What's this spot? Why is this like look at this?
Rest What happened? Did you know?
Did you get attacked in your sleep by a demon?
To be honest, like you guys don't want to know about it
anyways. It's like pretty personal.
I'd love to know. Like I said, it's pretty
personal to know, no? No, no.
So that was what you're saying. Like that I'm acting like I'm
trying to spare you guys some information, but like really
it's personal for me and like, I don't want to talk about it.
So like, can you stop pressuring me to talk about like my
personal demon that I keep in my house chained to my bed at in
the public podcast? OK, I respect your boundaries.
Thank you, Kat, but like. But if you wanted to talk about
it, you could like I, you know, like I just would love, like, I
just want to make sure that you know, that if you wanted to tell
us, I'm aware. I mean, I'm aware we're here.
Yeah. No, I'm aware.
That's been made explicitly clear.
Thank you. I mean, you don't have to talk
about it if you don't want to, Juniper.
If you did want to tell us you know roughly scale of one to 10,
how sexy is the demon? Well, Kat, he's chained to my
bed 24/7. So like, I think we all know,
obviously it's a 10. Like why do you even have to
ask? No, I I wasn't asking.
I was just saying if you wanted to tell us, you could.
And I. I I just don't like.
Asking and he's let me just be clear, sure you feel really
comfortable. Let me just be clear, he has
chained to the bed for his safety, not mine.
Let me just be clear. What is he being kept safe from?
Well, I don't know. You're right.
I'm sorry. You don't want to tell us if you
don't want to. I'm just saying like, first you
won't give me poison control girl's number, now you're not
telling me any contact information for this demon, and
I'm just feeling really like. If you don't care about, maybe
there's like a pattern there that you should identify I.
Don't know you, you know I'm incapable of identifying
patterns and I'm very sensitive about it.
Well, isn't that just a shame? Are we going to address in this
intro like the reason that we're talking about this, which is
Juniper's like weird phantom claw marks that they have on
this table? Or yeah, we can see.
We can see through like we're recording this remotely.
We can see that Juniper has like bright red claw marks all over
them. What?
Do you mean? Wow.
It's. Literally hand shaped, but it's
shaped like a tiny goblin. Yeah, did I don't mention my
demon is like 2 feet tall? You know, whatever.
Tall. About 10 out of 10.
Sexy. 10 out. Of 1010, two feet tall out of
two feet, two out of two feet. His hands are actually webbed,
but only the three fingers in the in the back.
So his index and thumb are not webbed, just just the little.
And as you can see that, you can see that in the mark.
Do you see how it's like here's the thumb and then here's the
index finger and then these are webbed and his index finger is
like longer? This is just so interesting.
ET. Because I thought you didn't
want to talk about. It in fact, thinking about it,
the resemblance that he has to ET is it's pretty, it's pretty
high. Oh well, no wonder he's a 10.
Yeah, exactly. I'm just saying.
Leaning back at her champ. Listen, I'm just saying, I'm
tired of hearing about phone home.
When's someone going to phone Errol?
He's well, Errol, Maybe when you become a home for someone.
Wow. Wow.
I really got to, I really got to go home and think about that
one. I was recording this down the
street, but now I'm like. Yeah, I was going to ask about,
like, all of the randos. I just thought it'd be cool to
do like an in media res kind of intro where like I'm, I'm on the
beat, you know, and I'm like just kind of in the sidewalk and
there's families walking by and they're like, please stop
talking about, you know, your, your demon bedroom stuff.
And I'm that. Was one of them they're sneezing
behind you Why do they keep sneezing all around you?
Are they? Well, they.
Can cut out the sneeze, it's fine, no?
It's because they it's because they know I'm talking about
them, because that's what happens.
Watch an anime, read a book that's.
True, that's very true. That's why I am so confident
sneezy. It has nothing to do with the
fact that I own a cat and have mild cat allergies.
It has everything to do with the fact that people are thinking
about me all the time. Won't.
Stop talking about cats. That's true.
Even my demon wants like always just is constantly bringing you
up cat. That's why I was just sneezing
is because I know that the demon is thinking about me right now.
He's. He's over there right now being
like. He's fat K.
Whoa, Maza, Really, really hot dog.
Yeah, what a demonic voice. Bazinga, he's got a really
sexual. Voice.
He sounds, he sounds like a crusty John, that's what.
He's like, he's spicing me. He's hot stuff.
Well, Speaking of hot stuff. Sorry, I'm really genuinely just
imagining the demon now as tiny Johnny Bravo.
I'm imagining the demon from, you know, that painting of the
woman, the painting of the woman where there's a guy and well,
he's like a weird little goblin guy sitting on the lady's chest
and she can't sleep because there's a demon on her chest.
You guys don't want to talk to him?
So. I do know the painting.
It's called the Nightmare. Imagining.
I've been imagining the demon as that little guy from Star Wars
where he's like. Like wait, you mean like like
Jabba's little guy? Yeah, Jabba's little.
Guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I would say he's a cross. He's a cross between that and
ET. Wow.
Wow, not tiny Johnny Bravo. I think I was the furthest off.
You were the furthest off. But I, I think he's got that
energy. He's got that energy.
He does have the energy. He's like, if you took ET and
the little guy from Jabba's like Hut and then you gave it the
personality of Johnny Bravo, That's what my team in his life.
Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Jabba's Hut. That's where he.
Lives Hut. That's why Jabba the Jabba the
Hutt's Hut. Yeah, that's where.
He's he's out. Where Jabba the.
Hutt Yeah, everyone knows this. OK, You guys, like you're, it's
showing how ignorant you are about Star Wars.
Well, right now, Matt, that you don't even know where Jabba
lives. I know Jabba the Hutt's Hutt.
He comes from the planet of Hutt, where they all live on
huts and you. Don't need to call it Jabba the
Hutt's Hutt, you can just call it Jabba's Hutt.
Jabba's Hut. That's why they call me Noel,
the studio apartment. Yeah, Jabba's Hutt would be a
really good coffee shop name. Speaking of a coffee shop, let's
play some D&D. Hi, my name is Kat and I live in
a Hut. Hi, my name is Noelle and I'm
genuinely worried about the red mark on Juniper's body.
And I hope they're OK. Hi, my name is Juniper.
I'm once again highlighting the red mark on my body for everyone
on the camera screens to see. I'm safe, I'm at my house, and
it looks like you were strangled by a monkey.
I'm not. Well, what have I always been
telling you, Noel? Hey, what have I always fucking
said about monkeys? You're right.
You're so right. You're so yeah.
So I'm OK. Also, I play Fran, I play
Corbin. Hi, I'm Errol and I would be
worried about the mark on Juniper's chest, but at this
point I'm really just getting used to, you know, like this is
kind of, I'd be more worried if there wasn't anything.
You're so right. You're so right, Errol.
All right, OK, let's get started.
And I play slick. OK, let's get started.
All right, so last time you killed Torva I, every time I say
it, it's just, it's crazy. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.
But you killed Torva before you killed Torva.
Torva killed Cecilia. That was pretty fucked up.
Yeah, that was fucked up. Serotonist managed to take back
control of the dwarven domain, which is like, we'll debate if
that's a good thing. In Torva's like last dying
breaths, he called Mary over to him to finish it and she
absorbed his power. Father to daughter.
And now Mary has a glowing heart that shows through her skin and
clothing. It's cool.
We all have that sometimes, yeah.
That sometimes it's fine. It's a normal thing that's not
gonna make her weird. Yeah, normal.
Oh and also Fran had to make her choice of witch Phelan to
sacrifice to witch Phelan and she sacrificed bad Phelan to
good Phelan and then both Phelans disappeared into the
void. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Nothing bad will happen there.
I'm confident that the campaign will end now and only good
things will happen for the rest of the time.
Yeah. Right, we don't have anything.
That felt confident in the same thing.
Yeah, we don't have anything else.
There's nothing else that's unresolved.
Yeah, nothing else unresolved. Yeah.
Yeah, OK. Our ragged cheer goes up from
the battle that has been raging below you.
You look down to see the undead that Torva was controlling have
collapsed. Now that he's gone, he's finally
gone. Mary stares down at the corpse
of her father, unable to turn away as the body of the God
cools at her feet. She looks up at you, Corbin, and
signs. I keep thinking something's
going to happen, like he'll burst into flames or something.
We can set him on fire if it'll make you feel better.
Mary Fran is like desperately climbing up platforms, being
like, and she's like, yeah, let's do it.
It's like is coming up too. Mary signs I mean, I I suppose
we could I I didn't really think about she looks all of you.
I should think about disposing of the body.
Maybe we just. Ran runs up and kicks Torba's.
Oh, me too, me too. Corbin also kicks it.
I go over to Mary 'cause I just want to check how she's doing.
Mary's a little bit shaken and she keeps staring at the corpse,
which it it does not burst into flame or or wither into dust.
Fran is meanwhile making very dramatic middle fingers up at
the body and going, yeah, that's what you get.
And as you're doing that, Fran, and you're looking at this body,
you realize that now that Torva is gone, it looks a lot more
like the old dwarven king. That's not satisfying.
Yeah, damn. She steps back.
Corbin checks the teeth. Are they still Obsidian?
They are. They are still Obsidian.
OK, Yeah. He wants to pull one out.
Mary, what happened at the end there?
Your your heart? Are you OK?
Mary looks down and touches her chest, where golden light spills
forth, and she signs, I feel good.
I mean bad, but he gave me his power.
It's all inside me now, all of his magic and his everything.
She sort of gives herself a shake and then she she looks
around and she breaks away from you like to stagger over to
Cecilia's corpse, and she kneels down next to it and places her
hands on the woman's frail form. Golden tears drip onto her ex
attendant's cooling skin, and Mary takes a deep breath and
exhales and gulps down another gasp of air.
She looks up at you all and signs stand back.
I'm I'm going to try a miracle. Oh shit.
OK. The golden tears pool in the
place of Cecilia's injury, and a form a metallic Sheen over the
gore. Then Mary places her hands on
Cecilia's body and begins to glow bright and brilliant.
Just at the moment it becomes too bright to endure.
The light collapses inward and Mary puts an arm around
Cecilia's thin shoulders, helping her up into a sitting
position. My Goddess.
Oh shit. Oh, my Mary.
Cecilia looks at Mary, who is more radiant than ever, though
her smile is wobbly and unsure as she looks down at the woman
who raised her. Cecilia closes her eyes and
sobs. I am unworthy.
Mary let's go of her very carefully, making sure she can
still sit up on her own before she signs.
You don't have to be worthy to live.
You did get your head exploded. So I feel like that, you know,
things pretty much even out. Yeah, Slick's right.
I think we're even. Once that's done, Mary goes to
the edge of the platform where you all are standing and begins
to very slowly lower it and all of the falling rubble to the
ground, taking the three of you and Cecilia down with it.
Your troops made quick work of the Taiticarean soldiers once
they didn't have the zombies backing them up, and the last
few are being rounded up as prisoners already.
The mages from Aviles are questioning them, trying to find
out what they did to the dwarves and how they can reverse it.
Sally makes her way over to you, picking through the rebel that
has touched down on the ground to get to where you are.
Is he? Is he dead for good or dead for
now? For good.
Has he died before? Yeah, that's like tons of times.
Yeah, we killed him for real. Sally spits some blood out of
her mouth and onto the floor. She nods once, then again, and
then she takes a deep breath like she is about to do
something incredibly unpleasant, and she steps forward and grabs
you all into a group hug. Oh my.
God. She she immediately disengages
from the second you start to react.
No, she can't. Her body and her clothes and she
cannot even move away from us. Soundly, we've been bonded for
life by this traumatic experience.
No, let let go like. Emotionally, mentally and
physically. That's not OK that that's the
only hug you get. It's only because you killed
Torva and we're never doing this again.
So do you think? No, just let go, please.
It will happen. We'll we'll make a schedule.
It'll. Bring him back to life and kill
him again for the time that this was.
Yeah, we will. And suddenly, like, is she like
desperately extricating herselves from your grasp?
We're a family now, yeah. It's like you're married.
To us. To us, suddenly is our child.
I I'm not going to engage in this argument.
It's not an argument, it's an agreement.
Yeah, Then she says, look, you saved our city, our people, and
Hell's, you saved our whole damn civilization, and we won't
forget that. Well, don't thank us too soon,
there's more still to do. There's more.
He's dead now. You said he's dead for good.
Dead. Yeah, but did you, like notice
anything that like you make like maybe like didn't like about
allies who are helping you? What?
Being invited into the deep of the caverns.
I mean, there's a lot of things that I didn't like about what
was happening. I.
Didn't like when people died. I didn't like when Torvo looked
at me. Oh, OK.
I mean, I do mean certainness. Yeah.
Oh yeah, that's going to be a
problem. Can we kill him too?
I think let's put a hold on that because.
I'm really tired do. You think he's not just going to
go back from whence he came? I mean, he wanted this spot.
But you think he's going to go back from whence he came I.
Don't. Know grammatically correct
anyway. I'm really tired.
Sonny nods at this. We'll, we'll find you a spot.
As she's saying that, Sam emerges from the crowd, bloody
and panting and dragging a small figure behind her night blade.
Who's the small figure? She looks at you kind of
confused for a second when you say that, and then she goes, oh,
that's the stupid name, right? I found this little worm trying
to wriggle away and she pulls in front of her V, who is
struggling against her grip to no avail.
While the child cannot be harmed, they apparently can be
restrained. Fran wags her finger and she
says no Mary, Dad. Bad child.
Don't treat me like a little kid.
Well, don't act like 1. And Sam says I, I caught them
trying to slip out. What should we do with them?
I'm sure the parent doesn't know they're here.
Of course they don't. V spits and seems about to say
more, but Sam rolls her eyes and puts her hand over their mouth.
V writhes in their grasp and Sam's face screws up in disgust.
It licked me. I look at Corbin.
What? Why would you look at me after
that, Slick? No reason.
Fran kind of frowns at the little kid who tried to kill my
friend and is like. Thousands of years old.
Yeah, the little thousands of years old kid and is like, I
think we need to tell your parents about this.
I'm going to call your mom. He rolls their eyes.
They roll their eyes so hard that perhaps the heavens can
hear. Fran like looks around and is
like where's the temple? Then Torma take out all the
temples. Where's the fucking temple?
Seleny looks at you and goes. We don't have temples down here.
Do we at least some anti magic chain would probably be helpful
in the short term. You hear someone behind you
whistle and you see Sofia Sofia, Dawnguard of the Kukui warriors
approaching, and one of her warriors comes up holding a
piece of cold iron chain and she tosses it to you.
Slake. Thank you.
Fran flinches and shrinks away. We're just going to need to make
sure that fee doesn't like do any murders or anything while we
we figure out how to get their parent over here.
And I, I guess I like go and like stupidly tie me up with
this cold iron. Chain.
Yeah, just like wrap them up like a little sausage.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
And they just immediately wilt as you wrap this cold iron chain
around them and they they just sit down on the ground.
Sorry kid, but next time you know, don't don't join Torva's
army. They glare up at you and they
spit at your feet while you guys are all talking.
Mary has drifted away. She's starting to just heal
people up. And Sofia's other warriors have
emerged from some of the ruined workshops and they've got a
collection of mismatched seating which they set down near your
loose knot of leadership that is forming around you.
And Sofia gratefully takes one of these seats.
She's got like a big gash in her leg.
And Mary comes over and and touches her on the shoulder.
And heals her and Sofia says you could bottle that up and sell it
in nakama. And marry grimaces and signs.
I'd rather never go back to Nakama.
Yeah. I don't know if that's a
compliment. From the other side of the room
someone runs in carrying a message towards Sofia, one of
her scouts and she takes it from the man and he started gives a
smart salute and waits for her return reply.
And she looks down and at the message and says well good news
from the surface. They are continuing the fight up
there. They've managed to hold Torvis
troops from re entering the city.
You've got a solid defensive line.
Still not sure what's happening with the boars.
Sounds like there's still a bit of commotion up there.
They're still fighting. For a horror.
We'll need to get a message up to the surface and a formal
surrender so that Torvis troops will call off the fight.
Who could surrender for them? Sam leans on the spear that she
has been wielding, and she says, well, his second God in command
is gone. She sort of stamps the spear as
evidence of her work slaying minotine, I suppose.
She looks down at the child God tied up at your feet.
That's the last ally we know of who's in the area.
We could just cut off his head. Vizor.
Dude. Like holy shit.
I don't know, you guys say some stuff sometimes.
No, Torva's head. Yeah, that's what he does to
gods. He conquers.
You think seeing it would be enough to get them to stop?
Yeah, he's just thrown into the crowd and then the body
afterwards. Sofia leans back and says, well,
how many times has Torva been killed?
Although he. He looks like the the dwarven
king right now, so oh, that's true.
Maybe it wouldn't actually do anything.
Well, and they just think he'll come right back, right?
They'll just start working on trying to bring him back, yeah.
They'd probably take it and start doing weird stuff to the
body. What way to say that?
Oh, that's true, though it's true that's.
True. That's like totally their vibe.
That's. Their vibe, yeah.
So how are we going to prove we killed Torva?
Sam kicks at VA little bit and says hey if we bring you up to
the surface will you tell them to surrender?
And V glares up at her, but doesn't answer.
I don't think that child is going to be cooperative.
Well, maybe we could make some sort of deal.
Fan looks over at Mary and says, well, there's a new Conqueror
now, right? Could Mary tell them to
surrender? Mary wipes some blood off of her
hands onto the thighs of her pants and she looks upwards and
then nods. She signs.
OK, I guess. I guess I hadn't really thought
of it like that. Sorry.
No, it's. She touches her glowing heart
that you can see through the chest of her clothes.
It's accurate. Will you?
She looks at the three of you. Come with me.
Of course, Mary are what does it feel like?
Are you are you OK? It's hard to describe like I'm a
a cup that is overflowing, like I've got more energy that I that
I know what to do with. OK.
How does that energy make you feel?
I don't know yet. You hear any weird voices?
Any weird compulsions? Not no.
You want to push Corbin down on the ground and put your foot up
on him and then say ha ha ha. I want to do that a lot of time.
Well, now that you mention it, I mean maybe that that might be
fun, but. Mary's changed.
I think Mary would have done that before.
Oh no. That was that was a joke.
That was a joke. It's fine, it's fine.
You keep us posted if you feel like any, I don't know.
Uncontrollable bloodlust is welling up inside of you, and
we'll figure out what to do with it then.
Well, hopefully, I suppose we'll see.
I suppose we'll see. I I think there is one thing I
can do now. So Mary reaches out her hands
towards you guys, her blood covered hands.
She's been grabbing people back from the brink of death, like
she did with Cecilia Basque, the God who comes for the dead.
He is only one God, and it takes him time, even as strangely as
he moves through time, to collect up all the souls of the
fallen on a battlefield. And Mary has just been snatching
them back from him before he can get to them.
And bringing people back from the brink of death.
She is making sure as many people survive this as possible.
She holds out her hands to you guys and gets you all up in a
little knot, a little circle. And then she takes a step
forward. And when you all step forward
with her, there's like a moment of cold and darkness that is
crushing and horrible. And then you are suddenly up at
the front lines, just inside the gates of Esadel where your
soldiers are holding the line. Oh shit.
Friend, you kind of are familiar with the feeling.
It feels very similar to when Phelan teleported you
disastrously. Mary also looked a little bit
sick when you guys emerged, she said.
OK, I think I need to work on that a little more.
Cool on Mary. It's all good work.
You know, it's been, we've been through a lot just figuring it
out. It's like there's worms inside
of me and somebody's stirring them around.
I wish you wouldn't say. That it's too late.
I've said it. It's probably literally true.
Yes, I have eaten quite a few worms actually.
Where do you find the time? It's easy if you know where to
look. You liked that one?
So you guys are now behind the front lines and Mary holds up
her hands and then she looks back at you, Fran and and says,
can you, I guess I'm not really familiar with this.
Can you help me cast a big illusion or or project a voice?
Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. She takes her hand, and you
shape the magic that she channels to you into a voice
that carries over the battlefield.
Torva is dead, the Conqueror is no more.
And you see that the fighters sort of start to wane a bit, but
they're not totally stopping yet.
So Mary looks around at you guys and signs.
OK, well that's step one. Maybe we should have brought his
head. The fighting nearest to you
where the Torvis soldiers could see Mary has slowed and stopped
as they sort of look at her in awe as she is this glowing
ethereal figure with this golden heart, and they seem to
recognize something in her. So Mary steps out from behind
the front lines and starts walking through the soldiers,
and as they see her and seem to hear what she said and she's
pushes out this message through their minds. the Conqueror is
dead. Lay down your arms and survive.
And she makes her way up a set of ruined staircase to the top
of a second story building that was perhaps a shop or a home but
is now a lasted out husk where the 2nd floor is visible from
the street. She climbs up there.
She kind of gestures to you, Fran, like she needs you again.
Oh yeah, I've been following. Yeah, we're all.
Coming with her. OK, you all come with.
Yeah. So you you all arrange
yourselves on this platform behind her.
And Mary takes your hand, Fran. And she sends out another
message. Again.
Lay down your arms. Conqueror is dead.
Stop this and survive. And then she pushes out an
image, an illusion, showing the final battle that you all just
fought, showing as the Conqueror is blighted, his skin rotting
off of his bones until he surrenders, and until Mary deals
the final blow. She shows Torvis, power flooding
into her, becoming part of her, and as she does this, the
fighting all around you comes to a stop.
You hear cheering and weeping and cursing in the elation as
the sounds of swinging swords are slowly, slowly replaced at
first, and then it builds into a roar as your fighters hear the
good news and take up the cheer. You have won.
Torva is gone. They're all going to survive.
Mary looks back at you guys and says, do you think that'll do
it? Fran nods.
Yeah, I think that'll do it, Mary.
The Torvaic soldiers are either throwing down their weapons or
being restrained by your soldiers as they have just lost
the will to fight now that their God is dead.
And your soldiers begin taking prisoners, taking people,
disarming them, tying their wrists, you know, get gathering
up the last of Torva's army. And Mary turns back to you all
and says all right. But next he thinks, like you
said, you wanted to lie down. I think that sounds really good.
Yeah, yeah. Mary, Mary, we should.
I'm sure you need to rest. Yeah, Yeah, maybe we can.
We can find a good, good spot for that.
All right, let's head back down to where cell name was and she
puts out her hands to you guys. I take her hand.
Oh, me too. All right.
We have 5 hands, she have three hands.
No, you guys, yeah, you form a little circle.
You again have another gut churning teleportation.
That was better that time. Corbin vomits and worms come.
Out. Yes, worms.
I see that eye vomit. Fran hasn't eaten enough in the
past 24 hours to vomit. She just goes.
So Selly sees you guys appear and vomit, and she says so did
that go well? Yeah.
We're good, yeah. Corbin gives a thumbs up.
Great. Mary did great.
We're fine. That was a really, really good
time. It was touching actually.
Can we take a bath? As you ask that.
Seems a bit luxury. You ask that and Selmy steps
forward and she sort of shoes Torio off and says find them
somewhere still clean and together.
I I I hear the palace is not being used.
Hey, now we're talking. You guys got a palace?
It's free. I don't want to piss people off,
you know what I mean? Who's going to?
Know. Yeah, I guess.
Kalda comes bounding up and she slings an arm around Celny and
says. I think that sounds like a great
idea after all, King Celny. King Celny and.
I'm so glad you're OK. Celny's shoulders like, rise to
meet her ears. She is so stressed out by the
idea of that. But she says, all right, until I
can get somebody else to take the job.
OK. Yeah, I suppose going up to the
palace is going to be better than she looks around the
carnage of the battlefield. Yeah, better than this.
Let's. All right.
And she turns to start organizing some details with the
other dwarves for them to round up survivors, bring them to the
palace, You know, start getting clean water, start figuring out
food, all of the many things that need to be done to take
care of these incredibly traumatized people.
She also sends Torio back to his lab with some of the Estrin
mages to try and work out a cure for these spores.
Now that they've got people who actually know magic, they have a
much better shot at figuring out how to cure these magical
spores. So you guys all make your way up
to the palace. Mary does not teleport you.
Thank God. Yes, She decides.
Let's just go up with everybody else.
You know, it feels good symbolically.
And then doesn't feel good to teleport.
Not with four people. Not with four people, no.
No. And so you guys get a room.
Actually, you get as many rooms as you like.
The palace is actually in great condition.
Clearly, Torva was living there. He was living it up so.
Poop in his toilet. Pardon, is there poop in his
toilet? I said I'm going to poop in his
toilet. Is there poop already in the
toilet? There is not.
Does he flush? Is the lid up?
It looks like the toilet has not been used.
Oh, that's the worst outcome. Worst causal outcome.
He's like God, he doesn't need to poop.
Corbin looks to. Corbin looks at Mary now really
concerned. And Mary signs I don't think I
need to eat, but I think if I did need to eat then yes I would
need to poop. Does that answer the question
you were not asking me? Mary, Mary.
Well, Fan makes herself right at home.
She wants her own room. Which room?
I want a room that is decorated in a celestial theme.
Yeah, there is one of those, but you don't recognize.
You're like, you're looking at the celestial theme and you're
like, huh, none of those look like constellations.
And you realize it's not actually celestial because the
dwarfs don't, they don't fun with sky.
It's the constellations that were.
Around before they went underground.
No, it's the constellations that they put up on their own cave.
Ceiling like a little girl in the 90s.
Yeah, but but you know, like a. Little girl in the 90s.
Exactly like that, except it was, you know, before, before
the city was destroyed, they had these beautiful cold iron
designs that were basically their constellation.
So these are those constellations painted out on on
the ceiling. Corbin wants Torva's room.
Shark probably the most that he really used this was.
To fuck the snake. To fuck the snake.
I. No.
Say that chronologically, not the.
Same. Fuck the snake.
Stop talking about it. That snake's worm.
Stop. Talking about it.
All right, torn into that snake's pit.
I'm sorry Cat, but you said he fucked the sake and I'm not
going to forget about it. Listen, it's all fine, it's all
good It does not look like he has slept in the bed here, let's
put it like that. Thank God he he looks like he
has maybe eaten some meals here. It maybe looks like he is like
done some planning work and. He's eating meals, you say?
So where did it go? Cat Corbin.
Corbin goes back to the toilet. Yeah, you don't know if he ate
the meals. It looks like their.
Meals were eaten. Meals were.
I'm really glad that our podcast is being bookended by dumb junk
of. Course it is.
They knew Mom. Oh God, OK.
Wait, wait, wait, wait. No.
I had a reason Is there is no Is there a wardrobe?
Is there a wardrobe you're going to?
Put on his fucking clothes. There's a wardrobe, but it's
full of the King's clothes and they're all dwarf sized, so you
can put them on, but like, you'll just have like, really
cool. I actually, you know what,
they're probably exactly right for you.
You put them on in their short pants and crop tops.
So yeah. Corbin gets dressed.
I have followed Corbin into the room because I don't want to be
alone, but then I see what he's doing and I'm like, I'm going to
go check on Mary. It's like, did you want to try
on some clothes with me? No.
Well, I why not? Mary, she's actually at Torva's
desk and she's looking through the papers there and she looks
around for Fran. Fran, are you in the room?
Sure, I can be in the room. You're in the room, OK.
I'm hanging out. Mary gestures you over and
signs. Take a look at this.
Oh, I take a look. On Torva's desk there are
there's just tons of papers, and in particular there's one where
he's drawn out the circle that he used to control the dragon.
Mary shows it to you. Can you make an arcana check?
I sure enough can. OK, I got a 14. 14 you almost
shit you feel like if you just. If I'd just gotten one more
point. Yeah, you were just like a tiny
little bit smarter. You feel like you could figure
this out. Like get any information for 14.
Yes, you know, like basically how this works.
You can definitely figure out what he's doing here.
He wasn't sacrificing himself to the dragon like he did to Ruva
to create the blue dragon. He's not sacrificing himself.
Instead, he's tethering his soul to the dragon.
Then there's more to it than that.
You know there's more to it than that.
And you, you're just sitting there trying to figure it out.
But this is so beyond the knowledge that you were gifted
about the writing of the gods. This is complicated work.
This is centuries of work. I want to take the paper with
me. All right.
I roll it up and stick it into the bag of holding and I say,
I'm going to meditate on this. I'm going to percolate on this.
Mary, it's seems really weird and bad.
Mary nods and she signs. My question is, do you think we
can use it? I forget, did we destroy the
dragon like did we? Know really you didn't just
destroy it? Yeah, it's, it's it's.
Like a dead puppet. Yeah, it's just a dead puppet.
Yikes. OK, got it.
You mean like use the dragon? Mary nods, and she signs.
I I've been thinking about what's next.
Mm hmm. Torva supposedly wasn't as
powerful as me, but why did he need the dragon?
He can travel through the void just like any God can.
I mean, we did kill him. Well, yeah, that's true.
But that was four on one. I just wonder did he need this
to face the forces? Yeah.
I guess we we didn't manage to kill it, so we don't know
exactly how strong it is. But Mary, are you still?
I mean, if Torva was connected to it, can you feel it?
Mary shakes her head and says, I can't feel it or anything like
that. But if what Fran was able to
glean from that is true, I think if he was able to tether his
soul to it or tether himself to the dragon, I think I could do
the same. But Mary, it's made of people.
Mary nods. Yeah.
I, I, I don't know if, if you tethered yourself to that thing,
I, I don't know what it would do to you.
I don't either. It's just something to think
about. We should sleep on it, but I
don't. I don't know, let's let's get
some rest and then we can decide what to do next.
Fran gives Slake and Corbin a look that says, like, kind of
weird, That's kind of suspicious.
Yeah, I give Fran and Corbin a look back.
Like I'm very worried. So Mary wants to use the Soylent
Green Dragon. She's right here.
Anyway, I'm going to bed. Fran leaves.
Well, I just literally recap the conversation that we just had
out loud. Why are you reacting?
You can't. Do that.
You can't just recap people's conversations out loud in front
of them. I.
Wasn't fully paying attention, I just wanted to make sure I
understood the Soylent green dragon.
Mary's going to use it. Stop calling it that.
That's what it is. She's not going to use it.
She wants to right Mary. I don't know.
She doesn't know. I just wonder if.
Jonathan, doubt me. I'm here.
I'm recapping. Well, I didn't ask you to.
So do you guys go to sleep? I want to sleep in the same area
that Mary is so I can keep an eye on.
Her Oh, Mary doesn't sleep. I want to be in the area that
Mary is so that. Sure, she hangs out with you
until she knows that you're asleep.
While you guys sleep, Mary goes to heal people.
That's really nice of her. Take care of refugees and do
what she do as a God now. What Fran would do in this
situation is she would try to get in contact with Kai because
Phelan has been taken to the void and she also needs to know
about this weird sigil. So do you wait for everybody to
like you think everyone's asleep?
Yeah, Fran would kind of get ready for bed.
She would bathe, change out of her nasty clothes, get comfy,
ready for a slumber party with a beast who wants to eat her, as
we all have done. And she takes out Kai's diary
and she doesn't speak into it. She just takes out her quill and
sits down at the desk and writes.
Well, you open the book, OK. And when you open the book, you
see there is a blackness on every page that begins to spread
from the center outward. All of the words that used to be
written there consumed by this inky blackness that spreads over
the whole. Book.
And then the pages begin flying out rapidly, one after another,
as if they're being torn by an unseen hand and thrown around
the room. Oh no.
And when the last page is left, there is something written
there, and all it says is come here.
And when you look at the pages all around you, you see words
materializing on them in the white places that are left after
the blackness has spread. Come here, come to me, come,
come, come to me. Come here, come here, Come to
me. I can't come to you right now.
I really just like need a minute.
The shower of pages settles around you in a circle, creating
a ring of blackness around you which draws you towards it.
I try to back up. When you like step over, make me
a Dexterity check. That's a 13. 13 That's fine.
You feel like your your foot skims the top of one of the
pages and you feel it start to give way under you and you
manage to get over the circle and onto safe ground.
Really just need to know if Phelan's OK, It's I, I will come
there soon just. Wait.
As you look down at these pages, the ink swirls.
In one you see Phelan rolling to a stop.
He rolls against something that you can see is a huge black paw,
and the creature lifts its paw and it wraps around Phelan and
pulls him towards itself. Hey Corbin, what are you doing
right now? Corbin has taken a bath in a tub
that is far too small for him and is dissatisfied with that.
And then he goes and he tucks himself into the blankets and he
gets ready to go to sleep and he doesn't do that.
He's just laying there awake. OK.
Can you make me a reception, Jack?
Oh that's yeah, that's a 19 without even adding anything to
it. OK, yeah, You hear Fran saying
words. You hear Fran talking to someone
or talking to herself. She sounds real distressed.
OK, Corbin flips out of bed and he is wearing really short
bejeweled dwarven. So uncomfortable for sleep so.
Uncomfortable for sleep he really liked.
No wonder he wasn't able to. Sleep he was getting, he was he
was just feeling happy to wear them and a little bejeweled crop
top as well. And then like you can hear the
jewels rattling. Is he like which?
Bedroom. Are you in Corbin?
I'm in Torva's bedroom, so. And I'm just like one down and.
OK, where did me and Mary end up?
Well, Mary, like I said, Mary, I guess she just like, hung out
with you until you fell asleep. But you're in the royal chambers
area, so Corbin was in the King's bedroom.
OK, so I'm. I'm yeah, you got you're in one
of the. Other.
Royal bedrooms. We'll say Fran is in one of the
Consort bedrooms. It's like you're in one of the
other consort bedrooms. This one is themed like a Amber
Rose. Cool, I'm sleeping.
This is a sleeping Corbin. Runs down the hall with his
little shimmery jewels, and he doesn't knock because he heard
that Fran sounded upset. So he's assuming that
somebody's, you know, maybe attempting an assassination of
some sort. So he barges in.
He just barges in. Fran screams and closes the
book. Or tries to.
The book is everywhere. There's just pages everywhere.
What's happening? What's happening?
Are you OK? Nothing's happening.
What's? Going on, I'm OK.
I heard you sounded really upset.
What's this shit all over the floor?
Don't step in here. I'm in here.
Why? What happened?
By this time, it's like you are, yeah, absolutely awoken.
Yeah, I I also barge in hearing my friends screaming.
Hey, as you barge in behind Corbin, I want you both to make
Dexterity checks. Here we.
Go, brothers. This could go so bad this.
Could go really bad. I didn't consider this
possibility, but it's fun. It is fun this.
Is this is you're you're looking for ADC 10 or higher?
And has murdered her friends. Oh I'm loving this.
I'm so. Glad that's A7.
Oh no. I got a really cool 5.
Oh no, Fran, so Corbin is screaming at you and you're
screaming at Corbin, and then Slate comes barging in and
barges into Corbin and both of them step forward and Corbin,
your foot just goes into the void and you fall down.
And Slate, you fall down on top of Corbin and Slake.
Make me one more Dexterity saving throw.
Good luck buddy. This, this was supposed to be a
throw away. This was supposed to be a fun
throw away. Oh, this is good.
This is great. This is why I love DNA.
So we both die you. Don't die.
It was a one just for the listeners and.
Like you, you try to push yourself up and you just push me
into the fucking. Yeah, no.
It's like you are not able to catch yourself and you just
can't figure out. You don't know what's happening.
You are not. I just woke up you.
Just woke up. You just ran in here and you
just sort of Looney Tunes went through the floor.
You and Corbin have now both fallen into the void.
Fran, eat your pajamas. You know if I've been dazzled.
Pajamas without any equipment. Oh.
Hello, welcome to this mid row. I'm here.
My name is Jennifer. I'm here to give you the Mid Row
Patreon to say thank you to people who do things for us.
First, the new patrons come into our lives and they bless us with
their fruits, which is another term people use to save money.
And they bless us with their money that we can use to
purchase goods and services. Thanks.
Let me. Let me find your names.
Let me thank you. You're on one of these tabs.
Where are you at? I'm going to find you.
New patrons.
There you are. Thank you so much, Audrey
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I'm sorry, but thank you. Haley W Thank you for joining
our wonderful Patreon. You won't regret it.
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Thanks for joining our Patreon and thanks for having that name.
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I thinks moving on, there's another way that you can support
us Legend lark legend lark legend lark on Apple podcasts
and can you leave reviews on Spotify?
I don't know I they're upping their podcast game.
So like I might be coming down the pipeline.
I might be something to consider.
But for now, you can support us by leaving reviews on Apple
Podcasts. Thank you so much for everybody
who's reviewed, such as famous names like Saber cookie and bag
of dot dot dot. I don't know if they cut off
your name or if that's like what your name that you left was.
That's all I can see. I tried to be like, show me
more, show me this person's name, and it just wasn't an
available option to me. So if you did just write bag of
dot dot dot. You got me good.
You got me really good. And thank you too.
Blue sky bracket, queer nerd bracket.
Thank you. I like your review because it
just says cat is evil. Anyways if you want to support
legend lurk and what we do in our podcast and other stuff, us
as individuals are deep addiction to fried chicken.
Which actually, you know what this is on a personal note, we
actually haven't gotten fried chicken for like a long time.
It's been a minute because mostly now we're like all in our
30s. And so like, we get together and
afterward I'm recording, we're like, oh, oh, I need a
vegetable. Oh, God.
And it's different, You know, it's different now.
I don't know who I am when I look in the mirror anymore.
But anyways, thanks for leaving a review for us on
applepodcasts.com. Podcasts on
apple.com/USpodcast/legendlark. Thank you.
Oh, I have a very special thank you to issue and it's too a
special someone named Skates Mumbles who sent us literally
insane crochet like creations, magic objects in the mail they
sent us. Oh my God, like what all did
they even said they sent us this hat for Noel.
That's like a Fran hat. I've never seen anything so
insane in my life. It looks so cool.
It looks like a brain, like a coral brain.
It's so cool. Thank you skates Mumbles and
they made something for each of us.
Like one of them was an amazing like Corbin purse bag thing and
like the bag is in the it's like a crow with a boob window and
like the bag part is like in his mouth.
So you have to like stick your hand in his mouth to put
something inside of it. I love it.
And then they also made wonderful, beautiful bags for
cat and Errol. The the neither of which have
mouths. Sucks to suck you guys, but
still very thoughtful and they're they're both very cute.
So thank you so much Skate Mumbles.
We really appreciate it. We were screaming.
I haven't actually seen mine in person.
It was revealed to me on the intro that we recorded for this
episode actually. But by the time you hear this
episode, I will have had my hands on that crochet knitted
Corbin birdmouth and I will put something inside of it.
I don't know what, but something will be in there.
Thank you so much, skates and Mumbles.
I'm still in shock. We are obsessed with all of
these and we can't express how insane it is to us that people
make things and send them to us. Like literally make things you
like. You made this.
Like you, you made this. This is crazy.
Anyways, thank you. If anybody else wants to send us
things, we love that. We love to get things and you
can send us whatever you can legally send in the mail to our
PO Box, which is on our website, legendlurk.com/contact.
So thank you for that. Thanks for that.
Something else that I have to do.
I have to send a message to Chantelle.
Chantelle has to hear this message.
Chantelle, it's been a while since I've seen you.
And we should really hang out. And I miss you.
And you don't listen to the podcast, so you'll never hear
this anyways. But I cherish you and all the
time that we spend together. I'm gonna send you a text
message later and see if we can hang out.
But the code word, the code, wait, let me find.
It's in my files here somewhere. Hold on, shit, if I lose the
code word again, they're going to.
I'm never going to live it down, dude.
They're going to get my ass. They're going to eat my ass,
bro. They're going to fucking eat my
ass. The cow boys drippings.
The sleeper agent is active. The book is like this spine.
The cover and the spine of the book are just empty of pages.
Now the pages are all over the room, so they just fell into
some of the pages. So like just a random place?
Yeah, you fell. Into a boy does Fran know what
page they fell into? They're all black now.
Don't they all lead to just the same?
Fran closes her eyes and prays to Mary.
Mary comes running up the stairs, hearing your panicked
prayers, and she says what friend?
What's? What's going?
What? I really fucked up.
I really. Oh my God, Mary.
Mary looks around and goes. I don't know what to do.
What is all of that I?
Don't know I Corbin just like I think just went into the void,
but. We weren't we weren't ready to
go into the void. I.
Know that, Mary. OK, OK.
Can we? They were in their pyjamas.
OK. And Mary looks out and you hear
a bellowing voice ring through the halls for servants who come
just rushing up there in a panic.
And she signs to them, Get my companions equipment from their
rooms now. And they come back as Mary is
sort of like shuffling these pages around trying to figure
out like, what's? Going on, Fran is grabbing her
own equipment and starting to climb into a page.
And Mary sends to you. Just hold on, Just hold on.
I don't think we have time for that, Mary.
Servants come in with slang and Corbin's equipment and the box
from Torrio and Mary like, sort of awkwardly grabs some of it
and she hands some of it to you, Fran.
Fran opens up the bag of holding and accepts it as she's sinking
down into the page. OK, Corbin, The world shifts
very suddenly from color and light and sound, and you're
screaming at Fran and Fran is screaming at you, and then you
feel a push from behind you, and then the world goes black and
you are falling through this syrupy darkness, and the fall
feels slow and languorous, but there's nothing around you.
And Slate, your experience is very similar, only you were
holding Corbin as you plowed into him, and now you're not
Fran. You take the equipment from
Mary, and you plunge in as well. And you were alone.
And each of you alone begins to hear a voice, distant and
murmuring at first, and then familiar.
I've been looking in the mirror for days now.
I've finally torn myself away. I do not see myself anymore.
Now I am 10 times removed from my own body, my first body.
I do not see me when I look in the mirror.
I don't even remember when I stopped seeing myself.
It happened so gradually, over so many generations.
I wonder if I should have done something differently, if I
should have tried to preserve some part of myself.
My eyes were narrower, I think. My lips were fuller.
I don't even have any paintings. What I used to look like.
I don't know if I like how I look now, he says.
I'm as beautiful as ever, but I have to laugh at that.
Does he even remember? Does anyone?
Corbin, you see a page floating down next to you, and you you
look at it and you see the words that you have been hearing
written out there. And then another page falls and
you hear. I've asked my acolytes and
attendants to begin wearing veils, the temple guards to wear
masks. I don't even remember what
justification I gave. They listened so readily.
In truth, I cannot bear to see their faces anymore.
I cannot bear to love another one of them when I know that
they, like everyone else, will die.
It's easier if they are all faceless.
Perhaps this makes me a coward. Another page floats down.
I looked in the mirror for the first time in so long.
I cannot believe how old I have gotten already.
I would not be old if I was just human, but I feel aged so
acutely now. I've not been keeping track.
Feels wrong to celebrate a birthday.
I don't even know what birthday I would celebrate.
I'll need to start on a new vessel, but I don't want to.
I still think of the child's voice I hear in my mind, but I
cannot let Estra fall. What a curse this godhood is.
I never thought I would wish to die, but I'm so tired.
I just want it to end, to rest. It's not made for this.
And another page falls. What a wonder a new body will
do. I still wake to hear cries in
the night, but I will push on. I know that they will fade.
I'm glad to hold a pen again. I was told I was a very fussy
baby, which I think might be quite funny.
I don't think of a God as fussy. I should write more.
I know I should. I look back at the entries in
this journal and I cannot believe how much time has
passed. I say days pass more quickly as
you age, and I am older now than any human ever ought to have
been. I will try to write more often.
I must keep track of the time. It's like the pages are falling
around you and you try to catch them.
You try to reach out. You see the words as you hear
them. SER Nunes finally passed.
He held on so long. Rest now my friend, May you run
forever on the Green Mountain and Fran as you plunge in.
The words haunt you. My attendants have suggested we
celebrate those that we have lost with a festival.
I do not feel like celebrating, but the last beast God is gone.
The island needs something to boost morale.
There are only a few left who truly remember the world below.
So perhaps it is time. Something to remind our citizens
why we're here, why we had to leave the world below behind.
We'll call it the Festival of Light.
Release lanterns into the sky to represent all of the lives that
were lost. Need to engineer the lanterns
myself. Make sure they pass through the
barrier. I wonder how it will look from
the world below. I hope any who still survive see
the lights and feel some hope. Corbin Your feet touched down a
first, and you think of the lights in the sky that were
released every year and every year the hope they brought.
And every year until the last year, as your feet touched down
on that river of lights, that river of stars, when you look
behind you, you see Slake as they touched down, and you see
Fran drifting down from above you, and Mary close at her
heels. Fran, from your position above,
you can see how the river is made-up of so many little
streams which twist and diverge and join again.
They are moving, you realize. They are flowing from somewhere
to somewhere. And then all three of you feel
suddenly, acutely, that you have no oxygen, you have no air.
I put my water bubble hair around my head like I did last
time I was here, but I call up to Mary.
Mary, they can't breathe. We need to go to your realm.
Mary nods and sort of swan dives through the syrupy blackness
until she catches you. Fran and the two of you meet
Corbin and Slake on what passes for the ground.
There's not really an up or down here except for how you're
oriented. When she touches down.
She grabs Slake and Corbin and pulls you both into a tight hug
and you feel a sudden rush of dizziness.
And then you are able to breathe again.
What the fuck? Where are we?
Fran. Fran shrinks away and she says
in the void, What? Happened.
I know that. Fran, you've been to Mary's
realm before, and it looked like her bedroom in Estra.
And when you look around, you realize you aren't in Mary's
realm. She's managed to create a little
bubble and the ground beneath your feet is the solid white
marble of her room, but it extends no further than the area
that you 4 are standing in. Mary, what's going on?
Mary shakes her head and signs there's something else here,
something that's keeping the void from moving to where I want
to be. How did we end up in the void?
That's a great question, Fran. Yeah, Fran, it's a good
question. I look at Corbin and then I look
at Fran. Well, I was reading Kai's diary
and she pulled you in. Why?
Why were you reading Kai's diary, Fran?
Because it would be stupid not to.
She's one of the most powerful resources that we have.
That makes sense. Sure.
Why, why, Why read it alone at night when everybody else had
gone to bed? Fran.
Because none of you will do what we need to do.
I'm sorry, what? What?
What the fuck?
What's happening? What?
Conversation did we have that? I wasn't a part of Fran.
You were a part of the conversation where you all said
that you didn't want to do anything about the gods being
gods when all this was over. I don't think that's what we
said. I think we said we didn't want
to nuke the world. Well, I don't want to nuke the
world either. We don't even know that that's
what will happen. Wait, I'm sorry, I I that's not.
A good reason to do something, Fran.
I I need to catch up here So you are reading Kai's diary and it
sucked us into the Why did Kai's diary suck us into the boy?
'Cause she wants us to kill her. Why?
Mary looks down at her glowing heart and then signs.
She wants us to kill her so that I can take her power, right?
So I can do what she wanted out of all of this.
I guess yeah, I'm. Getting real tired of doing
stuff and thinking that I'm doing it because I want to do it
and then finding out that some God actually wanted me to do it
all along. Well, maybe you should think
before you do things then, Corbin.
That was mean. Fran kind of flinches back when
Corbin says that, and she said, well, maybe I'm mean, I'm the
mean one. No, you're not.
Wow, say that like you mean it. Look.
You're the one who uses anger to hide how they're feeling.
Well, how I'm feeling is angry Corbin.
What? Me.
No, just at Kai. I don't know.
Why are you doing what she wants?
Because it's what I want. You want to.
Kill the forces. I want Mary to not have to live
like this for the next million years.
I want Phelan to not go insane. But we don't even know what
killing the forces would do. Well, we know what not killing
the forces will do, OK? But why?
Why the fuck wouldn't you just talk to us?
Well said Slake. Because you're never willing to
do anything that it takes. You're too willing to do.
What you I'm sorry, what the fuck like.
Why does it have to be one option or the other?
Have I not been fucking choking on God blood for the last?
I don't even know how long we've been doing this anymore.
When did it not seem like I was willing to do things?
Fran, just like, folds her arms and looks away.
I'm sorry, I'm just really confused.
Like why are you mad at us when we're in the fucking void right
now? Because you open guys, diary.
I don't. Maybe you can't explain it to
me. Fran like wipes her tears and
she says, This is why I didn't want to explain it to you.
You don't ever understand what what I'm trying to do.
You didn't want to explain it to us because you knew what you
were doing was wrong and you didn't want us to try to tell
you it was wrong, which it is. It's wrong.
That's just like your opinion. I just.
So you trust Mary's mom more than you trust us?
I trust Kai, OK? But you're fucking collaborating
with her in secret. Which?
Implies something. At least I'm doing something.
And slake, just like they're speechless and they say, oh, at
least you're doing something. Oh, like, like you're doing
something when I keep getting fucking caught in the friendly
fire of your spells. Like you're doing something
because you're so much smarter than the rest of us and, and
you've got it all figured out. You know, Corbin, Corbin, I get,
you know, if he wants to fucking throw an explosive at me, I know
that he doesn't know what he's fucking doing.
But you, since you're so smart, shouldn't you know better?
I want to say really bad that I know what I'm doing when I throw
an explosive at you, but I also realize the implication of
that's not good, Blake, I'm I'm sorry.
Whatever, it's fine. It's fine.
I'm really glad that Fran can go and figure everything out with
her boyfriend and not us. My boyfriend is like getting
eaten by the void right now. Well, maybe we're going to help
do that if you talk to us about it.
Fran, we're. Getting fucking eaten by the
void right now because you didn't tell us anything.
And then we went into your room because we thought you were
under attack and we sent in a fucking journal that you said
you weren't going to look at anymore.
And we fell into the void, and now you're telling us that
you've been doing. All this shit behind our backs,
like what? Who are you guys?
Mary touches your arm, Corbin to sort of draw all of your
attention and signs, guys, what's that?
And she points in a direction that I guess is best described
as downstream. There's something standing
there, a black point among the river of stars, and it's hard to
make out at first until you realize it looks like a deer.
Oh my God. I'm not done.
Do you think I'm fucking stupid? Mary puts a hand on your wrists
like and points at the deer and signs just like.
That's her burger jerker. Oh great, so there's like
another fucking mother figure that you're talking to instead
of us. He is not a mother figure.
I don't even know why he's here. Bait stands there, blinking his
big wet ink drop eyes, and then his voice floats towards you.
Hello, Franika. The little deer that was your
most constant companion for much of your childhood stands there.
Changed. His voice echoes all around this
soundless space, and. And maybe it's not even him.
Maybe it's something dredged up out of the void to look like
him. The deer that waits for you is
made of oil spill blackness, it's form rippling like it's not
quite solid. BAE stares at you balefully and
twitches his ears. Fran was already crying.
So is BAE like, outside of the area where we are?
Yeah. Then Fran steps out too.
To meet you, the ground feels a bit more solid where he's
stepped, like he's making a path for you.
And when you lift the mask of your water hair, you can breathe
in this slightly brighter space that BAE has made.
What are you doing here? The island fell.
I died, Yeah. My goddess called me to her
side. Oh, and now she asks that I take
you to her. OK, Sorry.
Sorry, what? You're where are you going?
You're just going to leave I. Do you want me to stay?
I mean, I we're going to go. Hang out with Kai.
We're having a conversation or we're not, doesn't.
Feel like a conversation? Well, it could have been a
conversation before. It had to be this.
Mary looks back at the two of you in science.
What else can we do? I could maybe bring us out of.
Here, but I don't know where. We'd be in the real world.
I don't know how the architecture of this place
matches up to where we were, if we'd even be.
I don't know, Fran. I'm sorry you.
Didn't feel like you could. Talk to us about this.
Mary, don't apologize. Yeah, I'm not feeling quite that
charitable. Yet, Mary, that's OK.
But. We need to move forward, right?
She looks. At BAE and.
Blinks rapidly and says I'm sorry you've died, BAE.
And she looks at you. Fran, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. We couldn't save him.
And the truth is, I think, I don't know.
It's a question we need to solve, but we need to solve it
together. Right.
Fran, you were wrong. You're my friend and I love you
and that's why I'm telling you this.
That's not what I want. I don't want to give up my
godhood at the price of everyone else or whatever might happen.
It's too uncertain. But it's not fair.
You're right. You're so right, it's not.
Fair, I didn't ask for this but I don't regret.
It I don't. Regret any minute of it, because
if I hadn't been born as a goddess, I hadn't been born
where I was. When I.
Was I would never have gotten to know all of you, and if our
island hadn't fallen from the sky and gods, I will never be
grateful for that. But if it hadn't, then I never
would have met you, Slake, and we never would have gotten to
travel together, and we never would have saved the world from
Torva. Slake is crying too.
And they say. But we don't know what killing
the force is gonna do it. It might kill you too, Mary.
It might. And I don't think that's what we
should do. But.
I also don't think we can leave things as they are.
And Fran, you weren't wrong about that.
We are all scared. You're scared.
I'm scared. Corbin and Slaker pretty freaked
out right now and that's, that's OK.
That's understandable considering.
I mean, I'd be less scared if people would stop gambling with
my life. Yeah.
I can't. Apologize for that, slate,
because I've never. Done that to you, but.
I know, Mary. Damn.
Corbin goes. Over to Slate and like gives
them a hug. Slate is stiff.
At first, but then they let you and they hug you back, he says.
I promise I'm going to try to learn some more spells.
That aren't exclusively area of effect spells.
Thanks Corbin, I say. But I.
Haven't been able to look at Fran.
Fran hasn't been able to look at you guys either.
What Mary says Fran wasn't. Wrong.
We need to solve this, and I don't think we can solve it
standing here talking. I don't think we know enough,
and I don't think there's anything back in the world that
is that could give us that answer.
Mary if you want to kill Kai. And you want to take on her
power and you feel that's the right choice to make, Then I'm
behind you on that, but I'm only willing to follow.
You when you're gambling. With your own life, I'm not
going to kill something that could affect the lives of every
single person that we've ever known.
Mary nods. OK, OK.
Yeah. And.
She looks at you, Fran, and she says.
I don't know what to do next, but I think confronting Kai is
the next step. So she looks at BAE.
If that's where you're going to take us, then lead on.
All right, Mary and you guys follow BAE.
Fran like walks. Next to BAE with her hand like
up on the back of his neck like she used to do, Yeah, it doesn't
feel like. BAE, not like you remember.
It feels like an echo of that, a memory of warmth and safety.
But it's not real. And as BAE leads you ahead, you
walk for some time. You're not sure how far.
You don't know how long. Again time.
Doesn't mean. Anything here?
Time is something that is. Direction is.
Something that is. This is the realm of what is
not. Eventually, there's a break in
the silvery ribbon of. Stars that you have been
following thus far. Then 2 golden eyes blink open
and as you draw near, you see the monster that you are
approaching. A monster that you, Fran, are
all too familiar with. A monster that you, Corbin, have
only seen in your nightmares. Ty sits in the middle of the
river, waiting. She bares her fangs.
As you approach and a panoply of women's voices all speak at
once. So he is dead.
Well done when you blink. You see a woman standing in the
monster. 'S place she's hard to look at
is every time you blink she's a different woman, each one
dressed the same in the gauzy white robes that Mary wore on
Estra. She is tall and then she is
short. She's old and then she is young.
She is every woman she has ever been and she is always Kai, my
daughter. She says reaching a.
Hand out towards Mary, who takes a step back and she looks a
little sad. I always wanted to meet one of
you before. Well, anyway, I'm glad to see.
You've done so well. And then she turns her gaze.
To you, Fran. There's only one thing you all
have left to do. Are you prepared to do it, Fran?
Pulls out her gun. And points it at Kai and.
Pulls the trigger. What the fuck?
And the. Bullet rips through.
The woman standing in front of you, and she smiles.
And then from the hole that you put in her chest, blackness
begins to bubble and spill. Then one taloned paw rips out
from the hole, and then another. Feathers burst and spill, almost
as if she is turning inside out. The monster rips from this body
and towers over you. There's all bristling black
feathers, wicked sharp fangs, and a piercing crown of antlers.
The monster lets out an agonized scream and you see the river
stars beneath it surge and ripple.
Then the monster lunges towards you.
Roll for initiative. Is this not how you planned for?
This to happen? I love it so much.
I also like it. Thing so okay, I.
Can't believe you Nat failed.