Podchaser Logo
Home
Haunted City S1 | E16 – Downtime Dissension Part Two

Haunted City S1 | E16 – Downtime Dissension Part Two

Released Friday, 28th October 2022
 1 person rated this episode
Haunted City S1 | E16 – Downtime Dissension Part Two

Haunted City S1 | E16 – Downtime Dissension Part Two

Haunted City S1 | E16 – Downtime Dissension Part Two

Haunted City S1 | E16 – Downtime Dissension Part Two

Friday, 28th October 2022
 1 person rated this episode
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:01

Smart wall merino base layers are so

0:03

comfortable. They're the first thing you'll want

0:05

to put on and the last thing you'll want to

0:07

take off. no matter where you're at

0:09

or where you're going. Because feeling

0:11

good is the best way to keep you

0:14

doing you. Smart roll base

0:16

layers the most essential, versatile,

0:18

and comfortable clothing for anything, anywhere.

0:21

Shop baselayers or find a local retailer

0:24

at smart wool dot com. Smart

0:26

Wolf. Go far. Feel good.

0:29

This

0:31

episode is brought to you by Ibora.

0:33

Cash back made easy. If you've

0:35

been noticing your shopping trips are getting more expensive,

0:38

you need Ibada. With Ibada,

0:40

you get real cash back not points

0:42

on everyday purchases, like grocery

0:44

staples or even tools for your next home project.

0:47

Download the free I bought a app today and use

0:49

the referral code Spotify get five

0:51

dollars for trying Ibora. That's

0:53

I BOTTA in the Google

0:55

Play or App Store.

0:59

You are

0:59

listening to the Glass Canada Network,

1:01

the premier source for role playing

1:03

game entertainment.

1:28

Welcome back to the city of

1:30

ghosts. You're watching Hamed City

1:33

on the glass cannon network Hannett

1:35

City the show, where we play

1:38

blades in the dark, an incredible tabletop

1:41

role playing game by John Harper

1:43

and Evil Hat studios, a

1:46

game where you play Skoundrels

1:48

and a city full of crime and

1:51

spirits. It's

1:54

It's a great game. It's the best game

1:56

written in the last twenty years. Go and buy your

1:58

copy today. And speaking

2:00

of buying things, there

2:03

is a new blades in the dark

2:07

tool set that you should look into. Blades

2:09

in the dark om addition.

2:12

That's 0MM That

2:14

stands for one more multiverse. It's

2:16

a collection of tools that

2:18

you can use to play blades in the dark.

2:20

I got to play around with it the other

2:22

day. You can create a beautiful like

2:25

pixelated digital avatar for

2:27

your character You can create character

2:30

portraits, the whole character sheet is

2:32

on there, and you can also interact with

2:34

this beautiful gorgeous

2:37

map of the city of duskfall where

2:39

all of your adventures take place and enter

2:41

various locations all over the

2:43

map in all of the districts It

2:45

brings the world of blades in the dark

2:47

to life in a

2:49

astounding visual manner. Go

2:52

and check out blades in the dark

2:55

audition. And what you can do right

2:57

now is you can preorder that

3:00

tool set at multi verse

3:02

dot com forward slash

3:04

blades. That's multi verse dot com

3:06

forward slash blades. Okay.

3:08

That's our sponsor mention. and

3:11

now I'm gonna mention some incredible

3:13

players. They are here

3:16

to kick ass and take

3:18

names and summon demons, and

3:20

then let those demons take control of

3:22

them, and then do regrettable things.

3:25

And their names and their gifted improvisers,

3:27

actors, I've I've said all this before. It's

3:29

gonna seem like I'm trying to kiss ass now,

3:31

but they are the best players in the world. Please

3:34

welcome Ross Bryant, Abu Salim,

3:36

and Josephine McAdams. a

3:38

Hey. We

3:40

all Again. Welcome

3:42

back. Again

3:44

again again again. Well, that

3:46

was a really wild session,

3:48

last session. First of all,

3:50

it's the first time we've been unable to

3:52

complete an entire downtime Yeah.

3:55

In two hours. But that's okay

3:57

because I feel like the free play got

3:59

into some issues that wanted

4:01

a dressing. Yep. Mhmm.

4:04

and we also see that

4:07

the crew has been fractured.

4:10

It's happened before when Chuck left

4:13

the crew. Let's do

4:15

we forget Chuck. That was an emotional

4:17

time. Goodbye, Chuck. We hardly

4:19

knew you. We'll see Chuck

4:21

again. But this time, one of

4:23

the core members of the crew saw Yukon

4:25

and his sister Crohn's Khan walked

4:28

off into you can't say the sunset because there's

4:30

no sun and duskfall. walked

4:32

off into the dusk set. So

4:36

I was so surprised. I

4:39

was I

4:39

just didn't think it was gonna go that way.

4:42

Me

4:42

neither. Yeah.

4:43

I really thought y'all were gonna go cold.

4:46

Me too. Yeah.

4:47

Turned

4:48

out not everyone is as

4:50

psyched as celiac was to commune

4:52

with cathodic elder deities of

4:55

questionable morality. There

4:56

I was prepared. I was like, you know, Juliet

4:59

can walk away.

5:00

We'll do fun we'll do

5:01

cold shit, I guess. And Just

5:05

totally flipped. Yeah.

5:07

Totally flipped. VAALCO's continues

5:09

to be the most unpredictable character

5:11

of all time. Five hundred percent.

5:13

you think VAALCOZ is hardcore into

5:16

the into the cult,

5:18

but verybelievably. And

5:20

based on experiences we saw him

5:22

have. I think he he decided to put the

5:24

brakes on. And what made you

5:26

decide to do that? Or or is that just where

5:28

Falcon was leading you up. No. Generally,

5:30

I think it's I think he's he's experienced a

5:32

lack of control. And I think there is and

5:34

I think actually the speech from the path path of

5:36

echo is really kind

5:38

of woke him up and

5:40

then also thinking as Juliet and what

5:42

she went through. And, like,

5:43

you know, that I think there's been a lot that

5:46

he has witnessed that has made him

5:48

realize what the fuck am I doing? You

5:50

know, and especially especially with the hands as

5:52

well. I think the hands were very clear because

5:54

I think at the time, I was thinking, wait,

5:56

hands? Did you want literal hands? Or did

5:58

you want, you know, the hands more

6:01

hands of the enemy, both are

6:03

are wrong? And I think Valcos

6:05

has, like, a level of, you know,

6:07

some form of sense of, like, hang

6:09

about moral compass. But,

6:12

yeah, I think the I think it generally,

6:14

Juliet was, like, one of his anchor points

6:16

in regards to being, like, no, this is

6:19

the same cool man. You know?

6:21

Yeah. Julia brought

6:23

him back to his senses. Mhmm.

6:25

Thank goodness. Well,

6:28

Wow. You know, you mentioned the path of echoes

6:30

and ring your contact there telling

6:32

the remnant to keep a low

6:34

profile for a while. And

6:36

because we're in downtime, those months

6:38

that you kind of keep it quiet

6:41

can pass, you know, in the

6:43

space of just this one game session.

6:46

we already handled all of the

6:48

fallout from the last score, the

6:50

the payout, the XP, the

6:53

heat, the entanglements, So

6:55

we can just continue down

6:57

the road of downtime activities. And

6:59

VAALCO's, it it it went to you

7:01

last, and then there were some some fascinating

7:04

scenes between the the PCs.

7:06

But now, what

7:09

does VAALCO's do after

7:11

this meeting where where Celyac

7:13

walks out, what is VAALCO's next

7:15

move? I think it's, again,

7:19

the to go back to the path

7:21

of echoes and indulge in

7:23

his vice again. Indulge in his

7:25

vice. Excellent. And I think it's yeah.

7:27

It's in a in a in a different

7:29

state, you know, different named mentality.

7:31

It's probably

7:32

got a bushy bed. I

7:33

know it's very He's

7:36

he's learning a bit about himself, not

7:38

only also about himself, but also about

7:40

the city as well.

7:41

He's he's really kind of becoming

7:44

reflective. How much

7:46

stress do you have left? A four

7:48

stress left. Oh, okay. So there's a

7:50

chance he could over indulge here. But

7:53

biden It's

7:56

not a huge chance. I mean, but

7:59

there is a chance if he rolls a five or

8:01

a six, that'll be an over indulging.

8:04

Well, let's say you arrive and

8:06

we should repeat a little bit.

8:09

You arrive and you are

8:11

greeted by someone you don't recognize. This

8:14

is a a man

8:17

with a lot of jewelry

8:21

wearing the finery of

8:23

a high ranking citizen

8:25

of duskfall, and

8:27

he greets you and says,

8:30

good evening, mister Falcon. I'm

8:32

an associate of ring.

8:35

You may call me mister Ramon.

8:39

Good evening, mister Ramon.

8:43

Have you

8:43

come to drink of

8:45

the chalice with us again tonight?

8:47

I have indeed. And

8:51

you're sure that you're

8:54

ready for another sip

8:57

that you can handle

9:01

drinking from the chalice again.

9:04

I

9:04

am in control.

9:06

I am

9:08

ready.

9:10

Perhaps it's time

9:13

for a test of

9:15

your control.

9:19

Please.

9:22

Yes. Your You're ready? Yes.

9:25

Follow me, please. And

9:28

he leads you past the

9:30

chamber where you kind of

9:32

indulged in the communal sipping

9:34

from a cup into a

9:37

chamber that is down some

9:39

steps and through

9:41

a corridor and passed a

9:43

heavy metal door and you

9:45

end up in this fairly

9:47

scary looking room that looks like a

9:49

place that they would interrogate people or

9:51

something like that. and there is an old

9:53

metal chair sitting in the

9:55

center of it. And

9:59

Yes. Why don't you take a

10:02

seat for me?

10:04

My

10:05

kind of wild goose looks at chair,

10:08

even

10:08

though inside him his heart is beating slightly,

10:11

he doesn't show it and he

10:13

just takes a seat in the chair.

10:15

The

10:17

man shuts the heavy metal

10:20

door and walks

10:22

over to a stone in

10:24

the wall. and kind of

10:26

does something that you can't see

10:28

and then pulls the stone

10:31

out and inside

10:33

behind that stone, there is some

10:35

sort of other little wooden

10:37

door with strange

10:39

things written on it. and

10:42

he looks at you and he says, when I have

10:45

exited the room,

10:46

open this door.

10:48

You

10:49

will know when the

10:52

test is over and I will come and retrieve

10:54

you.

10:55

Yes.

10:59

Very

10:59

good.

11:01

And if you really need help,

11:04

You can scream. I mean,

11:06

call for me. And

11:11

he walks to the heavy

11:13

vault like door, gives you

11:15

one last look that looks a little

11:17

skeptical, and walks

11:19

out and Shuts it

11:21

and you hear three clicks

11:23

as three locks fall into place.

11:26

Alright. I

11:28

stand and I look at this door.

11:32

This tiny it's almost like a cabinet.

11:34

second cabinet. Okay. Look at the cabinet and

11:36

I kind of walk over to it.

11:38

My hand

11:41

sort of hovers over it.

11:44

my left hand to begin with.

11:47

And then I

11:48

take my right hand with the tattoo. I

11:52

pull it open.

11:54

when you pull it open, there's

11:57

seemingly nothing inside

11:59

except that suddenly you

12:02

feel a tremendous emotional

12:06

presence. But this the

12:08

emotion is one of

12:11

Disappointments,

12:14

shame, and

12:17

it weighs down on you extremely

12:19

heavily. and you can feel

12:21

that it is it's trying to kind

12:23

of get inside of

12:25

you. You recognize this as a spectral

12:27

or ghostly presence but

12:30

it's not it's not immediately apparent

12:32

to you. You're not seeing into the ghost field.

12:34

You're just feeling it as it

12:36

sort of it sort of tries to

12:38

kind of permeate your mind.

12:40

Oh my god.

12:42

Okay. I think I go

12:45

I kind of I'm gonna be taking

12:47

a few steps back. But instead

12:49

of going back, I kind of fall to

12:51

the floor

12:52

and sort of, you know, ground

12:55

myself to the floor with all my

12:57

knees and

12:57

sort of kind of put my, you know, put

13:00

my elbows there as well, get into like a

13:02

child's pose hand on head,

13:04

take it in, come up,

13:06

you

13:06

know, sort of like, you know, the way that, like,

13:08

some Muslims, the way that they pray, they go down and

13:10

then, you know, they go down on their hands

13:12

and knees, and they suddenly then they come up in their

13:14

knees. I think that's what I end up doing as

13:16

a way of grounding myself as this goes

13:18

on.

13:19

Incredible. I think

13:21

that as you as

13:23

you bow in that in that manner,

13:25

the the the presence weighs

13:28

down so heavily on you it's

13:30

like it's like someone has put a,

13:32

you know, a Volkswagen

13:34

beetle on your back. It's

13:36

like it's like your to use

13:38

a more appropriate world

13:41

analogy. It's like an entire

13:43

carriage, but it's not physically

13:45

weighing you down It's emotionally

13:47

weighing you down and now you can feel the

13:49

identity behind it and

13:51

it feels like a

13:54

father figure. Oh, boy.

13:56

Just restraining to get

13:58

into your mind and now

14:00

is a great time to roll

14:02

your lowest after that.

14:04

Which is what?

14:06

Insight.

14:07

Insight. Great. That's

14:10

that's what you desperately need here is

14:12

insight into yourself and

14:14

into whatever this presence

14:16

is. Go ahead and give me

14:19

insight role. It's a

14:22

crime. How do you roll too well?

14:24

Are you over indulge? Can

14:26

you reserve life? You

14:30

know, I don't think you can resist

14:32

a consequence from over

14:34

indulging a vice. Although,

14:38

Yeah. You can't because because

14:40

resisting gain stress, and this

14:42

is fundamentally an activity that re removes

14:46

stress. So Okay.

14:48

So the good news is your stress meter

14:50

is completely cleared. The

14:53

bad news is is that whatever this

14:55

thing is gets inside

14:57

your head. And Falcon's you

14:59

said you were taking a child like

15:01

pose. Suddenly you

15:03

are. I child. You are

15:05

yourself as a child. You're not

15:07

some other identity. You're not some

15:09

other ghost. Mhmm. You

15:11

are you as a child in

15:13

Severos. and your

15:16

whatever father figure that

15:18

Vaukos had, it was a rough

15:20

life there. Yeah.

15:22

It's it's a quote unquote

15:24

barbaric land and

15:27

not that Achorros is in barbaric in

15:29

its own way, but It is a life out

15:31

of doors. It's a life

15:33

out in in the in the

15:35

wilderness. And you

15:37

see. Who was who was VAALCO's father

15:39

or father figure? I think

15:40

it was I think it was his

15:43

uncle. Yeah. His uncle. Yeah.

15:45

Yeah. And his uncle ended essentially

15:48

killing his father. It's that whole kind of

15:50

liking, kind of note

15:52

sort of thing. Uh-huh. This is where Scar

15:54

actually was for torious, very

15:56

victorious. And,

15:58

you know, as as a

16:00

kid, he would, you know, he

16:02

would sort of look at Balcos. It's almost like

16:04

this, like, kratos looking balance.

16:06

He's like foolish boy.

16:11

You

16:12

are disgrace to your

16:14

people. A disgrace

16:17

to the land in which you

16:19

are from. You're

16:22

making me sick. Marcus

16:24

is like, hey. Hey. What's

16:26

on me trying? to help,

16:29

trying to be someone else, trying

16:31

to be strong, you are not strong.

16:34

You

16:34

are weak. beautiful

16:38

like your father.

16:40

And suddenly, he just

16:42

backhands me and I can

16:44

feel it misses it. Essentially, he was an

16:46

abusive, beating,

16:48

horrible human being.

16:50

Mister

16:52

Armand, hear

16:54

sobbing through the heavy metal

16:56

door a little while

16:59

later. And once he waits

17:01

till the he waits till the sobbing dies

17:03

down, then you hear click,

17:05

click, click, and he comes back

17:07

into the room and he looks down at you

17:09

where you are curled up in a

17:11

fetal position crying.

17:13

And he says,

17:15

no nope. You

17:17

don't

17:17

have control yet.

17:21

you're not ready for

17:22

the deeper secrets of the path.

17:25

The path would like to

17:27

ask you to not only

17:29

Keep the

17:30

remnant quiet for a while,

17:33

but

17:33

also that you not return here

17:36

until you have control.

17:38

I kind of

17:41

am just there shaking shaking,

17:44

silent.

17:47

VELCUS, you

17:50

have been cut off by

17:52

the supplier of your

17:55

vice. calls. And

17:57

I I don't know. It's up to

17:59

you, the player, but there's probably a

18:01

little bit of a change personality from

18:03

this experience. Oh, totally.

18:06

The man mister Armand walks

18:09

over and shuts the little

18:11

cabin and puts the stone back in place

18:13

and then escorts you out

18:16

of the lighthouse type

18:18

structure that acts as the headquarters of

18:20

the Path of Echos. I

18:23

just whoa. Whoa.

18:26

Whoa. our out. Again,

18:28

that experience still lingering

18:30

in

18:31

me. I think I

18:33

walked like five steps before just

18:35

sitting on the sitting on the street called

18:38

up. And here right

18:38

outside the path of echoes, you

18:41

can look out at the ocean. and

18:43

the ocean breaks against the

18:46

rocks and a steady

18:49

rhythm and it's an endless

18:51

expanse of black waves

18:54

with lights twinkling

18:56

down below.

18:59

And now we turned to Juliet

19:01

Belrose. Juliet.

19:03

Last time, Kronscon took,

19:06

I think, one downtime activity

19:09

then quit the entire crew.

19:12

Julia had some time off, so she

19:14

has no stress. She's healed

19:16

her arm. but she can

19:18

take some downtime activities or she can simply freeplay,

19:20

look into things that she's interested

19:22

in looking into. What would Juliet

19:25

Bell Rose like to do? No.

19:27

With this renewed faith in

19:29

her well, right now,

19:31

small crew, she's

19:34

going to work on those heartbeat

19:36

rings. Right. So

19:38

a while back,

19:40

Juliet was crafting

19:42

something. She was crafting

19:45

heartbeat rings. Can you describe

19:47

them to us again? Remind us

19:49

what those those rings are? Yeah.

19:51

There's supposed to be rings that

19:54

kind of It was a set of

19:56

three who knows where that third will go at

19:58

this point. But

20:00

it

20:01

for each one that wears the ring, you

20:04

know the sort of mental

20:08

health physical state of the

20:10

other bears

20:11

basically. It it gives you

20:13

their

20:13

heart rate. Right? Are they in danger? Are

20:15

they safe? Right. It's a

20:18

little warning system. each

20:21

other.

20:21

Excellent. And it

20:23

looks like you've already cleared a lot

20:25

of the pie pieces, the clock

20:28

pieces to get this done. So you

20:30

could conceivably finish

20:32

it. And this is also kind of a really

20:34

symbolic act in the wake of what happened

20:36

in the last sort of the crew

20:38

fragmenting and kind

20:40

of creating this thing that

20:42

will unify them And the

20:44

heartbreak rings are your own invention.

20:46

Right? Josephine, they're not in the book as

20:48

a crafting item. Is that correct? No. They're

20:50

not. Yeah. Okay. Well,

20:52

I think that they definitely are not so

20:54

game breaking that we can't go ahead

20:56

and say. They work exactly like you just

20:58

said they do. And

21:01

maybe, occasionally, an action role will be

21:04

necessary to utilize the

21:06

finer points of their empathic

21:10

bond, but generally they should give you an

21:12

idea of where your fellow

21:14

crew members are emotionally

21:18

and physically Let's look at term activities

21:20

and find out just

21:24

exactly how they work. I believe you

21:26

use an action to work

21:28

on them and you fill a number

21:30

of pie pieces based on

21:33

your role And what

21:35

action is Juliet going to

21:37

use? Tinker.

21:39

Tinker. That makes sense.

21:42

And why don't you go

21:44

ahead and just kind of

21:46

explain what these things look like or what

21:48

your process is and then we'll have

21:50

the role.

21:51

Yeah. Also,

21:54

do we think that this in

21:56

is

21:56

this a spacecraft feature or not?

21:58

I'm just looking at my

21:59

special abilities artificer. But it's Oh,

22:02

what

22:02

what would a SmartCraft feature give

22:05

you? if

22:06

I invent creation and spark

22:08

craft features, I get a plus one result level

22:10

to my role. I guess that doesn't that

22:13

shouldn't Does that

22:14

change something as a

22:15

result level? Yeah. You know

22:17

what? Why don't we make it? Why don't

22:19

we make that? It's have have

22:21

an effect here because it's interesting. And

22:24

I think since so many since you

22:26

were a former spark. Right?

22:28

This definitely works under some

22:30

sort of I mean, definitely, there's a connection between

22:32

heart rates and electricity. Right?

22:35

Yeah. So these are, like, the cardiac

22:38

rings. Right? Yeah. So I

22:40

think that we can definitely allow that. So why

22:42

don't we go ahead and make this not

22:44

only a long term activity role

22:46

but let's also make it let's

22:49

make it risky for standard

22:52

effect. Okay. And the way it's risky key is

22:54

if you fail this

22:56

time because you're getting very close

22:58

to finishing it, you destroy your

23:00

work and have to start over. Oh

23:02

my god. Okay. Okay? Okay. And

23:05

they look

23:07

they are

23:12

they are upper rings. They're very

23:15

conductive. And

23:16

they

23:16

have different

23:19

colored stones within them that glow

23:21

to represent different States.

23:24

And right now, on your

23:26

work bench, on your work table,

23:29

tiny little threads of

23:31

electrostatic are jumping,

23:33

arcing between

23:35

them. Are you

23:37

ready

23:37

to roll this? So yeah. I know I'm getting ready.

23:40

I'm I'm doing the roll. If

23:42

I'm gonna

23:43

take plus one result to the roll, it's

23:45

not a die. It it'll just be It'll

23:47

be instead of a standard effect, it will

23:49

be a great effect or rather maybe

23:52

more pie pieces will get filled

23:54

since this is a downtime activity roll.

23:56

And what

23:57

does plus one result level to your role. It's not

23:59

gonna change my result by plus one.

24:02

Okay. Yes. That sounds right. Actually,

24:05

your your Yes. It did. It is.

24:07

Okay. But essentially still the

24:09

same thing, meaning more pie pieces will be

24:11

filled. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Risky,

24:13

standard,

24:14

Here we

24:17

go. Here we

24:18

go. Oh my god. What

24:21

a critical A critical

24:23

critical means five segments are filled.

24:25

Meaning, the rest of the the

24:27

rest of it is filled.

24:30

And Jesus. I

24:32

saw him. is inspired by

24:34

VAALCO's in those that

24:36

last meeting. The rings

24:39

are complete, and

24:41

they sit on your workbench glowing with

24:43

like a a pulse. And

24:46

when you put one onto your finger, you

24:48

feel that it's per frickly match your

24:50

heartbeat, but as you look at the three rings,

24:52

you realize you're not

24:54

sure what the

24:56

third one. the

24:58

third one with the greenstone is going to

25:01

go. Mhmm.

25:03

And with that

25:05

in mind, let us turn to

25:08

someone who has

25:11

a very strong connection

25:14

to the crew in more

25:16

ways than one. Where

25:19

is Echapraig

25:22

Wodi? Also, so known as now

25:25

echophilia. Echophilia. That

25:29

might be just our name in the our our player

25:31

name for the the

25:34

gestalt being that is Echapraig

25:36

and Julia. I'm I'm sorry, Ophelia.

25:42

Yeah. Good

25:42

question. Does does

25:45

Juliet seek them

25:47

out?

25:48

Or

25:49

or are you are you going

25:51

to see because we're talking about

25:53

a pretty long span of time, passing here what

25:55

we're -- Yeah. -- remaining quiet. Is

25:58

have have you dropped by in a in a

25:59

while? It's I

26:00

think so. And and and they

26:03

were at Echo

26:05

Prague's home. Was that correct? Or was it

26:07

-- Yeah. -- yes. Last

26:09

time last time that you went to see your

26:11

your your love Ophelia. No.

26:13

Yeah. Judea does still

26:15

stop by depending on I

26:18

think some some of those times are

26:20

tumultuous, like, in the past month

26:22

as fast. You know,

26:22

there's sometimes more more. Yeah.

26:25

Yeah. Sometimes more iffy or less iffy

26:27

and has sort of I'm

26:29

sure witnessed that

26:33

hold and and there's some guilt that keeps

26:35

playing. And and I think Juliet's still

26:37

very located but out obligation. Mhmm.

26:40

Still? Mhmm.

26:41

And, yeah, I think

26:42

she she's got

26:44

The rings are

26:46

in her pocket and she's not quite sure

26:49

what

26:51

which she's

26:51

gonna do with them, but she is

26:53

here at the door knocking

26:55

once more.

26:58

On your on your final knock, the

27:00

door just

27:02

opens up.

27:04

into the little Garrett

27:09

apartment of Ecoprag Wodie. It

27:11

it could

27:13

probably. Ophelia?

27:17

There are posters

27:19

on the wall for different carnivals

27:22

and stage shows

27:24

and here in the dim light

27:26

clown smile at you

27:29

and acrobats glare at

27:31

you. Yeah. Piero, like,

27:34

little sort of, like, comedie de laarte

27:37

engraving There's

27:39

a there's a makeup table with a big

27:42

round mirrored vanity.

27:45

And

27:46

you walk in and shut the door

27:49

and you hear nothing.

27:53

And suddenly you

27:55

feel the presence behind

27:57

you. There's

27:59

my

27:59

little

27:59

dolly pad.

28:05

Hello? How

28:08

are you feeling today?

28:09

And we

28:11

sit tight darling.

28:17

Yes. In a

28:20

while, since you came around

28:22

-- I -- to say

28:23

on echo, Frank. Been

28:26

busy.

28:28

Yes. I've been busy. I'm sorry. I can't believe.

28:31

But I'm happy

28:33

to hear you are yourself.

28:36

Yes?

28:40

Myself.

28:43

Yes about that. Am

28:48

I doing

28:50

well darling?

28:55

Am I passing?

28:58

Am I

28:59

passing darling? Am I passing? Pushing?

29:03

Yes. I've been listening to his

29:05

inane voice for so,

29:07

so long that it's

29:10

it's becoming easier to put

29:12

on and put off as

29:14

I see.

29:18

last

29:21

year. This

29:23

is you.

29:23

This is Wait. Wait. I

29:28

Where is that a crack?

29:33

Where is that a

29:35

crack? but he's here

29:37

to her. He's here love and

29:41

nowhere.

29:45

It's some It's the most

29:47

glorious thing as time passed

29:49

and I felt myself

29:52

pushing against him. One

29:56

night, it was as though I

29:58

just

29:58

pushed

30:01

about.

30:02

And he she reaches out onto the wall and

30:04

there's like a little marionette dangling.

30:08

There's a few like little little poppets

30:10

and marionette stangling on in Echoprost collection.

30:13

And so now if you

30:15

hear Echoprost, just know that there's

30:18

Someone

30:18

else pulling the strings

30:21

my darling little below me.

30:26

and like the little

30:27

puppet takes a bow. So

30:29

and

30:32

Now we can

30:34

get busy. Yeah. Love. Now we can get busy.

30:37

Yes.

30:40

Yes. It really takes them getting used

30:42

to, but it's you you

30:44

are in control completely.

30:48

Truly yet have never

30:51

felt better.

30:52

No matter

30:53

what.

30:56

Perhaps for a

30:58

moment, echoprag

31:00

Ophelia's face is

31:03

lit by the

31:05

light of electroplasmic lights

31:07

from outside the apartment. Perhaps even

31:09

in an Echopraig's apartment, there is

31:11

like a flashing neon type sign

31:14

outside. Yeah. An

31:16

electro an electroplasmic neon

31:18

pulsing. Yeah. Yes. And

31:22

the face is lit for a moment. Does

31:25

Juliet detect any

31:27

change?

31:31

Yes.

31:33

You're

31:36

seeing you're

31:38

seeing

31:38

the It's the face of Echoprag Modi,

31:40

the body of Echoprag Modi, the same small

31:42

and sinewy frame.

31:45

But there's like and uncanny

31:48

intensity in the gates, in

31:51

a

31:51

in a

31:52

passion deafly

31:56

pallor. And you can

31:58

tell

31:58

that there's stage

31:59

makeup on Echoprostol in

32:02

his face And as and as,

32:04

like, turns in the light, there's a

32:06

patch at the neck that hasn't been covered

32:08

yet. And

32:10

see, as Echoprag turns to look at it look at

32:13

itself in the mirror, you see the neck and there's

32:15

just like a blue

32:20

and decrepit vein on the back of the

32:22

neck, and you realize that you were

32:24

looking at a corpse. the

32:26

face like turns

32:27

around. It's like, never felt better.

32:32

Never

32:32

better.

32:35

Oh my

32:36

darling. Let

32:39

me take a look at you

32:41

and and

32:42

she

32:43

touches their

32:46

just called called. And

32:50

the

32:50

face draws close. And it's

32:53

like,

32:55

feel so warm

32:56

and the face, like,

32:58

comes up against yours and, like, gives

33:00

you a kiss on the cheek.

33:02

And now perhaps you were aware that,

33:05

like, in a way that

33:07

Ophelia, they never

33:09

did, like, that

33:11

Echoparex

33:11

faces lingering over your cheek and

33:14

your neck and

33:17

and and

33:20

and it's it's not this

33:22

is not lust, this is not

33:25

love, this is hunger. Afield?

33:32

Yes. What's

33:36

happening to you? That's

33:37

not what's happening. That's what's

33:40

happened. Enough

33:42

time. Time was all it took.

33:45

time was on the hook. Now,

33:47

he's gone. He's not

33:49

so much gone as he's me and

33:52

I'm him. Only III

33:55

don't know. I must

33:57

thank

33:57

you. Your peculiar

33:59

friend for putting me inside. Although

34:02

now, now that I've really

34:04

really luxuriated in here. I

34:07

don't I don't think I can leave. Your

34:13

your

34:13

body, it is my

34:16

scot.

34:16

It it

34:19

feels like

34:20

that.

34:22

I suppose something

34:24

had to go so

34:27

that I could really

34:29

Take

34:32

up

34:32

residence here,

34:34

so to speak. You

34:36

needn't look so afraid.

34:38

Julia, it's this it's me.

34:41

And the best part

34:43

is now now now

34:45

that we've taken all of this damned

34:47

time for me to get

34:50

my strength back, and I'm telling you I feel

34:52

stronger than I ever have before.

34:54

Now, now, Una can

34:57

finally pay or what she did to

35:00

me, and we can be

35:02

together, and we can assume a

35:04

rightful place

35:06

and finally have some proper just sense

35:09

of pensions.

35:16

Jenny

35:16

had goes in into the vanity table and sort of

35:18

picks up some of the makeup

35:20

and walks over to Ophelia

35:24

where she missed on her neck and

35:27

helps

35:27

cover it

35:28

cover it up. Yes.

35:30

We

35:32

will get

35:33

our justice together, my

35:36

love.

35:37

And

35:38

i promise

35:39

I promise you. And

35:42

Now all

35:43

these cruise fucked up,

35:46

man. Yes. This cruise is Yeah. We

35:48

lost These fucked up members and gained

35:50

the two yeah. And and we still are

35:52

so messed up. I

35:54

I think that that has

35:58

established that We'll call

36:00

we'll call this being

36:02

Echopreak has rejoined the

36:04

crew. And now I would like to know

36:06

if Echopreak Prague has been

36:08

busy or would like to get busy

36:10

with any sort of downtime activity

36:13

or free play activity during these months that pass

36:16

because echoprag

36:17

with Ophelia

36:20

in charge has a

36:24

project.

36:24

That is

36:27

to

36:27

undermine, humiliate,

36:30

utterly destroy.

36:32

the

36:33

the woman that they

36:34

believe is responsible for their

36:38

death. Yes.

36:38

the yeah

36:40

That's

36:41

Unafaros. Unafaros, the head

36:44

of the Spark rights skill, or a

36:46

very high ranking member of the Spark rights

36:48

skill. Mhmm.

36:50

So I do see that there is a long term

36:52

project here, destroy Unafaros' rep.

36:57

So Yes.

37:00

Echoprag could work on

37:02

that. Well, when we saw Echoprag

37:04

working on that, Ekapreg was

37:06

trying to get close to the

37:08

-- Yes. -- in a sort of

37:10

seductive capacity. How how's

37:12

that how's that been proceeding? Well,

37:14

you've got two clock pieces

37:16

out of a pretty large clock. I

37:18

think there's at least twelve pieces

37:21

here, maybe sixteen. So

37:24

you have only made

37:28

contact.

37:30

Okay. well,

37:31

great. Let's

37:33

continue. Let's continue.

37:36

Okay. So is it

37:37

it's an continued

37:40

attempt to get close to this

37:42

woman. With the ultimate goal of

37:44

of destroying her, destroying her. I'm getting

37:46

close to learn. I mean, this is I

37:48

wanna learn everything about her, wanna learn habits, or

37:50

schedule, or desires, or

37:52

embarrassments,

37:52

or secrets, or

37:54

hercules heels, or loves her

37:58

Very good. My god. Let's

38:00

let's let the role go

38:02

first this time. So

38:04

what action are you using

38:08

to carry out this Mandela. Well, since I'm trying

38:10

to get close to her this early

38:12

stage, sway.

38:14

way sway.

38:15

Okay. Very good. You

38:17

know that Oona mostly

38:20

is present in charter

38:22

hall where the university is because

38:24

she is a lecturer, but she

38:26

also often visits the

38:29

facilities in Coleridge where the spark rates

38:31

have a lot of experimental, you

38:34

know, laboratories and industrial

38:36

zones where they work on

38:38

their lightning towers and maintenance

38:41

them. Where would you like to kind of

38:43

follow her this time? Are you gonna

38:45

follow her in the marble halls of

38:48

charter hall? Or are you going to

38:50

kind of see her at work in the

38:52

experimental zones

38:54

in Coleridge. Are you gonna catch her

38:56

at home or in some other way

38:58

I haven't envisioned envisioned? That's great to

39:01

know that to know that she's

39:03

in those places. for the purposes of of

39:05

this particular tactic, I'd like

39:07

to catch you in a more intimate setting.

39:09

So this would maybe be off

39:12

the clock. Very good. Well, she

39:13

works very late hours.

39:15

So luckily, so

39:19

Right. Yeah. Absolutely.

39:22

So, you know, the

39:24

the the bell for

39:27

midnight has rung when Unafaros

39:32

is moving to a

39:34

coach right

39:36

outside of facility in

39:38

Coleridge where she has been

39:40

working late into the night.

39:42

She has let's see if she has anybody

39:44

with her, maybe a distance,

39:46

and we'll do that with a fortune roll.

39:48

If she rolls A45 or

39:50

six, she has someone with her.

39:52

She rolled it too. She's alone. She's been

39:55

working there alone very late into

39:57

the night. Right. This

39:59

particular building looks like it used

40:01

to be an old an old

40:04

structure that belonged to the fire

40:06

brigade, but she's been doing something inside

40:08

there all

40:10

night and now she is moving to a coach that has

40:12

been waiting for her. Great.

40:17

Let's roll the dice and see

40:20

how it goes. And that'll that'll tell us

40:24

Wait. Yeah. A

40:27

success

40:31

six. Alright. So

40:33

this goes We know this goes

40:35

well for Echoprag, but

40:38

what do they do? what

40:41

do they do? Going to

40:43

a coach, is this

40:46

a personal coach or a

40:48

hire or just they've hired for the night,

40:50

like a hala hala handsome. And this

40:52

is like hala handsome.

40:56

Great. I I'm already in

40:58

there, which we did

41:00

say. Oh. Oh

41:02

my god. Could he terribly sorry?

41:05

I didn't think

41:08

that the

41:09

driver was making more than one

41:11

stop, but I I'm

41:13

happy to share? Yes.

41:16

Well, where

41:18

are

41:19

you headed? But

41:22

I

41:23

hi And the

41:24

name of the

41:25

place where she's headed?

41:27

She makes her home in

41:30

Charter Hall as

41:32

well. I was going to Charter Hall. I

41:34

suppose the if that's out of your way, I'll I'll I'll I'll No.

41:36

No. No. No. No. If you

41:38

That'll be fine. Driver, can we also

41:40

make a stop at the charter hall

41:42

that and she gives her address

41:46

information and then the whole time she's unable to break

41:48

eye contact with you. Oh,

41:52

no. Dispute. must

41:56

be incredibly important.

41:58

What you're

41:59

working

41:59

on? Have you?

42:04

Maintaining such late hours. I

42:06

can tell you a very diligent

42:08

person. Yes. Well,

42:12

as a matter of fact, it is quite

42:14

important. I am involved

42:18

with the work that

42:21

safeguards the city.

42:23

Of course,

42:26

you must be one

42:27

of the you must

42:28

be one of the gilts, man. Keeping

42:31

our city safe from approachment from

42:33

oh, it's hard at spirits.

42:36

Well, it's it's more than

42:38

just spirits. There

42:40

are many different threats that

42:43

we have cataloged and

42:46

detected that seek to prey upon the

42:48

people of

42:50

this city. And

42:51

duskfall thanks you.

42:54

And let's do

42:57

it

42:57

for the thanks. I'm

43:00

sure it's its own reward. But

43:02

Well,

43:03

I see our world

43:05

as an ecosystem. And unfortunately, there

43:07

are certain organisms that unbalance

43:10

it. I see

43:13

them as viruses. parasites.

43:17

And

43:17

I understand why you

43:20

are

43:20

so ruthless in

43:22

the pursuit of your ends.

43:26

I don't know

43:26

that I am ruthless. Of

43:29

course, but

43:31

oh, if if our

43:33

society is an organism, I

43:36

wonder

43:36

And Dust Volcan, I

43:38

suppose, be thought of as a

43:42

body

43:42

body politic politics? What

43:45

if the body of

43:48

yourself? You

43:50

take time to Do you take time.

43:52

Pardon me, sir. My body? Do you take

43:54

the time? I think this ride

43:57

is here for

43:59

yourself. She

44:02

can't break eye

44:03

contact with you. I

44:05

go inside you

44:07

and told myself. just saying that

44:09

you are being very intimate with me.

44:12

With it you are being excuse

44:14

me. You are being

44:16

you are being very intimate

44:18

with me, sir. very intimate, and

44:20

she doesn't make she doesn't move away

44:23

from you. Yes.

44:25

I suppose I am.

44:28

I'm terribly sorry, as I as I

44:29

said, I'm happy to leave anytime you

44:32

wish. I'm simply wondering

44:34

if someone with as many cares and burdens

44:38

and responsibilities as yourself.

44:40

Practice as any care

44:44

for themselves.

44:45

sets their burden down

44:48

from time to time.

44:51

It's a

44:52

very heavy burden I'm sure

44:55

it is. Few people could carry it.

44:58

I'm sure there are

45:00

those that would

45:03

Take it up from time

45:05

to time if they knew someone as

45:07

important as yourself could

45:12

be relieved. You'll forgive

45:12

me, sir. I I have not

45:14

gotten your name. My name is

45:18

Echaparag Wudi.

45:20

Well, I'm afraid that

45:23

my talents do not lie

45:25

toward a new window. But

45:28

if there were someone who wished

45:32

to relieve

45:36

my burden, They

45:39

could contact me here, and she hands you a business card.

45:42

Damn.

45:47

and let us

45:49

speak in in your windows no longer. And

45:51

you will receive a

45:53

you'll receive a call. This

45:55

is my stop. Yes

45:58

indeed it is.

45:59

This has been interesting,

46:01

mister Wodey. Very

46:04

interesting.

46:06

Oh, I've taken a great

46:07

interest. She gets out

46:10

of

46:11

the carriage and

46:13

walks up stone

46:16

steps toward what looked like,

46:18

you know, quite lavish

46:20

apartments.

46:21

and dumb And

46:23

and

46:24

I could

46:26

pray Lee

46:28

is, like, is thumb flipping the

46:30

card in

46:32

his

46:33

fingers and, like, spirits

46:35

it into a jacket. Still has his,

46:37

like, Dexter's digits and, like,

46:40

driver. Chihuahua,

46:42

my is just a hit. Would you mind

46:44

pulling into that, Ali?

46:46

As I could probably lean

46:48

forward to the driver and, like,

46:50

you must have had it terribly

46:53

to difficult day at work, driving

46:56

all over the

46:58

city.

47:01

No,

47:03

sir. It's my job

47:05

I would do it with

47:07

pleasure, sir. I hope

47:10

you've had a comfortable

47:12

ride share, extremely

47:14

comfortable comfortable.

47:16

and it's always likely to meet somebody

47:18

for whom. Labor is a pleasure.

47:20

And

47:22

thus far, pleasure is in rather short supply.

47:26

and we take it where we can.

47:30

Sir, and Equifax is

47:32

gonna go for

47:34

it. Sir, So

47:36

I think that if

47:40

the audience hasn't already gotten

47:43

to it, Yeah. Guncraft. According

47:46

according to the rules, Ecoprak,

47:48

by being bonded with a a spirit

47:50

as long as he

47:52

has been, has become a vampire.

47:54

As a vampire, he must

47:56

feed on the living now.

47:59

Currently, the Echopraig vampire has no

48:02

stress, has no harm.

48:04

So you would be

48:06

indulging a vice by feeding

48:09

possibly that

48:12

you don't need to indulge, or we

48:14

can just kinda do this. But this was

48:16

just for fun. Yeah. I agree. I

48:19

agree. III1

48:21

hundred percent agree. So I'm just

48:23

letting people know that Yes. I

48:25

know the rules. But this is for

48:28

fun. I still want. First of all,

48:30

let me make sure I click three

48:32

segments on the destroy

48:34

Unafaros' rep. because you have

48:36

earned that

48:38

grief.

48:41

That's Okay? I think we got it. Oh, no worries. It

48:44

should be final together.

48:46

My girlfriend's a vampire. new

48:52

show of his phone. Phyllis,

48:54

we're girlfriend over vampire.

48:57

Yeah. Oh. And

48:59

let's let's also let's also have

49:02

an action role about this

49:04

feeding just to see how it goes.

49:06

Yeah. That sounds fair. Like,

49:09

I don't think that you're in dire danger no

49:11

matter what, like but I

49:13

just wanna see kind of how it goes. So since

49:16

Once I was cutting, would

49:18

you use? guess I was kind of

49:20

idling up on this guy. So let's do finesse. Okay. Very good.

49:23

And you carefully extricate

49:26

blood from him using your

49:28

digestive disease. Yes. Life

49:30

essence. So and and you can actually

49:33

characterize it that way. Perhaps it's not blood,

49:35

but it's amazing. Yeah. Or maybe

49:38

yeah.

49:39

It's not

49:40

a traditional Vimpo.

49:42

Okay. I got a four was my highest 1A4

49:45

means success with some sort

49:47

of consequence and You

49:49

save an impo? He's a he's

49:51

he's got some kind of fan vote. Mhmm.

49:54

Mhmm. I think that the

49:56

consequences this.

49:58

Success means you you feed

50:01

on him, he passes out, you

50:03

get away, Scott free. There's

50:05

no kind of complication with

50:08

him in terms

50:10

of notice or danger to your person.

50:12

The complication is that

50:14

you're you're kind of toying

50:16

with your new your

50:19

your new new

50:20

body, your new powers, and that little

50:22

taste you just took just

50:24

makes you want more. Sure.

50:26

Sure. And I think Craig

50:29

feeds, it's not like a vampire like he

50:31

has bangs and bites you. Like he

50:34

kisses you and then

50:35

and then just

50:37

a essential suction

50:40

kind of takes place. Yes. You're

50:42

vital essence.

50:44

Oh. It's like kissing a

50:46

vacuum. Like a like a

50:48

vacuum in space and you're like, kind

50:51

of yeah.

50:52

So I I want more.

50:54

Of course, I do.

50:55

Yes. Yes. and

50:58

I'll I'll try to remind you if you forget,

51:00

but you definitely want more as soon

51:02

as you can possibly get it.

51:04

And now let us turn to VAALCOS.

51:06

VAALCOS, have you taken both of

51:08

your downtime activities? Yes, you have. Yeah.

51:11

I have. I I these

51:13

stressed and then de stress some more and that's

51:15

where we are left. Well, I can

51:17

tell you that, you know, the the

51:19

the time you promised that you

51:21

would take off time has passed

51:24

now. And you can kinda tell

51:26

me if you want something that

51:28

kinda went while you of

51:30

relaxing and staying out of the game for a little

51:32

while, or you can tell me what you do now

51:34

that the time has elapsed. But

51:37

it's sort of replay activity. What what would what would his

51:39

next goal be? I think after that

51:42

whole over indulgence, I

51:44

think you

51:45

you know, you to stay

51:47

at the sea.

51:48

I think, actually, I think he would

51:51

have he he's

51:56

I

51:56

think he's just been at

51:58

the grotto, just

52:01

the almost

52:02

in his own

52:04

space.

52:05

almost meditating. And

52:08

I kind of think that there is, you know, it's it's

52:10

he's battling his own demons and

52:12

he's chosen to battle his own

52:14

demons than the Rotter. In a space that is protected,

52:16

that is,

52:17

you know, kind of all this

52:19

way, just just there.

52:22

has he been disciplined or tidy in

52:24

how he is behaving? Or does he seem

52:26

like someone in a in a depression? Or

52:29

I think I think he

52:32

has been disciplined and tidy. I think there's that that

52:34

kind of shift. I think that is definitely that

52:36

if that event has shifted something

52:38

in kinda

52:40

trying to

52:40

go cold turkey a little bit. Yeah. Take

52:43

a break. Yeah. Yeah. Training,

52:46

and he's almost become obsessed.

52:49

I think that's thing. He's now he's almost leaning into

52:51

his trauma. As I'll end,

52:54

like, his you know, that that in a sense of,

52:56

like, it's it's become an obsession

52:58

of being of being in control.

53:00

And that's

53:02

kind of

53:03

where he's at. And I think

53:05

it's it's a very It's a weird space.

53:07

So there's another aspect of this Velcos which is

53:09

that whenever you try to leave

53:11

the grotto, sometimes as

53:14

you look out

53:16

at the treats. The shadows seem to

53:18

move for a minute

53:18

out of the corner of your eye,

53:21

and you constantly have

53:24

this uneasy feeling of tendrils

53:26

of black ooze

53:28

reaching out toward you.

53:32

when you turn around, nothing it

53:35

completely psychological? Or is

53:37

the builder watching you? Waiting

53:40

to take you back

53:43

into its embrace.

53:44

Yeah. I just stay

53:46

in

53:47

the grower, man.

53:49

I'm staying in the room. So it probably

53:51

falls to your crewmates to kind of make sure

53:53

that you maybe

53:56

we get some food. Mhmm. And so

53:58

I would like to perhaps set a

54:00

scene if it's okay between Juliet

54:04

and VAALCO's.

54:06

And at least I know that Juliet has something to give Velcos. Right?

54:08

Yeah. Juliet was gonna head back to

54:10

the grotto anyway after the, like,

54:15

after seeing Ophelia echopreg,

54:20

then the that last encounter

54:22

was going to walk straight

54:24

back to egrado. Open the

54:26

door, close

54:27

the door and, like,

54:29

lean against it.

54:33

Did you see

54:35

Valkus at the

54:37

door to standing? because he would, you

54:39

know, he'd shot up when he

54:40

heard some movement. then he sees you and he

54:42

just

54:44

stares. What

54:47

across are you?

54:49

Are

54:52

you okay?

54:56

He

54:59

just

55:00

stares at you.

55:05

Juliet. Reaches

55:07

and divert into her

55:10

pocket. FICO's flinch is

55:11

a bit backwards. It's

55:14

okay. It's

55:16

okay.

55:18

Actually, she she

55:19

sort of puts it back in

55:21

her pocket. He says,

55:24

Are you you look

55:27

worn? Have you have you

55:30

eaten?

55:31

Of course. And as I

55:33

say, like, exhale, you can

55:34

you smell the breath of someone

55:36

who's been fasting for so long. And

55:40

that's

55:41

footrip. Let's

55:44

sit down

55:46

and She

55:47

sort of, like, softly

55:49

puts it in in on his back and sort

55:51

of leads him to the table to

55:54

sit.

55:55

Let

55:57

me make some

55:58

and sort

55:59

of takes the time

56:02

to eat mushrooms.

56:03

We still just have fucking mushrooms.

56:05

Don't we? No. There's there's also

56:07

types of algae. Okay.

56:10

Makes a lovely little mushroom

56:12

algae soup. Perhaps if you

56:14

splurged a little bit, there there might

56:16

be some meat, but that meat

56:18

would come from insects

56:21

like grubs or maybe if

56:23

you're really having a night

56:26

out of fine dining

56:28

rat. You

56:30

know what?

56:31

They grow them big and

56:34

dusful. No. We're gonna start with

56:36

soup because he hasn't

56:38

eaten in weeks, soup is probably the

56:40

best place to start before just like

56:42

hear or eat real food.

56:44

Yeah. Right. So but she takes the time to make it and

56:46

sort of, you know, tries to make it as

56:48

delicious as she can and sits

56:50

down and

56:53

You must

56:54

eat breakfast. You must take care of yourself

56:56

what's happening. Kind of

56:57

stare at the food. I

57:00

was like,

57:00

my can goes

57:01

to Reaching to see me

57:04

shaking. But as

57:05

I am able to pick

57:07

it up and just slowly

57:10

sit and

57:12

be Soon

57:12

as I do,

57:15

I just sort

57:18

of

57:18

I've seen

57:20

Too

57:23

many ghosts.

57:27

I

57:29

feel alive.

57:33

I

57:37

just

57:37

collapse. Oh, ish. And

57:38

she she holds him. That

57:42

of course.

57:44

It's you and me now.

57:45

Okay. You're not

57:48

alone in this. Wait.

57:51

Okay. Now

57:52

she she

57:54

takes up the rings and

57:56

she puts hers on and sort

57:59

of like

57:59

electrifies a

58:02

bit and then she takes

58:04

the other and takes his hand and slips it on his finger.

58:06

certain on his senior

58:10

And so

58:10

you can feel his heartbeat. You can feel his heartbeat.

58:13

And it slowly becomes

58:15

in sync with

58:18

your own. You feel that?

58:20

here

58:22

I

58:23

feel you.

58:26

Yes.

58:26

the we are connected

58:28

now. We

58:30

will struggle

58:32

the rubble

58:33

and also achieve and and and

58:35

succeed together.

58:39

and Yes.

58:40

there's You're not alone.

58:42

My dear friend.

58:44

And she

58:46

she just caresses

58:48

him and just holds

58:49

him tight and then, you

58:52

know, encourages him to eat some

58:54

more. And I kind of yeah.

58:56

And I take it and I start

58:58

eating more.

58:59

start feeling a bit stronger. Just

59:01

a bit, just a touch, especially

59:03

with the heartbeat that that

59:06

helps.

59:06

And unless Yes.

59:08

And what with the image of

59:10

Juliet feeding VAALCO's soup. We will

59:13

take a short break. We

59:15

will take a short break will

59:17

be right back with more haunted city on the

59:19

glass cannon network. Go

59:24

deeper by friends into

59:26

of Numenor, the minds of Qasadûm

59:28

and more with the

59:30

official Lord of the Rings, the

59:33

Rings of Power podcast. Felicia

59:35

Day is hosting the official podcast

59:38

companion to the Rings of

59:40

Power TV show, and

59:42

the podcast provides an

59:44

inside look at this incredible series and what it took

59:46

to bring Middle Earth to life. Each

59:48

episode of the official podcast

59:50

features exclusive interviews with

59:52

the series Show

59:54

runners, JD Pain, and Patrick

59:56

McKay, including the very first

59:58

full breakdown of

1:00:00

that incredible season finale.

1:00:02

Felicia also goes behind the scenes with the

1:00:04

cast and the crew to bring you

1:00:06

awesome stories and easter eggs that

1:00:08

you don't wanna miss. Watch the Rings

1:00:10

of Power on Prime Video first,

1:00:12

and then listen to all eight

1:00:15

episodes of the official the

1:00:17

Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power podcast for

1:00:19

free. On Amazon Music. Download the Amazon

1:00:21

Music app now.

1:00:24

This episode is

1:00:25

brought to you by Smart Food. What makes

1:00:27

Smart Food so smart? It's Air

1:00:29

Pop popcorn, tossed in

1:00:31

white cheddar cheese, only seventy calories per cup,

1:00:33

a notorious black bag of popcorn

1:00:36

deliciousness. You are what you eat. Welcome

1:00:38

to the

1:00:40

Smart Club. Shop now at snacks dot

1:00:42

com.

1:00:45

Welcome

1:00:47

back you're watching Hamed

1:00:49

City on the Glass Canada network or maybe you're listening to it.

1:00:52

We are in the middle of

1:00:54

an epic

1:00:56

downtime time. I believe all of the downtime activities

1:00:58

have been expended. No. I I believe

1:01:00

Juliette Belle Rose has won.

1:01:03

Could we have

1:01:04

that

1:01:06

have been a training session for my,

1:01:08

like, study and the study of those

1:01:11

around me?

1:01:13

Interesting. like, so tight,

1:01:15

rather. Well, I think that that

1:01:16

that could have just been a scene that you had. And

1:01:18

and if you wanna do something else to train

1:01:20

study, you could. But are you

1:01:24

saying you're specifically trying to learn how to study people. Is that what saying?

1:01:26

Yeah, basically, you know,

1:01:28

just sort of

1:01:29

in in that spending time

1:01:31

with with VAALCO in.

1:01:34

Yeah.

1:01:34

Okay. That makes sense. That makes total sense

1:01:36

to me. Okay. So you're gonna

1:01:38

train, and that means you

1:01:41

mark one x speed in your I think.

1:01:43

So, yeah, it's just

1:01:44

a small, I think.

1:01:46

Right. Yeah. Because

1:01:47

as shadows, you get

1:01:49

extra if you're prowling or

1:01:51

something like that, but you don't get extreme study.

1:01:53

So yeah. But

1:01:56

that's great. So Mark

1:01:58

one XP in your let's see.

1:02:00

Insight. The Insight attribute.

1:02:02

Thank you. Yes. Okay.

1:02:04

And and you have

1:02:06

done that. And now

1:02:08

I believe, you know, enough time has passed

1:02:11

that that the the crew

1:02:13

can start looking for their next

1:02:15

job, but maybe At Capri, have you you you get

1:02:17

an extra downtime activity as well. You haven't done

1:02:20

two yet. Mhmm. You

1:02:22

can, of course, continue to work on that

1:02:26

same long term project or perhaps Echopraig has something else

1:02:28

in mind.

1:02:30

Yeah.

1:02:30

Echopraig stated, although

1:02:34

he's

1:02:35

insatiable is

1:02:38

going.

1:02:38

the

1:02:40

Perhaps,

1:02:44

He's been attempting to get

1:02:46

close to Unifaros.

1:02:50

So perhaps

1:02:52

they could try to learn

1:02:55

more in other ways. So

1:02:57

learn about her background. So I guess

1:02:59

this would be more of

1:03:02

It'd be more of a survey or a study try to,

1:03:06

like, go to the university,

1:03:08

look up

1:03:10

look up

1:03:11

the got but diss

1:03:12

or dissertation. Look up, like, interview acquaintances.

1:03:16

Look look up anything having to do with her. It's a

1:03:18

kind of legwork that a

1:03:20

detective might do to

1:03:22

try to create a profile or something. Great. This

1:03:24

feels like a gather information,

1:03:26

so we won't call it a

1:03:28

downtime activity

1:03:30

yet. but it's something that

1:03:32

can definitely happen during downtime and

1:03:34

you can use whichever of those actions you

1:03:36

like, survey or study both work.

1:03:39

You can also pick something else, some

1:03:41

other kind of tactic if

1:03:43

you prefer. Okay.

1:03:45

Oh,

1:03:48

yeah.

1:03:48

yeah

1:03:51

It might be more

1:03:54

their line to, like, interview

1:03:56

people. So

1:03:58

let's

1:03:59

do a consort actually to

1:04:02

to meet a meet another

1:04:04

spark right or someone who maybe

1:04:06

came up with Huna and

1:04:08

get some gossip. Very

1:04:10

good.

1:04:12

I think that,

1:04:14

yeah, you know, hanging out

1:04:17

like, busy, like,

1:04:20

professional taverns and charter hall that are

1:04:22

frequented by people who belong

1:04:24

to the guilds and people

1:04:26

who belong to the Ministry of Preservation

1:04:28

and the Different City

1:04:30

Council, you know, all of

1:04:32

that administration, all of those white

1:04:35

collar workers, you're hanging out

1:04:37

in taverns that catered to them

1:04:39

in charter hall. And

1:04:42

go and roll that. Let's see how

1:04:44

it goes. we go.

1:04:48

Come

1:04:51

on. Whatever. Come That's

1:04:54

okay. Yeah. Is

1:04:56

it

1:04:56

working? Yeah. There we

1:04:57

go. A5A5

1:04:59

So that means you

1:05:01

get good information. Maybe not as much as you would have

1:05:03

gotten with a six, but you get some good

1:05:06

information. And the word on

1:05:08

everybody's lips regarding Unafaros

1:05:10

is that despite the

1:05:13

disaster of her new

1:05:15

technology months and months

1:05:17

ago. Remember when she had the new weaponized

1:05:19

lightning towers -- Yes. -- despite the fact

1:05:21

that that that demonstration

1:05:24

went awry She has

1:05:26

been given a new

1:05:28

contract from the city

1:05:30

council to the Spark

1:05:33

rights worth a lot of

1:05:36

money and

1:05:37

it has

1:05:38

something to do with developing

1:05:40

a brand new technology. And no one knows what it

1:05:43

is because it's very secret, but

1:05:45

the spark right

1:05:48

are doing very well with UNE in charge, and

1:05:50

they have landed some kind of new deal

1:05:52

with the city council to

1:05:56

Tax Money is going into developing this

1:05:58

new technology that she

1:05:59

has good she has developed

1:06:02

developed. She's

1:06:03

this this lady's bulletproof. k?

1:06:06

Mhmm. She's got a

1:06:07

big news government

1:06:10

contract. Okay?

1:06:12

Interesting.

1:06:14

But we

1:06:15

don't know,

1:06:16

but no specifics

1:06:18

about what that entails, that

1:06:20

it's a new technology. That's

1:06:22

right. And with

1:06:25

your five, could I give you

1:06:27

more? Let me think. Oh,

1:06:32

whatever it is. Whatever it is. Oh, go

1:06:34

ahead. Let's

1:06:36

say let's say I'm

1:06:40

I'm talking to a a drunken

1:06:42

spark red apprentice about this

1:06:44

and some more or something. Yeah.

1:06:48

And

1:06:48

and dumb and I

1:06:50

and maybe if I get the sense that I'm they're

1:06:52

not telling me everything they know.

1:06:56

maybe getting into what

1:06:58

sort of things that echophilia

1:07:02

can do. I'm listening

1:07:04

to their words

1:07:07

and listening deeper.

1:07:10

you wouldn't happen to know

1:07:13

what precisely it

1:07:13

is she's after.

1:07:15

What's you?

1:07:17

Hi.

1:07:20

I can't divulge technical details.

1:07:23

Everything is very proprietary

1:07:28

proprietary So I can't I can't tell

1:07:30

you. Besides, I've only

1:07:32

worked on some small components and

1:07:35

I don't have access

1:07:38

to the entire blueprint, but III

1:07:40

can tell you that the

1:07:43

rail jacks are pretty

1:07:45

upset about it. real jacks are upset. Okay.

1:07:47

So there's that, but I'm also going to

1:07:50

spend a stress during

1:07:52

downtime to use

1:07:56

a

1:07:56

trait of mine

1:07:58

and and

1:08:01

I am listening between the words

1:08:04

of this apprentice.

1:08:06

Oh, am I listening

1:08:08

pierces the

1:08:12

words and

1:08:12

I can hear their

1:08:14

thoughts. Whoa. My God.

1:08:18

I didn't You have the ability to telepathically

1:08:20

read someone's mind, arcane sight,

1:08:22

take one stress to sense

1:08:24

beyond human limits. hear a subject's

1:08:27

true thoughts or feelings see in

1:08:29

pitch darkness since the presence

1:08:31

of invisible things in two of

1:08:33

the locations of hidden objects. etcetera.

1:08:36

So the

1:08:40

apprentice Horus Dexter

1:08:42

is the apprentice's name. Auris

1:08:45

Dexter is thinking about

1:08:47

a old firehouse in Coleridge.

1:08:49

Auris Dexter is

1:08:52

thinking about the

1:08:56

part of the component that he worked

1:08:58

on -- Mhmm. -- and Orest

1:09:00

Dexter is thinking about a

1:09:04

enormous, safe type

1:09:08

device

1:09:10

that ghosts. a

1:09:13

though

1:09:14

oh ghost prison.

1:09:17

ghost in prison Oh.

1:09:23

Oh, boy. Excellent.

1:09:26

the

1:09:28

Okay. Well, of course, of

1:09:29

course, you can't tell

1:09:32

anyone you need anything

1:09:34

about what up goes on amongst the guild,

1:09:37

professional secrets, and all that.

1:09:39

All professions are a

1:09:41

conspiracy. They get a conspiracy against the

1:09:44

leyatee, the poet says, you're looking

1:09:46

a bit you're looking a bit

1:09:48

nacogdoches, can offer you an

1:09:50

arm and a Thank you.

1:09:57

But I

1:09:59

my interest lie elsewhere. Of

1:10:02

course. Of course. And right now

1:10:04

they lie. And

1:10:07

in another round, Yes,

1:10:12

of course.

1:10:14

I too feeling rather

1:10:16

thirsty.

1:10:16

rather thirsty

1:10:19

Oh my god.

1:10:20

How are we doing this?

1:10:22

I

1:10:22

don't know. I don't

1:10:26

know. I don't know. I also like that Ross

1:10:28

played sixty eight episodes of vampire with

1:10:30

me on the stream of blood, and we

1:10:32

found a way to play vampire here

1:10:34

in our legs in the dark camp. But that vampire was a reluctant vampire. This this one's into

1:10:38

it. Oh, yeah. Exactly.

1:10:41

completely different. And now

1:10:44

for something completely different.

1:10:46

So that's a lead. Okay.

1:10:48

Cool. and you can

1:10:50

continue to looking into other leads or just, I mean, follow any goals or threads

1:10:52

your character has right now.

1:10:54

That's what this time is for.

1:10:58

And we can start developing the

1:11:00

score as we do that. It

1:11:02

sounds like Juliette Belle Rose

1:11:05

might have an action in

1:11:07

mind. a Not in action, but I think that

1:11:09

there has to be at least a small

1:11:11

dialogue with VAALCO's about Ecopraig

1:11:15

and is

1:11:17

enterprise not

1:11:20

not a failure

1:11:23

okay. Ophelia, has completely taken

1:11:25

over. Their body

1:11:27

is is

1:11:28

is

1:11:31

I duchess body's

1:11:34

death.

1:11:35

Would Vaukos

1:11:37

know about this?

1:11:40

Assuming as you know. That

1:11:42

was a lot with ghosts and is aware of the dangers

1:11:47

that he doubles So very interesting question. Let's

1:11:49

answer two things just to be clear for the

1:11:52

audience. VAALCO's definitely

1:11:55

knows that Echoprag absorbed

1:11:58

Ophelia's soul because he was there when all of that happened. Mhmm.

1:11:59

Now to

1:12:04

VAALCO's Should we make

1:12:06

a role for him to see how deeply he has delved into how the

1:12:09

metaphysics of all

1:12:12

this works? Sure.

1:12:14

What Does that actually happened out

1:12:17

in we're we're about because

1:12:19

it's

1:12:19

Several of us. Several

1:12:21

of us. Right? maybe. I mean, we

1:12:23

know I believe it's been established in

1:12:26

Abu. You can correct me if I'm

1:12:28

wrong. It's been established

1:12:30

that in severos, they they control the ghosts with a

1:12:32

firm hand and part of

1:12:34

the reason why VAALCOST was disgraced,

1:12:40

exiled was because he, you know,

1:12:42

he likes to let the ghost

1:12:44

ride him. Right him.

1:12:46

Yeah. So So, Velcos, what action will you use

1:12:48

to see what you know about the

1:12:50

process of creating a vampire? I

1:12:54

can attune. That makes sense. go and roll

1:12:56

that when you are

1:12:58

ready. Mhmm. And it

1:13:01

it it's controlled

1:13:03

for standard. It's not that those

1:13:05

things really matter right now. It's almost like an information gathering role.

1:13:08

And could I I

1:13:11

can't push myself company. No.

1:13:13

because we're not in score. In a in a score. I

1:13:15

mean, do you really want to? Yeah.

1:13:19

You know what? I'm gonna

1:13:21

allow it. If I was to push myself, I think it would be in the sense

1:13:23

of like be relaying

1:13:28

a feeling of what it was

1:13:30

like to be possessed. Right? Try to

1:13:33

almost come into the

1:13:35

feeling of like you

1:13:38

know, it's almost like I'm going to put

1:13:40

myself in his shoes, be empathetic in

1:13:42

a way because I've been there where

1:13:45

the ghost has possessed me and taken

1:13:47

over me and that kind a thing. I

1:13:49

think that's where I'm trying that's where I'm

1:13:51

tapping into almost. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. I love it. I just don't

1:13:53

know. I mean, can you take more

1:13:55

stress right now? I

1:13:58

cannot go in my stress. Oh,

1:13:59

that's right. You cleared

1:14:02

it. Yes. Go

1:14:04

ahead. Four

1:14:05

and three. four and a three. So

1:14:07

we're gonna go ahead and and play it like

1:14:10

an action role as a success with a

1:14:12

consequence. So

1:14:14

you know everything about how if a how the spirits

1:14:16

try to bond with you,

1:14:18

how they try to stay,

1:14:21

stay way past their welcome. outlive their welcome

1:14:24

dead their welcome and how

1:14:26

you know from your studies

1:14:28

and from your time in severos and

1:14:30

with the path of echoes that that

1:14:33

creates a vampire and I think that

1:14:35

the consequence that you you suffer

1:14:38

from this knowledge because

1:14:40

you know

1:14:42

how close you've come to

1:14:45

becoming one of the

1:14:47

living dead. So I think

1:14:49

that you are I think that

1:14:51

you are really, really upset by

1:14:54

this somehow. So I think,

1:14:56

like, I so I'll so

1:14:59

to of look to Juliet and Mike.

1:15:00

That isn't Ophelia.

1:15:04

And

1:15:07

neither is like a prank. What

1:15:10

you

1:15:11

were

1:15:14

conversing

1:15:16

with. was a

1:15:18

monster.

1:15:19

A monster that

1:15:22

a month with us might he

1:15:24

pulled

1:15:24

Fear. And

1:15:26

the

1:15:28

one that you

1:15:31

should fear to, I am

1:15:33

scared. That's what

1:15:34

I'm trying to tell

1:15:38

you, and

1:15:40

and they are going to come

1:15:42

here. They're they're embroiled in all of our issues. They they

1:15:44

still want what I

1:15:46

feel you want it, but

1:15:49

So urgently. Yes. I

1:15:51

just It's constant.

1:15:54

to prepare you as well.

1:15:56

Younger.

1:15:57

this

1:15:59

need, this

1:16:01

this loss of

1:16:04

of

1:16:06

control, this loss of and you can as as you can feel my

1:16:08

heart is, like, we're in a meeting. And

1:16:10

it's, like, we're really feeling uncomfortable. This

1:16:12

is feeling Oh,

1:16:15

yeah. It's match. in anxiety. If no

1:16:17

one objects, I think this would be a

1:16:20

great moment. For

1:16:23

EcoPrag Wodi, you walked on some months to

1:16:25

love. And, boy, like,

1:16:28

you just hear,

1:16:30

like, the subtle

1:16:32

soft steps. Oh, dear.

1:16:34

Oh, dear. Oh, dear. He's like

1:16:36

a prag.

1:16:38

Be realizing he's been

1:16:43

are too demanding. Do

1:16:46

this, do that,

1:16:51

hasn't offered Anything in return?

1:16:54

I want

1:16:55

to let

1:16:56

both of

1:17:00

you know. it. I

1:17:01

am here to

1:17:03

help you.

1:17:05

you

1:17:08

I

1:17:08

know that I

1:17:11

can count on

1:17:13

you to help

1:17:16

me.

1:17:16

Yes. Of

1:17:20

course.

1:17:23

Yes. Yes. And

1:17:25

if I

1:17:26

even heard that, I think, and I I walk up to you, Alcoast.

1:17:29

And

1:17:31

if you're worried,

1:17:32

you're worried about

1:17:36

about any

1:17:38

pastes

1:17:40

that I've a lot

1:17:42

of labor.

1:17:43

I promise you. You have

1:17:46

you nothing to

1:17:48

fear.

1:17:49

oh I promise.

1:17:51

Kind of not

1:17:58

and try and

1:17:59

break eye contact or look away

1:18:02

in some shape or form. Now

1:18:04

what's that pretty little b j?

1:18:06

as I'm looking at one of the rings. Well,

1:18:08

yeah. So both there's

1:18:10

one on each of our hands.

1:18:12

The other one is tucked away

1:18:15

in our pocket.

1:18:16

I have

1:18:18

fits and rememberances

1:18:20

on the friendship

1:18:23

and all that. Yes.

1:18:25

Yes. Just

1:18:28

a sign of our

1:18:31

friendship.

1:18:31

We've been through a

1:18:37

lot.

1:18:41

This is

1:18:41

so sad. I think that I can diagnose there's a third ring and he's not

1:18:43

being offered it. And,

1:18:48

Amy, keep in mind,

1:18:50

this is Juliet's lover. I know. Mhmm. Yeah.

1:18:56

Oh. Well, I'm

1:18:58

glad to

1:19:00

see that you've drawn

1:19:03

so close.

1:19:04

oh, you know, we we

1:19:06

we watch each other's backs. So we are a crew. As you are

1:19:11

as well.

1:19:16

Well, yeah. That's

1:19:18

wonderful to hear.

1:19:20

Are you

1:19:23

not? It's

1:19:24

just lovely

1:19:26

to hear you see. Of

1:19:28

course, yes.

1:19:29

Because I too will watch

1:19:31

your backs. And I

1:19:34

trust

1:19:34

you to watch mine. Of

1:19:36

course.

1:19:36

And, Judy,

1:19:38

it kind of, like,

1:19:41

turns

1:19:41

to sort of,

1:19:43

like, act like she's

1:19:45

busying herself, like, maybe putting

1:19:47

some stuff in. I'm speaking of our crew room. Yes. A little less

1:19:49

crowded

1:19:49

in here than the last

1:19:52

time. I came

1:19:55

down the grotto. It's

1:19:57

true. Some

1:20:00

have gone

1:20:01

their own

1:20:03

ways. different ambitions at seats. And

1:20:06

Dot, dot, dot,

1:20:08

dot. Are

1:20:10

you expecting someone?

1:20:12

Sartooth. That's

1:20:18

sartooth.

1:20:20

Sartooth. I kind of walk.

1:20:22

I kind of live. If it comes to it, I'm like, alive.

1:20:24

I'm still here.

1:20:27

Of course, I'm alive. takes

1:20:31

more than more

1:20:33

than anyone's got to

1:20:35

take down sawtooth.

1:20:36

Come in come

1:20:39

in. Come in. Yes.

1:20:41

I've

1:20:41

been I've been keeping

1:20:44

my ear to

1:20:46

the ground like you always told me to a Val

1:20:49

Coast. Right? We help each other

1:20:51

out. Is that correct? Yes.

1:20:54

Yes. Yes. Well, I happen to know a

1:20:57

a hawker that

1:20:59

provides fits with some

1:21:04

psych psych

1:21:07

drugs. Really? Pittsburgh

1:21:09

took a big supply

1:21:11

with him when he left

1:21:13

duskfall. Would this And

1:21:16

I know where

1:21:18

he went. No.

1:21:20

Uh-huh. oh,

1:21:23

he owes us money.

1:21:26

He

1:21:27

owes the crew.

1:21:29

I

1:21:29

thought there might be something like

1:21:32

that going on. If he left town in a hurry

1:21:34

and he must have left in a hurry based on

1:21:36

the what

1:21:39

he took with him. And

1:21:42

I'm

1:21:43

in on Where

1:21:45

did he go?

1:21:47

Imperial city.

1:21:48

imperial city

1:21:52

Right? The home

1:21:54

of the immortal emperor. Have

1:21:57

you ever been there?

1:21:59

Great. Yeah. They don't let everybody in.

1:22:04

who will they let

1:22:07

in mortals? There's only

1:22:09

one immortal one

1:22:12

for Valkos. But

1:22:14

yeah. I mean, he must he must know someone

1:22:19

who lives there. as they they

1:22:21

don't let anybody in through the gates. And perhaps we should find

1:22:24

a way

1:22:27

of getting it Perhaps. Yes. It's time

1:22:29

to pay for its

1:22:31

visits. I just thought

1:22:33

you'd like to know

1:22:35

he went? No. It was very tough.

1:22:38

And while So here does

1:22:42

anybody need, like, you know,

1:22:44

something bandaged

1:22:45

up or a

1:22:47

little bit of SAFE.

1:22:50

I brought SAFE with

1:22:52

me. There's there's something actually I

1:22:54

need to discuss with you if you could follow me. Oh, a private problem.

1:22:59

Yeah. I'm well acquainted with these types of maladies. Listen,

1:23:02

I have a Sam, especially

1:23:04

for this kind of thing.

1:23:06

But if I were you I

1:23:10

would recommend stopping the visits to night market if you get my meaning.

1:23:12

Shut up and follow

1:23:15

me. Alright. Alright. Alright. And

1:23:19

and I hope that it's, like, when they exit, there's just

1:23:22

like this awkward,

1:23:25

like,

1:23:26

silence in the

1:23:28

room between,

1:23:28

like, Echopra and

1:23:31

and and Jynette.

1:23:36

This fits

1:23:36

character has run

1:23:39

off without being.

1:23:41

Yes. Yes.

1:23:43

Well, not me, I

1:23:45

was away for this job

1:23:47

at Balcos and

1:23:49

Well, really

1:23:49

it's just well because it's still here that's owed

1:23:51

money. It's owed to

1:23:53

the rent.

1:23:54

That's what matters. Well,

1:23:56

If

1:23:58

there's any aid

1:23:59

that I can

1:24:02

offer, I met your

1:24:05

serve I

1:24:05

think we both know how much

1:24:08

I

1:24:08

respect

1:24:13

upper settling of

1:24:15

accounts. Yes. Yes. Of course.

1:24:20

do

1:24:20

this together, my

1:24:23

dear. What did you

1:24:25

wanna talk about Velcos? I need

1:24:27

you to be. Scrit.

1:24:32

When am I

1:24:36

not? Look.

1:24:38

Sort of a little too long, I need you to find something

1:24:41

out for me. Okay? You pick

1:24:43

how much to

1:24:44

he becomes no no about vampires

1:24:47

know about vampires. What? Yes.

1:24:49

Empires. Have you heard of them

1:24:51

before? Do you know

1:24:54

much about them? Yeah. I've heard the myths.

1:24:56

Sure. Well, they're

1:24:58

not a myth. And

1:25:00

what I need you to do

1:25:03

is uncover how to kill One.

1:25:06

Yeah. Two gold pieces. Go find

1:25:09

as much as

1:25:12

you can. and report back

1:25:14

to me and only me. And as I said, saw truth be discreet.

1:25:20

Please Look, I mean, I can

1:25:22

access some of the university archives. You know, they know me over there.

1:25:26

But if I getting into the restricted sections, some

1:25:29

of the forbidden books,

1:25:31

people they're gonna notice. and

1:25:34

that's why I've given you two gold pieces. Well,

1:25:36

I'm saying maybe it's worth a little

1:25:39

more to you is what

1:25:41

I'm saying.

1:25:44

you

1:25:44

know, to be

1:25:46

discreet. Sort

1:25:47

And

1:25:48

I

1:25:50

kind of something inside me

1:25:51

sort of -- Yeah. -- quite likes it. And

1:25:53

like, I didn't put my hand in caress

1:25:55

his cheek.

1:25:59

you know You know? I

1:26:01

always wondered, saw a

1:26:04

tooth.

1:26:04

war

1:26:07

What a fascinating

1:26:08

My

1:26:11

finger finds its way

1:26:13

into his mouth. I hate

1:26:17

it. What? I

1:26:18

thought maybe you had sharp teeth, but actually what you are made. quite

1:26:21

dull,

1:26:23

quite broken point. rotten.

1:26:27

Yeah. Armitage. Ow.

1:26:34

Vocus Renewables. Think

1:26:36

that you can

1:26:37

get more money out of

1:26:39

a desperate friend.

1:26:43

No. No. I was I I

1:26:45

this will do. Actually, I didn't think this is

1:26:47

a problem of running

1:26:49

inflect to So in terms of what I need, so

1:26:52

I'll take you and and thank you

1:26:54

for this opportunity. I let go and

1:26:56

I'm like, I might slap his cheek. and

1:26:58

wipe the saliva on this chest. I'm

1:27:00

like Oh, by the

1:27:02

way, your fingers, there's like

1:27:04

a thick brown mucus on this.

1:27:07

Oh, wow. And I like it. I'm watching it. Oh,

1:27:09

and I'm like, thank you

1:27:11

very much. So to

1:27:14

I knew I could trust of my friend. Thank you. He

1:27:16

pockets the coin and

1:27:19

says, I'll be

1:27:22

in touch And he walks

1:27:23

out to where Echopraig

1:27:25

and Juliet are standing and

1:27:27

he's like, good to see you

1:27:29

all. Remember my services

1:27:32

are available. Good

1:27:35

day, so tooth. and

1:27:37

good day to

1:27:39

you, miss Bell Rose, and you and you.

1:27:41

the new He

1:27:45

walks out of the grata. So it was

1:27:47

up to coin from the cruise sheet? No.

1:27:51

It's been Right. coin is actually AAA

1:27:55

symbolic term. I could

1:27:58

charge you one coin right now, but I

1:27:59

think I'm not even gonna do

1:28:02

that. He is your friend. So

1:28:04

that was more for the

1:28:06

the flavor of the whole thing. Right.

1:28:08

So you

1:28:09

have two

1:28:10

potential scores standing in front

1:28:13

of you.

1:28:16

One is you know, to delve

1:28:18

deeper into whatever Una Faros is doing. The other is to track down this guy

1:28:21

who didn't

1:28:24

pay you and he's in

1:28:26

the imperial city. The path of echoes told you to lay low for a while going

1:28:29

out of town

1:28:32

would definitely fits that

1:28:34

definition. So the Imperial City is like, can you tell us more about, like, the train

1:28:37

right

1:28:40

away? that's

1:28:40

like a long train right away

1:28:42

because -- Oh, okay. -- in this continent that ACRO in

1:28:45

ACROROS, there are several

1:28:48

different cities. and

1:28:50

the Imperial City is one of them. Oh,

1:28:53

I see.

1:28:53

You would have to take a train

1:28:55

from White Hollow

1:28:58

to Alezia and

1:29:00

then onto the Imperial

1:29:02

City. We're going on vacation.

1:29:05

This is fun. Yeah. Is that is

1:29:08

that sort of

1:29:09

what you're deciding to

1:29:11

do? I think so. incredible.

1:29:15

You

1:29:15

gotta get that money. You gotta get that money.

1:29:17

Your

1:29:17

your your crew does sort of need

1:29:20

some money if you eventually wanna go

1:29:22

up to tier two. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

1:29:24

Yeah. So And we

1:29:26

can lay low and let the heat die down perhaps. And and as far as the project with

1:29:28

Unafaros, absence makes the

1:29:31

hard growth fonder, maybe very

1:29:34

expensive eco prague. She'll just wonder

1:29:36

who that mysterious stranger is. It keeps

1:29:39

running as you go. So the

1:29:41

only thing I think

1:29:43

you need to do in order to get

1:29:45

to the Imperial City is to somehow acquire tickets

1:29:47

that will take you

1:29:50

all the way there. And travel

1:29:52

in this world is difficult. I mean,

1:29:54

you have to pass on railways that take

1:30:00

you through a wasteland of undead.

1:30:02

So it's not as casual as,

1:30:04

like, you know, hopping on

1:30:06

a plane to Cincinnati in our

1:30:08

world. So I think

1:30:10

you either if anybody has a downtime activity left and I actually know that Echoparek

1:30:12

does, you either need

1:30:15

to acquire an asset acquire

1:30:19

an asset

1:30:19

that will allow you to get

1:30:21

those traveling papers, those tickets in order,

1:30:24

or you

1:30:26

need to I don't know, give me some kind of action that

1:30:28

could go poorly and backfire

1:30:30

on you in order to

1:30:33

not necessarily get the tickets, but to

1:30:35

somehow get on a train. I just want

1:30:37

to acquire the asset. I want

1:30:39

to get those ticks. That's

1:30:41

the easiest.

1:30:42

That's perhaps the easiest or

1:30:44

the safest route. I

1:30:46

think it also seems the most wise from Echobreg's perspective

1:30:51

because because working

1:30:52

working people who's

1:30:54

kind

1:30:54

of their their forte and is more and more these nights.

1:30:58

nice

1:30:59

So

1:31:00

though Yeah. We require an

1:31:02

asset.

1:31:02

So that's on page one fifty

1:31:04

three, gain temporary use of

1:31:06

an asset, I would say, tickets

1:31:11

all the way to Imperial City Count is that

1:31:13

it's a it can be one

1:31:15

special item or common set of

1:31:17

items, and that fits our

1:31:20

definition here. Temporary use constitutes one significant

1:31:22

period of usage, one trip that makes sense. To acquire

1:31:24

the asset you

1:31:27

roll the cruise tier, and

1:31:29

the result indicates the quality of the asset you get. So So the tiers

1:31:32

to three tier minus

1:31:34

one, which would mean tier

1:31:36

zero. four

1:31:39

to five equal to your tier one, and six

1:31:41

means tier plus one. So I'm

1:31:43

gonna I'm gonna let

1:31:45

that that reflect the luxury of the trip. Mhmm. But also, if

1:31:47

it if you roll poorly --

1:31:49

Class rent, it's not a

1:31:52

real ticket. Yes.

1:31:55

It's counter. For strat's

1:31:58

counter fenmin, maybe crudely

1:31:59

forged. Yes. And because

1:32:02

Echaprag is the one that's

1:32:05

putting this together, I think

1:32:07

that he I'm sorry. They it is a gestalt being now.

1:32:10

They should roll to

1:32:12

see and

1:32:15

this

1:32:15

is just the tier. So I'm gonna roll Just

1:32:17

the tier.

1:32:17

So you're just rolling on one die. One

1:32:20

die. Okay. I'm

1:32:22

gonna do this with

1:32:24

IRL Dice. Oh, yes. It's just

1:32:26

AD6 Right? That's right. Now if you're doing it with in real life

1:32:29

dice, on

1:32:32

our system I promise. I

1:32:34

won't hedge because I I say that knowing that probably I'll I'm about to roll like a

1:32:37

two.

1:32:39

Here we go.

1:32:41

there

1:32:41

Let me just show you

1:32:44

how honorable I am,

1:32:46

Jared. I

1:32:47

didn't roll it too. a

1:32:51

roller one.

1:32:51

No. This

1:32:54

is perfect

1:32:56

for

1:32:57

us. This is perfect for

1:32:59

us. Your ticket are not real. They're not

1:33:02

they weren't actually they weren't actually printed by the Ministry of Preservation

1:33:04

with their seal

1:33:07

on it. And so you

1:33:09

were using counterfeit tickets and in

1:33:11

fact they if anybody gives

1:33:13

them a really close glance

1:33:15

they'll see that they're

1:33:17

fake. And likewise, your travel papers, your passport

1:33:20

to other cities

1:33:23

in the empire fire is

1:33:26

counterfeit. Cool. Is there a way to resist

1:33:29

that? Yes,

1:33:32

you can. resist that. Well,

1:33:34

no. It's inquiring. No. It's a dick. It's a dick. It's a dick. We still really

1:33:36

resist that. the first

1:33:38

time I've really, really wanted to.

1:33:42

for that. Well, I mean, I you

1:33:44

know, look, resisting is there to

1:33:47

stop consequences you don't like.

1:33:49

home Yeah. I'm gonna

1:33:52

it doesn't It's not how

1:33:54

the rules work. But I will I

1:33:56

let's let's do it. Let's let's

1:33:58

allow it. Is this

1:33:59

is this

1:33:59

cheating? Well, I mean, it is

1:34:02

cheating. But we're allowed to cheat

1:34:04

sometimes. You'll take stress.

1:34:06

Okay. Yeah. take stress for it. Right? Okay.

1:34:08

Depending on how

1:34:08

much, you know, how much rope. Yeah.

1:34:11

So it's six stress, minus minus

1:34:14

oh, forgive me. Yeah. It's whichever -- Whichever

1:34:16

after me you're using

1:34:19

to resist the consequence. Which

1:34:22

to me sounds like resolve. Right.

1:34:25

You're resolving to get

1:34:27

good documents here.

1:34:29

Okay. So I roll

1:34:31

I just roll my Just your resolve. Yeah.

1:34:32

Just your resolve. Which

1:34:34

is what? How

1:34:35

much? Three. Okay.

1:34:37

yeah Oh. That's

1:34:40

very good. Mhmm. Oh, wow.

1:34:42

Alright. Six stress and you roll a six. Right? That I did.

1:34:44

So you take

1:34:47

no stress and I

1:34:49

would rule that this is why acquiring an asset is not certain

1:34:52

normally something

1:34:55

you can resist. I know,

1:34:57

rather than rather than allowing you to just

1:35:00

suddenly have

1:35:03

higher quality tickets I'm saying that that

1:35:05

acquirer asset doesn't count and you are forcing your threatening people. I don't know. You

1:35:08

tell me

1:35:10

how you're doing it. but you're gonna get to again. Okay. It's

1:35:13

a roll again. It's a roll

1:35:15

again. Ecoprag knows like

1:35:18

a porter from the ministry. who who would come into the

1:35:20

club every now and then. And they

1:35:22

had they had an understanding where,

1:35:24

like,

1:35:24

tourists from other parts

1:35:26

of the empire. They'd like send

1:35:29

him more away. We give them a kickback and

1:35:31

go to them like, we need tickets, three of them. And the ones that

1:35:33

he provides are just, I can tell

1:35:35

immediately or just, like, total

1:35:39

hack work. It's like,

1:35:41

what do you think

1:35:43

you're doing? So I

1:35:46

try to put the fear of god into them

1:35:48

to try to actually get

1:35:51

some tickets. And I

1:35:53

roll 5A5 Okay. I'm

1:35:55

I'm sorry. I I just I didn't realize, you know,

1:36:01

who was traveling. And now that I'm aware of it, I I

1:36:03

believe I can I can get a higher quality passage

1:36:08

for

1:36:09

you. I don't think you can just run around

1:36:11

scoping on me thinking that drinking

1:36:14

you can pass off this shoddy

1:36:16

work on me

1:36:18

like real Bonabizio. Oh, no.

1:36:22

with

1:36:23

some real real class

1:36:25

mint documents. Gas

1:36:27

station tomorrow, but

1:36:29

you you you have

1:36:31

to leave then. Of

1:36:33

course. Noon. All aboard. It's going aboard

1:36:35

and all that. And

1:36:39

so If you're

1:36:41

all ready to go I don't think it's So they're ready to

1:36:43

go. We're in the yeah.

1:36:46

You know, in the golf

1:36:48

ball, fall, there is

1:36:50

a sort of a day cycle

1:36:52

when the embers of the shattered sun

1:36:54

sort of faintly let off one light

1:36:58

And so with that sort of

1:37:00

weird dusk in the air, you

1:37:02

arrive at Gatock Station. It

1:37:05

is the newest and most

1:37:07

advanced technology technology wise

1:37:09

station in basketball. A lot

1:37:11

of it looks like it's

1:37:14

made out Chrome and the trains

1:37:16

are large and state of

1:37:18

the art. They are belching smoke

1:37:22

and crackling with electroplasm.

1:37:24

And at a at

1:37:27

the gate that that

1:37:29

ministry of preservation worker is

1:37:32

waiting for you, and

1:37:34

he hands you three packets.

1:37:37

If

1:37:37

it's

1:37:38

so kind and distribute the the packets,

1:37:41

the tribute

1:37:43

added

1:37:44

Thank you. We have

1:37:45

a nice trip, and then he immediately puts his collar

1:37:48

up, looks around and makes

1:37:50

sure nobody saw him and skitters

1:37:52

off. Took

1:37:54

a bit of doing but got it

1:37:56

done.

1:37:56

the could be doing because it

1:38:02

Well, are you ready

1:38:03

there? going aboard. Yes. I'm miss

1:38:05

Fitz

1:38:05

character and give a bit of the

1:38:07

old shakedown. You step

1:38:09

onto the white hallow x Express, the first leg

1:38:11

of your journey. Your tickets are

1:38:14

not luxury first class. They

1:38:17

are, you

1:38:20

know, coach level. And so And

1:38:22

we've got a bag full of, like, some essentials, you know. Oh, your

1:38:25

loadouts are

1:38:28

available. Right? your load outs

1:38:30

are available. So you you are sitting on like wooden benches.

1:38:36

And the three of you can fit on

1:38:38

a bench and then there's room for one more person. And wouldn't you know it? One more person

1:38:41

sits down. Mhmm.

1:38:44

It's like a woman

1:38:46

who looks to be maybe a merchants partner or a merchant

1:38:49

herself very

1:38:52

middle class and,

1:38:55

you know, her hair put up

1:38:57

in a elaborate style

1:39:00

but very gray with, like,

1:39:02

pearl pins to hold it up.

1:39:04

and she gives you

1:39:06

all a disapproving look before pulling out a small book

1:39:11

of of a scripture that she reads as

1:39:13

she sits beside you. Across from

1:39:15

you, again, you

1:39:18

see another middle class personage

1:39:20

with his entire family, his wife,

1:39:23

and his muelling children, and the

1:39:25

children are dressed in knickers

1:39:27

with like little hacks

1:39:30

with ribbons hanging off of them and

1:39:32

he's shouting at them to

1:39:35

quiet down and soon

1:39:38

The train pulls away

1:39:41

from Gatwick station and

1:39:44

for the fur

1:39:46

first time maybe

1:39:48

in your life.

1:39:51

You

1:39:51

are leaving dust

1:39:53

fall. And soon, the structures, the

1:39:55

infrastructure that surrounds the city, the

1:39:59

heavy walls, the lightning towers that

1:40:02

ring it, they fade away into the distance. You see them fly

1:40:07

past your window, and now you're moving out

1:40:10

into the wasteland and you can see where there used to be more city.

1:40:12

There used to be other

1:40:14

buildings, but now they're crumbled. and

1:40:18

moss and lichen in

1:40:21

a a terrifying,

1:40:23

poisonous, yellow grass grows where

1:40:26

these buildings used to stand, and there's an old carriage toppled

1:40:31

over on its died. And this all used

1:40:33

to be part of the city before the barriers had to be

1:40:36

pulled back

1:40:39

before the ghosts and the undead made

1:40:42

a more got more territory. And

1:40:44

now you're moving

1:40:47

through this haunted land escape toward

1:40:49

the imperial city and the sun, the shards

1:40:51

of

1:40:51

the sun, the the

1:40:53

little pieces of that

1:40:56

are left they don't go it

1:40:58

doesn't go down. They just sort of dim until you can't even see outside.

1:41:00

the kill you can't even see outside

1:41:03

It's simply dark. because there are

1:41:05

no electric lights out here in the wasteland.

1:41:07

It is just one big it is just one shadow.

1:41:12

And that is where we

1:41:14

will end for today. Woo. When we come

1:41:16

back next

1:41:18

time, we will see

1:41:21

the Imperial City, and

1:41:23

we'll watch our crew. Get their money, man. Who's

1:41:27

it's our mother he

1:41:31

Where's my money, honey, as

1:41:33

Luke Cage would say? Oh.

1:41:35

I wanna

1:41:36

thank my incredible players

1:41:38

Ross Bryant, Abou Salim, and Josephine

1:41:40

McAdam. Thank you. Love playing

1:41:42

with this friends. We can't

1:41:45

wait for next

1:41:46

time. Alrighty. And thank you viewers.

1:41:48

Thank you listeners. This has been haunted

1:41:50

city on the glass cannon network.

1:41:53

See you

1:41:54

next time. Thanks

1:41:56

for listening to the Glass Cannon

1:41:58

Network. For more podcasts and live streams, visit glass cannon network dot com,

1:41:59

and for exclusive shows and

1:42:02

content you can't find anywhere else.

1:42:06

Subscribe today at patreon dot

1:42:09

com slash

1:42:12

glass cabinet.

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features