0:04

How many people accidentally referred

0:06

to the present company in

0:08

real space as chat on

0:10

accident? Hey, chat. How

0:13

many people as you ended conversations with

0:16

them were like, don't forget to like

0:18

and subscribe. Smash

0:20

that like. There's

0:23

just like pops like in from all

0:25

around the convention just being people. Smash

0:30

it. I

0:33

learned from one of my buddies

0:35

that the way children play

0:37

has been extremely influenced by

0:39

Twitch dreams. I got my

0:41

buddy John who has a

0:43

little kid in his household

0:46

and when I go down to play Legos, the

0:48

kid will be like, all right, I'm here to

0:50

play some Legos today with my uncle John and

0:53

like be very presentational to no one

0:55

at all. Wow. I

0:58

think that's extremely funny and it also

1:00

makes me want to keep my child

1:03

away from every computer. Yeah, yeah, you

1:05

should probably do that. Smart. John,

1:39

you're kind of reeling from

1:41

an interaction that was kind

1:43

of going well and then

1:45

went really pear shaped. Now

1:47

you are alone in

1:50

this unfamiliar bar full

1:52

of people who are just

1:54

behaving in ways that you

1:57

wouldn't recognize this from anywhere else you've ever

1:59

visited. Yeah.

2:04

I guess maybe he's probably gonna

2:06

like grab another drink.

2:10

And no, it wouldn't make

2:13

sense to try and like, yeah,

2:15

he's gonna post up and and and

2:18

grab a drink. Sure,

2:20

sure, sure. Is John looking

2:22

for anything right now? Is

2:24

he? What's his plan now?

2:26

Well, he knows that he knows that

2:28

everybody has kind of been like, done

2:31

their assignments and, and

2:33

like is kind of like

2:35

off on their like individual missions. It's

2:37

like, I can't really, there's

2:39

no one to check in with right

2:42

now. Like out of game,

2:44

like there's other there's other threads to be

2:46

to be pulled on this. And I'm like,

2:48

I don't know if it makes us like

2:50

manufacturer thing or like, oh, I could try

2:52

like follow her. But that

2:55

thread feels like we're kind of at the

2:57

end of it. Yeah. Okay,

3:00

I could meet up with you. I don't think I'm

3:02

doing anything right now. I think I think it might

3:04

be a good idea for you to to meet up.

3:07

I will say Gable has just been walking

3:09

around and it's nighttime and they're

3:11

trying to find just where the bar

3:13

is. And there's no signs. So there's

3:15

a sound like noise. And

3:18

so they had him see John at sitting by

3:20

himself like, oh my gosh, I have

3:22

had so many good

3:24

interactions today. I love this

3:26

town. Everyone's so nice. Amazing.

3:28

I'm glad someone had a good thing

3:31

happen. I know what happened. I

3:34

pulled string, string

3:36

broke. We don't have an in. We

3:38

don't have an in for the factory right now. Right

3:41

now. That's that's.

3:43

Oh, we figure it out. If anything,

3:45

I've been tunneling to the place

3:47

or something. I don't know yet. Yet.

3:50

Yet. Well,

3:54

you send off the stuff. Yeah, I

3:56

sent your letter. How

4:01

much have you had for beverages?

4:03

Just the one. Okay. Pretty

4:05

watered down, pretty bad, kind of

4:07

expensive. Apparently I have opinions about

4:09

this now. Okay. Hey, that's great. I,

4:12

um, I attempted to send

4:15

your letter to Acheron. Yeah,

4:17

that's good. It's... and

4:21

I don't want you to see this as a bad thing necessarily. Wait,

4:24

wait, wait. Hang on. Hang

4:27

on. Jot it. I'm not going to

4:29

safely finish it. Okay.

4:32

What? It seems

4:34

that your hometown is

4:38

missing. It's

4:40

not raised. It's not destroyed.

4:43

It's just not where

4:45

it's supposed to be, apparently. And

4:48

is every... Are people cool with that? I

4:50

don't... All I got was essentially

4:53

a return to sender. I think

4:55

I still... I sent your letter someplace. It'll

4:58

go someplace. I don't know where it's going, but it'll try

5:00

to get there. But so

5:02

Acheron's gone. I... Oh my

5:05

god, Acheron's gone. Wait, that means everyone is

5:07

gone within it. And... Oh,

5:09

what did I... And then

5:11

he's like, wait, but the

5:14

feather got back to me. Zana texted

5:16

you. So we have enough information

5:19

to know that it's...

5:21

wherever they are, they're probably fine. But

5:26

it's not where they're supposed to be. And

5:30

she also didn't... She didn't

5:32

mention... Zana didn't mention that Acheron was

5:34

gone in the feather. You also did

5:36

not reply. So there might be a lot of extraneous

5:39

information that you've not gathered yet

5:41

from Zana. There's only so much information you

5:43

can fit on those feathers. Out of feather,

5:45

yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're

5:47

very small. I didn't mean to freak you out, but I thought

5:50

it was information you needed to know. And

5:53

if you wanted to send in any further

5:55

letters, it might be a challenge. Janet,

5:59

I think... I think at this information,

6:01

this has surprised you so much

6:04

that it's one of the

6:06

situations John is just inspired to stand

6:08

up, like, you know, urgently

6:10

as though there's something that I can do, finding

6:12

out that my hometown is not where it is,

6:14

and of course not knowing what to do with

6:16

that energy. And you

6:19

sit down again after that

6:22

and suddenly you become

6:24

aware that a weight

6:27

at your hip that had

6:29

throughout the day kind

6:31

of become familiar is

6:34

not there. You

6:37

cast about like trying to figure out what

6:39

could be wrong, what could be

6:41

different. And then for

6:44

the first time today, you

6:46

become aware of the fact that

6:48

this morning you absentmindedly

6:50

started playing with a

6:52

cleaver in Oramar's office,

6:55

that you had hooked that onto your

6:57

belt and throughout the day,

7:00

that cleaver was a part of

7:02

your attire. You

7:04

came in here and you

7:07

had it when you came in here and

7:10

now you know that it's not here,

7:13

that it's disappeared. He

7:16

gestures like, pass his

7:18

hip. What? What

7:22

did y'all pick my

7:25

pocket? And

7:27

then I think like, oh, come on.

7:31

And then on come on, his eye

7:33

just like flares up and he's like, he's

7:35

kind of like looking around like, which one

7:38

of y'all took my, and I guess he's

7:40

kind of like hoping for direction

7:42

to be like where this is

7:44

pointing him in terms of like, if

7:47

he focuses on like the cleaver, where

7:49

is he being guided? I need you to

7:51

make a magic roll. Y'all.

7:55

Also my cleaver, I think.

7:58

Alright, buh buh buh buh. Okay, what's

8:00

my magic? What's my magic three? Holy

8:03

crap. All right. Okay,

8:05

so I will

8:08

also spend and upgrade this. So

8:11

that's going to be, so if I upgrade one,

8:14

so that's going to be changing it to a

8:16

D12, and then

8:18

so I'm gonna do that again. All right, so

8:20

I have a six, a

8:23

seven, and a nine. Okay.

8:26

So six, seven, and...

8:29

And the D12 is a nine. Okay,

8:31

another incredible success with

8:33

lots of opportunities. So

8:36

we'll address the opportunities first. You got

8:39

a plethora of opportunities with this role,

8:42

and those opportunities are, we've

8:44

established that Gable can

8:47

sense malice, can

8:49

sense killing intent. You

8:52

can see the trails

8:54

of history. Like you are casting

8:57

about back through the lines and possibilities

8:59

of the universe, trying to

9:01

look for the path of the cleaver when

9:04

the cleaver departed you. And

9:07

you can see through those

9:09

lines interminglings

9:12

of hungry malice.

9:16

And you actually, like, I think

9:18

it traces back, these memories have

9:20

just come to you. They

9:22

were memories that, it's almost as if they

9:24

were plucked from you, stolen

9:27

from you, severed away

9:29

from you. And as

9:31

the cleaver left your side,

9:34

you were able to slowly heal

9:36

them back. And

9:39

you basically, throughout your

9:41

day, you can see the

9:44

different ways the cleaver tried

9:46

to strike at you. There

9:49

are moments where like your hand

9:51

nearly brushed by it, and the

9:53

cleaver changes angle ever so much,

9:56

and nearly cut you. There

9:58

was obviously moments where you were fiddling. with it

10:00

where it slipped in such a way

10:03

to try and make a lunge at

10:05

you and you absent-mindedly corrected for that.

10:08

Throughout your day the cleaver

10:11

at your side has been trying

10:13

to strike at you. That

10:15

is a sense that you just have and you

10:18

can feel the building

10:20

of this murderous intent

10:23

sort of boil up in

10:26

frustration throughout the day until

10:29

it gets inside this

10:31

bar and you

10:33

can feel the cleaver give up

10:35

on you, abandon you,

10:37

let release its hold and

10:40

search for another host. And

10:42

you also got three successes here. I

10:44

would use all those successes to be

10:46

like what is this cleaver? Ooh

10:49

okay okay. All

10:51

right I will allow this so it was

10:53

a magic role to find

10:55

the location of the cleaver. Now we're

10:57

shifting it to understanding the nature of

10:59

the cleaver. Or as much

11:01

as as much as the successes can translate

11:04

and allow. Huh? Okay

11:08

all right I'm gonna play a

11:10

little bit with our

11:12

understanding of canon and reality. I

11:15

think you had this book,

11:18

this journal earlier that

11:21

Zana's feather was in and

11:24

you were kind of absent-mindedly playing around with

11:26

that. John it like you feel

11:28

an icy grip

11:30

on your heart and chest as

11:33

you feel yourself remember that

11:35

you read from this diary today.

11:38

And you didn't remember doing it,

11:40

you didn't remember making the time

11:42

to do it, but

11:44

you read from it and

11:46

things start to click together

11:48

for you. This cleaver

11:51

came from the Saratura. This

11:54

cleaver is the property

11:57

of someone who conducted experiments.

12:00

on behalf of the Church, but

12:03

more than that was in

12:06

the thrall of the Butcher. You

12:09

understand that now as

12:11

the Cleaver has released its hold on you,

12:13

released the ways that it

12:15

was concealing its true nature from you and

12:17

trying to snare you deeper

12:20

into its thrall, your

12:22

mind, your sight allowed

12:25

you to glean part of its true nature.

12:28

This is in some way an artifact of

12:30

the Butcher, and it is gone. Uh-huh.

12:38

Uh... uh... Gable? Yes,

12:42

you just stood up very quickly and

12:45

then sat back down. Yeah,

12:48

yeah, Gable, I goofed. I goofed,

12:50

I got the... the...

12:54

the... the... Cleaver

12:57

from earlier today. What? What?

12:59

The Cleaver? I had

13:01

a Cleaver from earlier today. I was

13:04

carrying around, it felt nice in the hand,

13:06

and I think the Cleaver was trying to

13:08

come at me, maybe murder me, and... and...

13:11

and now it's not on

13:13

my belt loop. And

13:15

I think it's somewhere here

13:18

at Sorrow's Inn now. And

13:22

did... did I get anything in

13:24

the... like in the... the... the

13:27

magic role, did I get anything

13:30

that like led... like points in

13:32

the direction of where it has

13:34

be... has gone? So because you

13:36

decided to redirect your successes towards

13:39

understanding the nature of the Cleaver, what

13:42

I am going to do here is

13:45

you... now that you

13:47

recognize this... this murderous intent that

13:49

is like kind of wafting in

13:52

the air as an

13:54

artifact of the Butcher's influence, your

13:57

eye as you cast about the room... sees

14:00

the miasma of the butcher

14:03

all around. You

14:05

can see it wafting off

14:07

of different people around you,

14:09

curling from their limbs,

14:12

spots on their chests, just

14:15

in certain obvious

14:18

wounds and injuries, like

14:20

lapping at their blood.

14:22

The butcher is here in

14:25

a way that is hard

14:27

to place. You can see

14:29

its influence everywhere, and the cleaver

14:32

has clearly stolen itself

14:34

away into that influence.

14:37

Being attached to it all day, you can feel that will.

14:40

You had a big knife that

14:42

you were carrying around all day, and

14:45

you've lost it now. Gable,

14:49

I have a question for you. As

14:53

you were leaving Haven,

14:56

Sarise gave you

14:58

prophecy. Prophecies

15:01

that you underwent a ritual to seal

15:04

inside glass baubles. And

15:07

they were specifically tied to

15:09

requests that Sarise had for

15:13

you to ease

15:15

her suffering by acting

15:18

in this town, the town that

15:20

you are in right now. So I want

15:22

to know where are those baubles? Where

15:25

do you keep them on your person? How

15:27

big were they? Yeah, I

15:30

want to say like, smaller

15:33

than a b basic ball. It's a tremendous question.

15:40

It's not the ones that you do to

15:42

score, but the ones you're trying to get

15:45

your line near. I

15:47

think, at a certain point, they were going

15:49

to put it in with their rock collection,

15:51

but they haven't had time. It's

15:54

just clinging around loose in

15:56

their pockets, which is not a very

15:58

subtle situation. Just

16:01

in one of the pockets, playing around. How

16:03

do they make, how does one

16:05

make itself known to you now?

16:10

Uh, static electricity. It

16:13

just gets, starts looking at

16:15

me. Yeah. I love that.

16:17

Yeah. You feel across

16:19

your body, all of your hairs

16:21

start to stand on end until

16:24

like movements cause like static

16:26

shocks to hit you. It's

16:28

soon it's everything that you

16:31

touch, uh, produces a

16:33

static shock of some kind, uh,

16:35

very reliably. There's almost no

16:37

way, like you try to hold still, but

16:39

even subtle movements start to produce it. And

16:41

as you make more dramatic movements, there's pop,

16:43

pop, pop, pop, pop. And

16:48

I go in the pocket to see where it's coming from

16:50

and pull it out. Uh,

16:52

so one of these bubbles in

16:54

glass that appears to have like

16:58

murky swirls of red

17:00

inside, like it, it's

17:03

bright in this room, which is

17:05

like kind of dimly lit with,

17:07

with, with just candles and lanterns,

17:09

like this bubble, although

17:12

it doesn't illuminate the area around it,

17:14

it's very visible to you. And

17:17

because this prophecy is sealed inside

17:19

this bubble, Liz, I want to

17:21

know how would

17:23

Gable receive the prophecy? How would

17:26

Gable open it up to gain

17:28

the knowledge inside? It's probably

17:30

not best to

17:32

do it in a public place.

17:36

If there's like a big

17:38

pitcher of water nearby,

17:42

Gable turns around. One second.

17:44

I think I have to answer my messages. They

17:48

pick a jug of water and,

17:50

uh, not knowing what else to do,

17:52

sort of crack it like

17:54

an egg and pour the miasma

17:57

in there. Oh yeah.

18:00

I think it's like it's

18:02

electricity water wire. I don't know.

18:04

Yeah Yeah, I think you can absolutely do that

18:06

and there is like a flash almost like a

18:08

camera flash It's

18:11

so sudden and so startling like the

18:13

entire room Takes notice

18:15

and like quiets down for a second Nobody

18:18

has ever seen a phenomenon that even

18:21

approaches this and it was so bright

18:23

and so quick It's hard

18:25

to tell where it came from in the room

18:27

if it came from anywhere But

18:30

the pitcher of water now has

18:32

this faint glowing quality, but it

18:35

is not quite shocking you anymore

18:38

Sorry, I lit a little birthday candle.

18:40

It's it's someone's birthday Someone

18:44

is it's me. It's Happy

18:47

birthday to me a

18:50

big candle is that Janet saying

18:52

it's me. Yes It's

18:55

my birthday And

18:58

and we are celebrating me and

19:00

you all should celebrate me As

19:04

well. Happy birthday to For

19:07

this cool cover story that you have just

19:09

concocted The luminary

19:11

I thought and I did get

19:13

the island Luminary

19:17

so this one doesn't work out

19:19

in your favor. Yes

19:22

what happens? Hey

19:42

Heroes, it's James your game master and

19:44

welcome to the mid-roll heroes I've got

19:46

a show coming up February 29th through

19:48

March 3rd. I'll be at Emerald City

19:51

Comic-Con in Seattle, Washington You can watch

19:53

me and Jeff and John from system

19:55

mastery do the Netflix and kill game

19:58

show March 1st 45pm

20:00

in room 423, we'll be searching monster

20:03

manuals for matches for the audience, where

20:05

they'll be able to decide whether they

20:07

take them home or bury them in

20:09

the ground. Then Saturday,

20:11

March 2nd at 2pm in room

20:13

327, we'll be doing the Ultimate

20:16

Dungeon Meister Show, an improvised actual

20:18

play that uses exercises from my

20:20

books and the Dungeon Meister line.

20:23

We would love to have some heroes in the

20:25

audience to cheer us on, and we're gonna be

20:27

planning a meetup at some point for everybody in

20:29

the Seattle area during that convention,

20:31

so stay tuned to

20:33

this channel. Of course this book tour

20:36

is celebrating our new books coming out

20:38

this year. For me coming up in

20:40

March, I'm releasing the Ultimate RPG Game

20:42

Master's Guide, which is a guide to

20:44

how I approach roleplaying games as a

20:46

Game Master, so if you enjoy what

20:48

you're listening to on this show, there

20:50

is gonna be some useful advice for

20:53

you in that book. Jeff and Jon

20:55

are gonna be releasing the Deck of

20:57

Many Drinks, a roleplaying tool based on

20:59

drinks that they came up with for

21:01

the Dungeon Meister's Drink Master Guide, and

21:04

the Dungeon Meister Random Monster Generator that

21:06

allows you to randomly create a monster

21:08

by selecting a head, torso, and legs

21:11

that may not necessarily match up, but

21:13

will each provide unique powers. That's a

21:15

5e tool, but it will still be

21:18

a ton of fun. I also have

21:20

a new project coming out from Simon

21:22

& Schuster this year that hasn't

21:25

been announced yet, doesn't have

21:27

a release date yet, but I am

21:29

so extremely excited about it. It is

21:31

probably my favorite thing that I've ever

21:33

put out through Simon & Schuster, so

21:35

I will be telling you about it

21:37

soon. But One Shot Patrons will definitely

21:39

get a sneak peek. Speaking

21:41

of One Shot Patrons, thanks to everybody

21:44

who supports us on Patreon. Without you,

21:46

this show would not be possible. I

21:48

do have some bonus content coming up

21:50

for you. Right now, I am

21:52

in the middle of the most insanely

21:55

time-consuming edit to save

21:58

some damaged audio. from

22:00

our Chubo's campaign, but as soon as I

22:02

get that sorted out, we will be able

22:05

to restore our Chubo's campaign, which will be

22:07

posting opposite Starwall, which has a new episode

22:09

coming up next week. And of

22:11

course, there is some Skyjack stuff waiting in the

22:13

wings. As always, a huge thank you to everyone

22:16

who supports us already, and everyone

22:18

who's gonna support us in the future. Before

22:20

we get back to the show, I want

22:22

to point out that I just had my

22:24

last episode as main host for One Shot.

22:26

That was for a star-crossed solo

22:28

series. I really loved doing it. You

22:31

should check it out if you haven't already. But

22:33

be prepared for next week, because we are

22:35

going to announce our new host. Thanks to

22:38

everybody who filled out surveys letting us know

22:40

how they felt the auditions went. It

22:42

really helped us make our decision. Now, a

22:44

quick word from our sponsor, and with all

22:46

that out of the way, let's get back

22:48

in the sky! There's

23:03

the splash in the room. Everybody's

23:05

confused. And Gable steps in with

23:07

a, Hey, it's

23:10

somebody's birthday, and Johnnett hops

23:12

in on that right away.

23:15

Takes birthday responsibility. The

23:17

thing that you don't anticipate,

23:19

Johnnett, as the

23:22

themes of the

23:24

island are imprisonment, doom, and

23:27

the hateful sea, you

23:30

are kind of immediately

23:32

surrounded by birthday

23:35

celebrants. Everybody

23:37

in this close-knit community

23:39

takes birthdays quite

23:42

seriously. And

23:44

immediately they surround you, they pick

23:46

you up, they start singing songs.

23:49

They start clapping

23:51

and singing, and

23:54

every time you move away, they

23:56

put you through a birthday tradition.

23:58

And the birthdays are like, birthday traditions

24:01

range from there's a special birthday song

24:03

that needs to be sung, then there

24:05

are birthday kisses that need to be

24:08

given, then there are birthday slaps that

24:10

need to be given. And like, it's

24:12

this whole affair every

24:14

time you try to move away, like you

24:16

get pulled back towards it. And

24:18

Gable, like, you realize that, hey, everything

24:21

got redirected from the magic. John, it

24:23

was kind of talking about something serious

24:25

for a second. I have

24:28

this prophecy and it looks like John

24:30

is trying to get back to me, but that

24:32

ain't happening for him right now. Okay.

24:35

I will, in the time given to

24:37

me, examine the prophecy. John,

24:39

it is running defense. I can't.

24:44

I think this is a matter of gulping

24:46

this drink down. Really? Yeah.

24:49

You cracked it like an egg into this picture.

24:53

And in one of the

24:55

toasts, everyone's going

24:57

around the room and saying what they wish

24:59

you have in the new year. Yeah.

25:02

And after one of

25:04

the, yeah, clinking, then there's a big

25:06

glug, glug, glug along with that. Yeah.

25:11

Gable, the picture drains down. And

25:15

as the liquid pours down your throat,

25:17

kind of shocking as it goes, like

25:20

it's painful. And you can also

25:22

like feel little tenses of your muscles

25:26

moving like a combination of

25:29

water and electricity across

25:31

your mind are

25:33

the truth of this prophecy

25:36

of the past, of an

25:38

event that has happened here before. And

25:42

it plays out in

25:44

a way that feels dreamlike and

25:47

indistinct. You

25:50

first become aware of

25:53

limbs, extremities, tissues,

25:57

eventually bodies formed from them.

26:00

They are formed of

26:03

a red hue. You

26:06

can feel sensations through it. The sensations

26:09

of dozens, then

26:11

hundreds, maybe thousands,

26:15

a thousand more people.

26:19

They become more and more

26:21

intense to the

26:23

point where they're un-ignorable, difficult to

26:26

deal with. Simultaneously

26:28

you feel measures of intense

26:31

pain, measures of

26:33

intense comfort, of pleasure. So

26:36

much sensation, the sensation of so

26:38

many people all rocketing towards you

26:40

at once. You're aware

26:42

that this is unnatural, that

26:44

their bodies strain from this

26:47

and you feel their desperation

26:50

all at once within you.

26:53

And you feel them branch out, branch

26:56

out seeking different comforts.

26:59

You feel water, warm

27:03

water that quenches the

27:05

intensity like a fire. You

27:08

feel the burning pick of

27:11

a needle tearing at

27:13

flesh that lights up so

27:15

bright, so intensely it makes you

27:18

feel as though you will overwhelm,

27:20

as though you will collapse in

27:22

on yourself and pass

27:24

away. And then it is followed by

27:26

a calm. Then you

27:28

feel the icy

27:31

picking of flesh. A

27:34

sensation that you have felt

27:37

before, that you have had,

27:40

you have had the great misfortune of feeling before.

27:44

It is slaying. Like

27:48

in the Saratura, you

27:50

were imprisoned, subject

27:53

to experiments, but

27:56

of course you were not the

27:58

only creature. to

28:00

those experiments. There

28:03

were other fallen, fallen

28:07

whose feathers you have happened to pick

28:09

up. And

28:11

this sensation, this prophecy now

28:14

brings to you their

28:16

memories. How carefully,

28:20

almost delicately, sharp

28:24

knives, sharp

28:26

edges, teased away

28:29

the outer layers of their

28:31

flesh in long strips. And

28:35

how that flesh, as

28:38

is cursed the way that fallen arm,

28:42

had to remain alive. You

28:45

feel that pulled away. And

28:48

you can feel that in

28:51

the confused sensations of

28:54

human beings, the edges of

28:56

their flesh pulled away. But

28:59

they are not like falling. That

29:01

flesh does not remain alive. It quiets

29:05

itself. It becomes

29:07

peaceful. You can

29:09

feel something laid over

29:11

the wound. Something

29:14

that laps at the blood that

29:17

feeds off of it. In

29:19

it, you feel the

29:22

desire, the will of

29:24

the butcher. Yes,

29:27

some solace was offered here.

29:30

Solace from the touch of

29:32

scarlet. And it was offered

29:34

by the butcher. All

29:37

it asked was for

29:39

a pound of flesh, which

29:42

was carefully and

29:45

lovingly teased away by members

29:48

of this community who

29:50

had concern, who had

29:52

urgent need to lay

29:54

to rest the suffering

29:57

of their fellows. and

30:00

perhaps uncharacteristically of

30:03

the butcher. This solace

30:06

was offered. Their flesh

30:09

was offered and sacrificed to

30:11

the butcher. In

30:14

its stead, laid on their

30:16

bodies, was fabric.

30:20

That fabric acted like skin, was

30:23

stitched on. But

30:25

once that work was done, grim

30:28

and bloody as it was, the

30:31

scarlet quieted for a

30:33

select few. You can

30:35

see years of this practice,

30:38

at first, awful.

30:42

Especially feeling the sensations. Intellectually,

30:44

too, awful. You know the

30:46

lumens. You have dealt with them

30:48

on many occasions. Even

30:51

those that smile upon

30:53

humans kindly carry

30:56

their prices and their hooks.

30:59

You could see the way someone

31:02

might be led astray. That

31:04

someone might believe that the

31:07

butcher cruelly requested flesh,

31:09

but did honour its agreement

31:12

and quieted this pain. It's

31:16

not until later. Not until

31:18

you can feel this

31:21

false flesh that

31:23

sits atop the skin of

31:26

the patchwork people who

31:28

surround you. You

31:31

can feel it on them, and

31:33

you can feel the way years

31:36

ago, two years

31:38

ago, it overtook

31:40

them. How

31:43

patches of their skin that had

31:45

been torn away and replaced to

31:48

lessen the suffering caused by the

31:50

scarlet began

31:52

to move on their own, against

31:55

the will of the people who

31:58

owned it. how

32:00

they seized upon others and

32:04

exacted deeper prices for

32:06

the butcher. And

32:09

you can feel people being put

32:11

down, freed from

32:13

the influence of the butcher through

32:16

violence, through bullets,

32:19

through knives, whatever it took.

32:22

And you can feel the practice

32:24

of the butcher's price, the

32:26

pound of flesh being paid

32:28

not not

32:30

ceasing, but being paid less.

32:34

People moving to this only when the

32:36

scarlet burned at them far

32:39

too much and they

32:41

could think of nothing else. People

32:44

flirting with an abyss, making

32:47

them so knowing that

32:49

this price could be a final

32:51

price could be a price that is being paid

32:54

not just by them, by the

32:56

community around them, seeing no way

32:58

out. You can

33:00

feel the patchwork flesh still

33:02

exists, but you know a heavier

33:05

price looms over it.

33:09

This is something that Sarise, back

33:12

in Haven, witnessed.

33:15

The whole bloody chapter played

33:18

across her mind through

33:20

the shattered tendrils of

33:23

her remaining feathers that

33:25

she used once to watch

33:28

the sins of the world. This

33:31

was something that she could not ignore. It's

33:34

something that she was powerless to

33:36

do anything about. Something

33:38

that she was forced to watch. Something

33:41

that she entrusted to you. The

33:44

angel of judgment, a

33:47

wrong that must be

33:49

righted. And

33:53

in time, your mind

33:55

is once again your own with

33:59

the memories. that you unlocked and

34:01

the feathers that you gathered, the

34:04

fellow fallen that were

34:06

with you in the Saratura, the ways

34:08

that they suffered, you

34:11

unlock their power as well,

34:14

their eyes flutter open

34:16

on your feathers. You

34:18

feel a resurgence of strength, a

34:20

resurgence of purpose, and

34:24

you have the vision. I

34:30

think Gable pops back

34:32

into themselves, breathes,

34:37

and immediately vomits. But

34:41

I think at the same time that it's like, hooray!

34:43

A real creepy weirdo at the end of the bar

34:45

says, I'll have what she's having. Get

34:51

out of here, Howard. Get out. Get

34:53

out. It's a public space.

34:55

I'll be back. And

34:58

they crab walked out. Get that

35:00

crab out of here.

35:05

I don't know what

35:08

to do with that right

35:11

now. Covered

35:15

in sweat, obviously very sick. It's

35:17

getting late at night anyway. I

35:23

think too that maybe

35:25

at that you feel like a tugging

35:27

on your sleeve. And

35:30

it's John it being like, can we

35:32

leave? Can we leave? I don't think

35:34

anybody needs to be here anymore. No

35:38

reason to be here anymore. Let's

35:41

talk for the birthday boy to get to bed. It's

35:44

time for bed. Got a growing boy. For

35:50

me, it's a jolly good fellow. Thanks everybody. Bye.

35:53

Thank you so much. And we got

35:55

into the night. I

36:00

think are you

36:02

okay? Oh

36:05

no oh no oh no oh

36:08

no do you yeah

36:10

where cuz I got

36:13

some onos too

36:15

all right we have

36:17

there is a weapon

36:20

that wants human

36:23

like a sacrifice of some kind that

36:25

I have lost track of cool I

36:28

know who's that is okay I have oh

36:38

I thought this was just a me thing no no no it

36:40

seems like we hey you know

36:43

how everywhere we go we also

36:45

have additional homework what

36:49

is the homework what do you what what

36:52

do you know about the homework that I

36:54

don't oh god I'm so I'm gonna

36:57

barf again ah

37:00

and we I sort

37:02

of sit down in the in a in

37:04

a cool spot next to like in

37:08

in an alley and sort of go

37:10

through okay so

37:12

three she gave me we

37:14

actually I might I might interrupt you

37:17

here Liz because I realize

37:19

kind of the things that are

37:21

in motion we've

37:24

met a couple NPCs here

37:27

a couple named NPCs here and

37:29

we have the cleaver of the butcher on

37:32

the loose and

37:34

I need to determine in this moment

37:36

if you're very lucky or very

37:39

unlucky so I'm gonna draw a

37:41

luminary like Gable or me

37:44

because today is not been we've

37:46

been unlucky today yeah I think

37:48

a lot of people have been

37:50

pretty unlucky today we have

37:52

these NPCs here Angelo

37:56

Andy who Barnabas

37:59

are you A lot of A

38:01

names in here strikes me that

38:04

there's a distinct possibility that that's too

38:06

many A names. And

38:10

again, we got to determine if you're very lucky or very

38:12

unlucky. So I'm just going to draw this luminary. And

38:15

that's the audience. That is

38:17

the most dramatic thing that could possibly

38:19

happen is what happens. You, the viewer

38:22

at home, come to see us. So

38:26

I, you know, I'm going to poll my

38:28

fellow players here between Ariel,

38:31

Barnabas, Angelo, and

38:33

Andy. Who is the most dramatic?

38:37

Who would be the most dramatic if something

38:39

bad happened to them? Bad happened to them.

38:42

I mean, if the

38:44

whole thing, like just like the amount

38:46

of feelings that we've said, this guy

38:48

is great. No, no, no, no, no.

38:50

It has to be. Oh no, not

38:52

my friend. Gable,

38:59

you go down into this

39:01

alley and you try to

39:03

sort things like you have

39:06

just, you've just not been

39:08

in your body. You've

39:10

been in thousands of human bodies in a

39:12

lot of ways. You have

39:15

been in the body of other

39:17

fallen in a lot of ways,

39:19

like mentally, even walking out, there

39:21

was a bit of stumble to

39:23

your step for how disoriented you

39:25

were. It is a

39:27

clash between the being

39:29

that you were created as and

39:32

the being that you are after

39:35

transubstantiation. Apart

39:37

from the fact that you've been severed

39:39

from death, you are in a mortal

39:41

body yet still connected to the universe

39:43

through the divine tendrils of

39:46

your wings. It

39:49

is hard to be two

39:51

things at once. You're

39:54

still feeling nauseated. You stumble into

39:56

the alley. You sit against the

39:58

wall. You try to get out of the way. yourself.

40:00

You're trying to talk to John it. John it

40:02

is telling you important things. You're trying to express

40:04

important things to John it. And

40:07

then you see a puddle

40:10

of blood and a body

40:13

that is still alive, but

40:16

grievously wounded and

40:18

is currently shaking

40:21

and sputtering. You

40:24

see Angelo has been slashed

40:26

across the chest, like from

40:29

neck, shoulder down across the chest. There's

40:32

a massive gaping wound and a huge

40:34

puddle of blood is spilling out from

40:36

him. Gable, you

40:39

have, because this is the audience, seconds

40:42

to act. So it

40:44

dealt you the hand of this is the worst possible

40:46

person that this could have happened to. Angelo

40:49

has two beautiful kids. They're at a

40:51

great age, but you do

40:53

have an opportunity to intervene. What

40:55

do you do? I

41:00

cast magic just that's

41:03

worth it to save a person's life. Yeah.

41:08

I think I got like going to be a bedeviling

41:10

check. I think I have two leftover points

41:12

of fate from a previous encounter. Do those

41:14

expire? You can use them now.

41:17

You should use them now. I would love

41:19

to. So if I had two points of

41:21

fate and I, okay, I

41:24

have four d eights that'll

41:26

bring up. So that would be two d

41:28

twelves and two d eights right now. Two

41:30

d twelves and two d eights. So I

41:32

will do that. Okay.

41:35

That is a four, a one on

41:37

the d twelves and a five

41:39

and a one on the d eights. You

41:42

are successful. Oh,

41:45

Angelo. Lucky. You

41:47

are successful with opportunities.

41:51

Oh, so I am going to

41:53

ask you the nature of

41:55

your opportunities here because there are

41:58

a lot of different ways. that

42:00

this could go. I think the

42:02

choice that I have for you is

42:04

you're acting very immediately and this is

42:06

powerful magic that you are

42:09

levying. This man

42:11

is on the brink of death a second

42:13

more and he would be gone

42:16

and even a metaphysician would

42:18

not be able to save him under

42:20

these circumstances. There is a

42:22

chance that your magic, I'm

42:25

going to create three outcomes that

42:27

could be unfavorable to you and you are

42:29

going to get rid of two of them.

42:31

There's a chance that somebody could see you.

42:34

There's a chance that Angelo will

42:36

know it is you that saved

42:39

him and know that

42:41

you worked with a power that

42:44

a human probably couldn't

42:46

have. There

42:49

is a chance, because you are levying divine

42:51

power, that divine

42:53

forces might know. I

42:56

would like to get rid of the divine

42:59

forces because that's going to be a

43:01

ton of trouble and anyone else

43:04

seeing us. Great. Real

43:06

quick, do we know where is Angelo

43:08

in this? Are we

43:10

seeing him in front of Gable? Like in an

43:13

alleyway outside. Right? It's

43:15

in an alleyway like next to

43:17

the bar essentially. Gosh, man, I don't

43:20

know why. For a second I was

43:22

like, I thought this was a vision

43:24

and then the magic was reaching out

43:26

to Angelo through by

43:28

way of projecting out. Okay, cool. Thank

43:30

you. He is right next to us.

43:33

This alleyway is not lit and Gable

43:35

just sat down in the alleyway and

43:37

I think put a hand down and

43:39

put a hand down in a

43:41

pool of blood because Angelo has

43:43

blood so much. No, no,

43:45

no, no, no. Yeah,

43:51

you heal Angelo. You have

43:54

enough successes that Angelo is

43:58

probably going to be woozy. but there's

44:00

not gonna be permanent damage associated

44:02

with this wound. Like, those wounds

44:04

close up. I would actually like

44:06

you to describe what does

44:09

a divine healing from Gable and like

44:12

this emergency moment look like. Oh,

44:15

God. I think

44:17

it's sloppy. Sort

44:21

of just slorps

44:24

the wound back up and turns

44:26

it into what looks like the

44:30

sort of twisty scars you get

44:32

when you're struck by lightning. Ooh.

44:35

It sort of like goes up you like a root, but

44:38

obviously only in one place where

44:40

the cut happened, but it's not the sort

44:42

of scar that would happen from a large

44:45

cut like that. So it's weird. Yeah,

44:48

yeah. And I think it heals up to the point

44:50

where it looks like it has been healed for

44:53

years, even though it is new. Um,

44:56

Angelo like gasps for

44:58

breath on the ground. Shh,

45:02

shh, shh, shh,

45:04

shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. What

45:06

happened? Hey, hey, hey, what

45:08

happened? What happened? You're fine. What happened?

45:11

Does Angelo have a sense of like who came at

45:13

him? Angelo

45:16

does not have a sense of

45:19

who did it. Angelo saw a

45:21

figure in the dark and

45:23

the glint of the edge of a blade,

45:25

and then he felt it. And

45:28

then his vision started to swim.

45:30

He felt faint and he fell to

45:32

the ground. I

45:34

was walking home and

45:37

I was working out the

45:41

next letter to my kids. They're so great. They're just

45:43

a great age. And

45:47

a blade came at me and he knew. And

45:51

then I think at that, he passes out. Yeah,

45:56

yeah. All right, John,

45:58

we need to. I don't know if we need to

46:00

just take him to the pub. I don't know where the

46:02

doctors are, but I don't

46:04

think we can stay, we can't stay

46:06

here. We need to figure it out. Am I

46:09

good to move him? And he's already kind of like saddling

46:12

up to Angelo. Well, would

46:15

John be able to pick him up? I think

46:17

John is going to try to pick him up

46:19

regarding. Hey pal, you have given John it a

46:21

lot of prowess. So yeah. Yes

46:24

I have. I'm pretty sure John it can

46:26

pick him up. And I almost never roll

46:28

it. Yeah. I

46:30

need to steal you and Liz to the

46:33

side to do some more robust

46:35

character creation so we can get the

46:37

rest of your abilities sorted out soon.

46:40

That might be something we address there. All

46:42

right, so we are rolling these.

46:44

And you know what? I'm spending four.

46:46

Ooh, full stick of butter. All right.

46:49

Yes, yes. What

46:51

happens if I spend four? Damn.

46:57

I mean, I'll say you spend a

46:59

full bar on prowess. We're

47:01

going to have to work out an ability. John

47:03

it definitely has some sort of full bar prowess

47:06

spend in him. But for

47:08

now, I'll say in this time

47:10

when somebody needs you, you

47:12

find the strength to do the

47:14

impossible thing. You

47:16

pick up this man and you

47:18

are unburdened by it. It

47:21

might even be you are picking him

47:23

up with echoes of the strength that you will

47:25

one day have as a fully grown man, a

47:28

state that you are rapidly

47:30

approaching. Yeah,

47:32

and I think with that, he's

47:35

going to, oh, well, maybe

47:39

John it rushes him over

47:41

to the metaphysician because that's somewhere that we've

47:43

been. We know where that spot is. I

47:47

think you head to the metaphysician. I

48:23

suppose I'm here over a matter of copper. I'm

48:26

a brightsmith by trade. Might

48:29

as well say I'm a factory worker

48:31

now. Distilling

48:34

dyes. Of course, working copper and

48:36

brass is pretty common. Sometimes

48:42

there's coal for nickel or pewter, and

48:44

very, very rarely I'd get occasion to

48:46

work with gold or silver. Wild

48:49

to think I'd have several months' salary

48:51

just pinched between my fingers sometimes, but

48:53

I even hold that all that wealth

48:55

all at once. You

48:58

see, brightsmith work is specialized. Most

49:03

people who have occasion to use something like

49:05

brass would much rather be working with something

49:07

like iron or steel. The only

49:10

cases where they don't is because they can't.

49:12

You live in an area with enough folk, though,

49:14

and enough work comes your way that

49:16

you can keep the doors open. It's well enough

49:19

living hand to mouth. Most people can't

49:21

avoid doing that. The things that

49:23

really keep you safe, that keep you

49:25

warm at night, are the big contracts.

49:28

The few times where some fool needs

49:30

a very lot of something. Occasionally

49:34

you'll find a hooper who has

49:36

to have barrels with brass bindings.

49:39

Usually something to do with folklore or

49:41

something like, but it generally does keep

49:43

pretty well in wet environments. Maybe

49:45

some rich snot who needs a lot of tat cast

49:47

a tin. That's not

49:49

the job that came through my door, though. The

49:52

job that came through my door was

49:54

pressing bits, putting

49:57

together bars for the red

49:59

feathered syndicate. Now many

50:01

folk are familiar enough with spending coin

50:03

but very few know how it's made.

50:07

They've got a system for their bars, all

50:09

their coins really. You've got your

50:11

bars which can be hacked down individually

50:13

into bits and those are

50:16

tracked in how they're spent. Every

50:18

time a bit is passed to

50:20

a certified business it ought

50:22

be stamped with the seal of the port where it

50:24

was spent. Every bit has six

50:26

sides. One side shows where it was

50:28

minted, another side shows which ship carried

50:30

it out of port, and then there

50:33

are four sides for the seals of

50:35

the ports where it's spent. Now bits

50:37

will change hands privately. You

50:39

can settle your private debts

50:41

without bringing seals into it.

50:43

But if you're paying for something like lodging, food

50:46

supply, clothing, metal, all

50:49

that gets passed to some poor business

50:51

owner who's got to fix it with

50:53

a seal and whichever owner ends up

50:55

with that fourth seal, they've got to

50:57

trade off that coin to the red

50:59

feather syndicate. And in exchange they're supposed

51:01

to get a completely unstamped bit or

51:03

bar in return. I've

51:05

been told that all of this is for

51:07

their ledgers, for their tracking

51:10

of how their trade moves across

51:12

the whole of the rediscovered world.

51:15

Some poor bastard deep in the heart

51:17

of Arim takes every single one of

51:19

those bits and looks at every single

51:22

one of those seals and writes it

51:24

down in some book. And

51:26

they study those books about how their

51:29

ships are moving back and forth. And

51:32

that's how they decide where their routes are

51:34

going to be, who they're trading

51:36

with, where they're moving coin. Most

51:40

people say that when red feather coin

51:42

is in high demand things are going

51:44

well. Lots of bits change in hands.

51:46

Lots of people line in their pockets

51:48

and fill in their bellies. But

51:50

see, there's a problem. When red feather

51:52

coin is moving, eventually it's fallen into

51:54

the hands of businesses that need to

51:56

press their seal and you can only

51:58

pass through four. of those before

52:01

the coin is dead. Now when the Treasuries

52:03

of red feather ports are full to the

52:05

brim with fresh coin, there's no problem at

52:07

all. Maybe a bit of inconvenience as you

52:09

have to send someone to run over and

52:11

swap out your bars and bits for you

52:13

in the middle of the day. But if

52:15

those Treasuries are full of stamped

52:18

bits, well then you've got no coin

52:20

to spend. You could be the

52:22

richest folk in town, but if you're sitting on

52:24

top of a mountain of stamped up silver, then

52:26

you've got no money at all. And

52:29

the feathers aren't fond to sending out

52:31

huge holes full of unstamped coins because

52:34

they're a might target for pirates and

52:36

the sort of honor guard you'd need to

52:39

protect a shipment like that. Well, it's

52:42

expensive. So while

52:44

they're supposed to do most of the

52:46

mint in an accounting deep in the

52:48

heart of the rediscovered world at some

52:51

fort nearby Orem, demand simply can't keep

52:53

up with that. You need to keep

52:55

adding new coin to the system, which

52:58

means on rare occasion

53:00

contracting a brightsmith like myself.

53:03

Now I can see the crooked wheels turning in

53:05

your head saying Finn,

53:08

what if one of these businesses should

53:11

simply forget to put their seal on

53:13

a bit? Or if I

53:15

took my coin to a brightsmith such

53:17

as yourself, couldn't you tamp out a

53:19

seal that has been put into it?

53:22

Or if you were a contracted brightsmith,

53:24

couldn't you mix down the copper and

53:26

stretch things out a bit, walk

53:28

away with part of the sum in materials?

53:32

I'd say to you, everything that

53:34

you suggested is considered by

53:36

corporate policy, destruction of

53:39

red feather goods, which

53:41

is jailing and in some case

53:43

hanging offenses, all of which

53:45

of course can be paid off by

53:47

a hefty fine. Oh,

53:49

don't look at me like that. I'm

53:51

a good man and one of my word. I

53:53

would never do something like that. I've

53:56

got no love for the red feathers, but

53:58

when someone walks through my door. contracts

54:00

me for trade. I take

54:02

it serious and I honor

54:05

every letter of the contract we

54:07

sign so if the feathers ask

54:09

me for copper bars they get

54:11

copper bars. Now I mostly work in a

54:13

hand shop so an order for

54:15

a few hundred bars is well

54:18

past what I normally work

54:20

with and they wanted one

54:22

thousand. One

54:24

thousand copper bars. Just

54:27

two copper bits will get a man through

54:29

a week. It'll be a

54:31

lean and hungry week but a

54:33

full week. One

54:36

thousand copper bars. Think

54:38

of how many wages that represents. Think

54:41

of how much it would represent for me. I

54:45

had to accept. Had to. There's

54:48

no way that a brightsmith like me could

54:50

turn down that kind of work. There's

54:53

nothing that comes through my door that's so

54:55

steady and the work that I do stays

54:57

done. So even if I've got

55:00

loyalty from customers they're only ever gonna need

55:02

five or six things for me in their

55:04

lifetime. How

55:08

could you turn down? Campaign

55:18

Skyjax is a one-shot network production. For more

55:20

information be sure to follow us on Twitter

55:22

over at campaign pod for updates about live

55:24

shows and other events we might be doing.

55:29

Hey heroes it's Tracy, editor

55:32

for OneShot, project manager for the network.

55:35

It's a new year and that means it's time

55:37

for new games. If you want

55:39

to pick up something that's new to you you should

55:41

check out my catalog on itch. Everything

55:43

is 24% off to celebrate

55:46

2024. You know,

55:48

new year, new games. Head

55:50

over to the other Tracy that's

55:52

TRACY.itch dot I-O and see what

55:55

I've got going on. There's a

55:57

huge variety of games to choose

55:59

from. I'm sure you're gonna find something you'll

56:01

love. So, again, theothertracy.itch.io

56:04

from now January 1st

56:06

until January 31st. Go

56:10

find a new game. Thanks, you guys.

57:00

The Neon Caster. I

57:02

am James Damato, your host and

57:04

game master. You can find me

57:06

on Twitter, at oneshotrpg, or

57:08

on my podcast, One Shot. The

57:10

original music featured in this podcast

57:13

was written, composed, and performed by

57:15

Arnie Parrot. You can

57:17

find him over on Twitter, at

57:19

Arnie Parrot, or on his website,

57:21

ATPtoons. This episode was edited

57:23

by Allie Grauer, who can be found

57:26

on Twitter, at Dreams to Become, or

57:28

on her podcast, Skyjax Currier's

57:30

Call. Our logo was designed

57:33

by Fiona Shea, who can be found

57:35

on Twitter, at Lunarum. The World of

57:37

Sphere was inspired in part by the

57:40

music of the Decemberists and Illimat, produced

57:42

by Together Studios. This show was made

57:44

in part by using a modified version

57:46

of the Genesis role-playing system, designed

57:49

by Sam Stewart and a team of talented

57:51

professionals. There are no kings.

57:54

Take flight. She's

58:01

perfect, there I am. Twice

58:04

to the dearest we're leaving me.

58:07

You know we can never...