[UNKNOWN]: Oh!

[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome back to Dark Nexus.

[SPEAKER_05]: Tonight, it's act three, chapter one hundred forty three.

[SPEAKER_05]: We're picking up in the dream lands in a CD packed smoke-filled drug den slouching in a dark corner of the city of dialath lane.

[SPEAKER_05]: You're in a wide, low space with, improbably, old-fashioned Wayne's coats, reminding you of the heart of some condemned old craft.

[SPEAKER_05]: On the walls between curtains, hang oil paintings so thoroughly besmoked and in every way defaced, [SPEAKER_05]: that in the unequal crosslights by which you view them, it would only be by diligent study and a series of systematic visits that you could in any way arrive at an understanding of their subjects or purpose.

[SPEAKER_05]: And what most puzzles and confounds you is the identical, long, portentious black mass of something.

[SPEAKER_05]: which hovers at the center of every picture.

[SPEAKER_05]: Squitchy picture is truly enough to drive a nervous soul distracted yet.

[SPEAKER_05]: There is a sort of indefinite, unimaginable sublimity about them that nearly freezes your gaze to them.

[SPEAKER_05]: A dusky place this is filled with blue grey smoke, low ponderous beams above an old worn planks below.

[SPEAKER_05]: Long low, shelf-like tables covered with cracked glass cases filled with rucks heads.

[SPEAKER_05]: Shabby, circular tables, ranged round with decanters, bottles, flasks, contained within, delirium, dreams, and death.

[SPEAKER_05]: In filling the room are such an unaccountable mass of shapes and shadows that you feel almost bewitched by the close pressing chaos, figures in green goggles, figures with goblins, figures thin as harpoons, figures of corpulent flesh, naves, murderers, fools, champions, renegades, and castaways.

[SPEAKER_05]: Some are wildly happy, most some are deeply fucked up, most of them are high.

[SPEAKER_05]: Not all of them are types of highs, you recognize or understand.

[SPEAKER_05]: And it's a riot of skin tones in here, mostly shades of blue, red, and purple, even though almost everybody looks just human or teafling.

[SPEAKER_05]: There are a lot of devil spawn in here, and cats, cats under chairs, incorders, lounging on cushions, living their best dreamy lives.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's a big circular room.

[SPEAKER_05]: You can tell you're underground because there's a set of stairs across the way that leads up to what looks like a street level.

[SPEAKER_05]: You can tell that all this wood paneling on the walls and floors and the ceiling, all of it is covering a building seemingly made of solid jet black volcanic stone.

[SPEAKER_05]: You can tell because the floor boards here and there are broken.

[SPEAKER_05]: You can catch glimpses of the basalt beneath, same on the walls.

[SPEAKER_05]: Between the weird paintings on the walls, all the way around the room, there are doorways.

[SPEAKER_05]: covered in thick, red curtains, hiding, secret rooms, or secret offshoot, private spaces.

[SPEAKER_05]: In standing amidst this press, our jewel tone, opium dendora, flowy pants and pirate sleeves, [SPEAKER_05]: all of drabs sleeveless vest red bandana gripper and chubby, pimply, teenage Vic with his riotous collection of jangly braceless.

[SPEAKER_05]: Let's see, what was going on when we last left off?

[SPEAKER_05]: All right, one of the servers, a young woman around twenty years old with blue skin and blue hair, barely dressed, just spotted Vic and said, Dad, I've got art for ya.

[SPEAKER_05]: Here's your daughter, Johnny.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, she looks very contemplative.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, and also, based on how things ended the last time you all were in the dream, grippers probably still got that scalpel he picked up off the floor of the ball room in Sarnat, and Dora would be holding the soaking wet continuously dripping glowing green water lizard idol in her hands.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's where we pick up.

[SPEAKER_05]: Let's start with the physical activities first.

[SPEAKER_05]: The two of you that have weird shitting your hands, are you putting it away?

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you do?

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we should trade them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: You should give me this scabble so that I can read it at some points.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you should put this eye to the way.

[SPEAKER_07]: Into the bag of all that's open up the bag and let you drop it in.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that under the table a little bit.

[SPEAKER_05]: There are so many people and so much smoke and so much noise.

[SPEAKER_05]: Someone would have to be specifically watching you like this young woman is.

[SPEAKER_05]: So she's staring at you in the face there, Vic.

[SPEAKER_05]: with a pretty accusatory looking right she doesn't seem pleased to see you necessarily so amidst the cacophony sound thickly and singles my name's not Chad look I will give this to you but I'm not gonna spit in your fucking face dad [SPEAKER_05]: And she reaches, she's gonna talk to him.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, she's a server too, so she'd have to play as to put some, put money.

[SPEAKER_05]: So she got a little apron, no, but she's wearing a bikini.

[SPEAKER_05]: So she's got a little, a little belt pouch around her goal, her like principally a bikini.

[SPEAKER_05]: The dangling?

[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, yes, yes.

[SPEAKER_05]: She reaches in and she pulls out Johnny.

[SPEAKER_05]: She pulls out this tiny little something that she's holding between her fingers and she holds her hand out in front of you like she wants to drop it in your hand.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's so small you can't even see what it is.

[SPEAKER_06]: And Vic just kind of sized and like puts his hand out.

[SPEAKER_06]: She drops it.

[SPEAKER_05]: It is a tiny, little rectangle of crispy, leathery, something.

[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe dead skin, and it seems to have a perfect, equilateral triangle on it.

[SPEAKER_05]: Can I make any kind of alchemical check on it?

[SPEAKER_05]: This is some kind of drug thing, or is this something else?

[SPEAKER_05]: It was once a piece of your face.

[SPEAKER_05]: You reckon it's your tattoo?

[SPEAKER_05]: What?

[SPEAKER_05]: What?

[SPEAKER_06]: Uh...

Can we talk?

[SPEAKER_06]: Are you sticking around?

[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: Alright, come on over here.

[SPEAKER_05]: And she leads you towards one of the red curtains.

[SPEAKER_05]: Taking the whole gang with you or just going to buy yourself.

[SPEAKER_05]: Are you following?

[SPEAKER_05]: Are you letting him get this alone?

[SPEAKER_07]: I will try to remain.

[SPEAKER_07]: proximate he'll he'll try to be subtle about staying within your shot I'm probably not successful but that he's like yeah I'm going to see what this is about [SPEAKER_01]: Before they go, Dora will cast Telepathic Bond on the party.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh great.

[SPEAKER_05]: All right, so you're all bonded.

[SPEAKER_05]: So you can you can speak telepathically with Vic, but you're gonna let him go by himself.

[SPEAKER_05]: Great.

[SPEAKER_05]: And what about Debs?

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like Debwick is really curious and can't help themselves and follows.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, towards the, towards the curtain door.

[SPEAKER_05]: So, she takes you to this curtain and pulls it aside.

[SPEAKER_06]: As we're walking away, I say, do you know any of my friends?

[SPEAKER_06]: You're with them?

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: No, I don't know them.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, should I?

[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_05]: Are you running an operation here?

[SPEAKER_05]: Let's talk.

[SPEAKER_05]: Can you take off this ridiculous face, Dad?

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I know you like it, but...

Sure.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: And he...

Shoot.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh my god.

[SPEAKER_05]: You're so young.

[SPEAKER_05]: Uh-oh.

[SPEAKER_05]: And what?

[SPEAKER_05]: Time moves...

Did you cut the rest of them off?

[SPEAKER_05]: What the fuck, Dad?

[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I guess I did.

[SPEAKER_06]: I didn't know that I cut any off before.

[SPEAKER_06]: You gave that to me to give to you.

[SPEAKER_05]: But the fuck is wrong with you?

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, that's a very long story.

[SPEAKER_06]: And find some time.

[SPEAKER_06]: How much later you want?

[SPEAKER_05]: I just got here, but I mean, take a look around, right?

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, come, come, come, come on back here.

[SPEAKER_05]: Behind this red curtain is a small, a small private room about, you know, like, fifteen by fifteen with cushions and a low-divon and a whole bunch of pipes and bottles and beakers all over the place.

[SPEAKER_05]: Easy enough for a grouper to kind of like, hang of the doorway and just keep an ear, press through the curtain, and if tabs want to slip in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's what they outside.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, give them privacy.

[SPEAKER_06]: So where have you been?

[SPEAKER_06]: This is going to sound really crazy, but my friends and I will not not the half length, but my other two friends and I, I guess we pulled a job here, and that's the only thing I knew about it.

[SPEAKER_06]: We then went on, did you ever meet Lowe's?

[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know who that is.

[SPEAKER_06]: Dumb guy, classes, stupid hat, [SPEAKER_06]: Look, you're not a lot of idiots around dad.

[SPEAKER_06]: I didn't mean to tell you.

[SPEAKER_06]: Anyway, he took us to a place and basically sort of sacrificed our memories and shoved us into a mental institution and a mental institution.

[SPEAKER_06]: And then we didn't, we woke up now.

[SPEAKER_05]: There it is.

[SPEAKER_05]: Let's see, it's been, that's what mom said.

[SPEAKER_06]: Well, mom was probably right in this case.

[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know where she's at.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, wait.

[SPEAKER_06]: I got something.

[SPEAKER_06]: I got something.

[SPEAKER_06]: I got, it's perfect for this.

[SPEAKER_06]: Hold on.

[SPEAKER_06]: What's wrong with your voice?

[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, this is what I sound like now.

[SPEAKER_06]: I went through a couple of ways.

[SPEAKER_05]: I think I have a voice gift.

[SPEAKER_06]: Uh, if you could tell me what I sound like before, that'd be great to know.

[SPEAKER_06]: A little more serious.

[SPEAKER_06]: A little more serious.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, it's...

A little meaner.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, like James Gandalfini?

[SPEAKER_05]: If she had that reference, she might suggest it.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, that's probably what I sounded like before.

[SPEAKER_06]: God, where is it?

[SPEAKER_06]: In-sense of open thoughts, here we go.

[SPEAKER_06]: While a block of this sweet-scented incense burns, creatures inhaling its fumes become unusually receptive to thought, and still air the incense is smoked permeates a forty-foot by forty-foot area to a height of twenty feet.

[SPEAKER_06]: Creatures within that area can communicate telepathically with other creatures in the area.

[SPEAKER_06]: creatures communicating in this fashion don't need to share a language but must have an intelligence of three or higher.

[SPEAKER_06]: The openness of mine engendered by the incense also provides a plus five insight bonus on diplomacy and sense mode of checks against creatures in the area and imposes a minus five penalty on bluff and intimidate checks against such creatures and a minus two penalty on saving throws against mind affecting effects.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many things of incense are burning in the establishment of those people?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, so much.

[SPEAKER_06]: Look, I get that you probably don't believe anything I'm saying.

[SPEAKER_06]: I understand that.

[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, are you back?

[SPEAKER_06]: I have no memory or knowledge of you whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_06]: This is- This is- What's the fuck down?

[SPEAKER_06]: I know.

[SPEAKER_06]: I understand.

[SPEAKER_06]: I get that you are upset and pissed at me.

[SPEAKER_06]: I don't- Why would you take this angle?

[SPEAKER_05]: You piece of shit.

[SPEAKER_06]: All right.

[SPEAKER_06]: I'm just gonna like this.

[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know who you are.

[SPEAKER_06]: And he lights the incense.

[UNKNOWN]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: How's it going?

[SPEAKER_05]: You're a little less in your mind.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, great.

[SPEAKER_05]: No, save a loud from what I'm seeing here.

[SPEAKER_05]: All right.

[SPEAKER_05]: Forty foot by Forty foot area.

[SPEAKER_05]: We'll save for the moment.

[SPEAKER_05]: It is contained within this enclosed space, but yeah, if we start opening that curtain, you might just spill out and cause a ruckus.

[SPEAKER_05]: People will get even more open minded.

[SPEAKER_05]: So, well, Vic is lighting the incense.

[SPEAKER_05]: What are the rest of you up to or are you just hanging tight until this nonsense is over?

[SPEAKER_01]: Rather than try to do diplomacy checks for an hour in a drug den, Dora's gonna cast detect thoughts, looking for the name Puppy Androv, you know, just trying to figure out why did the thing bring us here?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I, she knows.

[SPEAKER_01]: that we ambushed her here last time.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we do know that she gave him something, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you saw, yes, you saw her.

[SPEAKER_01]: So she remarks to everyone I guess telepathically.

[SPEAKER_01]: These breadcrumbs, we should understand what they mean.

[SPEAKER_05]: As you cast detect thoughts, [SPEAKER_05]: This is a riot of people and a riot of altered mental states to a degree.

[SPEAKER_05]: Dora hasn't ever experienced before.

[SPEAKER_05]: And with this, it's got to be extremely overwhelming.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you're asking it as a first level spell so that the DC is lower so that not everybody's going to make it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, oh, right about everybody's going to fail if.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that it's a maybe a little less overwhelming than it normally would be.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's doing the easy version.

[SPEAKER_01]: trying to open your mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I have to use this bell slot to do it, but then we may be the only difference it makes is what the DC is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some people will accidentally make it and then we'll get and everybody.

[SPEAKER_05]: But I mean, you do get through to a lot of folks.

[SPEAKER_05]: And since you're focused on this name, Kawaviendra, I think it's only a matter of a few seconds before you pick up the thoughts of a couple of people who are noting to themselves, I can't believe she came back here, that's wild.

[SPEAKER_05]: In reference to Dora.

[SPEAKER_05]: In a Dora's to Kawaviendra.

[SPEAKER_01]: Dora Vyander.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because last time she was here, she got ambushed and sent me down.

[SPEAKER_05]: Still her heart soon.

[SPEAKER_05]: I hope there's not going to be violence again.

[SPEAKER_05]: My god she's so hot.

[SPEAKER_05]: Look at that dress and like you can slowly triangulate this and you can like across the way you know like about fifty feet away from you through the press draped over over this sofa is is this just imperious, outsized presence.

[SPEAKER_05]: completely different than the last nighthag you all encountered, till the sharp teeth still the long claws and the ram's horns.

[SPEAKER_05]: But Kawyandra looks flush with life, healthy and lively, practically glowing as if she's perhaps recently eaten with this [SPEAKER_05]: tall, elaborately, coft hair, and this curvacious form draped in this richly expensive and very revealing dress.

[SPEAKER_05]: Let me give you some art for the new night tag in your life.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, it's so weird when they're trying to be sexy, because it's a hag.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that is a fun picture.

[SPEAKER_05]: I love the pearls.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, so she's in this pin this image.

[SPEAKER_05]: She is a hideous wrinkled hag with an elaborate, buffant hairdo.

[SPEAKER_05]: Right, a Frankenstein.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, similar streak going through.

[SPEAKER_05]: She's stroking this necklace.

[SPEAKER_05]: She's got her on her neck.

[SPEAKER_01]: And on that necklace is their heart soon.

[SPEAKER_05]: You definitely see a large orangey red gemstone that you would, you would guess to be adjacent.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so she's definitely there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so dismiss the detect thoughts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Fix she's here.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's writing a gem around her neck.

[SPEAKER_05]: What's happening right now is.

[SPEAKER_05]: So this is catching us up to you lighting the incense.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_05]: As the incense gets going, it begins to fill the room and your daughter's looking at you.

[SPEAKER_05]: You hear that.

[SPEAKER_06]: I'm kind of dealing with the thing right now, Dora.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, have at it.

[SPEAKER_05]: I guess we'll just hang out and do drugs So then she's just kind of watching you go through this and then within a couple of seconds of the smoke starting to fill the space She sighs and then you hear why [SPEAKER_05]: Inside your mind.

[SPEAKER_05]: Wait, can you?

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: Do you have no respect for my privacy?

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm trying to let you into my mind.

[SPEAKER_06]: What is it you want me to see?

[SPEAKER_06]: And I'm trying to think about all of the things, you know, like, from the waking up to the not knowing our names, to escaping Briar Stone, going from Gulliver to Roney to Vic, and having discovered more and more and more, and then the different times we've come to the Dreamlands, [SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_06]: And every single time we came, we discovered that we had done something to this area.

[SPEAKER_06]: We had changed it, poisoned it, broken it, and done these sort of horrible, horrible things.

[SPEAKER_06]: And how as we've been going along, how Vic in particular has felt responsible.

[SPEAKER_06]: for these actions in a way that he thinks that there is the party has not necessarily felt responsible for it and that he feels bad.

[SPEAKER_06]: He feels awful about this and he wants to be as open with her as he can possibly be while at the same time going, I don't know how to fix this.

[SPEAKER_06]: I don't even know that this is something that can be, quote unquote, fixed, but I can be honest with you.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_06]: And I can, and we can at least move forward from a place of that, because otherwise, like, there's no point in anything.

[SPEAKER_06]: It was, Roni, Dad, that's how I knew you.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_05]: But your name was Sebastian.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, man.

[SPEAKER_06]: Of course it was.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's a vast illness.

[SPEAKER_05]: At least that's what you call yourself to me and mom.

[SPEAKER_06]: Well, there's a very strong possibility that I had some mental illnesses that I was dealing with as a result of having been in the dream lands.

[SPEAKER_06]: And you believe this is not mental illness, what you just showed me?

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, no, all of that was.

[SPEAKER_06]: I'm actually doing okay right now.

[SPEAKER_06]: Might not seem like it, and you can, again, not believe me.

[SPEAKER_05]: Do you give a shit about anything?

[SPEAKER_06]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, I do.

[SPEAKER_06]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_05]: How did you get so young?

[SPEAKER_05]: Was I old before?

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you were fifty.

[SPEAKER_05]: When I saw you, few weeks ago.

[SPEAKER_05]: A few weeks ago.

[SPEAKER_05]: Um...

[SPEAKER_05]: seven seven weeks ago okay seven weeks ago you were you part of this oh my god were you part of the thing last week what happened last week quaveyandra was attacked probably [SPEAKER_05]: I was off that night, but I heard all about it from everybody.

[SPEAKER_05]: Well, at least they were fireballs, Dad.

[SPEAKER_05]: What the fuck?

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, that was probably too much.

[SPEAKER_05]: Well, I don't know how you expect me to deal with this information.

[SPEAKER_05]: You asked me to give that back to you.

[SPEAKER_05]: You told me to spit in your face if you showed up here again.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm feeling more and more like doing so to be completely frank with you, dad.

[SPEAKER_05]: But obviously, you got a lot of shit going on.

[SPEAKER_06]: When we go out of here, when people do see us, you should probably spit in my face and maybe give me a good slap.

[SPEAKER_06]: Don't tell anyone I'm your dad.

[SPEAKER_05]: Dad, I mean, everybody here knows you.

[SPEAKER_05]: How many times did I come here?

[SPEAKER_05]: You practically lift your dad.

[SPEAKER_05]: We all do.

[SPEAKER_05]: I work here, mom worked here before she disappeared, and this is where you hung out every day.

[SPEAKER_05]: For nineteen years, [SPEAKER_05]: Oh, shit.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, dad.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's not our played major.

[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I did a, I did a stint in one area for about six months, but it seems like I might have stayed here for nineteen years.

[SPEAKER_05]: having a daughter when raising her.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's a stint, huh?

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, dad.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, everyone here knows your face and everyone here recognizes a lot of your other faces.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I try something new if you don't want people to know who you are.

[SPEAKER_05]: She's making a way towards the curtain as if it'll leave.

[SPEAKER_05]: I'm standing in front of the door.

[SPEAKER_07]: Just, yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: gonna do anything but I'm looming I'm looming and given just given a is everything all right look to my friend Victor oh yeah no dad's speaking to the curtain down below [SPEAKER_06]: Let her go.

[SPEAKER_06]: Let her go.

[SPEAKER_06]: Guys.

[SPEAKER_05]: Right, don't.

[SPEAKER_05]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_05]: So then Dora, who's been probably been using this time, doing the thought detecting and stuff, got a strange response from Vic, and then you see this young woman burst out of the curtains, and she's crying, and she makes her way across the room and through the smoke and out of your sight for the moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is everything alright?

[SPEAKER_05]: As you ask that question, as the curtain opens up, the smoke-billowing out of that chamber starts to fill in with the smoke all around you.

[SPEAKER_05]: Y'all feel really open and loose.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's gonna be real tough to lie.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have five.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's like, what is happening?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably really in town with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_06]: Dampen the incense, but obviously it's gonna at least get out.

[UNKNOWN]: What have you done?

[SPEAKER_05]: There's nobody seems to be trying to use this private rule right now.

[SPEAKER_05]: So if you all want to duck in there for a second, you certainly can.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all this smoking.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh god, if you don't need a private rule.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, you're talking.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, you can talk telepathically.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: But maybe close the cow.

[SPEAKER_06]: Dora.

[SPEAKER_06]: Can you read this?

[SPEAKER_05]: And he holds out like the scrap of flesh in his head.

[SPEAKER_01]: What have we got?

[SPEAKER_01]: Tattoo needle?

[SPEAKER_01]: Scalpel?

[SPEAKER_01]: What was left in the plaza of bones?

[SPEAKER_05]: That was a small coin, you've already read that coin?

[SPEAKER_01]: Silver vile?

[SPEAKER_01]: Silver vile?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, all left things behind, but mostly Vic.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah?

[SPEAKER_05]: No, so far Tattoo Needle from the gripper, huh?

[SPEAKER_05]: So we're wild from Tima.

[SPEAKER_05]: Coin from Vic.

[SPEAKER_05]: Scouples from Gabbicus.

[SPEAKER_04]: Or we don't know.

[SPEAKER_04]: We're from Ray.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[SPEAKER_01]: She holds her hand out.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a minute, so she's gonna do this one telepathically rather than out loud.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, well, let's make that concentration check to see if you succeed.

[SPEAKER_05]: I think that's the mechanic we talked about five years ago.

[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, you're so this whole thing of being this incense of open thoughts would you?

[SPEAKER_04]: She's gonna try.

[SPEAKER_06]: She's gonna try.

[SPEAKER_06]: That's gotta have a.

That's fun.

[SPEAKER_06]: It's gotta have a penalty to it though, right?

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, she's like you've got flops wet And she reads the scrap of flesh [SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_05]: This one, Katie, this one, and compounded by the environment.

[SPEAKER_05]: This one feels so trippy.

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, super, super trippy.

[SPEAKER_05]: First of all, where you are, right?

[SPEAKER_05]: Second of all, it's a dream object.

[SPEAKER_05]: Now, she's kind of gotten used to inhabiting a dream body in the dream lands where these objects that are not real feel real to her.

[SPEAKER_05]: But of course, there's always a little piece of reminder that's remembering, like, it's not actually real, but it's still imbued with memory and emotion and significance.

[SPEAKER_05]: So it's not real, but it's true, right?

[SPEAKER_05]: So we're talking about another deep pool filled with ripples here, rather than a rushing river.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: She's experienced that before.

[SPEAKER_05]: that the tattoo made it wild, the coin.

[SPEAKER_05]: But now that she's got a comparison point, those things felt relatively speaking much more real to her, like they were objects from the real world that their owners manifested here, either consciously or unconsciously.

[SPEAKER_05]: This feels similar, but also really different, like it has both existed for a while and was only very, very recently created.

[SPEAKER_05]: And the thing that makes this super trippy is with every, every time you've done a psychology reading, you've experienced a moment.

[SPEAKER_05]: What you experience here is a moment of someone remembering other moments.

[SPEAKER_05]: So this is a vision door experiences in the dimension of dreams from an object that doesn't literally exist of someone else having a moment where they remember a moment where they remembered a moment.

[SPEAKER_05]: I preface all that just because I think it's fun flavor for what's happening right now and also for how deep down the dream rabbit hole we are getting as we get deeper and deeper into the book through here, nineteen years.

[SPEAKER_05]: So here we go.

[SPEAKER_05]: A middle-aged man.

[SPEAKER_05]: stairs into a mirror and remembers a young man staring into a mirror who is remembering a teenager staring into a mirror.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's the first mirror the fifty year old man has looked at in nearly two decades.

[SPEAKER_05]: And the face he sees is an almost unknown face.

[SPEAKER_05]: He stares into the mirror at the wrinkles.

[SPEAKER_05]: His gray hair, his eyes.

[SPEAKER_05]: He wouldn't even recognize himself.

[SPEAKER_05]: if it weren't for the tattoo.

[SPEAKER_05]: The geometric spiral of tiny, equilateral triangles on his left cheek, just like his uncle had before the red death.

[SPEAKER_05]: Sebastianous stairs at his face and...

Ah, he remembers that's not his name.

[SPEAKER_05]: It was his oldest brother's name.

[SPEAKER_05]: He just started using it here, and it's stuck.

[SPEAKER_05]: Especially after Katrina was born.

[SPEAKER_05]: Roni.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's his name, only it's not, and it never was.

[SPEAKER_05]: Whoever he is, he steers at the marksman's face, he finds the very last triangle, the outside most one.

[SPEAKER_05]: That was the last one he did.

[SPEAKER_05]: Trice, Dr.

Trice.

[SPEAKER_05]: But the last person he killed, not by a long shot, long long shot, but the last tattoo he bothered to make.

[SPEAKER_05]: He stares at that last triangle, and then rides the spiral back down to its beginning, separating its mind from his body, reaching out, embracing the memories all the way down to the first one of the mark at the center.

[SPEAKER_05]: And it all starts rushing back to him, as he looks in the mirror in that halfway space between memory and reality, blood starts leaking out of his nose, and he remembers...

Rooney!

[SPEAKER_05]: staring at his face in a mirror.

[SPEAKER_05]: While the Vasilica clan body artist drives the tiny needle into his face.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's not exactly the first mirror he's looked at and over a decade but it feels like it.

[SPEAKER_05]: He stares at his son ravaged skin, his mop of hair, his...

God is eyes.

[SPEAKER_05]: And his expression, he looks harder, cooler.

[SPEAKER_05]: Mercellus.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, he's starting to look like a young uncle G.

It's working.

[SPEAKER_05]: Roni Stairs at his face and he remembers that's not even his name.

[SPEAKER_05]: never was but but it's the one he's claimed for now and he's gonna memorialize his uncle by building a tattoo of his own and as the artist marks him with his first triangle he thinks back to the murder it represents he separates mind for body rides the spiral of memory back down not to the beginning but certainly to a beginning and he remembers as Victor young Victor [SPEAKER_05]: catches his reflection in the shard of mirror he holds in his hand.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's the first mirror he's had his hands on since his parents died.

[SPEAKER_05]: He thinks maybe?

[SPEAKER_05]: Anyhow.

[SPEAKER_05]: Victor's not nine years old anymore.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's hard to tell exactly how old someone would think he is because the recent years have been very hard on him.

[SPEAKER_05]: But he's definitely more adolescent than child now.

[SPEAKER_05]: He's an a period of transition.

[SPEAKER_05]: But he got a stop staring at his face.

[SPEAKER_05]: Now it's time to focus.

[SPEAKER_05]: He doesn't know how the gods came to smile on him this day, but they did for the first time in over five years and he is not going to waste the opportunity stop thinking, keep moving.

[SPEAKER_05]: Somehow, there was a hole in the nose, patrol, and shift change patterns.

[SPEAKER_05]: Somehow, he was able to squeeze his malnourished little frame through the bars.

[SPEAKER_05]: Somehow, there were no other prisoners on the floor today.

[SPEAKER_05]: Somehow, no one heard when he broke the mirror and scooped up a shard of it for himself.

[SPEAKER_05]: His uncle taught him, he always got to check your corners.

[SPEAKER_05]: Stay low, stay quiet, use a mirror, so that's exactly what he's doing.

[SPEAKER_05]: Somehow, he made its way through the yard with its nearly [SPEAKER_05]: One hundred foot tall curved granite walls and no one saw him.

[SPEAKER_05]: Somehow he got through the valley and passed the murder holes.

[SPEAKER_05]: Somehow the port colors was open.

[SPEAKER_05]: There they must be meeting a guest down at the entrance to the corridor, but don't stop.

[SPEAKER_05]: Don't think, go, go, go.

[SPEAKER_05]: Stop thinking, keep moving.

[SPEAKER_05]: Somehow, somehow, somehow.

[SPEAKER_05]: Until he was here.

[SPEAKER_05]: In this moment.

[SPEAKER_05]: He'd found out what they were doing and he was right.

[SPEAKER_05]: They were meeting someone and escorting them back up to the fortress.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, and there they go, passing through the street in formation.

[SPEAKER_05]: And Victor's back here tucked into this dead end alley, crouched behind some crates, kicking himself.

[SPEAKER_05]: because he just kicked a stone and caught the attention of the man at the mouth of the alley who was watching the nose go by.

[SPEAKER_05]: Just a man, just some guy.

[SPEAKER_05]: But now the guy's curious.

[SPEAKER_05]: He heard the noise.

[SPEAKER_05]: He called out.

[SPEAKER_05]: He's heading back.

[SPEAKER_05]: And the noise in the motion are going to catch somebody's eye.

[SPEAKER_05]: And then those damn dogs are going to take a look down here and they can see in the dark and they know what Victor smells like and it'll all be over.

[SPEAKER_05]: So he watches with the mirror while the guy just some guy approaches.

[SPEAKER_05]: Victor stays low and when it's time he slides out cuts his ankle with the shard of mirror and when the guy just some guy hits the ground Victor cuts his throat to silence him figuratively and literally and you know what it's it's easy this time killing and this time it's a choice [SPEAKER_05]: A choice he makes to keep himself...

hidden...

undetected.

[SPEAKER_05]: Victor pulls the body back behind the rubbish and waits.

[SPEAKER_05]: It all happens so fast.

[SPEAKER_05]: There's a small army of noils out there, but maybe somehow, somehow, none of them noticed the brief disturbance.

[SPEAKER_05]: And then, then, it's all over their gone.

[SPEAKER_05]: They've passed by.

[SPEAKER_05]: They'll reach the fortress soon and discover that he's escaped so he's gotta keep moving.

[SPEAKER_05]: Don't stop, don't think.

[SPEAKER_05]: Don't go, go, go.

[SPEAKER_05]: He covers the corpse of his victim as best he can and moves to the mouth of the alley, stay low, check your corners.

[SPEAKER_05]: He does so.

[SPEAKER_05]: And with his mirror, he sees the iron-shod goat hooves standing in the sandy street.

[SPEAKER_05]: The stranger steps around the corner and scoops him up with one hand.

[SPEAKER_05]: I was curious.

[SPEAKER_05]: You do still have the capacity for hope.

[SPEAKER_05]: Victor tries to stay stone-faced, but inside another piece of him dies.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're a clever little liar.

[SPEAKER_05]: You could probably fool many, but I will always be smarter than you, and all of your endeavors for the rest of your life.

[SPEAKER_05]: Pointless.

[SPEAKER_05]: She hauls a hideous cackle of glee and lasts an unculturally long time.

[SPEAKER_05]: And the sound of her hollow bitter laughter echoes off the pale stone walls as Ronny stirs at his new tattoo in the mirror and wonders this choice.

[SPEAKER_05]: Come all the way out here and get his uncle's sword.

[SPEAKER_05]: That had been his choice, right?

[SPEAKER_05]: He, he chose to come out here.

[SPEAKER_05]: Right?

[SPEAKER_05]: He, it's not that he had been allowed to.

[SPEAKER_05]: Right?

[SPEAKER_05]: And he's, he's going back to Iris Hill because he wants to, right?

[SPEAKER_05]: Not because he has to, not because he has no other options.

[SPEAKER_05]: He tells the tattoo artist to make the next one, and as the pain of the needle cutting his skin, hits him, he thinks of all his scene, and all he's done, and he thinks of his king.

[SPEAKER_05]: And all the blood to be spelt in his name.

[SPEAKER_05]: And Roni kicks the memory of weak little shitty victor to the curb, as Sebastian is.

[SPEAKER_05]: Wipes the blood from under his nose?

[SPEAKER_05]: and then digs his own dagger into his face and cuts out that triangle, that first one, and the vision fades.

[SPEAKER_02]: Daughter offers the question back to you, Vic.

[SPEAKER_06]: Vic takes it.

[SPEAKER_06]: Where's he put it?

[SPEAKER_06]: It disappears into a pouch.

[SPEAKER_06]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_07]: We haven't read the scalpel yet, right, correct?

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_07]: And the coin was the coin was that the one of Vic in the woods and he purposefully left the coin is that in the bones.

[SPEAKER_05]: He was just basically hanging out in the bars of bones.

[SPEAKER_05]: But we had that so deep on that one.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's all there was with that.

[SPEAKER_05]: It was like it was a passing fancy that Vic was like, I wonder.

[SPEAKER_05]: What'll happen?

[SPEAKER_05]: But what if what if I leave this here?

[SPEAKER_05]: And that's Iguzkaiz?

[SPEAKER_05]: That was Iguzkaiz.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_05]: So definitely different than this, which was a deliberate act made to sever this piece of him.

[SPEAKER_05]: That he was deep into remembering a multiple levels after what appears to actually have been decades decades of living here raising a family and living in dialect.

[SPEAKER_05]: But it was also only seven weeks ago, or a couple of, like, two, two Catarina, it was only seven weeks.

[SPEAKER_05]: If we've been a week, seven weeks yet, the time to get rid of the week, it doesn't lead to relevant.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a week much longer than seven weeks.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, I couldn't.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, definitely don't pin that number on anything in the real world.

[SPEAKER_05]: Copy that.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_06]: You can all sort of feel Vic like a like a snake eating its own tail trying to think about this and trying to figure out whether or not [SPEAKER_06]: him coming here in the past was a choice to try to escape everything that was going on or if it was part of a setup to get close to this or you know like how how messed up was this like did his past self was his past self trying to escape all this stuff and all this bloodshed and actually make a choice or was this just like a long con yeah just more collateral damage [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if he went by himself to undertake this fetch quest and was like [SPEAKER_01]: No matter how long I stay here, it'll be more than anyone.

[SPEAKER_05]: When I wake, I wake, you know.

[SPEAKER_05]: And I don't want to go back.

[SPEAKER_05]: And I would say definitely because of the incense.

[SPEAKER_05]: You know that one Katarina indicated she didn't recognize these people.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's true.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like she had no idea who gripped and directed for something where you're going to just steal something off of someone.

[SPEAKER_05]: But might just be easier.

[SPEAKER_01]: There were fireballs, but there was also a necklace of fireballs that we got from the cats and it was guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it wasn't necessarily tame and it wasn't necessarily anybody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there are other ways to do that.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: You were right, Big.

[SPEAKER_06]: No, no, I'm not right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you go on with what we had to do?

[SPEAKER_06]: I don't see that I have much choice.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh man.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why would you leave it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you knew, the time was coming when you would complete your mission, you would be waking up soon.

[SPEAKER_05]: He pressed it into her hand, said if you see me again, give it back to me and spit in my face.

[SPEAKER_05]: He definitely seemed to understand that [SPEAKER_05]: He was leaving.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was leaving.

[SPEAKER_01]: And feared.

[SPEAKER_01]: Coming back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Coming back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that might happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: That might not be enough to succeed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they might have to do it again.

[SPEAKER_05]: And I think, boy, because of that open mindless.

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, yeah, that the between all the stuff going on here, Vic would process Catarina sharing that anecdote with you.

[SPEAKER_05]: She was really worried about you in that moment, like it almost felt like a [SPEAKER_05]: She didn't understand what was happening, but it felt like a suicide letter.

[SPEAKER_05]: And then you could probably feel the waves of then weeks go by and no sight.

[SPEAKER_05]: And then just suddenly you're, you're just back.

[SPEAKER_05]: Like, hey, what's going on?

[SPEAKER_01]: Much younger.

[SPEAKER_01]: Much younger.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I don't hear as younger and pretending to be somebody else.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, she went from deep concern for you to what the fuck.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, what the fuck did.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: So.

[SPEAKER_07]: There's all, we also have to be aware that the hag is going to see us here, eventually.

[SPEAKER_06]: She doesn't already know.

[SPEAKER_07]: So wait, so, okay, wait.

[SPEAKER_01]: But she may not know where we are.

[SPEAKER_07]: Right, right, as I'm saying that, I'm like, oh wait, we are fucking here, is that right?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we were.

[SPEAKER_05]: Do you want to test it?

[SPEAKER_05]: Do you want to walk by her and see if she recognizes you?

[SPEAKER_01]: You're very recognizable.

[SPEAKER_07]: Is there like a bar?

[SPEAKER_07]: Or is it just a big room that people lounge about in?

[SPEAKER_05]: There's stuff everywhere and there are barely dressed servers walking around selling stuff.

[SPEAKER_05]: Is there a place nearby to go and sort of lean out hang around on noticed for sure?

[SPEAKER_05]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_07]: Then yeah, why the fuck not?

[SPEAKER_07]: I think he'll be like, I'm going to go just put myself in the center of the room and stand there and see what people do.

[SPEAKER_07]: I'll be right back.

[SPEAKER_07]: So yeah, I will go find a place like that.

[SPEAKER_05]: And what people mostly do is like, hey, as you go by people like our interested in touching your sleeveless vest, man.

[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, they're all fucking rolling on Molly.

[SPEAKER_05]: you know people are interested in your tusks there's just a lot of handsiness going on none of it feels aggressive and none of it it just it feels like everyone's super interested but not in you in the kind of novelty of their presence right [SPEAKER_05]: And as you, as you hang out there for a bit, and maybe politely decline a couple of other barely dressed young women offering drugs.

[SPEAKER_05]: Kwave Andra absolutely at multiple points.

[SPEAKER_05]: Well, she's sort of holding court.

[SPEAKER_05]: They're talking to different people over the course of a few minutes, lounging under sofa.

[SPEAKER_05]: She would absolutely catch eyes with you, and you get not even a hint of, you get, you probably would get a whiff of, well, that's a big fellow, but no hint of recognition.

[SPEAKER_05]: But you know, she's also a diplomat.

[SPEAKER_05]: So give me a sense of mode of check.

[SPEAKER_07]: No, that's an under the six.

[SPEAKER_07]: There's this thing.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, no recognition whatsoever.

[SPEAKER_06]: I have a question for grip.

[SPEAKER_06]: Does it feel different at all to be in a place surrounded by all these peat?

[SPEAKER_06]: All these different people were no one initially feels like you were dangerous or something to be scared of or like [SPEAKER_07]: Well, I mean, I think he's most definitely started to become more accustomed to that feeling just by the nature of being on the boat and like his relationship with the crew and how he's, you know, started to become one of them, but being in a place [SPEAKER_07]: where he has not, you know, laid a groundwork of, I'm trying to be nice.

[SPEAKER_07]: That is, that's definitely got to be a very different thing.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_07]: Not having everyone cowering in fear of him or anger at him or, or, yeah, it is definitely got to be a new sensation for our boy.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's, and, Dabwick is probably a little bit of a curiosity, so you said you came here in hafling form.

[SPEAKER_05]: There aren't a ton of haflings or nooms, or a folk of that small of stature in here.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's mostly [SPEAKER_05]: humans or human sized humanoids for the most part.

[SPEAKER_05]: So you're probably getting an equivalent amount of like, oh, wow.

[SPEAKER_05]: And just wanting to touch you.

[SPEAKER_05]: And that's so little.

[SPEAKER_05]: So little.

[SPEAKER_05]: We would feel totally insulting if they weren't all just so genuinely filled with excitement at how cool it is that you're there.

[SPEAKER_07]: That these man.

[SPEAKER_07]: Well, so then yeah, I will also I'll relay that she doesn't appear at the record.

[SPEAKER_07]: Now is mean.

[SPEAKER_07]: What do we do?

[SPEAKER_05]: I think it would be very easy for Vic to pick up flashes of recognition from people around the room.

[SPEAKER_05]: Sure.

[SPEAKER_05]: You're not catching like, oh, that fucking guy, but you're not like people's gays.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't go over here.

[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe that's all right.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh shit.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, right.

[SPEAKER_05]: And this is twenty years.

[SPEAKER_05]: Right.

[SPEAKER_05]: Right.

[SPEAKER_05]: Right.

[SPEAKER_06]: And my hair is different.

[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm just wondering yourself totally different.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: They might think he's the son of interesting.

[SPEAKER_05]: I hadn't thought that far through this.

[SPEAKER_05]: So yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: So flashes of recognition, but you're actually you're not getting like, oh, there's Sebastian Jonas, like you're not getting that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps that's a way in.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's fun.

[SPEAKER_05]: Trapped myself into making you unrecognizable with my own backstory.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was someone, what do we do?

[SPEAKER_07]: We're going to go three to this hug.

[SPEAKER_07]: That's not my job.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I think we're relying on you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I suppose if if you want to do some more detect thoughts to our team or point about diplomacy in this environment, you know, might take time, it might not yield to too much value from a lot of these people.

[SPEAKER_05]: But you know you were that if I can get any getting thoughts about I can't believe she's here after less week the attack you know like people obviously have visions of that in their mind if you want to try to like probe it like yeah use another slot of there and try to pull that great what what do we remember slash know about tags [SPEAKER_05]: Hmm.

[SPEAKER_05]: It's been a hot sack, hasn't it?

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: So, yes, you knew about the spell resistance.

[SPEAKER_05]: They have very high spell resistance.

[SPEAKER_05]: Gamma introduction.

[SPEAKER_05]: You need magical cold iron weapons to overcome it.

[SPEAKER_05]: And then...

I mean, knowledge plans check.

[SPEAKER_05]: Let's see if we can just...

polish off the knowledge.

[SPEAKER_01]: Bloody.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, that's cool.

[SPEAKER_05]: You do hit his magical cold iron.

[SPEAKER_05]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh my god.

[SPEAKER_06]: Huge.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can still think we should try to steal it from her.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rather than fight in this drug den with all these people.

[SPEAKER_05]: As Vick is looking across the way and I'm her lounging there empiriously draped across the sofa.

[SPEAKER_05]: Remembers is not only can they use their heartstone to bind a soul, but that is what they use to enter and depart the ethereal plan.

[SPEAKER_05]: that it is, it is the heart stone itself that gives them the ability to go ethereal.

[SPEAKER_05]: that that's not, that's not something they can do without that stone.

[SPEAKER_06]: So in other words, if they don't have it, then if, if, if we don't get her quickly enough, she could vanish into the ethereal and then be done.

[SPEAKER_05]: One hundred percent and it's not like she can only go ethereal for a few seconds.

[SPEAKER_05]: She can just, she can just be there.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: And stay there as long as she wants.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_05]: And come back whenever she wishes.

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, man.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have invisibility of silence.

[SPEAKER_05]: We do know the scene visibility spell allows you to see ethereal creatures.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have seen this by the day.

[SPEAKER_05]: You have magic missile and force effects would affect things on the ethereal plane.

[SPEAKER_05]: But of course, if she goes ethereal, she's gone.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that's it.

[SPEAKER_05]: Because even if you manage to kill her from this plane, you have no way to get there to get this stone.

[SPEAKER_05]: She would drop right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't let that happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: But do we have the impression that we could kill her in one round before she could go if that were even a thing?

[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't feel like it.

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_02]: No.

[SPEAKER_05]: You would think of her as a difficult challenge for a party of your level.

[SPEAKER_05]: Even if it's like just her.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, the four of us.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_05]: So I mean, everything is in.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is why they stole it in the first place.

[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, basically think I powered down that worn out nighthag to level to make her as we've literally difficult to you all then as she would be to you now.

[SPEAKER_07]: The only idea I have and this is I'm just going to say a terrible idea.

[SPEAKER_07]: But it's the only thing that is in my head.

[SPEAKER_07]: Try to grapple her while Vic steals the stone off of her.

[SPEAKER_07]: And then I don't know, fucking run.

[SPEAKER_07]: But yeah, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_07]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_06]: Or I could always just try to go up to her and you could.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_05]: Just snatch it.

[SPEAKER_05]: Or you could just go talk to her.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, so let's go talk to her.

[SPEAKER_05]: Drag your eight charisma over there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dad wakes one idea which they don't think is a good idea either, but it's an option is to summon a swarm of mad monkeys to [SPEAKER_00]: This track should better I add chaos.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they can do a disarm track on anyone in their square to steal something.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they can do the steal maneuver.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be able to get it from them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Gotta get it from them eventually, Ben.

[SPEAKER_00]: They do do damage to the things that they steal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Swarm damage.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a really, really an idea.

[SPEAKER_07]: But very risky.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it is for us to be so dead.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, that's the big picture of that is so much better than just grabbing.

[SPEAKER_00]: A swarm of mad monkeys.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I could make you invisible.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could make you fly.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's things we can do, but I mean it feels to me like snatching it and trying to wake up is the best plan we have.

[SPEAKER_06]: What do you think, Johnny?

[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, Vic is really torn on this one because Vic feels so responsible for having created a family here.

[SPEAKER_06]: And also, he just feels, he feels responsible for all the suffering and all the shit that they've caused.

[SPEAKER_06]: And all these are people.

[SPEAKER_06]: These are people that have like their own lives and stuff.

[SPEAKER_06]: And he's [SPEAKER_06]: He understands that we are trying to do something for the greater good, but at the same time it feels totally selfish and the thought of like going to a nighthag and trying to explain, I think it's not [SPEAKER_06]: from what he knows about nighthags like they're not, she's not gonna care.

[SPEAKER_06]: They're not, they're not.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think anyone is suggesting me try to explain anything to her.

[SPEAKER_05]: Well, but her profession is, she's a diplomat.

[SPEAKER_05]: She is an ambassador from where?

[SPEAKER_05]: From somewhere in the abyss to dilatling, the city of dilatling.

[SPEAKER_05]: This is also, it's just a her home away from home and she, you know, she, she makes her living by talking.

[SPEAKER_01]: To your other point, the people whose lives are at risk, if we don't follow through on this mission include everyone in here and everyone we've encountered before, who hasn't already been killed by what's happened around us.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would suggest that the only way [SPEAKER_01]: to honor the sacrifices that have already been made and will continue to be made is to finish this.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is our last one.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you don't think you can do it then I will attempt to convince her that she should give it to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: She can apparently get another one.

[SPEAKER_05]: If Vick is standing there at the moment, totally stymied.

[SPEAKER_05]: You absolutely could walk over and walk over each other if you want.

[SPEAKER_05]: That is absolutely on the table.

[SPEAKER_05]: She seems approachable.

[SPEAKER_05]: People are chatting with her.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm looking.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just going to say.

[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm looking at my character sheet in my plus eighteen diplomacy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, [SPEAKER_01]: I got it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I just rolled a one on that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think I have about eighteen on.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you got it out of the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here we go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Such dangerous thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just said that in front of roll twenty two.

[SPEAKER_05]: So roll twenty can hear you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you find out who the mother was?

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_07]: Come on, he's gone, we've got him at the edge.

[SPEAKER_07]: He's like a timid squirrel.

[SPEAKER_07]: We're trying to do this.

[SPEAKER_07]: He goes, all right, all right.

[SPEAKER_03]: And daughters left alone, no, no mom, dad.

[SPEAKER_03]: We all know they have lives.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh no, she want to go to college.

[SPEAKER_03]: So wait, wait.

[SPEAKER_01]: The mug, the mug is disappeared.

[SPEAKER_07]: That's what she said.

[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I don't know where mum is.

[SPEAKER_07]: Alright, huge kudos to you for finding something.

[SPEAKER_07]: truly horrific to Johnny the players.

[SPEAKER_07]: There's a horror campaign of something that is truly horrifying.

[SPEAKER_06]: So have fun with that.

[SPEAKER_06]: Vick strides directly over towards Avian Dra.

[SPEAKER_05]: Vick starts the walk through the press and the smoke and the incense and the sweat and approaches the night tag and that's the end of chapter one forty three will pick up right here next time [SPEAKER_05]: Dark Nexus is produced by plug-in home productions.

[SPEAKER_05]: This podcast uses trademarks and or copyrights owned by Pieson Corporation and used under Pieson's fan content policy.

[SPEAKER_05]: This podcast is not published endorsed or specifically approved by Pieson.

[SPEAKER_05]: For more information about Pieson Inc.

[SPEAKER_05]: and Pieson products, please visit Pieson.com.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's P-A-I-Z-O.com.

[SPEAKER_05]: Dark Nexus uses music and soundscapes by CyrenScape.

[SPEAKER_05]: Check them out at CyrenScape.com.

[SPEAKER_05]: That's S-Y-R-I-N-S-C-A-P-E.com.

[SPEAKER_05]: Opening and closing themes along with additional music composed by Rob Cosmaric.

[SPEAKER_05]: Artwork for Dark Nexus is by Matt Wallquist.

[SPEAKER_05]: The thanks to DMCP Richard and R.I.

[SPEAKER_05]: Paul and Shen in Scotty, Jason Jazz, Joe, Chelsea, Matt, Dave, Derek, Darren, McKayla, J.A.

[SPEAKER_05]: to the biscuit buddies and everyone we've gained with over the years for all the memories and inspiration.

[SPEAKER_05]: I can take a...

knowledge...

Shhh!

[SPEAKER_01]: I can take a knowledge of what?

[SPEAKER_05]: That plans?

[SPEAKER_05]: Well, let's know in a second.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I want to know now.

[SPEAKER_05]: Oh my fucking God, I caught a history of plans.

[SPEAKER_06]: We're Dungeon Eurym, religion, local nature.

[SPEAKER_06]: Engineering.

[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us what it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is so helpful, you guys.