Realis 28: The Skipping Stone 02 Transcriber: thedreadbiter Recap 1 Introduction 7 The Refracted [13:20] 13 Above Sapryc [31:33] 28 The Skipping Stone [36:28] 31 Slowly Turning [46:15] 38 The Four Marbles [50:05] 41 Recap [“Sapryc” by Jack de Quidt begins playing] Austin: Y’all had just passed through the center of the moon of Sapryc. - Austin: You are in the southern half of the Wound Way, the worm-bitten tunnel that runs through the core of the moon Sapryc. And it is back to being black and white here. It is no longer a big, bright, colorful place like the middle of the core of the moon was. - Austin: The journey for the next few hours, maybe the next day, is largely uneventful. - Austin: At some point, you know, after this travel, Mirador pauses and says, Austin (as Mirador): Ah. All right, I think we need to wait for a little bit. - Austin (as Mirador): If you look and squint, you can see a little bit of light. We can’t go when there’s a light. - Austin (as Mirador): No one can do anything about the light of Realis Itself. Jack (as Jud): Oh, well. - Darcy: Everyone’s head turns into a bird head and we all sprout wings. Jack: Oh! Sylvi: Whoa! Janine: [laughs] Jack: Wow! Darcy: You get to pick what bird you are. This is the new personality test. Austin: All right. Sylvi: Bearded vulture. Austin: Wow. Instant answer. Love it. Sylvi: Yeah. Austin: Someone’s going to need to carry Mirador if this is how it works. Maybe two of you. Sylvi: I got it. I’m big. Austin: Because. Darcy: You think I didn’t put a wand for Mirador? Austin: Well, if the wings are touched by the light. Janine: Yeah. Sylvi: Yeah, he’s wrapped up. Janine: He’s going to get zorped or whatever happens. Austin: I’ll get zorped. I’ll get slurped. - Austin: You get to a place where you can rest. The thing above you is a little more clear. The thing that’s causing the shadow, you’re close enough now that you can make out the shape of it at least. It looks like a long, almost oblong stone. - Jack: And it’s far, or is it in the sky? Is it in the atmosphere, or is it in the sky? Austin: It is hard to read, because you don’t know how big it is, right? It could be the size of a large spaceship, you know, a city-sized spaceship, or it could be the size of a quarter of this whole moon, but further away. - Janine: I want to make worm borscht. Austin: Okay. - Janine: And you’re all going to like it. And you know why you’re all going to like it? Because I have a +1 Sentence that says you’re all going to like it. Austin: Wait a second. Sylvi: [weakly] Okay, Gam-gam! Darcy: [weakly] Okay! Jack: Gam-gam is a worm. Janine: “I always exert my will over the senses of others with my perfumes.” Austin: [amused] Oh, okay! Janine: I’m going to light a censer that makes this taste amazing. Austin: Oh, you’re going to air up it. Janine: Yeah, I’m going to air up the worm soup. Austin: You have to use the special spoon—actually, we do have a special spoon. Don’t use that special spoon. Jack: Do not. Austin: I mean! Jack: It won’t work. Austin: No, it has to be your own flesh, not worm flesh. Jack: However, this meal does give me a violent pseudo-trip of worm history. Sylvi: [laughs] Austin: Oh, right. It would do that, right? Because we talked about it happening to you. Jack: It has previously. Every time I’ve eaten worms. Yeah. Austin: Yeah, and in this case, it’s a short, simple life, and it’s what I already explained, and now you know that in character. Jack: Yeah. Austin: It was one of many worms born here throughout the walls of this place. Some of them stay in there and are able to live for a little bit longer, but the second that they need to move into a place where they can get food that isn’t just other worms, they get zapped by the light of Realis. Or they try to go downward… Jack: God, it does suck how that happens in nature sometimes. You ever see like a David Attenborough documentary where it’s like these little creatures live a short and unpleasant life and any time they try and act for their own benefit, they’re instantly killed by the ocean or something. Austin: Yeah. Jack: [sighs] Sylvi: Damn, they’re just like me for real. Darcy: [laughs] Sylvi: I’ve been really feeling that. Austin: Nature. It’s out to get you sometimes, you know. There’s not much wiggle room. Sylvi: I mean, worms tend to do a lot of wiggling. Austin: [whispers] Oh, yeah, they do, that’s… Janine: Yeah, they get all the wiggle room. Austin: That’s what happens. You eat the borscht. The borscht is… good? Sylvi (as Gaje): Damn, Sacea, this borscht is good as hell. Janine (as Sacea): Thank you. Jack: Jud, eyes rolled back in his head, experiencing worm life. Janine: [laughs] Sylvi: Speaking in tongues. Austin: Damn, Sacea, where’d you get this? Jack: [laughs] Austin: Oh, from the worm corpse? Okay, yeah, I see. Jack: Oh, all right, asked and answered. Janine (as Sacea): Are you enjoying your soup, Flemming? Darcy (as Flemming): Yeah! [all laugh] Sylvi: Yeah, totally! Yeah! Jack: Oh, we’re also all— Darcy: We’re so close to the end. I’m not gonna fight over soup with you. Austin: Yeah, yeah. Janine: Birds love worms. Austin: God, this is just like a nice little road trip now, we made it, we made it past all the hard stuff. I think Mirador is like smiling right now, like, “I picked the right people,” you know? Like, Mirador is like, “It all came—" Janine: To sacrifice to the sun or whatever the fuck I’m gonna do. [laughs] Austin: [laughs] Well, you’re not going to get sacrificed! We’ll see. We’ll see. Sylvi: [laughs] My t-shirt that says “I’m not going to sacrifice you to the sun” is raising a lot of questions. Austin: Hey everybody, I got everybody team t-shirts. Yours all says “I got sacrificed to the blue weird sun and all I got is a t-shirt.” And mine says “I’m the sacrificer.” Darcy: [laughing] Sacrificer… Sylvi: I thought it was going to be “I traveled through the Wound Way and all I got was sacrificed to the moon of Realis.” Jack: And Mirador’s says, “I took them through the Worm Way to sacrifice them.” Austin: The Worm Way, uh-huh. Yeah. Exactly. Introduction Austin: Yeah, and the darkness is going to end soon. You can again see—and this is probably the closest anyone’s been to Realis Itself, the actual sphere. It’s hard to get this close. It’s dangerous to get this close. Most moons do not get this close. Jack: Yeah, I have to ask. Is this because of a lunar orbit? Why is the south pole of… Austin: This is the way Sapryc has always been, as far as you know. Or. Jack: Okay, so sometime… Oh, right. This is the whole worm deal as well, to a certain extent, right? Like, didn’t the monks… There was a monk who sort of worshipped specifically this sort of confluence, this proximity. Austin: That is correct. Yeah, this is why the monk who founded the Cloister of the Hollow Heart made this journey through the worm tunnel and found and managed to see Realis. And I believe we talked about it as if they came close to touching it or felt like they touched it, but also were scarred irreparably by that. Jack: Yeah. Austin: Changed irreparably by it, returned, started the Cloister. Jack: God, scary. Really scary. Austin: Time to go there! Jack: But I mean, scary, I can’t speak for the other characters, but scary to Jud as well. Like, I feel like Realis Itself is sort of just like a fact of living in this world. You know, even the lowliest squires on some mud planet, some awful, you know, it’s raining all the time and I have to look after my knight, look up and see Realis in the sky. And so being this close to it is frightening. Austin: Yeah. It’s blue. It’s hard to tell from… You know, as the object moves out of the way, you can really see it. And I don’t know that it always looks the same. You know, sometimes it looks like, Realis looks like fire. And sometimes it looks like sky. And sometimes it looks like marble. And sometimes it looks like a marble, a glass, you know. This close to the surface it is, or this close to the object, it feels like many things are true about it at once. But the one thing that is definitely true is that it seems like it emits light no matter which form it takes. If you look at it and you see it as sea, it is a glowing sea. If you look at it and see it as glass, then it is incandescent. And if it looks like a sun, then, well, it is acting like a sun to you. Even though, of course, we all know there’s only one sun in Realis, and it’s the Corpse Sun. Jack: Does the Corpse Sun throw light right now? Austin: Not—any light that it’s throwing is being completely overwhelmed by the light of Realis Itself. Jack: Okay, cool. Austin: Especially this close to it, right? If you were on, if you were galactic north, so to speak, if you were up above Realis Itself, towards the top where the Corpse Sun hangs over everything, the Corpse Sun would give you a kind of low red light over everything. Jack: Mean, devilish light. Austin: Yeah, exactly. This close to Realis, it’s completely washed away by—or washed, you know, overpowered by the light of Realis reflecting off the other moons. Those are the primary light sources. Don’t ask about the astrophysics of the system of a Thousand Moons also. It just works. Jack: Oh, they have a moon where they try and figure that out. Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Janine: I was just thinking that I have a cousin who is an astrophysicist who works on telescopes and stuff. And every time we say something like “galactic north” or some other weird bullshit, I’m like, I’m so glad he’s not really in my life in that way. Austin: [laughs] There’s a directionality in the galaxy. Janine: Because I don’t think I could look him in the eyes. Austin: You know? Janine: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jack: And to a certain extent, we know what it is. You know, Austin did the… Austin: Yeah. Jack: What’s that little… Those little fuckers called? The little creeps who go to space. Keebles. Kerbals. Austin: Kerbals, yeah. Janine: Keebles… Keebler Elves in space. Austin: Yeah. Uh-huh. Darcy: [laughs] Jack: You know, we know what a perihelion or whatever is, you know, toward or away from orbit. Austin: [snorts] Yeah, for real. For sure. Janine: What? Austin: I don’t think that’s what that is, Jack. Janine: That’s not, I don’t think that’s the term. Austin: I think a perihelion is like a light thing. Janine: Yeah. Jack: Look, I’m a bird! Janine: Periaps? Austin: You are a bird. Sylvi: [laughs] Austin: You are a bird. I’m just saying galactic longitude zero is north for me. And there you go. I think Mirador says, Austin (as Mirador): All right, we’re getting closer. Jack: Oh, from inside his thing. Austin: Yeah, from [briefly muffled] behind his thing. I don’t have like a cloth I can talk through right now. You know, I can pull up my shirt like this. Janine: Do what Ali did and chew your sleeve. Austin: I’m going to talk through the shirt. Janine: Remember that? That was really genius. Austin: Yeah, that was great. Sylvi: That was so funny. Janine: Ali’s really smart. Austin: That’s true. Jack: When did she do that? Sylvi: For Unincorporated. Janine: Yeah. The Valentine’s-ish adjacent Unincorporated. Sylvi: [laughs] It was a Val—you know what? No, there was a Valentine’s moment. It didn’t go well, but you know. Janine: Eh. Sylvi: Actually, it went pretty good. For us. Austin (as Mirador): All right. I can’t say too much still, but we’re going to have to figure out how to time it so that we can do the leap when it’s—in the right time, you know? Jack (as Jud): What do you mean, the leap? Austin (as Mirador): Eh… You know, when you’ve got to cross a river, for instance, you’ve got to make sure that the… Oh, that doesn’t work. That’s not how it works. Janine (as Sacea): I think we’re done with metaphors. Austin (as Mirador): No. Janine (as Sacea): Are we far enough into this that we’re done with metaphors? Because… Austin (as Mirador): If that’s the case, then we gotta move as soon as I say what we say. Sylvi (as Gaje): I’m ready to go. Darcy (as Flemming): Mm-hm. Austin (as Mirador): All right, unwrap me. Jack: Unwrap the… the bandage. Mirador’s hair sticking to his forehead. Janine: That’s still kind of a metaphor if you think about it. Austin (as Mirador): Can I get the borscht and also one of those little behind-the-ear wands so I can become a bird? Darcy (as Flemming): Of course. You should probably eat the borscht first. Austin (as Mirador): I guess so— Janine (as Sacea): We all ate it as birds and we were fine. Austin: That’s true. Darcy: I don’t know what kind of bird he’s gonna be. Austin: It’s a penguin. Jack: [laughs] Sylvi: [laughs] Janine: Mm, well, that’s not… Darcy (as Flemming): Might want to eat the borscht first. Jack: I can’t really, I can’t entirely explain it. And he’s been gone from us for so long that I don’t even know if I can say this with confidence. But Mirador is from the Primo school of thought. Austin: Yeah, there’s a little Primo in Mirador, for sure! Yeah. There’s a lot of— Jack: They’d be friends. Austin: Yeah, they’d definitely be friends. Um. Sipping on the borscht. Jack: God, he’s getting ready. You can see that he’s psyching himself up for the starter’s gun. Austin (as Mirador): [sighs] [breathlessly] Okay, we have to be ready to move. It’s got a bunch of different names. It’s the Black Frog or the Bouncing Fish, the Dragonfly Rock, the Bridge on Water. It’s the Skipping Stone. It skips. It hits Realis Itself. It touches the surface. And we have to get onto it and sit there for a day. Not one of our days, one of its days. It has to rotate all the way through, all the way around, and we have to bathe in the light of Realis. And then the world is your oyster. But we’re going to have to move now, and we’re going to have to be able to make sure it’s just us on there. Austin: The worm carcass starts moving. Darcy: Yeah, I’m flapping away. Let’s go. Jack: Okay, yeah, looking to the group. All right, let’s ascend. Austin: There is a buzz in the air. Jack: Oh my god, I’m checking my Sentences. The Refracted [13:20] Austin: Does anyone have a way of countering the Sentence “the Refracted always automatically mark any who know the position of the Stepping Stone as their prey”? I’m going to put this under the Death Procession because that is who they really are. Jack: Do they count as the Death Procession? The Sentence says the Refracted. Austin: It’s the same group. The Death Procession is the Refracted. Jack: Oh, yeah. I suppose this is like a metaphysics question. Does a Realis Sentence that uses a proper noun require the proper noun? Austin: All of these Sentences are actually, the Refracted have a Sentence that is that they can be a different thing. You know, that’s the truth of it. Jack: Okay, cool. Austin: The Refracted take a different identity in different times and worlds, basically. Jack: So, I could just as easily, you know, if Jud was holding the Sentence in his hand, he’d look down and see that it said, “I always protect those traveling with me from the Refracted.” Austin: Correct. in this case, because that is who they are here. Jack: Yep. Okay. Austin: In a different world where they weren’t that, you wouldn’t have that. Jack: Yes, because the Sentence that works on pears doesn’t work on oranges. Austin: That’s right. But here they are oranges and pears, you know, or they are a different thing and pears. They’re something that’s not fruit at all and also pears. Jack: Okay, well, that’s good to know, but I just used that Sentence so I want to let someone else move, but that’s in my back pocket and I’m prepared to hone it if need be. Janine: What’s their Sentence again? I’m trying to figure out if it’s +1 or +2. Austin: Yeah. So their Sentence, this Sentence is part of the Sentence—which doesn’t even, there will be a second Sentence here. “The Refracted always automatically mark any who know the position of the Stepping Stone as their prey.” Sylvi: I don’t know if I have anything for this. Austin: So it goes. Sylvi: Yeah, my stuff is for a lot more direct conflict as opposed to preventing stuff like this. Austin: Right. Yep. I expect this to succeed, frankly. Jack: Okay. I mean, I’ll challenge it— Austin: But it’s fine if you can counter it. Jack: To get a tick. Austin: If you can counter it, it’s important that you can counter it. Jack: Yeah, okay. Austin: It will mean something special. It will change the way things go forward. But there is… Yeah, we’ll see how this develops, I guess. Jack: Okay. Janine: I mean, I also have, I have something that could work here, but I… So I think it’s maybe between me and Jud, but… Austin: Yeah, and I’ll indicate something really quick, which is Mirador is already marked as their prey, which is what he’s been saying for a while now, right? Which is to say that, like, it’s almost like a card game. Mirador has the tag “Prey of the Refracted,” right? Jack: Which is part of why they’ve been trying to get us this whole time. Austin: Right, because it’s like, for instance, they have another Sentence that you know about, which is “when one of their collared hounds locates their prey, the Death Procession always arrives, killing the hound in the process,” right? And so that is, the prey is a trigger word there, right. So what’s at stake here is, are you their prey, or is Mirador the only one here who’s their prey? So that’s at stake in this moment. Jack: Oh, wow, now that I think about it, we did see the Death Procession turn away, right, once they had targeted Mirador? There was like a moment in the tunnels where there was a separation. Where they were like I’m not interested in fighting Gaje. Austin: Yeah, they were not interested in fighting Gaje. Gaje engaged with them after they turned their back on them, on Gaje. Jack: Okay, right. So this, to me— Austin: And this, again, is the thing Mirador has been saying, has been, if I tell you, you become targeted. You’ll become marked. They’ll know where you are. There’s a world where they’ll know where you are. So. Da da da da da. Janine: I could hone and get to a +2 here, but Jed, I don’t know what you’re… Jack: No, I could hone and get to a +2, and this, to me, sounds like a +3 Sentence. So the question is whether you want the mark on it. Janine: Mm. Janine: Which is probably always good to get. Janine: Eh… That’s true. That is true. Okay. I mean, I can do something then. Austin: Okay. Janine: I can hone “I always exert my will over the senses of others with my perfumes” to, perhaps, “I always exert my will over the perception of my opponents with my perfumes.” Which, you know… Austin: That’s fun. Janine: Narrows it down in a… Austin: It means you can’t make that borscht taste good if it doesn’t actually taste good. For your friends. Janine: I can make it taste good to people who want to kill me. Austin: [laughs] That’s right. Yes. “Now make us more of that borscht!” Darcy: I know you want to kill me, but, take a sniff. Janine: Yeah. And also perception, I think, is narrower than senses. Austin: Yeah, I think that makes sense. Janine: It feels like sensees being applied in a certain way. Austin: Yeah, agreed. You want to mark that Sentence just simply by honing it, first of all? Janine: Yeah. Austin: Okay. Janine: And the intention here is, of course, to light a censer that sort of masks… My first thought was, like, masks our brainwaves. Austin: Oh, yeah. Jack: Oh, right. Because this is about thought, right? Darcy: Lot of brain stuff today! Janine: But the thing where it’s, like, the thing that marks us because we know the idea of, like, oh, I should put something out that’s, like, the scent of ignorance. Austin: Yeah, I love that. So that becomes a +2 Sentence, right? Janine: Yeah. Austin: Unfortunately, it does lose to this +3 Sentence. That was, you had the right of it here. And I think that what happens is your… The scent is like burned away. Sorry, not the scent, but the smoke is burned away by the light of Realis Itself. I guess it burns in such a way that it isn’t the right scent. You know what I mean? It is like, I don’t know what the smell of the smoke was supposed to be, but it’s something wrong. It’s something different that doesn’t hide your brainwaves. And so now the question becomes a follow-up. Does anyone have a way of countering the Sentence “the Refracted always arrive in nearby bodies when their prey is touched by the light of Realis Itself.” I’ve actually written nearby vessels, but I want to… Not Orphan Vessels. Not Orphan Vessels show up. Like vessel bodies, you know? Sylvi: Yeah. Like possession vessels. Austin: Like possession vessels, yeah. Jack: The Refracted. Austin: I’m actually going to say corpses. It’s more fun. It’s actually more fun if it’s corpses. Because I’ve set up that there are these. Jack: Worm. Austin: The worm corpses and the Empest corpses through here, right. Jack: Oh, yeah. Austin: I will drop this in here. I will drop this in a… I will add seven more rows at bottom. I will copy and paste. Jack: For seven more Sentences from the Death Procession. Austin: Boom, here we go. I will make this question marks. I will drop that out. And I will paste in. “The Refracted always arrives”—I guess “always arrive,” because it’s a collective. Jack: This is three. Austin: “In nearby corpses, when their prey is touched by the light of Realis Itself.” Jack: Okay. Do we have anything that can counter a 3 Sentence? Austin: “Nearby corpse vessels.” I’ve rewritten it to be better. Darcy: Mm. Okay. Jack: I don’t have my token. Darcy: I do, not either. Jack: I could get a 3 with my token. Austin: I can get—I should be describing my intent, because I’m not doing a good job of that. Their intention is to, for this Sentence, is to arrive and take Mirador from you. Jack: Huh. Darcy: Hmm. Jack: Oh, this—now I want to protect this little squirt. Because he was like, you gotta trust me, I’m gonna tell you now, and then we’re gonna have to go. And if we let him slip from our fingers in this moment—this is especially grim. Does anybody have their token? Sylvi: I don’t have my token, no. I have a Sentence I can realize, but it would make it a +1, and then I don’t know if I can hone it after doing that either. Jack: Okay, so. Austin: You could. Sylvi: Okay. That’s good to know. Janine: Is there any, like, Sapryc shit we could turn to our advantage somehow? Jack: We would have to use a moon Sentence to… Sorry, we’d have to use a token to use a moon Sentence. Austin: use a Moon Sentence. Yeah. Yeah. Janine: Right, right. Darcy: Ooh. Jack: So… Sylvi: Is there a use for my gun here? That is a 2. Jack: That’s not enough. We could— Austin: There’s a—go ahead. Keep talking. Jack: We can charge tokens in a few ways. We can use a Sentence in pursuit of an impulse. Austin: Yeah, but this— Jack: This is now. Austin: This is now. Jack: This is happening. Austin: This resolves first. Jack: So there’s no way we can get a token. Austin: Yeah. Or—I believe that there’s probably not a way to just get a token here before this resolves, before them showing up and taking Mirador would resolve. Janine: I think I just realized, a thing that would be cool in this game, and I don’t have a like fully formed idea, but like this is a thing that I often wish for in other games, is like instead of an aid mechanism, where it’s like, you know, you can do this. I want like I want the Sailor Moon team-up play. I want the thing of like, well, individually we can’t do this, but the three of us have this thing and it all kind of could be worked to the same goal. So like, what does that do? Austin: Yeah. I think the closest thing right now is the band Sentence that you have. Jack: Yeah. We… Where is our band Sentence? Here we go. Austin: It is on the band sheet. Janine: The bands/factions… Jack: “When we work together, we always find the right path.” Austin: That’s y’all. Jack: That’s a Sailor Moon Sentence. And it is reality 1 right now. Austin: It is. And no one has tokens? You’re all tokened out? Jack: All tokened out. Austin: Damn. Darcy: All tokened out. Austin: And we should say out loud the way that you do get tokens just because we—I stomped on it before, but it’s worth saying that you can charge tokens by pursuing an impulse, by showing how a bond leads to a new complication, or whenever a bond hits its third mark, both of the PCs in the bond can recharge their tokens, or by triggering a Tragic Success, which uses one of your Means to lead the band closer into chaos. Sylvi: Jud, we have 3 marks—I have 3 marks with Jud. Jack: I don’t have… I have one mark with you. Sylvi: Okay. Austin: Wait, is that right? Sylvi: I don’t know how that worked out. Austin: I don’t think that’s right. One of you should be… Why is it separated? Why is it different? Jack: Probably because… Janine: I mean, it could be that one of you is, like, putting a point in in the end game, in the end of the thing, where you’re like… Jack: Oh, that’s what it is. That’s what it is. Austin: That makes perfect sense. Jack: It’s in level up. Yeah. Austin: Also, it may just be true and I’m just wrong. I might just be… Yeah, the person who uses the bond marks it, so you could have just done it more. But you could realize it. Jack: And get a token? Austin: Isn’t—am I wrong about that? Sylvi: No, I— Jack: Whenever a bond receives its third mark, both player characters in the bond may recharge their token. Austin: So you may have already done that. Janine: Ooh, interesting. Austin: Or you may have forgotten to do it last time. When did you do that? Sylvi: I don’t remember. I think this was last time, but I don’t remember. I’m sorry. Austin: I suspect we didn’t notice it when it happened. Sylvi: I don’t think we did. Because I forgot that this was a way to do the token. Janine: Oh, you can always right click it and show the edit history of the button and it’ll show you when it was ticked. Austin: Oh, that’s very funny. Replace false with true at 5.07 p.m. Jack: [laughs] Janine: And you could also check when was the token last changed, because then you would know, like, well, if the token was unticked. Austin: Boom. Yes, look at this. Jack: Doing some detective work here. Austin: 3:53! This token has not been checked. You both have that token. Darcy: Bam. Sylvi: Let’s go. Janine: Wow. Darcy: Bazinga. Jack: Okay. So this is great news. I would also like to remind everybody that I can make anybody here immortal. Janine: [laughs] Sylvi: Yeah, that might come up. We’ll see. Jack: Because if we think… Janine: That might be a thing worth doing to Mirador, honestly. Jack: I was going to say, if we think we might lose Mirador and he is better in a deathless state of eternal life. Well, I don’t know. Austin: [laughs] Jack: I mean, this is Realis. Darcy: That feels like a call for Mirador to make. I don’t know. Jack: It does feel like a call for Mirador to make, and it could be that the Death Procession just torture him endlessly, you know, for, like, information or, you know. We might… I had thought of it in the sense of, well, we can keep Mirador alive with the assumption that as a savvy man, he will break out of his bonds eventually, you know, and set the world to rights, be that in 2000 years or whatever. But I suspect that what would happen is that people would take advantage of the fact that he doesn’t die, if he is in captivity. But open offer, I can make anybody immortal, including, I think, me. The rule doesn’t say anything about me being excluded. Janine: Auto-cannibalism? Jack: Yeah. We do all kinds of cannibalism here. Austin: yeah. Sylvi: [laughs] Friends at the Table. Jack: Does that mean you’re going to eat that and then you’re going to relive high school or whatever? Austin: [laughs] Sylvi: Oh god! Darcy: Augh. Never mind. Jack: No, I think what happens, and this is like a play to find out what happens thing, I don’t know if this is true, is it’s probably closer to what happened between Austin and Ali’s character in the final Bluff City episode of Season Two, where like you gain a kind of sort of innate horrible proximity to yourself. And, I mean, in the case of that episode, it was a proximity to another person, but it’s like. Austin: That was good. Jack: It’s like—what happens is you’ve pressed duplicate on the Photoshop layer and moved it up by one pixel. And that’s an experience. But yeah, anyone can be immortal if they want. Let’s do something with these tokens. Austin: But for right now, let’s do the band Sentence. Yeah, so you have two tokens. Jack: Do we want to do the band Sentence? Austin: As a reminder, you can spend a band Sentence once per session. And you can put as many tokens as you want into it, as many as you have. Sylvi: It feels like the time… Darcy: Yeah, it feels like the time. Jack: Yeah, okay, let’s do it. Let’s clear this token. And because we are not honing it, this is nice, we don’t need to put conditions on that. Austin: No, it just is the thing it is. Jack: It’s a reality 3 Sentence. “When we work together, we always find the right path.” Janine: Hell yeah, Sailor Moon. Austin: Now, how does that— [laughs] yeah, uh-huh. Now how does that counter—show me what this looks like. How does that counter them trying to get their intention, which was taking Mirador from you. Again, using the Sentence “the Refracted always arrive in the nearby corpse vessels when their prey is touched by the light of Realis Itself.” Is it that you somehow stay in the shadows so that you’re not touched by the light of Realis Itself? Is it something else? Sylvi: Picking Mirador up and holding him away from the light. Austin: But you’re all prey now. Because you didn’t succeed that previous one. Sylvi: Oh, right. Austin: Which is important. Sylvi: You’re right. Austin: Because the rest of your lives you’ll be prey to the Refracted. Or until you can somehow clear that knowledge from your heads. Jack: And it can’t be sticking to the shadows, actually, because we know that the effect of the light is such that we had to like wrap Mirador in a blanket and then wrap him in rags and then put a tarp over him or whatever. Shroud him in smoke. Austin: You’re right. So it has to be something—it might just be that you counter them by outrunning—like, you tell me what it looks like when you do this. Jack: I mean— Austin: Sorry, to be clear, it is a +3 Sentence that you have—sorry, it is a—it is not a +3 Sentence. It’s only a +2 Sentence. You’ve overdone it, in fact, folks. You spent 2 tokens to become a +3. You did do that. It is revealed that this is actually just a +2, a reality two Sentence. Darcy: Boo. Jack: Oh, it wouldn’t be Sailor Moon if we, if the Sailor Scouts didn’t overdo it in some respect. Sylvi: We did it really good. Austin: Yes, I agree. Sylvi: I’m just crushing all these corpses’ skulls. Jack: Yeah, that’s what it is, right? It’s like, it’s the Ray Harryhausen skeletons scene, except like an Empest scout on the little rock outcropping lurches into life and Jud just, like, kicks it square in the chest and its wings, you know, snap against some rocks on the way down as it spirals down. Like, one of the little worms grubs out of the dirt and gets cut in half, or. Sylvi: I got a big, heavy-ass stake that I’m smashing things with. Janine: I’m a shoebill. I can crunch. a You’re crunching them? Janine: I can snap and crunch. Sylvi: Whoa. Austin: This is great. So you’re weaving a sort of, like, upwards violent charge towards Realis Itself, decimating any of the things that come to life. Jack: Dead in the light of Realis, unafraid. I mean, very afraid, but, you know. No hiding. Janine: Everyone talks about Friends at the Table as, oh, this is the show where things happen to people’s hands. No one talks about this is the show where there’s always righteous birds. Austin: [laughs] Jack: [laughs] Darcy: Hm. Yeah. I’ll take it. Janine: We have so many righteous birds, season after season. Austin: We’ve had evil birds too, though. We’ve had evil birds. Janine: Righteousness can be evil. Austin: Wow. Jack: Fucking vulture. Austin: True. [laughs] That’s right. That’s right! Jack: Yeah, I think it is that. And this is a misplay from the Revenant. The Refracted. Austin: Refracted, please. Yeah. Jack: This is a misplay from the Refracted, where when they are in the form of these, like, bulky humanoid masked armed soldiers, they were a real threat to us in the catacombs. But here they are coming back as like brittle chitinous, you know, half-dead Empest and worms, and it’s like, look. It’s a challenge, but we can do this. Austin: Yeah. This is true. I’m gonna un-cross off that one. But this is, I have now countered “the Refracted always arrive in nearby corpse vessels,” et cetera, because you have countered it. They do not have that ability anymore, which is great. They, you know, there’s this moment when they’re doing it. And I actually think the thing that you’ve outrun is the corpses. Above Sapryc [31:33] Austin: You emerge from the Wound Way, above the planet or the moon of Sapryc. You know, you fly up into the sky, you look around you and this part of the moon has just been scarred with the light of Realis. There are old crashed ships. There is like an Empest freighter that has crashed into the mountains called the Coraline Chain here. On the other side, you pop up high enough that you can see on the other side of the mountains, or maybe inside of the mountains, there are some Empest camps and stuff. But they’re just not here. This whole part of the moon is totally kind of like—it’s almost like it’s bald. It’s almost like it’s been burned down, you know, it’s barren. Jack: It’s like radiation-blasted. Austin: Yeah, exactly. And you are able to, you know, this is the “you gotta go for it” thing. The object that you’re looking for, the Skipping Stone, the thing that is between you and Realis Itself is going to leave, you know, is going to move past you if you don’t get there now. And I think this is uncertainty again. Do you have a way to climb up to the very edge of the atmosphere of the moon of Sapryc? Will these wings get you there? Jack: Will they get Scrundle there? I mean, Scrundle is on his own wings, right? Austin: Will they get Scrundle. Scrundle’s got, yeah. Will it get the cart there? I don’t know, you know? This is Austin being uncertain. I want to talk about this as players and as writers and, you know, storytellers. Do you need something extra to get you to the edge of space? Jack: Right. [pauses] Is there something that, I mean, I know we can fly, so to a certain extent it’s moot. Is there like a hilltop or a mountain that we can use to get some additional height? Austin: You do not have the time to like land and assess things. It’s now. Or it’s the next day, right? Tomorrow it will come back around. And when it does, you’ll have a chance. Jack: And we’re being pursued. This whole time. Austin: And you’re being pursued. And this area is covered in the dead, right? There are lots more corpses. Janine: I have an idea, but it’s not strong. It’s not like a powerful idea. Austin: Uh-huh. What’s the idea? Janine: It’s in fact a reality zero idea. So I don’t know if it’s… Jack: That’s interesting. Janine: I don’t know what I’m countering here. Austin: Sorry, it’s uncertainty is what you’re countering. You’re not being opposed. It’s just uncertain in the story if you could reach it on just wings. Janine: You know the thing in Breath of the Wild where you can have grass that’s on fire and you’re gliding and you glide over it and it gives you a little updraft boost? Yep. Jack: Yeah. Austin: I do. I do know that. Janine: I was thinking I could execute something like that with the hidden edges of my pomander. “I always strike with the hidden edges of my pomander.” Specifically, this would be an action and not like a perfume based thing, so I think that it still counts as striking. Austin: Yeah, sure. Janine: Where I want to sort of like slip to the back of the group a little bit but then like do a thing where I light my pomander and I’m spinning it really fast and it’s getting like really hot and giving us an updraft. Austin: Uh-huh. That’s fun. Jack: Yeah. Austin: Are you—so you’re not literally setting something on fire, you are using the pomander to like… You’re just creating a—it’s, the thing itself is creating a sort of like fire, heat, a heat wave upward. Jack: Yeah. Austin: Yeah, I think that that’s a fun visual. Janine: It’s like more about the object than the material inside the object, which is… Austin: Yeah, and I will tell you there is something happening here where you do this and there’s a real, your belief in it happening and your using the words in this way feels like it’s extra resonant in this moment. This wouldn’t work on the north end of this planet. This would not work outside of the Cloister of a Hollow Heart. But here, this close to Realis Itself, this close to the Skipping Stone, it does. And I think you can feel that a little bit, you know? There’s something metaphysically different about being in this kind of light of raw possibility that lets you twist the word that way. It’s made me, like, truly, as a GM, the tone has shifted. The reality in which I’m checking against has shifted. Like there’s a new foundation Sentence, effectively, here, which is about letting words be more flexible than they are elsewhere. The Skipping Stone [36:28] [“The Skipping Stone” by Jack de Quidt begins playing] And so this happens. The flames of this little, of this spinning pomander lift you high into the air, until there is very little air at all, until it’s very thin. And you land on the flat, smooth surface of this asteroid, question mark, that’s orbiting Realis Itself. Oh, and here it’s cool, because you’re on the other side of it. The light isn’t touching you and somehow the whole object has not been suffused with heat, even though it’s constantly being blasted on the other side. And even though it’s rotating, this whole big oblong—I’m literally thinking about—think about a smooth skipping stone, the sort of thing you would take out to a lake to skip with. That is what it feels like you are standing on. There’s low friction when you land here, but it does have its own gravity. Somehow you’re not falling into Realis Itself, nor down into Sapryc. And in fact, you are leaving Sapryc behind. You can see Sapryc getting further from you, bit by bit by bit, as this rock in space pulls away from it. You’re also no longer in the light of Realis Itself in this moment, which means that you are safe from going into a new scene where they would get their Sentences uncountered. The Refracted Sentences about, like, appearing as corpses. And also there’s no corpses here. This place is a wasteland in a different way in that it is just a flat stone in space. You’re standing on a skipping stone. It’s clear that that’s an effect of what it’s doing, which is skipping across the surface of Realis. Every few hundred feet, let’s say, there’s something that suggests maybe it was something else before. You can see the outline of what was maybe a structure, or there is a brick. You find a brick. Or a metal wall, like a girder that would be part of a wall. At one point, someone lifts up their foot and a leaf is stuck to it. This place has been something else, or maybe it’s been many things. It’s not clear. But Mirador sits down and starts crying. Austin (as Mirador): We made it. We made it. I knew, I knew. Even Scrundle made it! Sylvi: [laughs] Steam achievement noise. [everyone laughs] Jack: This is like definitely, at least for Jud, like almost like a weird, too loud cackle or guffaw, like the absurdity of like, hell, we did get the donkey up here. What the hell? How did we do that? We probably, hang on, we need to decide. Did we leave the cart behind or did we expend extra effort and bring the cart up? Is this a Scrundle plus cart run? Austin: I think the cart has to go, probably. Darcy: Yeah, that’s fair. Sylvi: I think this is Scrundle only. I am petting Scrundle after this mention, though. Austin: Yeah. Scrundle has turned back into just a donkey. Jack: Oh, yeah. I’m a guy again. Austin: Right, We’re all back to being, presumably. Darcy: Yeah, sure. Austin: The spell is over? Darcy: If you want to be. Sylvi: No, weirdly enough, I’m still a bird. Darcy: You don’t have to be. Austin: You don’t have to be. Darcy: It’s up to you. Austin: Real quick, that’s true. You don’t have to not be a bird anymore. That is true about the world where you’re standing. Sylvi: Damn. It’d be kind of cool if I just had a bird head. Austin: It would be kind of cool! You could do that here. Sylvi: But like dude body. Austin: And it could stick. You could leave here and it could stay that way. You’re in a place where it could stick. Sylvi: Hm. Janine: Can I lose the bird head but tuck the wings under my cloak? Austin: Yes. Everyone should take a piece of Ephemera. Sylvi: We’ve gone different directions. Austin: [laughs] Sylvi: I like that. Austin: You can take a piece of Ephemera representing this if you’d like to. You know? Jack: I cannot consider that possibility. Austin: Why? Jack: I’m a—just a guy now. Austin: Okay, right. Janine: I’mma just a guy now. Everyone: [like Mario] I’mma just a guy now! Jack: As he jumps on the Goomba, he picks up the little colored mushroom. Austin: Threat neutralized. Yeah, Uh-huh. Jack: Yeah, I think that Jud is looking around. Because we’re moving still pretty slowly, right? Austin: You’re on a new object. The entire—I mean, you’re seated, or Mirador is seated, right? Jack: Oh, yeah, but it’s like the skybox is turning. Austin: Yeah, very slowly. You know, more quickly than Earth’s skybox. What mirador said to you before was it will take six hours to stay here. Maybe actually, maybe this wasn’t—maybe he didn’t say that. This thing also, in the same way that it had six hours of coverage across the tunnel, like, hole, it takes six hours for this thing to rotate all the way around and skip against Realis. Right? And so you just have to be on this thing for that whole rotation. Jack (as Jud): Can they—can they— Austin: Not the whole revolution, but the whole rotation. The whole revolution is like a day, right, but the whole rotation is every six hours. Jack (as Jud): Can they get us here? Jack: Asking Mirador. Jack (as Jud): Are we safe here? Austin (as Mirador): I think we’re safe, kid! I think we… I think we made it. Jack (as Jud): Well… Janine (as Sacea): Famous last words, but that’s… Sylvi (as Gaje): Yeah. Jack (as Jud): Okay. Jack: Snapped from the moment of optimism. Austin (as Mirador): As long as everything… Jack (as Jud): Yeah, yeah. Austin (as Mirador): As long as everything that I think… I think it’s all right. I think it’s all right. Darcy (as Flemming): [clears throat] I… feel… it is only appropriate that I offer you an apology, Mirador. Austin (as Mirador): For what? Darcy (as Flemming): As you put it, for being like a child. Austin (as Mirador): Is that what I said? Why would I say that? I like kids. I used to be one. Sylvi: [laughs] Damn, the implication there. Darcy: Yeah. Uh-huh. Sylvi: I like kids, I don’t like you. Austin: No, that’s not what—! Wait! Sylvi: No, no, no. I’m goofing. Austin (as Mirador): I get it. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Darcy (as Flemming): It is quite the view. Austin (as Mirador): Just wait. Janine (as Sacea): I have to ask. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I don’t want to break—Is it going to kill us when we touch Realis? Austin (as Mirador): I don’t know. But it’s going to… Jack (as Jud): You don’t know?! Austin (as Mirador): I never did it before. I’m not going to promise you something I can’t promise you. Jack (as Jud): Do you think it’s likely to kill us? Austin (as Mirador): Ah… It’s likely to change us. It’s a change place, isn’t it? Jack: I don’t know that I know much about, like, what… I think it’s powerful, is what I know. And it’s sort of holy and powerful. Jack (as Jud): I don’t think I want to die. Austin (as Mirador): I don’t think you’re going to die. I don’t… Well… Darcy (as Flemming): Well, I would also prefer not to die. But I don’t think we’re going to die. Janine: Every day you wake up, there’s more things in the world that want you dead than want you alive, and you’re still here. Jack: [laughs quietly] Jack (as Jud): Yes, I suppose it is hard to argue with that. Jack: My class, the Struggler. Austin: Mm. Mm-hm. Jack: Nervous, though, I think. Fidgeting, you know. Not finding the kind of, like, cathartic excitement nervousness that Mirador is finding. Austin: Yeah. Janine: Gonna get you a cup and ball, kid. Jack: [laughs] That’s one of the two medieval toys. The other one is hoop and stick. Darcy: [laughs] Janine: Oh, don’t forget little pig with wheels on string. Darcy: Ooh! Austin: Oh, a classic toy. Sylvi: Oh! Cute. Jack: God. Little pig with wheels on string is the medieval equivalent of, like, Triceratops car. Tiny Triceratops car. Sylvi: I figured out… Austin: How do you spend the time? Yeah, what were you going to say? Sylvi: I was going to say, I figured out what I was thinking of when I mentioned Gaje still having bird head, and it’s a Soulcalibur character. Austin: Oh, who is it? Sylvi: It’s this man, Olkadan. Darcy: [thrilled] Oh, yeah! Sylvi: Just a ripped dude with an owl head. Austin: I don’t know that I know this one. Jack: This is Fabula, too. Sylvi: It’s from Soulcalibur III. Austin: Interesting, okay. Sylvi: Yeah, it is. Austin: This is also Kalar’s friend from the pub. Sylvi: Yeah. Austin: Oh, this guy’s great. Love this guy. Incredible guy. Sylvi: He gives you the tutorial. Jack: This guy gives you the tutorial? Sylvi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. His whole thing is that when you play as him, he uses all the fighting styles. Darcy: Yeah, he’s Weapon Master, right? Or Edge Master? Jack: You know, I feel like… Obviously, tough to find any objectivity in sort of understanding what makes a game good, but a game’s quality can be determined by how weird the person giving you the tutorial is. Austin: [chuckles] Janine: [chuckles] Sylvi: It definitely can bump the score. Jack: Yeah, absolutely. Sylvi: Anyway, apologies for the interruption. Slowly Turning [46:15] Austin: No, this is fine. I was setting something up. The day passes. What do you do for these hours, waiting for the stone to turn? Jack: I’m going to wander off. Sylvi: You fucking… Darcy: This fucking guy! Jack: It’s safe here. This feels like, you know, there’s no trees. I can see the group. The group can see me. Austin: Would you go closer or further from them towards where the light will be? Jack: Further from the light. Austin: Further from the light. Okay. Interesting. Janine: Yeah, I have a live video feed of this. Jack: It’s—[laughing] Oh, hang on. Is it going to be from Dragon’s Dogma? I bet it’s going to be Jud falling off a cliff in Dragon’s Dogma or something. Janine: I have to find the right—no, no, no, no. Jack: I don’t want to get closer to the light without the group. And I’m not going far away. This really is, you know, going to the bottom of the garden. Or, you know, on the other side of the small park. And I’m just kicking things over with my foot. I’m looking for, in the mechanics of the game, I’m looking for Ephemera. But the thing I’m doing here is just like, you know. Austin: What’s the Ephemera you’re looking for? Jack: I want to find something interesting about this thing’s past. You know, you described a leaf or a brick. Austin: Yeah, tell me something. What is it? What did you find? Jack: Oh, gosh. What did I find? I found… It is a bag of marbles. Austin: Mm. Jack: And it’s from a collection of 1,000 marbles. And I would say, like, 960 of these marbles have been lost, or weren’t collected. And, you know, even in Realis they haven’t necessarily mapped all 1,000 of the moons, so this is much more of like a toy of like, here are The Thousand Moons of Realis, and it’s like, this marble has a little blue swirl on it, this marble is just a pink perfect rose quartz, this marble is made of metal, this marble is made of smooth stone, and it’s a children’s toy of like, these are the Thousand Moons. And this is what I found. It’s what, like, let’s say, let’s say—it’s not 40. Let’s say it’s like 15 marbles representing the moons of Realis. Austin: Love it. What do they do? Jack: It’s a rosary. Austin: Oh, interesting… Jack: It has the function of a rosary. To Jud. I want to be, part of why I’ve chosen marbles is that I wanted to pick something like, fun—it’s a child’s toy, right? Austin: [amused] Like a rosary. Jack: I supposed, yeah. Austin: But truly, as somebody who’s raised Catholic, there is a toyetic quality to the rosary. Jack: There’s a toyetic quality to the rosary for adults, right? But also if you’re playing with your grandmother’s rosary or whatever, you’re like, the beads move and they clack. But whoever bought these beads for their child—I don’t know where this thing came from. I don’t know whether it was six months ago or whether it was 500 years ago—bought them because marbles are fun to play with. But Jud has got them because turning these little things over in his hands as he stands on this thing that is going to plunge him into the surface of Realis is like calming and meditative. So this is a, it’s worse than the, this might be Sentence 0, right? Austin: No, what I’m now asking you to do is something different. And this is through you looking at this. You’re looking at this as this happens. You’re not far enough away for it to really matter, but the light of Realis begins to hit all of you at once. It eventually reaches Jud. We see it. We see the blue comb over the entirety of this—we get a wide shot of the Skipping Stone twirling in the air and slowly moving into the light, and then beginning to dip into Realis Itself. It lowers in like a glider. It almost lowers in, and the whole thing becomes washed in blue and you’re—the last thing we see is Jud looking down at this marble. The Four Marbles [50:05] Austin: And Jud, I need you to tell me four things about this marble. Click on Moons 2 and begin to fill out four Sentences of the moon you’re about to make. Janine: Oh my god! Sylvi: Oh fuck! Austin: And then Sylvi, do that with yours. You’re also on Moons 2. Janine: Ooh… Austin: And then Janine and Darcy[1] do that on Moons 3. Jack: Oh my god! Austin: There are four 0-reality Sentences. There are four new moons. Janine: Okay, let me check the other moon Sentences. Darcy: Wait, yeah, okay, hold on. We’re all making a new moon? Austin: You all get a new moon. Darcy: Okay. Janine: Hell yeah, I was about to be be really jealous. Are we naming them and doing the impulse, or are you naming them and doing the impulse? Austin: You’re doing everything. These are not my moons. These are your moons. Sylvi: I have a question, really quick. Should these reflect the characters we played in some way? Austin: Yes, this is you. This is not just Sylvi, it is Gaje. It’s something deep in Gaje bubbling up. Sylvi: Yeah. That’s what I thought. Austin: It could reflect your Dream. This could be a way of achieving your Dream in some way. You know. I’m not going to tell you—Flemming, you could just have your Dream be true on this moon. You know what I mean? Darcy: Uh-huh. Austin: But it should feel like an emanation from you in some way. More than… I don’t think that you’re at the draftman’s table drawing this out. Though, maybe that experience is what it is for you, I don’t know what it is. I’ve never been to Realis Itself, you know? But I do think that we see Mirador here. Just for like a second. And whatever that experience is for you—the moon forming in your head, like, academically, or just like flowing through you emotionally, or this just, like, this process, this ineffable process that you feel in your blood and your bones—whatever it is, that is not happening for Mirador. I think Mirador just lowers himself to the ground next to Scrundle and looks out on the Thousand Moons, or at least however many hundred he can see from here. And he closes his eyes and there’s this, just, look on his face, this kind of sigh that moves through his body, and kind of comes through in waves. And I think the first one is like, just, total relief, utter relief, just like, month-long heat wave just broke, you know? Like, freedom from captivity. Like, deep, deep, deep, deep relief. And then there’s like a little skip, and his eyes open. Snap open. And there is a moment of recognition, and what looked like a moment of victory and triumph and rest is revealed to be just a temporary reprieve. And he stands back up. But I don’t think you see any of that because of the moons that you are making. And, let me tell you, these are the moons that the player characters on the other side of the game are from. A quartet of moons. Darcy: Oh! Janine: Sick. Jack: [laughs] Yes! Sylvi: This is so cool! Austin: And the reason, [laughs] and this is why we recorded this first, was I needed to know what the moons the other half of the game take place on. Jack: Oh my god. Janine: Ah. [“Realis” by Jack de Quidt begins playing] ________________ [1] The name in the audio recording is no longer in use, hence the audio/transcript discrepancy.