Perpetua 44: Escape the Rumbling Castle! 04
Transcriber: robotchangeling
Recap        1
East [0:02:48]        4
Preparing Spells [0:07:41]        8
Next Room [0:18:28]        18
West [0:41:17]        39
East [1:03:29]        61
Minigame [1:12:22]        69
Exploring [1:24:15]        81
Recap
Austin (as Waylon): You shouldn't be so down on yourself.
Jack (as Elena): Huh?
Austin (as Waylon): I think you looked pretty cool! 
Jack (as Elena): I didn't do shit, Waylon.
Austin (as Waylon): That’s not true.
Jack (as Elena): I just summoned that orb, and I broke the orb on the floor.
[“The Castle Eschatonica” by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
Austin: This seems to be a place that makes and also analyzes spell orbs but also just kind of, like, magic items basically. This thing could analyze your gems.
(as Cerulea): You're trying to break the cycle too.
Ali (as Veile): Oh, well yes, of course.
Austin (as Cerulea): Well, Gail and I figured it out, but we couldn't quite…
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): You figured it out?
Austin (as Cerulea): We thought— we thought we had an answer, but I guess… Oh, Gail.
Ali (as Veile): Well, had you been to the White Lectern?
Austin (as Cerulea): The what?
Ali (as Veile): I'm to have the power to stop it, uh, but I have to seek the White Lectern.
Austin (as Cerulea): No, I've never heard of that.
Ali (as Veile): Well, what was your answer?
Austin (as Cerulea): Oh, the… We had a wormhole to go to.
Ali (as Veile): Huh?
Austin: You've never heard of a wormhole in your fucking life! 
Ali (as Veile): A hole for worms?
Jack: Worms. [Keith laughs]
Janine (as Brontë): Sounds gross.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): The ground.
Austin (as Cerulea): If we could breach the wormhole, we could confront the Dark Mater.
Ali (as Veile): The Dark Mater?
Austin (as Cerulea): The Dark Mother. Mater, mother, you know.


Austin (as soldier): [sighs] Who are you? Wait, who are you?
Keith (as Antistrophe): There's no way for me to answer that in a way that would satisfy.
Austin (as soldier): Stay away from me. I don't want any trouble.
Keith (as Antistrophe): I'm a teacher.
Austin (as soldier): You're a teacher? Are you with the Creed, or are you with the Windborne Church?
Keith (as Antistrophe): Neither.
Austin (as soldier): Then who—? I don't understand. Will you let me go, or are you keeping me captive? What are you?
Keith (as Antistrophe): We're not keeping you captive. We just want to know what you were doing with the money.
Austin (as soldier): I don't have to answer that.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Then we're keeping you captive.
Austin (as soldier): All right, well then, I declare my right to flare.
Keith (as Antistrophe): I don't know what that means.
Austin (as soldier): [frustrated] Am I or am I not an official captive?
Keith (as Antistrophe): No, you're an unofficial captive.
Austin (as soldier): So you're breaking the treaty.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Ugh. You're not a captive! Just tell us about the money.
Austin (as soldier): No.
Austin: He leads you up to this northern door. He puts a key into the door, opens it, and leads you in.
Keith: All right.
Austin: It’s a big round room filled with soldiers. You are in the Creed of Oracles Barracks. And one of them goes,
(as other soldier): Ferris, where the fuck have you been— 
Austin: And then sees you, and you hear the sound of, you know, eight soldiers drawing their weapons and pointing them at you.
[song ends]
East [0:02:48]
Austin: All right. I think we should probably pick back up with the spell orb research gang, if only so that we can get something with y'all that is not fighting robots.
Sylvia: Hashtag my orbs. Hashtag spells. Let’s go.
Austin: Hashtag your orbs. You've just finished up in the Spell Orb Research Room, I believe?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Yeah. We also, we discovered that there's some… We pinged a dragon up to the north.
Austin: That’s right.
Sylvia: We pinged a gem to the northeast.
Ali: Yes.
Austin: Yep.
Sylvia: And then we pinged Big Money to basically directly east from us.
Jack: Well, it used to be.
Janine: What the fuck was that?
Austin: Yeah, it’s Big Money, Maybe. I'm going to add “Maybe” on the map. Maybe.
Ali: Right. It was there was some money here at some point. [laughs quietly]
Austin: That’s right, but it seems like maybe it’s somewhere else now, not here.
Sylvia: Big Money Maybe is putting out some really lackluster mixtapes lately. [laughter] 
Austin: And you also managed to—and I believe this was you, Caoimhe—like, make a passageway north past the blockage that was made by Maebela.
Sylvia: Yes, it was an Elemental Ritual.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: So there's a doorway north, or I guess a passageway north that goes to a big door. There is another door up there, and then there is the other way that you kind of could have come before that goes towards Big Money, like the other exit from the Fortunate Isle Tropical Bar.
Ali: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Austin: What are y'all up to?
Sylvia: I'm looking at our three sort of pings that we got, and I definitely don't want to just run straight to the dragon. That’s my only real strong feeling here, so if the rest of the crew has thoughts, I'd love to hear them.
Jack: I know early we were and especially Elena was very like, “We have got to figure out what’s going on with Maebela.”
Sylvia: Mm-hmm.
Jack: Obviously she’s a real top tier adventurer, but there was that horrible crash when—
Austin: You know what that crash was.
Jack: That was the thing coming down, [Austin: Yes.] but I don't know whether or not, in part of the thing coming down, Maebela was threatened.
Austin: Right. You don't see her body anywhere.
Jack: You know, would the crash have happened if Maebela was doing well. Yes.
Austin: Right, I see what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just wanted to make sure that you and the listener knew that you hadn't, like… I wasn't sitting here being like, “Well, you never told me you looked under the rubble, [cross] and so Maebela is slowly dying under there.”
Jack: [cross] And there was a woman under there. No, no, no. [Art chuckles]
Janine: Oh my god.
Jack: That would be a real GM pivot.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: It would be really weird. Well, now you're in the Celestial Echo where I'm a piece of shit. [Ali and Janine laugh]
Jack: Whoa! Piece of shit world.
Austin: That’s right.
Jack: All the rules are the same, but the GM sucks.
Austin: The GM is bad. [Sylvia and Jack laugh] 
Jack: Having made a path through, I could see an argument to be like, okay, Maebela’s not under there. It seems like she wasn't injured in the collapse, so we could go back and [chuckles] look for the big money [Sylvia laughs] before pursuing her. I think in my heart, Elena is “let’s go for Maebela,” but I would absolutely— I'm also not in a great place to— I'm limping behind everybody else, you know?
Ali: [sympathetic laugh] Aww. Oh, we didn't— Was there no healing to be had?
Jack: Oh, I did some healing. I drank an IP.
Ali: Okay.
Jack: So my actual health is pretty good, but my spiritual health…
Ali: Sure, sure, sure, sure, yes.
Sylvia: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack: Having been obliterated in front of Caoimhe and Brontë and Efta and Zolfta and Veile. [Ali laughs quietly] 
Ali: Explanation was I think we ended up, like, in an in-character place last time that was like, “Obviously Maebela’s such a good adventurer that, like, once we find her, it’ll be easier to go back and get the money.” [Jack chuckles]
Sylvia: Right.
Ali: “So we should, like, obviously go do that, because she’s, like, so cool.” [laughs] 
Jack: It’s like the weird inverse, right? Where it’s like, obviously Maebela is— It’s like, it’s not that Maebela can handle it so we can go look at the money. It’s like, we need Maebela, and then we can go and look at the money. [Sylvia and Ali laugh] Yeah, okay.
Sylvia: All right. Brontë, that sound good to you?
Janine: Yeah, sounds good to me.
Sylvia: All right.
Austin: All right.
Sylvia: So I guess we're heading this way.
Austin: You squeeze through the little passageway north? Yeah, do you want to move yourselves?
Jack: No corpse under there.
Austin: No corpse under there. And again, there is this doorway to the right, and then there is a northern door also towards dragon ping.
Sylvia: Do we want to check the—? I was thinking right door first?
Jack: I agree.
Sylvia: Okay, cool. I'm good to take the lead on that if y'all want, but…
Austin: I would love that. That sounds like a good call.
Sylvia: Is this a Travel roll, or a…?
Austin: This is a Travel roll. What were you going to ask?
Preparing Spells [0:07:41]
Jack: Before you make the roll…
Sylvia: Oh, yeah.
Jack: Are negative effects on opening the door triggered on the roll, Austin?
Austin: Yes. [cross] Well, it depends on what the thing is.
Jack: [cross] So we should prepare spells.
Sylvia: Mm.
Austin: But yes, generally.
Sylvia: Wait, no, you're cooking.
Austin: Sometimes there's another roll to be like, “Did it work?” You know what I mean? Or like, can you dodge the trap? Did you, et cetera.
Jack: Right, but there's not a mechanism by which we can open the door and then step back like we're in Dead Space and see what’s on the inside.
Austin: That’s right. That’s right. Yeah. This is much more like Darkest Dungeon or like a dungeon crawler. You've opened the door, you know?
Jack: Yeah.
Sylvia: We should definitely take a second to prepare spells, though, since we're in orb land.
Austin: You are in orb land. Right now you're in orb land.
Ali: So true.
Sylvia: I have a question about how Elemental Weapon would work here. Do I just prep it, and I can pick the element when I use it?
Austin: Then you can use it like an item. Yep, totally. Yeah.
Sylvia: Okay, cool. I am definitely doing that, then, so that would be…
Austin: Make sure you spend your MP, et cetera.
Sylvia: Yep.
Austin: What element are you preparing?
Sylvia: Well, this is— I thought it was, like—
Austin: I think so, right?
Sylvia: Sorry, I think I just misunderstood you.
Austin: Yeah, sorry. I was thinking that there was a roll involved or something, but no, this is a…
Sylvia: No, it just, like, happens. But I was asking if I could pick the element at the time of the orb use, not at the time of the spell cast.
Austin: I'm going to say you can, because there was another thing I prepped recently that— 
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: And I don't remember what it was, but I made the same decision internally for me, which was like, well I won't know what it should be until we're using it. So I'm going to say that there's something about these orbs that like, you know, it’s not about putting the energy in, it’s about aligning it [Sylvia: Yeah.] inside of the orb in such a way, and you can do that just with the Use Item. You know, you're using the item.
Sylvia: Yeah. I have an image of this one where it’s like cycling through. The way the different elements cycle through is it just shows different, like it goes from a little tornado inside of an orb to some lighting happening to like a little fireball. [Jack chuckles]
Austin: Oh, that’s cool. Yeah.
Sylvia: Like it just cycles through them in the inventory.
Jack: I want to own this orb.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. Or like when you're playing a top down shooter, like one of those.
Sylvia: Yeah, absolutely.
Austin: And the power up is cycling between what different mode it is. Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah. And then I'm also going to… I think I'm going to prepare another— No, I'm going to prepare Lux, because that did well for me, and this is one that has a roll.
Austin: That’s your light attack spell.
Sylvia: That was my light attack spell, yeah, and I'm going to… I'm going to make this so it hits two, because I don't want to use all my MP here, so that would be another 20 MP. That is a terrible fucking roll. I don't know why I'm bothering.
Austin: That’s a pretty bad roll. It’s a 9.
Sylvia: I'm going to use a Fabula Point.
Austin: You're preemptively Fabula— Remember, everyone should have their Fabula Points back, or have a Fabula Point if they had none, rather.
Ali: Oh, true.
Austin: Important.
Ali: Oh, should I have—? Okay. [chuckles] 
Austin: This is interesting, because it’s like, what are you drawing on here? What are you evoking to prep this?
Sylvia: Well, I guess my question is like, what’s the— What does this look like when they're made by anybody? Because like, casting a spell—
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: We go to cast a spell, and then this orb appears, right?
Austin: The magical energy, instead of exploding out in the way it normally would, like implodes inward and then, in a flash, you know, kind of— or maybe not even in a flash, it just solidifies into this kind of… Again, we were saying bigger— Maybe I didn't say this out loud, but bigger than a baseball, smaller than a basketball, you know? orb.
Sylvia: Mm-hmm.
Austin: That is, you know, contains the energy and the power, the magical power that would have gone outwards.
Sylvia: So I think what this looks like, then, for Caoimhe, is it— I've got her like, for some reason, because I rolled two dice, I'm like, one dice represents each hand. [laughs quietly] And the, like, magic in one of them just doesn't— My metaphor is going to be all over the place today, but for some reason, I've got this in my head that it feels like when you can't get a lawnmower to start or something like that. [Austin chuckles] Like it’s sputtering almost, the magic in one of her hands.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: And she’s like, I need to retry this. I need to redo this, because I know that that was not as potent as it could be.
Austin: That’s good.
Sylvia: So I'm going to reroll. Actually, I might reroll both of these, because I got a 4 and a 1 on a d10 and a d8.
Austin: Sure.
Sylvia: So let’s hope this doesn't bite me in the ass. [sputters] My ass is so bit!
Austin: Well, that’s still better though, right? 3 and a 5 is better than a 4 and a 1.
Sylvia: Yeah, you're right. 
Austin: [cross] Remember you're adding your +4. 
Sylvia: [cross] Oh, yeah, I didn't add my +4 modifier. Okay.
Austin: So that’s a 12, which is, you know, you've fought a lot of things that had a Magical Defense of 12.
Sylvia: You're right. And it does have a slightly better hit die than the current Flare spell I have.
Austin: That’s true.
Sylvia: Okay, so I'm going to spend that and get my Inventory updated, if anybody else wants to start doing orbs.
Austin: Right. Let’s remember here that the damage here would also be 26 instead of 25.
Sylvia: The damage would go up to— Yes, thank you.
Austin: Yeah, got it. Cool. Is anyone else prepping any spells?
Jack: Yes. Oh, sorry, you go, Ali.
Ali: Yeah. Mine is actually pretty straightforward, because none of us are at max HP right now, right?
Sylvia: I don't think so.
Jack: Um…
Janine: Well, wait, didn't we? Yeah, we are. Yeah, because you healed us, right? You gave us, like, a super heal? Juiced?
Sylvia: I'm not doing bad. I'm basically full. I think I'm missing, like, a point or two, so. Having a heal ready—
Austin: You might have been healed and then not gotten hit again, Brontë.
Janine: Maybe, yeah.
Jack: I'm missing, I think, 6 health.
Ali: Yeah, because I'm like…
Janine: I'm at 48, which I think is my max.
Ali: Yeah. I'm 35, and I should be 44, according to my Crisis. So I was going to—
Austin: Oh, I know what happened. Some people used the computer.
Ali: Yes.
Sylvia: Yes. That is what happened.
Jack: Oh! [laughs] 
Janine: Oh, right! The computer that eats you, yeah. [Ali laughs]
Austin: The computer that eats you.
Sylvia: That’s every computer.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Every computer does damage to you.
Austin: That’s right.
Sylvia: Learn this from us. Know it to be true.
Austin: [laughs quietly] Yes. Internalize it.
Ali: God, that’s so funny. Okay, I am going to prepare two heals and use one of them, and that is 20 MP. And yeah, Sylvi describing the UI change was really great, because it was something I had in mind too, where like, I think because it’s the same spell, it charges the orb twice, and like…
Austin: Oh, that’s fun.
Sylvia: Ooh! [Ali laughs]
Ali: It’s like a Pokeball, and Veile twists it, and it goes like, clunk, and then does the one heal and then has like a one of one symbol or whatever.
Austin: That’s really cool.
Ali: Yeah, almost like is an orb that’s glowing and then gets, like, less bright as it’s used or whatever, and she’s like, oh, okay, that’s… [laughs quietly] 
Austin: Yeah, okay, sure.
Ali: Just slips it into her bag and is like…
Austin: Yeah.
Ali (as Veile): Okay. Well, let me know if you get hurt. [Austin chuckles]
Jack (as Elena): Thank you. 
Jack: Okay.
Ali: And that’s 50 HP for everybody, which is so many. [laughs quietly] 
Sylvia: Yeah.
Jack: That’s so much.
Sylvia: I only needed a tenth of that, but I'll take it.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: But that means everybody’s back at max probably on this side, right?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Ali: Yes.
Jack: Oh, that’s a multi heal. Sick. Wow.
Ali: Yeah, it’s up to three, so I guess if Brontë doesn't need it, then we're…
Jack: Yeah. I'm going to cast Barrier. Get that ready. That is 5 per target MP, but as we determined, I only need to cast that on Veile and me, so I'm only going to prep two targets for it. 
Austin: Mm. [Sylvia laughs]
Jack: I'm going to write down that I have a Barrier. You know, this looks similar to casting the other spell, except, in the same way that you feel a kind of pushback from pushing two of the same pole of a magnet together, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] there is like a force against your hand in this spell orb. It’s as though there is— It takes effort to hold the thing as though the barrier is, you know, pushing you back. And then I'm going to prep Glacies, which is an offensive spell, so that’s going to be interesting. This is up to three creatures, and I am going to prep it for up to three creatures, because we don't know how many are in there, and I would rather…
Sylvia: Mm-hmm.
Jack: I am prepared to waste 10 MP. I am spending 30 MP on this for three creatures, and I am going to roll it now, and we will see what happens. Scroll down. Once again, this is, “You coat your foes under a thick layer of frost. Each target hit by this spell suffers high roll plus 15 ice damage, and on an Opportunity, each target hit by this spell suffers Slow.”
Ali: Imagine we walk into another ball. [quiet laughter] 
Austin: Well, that’s only a 5, Jack.
Jack: That is not good.
Austin: You going to Fabula that?
Jack: I sure am, and I think I'm going to…
Austin: You got a 4 and a 1.
Jack: I might just Fabula the second one. What do you think?
Austin: Oh, and I didn't get an actual answer before, Caoimhe. What were you drawing on? What bond or, sorry, what…?
Sylvia: Oh my god, right. I forgot that I have to do that.
Austin: What Trait? Right, because that’s what I was kind of interested in. It’s pretty easy sometimes in combat to be like, “I'm drawing on this Trait, because I want to win a fight,” but I'm curious if it’s the same type of Trait when you're like, I'm not under threat, [Sylvia: No.] I'm doing this sort of different, you know, it’s a similar action, but…
Sylvia: I think it’s Doubt.
Austin: Doubt’s good.
Sylvia: I think it’s Doubt, but it’s more self doubt than, like…
Austin: Sure.
Sylvia: I mean, it’s always been self doubt, but it’s moreso doubt in her abilities versus doubt in, like, the direction of her life, which is typically how I've played it.
Austin: That makes sense.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Jack: I'm actually going to reroll both dice.
Austin: Okay.
Jack: Take a risk.
Austin: And what are you drawing on?
Jack: I am drawing on Megadungeon Hostess.
Austin: Oh, sure.
Jack: I have prepped, like, meals or prepped… I'm thinking of, like, [chuckles] lunchboxes to send into the dungeon or whatever.
Sylvia: Aww.
Jack: Like the idea of putting effort into something that I'm going to use later kind of comes naturally.
Sylvia: You're making spell bentos. [Ali laughs quietly]
Janine: Aww.
Jack: I'm making a delicious spell bento. Let’s try this again. Hey!
Austin: Much better. Much better.
Jack: So, I have…
Austin: It’s a 10, for the record.
Jack: Yeah, a Glacies that will do 22 ice damage.
Austin: All right.
Sylvia: Hell yeah.
Next Room [0:18:28]
Austin: And so you are going into this little right room? Is that the—? Well, you don't know the size of the room.
Sylvia: Yes.
Austin: [chuckles] You're going into this little— I guess you kind of do, because you can kind of see the top and bottom layers. I guess you couldn't see how far in it is, but.
Sylvia: Yeah, it could be very narrow and long, but I guess it’s just a little room.
Austin: Very narrow and long. It is not. What it is actually though is kind of small and tall.
Sylvia: Oh!
Austin: I would say that it’s like, you step into this room. It’s a fairly small room. You know, you're not cramped in there or anything. But it is very tall, and it has open— The top is open air right now. You can see that there's, like, a big long pole that you could use to, like, pull a cover over it, but right now it’s open to the air. And you are not in Genesika anymore. As you move into this place, you immediately recognize the— You keep your spell orbs. Your orbs are good. [Ali snorts]
Sylvia: [relieved] Okay.
Austin: You have these spells saved.
Sylvia: I was about to be so upset. [Sylvia and Ali laugh]
Austin: Yeah. I mean.
Janine: You walk through into an orbless universe where orbs are useless. [Jack laughs]
Austin: That’s right. Your orbs all explode.
Sylvia: All my orbs gone! [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah. But here, there is a… Very clearly back in the place where you were in that throne room in the first half of this dungeon, the kind of sand-covered throne room of the world Springsong, which I also believe the eastern party encountered once very directly, the kind of oasis. It’s where Antistrophe got that fig that he ate last time.
Sylvia: Oh, yeah! [Austin chuckles] 
Janine: We all got figs, I think. Yeah.
Sylvia: Didn't I get the—?
Austin: You all got a fig. Oh, okay, sure. I just remember Antistrophe eating it.
Sylvia: I have a pendant from there too, I think?
Keith: Actually, I still have that fig.
Janine: I ate my fig a while ago.
Austin: Who ate that? Maybe it was, maybe Caoimhe, did you eat the fig?
Sylvia: I did use my fig, but I also got this there, I think, right? The Reeva’s Current Pendant? Oh, I pinged it, and it didn't go through.
Austin: Hmm.
Sylvia: The pendant of Reeva’s Current, the thing that purifies water when I put it in it.
Austin: Oh, I think that sounds right. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, I believe that that’s true. Well, so here, you recognize some of the— I mean, actually the thing that you recognize the most is that there is a soft humming sound, and I do need someone to make a Travel roll. Caoimhe, you said you were going to do that.
Sylvia: Yeah, what am I rolling?
Austin: A d20.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: This tiny room is very dangerous.
Sylvia: I got an 8.
Austin: All right. There is a low tonal hum coming through the air. I need everyone to roll Willpower + Willpower, difficulty 12. This place has the same sandstone blocks that the throne room was built with, but here again they look more naturally placed, irregular. They're marked and chipped and eroded. That’s an 8 from Veile. As these numbers come in, I'll continue to read my prep. That’s an 8 from Caoimhe. There are— There's a 12 from Elena. That’s nice. [Sylvia laughs] There are long shelves kind of built into the high walls here, and flowerpots are placed into the recesses with flowers and plants growing out from them. In some cases, these flowers and plants have pushed their roots down into the kind of four stone walls here. Again, the shelves are built into the walls. These aren't— When I say built into, I mean they're like recesses into the side of the sandstone walls. They're not built in like the way you would go buy some shelves and, like, hammer them into the side of the wall, you know what I mean?
Sylvia: It’s not Ikea.
Austin: Yeah. There are some, like, pictographs written into the tiles, along the kind of lower wall, but again, higher up, in this tall room, are these kind of flowerpots that have, you know, their roots sometimes growing out into the walls. Everybody who got under a 12, which right now is everybody but Elena…
Sylvia: Ha!
Austin: You could Fabula this, if you have a point.
Sylvia: Mm-mm.
Austin: You feel yourself, and I'll give you a little hint as to what’s happening, before you decide whether or not you want to Fabula yourself. You can feel yourself being swayed into the rhythm of the hum, as if you're dancing the steps of a song, that you're doing that kind of involuntarily. You're being hypnotized.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: There will be an immediate bad action if you fail this roll.
Sylvia: Goddamnit. I don't have any points.
Janine: I'll Fabula that. I have one.
Austin: Mm-hmm. You rolled a 9. So, again, you're looking for a 12.
Janine: Oh my god. Yeah, I'm keeping that 7, but I'm going to reroll the 2. 
Austin: What are you drawing on? What Trait?
Janine: Uh, I think… I feel like this is an Origin thing. I feel like this is a… I'm trying to think of stuff. I don't know enough about wine making to know what would, like, make an unsettling droning sound that you would, like— Or maybe it would be, like, the machines that till the earth or something like that. Something that, instead of being hypnotic, actually just kind of has bad childhood memories associated with it that kind of, like, bleugh.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: So not like a deliberate resistance, but just this is unintentionally similar to something he’s experienced from his home, and it doesn't lull, you know?
Austin: You're, like, tuning out the sound?
Janine: Well, I think the sound is, like, enervating instead of hypnotic.
Austin: Mm. I see.
Janine: Like, the point of hypnotism is you kind of just melt into it, you know?
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: But like, instead, it’s just, “Oh, I hate that sound.”
Austin: Sure.
Janine: “That sounds like such-and-such,” and you're just thinking too much.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Well, give me another die. 7 plus… Looking for a 5 or above.
Janine: Okay. Well, that’s a 4, so that’s…
Austin: Oh, that’s a 4. And that was your last Fabula Point.
Janine: Yeah, that brings me to— Yeah, that’s 11, I think, so that’s not helpful.
Austin: That is 11. Veile or Caoimhe?
Sylvia: I don't have a Fabula Point. I just used it.
Austin: You just used it.
Ali: Oh…
Austin: Veile?
Ali: What do— [laughs] I want to hold onto my point, I think. I'm sorry.
Austin: Okay. That’s good. That’s fine. All right.
Ali: Veile’s also— I said she was tipsy and just gave blood to the machine.
Sylvia: Wow. [Ali laughs]
Austin: You did just give blood to the machine.
Sylvia: Elena immediately getting the comeback. We all got fucked up by this [Austin: Yeah.] after Elena was the only one who got fucked up in the fight.
Austin: Okay.
Ali: Uh huh.
Jack: I'm used to horrible sounds. I make horrible sounds.
Sylvia: Ohh.
Austin: Raise your hand if you have a damage-dealing spell on your sheet.
Sylvia: Oh buddy, do I.
Ali: Uh, yeah.
Austin: I want you to cast the first one on the sheet to the players to your right.
Jack: [laughing]  Oh no. Oh no!
Sylvia: Okay.
Janine: [laughs quietly] This is so funny.
Austin: If you don't have a spell, then use the first damage-dealing skill on your sheet. If you don't have a damage-dealing skill, then do the first attack listed on your sheet.
Sylvia: Oh, I guess my question is: the first one on my sheet is not the Spellblade variant. Is that okay?
Austin: Yeah. You just run it regular style. Yeah.
Sylvia: Cool. That does less damage, but I rolled really well.
Austin: You did. You rolled a 15.
Sylvia: I rolled almost perfect on it! [Sylvia and Jack laugh]
Austin: You almost critted, [Sylvia: Yeah.] and to your right, let’s loop back around. So, you go Sylvi to Dre, Dre to me, me to Jack, so that is going to hit Elena.
Sylvia: 23 damage. 
Austin: 23 air damage to you, Elena.
Sylvia: I'm so sorry.
Ali: God.
Jack: Just panic on Elena’s face as she sees the hypnosis setting in on everyone. [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith: Feeling good about our Agonies, at this point. [Sylvia and Ali laugh]
Austin: You find yourself saying words that you don't— You don't hear yourself say these words, but Elena does.
Sylvia: Mm.
Austin: It’s part of this hypnotism. Elena, Caoimhe turns to you and says, 
(as Caoimhe): And now I cast this spell with ease. I'll turn a weapon out of breeze.
Austin: And then blasts you with air. [Jack laughs]
Sylvia: I'm glad you didn't send me that, because I would have read it in a very silly voice.
Austin: Yeah. Good.
Sylvia: [silly wizard type voice] And now I cast this spell of breeze! [Ali laughs]
Jack: Does this send me flying? What does a 23 damage Ventus attack look like?
Sylvia: I mean, I have always pictured Ventus—because I am trying to stay in the mindset of, like, PS1/Dreamcast era RPGs—as being a little whirlwind that gets fired, so I guess it is just sort of like a little blast of wind hits you, and you do get thumped by it. [cross] I didn't get an Opportunity, so you don't have to land.
Jack: [cross] I probably hit a wall, because this room is small.
Sylvia: Oh, man.
Jack: Yeah, that’s true. [laughs quietly] Elena has the ranged, flying Elena. 
Sylvia: [chuckles] She’s flying now!
Jack: I mean flying because of the— yeah.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: I'm so sorry.
Austin: Who’s next?
Ali: It’s me, I believe.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Damn. The days in this season when I did not have an offensive spell, but now I have Drain Vigor. 
Austin: [chuckles] Okay.
Sylvia: Oh boy. 
Ali: You steal another creature’s life force.
Austin: This is targeting Brontë.
Ali: Yeah, I bet it is. [Janine, Sylvia, and Ali laugh]
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Willpower plus Insight.
Ali: Insight + Willpower.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: [typing] Draining.
Austin: What is your—? Oh, sorry. Yeah, what is your—? I was going to ask actually if it maybe didn't hit Elena, but Elena, your Magical Defense is not 15, presumably.
Jack: No. My Magical Defense is 12.
Austin: Okay. Brontë, what’s your Magical Defense?
Janine: My Magical Defense is 9.
Austin: Okay, well, try not to roll a 9.
Ali: I will do that. [laughs quietly] 
Janine: Wow.
Sylvia: Well, you didn't roll a 9.
Ali: 14.
Austin: 14. And how much damage is that?
Ali: HR plus 15.
Austin: So high roll, that is a 9, so that is…
Sylvia: 24.
Austin: 24 damage. 
Janine: What’s 8R mean?
Austin: And then you get to heal 12 damage, right?
Ali: Uh huh. [laughs quietly] 
Austin: Which you don't need anymore, because you actually just healed yourself.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah, I sure did.
Austin: And finally, Brontë.
Janine: Are you in Crisis when you're exactly on Crisis?
Austin: Oh, that’s a great question. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: I think we had this conversation, like, really early, and I don't remember what we landed on.
Janine: I feel like my gut would say yes.
Keith: I thought that Crisis is… Yeah, I think that it is.
Jack: I'm in Crisis. [Austin laughs]
Sylvia: I'm so sorry.
Austin: Brontë, what is your first damaging spell, or then, if not spell, ability?
Janine: So, this is a little complicated.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Because most of my abilities are, like, modifications to damage.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: That’s a thing I'm confused about. Like, you know, Barrage is makes a multi.
Austin: If it doesn't itself do it, you go to the next one until you get one that is.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Yeah. So if it’s like, “when you,” I wouldn't count that as a thing that does it.
Janine: Okay. So not Barrage, thankfully. No multi.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Not the thing that lets me choose to not do damage. That doesn't make sense.
Austin: Mm-mm.
Janine: Not the thing that lets me shoot something out of the air. Uh…
Austin: Though don't forget the one that lets you not do damage. That could actually be useful.
Janine: But that doesn't do any damage on its own. It’s not an attack.
Austin: Right, but maybe you could apply it on a hit if you do end up doing an regular attack.
Janine: That doesn't seem to be in the spirit of what you've explained is the situation here.
Austin: Okay, well that’s— I put it out there.
Keith: Well, doesn't it do a different thing, though? Like, you pick the thing that does damage, but then you use your non-damage-dealing thing to change it from damage to, like, I don't know, Dazed? Isn't that how that works?
Janine: Yeah. It’s an attack that does damage, and then I decide, [Austin: Yeah.] actually, I'm going to spend these points, and I'm going to turn this into Shaken or Slow or take some Mind Points. I don't think it’s—
Keith: That seems within the spirit, to me.
Austin: I think it’s fair if you end up— I mean, it’s still not great.
Janine: That’s not an attack, though. That’s a choice.
Austin: No, no, no. My point is you would do the attack like normal and then make a decision, because you have invested in having the ability to say— You have a thing that says, when you hit someone to to damage, you have a choice. You could do a different thing. I want to honor that, because you've invested in that.
Janine: Okay. Would I still have to spend the points?
Austin: Yeah, you'd make that choice. Yes.
Janine: Okay. Okay. 
Austin: Yeah, I'm not just saying you don't have to…
Janine: I didn't know how hypnotized we were, is all I'm saying.
Austin: Yeah, I think that it is… You pull the trigger, so to speak. You pull back the bowstring.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: But you still have to do that part, if you don't end up having another…
Janine: I still have to find a thing that does damage.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Okay, where was I? No, that’s getting a free attack.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: That’s not quite the right thing. Uh…
Austin: I think you might just have to take a shot. I don't know that you have, like, a skill.
Janine: Status effect, dodge. Yeah. All my stuff is, like, modifying my basic attacks or preparing for other stuff.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Even my dances. I don't think I have a dance that does just, like, damage. All right. Who’s getting shot with a gigantic bow that ignores resistances? [Keith chuckles]
Austin: I believe…
Sylvia: I think it’s me.
Austin: It’s Caoimhe.
Janine: Ohhhh… [Ali chuckles]
Sylvia: No, it’s fine. Pretend it’s like a cupid thing, and you won't have to feel bad about it.
Janine: You might be able to do fine with it. We'll see.
Sylvia: We'll see. Man, if you had rolled 2 lower, I'd be fine. [Janine laughs]
Austin: Rolled a 14. 21 physical damage that ignores resistances.
Sylvia: I'm not in Crisis, though.
Janine: Mm… Okay. I'm trying to decide if I want to instead inflict Shaken, Slow, or take away 20 Mind Points. Probably not the 20 Mind Points one. That’s a bit rough.
Sylvia: I mean, you could do that, because I only have 3 right now.
Janine: Hmm…
Sylvia: And then I don't take any real damage, and it’s not really doing anything.
Janine: Well, that’s less fun, though. 
Sylvia: Okay.
Janine: I don't want to be the only person who gets out of this hurt. I guess I'm not already, but like… [Ali laughs]
Jack: Hey.
Janine: You know, there's like a little… There's a desire for equanimity.
Sylvia: You want to hurt me. I understand. I totally, I get it.
Janine: No one should leave fine if they rolled bad. Everyone’s, we all gotta get hurt.
Sylvia: [laughs] Yeah, you're right. You're right.
Janine: So it’s fair. This is the point Adaire was making the entire time. 
Sylvia: I can take this damage too. Like, I don't mind.
Janine: No, but I like the idea of Brontë being like, “Oh fuck. I'm shooting an arrow at Caoimhe, and I don't want to do that, but I am.”
Sylvia: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I think… What does Shaken affect?
Sylvia: Willpower. Which would not be great but I think would be probably interesting in character?
Janine: The thing is, we're both kind of shit at Willpower, but also, this isn't the greatest time, it seems, to have worse Willpower.
Sylvia: Yeah…
Janine: And I don't want to, like, be cheesy and pick something that doesn't have a lot of consequences, because that’s not fun.
Sylvia: I mean, this would shake me.
Janine: And what’s Slow take, again? Slow is DEX. Is that DEX?
Sylvia: Slow is DEX, yeah.
Austin: Slow is DEX.
Sylvia: Which would also suck but would not suck as bad, because DEX is my high roll.
Janine: Yeah. I might go with DEX just because that also will, like, mitigate some of the damage being done if this happens again maybe. I don't know.
Sylvia: So this is in addition to the damage?
Janine: It’s instead of.
Austin: No, it’s instead of.
Sylvia: Instead of. Okay, I wanted to make sure.
Austin: Yeah, that’s, yeah. That’s what we're doing.
Janine: Yeah.
Sylvia: Cool. Yeah. I just needed to correct my sheet, [Austin: Yes.] because I took the damage like immediately. [laughs quietly] 
Janine: So this is kind of like Brontë, like, he has to shoot Caoimhe, but it ends up being like, I don't know, like a leg shot. I don't know how to fictionalize it.
Sylvia: Ow. [ironically] An arrow to my knee! Hahaha. Sorry.
Austin: Two things.
Keith: No, I loved it. [Sylvia laughs]
Austin: One, [Sylvia: Yeah.] I forgot to give Veile, while Veile was casting Life Drain.
Sylvia: I was going to ask.
Austin: Veile, or I guess, sorry, Brontë, you heard Veile say,
(as Veile): Such a waste to just give pain, when I could transform wounds into gain.
Austin: And then, second thing, Elena, did you account for your air resistance from your crown?
Jack: [gasps] No, I didn't! [Ali gasps] 
Austin: So take half damage from that. 
Sylvia: Let’s go!
Austin: Remember you’re wearing this Crown of Sand and Sun.
Jack: I am, and one of the things I chose was it gives me, I think, two resistances for one vulnerability?
Austin: Yeah. That’s right.
Sylvia: God. I'm so happy right now.
Jack: Good. Catch. Austin.
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Austin: All right. So, take a breather for a second. The humming has gotten quieter but then begins to pick back up that you have a—
Janine: Wait, I don't get a fun thing?
Austin: No. You didn't—
Janine: I don't say a thing? Aw.
Austin: You do not say a thing, importantly. Yes.
Janine: [disappointed] Okay.
Austin: And that is a clue about how things work here in Springsong.
Sylvia: Oh, we need to incantate, incant things.
Austin: The sound is very clearly coming from the flowers overhead. They are singing.
Sylvia: Now, I do have a Flare spell prepared.
Ali: Oh. 
Sylvia: [laughs] If we want to deal with some plant life real quick.
Ali: Yeah. How many are there?
Austin: Dozens.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Mm. This is a single target spell.
Austin: They're all around this room, if you all— this room over here, the one that Veile is in. On each wall all around going upward a couple of stories inside of these shelves, like laid into these shelves.
Sylvia: Oh, also a question. Is Waylon still just chilling back in the spell orb room?
Austin: Uh, I think…
Sylvia: Sorry to ask. 
Austin: That’s a great thought.
Sylvia: I just saw the turtle down there and was like, “Oh.”
Austin: Yeah, I mean, we should probably bring up Brontë and Efta and Zolfta too. I think probably in there with you.
Sylvia: Okay. Hypnotized?
Austin: Um, you know? Let’s just roll a 1d2.
Sylvia: I don't know why I'm asking. I'm sorry. Why am I asking these things?
Austin: Let’s roll. 1 is hypnotized.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: 2. Not hypnotized. 
Jack: [chuckles] Waylon and I are fine.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: You know how you can cancel out—? You know how noise canceling headphones work [Austin: I do.] by playing the sort of inverse of the signal against the signal.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Mm.
Jack: Is there something I could do here, as a musician, to counter the sound of these singing plants?
Austin: You sure could give it a shot.
Jack: Some sort of research or…
Austin: Yeah, what would you like to try to do to figure that out?
Jack: God, it’s strange, because, you know, Elena is a musician, but she’s also a magical musician.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: And so I have to assume that the same sort of skills around audio that Earth musicians have are sort of augmented by, like, a second layer of understanding music and sound as magical.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: So in the same way that someone with good relative pitch can, once they lock onto a pitch, kind of like slide up and down the scale until they locate exactly where they want to be, [Austin: Yeah.] I wonder if, you know, Elena draws her wand and starts trying to tune into the sound. It’s like a process of zeroing in on the right pitch or the right timbre.
Austin: Yeah. But you're actively doing it, effectively, while…
Jack: Yeah, making the sound, yeah.
Austin: Yeah, that sounds like Insight + Willpower to me. That’s kind of our magic thing. That’s what you do to cast your songs, right, or is it something else?
Jack: It’s usually Insight + Willpower.
Austin: Yeah, let’s do that.
Jack: No, my songs aren't actually a roll.
Austin: Oh, right. You just do it, right. 
Jack: I just do my songs. 
Austin: But your spells are…
Jack: But we've said that stuff like Iceberg and, you know, are expressions of music.
Austin: Right, exactly. So let’s do Insight + Willpower. I think the difficulty here is 10.
Jack: Okay. Sounds good. And I have enough Fabula Points to give this another go, if it doesn't quite work. Oohoohoohoo!
Austin: That is a 9.
Jack: That’s a 9.
Austin: Do you have any Fabula? You do have Fabula Points left.
Sylvia: Oh, wow.
Jack: Enough.
Austin: You could just Bond it to instantly get to a 10, right?
Jack: Yes, I could, and…
Sylvia: You also rolled a 1 and an 8.
Austin: Yes.
Jack: I know! The most annoying roll. [Austin chuckles]
Sylvia: Yeah.
Jack: Let me just check my Bonds here. I have a level one bond of mistrust with Brontë, and I think that this is, like, a real “I'm not always a clumsy idiot” approach, where it’s like, I don't want to look bad in front of Brontë, not because I trust and respect Brontë but because I'm like, I want this person to know I am more capable and not think badly of me.
Austin: Interesting. Sure.
Jack: So I'm going to make that a 10.
Austin: All right. You begin to kind of dial it in, and what you find is actually, you know, you start to do the thing of like, I'm going to cancel out the sound with the counter-sound, but you know, in the process, there's a moment where you're, like, trying to dial that in, and you start harmonizing with them, and their tone… They start to follow your change as you move, in a way that seems like you have just simply made yourself welcome by matching the harmony with them.
Jack: Hmm. 
Austin: And the hypnosis is broken.
Jack: Excellent. Oh, phew.
Austin: Veile, you can't help but remember what happened to the Iron Trigon, your initial escorts. [Jack chuckles]
Ali: Yep.
Austin: Who killed each other instead of escorting you to your destination.
Ali: Sure did.
Austin: But yeah, you're here. You're in this room now. We can take a pause, jump over to the other side, and come back. But there's some stuff in here besides the flowers who were singing and trying to kill you, so we'll come back.
Jack: Not anymore. Friends. Friends.
Austin: They're friends now. They're singing like a little, they're like a “La la la, la la la, la la” type song. But like, imagine I was like a really cute little flower. [Jack chuckles]
Janine: Like a “Kiss the Girl” situation?
Jack: Sort of LocoRoco.
Janine: Oh, okay.
Austin: That’s right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [Sylvia laughs]
Jack: Oh, yeah. Kiss the Girl LocoRoco. [Janine laughs]
Austin: That’s right, yeah. 
West [0:41:17]
Austin: How is it going, people surrounded by a bunch of people pointing guns at them?
Keith: Probably good?
Austin: Oh. Oh, okay. Cool. 
Keith: Yeah, it’s probably good.
Art: Oh, is that all it took? Phew!
Austin: That’s all. Yeah, it’s collaborative. You just get to say stuff, and I go, “Oh, okay.” Do we want to jump right back in where we were? Do we think that there's been stuff that’s happened that we don't want to, like, walk over bit by bit? 
Keith: [sighs] Ah— sorry.
Austin: What do you think the natural outcome of being surrounded by a bunch of people with weapons pointed at you is?
Keith: Fight.
Austin: Oh, okay.
Dre: Being shot. Or trying to talk out of being shot.
Austin: That’s possible.
Keith: Yeah. I think that the natural conclusion is a fight, but I did, you know, go, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on.”
Austin: You did. Okay, then let’s come back in right on the “Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on.” You are surrounded by… Let me count them up, because I want to give you a real actual number instead of just saying there's a bunch of them. There are nine people in this room, including Ferris, the devout chef.
Keith: Yeah, I think that you actually had said eight before, [Austin: Yeah, okay.] not including the chef.
Austin: Well, so then I got it right. Okay, good.
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: I would say that four of them look like run-of-the-mill infantry from the Creed of Oracles.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: They have, like, light armor on. They have rifles with a bayonet on them. They are, you know, they look like the bulk of the troops here. There are two people who have on robes and armor and who have flamethrowers attached to their backs.
Dre: Oh!
Austin: And then they have belts with these kind of, like, almost like volcanic rocks attached to their belts as if they were deployable weapons like grenades or something. One of them is a woman who has… She is, like, meditating underneath one of the windows in this room, this kind of northeastern window, and the light is like falling on her perfectly. Jonathan, I would say that, like, there seems to be something… It’s funny. Antistrophe, you're like, “Oh, something magic is happening there,” and Jonathan, you're like, “Oh, there's something technological happening there.”
Dre: Mm.
Austin: There's something. Both of you, I think—
Art: And then Nicky’s like, “Oh, something culinary is happening here.” 
Austin: [laughs quietly] That’s right, yeah. I think that the two of you think that there's, like, an energy transfer of some sort happening there. And then, finally, there is the person who seems to be the de facto leader here, who is a knight in elementally powered armor wielding a tower shield and a sort of javelin that hums with power. She is like a shieldmaiden, and she is the one who points this javelin at you and says,
(as shieldmaiden): Halt. Who are you? What have you done with Ferris?
Keith (as Antistrophe): Him? This guy?
Austin (as shieldmaiden): That’s right.
Keith (as Antistrophe): We found him passed out next to a pile of burning money, and we saved his life.
Art (as Nicky): Yeah, we saved Ferris.
Austin (as Ferris): They did. They did save me,
Austin: He says.
(as Ferris): But they're also being really suspicious.
Austin: And he, like, walks further into the room to kind of get away from you and with the rest of the big group.
Keith (as Antistrophe): We're not suspicious. We just don't know anything.
Austin (as shieldmaiden): Who are you with?
Keith (as Antistrophe): We're not with anybody. 
Austin (as shieldmaiden): Everybody’s with somebody.
Keith (as Antistrophe): We're with each other.
Sylvia: Aww.
Austin (as shieldmaiden): What are your names?
Keith (as Antistrophe): My name is Antistrophe.
Art (as Nicky): You can call me Nicky.
Dre (as Jonathan): I'm Jonathan.
Austin (as shieldmaiden): Great. Antistrophe, Nicky, and Jonathan. We're going to need to detain you until we can find out whether you're lying to us.
Keith (as Antistrophe): We disagree.
Art (as Nicky): [aside] Well, let’s send up a flare. They have to let us send up a flare.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Oh yeah. You have to let us send up a flare.
Austin (as shieldmaiden): Then you agree to our terms of captivity.
Keith (as Antistrophe): I don't— we don't want to be captured. I don't agree to the terms of captivity.
Art (as Nicky): I don't think we… I mean…
Keith (as Antistrophe): [aside] You think we…? We can take eight guys.
Art (as Nicky): What happens if we disagree? I mean, what, are they gonna say, “Okay”?
Keith (as Antistrophe): No, they're gonna fight us.
Art (as Nicky): I don't want to fight them.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Why not?
Art (as Nicky): There's eight of these motherfuckers. 
Dre (as Jonathan): There are eight of these motherfuckers.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Didn't you and I just fight eight guys?
Austin: No.
Art: Did we?
Keith: Those bloodsucker guys?
Austin: There were two of them. [quiet laughter] 
Keith: I thought there was, like, six of them. [Jack laughs]
Sylvia: No.
Dre: No, that’s just how good it went fighting two guys.
Art: Well, if we add those two numbers together, it is eight.
Austin: I'll double check. Two. Blood-Starved 1, Blood-Starved 2. You fought two.
Keith: I thought there was, like, another. Was there another fight that we were in?
Sylvia: We had a second encounter.
Austin: You had a fight against one guy and a puppet that they were controlling, that it was controlling.
Sylvia: Yeah. And I'm not going to lie, I kind of carried.
Austin: You have never fought eight people.
Keith: Eh, eight people.
Ali: He can't see from the other side of the shields, man. It’s all the same. [laughs] 
Austin: Yeah, okay. [Jack laughs]
Keith: Yeah. I just swing the shields until they stop yelling. [Sylvia snorts]
Art: In my head, it’s always eight.
Austin (as shieldmaiden): If you don't agree to terms of captivity, we will have to take action, and we cannot guarantee your safety.
Dre (as Jonathan): We could also— Can we just leave?
Keith: Well, I don't understand why we—
Austin (as shieldmaiden): No. 
Dre (as Jonathan): Can we just walk out this door? Aww.
Austin (as shieldmaiden): Unfortunately, until we confirm that you're not a threat to the Creed, we're going to need to either hold you captive or eliminate you.
Keith: Well, okay. Now, here’s the thing. I believe that we are a threat to the Creed, so letting them detain us until—
Art: What the fuck? [Janine laughs]
Keith: I'm not saying this out loud. I'm talking to my friends here at the table.
Art: Okay.
Austin: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
Sylvia: Oh! Ay!
Dre: I see. I see. I see. I see.
Art: Hey, that’s why they call the show that.
Austin: That's Chappie.
Sylvia: Applause comes in because you said that. Everyone’s cheering. [quiet laughter] 
Keith: I believe that we are, because we came here to, like, get them.
Dre: Yeah, that’s true.
Keith: On behalf of the Agonies?
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: And so I'm worried about, like, spending time doing a bunch of getting-detained rigmarole, being put in a worse position because we have to, like, un-detain.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Art: But unless the Agonies are going to instantly, like, kill six of these people…
Dre: Well, what are our Agony powers?
Austin: None of them are instantly kill. They're spells.
Dre: Well, I know, I know.
Austin: They're pretty strong, but they're spells, you know? And the Agonies—
Keith: I can attack up to three creatures with a searing barrage against my foes, conjuring flames out of thin air.
Austin: That’s true. You can do that.
Art: All right.
Keith: Each target hit by this spell suffers HR plus 15 fire damage. Each target hit by this spell suffers Enraged. So, pretty fucking good.
Dre: That is pretty good.
Keith: And like, we've got these guys. Hey, here’s a question. Can I—? Not to— I'll say it out of character first. Should we ask them about the Agonies?
Dre: I mean, we could try. I think we're going to have to make a roll to get any sort of information besides “We're arresting you.”
Keith: Maybe.
Art: Well, while we're asking questions, can I kick these guys’ asses? [quiet laughter] 
Dre: Like, can you? As in, like…?
Art: Like…
Austin: Are you making, like, a check to figure that out?
Art: Yeah, why don't I Study them real quick?
Austin: Yeah, give me a Study. 
Art: Because sometimes soldiers are real, and sometimes soldiers are fake.
Dre: Mm.
Keith: I heard that three of these soldiers were fake.
Austin: Who are you studying? Because this is, like, a real thing, remember, in the game.
Art: Not the one who’s talking to me but one that’s standing close to him.
Austin: Again, the kind of four types are the shieldmaiden who’s talking to you. Her name is Serithe. 
Art: Oh.
Austin: There is the one who is kneeling under the window, and a beam of light is kind of gracing her presence. There are four, like, infantry guys. There's the chef, and there's the two flamethrower backpack people.
Art: I don't want to fight any group of people that’s got more than one flamethrower backpack guy. But the infantry.
Jack: That’s wise.
Austin: The infantry. Okay, yeah, sounds good. That’s a 14, which is really good. That's a detailed answer, a complete answer, and I believe that it gives you something special with NPCs. I think you get to see, like, a lot of their shit. Let me double check exactly what it is. Page 319. Um… I think I just hit this one button, but I'm going to double check.
Art: Is it just telling me if they’d beat me in a fight?
Austin: All right. You get Rank, Species, Maximum HP, Maximum MP, Traits, Attributes, Defense, Magical Defense, and Affinities, which is really good. Yeah. All right. DEX: 10. Insight: 8. Might: 8. Willpower: 6. 60 HP, 40 MP. Soldier, Humanoid. Vulnerable to dark, vulnerable to poison. Defense: 10. Magic Defense: 8. Gritty, Grim are their Traits. With blessed light armor, rifle, and bayonet. Infantry make up the bulk of the Oracle’s ranks.
Art: Okay. If we assume that these are the wimpiest ones they have, that’s pretty bad.
Keith: Pretty bad for them?
Dre: No.
Keith: Or for us?
Art: I mean, we could beat this guy.
Austin: You could definitely beat this guy, yeah.
Art: No problem. But then there's seven more, and let’s not—
Dre: And some of them are even worse than this guy.
Art: And the one in the shaft of light, you know that’s trouble.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Yeah. Just the idea, though, of being detained. I don't really like it.
Dre: No, I think—
Art: I don't like it either, but I don't like the idea of being—
Austin: Are you talking? Are you doing, like, a huddle talking? I want to keep us embodied here, please. 
Dre: [laughs] Yeah.
Keith: Sure. Let’s be talking in a huddle.
Austin (as Serithe): That’s within your rights. 
Keith (as Antistrophe): Thank you.
Sylvia: They invoked the huddle. They invoked their huddle rights.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Yep. Yep.
Keith (as Antistrophe): Well, we want to help the Agonies, because that’s the way out of here, I think.
Dre (as Jonathan): Yeah. Well, maybe.
Art (as Nicky): Let’s get an Agony into this huddle.
Dre (as Jonathan): Okay, but if we could just— 
Dre: Oh, hold on. I need my characters.
Austin: The Agonies are, like, terrified, actually. 
Art: See, that’s bad.
Austin: The Agonies have not, like, come into the room with you. They're hanging out. They would get into the fight with you [Dre: Mm.] if it was fight time, but they are not, like, showing themselves to…
Art: But they don't have, like, Hit Points, right? They're not going to soak any damage for us.
Austin: They will not soak any damage for you, but they have been beaten back to their gallery by this group after years of having the free, you know, free run of this place.
Keith: How many Agonies are there?
Austin: Six. Two each.
Keith: We are missing one, though.
Austin: No.
Keith: Because we never figured out who— because Dre only had one, and Art doesn't have three.
Austin: Dre must have not written someone down.
Dre: Oh, I must—
Keith: Yeah, that’s what I'm saying by missing one, yeah.
Dre: Was it Mephi? I don't think I wrote Mephi’s skill down.
Austin: You did not write Miss Mephitic, who has Bloody Thorn. I'll paste it in here. I'm pretty sure it’s up there, but I will paste it. There we go. It’s an attack. One creature, instantaneous. HR plus 15 poison damage and gives them the Poisoned status.
Keith: I mean, pretty good, right? Art, what’s your strongest one of your two?
Austin: If I'm being, like, really just— I want to, like, in the same way in the last session I was like, “Remember that you have Elemental Shards,” and like reminding.
Keith: Uh huh.
Austin: The thing to remember about the way the game works is everybody gets one turn per round, and so you will have to deal with… 
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Eight rounds of…
Austin: Eight versus three is just hard. And you might win. I'm not saying you can't possibly win.
Keith: It is hard.
Austin: The game would say that this is harder than hard, in terms of its…
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: I'm giving this off of Art’s successful Study, which is, you know. The game has rules for the way it works, for the way combats work.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: A hard battle is equal to the number of Player Characters plus one, and that’s regular soldiers. Like, Soldier tier, not Elite and not Champion. I will tell you: these are not all Soldiers.
Keith: And there might be a Champion in here.
Art: Yeah, I don't think we can do this. I think it’s either we are prisoners—
Austin: I also will say: Antistrophe has not been knocked out yet, so who knows? I kind of want to fight it, because I'm curious how it goes.
Keith: I've never been. Yeah.
Austin: I kind of want to hit Antistrophe in the head, you know what I mean? 
Dre: [chuckles] I think we have two choices here. I think either we somehow convince them that we are not a threat, somehow, or we run away. 
Keith: I like run away. I was just about to suggest run away.
Art: Aren't they just going to follow us?
Dre: I mean, yes, probably.
Keith: I'd rather fight eight people in a narrow hallway. But I think that we could figure something out.
Art: Does it work like that?
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Listen to Realis if you want to hear something like that happen. [Austin and Dre laugh]
Keith: Yeah. I don't necessarily… Well, I should clarify. I do actually want to fight them, but I don't want to suffer the negative consequences of what that would mean. But I also don't want to suffer the negative consequences of being detained.
Janine: Well, you're going to have to face some consequences.
Dre: So then we run away.
Keith: Right, so that’s why run away, like Dre, also occurred to me.
Austin: Let’s make it— Let’s get off the boat in character in some way here.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Like, you've been given some time to debate amongst yourselves, and I think, at this point, Serithe, who’s the shieldmaiden, says, 
(as Serithe): Your time is up. We need a decision.
Austin: And, you know, someone cocks a rifle, like pulls back the bolt.
Art (as Nicky): Okay.
Dre (as Jonathan): [hushed] All right. 
Art (as Nicky): Can we just do, like, a—
Dre (as Jonathan): When I give the signal, you let the elephant rip, and it’s going to blow us all out of this room, and then we make a run for it.
Art (as Nicky): Oh, that’s a much better idea than mine.
Keith: Wait, and can we use the ice one to make an ice wall, blocking the door?
Austin: They know the spells that they know.
Art: I don't think that’s how it works.
Austin: Wan does not have ice wall. Wan can do A Chill Air. [chuckles] 
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Wan coughs—
Keith: I wasn't sure what it was, because I don't have it written down anywhere.
Austin: You should write these. I posted them.
Art: Yeah, Wan coughs and the temperature in the room drops.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I tried finding, scrolling up to find them, and I can't.
Austin: Okay. Okay.
Keith: It’s too long ago.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, everyone gets cold. It gets cold enough to do some damage, but Wan is not summoning ice walls for you.
Dre: Mm.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: I'll let you do the very funny blast. You know, Melo wakes up and blasts you with his trunk, because that is what he does. He very literally does send you flying across a battlefield, so.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah. I'll take the SL for that as well. Or not SL, the… What is it? MP.
Austin: The MP cost for that, yep. 
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: This is the first spell you've sort of cast.
Keith: I've only used MP once, so.
Austin: Yeah, so.
Keith: Forgot what it was called.
Austin: All right.
Keith: So we get trumpeted down the hall?
Austin: I'm guessing that’s what you're doing, right? You're getting trumpeted down the hall. It gives you a little bit of a head start. Where are you going?
Keith: I think we gotta go through this mystery door.
Dre: Yeah, we gotta go this way.
Austin: All right. You rush—
Art: Wait, this way?
Dre: Yeah, that way.
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dre: Where else you going to go?
Art: There's no room there.
Austin: You haven't looked down that hallway.
Keith: This is the way I think we were supposed to go through. It’s a room there.
Austin: You didn't look down that hallway. Yeah, it goes to a door.
Keith: Yeah, this is the way we were supposed to go.
Art: I'm just saying that the screen ends.
Austin: So you go run down this stairwell. There's a big door. You open up the door?
Art: Oh, sorry, Jonathan.
Austin: Give me a, uh… Oh, where’d it go? Let me find it. It’s above this one. D4. Not d4, sorry. D6. D6, because it has to be able to get to a 6.
Art: I'm going to roll this one.
Austin: All right.
Keith: Yeah, yeah, sure.
Austin: Give me a d6. Hey! That’s the best it could get. That’s a 1.
Keith: Nice. We find, this is some sort of discovery?
Austin: This is a major discovery here.
Keith: A major discovery.
Sylvia: Wow.
Austin: Yeah, absolutely.
Art: Not just some kind of discovery, please.
Austin: The first thing you do is you go in, and what you realize is this is a study, like a personal library, a personal study filled with bookshelves.
Keith: Whoa.
Austin: Filled with little nice armchairs to read in. And it has, with a major discovery, you actually get something really good for you, Nicky. I think maybe as you're…
Art: A voucher good for one gem of any price at the… [Austin, Sylvia, Keith, and Dre laugh]
Austin: I think, as soon as you go in, one of the Agonies… Who would do this? I think Hezzi, the scared giant piano player, faceless one-eyed ogre [Keith: Whoa.] like comes into physical being and begins to immediately start moving the bookcases in front of the door to barricade. And they're like,
(as Hezzi): Can somebody help me with this?
Keith: Yeah, I help.
Art: Yeah.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Nicky, you—with your crit here—find, as you're pushing one of the bookshelves over, a book, and it is an Alterosian cookbook. It is a cookbook from another world. Once per rest, you may change a single combination of two tastes whose effects you have already discovered.
Jack: Whoa.
Dre: Ooh.
Austin: If you do, roll again to determine the new effect of the combination, replacing the previous effect.
Art: All right.
Austin: So it’s like, it’s a book about, like, it’s going to teach you how to use the ingredients, the types of tastes you already know in different ways. 
Art: Love it.
Austin: Mm-hmm. So that is what you have found here. You have a barricade up. You don't know how long it will last. This seems to be a dead end, at this point. They are banging on the doorway. What do you do?
Art: Hope that the poison gas in that other room slowly kills them? [Dre and Keith laugh]
Dre: What else is in—? I guess we should look around this room. We should see what else is in this room.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah. Can I do a general Study for the room?
Austin: You sure can. It sounds like—
Dre: I will assist with that.
Austin: Yep, you got it. Study is Insight + Insight. Again, open-ended: 7, 10, 13.
Keith: Ooh, nice.
Austin: Well, Jonathan’s helping, so you get the +1 from Jonathan.
Art: I'll also help, but I'm editing…
Austin: Yeah.
Art: Nevermind. I have infinity time to add this item to my list. Oh, I clicked the wrong Insight + Insight.
Austin: Well, it’s fine. It’s still an Insight + Insight.
Keith: That’s okay.
Art: Eh.
Austin: You got a 9.
Keith: Oh my god.
Dre: That gets to a 10.
Austin: But with the Jonathan, it’s a 10. That’s a success.
Keith: Oh, I already added Jonathan’s.
Austin: Oh, you did?
Dre: Oh.
Keith: Yeah, yeah. So I got a 3 plus 2 plus 4.
Austin: Oh, because you already have the…
Keith: Because I have +3.
Austin: Right. I see.
Keith: I'm going to Fabula on that.
Austin: Okay. Jonathan, you don't have any Bonds with Antistrophe, presumably.
Dre: No, I don't.
Austin: Yeah, okay. 
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: What are you drawing on? What Trait are you invoking?
Keith: I am drawing on my troubled— oh, no. I'm drawing on— Oh, my Origin, one of the Hundred Burroughs.
Austin: Sure. Yeah.
Keith: I'm very familiar with studies filled with books.
Austin: You are. This is true.
Keith: To Study this study.
Austin: What are you rerolling? You got a 3 and a 2. You rerolling both?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Hey! There's a 13.
Keith: 13. 
Austin: Look at that. All right. With a 13, the first thing that you find is 2 IP, as you find a little, one of the chairs has a false arm, and inside of the arm is, like, some… Really in my mind what it is is like a liquor bottle, but actually there’s probably, like, some other stuff that you could convert into potions and whatnot in there. And then you also find a—just as you suggested, having grown up in the Hundred Burroughs—a false shelf. One of these shelves is not actually the right type of shelf. The wood is wrong. It’s a lighter shelf.
Keith: Mm. The grain runs the opposite way.
Austin: The grain runs the opposite way, and you can slide it aside to reveal a hidden passageway. Wacha, like that. Sorry, he’s not over here. I'm not allowed to say wacha, unless…
Dre: Mm.
Sylvia: You said “wacha,” not “wachow,” you're fine.
Austin: You're right, you're right. I said wacha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And it is a— And in fact, with a 13, you recognize that if you pull one of the books, it lights up a row of torches that runs through this long tunnel that skirts up the other side of this kind of outside of the dungeon and wraps all the way up, all the way up, all the way up. You're running. 
Keith: Nice.
Austin: They're breaking down the wall behind you or the door behind you. You hear them run in, but you're outpacing them. Oh, it’s still going! It’s such a big run! And you make it.
Keith: I knew there had to be a way out of here, because we were told by the Agonies [Austin: You were.] that we had to go around the barracks, and this is the only other place in here.
Austin: Finally—
Keith: I guess we didn't Study in the money magic room.
Austin: Yeah. You find your way all the way up and around to the top of this kind of balcony looking down on the center plaza, where these again are kind of military church buildings, the three, the circle and the two rectangles.
Keith: This is where we originally saw a bunch of soldiers.
Austin: That’s right, next to their barracks, which I'll reveal the connection to. In fact, this whole side can kind of get revealed at this point. To the north is the airship, is… Why am I blanking on the name of it? It’s a kind of punny name.
Keith: Is it Adventure…?
Austin: No, it…
Dre: Yep.
Austin: Is it the Adventure? Adventure Awaits? No, Adventure…
Dre: Adventure Beckons.
Austin: Beckons! There's the pun. Yeah.
Keith: Adventure Beckons.
Dre: You know, because of the beckoning.
Austin: Yeah. Yes. Because of the beckonings, yes, thank you.
Art: The No Way Home. 
Austin: [chuckles sadly] So it’s there, but again, it is anchored, and the anchors are connected to lower levels, further down inside of the dungeon. That’s what the Agonies said they would go release. If you could pull all of the soldiers away and get them to, like, other places, they would sneak down this stairway here inside of the barracks to the lower level, where they would start to unanchor them. At this point, having not found you that way, they've started to spread out across the area, and there are four people in this main room, in this main big plaza here, along with you looking down at them. 
East [1:03:29]
Austin: Caoimhe, Brontë, Elena, Efta and Zolfta, Waylon. You're in this room that is now filled with delightfully singing flowers. Again, they go up towards the ceiling, or not the ceiling, because there is no ceiling, but up towards the top of this kind of tall structure that’s collecting the sun. And then, at the bottom level, there are some… You know, there's some gardening tools in the corner. There is some soil. There are, like, pictographs etched into the four walls of this room, and there's a doorway to the east.
Sylvia: There was, like, a mention of there being something to close the ceiling, right?
Austin: Yeah, there's like a long pole that could reach up and, like, cover the ceiling if you needed.
Jack (as Elena): I think that might screw up our friendly plants by denying them the sun.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Are they— Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too!
Jack (as Elena): They're singing in beautiful harmony.
Janine (as Brontë): For now.
Ali (as Veile): We should—
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I just— Okay.
Ali (as Veile): We should be mindful of their magics.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I— Yeah. That’s more of what I was thinking, that maybe they'd be dampened a bit if we did that?
Jack (as Elena): I feel like we're in harmony. You know, musical harmony and also personal harmony. Obviously I feel no sort of long held connection to these plants, but we're singing together, you know? I wouldn't turn on another member of my choir or something.
Janine (as Brontë): But like, when you go to a choir, they don't make you shoot your friend with an arrow.
Ali (as Veile): Yeah.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Yeah. Like, we—
Sylvia: Actually, here’s a question, because we don't remember the things we said, because those are only heard by the person we targeted, but we do remember doing those things, right, Austin? Or…
Austin: No, you don't remember. You remember doing the things, sorry, yes, yes, yes.
Sylvia: Oh, okay.
Austin: You remember blasting each other.
Sylvia: Okay, yeah.
Austin: But the…
Sylvia: That’s what I mean, yeah.
Austin: Yeah. And in fact, everybody could hear the rhymes. Really the person who you turned to and spoke to heard yours, because it was all happening kind of simultaneously, you know?
Sylvia: Right, okay.
Jack: Iron Trigon style.
Austin: Right.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Yeah, I don't trust them. I think that they had something to do with what just happened in here. I'm really glad that we're not more severely hurt than we are, but that was bad. I didn't— That felt terrible.
Jack (as Elena): Yes, it did feel terrible, but, you know, they were… They were acting out of defense. They didn't know whether or not we meant them harm. It’s a…
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): We just walked in the room. We didn't do anything.
Jack (as Elena): Maybe they're territorial.
Janine (as Brontë): But that’s not a reason to not do the thing that is being discussed.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Is this a… Like, I don't want to be rude. Is this, like, a thing from growing up in a dungeon, where you're a little more sympathetic to the hazards in there? I just, I totally get what you mean. They started it!
Sylvia: Pointing at one of these flowers.
Austin (as flower): La!
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): [quietly] Fucking, ugh. [Ali and Jack laugh] It’s annoying too.
Janine (as Brontë): As much as I would, long term, like to be killed by a beautiful woman, I don't want to do it right now, and I'm a little concerned… [Sylvia and Art laugh] You know? I'm a little concerned about what will happen if you, for instance—I don't know—trip, and then the flowers get mad and then they make us all, they make Veile steal my precious life force again. Which, again, long term, would be okay, but like, just not right now. [Ali laughs] Different circumstances. Longer timelines.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Now I know who to call if I ever need to get rid of you.
Janine (as Brontë): You could get rid of me!
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Aww.
Austin: How’s Veile respond to that?
Ali: I'm imagining the internal four panel comic of Veile being like, “What a strange thing to say. [Art laughs] Oh, but it’s so mature that he’s considered his death like that,” [Austin, Jack, and Ali laugh] because like, her whole fucking religion is about doing that, which is weird but fine.
Austin: That’s who Veile is. [Ali laughs] Appreciate you playing the character.
Ali (as Veile): Well, we should fear these magics, either way.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): All right. 
Ali (as Veile): Elena—
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): We could also just continue.
Sylvia: Oh, sorry. I didn't mean— I thought you were done. My bad.
Ali (as Veile): Well, this bond you feel. Is it some sort of—? Is it attached to the spell that we just suffered?
Jack (as Elena): No, it’s not hypnosis. I just, there's like a connection in the way that we work, in the way that we act. And they're living things. They can't move. They can't defend themselves, other than the way they tried first, and then they stopped doing that, and if we close this thing on them, we're going to be harming them. Look, you can go on if you want. I'll search the room and catch up with you. I'm not afraid of them anymore.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): I'll wait, if you want to search the room. I'll wait by the door. I don't think it’s a good idea. We're already missing one person. We haven't been able to find…
Jack (as Elena): She is very capable. [Ali laughs quietly]
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): Sure. She’s the legendary hero Maebel, but like, I still don't like that. I don't like our diminishing numbers when we don't have to. I'm honestly shocked she ran off like that. That seems like you'd expect more from a professional adventurer, but hey, maybe that’s just my training. I don't know. Far be it from me to judge, I guess. Anyway. If you want to search the room, be my guest, but I am staying…
Sylvia: I think actually what Caoimhe’s doing is basically just standing by the, like, draw for the blinds or whatever, and just arms crossed. [Austin and Ali laugh] Like, the second this goes bad, I'm closing this window.
Austin: Waylon leans over to you quietly, Elena, and is like,
(as Waylon): I get what you're putting down. Makes perfect sense to ol' Waylon.
Janine: Young Waylon.
Jack (as Elena): Old Waylon?
Austin (as Waylon): No, like, ‘ol Waylon.
Sylvia (as Caoimhe): It’s just a turn of phrase.
Austin (as Waylon): Yeah, a turn of phrase. This guy. 
Jack (as Elena): Just like a turn of phrase.
Sylvia: Sorry, I didn't hear that.
Austin (as Waylon): This guy right here. Two thumbs. Boom boom.
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Keith: Yeah, obviously he’s young. 
Austin (as Waylon): Yeah.
Keith: You don't need to… [Jack laughs quietly] 
Jack (as Elena): Thank you, Waylon.
Sylvia: “Big Dub,” and then he points at himself.
Austin: Big Dub, exactly. 
Austin (as Waylon): Wachow! [Sylvia laughs]
Jack (as Elena): I just wish I could—
Dre: Not kachow. That’s important.
Austin (as Waylon): That’s different.
Dre: Can't get sued if you don't use kachow.
Austin (as Waylon): My name’s not Kaylon. It’s Waylon. Wachow.
Sylvia: But he is making the Dreamworks face.
Austin: Oh yeah. [Dre laughs quietly] 
Jack (as Elena): I just wish I could learn how to do what they can do.
Austin (as Waylon): What’s that?
Jack (as Elena): Well, that ability. I mean, it was awful when I got picked up and slammed against the wall. [Sylvia and Art laugh]
Austin (as Waylon): Oh, you mean like messing with people’s minds.
Jack (as Elena): But I mean, if I could—
Austin (as Waylon): Making ‘em do what you want ‘em to do.
Jack (as Elena): Yeah.
Austin (as Waylon): No.
Jack (as Elena): I mean, I already know how to make a—
Austin (as Waylon): No, that’s coward shit.
Jack (as Elena): Waylon. Sorry, but like, I keep getting obliterated, man. [Art laughs]
Austin (as Waylon): Yeah, you gotta get obliterated sometimes.
Jack (as Elena): Oh, yeah, but I keep getting obliterated all the time, Waylon. [Art laughs] I mean, like, obviously Caoimhe and Brontë are physically stronger than me, but Veile and I seem about the same.
Jack: Brackets: we have the same stats. [Ali laughs]
Austin (as Waylon): Yeah, I'd say you guys have…
Austin: Looking at both of you. Does hands like a camera and is like,
(as Waylon): Yeah, y'all are about the same to me.
Jack (as Elena): But I just keep getting the shit kicked out of me so much more than Veile.
Austin (as Waylon): Well, what’s your regimen?
Jack (as Elena): Which is fine, I don't—
Austin (as Waylon): Your regimen. What’s your regimen? What type of training you doing?
Jack (as Elena): Well, I try and get— Training?
Sylvia: What supplements you taking?
Austin (as Waylon): Yeah, what supplements you on? What are you eating?
Jack (as Elena): I don't know. I mean, I try and eat well. I try and eat well.
Austin (as Waylon): High or low protein?
Jack (as Elena): I used to— What?
Austin (as Waylon): What’s your carbo load situation?
Jack (as Elena): What are you talking about?
Austin (as Waylon): How many sit-ups can you do in five minutes?
Jack (as Elena): I don't know, four? [Art laughs]
Janine: What’s your favorite peptide?
Sylvia: Whoa.
Austin (as Waylon): Four sit-ups in five minutes? [Janine chuckles] You can do more. 
Jack (as Elena): I don't know, Waylon.
Austin (as Waylon): No, no, no, no, no. You could do more than four right now. Hey, everybody! We're gonna do a sit-up contest. Come right here. [claps thrice]
Ali (as Veile): No.
Janine: Oh, that’s fun. That’s actually super… [Ali and Janine laugh]
Sylvia: Yeah, all right.
Janine: I'd do that!
Austin (as Waylon): I'm putting 100 asta on the pot.
Sylvia: Oh, shit!
Janine: I love games. I love minigames.
Sylvia: I just remembered something, by the way, that I would…
Austin: Yeah?
Sylvia: Can I do this retro—? I forgot to use. My Camp Activity means I can stop suffering from a Status Effect when I'm about to suffer from one.
Austin: Yes, you can do that retroactively.
Sylvia: Okay, cool. I'm going to just have used that on the Slow here and then mark that I don't have that anymore. Okay. Sorry for the interruption. It’s sit-up time.
Minigame [1:12:22]
Austin (as Waylon): All right. Everybody get down, including me.
Austin: Taps his shell. [Ali and Austin laugh quietly] 
Art: Wait.
Austin: Uh huh?
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Janine: Uh huh?
Jack: This is going to go… [laughs] Yes, Austin?
Austin (as Waylon): I bet you could do at least six. I can do eight. So, four minutes, you can do it. [sighs] Everybody down.
Ali (as Veile): I thought we were supposed to be quick about the looking?
Jack (as Elena): Waylon, I'm worried that if I focus too much on doing whatever it is you're about to do, I'll lose my focus on the spell.
Austin (as Waylon): What spell?
Jack (as Elena): The harmonizing.
Austin (as Waylon): Nah, you're all good. Look at ‘em. They love us.
Ali (as Veile): Hm…
Janine: Oh my god. [Jack chuckles]
Ali: All right, what are we rolling? [laughs quietly] 
Sylvia: I thought DEX and Might.
Janine: Why DEX?
Austin: Hmm. Interesting.
Sylvia: Because that's my good roll.
Austin: Oh, that’s why. Oh, because that’s your good one, huh? [Jack laughs]
Janine: Uh huh.
Sylvia: Yeah. Because I'm powergaming.
Ali: Well, can I do my good roll? [laughs] 
Austin: Mm…
Sylvia: And because Might is my bad roll.
Austin: Oh, interesting.
Janine: I think it would be Might and Willpower, which I know is bad for us, but…
Sylvia: [resigned] I'll do it.
Austin: I think it’s Might and Willpower. If it’s about doing the most in five minutes, or four minutes or whatever it was I said. Five minutes, because Elena said four. [laughs quietly] Yeah. I think it’s Might + Willpower.
Sylvia: [resigned] Okay. I'll reroll.
Art: Can a turtle do sit-ups?
Jack: I was going to say, Austin.
Austin: Well, like he said, he can do— What did he say he can do? He said he can do eight in five minutes.
Sylvia: I think I can also do eight in five minutes, because that’s what I rolled.
Austin: No, this is— You can do more than that. That’s pretty bad, though.
Janine: There's gotta be a multiplier happening here. Like, it’s gotta be number times the number of minutes or whatever. Like, you're rolling for the one minute. You can do eight in one minute.
Austin: It’s a Skill Check, which means the successes are 7, 10, 13, 16, like normal. 7 means you do less than average.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: 10 means you do average. 13 would mean you do more than average. You know.
Sylvia: I'm so pissed. Waylon’s mogging me.
Janine: Oh, I didn't do good. [laughs] 
Austin: Oh no! That’s a 5. [Art and Janine laugh]
Sylvia: That does not shock me.
Austin: I would say if you can do— Yeah, that’s not good. What happened?
Janine: That’s the thing, is I was game to try, but also I'm in Crisis right now, so a sit-up contest is maybe not the best thing to do. [Austin laughs]
Art: No, no. I think doctors say, [Janine laughs] if you're hurt, do a sit-up contest.
Sylvia: Whoa!
Austin: Holy shit. [Art laughs] Elena. Elena rolled a 13.
Dre: Let’s go.
Sylvia: Best possible outcome.
Austin: Elena rolled a 13. 
Sylvia: Best possible outcome!
Austin: That’s above average, which I think for someone like you is, like, 40 a minute? 30 or 40 a minute? 
Janine: So the spell doesn't break.
Austin: No, the spell doesn't break. No, there is no spell.
Janine: Oh.
Austin: Elena really did harmonize with them, and now you seem to be cool.
Janine: Oh.
Jack: Right, but Elena thinks of herself in chorale with these things, [Austin: Yeah.] whether or not, you know.
Austin: This is going to make more sense in a moment, like in five minutes or something, but.
Sylvia: After the sit-ups, yeah. [Janine chuckles]
Austin: After the sit-ups. Veile? 
Ali: Yes, sorry. Hi, hello. It’s Might + Willpower?
Austin: Might + Willpower, yeah.
Ali: Okay. [typing] [Ali and Janine laugh]
Jack: We have the same stats.
Austin: You have the same stats. You both did the same stats. You both rolled 13. You both rolled 13. Waylon rolled a 10.
Art: This is the best. [quiet laughter] 
Austin: How many do you do?
Janine: Elena just being like, “Caoimhe and Brontë are so strong.”
Austin: I know. It’s so funny. So, Brontë does the worst. Caoimhe does a little bit better. Caoimhe does better. Caoimhe, you got a success.
Sylvia: That’s fucked. Yeah.
Austin: Elena and Veile. Okay. So here’s the real question. Do we have to have a…
Sylvia: You know?
Austin: Do we have to have a roll off? Or is it better that you do exactly the same number? 
Jack: [sighs] It seems funnier that we do the same number, honestly.
Austin: Yeah. Also, at 5, Brontë, is that you—? Do you give up a few minutes in and you start counting other people’s? Or do you just try to stick it out all the way through?
Janine: I think…ooh. I'm trying to think of the thing that makes sense, to an extent. I think—
Art: Are you open to a pitch?
Janine: I think it is like— I am open to a pitch, yes.
Art: You can, like, see from the corner of your eye that you're just getting housed, and so you do, like, [feigning] “Oh, well, the thing to do is I should help count.” 
Austin: [laughs] Yeah.
Janine: I don't think he has an ego like that, though. He has an ego, but I don't think it’s a like, “Oh no, all the girls are doing more sit-ups than me,” type ego, you know?
Sylvia: Yeah, but could it not be a “Oh, I'm watching all three girls do sit-ups. Time to count”?
Austin: [laughing] I need to watch all three girls do sit-ups!
Ali: Yeah. That’s what I was thinking next.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Janine: Mm…
Art: Anyone need help holding their feet?
Sylvia: Oh my god!
Austin: [laughing] Does anyone need help holding their feet! I see.
Sylvia: That’s wild!
Janine: You know, I try to thread a needle with Brontë.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I think that’s a little too far in the one direction for me.
Austin: Yeah. That’s fair.
Janine: I do fully think, like, he hurts himself. [Austin laughs sympathetically] Like, he’s hurt. He’s in Crisis.
Austin: Ah, he cramps up.
Janine: I think he very gamely is like, “Oh, you know, I love a game. I love a minigame.” And does probably a couple and is then just very aware of like, “Oh, there's like a weird shooting pain in my back. I don't know that I should be doing this right now.” Probably does a couple more anyway, glances at Efta and Zolfta, and they're probably a little bit pissed looking.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: A little bit like, why are you—? You're hurt. what the fuck are you doing? Like, we're not going to stop you, but you're making our job harder if something happens. And it’s sort of just a sits up kind of, maybe sits cross-legged, like yeah, I'll stop that for now.
Austin: What I was going to ask was: are Efta and Zolfta taking part or are on bodyguard duty, they can't do that?
Janine: No.
Austin: Okay, listen. I gotta ask.
Janine: They're standing and watching. They're standing side by side and watching stoically.
Austin: That makes sense.
Art: Each secretly capable of doing 100 push-ups in five minutes.
Janine: I mean, probably, yeah.
Sylvia: It’s sit-ups, please.
Janine: I imagine when they're, like, physically applying themselves, it’s scary.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Veile and Elena, you outlast everybody. You do more than everybody. As you finish, in your final, I don't know, 20 seconds, you can feel the flowers are singing along in rhythm to your sit-ups.
Sylvia: Gah! [Janine chuckles]
Jack: It is LocoRoco. [Ali laughs]
Austin: And you both take +1 on your next spell cast.
Ali: Wow.
Jack: Wow!
Austin: From finding true harmony with them.
Janine: Magic is stored in the core. Oh, it’s from the flowers. Okay.
Austin: Yeah. It’s from the flowers. [Janine laughs]
Jack: Wow.
Ali: Do Efta and Zolfta do this contest by themselves later? [laughs quietly] 
Austin: Oh, great question. In their own privacy?
Janine: I wonder. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Because they know what your numbers are now.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: So they could do it not only between themselves, but in their minds, they could know if they would beat you, you know?
Janine: I'm going to roll 2d12, and those are the numbers they get when they have a contest later at camp or whatever.
Austin: Do they tie? Do they have the same roll together?
Janine: Well, it’s just going to roll two dice, and I'll just look at the dice.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: It’s not combined. It’s individual.
Austin: I see. They don't have 12 Might, 12 Willpower.
Janine: No. I don't know what their… I don't have stats for them like that. They don't work like that, so.
Austin: Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't work like that.
Keith: Do they get smaller dice than everybody else?
Janine: Well, I don't know what a reasonable combined score would be.
Ali: Probably 2d20, then? Because like, the highest I could [Janine: Yeah.] have done on that is a 16, so the highest [Janine: Yeah.] that they could do being a 20 makes sense.
Austin: Sure.
Janine: And it makes sense to me that they would have, like, flat 10s or something, where it’s like, they're really good but not like superhuman.
Austin: Mm-hmm. 
Janine: 11 and 19. Okay, yeah.
Austin: Well, one of them did great. Yeah. 19 is the highest single roll we've had I think ever. I think somebody else got a 19 once.
Janine: That’s cute. I love that for them.
Austin: Yeah. So. Is that Efta or Zolfta who got the 19?
Janine: Uh… I don't know. I don't think there's a right answer.
Austin: Oh, interesting.
Sylvia: This is how we find out they both have eight packs. [Austin chuckles]
Art: Or a flat ten, as they call it. 
Sylvia: Hey!
Janine: [chuckles] I don't want to say that, like…  You know, it’s a thing where like…
Keith: You don't want to pick your favorite?
Janine: Yeah. Probably the one that uses a sword.
Austin: That makes sense to me. Yeah. Veile and Elena, you're the two. What is your response to doing so well? You know, you just did 200 sit-ups each or something.
Ali: Oh, wait, really? [laughs] 
Austin: Yeah, the average, like an average… You can do about 30 a minute if you're, like— An adventurer who gets a 10, which is like the average success, is probably doing about 30 a minute, maybe more. And you did it for five minutes, so you definitely cracked 100. You might have cracked 150. 13 is above average.
Jack: Tired and baffled but joyful.
Ali: Yeah. [Ali and Janine laugh quietly]
Jack: Just like deeply surprised.
Austin (as Waylon): I told you!
Jack (as Elena): Wow.
Ali: Yeah, I think Veile is catching her breath and sort of being like, 
(as Veile): Oh, I feel so refreshed now.
Jack (as Elena): Yeah. I mean, tired. Was this the right—? Waylon, was this the right idea to do in the middle of a dungeon?
Austin (as Waylon): Always a good time for fitness. Now you're ready. What could be behind that door? Something that you might have needed to do some sit-ups to fight.
Jack (as Elena): I mean, yeah, you're right. It doesn't exactly, like, assuage my “How come I keep getting completely bodied and Veile is fine.”
Austin (as Waylon): Well, ‘cause sit-ups don't matter in a fight. Now, I know what I just said.
Jack (as Elena): You just said that, Waylon.
Austin (as Waylon): But it’s not about, like… It’s about confidence. Now you know that you're tough. You didn't believe you were tough. You told me you thought you were weak, and you showed me you were strong.
Jack: I mean, I'm too happy to have outdone Caoimhe and Brontë here to quibble too much with Waylon.
Ali (as Veile): You shouldn't be so down on yourself, Elena. It’s a matter of divinity, I think.
Austin (as Waylon): Whoa.
Jack: Frown. [Ali laughs] Like, 
(as Elena): What?
Ali (as Veile): Well, I feel the spirit with me. 
Ali: The spirits? Fuck. She wouldn't say that. She’s so Catholic! I have to stop being so Catholic! [Austin, Ali, and Jack laugh]
Sylvia: I feel our Lord and Savior with me.
Jack: Mary Mother of Christ.
Janine: It’s simply the gods despise the depths of the Earth. [Austin and Ali chuckle] 
Jack: Mm.
Janine: You don't see their light upon you. [Sylvia and Jack laugh quietly]
Ali (as Veile): I just, in a spellcasting sense, I feel as though sometimes the power I draw from is not simply my own.
Jack (as Elena): Well, yeah. I mean, you know, you're in service to Her.
Ali (as Veile): Well, to hers…
Jack (as Elena): And it seems to bring you a lot of comfort. [Ali and Austin laugh]
Ali (as Veile): Well, yes. I mean, it’s been very rewarding. It’s, uh… I’m the one accountable for letting you fall as well. I mean, that’s the—
Jack (as Elena): No, don't beat yourself up about it.
Ali (as Veile): Well, it’s, you know, we're a party.
Jack (as Elena): Yeah. [Veil sighs]
Austin: It is worth noting you both did do well on your Willpower roll. Right, the Willpower die is what got you there.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Veile, you rolled an 8 on that, and Elena, you rolled a 10 on that.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: So your Might die only gave you a 3 of that 13, you know?
Jack: It was the Veile and Elenaness that got us through this. [Ali laughs]
Austin: The Veile and Elenaness that got us through this. Are you studying this room at all?
Exploring [1:24:15]
Ali: Yeah.
Jack: Yes. After the sit-up contest.
Austin: After the sit-up contest. [quiet laughter] Give me a Study. Yeah, go ahead.
Ali: I wanted to do, like, a capital-S Study specifically on the pictograph you mentioned.
Austin: Yeah, give me a Study. Insight + Insight. And it sounds like you're helping, Elena?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: So that’s a +1. What’s your Bond situation with Veile, Elena?
Jack: My Bond situation with Veile is 2.
Austin: All right, take plus…
Jack: Admiration and Mistrust, which is an old mistrust.
Austin: Mm.
Jack: I need to tweak that, I think, at a rest.
Austin: Maybe next, yeah, yeah.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Take +3 to your roll.
Ali: 3? Dang.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Yowza.
Austin: Oh.
Ali: Critical success.
Sylvia: Nice.
Austin: Critical success. Insight + Insight, 19. Did I just mention that the highest roll we did was a 19? [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: You did! 
Austin: There it is.
Jack: We can't be beat!
Ali: Oh, my blood is so warm. My mind is… [Austin and Jack laugh] I have that champaign out of my system.
Austin: Yeah, you sweat out the champaign.
Janine: You're welcome for the energy. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Ohh. 
Ali: I did have your life force. That’s true. Thank you. [laughs] 
Austin: That is true! All right. 
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Janine: A delicious Grande Sonnerie life force.
Austin: So, you discover a couple of things here. First of all, what you note is that there's, like, a lot of repeated symbols in these pictographs, and you actually work out that they are tied to elements. Not only can you see that they're being used to represent different elements of the world, but they are also quite literally infused in some way with the magic as they have been written into the wall, and so I'll give you those in a second. But the story that the pictographs seem to tell is about—and remember you have a crit, so you'll get to have an Opportunity here, but I want to start with this—is about the history of the world of Springsong. 
A long time ago, the whole world existed inside of a valley here that was surrounded by these mountains, but this mage who was the sort of attending mage of a tyrannical sovereign, the mage kind of took control of the elemental balance of the world. He intensified the warmth of the sun and of the hearth, and those are both different elemental sigils, so sun is an element in this world; hearth is an element in this world. And intensified both of those until the heat was too high for everyone. He shattered the mountains into sand—mountain is an element in this world—and he made deserts from the remains of those mountains. He then used the breeze, which is another one of these elements, to create terrible sandstorms and made travel impossible. He took complete control over the spring—or over spring, like water springs, also an element here—and night, also an element, and nature, also an element, weakening everyone’s power over the water and the shade, the things that could bring them relief from the heat and the desert and the sandstorms. 
And with that power, he conquered the kingdom and the world, but there was only one element that was not under his control, the element of spark, which was not just the element of lightning but also the element of ingenuity and creativity. And you are in a version of this world where seemingly that balance has not yet been restored, but you're kind of like seeing the opening text crawl to every version of Springsong, right? There is an evil wizard. The evil wizard destroys the elemental balance, and then the kind of Hero of Spark has to save the world through a combination of quick thinking, creativity, and often electrical elemental attacks. [Ali laughs] And so, here are the pictograms that you get and their equated elements. [typing] There is a… Let me just drop it in here.
Ali: Is this going to be in 420 or, uh—? 420. Jeez. [laughter] 
Sylvia: Mm?
Ali: Roll20 or Discord?
Austin: It is in Roll20. I'll put it in Discord, for the record, also.
Ali: Okay. 
Jack: And can we get it in 420? [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Roll20, blaze it.
Janine: That’s the platform the little elephant guy uses. 
Austin: That’s right.
Janine: 420.net/editor. [Art chuckles]
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Ali: I see.
Austin: The elements here in Springsong are breeze, spark, night, mountain, hearth, spring, night, and nature. Breeze is air, and it’s like a three curved sideways S’s, like a downwards. I'll just draw them. I'll just draw them here. Let me give me some space here on the… I'll put it in the middle here between everybody, right? There, you see it to the left, and then give me a color. Here we go. So there's like…
Ali: Two things, while you draw.
Austin: Yeah, please. 
Ali: Do I get an Opportunity here from the critical success?
Austin: You do, so you tell me what you want to do there as I draw.
Ali: Okay. I'm going to consider that list. While I consider the list, I am just going to say I think that I get a critical success because I think Veile is, like, really compelled by the story.
Austin: Oh, interesting.
Ali: I think she’s both, you know, been traditionally interested in, like, the archetype of heroic stories. And then also, you know, there's kind of an Ennead overlap here, in the sort of, like, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] the evil wizard destroyed all the Ennead’s powers and then [Austin: Uh huh.] one hero had to rise up and save them! And she’s like, oh my god, man. But let me find…
Austin: Veile just learned about shonen for the first time and is like, “Holy shit!” [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Ali: This is crazy, man. Okay.
Sylvia: And it’s called the Rasengan? [Ali and Austin laugh]
Ali: Advantage, Affliction, Bonding, Faux Pas, Favor, Information, Lost Item, Progress, Plot Twist, Scan, Unmask.
Austin: There we go. Okay. I'm going to call that a quatrefoil. All right, so, breeze is kind of three little curves, one on top of each other. Spark is kind of three downward zigzags. Night, which is dark, is a crescent. You can see it’s kind of a reverse Pac-Man, as I've drawn it. Mountain—earth—is a triangle. Hearth is an open square, which is fire. Spring is a teardrop, which is water, but for us it would be ice, here on our Perpetua. Light is sun, and it’s an open circle. [typing] Sorry, sun is light and it’s an open circle. Reversed that in my own notes. And then nature, which is poison, is a quatrefoil, the kind of four— I don't know how to describe a quatrefoil. Sort of like a four leaf clover, kind of, you know?
Ali: Mm. 
Austin: Not really though, but like, kind of.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: I've drawn a really poor one here. I'm going to redraw that. I don't like it.
Ali: Like a puffy plus sign.
Austin: Like a puffy plus sign, yeah. In fact, I'll just draw it more like a puffy plus sign and see if that’s easier. There we go, and I will add the names underneath.
Jack (as Elena): This looks like a puzzle, Veile.
Ali (as Veile): You think so?
Jack (as Elena): Yeah. I mean, it tells a good story.
Ali (as Veile): Well, yes. Yeah, I suppose I'll jot down these figures. 
Ali: And…boy. I feel like Information is the one that makes the most sense here.
Austin: Mm-hmm. 
Ali: But I don't know if there's like, I mean I got a critical success on getting information. I don't know if there's, like, another boost to get there.
Austin: Yeah, Information does seem like the right thing, but I'm trying to think of what I could give you, you know?
Ali: Yeah. Yeah, like Bonding is obviously great. Advantage is obviously great. And Advantage would just be like a straight advantage, because the text is the next Check performed by you or an ally will receive a +4 bonus.
Austin: Yeah, so that would be like a…
Ali: It’s not like something relevant to this thing, it’s just…
Austin: To this particular thing. You know, in general, I think that one tends to be like you get, you know, you're so hyped about your crit that you move forward with confidence, you know?
Ali: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Austin: You or an ally is able to roll the situation forward. Or you apply an appropriate thing if it’s a very clear thing. You know, I think one thing maybe might just be I will— Maybe we do this as if we're playing a PbtA game and we say you get another question about the contents of this kind of story I just told, you again in the future when it would be relevant. You know what I mean?
Ali: Oh, sure, sure, sure. Yeah.
Austin: Because there's like something in there that would be useful for you to think about, potentially. Mm, is that true? Mm, maybe that’s not clear enough, actually.
Ali: Yeah. It’s hard for me to determine what the value [Austin: Yeah, exactly.] of Information would be, because I don't know what it would be and what we're doing in the way that you do.
Austin: Yeah. Exactly. 
Ali: So I think Advantage is probably just the…
Austin: Yeah. I would say let’s—
Ali: I mean, Veile’s obviously like, “This hero’s fucking…!”
Austin: Whoa!
Ali: [laughing] Like, this is great, man!
Austin: Whoa! 
Ali: [laughing] She doesn't say that. 
Sylvia: This is such good shit!
Austin: You hear about this?
Jack: I just did 300 sit-ups! [Austin chuckles]
Ali: I really do have to manifest the power of the world to save the Ennead. That’s so true.
Austin: God. [Jack chuckles] Wow, you instantly were like, “And I'm the Hero of Spark.” You've never done a lightning spell in your fucking life. [Ali laughs] He’s just like me for real for real! [Ali and Jack laugh]
Jack: And they'll give me an award.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
[“The Castle Eschatonica” by Jack de Quidt plays]