0:00

Hi folks, Andy here, uh, butting in

0:02

quickly just to tell you some exciting

0:04

news about the outside Xbox and DoxVenture

0:07

and outside Extra merch store warehouse sale.

0:09

That's right, our warehouse where our merch

0:11

is kept, and it's a bit like

0:14

the warehouse at the end of Indiana

0:16

Jones and the Last Crusade where they

0:18

store all of the arcs of the

0:20

Covenant and deadly religious relics. In

0:23

there, they moved some boxes around and

0:25

found some old merch that we thought

0:28

was lost forever, but it's not. It exists

0:31

and is on sale for you to buy

0:33

at drastically discounted prices. That's right, it's up

0:35

to 70% off. There

0:37

are some legacy products in there

0:40

that you maybe thought they

0:42

were sold out forever, but no, they're there.

0:44

There's some old Hello Stream stuff, the t-shirts

0:46

we designed in Jackbox. If you ever wanted

0:48

a Lasagna My Dudes t-shirt with a pizza

0:51

firing guns on it, now is your last

0:53

chance. There's also the last chance to get

0:55

your hands on the Oxford's Guild Moonbeam Dice

0:57

set. They're on there right now. So head

1:00

on over to store.outsidexbox.com. Click

1:02

on the banner there saying warehouse sale and

1:04

you two could get yourself

1:06

some incredible savings. So check

1:08

it out. Thanks for listening. Right back to the podcast. Hello

1:14

and welcome to the Eurogamer newscast and

1:16

this week we're discussing the biggest Xbox

1:18

leak in history. We're looking ahead to

1:20

the Switch 2's potential launch lineup. We're

1:22

asking why there are so many industry

1:24

layoffs. Or at least that's

1:26

what I would be saying. If you're listening

1:29

to the Eurogamer newscast, hello, I'm Tom, Eurogamer's

1:31

editor and host of our weekly discussion podcast

1:33

where we break down the biggest gaming news

1:35

stories and share insight from our news

1:37

reporting team. Head to your favorite

1:39

podcast app now to listen. Just search

1:42

Eurogamer newscast. Thanks

2:00

for coming back. Thanks for joining us for more blades in the dark Today

2:03

we're listening to blades in the dark season to

2:05

episode 4 also known as the wardens of bellwether

2:08

crematorium starring Ellen

2:10

aka Lilith also Johnny aka

2:13

Kazmir and our very splendid

2:15

game master Luke Westerway Aka

2:18

everyone else in blades in the dark. How do

2:20

you Nandi? I'm good.

2:22

I'm just so delighted that January

2:25

is over Oh, yeah,

2:27

it's February the first at time of recording Yeah, probably

2:29

February the second if you're if you're listening to this

2:31

as it goes up cover leave how

2:33

long January was So

2:36

like right, I mean it was 31 days

2:38

long. I know that's why you hate

2:40

my birthday month I don't know how your

2:42

birthday month. Your birthday is obviously a high

2:44

point for me It's

2:47

just the rest of the January sucks and

2:49

my birthday But apart from

2:51

I feel like we need like the sequel

2:54

to Christmas somewhere in like mid February.

2:56

That's why we need Mardi Gras We

2:59

need Mardi Gras And we should

3:02

celebrate Mardi Gras Then you get King cake

3:04

and parades and everyone goes around in purple

3:06

and green and gold and it's fun and

3:08

festive and not just miserable On wintering. Well,

3:10

I've got new year to celebrate in

3:12

two weeks. That's true. Lunar New Year's coming up

3:15

But that's not January. That's February. So yeah, that's true.

3:17

But you know good food and red envelopes and

3:19

all that good Oh, yeah Mardi

3:23

Gras around the same time this year actually so

3:25

I've ordered a King cake I've ordered

3:28

an enormous King cake Do

3:32

you want to come around and help me eat it? I'm gonna have to yeah

3:34

it's like six pounds of cake like by

3:36

weight not by currency and If

3:39

you don't know what King cake is listeners Andy how explain

3:42

a King cake, please Well, it's

3:44

a festive cake that you have at Mardi Gras

3:46

in like New Orleans places

3:48

like that, but it's a It's

3:50

like a sort of nice Iced

3:53

cake that has a baby hidden in it.

3:56

Right? Yeah a tiny plastic

3:58

chocable baby Yeah, not chokeable,

4:01

but you might choke eating it, but that's

4:03

part of the fun and danger of king cake Yeah,

4:05

and you get the baby you're in for a day,

4:07

right? That

4:10

if you're British you might have had in the

4:13

past But it's yeah

4:15

hidden thing in the in the food. I

4:17

think there's something there's some other there's

4:19

a there's it's like a Chinese Tradition

4:21

we put hide something in food as well. I

4:23

mean these are it's a enduring tradition

4:26

across cultures, but also hiding stuff extremely

4:28

dangerous Well, I heard that

4:30

the origin of fortune cookies which were

4:32

invented in America by Chinese

4:35

immigrants the origin was Messages

4:39

hidden in kind of

4:41

cakes like little I don't know if they're

4:43

moon cakes or some other variant of like

4:45

Traditional cake but fortune cookie is a sort

4:47

of evolved Like modern

4:50

version of that thing. So yeah hiding

4:52

things in food. I'm all about it.

4:54

I love fortune cookies I love king

4:56

cake. I Love

4:58

Christmas pudding any food with a

5:01

thing hidden in it for that extra frisson of

5:03

risk that I might you know Scarf it down.

5:05

Yeah, did you know that like until recently

5:07

when you retire? There was like one guy

5:10

who wrote all the fortunes in a fortune cookies

5:13

That can't be true. There's more than one company

5:15

that makes fortune cookies He's not for

5:17

all of them. Not really there's like one

5:19

company that makes almost all of the world's

5:22

fortune cookies No, they have one they

5:24

have one fortune writer. What power? Can

5:27

I have that job? Well, he just retired maybe

5:29

you could maybe I could Wow Well,

5:31

okay, give me a give me a fortune. Let me see it.

5:33

Let me see your chops. Okay No,

5:37

this is like me. Okay, this is my job interview.

5:39

Yeah. Okay. Welcome. Thanks. I'm just

5:41

I'm just crunching into this fortune Oh, what's this?

5:44

There's a piece of paper inside. Yeah, yeah. Well,

5:46

thank you for this opportunity I'm so

5:48

delighted to be here big

5:50

admirer of what you do in the

5:52

fortune cookie in the space in in

5:55

the predictive dessert space

5:58

Well, first of all, I would like to...

6:01

I love what you're doing

6:03

with lottery numbers, you know sometimes you get lottery numbers on

6:05

those fortune cookies. I think that is a great idea, I think we should add more

6:11

winning lottery numbers. The

6:13

problem is that I saw something about this, like 300

6:16

people all played the numbers out

6:18

of fortune cookies and when it won they only

6:20

got like a thousand dollars each. Oh because they

6:22

all got the same fortune with the same numbers. It's

6:25

like 20 times the usual number

6:27

of people got the jackpot. Even

6:29

if you do win it's about...

6:31

Okay well there's my innovation, that's the innovation I'm

6:33

bringing, the energy I'm bringing to this interview is

6:35

hey I've got a hot idea for you, we

6:37

randomise all the lottery numbers on fortune

6:40

cookies that you don't get duplicates.

6:42

So only one person is gonna win but they are

6:45

gonna win and a higher prize. Right. And my fortune

6:47

is... and my fortune is... Okay

6:54

well what we're not going to do

6:56

here is one of those

6:58

fortunes that's actually like a

7:01

statement, like an aphorism, you know like

7:03

health is the true wealth or

7:06

friends are the greatest treasure

7:08

because that's not a fortune that's an actionable

7:10

advice. I want a prediction. You

7:12

want a prediction? You will X. Your

7:16

fly is down. Okay.

7:19

That's a... I just checked. Is it a prediction? Okay

7:21

but hear me out, it's

7:23

not gonna work for most people but there's gonna be like 12 people.

7:28

Their mind is gonna be blown. Their

7:30

mind is gonna be absolutely blown. Yeah.

7:32

I'm gonna do a fortune that says don't look up because

7:35

that's creepy. Yeah. Fun to do a

7:38

little scare, you know. Or like yeah

7:40

behind you. Yeah yeah yeah.

7:42

So I'm thinking novelty fortunes. So

7:44

you're thinking kind of quite threatening.

7:47

I'm thinking fun fortunes. Okay. We

7:49

go a little avant-garde you

7:51

know and God you

7:54

know it turns out I'm thinking really hard. Most

7:56

of this is the stalling technique because I can't

7:58

think of a good fortune. Well,

8:00

there are better desserts out there.

8:06

Oh, you're undermining the cookie business with your

8:08

cookie. Yeah.

8:11

Well, something that sounds profound and actionable

8:14

but doesn't really mean anything. Yeah,

8:16

yeah, yeah. So it's sort of

8:18

horoscope style like... Rise

8:23

above the hate. Rise

8:26

above the hate. Yeah, f-lighters. What haters?

8:28

I have haters? Yeah, I mean

8:31

everyone's got haters, Andy. I didn't really... I didn't

8:33

think I had any haters. Oh,

8:35

you most of all. Oh my God. Oh.

8:38

Yeah, so I'm going to write a

8:40

fortune that's like, there

8:42

will be haters this week at work.

8:44

Rise above them or something. Yeah,

8:47

or like there's always a little more

8:49

toothpaste in the tube. That

8:52

sounds like an aphorism. I think we're getting into kind

8:54

of wise but

8:56

useless. Yeah, well

8:58

that's what it should be, right? Either

9:01

or or you should be predictive. It

9:03

shouldn't be like you should break up with Janet, Stephen. It

9:06

can't be that specific. No, but it could

9:08

be like reassess your relationship, Stephen. With Janet, Stephen.

9:14

Yeah, maybe. If

9:17

anyone is listening and they are called Janet and Stephen,

9:19

this isn't directed at you. No, no, no, no, no.

9:21

You should probably stay together. Janet, you

9:23

should get out. That's all I'm saying. You

9:26

can do better. Okay, okay.

9:29

This is the Andy, very narrow casted

9:32

relationship podcast. Yeah. Directed only

9:34

at Janet and Stephen. Yeah, Janet and Stephen. What was I

9:36

saying? Yeah, Chinese New Year. Mm-hmm.

9:39

Going to be good. Yeah. Going

9:41

to eat a lot of food. Year of the dragon. Got to

9:43

put up a lot of red things in my house. Year

9:45

of the dragon. Yeah. Got a queen. Oh, wait, hang

9:47

on. Can you see this? Look what I got. Oh,

9:50

it's a dragon phone case. Nice. I got a new phone

9:53

case and it's got a... Oh, yeah, we're at the dragon. It's

9:55

got a dragon and a bunch of bunnies on it, because,

9:57

you know, the bunnies that live on the moon. Just

10:01

for Johnny's mythology? Sure, sure,

10:03

sure. Funny's. Yeah, funny's. So...

10:06

Gotta clean your house and then not touch it, gotta wash your hair and then

10:08

not wash that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Every year my

10:10

mum comes up with new... Well, she's not coming

10:12

up with them, but she's telling me things that I

10:14

probably should have known all along, where it's like,

10:16

ah, it's super bad luck. Have you washed your

10:18

hair, Jane, today? Yeah. Yeah, yeah,

10:20

I have. Oh, you shouldn't have done that. You've washed away all

10:23

your good luck. All the luck that's accumulated. You can't wash

10:25

your hair during the New Year season. It makes it sound like there's

10:27

a sort of like drive-by film of

10:29

luck that sort of gets deposited. Luck

10:31

is like dust, yeah, and it sort of

10:33

gathers. And if you clean your house, if you

10:35

sweep the floor during the

10:38

New Year celebration period, you

10:40

will clean up all that good

10:42

luck and lose it. And that's why my mum,

10:44

when she did sweep the floor during Chinese New

10:46

Year, she would just keep the little dust pile

10:48

to one side. Well, I was going to

10:50

say, could you just... Just go for it away. Could you just

10:52

go around the bins and gather up everyone else's luck if they're

10:55

all sweeping it out? I don't know.

10:57

That seems like... That

10:59

seems like cheesing the good luck

11:01

distribution system, which I feel like would

11:03

be frowned upon. I don't know. I

11:06

feel like some aspects

11:08

of Chinese mythology feel like sort of

11:10

cheesing the system. Like, for example, hell

11:13

money, which is when you burn paper

11:16

money, which then the

11:19

spirits can't tell the difference between that and real money.

11:21

And so you're... It's symbolic, Andy. Yes.

11:24

And offering for the afterlife so that

11:26

your ancestors will have the material goods

11:29

they need in the afterlife. What I'm

11:31

saying is that I think the people in

11:33

charge of Chinese mythology, the spirits,

11:35

would be fine with you collecting everyone else's

11:37

unwanted luck if they'd thrown it out.

11:40

I think they'd be all right with it. All right. Well,

11:42

you try it and see if you don't get

11:45

terrible vengeance wreaked upon you by the luck distribution

11:47

system. I think the terrible vengeance will be, I'm

11:49

going through everyone's bins. That's... It's

11:51

a self-fulfilling... Self-fulfilling come

11:53

up. Well, I'd just like to go on

11:55

the record and say I think it's a good

11:57

and fair and just system for distributing good fortune.

12:00

please send me as much of it as possible in New Year.

12:02

Okay, everyone send your dust to Jane. Yeah,

12:05

yeah, send my good luck dust. I

12:07

don't know why we're talking about New Year now

12:09

when it's actually two weeks, when we will be

12:11

recording another podcast. Oh yeah, good point. But this

12:13

way we are prepared. Yeah. So this

12:16

week we're listening to Season 2 Episode

12:18

4 of Blades in the Dark, which

12:20

is the wardens of Bellwether Crematorium featuring

12:22

Lilith, featuring Kazimir and a load of

12:24

ghosts and gore. Mm-hmm. So

12:27

I look forward to that. Always a good time. Always

12:29

the best of times. And

12:31

oh, also this week at

12:35

work we did a

12:37

little bit of modelling because

12:39

we've never had professional photographs

12:41

taken of us for

12:43

merch purposes. And we've got a bunch of

12:46

new styles coming into the store, a bunch

12:48

of new t-shirt designs, that kind of thing,

12:50

a new baseball cap. And for the first

12:53

time ever, we had a professional photographer because

12:55

our lovely producer, Zach, brought

12:57

in a photographer. How did you find

12:59

Andy? How did you find modelling? Uh,

13:01

kind of awkward. I'm not very good

13:03

at it. I mean, you're very good at it.

13:06

You know what you're doing. Whereas I don't know how to step. I

13:08

didn't feel like I knew what I was doing. The

13:10

photographer was like, now do this thing where you like,

13:13

crane your neck out forward and then put your chin

13:15

down. Oh, I wasn't getting any face direction.

13:17

Yeah, I got face direction. Oh, man. Yeah,

13:19

so... I guess he probably decided there was

13:21

nothing to be done with it. He

13:24

was just like, just try and stand still and keep your

13:26

eyes open. Yeah. Just try

13:28

and reflect light back into the camera. All

13:31

right, I can do that. No, not like that. No, you're

13:33

doing it wrong. But

13:37

I'm super pumped. We saw the previews and

13:39

they actually look pretty good because our merch

13:41

store, bless its heart, has had a lot

13:43

of selfies on it over the years where in

13:46

the absence of professional product photographers, we've

13:49

just taken our own pictures wearing a

13:52

new t-shirt or holding a new

13:54

mug or what have you. So watch this space. It

13:56

was quite nice. The photographer kept saying things like, oh, you've got

13:59

a lovely smile to me. And I was like, man,

14:01

our regular cameramen never say this to me. Our

14:05

camera operators, our video producers, are never like, Andy, what

14:07

a lovely smile you have. Andy, you've

14:09

got really striking eyes. Thank you. Well,

14:12

thank you. Well, maybe that's some feedback

14:14

we can give for when we're shooting

14:16

our next video game video for outside Xbox,

14:18

which is our other channel. By

14:23

the way, youtube.com/OxVenture is where you

14:25

can watch video versions of all

14:27

the OxVenture sessions. And

14:30

if you do that, you get to see

14:32

our splendid costumes and Andy's upset

14:34

smile and wonderful eyes or whatever the photographer told

14:36

me you had. Yeah. And all of

14:38

the faces that we make while we're saying

14:41

things, which to the experience, I think I

14:43

am. And the faces we make when we're

14:45

not saying things. Sometimes I'm just reacting. Acting

14:47

Andy is reacting. Yeah. It's

14:50

active listening, you know. Which doesn't mean

14:52

acting again. Sure.

14:56

I think that's all I've got to say

14:58

right now. I want to listen to some

15:01

Blades in the Dark. How about you? I also

15:03

do want that. Yes. All

15:06

right. Let's go, everybody. Let's listen to

15:08

the warden of Bellwether crematorium. Hello,

15:15

folks, and welcome back to OxVenture presents Blades in

15:17

the Dark. I'm Luke,

15:19

the GM, and I'm joined

15:21

today by Kazimir and by

15:24

Lilith. Hello. How are you

15:26

both doing, Kazimir and Lilith?

15:28

All right. Yeah. Doing

15:31

fine. Nice. Keeping the

15:33

cards close to the chest. Right.

15:36

Downtime. What have Lilith and

15:38

Kazimir been up to since the last time we saw

15:40

them? You get two

15:42

downtime activities. Do not forget. I'd

15:45

like to de-stress

15:49

a little bit. Sure. Do you

15:51

remember what your stress was before? It

15:54

was three. Oh, yeah.

15:56

Okay. Okay. So, like, you

15:59

know, just... Just something so that I can push myself

16:01

this time if I need to as well. Yeah,

16:04

sure. So to de-stress, I

16:07

love to go to the theatre. Oh,

16:09

lovely. Yeah, so I'd

16:11

like it to be slightly less stressful than

16:14

the opera, yeah. I prefer

16:16

watching. Yeah,

16:19

yeah, I

16:21

think, yeah, I would like to try

16:23

and... De-stress?

16:27

Just de-stress. No, it's a full... Calm down.

16:30

I don't mean anything in

16:32

particular by this, but if you fancied some

16:34

company at the theatre, I

16:37

can help you adjust

16:40

the result of your dice outcome

16:43

up or down by one or two, meaning

16:45

you are far less likely to

16:48

overindulge in the theatre and

16:51

suffer some negative consequences. So if you

16:53

don't mind me coming along and... Seriously,

16:55

I need... It's good to have someone with

16:57

me, you can talk about stuff during the interval, and then that

16:59

means I don't go and buy five ice creams. That'll

17:01

be good, yeah. Yeah, all right, that's fine. Yeah,

17:03

I will be doing some maintenance on my leg,

17:06

on the brace. I'll try and be quiet,

17:09

but if it interrupts the

17:11

performance, that's just the natural obligation, isn't

17:13

it? That's fine, that's fine. I'll help

17:16

you out. Are

17:18

you indulging vice as well here, Kazimir? Yes,

17:20

please. I would like to indulge... It does

17:22

make obligation, which I don't want to see.

17:24

Yeah. It almost

17:26

works. So you visit

17:29

and purveyor of your vice, roll dice

17:31

equal to your lowest attributes, so whatever

17:33

that is for both of you, and

17:35

clear stress equal to your highest die

17:37

result, obviously with Kazimir's special

17:40

treat modifications. Two.

17:45

So two, okay. Not allowed by one. Lovely.

17:48

Two plus one is as far as I'm

17:50

aware. Three. Three, yeah. Yep,

17:52

that's still true. Absolutely. I rolled a six,

17:54

which allows me to clear all six of

17:57

my stress. Beautiful.

18:00

Very neat well done. You're both

18:02

feeling incredibly relaxed. What did

18:04

you I mean what a show this must have been it? I

18:07

got rave reviews. I thought let's go check it

18:09

out. Yeah Yeah, exactly the

18:11

right amount of ice cream neither

18:13

too. Yeah, no too little. Yeah

18:16

Exactly enough to feel satisfied not

18:18

enough to feel ripped off by

18:20

high ice cream prices One

18:22

more downtime activity each how you do

18:25

it spending it. I'd like to

18:28

Work towards healing my smashed up body

18:30

level one one, of course Yep,

18:33

so yeah get treatment to tick

18:35

your healing clock. Let's see how many

18:41

The five a five how

18:43

many pieces Got

18:46

a vet friend Yeah,

18:48

so I think it's just one dice isn't it for the vet.

18:50

I think it was a tear. Yeah one. Yeah two

18:53

segments What's

18:57

your harm situation? Lillis you're pretty knocked

19:00

about I'm just one harm level

19:02

one harm. Oh, right. It's okay I'm

19:04

I land I cuz I landed on

19:08

the dude Well,

19:13

yeah, you're feeling all right, let's see if we can

19:15

do something about that today How about you guys me?

19:17

Well, I've got a nice level two bit of curse

19:20

cold damage So because of the mark

19:22

because of the mark. Yeah, so I

19:24

should probably do something about that Yeah,

19:27

so I'll go to the vet say

19:30

listen familiar with

19:32

curse marks I

19:35

assume giant goats get cursed all the

19:37

time So I walk in and I

19:39

just act like it's completely routine.

19:41

Mm-hmm Like I've got fleas or something. All

19:44

right, Doc listen video cursed damage,

19:46

you know what to do Yep,

19:49

I rolled a two He

19:52

does not know what to do at all.

19:54

That's one segment of your healing clock Hard

19:58

to in this game.

20:02

Does he give me like a suppository in a

20:04

bag of oats or something? It's a worming tablet.

20:07

Oh brilliant, oh fantastic. So

20:09

you have never been freer

20:11

of worms Kazimir. Right,

20:13

but unfortunately. My beard is so

20:15

glossy now. Yeah exactly. And

20:18

your nose is wet. That's

20:20

just a mist mate. Foli

20:23

support, what can you do? Okay,

20:25

so you're relaxed, you've had a chance to

20:27

heal up in body if

20:29

not in mind because of the curse damage and of

20:31

course you are both reeling from

20:34

the revelation that Edvard and Barnaby

20:36

brought home that Barnaby may indeed

20:38

have a hitherto

20:40

unknown family connection to the

20:42

alchemical society... Wait, was it

20:45

the Brightstone Society of Analytical

20:47

Alchemistry? Bussaaa! Exactly,

20:50

maybe they've got a cooler, better

20:52

nickname that we'll learn today. So you're

20:54

chilling out at Er... Elinor's

20:57

house when there is a

21:00

knock on the door, Kazimir.

21:04

Specifically at someone asking for Kazimir. I'm sat

21:06

down with my leg up so

21:09

I'm just gonna yell, It's open! The

21:12

door swings open, you

21:14

recognise Kazimir. Unfortunately you

21:17

recognise Erin from the Bill Hooks,

21:19

a gang with whom you have some

21:21

previous affiliation I believe. I

21:24

do, yeah, they were my old outfit before

21:26

the injury. Ooooh boy. Yeah,

21:30

and you remember that Erin is a fairly

21:32

senior member. She...

21:34

strides with her muddy boots into

21:37

the sitting room where you are,

21:39

chilling out, and

21:41

says, Kazimir! Erin,

21:44

my old friend, and I wanna just, quite

21:46

casually, sort of pick up my stick, sort

21:49

of just like lay it across my lap. I feel like I've

21:51

got the other leg crossed. Yeah. And

21:54

just sort of like, just subtly point it at her

21:56

in case I need to set off the hidden gun.

21:58

Chomp, chomp. Like, woah. What

22:01

do I owe the pleasure? How is the

22:04

leg mate? It hurts when it rains. And

22:07

it always bloody rains doesn't it? It

22:09

does mate. Listen Kazimir,

22:12

I'm not going to beat around the bush. You did

22:15

us a disservice didn't you? You remember. Hurt

22:18

one of our own. One of what used to

22:20

be your own. The Bill Hooks would

22:22

like to extend the opportunity for you to

22:24

make things right. We are a generous outfit.

22:28

I know you would like to seize

22:31

that opportunity with both hands. Nothing

22:35

I am sure would bring me

22:38

greater pleasure, Erin. Marvelous marvelous.

22:41

Come by the old shop, noon tomorrow. And

22:44

Erin turns and strides out the room but before

22:46

she goes she turns and says, Oh bring

22:49

the creepy one. Boom! Door

22:51

slam. Erin is gone leaving

22:53

nothing but a ruined carpet. Which

22:57

Elinor sees and shrieks at. Yeah

23:00

I come down and I go, I had a hoover

23:02

that. Edvard

23:05

made this new thing called a

23:07

hoover. Why

23:10

did it keep screaming? Yeah I don't know. Why is

23:12

it alive? He needs to fix

23:14

that. It ain't news that

23:16

you used that you know. I was trying

23:18

to have a nap. I'm

23:21

sorry. Sorry.

23:24

I've just had a bit

23:26

of a morning. Well

23:29

who left these prints? Who was

23:31

this? Who bothered you? Well

23:33

that's exactly it. Let's

23:35

just say, you know

23:38

how when I'm in my cups I like to

23:40

make hints as to my mysterious dealings as part

23:42

of a criminal gang in this city before? Oh

23:44

yeah I like that. I

23:47

think it's quite a cool thing that you do.

23:49

Great. Well the lid is about

23:51

to come off on that. The

23:53

proverbial cat is escape the bag.

23:57

I used to be a billock. Oh

24:00

yeah, oh yeah, oh my goodness, I can't believe

24:02

I didn't see that. You see Ithilalith racking

24:04

her brains trying to remember who the Bill hooks are.

24:06

Yeah. Yeah, no, it's

24:08

obvious what you think about it, isn't it?

24:11

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right, well

24:13

here's the thing, just had an old and

24:15

somewhat muddy acquaintance come in and say that

24:18

I owe them one, which

24:20

in fairness I do. Oh right.

24:22

So if I want to... One

24:25

of what? Well that's

24:27

just the thing, I'm not entirely sure but

24:29

I imagine it will be a stressful and

24:31

possibly bloody favour. They've

24:35

requested my presents and

24:37

also yours tomorrow

24:39

at noon. Wait,

24:42

am I getting a reputation in this

24:44

place? Did they see my performance at

24:46

the opera? I hope not. Well perhaps they

24:48

read the reviews. Either

24:52

way... I'm in

24:56

a spot of bother and I can really use your help and I'll owe

24:58

you one if you help me out. Of

25:03

course, Kazim, of course. Brilliant. It's

25:07

alright, you know you can always ask me for help

25:09

whenever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

25:11

of course, yeah, same goes, same goes. Yeah, don't

25:14

worry. It really meant

25:16

a lot to me that you came in here

25:18

to this, I'm really glad we had fun, it

25:21

was nice. In fairness

25:23

it was, yeah. Just the right amount

25:25

of ice cream. Yeah, it was. It

25:29

sounds like

25:32

you are engaged to head

25:34

to the old shop at

25:36

noon tomorrow. Okay, so

25:38

Kazim, as you will well remember,

25:41

the bill hooks operate out

25:43

of a butcher's shop in

25:46

a less-so-lubrious part of town.

25:48

So let's flash forward to noon the

25:50

next day, where we find you waiting

25:53

just outside said butcher shop. It's

25:55

called Meet Etc. And

26:00

you are ushered through into a back room. It

26:03

looks the whole place looks kind of unhygienic Also,

26:06

it's kind of ostensibly a business But it

26:08

is just filled with people who are clearly

26:10

members of a criminal organization Most

26:13

of them sort of like the

26:15

ones who aren't actively engaged in skullduggery

26:17

are kind of like idly playing with

26:20

butchers knives or Meat

26:22

cleavers they all wear aprons butchers

26:24

aprons that are sort of spattered

26:26

with gore As

26:29

a point of pride they don't wash those very often

26:33

And you're led through to the back

26:35

room where Erin is waiting behind

26:37

a table in this room are long

26:40

rows of hanging carcasses goats

26:42

pigs and other things that you can't

26:44

identify because they've been hanging there a

26:46

long time without their skin and

26:49

at the back wall is a rose

26:51

upon rose of cages Full

26:54

of furious barking death hounds When

26:57

they see you Lilith they all start

26:59

barking furiously, but actually when Kazimir walks

27:02

in after you they all quiet down

27:04

I guess maybe they remember you Kazimir

27:09

Erin just just for you to have a seat Erin

27:13

I'm glad to see the gang's dedication

27:15

to getting tetanus every fortnight hasn't abated

27:17

since I left Just

27:20

have my jabs Kazimir She

27:23

pulls open a drawer which is full

27:25

of like brass syringes Don't

27:28

know where we got these weren't

27:30

legal But we reckon

27:33

it's the right kind of medicine Sure.

27:35

Yeah, you know you always you always

27:37

were the brains of the outfit meat,

27:40

etc Yeah Because

27:43

well, there's me good and then there's

27:45

me, you know and often they both

27:48

taste pretty pretty pretty all right Hmm.

27:52

Yeah, I think all right is exactly Let

27:57

me let me get straight down to business

28:00

shall I? Tell

28:02

me Kazimir, or you, what's your

28:04

name? You can call me Lilith. Right,

28:07

Lilith. You,

28:09

er, you

28:11

like ghosts and that. Have you ever

28:13

been to Bellwither Crematorium? No.

28:19

Kazimir reels at the mention of the name.

28:21

Why might that be Kazimir? It's

28:23

just bleeding horrible. That's

28:26

where the Death Wardens operate out of. That's

28:28

right. Every dead in the city goes there

28:30

to be disposed of in such a way,

28:33

the ghosts won't emerge from it. That

28:36

is absolutely true. This is,

28:38

for those who've been following

28:40

along with the gang's adventures,

28:42

the source of Volusport's

28:45

unique ability to have a loud

28:47

bell ring in the vicinity of

28:49

any murder, which is

28:51

the signal that sends the spirit wardens

28:54

and their team of trained crows

28:56

hurrying to the location

29:00

of the deceased

29:03

to take the corpse away and dispose of it in

29:05

a way that kills the

29:07

ghost. It's Volusport's way of

29:09

keeping the enormous

29:11

ghost population and ghost problem

29:14

somewhat under control, but

29:16

needless to say, the wardens

29:19

themselves are absolutely terrifying

29:22

and nobody likes to talk about them.

29:25

Think about them, much less go to

29:27

visit them. They all wear identical

29:29

bronze masks with just like two small

29:32

circles for an eyelid in a kind

29:34

of like rectangular bar where

29:36

the mouth would be, and they pride

29:38

themselves on their secrecy and their anonymity. They

29:41

don't use names in the organisation. One warden

29:44

is as good as another. With the sole

29:46

exception of

29:48

their de facto leader,

29:50

Bakaros, who still

29:53

wears the mask and such, but sometimes gives

29:55

lectures at the College of Immortal

29:57

Studies at Volusport Academy. But

30:00

beyond that, very little is known. For

30:02

all you know, Bakaros could

30:04

be more than one person. Again,

30:07

the anonymity and the mask is

30:10

pretty complete. Anyway, all

30:13

of this flashes through your memories

30:16

in a moment. Fort

30:18

Eren says, yeah, the

30:20

wardens, bellwether. Listen,

30:26

we achieved what many thought

30:29

to be impossible. We

30:32

put an agent in

30:35

among the wardens. We

30:37

infiltrated them. It

30:39

took a long time and a great deal of

30:41

skill and no small measure of expense, but we

30:43

did it. We wanted to find out

30:46

what's going on up there. Maybe

30:49

destabilize them. Bakaros

30:52

is, well, I don't know

30:54

if you've read or if you've heard. He's

30:57

becoming weird

31:00

and isolated. Unhinged,

31:02

some say. Even

31:04

for a warden. Anyway,

31:08

we put an agent in. Her name is

31:10

Teren. She was supposed to report every fortnight

31:12

and we haven't heard from her in a

31:14

month. So she's now missed two

31:18

check-ins. It's

31:20

time for X-ville. Please go

31:22

to bellwether crematorium. Get

31:25

our agent Teren out of there, please. How

31:33

can I put this? If

31:35

you've not heard from her in a month, she's

31:38

already been exfiltrated up the chimney.

31:42

Well, then I require proof that that has

31:45

happened, Kazimir. No loose ends. Kaz,

31:50

she's seeing your hesitation. Erin

31:53

calls over. Aye. Get her

31:56

in here. You see the

31:58

bill hook who's you previously

32:01

mangled quite badly, Kazimir, kind of

32:04

limping into a doorway and fixing

32:06

you with a very steely grin.

32:09

They're on crutches. And Erinn

32:12

just needs I remind you,

32:16

Kazimir, we don't take kindly to

32:18

this kind of thing. So,

32:21

that's the favour we want from you. I'd say

32:23

is that or all out war? I

32:26

genuinely don't care. Okay,

32:31

er, right, well, Kazimir,

32:34

Kazimir, this

32:37

sounds terrifying but so does all

32:39

out war. I mean, if all

32:42

out war we'll still have to deal with the

32:44

wardens. Yeah.

32:49

I'll be honest with you, Lilith, I don't think we can take them.

32:52

But do we have to take them? No,

32:57

we can play along on this one. We'll

33:00

find a way, we'll do it, we'll do it. Come

33:02

on. We can do it. Yeah.

33:05

No, you're right, you're right. You're

33:07

right, let's do this. Well,

33:09

that was very heartwarming, what a pet talk. Listen,

33:13

how long are you going to need to do this job? As

33:16

long as it takes. No,

33:20

really, how long? How

33:23

long can you give us? Bear in mind,

33:25

whatever you say, I will dramatically halve it.

33:29

A week. Four weeks. Four weeks.

33:32

You have 24 hours. Yeah, okay,

33:34

right, yeah. Again, again, you

33:36

always were the brains behind the arse

33:38

here, my friend. It's lovely to see

33:40

you again. Yep,

33:43

anyway, time for my booster. I'll leave you to

33:45

it. Come back when the job is done. And

33:48

she pulls one of the brass syringes out the cup and

33:50

just jams it into her thigh. Ah,

33:53

that's stuff. Can

33:56

I idle over to you, was it Teryn? Taren

34:00

is the agent who is the agent. Oh no,

34:02

sorry, Taren's the agent. I'm not sure if we

34:04

gave a name to the, um... The one that

34:06

I mangled. The one you mangled, yeah. Oh no,

34:08

we did. I think it was Ziggy. Or, I've

34:10

got Ziggy in my notes. Ziggy! Okay, yeah, I

34:13

think it was Ziggy. If it's alright,

34:15

I'd like to sidle up to Ziggy. Yeah. And

34:17

just sort of have a very quiet word, be

34:19

like, Listen, sorry

34:22

about your legs, but in my experience, the

34:25

less mobile, I haven't really

34:27

held on to for very long in the bill hooks.

34:29

So if you want out at the end of all

34:32

this, you just, um... You drop

34:34

me a line, alright? Ziggy, uh...

34:37

locks eyes with the eucasm here and imperceptibly

34:40

nods, and then, in

34:42

a much showier way, gives you a shove and

34:44

says, Get off! Get out of

34:47

here! Alright, mate. Idiot.

34:51

Idiot. Hate them. And...

34:55

crutches away. Alright.

34:59

So, I'll give you a little bit of

35:02

planning time. Obviously not too much,

35:04

because bear in mind, a lot of your planning can be

35:06

done in flashback. Mm-hmm. In

35:08

retrospect, but if you want to take some

35:10

time to just figure out the outline of

35:12

how you're gonna get this favour favoured,

35:17

go for it. Okay. I

35:19

mean, how

35:21

do you infiltrate Bellwether without being dead?

35:25

Kazme, I'm gonna reveal something to you, and I'd like you to

35:27

keep it on the down low. Alright.

35:30

Okay, so... you

35:33

know that I'm here, like,

35:35

for studies, right? Yeah. That...

35:39

it's not the only reason I'm here. Okay.

35:44

I'm also... after

35:48

a particular ghost, because

35:53

I am a ghost

35:56

assassin. Okay,

36:01

so I moved

36:04

here because I'm after a particular

36:06

person because when they died the

36:08

wardens didn't get them. Right.

36:12

And it's my job to finish the job. All

36:14

other ghosts are fine to me. I'm

36:17

actually very pro-ghost but this particular ghost is

36:19

not great. But it does mean that I

36:21

might have a way in with

36:24

the wardens. That is fantastic.

36:29

I have one question. Does

36:32

this pay well because it seems like

36:34

an extraordinary amount of work. Like

36:37

killing a person, alright,

36:39

guess a coin, they'll

36:42

be in the river. Assassinating

36:44

a ghost. Please

36:47

tell me you've at least got like dental

36:49

or you

36:52

know like a lot of

36:54

paid leave or something. Well,

36:58

my family, I come from quite a

37:01

rich family and that's

37:03

because we all do

37:05

this. I was born into it.

37:08

Right. We try

37:10

and keep the ghost world just

37:12

as safe as the real world

37:14

because it's all well and good murdering

37:17

someone if they're then just

37:19

going to torment the people on the other side. Yeah,

37:22

yeah. Alright. Well,

37:25

I don't do it for financial gain, Kazimir.

37:28

They do it because it makes them feel

37:30

good. I

37:32

don't do it. Oh my god.

37:36

Oh, I get it. We'll

37:38

edit that out. No, you know it would be bloody

37:40

white. Right.

37:45

Well, but

37:47

basically my family might be

37:50

able to get me in as a

37:52

kind of family. Yeah, a

37:54

little bit of an inter. Well,

37:56

I'm studying at the university as well.

38:02

I'm there on a

38:05

trip not just for my education but

38:07

also for work so yeah internship would

38:09

also yeah. All right. We

38:13

could do a shadowing day

38:15

and so that you're interested in

38:17

joining the profession as someone

38:21

who made a lot of enemies with

38:24

the bill hooks and

38:26

who doesn't want to be bothered by them on the other side or

38:28

you know all that sort of stuff. Maybe we

38:30

should leave the bill hooks out of this if they have

38:33

caught a bill hook. Very true.

38:35

It's a very good way of letting them

38:37

know we're involved. I

38:40

mean I have made a lot of enemies across the

38:42

city full stop. Yeah. So we won't

38:44

be lying. No. Unless it's a lie

38:46

by omission to say that I've pissed off

38:48

a lot of people in the bill hooks

38:50

as well. Yes. Yeah no no

38:52

it's fine. We're covering everything. Right.

38:56

Internship. I love it.

38:58

All right. Keep going. Yeah. I'll

39:01

go and like talk to one of my lecturers

39:04

and see if they can get

39:06

us in as soon as possible. Yeah.

39:09

Sounds horrible. Let's do it. Yeah.

39:12

Yeah. I am very reluctant about

39:14

this plan. Mm hmm. Go thin. Excellent.

39:18

Whoo. Well I'm not particularly excited about it

39:20

either but it's that or go in all.

39:24

Oh. I

39:26

mean my adrenal glands are working overtime.

39:28

Yeah. So I'm not not excited in

39:31

a medical sense to do this. Mm

39:33

hmm. I'm just of course filled with a tremendous

39:35

sense of dread and

39:39

regret surrounding most

39:42

of my life choices. No

39:45

I get that. We've all been there. Yeah

39:47

I get that. Was that a better pep talk? I

39:50

can't. I'm not. This has never been my strong

39:53

suit mate. It was an honest talk

39:55

and I appreciate that. Great. Okay.

39:58

Okay so Lilith you're going. to the

40:01

university and basically

40:03

going to try and pull some strings, lean

40:05

on your family's influence to try

40:07

and get an internship with

40:11

the spirit wardens up

40:13

at Bellweather Crematorium. I

40:15

think the only thing that needs

40:17

clarifying at this point is how

40:19

exactly does Kazimir fit into this?

40:21

Will he be rocking up to

40:24

the crematorium with you? Is

40:26

he going to try and get in by some

40:28

other means? What is his cover if there is

40:31

a cover? I mean it'd be ideal if I

40:33

just had my feet up at home but it

40:35

doesn't really seem fair to put the entire job

40:37

on Lilith. It

40:40

ain't necessarily the

40:42

most intricate

40:46

of plans but what

40:48

if yours truly just sort of

40:51

camped out around say, crows foot

40:53

until somebody inevitably got offed, follow

40:56

the crow, wait till the carriage

40:59

turns up, hop on the back. So

41:02

I go in the front, you sneak in and

41:05

we meet up inside perhaps?

41:09

With any luck, yeah.

41:11

I am going to be shaking in my boots.

41:14

That's alright, well basically if anything

41:17

goes bad for you I can

41:19

create a distraction vice versa. I

41:21

like it. Excellent. Cool. I

41:24

feel like we're engagement role

41:26

ready. Load! What's

41:30

everyone's load? I've

41:32

got to go normal. I'd

41:35

love to go heavy but I ain't getting on the back

41:37

of a carriage with half

41:40

the shop on my bike. I'm going

41:42

to pull the student card and go

41:44

heavy and pretend it's a bag full of

41:46

books. Like a

41:48

big briefcase or something. Well no, like

41:50

a big satchel kind of thing that I've got

41:53

on my back. I'm like, I'm

41:55

here to learn. Alright,

41:57

cool. Fair enough. That sounds

41:59

good. to me what kind of

42:01

plan is this it's

42:04

very much sounding like well there's

42:06

maybe deception or stealth lure trickle

42:08

manipulate or trespass unseen I guess

42:10

it's a combination of both it

42:13

sounds more like deception to me for which the detail

42:16

required is the method of deception and

42:18

I think you've actually explained that pretty

42:20

well we've got Lilith going in under

42:22

the guise of an internship meanwhile

42:25

Kazmir is going to hang around a

42:28

particular seedy part of town where someone's bound

42:30

to die wait for it to happen then

42:32

when the crow appears and

42:34

the wardens appear sneak

42:37

into the carriage with the corpse

42:39

and gain entry that

42:41

way okay 1d for

42:44

the sheer hell of it

42:46

mm-hmm particularly bold or daring

42:48

always expose

42:51

the vulnerability or hit them with

42:53

their weakest no particular

42:55

defenses or preparations no

42:59

I don't but no so yeah that no neither

43:01

one plus one or minus one there can

43:04

any friends or contacts

43:07

provide aid yes let

43:10

me hear how well I'm getting the

43:12

internship and I can get my okay family to

43:15

work for me cool any other

43:17

elements to consider no I

43:19

don't think so the only thing that

43:22

I want to say before we begin

43:24

is that although you played it very

43:26

cool both of you in front of

43:28

the bill hooks when

43:30

the name back eros was mentioned the

43:33

de facto leader of the wardens both

43:36

of you had to keep a

43:38

very very very chill poker face on

43:41

because it was one of the names on the

43:44

list but Edvard and

43:47

Barnaby okay right that's three

43:50

die are we ready no let's

43:57

do this We've

44:01

got a two, a

44:05

three, a four.

44:09

Okay so that

44:11

is mediocre.

44:15

Mediocre. Yeah

44:17

okay let's say

44:19

this. We'll flash forward now.

44:22

Here's what's happening. Lilith you

44:24

have just been led inside Bellwether

44:26

crematorium. Although it's kind of it's

44:29

not on the outskirts of town it's actually quite

44:31

central. It stands apart from all the

44:33

other buildings. It's like all the other architecture is

44:35

trying to like lean away from this place

44:37

almost. It's a huge round

44:41

stone and concrete building. It's

44:43

kind of a weird mixture of

44:46

Gothic and brutalist possibly

44:48

owing to the fact that the Wardens,

44:50

although they deal in the

44:53

spiritual and are in the business of

44:55

dealing with ghosts and

44:57

the afterlife, they actually approach it

44:59

in an extremely scientific

45:02

and technical way. Some

45:05

of the most spectacular

45:08

oscillotronic devices exist

45:11

in are in are used by the Wardens.

45:13

If only you could get your hands on

45:15

them. And you are

45:19

being led in to the

45:21

front door by the first

45:23

Warden you meet whose name you don't

45:25

know. They have a long grey cloak

45:28

and the bronze mask. You

45:31

see at their hip a sort

45:33

of a long metal

45:35

mace. All the Wardens carry an

45:38

identical metal

45:40

mace like this. The

45:43

Warden has sort of leaned in uncomfortably

45:46

close to you Lilith and

45:48

just said, follow me.

45:52

Okay. Sort

45:55

of drifted into

45:57

the building. You follow the place inside.

46:00

It is deeply

46:02

creepy, it's dark,

46:05

oscillotronically lit, there's no candlelight here,

46:08

but it's like harsh light,

46:10

and the light doesn't seem to extend

46:12

very far, there are lots of weird

46:14

creepy shadows in every corner

46:16

it seems. The place is run with

46:19

military efficiency, as you

46:21

see when you walk in. Wardens

46:24

move around as if they're on rails,

46:26

like that's how clockwork the operation of

46:29

this place is. You're an intern right? So

46:31

you've got the worst job. You

46:35

are led right around to the back of the building,

46:38

into the loading bay. This is where corpses

46:41

are brought into the

46:44

building. There's a big

46:47

square door that faces out onto the

46:49

street where carriages roll up, and corpses

46:51

are taken out for

46:54

processing. And

46:57

in this room there is a large conveyor

46:59

belt that takes corpses

47:01

up into a separate room, there's a

47:03

sign above the conveyor belt that

47:05

says. So

47:09

you're in this room, you

47:11

are led over to a carriage that

47:13

has recently arrived, inside it is stuffed

47:15

with corpses, and

47:18

the warden gestures towards you

47:20

as if to indicate start loading in turn,

47:22

but first holds up her hand and says.

47:26

Your bag. Pardon.

47:29

Get him? What's happened? Um,

47:32

I have a-

47:34

You guys virtually? Uh,

47:41

I, yeah, um,

47:46

of course. And

47:48

I allow him to search

47:50

the bag. Cool. The

47:53

warden opens the bag. Now

47:55

be honest, Lilith, is it just books in here? Um,

47:59

it's- There's a bunch of

48:01

books and

48:04

then there's one or

48:06

two books that actually have like hidden compartments.

48:09

Okay. The

48:11

warden starts picking

48:14

up, very,

48:16

very, very methodically, places the bag

48:18

down on a table, removes

48:21

each individual book, places them in

48:23

a neat row. Moving

48:26

from the left and moving to the right, picks up a

48:28

book, turns it round, inspects

48:30

every edge, flips through all of

48:32

the pages. There is nothing in this

48:34

book. Okay. It places

48:36

it back down, moves on to the next

48:38

book. At this point,

48:41

let's jump to Kazimir and find out what Kazimir is doing. Okay,

48:44

so Kazimir, your

48:46

situation is this. You were

48:49

so... Yeah, you

48:52

hung around a crow's foot. You witnessed a

48:55

murder. There's

48:57

no need to go into what kind of murder it was, but it

48:59

wasn't a good one. It was not

49:02

a good death. Sure

49:04

enough, you heard the telltale boom

49:06

in your vicinity. You've heard it

49:09

a few times and

49:11

it's actually a little weird to hear it

49:13

and not be sprinting in the opposite direction

49:15

when you do. All along, a crow

49:19

begins to circle and

49:21

comes down, sat on the corpse, like

49:24

that. And then it's

49:26

not very long again before the wardens arrive

49:28

with their wagon. As

49:31

they open the back, they have

49:35

prepared kind of a sort of rudimentary

49:37

coffin. They sometimes do this

49:39

in cases like normally, as you've already seen,

49:41

Lillith, they just bundle the bodies in. But

49:44

if the body is not

49:46

easily bundled, they

49:48

do have a big metal box. almost

50:00

all of the body gets into the box.

50:02

Kazumi, you spot your opening and you hop

50:04

into that box and you

50:07

pull down the lid and

50:09

you are feeling very, very smug as the

50:11

carriage rolls away right up until the point

50:13

where you just decide to test it just

50:15

to maybe refresh the air in here and

50:18

find, oh, it's not

50:20

fudging. OK,

50:22

back to Lillis. OK,

50:25

I go, look, I'll

50:28

be honest with you. And I

50:30

take one of the books with the hidden compartments and

50:33

I open it to reveal. Within

50:36

it is a spirit bottle. And I was like,

50:38

look, I should have checked

50:41

with you. I'm so sorry.

50:43

I should have checked with you. This

50:46

was one that I contained myself earlier. And

50:48

this is actually one flashback.

50:52

I asked, I had this idea of

50:54

I get them to be really on

50:56

my side if I got the

50:59

ghost of a really horrible person who had done

51:01

awful things that I could just

51:03

be like, look, I've brought you this. Put it into

51:05

the contraption. Here is a gift. I

51:08

was hoping to show it

51:10

to you later. And I'm

51:13

really sorry. I

51:16

wanted it to be a surprise. If I understand

51:18

if this isn't the way to go about it,

51:20

I'm dreadfully sorry. I

51:22

can only apologize. Sure. Catching

51:26

a really scary spirit. Take

51:29

two stress for the flashback. But yeah, that's

51:31

going to be it. The

51:36

warden, having heard

51:38

your explanation, holds up

51:40

this bottle and holds it up

51:42

to the light. There's a sort of angry

51:45

kind of swirling inside. Highly

51:48

irregular. And

51:50

yet this is a soul that

51:53

I will greatly enjoy destroying.

51:57

You have a gift. You

52:00

have my thanks. And

52:03

the warden sort of glides over

52:05

to the conveyor belt and just

52:07

very gently and carefully places it

52:09

there. And

52:12

off it goes, up for processing.

52:16

Marvelous. Thank you. Thank

52:20

you, I put everything away. Your bag

52:22

is confirmed. Minus one load as well,

52:24

I guess. Okay. And your bag is

52:26

returned to you. Jumping

52:29

back to Kazimir, things are getting very stuffy inside

52:32

this box. You're

52:35

not... Well,

52:38

you're running out of air. Okay. But

52:42

the good news is that the carriage appears

52:44

to be slowing. There's

52:47

a kind of gentle, uphill incline.

52:51

Obviously you don't know where you are or how

52:53

fast you've been going. What

52:56

do you want to do? Okay,

52:58

firstly, flashback one hour

53:00

ago. Okay. All

53:07

right, I'm good. I

53:10

think... Ooh,

53:12

this is tricky. No,

53:14

I'm going to have to do this. I'm going

53:16

to tick

53:18

two boxes of load. Okay. To

53:21

give myself some demolition tools. Cool.

53:25

So what this normally is, you'll remember from the

53:27

time before I expertly play some explosives and nothing

53:29

went wrong. Yes. Basically,

53:33

what we've got is sort of a sappers

53:35

kit. So it's a bunch

53:37

of charges, but more

53:39

importantly, there's a little hand drill

53:42

that allows me to basically make

53:44

a cylinder into which

53:46

I can insert a charge so that, say, we've

53:48

got a pillar that needs blowing up or something

53:50

like that, we can do that.

53:54

What I would like to do with it is

53:56

make some air holes, as if I am a

53:58

beetle in a jar. Yeah. Yeah,

54:00

thanks. All right. I'd

54:03

say like yeah, you've picked the load You've

54:06

got the drill you're just drilling the

54:09

holes Yeah Like

54:12

that not only do you get some air but

54:15

you you manage a huge

54:17

relief, but you do manage pressing your eye

54:19

to it You actually

54:21

are able to get a view out of

54:23

the out through the bars that kind of

54:25

make up the back of this carriage And

54:27

you can see this kind of streets Going

54:31

past this that as the carriage trumbles along suddenly

54:33

the light starts to fade as like

54:37

that as you enter into what looks

54:39

from your very tiny hole to be

54:41

some kind of loading bay past a

54:43

series of large square doors

54:46

and you actually hear a voice You

54:50

hear the people hop off the hop

54:52

off the carriage they go you can see them out through

54:54

the hole They've got some kind of clipboard Something

54:57

is signed for receipt nerds.

55:00

Yeah, exactly. They hit there they head off to

55:02

the break room you see a

55:05

warden Come

55:07

up to the back of the the carriage

55:10

go as if to Lift your

55:12

box and then they pause for a

55:14

minute. Are they looking at the holes? Have

55:17

they seen you? Then

55:20

they back up a moment ago In

55:24

turn An

55:30

opportunity for you to learn on the

55:32

job take the

55:34

corpse place it on Okay,

55:43

okay I

55:47

will I will I will do that glide

55:49

wooden glides away go

55:52

through another carriage starts We

55:54

can in corpses out Okay,

55:58

so like I I open the box

56:00

and go... Yeah,

56:04

you find Kazimir in a pool

56:07

of gore. Holding

56:09

a little drill. He looks

56:12

very much like he's just killed someone with a tiny

56:14

drill. Yeah, I'm already

56:16

like, it's not what it looks like. I

56:20

don't know what it looks like. Is

56:24

it bad? Urgh! I'm

56:27

sure it'll wash out. I'm sure

56:29

it'll wash out. It's fine. Okay,

56:31

right. I think I'm gonna put you

56:33

on the conveyor belt. And

56:35

then just roll off, okay? When

56:39

you get to a quiet bit, because there are some

56:41

bits where it goes like behind the scenery, alright? Yeah,

56:44

but doesn't it end up at the furnace?

56:46

Yeah, and roll off before the furnace, ideally.

56:48

I don't want to fall in the furnace. I'm

56:51

just saying that there's an inherent risk that I

56:53

didn't anticipate. What have you got in a box

56:55

of gore? Yes, well it was my

56:58

only option, wasn't it? Was it? Get

57:00

me on the belt! Alright! Hold

57:04

on, I'll try. I'm being

57:06

really careful of his leg. I

57:09

kind of like hoik him out. Yes?

57:12

Your task is taking longer

57:14

than the standard allotted corpse

57:16

unloading time. Do you

57:19

require assistance or additional training?

57:21

Um, I'm okay. It's just my upper

57:23

body strength I'm going to dip. I

57:26

will assist you. No, no, no, no, it's fine.

57:28

I can do it. I've just got to, you

57:30

know, I've got to believe in myself and get

57:33

the right stance. Make sure, you know, bend the knees,

57:35

not the back, you know? Self-belief

57:38

has little input and physical

57:40

strength, but I suppose you

57:43

must learn these things for yourself. You

57:45

can turn. Yes, thank you.

57:47

Alright, I like. Heave.

57:51

Cool. Casimir, carefully. This box is super

57:53

heavy because it's a big metal box

57:55

and it's got a Casimir in it

57:57

and by volume another person as well.

58:00

well so

58:02

I think I think to get this on to the conveyor

58:04

belt oh I'm trying to I'm trying to pull Kazimir

58:06

out of it to put him on the conveyor oh

58:08

right okay I'll just be like there

58:11

was there was a mix up one of the bodies got

58:13

put in here oh cool

58:15

so Kazimir's going limp

58:17

and yeah I thought

58:20

you meant just roll

58:22

out of the box

58:24

or roll the conveyor

58:26

belt I was gonna be like

58:28

oh there was a problem with the you know

58:31

the guys of the cart didn't do it right

58:33

so I'm pulling you out of the box first

58:35

great lovely no problem and then on

58:37

to the thing Lillith you drag Kazimir

58:39

up to the conveyor belt to your

58:41

left and right spirit wardens are also

58:43

doing the same thing like coming back

58:45

like you know piling

58:48

corpses up onto onto this conveyor belt and

58:50

then gliding off back to a carriage coming

58:53

back with another corpse so

58:55

this conveyor belt you actually have to wait

58:57

a little bit for that for there to

58:59

be a spot you never realize quite how

59:01

many people are dying in foeless ports yeah

59:05

yeah it's a real production line of death but

59:09

eventually a spot

59:11

does come along and you sort

59:14

of half shove half roll

59:16

Kazimir up onto this conveyor

59:18

belt Kazimir you're

59:20

kind of like lying there with your eyes closed

59:23

I suppose but you couldn't you

59:25

can feel the kind of the

59:27

conveyor belt and Lillith you

59:30

see Kazimir has serenely carried

59:32

away off round

59:34

a little 90 degree bend and then up

59:37

a slope that goes like

59:39

that and through a sort

59:41

of narrow passage in the wall

59:44

underneath the sign that

59:47

I mentioned before that

59:49

says prep get off

59:51

the cool prep get off

59:53

in the prep bit at this point let's switch to

59:56

yeah Kazimir The

1:00:01

conveyor belt sort of like pushes

1:00:03

you off onto what feels

1:00:05

like a metal table. Perhaps

1:00:10

risking opening an eye just

1:00:12

a teensy bit. You see

1:00:14

that on this large, long,

1:00:17

long, long kind of metal table.

1:00:19

This is where all of the corpses are

1:00:21

being pushed. Wardens are stood all

1:00:23

along this table and they are taking the

1:00:25

corpses. They basically

1:00:27

pull them off. This

1:00:30

is preparation for cremation, or

1:00:32

what is called cremation by

1:00:35

the spirit wardens. It

1:00:38

basically involves taking all the

1:00:40

clothes off, getting any valuables

1:00:42

off. They

1:00:45

are offset because of

1:00:47

running the place. Any precious metals left

1:00:49

on the corpses are melted

1:00:51

down. They

1:00:54

only take off certain items

1:00:57

of clothing. There are two wardens in this room

1:00:59

currently doing this job. But

1:01:08

they are working very fast. They have little knives.

1:01:13

They go like that down a

1:01:15

corpses whole outfit and then just grab

1:01:18

the clothes on one side and spin the bodies

1:01:20

out. Clothes

1:01:22

go like that. It is

1:01:24

all automatically sorted. A magnet pulls out any

1:01:27

valuables. Yes, that is

1:01:29

the situation you are in. Okay.

1:01:41

I would like to... I am off

1:01:44

the conveyor belt and I am just on the table now. Yes,

1:01:46

you are on the table. You are kind of in a queue,

1:01:48

a corpse queue. But

1:01:51

near the conveyor belt. I

1:01:56

am going to roll off the table and hit

1:01:58

the floor. like

1:02:00

I'm dead. Alright. The

1:02:03

idea being sort of, I'm just like,

1:02:05

WOMP! Face down. Cool. Yeah,

1:02:07

no need to roll for that. Yeah, you, you, um,

1:02:10

you roll off, pffft, like that, and face

1:02:12

plant on the floor. Uh,

1:02:14

you hear a, an exasperated cutting

1:02:16

from one of the wardens who

1:02:19

glides, glides over and seems,

1:02:21

and, and says something to the other. The

1:02:24

conveyor belt is incredibly inefficient.

1:02:29

I have told them many times a

1:02:32

wider aperture would

1:02:34

decrease the likelihood of

1:02:36

corpse, um, diss,

1:02:39

dissim carrying, by

1:02:41

30% or perhaps as much

1:02:43

as 40%, um,

1:02:46

and crouches down, Kazimir, going as

1:02:48

if to pick you up, I suppose, and

1:02:51

haul you back up. Lovely. So,

1:02:54

I'm kind of hoping that their plan is to

1:02:56

grab me by the arms and sort of, you

1:02:58

know, like, when you pull someone up towards you,

1:03:00

and they kind of slump, and then you fireman's

1:03:02

lift them? Yep. As they

1:03:04

start to bring me in, um,

1:03:07

my plan is, I

1:03:09

don't need to take a box of load

1:03:11

for it, thankfully, because I'm a spider, but

1:03:14

I've got a vial of slumber essence. Ooh! And

1:03:17

the plan is, basically, to

1:03:19

just, like, punt,

1:03:22

like, just be like bloop, and just blum-bum-bum-bum-bum,

1:03:24

and just feed them a bit of slumber

1:03:27

essence, like, massage their neck. Yep. Night-night.

1:03:31

Alright. Yep, great, I

1:03:33

love it. Um, in fact, because I'm, right,

1:03:35

I'm willing to, very willing to roll

1:03:37

for this, obviously, what I would like to do is, um, is,

1:03:43

when they go down, just go down

1:03:45

with them. Okay. And

1:03:48

then I would like to basically go,

1:03:52

this one is heavier than expected, but

1:03:55

we're already behind schedule, I've

1:03:57

got this. Yep. Yeah,

1:04:01

okay, yeah, let's do all that with one

1:04:03

roll. Okay. I'm

1:04:06

gonna try and roll prowl, because this is

1:04:08

sneaky. Sure. Okay.

1:04:10

Don't forget, as ever, you can push yourself,

1:04:12

ask for his bargains, splash back all the

1:04:14

shoulders. I rolled a five. Cool, great. I

1:04:17

rolled two fives and a three, so

1:04:19

like meh. I rolled a five,

1:04:21

basically. Yeah. Alright, yeah.

1:04:23

Yes, as the warden picks you

1:04:26

up by the shoulders, yeah, you

1:04:28

spin round quickly and quietly,

1:04:30

whipping out your slumber essence and just

1:04:32

basically pour it. You

1:04:35

realize suddenly like, oh, there isn't really an obvious mouth

1:04:37

here, but there is like a slit where the mouth

1:04:39

should be, so you kind of pour, just jam it

1:04:41

in there and a bit in the eye holes as

1:04:43

well. And there's a momentary,

1:04:47

but the slumber essence does

1:04:50

its job, and the

1:04:52

warden who held you

1:04:54

crumples down, and you do

1:04:56

the same thing. There should be a small

1:04:58

complication with this, so let's say that when you

1:05:01

do crumple to the floor, you end up

1:05:03

under the warden, who... Yeah,

1:05:06

so you're just kind of, you're a little bit pinned

1:05:08

to the ground, but you get off the message to

1:05:10

the other one. This one is a little heavier. Okay.

1:05:13

Etc, etc, etc. Okay.

1:05:16

Flashback. Yep. Yes.

1:05:21

In anticipation that I

1:05:23

might need a quick

1:05:26

costume change at some point during

1:05:29

this particular score, I

1:05:32

asked if Edvard could try out

1:05:34

the prototype of the wonderful

1:05:38

IHOOK clothing retention system that

1:05:40

he's been trying out so

1:05:43

recently. Sure. So

1:05:45

sort of stripes of that, sort of down the

1:05:47

sides of the trousers so I can, you

1:05:49

know, do a

1:05:52

similar sort of thing on the front. So

1:05:55

the idea being obviously that I can

1:05:57

disrobe with alarming

1:05:59

speed. Yes Yeah,

1:06:03

absolutely take one stress

1:06:05

this absolutely happened Edvard was only

1:06:07

too happy Edvard did go

1:06:09

back to the lab and and then returned

1:06:12

with the I hook clothing

1:06:14

retention Technology, but it was so quick that

1:06:16

you think you must have already had it

1:06:18

already had it. Yeah It

1:06:21

was as simple as him going to his wardrobe Yeah,

1:06:25

okay, so you are head to

1:06:27

head to toe in what we would colloquially

1:06:29

call velcro Mm-hmm All

1:06:32

right, brilliant. Oh, I'm not though Yeah,

1:06:34

when we flash back basically, yeah, I would

1:06:36

like to try and start a costume change

1:06:38

whereby obviously the warden doesn't

1:06:40

need to have any clothes

1:06:43

on because I'm gonna put them under

1:06:45

the conveyor and hope that the body

1:06:47

just Gets missed. Yep, but That

1:06:50

no one knows what they look like And

1:06:53

I'm I'm just gonna try and pop up as

1:06:55

a warden and sort of put the body back

1:07:00

But not yet such in a way that it is

1:07:02

gonna get cremated. Yeah, let's um, I feel like we

1:07:05

should Roll for

1:07:07

this again, but so you've already

1:07:09

taken one stress. Let's yeah from

1:07:12

a controlled position You get

1:07:14

this is going to plan so far. So yeah,

1:07:16

just don't with it Hey,

1:07:20

that's a crit Sixes

1:07:23

on a prowl Yeah,

1:07:27

you were you just slowly rise up Like

1:07:31

that from the conveyor belt

1:07:33

the other warden kind of just

1:07:35

looks over momentarily, but

1:07:38

once they see that you're back there recommencing

1:07:42

work I shall increase

1:07:44

my The speed

1:07:46

of my operations within safe

1:07:48

parameters to ensure quality in order

1:07:50

to make up for the deficit

1:07:53

Barfulous barfulous keep the parameters safe.

1:07:55

The other one says and continues.

1:07:57

Yes the parameters. Yep Yeah,

1:08:00

okay, so you are now, I

1:08:03

guess, at work. Mm-hmm.

1:08:06

But, yeah, great costume changing. It

1:08:09

was a crit, right? So you absolutely took that mace.

1:08:12

Oh, amazing. Great. Yeah. As

1:08:15

you kind of hitched it round

1:08:18

your hip, you thought it was

1:08:20

a little unusual, a little

1:08:22

bit lo-fi for a group

1:08:24

as notoriously tech-savvy

1:08:27

as the Wardens. But

1:08:29

as you run your hand along it, in fact,

1:08:32

almost as if you were kind of striking

1:08:34

a match, you can feel a kind

1:08:36

of static charge build up and a kind

1:08:39

of faint, crackling hum.

1:08:42

You get the impression that were you to let

1:08:44

your hand along this thing, it would burst into

1:08:47

arcing blue electric mace.

1:08:51

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incredible savings. So check it out. Thanks

1:10:00

for listening, right back to the podcast. Hello

1:10:05

and welcome to the Eurogamer newscast and

1:10:07

this week we're discussing the biggest Xbox

1:10:10

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1:10:12

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1:10:14

asking why there are so many industry

1:10:16

layoffs, or at least that's

1:10:18

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1:10:20

listening to the Eurogamer newscast, hello, I'm

1:10:22

Tom, Eurogamer's editor and host of our

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1:10:28

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1:10:32

listen to search Eurogamer newscast. Coolness.

1:10:38

That's just the impression you get that it was a grip.

1:10:41

OK, Lillis, you are also, so now you're just

1:10:43

both at work. Well done. Yeah. Cool.

1:10:46

Lillis, back to you. Well,

1:10:48

I'd like to turn to the

1:10:50

wall as I'm putting another body

1:10:52

on. The

1:10:55

conveyor belt. I'd

1:10:57

like to say, well, would

1:11:00

I be able to talk to any of

1:11:03

the wardens in the different departments just to get

1:11:05

an idea of the different

1:11:08

opportunities that are available here if

1:11:10

I wanted to join permanently? Your

1:11:14

enthusiasm for the role

1:11:16

of spirit warden is admirable

1:11:19

and commendable. Young intern.

1:11:21

Thank you. Absolutely

1:11:23

not. The

1:11:27

boundaries of your internships are limited.

1:11:30

Internship is limited to the loading bay.

1:11:33

We spirit wardens, you understand, must

1:11:35

keep our secrets. You have been

1:11:37

loading corpses very fast. Keep this

1:11:39

up for your entire two week

1:11:41

internship. And I have no doubt

1:11:43

you will be put onto our

1:11:45

accelerated training course. You

1:11:48

could find yourself within this

1:11:50

sanctum of soul destruction within

1:11:53

a month. Great.

1:11:55

I see. I have spoken

1:11:57

too long an inefficient amount of time.

1:11:59

I will... return to my duties.

1:12:01

Okay, um, okay

1:12:04

well like I just feel like um, I'm

1:12:06

just gonna go take a bathroom break,

1:12:09

um, if that's

1:12:11

okay. It is absolutely

1:12:13

fine, you may take one

1:12:15

today. Great,

1:12:19

okay, so which

1:12:21

direction will I find them? Um,

1:12:25

the way you came in and

1:12:28

uh, off to the left, I'd

1:12:31

say don't try any of the other doors, but

1:12:33

they're all guarded, so it'll

1:12:35

be fine. Okay, okay. Cool,

1:12:38

yep. Alright, I wander off, um,

1:12:43

and uh, go and find the bathroom

1:12:45

tonight, I just have a little uh,

1:12:47

peruse as I'm looking on the

1:12:49

way. You don't

1:12:51

know what that warden was on about when they

1:12:53

said um, guarded, but actually

1:12:55

you notice that all of the doors you

1:12:57

pass have a little kind of brass plate

1:13:01

next to them. It actually looks a little bit

1:13:03

like a

1:13:06

sort of metal lanyard that

1:13:08

your instructor, uh, supervisor warden

1:13:11

had round their neck and that you've noticed quite a few

1:13:13

of the wardens, um, also wearing.

1:13:15

There isn't one of these um, uh,

1:13:17

little brass panels next to the bathroom,

1:13:19

no you can go in there freely.

1:13:22

Such generosity. Okay,

1:13:25

well I'd like to kind of just like have a little

1:13:27

look at one of the brass things before I go, just

1:13:29

in a kind of like, hmm, like

1:13:31

taking the studious way, like so that if anyone

1:13:34

asks I'm like, oh I'm sorry am I curious,

1:13:36

have you got the better meal? I'll carry

1:13:38

on to the bathroom. You get the opportunity

1:13:40

to deploy that excuse very quickly because you

1:13:42

know this place is busy, the corridors are

1:13:44

full. Spirit wardens are, as you're stood in

1:13:46

the corridor looking at this thing, a warden

1:13:49

sort of glides up behind you and

1:13:51

goes excuse me, uh, and

1:13:54

just taps their thing to the same, there's

1:13:56

a little sort of charge, like

1:13:58

bzzzzz, bzzzzzzz, bzzzzzzz, bzzzzzzzzz. and

1:14:02

you hear a lock kind of

1:14:05

disengage and a big cock spins round.

1:14:07

And other things that make security passes

1:14:10

seem more steam-punky. And the

1:14:12

warden glides through the door. Careful,

1:14:18

close it behind them. You get

1:14:21

a glimpse into a corridor that curves

1:14:23

away with several doors off it. You

1:14:25

can even see some spiral staircases in

1:14:27

there and you can hear the sound

1:14:30

of crows. How's

1:14:32

that for a quick glimpse at

1:14:34

the door we're shutting down? Okay, well I'd

1:14:36

like to head onto the bathroom and

1:14:38

have a look around the bathroom

1:14:40

for some vents. Because

1:14:43

I love a good vent. Yeah,

1:14:47

there's a vent in the bathroom. I mean, they're not

1:14:49

animals. There's

1:14:52

a drainage system, there's a vent here. I'm

1:14:55

going to steer clear of the drainage system. Giving

1:14:58

you options. Very

1:15:01

stinky option. We've done it before. I'd

1:15:06

like to avoid that this time though, so I can have

1:15:08

a look. See if there's any ceiling vents, wall vents, and

1:15:10

just have a little lookie. Yeah, there's

1:15:12

a vent in the wall of

1:15:16

the bathroom. This is

1:15:18

the bathroom. It has

1:15:20

like five cubicles for

1:15:22

privacy, a few sinks and a bath of

1:15:25

sinks. There's

1:15:27

no mirror because really what would the point be? But

1:15:30

there is a, yeah, there's a vent. Yeah,

1:15:33

I'd like to try and open

1:15:35

and climb into the vent. Alrighty,

1:15:37

how are you doing that? How

1:15:39

are you getting in? Let's say

1:15:41

it's screwed shut. Well,

1:15:44

I would like to pull out from one

1:15:46

of my books a

1:15:48

small multi-tool that I have

1:15:51

acquired to help me kind of sneak into

1:15:53

places as I've joined the gang and

1:15:55

thought, hey, I thought this would be fun. I saw

1:15:58

it at one of the markets and was like... that'll

1:16:00

actually be quite useful and

1:16:04

I use that to open it

1:16:06

up. Nice. Yeah, tick

1:16:09

the load off. One

1:16:11

box of load. How much does that leave you with? Is

1:16:14

it one more? I've got

1:16:16

four load. Oh, okay, cool. So you've

1:16:18

got... That's because I've got a heavy... Oh, yeah. You've

1:16:21

still got my bag with me. Of course, you went in

1:16:23

heavier. Yep. I mean,

1:16:25

this isn't the kind of thing, only as little as a

1:16:28

year ago, this isn't the kind of thing that

1:16:30

you would have ever considered doing, Lilith, but

1:16:32

actually now with... Practice these!

1:16:36

Yeah, you have that vent open and you

1:16:38

can... You can climb

1:16:40

inside. You've ticked a box of load for it. Yeah, there's

1:16:42

no need to roll for that. You're in a vent. Hey!

1:16:47

Let's find out what you want to do in the vent. I

1:16:50

would just like to see

1:16:53

if I can hear voices

1:16:58

to try and like overhear conversations. Because I

1:17:00

want to find this bill

1:17:03

hook. Yeah. And it's very

1:17:05

difficult to work out who is who.

1:17:07

Yes, it is. So

1:17:09

I can't ask outright

1:17:11

because I'm kind of showing my cards there.

1:17:14

So, yes, I'd

1:17:17

like to have

1:17:19

a little kind of clamber

1:17:21

through and try and find

1:17:23

like a staff room, a break room or

1:17:26

a manager's office or something like that.

1:17:28

Okay, fair enough. Yeah,

1:17:32

you... I tell you what,

1:17:34

you scamp across. You don't hear any voices, but

1:17:37

actually within the vent, within the kind of

1:17:39

like shaft that you're in, there

1:17:42

are grills cut into the bottom at regular

1:17:45

intervals. For airflow, you know, it's a vent.

1:17:48

When you look through them, mostly

1:17:50

you just see wardens going about

1:17:52

their business industriously, moving these around.

1:17:55

But you do, in fact,

1:17:57

suddenly crawl under one new lit... one new lit

1:17:59

down. That a first, you can't really tell

1:18:01

what you're looking at because you can't make

1:18:03

sense of it from this angle until you

1:18:06

realize that actually you're looking. Top.

1:18:08

Down On an absolutely

1:18:10

Enormous bells. The

1:18:15

bell. Oh My. God. And

1:18:17

yet it's in L. It's

1:18:19

It's a big circular stone

1:18:22

a room. I looks a

1:18:24

bit older than the rest

1:18:26

of the building. Maybe

1:18:29

like they kind of built out around

1:18:31

this point. And

1:18:33

when you look down around the bell there's

1:18:35

a kind of railing. there are some. There

1:18:37

are some wardens in here and you can

1:18:39

I overhear Well oil at let's see if

1:18:41

you can overhear. Maybe maybe a role for

1:18:43

the Sarah and he listening at it. Gets

1:18:46

his. Studies.

1:18:49

With the one nine. Oh

1:18:53

I've got two and a six. As

1:18:55

soon as a brilliant like I said six of

1:18:57

course. You do

1:19:00

here to wardens talking to each

1:19:02

other. It sounds like they are

1:19:04

talking business. Basically they're talking about

1:19:06

work. You can see that some.

1:19:09

Again, it's it's it's a kind

1:19:11

of brilliance well with i incredibly

1:19:13

creepy fusion of i'm a of

1:19:15

the Source of Mystical and the

1:19:17

very high tech here because you

1:19:19

got this large bell and then

1:19:21

kind of around the wall there's

1:19:23

a month which he recognizes I'm

1:19:25

a map of bolus port dotted

1:19:27

around the map or kind of

1:19:29

like little little points which are

1:19:31

labeled like relay one relate to

1:19:33

remake three really phenomenon moonlight that

1:19:35

every so often every kind of

1:19:38

few seconds or so. A point

1:19:40

on this map will just kind

1:19:42

of be illuminated by a a

1:19:44

kind of greed of of little

1:19:46

of electronic light for coming. Behind.

1:19:49

The map is but. like

1:19:52

that i'm one of the wardens

1:19:54

will go over to messina punching

1:19:56

some coordinates ah and that's message

1:19:58

get sent somewhere else you don't

1:20:00

really know where but you can

1:20:02

hear crows and

1:20:04

the bell upon the punching

1:20:07

of coordinates the bell rings

1:20:10

so it doesn't make a sound

1:20:12

to you. Yeah that makes sense it

1:20:14

just goes it kind of goes like

1:20:17

that. You can feel the air moving you

1:20:19

can hear the air moving but the bell makes no sound. Super

1:20:22

cool. You can hear them

1:20:24

talking a bright stone got two in

1:20:26

bright stone looks like a

1:20:30

56 and

1:20:33

another one coming in at two sorry make

1:20:35

that two sorry make that

1:20:37

three sorry make that four five

1:20:39

you know what I'll tell you when it's done. Big

1:20:42

fight happening down at bright stone. Yeah that's 14

1:20:45

in crows foot and I think that could

1:20:47

be c 37.

1:20:49

Yes looking

1:20:53

at the time I believe it's our

1:20:55

30 second mandated recreational break time

1:20:57

are there any conversational topics that you

1:21:00

wish to bring up with me?

1:21:04

No not especially. Are there any conversational

1:21:06

topics you wish to bring up with

1:21:08

me? These are the two warden's

1:21:10

talking to each other. Well yes

1:21:12

actually I wanted to get your

1:21:17

gut reaction on something. What

1:21:21

do you think Bakaros is doing in

1:21:23

the Progress Division? We

1:21:26

haven't seen him in such a long time he

1:21:29

used to give talks he

1:21:31

used to explain efficiencies that

1:21:33

he had unlocked but

1:21:36

he seems to spend all his time locked

1:21:38

away in the Progress Division. What's

1:21:42

he building in there

1:21:44

and why won't he come oh so

1:21:46

look at the time sorry back to

1:21:49

work. Let's skip

1:21:51

back to Kazimir. Alright

1:21:53

Kazimir you're working and

1:21:56

actually you're doing a really good job. Thank

1:21:59

you. How much how much how

1:22:02

many valuables have I pocketed for myself? For

1:22:08

having the audacity to ask and to

1:22:10

remember let's say one coins worth Yeah

1:22:14

Okay, so I would

1:22:16

like unless there is something about

1:22:19

to happen to me To

1:22:22

enact a tiny slice of plan. Let's do

1:22:24

a tiny slice of plan. Okay Flashback.

1:22:27

Yeah last night. It's

1:22:29

probably long

1:22:32

after Lilith imagined she

1:22:34

would be a bed and asleep

1:22:37

but by sort of lamplight

1:22:39

I am Running

1:22:42

her through the series of symbols

1:22:45

that may have changed since my

1:22:47

exit from the gang But

1:22:49

were in common usage For

1:22:51

bill hooks to communicate with one another secretly

1:22:56

Because I want her to be able to read and understand them

1:22:58

and write them if

1:23:00

needed, but my plan now is

1:23:02

in case our Little

1:23:05

agent is working on the conveyor

1:23:07

belt. I would like to just

1:23:10

sort of dip my finger in

1:23:13

some blood and Just scratch

1:23:15

out a little message being like Exfil

1:23:18

time like bill

1:23:20

hook symbol I'm

1:23:23

in prep Badleg and

1:23:26

then just let that just do get it on the conveyor

1:23:28

belt. Okay Yeah,

1:23:31

and hope it doesn't get burned off in two minutes.

1:23:33

Yeah, okay Yeah,

1:23:36

so to give a little bit more detail on

1:23:38

the room that you're in this

1:23:40

convey the conveyor belt brings in corpses The

1:23:43

those corpses and then taken off onto this table

1:23:45

where they are prepped For

1:23:48

cremation the conveyor belt then sorts of

1:23:51

loops back around To

1:23:54

the other side of this table where you know prepped

1:23:56

corpses can be put on and they

1:23:58

are carried away out out

1:24:00

of another, into another room.

1:24:03

There's a little label above this aperture

1:24:06

that the prepped corpse is, or

1:24:10

bits of people are going up

1:24:12

to. And that

1:24:15

label says crematorial hall. You get

1:24:17

the impression it is the business

1:24:19

end of the whole building. It

1:24:21

is where it all goes down.

1:24:23

Use, scratch this. Take

1:24:25

one stress, by the way, for the learning of the glist.

1:24:27

But yeah. You

1:24:30

scroll this message in blood. And

1:24:32

then just go back to work. Several

1:24:35

minutes later, the

1:24:37

door opens, the door between the

1:24:39

room that you're in and the

1:24:41

next room, the crematorial hall. And

1:24:45

a warden glides

1:24:47

in and looks at

1:24:50

both of the wardens in the room. And

1:24:53

make sure to take a few steps. Take

1:24:56

a look at the way

1:24:58

that you are just slightly

1:25:00

limping Casimir. Walks

1:25:04

around behind the warden who

1:25:06

isn't limping. Out

1:25:09

comes the mace. It

1:25:12

flares into life. And they pop

1:25:14

around that, and just up against the

1:25:16

throat. And start strangling

1:25:19

this other spirit warden. What are

1:25:21

you doing, Casimir? I'm

1:25:25

just gonna go, watch her. Yeah,

1:25:29

cool. Just gonna watch it happen. Yep.

1:25:35

Yeah, that's six, yeah. Like

1:25:38

that. And the electricity

1:25:42

to the throat is absolutely doing its job. That

1:25:45

warden goes down, there's little coils of smoke coming

1:25:47

out of the eye holes. Yeah,

1:25:50

it's pretty grisly stuff. And

1:25:52

that spirit warden goes, you

1:25:58

have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that. and

1:26:00

pulls off a mask to reveal a sort

1:26:04

of scarred woman

1:26:07

she's got facial scars, she's

1:26:09

got red hair to pull back in

1:26:12

a tight ponytail Aaron

1:26:14

sent you? Yeah Why?

1:26:18

You weren't reported in in a month Oh, well,

1:26:21

it's time to pull you out I reckon But

1:26:26

I've been leaving the message that I haven't been getting through

1:26:29

No Oh Where

1:26:31

you've been leaving them? Where

1:26:33

Aaron said On

1:26:36

the... How you've been leaving

1:26:38

them? It's a... What

1:26:41

did you say they were called? Kind of like glyphs,

1:26:43

symbols? Yeah, sort of, I just said

1:26:45

symbols, I think, but glyphs work Symbols, yeah, yeah

1:26:48

Yeah, er, er, Teryn explains

1:26:50

to you that the way of leaving

1:26:52

symbols was basically

1:26:55

A report is filed

1:26:58

at the end of every fortnight

1:27:01

with like how many ghosts

1:27:03

and corpses were destroyed in the

1:27:05

crematorium That's something that Teryn

1:27:07

has oversight on and she was

1:27:10

basically putting a coded message into that

1:27:13

and that basically then gets kind of

1:27:16

sent to an admin office They sort

1:27:18

of read it over but they don't really make any

1:27:20

changes It briefly goes

1:27:22

across the desk of Bakaros

1:27:25

just so that he can sort of see how,

1:27:27

you know, how the place is doing how,

1:27:29

you know, if numbers are

1:27:31

where they should be and then that is

1:27:33

basically sent to the newspaper and that is

1:27:35

public, those numbers are public for, you know,

1:27:38

for transparency reasons and that's how the Bill

1:27:40

Hooks were getting their information basically All

1:27:42

they had to do was go out and buy a

1:27:44

newspaper and the coded message

1:27:46

was in there and Teryn says

1:27:49

I've been putting the code in just like

1:27:51

always Well, if you've been

1:27:53

putting it in and it's not been making it

1:27:55

out then I think you've been made and if

1:27:57

you've been made, you're in a lot of trouble

1:28:00

danger. I'm glad to

1:28:02

see you're alive but I believe that

1:28:05

Erin was right. It's time to go. We

1:28:08

can't go yet. I

1:28:11

need you to see something. I

1:28:14

haven't got the proof yet. Why

1:28:20

do they always say that they want you to

1:28:22

see something? All right look pop your

1:28:27

mask back on. Let me tidy this one up and

1:28:29

then wake me on our way. You have no idea

1:28:31

how much this thing smells. Do

1:28:34

I have to put it back on? Yes. Obviously

1:28:36

I knew the answer. I'm

1:28:39

gonna just like just

1:28:41

close away, mask away on

1:28:43

that warden and again I'm

1:28:45

gonna tuck him up with the other one. Oh yeah

1:28:48

sure. So they're like a lightly snoring pile. Yeah

1:28:50

that's good. Let's just tessellate perfectly.

1:28:52

Okay. Yep and Taryn

1:28:54

just you know just before she

1:28:57

put the mask on. Follow

1:29:00

me. No sudden moves. Try

1:29:02

and glide. And

1:29:06

leads you out of the

1:29:09

room. Let's cut back to

1:29:11

Lilith. Okay so I

1:29:14

would like to having heard this

1:29:16

talk about the progress division. I'd

1:29:18

like to continue my wandering

1:29:21

through the vents and try

1:29:23

and find this division.

1:29:26

Okay yeah you do

1:29:28

manage to wander through the

1:29:30

vents a little way

1:29:33

more but it comes to an

1:29:35

end. The room

1:29:37

you look into now must be

1:29:39

I mean it's so noisy with

1:29:41

birds that this is clearly like the

1:29:44

rookery. This is where

1:29:46

the spiritually attuned, highly trained death

1:29:49

crows that are the first ones

1:29:51

on the scene when someone dies.

1:29:53

This is where they're all kept but

1:29:56

this is the end

1:29:58

of the room. event. But

1:30:01

looking down you can see there are several routes

1:30:04

out of here. One is labelled, well

1:30:06

they've just got arrows, one

1:30:09

points like this way to

1:30:11

Loading Bay, Prep, Crematorial Hall

1:30:14

and there's one arrow pointing that way

1:30:17

Progress Division. Alright well

1:30:19

I'd like to try and like double

1:30:21

check that there's no wardens around.

1:30:24

Oh there are wardens around you don't need

1:30:26

to double check. Yeah I mean yeah they're

1:30:28

tending to the birds, they're dispatching the birds

1:30:30

out of out of a large kind of

1:30:32

swinging revolving door window

1:30:35

thing. Yeah it's like a

1:30:37

constant in and out of crows here going

1:30:39

to and from bodies. Okay

1:30:42

well what I would like to do, there

1:30:44

are two wardens, two wardens. Okay

1:30:48

so what I would like

1:30:51

to do is

1:30:54

open up my books again

1:30:57

and find another

1:31:01

spirit bottle that I've got hidden away. I don't

1:31:04

have to tick a box load because I can carry two

1:31:06

spirit bottles as one load. And

1:31:10

in this one is another

1:31:12

kind of like ruffian

1:31:15

ghost. Right. This

1:31:18

one is a little bit more chill but

1:31:22

it's mischievous. Yeah. So

1:31:26

I would like to open up the

1:31:28

vent and just kind of like drop

1:31:31

it down from the height. I'm assuming

1:31:33

I'm like right at the top.

1:31:35

Yeah yeah. And then hopefully cause

1:31:38

a commotion that I can then use

1:31:40

to dash to the

1:31:42

corridor. Love it. Okay here's

1:31:45

what happens when you drop the bottle. Oh you

1:31:47

ticked off the load. No you're

1:31:49

literally just dropping a bottle.

1:31:51

Yeah. Yeah the bottle

1:31:54

falls, it smashes. Tell me

1:31:56

about the ruffian. Who was the ruffian in life?

1:31:58

So he's Actually,

1:32:00

I'm an old Bill Hook I thought would

1:32:03

be quite. apt

1:32:05

of on I did I did tell him

1:32:07

beforehand or that we're going to sit dangerous

1:32:09

situation but we're helping and of the bill

1:32:11

hook get out says he could he know

1:32:14

I need you to cause be a commotion

1:32:16

and like thing is I can't fully trust

1:32:18

him. So. The odds are chose

1:32:20

one that wasn't too, You know. How.

1:32:23

You not massively powerful say

1:32:25

he can be overwhelmed eventually.

1:32:27

But he's very chaotic. I

1:32:29

am. Yeah, I and yes,

1:32:31

a car. Aces name's Kelvin.

1:32:34

His chaos. It Kelvin. That

1:32:36

was. A nickname yes I

1:32:38

yeah nice A Yet the bottle

1:32:40

breaks and the third vengeful spirit

1:32:43

of a chaotic kelvin of for

1:32:45

go through walls up and it

1:32:47

a flurry as it is a

1:32:50

ghost still has a kind of

1:32:52

translucent spectral meat cleaver on a

1:32:54

gigantic floor is like which which

1:32:57

is wielded like a two handed

1:32:59

sword of this is a very

1:33:01

very frightening ghost A and when

1:33:04

the warden see it they turn

1:33:06

smoothly. Towards it, they look

1:33:08

back at each other. They

1:33:10

drop into a low crouch.

1:33:12

they each pop out the

1:33:14

Macys, activate them right? That's

1:33:16

and they each very calmly

1:33:18

start circling around towards the

1:33:20

Spirit. One.

1:33:23

Of them. One

1:33:25

of them says containment breach. Sound.

1:33:28

The alarm. The. Alarm you

1:33:30

spotless is a behind chaotic Kelvin.

1:33:32

so from your point of view

1:33:34

above you tale to Kelvin is

1:33:36

just below yeah one side of

1:33:38

chaotic. Kelvin. A

1:33:40

or the other two wardens and on

1:33:43

the other behind you see on the

1:33:45

wall is is a i'm A Switch

1:33:47

on that is very clearly a sort

1:33:49

of. Panic. Button

1:33:52

the. Chaotic.

1:33:54

Kelvin makes a kind of

1:33:57

furious howling London's The First

1:33:59

Despair. Warden, the Spirit Warden just moves

1:34:02

out the way of it, brings this mace

1:34:05

down, it actually makes contact

1:34:07

with the ghost almost and just like

1:34:09

that. Kelvin hits the deck and in a moment

1:34:12

the Warden is kind of like

1:34:14

stood over Kelvin pressing down with the

1:34:16

mace and the other Warden

1:34:19

sort of pulls out a

1:34:21

vial of something kind of glowing

1:34:24

and sort of electrically

1:34:27

charged, whips off the top

1:34:29

of that and just pours it. It's

1:34:32

the oscillotronic goo that the spirit,

1:34:34

that bodies are dissolved in destroying

1:34:36

their spirit and Chaotic

1:34:38

Kelvin just screams

1:34:41

and just

1:34:45

puffs. Yeah Spirit Wands, ghosts

1:34:47

are their business, they are so

1:34:50

good at ghost busting. There's

1:34:53

a kind of scorched mark where Chaotic Kelvin used

1:34:55

to be and they both

1:34:57

sit there, one of them goes to get

1:34:59

a little... Never mind the alarm, although

1:35:02

we should probably fetch a supervisor,

1:35:04

this incident should be logged. There's

1:35:07

a little scorched mark where Chaotic Kelvin used to

1:35:09

be, so they're basically they're looking down at where

1:35:11

Chaotic Kelvin used to be, they are distracted, but

1:35:14

they haven't matched Chaotic Kelvin. They ain't

1:35:16

afraid of no ghosts. Well, they're

1:35:21

busy looking, I'd like to kind of like

1:35:24

sneak behind them, I'd like to drop

1:35:27

down and sneak behind them and

1:35:29

try and get down that

1:35:31

corridor. Make a roll for that.

1:35:34

Mildly traumatised. Don't

1:35:37

forget all of your usual tricks, push

1:35:40

yourself, devil's bargain. I'm

1:35:43

a prowl, I've got to improw, and then

1:35:46

I've got a backup if it goes

1:35:48

terribly. Okay, cool. Oh,

1:35:51

I've got a six. Oh great. Yeah.

1:35:54

The other one was a one. You

1:36:01

drop down light as a feather, just stand

1:36:06

up, you're only a few inches behind these two

1:36:08

woods and you're backing away. They're very distracted, like

1:36:10

now that the danger has passed, this

1:36:13

is their passion, you know? One of them says,

1:36:15

it looks like a category C15. No,

1:36:19

I shouldn't think so, it looks more like

1:36:21

a category C14.4. Where's

1:36:25

the Codex? It's somewhere around here. They're

1:36:28

having a conversation about this spirit,

1:36:30

they're talking about whether or not

1:36:32

they'll be rewarded for dispatching it

1:36:34

and stuff and you are able to just

1:36:36

edge out and... Presumably

1:36:40

through the door that points to... Research

1:36:43

division. Sorry, progress division

1:36:46

even. I'll tell you what, you enter a

1:36:48

corridor, again

1:36:51

it's a long sort of utilitarian corridor, kind

1:36:54

of lit with these electrical lights. And

1:36:57

midway down it is

1:37:00

a large imposing metal

1:37:03

door that says, that

1:37:05

has progress division stamped

1:37:08

in a brass plaque above it.

1:37:10

And beneath that, strictly high level

1:37:12

entry only. As you're kind

1:37:15

of like scuttling your way down

1:37:18

here, Lilith, you actually spot

1:37:20

two more spirit wardens coming

1:37:22

the other way. Although

1:37:25

one of them seems to be limping a little. I'm

1:37:30

like, hello, I'm

1:37:32

terribly sorry, I was trying to find

1:37:34

the bathrooms and I took a wrong

1:37:36

turn and this place is just such

1:37:38

a maze. I'm just going to reach out and

1:37:40

sort of put a hand on the wrist of our

1:37:42

Bill Hook friend. Yep. That's

1:37:45

all right in turn, these halls

1:37:47

seem to be a bit of

1:37:50

a maze. You

1:37:52

have found yourself at

1:37:54

the progress division. Yes,

1:37:57

I heard there's exciting

1:37:59

things. happening in the

1:38:01

Progress Division with Baccarat.

1:38:06

Very intrigued to see his methods. Of

1:38:08

course, his predecessor was Mr Clancy, so

1:38:11

this used to be known as Tom Clancy's division,

1:38:14

but times change. The

1:38:18

other Spirit Warden is kind of like

1:38:21

looking back

1:38:23

and forth with the mask face between

1:38:26

you two. And says,

1:38:28

in turn, in turn, you

1:38:30

shouldn't be here. No

1:38:35

one unmasked should be

1:38:37

here, really. You make

1:38:40

yourself a target for unwanted

1:38:42

attention. That's

1:38:45

a point. Yeah. I'd

1:38:48

like to have a look

1:38:50

around actually in this corridor and

1:38:52

see if there's any like just

1:38:54

random closets, like cupboards, like storage

1:38:56

rooms. Make me a roll for

1:38:58

it. Okay, I'm gonna do a

1:39:00

little study. Two,

1:39:05

one. Two

1:39:10

warden kissing in a cupboard. Furious.

1:39:14

Yes, and the brass master just sort of

1:39:17

like clinking against each other. It's

1:39:20

a laundry room along the back of the wall like

1:39:23

loads of unused sort

1:39:25

of Spirit Warden like outfits, but

1:39:27

there's no getting past these two. They are, I

1:39:31

open and they go, see you. Come

1:39:33

on, Lee, come on. They're

1:39:36

really going for it. I don't

1:39:38

think I could unsee that. You

1:39:43

know what? It's not

1:39:45

strictly keeping with the ones, but I think it'd be

1:39:47

kind of funny if, as you close

1:39:50

the door, Lillis, a moment later it

1:39:52

opens and Spirit Warden folks head out. Um,

1:39:55

please don't tell anyone what you just saw. You

1:39:59

give me a mask. and the last cloak? My

1:40:02

mask! Or any in

1:40:04

there, just so you know, doesn't have to be yours. We

1:40:07

can all get out of this fine! That's fine.

1:40:10

And I'll kill Gregory to VLOG THE

1:40:12

BLOODY THING NEXT TIME! LIKE

1:40:14

WE DESCUSSED! Er, yep.

1:40:18

The door slams shut again, opens a

1:40:20

moment later, and a full spirit warden

1:40:22

outfit goes... like that,

1:40:24

just out the door. Thank you! This place

1:40:26

is so weird. It doesn't have a mace.

1:40:30

Ah, let's do that. It's a bit

1:40:32

silly, because it's not been washed yet. It's not been

1:40:34

washed yet. That's because

1:40:36

I did roll two ones. There

1:40:39

you go. That was the catastrophic failure

1:40:41

we were looking for. It smells bad. It

1:40:44

smells bad, yeah, and you didn't get a mace. Erm...

1:40:48

But... aww, I hope you... Yeah,

1:40:51

you got... Yeah, alright, so you're all three of

1:40:53

you disguised now, if you want to be. And

1:40:55

stood outside the doors to Progress Division. Shall

1:40:58

we attempt to open

1:41:00

the door? Yeah,

1:41:02

you push on the door. It does not move.

1:41:04

Heron kind of... you can't really see the eye

1:41:06

rolling, but it's there.

1:41:09

And walks up and she uses her lanyard on

1:41:11

her little brass plaid. Like

1:41:14

that, and the door disengages.

1:41:16

Thank you! Now,

1:41:19

I don't know if Kazim is explained

1:41:21

to you, but we think that my

1:41:23

presence here may indeed

1:41:26

have gone a little bit more noticed than

1:41:28

I thought it had. Okay.

1:41:30

So, just be

1:41:33

on your guard, alright? Oh, okay. Yeah.

1:41:35

But it's important that you see

1:41:38

this. Alright. Erm...

1:41:41

Yeah. Heron leads you through

1:41:43

into Progress Division. It's

1:41:45

a kind of maze of corridors,

1:41:47

this. But eventually,

1:41:50

you come to a large central

1:41:53

space, and out onto a

1:41:55

balcony that overlooks a kind of a

1:41:57

large factory floor, like a different state.

1:42:00

There are different alchemical and

1:42:02

oscillatronic machines. It looks like,

1:42:05

it's an R&D department, basically.

1:42:08

You know, like odd experiments are going on here.

1:42:10

But the oddest thing of all is

1:42:12

in the centre of the room there is a carriage,

1:42:15

much like the ones you saw in the loading

1:42:18

bay. It is

1:42:20

full of corpses and moving

1:42:23

in a line back

1:42:25

and forth to these corpses

1:42:28

are, well, they

1:42:31

look like they weren't long corpses

1:42:33

themselves, but they're sort of people

1:42:36

and they're kind of shambling and they

1:42:38

sort of shamble up to the pile

1:42:41

of corpses. They go down,

1:42:44

they pick up a body and then

1:42:46

they sort of walk backwards

1:42:48

with it a little bit. Some

1:42:50

of them make it a few steps and then just fall over and

1:42:52

kind of like lie on the floor weakly

1:42:56

wiggling their arms and legs. So

1:42:58

inefficient. Some

1:43:01

of them make it a bit further. Teren points

1:43:03

down at them and says, hollows.

1:43:08

You both know that

1:43:10

hollows are

1:43:14

bodies with no spirit,

1:43:16

with no soul. Lilith, you're so

1:43:18

used to dealing with spirits that

1:43:20

don't have a body. This

1:43:23

is kind of the inverse. This

1:43:25

is a body that's had its spirit destroyed. It's

1:43:28

extremely taboo, even

1:43:30

in Volusports. Those

1:43:32

kind of husk-like beings with no

1:43:35

free will of their own, their

1:43:37

spirits having fled or been destroyed,

1:43:39

yeah, they tend to be sort

1:43:42

of easily biddable.

1:43:45

And as you're watching this rather

1:43:47

gruesome scene play out, a

1:43:51

spirit warden who glides a little faster than all

1:43:53

the others down on the factory floor kind

1:43:56

of glides along and

1:43:58

goes. Why

1:44:00

is progress so slow? Why

1:44:04

aren't they working faster?

1:44:07

All of our research, why? Why?

1:44:09

I have dreams,

1:44:13

I have goals. You

1:44:16

don't seem to understand." One of the other

1:44:18

sort of spirit wardens who's at the station

1:44:20

goes, I'm so sorry, Bakaros. We

1:44:22

are trying, we are trying

1:44:25

it, but it's hard. The spirit

1:44:27

having fled, the husk is hard

1:44:29

to train, the hollow is

1:44:32

hard to discipline. We have tried

1:44:34

these collars, we've

1:44:39

tried a sort

1:44:41

of electrical whip to make them work

1:44:44

faster, but

1:44:46

one very promising avenue of

1:44:50

investigation involves a sort

1:44:52

of brainwashing at the

1:44:54

point of the soul dying. We

1:44:56

think if we imbue the hollow

1:44:58

with a simple instruction then they

1:45:01

will carry it out ad infinitum until

1:45:03

their body literally rots away beneath them.

1:45:07

Yeah, that's very good. Bakaros,

1:45:10

a demonstration as soon as possible. And

1:45:13

Teryn says, this is what I wanted to show

1:45:15

you. Look, he's

1:45:18

making hollows, he's using hollows. God knows what's for,

1:45:20

but if he perfects it he can do anything.

1:45:23

A private army, anything.

1:45:26

Whatever you want, you can do whatever you like.

1:45:28

He's got an almost limitless supply of corpses, he

1:45:30

knows exactly how to destroy a soul. We

1:45:34

need to stop this. Yeah, we do.

1:45:37

Yeah, I have a feeling they're not...

1:45:41

I don't think he's just annoyed at spirits in

1:45:43

the spirit world, I think he's annoyed at spirits

1:45:45

in general, and I think he wants to wipe

1:45:47

them out. And that... I

1:45:49

don't... I'm not even worried about there being an

1:45:51

army, I think he just has a problem with

1:45:55

the human spirit. He's

1:45:57

not a happy man. What

1:46:00

if we knocked him out and took him? Hehehehe

1:46:04

Yes, that's an option. Taryn,

1:46:07

um, her face betrays no emotion but her

1:46:09

shoulders give a little... ...yeah?

1:46:13

Yeah, yeah. How

1:46:16

many are in the room? Oh,

1:46:19

many. Um, yeah, let's say...

1:46:23

...let's say ten. Mmhmm. They're kinda like stood

1:46:26

around- it's a big room and they're kinda

1:46:28

like stood around like at different stations. Everybody

1:46:30

is working really hard. Bacross

1:46:32

is the only one who's currently like close

1:46:35

to the line of hollows. He's

1:46:38

kind of like looking at them waving a hand in front

1:46:40

of their face, kind of poking

1:46:42

them, jabbing them. Mmmhmm. I

1:46:45

want them able to feel, I want

1:46:47

them able to feel pain and

1:46:49

fear and rage. Then

1:46:52

they will be useful to me, not

1:46:54

thee, Zallow. Husks!

1:46:56

And he gives one a disparaging kick and

1:46:58

it falls over. Is

1:47:04

messed up. Yeah, I feel

1:47:06

bad for them. But I don't

1:47:08

know what, I feel bad for, cause there's nothing in

1:47:10

them. Yeah, I suppose you

1:47:12

feel bad for the soul that got

1:47:14

dissolved. Yeah. So how

1:47:17

many wardens are in the room? Ten.

1:47:20

Ten. Ten. Is

1:47:22

the balcony overlooking a lot of them? Where

1:47:26

is Bacross in

1:47:30

respect to us? He

1:47:33

is below you, obviously, and kind

1:47:35

of in front of you. I imagine you're

1:47:37

in the middle of this long room. It

1:47:40

kind of extends lengthways left and

1:47:43

right out in the direction. Is

1:47:45

the balcony just around the edge or is it

1:47:48

like grating across the wheel, like a lighting rig

1:47:50

kind of thing? It's

1:47:53

like an observation platform, but you know, you

1:47:55

can fill in some of the details on

1:47:58

this room if there's something in there. that

1:48:00

would be particularly useful for you. But

1:48:02

it's not especially brightly lit. No.

1:48:05

Welcome to the dark zone. Sorry,

1:48:17

that's my last one. Oh

1:48:20

no, wait, we've got to do some ghostly reconnaissance. Okay,

1:48:26

that was my last one. Hang

1:48:30

on, this looks out the way but they're sick. Look out

1:48:32

the window. Six rainbows! Six

1:48:35

rainbows! What the heck? Also

1:48:37

in this R&D division, normally the

1:48:39

place relies on crows but they're

1:48:41

also training hawks. Great.

1:48:53

Alright, well listen. So

1:48:55

all intents and purposes, right? We

1:48:58

look like death wardens. Only

1:49:00

we know that we're a splinter cell. So,

1:49:07

we've just got to isolate him.

1:49:10

Maybe just pretend that

1:49:13

there's a new development that he must come see. And

1:49:16

that's when we hit him. And

1:49:20

then that's where my planning runs out. Okay.

1:49:22

It's been a long day, mate. Yeah,

1:49:25

no, it has. It has. I

1:49:27

like this plan. Yeah, I think

1:49:29

we approach him. I've also

1:49:31

got a backup plan, don't worry. Great. It

1:49:34

all goes wrong.

1:49:37