102. Wellspring

[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome back to barely D and D, your sort of Dustin Jackets podcast, where you don't care, probably, about our logistical technicalities. But we're not on Zen Caster. We're back on discord with castos because we're rebels without a cause and we reject the system. And so we think we're recording right now. We think that Craig bot is happy with us. But I guess, to be fair, we had spent months away from Craig. And so I think, think he was just a little zesty. I think he was like, oh, wow. Okay, back to slumming it with Craig. Whatever. [00:00:44] Speaker B: Some people think you're talking about Craig on the pot. People don't understand that Craig is the recording service. [00:00:51] Speaker A: I'm talking about the discord bot. But that's on them. [00:00:54] Speaker C: To put together audience, you have to, like, they're smart. They can figure it out. They're adults. Probably. [00:00:59] Speaker B: You're right. Yeah. [00:01:00] Speaker A: Jackie, I don't know if you're aware of this concept in storytelling, but around here, we believe in show, not tell. Okay? [00:01:06] Speaker B: You know, that makes no sense. It's a podcast. We literally only tell people, like, shows. [00:01:12] Speaker A: That don't do exposition. Okay. People like to catch up, Jackie. Anyway, this is clearly barely D and d. I can't imagine this would be anything else. Welcome back to the accidental adventures. They're back. The campaign's back. And with the campaign is. Abby grabby is back. Beware of being not grabbed. [00:01:35] Speaker C: More like gratty. [00:01:41] Speaker A: It was just the. It was just ashamed. Okay. And look away. Oh, it's so fun to be back with my. Anyway, um huh. [00:01:51] Speaker C: Anyway, I just said, like, so. Anyway. [00:01:55] Speaker A: And that was interrupted. There goes the pace. So we are about to get into the details and letter questions, because we do those again for episode 102 of the accidental adventures. Holy crap. We're in the hundreds. But before I do that, I have been weird and I have written, it's a very momentous episode to me. So I wrote a little forward to my players, and I was like, I don't know, they're probably going to want me to read that in private. And then I asked them, and everyone was like, shut up. Read it on the recording. And I was like, okay, so I'll be reading this to be recorded to posterity. So I guess I think we're going to do this in flippity flagop order. I'm going to give you the guys the details for the session, then I'll read the forward, then we can do letter, and then we'll just start. So this is episode 102 of the Accidental Adventures. For my note taking nerds, which has succeeded. Abby, if you had been prepared, I would have been sad. But the fact that you were surprised means that all is well with the world. That's what I want to see. [00:03:06] Speaker C: I do want to say that I had the date and I had accidental adventures written down. I was. [00:03:12] Speaker A: You're getting there. [00:03:13] Speaker B: I had nothing. [00:03:15] Speaker A: But I'm just saying, Abby, that it's like, that's what I. You know, I'd be sad if you were like, oh, I saw that coming. You know, like, I. Like, every single time when you're like, you know, it's fun. [00:03:23] Speaker C: I switched back to paper notes. I got, like, a big notebook. I was taking notes online, and I switched back to paper. [00:03:29] Speaker A: The magical notebook inspired you. That's true. [00:03:33] Speaker C: That's true. That's true. [00:03:35] Speaker A: So it's a level ten adventure. Date is 3488 PB, sometime in Caledron, but you guys are not certain. And from there, I will read Caledron is c a l apostrophe a d r o n. Also in our lore and reference channel for the server, I have the little map or the calendar if you ever need it referenced. But this is episode 102. Well, I'll save that for the end. So here's the session forward. Okay, this is gonna be weird, because I'm just gonna be reading from it. But not to be weird, but this one has a forward, and that forward is for a game which we share together. It is important that I don't make it into something else, because that's what it is. A game. We all have all agreed non committally and non contractually, because we never signed that contract that we made to have fun playing this game together, first as strangers and now as friends. On the other hand, this game is a story. A really, really big, shared, growing story, which has been made into a production, then a podcast, then a live show, and now a patron production. We have talked about this story, planned it, reacted to it, analyzed it. We've rung it tightly, we've worn it thin. We've even fought for it from here to, you know, time to time, here and there. And to be fair, when I. While I told you all from the beginning that we would be playing a game, I didn't tell you about the story from the start. And to be very fair, I very much had that plan from the beginning for that story. How I would lure you all in with something small which would later enlarge and deepen, hoping that you guys would fall in love. It's been a few years now, but I remember a lot of it like it was hours ago. The moment that the fun guys laid the kuatoan stranger to the rest in the ruined cave moved to a tacitly agreed silence, sprouting fungus over the corpse to make a solemn grave for his loss, making something beautiful out of the pieces. I can still see the way that you all looked at me when I showed port resplenissant to you for the first time. And I was showing it to you all. It lived inside of me for a very long time. And when I pulled the veil away, you guys could see it, too. And I can clearly hear the silence. Born from the moment after Jackie took her experiences as a character and made her own art, marrying the real world and the one that we had made together. The way we all had to pause and absorb what we had just touched. I can feel the hot pain of Greta's death, the turning of my stomach as the fungis faced a possible end from a villain that we all truly feared. Which is crazy, because I made that villain up. But I was scared of him, too. I was scared of how he could change what we were making. Hoffa is sitting off to the side, just nodding, going. I could go on, and I really shouldn't, because I think you all understand what I'm trying to say. I wasn't entirely honest with you all from the beginning is the point. I didn't fully understand it in the beginning. It's taken me years into the process to understand that as much as I was working toward making something wonderful for people that I cared about, I was also trying to make something for myself and for itself. There has always been a story inside of me. Landon remembers me making up stories and storylines together when we were playing bionicles at, like, six and seven for years. A story that belonged when it was shared. And I have been trying to share that story since I was a child. You all have seen things, heard things with me in this game. You have been helping me tell the story of my heart, and I can never thank you all enough for that. You have helped me share the beauty that I have always wanted the world to see. You have office really distracted me. You have helped me tell the story that I needed to hear. And you have helped me learn to see the story greater than myself. So I just really wanted to say thank you to all of you. I also ask for your forgiveness. You have deeply trusted me, and I have given you great gifts. But I have also been selfish and brash. And inconsiderate at times while in control of this story. Please forgive me for the many times that I have put this story before, the far greater story it was meant to tell. All the times that I was too mean with you all, or too stringent or impatient, or when I yelled at Micah in Aaron's voice and I didn't tell her I was going to do that. And then it really scared her because it was loud and deep. And thank you guys for all the times that you've forgiven me already. This might all be too much, but I always have been. And the story inside of me has always been too much for me. So thank you for helping me understand and explore it. It's much easier and much more beautiful when I get to navigate that adventure with a party of friends. I love this story and I love you all a lot more. And I'm not trying to set the tone for the session or clarify the intent. I am just trying to make it clear how I feel about all of you. Thank you for loving me. This has been an incredible adventure, and you all are a very important part of it. And I love you all, Gibbidiwattan. Oh, sorry. Yeah, and skippity Watten Dada is the point. So anyway, I just. I was writing the session the other night, and then I just suddenly had to write that and said, so I love you guys. [00:10:14] Speaker C: We love you. [00:10:15] Speaker B: Love you, too. [00:10:19] Speaker D: It's like this with you and everybody else. [00:10:22] Speaker A: So. Okay, now that we're all emotionally primed and ready to cry, I guess we can start playing. [00:10:30] Speaker C: What do you mean? Ready to cry? [00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah, what do you mean? [00:10:35] Speaker D: What does that mean? [00:10:36] Speaker B: This is why you're the best DM and one of the best friends. [00:10:45] Speaker A: Okay, so, note taking, nerds. This is episode 102 of the Accidental Adventures. Wellspring. [00:10:54] Speaker D: Wellsprung. [00:10:57] Speaker A: Well, you. [00:11:00] Speaker C: Need to an editor question. [00:11:03] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Letter to a question. I didn't plan that. [00:11:07] Speaker C: We don't have to if it doesn't do the tone. [00:11:10] Speaker A: Anybody have a good letter to a question right off the bat? [00:11:12] Speaker D: Yeah, I have one. If your character could remember anything about the campaign, what would they remember? [00:11:18] Speaker C: I'm confused. [00:11:19] Speaker B: Wait, what is that? [00:11:20] Speaker A: Like a sentimental remember or recall information they had forgotten? [00:11:23] Speaker B: Because Ro remembers, like, everything. [00:11:28] Speaker D: Most nostalgic about so far. There we go. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Okay, got you. [00:11:33] Speaker D: Sometimes it gets you to be who's been on the journey the longest. Okay, Cooper was there before tello. [00:11:43] Speaker A: Well, technically, your longest writing member is nom, but I don't know how much. [00:11:46] Speaker C: She'S nostalgic about. [00:11:49] Speaker B: Nostalgia. The day before I met you nom liked the most. [00:11:53] Speaker D: And the party. [00:11:55] Speaker A: That's a third watch thing. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Anyone but Ro is the answer. [00:12:03] Speaker A: It's really a question of who does she like in the party? But let's start with the advise. She had one for Ronnie. [00:12:09] Speaker B: What? I didn't say I have one for Ro. [00:12:12] Speaker A: What was. You have one for Ro. [00:12:14] Speaker B: I didn't. I didn't say that. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Sick. What's Ro's most nostalgic moment? [00:12:20] Speaker B: Um, probably when she. When she bought the. She went and bought those cakes in home Cove and seeing everyone so sweet, all of her friends try one. Like, she shared a part of herself that was kind of the first time she really shared a happy part of herself with the party and felt like they were all one. So that's probably a big nostalgia thing. I think from now on, when she tastes like a cake, she'll think of that moment of first, like, being a party, being a part of. [00:13:02] Speaker A: What about. What about Blaz? [00:13:06] Speaker D: I think one of the things that he's most nostalgic of is just. I don't know. I can't even point to a single day that it happened, but a day that he woke up and felt like things were where they should be and in a place where they definitely weren't, but, like, being in a group of people that you're friends heading somewhere, knowing what you're doing in a vacuum and having, like, a sense of purpose. [00:13:42] Speaker C: At. [00:13:42] Speaker D: Least a step to take. And it's comforting, I think, for him. [00:13:47] Speaker A: And you can be nostalgic for, like, feelings in a time, you know, like, less than a specific event, other than just, like, a general feeling. [00:13:52] Speaker D: I think it was. I'm trying to think about when that would have happened. I'm thinking, like, leaving port splendid saint is where it really kicked off. Like, right before Dulgoth. Like, right when we met Ro and escaped on the boat and we were all together sailing somewhere, like, setting off. I feel like that's when the adventure really began for him. So. [00:14:19] Speaker A: Abby, what's Craig's answers? [00:14:21] Speaker C: Great answer. [00:14:23] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [00:14:24] Speaker D: And what would Craig say also? [00:14:26] Speaker A: Micah's not here. Listener. [00:14:29] Speaker B: You can't tell what, everything either. [00:14:37] Speaker C: I would say Craig's time would be the time in home clue. I don't know. That just felt like a good frank. [00:14:45] Speaker B: Craig was very happy when we killed Spiguber. [00:14:49] Speaker C: We didn't kill spit Cooper. [00:14:50] Speaker B: I mean, spaghubre suspense. [00:14:53] Speaker A: I have to write it down now. It's. [00:14:55] Speaker B: No, I'm gonna leave. Oh, my gosh. That was horrible. That was a weird, weird. [00:15:02] Speaker A: Yes. Remember that time we beat the crap out of picuber? [00:15:05] Speaker C: I think. Oh, no, that's my, that's my vote for Craig. I think Craig probably really liked the little festival. [00:15:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Craig did get a huge kick out of that. What about, what about Greta, that other character? [00:15:22] Speaker C: Grubles, Miss Grubles. I think probably the time in parsage, specifically after we came back from the king, because there was a little. I think she's nostalgic for that. [00:15:39] Speaker B: We had all that, like. [00:15:40] Speaker A: And like, that, like, one day you had with the house in peace, all happy. [00:15:44] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. And that was, like, before, I think a lot of her. Well, not really, but I think. I think she didn't. She. Since then, she hasn't quite had time to take a breath. [00:15:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:58] Speaker C: Until now. Well, not really. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Before I say tell. Oh, I just want to say I'm surprised, because I would have figured that Boz's nostalgic moment would have been when Craig fell out of the bathtub. [00:16:08] Speaker D: But it's called trauma. [00:16:12] Speaker B: It's not nostalgia, though. [00:16:17] Speaker A: Nostalgia. But tell us. I think if Tello had been asked further back in time, I think he would have said moments by the river with Greta or, like, probably shopping for suits with boss or, you know, I think those more clear friendship moments. But I think, and I think he would have picked those because he would need to pick memories more clearly associated with friendship, more clearly positive memories. Because you go far enough back in time and tell us either, like, well, we're not talking about the way I really feel about things because I'm going to betray all these people, or we're at the phase of, like, I've admitted that I was going to betray these people. I hate myself. I have no value. I can't enjoy any of those positive memories. But I think if you ask him now what his most nostalgic things would be, I think it would be all the little moments sailing with you all. And I think earlier on in the venture, he would have seen those as nice sometimes, annoying sometimes. But I think, like, the value of the fun guys, the weight of them, the shift that's had in his identity is, you know, we've talked about how everybody's had some healing moments in Zedge, but, like, he's starting to, like, come back together and come down and find some peace again, find some hope. And so I think now he looks back at those mundane moments as being symbolic of the people he sees now as, like, you know, his people. And so I think if you asked him now, the moments he was most nostalgic about. It would be like falling asleep to row playing every night, or like, you know, like, probably jokes with Craig. Not necessarily that Craig is aware of, maybe at his expense, but just jokes. Very like Jim and Dwight ish and probably like, just hours of being like, no, Greta, the inflection is on the third part of the verb. And honestly, with Boz, it's probably really little things, given how tacit Baz is, how unspoken he is. So it's probably just little looks shared with Boz and stuff like that. So those are probably the memories he cherishes the most. And all his wrestling matches with shpiguber and stuff like that. Not a thing that didn't happen. What are you talking about, Jackie? Yeah, Hoffa. Tell her. Can you guys hear Hoffa? [00:18:52] Speaker D: A little bit. [00:18:55] Speaker A: She's just shouting things. Anyway. I've married a goofy woman, y'all. Okay, so are we ready now? [00:19:01] Speaker D: Yes. [00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah, we. Wait, wait. Did Abby, did you listen to the episode? I don't mean to put you on the spot. Sorry. I listened to it today. I listen to it. [00:19:16] Speaker C: I'm gonna be on. [00:19:19] Speaker D: I think it's actually good because now she's gonna get to see all this stuff for the first time in the session. [00:19:24] Speaker A: You did listen to it, didn't you? [00:19:26] Speaker C: I listened to part of it. I did not finish. [00:19:29] Speaker A: Okay, well, you listen to the essential part, right? [00:19:32] Speaker C: I think so. I believe so. [00:19:33] Speaker A: With the vision. [00:19:35] Speaker C: I did not get. I did not get it. [00:19:39] Speaker B: The tree vision. [00:19:40] Speaker A: You lost your powers again. I did not. [00:19:45] Speaker B: Rose. [00:19:48] Speaker C: Powers this time. Just kidding. [00:19:50] Speaker A: I have to go back to Bashar. All right. [00:19:53] Speaker C: Well, I figured her sister. [00:19:57] Speaker A: What's. What's Bashar backward? Abba has said. [00:20:04] Speaker C: How did you figure that out so fast? [00:20:06] Speaker A: Because in the other campaign, the warriors of the well have gotten a house and they have like a family of servants came with the house and they were like, we're gonna treat you guys better. And I didn't have. I didn't have all the NPC's made up on the spot, so I made them all characters from the first lord of the Rings movies, but the names backward. [00:20:24] Speaker C: Awesome. [00:20:25] Speaker A: So there's oblob instead of Bilbo and Snagab instead of bat. [00:20:29] Speaker C: And anyway, Oblov kind of hits. Oblov is. [00:20:32] Speaker D: Oblov does hit a little bit. [00:20:34] Speaker A: Yeah. But getting back to it, it is dark in the westwood. It is the middle of night at an unclear hour and all are lost. Every last one of the fun guys is separated and we'll come back in. Just cause it's been so very long. We'll come back in with Abby. Greta, that's the name of your character, Greta, you have, Greta has. Guys, it's just concussions. There's nothing meaningful in that. So, Greta, you all have, you've gone to the temple, you have been wowed by its riches and you left and have pressed onward, moving toward the wellspring, traveling for like maybe another week. But every day, it's unclear how long you've been here, how many days have passed, like the moments in each since the temple. Maybe somewhere you're guessing, you're not sure, but this is Greta's scene, so back off, son, back off. So, Greta, it's. Oh, sorry, Jackie. Like each moment in the day is clear, but every day when you wake up, it's so hard to place when and where you have been. And on this last day of travel, at some point in the day, Baz is, well, the last day of travel that you have been traveling. [00:22:14] Speaker C: I see. I take it back. [00:22:17] Speaker A: On this day, Baaz used his already very powerful and well grown druidic powers, which have seemingly been enhanced by the destruction of the crook of the mad prince and its addition into his body. He's in like some sort of a continual communion with the forest. And in this last day he has given in to it in a moment of indecision. When you all want were arguing over how lost you are and how long you'd been searching, Boz just let go of everything and started listening to the forest. And you all followed him as he moved and eventually realized that he couldn't hear you as this chanting voice of the wood was drowning out all other sounds around him. And as you all have followed him deeper in Craig, as it reached night, Craig was at some point saying that he was hearing things and that he was seeing someone in the darkness and the shadows. And just for a visual reference, Greta, the Westwood, if you will remember, is filled with pines and oaks, buildings widths across hundreds of feet tall, distances from each other. Just a world of a forest with a soft bed of like a foot of loam underneath, inches of pine needles and leaves and decayed matter with sudden sprouts and shocks of green grasses growing in between and forbs that is all entirely just submerged in a black night. And the thickness of the Westwood trees. As you look up, you can't even see the stars and the moon. It's just dark. And there was for a time light, light from Craig's, from star splinter, light that perpetually grows glows from boz. But as you all were moving further into the darkness, you first lost baas and then tello. And you were at one point lost because you were hearing a voice call to you in the night, a long, familiar voice of Walter. And when you turned to a side at one point to try and find him, you looked back, and the group was gone. And as you tried to move back toward them, only a short distance away, you found yourself once again lost. And that is where you are now, surrounded by what can only be described as the perfect summer night temperature, temperate and cool, with just the last little whispers of warmth that came with the day. Still talking at the edge of your senses, the trees will occasionally. Oh, that sound effect didn't come through. I have to change the sensitivity of my audio. Okay, let's see if I can. I. No, I can't. Okay. Occasionally, as the wind comes by, all of the trees will clap and dance and just. It came through a little bit. Whatever. You know how trees sound at night, and there are very occasionally individual, like, from forest sounds, and you can hear a constant, like, from night bugs. I don't know if these sound effects are coming through. I'm doing my best. They're not. Okay, well, they sound cool and like night. Oh, wait, wait, wait, guys, I'm about to blow your mind. Watch this. Hold on, hold on. [00:25:51] Speaker C: Hold. I'm holding up. [00:25:57] Speaker D: Ooh, I love it. [00:26:00] Speaker A: Now, I haven't figured out how to do two different tracks over each other at the same time yet, but we're gonna go with this for now, and I'll save some of the music for the other one. So, Greta, you are lost in the darkness, and you've realized you've become lost from your party, and you are just alone in the dark. [00:26:18] Speaker C: That's scary. I have light. [00:26:23] Speaker A: What does it look like? Is your fantastic. [00:26:26] Speaker C: I've described it before, but this is one of my favorites. Let me share it again. [00:26:31] Speaker A: That's why I asked. [00:26:34] Speaker C: So there was a pattern that my mom and aunts and older sisters would trace on, like, my. The back of my hand or, like, my forehead when I was a kid and, you know, growing up told me fall asleep. And so I, like, copy that pattern with my. With my hand, and it. My fingertips starts to glow, and it just. I don't. I do it. I do the pattern to cast it, but I don't necessarily have to keep doing it. I just kind of. [00:27:02] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe it, like, out of habit. [00:27:03] Speaker C: Comes off of my finger and, like, floats. [00:27:07] Speaker A: And your symbol on your neck shines with a dull white cyan blue as you mutter softly the incantations and as the light traces off your finger for a moment, the light cantrip is warmer, the color of the light than it used to be when you would cast it in the past, it was a harsh light that would come off of your fingers like an Led. Too bright. But now it's a very warm light. Still. It's still a coolish color, but there's a little hint of red in it. And as you trace your finger through the air, it does that thing like where you trace in cameras where you see the light for a second after it moves. And as you trace the shape out and over and over the pattern, it eventually comes off and you can see for 60ft around you 30ft of bright, clear light and 30ft of dim. And you're just alone in the forest. Somewhere, just at the edge of the periphery, something small moves through the grass, sort of like a stains, and then you lose it. [00:28:10] Speaker C: Um, question. Do the trees look climbable? [00:28:17] Speaker A: They are. The smallest of the trees are about 30ft in width and the largest are more than 50. And the lowest of the branches start about 50ft up on the smallest of the trees. But most of them, most of the branches start at a height of 70ft up. And the branches of most of these trees, the low branches, are the size of the trunks of the largest trees you've seen in the rest of your life. So, no, they are incredibly difficult climb. It would be like climbing the side of a building. [00:28:52] Speaker C: Okay. [00:28:54] Speaker A: And I don't mean that sassy. [00:28:55] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:29:03] Speaker A: Did you, did you hear him? Hoffa said that you're matching. [00:29:13] Speaker C: Anyway, Greta, um, I think she's just. Does she have, do I have like a general sense of where I'm going? [00:29:25] Speaker A: No, that's been the whole issue in. [00:29:26] Speaker C: The Westwood and I don't have my butts. [00:29:31] Speaker A: No, you've been separated from them at night. [00:29:36] Speaker C: This is so problem. [00:29:39] Speaker A: It is so problem is giving a conundrum. You, you were getting pickled because you had heard that voice and turned to find. [00:29:52] Speaker C: Do I still hear it? [00:29:54] Speaker A: I mean. No, not at the moment. You heard it shortly ago. Maybe it's just perusing spells. [00:30:07] Speaker C: Doing now what I'm even doing. Um, I think I'm just gonna keep walking in the direction that I was walking. [00:30:18] Speaker A: Okay. [00:30:19] Speaker C: I'll probably stop, you know. Oh, I'm gonna mosey about it. I'm gonna like stop and take notes and pick flowers and take like doodle some bugs and, you know, try and get as much info in my notebook as I can. [00:30:36] Speaker A: But this is very thematically satisfying, because the entire time you were out, I was just saying. And in this scene, Greta is taking notes in her notebook. And then, lost in the forest, alone, on the most important quest of your adventure, you're like, well, I'll stop and take some notes. And that's. I'm glad I got it right. So you sort of take a breath and pause and pause. And as you sort of squat down a little bit, and with your light, you illuminate the forest floor below you. There's nothing to see initially, but as you study it quietly, you can see all of these dark brown, kind of like millipede light bugs weaving up and under and over the pines and the pine needles and kind of under leaves. And as you shift one, there's like five or six dark, small things that just go scattering under another leaf too quick. You start taking notes. And as you are bent there writing for quite some time, after a moment, you hear kind of coming from over your right shoulder, a voice say, Greta, why is she back there? [00:31:55] Speaker C: I turn around. I stand up. [00:31:59] Speaker A: Yeah, as you stand up, you look up because tall behind you is a pale skinned human fellow with a bald and coif, a kind of thin blonde hair that gets a little thicker everywhere else except in the middle of the forehead. He's got round, spectacled glasses, a thin nose with a point at the end. He's got tall, slender features, very average looking, and he's wearing. Yeah. Jackie. I don't know why there are waves in this soundtrack. It doesn't make a lick of sense. It's titled Nighttime Forest. [00:32:35] Speaker B: I typed into the chat, why are there waves? [00:32:38] Speaker A: But, I mean, but also, get your. Get your act together, Travis. I'm gonna pick. [00:32:43] Speaker C: We're looking for the wellspring. I was. [00:32:44] Speaker B: I was just curious. I didn't know if it was a thematic choice and we needed to actually be hearing waves. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Sorry, didn't mean to break the news in the way. I guess this one working. I'm not hearing any sound from this one. We're gonna go back to the other one. I'm trying my best. I don't know. And as you, there's. There's waves in our hearts as you look up at the sort of cream, like, so worn. It's like fuzzy soft dress shirt rolled halfway up. The skinny forearms with a little brown vest and brown slacks and little kind of traveling hikers boots with a satchel slung over one side and a couple bobbles on the belt is Walter standing at about five seven, so a giant to you, and he's just got a kind of calm look on his face, and he goes, you gotta quit getting lost. [00:33:52] Speaker C: She just stands like you have gotten old. [00:34:01] Speaker A: Holy cow. I mean, Eldath, you're old now. What are you, like a thousand? [00:34:12] Speaker C: Are you a dream? Are you real? She, like, reaches out a hand, like towards his, okay. [00:34:20] Speaker A: You kind of walk toward him, and as you're on the way, he kind of like cocks his head back, looks at his own hands and goes, mm. And as you get close, Greta, when your hand touches him, there's resistance. They're solid, they're surface at the hem of his pants, but it's a little, like, soft. And you can push into it a little further than you should. So it's like he's kind of there. And as you pull your hand away, I presume, unless you just sit there with a hand on his hip. He goes, well, weird way to say hi again. Hey, what happened? [00:34:57] Speaker C: Do you remember what happened? [00:35:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember a big blade going in the back end and out the front end doing the things blades shouldn't do. [00:35:14] Speaker C: But I feel like that's what blades do. [00:35:18] Speaker A: Well, okay, tomato, tomato, short snack. And he just kind of starts walking away from you. [00:35:23] Speaker C: Oh, wait, come on. How did you get here? [00:35:29] Speaker A: Well, I mean, he looks back at you and he kind of goes, come on, Greta. I mean, I, it's not like really me. I mean, I am me. [00:35:39] Speaker C: But, you know, she makes this face, she goes like, yeah, I can't describe it. [00:35:46] Speaker A: And he gets kind of serious and sad too, and he goes, yeah, if it makes you feel any better, I don't really miss you. Just kind of a memory, you know? The real Walter, I presume as well, and moved on. But it's just me. Kind of like I was ish. I don't know. I've only recently come into existence, but I saw something cool over here. [00:36:17] Speaker C: So who, who brought you here? What brought you here? No. [00:36:28] Speaker A: Your mic cut out. What was that? [00:36:29] Speaker C: Greta? Can I make a perception check? [00:36:32] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. Make a perception check. What are you making a perception check for? [00:36:36] Speaker C: Um, let me think. I'm thinking. [00:36:40] Speaker A: Let me think. I'm thinking. [00:36:43] Speaker C: I think I want to protect in keck for that. [00:36:48] Speaker A: Dogs. [00:36:48] Speaker C: Or like, I want to, I want to something nefarious. I want a nefarious. And I guess, I guess I would know this, but I don't know, this would, is this, is he acting like Walter? Is he, is he Walter core? [00:37:05] Speaker A: He's behavior like Walter Walter core. [00:37:08] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. I need a protect my shit. [00:37:17] Speaker A: What? Oh, you're. You don't have your character sheet out like always. [00:37:23] Speaker B: I thought you said something else. [00:37:26] Speaker C: I don't know that word, Jackie. I don't know that. What? That was a Nat 20. That would have been. [00:37:36] Speaker A: So it was a Nat 20. Or was it? [00:37:40] Speaker C: It wasn't. It was a 15 plus 30. [00:37:46] Speaker A: She said. Oh, I'm sorry. I got there myself. I mean, there's plenty to see, but it's just the scape of a dark forest. It looks like Walters acting like Walter. Okay, you don't see anything? I mean, he's got that gun tacked into the back of his pants, but other than that, it just looks like Walter. [00:38:11] Speaker C: Hmm. I grabbed the gun. [00:38:15] Speaker D: Do it. Do it. [00:38:17] Speaker A: Everybody else, somewhere where they're walking in the forest, they hear just. [00:38:23] Speaker C: I see, uh. What? What did you see? [00:38:28] Speaker A: I don't know, but, I mean, it was cool. It's just, like, lights. He turns back around. He walks back over. Yeah, I'm not gonna. Okay, we should probably stop and pause first. I mean, I I'm just kind of a memory, I think. And it was just us, and now you're old, so I assume this is probably quite a shift for you. I don't think I'm really Walter. [00:39:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:06] Speaker A: And I don't think figuring that out is the point. [00:39:15] Speaker C: Okay. Are you gonna be around for a while? If you're not really Walter, I probably should. [00:39:24] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:39:24] Speaker C: I don't Walt. [00:39:27] Speaker A: Well, I mean, you know, I am Walter. I'm who Walter was, I think. I don't know. I just kind of am. [00:39:38] Speaker C: Okay. That's okay. [00:39:43] Speaker A: How you been, Bug? [00:39:46] Speaker C: What? [00:39:48] Speaker A: He said, how you been, Bug. And that's a name he called you a lot. [00:40:02] Speaker C: I've been okay. I've been bad, but I better now. [00:40:10] Speaker A: His face kind of doesn't look understanding, but it looks empathetic. He sort of. He runs through a couple phases of realization on his face, and he nods. Okay. [00:40:30] Speaker C: Um, I'd say Greta just kind of, like, nods and, like, kind of walks up to him and, like, takes his hand and. Okay, we can go. [00:40:45] Speaker A: He has to reach all the way down to take yours, and yours is kind of like a child on their parents hand. [00:40:50] Speaker C: Well, that's awkward, then. [00:40:52] Speaker A: But no, but, I mean, you know, you guys used to walk like this sometimes when you were friends. And as he takes your hand, you can. [00:40:59] Speaker C: Oh, can I take it back? [00:41:00] Speaker A: Actually, yeah. It never happened. [00:41:03] Speaker C: Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't think about that. But I would go to take his. [00:41:07] Speaker A: Hand, and he goes, ew, no, Greta. [00:41:09] Speaker C: I didn't think about that. But Greta would know. So we'll say she, like, she takes, like, a long, like, one of her many cloaks. She takes, like, a long bit and, like. Like, kind of rearranges some cloaks and, like, holds up. So she walks up to him, and she, like, rearranges her cloak. So she walks up to him, and she holds up like a. Like a piece of claw. [00:41:35] Speaker A: Okay. [00:41:36] Speaker C: She says, okay, um, let's go see the cool thing. [00:41:44] Speaker A: Is this, like, a weird gift? [00:41:46] Speaker C: No, like, um, instead of, like, he's. [00:41:51] Speaker A: Just talking, you okay? Are you just giving me some cloth or. I mean, that you do stuff like that, so I'm just checking. [00:42:02] Speaker C: Oh, no, I. When we used to walk, I would give you something to hold on to, or you would hold on to something. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Okay, so what's that? I just wanted to make sure. And he grabs the end of the cloth and just starts leading you as you walk. He goes, how old are you now? [00:42:30] Speaker C: Good question. [00:42:33] Speaker A: Is it not on your character sheet? It is, because we had a momentous months ago where you said it and everyone lost their minds. [00:42:43] Speaker C: Yeah, but then I think I got a new character. [00:42:45] Speaker D: She's got a new character, Zach. [00:42:50] Speaker B: She's not Greta anymore, Zach. [00:42:52] Speaker A: She's greedy. Okay, I think you're 247, but I'll go back and find it. Jonathan, if, you know, I'm on Patreon. [00:43:04] Speaker C: Sounds right. I know my birthday. [00:43:08] Speaker A: Okay. [00:43:09] Speaker B: Do you have the year? [00:43:11] Speaker A: Well, in the long pilots silence, where you don't answer, he goes, must be old. [00:43:18] Speaker C: Well, yeah. [00:43:20] Speaker A: Um, I'm sorry. I. This is probably really weird for you. I just. I don't know. Trying to lighten the mood. [00:43:32] Speaker C: Would ask what you've been up to, but maybe. [00:43:38] Speaker A: The weird thing is it feels like I've been here, but I don't have a lot of memory going back, so I guess I haven't been. I don't know. You don't have to walk with me. [00:44:04] Speaker C: Her lip kind of lip kind of quivers. No, it's okay. Yeah. [00:44:17] Speaker A: He kind of stops. Like, sorry. [00:44:22] Speaker C: It's like riding a bike. She's here. [00:44:26] Speaker A: He goes, I don't know what a bike is. Yeah, and does Griffith get. Probably not, but apparently she does. [00:44:35] Speaker B: It's like pulling a cart. [00:44:37] Speaker A: I mean, yelped and doesn't know what a bike is, but Greta does. You guys get a little further, and he stops, and he goes, how did I die? [00:44:57] Speaker C: Um, uh, you were. You were stabbed by by an obsidian creature. Um, and I think it was kind of my fault. [00:45:15] Speaker A: You and I both know what an obsidian creature is, but just for everybody else. And he gestures around at the empty forest. [00:45:23] Speaker C: Do you remember those. Those figures? [00:45:26] Speaker A: The statues? [00:45:29] Speaker C: Mm hmm. Do you remember how they moved? [00:45:33] Speaker A: No, I don't remember him moving. [00:45:37] Speaker C: They moved. Um. I used to think they were. [00:45:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess they do. [00:45:42] Speaker C: I used to think that they were mean and vital. They meant what they did. Recently, I've been thinking that they were. They were just asking for help and. Okay, yeah. Remember the big. The big blades on their hands? [00:46:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. [00:46:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I let us down. I talked you into it. I talked you into going. I think. I think you wanted to stop or whatever, but I was like, no, I need to. [00:46:30] Speaker A: Well, to be fair sample, I mean, to be fair in Tebrick, I insisted we go through that bramble patch, so I feel like we're kind of even. I just got cut on my legs, but I forgot that it was face height for you. [00:46:51] Speaker C: So I still think my lasting fear. Tall bushes. I don't think I. Is quite the same as death and blood and impalation. [00:47:05] Speaker A: He just gets, like, a kind of small, soft smile on his face and he goes, well, I feel pretty good, so I guess it's not so bad. I'm sorry that that happened to you. [00:47:18] Speaker C: No, I'm sorry I think I killed you, Walter. I'm sorry. I don't even think I learned my lesson. I think. I just think I just lost something. Someone. [00:47:45] Speaker A: He just stops in the path of whatever he was leading you to, and he just sits all the way down. He used to do this a lot because when he sits down, he's, like, just below eye level with you, just his butt all the way on the ground. And he kind of pulls his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms over him. He was a very, like, pensive fellow, always stopping and thinking. And so he just sits there staring at you for, like, 45 seconds in silence. And the weird thing about it all is that you forgot he used to do this. Like, this is a thing about him you didn't remember. And you're experiencing it live again as he stares at you. And he just goes, I'm sorry that happened to you. That must have been really terrible. [00:48:37] Speaker C: What about you? [00:48:43] Speaker A: I don't really know what I am. I think I'm just like a magicy thing from. Where are we right now? [00:48:52] Speaker C: We're in the Westwood. [00:48:56] Speaker A: And you and I both know what that is, but just for everybody else and he gestures around to the empty forest. [00:49:03] Speaker C: We're on Zedge. We're in the west of Zedge, a big, scary forest where apparently there's magic that makes people happen. [00:49:12] Speaker A: He just looks away from you and goes, wow, that's literally the opposite end of the world. [00:49:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:22] Speaker A: You've done some traveling. [00:49:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [00:49:28] Speaker A: Must be kind of different than my greta. [00:49:33] Speaker C: Maybe. Probably. Do you like my. And she holds up her light kinship. [00:49:42] Speaker A: And then he blinks hard, and he goes, don't know how I didn't realize you were, is that magic? [00:49:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:49] Speaker A: That's incredible. You were a sorcerer the whole time, and you never gave it away. That's why secret for so long. [00:49:57] Speaker C: She pulls out her necklace. [00:50:01] Speaker A: Nice. It's good. [00:50:03] Speaker C: Remember tarot from dwarm, the big dwarf city? Remember Carol from the dorm center? All her name in the big library she was building? [00:50:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:23] Speaker C: Well, it turns out there's a goddess that does something really simple. I was, I was with a, I was kind of like a hag lady for a while. Like, I found some hags, and I, they made me kill birds and, and stuff like that. So I was a cleric for them, and then I, like, oh, man. Broke away from them, and I threw my symbol. Time was crazy day. And then I thought I was gonna, like, come a lady for the fae lady, and then, but then I found out. I remembered that I had heard read this thing in this, like, newspaper, like, like a conspiracy channel, like, conspiracy, like, newspaper thing. And they were, like, yapping about this, this place where they have, like, monks and they have these big libraries, and there's a goddess that, like, gets all this information was like, whoa. So I learned. I did a lot of research, and every time I found out about this lady, and I, like, burned one of my notebooks, and then she gave me, like, a dream. That's how I found, that's how I found out that those things that killed you were actually sad. I show him the notebook, and I, like, show him. [00:51:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:57] Speaker C: I flipped to the page with his face on it. [00:52:01] Speaker A: His stunned confusion at the just word soup of what you just said is immediately absorbed in the notebook you're showing him, because he, too, like, you, was fascinated with notes and where your job was to chronicle and catalog everything. He used to preserve specimens, press plants, take clippings, neurological samples, and then take notes on those. So he gets thrilled about the notebook you start showing, and he starts with questions, and then as you start flipping through stuff, he just shuts up, and he's wowed by it. And then as you go to. His face kind of stops for a second, I guess. You are still my greta. [00:52:48] Speaker C: Elder. Maybe. [00:52:52] Speaker A: I can't. I can't emphasize this enough. Much older. So much older. My friend was quite young. [00:52:59] Speaker C: No, no. Maybe. [00:53:06] Speaker A: I'm sorry that all that happened to you. [00:53:10] Speaker C: Why do you keep saying that? [00:53:14] Speaker A: Because you're sadder than the greta I remember. [00:53:18] Speaker C: I don't have my friend. [00:53:24] Speaker A: He just kind of leans forward and gives you a hug. [00:53:27] Speaker C: I'm sorry. I want you. [00:53:35] Speaker A: He's just hugging you, leaning in close. There's a long pause. You can feel him thinking. He just whispers, I forgive you. [00:53:51] Speaker C: Thank you. She, like, heaves like a sob, and, like, her whole body, like, relaxes a little bit. [00:54:00] Speaker A: He squeezes you a little tighter, and then he sits back. So you tell me, if I'm remembering this correctly, you joined, like, a religion of, like, short people, or I. [00:54:14] Speaker C: You know what a hag is. [00:54:17] Speaker A: I mean, like, from, like, fairy tale. [00:54:20] Speaker C: You know, how they, like, eat babies and, like, are terrible, like, in there for. Yeah, yeah, well, they're real. I show her. I show him a drawing. [00:54:34] Speaker A: He goes, oh, yeah. I don't know. That's. That's unpleasant. I mean, I remember we would. We would hear stories about them from some of the herders and the farmers you ran into. Some. [00:54:58] Speaker C: Indeed. That's a good way to put it. Wherever dos. [00:55:08] Speaker A: Granny you got moving. [00:55:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't. [00:55:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:16] Speaker C: Yeah. Every hill and every grass, you know, the birdhouse. Yeah. It reminded me of you. And I couldn't. I couldn't stay there, and I was. I didn't want to tell your family. I don't even know what happened. I just. I just went away. I went back to Dwarven, and I broke it off with Tarot, and I told her that we wouldn't do that. And she mean, that's. But I just got on a boat, and I went where I. Boat. I asked her to forward, Jack. I guess I'm still over, but I don't know. Yeah, I just got a new boat. [00:56:12] Speaker A: I'm sorry, Greta. [00:56:14] Speaker C: Okay? I'm sorry. It's no one's fault. It's my fault. [00:56:23] Speaker A: Well, that can't be true. Can't be no one's fault and your fault. You're important, but I don't think you can manage to take the blame for everything. [00:56:37] Speaker C: We get. Smooth. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Come on. I saw, like, lights in the darkness. I want to show him to you. [00:56:56] Speaker C: Okay, let's go. [00:56:58] Speaker A: He stands back up, and he takes the rag, starts walking with you. Um, ro, you have been separated from your group. [00:57:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Craig was the last one and he fell asleep. He passed out and I tried to take the sword and it didn't work because I'm not attuned to it. And then I saw a scary monster in my face. [00:57:31] Speaker A: And you are now lost in the dark like so many others. And you are in the wood trees towering around you. [00:57:45] Speaker B: Um, I think I, I'm gonna scream out for, for Tello and, uh, Greta. Because those were the last two I saw after. Cause I know Craig's, like, knocked out or something, so he was, yeah. [00:58:05] Speaker A: Greta. Greta. You can hear it softly bouncing off the many tall trees. And the cries just dissolve into the night. [00:58:25] Speaker B: I'm gonna, I wanna, like, I don't wanna go fully down on my knees, but I'm going to bend down and try to, like, feel around below me and, like, in front of me for, like, trees and the ground and, like, where I'm at so I don't run into a tree or I'm looking for a tree. [00:58:44] Speaker A: You can feel leaf litter and you can, you can hear it's shifting, it's dry softness. [00:58:56] Speaker B: If I keep walking farther a little bit, do I ever reach, like, a tree? [00:59:03] Speaker A: Sort of. On all fours? You crawl around on the forest floor. A couple minutes in, there's a sudden sound to your left somewhere in the door. It's small, but you jump at it and there's like, keep crawling. How long do you go for? [00:59:23] Speaker B: Probably for a while. And I'm probably still yelling out for, like, for all of my party members. Like every, every, like 30 seconds, I yell out to one of them with. [00:59:37] Speaker A: These regularly intervaled shouts as you crawl on all fours in the darkness, shifting around in leaves, starting to become even more intimately familiar with the texture of the forest floor than you had been and all this time traveling through it. What's the sensation? The emotion building in row or the thoughts she's thinking as she crawls around? Because you're not reaching anything. And it occurs to you the distance between the trees and the dark here. I mean, unless you head in the right direction, you could be crawling for a long time because the trees are huge, but there's more space between them. [01:00:15] Speaker B: Is there more space between them than there was like when we were walking? Like, does it feel like it's different? [01:00:23] Speaker A: It's a huge, some of these trees have football fields between them. It could, wow, that was such a texan thing to say. You get it. Some of these trees is like a back 40 apart. Like the lit to which you could take your tractor on one lap with having to row rotate the wheel. You know, if you had a bush hog behind you, you was laying the corn down. Um. [01:01:00] Speaker C: Dang it. [01:01:01] Speaker B: Tried. I tried sending earlier. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Wasn't working. [01:01:15] Speaker B: I'm gonna. [01:01:18] Speaker A: Hmm. [01:01:24] Speaker B: Something just fell in my house. I don't know what it was, but it was really loud. I don't know if you guys heard that. Sorry. Freak. [01:01:30] Speaker A: No, that was the. That was the westward. [01:01:33] Speaker C: An earthquake. [01:01:35] Speaker B: Don't say that, because it actually could be. I try to press to digitate a few sparks just to be able to see if there's anything around where I'm going. [01:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah, okay. Yep. There's flash of dark forest. And by dark forest, I mean the 10ft around you from the sparks dimly for a moment, then darkness from somewhere off to your left you just heard of. [01:02:34] Speaker B: I play it back on the loop. [01:02:44] Speaker A: And then you hear played back on a loot. From the darkness on a loot. [01:02:51] Speaker B: Wait, what was it the first time? A whistle, you said, or a hum. [01:02:55] Speaker A: Like a hum the first time, but. [01:02:57] Speaker B: Now it sounds like a loot. I whistle it. [01:03:07] Speaker A: Only because you can. [01:03:08] Speaker B: Oh. Uh. [01:03:12] Speaker A: Oh. The mic's missing it. Ah, well, nah, it's too much for the mic. It's not getting it. That's fine. Imagine it being whistled. Whisper. It sounds very good, you guys. Very good at whistling. Whistles it back. Zach, who definitely can't not whistle. [01:03:34] Speaker B: Does it sound closer this time? [01:03:36] Speaker A: No. [01:03:37] Speaker B: Then on the loop, same distance, I yell out of who's there? [01:03:48] Speaker A: And then as you've kind of turned to orient yourself toward this sound from behind you. Now much closer. Yeah, I assumed from behind you, maybe somewhere in auditory range, somewhere between maybe like 30 and 70ft. Kind of hard to judge, a voice says. Just the whispers. [01:04:19] Speaker B: I turn around to the direction that the voice is coming and I start going towards it. [01:04:27] Speaker A: Okay. [01:04:28] Speaker B: And I darkness. [01:04:30] Speaker A: Just like it was behind you. [01:04:31] Speaker B: In fact, I whistle again. [01:04:32] Speaker A: It's so dark, it's hard to tell whether or not you've turned a full 180, which is so disorienting because as someone so environmentally keen as you, you always kind of know how much you've turned, but you don't right now. And how fast are you walking, ro? [01:04:51] Speaker B: Like a. Like a speed walk. Like not fully running, but like at a quick pace. Yeah. [01:04:56] Speaker A: As the tension builds and you can start to feel your heart, like kind of like. And you move further forward, you whistle. You walk forward and you relief. After a moment, you're starting to get tired and your pace is slowing and then a hand catches your left hand and pulls you back. I assume you involuntarily jump, but, yeah, someone's holding your hand. Do you rip it free or I. [01:05:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I move my hand real quick and I yell quickly. I say, I know you're not real. [01:05:44] Speaker A: Shadow. Darkness. And then kind of just a little bit off, too. Your right shoulder. Somewhere in the darkness, you hear. Am not. [01:06:01] Speaker B: No, no, this is just. This is just the woods playing tricks on all of us. None of it. None of it's real. It's just. [01:06:22] Speaker A: And somewhere kind of nearby to your left, you hear? Shame I can't see you. I always wondered what you'd look like. Would you sing for me again? I'd love at least to picture the way you sound. [01:06:48] Speaker B: It's not real. You're not real. [01:06:52] Speaker A: Don't say that to me. I want so very badly for it to be real. [01:07:06] Speaker B: Yeah, but you're. [01:07:09] Speaker A: It's just unwinding from closer by. Maybe ten or 12ft now kind of in front of you. Ro. You here rowing. Please, even if you can't believe in me, I'd love to hear your voice. Aya is trying so hard to step in front of my screen. Maya, I'm sorry. I'm dming I have all my attention. Later. Okay? Baby, come here. Sorry. Please keep going. Jackie. [01:07:56] Speaker B: Yo. It's not like I ever got to hear your voice. And it's just in my head, it's. [01:08:10] Speaker A: I know. I'm sorry about that. I always meant you to. I always meant you to hear it. I told myself that one day I'd fill. I'd fill the world with songs. So that I could fill your life with song. That's what I was hoping at the end. [01:08:48] Speaker B: You did? Everyone. Everyone knows. Everyone knows who you are and what you sounded like. [01:09:01] Speaker A: Yeah. What a fool I was. I lived a life that got everyone in the world to hear me. But my little blossom couldn't. Those are some wrong priorities, I'd say. I'm sorry, Rob. Could I, um. Could I hear you play or. You still have the loot? I thought I heard it. [01:09:50] Speaker B: Yes, I still have the loot. But this. You're not sorry because it's not you. It's. [01:10:00] Speaker A: I. [01:10:02] Speaker B: Okay, if I play and Ro starts to just kind of involuntarily. Just start to play it almost. [01:10:26] Speaker A: What does she play? [01:10:34] Speaker B: I think she plays the chaotic, probably. [01:10:39] Speaker A: And as you pluck exactly what I was thinking in a way that I will beg the listener to use theater of the ear instead of reality. Of the ear. Because it is the DM doing his gosh darndest best. As you pluck away on the cordental kind of get through the first verse, and as you repeat it, she voice sings back. Do you think that you have seen him twix the shade of an alley? Perhaps you would know better if you had, for his mad laughter would have rung out from some of your strange mishear. I thought it was kitschy at the time. I thought I'd write a song about a different figure, but every time I played that tune, you'd laughed. So I settled on it. [01:12:09] Speaker B: I. I met him, you know. [01:12:13] Speaker A: Met who? [01:12:17] Speaker B: The chaotic maid. [01:12:23] Speaker A: Wow. I thought he was dead. [01:12:28] Speaker B: Yeah, he prefers it that way, I think. Um, he's exactly like and not at all like the song. Why are you here? What is the purpose of this? [01:13:07] Speaker A: As you wait patiently for an answer, bro, you don't hear one. And Landon going for coffee is a completely appropriate choice. But I was very much planning to transition to his scene now. So we're just going to stay on what row does in that silence for a little longer, please. [01:13:41] Speaker B: Ro's gonna. She's gonna like where she had her loot, like, in her hands. She's gonna sling it behind her back, and she's not. She's gonna stay standing there and just kind of. [01:14:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:14:17] Speaker B: You know, I. I always wondered what it would be like if I got the chance to talk to you, but it's not. It's not what I pictured, and it's not. I asked you a question, and it's. There's no purpose to it. It's. It's just the woods. It's not you. I'm not singing with you. I. And I think she's gonna. She's gonna stand there in silence for, like, a solid, like, minute. If she doesn't hear anything, you don't. [01:15:15] Speaker A: With your very keen ears, you're not even hearing the shuffling of leaves. No more touches, no more sounds. [01:15:22] Speaker B: And I think she's just gonna scream out like a. I'm not gonna do it because it wouldn't pick it up on the mic, but like, almost like a growl, almost of frustration. And just be like, is anyone, hello, Kreta. And she should take a deep breath and just stand there in the darkness. [01:16:17] Speaker A: Greta, we'll, uh, I'll switch some scenes around and we'll flip back to you. Um, let's go with this one maybe. Do I like this one? No no no. Let's go with this one, maybe. Do I like this one? Yeah, this is a good one. So, as your what? Baby, I don't know what you said, but I love you very much. Yes, that is your quote. She wanted something to sit on. As you're walking through the darkness, cloth in hand with Walter. Not hand in hand. Importantly, you've clarified that with me. You remember the familiar sensation of how he would slow down his pace to not, like, wear you out or. But how he would always, after a little bit, walk too fast and you'd have to kind of tug on. [01:17:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:17:22] Speaker A: Wow, Abby, we are in sync. Dude, that's wild. We have been playing D and D together for a long time. And as you tug on it, you hear him go, oh, my badlandhouse. He slows his pace a little bit. And as you guys walk in the darkness, grab a far ahead. You're illuminating everything. So every once, like, you can see forest floor, and every once in a while, you all see, just suddenly, a tree will kind of appear. It's very much like deep sea diving on ground, where suddenly a large tree appears from the darkness and you guys slowly pass by it. But you're starting to see new sources of light. Pinpricks blinking in and out of existence far ahead. Like a hundred. No. [01:18:14] Speaker C: Are they moving or are they just, like, blinking? [01:18:16] Speaker A: Like a thousand? Bobbing and floating, like in water. They're all, like, pale blues and light greens. No, there's some warm reds. You saw gold just bobbing in and out of existence. As you guys are getting closer, walter's going, I don't know what they are, but I saw them. I went to go collect a sample, and then I realized I wasn't real. So, you know, she figured I'd show them to you. As you guys start to get closer, you, like, take a step, and part of the leaves shift, and a couple of the lights, like, come up out of the grass and then blink in and out. [01:19:04] Speaker C: I reach out to touch one. [01:19:07] Speaker A: Okay, you reach out, and right as your hand gets close, the little blinking light disappears. And then you feel, like, the slightest little weight distribution on your right hand where you're holding the cloth with, like, a tiny little object falling on your hand. And as you feel it, you look over at it, and it blinks very briefly into existence. And then out, you see a little bug, and it looks like the shell casing on the back of its wings is momentarily lighting up and then disappearing into darkness. And Walter's kind of stopped walking. And now you're starting to see them high up, and some of them are remaining in place, and you're realizing that they're, like, sitting on the trees. There must be a tree over there. You literally can't see it, but you can detect its existence because of the bug sitting on it. And they're just kind of rising up around you. As you watch them for a little longer, you're realizing that opposite colors all around you are moving toward each other until they kind of land nearby. And then, as you can see them, you're starting to notice that as some of them very rarely meet somewhere around you in the forest, they kind of synchronize their blinks, and then the colors even out between them. So reds and blues land next to each other and blink quicker and quicker until they both have a dull purple gently thrumming. Oh, that's cute. Blues and yellows land next to each other till they make greens. Walter's just quiet there, watching, looking around. [01:20:48] Speaker D: Hmm. Suspicious. [01:20:54] Speaker A: Boss says from around the tree. [01:20:57] Speaker D: Pokes his head out. [01:20:58] Speaker A: Mmm. [01:20:58] Speaker D: What do they sound like? Zachary? [01:21:04] Speaker C: All right. [01:21:05] Speaker A: What you doing, Greta? [01:21:06] Speaker C: Why should I care about their sound? Landon? [01:21:10] Speaker A: What you doing, Greta? [01:21:13] Speaker C: Um. [01:21:16] Speaker A: Also, Lando, I promise we're coming to you soon. I was gonna transition after coffee, and I just didn't align the after, Jackie, so I promise we're coming back to you soon. [01:21:25] Speaker C: Um, I. [01:21:30] Speaker A: So dumb. Landon. [01:21:34] Speaker C: I just. There's still some in front of me, right? [01:21:41] Speaker A: Yeah, they're all around now. Thousands. [01:21:45] Speaker C: I just, like, walk into the midst of them, just, like, walk really slowly, and look at them blinking in the sky. [01:21:51] Speaker A: The cloths at least look out of your hand. You walk further forward. So you walk a bit away from him. The cloth slips out of your hand, and as you walk forward, as you walk across the floor, oh, there's a lot. Like, there's thousands around out a ways. They're populating the world around you like you're walking through the night sky and passing through stars, blinking in and out of existence. As you walk further forward, you start to realize, oh, there's a far denser population of them than you realize, because as you walk across the leaf litter, as it shifts and crackles, more of them blink in and out of existence around you. I jump and then scatter outward. Huh? [01:22:29] Speaker C: I jump. [01:22:30] Speaker A: Okay. You take one big in the leaf, and there's just this, like, a hundred lifting up and a sudden darkening from somewhere behind you. Yeah, you just. You look back, and he's just got the biggest. And you took the light with you, so he's just, like, kind of right at the edge of the. Of the darkness. And as he sits there in the darkness, like, kind of right at the edge of the light. He smiles at you, and he goes, you know, bug, I think maybe you've done fine without me. [01:23:08] Speaker C: He shakes her home. No. [01:23:16] Speaker A: What are you looking for? Why are you here? [01:23:20] Speaker C: Some friends or, like, a big adventuring group on a quest? [01:23:28] Speaker A: Sure. No, but, like, why are you here? You know, like you. [01:23:38] Speaker C: They seem to. That helped me a lot. And they have this big mission, and I want to help out. I just really like being with him. [01:24:01] Speaker A: The smile on his face gets warmer, and it's kind of sad, too, at the same time as he kind of wears both emotions in one expression, takes a big breath, and he sighs and he says, you've done fine without me. I'm glad I was your friend for so long. I'm sorry I missed so much. It's good to see you again. [01:24:30] Speaker C: Goodness, he always did apologize to me. [01:24:37] Speaker A: You always were short. And as you laugh and blink when you open your eyes again, he's not there. [01:24:47] Speaker C: I'm booting. [01:24:49] Speaker A: And you're just left there in the dark with all the lights blinking in. [01:24:52] Speaker C: And out around you, she's just gonna, like, flop down and just lay on her back and, like, cry. [01:25:03] Speaker A: Turn, Oz. I really like that with this Kenku system, it transitions in and out softly. Big fan of that. Cause when I would do it, all the other bots, it would just be like, stop. And I really like that it fades it every time. You're green and you're glowing, and you are not the brightest thing in your area because you've met your vision far before everyone else. You stand where you did previously in front of an eight foot tall burning elk made of pure fire. And as the burning towering elk just stands in front of you, it's kind of sat down now. And you remember this burning shadow of the druid Hyundin planted before you. And in the paused silence, irish spirit breathes and, like, a long. And as it, like, breathes out, there's this little, like, gusts of, like, a fire and, um. Uh, happy dang it. Uh, that was funny. Um, the voice resonates again and says, I am the keeper of this one, mine to protect. And Belk's fiery head, its form and shape made up by that movement of light, burning gas coming constantly in and out of existence, looks its head up and its fire is bright, but its, like, its abnormally bright for fire and its lighting so much of the forest around it. As its head looks up and around, looks contemplative and looks back on you, the eyes of this fiery elk are just the only two points more bright than all the other fire, like golden white. He looks hard on you and says, so why should you pass on? Why should you be allowed to find its heart? [01:27:39] Speaker D: Dm. He's talking about the. Well, right? [01:27:42] Speaker A: You would assume he's talking about the whisper. [01:27:44] Speaker D: Yeah, well, I. I. Hold up. Okay, wait, do we have. Jackie has a symbol of the maker, right? [01:27:52] Speaker A: Mm hmm. [01:27:54] Speaker D: Do I have anything that says symbol of the maker on it or anything? No, I swear that I did. [01:28:00] Speaker A: I mean, you have that. You have that, like, rubber stamp that says makers boy, but other than that, you don't have anything. [01:28:06] Speaker B: I have the one on my loot because it went into my loot, and Greta has the other one that I had. Had, but I gave it to Greta. [01:28:17] Speaker A: Oh, I don't know, Alondra. [01:28:18] Speaker B: I don't have anything. [01:28:21] Speaker A: You say that to him? [01:28:22] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:28:24] Speaker A: Name drop expression on an elk made of fire is a subtle thing, because the very shape of his head is slightly indefinite and elks have only so much expression to offer. But in the slightest Pixar way, the brow furrows slightly and the heat coming off of him grows a little bit. And the responses. I didn't ask of the pill sorceress. [01:28:54] Speaker D: Well, I. What I was gonna say, sorry, my brain jumped a few moments ahead. We believe the makers let us here, and I was gonna try to prove it to you, but my friend has our symbol of the maker on her, so I could. I. I could call Laundra and vouch. She could vouch for us, but I don't know, like, we're here for the maker because the maker brought us here. If that is that. That's enough to tell you that, then that's great, but I was going to try to prove it to you. [01:29:29] Speaker A: There's another, like, kind of fiery sigh every time you breathe. [01:29:32] Speaker D: Please let me call Laundra and freak her out with Hyundai talking to her on the phone. Please. [01:29:37] Speaker A: You can certainly try. You can certainly try. You know, magic's been wonky in the westwood, but you can certainly try. [01:29:44] Speaker B: We're taking years off her life. [01:29:46] Speaker A: Every time I call, it's like, here's the ghost of hunting. [01:29:49] Speaker D: Tell her. [01:29:52] Speaker A: Oh, hey, Alondra, how are you doing? [01:29:55] Speaker D: Oh, that second day coming back up around again, eh? [01:29:59] Speaker A: Still high strung. Anyway. [01:30:04] Speaker D: What's on? Pirouette? [01:30:05] Speaker A: Nobody's is that smart. Pirouette along the p. Wet. Yeah. As the fiery spirit sighs and those two little spouts of fire come out of the nostrils, it looks away from you and the intensity of the heat dims greatly, only so much that it only feels slightly warm at this proximity of some feet of and looking away from you, the voice continues, why are there waves that doesn't make any sense? [01:30:40] Speaker D: Because the waves of emotion are just. [01:30:42] Speaker A: Like, okay, if I go far. [01:30:45] Speaker D: To me it's a deep cut. [01:30:48] Speaker A: As it looks away, the fiery spirit continues and says, what you're going to credential association. It doesn't mean anything. And the elk's brilliant head looks back at you kind of suddenly and asks, who are you, Buzz? Who are you that you come near to this place? [01:31:19] Speaker D: I'm a survivor. [01:31:22] Speaker A: I. You are. And I'm not. [01:31:31] Speaker D: I'm what I need to be. [01:31:34] Speaker A: And I wasn't. I didn't survive. [01:31:41] Speaker D: No, but I think you did what you needed to, from what I've heard. [01:31:59] Speaker A: Did you concern both? [01:32:03] Speaker D: Sorry, Zach. [01:32:03] Speaker A: Who's that? One more time, he said, uh, you make me concerned. He continues, you frightened me. Your unclear intention I do see before me survivor, I see someone who makes his decisions with fear. I was once close friend, Ally, compatriot of a survivor. She was cleverer than all of us, the greatest mage of our age. She made choices wryly and cleverly. We didn't see eye to eye, but she won my respect. She humbled me too many times for me to not trust her. And I did as he says, that the whole forest like, as he says did. The voice goes, and there's like this spurt of fire at each direction, and for an instant, all of the sounds in the forest just stop, and then they slowly come back up. As that moment of aggression dissipates from him, he says, I trusted her with my life, with the lives of the ones I loved. I had her help, I had her service, her skill, but rarely her attention, never her heart. And as we thought that she was cleverly plotting the devices which would give us control over the evils of our age, she was isolating herself from all of those who could help her, slowly stacking the weight of all the world on her shoulders. I'm concerned, Buzz, to let someone like you pass on someone cleverer than I, and you see the elk's face trace across your chest and down your arm until it gets to the part of your arm exposed beyond your robe that's glowing. He says, I can see what you do with that which is entrusted to you. I am afraid. But as you've said, you're sent here by the one who planted these trees, no matter how much I call them my own. So humble me boss, please show me that I'm wrong. Tell me why you're here. Because I want to trust you. But I just fear you. [01:35:42] Speaker D: I'm here because there are unfathomable amount of beings and people that wish to hurt people that I love and the people that I don't know. And recently, those lines have been blurred. Recently, I have seen threat upon threat from coast to coast. I've heard whispers of world ending omens and dangers brewing beneath seas that most of the world does not even know is there. I feel the burden of danger on my shoulders. And I wish that I wasn't clever. I wish that I could be home. I wish that I could be with my family. But I have the burden of knowledge. And that knowledge pushes me towards making sure that the people that are with their families right now, that do have that peace remain undisturbed. [01:37:18] Speaker A: By real. Just stares at you. Not a sensation of. Give me an insight check, boss. How? [01:37:29] Speaker D: I'm rolling it. I'm rolling a dice. Oh, man. That is 24. [01:37:36] Speaker A: Holy crap. [01:37:39] Speaker D: Bus guidance for fun. [01:37:41] Speaker A: That's a 28. Holy crap. If we stopped right now and nobody else rolled, this would be statistically your highest rolling session ever. Because the only two are 28 and 20. The expression, the demeanor from this fiery sliver of a soul past is obviously abrasive, clearly defensive. But you can read simply enough that even though it towers over you, even though it's made of fire, even though it peers down at you fiercely, that intimidation is nothing. The purpose here, you can feel the spirit trying to read you genuinely, as its eyes burn and search yours. And is that enough? Cause what you head toward is more than a tool. It's truth. It's a purpose. Is it worth more or less than those families you seek to protect? Can one survive without the other? What do you intend to do with it? [01:39:07] Speaker D: I don't think I. I'm more worried about what it intends to do with me than anything. [01:39:17] Speaker A: And I know clearly that you don't understand it. [01:39:20] Speaker D: I don't. I don't think. I don't think it might be possible to. Did you understand it? [01:39:30] Speaker A: The head looks away. I thought I did. I learned of it when I let the silence of the trees counsel me more than my fears. I know your teacher's buzz. I have been to your home. I've met your tea proots. It strikes me for what little I know of your mission and purpose, that they sent the wrong that they sent. Excuse me? That's not what he says. He says opposite of what I was trying to say. That they sent the right fellow out. That you are cleverer and full of will. Genuine. But it strikes me also that you are so very unlike them. That they looked to wisdom more often than they looked to innovation. Maybe they could have stood to be a bit more like you. If our journeys serve us well, Boz, they temper us. They move us to a place of balance, not an extreme. For someone who speaks so often of looking for answers, I see little evidence of a person who is trying to listen for them. Buzz. I. I did succeed. Here we are in the home of that which is safe. So precious to me. But I also failed. I failed those who depended upon me. At least I feel I have their dead. Their children will never have their children. Their lines were cut short. I inexplicably hear water around us. So I'm gonna fasten the track forward a little bit. [01:42:08] Speaker D: Zack, what's the name of his team again? [01:42:12] Speaker A: Sorry? [01:42:13] Speaker D: What's the name? Student again? Shassi. [01:42:15] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. He says, I mean to stop you. Oh. It's because this is supposed to be a cityscape. That's why there's voices talking. [01:42:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I was like, I hear people. [01:42:35] Speaker D: Back off. [01:42:36] Speaker A: Back on. [01:42:36] Speaker D: Jackie. [01:42:39] Speaker A: It'S not very vagan. Okay? And he continues, and he says, different world. Very different. Very different world. He says, shoot. What was he saying? Landon? Help me. Help me, please. Help me. [01:42:52] Speaker D: He was saying that he failed. He succeeded, and he failed the people he trusted. [01:42:56] Speaker C: He was saying. I mean. I mean, I mean to stop. But he says, oh, yes, thank you. [01:43:02] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you. [01:43:03] Speaker C: He says he doesn't like hoshere. [01:43:06] Speaker A: Thank you, he says, I mean to stop you if you've come here. Pushed onward by fear, moved by lies. But I mean, also, I hope to be at least one thing working. Not against you. But you're going toward buzz. You say that you don't know what it means for you. You won't know if you don't learn it. Another fiery sigh. I don't know. And were I still alive, I'd be speaking with you with more confidence. But I'm a fragment of the spirit of a dead man, so I feel the permission to admit what I don't know. But I am afraid you are not ready to find what you seek here. [01:44:43] Speaker D: Is there someone else? That is because I'll go get him. [01:44:57] Speaker A: Power is not always the answer. Buzz zorogram. He was looking to make his world better. He was looking to help those he feared were not helped. The why, the how, they matter. But you're also speaking to a druid who was slain by his dragon. So maybe you should be careful how much you listen to me. Should I lead you to the wellspring? [01:46:04] Speaker D: Yes. [01:46:07] Speaker A: Why? [01:46:13] Speaker D: Because everyone else that you trusted, that stood with you to the very end, is trusting in me now, too, and I can't let them down. [01:46:33] Speaker A: Maybe you oughta. Truth. The elk stands tall, and he says, for the record, I never liked that stuff before. [01:46:50] Speaker D: Zack. Is he Zach? Am I gonna get a chance to ask him a question? Or is he going to disappear because I want to. [01:46:55] Speaker A: Earl. It is your scene. It is your scene. Lay it on. Take chances. Roll that play. [01:47:01] Speaker D: I have one request before you lead me there. [01:47:05] Speaker A: He's, like, turned halfway away from you, looks back to you. [01:47:16] Speaker D: I have spent some time with chassis the past few days, and when we discuss you. And the look in her eyes is that of, like, an open book of something that is not closed. And with deep grief, even to this day. Can you please give me a message or a word or something that you would have liked to tell her? I picked up this book, and it should have been hers. So many pieces of you that didn't get passed on the way that they were intended. I feel like it has left something of an open wound. I think it would mean the world to her if. If there was something I could bring back. [01:47:59] Speaker A: Again. Only so much expression off of an elk made of fire. But the hardness of the face softens a little bit. Her life is very much not gone as I intended it either. I meant not that all had passed as it did. But you have to understand, Buzz, I'm just a shade. [01:48:45] Speaker D: Yes, I know. [01:48:46] Speaker A: I'm a piece left here to look after this place. But the reason she never finds me when she searches is because I've gone on. I can't touch the coils that weigh upon her because I've been freed from them. So as your heart aches for her, feel some amount of hope, knowing that one day she will find me. Where the weeds do not weigh upon her, I walk a better wood. You see so much of what stands against you, buzz, but you've known so little of what was meant for you. It is a tragedy to live this entire life and miss the story, to not hear the song. And if nothing else, you've encouraged me that perhaps I am a bit wrong about you. I hope you will prove me wrong further. [01:50:30] Speaker D: Miles doesn't say anything. He just nods and listens. [01:50:38] Speaker A: And he just starts. He, like, kind of turns, or actually, he gets down on, like, all kind of like, bending at the knees the way that an elk can, like, kind of next to you. And he says, you are familiar with. [01:50:51] Speaker D: Fire, aren't you any more familiar with it? [01:50:57] Speaker A: And I imagine you shall not be burned. [01:51:02] Speaker D: I get on. [01:51:05] Speaker A: As you mount the elk, it stands up tall. Ooh, tall elk. And all of a sudden, as you get on, oh, that's very warm. And for a second, your whole body feels like, yep, you're gonna burn to. But the heat feels. As you mount the burning stag, it feels like your capacity for heat has increased. Like it is dangerous, but like, the amount of fire that you can endure is more than it has been. And as the heat licks up around you, your clothes catch on fire, but they don't burn. And the elk says, hold on tight, buzz. We both face fears today. And then just. And you're, like, knocked backs against him. And they're striding, and they're striding until the legs melt away into motion. And as they burn together, it's just a streak of golden fire moving across the fourth floor, and you're carried away into the darkness. [01:52:12] Speaker D: Like, boss is equally scared and thrilled at the same time. Probably back and forth, depending on. [01:52:25] Speaker A: How. [01:52:25] Speaker D: The thing's going on. [01:52:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll go back to row. You're in the dark. Whatcha doing? [01:53:04] Speaker B: I think ro is just. She's gonna start walking, but not with a purpose this time. Not with, like, looking for the rest of the party. She's just kind of walking in any direction. Maybe a little bit with her hands out just so she doesn't bump into anything. But she's just kind of letting give me guide her. [01:53:44] Speaker A: Odds or evens, ro, odds or evens? [01:53:45] Speaker B: Oh, no. [01:53:46] Speaker A: Odds is my fancy dice 16. You do walk into a tree at one point? [01:53:54] Speaker B: Of course I do, but it's dark. [01:53:59] Speaker A: The sound of your feet treading through that darkness is continual. Just. That leaves. The forest is very clearly very populated by animals. And every ten or 15 minutes, there's a sudden I'm somewhere in the darkness. That makes you jump as something is retreating from your presence. How long do you walk for? [01:54:32] Speaker B: I think I just keep walking. I'd like to say that I feel like I start to get used to, like, the animal noises and stuff. [01:54:48] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. [01:54:49] Speaker B: Like, and almost. It almost becomes, like, comforting. Yeah. Because at least there's something else that she. That she can believe is real. And like I said, I think. [01:55:15] Speaker A: Oh, sorry, go ahead. [01:55:16] Speaker B: Oh, she had put her loop behind her. Cause, you know, normally she has it right in front to be ready to cast or anything, and I don't think. I think she keeps it behind her. It's like she's just kind of letting the forest be the forest, and she's just walking through it. [01:55:39] Speaker A: Your sense of time is greatly discombobulated, but you can tell at the very least that you are walking for a couple of hours just in the darkness. You're just getting tired. You can feel it setting in. You feel tired. All of you feels tired. What you feel is absence. Absence of time, absence of direction, absence of the people who are supposed to help bring you into this world. Absence of the friends who are supposed to guide you through it. Absence of the stars that have always given you a sense of direction. You just feel very separated, and you feel tired. You're feeling so many of the things that you have so mastered not feeling. How long do you walk for? [01:57:28] Speaker B: I think I walk until I can't anymore. Like, until I. My. I'm just too exhausted. Like, I don't think she's. [01:57:40] Speaker A: You're not sure exactly when the moment that you stopped and laid down, curled up tightly and fell asleep on the forest floor was. But at some point, it dawns on you that you've slowed. At some point, you realize that you've fallen to the ground intentionally. You know, not fallen, but laid down. At some point, you realize that the seamless dark of your eyes closed and your eyes open are one and the same, and you fall asleep. Greta, where were we with you? Go with this one. [01:58:26] Speaker D: Yeah, he spotted some colorful light bulbs. [01:58:29] Speaker A: You stand alone with a bunch of blinky light bugs. Let's go with a different song. Sorry. What you doing? [01:58:38] Speaker C: So when Walter left, I, like, laid down and cried. Am I still doing that, or am I standing now up to you? [01:58:47] Speaker A: Follow your dreams and don't let them be dreams. [01:58:50] Speaker C: Okay? Yeah. I say I just. I laid on the, like, just in the. Watched the lights and, like, just cried for a long time. There's a mix between, like, weeping, and then you calm down and just, like, quiet. Looking up at the lights, and then, like, just going back for a little bit. [01:59:17] Speaker A: It carries on for quite some time. The tiredness and the hurting and the emotions and all that had been, well, buried coming up. And as you feel it, you're startled by the suddenness of the sound. From somewhere to your left, at the base of one of the grand trees, there's just a. [01:59:41] Speaker C: Poke my head up and look at it. [01:59:43] Speaker A: Okay. You sit up, and as you look to your left, the edge of the light, because you still have the light cantrip cast continually as it illuminates the space around you. Just see the edge of. [01:59:54] Speaker C: Yes, go ahead. [02:00:00] Speaker A: You see the edge of this thick, fluffy little animal, dark gray banded with black bands, pine cone tail, narrow face. And there's just a raccoon sitting at the base of a tree nearby, just kind of looking at you. It paws the ground curiously, and then it stands up and just kind of starts walking away. [02:00:41] Speaker C: I pull out a biscuit and go, I don't make the noise. [02:00:44] Speaker A: But then as you pull out the biscuit suddenly and do involuntarily make that noise, the raccoon just sort of startles and skitters behind a tree I face. [02:00:55] Speaker C: But I forget I have 30 seconds. [02:00:57] Speaker A: Later, you can see it coming out from around the tree, just kind of like, sniffing the air and running its nose along the ground. And you, like, force project the biscuit forward with your arm, holding it out. And the raccoon just gets kind of low, does that thing where it keeps its hips high, shoulders low, and it crawls its arms wide. [02:01:14] Speaker C: Bacon. As it gets closer and closer, it. [02:01:18] Speaker A: Gets really still about a foot away, and it looks like it's not going to approach. And then there's just this blinding blur of motion, just. And it just dabs the biscuit out of your hand and then backs up and just chewing on it, I take. [02:01:33] Speaker C: It as you stand up. [02:01:36] Speaker A: And then it goes back to eating the biscuit. [02:01:38] Speaker C: I know. Mmm. And I stand up, and I. [02:01:46] Speaker A: As you stand up, it stands up. And then it stands up all the way up on his 2ft, which they don't do a lot. [02:01:53] Speaker B: Stop. [02:01:55] Speaker A: It gives you a weird face. And then it gets back down on all fours and it starts walking away into the darkness. [02:02:00] Speaker C: I walk the opposite direction. [02:02:03] Speaker A: Okay. [02:02:03] Speaker C: I, like, shiver like. I like. Like a chill goes down. Yeah. [02:02:09] Speaker A: Okay. You walk a little bit the opposite direction until you feel a tug on your hand and it has run up and tugged at your hand. And then as you turn around, it, like, it, like, hisses and voluntary, it backs up, like, gets kind of defensive, but then sits up again and starts it, like, gives you a very pointed look and starts walking back in the darkness. [02:02:31] Speaker C: I take a little fish out of my pocket and I give. I throw it to him. I'm like, he probably doesn't want. [02:02:37] Speaker A: Okay. You toss the fish. The raccoon stops, sniffs along the ground, picks up the fish, just inhales and then walks up to you, grabs at your hand, and they're very grabby, so it's a quick, hard grab like it's a Yank. Grabs your hand a little too hard, Yanks. And then it, like, really, really quickly, actually. What's your ac, Greta, what's your ac? [02:03:05] Speaker C: 16. [02:03:06] Speaker A: Okay. I rolled a 17. You take a point of piercing as it bites your leg. It just stop it. And is. It bites you. [02:03:16] Speaker D: Rabies. [02:03:21] Speaker A: And then it, like, flicks its tail back and forth and, like, walks about 5ft away and just stares at you and then gets back down on all fours and starts walking. [02:03:30] Speaker C: Real snooty face. I give him the snootiest face I've ever given, ever. I get on all fours and I follow him on all fours. Hands and feet. Okay, not hands and knees. Hands and feet. I follow him. [02:03:44] Speaker A: And as you hands and feed it through the forest, um, you, you get, like, a certain direction forward. And then the raccoon stops. And it is a raccoon, but in the same way that you swear I don't hate it. [02:03:58] Speaker C: I don't. [02:03:58] Speaker A: Cats or dogs can emote sometimes, but you know that they can't, but you swear they can. It looks, you feel like the raccoon looks back at you and judges you. Like, what are you doing? [02:04:07] Speaker C: And I give him a snooty face. [02:04:10] Speaker A: And then it just goes back to crawling. And you follow. [02:04:13] Speaker C: What a jerk. Yeah, I follow. [02:04:16] Speaker A: How long do you follow for? [02:04:18] Speaker C: Follow him forever. I like too closely. Like, uncomfortably close. [02:04:24] Speaker A: And every once in a while, as you do, it, like, stops, and it, like, picks up one arm close, turns sideways, and just, and then it just goes back to walking. And you guys continue this way for about an hour until your old lady wrists and ankles get very tired. And you can feel yourself getting pretty tired. [02:04:51] Speaker C: I'm gonna, like, I'll slow down. I am an old. [02:04:55] Speaker A: Okay. It just keeps going. [02:04:58] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:05:00] Speaker A: You what? [02:05:01] Speaker C: I fell. [02:05:03] Speaker A: Okay. It starts out pacing you a bit. [02:05:11] Speaker C: What? [02:05:11] Speaker A: And then it stops and then it just runs off. [02:05:18] Speaker C: I sit down, I take a little breather, and I make some rather untasteful notes about raccoons in my sketchbook. And then I get dawns on you. [02:05:32] Speaker A: That you have no idea what hour of the night it is and that you, you are getting very tired. [02:05:38] Speaker C: Are the lights still around? [02:05:40] Speaker A: No, you've, they were for quite some time. But you've wandered beyond them at some point. [02:05:46] Speaker C: Well, I build a little pile of rock. In a rock, I make a little arrow in the dirt and I arrange some sticks so that I know which way the raccoon was going to. And then I sleep, like, a little bit back so I don't roll up. [02:06:05] Speaker A: Inspiration for coming up with a way to mark direction in a forest that I've made magically unable to mark direction in. [02:06:12] Speaker B: That was so smart. [02:06:13] Speaker C: I already have inspiration, but that's okay. Cool. [02:06:18] Speaker A: The dm takes a point of psychic damage. And greta, you, fallacy. Boz dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. You're riding a horse made an elk made of fire through the forest, and. [02:06:32] Speaker D: You don't have any games on your phone. [02:06:38] Speaker B: The inspiration. [02:06:41] Speaker A: I'm sorry. I've been stunned. I no longer know what's happening. I think I'm suffering the stunned condition. Okay, well, I'm gonna attempt to continue on, but I don't know if I can. I'm glad you ride the elk made of fire for a long time until eventually the pace begins to slow. [02:07:07] Speaker D: A second, I'm like, I wonder where my friends are. And then I'm like, they're probably fine. And then I'm just like. [02:07:15] Speaker A: And eventually the pace, like, returns to, like, the galloping motion of an elk and then of an ungulate, and then eventually a harder trot gonna walk. We've established that you don't like the word ungulate, but it is the scientific name for this group of animals, and you will leave my cladistics alone. Back off. Mimology defeats. [02:07:31] Speaker D: You don't like the word ungulate? I think. Okay, what's worse? [02:07:34] Speaker A: Moisturizer ungulate. [02:07:36] Speaker C: I hate it. [02:07:37] Speaker A: Not my least favorite, but you think worse than moist? [02:07:42] Speaker C: Yes. Oh, my God. I don't. I don't even mind. [02:07:45] Speaker A: Anyway, as the very unmoisthenne ungulate slows its pace, makes you do a walk. Hyundine, like, continues eventually to a trot, and then all the way to stop and, like, kind of lays himself down again. You hop off, or do you just keep sitting on him? [02:08:06] Speaker D: I hop off of him. I do the. I do the appropriate thing at the time. It's like if you went to shake hands, and it's like, yeah, I shake his hand, and then you're like. Like, do you let go of his hand? And I'm like, of course I let. [02:08:17] Speaker A: Go of his hand. [02:08:18] Speaker D: I'm not a mad lad. [02:08:21] Speaker A: I'm embarrassed by how right you are. And as you get off of the burning elk, he stands tall, and he looks down at you again, not trying to intimidate you, but he can't help but look down at you. He's a very big fire spirit animal. And as he looks at you, he says, I'm still not sure whether this is the right choice. This man, guys. [02:08:45] Speaker D: This man. What am I supposed to do about this man? [02:08:48] Speaker A: And he continues, and he could be. [02:08:50] Speaker D: The maker, and he's gonna be like, I'm just not sure. Do you have a smack bomb pill wet on? [02:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. [02:08:58] Speaker D: I mean, I'm here in the moment. [02:08:59] Speaker A: Okay. [02:09:00] Speaker D: Okay. [02:09:00] Speaker A: And he gets their news, and he says, um, as I recognize that you're not either from here, the judgment's not mine. This journey, buzz, if we do it well, it changes us. We do have some choice, no matter how small, whether or not we change for the better. Learn. Learn not just from knowledge, but wisdom. Too much. And he just starts kind of trotting the other direction, walking away from you, kind of back to the way you'd come from. [02:10:02] Speaker D: He's leaving. [02:10:03] Speaker A: You say anything or let him go. Yeah, it looks like he is. Slowly, very slowly. [02:10:09] Speaker D: I want to say something that my landed brain is. Um. As he's walking away, I. [02:10:25] Speaker A: I want. [02:10:25] Speaker D: To say something funny, but not in, not insensitive, the giant burning elk. As he's walking away, I'm like, so, what's your favorite fire spell you ever made, just so I can know? [02:10:44] Speaker A: Looks back over his shoulder at you and says, moving to any sorts of fires. I'm not going to lie. I think I one up shishta forever with that one. I should never figure that how I did it. [02:11:03] Speaker D: I use that one literally all the time. It's my favorite, too. How did you do it? [02:11:09] Speaker A: You're not so bad, boss. Well, you see, and then he starts walking away. [02:11:16] Speaker D: I let him go. I don't chase after him, but I wave. [02:11:21] Speaker A: And interestingly, as he walks further and further away, you do not lose him to the scope of distance. The fire just grows smaller and smaller and smaller until it burns out on the forest floor. [02:11:35] Speaker D: Oz doesn't know where you are, but. [02:11:36] Speaker A: You'Re further in the forest somewhere, and you're very tired. [02:11:39] Speaker D: The middle of boz doesn't know what a camera is, but if he did, he would go, you know, like. Like a mental memory snapshot. Absolutely. The boss is tired. [02:11:53] Speaker A: I mean, it was night a long time ago. [02:11:56] Speaker D: All right. I find a nice little piece of leaf litter, and I fall asleep. [02:12:07] Speaker A: Craig is out there somewhere having powerful role playing storytelling. [02:12:13] Speaker C: You know he is. [02:12:14] Speaker D: Do I hear a slight fart in the darkness? [02:12:18] Speaker A: Roll me a D 100. Okay. [02:12:20] Speaker D: Okay. [02:12:20] Speaker A: Tell me if you get your level or lower. [02:12:23] Speaker D: Okay. [02:12:23] Speaker A: It's like divine intervention. [02:12:28] Speaker D: Um, I got 44. [02:12:38] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. No. No farts. Dang it. [02:12:41] Speaker D: Do I smell a fart? [02:12:45] Speaker A: Ro. [02:12:48] Speaker B: I didn't do it. [02:12:52] Speaker A: It is the pain in your. Well, actually, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Okay, okay. Ro. It is the pain in your neck that wakes you up from the strange position you were sleeping in. And as you shift, you blink your eyes against the warm morning light. Morning at least. And as you blink and wake, is it daylight? You look all around. Yeah, it's daylight. Oh, okay. And you look at, you feel actually fairly well rested, which is a little weird given how long you must have been awake in the night. You're not exactly sure what time of day it is, but it certainly looks like a warm morning below the immensely verdant green canopy. And as you wake up with the behemoths and towers of trees all around, you are in forest that looks like the forest it has for however long now. But also a section you definitely don't recognize. And as you wake, it's just more forest. Could you give me a perception check or. [02:14:03] Speaker B: Excuse me, Captain Kak, first roll of the section for me. That would be 23. [02:14:16] Speaker A: Jackie, I don't know why, but when you looked down and rolled your dice and then looked back up, your camera quality, like your camera's the best of all of ours. For 1 second, it just went like super hd. I don't know why. And the camera, like the bitrate or something, just kicked up. And for 1 second, when you looked up, it was just like movie quality. And then it went back to really high quality camera, and I was just like, okay, it is a 23. As you look up, it is forest. You do see forest, but somewhere beyond you, you see light not coming from the sky, coming from the ground, a light source further away. [02:14:58] Speaker B: What color is the light source? Like, is it like a warm light color? [02:15:02] Speaker A: Would you say light is? [02:15:04] Speaker B: Well, I mean, like blue? [02:15:06] Speaker D: It could be, yeah. [02:15:08] Speaker B: Like, does it have a color to it? Like, is it like fire? [02:15:11] Speaker A: It's like name brand, classically light. [02:15:16] Speaker D: Like this. [02:15:17] Speaker C: So, like a yellow, warm, like sun like this? [02:15:20] Speaker B: Well, that's what I mean. Like sunlight. Like fireflies. Like the sun? [02:15:31] Speaker A: Yes. How far away? As I have described it, I promise you, no deceptions. [02:15:35] Speaker B: How far away? [02:15:37] Speaker A: Maybe like, maybe like 7800ft. That was hard to judge. [02:15:44] Speaker B: I'm gonna run to it. [02:15:46] Speaker A: Okay. You get up with a cricket, your neck and just. And as you run and you get closer and closer and closer you start to notice with your incredibly high perception out of your peripheries that in very small ways the forest around you is changing. There's been leaflets and little strips of grass the entire time, but there are more and more forbs, more and more flowers, which is strange because light falls here, but the canopy is so thick that there are very few direct patches of sunlight. But you start to realize that things are getting brighter as you're running forward, because whatever you're running to on the ground is literally more illuminating. This part of the forest, there are many flowers, many tens of hundreds, spiraling, conical, deep blue flowers with many trumpeted heads. There are columnar flowers, wide and broad and shallow, thousands to a stalk. Some of them are glowing, are growing in long vines, sprouting reds and whites from the same vein, reaching and grasping up the trees. And as you look up, you realize some of the towering trees far up above you have flowers of their own, like oaks and pines with flowering bodies. And they look like flowers at this distance. Oh, that must be gigantic flowers. And as you tread, as you jog forward further and further toward the span of light. [02:17:20] Speaker B: I slow down a little bit when I start realizing all these flowers. [02:17:24] Speaker A: As you slow down a little bit, taking in your environment, you realize you're starting to feel greater and greater thermal sensation from in front of you. You're having trouble telling whether or not it's heat or cold. Everything's getting brighter. Greta, you wake up. [02:17:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:17:44] Speaker B: Warm raccoon has eaten your face. [02:17:47] Speaker A: Very warm. Something is warming just one side of you. Oh, no, just your back. And as you sort of, like, wake up, you feel a weight in a mass against your back. And it's kind of soft. And as you kind of sit up with a start, there is a very large, like a 30 or 40 pound raccoon curled up at your back in a very tight ball. [02:18:14] Speaker C: I do not give it a little pat. [02:18:17] Speaker D: Eat it. [02:18:17] Speaker C: I do not do that. [02:18:19] Speaker B: How dare you land it, William. [02:18:23] Speaker A: That's the line. Landon, we've made a lot of jokes around here, but that is the line. Do you interact with the scene? [02:18:30] Speaker C: No. I get up slowly, very carefully. I take a fish and I take a biscuit. Make a sandwich. I make a sandwich. Can you guys still hear me? [02:18:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes, very well. [02:18:41] Speaker C: Um, and I leave it, like on the little dent where I was, where my body was sleeping. I leave it like in the center. [02:18:53] Speaker A: As you lay it down in the indentation, the raccoon wakes up immediately and kind of sits up and it blinks one the right eye, then the left one a couple times they finally synchronize and it looks down at the food, picks it up, just starts tearing it apart in shreds eating it. And as you look back at your arrow, it's been completely scattered. Looks like a raccoon came and messed it up. But as you look around at the familiar landscape, flowers. [02:19:25] Speaker C: Were those last night? [02:19:28] Speaker A: No. Or, well, you didn't notice them, but maybe they were. [02:19:33] Speaker C: I would not. [02:19:34] Speaker A: Oh, there's, it's very bright this morning from one side there's light coming from the ground to your right. And after the raccoon is done eating the fish sandwich, it just burps a little bit and then just starts treading in the direction of the light. [02:19:57] Speaker C: I follow the raccoon. [02:19:59] Speaker A: Okay, boz, you wake up at the base of a tree and as you sit up you like go to shift and you feel slightly restrained. And as you move you break whatever the strain is slightly. But as you blink and adjust your eyes to the world around you, you are covered in vines. Maybe twelve different species of some sort of a flowering plant have grown over you in the night and blossomed all over you. No, no, you've grown into the ground. There are roots exposed from all of your exposed skin, from your body. And as you pull them, they all easily retract back into you. No pain. And you realize the flowers are yours. And as you stand up, you are, you just have flowering bodies growing all over your skin. But there are flowers all around you on the forest floor. And directly ahead of you, some distance away, is light shining from the ground. [02:21:14] Speaker D: The walk to it. [02:21:17] Speaker A: Ro, you were the first to notice. To your far left, that's Boz. That's pause. You see pause. He's maybe like 200ft away. [02:21:26] Speaker B: I yell balls, Boz. [02:21:30] Speaker A: You hear Greta or ro, whoever she is. [02:21:33] Speaker D: Hey, I saw some of the roots on my hand and they're kind of waving in the air as I'm waving. [02:21:38] Speaker A: Greta, you look to your left. You can hear and see maybe 400ft away. Pause and row. [02:21:44] Speaker C: I like dash towards them like old lady Sprint. [02:21:47] Speaker A: Okay, old Lady Mary, as you start sprinting, the raccoon starts outpacing you, just galloping across the forest floor. And Baaz, where you're walking, ro, you see the great barreling mass working toward Baaz. And Baaz, you feel the impact of a linebacker lightly herniating one of your discs as Craig just like folds you just knocks to the ground. I was so worried and I was so scared and in the dark and all these important things happened to my character. And then treading up from some distance behind Craig, rubbing his eyes canonically, never a morning person with like an afro, a growing afro, all the way out to kind of like here now, like a two inch afro squished to one side of the head. Just kind of lazily picking it, blinking his eyes. Good morning. I'm in forest home. And slowly but surely the fungis converge. [02:22:42] Speaker D: Yeah, we do. [02:22:44] Speaker C: Does the raccoon join us? [02:22:46] Speaker A: Greta is being followed by some distance by a wary raccoon that keeps like, kind of like examining you all and pawing at the ground. Craig walks over and goes, hi, buddy. And he goes and Craig goes, okay, sorry. Just like faber and the raccoon just kind of sits down a distance away, staring at you all. [02:23:07] Speaker B: I put my hand out to the raccoon and go, yeah, it just, it. [02:23:12] Speaker A: Just gives you the I'll murder you eyes. And maybe a hundred feet to your right now, as you all stand close, close is light. Light flowing from the ground. Flowing is the wrong word. There is a clearing, a meadow, almost. And as you look outward toward it, up, you can see blue. A break in the canopy. You don't know what size you had expected this to be, but this body of phenomena, this source of beauty, is maybe four or 500ft across in diameter. As you look upward, there's a break in the canopy that shows brilliant blue sky with massive white gaseous mountains softly driven by it. The first time you've seen skylight, purely uninterrupted in who knows how long. And it is as bright below as it is above, shining all along the trees. When you look directly at it, it's too bright to comprehend its center. And yet it doesn't hurt your eyes, just confuses them, but almost draws them. And if this wellspring were to have banks, it looks as though it's overflowed them. Its light has wrapped around the base of pines, and those pines which stand within its borders, the gold beneath their bark has moved out beyond it. They have veins of spiraling, entrancing fractaline patterns of gold and diamond and amethyst and agate and labradorite moving up their sides of their trunk. Sudden flowers are sprouting out of the edges. Some of the trees look like they're growing into three or four different parts. Halfway up the light is grasses and forbs. At the edge of the wellspring within the unclear borders have been seized by what appears to be its transmuting power. They've become impossibly intricate sculptures of all but translucent gemstone. The flowers have become gemstone you can almost see through, so thin that they should seem to buckle from their own structure. But instead they stand as tiny monoliths of transposed existence, refracting the light from the spring as it washes over and by them. And it very much seems that the white has the light has like density and flow to it seems to move out in uniting dancing powders moving in and out and in and out. And it itself, it's white. No, it's golden. It's hard to tell because there are constant bands and arcs of light, like lazy drifting boughs of energy that drift off and dissipate outward, seemingly dancing in slow motion like solar wavelengths at a tiny scale. And they are cyan and they are roseate and they are lilac, an aquamarine, and occasionally they drift toward each other and they band together and then spiral into thousands and tendril eyes. And you all feel temperature, cold hot. It is discombobulatingly indecipherable, but there is intense temperature coming from this, still not painful. Like the sides of your physical body that want to be cooled and warmed are intensely touched by both at the same time. And you stand before the golden white moving light flowing from the earth as you look upon a wellspring. And that is where we will end. Episode 102 listeners oh my gosh. We're paying attention to the Patreon again. So if you want to get on there, we're doing cool things. There's more third watches. We're almost all the way caught up. We have an entire mini series you cannot get on Spotify. It is called the quest for a fridge a lot. It is a hot mess and you should really go listen to it. [02:28:02] Speaker B: It's a cold mess. It's a refrigerator. [02:28:05] Speaker A: Yeah. It is a fantasy world inside of a refrigerator. It is ridiculous and bad and good and I highly recommend it. Some of our Patreon rates are so low, but the podcast is back. None other than the heroic and capable and dashing and tall and honestly pretty handsome land and figured out how to get our episodes back on Spotify again. Pretty amazing. I have a post of them on my wall now. A fat head. You didn't think you could get those anymore? And you have a poster of Landon? [02:28:36] Speaker B: Is that real? [02:28:37] Speaker D: Yeah, I got it for him for his half birthday. [02:28:40] Speaker C: For his half birthday. [02:28:42] Speaker A: It's so cute and I did this to myself. But the Patreon's cool and we are back and we've got a lot more coming. Life is an incredible adventure. You are an important part of it. [02:28:56] Speaker C: Happy birthday. Happy half birthday to Zachary. [02:28:58] Speaker D: Happy half birthday to Zachary. [02:29:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Happy birthday. [02:29:02] Speaker D: If you support Zachary's half birthday sim alike and a $5 gift card to. [02:29:06] Speaker A: Roy Rogers, please don't skip it. Wat and dada. Bye.