0:04

So mascot characters are definitely something intimidating

0:06

to run into when you're tiny. Yeah.

0:08

Yeah, I like I am on

0:11

the fence because like, you know, I

0:13

do remember there being like some not

0:15

great Easter bunny Santa Claus

0:17

interactions as a child, but I

0:19

also remember like pretty being pretty

0:22

jazzed about Disney World and whatnot.

0:24

So like, I don't know if

0:26

it's the design of a mascot

0:28

character or if it's the environment

0:30

around an interaction with a mascot

0:32

character that doesn't squeeze ability

0:35

for these, these

0:37

bad boys look very huggable. They

0:40

look like creatures. Yeah,

0:42

it's the project I worked on a while

0:44

ago was with the Premier League. It had

0:46

a bunch of football mascots as part of

0:49

the content of it. And you

0:51

could kind of tell how well off

0:53

a particular football team was by the

0:55

quality of the mascot that they had

0:58

where like some is just like, oh, this is

1:00

just a living cartoon. This is just a cartoon

1:02

line that has come to life. And it's here

1:06

when there are others that are like, oh, this is a

1:08

thing that is fully escaped from Silent Hill. I can't

1:12

get this way for me. Yes.

1:16

This is the Umbridge trapped

1:19

coal miner. The famous the

1:22

Flinshire play grats. The

1:26

costume is too goopy. We

2:00

are on the Uhuru. Johnnett, I want to

2:02

know where are you on the ship, and

2:05

what have you decided to do

2:09

because the captain and Gable have

2:11

not shown up promptly, I

2:13

would describe. Yeah. I

2:17

think that Johnnett, we

2:19

probably pick up with

2:21

Johnnett right outside our

2:23

medical wing, just kind

2:25

of peeking in, checking

2:28

on Angelo. Angelo,

2:32

if we see a dirty shot of Johnnett

2:35

in the background peeking

2:37

in, we see the sheets rising

2:39

and falling, so we see that

2:42

Angelo is breathing, but he's not

2:44

moving, he's unconscious. And so Johnnett

2:47

keeps peeking in, and then

2:49

going back into the hallway.

2:54

He's not looking at the clock, but he's

2:56

like, there's a candle

2:58

lit in the hallway, and

3:01

we slowly see time lapses

3:03

of this candle get lower

3:05

and lower and lower, and

3:07

every time Johnnett's like, what, where are

3:10

they? Where are

3:12

they? We agreed, we agreed. Hasn't

3:16

anyone ever told you that a

3:18

watchpot never boils? Who are

3:20

you? I'm Carmen, the

3:22

doctor that you hired for the

3:24

ship. My bad, but also. It's

3:28

okay, I was a recent acquisition. Okay, okay.

3:30

Thank you. Thank you, you are doing such

3:32

a great job. The man that you brought

3:35

in was in bad shape. He's not gonna

3:37

get any better in the next couple of

3:39

minutes. Okay, well, thank

3:42

you for saying that. I'm gonna maybe

3:45

pace upstairs

3:47

a little bit, but I can't promise that

3:50

I won't be back, because I'm just

3:52

worried. He was a great guy, and

3:54

he doesn't deserve what happened to him.

3:57

Nobody who ends up on that slab

3:59

deserves it. Well, that's not

4:01

true. Some people deserve it, but it's hard

4:03

to know most of the time. I

4:06

say don't worry about it, because stress is bad

4:08

for your health. Well,

4:10

Carmen, I'm kind of

4:12

kicking myself for kind of forgetting that you're

4:15

around. You seem, you seem, you

4:17

seem cool. It's very

4:19

difficult. There are a lot of characters that

4:21

are added to the ship. And

4:24

we can see running behind

4:26

Janet like a giant parakeet,

4:30

a very hairy man. Gosh,

4:32

I'm trying to remember the other ones that we did earlier

4:35

than that. And I said, no. So

4:43

I think, John it, we

4:45

get a couple of shots of him just like trying

4:48

to twiddle his thumbs and occupy

4:50

time. But then he sort of

4:52

starts to like trace back like

4:55

this whole thing with the cleaver. Where

4:57

did it start? And he's like

4:59

the captain's quarters. And so

5:02

he goes back to

5:04

the captain's quarters and like we get a

5:06

moment of like, of like,

5:08

he realizes that maybe John isn't

5:10

necessarily here without the captain often

5:13

really at all. And so he's

5:15

like, I'm gonna be respectful. But

5:17

also, like things

5:20

are hitting the fan and I don't know

5:22

what's going on. So John is actually going

5:24

to start like pulling things off the wall

5:26

and looking for either like a

5:29

source of magic or like

5:33

this is great. Yeah, so glad

5:35

perception check on the room. Yeah,

5:38

yeah. Make a perception check. Well, we'll

5:40

start with that. Um,

5:45

is there any way to like,

5:48

aid this with magic?

5:50

Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. Because like, opening

5:53

your eye would definitely do that. Yeah,

5:55

yeah, yeah. Okay, well, then I'm going

5:57

to if this is I

6:00

think I have two magic. I'm

6:03

going to add two magic to this.

6:06

Great. Great. Two will

6:08

either add a new die or upgrade

6:10

two existing dice. So that

6:13

would be two D12 and a D8 if

6:15

you were to upgrade both of those or

6:18

honestly three D8 and a

6:20

D6, which is all good. Three

6:22

D8 and a D6? Right. Yeah.

6:26

Go for it. First strategy

6:29

note while you all are thinking,

6:31

if you upgrade D8s to D12s,

6:33

that gives you potential for critical

6:35

successes where adding

6:37

new dice technically ups

6:39

your success pool. I

6:43

don't know which is better in different circumstances yet. There

6:45

is a way for me to find that out. I'll

6:47

throw the math meds to sort out. Yeah.

6:50

All right. So we've got, here

6:52

we go. We got the, let's go through

6:54

the D8s. We got a

6:56

six, a five, and a

6:58

six. And then on

7:01

the D6, we have a six. Great.

7:06

So you get three

7:08

fate and

7:12

four successes. So

7:15

here's what happens, Tyler. You

7:19

enter the room, entering

7:22

Oramar's office. For

7:25

whatever reason, the shadows

7:27

feel heavier in here

7:29

and the air is

7:31

colder. Like it's

7:33

not freezing cold, but you swear

7:36

when you exhale that

7:38

you can see your breath. You

7:41

turn up like one of the lamps in

7:43

the room. Light goes

7:46

into the room and it does

7:49

feel like you just have

7:51

heavy contrast shadows everywhere. The

7:54

whole office feels more intimidating,

7:56

more menacing than it normally

7:59

does. You whip your

8:01

head around to the small

8:03

library slash trophy shelf where

8:06

the cleaver was before.

8:09

And you can see on the

8:12

ground in front of that shelf

8:14

is a book, an old

8:17

book with elaborate

8:19

like filigree covers, this

8:23

strange smooth leather on

8:25

it, and these old

8:28

weathered pages, that must be upwards

8:30

of a hundred years old. It

8:33

is the book that you recognize

8:35

recovering from the civility that was

8:37

locked away in the same place

8:39

as the feather weave and

8:42

the angel feather that you

8:44

recovered from the civility. It

8:47

sets off kind of like

8:50

an icy prickle in your fingertips

8:52

just looking at it. And

8:55

confronted with this threat, I think

8:57

that's what makes you want to

8:59

open your eye. Your eye flickers

9:01

open and there

9:04

is a presence in the room. It

9:07

is hard to define exactly, like you

9:10

can tell that it is, it was

9:13

here recently and it left

9:15

behind like some kind

9:17

of evidence of

9:20

it being here. You're peering

9:23

through and kind of

9:25

following it, there is a desk by

9:27

this library and you

9:30

hear coming from the deck just a

9:36

a knocking from inside the drawer.

9:38

John it says to himself, oh

9:42

I don't like the look of that. And

9:46

so he's going to

9:48

like pull out his kasarigama, kind

9:51

of like get into a ready stance

9:53

and then one, two

9:55

creep up to the desk and then he probably

9:57

going to get to the desk and using the

9:59

bladed end the kasari gama, he's

10:01

going to like grab the handle and

10:03

he's going to open the desk to

10:05

see what is inside. Inside

10:08

the desk you do see something that

10:11

might startle, John, I will leave

10:13

it up to you whether it

10:15

does. You see a

10:19

somewhat curved and like at this

10:21

point curled into a fist mummified

10:24

human hand. It

10:28

has like down at the

10:30

wrist kind of an elaborate

10:32

ivory and gold handle almost

10:35

that is rounded and

10:38

covered with like church imagery. It

10:40

looks like some of it has

10:42

rubbed down and you the players

10:45

might recognize this, you might not.

10:48

This was an artifact that you recovered

10:50

after you defeated the silver bullet in

10:52

battle. This is a

10:55

piece of religious reliquary, a

10:58

hand of a saint. So

11:00

this is the hand of

11:02

Saint Horisia, keeper of the

11:05

sunken abbey. This is

11:07

the actual hand or purportedly

11:09

the actual hand of

11:12

a woman who was

11:14

sealed inside a very

11:16

important abbey or maybe this

11:18

is Saint Miriam, witness

11:20

of the sunken abbey. It

11:22

might be her hand. It's probably

11:24

her hand because Horisia was never recovered. So

11:27

essentially there was an abbey

11:30

that was like flooding

11:32

basically with sea water and

11:35

many many important church texts

11:37

were in there and

11:39

there was a nun,

11:41

Miriam or a nun

11:43

Horisia who volunteered to

11:46

stay behind in the abbey and

11:49

translate as many texts as

11:51

possible and she sent out

11:53

by missive, by bird messenger

11:57

all of the texts she could recovering as

11:59

much as possible. from the Abbey, and

12:01

Sister Miriam, who worked with her,

12:04

basically received and bound all of

12:06

the manuscripts that she was able

12:08

to copy over. And the

12:11

miracle of it is these manuscripts kept

12:13

coming in for months and years. Horizia

12:15

was never able to personally

12:17

communicate. All that would show up

12:19

is just manuscript after manuscript after

12:22

manuscript. And Miriam

12:24

basically translated and bound these

12:26

manuscripts until she died. And

12:30

one of her hands was left behind

12:32

after her body was cremated in death,

12:35

and was turned into

12:38

this relic object that

12:40

can translate the words

12:42

of the dead purportedly.

12:45

And so the hand, you see this

12:48

mummified hand in the drawer, and

12:50

it moves kind of in slow motion,

12:53

the fingers kind

12:55

of uncurl. And

12:58

then, as friendly

13:00

as possible, it tries

13:02

to beckon Johnnett

13:05

forward. Does

13:11

Johnnett know about Miriam? Does

13:14

he know that lore? I

13:17

don't know. Here's

13:19

the thing. We sort

13:22

of uncovered the story of this object a

13:24

little bit when we created it after it

13:26

was muted from the ship. It

13:28

is a question, and I think Oromar or

13:31

Gable was the person to recover it. It

13:33

might have even been Travis being the person

13:35

to recover it. But

13:38

it ended up in

13:40

Oromar's desk drawer, probably

13:42

amongst other wildly valuable

13:44

pieces of reliquary and

13:47

artifacts and whatnot. We can see in

13:49

there there's like a Hellraiser cube and

13:51

like a pokeball and like a bunch

13:53

of other things in that drawer. A

13:55

couple infinity stones. Yeah, yeah. You

14:01

can see that like amongst these objects in the

14:03

drawer and it really depends on whether Somebody

14:05

on the ship would have recognized it

14:07

and explained it to you

14:09

before it was put away I

14:12

feel like there's probably like a

14:14

loose level of like of

14:17

like John it probably asked a question like

14:19

hey What is that the captain probably said

14:22

part of an answer and then John it

14:24

stopped like listening And then the captain continued

14:26

to say the full lore, but he was

14:28

like, oh man, it's a dead hand Wow,

14:30

okay And it's

14:32

like darn ADHD. Yeah so

14:36

He knows that like this is this is

14:39

like a member of the church's hand I

14:41

think he probably like his off-ramp was like,

14:43

why would you preserve? Why would you separate

14:45

the hand from the body? Like that seems

14:47

kind of weird. I wouldn't want my friends

14:49

to do that I should make I should

14:51

start a will now so to make sure

14:53

that no one separates my body from my

14:56

body when I die And so

14:58

so he's like whoa, that's that that's that hand and

15:00

then it's like beckons him over and

15:03

so John it is Yeah,

15:07

he's gonna do it. But he's like, all right hand I'm

15:10

coming over there because I

15:12

want to because I want to do that

15:14

not because you said but what's and

15:17

so he he he gets up

15:20

to that he gets up to the hand puts

15:22

the The kasari gamma

15:24

blade up to it and kind of just like

15:27

pokes at it like hello me

15:31

Hello the hand which is incapable

15:34

capable of moving very suddenly Like

15:37

move slowly towards the blade to

15:39

like pinch fingers around it so

15:41

that it can be picked up

15:43

Along with the blade and

15:46

while it like clings onto the blade It

15:48

sticks out a little pinky and like tries

15:50

to gesture towards the desk and like point

15:53

it over to the desk Okay

15:57

Got it. He's going to he's gonna

15:59

like pick it up, hold it with

16:01

like three fingers and a thumb like

16:03

as daintily and as far away from

16:06

his space as possible and he's going

16:08

to like kind of go

16:10

where it is trying to be

16:12

led. Yeah. Okay, okay,

16:14

okay. It's not far to

16:17

like gingerly move it up to the

16:19

desk and once it is appreciably over

16:21

the surface of the desk, it like

16:23

drops down onto the drafting pad on

16:25

the desk and it

16:27

stands itself up on its fingers

16:30

and then takes its pointer finger and points

16:32

very directly towards the quills that are put

16:34

up at the end of the desk and

16:36

like gestures at it. You're

16:39

not going to curse me are you? The

16:42

hand like goes down to the table like

16:44

taps the table and like shakes its finger

16:46

back and forth. Okay.

16:51

And so he goes over to the

16:53

quill, grabs it, brings it back over,

16:55

stops, goes back over, dips

16:58

it in some ink and then kind of

17:00

gives him like, alright, I'm not supposed to,

17:03

I'm really not supposed to be here, I'm

17:05

not supposed to be using the captain's like

17:07

writing utensils so whatever you do, please make

17:09

it fast and make it worth my time.

17:13

So it pinches the quill between its

17:15

fingers and uses its pinky to like

17:17

maneuver itself up to the top of

17:19

the page and then

17:21

again slowly but

17:24

carefully and like I think kind

17:26

of beautiful script like starts

17:28

to write and

17:30

we can see the ink appearing

17:32

on the page as it writes

17:34

out, John it, we

17:37

are all in great danger.

17:59

Thank you. And

18:15

we can see the ink appearing on

18:18

the page as it writes out, John

18:21

it, we are all

18:23

in great danger. Uh,

18:26

it then quickly scoots down the page a little bit

18:28

and starts a new line. That isn't

18:31

a curse by the way, we were

18:33

in danger before, so I didn't curse

18:35

you. Alright,

18:37

alright, alright, alright, just make sure it

18:39

stays that way. Who are you? Who

18:41

are you? Who is speaking to me

18:43

right now? How can you not

18:46

recognize me? It's Dref! Oh!

18:51

Whoa! Whoa! Hey

18:55

man! John it, John

18:57

it, like, I have lost some weight, haha,

19:00

and it does put that

19:02

in parentheses. John

19:06

it immediately turns the Kasarigama blade

19:08

to just like offer up, offer

19:10

up a fist to Dap, Dap

19:13

a hand. And even

19:16

from beyond the grave, Dref daps

19:18

badly. It is you! Even

19:21

moving in very slow motion, it first

19:24

assumes that this is like a handshake or

19:26

a high five and

19:29

just doesn't go well. Uh,

19:33

Dref, what do you mean? Who's in

19:35

danger? It drags itself back over

19:37

to the pen and writes, all

19:40

of us, the Butcher, was

19:42

in the pages. Watching,

19:45

waiting, said, wait, we're

19:48

talking like, not like

19:51

the rage of the Butcher or the disembodiedness

19:54

of the Butcher, the actual

19:56

Butcher luminary was in the

19:58

pages. The hand actually

20:01

takes the time like pauses and takes the time

20:03

to write dot dot dot Possibly

20:08

an aspect perhaps inconclusive

20:12

Okay, definitely a being powerfully

20:15

bound to the butcher Dref

20:20

I I I let I

20:22

let it out didn't I the

20:24

hand pauses again

20:27

and and sheepishly

20:31

Actually John it. I

20:34

want you to roll a Perception

20:38

check that you can do

20:40

either with your presence or

20:42

your intellect

20:45

whichever whichever is better They

20:48

are both the same, but I have

20:50

more Points from

20:52

intellect so I'm gonna use to

20:54

intellect Mm-hmm.

20:57

I will Upgrade documents

21:00

so you'll roll a d8 if

21:03

you upgrade it twice actually you're rolling a d2 I

21:06

think it would be better to add a d6 so roll

21:08

a d8 and a d6 and tell me tell me what

21:10

you have All right, so on the d8 that's

21:12

a 7 on the d6.

21:14

That's a 4 Okay.

21:17

Oh wow two

21:19

successes and an opportunity So You

21:25

can see as the

21:27

hand is writing that it

21:29

writes guiltily Like

21:33

it just doesn't do this confident and

21:35

it goes well John it

21:38

I'm sure we'll all be able to

21:40

forgive you You

21:44

can tell the draft is lying and

21:47

that you did not release

21:49

this entity Okay

21:54

All right, well, I mean All

21:57

right, it was me bold bold print

22:00

What? How? How did you

22:02

do this from beyond the

22:04

grave? I read

22:07

the diary. Or what

22:09

passes for a diary, honestly most of

22:12

it was incomprehensible. Which is what you

22:14

get with the kind of schooling I

22:16

imagine this man had. Well, okay, we

22:18

can't really. I don't

22:21

think this person made the diary to be

22:23

read by other people. That's on us for

22:25

taking the diary and reading it. The

22:28

criticism is warranted. Believe me, if I

22:30

didn't think it would curse you worse,

22:32

I would make you read it yourself.

22:35

I don't want to. Somewhere

22:38

far away, Gable is validated. You

22:42

shouldn't have read anything. Yes, this

22:44

is why I don't read. He

22:47

mentions Sorrow's End. At

22:50

the end of the diary, he

22:52

implied that he could see me

22:54

reading it. But it must have

22:57

taken place in the past. I've

22:59

checked the future pages.

23:01

They are all blank, unwritten.

23:03

But he mentioned Sorrow's End.

23:05

He mentioned Shank Hill. Okay,

23:10

okay. All right. Well then, can't,

23:13

uh, no use crying

23:15

over spilled milk. Okay, this is, this

23:18

is, uh, that's a then

23:21

problem. We need to get this

23:23

butcher back in the book. Agreed.

23:26

How do we do that? It

23:29

just writes dot, dot, dot. No,

23:32

you're the ideas guy. All right,

23:34

you come up with things. I'm

23:37

more of a study guy. Things

23:40

kind of happen. And I observe

23:42

them and make

23:44

connections to things that I have already

23:46

learned and build upon a knowledge base

23:48

that we all can then what happens,

23:50

no, I, I, fine. What happens if

23:53

we, what happens if we get

23:55

the book and we get the cleaver

23:57

and we smash the cleaver?

23:59

into the book and hold it tight and hope that

24:01

the soul goes back into the pages. Is

24:04

that anything? Crude, but

24:06

I suppose worth investigating.

24:11

If someone, I don't think,

24:14

John, it's really much of like

24:16

a ceiling energies containing, like containing

24:18

stuff in stuff, and that's not

24:20

his magic thing. I feel like

24:22

him, he immediately was like, Gable

24:26

could seal something into something

24:29

if they maybe do

24:32

have that kind of magic. I

24:34

feel like Gable could at least fuck

24:37

it up a little bit, you know? Alright,

24:42

until we come up with a better

24:44

plan, that's the plan. And

24:47

John, it goes to

24:49

grab the hand, like,

24:51

alright, wait, we

24:53

gotta wait until the captain and Gable get back here.

24:57

But you, he points to the hand,

24:59

you're coming with me. And John, it

25:01

goes back into like

25:04

the captain's bookshelves, kind of rifles

25:06

through stuff, grabs a

25:08

couple of loose pieces of parchment

25:10

paper and like, essentially

25:13

a clipboard and scoops

25:16

up the hand, puts the hand on his

25:18

shoulder and goes to the top deck. I

25:20

think keen-eyed listeners will

25:23

notice that the clipboard that John,

25:25

it grabs is the clipboard from

25:27

the Minoc. It's just a little

25:29

Easter egg that we flipped, production

25:31

flipped in there. It's kind of

25:33

a fun thing for everybody. It's

25:35

not a period. It is glaringly

25:37

obvious. It

25:40

wasn't a period of the Star Wars

25:42

one either. It was just like a

25:44

generic brown clipboard. So

25:49

you grab that and I think

25:51

this is a perfect time for

25:53

Gable and the captain to return

25:55

as we've already established

25:57

that a bunch of time has passed. You

26:00

did mention earlier that you weren't specifically

26:02

supposed to be touching things in the

26:04

captain's desk without permission. I think

26:06

that's kind of funny. So then, yeah, John

26:09

it throws the hand on his shoulder, grabs

26:11

all the stuff. The captain's quarters

26:14

is a mess. When

26:16

it's like one of the things where you have to look

26:18

for one thing and so you empty out all the drawers

26:20

to look for the one thing. And then you spend all

26:22

that time, you found the one thing, but now you got

26:25

to book it. So he goes to, he does not clean

26:27

up at all, goes to throw open the door and

26:30

pokes his head out into the hallway

26:32

and sees the captain and Gable like

26:34

walking down into the lower deck. Yeah.

26:37

You can see your office, there's

26:39

just infinity stones and sonic screwdrivers

26:42

everywhere. John,

26:45

your timely, I suppose you

26:47

were anticipating our arrival. Wait,

26:50

has Ormar seen his office?

26:53

I think you're in the way. He's

26:56

like walking towards the captain's quarters

26:58

and it's like the closer that

27:00

he's getting to the doorway, the

27:02

harder his expression is getting as

27:05

he's kind of like peering past

27:07

you. Were

27:09

you looking for something, John

27:11

at Kessler? John, John

27:13

it reflexively goes to like put one

27:16

hand in front of the hand on

27:18

his shoulder and then he's just like,

27:20

what am I doing? And he kind of puts his

27:22

hand down and like Gable knocks it off his shoulder.

27:25

Get out of there. Get

27:30

out of there. It

27:32

starts like stamping at it. Gable,

27:35

Gable, Gable, no, no, it's

27:38

cursed. It probably

27:40

is very cursed, but it's also a draft. I

27:43

see. I recognize it is

27:45

one of the reliquaries we obtained from

27:48

one of our previous encounters,

27:51

the silver bullet maybe, but

27:53

why is this important?

27:56

Wait, hold on, hold on. It's a

27:58

draft. You

28:00

told me about it. It can communicate

28:02

with the dead. And I guess it's

28:04

tuned in to Dref's frequency. Hmm. John,

28:07

I see how you can make this mistake.

28:09

Dref was a very small man, but he

28:11

did have a whole body. And

28:13

not just a hand. Before. So... He

28:16

made me see a ghost now, but this is not Dref's fault. Oh

28:18

yeah, yeah, you know, I forgot that

28:20

Dref wasn't just a hand. Mm-hmm. No,

28:22

I know that! This

28:25

is our friend! Somehow! Oromar

28:27

strides past the two of

28:29

you bickering into the

28:31

office and sees the number

28:33

of opened books that are just

28:35

strewn across the desk. And with

28:37

one arm, just sweeps them all

28:39

off the table so there's now

28:42

space. See,

28:44

but... Alright, if this is Dref's hand...

28:46

Dref, can you make an O with your

28:48

hand? The

28:53

middle finger of the hand, like, sticks

28:56

up, points at Gable. No! Hey, Dref,

28:59

I'm trying to do a funny bit! Make it

29:01

O with your hand! Make

29:03

it O! Please, I want to stick my

29:05

fingers in, like, like in sex!

29:11

Clearly, Gable, having two of... Having sat at

29:13

that dinner for as long as it has

29:15

has made you delirious. I thought we were

29:17

going to get you some food. I couldn't

29:19

get any food, and I only had wine.

29:21

You did have gruel available. They did have

29:23

gruel for the pious among us. I

29:25

want a sandwich. Yes, I

29:27

will call a member of

29:30

the crew to obtain one, but clearly

29:32

we have something important to discuss. What

29:36

took... And he says

29:38

this very slowly, and with every

29:40

word it's more directed at Gable.

29:42

What took so

29:45

long? Oh!

29:51

Oh no! Oh,

29:54

I'm sorry! Oh, I'm sorry! Is he okay?

29:56

Is it still okay? Yeah!

30:00

Yes, Angelo. You

30:03

did mention something offhand about

30:05

butcher involvement. Do we? Offhand!

30:09

It wasn't offhand, that was

30:11

not the tone. That was

30:13

not the tone. It was a very intensely proportional

30:17

tone to the severity of

30:19

the situation. To be fair,

30:21

Gable, the severity of

30:24

the situation coming across in your voice

30:26

is usually quite high. It's

30:28

very difficult to separate out

30:31

the urgent from maybe the

30:33

can-wait. So

30:36

then what's the situation, John and Kessler? Are

30:38

we going to be talking to this new

30:42

form of dress, or are we going to be

30:44

seeing the person that you've

30:46

taken in? I

30:49

don't think Angelo is in any condition

30:51

to be talking to

30:53

us. Carmen, Carmen's

30:55

got him stabilized, but he's

30:58

still unconscious. That

31:01

means the cleaver's still out there, which means the

31:03

butcher's still out there. I

31:06

feel like we don't wait for Angelo

31:09

to wake up. Dress

31:11

seems to have some

31:13

kind of insight

31:15

into what's going on, and so I say

31:18

we go after the

31:20

cleaver, just us. Yeah,

31:24

and John, it can even hold up

31:26

the paper with his essentially chat log

31:29

with dreams that kind of explains

31:31

the situation more or less. Or

31:34

a malleens forward peering at this. And

31:38

this is where I started to

31:40

train the hand on the prompts

31:42

of narrowing down and

31:44

into like, what is the butcher?

31:47

It took a couple back and forth, but

31:49

I fed it some reference text to really

31:51

get it honed in and honestly, I think...

31:55

You just stole that text from anywhere.

31:57

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean,

31:59

it's like... It's someone else's text. It's

32:01

someone else's source

32:03

intellectual property. But what it's

32:05

churning out now is completely

32:08

original. Well, that does explain

32:10

the number of books that were open on

32:12

Monday. It does start just writing a transcript

32:14

of the Star Wars campaign. No, no, no,

32:16

no, no. Smack it, smack it, smack

32:18

it, smack it. So,

32:23

sorry, sorry, sorry. Where are

32:25

we going? I don't know where to go. So,

32:31

as I understand,

32:36

the essence of the butcher is going to be

32:38

driven towards things

32:40

that exhibit its qualities,

32:43

that kind of hunger for

32:46

violence, that killing intent. Yeah,

32:49

so I'm not

32:52

sure if the presence of

32:54

the cleaver furthers or catalyzes murderous

32:56

intent, or

33:00

it's just drawn to murderous

33:02

intent, but I

33:05

feel like the longer that we wait, that's

33:07

more time for somewhere out there in

33:09

this town. Someone's going to get real

33:11

stabby, and the cleaver's going to find

33:13

him. And Nathan, I

33:15

think, like within Oramar, like thinking

33:18

through the situation, there is an

33:20

inkling of this is

33:22

an aspect of the butcher, a

33:25

connection between some

33:27

kind of mortal

33:30

essence and illuminery. There

33:32

is something to be learned here. I

33:36

had a clue in my hand this

33:38

entire time, and I let it slip

33:40

away outside of my notice for

33:43

streaking. Okay,

33:45

very well. The

33:48

nature of Sorrow's End is

33:51

many, many people who have a

33:54

hunger to bite back at the people who

33:56

have put them there brewing day after day

33:59

with no outlet. There are

34:02

dozens of people in this town

34:05

that could be harboring killing intent. ALICE

34:08

I don't even know where to start then. ALICE

34:10

It's quite late at this hour.

34:13

Is there, um, having wondered

34:16

around during the daylight hours and

34:18

having been given something of a

34:20

tour of the imported

34:22

buildings by Mr. Stone? Do

34:27

we know if there's anywhere here that has

34:30

a graveyard shift? ALICE

34:32

Yeah, I think I

34:34

mentioned that the factories

34:36

run at some capacity almost all

34:39

the time. There is a kind

34:41

of technocratic

34:44

worker schedule where there's basically

34:46

always a shift on, always

34:48

a shift resting, and always

34:51

a shift asleep. Having

34:54

rubbed elbows with some of

34:56

the so-called nobility who've resided

34:59

here, I'm not quite sure

35:01

if any of them are looking to be

35:03

out for blood this evening. Although the

35:06

more I speak to

35:08

either trust the factory

35:11

foreman slash owner, the

35:13

more it feels like

35:15

she would do literally anything to get her

35:17

way, including bloody murder. But

35:20

I do wonder if there

35:22

is anybody who is, well,

35:24

at this hour on their

35:26

shift who is percolating resentful

35:28

feelings. It might be a place

35:30

to start if nothing else. ALICE I

35:33

think now is a good time

35:35

to complicate the problem further. And

35:39

do this by, in

35:42

Gabel's pocket, there is a

35:45

drop of glass that has

35:47

within it a prophecy

35:50

sealed. There were three prophecies

35:52

that were given to you by Sarise

35:56

on Haven. Another

35:58

one shatters open. that

36:00

you can see it. What

36:03

you see, overwhelming your vision,

36:05

is Sorrow's End. Over

36:09

the town, you can't tell

36:11

how far in the future this

36:13

is. Near the

36:16

wilderness around, there is

36:18

a thick, crimson haze

36:20

that is rolling over

36:22

the town and all

36:25

of the surrounding area.

36:27

When you can see inside

36:29

the town itself, within the

36:32

vision, it is eerily

36:34

quiet. There are no

36:36

birds chirping, there is really

36:39

no sound except the wind,

36:42

and even that is hushed by

36:44

how thick the air is. Looking

36:47

around within this vision, you

36:49

can see people, all fallen

36:51

to the ground or slumped

36:53

against walls, basically dead

36:56

on their feet. Though

36:58

very little of their actual skin can be

37:00

seen, the little skin

37:03

that is there and on

37:05

their clothes, there is this

37:07

apparent, crimson powder that has

37:09

fallen over everyone. This

37:11

vision tours you through the town

37:14

and very quickly, obviously

37:16

within a span of seconds, you receive

37:18

the vision, but it shows you the

37:21

dead mask of every

37:23

living soul currently in

37:25

Sorrow's End. You

37:27

understand this vaguely to

37:29

be a future. Do

37:31

I understand it to be like

37:35

the result of some

37:37

sort of explosion or something? It

37:40

is hard to say exactly what

37:42

might be the right cause of

37:44

it. You don't know

37:46

what set this off, what you are seeing

37:49

is the result of whatever it is. Though

37:51

I will say it does

37:53

not look like this

37:55

was an especially violent

37:57

end for anyone here.

38:00

It does look like every

38:02

single person in this town is dead

38:04

and that includes Some

38:06

of the scarier people like Edith

38:08

Trust. Yeah, but it was sudden.

38:11

It was sudden It

38:14

was it was sudden but it wasn't like

38:16

an emergency that people were running from There

38:19

are maybe a couple people who are like

38:21

grouped or huddled together in some sort of

38:23

distress But most people kind

38:25

of like just fell

38:27

down where they were Gable comes out of

38:29

that I can't remember

38:31

if I've told you two about the prophecies

38:34

Probably I probably still drowned by the last

38:36

one. So there's a little bit

38:38

implied in between all their conversations I think

38:40

I have told you that series gave me

38:42

these three you've watched one of them together

38:45

at the bar Previously so

38:48

and I would assume that I told the captain because like

38:50

why I would tell you what had happened

38:52

at the bar um Real

38:55

quick Nathan props to you for remembering that because

38:57

I only remember that because I listen to the

38:59

otter An

39:02

hour before we jumped on the call. No worries.

39:04

No worries Yeah, it

39:06

was a lot seconds since we lost it. I'm glad I

39:08

remember But

39:11

okay, there's yeah the constinated faces all around

39:13

I guess of the kind of like a

39:15

powder You say it seems No

39:20

matter what sorrows end will be subject

39:23

to a great tragedy. I don't know

39:25

when But

39:27

that is inevitability at the

39:29

end. This place will not continue forever and

39:31

a possible inevitability Which is those

39:33

two things don't necessarily I

39:36

will I will remind everyone

39:38

because we might not have remembered that

39:40

prophecies are not Necessarily

39:44

guaranteed they do show

39:46

Possible futures and likely futures,

39:49

but you were able

39:51

to subvert a prophecy that Jeanette

39:53

gave you earlier He said

39:55

that he saw a vision where you

39:58

knelt before the Morning Star Because

40:00

you had that warning beforehand and

40:03

you promised Travis that you would

40:05

subvert that fate, you did indeed

40:07

subvert that fate and that led

40:10

to you and Travis together battling

40:12

the morning star instead. So

40:15

you know that's possible. It's possible. So

40:18

this is a fate that can be turned

40:20

now that we're informed. We

40:24

have a path forward

40:26

that I think we may not have

40:29

anticipated when we go here. I

40:31

think we arrived here to gather information,

40:34

load up on supplies and make our

40:37

plans for upcoming adventures.

40:41

However, I feel as if

40:43

we do not get involved with

40:46

the situation in sorrow's end, we

40:48

would be somewhat responsible for what

40:50

I saw if I are

40:52

doing nothing. Also

40:56

to say, if we do

40:58

get more involved, this is something that I

41:00

would want to broach with the crew, not

41:03

just a passive

41:05

inclination because revolution starting

41:07

requires more than three people. You

41:10

raise very good points on both accounts.

41:13

I think if we are to go and intervene,

41:15

it's going to require more manpower than just the

41:17

three of us. And

41:19

moreover, if we are going

41:21

to be involved, it is going to

41:23

ultimately go and blow away what ruse

41:27

we have set amongst the people here

41:29

of who we are. Now

41:33

this does mean that anybody

41:35

who resides within sorrow's end,

41:38

who upon realizing who we are could

41:40

be a threat to us down the

41:42

line, cannot leave. Did

41:54

I get much of an impression of how long Edith's

41:58

guests would be staying? Um,

42:02

you didn't like, it seems

42:04

like most of them

42:06

are kind of the layabout wealthy

42:09

class where I think

42:12

one person like Liz's character said

42:14

that they were there to negotiate

42:17

for dies

42:20

and like didn't get the deal

42:22

that she wanted. So just decided

42:24

to stay and continue

42:27

to negotiate for the same discount

42:29

and has been doing that goodness

42:31

knows how long. So they're

42:34

kind of just hanging out, it seems.

42:37

Layabout. Many of

42:39

them I'm not concerned

42:41

with, but Edith Trust takes

42:43

clearly pride in her efficiency

42:46

and has no real

42:48

interest in forming allies

42:51

with the other people she's working with here,

42:53

at least of all the priests. Her

42:56

being able to leave Sorrows End

42:58

and tell others of our presence

43:01

would be disastrous. Wait,

43:04

are we saying that we are we

43:07

about to take out some

43:09

folks? It would

43:11

not be the first time, Jonette Kessler. I

43:14

mean, yeah, true, but I feel

43:16

like we take the

43:18

big sigh. I

43:23

feel like it's not often that we like go

43:25

into something being like, hey, we're about to like

43:28

have some marks and like you've got to you've

43:30

got to be gone for us to do this.

43:33

Great. Cool. Uh,

43:36

my days of running the skies red

43:38

with the blood was in my younger

43:41

days. I prefer to be much more

43:43

of a tactician and only shed blood

43:45

when it is truly necessary in

43:48

my old age. He says not really

43:50

looking that old at all, but you

43:52

know, okay. This

43:55

is one of those instances where

43:57

I think having to go and

43:59

shed some blood is vital to

44:01

our survival, to the wider plan

44:03

at hand. Speaking of hand, Dref,

44:06

any thoughts? Dref

44:09

is like kind of ancilly,

44:11

like wiggling the fingers, like

44:14

scrambling over for a pen and

44:17

writes down, okay,

44:19

so murders is an

44:22

option, totally, definitely.

44:26

That'll be more of your thing than

44:28

it will be my thing. I

44:31

do think murders around

44:33

an aspect of the butcher

44:36

could get dangerous. Great point.

44:38

That's a good point. Indeed. Yeah,

44:41

that's kind of like what it

44:44

wants, right? Oh,

44:47

okay. So we're already part of it. Interesting.

44:52

The chessboard has been laid. Yeah,

44:54

we've been playing. We're already in it.

44:56

Not to be arrogant, Gable, but

44:58

I feel that having the cleaver

45:01

in my possession is maybe less

45:03

dangerous than an actor

45:05

that we are not aware of within Thoreau's End.

45:08

Gotcha. But doing

45:11

murders to find

45:13

the Murder God is

45:16

accomplishing the Murder God's

45:19

plan or desires and

45:21

may make it more powerful if

45:23

we did those murders. Draft writes

45:26

unclear. And

45:55

so... I

46:01

foolishly agreed to meet him there

46:03

the following night, and

46:05

the night after that, building

46:07

up to the night just before

46:10

he was to leave, the stakes

46:12

steadily growing higher and higher.

46:15

And I, of course, was only playing with

46:17

the money that I had won from him

46:19

in order to ante against him. But

46:22

after a few nights of winning, I

46:24

had saved up enough to place a

46:26

gold bar on the Illimat. It

46:29

was a fierce game. It

46:31

seemed that as he was playing against me,

46:33

he was learning how to play at the

46:35

same time. I don't know if

46:38

he spent his table mostly with untalented

46:40

players who were uncreative in how they

46:42

pursued their goals, and this was simply

46:44

his first experience playing against anyone who

46:46

had any kind of skill. All

46:49

the life of a decorated red-feather officer

46:51

such as himself did not afford him

46:53

much time at the Illimat table. Whatever

46:55

the case, by that final night, he

46:57

was a different man than the one

47:00

he was before. After nearly

47:02

a week of playing against this man, I had

47:04

enough saved up that I could

47:06

place a single gold bit on

47:08

that Illimat. A gold

47:10

bit represents years of low-class

47:12

living. I'm not so prudent that

47:14

I could make it last that long, but

47:17

losing it would most certainly be

47:19

losing no small fortune. In

47:21

this game against this young fellow, I

47:24

was fighting for my life. Hand

47:27

after hand, we each slowly crawled

47:29

our way towards that 17. In

47:32

the final hand, I stood at quite the disadvantage of

47:34

13 to his 15. At

47:38

this point, I had to weigh my options. If

47:41

I won the round, I

47:43

could walk away with a second gold

47:45

bit. Even living as a

47:47

lush, I might be able

47:49

to begin an early retirement. I'd

47:52

still have to do a little work

47:54

on occasion, but two gold bits could

47:56

easily spend slow if you're careful about

47:59

where you travel. to. It

48:01

was a sort of fortune worth

48:03

cashing in a few chips. I

48:05

had always conducted myself honorably within

48:08

Lucius' establishment, which meant I knew

48:10

that if there were a disagreement, he

48:13

would take my side. And I

48:16

had seen over the years just how far

48:18

Lucius' word could stretch. These

48:20

chips were worth cashing in, so I

48:22

took advantage of the shuffle. I

48:25

was able to move things to ensure that

48:27

I took points in the early round. Even

48:29

if you're dealing slick with Illimat, it's a

48:32

game that you can't control the whole

48:34

way through. That's one of the reasons

48:36

that sailors prefer it so. But

48:38

if you're able to keep the board

48:40

at your advantage throughout, you can knock

48:43

your opponent off balance. Especially

48:45

when you're playing for quite a bit of money. It

48:48

makes them nervous. And moving

48:50

that way through, I was able

48:52

to claim a victory for myself

48:54

quite handily. I was

48:56

reaching forward to take my

48:58

second gold bet when Mr.

49:00

Tiberius objected. I

49:02

had anticipated this, and I

49:05

played my role evenly and

49:07

coolly, and obviously appeal to

49:10

Mr. Lucius. And

49:12

Lucius played his part exactly as I

49:14

needed him to. Appealing to

49:16

peace and reason, swearing up

49:18

and down about my rock-solid

49:21

character. My aim was simple.

49:23

I needed to walk out of there with

49:25

my two gold bits, and it didn't matter

49:27

whether I was allowed to return there ever

49:29

again. But then things

49:31

started to get out of hand. It

49:34

seems I quite underestimated both

49:36

Mr. Tiberius' wrath and

49:39

his sway over the local Redfeather

49:41

authority. The compromise that we came

49:43

to was imperfect. The

49:46

constabulary was to hold on to

49:48

my potential winnings until a thorough

49:50

investigation of my character had been

49:52

completed. If I had proved

49:55

myself within that community to be a

49:57

truly upstanding person, then There were

49:59

no more. Would accept my victory

50:01

as legitimate. And I'll be

50:03

able to walk away with a lifetime's

50:06

worth a women's but that seemed to

50:08

be enough to mollify the wrath of

50:10

to be real soon blood before he

50:12

left for that even and even offered

50:14

me his hand. Congratulate.

50:17

Me on my potential victory Should my

50:19

character prove me worthy of claim it.

50:22

Ah was so, but I pretended

50:24

to be graceful. An investigation

50:26

began of one sort or another.

50:28

turn it over every rock they

50:30

could find, trying to give themselves

50:33

some reason not to reward me.

50:35

Eventually, the investigation ran on

50:38

so long that Tiberius left

50:40

port. And I imagine

50:42

that when his rafol Little Hot

50:44

took two wins, eventually the local

50:47

Stabbers Mint would grow bored of

50:49

the game. But. It seems

50:51

he paid them handsomely enough to go

50:53

entirely by the book. And

50:55

the judgment I was rendered was

50:57

one that I could not believe.

51:00

The Red Feathers had determined that

51:02

my character was mostly up stand

51:04

and as there were no complaints

51:06

of me being a cheap that

51:08

could be found anywhere within the

51:10

tail. However, to be considered

51:12

a true gentleman, I couldn't

51:14

have any deaths levied against

51:16

man name. And their investigation

51:19

said turned over a single debt

51:21

that I maintained in town and

51:23

that was my tab with a

51:25

Beached Sirens. Well, I had unofficially

51:27

covered it with tips to Lucius.

51:29

He still had that little recorded

51:31

book of ever drink that I

51:33

had ordered that hadn't been settled

51:35

up. It. Wasn't exactly an

51:37

overwhelming amount but I could see

51:39

how it might be shock and

51:42

to gentle a hearts that make

51:44

their live in through the strength

51:46

of their arms. I didn't

51:48

have the funds on me to pay it

51:50

off at that moment in time, but of

51:52

course, with a little bit more grace from

51:54

Lucius, it would not be an impossible amount

51:56

to build up and pay off in order

51:58

to collect my winnings. fly away.

52:02

Which is why I was deeply

52:04

dismayed the next day to

52:07

find out that the beached siren

52:09

had burned down in a freak

52:11

accident. Despite their

52:14

thorough investigation into my

52:16

character, it seems the

52:18

red feathers were able to open and

52:20

close that investigation within a single day.

52:24

And Lucius, bless his head and wherever

52:26

he may be resting at these days,

52:29

had a history of being quick to

52:31

fold. After the siren

52:33

had burnt down, he received an offer,

52:36

rather than rebuild the place, sell

52:39

off the business and plot to new

52:41

ownership, and they offered him an

52:43

amount that he couldn't help but agree to.

52:46

I know at the time he told

52:48

me where he would be going, and

52:50

I'm sure I remembered then, but I

52:52

still had a glint for gold in

52:54

my eye. Without the

52:56

warm shelter of the siren and plan

52:58

for smaller amounts, it would take me

53:01

a much longer time to clear my

53:03

name and free up my winnings, and

53:05

I do believe part of me intended

53:08

to follow Lucius afterwards. But

53:10

as he sailed away with his

53:12

new fortune, I know I chose

53:14

to stay behind. The

53:16

thing that I didn't count

53:19

on, whomever purchased that business

53:21

from Lucius purchased all

53:23

assets, including the debt

53:25

that Lucius held over me, and

53:28

the new owners sold that debt off

53:30

to the red feather syndicate. Just

53:33

as I had put together a

53:35

small part of money that would

53:38

put me within spitting distance of

53:40

collecting my fortune, there was a

53:42

knock at my door at the local inn.

53:45

It seems the syndicate had a new way

53:47

that they would prefer my debt be paid

53:49

down, as apparently in

53:51

all my years owing it to

53:54

Lucius I had never made a

53:56

single payment towards that tab. At

53:59

least a quarter of a million dollars. Wouldn't to that ruff

54:01

in own official ledger. This.

54:03

Gave the said it's an extraordinary license

54:05

to pack me up and shipped me

54:08

off here where I was supposed to

54:10

be able to serve through mud it

54:12

In three years, I learned pretty quickly

54:15

that this wasn't the sort of community

54:17

that you could afford to ruffle feathers

54:19

in. It's a sort of place where

54:21

you need to lean on people. Depend

54:24

on each other. And a look

54:26

a gambler can't live long. And such

54:28

a place. So. I've had to

54:30

play a close to my chest. Or

54:32

do have a receipt for my Winans.

54:35

And I'm looking at my final year of

54:37

work. Trying. To ignore the

54:40

scarlet as it advances. I

54:42

think I need to just put away a little

54:44

bit more. Maybe. Hosts just one

54:46

game to push me over the edge.

54:49

Though. It's own ignore. Will be in here. That.

54:52

I have learned that that most certainly

54:54

wouldn't be right. The. Folks that

54:56

it would be right to take money from

54:58

aren't the sort that I'd be able to

55:00

share a table with. I do

55:03

have solace in two things: I

55:06

was partially rat my assessment. I

55:08

did indeed never see Tiberius Young

55:11

blood again. Shortly after I ended

55:13

up here are received word that

55:15

he passed away apparently fallen victim

55:17

to a lethal blue and adjust

55:20

and match. I can only

55:22

imagine that. His face in that

55:24

moment. Was the same face

55:26

that I saw when authors best at

55:29

him. A surprise.

55:31

The. Anger, That indignation,

55:35

That. Those with a last things that

55:37

he failed on sphere. Well.

55:41

When. I toss and turn at night.

55:44

Due. To the sensitivities. Caused.

55:46

By the scarf. But that

55:48

does suit missile. And.

55:51

until I clear my name. That's.

55:54

All I have. Campaign.

55:56

sky jax is a one shot network production

55:58

for more information Be sure to follow us

56:01

on Twitter over at campaignpod for updates

56:03

about live shows and other events we

56:05

might be doing. You can find more

56:07

great gaming shows over at oneshotpodcast.com. Johnett

56:10

Kessler was played by Tyler Davis,

56:12

who can be found on Twitter

56:14

and Instagram at Tyler A. Dave.

56:16

Tyler is on strike alongside his

56:18

fellow members of the WGA and

56:20

SAG-AFTRA. You can support Tyler and

56:22

other striking artists by contributing to

56:24

the Entertainment Community Fund, linked

56:27

in our show notes. Gable was

56:29

played by Liz Anderson, who can

56:31

be found on Twitter at Liz

56:33

Anderson underscore underscore underscore, or

56:36

on her podcast Paired. Captain

56:38

Oramar Vale was played by Nathan

56:40

Blades, who can be

56:42

found on Twitter at PhantomArtsENT, or

56:46

streaming at twitch.tv slash

56:48

TheNeonCaster. I am

56:50

James Damato, your host and game

56:52

master. You can find me on

56:55

Twitter at oneshotrpg, or on

56:57

my podcast, OneShot. The original music

56:59

featured in this podcast was written,

57:02

composed, and performed by Arnie Parrot.

57:04

You can find him over on

57:07

Twitter at ArnieParrot, or on his

57:09

website, ATPtoons. This episode

57:11

was edited by Ally Grower, who can

57:13

be found on Twitter at Dreams to

57:15

Become, or on

57:17

her podcast, SkyjaxcouriersCall. Our

57:20

logo was designed by Fiona Shea, who

57:22

can be found on Twitter at Lunarum.

57:25

The World of Sphere was inspired in

57:27

part by the music of the Decemberists

57:29

and Illimat, produced by Together Studios. This

57:31

show was made in part by using

57:34

a modified version of the Genesis role-playing

57:36

system, designed by Sam Stewart

57:38

and a team of talented professionals. There

57:40

are no kings. The

58:00

call of the sky.