Curiosity

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

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At Sierra, you'll always find apparel, footwear, and gear for 20% to 60% less than department and specialty store prices. But right now, it's clearance time, so you can save even more on everything you need to get active and outside. Visit your local Sierra store today. Oh, let's do that thing, where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason. I'm the Dungeon Master going around the table, starting with Ian. Hi, I'm Ian. I play Bittersweet, the Phaeton Endurance. My pronouns are he, him, any. And Valerie. Hello, I'm Valerie. My pronouns are she, her, and I play Matilda Wolfram, the human rogue.

And James. Hey, it's James. I play Dagon, the Eladrin Endurance. And Michael. Hey, I'm Michael. Do you guys remember us? I play Fenris Masura, the human warlock charlatan. And last and certainly not least is Kelsey. Hi, I'm Kelsey. I use they/them pronouns, and I play Calypso Lovelace, the half-elf bard. Guys, guys, guys, guys. So we have a lot of time to make up for. We're going to have to cram a good month or two of role play in this one session. So I'm just going to put you through it. Maybe we managed to do that last session with all the revelations. Yeah, so we needed to cool down, naturally.

So we took a few months off. Yeah, yeah. We John Trond it a little bit and just didn't put out a video for a while. Did lots of camping. So Michael had to get some fresh Shrek blood for his PC. It's all. There were sacrifices required. So here's what we're going to do. Obviously, we just had a wonderful recap from Kelsey. I hope you guys listen to the last invasion episode, because that's the only way you're going to get such a concise recap. But I want to pick up from that moment. And I know it's a little difficult to jump back in after three months, but there's a lot to take in here.

And I imagine you guys have had some time to think about how you'd be reacting to this, like how obviously it hits a little closer to home for some than others. Like this is not a Dagon problem, quote unquote. Like this isn't one that he came. It's like, yeah, man, it's fucked. That's got problems. Yeah. It's like, man, just like just like in real life when he looks down on the US and he's like, man, who is I'll stay up here. Thank you. We've had time to think about it and forget about it all over again. That's the problem. We took too much time is the thing.

So we missed it by a few weeks. But you have this, you know, this large information mural, essentially with the whole burn it down thing on there. And that that illusory thing is going to wrap up. And two things are going to happen at the end of this. You are going to like there's there's some stuff we haven't gotten to yet on the big board, but there's just so much. There's so much. Right. And that door behind you is going to unlock. The not open capital D door, the like the scary one, the well, the scary door, the one. So that like, I mean, it's it's just a door in the middle of the room, that one.

So you will hear a big chunk, like kind of looking back. But it is it is unlocked. And Tani immediately like this, like just kind of like scanning all this stuff when the illusions came up. It was like, holy shit, ghosts, we're getting to it. We're getting to it. Yes. And there's nothing that it's like, well, that's not a ghost. Like that. It's like technically like if you can out like visions from the past. Yeah, it's a person that's dead. That's like talking to us. That's like, yeah, that's not that's, you know, discount are all movies. Ghosts are all old movies.

It's diet, Dr. Pepper. It's you know, it's not what I was after. But the door unlocking, there's an immediate like, like it unlocked by itself. It's a weird door sitting in the middle of the room next to nothing. And it's it's barricaded with stuff like it looks like like. It looks like that's the next logical like, ooh, like that type of thing, like, oh, that's that's where we got to look to see like something like something haunted here, like there have been no ghosts. Zero. I think I have a feeling what's behind that door is worse than ghosts. And again, this is just her like looking around, like not making a show of it, but like definitely not hiding anything.

So just as the owner of of not only this this mansion, but apparently a mission, a birthright, I guess. Uh, what's Calypso thinking here? I think that they're kind of like in shock of it, like like there's just like so much like just happened at once. And like they hear that that gracianca and they like immediately like roll around like squint at the door and then it doesn't open. And they're like, OK, like then they're going to turn back to look at just everything. I mean, it's just like they're processing and they're like the like reveal about what happened with Firebrand.

It's definitely made them a bit pissed, to say the least. But they're kind of like tamping down on that just to sort of like. Try to understand exactly what all has just been dumped in their lap, because there is a lot. I think they might like, first of all, like approach like the wolf mask just because that's like the big obvious thing and just kind of like pick it up, maybe and just look at it. It's got a bit of heft to it, like it is like. It's it's it's probably not made out of gold or anything like that, but it's definitely got like there's there's some metals and stuff in there.

Like it is a big like not heavy enough to like weigh your neck down or something. But when you're wearing it, it's like, I feel it like, you know, if you were to put it on. Yeah, they're not. Yeah, that's fair. That's totally fair. And this thing is if you look inside, there's a bunch of rooms etched into it. And when you when you hold it like where your hands are on the other side are kind of like kind of like. Kind of a blue gradient is going to like it. It it's almost like 90s children's toy tech where like, oh, hell yes. Do you remember hyper colors?

Oh, my God. When you touched, there were shirts and like they would change due to body temperature. So. Stuff. Yeah. Yep. That's that everything had a brand name, just like blast processing. So it's a very 90s. But yeah, it's it's like that where you can like it's kind of a back and forth. It's like, oh, like it's kind of just like no change in expression, just going to set the mask back down. Or it was like, OK, let's invest to add that to the giant list of things to investigate. Well, this this this could be good for us. I mean, I understand in character why someone would be hesitant.

But that is what if you're looking at this. What would you scream as as the person that type of person that would wear this? Because it looked like it's built for a certain type. Rich. Yeah. That's yeah, it's so is it this is it super heavy and you'd have to be super strong to wear it or no, no, no, it's it's OK, let me put it in real world, real world terms. Do you remember in Jurassic Park when the the the lawyer is sitting in the Jeep with the two kids and the kid finds the night vision goggles and he's like, is it heavy? It's like, yeah, then it's expensive.

Put it down. That's kind of what you're dealing with, where it's like this is not a cheap product. If you buy a nice pair of boots, they have heft to them. They feel like it's it's you've probably felt it with a thousand bits of adventuring gear. The only exception being, you know, elven Aladdin stuff. Like there's there's a craftsmanship to it that makes it a little lighter, a little more finessy, that type of thing. But if you pick up a cheapo battle axe and then a battle axe made by an actual like a smith, like they put some time into it, there's a there's a difference.

Like you feel it. So it's like a good weight. Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. So so is this thing decorative only or just anyone want to roll Mark on it? Maybe. We're sorry. We're sorry. We're on a boy. I just know I did it like all the time last time. So I'm trying to be a little reserved. Now it's not the time to be coin, Michael. Let's let's do it. OK. I will. See what I sense. Well, 11. So. This thing is definitely enchanted, so thanks. OK. There is more information coming. I know, but it's magic. Got it. I could have said cursed. Stop making fun of me. No, this is. So this it's it's it's this thing is.

It doesn't look like it was made for someone with a big like a big head, right? We're talking regular like regular humanoid type, not not like a goliath or something like that, like a little smaller, like, you know, because it was made to fit Abernathy. So like it's, you know, stands to reason he was human. And there are. What looks like like solid red eyes on this thing. But with an 11, you'll you'll be able to like you can tell it's like, OK, the enchantment has a lot to do with the vision of it. But there's also something else that you can't quite pick up.

But this was made. It's not just decorative. It's made to be worn like you. You can like basically as far as you got is. Yeah, that's going to affect your vision in some way. And in some other stuff that just ran off the page, I didn't get it. Like it just it's there, though. This Henry's status, Henry's puts it on. You knew exactly what I was rolling for, actually. I just rolled a D10 to decide if I was going to. I touched it to get the sense. And then I was seeing other or not, I was like, should I not wear it? And I the closer to 10 I got, the more likely you had to at least like hold it up to your eyes, like maybe not put it right.

You know, like someone like I'm going to do glasses like carrying the mask. And I'm just going to like look at it. See if there's any gleam. Got that sense. I do say what I sense and there's some kind of effect potentially with vision, potentially. And then like just staring at everybody, I slowly just bring it up and it goes a little faster and I guess go put it on my face. Calypso isn't going to stop. But they're definitely like raising an eye around. OK, well, if you're sure it's not cursed, by all means, that is OK. They're not going to put it on without further investigation.

But if it was once to have it, let me let me let me put this in real, real world, real terms, not Jurassic Park terms. This is a level of insane that. Would usually give someone concern, it's like, dude, are you OK? Do you want to talk like that? Because, yeah, imagine you have a glass of milk and you're not sure if this milk is tremendously spoiled. And your friend picks it up and eyeballs it and they look at it and then just drink it like that's how much information you've got. You smell it. It's like, no, yeah, OK, so let's go like the utter blind competence.

Is what imagine that milk is poisoned as well. Like it could have been like it's like, dude, like. I mean, I think it goes right along with Fenris's character. I know he does. That's 100% what Fenris would do. I like to I want to see what happens, but they don't want to get it. Right. And Fenris is like, you want to find out? Let's find out. And it was like, I'm not dead by touching it. I didn't get like sparks of that. And like all you got was this magic type division. Probably, you know, like if you're not Avradath, it blinds you or something. They could. But I've also had a string of such good luck lately.

No, no. There's some blind ego talking here. Because think about it, the spiders, I didn't get touched. We come into here all of a sudden, like dumpies, amazing. Everyone's getting cool, powerful shit. My patrons like, hey, you better calm down. But like, hey, this isn't exactly getting power. This is like an accessory. Let's just check what's going on. So it's like this is just pure Fenris ego, like whatever. Things are awesome here. Yeah, Dagon would applaud you. It's like, bravo. It's not like anything could get worse. In the background is the ominous door.

You can go through that door next to. Thank you. OK, so did you stop me or did you? No, no, she like like they specifically said I wouldn't stop them. No, but it's not what I would do, like very, very like it's like, oh, so OK. OK, no, don't. Yeah. Teni is. Intrigued, but. Having gotten her powers the way that she has them knows that there is a price for everything. And you just slapping this on is like someone cleaning their gun by looking down the barrel like it's like, God, OK, like this. We're doing this. So you are going to put this on and there is total blackness for a moment.

It your your your vision goes out. You can't hear anything. It is, but not like. Oh, I'm wearing a helmet that covers my ears. It's like, oh, like this. It's like your head is in the void, like it's it's like, whoa. Like just for like it's it's it's a it's a dark that you almost can't comprehend. And to everyone else, that robe is going to fly off of where it's placed and it is going to wrap around. Fenris like it like it's it's probably like. And how big is Fenris again? He's not a big guy. He's like five to. OK, he's a short king. All right. So so like it's probably going to be a little loose, like a little a little baggy, you know.

And. Just slowly but surely. Your vision is going to like open up and he's 5'11" and was 5'2". Oh, OK. OK, well, he's not a short king. So he he's going to be able to to see everything. And there's like a mild like like a like a red pinkish tint type of thing. And like, if you're looking around. Uh, it's. Very clear that a couple of things are happening. One, you're going to be able to see like bits and pieces of this house differently. Like you can almost see the magic like you can see what is in it. And you you just like looking around, I imagine like taking all this and you're going to look at the party and, you know, they they look normal except for Calypso.

There is a big, bright red outline like an aura around Calypso. And can I get a constitution saving throw from you, please? Sure. Love to. OK, Fenris, not me. Right. Right. Not. Oh, boy. Oh, yeah. No, not Calypso. No. OK, just just have a red aura for. OK, cool. Cool, cool, cool. Saving throw, saving throw. Normal. No. 20. OK, so. Almost. I'm going to say that no harm is going to come to you. But all of a sudden. There's like a shotgun blast to your chest. That's the force that's coming out of this. That mask is basically going to stay there, but you're leaving and those robes are just going to like explode outward, like basically like a bomb went off in this robe.

The mask is going to fall to the ground and you are going to fly back. And can I on a scale of one to 10, I need to see how close you get to that door. 10 B. There you go. And one being, ah, you missed it by a wide margin. OK, but to be fair, the door is closed. It was unlocked, though. We don't know which way it opens. Closed. Well, is there like a door handle on it? Yes, it's a door. Cool. Well, it's just how is Fenris going to fly into it and open it up? I didn't say you would. OK. Got your tinfoil hat on. I didn't say. But he rolled over. It's fine. We're good.

We're all OK. You're going to fly back here and I would say this magic is cushioning you, basically. And you're very, very lucky because this would have shredded your back. Otherwise, you're going to kind of like blast through that barricade and hit the door frame and just like, oh, like you're just it's boom like done. And those robes are kind of laying laying next to you and they will reform, but they're not on you anymore. Question, are they just like hovering in there like, no, they're just laying on the ground. OK, so they just like fold themselves nicely.

Yeah, I wish I had that. When I had the mask on and was in that world or whatever, what did I feel? Could I still feel my patron during that time or did I feel disconnected? It was a really short amount of time to judge. Like you didn't feel like you lost any sense of self, any of the normal stuff that's around you. It just it. It was like something layered on top of you, I would say. OK. Like I was in a big armor suit. Kind of, yeah. OK. After like a second goes by and it's like clear that, OK, he's not like actually injured or anything, Calypso then starts to clap.

I help him up. Yeah, Teniel rush right over because, well, two reasons. One, that looked terrible. Like that looked like you like your spine should be powder. Like it looks like that because again, I said and then again, Jesus Fenris isn't like he's he's a magic caster. He's not he's not meant to be, you know, getting kicked through rooms. I am this party's take, though. Yeah. So I get up and I know. Thank you. And then seeing Calypso clap, I bow and then say, well, that was fun. I maybe my luck isn't as strong, but I maybe it's actually really good, considering I'm still able to stand.

Although Calypso, when I put the mask on just for a moment and looked around, everything was normal except for you. There was a big red outline as if it was like targeting you or highlighting you, or maybe it knew you were the owner. So maybe this is for you. And I just point I don't even touch the mask because now I'm like, I don't get thrown again. Calypso just closes their eyes and that's maybe or there's a chance that Abernathy never transferred ownership or whatever. And it's still tied to him only. No offense, but after that little show, I think I'll wait at least until there's more padding around before I try that myself.

Good call. Raid the bedrooms and get the mattresses. Just covered in pillows, taped up. Like the guy who wore the bear armor. Yeah, I'm going to run a little experiment. Teni Teni would be like, I wouldn't worry about the whole aura thing. Red's not necessarily a bad color. I point to Dumpy and write Dumpy was red. Protection. You could be just like Dumpy. Calypso looks at their eight strength and just Well, sure. Yeah. Well, I suppose we'll see and it's just there's a lot. They're going to pick the mask up and put it back on the where it was displayed. Like pat it a bit on the nose.

The same way. Thank you for not biting me. I give it the finger. So only place to look now is through that door. Or not, the door that definitely has something beyond it that they didn't want getting out. But yeah, that that seems like a great idea. Well, OK, I've been thinking about that. It's said that it's not empty. That's pretty vague. I mean, that could be anything. But if you were right. Personally, when I hear that it's something's not empty and I see a barricade and it's a door to some unknown dimension, generally my mind goes to demons. I don't really know much about them.

That seems kind of that sort of not great area of things that I don't know what other realms or something that could have opened up into. But... Well, whether it's a trap or not, clearly this is not intended, but the direction we are being sort of urged to go in. Yes, I suppose. Well, OK, let me let me let me let me ask a question, because I'm look, I'm just looking for ghosts. I was promised ghosts and I have not seen a single ghost. So what do you want to do? Well, I mean, first, I'd like to look and see if any more of these entries of the secret society doings stand out.

But then I don't know. I guess we could crack it open maybe and have some sort of plan. Wasn't there a mage? Wasn't there a mage who sealed this all up? Yes, right. Matilda, what was the name of that family again? That... Oh, I know this. The Cornado family. And Matilda says it just like that. They were the ones that were having contractors come and those contractors never came back. And earlier, I was taking a look at the blueprints again and all those, like, new additions, those new rooms. They all lead right to this door. So you're saying we might not even be able to open it anyway?

No, that's that's not what I'm saying. I thought you said it was sealed. I didn't say it was sealed. It is behind. Well, whoever sealed it didn't do a great job because it's unlocked now. I mean, it seems that the house at least wants us to look in there. All right, so let's say we open it up and there is a big angry demon waiting to eat us on the other side. Well, what's our plan B? Does this key go anywhere? This 423 key? I had assumed it went to that door, but I guess maybe it's to lock it back up since it just unlocked. Is there a keyhole on there? There is, but it looks far too small for that key.

Hmm. Can I do a check? Maybe it's more like a membership badge for this whole elite thing. I was actually... Ian, give me a perception check, please. All right. Check isn't crazy, I. Give me a roll of... Probably a little higher than that. Well, OK, look. You're... So you're looking around like everybody else and the big board of information and stuff, the newspaper clipping like stuff. I mean, a lot of that's probably not going to make sense to you because you haven't lived in the city for a long time. So like there are events that have taken place as recently as like six months ago.

And, you know, there's stuff that like are years like, you know, it's like, oh, remember that fire back in 83? Like it's like it's that kind of stuff. So a lot of that's just not going to like stick out to you. However, there does appear to be like a big map of Brightport, like that's just there. And it's like, yeah, that's the city we're talking about and everything. But there's something really peculiar. And like at first you thought it was just like freckled red paint from where the burn it down thing is, because there's a little bit of that here and there.

But if you look a little closer, you're going to see that they're in the shape of keys. And they're kind of sprinkled all over the city. Hmm, I well, first the first thing I do. Yeah, you're absolutely right. Like none of this history has I know much about. And frankly, a lot of this stuff is like way above bittersweet's pay grade. Just like this isn't a Dagon problem. This isn't a bittersweet's problem either. Like it's scary. But yeah, it doesn't. So I think the first thing I'm going to do is try and find my alley on the map and see if I can find my alley.

And after like kind of locating it, and I think that's maybe how he notices, is he just like goes up to this big map and he's like, well, I'll look where I stay and try and find it. Finds a little alley and then like sees these little keys around. And I guess he'll just like tap his big long arm, just like tap Calypso on the shoulder, sort of like point out these little keys around the city. What? Oh, that's a good spot. Hmm. Do I recognize any of the like places where the keys are? I mean, it's. Let me take it back a few years. It's like recognizing like pokestops, like if you're playing Pokemon Go.

Like, oh, yeah, I know Starbucks. I definitely not still playing it. You know what I mean? Like back when, like, like every business was tripping over themselves. It's like, I got to stop right here like that. You know, it's like, oh, I know that. I know that bookstore. I know that. I know like trying to find an individual alley probably took bittersweet some time. But there's there's kind of places just that there's got to be like 20 or 30 of these. Like, I mean, Brightport's a big city, but like, yeah, there's some in every district, though. Are they all in housing areas or like also like taverns, also libraries, libraries?

Most of them appear to be like it's a little vague because it's a map of the city. And then like it's like, well, like that area, it could be the building or outside or a couple of them are clearly in like dead ends, like alleys that lead to nowhere or, you know, so. The rule for it is seems to be like kind of scattered, like it's like, well, it looks like these are kind of out of the way spots. Secret passages, maybe, but to where? Or do they all lead to whatever that door leads? Hmm. That would be bad. Well, yes, if it leads to demons, that's probably very bad.

Maybe this door is just a quick way to get around the city. When Fenris goes up to the map, seeing that everyone's kind of crowded around it, do it's been a long since I've did a bright port map. Is there like grids of knowing like, OK, so if I try to correlate four to three, like with addresses, like is there like this is for the, you know, four to three street or whatever, or like I know that would be like name of streets or name of like, oh, there's like a grid or even like any kind of logical address system for navigating the city? Well, it's not.

So Brightport was built out of sprawl, clearly starting essentially like starting near the docks and it just spread like a cancer. So it's not a clean like grid system, but like there's a bunch of four to threes in the city because there's different districts and streets and stuff. It's like, yeah, like there's probably a dozen like. They only that most most districts only go up to like the high hundreds and then start over again because it's just easier. Like they just, you know. I was just trying to see if where all the keys were were like or the key symbols anyway, were around anything.

Like if I could since I lived in Brightport, if I could correlate where on the map is it like these are the fancy, you know, the guilds houses or these are like representations of, oh, that's where the mayor lives and that's obviously this one or, you know, try to correlate famous people, mainly mainly there too, because I was thinking about ripping them off or avoiding them or, you know, who knows what we're trying to be like, can I take these keys and try to map myself? Have I walked down this road? Have I been this is or anything that I would have been like keen to be looking for or standing out from my memory?

Do me a favor. Hmm. I. Give me a raw intelligence. Just raw intelligence check. OK, ability check. Let's do this. Oh, oh, 60. Oh, that's not bad. So I think looking at this for a while and I feel like you've gotten around. You probably don't frequent the the better neighborhoods too much. But like you've probably strolled through like, you know. Um. There are way too many of these to be at all. It's like, oh, that's four to three. Like there's just way too many of them. Some of them are in dead ends. So it's like, OK, that's not it. And you're you're looking around and.

There are. Five or six just where the houses of Brightport are. Manor houses, things like that, they appear to be just kind of haphazardly scattered, though. But you also notice that there's kind of a chunk of the map that's left untied. And it's it's in the upper crust, I would say, not like smack dab in the middle of manor houses. But there is there's a few like really older buildings, almost like historical society stuff. And, you know, there's like real old money like has flown through there. But for whatever reason, there's no there's like there's there's probably a quarter mile in any direction where it's like there's no there's no keys there.

Interesting. I kind of. Oh, sorry. I was just going to recap that haphazard to be like, hey, this is a place where a lot of money is. Love to take him for it. But there's there's an area that's like like if you look at the negative space. So it's not something they wanted near them. Or they didn't need it to be near them. What were you going to say, Ian? I was going to say I start connecting the dots like you would on a child's menu. Just kind of have hazards. We do need to make sure this is not a whole meta alchemist situation. You're so right. Tani, OK, so I'm going to go with the Tani, OK, so Tani is so not interested in this map.

We're all just like cuddled around staring at it. And she's just like she's she's like, hey, this like I'm a tag along. I get it. Like I, you know, but she's she's kind of like looking at all this and. Hey, can I OK, I'm I'm going to say this, and I don't want you to take to take any offense because you're you're your uncle is your uncle. I really don't know how related that's. OK, so I know he died and that's real sad and everything. Have you have you maybe thought about the fact that he could have been absolutely crazy? Oh, no, that's absolutely the possibility here.

That's OK. Because, but OK, there's too much burn down the city. Like what are we doing? What is that? I'm not. No, I. I don't think that's what it was talking about. I don't know. I mean, according to some people, I did have a hand in partially burning down a bit of the city, but that I swear that wasn't actually me. I raise my eyebrow and stare at you. And there is clearly like there have been there have been big reformation pushes in the past, passing new laws, doing everything, and every every time they kind of Peters out and fire brand is absolutely on the board named like it is.

Yeah, exactly. Subtle on our way out there. No. That was one of those things where it's like, do you know how easy it was to make that look just like a terrible accident? Oh, my God. It was so easy like that. It's probably it's it's in their top five. Like it's like, oh, like it just it still just like cracks me up. It's like the fact that like, oh, like some like people were like behind this, like making things turn out this way makes sense because our luck was just so bad that it felt like someone was playing a trick on us. Like it actually makes more sense that, yes, there was someone behind it then.

So it just hit me when I'm like looking around, do we have anything that kind of points to the robot in the sky event? Like that doesn't seem like that was planned as far as like in in the things we've seen, right? So there's. The way that these are clipped, you can tell what is celebratory and what are concerns, right? That is a concern because that is not. Again, this is older info, so like it's tough to like that there's nothing basically right around the time Firebrand fell apart. Like a week or two after that, like the information stops. So like. Yeah, which is interesting.

Because. And I'll link this back to your your intelligence thing. Calypso got the news of this man's death before that. Yeah. I'll go over Calypso and. Ask any of this connecting, because I feel like we're getting to a point and there's like a wall in front of us. I don't. There's a lot of questions and we keep finding more questions that. As far as I'm concerned, though, I think that the four to three key doesn't connect exactly with that door that. Maybe like the key seems to be related to this elite group, and. I'm not sure if that door was involved them or was just Abernathy's project.

But. I don't think the key leads to that door. I don't think any of us are keen to go back to Brightport to find out the key mapping. Yeah, no, that's just another thing on the list that is growing ever longer. I'm going to look over at Matilda and say, how does your scribing skills? Do you want to copy the map of keys into like a scroll or something, so if we leave or go back to Brightport, we can try to figure out where it is, or at least you can put it in your library. Sure, I mean, I'm sure I have like some of some of my own. Maps of Brightport. Can we just take them?

Take a quill. Just take the map? Or I can just take the map. Yeah, technically all this is yours. It's like you guys own it. I started pulling it off the wall and just folding it. Just like waiting for some of the stuff. No, no, I was worried about magic and happened because I already got pushed once, but whatever. That's fair. As I've seen many a map in my day. Does any like this the same way that we had these different blueprints and that kept being this one part of the house that was different on each of the blueprints, is there some place? Because I know you kind of mentioned like one area where it's like or I guess we're just there were it doesn't look like there was any keys there is what you meant.

Yes. Is there some area on the map that doesn't look like it actually lines up with Brightport or maybe, oh, hey, there's this building that was built 20 years ago, but it's not on this map to like try and date it kind of thing. Or is it just a normal map? Or is it just a normal map? Can I? I'm going to need you to use your detective skills on this one, so let's see here. That's what Matilda was made for. Yeah. I need. It's not perception, though, it's investigation, I think we can you know what we can use investigation for this, go ahead. We never use that one.

It's actually no give me perception actually for this for this this thing. No intelligence for you. Perception. Oh, come on, come on. I have a plus six to perception and I get a nine. Oh, yeah, I'm sad. Well, that could have saved the campaign, but I guess what we'll do is we over right there. That's it. Roll credits. Boom. It's been four months. I think this would be one of those things. Where? Something looks off, but you can rightfully put a finger on what you're like. Valerie's face right now. No, I'm sorry. It's the total brain fart of like it's like, what was that actor's name?

I'll give you an example. Earlier today, I was talking about Twitch emotes and I'm like, they're all they're all like, you know, kind of like bombastic and rainbow and chibi and stuff like that. And I was trying to think of the artist that does that. And I went to Anne Frank. Wrong, Frank. Wrong, Frank. I was looking for the happy one. Same thing where it's like a brain fart. Like, something's not right here, but like, I'd really have to, like, hit the books and like, jump back and forth and look at different stuff. Okay. Then you work at a library. Matilda is going to kind of like run her fingers along the map and she'll say to everyone, but it seems like she's just saying it to herself.

There's something not right here. Something's wrong about this. I'm willing to take a look, but anyone else can, too. Anybody a skilled researcher or good with maps? That's not really clips, is were they? Clips with those, like, glance at the wolf mask. Does anybody's DNA allow them to wear the wolf mask and then look at the map? It's crazy. How do I bring that up in character and have it make sense? I don't know. Can I use my deception and go like, yeah, yeah, I think so. I just I don't know. Because you don't want to look dumb. Like, you're just like, oh, yeah, man, I'm right there with you.

Simpatico, man. I just can't like what such as Matilda was engineered in a lab for this exact thing. This this right here. This is the alley oop and she's nowhere to be found. It's like, oh, no, she tripped. Like, it's you're going to hear some squeaking, by the way. And it's definitely not dumpy. Dumpy is just like chilling. But it's going to be like a and it's going to get closer. And then all of a sudden, a cart is going to wheel in the room with like hot tea on it and just kind of like park the house. I take it with no second thought. Like I did. Calypso waits for Fenris to take I love your canary.

I imagine him. I don't even have to do that. Didn't you have charcuterie? That's true. Yeah. Like, but wouldn't it be great, though, if this was the time it was going to do something and he takes a sip out of this and then shotgun blasts out of his teacup. Just bittersweet brought the charcuterie. It was not an invisible magic force. It just decided we need tea. Things are getting tense, you know, like tea break. Once it's once nothing happens to Fenris, presumably Calypso will have tea. It'll be fine. Like, it's yeah, it is. Oh, man, it's it's really good. Like it's it's a different blend than you're used to.

It's like, what is that? Like there's there's a couple of like there's a couple of like spices in there that like that's got like like the aftertaste is kind of almost it's it's almost a little fruity, but like it there's there's some like it's like, OK, it's like raspberries and ginger almost kind of like it's it's very nice. Like it's good. Yeah. Especially when you fall down, it's perfect when you're trying to break down a citywide conspiracy like it is a tea for that. Well, I'll take the map gently down and hand it to Matilda. Is there anything on the back before before we fold it up and put it away?

Doesn't appear to be anything on the back of it like it's. Yeah, be sure. Does that tea cart, does that tea cart that just rolled in have any lemon wedges on it? What if the house is trying to tell us like invisible ink declaration of independence? Someone get me some Q-tips. I'm heat. There are no lemon wedges, I'm sorry. Lemons are like, yeah, like a Mediterranean style fruit, they're probably pretty hard to get. What the fuck was that? Oh my. Do you know what transformer is coming alive outside my window? You need to clip that and use that as like background things for whatever.

Really? Oh my God. Jesus Christ. That's insane. She's still flipping sell it for sound. OK, so after we all have some tea, it's been a few minutes clip, so it's just. OK, so the door. They leave like a pause for anyone else to make. I guess. We. Crack it open, I. Anyone have any thoughts on what is our objective of like, what do we like? I want to open up the door, like, don't get me wrong. And I'm like. What are we trying to find out here, like. So, you know, it's going to open up our motivation. I'm just trying to think about, like, if we open that door and there's nothing and then we go in, I just want to get trapped in there because this is a really.

I definitely don't want to go in. I just. I think just opening it to see if we can even see anything on the other side, but yeah, walking in doesn't seem. I don't think we should do that, at least for now. The only reason I even think about opening it is that it. Well, it seems Abernathy set up this place to. Walk me us through whatever he was planning and the unlocking after the end of the performance is. Seems like that is the next step. Wasn't this the thing that killed him? No, it. Uh. Jason never really explicitly stated what killed him. It seems like he he knew he was dying and but then he was talking about the project like separately, I.

He might have been sick of something or some sort, but I don't think it was like. He went in there and was violently torn apart or anything that doesn't seem that doesn't connect with what I read in the journals. Dagon will have been sketching things in his book, sort of taking notes of what's going on, you know. In his book of keeping tabs on things to take back home and he's going to get up to the door and he's drawing things, whatever he's going to sketch out the door and he's going to look up at the door. He's going to shrug. He's going to knock on it.

Give me a D 20. So. The second. You touch this, you're going to kind of see this like. This shimmer like you're like you're like as you hit it, there's like a ripple, but you definitely touch the door. But. Nothing's going to knock back and nothing's going to like the door is not going to open or anything like that. OK, do we all see the like shimmer? Well, I'm going to I'm going to break in my nose and my door drawing shimmer and it's going to turn around. Did anyone else see that? Yeah, so this would not be hidden or anything like that. I will say that. After after that kind of like calms down for a second, you're you're going to hear something kind of hit the floor.

Like. Like. Something. Almost like a clatter or something like that, like it's it's going to sound like like a bunch of like wooden sticks hitting the floor or something like that. Can I get a perception check from everybody, please? Who? Oh, no. Oh, look at this team. Oh. Still writing in the book. There's two 16 or 116. Yeah. Yeah. The rest of it's like three, four, seven. Like it's not it's not great. So Matilda now rolls a 16 and tell me about it. And like this this room's kind of packed with little bits of like collectibles and like memorabilia, I guess that type of thing.

And you're looking around and it looks like. This wooden model fell on the opposite side of the room. There's like a big table and stuff, and there's it's it's like this elaborate kind of thing. And like the there's like a couple of levels to it. And it just it looks like they kind of like fell apart a little. But it's it doesn't look like it's super complex to like put it back together and stuff. But yeah, it's the table it was sitting on is fine. And yeah, like it's weird. A model to like of like a house. At first glance, yeah, it looks like like a model of a really big house, like a like a like a Barbie's dream house, like on steroids type of thing like this house.

I'm I'm wondering if it's what's inside the door. He he mapped it out. Can I can I ask, do you do you point this out? Yes. If anybody really looks at this for for a long, it probably would take a few minutes, but like as you're it's like like you're going to notice like little landmarks that you've walked through. Like this is this house, like definitely. And like. If the only thing that fell apart are the little the little like the sticks holding up each level, and you're going to see like the the ground floor, the level you walk through and stuff, and you're you're going to see the upper floor, the bedrooms and the office and all that.

What's interesting is. Wherever you put this down. You're going to see. A door in the back of the house on the first floor that leads down, but there's no that there doesn't seem to be like a basement floor type of thing. Got a murder basement in here. Uh, can an evidence dungeon. Can we see this room that we're standing in right now? Absolutely. Is there a door in it in the middle of the room? Do we see? Absolutely. Yes, actually, you do see tiny wooden models of you. Like for real? Take on. Oh, great. Sort of look at this puzzle. He's like, I knocked on the door.

This fell. I want him to open the door in the middle of the room on the model. So. By trying to push this, like there's a lot of resistance to it, like it's like it's one of those things where it's like, come on, like it's, you know, but as you're you're trying to get this open, that door. On the first floor. Is going to pop open and wherever this is sitting. It's going to create a bottom floor by digging into the wooden floor in this room, like it's just going to it's like it's almost like claymation, like it is going to like hollow this out and you're going to be able to see that there is a basement, but it is devoid of features.

With because because. Dagon popped the door in the middle of the room, right? He was trying to. Yes, he didn't even. Right. But it made the door on the bottom floor open up. Yes. OK, maybe stop doing that. Oh, he's going to look at this with like this like sort of astonishment. Oh, this is. You see this. Tanny's right there cheering you on. It's like, no, no, no, keep going, keep going. We're getting somewhere. Our door is this door. So this door, our door leads to the basement. I don't. Maybe we should go look at that door to the air quotes basement, like in reality and see if it even exists and then you can play with the model more that.

This is a model door. Did it open? No, it still stuck. It's still stuck. You can feel it wants to give like it's not like is like in the actual room, you say is the door barricaded? It was. It's not now. No, Fenris took care of that. Yeah, he can. But Matilda is going to run out of the room into the hallway just outside the room. Oh, I checked to see if she's if she changes position. Yeah, so she's going to call back and say, "Did anything happen in there?" The little doll that represent these are kind of crude. They're they're kind of like featureless, but like it does like move like it's.

Yeah, like it's it's kind of got like a weird little marionette walk and it's real tiny. But yeah, it's going to go out into the hallway. Is there a model of dumpy? The important question seems to be just the people. I pick up Dagon's and just like put them in a different room. Can you even pick it up? I was going to say, it may not move. That's the problem. It doesn't move. OK, this was Dagon's thought. I tried to flick it. I flick its head. If you can, if anyone will let him. Mitchell, your doll moved along with you, but it's this is I don't like this. Is this enough ghost for you, Tanny?

This feels like ghosts. If this is this is enough creepy stuff now that it's like, oh, we're finally getting somewhere. This is great. So, OK, OK, OK. So the basement's not charted out on here. I mean, like it's there, but like there's like there's even little dials of us. There's nothing down there. So like, maybe. Maybe to open this door, we need to go to the basement. Because we know when you tried to open that door, it wouldn't. You knocked on it, tried to open it on the model. Because I because I think if we open the door here, our door. That's the only way that model is door is going to open.

Bittersweet tried to move me and it wouldn't. What's the basement that looks like it has the void in it that so the the room that Matilda went to, like the other room, did you leave that door open? Or did you just go in the other room? Oh, no, I just walked out into the hallway, like outside of this room. Right. I was just curious because there was a door between us in the hallway. I was curious if the model door opened when you went open the door and went to the hallway. Oh, like, is it a one to one movement thing of all of all the things? I think so. Oh, yeah.

Like that's yeah. I took it as like she just stepped out like like I, I don't assume you guys have opened or closed the door ever because of situations like this one that we are in. Well, the curtain came in, so it was open. Yeah. Like, yeah, you did get tea. Then then I'll go over and I guess shut the door and see if the door shuts on the model kind of thing that absolutely does. And then I go over and I try to open the door with in the model. And I assume it won't let me. But I'm just trying to make sure I understand the rules of this thing. Yeah, it won't let you.

So you're just trying to open the door in the thing. Yep. Because I went and closed it manually. Then I go over. Yeah, it doesn't let you. OK, so for the most part, it's just reflecting like it's like a map that just shows what's happening. But. The marauders map. Except for the basement door thing, which is. Did the, did that the door that like led down to the basement on the map, did that open? Yes. Let's go check that door. Yeah, that's what yeah, we go look at that door and then yes, let's let's all go do that. I want to open this room door so badly, but OK.

We will come back up here playing characters. Danny and I can stay and open this door. I'm sorry, Calypso is very gosh, I have to find her. I grew up in group two. OK, back in my day, we used to have to fistfight bears that are zombies. Yeah, you had like 50 different ways to teleport. OK, let's so we're going downstairs. Yeah, the basement here is empty, right? Like devoid of features like there's texture on the walls up here, like you eat everything like it is very meticulous and then it gets to there and it's just a hole, like just like it's just like, well, before we go, is there any in this model to show rooms we haven't been in yet?

And if it does, are they also avoid features? No, everything on the first and second floor, like it's a it's a wonderful little diagram. So it shows you it's like, oh, there's a breakfast nook. Like it's just it's like, oh, I didn't know that. Like, OK, it shows you there's like four bathrooms. Like, it's nice. OK, so it's not just uncovering things as we discover them. No, it's not. Not for fuck of war. Yeah. It's like a video. So we're going downstairs, we're going to check it out. Dagon's just going to look at Tani. We're going to open that later. There. OK.

I may have to I don't know, well, well, well, but like she is definitely just going to like just kind of like grab your hand for a second. Oh, no. And you're way taller than her. So like she's going to have to come here. What if what if we just stay behind and open it? Just look inside, just like check it out. Well, like we don't have to go in, just like just, you know, crack it open and look. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I want to I want to. I would rather have a group of people, I think. Yeah, OK, I just look, I feel like I got to fill out three forms in triplicate or some shit before we actually do anything.

Well, I know that's why I knocked on the door. So here's what we're going to be going through this door, guys. Come on. It's going to be great. You'll see. Let's do this. Let's do this. OK. Before we before we jump in with Tani and Dagon, everybody else coming. I would imagine like you're you're you're walking down the hallway, coming down the stairs. Do you have a like an anticipation about what's in this basement? At this point, no, like it like all expectations are kind of just did everything has been so just. Weird and surprising, it's like it's just got to see what happens, you know, like I'm kind of hoping for another cart service, like some other kind of like first we had coffee and snacks and like maybe another meal is coming or something.

This is the second course down in the basement. Exactly. Yeah. It's just a weird like it's like, I guess this was a setup. I don't know. It's kind of kind of strange. But hey, you're going to walk down the basement stairs here and there's there's a small room with a door in front of it. And this room has torches and things like that unlit. But you could tell that this is this basement's probably pretty sizable and. This is kind of this is kind of like an outfitting station where it's like, all right, grab a torch, that type of thing, just in case, you know, you obviously don't want to get lost down here.

It's dark. That type of thing. Who's leading the way? Who's who's who's our brave, brave soul? I'll do it. Yeah, I don't know. It sounded like Fenris's. So I'm always game. I'll pick up a torch. Yeah, I would bet there's no reason for people not to like, you know, Dumpy is going to be perched on your shoulder unless something terrible happens. I missed. Yeah, he's swollen now. He is strong as me. Probably stronger than you, let's be honest. So if you so. Moving forward here. And opening. Opening the doors, your torches are going to. Dimly light the way in front of you, and there is a cavernous opening, and there's there's almost kind of a rush of of like a breeze coming out of there.

It's really stale, kind of. It almost smells like old books, you know what I mean? Like, really, like the the pages of old books, like that type of thing, like and you also get maybe maybe a scent of like. Like. Like old fabric or leather, something like that, like you're yeah, you're getting like a mix of smells, but yeah, this place, you kind of tell hasn't been opened in a while. And I like see if there's any weird tiles for like traps. Yeah, give me you can either give me a perception or investigate. You investigate. Ice, oh, great. Am 19. Very, very good.

So. This. To you looks. Compared to everything else in the house, really plain like this just looks like a regular old basement door, like besides its size, there's there's nothing there's nothing crazy about this. It doesn't look like there's any like not so like divots in the floor. No, no dark holes, no, you know, shotgun tied to the other side of the door. Nothing like that, like it just looks like a regular opening. It's just much larger than any regular basement. Normally people have like a small room under their house just for storage if they have a basement at all.

And if you live in the city, you probably don't. But. This like you're just standing at the doorway holding a torch that that light that that light is just going to kind of like dance and flicker, but it there is so much more darkness. Almost consuming the light like it's almost oppressive. Did the that I'd notice any like difference in say, like the magic pressure that was kind of like everywhere did like change at all, like just not going to do not going to be like, oh, let's do a contract like 50 times. But it's more like, do I feel like there's a difference from like just coming in the door from the into the basement?

Um, there's a definite that the feeling is different. I would put it like this. Think of it like a like an arcane sense of smell, like where your nose is going to perceive. It's like, oh, yeah, there's kind of like a like a rich, like almost leather smell. And like it smells like old books, that type of thing. You were that that that sense of our con is kind of always unconsciously going. And it's going to feel different. Like this feels down here, it feels like there's there's magic that is seldom used. Unlike all the lights and food and stuff like that upstairs, this feels like it's like, OK, the magic down here is more sparse, but much more powerful.

So there may be less instances of magic, but the magic that's down here is. Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty beastly. OK. Turn to the group and be like, don't see anything trap wise opening this this hallway, but just just keep just keep your wits about you here. Nothing's been. Simple. Now, give them a nod and push inside, push a little further inside, shed some light. So a little Final Fantasy thing I got going on for you guys. I know it's cute. It's like a little train. We enter into a big empty room. So there's a much larger room that you're going to come into.

And all of your torches are going to help kind of beat back this darkness. But there's a few things you're going to notice right away. There's a lot of leather furniture down here. It almost looks like there's some kind of sitting room. There's like there's there's a large couch. There's a couple of like arm chairs. And it looks like this was some sort of like a meeting place, maybe like almost like a lounge. And that that that little magic tingle you're going to you're going to really feel it's like, OK, wait, wait, wait. And if you were to shut this door, right, just to test it.

A hush kind of falls over this room and you tell you could tell it's like, oh, this is enchanted. Anything that we discuss here is not getting out like this is like this is soundproof now, like you can feel it. So it stands to reason, you know, some pretty important talks were held in this room. Does that feel like my patron is far away? It feels like. OK, this is going to be weird, so stick with me. It's going to feel like. You have a steam deck, but you're offline, so you have stuff downloaded from your patron, but you're not synced to the cloud anymore.

Does that make any sense? It does to anyone beyond me and Michael and anybody. OK, I know a bunch of it's OK. Cool, cool. So like you're not getting new updates, but it's like, OK. Yeah, no, I, I still feel it. But it's it's it's like, oh, man, I, oh, man, I wonder what's happening. Like you almost feel disconnected. You know what I mean? Can I, my wife, I can I try something for science a little bit? Always, always for science. I guess. I write to Calypso, like. Would you I'd like to speak to you, would you stand outside this bubble? And I underline speak in a way that means I'm not going to be writing.

I'm going to be talking telepathically. Calypso kind of raises an eyebrow. All right. So do you want them to like leave the room? Yeah, just outside of whatever this like magic sound. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They'll do that and like close the door. I try and and think just just the thoughts, just the words, nothing else like. Can you hear me telepathically to Calypso from inside the bubble? While they're outside? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Gotcha. So much so that I would imagine Calypso's waiting. It's like, yeah, like waiting. So anything, anything, anything that eventually like peek in the door.

It's like, did you do it? Did you do the thing? Because there's no there's no way to confirm. But yeah, nothing like nothing gets out. Gotcha. And if you were to try it while they're in the room, just kind of like just like like you're just kind of reaching out telepathically. That's the sound it makes every time. Yes, naturally. Yeah. Yes. They would instantly it's like, oh, there you are. Like that type of thing. Again, that cold spaghetti feeling. Yeah, I gotcha. OK. And it's not painful, just kind of it's like a lot. Mm hmm. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's a it's a it's like a cone of silence, basically.

Yes. Yeah. Yes. So is there all of the light in this room is like coming from our torches, right? Mm hmm. Is there like an area on the walls to like light anything up? Like if this is like a normal hangout room, like I assume there's lighting somewhere. Yeah. Give me a perception check. OK. Perception check. Oh, also, mm hmm. Nice. So. Yes, there actually is. Just like upstairs, there's kind of a. There's there's a light switch ish type of thing. But this one's a handprint. Like it is a it is almost like a placard on the wall with like a like a like a palm print type of thing.

I mean, I'll go over and see if my palm does anything. OK. You just kind of slap it in there. Yeah. OK. Um, could you do me a favor and give me a constitution? Say, God, yeah. Yeah, I can do that. I appreciate it. Thank you. 13. OK, that's good. That's fine. Um, so Matilda is going to disappear that. Um, just vanish like just like. Yeah. OK. So over there. So, OK, a couple of things are evident. Like one, it's just. Gone like they're not invisible. It's not a thing where all of their possessions were left behind. They are just gone. They so there is a bright blue ring.

That. Just sort of zips up and down them and they are gone. Um, Matilda. I did. Uh, I guess I don't have to return this book on rats. Maybe it's like that mask. Maybe you get to touch it. I'm so do we know where they were? She. Um, she just she just vanished. Is she? I mean, we can see in this basement, right? Like she's not anywhere in this basement. She's not nowhere else, right? Um, I guess I should. I, I, I, I'm going to run out of here and check the dollhouse. Oh, that's smart. So. It's in the dollhouse anywhere. Hold that thought. So while you guys are doing all this, I guess it's like it's it's a it's a mystery.

It's interesting to solve. But you are missing one, Tani and a day gone. And they were upstairs. And Tani was quite insistent. That's how it's just gone. This talk, come on, just check it out like that type of thing. And they seem to be OK with it. Mm hmm. Just heard she would gladly go in first like. It's not even like, oh, stay behind me type of thing. It's like, oh, like it's just excitement, pure raw excitement. Right. So turning, turning the knob and kind of pushing open the door. There is the strangest feeling it there's. It's kind of a a mid-sized room carpeted.

It it almost has the vibe like you've been here before. Like, definitely like you feel like you've you've either seen something like this or you've you know, you've heard tell of something like this, but it's it's everything about this place is kind of it feels bland like. The air is so room temperature that it's tough to kind of like it's tough to kind of feel whether the air is circulating or not, like it just feels so it's like, oh, this is like the perfect temperature. It's weird. And. It's deathly quiet. And there are hallways everywhere. Like they're there.

Some of them are like like 90 degree angles. Some of them are these big curved hallways. Some of them are curving up with no stairs. So it's like weird M.C. Escher type type of things here. And Tani's going to not run in, but like just kind of like tiptoeing is like, come on, this is so cool. OK, OK, OK, just slowly. OK, I mean, I mean, it looks unassuming, but I don't know, don't run in there. OK, so this place is supposed to be like a million apartments or something, right? Something? Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. OK. OK, so like, aren't you kind of curious if like there's like really good apartments?

If we get in here first, we can kind of snag one of the good ones. OK, first of all, that carpet. Anyway, it's not I don't. It's not my color either. I don't like it, but we could tear that out. OK, what? Where are we going to go? Which way? I mean, we got to go up the hallway with no stairs. You just kind of like stick to the side of it and climb up, right? That's that's where the good stuff's got to be. That it wants you up there. That's a suite. That's got to be a suite, right? Yeah, I mean, it stands out. I'm yes, I wish I had an enchanted pen that could just map this out for me because this is going to take a while.

I got I got regular pens. Yeah, so do I. Sorry. No. OK, of course you do. Of course you do. You come prepared. You're you're big adventure boy. So, OK, let's let's let's do this. OK, I'm going to I'm going to start climbing up and you just give me a shove. Just like give me just make sure I don't like tumble because it's it's kind of like a carpeted wall. And that's weird. How steep is this? It's it's like like like almost 90 degrees. It's almost 90 degrees. It's like 90 degrees. It's it's it's it's one of those things where it's like this. So it curves up and then it just kind of like loops around.

So it's it's almost like ductwork, but it's clearly the hallway. It's carpeted, just like everything else. So it's just fucking weird. Like it's not obeying the laws of physics. OK. OK, OK, let's first of all, we need to leave a trail of some sort. We don't know where this is going to go and we don't know if we can get back. I mean, we're going to get back a lot quicker. But yeah. Yep. No, you're right. You're right. That's that's good. What do you got? I got ink. We're going to rip out this carpet anyway. We might as well just like stain it right. Like it's fine.

You know what is ugly? Let's rip out strips of the carpet. Genius. Here we go. Let's immediately wreck the place. It's nice to be in your house. It's OK. I know the owner. It's fine. Like, so she's just going to take out a knife and just start like it's like, OK. So, yeah, chunks of this are just going to like tear off like. Yeah. So it takes them off of the the ramp, the ramp, the ramp. Let's see what's underneath the carpet. OK, hold on. So under. So just like prying into the like the little strip here. She's going to tear off like probably a quarter, like off the side of the wall, right, because it, you know, like this was installed well.

So it's like those those carpet tacks like and underneath of it is a plain black void. With what looks to be 10 million eyes in the distance, kind of looking in different directions. So there's there's it's a. That's not what I was expecting. Yeah, you know what? I really don't like this. She's going to like gently kind of like try to place the carpet back up against the wall like it's not. Yeah, it's clearly it's now just like flapping into the void. Like so. So it's like she's going to take her knife and like drill it into the wall to hold the carpet up.

So there's kind of like a loose flap, but like nailed to the thing. It's like, I'm I'm just going to get a new knife. It's fine. Yeah. You know what? Maybe new plan. I don't think I want to climb this. I don't want you to climb this. I think we should take one of the flat ways. You know, it might be advanced, advanced hallways. You know, you're right. You're right. Let's just start. We don't have to climb out whatever the equivalent of Mount Everest is in Theria on the first try. We don't have to do that. You're right. OK, OK, so. OK, one, two or three. There's like of the flattest hole with it.

These those those three look flat. OK, so. OK, OK, well, let's go with one. And she's going to take like a little ink and just kind of like spill some like like just like in front of that hallway and then like every house. Yes, ever. Fucking awful. Like this is why like no class. And you guys are just going to go down like you go. Let's cut back to bittersweet trotting up to the room. Can I get a wisdom saving throw from from bittersweet? Oh, yes. Yes, yes. Wisdom saving throw, you say. Things and stuff and stuff and things. Oh, that was. It was going to be better.

Um, so we Fenris and Calypso just standing in the basement. We're two down already. That was so fast. Matilda is bittersweet immediately takes off. Running back up to this room with the burn it down mural and the office, basically. So running back up there, it's going to feel like this room is just like twisting like someone took it and just crumbled it up for just half a second. And as you run, it's like, oh, shit, hold on. Like, like, like you have a terrible inner ear infection and your your your sense of like balance is gone. It's shot. And for whatever reason, you're going to see the open door in the middle of the room and you were going to say, oh, there's the problem.

And you're going to have a really strong urge to just shut the door and just go check out the, you know, go go check out the dollhouse. Cool. Yep. OK, cool. Cool. Do it. Do it. This could sound so fast. Yeah, there's a lot of things that are going on, and I want to try and like eliminate those problems as much as possible. And if this room is one of them, you know, that door shouldn't be open. Bittersweet doesn't think that that door shouldn't be. Yeah. So I'm going to go over to close. I'm going to go over to close it. Would you let me roll a perception check to see if I see ink on the ground?

Absolutely you can. You see a plain black void with 10 million eyes in the distance. Or a knife. Yeah, if I see like a knife or anything. I will give you this. They didn't get very far in before they just started wrecking shit. So like, you know, it shouldn't be too investigatory, right? Like you should be able to let's see. OK, so Bittersweet goes over. He like gets this weird feeling. He goes over to start to close the door. And let's see if he sees anything. Wisdom isn't great. So. Two, it's half as much as your four. So no, honestly, you're going to walk over.

It's like, oh, here's the problem. There's a bunch of weird shit coming in through this door. Like it's just yeah, it's just everything feels off. It's like. So just like closed. Yeah. Doors closed. And and just for you know, I think I'd probably take one of those boards and just like, you know, like try and set it up so that it's like he's not going to be doing it. Yeah, exactly. But at the bottom or something like that, because there's no chance that somebody opened it and left it open, just blew open. No, it's an old house. And like the change between summer and winter would swells and drinks and it's just a pain.

It's OK. It's OK. Good times. That will happen. I got I got punk toast. Do you do that? Does Ted, did Danny and Dagon notice the door closed? They're down the hall. They're there. They're checking stuff out. So. The dollhouse. Yeah. That's interesting. What's you're going to notice as you close that door, that the door in the center of the room that you're in closes, you're like good as it should be. And the basement is sort of. Rendering as you're exploring it, it's really neat. So where it's sitting, the the bits and pieces of the model house are like reshaping, like it's almost like a like an old Pee Wee Herman claymation thing where you're just like, oh, wait.

So it's only modeled that that that that first room with the torches and everything and then a big room, and then you're going to see this tiny square room. Way out to the side, outside of the model house, like way outside, like sitting on a shelf. Oh, I did. Matilda could put in baby jail. Matilda in gay baby jail. OK, so it's like it's it's in like a different part of the room that I'm in that being rendered. Yeah. So, yeah, like, OK, you get what it's trying to tell you. But like it's yeah, I go to that just to double check. Do I do I see a little like Matilda figurine in there?

You know, what's crazy is it is a it is an onyx cube. Like it is like completely sealed. You can't tell what's in it, but you know, it wasn't there before because that thing would have stood out. Hmm. What I can tell you is that whatever is in that onyx cube is touching all the buttons. You can tell. I love you, Val. Like what a librarian would naturally do to begin organizing, you know, categorizing and organizing everything. I understand. Clear, clear. Just like we get into a new place and we will open all of the cabinets. Gosh, can I can I manipulate it in any way?

But I know I can't remember if we could like move things around in the dollhouse and have it do anything. Not really. It's it's it's very much it works one way, but not the other. It's it's to show you things for the most part, but not like. Yeah, so far. OK, I gotcha. I think I pick it up and like shake it real hard. Like we can try it like we know if I if bittersweet knows that the that manipulating these things doesn't really do anything in in the space that we're in, then he won't. You won't. But he will rush back down to the basement and try to convey this to the to the rest of the group.

Can I switch friends and what were you guys? But what are Fenris and Calypso just talking? Because it's like you hear it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like going upstairs and it's like, OK. Oh, when you got to go, you got to go. I come. So Calypso is going to open like the next door just to see like, oh, OK, good. I mean, there's Matilda Spanish. There's a door just, you know, it's the OK, there's another door in the other side. OK, yeah. Mm hmm. I mean, they're hoping to head in if you could. OK. Yeah, I got you.

It is a much larger room, way bigger. But what's interesting is it lacks all of the furnishing of of this room and you're going to see what looks like glass tubing, like a lot of it, but large like they look like large vats. And it did. There is definitely like a like a taint to the liquid in there, like a kind of a lime green tannish like it's it's kind of a slurry of things. A computer. Not a good one. Yeah, so just like a little like blinks a few times and just Matilda, like just singing. Are you a tube? Well, I mean, it's a big room with a lot of tubes in there.

Maybe she got zooped into a corner or something. And yeah, if there's presumably there's no answer, just kind of return back to that room and looks at Fenris. It's the right thing to do for me to try and see what happens if I put my hand on the button. What happens when you disappear and I am all alone and here? Do you want to put your hand on the button first? We could wait till Bittersweet comes back if Bittersweet comes back. Baby, wait just a minute for him to return, hopefully, and maybe Matilda will just miraculously appear. Yes, it's yeah, totally putting my money on that one.

A couple of minutes. After like after a couple of minutes go by, it's like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You're going to hear him like run back down. So what's interesting what's interesting is obviously Bittersweet doesn't have a mouth, but he does breathe. So like his chest, his chest plates just kind of like kind of like swell and shrink every once in a while. So like, yeah, there's yeah. Yeah, breathing hard conveys in his horrible handwriting that something else has opened up in the dollhouse entirely. And Tani and Dagon are gone. Maybe making out somewhere.

It is. Wait, sorry, so there's Matilda's in a box? Matilda's somewhere we can't see. So I checked the next room, it's just it's full of glass to you being in green slurry, and she doesn't seem to be in bed, but I don't want to think about the slurry right now. I. So now that Bittersweet is back, should I touch the thing or? He's going to shake his head. Yes. And right, I think we I think we all should go. It's far. And. Our. Teenage companions are just. Fucking yes. They're in a magical house, raging with hormones. You know, it was going to happen. We've all been there.

Yeah. Is that actually what Bittersweet means? Yes. Does Bittersweet mention that their language, that the door was open or is it just like, yeah, they're off somewhere? Who knows? I see. I can't remember. I I don't remember if that door was open when we left the room or if it was closed, like I don't remember that. Maybe we can help me out with that. Everyone, that's what we were going to do. Yeah, that's the other thing. I don't think I don't think you said anything about that. Absolutely did not because we didn't do the tour. OK. Yeah, yeah. It was. Yeah. But I failed my wisdom saved.

So I would I think it's just the door open probably somehow. There's a lot crazy connected. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't bring it up. Like, I'm not going to ask. OK. I'm not quite sure about that interpretation, but I'll take your word for it for the moment. One problem at a time. I guess there's nothing for it then. And Calypso is going to put their hand on the hand. I crap onto their shoulder. The second. You you put your hand on that button, all of the lights are going to slowly come up in in the basement here and. There is. A door that is going to open, strangely enough, in the room you're standing.

And there is a small box that is going to like hove at the end of the hallway, and it looks like it's coming out of a void. And there is maybe stars out there. It looks insane. But as that small room kind of docks with the end of that hallway, you're going to see it dump out Matilda. And they are coming out of a room with what looks to be hundreds of buttons and switches and levers and all kinds of stuff. But yeah, they are they are going to be dumped out from that hallway right there. It's literally just this is the punishment box for people who can't help but push.

This is what you get. This is the fidget room. This is the stem room for. I would kill for some of that. There's like a grindy wheel. There's like a kachunka kachunk lever. There's a typewriter like, oh, man, it's so many good sounds and feels. So Matilda is going to come stumbling out and she's going to go. No one touch that button. I that's literally what I just did. Are you all right? Oh, the lights are on. Yes, that was what happened when I pressed the button. OK. Well, was the teleportation uncomfortable? I don't know. I'll just I'll just Matilda is going to go because we're still in the room with the seats and everything.

And tell us something or she's going to sit on her hands. She's going to sit there quietly and look down and think about what she's done. Is that for my benefit? That's so sweet. I love you. That's for all of us. That's for the greater good. At least we got you back. Bittersweet apparently has deduced that the teenagers are fucking but. Wow. Let's spread lies to everybody. I am repeating what I was told by a trustworthy source. Occam's Razor, that is the most beautiful. OK, it's listen, they're really going out in there. They're tearing up the carpet. It's like a whole thing.

There's like knives. There's ink all over the floor. It's real kinky. And. And the other. Go right ahead. Sorry. In the other room, there are big vats full of green gross liquid. I'm sure that's something you're interested in. That's science stuff, right? That's within the realm of libraries. I think a library is. It's book adjacent, right? It's so hard to play someone that isn't a nerd. It's like books, right? I mean, Jason, can you can you roll for a library? Can you can you can you tell me anything about like what I experienced or like what happened to me once?

Yes, absolutely. So you go to touch that, that that thing to you instantaneously, you're in a room holding a switch like. But obviously, you know, like you're trapped in this room. So I would imagine Matilda being close to Valerie. Some combination of these buttons and switches have to get you back out of this room. So. I would imagine and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm trying to think about this the way Valerie would do it. So you're probably trying to organize the switches and stuff in your head to see how many of each is what and then not haphazardly touching stuff, but trying.

It's like, OK, zero zero zero one. So you're just like, you know what I mean? So I'm really just in a room with like a bunch of switches. And but literally, yes, literally. Yeah. I OK. Can I go back? Yeah, I thought you said it like dumped her out. And yeah, no, no, it's still at the end of the hallway, but like it went. Oh, like it just. Yeah. Still there. I mean, if you want to go check it out, they're going to go back and continue to push all the buttons. Well, I don't want to push the buttons, but I do want to categorize some of them all in order. And I knew it.

I knew it. But I'm like, they must do something right. Only a madman would put a room full of switches and buttons there that didn't do anything. Like maybe there's one that's like a slightly different shade of red. And that's like the button. Like it's a it's a room full of buttons, but there's only one correct button. And you have to find the correct button. You want to go investigate that while everybody else looks at it? OK, I do. You're going back in. OK. And the. You know, I'll be good. You guys like go on ahead, you know. I'm really busy right now, actually.

So with the room full of presumably pointless buttons. Yeah. Yeah. I got to I got to go take care of these. Oh, I'm getting a phone call. Sorry, I got I got to go to a big city. What's a phone? If it makes you feel any better, there is a water bottle and food pellets in there like it's fine. Oh, I guess they're not. Yeah. Stay safe. I guess we'll keep going on. I promise I'm not going anywhere. Unless some combination of buttons and letters does force you to go somewhere. Literally a few buttons ago, you were teleported. It's still well, but OK. One button ago.

One button ago. Can I OK. Back in apartment space. You guys are wandering around like hallway after hallway, these beige like nothing. You know, there's just nothing going on. And Tani has been leading the way, just kind of figuring it's like, well, OK, we're like trying to find like tougher areas to get to that aren't mountain climbing. Right. Just it's like, OK, some of the better rooms got to be. And you've had a couple of rooms that are like, you know, they mostly lead to other hallways, though, like every once in a while you'll see a chair like that's kind of cool.

Like weird thing. This is clearly supposed to be a leather chair, but like it's a little inside out, like the hard wood part is on the outside and all the leather and stuffing is like like in the side like it like someone didn't know what they were doing or something. It's really weird. But as Tani is rounding the corner. This strange text. Is going to kind of flash up on the wall. And like. It almost almost like it's an LCD type of thing, right? Like it's going to it's going to like flash up on the wall trying to get Dagon's attention. Oh, is it a latrine?

It can I can I ask what languages Dagon speaks? Like, what do you think he would study? I mean, I think he would know French. French and whatever the Faryan equivalent of French is. Yeah, yeah. Ultra elven. I would I would imagine he knows more than just common, right? Like, yeah. Because he's old enough to have gone through enough school. They probably get like several languages to communicate with. Do you think he's the type of guy who would learn languages like dwarven or like like languages that are used now, but are probably used by people he would think lesser of?

Or do you think he would study like dead languages like Latin and Sanskrit to know that he he can speak it? Fuck you. I yes, I think. Yes. Oh, he's definitely learned despite other people. And he would probably be taught the other languages, but not, you know, not really learn them. OK, OK, so stuff like Spanish. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. But, yes. Yes. OK. Yeah. Or yeah, of course. Every once in a while, he'll bust out like he'll bust out some deep speech or something like that. It's like, well, you know what they say? And like he's going to be able to speak it.

And it's like, oh, yeah, whatever. Mr. College. So this, this, however, is like orcish, right? No, it's deep speech. So I think I think I think I think he would know it. Right. So. It may be like he recognizes it's a bit rusty. He's like, wait, hold on. Let me pull out the text. It's only three words. Like it's, you know, deep speech is kind of like carvings and like it's very angular. It looks like, you know, like you can see it. So like it's it's very it's like, wait, hold on. I got to conjugate that. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. You're so good. And it loosely translates to it is coming.

Good. Great. Is it like it's a perfect time for us to stop for the night? Is it like the equivalent of like all caps or something like what? It's actually lower case, basically, like it's all lower. But deep speech is almost all lower case just because everything that ever is and was will die at some point. So nothing is important, you know. So what are the two other people that speak that again? Dagon. Yeah. So deep speech is primarily spoken in the hells and by demons. And there's it's it's a language you either speak or translate things into if you really don't want people to know what the fuck you're talking about, because most people are spooked even seeing those characters, because that means some bad shit is going down.

Or does primordial fall? Primordial is is in the very lower regions of like the underdark. Right. That that whole underworld scene, like primordial spoken by a lot of humanoid creatures that aren't playable and like some older drow speak it and stuff like that. But it's a it's a deep guttural. You you're almost speak screaming like it's it's it's kind of takes your whole body to speak primordial. Apparently, I speak primordial in common. I have no idea where that would come in handy. But like, I mean, it's like, look, when I rip enough people off, I'm going to escape to the tunnels of the underground and start my new life.

When invasion finally finishes their story and like 2035, we need to do it in our campaign. No one's playing with your elbow, Jason. Yeah. Yeah. No one's had an underdark campaign yet. And it sounds so cool. And I want to do it. But I. Hey, I mean, one thing at a time. Hey, I am just happy. I'm just happy to be able to complete complete a session. We've done it. We did it. We just do this. Sorry. Can we just do the next episode now? Yeah, we just do it. Well, I mean, I'm right into this and it's like, I was like, what helps? Go for 10 minutes before next April. Let's do it.

Let's try. Let's get right in here. I'll play. Look, I'll open my calendar up for you. I'm not allowed to do anything on my birthday. I was told, but other than that, I can do stuff like like, let's do it. I want to I want to like, let's make people sick of you. Let's get so much invasion content that you're just like, all right. Then tomorrow night at nine. Oh, that's a weekday night. That's a school night. You bet. So young like she used to be. So what you're saying is that it's down to two nights a week. So, yeah, are Thursdays off the board now because of that other.

Not for me. I thought you had some. Oh, what happened to the. Shit. Yeah, no, actually, I. Well, OK, here's the thing. I do have library games, but for you guys, I'll play after that. If that's what it takes, I'll do it. I'll do two sessions a night. I'll I'll make it work. I'll be whatever you want to be, baby. Now you get the monster fucker thing. Now you're getting it. Yeah. There you go. Do you want to go to like that's like 16th? Fine. Fuck it. Let's go. Let's do it. And it was off. Yeah, that was off.