

Josh:Getting rid of things that might not want mortals around.

Josh:I suppose.

Josh:If you ask somebody who's more drank than Kool-Aid, I'm sure they'll have a loftier series of goals and all of that stuff, but the long and short of it is there are a bunch of things that are very powerful and want to kill everything that aren't them, Thessians being one of those things, and someone needs to stop them from doing that.

Noah:Oh, that's pretty good.

Jorge:Wait, have you guys?

Josh:Although that's not really... Although I suppose it didn't start out that way.

Josh:Let me speak in words that you guys would better understand.

Josh:There are a lot of things that are dicks to us.

Josh:And we're just kind of getting rid of them.

Mike:Okay.

Jorge:Like equalizing it, you know?

Josh:Yeah, a little bit.

Noah:That's pretty cool.

Jorge:So you guys have killed lots of thessians?

Josh:We've killed a few.

Noah:Wait, which one?

Mike:Oh.

Josh:You would not have met them.

Noah:They all have cool names.

Josh:Yeah, Mephistopheles was the first big one.

Josh:Yeah, he was a dick.

Jorge:Sounds like an asshole.

Jorge:OK.

Noah:Sounds very tough.

Josh:He was a very strong and powerful enemy, though, but we did take care of him handily.

Josh:Anybody who says anything about him being an old man is lying.

Mike:Huh.

Josh:The other two that we can claim having actually killed would be Monotony and Demon.

Noah:That second one sounds crazy.

Josh:No, Demon is the weaker of the two.

Josh:Monotony's a pain.

Josh:Or was a pain.

Josh:Um...

Jorge:So did you fight them in a sphere?

Jorge:Outside of a sphere?

Josh:So, Demon, we fought on its home turf.

Josh:So, there's, like, Thessian politics.

Josh:I know you don't get that, given that they, like, from the perspective of people on Justosphere, they are just big, eldritch, dead things that want stuff that are bad.

Josh:But there is infighting amongst the Thessians in some small amount.

Josh:And a few of them like Demon, and a few other of its...

Josh:cadre, Cabal, however you want to call it, kind of set about building, you know, acting like higher kinds, building their own places to live and so much.

Josh:The big three were Demon, Devil, and Torment, although Demon's dead now.

Josh:Anyway, we ended up...

Josh:breaking into demon and uh needling it in the face and then uh just just ripping it to shreds uh monotony was a bit more of an accident we actually caught that uh on a downswing something else had already vastly injured it and it was starting to heal again so we just kind of death nailed it

Jorge:What injured it?

Josh:I mean, I think we're probably getting a little far away from what's relevant to you guys in the short and long term.

Josh:Something called Harrow.

Josh:But either way, more pressing concern.

Josh:We can't manufacture the needles, which is why we...

Josh:explore other spheres looking for them.

Josh:They are effectively the only surefire way we know of to kill Thessians and things like Thessians.

Josh:Yes.

Noah:We recently heard the word harrow.

Noah:Was that the West or was that in a one shot?

Josh:No, the Weft read the word Harrow like a few thousand times on the books in the archive.

Noah:Oh, uh, Hey, the harrow we re sorry, uh, tech interrupting here.

Noah:We recently, uh, we're temporarily in what looked like the corpse of a library, uh, and written all over a bunch of books for the word harrow.

Josh:Yeah.

Noah:What kind of came across that?

Noah:What should we worry about that too?

Josh:you don't necessarily need to be worried about it in that it doesn't pose a direct threat to you yet.

Jorge:It also, at this end,

Josh:Not anymore.

Josh:It used to be.

Josh:One of the Thessians got it in their head that they could go around stealing the life and abilities of other Thessians and kind of beef up.

Josh:They used to be called Leitmotif.

Josh:Took on a new name when they started killing things.

Josh:It's like a big deal, but also not relevant to 99% of the people in the Astra because they're currently just going around killing other Thessians.

Jorge:OK.

Josh:In the short term, it's honestly probably a good thing.

Mike:In the long term, it's terrifying.

Jorge:OK, OK.

Josh:Yeah, it's kind of like, you know, either 100 level 11 spells or one level 13, and then kind of figuring out which you care about more.

Josh:But... Yeah, so, I mean...

Mike:We get that situation a bit on all things.

Josh:Big stuff, little stuff.

Josh:I'm not worried about the Harrow finding its way to Althane, though, for a bunch of reasons, including the lighthouse.

Jorge:I say in schism, hey broker, can you hear this?

Josh:Yeah.

Jorge:Okay, thanks for being honest.

Jorge:Never mind.

Josh:Do you want me to pretend to close my ears?

Jorge:No, no, we'll talk about this later.

Jorge:It's not that I want to hide it from you.

Jorge:I was just going to ask the other compatriots if we, never mind.

Jorge:You know we have a needle.

Josh:It does sound like you want to... Yeah, no, I am aware that you guys have the needle.

Jorge:You've got the dossier.

Jorge:You've got the folder.

Jorge:I was just going to ask if we should have donated it.

Jorge:But we'll talk about this in probably a little bit.

Jorge:OK.

Jorge:So what do you?

Jorge:This place is sick.

Noah:No, it is true.

Josh:This is just a pit stop, anyway.

Josh:The actual goal, let's keep that in mind, is killing, what'd you call it, the feet?

Tanner:What can you tell us about what we're heading into at Syrin?

Jorge:Yes.

Mike:Yeah, the feet.

Mike:That's what it calls itself.

Josh:Yeah.

Josh:I don't believe you, but I have no way of verifying that.

Josh:So...

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:So if this is Culture Shock, Syrin's gonna be crazy.

Josh:I don't know.

Josh:You guys know buildings, right?

Tanner:Buildings.

Tanner:Yes, I've been in them.

Jorge:There.

Josh:Yeah.

Mike:decently well yeah like six six or seven yeah

Noah:I've heard of them.

Josh:Can you imagine them, like, very tall?

Noah:What, like four or five stories?

Tanner:Yeah, five, six stories for sure.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:So the place we're going to start with, Terminus, is a city on Syrin.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:There are more people in that city than there are in your entire sphere.

Noah:Okay.

Josh:I think last estimate is somewhere close to 16 billion, which is a big number, sure.

Noah:That sounds impossible.

Mike:The words.

Tanner:A lot of souls.

Josh:Less souls than you would think.

Josh:Like, more than on all things, but less than the number would imply.

Josh:Either way, the whole planet is covered in what you would be calling a dream.

Josh:They call it the Rhett.

Josh:They are extremely technologically advanced compared to your structure.

Josh:Like, you guys just figured out trains?

Josh:They've had trains for a while.

Josh:Um...

Josh:They've got firearms.

Josh:Oh, you know what the best reference is?

Josh:You know how Rampart had all of the bones in his body replaced with metal?

Jorge:Damn.

Noah:Hmm.

Josh:Imagine everybody on the entire planet had some percentage of their body replaced with machinery.

Josh:Um...

Tanner:And the Feep came from here.

Mike:Oh.

Josh:That's just the general standard to the point that they do some of those changes in the womb.

Josh:It is expected that somebody will have what they call chrome throughout their body.

Josh:The feet came from there.

Josh:So what I currently have being constructed is...

Josh:We need to get to where the Thiep was.

Josh:We need some kind of information on who they were as a person.

Josh:And we don't have a lot to go on, so to speak, because a lot of it has just been ripped out of existence by virtue of the fact that they're holding onto that echo fragment.

Josh:But it's not perfect.

Josh:Because even if direct pieces of their life were removed, pieces three times removed might not be considered part of their life and would give us an in.

Josh:So we need to find out information about them.

Josh:And the way to do that is to get there and find...

Josh:People who were, we know that they were powerful because there is some minimum amount of inherent magical ability you need or general resilience in order to obtain the Echo in the first place.

Josh:If you're not strong enough, it'll just burn you up.

Josh:So we need evidence of somebody who is particularly powerful, even for the level of power on Syrin.

Josh:Yes.

Tanner:Is that necessarily divine in nature?

Josh:No.

Josh:It doesn't even need to necessarily be directly...

Josh:spell castery in nature in that if you're strong enough you're being bolstered by the weave even if you're not actually casting a spell for instance you have part of the weave in you even if you're not casting spells when you go and you heal somebody and you take 10 minutes and you can completely heal an internal organ rupture a lot of it is because you're a very good doctor but a lot of it is also because you're performing a magical feat

Josh:Sorry, I've been assassinated.

Josh:Not to take away from the feat itself.

Tanner:I'm not sure that that's true but carry on.

Josh:The only reason you can perform magic in that way is because you are as skilled as you are.

Jorge:Oh.

Jorge:That is why I have such good impersonations.

Josh:Actually, yes.

Josh:Legitimately, you are channeling some amount of magic when you impersonate somebody.

Noah:Okay.

Josh:And you have a voice in your head that gives you tips on how to better impersonate people.

Josh:But that's neither here nor there.

Josh:Regardless, we need to fight.

Jorge:What?

Jorge:Is he talking about Mir?

Josh:He's talking about Mir.

Josh:We need to find somebody who is particularly powerful, who was influential in some way, because they need to have been able to discover the echo fragment as it passed through their system, which you're not finding it by random chance.

Josh:You need a concerted effort.

Josh:And they also obtained it without other people taking it from them.

Josh:Which lends not actual power, but more of a soft power.

Josh:I highly doubt that they were working alone.

Josh:So perhaps an organization that had lost a figurehead.

Josh:Sorry, figurehead's the wrong term, but you know what I meant.

Josh:A leader of some kind.

Josh:Um...

Tanner:Someone must have had it previous.

Tanner:Did you say that already?

Josh:Yes.

Josh:I had not said it yes, but that was the third piece.

Josh:They need to have taken it from someone.

Josh:The echo fragment doesn't just exist.

Josh:It needs to be embodied in some form.

Jorge:And you want to take it after this, right?

Jorge:I'm going to be honest.

Josh:Yeah, I feel like I've been open with that.

Josh:That is the eventual goal.

Noah:No, F you.

Jorge:Oh, go ahead.

Jorge:I was going to say, after seeing all this cool shit, I trust you.

Jorge:I don't know if that's a bad idea, but it seems you could do all of this shit.

Jorge:Why the fuck were you with us?

Jorge:You know, I, yeah.

Josh:I had a hole in my chest that prevented me from casting magic.

Noah:Yeah.

Tanner:and we were his only chance of survival.

Josh:You were one of eight groups I hired.

Josh:So two of the eight, well, three of the eight, including you, aren't dead.

Noah:Oh.

Noah:Did that one survive?

Noah:Did they make it?

Mike:Yeah, where are they?

Josh:But two of them didn't make it to URS in the first place.

Noah:Oh.

Jorge:Were they mythic ranked?

Mike:We never cross paths with it.

Josh:Sorry?

Jorge:Were they mythic ranked?

Josh:What?

Jorge:Yeah, you know, like in our guild.

Jorge:Were they in the guild?

Josh:Oh, Mithril ranked.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:I did hire one other group out of the guild that was at the time ranked higher than you.

Josh:They managed to make it into Oresk.

Josh:I think they're all Vampire Thralls now.

Tanner:That's tough.

Tanner:Yeah, that'll happen.

Mike:so funny.

Josh:Yeah, I...

Mike:We never ran into any group of people that seemed to have parallel objectives.

Mike:It's like skiing and getting to the bottom of the hill and someone runs over the gold medal like, you won the race.

Mike:And they're like, I didn't see anyone else on the fucking hill.

Josh:So, like, peeling back the curtain a little bit, there were many opportunities that you guys could have run into other teams, and you just didn't, for one reason or another.

Josh:Which is... No.

Mike:The best.

Jorge:Do we have found one in the Mushroom City?

Tanner:That's so awesome.

Jorge:Would they have tried to destroy it?

Josh:Why would... Yeah, they were all hired to try and get into Orisk and recover the gun.

Jorge:Oh, they were all focused.

Jorge:They were actually focused.

Josh:You were the only group that said, okay, and then went to the other side of the continent.

Tanner:See, that was their mistake.

Tanner:They had too directive a plan.

Noah:Just.

Mike:They weren't bombing a nightclub?

Josh:I guess.

Josh:But no, so there were... When you were in Brevassing, like in the Leviathan, there were two other groups in there with you.

Josh:And you just didn't run into either of them.

Jorge:Why, they weren't at the club for a month?

Josh:Because... Yes.

Josh:They were both there at the start of the club thing, and then they weren't there at the end of the month of the club thing.

Josh:They had both already moved on.

Noah:Oh, Dave.

Jorge:And was one of those Damien?

Mike:Right.

Jorge:I'm kidding.

Jorge:Were one of the vampire thralls now?

Josh:Yeah, one of the two groups that made it through are Vampire Thrones now.

Josh:The other one, the other group did get what's the term?

Josh:Cranially extracted.

Josh:But it happens.

Jorge:Why was bromide sending everyone there?

Mike:Divex is...

Jorge:Oh.

Mike:divex is still laughing just like so so when you're sitting in your office or wherever and you get a beam into your head that a dossier has been released on the only group that has made it mildly far you're like fuck god damn it

Josh:No, actually, if anything, I thought that was a point in your favor.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:You were raising alarm bells, which meant that you were then motivated to finish the mission.

Josh:Because it was too late for you to back out at that point.

Mike:Oh, so you predicted I was going directly to Serengrad?

Josh:I did not predict you going immediately to Sarengrant.

Josh:I'm not sad that it happened.

Tanner:Thank you.

Mike:Oh, okay.

Mike:Well, you know, we like to force people to expect the unexpected and then do something even different than that.

Mike:So if you had predicted we went directly to Serengrad after that, that would have been very good for you because others did not.

Josh:No, I... So... No, you didn't.

Jorge:Did we tell you how we tricked them with the teleporter?

Josh:I think Sauron would have told me.

Jorge:So there's a teleporter.

Josh:I don't know if you told Sauron.

Jorge:Oh.

Jorge:We didn't tell SeRaan.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:I just explained the teleporter thing.

Noah:you you

Josh:Yeah, absolutely.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:Yeah, it's crazy, right?

Josh:That is... If it works.

Jorge:All right.

Josh:I cannot complain.

Jorge:All right.

Mike:I guess also on the subject of other participants, so there's this whole stock of people here.

Mike:Why don't you bring some of those people to Althane to do stuff?

Josh:It is dangerous to bring a relatively large contingent of people from a different local weave, especially these people, into Althane.

Mike:Or why aren't we bringing any of them with us to Syrin?

Tanner:you

Josh:Namely, everybody here except for you, including me, is made out of antimatter.

Josh:And without a series of magical charms that we all have placed on our person at all times, any contact with any of the matter outside of your sphere would instantaneously destroy us and whatever we make contact with in a relatively large explosion.

Noah:Okay.

Jorge:Wait, so you guys are all made of antimatter, but we're not?

Josh:Correct.

Josh:You're made out of what we call phlogiston, which is the dominant shape of matter in the world, but it's not what was present in our sphere.

Jorge:Why are you guys... What are you guys made out of?

Josh:Because the higher kinds that made us thought it would be funny, I think, is the long form.

Mike:Huh.

Jorge:Wait, what are you...

Jorge:Do you just call it anti-math or is it something else?

Josh:Vitae.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:But just matter is fine.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:But in a larger system, even if we were made out of the same stuff you were made out of and didn't need the magic to explode, because you will know you are currently standing.

Josh:on what you'd consider antimatter.

Josh:You are protected.

Josh:You're fine.

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:But even if we were all made out of the same stuff, if you bring enough people from one kind of weave into another weave, eventually it will cause the origin weave from the invading group to form on top of the existing weave, which could cause both of them to unravel, which is bad for a lot of reasons.

Jorge:Is that what you said?

Tanner:How did the Sundom deal with things like that?

Tanner:Right, I mean,

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:The Sundom dealt with that.

Josh:There is what they called a tuning ritual, where you could forcibly adjust a weave into a kind of neutral state.

Josh:It is expensive and difficult, and we don't have the know-how to do that.

Josh:We'd have to try and plunder one of the old Sundom worlds to figure it out.

Josh:But you could, in theory, match up the wavelengths of one planet with another.

Josh:They had a weave standard that anybody who joined the Sundom would subject their sphere to it, and then everybody could co-mingle without issue.

Tanner:Fascinating.

Josh:Um, but you, you can't really do it without either the agreement or restraining of the people on the weave.

Josh:And so it's not like I can just go and discreetly do that to all things.

Jorge:I wonder if that's what happened with Allsane.

Josh:Um, uh, no, we're not allowed to talk to Orbits-Upon-Light.

Jorge:We talked about that in the memory we talked about.

Jorge:Hey, do you guys have a broadcast thing that we can hook up our cave to to get their memories back?

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:Kaathe Homeworld.

Josh:They don't like us.

Josh:Or anyone.

Josh:Not for any particular reason.

Josh:It's just after the fourth sun fell, they kind of withdrew.

Josh:If you want them to get backups, we'd have to go to Orbits-Upon-Light, and I could not just teleport in there like I could Althane or Syrin.

Mike:Oh yeah, how do we get back here?

Josh:Uh...

Josh:With me, we can teleport.

Josh:Without me, there's a spell you could learn to do it.

Mike:Which is?

Josh:Teleport.

Mike:Okay.

Noah:Check.

Josh:When you cast Teleport at 10th level, it lets you go anywhere in the Astra.

Mike:Fair enough.

Noah:I guess this is a more serious question.

Noah:Why do you want, you know, I feel like now that we're going to know each other, why do you want the fragment of nothing so badly?

Josh:Oh, the echo fragment?

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:It is... Why don't you tell me?

Jorge:I think I know.

Noah:I have ideas.

Josh:What do you think I want to... Kind of.

Jorge:Hey, you know that annoying man that showed up and gave everyone a folder on us?

Jorge:Maybe you can't do that if you have that fragment.

Josh:That's actually not bad.

Josh:Yeah, it's narrative related.

Josh:I've been in a kerfuffle or two with them.

Josh:I don't know if tech would say kerfuffle.

Josh:We'll say that he's picked it up in his travels.

Tanner:Mike says some stupid shit.

Mike:I just...

Josh:That is true.

Josh:I've been in a Krabby Patty with them once or twice.

Noah:are they are they like are they a fundamental force or are they just five fuckos who got way too much power and decided they wanted to control things

Josh:We're not on the best terms.

Josh:They don't like...

Josh:me or Sedecium as a whole for the same reason they don't like the Thessians.

Josh:It kind of breaks the balance of their story.

Josh:But we're an easier target than the Thessians are right now.

Josh:I mean, they are five fuckos who are a fundamental force.

Josh:They are... They exist... You guys are familiar with... I don't know, what do you call it?

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:The wick?

Tanner:Mm hmm.

Josh:They exist as a side effect of the wick existing, effectively.

Tanner:Mm hmm.

Josh:Um...

Josh:So long as that does, they do.

Josh:And since the wick is just a representation of different states of being, so long as the universe exists, they do.

Josh:You're not going to be able to kill them.

Josh:If that was the eventual question, you have to live with them.

Noah:I didn't know if they were like just five dudes who got too much power or if they were like a manifestation of the stars or something.

Josh:Closer to the second one.

Josh:They aren't omniscient.

Josh:I do want to make that clear.

Josh:They do not have 100% control over everything.

Josh:And they do plenty of infighting.

Josh:So it's not like you absolutely must listen to them no matter what, and they'll know whatever you're doing, which is why I can even do the whole hunt for the Echo Fragment.

Josh:They know I'm hunting for the Echo Fragment.

Josh:They are just limited in how they can respond.

Josh:So they do other things to try and bend the story one way or another to make it more difficult.

Tanner:Now, if they don't like the Thessians, and you're going around trying to reduce the number of Thessians, that there's not some kind of tenuous relationship that exists?

Josh:Uh...

Josh:They like that we're trying to get rid of the Thessians.

Josh:They don't like that in doing so, we are becoming as powerful as Thessians.

Tanner:Hmm.

Josh:In that, that's replacing one evil with another for them.

Josh:They want a particular ceiling on the balance, and Thessians and Sedecium and a handful of other groups.

Josh:Break that.

Josh:Which they're not a huge fan of.

Josh:It's why they leave the golden needles around.

Josh:Because the general path they like to take is the hero's story.

Josh:A group finds the needle, becomes powerful enough to slay some evil god, usually a Thessian, and then that's it.

Josh:There's a cap on their power, they use the needle, the needle's gone, they're done.

Josh:They don't like it when you keep building on that.

Tanner:Like you have.

Jorge:Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:Yes, we do.

Tanner:Because you did your needle thing.

Josh:We did our needle thing three times and we found at least one more.

Josh:I don't know if I'm counting yours in that, but it will get harder over time because they don't want us doing that.

Josh:And so we need to find other avenues and they would prefer we just kind of keel over and pass the torch on to someone else.

Josh:And I'm not doing that.

Jorge:Have any of you guys been able to ascend yet?

Jorge:Besides the cow guy?

Josh:Have any of us been able to ascend other than the one who has ascended?

Josh:Oh, like... Well, I mean... No, in that, like, without being bound to a particular sphere?

Jorge:No, I know, but that guy seems like he's not able to walk around like this.

Jorge:I don't see him walking around.

Noah:Yeah, we'll come back.

Josh:No, but we haven't tried to do that.

Josh:There are a bunch of drawbacks to ascending, including, like, what... Thessians have drawbacks when they ascended.

Josh:It's not free.

Jorge:Why not try the hero's approach?

Jorge:You know?

Josh:consuming well because the Harrow is at this point I think barely conscious conscious it's just a bundle of want for lack of a better term it it seeks power and will do whatever it can to increase the amount of power there which isn't particularly useful

Jorge:Oh.

Tanner:Thank you.

Jorge:That's fair.

Jorge:All right.

Jorge:So oh, when we're all done with this, is there any way you could get this and then I point at the piece of Nox off of me?

Jorge:Or is this kind of just?

Jorge:on me forever.

Josh:The last time I knew somebody who made a deal with a Thessian and was marked as part of that deal, it took killing the Thessian to get out of the deal.

Jorge:Because if you can't do it, I keep joking, someone's got to kill me.

Jorge:Okay.

Tanner:Well, I mean, we could... Well, I also, I could try to do surgery on your soul.

Jorge:Yeah, you guys can just kill me after this then.

Jorge:Alright.

Jorge:It's not worth the needle in the grand scheme of things.

Noah:What's a flump?

Jorge:Alright.

Tanner:I don't know what that is.

Josh:Like a fluff.

Tanner:Oh, I don't think you can do surgery on a grape.

Josh:Sorry.

Josh:It's like a grape.

Josh:Ignore me.

Josh:You can if you're good at medicine.

Tanner:And I'm a good surgeon.

Josh:Why have I just made the connection now that you have played people who hit things that have high medicine in two campaigns?

Josh:I don't know how I missed that.

Josh:That's fine.

Josh:That's fair.

Noah:Dr. Tanner.

Josh:Dr. Tanner.

Mike:Oh, he's gonna die.

Mike:Um... So, yeah, I guess this institution is to kill Thessians.

Jorge:No, he didn't say Stassians.

Mike:I mean, I guess I didn't see, like, whatever, higher... Yeah.

Josh:Yeah.

Jorge:I think they kill other things, too.

Jorge:Like, I saw that record on there.

Josh:True.

Josh:More generally, we defend what was at one time the sphere that we came from.

Josh:There are like two or three other spheres that are included in that now, but generally mortal beings that don't want to be stepped on by big stuff.

Mike:So, I mean, I didn't see, like, I don't know, brutish warriors walking the courtyard.

Mike:So, I mean, is this like, I don't know, I guess it's a very magic-heavy institution by its construction, but what else gets sort of done here?

Mike:I mean, are warriors being trained?

Mike:Is advanced magic-killing research being done?

Josh:Nothing.

Josh:So research of all kinds is being done.

Josh:We had, up until very recently, access to almost every book in existence, which was really helping with that.

Josh:We no longer have access to that, so we're making do with normally just going out and pulling information wherever we can grab it from different spheres.

Josh:We do have warriors that are training, not in this particular building, but elsewhere in the complex, if you wanted to see that.

Jorge:Yes.

Josh:are near enough.

Tanner:Thank you.

Noah:Hmm.

Mike:You had access to every book in the universe?

Mike:Uh... Some powerful... Oh...

Josh:Not in a particularly searchable, unfortunately not in a particularly searchable format, which would have helped.

Josh:But it was there.

Josh:You've been in its carcass.

Josh:That was a Thessian.

Josh:It is not really a Thessian anymore.

Josh:I've been carrying them around.

Josh:Out of the Thessians, they were one of the good ones.

Josh:They're the one that I'm borrowing the whole book thing from.

Noah:the dead library terrifying

Josh:I'm carrying them around.

Jorge:What do you mean you're carrying them around?

Jorge:Their consciousness?

Josh:No, their body.

Josh:Yeah.

Jorge:How?

Josh:It's tethered to me.

Jorge:Okay.

Mike:And the Harrow killed it.

Josh:I didn't want the harrow to take its full portfolio.

Jorge:Can you revive it?

Josh:I happened to be present when it was killed.

Josh:That's how we know about the harrow.

Josh:So I yoinked some of it.

Noah:So.

Josh:In theory, I think, but I haven't really had the time to put into doing that.

Mike:The Harrow get the books then?

Josh:I've been preoccupied with the echo fragment.

Jorge:It's fair.

Mike:Or are the books lost forever?

Mike:Oof.

Josh:So the Harrow got the part of the portfolio that was knowledge.

Josh:So if we wanted that back, we would have to figure out a way to take it back from the Harrow.

Josh:But the best way to do that would be the... It's circular.

Josh:No.

Mike:Yeah.

Noah:If you take the nothing fragment, are you a little worried about becoming all evil too, like the people?

Jorge:What does this really wise wizard think?

Josh:I think the Feep is like that because the Feep was already like that.

Noah:Oh, so if you're not terrible and you take the nothing fragment, then you just kind of vibe?

Josh:We'll see.

Mike:And the hero is similar.

Noah:We'll see.

Noah:That's crazy.

Noah:That's a crazy approach.

Josh:Sorry, you spoke over each other.

Josh:And it'll work, so it doesn't really matter if it's crazy or not.

Jorge:What does the wise wizard friend that helped you build this place think of the Echo Fragment?

Josh:I never actually told Zugg I was going for it.

Josh:I imagine he'd be in favor of it.

Jorge:Well, maybe we should tell him.

Josh:No.

Josh:He'd want to get involved.

Josh:That usually doesn't work out well for the other party.

Josh:And I am fairly confident that you guys are fond of Althane.

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:The last time I involved him in a mission to recover something, I had to deal with...

Jorge:Yeah, well...

Josh:close to 100,000 clones of Zugg that had formed their own country and rebelled and kind of just took over the majority of the continent we ended up on.

Josh:So he's really more of a... He's off building, I think, version 2 of this citadel somewhere else.

Josh:He's really more of a method of last resort, so to speak.

Jorge:OK.

Tanner:He sounds like a paranoid guy.

Josh:That's accurate.

Josh:Powerful, paranoid.

Josh:Very smart, though.

Josh:Knows more... I mean, I could see if I could arrange at some point unrelated to this if you guys wanted to meet him, because I imagine you'd have stuff that's at least useful for Divex, Wizard Boy.

Tanner:Well, I don't want him destroying all Thane, so...

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:No, I...

Jorge:I don't really care about that thing.

Tanner:That's a crazy thing to say.

Mike:Okay, well, the other three hopefully do.

Jorge:I'm kidding.

Jorge:I love old fame.

Jorge:Oh, my God.

Noah:Bye.

Jorge:You guys don't know humor anymore.

Mike:You said we had to... For me, that's technically true, yeah.

Jorge:You leave the weave and you leave all your humor behind.

Jorge:Okay.

Jorge:Cool, cool, cool.

Josh:Yeah, um... So if you guys need to rest, you can.

Josh:I can get you rooms.

Josh:I don't know if you had anything else you wanted to ask while you had me, but... Hmm...

Jorge:Yeah, I love that.

Tanner:If we go through with all this and it all works the way we want it to, what happens to Althane?

Tanner:Do we fall under your umbrella now?

Tanner:Like you said, you've got three spheres under your group.

Josh:No, I mean, you guys are competent.

Josh:You are not speak unilaterally for your entire sphere competent.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:You personally are all welcome to stick around in Sedecium if you like.

Josh:We can talk about...

Josh:Making contact more formally, but I mean, I've seen your local governments.

Josh:I don't know if they'd be particularly inclined to work together on a global Scale.

Tanner:Well, some of them don't really understand.

Mike:And what in...

Jorge:I think what would be best, if we wanted to go down that route, is to break into the 13th realm and reset everyone's memories to the original Sundom.

Tanner:You want to bring them back.

Josh:You want to bring back the Sundom?

Josh:Wouldn't that mean your death?

Jorge:Well, so here's my thoughts.

Jorge:Here's my thoughts.

Jorge:The Sundom, from what I understand, is destroyed.

Josh:Correct.

Jorge:You bring these people back, you go, hey, I know, it's really sad.

Jorge:Mission failed miserably.

Jorge:Your next best shot is Odysseum.

Tanner:But do we need to bring back the Sundom to do that?

Tanner:Can't we just do that with the people of Althane?

Jorge:There's no way we're going to unite the people of Althane.

Jorge:And there's too much corruption.

Josh:If you reset everybody on Althane back to the memories they had in the Sundom, you would effectively be killing off everybody in Althane.

Jorge:i think i think it'd be worth considering where i'm doing these cycles the reason i also for this is frankly

Josh:I mean, you'd also get back as many people from the Sundom, but you are effectively killing them.

Mike:I mean, we could wait for a cycle reset so that we're not the one pulling the lever for the trolley, but...

Noah:I don't know, but I don't really want to reset the cycle.

Tanner:I am...

Josh:That's a... I mean...

Noah:I mean, we...

Jorge:I mean, you need this on them.

Jorge:There's some stuff they understood that you don't.

Jorge:For example, stitching weaves together.

Jorge:And I feel like, personally, whoever I was before this, I probably wasn't a vampire.

Josh:You definitely weren't the vampire.

Jorge:Probably wanted to help the world.

Jorge:And I'm for it.

Josh:Listen, this is not a decision you guys need to make now or ever, to be honest.

Noah:No, but that's also terrible because it cycles.

Josh:Like, more locally, once I get the echo fragment, nothing actually changes for all things.

Josh:The Feep, as you called it, is a new addition to the whole mix.

Josh:So in theory, everything continues on as it was before.

Tanner:That's not what we want and that's not why we agreed to help you.

Josh:Sure, there's more stuff you can do after that.

Josh:I'm just saying that the addition or removal of the Feep doesn't change anything.

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:If after that you want to go storm the 13th realm and stop the cycles, you can do it.

Josh:If after that you want to go and turn everybody back into the Sundom, you can do it.

Josh:If you want to go march on the actual deep and stab it, you can do that as well.

Josh:But frankly, you've got a lot of stuff open to you.

Josh:But just one way or another, I know that was a concern when we first met up.

Josh:what would happen if the fragment was taken away, and the answer is nothing.

Josh:I won't be sticking around.

Josh:Just to note, there are more important things to do.

Jorge:I understand.

Josh:No offense.

Jorge:So yeah, we're just going to rest up and head over to the 16 billion person city.

Mike:I would like to, I don't know, maybe the next day or two before we leave, peruse if there's a magic shop or magic armory, I guess, because everyone's a member.

Mike:Maybe flipping through some spell books, looking at scrolls, checking out some magic items.

Mike:I mean, I've never left home.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:I imagine that we'd have any magic you could want.

Josh:So if you wanted to spend a day or two, I'd like to get going sooner rather than later.

Josh:But if you want to spend a little bit of time looking around, you need to get... It'll take three days for your second condition, your doomed condition, to go down anyway as you re-acclimate.

Jorge:Cool.

Noah:Hang out for a few days.

Tanner:Is that going to happen when we go to Syrin as well?

Josh:No, it's a one-time thing.

Josh:The sickness is from being detached from your native weave.

Josh:It's not from being introduced to a new one.

Jorge:I will take... Hey, Don, can you make me a sword out of this or a calcum?

Noah:Yeah, probably.

Jorge:Cool.

Noah:Hey, you want me to do an oral conference for you?

Jorge:Yes, that would be great.

Noah:We'll do.

Josh:Why do you want an Auric Calcum Sword?

Jorge:Gives me an extra rune, right?

Josh:Oh, because you could just get an extra rune.

Josh:That's fair.

Jorge:Yeah, I was thinking about the Animantime one, but I think it's actually just more beneficial to just get another rune.

Josh:Nice.

Noah:I think you hand me the War Calcum and I go, hey, watch this.

Noah:It's a sword.

Josh:What'd you get on your crafting?

Noah:Oh, I got a 63 crit.

Josh:Yeah, no, absolutely.

Tanner:63.

Josh:Yeah, I say you only spend half a day doing that.

Josh:You don't even need the full day to finish crafting it up.

Mike:What do you mean the host?

Noah:Lev, do you want...

Josh:What?

Mike:It seems even the host smiles upon competence this time.

Josh:What are you talking about?

Josh:I don't know what you're talking... I don't know!

Mike:What does that mean, Josh?

Mike:What does that dice roll message mean?

Josh:I don't know what you're talking about!

Josh:I don't even know what you're referring to!

Josh:It's not my fault you guys don't read dice messages.

Noah:Here you go, love.

Tanner:He just read it.

Jorge:Thank you.

Mike:Hey, I just did.

Josh:Okay, so yeah, so you guys have free reign of Elysium, this citadel, for the next few days, if you like.

Josh:What Tech said is correct.

Josh:They have magic scrolls for...

Josh:every spell that you could want.

Josh:Pick your favorite spell.

Josh:You can add it to your spell book if you like for, we'll say, an eighth of the normal cost.

Jorge:Well, I'm going to buy some scrolls.

Josh:Okay, scrolls are not cheaper.

Josh:It's adding it to the spell book is an eighth of the normal cost.

Jorge:Damn it.

Jorge:Okay, that's fair.

Josh:But you can get scrolls of anything that you want, like including uncommon or rare.

Jorge:Okay.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:In addition, if you want access to a ritual, you can get access to rituals that you care about here.

Jorge:What about materials and runes and stuff?

Josh:It depends on the materials and the routes.

Josh:In that rare, I'm not going to say yes automatically, but uncommon and below, absolutely.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:We'll give you a 20% discount over whatever the listed MSRP is.

Jorge:What about Vorpal as a rune?

Josh:Vorpal isn't a route, is it?

Jorge:Yeah.

Noah:Yeah, it's ruined now, I think.

Josh:Is it?

Jorge:But it's a DC 37, so they could fail.

Jorge:They could pass it pretty easily.

Josh:Vorpal... Vorpal is a rune.

Josh:Let's see.

Josh:You trigger natural color.

Jorge:Honestly, I don't even know if it's good.

Jorge:47's kind of...

Josh:It's 37.

Josh:I mean, it's up to you.

Jorge:Yeah, 37 is kind of low.

Jorge:I think a lot of things... Hell yeah.

Josh:Yes, I will allow the Vorpal rune if you like.

Josh:That's fine.

Mike:So I can use it for one spell?

Mike:I can get one eighth the cost?

Mike:Or...

Josh:Every spell you copy is an eighth of the cost.

Josh:Oh, also, you guys level up.

Noah:No one died.

Tanner:Car cop died.

Josh:That does happen.

Josh:You successfully made your way through RC3.

Josh:You hit that milestone.

Noah:No one in the party died.

Jorge:Well, none of us died.

Josh:Yeah, no, quite a few people died.

Noah:Yeah, that was...

Josh:Correct.

Josh:It did come close a little bit there.

Josh:I think if not for some very clutch healing and delaying of consequences, at least one of you would have gone down.

Josh:And Kharkov is the kind of person who will follow up downing somebody with a 3-tap.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:So...

Tanner:Ooh, I can crit on a 19.

Jorge:Yeah, yeah.

Jorge:There was...

Jorge:There was a moment there that I was just like, maybe we're the bad guys.

Jorge:And then I was like, no.

Josh:Canonically, Kharkov is good aligned.

Jorge:Perkup sucks.

Jorge:In his head.

Josh:Yes!

Josh:That's how the alignment works.

Josh:He was doing what he was doing truly for the greater good.

Noah:Okay.

Josh:I don't understand.

Tanner:Josh, the way you twist morals makes me sick.

Josh:I'm not twisting morals.

Josh:He has a different moral reference frame than you guys.

Josh:He did the calculations.

Josh:He's a utilitarian.

Tanner:so many people okay we cannot use levmir as the example because

Josh:Yeah, but it's better than everyone.

Josh:Listen, that's against... Somebody in this party just suggested killing 100% of the people in all things.

Noah:I'm sorry.

Josh:So, like, I feel like Kharkov isn't the automatic wrongdoer here.

Josh:Well, I mean, it's fine.

Josh:Lev has his own morals.

Josh:What is Lev?

Josh:I know alignment's hard to think.

Josh:What would you give Lev for alignment?

Tanner:He's not going to say it.

Jorge:I think he's definitely just some chaotic... He tries to be good, but I cannot say he's chaotic good.

Jorge:I feel like that's just... Yeah, but the thing is, I feel like I've played chaotic neutrals that after playing Lev, I'm like, they were never chaotic neutrals.

Josh:You think he's chaotic control?

Jorge:They were definitely good people.

Josh:I mean, I don't think he's evil by any stretch.

Jorge:Lev, I think, is actually crazy, and he tries to be good, but he's like, I'm a bad person, so I'll do the bad things to be good.

Noah:That's it.

Jorge:Oh, no, I don't think so either.

Josh:So, that's fair.

Jorge:Yeah, I unfortunately don't even know what my 18th level in Thalma Church should be.

Josh:What is the impossible word?

Josh:Immune to spell magic.

Josh:Oh, you could just teleport somewhere and then you teleport back.

Josh:That's fun.

Jorge:I might just take a 14th level one, which is Trespass Teleportation.

Jorge:that if someone might use teleportation magic near me, I could go and teleport that same direction and distance.

Josh:And just follow them.

Josh:So if they try to leave because you keep hitting them when they cast spells, you can just go with them to continue that.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:That's very rude.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Oh, I will also note as you're going through this something.

Josh:As I was getting the implement and all of that stuff working, I did find out your attack of opportunity that you can do twice is worse than regular attack of opportunity because you can only do it on somebody you've exploit vulnerability.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:But it's better than attack of opportunity because it also triggers if they take a concentrate action.

Tanner:Fascinating.

Noah:Bye.

Josh:Which is crazy.

Jorge:Oh.

Josh:Anything with the Concentrate trait, which is so many things.

Jorge:Oh.

Josh:So just keep that in mind.

Josh:It's not just if they move or if they take a Manipulate, it's also if they take a Concentrate, which is a lot of spells.

Jorge:Up, up, up.

Jorge:Very cool, very cool.

Josh:So you get your reaction on a spell cast.

Josh:I mean, we've been, for the most part, like spells also have the manipulate, but there are some that don't.

Josh:So just keep that in mind.

Jorge:Or I could get the anchoring rune.

Jorge:Which if I... It tries to lock them in place.

Jorge:Also DC 37.

Josh:Sure.

Josh:Stop making my enemies not do stuff.

Jorge:Any chance I can get a 19th level rune?

Josh:You guys, regardless of level, you need the money for it, but you can get whatever you like here.

Jorge:Oh.

Jorge:Alright.

Josh:Sedecium is not going to limit you specifically to 18th level stuff.

Josh:If you see an item that you like, I will say, no Apex items.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:because nothing that raises your stats, you know?

Josh:20%.

Jorge:Yeah, that's fair.

Jorge:Cool, cool, cool.

Jorge:Is it full cost for everything, or is there any discounts?

Jorge:10%?

Josh:20% of whatever the endotherapy is.

Jorge:Do you mind if I send you this after we sell this?

Josh:Yeah, we definitely don't need to do this now.

Jorge:Cool, cool, cool.

Mike:There's some really great spells.

Mike:The one eighth cost for learning spells, there are some very fun ones.

Mike:And also considering I have scroll savant, which gives me four scrolls every day.

Mike:But it can only be two levels below the top spell.

Mike:So I have four seventh levels.

Mike:And I just got a bunch of all day effects that will probably take up all of the scrolls.

Josh:Oh.

Josh:Nice.

Josh:Just constant buffs from spells.

Josh:Easy peasy.

Mike:Yeah.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:So is there anything specific you guys wanted to do here?

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:Or can we hand wave the looking through items and picking those out and then just do those between sessions?

Jorge:Yeah.

Mike:That's probably fine, yeah.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:Sure.

Josh:Alright, so you guys rest up.

Josh:You get rid of your weave sickness.

Josh:You are now fully intersphere.

Josh:I don't like that word, but that's what we'll go with.

Josh:Intersphere travelers.

Josh:Ready to continue on the next leg of your journey.

Josh:If you so like.

Josh:So a few days later, tech will catch you guys.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:You will have at this point kind of gotten your bearings of this particular branch of Elysium.

Josh:And he'll say, okay, so I mean, you like the layout of what we're looking for to try and find out who this people was before they were the Feep.

Josh:Obviously, that like that we're not going to be able to just look through a bunch of newspapers and figure out who they were off of that.

Josh:I have a contact, because I've been to Terminus, to Syrin before.

Josh:I have a contact there that I'm planning on meeting with and seeing if they can grab us some information.

Josh:That's what has been crafting a bribe, so to speak, for him.

Josh:Which I'm hoping gives us a lead.

Josh:But, you know,

Josh:I think I'm going to want you guys to try and pursue alternate avenues of investigation.

Josh:My hands will be tied working with this guy, so I won't be able to be checking elsewhere.

Josh:They need to have been at least, at a minimum, slightly famous before they went, so they will have left traces around the city.

Josh:I will need you guys to, or I'd like you guys to just go around and...

Josh:try and suss out everything you can.

Josh:I will have Sauron, you will have Schism, so we will be able to contact each other if we find any information.

Josh:You're all very strong, or abnormally strong, I suppose, in terms of the bell curve of mortal ability.

Josh:In that, when we get to Terminus, the average Syrin...

Josh:is many, many orders of magnitude stronger than the average Ulthanian, whatever your eponym is, you are stronger than the average Syrin by any stretch of the imagination.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:Also, fun thing, Terminus doesn't have a guard, a police force.

Josh:So, you know...

Josh:Like, don't go around killing people, but I'm not going to cry about it if somebody tries to mug you and they can no longer mug people.

Josh:Most of the people who are in Terminus that I've interacted with have not been good people, so I'm not particularly worried about it.

Jorge:He looks at Lev.

Josh:That's not, you know, not to say about Terminus or Syrin as a whole.

Josh:Yeah, don't just go around killing people.

Jorge:Not to say you need to kill them all, but

Josh:Most people are...

Josh:Totally fine.

Josh:But I will say I have been in Terminus on three separate occasions, and each of those occasions I have had a separate gang try and hold me up and take my stuff.

Josh:So, you know, keep Anaïs out, I guess.

Mike:Well.

Jorge:I don't know.

Josh:So I...

Josh:I figure we can do better introductions once we get into the city proper, if you like.

Josh:Is there anything else you wanted to do before we teleport over?

Josh:All right.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:And once again, very, very soft shifting of your center of gravity, like you're on a ship that just kind of tilted ever so slightly and then ever so slightly back.

Josh:And you are now in a grimy, trashed...

Josh:hotel room by the looks of it.

Josh:There's a bed, no sheets.

Josh:The mattress looks stained and ripped up in places.

Josh:There are no windows.

Josh:It looks like there is a toilet.

Josh:and a shower in one combined unit next to the bed.

Josh:Like just kind of a half, not fully attached curtain separating the area.

Josh:There is no separate bathroom.

Josh:It's just kind of mashed into one very small space.

Josh:There is what looks to be a bit of the wall that pulls down that you gather would be a desk of some kind.

Josh:And in front of the foot of the bed, the whole room being maybe 80 square feet.

Josh:So you've all been dropped on top of the bed together because there isn't really standing room here is a door that goes outwards.

Josh:It is gross in here.

Josh:And tech will you notice is levitating about a few inches off of the mattress, not wanting to touch it.

Josh:We'll say.

Josh:OK, so this is a safe area.

Josh:This is shut up and sleep.

Josh:It's a motel chain in the lower parts of Terminus.

Josh:No one will bother you here.

Josh:We can get another room, since this is a bit cramped for you guys.

Josh:Just don't freak out when you go outside.

Josh:If anything, he looks at Don.

Josh:You're going to fit in the most here because you've got, you know, the middle arm.

Josh:You'll look like you're going for a retro look.

Josh:The rest of you will stand out a little.

Jorge:Give me about, I don't know, 24 seconds.

Jorge:We'll all look good once we get there.

Josh:He will make a motion and a...

Josh:What, like a black square on the wall will flicker to life, it is a TV.

Josh:And it's the local news, which just gives you an impression of what the people here look like.

Jorge:Oh, cool.

Josh:Pieces of metal embedded in their face.

Josh:There are quite a few people like that show up on the television screen that have fully had their skin replaced.

Josh:um, either by some kind of metal or plastic plating, um, or something more synthetic, um, like fake fur.

Josh:Uh, there are, uh...

Josh:races that you're familiar with.

Josh:You can see it's not just humans, there are also elves and dwarves and gnomes and a few things that you aren't as familiar with.

Josh:There's something that looks like just a big tree on tank treads goes by in one shot.

Jorge:Co-dressers.

Josh:There's another one that looks like bottom half is humanoid, but the top half is a fish head.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:which is strange, but nobody seems to be giving them a second look, so you gather that that is relatively normal.

Josh:So you get an idea of what the people here look like.

Josh:Yeah, and he'll say, okay, so I... And he reaches into his pocket, and he takes out...

Josh:You guys would have seen one of these before, actually.

Josh:You found it in the lighthouse.

Josh:It is a spanner.

Josh:It is a tablet-looking thing.

Josh:He will take it out, and he makes a few motions on it and says, Okay, my contact, Mr. Blue Eyes, is going to meet up with me in a few minutes, so I'm going to head out.

Josh:I really want you to just explore, to be honest.

Josh:I don't have any particular direction for you to head in because I don't know.

Josh:I just think it would be useful to have at least, you know, some other eyes looking out.

Josh:So all you're looking for is...

Josh:Somebody who was famous, but people can't remember information about them anymore and kind of need to be reminded of their existence.

Josh:So you might need to steer them in the right direction.

Josh:You're looking for powerful people, heads of government organizations or corporations or something of that nature.

Josh:Somebody powerful, you know.

Jorge:Sounds good.

Josh:Don't die until you flick this banner away and he, in a flash of blue light, is gone.

Josh:And you are left just in this dingy motel room.

Jorge:I will take a round, whatever I do, to disguise myself as someone from here.

Jorge:I want my eyes to have some metal-y pattern around them, and then just all solid light blue.

Josh:Sure.

Jorge:And then my hands look robotic.

Jorge:Anyone else want this case?

Noah:I feel like I'm good.

Tanner:I guess probably I should try to fit in.

Mike:Yeah, can you make like... Yeah, can you like make half my face look like metal?

Josh:Are you like changing who you look like?

Josh:Or are you just making it look like you but with augmentations?

Jorge:Me with augmentations.

Josh:The latter.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:Cool.

Jorge:Share all separate ones, or?

Josh:You can just roll one big one for everybody.

Josh:That's fine.

Jorge:Cool.

Tanner:Okay.

Josh:Wow.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:That is wild.

Josh:Two crits in a row.

Josh:That's fine.

Mike:Actually, I'm a good cedar.

Noah:Go team.

Josh:No, I am not counting getting a 4 on a d4 as a crit.

Josh:I know it's listed as such, but... No.

Mike:It says great.

Josh:Yeah, so you very well disguise everybody looks like they aren't natives, except Don, who already has a metal arm.

Josh:So he's kind of sad.

Josh:Yeah.

Jorge:Yeah, so what are you guys going to do?

Mike:When you mentioned that we have to look out for someone and you're listing all the things, we're like, alright, is it Gustave Fromos, industry titan and mayor of the city who disappeared?

Mike:Is it this guy, or is it John Feep, head of Feep Industries, who disappeared in an expedition to find an echo fragment years ago?

Noah:It's got to be John Feep.

Josh:That's going to be it.

Noah:Head of Feebin'.

Mike:All right.

Mike:So, I don't know.

Mike:We want to head to someplace dingy, rumor-filled.

Mike:You guys want to head to a bar or a gambling place?

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:Yeah, let's go.

Jorge:One or the other.

Jorge:We'll chat.

Jorge:And I'm going to use discrete inquiry.

Jorge:I don't.

Jorge:I just chat around.

Josh:Yeah, absolutely.

Josh:So you guys leave the room that you're in, which brings you out into a similarly not well-kept hallway.

Josh:Trash strewn about, graffiti on the walls, what look to be needles just kind of piled up in a corner.

Josh:But there is, you know, a nice broken sign pointed down one way of the hallway towards, it just says exit.

Josh:So you can follow that.

Josh:You find that you are on the 163rd floor of a building.

Josh:The exit is labeled as the first floor.

Josh:You hit the button and very rapidly descend down to the bottom of this skyscraper.

Josh:Exiting out of it, you find yourself on the streets of Terminus, specifically Foghole, the district that you're currently in.

Josh:There are so many people just out.

Josh:It is, you gather, none of you have a feat that tells you exactly what time it is, do you?

Josh:Okay.

Mike:Let me see.

Josh:I... It looks like it's... Do you?

Jorge:you

Mike:You learn exactly what time it is down to the second.

Mike:It's a cantrip.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:Absolutely.

Josh:It is 8.14 p.m.

Josh:You would also know that there are 28-hour days here, so this is a little after sundown.

Josh:People are out.

Josh:You do not appear to be in a particular well-to-do part of the city.

Josh:The people here look generally worn down, not particularly well-fed, emaciated, perhaps worse, I think.

Josh:Even across spheres, Henrik would probably note that quite a few people here looked to be exhibiting symptoms of what you would attribute to drugs or drug withdrawal.

Josh:on Althane.

Josh:So that particular scourge has followed you here or was already here.

Josh:There are shops, there are like food carts sticking just plopped in the middle of the street that cars are driving around.

Josh:There are advertisements

Josh:everywhere.

Josh:There are signs on the side of the street that are advertising products that you're not even quite sure what they do.

Josh:Some kind of internal oiling for your cybernetics.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:There are advertisements for you've never heard of whatever an orange is, but juice of it.

Josh:There are advertisements for brothels.

Josh:A lot of advertisements for brothels, actually.

Josh:Advertisements for behavioral chips, if you want to improve your personality.

Josh:Or synthetic muscles, if you want to become stronger.

Josh:Job openings that do not describe what the job is, but they are all very insistent that you could get paid today.

Josh:Just all manner of stuff.

Josh:People...

Noah:you

Josh:There's a lot of people and there's a lot of movement, but it's not particularly directed.

Josh:There are cars that are whizzing by at like a hundred miles an hour that are not stopping for the people on the sides of the streets.

Josh:But the people in the streets don't look like they're going much of anywhere.

Josh:There are people loitering outside of what you can tell are bars and restaurants.

Josh:There are people that are loitering outside of what look to be alleys.

Josh:There are manhole covers.

Josh:It looks like there's steam just...

Josh:fully bursting out of one of them.

Josh:Nobody seems to be particularly minding.

Josh:There are cones around it.

Josh:A ton of people with which to try and ply and pull some amount of information out of.

Josh:If you were making your check, is that a society role?

Josh:What is that role?

Jorge:I can do it for... Sorry, let me pull it up.

Jorge:When gathering information.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:What is the feat that's giving you this?

Jorge:Which I think is a charisma roll.

Jorge:It is...

Josh:Actually, it's gather information.

Josh:It is a society check.

Jorge:Just, yeah, just, OK, discrete query.

Jorge:Gather information I thought was a diplomacy check.

Josh:Gather information is a society check.

Josh:Or it's up to the DM, and I'm making it a society check.

Jorge:Oh, do I have something that makes this?

Josh:I don't know if you have something that lets you turn it into diplomacy, but it's...

Jorge:Yeah, it's fine.

Jorge:I don't have it up right now, so I'll just do society.

Jorge:Society... 33.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:I mean...

Josh:Like, just getting any information, regardless of how well you roll, just by asking random people on the street, was never going to be, like, the most successful method of attack here.

Jorge:Mm-hmm.

Josh:Especially because you have the not particularly easy task of getting people to remember someone that has been erased from their memories en masse.

Josh:So, any hint?

Josh:would be useful.

Josh:With a 33, I think something... You're spending about half an hour going around trying to direct people to at the very least narrow down your search.

Josh:And as part of walking around, interacting with people, getting your bearings in what is obviously a very alien environment,

Jorge:Mm.

Josh:You actually get stopped by... There are two people who are walking by who look obviously...

Josh:more well-off than the general population around here.

Jorge:Mm.

Josh:Their clothes are cleaner and, like, pressed.

Josh:It looks like they have, instead of the normal implants that you're seeing, which are, for the most part, some kind of, like, steel or aluminum or plastic, they look to be gold.

Jorge:Okay.

Josh:One of them, they're both human.

Josh:One of them, female...

Josh:Hard to tell age here.

Josh:Maybe late 20s.

Josh:They both look very similar.

Josh:They're both of generally the same facial structure.

Josh:Kind of elven.

Josh:You'd think that they might have some kind of elven in there.

Jorge:Hmm.

Josh:Blonde hair.

Josh:One of them, it's a man and a woman.

Josh:The woman stops you and says, Oh, this is the best cosplay of the weft I have ever seen.

Josh:You guys look like you walked straight out of my TV.

Josh:You even have the facial expressions right.

Noah:Oh, thanks.

Josh:And this is wonderful.

Tanner:Oh, you're fans.

Josh:Can I take a snap?

Jorge:So glad to see you, fam.

Jorge:Would you like a photo?

Josh:Yes, absolutely.

Josh:And she, like, pulls down a hatch on her arm and a small drone flies out of it and moves about three feet away.

Josh:And she'll look at it and, like, motion for all of you to crowd around.

Josh:Like, say cheese.

Josh:and the drone will flash light and then pull back into her arm.

Josh:And she'll say, You are dressed like this for the cosplay competition, no?

Noah:Thank you.

Jorge:Discreet inquiry.

Josh:Today feels like a lucky day.

Josh:I am sure you will win.

Jorge:I'm going to try to figure out information about the left.

Jorge:Do they see aspect of imics on TV?

Josh:Absolutely.

Jorge:That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Josh:Yeah, so roll another, I'll let you do diplomacy now that you're actually in conversation with somebody, if you'd like to.

Jorge:Cool.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:I would.

Noah:Insane.

Jorge:I will re-roll.

Jorge:Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Jorge:I have something that just lets me reroll.

Jorge:I can just do that.

Josh:I mean, okay.

Jorge:I'll use a hero point now, and then 53.

Tanner:Thank you.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:55, then.

Josh:Do you add anything?

Josh:What are you in Diplomacy?

Josh:Legendary?

Josh:So you get an additional two if you didn't already add that.

Josh:Okay, absolutely.

Josh:So as part of conversation with this person, you look like, just like, you know, the lighthouse with an aspect of image.

Josh:You guys grew up there from time to time.

Jorge:Oh, you can remove the plus two.

Josh:It is... There are so few fans of it.

Josh:It is awesome to see you like this.

Josh:This is great.

Josh:This is wonderful.

Josh:And then the... Yeah?

Jorge:I used Curtis Comeback, which is a feat I have, which just lets me, if I critically fail in a diplomacy check, I can reroll second result.

Josh:Ah, okay.

Tanner:courteous yo what did curtis do

Jorge:Curtius, yes, Curtius Comeback.

Josh:No, Curtis, come back.

Jorge:Curtis, come back.

Josh:Once per month per settlement that you're in.

Josh:So for Terminus, for the next month, you can't use that ability.

Josh:But right now, yes.

Jorge:It's a level one feat.

Josh:Yeah, sure.

Jorge:So...

Josh:Okay, yeah, it's fine.

Josh:The two doesn't change anything.

Josh:Yeah, so she'll say, this is great.

Josh:You guys should totally enter the cosplay.

Josh:The competition, I will vote for you.

Josh:And then the guy that she was walking around with will say, Anouk.

Josh:And she says, I'm sorry, my brother, we have to go.

Josh:Go back on your search.

Josh:And they'll both walk off.

Jorge:Where is the cosplay?

Josh:She's gone.

Jorge:Damn it.

Noah:So we're not only TV stars, we're TV stars of a show that doesn't even have a big fandom.

Jorge:Wait a second.

Jorge:Was the Feep just some, like, television mogul?

Tanner:Yeah, I mean, it makes sense because Immix was just from Althane.

Noah:Oh my god.

Noah:What if he was the head of F.E.E.P.

Noah:television?

Mike:Oh, no, we should totally go.

Josh:Thank you.

Noah:F.E.E.P.

Noah:FBN, the F.E.E.P.

Noah:Broadcasting Network.

Noah:Guys, maybe we should go to the costume.

Noah:And ask around to see.

Jorge:Yeah.

Tanner:He must have been given the ability to do this by the feet.

Mike:We know where it is, and we have to ask around to get a...

Josh:I will say, if you know what you're looking for, like you're trying to find information on a cosplay competition that is happening today somewhere in Terminus, you don't need to roll.

Josh:You can find out about it.

Josh:You need to head further south to downtown Terminus, which is kind of like the city...

Josh:center area um where there is uh a a cosplay competition uh as part of media con uh which is this like big convention about media that is filmed in and airs around terminus um uh and you guys if you like can find your way there absolutely no problem um

Noah:This is the craziest planet.

Josh:You guys have taken the train before.

Josh:You don't have any money, though.

Josh:So I don't know if actually making the train, unless you want to beg, I think you could just walk.

Josh:This is a large town, but you guys have time.

Josh:So you... Yeah, sure.

Jorge:I think I could just get money out of someone.

Noah:Thank you.

Josh:I guess we can say you guys... No, actually, you couldn't get money out of somebody.

Josh:You don't have a wallet.

Mike:Yeah, we don't have credits or RETs or something.

Josh:You do not have the faculties required to receive or spend money.

Mike:Yeah.

Josh:They don't have physical money.

Mike:Yeah.

Noah:Hey, Lev, I know you just did these really great disguises for everyone, but should we undo them to make this costume play, I think that's what this stands for, look more realistic?

Jorge:Uh, will it... Immix is going nowhere.

Jorge:Oh, Immix probably already knows we left.

Jorge:I'm sure the Feep could sense us leaving.

Noah:Yeah, fuck it, Max.

Jorge:Um... Like, we all panicked.

Josh:Okay, so you...

Tanner:Uh oh.

Noah:Oh no.

Mike:Oh, he full froze.

Jorge:We were all probably thinking, did I disconnect?

Noah:Yeah.

Noah:That was my first thought.

Tanner:It was Josh.

Noah:One of the cats probably got him.

Jorge:Yeah.

Mike:I had that loaded up, and it was never an appropriate time because we were lore dumping.

Mike:I had to send it before I sent the Josh message.

Noah:I thought it was going to be Josh crying out for help and instead it was just that.

Tanner:That's horrible.

Josh:So the internet went out in my place because yay.

Mike:I realized as soon as we landed that when we played the one-shot here that you need credits.

Mike:We're just going to be walking around like archaic stupid fucks with gold like, hey, can we get some water?

Mike:And they're going to be like, what the fuck is this shit?

Noah:I got this good.

Tanner:We have to go.

Jorge:When someone tries to give you cash nowadays, you're like, what the fuck?

Mike:Yeah.

Josh:we are like almost at 11.

Josh:So I, I, I don't know how long it'll take for my internet to go back.

Josh:So I, I feel like we can end it at you guys.

Josh:Um, find your way over to the convention center and downtown terminus, uh, and we'll pick it up there.

Tanner:I guess that's fair.

Jorge:Sounds good.

Noah:Yeah.

Jorge:How many weapon runes do you have, Tanner?

Mike:Thank you.

Tanner:Probably not as many as we're allowed to have.

Josh:Okay.

Jorge:I just realized I got an extra one, so when I add the orichalcum weapon, I now have so many runes.

Josh:You should be able to put four on your Rurikalkum weapon.

Tanner:Which means I can have three.

Jorge:Oh.

Josh:Yes.

Jorge:Oh, because Pathbuilder was telling me that I had five.

Josh:Unless you have some thaumaturge thing that lets you add more runes.

Josh:I don't know how you would get the additional fifth one.

Jorge:That makes sense.

Tanner:Okay, I only have one.

Jorge:That seemed too good to be true.

Jorge:Wait, if you click the runes button, how many does it say you have remaining?

Tanner:Where would it... Wait, on Path Builder?

Jorge:So if you go to your weapons, there's like roll options.

Jorge:Yeah.

Tanner:I see runes.

Jorge:Yeah, when you click it, when it says remaining runes slots up top, how many does it say?

Tanner:Oh, okay, so it says one, but that's because I have a Ghost Touch rune on there that's not actually a Ghost Touch rune.

Tanner:I have something else that gives me the effect though.

Jorge:Okay, so yeah, that is three.

Jorge:I don't know why Orichalcum tried to give me...

Josh:So at 16th level, you guys got attack potency 3, which means you can put 3 runes onto your weapon.

Josh:And then Orichalcum gives you a 4th rune that you can attach.

Josh:To my knowledge, I don't think that there's any way.

Josh:At 18th level, you get defense potency 3, which means you can add a 3rd rune to your shield and armor, if those are things you guys wanted to do.

Tanner:Oh.

Josh:Unless you have some thaumaturge thing that gives you the fifth rune, which it's entirely possible you do.

Josh:Thaumaturges are crazy.

Jorge:Yeah, I'll check.

Josh:But, you know.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:All right.

Jorge:Well.

Jorge:Good kill today, guys.

Noah:Yeah.

Josh:Yeah, you guys dispatched him so quickly.

Mike:Yeah, it's really crazy how...

Josh:As soon as he lost his divine defenses, I knew that you were going to try and burn him down.

Josh:I did not think that...

Josh:It would happen like that.

Josh:You guys are murderers.

Tanner:A lot of critical rolling.

Jorge:One round.

Josh:Yes.

Josh:I rolled multiple critical failures and you guys did multiple critical successes.

Josh:It's crazy.

Jorge:Then Aaron is going to just get dead.

Mike:how Divinity Leech is a 9th level spell.

Mike:I mean, it's rare, so it'd be difficult to get access.

Mike:If only I was in a Citadel with large amounts of magic power, and I could just get access to a bunch of spells for a large discount.

Josh:You absolutely can.

Mike:I might be tempted to take Divinity Leech.

Josh:I mean, you do also have the gun.

Josh:The gun still does do that.

Mike:Listen, as you guys know, Divex wears a belt and suspenders.

Josh:Sorry?

Josh:Oh, sure.

Jorge:Yeah.

Mike:If we want Divinity Leech on someone, I want more than one way to put Divinity Leech on them.

Noah:I feel like we are passing over the fact that we went to the Citadel of Zugg.

Josh:Absolutely.

Noah:Did not expect that one.

Josh:Yep.

Mike:That was crazy.

Josh:I mean, I know Tech left the sphere at the end of the previous campaign, but it's unlikely that Tech would just break off from talking to Zugg.

Josh:Dorcan can't leave, and Rodak is dead, despite his friend's best efforts.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:But Tech and Zugg are both around and active.

Noah:That was a good lore dump.

Noah:Learned a lot of interesting stuff.

Josh:Yeah, and I'm fairly confident a lot of it won't be relevant, but that's fine.

Josh:That's what the third campaign is for.

Noah:Got to fight the super.

Jorge:They're fucking... Yeah.

Mike:That was so annoying.

Mike:It's not relevant to you guys.

Mike:It's just the hero.

Josh:Which, it isn't relevant to you.

Noah:This whole time.

Noah:This whole time we were like, what is tech doing?

Mike:No.

Noah:Is he just taking it to be tech?

Noah:Is he just being bad?

Noah:Turns out he's just the men in black now.

Josh:Yeah.

Josh:No, tech is doing important work.

Mike:Yeah.

Jorge:And you wanted to kill him.

Josh:Still might.

Jorge:Josh, if we took long enough to get to a resque, would the other group have just completed it for tech?

Josh:No, I don't think there was ever a world in which a group other than you guys would have successfully completed the thing for tech.

Josh:I think, especially after you guys got the cord for him, there was a world where you guys took too long and he just left to fix it on his own.

Jorge:Yeah.

Josh:Talking a little bit about story tropes and the like, it was either you guys were going to successfully get into RC3 and get the firearm, or no one was getting into RC3 and getting the firearm.

Josh:Yeah, it happens.

Jorge:That's fair.

Jorge:That was fun.

Jorge:Well, good session.

Jorge:Good session.

Noah:Yeah.

Tanner:Heck yeah.

Mike:Yes.

Tanner:I don't like that Kharkov's going to come back in some twisted fashion, but what are you going to do?

Mike:Good lord.

Jorge:I fucking knew it too.

Jorge:I tried to grab his body.

Jorge:I just am so slow.

Josh:correct yeah yeah yeah yeah

Mike:Oh yeah, Josh.

Mike:Also, I knew.

Mike:As soon as we showed up in Syrin, I was like, tech is going to leave and we're not going to have any way to give people money.

Mike:Because I remember the stupid credits, like, you needed credits to do anything in the one shot.

Mike:I was like, we're going to hand gold to people like fucking idiots, huh?

Noah:There were so many plot twists.

Tanner:Well, we could follow one of those job openings and get paid today.

Mike:Or if we win the cosplay contest.

Noah:Maybe there's a catch.

Noah:We don't win the cosplay contest.

Mike:Well... That's true.

Josh:No, you were told it was a lucky day.

Noah:There were so many plot twists.

Josh:You wouldn't win when it's not lucky.

Josh:It's fine.

Noah:Going first to the Citadel of Zugg, then to a planet where it turns out we're TV stars of a not-that-popular TV show.

Noah:Did not see any of it coming.

Josh:You guys have been on a TV show the whole campaign.

Mike:The not that popular part is what stings.

Josh:You've given multiple interviews.

Josh:I don't know what you expected.

Tanner:Well.

Mike:We're niche.

Josh:well would yeah would you watch a TV show that is as best you can tell some weird talk show in an alternate universe where it's just some guys going around like

Mike:It's like there's a fandom that is like 10,000 strong on Tumblr and they're really, really strong.

Jorge:We're like a USA show.

Jorge:Yeah, we're like a USA show.

Mike:Yeah.

Jorge:It's Monk.

Noah:That would have the biggest cult following.

Josh:It's a cult following, though.

Mike:on the CW.

Josh:It's not a big following.

Mike:We're on Tubi.

Mike:We're on Fubo.

Josh:You're on Zoomie.

Mike:You just have to make a tubber free trial.

Josh:They're not.

Mike:Just sign up for seven days to Ooblo.

Noah:Oh, no.

Noah:They don't even sound like real things anymore.

Jorge:I never do.

Jorge:Alright, well... Bye, y'all.

Mike:Okay.

Josh:I'm going to go figure out my internet.

Jorge:Muchachos.

Josh:Does next week, Monday, sound reasonable to everybody?

Tanner:I feel like it does.

Mike:Absolutely.

Jorge:Yeah.

Jorge:Sounds good.

Josh:Okay.

Josh:We will pick up in Syrin.

Noah:Woo, we made it.

Josh:Adios.