[SPEAKER_11]: Welcome to Act 4 of Dark Nexus.

[SPEAKER_11]: It has been three weeks since we wrapped up Act 3 with Jam, Rob's Masterclass and Building a Campaign, and we are all really excited to kick off what's coming next.

[SPEAKER_11]: We were afforded an opportunity we rarely get to wrap our old memories into our ongoing character development, and today we'll start to delve into the very different choices that three of us who've been playing these characters since day one made.

[SPEAKER_11]: As always, thank you to all of our supporters, especially this week to Farrell, Kevin, Brian, Amy, and Blue Mushroom.

[SPEAKER_11]: We appreciate you all so much.

[SPEAKER_11]: If you'd like to join them in supporting the show, you can find links to our Patreon page and the merch store at darknexuspodcast.com.

[SPEAKER_11]: If you haven't yet, please rate review and subscribe on every podcast app you use, and even the ones you don't.

[SPEAKER_11]: We just this week hit the 50,000 download mark thanks to you, and we want to get this show, which we love making so much into as many ears as possible.

[SPEAKER_11]: And you can help us, even just by passing us along to one friend, you think, mind enjoy what we do.

[SPEAKER_11]: All right, act four, starts now.

[UNKNOWN]: Thank you for watching.

[SPEAKER_09]: Welcome back to Dark Nexus.

[SPEAKER_09]: My name is Rob, I'm the Gamemaster, and our four players are...

I'm Katie.

[SPEAKER_09]: I'm Paul.

[SPEAKER_09]: I'm Robert, and I'm Johnny.

[SPEAKER_09]: Tonight, we kick off the fourth book of the Strange Eons Adventure Path, the Whisper out of time, written by Richard Pet.

[SPEAKER_09]: We begin with our prologue.

[SPEAKER_09]: someone waits, hovering on the squitchy shoreline of the root source of oblivion, the place where every story ends.

[SPEAKER_09]: When this is is unclear, but then again, here where everything is ending, what even is time.

[SPEAKER_09]: Here on the shores of the night ocean, there is no future.

[SPEAKER_09]: The present is an endless dream.

[SPEAKER_09]: There is a past, though, sort of, at least, there is a then.

[SPEAKER_09]: There are events that occurred before one was here.

[SPEAKER_09]: It's just that it's hard to keep them in order or process when they were how long ago why they happened, but that's all right.

[SPEAKER_09]: This, being that waits here, here at the place where every story ends, doesn't know exactly what to call himself anymore, if names even matter out here, which perhaps they don't, but still, the concept of identity is sticky.

[SPEAKER_09]: He wants to be someone, just not himself.

[SPEAKER_09]: He had a name once given to him by a hateful old witch, a name he'd mostly rejected.

[SPEAKER_09]: He took another name, a version of it.

[SPEAKER_09]: But he did things under that name that he can't live with.

[SPEAKER_09]: Not that he's alive, of course.

[SPEAKER_09]: But since his consciousness persists for now, it's still the word alive that makes the most sort of sense to him.

[SPEAKER_09]: Whatever the others had done, whatever, path they walked, whatever, choices they made, whatever sacrifices, they'd worked, he'd remembered, but it hadn't made anything any better.

[SPEAKER_09]: it made it easier to let go.

[SPEAKER_09]: Of course, even more of the real world, the piece of him that felt driven to keep an eye on it, it calmed even more, but he still couldn't pass on.

[SPEAKER_09]: He couldn't travel the river of souls because he had still so much help to give [SPEAKER_09]: He'd felt drawn to depart, but drawn to stay, to stay, to stay, to be a guardian angel for those he failed to help in life, and a smile passes over the face of this being hovering at the edge of the end of our story, an angel.

[SPEAKER_09]: once.

[SPEAKER_09]: And now, now, at the end of his story, it finally feels right to claim that name, that identity, an angel.

[SPEAKER_09]: That's who he is, who he will be, until he is no more.

[SPEAKER_09]: So, at the place where every story ends at the edge of oblivion and angel waits.

[SPEAKER_09]: Act 4, Chapter 151, it is actually day 151 of the campaign, and we are in Kazimire.

[SPEAKER_09]: So Act 4 is going to start with Dabwick.

[SPEAKER_09]: We know that Dora, Grip and Vic are going to wake today, the 23rd of Frost, 4719, 67 days after they fell asleep, but that hasn't quite happened yet, it's going to happen.

[SPEAKER_09]: Lying on the little rug in front of Dadwick's fireplace in the small front room of this cozy flat in Gregard's shadow, Dora, Gripp, and Vicks bodies are slowly starting to stir.

[SPEAKER_09]: It's what it happened with Dadwick's tiny little body, a little bit before they woke, and why Chester had been camped out next to their bed, so we know that these three are going to wake.

[SPEAKER_09]: We don't yet know what effect the experiences of that last trip to the dreamlands is going to have on them all.

[SPEAKER_09]: And remember, he all a lot happened in the eight episodes since you were last awake.

[SPEAKER_09]: You rescued and lost YK.

[SPEAKER_09]: Barnabas joined you and then sacrificed himself, you learned that Loles plans to use the Necronomicon to find Nerusiven, where he will take the inmost blood physically into his body and use its power to sacrifice Galarian to Carcosa and free Haster.

[SPEAKER_09]: You learned that we rely plans to use Neb's giant flea familiar as a tool for finding Nerusiven to help Loles presumably, or at least to ensure his success.

[SPEAKER_09]: You crossed the Eastern Desert and were changed, changed by the experience.

[SPEAKER_09]: Vick felt the need for vengeance, slipping away from him, grip lost, hold of the notion that his ledger could ever be balanced, Doris' sense of moral superiority began to fade, and dab-wick.

[SPEAKER_09]: Little Dabwick felt more and more of their pluck and shorty get sanded away.

[SPEAKER_09]: There was of course more that happened while you slapped more that you learned including new contact with the prisoner since you last walked in the real world but let's turn to Dabwick.

[SPEAKER_09]: It's just a short time right now, Paul, after the end of Act 3.

[SPEAKER_09]: Dabs has had a chance to get out of bed, work their muscles a little bit, marvel at how sore and weak they feel.

[SPEAKER_09]: But also to start to enjoy the sensation of life, returning to a body that had been motionless for so long.

[SPEAKER_09]: They're in a set of soft, pale green robes.

[SPEAKER_09]: Very verdure and forest-drewed sheep.

[SPEAKER_09]: They'd had a chance to quickly look through the large trunk in their bedroom, where Chester and Jade of have neatly folded and stowed all of the party's clothes and gear.

[SPEAKER_09]: They'd walked out to the front of the apartment on the way, poking their head into the cozy sight of the cozy little kitchen.

[SPEAKER_09]: They hadn't seen for so long.

[SPEAKER_09]: I imagine a little tear may have fallen as they observed that everything was exactly what they expected it to be.

[SPEAKER_09]: An effort had been made to maintain the order that Dabwick prefers in there.

[SPEAKER_09]: And in the front room, they had seen Dora-Grip and Vic laid out on Cots, side by side, in front of the fireplace, which now burns with a small, cozy fire.

[SPEAKER_09]: Those three are also dressed in the same green robes.

[SPEAKER_09]: Everyone looks very wild with lodgy.

[SPEAKER_09]: In fact, it's only the color of the robes that is helping them to look less like corpses.

[SPEAKER_09]: less like all those bodies in white robes that had been neatly lined up on the pire back and thrush more back before they set sail push push push that thought away.

[SPEAKER_09]: And Debuk had seen Barnabas setting up on Skywind's old palette in the corner next to the fireplace.

[SPEAKER_09]: His eyes were open but unseen.

[SPEAKER_09]: There's just nothing there there.

[SPEAKER_09]: He's in his own clothes, but not his armor or gear.

[SPEAKER_09]: In fact, his equipment lays neatly folded next to him and tabs.

[SPEAKER_09]: Tabs immediately noticed how different all of this gear looked.

[SPEAKER_09]: It, his magical chain shirts seemed faded and worn almost.

[SPEAKER_09]: Melison's rapier looked dull and sad, diggerbothas headband just seemed like a mundane heap of kind of land, crappy coral and shells.

[SPEAKER_09]: It all looked as empty, as Barnabas looked.

[SPEAKER_09]: While Chester made some tea, Jade of had silently helped a dad where he could get a peek out the front door and there it was, Paul.

[SPEAKER_09]: Casimir!

[SPEAKER_09]: The darkened gray in the late afternoon light, darkened gray under the cover of the late winter clouds overhead, and of course, under the shadow of the castle.

[SPEAKER_09]: Dad, we could look down the hill over the bustling neighborhood of Gregard's shadow, tightly packed narrow streets of narrow two and three story buildings, clangs and bangs and winnies and clatters and haulers and hustle and bustle, life persisted.

[SPEAKER_09]: If they look down into the wet muddy sprawl of admiral's fan with its dark, single story homes and houses, all of them looking like cockroaches scrambling for cover under muddy rocks, yes, squalor persisted.

[SPEAKER_09]: And in the distance, the pharditans off to the left they could just catch the edge of the shipyards two mighty warships were in dry docks swarming with what looked like ants from this distance.

[SPEAKER_09]: But we're probably halflings.

[SPEAKER_09]: Grains and pulleys and giant swinging arms and machinery, machinery, industry persisted.

[SPEAKER_09]: They were home.

[SPEAKER_09]: But after so much time spent in the dream lands, the real world looked a little dull and flat and gray to Dabwick and then the tea was ready and now you're sitting at your table, Dabwick on one hand near the fireplace, [SPEAKER_09]: inspiring a profound sense of deja vu is that dabs and jadev are sitting exactly where they'd sat, the last time they'd seen each other, eight months ago.

[SPEAKER_09]: Jadev has aged this past year.

[SPEAKER_09]: She's basically door is aged so approaching 50, but she'd look more like early 40s last spring and now she looks solidly mid 50s.

[SPEAKER_09]: Still a very tall, just over six feet, light brown skin, green eyes, but a long black hair is now filled with streaks of white.

[SPEAKER_09]: And lions and wrinkles have appeared on her face that dabblec doesn't remember being there before.

[SPEAKER_09]: She's dressed in a simple gray tunic and sensible trousers that she always wears, pouches at her belt, and she has these silver braesters decorated with delicate blue butterflies on her arms.

[SPEAKER_09]: The only real adornment that Dabwick ever recalled her wearing.

[SPEAKER_09]: Chester looks good, his gray hair and beard are cleaned up now, and the notes of age about him make him read pretty darn distinguished.

[SPEAKER_09]: He's lean and fit in new clothes, blue tunic black pants, nice boots, wand, and some scrolls and a spell component pouch that is belt.

[SPEAKER_09]: He looks like a proper sorcerer, rather than the bedraggled rumple stills again he looked like when to have to want to bed a few months ago.

[SPEAKER_09]: And the bodies of your companions are on the floor, my next to Daabook's feet, Polly.

[SPEAKER_09]: You're all keeping an eye out for any sign of consciousness from them.

[SPEAKER_09]: But for the moment, it's only sporadic, fitful stirring.

[SPEAKER_09]: So the fire is warm.

[SPEAKER_09]: The tea is hot.

[SPEAKER_09]: There's a few things set out on the table between you.

[SPEAKER_09]: There's a [SPEAKER_09]: It's a gleaming star-knife resting there.

[SPEAKER_09]: Interesting weapons.

[SPEAKER_09]: It's a central metal ring with four razor-sharp blades extending outward, like points on a compass rose.

[SPEAKER_09]: Like from Crow.

[SPEAKER_09]: Useful in melee when you grip the leather wrapped crossbar that runs through the weapons open middle and useful as a throne weapon, too.

[SPEAKER_09]: Kind of like a lethal frisbee.

[SPEAKER_09]: Barnabas is letter.

[SPEAKER_09]: is sitting there too, open on the table with you.

[SPEAKER_09]: And standing in a frame is a small portrait.

[SPEAKER_09]: I don't know whether or not dabook ever actually saw this item before and given the timeline of that episode.

[SPEAKER_09]: I'm betting they didn't, but devs immediately recognizes the subject of this small portrait.

[SPEAKER_09]: It's a human woman in her early 40s and a clean white blouse, all of skin piercing smokey blue eyes and long wavy hair, with one white stripe.

[SPEAKER_09]: It's hydrana, the leader of the star dust augurs.

[SPEAKER_09]: Enough table setting.

[SPEAKER_09]: Let's let act for begin.

[SPEAKER_09]: Take it away, Poly.

[SPEAKER_14]: Just a jade of, what can you tell me of the sun and starling?

[SPEAKER_14]: It's been, you say, two months.

[SPEAKER_09]: Well, Dadwick, they had a hold of full of hardwood.

[SPEAKER_09]: They were obligated to take to their final destination, and they have done so.

[SPEAKER_09]: They set sail either, the bulk of the cargo [SPEAKER_09]: The time you came when they had to go.

[SPEAKER_14]: Of course, they...

Sky went out to continue her journey.

[SPEAKER_09]: She didn't want to, Debwick.

[SPEAKER_09]: She wanted to be here with you, with all of you, but...

All of them in that vessel depend upon her for their livelihoods and...

Those goods needed to get where they were supposed to go.

[SPEAKER_09]: So, that's where she is at the moment.

[SPEAKER_09]: Of course she will return when she's finished, but that's still at least a month away, Derek.

[SPEAKER_14]: Do you, Jaydaf, do you foresee, does not have any more use of us now that just us back?

[SPEAKER_09]: I believe the great dreamer.

[SPEAKER_09]: has nothing but use and intention for you, Danwick, but I do believe that your part in our story is over.

[SPEAKER_09]: I know you probably don't want to hear thanks for me or for [SPEAKER_09]: Just for what I hear, he's probably already tried to thank you himself, but from the bottom of my heart, you have restored my heart to me, Tabwick, you have brought [SPEAKER_09]: Hope, and life, back into my life, and I know I know it will never be enough, but here, yeah, then she starts, she starts undoing the brazers on her arm, these beautiful silver brazers with blue butterflies, and she pulls one off and sets that on the table.

[SPEAKER_09]: These were my mothers.

[SPEAKER_09]: She gave them to me on my wedding day, she, she knew that her years of danger were [SPEAKER_09]: Coming to an end, she entered her retirement, and she knew that Chester and I would be risking a life of danger in the forest raising a family there, and she wanted Mother Moon to watch over me, which takes the other one off.

[SPEAKER_09]: Those days are ending for me, as well, and [SPEAKER_09]: It is my hope that the Great Dreamer will watch over you in the same way she has watched over me, will you accept her protection?

[SPEAKER_09]: She pushes these bracelets across the table, past the letter from Barnabas, past presumably her star-knife, past the portrait of Hedrona.

[SPEAKER_14]: Dabwick receives the braces and looks them over in their hands and says, and you believe I made this entire journey [SPEAKER_14]: for Desnus purposes, to save you, to save Chester, to bring you two back together.

[SPEAKER_14]: That was the whole purpose of my journey.

[SPEAKER_09]: I believe Desnus saw the possibility of hope in your journey, in your path, and saw the opportunity of a blessing to fall into our lives.

[SPEAKER_09]: I cannot speak to [SPEAKER_09]: Your purpose in life, your purpose as a whole, but I do know that doesn't assoring you a chance to save us on your way on your journey and give you that opportunity.

[SPEAKER_09]: Why not just ask me if you believed why not just [SPEAKER_09]: I feared you either would not believe me, or you would resent knowing anything at all about your own future.

[SPEAKER_09]: Not that I knew about your future, not that I believe Death's not even knows about your future, but I've had, honestly, the worst thing I could do would be to ask you to do this thing for me, let's your knowledge of it.

[SPEAKER_09]: would change your choices.

[SPEAKER_09]: Doesn't it give me a reason to believe that your choices would lead to this end?

[SPEAKER_09]: And I could not risk inserting myself between you and what you were destined to do.

[SPEAKER_14]: However, personal your reasons for manipulating me onto that ship, Jai Dav.

[SPEAKER_14]: I don't know that does not really understood what it was that I was about to go into what I was going to experience.

[SPEAKER_09]: Do you regret your journey?

[SPEAKER_14]: Derek.

[SPEAKER_14]: I regret.

[SPEAKER_14]: The trust that's been challenged by your actions, J-dove.

[SPEAKER_14]: I have a bigger journey out of me much larger than rescuing a loved one.

[SPEAKER_14]: There are great cities at stake, and if does now as a plan, she's got to think much larger than just due to.

[SPEAKER_14]: I will accept this gift, with the intention that you so generously describe, but I'm at odds, J-dove, with your methods, [SPEAKER_14]: And I don't know that does now as much to do with it.

[SPEAKER_14]: I worry that you let your ego dictate what you believe doesn't know, doesn't it has the power to do?

[SPEAKER_09]: You believe it was all my vanity.

[SPEAKER_14]: I don't know how you could have known that I would run into Chester.

[SPEAKER_14]: Then might have been some divine inspiration there.

[SPEAKER_14]: But I take issue with how you've treated me [SPEAKER_14]: With this task, I'm sorry, Jaydov, but it's a big pill to swallow.

[SPEAKER_09]: I understand.

[SPEAKER_09]: And I understand that I will spend the rest of my life working to deserve the second chance at life.

[SPEAKER_09]: I just part of my reason for passing these onto you.

[SPEAKER_09]: And you might find them a useful tool in meditation.

[SPEAKER_14]: Dapwick will examine them and maybe run a quick spellcraft check.

[SPEAKER_02]: Jack gonna make him roll a check on that, aren't you?

[SPEAKER_06]: Jack, just ask her.

[SPEAKER_14]: Do you know how these would help me with my meditation?

[SPEAKER_09]: Put them all in dabwick.

[SPEAKER_14]: Alright, dabwick puts them on.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm gonna trust her.

[SPEAKER_04]: Put them all in.

[SPEAKER_14]: I'm gonna trust her.

[SPEAKER_14]: I put them on and I rolled a 19 spellcraft check.

[SPEAKER_09]: You cannot parse the magic, but what you feel when you put them on is a feeling unlike anything you've ever had.

[SPEAKER_09]: The rush of divine care, you feel blanket it around you.

[SPEAKER_09]: When you put them on, he's insane.

[SPEAKER_09]: In saying to the crunch level of a plus one luck bonus on all saving throws, all skill checks and all ability checks.

[SPEAKER_09]: As long as you're wearing these.

[SPEAKER_09]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_09]: Sweet.

[SPEAKER_09]: And though, Dabwick doesn't can't quite yet parse what else they might do.

[SPEAKER_09]: I just recall to know, keep contemplating [SPEAKER_09]: because there are other things these could do, depending on how Dabbook's relationship to Desno progresses.

[SPEAKER_09]: That's true.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_09]: These are called Swallow Tail Bracers.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, plus one luck bonus, all saves, really checks.

[SPEAKER_11]: It's a skill checks bonus.

[SPEAKER_11]: This is a really rare.

[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, it's a rare.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_09]: Well, Dabbo, I'm sure that's you.

[SPEAKER_09]: Do you want to know what happened?

[SPEAKER_09]: Anything that you can tell me is a little bit of fitful stirring on the ground from One two three four five six It's a little bit of fitful stirring on the ground from grippers body [SPEAKER_09]: The next day after you went to sleep was very stressful for everyone in Stasi, came up on the deck in the morning in a state, everyone on edge, I didn't quite know her yet at the time, so she just seemed a little concerned, but after I did get to know her, looking back, she must have raised flat out panic to everyone else, oh they were, and they were two big problems, about three I suppose, um, the first was technically that, [SPEAKER_09]: Barnabas had a fallen asleep with you, which he wasn't supposed to do, and seeing as how there was nothing she could do about that, and thinking he'd just wake up in the morning, like the rest of you, Stasi didn't bother to sound and alarm the previous night.

[SPEAKER_09]: She knew Stan hope was awake on deck, and as she said, she knew that I was there, so anything happened, she felt confident.

[SPEAKER_09]: It was enough protection and bored, but...

[SPEAKER_09]: In the morning, is it too big problems?

[SPEAKER_02]: A case, a question?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, how far away from Casimir were we when we fell asleep that last time?

[SPEAKER_09]: When you last were aware of time, I think the last thing that I've been said out loud was Skywin was like less than two weeks away.

[SPEAKER_09]: Gotcha, thank you.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_09]: So first, uh, bonavis!

[SPEAKER_09]: woke up.

[SPEAKER_09]: Dad, wait, but he was like you see him now.

[SPEAKER_09]: Not only that, Stasi was quick to point out, and I was able to verify that all of his equipment had been completely drained of magic.

[SPEAKER_09]: His armor, rapia, headband, or all of it.

[SPEAKER_09]: Starset told me how the other three had had their memories erased several months ago and we assumed the same had happened to Barnabas, but Starset was fairly certain that they had just woken about of it.

[SPEAKER_09]: So we assumed the same would happen to him, it hasn't, obviously.

[SPEAKER_09]: You see, he's in his hybrid form right now, so he's anthropomorphic fox form, sitting just blankly on Skywind's caught, now kind of like humming a little tune to himself, but not with any intentionality and barely with words.

[SPEAKER_11]: Skywind's caught?

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, Skywind keeps a caught in Debuk's living room, for when she's in town.

[SPEAKER_09]: And of course, the big problem, which is that the four of you didn't wake, and nothing we didn't work to, which is out sound asleep, I, of course, grew pretty fearful.

[SPEAKER_09]: by the end of the day, given what had happened to me, but given what had happened to me, I at least had some suggestions to make, a adrona and the stardust of us had kept me alive all those years with good berries and, and one nice thing about being in this part of the world is that there are always druids to be found, if you know, to go up to look.

[SPEAKER_09]: So we pushed and we managed reached Bella Spine by night four, they knew some folks there apparently, and we got enough berries to cover a few days and, oh, that was, [SPEAKER_09]: I was one of the cook-left, Hala, that was a name.

[SPEAKER_09]: I don't really know the story there, barely met him.

[SPEAKER_09]: He probably knew much more than I do, but when Skywin came back aboard, she let us know Hala had taken his leave, perhaps indefinitely.

[SPEAKER_09]: We sail on, but things were quite disruptive as you can imagine.

[SPEAKER_09]: Everyone was working very hard since we were now three crew members down.

[SPEAKER_09]: Stan Hoop stepped up, bless his annoying little heart, and I did my best to fill in as cook with a ghost and ribbons, assistance like a god to know the two of them quite well actually, spend a lot of time with them.

[SPEAKER_09]: We hit the, we hit the aisle of Aronway five days later, it's the, as you know, it's the headquarters of the Wildwood lodge and we were holding out hope that one of the master druids might have answers or advice for us, but no such luck.

[SPEAKER_09]: We stayed for a few days, but there was nothing they could do.

[SPEAKER_09]: And Skywin was, she was in a bad way.

[SPEAKER_09]: It took Joshua and D.

and Katzen stepping up and insisting that we finished the voyage to get Skyrim moving.

[SPEAKER_09]: We took another supply of good berries, where doesn't mean we continue it on.

[SPEAKER_09]: That last stretch of time, the whole ship was out of sorts.

[SPEAKER_09]: All the rogue teams were discombobulated, everyone was concerned and, and, oh god, stand hope.

[SPEAKER_09]: Ah, he chose that moment in time to, of all things, learn how to play the violin.

[SPEAKER_09]: The stars he had been working with Katzen on documenting an inventory of all your belongings.

[SPEAKER_09]: Just so we knew what was there and there was a list and just in case you.

[SPEAKER_09]: She wanted there to be a list.

[SPEAKER_09]: Starsy likes lists, I guess.

[SPEAKER_09]: He found an old violin among Dora's belongings and since no one in the ship had ever heard her play it, or had any attention to it, Stan hope sort of claimed it, borrowed borrowed it.

[SPEAKER_09]: And he had bought a bow of someone on the aisle and he was [SPEAKER_09]: Diligently, working away as yet, I swear to all the gods, I have never known someone with a great capacity for setting people on edge.

[SPEAKER_09]: But anyhow, after Erinway, Stasi sat a group of us down, Skywin, Gatson, Veldi, and Emily, she sought her advice, she was a sort of an impossible position.

[SPEAKER_09]: She'd been on the fringes of what you were all up to for the months at that point, but she, she, she still seemed to know very little about certain key details.

[SPEAKER_09]: She said she understood that to be reflection of your care and concern for her well-being, but she suddenly found herself basically in charge of your mission, and she didn't have all the information.

[SPEAKER_09]: I mean, well, that's not quite it.

[SPEAKER_09]: She knew many of the tangibles, but not the Indangibles.

[SPEAKER_09]: That's how she came to refer to it.

[SPEAKER_09]: She knew you were trying to stop this count, Lowe's.

[SPEAKER_09]: She knew his friend, Munn, wasn't Kazimera, was also a target on your list, but a chef, she felt so torrent, she saw her.

[SPEAKER_09]: A goddess had placed two incompatible responsibilities at a feet, carry on the mission, or care for him, protect you.

[SPEAKER_09]: We talked it through, and, [SPEAKER_09]: I made the offer she knew I would make.

[SPEAKER_09]: You all had saved my life, at least I could do it, was to watch over you as I have been watched over.

[SPEAKER_09]: And Skywin was very strongly of the opinion that Jade of also owed you, Dadwick.

[SPEAKER_09]: A great dad.

[SPEAKER_09]: Anyhow, we talked it through and we all agreed that as crazy as it was, Stazzy would carry on your mission, alone if she had to.

[SPEAKER_10]: Katie's arms are in the air.

[SPEAKER_09]: We found it reach the city on the 30th of a radius with a day after a huge storm had hit the coastline here.

[SPEAKER_09]: We had to anchor and seal up for a whole day.

[SPEAKER_09]: And before we were even tied off, Stasi was off running down the pier.

[SPEAKER_09]: Questioning, everyone she could find.

[SPEAKER_09]: It turns out, loads of ship the Aurora had gotten a just days before us, four or five days, I believe.

[SPEAKER_09]: Well done, Dabwick, and there was some weirdness.

[SPEAKER_09]: Uh, Lowe's came ashore, alone, apparently.

[SPEAKER_09]: No servants, no one carrying his luggage, etc.

[SPEAKER_09]: This struck Stasias as odd.

[SPEAKER_09]: She asked around, and yes, people had sort of noted what had gone down with the Aurora, because it was all a little odd.

[SPEAKER_09]: No one else left the vessel for like a day or something.

[SPEAKER_09]: And then, some of the crew were seeing slipping down the dog's late at night, while whoever was left to the ship out late at night.

[SPEAKER_09]: And then apparently it just sat there anchored up by the dog's teeth for a few days, and then this big storm hit and the ship hasn't been seen since.

[SPEAKER_09]: Stazzy got a be in a bonnet, she grabbed Stan Hope.

[SPEAKER_09]: I'm not actually sure what happened next.

[SPEAKER_09]: I was busy helping everyone get your bodies up to the flat and well, you know, seeing my wife for the first time in over a decade.

[SPEAKER_09]: But Stazzy and Stan Hope came back later that day with this odd Elven fellow.

[SPEAKER_09]: And Stazzy was, oh, God, she was in a state.

[SPEAKER_09]: Never seen her like that.

[SPEAKER_09]: She seemed...

[SPEAKER_09]: she seemed distracted, rambling, and even weirder, Stan Hope was completely silent.

[SPEAKER_09]: Never known that man to shut up.

[SPEAKER_09]: And the elf was sweating, never seen it in my life.

[SPEAKER_09]: Stasi sat me in jade off down and she said she was taking one of your bags of holding.

[SPEAKER_09]: She'd booked passage on a vessel to absolute that was leaving that evening.

[SPEAKER_09]: Apparently, money and loads had already set sail for there.

[SPEAKER_09]: And I was to go down to the harbor master and tell him that the Aurora had been scuttled and looted and to close the books on it.

[SPEAKER_09]: Pirates had already gotten to it, was what I was supposed to say, total loss, nothing to salvage.

[SPEAKER_09]: But she stressed I was not to make a big deal out of it, play a cool matter of course, nothing to see here.

[SPEAKER_09]: Stress, you know, disappointment frustration [SPEAKER_09]: She would not, on any surface, tell me anything more about the ship.

[SPEAKER_09]: The dead, no one must ever go down there.

[SPEAKER_09]: And she said that when you woke, I was to tell you where she was going, and distressed that she wouldn't let the trail go cold.

[SPEAKER_09]: She trusted that you would be able to find her or contact her.

[SPEAKER_09]: And then, you all never woke up!

[SPEAKER_09]: You know, for a few weeks, sky went never leaving your side, the crew had to come talk to her and convince her to get the rest of that cargo to and Doran, and so the stalling set sail.

[SPEAKER_09]: And ever since then, it's just been us.

[SPEAKER_09]: We've been feeding you your good berries, J.D.

[SPEAKER_09]: found a contact.

[SPEAKER_09]: We feed and care for Barnabas, which is easier and harder.

[SPEAKER_09]: You do some things on his own if you steer him a little bit, but sometimes he even talks a little bit, but you know, it's hard to see someone in this state.

[SPEAKER_09]: And at that moment, gripper wakes up.

[SPEAKER_09]: What is the process of waking looking like?

[SPEAKER_02]: I think at first, it probably feels like it always feels.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think initially there is a difference in the waking.

[SPEAKER_02]: but I think as soon as he tries to move a little bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, boy.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then it's like, oh, I haven't, I've been stationary for how many, 60, seven days.

[SPEAKER_02]: 67 days.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's got to be a very weird sensation for him.

[SPEAKER_02]: But then, I think it doesn't take a long to realize, okay, I'm not on the boat.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that is gonna be the first [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, first look around, see where he's at.

[SPEAKER_02]: And Dabs, he's right at your feet.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is, oh.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if he sees Chester or Jade of.

[SPEAKER_09]: So I think Chester is also right over you.

[SPEAKER_09]: Jade of, I think, is slipping off to the kitchen to go get some tea.

[SPEAKER_02]: OK.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I think he probably sees Chester first.

[SPEAKER_02]: And there's that moment of flipping through the card catalog, who the fuck are you?

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: And a little bit of, okay, why are you am I, and then seize that work.

[SPEAKER_02]: Look that work.

[SPEAKER_14]: Great.

[SPEAKER_14]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_02]: Fuck am I.

[SPEAKER_14]: You're in customer grip, we made it.

[SPEAKER_14]: Well, we've been a sleep grip for a long time.

[SPEAKER_14]: How long?

[SPEAKER_14]: Over two months, Bob.

[SPEAKER_14]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_14]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_14]: We're safe here.

[SPEAKER_09]: We're in my flat.

[SPEAKER_09]: Well, grip moves slowly.

[SPEAKER_09]: Take it easy.

[SPEAKER_09]: Your body needs time to recover.

[SPEAKER_09]: Take it easy.

[SPEAKER_14]: Well, where is the ball?

[SPEAKER_14]: The sun and starling sail.

[SPEAKER_14]: They had a mission to complete.

[SPEAKER_14]: How long ago?

[SPEAKER_14]: Chester?

[SPEAKER_02]: Over a month ago.

[SPEAKER_02]: Great.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think you see him crumpled.

[SPEAKER_02]: A little bit at that.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've been picturing this moment like ever since the last time we played.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it tears me up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like he's devastated.

[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I didn't even get to say thank you.

[SPEAKER_02]: Or goodbye.

[SPEAKER_02]: Two months.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then he looks in season that Vic and Dora are still asleep.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, right next to you.

[SPEAKER_02]: How long?

[SPEAKER_02]: How long have you been awake?

[SPEAKER_13]: Minutes.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's dumbfounded, and I think he's the loss of that ship is just, it's, it's, it's, it's killing him.

[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now that he remembers, now that he remembers everything, he knows, he knows what, he knows that what they all gave him is something that he's never had.

[SPEAKER_09]: Seeing this look on his face, Chester gives you a little pad, dab-wick, and slips out of the room as well, to lead the two of you alone.

[SPEAKER_09]: This is obviously, you know, Chester's known you all very briefly, but this is not [SPEAKER_09]: This is not a grip that you recognize that he understands, like, right?

[SPEAKER_09]: There's a big moment for all of you.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_14]: Dominic would sit, just sit with you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then I think he sees Barnabas.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's its own crumpline, you know?

[SPEAKER_14]: He wrote us a letter.

[SPEAKER_14]: I'd love to share it with you when you're ready.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he'll hear the letter.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's right.

[SPEAKER_02]: We never did talk.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's right.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's right.

[SPEAKER_06]: I had a grip that, no.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think he's lost in his head now a little bit.

[SPEAKER_09]: What does he feel like?

[SPEAKER_09]: Does he feel like himself?

[SPEAKER_09]: What is this experience of a second life times a worth of memories?

[SPEAKER_09]: Like hitting his synapses?

[SPEAKER_02]: And then this is why the loss of the Starling is hitting him so hard.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's what he feels like his true self is now or what he wants his true self to be.

[SPEAKER_02]: Seeing the vision of who we all were.

[SPEAKER_02]: on the visit when lulls killed us right yeah i was listening to that again and that memory of how you describe as this is a these are people who have no regard for one another they have no regard for them as a as a team yeah they are only in it and and he he he recognized that and seeing it and then remembering how that felt and he knows that that's not [SPEAKER_02]: He wants nothing to do with that guy.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he'll never, I don't think he'll ever pick up an axe again.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, even though he doesn't have that phobia anymore.

[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, and just on the, you know, on the crunchy level, you know, we were said, you said, you know, let's see, what do you, what do you want to cherry pick from your previous self?

[SPEAKER_02]: I thought maybe there'd be a few things but I've looked down that sheet and it's just like there's nothing and I think his his picture of himself Learning that ship that's who he thinks he is.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.

[SPEAKER_09]: He's he's gripped us selling Skywin And he took nothing from gripped us not a single thing not a skill point not a feet nothing [SPEAKER_09]: Nope, he wants nothing to do with who he was.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_09]: I think about like even, even from a like a power game or a place like how often you get the choice of like, hey, you want to throw some ranks away.

[SPEAKER_09]: You could be like, well, no, no, not going to be on a boat.

[SPEAKER_09]: I'm going to give up all these ranks in profession sailor to take something, you know, more ranks, and whatever XYZ is, like, that's just not.

[SPEAKER_09]: It's not the way he went.

[SPEAKER_09]: Nope.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then he gets filled in on.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, so we can picture here for a few minutes.

[SPEAKER_09]: Dabs and Chester can fill him in on what Dabs has heard already.

[SPEAKER_09]: You have a chance to look over the letter.

[SPEAKER_09]: Sitting in your weird little green robes, see your little druidie robes on your cot with your little T kind of little stretch.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just getting the muscles stretched out.

[SPEAKER_09]: And I think this experience of, [SPEAKER_09]: getting the body awakened is slightly less traumatic for you than for dabs, because you also just experienced this supernatural expansion of your body's power.

[SPEAKER_09]: I think it's a little hint of that carries over into the waking world and makes something about this physical transition slightly less difficult than the last half hour or whatever has been for dabs.

[SPEAKER_09]: Yeah, but yeah, so filled in on the story so far, filled in on on Barnabas' letter.

[SPEAKER_02]: I can't believe she went off on her own.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, not not totally on her own.

[SPEAKER_10]: Well, but, but still, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_10]: All right, the omission is significant.

[SPEAKER_14]: Stand-up didn't take the violin with him when he traveled with Stasi, did he?

[SPEAKER_14]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_10]: It's just a surprise, kiddie, kiddie, kiddie, kiddie just but berserk over there.

[SPEAKER_11]: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh [SPEAKER_02]: But we've lost too much fucking time, we have.

[SPEAKER_02]: If I'm ever going to see that crew again, and my friend that is my intention, that is what I'm doing this for, we've got to get fucking moving.

[SPEAKER_09]: And at that moment, even as Dora, odd, it is fake.

[SPEAKER_09]: At that moment, Vic begins to stir.

[SPEAKER_09]: This is fun.

[SPEAKER_11]: You took that fucking mile in, of which.

[SPEAKER_10]: And you didn't notice till now!

[SPEAKER_10]: It's gone!

[SPEAKER_10]: In the hands of Stan Hope, Nixon.

[SPEAKER_09]: But in that moment is when we start to see VIX body begin to move and Russell and we can assume now by this point, you know, grip is up on his feet, sort of like stretching out in his robes and and dab because it will go over and join VIX as [SPEAKER_04]: he wakes and what is this experience like the waking for for Vick so I think that Vick is he's coming to but it's that thing when you're coming to and you're waking up and you're still half in a dream state and in the stream state he's on a ship he's on a boat and he's there with [SPEAKER_04]: I don't think they're on a river.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think they're like maybe in like a pond or something like that like it's like a little tiny rowboat kind of thing And it's literally like Him and her together and they're fishing.

[SPEAKER_04]: How old is she young?

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, she's a kid [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, she's a kid.

[SPEAKER_04]: She's not, she's not into double digits yet, but she's, she's still a kid and they like packed a lunch and stuff and they're just fishing and not doing a terribly good job of it because neither of them know how to fish but they're having fun and it's kind of quiet and it's away from sort of the hustle and bustle of dialect lean and she's, you know, telling a story about [SPEAKER_04]: you know, whatever it was she did the day before and about the things that she's into in that moment in time and he's like looking at her and there's like light on the pond and stuff and you know and it's like he's looking away and looking at oh the start to catch a fit like I can feel something on the line and he's looking back at her and then slowly sort of like coming [SPEAKER_09]: to feel and intense feeling of like the change and the perception of your physical body is stark.

[SPEAKER_09]: Going from a feeling of like loose ease, time with family to every time I even shift it hurts.

[SPEAKER_09]: Things are slow to respond.

[SPEAKER_09]: In prison.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_09]: And you're attracting your own body in a set of green robes.

[SPEAKER_09]: As Dabwick, this is a little halfway face, is looking down on you.

[SPEAKER_14]: Dabwick, come up slowly.

[SPEAKER_03]: Dabwick, yes.

[SPEAKER_03]: Dabs.

[SPEAKER_14]: We've been out for a long time, my friend.

[SPEAKER_14]: Over two months.

[SPEAKER_03]: Two months?

[SPEAKER_03]: Where?

[SPEAKER_03]: Where were we?

[SPEAKER_03]: Fool.

[SPEAKER_13]: Well, we were at the Man Poets of Laces.

[SPEAKER_13]: At least that's where I and I saw you.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_03]: He drowned us there.

[SPEAKER_03]: No.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, that's not right.

[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't drown us there.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, he did drown us there.

[SPEAKER_03]: Wait.

[SPEAKER_03]: No, I know you.

[SPEAKER_14]: Your depths, and I'm real, friend.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you're real.

[SPEAKER_14]: You're real.

[SPEAKER_14]: Where are we?

[SPEAKER_14]: We're in my flat in Casimir, who's safe.

[SPEAKER_14]: We made it, we made it to the city.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, casting me, and that's right.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's right, casting me.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we were trying to go to casting me.

[SPEAKER_09]: You can see the giant shadow of the gripper looming across the way.

[SPEAKER_02]: It looks like that friend.

[SPEAKER_04]: And he looks at you and for a second, you see him looking at you and sort of like clocking the angles and stuff.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then he's like, wait, no, we're.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're grip, that's right.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're grip, and no we're friends.

[SPEAKER_03]: We're friends for brothers.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_09]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_09]: A shadow crosses the doorway, and it's just your looking and to see how this is going.

[SPEAKER_09]: Chester, right?

[SPEAKER_09]: Yes, that's right, my friend.

[SPEAKER_09]: I have T for you, and you're ready, too.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no T.

All right.

[SPEAKER_09]: You sound different.

[SPEAKER_03]: Do I?

[SPEAKER_15]: You do, shit.

[SPEAKER_15]: You're all you.

[SPEAKER_03]: What do you mean?

[SPEAKER_15]: Do you still feel like a Vic?

[SPEAKER_15]: Who?

[SPEAKER_10]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_03]: What do you call yourself?

[SPEAKER_03]: Sebastian.

[SPEAKER_03]: But my friend's called me bash.

[SPEAKER_14]: Welcome bash and we're friends.

[SPEAKER_14]: We are friends.

[SPEAKER_14]: We're friends.

[SPEAKER_14]: We are friends.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I know that.

[SPEAKER_03]: I know you're my friend, Debs.

[SPEAKER_03]: And do you know what our mission is bash?

[SPEAKER_14]: Do you remember what we're fighting for?

[SPEAKER_14]: I remember what I'm fighting for.

[SPEAKER_03]: What's that?

[SPEAKER_03]: I gotta find somewhere to try to get back to her.

[SPEAKER_14]: I dare not ask who...

for it was a name that you swore never to speak aloud.

[SPEAKER_14]: Yeah, I remember that.

[SPEAKER_09]: Well boy, Johnny has found a loophole.

[SPEAKER_10]: It's a surprise surprise.

[SPEAKER_10]: Shocker.

[SPEAKER_03]: How's her?

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, there she is.

[SPEAKER_03]: How's Thor?

[SPEAKER_03]: Don't team.

[SPEAKER_03]: Team up?

[SPEAKER_09]: Thor.

[SPEAKER_09]: I guess we'll find out.

[SPEAKER_09]: As she begins to stir, [SPEAKER_09]: So, all sitting in your weird druid-y green robes.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm assuming these are mid-thai length robes, right?

[SPEAKER_09]: No, I'm actually kind of like picture wizard robes.

[SPEAKER_09]: Like they're actually, this is not an undignified situation, like when we started this campaign and this is actually like, you know, you're not in your own clothes, but they've, they've put you in something with some, you know, they've truly come back for this.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not like a little hotel room.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we did that.

[SPEAKER_09]: We did that already.

[SPEAKER_09]: But in the middle of all of you in your druid robes, Doria doesn't need begin to stir, and what's this feel like for her, Katie?

[SPEAKER_11]: Doria wakes with a tremendous gas and inhalation of air and her back, arches her eyes pop open, and she is trembling as if something is leaving her body or entering it, or both.

[SPEAKER_11]: and she begins thrashing, and it's clear that this is incredibly painful to her stymied limbs and muscles or atrophied body.

[SPEAKER_11]: She's older than I think all of you except maybe Chester and Chadov, and this is, this is akin to when she was hit by that symbol and the care of Ancerai and collapsed and unable to support her own body weight, but she can't stop this.

[SPEAKER_03]: Grip pulled it down.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Dora.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: Dora with us.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's okay.

[UNKNOWN]: It's gone.

[SPEAKER_12]: It's gone.

[SPEAKER_12]: It's gone.

[SPEAKER_02]: What's gone?

[SPEAKER_14]: What left?

[SPEAKER_14]: What's gone?

[SPEAKER_11]: Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, Lep, L [SPEAKER_12]: It's dark, winter, and no one in the room could work.

[SPEAKER_15]: Yes, love.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, my God.

[SPEAKER_06]: My mother.

[SPEAKER_12]: My father.

[SPEAKER_12]: And me.

[SPEAKER_12]: That little girl.

[SPEAKER_12]: She never...

She didn't know.

[SPEAKER_12]: She didn't know.

[SPEAKER_12]: No.

[SPEAKER_06]: She didn't.

[SPEAKER_12]: And then out of the box, there wasn't...

There wasn't fair.

[SPEAKER_12]: It wasn't...

It wasn't...

She didn't...

She wasn't her.

[SPEAKER_12]: She was...

She was just a little girl, too, you know.

[SPEAKER_12]: She was just...

[SPEAKER_11]: This goes on for some time.

[SPEAKER_03]: Thor, Thor.

[SPEAKER_11]: Do you know that?

[SPEAKER_11]: I wasn't cold.

[SPEAKER_11]: Dora when I was poor.

[SPEAKER_11]: I was...

Cold another name and...

And my father didn't like it.

[SPEAKER_11]: It was my mother's choice.

[SPEAKER_11]: My father didn't like it, so he called me door, I was in the call me door, uh.

[SPEAKER_11]: But that's not who I am.

[SPEAKER_02]: What did your mother call you?

[SPEAKER_11]: It makes so much sense now.

[SPEAKER_11]: My name is...

It's Pandora.

[SPEAKER_11]: And I have lived a thousand times and now I have been reborn once more.

[SPEAKER_11]: She sees Barnabes and reaches for him even though it hurts.

[SPEAKER_09]: No response from the body.

[SPEAKER_12]: More than friends.

[SPEAKER_12]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_12]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_12]: I mean, I need time.

[SPEAKER_09]: And then, with absolutely no warning.

[SPEAKER_09]: As the four of you gather on the floor, in your druid robes, with no equipment whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_09]: Dabwick, grip, bash, and Pandora.

[SPEAKER_09]: There's a bang, and a pop, in the center of Dabwick's living room, a slight roar, a faint whiff of sulfur, and a distant echo of screaming, and where there had previously been [SPEAKER_09]: There is now a creature standing there.

[SPEAKER_09]: A grotesque winged seven and a half foot tall abomination.

[SPEAKER_09]: A horrible mix of demonic and angelic features as if two competing bodies had been painfully and carelessly fused into one creature of blazing, radiance, and blazing agony.

[SPEAKER_09]: It's fangued, leonine face is frozen in permanent contempt while a beautiful angel face with an expression of horror, sporadically bulges out of the back of its skull.

[SPEAKER_09]: Its arms are pale and hairless and humanoid, but end in these giant cat-like paws with terrible claws, one of which is somehow gripping a flaming long sword.

[SPEAKER_09]: Its legs are fur-covered, haunched, feline appendages, ending in twisted, backward-facing, seemingly burnt and shard human feet.

[SPEAKER_09]: And the wings erupting out of its back are radiant white and feathered and bird-like, but flecked with red and black twitching as if suffering from continuous [SPEAKER_09]: of agony.

[SPEAKER_09]: The creature is standing right next to grip, and stairs daggers into his soul as the lion mouth-housed.

[SPEAKER_01]: There you are, blasphema.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've been a hard one to find, coward.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, today we come in rage and fury, prostrate yourself and swear the olds.

[SPEAKER_01]: or meet the scourge today, now.

[SPEAKER_09]: And the awful humanish face on the back of its head suddenly erupts out of the front side of its face with the crunching sound of bone snapping.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do it mortal, he will kill you, I can't stop him, save yourself, stay alive, bow down and serve.

[SPEAKER_10]: And that's the end of chapter 151.

[SPEAKER_10]: We will pick up for next time.

[SPEAKER_07]: That's a pretty good game.

[SPEAKER_07]: Sebastian's.

[SPEAKER_08]: Dark Nexus is produced by Plugin' Home Productions.

[SPEAKER_08]: This podcast uses trademarks and or copyrights owned by Pieson Corporation and used under Pieson's fam content policy.

[SPEAKER_08]: This podcast is not published endorsed or specifically approved by PISO.

[SPEAKER_08]: For more information about PISO Inc.

[SPEAKER_08]: and PISO products, please visit PISO.com that's P-A-I-Z-O.com.

[SPEAKER_08]: Dark Nexus uses music and soundscapes by CyrenScape.

[SPEAKER_08]: Check them out at CyrenScape.com.

[SPEAKER_08]: That's S-Y-R-I-N-S-C-A-P-E.com.

[SPEAKER_08]: Opening and closing themes along with additional music composed by Rob Cosmaric, artwork for Dark Nexus is by Matt Wallquist.

[SPEAKER_08]: The thanks to DMCP, Richard and R.I.

[SPEAKER_08]: Paul and Shen in Scotty, Jason Jess, Joe, Chelsea, Matt, Dave, Derek, Darren, Michaela J.A.

[SPEAKER_08]: to the biscuit buddies and everyone we've gained with over the years for all the memories and inspiration.

[SPEAKER_05]: You are a big part of our storytelling as well, and we love it when you know this.

[SPEAKER_12]: You are, in fact, the antagonist.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm also a pop-in-all.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm a pro-tagonist.

[SPEAKER_05]: Well, the story pal.

[SPEAKER_10]: You're a story pal.

[SPEAKER_10]: Very buddy.

[SPEAKER_02]: My name is Rob.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm the story pal tonight.

[SPEAKER_02]: Protagonist, antagonist, and lover.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right?